//------------------------------//
// Chapter Two: Contact 
// Story: Conquest 
// by Blaze Spectrum 
//------------------------------//

Chitin scanned the area. It was instinctive. He probably didn't need to. There wasn't a Royal Guard in sight for half an hour by now. It was a force of habit. This time, when he turned around the corner, eyes darting while keeping his head stock still, he didn't expect to see anything. And as far as he knew, why would he see anything now?

Apparently, that thought had jinxed him. He finally caught sight of a spear sticking out of the undergrowth in his peripheral vision. His eyes were drawn to it as it caught some light and reflected all around.

"Is it all clear-"

"No! Get down!" Chitin cut Thorax off.

Thorax was shoved back into cover. Chitin withdrew his head until only his eyes were visible.

There were about eight ponies in that group—which was something new. Before now, only teams of four would blunder about. But this was double the size. Half of them looked almost tired, and the other half seemed quite fresh, as if they had been on standby their whole operation. About four of them had spears, and they were plenty menacing. The other half of the team seemed to be dark-coated unicorns and every one of those had crossbows.

In his mind, he formulated a contingency battle plan upon encountering these ponies. The crossbows were the biggest threat, able to kill any of them in a single shot. The operator of a spear was very threatening in close quarters as they would win any competition in reach, but they couldn't pose a large threat farther than a few meters away.

He could assume that two teams merely combined together. But he doubted it. The fact that half of them didn't seem tired set off alarm bells in his head. He could assume that there were even more ponies in the forest now than before. It was a disturbing thought, but probably true.

Despite being shoved back viciously, Thorax still stuck his head out behind Chitin. More or less, he saw what his companion did. But it took him more time to draw the same conclusion. After a minute, the hostile group faded into the foliage ahead. Then, Thorax decided to speak.

"You think we got a chance against that bunch?"

Chitin hadn't noticed Thorax poking out beside him and had to suppress a cry. He turned around, teeth bared.

"If you have a death wish."

"They're close to the camp. We can't let this slide."

"They outnumber us four to one!"

"Our odds seem to have just improved."

Chitin was incredulous. He turned around, and scanned the area below. There was a random changeling breaking cover from behind a bush. Suddenly, he no longer felt so belligerent. He waved.

The changeling noticed them and eagerly trotted to their position.

Apparently, this changeling had a belt around his torso. It was hard to notice because changelings had naturally dark exoskeletons. But when one got closer, it became apparent. Around it was a sheathed knife. It definitely wasn't a generic kitchen knife, judging by the fact that it looked reasonably well balanced, and the blade had some substantial size.

"So... Who are you?" Thorax asked.

Before the new changeling could reply, Chitin cut in, "I think the more important question is where you got that knife from. It's quite uncommon to see the average drone carrying any weapon."

The newcomer hesitated for a few seconds, as if not sure who to respond to first. Ultimately, he decided to answer the question that was most recently asked of him.

"I killed one of those ponies around here half an hour ago. I decided to pluck his knife off him, but others were coming to investigate right after I did that."

Thorax was rather satisfied with the response, but he still wanted his question to be answered, "Hello? I asked you first."

"Tarsus," he replied without a moment's hesitation. Glad that he had gone through what he thought were all the initial questions she'd be asked, decided to respond himself, "Are you two just teaming up by yourself, or is there some changeling that volunteered to lead?"

Thorax shook his head, "We're under the command of Queen Chrysalis again now. But I thought you might help us take on that patrol that just passed?"

"But how?" Tarsus obviously hadn't thought of such a thing when he was vulnerable and alone. "And wait, the Queen's here?"

"You better believe it," Chitin said. "As for our plan, it's far from foolproof, and I know that. But we could always impersonate three guards which lost their way. Take out the crossbow-wielding unicorns first with a knife or bolt of magic, and then take them as meatshields to collapse on the last unicorn. Once we take out the crossbow wielders and take their weapons, it'll be like shooting fish in a barrel."

Thorax shrugged, "Risky, but not as if I could think of anything better."

He was the first to head off in the direction of the Royal Guards, following the road. He made to attempt to conceal himself after seeing that the Royal Guards were nowhere in sight. Chitin took in a deep breath, and followed several seconds later. Tarsus was somewhat reluctant, but decided that he would rather follow and somewhat risk his life, than be left alone again.

After a minute or so, the three were in a rough triangle formation. They maintained that for a few seconds before Chitin held up a foreleg, signallng the other two to stop. Tarsus did so gradually. Thorax tried to do so immediately, and fell down over the damp, slippery undergrowth.

Lifting only his head, he asked, "What do you see?"

Chitin squinted for a second, as if almost losing track of what he saw, then seemed to have reacquired his sight on it.

"There. Up ahead beyond that corkscrew bend. The eight of those ponies. I doubt that they've spotted us, but they could have."

The possibility of losing their most valuable advantage was enough to shock the other two into hiding behind the rocks near the bend. When they settled down well enough to focus on the area ahead, more assumptions could be made. The eight threats ahead seemed to have been slowed down by something. A few more seconds of observing revealed that it probably was thick blackberry bushes ahead. Harmless enough, but their thorns were enough to dissuade anypony from crossing.

Thorax decided to slowly crawl over to the other side of the road, favoring less noticeable profile over sheer speed. Chitin shook his head quickly and bit his lip, but Thorax ignored it. Once he was on the other side, he began heading towards the ponies. After he had covered half the distance to them, he was able to eavesdrop.

"I think we should cut those thorns right down, and bash into any camp that exists."

"That would make too much noise! Do you want to lose the element of surprise?"

"We already have. And now, we just need to hit them from the least likely path. They probably won't expect anything to come from here, with all those thorns." After saying this, the guard pulled out his knife and slashed down a stem.

The other one which was against such an idea sighed and started to help. The rest of them seemed to just be waiting for a decision, and they were pretty sure that was enough. Soon, they were hacking and slashing as well.

Acting on instinct, Thorax fired a bolt of magic.

About fifty feet away, Chitin facepalmed with his hoof.

"That idiot! Not now! What about the disguises?"

Luckily, Thorax was a better shot while prone than when on the move. Only two heads turned to the noise. And by the time they had, the bolt had hit a crossbow. It seared through half of the main body, and snapped the cord in two.

The weapon's wielder cried out in surprise. Every head turned, trying to find which direction they had just been shot from. The disarmed Royal Guard had a hint if he thought of which angle his weapon was jolted away. But none of that was really enough to locate Thorax fast enough before Chitin and Tarsus had come around the bend.

Three, uncoordinated twangs rang out as the unicorns fired their crossbows. Not a single bolt was aimed properly or with any consideration of where their target would be when the bolt reached it, so they cleanly missed. The unicorns now panicked even more, and they fumbled with their bolts while reloading. One of them missed the muzzle several times, another dropped the bolt from his telekinetic grasp, and one of them was tried to shove the bolt in before pulling the string back—only to find the bolt sputter back out the barrel. Chitin and Tarsus weren't eager to waste their opening, and rushed forward at a full sprint.

They covered the ground in between the two groups quickly, and the crossbow wielders were anything but ready. The spear ponies had mostly decided to stay back, standing their ground, spears up, and waiting uselessly. They weren't in a position to help their unicorn comrades out. One of them came forward to help, but he was outnumbered. While Chitin stole a crossbow that its wielder had just finished loading, Tarsus pulled out the blade on his belt and threw hard it at the approaching spear pony. It had very little space to cover, and easily cut through the soft, gold plate on the Royal Guard's chest.

Chitin aimed, and pulled the trigger of the weapon at a recently loaded crossbow wielder. He was not even three meters away when he took the shot, and the bolt tore through plate and sinew and bone. Bearing a fresh new hole from one side of his body to another, the guard didn't have enough time for last words.

Thorax, who was too distracted by just watching his friends, shook himself and decided to join the fray. He didn't trust himself enough to pick off individual targets without hitting something that he didn't want to. So instead, he charged out of his hiding spot and pulled several shots as suppressing fire, knowing he wouldn't hit his friends. None of them found a warm-blooded target, but it was enough to scare the disarmed Royal Guard into fleeing. The other two unicorns, convinced that they might have been left behind by the other, retreated behind the protective line formed by three spear ponies.

Tarsus scavenged his knife from the corpse with his teeth and sheathed it. Chitin held a crossbow bolt as a makeshift weapon. Thorax trailed behind the two. They moved forward slowly and deliberately, afraid and uncertain of what move to make next. However, this allowed enough time for the remaining members of the patrol to realize they still had the numbers and weapons advantage.

Emboldened, three spears were brought up, and their wielders rushed forward.

Slightly surprised, the three changelings started slightly and took a step back. Without having anticipated this, they scattered and ran away. The spear ponies split up between the three changelings, each in hot pursuit of one.

Thorax ducked under the spear in time, but the spear pony didn't anticipate missing and now had too much momentum. The guard stumbled and trampled over Thorax before he tripped over the changeling's leg, and received a face full of soil. Once he had stood up, he found Thorax dazed and trying to keep his balance. He went in closer and dropped the spear. He wanted to guarantee this kill. He drew a knife with his teeth, and strolled forward, intent on only one thing: Thorax's neck.

Tarsus had decided to keep up the chase longer than Thorax did and was too focused on how much ground he was putting between him and his pursuer. Without looking at where he had turned and weaved and ran to, he collided into the Royal Guard going for the execution. This knocked the weapon out of the guard's teeth. His pursuer slowed down and brought up his spear. After a second of hesitation, the spear pony haphazardly charged into the pile. This was a mistake. Once he had reached them, the other guard had managed to wrestle himself on top of Thorax and was directly in the way of his comrade's spear.

Fortunately and unfortunately for the Royal Guard who had just impaled his comrade, he didn't have much time to regret it. At around the same time as his charge, the last remaining crossbow wielder had just reloaded, aimed, and shot at Tarsus. However, by the time it reached somewhere near its intended target, the unintentional traitor was in its way. The bolt was not a guided projectile, nor was it able to discriminate from friend or foe. It lodged itself into the Royal Guard's cutie mark, and dented the other side of his chestplate from the inside, an almost instant death.

The Royal Guard's lack of real combat experience was showing. They had inadvertently killed two of their own.

Chitin had generally stayed away from the other fights and was on his own. He knew he wasn't being targeted by the last unicorn but he still had that spear pony on his tail. Eventually, running out of breath, he decided to jump, with a few flaps of his wings to propel himself upwards to a greater height. Confused, the guard ran underneath him.

When he turned around, he was greeted by a quick punch to the neck by Chitin. It was too close to use a spear, and Chitin, took advantage of that while he could. Following up the quick thrust of a punch, he gave a swing at the muzzle. He then tried to shove the crossbow bolt through his opponent's crest plate, but it snapped before it penetrated. He proceeded to trip the Royal Guard, who had come far enough out of his daze to realize he needed to put distance between him and his aggressor if he wanted the fight to turn to his favor again.

That was actually easier to achieve than he initially thought. Once he was convinced the next blow aimed at him would come in more than just a single second, he dropped his spear, and turned around. Rising to his hind legs, he threw his knife deftly in a single movement.

While it happened quickly enough that Chitin didn't have a lot of time to dodge, he held on to the hilt for slightly too long. The blade veered to the side, away from a Chitin that had slid to a halt after realizing what was coming. The guard then quickly reached down to pick up his spear, in hope that he wouldn't get into very close quarters in the time that it took for him to do so. Luckily for him, when he turned around, Chitin was actually even farther away. Unfortunately on his half, Chitin was farther because he went to retrieve a missed blade.

And the changeling was charging. 

The pegasus had brought his spear up and decided to charge as well, a risky move. If he had just stood still, then he could more easily keep his distance from Chitin and ensure that he could get a thrust in or an easy getaway. Frustrated at having been juked by Chitin, he also took off from the ground. As far as he was concerned, he was giving the changeling a taste of his own medicine.

Chitin had decided to do the same thing.

Neither had thought enough to expect such an outcome, and they weren't able to get a stab in before they ran into each other. Both were too dazed to take any jabs, but both expected the other to do so and rolled away from their opponent. Both then charged forward.

The Royal Guard had the advantage of having longer reach, but a spear wasn't more than just a staff once you got beyond the head. Chitin sidestepped and plunged the blade into a horrified pegasus' exposed side. There wasn't any gold in place to protect it, and not even a wing.

Thorax and Tarsus ran to Chitin, having just processed how lucky they were to be alive. They were panting heavily, and slumped down, as if all they just realized how tired they were from the fight. And they were.

"You know," Thorax began, "once adrenaline wears off, I hate it."

Chitin scowled, "That's the first thing that you say? We're lucky that we survived that, and after all, it was your idea to shoot like an idiot. We got those crossbow unicorns off guard, and if we hadn't, then we would all be corpses!"

While the two bickered, Tarsus muttered a few words under his breath, "Those two seem to like arguing for the sake of it."

Eventually, they came to a resolution that they should simply return to the camp. At least they'd found someone.