With the excitement of the recent fight still running through their veins, the party of fey had no problems suiting up and moving out in the dark of night, but after several hours of forcing themselves to march through the darkness, everypony except for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy – who’d gotten a full night’s sleep – were showing signs of fatigue. Applejack and Pinkie Pie felt it the worst, and for the last hour or so they had to carry Pinkie Pie, who’d collapsed from exhaustion.
They ended up approaching the fortress a little before noon, and it wasn’t clear how much time they’d saved, if any. On a more positive note, they had arrived in time – the fortress was still whole, and guarded by empire troops lined up along the walls. As they approached, a patrol of pony troops emerged and cantered towards them, perhaps to serve as an escort.
“Be careful,” Applejack said quietly to the others, crouching low to the ground from force of habit despite the lack of anything to hide behind in the open terrain. “Just because they’re flying the flag of the Empire doesn’t mean they’re actually on the up and up. There’s somethin’ not quite right about ‘em.”
“Relax, darling,” Rarity said. “They’re just undead. Pinkie and I passed by here on the way to the test.”
Indeed, the patrol was a dozen skeletal warriors, a mix of earth-bound ponies and pegasi, their bare bones rattling around in dented plate armor, with one surprisingly large earth-bound pony – possibly of Antean descent – leading the troop. His armor was all-encompassing, even his face hidden by a massive plate helm, but Rarity could tell that he was not undead.
The massive sergeant let out a heavy breath as he halted his troops in front of the party. “Adventurers?” he asked, after a few seconds of looking them over.
“We are,” Twilight proclaimed, stepping forwards and nodding sharply.
“ID?” the soldier asked.
Twilight produced her identification, which he leaned forwards to examine carefully.
After an uncomfortably long period of scrutiny, he seemed satisfied. “Come on in, then. The boss’ll want to talk to ya.”
As they approached the fortress, the party could see that it was far from intact. The stone walls and tower were blackened by soot, and the massive bridge over the gorge which the fortress had been placed to defend was in ruins – nopony without wings was using this road to cross over into zebra lands any time soon. The fortress was also undermanned – there were skeletal troops guarding all the walls, but it was only a fraction of the number that should have been present in a fort of this size, the undead making up for their lack of numbers with their ability to tirelessly man the wall without taking shifts. That’s not to say that there were no living souls within, but there were no living troops aside from the sergeant, and even the quartermaster and maid staff were undead.
“What happened to the bridge?” Rarity asked.
“Blew up,” the soldier answered, as he led them into the tower. “Boss can explain.”
Without much ceremony they were led to a comfortable chamber on the third floor of the tower, where the skeletal staff served them a simple but filling meal. Pinkie Pie awoke to the smell of food, and was able to partake, although she was still very tired. As they were finishing their repast, there was the sound of a door opening on the level above, and then the soft patter of leather-soled humanoid feet coming down the stairs, alternating with the clack of wood on stone.
“Ah, my newest recruits,” chuckled the aged orc, supporting himself with an ornate staff.
Rainbow Dash spit out the last of her food, looking down at the meal in horror.
“It wasn’t poisoned,” Fluttershy said, reassuring her. “I checked.”
The orc gave a hearty laugh. “If I wanted you as undead, why would I bother with poison? A circle of death would leave your bodies in a much more susceptible condition. No, no, I have plenty of undead. But I fear they won’t be sufficient, if the enemy returns in force.”
“What enemy?” Twilight Sparkle asked. “The diamond gnolls?”
“No, those cursed zebras!” the orc snarled.
The orc – whose name was Kazakh Thul – gave an explanation of his current predicament. He had at one point been a necromancer in the orcish army, but had more-or-less retired to pursue his studies in peace. He’d lived and worked in this small fort, that had hosted a garrison of orcish and pony soldiers to guard the plains from monsters and bandits, until the troops had been recalled to Rally, leaving him here alone with his undead.
Well, not entirely alone. He had more undead on duty than he could directly control, but undead soldiers not under the direct control of a necromancer tended to follow orders just as they had in life, so using his honorary rank he’d promoted one of the stable-boys to acting sergeant. The rest of the staff had died or left one by one, until only Thul and Macintosh were left to guard the fort, and they didn’t interact with each other much.
Then, just a few days ago, the zebras attacked – a battalion of zebra troops, in shiny new armor made of some strange blue metal, tried to cross his bridge in order to ravage the pony lands beyond. He’d tried to warn them off but they’d ignored him, so his only recourse was to collapse the bridge beneath them. Since then, he’d been harried by the zebra army’s fire drakes and purrsian flyers, but so far he’d managed to hold them off.
Rainbow Dash stared at the orc, then whispered to Rarity, “So he’s nuts, right?”
“He can hear you even if you speak in low tones,” Thul grumbled. “This is a small room.”
“You have to admit, your story does raise some serious questions,” Rarity said, brushing Rainbow Dash aside. “How can you be sure the zebras meant to invade?”
“I will not have my judgment questioned!” the orc shouted, his eyes narrowing in anger. “If you will not help me, then leave before I decide to add you to my forces!”
Pinkie Pie whimpered. “But I’m still so tired…”
“Okay, everypony, calm down,” Applejack said. “I think I know how we can settle this matter, without getting’ all up in each others’ faces. We know the diamond gnolls are tryin’ something, right?”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah. There was that spy.”
“So I reckon if the zebras are also tryin’ something, they’re in cahoots. We’re already heading down to deal with the gnolls, shouldn’t be hard to look for some evidence that the zebras are with ‘em. Or not,” she added, nodding to Rarity.
The orc growled softly, but seemed mollified. “If they are in league with the gnolls, it would be dangerous. Those diggers could arrange for an underground passage, right into the heart of the Empire.”
“Yeah, we could be in serious trouble,” Applejack said, flicking her tail as she rubbed up against the orc’s robes. “I don’t suppose you might have some supplies or whatnot to help make sure our mission’s a success?”
The orc snorted, as he reached down and scratched her between the ears. “Macintosh deals with the mundane supplies. You’ll have to talk to him. The most important thing I can offer you is this advice – don’t trust the zebras.”
“Are we allowed to trust Rarity?” Pinkie Pie asked, glancing at the party’s zebra.
“Only as far as you can throw her,” Thul said.
Pinkie Pie grinned widely. “Great! I can throw her pretty far, if I start high enough up.”
It was obvious that the orc didn’t completely trust even the non-zebra members of the party, since they occasionally spotted a shadow creeping around and watching them as they made their way about the fort, but he had provisionally accepted them as allies. Macintosh was significantly more helpful, opening the fortress’ long-neglected armory, which sadly had only ordinary-quality weapons and armor, all of the good stuff having been claimed by the former garrison when it left. He also made sure they were outfitted with climbing equipment and plenty of rope, as well as a proper set of tents and bedrolls.
“I bet I know someone who wants to get him into her bedroll,” Rainbow Dash snickered, as Fluttershy and Macintosh disappeared into the stables to talk about animals.
“I’m sure it’s a purely professional relationship,” Twilight said, using the fort’s blacksmithing tools to sharpen the spikes on her flail. “And if it’s not, I’m sure it’s none of your business.”
Rainbow turned to the winged cat napping in the rafters. “Applejack, you can sneak in and see what they’re up to, right? You’re all sneaky and stuff.”
“No way, no how,” Applejack said. “I don’t even want to know.”
After a long discussion, the party decided to stay the night at the fort, since resting from the forced march used up most of the rest of the daylight, and walking on a narrow cliffside path in the darkness was a recipe for disaster, even for ponies (or other creatures) with wings. The barracks had plenty of uncomfortable cots for everypony, although Fluttershy slept in the stables with Sergeant Macintosh.
During the second watch, Applejack and Twilight heard the beating of vast wings from the air above the fort, and were able to spot a dark shape looming against the stars just before it opened its mouth and spat a blinding ball of fire at the tower – a fire drake was attacking, under cover of darkness!
After blasting open the tower’s shutters with its flame breath, the drake swooped over to the window, and a gnoll riding on its back tossed something through, into Thul’s quarters. Ugly green smoke billowed from the window as it filled the room.
“Oh no you don’t,” Twilight said, levitating a javelin she’d taken from the armory, and flinging it at the drake. The small throwing spear sank into its belly, drawing blood – and its attention.
Fluttershy emerged from the stables, with Mac close behind, and shouted, “Hey you big meanie, get down here! Land!” But either the drake didn’t hear her, didn’t speak her language, or simply resisted her spell. As Applejack hid, the rest of the party emerged from the barracks to see what was going on, and the skeletal archers on the wall took pot-shots, the drake swooped down at Twilight, hovering just out of her reach and darting its head forwards to sink its teeth into her sides, piercing her armor effortlessly.
She screamed as it dropped her, the scent of her blood mixing with the smell of her burning flesh, but was still spry enough to block an arrow shot at her by the gnoll on the monster’s back. And then, narrowing her eyes at her flying opponent, she turned tail and ran, ducking through the door into the heavy stone walls of the armory.
“Did she just run away?” Rainbow Dash asked, as Macintosh and the skeletons rained inaccurate fire on the flying attacker, and Rarity tried to use her own magic on the creature, with about as much luck as Fluttershy, who took off after Twilight, vanishing into the armory as well.
“Less talking, more flanking,” Applejack hissed. The griffon nodded, and the two leapt into the air.
“Stunning fist!” shouted the griffon as she kicked the dragonkin in the face. Applejack was silent as she stabbed it in the back.
Rainbow screamed as her bold attack earned her a savage, flame-filled bite from the creature, whose reach far outstripped the griffon’s.
“Stop callin’ yer damn attacks!” Applejack hissed, then sputtered as a freezing burst exploded over her face, as Pinkie nailed the flame drake’s rider with a vial of something cold.
“Eep! Thought you could dodge!” she said, covering her mouth with her hooves as she saw her friend get splattered.
But the worst of her attack had hit the rider, who was slumped unconscious in the saddle. Without its rider directing it, the drake enraged, and flailed around with teeth and tail, latching onto Rainbow Dash and shaking her wildly before flinging her into the roof of the barracks, where she lay unmoving. Applejack was a bit luckier, only catching a tail slap in the face, and managed to stay in the air.
“Chaaaaarge!” screamed Twilight, bursting forth from the armory with a massive 10’ spear in her magical grip – one long enough to skewer the drake in the side. As it squirmed on the end of her spear, Mac threw a javelin which took it in the neck, and the creature shrieked as it fell to the earth with a massive thud. It didn’t get back up.
Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, rushing to her aid, discovered Rainbow Dash barely clinging to life. Between Fluttershy’s remaining magic and their wands, they were easily able to save her, and to heal the relatively minor wounds suffered by the rest of the party. The wizard emerged from the tower a few minutes later, having finally shaken off the choking effects of the bomb.
To Pinkie Pie’s dismay, the gnoll was not carrying any more poisonous bombs, but he did have a short bow with four remaining arrows, each tipped with an arrowhead of a strange blue metal, which allowed them to deal fire damage even though they were only faintly magical, and not enchanted per se. He also had a masterfully crafted chain shirt of the same blue metal, but it would take at least a day for Twilight to modify it for any of the party to wear, so it was better to settle for the lower quality but already pony-fitted chain shirts from the armory. Lastly, he had a loud, bright firework to shoot off, presumably to call in the rest of the assault once he’d verified that the wizard was down.
Despite being in what was obviously a military uniform of some sort, neither the gnoll nor the drake was wearing any form of insignia.
Kazakh Thul spent the rest of the night on guard atop the tower, watching for more attackers, but the enemy had grown wary of his power and no further attack was forthcoming.
“Blue metal,” Twilight said, staring at the arrows, which she’d claimed since no one else in the party could fire a bow. “On a gnoll. You know what this means.”
“It means the crazy necromancer ain’t as crazy as we thought,” Applejack said.
“Yeah, and you know what else it means?” Rainbow Dash said, with a grin. “It means we totally get to loot that mine.”