Rune felt himself feel apprehensive at what he was gonna do. Facing an army several times his size was one thing, however this was something else entirely. Quashing any nervousness he had, he turned to the assembly of troops that had gathered in the camp, their armor gleaming dully in the pre light of the early dawn. Steeling his nerves, he forced himself to speak.
“Pony Coalition,” Rune began in a forced calm, drawing the attention of every pony there, “Needless to say that all of us here wish we were somewhere else. Some would rather be out having a good time; maybe be playing with the kids; or even a few of you would rather be bickering with the spouse.
“However, that way of life was threatened when the horse known as Nightshade landed on our shores. He attacked our homes, our villages, our cities, and our citizens. In spite of the differences we’ve had with each other, our troops were the only casualties of our conflicts. However, in Nightshade’s clutches, even mares and foals were no exception to their slaughtering.
“Even in the midst of defeat, they resorted to cowardice and kidnapped more innocents in one mad equine’s pursuit of power! And just last night, we have received a message stating that he would kill them unless we surrendered to them.
“Here is my reply to that.” Unceremoniously, he spat much to the surprise of everypony there. “Even if we cowed to his demands,” he said, his voice rising as he spoke, “he has not struck me as an equine that would keep his word. Even if he were, more lives have been lost in this conflict than have been lost in any single war between ourselves. I have no intention of having them, and the lives of our future rulers, count for nothing!”
He calmed himself, having no intention of lying to the troops under his command. They were willing to die by his orders, they deserved no less. “However, acting as such would go against the orders set by our sovereigns. So, if there are any among you who have any objections to this, please speak up now. They will be noted and no action will be taken against you.”
After a moment of silence so intense that it bordered on oppressive, Lieutenant Glaive of all ponies stepped forward. Whereas last night she seemed slightly on edge, now she seemed placid, almost to the point of serenity. “General Rune, sir,” she said, her voice loud enough to be heard over the silence, “I believe I speak for all of us when I say to Tartarus with our orders.”
As soon as the words left her lips, a cheer broke from the ranks. Perhaps it was due to the silence from moments before, but it seemed louder than any that had been given before or would ever be given again. The commanders approached the younger mare, who seemed to shrink a little at the praise she was receiving.
“Oh, yeah!” Twister said, smirking at the mare, “I like you already!”
Somehow the mare seemed more awkward than before, a slight blush appearing on through her coat. Thankfully, she managed to snap out of it and stand at attention. “I think it’s safe to say that the troops are ready to fight,” she replied in a business-like manner, “Where would you like us crystal ponies, sir?”
Rune felt himself smile. “Funny you should ask…”
Feeling the comforting weight of his armor pressing on him, Rune viewed the fortress in the distance through the slits in his helm. He felt himself scowl at it in distaste.‘Success or failure,’ he thought, ‘this ends today!’ Finishing that thought, he turned to the crystal pony lieutenant behind him.
“Are the troops ready, Lieutenant Glaive?”
“Ready, willing, and able, sir!”
“Then move out.”
“Yes, sir!” Glaive turned to the troops. “FORM RANKS! FORWARD MARCH!”
The tattoo of marching hooves and dulled clanging of armor filled the air. They marched slowly, the fortress grew steadily bigger as the distance shrank. Rune cleared his mind, letting a calming stillness take its place.
As they marched, there were no signs that a counter attack was coming. Rune wasn’t surprised by the lack of ordinance raining from the sky, in fact he expected it. Undoubtedly, Nightshade knew of their approach and was waiting for them. If he had to guess, the siege towers were the point of no return.
“QUICKEN PACE,” he yelled over the din, “MARCH!”
As soon as the order was issued, everypony broke into a canter. The ground quaked under the cadence of thundering hooves and dust billowed into the air like smoke from a great fire. Rune could feel the rattling of armor vibrating the very air.
A flight of arrows filled the air with a whistling. The arrows fell short of their targets, impaling harmlessly into the ground. Rune knew that the next flight or the flight after that would hit their marks, however if everything went as planned their aim would count for naught.
Rune charged past the towers, ignoring them completely as he drew his sword. Ramming it into the ground, he came to a stop several yards ahead of the siege towers. “FORM UP!” he bellowed, a blanket of polished shields rising around his location.
A second flight of arrows landed about them, filling the air with the sound of dirt being struck along with the occasional chink of metal on crystal. Rune knew that the next flight would be on target. However, he had planned and timed this to the degree and within several seconds, nothing the archer could do would matter in the slightest. He turned his eyes to the east, smiling like an expectant father.
A glorious dawn broke over the horizon, warm golden light expanding steadily as the sun moved towards its zenith. As the light washed over the Pony Coalition Force, the sun reflected from the polished surface of the shields. As one, the shieldponies angled the light so it hit the upper parts of the walls and into the eyes of the archers lining them.
Rune heard the sound of approaching hooves from behind him. He smiled, knowing that the unicorns had just arrived. Shortly after, several earth ponies strode forward at a brisk yet strenuous stride while dragging the siege towers behind them. As the towers passed, several unicorns with their horns lit in magical auras while straining with a great weight. With the magical might of the unicorns along with the immense strength of the earth ponies, the siege towers moved at a greater pace than they had yesterday. All save for three of them.
As soon as the mobile towers were within thirty yards of the walls, Arcane and the remaining unicorns acted. Rune heard the sound of unicorn magic activating, knowing precisely what Arcane was trying to accomplish. Seeing that the moving towers were close enough, he turned to his troops.
“ASSAULT TEAMS, WITH ME!”
With that command, a quarter of the shieldponies dropped their shields and ran forth with Rune himself leading the charge. Rune held his sword aloft, the light gleaming and dancing along its edge. As though in response, several other swords were drawn, the sound leaving a slight ringing in the air.
When they got within two hundred yards of the walls, the mobile siege towers were just locking into place along the walls. All that remained were the missing towers to join the engagement. As the sound of a horn filled the air behind them, Rune smiled grimly knowing that there was no going back now.
As though on cue, the sky above him darkened as the siege towers sailed overhead. They flew through the air with the accuracy of a missile heading towards the walls of the fortress along with its brethren on the ground.
Directly behind them flew the pegasi ponies led by none other than Commander Twister. Rune looked up at her, able to tell her apart from the others up there. He found her looking down upon him, giving him a smile and a firm salute before flying to their destiny.
The towers flew over the walls, landing in the courtyard in a thunderous roar of splintering and cracking wood. The pegasi followed suit, flying over the walls leaving a rain of arrows in their wake. Defenders along the walls fell like so many flies, leaving behind lifeless heaps of flesh and hair behind. Sensing their opportune moment, Rune picked up his pace his troops doing the same.
Rune ran up his tower without realizing it, sending magical energy into the markings along his coat. He emerged from the tower in front of a horse that somehow escaped the rain of death from earlier. With his weapon readied, Rune struck him down thoughtlessly, the horse spraying blood as his form was sent flying from the wall.
Rune, along with everypony that followed, leapt over the battlements and fell into the courtyard below. Normally, such a drop would be seventy feet straight down. However, the siege tower missiles had two useful consequences. Firstly, it would render the siege engines in the courtyard useless as they would be buried under the debris, if not destroyed by them outright. Secondly, it would shorten the fall while leaving a more manageable landing surface than the compacted ground below. With this advantage, Rune’s assailants could easily descend to the courtyard below to accomplish their portion of the mission.
As Rune’s teams regained their footing from the fall, they rushed to the inner wall. Several troops took a defensive position. A few from each squadron began digging through the debris by the wall’s base while several unicorns that had been recruited by Rune were examining the wall. All Rune could do at the moment was help defend the position while his troops finished their work.
As moments became minutes, the number of castle defenders attacking the squadrons dwindled. However, Rune had enough experience to know that they were falling back and regrouping with the main force to overrun them. Regardless, he and his troops had to hold them until…
“It’s done, sir!” One of the unicorns stated, saluting hastily.
“Then everypony take cover!” Rune shouted over the din, the troops leaping into the hole the others had dug in the rubble. Leaping in last, he grasped the crystal around his neck. “Arcane, now!”
Rune heard the massive roar that followed those words. Although Rune’s sight was obscured by the makeshift trench his troops had dug, he could imagine the destruction that had been inflicted. The explosive charms the unicorns had set in the siege towers had gone off along with barrels of fine-grained sawdust that it had been placed inside. That by itself would have been enough to weaken the walls, however with the additional charms that Rune’s recruits had placed along the wall’s interior, it was more than enough. Whatever was left of the wall was now raining down in bits of rubble.
Rune lifted his head to peer through the lid of the hole watching as the troops on the other side of the wall moved forward in a single wall as thousands of voices combined in a single yell of blood and glory. At that moment, those ponies were not an army. They were a sea of death, surging forward to wash over the field of battle. As the sky above him darkened, he turned his eyes upwards.
The pegasus ponies flew overhead, circling like a horde of crows over a carcass. With a silent, unnecessary cue, they dove en masse, blotting the sky with the mass that was their bodies. Before any of the horses could muster a defense, a second flight of arrows pierced through the air clearing space on the walls for Twister and her troops to land.
As Twister landed, her movements became fluid, as though her entire body had been replaced with water. ‘The Wind Scythe’ they named her and the name had fit her. When she fought, her movements became a veritable whirlwind of blades Where most troops fought with vicious strokes and halting movements, Twister practically danced across the field. She truly was a goddess of the blades.
However, Rune knew that in spite of this fact, she was only mortal. He knew this because he had seen her bleed. He had no intention of letting her fight alone. Besides, he had a score to settle with Nightshade. Steeling his resolve, he turned to the ponies in the holes with him.
“For the homes you defend, ATTACK!”
With that, Rune and his group came out of the ground like rabbits from a warren and charged the mass of horses in the debris littered courtyard. As the horses saw what was coming, a hasty wall of spear was lifted to intercept them. As Rune approached it, he pushed the spearheads to the side like a dense patch of brush, the sounds of metal clashing against metal filling his ears.