//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: What Lies Beneath // Story: Legionnaires of Equestria // by thatguyvex //------------------------------// Chapter 7: What Lies Beneath “They’re out there alright!” said Alpine as her and her patrol squad returned to Beartrap Fortress, alighting upon the west wall where Counter Charge was waiting for them. She only had half an eye for her friend, also looking at the dense forest tree line across the Bearbones river, where the shadows of the forest gloom didn’t fully conceal the large shapes that moved between the tree trunks. “How many?” Counter Charge asked, trying to sound calm and collected. “A hundred or so by my guess,” said Alpine, “Hard to get a clear count with all the trees in the way. Problem is there are more coming. We could catch glimpses of them moving in from the west, in small bands of maybe ten or twenty.” Counter Charge nodded. It was consistent with the usual ursan pattern of amassing forces for an attack. Ursans hit worse than a battering ram when they attacked, but one positive factor was that they usually moved slow when moving in large groups, taking their time to gather forces, work themselves up into a proper battle frenzy. With the ursans now gathering across the river it was as clear a sign as the fortress was going to get that an attack was coming. It was a cold feeling, however, to know the scale of what would be coming. A couple of hundred ursans, which by Alpine’s report was what was over there right now, would have been enough to warrant a serious threat to be concerned with. The knowledge that there were a lot more coming, and that it might take a couple of days for the full ursan army to mass, let a sinking feeling in Counter Charge’s gut. “Very well,” she said, “You go get some rest and food, and I’ll report to the Captain.” Alpine nodded and gestured with her wing for the other pegasi in her squad to get going, which they did with grateful looks. Alpine stuck around a moment, giving Counter Charge a subdued if still optimistic smile, “Don’t worry too much Counter, we’ll figure something out to send the ursans packing. We’re checking the traps and setting up more later today, and I heard the Captain’s got a few special warding spells he’s busting out for this that should help. Not to mention we might get some back up from Arrow Vale. Those ponies down there are a pretty tough bunch.” Counter Charge nodded, appreciative her friend was trying to keep her morale high, “Let’s hope so. Coldiron is a capable enough pony, so I don’t doubt she’ll do her best to convince some of those villagers to join us. I also trust the Heartlanders with her will hold their own. Not much else we can do except prepare as best we can.” Alpine extended one of her wings, casually preening it, her mouth working out a particularly bent green feather which she spat out with a grimace, “Bad timing. Had leave coming up in a couple of months. Was looking forward to heading home for a bit.” With a sidelong glance at her friend Counter Charge said, “Wouldn’t have minded that either. Your mother bakes some fine peach pies.” “Ha! As if I’d have brought any back with me,” said Alpine with a knowing smile. Every single time she’d had leave she’d always returned to the fort with a few neatly wrapped up pies from her family’s ovens. Alpine’s family were among the best bakers in the Western Barrier Lands. Counter Charge had always wondered why one of the family’s oldest daughters had chosen to join the Legion instead of taking over the family business. She respected Alpine enough not to ask, though. The two settled into an awkward silence, punctuated only by the hollow crack of wood on wood and the shuffles of digging from the crews touching up and adding to the traps on the ridge. Counter Charge could feel the tension in Alpine, practically seeing the faint shakes in the pegasus’ body. Alpine was starring into the forest where the Ursan shadows loomed, and Counter Charge knew her friend was battling her fear of the impending battle. A battle they both knew they had a slim chance of living through. “Yup…” Alpine whispered, “Would’ve been nice to go home one more time.” ---------- “Why are we waiting like timid cubs!?” snarled Gertharka, her lips pulled back in a flash of challenge. Her black fur would all but have blended her into the shadows of night, but in the daylight piercing through the forest canopy that midnight coat seemed to stand out even more. Pink scars criss-crossed her hide, the mark of many hard fought battles against rivals, and gave little doubt to the notion that the Chieftain of the Night Roar clan had earned her position. Ulragnok didn’t flinch from her exposed fangs nor threatening tone. He took one, solid step towards the other Chieftain and issued forth a rumbling growl that shook his own bones. Many of the braves that had gathered around the Warchief and the lesser Chieftain either growled their support or took tentative steps back, in case a duel was indeed imminent. “We wait because that is what I have decided! On the night of the newborn moon we strike, and not an instant before!” Gertharka’s snarl did not go away but she didn’t take a step forward to answer his challenge, either. Ulragnok was not surprised. As powerful as she was to hold leadership of her clan she also would know well that Ulragnok had answered many challenges just like hers to his leadership of the gathered clans for this attack upon the pony lands. Each of those challengers had fallen to Ulragnok’s claws, one after another. True, she did not know that he had help in winning those challenges from his shadowy allies, whose mysterious magics sharpened his senses and whose potent poisons coated his claws, but what Gertharka didn’t know only added to her fear of him. Fear was good, but even despite her fear Ulragnok could tell that Gertharka’s patience was fraying, as was that of her clan’s braves. “It is foolishness, this waiting,” she grumbled, shaking her large body and pawing at the ground with her claws, her green eyes flashing with her barely contained ire, “We came to your call for the promise of glory! We have too long played mere games with the ponies, keeping them from our sacred lands and nothing more. The elders preach and prattle that our way is not of war, but then why do we have such powerful claws if not to fight!? I brought my clan to you because I thought you understood this, Ulragnok! Yet for all your fine promises of the grand battles to come we sit here, with the very walls of our enemies’ fortress in sight… and we wait!” “Yes, we wait,” Ulragnok said, curling his own lips back to expose his prominent jaws, his eyes boring into Gertharka’s, “You will taste the blood you want, soon, but we wait. If you wish otherwise, then we can settle this here, now.” He took one more step forward, leaving absolutely no room for misconceptions. He was ready to fight any challenger to his command and if Gertharka wanted to launch an assault on the pony fortress before the new moon then she could only do so over his bloody, savaged corpse. Gertharka growled… and stepped back, bowing her head, “We wait, Ulragnok.” She turned and lumbered away, the braves of her clan filing in behind her like a shuffling tide, the metal plates of their armor creaking and clanking. Ulragnok watched her go and only when he was certain she was out of sight did he turn away as well and marched past the gathered braves of the other clans, including his own among the Yellowtooth. Most of them grunted approval at him, their faith in him still strong for the time being. What dissenters there were he knew would not last long. Once the new moon came and they crushed the fortress of the ponies then all doubt in him would vanish, he knew. Then, after that, he would lead them all to even greater glory. He would prove to the elders of the larger clans whose territory was deeper in the mountains that the young clans in the forests had a better way than merely defending territory. He would spark a new fire in the ursan race! After he destroyed not just the fortress across the river, but the larger fortresses to the south, all of the clans would come to his call. They would sweep the ponies away in a battle beyond any in the ursan’s history, and for all time the name Ulragnok would be remembered. He just had to wait a little bit longer. ---------- Trepidation was a tad too mild a word for the feeling running through Blossomforth as she looked down the wide, dark hole in the ground that they were soon to go into. A better term might be ‘terrified’ or ‘scared featherless’. It wasn’t even the notion of going up against more of those admittedly creepy spiders everypony was calling ‘Lurkers’. For Blossomforth the root of her fear was the idea of going down into such an enclosed space. She’d been all gung-ho a little while ago, and she fully intended to go down there with the others and do her part, but it didn’t change the fact that she had a rather severe fear of closed in spaces. Blossomforth wasn’t embarrassed by this. After all, most pegasi weren’t exactly fans of being constrained. She just rarely had to face that fear so… directly. Living as a weathermare in Ponyville had really been nice for avoiding things like holes in the ground. Granted there were other issues with living in Ponyville, like the occasional rampaging dragon, chaos spirit, parasprite infestation, or three-headed dog monster… but really, by Blossomforth’s standards those were pretty easy to deal with in comparison to the prospect of delving into that deep, dark hole with nowhere to fly, the walls slowly closing in around her, making it hard to breath- “Blossomforth?” Trixie’s voice nearly made her jump, but Blossomforth managed to not make a fool of herself as her unicorn friend looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Huh? Yes! I’m fine! Totally not fighting back a panic attack!” “Okay… “ Trixie’s eyebrow climbed even higher, then she shook her head and nodded towards where the rest of their squad was gathered along with about twenty of the Arrow Vale ponies, “We’re about to head in. Trixie merely came to fetch you before Corporal Bossy decided to yell at you for spacing out.” Blossomforth hid a laugh with a hoof, hoping it also hid her nervousness, “Thanks. I’m good. A bit jittery, is all. Not a fan of enclosed spaces.” “Ah, Trixie sees. Well, fear not! Trixie will ensure that even in darkest gloom that her light will shine a clear path! Even if the Lurkers do something incredibly smart like try to collapse a tunnel upon us rest assured that Trixie has very fast legs and will carry you to safety.” Trixie said this while striking confident pose, one leg sweeping out dramatically. Suddenly Coldiron’s voice could be heard shouting from the main group, “Stop fooling around you two and fall in! We’re about to head down!” Blossomforth nudged Trixie with a small smile, “Looks like we got yelled at anyway. Come on. I’ll be okay.” The two trotted over and Blossomforth noticed that the Arrow Vale ponies had gathered several piles of rope that they were pinning to the ground with wood stakes. Coldiron was standing beside Mayor Straight Lace and Strong Back, while Coco Pommel was helping with the ropes. All the Arrow Vale ponies were armed now with either spears or short, chopping blades like the Mayor’s. A hoof full had crossbows, but not many, probably due to the fact that they’d be going into narrow tunnels and only so many ponies would get clear shots at anything down there. That would likely explain why Coco, while still bearing her heavy crossbow on her back, was now also sporting one of the town’s short swords sheathed at her left flank. The Arrow Vale ponies mostly lacked armor, however, with Blossomforth only seeing a few suits of leather armor present among them. Coldiron turned to them as she and Trixie approached, “We’re going in ahead of the rest. Mayor Straight Lace has to stay here to coordinate the ponies cleaning up the town and preparing to either evacuate or take care of wounded, depending on how this turns out. Strong Back here is going to be in charge of the townsponies coming down with us.” Strong Back smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his mane, “Here’s hopin’ I make a better account of myself this time. We’ll back you girls up just fine, don’t you doubt! And I’ll be listening to your command, Corporal. You got the military know-how best around here, so consider us as following you, and I’ll be the go between.” Coldiron nodded, “Fair enough. We don’t know what conditions down there will be like, but assuming the worst we’ll be dealing with narrow spaces with limited room to maneuver. That being the case I want you mostly to keep tight and stay in view of each other. It might be easy to get lost or separated down there, and if these things act anything like real spiders they’ll try to pick us off one by one and use ambush tactics.” Her eyes turned to Trixie, “You and me will take the lead. I don’t know if more of those things can use that strange magic like the last one did, but if they can I want us to form a barrier fast as possible. Coco and the townsponies with crossbows will back us up, forming a firing line as best we can. Blossomforth, I want you to stick with Strong Back and reinforce the spears in the rear guard.” “I think I can mange that,” said Blossomforth and Coldiron’s eyes narrowed. “Do more than think it; do it. I got a bad feeling that the Lurkers will try to cut us off, which means you’ve got the hardest job of all; clearing our way out when we need to get out of there. If we manage to rescue any of the ponies that were taken the Lurkers are probably going to be pissed about it. If they end up holding any of their forces back it’ll be then that they’ll hit us with all they got to make sure we don’t escape. That’ll put you in the thickest fighting. Our lives will be in your hooves, recruit.” Blossomforth couldn’t help but gulp, “Right. No pressure. That reminds me, Trixie brought up a very worrying issue a second ago. What if they Lurkers try to collapse any of the tunnels on us?” Coldiron frowned, glancing away in thought, “A good point. We don’t know enough about them to be sure they won’t try that, but it’s possible they won’t for fear of catching themselves in the collapse as well. If they do try it, well, the best I can offer is that I might be able to reinforce the tunnel with ice. Failing that… we run. We knew this was going to be hard when we decided to do it.” A sigh escaped Blossomforth as she nodded, “Yeah, I guess that’s true. Heh, nopony ever said battling giant spiders was an easy job! Then again, I don’t think anypony’s ever had that job before us, heheh.” Coldiron gave one of her rare smiles, “Just another day in the life of a Legionnaire. Alright, let’s get to it!” The ponies assembled around the hole, Blossomforth taking to the air alongside three other pegasi among the village ponies who were going down there with the Legion squad. The hole’s depths were obscured by the lengths of webbing that covered it, but torches were lit and ponies moved to the edge of the pit and set those webs aflame. They burned with remarkable speed, peeling off and floating into the darkness, burning out quickly. The light was just enough, though, for Blossomforth to spot the bottom of the pit, about twenty paces down. The ropes were unrolled and tossed down, and Coldiron took the lead alongside Coco and Trixie as the mares started the climb down. Coco was a tad awkward at it, mostly due to the weight of the crossbow mounted on her back, but she managed to not fall, while Trixie demonstrated a fair bit of familiarity with the ropes, as if she was used to climbing. Blossomforth and the other pegasi kept pace with them, slowly flapping their wings as they descended to the bottom of the pit. Blossomforth kept her spear gripped nice and tight in her forehooves, eyes scanning the bottom for any sign of movement. Torches and light spells from unicorn horns provided a solid pool of illumination. At the bottom Blossomforth remained hovering for a minute, enjoying the feeling of being airborne as much as possible before she knew she’d be constrained. The pit’s bottom was wide enough that all of the ponies could stand there with room to spare once they were all down. There was but one tunnel leading out of the pit, its mouth a black, ominous throat that Blossomforth imagined could lead to the belly of some massive subterranean beast. “Everything alright down there?” shouted Mayor Straight Lace from the top of the pit. “Yes, we all made it down,” called back Coldiron, “Keep the entrance guarded until we get back. We’ll probably be coming back in a hurry, and under attack.” “No worries, we’ll make sure this exit stays open. Good luck, Legionnaires.” Coldiron quickly organized them, herself, Trixie, and Coco forming the core of the lead group, with Blossomforth taking charge of half a dozen spearponies who’d guard the rear, and the rest marching in the middle. Blossomforth smiled at Strong Back as he stood next to her. “Guess it’s our job to make sure no nasty critters sneak up behind us. At least if something does show up all we got to do is scream real loud and jab it with a spear. A foalproof tactic!” she jested. Strong Back’s laugh was a tad weak, belying his own nerves, but his return smile still made Blossomforth feel better. “I’m just hoping don’t get my head conked into a wall again. So many ponies have told me I’m thick skulled, but come on, that doesn’t mean I like putting it to the test.” “Enough chatter,” commanded Coldiron, her horn alight with a frosty blue illumination spell as she approached the tunnel entrance, “We move quick, quiet, and alert.” With that the ponies started to march into the tunnel, enough room for them to do so about four abreast. Blossomforth marched in last, trying her best to forget the feeling of walking into her own grave. ---------- The multi-colored light of illumination spells from the unicorns in the rescue party combined with the flickering orange of the lit torches carried by others, making a mural of shifting colors and shadows on the tunnels walls that reminded Coco Pommel of the way light refracted off water, as if she was looking at something underwater. The tunnel stretched out before them, yawning and unyielding in its darkness. After several dozen paces it sloped downward and began to curve to the right. If Coco’s sense of direction was being honest with her she was fairly certain the tunnel was leading out of the town on the side where the forest was located. Nopony spoke, the only sound the shuffle of hooves and the brush of hide on armor and clothing, or the creaks of equipment shifting. Even those tiny sounds were like the cacophony of a stampede to Coco’s ears. Webbing speckled the tunnel walls at irregular intervals, sometimes thick enough to block their path and require burning. Coco didn’t know much of anything about spiders but she wondered if burning the webs might be alerting whatever might be lying in wait ahead of them. Wasn’t that what a spider’s web was for? To catch prey and alert the spider when a tasty morsel had stumbled into its grasp? She shoved down her fear and pressed on harder with her steps. She had to remind herself that these Lurkers were monsters, just like the ursans, and she’d already seen that they could be killed. No matter what, ponies’ lives were at stake, and that meant Coco wanted to save them and put a stop to the evil of these monstrous things that preyed on her race with no regard at all for the sanctity of life. Her breathing had quickened without her noticing and it wasn’t until Coldiron glanced her way and nudged her with a hoof that Coco realized she’d been pulling ahead of the Corporal. With an embarrassed rush of heat to her cheeks Coco slowed down and let Coldiron take the lead again. She still didn’t know just what was wrong with her. She felt like something was changing inside her, since the first battle with ursans on the road. Changes that both scared Coco, and made her feel… empowered. Putting those thoughts aside she focused on the path ahead. After a few minutes the relatively straight tunnel had its first branch off, one path curving to the left, while the other remained more or less running straight. The group paused here and Coldiron knelt down, examining the ground. Coco could only imagine the Legion mare was looking for some sing of tracks. To Coco’s eyes the hard packed dirt of the tunnel was bland and featureless. She couldn’t tell if the scuffs she saw were signs of passage or just the results of when the tunnel was initially dug. Apparently Coldiron knew what she was doing, however, because it didn’t take long for the mare to rise and motion for them to continue down the straight path, ignoring the offshoot tunnel. Coco nor anypony else questioned the Corporal’s decision. Even Trixie, who Coco was starting to understand was a pretty talkative and gregarious sort, was unusually quiet now. The number of offshoots began to increase. After the third one Coldiron gave a small, frustrated growl as she tried examining the ground. Coco approached her and quietly whispered, “What’s wrong?” “Up until now I’ve been following these markings that are similar to the scuff marks claws might make, and making sure we kept to the path that had the most of those. Now, though, there’s so many I can’t tell which direction has the most concentration.” Coco’s brow creased. She wasn’t sure how to help. She didn’t know the first thing about tracking. Trixie stepped forward, however, coming around to Coldiron’s other side to look around. They were at an intersection with three different branches in the tunnels besides the one they came down. The tunnels were slightly narrower now, with the ponies only able to walk three abreast instead of four, and the ceiling had become a little uncomfortable in how low it was, almost brushing the top of Coco’s head… though she had to admit she was actually a bit on the tall side so the others might not have noticed it as much as she did. “Trixie is willing to bet most of these side tunnels are fakes,” the azure mare said, her violet eyes narrowing at the side passages, “All meant to confuse, not serve a use. Simple misdirection. Amateurish, actually. They weren’t expecting to be followed, so took the simplest of precautions.” “What are you going on about?” Coldiron asked, “This place is a maze.” “Yes, you’re right, Trixie agrees. But Trixie also can tell this is a poorly and hastily thrown together maze. Look, what has remained the same since we entered these tunnels?” Coldiron tilted her head and had a flat look as if she had no patience for Trixie’s games, which Coco imagined the Legion mare didn’t, but Trixie didn’t let the question rest long, nodding her head straight down the direction they’d been going, “Our initial path. All these offshoots, but the main path has always been there to follow, with no real deviation. We haven’t turned left or right once since coming down here.” Coco blinked, understanding, “You’re saying that all these offshoots are just here to slow us down if we turn down them?” “Exactly. Trixie would bet her last bit on it. If this were a true maze we would’ve been forced to choose a turn at some point, be forced into some dead ends. The main path would have vanished long before now. But these Lurkers have a destination in mind, and wanted a clear path there.” “And the side passages are just a quickly put together distraction,” Coldiron said, looking at the ground, “I’m not sure I totally buy that, but it’s better than standing here doing noting or spinning a dagger to randomly choose a direction. Alright, let’s keep going forward.” At that exact moment, just as Coldiron was in mid-step, there was a echo of clacks and dry hisses that seemed to come from all around them, and a strand of thick white web shot out of the darkness ahead like a spear. It hit Coldiron squarely in the chest and the unicorn was yanked off her hooves and rapidly dragged down the tunnel. Her horn remained aglow, keeping her form illuminated as it was dragged ahead at a fast pace. “Coldiron!” Coco shouted, not even thinking about it as she bounded forward after the mare’s rapidly vanishing form. At the same time there were cries and shouts from the back of the group, but Coco didn’t stop. She knew if she let Coldiron get out of her sight she might entirely loose the mare, and then, somehow, Coco knew all would be lost. With her hooves pounding she galloped for all she was worth, keeping the light of Coldiron’s horn just barely in sight as something continued to drag her along. She heard Coldiron spit out a curse and saw the glow of magic intensify as Coldiron sent a bolt of arcane energy down the tunnel at whatever was dragging her. The bolt bounced off the walls like a pin ball, and struck something ahead that let out a horrible, gurgling hiss. Coco caught up then, skidding to a halt next to Coldiron. She saw ahead that they’d reached the mouth of the tunnel, which opened up into some larger, circular chamber. And inside that chamber she could see shapes moving, skittering on many legs. Lurkers. Their spindly forms were all manner of dark colors, from pure black to deep bruised purple, while others sported molted browns or dark green hues. Coco didn’t bother to count them. A dozen at least. Probably more. The one that’d been dragging Coldiron was a few paces into the room, laying on its side with its legs flailing and its abdomen scorched with Coldiron’s spell. However it was rapidly righting itself and turning, and Coco didn’t waste a second aiming and firing her crossbow. The large bolt, meant to peirce the hide of the deadly ursans, hit the Lurker squarely in its face and pulped the thing’s alien countenance in a shower of vile gore, flipping it over on its back. But that was just one of many, and Coco had no time at all to try and reload before two more Lurkers, the closest to the entrance, rushed her and Coldiron. She reached to draw her sword but knew she’d be too slow, one of the Lurker’s rearing on its back legs, nearly doubling its height as fangs flashed towards Coco’s neck. A blast of light, bright, brilliant, and made of shades of green, violet, and blue burst into the room with the snapping of fireworks. The Lurkers all cried out in a chorus of ear splitting shrieks and hisses, and the ones that had been charging Coco and Coldiron reeled backwards. Trixie was standing beside Coco now, her horn’s aura blazing and her face a mask of concentration. “Clear the entrance,” Coldiron said, getting to her hooves, “Where are the others?” Even as she spoke her horn was glowing intensely and a freezing cold blast of icy air flew out in a cone shape into the darkness, catching a few Lurkers and causing them to hiss in pain and fall back, but many more were skittering closer now, recovering from Trixie’s fireworks. Coco quickly reloaded, the actions becoming more and more familiar to her as she set the large bolt into the crossbow and worked the crank. She ducked her head as a strand of web shot over it. She saw that the Lurkers were not mindlessly charging them now, but organizing. A line of them were forming a barrier in front of others who had turned around to expose their backsides where their spinnerets could form strands of web that now rained down on the Legion mare’s positions. Trixie and Coldiron formed a barrier, the webbing bouncing off the magical dome the two mares created. When Coldiron glanced at Coco to see the mare was locked and loaded she created a hole in the barrier for Coco to fire, sending the bolt flying into the Lurkers’ ranks, spearing another of the spidery creatures and all but pinning it to the ground. “They’re following,” said Trixie in answer to Coldiron’s question, “But Trixie heard the sounds of fighting at the rear. Blossomforth must be dealing with more of these things behind us.” Coco chanced a glance behind her down the tunnel they’d come from. The only ponies she saw were about ten Arrow Vale ponies who were closets to the head of the group when Coldiron had been grabbed. They now piled into the chamber behind the barrier Trixie and Coldiron were forming, all brandishing their weapons. One of them, a wide-eyed earth pony mare with a black coat and braided cornflower yellow mane said, “They’re behind us too, but the others are holding them back for now!” Coldiron nodded, “Those with spears form up in front of us. Anypony with a crossbow get ready, we’ll lower the shield and you fire a volley, then we charge.” “Charge?” Trixie grit her teeth as she spoke, her magic flickering. Coco worried the mare’s magic might be failing but Trixie, sweat trickling off her chin, doggedly kept her magic going to support the shield as she said, “We don’t even know how many there are out there!” That much was true. The shield was actually casting some magical glow into the room, illuminating much of it, but the Lurkers seemed to blend into their dark environment, their chitin acting as natural camouflage in the shadows and their movements so fast and erratic it was hard to get an accurate count of them. For a second Coco almost agreed with Trixie that charging in might be a bad idea, but then she spotted something at the back of the chamber that changed her mind instantly just as Coldiron responded. “We’re charging because it’s the only chance those ponies have!” the Legion mare shouted. At the back of the large dome-like chamber were a series of forms seemingly stacked up like sacks of potatoes. Most of them were white with the thick webbing that wrapped them up like they were tucked into blankets, but it was clear that there were scores of ponies here, stacked along the wall. Coco sadly realized that while there were probably at least a hundred ponies there, it didn’t account for the full number of ponies that would have been abducted from the town. She saw there were several other tunnel exits towards that end of the chamber and that the Lurkers were formed up in the middle of the room between them and those exits. Even in the middle of the fight Coco could see a few Lurkers still working to grab and haul the captured ponies down those tunnels. Every second was putting another innocent life out of their reach to save! “She’s right, we have to hit them hard, now!” Coco all but growled, shocked at the way the anger rose in her so quickly and potently, but not fighting it, letting the raw heat rise in her chest and fuel her limbs as she began to all but snort steam. Trixie for a second looked almost frantic, but Coco saw the unicorn gulp and nod her head, visibly taking control of herself, “T-then let’s do it fast! Before more of these things show up!” Coco reloaded her crossbow quickly and braced herself. The Arrow Vale ponies readied spears and scuffed the ground with their hooves, snorting and growling in ways that Coco could only imagine was to psyche themselves up for the charge. The ones who had crossbows aimed. Meanwhile the Lurkers had ceased firing webbing at the shield and instead had started to move, some of them splitting off with great speed to begin climbing up the walls, while the ones that remained in the middle formed a tight circle. Those Lurkers began to spin their webs, their legs moving in flickering, spastic patterns. Coco didn’t know what they were doing but at that moment Coldiron lowered the shield and shouted, “Fire!” Crossbow strings twanged and they were joined by the magical snaps and crackles of magic as both Coldiron and Trixie sent spells towards the Lurkers; a spear of ice from Coldiron and a thin magical beam from Trixie. It was thin Coco realized what the Lurkers had been doing, as their webbing formed thick, circular shields to catch crossbow bolts, and one of the Lurkers formed another one of those strange looking runes which glowed green as it absorbed the beam from Trixie. Coco heard Trixie let out a very unlady-like curse at that. It didn’t seem like any of the crossbow shots besides her heavy bolt did any damage and Coco could tell even her ursan killing bolt lost a lot of momentum trying to punch through the web shield, though it still hit the Lurker behind and caused it to hiss in pain. Coldiron, undeterred, made a motion with her foreleg, the signal to charge. As one the ponies broke into a charge, their hooves pounding the ground. Coco had drawn her short sword, holding the grip in her mouth. Up ahead the Lurkers reacted fast, turning to start firing webs. The one whose rune had absorbed Trixie’s spell shaped another rune, this one almost looking like a six pointed star. There was no flash of light or fire like last time, instead there was barely a shimmer of green light in the air and suddenly one of the charging Arrow Vale mares next to Coco fell to the ground, screaming in raw agony. Coco almost stopped to see if she could help, but she knew if she lost her momentum then she’d put the entire charge in jeopardy. One thing the instructors had drilled in the days of training she’d had back in the Heartland, and further at Beartrap Fortress, was that if you charge, don’t stop. Raw momentum was among ponykind’s greatest strength when on the attack in warfare. An earth pony charge could devastate an enemy formation, at least that’s what Coco had been told. So, no stopping for wounded allies. It was better to carry on and defeat the enemy. It bothered her, but the rage was still boiling inside her and she just wanted to make these creatures pay for all they’d done! Web shot in from all sides, not just from the Lurkers they were charging, but from the ones that had gone to the walls. Luckily the charge was fast enough that the Lurkers didn’t aim that well and Coco couldn’t even tell if anypony got hit. She heard a yelp or two, but she didn’t have time to look as they hit the Lurkers in the middle. Coco kept her sword thrust forward and bowled straight into the first Lurker. It was shockingly light and it cried out, a piercing shriek, as Coco’s sword dug into it and she carried it bodily along. The lightness of the Lurker caught Coco so off guard she ended up tripping and rolling, taking the Lurker with her and rolling over it as they tumbled. She felt its cold, clammy chitin on her hide, and to her disgust it was covered in many little hairy barbs, not sharp enough to hurt, but enough to make it feel like every inch of the Lurker was clinging to her. It’s legs scrabbled and scratched at her, but all that did was add to Coco’s fury as she began to punch with her hooves and work her neck in a constant stabbing motion. She felt chitin resist for a second, then break under her hooves, and her blade sank in with loud cracks with each stab. In seconds she was covered in thick, viscous Lurker blood and the smell and feel made her gag and almost throw up as she rolled away from the Lurker and got to her hooves. The Lurker was dead and around her was a confused, shifting melee. Coco saw one stallion on his back, a Lurker rearing up and down on him, jabbing the stallion in the chest with its fangs over and over as the stallion shuddered and foamed at the mouth, his eyes wide and already glazed. Coco heard spells going off and might have seen Trixie out of the corner of her eye dodging a Lurker, blasting it with a magical beam, but that was all Coco could take in of the fight as her eyes narrowed and she zeroed in on the Lurker that’d just killed the Arrow Vale stallion. With a wordless cry, pure red tinting her vision, she charged. ---------- Trixie leapt back, feeling the rush of air as the Lurker went past her, its fangs narrowly missing her. Her heart was hammering away in her chest and she could barely breathe, but Trixie wasn’t paying attention to the way her body was screaming at her about the physical exertion and instead was focused solely on pushing as much magic through her horn as she could. The violet glow of her magic encased one of the Lurker’s legs as it was still trying to turn around and Trixie yanked with that magical grip, forcing the Lurker to stumble. However the monster recovered fast, spinning a rune with its free legs in a mere eye-blink. Trixie watched as once more her own magic seemed to get absorbed into that rune, and this time she watched carefully. This had been her plan, to make this creature pull this trick again so she could see just what it was doing. She narrowed her eyes as she saw the glow of her magic enter the web-spun rune, and then seem to hold there. The Lurker began to weave anther rune and Trixie was almost too caught up in taking the sight in to actually dodge when the magic transferred from the first rune to the new one and from that rune a small jet of green fire erupted. Trixie cried out as she felt the heat burn her flank, causing intense, scorching pain to rush up her spine, but she pushed through that pain and faced her opponent once more. Grim faced Trixie sent a magical beam towards the Lurker, and once more that rune was woven with blinding speed, absorbing the beam… but at the same instant Trixie used her magic to whip out her dagger and send it flying at the same rune. The dagger severed the webbing and the Lurker cried out in a shocked hiss as the magical energy the rune had absorbed dissipated instantly. The Lurker seemed so taken off guard that it didn’t respond fast enough when Trixie sent her second magic beam blasting into its face. The Lurker hissed but didn’t go down, but to Trixie’s surprise instead of resuming its attack on her it retreated running back towards one of the tunnel exits. “Why you! Get back here you magic stealing freak of nature! Trixie isn’t through with you-GAH!” As she had begun to give chase she felt something hit her back and suddenly she was yanked into the air. Despite the sudden disorientation she managed to turn her head and see that one of the Lurkers had gone to the ceiling and managed to snag her with a web, which it was now rapidly pulling up towards it, dragging along a very irate magician! Trixie could see the Lurker’s fangs twitch, as if in anticipation, and its glittering eyes lock onto hers. Like what had happened back in Arrow Vale’s town hall when Trixie looked into the Lurker’s eyes it froze her up. Those eight alien orbs, somehow blacker than the shadows around them, filled her with an ice cold fear, as if every one of her muscles had turned to frost. She dully heard shouts beneath her, one of them possibly being her name. She couldn’t pay attention to anything, though. Nothing except those eyes as she was drawn further and further closer to poison coated fangs. ---------- The Lurker in front of her finally curled up and died as ice coated its body, Coldiron keeping up the blast of sub-zero cold just a second longer to make sure her opponent wasn’t getting back up. Glancing around she saw the Arrow Vale ponies were making a good account of themselves. One or two were dead, but the rest remained standing, and from the number of Lurker corpses laying on their sides or backs it was clear that while these things were deadly in an ambush situation in a stand-up fight it was the ponies that held the greater advantage. The Lurkers were fast, she’d give them that, and their poison was deadly, but the spidery beasts weren't that physically strong and their bodies were remarkably fragile once one landed a solid blow on them. Coldiron’s satisfaction was short lived as she caught sight of Trixie being pulled towards the ceiling by one of the Lurkers that had gone to the walls, and apparently had crawled to the ceiling to attack from above. “Trixie! Shoot it!” Coldiron shouted, but the Heartlander mare seemed paralyzed, her eyes so wide they appeared to be almost solid white. “Damn it all!” Coldiron growled, turning to aim her horn at the Lurker that was pulling Trixie towards it, but as she did so one of the ones that was still standing on the ground skittered away from its own opponent and made a charge right for her. She had to turn and send the spell she’d intended for helping Trixie for instead blasting the Lurker that was barreling towards her. The Lurker swiftly veered its course in an attempt to dodge, Coldiron’s magical bolt missing its main body, but still tearing off a few of the Lurker’s left side legs. Soon enough the Arrow Vale pony the spider had been fighting came rushing up to shove a spear squarely through the Lurker’s head cavity while it had still been trying to right itself. Breathing hard, Coldiron turned to see that Trixie was nearly to the fangs of the ceiling Lurker. With no time for a spell all Coldiron do was shout at the top of her lungs, “What’s that worthless cutie mark good for you damn Chosen, if you’re just going to die here!? Wake up!” ---------- The words cut right through the frozen lock that had clamped down on Trixie’s mind. Her cutie mare was not worthless! Her memory snapped for a second to the image of the smiling mare, and Trixie could remember the sterile smell of the hospital, so at odds with the natural, organic warmth that radiated from her mother’s smile. Her cutie mark… earned on that day… was everything to Trixie Lulamoon! She was less than a hoof’s length from the Lurker, the webbing pulling her up sticking to her legs and pinning two of them to her side, but she wrenched her neck to the side to point her horn towards the Lurker’s face, inches from its snapping fangs. Point blank fireworks exploded around her and the Lurker, flying every which way to fill the chamber with echoing blasts of sound and light. The Lurker was taken so aback that it lost its grip on the ceiling and both it and Trixie started to fall. Trixie felt an instant of pure vertigo until a white bolt of movement darted across her field of vision and suddenly she was caught between warm, strong hooves. “Ugh! You’re… heavy!” said Blossomforth as the pegasus mare flapped her wings to slow Trixie’s fall. The Lurker had already hit the ground with a wet splat. The web was still stuck to Trixie's back and side, coating two of her legs, but luckily there had been enough length in the web that when the spider had smacked into the ground there'd been sufficient slack to keep Blossomforth and Trixie from being yanked down. More than that Trixie could see that the other Lurkers that had been on the walls had fallen down as well, presumably from the result of her fireworks spell, and the Arrow Vale ponies along with Coldiron and Coco were rapidly dispatching the dazed spiders. Trixie actually winced slightly at the sight of Coco, absolutely covered from muzzle to tail in Lurker gore; body slammed so hard into one disoriented Lurker that she shoved it squarely into the wall and nearly cracked the thing in half in a splatter of blood. It was over by the time Blossomforth landed, setting Trixie down. Blossomforth grimaced in pain as her still sore leg twinged at her but she smiled the pain away as she quickly started to help Trixie get the webbing off her, which wasn’t easy as the stuff was ludicrously sticky and clung to her worse than the most potent super glue. Trixie flinched every time a clump of mane or fur got pulled off by the stuff, but soon she got her limbs free. Standing she nodded to Blossomforth with a wane smile, “Trixie thanks you for the timely save… again. Well timed rescues seem to be a habit of yours. Trixie approves of this. Especially the part where you didn't get horribly injured doing it.” “Recruit Blossomforth, report!” said Coldiron as she approached, still tense and ready for battle, “You’re meant to be our rearguard so why are you here?” Trixie tilted her head in confusion. Right, Blossomoforth had been fighting behind them, hadn’t she? Not that Trixie was complaining. She’d be a stain on the ground alongside that Lurker if Blossomforth hadn’t shown up. Trixie did notice that not only Blossomforth but the other Arrow Vale ponies that had been with her had come as well. Most of them, at any rate. She could see that three had lost their lives here in this nasty hole in the ground, and that another three or four looked pretty wounded. There were also about two or three missing from Blossomforth’s group. The white pegasus looked both embarrassed and solemn, but stood her ground as she saluted to Coldiron, “Corporal, we held the rear and managed to kick the bulbous butts of all the things that came at us. There weren't that many. We… lost a few of our own. But once the back tunnel was clear and we still heard fighting here I decided it best to come help. Sorry if that is against orders…” Coldiron’s hardened expression only briefly softened as she glanced around the room, “So be it. You had the place to make the judgment call. Seems to have worked out. Now lets get these ponies free before more of these bastards show up.” Guards were set at the tunnel exits as the rest of them went to work on the wrapped up ponies. It was a grisly affair. Trixie felt her heart sinking as they pulled webbing away from the ponies stacked up along the walls. Only about every other pony they pulled from the webs was still breathing, the others dead either from poison, or from other wounds that the Lurker’s certainly hadn’t bothered to treat. The ponies that were alive were disoriented and took some minutes to wake up, and when they did they were skittish to say the least. Many saw where they were and the state of their friends and openly wept, while others just looked shell shocked. Regardless Coldiron quickly organized the survivors into a group, flanked by the armed ponyfolk. Despite the unpleasantness of how many were dead Trixie couldn’t deny a small sense of satisfaction that they were rescuing anypony at all. There were still easily fifty or so survivors, which was far better than none in her book. “Alright, just like we came in, we move quick and quiet,” said Coldiron at the head of the newly formed group. However just as she took her first step to lead the group away there was a horrible noise that echoed through the chamber. It made Trixie’s hairs and mane stand on end. It was a Lurker’s hiss, but unlike others she’d heard this one was somehow deeper, louder, and vibrated in her spine with a menacing resonance. All heads turned to one of the tunnel exits that had led further into the dark. From there a Lurker emerged, or what Trixie could only imagine was supposed to be a Lurker but was certainly nothing like the others they’d seen so far. Where the other Lurkers had thin, spindly legs, and bulbous bodies, this Lurker’s legs were huge, thick and covered in rusty red fur. Its body was stouter, thicker, and less bulbous, and radiated strength. Its face was no less hideously alien than the other Lurkers, but where they had small sharp fangs, this one’s fangs were the size of swords between massive mandibles. It was easily twice the size of the other Lurkers, and Trixie couldn’t help but think that it looked like a giant, red Tarantula. The tips of its legs were covered in strange, sharp gauntlets; the first manufactured items Trixie had seen the Lurker’s use. The gantlets were tipped in thick metal claws that dug thick grooves in the dirt, and Trixie imagined she was seeing the kind of Lurker that had dug these tunnels in the first place. The huge Lurker only looked at the gathered ponies in front of it for a moment before issuing forth another hiss that was so loud it was almost a roar. It reared up, raising its front four legs, along with its massive gauntlet claws, and charged.