Scarlet Rose
Scarlet Rose lounged back on the bed, reading over the latest reports. Over by the table, her brood sister, Orchid Wings, was writing out orders; all at the express orders of the Consort. It meant that failure would not be tolerated, or forgiven.
"Are you done yet?" She asked, looking over to Orchid Wings.
Orchid turned, still in the form of General Stonewall, "Almost. Honestly, I don't know why ponies need all this paper."
"Well, they can't communicate vast orders like the Hive can." Rose said.
Orchid smirked, "True. It is perhaps the reason why we could so easily manipulate their forces."
Scarlet chuckled, "Yes. I must say, that was rather genius of you, managing to convince their Princess to allow a mass teleportation. It will make ridding them of their magic advantage all the easier when the Consort arrives soon."
Orchid smiled, "Well, I had some help. Our sisters amongst the mages was a big help."
"True, but those vanguard scouts was a rather smooth move. Fewer cavalry to deal with." Rose said.
"Oh stop, you are making me blush." Orchid said.
Scarlet smirked and lounged back, flicking up her tail, "Why don't you come over here, and I can try to do more then that."
Orchid laughed, "You are insatiable. I can see why you made it into the Infiltrator brood so easily."
"It helps to have a health appetitie." Rose said, smiling as Orchid began to approach.
Soon, soon it would all come to fruition. She might as well relax now. After all...
...The Consort would soon be here.
Valen
Valen fell back as a pony swung a heavy hammer at him. His rough leather hide shield only just barely brought up to take the brunt of the blow. It did little good, as he was lifted off his feet and he felt the bone crack. Pain however was a vague numb sensation, as the feel of battle took central focus.
Around him, hunters fought with all they were worth, as ponies from the sky swooped down on them. On the ground, ponies fought them with spear or blade, though a few held huge hammers. Most worked to avoid those ponies, preferring to use their bows on the heavy hitters.
Within the center of the conflict stood the Fire Man. Though he held no weapon, Valen knew that it was he who had sent the ponies animals into a frenzy and thus threw their riders. But Valen could tell the Fire Man was barely standing, even as he worked his arms to use whatever magic he could use, causing snow to pile onto ponies or for the wind to blow viciously upon the fliers; sending them into the ground.
Valen was worried however, as he was sure that the Fire Man was in no condition for such a battle. They had to get him out of here.
But the sight of the ponies hammer swinging for his head, one which he barely managed to avoid, made it impossible to worry about that right now.
Valen swung his blade at the pony, but all he struck was the armor. The pony didn't stop, and came at him again with his hammer. Valen rolled away, hearing the hammer strike the ground. He leapt to his feet, but a misplaced step in the snow caused him to slip and fall onto the snow with a grunt.
"Valen!" Someone shouted.
Valen looked on with fear as the pony then stood over him, hammer raised to crush it down upon his skull. But before the hammer came down, an number of arrows pierced through gaps of the ponies armor near the shoulder, neck and side and the pony screamed as its hammer fell, but slightly off center. It was enough for Valen to roll to the side to avoid the blow, then roll back to square himself with the pony and leap to his feet, his blade out as he tackled the pony to the ground.
The pony grunted as the fell, but Valen merely began to stab with his knife. He stabbed at gapes in the armor, twisting the blade each time before pulling out. He kept it up, till the pony lay still.
Valen breathed heavily as he sat upon the ponies still body. A scream turned him toward a pony, a female, who rushed him now. The look in her eyes was one of murder, as she charged him with two sharp blades. But the female pony didn't get far as one of the hunters struck her across the head with his own hammer. The pony went forward, and into the ground.
She did not get back up.
Valen didn't focus long on this however, as he got back to his feet and grabbed up his spear from the ground. The fight, was still going on.
The battle finally was over, though it came at a cost. Ponies and hunters all lay upon the ground, some dead. Others dying or injured. But they had won, and a few hunters who were not aiding the wounded up, were moving amongst the ponies, taking weapons or tail hair.
"Gather up the wounded. We're leaving." The Fire Man said, helping a hunter to his feet. The hunter's leg hung at an odd angle that Valen was sure was not normal.
"But what of the ponies? Some still live." Krul said.
"Leave them." The Fire Man said, giving them all a hard look.
Valen didn't like the look Krul got at those words, or from the other hunters of Krul's tribe. But they all nodded, and began to move toward a tear that the Fire Man made.
Valen went to follow, but stopped as he caught a glint of something on the ground. He stopped, curious, and saw that the glint was coming from the pony he had killed. The one with the hammer.
Or perhaps it was the amulet that lay around his neck and on the ground. Valen looked at the amulet curiously, it was not like the Fire Man's amulet. It wasn't bright and glittering, it looked more like a dull brown metal. Also it was not a tree at the end of the chain, but a simple oval, an oval that was open slightly in the snow.
Valen reached down toward the amulet, and lifted it up to look at what was inside. He gasped, and felt his body go cold as he looked at the contents of the strange pony amulet.
"Valen! Now!" The Fire Man called. Valen ignored him, staring at the amulet he held. His hand began to shake.
"Valen! Valen!" Finally Valen turned his head, and saw the Fire Man standing over him. He looked pale and tired, and angry.
"I gave you an order, what are you-.....oh my god." The Fire Man said, his voice going from hard to soft and horrified in seconds.
"God. Oh god." The Fire Man said again as he knelt down and took the amulet from Valen's hand.
The contents of the amulet were very odd to Valen. One looked like the images of two pony females. But the other half of the oval had an image of a pony he knew. A pony with purple hair and orange coat.
An image of Scootaloo, holding the pony whom he had killed.
'What have I done?' Valen thought, as he looked at the body of the pony.
Valen and the Fire Man stood before a pile of snow that the Fire Man had placed over the body of the pony. Valen clenched the pony's amulet in his hand, as he stared at the mound. He and the Fire Man had stood there silent for what seemed like forever, but in truth it had only been a few minutes.
Finally, the Fire Man spoke.
"Speak nothing of this. Don't show that amulet to Scootaloo. Do you understand." The Fire Man said.
Valen looked at the Fire Man in shock, "What? But....but....she...I...shouldn't she know?"
The Fire Man turned on him with a look of pure anger, that Valen stepped back in fear as the Fire Man spoke at him.
"No! She doesn't! Now do as I said!" The Fire Man yelled, and began breathing heavily, biting his lip till it bled.
"But Fire Man..." Valen started, but the Fire Man cut him off.
"No buts! I am in command! I am in control! I always in control!" The Fire Man yelled, "I am commanding you to be silent, so be silent."
The Fire Man brought a hand to his head, as he stumbled a bit. Despite his fear, Valen got ready to catch him if he fell. But the Fire Man straightened and shook his head.
"Do as I said..." The Fire Man said again, more calmly, "I....I...we will deal with this later...when...when I figure out how to go about it. Do you understand?"
Valen bit his lip, but he nodded, "I....understand."
The Fire Man nodded, "Good....now...hide that thing," he said, pointing at the pony amulet, "and come on....we need....I need to see the injured before I get the other hunters."
Valen watched as the Fire Man went through the tear, before following. But as the tear closed, he looked back to the mound of snow.
"I'm sorry." He said.
Luna
Luna readjusted her cloak as another blast of biting cold wind assaulted her. It felt as if things were only getting colder, but...that couldn't be true. It was probably just her imagination.
It had a lot of work to finally get the Equestrian Army back into Equestrian territory, but their marching was still not done. The human forces were widely scattered it seemed, but only in a single area of Equestria. The Bread Basket region.
It was this region where most of the food was grown in Equestria. True other communities had local farms and orchards, but they all paled in comparison to the vast fields, and pastures that resided in the Bread Basket of Equestria. The only thing besides fields was the extensive train tracks which crossed across the region, and to every corner of Equestria, in short making the region not only where all the food was both grown, stored and shipped, but also the main nexus hub in which all trains of Equestria had to pass through to get anywhere else in the kingdom.
So naturally, it was the most strategic place to hit if one wanted to destabilize the kingdom. Normally this was impossible, given its location at the center of Equestria. But Valhruan Magic threw impossible out the window. It was a bitter blow to Equestria, and Luna had to give Castus credit; he knew where to hit them.
'Even if we do defeat him, it could take months to fix the tracks and that will have a drastic effect to our economy.' She thought bitterly.
But that before that, they had to defeat Castus.
The main army was still some miles from the region of interest, but at the advise of her general Stonewall, Luna had sent nearly all their fliers, and a number of advance cavalry units to act as a vanguard. If they found any human units they would be the first to engage, and if they found any pony villages in need, to be the first responders. It made sense.
'Though the mass teleportation...I still question the wisdom.' Luna thought.
True, by using both her powers and the all the battle casters of the army, they had managed to cut their march by more then half. But it had meant that the magic units would operate at half strength, if any. Even with her added power, the spell had been tough on all of them. Even she felt a bit light headed.
Still, Castus was but one mage.
"Your majesty. A scout returns with a report." A soldier said, bowing before her.
Luna turned from her view of the horizon and looked at the soldier, "Bring them to me."
"At once your majesty." The soldier said and went to fetch the scout.
'Hopefully some good news.' Luna thought.
When the scout was brought to her, Luna saw he was Stonewalls Nephew. Path Finder if she remembered the reports, one of the armies best scout leaders.
"Scout Path Finder. Report." Luna said, giving him leave to speak.
The scout looked up from his bow, "Yes your majesty. As instructed I led my unit of fliers out to scan the area for any signs of aid needed or human movements. During our patrol, spotted what looked like a battle. When we investigated, we saw that it had been one of the vanguard units, and a small number of Pegasus scouts. They had apparently made contact with a human band, as we found a number of their dead amongst our own."
Luna bit her lip, 'More lives lost.'
"Continue." Luna said.
Path Finder nodded, "We checked the bodies for survivors. We managed to find a few, and I had my units take them back to the main force here for recovery. But myself and a few of my scouts spotted something else...in the distance."
"What did you see?" Luna asked.
Path Finder looked at the ground, then back at her, biting his lip before saying, "It was a town...it was....it is gone....and....well...you should see for yourself."
Luna blinked, and felt a cold feeling in her heart. But she nodded and flew off with Path Finder and her guards. They followed the scout for a distance of several leagues, and Luna saw as they approached the smoldering ruins of a small town. The scent of freshly burnt wood still lingered and assaulted her nose as she landed.
"Animals!" One of her guards spat.
"This isn't the worse of it. We looked for injured or dead, but we couldn't find any in the town." Path Finder said.
"Then they are prisoners?" Luna said.
Path Finder was silent, and he shook his head, "No....we didn't find them in the town....but....when we expanded our search outside....well...follow me."
Pathfinder began walking off toward an area outside of town, and as they reached the top of a small hill, Luna caught sight of a lone great tree standing in the distance. Though the tree seemed overly bulky and its limbs were splayed out in ways that did not look healthy. As they got closer, Luna could see why the tree looked odd.
Those limbs...had not been tree limbs.
"By all that is holy..." Luna breathed, falling to her knees as she stared up in horror at the sight before her.
"Faust." One of the guards said.
Another turned and retched, and Luna herself felt ready to sick up.
The tree before them had looked odd and bulky....because the entire population of the town lay nailed and impaled upon its branches. The bodies covered the tree from the trunk, to the very highest branch.