Shining Armor led the company southwest, single file as he contemplated the improvised team he had gathered. If he thought for one moment, that he could have convinced Twilight to stay in Ponyville he would have tried. But he knew that once she heard Cadance was in danger, and he intended to join her, nothing in Equestria could convince Twilight to let him face the danger alone, and letting her come in an official sense would be much safer than for her to try tracking him from a distance. Shining Armor would never forgive himself if he let something happen to her, but he couldn't help feeling some selfish comfort to have her there.
He needed a lieutenant for the second squad, and she was the only pony there that he knew or trusted. She was smart, a competent spell caster, and her maturity of being honest about Spike's capabilities had sealed the decision in Shining Armor's mind. (Taking Spike, or anyone who wasn't ready into the forest, could very well have meant a death sentence for everyone on the mission; one coward would act like a beacon that would attract terrormongers, setting the company up to be ambushed, and then feed the terrormongers throughout the battle, enabling them to defeat the rest of the party.)
Pyromite was also a welcome companion; Shining Armor had dealt with phoenixes before and although sometimes unstable and prone to 'friendly fire' they made stalwart companions who would stick with you to the very end. Twilight had told him that Pyromite was just over a year old, meaning he was probably about half way through the phoenix equivalent to puberty. This meant Pyromite would sleep most of the day, eat ravenously, and spend his brief waking hours as a raging inferno. So long as he could direct that energy into fighting terrormongers and changelings, half the party might owe their lives to Pyromite by the end of the mission.
As for the others Shining Armor wasn't sure what to make of them, and had accepted them almost solely on Twilight's recommendation. The farmer seemed a competent enough fighter in her own element, but out here there was every chance she would crumble. The rainbow pegasus was the one who worried him though; she obviously knew Storm, her... disturbingly understandable misconception that Storm and Twilight were lovers had nearly driven her insane with jealousy, but from what Shining Armor had heard, Storm almost never left the forest. It was true that most Rangers rotated between the forest and a normal life; and many of them had marefriends who didn't know their true identities, yet somehow that didn't seem like Storm.
If this mare was attached to Storm, she was probably very capable but bordered on being psychotic; from what he had seem so far his guesses seemed accurate. She wasn’t really the kind of friend he had hoped for Twilight, but Twilight knew her better than he did and she had vouched for her, Shining Armor owed it to Twilight to give her the benefit of the doubt. As for the other Wonderbolts; Shining Armor knew almost nothing about them. So far they didn't seem like warrior material, but Rainbow Dash had insisted they were up for the mission. Given the circumstances, he had little choice but to take her word for it.
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Twilight cantered through the woods, Shining Armor's parting words lingering in her mind: 'Stay together, keep quiet, move fast. I should be waiting for you at the rendezvous point. If I'm not, wait three hours. If I'm still not there it means I won't be coming, in which case you head straight back to Ponyville and tell Princess Celestia what's happened. DO NOT come looking for me, DO NOT try and rescue Storm and Cadance by yourself. Most importantly, don't trust anything you see. Cast the revealment spell on anything that tries to come near you; that includes myself, my team and any of your team that you lose sight of for even a few moments. Good luck.'
Twilight had graduated top of her class in navigation at Celestia's School for gifted unicorns, and so pacing off the miles towards the rendezvous point was almost too easy, (if not fun). Applejack kept close and comforting and the Wonderbolts, well... they weren’t really what Twilight expected, but Dash vouched for them and Twilight wasn't about to question Dash's expert opinion because of a bad feeling.
Twilight remembered what Pinkie had taught her during the extremely brief 'eternal night' brought about by Nightmare Moon. There had been some scary looking trees, but all Pinkie had to do was laugh at them and they would vanish in puffs of smoke. The trees were just illusions; they couldn't hurt you, and could only scare you if you let them, that sounded a lot like what the terrormongers did. Shining Armor had taught her a whole range of spells to dispel an illusion or to kill a real enemy, but Twilight didn't want to kill anything unless she had to. Shining Armor wasn't the sort who would think of using laughter to destroy an enemy so maybe he had never tried it. Twilight decided that if she did run into trouble, she would use laughter as her first line of defense.
After passing over a brief rock plain (precisely on schedule), Twilight saw a heavily wooded hill a short distance off. “That's the rendezvous point, at the top of the hill” she announced, pleased that the first leg of their journey had gone so smoothly. Uninhibited by the dense foliage, the Wonderbolts took off ahead, leaving the two earthbound ponies to struggle on behind, but as they reached the crest of the hill, cries of dismay echoed down through the dense branches. Twilight teleported herself and Applejack the last few hundred yards to the top of the hill, and then stopped cold. Shining Armor, Rainbow Dash, and the rest of the Wonderbolts had reached the rendezvous point before them. They were all waiting for them around a great oak tree at the top of the hill...
On the tree....
Impaled to the tree.
Shining Armor was closest to the ground, stripped of his armor, his neck bent at an unnatural angle, eye's clawed out of their bloody sockets, cheeks stolen, revealing a jagged line of broken teeth and a tongue that had nearly been cut through and was hanging only by a thread of flesh. Rainbow Dash hung above him, wings and forelimbs torn off and lying around the base of tree, skin shredded on most of her torso revealing a mangled rib cage that was dripping offal. The Wonderbolt Twilight recognized as Blaze still had her hooves clasped around a spike that had been driven through her chest, as though she had been impaled alive and died trying to free herself. The other Wonderbolts that had gone with Shining Armor were all arranged in similarly gruesome displays, but no two alike; some headless, others limbless, while others seemed to have extra body parts that had been attached with wooden stakes. The faces of the corpses showed one thing in common; they had all died in extreme pain.
Twilight had to fight just to stay standing, and felt her organs churn inside of her as though they were trying to get out. She knew that Shining Armor was a far stronger worrier then she would ever be, and Rainbow Dash would probably have been better in a fight then Applejack. The wounds were still fresh and the blood hadn't even clotted yet in most cases meaning these ponies had only been dead for a matter of minutes. Whoever had done this was close by, and if they came back would do to her and her team what they had done to Shining Armor's. There was nothing more they could do; they needed to get out of there now!
Twilight was about to order a retreat, when AJ ran past her and hurled one of Zecora's jars into the middle of the tree. The jar exploded, releasing a cloud of mist which quickly rolled over the stakes and bodies which vanished upon impact with the mist, divulging a perfectly ordinary oak tree. “Didn't ya hear what Shining Armor said bout them terrormonger's?” yelled Applejack, “Don't trust anythen you see!”
Twilight forced her rational mind to take over. If there were illusions, it meant terrormongers were nearby. “Get ready!” she called, “We're about to be attacked!” The Wonderbolts who had dropped to the ground after seeing the carnage were all back in the air within seconds, but instead of taking an attack formation like Twilight expected, they took off the way they had come at an astonishing speed, leaving Twilight, Pyromite and AJ alone.
Where were they going!? They were Dash's team, and Dash was the element of loyalty, surely they wouldn't just run like that. Realizing that the Wonderbolts must still be there and the terrormonger had only made an illusion of them running away to make her feel alone and afraid; Twilight began casting the revealment spell around the hill, hoping to find the real Wonderbolts before the attack came.
Three spells later, Twilight still hadn't found her missing allies, but had run out of time to look; scores of giant white bats were pouring down from the upper branches of the tree that had borne the illusion of death, filling the air with a chorus of starving, rabid shrieks. Twilight directed her next revealment spell on a large swath of the ravenous creatures and all but two disappeared. One fire blast shot through the center of the first bat, sending its charcoal corpse smoking to the ground. The other bat dodged her next blast, but bounced off Twilight's shield before fleeing, pursued vehemently by Pyromite, who was bellowing his delight that ‘something interesting was finally happening’.
Behind her, Twilight could hear Applejack's lasso whistling through the air, as the palomino cussed at the 'little varmin' trying to bite her. There was a smack, and one bat flew through the air and crashed into a tree. The remaining bats scattered when Pyromite bowled himself into the middle of them, matching their blood curdling shrieks with his own. Shadow's bigger than bats began zooming over her head, andTwilight looked up in time to see the missing Wonderbolts return to the battlefield, pursued hotly by a brigade of headless griffins. They flew over the mares in an effort to escape, only to be met by more headless griffins coming from the opposite direction. Trapped in a pincer movement, the Wonderbolts scattered and fell to individual evasion maneuvers, each trying to save themselves.
Shining Armor had said nothing about undead in the forest meaning the headless pegasi must obviously be fakes. Dash should have told them enough to understand that but they seemed totally lost as to what was happening. The headless griffins were too high up for Twilight to cast the revealment spell on them, so she tried calling out for the Wonderbolts not to worry, but her voice was drowned out by the deafening roar of a pack of manticores that was racing up the hill.
“Here they come!” called Applejack as more manticores came into view, filling her vision left and right, foaming at the mouths. The manticores were too big to cast revealment on more than one at a time, and Twilight only had time to dispel one illusion before she and AJ were surrounded by at least a dozen foes. Twilight used a double teleport to get her and Applejack outside the ring, seconds before the manticores leapt as one where the two mares had been. AJ whirled out two more of Zecora's jars into the raging mass of fur and claws, dissipating all but three of the creatures.
The chase in the air seemed to have gotten lower and one of the Wonderbolts flew towards the earthbound mares, but was intercepted by Pyromite, clothed in flame as he tore at the Wonderbolt mercilessly with his beak and talons. Twilight watched in horror as her pet murdered one of Rainbow Dash's friends, and then confusion as beneath the blue and gold uniform appeared the black scales of a changeling. With a horrific wrench, Pyromite tore out the heart of the pegasus, at which the uniform transformed into scales and the feathered wings of the creature turned insectile.
Holding his dead enemy in his talons, Pyromite swooped and used the dead changeling to clobber one of the manticores who was about to pounce on Twilight. The manticore took the blow to the face, but barely faltered. A claw shot out for the flaming bird only to seize thin air. Pyromite popped out from behind the manticore's head, and with a flourish, set the manticore's mane on fire before biting off its left ear. The manticore howled in pain and tried to jab Pyromite with its tail, but again Pyromite vanished and the manticore's stinger pierced its own heart.
By this time the other two manticores had reached the mares, one lunging for each of them. AJ let loose with her lasso, tying her manticore's forelegs together to trip it up and then throwing another loop around the monster's throat. Twilight, acting on reflex, projected a small shield around herself. The manticore bounced off her hasty defense, which shattered from the impact, before a telekinetic kick sent it rolling down the hill, unhurt but temporarily out of the battle.
Momentarily free, Twilight looked up to see that the aerial battle, (if you could call it that), hadn't changed much. The Wonderbolts still flew in mad circles trying to escape the headless pegasi, but never made it far before being herded back into the centre by more of the phantom menaces. Strangely, none of the Wonderbolts seemed to be hurt, and no corpses had fallen down. An ear piercing roar sounded right beside her. She turned in time to see a manticore diving at her. She froze. But when it was only inches from her face, she heard the sound of a revealment spell and the manticore vanished before her eyes. With the manticore gone, Twilight saw Shining Armor, galloping up the hill. As he got half way however his eyes focused something behind her; “Duck!” he ordered.
Without thought, Twilight obeyed only to be pummeled an instant later by what seemed to be a Wonderbolt hitting her from the side. The thing latched onto her, jabbing her with its hooves and trying to bite her face. Keeping the thing at bay with her horn, Twilight swiveled to allow Shining Armor to knock it off, but instead 'Shining Armor' only lunged towards her, fangs bared as he kicked her ribs before trying to bite her neck and coming up with a clump of mane. Twilight writhed frantically, trying to shake her attackers off and then felt them both yanked behind her. Jumping to her hooves, Twilight swiveled to see AJ, pulled impossibly between two lassos; one from her mouth holding a struggling manticore, and one from her tail, wrapped around the 'Wonderbolt' and 'Shining Armor' who had been trying to kill her. A revealment spell made them both look like changelings. A fireball spell made them both look extra crispy.
…........................................................................................................................................................
Applejack felt a heat wave behind her and then the tension on her rope snapped. The broken end of her lasso flung forwards, reached the end of its length somewhere above the manticore she was holding and gave off a fiery 'CRACK!' as it shot off a dozen sparks. Her lasso had become a flaming whip! Now that was useful!
With Twilight alright, AJ turned her attention back to wrestlen her manticore, cracking her flame whip repeatedly above it to make sure it thought twice about liften its head. She had almost succeeded in getting her remaining lasso good and tight around its neck when her whip coiled around the tail of the manticore, which pulled back, lifting Applejack up several feet off the ground. Applejack felt like her tail was getting torn off and had just barely managed to squeeze out of her own knot and drop to the ground, tail intact, when above the din of battle she clearly heard one wail.
On the other side of the glade she saw Apple Bloom white with fear, running for her life from a ravenous manticore ten times her size! Dropping the rope that held her manticore, Applejack galloped across the glade, “APPLE BLOOOOM!!!” Apple Bloom's head swung towards Applejack, eyes full of fear, and then tripped over a rock landing flat on her belly. The manticore pounced on Apple Bloom, but as it dove, so did Applejack, who reached Apple Bloom an instant before it did, hooves outstretched to push her little sister out of the way. The filly seemed to vanish into thin air as Applejack's hooves touched her; Applejack's hooves clasped at thin air for a moment and then screamed in agony as the manticore's claws found her neck.