Civil War of Harmony

by SC_Orion

Chapter 14

"Target's secured." A calm, collected voice called out as he tightened the ropes around Rainbow's wings. The white pegasus stallion rose to his hooves, then checked his saddlebags to make sure they were secured.

I nodded, "Good." I turned towards my lieutenant, the unicorn already held a quill in her magic and was writing on a scroll. She finished a second later and looked to me for approval. "Send it." I commanded. She squint her eyes, and the aura around her horn grew bright violet, then in a flash of white light, the scroll had been sent.

I heard a rustle coming from the bush behind me. I turned on my rear hooves to face the bushes, expecting a hostile combatant to jump out at me. I tilted my head up to regard the tallest timberwolf I had ever seen. He was easily twice as tall as I was. 'How did that thing sneak up on us?' I took a step back, and lowered my head, aiming my horn at the monstrosity.

"S-" The voice cut off in shock. For a few seconds, the only sound the permeated the air was the low growl of the timberwolf.

The wolf looked down towards me, then lowered it's head to my level. I stood absolutely still as it sniffed me. I didn't even breathe. I studied the creature's face for any signs of imminent attack, then our eyes met.

I jumped back just in time to avoid the near lightning fast bite that would have taken my head clean off. My heart, having calmed down only a few minutes prior, was now beating rapidly once more. "Engage!" I shouted, pointing a hoof at the wolf. I lit my horn and teleported a few feet away, behind my lieutenant, who threw up a barrier around us and our package.

Just in the nick of time, too. Another timberwolf crashed into the barrier, it broke apart on impact, but the barrier had visible cracks in it. I channeled my magic into her, giving her more strength for the barrier, then swiveled my head around, taking in the threat. Three timberwolves, not including the one which had just shattered against the barrier.

And that one was starting to piece itself together again. 'Great...' I let out a frustrated sigh. I watched as Agent Black flew into a timberwolf, and bucked it in the throat, then fly away. The timberwolf grabbed his neck with a paw, gagging, then fell to pieces. "We need to move. Now." I firmly commanded.

I reached into my saddlebag with my magic, and grabbed a smokescreen bomb. I shot a quick glance to my lieutenant, she lowered the barrier right as I threw the bomb at the first timberwolf. The barrier snapped back with an audible crack, just mere moments before the bomb detonated, shrouding the path in smoke. Using my magic, I withdrew my infrared goggles from my saddlebags and placed them on my head, then lowered them over my eyes, and activated them. There was an audible, high pitched buzzing sound for a second as it came online.

The sound was closely followed by three more. I looked around in the smoke, the timberwolves, despite being made from wood, were easily visible due to the magic that made them living animals. Their heads were darting about in confusion. I smirked, and pulled out three vials of acid.

A glance at my lieutenant told her all she needed to know, and she lowered the barrier accordingly. One by one, I shot the vials of acid at the timberwolves' heads. Two of them landed, instantly sending the two wolves into howls of pain as the acid burned through their wooden heads. The third wolf's head had turned just before the vial impacted it, missing. 'Two down, two to go...'

I held up a hoof, and motioned my unit to focus on the closest remaining timberwolf. The two pegasi stealthily walked forwards, then positioned themselves to lash out with their back hooves. The two pegasi nodded at each other, and struck at the same time, shattering the wolf's two front legs. A quick succession of spells from me and my lieutenant finished it off.

The fourth timberwolf seemed to have sensed it's brethren having been felled, and took off into the underbrush. After a few seconds, I looked around once more. "Clear." I called out, maintaining my gaze forwards, never once losing focus.

"Clear." My lieutenant called out from behind me.

I inhaled deeply, and then exhaled. "Infrared off. And get this smoke out of here." I ordered.

My orders were answered by three synchronous acknowledgements of "Yes sir!"

"That delay cost us precious time, we need to get back to Canterlot A-S-A-P." I shook my head. Taking her down was surprisingly easy, she didn't even have armor or a flight suit. I found it odd, but chose not to look a gift pony in the mouth, seeing as though if the battle had been protracted, the timber wolves would have interrupted it...

'Don't look back, just run! Rainbow Dash is counting on me... She should have caught up with me by now... Oh... Rainbow please be safe...' I fought against my emotions of fear as I galloped as fast as I could towards Twilight's castle. She would help. She had to, Rainbow was in danger. Rainbow had said she would be right behind me... That was several minutes ago.

Something had happened to her... I fought against exhaustion and through hyperventilation as I neared the castle gate. My hooves felt weak, I wasn't used to running so hard or fast for such a distance... The only thing that came close was running to catch up with some of the animals I took care of... 'Oh Rainbow please be okay...'

My hoof landed hard, and awkwardly on a rock. I felt a pain in my hoof, and tumbled over onto the ground hard, rolling several times before coming to a stop. My body ached all over, but I had to get help... I slowly tried to stand, but putting pressure on my hoof only resulted in an unbearable amount of pain. I cried out and collapsed back to the ground. 'I can't even fight through the pain to save her...' I dejectedly thought. I felt a sob racket through my body, moisture filling my eyes.

Seconds passed as I softly sobbed into the ground. Eventually I heard rushed hoofsteps approaching me.

"Miss Fluttershy, are you alight?" the voice was deep, and filled with alarm and concern. Seconds passed, I felt a hoof touch my shoulder. It was cold and hard, but gentle. "She's injured. Get a medic and inform the Princess!" he firmly commanded.

I slowly tilted my head from the ground and looked at the stallion. One of the guards. "Ra-Rainbow! She's in-in trouble! Te-tell Twilight!" my voice came out panicked, but I saw a momentary grimace pass through his features.

The glow from my horn died down, having cast the spell. The pile of small crystals on the table before me were now being disassembled to their base components. The solid crystals of varying colors soon seemed to melt and turned into a cloud of dense gas enveloped in a magic aura, the only color discernible was the purple glow of my magic. In a few seconds, they would start to be re-assembled into a new crystal, one identical to the one I wore on my regalia.

I watched, mesmerized, as the cloud of atoms began to separate into two separate clouds, one was significantly larger than the other, almost as large as my head. The large cloud of waste material began to coalesce into a single mass of multiple crystals, shifting from one type of crystal to the next. I turned my attention to the smaller cloud, where the new crystal was beginning to grow. Slowly, a diamond shape formed out of the cloud, and grew until it was large enough, and then six points began to grow out of it, growing into a six pointed star.

A few seconds later, the crystal was fully formed, and gently lowered to the table. I reached out with my right hoof, and when the magic aura faded, the crystal fell into it. I withdrew my hoof, and examined the new crystal with my eyes. The crystal, now a near-perfect replica of the Element of Harmony, to the best of my knowledge, could store nearly limitless magic.

Which had led me to wonder if I could store spells inside the crystal. I narrowed my eyes and focused on a spell, one for projecting a barrier, and tried imagining the matrices in my mind. I was about to attempt to infuse the crystal with the spell when the sound of a pony clad in armor galloping through the hall reached my ears.

I stopped channeling magic, and turned to the door. A second later, the hoofsteps stopped, and there was the dull sound of metal beating on crystal. I glanced back at the gem in my hoof, and gently sat it down, then stood up and walked over to the door, opening it with my magic.

One of my guards stood at attention, breathing heavily. I felt my heart speed up.

"Princess! Miss Fluttershy has been injured, and she said to tell you that Captain Rainbow Dash is in trouble."

It took me less than a second to process the information, my heart skipped a beat. "What... What happened!?" 'I should have made her wear her armor...' I clenched my jaw tightly. 'Reports said the Everfree was getting more dangerous...'

"Miss Fluttershy tripped on a rock, that's how she got injured. As for the captain, we don't know yet. A patrol is being dispatched as we speak."

'Fluttershy tripped on a rock...' Under any other circumstances I would have been annoyed by that, however Rainbow took priority right now. "Good. Have them report directly to me once they find anything. How is Fluttershy doing?"

"She has been moved to the Ponyville General Hospital."

I nodded at him. "Good. If you need me, that's where I will be." I started walking passed him, I continued walking even as I spoke, "Dismissed."

"Yes Princess!"

I rounded the hallway corner and lit my horn, casting a teleportation spell. I came out of the teleport at the entrance to the hospital, not once pausing to stop walking. It was slightly disorientating, walking into a teleport, and exiting the teleport walking. I forced back rising bile in my stomach and continued on. It would pass, and it was good practice for if I had to do something like that in battle.

I pushed open the door with my magic, and walked into the hospital's admission room. It looked to have been a slow day, aside from a couple of soldiers, clad in purple armor, who stood guard at the doors. I scanned the room, and my eyes almost immediately fell upon the nurse's desk. I strode across the room and over to the desk, the nurse rose and bowed respectfully to me. I stopped her with a wave from my hoof, "No need for that. I'm here to see Fluttershy."

"Uh... Yes, of course, Princess." she fiddled with a clipboard for a few seconds, then continued, "She has a sprained hoof, and several minor lacerations on her body, but she is doing well. However the doctor wants to keep her overnight for observation." She walked out from behind the desk, "Please follow me, Princess."

I regarded the scene before me, clear evidence of a struggle, and corpses of three timber wolves. There was a short trail where a pony had obviously skidded across the ground, and several sets of hoofprints leading away from the scene. The air was tainted lightly by the smell of sulfur, and there were a few small shards of metal embedded in one of the timberwolf's legs. 'There was more than one pony here...'

"Hey Red, you should see this."

I glanced towards my wingpony, he held a single blue feather in his hoof. I moved closer to him and took the feather in my wing, and examined it more closely. The feather was bent, and the shaft had been broken. Several of the barbs were smeared with blood. I grimaced.

"Go inform the Princess that we found something, I'm going to meet up with the rest of the patrol."

"Alright. But be careful bro. It looks like she encountered more than one pony, and that they didn't come for a picnic." he answered with a solemn smile, then started galloping off towards Ponyville, using his wings to propel himself faster.

I looked back to the scene of whatever had happened and regarded it for a moment, then took off after him. A few minutes of galloping later, and the treetops had thinned out enough for me to take wing. I quickly cleared the treeline and scanned the horizon for the rest of the patrol. Despite the sun dropping lower from the sky, and the thick tree coverage over the Everfree, most of the patrols were searching from the air. It enabled us to cover more ground quickly, and look for any problems outside of the forest.

After a few seconds of looking about, I spotted my patrol, they were already heading my direction. I flapped my wings and flew to meet them.

"Private Red Wing, what do you have to report?" the captain called out once I was close enough.

I kept my voice even as I gave my report, "I think we found where they encountered trouble. Three dead timberwolves, and signs that multiple ponies had been there recently, we also found a blue feather that had blood on it. The blood hadn't dried yet. I sent Private Blue Wing to inform the princess."

The captain looked deep in thought for a moment, then nodded, "Alright. The princess can decide what to do about that. If there were other ponies involved, we need to try to locate them and find out what happened."

"The hoofprints lead off into the underbrush, they could have went anywhere from there Captain."

The captain rubbed his chin with a hoof momentarily, then spoke, "There sun will be setting in a couple hours. They would be as good as dead if they stayed in the Everfree without shelter, so we can probably rule that out." He shook his head and sighed. "Alright, we're going to run a sweep of the perimeter of the Everfree and Ponyville, we'll fly low and look for signs of activity. Move out."

I fell into formation and descended towards the ground with the others.

"We think we found where Captain Rainbow Dash went missing. There were signs of a struggle, three timberwolf corpses, and evidence of the recent activity of multiple ponies in the area."

I went over what he said in my mind, while struggling in vain to fight back rising fear that something very, very bad had happened. I took a deep breath and raised a hoof to my chest, then exhaled, extending my leg straight outwards as I did so. Cadance's breathing exercise helped some. I still felt my heart struggling to break free from my chest, but it wasn't succeeding in breaking out. "What..." my voice squeaked out. I swallowed and started again, "What else do you know? Was there any sign of Rainbow or the ponies that had been there? Did you have the area secured?"

"There was a blue feather that had blood on it, but as for the other ponies, we didn't examine the area for very long. I was ordered to inform you at once."

"You didn't... Secure the area... Or examine it more thoroughly? "I growled in annoyance. I was thankful that I had stepped outside of Fluttershy's room for this now. The scout's normally stoic expression had evaporated into one of unease. I shook my head, "Why didn't you?"

His eyes darted about in nervousness, "Well... Princess... You wanted to be informed immediately, and-"

I lifted a hoof, silencing him, "Never mind that. We're wasting time. Come with me."

"Yes, Princess!" He quickly saluted.

I opened the door to Fluttershy's room, and glanced inside. Fluttershy law on the bed, looking out the window. A soft, sad smile crossed my lips. I spoke softly, as to not alarm her, "Fluttershy?" After a few seconds she turned to look at me. Her eyes looked dull, it brought a pang of sadness to my heart. "I'm going to go investigate what happened, okay?"

She replied almost too softly to hear, "Okay..."

"Fluttershy, don't worry. I'll make sure she's safe, okay? I pinkie promise." I went through the motions with a hoof, eliciting a small smile from her. I gently closed the door with a hoof, then turned to regard the soldier with me.

"I'm going to get Captain Light and Sergeant Bolt, and then you're going to lead us to the location you told me about."I firmly commanded. If I was shorter, I was sure I would have seen him swallow.

"Yes, Princess."

I lit my horn, and teleported us both to the castle.

I held my breath as another pegasi patrol flew overhead. I counted seven pegasi as they passed over. I glanced at our package, Princess Twilight's personal bodyguard, Rainbow Dash, then back to the sky. The sky was currently clear, save for a handful of clouds, and starting to turn an orange-blue hue. 'We would definitely be safer traveling at night... We can't stay here though.'

"Alright," I called out, "we need to get to the safe house. Once there we can wait for nightfall, and then move about much more stealthily." I looked to my lieutenant, "Think you have enough magic to teleport yourself and the package to the safe house?"

She nodded.

"Do it. The rest of us will hoof it." She nodded, and lit her horn with magic. After a few seconds, there was a brilliant violet flash of light, and my Lieutenant was gone, along with the package. The flash of light would have been easily noticeable by any passing pegasi, I winced inwardly upon realizing my mistake of not checking the sky before having her do so.

"Sir." I turned towards Agent Black, and saw he was subtly pointing his hoof towards something. I followed his hoof and saw a pegasi patrol descending towards us. I analyzed the situation, contemplating our options.

"I count seven of them, same patrol as earlier." came a hushed whisper from my left.

"Play it cool. We don't want to reveal anything unless we have to." I whispered back. I looked to my left, then to my right, taking a deep breath, then stepped forwards, out from the bushes. "Follow my lead." The two pegasi with me followed as I left the bushes. I watched the pegasi calmly descend in formation.

The stallion that was obviously the captain stepped forwards, "Sir, might I inquire as to the source of that magic flash, and as to why you were in the Everfree?" He ordered his patrol to spread out and search the area with a hoof.

I chuckled, taking his question in stride, "Ah, sorry about that my friend, I was just making sure that nothing was following us out of the Everfree. You know how those monsters can be... Ferocious little buggas." His eves narrowed.

"And what were you doing in the forest?"

"Sir, has something happened? You sound a bit perturbed."

"Have you by any chance seen a blue pegasus? Rainbow mane and tail? She's gone missing."

I regarded his words for a moment, frowning and tilting my head so as to appear in thought, "No... I can't say that I have, sir. Hey guys, have either of you seen the pone he described?"

They shook their heads slowly, almost sadly.

"Terribly sorry, sir. I do wish you luck with your inquiry." I waited for a minute for him to reply, he didn't. "If that's all, my friends and I need to get back home, it's getting late and we have somewhere to be." I smiled brightly.

The captain's eyes seemed to glance over my form, then settled his gaze behind me. "Those bags look heavy, what's in them?"

"Just some odds and ends. Herbs, flowers, some special rocks." I answered, making sure to hide the nervousness in my voice. He seemed particularly interested in my saddlebags. I hoped he would buy the lie. If he didn't, and wanted to see in them...

"Sergeant?" the captain spoke while still facing me. "Go inform the Princess that we have caught three suspicious ponies... Please come with us."

'Well, so much for getting passed this without violence.' I stood still until the sergeant spread his wings and beat down, starting to take off. Once the sergeant was on the second powerful downwards thrust of his wings, I quickly lit my horn and lowered my head, taking aim. I sent a bolt of magic at him, slamming into his body, penetrating his gold-edged purple armor right below his wing. The force of the impact threw his body out of the air, skidding against the ground.

The rest of the soldiers, along with my two agents, reacted quickly from there. No orders were spoken on either side, we all knew our goals.

I jumped back to dodge a swift tackle from the captain, and retaliated with a spell while I was still flying backwards. The captain rolled on the ground to the right, avoiding the spell. He quickly recovered, and was rushing me even as I landed. I lit my horn at the last second, teleporting to the side, and kicking out with my hind legs as he occupied the space I previously occupied. My hooves struck true, sending him careening at an odd angle.

I quickly glanced around to check on my two agents, we were outnumbered two to one, and it was showing. Agent Black bucked out with his hooves, causing the pegasus he hit to fall forwards. I lowered my head, and angled my horn for him. The pegasus took too long to recover, and was unable to avoid my deadly spell. 'Five to go...'

I turned my head around just in time to see the captain ram into me. I swiveled my body as I took the hit to reduce the harm it would inflict on me, but I was still knocked over. I felt the start of several bruises where the captain had impacted me and where I had fallen on rocks.

The captain pounced on me, and pinned me to the ground, and wrapped his hooves around my throat, attempting to suffocate me. I lashed out with my hooves, distracting him, and then bucked him off of me with a powerful thrust of my hind legs. The captain spread his wings midair, arresting his uncontrolled momentum. I grit my teeth, and rolled over onto my stomach, then rose to my hooves in the blink of an eye.

I eyed a rock, took it in my magic, lifting it up and holding it in it's place, relative to me, then spun around and launched it towards the captain. He effortlessly dodged the rock, but it bought me time to draw out the dagger I had placed in my saddlebag. I held the dagger close to my muzzle in my magic, and took a defensive stance, awaiting the captain to make the first move.

The captain lunged at me, and reached out with a hoof. I threw out my own hoof, knocking his hoof out of the way, and thrust my dagger towards his face. The captain pulled his head away just enough for the blade to only leave a deep cut in his flesh. As I was pulling the dagger back towards me, he knocked it out of the air with a hoof. It was a distraction, and the next thing I knew I was pinned to the ground again.

This time, he threw his wight against my body, and then wrapped his hooves around my throat. I squinted my eyes, and teleported a few steps away, and bucked him down into the ground as hard as I could. I leveled my horn at another pegasus, and lashed out with my magic. The pegasus fell to the ground and his body wreathed in pain as the magic coursed through his body, then killed him. 'Four to go...' I glanced around, just in time to see Agent Black buck one of the pegasi in the head. His head snapped back and then fell at an odd angle as his body hit the ground. 'Make that three.'

The captain charged at me once again, I sidestepped and kicked his hooves out from under him. He compensated with his wings and took to the sky, flying straight up. I reached into my saddlebag with my magic, and withdrew two items. A mask, and a metal cylinder.

I put the mask over my head, and made sure to secure the filter over my nose and mouth. My voice was distorted by the mask as I yelled out, "Chem masks on!"

I ran into and then fell into a roll, rolling over my head and firing two stunning spells as I came up. one spell hit it's mark, briefly stunning one of the pegasi, allowing my agent to overpower him. The agent regarded me in my mask, and quickly pulled out his and put it on. I slammed into the other pegasus, knocking him aside. Agent white pulled out a mask and put it on.

'Perhaps I should have done this earlier.' I noted as I twisted the two halves of the metal cylinder in my magic. There was a clicking sound, and four vents opened, releasing a gaseous chemical from within the container. The captain, flew towards the ground, and gradually arced towards me.

When he hit the gas cloud, he fell right out of the air. I couldn't help but smirk. 'For things that don't exist, they sure pack a punch.'

"Alright. The gas will dissipate soon enough, we need to get a move on before any more patrols see us." I glanced around at the corpses of the pegasi, I grimaced at not having enough time to hide the bodies.

I regarded the blood stained feather I held in my magic. A combination of worry and anger were taking over my emotions. Worry for her safety, and anger at myself for not making her wear armor. Well, more than a little anger at whatever or whoever was responsible for this. I shook my head, 'I'm going to be facing much more than just this in the coming months...' I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. "Search the area." My command was met by ten unmistakable replies of 'Yes Princess.' I carefully placed the feather in one of my saddlebags.

I slowly walked over to the corpse of the nearest timberwolf. It's head was facing downwards, obscuring it's face. 'Why would a timberwolf put its face on the ground before it died...' I channeled magic into my horn, illuminating the path in a soft glow from my magic aura, and lifted the timberwolf's head from the ground. I narrowed my eyes as I examined the damage to the timberwolf. The face had been burnt away, but not by fire. It didn't look like there were any scorch marks, but it was hard to tell in the darkness cast by the tree canopy.

I charged my horn with a spell, and released it, creating a lavender magic orb. The orb rose into the air, and flooded the path with light, giving a better picture of what had happened here. I returned my gaze to the timberwolf, it's wooden face had pits all over, something I hadn't expected to see. 'What could cause that to a timberwolf...'

I lowered the timberwolf's head back to the ground, and gently released it from my magic. "I want these timberwolf corpses more thoroughly examined. Take them to Ponyville General, and tell them I want a report as to what happened to them." I frowned, then quickly added "And have them check for anything out of the ordinary."

"Yes, Princess."

I examined the multiple sets of hoofprints on the ground, and clenched my jaw. 'There's next to no blood here, that's a good sign. So she's probably alive... Unless they took her somewhere else to kill her...' I shook my head, 'No. Don't think like that. I promised Fluttershy- no, I pinkie promised Fluttershy that I would bring her back safe.'

One of the unicorns enveloped the corpse of the timberwolf in front of me in his pale yellow magic aura, then slowly lifted it away. I withdrew the blue feather from my saddlebag and regarded it with growing bitterness for a minute,'Nopony hurts my friends and gets away with it...'