//------------------------------//
// The Second Wave 
// Story: The Prince 
// by BronyWriter 
//------------------------------//

I sighed as I walked towards the commotion. In truth I'd expected this kind of thing to happen at some point, ever since we lost the first battle to the Equestrians, followed by King Purgle's alliance with the changelings. I'd heard rumors that some of our soldiers were planning to desert, but nobody had done it until now.

I reached the group of minotaur guards who were surrounding a pair of minotaur soldiers who were on their knees with their hands on their heads. King Purgle circled them like a shark while one of our most valuable generals, a former clan leader named Grorim, stood above the traitors, his sword at the ready. Nearby Queen Chrysalis stood with two of her changelings, looking at the scene in amusement. King Purgle stopped when he saw me and smiled.

"Ah, Marller. Come to see the execution of the traitors, have you?"

"I have," I replied, trying to keep the sympathy I felt for the minotaurs in question out of my voice.

"Excellent." King Purgle wheeled around and faced the deserters. "I suppose you're going to beg for mercy now, are you? Promise to fight harder for me now that you know you can't get away?"

One of the minotaurs glared at him. "Absolutely not!" he snarled. "You weren't there, Purgle! You didn't see Antares's weapons! I saw several of my clan mates destroyed by the fire he dropped from the sky! Then to combat that, you side with the likes of her?" He pointed at Chrysalis, who gave a bored roll of her eyes. "The alicorns are going to destroy us all, and there is nothing we can do about it short of ending the war! I will not be a part of that."

"You are cowardly scum," King Purgle retorted. "With these new allies, we will wipe the Equestrians off the face of the planet. The alicorns will bow to me!"

The other minotaur prisoner glared at King Purgle, then spat at his hooves. "Arrogance is not befitting of a fool, Purgle."

King Purgle's eyes filled with fire as he took his sword out of its sheath. With one mighty swing, he lopped the minotaur's head clean off of his shoulders. As the head fell to the ground, King Purgle wheeled around, pointing his sword at the gathered crowd. "Does anyone else challenge my supremacy? Do any of you doubt that I will bring the alicorns to their knees?"

I did, and I knew a lot of other minotaurs felt the same way, but no one would dare say such a thing.

"You have more dissenters in your ranks than you know, Purgle," the other minotaur growled. "You think you hold the loyalty of these minotaurs? You may have at one point, but your mad schemes have lost you their support. I foresee an alicorn holding your head up high for the world to see."

With a cry, King Purgle turned and sliced the other minotaur's head off as well.

"On the contrary," he snarled. "It is I who will hold the head of an alicorn." He spat on the bodies before turning away. "Burn the corpses. I want no mention of those two ever again."

As a few minotaurs moved to take away the bodies, I made my way over to Grorim, who had looked at the proceedings with no emotion on his face. I reached him and leaned in close for a private conversation.

"What do you think about all of this?"

He pondered his response for a moment. "I think the Equestrians are honorable opponents. Antares could have pursued our retreating army, but he did not. I know many good minotaurs who are alive because of that. This... alliance, or should I say parasitic relationship, with the changelings will turn this into something I'd rather not be a part of. I don't suppose I see a problem with changelings on the battlefield, but they're not going to be used for just that. I have already heard Chrysalis and King Purgle making plans for the towns they are going to attack, and that I cannot abide. We would be appalled if Antares dropped fire from the sky upon our calves, so I see no reason to dishonor ourselves by attacking civilians, particularly foals." He grimaced. "It leaves a bad taste in my mouth."

"I cannot help but agree," I responded. "But what are we to do about it?"

Grorim shrugged. "Not much to do at the moment. We'll be attacking soon, and I think that we'll be able to get a better reading of the situation once the next battle is over. The Equestrians still have their 'napalm', but Antares is not on the field. Between that and our new allies, the battle could swing either way."

I was about to respond, but my words died in my throat as King Purgle stomped up to us. "Ah, Grorim. I wanted to speak to you. Tell the troops to begin moving out. I want to attack again."

"Yes, King Purgle," Grorim said with a bow. "However, if I may be so bold..."

King Purgle raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Well, the troops are rather demoralized after the last battle. Those scant few survivors have spread the word around of what Antares's human weapons can do, and it frightens them. I think it would do them a world of good if their king were to take the field alongside them."

King Purgle's eyes narrowed, and he took a menacing step forward. Oh dear.

"What did you say?"

"I said that you should lead our troops into battle. Show them what true bravery looks like," Grorim said calmly.

"You know full well why I cannot do that," King Purgle said. "What if I were killed? What would become of our nation then?"

"I suppose it would be bad, but consider the fact that Antares and Luna have taken the field to fight alongside their troops, and they fight twice as hard, if the first battle was any indication. If you took the field and our troops fought just as hard for you, our army would be unstoppable, even with the human weapons."

King Purgle stared at Grorim like he had absolutely lost his mind. I wanted to back away and not see what was about to happen. If King Purgle didn't want to take the field and lead from behind, then Grorim's suggestion could be very dangerous. We needed good generals like him if we were going to have a shot at winning.

I suppose King Purgle thought the same way, because he snorted and shook his head. "Ready the troops to march out. You have three hours."

Grorim bowed low. "Yes, King Purgle. I will begin preparations at once."

King Purgle didn't respond, choosing instead to turn and walk away. Grorim straightened back up, the barest of grins on his face. He turned that tiny grin to me before walking away himself.


*  *  *  *


Celestia and I reached the door to my secret weapons room, which I opened using some old phrases from a German class in high school. I tightened up security even more after the battle, and phrases from a language that didn't even exist on this planet would be nearly impossible to copy.

It's just as well that the translations were things like "hi, how are you" and "what is your name?"

Hey, as long as they couldn't actually get into the room, I was fine with it.

"So what is this 'gun' you're talking about?" Celestia asked. "What does it do?"

"Well..." I walked over to my weapons box, the same one that housed the napalm I showed her those many months ago, and leaned in close to it.

"Ich bin ein Berliner."

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

"It means 'I am a Berliner', or basically, 'I am from Berlin.'" I opened up the top flap of the box. "Any references to jelly doughnuts are merely urban legend."

Celestia looked like she wanted to ask about that, but with one burst from my horn, I levitated a pistol out of the box, turning to show it to her. Celestia frowned and tilted her head as she stepped closer to get a better look.

"I... see?" She looked up at me. "And what does that do, exactly?"

"Well, the closest thing I can relate it to is a crossbow. Basically I pull this trigger..." I rotated the gun to show her the trigger. "And it fires a projectile. Except this projectile fires at around 1700 feet per second. It doesn't matter what armor our enemies are wearing, this is going to tear right through that and go out the other side."

"Indeed?" Celestia glanced at a training dummy I had in the room. "Can you show me?"

I shrugged, but nodded. "Yeah, I don't see why not. Be prepared, though, it's... kind of loud."

I turned towards the dummy and raised the pistol. Celestia took a few steps away, and when she stopped, I took a deep breath, flattened my ears to help with the noise, and squeezed the trigger. The bullet fired perfectly, blowing a nice hole right through the head of the training dummy. Stuffing shot out the other side as the bullet hit the wall behind the dummy. With a satisfied smile I turned back to Celestia, whose ears were nearly pinned against her head.

"That was indeed loud."

I laughed and put the gun back into the box. "Just a little, yeah. I suppose I could make a silencer if I wanted, but I want to get these produced quickly, so I'm not sure how much time we have to do that, and I think the loud noise will freak out their side. That's on top of the fear that will come from seeing a weapon that even their best armor does absolutely nothing against."

"I suppose so, but how long will it take you to mass produce these weapons on a level that would make them effective on the battlefield?"

I grimaced as I closed the box. "A lot longer than I'd like. Plus these guns aren't really good for ranged fighting. I'm working on guns that can be used from a longer distance." A small smile crossed my face. "In the hands of a sufficiently talented sniper, the best rifles on my world could kill a target from up to a mile and a half away."

"That does sound impressive," Celestia admitted. "How are you progressing with making weapons of that type?"

"Honestly, we may be several weeks away from getting a prototype ready," I admitted. "But we're getting there. Every day we get closer."

"I pray you will have something ready soon."

"So do I."


*  *  *  *


I walked through the camp, merely observing the goings on of the soldiers. Many of them passed by me and bowed with mutters of "Princess Luna" or "Your Majesty" or some other title. I couldn't miss the expression in their eyes. Their first taste of battle had changed them. I suspected that many of them had lost friends. It made me hearken to the times when I had lost friends upon the field of battle. The loss truly never went away.

As I continued looking at the soldiers I passed, I spotted a familiar face inside one of the tents. Dear Cheerilee of Ponyville. Rather than the happy, passionate mare of times past, I saw her curled up in a ball on her cot, not moving in the slightest with half of her armor off. I sensed she needed a friendly face. Antares would be best for that, but he was back in Baltimare. I entered the tent and gently placed my hoof on Cheerilee's back, causing her to flinch back, but not move more than that.

"Dear Cheerilee, how are you?" I asked, sitting next to her.

Her ear flicked, and she finally turned around to face me. Her eyes held no life in them. She barely even blinked. "I'm alive," she muttered.

"That is good to hear," I said, giving her a comforting smile. "You are not wounded?"

She slowly shook her head. "No. I'm fine, I guess."

"I am glad. Is there anything I can do for you?"

For the first time, emotion flashed across her face. Fear. Her jaw wobbled and she reached out a hoof to touch my foreleg. "Don't make me go back out there," she whispered. "Please. Just let me go home. I can't do this anymore."

"I wish I could," I said sadly. "I would give anything to end this war now."

"I know," she muttered. "I know you can't send me home. I gotta stay here and k-kill more things." With a shaky breath, Cheerilee leaned forward and wrapped her forelegs around one of my own, holding it tight like it was some stuffed toy from her youth. "I killed him," she whimpered. "I-it was during the battle. I was standing with the other archers a-and the minotaurs were coming over the wall. Everypony around me was shooting at them, so I pointed my own crossbow at the minotaurs. I saw one come over and start to go to some ponies near the front, so I... I just squeezed the trigger. I think. I don't really remember doing it, but the next thing I knew, he was falling down with an arrow in his neck. I guess it was me because I needed to reload."

I felt tears begin dripping on my leg, so I wrapped a wing over her. "I thought about killing during basic, of course. It's what they teach you to do. It's what our job is now. When I imagined shooting somebody, I thought it would be like a movie, you know? They'd dramatically fall down and gasp out a few breaths. It wasn't anything like that, though. He just dropped like his strings had been cut. I don't even know if he felt it. At first I didn't even realize what I had done. I stared at him like he was going to get up and it would just be some kind of misunderstanding, or something. I almost wanted to shout for everypony to stop fighting so that I could go see if he was okay. But I knew he wasn't. I eventually realized that he was dead and it was my fault. I just wanted to run back to my tent and start screaming. I couldn't, though. I wanted to more than anything, but we had to keep shooting. So I reloaded and fired again. I don't think I even aimed at anything."

"I would give anything to take that memory away from you," I replied sadly.

"I know." Cheerilee took in a shaky breath. "Does... does it ever get any easier?" She looked up at me with wide, watery eyes. "You've been in a lot of wars and battles, so you'd know if killing gets easier." She sniffled and wiped her eyes. "Do the nightmares at least go away?"

I hesitated. Should I tell Cheerilee that it never gets any easier, and that the next battle will tear her apart just as the last one has, or do I say that it does? That with every being you kill you lose a bit of what makes you the pony you used to be until you walk back through the door of your home and you don't even recognize yourself? I settled on a smile.

"Yes, dear Cheerilee. They do." I would make sure of that.

"And the rest of it?"

"Don't think on that. Think on how happy your students are going to be when you return, safe and sound."

"You're avoiding the question," Cheerilee said bitterly, pulling out of my wing hug. "And I don't think my students are going to have the slightest clue about who I am when they see me."

"You need not worry about that. Try to take all of this one day at a time." I stood up and walked over to Cheerilee's stew bowl. "Have you eaten recently? I will obtain food for you if you have not."

"Princess Luna, stop it." Cheerilee sat up and glared at me. "I don't want to hear the answer, but somehow you avoiding the question is worse. Answer me."

I paused for a moment, putting Cheerilee's bowl down. I met the mare's gaze and found no falter in her resolve. I quietly sighed and lowered my head. "In truth, Cheerilee, the answer lies somewhere in between the two options you presented to me. In the moment it gets easier, but once the heat of battle has died down, and there's nothing left but your thoughts and memories, it never hurts any less."

"I... see." A pair of tears streaked down Cheerilee's face. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. This is war. Not some summer camp, or something."

"A war that will not last forever," I said, trying to make my voice comforting. "It will soon be over, I promise."

"One way or another," Cheerilee muttered.

I was about to respond when a page poked her head into Cheerilee's tent. She bowed to me before entering. "Princess Luna, I have been instructed to tell you that we have reports that the minotaurs are moving toward us again. There appear to be changelings with them."

My eyes widened and I moved toward the entrance of the tent. We had heard that Purgle attempted to sway the changelings to his cause, but we had not been told if he was successful. It appeared he was.

"How soon will they be here?" I asked the page.

"About ten hours, they think," she responded.

"Good. That should give us enough time to prepare." I hesitated for a moment, looking back at Cheerilee. She was whimpering and she had curled up into a ball and began stroking her tail. I desperately wanted to rush back over and comfort her, but the time for action had arrived, as much as I hated it. I sighed, but left the tent to formulate our defenses.

We had largely reset a lot of the traps used during the first battle. I was not quite sure how well they'd work if changelings had gotten involved, as they could merely fly over them, but they could still do damage to the minotaurs. Of course, now the cloud units were in far more danger, as now there was an enemy that could fly up to meet them. We would have to fuse the clouds with the acid spells that we used when fighting the griffins, something that would take time I wasn't sure we had.

I reached the main camp and began giving orders to move to the front. My ponies utilized their training well and within an hour, they had begun moving out. I had our unicorn spellcasters do what they could for our clouds, but I did not think we had done enough to truly protect our cloud units. They would likely have to fight any changelings that came our way.

As we moved out, I received constant reports on the status of the minotaur army. As we feared, a large number of changelings were marching with them. We could not specify the exact amount, but I feared it was enough to turn the tide of a battle. As we moved out, I noticed a zebra move over to me. One of the berserkers. Grina, I think they said her name was.

"Princess Luna, how are things?" she asked.

"They could be better, now that the changelings have taken Purgle's side." I grimaced at the notion. "How much experience does your kind have with hunting changelings?"

Grina grinned and pointed to one of the potions on her bandoleer. "You throw one of these at the ground, and the resulting blast will short out any changeling magic for a good hour, which is more than enough time to cut its head off."

"Good. How much of it do you have?"

"Not as much as I'd like," Grina admitted. "Maybe it was dumb of us, but we didn't actually expect the changelings to side with Purgle, at least not on this scale. We brought enough for a small assault by the changelings, but not nearly enough for an army the size of what they apparently have. I hope you have some magic that will bring us the rest of the way."

"I will do my best. I have not fought a changeling army in over three thousand years. I am unsure of how it will differ from the last time."

Grina frowned at me. "You weren't at Canterlot when the changelings invaded then?"

I shook my head, pausing to give a few orders to passing officers before continuing. "I was out searching for the threat. I hoped to neutralize it before it reached the wedding. I failed, as you can see." My eyes narrowed. "So I will admit to having a bit of a personal stake in facing Chrysalis on the battlefield today. She slipped past my nets. I wish to repay her for that."

Grina tilted her head in as shrug. "Well, your captain and his wife managed to blast them pretty darned far. They retreated all the way out of Equestria to lick their wounds..." A nasty grin crossed Grina's face. "Right into our nets." She motioned to the potion she had pointed out earlier. "That's why we have a supply of this stuff around."

"I had heard that your people did battle with the changelings. I did not know that it was the leftovers of the Canterlot invasion."

"Yup. Only a few dozen managed to escape once we got through with them, and dear old Chrissy was not one of them. A buddy of mine got to her before I could."

"Did he? Well, perhaps I should speak with him before we do battle. I would like to know exactly what she is capable of," I said.

Grina grimaced. "Got his throat cut by a Diamond Dog in the big battle the other day."

"Oh." I flattened my ears. "I am sorry to hear that."

Grina raised her eyebrow at me. "Why? He was a berserker who died in battle. He went to Paradise in glory! He went down staining his teeth and blades with the blood of a ton of enemies. You have any idea how many corpses I found around him and every berserker who died? The only reason I know it was a Diamond Dog who got to him in the end was because I found that dog dead right next to him. Still had his blaze in my buddy's neck, too." Grina and I stopped at the front of our lines as she stared out into the horizon with a smile on her face.

"He's wearing a shroud of glory in the next life, and, if I know him, he hoof-bumped Charon before getting off the boat into the next life. Now that he's there, he's probably chasing zebra mare tail all over the place."

"But do you not miss him?" I asked. "Do you not wish that he were here beside you during the coming battle?" Grina shot me another look, and I raised a hoof to forestall any response. "Forgive me. I have not studied berserker culture in detail. The last time I had major interactions with your kind was when we were on opposite ends of the battlefield."

"Makes sense." Grina gave me a wry smile. "We still tell stories about you and Celestia, by the way. Sort of like ghost stories around the campfire, but in awe instead of fear. I can't tell you how many times I heard stories about you and your sister charging into battle against us when I was a filly training to become a berserker. Almost as many times as I heard stories of how we beat you back."

"That was an unnecessary war, in hindsight," I said bitterly.

"A lot of wars are," Grina admitted. "Still, it's like I was telling Antares: that's for you immortals to get your tail in a knot over. My kind are weapons. Beings point, and we go kill what they're pointing at. We're always looking for that glorious battle against a worthy opponent." Grina's gaze landed on a pegasus mare carrying a cache of napalm up to the clouds, and her previously relaxed mood vanished. "That stuff, though..." She pointed at the mare. "That napalm stuff isn't glorious. It's just barbaric. Any potions I use are designed to kill my target quickly. Except for the beings who suffer a direct hit, there's no quickness to their deaths when you hit them with that stuff. I don't like it. It's not how war is supposed to be."

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow. "And how is war 'supposed' to be? This is not a game we play, berserker. I stand here today to defend the subjects I love more than life itself from death and subjugation at the mercy of one who will make their lives miserable. We are fighting a defensive war. There is no such thing as 'fair' on defense. My ponies will do what they must to win."

"I guess you're right," Grina muttered. "It's just not how my kind was raised, you know? Since I was old enough to walk I've been taught how to fight. I strapped on my first pair of blades when I was four years old. I first went feral at age seven. I had my first kill by age nine. So what I'm trying to say, I suppose, is that I know war. I know it better than maybe even you. The way I see it, you get close enough to your enemy that he can see the scars on your body before you kill him as quickly as you can. Drawing it out isn't honorable, it's sadistic. Raining this fire of yours from the sky is painful and prolonged. Even if I had imagined something like it could be possible, I'd never even think about using it. Then I hear rumors that Antares is trying to develop things that are even worse than that?" Grina shuddered. "It doesn't seem right."

"Nothing about any of this is right," I pointed out. "We did not ask for this war."

"No, you didn't." Grina sighed and ran a hoof through her mane. "I did, though. I heard about it and charged right in. I don't regret a single moment of it, and neither do any of my fellow berserkers. This is what I was born for."

Before I could respond, one of Antares's soldiers, Valiant Shield, approached me. He stopped a few hooves in front of us and bowed low. "Princess Luna, we need your help coordinating some of the defenses. We need your magic to coat the clouds in those spells you wanted to use."

"Yes, of course," I replied. I turned back to Grina and gave her a parting nod. "I hope to speak to your more."

"So do I," Grina said, a small smile on her face. I turned to leave, but only made it a few steps before she spoke again.

"To answer your previous question, Luna: yeah, I do miss him. I know he's happy now, but I miss him."


*  *  *  *


Our first indication that our enemy had arrived was the sound of their hooves on the ground, followed by several horn blasts in the distance. It was not more than a few minutes before their front line appeared on the horizon. Antares was right: there seemed to be no end to their army. I had never before seen such a massive force in all of my days. I looked up at the blanket of cloud above us and realized that the small amount of napalm we had would do next to nothing against an army of this size.

As they grew closer, I saw changelings marching alongside the minotaurs. Tens of thousands of them by my reckoning, though I found it difficult to ascertain exactly how many we faced. I spotted Chrysalis herself in the crowd and made a noise of disgust. She was riding on a chariot being pulled by four pony slaves. She held a long spear in her magical grasp and wore thick black armor. Even from where I stood I could see her grin. I promised to wipe it off of her face with my blade.

I ignited my horn and activated the communication gem inside my helmet, contacting all of my forces. "Mares and gentlecolts. Do not fear. We shall beat them back, just as we did before. You each know what you have to do. They will not take our homes from us."

"Ooh rah!" eighty thousand ponies shouted in response.

The army before us seemed to be stopping, so I spread my wings to meet their commander, as protocol dictated. I did not know whom I would be facing today, but I wished to know so that I could make him a target, if I could.

That did not end up being the case.

Before I could take off, I saw Queen Chrysalis shout something. Instantly my ears were filled with the sound of thousands of buzzing wings as the entire force of changelings took to the air. They flew at us with great speed and I surmised that this was not part of the battle plan, as the minotaurs had not begun charging. In fact, they seemed to be confused. I could not focus on those matters. A giant army of changelings was charging our position. I activated my gem.

"Cloud units, fire on the changelings! Fell as many as you can!"

Arrows began raining from the sky, striking many of the charging changelings, who fell to the ground. Those not killed outright by the arrows would certainly be killed from the impact of striking the ground. However, even as I watched I saw that our best efforts did not even make a dent in their forces. To complicate matters further, the force split, with nearly half of it flying into the clouds. I activated my gem once more, but I could not reach any of the commanders. Instead all I heard was screaming as I watched the bodies of slain pegasi and changelings rain from the sky in untold numbers. I began considering ways to help them, but I could not. The rest of the changelings were nearly upon us, flying over the spike wall we had created. Once they were over it, they landed and began charging at us on hoof. I grimaced and readied my sword.

"Troops, the time has come!" I motioned forward with my sword. "Charge!"

The ground shook as my forces changed forward to meet the changelings head on. A volley of boulders flew overhead, smashing into the front line of the changelings. A volley of arrows quickly followed suit, felling many more. The archers behind us could only fire twice before they risked hitting their own troops. Seeing the changelings in front of them fall gave my own troops more courage, and they charged with more speed and vigor than before.

However, there were still thousands of changelings before us and, just before our armies collided, we were met with what appeared to be a wall of green fire as each changeling turned into a doppelganger of the pony directly in front of them. Seeing a mirror image of themselves on the battlefield before them caused many of the ponies to slow down or flinch back, giving their enemies precious moments to gain the advantage. Moments that they took advantage of. With a sickening noise, the two armies collided. Many of my troops were felled by mirror images of themselves or their comrades as they tried to discern friend from foe.

"The ones without armor!" I cried into my communication gem. "Fight the ones without armor!"

I swung my sword and neatly severed the head of an unarmored pony in front of me. As he fell to the ground, green flames surrounded him as his ability to shapeshift left him at death. At my command, my troops began fighting back with more organization than before, but a wall of ponies still charged at us, sowing fatal confusion among our ranks. I fired spells all over the battlefield trying to remove the disguises, which succeeded, but left me open for more attacks. I tried to tune out the sounds of hundreds of screaming wounded from both sides, while all around us pegasi and more changelings slain in the battle above hit the ground. The largest saving grace for our forces were the buffalo and Saddle Arabian troops, whom the changelings either could not disguise themselves as, or had a far more difficult time doing so. After a few moments, puffs of blue smoke appeared on the battlefield as the berserkers threw their potions, shorting out the changeling magic of any nearby foes, which made them easy prey for the feral berserkers. All told, both sides were relatively evenly matched.

However, it was merely the first wave, and the second was far worse still. Unbeknownst to me in the moment, the changelings who were not fighting had begun dismantling the spike wall alongside the Diamond Dogs who had appeared out of the ground. The Diamond Dogs also used their skill with the earth to begin filling in our spike pit, giving the minotaurs a free path to the fray. It was a chance that they took advantage of. With a blast of a horn I could only hear thanks to my heightened alicorn senses, the minotaur army charged.

"Cloud units! Throw down what napalm you can then help us down here if you can!" I shouted into my gem as I fought off changelings and Diamond Dogs. A paltry amount of napalm dropped from the sky, but nowhere near as much as I knew we had. What napalm was used did damage to the charging minotaurs, but not enough to halt their charge. I grimaced as a relatively small number of pegasi flew out of the clouds. I began to fear that we had suffered severe casualties. A few more stragglers flew out of the clouds and back in the direction of base camp. I could see their wounds and knew many of them would likely not even make it back to the medics. I slew a pair of changelings who approached me, then took to the air. I shot beams of magic towards many of the wounded pegasi revealing them to be changelings. I could not allow even a single one to make it back to our base of operations, for even one could wreak untold havoc against unarmed medics. A few pegasi must have thought the same thing, for they joined me in my attempts to clear the skies of false ponies.

I could not stay in the air for too long. Content that I had troops who would protect our camp, I flew back down to the main fight and began striking down minotaurs as they reached my forces. Several tried to hit me with their weapons, but I felled each challenger in turn. Many arrows bounced off of my enchanted armor as I returned the arrows with magic, killing many archers. I alternated between fighting and revealing changelings on the field, allowing my forces to cut them down. I turned to fight more oncoming troops and growled when I saw who was not even fifty hooves away from me: Chrysalis herself. I readied my blade to face her, but had to dodge when I heard someone charge my left. I readied to face my attacker just in time to block an attack from a black spear. A Nightmare Weapon. I snarled at the armored minotaur who held it and pushed him back with my magic. It did not knock him over as I had hoped. His armor must have had enchantments, too.

The minotaur commander leaped into the air and brought the spear down upon me. I deftly moved to the right, causing his attack to miss me completely. I swung my sword at his exposed side but, with surprising speed, he blocked my attack with his spear. I moved my sword to hit his other side, but he blocked that as well. We locked weapons as I tried to overpower him, but he held firm. Realizing I needed more than just brute strength to win, I conjured up several ice daggers and shot them at him. He managed to dodge a few, but the rest hit home. Unfortunately, the quality of his armor meant that, while many punched through it, he suffered little more than superficial cuts. He thrust his spear at me once more and I made to block it, but realized too late that it was a feint. He pulled his spear aside at the last second, causing me to overextend my swing. He took advantage of my moment of weakness and shoved his spear right into my neck.

The two of us paused as he tried to register the fact that the tip of his razor sharp spear hadn't even pierced my skin. I only allowed him a moment of shock before I swung my sword at him, slicing his right leg off. He fell to the ground with a scream, dropping his spear as he did. I caught it before it hit the ground and stood over him with a glare.

"I will not be undone by a weapon of my own creation," I growled before dispatching him with my sword.

I readied myself to join the fray once more, but paused when Valiant Shield ran up to me, blood trickling from a wound underneath his helmet.

"Princess Luna, we're taking heavy casualties!" he cried. "We need to do something quick or--"

His words were cut off when a beam of green magic slammed into his head. His head snapped back with such force that his neck broke instantly. I suspected he died before he even hit the ground. I wheeled around to face his killer to find Chrysalis grinning at me. I fired a beam of magic back at her, which she easily dodged. I attempted to follow it up with another, but she threw up a shield to counter the spell. She took to the sky and summoned hail, which she began raining down upon me. I teleported above her and swung my sword at her neck. She ducked low and thrust her spear up towards my belly, while at the same time firing off a rather nasty spell. I conjured a shield spell of my own and dodged the physical attack. I put some distance between us and gathered stones from the ground, which I threw at her with lightning speed.

Unfortunately for her, it was merely a diversion.

While she dodged, I split my magic and hurled the Nightmare Weapon at her. She hadn't even recovered before the spear pierced her armor, embedding itself into her chest. She fell backwards, allowing me to teleport above her. She hadn't even finished falling before I gripped the Nightmare Weapon in my forelegs and pushed down, pinning Chrysalis to the ground. Instantly all of the changelings on the battlefield froze as the black magic from the weapon combined with the death of their avatar interfered with their hive mind. They were merely drones, and without a queen to give them orders, they could not fight. My troops made quick work of the frozen drones when they could, but we still had a minotaur army to contend with, and Valiant was right: we were taking heavy casualties. We could not continue fighting them this way. We needed a better strategy. It pained me to do so, but there was only one option left to me. I activated my communication gem once more.

"All units fall back to the base! All units fall back to base camp!"

Instantly my forces began retreating, while I stayed behind to protect any of my subjects who fled. The Saddle Arabians and buffalo had also begun retreating, leaving precious few troops on my side who continued their fight. We needed to buy the rest of the army more time before we made our escape.


*  *  *  *


ponies retreating. ponies can't fight anymore. lots of death. grina still fights. grina has to fight.

grina kills minotaurs. lots. hundreds, maybe. lots of killing.

fellow berserkers around me. lots of killing. lots of dying, too. have to fight. ponies want to get away. let them.

charge forward. bite out minotaur's neck. don't kill frozen changeling. no point.

slash. bite. kill. not so many ponies around now. only dead ones. still many minotaurs. lots to kill.

possibly surrounded.

fellow berserkers fighting and dying. gone to glory.

maybe this time grina goes to glory.

surround myself with remaining berserkers. not too many left now, but enough. grina grins and rallies the rest with last cry.

"Charon awaits!"


*  *  *  *


“General Grorim, the Equestrians are retreating!"

"Yes, I see that," I replied to my squire. "My eyesight isn't yet bad enough that you have to narrate the goings on of the battle."

"We should pursue!" my squire responded, pointing his sword at the retreating army.

"That would be a bad idea." I pointed down at the Zebrican berserkers holding the line, cutting death and destruction through my forces. While I had no doubts that we would eventually defeat them, they would cause massive casualties before we reached that point. I hated to do it, I really did, but there were times when I had to put the safety of my troops before an honorable fight. I raised my hand and motioned to my archers, who loaded their arrows and aimed at the berserkers.

With one small signal from me, my archers fired a volley of arrows that rained death down upon the berserkers. Most of them were killed outright by the first volley, while a second volley dispatched the few survivors.

All save one.

I signaled for my archers to cease firing and walked over to meet the lone survivor, who bucked and snarled at the minotaurs surrounding her. She didn't even seem to notice the two arrows sticking out of her. I drew my sword and stepped into her line of sight. I think even in her feral state she knew that I was important from my armor. She paused, almost as if to acknowledge me, before charging. Once she was close enough, she pushed herself onto her hind legs and swung her bladed boots at me, and I'm certain that if I hadn't dodged, her blow would have easily been the end of me. I swung my sword at her, which she dodged just as easily. However, she stumbled when she landed, going down on one knee. She might not feel any pain, but she had lost a lot of blood from her wounds. I backed away and pointed my sword down.

"It doesn't have to be like this. If you surrender peacefully, I will personally guarantee your safety. I will have your wounds treated by our finest medics." I gingerly stepped forward. "You will be very well treated. You have fought honorably and bravely, and I would hate to see you end like this."

The zebra responded with one of the most unsettling snarls I'd ever heard, before or since. She pushed herself up to her legs and charged me, which I once again easily dodged.

"Sir, should I wound one of her legs to take her out of the fight?" one of my archers asked, drawing his bow back.

"No, she's made her choice, and I will not take that last thing from her. Besides, I doubt she'd even notice."

The zebra charged at me once more, but only made it a few steps before completely collapsing. She still had some fight in her, I could tell that much, but her body had given up. She was hyperventilating as I approached her, unable to do more than glare at me and weakly swing one of her blades at me a few times. I knelt down next to her.

"You fought bravely and honorably. May you find the glory in the next life that you strove for in this one."

With one blow from my sword, I quickly and painlessly ended her suffering.

My troops around me cheered as the last shred of resistance was snuffed out. My squire ran up to me and helped me to my hooves.

"Sir, now that all of the zebras are dead, should we pursue the Equestrians now? We could do great damage to their army!"

"We already have, I think."

"Well, of course, but we can do more!"

I shook my head. "No. We will not pursue."

My squire's eager smile fell and he tilted his head at me. "B-but General Grorim, I--"

"For one thing, the changelings are out of commission for a while. We need to focus on helping them how we can. For another, if we pursue, then the Equestrians become desperate, and a desperate foe fights the hardest of any army. Finally, when Antares scored his first victory against us, he did not pursue our army, even though some would say it was his right to do so. I wish to extend the same courtesy to him as the one that preserved many minotaur lives."

I turned and stared in the direction that the Equestrians had fled in.

"Once."