Come the rain

by some weird guy

Forest of Death

Author's Note:

Whoa... It's been a long time, how have you been?
Good?
I'll imagine you said "good!"
Anyway, here's the next chapter of my award winning epic!
Feel free to read, critique, thumbs up, thumbs down, eat a cookie, take a nap, or have an existential crisis!
More to come, hopefully without month long waits!
Why am I typing like this?
good question...

Move! Move! Move! Move! Move!

The distance to the nearest tree was no more than thirty yards away, but at this point it may as well have been a freakin' mile!

Projectiles whizzed and crackled all around me, both friend and foe. I could feel the impact of some of the shots grazing my legs and clipping my wings. No serious pain yet, but blind luck can only carry you so far.

Diving out and grasping with eager hooves, I caught hold of a rather sturdy branch and swung myself up and over. Cerberus was immediately drawn and set to "extra-crispy."

Taking a moment to gather my bearings, I promptly located Firecracker a few trees over. Braving the firestorm once more, I closed the distance to find here deep in one of her saddlebags.

Shots cracked and tree bark exploded as an assault showered us from across the river.

Looking around, the Dogs seemed to be having difficulty zeroing in on the enemy marksponies.

Those clever bastards, they used the waters to wash off their scents didn’t they?

Chancing a peek from behind the tree, I could still see the fresh corpse lying forgotten down below, poor bastard.

Still, his dismemberment wasn’t caused by conventional firearms. Anything short of, say, a cannon ball would have required some sort of magical kick to it. That, plus the light show and crackling noises, gave a very clear indication of COLT activity from our friends beyond the river. Nothing too surprising, but nothing too comforting either.

The splintering of tree bark forced me to pull back. The shots weren't letting up. For every pause in one's firing, another would start to close the gap. We were pinned.

Trees actually began to groan under the rapid stress of being hit repeatedly by high powered weapons. A couple small ones had even started drooping and crashing.

"Where is it, where is it…?"

Firecracker's mumbling reminded me I wasn’t alone, but what the hell was she—

A burst of joy as she pulled out some weighted gold rods.

Aw shit, here we go!

"Get ready!" she cried, returning my grin.

Pulling back, Firecracker sent them soaring into the fray. Three found themselves embedded into the ground while their counterparts became suspended overhead in eerie magnetism. Talon and the others had already seen the rods fly and were now waiting on baited breath, eyes shut.

A couple Dogs hadn’t closed their eyes and it fell upon me to tell them to do so.

"Don't look!" I hissed as my thoughts counted down.

Three…

Two…

One…

A tremendous sizzle tore through the sound of blasting as the whole place became illuminated with the brilliance of a small sun. A chorus of screams rose from those that failed to look away in time from the great flash. But as the enemy cried, their shots stopped, and that meant it was our turn to strike!

As suddenly as it began, the sizzling ended only to be replaced by the thunder of our own firepower.

Turning on a dime, I located my mark, and like the arid grasslands in the middle of summer, lit him up and those around him as well.

Not all were blinded by our strike. Many still maintained their accuracy and tactics. Casualties arose from both sides.

Eyes sharp, every movement had to be monitored. To lose a step meant to end up getting—

Pain, sharp and instant. Three pounding hits square in the chest and I found the tree falling from under my hooves. I could hear Firecracker's muffled cries as she shrunk smaller and smaller. The ground made sure to knock out what little wind I had left.

Gripping my vest, I found three twisting tears moist with liquid. Panic was the first thing to set in, but I couldn’t let it stay. Not in a situation like this. Looking down, I saw the points of impact accompanied by an orange glow. Rubbing a hoof over it, I was overcome with relief to find the liquid to be water. Still, that meant that someone had a COLT outfitted with a highly pressurized water crystal. Can't let a guy like that just go unchecked.

Those last shots had torn right through my armor, but luckily not me.

Another line of defense that I never leave home without: a dampening amulet. Specially made to absorb and disperse what armor can't, it'll defend you from whatever life decides to throw at you. Unfortunately, mine's not specialized, so while it'll intercept most anything, it won't be very effective towards what it's stopping, hence the holes in my vest.

And… yup. There's a crack running through it too. It's not very big, but it's still there. At least with amulets, I don’t have to worry about a small explosion, just a bullet tearing through my spine.

Wonderful.

Dirt kicked up just inches from my face, reminding me of what's going on. Rolling back into the cover of the tree, I took a moment to catch my breath. Cycling from incendiary to shock, I flew to make a new tree my home.

Some of the previously blinded forces were starting to regain their sight and had taken a more defensive stance, hiding in the bushes and coupling blind-fire and pot-shots rather than an all out assault.

Doesn’t matter. In the few moments we had we'd managed to reduce their numbers significantly.

My chest still hurt a little and my first few shots were off, but soon I too was helping to tip the scales even more.

Still, something felt off. Like a weight was suddenly pressing down around me. It was strange and left me feeling a bit edgy. A gut feeling seemed to pull me up until I finally indulged it and looked.

Thank Celestia I did!

An earth pony wearing black armor in the branches above, knife drawn, not friendly. We stared at each other as time slowed, before she uttered a cry and lunged at me.

I couldn’t swing my gun around fast enough to shoot, but I was able to use the rest as a shield from her blade. She twisted midair and using her momentum, tore me right off my branch. Once again I was at the mercy of gravity.

We didn’t hit the ground, rather, we landed on another branch just below. Aiming for her leafy green head, I pulled the trigger only to miss as she started ducking and rolling towards me at an alarming pace. Once comfortable, she swung her knife around, staying close to prevent me from getting a clear shot. The air was sliced as she stayed right on me, forcing me to block and evade, never giving up too much ground. But there was still one place she couldn’t follow. Flaring my wings apart, I gave them a good snap and pushed off the branch.

That crazy bastard jumped at me again! The blade missed, but she grabbed hold and made sure that this time I actually hit the ground.

The impact bounced us apart and wrenched the rifle from my hooves. My attacker promptly rolled over and began scurrying my way once more, knife gleaming. I had to roll away, from her and my rifle. She was a scorpion possessed! I had to really move to avoid getting any extra holes put in me.

She wasn't a fool. She could see that with every roll I made was an effort to get to my gun, and she purposefully kept me away from it.

Frustration was starting to set in as my own blade came out to parry a stab meant for my eye. She quickly recovered and tried for my throat this time. A block this time, and a well placed buck to the stomach, sent her flying back just enough to right myself and take aim with my hoof cannon. Letting loose a few rounds simply had her employ the same tactics as in the tree.

"Stay still, ya damn hamster!"

I shot. She dodged.

I shot again. She dodged again.

I did start to see a pattern though. Doing some quick thinking, I adjusted my aim and fired. A solid hit as I tore the knife from her hoof.

Damn, I was aiming for her fat head!

Being unarmed didn’t faze her; in fact, she barely slowed down. She still closed the distance and forced me to go back to my edged weapon. Having the upper hoof let me get a few slashes in nut nothing serious. The pony had incredible reflexes even now and used them to either stop or avoid any fatal hits.

This girl is unreal!

Worse yet, she'd started throwing punches in the fight and many of them were starting to slip through and connect.

Now I was pissed.

I whipped out the second knife I keep tucked under a satchel and started going to town on her. She still managed to avoid the big ones, but she was no longer attacking and kept dancing around. I didn’t let her leave my sight. She was going to slip up, and when she did—

She immediately performed a back roll and popped back up, knife in hoof—the same one I'd shot away.

Now she was on the offensive once more, swinging close and fast. I barely had time to react to her thrusts. It’s a wonder I avoided her on the ground at all!

Parry.

Slash.

Duck.

Slash.

Thrust.

Slash.

Thrust.

Thrust.

Parry.

She was good, but she was slowing down. I even managed to make a direct stab into her left thigh. Not fatal, but still deep, and that was starting to get to her. She limped, and every flex dribbled blood that ran along her olive coat. That soon became my new target.

We kept carving at each other, staining our knives and the foliage around us.

"Drop already, you damned lunatic!"

But she still held on.

Doesn’t matter. I was still getting to her. Bit by bloody bit she flinched and stumbled until she finally dropped her guard.

It only took a moment.

I buried one blade into her hemorrhaging leg and used the other one to pierce the hoof that held her knife. She cried out as I caught her blade and drove it straight into the side of her head.

Eyes wide, she simply stared at me with a silent scream. Tears began to form as she slowly leaned forward, hoof out, as if to whisper a secret.

I pulled the knife out of her hoof and joined it with the opposite side of her skull.

Looking like a macabre deer, I pulled both blades out as both her blood and light left her.

She hadn’t even hit the ground before I saw another armor clad pony charge right at us.

During the fight, I'd managed to maneuver us over to where my rifle had fallen; all it took was a simple dive and roll to reach it. Swinging it around, I let a round fly right through that pony's skull, making the surrounding mane stand on ends.

Falling forward, this was the first time I properly saw these ponies' backs; and what I saw, I didn’t like.

A tree.

A twisted, dead, black tree stretching from base to top.

My eyes must've shrunk at the realization.

"Black Forest…"

I immediately took off making my way back to Firecracker, who was lobbing explosives onto the other side. She actually looked relieved to se me.

"Thought you'd died!" she cried out over a boom.

"Not yet," I replied, "but I might soon! Did you know that we're fighting Black Forest right now?"

"Yeah!" Another explosion sent a tree crumbling towards the ground. "I saw it on the back of that one pony you couldn’t shoot!"

"You saw me in trouble and didn't help?" I asked.

"Kinda got my own problems over here!"

A couple more explosives soared overhead before leaving small craters below.

Driven, tenacious and borderline reckless. Black Forest is infamous for their undying nature. You could reduce them to a single hoof, and they'll still try to hop or drag themselves to you, knife in mouth. I think they enjoy fighting. With their rates so low and them never refusing a job, I can't imagine another reason. Even so, most ponies think twice before employing those feral bands of soldiers. They’ve managed to earn themselves a reputation that's none too flattering as far as things like war crimes go.

"—is cracked!" Firecracker cut in.

"What?"

"I said 'your amulet is cracked!'" she echoed.

"Yeah, I know that already!" I groaned, tucking the loosened amulet back in.

It was already in bad condition, and the earlier skirmish had done it no favors at all. I can't afford to keep taking anymore hits.

"You gonna be okay?"

But before I could answer, a series of flaps pulled our attention away. It was Grace, and she was headed our way. Her forehead was bleeding and she had a couple of cuts and scratches, but other than that she looked fine.

"Grace, what's up?" I called over.

"Black Forest. They're using the firefight as a diver—" she cut short and drew her twin pistols, instantly discharging a couple of acid coated shots to our rear.

Two Forest troops were instantly hit, though only one fell to the ground. The other one landed on a branch in a kneeled position, head tilted back. Grace had hit his throat and the acid was doing what it did to the point of impact. Flesh liquefied and bone exposed itself to the light breeze as everything was being devoured. I didn’t wait to see final result, opting to look away.

As I was saying," she continued, "Black Forest is sending soldiers over under the cover of fire to cause as much mayhem on our end as they can. It is possible that they may be running low on troops. It's starting to become a problem, so Talon and Alpha have decided to send troops over there as well.

"Alpha has already sent over Gamma and a handful of others to start things off. Talon sent Stonewall along with them and has chosen us to support him over there. We'll travel via an underground tunnel dug by Gamma to cross and meet up with Stonewall. Let's go."

And with that, she dropped down below and flew behind some bushes. Firecracker and I exchanged glances before jumping off as well.

We were greeted by a couple of Alpha's guys with a pitch hole between the two.

"The Griffon's already gone in." One of them said. "Mind the drop, had to make it deep enough to go under the river."

With a nod, I threw myself in. a few glow sticks lit up the path to our destination. Grace was already well along near the end of the tunnel.

Firecracker brought up the rear with a grunt and some mumbling.

"Why are we crawling around? Wouldn’t it make more sense for us to—I don’t know—fly in from above?"

"Don’t know," I answered, "just got to trust that Talon knows what he's doing."

The tunnel was longer than the previous one and we could actually hear the point where the sound of rushing water became the loudest. Still we had to move on even further, the emerald glow occasionally reminding us of just how trapped we really were. Flying up above didn’t sound too bad at the moment.

Grace greeted us just short of the tunnel's opening. She held a couple of bombs in her claw.

"Alright," she whispered, "once these go off, we're to eliminate any survivors in the immediate vicinity then move in to flank Black Forest from behind. The point of this is to end the fight as quickly as possible, so try not to get left behind."

A silent nod had Grace move over to the opening, prime the explosives and toss them through.

Explosions and a few cries drifted into the tunnel, signaling us to advance.

We dove through the hole and popped up, guns ready. Three dead from the blast and one wounded. Grace promptly corrected that with a bullet to the head.

"Do you see anyone behind us?" I asked Grace.

"No." she replied after scanning the trees.

"Sweet, then we've only got to worry about up ahead!" Firecracker chimed.

Advancing ahead towards the gunfire, we did manage to sneak up on a couple of unaware ponies and quickly dispatch of them before moving on. We didn’t get so lucky the second time as a few others noticed us and dove behind some trees for cover. We mirrored them and expected to get hit by some heavy fire. Instead we heard cries and random shots.

We cautiously advanced and found the Black Forest guys already dead with a giant towering over them.

"You're late." he huffed.

"Stonewall!"

"Shhh! Not so loud!" he scolded Firecracker. "We still gotta deal with those guys up ahead. Gamma and his boys are already setting up a trap. When it goes off, we have to move in fast to pick off anyone left behind.

"That being said, be careful! There's no animal more dangerous than a cornered one, and we're about to seriously corner Black Forest."

"When will we know when they have sprung the trap?" Grace asked.

"Just listen for the boom!"

We all prepared with our weapons at the ready and our hearts pounding. Suddenly a loud explosion cut off the sound of gunfire, and a cloud of smoke arose up ahead.

"That's it!" Stonewall cried. "Go! Go! Go!"

The cloud swallowed us whole. We could make out the shapes of the surviving troops still getting up. One aimed a gun skyward and fired off a series of flares before turning the gun on us.

Avoiding the fireballs, I took quick aim and brought him down hard.

A couple others were charging through the dust with blades ready. Grace responded in kind by pulling out her own.

The spectacle was something to see! Grace moved with fluidity that I've never seen copied and used her steel talons as an extension of herself that flowed so seamlessly, it was as beautiful as it was terrifying.

A few more soldiers had pegged me and were trying to get a hit in. I immediately took off flying circles over them, raining lightning from above. They jerked around to avoid being hit and even got me a few times, but I finally drilled my bullets through the crowns of their skulls.

I could see Stonewall and Firecracker back to back and kicking ass, so I helped a few Dogs that had emerged clear up the stragglers that remained.

I felt a weight around my leg and a sharp jolt of pain as I saw a pony had leapt out and reached me, stabbing me in the leg with a knife. It hadn’t gone in deep, but it still hurt!

I corkscrewed to shake them off then promptly shot them thrice as they fell to the ground.

The dust started to clear out as Grace and Firecracker used their wings to blow everything away. An earsplitting blast from Stonewall's gun was the last shot to ring out as the field became clear once more.

We were injured. We were bloody and needed to be patched up, but we were alive. More than I could say for Black Forest. We did it! We faced off against crazy and won! I really felt like cheering but decided to save it for later.

"Looks like that was the last one," Firecracker announced, "I don’t see any others, alive anyway!"

"I don't smell any either." Gamma added as he crawled out of a bloody hole.

"Aww yeah!" cried Firecracker as she slung her weapon unto her side. "Mission accomplished!"

"Not yet," Grace interrupted, "we still have the weapons crate to deliver."

"Oh, yeah… Not it!"

And with that, she took off in a cherry red streak.

Grace immediately followed without a single utterance.

"Looks like it's you and me, Comet." Stonewall elbowed.

"Joy…"