• Published 27th Dec 2013
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To Avert a War - Malozi



A man must establish peace between two worlds. Easier said than done considering the fact that he has no idea how.

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Chapter Seven: The siege

Was it our fault we were cursed to live this life? One particularly large shadow hound thought. No, it was just our nature. Everything was going fine too! It was those humans! Especially that damned dragon and that little sociopathic human friend of his! They're responsible for our suffering! And now we have a chance to hurt them, it's nowhere close to fully exacting our revenge but every little bit counts when it comes to killing what little humans we come across. At least we get to pretend we're living out our old days of conquering back when we still had our empire. I miss it. I miss being a captain, having the deck of a starship beneath my boots, commanding ships in glorious conquests. But that's gone now. Well, this is as close as I'm going to get. The former captain known as Shis'shola let out a howl and directed more shadow hounds into the breach of the castle. They would not tolerate anything that worked with humans, and these ponies presented a long needed feast for them.

Twilight blasted another shadow hound. They were certainly persistent she granted them that but they weren't very durable, at least against her magic. However, they were beginning to thin and while Twilight didn't want to have to kill any of them, nopony wanted to kill anything as far as she knew, it was just that the problem with stunning them was that they absolutely refused to stay down for any period of time.

Just as she started wondering if they would ever give up a howl was heard in the distance which seemed to get the horde's attention. Twilight deduced that they were more than just a simple pack of mindless beasts since that howl must have served as some kind of retreat signal since the hounds were now withdrawing and howling in response.

"That's odd." Mkrin said.

"What is?" Cadance asked.

"I don't like the fact that they're retreating, it makes me uneasy."

"How is that a bad thing if they're retreating?"

"Cadance, he's right." Twilight said. "Remember what he said about the reports they had on those things? In the short time that they documented the creatures there was not a single recorded instance where they retreated, they fought to the death."

Mkrin looked at Twilight. "You're right about that. Those weren't my exact words but you're right."

"Well you were talking about how they seemed to attack everything in sight so I deduced that they would continue to attack us so I find it odd as well that they're retreating. From what you were told in your reports this is abnormal behavior. I have a theory, and never before in my life have I ever hoped to be more wrong about something but I think it's possible that they may have intelligence like you and I."

"That's an impressive theory. From what you've seen I can see why you came to that conclusion. Given time I or somebody else might have come to the same conclusion."Mkrin rubbed his chin in thought. Somepony. Luna thought, she couldn't help but involuntarily keep correcting that word. "I think that we should consider your theory as a grim but very real possibility."

"Thank you Mkrin. What about everypony else?" I'm honestly not even going to try to keep correcting that in my head anymore. Mkrin thought as the rest of the Alicorns nodded their heads. Everyone/pony except his sister seemed unconvinced. Kilara was looking away, trying not to meet the gaze lest she be discovered in his disapproval. Mkrin, however, decided that today he would be a jerk.

"Kilara, since the rest of us seem to be in agreement and you obviously agree I want you to see if you can track the movements of the hounds." He said knowing what kind of response he would eventually get.

"Yeah, I'll get right on that." She turned away. "If Twilight's theory is even remotely correct in the first place." She grumbled.

"What was that? Didn't quite catch that."

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all." Kilara said, trying to catch herself before she said something stupid.

"She doesn't think my theory is correct." Twilight deadpanned.

Kilara's breath caught in her throat for a second and she turned to Twilight. "How did you know that?" She asked. Twilight simply flicked her ears in response. "Oh... that makes sense."

"Okay, but in all seriousness I need you to track the shadow hounds. Do you know where they're heading next?" Mkrin asked.

Kilara closed her eyes and after three seconds she opened them again. "They're heading Northeast."

"Where, exactly?" Celestia asked.

Kilara pointed in the exact direction and all four of the Alicorns froze, their eyes wide with shock. "I'm assuming that whatever is in that direction is not where we want them to be, is it?"

"Canterlot might be in danger!" Celestia exclaimed and turned to Twilight. "Gather your friends, we might need their help."

"Whoa whoa, hold up. What's going on?"

"I'll explain on the way there but we need to hurry up!"

The shadow hounds were more persistent than John could have ever imagined and he was starting to tire along with most of the other defenders being almost just as tired aside from Bruce and a few other squad-mates.

"I keep shooting but they keep coming!" Nadri shouted over the sounds of battle. She had been firing nonstop and was being regularly supplied with more arrows from the others. How many have we lost in just the last few minutes? John thought, looking at the bodies of the ponies and shadow hounds alike. Vjaren had told about their encounter with the shadow hounds in one of their missions to find John and they were certainly living up to their reputation of having suicidal overconfidence.

The first massive beast that Nadri had killed turned out to not be quite dead as everyone/pony had thought and it slowly got up and roared its displeasure. Oh well that's just great! I'm just going to say this now because it'll happen eventually! "How could this get any worse?!"

"Why did you just say that?!" Gerard yelled.

"Gerard, look at the current situation, it was bound to happen eventually I'm just speeding up the process." Things did get worse as another identical beast showed up behind the first one and was waiting for the first one to move so it could get inside. See? I was right. Wait am I just doing that to prove I was right to myself? I'm probably going to get more ponies killed. Shit, I definitely did not think this through. The weary defenders were in desperate need of reinforcements and quick if they were to survive the night.