Bringing Out The Worst In Others

by Murder Knight

Blood and Tears

Kadan Noyan bit back a yelp as the dog next to him went down to a lightning bolt. This was not good for morale.

The princess he was facing broke eye contact with him and frowned at the sky. Sensing an opening, Kadan and his dogs rushed in a half-arc.

In an instant, the blue pony's eyes flashed back to him. A gigantic warhammer curved the air. Two overenthusiastic dogs who charged faster than he did turned into paste. Out of the corner of his eye, Kadan could see more than one dog hesitate.

The princess lowered her head. Her horn flashed and a gout of orange flames rushed out from the tip. Kadan barely managed to dodge to the side as the fire lapped the bodies of the two dogs on his flanks.

Without pausing for breath, Kadan charged again. Hesitation meant death here.

Only four dogs remained with him, the rest having fled for easier prey or killed. If he didn't act fast enough, he'd end up as the latter.

The princess smirked as she swung the warhammer with her magic, narrowly missing Kadan as he hopped backwards to avoid the blow.

His eyes widened as her horn shone again and threw himself flat against the ground. A destructive blast flying over his ears confirmed his suspicions. He rolled to his left as a warhammer crashed down where he used to be.

One of the dogs smacking her in the helmet with a mace granted him a small reprieve from the princess' wrath. Eyes blazing with fury, her horn lit up and a small force bubble shoved back the three dogs closest to her before she unfurled her wings and took to the air, warhammer and all.

Kadan growled as the cowardly princess hung in the air above them, a furious expression on her face. He turned towards the remaining dogs and pointed at the princess, "Ranged weapons!"

As the four fumbled for their hand axes and throwing spears, Kadan picked up a bow and a quiver full of arrows from one of the nearby corpses. A yelp made him turn around to see one frightened dog with a throwing spear lying next to a small crater.

He looked up at the princess, who was now looking at him. A small smile now graced her features, but Kadan was more worried about the glowing horn on her head. His heart racing, he nocked an arrow and let it fly.

The arrow flew past the princess.

He scrambled to the side to flee, but managed to catch himself as a warhammer smacked the air an inch from his face. He turned to run the other way, but something stopped him. He looked at the blue aura surrounding him in horror as the warhammer rose into the air once more. Only to drop to the floor with a heavy thud.

A primal instinct screaming that he should flee while he could rose up to the forefront of his mind.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Luna glared at the spear thrower she had almost forgotten about. Inwardly, she cursed.

Has it really been so long since Our last real fight?

Grabbing the now terrified dog with her magic, she flung him up and away as far as she could.

Ignoring the sounds of battle around her, she scanned the area. The commander had fled. She huffed angrily.

Spotting a pair of dogs by the inn, she sped towards them with her warhammer in her hooves instead of her magic. It was time to do this the Earth Pony way.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kadan panted heavily as he leaned against a nearby wall. The constant lightning flashes kept his fur prickling in apprehension.

A cursory glance at himself told him that he managed to escape with nary a scratch. Unlike the others, he realized with a sinking feeling.

He shook his head. He can think about this later. He had a town to take.

He grinned, his yellowing teeth contrasting sharply with his brown coat. The princesses are going to have a nasty surprise if they think that's all we've got.

He pushed himself off the wall. No time for rest. Hesitation meant death.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A dog was looting a jewelry store.

swing

Princess Celestia stared at the body in front of her for a few seconds before shaking her head.

Why was she doing this? Because the dogs are the enemy. How did it come to this? Because they wouldn’t accept any compromise.

All these questions and more buzzed through her mind as she swung her weapon back and forth and side to side.

Something was not right.

In the midst of her red-hazed vision, the swinging of her greatsword became more mechanical and automatic. As she waded through the flood of dogs with her weapon at bay, the piercing death cries became all too normal. Spotting a coat of brown in the corner of her eye, she swung her sword. And stopped mid-arc at the sight of a horn.

Celestia blinked. Before her lay a small foal, crying with her hooves hiding her face. Celestia's maternal instinct kicked in and the golden aura surrounding her sword blinked out of existence as she dropped down to try and comfort the foal.

The foal backed up rapidly as Celestia's hoofsteps sounded down the road, "Mommy!" she screamed.

"It's okay, young one," Celestia murmured into the foal's ear as she spread a wing over her. She glanced at their surroundings for enemies before deeming it was clear enough for her to stay a few minutes.

The foal, who stopped bawling as soon as she felt the wingtips, started sniffling instead. "Do you know where your parents are?" Celestia's ears remained alert as she lowered her head to meet with the foal.

A few seconds of silence passed, broken only by the foal's sniffling and the distant sounds of battle. The foal slowly shook her head.

"A-Are you Princess Celestia?" the foal whispered. Celestia allowed herself a small sigh before replying, "How did you know?"

The foal slowly started to raise her head from her hooves, "I heard you speak on the square befo-" the foal's eyes met her gaze.

The foal grew still under Celestia's wing. It dawned on Celestia that moment that maybe she wasn't in the best state to comfort anypony as the foal's pupils shrank to prinpricks.

The color started draining out of the foal's face by the time Celestia decided to look at herself. She suddenly became aware of a warm, wet feeling on her body as she craned her head to look over herself.

The white fur on her fetlocks was almost dyed red in canine blood. And so was her front armor, the red tint integrating with the golds and whites to the point where it looked almost natural.

Her bloodied wingtips made little, red marks on the foal as she withdrew them. The foal's eyes started tearing up again.

No.

A golden glow encompassed the foal. The sleep spell gradually took effect as the foal's features relaxed until small snores replaced the whimpers.

Celestia stood over the foal, a silent sentinel. Another golden glow, a warmer one, surrounded the sleeping filly.

She galloped towards the defence line, foal in telekinetic grasp.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A whirlwind of death surrounded Luna like an invisible aura. Any dog that stepped foot in it never came out in one piece. Overhead, lightning struck dogs who deigned to aim their bows at her.

After smashing a particularly large dog's head into itty-bitty pieces, Luna took a brief pause to survey her surroundings. Smacking aside a few opportunistic dogs, she frowned at the sight in front of her.

A veritable swarm flowed around the streets. For every one dog they cut down, three more popped up, eager to smash bones and pierce flesh. By the occassional scream, Luna mused, they were getting what they wanted.

She fought the urge to flinch as a guardspony pegasus fell out of the sky and smashed to the ground in front of her.

After casting a few more destructive blasts at the tightly packed streets, Luna reared and smacked around a few more dogs, quickly stepping over the still-twitching pegasus.

Out of the corner of her vision, a few battered guardsponies fought desperately to hold the line. A unicorn whose helmet had been torn off spouted a few gouts of flame from her horn while two earth ponies had resorted to grabbing dog-made clubs to replace their broken spears.

In a burst of speed, a midnight blue blur exploded into the ranks of the dogs. Crude clubs and blunt swords glanced off of her armor as she tore through dog after dog in a flurry of magic-fueled speed.

Cries of terror and panic spread around her as she cleared a path through them. Even with the rush of adrenaline, Luna could feel her magic reserves draining below half.

Immediately, she flung out her wings and took to the air. Flying several feet above the heads of the combatants, she narrowed her eyes and sped past the lines of the dogs. Weaving through the waves of arrows, spears, and rocks, she picked out a few areas leading towards the back of the army and devoid of ponies. In a breath, beams of explosive magic trailed out of her horn and into her targets. A ragged cheer was heard in the distance as the dogs scrambled away from the large craters and bunched themselves into even larger groups. A second salvo erupted from her horn and exploded several packs into red mist and body parts.

Luna allowed herself a little smile before wincing as a wayward arrow hit its mark. She glared at the general direction of the archer responsible before pulling herself back into friendly lines. The trip back wasn’t nearly as fast or as safe now that the dogs were wise to her antics and she was close to tiring. She held back a few gasps as a few arrows embedded themselves into her padded stomach.

She looked back at the battered line and was pleased to see that reinforcements had arrived. “It looks like those mercenaries from Whitetail arrived in time after all,” Luna murmured to nopony in particular.

Satisfied that the line wasn’t going to break the moment she left, she cantered towards the medical tents.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

crack

After some time, I had decided that I didn’t like this city.

smack

The food was decent. And while the atmosphere was tense, it wasn’t all that bad.

“Wuzz wrong with you!”

The only thing I really had a problem with was the company.

thud

I painfully got back to my feet as I was knocked back once more. I balefully glared at the dogs I was facing. They had shiny metal armor and weapons that looked clean and well-maintained which signalled me to the fact that these were not your standard conscript.

Things had gone well enough at first when I charged in. The dogs were caught off guard by the complete chaos of today and the first ones in the fight were conscripts and a few regular soldiers who were off-duty at the time. But once it was clear this was no ordinary riot, actual trained soldiers managed to get on the battlefield.

It was easy for me when I faced conscripts. Just swing my sword while occasionally experimenting with my powers and if they managed to get a supposedly fatal blow in, just wait for a few seconds and stab them while they stared in shock.

When I tried it with these guys, they just smashed me to the pavement again and again and again. And while I knew it was impossible for them to kill me, I really didn’t like the sensation of my skull caving in. Over and over.

Right now, I was facing five of them. Five well-armed and not-so-bright soldiers. The one farthest to me darted forward as soon as I readied my sword. I took a risk and lunged forward with my sword. The dog didn’t expect this and the enchanted metal cut through his armor. The rest of them took the opportunity to strike while my weapon was sheathed in a body. Seeing them gang up on me, I may or may not have panicked and tried to wrench my sword out of the dog it was impaled on.

It sliced through the dog like butter and slashed through the face of a dog on the right. It was not a fatal wound though for he simply howled in pain and brought his paws up to his face, dropping his weapon in the process. Everyone else to my left was free to act, however.

The closest dog to my left slugged me sidewards with his mace, making me drop my weapon and stagger backwards. The other two capitalized on this and the battle turned to their favor. One of them swung his waraxe towards my gut and I felt the strangest sensation of my innards nearly dangling out of me before immediately sealing up.

The pain I was feeling now in the back of my head was starting to grow, and with a start I remembered I had an eldritch abomination locked inside me who would burst through my mind if I used too much power. Power which at the moment was healing up every single wound I got. A bolt of pure fear made rational thought possible again as I was being pummeled into a stain.

I weathered the blows as stoically as I could, which wasn’t saying much, before sensing an opportunity as the dog with the waraxe swung for my head. I ducked my head down a little and let the axe cleave through my jaw. Then, as realistically as I could, I leaned backwards a little before falling forward on my face.

The quietest silence I ever heard rang out loud in my ears as I willed with all my might to stay as injured as I was. A deathly numbness was spreading across my jawline as I desperately awaited them to leave.

I have to admit, this is actually kind of clever.

I could sense one of the dogs fighting me stoop over my hopefully motionless form.

“Iz he actually dead dis time, boss?” I could smell the scent of cheap beer from an unwashed mouth. Yet another reminder that I was not in a family friendly cartoon.

Abruptly, an axe shot down and rammed itself into my back. I didn’t shout. The literally mind-numbing pain in my head was taking up any care I had for other damage.

Almost as soon as it landed, the axe was ripped out of my back, “He ain’t faking it. C’mon now boys, we gotta give da message.”

“Can I have his sword, boss? It cut through Lig’s armah like it was nuthin.”

“That was prolly just a trick. He seemed like onea dem magic warriors. Look at tha’ thing. It looks like piss.”

I heard the distinct sound of metal hitting stone, “See? Didn’t e’en make a mark. C’mon then, let’s go.”

Good thing it was the wall and not you they tried it on.

I lay quietly against the blood-covered stone as they fumbled back into formation. I lay still for a few seconds after the sound of their footsteps faded away before relaxing and letting my regen thing take over. In the back of my mind, I marveled at how normal that sounded to me right now.

Even as I felt skin mend itself and bones jump back into position, I felt an eerie chill crawl over me. I would never get used to that.

The healing or the getting torn apart?

I also couldn’t understand how a voice in my head could somehow give a sarcastic tone. In any case, I felt myself growing calmer as I returned to normal, torn clothing aside. Risking a peek, I looked up and saw that the street was empty of everything but the corpse of the dog I impaled and my sword, which was lying a few feet away from it.

I tried picking myself off the floor and failed. I was simply too tired. Not the physical kind of tiredness that comes with swinging a large piece of metal around all day, but weariness at the events of the day mixed with a little dread of what would happen next.

Assassinating a head of state, falling from a castle window, taking part in an all-out war that probably wasn’t my business, getting hit by maces and hammers. Oh God, the maces... What the fuck was I doing?! And for what?!

Come to think of it, they haven’t actually told us what the reward would be. Huh.

Be quiet!

…

… I don’t even know anymore. I want to go home. I don’t want to be here.

I could feel tears running down my face, but I was too scared to let out a sob that might attract more attention. With herculean effort, I hauled myself to my knees. It was only then that I noticed the inordinately large puddle of blood I was kneeling in. I could feel bile rising in the back of my throat at the sight. This was wrong. Nobody should be able to bleed this much.

Regeneration is a thing.

I barely acknowledged the voice in my head. All this blood was mine. This was most definitely wrong. I looked at the dead body ahead of me. I barely glanced at all the other dogs I killed. But now it held my attention. Motionless body, glassy eyes, almost cut in half. I couldn’t hold it in anymore.

I threw up on the floor. And when I smelt the mixture of blood and vomit in the heat of the afternoon sun, I threw up some more. Panting, I thought to myself how pathetic I must look right now, kneeling in a mix of blood and vomit with tear stains on my face.

I didn’t care. I didn’t care that my costume was ruined. I didn’t care about the distant sounds of battle. All I cared about was how wrong it felt to be here.

I knelt there in silence for what felt like ages, but were likely just a few minutes, before slowly getting to my feet. I wordlessly walked over to my sword and picked it up. The blood on the blade shone in the light. I didn’t bother cleaning it off.

I gave an empty look at the body of the dog before moving inside one of the nearby stores. In my head, I knew I wasn’t going to end up like him. No, he was the lucky one. If I got hit one too many times, my soul would be snapped up like a worm on a hook. The thought alone sent chills along my newly reformed spine.

But that’s not happening.

A feeling I identified as determination washed through my very being, warming my thoughts and body. The steps I took were more confident and strong.

I’ve survived Atlantic City. I could do this.

It appeared to be a rug store. Nothing too useful. I walked over to the other side and peered through the curtains. Just outside was a pair of dogs that were looting the dead bodies of a few griffins. They were regulars, if their armor and weapon condition is a good indicator. And, I thought as I shrank their armor, they were as good as dead. It took a little time and pain, as well as a few yelps of surprise, but their torsos finally gave in to the shrinking armor.

I winced a little at the sight of the end result, but I brushed it off easily enough.

I will survive, no matter what I have to do.

I opened the door to the other side and walked out.

I will not take stupid risks like I had my entire life.

I spotted the wall of the city, relatively more peaceful than the rest of it. I walked towards it before suddenly realizing something very important.

Outside those walls was an army, tens of thousands strong. Gandalf had said something about killing messengers before he flew away. And those dogs had said something about giving a message. I could put two and two together and realize that shit was about to hit the fan.

By playing dead and saving myself from five, I had doomed myself to die from a thousand.

Seriously, how much were we going to get paid for something as suicidal as this?

Now that you mention it…

Now that I was not in any immediate danger, I started thinking a little. There was no mention of pay on the letter. Blunt Hoof didn’t mention anything about a reward. This plan was insane too. I analyzed it a few more times in my head and it just didn’t add up. It looked simple enough. Kill the Great Khan, band together the Griffons who would have rebelled anyway, and take down as many military assets as possible. And Gandalf said he’d gather reinforcements too, to help hold the walls. I found a fatal flaw almost immediately.

Where the hell would the reinforcements be?! There’s a huge-ass army somewhere close to the city. Any large force would be discovered and crushed easily, and it doesn’t make sense to just have a couple of squads on backup. This makes no sense, unless…

“My God,” I breathed out, “There are no reinforcements coming, are there?”

That sounds increasingly likely.

Things started falling into place. Those minotaur mercenaries fit into Luna’s letter when she was going on about the usefulness of two-legs on her mission. Instead of stealth, they would have brute forced it. And they were pretty good at that too. When I last saw them, they were cutting through the regulars with ease, although one or two had succumbed to battle injuries.

My companions were also picked out. Tempered was a glory hound. Gold Rush and Blueblood were rich and ran to the military. Cherry Tap and Whole Grain were part of a farming family that served directly under the Princesses, and Thunder Strike was an eager soldier. Nobody too important, and either gullible or loyal enough to just swallow the plan. Little details were coming to me, an offhand comment about Princess over family, a few boasts here and there. Never before did I think a pony’s tendency to talk about themselves would be so important to me.

One last thing came to mind, that all this was to save Canterlot. But Luna’s letter and Blunt Hoof’s plan were contradicting each other. Luna wanted to use Canterlot as a distraction, but Blunt Hoof said that this was to draw the army away from Canterlot. But since there’s already a gigantic army here, why in the world would they pull away a thousand or ten of their troops?

Calm down. You’re overthinking. There’s no way. Not even this world would be that cruel. Gandalf might come back any minute now with an army of griffins.

Or maybe we’ve been sentenced to death. The needs of the many and all that.

I quietly ignored the voice in my head as I ran back to friendly territory as fast as I could.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Luna regarded the arrow in her shoulder with a baleful look. In an instant, her horn glowed and the arrow popped out. Tossing the arrow aside without a care, she looked over the wound. A brighter glow later, and the wound sealed up.

The rest of the tent’s occupants looked at her slowly stretch herself, some with a small amount of envy at the complex healing magic done so easily. Luna trotted back out of the tent, fully healed and ready to go.

She gave the sky a passing glance and noted that it was about sunset and she should raise the moon now.

With a gentle smile on her lips, her horn glowed once more and the familiar white orb replaced the red one in the sky. She sat down on her haunches and stared silently at the moon before shutting her eyes. When she opened them, the stars had come out.

Her smile slowly turned happy to sad, “This is a beautiful full moon. It’s the least I can do.”

When she turned back to the battlefield, her face was back to it’s stoic state, “For many of us, it will be the last night they’ll ever see,” she whispered to herself.

In a flash, she was in the sky and shooting back to the front.

Some, more than others.

Author's Note:

I am back. I don't know how long I will be. I hope to get the next chapter out soon. Currently 1:05 AM where I am.

Don't worry. I won't leave this cliffhanger.

Comments

[Von Voctavia]

Really liking this story! :)

[devas]

6903388

...yes? Actual soldiers go through extensive training just to ignore that kind of thing, and the main character is, as far as I know, a civilian.

It would've been one thing if he'd ""knocked them out"" and didn't check if they were brain damaged or dead, or if he was an archer firing in a platoon who killed a bunch of enemies on the other side of a battlefield, but this kind of things is...weird.

I'm going to go with the simplest explanation and call it bad writing.

[MonkeyChunky]

6903411 ...fair enough.

[Murder Knight]

6903411
Sorry 'bout that.

6903388
I have to brush up on my story-writing skills. I actually have a plan to address that issue, but I have been extremely busy since January. School does that.

He's a civilian, that much I can tell you without spoiling things. I'll try to get back to writing when I have free time.

[Shadow of doubt]

This is great. In the all time fav box it goes.

[Im Iteration]

6903481 I see that you're writing 1 word a day.

[Lord of Something]

okay, who else sees Luna's intentions made clear in that last sentence?