The Equestrian Venture

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter Twenty Four: The Beast Riders

THE EQUESTRIAN VENTURE
Chapter Twenty Four: The Beast Riders
Written by TheCrimsonDM

At the edge of town a dark storm was seen approaching with incredible speed, the storm would arrive soon, and with the storm would come the dragon. A squad of five earth ponies stood bravely in front of the town facing the oncoming storm, their feeless leader Copper Axe marched before them with his golden armor and axe blades strapped to his four hooves. He gave an uplifting speech that riled up his fellow soldiers, preparing them for war. Meanwhile the Wonderbolts flew over head with Spitfire coaching them on what techniques they would unleash once the monsters arrived.

A small group of unicorns stood behind the soldiers, all of them wearing either a red robe or a blue one. From Rita’s understanding the robes indicated what their specialty in magic was, a similar concept was used in her world. Trixie stood in front of them with a stern expression but they all looked up to her with what Rita could only describe as pride. She had heard one of them calling Trixie the most determined pony they’d ever met, and that she never backed down even when the world was crumbling around her. Rita enjoyed the sentiment, but secretly she worried that Trixie wasn’t stable enough for this fight.

A group of unarmored ponies stood near the earth ponies and looked at the oncoming storm with grim determination. Maud, their leader stood firm in front of them and spoke quietly. Whatever she was saying obviously meant a lot to the ponies she was in charge of but Rita couldn’t hear a word of it from her position.

Meanwhile Rita stood on the roof of a small house alongside Twilight and Spike. Twilight was using this position so she could watch the battle and direct it, she would use a series of whisper spells to get messages across to the other squads and direct them from here. Spike and Rita were to be Twilight’s bodyguards and her spotters, keeping a look out for anything that needed immediate attention during the fight.

Rita wanted nothing more than to go to battle alongside the ponies on the ground, but without her proper equipment she didn’t want to risk it. Instead she just looked at the newly added gem in her left gauntlet and prayed that the Aether stone she had added would work the way she planed. After all it would be a real shame if the gem didn’t work after she had put so much effort and time into it.

The storm was still on its approach and would take a few minutes to arrive. Until then this was a waiting game, and the anxiety was only rising as the storm raged closer. Whatever threats loomed inside the storm, Rita was sure that it would be a rough battle. This whole scenario felt so similar to all the ones she had been in back in her own world, and she was already dreading this battle.

***

The storm arrived covering the town and blocking out the hopeful rays of sunlight causing the entire town to take on a dark and moody atmosphere. Now that the storm had arived the sounds of boots thumping hard against the ground could be heard by all, along with seeing the cloud of dust that was coming for the town. Just in front of the dust cloud tiny figures were visible; they looked almost like monkeys with dirty gray fur. The creatures’ mouths opened large showing off the two rows of extra sharp teeth as they cried with blood thirsty voices. They wore leather armor and wielded crude metal weapons, the small size of these creatures didn’t detract from their horror factor especially not after one saw their pale yellow eyes.

Twilight’s horn suddenly glowed pink and she called out, “We have goblins incoming. Lots of them.”

Rita looked further into the cloud and noticed something following just behind the goblins. Huge black wolves with spiked ridges along their backs. Sitting atop the wolves were diamond dogs, each with metal armor, and long reaching weapons. Rita didn’t like the look of this, and from Twilight’s expression neither did she.

With her horn still glowing Twilight said, “And we have Dire Wolves with Beast Riders. Be ready for incoming everyone.”

Twilight’s face grew grim as she waited for a moment and then she said quietly to Rita and Spike, “The goblins they’ve fought before, but the riders are new. This is a bad sign, and the worst part is that I still don’t see any signs of the dragon.”

“Crap, this is going to get brutal isn’t it?” Rita asked, cursing their luck.

Spike watched on for a moment before asking, “Can I join in? They could use my help, Twilight.”

“An AoE melee combatant who is nearly indestructible, of course they need your help. Go on, and… please be careful,” Twilight said.

Spike looked at her for a moment in shock before a smile found its way onto his lips and he said, “Don’t worry, I have a good reason to come home. I’ll see you when the dragon is stopped, good luck you two.” And with that Spike leapt off the roof top and nearly sailed his way to the ground before landing and taking off again on all fours at an incredible pace.

Twilight stared sadly at him as he ran off to join the earth ponies for a moment before returning her eyes to the sky. “I have launched some of my most powerful attacks at him before, and he was just fine. There is nothing that these monsters can do to harm him, especially not now that he’s grown.”

Rita smiled and said, “Dragons can be absolutely terrifying in combat. He’ll do just fine against some goblins and dogs.”

***

The goblins crashed into the earth ponies first and Rita could only watch as swords were swung and goblins felled with practiced ease. The earth ponies slew the goblins easily enough but the large numbers of the wicked little creatures kept them occupied as the Beast Riders charged in. One of the riders used a flail and knocked one of the guards into the air, he flew a feet before crash landing into the dirt. Copper Axe noticed and took off towards his fallen comrade. While the rider posed his beast in a position to finish off the wounded guard, Copper Axe jumped into the air. Copper Axe spun in the air once before bringing both of the axe blades down into the wolf’s skull. The large creature fell hard and its rider lost his balance before falling off as well. Copper Axe pulled his blades free and quickly finished the dog.

Meanwhile the Wonderbolts were having their own affair in the battle. The pegasi were able to swoop down and take care of the hardiest of goblins and riders alike with great speed while the ground troops distracted them. A few of the others were flying in a circular pattern with increasing speed and as Rita was just beginning to wonder at what they were doing a tornado suddenly appeared in between the pegasi. The pegasi much to Rita’s bewilderment then guided the tornado into the oncoming forces of monsters, picking them up off the ground and into the air only to be tossed out into random directions and falling to their doom.

The unicorns lead by Trixie, were casting either shields over their allies when needed or shooting down key enemies with bolts of solid energy. Occasionally they would stop long enough to heal one of the wounded soldiers. Trixie’s group was there for support not for actual combat, and from the dead look in Trixie’s eyes, Rita could tell that the blue unicorn was tired and desperately needed rest.

Finally Maud’s militia was shocking Rita even more with their own unique brand of combat. Maud would stand behind a relatively large boulder and using her hind legs kick the boulder with enough force to make it into a rolling ball of mass destruction, crushing all those who stood in its way. The ponies underneath Maud’s leadership used similar tactics and from the amount of boulders around them, they would have plenty of ammunition for the fight.

A large burst of green flame rose up through the crowd of goblins and a whirling mass of purple chaos tore through enemies as they tried to push through the guards. Spike was using his claws to rip deep gashes into his opponents and his fire breath to get rid of large numbers of foes at one time. A single goblin made it through his offenses though and swung for the dragon’s unprotected belly. Rita’s heart skipped a beat as the goblin’s dagger hit hard against the dragons scales, only to bounce off without leaving so much as a scratch on Spike. The goblin was shocked to say the least, giving Spike more than enough time to tear into him relentlessly. Rita was suddenly thankful for Spike being a dragon, if that had been a human down there in his stead, Rita would have lost yet another friend.

The battle raged on but there seemed to be no end to the monsters in sight. Twilight stomped her hoof down against the roof’s shingles and said, “Darn it, where is that dragon. We can only keep this defense up for a while longer before ponies start...”

Rita looked down at the ponies fighting hard against the oncoming forces. Twilight was correct, although they could keep the enemy at bay for a while, eventually numbers would win over power. Rita couldn’t figure out exactly what she could do to help in this battle, not yet anyway. If only that dragon golem would make its appearance already. Rita stomped her foot against the roof and swore, “Damn it, please just show up already you stupid dragon.”