Chapter 10: Eve of Battle
Chapter 10: Eve of Battle
The air moved across her carapace and despite having felt this several dozen times already Leyshi still shuddered in joy from the cool feeling from the breeze. Many of her kind complained about the cold but Leyshi enjoyed the sensation. She enjoyed practically everything about the surface! It was such a wonderful, magical place, filled with fascinating things! Excitement bubbled in every inch of her body, her long spindly legs practically bouncing.
She caught a sharp whiff of disapproval from the all too familiar pheromones coming off of Thriza, and the huge hunter didn’t even have to speak to make it clear he was annoyed with her. Leyshi buzzed with embarrassment as she realized she’d been letting out quite a bit of pheromones herself, announcing to practically every hunter caste in Thirza’s three eights that she was excited. None of the hunters dared to chitter their laughter at her. Small or not she was still of the brood caste and even if she was told by the broodmother to follow Thirza’s orders the other hunters still ranked below her. Not that she could really imagine herself punishing any of the hunters if one broke etiquette with an ill timed laugh. She'd never been very good as disciplining others. Chirziane had told her often it was a weakness Leyshi would need to overcome if she ever hoped to pass her trials and earn the right to become a broodmother herself.
“Thirzy,” she said, keeping her voice down despite the fact that they hadn’t seen any ponies walking around for many hours, “can I please take a closer look at the pony fort?”
“No.” he said simply, his large form not even moving, his large, powerful body standing stock still as he gazed both at her and, she imagined, at the distant fortress of the ponies. It was impossible to tell if the numerous pheromones of displeasure were just because of her or because of the fort. She smelled some salty, pungent apprehension in him that wasn't normal. Thirza was as anxious as she was. Probably for different reasons. She kind of envied his ability to keep his body still despite it all.
They were huddled deep inside the forest of strange wooden stalagmites that she knew the ponies called ‘trees’. Above the trees Leyshi could see the vast and dark cavern ceiling called the ‘sky’ with its endless glittering expanse of stars. The tiny pinpricks of light entranced Leyshi and she’d spent at least an hour earlier during the night just gazing at those stars, wondering what they really were. She knew what they were called because she’d spoken at length with the pony captives broodmother Chirziane kept, but she couldn’t fathom what they were. Gems, maybe? They looked a bit like the gems that at times encrusted the cavern ceilings of her homeland. If she held up one of her clawed forelegs she imagined she could almost reach out and pluck one of those 'stars' from the sky and draw it to her to examine up close.
She, Thirza, and his hunters had remained hidden from the ponies during the entire night, staying deep enough in the forest to remain out of sight. With dawn approaching they’d crept close enough that the pony’s fortress was visible. They were hidden among the trees to the east, and Leyshi knew that further west was a big river and that beyond that were the other creatures that lived out here, the ursans. The battle that broodmother Chirziane had arranged would happen soon, the very next night, and Leyshi didn’t know quite how to feel about that.
She trusted the broodmother completely, but it seemed like such a waste. The ponies were far more fascinating than the ursans, and Leyshi sort of hoped the ponies would win, even if that seemed quite impossible. Yet some part of her still thought it could happen. From the talk among the hunters she knew they held little more than dismissive contempt for the surface races, but Leyshi knew better. She’d learned from her talk with the broodmother’s test subjects, and the one time one of them had broken free, that ponies were dangerous. Beautiful, fascinating, and terribly dangerous.
“We must go soon,” said Thirza, exuding a sharp scent of urgency as he stepped up next to her. His looming presence was hard to ignore and Leyshi turned slightly to face him, raising one of her front legs in a pointing gesture off to the east.
“I want to watch the light when it comes. Can I climb one of the stalagmites to watch? I promise I’ll stay hidden!”
A deep hiss of displeasure escaped Thirza, only dissipating when Leyshi patted one of his legs with her own and let out a sweet pheromone unique to the brood caste that had a near instant calming effect on any male. Thirza stared at her for a few seconds, then said, “Very well, but take no longer than needed to watch that cured ball of light rise, then join the rest of us.”
He retreated deeper into the forest, where patches of gloomy shadow detached from bushes and trees, his hunters joining their leader’s silent strides back into the deeper darkness of the forest. Leyshi watched them go for a second before nearly hopping with joy as she approached one of the wood stalagmite trees and started to climb. Her long spindly legs pulled her up through the numerous branches, and she paused briefly to peer curiously at a passing creature on one of the branches. It was a tiny thing with a bushy tail, brown fur, and oversized front teeth.
“What are you, I wonder, little creature?” Leyshi asked, reaching out with one leg towards the critter, but it perked up immediately at her movement and leapt to a branch on another nearby tree. Leyshi was impressed by its leaping ability. So much like the Aranea of the trade caste with their powerful jumping legs. Leyshi let out a small hiss of disappointment, considering trying to catch the creature, but the world was already starting to brighten, telling her it was soon time for that incredible ball of light to appear in the sky.
She wasn’t going to miss it.
Deftly she climbed, until she was near the very top of the tree, perched with her legs stretched out between several branches and her back to the main trunk, using it as partial cover. She was sure she couldn’t be seen by any ponies at their fort, not unless one of the flying ones went right over her, and even then she felt her dark chitin blended well with the... leaves? Yes, leaves was the right word. She blended well with the leaves of the tree. She felt safe as she sat and watched the distant horizon.
Not even in the largest cavern of the Aranea capital, Sirith Zuroth, was such a vast and distant vista available. Leyshi’s heart beat faster deep inside her as the impossible large horizon lightened more and more, turning from midnight black to growing hues of purple, pink, and lightest blue. Hues she’d only seen on a few rare gems in her homeland, yet the creatures of the surface got to see each morning.
Leyshi was rather jealous, but if broodmother Chirziane’s plan worked they’d have a colony here on the surface and Leyshi would get to do this as much as she wanted!
The light hurt, as the sky became brighter. Her eyes ached from the intensity, before the ball of fire even appeared at the edges of the horizon. But Leyshi didn’t want to look away. The colors spread across the sky and the horizon began to turn a brilliant stream of gold, stirring feelings inside her of awe and excitement unlike anything she’d known back home. When finally that bright orb, the ‘sun’, broke the horizon and began its slow ascent into the sky Leyshi had to look away. It was beautiful, but so painful. Aranea eyes were too sensitive for such bright lights, but pain or not Leyshi still felt it worth it to even catch a glimpse of such inspiring beauty.
And the warmth! The sun rays hit her carapace and left her feeling a warm glow like being in a pleasant cavern hot spring, yet this sunlight seemed to carry a vitalizing energy to it that left Leyshi feeling content and calm. It was almost akin to being embraced by a loving stream of affection pheromones. Leyshi hadn't felt this way since her last taste of such pheromones from the broodmother that had lain the eggsack Leyshi had spawned from. It felt like a very long time ago.
With a highly reluctant hiss she turned to start her climb back down, knowing Thirza would be angry with her if she took too much longer.
When the net descended over her it took Leyshi by complete surprise. Thick ropes wrapped up her many legs, and sharp, horrible pain exploded through her senses as one of those legs was twisted and nearly snapped as a massive amount of force tore her straight off the tree. She let out a horrified and pained shriek, pheromones of terror flowing from her. The world was tumbling and she could barely oriented herself, and only the feeling of the air tearing past her made her realize she was in the air at all... but not falling?
“Keep it tight!” she heard a voice say, a pony voice, speaking their tongue, which she understood a fair bit of, “Don’t you dare drop it!”
“I know, I know! Damn thing is struggling!”
Leyshi realized she had been struggling, flailing madly without even realizing it. While her terror was near overwhelming she forced herself to still, to try and take stock of her situation.
She was thoroughly wrapped up in a net, one of her legs broken, the rest uselessly tied up in the rope of the net. She was suspended between two of the flying ponies. They had their forehooves gripped around the net that Leyshi suspected they’d flown at high speed to catch her with, snatching her right off the tree. They had spears tucked across their backs, but any thought of fighting back left Leyshi’s mind as she saw there were four more of the flying, winged ponies who were pacing their comrades with the net, each carrying a spear and looking at her as if they wouldn't hesitate to kill her if she tried fighting back.
To Leyshi’s further dismay she realized they were taking her further away from the forest and heading straight for the pony fortress.
Apparently she was going to get a closer look at the ponies and their fort regardless of what Thirza had said.
Leyshi was starting to wish she’d stayed back home.
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“They caught one?” Coldiron asked, dumbfounded but quickly growing intense as she clambered out of her bunk. She’d been sleeping light anyway, still wearing her battlemage leather coat and with her dagger sitting by her bunk.
“Surprised the heck out of me, too.” said Counter Charge, “The patrol didn’t wait for instructions, they just snatched the thing when they spotted it up in one of the trees. They just landed, and the Captain wants you there right away.”
Coldiron belted on her dagger and didn’t question further as Counter Charge led her out of the barracks into the cold morning air. It was a stark blue sky above with barely any clouds and it felt like it was going to be a chiller of a day. That touched off a few nerves inside. Most ponies who spent long enough in the Western Barrier Lands got a feel for the weather, and the cold snap this morning felt like it might lead to snow tonight.
The center courtyard was filled with a crowd of ponies, many of them being berated by their superiors to get back to their tasks, but it was hard to disperse the crowd from watching the spectacle at the center. A squad of pegasi were dragging a still, black form wrapped up in a net towards the center keep. Coldiron didn’t have to look twice to realize the creature in the net was a Lurker. At first she thought it was one of the web spinning variety, but as she and Counter Charge got closer she noticed differences. This Lurker was a bit larger, but with a thinner, more elongated body. It’s legs were longer as well. Coldiron noted the dark carapace of the Lurker had a few stripes and patches of a lighter, blue color, still dark but different enough to stand out against the rest of the Lurker’s body.
The Lurker was emitting an uneven series of faint hisses, the only real sign it was alive at all because it was staying stock still as the pegasi dragged it along.
“Hey, Coldiron! Hey!” came the familiar voice of Blossomforth as the pegasus flew over the crowd and landing nearby, “What’s going on? Whoa! Is that what I think it is!?”
Counter Charge rolled her eyes, gesturing for Coldiron to go inside the keep, “Go along, I’ll run interference with the crowd.”
The earth pony mare turned towards Blossomforth and many of the other ponies that were still trying to gather around to stare at the capture, and bellowed out, “Alright troops enough gawking! Get your flanks back to your posts and assigned tasks pronto or we’ll be dusting off the lash post! Move it!”
Her sharp, commanding voice got the Legionnaires moving along, with Blossomforth frowning but heading off after Coldiron gave the pegasus a firm shake of her head. Before long she was inside the main entrance chamber of the keep with Captain Runeward trotting to meet her and the pegasi pulling along the prisoner.
Runeward halted to gaze down at the still, seemingly frozen, Lurker. His eyes glittered with a hard light that reflected the torches lighting the hall, “Take it down below.”
In short order Coldiron found herself standing along the Captain in the cell area in the basement of the keep. The pegasi had tossed the Lurker into a small stone cell, thick iron bars cutting off the room from the hallway where nine other cells were situated side by side. Runeward glanced at the pegasi, “I want no less than a full squad of guards on this creature at all times, including at least one mage. Also somepony send for Quick Needle. I want him down here for this.”
Salutes were given and four of the pegasi remained behind as the remaining two left to fetch Quick Needle. Runeward turned to Coldiron, gesturing with a hoof at the Lurker, “Any idea why it isn’t moving?”
Coldiron was about to reply when a voice spoke. It was high pitched and squeaky, almost like that of a filly with a sore throat.
“I’m not moving because I don’t want you to hurt me.”
Coldiron’s shock was about on par with what could be expected if the Lurker had suddenly turned pink, put on a top hat, and begun to tap dance in its cell. From the slack jawed look on Captain Runeward’s face, an expression could not recall ever seeing on the old stallion’s face, he was just as taken aback as she was. To his credit he recovered quickly, faster than Coldiron did.
“You speak our language?” he asked, tone as cold as the stone of the prison cells.
The Lurker didn’t immediately answer, its mandibles twitching, one of its legs rubbing at another leg that Coldiron noted was twisted, the chitin cracked on it. After a few more moments it spoke again, in that same sore throated fillyish voice, “I can talk. Yes. Please don’t hurt me.”
Runeward sucked in a breath, turning his gaze towards Coldiron, “This makes things easier. Get everything you can out of this… thing. I’m placing you in charge of its interrogation. If we’re attacked tonight, I want to know anything you can get out of it about its plans, whatever it might know.”
Coldiron was still shaken at the mere notion the Lurker was talking, not to mention seemed, well, terrified, but she saluted, “Yes sir. Am I free to use any means I deem needed to extract information?”
“Yes, of course. I’d called you in here hoping you’re firsthoof experience with these things would prove useful in interpetng it’s actions, but since it can talk I trust you can do a lot more than that. Have Quick Needle help you when he gets here. He should know enough of their anatomy by now that you can hurt it without killing it.”
“Please!” said the Lurker again, its voice even higher pitched than before, “I talk! I can talk a lot, but no hurting! I want to know about ponies, too.”
Runeward turned his hard eyes towards the Lurker, which by now had slowly extricated itself from the net and was now standing in the center of the cell, almost completely still except for its twitching mandibles, its eight glittering eyes staring at them. Runeward’s lips turned into a small snarl as he turned to leave, only saying, “Whatever it takes, Sergeant.”
Coldiron was left awkwardly watching the Lurker, the four pegasus guards standing about like grim statues. Her mind was buzzing with possibilities, trying to decide how to even begin interrogating this creature. It was strange, looking at it. The monsters she fought in the tunnels beneath Arrow Vale had filled her with a heady combination of fear and revulsion, and those feelings were still present just looking at this Lurker… but its attitude put Coldiron off balance. She quashed the feeling, decided that, ultimately, she’d treat this just like if she had the task of interrogating a normal criminal or enemy. What was taking Quick Needle so long?
“How do you know our language?” she asked first, deciding to test just how chatty this Lurker really was.
“I talk with ponies,” it said, “I am Leyshi! What’s your name?”
Coldiron frowned, “You don’t need to know that. What ponies did you talk to?”
The Lurker, Leyshi, took longer to answer this time, “Ponies my mistress owns. We test, learn, figure ponies out. Learn to talk as ponies talk. Hard to do. Mouth not made for pony sounds but trained myself to talk because I hoped to talk to more ponies. I want to learn more. Are you a female or male pony?”
A blast of frost iced over the ground near Leyshi’s front legs, causing the Lurker to skitter back. Coldiron’s horn, glowing frosty blue, didn’t dim and her eyes stayed hard, “I’m the one who asks questions. You’re the one who gives answers. If you don’t give good answers, or enough answers, I’ll start with freezing over your legs. We are not friends. Your race has hurt mine. The only thing you’re going to learn about ponies is how big a mistake you’ve made in doing so.”
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The day could not end soon enough. Ulragnok stalked about the lines of his warriors, his braves, as they prepared for the glory that would come with the setting of the sun. Claws were sharpened upon the trunks of trees or the stones of the river. He feared not his warriors being seen by the ponies. Let them see their deaths, let them know that battle was upon them and that there would be neither escape nor victory against the might of the ursan clans!
Little could abate his agitation and eagerness for nightfall. It made it hard to stay still. He walked among his people and at least found some satisfaction and escape from his nerves by seeing the eager light in the eyes of almost every young ursan he passed. Each roar or greeting, every bellow of “Ulragnok!” and “To glory!” left him reminded of the correctness of his path.
This was what the ursans clans should be doing. Even if less than half of the clans had come to his call he still felt both pride and confidence in the alliance of clans he’d created and knew that as long as he succeeded here it was only a matter of time before the other clans came into line. Even the elders of the more venerable clans would have to accept the legitimacy of Ulragnok as a Warchief and of this fresh offensive against the ponies. No more skirmishes. No more ambushes. No more wasting away his youth until he was an old, toothless elder with no battle glories to claim when he inevitably died and went to Ursenheim.
That had been his greatest fear since he was little more than a cub. Dying having done nothing of note or worth to speak of in the halls of death, where the ursan warriors of old could sing songs of their great past battles and earned glories, but Ulragnok and so many modern braves would be left with nothing to sing of but the fact that they perhaps fought ponies once or twice in minor skirmishes of no importance.
That would not be his fate or the fate of his people! Even if they died on pony spears at least it would be a battle that would be remembered, worthy of song!
But Ulragnok did not intend to die, nor did he think his army could be defeated. Not by the puny fort across the river. It would be smashed to pieces by his braves and once they’d gorged themselves on that victory he would lead them further to more battles, more glory, and carve his name into the memory of the ponies and ursans alike for generations to come!
“If you pace any harder you shall dig yourself a tunnel to the Dark Mother’s realm,” said a female ursan who was lounging by a clearing edge.
Her amused tone caused Ulragnok to pause, turning towards her. The female ursan was younger than he, but of the same size, with a slightly more svelte form that was no less muscled for it. Her dark brown fur was unarmored, and she wore a set of long, colorful roc feathers tied to her head. That alone spoke of her strength, for none could wear an article from a creature they had not slain themselves, and Ulragnok knew well the roc’s of the high mountains were no easy foes. The respect he felt for that alone kept him from snapping at her for her seemingly mocking tone. Curious, he didn’t recognize any clan markings on her.
“Who are you, to take such a tone with your Warchief?” he growled, challengingly.
The female’s grin showed flashes of her white fangs, and when she stood from her lounging position it was with a roll of unmistakable power and grace, her eyes glittering with amusement. She affected something akin to a bow of her head.
“Regarna, Warchief,” she said, “A simple warrior, who’s come to join this most promising gathering. Now, tell me, why does the mighty Ulragnok pace so?”
The name sparked no recognition in his mind. Was she outcast? Or from a clan so minor it bore no markings of honor, yet? He snorted.
“It is the eve of battle,” he said simply, “I am merely filled with the lust to put my claws to the work of shedding the blood of our enemies.”
Regarna rolled her shoulders and let out a rumbling laugh that reminded Ulragnok of the noise of a distant avalanche, “As are we all, Warchief. I didn’t follow you to this place because I was any more content than you to let myself grow old and infirm without a battle as the legends speak of. Still, try not to stalk around like a mad mountain cat. You’ll make the other braves nervous.”
Ulragnok growled, looking away, “I’m not nervous. Warchief’s don’t get nervous.”
“So stop acting as if you are,” Regarna shot back, a cocky gleam entering her eyes.
Anger flared inside his chest and Ulragnok wheeled on the impertinent female, already taking a ready stance for battle, “Do not presume to tell me what to do.”
“Will you stop me, mighty, nervous Warchief?”
His only response was a earth shaking roar as he charged at her. His first swipe went over her head as Regarna ducked down with swiftness her bulky ursan body belied. She drove forward, rather than retreat from his fury, and soon Ulragnok felt the air blasting from his lungs as she drove her shoulder into his chest. Her arms wrapped firmly around his mid-section as she forced him back, both their claws digging through the dirt.
Ulragnok recovered just enough to work his own arm underneath the pit of hers and with a mighty heave sent the upstart flying in a hard throw. He was already breathing hard, his blood pumping, and to his surprise he felt a strange jolt of pleasure as he saw that Regarna bounced back from the throw quickly, rolling to her paws and came right back at him. Other warriors had gathered around the scuffle, curious to watch their Warcheif’s fight with one of his braves.
Regarna’s claws flashed at him as she reared up on her hind legs. The powerful blow landed, rocking his skull from the might behind it. Shaking off the daze he reared up as well, lashing out and catching her across the shoulder, knocking her off balance. He followed up by landing on all fours and charging forward to try and bowl her over, but Regarna regained her balance and met him head on. The met in a titanic clap of hard bodies and for half a minute both ursans pushed and slashed at each other at close range, biting and wrestling to try and gain advantage.
Finally Ulragnok managed to get a good grip on the scruff of her neck and with a hard wrench managed to flip Regarna onto her back. He straddled her, claws poised above her neck. His blood was blazing hot in his veins, but rather than lust for the kill, rather than anger at her impertinence for challenging him, Ulragnok felt another kind of lust rising inside him. A lust that, to his surprise, was compounded by the eager gleam in her eyes as she stared up at him with a toothy grin.
“Feeling better, Warchief?” she asked.
Ulragnok snorted, “Better. Shall I show you how much better?”
It was her turn to snort, pushing him off her with a playful shove, “And tire you out for the battle to come? Let us both survive this battle so we may sing of our glories together, after that I may test your endurance in ways besides a simple sparring match.”
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It only took the first hour on guard duty for Trixie to decide that it was the absolute worst task in the Legion besides actually having to fight. At least with the dirtier chores like digging latrine pits she was actually doing something. It didn’t help that she was stuck starring off into the forest where she could clearly see the ursans, who at this point where making no effort at all to hide their presence. She even saw a number of the lumbering beasts go to the riverbank and dunk in, either washing themselves or apparently snatching some of the fish inside the shallows.
The ursans looked to her like they didn’t have a care in the world and that got under Trixie’s hide! As if they’d just run roughshod over this fort with no effort! Unfortunately Trixie couldn’t muster many thoughts to counter that prospect. There were an awful lot of ursans out there. It was getting harder and harder for Trixie to push down a rising sense of panic and a need to run. She’d more than once glanced back towards the east gate, wondering how far she might get if she just snuck out that way and made a run for it.
She kept pushing that thought away. Not only did it not seem likely she’d get all that far she couldn’t bring herself to consider leaving behind the few friends she’d managed to make out here. That, and there was her pride to consider. But was pride worth her life? Were her friends? Well, one of those, at least, was an easy enough answer. The fear remained, however, locked behind a door in her mind, that come the pinch she'd end up breaking and running...
Just like Ponyville.
Though dying alongside my friends isn’t exactly the magnificent ending I’d hoped for the Great and Powerful Trixie, she thought glumly, wondering what she could do to maximize her and her friends chances of surviving the night. Ultimately the only conclusion she could come to was that, if things truly did go bad here, that she’d drag Blossomforth away under the cloak of an invisibility spell and take her chances in running. If she could she’d bring Coco, Allie Way, as many of the other ponies as she could… maybe even that stubborn mare Coldiron, though Trixie knew the Legion unicorn would never abandon the fort. She might even try to stop Trixie and the others from running if things turned for the worst.
But any chance to live beat a useless death in a hopeless battle, right?
“Yikes, you okay Trixie? Looking a tad pale faced there,” said Blossomforth as she fluttered up to the ramparts where Trixie was standing guard. Trixie was startled by the pegasus’ sudden arrival but managed to confident stance, puffing her chest out.
“Trixie doesn’t know what you mean. She is steadfastly watching the giant bear things with a keen and ready eye! Nothing shall get past Trixie the Ever Vigilant!”
“If you say so.” said Blossomforth, a catty smile on her face as she peered over the ramparts, “Yeesh, there are a bunch of them out there. I don’t think they could get at us without making the ground bounce like an earthquake. Kind of makes having sentries seem redundant, but if we got more Lurkers out there it makes more sense. You hear about the one they caught?”
Trixie, glad for the change in subject, let out a sigh, “Kind of difficult not to given the commotion it caused when they brought it in. Have you heard anything more?”
Blossomforth’s wings fluttered as she turned to lean against the ramparts, shrugging, “Nah, nopony sides Coldiron and the doc have gone into the keep since they took the poor thing in there.”
“Poor thing?” Trixie asked with an incredulous tone, “You can’t seriously feel any sympathy for those monstrous creatures, can you?”
Blossomforth looked up at the sky, tapping a hoof to her chin, eyes lost in thought, “Dunno. I mean, yeah, can’t forget what they did to the ponies in that town. But way I figure it any species has to have its good hearted types and bad hearted types, right? I mean, not like we ponies are all peace, love, and rainbows.”
She gestured at the Legion fort around them and the many Legionnaires within, as if to emphasis her point, “So maybe that Lurker’s crazy evil or something, but then again maybe it ain’t. Either way, I just kind of felt bad watching it get dragged inside the keep, because to my eyes it looked pretty damned scared. I know I don’t like being scared, so it probably doesn’t either. That’s all I was saying.”
Trixie just shook her head, wondering at the odd nature of the pegasus next to her. Blossomforth seemed to Trixie like a compressed cosmos of optimism and empathy that left Trixie wondering how the other mare managed it. Then again perhaps, Trixie thought, that she hadn’t paid enough attention to the ponies she’d met in her life up until now. Equestria was filled with those like Blossomforth. Trixie, she sadly had to admit, was the odd one out with her focus on herself and her own ambitions. Empathizing with others hadn’t been a top priority.
“Trixie thinks that perhaps that is a good way to think, but you shouldn’t expect too much either. The Lurkers kill ponies. The ursans kill ponies. It seems pretty much everything else in the world besides ponies kill ponies and Trixie is starting to think she wouldn’t be surprised if even ponies kill ponies.”
“Geez, you’re pretty down aren’t you, Trix?” asked Blossomforth, “How much longer you got on guard duty? When you’re done you should come down for lunch or something. I think I need to get your mind off things.”
“That may prove difficult, given its rather hard to forget how soon we’ll be fighting for our lives.” said Trixie, who hesitated just a moment before adding, quietly, “If things get bad, if it’s obvious we won’t be able to win… Trixie knows magic to make us invisible.”
Blossomforth went very quiet then. Trixie began to feel rather nervous as she watched Blossomforth standing still, staring off at nothing. Finally when Blossomforth did speak it was without the usual cheerful humor, instead becoming lowered and serious.
“Don’t think like that, Trixie. Please don’t think like that. It’s like a bad seed that gets stuck in your head if you let it. So promise me you’ll forget any thought like that and focus on one thing; we’re going to make it through this. Together. Okay?”
Trixie pressed her lips firmly as an irrational irritation rose inside her. Making it through this insanity together was exactly why she was thinking of the possibility of fleeing if the time came! It wasn’t as if Trixie was saying she wouldn’t fight, or try her hardest, but… but… if the fight turned sour, if winning became clearly impossible what was the point of throwing one’s life away!?
She wanted to shout these things at Blossomforth, but there were too many Legion ponies close by also on guard duty and she couldn’t risk raising her voice, or really even talking about this too openly. Instead Trixie just let out a hard sigh and said, “Trixie will try to…”
Blossomforth gave her a quick hug, “Good. Guess I’ll get back to the supply room. Bluffed a potty break to get some fresh air. Getting tired of stacking crossbow bolts. This place has a store of them so large you’d think they were planning to pincushion every ursan in the entire mountain range.”
The pegasus mare was back to smiling happily as she fly off, giving Trixie a final wave, which Trixie gladly returned before resuming her watch of the ursans. Despite Blossomforth’s words it was very hard to keep her thoughts away from dark places as the day wore on.
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Leyshi could use her legs to count the number of times in her life she’d been in any real physical pain. There’d off course been a few incidents as a young spawnling, still fresh from the egg, learning about the world around her and the limits of her body. She’d damaged a leg back then, too, trying to learn how to climb walls for the first time and learning the hard way that slick moss makes for bad purchase on a young Aranea’s leg hooks. Now all of her leg’s hurt. The pony with the horn had not been lying about starting with Leyshi’s legs.
The ice was numbing at first, but the pony seemed rather smart, or maybe it was the other one, Quick Needle, who knew enough about her body to cause pain without permanent damage. At least Leyshi was fairly sure there wouldn’t be any permanent damage. Assuming she lived long enough to heal. Which seemed rather doubtful at the present moment. The ice would harden, biting, taking away sensation, then as it melted from her chitin the surface would crack and splinter in patterns not unlike a spinner castes’ web, exposing raw nerves to the open air. The sting was agony, a concentrated rush of pain that tore through her senses. Leyshi didn’t know how to make the ponies stop hurting her. She answered their questions! At least she answered as many as she could.
Leyshi wasn’t stupid. She knew she couldn’t tell them about Thirza and his hunters. She couldn’t tell them about broodmother Chirziane and her plans for the surface. Leyshi was terrified, the pain terrible, but bred into her very blood was a loyalty to race and brood that even that fear could not overturn. She’d die before divulging information that would hurt her people. But she tried her best to still give the ponies answers they would like. She told them about the castes, the purpose of each. Hunters fought for the brood, spinners built for the brood, traders negotiated and traveled for the brood, and the brood caste itself created the brood. She tried to explain what a brood was, the complex social unit it represented, but the ponies didn’t want to learn. They weren’t interested in what Aranea were, only what they were planning and how to kill them. So very narrow minded. She hoped not all ponies were so singular in their thinking.
They hadn’t killed her yet, which Leyshi didn’t know what to think of. Did they think if they kept causing her pain she’d eventually tell them more? She hoped not. That would just lead to more pain, fruitless for all parties involved. Perhaps they were planning to eat her, they way Aranea ate ponies? That seemed the most sensible choice to Leyshi. It’d be bad to put to waste a good body, and if ponies could eat Aranea then it made sense they’d keep her for when they got hungry. After all it would only be polite. The thought that the ponies might kill her without eating her seemed so… so rude! You don’t just toss bodies out to waste! Think of the young! She was sure pony young got as hungry as often as Aranea young. Probably. Regardless, Leyshi was mortified by the idea of dying for no reason. Not that she wanted to die at all but at least for the all important and noble goal of food she could accept that as a partial consolation.
But she very much wanted to live and learn about poines, even if they weren’t very talkative.
“Why won’t you answer my questions?” she asked, during one of the pauses when the ice creating pony Coldiron would confer with the Quick Needle.
The one called Coldiron, which Leyshi had learned when Quick Needle had let it slip, looked ready to encase one of Leyshi’s legs in ice again but Quick Needle held up a hoof to stop her. He approached the bars of her cell. He, like Coldiron, was one of the horned ponies, but she hadn’t seen him use any magic, yet. The only way she was able to figure out he was male was because she’d managed a glimpse under his tail briefly during the questioning. At least she assumed what she’d seen meant he was male. With ponies she supposed anything was possible. It stood to reason, however, that if Quick Needle was male, then Coldiron might be female, because of the structural differences.
She made a mental note to add this information to her and broodmother Chirziane’s notes if she ever got back. They hadn’t spent any time learning about the pony genders during their experiments but it seemed pertinent information.
“We don’t have any reason to answer questions from you.” Quick Needle said, his tone hard for Leyshi to read. Without pheromones it was so hard to tell the mood of these ponies, “Our only goal is to learn about you and your race, so we can better defend ourselves from you. Can you provide a single logical reason we’d want to answer any of your questions?”
“Because learning is natural,” Leyshi said as if the answer should have been obvious, “it doesn’t hurt you to let me learn. You’re going to kill me anyway, yes? What harm is there, then, in letting me learn before I die? I like learning. It’s why I came here.”
“Stop wasting time Quick Needle,” said Coldiron, even Leyshi able to grasp the growling, angry tone in her voice, “I think we’ve gotten all we can out of this thing for now.”
Quick Needle made a strange rolling gesture with his shoulders that Leyshi didn’t understand as he said, “It’s remarkably resilient to pain. Perhaps we are going about this interrogation the wrong way. We may learn more just by exchanging information.”
“We are not to give it anything.” said Coldiron, “If we let any vital information slip and it somehow managed to escape the damage done would be our responsibility.”
There was a flicker in Quick Needle’s eyes as he looked back at Coldiron, and Leyshi found herself watching with fascination despite her lingering pain and dangerous predicament. Pony eyes were very interesting. They only had the two, but could move them in all sorts of ways that a Aranea couldn’t do with their eyes. She suspected that a lot of communication happened between ponies with just their eyes, like the way Coldiron’s seemed to narrow with their odd fleshy lids as Quick Needle stared at her with his own unblinking ones. It was as if an entire conversation passed between the two with just a few seconds of eye contact. Leyshi wished she had something to take notes with.
“Ugh, alright, fine, have it your way,” said Coldiron at last, leaning back against the wall, “Chat away with the damned thing. Just don’t answer any sensitive questions.”
“Of course,” said Quick Needle and he turned back to Leyshi’s cell, fixing his intense eyes upon hre. She stared into them, wondering if she could parce out any meaning from their depths, but pony eyes remained a mystery to her.
“Alright, so, let’s talk,” he said, “You have questions, and I have more than ones about your species plans for us. So you get to ask a question and I’ll answer if I can, then I’ll ask a question and you’ll answer if you can. Simple enough for you?”
Leyshi bounced on her legs, ignoring the shooting pain through her cracked legs at the movement. She was too excited now to feel, or care much, about the pain. Finally! Some civilized conversation without the threat of limb loss!
“Oh yes! Very much so! Can I ask first!?”
Quick Needle seemed taken aback by her energy, stepping back a bit from the cell before he nodded. Leyshi knew that gesture as an affirmative. She was a pony expert! Even the prospect of death or being eaten soon didn’t bother her now. Let the learning begin!
----------
The sour look on Captain Runeward’s face could have scoured the metal off a full suit of armor, Coldiron thought, as she finished giving him her report on the interrogation of the Lurker, Leyshi. She remained at rigid attention next to Quick Needle as the two waited for Runeward to speak. He remained behind his office desk for a long minute, that sour metal stripping look not slipping the entire time until he spoke.
“So the short answer is that you didn’t learn anything of value?”
Coldiron cleared her throat, wondering if she survived the battle with the ursans if the Captian wasn’t just going to put to work in the mess hall for the rest of her career, “We couldn’t confirm if she was on the surface alone or with others, or much about the plans of her race for the surface. Sir, I put as much pain on that Lurker as I could short of killing her, but she refused to answer any sensitive questions. If we had more time, time to use other methods such as isolation, starvation, sensory deprivation, we might get more, but for today… no sir, sorry sir.”
“To speak frankly sir,” said Quick Needle, “I think we got far more than you give us credit for. While we don’t know if her people will attack us tonight or even any time soon, I was able to glean quite a bit from just talking with her for an hour.”
“Her…” Runeward spat, as if referring to the Lurker with a gender left a bad taste in his mouth. Truthfully Coldiron shared the sentiment, but after a time listening to Leyshi it’d become clear enough she was female.
“That alone is an important piece of information,” said Quick Needle firmly, “Leyshi, and others of her ‘brood caste’ are the only females of her race. All other Lurkers, all other castes, are male. Furthermore, Leyshi is a juvenile female. In order to become an adult I learned the younger members of the brood caste need to pass some kind of set of trials, then ingest some kind of substance she called a ‘Queen’s Favor’. That not only tells us possible weakness of her species, but suggests they are ruled by a monarch.”
“I want you to compile all you’ve learned in a written report. Add it to the details of your autopsy of the dead one,” said Runeward, “I suppose as little as it is it’s better than nothing and the rest of the Legion needs to know all it can of what we’re up against.”
“What do you want done with the prisoner now, sir?” asked Coldiron.
“It’s a moot point,” said Runeward, looking as if the air was gradually being let out of him as he sank in his seat, “Unless we hold the fort it won’t matter what we do with the thing. I’m loath to keep any Legionnaires off the wall but we can’t afford to leave it unguarded. Leave two troops watching its cell, then get to your ready posts. I have a bad feeling tonight may well be the night the ursans hit us. Dismissed.”
Coldiron and Quick Needle both saluted and departed the Captain’s office.
----------
Thirza’s rage was only eclipsed by his humiliation and fear. How could that dim witted, scatter minded, surface crazy female let herself get caught!? It was entirely his own fault but he wanted sorely to place all the blame on Leyshi. Yet he knew he should not have let her out of his sight, even for a few minutes! Now she was a captive of the ponies and he was sorely limited in his options.
His hunters could easily sense the raw, hot pheromones of his anger wafting off him and they gave him a wide berth as he paced in the deeper parts of the forest. He knew that, to a hunter, they’d follow him anywhere, into any action. If he charged the walls of the pony fort they’d follow. To their deaths. Thirza thought little enough of the ponies but he knew enough to understand a direct assault on the fortress was out of the question.
Tunneling would take too long with so few hunters with him and no spinners to help with the task. The ursans would attack this night, and it was already late afternoon, that cursed ball of fire in the sky that Leyshi was so keen to see already well past its zenith. If he was to act it would have to be when the ponies were tied up battling the ursans. It was his, and Leyshi’s, only chance.
He gradually calmed as the plan became firmer in his mind. He didn’t know where Leyshi had been taken, but the pony fortress was not that large. When the ursans attacked and the ponies were embroiled in combat he and his three eights of hunters would move. They’d use the darkness of night, the new moon that would provide no cursed light to blind or reveal him and his hunters, to climb the walls and enter the fort. If they hit hard and fast enough he felt confident they could break through any resistance and then it would just be a matter of tearing through the fort room by room until they found their lost charge.
The ursans would be a problem, though. Except for their foolish so-called ‘Warchief’ none of the other hulking, furry beasts had any idea the Aranea were on the surface, let alone that they were supposedly allies. It was just as likely that Thriza and his hunters would have to fight through the ursans as well as the ponies.
He was fine with that. He had no love for anything that dwelt on the surface. With a firm inner conviction he resolved that he’d cut through anything that stood in his path, and snatch Leyshi away from the webbing of her own stupidity, even if it killed him!
----------
When evening’s burnished, golden glory began to give way to the creeping shadow of night it was as if the forest to the west came to life. Bonfires sparked to life along the western bank of the Bear Bones as the ursans lit dozens of constructed fires.
Trixie wasn’t certain why they were lighting those fires until the unicorn beside her muttered, “They need to see where they’re going as much as we need to see what we’re aiming at.”
He was a thick boned brown stallion, named Battering Ram, Trixie thought. Or was it Catapult? She couldn’t recall. He was assigned as the lead with her ‘array’ between herself, him, and another unicorn, the Canterlot fellow she’d seen training with Allie Way. Wine Taster? Yes, that was it. Allie Way was nearby, just one array over, another trio consisting of two Equestrians and a Barrier Land’s Legion unicorn with the experience to lead. All the unicorns were from 3rd Company, who were sharing the northwest wall with the Heartlanders.
They were set up behind a solid row of earth ponies, all armed with those ludicrously large crossbow arrangements mounted on their backs. Many had those large claymore blades set by the side of the palisade, for when things got… up close. Trixie wasn’t sure where Coco Pommel was. Further down the line to the north, no doubt. She was stationed near the very southern tip of the northwest wall, right where the west gate was. Trixie, like or not (definitely not for those wondering) was going to get the front most seat to the action. She was trying not to let her insides turn to ice water at the thought.
Behind the earth ponies the unicorns were arranged in their arrays, and Trixie glanced behind her to see the lines of the pegasi, Legion and Heartlander alike, waiting on the lower deck of the palisade wall. They had their spears, ready to use, though Trixie had no idea for sure what tactics the pegasi were stuck with. She searched the ranks for a head of neon green and pink mane. There. Blossomforth was near dead center of the formation, looking far to calm. Trixie wondered what Blossomforth’s secret was.
“Okay lugheads!” called Alpine, walking up and down the line, “Show’s about to start! Earth ponies, lock and load! Unicorns, prep your spells! Our neighbors are about to come asking for some sugar, let’s not disappoint them!”
Across the field of growing darkness, the last vestiges of the sun’s light were rapidly vanishing. Trixie watched as hulking shadows, ursans, moved like a thundering wave into a vast yet ordered mass at the edge of the west bank. Other ursans went to the bonfires, and to Trixie’s surprise she saw them taking up large, flaming logs from the fire. The ursans would rear up and with strength unbelievable to the little azure unicorn from Canterlot, the bears threw the flaming logs across the river.
The flaming projectiles came nowhere near the fortress palisade, but littered the banks and slope on the east side of the river like scatterings of fireflies. The result was a very well lit river and area of ground near its east bank. Curiously, Trixie glanced at Battering Ram.
“What are they doing?”
“Lighting up their staging ground.” the blunt faced Legion stallion said, “We can’t do anything about it. No range, even for the heavy crossbows. Just watch. They’re going to cross.”
Trixie did so, fascinated as the ursans went about crossing the river. A part of her wondered, as she watched the masses of ursans splash into the dark waters of the river, why the Legion hadn’t set up a defense line at the riverbank. Couldn’t they have done quite a bit of damage to the ursans as they crossed the river and tried to get out the east bank, all slow and water logged?
She asked as much and Battering Ram snorted, “They’d just batter us with lobbers across the river if we tried that. We don’t have the numbers to expose ourselves to a shooting match without our palisade.”
“Lobbers?” Wine Taster asked, gulping, wide eyes.
“Rocks. Size of your head. Look,” Battering Ram pointed with a hoof, “See those rafts? Bags of rocks. You think they can throw those torches far, wait ‘till you see a lobber throwing those stones. Keep your head down when you can. You hear a whistle, probably too late.”
Battering Ram was smiling grimly. Trixie just watched with dull, fearful interest as she did notice there were a number or rafts the ursans were towing with them across the river. She still thought it might’ve been better to try and fight them there, but then again, there was no real cover on the downward slope towards the east bank. If they’d set up there, and the ursans did start tossing rocks across… Trixie patted the firm, sturdy logs of the palisade in front of her; happy for the cover if nothing else.
The ursans’ river crossing took less than an hour. A long, anxious hour for the ponies in Beartrap Fortress. Trixie’s mouth was dry as a pile of dirt and her stomach was tying itself in knots. The smell of so many sweating ponies around her was adding to her sense of bubbling concern. Herd instinct. She could scent the fear of her fellow ponies and it was engendering its herd mentality for flight or fight. Hopefully fight would sink in soon enough. Trixie was tired of her legs feeling like they were shaking. She was suddenly rather glad of the dark, as if some Legion pony might see her shaky knees and shout ‘coward!’ at her.
Once the bears had crossed in their multitude they gathered themselves into a staggered series of masses, like loose, organized mobs. Three lines, thick and shifting, and Trixie nearly barked a laugh as the image of a layer cake flitted through her mind. If the ursans were a cake then Trixie only hoped they could cut a large enough slice out of to make them reconsider this attack.
When the ursans began to stomp their paws in rhythm, a pounding shake that made the dirt and wood beneath Trixie’s hooves tremble like a low-key earthquake, she realized it’d take more than taking out a slice to make this cake go away. The tempo and power of the stomping grew, louder and faster, and Trixie saw a ursan walking out from the ranks, taking a place at the very front. He was gigantic, even by ursan standards, and in the shifting orange torchlight Trixie could see the shifting dark plates of metal that were work over his bulky form.
“Warchief,” Battering Ram muttered, “quite the big bastard. If we could bring his ass down…”
“They’d run?” Trixie asked hopefully.
“No, but it’d be a nice little final ‘screw you’ to the enemy,” Battering Ram replied with a predatory grin.
Celestia save us, Trixie thought, This idiot has already resigned himself to death.
Well, Trixie didn’t intend to die. She set her jaw in a firm, tight grimace. She was not dying out here!
The ursan Warcheif let out a horrendous, bellowing roar that was loud enough that to Trixie it felt as if the monster was right in front of her face. The horde of nearly a thousand ursans followed their Warcheif’s example and their roars filled the night up with the raw sound of rage and bloodlust that sliced right to the heart of Trixie’s pony instincts and screamed at her to be anywhere other than in front of the death to come.
She nearly did bolt, right then and there. She wanted to think it was courage that kept her rooted to the spot. If she was being more honest with herself, it was that she was too terrified to even think of moving.
Then the ursans charged, and the world shook at their coming.
----------
The only good thing about the numbers of the enemy, Coco Pommel reflected, was that it was near impossible to miss with her crossbow.
Like all the other earth pony Equestrians she’d been drilled on the firing orders of the Legion. The Corporal of her assigned platoon, a cagey looking black earth pony mare with a gray mane, snapped her orders rapidly, sharply, and somehow managed to be heard clearly above the din of the roaring, charging ursans.
“First rank, fire! Clear, reload! Second rank, fire! Clear, reload. First rank, fire!”
Each command, a motion. Each motion, a moment of terror, replaced instantly by action as the next command cut through the fear. Coco Pommel was in the first rank, and fired on command, sending her bolt streaking into the black. She couldn’t see if she hit, but didn’t need to. Amid the roaring ursans there were also cries of pain, bellows of agony. Dark shapes in the charging mass staggered and fell. Some were hitting the traps infesting the muddy slope, or ran afoul of the wooden stake obstacles in their path. The ursans’ heady charge was soon stemmed into a bloody slog, each step leaving behind a dozen wounded or dying bears with bolts and stakes and iron jaw traps biting through flesh and making the mud slick with blood.
But it was only stemming the charge. Dozens out of hundreds hardly seemed a sting to the horde that was steadily charging the palisade walls. Yet the ponies fired. Coco, on the clear command, stepped back and to the side for the second rank to step forward. As the second rank fired she reloaded. Then when the second rank cleared she stepped forward, fired. Again and again.
Flashes of light turned the night to moments of day. Lighting and fire, raw blasts of arcane might, all flew down upon the ursans just like the crossbow bolts did. Coco didn’t have time to look at the unicorns, to watch the glowing arrays of magic form in the air then discharge their deadly spells into the ursan ranks. She couldn’t see where Trixie was, if the azure unicorn was working well in her own array. All she could see were the occasional blossom of fire or the deadly lance of lightning arc into the black ursan mass as it continued to surge towards them.
For a minute hope burned fiercely in Coco’s chest, along with an almost exhilarating satisfaction. They were killing ursans! Some part of her was horrified, but the rest, the part of her that seethed with anger at these beasts, was elated. Ursans were dying, not ponies! So far no ponies had died that she’d seen. Perhaps they’d break the ursan charge before it even got to the wall-
A sound like a sharp whistle filled the air, instantly followed by a sound like a watermelon smashing, and Coco’s face was coated with red. For a startled moment she forgot what she was doing, what command she was following; reload or fire? All she saw was that next to her a Heartlander mare, some young cornflower blue mare (had she been blonde or green maned?) was missing part of her head. Or rather it’d been crushed in, grotesque, like a rotted pumpkin, but the innards weren’t orange, but smears of dark red. The body twitched violently before falling over, a living pony rendered to dead meat in an instant.
The whistles were coming again, with dull thuds snapping across the palisade. Only for a second did Coco see what was causing the noise, hitting her fellow ponies. Rocks, flung rocks, the size of the heads they were crushing. One ricocheted off the upward jutting stake of part of the palisade near Coco’s head and splinters cut her cheek. Further down the line she saw a stallion, Barrier Lander or Heartlander it was impossible to tell, take a rock to his shoulder. The force twisted his foreleg all the way behind him, made his shoulder distend in an impossible fashion, and blood burst from his mouth in a welter as he tumbled back off the palisade without so much as a scream.
“Focus!” came the hard, cutting shout of the Corporal, “Lobbers, sixty yards back! Take aim! Aim damn you all!”
Somehow that sharp voice, filled with hard command, cut through Coco’s stunned mind and got her moving. She looked, estimating the sixty yards. Yes, there! She saw a line of ursans, black blobs but still distinct, that had fallen behind the charge. They formed a lose set of over twenty or so groups, all situated around bags of rocks. They grabbed the rocks, rearing up their hindlegs in tall, imposing stances. There must have been some kind of rope attached to each rock because Coco could see the ursan 'lobbers' spinning the rocks above their heads for several seconds to pick up speed before stone projectiles went sailing towards the fortress.
The Heartlanders looked ready to panic and lose all sense of cohesion with their first, bloody casualties, but Alpine rushed back and forth across the line, echoing the bellows of her fellow Corporals.
"Stand firm! Focus! Kill them back! First rank, fire! Fire damn you all!"
Soon enough order was restored in the ranks and Coco was firing again, her heart racing.
She aimed as best she could, targeting the groups of ursan lobbers and tried to ignore the whistles, those horrible whistles and the screams that came with them. If one did get her, she prayed she wouldn’t hear the whistle first.
----------
Coldiron felt as if her teeth would shatter inside her mouth. The sound of the battle was wafting over her and the Arrow Vale volunteer companies, and it was a feeling akin to torture to wait here on the east walls while her comrades and friends fought and died to the west.
“Our turn is coming soon, my little icebrand,” said her father next to her.
“We should be over there,” she said, unable to help herself. She knew the need to keep all the walls guarded. The ursans wouldn’t just stick to the west walls for long. But it still was painful, knowing others were fighting, dying, while she waited and did nothing,
Her father didn’t argue with her, which surprised her. She looked at him and felt a hard stab of guilt. Solid Plough’s face was set in a tired, stone mask, only his eyes showing the glimmer of honest fear. Fear she could tell he was shoving down deep for the sake of his fellow ponies, and for her. The farmer putting on his bravest face for his solider daughter.
She understood better now why Blossomforth had hugged her earlier. Such a simple gesture, but capable of giving so much comfort. She suppressed the urge and looked back towards the west. It wouldn’t be proper to hug her father, now, would it?
The center keep blocked a fair bit of the view to the west, but she could tell that the companies on the west walls were fully engaged in battering the ursans with bolt and spell. There was no noise of the clash of blades and the pegasi hadn’t hit the air, yet, so the ursans had at least been slowed and hadn’t hit the wall. That wouldn’t last, though. The night was young, and the battle only begun.
“North!” came a startled shout from her own troop’s lines, “They’re coming around to the north!”
Coldiron went at a fast trot, passing the scared yet determined ranks of Arrow Vale ponies. Reaching the tip of the northeast wall she found the one who was shouting, a young stallion who looked barely old enough to hold the spear he had gripped in one hoof. He was excitedly pointing out, directly past the north gate. Coldiron looked, and saw that there was a spreading, inky mass of shadows that from the bellows had to be a clump of ursans. Perhaps a couple hundred? Impossible to make an accurate count in this darkness.
It looked like a flanking maneuver to her. They were probably sent to probe the defenses of the rest of the fortress.
They want to find out, I’ll gladly give them the answer. In blood, Coldiron thought with somber satisfaction as she turned to her ponies.
“Here they come! Get ready to show these ursans that the ponies of Arrow Vale are not to be taken lightly!”
Spears and smaller crossbows were readied, the irregular Arrow Vale companies forming into tight lines along the palisade. Only a few heavy crossbows had been available to equip earth ponies with, so many were armed with the lighter crossbows held in the hoof. The rest were armed with spare spears, or in the case of many, axes from their lumber work. Any unicorn who knew even a basic attack spell was set up in a second rank behind the first. There had been no time to even train the basics of arrays so Coldiorn had directed these auxiliary ‘battle mages’ to support the heavy crossbow shooters by focusing fire on targets of opportunity.
It was going to be dicey, but this was what she had to work with.
A few potshots went out at the ursans as the mob of two hundred rolled around the north end of the fort and then swung sharply towards the northeast wall. It looked as if the ursans had decided to test out the wall with a hard charge, and Coldiron had no intention to disappoint them.
Her father had already turned to go rejoin the ranks of the 2nd company on the southeast wall, but before he did she could see him giving her a last, firm nod, his eyed brimming with unspoken words. Then she had to start focusing on her own spellcasting, and could no longer wonder if perhaps she should have hugged her father earlier, proper or not.
She belatedly realized this might have been the last chance to say anything at all to her father, or he to her, before this night was over.
One way or another.
Hmm, not much to say here, actually. I think the only words that suit are ones spoken from one of my favorite tv shows: "And so, it begins."
Hope you folks out there are enjoying the story. I know I am. Next chapter is already well underway. For those curious, it's titled "Crucible". 'Till next time. 
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Really excited to see this battle start. Why do I have a bad feeling about Coldiron's dad, though?
Also, this is sort of random, but I love how you can keep every Trixie you write distinct, if that makes any sense. Like this Trixie is way different (and in a totally different situation) than Lunaverse Trixie, but it still feels really true to the character, imo.
First half was gold, the latter is a bit dry.
Corn: typos and other miscellaneous gripes.
Crusta: grammatical errors.
Crimson: spelling errors and homophone, homonym, and near homonym substitution errors.
De York: corrections.
cursed
too,” said Counter Charge. “The
Its
moving along,
Her (N.B.: Runeward is still a mare.)
Warchiefs
of
legs
involved. Perhaps
anything,” said Coldiron. “If or anything,” said Coldiron, “if
too
it
us, Trixie thought. This or us, Trixie thought, this
Warchief
Warchief’s
were the occasional blossoms of fire or deadly lances of lightning or was the occasional blossom of fire or deadly lance of lightning (If the former is burst fire then the latter is semi‐auto.)
wall—
loose
earlier. Such
Coldiron
northern
P.S.: Remember to strip trailing spaces.
5654696
Trixie is one of my favorite characters to write, and I do try to make sure that she's got some differences that make sense for each incarnation of her I do.
5655729
A fair assessment. I think perhaps I got a bit too eager to get the battle started when I saw how large the chapter was getting, skimping on those extra juicy details that help really paint a scene. And thanks for the help with the errors. I'll be giving this chapter a once or twice over soon.
You're missing a word. You're trying to say that Aranea tunnels have nothing on the sky. Consider this simple fix: "Not even in the largest cavern of the Aranea capital, Sirith Zuroth, was such a vast and distant vista available."
"stare", perhaps?
earthquake
for
I am really glad you avoided the Always Chaotic Evil trope for the Ursas and Lurkers. That was always one of my biggest complaints about the wolven. There wasn't much to them or Fenrir but pure evil.
Thank you Quick Needle for being the voice of common sense and reason. She was willing to talk and ANYTHING you can learn about her kind is worth a little back and forth conversation with her. This kind of attitude just gives weight to what Trixie was saying about the Legion and Prince Terrato. Here you have a member of the ruling class of Araneans, who serves directly under the broodmother who has her eyes on the surface and, in spite of her general co-operation they didn't even consider attempting to negotiate, to look for ways to stop another war before it starts. Nope they skip straight to torture.
I can see why Coldiron and Runeward have this attitude but it was still pretty stupid in this instance. Also I gotta give Thirza props for dedication if nothing else, even though it probably would have been wiser to report the capture to Chizrane and wait for her word on the matter. Thirza is an over eager soldier and he may pay for it with his life here. Granted the Hunters fighting the Ursans may be exactly what allows the Ponies to make it through this. I don't think he will be able to save Leyshi before he bites the dust though.