Farachan

by QTXAdsy

The Blood Bath

Chapter 7

The Blood Bath

Another two weeks had past, and nothing was heard from across the border. By now, winter had arrived across Equestria and the rest of the world, ponies of all types would've been celebrating Hearth's Warming Eve just like it had been from before, all except for the Red Hooves. Even though the ponies of Farachan were preparing for the seasonal event just like that back on the mainland, the Red Hooves, with them being constantly on guard, seemed out of tune from the rest of Equestria. They knew they couldn't wish that the war would be over by the end of the year, the Alaccans were such an unpredictable armed force that each passing day with no word from them was making the Red Hooves grow all the more restless for action.

For one Red Hoof in practically, all Dynamo was wanting was to be back home for his unexpected young family. Apart from Blue Arrow, he hadn't told anyone else about his secret for fearing about any consequences he might've brought upon himself. On one freezing Tuesday morning, Sunstar and Macca had left the dorm to head downstairs to have breakfast with the other Red Hooves, leaving Blue Arrow alone with Dynamo. Though Blue Arrow wouldn't admit it to others, he did have a longing to get home for Hearth's Warming Eve with his own family back in Maredinburgh in Alba, though he couldn't even bare to think of what Dynamo must've been going through as the brown stallion sat on his top bunk reading another letter from Star Burst.

As Dynamo read a new letter from his long distance love, he found himself holding his face up with his hoof in despair, and now had started to sob quietly to himself. Blue Arrow watched from the cupboard as he was getting on his armor, he knew that Dynamo was letting his walls down and was showing a weakness that would've been scolded upon from their fellow comrades, it may have sounded quite heartless for the Red Hooves to be like that, but they were to be a force that quite literally had to show no emotion whatsoever. Yet despite that, Blue Arrow pitied his close friend. He drew out a sad sigh and shook his head as Dynamo rubbed away a small tear that was running down his muzzle.

"Dynamo…I can't even think what yer going through right now," Blue Arrow confessed softly.

The brown Pegasus stallion placed the letter beside him as he turned his gaze over at his comrade. "It's alright dear chap. Just that this one is a bit more personal to tell the truth."

Blue Arrow cocked a raised eyebrow. "Huh? How'd you mean?"

Dynamo cleared his throat as he began to inform Blue Arrow what was going on. "Well then. This one is from Star Burst herself and thankfully not from her parents who are wanting to place my head above their fireplace."

Blue Arrow snorted a small-bemused chuckle. "A' least that's no' bad from the shite that ye get from her parents."

"Yes but…" Dynamo paused as he looked back to the letter again briefly. "She'll be spending Hearth's Warming Eve with her own family, no doubt that she'll be being barged with questions about me from her parents."

"Take it she'll be taking the wains with her then?" Blue Arrow added.

"…Wains?" Dynamo questioned, not knowing some of the slang that Blue Arrow would speak.

"Foals," Blue Arrow answered. "It's what we call 'em back home. But, what is it that's bothering you mate?"

The blue mane stallion was silent for a brief moment before answering Blue Arrow's question. "The thing is…it is that for the foals, it will be their first Hearth's Warming Eve, and I won't be there for them…"

Dynamo lowered his head dejectedly; the poor young stallion seemed to have had a hellish time since he landed on Farachan's shores.

Blue Arrow sighed sadly seeing his friend like this, and quickly tried to change the subject to get Dynamo's mind of it. "Come on, mate. If I'll be honest with ye, I'm scared myself. We're a bunch of young laddies out here far away from hame fightin' fer our lives. Remember, nae matter whit happens, we all have each other's back."

The blue stallion smiled as he saw a small smile appeared on Dynamo's lips. "Yes…yes, your right."

"'Course I'm right!" Blue Arrow chuckled as he adjusted his main piece of red armor that covered his body. "I do know a lot of things…though I'll tell ye whit I dinnae know…" he paused as he walked over to the bunk Dynamo was sitting on. "…And that is when those bloody Alaccans will be wanting to fight again."

The brown stallion bit his bottom lip as he looked out their window where a section of the city could be seen. "It's really strange. Nothing has been heard, though that can only mean that they're hoping that will start to crack."

"And they've probably already done that," Blue Arrow added grudgingly. "Half the stallions in our ranks are on the verge of going rouge on us and takin' matters in their own hooves. Rumors of a another battle this month or even later this week are flying about the place left, right and center."

Dynamo rubbed his chin in thought as he thought about it, Blue Arrow was right about a growing unease that was surrounding the base like a cursed aura of energy. "Whatever happens dear chap, they're like unicorns with unrestrained magic attacks, and they can go off at any time."

The words were pretty much accurate of how to describe the enemy in the south, going off at anytime. After a short period of silence between the two stallions, Dynamo shook some of his blue mullet mane from out of his eyes before hoping off the top and heading over to the cupboard to take out his own armor. "Nevertheless, each passing day will only help us get back to them as soon as possible."

Blue Arrow nodded with a grin, Dynamo seemed to be having his own personal journey, while Blue Arrow himself was here with many other stallions like himself who were fighting to protect Equestria and the Crown. "Come on, mate, let's get doonstairs and have some breakfast."

And when Dynamo placed on his armor, the two stallions left to head downstairs to the dinning area. Little did any of them knew, that they and the rest of the Red Hooves would be giving the call…

XXX

The two stallions eventually made their way downstairs and met up with Sunstar and Macca along with the rest of the Hooves in the dining hall. Blue Arrow and Dynamo sat alongside their fellow roommates, with them discussing about various things such as the rumors of another battle on the cards anytime soon. Thankfully in Dynamo's case, Blue Arrow didn't breath a word about Dynamo's secret, though he did know inside of him that the truth would be shown someday after the war was over, if they won of course or even make it back alive truth be told.

Nearly ten minutes had gone since Dynamo and Blue Arrow had sat down to have breakfast, at this point, Macca was telling another story of his.

"…And then I ended up in this strange upper class party in Canterlot," Macca explained his story to his somewhat dumbfounded looking comrades giving him skeptical expressions, it was something of a mystery to them as to how Macca claimed to have been in these situations with some of them sounding quite ludicrous at times. What ever the others might have thought about his tales, with the amount he had told them by now, he could've wrote a book on them.

"I mean it was strange, all of them dressed fancy, and I was there with just some worn armor, they couldn't tell I was a Red Hoof and thought I was a tramp. Thankfully I managed to fly away before the guards could call the cops on me." Macca finished his story with a small chuckle remembering his tale; only to be greeted with the unchanged looks on the faces the three other Red Hooves.

Sunstar was the first the break the uncomfortable silence that followed. "Macca…why'd you come up with such crap for? Who the hell's gonna believe that?"

This was met with a few bouts of stifled laughter from Blue Arrow and Dynamo along with an annoyed Macca groaning. "Oh come on! " Macca raising his fore hooves in the air before letting them hit the table. "I'm serious man! I was on the run!"

Blue Arrow couldn't help but shake his head at how funny the scene was. Macca and Sunstar had never really gotten on, mainly as Sunstar was always the first the doubt about Macca's reliability, still, for the rest of them, it gave them some amusement in the middle of this war. And truth be told, they needed it at times to keep their heads high.

The argument that followed between the young and older stallions was brought to a halt when they heard for a call for silence coming from the other side of the room. Gradually the chattering stopped and as Blue Arrow and the rest of his table looked over to see where the voice was coming from.

Hovering bipedal style above a sea of heads, one of their commanding officers, Woolwinder, could be seen looking down on the many Red Hooves there. He waited until all were silent before he began speaking again. "Thank you. Now then Red Hooves, later on today at half past five, all of you will have to be in the training suite where you'll meet up with the rest of your commanders for new orders for you. And before any of you start asking questions, I'm not so sure myself as the orders are being kept confidential until today, when we then will spill the beans to you all. So until then, see you all there."

And with that, the orange Pegasus flew out of the room to a chorus of loud chattering from all the Red Hooves to each other about what might've been happening. They all obviously knew that it was to be the next long awaited battle with the Alaccans; the only thing they didn't know was where it would be.

"About damn time to!" Sunstar expressed with great alleviate as he sank back on his chair.

"You can say that again," Blue Arrow added with a relaxed smile on his face as carried on eating his waffles for breakfast.

"Here, here." Macca muttered loudly raising his mug of coffee in the air to Blue Arrow's words.

Oddly with Dynamo, he looked down on his breakfast suspiciously thinking about it. "Something's not right here," he said bluntly.

"Oh aye?" Blue Arrow asked though a mouthful of waffles.

"I don't know why the Alaccans would want to leave it this late for a fight," Dynamo explained to the others round the table. Perhaps the weather might be in their favor, choice of battlefield? Then again I'm being a bit too paranoid I might add."

Macca grunted in agreement. "Don't blame you feeling like that, this entire island feels alive in a strange way, you're bound to feel like a jumped up shit like that in this place."

"Also it's all right for you dear boy," Sunstar said to Blue Arrow, who had just swallowed his waffles. "You've only just got here and probably don't know how we feel after being here for a year now."

"Erm, aye, I get it…" Blue Arrow grumbled, feeling a bit left out with his fellow three comrades for being in Farachan longer than he was. It now seemed that he would start to feel the same way as they were sooner or later.

XXX

After breakfast, all around the base, the Red Hooves seemed to only talk and speculate about what must be going on in the head offices. Still, they would find out later on in the afternoon. However, as Blue Arrow headed out with a fellow batch of Red Hooves to take part in the afternoon patrol of the city later that day, like his many comrades, he could only think about what the news would be that awaited him. However, his speculated train of contemplation was stopped when while exploring nearby their base, he thought he saw another Red Hoof in the distance standing on top of a rooftop looking over to their base.

Normally Blue Arrow wouldn't battered an eyelash as he would think that they would either be another one from his patrol or perhaps a Red Hoof taking a break and was exploring the city. But that stallion looked strangely familiar to him. The stallion was dressed in the normal red armor of that of the Red Hooves, but the fur on the stallion was black…it looked a lot like Shadow.

Now when he came to think about it, he hadn't seen him since the night raid on the city sometime ago. What had happened with him? As he was the one that had refused to listen to his commanding officer's words, maybe he was currently being punished for his actions? The Albian stallion didn't bother to think much more about it and instead shook his head and carried on his patrol like normal.

It now seemed that the paranoid feeling that was said by many on this large island was finally starting to get it him.

XXX

The rest of the day seemed to go in a blur for the young blue stallion. The city of Coltfast was shrouded in a blanket of frost from the freezing weather for this time of the year. While the ordinary of the typical citizens of the city would've been preparing themselves for Hearth's Warming Eve, the Red Hooves had been anticipating for nearly all day now for what their new orders could be.

It did came as somewhat of a great relive for all the Red Hooves when it was roughly twenty past five as all of them headed straight towards the training hall like determined trained homing pigeons. Along with his comrades, Blue Arrow followed the others into the training hall, which when they all got inside, all of the training equipment that was lying around the room had all gone, which perhaps was for the best as the entire hall was completely crowded with Red Hoof troops within five minutes. Even though many of them hovered in the to help allow others find a space in the room, the place was totally swamped with Red Hooves.

Blue Arrow looked up at a large clock hanging on the wall that read twenty eight past five, nearly time for the commanders to come in and give them their new orders. Looking around the room that was filled to the brim with these elite fighters, it was quite incredible to Blue Arrow that they just managed to get all the Red Hooves into this hall.

The blue Pegasus looked around again where he was standing shoulder to shoulder with others, all of them chatting loudly among each other, then from out of the corner of his eye, he saw the fire exit door towards the end of the hall open. At first, he thought that it was their commanders arriving, though his eyes widened when he saw he came through that door. A black stallion in red armor along with a dark red mane and dark blue eyes. Shadow!

Blue Arrow attempted to shout over to the new arrival, but was drowned out from the chatter in the room. Then a thought came back into his head, what had Shadow been doing all this time? True he had seen a stallion earlier that day that looked like Shadow, but apart from since that night raid, he hadn't seen the Manehatten stallion since. Something just didn't feel right with Blue Arrow, and he couldn't put his hoof on it.

He couldn't even begin to think more of it as just then, the four commanders flew into the room and landed on a makeshift stage on the other end of the room with a giant map of Farachan hanging up behind them. Upon seeing them, the chatter in the room quickly died down as the Red Hooves all saw the commanders.

When the room was totally silent, one of the commanders named Sky Rider (A stallion that had been sent by Celestia many years ago to track down the then young colts for training) stepped forward from the other three.

"Thank you for coming gentlecolts," He began. "I will begin by saying that I'm sorry for the long wait since my fellow partner Woolwinder announced the news to you earlier on today."

He paused as he brought from a small opening in his golden armor a small sheet of paper before opening it up. "The news is still classified from the general public so neither of you MUST never leak out any information to the public as this information is from our spies."

The Red Hooves listened intently for what the news might be. "Now then this is the information. Before I begin, yes, the Alaccans have invaded Farachan, heading towards the north east of the country. Another battle is on the way."

A good chunk of the Red Hooves started cheering and stamped their hooves, all of them were waiting for another battle with the enemy, which seemed like ages for the Red Hooves. "Silence please!" Sky Rider yelled out, and with the Red Hooves being quite the respectable force, they quickly went silent again. "Now then…our spies have worked out that they'll be heading towards the marsh land in the north that is called Sanguis Marsh…" He walked over to the map pointing at the marshland on the northern point on the map nearby the coast. "It is quite strange for them to be heading up that way, whatever their cause of action for that remains unknown, though we do know that they have a force of ten thousand, most of them being unicorns."

A murmur of worried voices followed that went all around the room. The Red Hooves had no problem on taking on the earth and Pegasus ponies, but the unicorns of Farachan were a worry situation for them. They had no idea what magic attack the unicorns might have in store for them.

"Now I do understand your fears fellow Red Hooves," Sky Rider said calmly. "Me and the other commanders have made a choice for the upcoming battle…only half of you here will go out to Sanguis to fight."

A stunned silence followed. Blue Arrow's eyes widened as the words sunk into him. Only half of the stallions here would go out to fight? That amount against a force of ten thousand? The blue stallion couldn't really grasp the idea, but then he remembered that Red Hooves weren't ordinary stallions, they were the arguably the greatest fighters that Equestria had ever seen, they'd surely find a way.

Just then, Sky Rider stepped back to stand alongside the other commanders while the younger Commander Sixer stepped forward to take his place. "Now then gentlecolts, our spies have told us that if we are to face the enemy at the marsh, then we'll have to be quick in order to give them an ambush and halt their advance."

The younger commander looked round the room of eager looking stallions all listening to the plan. "Also, I can revile that me and the others have already set up a list of who will be coming over to the battle. Tonight, we'll slip a sheet of names of who'll be selected for the battle. If your name's on there, then you'll have to prepare yourself as three days later…it's time to face them off again."

A small murmur of chat followed once again among the Red Hooves. They all looked at one another all wondering which one will be going for the battle. "Who's going?" Blue Arrow muttered to himself, still surprised like anyone else.

"Silence," Sixer ordered calmly. "Also on that sheet, it'll have other pieces of information for where we'll meet up and so forth." He took a step back to take another look at the amount of Red Hooves in the room. "Until then…good luck gentlecolts."

XXX

Shortly right after the meeting, the Red Hooves went back upstairs to their dorms where each of them could muse with one another over the new orders the commanders have given to them. Most of them were either about the battlefield itself, the worrying number of unicorns in the Alaccan ranks and most notably of all…who would be going out there to fight. Like with their fellow counterparts, Blue Arrow, Dynamo, Sunstar and Macca sat around in their dorm discussion with each other about who they thought would be going.

"You know what guys," Macca said proudly to himself, earning him a few bemused looks from his comrades. "I'm sure I'll be on that list let me tell you."

"And why exactly?" Sunstar questioned skeptically. "You do know that they're going for the best among us."

The younger grey stallion snorted crossly. "Huh? You trying to say I'm crap?"

"I'd say ye have more muscle than brains mate," Blue Arrow offered dryly, earning a few stifled bits of laughter from Dynamo and Sunstar.

"Not far off I'd put it bluntly," Dynamo added with a chuckle.

Macca bit his bottom lip as he lowered his head in embarrassment after his over-confidence speech with red appearing on his cheeks. "…You never know…I might get lucky…"

"Ah come on Macca," Blue Arrow sighed as he saw the way Macca looked. "Ye might get the last laugh and even go out there."

Sunstar pushed some of his green mullet mane from out of his eyes. "In saying that, I have no idea who'll be going out there. It looks like either two of us will be going."

They paused and looked at one another, all that they did knew was that at least one of them would be off to fight.

"That's one thing that does surprise me though," Dynamo suddenly said breaking the silence. "Why would they only want a small number of us out there to take them head on?"

"Don't want the rest of us harmed or need more to guard the city?" Blue Arrow offered.

"Mmm," Macca grunted as he laid himself back on his bed thinking about it. "I'll tell you what, they aren't kidding with keeping the city safe after that night attack."

The night raid…the very thought of it made Blue Arrow cringed with shame. The one time he stood out of line along with Shadow. Even though it had been sometime since then and it was strange that he hadn't heard of anything from his commanders. Everything just felt so uneasy, like they were waiting for an opportunity to lash out at him. On that topic when he thought about it, had Shadow been punished? True he had saw in the training hall, but he was quite a reclusive figure that never seemed to be hanging around with the other Red Hooves.

Whatever that might happen in the following days and months ahead, there was perhaps no chance of him being the lucky few going to the Sanguis Marsh to head into another confrontation with the Alaccans after his brief rebellious moment that night.

Blue Arrow quickly shook his head again when he realized that he had zoned out from the current chatter taking place, this time, it was the Marsh itself.

"…It's more like a swamp if you ask me," Dynamo explained to Macca and Sunstar. "The locals say that there are rumors of strange creatures lurking below the water."

"Like hydras?" Sunstar asked suspiciously.

"Perhaps," Dynamo replied thinking about it. "Though I'm not sure myself."

Macca chuckled. "Perhaps we should sit on the sidelines and watch the monster get to them!"

A few chuckles followed, though it was quickly stopped when they heard the sound of something being pushed under their door. Looking over to the door, there laying there on the floor was the small sheet of paper they had been expecting.

"I'll get it," Blue Arrow quickly said as he quickly trotted over to the door before the others had a chance to reply. Looking down at it, the little sheet of paper had been folded up, and with anticipation of who might on this list, Blue Arrow slowly unfolded the slip of paper.

"Alright…" Blue Arrow murmured as the other three looked on waiting. "Well, we have two of us going out there, they are you Sunstar…" Sunstar punched his fore hoof into the air whispering a silent 'yes', before they all looked at the blue stallion again for who the next one would be. "And other one is…" Blue Arrow's eyes widened as he looked at the second name on the list. "Bloody hell…"

"Who is it?" Macca asked excitedly, his heart racing in suspense.

Blue Arrow slowly looked up at the others, his eyes still wide open and his mouth on the verge of dropping to the floor. "…Me…"

"You?" Dynamo said in amazement as he walked over to give him a pat on the back. "Well done dear chap!"

"Aye…" Blue Arrow uttered, still stunned that he had been chosen. "Just…wow."

"Don't worry, dude," Macca perked up. "If you don't want it, I can take it for you—"

"Shut up," Sunstar snarled giving him a bop on the back of the younger stallion's head. He then looked over to Blue Arrow and quickly trotted over to him. "Well then, looks like you and me will be in the gym training."

"Aye," uttered Blue Arrow, it felt like he had been made a leader of a country without any qualifications. He really couldn't get over it. He was one of the few troops heading out on a mission to halt the Alaccans. Little did he know, that despite how great it must've felt in that moment, he then knew that that weight of the world would on his shoulders for the next few days…

XXX

At last, something that the Red Hooves were hoping for…a battle with the enemy, only for the ones going of course. For the three days, Blue Arrow seemed to take on a rigorous routine…work, eat, and sleep. The training for this battle was challenging like any other, only this time, Blue Arrow felt that as he was only going to be with half of the forces would be alongside him, he did feel like he was going to be on his own out there.

As these pieces of information for upcoming battles were only shared with the Red Hooves and any other military member of the highest order, the general public was completely oblivious to the drama that was about to unfold. Before he'd go to sleep at night, he'd sit on the edge of his bed and look out off their window looking at the city basked in the moonlit glow and reflect about various things. Why was he going out there? The memory of his brief rebellious moment still hung round his neck like a heavy necklace. No matter what though, he couldn't keep on thinking about the past and knew that he had to be thinking off the future, it was coming to him wherever he like it or not.

On the night of battle, Blue Arrow slumbered on. The previous day's training had been really difficult for him and the stallion literally collapsed when he entered the dorm. To make matters worse for him, his sleep had been a restless one with images of charging Alaccan forces plundering the land and heading across the sea to Equestria and winning the war; they seemed so vivid that they felt frighteningly real.

In the middle of that certain dream, prodding on his back suddenly awaked Blue Arrow. "Wha-what?" He grunted as his eyes blinked on and off as he tried to make his vision clear.

When his eyes did become clear, standing above him, already dressed in his red armor with weapons by his side, was Sunstar. "Come on, time to get up," he whispered, motioning to come with him.

The younger stallion thought for a brief second, due to him just being woken up, about what was going on, then without any more words, Blue Arrow quickly got out of bed and quietly headed over to the cupboard to dress himself in his armor and arm himself. "Thanks for waken him up," Blue Arrow muttered in a hush tone to Sunstar as slid on his helmet.

"No problem," Sunstar replied as he looked back seeing their fellow two comrades still fast asleep. "We better hurry, they'll be leaving soon."

Blue Arrow quickly pulled out his spear from the back of the cupboard before opening the door for them. "Alright then, let's go."

The older yellow stallion was the first to leave the room before Blue Arrow took a final look at the other two stallions left in the room. "…Wish us luck lad," Blue Arrow muttered a pray to himself before closing the door quietly and followed his comrade down the corridor.

Along the way, they encountered other stallions that were joining them for the trip to Sanguis Marsh. Blue Arrow didn't have any idea how many Red Hooves would be going along with them, but when they joined with their fellow troops outside, both he and Sunstar were stunned to see about two thousand to the thousand Red Hooves all standing about in the night air awaiting to head off.

"Is this the lot that's comin'?" Blue Arrow asked Sunstar dumbfounded as he quickly turned his head round to see if any more were behind them, though only about ten followed suit. "This against their lot?!"

Flying Sunstar just looked on shaking his head. "Celestia save us," he muttered to himself. Already it seemed that he'd lost hope for a victory.

Blue Arrow was about to injected something into the conversation when the sight of their four commanders flying overhead to the front of the pack stopped the blue stallion from carrying on. Like himself, many others stopped chattering when they saw them hovering in the air.

"Right then boys," Woolwinder said. "Glad your all here, tonight, we travel to the marsh and at dawn, well…you just do your stuff to rout them, understand?"

"Yes sir!" The Red Hooves replied back, though there were some forms of uncertainty in some voices…

Woolwinder looked back at his fellow commanders who all gave him a nod for them to go. Then he pulled out his sword from his side and raised it into the air. "Come Red Hooves…time to fight again…for Equestria!"

And with those words, the commanders and their small platoon of Red Hooves flew silently out of the city and to the marsh. It was just then as they were about to fly over the city's walls and into the open countryside, was when Blue Arrow (who now had gone in front of Sunstar by some ten feet) looked out from the corner of his eye a Pegasus stallion approaching the flying ranks of fighters. At first, Blue Arrow thought it was a late person, but he gasped when he saw that the stallion was Shadow!

The black Pegasus stallion didn't seem to notice the stunned Blue Arrow as he flew up into a line of Red Hooves in front of the blue stallion. "Shadow!" Blue Arrow uttered loudly, which black stallion heard his name and turned round to face Blue Arrow.

"Hey, it's you!" Shadow said with a smile as he pulled back to fly alongside Blue Arrow. "So then, how have you—"

"Never mind that," Blue Arrow snapped angrily. "Where the hell have ye been since that night attack?"

Shadow paused before shrugging his shoulders. "Nowhere…just hanging around the others, why?"

Blue Arrow raised an eyebrow. "What? Ya mean that you haven't been sent tae the commanders tae get punishment?"

"For what?" Shadow asked confused looking.

Blue Arrow sighed in annoyance and rolled his eyes. "Ye know what I mean, you breaking out of line like that without orders."

"Ohh," Shadow replied nodding as he remembered. "Ah that…well somepony had to help them out and we were just standing like idiots watching the blaze. Why did you get punished?"

"...Well...no..."

"Then why you complaining then?"

The blue stallion didn't bother saying anymore; he didn't want to rub off Shadow the wrong way, especially on the eve of battle. Instead, the talk ended on an awkward note. It didn't matter what Blue Arrow must of thought what was going through Shadow's head about that night, they had a battle to win, one that any Red Hoof there knew that they couldn't afford to lose.

XXX

Despite it being quite small on the map, Farachan was surprisingly quite vast when it comes to flying over the land by yourself. The Red Hooves gracefully flew over the tumbling green landscapes in the very early hours of the morning, Celestia would be lowering the moon and raising the sun at any moment.

For Blue Arrow, the flight had been a silent affair for him, as he wouldn't now go into conversation with Shadow as he could sense tension brewing between them. The black stallion seemed to think the same thing as he had flown out further in front of Blue Arrow.

"Oh lad," Blue Arrow sighed sadly to himself as he looked down on the world below him. "I don't want tae sound like an arse, but there's something about ye I cannae get about ye."

And so whatever thoughts he and any other Red Hooves might've had, they simply shook them off and carried on their journey to Sanguis Marsh. The journey itself seemed to take forever and during the journey it had started to get foggy which resulted the Red Hooves to fly lower in order to get better visibility as possible. It must also be interesting to note that the Red Hooves hadn't done more exploration of Farachan as they had always been behind the city walls of Coltfast so there was quite a sense of the unknown among the elite fighters.

Finally, the morning sun began to rise and quickly burned away the fog that had developed and at last, Blue Arrow could stare around him at what was Sanguis Marsh. The land was completely barren and miserable with various large pools of deep water scattered all around the sight. It only then dawned on Blue Arrow that with the land being nearly flat, taking cover from attacks was going to be difficult.

"Attention! Lower!" Cried out Woolwinder from the front as he motioned his fore hoof down to the armed forces behind him. Like a herd of birds, the gently flew down to an open section of ground that wasn't uneasy to land on.

Quickly, they all landed and began looking all around them at how vast the Marsh was. There didn't seem to be a hill, mountain, tree or living soul anywhere. All they could here was the faint crashing sound of waves with them being somewhere along the coast.

At that moment when Blue Arrow was looking around him, Sunstar trotted up to him, he himself looking around at the forsaken piece of land.

"So this is it then?" Sunstar asked in a dumbfounded manner. "We face of the Alaccans here? Well, can't say it isn't a place I'd like to die."

"Same here," Blue Arrow muttered as he felt the spongy wet ground below his hooves. "But if it's here we fight, then it's fine by me."

The two of them remained silent as all the other Red Hooves started preparing themselves by either sharpening swords with any rocks nearby, giving each other last words of encouragement and keeping an eye out for the Alaccan army.

Blue Arrow kept an eye out on Shadow, who was one of the few looking out for the enemy. Oddly, he didn't look like mingling with the others that made him seem to stand out from them. The silence that hung around the air made Blue Arrow feel uneasy that someone or something was watching them.

"Sunstar, I don't like this," Blue Arrow uttered worriedly. "Something's no' right"

The yellow stallion sighed. "Ah don't worry, this island makes you feel crazy, it's just getting to you, remember?"

"Er, aye, of course," Blue Arrow replied hesitantly. "I mean, it should be easy tae spot them, all flat here and nowhere to hide."

There was suddenly a strange sound like that whirring sound from the far side of the field. All the Red Hooves quickly pulled out their spears and hurriedly went back-to-back in a hedgehog formation with their commanders in the center.

"Hold your ground!" Yelled out Sixer as he frantically looked around for the source of the sound.

Then as quickly as it came, the sound ceased. Stallions within that formation had no idea what was going on and all scanned all around them for any sign of Alaccans.

Just silence.

"What's happenin'?" Blue Arrow whispered to an orange stallion beside him.

The orange Pegasus panted heavily in fear. "I don't—"

He was then cut off when suddenly they all saw countless little balls of purple energy surrounding them, only for the Red Hooves to see that the source of where the purple energy was coming from many transparent unicorns. Then the transparency faded away, and there all around them was unicorn troops in familiar green and purple armor…Alaccan troops.

"Oh shite!" Blue Arrow uttered in horror that they had run into a trap.

Then without warning, the unicorns fired their bursts of energy and the Red Hooves quickly scrambled out of the formation and into the air. Blue Arrow didn't bother to look back as he could he several Red Hooves screaming in pain as some were hit in the relentless attack.

At the very front, the commanders were flying away, only for Commander Sky Rider to stop and turn around to face the retreating Red Hooves and bark out orders. "What you doing? Bucking kick their flanks for Celestia's sake!"

In a tight U-turn formation, The Red Hooves quickly turned round and charged down on to the Alaccan forces. Blue Arrow then noticed in several places below them was several bodies of killed Red Hoof troops all lying in pools of their own blood, due to the intense blasts that had blown a hole through their bodies.

In the mad dash to face off the Alaccans, it didn't seem to come to Blue Arrow's mind that they were outnumbered five to one, all that did matter however was kill the enemy and get out of there.

The blue stallion roared as he lunged forward with his spear into face of a unicorn solider and brought him to the ground. As the other Red Hooves rained down upon the Alaccan forces, Blue Arrow didn't bother digging out his spear from the face of the fallen enemy troop and instead pulled out his sword to strike down many nearby Alaccan troops.

"Come on ye bastards!" Blue Arrow yelled as he punched an earth pony solider to the face before finishing him off by plunging his sword into an open area of the stallion's neck. All around him, it seemed that every stallion on the enemy side all seemed to attack him as Blue Arrow did his best to fight them all off by either striking blow to blow with his sword, punching them with his other fore hoof or giving them a buck kick with his hind legs. He couldn't fly out of that crowded scene, as they all seemed to be pushing him to the ground in order for him not to escape.

Blood seem to fly everywhere and for Blue Arrow, he had no idea how many of his comrades were still alive or even if he was the only one there. Then out from the corner of his eye, he just barely noticed a unicorn fire a bolt of dark magic at him, sending him flying over the heads of several troops before crash landing on top of two Alaccan fighters.

He barely had time to react when several Alaccan earth ponies surrounded him and prepared to finish him off and braced himself for end. But it never came. Instead, he heard cries of pain from those ponies and he opened his eyes to see none other than Shadow fighting off the Alaccans. The black stallion was bathed in sweat and blood, his armor barely hanging together and his own sword was so bloody that it looked like he had dipped it in a bucket of red paint.

Snapping out of his trance with what he was watching, Blue Arrow quickly grabbed his sword (his spear long forgotten at this point) and began taking on Alaccans side-by-side with Shadow.

"Think you needed some help," Shadow said over to Blue Arrow as he tackled a charging Alaccan Pegasus to the ground before snapping that stallion's neck.

"You can say that again!" Blue Arrow called over lunged forward at an Alaccan unicorn (one of the two that he had landed on) about to fire and blast of magic before Blue Arrow slashed off the neck of the unicorn. Blood seem to spat on to the blue stallion's face from the headless stallion as the corpse fell to the ground.

"Damn you look like a psychopath!" Shadow laughed as Blue Arrow looked over to him with his face marked with blood.

"Oh aye?" Blue Arrow replied with a chuckle. "Look at ye, you look more like the part!"

Shadow didn't hear him as he suddenly found himself surrounded by Alaccan Pegasus forces and tried his best to fend them off.

"No!" Blue Arrow yelled as he raced forward to help him, only then to be blasted to the side by yet another unicorn magic attack. He found himself flying hitting a wall of other Red Hooves and the force of the impact caused both his wings to snap in a sickening crack.

"…B-bloody…unicorns," Blue Arrow uttered as he lay there curled up in the mud. All he could watch was seeing other Red Hooves still fighting and shockingly getting killed. The wet ground was starting to become black with blood, with the bodies becoming more of Red Hooves than that off Alaccans.

"No…" Blue Arrow uttered strenuously as he tried to stand up, which was painful with both his wings broken. All around him, the Red Hooves were getting routed and some had started to fall back into the lines with fear written on their faces.

The pack of troops he had crashed into started slowly moving backwards as more and more of their own troops fell. Looking up into the air, Blue Arrow could see their commanders looking helplessly at the massacre below them, nothing but the sounds of swords clashing, magic blasts and the cries of death echoing throughout the stinking air of death.

"What'd we do?" Sixer exclaimed to Sky Rider, he himself was speechless and stunned…it was a disaster of leadership, neither the other two commanders had any idea how to pull together.

Then came a sentence from Sixer that neither any Red Hoof in any of their hearts could ever hope to hear.

"Fall back! Retreat!"

A muttering of shock and horror followed from the Red Hooves who neither could believe this could happen, they were suppose to be like gods…it only showed that they were mortal.

"Come on! The battle's lost!" Sixer yelled out again before flying away from the battlefield.

"What? Get back here you fool!" Roared Woolwinder. Only then to see to his horror that the Red Hooves were flying away following the younger commander away from the site.

The battle was lost.

As Blue Arrow couldn't fly, he was quickly assisted by two other Red Hoof stallions and flown away from the battle. Blue Arrow looked down helplessly as many thousands of Alaccan soldiers mocking at them, and neither sign of Shadow within that sea of green and purple armor.

But the Alaccans were not giving up so easily; instead the unicorns fired more blasts of that purple energy from earlier in the battle at the retreating Red Hooves. Despite flying as fast as they could, several Red Hooves were caught in the fire and tumbled to the ground.

Blue Arrow uttered a silent pray for himself as he shut his eyes. "Celestia…please get these stallions back—"

A blast of energy suddenly caught the three of them and Blue Arrow tried frantically to fly his wings, only causing him more pain in their current state. Instead, he tumbled towards the ground. Everything around him seem to go silent as he fell, memories of his life went by his eyes, then he hit the edge of a body of water and was knocked out on impact before his body bounced and fell into the deep muddy water.

The battle was a disaster for not the Red Hooves, but for all of Equestria. And to make matters worse…this battle was on the day of Hearth's Warming Eve.