The Iron Crow

by Silentpegasus

Chapter 6: Flash and Bang

Chapter 6

Flash and Bang

Several spell casters shot bolts of flame at the monster, but they went unnoticed. Sterling knew that a troll’s skin was tougher than iron and it would take a lot more than arrows and simple spells to take it down. Worse still, the goblins were coming back out again using the troll as a moving shield. It wouldn’t be long until the oaf was upon them and smash their defenses like a house of cards. Sterling whirled on Twilight who looked like she was on the verge of panic.

“What do we do?”Twilight asked as she looked to a shocked Viridian. “What do we do?”

“I have an idea.” Sterling said as he and Viridian huddled around Twilight. “It’s risky, but it might work and I need a little time.” He looked to the captain seriously. “I need you to draw that thing away from the gate.”

“How?” Sterling reached into his bag and pulled out a glass jar with a bright red liquid inside and an object that looked similar to his pepperbox but had a single barrel that was quite large.

“Throw this at it to get it’s attention.” He handed her the flask. “Then lead him away from the town near the tree line.” He pointed to the tree line before handing her the object. “Point this into the sky and pull the trigger.”

Before she could ask why he had jumped off the ramparts and made his way towards the pack of fliers. “I need you all to fly around and pick anything that’s big and metal. Pipes, fence posts, I don’t care if you need to rip out the damn street lanterns and plant them in front of the shield. If you can take one or tow of those things down then do so, but ensure that you get clear.” The group nodded.

“Who is the quickest flier?” A hand belonging to a familiar rainbow haired girl shot up. He gestured her forwards. “What is the tallest building in the town?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“We’re on a time schedule here, which is it?” Dash huffed and pointed up towards the highest point of Twilight’s castle. “How fast can you get me up there?”

“In ten-seconds flat.”

“Good, once I’m up there join the others. I’ll explain more once I’m up there.” He took off at a run as Dash looped her arms under his and started to fly into the sky. Despite being so thin, the flier had to exert herself to get him off the ground and into the air.

~~~

On the battlements Viridian armed herself for close quarters combat as did many of the fighters. A few would be left to man the gate and provide arrow support while Twilight kept her shield up. The gates opened and the denizens of Ponyville ran out, yelling at the top of their lungs with weapons in hand. Steel met steel as they entered the melee. Cries on both sides rang out in pain and triumph.

Viridian saw an axe coming for her. She outstretched one hand and caught it by the handle before throwing it back at it’s owner. She set her sighs on the troll that was lumbering it’s way towards the shield. Viridian grabbed her bow and fired three shots at the troll’s head. Two of them splintered against the creature’s thick skull while the third hit it’s ear. The beast roared and turned it’s head towards Viridian and frowned as it changed direction towards her.

Viridian made a b-line for the edge of the Everfree forest, firing the occasional arrow to keep the troll’s attention. She barely managed to make out an ear splitting screech coming from the tree line and saw the chieftain wave the staff with a crystal ball at the tip. The crystal glowed a bright purple color and a roar came from the troll. Viridian turned towards the troll and saw it’s eyes turn over and glow the same shade of purple as the crystal.

The hulking beast turned back and marched towards the town. Her eyes shrank as she saw the connection between the staff and the beast’s change. She fired more arrows into the troll’s back but it did not halt it’s new advance. Viridian cursed under her breath as the beast reached the edge of the shield and slammed it’s club into the wall of magic. The ground under and around the shield shook.

Several soldiers and goblins lost their footing. Viridian looked up to see Twilight down on one knee, but still holding up the barrier. She knew the Princess wouldn’t last long against that kind of force. Viridian sprang to her feet and aimed her bow at the chieftain. She let a few arrows fly, but they were deflected by the goblin.

It had some skills in combat, but she needed to get rid of that staff. She fired a few more arrows, but more carefully this time. The arrows bypassed it’s defenses and an arrow slammed into it’s shoulder. The creature let out a wail of pain before it retreated back into the forest, staff in hand. The troll brought down another blow into the shield that drove Twilight to her hands and knees.

The beast paused as the effect on it’s mind ended as it brought it’s club down again. Twilight collapsed on the ramparts, barely able to move as she saw her barrier crack and shatter into thousands of pieces. She looked up just as the beast rose it’s club to bring down upon her and the wall when she saw Viridian charge forwards, bloody and panting as she ran towards it with the mercenary’s jar of red liquid in hand. She lobbed the jar at the beast and it shattered on it’s skin. Almost instantly there was the smell of burning flesh as the troll’s skin began to bubble and slip off.

The troll roared louder than it ever had in it’s life as it whirled to see the source of it’s pain. It’s pupils narrowed on the green haired woman who started running back towards the tree line. She felt the ground shake as the now running troll quickly closed the gap and threw out one of it’s long limbed arms. She ducked just in time as it passed overhead, but didn’t stop to look back and kept running.

Twilight slowly got to her knees, completely exhausted and drained of magic. She looked down to see the goblins brining forth a makeshift battering ram. She shakily rose to her feet and attempted a casting, but it fizzled out. There waswhistling noise as a long thin rod of metal fell from the sky in front of the gate. More bits of metal fell and stuck into the ground around the goblins and their ram.

She felt a pair of arms help her to her feet and she turned to see the cyan winged flyer yelling at her, but she was so tired and could barely keep her eyes open. She felt herself being lifted by the flyer. Dash pointed and Twilight saw the other flyer’s gathering the surrounding storm clouds into a single massive cloud. She could faintly make out the crackling of lighting in the dark cloud. In an instant, she knew exactly what was about to happen.

Calling upon the very last of her energy, she encased every person on the ground outside of the wall in a small shield just as the flyers all gave the cloud a kick expelling the energy straight down onto the field of metal that surrounded the goblins. The lighting blasts jumped from goblin to goblin, shocking and burning the ones unlucky enough to be close to or were wearing metal while the towns people were safely shielded by the last of Twilight’s magic. Once the blast was over, the last of the goblins started to fall and the townsfolk retreated back inside the walls. Once she saw that they were safe, her attention turned back to the troll that was throwing everything it had into crushing Viridian.

The captain dodged left and right, but she couldn’t keep it up for much longer. She was tired and weary from the previous fight and getting more so the longer she fought. She had the other object Sterling had given her, whom she’d not seen since he disappeared after he’d given her the infernal device. The lapse in her concentration made her foot stumble. She was quick to correct it, but it was too late. She could hear the rushing wind of the club coming towards her and she knew it would find it’s mark.

Acting on sheer instinct, she clapped her hands together and a wall of solid wood sprouted up from the ground on her right side. The sound of splintering wood confirmed her fears and she felt the club’s stone end crash into her side sending her flying. She flew for a good twenty feet just over the ground before she started to descend, skipping across the ground like a flat stone against a pond. She hit the ground hard and skidded to a halt at the base of a large tree. Everything hurt.

She opened her eyes to see the troll lumbering forwards, intent on reducing her to nothing more than a massive stain on the ground. Any movement on her part ended in more pain than she could imagine. The feeling of the creature’s footsteps made her body tremble. She didn’t know what to do and having nothing more than a broken body to work with. She pulled out the device Sterling had given her and slowly raised her damaged arm to aim it at the troll.

Her hands were shaking and the blood leaking from her head was obscuring her vision slightly. The troll grew closer and closer, once it was only ten feet away she pulled the trigger. A brilliant green light shot out from the end of the device. The ball of green light flew up and over the troll’s shoulder before it exploded and lit up the night sky in green light. Viridian’s arm dropped as despair flooded through her.

She missed, her one chance at saving herself and the town and she blew it. The troll turned it’s attention back to her and raised it’s club for the final strike. Viridian glared back at the monster. She would not look away from her death, she would face it like she did everything else, head on. The troll let out a roar as the club reached it’s peak.

Viridian glared at the troll as the sound of thunder could be heard overhead. Then a deafening blast slammed into the troll’s arm that was holding the club. The weapon dropped to the ground as the beast roared at it’s mangled arm. Another crack of thunder and another blast ripped through the beast’s other shoulder. Not only did it rip through it’s flesh, but the blast hit the ground beside Viridian.

The troll whirled trying to look for it’s attacker, but saw no one. Another blast went through it’s right leg, another through the left shoulder and another scraped the side of it’s face. It roared now in more fear than anger. The beast took off running through the forest as another blast nipped at it’s heels. Relief flooded the captain as she heard the beast run off into the forest and she felt herself slip into unconsciousness.

~~~

When Stirling arrived where the captain lay, he found that Twilight was already there along with the other five girls. The pink haired one with the butter yellow wings was examining the battered captain carefully. She did all the right things, checked for breathing, pulse and did it in a way that skilled nurses would be jealous of. This girl was a natural healer with a gentle touch.

“She’s alive,” Her meek voice said and they all let out a sigh or relief. “but one of her broken ribs has pierced her lung and it’s filling up with blood. She’ll choke to death unless we get help.” Sterling pushed his way through and knelt down beside the captain ignoring the startled noises of the group of girls. He started removing Viridian’s broken leather armor that had taken the brunt of the impact and cut away her damaged shirt.

He pulled out a thin length of glass and felt her damaged ribs. He found the area in between the boned and plunged the glass tube into her flesh and into her lung. The captain groaned in pain as blood flooded out of the glass end.

“That should buy her some time.” He said as he instructed Fluttershy to keep it there. Twilight still looked quite pale as she looked at the large craters around the captain.

“Where did you go?” Twilight asked as she looked at the mercenary. Sterling reached back into his bag and pulled out a long object. Longer than any lance or pole arm Twilight had ever seen. One end was covered in wood and a spyglass was attached to the top of it. The whole weapon itself was over five feet in length and looked as though it had seen a lot of fighting.

“This is Harbinger. A weapon of my own mad design, it’s capable of taking down anything within sixteen-hundred yards.” He said as he put it back in the bag. “I need distance and elevation to use it to it’s fullest extent. The captain provided a good diversion and lead it away while I got into position and waited for my chance to strike.”

“You could have taken out so many goblins with that thing.” Dash protested as she steadied Twilight on her shoulder. “Why wait so long?” He gestured to the large craters around them and the captain.

“Collateral damage.” Twilight answered. “That thing would have probably taken out our men too.” He nodded.

“Exactly,” A loud roar of pain echoed through the trees.

“That thing is still alive?” Applejack said as she steadied herself on her crutch.

“Trolls are annoyingly resilient and possess quite an interesting regenerative ability.” The group of girls froze and looked at the man.

“Regenerative ability?” Twilight repeated as if she didn’t hear him right.

“Yes, I gather within a few days it will be back to full form.” He pulled out his pepperbox and reloaded it. “Which is why the hunt continues.” He turned to the group. “Set up a watch of anyone who can still fight, there might be some stragglers.” Twilight nodded before Sterling turned and vanished into the forest.