Black and White

by SeriouslyLuna

3: Dusk

“...For the dark comes for us all,

as sure as the wind that blows,

and in the darkness of that night,

our true face is the one that shows...”

Chapter 3: Dusk

The Zebra

Dawn broke over the distant mountains, the brilliant rays of that familiar sphere illuminating the alien features of an unfamiliar world. Zeniah gave a deep sigh. She enjoyed watching the sunrise; in this land a thousand miles from home it was an old friend, an only friend.

As the world slowly came into focus, she noticed, as she did every morning, the vibrant colors. The deep blue of the mountains, capped with white, the brilliant greens of the fields, rippling in a gentle breeze. They were colors more suited to gemstones, or garments for the rich. The grass should be pale gold, touched by the sun, mountains were meant to be gray or even black, and the white was unheard of, as if they were crowned with solid clouds.
It felt wrong, but at the same time it felt right, it felt alive.

She took another deep breath, feeling the chill in her lungs. She shivered despite the cloak covering her back and head. She missed the heavy warmth of the air back home.

A month. For a month she had lived in ruined, crumbled houses. For a month she helped shepherd the locals, as colorful as their country, to their deaths. She had never killed anypony, but she may as well have. As much as she pretended to be just another oblivious soldier, she knew of the horrors that were inflicted to the stallions, mares, and foals in those camps. But it still paled in comparison to what waited in their homeland...

From where she sat at the edge of the camp, the sounds of an army awakening drowned out the silence. Where before there was the chirp of exotic birds and the rushing of a nearby stream, there was shouting and the clattering of steel.
There was a loud hoarse cry of “Form rank!” from the Centurion in the center of camp.

Zeniah took one last deep breath, then turned and trotted back into the camp for the morning’s marching orders.

***

Half an hour later found a hundred zebras marching in silence through a vivid green valley, breathtakingly beautiful, or it would have been; the beauty of the land was lost on the century of jaded soldiers.They were more interested in watching their hooves plod slowly through the dirt of the road.

Nopony looked up. They knew what they would see if they did: Canterlot. Even from the valley they were in, they could see the solitary mountain off to the west, jutting defiantly into the morning sky, the castle perched on the side looked all but impenetrable.

They had taken every precaution, avoiding every town, capturing any ‘pegasi’, those accursed winged ponies, before they could fly away and warn the capital of the approaching army, but the air was still heavy with tension as they left Fillydelphia.
For all they knew there could be an army waiting for them in that castle hanging in the sky.

Each step brought them closer to what could potentially be the end to this little war, but only time would tell.

Shining Armor

Shining Armor felt tired. Not physically tired, he was in excellent shape after all of the training, but mentally he was exhausted; leading an army was hard work.
After countless hours doing drills, meeting with potential armorers, and council meetings, he felt like he was at wit’s end.
He rubbed his eyes and looked around the table at his commanders.

Rarity and Trixie were arguing. Again. Spitfire was saying something at him about... something. Rainbow Dash was fiddling with her wing, paying no attention to what was happening. Applejack was off drilling her troops, as always.

He noticed a pegasus standing timidly by the door, a messenger, judging by the saddlebag. He waved her in, and she made her way around the table, smiling nervously.

When she reached him, she gave an awkward salute and said “General, uh... sir. I have a letter from the princess.”

She produced a scroll from her bag and held it out to him.
He looked at the scroll and asked “What’s your name?”

“Er... Cloudchaser. Sir.”

He took the letter from her and said “Thank you Cloudchaser, you’re dismissed.”

She quickly saluted again and scampered out of the room.

He read the letter to himself, not liking what he read. It wasn’t until he’d finished and looked up from the letter that he noticed that the room had fallen silent.

“Darling, you’re frowning again. It doesn’t suit you... er, sir.” Rarity said, looking concerned and just a little curious.

“We’re not ready...” he mumbled, without thinking.

Rainbow Dash, now paying full attention, asked “What did you say? Do we finally get to see some action?”

Shining Armor sighed, regained his composure, then told them. “We’ve received word of zebra forces in Fillydelphia, and making preparations to march on Canterlot.”

In unison, Rarity and Trixie exclaimed “Canterlot?”

He knew they weren’t ready, the enemy had more than likely been training their entire lives for this, whereas their own troops had barely received a month’s training. He took another look around at his commanders, at the mix of fear and determination on their faces.

“We are by no means ready, but if we delay any longer, the zebras will reach the capital unchallenged and the war will be as good as over.”

Rainbow Dash put both hooves on the table and said “We gotta do something; if we take out even an advance party, those zebras will know we’re not just some eggheads to be pushed around, and run back to Manehattan.”

Rarity took her turn to voice her opinion and said “This may actually be a good thing, if their main forces are in Fillydelphia, we can take the chance to help some of the ponies around the Manehattan area. I... heard that one of the airships has been completed. With your permission, I could take a small crew and a cargo hold of supplies, see if there’s anypony we can help.”

She smiled to herself in a way that said ‘I feel clever’ and raised her eyebrows inquisitively at him.

A moment of contemplative silence followed before Shining Armor decided it was time to finally speak up. “You’re both right, we need to meet the attackers head on, show them that we mean business, and relieve civilians while the enemy’s distracted.”

Spitfire muttered “I wouldn’t exactly call that a plan...”

Before continuing, Shining Armor took a deep breath. “Commanders, gather your troops in the courtyard back in Canterlot. We leave tomorrow morning. And can somepony send a message to Commander Applejack as well?”

They all nodded and stood up.

As they were filing out, he called to Rarity and said “Commander Rarity, I’ll need you to stay behind.”

Rarity looked nervously at Rainbow Dash, who shrugged and trotted out after Spitfire. “Yes, General? Did I... do something wrong?”

“What? No, I said your idea was good, Commander. I just wanted to know if you’d need any help getting your crew together.”

She looked shocked for some reason, then said “Oh, er... I guess I could use a little help.”

“There’s a list of roles your crew needs to fill, I’ll just write it up for you in a moment... but there’s something else. We’ve... made contact with Chrysalis. The Changeling Queen? I believe you two... er, met... we’ll be hiring the changelings strictly as mercenary forces...”

Rarity simply nodded and said “Oh, I know.”

“..Now, before you say-... what? What do you mean you know? That’s classified information!”

She smiled sheepishly. “Well I... may have some, er... contacts. I like to be in the know. But what I don’t know is what you’re going to do with them, they’re not exactly front line material.”

He gave a wary smile. “Espionage.”

Rivet

The sword in Rivet’s claws felt strange, cold and off-balance. He squinted at the striped dummy in front of him, then thrust the blade into it. The sword cut through the sack, and sunk into the post behind it with a thunk.
He let go of it and stepped back, somehow dissatisfied. Sand trickled slowly from the hole. When it came to it- and he knew it was coming soon- would he be able to just kill a pony?

He yanked the sword out and watched the sand bleed out onto the ground.

Andromeda, who was training beside him, whispered “Look out, Blueblood’s at it again.”

From somewhere across the yard came the narcissistic drawl that belonged to their drilling instructor Prince Blueblood, “No, you’re doing it all wrong. I told you, keep the blade high. This isn’t medical training, miss Belle! I know it’s heavy! If it weren’t heavy it would be a dagger, and you have no chance of parrying with a dagger, now keep your blade up, girl! Sometimes I don’t even know why I bother with you commoners, fencing is a civilized art, I hardly expect mere peasants to possess the sophistication required for such a skill. I said keep your blade up!”

A pretty young unicorn, on the verge of tears, was struggling to keep a large sword above her head, while Blueblood watched, scowling.

On reflection, Blueblood, while a complete pain in the flank, knew what he was doing. He had won many a fencing tournament, as he was so quick to remind everyone at every chance he got, and no one could best him when it came to sparring. Rivet himself had tried on one occasion, and was awarded with many a bruise on his shoulders, legs and ego.

Rivet watched the young mare; she was seconds away from dropping the heavy blade, and he knew that meant she would be getting further public humiliation from Blueblood.
Sweat beaded the poor unicorn’s face; the heat coming from the glow around her straining horn would have been immense.

She was just about to give in, when Commander Trixie strode purposefully into the yard and shouted, “The General has received word of zebra troop movement, and we are to assemble in the courtyard in Canterlot. Well, what are you waiting for? The Great and Commanding Trixie gave you an order! Move out!”

A couple of ponies gave an excited whinny but for the most part, everyone started moving out in silence. They learned to follow Commander Trixie’s orders, not out of fear or respect, but simply because they didn’t want her to start talking about how she ‘vanquished the Ursa whatever-it-was’ or any of her other outlandish stories.

The young mare dropped the heavy sword into the dust with a thump, and smiled in relief. She started trotting toward the exit to the camp, and Andromeda hurried after her.
Rivet smiled and rolled his eyes as he sauntered after them.

He was thankful for Andromeda, he thought, as he walked alongside him, barely listening to his chatter with the young mare. If it weren’t for him, he would have felt completely alienated surrounded by unicorns.

In the first days it had seemed like he was going to be alone in the crowd, so to speak, but more recruits were arriving from all over Equestria every day, and one day he had been walking through the yard after training and Andromeda had just walked up beside him and started chatting away like they were still in Ponyville.

While having a friend there helped him from feeling like an outsider, he still felt very different. It had been a week before they had even begun training in earnest; the first week had been lessons in magically wielding weapons.
From what he could tell, apparently it was closer to unlearning, something about the limitations of special talents and how they limited their use of magic. It all only served to remind him of his lack of a cutie mark, and he soon learned not to pay attention.

He had had difficulty following the instructors at first, seeing as every pony held their weapons in a magical field, and he held them in his claws.

He had been ready to give up and admit to being useless, when one day General Shining Armor told him “Telekinesis is nothing but claws that you can’t see or feel. Imagine that picking something up with your claw is just like magic, but you can see what’s holding it.”

At first he thought it was dumb advice, and had many more embarrassing fumbles and slips, before one day, after a particularly futile attempt, he gave up and sat down, opting to watch Andromeda training instead. He wasn’t the best at it, and his movements were slower and a little clumsier than any of the others, but his slower movements allowed Rivet to watch closer. He tried imagining an invisible claw holding the sword, and, after watching him go through the movements, picked up his own sword and copied him.

After that he learned quickly, and soon he was a match for any pony there, with the possible exception of Blueblood.

He drifted back to reality, and noticed with a small amount of surprise that they were already halfway up the path that lead to Canterlot.

Beside him, Andromeda was still deep in conversation with the mare. “...Really. I’m just not cut out for being a soldier... So why are you here, if you don’t mind me asking? I mean, we’re going to have to... kill somepony, sometime. It’s inevitable, you know?”

When she replied, the mare’s voice was smooth and surprisingly high pitched, “Well... I just wanted to be a nurse. I like helping ponies and stuff. I talked to my sister about it, and she said that once we were done with training I could be a... what’s it called again? A medical? But I dunno, I’m not really that good at it, maybe I should just be a squire or something. Squire’s the one that just does stuff for Commanders, right? Maybe I could help my sister do stuff.”

Andromeda tripped on a stone jutting out of the uneven path, staggered, then quickly recovered and cleared his throat. “Come on, Sweetie Belle. ‘Not really that good?’ You were top of the class! I think you’d make a great medic. That's... medic, by the way.”

Sweetie Belle cocked an eyebrow and said “Huh?”

“Medic. Not medical.”

She rolled her eyes at his cocky grin. “What are you, a dictionary?”

“Something like that.”

She sighed and said “You’re impossible.”

They continued their banter for the rest of the trip, and Rivet found himself drifting off again, when he noticed a cloud of pegasi flying toward Canterlot. He felt a pang of loneliness as he watched them fly over.
He noticed how well-trained they all seemed, all flying together in formation. In comparison, he barely remembered he had wings, but flapped them then, and thought about how he could have been up there with them.

He felt his wing impact with something, and heard a “Hey!” from Andromeda. Sweetie Belle laughed into her hoof as Andromeda glared at him.

Rivet grinned sheepishly at him and was about to apologize, when a dropped into his mind.
He looked at his friend, his sly smile, the easiness with which he went about everything. It was all a trot through a field for him. The words of his childhood flight teacher came to mind; “Fly high, fall hard”.

As much as he hated to think about it, griffons were built to kill. He could feel it in his claws, the desire to sink them into someone’s flesh, to taste the blood on his beak. Every night, laying in his bunk, he worried. He didn’t worry that he would have to kill someone... he worried that he would enjoy it. But Andromeda... he wasn’t sure how he’d take it. He was innocent, he-

“Hey Rivet, you okay buddy?”

He jerked back to reality to find the two unicorns watching him with worried looks on their faces. He mumbled a “Huh?”

“You just kinda drifted off on us, you look about as tired as I feel. Anyway, as long as you’re back in the land of the living, we’d better not keep the general waiting. After that we can get some shuteye.”

As they approached the archway that led into Canterlot proper, they heard an annoyingly familiar voice behind them call out “Hold on, you two!”

They turned to see Commander Trixie hurrying up to them, out of breath from having just run up the path from the training camp. They waited patiently for her to catch up, and then for her to catch her breath.

After a brief pause filled with gasping, she raised her head and said “You... you two are not going to the courtyard. You have other plans.”

Rivet’s first thought was; Hooray, secret stuff that only involves ponies.
His second thought, when Commander Trixie dismissed Sweetie Belle, simply consisted of the word 'what.'
They followed wordlessly, giving each other confused looks.

***

“This is horse manure, ma’am!”

They had stopped at a double door at the end of a hall in some part of the castle that Rivet had never seen before, and there was obviously some kind of argument happening on the other side of the doors.
Trixie glanced back at them, then tentatively opened the doors with her magic. The creak as they opened was enough to draw the attention of everyone in the room, and the occupants glanced at the newcomers.

“Well, I believe these are the last additions to your little... escapade, Commander. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have other business to attend to.” Trixie said, a hint of jealousy in her voice. She waited for a second or two, then stalked out of the room without a word.

Rarity turned to look at the pair of them standing in the doorway, and scribbled something on a list floating in front of her.
The pony she had been arguing with perked up at the sight of them.

“Rivet?” she asked, her voice as familiar to him as the hammering of steel.

She trotted over, leaving Rarity to her list, and gave him a quick hug. He grinned and said “Mjӧlna, long time no see! How’ve you been?”

She shook her head, but it didn’t do anything to shake the smile off her face, “Aye, I’ve been alright. It’s all a little strange still, so it’s good ta see a friendly face.”

“So what’s going on? Why are we here? What were you arguing about?” Rivet asked, the questions cluttering his mind finally spilling out.

“Didn’t ya hear? We-” she started, but was interrupted by Rarity clearing her throat in a not unladylike manner.
Mjӧlna turned around and stood at attention, waiting for the commander to speak.

Rarity looked over her list one last time, glancing around the silent room occasionally.

It was this that drew Rivet’s attention to the other occupants of the room. Aside from Andromeda, Mjӧlna, Rarity, and himself, there was a gray pegasus stallion with slicked black hair and a cocky smile, who sat nonchalantly at the table occupying the centre of the room inspecting a hoof, a pair of blue unicorns that could only be twins stood silently near one of the large floor-to-ceiling windows, and Derpy, a wall-eyed pegasus that had worked as a mailmare back in Ponyville, who stood looking contentedly out one of the windows.

Rarity finally broke the silence, saying “Hello everypony. Er... everyone, rather. Now I’m sure you are all wondering what you are doing here when you could be listening to some marvelous speech about the greater good, or something like that. Well, you should all be proud to know that you have all been chosen for a special task. We are just waiting on one last crew member...”

She had hardly finished talking when, as if on cue, Princess Celestia walked in, once again clad in the magnificent armor that she wore when Rivet had last seen her. She had clearly just come from the courtyard. Behind her walked an earth pony guard, almost as if there was something to fear even in Canterlot.

She cast her gaze around at the group and smiled warmly at each of them, except the smile turned into more of a frown when she noticed Rivet.
Just as last time, the frown was gone within the blink of an eye, and she was back to smiling again.

Rarity, looking a little uneasy, said “Ah, your Highness, lovely to see you. We’ve been expecting you.” and gave a quick bow that managed to be both clumsy and graceful at the same time.

The Princess gave her another smile and said “Yes, I have come to give your new crew a briefing on their mission, and also to introduce the last member of said crew.”

She nodded to the guard, and he strode confidently into the centre of the room and took a seat at the table.

The rest of them all took this as a cue and sat around the table, with Celestia standing at the head.
She gave the guard pony an inquisitive look, and said “Everyone, this is... Sue-”

The gray stallion started snorting with laughter, earning a glare from ‘Sue’,

”-and he is going to be in charge of tactics and infiltration where necessary.”

Andromeda’s hoof shot up, and, without waiting to be acknowledged, said “Uh, you highness, I hate to be ‘that guy’, but infiltration isn’t exactly... earth ponies’ area of expertise.”

The princess said nothing, but inclined her head toward Sue, who nodded.
A ripple of green light shot down the pony’s body, and the pure white coat of an earth pony was instantaneously replaced with the distinct mottled black and green carapace of a changeling. He allowed himself a little self-satisfied smile.

The pegasus stallion, still chortling to himself, stopped laughing, shouted in surprise, fell off his chair, and shot up into the air where he hovered breathlessly.

After he had caught his breath, he shouted “Whoa, a changeling?! And you expect me to work with this thing?”

Rarity glared at him and said “I expect you to follow orders, Rumble. You are a soldier now, remember?”

Rumble lowered himself down into one of the chairs further from the changeling and muttered “Yes ma’am... But that doesn’t mean I trust him.”

Princess Celestia watched them with a look that was a combination of calm and amused, but she seemed... worried.
She exchanged a look with Rarity, and with that she finally spoke, “Over the past month we have been receiving word of refugees in the areas around Manehattan. The zebras are showing no remorse, they have walled up Manehattan city and have set up camps where they keep civilians. The towns in the vicinity have been bled for resources. It’s grim. But all of you can help to make a difference. The main zebra forces have moved to Fillydelphia, and our forces are to meet them head on. While they are preoccupied, you are to take an airship, the first out of production, and help the civilians in any way you can.
Rarity, I am sorry that this could not be more ceremonial, but as of today, you are no longer a commander in the Army. You are hereby promoted to Admiral of the Navy.”

Rarity beamed with pride and gave a small bow, “Thank you Princess, I will not let you down.”

Outside in the courtyard a bell started ringing. The princess glanced out the window and said “Well then, Shining Armor and the First Battalion are on the march.
If you all come with me, I shall show you to your ship and see you off. Once on board, the Admiral will show you around the ship and where you will be stationed. Come, we must not waste time.”

She turned and walked from the room, her heavy armor making each hoofstep ring through the halls of the castle.

Big Macintosh

Gathered in the courtyard, the ponies chattered excitedly among themselves. All of them wore saddlebags with a silhouette of Canterlot printed on the sides. Those bags, he reflected, contained all of their worldly possessions.
Diamond Tiara, having recovered from their bout in the ring with only a couple of bruises, was bragging to anypony that would listen about how many zebras she was going to kill.
She was still talking as Princess Celestia, clad in her armor, took the stage.

Everypony else fell into both silence and rank except her, completely oblivious to the silence around her, talking embarrassingly loudly. Silver Spoon, her friend standing at attention next to her, punched her in the shoulder and nodded toward the stage, where the Princess stood glaring at her.
Diamond Tiara turned toward the stage, then instantly stopped talking and took to cowering instead. And with good reason; the Princess’ stare looked like it could cut through steel.

Celestia kept silent for a few seconds, looking out over the crowd like she always did.
Her armor shimmered in the noonday sun bright enough that nopony could look directly at her.

Satisfied, the Princess nodded to herself, then started to speak. “Greetings everypony. The day has come at last. I will only be brief, I have prior engagements that require attending, and I am sure the General would not appreciate me stealing his thunder, so to speak.
So I will say this and be on my way: I am proud of all of you. I have made a point of watching you all train, and you are all well on the way to becoming the soldiers this nation needs. I give you all my blessing, and I believe in you. That is all, thank you.”

She stepped off the stage without another word, and General Shining Armor took her place in the center.

He wore a set of magnificent white steel armor trimmed with purple which, true to his name, shone, dull in comparison to that of the Princess, but still a sight to behold.
His helmet didn’t cover his entire face, and did nothing to cover the look of worry, nor the sunken eyes. He looked like he hadn’t slept for at least a week.

Before he started, he cleared his throat awkwardly. “Hello everypony. That is to say, uh... thank you all for coming. You have all greatly improved over the past month, and I have even had the chance to train with some of you. The zebras may be better trained, but they...”

His voice trailed off mid sentence, and he stared blankly out at the crowd of recruits.

“...Okay, I’m not going to lie to you, you all deserve better than that. Things are grim. They outnumber us, they are better trained, and they are determined. I don’t know if we can win this war, but most if not all of you have families here in Canterlot, and we are going to stop them getting here. Even if we die, they are not getting to our families.
You have prepared physically, you are all capable, but now you must prepare mentally. Ask yourself; when the time comes, could you kill another pony? They will kill you without remorse. They will trample you into the ground if you hesitate. And you are the only ones that stand between the zebras and Canterlot. So you must be prepared to do what is necessary.”

He took a deep breath. His face no longer looked tired, the tension had been replaced with determination, and he started to speak louder and with more confidence.

“These are hard times. Dark times. Equestria has been at peace for a thousand years, but the sun is setting. Night is coming. So I ask you; what will you do in that night? Will you find a place to hide? Will you accept the darkness? Or will you light a torch, band together, fight against the cold and the dark?”

As he spoke, ponies started murmuring agreements, stomping in approval, and his voice rose to echo off the courtyard walls.

“The sun of peace has set, and the moon rises! We must look to ourselves for light! But don’t lose hope. Never lose hope. The dawn is coming, and we will see peace return to Equestria! We will not stop fighting until the dawn!”

The courtyard shook with stomping and cheering. In one corner, mainly populated with pegasi, some of the soldiers started shouting “Dawn!”, and before long, the entire courtyard rang with a thousand shouts.

Fighting to be heard over the uproar, Shining Armor shouted “We march for Fillydelphia! Let’s buck these tyrants out of our land!”

Still cheering and shouting, the soldiers started filing out of the courtyard toward the city’s exit.
Somewhere a bell started ringing, heralding the army’s march.

Zeniah

The next morning...

The morning was cold and damp. Heavy cloud had moved in overnight, obscuring Zeniah’s view of the sunrise. She felt miserable. Her hooves were wet. Dew clung to her cloak as she sat looking forlornly at the gray masses of cloud obscuring her view of the beautiful valley.

The colors that had been so prominent the previous morning were all muted to a dull gray. At least she couldn’t see Canterlot. That castle still gave her a feeling as though a rock were dropped into her stomach whenever she looked up at it.
The cold air clawed at her face, and a chill wind whipped at her cloak.
How did everything change so quickly?

The cry of “Form rank!” came muffled through the dense air. She shivered, pulled her cloak closer to her, checked the unused gladius sheathed at her side, and started her walk back toward the camp.

Standing in line alongside her ‘friends’, she had difficulty paying attention to the days marching orders. The cold was starting to give her a headache. They were a day’s march from Canterlot, and everypony was starting to get nervous. There had been a lot of tension accumulating over the past week, and the weather wasn’t helping.

She was just starting to wonder if she would ever be warm again, when a shout came from outside the camp. Seconds later, the lookout galloped into view and started shouting breathlessly about ponies.
The Centurion, Darius, a hardened veteran, surly on the best of days, gave the legionnaire a hard whack across the face and said “Get a hold of yourself. What is going on?”

The soldier took a couple of deep breaths, coughing at the cold invading his lungs, and managed to pant “Equestrian forces, at the mouth of the valley, to the west. They know we’re here.”

The centurion didn’t waste any time, he turned back to the waiting soldiers and shouted “Xanthe, you are to get back to Fillydelphia and tell them of what happened here. Go! The rest of you, to arms!”

Zeniah scrambled into her tent, taking a moment to wrestle with the flap covering the entrance. She flopped inside, and quickly donned her helmet, which slipped, partly obscuring her eyes. She rechecked the gladius at her side and picked up the spear laying next to the bedroll in her teeth.
Turning, she galloped back out, the spear in her mouth knocking out the supports. The entire tent deflated behind her. She barely noticed.

She ran to the outskirts of the camp where the rest of the soldiers were forming two lines facing the west. She stumbled into position at the end of back line, and fumbled to readjust her helmet.
The clouds had closed in, engulfing them, clinging to them.

They waited in silence. Nothing moved. Somewhere down the line, somepony coughed. Still nothing moved. There was a rumble overhead, and rain pattered down into the ranks, rattling off their armor. Silence, save for the rhythmic tinkling of rain.

Somewhere behind them, a scream rang out. They whirled to look for the source of the noise and saw from the east a hundred ponies of all different color, all armored in steel, charging down the valley toward them, materializing out of the mist.
“Spears!”

As one, the soldiers all lowered their spears, ready to meet the attackers. The Equestrian natives were all too primitive to understand tactics. Zeniah felt a small flicker of confidence. Numbers meant nothing if they didn’t know how to use them.
Somepony shouted “To the west!” and her confidence was instantly shattered.
They were attacking from both sides!
The back row, formerly the front row, turned to face the wave of ponies coming from the west. Dread washed over Zeniah; they were closing in. This was it. She was going to die miles away from home in a damp valley and left to rot, forgotten. They were close enough now to see the rain sliding over their armor, the frenzied looks in their eyes. Or was it fear?
She would never find out.

Time slowed to a crawl and she saw the plains of her childhood, her father playing with her sister, hiding in the long grass. Her mother berating him for being ‘childish’. The smell of freshly picked lavender. The hot sun high above. Home. Safety. All gone.

The real world came back with a crash, laughter replaced with screams and whinnies.
A gray pony charged straight at her, shouting, and her spear drove in under the pony’s ribs, shattering the weak point of her armor. Blood flowed from the pony’s punctured chest, down the spear and over her mouth, and she dropped it in shock. The pony toppled and lay bleeding in front of her, gasping for air.

All around, the battle raged.

She looked up, panting, to see a zebra get tossed bodily aside by the largest pony she had ever seen. He was like something of nightmare; red, monstrous, rippling with muscle and towering over everypony else. His head snapped to look at her, and he charged, spear in his mouth.

She grabbed her gladius with her teeth and tried to tug it out of its sheath, but whether from the cold or the damp or both, it stuck. She pulled at it desperately, trying to get it to come loose. Her teeth slipped,and her head jerked up just on time to see the red pony ten feet away, running at her with his spear aimed at her heart.

She managed to just barely scramble out of the way, and his spear glanced off the side of her armor. The impact was enough to knock her off balance. The pony swung the spear around, and suddenly stars filled her vision. The impact rippled through her skull, and blinding white pain obscured every other thought. She staggered sideways, her legs gave out, and she fell into the gathering darkness.

It embraced her, pain and all, and she slept.

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[ChainReaction]

So, first comment huh? I've never had one of these before. Anyhooves, I like your story so far. The character's are completely disjointed, but it's in a good way. That's what I loved about fics like FO:E and The Immortal Game. The characters likie Twilight, AJ, and Big Mac kept their core, but the writer wrote their personalities very differently. All in all, a good start. I look forward to the next chap. Also, if you are into Vampires and Dark stories, and adorableness, and just about any other genre of literature, would you go check out my story Feral? I hear good things about it.

[SeriouslyLuna]

uǝɯɯoɔ ʇsod I op ʍoɥ 'ɐıʇsǝlǝƆ ssǝɔuıɹԀ ɹɐǝp