The Pointed Woodsmaster

by The Real Darkness

Living Through Ages

Another day was done, he had plenty of food still after making mental notes of creatures and plants in the forest as he observed them. It definitely became more wild after the ponies abandoned their castle, they were keeping them more in check than he thought. Many more years had passed and he was not even bothered by any more ponies. Though he knew of a new denizen of the deep, they kept to themself.

Arctus breathed deep, his nose was attuned to this place they called the Everfree Forest, but he could smell something new on their winds, maybe even something familiar. He smelt it.

That was the the scent of a new kingdom, the construction, the food, it was a mixed scent that was magically put as an instinct for him to distinguish. He climbed a tree in his home, the tallest he was familiar with and saw a new castle and town perched out the mountain he once came face to face with while exploring. He was trained to go to these places and crush them, no one was to start a new fortress, nation, castle, township without Aeternia's permission. His nation liked ambitious people as long as they were kept under leash.

He climbed back down, but along the way back to his cabin, he had a visitor who purposefully sought him out.

"Arctus."

He pulled his spear from his back, whipping it in front of him, "I warned you to not seek me out."

"Why?"

That was not a question he was prepared to answer, a silence passed, "I live alone, always have."

"But why not socialize?"

"I do, with communicating when ponies get too close to my activities," he kept his spear trained on him.

"That's not-."

"I am far too violent for you, leave me."

Celestia narrowed her eyes at him and he questioned her look before a bolt of magic shot to him to be stopped by his spear head.

"Interesting. Your tactic of diplomacy however needs much to be desired," he had done research in the years he was here, "your sister was a much better fighter," she visibly winced, he hit a nerve, "and better at keeping her weaknesses hidden away."

A long silence passed before the princess left him. He looked about before continuing home, ensuring he wasn't followed as he usually does. Seemed that violence might have been half effective at keeping these ponies away, but striking their herts where they hurt was the best way to ward them.

---

She didn't bother him much after that, but there was another occurrence, one that sparked his interest. Another scent ws magically programmed into his nose and he found himself leaving the stone chisel and unfinished bunch of arrowheads on the long table he made himself, climbing out of his cabin with his spear and into the lookout tree, he saw the pillars of smoke and some encampments at the foot of the mountain, that's what the banners and white smoke told him, the black pillars were different.

He reached to his left pockets and pulled a spyglass, looking closer. Sure enough, the familiar mythical creatures that he helped Aeternia demolish were there, Minotaurs. They were razing the castle the ponies built.

"Another slice of home."

He returned his vision enhancer and climbed back down, returning to his cabin and finishing his new arrowheads. The next day, he exited his home to search for well dried wood, or wood he could potentially dry out if it didn't have too many knots and he decided to use the aspen trees, cutting them down and into firewood shaped blocks was a painfully slow process, but an abundance of arrows was important for any self respecting scout.

He heard a flap in the air and drew his bow from his back, slotting an arrow and looking up. Celestia landed a couple yards away form him, the arrow trained for her skull.

He let the arrow loose and pulled another back, a shield blocked it same as it did with Luna.

"Arctus, I have come asking for a favor."

"Your war?"

"You can see it from here then. Minos declared war on us, they want out land and resources."

He pondered, but he already knew his answer, "I'll help, but only in the way I intend to."

He put the arrow away and the bow, all his gear was already on him, including some food. The scout approached her, "stay still," and climbed atop, "fly and I will ensure your permanent victory."

And Celestia took off, bearing with his heavy weight and heading back.

"What...what are you planning?"

"Aeternia's tactic of annihalition means the entire kingdom of Minos will crumble with minimal losses. I only need to begin observing first."

She was quiet for the rest of their flight and after Celestia flew over the city, where all the ponies were sheltered in her castle, he leapt, drawing his spear and landing atop a roof, looking at the minotaurs looting homes and such. Some were at the castle, yelling and making demands while making fun of them. Celestia had not even bothered to check in before he began his work.

The scout travelled the highway of roofs and saw an encampment at the entrance to the city, minotaurs were there relaxing and brawling. He knew how to deal with this kind of group, the over confident, half disciplined, greedy mercs. They were an army but they behaved more like a band of bandits with the sense to not backstab each other. He stood at the edge of the mountain, traveling further and fetching his spyglass, the encampment below was mostly empty, but he did see some high ranking officers there.

A plan was formed and he smiled, "time to begin the real work," he returned his spyglass and gripped his spear, dropping into the city alleys and searching homes none of them had yet to be in, amassing a great bit of gold, valuables, money, everythign he thought the minotaurs would be after and moved them to a single street to get some traffic from the minotaurs but not too much for him to handle.

And they came, lured by the money and finding a stash in a home. He murdered each one, arrow in the throat and reset the trap, after a couple of hours, he easily had stacked forty or more corpses and began a grueling tasks of mutliating them and leaving wounds that would show methods of torture or grizzly painful deaths. This was a tactic that scared all bandits into a corner. Some he even lopped limbs off of, but he saved all the blood he could. When his work was done, that night he placed the corpses around with blood everywhere all over the streets., that's when he met with Celestia at the castle, using his boots to climb into a window and demanding a guard take him to her, they were all informed of his assistance.

"Forty-six of them are dead, not much of a dent in their numbers, but I need your help with this next part. Your magic seemed very utilitarian where mine was meant for combat. Can you cast a spell to make noises louder?" She nodded, afraid of him from his first five words, and followed him as he beckoned with his hand and she took him to a ruined home that held a gagged and blindfolded minotaur.

"Arctus, this isn't-."

"Quiet, you are not going to question my methods. You should ensure no sound enters the castle tonight and cast that spell over this room," her horn lit and she quickly left.

And he ripped the gag out of the minotaur's mouth and it gasped.

"What the fuck?!" It bellowed.

"Hello, name's Arctus. A lot of people used to know me, they'd shiver in their boots at my name," he whispered in his ear, "we're putting on a show, so try not to pass out on me or make it too easy."

He heard some commotion at the camp, which wasn't too terribly far away from this building.

"I don't care who you are! Let me go!" The minotaur's voice rang over the whole city.

"You don't understand your current situation."

He took a throwing knife out and stabbed it hard into his knee, "we're doing this, no matter how much you scream. You're gonna regret coming here as some kind of fun afternoon activity."

He pulled on the knife, wrenching his flesh around before he pulled it out, the scream went through the night, "I'll break you and I'll keep breaking you. If you show enough endurance, I might even put you in a circus and make a model out of you."

More commotion at the camp and the patrols started, but the sound was coming from all over the city and he concealed this room well, it was a cellar after all. Arctus got his hatchet and pulled the blindfold off the minotaur's face, "now you're gonna watch."

"No...nobody is this cruel!" It shouted, already terrified.

Arctus sent the hatchet blade onto his leg, just below his femur before he put his gladius into the slot, letting the minotaur scream before he panted in pain.

Pop

His kneecap was wedged off, tendons tearing and the bone flew across the room and the victim...

sounded inhuman.

The scout had multiple minotaurs he also kidnapped and went through the whole night doing it, ensuring the minotaurs listened to the sounds of their comrades.