Darkness of Ages - Book 1: Greyhield

by YoungQuillMaster

Chapter 31: Home is Where the Ash is

Spike strode into the mighty hall, an almost routine activity for him at that point. The other generals and colonels where already waiting for him. Spike tossed a towel to one of the soldiers, the sweat soaked cloth dripping in the reptilous' grasp, the fruits of Spike's training evident in its yellowing fabric. Spike pulled his chair out, his colonel following suit beside him.

"General Spike, I hope your tardiness is not an active habit." Gylom began. "We understand you've been training hard, but it hardly suits a soldier as yourself to be late to an important meeting such as this one." Spike nodded in acknowledgement.

"I came as soon as the messenger arrived, though the messenger did play a part in how delayed I was since he didn't have accurate reports of my location." Spike replied.

"Accurate reports of your location? How accurate must he be to locate you inside a training cavern?" Glenn asked harshly. Spike turned to him, his fear of the general long gone after the months of tested patience and extensive soldiering.

"We no longer use the cavern; we switched to the woods outside the mountain several weeks back to improve our air quality and reaction time in riding high speed through a section of tightly packed and random obstacles." Spike explained calmly.

"I am in favor of your choice to move training to a move natural environment," Greyhield stated, "But messengers should still be able to find you with ease if necessary." Spike nodded slowly.

"I'll make arrangements for a system to be put in place to accomplish such a goal." Spike replied. "Now, what was the reason for this meeting?" He asked, looking at the generals and colonels around him.

"The time has come for you to make your presence as a soldier in my army well known." Greyhield replied. "You will make the world aware of what side you fight for, and how powerful we truly are as you ride the very princess of the sun into battle." Spike felt the same uneasy feeling creep up on him at the mention of riding Celestia. True enough he had always done his practice battles on her, but it didn't make him anymore accustomed to riding her. Riding Twilight was something he had been used to during his time as her assistant, but riding Celestia just felt off, and the fact his colonel rode Luna didn't make matters any more agreeable.

"Where shall I strike, my lord?" Spike asked; a variety of battle plans beginning to form in his mind as he considered every variant of pony city and settlement he had seen.

"I not only wish for you to strike fear into ponykind in this battle," Greyhield explained, "But I also want you to prove yourself completely to me." Spike nodded slowly, waiting for Greyhield's true reply. "The attack will take place on the village of Ponyville." Spike felt his heart sink and his eye widen as a plethora of thoughts flooded his mind. "I hope there are no problems with this order."

"N-none, sire, the attack will take place without failure." Spike sputtered, replying before he even though of what he was saying. Greyhield nodded with satisfaction, rising from his throne.

"The attack is to be launched the fifth day of the next month, to allow for final training and deployment of your soldiers." Greyhield stated calmly before walking away from the table, exiting the room through a cave that led into the main throne room. Spike looked to the other soldiers around him, not entirely sure how to feel about his new assignment.

"Well, you have fifteen days to train and deploy your fighters. I believe you best get started if you want any chance of actually getting in a favorable position by that time." Glenn stated coldly. "This is your first battle on our side, and no matter how you perform after this point, this battle will define you, so I suggest you do well in it." With that, Glenn stood up and walked out of the hall, his colonels in tow. The doors shut behind them, leaving Spike and Gylom sitting with their colonels.

"As much as you've grown wary of whatever Glenn says, and I know that to be a lot, his words ring true in this time." Gylom said. "If you show tactical ingenuity and prowess in battle, then you will forever be though as a great leader and will feel no constraints on what you can make your riders do. However, if you perform poorly in any aspect, in victory or in loss, you will never see the end of the disrespectful treatment you'll receive. You will forever have to be proving yourself, and if you slip up so much as once, you're past failures will come to mind faster than you can excuse yourself for your fault." Gylom finished, standing up with his colonels before leaving the room. Galintrent looked to Spike with a small smile on his face.

"I find it slightly humorous how they think we can't handle ourselves on the battlefield." He said snidely. "We'll show them how true warriors take care of their enemies. This Ponyville will never see the attack coming." Galintrent continued, not noticing how distant Spike looked.

"I agree, I doubt Ponyville would think of the possibility of me coming to attack them." Spike replied with his mind consumed in thought.

"Exactly, they are completely clueless to our plans, and so they will be completely unable to resist our offensive when it comes to their door!" Galintrent exclaimed with a strange happiness that Spike couldn't understand. "I can have spies in their midst within... twelve hours or so. We'll get the lay of the land, and know exactly how their..."

"No need for the spies, Galintrent." Spike interjected, catching the colonel by surprise. "I won't need spies to tell me what Ponyville looks like."

"Oh, have you been there previously?" Galintrent inquired. "This truly is perfect, and might be the very reason why Greyhield gave it to us as our first mission. He knew you had the lay of the land already, so he knew that our plan of attack would already be perfectly able to deal with anything the town has to offer in resistance to us."

"Galintrent," Spike began, "I didn't just visit Ponyville," He explained, turning to look Galintrent in the eyes, "It used to be my home before I came here." Galintrent's mouth former an 'oh' shape as the realization dawned on him.

---

Spike snapped Celestia's reigns, the alabaster alicorn charging at full speed in response. Galintrent quickly caught up to him as Luna poured on the speed. Behind the pair was a massive wall of riders, with a variety of mounts, charging up behind them, Spike's new banner flying high in several places among the mass. Spike's hearing was overwhelmed by the sound of hooves, paws, and wooden legs striking the ground, as well as the sound of rattling armor of the soldiers and their mounts as it bounced in the pace of their gallop. Spike turned around to look at the mass of warriors, insuring that everything was in order.

The first ten ranks consisted of diamond dog mounted reptilous, the next six or so were mounted on timberwolves, with several lines mounted on Saddle Arabian horses and tall ponies that wore the controlling necklaces bringing up the rear. The final two lines were hitched to a fleet of wagons that contained supplies for the fighting force, including everything from weapons to rations and bedding for the day and a half journey to Ponyville.

"I doubt Ponyville has the necessary equipment in its possession to fend off this massive force." Galintrent commented over the roar of the moving army. "Even if they have a full division in their midst, I doubt they be able take our well trained soldiers, even if they outnumber us three to one." Spike nodded in response. He knew for a fact that the Equestrian military wasn't the great fighting force it was advertised to be, and the fact that the residents of Ponyville were untrained in combat would definitely be of no help. "And even if they had well trained soldiers such as ours along with three to one odds in their favor, our plans are so well made that they'll crumble before us."

"Galintrent, I'm starting to really notice that you're quite excited to go to battle against the ponies of Equestria." Spike commented. "I realize that serving under Greyhield provides a great amount of security in that we can never lose, which really does wonders for the nerves, but I don't think that that one fact can really cause you to have the robust attitude you are showing right now. So, care to enlighten me as to why you are so anxious to go to the fight?"

"It's the reptilous nature, sir." Galintrent replied simply. "All of us are eager to go to war against any enemy, even before Greyhield was our leader. It does help slightly that we were the last generation of the reptilous to fight in the War of the Fifteen."

"What exactly was the War of the Fifteen? I've read bits and pieces of it from some of the scrolls in the madrahciah libraries, but they never really go into detail as to why it was and how it ended, or even what it was or why it was called the War of the Fifteen." Spike confessed as he guided Celestia to gallop in a closer proximity to his colonel so he could listen.

"Well, The War of the Fifteen was started when the olden reptilous nation collapsed, disjointed into a mass of coalitions, small unions, and singular tribes that all hated anything that wasn't from their small sphere of influence." Galintrent explained. "Some of our madrahciah historians estimate there to be fourteen thousand or more divisions that occurred within the once great reptilous nation. But amongst the fragmented pieces of society, there were fifteen major tribes, from which the war got its name. The fifteen tribes were some of the more massive sections of the division, or at least they quickly became the largest holders after conquering their neighboring divisions."

"So what does being the final generation of that war mean exactly?" Spike asked, beginning to understand the history of the conflict "Does it only mean you were the last to fight and so were the victors and that’s it, or is there something else to it?"

"Being part of the final generation in this case means we were the seventh generation of the war, and had no family relations around us by that point to tell us of peace, and so we fought with the soul heart of it all devoted to the simple cause of fighting enemies and watching as life drained from their eyes." Galintrent explained as if it were nothing. "We no longer had reservations towards what we could and would do, and so we became the most efficient warriors that were ever seen. After the war ended, we were preserved until Greyhield awoke us to fight an even grander war than the last."

"Eh, what do you mean you were preserved for later? I don't think reptilous and madrahciah keep well in a can." Spike commented.

"There is a technique we have that allows fully grow reptilous to save themselves from death that can only occur in a swampy, or at least humid area." Galintrent stated. " As all reptiles, reptilous are born from eggs laid by our mothers, but reptilous have the ability to return to the egg at any time if a madrahciah is present. A madrahciah can cast a spell that creates a large egg around the reptilous, which then keeps the reptilous in a state of suspended animation, almost as if we were in a state of hibernation, although he do not have to consume lots of food since our metabolism slows down to a state, as the madrahciah describe it, of near death. To rise up from this state we also require a madrahciah, or at least some being with certain adeptness for magic."

"So I would guess that the one who reanimated you was Greyhield?" Spike ventured. Galintrent gave a nod, though it took Spike a second to realize with the bobbing motion of the ride.

"Now, general, even though this conversation is most enlightening, we really must focus on the task before us." Galintrent stated. "Are you certain that this is the way to the town?"

"Yes, this is definitely the way to Ponyville." Spike answered without hesitation. Spike sighed, and then snapped Celestia's reigns. If he was going to do this, he knew it would be easier done as soon as possible.

---

Spike looked over the quiet hamlet, the lights dimming in the windows of many houses he knew. Several ponies, some he could recognize, walked the streets, lighting the newly installed lanterns, an addition he wasn't entirely used to. In the distance, the glimmer of the crystalline castle in the moonlight drew him in. Spike turned Celestia away and galloped back down from a hill that rose from the Everfree forest to his encampment in the clearing below.

"Sir," Galintrent began, "Tonight is the night of the fifth day of this month. I suppose the attack is to be soon?" Spike looked at his colonel, and nodded in response.

"Rally the troops; get them all in their positions." Spike ordered calmly, deciding it best to stop feeling for the next few minutes, rather than face the inevitable heartbreak, which he knew would come back to haunt him. "The town shall fall in the dead of night, and Greyhield's banner will flutter in the morning breeze." Galintrent gave a nod a jumped up onto Luna's back before riding off.

Spike snapped Celestia's reign and rode towards the edge of the forest, quickly entering into the silence of the night as he rode on. The sound of rustling leaves, crunching twigs, the crackling of dried leaves, the huffs Celestia let out as she ran at full speed with a heavy warrior sitting on her, and the sound of his clinking armor were the only things Spike heard in the calmness of the night, and even these fell to the background as his thoughts consumed him as the cool night air rushed past his ears. Spike looked to his side, the distant shafts of lights that fell through the trees catching the armor of reptilous was the only sign they were anywhere nearby. Spike pulled back on the reigns, Celestia skidding to a stop just outside of the tree line.

"You made good time, Galintrent." Spike commented as his colonel stopped beside him. Galintrent snorted as he sheathed his sword and took out his lance and shield.

"Celestia might be the stronger, but Luna is the fleetest of hoof." Galintrent replied as he took his helmet from a strap at his side and placed it on his head, adjusting it slightly to be more in tune with his comfort. Spike followed through in the same pre-battle motions as he made sure he was truly ready to do what was asked of him. "On your signal, General." Galintrent said. Spike nodded slowly and took a deep breath.

"Let's get this over already." Spike muttered before snapping on Celestia's reigns. As Celestia broke out into a full gallop, the forest came alive as a wall of soldiers shot out in complete silence, except for the striking against the ground and the vague rattle of armor as they bolted through the plain between Ponyville and the Everfree.

As they drew nearer, Spike heard a trumpet in the distance, and suddenly the plain came to life, with torches and horns being lit as an ambush sprung out of nowhere. Spike pushed down on Celestia's stirrups, and as she had been ordered, her spread her wings out and took off with one might bellow of her wings. Spike watched below him as the ponies gazed at him riding Celestia with expressions of shock and complete dismay, a feeling of empowerment coming over him as he landed beyond them and continued on towards Ponyville.

Spike put away his lance and replaced it with an oil soaked branch. As he entered the streets of the small town, he breathed a wisp of fire on the wooden rod, the oil shooting up in a whirl of fire before Spike tossed it through a building’s window. A scream broke through the air, the voice of Carrot Top ringing familiar in his ears. Spike shut his eyes as he took out another stick, the thoughts of the devastation becoming stronger as he hurled his next fiery stick, this time a cry of a foal replying to the sudden fire. Spike’s eyes shot open, the realization hitting him harshly. Spike jerked Celestia’s reigns back tightly, his stead quickly slamming her hoofs down and stopping within second. Spike jumped off of Celestia, leaving his lance in her saddle.

“Continue to run through the town, I’ll go on foot from here!” He ordered Celestia, who gave a nod and continued charging through the town as Spike charged towards the now burning house. As he drew closer, he heard something collapsing inside, but it only served to make his pace grow quicker as he slammed through the door of the burning house. The smoke bellowed out from the door, catching Spike off guard for a second before he pushed through into the inferno. He crouched down and began looking for any sign of the little foal he had heard, but the pony wasn’t on the first floor. He charged up the stairs at the far end of the house and looked around again for the little form.

Spike coughed harshly as he ripped the closet door from its hinges, but was met by nothing but burning clothes. He fell to the floor, looking as fast as he could, when he saw the object of his search, cowering under a bed. Spike hurried over, but he saw that the pony was quickly retreating from him.

“Please, I’m…” Spike began, but was cut off by another coughing fit. The tiny pony moved farther away, as Spike collapsed completely on the floor as his coughing fit increased in strength. “I-I…” He struggled between coughs. “I want to help…” He pleaded as his coughs grew stronger and more frequent. The pony seemed to look uncertain about the dragon’s statement, but still began taking small steps towards Spike. Suddenly, a burning beam slammed into the floor, causing the pony to give another scream. As Spike lifted himself, he heard a sound that made his heart sink, the creaking of wood under too much weight. Spike dove towards the bed, but as he did, the floor gave way, crashing down on the lower level, sending a mass of embers up into the air.

Spike lifted himself from the rubble and crawled towards the broken bed, and began to throw pieces to the side. He finally removed the last piece and found the broken form of the foal. Spike lifted the filly up in his claws, the pony small enough he could probably lift her with one hand. His eyes began to water as he looked over the battered, burnt form of the pony, so young that it had yet to get her cutie mark. The dams behind Spike’s eyes finally broke, and the tears streamed down him face as he gave an anguished roar to the heavens.
“I-I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…” He whispered into her coat as he hugged the dead filly, never noticing the falling building around him, his being, his thoughts, and his world consumed in the thought that he had just killed. But it wasn’t just that he had killed, he had killed a filly, so young, and so full of potential. A life crushed before its prime, snuffed out like a candle, one instant alive, the next, no more.

---

Spike slowly placed the last stone on the grave of the filly. He had snuck out of the battlefield after finding Celestia and had found a suitable location to lay the tiny filly to rest; the very same hill he had viewed Ponyville from before he had attacked. He looked back towards the burning town, the sky behind it filled with vibrant colors as the sun slowly inched above the horizon.

“Celestia…” Spike whispered. The Princess of the Sun looked to him with her now usual blank expression. “Hold the sun; let it be morning for a little longer.” She nodded, and lit her horn, the sun stopping in response. Spike stood up, looking over the small grave, the headstone bearing a small inscription that he cared not to read again. He gave a salute to the spirit of the filly, standing there for several seconds before finally lowering his arm and mounting Celestia. “I hope that you may find peace in Elysium.” Spike snapped the reigns and made his way back to the battle with all haste, not wanting to be missed. “Teleport us to the school house, Celestia.” He ordered, Celestia’s horn coming to life in response as she prepared a spell.

---

Spike rode up on Celestia, looking up at the castle that was now filled with reptilous, a line of pony guards being led away in chains showing him that his orders to take as many prisoners as possible was followed. As he approached, the reptilous form lines on either side of the road, saluting their leader as he rode up to the castle.

“Three cheers to the general!” A soldier shouted out, the reptilous responding with three loud roars, quite different from the usual ‘hip hip hooray’ Spike was used to. Spike dismounted Celestia, and entered the castle; the crystal walls making him feel almost nostalgic.

“Well done, general.” Galintrent said as he came up beside Spike. “Ponyville now lays at Greyhield’s mercy.” Spike nodded, though he wasn’t really listening, his thoughts still very much on the little pony he had watched die. Spike looked towards Galintrent as the reptilous colonel left the castle, giving a letter to a rather small framed reptilous messenger who mounted a Saddle Arabian and charged off towards Greyhield’s Mountain.

Spike thoughts wandered to Galintrent as he watched the warrior trotted along the path towards Ponyville, mounted on Luna. Galintrent wouldn’t have felt remorse when he heard the filly’s scream, he wouldn’t have tried to save the small life, he wouldn’t have lamented over the dead corpse. The more Spike thought of it, the more a sense of betrayal grew in him. He knew that his loyalties were with Greyhield, yet he knew he could never live in peace with the type of creatures that could kill without remorse, and yet, he was, and in fact, he felt he was slowly becoming one. Spike turned away from the fading colonel, his resolve set strong against becoming like the reptilous. He would never see a life as worthless, he would never stop asking for forgiveness from those he wronged, because he knew deep down, he was still more like a pony than a dragon.