True Colors

Black

The ponies of Stalliongrad trotted about their business as any other day. Though it was still a daily occurrence, crime had been reduced by the presence of the soldiers of The Grand Army. Most criminals in the town did not wish to tangle with ponies who had received military training, so they grudgingly hid away for now. The city guard were not very happy about the presence of the black-armored soldiers either. They were to defer to the military, and that meant the guards could no longer half-ass their duties. The civilians were unnerved by all the commotion in the region, but they were always nervous in Stalliongrad, due to the crime. The soldiers themselves patrolled the city looking for any suspicious activity. They didn’t expect they would find anything, but they were smart enough not to slack in their duties. None of the ponies were prepared, however, when the loud horn sounded in the distance.

Twilight Sparkle waited in the brush near the outpost she was supposed to hit. It was a rather large one, but she thanked whoever the real god was that she wasn’t alone. The squad she was with was fairly large in itself, and certainly wouldn’t be outmatched by the soldiers in the fortified camp. This did little to ease her nerves, however. As the chaffing caused by her too small leather armor constantly reminded her, this was a battle. She would be fighting not just for her life, but also to kill. The thought filled her with dread. She had broken her share of laws in Stalliongrad, but she had only killed twice before. The young unicorn knew she could do it. She had the power to kill, and the idea didn’t repulse her as much as it did the first time she’d done it. Still, she hadn’t been the one to seek out the fights. She’d never initiated them. She didn’t like conflict, and this was conflict on a whole new scale. She wasn’t ready for it.

Ready or not, her reflections were brought to an end in an instant. At the distance from Stalliongrad she was the sound was muffled greatly, but the horn signaling the attack was still distinct. The rebellion troops about her acted immediately by rising to their hooves and charging down to the fenced outpost. Twilight was hurriedly forced to follow as her allies swept her into the stampede.

As they neared the gate, the pegasi leading the charge swept into the air, and flew into the lookout towers to grapple with the ponies inside. The unicorns behind them readied their horns, and launched several blasts of magical energy. The gate broke off it’s hinges and shattered into splinters as the balls of energy collided with it, a few going past it to slam into imperial soldiers beyond.

Inside the outpost was chaos at the unexpected attack. Soldiers near the gate were skewered on rebel spears and unicorn horns before they could realize what was going on. Other soldiers immediately fled for weaponry, but found themselves crushed or trapped as the rebel pegasi tore their lookout towers down on them. As the initial shock wore off, the more prepared imperials engaged their attackers, and the rebels’ slaughter slowed down. An imperial stallion’s sword met a rebel’s, and the two entered a straining match. The imperial, having heavier armor, possessed the weight advantage, and began pushing his opponent back. The rebel attempted to switch strategies, but the moment he broke the lock the imperial sword buried itself in his neck.

Most of the earth rebels in this squad found themselves in similar situations. Without tougher armor they were outweighed, and were unable to rely on their strength as much as they were used to. Fortunately, however, they were not alone. As the imperials began to press their attackers back, the rebel unicorns used their combined magic to raise a large wall of earth straight from the ground to separate the imperials from them. Apparently lacking any unicorns of their own to undo this, the imperials began climbing the wall, but at the top they found themselves face to horn with the majority of the unicorn rebels attacking them.

Twilight gulped with dread as an imperial soldier clambered on top of the wall in front of her. She immediately tried to cast a fireball at the mare, but she was too afraid to use it. The enemy soldier raised her sword, and leapt at Twilight. “Hate. Hate. Hate.” The lavender unicorn rapidly thought as she tried to pull the right emotion for the spell out.

The image of a particular white alicorn flashed in her mind, and she screamed as a massive fireball burst from her horn. The enemy mare was launched back over the wall by the force of the spell, and landed in a heap on the other side. The imperial soldiers panicked, and began to hurry away from one another to keep the fire from spreading amongst them. Twilight was left shaking as her target’s scream filled her ears. She took several deep breaths, and forced herself to swallow her fear. She needed to stay focused if she wanted to make it through this. Resoluteness filling her, the lavender mare’s horn lit brightly, and she concentrated on the wall in front of her. She took a step forward, and it budged. Another step, and another budge. As Twilight began to slowly move the wall forward she was oblivious to the stares of awe the other rebels were giving her. The unicorns quickly shook it off, and began to focus on the wall themselves. As their magic weaved with Twilight’s the wall began to move forward quicker, and the imperial troops were corralled behind it. Soon all of the grand army soldiers were packed tightly against one of the outpost walls. The soldiers began to try to climb out, but the rebel unicorns simply knocked them back in with telekinesis.

Twilight looked to the sky to see her allied pegasi finishing off the last of their imperial counterparts. Their leather armor had proven more advantageous than the standard steel of the Grand Army. They had been able to easily outmaneuver their opponents. As the last of the imperial pegasi fell dead Twilight amplified her voice with magic and called out, “STORM!”

The rebel pegasi stared back down at her, and, after a second, seemed to connect the dots. They hurriedly took clouds from the sky, and used them to seal off the roof of the trap Twilight had made. The pegasi then began to pound their hooves on it, and several bright flashes occurred within the cloud. The flashes were quickly followed by several bellows of thunder that seemed to meld together into one. Promptly, the pegasi removed the clouds to check on their work, and were pleased to see that all of the imperials had been roasted alive.

Twilight felt a hoof pat her on the back, and she flinched. She turned to see an old but spry looking unicorn. He smiled and said, “Good job filly.”

He then turned around to the rest of the squad and called out, “Alright, ponies, we’re heading back to the Stalliongrad field to add to the perimeter around the city. We will be aiding in catching any scouting parties that make it through, or, should things go bad in the town, we will act as reinforcements for the taking of it! Move out!”

As the squad began a hurried march out of the ruined outpost Twilight sighed with relief. She had made it, for now at least. It…hadn’t been as bad as she thought, but it wasn’t something she was eager to do again. She shuddered as she pondered over the fact she had basically just cooked who knew how many ponies alive.

Thunder Cracker stood ready, muscles tensed, as the stallion to his side blew on the horn. As the earth pony finished Thunder reared, and began galloping from the edge of the forest across the field. Behind him the main force of the rebel army followed with the earth ponies leading the way. There were no watchtowers by the edges of Stalliongrad, and few guards who were near it. Yet the sound of roaring voices and pounding hooves began to draw the guards and soldiers alike in the town to its edge. The few there to meet the rebels blanched at the force and attempted to flee, but they were only trampled beneath the hooves of Thunder Cracker’s forces. Civilians fled to their homes or the nearest rubble, but the rebel ponies were still forced to swerve away from those who were not quick enough to move. The accumulating evasions began to slow the rebellion’s stampede, but they continued to press on.

Inevitably, bands of guards and soldiers began to meet them. Thunder Cracker snorted as three soldiers rushed at him with their swords ready in their mouths. He bent his head low, and charged under the guard of the first one. With a heave he turned the soldier over on top of the second, and quickly stepped aside to allow the rebels directly behind him to trample the two. The third soldier was quick enough to avoid the charging ponies, and continued towards Thunder Cracker. He threw his head back to strike, but as he swung the rebellion leader caught the blade on his own. Rather than enter a straining match, the red earth stallion twisted his head to ground, forcing the soldier to do the same, and galloped forward. With the imperial’s head down, Thunder Cracker ran straight up his back, and crushed the soldier with his superior weight.

The rebellion’s speed and ferocity allowed them plow over the imperial forces one by one, but their tactics turned against them as the soldiers further in formed phalanxes in the streets. The forces of the rebellion slammed against their enemies’ shields, trying break through, but the imperial soldiers held strong. As the rebels packed tight against one another they were left with limited room to move. It was then that the imperials struck back. Spears slipped through the cracks over the top of the shields, and began to skewer the rebel forces. The rebels with light armor stood no chance against the powerful thrusts, and even those with heavy armor fell prey to their foes’ precision. Thunder Cracker himself barely managed to dodge a strike aimed at his eye, gaining a nasty cut on his right cheek instead. The rebels began to slowly retreat back the streets they came from, and the Grand Army soldiers and town guards pressed forward, regaining ground surely but steadily.

But the imperials’ advantage did not last. As they passed the alleyways unicorns, who had slipped inside them when the charge first hit the phalanxes, let loose with various spells. Bolts of electricity and magic seared the air as they cut down the phalanx lines from the side. In response, those of the imperials who were pegasi took to the sky in order to avoid the attacks and regain the advantage. However, as they took off a second horn sounded over the city. At the sound, the cloud cover burst open to reveal the rebellion’s pegasi, who dove towards the city to counter the imperial flyers.

Nightmare Moon soared through the air to her next target as the second horn was blown. She looked off in the direction of Stalliongrad in surprise. She hadn’t expected the main force’s pegasi to be called in so quickly. The Grand Army must’ve been putting up a better fight than expected. The alicorn quickly refocused on the task at hoof. The rebel leaders had wanted to make full use of her power, and had assigned her the task of eliminating all the outposts. Whenever she was done with one, she went to another. If it was already cleared then she moved on. If not, she got to work. She was pleased to see that the outpost Twilight had been sent to was already cleared, and there was no sign of the unicorn’s corpse. So, Nightmare was able to assume her servant had survived, and that had sent a wave a relief down her spine.

The alicorn dove from the sky into a clearing holding another outpost, and dropped dead center in the middle of the fortified camp. The imperial soldiers about her were startled from their fighting by her presence, and looks of joy or relief began to grasp their features. Nightmare Moon momentarily felt sorry for them, but she pushed the pity out of her mind. It had no place in battle. While the soldiers were awed by her presence the rebels began to slaughter them from behind. The screams of the fallen drug the imperials’ attention back to the fight, and Nightmare smirked at their distraction. Her horn glowed, and the imperial soldiers began scrabbling at their chests as the blood flow to their hearts stopped. One by one they began to fall prey to heart attacks, and whenever one died Nightmare would immediately add another to her list of targets in their place. The imperials began panicking, and those not yet suffering from the effects of Nightmare’s magic fell prey to the blades of the rebels. When the last imperial was slain the alicorn immediately took to the sky. She did not want to stay for the awkward staring contest between the rebels and her, and there were still three outposts she had yet to visit. She did not blame them for their mistrust, but it was growing on her nerves. “Well, hopefully it will no longer be an issue after this.” She thought wryly.

As Nightmare Moon neared the fifth outpost she saw the rebel pegasi narrowly dodging blasts of magic from the ground. They were fortunate in that this outpost was not in a clearing, so their unicorn attackers had to aim around the trees. Even so, the imperial unicorns were only narrowly missing, and the pegasi were being hard pressed to do anything other than evade. A stray ball of fire went straight for Nightmare, and snapped her out of her analysis. She did not react quick enough to dodge, but when the flame came close to her it hit an invisible barrier. It passed through the other side as nothing more than warm gas, leaving the alicorn unharmed. The ruler of the night cursed herself for not paying attention. It was a good thing she was wearing her armor again. Otherwise a wing might have been seared, and she would’ve been unable to fly.

Pushing aside her mistake, Nightmare flew into the storm of spells, and began to head towards the ground. Her lack of practice flying and large size made it difficult for her to avoid the spells being shot into the sky, but the enchantment on her armor protected her from what she failed to dodge. Her dive was interrupted, however, when several imperial unicorns combined their power to uproot a tree, and throw it at her. The alicorn immediately halted her flight, and grabbed the tree with her magic just before it hit her. She smirked as idea came to her, and took off back into the sky dragging the tree behind her. Finding the nearest cloud, she landed on it, and slammed her hooves down. Lightning burst from it, and lit the tree ablaze. The alicorn then took careful aim at the largest group of unicorns she could see, and telekinetically threw the tree back at them. The large plant did its job, and crushed the unicorns underneath it before crashing into another tree in the outpost, and it setting ablaze. The fire began to spread rapidly, and the rebels took the chaos as their chance. Both air and ground forces began to rush the imperials, and cut them down.

It still wasn’t enough though. The imperial unicorns remained calm, and began to retaliate with more magic. Before Nightmare could formulate another plan, though, she caught a glint of turquoise diving from the sky. The praetorian slammed into the ground in front of the bulk of the imperial unicorns, and spread his wings wide. Shortly, the unicorns began wailing in terror. The unicorns not in the mass soon looked toward the screaming, and noticed the praetorian before they fell prey to fear as well. The rebels, however, avoided looking at the praetorian, and began to eliminate the whimpering mass of ponies.

Nightmare smirked at the display of power. Most ponies assumed the praetorians were the best because of intense training, but there was very little training to it. They were the best because they were selected from the best of the Royal Guard, and because of one rather abominable thing done to them. The alicorn shook her head to regain focus. It had been so long since she was in a real battle she was forgetting basics like to not become distracted. She growled at the thought, and took off to head for the next outpost. The rebels had this one taken care of.

Hail Bolt dodged around an imperial pegasus that tried to cannon ball into her and turned around after him. She caught up quickly, and, just as her heavy armored opponent was starting to head beck himself, she tackled him. The enemy pegasus attempted to knock her off and right himself, but Hail finished him quickly by jamming the dagger in her mouth into his throat. She pulled it out quickly, and leapt off the corpse to let it fall, blood streaming behind it. The rebel leader did not stay still, but instead made a break for another enemy that was overpowering one of her ponies.

The sky was a mess of battle. As it often was for pegasi aerial combat, there were no formations of any kind of organization. Pegasi of both sides were everywhere fighting each other. Here there were three rebels ganging up on an imperial. There there were five imperials taking on three separate pegasi. There was no order. There was simply pandemonium as the two sides struggled against one another.

Hail Bolt proved her name appropriate as, once again, she acted like a projectile, and tackled the imperial that was about to slay one of her ponies. This time, however, instead of targeting his neck she cut his gut open. Hail let go of the body, and watched for a short moment as its stomach and intestines tried to fly out, only failing because they were still attached to his insides. As she was watching the corpse fall she caught sight of Masque Raid casually walking through the imperial ranks as if he hadn’t a care in the world. She raised a brow at this, but chocked it up to the work of some form of illusion. Masque was a master of black magic. Her attention was snapped back to the battle as an imperial pegasi collided with her. She struggled as the two fell out of the sky, and managed to knock him loose. Before she could right herself, however, she fell back first into the stone roof of one of Stalliongrad’s building. The rebel leader laid there moaning in pain as the enemy pegasus glided down next to her and pulled out his sword. Before he could finish her, however, two rebel pegasi slammed into him. The imperial soldier was knocked to the ground, and found a blade sheathed in his eye before he could react. Their enemy taken care of the pegasi rushed to their leader. “Are you alright ma’am?” One asked as he helped her to her hooves.

Hail Bolt took a sharp breath and swallowed the pain before responding, “Yes. I can still fight.”

Waiting only a few seconds, she took to the air again, and her saviors followed her.

Masque Raid trotted calmly through the tumultuous streets as his enemies galloped right past him. He should technically have been leading the unicorns in the town, but he wasn’t that good on a battlefield. There was no time to think, and he liked to think. So, instead, he was heading toward a specific target that would prove troublesome when they took the city. The soldiers and town guards rushing about, which he noticed were thinning markedly, couldn’t see him of course thanks to a fairly advanced spell. He needed to continually focus on it, but so long as he did he would be shielded from unfriendly eyes. Of course, as a skilled spell caster, he was able to multitask. Which meant he could search his surroundings for the appropriate building, and not drop the spell.

It was not long before he spotted it. A rather large nice log cabin. Smiling, he trotted up to the door, and attempted to open it. Not surprisingly, the door was locked. “Well, that’s not a problem.” He thought.

He would have to drop his illusion to enter, but he doubted there was anything inside he couldn’t handle. So, he switched spells. Before any nearby guard could notice him, Masque walked right through the door. “I do so love black magic.” He said as he came out the other side with a smile.

A town guard who was posted right by the door was started, and held his spear out at Masque. “Wh-who are you?” The young, and obviously inexperienced, pony asked.

“Hmm?” Masque hummed as he looked to his left. “OH! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Answer my question!” The guard blurted quickly.

“Oh? What was it? Who am I? Just someone who wants to help.” Masque replied.

The young guard gulped and asked disbelievingly, “Really?”

“Yes.” The white unicorn answered. “So you can put down your weapon.”

The guard shook, and his breathing became unsteady. “Don’t worry. I’m not gonna hurt you.” Masque reassured him.

Slowly, carefully, the colt placed his spear on the ground. “What are you doing here?” He asked a little more calmly.

“Oh I’m just here to take care of some business. You see my friends and I are trying to help everypony, but I’m afraid the duke might present some trouble. So, I need to talk to him. Do you know where he is?” Masque asked.

“Su-sure.” The guard answered. “Follow me.”

Masque did as told, and found himself being lead into the basement. It didn’t surprise him. From what he recalled Gravel Pie’s jail cells were in the basement, and the sturdy construction they required of it made it the most secure part of the building. As they arrived at the bottom of the stairs Masque could see the duke sitting nervously beside two guards who, unlike the unicorn’s guide, appeared the appropriate age for a guard. Gravel Pie grunted as he saw them approach. “What are you doing down here? You’re supposed to be guarding the door! And who is this?” He asked harshly.

The young guard in front of Masque started once more, but the unicorn simply walked around him and bowed. “I believe you know me.” He replied.

Gravel studied Masque for a moment before his features broke out in terror. “Oh, Celestia, you’ve come to collect!” The brown earth stallion screamed.

His guards pulled out their blades, but Masque waved them down. “No no.” He answered.

The guards paused and looked to the duke, who bore a confused face. “What do you mean no? If you’re not here for what I owe then the rebels have hired you, and that means you’re still here to kill me.” The old stallion rebutted.

“Not hired, but I am one of their leaders.” Masque replied. “Either way, I’m not here to kill you.”

The guards grew tense at his admittance to a connection to the rebels, and the young one stared at him horrified. “If you even think about hurting the duke…” One of the guards mumbled through his sword handle.

“I assure you, so long as he does as told he won’t be harmed. Which is more than I can say for you.” Masque responded.

“Are you threatening us?” The other guard asked.

“No, no, no.” The white unicorn answered. “I have no ill intent for any of you three. I was simply comparing my methods to his own. After all, can you tell me how many times he’s had you punished when you failed him?”

The guards were silent but appeared uneasy. Gravel Pie seemed affronted as he yelled back, “If I don’t punish them they don’t learn from their mistakes! If you’re in charge of this rabble of an army then you know discipline is needed! You can’t say you haven’t punished your own soldiers!”

“Perhaps not, but I don’t beat colts.” Masque Raid smartly responded as he looked at the young guard’s oddly unarmored flank, which appeared knotted and bruised. “For that matter I don’t force colts who are still several years off from being stallions to fight for me either.”

Gravel Pie gaped, but before he could say anything in his defense Masque continued. “Lock him in a cell, and keep an eye on him until we’re ready to interrogate.”

The two guards by the duke’s side turned their swords on him, and Gravel gaped further. “I-I y-you can’t do this to me! It’s your job to guard me!” He proclaimed.

“And so they will.” Masque replied with a sweet smile on his face.

Nightmare Moon quickly lowered her glowing horn to the ground, and a ripple ran through it straight to the last of the grand army soldiers. As it reached them it suddenly exploded outward, and launched them high into the air. It was a while before they slammed back down, and the alicorn did not wait for it. She took to the skies once more, and began to head for the last outpost. She imagined that by now it had already been cleared, but she needed to be certain. Assumptions on the battlefield could lead to disaster. “Huh, getting back into the swing of things, am I?” Nightmare mentally wondered.

The trip was quick, and, just as expected, it was empty except for corpses and structures. There was a problem upon further inspection, however. Instead of the ground being littered with the black armored corpses of grand army soldiers it was almost entirely rebellion dead who lay in the outpost. In fact, there weren’t that many imperial corpses at all. Nightmare Moon’s eyes hardened, and she looked to the horizon. The rebel squad assigned to this outpost had failed, and the imperials were heading to Stalliongrad. The alicorn began to hurry in the direction of the town. She needed to get to the field around Stalliongrad quickly.

By the time Nightmare Moon arrived at the field, surviving outpost imperials were already well into fighting. They had stretched as far as they could to attack as much of the rebel’s perimeter as possible, but their numbers were too few to present a great threat. They would fail. Nightmare was still bothered, though. The reason was that she knew her servant was down there, likely fighting. She had failed to protect Twilight once, and she would not do so again.

The alicorn dove, and slammed into the ground in front of the perimeter. Immediately, she focused on the three closest imperial soldiers, and slammed them into each other before launching them as far into the air as she could. She then marched forward quickly to search for Twilight, killing soldiers as she went. She used her magic to cut one’s neck open, and a different spell to immobilize another, which she promptly stomped to death. It wasn’t long before the soldiers began to thin, and they had yet catch on that Nightmare was not on their side. Then, the alicorn spotted her servant with a soldier looming behind her.

Twilight hurriedly used her telekinesis to jerk the spear out of the enemy unicorn’s own magic, and jammed into his throat. The soldier fell to the ground gargling in pain as his blood began to spray about, striking Twilight in the face. The lavender mare clenched her eyes, and forced the bile building in her throat from the smell down. She shuddered and opened her eyes, but her worries became far more material at that moment. A soldier from the Grand Army knocked her to the ground, and glared down at her hatefully as he pulled back his sword. Twilight clenched her eyes shut once more as she prepared for the blow. Then there was the sound of a scream and piercing metal. Nothing else came. Twilight was surprised that she didn’t feel any pain, that she wasn’t dead. Cautiously, she opened her eyes to see Nightmare Moon standing over her protectively with a bloodied horn and the body of the soldier who had been about to kill her laying on the ground nearby. The alicorn looked down at Twilight and asked, “Are you alright?”

The unicorn nodded numbly, and Nightmare sighed with relief. She stepped back to allow Twilight to regain her hooves and apologized, “I am sorry I was not here earlier.”

As Twilight stood she stared at the alicorn with confusion. “Why?” She asked.

Nightmare stared at her sadly, “I told you once before that your wellbeing is my responsibility, Twilight. I can’t protect you all the time. You already found that out the hard way, but I intend to make it up to you. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I’ll be there for you whenever I can regardless. Whether you like it or not, you pledged your life to me on your life. That doesn‘t just mean you must serve me. It also means that you aren’t alone.”

At that moment a third horn sounded in the distance signaling victory. The few remaining imperial forces were fleeing, and the rebels were shouting in celebration. Twilight was not paying attention to any of this, however. She was deep in thought. Here Nightmare was promising her protection again, but look what happened last time. Well, actually she wasn’t promising just protection. She was promising more, but could Twilight trust the alicorn? The old affection she still had for the ruler of the night began to rise in her heart. The young mare wanted to. She really did, but she couldn’t. That didn’t mean she couldn’t try though. Twilight looked at Nightmare Moon in hope, that things wouldn’t go wrong this time, and saw the alicorn was now distracted by looking at the city. “Come on, Twilight. I believe it’s best if we meet up with the council.”

“Yes,” Twilight swallowed as she stuttered out the next word. “M-master.”

Author's Note: Hey everypony! Sorry for taking so long again, but here you go. Just in time. I may have experience writing action, but this was actually the first time I wrote for a big battle. So I'd appreciate any advice or feedback you guys can give me on it. Still, I think I did a fairly good job, and now Twilight can start her road to recovery.