Premonition: A Fallen Brother
"Watch out!" Applejack rolled to the side and found that a spear had lodged itself in the ground that she had stood on before.
"Thank you kindly big brother!" She called out to Big Mcintosh, a crimson coated stallion who, in comparison to most other stallions, was a giant that dwarfed them completely.
"Hmph!" Applejack turned back to the assailant who had tried to end her life just a moment ago, who had let out a snort. "You ponies are an annoyance to the Griffon Empire, and anyone who hinders us will meet their end at the head of my spear!"
Applejack brushed off the statement with a chuckle, which served only to intensify the heated glare the the Griffon was giving her.
"Listen up here buddy," she said calmly, "the only thing that's going to end here today is your long speech, courtesy of me and my brother's hooves, right Mcintosh?" She asked, giving a nod to her brother.
"Eeyup." He agreed with a small smirk that had worked its way onto his face. With that, he sprinted forward and jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the thrust of their enemy's spear, which had quite the long reach. Applejack chose to sneak around behind their opponent while he was distracted, and was waiting for the opportune moment to catch him off guard.
Jus' keep him busy a few more seconds big brother... she thought in deep concentration, her eyes scanning for even one break in the griffon's concentration. Suddenly, she saw it! Just as her brother had dodged another spear thrust, she saw that her brother had cleverly made his way next to a wall so that a careless strike would bounce off the wall and knock the griffon off balance.
With an opening in sight, she sprinted as hard as she could towards the unprotected adversary, and caught him with a mighty buck to the back. She smiled as she heard the griffon cry out in pain and turn towards her, but that proved to be another mistake as Big Mc chose that moment to launch as attack of his own. The griffon, now both dazed from Applejack's attack and tired out from attacking her brother earlier, had no chance of winning the fight, and as Mcintosh delivered a hefty blow to the beak with his front hoof, he fell to the ground.
After realizing that the attacker had ceased moving altogether, she grinned and turned to her brother, who wore a calm smile that signaled his relief at the battle's end.
"Shoot big bro, ain't no griffon ever gonna best the Apple family when we stand together!" She cheered, her brother smiling and agreeing with a simple "eeyup." With the momentary enjoyment of their victory finished, she began to turn and head away from the scene. "Well Mcintosh I suppose we should head back to Twi and th-"
"AJ MOVE!" She felt herself pushed by a great force as she heard her brother cry out at a volume she'd never heard him use before, and while she picked herself back up she heard the sickening sound of metal meeting flesh. Her heart seemed to skip at hearing it, and as she turned around a horrifying sight met her.
It seems that the griffon had not been finished with them like they had thought, and with his last breath had moved to attack her. Unfortunately, her brother had taken it upon himself to protect her, and in doing so, now found a spear buried deep within his chest.
With a shaky breath he turned towards Applejack, and only had time to mouth two words: I'm Sorry. Then, his breath caught, and he fell to the side.
It took a moment for the Element of Honesty to register what had just happened, but it seems that her mind had finally caught up with her eyes as tears began to form.
"BIG MCINTOSH!" She cried out in a fit of pain and desperation. The only other sound that could be heard was the thunder that boomed ominously around her.
Applejack woke up with a start, panting and wide-eyed with fear as she broke out of her dream. As she calmed down she wiped away the nightmare-induced tear trails that had stained her fur. Finally, with one last deep breath, she thought back on what she had just seen, and could only ask one question. What the hay was that?
~~Fire Emblem~~
"What the heck is this?" Donnel voiced his confusion quite loudly even though nobody was around to hear him in the barracks. Donnel was a young boy that knew nothing of what war was before his village had been attacked by a vile band of miscreants. Fortunately for his home, Chrom and his group of warriors called the Shepards managed to step in and turn the odds in his favor. The young farm hand never saw himself as much of a fighter, but Chrom and his tactician, Robin, had seen a hidden potential and determination inside him, and asked him to join their band.
Unfortunately he hadn't gotten to participate in many of the battles as much as he wanted to, because many of the fights were to decide the fate of the entire country, and so the Shepards needed the more experienced fighters at the forefront. Luckily enough the tyrant they had been fighting against, the Mad King Gangrel, had been successfully taken down, and now the Shepards were returning to their homes to celebrate their final victory.
It was when Donnel went to take one final trip to the barracks to get the last of his belongings that he spied a strange object in a forgotten corner. It was a peculiar white stone with a groove on it that made it look as if it were a set of double doors leading to someplace.
"Hmph, I guess I'll take it ta Robin and see what he can't make of it." He said, pocketing the stone. After picking up what was left of his things he trekked on over to the tactician's tent where a heated discussion seemed to be taking place. One of the participants was none other than the Shepards resident tactician and Chrom's best friend, Robin. The other was an orange haired thief who's wit was matched only by his ability to pickpocket the coin right out of people's pockets, and his ability to give people nicknames which may or may not have been appreciated by everyone.
"For the last time Gaius," Robin sighed while giving the pickpocket a look of frustration, "I don't think that just because you know Chrom it means you can usher implement your own policies once he is on the throne!"
"Aw come on Bubbles!" Gaius whined, "I think 'give Gaius sweets' day would go over great with the populace!" At this point Donnel figured it would be a better time to jump in before the opportunity to talk to the tactician disappeared.
*Ahem* Donnel cleared his throat, which as he had hoped, made Robin and Gaius divert their attention to him.
"Oh hey Donnel, what can I do for you?" The tactician said, relieved at the fact that the interruption had forced Gaius to stop with the never ending bombardment of candy and pastry related laws.
"Um, well beggin' yer pardon Robin sir," Donnel said nervously, he had never really gotten used to hanging around anyone so important, "but I found somethin' lyin' around the barracks, and I didn't know what in the hey it was!" He brought out the white stone he had acquired earlier, and handed it over to the Ylissean tactician.
"Huh..." Robin curiously examined the item. Donnel was right in that it was indeed a strange item, but somehow it seemed...oddly familiar to him, as if he'd seen an item similar to this.
"It looks like one of those rift door thingies!" Gaius pointed out. Robin took a closer look at the item and realized that he was right, while it wasn't colored a light blue like the other rift doors, the borders and the carvings of the two doors were almost exactly alike!
"What do ya' think it'll do though?" Donnel asked, "I mean all the other ones summoned one of the Anna sisters!"
"Maybe it'll summon me an entire treasure trove of sweets?" Gaius inquired. The look of bewilderment that the other two gave him made him shrug, "what? A guy can dream can't he?" Robin simply shook his head at this and pocketed the rift door look-alike.
"Gaius, I'm seriously surprised that you are still alive and well given how many sweets you scarf down a day!" Robin chastised.
"What can I say, my metabolism is as fast and nimble as the rest of me when it comes to eating!" Gaius shrugged, while silently thanking his body's digestive track for not curling up and dying from his usual eight sweets per hour "diet."
"I'm pretty sure that's not even remotely fai-"
"RISEN!" A cry of astonishment rang out across the camp as everyone suddenly ceased any activity they were engaged in. Suddenly, animalistic snarls and growls could be heard coming from the north, and the three fighters saw that indeed the dark violet and glowing red eyes of the undead were approaching.
"Crivens what a time to pick a fight with us! It ain't even past lunch yet!" Gaius sighed as he made sure to hide his assortment of candies in the confines of his coat.
"Well whatever the case we had better get ourselves ready to fight and quick!" Robin said, grabbing a particularly powerful Arcthunder tome, and an iron sword. "Donnel go around camp and warn everyone to get ready for the attack!"
"Yes sir Robin sir!" The farmer saluted as he sprinted off towards the central hub of the camp with bronze lance in hand. We just can't catch a break from fighting can we? He thought to himself as he headed deeper into camp.
