Smart Cookie stood stock-still as the rain ran in rivulets off the brim of her hat. Beside her, pegasi and earth ponies clad in full armor held themselves low, waiting on the signal to break free from the forest’s edge and toward the great stone castle less than four hundred feet from where they held. Between them and the fortress, hundreds of skeletal ponies assembled ladders, prepped catapults and carved logs into battering rams. At the center of the monstrous army, a lone pony- wearing the rusted armor of some long-dead unicorn queen- sat and watched the preparation, its hoof tapping impatiently.

Suddenly a bolt of magical energy lanced out of the woods, far from the position of the soldiers and struck the armored pony, sending it toppling gracelessly head over hooves. As the armored pony untangled herself from her cloak she began to bellow orders.

“KILL HER!” the raspy, yet still recognizable voice of the chosen one boomed from the armored figure, causing Smart Cookie’s mane to prickle. “The book will wait, but if she gets away I’ll be grinding your miserable bones into something worse than bread!”

From the woods the almost identical voice of the Chosen One replied, “Oh right, because you did such a good job catching me back at the graveyard!” A second bolt of magic shot straight over the armored pony’s head, missing by mere feet.

“Oh that is it!” The armored pony’s horn glowed with a blue aura so dark it was almost black and drew a strange-looking spear from the pony’s side. “Come on! Catch her, hold her down and then wait for me! I am going to enjoy returning this to you, Chosen One…”

Smart Cookie watched as a third of the army split off and charged after the retreating taunts of the Chosen One. As they disappeared from sight, Smart Cookie and her forces rose. With a cry, the pegasi burst from the trees, startling the still-somewhat-confused dead. As the skeletal force quickly began to reform to deal with the unexpected aerial threat, Smart Cookie leapt from cover and charged the weakest point in the besieger’s lines.

Reeling at the sudden rapid changes and without their leader to guide them, the slow-moving corpses desperately regrouped behind the new arrivals. As they refortified their blockade the company of well-armed ponies slipped under the portcullis gate and into the castle proper.

Inside, Smart Cookie removed her helmet, breathing a sigh of relief as she slowly processed the fact that she had made it in alive and with few casualties in either of her forces’ ranks. She sat down on the dirty courtyard floor as Princess Platinum and Clover the Clever hurried towards her, looks of confusion and joy evident on both unicorns faces.

“Smart Cookie!” Clover shouted, throwing her legs forelegs around Smart Cookie’s neck and embracing her tightly. “You have no idea how pleased I am to see you at this time!”

Smart Cookie returned the hug. “We had heard of yer situation for the Chosen One, though we did not suspect how badly ya might be suffering till the moon failed ta set.”

As Clover broke the hug and stepped back, her smile had faded, leaving a worried expression in its place. “I apologize for the alarm this must be causing to the rest of the land. We would not have let things fall so far, but we simply cannot devote the ponies to cast a spell as complex as that needed to manage the celestial bodies.”

“We had attempted something to that effect,” Princess Platinum interjected, looking more disheveled and haggard than Smart Cookie had ever seen her. “You have not known terror till you have had half your court staring straight into the sky, devoting all their magic to moving the sun and moon when a flock of decaying pegasi swarms down at you like a foalhood nightmare made flesh.” She shuttered. “After that first attempt, I could not blame anypony who did not wish to try another time.”

Smart Cookie nodded sympathetically as she looked to the sky. While the number of undead still capable of flight was small, she wouldn’t like to allow them any opening to attack her unawares. “How were the casualties?”

Platinum sighed and shook her head. “Not as bad as they could have been, I suppose, but enough to shake the confidence of the ponies.” She pointed to the battlements, directing Smart Cookie’s attention to them. “My personal guard as well as anypony with experience fighting has been set along the wall, but I have had to reinforce them two to one with untrained peasants who have never held a sword or spear before in their lives.” A note of pride colored her voice as she added, “My knights are worth a dozen of those mongrels with our defenses intact, but even their valor will not long hold long against what waits beyond our walls.”

“As you say,” Smart Cookie replied flatly. “Well, we have come here ta aid you in yer defense, so unless yer knights think they can step up their game to be worth maybe, two dozen of the ‘mongrels’…?”

Platinum’s eyes flashed, but before she could retort Clover stepped between the two, a diplomatic smile plastered across her face. “We are of course more than glad to accept your offer of friendship!” Clover looked back at Platinum as the other pony took a deep, calming breath. “You must forgive our strained tempers as it has been a long night.”

“Indeed,” Platinum conceded, “Though from the look of you and yours, we have not been the only ones. I would offer you a bed for the evening, but I fear we have delayed long enough with niceties as is. Pray tell, can we expect still further aid soon or have you come alone?”

Smart Cookie waved to her troops who quickly ran off to reinforce the walls. Following them, she addressed the Princess and Clover, “Soon. We were sent as a vanguard while the tribes assembled their forces for the march.”

“And to allow me to stew while Hurricane drags her hooves, I should not doubt,” Princess Platinum groused. “That helmet headed fanatic will not have given up on her paranoid theories so easily, not even with the lives of every living pony in the balance.” Clover coughed and the Princess scowled. “Oh you know as well as I do that her being right does not mean that her ideas were not paranoid!”

Smart Cookie raised an eyebrow at the odd statement, but chose not the to pursue it, as they had reached the wall and looking out at the vast host of the dead seemed to put all other concerns into a grim new perspective. Instead she reassured, “She will not leave us. Her own soldiers now stand side by side with yours and Commander Hurricane, for her faults, is not disloyal ta those below her.”

Princess Platinum snorted and rolled her eyes. “Oh she does indeed put on quite the show of her much vaunted loyalty, but I notice that she sent not one of her advisors or lieutenants to lead her representatives. That is hardly the action of a mare who wishes to prove how unwilling she is to lose what she invests.”

“It is a less than reassuring sign,” Clover added. “I mean, I would hardly have expected her to send anypony too close, but even just a proper representative of her tribe would have been proper.”

“Ah,” Smart Cookie said, feeling suddenly very hot under her steel collar. “There is actually a somewhat humorous story about that very point.” She smiled nervously as the two unicorns turned to look at her. “Ya see-”

“Milady!” Smart Cookie was cut off by a voice from the court yard. Looking down, she saw an armored earth pony with a large hammer strapped to her barding and a large sack tossed across her back, who stood staring up at her with an urgent look upon her face.

“What is it, Berry?” Princess Platinum shouted back, frowning slightly at the interruption.

“Are these the ponies who were sent back by the Chosen One?” the earth pony asked, looking at Smart Cookie.

Smart Cookie nodded and Platinum relayed. “Yes, it would appear that she managed to deliver a message without summoning anything else that is currently trying to kill us. I suppose that would count as some sort of improvement.” She sighed as the earth pony took off at a gallop toward the stairs leading up to where the trio stood.

“I should warn you,” Clover said, “Our blacksmith has been oddly infatuated with the chosen one since she departed the castle. If she has remained with Commander Hurricane or Chancellor Puddinghead, you must simply tell her this and be clear that you can tell her nothing more about it at this time.” Clover looked over the hoard. “I doubt we will have the time for ideal talk.”

“Ah,” Smart Cookie said again, starting to feel slightly uncomfortable. “Ya see there is an amusing coincidence in that humorous story I mentioned to ya before.” Smart Cookie smiled nervously as the unicorn’s eyes once more locked onto her.

“Go on,” Princess Platinum intrigued in a silky voice.

“Well ya see, Commander Hurricane did send her friend Private Pansy to accompany us on our expedition.”

“And she left you on the road?” Clover asked, looking skeptical. “That hardly seems like something she would do.”

Princess Platinum’s eyes narrowed, “I don’t believe that is what Smart Cookie is saying at all,” she said.

“No.” Clover felt sweat form on her brow as the Princess’ gaze seemed to bore into her. “That is to say that, she was with us till we reached the castle. Then she split off to follow the chosen one.”

“The Chosen One?” Clover looked astonished as she quickly looked around the castle battlements. “Is she here? If she came with you then where is she now?” Clover looked puzzled, but the Princess’s eyes suddenly widened.

“That sound!” she gasped. “And that shout! I had thought I had imagined their similarity, but that truly was the Chosen One out there in the woods, firing off her infernal Boom Spell!” Platinum’s eye twitched as two and two came together in her mind. “And Commander Hurricane’s closest friend and advisor is out there with her, in the woods, being hunted by untold numbers of horrific monsters.”

“Well when ya put it that way…” Smart Cookie said slowly. “It does sound a touch less positive than how it sounded like when she said she wanted to be there with her friend.”

“But the Chosen One and this Pansy have ponies with them, correct?” A shaky voice asked from behind Smart Cookie’s back. As she turned she saw the earth pony staring at her with a pale, horrified expression.

“Um, well, not as such,” Smart Cookie offered, feeling color rise to her cheeks. “Not as such, no, aside from one another of course.”

“I am going after them,” the earth pony stated flatly, looking past Smart Cookie at Princess Platinum.

“That’s insane, Berry!” Clover snapped. “There is no way you can get past the army down there; you would be chopped to pieces before your hooves hit the ground!”

Berry shook her head. “Not if the pegasi fly me down. You can’t afford to risk them not being on the wall for long and they couldn’t spot the chosen on from above the trees anyway, but they can drop me and I can find them.”

“That is the most foolish plan I have ever heard,” Clover snorted. “You would be throwing your life away for nothing! You have a child, Berry. Think about what you are proposing.”

“I have,” Berry insisted, looking as determined as ever. “Milady has provided for Berry Pinch better than I ever could before she became Milady’s squire. I trust her to treat her no worse after I am gone. Besides, if Commander Hurricane arrives and we have let her friend die on top of everything, it will hardly be better than if the dead had taken us in the first place.”

Clover fumed, “How dare you take that sort of callous attitude toward your own daughter’s happiness and wellbeing? Not to mention the presumption of just assuming that your lady would enable you to shirk your duties by offering to-”

“Enough!” Princess Platinum bellowed, shocking the others into silence. “Clover, your advice is never unwelcome, but that does not allow you to speak for me. As for you, Berry, you are right. Commander Hurricane will surely seek vengeance if we do not do everything in our power to save her representative of good will and peace.”

Clover and Berry looked at one another as Princess Platinum turned to Smart Cookie. “Now, I have a request of you for the pegasi who accompanied you here.”

Author's Note

Home stretch people! After starting the outlining work for Pony Dead back in October of last year, lets see if we can finish Colgate vs Army of Darkness within the year of this stories conception!