Garry's Mod Vs. Equestria 2: War in the North

We stood vigilantly, staring into the snowy void beyond our walls. The wind moaned its eerie song; the snow beat a tattered rhythm against the metal of our armor; the shuffling of hooves and the whispered voices; metal on faux leather; clanks of metal on metal; coughs; ragged breathing... That was the sound of our forces... That was the sound of our army... That was the sound of war.

We had been standing there for nearly half an hour, listening to the cacophony of noise. Standing, waiting, wishing... Wishing that what we knew was about to happen... wouldn't. We had been standing there for half an hour before a new sound entered the mix we had grown to know: a crackling sound, like waves of electricity breaking over each other. The wind intensified, turning the snowy atmosphere into a blizzard. The wind was howling at us. Screaming at us for being there; shrieking at the walls for not moving, and at us for not cowering under its force.

The small shack which housed the portal bulged outwards almost comically, the roof blasting off into the sky and disappearing in the fury of the blizzard. The sides of the shack bent to impossible lengths, the wood protesting against the force it was under. Then it broke. The wood exploded into splinters and tiny chunks under the force from within.

Then they were there. Dozens of the crystal beasts. Hundreds. Pouring out of the portal like rats from a ship. Ugly rats. They covered the land completely, turning the snow-covered ground into a writhing crystal sea. Their bellows echoed louder than the wind; their howls filled our ears. The sound they made was like a great storm, vicious and mindless and cruel. Mindless animals baying for their next meal.

I looked down at the sea of creatures from the ramparts with a scowl on my face. I tightened my grip on the small bow in my hand. "This looks bleak."

Sergeant Snow, who was next to me on the wall, shook her head, bewildered. "This looks more than bleak," she said. She looked at me. "This looks hopeless. How are we going to survive this? There have to be a thousand of them out there!"

I clicked my tongue at her. "No, there's only about six hundred." I raised my hand to silence her before she asked the inevitable question. "I counted them. So long as they don't overrun us, we'll be fine."

She gave me a hopeless look. "But how-" She shut up at my expression.

I snapped my eyes to her own, all of my fury and hate channeled into the stare. If looks could kill she'd have a hole through her head. "If I say we'll be fine," I snarled, "then we'll be fucking fine!" I put more strength into my stare. "Do you understand me Sergeant?!"

She took hurried, stumbling steps away from me, nearly falling over, but managed to hold on to some grace. "Y- yessir!" she squeaked. Her eyes bulging out of her skull from fright.

I looked back to the mass of crystal beasts below, just a few yards from the bridge. "Good. For a second there I thought you were scared." Then I noticed movement in the crowd. "What's this now...?" I wondered aloud. I watched as three figures pushed their way through the crystal beasts to the front of the amassed creatures.

Snow gasped. "Are those...?"

"Those grey fucks with the red horns?" I finished. "Yes, they are. But a better question is why they're here," I asked myself aloud. "The crystal bastards would be more than enough to fight us... So what're they up to?"

As it turned out, they answered my question at that moment.

The one in the middle, smaller then the one on his left but bigger than the one on his right, lit up the red curved horn atop his head and spoke. "Greetings, Crystal ponies! How are you on this wonderful day?" he asked in an amplified voice, like he was addressing us through a megaphone. "Lovely weather, isn't it?" he asked in a pompous, overconfident voice that made my skin crawl. He spoke as if mocking us.

"What do we do?" asked Snow.

I let a grin play at the corner of my mouth. "He wants to talk. Let's talk," I answered her. I cupped my hands to my mouth and shouted back in my most overexaggerated, insulting mimic of his voice as I could manage, "Hail, friend! How are you on this fine day?" I took a breath and continued. "I hope you didn't have any trouble finding the place! The roads can be quite confusing if you don't know the neighborhood!" This rewarded me with laughter from the ponies below in the courtyard and an angry growl from the stallion I was mimicking.

"Are you making fun of me?!" he demanded.

I took another breath and, laying it on even thicker, said, "Of course not friend! Why would I do that? That would be rude!" I received even louder laughter from the ponies and a furious yell from the stallion. "Would ye like ta come in an' 'ave some tea an' crumpets? Or per'aps ye'd like a spot'o brandy instead?!" The ponies were laughing so loudly I doubted the stallion couldn't hear them.

"You are! You are making fun of me! he screeched in a whiny, nasally tone.

This made the ponies crack up even more, which prompted me to go on. "No no no! I'm making fun of the screechy little girl that's been whining this whole time! Not you!" That did it.

His horn lit up a menacing crimson as he growled in anger. "I'll show you who's a crying little girl!" he screamed, his voice cracking at "girl". A ball of crimson light rose above him, crackling with energy. "Take this!" With that he hurled the ball of energy right at me and Snow, the whole time cackling like a maniac.

My eyes widened as I saw the ball of what would most certainly be death flying right at my face. "Down!" I jumped away from where the ball would hit, covering my head with my hands. I managed to just barely avoid the enormous explosion. I felt the heat on my back and felt the hairs on my arms singing from the intensity of it.

My eyes widened. I pulled my arms in front of me to examine the hair on them. Just as I feared: they hairs were burnt. "That's not possible," I whispered. "Magic doesn't affect me... I'm immune..." But as impossible as it was, my arms were burned by the stallion's magic. "That's not possible..." Only then was I aware of an all too familiar headache forming at the base of my skull. A slight stab in my gut. A tiny burning in my chest. "I've been here too long," I said to myself.

An unnatural roar shook me from my state. "Wh... Oh, fuck," I swore. The bow was gone. "Damn it! No time to look..." I peeked up over the now-smashed wall to see the crystal beasts advancing slowly over the bridge. They were so large though that only a handful could cross at a time. I saw the three red-horned bastards standing at the sides of the bridge directing the monsters over it.

"Get ready ponies! Here they come!"

I backed away from the outer wall to peer into the courtyard below. Below me, Shining was keeping the ponies in the line. In fact, he was in the line himself, standing strong with his sword held high in his magical aura. Magical aura... "Wait a minute..." A light switched on in my mind. How could I have not seen this before? "Shining! Use the barrel!"

"Stand strong an- What?" He looked up at me in confusion. "Excuse me?"

I pointed to the large barrel next to the gate. "The barrel! Use your magic like a torch and light it!" I pointed from the barrel to behind me where the crystal beasts were coming from. "Use the fucking barrel!"

His face lit up. "Oh, I get it now!" he cheered. "Right away!"

I watched as he moved to the large barrel and, like a match, struck his horn against it, lighting the thing on fire. "Make way!" he shouted as he levitated it on its side and positioned it. "Open the gate!" he ordered. The gate was opened, the spell was cast, and the barrel was sent rolling away across the bridge. The dozen or so crystal beasts that were crossing the bridge were knocked off, sent tumbling to their deaths upon the wooden pikes below. The barrel rolled over one of the beasts, bouncing into the air as it did, where it was caught in the red aura of the stallion who had launched that deadly spell.

He snatched the flaming barrel out of the air with his magic, lifting it high above him and his two companions. "What's this? A gift from the ponies in the fort?" He scoffed at his own words. "How thoughtful."

Then the air was filled with a high, strange whistling.

I clambered up from my prone position on the wall to look over the edge. To watch what was about to happen. To witness beauty. To witness... art. I cupped my hands at my mouth and yelled at them, "From 'Murica, with love!"

Then it happened. The whistling reached a pitch so high any of the crystal beasts near it cracked; large chunks of them falling of, or even splitting in half, as some of the closest ones did. Then, just as it hit an impossible note, the barrel exploded. The mixture we had created, thick and gooey and black, splattered everywhere, blanketing nearly half of the crystal beasts outside the castle. Then the burning wood landed, and, right before our eyes, Hell was born. The beasts screamed in agony and terror; hundreds of cries mixing together to create a heart wrenching sound. Hundreds in pain. Hundreds in terror. Hundreds dying.

My cock was hard enough to tear free from my pants, slamming into the stone wall before me. I whooped in triumph, pumping my fist in the air and laughing like a fool. "Take that you cockney S.O.B.! I fucked your shit up!" I laughed until I calmed a bit and took a deep breath. "God I love this game..." I watched the beasts melt under the intensity of the inferno. Crystal or no, nothing could survive that.

Then, as I was reveling in the beauty of it, two figures emerged from the burning tar, red domes surrounding them. It was the two ponies the loud mouth stallion was with. Now that I was paying attention to them I saw that the bigger one was an obscenely muscled stallion with a buzz cut. The smaller one was a rather shapely mare with long, thick black hair that flowed past her face like water. The smaller of the two, the mare, dropped her dome shield once it stopped raining flaming tar, and spread the aura around and covered every inch of tar--even many of the injured crystal beasts. Then, with a sneer I could feel, lifted the tar up off the ground--bringing those beasts with it-- and started to clump it together to form a huge ball of fire.

I felt my heart skip a beat. "Shining!" I called, not taking my eyes off the mare. "Shining we need some magic right now!"

"What's wrong?!" he shouted back.

"We need a shield!" I said. "Like, right fucking now!"

"Okay," he said. "One shield coming right up. I just need a few seconds..."

I looked back at him. "We don't have a few seconds! We need that shield now!" I took a glance at the mare; the ball of tar was done, and it was beginning to move. "Shining! Right now damn it!"

He grunted as a small spark grew from his horn, forming a small bubble that grew by the second. "Working on it!"

I looked frantically between the mare and the ball of tar. It was rocking back and forth gently, but quickly picking up speed and force. "Shining! If that shield isn't up in the next two seconds I will come down there and fuck you with a sword!" The next thing I knew, there was a large pinkish wall in front of me, shimmering with energy. And it was up just in time too, as the mare sent the ball of tar hurtling towards the castle faster than I could fully register it.

It hit the shield with a ground-shaking boom. The entire castle shook from the force of the contact. Multiple pieces of it even crumbled and fell away. But thanks to the shield, the flaming ball was stopped. "Soldiers!" the mare shouted through an amplified voice. "Tear this place to the ground! Leave nopony alive!"

The crystal beasts responded with a wild roar that conveyed their thirst for battle. All at once the remaining beasts surged forward howling and roaring in our ears. We knew they would show no mercy.

I jumped down from the wall to land in front of the line of ponies. In my right hand I summoned my broadsword, and in the left I summoned a wooden buckler; I grit my teeth together when the action sent a lance of pain through my skull. I had no armor to protect myself, so if I was hit once I was done. I was facing the iron gate as the beasts charged over the bridge, baying for blood. I saw Snow leaping from the wall to land near me on my left side, brushing off a bit of soot and a few stray pebbles. Shining slowly came up on my right, eyeing the gate. I looked behind me to the terrified faces of the ponies, wide eyed, open mouthed, and shaking at the knees. If I didn't do something they were all going to die, and if they died, I died.

I narrowed my eyes as I felt my anger boiling inside of me. "I refuse to die here," I said out loud. My knuckles cracked and turned white from how tightly I was gripping my sword and shield. The hairs on my arm were prickling painfully as the heat in my body rose. "I will not die until I make her pay," I growled out. My breathing got heavy and ragged, my skin burned and my bones ached. "Nobody will get in my way. Not monsters. Not ponies. Not evil entities that don't know how to fuck off!"

The crystal beasts crashed into the gate, the force of the impact tearing it down. They swarmed in and... they stopped. All of those fiery eyes locked onto one thing. They locked onto me.

I stared at the crowd of monsters in front of me. I looked at each and every one of them. With every one I counted my hate for them doubled. With every one of them I counted my rage tripled. I felt like I was about to burst from the pressure in my head; from the pounding of my heart. I wasn't scowling, or glaring or even frowning at the beasts. In fact, I couldn't help but smile. I smiled like I was the happiest man in the world.

I lifted my sword up to point the tip at the nearest of the beasts. I let out a giddy laugh. "You're in my way," I beamed. "Now you have to die."

The beasts all registered the threat, their frozen expressions turning back into murderous mindlessness. The forwardmost beast howled, signalling the others to let loose their bloodthirsty cries. Then they continued the charge.

"Stand strong ponies!" Shining called to the soldiers as he and Sergeant Snow melded into the line of defense.

I stood there, pointing my sword at the charging beast. It was only inches away when I laughed again, my smile widening. "Die."

The beast pounced, lifting into the air with its jaws wide, ready to clamp down on my throat.

I moved. Just a simple twitch of my wrist, really. All it took was that simple little movement, that fraction of a second... I smiled. "You're all in my way."

I stretched on my recliner, yawning deeply and giving my jawline a good scratch. I leaned over and pulled the cord of the lamp, turning it on and filling the room with a gentle white light. I nodded as the room was lit, and with a few more stretches and cracks of my joints, I was ready to begin.

I opened the book, thumbing to where I left off; the princess was forming a plan. She wanted to get back at those who had wronged her and her family.

I read further and further into the tale, my eyes washing over the words, my mind painting a picture in my vision so vivid it was like I was there; like I was standing at the side of the princess as she carried out her gruesome task. The words flowed through me; the young mare, barely older than a filly, yet stronger than any other in the land, filled my mind. Her thick, flowing mane; her gorgeous eyes; her luscious body... Her face... Her beauty was matched by none. She was more beautiful than a thousand sunsets; her smile could make angels weeps tears of joy and sorrow both; and her song could turn even the bleakest of days into glorious, Sun-bathed occasions.

For such a young one, so beautiful, and so happy... to lose so much... To become what she was... There was no greater pain in the world than the pain she carried with her, always.

I turned the page, but could read no more. The words were illegible; scribbled and only half complete. "What the hell is this?" I wondered aloud. It looked as if somebody had written this section of the book in such a hurry, that they didn't even realize that the words couldn't be read.

With a shake of my head I closed the book and muttered my annoyance. My mind was filled with the story. I felt a need akin to survival to know what happened to the mare. I needed to know-

There was a knock at the door. It sounded urgent.

I set the book down as I looked curiously at the door. "Who could that be...? And at this hour?"

Whoever it was knocked again. This time harder than before.

I groaned as I got up from my chair. "And I had just found my comfy spot, damn it."

The knocking came again.

I increased my pace slightly. "I'm coming, just hold on!" I called as I reached the door. My hand was already out and I grasped the knob and turned. But I hesitated. Something felt off. Something... a tiny voice in the back of my head... gave a warning. I started to loosen my grip on the doorknob, letting the warning come in clearer.

The knock came again, more like a series of loud bangs than anything else.

My instincts took over and I pulled the door open.

Screaming. Laughter, and screaming.

The world rushed past me in fast forward. The color of everything was bright to the point of painfulness, the sounds were deafening, and there was a great amount of heat in front of me getting more and more intense by the second. The sound of screaming rang in my ears.

I blinked hard several times to clear the mist from my eyes. By the third blink I could see something flying through the sky, directly towards me. By the fifth blink I could see what it was. "Fuck!" I screamed and dove to the side to avoid death. Just as I landed a huge ball of crimson energy smashed into the ground, right where I was standing. The explosion was only feet from me and the volume of it was so much that the second it connected, everything went blurry again. My ears shrieked like static, my eyes watered from the pain. I could smell and taste blood, and I felt something dripping from my nose down on to my shirt. I brought my shaking hand up to my face and wiped under my nose. Through my bleary vision I could make out blood. Though it was dark. Black, and thick like tar.

I looked around me. The ponies were being overrun. The first line of defense had fallen, and they were only barely keeping the beasts back with a hastily reformed second line. Through the shrieking in my ears I could hear shouts and cries and roars. I heard Shining ordering them to pull back. I heard Emerald's voice. Emerald... She was nowhere to be found at the beginning of this fight. She let me down. She let us all down.

The pain in my head redoubled, the shrieking getting louder. I dropped my sword and put my hand over my ear. I felt blood leaking from it. "I can't die here," I said, my voice sounding like another burst of static to me. I tried to lift myself from the ground, but stumbled and landed on my chin. I groaned, letting the air escape my lungs as the shrieking doubled in volume and the pain grew even more.

I felt something approaching me. I felt the vibration of hooves through my skull. Two ponies. One very large, and one small. "Grey ponies," I wheezed. "I can't-" I gasped for breath, coughing as the air returned to me. "I can't die here." The hooves stopped. They were close to me. They were probably sneering down at me now, with their stupid faces.

I rolled my head to the side and saw two grey shapes. "I can't die here," I said. "Not yet."

One of them laughed. The bigger one. "Wh... say w... take him... to the... Maybe Umb... some kind of use for him." The words all flooded my ears at once, replacing the shrieking.

The mare shook her head. "No, we should just kill him now. You know how dangerous Humans can be."

Wait... what?! They know what Humans are? How is that possible? Has somebody else been pulled into this world before me? Were there Humans living somewhere that I didn't know about? Where they advanced like back home, or were they primitive? Were they--no, that doesn't matter. Focus! Focus, damn it! I stared at the mare as my vision slowly cleared. "I need... I need to get to Canterlot," I said between coughs. "I need... I need to-"

"You need to shut up! That's what you need to do!" the stallion yelled in my face, spraying me with spit.

I looked up at him, not really believing he had just spit on me.

He looked down at me with a superior grin, bordering on a sneer. "What's the matter, little Human?" he asked mockingly. "Are you scared? Cat got your tongue?"

I shook my head slowly. "No... But I'm about to take yours." I roared with the effort and pain, and swung my buckler, still strapped to my arm, right into his knee. When the metal rim connected with the joint it made a horrible snap and bent backwards. With another quick movement I used the momentum from my swing to roll over and I quickly found my footing. I also found my sword, which I picked back up and readied. I reeled back my arm. "Fuck you!" I snarled, bringing the sword around and cleaving straight through his head. The top of his head flew off, leading a wash of blood to splatter on the mare as it did. I separated the top jaw from the lower with a clean cut through.

The stallion's body stood stock still, blood spurting from the severed jugulars in his neck. The muscles twitched all over his body, including his tongue which flopped around like a dying fish.

I took a step forward, grabbed the tongue with my left hand and ripped it out of the halved mouth. "Told you I'd take your tongue, bitch," I growled at the standing corpse. I then proceeded to ram my fist down the throat hole to stuff the tongue in as far as I could. "Talk shit, get hit," I said, pulling my hand free and kicking the dead body away from me. I then spit a large amount on the body.

Then I turned to the mare.

Her eyes were wide, her mouth was agape, and she looked more afraid than I'd ever seen a pony look in my life. "P- please... Please don't kill me..." she whimpered, her eyes large and teary and her lower lip trembling.

I looked her up and down and raised a brow. "You're lucky I need to help my friends," I told her. I then bashed her in the face with my shield, instantly knocking her out--and breaking her nose. "Stay there and don't move," I said to the unconscious body.

With a new determination I quickened my pace and set my jaw. I twirled my sword in anticipation as I neared the closest crystal beast. ""Hey, ugly!" I yelled at it.

The monster turned around to face me, roaring. Black fire and thick smaug came from its mouth as it did so.

I turned my walking into a jog, giving my sword an experimental swing. "Fuck you!" I shouted as I pulled my arm back. I let out a roar of my own as I drove the tip forward, ramming my broadsword down the creatures gullet while it still roared. I twisted, causing the creature to scream in pain. Then I brought the bottom of my buckler down on the back of its neck, shattering it and severing the head. I freed my sword from the thing's head and readied myself for a fight. I saw easily over a hundred of the things surrounding what was left of the pony defensive. Sadly, it looked like the ponies had suffered serious casualties.

I ran at the nearest beast and thrust my sword into the back of its neck, killing it instantly. I saw many of the beasts turn to face me, growling at me in anger for the death of their comrade. "Come and get it, you cock licks!" I roared at the beasts. I swung my sword at another one, taking its head off. "Come on!" I screamed at them. "Come and get me!" I swung again and sliced a crystal head in two.

Nearly half of the crystal beasts were either charging at me, or at least focusing on me. The ease in pressure gave the ponies what they needed to go on the offensive; pushing the beasts back and sandwiching them between us.

I sliced and stabbed and hacked and bashed. I dropped them by the dozens, but more still came. With every movement of my blade I killed one, but there was always two more to take its place. I must have attracted nearly all of them, I thought as I withdrew my sword from a beast's throat. I smashed my shield into one's face, shattering it as I stabbed my sword into another's eye. "You fuckers won't kill me!" I growled at them. I dropped another three in a wide arc of my broadsword. "I refuse to die!" I stabbed two more and crushed another's head with my shield. "Not until I've had my revenge!"

One of the creatures lunged at me, mouth open and fire spewing forth.

I stabbed my sword down its open maw but couldn't stop the body from crashing into me. The weight of it knocked me on my ass. My sword was lodged in the beast's mouth and wouldn't come free. As I saw the remaining beasts advancing I left it, holding my buckler up to stop any attacks. With my shield raised I slowly backed away, keeping my eyes on the monsters so they couldn't surprise me.

There was still at least twenty of them, crouched low and snarling at me menacingly. I had killed most of them, but there was no way I could kill the rest with only a shield and my wits. And I couldn't risk summoning another sword for fear of collapsing. The pain in my head was getting worse by the second, and soon I'd be unable to carry on. I needed the last of my energy to survive. I needed... Snow?

I looked up, just over the heads of the beasts that were beginning to surround me. Sure enough, Sergeant Snow Shield was galloping at full force directly towards the group of crystal beasts. She had three shields, one strapped to either side of her, and another one tied awkwardly to her chest. Just before she reached us, she let out a fierce roar, like an angry bear. Then, she collided with the back of a crystal beast and sent it tumbling over, which knocked over multiple other crystal beasts, which stunned the entire group of them.

I blinked once at the absurdity of her plan. "I like it," I said, and promptly pulverized the head of the nearest beast with my shield. I swung my arm wildly and with the force to shatter mountains. These fuckers didn't stand a chance. Within seconds I had killed half a dozen, and Snow had drawn her sword and already killed two of them. The few remaining were only then beginning to sense what had happened. But by then it was too late. I was on my tenth kill before they started to fight back, but I wasn't surrounded any more, and I could dodge away from their clumsy bites and kicks.

After only half a minute the last crystal beast met its end on Snow's blade. She wiped the black smokey blood off in the snow before sheathing her weapon. Then she looked to me, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

I looked back at her. "You were supposed to stay with Shining and the others."

Her smile dropped as she scoffed at me. "Are you serious?! I just saved your life--again--and you can't even say thank you?!" She growled in anger and kicked a dead beast before glaring back at me. "Since you've gotten here you've done nothing but treat me like garbage, work everypony to exhaustion, and strut around like you own the place!" She snorted and bared her teeth at me. "What's your problem?!"

I looked at her for a few seconds before nodding. "You're right. Follow me." I said nothing else as I retrieved my broadsword and walked to where the ponies were huddled together finishing off any wounded beast that remained. I sighted a small pink mare standing next to a large grey one and made my way over to them.

As I approached the ponies they all stood at attention. Most of them looked sick and horrified. Though some of them looked... happy. Probably because they weren't dead. But I ignored the other ponies and focused on the two mares in front of me.

They snapped me a crisp salute and yelled, "Sir!" before relaxing and chuckling to each other. But once they saw the look on my face they quieted down.

I looked to Emerald. "Where were you two when we were in formation?" I asked them.

The two of them looked at the ground and shuffled their hooves. Neither said anything.

I began to feel heat rise to my face. "Well?!" I snapped, scaring them. "I asked you a question! You answer me when I ask you a question! Understand?!"

They both nodded quickly.

"Then tell me... Where were you two when we were in formation?" I looked from one to the other expectantly.

Emerald coughed quietly, drawing my attention. "Well... we, uh... We weren't under attack right then... so... I just figured..." She trailed off and gave me a pleading look.

I brought my broadsword in front of me, sticking the tip into the ground. "You figured... what?" I asked.

Emerald looked at me in a way a child looks at a disappointed parent. "I figured we... didn't need to be in formation..."

I stared at her, the pain in my head increasing. "Where's Twitchy?" I asked quietly.

Stone spoke up this time. "Twitchy's dead," she said. "He had one of his fits, and... They got him."

I clenched my jaw at that. One of the squad was dead. The squad that was supposed to be the best of the best. I sighed. This is going to make this harder. "Emerald, Stone," I said in a cold voice. "You are both relieved of duty."

The entire crowd of ponies gasped.

"What?!" Emerald shrieked. "You can't do that! You said it yourself: I'm in charge! You can't get rid of me, I'm the leader!"

I gave her an even look. "You shirked your responsibility as commander of this unit, therefore I am stripping you--and you, Stone--of your titles and rank." I let my words sink in for a few seconds. "From this point on, you two will report to the kitchen, and you will spend the rest of this war cleaning pots and washing spoons." I leveled them with a dangerous look. "Effective immediately."

The crowd of ponies were silent; probably afraid I would strike them down next. Though Shining spoke up. "You can't do that," he said. "There's nopony to take charge if you're not here without Emerald!"

I turned around to face him, pulling my broadsword from the dirt and sheathing it. "Sure there is," I said.

He raised a brow. "Who?"

I gestured with a hand to my side and pointed directly at Snow. "She will."

The crowd gasped.

I then turned to face Snow. "Sergeant Snow, I hereby award you with the title of Commander, and blah, blah, blah, yakkity yak. Congratulations on your promotion." I then looked her dead in the eyes. "You proved to me that you have what it takes to fight. Good job, and I mean it when I say that. But if you let me down..." I let my hand rest on the pommel of my sword. "You won't get a second chance."

Her eyes were nearly bugging out of her head, but still she bowed her head and mumbled a lame, "Thank you."

I nodded. "Now, use that power to order everybody to clean this mess up. Tomorrow, we're having a funeral."

With a final nod to Shining and Snow Shield I left the group of ponies. I made my way over to where I told that mare to stay put. To my delight, she was still there. And she was slowly waking up.

I reached her, just as she was opening her eyes, and crouched down so we would be almost eye level. "Well, good morning sleepy head," I said sweetly.

She groaned and rubbed her muzzle with a hoof. "What... happened," she mumbled, looking around her. "Where am I?" she asked me, looking at me for the first time. Her eyes bulged and her pupils shrank to pinpricks. She was shaking like a leaf. "No," she whispered.

I smiled sweetly at her. I raised my hand up to stroke gently across her cheek. "Shh, shh... hush now... It's all going to be fine," I told her. I leaned in closer, my smile widening. "I'm not going to hurt you. I swear on my life." I held up a finger as she began to speak to forestall any questions. "But what is going to happen..." I trailed off as I let my eyes rove over her body. She was curvy... She was luscious... She looked so soft... I drew my eyes back up to meet hers. She looked delicious. "You and I are going to go somewhere nice and private, where nobody'll find us," I said, still stroking her cheek, ever so softly. "And then," I said, leaning in very closely, my mouth almost touching her ear. "You and I are going to have a nice, long talk."