Defense Against Madness

The grey mare fell at my hooves. It had lost a leg, and its neck had been slashed open during the fight. Its eyes were completely blank, just like all of its comrades. I watched the last bits of life drain from its throat, as it laid on the ground gasping for air. It coughed, spitting up a large amount of blood as it did. With a final exhale of breath it no longer stirred. It was dead, and I was the one who had brought it down.

I looked up from the mare in time to see a brown earth pony coming at me with an axe. I deftly sidestepped it, and with a flick of my wings cut its head clear off. It rolled across the ground in front of me, as its body collapsed behind me. I felt sorry for a moment; I was matched against such slow and unthinking creatures.

I surveyed the battlefield, and watched as my brothers in arms fought against the horde. Most of the mindless ponies were unarmed, but several had crude melee weapons. They charged at us without fear of death or injury. That was the most frightening thing about the horde, and it told us that they could no longer be saved.

We had been currently fighting on a barren field, which had long ago been some kind of orchard. Dead trees covered the landscape in neat rows; they gave excellent cover. We had lured the opposition into the field, so that we could thin their numbers, but it seemed that their overwhelming force would win them this battle eventually. For every one of us that they took down we would kill five, but they could spare it. It was an unfortunate reality that because they merely outnumbered us, that they would eventually overpower us if something was not done.

I looked to one of my lieutenants, that was standing on a barren hilltop nearby. He was a pale green earth pony with a dark brown mane, and was barely out of his teens. On his flank he bore the cutie mark of a spyglass. I signaled for him to make his way over to me, and he proceeded down the hill he was perched on. When he reached me he stopped and saluted.

“Yes Ma’am,” he said lowering his hoof.

“You idiot! Do you want them to try and assassinate me because you couldn’t help but salute me on the battlefield?” I asked causing him to cringe.

“Sorry ma’am it won’t happen again,” he replied.

“It had better not lieutenant. Now tell me where the enemy commanders are,” I ordered.

“Ma’am! There are two unicorn commanders on the other side of that barn. I believe there is a third somewhere, but have not made visual confirmation.” He visibly suppressed the urge to salute me again.

“Good job lieutenant. Now get back up on that hill, and find me that last commander.” He quickly turned and made his way back to his post.

I turned away from the lieutenant, and looked across the battlefield. I could barely make out the barn that was on the other side of the orchard, through the thick fog that covered the landscape. I would need cover if I was going to reach it. I flew a short distance to a pony wearing thick barding. He was a white unicorn, and a close friend of mine. He had just finished running through an earth pony with his blade when I came up behind him. He heard my hooves touch the ground and whirled around to face me with his blade raised.

“Major,” he sighed. “You should know better than to sneak up on ponies.”

“I don’t have time for banter Strike. I need you to clear me a path to that barn across the field. The commanders are hiding behind it. I will finish them off, and end this battle,” I said motioning to the barn in the distance.

Strike looked to where I was pointing and frowned. “You are going to make it all the way over there?"

“It is my job isn’t it?” I replied.

He sighed, and signaled to the ponies under his command that were nearby. They immediately disengaged from the enemy, and formed up in front of him. There were several gaps in their lines, which marked the ponies that had fallen during the battle. Seventeen ponies were left under his command; he had come into this battle with thirty.

“Listen up. We will be running interference for the Major. Engage as many hostiles as possible and try to clear a path to that barn,” Strike said motioning to the building through the fog. His squadron then quickly broke rank, and once again engaged the horde. They slowly began to punch a hole through the enemy creating a path to the target.

The fighting was savage. The unicorns were casting spells at the enemy, trying to disrupt them. The more talented magic users who were able to cast blades, engaged the enemy with deadly strikes. The earth ponies were using their natural strength to protect the unicorns, and keep the savages off of them. The few pegasi that we had left were trying their hardest to keep the skies clear, making sure not to stray anywhere close to the deadly clouds overhead.

“It’s now or never sir.” Strike turned to me.

“Wish me luck,” I said giving him a smile; of course he didn’t return it.

I took to the air with all the speed I had, which was considerable. I raced across the field, pumping my wings as hard as they would allow. A feral pegasus came screeching towards me, but in the air my wing blades were ten times more deadly. I cut it clean in half as I soared by. It didn’t take long for me to reach the barn, and swoop around to the back. Just as the lieutenant had reported, I spotted two unicorns behind the barn standing in rune circles. Their eyes were closed in concentration, as they channeled magic into the mindless earth ponies and pegasi that they were commanding in the field.

I quickly dove at one of them, hoping that I could silently take out one of the unicorns before the other one noticed. As I approached the blue mare, I slammed hard into an energy field that threw me back. I managed to right myself in the air, but I was dazed. The mare inside the energy field noticed me and turned towards me; its horn began to glow. Its companion continued to keep its eyes closed, and kept focused on the battle.

The unicorn began to shoot magical beams at me from its horn. Though these unicorns controlled the horde, they were little better than the mindless earth ponies and pegasi. They had enough brainpower to form a couple of spells, but shouldn’t have been able to put up an energy field. That could only mean that one of the higher ups was nearby. A thought that did not sit well with me.

I dodged its magic with relative ease, and rammed my hooves into the energy shield. I felt the shield give a little under my assault, and I quickly retreated to avoid being hit by a magic missile. I slammed once again into the invisible shield, this time I saw small cracks form. It seemed that I underestimated the unicorn, and a bolt of energy struck my armor just below my wing.

I was almost knocked from the air by the shock of the bolt. A hole had been punched straight through my armor, and had ripped right into my side. Blood began to trickle from the wound, as I fought to stay airborne against the continuous onslaught of magic. I flew higher, and higher as I dodged the bolts. When I was just below the cloud ceiling I looked down to where the unicorn was still firing magic at me, but had very little chance of striking me at this distance.

I then proceeded to drop from the sky. At first, I allowed gravity to do most of the work as I descended towards the ground, but I soon began to pump my wings to help me build up speed. The closer I got to the unicorn on the ground the closer the shots became. One whizzed past my face singeing my cheek, but I continued to dive directly at the mare and its shield. I collided with the invisible shield completely obliterating it.

The shock of hitting the shield slowed me enough, so that I didn’t kill myself when I tackled the unicorn. I slowly climbed off of the mare, and noticed that I had broken its neck when we collided. I turned my attention to the other unicorn, which had been protected inside of the shield.

It was no longer channeling magic into the horde, and just stared at me with a blank expression on its face. I fought to catch my breath as I slowly approached it. You never knew what might happen on the battlefield, and I somehow always seemed to fall right into traps. As I got closer I could tell that this was no trap. It just continued to stare at me.

The blue unicorn must have been above it on the hierarchy, which meant that I had effectively severed their chain of command. Without somepony telling it what to do, it had reverted into a dumb animal. I momentarily felt bad for the unfortunate soul, but I had my duty. I sliced my wing blade across its throat severing an artery.

It didn’t fall over, and start grasping its throat like any normal pony would have done. It simply continued to stand there, devoid of any thought until it had lost so much blood, that its body could not support itself any longer. When it fell, it laid on its side until it was no longer breathing. I did not see the light drain from its eyes, as I had with the other ponies I had slain. The unicorns never had any life left in their eyes.

With that the two unicorns that had been controlling the other ponies were defeated, and I took to the air once more, so I could reach the battlefield on the other side of the building. When I was once again in the orchard I saw that the horde had stopped in its tracks. If there had ever been another unicorn in the field, and that energy shield made me suspect there was, they must have fled after their two subordinates had been slain. This definitely meant that I was dealing with one of the higher ups, which explained why the horde had pushed us so hard over the past few days. On the rare occasions that I had fought one of the enemy's commanders I had been with at least another Major. Since I was the only high ranking officer in the battle, I would have had to take it on solo. I had been very fortunate that it had turned tail.

I looked once again across the field. The pegasi that were fighting us had fallen to the ground wherever they had been flying. The earth ponies were mostly standing in place, but a couple were grazing on some weeds that were still growing in the barren field. Ponies being reduced to such a state was something that never should have happened.

But it did happen. I had to face the harsh reality that I lived in. I flew back to where Strike was standing, giving out orders to the remainder of his troops. The rest of the soldiers that were in the field, were also making their way over to my second in command. When all the ponies had gathered, I counted that seventy-three of us remained. Coming into this orchard, we were a hundred and forty strong. We had managed to keep casualties under fifty percent, which was something that rarely happened as of late. Still it was terrible, and I would have to give a report to General Storm directly about this.

“You orders sir?” Strike asked turning to me.

I looked back over the battlefield, and noted the blank expressions on the ponies that we had been fighting for the past couple of days. It had taken three days to finally bring their forces to a standstill. I looked over the faces of the dead that lay in the orchard. I immediately recognized many faces, most of which I had known personally. I closed my eyes, and wished that I didn’t have to give the next order.

“Kill the rest. Retrieve the bodies of our comrades and burn them.” With that I turned away, and listened as Strike relayed my orders to the rest of the troops.

They quickly got to work carrying out their instructions. I listened as the throats of the enemy were slit, and they fell to the ground gasping. The pegasi were always the worst; they would shriek and spasm before finally going still. The slaughter continued for nearly twenty minutes, and eventually I could no longer hear bodies hitting the ground. This was how we fought in the queen’s army. This was war.