Waning Crescent

Nothing went better after that, not even by mistake. The shadows of the place didn't yield an inch after the entrance, and the oppressive sensation that the rooftop of branches gave just became even more claustrophobic, bringing rampaging images across the tree trunk's colonnade for the corner of the unwary eyes to see.The terrain didn't stabilize further, still presenting gigantic boulders and one slope after another now and then, but at least the fog started to diminish, which in convention with the horned moonlight made it able to foretell a couple of yards away, before the natural aura of the place swallowed everything in the air. The sensation of being watched, if it hand't grew stronger before, was now an ever present feeling, stalking through the places that were away from sight, moving like a ghost around the troop of guardscolts that were opening path through the brushwood, just waiting for its maddening chance to strike.

     At the front of the troop, opening path almost by their own, Adorjan and Shining were leading the way into the unknown. With their shields risen and their spears ready, the two leaders were guiding with the example, however much as they wanted to be at the back. Adorjan had to recognize that, even if Shining wouldn't be as martial as any of his officers, he wasn't any less valiant. He had been captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard after all, and that, as far as he knew, wasn't a title that somepony could earn just by standing firm and saluting. It almost made it worth the annoyance of traveling with him.

     His guardscolts, on the other side, were a different issue. Although most of them were proven enough to hide it, the ones that did let the nervousness show were a bad indicator as to what degree the general morale were. Adorjan didn't want to doubt his colts, but sometimes he had to turn just to fight the necessity to reassure himself that all of them were really at his back. They won't go anywhere, he repeated every time he did so. It's not like if we'd have anywhere to go here.

     Nowhere to hide…

"Wait!" Shining suddenly spoke as he rose up his guard. "Movement, up ahead!"

     Immediately all the troop stopped, and even if Adorjan didn't ordered, assumed position for frontal assault. Muskets rose in the flanks, and all legs held for a second tighter to their arms. Adorjan assumed guard stance, and beside him Shining had already took his spear and had it ready.

     As he had said, something in the from started to move, and through the shaking of bushes and brambles started to come their way.

"Hold it, boys" said Adorjan, but it didn't help. That tension could not be eased.

     More movement. A single trace was heading in their direction without any hesitation or doubt. Colts grabbed even tighter their weapons, starting some of them to tremble as their phalanx hardened its stance, and hooves began to itch in the musket's triggers. Whatever it was in the brushwood was swiftly opening way to them, ever closing by.  Adorjan lit up his horn and prepared to direct the flashlight to whatever it was. His lance was ready and his sword clamored for action. The creature was almost nigh. Adorjan strengthen his muscles. He would stand against anything, regardless of how terrible it we-

"Stop!" Adorjan immediately ordered as the creature jumped into his light. "Hold you fire, its just a bunny! Just a bunny…"

     Just as the colonel said, the aforementioned creature jumped to the fore, standing unamazed before the yellow light of the unicorn and, just as it came, it went away. The troop stood firm as the critter departed, shaking more bushes in its way, and eased themselves a moment later, releasing a generalized sigh of relief.

"Dammit!" Adorjan muttered as he rubbed the bridge of his nuzzle anxiously.

"Something wrong?" asked Shining, trying in vain to ease the atmosphere.

"Bucking rodents…" he cursed.

Shining chuckled. "Didn't thought the unspeakable nightmares, would be so bad huh? …I liked his horns, though."

     Adorjan didn't answered, but smiled sideways instead. It wasn't that he didn't wanted to beat him for that, but at least he could get the part where it was supposed to be funny, even if it wasn't. Anything was better in those circumstances.

     Shining returned the smile, and looked like he was about to continue when something prevented him from doing so, his ears risen in alert. Adorjan didn't need to speak again, nor to communicate to the troop, for he'd heard it too. Suddenly all the colts froze in terror, and a tremor traveled through their muscles as their minds began to acknowledge what was the reality around them. Unexpectedly, like an arrow through the air, the sound had stormed their ears, traveled through their minds, and burned down their hearts with the unmistakable beat of a heart. The dark pulse of the blackness: the steady beating of drums.

     No more words were needed, for even if adorn would've spoken out loud the command, the guardscolts had it so deep within their training that they had exacted it already. In less than a minute after the drumming started all of them were already formed to advance again, and moving at the lead of the two stallions, this time ready for far more than a hell-born rabbit.

     Adorjan and Shining guided their guardscolts again, cautiously and steadily moving forth at a firm pace at first, until the first lights started to sparkle in the night. At first like a dim vision, but as the distance closed began to appear like orange dots of brightness, revealing the fire that gave them their strength.

     …When the drums, as sudden as they'd started beating, went quiet.

"You think…" Shining whispered, but Adorjan's face spoke for him better than words.

"Double time, lads!" ordered the colonel. "Keep your heads down."

     The troop silently obeyed, and everypony paced themselves to the light trotting of their leaders. Adorjan and Shining still remained in the front, marking the ground as, behind them, the closed formation of guardscolts began to turn into an homogeneous staggered formation. Soon the lights that had been shining blurry in the dark began to clarify their shape as torches, formed into a half circle below the brighting moon, and the projected shadows of large boulders around began to draw across the surrounding grounds.

     Adorjan and Shining didn't need to order again, just by starting to lower themselves as they advanced was example enough for the rest of the troop to follow until they reached the place. Then the expectancy went right, and the tension began to rose within each other with the prospect of combat until Adorjan knew it was the time.

"Now, charge!" he commanded as he pressed forth, dragging the stampede of royal guards behind him.

     With a unison war cry, the troop broke through the circle of torches, spears held high and shields shining bright with he yellow light. Adorjan and Shining were the first to get through, followed by the rest of the troop, that stormed the place, trampling on everything that were in its way. Armor plates cracked and hooves stomped the terrain, everypony was ready to fight whatever was under the flickering light, from the most dreadful of nightmares to shocked locals, unwary of their violent entrance, but…

"Haaalt!" Adorjan's voice commanded. "Stop everypony!"

     Battle shouts went silent, and horseshoes skidded slightly over the earth as they obeyed command. Below the light of the twinkling fire, the fifty colts that had just assaulted the empty clearing stood still in the time it took for their minds to acknowledge the order that was given. Even Shining Armor got so carried away that he didn't do it right away.

    It didn't take much to realize that there had never been any resistance to begin with.

"What's the meaning of this? Where's the enemy?" questions began to rise, but they were put aside in a moment.

"Form up, guardscolts!" called Shining. "And hold your guard up! Something about this place isn't right…"

     …Unlike anything to this point? Thought Adorjan as he oversaw the deployment of the cohort.

"I don't like this" he muttered to himself. "Not. One. Bit."

"Neither do I" came up Shining as he carefully inspected his surroundings. "And all this quietness isn't doing any us any favors either."

     Quiet? QUIET!? Adorjan's eyes suddenly opened. All around them there hadn't been any sound, not background, nor the characteristic animal cacophony. All the inhabitants of the woods had retreated, threatened by an unspoken terror, and had left the night as silent as if everything in the world had died. And that could only mean one thing…

"They've been following us" he whispered, trying in vain not to let his utter sensation of horror lick through his voice. "But… How?"

     Something moved in the upper corner of his eyes and he trailed them to the heights. In the midst of the nearly-impossible-to-bypass hassock of branches, a series of pulsations had appeared, indicating nothing else rather than what they told. That a heavy weight had been placed over them.

     The branches… Somehow it was now everything he could think of, not even having room in his mind to call himself stupid for not noticing before. What mattered most in the world was that they've been watching them since the moment they arrived, and now they were cornered, at their complete disposal.

"Oh, Holy Celestia…"

"Excuse me?" turned Shining, but in less that he could realize what he'd said, Adorjan was already at it.

"FORM THE PHALANX!!!" he ordered atop of his lungs. "Muskets ready, provide cover!"

     Adorjan immediately began to urge further the remaining guardscolts and Shining rose his shield and directed the already frantic guards as they returned to the cover of the troop. Everypony suddenly rose their arms and ran towards the center of the circle, but there wasn't enough time. Their watchers had been waiting for that time to strike all along.

     The first sign of life that their unidentified foes gave away was that, at unison, all light suddenly banished, extinguished by unknown means as the torches died at the same time, leaving only the silver mantle over the clearing.

     Shields fell in a hard mass of metal and lances, and a row of muskets displayed before them. The sudden absence of light caused screams of terror from the younger colts, but those were suddenly shut by the veteran ones. Over their heads, the branch roof, that had remained peaceful to that moment, suddenly bursted in chaotic movement, its dwellers finally giving away their existence.

"Movement in the front!" shouted a pegasus front the musket line. "I saw it!" said another. "Like some kind of tiger-monkey, with horns!"

"Stay strong!" exclaimed Shining as the wind began to fill with loud hissing and steady growls. "We're Royal Guards from Equestria! Anything that comes our way we can handle it!"

"Pegasus, form a spear tip!" ordered Adorjan. "First line, ready for fan discharge!"

     The guardscolts reluctantly obeyed, aiming wit their forelegs and bending a knee for improved aiming as the rest pointed their arms to any indefinite point that had became the chaotic movement above the forest ground.

     The branches in the heights began to move more frantically, shaken with terrible force by their yet unseen manipulators. Growls and hissing in the dark steadily increased until it became a concert of bestial roars and snorting. From tree to tree, hits and cracks began to stalk the wooden trunks, as they were being pounded with tremendous strength. The distribution of the startling noise was such that it made nigh impossible to determine how many were attacking, and where was the noise coming from. All what was left was that noise, trampling the tranquility of the night with much strength as it did with the ever wrecked nerves of the shooters.

"Steady…" said Shining when he began to acknowledge the effect that that horrific noise was having on the lines, making them shake and bend like if they were an unsteady critter, which judging by the state of everypony wasn't so hard to accept.

"Pegasus, ready your arms" continued Adorjan. "Fire at my command."

     More movement. More hellish noises. Every second the chaos across the woods was greater, even to the point where it seemed like all the forest had bursted into life. The quantification that came to mind about the number of creatures that was required to produce such an effect ahas dizzying, as such the presence of the general atmosphere that those wild screams in the night caused.

     Neither Adorjan or Shining felt it at first, but as the action in the dark became more violent, they and their troop had been subconsciously retreating, moving towards the void as if the unintelligible voices were compelling them to do so. They had moved behind the totem and almost completely into the wooden floor when branch bending suddenly started to yield, giving way to a more horrible vision.

     From the heights of the woods, something suddenly dropped, beating the floor heavily in the darkness beyond the clearing. At the level of the ground more movement started to show, running and changing sides like a marauding predator, mocking the powerless moon's light, that wasn't strong enough but to give away a sense of motion in the shadow. After that bestial drop came another one, and another one, and then dozens started to jump down the trees, abandoning the psychological war they've been having and readying for the main event.

     Adorjan fastened the grip on his arm, and Shining did it as well. Both ponies readied themselves for combat, and somehow transmitted that same feeling to the rest of the shield wall. Unidentified creatures were already waiting at the end of the clear, as they danced with a chaotic choreography that both startled and instigated their opponents to rush, to do something foolish…

     Adorjan knew that acting first would've been the worst they could do, but they've waited too much as well. If they wanted a fight they wouldn't deny them one. So, rising his lance the colonel prepared to command fire… When suddenly, the nerves, that had been threatening to burst all along, began to take their toll.

     It was a single shot. A flash in the dark that imprinted everything in white for a fraction of second from the single musketeer that had finally broken down and shot to the nothingness.

"STOP!" commanded Shining and Adorjan at the same time, but all order was already broken.

     More shots followed the first, and in a disorganized discharge the whole corps of musketeers had emptied the chambers of their fire arms, all in front of their terrified leader's eyes.

     The shots passed their objectives, or if they hit something it didn't show. What the constant flashes of powder did reveal, were the eyes of the monsters that lurked out of sight. Two dots of white, shining like the stars, per subject. Untold dozens of them…

     Shining Armor gave a step back upon that vision, and even if Adorjan had considered himself a valiant pony, in that moment what his eyes witnessed made his blood run cold with the prospect of what was about to come, most surely as with everypony else… Oh, buck!

     More creatures stepped at the brink of the light, readying to burst through and strike them. The musketeers immediately began to reload, and even though if the enemy decided to attack they wouldn't have another chance to fire, the line ant on it as the action around them was starting to become more threatening than ever before. Adorjan and Shining tried to maintain order, but the moral was less than low, and the mute fear that was rampaging across the air was picking up one by one eveyporny neath the armored lines.

     Somewhere a horn suddenly blew a deaf note, crossing through the glade and loosing in the precipice below, like an avalanche of sound, then another one. More angry callings from the leather throat and more instruments likewise joined the tribal concert. Some as near as their face, and some others more distant. Adorjan and Shining were still trying to impose discipline between their colts, but it was like trying to make a castle of sand at the reach of the waves. Each sonorous scream was like a blow to the determination and valor of everypony, so constant and steady that in no time the sense of security began to crumble.

"Hold the line!" Adorjan was screaming. "Hold the line, for Celestia's sake!"

     The noise continued as if nothing happened. From the edge of the clearing, figures started to breach the smoke that the powder had left behind. Tall, horned creatures that walked with swaying movements, leisurely closing as they clamored for violence.

"C'me on, you stallions!" Shining exclaimed amidst them. "Don't sell your lives away that easily!"

     But courage didn't mattered for what was about to come. The cacophony continued regardless of the officers' words, and the shadows of monsters began to stalk the night with more insistence. The possibility of combat became more and more present, a need for bloodlust that those dead eyes reflected in the moonlight.

     …Until it happened.

     Neither Adorjan or Shining saw exactly what it was, but somehow they had already backed the main force of the troop into the wooden planks, pushed back by that intimidating demonstration of savagery, and even if they hadn't noticed, their marauders did. And that marked the last accord for their funeral march.

     Suddenly bursting through the milky mist and roaring atop of his lungs, the monstrous figure charged from within the blackness, waving something in his arm that resembled to a war club. Shots met him, and the remaining unicorns fired bolts of magic at him, but most of them by sapped his monstrous shape, managing only faint successes and slim hits. The creature bursted through, and to the horror of Adorjan, reached the totem that marked the place where the wooden floor began.

     Now it wasn't that Adorjan of Shining wouldn't be so naive as not to recognize the movements around them, but in the second the creature reached the effigy, something sparkled inside both stallions' minds. What if… Those wooden planks weren't there to complete a circle?

     Thinking the same at the same time, Shining and Adorjan turned to see each other at unison.

"Colonel-!"

"My prince…!"

"ITS A TRAP!!!"

     And then, just as the realization fell upon them, the creature that had reached the totem, by an unknown mechanism set it off. The wire that used to hold together that platform suspended in the void over the precipice suddenly gave up, and the floor beneath the phalanx opened to toss them into the darkness below. Nopony had time to react, not even Shining or Adorjan as their whole cohort was sent downwards making a noise of screams and armor plates as they hit their way down to the bottom.

     Last thing Adorjan saw before helplessly falling down to yet unknown reaches was the musketeer line, firing another discharge, mixing the popping noise of fire arms with he characteristic sounds of combat as their stalkers finally began their assault. Then, everything went to black.