The Unicorn and the Blight

Chapter Five: An Unanswered Call

Night imposed itself over the valley, bathing Ostagar in the Moon's glow. A light rain had begun to fall as I looked out from that window in the Tower of Ishal. I could see all of the Ponies with their swords and shields and armor laid out like pieces on a playing board.

This was no game I knew however. I could see the Darkspawn horde begin to edge ever closer from the wilds, like a wave of wild fire that would consume all of Ferelden if it wasn't stopped here.

They first began to arrive like ghosts appearing out of the mist. They shambled out of the trees to face the King's forces. The Darkspawn soon broke their ghostly silence however as they began to cry out with savage and guttural noises. I could see some of the ponies down in the battle lines begin to waver, but were bolstered by their comrades standing next to them.

So stood the soldiers of Ferelden, standing shoulder to shoulder, ready to face the carnage of the Blight head on.

I saw a Hurlock step to the fore of the Darkspawn horde, and it paused to look first at the Darkspawn that had assembled behind it. Then it turned to look down upon the assembled Ponies who stood in the Blight's path. The creature heaved it's sword in it's forelegs letting out a roar, and it had begun.

The Darkspawn flooded over the landscape, an unending tide of darkness.

"ARCHERS!" I heard Sanguine's distance voice cry out.

I saw the Ponies armed with bows awnser their king's command and readied their arrows alight with flame. I saw the Lieutenat raise his foreleg into the air, and as the Darkspawn surged closer he gave the order for the arrows to be let loose upon them. The hiss of flying arrows permeated the air as they flew toward the Darkspawn horde and I saw many Darkspawn fall to them as the arrows reached them.

"HOUNDS!" Sanguine's voice cried out again as the Darkspawn horde surged forward, ignoring their losses.

The barks of the Mabari could be heard as their handlers let them loose. The Mabari war dogs charged loyally at the Darkspawn and tore at them with tooth and nail. I had to turn my head away as I heard their yelps of pain as they were slain by Darkspawn blades.

"FOR FERELDEN!" Sanguine's voice cried out for the final time.

The ponies of Ferelden surged forward to meet the Darkspawn horde. Letting loose their cries of war as they charged forward. The army met the Darkspawn with a clash of steel and flesh as the battle had begun in full. So we waited, with the Darkspawn's balista and catapults sending flaming projectiles flying through the air at the ancient walls of Ostagar.

"Now all we have to do is light the beacon, sounds easy enough." I heard Veneer say from the window next to mine.

I nodded, unable to say anything in the wake of the conflict below. I shook my head, forcing myself to look away as I walked over toward the center of the circular room at the top of the tower.

While I had turned my eyes away from the fighting I could still hear the cries of the ponies falling in battle against the Darkspawn... Wait a moment. The cries weren't coming in from the windows.

They were echoing up the stairs.

"Grenolyn, Veneer!" I called out, "I think there's fighting going on below us!"

The two having been focused on the battle going on outside hadn't noticed the sounds coming from below us and they turned toward me in surprise.

"What are you talking about Blue," I heard Veneer ask "We're behind the battle lines there's no way there could be fighting going on below us."

"No, listen. He is right." Grenolyn said. I thought for a moment I saw her with tears in her eyes as she turned around but with more pressing matters at hand I ignored it.

Now that we were all focused on it the sounds of fighting going on below us were easy to make out. The guttural roars of the Darkspawn acompanied by the cries of pain from falling Guardsponies.

"Get to the top of the Tower!" I heard a pony's voice make its way up the single winding staircase.

The voice was closer than the sounds of the fighting and it was soon acompanied by the sound of hooves on stone as several ponies made their way up the stairs.

I heard both Grenolyn and Veneer draw their swords from behind me. Grenolyn gripping a sword in each paw while Veneer gripped his larger sword in both forelegs. I had no weapon to draw but I readied the magic within my horn as the hoofsteps got closer.

We saw half a dozen of the guardsponies that had been guarding the lower levels of the tower appear from the stairwell and enter the circuar room.

One mare stepped to the fore, an officer, and said, "Wardens, Darkspawn have gotten into the tower. We're not sure how but they just started flooding in out of nowhere. I don't think anypony else is left down there."

"Darkspawn or not, we will hold the beacon until the time comes to light it." I heard Grenolyn's voice reply. "Or die trying."

I really hoped we wouldn't have to do the second part.

I saw the mare nod her head, "We will stand by you Warden, we barricaded the door behind us before we came up but it's only a matter of time before they get in."

"Well, at least now this will be a better story to tell later," Veneer's playfull voice call out, " 'I was the one who defended the beacon against the Darkspawn' sounds alot better than being the pony who stood behind the batle lines safe and sound."

The officer's face turned to confusion at Veneer's statement. Even I had been surprised at Veneer's statement given the given situation.

Our talking was cut off however by the sound of a door being broken down and Darkspawn pouring through the opening. The trained soldiers and the battle hardened warden acted quickly. Grenolyn and Veneer joined the guardsponies with meele weapons while the guardsponies with bows joined me further back.

We didn't have long to prepare as the Darkspawn surged forward and clashed against the ponies and Diamond Dog guarding the stairwell. I saw jagged Darkspawn swords clash against shields and arrows fly past my head before they struck Darkspawn.

I concentrated and prepared one of my most practiced spells, then unleashed the lightning bolt at a Hurlock weilding a mace. The blast sent in flying back and tumbled down the stairs.

I hope it broke it's neck on the way down.

I saw Veneer's blade sweep in wide arcs against the small army of genlocks pressing against him, and Grenolyn evaded the Darkspawn's attacks before stabbing and slashing with her blades. I kept using my horn ring to fire bolts of electricity at the Darkspawn.

I summoned my spell wisp, granting a boost my my spellpower. the released another lightning bolt at a Genlock, but it dodged to the side and avoided being nocked down the stairs. Although it's eforts were in vain as a Guardspony's mace smashed into it's face and sent it tumbling anyway.

At this point the rough half-circle that had been formed around the stairs was broken and the meele had turned into a savage brawl with everyony for themselves. More and More Darkspawn were flooding into the room every second, and while Veneer and Grenolyn were holding their own two of the guardsponies, one having taken a darkspawn bolt into the visor of his helmet and the officer mare had died to a Darkspawn blade sinking into her chest.

It was then some of the Darkspawn had gotten fed up with being pelted with arrows and electricity as a pair of Hurlocks and four Genlocks broke off from the meele and charged towards the archers and I.

I prepared by putting up my arcane shield as the archer ponies drew their shortswords, but it was obvious they weren't nearly as good with them as they were their bows.

I recalled how woefully inadequate my arcane shield had been down in the Deep Roads and I also casted Rock Armor to increase my resilience as I faced down the charging Darkspawn.

I smiled in satisfaction as I casted a lightning bolt at one of the Genlocks and killed it outright but the others were unfazed as they surged forwards.

One of the Hurlocks and a Genlock faced against me while the rest began fighting the Archers. I had no time to worry about them as I tried to duck and avoid the Darkspawn attacks, and any that I was unable to avoid were deflected by my protective spells.

I retaliated with a spell I had been waiting to use but was too concerned with hitting my allies to use earlier. I casted my shock spell, the blast of electricity arcing outward in a cone at my foes. The Genlock stumbled and while the Hurlock was fazed it managed to keep it's balance.

It swung at me again, this time landing a lucky blow and it's mace bruised my left foreleg I had used to block the blow. It hurt badly but it didn't feel like the bone had been broken thankfully.

I struck back quickly with my Lightning Bolt spell and it's smoking from fell and lay still on the cold stone floor. I had forgotten about the Genlock however, and in my haste to finish off the Hurlock had left myself open and I felt it's dagger pierce my side, it wasn't a mortal wound but it wasn't one easily shrugged off either.

I slammed into it with my shoulder and managed to knock it off it's feet and fired a Arcane Bolt at it while it was still on the ground. I tdidn't get up again.

I looked around and saw that not only had the Archers finished off the other Genlocks it looked like the meele fight was dying down as well.

The last Darkspawn fell when Grenolyn had driven both of her swords into the Hurlock's back as it was facing off against Veneer. I tallied up who was left and saw that one guardspony with an axe and shield and two of the archers had survived.

I saw Grenolyn run over to one of the windows once she had pulled her blades out of the Darkspawn's corpse and she looked outside. After looking over the battle that was going on outside she looked over to me and commanded, "Blue Streak, light the beacon now!"

I realised that I was the one standing closest to it as I quickly went to obey her command as I scrambled to the pile of woods that would light the beacon.

I was interupted however when the floor below me suddenly shook, causing me to lose my balance. At first I had assumed that oneof the Darkspawn's catapults had hit the tower but it was something much worse.

I craned my head toward the stairs and I saw Veneer and the guardspony begin to back away as an Orge marched it's way up the stairs. The gargantuan was unlike any of the other Darkspawn I had come across so far. While all of the others had been roughly pony shaped the Orge possesed two arms and two legs, with huge horns coming out of it's head.

The creature had no weapons but it didn't need any because it's fists were large enough to crush a pony.

It's footfalls thundered around the room as it let out a bloodcurdling roar and charged toward the Guardspony with the axe. Against the creatures charge the mare didn't stand a chance as she was swatted aside with one arm and flew against the wall and fell to the floor unmoving.

The to archers had out their bows again and were now firing arrows at the Orge as Veneer and Grenolyn moved to engage it. I fired off a Lightning Bolt spell at the creature but it didn't have nearly the same effect as it had on the smaller Darkspawn.

The fight against the Orge was a wild and desperate one, it seemed to shrug off all of our blows like they were nothing while it was able to throw us around like rag dolls. I continued to fire spell after spell at it while Veneer and Grenolyn continued to hack at it's lower body.

It slammed it's fists against the ground and sent the two of them flying backwards and it took the opportunity to pick up a piece of debris from a collapsed wall and threw it at the two archer ponies. The large hunk of stone flew easily through the air and the two of them tried desperately to scramble out of the wat but were too slow. The projectile settled on the ground with the two archers beneath it and blood was begining to well out from beneath it.

It shifted it's monstrous eyes toward me and let out a roar as it charged at me. I felt my eyes go wide as I ducked to the side and saw the Ogre's body fly past me and slam into the wall. It's horns were stuck into the stone for a few moments as it tried to pull itself free.

I Casted my Shock spell again at it's back just as it pulled itself free from the wall's grasp. The Ogre was bleeding from many wounds, had the feathered ends of arrows sticking out of it, and was singed from where my spells had struck it. The beast was falling but I could tell that it was still fully able to crush the life from me.

I tried to fire off another spell, but my reserves were depleted and my eyes widened as I saw it raise it's fist at me and was about to bring it down and end my life as I heard clawed paws running along the stone floor behind me and I saw Grenolyn jump at the Ogre.

Her twin blades sunk deep into it's chest witht he force of her jump, and the creature fell with it's back to the wall as she continued to hack at it, and under her flurry of blows the creature finally grew still.

Grenolyn detached herself from the creature's still form as she panted, "Streak, light the beacon."

I quickly turned around, and moved as fast as my injured leg would let me as I went to light the beacon. On my way there I saw that Veneer was alive but was also badly injured as he had to prop himself up against the wall.

I finally reached the point where I would light the beacon and I rested my horn against the cold wood, and it soon was alight with flame and the blaze soon spread onward to light the beacon, and signal Absinthain to make the flanking charge.

I let out a sigh as I collapsed to the floor, I was battered and magically spent but I had done it. I had made sure the beacon was lit. There had been many ponies who had lost their lives so that it could happen but at least it wasn't in vain.

"LOOK OUT!" I heard Veneer's voice call out from behind me, and I turned around just in time to see Darkspawn bolts flying towards me and sink into my side.

I felt myself fall to the floor with a thud as Veneer and Grenolyn both experienced something similar and I felt a deep sadness begin to wash over me. Even after all that I was still going to die. I felt an odd contentedness at the same time however, I had at least made sure that the blight would be ended.

and that would be enough... right?

I thought as the Darkness finished overtaking my vision.