Chapter 1

Halved

As the echos of pony trots could be heard from within the dense forest around them, the Whiteout Tomb moved hastily along the road of mixed mud, dirt and melting snow slush. Their breath was thick, moist and warm against the thin, cold air. Small, hazy specks in the air lightly kissed the soft, fine fur of the three ponies, walking along side the forest path. The pony leading in front of the other two was a light tan, bleach blonde and light green haired mare. Her horn was decorated with a silver tangle of swirls, and among the swirls dotted small finely cut purified emeralds. She bares a small overhanging cloak that covers her shoulders, attached to that is a hood, which covered the rest of her angelic face. Her clothe, spun of an evergreen color, the rims laced with gold. A silver piece clasped a green leaf ornament, of which bore the same swirls and emeralds as her horn, held her low hanging cap in its’ place. The same colors of that clothe ran along her back, splitting into a swallow tail pattern that erupted from a delicately placed diamond shaped purified emerald, just like the ones from the leaf and horn ornament. The swallow tails hung down from her flank to her ankles, and outlined her ruffled and curled tail. As her trotting continued, her breath heavy; the sound of her armor clanked out and ricochet against the surrounding trees, her half sleeves bounced along with the rhythm of her trotting and dirtied the tips of the clothe with the dirt and mud on the road. The plate attached to the half sleeves would shine a silvery glow if the sun were to peek out of the dense grey clouds above them.

As they continued along at a faster pace, one of the two ponies behind the lead mare stopped abruptly to catch her breath in one big gasp, then would hurry to catch up with the other two, whom slowed to oblige her absence.

“Terra.” The tan mare said to the out-of-breath brown and green mare a small ways behind her.

“We must keep going…” She said trotting over to the brown pony. She lit her horn, which caused the purified emeralds to shine in bright green against the unicorns light gold shimmer. Her saddle bag flap glowed and lifted, revealing the contents of the bag to the tan mare.

“Here.” She said levitating a small vial of liquid to the brown unicorn. “Drink this. It’s a buff to help you with your running…” She said looking at her friend take the vial and drink the contents. She looked inquisitively at Terra, the brown unicorn.

“Aren’t Scouts supposed to be some of the quickest ponies in the Republic?” She asked as Terra finishing the vial off.

Terra sniffled; her nose was dripping due to the extensive running and the cold air chilling her to the bone.

“Herbal, I am a Scout sure, but I majored at the academy in Biology Analysis. I barely passed my physical activity classes…” Terra hesitated looking over at the other pony, whom was a white and golden haired Unicorn. Terra looked down in shame. “Sorry I slowed you all down Cap.”

The tan pony known as Herbal, placed her hoof on Terras’ shoulder. “Don’t be sorry Terra Nova. We just need to keep going. The rendezvous is 3 miles from here. The other Tomb needs to be there as well to complete the objective. ” Herbals’ expression remained calm to give confidence to the others around her, however on the inside she was extremely nervous that the other half of her tomb might not be there in time.

Terras’ body began to feel better. Her muscles that ached instead felt renewed, her lungs that felt tight, felt flowing and alive, her head that hurt felt relieved. She felt energized once again. She stood to her hooves and stretched, feeling revived. She looked at Herbal and smiled.

“Alright Captain, I am ready. Let us continue.”

Herbal nodded at Terra. She went back to her former spot of formation, where the white Unicorn stood guard. She turned to the Unicorn whom was armed with an immaculate, angelic bow.

“Ready Angelica?” Herbal asked.

Angelica nodded, still searching the woods around her with her eyes. She looked more focused or suspicious than normal.

“Angelica… is there something wrong?”

Angelica looked to her Captain with a more worried look. She nodded and said quietly, “Dragon Fire”.

Herbals’ face changed suddenly and she looked back to Terra Nova. “Terra Nova. We have a Dragon Fire situation.” She said calmly to the brown unicorn of which was making her way over to her colleagues.

Terra Novas’ attitude changed to a serious one as she nodded to her Captain. She slunk down into a crouching position, disappearing suddenly into the shadows. Herbal switched her attention from the previously visible Terra Nova, the defensive Angelica, whom posted herself in front of her captain.

“Herbal Remedy, Captain, take cover in that bush patch over there.” Angelica said. “I’ll cover you.” She stated, turning her vision to Herbal Remedy, yet unmoving in her stance.

Herbal Remedy nodded, as she slunk over to a patch of bushes, being guarded by an attentive Angelica.

Angelica stopped her Captain all of a sudden, ceasing any kind of movement, she became as still as a chilled statue.

“Wait… Something isn’t righ-“ she was cut off by a sudden whistle through the air behind her. Angelica turned to see an arrow hit Captain in the chest. A loud pang sound could be heard as the arrow bounced of Herbals chestplate, a loud moan followed. The inertia of the arrow spired into Herbals body, causing her to trip on the wet terrain and forcing her to move on her own weight. She slipped, landing on her side in a large puddle of mud.

Angelica reacted quickly in this situation, tracing the arrows’ trajectory back from further inland of the woods in front of her; where they were heading for shelter. She quickly armed her bow and shot right back from where the arrow had originated. A half a second went by, and Herbal stood back on her feet, stained with mud and scratches from rocks, hidden below the layer of wet dirt. No sooner than she had risen, Angelica had shot a grappling arrow up into a snow covered tree and pulling on it, causing a cascade of snow to come down to the ground and stack into a mound, giving them light cover.

“Stay here Captain!” Angelica shouted. She took the roped grappling arrow, and jumped, retracting the rope and pulling herself atop the now bare branch.

She flattened herself against the trunk of the tree, alighting her horn, she peeked her head from the round of the trunk. Her eyes glowed softly as she spot three different ponies in the dense snow and evergreen forest below. She extended her bow string, clasped firmly by a glove held by her right hoof, she enchanted an arrow under a levitation spell, placing it on the string and basen of the Angelic light bow. She fully extended the bow, as the arrow slid back, a complex light sigil appeared before her bow at the command of her horn. As she released the arrow, letting it fly with a soft whistle through the air, it smoothly moved through the sigil, and lighting as it did. The glow of the now enchanted arrow became more and more spacious, as the arrow seems to split apart, and in almost the blink of an eye, one light arrow became three. As it shot out, all three of the arrows all shot in different directions, and met three different targets, whom fell to the ground as the arrow pierced their fur and skin.

The ponies fell to their death, meeting the ground with a solemn welcoming as blood spilled from their wounds. Angelica hid back behind the trunk once again, and searched for anyone else, however didn’t find anyone. She sighed in relief and and let her guard down.

Zoom!

Angelica jumped. It was too late of a reaction. She pushed herself into the sky, trying to avoid the incoming arrow, and only dodging it by one tenth of an inch, as it brushed her fur, nicking her and causing a deeper cut than expected. She flipped in the air, and fell to the ground next to Cap. Upon landing on the muddy snow, she stood like a statue next to the pile of snow of which gave her half cover. She lit her eyes once again, but finding no one in the shadows. Suddenly, she heard a scuff in the bushes, and readied her bow in front of her in the direction of the noise.

A pony erupted from the bushes, and before Angelica could hit him, she noticed he was being shoved out of the bush, rather than attacking them head on. Some other hoof was around that ponies neck. Suddenly, the pony went to his knees, omitting a sharp cracking sound. Terra Nova had stepped on his back legs, forcing him to bend unnaturally and break his legs. Terra held him in a choke hold, and released abruptly only to slit his throat with her small dagger. Blood spewed from his neck onto the white snow as his newly cold corpse fell into the whiteness.

Terra took her normal stance and lowered her eyes to the ground and away from her victim. A single tear came from her golden eyes.

“S-sorry I was so late…” Terra said.

Herbal Remedy stood from her hideout, she brushed herself off. She went over to Terra, putting her hoof under Terras chin and lifted it. She saw a small cut on her face and squinted at it.

“You’re hurt.” She said lighting her horn.

“I wasn’t fast enough. He swung and grazed my cheek.” She said not making eye contact with the Captain.

“It’s quite alright. You’re a Scout, you weren’t meant to kill.” She said, applying a healing spell to her small wound.

“I’m just glad you reacted when you did or else Angelica would have been-” She stopped at the sight of Angelica on the ground behind her. She was seizing and foaming at the mouth. Her pupils were tiny, and she lay choking.

Herbal reacted quickly, running over to the white unicorn, she slid in the mud to a stop next to Angelica. She inspected the small wound on Angelicas shoulder, and saw it outlined in a purple fizz.

“She’s been poisoned. Dragons Breath poison mixed with what looks like Cragadile blood… That would explain the seizing... “

She summoned a powerful healing spell to her horn, it glowed brighter and began to inch away from her horn. It snaked through the air and towards the small wound and entered it. Angelica wiggled and groaned a little bit from this. The glow followed in a stream under her skin and could be seen following a vaine of blood up towards her head. The spell stopped on her upper neck and began to retract again. The spell retracted fully from her wound, bringing a purple liquid stream out of her bloodstream. Herbal levitated a bottle into the air, pouring the purple poison into bottle. Her attention went back to the wound. She shot another spell into the wound, which spiraled throughout Angelicas body. She then shot an extra spell at the wound that began to close it up with magic. It would leave a scar.

The seizing stopped after a bit, and her pupils turned to a normal size as she fell into a sleep. The choking and constricting of her throat and mouth subsided and she was once again healthy. Perhaps tired, but nonetheless, healed and healthy.

After a few minutes of rest, Angelica woke again. Herbal talked to her in a calm manner.

“Can you move every part of your body? Is there any kind of block? Do you still feel injured?”

Angelica shook her head. She stood to her hooves, and insisted they keep moving. Resentfully, the half-tomb kept on moving, leaving the cold corpses to the forces of nature to dispose of.

Author's Note

The first chapter! I'm a little new to this site, but I hope I can accomplish bringing entertainment to you all! Enjoy, and go see the characters on my Deviantart!