The clanging rang out on the empty plains. Sword striking sword, Pony versus Pony.

Two forces, both small Scout patrols sent on routine missions, only to find each other and begin to clash. One force Equestrian, one Changali. The battle was fast, a frenzy of steel, blood, and death. The equine soliders seemed to have the upper hand against their Changeling-like foes, but you could never be sure with Changali.

Seems they have a new trick every time we fight 'em. Rainbow Dash thought, sword parrying a thrust from her opponent, a dark grey chitin-clad Changali with bloody red eyes. The buglike warrior hissed, lunging forwards, sword arcing down from above as he- or she, it was hard to tell with Changali -lept forwards.

Rainbow yelled, driving her double-edged shortsword into the gut of her opponent. His hiss died off, slowly, as he started to crumble to dust. The Changali were indeed a mystery. Rainbow turned, loking for her next target, quickly surveying the battle as she did so.

Equestrians and Changali were rushing around in a furious crowd of swiftly moving limbs. The nimble scouts were able to fully utilize their rocky surroundings, leaping about and rushing around while they fought. Rainbow had already lost three out of her fifteen men, while the Changali had lost seven of their sixteen.

Good. "Stormchaser! Thunderlane! Take the one with the spear!" Spearwielding Changali were the commanders in a squad, usually requiring multiple persons to best. The Man and Woman nodded, moving away from their targets and engaging the Spearwielder. Rainbow herself took the two warriors they had left.

More strokes of the sword. More casualties. Five out of fifteen. Then six. Then seven.

By Luna's Moon, they're stepping it up! "Stick together, men! They're getting stronger!"

Yet another oddity that separated Changelings from Changali. When Changali died, their bretheren only got stronger, but only a certain few. The effect seemed to be limited to a squad of them, but that was all they knew about it.

After a bloody few minutes, Rainbow, Thunderlane, Stormchaser, and three more men, Sea Spray, Cold Cuts, and Green Thumb remained, along with one Changali.

Damn... we screwed up bad... "Alright! Let's finish him!" Rainbow raised her ash-coated sword, but froze as she saw the Changali Spearwielder lower his own weapon and produce a small crystal from a pocket in his leggings, the only thing he wore.

He crushed the crystal in his hands, mumbling a few words before looking up at the five men and women. He took in a breath, and began to glow faintly, taking a fighting stance with his spear.

"Glow this, bastard!" Cold Cuts yelled, rushing at the spearman with his sword held high. The Changali moved to intercept the blow, deflecting the blade to the ground, where it remained stuck, as was Cuts' hand to the handle of his weapon.

"What the hell?! I can't let go of it!" He screamed, thrashing and pulling as the Changali slowly advanced on him. With one thrust to the skull, it was over. The corpse of the man slid down, hand remaining on his sword until the Changali tapped it, breathing in again, and his grip lessened.

The other Equestrians were speechless. This was no ordinairy Captain. Sea Spray and Green Thumb both ran at their foe from opposite sides, screaming as they did so.

The Changali moved inhumanely fast, spear twirling around him in one fluid circle, cutting through the waists of both men. They fell, blood and entrails seeping from the wounds. The spearman's gaze again fell on Rainbow, and he slowly advanved on the trio of scouts.

"Holy hell..." Thunderlane mumbled. "We're gonna die, aren't we?" He was shaking slightly, hands gripping his two-handed claymore tighter. "What do we do, Rainbow?" Beside him, Stormchaser also tensed, looking towards the rainbow-haired woman.

"Here's what we're gonna do" Rainbow whispered. "Stormchaser, you and I can try and draw his attention while Thunderlane uses that sword of his to try and get some hits in. Aye?"

"Aye!" The other two replied, moving in as the battle began anew.

The glowing Changali swung at the three scouts, spear arcing with the same blue light he eminated. They dodged, Thunderlane circling around to the back of the spearman to take a swing at his undefended back.

Rainbow and Stormchaser continued to stall the flurry of blows that was the Changali, Thunderlane winding up for an overhead blow that would hopefully shatter the chitin armor the spearman wielded.

"Die!" He shouted, sword coming down as a meteor would to an unsuspdcting planet, blade whistling as the Changali's eyes darted to gaze upon the weapon.

His glow flaring, he moved impossibly fast once more, slamming the edge of the blade away and slicing through Thunderlane's legs before kicking him away, sending him tumbling into a stone, where he passed out from pain.

"Thunderlane!" Stormchaser cried, rushing to his aid amd leaving Rainbow on her own.

Yeah, this could have gone better. She steeled herself, raising her sword yet again as the Changali charged, spear glowing bright blue with that damned light as she herself brought her blade to parry the unstoppable blow.

"I will protect my friends! You will not harm them!"

And then, something changed.

Rainbow's sword glowed, a splitsecond of blinding light, before the blade became visible again- but it was a different blade entierly.

Instead of the standard-issue shortsword Rainbow had grown to love, there was a single-edged blade, roughly three and a half feet in length, slightly curved at the tip. The hilt was short, the handle of a decent size, a cyan diamond set into the blade at the center.

The new sword moved as her old one had, managing to parry the once unstoppable spearman.

Rainbow grinned. Payback time, you bastard! She forced the Changali back, stumbling him as she rushed forward, efforlessly raising her sword to cut through the warrior's left arm. Thing's light!

She succeded, but the result was... different. Instead of severing the arm, it simply went limp. Immovable. The Changali stared in awe at his arm, then at Rainbow, before raising the spear in his one working hand and charging at the woman, a cry of desperation escaping his mouth.

Rainbow twirled the blade before sinking it deep through his chest, ending his life. Again, there was no wound, but his eyes burned out, blazing before turning to ash like the rest of his corpse.

What is this sword? She wondered, walking over to Thunderlane and Stormchaser. She stopped, there was something in the distance.

Rainbow quickly ascended a small rock for some added hieght, before realizing that what she was looking at was another Equestrian force, headed back from some mission into Changali territory. They could find refuge with them.

The prismatic-haired woman climbed down from her perch, calling for Stormchaser to grab the now-bandaged Thunderlane and get moving.

She finally let go of her sword, and it vanished. Gone.

Rainbow blinked. Me and Twilight need to have a little talk once I get back. She thought, marching away with her friends towards the distant army. And if she doesn't know about what happend here, I don't know who would.

Author's Note

I promise, this will get less confusing as time goes on.

And do you know how many times I had to correct myself after typing 'sowrd'?

Yeesh. Anyways, here you go. I'll try to finally write more, and stuff, so yeah.

Stay Stormblessed,
~Wywint