Gold Guard’s leg hurt badly, the pain that coursed through it was the worst she had ever felt in her life. Yet it wasn’t the first sensation that welcomed back to the land of the living. That honor went to the ringing in her ears, pinned back as they were as if they could block out the sound was coming from inside of them. She felt the dull ache of her head and her trouble breathing next, but a moment later the shooting pain in her leg made itself known and the unicorn mare clamped down on her tongue from crying out in pain.

The sounds of rocks clattering, coughing and moans of pain that were not her own brought her out of the world of her own pain. She felt the dirt and grime that covered her and venture to open her brown eyes to see what was happening.

The world around her was completely black and fear swelled in her chest as she remembered stories of crusaders going blind from a crack to the skull. She bit back this fear with the same fortitude she’d bitten back her cries of pain and set her horn aglow.

Motes of dust that filled the air came into sight first and Gold Guard began coughing as if seeing them made the dust in her own throat real. She only gave a few sputtering coughs before forcing herself to stop, it hurt too much raking her body with pain.

She pushed back the strands of her brown mane looked around finding that she was in a large cavern laying in a mound of rubble that occasionally shifted in small rockslides of gravel as it settled. Gold Guard gave the place a searching confused look unable to think how she got there. Suddenly the throbbing her head cleared and the memories rushed back.

Armasse had officially begun at noon and Gold Guard had watched, with the crowd gathered in the Clydesdale Plaza, the blessing of the festival by the leader of the city Lady Harshwhinny. A hush had fallen over the crowd as the aged mare had taken the stage clad in shining resplendent armor. She had just cleared her throat when suddenly a bright light rose up from the west, as if the sun were rising from the wrong direction. Gold Guard’s eyes had grown wide as Harshwhinny’s shadow fell over the cathedral’s façade huge and distorted. Then a moment later, the sound of a thunderous explosion ripped through the air, causing Gold Guard to throw her hooves over her ears, and a violent tremor shook her off balance

Gold Guard steadied herself before her eyes shot to the west and she let out a gasp. The Kite, a fortress that contained the city’s wardstone, had vanished. In its place, a brilliant plume of red fire, lightning and smoke erupted into the heavens.

A powerful roar caused Gold Guard’s head to snap back to the crowd as a massive purple dragon rose up from the crowd taking to the air on its wide wings, its head swinging back and forth on its long neck as fire crackled in its long maw. For a moment the chaos was forgotten as for the first time Gold Guard saw the face of Green Garden’s father, Manehattan’s greatest defender, Spike. Yet the relief of his appearance was shattered by the appearance of another figure, it was as nightmarish as the dragon was breathtaking. Three times the size of the largest pony, with skin coated in fire and lightning, and wield sword and whip of fire. Gold Guard, as well as everyone else in the crowd, knew this figure immediately, it was Tirek, the Storm King of the Worldwound.

All around her ponies were rushing in a wild panic, stumbling upon the shaking ground. Gold Guard jumped forward suddenly, her instincts guiding her narrow escape from beneath a statute that had been rended from its perch by the shaking ground. She watched as the street began to split open disgorging vilely shaped demons into the streets. In a blind rush a stallion stumbled into a nearby fissure and Gold Guard raced to the lip thrusting a desperate hoof down to seize the stallion’s. “You’re going to be all right,” She remembered saying.

Above them the dragon and centaur clashed, but the fight was over in a few harrowing moments. Tirek swooped down and cut deep into Spike’s body, arresting his charge. With a few more blows the titanic duo spiraled downward towards the crowd.

Gold Guard would never forget the sight of the dragon crashing into the façade of the Cathedral of St. Clydesdale. At that moment a titanic demonic quarry eel erupted at the far end of the plaza, reducing building to rubble as it smashed into Gold Guard’s world. It thrust open the rift Gold and the stallion were hanging from and Gold felt the ground beneath her hooves give way angling her into the darkness below.

As she started to fall Gold Guard looked back one last time to her wife’s father and found his sorrowful eyes on her as well. Spike’s mouth began to move as if he were speaking and he stretched out a bleeding claw towards her. Suddenly Gold felt magic take hold of her, slowing her plummet into the darkness as if she were a gently falling feather. Yet there was no way to stop the fall.

Slowed by the magic the last thing Gold saw was Tirek standing before Spike, his sword lashing out and cleaving through the dragon’s neck. As his severed head fell the rift above Gold slammed shut, stealing the light of the world above.

Gold Guard felt the tears dripping down her muzzle as the last of the memories flooded back into her mind. For a moment the danger of being trapped underground was forgotten and Gold wondered how she would tell Greenery her long absent father was dead.

Another rockslide brought Gold back to reality she turned to see that the shift in earth had uncovered the limb of a pony. It was crushed with lines of red running along it, caught in the dust that covered the coat so thickly that Gold couldn’t tell what the pony’s true coat color was. She wondered for a moment if it was the stallion she had tried to save.

“Hel-hello?” A voice called out shakily and weak through the dark breaking the silence. It was answered by a loud groaning, before it called out again. “W-whoever’s still alive speak up now.”

Gold Guard craned her head around to the source of the voice. She gasped in horror when the light of her horn fell upon the other pony, a purple unicorn with a pink striped blue mane. Her eyes were gone, a blackened and blistered wound across her face, above her muzzle and below her horn, showed that the orbs had been burned away.

“By the gods.” Gold Guard gasped and quickly pushed herself up to started for the other unicorn. The moment she put weight on her aching back right leg, however, she cried out in pain and clasped to the ground.

“Stop all your screaming, I need help,” A gruff old voice cried out pathetically and another form stumbled into Gold’s light. While an equine he was no pony, but gold instantly recognized him.

“Cranky,” Gold started with surprise, a surprise the bald, richly dressed donkey shared.

“Cranky Doodle Donkey,” The blinded unicorn asked with a gasp her head swaying back and forth as if she were searching for him despite her lack of eyes. She remained laying on her belly, seemingly not yet confident enough to stand up.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Cranky nearly spat catching sight of her too now. His angry eyes moved from her back to Gold and he wailed dejectedly. “Of all the ponies to be trapped in this gods forsaken place...” He trailed off into grumbling, perhaps thinking better than to rant too loudly about his new companions.

Gold looked back over to Twilight finding more recognition in her name then her disfigured person. Twilight Sparkle was a self-interested wizardly merchant who sometimes helped out the crusaders. Gold had heard that she had recently split up with her marefriend Cheerilee over some kind of religious disagreement.

Cranky she knew better. Working a lead about demon worshippers in the city for Green Garden she had broken into one of the donkey’s warehouses to investigate him. However, the only thing out of the ordinary she found was a small shrine to Abadar, the dead god of his kind. Abadar was a good and righteous god and as such his worship was not forbidden. Gold couldn’t fathom why he might keep his faith a secret, but she’d let that secret lay, even from Greenery.

“W-who else is there,” Twilight’s called out again after a long pause she spent holding her ears craned towards Cranky. “Are you hurt?”

Gold pulled herself to her hooves and hobbled over to Twilight, “My name is Gold Guard, Twilight Sparkle. Don’t worry about me I’m not nearly as badly hurt as you.”

Twilight’s jaw seemed to set the moment Gold revealed her identity and she was quiet again for several moments after Gold spoke. When she spoke at last it was in a curt tone, “I’ll be fine I have some healing potions in my saddlebags.”

Twilight reached a hoof back over her simple dark purple robes fumbling to find the saddle bags that hung askew over her hind legs. Gold could only watch the fumbling blind pony’s search for a moment before she reached down for the bag herself. “Here let me help you.”

“I’m fine doing it on my own,” Twilight almost snapped back swatting blindly to shove Gold’s hooves away.

“Hay you can’t hoard those potions for yourselves,” Cranky suddenly cried out and rushed over to the pair. “I’m hurt too.”

Wounded by Twilight’s rejection Gold shot Cranky an angry look and glared as she looked him over. “Cranky you’re fine, what would you need with a healing potion?”

“Why I nev-” Cranky growled through clenched teeth, then craned his head up and pointed a hoof at a line of red down his neck. “Look at this, I nearly lost my head in that fall. I can my blood leaking out as we speak.”

Gold gave to wound a critical look, it was little more than a scratch, “Twilight and I would be lucky if our wounds were a bad as that.”

“Gold Guard don’t be so hard on him,” Twilight scolded. She had managed to dig the potions out of her bag and held them out in the donkey general direction. “Cranky if you’re sure it’s that bad I can give up one of my potions for you.”

Cranky looked from the potion then to Twilight before he scoffed and turned away, “Whatever you use them. I don’t need charity from either of you.”

Without further argument Twilight reached to open the first bottle and Gold again ventured to help, but was rebuffed just as coldly as before. Twilight poured the contents of the first bottle over her wounded eyes, mending the seared flesh but doing nothing to regain what had been lost. “You and that wife of yours are crusaders right, why don’t scout ahead and see if there’s a way out of this place.”

“Y-ya, all right,” Gold answered dejected by Twilight’s still curt tone. She took a step forgetting about her injured leg for a moment and made the mistake of putting weight on it. She hissed in and staggered a little to remain on her hooves.

“What’s wrong,” Twilight asked gulping down the second potion. “You said you were hurt right, what is it?”

“It’s my leg,” Gold answered with a sniff to force back the tears of pain. “I think it’s broken.”
Her eyes quickly moved over her surroundings and to her relief noted several broken pieces of wooden debris scattered about. “I think I can set it.”

Gold seized several pieces of wood in her orange magic floating them over to her as she dug a hoof into her own plane brown saddlebag and pulled forth a few feet a silk rope. Drawing her short sword with her mouth and sliced the rope into sections. With some difficulty she braced the splints of wood against her broken leg and used her magic to tie the rope around to hold it in place. It wasn’t the most handsome field dressing she’d ever seen but it looked like it would work. She slowly eased down on the broken leg breathing a sigh of relief as the splint relieved the pressure on the wounded leg. Suddenly the splint slipped and the weight came down on her leg. Gold cried out in pain and collapsed onto her side writhing in pain.

“Let me try.” Twilight said and before Gold could protest she felt the unicorn’s hooves on the splint and followed her effort with another cry of pain.

“Can’t you flighty mares can do anything right,” Cranky groaned and marched over to Gold.

“No Cranky that’s fine I can-”

“Shut your mouth and sit up,” Cranky snapped grabbing Gold by her shoulder and pulling her up onto her butt. He had the rope untied before Gold could utter another protest. His hooves worked with surprising care and dexterity causing her far less pain than she had caused herself in her own attempt. Gold relented and let Cranky work without protest even as he muttered curses and insults at her under his breath about everything from her choice of wood for splints to getting her leg broken in the first place.

“There try that.” He demanded stepping back from Gold’s newly splinted leg. It didn’t look any nicer to her eyes then her own had, but when she braved to stand and put a little weight on the leg it held securely.

“It’s great, thank you Cranky,” Gold gave the old donkey a smile, but he just muttered something incomprehensible and most likely insulting at her. Undeterred by the donkey’s bad attitude Gold ventured to ask. “I could use your help scouting this place, we can’t know what might be down here.”

Cranky scoffed at that, “You’re the one with the barding kid.” Gold looked down at the metal studded leather barding that cover her dark yellow coat. Cranky started back to an opposing side of the cavern from where Twilight stood adjusting her saddlebags and a leg clutched around a staff. “And light.”

Gold’s face fell into a frustrated countenance. She turned and trotted deeper into the cave, careful to keep her weight off the bad leg. She couldn’t stop worrying about Greenery, she knew the noble mare could be dead up on the surface, down in another underground cavern like this one or anywhere in-between. But Gold knew she had to have faith in her to be alive and trusting in that she couldn’t help but hope that Greenery had found better company than her in this disaster.

Author's Note

Thus we kick off this adventure, The Worldwound Incursion by Amber E. Scott.
Part One: The fall of Kenabres