Bright Nights

Chapters

The Caves of Sectari: (Deep inside the griffon kingdom)
Chapter 2
Battle of the undead

The Caves of Sectari: (Deep inside the griffon kingdom)

The day was turning to dusk, the unbearable heat of the afternoon sun was cooling to a much more welcome temperature, when the weary and dust stained party of six ponies crested a hill, and the sight of a large coastal village below was a very welcome view. For them, it meant the first hot bath they had in weeks, warm soft beds to sleep on, not the hard ground with only their woolen traveling cloaks for any kind of softness on the hard and cracked terrain of the Griffon Kingdom. But the only thing going through all their minds was the prospect of hot, freshly cooked food. The various dried fruits, vegetables and nuts that made up their trail rations, while nutritious, always became bland and boring after the first few weeks of just having those to survive on.

“Thank, fucking goddess,” Autumn Delight, the first unicorn and leader of the small group, said, wiping the back of her hoof over her sweating forehead, brushing a few strands of her messy mane out her eyes. “I was worried you got us lost when we took that shortcut through Talons and Claws river crossing,” she admitted, only half jokingly, to Aziza Fears, their navigator, and his wife and group scout, Nedra Fears.

Aziza didn’t rise to the bait, they were too close to their soft beds and hot meals to bother getting into one of their famous squabbles. Instead he raised his head and sniffed deeply, closing his eyes as he sampled the scent on the air. The rest of the group looked at him expectantly. “Fish,” he began. “Wood smoke, sweat, dinners being cooked and a tiny hint of copper underneath it all.” He twitched his ears in several direction. “Seems quiet enough.” He opened his eyes and met Autumn’s gaze. “Not as bad as the last village we came to, I think we can stay here longer. Rest, regroup and gather fresh supplies.”

Autumn bit her bottom lip, frowning slightly as she thought. The last village they had stayed in had reeked so strongly of copper and been so noisy even she, with her inferior senses, had noticed it a hundred meters out. They had only stayed there for a couple of hours so as not to draw any unwanted attention to themselves in such a violent and lawless environment. They would never back down from a fight, but they would never seek a fight out either, and fighting with the locals in the smaller villages this deep inside the Griffon Kingdom was a surefire way to get a target painted on your back. But this village was perhaps one of the most calmer one they had come across, so as team leader, it was up to her to decide how long they stayed before setting off once more.

“If the village is as peaceful as it seems, we’ll crash in a local Inn for a few nights.” With a confident nod of confirmation, Autumn began leading the way down the hill, following the rocky, ill maintained trail that to the village. The rest of the group followed, the excited aura of anticipation for peace and relaxation hung thickly around the group of adventurers. Autumn hoped there was some kind of brothel at the village, for the past few weeks the only attention her burning pussy had gotten, was her hoof and magic and the occasional pity fuck Aziza and Nedra gave her. And because the married couple had no issues about rutting each other whenever the chance arose, with no care about keeping their sexual antics discreet, Autumn’s libido was constantly on fire with arousal. If there was a brothel at the village, she planned on paying for at least half a dozen ponies to satiate herself. “Pick it up, ponies!” Autumn snapped, trotting more briskly down the path.

With no second invitation needed, the smal group picked up the pace, clearing the distance in a matter of minutes. As they came into the village the alluring smell of freshly cooked food hanging in the air made their tummies rumble, and their tongues to lick across their lips in anticipation for a delicious hot meal.

“Fuck that smells so good,” Feralia, the second unicorn and healer of the group commented, taking a deep whiff of the deliciously scented air.

“Anypony been here before?” Autumn asked her group, coming to a stop just outside the borders of the village. Everypony shook their heads, mumbling ‘nos’ and ‘nopes’. She sighed just a little. “We’ll split up and see if we can find the best Inn that caters to us herbivores.” She briefly glanced at the Aziza and Nedra. “Tonight you two are gonna see if you can find any updated maps of this area.” She turned to Diedra, a mare earth pony, and Sedia, her younger brother. “You two, do an inventory check, buy whatever ingredients you need for cooking in the next few days, and make sure we have enough trail rations to see us through ‘til we reach the Caves of Sectari.” She blushed just a tinge at what she was about to say next. “And all of you, let me know if there’s brothel anywhere in the village. Goddess knows how long it’s been since I’ve had a good rutting.”

With their tasks in mind, the six ponies walked into the village, splitting up in various different directions. The welcome they got was not a warm one, nor was it dismissive. The locals of the village walking the streets merely gave them a suspicious once over, a brief glare for intruding on their domain, then went to completely ignoring them. Autumn was used to such behaviour, griffons were not the most gracious hosts. As she trotted through the village, she kept an eye out for a saddlebag repair shop. She needed some fresh leather to make repairs on her boots and the various leather straps she had secured around her body, hidden under her traveling cloak. Each strap was equipped with various small pockets or sheaths for her belongings. She only had a small saddlebag for some of her larger, or more valuable items, but that was it in terms of baggage. Walking miles everyday was hard enough on its own, even harder with big clunky saddlebags. Thankfully Diedra and Sedia had no problems carrying the two large saddlebags containing their food and other essential supplies.

She found a local shop selling genuine leather at a reasonable price, and after purchasing a good amount, she made her way to the village center where she met up with Aziza carrying several new maps, some blank map parchment, a new compass and a scout’s journal, no doubt meant for his wife.

“All set?” Autumn helped him with carefully storying the maps in a weatherproof, enchanted folder. Aziza gave a little shrug tucking the folder beneath his leathery wings.

“They didn’t have any map quills or ink. I can get away with sharpening my quill tips one more time, but the ink...” He sighed with annoyance. “At this point I’m desperate enough to water down some normal parchment ink and use that.”

Autumn bit her bottom lip with concern. They were heading into unknown territory and terrain, and while they had local maps of the area, they couldn’t be relied upon for accuracy and details. There had been one time while traveling through Saddle Arabia they had been expecting to refill their canteens at a watering hole, but their map hadn’t specified the watering hole had been bonedry for decades. That was why it was important for the navigators and scouts to make detailed notes and make the required updates on their maps of such discrepancies, in case they ever wanted to visit the area again.

“Can you make do with what you have? We’re so close to finishing this.”

Aziza rolled his emerald, catlike eyes and ruffled his wings with obvious agitation. “I’m going to have to, aren’t I?” He shot an accusing look at Autumn. “Next time bring your own damn quills and ink when you want to write letters to your friend back in Canterlot.” Autumn had the good grace to blush ashamedly and look away with a sheepish grin.

“I just wanted to tell Starsong how close I was to finishing this mission and going back home.”

A shadow briefly flitted over them as Nedra swooped down from a nearby rooftop, landing next to her husband, nuzzling and squirming her way beneath his wing. She gave her husband’s cheek an affectionate grooming lick. “I struck out on the ink and quills as well, honey.” Aziza returned his wife’s lick and nuzzled through her mane.

“It’s fine,” he practically purred in her ear, giving its tip a little nibble, making her squirm and moan softly with a little blush. Autumn left them, not wanting to intrude on their intimacy, at the same time, not wanting to stir up the fire burning beneath her tail. Those two could make anypony horny, just with their furiously intense make out sessions. She really needed to find that brothel, failing that, the first bar where she could find one or, hopefully two sex partners.

Half an hour later a sullen, pouting Autumn followed the directions to the Inn her team had selected, her failed quest for looking for a brothel putting her in a sour mood. She had been tempted to look for a partner in the first tavern she could find, but her stomach demanded a fresh hot meal, her dusty body a steaming bath and her mind a comfortable night’s sleep before she tried seducing anypony.

The Inn she came to was a wooden three story building, the second and third floors for travelers to sleep in, the first floor for any paying diners to eat and drink to their heart’s content. Griffons may not like the strangers that came into their villages, but they loved the coin and gold the strangers bought with them and were forced to spend in order to get real food and a decent night’s sleep.

“You look like beaten crap scraped off a sidewalk,” Diedra commented, as Autumn made her way through the dining room to the secluded table her team was seated in. Autumn gave her a brief glare, too agitated and frustrated to bother with any other quip.

“Where’s your brother?” Autumn asked, finally noticing the absence of Sedia. “He better not be lost again.”

Diedra shook her head. “He’s not lost, just kinda busy gathering more food and supplies for the rest of our trip.” She perked up and glanced behind Autumn. “Speaking of, here comes our food now.”

Autumn glanced over her shoulder and saw a young, annoyed looking griffon waitress walking over to their table with several platters of steaming hot food and of course a platter stacked high with juicy rare steaks, and several roasted chickens for the thestrals. The entire table was deathly silent, staring intently, hungrily at the slowly approaching waitress. Autumn would have gladly let the griffon take her in any way she wanted, if it meant getting the food to the table faster.

As soon as the platters of food were on the table, they tore into it snatching up as much baked, steamed or boiled vegetables as they could, fighting over the best pieces. They weren’t on the trail where they had to share out their rations anymore, here it was everypony for themselves. Autumn went for a platter filled with baked potatoes smothered in some kind of gravy, only to have her hoof smacked away by Nedra as she claimed it for herself and her husband to share with their steaks and chicken. Autumn was hungry enough to not be put off by the sight of the meat but as soon as the married thestrals ripped into the rare steaks, eagerly scoffing it down causing blood to tail down their chins, Autumn had to look away and try her best not to throw up.

The platters of food had only lasted for five minutes, but there was still a small pile of potatoes left and Autumn was about to snatch them up when Diedra beat her to it, placing them on an over flowing platter of food no doubt meant for her little brother. Autumn blushed and apologized. It was her job as the team’s leader and protector to make sure everypony in her team were properly fed and nourished, and for a moment her gluttony had clouded her thoughts from that responsibility.

Once the platters, practically licked clean of food, had been cleared away, each of them were now nursing tankards of cold, crispy apple cider. Autumn downed the last of her drink and lit her horn briefly, summoning a silencing barrier around their table. Her companions looked at her expectantly, eager to hear what plan she had come up with for their task of locating and entering the Caves of Sectari.

“Sorry I’m late!” Sedia blurted out, collapsing with exhaustion in the empty seat next to his sister. She helped pull the heavy, bulging saddlebags off his back, placing the massive platter of food in front of him. Like the rest of them had previously done, he tore into the food like a savage beast, moaning with pleasure at how good it tasted. Autumn glanced at Aziza and gave him a little nod. It was time to start getting serious.

“I’ve asked around about the Caves,” Aziza began, pulling out his maps and notes of the area. They cleared a space on the table for him. “Everything I’ve heard about them suggests the entrance is somewhere to the north and well hidden. Some stories and rumors I’ve heard say the caves are haunted by angry specters. Others suggest that a pack of direwolves has made their home inside the Caves, but the more likely explanation is just some kind of monster has claimed the caves for itself.”

“Another dragon?” Autumn inquired.

“No, not a dragon. No livestock has been found burned, but plenty of it has gone missing. The farmers are far away from the Caves. I’m inclined to think a basilisk has taken the caves for itself.”

Autumn sagged in her chair and sighed with resignation. “That... fucking sucks.” She gave Aziza a hopeful look. “Would it hibernating?”

Aziza shrugged. “It’s late enough in the year, livestock killings have gotten drastically low, almost disappearing entirely. So, I think so.”

Autumn chewed on her bottom lip, deep in thought. “We go on as planned,” she informed her group after a while. “We were expecting something like this to come up when we got to the Caves. And between us, we should be able to handle a basilisk should it wakeup.” She turned to Feralia. “If there is a basilisk hibernating in the Caves, would you be able to construct a portal, link it to the base I made in Equestra’s northern mountains and keep it open if I distract the basilisk long enough for us to get the gems and ourselves through it?”

Feralia looked quite nervous and pale at the prospect, but she nodded confidently. “I’ll need your portal weaves, but yes, I think I can manage that.”

Autumn turned to Aziza and Nedra. “You’re confident you can locate the entrance tomorrow night?”

Nedra smirked cockily, nestling and snuggling closer into her husband’s embrace. “I can locate a needle in a haystack two hundred feet in the air. I believe that’s why you made me the scout.”

Aziza purred, stroking a hoof down his wife’s back. “And I think I have enough information to pinpoint the general area of the entrance. Between us it shouldn’t too long.”

She turned to Diedra and Sedia. “I want you two to stay with Feleria outside the Cave.” Before they could protest, Autumn went on to explain further. “Aziza and Nedra are the stealthiest out of all of us, and I’m the battlemage and team leader here, we want to be as quiet as possible in those caves, so stealth and smaller numbers are our best defence.” She grinned wildly and leaned back in her chair. “Colts and fillies, if all goes right, this time tomorrow night, we’re gonna be the second richest ponies, right below Luna and Celestia, themselves.”

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

The bath house in the village was a massive stone building sectioned off into rooms each room containing several rock pools filled with water varying from lukewarm to steaming hot. Autumn selected a room with the hotter rock pools, discording her boots, leather straps and taking the pink bow from her mane, letting it flow freely. As she lowered herself up to her neck in the pool of steaming water, moaning loudly, feeling the hot water relax her stiff, and sore muscles cramped from long nights of hard walking.

“Oooohhhhhh... Fuck, that feels good.” Autumn closed her eyes, losing herself to the bliss of the rock pool.

“You don’t have a stallion in the bath with you, do you, Autumn?” Aziza Fears asked as he stepped into the room with his wife snuggled under his wing. Autumn grinned slowly opening her eyes and looking up at Aziza, giving him and his wife a teasing wink.

“I wish I had a stallion. If Nedra doesn’t mind, you can totally get in here with me.”

Nedra giggled lightly, used to Autumn’s antics of hitting on her husband. She didn’t mind, as long as the flirting remained playful. “Auuuuuuttttttuuuuummmmnnnnnn...” she whined teasingly. “Stop trying to steal my husband, you slut.”

Autumn gave the mare her most extreme and sexy ‘fuck me, please!’ bedroom eyes. “I wouldn’t mind stealing you along with him.”

They both blushed brightly, Aziza using his wing to guide Nedra to the second rock pool. Autumn watched them, slightly envious of the pure trust and love they had for each other. Aziza stepped into the bath first and gently helped his wife into the hot water with him. Once in the water, Nedra was grabbed from behind by her husband who gently unfurled his wings, wrapping them around her body to form a protective, loving cacoon. Autumn watched them, smiling with genuine pleasure for the couple. She was nowhere ready to start settling down with a special somepony, there were still corners of the world to be explored, treasures to be found and monsters to be fought. A shot of adrenaline pulsed through her body, making her shudder with excitement at the thought of potentially fighting against a basilisk, one of the seven deadliest creatures of the world, rivaled only by dragons themselves.

Aziza now had his muzzle buried in the crook of Nedra’s neck, licking and nibbling at her flesh, making her coo and purr with pleasure. They had a truer, purer treasure with each other. Gold and gems were cold, hard and temporal, while having somepony’s heart and giving somepony your own heart was something that lasted an entire lifetime. Autumn closed her eyes, just focusing on the hot water soaking into her fur, dislodging the built up grit and relaxing her tired muscles. Her heart and love were devoted to adventuring and treasure hunting, while the only kind of intimacy she had was with the strangers that she chose to have one night stands with, if they were really good she often gave them second and third night stands. The longest stand she currently had was with a Saddle Arabian prince, that lasted for an entire week and she hadn’t walked straight for several days afterwards.

The water of the pool rippled around her as Diedra, her brother and Feralia joined her in the water. Each of the ponies moaned or sighed with pleasure and Autumn gave them a brief glare of displeasure for intruding on her pool.

“There are other baths that don’t have me in them, you know?” she helpfully pointed out.

Diedra giggled and much to the chagrin of her brother, she pulled him into a hug and began using a provided cup to pour water through his mane, washing out the accumulated dirt and grit. “Autumn, this is the hottest pool in the house and we don’t wanna disturb Aziza and Nedra, theyr’re too adorable.” Finished with washing out her brother’s mane, Diedra shifted him so she could scrub over his back and belly. Sedia silently endured the mothering and babying his sister put him through, it was her coping mechanism to work through the absence of their mother, dead from cancer. Diedra still saw him as that vulnerable, lost colt despite being a proven warrior along with his sister.

“Why do we have to stay outside the cave?” Sedia blurted out, giving Autumn an annoyed glare. “Seriously, a basilisk!”

She shared a discreet look with Diedra. In the very first few days Diedra had joined with her brother they had discussed keeping Sedia out of danger whenever it was possible, Autumn had sworn to do so, Diedra had already lost her mother to cancer, she’d do anything to keep her brother alive. “Aziza, Nedra and I need you and your sister as backup. If something goes wrong in the cave, your strength as earth ponies and skills in combat will be essential for getting any injured ponies out of the cave as fast as possible.” Autumn lit her horn and ruffled Sedia’s mane, adding to his annoyance. “We’re also in a hostile, unknown territory. Feralia’s concentration will be focused on constructing the portal so you two will also be in charge of keeping her safe.”

Diedra kept her look of pure relief hidden from her brother, once more switching his position so she could massage the tension and stress out of his back and rump muscles. Feralia giggled at the sight of the flustered stallion and lit her horn, using her magic to gently massage each of his hooves under the water. Feralia’s attention was the last little bit of pressure that made Sedia completely melt and relax against his sister’s body, surrendering himself to her loving ministations.

“I still hate it when you do this, sis,” he muttered quietly, giving her a brief glare as token resistance.

Diedra stroked a hoof through his already immaculately cleaned mane. “I know, bro,” she cooed softly, comfortingly. “Now shuddup and let me love and take care of you.”

Autumn lit her horn, pulling one of her discarded brown leather straps to the edge of the pool. Everypony stopped what they were doing at the movement and stared with deep disapproval at her. “What?” she asked opening one of the pockets, pulling out a small glass vial filled with a finely ground, dark pink powder. “We’re not on the trail anymore.” She opened the vial, poured the powder in a generous line on a small metal tray and sniffed the entire line in one go. Mind numbing pleasure shot through her entire body as the arcane dust shot straight through to her magical mana reserves. Her entire body shuddered, felt weak, tingling intensely with unchecked magical energies. “OH! Sweeeeeeeeeet... Fuuuccckkkiiinnngggg... Goddess that feels so good,” she softly cooed out, basking in the orgasmic-like pleasure of her high. Giggling like a little filly on a Christmas morning, she poured out another generous line and snorted it all in one go. She arched her back and screamed loudly as more intense and pleasure filled sensations shot through her entire body. Magical crackles of amber energy danced along the surface of her horn, the arcane dust leaving none of her magical reserves closed.

Her team watched her abusing the combat drug with a mixture of wariness and disapproval, Feralia herself was now being extra observant looking for any sign of something going wrong. Autumn gave her a casual grin. “Seriously, don’t worry about me, I’m fine.” She sighed blissfully and relaxed further into the pool of hot water. “I’m not gonna flameout.”

By the time Autumn exited the bath house, her coat was back to its shiny honey color, her blonde mane and tail with pink streaks were silky soft, and the high from the double dosage of arcane dust had lasted several hours, each minute a pleasure filled power trip. Now that her magical mana reserves were once more under control, she could use her magic to levitate her boots and her body straps back to the Inn where her entire team was waiting for her in their room. She dumped her stuff in the corner of the room and joined Feralia on the second of the two beds in the room.

Chapter 2

The western horizon shone vididly with burning colors of the setting sun, bright reds, oranges and yellows all stained the sky as the late afternoon turned to dusk and the unbearable desert heat of the day was cooling to a more cooler, welcome temperature. Autumn Delight, first unicorn and leader of a small group of likeminded adventurers and seventh level battle mage, sat in the cool shade of a small cave’s entrance idly using her magic to draw random shapes in the sand, occasionally looking up to examine the endless desert they had been trecking through for the past few weeks, looking for any sign of bandits, creatures of magic and other undesirables that may try their luck attacking them. All was still and quiet. She sighed and rubbed out her random shapes in the sand, restarting the pointless, but oddly ententaining task of recreating the shapes. Sweet goddess keeping watch was so fucking boring.

Sighing, she stood up shaking herself out, dislodging a cloud of dust that had settled into her honey colored coat, and made her way into the deeper and darker depths of the cave. Here, sleeping in the thick shadows were Aziza Fears and his wife Nedra Fears, thestral ponies who couldn’t have foals due to their lifestyle, curled protectively around Diedra and her little brother Sedia, whom the the thestral had unofficially adopted the very same hour the earth pony siblings had joined with the group. Autumn had no idea where their real father was, or even if he was still alive, but their mother had died after a long struggle against cancer. With no real way to support her little brother, Sedia had worked doing odd jobs, some of which involved making private house-calls to strangers were willing to pay a high price for her to bend over and flag her tail. Autumn had been only too willing to give the inseparable siblings a lifestyle full of adventuring and treasure hunting.

Tucked under Nedra’s ever maternal and protective leathery wing was Feralia, the second unicorn of the group, level nine healer and backup battle mage. Feralia had been a freelance nurse traveling all over Equestria looking for well paying jobs, the main worst medical problems she came across were sprained legs, chipped horns and the occasional torn wing, Autumn had offered her a job as their personal medic, which had all of the travel, none of the useless wastes of her immense talent and a salary one hundred times greater than what her freelancing offered. All of them loved the fortunes of finding treasures, they lived for the excitement of exploring new lands and adored making whatever positive difference in the world they could.

Autumn gently shook, prodded and poked each with her magic, trying to rouse them from their sleep. Tired, displeased grumbling came from each of the ponies and they snuggled more tightly against each other intent on getting just a few more minutes of sleep. With a little playful smirk, she used her magic to give each of the ponies’s flanks a single, firm spank. Surprised squeaks of echoed through the cave as each pony, suddenly awake, leaped to their hooves and went about striking up camp.

“For fuck’s sake, Autumn,” Sedia murmured, his voice still thick with tiredness, his eyes fighting to stay open as sorted and shared out that night’s trail rations into six pouches. “Did you have to ake us up like that?”

She gave him an unamused glare. “You gave me the shit watch three days in a row. Tomorrow I’m dumping all of you in a lake.”

“I’ll take tomorrow’s shit watch,” Diedra volunteered, struggling to get the saddlebags containing half their supplies onto her back. Sedia would carry the second pair of saddlebags containing the other half of their supplies.

“Coffee?” Nedra asked, looking with wide, pleading hope filled eyes at Sedia.

“Almost all out,” he commented holding up the large coffee pouch that looked depressingly empty. “Until we get to the next village with a decent market, this is all we have left.”

“Make the rest of it up,” Autumn instructed. “We’re only a night and a half away from the Claws and Talons River. Might as well set out well caffeinated.” Ferlia lit her horn, summoning a small fire, filling the blackened coffee pot with water and levitating it over the magical fire. Once the water was boiling, Sedia added the ground up coffee beans and soon the entire cave was filled with the delicous scent of coffee, teasing everypony’s senses. With nothing else to, they stared entranced at the coffee being, occasionally licking their lips with anticipation.

“And done.” Sedia had barely take the kettle off Feralia’s magical fire, when five cups were instantly thrown at him, their owners unable to wait any longer. The coffee was sweetened with honey, poured equally into the cups and ten minutes later the cups were empty. Autumn threw the coffee dregs into a corner of the cave and walked over to where she had stored her tail gear.

Her trail gear consisted of thick, brown leather boots to prevent her hooves from cracking on the hard desert tracks and half a dozen thick leather straps, each one with different sheaths, pockets or pouches for storing all her various and handy knick knacks. She secured these around various places of her body, trying her best not to think about how it made her look like she was getting ready for some kind of S&M session. The straps were convenient, comfortable and better than saddlebags, that’s all she cared about.

“Aziza, do your maps have any kind of shortcut we can take to get to Talons and Claws River?”

Aziza shared a brief look with his, who gave a little nod. “There is a possible shortcut. It’ll take six hours off our trip...”

“But?” Autumn inquired, knowing there was a catch for such an awesome deal.

“But it’ll involve somehow sailing down the river to Talons and Claws crossing. Without a good sturdy barge we can easily defend and use for protection, the chances of being taken by a pack of shadow cats...”

Autumn sighed with resignation, her mind already made up. "We'll leg it. I'm not taking unnecessary risks with your lives just to get to the village faster."

Battle of the undead

The shadows of the Everfree Forest came alive with the slow, awkward movements of the horde of the Shade’s undead. There had been no finesse, no real thought or skill put into animating the dead bodies. Their flesh, in various stages of rot and decay, fell from their bodies revealing the maggot and insect infested muscle beneath. Eyes hung and dangled from some of the undead’s sockets and the only noise they made was when they stepped on leaves and twigs. There was no moaning, just their silent, clumsy approach.

Autumn licked her lips nervously at the sight of such an overwhelmingly force, there had to be at least two hundred in the horde of the undead, their vast numbers could easily overwhelm her companions and Twilight Sparkle fighting alongside them if they weren’t careful. She glanced to her left at Nedra and Aziza, both thestrals had a look of grim determination, their razor sharp hoof claws gleamed menacingly in the weak moonlight. To her right, Feralia and Diedra were standing together with Sedia behind them, she could see the concern and worry on Diedra’s face as she thought about her brother being here to fight against the undead. Twilight was fidgeting restlessly, touching her head no doubt missing her Element of Magic. Autumn moved over to her and placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder.

“You’ll be fine.” She smiled, winking playfully. “I’ll be watching your back. Your flanks are too cute to end up as zombie chow.” Twilight’s blush at the compliment to her flanks was adorable, Autumn made another tally in her mind and wondered how many more it would take before she got Twilight to bed.

“We should start fighting now, right?” Twilight asked, observing the horde of undead getting closer and closer.

Autumn turned away from Twilight and set her mind to focus on surviving against a horde of undead. “They’re far enough into the clearing. Light’em up!”

Twilight’s horn flared to life with its aura of bright, violet magic and a massive circle of etherial flames surrounded them and the horde of undead. Nothing living would be affected by the flames, but the undead would be turned to ashes if they touched. Twilight grunted and fell to her haunches, fat beads of sweat ran down her face which was contorted in a mixture of pain and concentration.

“I’ll try to keep the spell going for as long as I can. But I’m not sure how long that’ll be.”

Autumn lit her own horn, pulling the crossbow from her back and loading a bolt into it. “Just do your best, Twi.”

Magic charged through Autumn’s muscles strengthening them, she pounced high into the air, sailing over the undead and landed gracefully in the middle of the horde. The zombies instantly turned their attention to her, reaching rotten hooves towards her and snapping at the. She levitated the crossbow up, pulled the trigger, and the high powered bolt tore through half a dozen of the zombies’s soft, rotting bodies. She loaded and reloaded like a machine, shooting bolt after bolt into the horde, their bodies exploding in showers of rotten flesh, bones, congealed blood and brains, and soon she was covered in the icky, stinking gore.

An undead pegasus pounced for her, only to be tackled midair and have his neck broken by Nedra. The thestral was instantly pouncing after the next zombie, her hoof claws a silver blur of death taking heads and limbs, making everything she cut into mincemeat. Autumn loaded and shot her last bolt taking out three more zombies. She dropped the now useless crossbow and ran forward charging her horn. She grabbed several zombies in telekineses, tore their bodies apart, sending the remains crashing into another cluster of zombies.

Twilight was suddenly in front of her, looking extremely tired from her attempts at trying to keep the fire burning, but determined to help as mush as she could. She lit her horn and bright orange streams of fire flowed around her body and roared forward like some great breath of dragon fire, incinerating dozens of zombies at once. She unleashed weave after of magic burning, tearing, blasting and cleaving zombies left and right into pieces. Autumn was mentally cursing and screaming at Twilight to stop using so many powerful spells at once, it was an amateurish mistake and one that was going to get her killed if she didn’t reign herself in.

Autumn unleashed the weave she had been constructing ever since the battle had started, thick bolts of lighting shot in every direction from an orb of white magic resting on the of her horn. The lightning shot through the entire horde, every undead body it touched raptured and burst apart into stinking piles of twitching rotten flesh. For a moment everything was silent apart from everypony’s heavy breathing as they observed the destruction and death surrounding them. Twilight was sweating profusely, panting heavily and looked like she was about to passout at any second. Before Autumn could ask if she was okay, the zombies that they had already killed, slowly twitched and wriggled and reformed themselves back into a horde of undead, once more risen from death.

“Oh fuck me,” Autumn screamed in complete disbelief and annoyance at what she was seeing. “Group up!” she screamed out to her group. They instantly joined her, standing in a circle back to back with Twilight safely tucked away at its center. Twilight was an extremely powerful mage, but she wasn’t a battle mage, the Elements of Harmony weren’t here to back her up and she lacked the required experience for dealing with everyday monsters and dark creatures. The circle of ponies moved in unison rotating in a counter clockwise direction as they slowly retreated from the undead horde.

Feralia and Autumn used simple shield spells or levitation to keep the zombies at bay. Aziza and his wife used their speed, reflexes and predatory instincts to dart forward slash at a zombie’s limb or head to slow them down before moving back into formation. If a pony was ever becoming too tired to fight they retreated into the middle of the circle to drink some mana-water and once refreshed they moved back into place. Twilight also did her bit, using whatever magic she had left to support the ponies protecting her in whatever way she could. Aziza, enraged at a zombie that had bitten his wife, took the creature’s head with a vicious slash from his hoof claws and crushed it under his hoof.

On and on it went, the group moving slowly and carefully so as not to trip or stumble, defending themselves against any zombie that got too close until they made it to the front doors to the Castle of the Two sisters. Once inside, they broke their formation and ran up to a high balcony where the horde couldn’t easily follow.

“Everypony alright?” Autumn called out to her team. Nedra and Aziza walked towards her looking extremely tired, worn out and ready to curl up in a nest with each other and a hot chocolate. Sedia and her brother weren’t looking much better, both had bite marks on various parts of their bodies, thankfully the zombies weren’t evolved enough to pass on their curse. But their injuries would need looking at to take care of any infections.

“Looks like everypony’s still alive,” Feralia commented walking over to the siblings with her first aid kit.

Autumn wiped some brains from her mane. “We need to start burning these zombies so they can’t come back again. Twilight, once Feralia has taken care of everypony’s injuries, she’ll link her magic with yours and both of you will burn these fuckers to ashes. Until you’re ready, Nedra will be able to defend the stairs. I’ll go further into the castle and hunt down the Shade. Aziza, I need you for back up.” Aziza nodded and pulled his wife into a deep kiss, holding her tightly against his body, their mouths locked together and their tongues wrestling for dominance. Several moments they stayed like that until Aziza pulled back, gently licking a clean patch of fur on Nedra’s cheek.

“Stay safe, my sweet,” he murmured, gently pressing his forehead against Nedra’s. “I promise to come back, if you promise to be here waiting for me.”

“I promise,” she whispered back.

With a low rumbling growl of regret and an apologetic nuzzle, Aziza pulled back and pounced to Autumn’s side, his eyes steely and focused, his expression grim and determined. Autumn left the rest of the group to do their jobs and lead the way back in the castle. Their warm breath came out in clouds of frost in the frigid, icy air that oddly didn’t have the stench of death and decay. Aziza’s ear’s were constantly flicking in every direction trying to pinpoint any slight sound that might tell them where the Shade was.

Autumn kept her horn lit with several weaves of magic for defending and attacking, ready to protect them against any ambush they might stumble into. Aziza tapped her shoulder to get her attention and pointed to a corner that led them left. The corridor they came into was filled with statues of suits of armor watching them with eyeless gazes filled with shadows. Autumn paused at a suit of armor meant for a Lunar Guard and began silently pulling it apart.

“What are you doing?” Aziza asked in a soft whisper. Autumn levitated a breast plate onto his body and firmly secured it in place.

“We’re going up against a shade, your wife will never forgive me if something happened to you.” The breast plate was then accompanied with leg gauntlets, a leather neck guard, a back plate, a special fitting for protecting the bones in his wings without impending flight and finally a helmet specially designed to keep a thestrals hearing, sight, smell and fangs accessible during battles. Aziza moved around a bit pointing out what needed loosening and tightening, when they were done they set off once more.

Even with armor, Aziza moved with complete silence, he blended well into the darkness and shadows of the castle and stalked through the castle with a silent and deadly, predatory grace. Not for the firs time Autumn found herself extremely grateful for having a pair of such efficient predators on her team, thestrals were a massive game changer for any kind of conflict, often tipping the odds in the favor of whatever side they were fighting for, almost always they were on the side that protected and defended their princess, Luna.

They walked down a hallway with dismembered forelegs mounted on the walls, they took a shortcut through a trap door in another hall and soon found themselves in the castle’s inner courtyard. The courtyard was still and silent the whole world seemed frozen in time, not even a slight breeze broke the stillness. This was where the Shade was waiting. Autumn and Aziza stepped confidently, defiantly into the middle of the courtyard and waited. Several minutes passed and eventually the shadows grew darker, they stretched out further and further until they met in the very center of the courtyard and swirled upwards forming the shape of a cloaked unicorn pony.

Invisible, dark and icy cold energies poured from the shade and it wasn’t alone. A dozen undead ponies walked up and stood behind their mistress. Unlike the zombie they had fought in the horde outside, their bodies looked perfectly healthy and living aside from the blue flames burning where their eyes should have been. Aziza growled softly, lowering himself into a hunter’s crouch, baring his fangs and hissing out a warning. Autumn would let him fight the undead while she fought the shade, there was no way she could handle everything herself.

The Shade regarded them with a blank, faceless stare. She made no move, or gave no signal, but suddenly her undead were running forward baring their fanged teeth in a silent threat. Autumn was the first pony to make a move. She ran forward, lighting her horn and sending a concussive wall of energy to scatter the undead in different directions, making it easier and safer for Aziza to fight. The Shade remained standing as still as a statue, watching her approach. Some sixth sense told Autumn to raise a shield and as soon as she did, an invisible spell from the shade shattered it.

Autumn cursed, ducked to the side just as another magical attack descended from above her, shattering the space she had just been in. Autumn teleported behind the shade, forming a firestorm weave and unleashed i,t all in one smooth transition. The shade screeched as flames engulfed its entire form and swirled upwards into a hurricane. The shadows that made up the Shade disintegrated and burned under the attack, but water-like wisps of etherial dark blue magic flowed from the firestorm and once more formed a body a body of shadows that regarded her impassively and unimpressed.

Autumn gritted her teeth and ran forward, weaving another pyro spell that formed long, twin swords of flames. With a scream of defiance and anger, she slashed at the Shade. The flaming blades met an invisible force, stopping them mere centimeter from the Shade’s throat and heart. Autumn felt the forces restraining her blades twisting and reforming themselves and before she could do anything, she was blasted backwards off of her hooves and sent flying uncontrollably through the air.

She barely managed to form a shield around her body before she slammed into a pillar which shattered upon her impact into thousands of pieces of small rubble that showered over the entire courtyard. She was dazed and rattled from the impact but, thankfully, still in one piece. Her whole body was aching and felt numb as she very slowly stood back up onto her hooves. She took a step forward only to stumble and fall uselessly back down. The Shade turned its attention away from Autumn, no longer considering her a viable threat to its existence. Instead, it focused on Aziza who was moving like an unstoppable wraith cutting, slashing and slicing his way through the dozen undead attacking him. The wounds Aziza inflicted on the undead, no matter how grievous, instantly healed and the undead went on fighting.

Aziza’s armor was holding up well, it was covered in many bite marks and deep scratches from the undead, but nothing had so far touched his flesh. His fierce attacking was suddenly stopped as the Shade grabbed him in an invisble magical, vice like grip. It wrenched him up into the air held and smashed back onto ground. There was a sickening crunch as Aziza’s back plate armor absorbed most of the force from the blow and cracked down the middle, leaving him badly winded and gasping for air. The Shade’s magic grabbed him around his throat and his widened desperately as he tried to suck in breath that wouldn’t come.

Autumn could only watch helplessly as he was once lifted into the air and slammed back into the ground, this time on his head. The helmet cracked, Aziza continued desperately struggling to free himself as the Shade’s magic pressed the cracked part of his helmet to the ground and dragged him across the courtyard. Bright fiery sparks trailed behind his head and it was only a matter of moments before his helmet gave way leaving his head unprotected from the cruel attack. Autumn gritted her teeth with determination and began forcing herself to stand. She had promised t protect and defend her group of friends, she wasn’t going to let anything stop her fulfilling that promise.

The Shade growing tired of its current game, once more lifted Aziza’a now limp and unresisting body into the air and held him out spreadeagled, slowly and tortuously pulling his limbs further and further apart intent on ripping them from their sockets. Autumn forced herself to close her eyes in concentration and light her horn with its amber aura of magic. She blocked out Aziza’a grunts and whimpers of pain, focusing entirely on creating her spell. Dozens of golden ribbons of magic flowed from her horn knitting, twisting and joining themselves together slowly becoming smaller and more compact as the spell progressed until it formed into an small orb of golden light.

With an insane giggle of relief, she threw the golden orb at the Shade, teleported to Aziza hugging him tightly, and used every ounce of her concentration and magic to form a shield to protect them from what was to come. Five seconds later the orb exploded. The entire courtyard was suddenly filled with a light brighter and hotter then a summer’s sun in the middle of the day. An unearthly scream of pure tortured pain echoed around the castle and even the Everfree forest as thick streams of light erupted in every possible direction from the center of the explosion, tearing the Shade’s body into hundreds of tiny pieces and purging its energies into oblivion.

The bodies of the Shade’s undead ponies cracked and crumbled into tiny pebbles that became dust and eventually nothing more then tiny wisps of smoke. The surface of Autumn’s shield began cracking like glass and it was all she could do to keep the shield intact. As suddenly as it began, the explosion stopped, leaving the courtyard in darkness and errie silence once more.

Aziza was limp and unconscious in Autumn’s tight, protective grasp, but a flood of relief washed through her as she felt a steady pulse and heard his slow, but even breathing. She could still see the Shade throwing and dragging him around like he was nothing more then a puppet, even with the armor, a lesser pony would have died from her extreme abuse. She buried her muzzle into his mane and sobbed freely with relief, grief and guilt. They all knew their adventures were dangerous and life threateningly, but knowing that was completely different to actually seeing and personally experiencing it. She continued holding him for several minutes, sobbing into his mane and occasionally grooming his face with soft, comforting licks.

“You’re getting snot in my mane,” Aziza murmured weakly, his green eyes slowly fluttering open and giving Autumn an accusing look. “You owe me dinner, a threesome with my wife and a lifetime supply of sushi.”

Autumn laughed with genuine humor and relief her teammate was going to be okay. “Done deal,” she agreed, resting her head against his armored chest. “Goddess I was so scared for you.” She spanked his cutie mark with her hoof like a stern mother discipling her foal. “You’re not allowed to do anything like that again! Ever!” She began sobbing again, unable to do anything else to deal with all the emotions and adrenaline surging through her system. With a quiet leathery ruffle, Aziza gently unfurled his wings and wrapped them around Autumn’s body forming a warm cacoon of safety and security.

“Shhhhhhhhhh...” he whispered, softly stroking a hoof through her mane and down her back. He continued petting her over and over again. “I’m safe, you’re safe, everypony else is safe and reasonably unhurt. Everything will be fine.” He continued murmuring and cooing comforting nothings to Autumn as she sniffled and sobbed, holding him tightly against her in a protective embrace. They heard hoofsteps in the courtyard and they looked up to see Twilight and the rest of their group walking to them, obvious relief and happiness on their expressions at seeing them safe. Feralia moved forward, nudging everypony out of her way as she went through the motions of examining Autumn and Aziza for any injuries both external and internal. She fussed over them like a mother who had just seen her precious foal crash their scooter, placing elastoplast and ointment on the most tiny of scapes.

Autumn looked over at her group and grinned as she saw their bodies were also covered in comedic amounts of elastoplast courtesy of their fussy, overprotective healer.

“Nothing too serious,” she informed them, pulling off Aziza’s armor so she could wrap bandages around his chest. “You both have concussions. Autumn, your mana levels are dangerously low. Aziza, your ribs are extremely bruised and some are close to fracturing. Both of you are going to be in bed for the next seventy two hours, and I’ll tie you to your mattress if I find you wondering around.”

Once she was done with Aziza’s bandaging, she pulled several icepacks from her kit, used her magic to cool them and comfortably secured them to the various bruises and swelling forming on their bodies.

She then gently levitated them into the air, her magic forming comfortable stretchers. “Once we get to Ponyville General, Sedia’s going to bring by some food for you, and you know to ask anypony if you want anything else.” Her voice turned very stern. “I mean what I said, no getting up unless you want to be restrained!”

Autumn grinned mischievously up at the nurse, squeaking in surprise as she was bapped on the nose by Feralia’s magic. “No comments from you about whipped cream and riding crops.” Autumn pouted, but kept her mouth shut. As they all made their way back down the path through the Everfree Forest, Twilight walked up beside the magical stretcher Autumn was bein carried on, looking nervous and apprehensive. Autumn gave her a casual smile, hoping to put her at ease.

“What’s up, Princess Sparkle Butt?”

Twilight looked briefly annoyed at Autumn’s nickname, but didn’t bother reprimanding. “What was that spell you used to defeat the Shade?” she eventually asked with genuine curiosity, looking down at Autumn somewhat awestruck. Autumn wondered if this is what Rainbow Dash felt whenever she was given such attention.

“It’s a spell called ‘Celestia’s Glory’,” Autumn explained. “Ancient warriors protecting Celestia during Equestria’s founding used as a last ditch effort against their enemies. Any magical creature or mage caught in the explosion is completely destroyed. The only things it won’t work on are the seven deadliest creatures of the world.” She lay silently for several minutes on the stretcher breathing heavily, completely and utterly exhausted. “If you want to study battle mage magic, I have a book I can give you.”

Twilight smiled gratefully. “That would be good actually, I wasn’t much use during the fighting was I?”

“You did good for the most part,” Autumn assured her. “But you really do need to practice and study more.”

Aziza on the magical stretcher beside her was busy being babied and spoiled by his wife as she fretted and worried over the state he was in.“Oh thank Luna you’re safe,” she said over and over with her nuzzling through his chest and mane, sobbing with relief.

“Shhhhhhh...” He comfortingly nuzzled and licked her. “I promised I’d come back if you were waiting, didn’t I?”

“So what happened with the rest of you while Aziza and I were doing all the heavy lifting with the Shade?” Autumn inquired.

Diedra beat everypony to telling her the story. “Well, Nedra did an amazing job defending the staircase while the rest of us were recovering and being looked over. I lost count how many zombies she took out all by herself.”

“They just kept on coming!” Sedia butted in. “And she kept on slaying like a total badass!”

“It wasn’t that impressive,” Nedra mumbled, her cheeks flaming with self consciousness at being the center of attention.

“You were amazing, and you know it!” Feralia commented. “Once I had finished tending to everypony, I helped Twilight through the process of joining our magic and together we used a dragonfire weave to burn the undead.”

“We were halfway through burning them all,” Twilight blurted out picking up the story. “When we saw that spell you used to defeat the Shade. We even felt the heat from it where we were! Once the Shade was gone, the magic it had used to summon its horde of undead went with it and they all just broke down into dust, which then became this mist like smoke and drifted away.”

“Well, nothing much happened to Aziza and I. We got our flanks handed to us to by the Shade, that’s when I thought, ‘fuck it’ and just burned the bitch to Tartarus.” Autumn knew it was a major understatement of what she had actually gone through, the fear and desperation of seeing Aziza almost killed. The guilt she had felt for asking him to be her backup and the immense relief, she was still feeling, when she knew he was going to be alright. She didn’t want to deal on all that, she was determined to focus on getting herself and her team better.