The Equestrian Warden

I woke up to the sound of voices. I groaned a little and looked up at the night sky, and if I were to guess it somewhere around midnight. Then I felt something soft brush against my chest. I looked down to see Azura rubbing her cheek against my chest. A small smile seemed to be glued onto her face, and I had to admit that she looked pretty damn cute.

“We’re all goanna die!”

That did it. Azura’s ear twitched, and pretty soon her eyes were wide open.

“Comet… What the fuck is going on?”

I smiled as her eyes looked around all confused and her nose did a little twitch. I pulled her closer to me, making her blush.

“Hehe…it’s not that I’m not enjoying this Comet, but seriously what’s going on?”

Sighing I slowly pulled myself away from her.

“Don’t know. I’m gonna go check it out.”

“I’ll come with you.” I nodded and once she was ready, we left the tent.

It seemed like the yelling didn’t just wake me up. Other ponies woke up from their sleep and directed us towards the disturbance. The yelling seemed to be coming just outside the camp. When we finally reached the outskirts of the camp, we saw that an old earth pony was arguing with one of the pegasi guards.

“What’s that guy’s problem?” Azura asked, her pupils turning into slits.

“Don’t know, but we won't get any sleep if he keeps yelling like that.”

We made our way to the two ponies.

“Our leader has betrayed us. He left us to die here! Left us to the darklings!”

The old earth pony yelled, foam starting to form at the corners of his mouth. The pegasi soldier tried his best keep a straight face, but I could tell that the old stallions behavior was making him nervous.

“Please try to calm down sir. I can assure you-“

“You fool! You’re in league with him! You’re trying to kill us off just like him!”

The earth pony yelled and pointed his hoof at the pegasi accusingly. It was clear this wasn’t going anywhere fast. I quickly stepped between the two ponies and looked at the older pony.

“Come on. Keep your voice down, your scaring the everyone.”

The old man seemed surprised to see me, but before he could say anything Azura stepped in.

“This isn’t the time or place to yell. We’re all scared enough as it is. Yelling about the darklings and your leaders “betrayal” won't do shit for any of us.”

The old pony stared at Azura for a long time, and for a second I actually thought she got through to him. But instead of calming down the man’s eyes lit up and aggressively shoved his face into Azura’s.

“You watch your mouth little bat pony. You may be a Grey Warden, but that doesn’t mean shit to me.”

Azura’s eyes flashed yellow and before I could do anything to stop her (not that I really wanted to) her hoof slammed into the earth pony’s face. The earth pony stumbled back, holding onto his now bleeding nose.

“I’ll show you what a bat pony can do!”

She screeched baring her fangs, but before she could pounce I held out my wing blocking her path.

“That’s enough Azura.”

She looked at me, and I had to do my best to not look away from her piercing yellow eyes. But soon her eyes were back to normal and she stepped back, but she flexed her forelegs as if ready to attack at any moment. I looked back at the old pony who was still holding his bloody nose.

“Anything else?” I asked, trying my best to keep my anger in check.

His eyes were filled with unease, but any of the craziness that was in them before was now gone. I allowed myself a small sigh of relief before turning to the pegasi mercenary.

“Get this man’s nose checked, and make sure he is watched. Come get us if he starts again.”

The pegasi nodded, and I turned to the ponies watching the entire scene.

“Please go back to bed. You’ll need that strength tomorrow when we reach The Castle of the Two Sisters.”

The crowd quickly dispersed and went back to their tents. However, the little unicorn child and her mother approached us both.

“Thank you stopping that man. Ever since we left Orzammare he was muttering about the darklings, and how we were all going to die.”

Azura smiled and bowed.

“No problem. If you need an old pony punched, I’m your mare!”

The mother looked a little uneasy at these words, but the little girl bowed her head and looked up at me with admiration.

“Mr. Grey Warden. Are you going to protect us from the darklings?”

Her question surprised me, but I couldn’t help but smile at the admiration in her eyes. She really thinks I can stop the darklings. I gave the girl a small smile before looking at Azura who nodded her head.

“Yeah kid. We are Grey Wardens after all. Killing darklings is what we do best.”

The little unicorn smiled at my words, and we watched as she and her mother walked back towards their tent.

“Sometimes I wish I was a kid again.” Azura said quietly. “Not having to care about the worlds problem. It’s sad that so many children will be forced to grow up in this world where the monsters that hide under their beds are a real and walking just outside their backyard.”

Azura had a sad look in her eyes. I wanted to comfort her but something in me held me back.

“It’s better for the children learn that the world they live in isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Maybe then they could understand why their fathers leave and fight their wars for them.”

Azura looked at me in shock for couple seconds before sadness filled her eyes.

“It sounds like…your talking from experience. About your own father”

When I didn’t say anything, all she could do was sigh.

“Oh Comet. I’m-“

“Grey Wardens!”

I looked back at the pegasi mercenary. Did the old pony do something? To my horror, the old pony was laying on his side with a knife in his head, and a puddle of blood forming under him. I quickly made my way his body, the pegasi guard was looking around anxiously.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. Everything was quiet and the old man told me he was feeling better. Then this dagger flew in from nowhere and hit-“

He never finished. Two arrows dug deep into the pegasi’s head killing him instantly.

“Comet! Green mist!”

I followed Azura’s eyes, and I was surprised to see that she was right. A green mist was slowly making its way through the forest. The green mist let of a bright glow and I could see dark figures climbing down from the branches and running through the trees towards us. Darklings.

“Azura! Get the soldiers and wake the camp!” I shouted, barely managing to dodge one of the darklings throwing axes, and a fireball from one of their mages.

“I'm not leaving you Comet!”

She yelled trying to find cover from the darkling’s arrows.

“You have to! I'll be fine.”

I looked at the pegasi corpse nearby and quickly grabbed his sword. Azura looked at me for a couple seconds before pulling the dagger from the old pony’s head. At first I thought she was gonna fight beside me, but luckily she turned and ran to wake the camp. The moment she left the darklings were upon me. The genlocks charged with terrifying ferocity, but luckily I was prepared.

With a slash of my blade I decapitated one of the genlocks, and fended of the others. I blocked a blade aimed for my throat and another one aimed at my wing. I managed to kill a few more, but the genlocks didn’t waver. They practically threw themselves at me, Midnight wasn’t wrong when she called them cannon fodder.

They were crafty however, three of them attacked me from the front while the other two circled around me and nearly did me in. No matter how many I killed they continued to swarm me, probably trying to overwhelm me with numbers. A screech from above distracted me for a split second, allowing one of the genlocks a chance to slash one of my cheeks. Above us came the hurlocks, their green eyes glaring right at me. One of them, probably the leader, was diving straight towards me. But before he could reach me, a shadow leaped past me and tackled the hurlock in the air.

“Azura!”

The bat pony stabbed her knife into the hurlock multiple times, and suddenly by my side were the pegasi mercenaries. And a couple of them shot into the air to help Azura fend of the hurlocks. With the soldiers by my side, we managed to push the darklings back. Suddenly a fire ball shot over our heads and I watched in horror as it landed right in the middle of the camp. We could hear the screams behind us as the camp burned, but one voice drowned out all the screams. It was Midnight.

“Retreat! Fall back into the forest.”

Retreat? Why? I wanted to ask why, but I knew now wasn’t the time to question Midnight’s orders.

“Retreat!” I shouted as loud as I could, before opening my wings and shooting towards Midnight.

The mercenaries followed me, and Azura managed to kill one more hurlock before following as well. We followed Midnight into the forest, and we could hear the hurlocks and darklings behind us. Arrows shot by us and nailed a couple pegasi guards. Their screams would haunt my nightmares as the darkspawn tore them apart.

Suddenly right in front of us, the leader of the caravan along with a lot of earth ponies armed with weapons stepped out from behind the trees and charged at us. No. They were charging at the darklings behind us. Midnight skidded to a stop in front of the caravan leader, as the earth ponies and pegasi charged the darkling. Azura and I landed next to Midnight and the caravan leader.

“Thank you Grey Wardens for getting us this far. But I’m afraid King Soarin needs you more than we do. The Castle of the Two Sisters should be a day’s walk from here.”

“We can’t just leave you here!” Azura looked at the caravan leader with wide eyes, but Midnight shook her head.

“We must.” She bowed her head before turning and galloping into the forest. We followed her, but there was a knot in my stomach as the fighting seemed to echo through the entire forest.

“Midnight! Or we really just going to leave them to die?”

No response.

“Midnight!”

I yelled desperately.

“I thought Grey Wardens were supposed to protect people from the darklings! Why are we running away?”

Azura asked desperately.

“You’re not official Grey Wardens yet.” Midnight said firmly, but looked back at us. “However, if you really want to help.”

“We do!” We said in unison.

She didn’t say anything for a while, until we the sound of fighting was finally gone.

“Very well. That fireball that destroyed the camp was magic. That means a darkling emissary is nearby.”

Before we could ask what that was she explained,

“Darkling emissaries are capable of magic, and actually know how to speak the common tongue. Judging by how powerful that fireball was, this must be one of their strongest spell caster. If we kill him, then the caravan may survive.”

“Well let’s get to it then.” Azura said, hope flashing in her eyes. Midnight nodded and led us further into the forest.

It didn’t take us long to find the emissary, but it didn’t seem surprised when we showed up. If anything, it looked glad, if a darkling could even look happy.

“Kill the Grey Wardens!”

It shrieked before hurling a fireball at us. Midnight rolled away, throwing off her cloak, while Azura and I shot into the sky. Duncan drew her silver sword and started hacking away at the darklings, trying to get to the emissary. The emissary didn’t look that different from a genlock, however it did have a curved horn like a unicorn, which unnerved me a little, but explained how it could cast spell. The emissary shot bolts of magic into the sky, trying its best to kill us.

We tried to dive down and attack him, but whenever we got too close it would shoot lightning and fire from its horn to keep us away. Luckily we were fast enough not to get torched or shocked, and Midnight was slowly making her way towards the emissary. But the emissary saw her coming a mile away, and soon turned its attacks on Midnight forcing the Grey Warden to take over behind a tree. Unfortunately, with its attention away from Duncan, Azura saw an opening and charged, with me right behind her. But as we dove towards the emissary Midnight yelled,

“Don’t do it! It’s trying to draw you in.”

But it was too late. The emissary saw us coming and we were too close. I would be able to dart out of the way, but I knew Azura’s bat wings wouldn’t be able to make that sharp turn. Speeding up my pace, I slammed into Azura sending her spiraling out of control, and a safe distance away, but I wasn’t so lucky.

The emissary turned towards me, and I was going too fast to stop myself. All I could do was curl up in a ball as the flames enveloped me. A burning pain shot through my back and my wings. I closed my eyes tight, but the breath was knocked out of me as I slammed into a tree and tumbled down to the ground below.

I tried to hold back tears as I opened my eyes. The smell of burning skin made me choke, but my eyes widened in fear as the emissary looked down at me with a wicked grin across its deformed face. Its horn sparked up, as it powered up a spell, but the the magic aura surrounding the horn slowly died away the tip of a silver sword dug through its back and out the belly, as Midnight appeared behind him. As the emissary collapsed, Azura and Midnight were at my side immediately, trying to see if I was alright, but I couldn’t say anything as darkness slowly close around me.

…

I opened my eyes to the sound of birds chirping above me. When I looked around I saw that we were in a different part of the forest. I felt something soft brush against me and looked to see Azura cuddled up beside me. Just like the night before.

“She stayed by your side the entire night you know.”

I looked up to see Midnight sitting in front of a small fire nearby, sharpening her sword. Pulling myself up, trying my best not to wake Azura, I saw that Duncan had two saddles next to him, and one over his white cloak.

“I went back to the camp and managed to salvage a couple saddles that the darklings didn’t burn or take. They should have everything we need to make the journey to the cast.” Her words got me thinking about last night and although I was scared to ask, I needed to know.

“Did…anyone survive?”

She looked at me hesitantly, before finally shrugging her shoulders.

“I don’t know about the soldiers, but when I got to the camp I did some tracking. It seems they all fled north towards a windmill. I had to turn back when the darklings nearly spotted me, but I’m sure that’s where they ran too.”

Hope filled my heart.

“Then we have to go find them. They might need our help!”

“Comet…” She looked at me with sadness and sympathy. “I know you want to help those ponies, but what if they were killed and the darklings are waiting for us.”

“Come on Midnight. What if the soldiers found them, and they fought them off? They could still be fighting off the darklings while we sit here and do nothing.”

Midnight stood, shaking her head firmly.

“Let me make it very clear. The soldiers were probably overrun by darklings, and are dead. Those caravans have no weapons or armor, so the chances of them surviving is even lower than the soldiers. You barely escaped with your life yesterday Comet. If it wasn’t for your friends, magic you wouldn’t even be able to stand. If it wasn’t for ME, you would still be rotting in that earth pony prison or worst. If it wasn’t for ME, you and her wouldn’t even be traveling to the castle to become Grey Wardens. If it wasn’t for ME, you wouldn’t be standing here arguing despite the fact that all I've done is save your life these last few weeks. The least you could do is listen to me, and maybe consider the fact that what I’m saying might be true!”

I took a step back as Midnight lectured me and lowered my head in shame at her words.

“What about the little unicorn girl Midnight?”

We both turned to see Azura standing now. Our little talk must have woken her up.

“What about her mother? What about the soldiers who fought so we could get away? Are we just going to turn our backs on them when they might need our help?”

She stood beside me looking Midnight in the eyes.

“It’s obvious that you want to help Midnight. You could have just led us away, but instead you lead us to emissary. You wanted to help. Isn’t that what a Grey Warden is supposed to do.” Azura

sighed and shook her head.

“Thank you for saving our lives, but if turning our back on ponies is the way of the Grey Wardens then you should have just left us in that prison.”

Midnight looked from Azura to me and back again before sighing and igniting her horn. The two saddles levitated over to us and strapped themselves on our backs. My saddle had my sword strapped to it and the dagger Azura used to her own saddle. When that was done Midnight smothered the fire and turned and started walking.

“Let’s go find them.”

...

While we walked Azura checked to make sure I was feeling right.

“You really had me scared Comet. Your burns were so bad my magic was barely able to heal you.” I blushed as I remembered how she healed me last time and she noticed and smirked. Fortunately for me, Midnight noticed too and let out a small chuckle.

“I’m guessing she told you that her saliva has healing properties.”

Azura’s eyes widened, but I nodded.

“Yeah…why?”

“I’ve been around Equestria, and I’ve met bat ponies before. I once met a bat pony, and he told me that licking was how mare bat ponies imprint.”

“Imprint?” I asked, and was surprised to see Azura blushing.

“It’s how bat ponies CLAIM things.” Midnight actually winked at me, and I looked at Azura who was blushing like crazy.

“It was simply a moment of weakness. You were wounded, we fought in the arena together, and…I just wanted to…help you.” She cleared her throat and huffed defensively glaring at me. “You should be ashamed of yourself Comet, putting a lady on the spot like this.”

“Hey! Don’t point blame me. You’re the one who licked me!”

We both glared at each other for a couple seconds before turning away in a huff, but Midnight only chuckled with amusement. It was good to hear the old warden enjoying herself considering our last conversation. I guess now would be the perfect time to patch things up while she’s in a good mood.

“Midnight.”

She looked back at me and I took a deep breath.

“I'm sorry for saying all that stuff back there. I didn’t mean sound so ungrateful.”

“Don’t worry about Comet. I use to want to help ponies all the time when I was just a knight. But when I joined the wardens I learned that some sacrifices must be made for the greater good. I just hope that someday you will understand this as well.”

We continued the rest of our journey in silence.

…

The smell of smoke was clear in the air as we approached the mill that Midnight mentioned. Bodies were scattered all around us. Blood seeped into the ground, and fires burned down the wagons of the caravan that the earth ponies must have fled in. The night before I was smelling my own burnt flesh, but now the smell of so many ponies burning made me want to throw up.

“No…Comet…look.”

Azura was looking down at one of the burning corpses, but one I recognized all too well. It was the mother of the unicorn girl. Azura looked around at the carnage, the sadness in her eyes made my stomach twist in a knot. I gently draped a wing over her shoulders. She tensed up, but then gently wrapped her hooves around me and leaned her head on my shoulder. We both looked up as Midnight stood over the corpses of the soldiers.

“They came back. They followed the caravan and died fighting the darklings.”

Midnight bowed her head and slowly removed her cloak and draped it over the earth pony that had given us our opening to escape the darklings.

“In War, Victory. In Peace, Vigilance. In Death, Sacrifice.”

She looked at us, and I couldn’t help but notice that his cutie mark was that of two griffons. The sign of the commander of the Grey Wardens.

“This is the code the Grey Wardens live by. This is code you two will live by if you’re are accepted into the order.”

It was strange, buts he seemed to be telling himself as much as she was telling us.

Before I could say anything, Azura’s grip on me tightened. Her ears were twitching as she her eyes scanned the area around us. Then her eyes fell upon the charred house.

“Someone’s in the house.” She whispered.

Soon all three of us started to converge on the house. Midnight and I armed with our swords while Azura gripped her dagger.

“Darkling?”

Azura shook her head.

“Maybe a bandit.” Midnight said.

Midnight took point, while we followed close behind him. Once we were in position Midnight bucked the the door down and we charged into the house weapons ready. What we saw next stunned us more than the corpses outside. Because instead of pony corpses, the house was littered with darkling corpses. Their bodies burned to the bone, and their armor nothing but melted metal. And in the middle of all of this was the little unicorn girl, curled up in a ball in the middle of the room.

“Poor girl.” Azura whispered, ready to rush forward, but I quickly put my wing out.

“Wait. Isn’t it a little strange how out of all the corpses in this room she is the only living thing here. And remember, we killed the the emissary. So why is the mill on fire.” Azura looked at me in surprise but Midnight nodded her head.

“Good thinking Comet, and you’re probably right.” Midnight looked at the unicorn girl before looking at Azura.

“Azura, check to see if she is alright. If what you two say is true, and she just lost her mother, a female figure may be better at handling her.”

Azura nodded, but I whispered for her to be careful.

Azura slowly approached the girl, whispering gentle things to the little girl. The girl looked at Azura, tears still streaming down her face.

“Ms. Warden…are the monsters gone?” Azura smiled at the little girl and extended a hoof to her.

“Don’t worry. Their gone. It’s just you, me and the other wardens.”

The little girl looked at the hoof for a long time before taking it. Azura pulled the girl into an warm embrace, and something must have snapped inside the girl, because the second the Azura’s arms wrapped around her the little girl broke down into tears and cried into the bat pony’s chest.

Soon we were on the road again, but now Azura carried the unicorn child on her back. They talked a little, but the soon the little girl was asleep.

“What happened at the mill?” I asked Azura trying not to wake the child.

“The caravan managed to escape the darklings, but there were a lot of casualties. Morale must have been low. They got to the mill and the pegasi were ready to help them, but the darklings caught up to them. They started slaughtering every pony, the pegasi mercenaries and earth pony militia arrived but were overrun. The girl’s mother…was killed right in front of her. Something must have snapped and the girl’s magic went out of control. We saw the aftermath…”

I sighed and looked at the girl. She looked peaceful, it was hard to believe she could cause so much destruction.

“No matter.” Midnight said quietly, looking at the road ahead. “We will figure out what to do with the girl once we reach the castle.”