Fall of Equestria: The Ghost of Lindisbarne

Vestri was barking orders to the beastmasters, yelling at them to get the warbeasts under control, while ordering the other men to try and block their advance. The men tried, with little success. One warbeast roared angrily at the tiny stag trying to block his path. It gave a deafening howl and ran the poor stag down where it stood, trampling him as it ran down the streets.

Another warbeast slammed into a nearby house, easily shattering the material it was made of. It screamed with fury, its breath torching the inside of the structure. Anything and everything burnable soon caught fire. A squad of stags tried to throw ropes around its neck and horns. One actually succeeded. His efforts were rewarded in full when the beast turned around quickly spun itself around, throwing the stag into the air. The unlucky stag crashed into a wall on the other side of the street, the material not being strong enough to block his entry. The monster’s eyes soon fixated on the other stags as they watched their brethren fly. With an enraged howl that lit up the sky with flames. This got the other stag’s attention, just in time to see the insane creature run right for them at full speed.

“Sir!” One of the beastmasters shouted back to Vestri. “We can’t get them under control! The-they seem to have gone completely insane!

The warbeast he was trying to calm turned his attention towards him, roaring as it charged. The beastkeeper tried to leap out of the way, but was not quick enough. Instead of dodging, the hapless stag was flung into the air, right overtop of Vestri, who instinctively ducked just in time. He saw the warbeast coming straight for him, and did the same. Thankfully for him, he had more time than the beastmaster had, and was able to get out of its way as it ran past.

“Sunny, stay down!” He barked to his pet. Vestri looked to his left, seeing a warbeast crash into yet another building. A trio of Caribou tried to approach it, only for the warbeast to turn and incinerate all of them with a howl. Screams emanated from the three as their fur and flesh burned. A few, pain-filled moments later, they were gone from the world, and the Warbeast they had failed to capture was likewise gone, off to satiate its unquenchable rage elsewhere.

“Soldier!” Vestri shouted to a nearby soldier at his side. A soldier looked at him, responding with a simple “Sir!”.

“Find where the hell Lord Hrathr went off to. The rest of you, keep them distracted until Hrathr arrives.”

The caribou nodded, and ran off. Two of them in a hopeless struggle to distract one of the warbeasts nearby, the other to find the Master of Beasts himself.

Contrary to Vestri’s thoughts however, the Master of Beasts was not sitting idle. Like the rest of the town, he was attempting to get a rampaging beast under control. He was in an alleyway, looking on as a warbeast burned a nearby building. Whose it was or what it contained, the Master of Beasts had little care of at the moment. Only the creature destroying it was on his mind. He threw a rope, which landed around one of the beasts horns. The beat screamed with rage at his insolence, burning most of the rope, and would have burned Hrathr as well had he not quickly stepped to the side. The stag caught his breath, the heat having been sucked right out of him by the passing flames.

A big mistake, on his part. The warbeast looked at him with a deranged fire in its eyes, ready to trample the stag down where he stood. Unlike the others though, Hrathr had a trick up his sleeve. His horn began to glow, and his hands began to move, carving out runes in the air.

“Calm thyself, great warbeast. Tell me of your pains-” The beastmaster began. “-Sooth your thoughts, become one with my mind-”

Hrathr’s knowledge of crafting careful, soothing calming spells on beasts was rewarded with a rough slam into his right side as the warbeast ran past. He was thrown against a building, bouncing off of it as his body then hit the broken sidewalk face first with a sickening thud.

Immense pain coursed through Hrathr’s body. His head was spinning. He could taste the metally taste of blood inside of his mouth. He could move his legs, but not very well. He tried to push himself off the ground by his hands, but only succeeded in slamming back down onto the pavement weakly as pain shot through his arms. He rolled over on his side. His vision was blurred. He could see a pair of brown blurry figures fightings another, lighter brown bigger blurry figure.

As he lay there, another blurry figure began to fill his view.

“Help!” He called out to him. The figure continued to approach. “The-The beasts!” He coughed. “I can’t... Get through to them.” He said, trying once more to hold himself up by his hand. “Tell... Vestri... That their minds... Are tampered with... Somehow... I can’t... Get through-”

“Correct.”

An emotionless voice rang into his ears. His body was roughly shoved to the ground, turned onto his back. His eye went wide as his vision finally began to clear. Just in time to see what exactly was hovering above him.

“You... You’re-” The Master of Beast’s voice was cut short as something pressed lightly against his throat. The stag began to choke, his body wiggling instinctively as he felt his throat grow tighter and tighter, cutting off his air supply. The figure began to leave his view as the world grew darker and darker.

“Yes.”

“Finally, you’re back!” Vestri shouted to the soldier running back to him. His men had battled the beasts for several minutes, and were no closer to containing them than when they had started. He turned, hoping to order Hrathr to help him calm the beasts down. He alone could calm these rampaging war machines without hurting them.

There was one problem. Hrathr wasn’t there.

“Soldier, WHERE IS HRATHR?!” Vestri screamed, grabbing the soldier by the scruff of his collar. “I ordered you to FIND HIM AND BRING HIM HERE! My men are DYING here!” He pointed frantically to a burning building off to the side.

“I found him sir, but...” The stag wheezed. “He’s... Was dead when I found him.”

Vestri dropped the stag, his eyes staring blankly straight ahead upon hearing the news. His arms dropped to his side, his mind blank even as stags shouted and died, and warbeasts yelled and burned everything in sight all around him.

It was so obvious. He should have seen it coming. The assassin had used them. AGAIN. This was its plan all along.

“Sir?!”

No response from Vestri.

”SIR!”

Vestri was snapped back into reality. His head turned towards the source of the voice. A soldier that had been getting the Lieutenant’s attention for some time.

“What do we do? We can’t contain the-”

“Tell the men,” Vestri responded darkly. “To put them down.”

“Sir?!” The soldier question.

“You heard me.” He responded angrily. “Kill. The. Warbeasts.”

“But sir, without our warbeasts, we-”

”THAT’S AN ORDER!!” Vestri screeched as loudly as he could. “We can’t afford to take any more losses, it’s either them or us, and I’ll be damned if it’s going to be us!”

The soldier nodded, repeating the order to his comrades. Although some stags hesitated, the rampaging beasts soon put them all on the same page. They stopped trying to use ropes and nets, instead switching to spears, blades, maces, spells, anything they could use with any level of lethality.

Of course, the warbeasts wouldn’t go down easily. They yelled, snarled, charged, anything they could to stave off their deaths.

As caribou fought the beasts they once lorded over, a certain mare belonging to a certain council member could only watch, staring at the flames, as her city burned a second time.

When the smoke had settled, a large portion of the town had been destroyed. The streets lie blackened and lifeless, as did most of the buildings in the area. Amongst the burned out husks that comprised the port town, the bodies of the dead, both stag and beast, littered the streets. The stench of burned flesh hung high in the air.

In what remained of the center plaza, three figures stood. Or rather, two stood, and one sat at her master’s feet.

“Do we have a count, how bad is the damage? Our supplies? Our men?” King Dainn asked his right hand.

“It’s bad. Very bad.” Vestri responded, hanging his head low. “The rampaging beasts destroyed most of what’s left of our food stores. The warehouses on the eastern side of town is fine, but everything else...”

Sunny sighed a breath of relief. Her mother was fine, at least. Or so she hoped.

“To make matters worse,” Vestri continued. “We lost a lot of good men today, trying to contain them. Many more are injured. I’d say we’re down to about 40% of our forces. At best. Not to mention, we were forced to kill all the warbeasts.”

“Dammit!” Dainn responded.

“To make matters worse, this includes two of our masters of runes. Now, the only one left is that wood guy.”

Dainn gave Vestri a look that made him shrink.

“You’re holding something back.” Dainn said slowly to him. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“I...” Vestri stammered, and sighed. “Hrathr and Throtr were both killed, presumably by the assassin during the attack. Nothri is missing, the house he was commandeering was destroyed. I believe either the assassin or the warbeasts got to him.”

“First the blacksmith, then our supplies. Then our town. Now council members?” Dainn shouted shakily.

“It... It seems that we are the true target of the assassin.” Vestri commented sadly. “I just wish I’d realized that sooner.”

“We still don’t have an identity, do we?” Dainn responded.

Vestri opened his mouth to respond. But was interrupted.

“I caught him! I caught him!” A loud, brash, boastful voice roared pridefully. A large, decorated stag carrying a smaller stag by his mane burst in, a look of sheer, triumphant glee on his face. “I caught the traitor!”

“I am not a traitor!” The stag yelled in response. “Put me down!”

“Quiet you!” The larger stag yelled to the smaller one.

“Ivangir, Put. Gunne. Down.” Dainn growled. “...Now.”

Ivangir reluctantly released the smaller stag, causing him to fall to the sooty soil on his hands and lower legs.

“I was... I was...” Gunne puffed. “With the King before the attack started. “I’m not a traitor!”

“Shut up!” Ivangir yelled, backhanding the stag and knocking him into the dirt.

“Knock it off, Ivangir!” The King shouted in response.

“Why do you keep standing up for him?!” Demanded Vestri.

“Because he’s right. He was with me before the warbeasts got loose.” He yelled at Vestri before turning back to Ivangir. “As for you, I am getting sick and tired of your antics. I’ve told you before, if you’re going to accuse him, I want evidence. So where is it?”

“Antics?! Evidence?!” Ivangir shouted back. “I don’t need any!”

“I’m your king, and I say you do.” Dainn responded angrily.

“Well I don’t!” Ivangir boasted. “There’s no one else who could be-”

“There’s plenty of other people who could be!” Dainn yelled. “In fact there’s no guarantee that it’s a stag at all. For all we know it could be one of the ponies. Or several of them working together-”

“Hey, you’re the one who said it was a traitor, my liege.” Vestri spat.

“That’s not what I said at all!”

The conversation quickly devolved into verbal bickering as Gunne began to rise to his feet. He would use this opportunity to sneak away, perhaps apologise to the king later for dragging him into this. But something caught his eye as he stood.

He couldn’t quite make out, but there was definitely something at the end of a street a long ways away. A figure of some sort. Staring at him, at all three of them with an icy blue stare.

“Hey... You!” Gunne tried to yell to it, only managing a squeak. “Stop!” He managed to say a little louder.

The figure responded by turning and running.

“I said stop!” This time, Gunne was able to get out a proper yell. Instead of giving a reply, the figure rounded a corner.

Instinctively, Gunne began to run. After the figure.

“Hey where the hell are you going?!” Ivangir yelled to the fleeing Gunne.

“Gunne, come back!” Dainn shouted after him, for a completely different reason. Gunne didn’t stop however. Dainn began to run after him, his left and right hands quickly followed suit. Vestri however, forgot to take Sunny along on this chase, leaving her sitting.

“Vestri, wait!” Sunny yelled, quickly getting to her feet as she ran after her master, not wanting any other stag to catch her and have their way with her while Vestri wasn’t watching.

As Gunne approached the corner where he had seen the figure, he quickly dived into it without a second thought, even with the shouts of his liege behind him. He had a head start on his king, who likewise turned the corner when he reached it. Said corner turned into a back alleyway, with twists and turns everywhere.

Dainn lost sight of the smaller stag the moment he turned the corner into the alleyways. Try as he might, he could not find a single trace of his friend anywhere.

“Gunne? Gunne where are you?!” he shouted. No response. He searched every nook and cranny he could. But found nothing.

He was about to give up, to turn back when he felt something grab his ankle, roughly. He whirled around, not sure what he’d find. What he found was both the first, and last thing he hoped to find.

It was Gunne. He was on his stomach, his left hand grasping the king’s leg, while the other grasped his throat in desperation. His eyes were wide with fear as he looked up at his King as he struggled in vain to breath.

“Gunne!” Without a moment’s hesitation, the king knelt down, sliding his hands underneath his friend’s shoulders and rose, trying to get his friend to stand. It was of no use. Gunne’s legs seemed unable to support him. “Gunne, what happened?!” The King shouted desperately. Gunne’s left hand grabbed his friend’s shoulder without a thought.

“Hel... Me.... Daaaa” Was all that he was able to wheeze out before the small stag’s eyes rolled back into his head. Dainn gripped him tighter, tears formed in the monarch’s eyes as he shouted.

“Gunne! Gunne, no, stay with me Gunne!” He shouted, his voice becoming more and more desperate with each passing second. “Gunne, Guuuuunneeeee!!” The king yelled into the air. When the body of his friend fell out of his arms, it could be no longer denied.

Gunne had died.

Dainn cried loudly into the air. No words were formed from his lips, just mournful howls. He’d failed him. Not just as a ruler, but as a friend. The king could handle the loss of a few of his men. He could handle setbacks. But this... This was personal.

“Well well, looks like Gunne wasn’t the traitor after all” A vicious, husky voice laughed behind him. “Eh, too bad. I was looking forward to torturing him myself. Preferably by beating his slut of a sister.”

“Brother, stop. I don’t think-”

“Oh come on Vestri, don’t tell me you wouldn’t want a piece of that ass? I’m call dibs, by the way.”

Dainn rose to his feet. Tears were visible in the great king’s eyes as he turned to face his subordinate.

“Ivangir.” Dainn said without a hint of emotion in his voice.

“Yeah, what?” Ivangir responded.

At that moment, Dainn’s horn began glow, as did his lower right foot. His expression shifted to one of pure disgust and rage, rage that was poured into the magic on his horns, magic he focused on his foot, which in the blink of an eye, found its mark right in between the offending stag’s legs, the alleyway’s walls reverberating with a sickening crack as the foot made contact with flesh and bone.

Ivangir’s eyes flew open, his prideful smile contorting into a silent scream as his eyes went as wide as they could go. His hands flew to the source of the indescribable agony the stag was feeling. A feeling that shook his whole body, starting from where his King’s foot had met, and thoroughly destroyed his pride, his joy, and his malehood. In that order.

The giant stag slumped to the ground, rolling on his side as his body instinctively curled up in the fetal position. The large stag began to yell and scream with the most sickening cries anyone could hear. He began to roll back and forth on his back, an instinctual reaction to the pain that overtook his entire being.

His wails of torment quickly attracted the attention of a pair of stags that had been out and about. They rushed to the lieutenant. One began to kneel down to help him up-

“Don’t.” A low growl stopped the lower ranked caribou in his track, an open palmed hand thrust out adding to the stag’s order.

“My lord.” The caribou said in response as he rose to his feet again. “What do you want you want us to do?” The other one asked as they both gave a salute.

“Just leave him there.” The monarch said, waving his palm in the air lazily. The two stags simply stared at each other and shrugged.

“Of course, my lord.” They both said in response. Dainn paid them no mind, his attention still on the crying oaf bawling at his feet.

“I’ll be in my office when you’re ready to apologise for your behavior, lieutenant.” He said nonchalantly, carefully stepping over the stag as he made his way to the alley’s exist. Just as he reached the corner however, he stopped.

“And believe me...” He said, not bothering to turn around. “You’d better.” He finished with a growl before turning to his left, disappearing from view of the alleyway for good.

Ivangir looked up at his brother, still whining painfully, still gripping his crushed ballsack. Vestri simply put a hand to his chin, raising a single eyebrow to his brother. He gave a small grunt as he turned to his pet. She was holding her leash up for him. He grabbed the end of it, and gave it a slight tug. Sunny obediently followed her master, leaving the large stag she had dreaded behind.