The Waning Moon War Book 1

Chapter 3 The Ambush

After hours or so of travelling through the thick, dark woods with only her dark vision and a few beams of the full moon to light the way. Then the sound of running water could be heard over the sounds of the night. “Finally theirs the stream so the cave should be near by.” She mutters as she stops at the stream and looks around. Her eyes locking on to some vines and loose roots hanging over a rocky looking hole. As she pushed the debris aside to enter a bone chilling howl comes from near by. Soon as she puts the debris back in place she lights the darkness with a dark blue light emitting from her horn.

Silver thinks as she starts walking deeper into the cave. “Now where's that rock.” She pushes on a few rocks but nothing happens after a bit she finds a rock near the back of the cave that sinks in to the ground and opens a stone door that swings into a new passage way. She sees a blue portal rippling from the center out. While she approaches the blue portal the stone door swings shut on its own. She heads straight through to emerges into a smaller tunnel lit by glowing mushrooms. At the end of the tunnel stands a circular door.

While she approaches the door she mutters softly. “I wonder if any of the others are here yet.” As she opens the door a cold chill eats its way through her as she sees nothing but darkness. She lights a small lantern above the door way to reveling some hooks with five black cloaks hanging on them and a larger round table. She sets her saddlebags on the table and starts pacing around the place with only the moon light shining through all the windows to light the remaining darkness. After a bit she stops at the table in the kitchen and starts rubbing her front right hoof on the floor nervously while biting her lower lip. Waiting for the sound of her teams voices but nothing comes she starts to scolding herself. “You left them there to die you stupid bucking mare.”

She looks up at the five black cloaks and feels an unbearable level of pent up anger in her at herself. Then she yells. “No! No, I’m going back maybe I can still save them.” She quickly grabs a spy glass out of her saddlebags and puts it in a small pocket on her holsters. As she grabs one of the cloaks modified to fit a unicorn horn in the hood. Then levitates a few apples over to stuff in the cloaks pocket to eat later and then quickly extinguishes the lantern and closes the door behind her. Once she passes through the portal she presses another rock to open the stone door up. As she reaches the over hanging vines and roots she flips the cloaks hood up then exits into the moon lit night.

The moon was setting as she started to come upon a camp in the woods with strange greenish structures at the base of the trees with many patrols walking around. She quickly uses her stronger illusion magic to resemble a bush thinking. “Hopefully they didn’t see me move or have a good memory of the area.”

Before she could move there was movement near by as two changelings emerge from a few meters away. Silver freezes up thinking. “Shit, did they see me?”

Then a female voice says. “Damn, I can’t believe how many of those nightmares slipped passed us. Thirty eight got away some went south I heard.”

Then a male voice says. “Yaa, and to think eleven of them ran in to this forest. So did you hear what happened to Quile’s group last night.”

“No, what happened Kaile?” asks the female

“Well from what I’ve heard Val they lost the one on the edge of the camp.” Replies Kaile as he leans against a tree while Val sits on the ground.

“Wait that’s the one that blew up its own tent?” Asks Val

“Yaa.” He leans in closer to Val and lowers his voice. “I also over heard that before they attacked Divana went one on one and got her throat slashed open.” Says Kaile

“So that explains why Iron Shell was going off on them last night.” Says Val

Then a new voice female says “Hey Val, Kaile go back to the hive. Jakis and I will take over.”

“Thanks Cetana.” Says Val as she stands up. “So anything new we should know of?”

“Well other then finding out that this was another bloody training camp and a possible lead on one of the runners form a black pagasi. Other then that nothing much else.” Says Jakis.

“So are they getting a team together to go after the runner?” Val asks excitedly

“No there still trying to brake his mind.” Replies Jakis. “They been at it for almost five hours. So will see in a bit but my guess is that Iron will send Quile’s team out to attain there runner.”

Val sighs in disappointment. “Well that sucks, I was hoping to fight this one myself.”

“So what's new about are teams out in the woods?” Jakis asks in a curious voice.

“Well we still have nine nightmares unaccounted for since one group watched two get nabbed up by a couple of Crocodiles late last night.” Replies Kaile. “So who knows what the other teams may find today.”

“Yaa, well lets go back Kaile and get some food before they leave with the fresh catch.” Says Val while walking pass the new arrivals. “Have fun you two.”

Soon as they leave the area the two new patrol guards set off. Silver waits till she can’t here the movement of them then slowly and quietly sneaks back to a safe distance from the small hive. When far enough away she sits behind a bush while using her magic to blend in to the bushes and sticks the spy glass out of the bushes. While the day pressed on to noon she started to feel her thirst grow to almost an unbearable level. She recalls a nearby stream while getting ready to move in that direction something catches her eyes from the hive. She quickly pulls the spyglass up to see what looks like a black pegasis. She mutters. “Is that...” She tries to get a better look but with the large number of changelings disrupting the view. She continued watching as an even larger one emerges from a hive shelter “Ohh buck, that must be the leader of this group.” Silver mutters as she quickly looks around for a better view of them. She moves slowly to a new spot with less stuff disrupting her view. Soon as she looks through the spy glass she sees only five changelings remaining along with the unknown pony.

After a bit the tall, muscular changeling they were talking to points its hoof towards Silvers direction. Soon as they turn she instantly recognized the pony. “Tairis, what have they done to you?” She says softly. She quickly analyzes Tairis seeing that he was missing his left wing, his eyes are glowing a light green, and carrying his spear. As they got closer to her hiding area she quickly slipped the spy glass back in its holder on the holster straps and remained completely still.

The sound of leaves rustling was stating to get closer as a male voice says “Which way now slave?”

Tairis points past the bush and say in a dazed voice. “This way.”

Silver watched as Tairis walked right pass her and disappears into the brush. Silver starts following them at a distance. While thinking “Where are you taking them Tairis?”

After a bit she realized there were heading in the direction of the hideout. “I can’t let them get there I have to stop them at any cost.” She says softly to herself. “I have to try and get him away from them but if bad comes to worse I’ll..” She pauses for a second. “I’ll have to kill him.”

A little over a half an hour passes before they come to a wide river to cross. Silver watches the Changelings fly over while Tairis starts to cross by hopping on stones sticking out of the water. Then without warning as Tairis reaches the last stones he gets launched in to the air and into the water. As the current of the water starts pulling him away he tries to swim out. Quile yells “Get him...” before he could finish the snout of giant Cragadiles launches him out of the water and into a tree on Silvers side. “Protect him at all cost!” Yells Quile as they take to the air.

Silver sees Tairis lying unconscious by the tree he hit and the Changelings distracting the Cragadiles. She thinks. “I’ve got to move now he’s open.” She bursts from the cover of the trees and bushes around her as fast as her legs could move. While running towards him she started charging a teleporting spell to get away. While another smaller Cragadiles bursts from the water and charges right at Tairis with its mouth open.

Soon as Silver busted from the cover Tethril yells. “We have an unknown contact.”

“It could be her.” Yells Quile. “Stop her.” As he fires a bolt at her.

The bolt zips inches from Silvers legs while the other Changelings charge her and fire there own volleys of attacks. Then the giant Cragadiles whips its tail out of the water taking out Tethril and Salisa. Tethril crashes into the ground as Salisa falls in to the river and starts to be pulled away by the current. While there green bolts graze her cloak and strike around her, as the smaller Cragadiles was closing in on Tairis. As she lunges towards him he comes to and sees the Cragadiles mouth start to wrap around him. Soon as Silver latches on to Tairis she teleported themselves as the Cragadiles mouth snaps shut.

“Buck!” Yells Quile. “Dievn, Tethril, Therm split up and find that bucking mare! When you do fire a red spark in the air! I’ll get Salisa and start hunting for that bucking mare.” As he rushes down stream.

Silver and Tairis appears on top of a hill with trees. They tumble across the ground from when she tackled him. Silver starts giggling as she says “I did it.” She looks over at Tairis who was in the motion of bring his spears staff on her head. She quickly rolls away as it strikes the ground.

Silver quickly stands up and gets ready for combat but before she could pull her daggers out. Tairis’s spear pole struck her on the right side of her head as he said “I have you now Silver so give up.” The next strike hits her head on the left side. “Your lucky...” Silver tries to look up just to get greeted by a powerful strike on top of her head. “they want you...” He wedged his staff in the ground as Silver stumbles backwards. When she was far enough back he let his staff launch upwards, it strikes her in the lower jaw this forces her up on her hind legs. “alive.” She loses her balance and falls on her back.

Silver lays there in a daze from the assault on her head. Before she could begin to move Tairis jumps in the air with the spears tip pointed at her. Silver stops the spear with her magic as Tairis lands over her chest. As she struggles with Tairis and his spear she feels the spear slowly creeping through her magical hold. “I thought you wanted me alive.” She says as she feels her magic failing to stop the spear.

“Yes, but an injured shoulder will slow you down from running away.” He says with a twisted smile.

Silver starts to squirm her hind legs in to kick him off. Now drenched in sweet the spear starts to slip through even quicker. When she wiggles her last leg in and gets in position to push him off when his spear breaks through her magical hold and cuts in to her left shoulder.

She screams in pain, then in a burst of rage she kicks him off while yelling. “Get the buck off me!” Tairis gets thrown off while his spear remains lodged in her shoulder.

Tairis instinctively tries to fly but instead he swings around and smashes through multiple tree branches, then tumbles down the hill. Silver takes a deep breath and pulls the blood soaked spear out. She cuts a long piece of her cloak off and wraps her shoulder up. She grabs the spear with her good leg and starts hobbling her way towards where Tairis fell down the hill. She starts talking softly to herself. “It’s not his fault he isn’t in control of his body right now.”

When she reaches the edge of the hill and sees Tairis lying against a rock about the size of him. “Ho no, he’s not moving.” She thinks in a panic as she descends the hill. “Did I kill him?” As she got closer to him she saw he was still breathing but was in really bad shape. He had a stick piercing his gut, his left rear leg had a stick through it and he was bleeding from multiple spots.

She stops a few feet from Tairis, he looks up at Silver with no green glow in his eyes but his face covered in blood from a gash on his head. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” He says weakly his eyes wonder down to Silvers wounded shoulder. He gives a sigh while closing his eye in shame then says. “I’m sorry Silver.” He hangs his head and starts to tear up.

Silver sits down in front of him to lifts his head with her injured leg while he opened his eyes. She wipes one side of his face full of tears and says. “It’s okay, I had a blast on are first date.” He looks at her with a confused look then smiles a little. “Listen you weren’t yourself so I won’t hold this against you. So what happened to the rest of are team?”

Tairis sighs and says “Well when the attack started we tried to get to the Lieutenants tent but when we got there he was dead in a cocoon with foam around his mouth. So we started for the hide out but along the way Lotus got struck by a stray bolt that killed her on impact. As for the rest I lost site of Melody and Violeta when I got my wing shot off and crashed into a tent with something really solid in it. Next thing I knew I was captured but I didn’t see them with all the other cocoons so hopefully they made it out.

Silver still trying to process the information then smiles and says “Well at least there’s still hope for them and I can save you now.”

She goes to help him up after she slips his spear in between her holster strap, and body on the right side with the tip towards her head. As she tries to help him up he shacks his head and says. “Don’t bother I’m too messed up to save and besides I’ll just slow you down. I can’t even feel my rear legs let alone move them.” As he holds her injured legs hoof.

“No, I’ve already lost everything once before I wont lose you to.” She starts to lift him to move him under a tree. Then there was a flash of red light from above. Just as they look up they sees a large green bolt strikes the ground a few feet away. It explodes throwing them both back a few feet Silver closes her eyes in pain from her shoulder. While Tairis looks back at the dust cloud as it expands.

As the dust begins to clear Therm emerges from the dust and says. “Well look what I’ve found.” She looks over at Silver and smiles. “It looks like he did his job well he even injured you to.” She looks over at Tairis and sighs “Well you seems to really messed up. Which is really a shame I wanted to see you turn on your other comrades and see their faces. While now it looks like your pretty much useless now.” Her horn begins to glow green.

Silver opens her eyes in time to see Therm charging her magic for an attack on Tairis. She quickly puts a barrier around Tairis to protect him. Tairis looks back at Silver and smiles then says. “Tha...” He was cut off as Therms attack shatters Silvers barrier like it was made of glass and explodes large portion of Tairis’s head. As blood, flesh, and skull fragments fly everywhere a small portion land all over Silver. She feels her heart skips a few beats as her mind gets swallowed in sorrow. She begins to cry as she watches as part of Tairis remaining brain dislodges from his head while oozing blood all over the ground.

“There he won’t be a problem now. As for you stay right there like a good mare as I cocoon you and if you behave I’ll make it pleasurable for you.” Therm starts to approach Silver.

Upon hearing Therms voice Silver sorrow gets burned away in a fiery rage as she feels a dark energy rise up from deep within, as her eye go completely white and ports the spear to her right hoof. Therm stops a few feet away as she senses the strange energy coming from Silver. Silver quickly stands up and turns on Therm as she thrusts the spear at her and she yells. “I’m going to bucking butcher you! YOU BUCKING MARE!” Her horn now spilling over with magical energy as wisps of dark blue energy fly from the tip of her horn.

Therm quickly teleports out of the way and fires a energy bolt at her chest. Upon hitting her Silver flies back a few feet and hits the ground as she closes her eyes and loses grip of the spear. Therm chuckles and says. “Your not so tough are you.”

Silver starts laughing as she starts getting back up and ports the spear back to her right hoof. She looks back at Therm and says. “Was that it?” She smiles evilly as she bows her head as a blinding flash of light and a deafening sound erupts all around them.

Quile and the others sees the flash of light as the sound throws them back a bit. Quile yells. “That came from where Therm set her spell off. She may need are help so double time it everypony.”

When the light dims Therm starts looking around in a dazed and stunned. Before she could fall to the ground Silver catches her magic. Then stretchs her legs out and holds her head back so Therm is unable to defend herself while holding her in a vertical position above her. As she pulls her closer she raises the spear to her lower gut then soon as Therm comes to realizing her predicament and looks down at Silver the best she could. Before she could charge a spell to teleport away Silver plunges the spear into her lower gut while saying with a demented smile. “This is for Tairis.” She grunts in pain as it skewered right through her. Her green blood started running down the spears shaft, as it falls on Silvers back and ground.

As the sound of low buzzing starts filling the air. Silver rips the spear out and drops it in her right hoof. Silver horn starts to glow dark blue as it spews magical energy everywhere then says “Well it sounds like your back up will be here soon. So lets end this.” She touches her horn to Therms chest.

Therm says in a weak voice as she tries to move her head to see Silvers eyes. “Are numbers are infinite you’ll never wi...” She stops as an uncomfortable felling fills her chest.

Sliver casts her spell on the changeling cutting her last words off and exploding her chest cavity into the air. While it rains green blood and black shell. Silver feels something hit her back and fall to the ground. She looks down as she drops the remains of her legs and head to see her lower jaw while saying. “Well see.” Her eyes return to normal and looks back at Tairis with a heavy heart. With the buzzing almost upon her she quickly teleports under some trees and uses an illusion spell to blend in with some near by bushes. She thinks to herself “They shouldn’t see me if they keep there distance and I stay in the shade. Well I hope.”

Then four changelings land where they were fighting. They start looking around in disgust. “What in the name of the queen happened here?” Says Quile as he examines Tairis’s corpse. “Okay, collect what you can of Therm and will bring the nightmares corpse to.”

Soon as they finished picking up Therms legs, head along with her lower jaws remains and then grabs Tairis’s body then they take off. As the buzzing gets further away she gets up and flips the hood up then takes one last look at where Tairis laid. She looks away with a few tears running down her muzzle and starts to limp back to the hide out.

By the time she reached the caves entrance the sun was starting to set. When she closes the door behind her she sits against the door and heaves a heavy sigh and mutters. “Then what happened to Melody, and Violeta? Violeta should have been able to get themselves here even if Melody can’t navigate with out a map.” She shacks her head in worry of them as the sound of something clatters off the floor. She looked down and saw a piece of skull on the ground.

She looks down and examines herself to see the damage she has sustained. Other then spear wound and her burned chest she felt fine. Her mane, cloak, and coat. Were soaked in blood, flesh, and bone fragments. She shutters as she thinks about it. She sets the spear on the table and grabs her med kit out of her saddlebags then heads for the bathroom for a shower.

While she took her shower she sets the cloak on the bottom of the tube to get the blood out. She also starts cleaning her spear wound as it started bleeding aging she quickly used her healing magic to stop the bleeding then stitched herself up. Once done in the shower she pulls a white canister and opens it. A powerful sent of aloe escapes from it and she applies it to both of her injuries.

As she applies the ointment she thinks. “I wonder if Zatal still lives here in Everfree?” When she leaves the bathroom she levitates her saddlebags off the table to her room with herself walking right behind them. She sets her saddlebags under a desk in her room and thinks to herself. “If I’m going to save any of the ones that escaped the changelings. I’m going to need the gear from my cohorts rooms.” She works her way onto her bed and starts humming a lullaby to her as she drifts off into a painful and uncomfortable sleep.

A month and a half passed by before her wounds were healed up. In that same time she connected her room with her ex-commanders room, Then put a map of the surrounding area of Everfree around the cave up on a wall left of the door, and gathered information on the enemy's camps in the area. While she stands in front of the map looking at what information she collected. It showed the locations of three dragon dens in far points of the map, the probability of a few Timber Wolf packs roaming around, locations on were she looked for her allies, seven changeling outposts and the walking trails they take from outpost to outpost.

She looks down at a desk under the map that has a few files on it with a couple of other books stacked on top of each other. She levitates a few sheets up and starts to read them out loud to herself. " I've heard that there's a rumor going around by the Changeling troops that a few of their outposts were wiped out by Timber Wolves. If so it'll make my job here easier. On the other hoof..." She lays one sheet down to reveal the other one. "This Iron Shell will be a problem. I've heard from a few Changelings under his command say that he can be ruthless, but nothing of what he can do." She puts his sheet down and looks back at the map then highlights a path between two outposts with her magic. "Since the information I've gathered from watching them this passed bit I know that they will pass.." She highlights a smaller piece of the map next to a cliff face. "right by here in a few hours."

She turns to her bed in the far corner of her original room with an assortment of items. She started to strap on her newly modified holster that now has one large pouch just above both sheaths, she also installed two throwing knife holsters near her front. Then pulls a small black metal box out from under her bed labeled "Melody's Proto Items" then opens it to reveal two types of small balls separated by a small divider. Six little white balls with a label above it that reads. Thunder Blinders can temporality blind and disorientates target effects could vary for each target. The other one held five slightly larger pink balls labeled Sticky Goo can incase a target up to 5 to 20 seconds will erode quickly after and can expend up to a three feet radius.

She slips them in to separate pockets thinking "It's a pity there are so few of each." She then picks up her satchel sitting on the floor slipping it around her neck while walking into the kitchen. She looks up at Tairis's spear above the sinks in the kitchen then says in a murderous tone "I'll save the remainder of are team, along with any other survivors and kill Iron Shell for his transgressions." She levitates a few bottles of water and three apples in to the satchel. As she closes the satchel and opens the door to leave she thinks she hears a sound behind her. She looks back to the unpopulated rooms and she whispers "Don't worry guys I'll avenge you all."

Upon leaving the cave she was greeted by a cloudy sky and a wild wind whipping the tree tops around. She starts making her way through the forest to the ambush site as leaves and needles fall from the trees around her. After hours of walking she reached the ambush site. She quickly choose to hid next to a bush near the base of the forty meter cliff and used her illusion spell to blend in with her surroundings.

After hours of waiting the sound of a snapping twig pierces the whistling wind. Silver pushes her satchel under the bush and starts to scan the woods for any movement. Then a female voice cuts through the sound of the wind "Sir, how many more Nightmares are left to find!?"

As they appear from thick woods a deep voice replies "There should be only be seven left out of the seventeen that got away."

While they continued to get closer Silver counts four enemy's surrounding one in the middle that stands about a foot taller then the rest and one out in the front of them all. She teleports in front of them in a cloud of gray smoke but the one in front doesn't hesitate for a second and unleashed a few bolts of green energy at her. She quickly raises a ward and deflected the bolts away. Then she draws her daggers with her magic and takes a defensive stance with them. "I'm here to destroy you Iron Shell for my dead team mates and the countless others you've killed."

Laughter erupts from the other five changelings as the one at front turns and asks "You want us to deal with this nuisance for you Sir?"

Then a heavy voice of Iron cuts the silence "No, I'll deal with this Nightmare." As he steps forward the others step aside. His eyes glow green from under his hood locked on her as if they were trying to burn through her. In a few strides he stands at the front of the group. He looks Silver over and says in a disappointed tone "I was expecting more from one that killed Divana and Therm but appearances can be deceiving." He removes his hood and looks back at the others "I should really just let my cohorts here beat you into submission..." The changelings behind him give a toothy grin while all there eyes locked on her. She prepares a spell to defend herself while her horn. He looks back at her and continues "but I'm going to beat you myself." He teleported his clock off behind him reveling a large war hammer glowing yellow. He drops the hammer to the ground with a loud thump sinking about a half an inch into the ground.

Silver feels a nervous shutter runs up her spine and her heart starts to beating faster as she thinks "Stay calm don't panic." While she did her best to hide her growing fear.

"You know for my own curiosity and entertainment.." He pushes the hammers handle to the ground "so I'll give you a free shot at me." As he smiles at her.

Silver sheaths her daggers and pulls Violetas two throwing knives while thinking "I have to keep my distance or he'll crush me with his hammer. Not to mention his size on me." She levitates the knives into the air and takes aim at Iron while charging them. Silver recalls what Violeta thought her on throwing knives. She launches the blades at him one strikes him in the neck glancing off his natural armor, as the other hits dead center in his chest and sticks in but doesn't pierces his armor.

Iron pulls the knife from his chest with magic and tosses it aside. Then looks at Silver and says disappointed "Is that really your best?" He picks his hammer up with his magic and says in a commanding tone "Come on you killed two of us on your own. So show me what you can do or I'll crush you with no effort. Now try aging and don't hold back."

The other Changelings behind him starts to giggle as one says "The captain is being too nice he should just put her out of her misery."

Silver starts to worry while thinking "Okay so his shell is to thick to be harmed by physical attacks. Then what about magic?" She smiles then says confidently "Okay, you want strength?" Her horn started glowing dark blue "I'll give you it!" She unleashes a powerful bolt of plasma at Iron.

The bolt strikes him hard in the right shoulder and throws him sparling to the ground while a small amount of green blood flies through the air. He starts laughing as he gets up and grabs his hammer with his magic then says excitedly as he looks back at Silver "Now that's more like it. Now this will be fun." He gets into a fighting stance then says "Now it's my.." He disappears in a cloud of gray smoke. Silver looks around franticly to find him while she charged her magic. "Turn!" He yells as he appears in front of her swing his hammer at her right side.

Silver quickly generates a dark blue shield on her right side. The hammer smashes right through and throws her to the ground towards the cliff base. She feel a slight numbing to her shoulder as Iron hovers in the air with the hammer ready to come down on her. "Buck." She says as she puts a full sphere shield around her. The impact causes a few cracks to appear.

"Your defensive magic is strong..."says Iron as he raises his hammer to her right side aging. "but how long will it.." He brings the hammer down on the right side of the shield while saying "LAST?"

With a loud crack the shield cracks and launches her to the right. Her shield ricocheted off a tree and rolls to a stop near the cliff. She lays there in a daze looking at the sky as the shield burst like a bubble. As she rolls over to her left and gets up as a green bolt strikes the ground of where she was. She takes a side step to her left and turns around as another bolt narrowly misses her lower neck. She starts backing up as she thinks "How am I going to beat something I can't even harm?" She bumps into the cliff and remembers something her grandmother told her. "When you can't hurt your opponent use your environment. Nothing beats the beauty and destructive force of Mother Nature." Silver thinks happily while keeping her worried look "I've got a plan."

Iron smashes a thick tree out of his way as he says tauntingly "I thought you wanted to avenge your team mates." He teleports in front of her as she falls on her flank in surprise. He swings his hammer down at her but before it could hit she raised a half shield around herself. The hammer cracks the shield while he says "Your doing a pretty bad job so you might as well surrender to us." He raises his hammer for another strike at her.

"Ill never give up to your kind!" She yells as he strikes her shield again. The cracks now running all the way down as he whines up for another hit as she thinks "This shield can only take one more hit like that. I have to disarm him." She quickly starts to charge her magic as his hammer comes down just before it could make contact with the shield, she unleashes a powerful burst of magical energy outwards. The burst surprises him as it interrupts his hold on the hammer and flings it back smashing into a tree many feet away. As he looked back where his hammer landed Silver quickly slipped one of the pink balls under her while charging it with magic.

Iron looks back at her with an irritated look and says "I don't need my weapon to deal with you." He rears up while saying "I'll just knock you out with my hooves." Silver holds her position as he starts coming down she gives a sly smile and quickly teleports a small distance away from the cliff. She turns back just in time to see the pink ball explodes under his hooves and it starts incasing his legs in what looks like a big wad of chewing gum. He tries to pull away but fails as the goo cements him to the ground. He yells while he blasts the pink goo with magic "WHAT IS THIS CRAP! I CAN'T TELEPORT OR GET RID OF THIS PINK SHIT!"

Silver quickly takes aim for the cliffs top and unleashes a beam of energy across the top. Since Iron was to busy trying to free himself from the goo to notice the falling rocks. His allies burst into action throwing there clocks aside and blasting at the rocks but to no prevailed as the rocks crush him. One of them yells as they charge Silver "Tifana, Kavis get the Captain out of that rock pile. The rest of us will deal with the Nightmare."

Silver watches green blood trickling out from under the rocks and giggles while she turns and starts running for her satchels hiding place. She only gets half ways there when an explosion of gray smoke blocks her path and a female voice says "Where do you think your going?" A changeling holding a yellow glowing spear emerges from the smoke; as one appears behind her with a yellow glowing sword and another appears on her left side with a yellow glowing mace. "You still need to get through us."

Silver pulls her daggers from there sheaths and gets ready for combat. She narrows her eyes while quickly examining her new opponents while scolding herself by thinking "You stupid bucking mare you should've at least have killed one of these plot holes before taking Iron down."

As the one with the spear trusts forward Silver quickly dodges to her right while pulling another pink ball out. Charging it while dodging the spear she says "I don't have time to mess around with all of you." As the others try to hit her but miss due to her change of location. Once on the other side she launches the ball at the spear wielders face. The pink ball explodes upon impact and quickly engulfs her head and part of her body as she drops her spear and starts to flail around in a panic.

Silver quickly turns around while staying away from the flailing changeling that is suffocating. The one with the sword takes a stab at her Silver moves one of her daggers deflect the attack away. As the sword gets deflected it grazes her front left leg sending a numbing sensation through part of her leg. Silver quickly plunges her other dagger into the enemies left shoulder with the sound of cracking shell filling the air as she rushed forward and the enemy steps to the right. Before her opponent could ready another attack she stuck her other dagger into the attackers neck. As the Changeling begins to choke on and cough up there own blood, splattering it over Silvers face and chest. Then Silver feels a stinging pain paralyzing her right side as she falls to the ground next to the one she just killed.

Silver tries to look to her right with little success but Silver sees from the corner of her eye the mace wielder stands near her head. then says as he rises his glowing mace over his head "It's over. Good nig..."

Then out of nowhere a green beam blasts the mace wielding changeling to the right into a tree knocking him out while he yells "She's mine Black Storm! The rest of you stay the hay out of my way."

Silver starts getting more movement back as Iron worked his way over to his hammer. By the time he reached his hammer Silver was re acquiring her daggers thinking "What the buck. I drop part of a cliff on him; how did he survive that and what is his shell made of?" When she gets up she sees Iron holding his weapon with his magic but the hammer isn't glowing now and his shell was giving off a green hue. Along with a murderous look in his rage fueled eyes.

As Kavis taps Iron's front leg then says in a vary nervous tone "The Queen wants them alive. Re.. remember sir?"

He replies in an angry voice "I know but she never said in what condition!" He gives a wicked smile "Besides the other three survived and all they suffered was a few broken bones."

"Bu.. but that was when you were in a good mood sir." stutters Kavis

"Ya, well this one is no recruit she's fully trained and has killed countless others. So I'll show her no mercy to her like before." He says while charging an attack with his horn.

While they were talking Silver raised her daggers into a defensive position. Feeling exhausted and reaching the limits of her magic she readies another shield spell while muttering "If I don't end this fast I'm good as dead or captured."

Silver starts to back up to try and use the trees in a defensive method. As she passes the one she suffocated, Iron fires a bolt at her. She quickly raises a barrier to defend her front but the bolt flies past her and hits a tree near her flank. The explosion of wood shrapnel strikes her as most of the wood glances off her fur but a few shards sink into her left rear leg and flank.

She takes a quick look at her wounds but when she looks back at Iron all there was, was a few puffs of gray smoke. He then appears in front of her on her left side as his hammer closes in on her right shoulder from the front. Silver tries to raise a shield to stop it but the hammer smashes right through it striking her right shoulder from the front. The impact sends her flying backwards to the ground. She lands on her left side as pain paralyzes the right foreleg. She looks back as Iron stands over her.

He raises his hammer and says in a cold tone "Now I'll finish you off and if you survive I'll drag your unconscious body back to camp."

As he talks Silver starts charging three Thunder Blinders and by the time he finishes. Silver ports them behind her and launches them at Irons face. Right after launching the Blinders she raises a shield, rolls to her right side feeling a blinding pain shoot through her right shoulder then closes her eyes, and slams her right ear to the ground while covering her left ear with her good leg. After a second she looks up to see Iron stumbling around in a daze as his hammer falls towards her and smashing through the shield hitting the ground behind her head. Silver struggles to her feet relying heavily on her left side. When she looks at Iron who was starting to get rid of the effects he was under. Giving him no time she sinks both daggers into his weakened shell seeping green blood. One cuts into his chest as she sinks the other one into his throat. She limps up to Iron as she holds his body in place from falling while saying "Now stay dead." She touches her horn to his throat then blasts a bolt through his neck spraying viscera all over her. Then pulls the blades out and lets his body crumple to the ground.

"Diata is still breathing she's lucky that pink stuff didn't kill her. How's Storm doing?" Says Tifana as Iron was stabbed.

Kavis replies "Storm is fine he's just out cold."

They both see Iron hit the ground and both look at Silver covered in green blood. Tifana says in a irritated tone "Oh great she took Iron down now. Our great and powerful Captain got killed by his own pride."

Kavis teleports behind Silver but before she could react he pulls out a four foot glowing pole and strikes her in the back of the head sending her stumbling forward over the corpse of Iron then collapses in front of Tifana. While Silvers body writhes in pain, she sees Tifana pulls out a small ax and swing at her. Silver quickly teleports away leaving her daggers behind as she stands a few feet from the cliff wall. Kavis and Tifana quickly teleports in front of her to corner her. Kavis says "With her in this weakened state this should be ea.." but before he could finish Silver launched two pink balls at them. They quickly step towards each other as they watched and evaded the pink sticky goo. Silver taking advantage of the opportunity she quickly throws two white balls at them. Before either of them could look back the white balls detonated near their heads. Sending both of them into the pink masses. She quickly teleported to her blades and re sheath them.

She quickly hobbles away thinking "I'll have to come back for my satchel later." While pushing her way through a few bushes she hears Kavis yells "Where the hay did she go?" Silver limps over to another nearby bush to hide behind as the sound of snapping twigs approaches.

While she lies in wait her heart pounds heavily as a long and uncomfortable silence hangs in the air. Then Tifanas voice cuts through the silence "Kavis forget her we need to get these two to the nearby outpost soon as possible."

The silence grows thick then Kavis response "Buck, fine lets go before something else happens."

After a bit only the sounds of the forest remains. Silver struggles her way up and heads for the hideout. After hours she limps through the door and leans against the hanging clocks. She removes her holsters and hangs them off a chair then limps off to the bathroom. She pulls her medical bag out to the kitchen table and retrieves a leather strap from the bag. While limping to her rooms door frame she gently bites down on the leather strap. She gently pulls on her leg with magic as small amounts of pain courses through her. Then bites down hard on the leather while thinking "One, Two, Three!" She slams her right leg back into place as she slides down the door frame to the floor on her right side from the pain. After a bit she fights the strap out of her teeth and spits it to the floor.

She gets up from the floor muttering "Good thing I didn't fall on my left side." Still feeling the pain but more bearable than before. She heads back to the table to deal with her other injuries. While cleaning them she starts scolding herself "You stupid bucking mare. What good did this do you? Nothing! That's what it got you." She says as she finishes "Other then almost getting yourself almost captured and severely injured." She starts eating an apple and thinks "I have to rethink how I operate and be a lot less reckless." She sets the apple core on the table and heads for her room to go to bed. She lays on her bed and starts humming the lullaby her grandmother taught her as she drifted off to a painful sleep.