The Devil You Know

Twilight landed face first onto the soft earth as she rematerialised with a pop. Her stomach was lurching, and the whole world was spinning.

“Urggh,” she groaned, trying to steady herself as she stared into the thick grass at her hooves.

She looked over to see that most of the others were already on their hooves. Most were groaning or looking queasy, so she at least didn’t feel too embarrassed about feeling sick.

Pinkamena was sprawled on her back chuckling to herself. “Oooo tingly.”

I’m glad somepony is enjoying themselves. Twilight grimaced.

They had landed in a rough clearing in the thick woods that had been carved out by the teleportation spell’s arrival.

Twilight had never seen such thick forest before, being only familiar with the parks of Canterlot. There were so many species of plant she didn’t recognise!

They were bathed in an odd red glow, and Twilight gasped as she looked up to see the bloody moon hanging there in the sky. She had read about it in astronomical texts numerous times, but seeing it for real was amazing. The rational part of her mind had already given her a dozen scientific explanations for what was happening. Yet, the instinct-driven primitive pony inside could only feel a terrible sense of dread gazing up at it.

“Alright, everypony,” Shining called out. “Shake it off. We have to get moving. Fleeting Wind, Whirlwind, scout out the path ahead of us.”

“Yes, sir!” Came the reply.

“Nice landing, Rainbow Crash,” Ocean Breeze sniggered, looking to the poor pegasus that had landed face first in a muddy bog. “Living up to your name, I see. You should get back in the gutter where you belong.”

Rainbow Dash simply stared into the mud, her teeth clenched and her whole body quivering.

Twilight was about to come to her aid when Shining Armour brushed past her, trotting purposefully over to Rainbow.

“Ocean Breeze, I hope you remember our chat,” he said sternly. “You’re on point.”

“Best place to be, sir!” Ocean Breeze grinned, smirking at the fallen pegasus as she went.

Shining trotted up to Rainbow and offered her a hoof. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine, Sh- sir!” Rainbow stuttered, adjusting her helmet.

“Glad to hear. Stay close to Twilight from here on. I want to keep my eye on both of you,” he said, looking over to Twilight as he did so.

Rainbow snorted, “I’m not like some foal that needs to be coddled.”

“Rainbow, that’s not—”

“Forget it,” she huffed, picking her spear out of the mud. “I know how things stand now.”

She trotted towards Twilight with an angry frown on her face. “Move it, egghead. We’re holding everypony up.”

Twilight was about to say something when a loud explosion echoed through the forest, making them both dive for cover. Birds launched themselves into the air from their roosts as a column of smoke rose up over the trees. Ghastly yells and screams rang through the forest.

“What in Celestia’s name was that?” Twilight exclaimed, looking to Rainbow, who looked just as fearful as she did.

“That,” Shining said, looking towards the fire, “was Sunset Shimmer and her knights. Which means we need to move.”

They scrambled to their hooves, Rainbow Dash blushing brightly as Shining looked on. She shoved passed Twilight and trotted away to join the others.

“She doesn’t seem to like me much,” Twilight commented, brushing herself off.

“Try not to take it to heart. She just has a lot of pride in her, that’s all,” he said as they trotted forward.

“She really looks up to you.”

“I just gave her the encouragement she needed,” he said with a shrug. “Sometimes, all a pony needs is a helping hoof.”

Twilight smiled warmly at him, “You’re a good pony, Shining.”

They pushed on into the thick forest in a rough column. The earth pony soldiers formed a makeshift cordon around Twilight while a unicorn stood beside them, providing light from his horn. The pegasi patrolled the perimeter, keeping out of the light as much as possible to preserve their night vision. Rainbow trotted beside Twilight in silence while Pinkamena was to the rear, humming to herself.

The sounds of fighting had drifted off, though the occasional explosion could be heard in the distance. Sunset Shimmer and her knights were evidently putting up quite a fight.

The amulets they had been given were working hard to keep the forest at bay. Twilight had never seen such aggressive looking flora, some big enough to swallow a pony whole. What’s more, the forest was reacting more to their presence the closer they got to their goal.

So far, they hadn’t encountered any Umbra. Shining assured her that the fighting in Ponyville would be drawing every one of the beasts within twenty miles straight to it.

There was a flutter of wings, and their head scout, Fleeting Wind, returned once more. The dark-green mare would continue to return like clockwork after making sweeps of the path up ahead. Her reports had a comforting confidence that Twilight found reassuring, given their surroundings.

"Captain, I can see ruins on the other side of a narrow ravine. It looks like this is the place,” she said, tilting her ears as something caught her attention.

She relaxed slightly as a bird fluttered away. “We should be a—”

Her words were cut off as a blur of motion flicked across her, Then… her head just wasn't there anymore.

Everypony just stood in silence as her body hung there, blood spurting from its neck as her severed head tumbled to the ground. Her body finally lost its battle against the inevitable and fell twitching to the ground, her blood rapidly pooling around her.

“Holy shit!” Ocean Breeze cried as another scream pierced the night. They all spun to see the pegasus on their right was simply gone, his panicked, desperate howls of terror echoing through the forest before ending in a strangled, wet gurgling cry.

‘Form up!” Shining barked, “Protect Twilight at all costs!”

The remaining pegasi took to the air, but one hesitated for a split second. A black form leapt from the night onto the mare's back, sending her tumbling to the ground.

From the inky blackness, a maw of yellow teeth emerged and sank deeply into the mare’s flight muscles. She screamed, writhing, desperately reaching out for her comrades’ aid. With a gut-wrenching yank, it tore the mare's wing off before biting and ripping into her back. Her dying screams were lost in the creature’s frenzied howls as it tore her body apart.

Everypony seemed transfixed as the nightmarish shape rose from the still-twitching mare, gore dripping from its muzzle. Its flesh was almost jet black, seemingly made of a boiling shadow. Vaguely pony-shaped, its legs were long and slender, ending in vicious claws. It gave them a baleful glare through its burning white eyes, flexing its massive jaws.

Even the forest seemed to recoil from this nightmare made flesh. The grass around it shrivelled and died at the merest waft of the miasma boiling off it.

Rainbow Dash was trembling next to Twilight, her mouth hanging open in a mixture of shock and unbridled terror. The spear gripped in her forelegs was visibly shaking.

Twilight was locked in place, her mind screaming at her to run but her body refusing to cooperate. Her scream had died on her lips as she stared into those burning eyes that promised her only a painful death. She barely noticed the warm trickle running down her hind legs.

An Umbra! A real Umbra! Oh sweet Celestia, I have to run! Why can't I move?

The Umbra let out a chittering roar and launched itself at the nearest pony.

Ocean Breeze and Brummbar charged forward to meet it, she drawing a long sword and he clutching his warhammer.

He made a wide sweep, hoping to swat the beast as it came forward. The Umbra simply leapt over his swing, the warhammer exploding a nearby tree into splinters with the force of the impact.

Before the Umbra could touch down, Ocean Breeze drove her sword deep into the beast's chest, knocking it down onto soft earth. She twisted her blade within the Umbra, making it shriek in pain, its legs gouging up wads of dirt as it flailed. She pulled her blade upwards and tore it from the Umbra's torso, sending its black blood splattering against the undergrowth.

“Not so easy, eh, Asshole?!” Ocean Breeze yelled at the crumpled form.

Twilight felt breath leave her body for the first time in what seemed like a long time. They had killed it!

Brummbar moved to bring his hammer down on the beast, but before he could, a clawed swipe raked against his armour, knocking him back in a shower of sparks.

The thing was still alive!

It was impossible. Ocean Breeze’s blow would have killed any pony, yet this thing was shaking it off like it was nothing.

Brummbar jumped back as it staggered to its feet once more.

“Won’t stay down, eh? I’ve got something for ya!” Ocean Breeze grinned, moving forward again.

“Ocean Breeze, no!” Brummbar yelled, trying to stop the mare’s advance.

She aimed her longsword down for another blow, but this time, the Umbra was ready. Slivers of needle-like black shards shot from its back, slicing into the charging earth pony. Most ricocheted off her armour, but one slammed into the eye slit of her helmet. She cried out, reaching instinctively for her eye and stumbled, carried into the waiting Umbra by her momentum. With barely an effort, it sliced off her extended foreleg nearly at the shoulder with an upward swipe of its claws.

She fell to the ground, screaming, blood streaming from her severed leg as she writhed on the ground.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuuuck!” the mare screamed.

“Brummbar, get down!” Meadow Grass shouted, pulling five stakes from her quiver and telekinetically launching them towards the Umbra. The other unicorns followed suit, filling the air with projectiles and spellfire alike.

Soon, they no longer needed their light spells to see, for the forest was alight with fires lit from their spell beams.

The Umbra leapt away from the fallen mare, stakes and spells slamming and exploding into the nearby trees. Several struck the beast mid jump, driving into its flesh but still not slowing it down.

Nothing could survive those hits, yet it just kept going. It bobbed and weaved through the fire as it constantly attempted to return to its wounded prize.

“Hastam!” Shining’s voice roared, and a searing white bolt slammed into the beast, spearing it through the stomach and nearly driving it through a tree. It hung there, thrashing and grasping at them all before the light faded from its eyes and it fell limp.

“Nice shot, sir!” Meadow Grass whooped.

Twilight stared in horror as the boiling black flesh of its body dissolved away, leaving a terrifying skeleton that crumpled to dust as she watched.

Quickly, they pulled Ocean Breeze into their circle, a slick trail of blood smearing across the grass as they did so. Shining quickly erected a shield around them as they all took stock of their situation.

“Oh Celestia! It hurts so much,” the mare wailed, grasping at her severed stump, the needle still jammed in her eye socket.

“That’s what you get for not following orders,” Brummbar muttered.

“Fuck you!” she growled, then cried out, her whole body writhing in fresh agony as one of their mages cauterized the wound.

“We can’t stay here,” Meadow Grass stated, looking beyond the safety of the shield to see more pairs of eyes in the night. The bodies of Fleeting Wind and the other mare had been dragged off, and the sound of tearing flesh soon found its way to their ears.

“Oh sweet Celestia,” Twilight whimpered, her whole body shaking.

“Don’t worry, Miss,” Brummbar assured, his deep voice strangely comforting. “The captain’ll get us out of this.”

“Those bodies won’t sate them for long,” Shining said. “If Fleeting was right, then there should be a ravine just ahead.”

“What if we can’t get across?” someone asked.

“Then we levitate each other over. Between all of us, we should have enough power to do it.”

“What about Ocean Breeze?” Meadow asked grimly, eyeing their wounded comrade. “She’s in no condition to travel.”

Shining’s expression hardened. “We leave her behind.”

“What?” Twilight gasped, looking into his eyes, unable to believe what she was hearing.

“She’ll slow us down, and her blood will draw them straight to us.”

“Somepony can carry her…”

“No, Twilight, she’s just dead weight to us now.”

Ocean Breeze let out a snort. “Good one, sir.” Then realization hit her. “Wait you’re serious. C-come on, I can still fight.” She tried to stand and fell back to the ground. “No, no, you can’t do this. Come on everypony, don’t let him do this.”

A stony silence greeted her from everypony in the group.

“Whirlwind, I need you to carry a message to Commander Shimmer,” Shining said, ignoring the mare’s pleas. “Tell her we’ve suffered heavy casualties but are pushing on.”

The pegasus stallion saluted. “Yes, sir.”

Shining trotted to Ocean Breeze’s side. “I’m sorry, Corporal; your sacrifice will be remembered.”

“Fuck you! Fuck all of you!” Ocean Breeze growled, spitting in his face. “May the Nightmare drag you all to the shadow, you and your whore—”

Before she could say more, Pinkamena trotted forward and punched the mare in the face, knocking her out cold.

“What?” Pinkamena asked, shrugging at everypony staring at her. “Now she won’t feel it when the ghosties get her.”

“It’s for the best,” Meadow said with a sigh.

“Are you all serious?” Twilight snapped, stomping her hoof. “She needs our help! We can’t just—”

“We don’t have time to discuss this!” Shining said, his voice straining to keep level. “This is the real world, Twilight. Sometimes, you have to make hard choices.”

“But…” She looked up at her brother, feeling a terrible void forming in her heart. Somepony she thought she knew better than anypony in the world was just a mask hiding something far worse.

“This is happening, Twilight. Getting you to the tomb is all that matters now.”

He looked away, his tail flicking, “All we can do now is make these ponies’ sacrifices mean something.”

He looked towards Rainbow Dash, who had barely moved since the fight started, “Private, are you still with us?”

Rainbow Dash just blinked. “U-uh, y-yes sir!”

He turned away. “Good. We won’t have much time when the shield drops, so everypony get ready.”

They all nodded grimly and trotted away from their fallen comrade like she was already dead. Twilight felt a horrible shame as she went to join them; she felt like she was leaving a piece of herself behind with the mare.

“Everypony ready?” Shining asked, getting grunts and nods in reply. “Don’t stop for anything.” His horn glowed, and the shield began to dissipate. “Go!”

They all ran and never looked back.