Divided Skies

The sky was a brilliant dark blue and the stars were shining brightly as the small group of ponies marched towards the edge of the Everfree forest. The air was cool and a slight fog was created as they drew closer to the forest. There was a totally of ten soldiers in the scouting party that was sent into the Everfree forest in order to look for a suitable location to establish a base were the forces of the Solar Empire can launch a campaign to drive out the forces of the rebel force “The New Lunar Republic” from where they have taken refuge in the forest to avoid the wrath of Celestia’s powerful army. Little did they know that the rebels knew about their plan and little did they know of the force of Luna’s shadow guards that were waiting just inside of the forest, patiently looking for the perfect opportunity to ambush the scouting party and send them running back to their commander in failure.

Unlike the soldiers of the Solar Empire, who were clad in gleaming golden armor to protect them, the shadows guards wore cloaks that were a similar color to the night sky and had deep cowls that hide the wearer’s face in shadows. The cloak was designed to help the pony wearing the cloak blend into the shadows and avoid detection from enemies; there was even a rumor among the people of the Solar Empire that the cloaks were enchanted so that the shadows guards could turn completely invisible.

The small party was now moving further into the forest and the soldiers were nervously scanning the surrounding trees for any of the enemy. One of the shadow guards, a gray coated pony, couldn’t help a small grin spread across his shadowed face as the group of sun loving ponies cautiously moved deeper and deeper into the forest reacting to every little sound; a twig snapping, an owl taking flight from a branch, as if they expected to see an army charging at them lead by the queen of the night herself.

Where did shining find these little fillies? He thought to himself. They look like they’re going to run away screaming any minute. He knew of the horrors of the everfree forest, everyone in Equestria knew, but the followers of the New Lunar Republic have learned to avoid and even coup with the hostile environment. They have even come to except the forest as their home after years of living there.

“Anyone else getting weird vibes form this place?” One of the members of the scouting party, a pegasus, asked.

“I’m with you there, this place screams death.” Another pesasus said.

“No kidding. The weather changes on its own and the animals fend for themselves, this place is just … unnatural.” A third one, this time a unicorn, joined in.

As the three ponies were talking one of them, the captain, thought he saw something and was looking in a bush. The dark blue clad pony was a statue as he felt the captain’s warm breath brush against his checks. When the third soldier finished talking the captain turned towards them.

“Would you three fillies shut up and focus, we have a job to do and I want to see it done.” He ordered.

He could not have picked a worse time to turn his head. The grey pony saw that the captain was distracted and used the opportunity to draw his short sword on his side with his mouth and deliver a swift side cut across the captain’s throat. He let out a choking yell and fell to ground, at that moment the trees and bushes came to life as a dozen shadows guards seemed to come out from the surrounding vegetation.

The soldiers of the scouting party were paralyzed in fear, one moment it was relatively quiet the next thing they knew their captain was dead and they were surrounded by what they seemed like ghosts. The shadow guards on the other hand pressed their attack and charged at the scattered soldiers, the guard with the grey coat ran toward the pegasus that had spoken first and easily cut him down before he could figure out what was going on. As he withdrew his sword from the pegasus’s side he turned toward a unicorn that had drawn his own sword with his magic and was moving to confront the grey shadow guard. The cloaked pony took a defensive stance and waited for the unicorn to meet him but when the unicorn was five meters away an arrow flew past the grey pony’s shoulder and buried itself into the soldier’s chest, there was a surprised look on his face as he fell to the ground his sword landing close by.

“You just have to show off don’t you?” The shadow guard said to himself knowing all too well who had shot the arrow. “Next time don’t cut it so close, I almost took that thing in the shoulder.”

He made a mental note to talk to the owner of that arrow when this was over and turned his attention to the small skirmish. Out of the original ten members of the scouting party eight lay on the blood-stained ground, the remaining two realized that there was no hope in winning and that their only hope of survival was to retreat back to their outpost in the nearby town of Ponyville, they dropped their weapons and ran back to where they have entered the accursed forest that has become the tomb of their fallen comrades. As the soldiers started to run a shadow guard with a light brown coat ran next to the grey one, a brown glow came from inside the cowl revealing that the new shadow guard was unicorn, the unicorn used his magic to pick out and arrow from a small, satchel like, quiver on his side and aimed for one of the retreating soldiers.

“Don’t waste your arrows.” The grey pony said “we need someone to send a message and a couple of terrified ponies that have no idea what happened to the rest of their party are bound to exaggerate the facts.” The brown unicorn pulled back her cowl and smiled.

“I don’t think it takes more than one pony to deliver a message but you’re in charge Kingsley.” The voice was soft with a hint of a australian accent showing that the unicorn was a female.

“Trust me by the end of the week those sun lovers will be talking about how ten shadow guards butchered one hundred of Celestia’s finest men.” The grey pony named Kingsley said returning the smile. The brown unicorn stomped her hoof in frustration.

“I just can’t stand just sitting in this forest doing nothing while that tyrant tries to figure out how to smoke us out.” Kingsley just simply nodded his head and looked at the moon.

“One day we will take the fight back to the Solar Empire and when we do, we will burn Canterlot to the ground and Luna will take her rightful place as princess of Equestria.”