Equestria 40 AA (After Ascension)

Late at night in a snow-covered forest, in between a massive tree's bush-covered roots, a large brown-furred creature with two large horns was laying still, this was a yak and he was currently hiding from his friend.

He had found a big tree with roots big enough for him to fit into and that was also covered with bushes, making it a perfect hiding spot for the big mammal.

Sadly for him hiding from his friend wouldn't be as easy as blending in with nature.

As proved when a blue clawed and white-furred appendage reached through the bushes and grabbed one of his hind legs before it started pulling him out.

The yak's reaction was immediate, a jump that made him headbutt the tree he was under followed by a scream that sent all the birds within earshot flying.

As the screaming yak was pulled out of his hiding spot an irritated voice was heard.

"Dammit Russy stop screaming its me."

Hearing that, the now-named Russy turned around and saw a familiar creature glaring at him.

"O-oh hehe sorry Lapis friend, Russy thought you were yeti." The now sheepish yak spoke to his friend.

"Yes, we'll you wouldn't have to worry about yetis if you hadn't run so close to the mountains." Said Lapis in an exasperated tone.

Lapis's whole body was covered in white fur beside his face, tail, and claws with a particularly fluffy patch that covered his chest and the sides of his neck like a mane.

His head had a blue scythe-like horn protruding from its side and pointing upwards along with a gem-like patch on his forehead. The rest of his head had white fur-like hair that covered the side of his face leaving his red eyes uncovered

While normally he would look quite magnificent currently the image was ruined by the fact that his fur was ruffled everywhere and looked like he had rolled in the dirt, not counting the variety of sticks stuck in his mane, something Russy took note of.

"What happened to you." Asked Russy. "Did you wrestle yeti or something, you normally very uptight about appearance." If anything Lapis glared even more at the question.

"Oh really, wow I really didn't notice." Said Lapis in a sarcastic tone.

"It's almost like I actually had to search for a friend that doesn't understand that hide and seek means hide in the general area and NOT go hide in the middle of yeti territory." By the end of it, Lapis was yelling and towered over Russy who shrunk down as he realized his mistake.

Finishing his tirade Lapis just sighed before thinking about how his day had gone.

When he had woken up he expected it to be a normal day, have breakfast, get some chores done, work, then return home to eat and sleep. But after his morning chores were done he found out he was free of work for the day and so had decided to see if he could catch any of his friends free to catch up, in the end, Russy was the only one free.

But still, Lapis didn't mind, he and Russy had known each other for all their lives so he was more than used to the yak's personality and so wasn't surprised when Russy decided they should reignite their friendship the "yak way".

Lapis knew how competitive his friend would get and fully expected him to challenge him to another head-smashing competition -a game they had started when they were kids- seeing as Lapis had a 1.636-123 lead.

And so Lapis had resigned himself to a day of smashing anything from tree trunks to boulders or maybe simply smashing their heads together until one of their skulls cracked, they only did this a couple of times before Russy's parents realized that his concussions weren't coming from "accidents" as he claimed.

Lapis was surprised when Russy offered a simple hide and seek game but maintained a feeling of wary hope, VERY wary hope. He still remembered what happened the last time Russy offered a "simple" game.

(He still can't believe a simple cosmetic mistake in a disguise could cause a yeti to mistake a yak of all things for a female of its species.)

When the game started Russy had decided to hide first and so Lapis spent his whole free day searching for a surprisingly good at hiding yak.

After some hours of searching every nook and cranny of the town and it's surroundings, he realized it was already well past noon. He decided to do one last search around the area surrounding the town.

Lapis was about to give up and just go home to wait for Russy to show up when he finally noticed some tracks heading into the woods.

Looking closely at the Lapis had recognized them as Russy's do to the fact that one of his back hooves was missing a tip.

It took Lapis a couple of minutes if following them to realize in just what direction Russy had gone and when he did he cursed out loud before he started sprinting.

And so Lapis spent the later part of his day searching for a yak in the middle of yet territory while avoiding the above-mentioned creatures by using his attuned sense of the wind around him.

Sadly, being able to sense them doesn't help much when the whole area you are in is completely infested by them, which meant that Lapis had to fight a good number of yetis before he finally found Russy.

Shaking those thoughts out of his head Lapis decided it was time to go back home.

"Come on you lump of fur, let's go back." Lapis spoke before he started walking.

"Ah" Exclaimed Russy before rushing after Lapiz "Wait for me Lapis friend."

Next Day
Lapis Moon POV

Waking up at the call of a rooster I sat up in my bed and blinked away the sleepiness from my eyes, with a yawn I stretched and finally got off the bed and walked towards a basin of water under a small mirror.

After washing my face to wake up completely I grabbed a couple of hairbrushes and spent a solid half an hour making sure my fur and mane were perfectly combed, some years ago a unicorn merchant had passed through on the way to yakyakistan.

The mare took one look at me and my mess off a mane and made a face like someone had insulted her grandmother.

A moment later she dragged me off while speaking something about crimes against beauty and then spent more than an hour combing my fur while giving me hair caring tips and by the end of it in her own words I looked "Fabulous".

When she left two days later I had grown an appreciation for my own appearance and any moment I wasn't hunting I always made sure I looked good.

"What was her name again." I thought while thinking about the purple-haired unicorn. "I think it was something Belle."

I headed towards my pantry cabinets and after looking around I realized I needed to get some shopping done.

Deciding to get some breakfast first I grabbed my satchel and some money before heading out.

Walking through the town of Hooflov I waved towards other early risers as I thought of my life.

My first memories were of breaking through something solid and coming face to face with a bunch of curious yaks, and so the first eight years of my life were spent in the village of yakoslavia.

The small village was located on the other side of the mountain north of Hooflov and was a pretty communal place with less than two hundred inhabitants so I was raised by whoever was free at the time.

The town of Hooflov was placed on the northern shore of the north luna ocean and was the westernmost equestrian settlement, it had a population of a little over a thousand and around a fourth of it was composed of yaks.

When I turned eight Russy's family had decided to move to Hooflov and so I constantly went with whatever yak was going to trade so I could visit my friend.

During one of my visits, an old hunter took an interest in me and taught me some things about hunting, when he saw I had a talent for it he asked me if I wanted to apprentice under him and after some thinking I accepted.

The next day after a farewell party from the yaks I collected what belongings I had and started my new life learning under Snow Tail.

It had taken some time to learn ponish but I did it, at the start some ponies found me a little odd but eventually they grew used to me.

While living with Snow Tail I had discovered that with some concentration I could "transform" myself in a way, making me much more powerful along with some of my fur turning into wings.

Sadly when I turned twelve Snow Tail's age caught up to him and he passed away, but, by that time I was a good enough hunter to take care of myself so I inherited his house and his place as a hunter.

Something else I learned was some magic from the town's librarian, a unicorn called Star Quill.

When we had first met he was curious as to if I had any magic so after a small test he told me I had and offered me some small tips on how to control it, a small remark he had made was that my magic seemed to be very Dark attuned and that any magic-user with enough training would feel it.

While I didn't learn anything incredibly advanced telekinesis was surprisingly useful at times.

And so years went by and a year ago I became fifteen, a legal adult, around the same time the war with griffonstone started.

I stopped my thoughts about the past as I reached my destination, a tavern in the center of town called "The Smoky Barrel".

Going in, the place didn't have many clients this early so I headed towards the earth pony sitting behind the bar.

The stallion looked quite old with his graying mane and as I approached he looked towards me before speaking.

"Hey kid, you here for breakfast." At my nod, he continued. "Well, I have some fresh bread if you want along with some salted fish."

"Sure, oh and give me a mug of root juice while you're at it." I told him.

Less than twenty minutes later I had finished my breakfast and walked to the counter to give him the dirty plates.

He receives them with a nod before speaking. "Hey, remember how you wanted me to tell you if I got any news from the east."

"Yes, did you find out anything." I asked him expectantly.

He frowned for a moment before sighing. "Look, the information is probably old by now, and its not all good news."

Sometime later

Walking out of the tavern I thought about what I had learned.

The war against Griffonstone suddenly got direr.

The good news is hippogriffs were holding the line and the griffons wouldn't be able to get any farther than foaledo.

The hayseed swamp and the forbidden jungle were naturally impenetrable and the only path through the jungle was guarded by the hippogriffs.

This way the griffons couldn't go into the badlands and start an invasion into Equestria from there.

Sadly it also meant that the hippogriffs couldn't give us any assistance besides preventing an invasion from the south.

Now, if things continued like this Equestria would eventually win but sadly things are never that simple.

The first sign of things going wrong came when a saddle Arabian fleet laid siege to las pegasus.

The attackers were repelled but the city didn't go unscathed.

Then, right after, the caribou declared war on Equestria as well and allied with the griffons to launch a conjoined assault on the eastern coast.

Every city from Baltimare to Trottingham along with the towns in between were lost.

With nothing standing between them and Canterlot, the city was put under siege.

The worst part is this information is old so for all I know Canterlot has already fallen and we just don't know it yet.

There is a small glimmer of hope at least, it seems that Princess Luna wasn't in Canterlot at the time of the siege so she was able to get away and is now rallying whoever she can to help break the siege.

It's so tempting to try and find where she is so I could join the fight to but even if I did find her for all I know by the time I get there everything will be over.

As I walked through the streets I noticed there seemed to be a clamor somewhere back at the center of town.

With a moment of concentration, I transformed and took to the skies in the center's way.

When I reached it I could see a crowd had formed and been watching a gray coated pony in purple armor standing in a small stage.

I landed at the front and undid my transformation as I got a good look at the soldier, after a moment I realized it was not a pony but a bat-pony.

The bat-pony looked over the crowd but his eyes paused on me for a moment (probably because I was the only creature, not a pony or yak) before continuing.

He nodded to himself before clearing his throat and addressing the crowd.

"Citizens of Hooflov, I am Moonlight Hunter, of her majesty's Princess Luna's nightguard, and I come bearing news of the war."

Moonlight proceeded to tell everyone pretty much the same thing I had just learned, but at least I had an idea of when it happened.

It seems that the Las Pegasus assault happened around two months ago with the eastern coast assault about two days later.

After the eastern front was lost the enemy took around a week to reach Canterlot and besiege it.

I turned my attention back to Moonlight as he continued speaking.

"But do not fear, there is still hope yet, Princess Luna has sent guards to all western towns to collect volunteers to join her in Vanhoover."

The next day I and sixty more were heading towards Vanhoover.

In the future, I would wonder if I should have stayed home.

Author's Note

Hey, guys FlutterFan13 here.
Soo after a month and a half without time to write I finally got ready to work on my next chapter of Child Of Grogar but 2k words in I had a bad case of writer's block.
I'm posting this story half to take it out of my head and half to get my creative juices flowing again, don't worry COG isn't dead ill work on it.