Author's Note

I am sorry that I hit publish too early and didn’t catch myself, I hope it didn’t ruin this chapter too much.

Let me know what you think of the fight scenes by the way!

A Mistake

“Come on! Move your feet, like I showed you!”

“Get your shield up, you want your head cleaved in two?!”

“Damnit you dumb ass I said move! Stand in one place and you die!”

The sergeant at arms sighed in disappointment as the stallion he’d been shouting at was knocked to the ground. The terrifying gryphoness who had slammed him so easily was already looking at the crowd with vicious yellow eyes, scanning the others for her next victim.

“Okay.” The commander turned from his position in front of the sparing arena to face his recruits, “Now that our example is done getting his shit kicked in, it’s time for the rest of you to take a crack at it.”

Half of Hammer’s trainees looked at him with fear and the other with excitement. Today was the first day they practiced combat, the first bout of sparing to be exact.

Not long ago the troops had been assigned their combat units, about a third of the company was to be made into archers with the rest taking the role of the core infantry. This was determined by the need of the overall army and not by any other particular reason.

The two units types were to be split up during combat training and formation drilling so that each respective trooper was given the necessary experience.

The archer’s kits were changed from what the recruits had been wearing before, they now donned a lighter leather armor set with metal shin and wrist guards. Instead of a sword and shield these soldiers were to carry a composite short bow and wield a long dagger at their side.

They could definitely move faster and pick off their opponents but god help them if they entered any sort of melee.

The infantry wasn’t changed at all, as with other forms of Equestrian infantry, it was standardized. All of them filled the job of a swordsmen, equipped with a xiphos style sword and a round shield like the kind a Classical Greek hoplite might use. They were to act as heavy infantry.

Altogether a burly but fairly decent kit that offered adequate protection.

Over the past couple hours, after receiving their designations and being split, the troops had the first round of drilling in different formations. It was a dismal affair full of mistakes in the line, they restarted more than twenty times and at least an hour of straight angered screaming came from Hammer’s throat.

It didn’t help that the field marched on was already uneven and muddy before the hundred or so beings trampled across it.

They practiced a few types of formations, flanking maneuvers, charging in unison, the basics in terms of battle movement. The soldiers were expected to be able to pull off all of this on even and uneven ground by the end of their training.

By the time they were done though there was no improvement to speak of, the sergeant was pissed off to no end but decided it would be best to move on. They still had two months to figure it out anyway, hopefully the group would be able to get down simply marching in formation by then.

From there they gathered near the recruit’s arena, were given a demonstration by the commander, then watched the examples.

Sergeant Hammer, after the examples fought, proceeded to gather up his “responsibilities” and divided them in two. He had them form up into two lines and face one another, whoever was facing each other straight ahead were going to be sparing partners.

He explained that the pairs would fight for ten minutes a piece, then the lines would be reshuffled and the same process would take place again. Presumably to gain experience as well as learn that fighting opponents of different sizes, heights and skill levels in combat varied wildly.

Their officer announced that he was going to be perusing them as they fought, offering pointers and tips in as harsh a manner as he could the whole time.

Specifically he said, ”I’m going to be separating the dickless twats from the packing cunts and choosing who needs more in depth lessons.”

The would be warriors were to be given wooden swords in place of their real ones and sent out into the arena. They would scramble to find a spot and mark it with a square drawn in the dirt before the sergeant’s whistle went off signaling them to begin.

As he finished Hammer gave a shout and a wave of his hand sending them all flying.

Samuel let out a breath as he grabbed hold of the training sword and lifted it up off the long rack it rested on, turning about he faced his partner. A large red stallion with a blonde mane, his name was Mac or something to that affect.

Together they moved with the rest of the group and funneled through the wide wooden gate into the arena, from there the pairs spread out.

Sam and his comrade made their way to the far left corner away from the others. They drew out an eight foot by eight foot square then took their stances on opposite sides of each other.

The stallion wore a slight smile for those last few tense moments before the shrill sound of the whistle, the scar that went from his forehead to his lips distorting the expression greater than one might imagine. The young man was not looking forward to this and his wide eyes said so, after all ponies in the foreign legion that weren’t officers were mostly criminals.

The majority of them knew how to fight already.

The young man was slowly realizing that he was in for a real ass kicking, with a shaking voice he forced out, “We’re gonna go easy on each other, right?”

The stallion shook his head, “I appreciate ya buddy, that help with the obstacle course was nice, but this ain’t the same.”

Samuel gulped, “Yeah, I figured.” His grip on the shield tightened up reflexively.

That’s when the whistle sounded.

Immediately Mac came forward, the sword in his hand flying.

A clash sounded as the edge of Samuel’s shield deflected the blade, the wooden tip going right by his face as it went by. Mac immediately moved to the right, avoiding any chance his foe had at counterattacking, Samuel stepped back as he did so to reposition himself, unwittingly giving Mac room to attack again.

The stallion stepped back for a moment bringing his shield back up and again shot at Sam, only this time throwing his shield up. Samuel drew his shield up too and they smashed together with a crashing clang.

He realized too late that he’d fallen for the bait.

In his panic to stop the shield from hitting him he left his lower torso open to attack, the stallion’s other hand shot forward and he thrust his sword right under the shield into Samuel’s waist at the weakest point. The boy grunted as it collided with his armor, he was forced to take a step back and he dropped his shield low as his breath had been driven out of him.

Mac didn’t show mercy, immediately angling his shield and slamming it into Samuel’s chest.

Sam slumped backwards and collapsed on the ground, the aching in his torso forcing him to gasp for air. His victorious enemy stood over him, a smug smile on his face.

“Well I think we both expected that didn’t we.”

He bent over and held out his hand, “Come on, get back up so I can do it again.”

Samuel grabbed his hand and lifted himself back up, only to spend the rest of the day getting knocked on his ass by different members of the group.

Supposedly after enough of this you were going to get used to taking hits to the armor, at least that’s what the sergeant had told them. But in the end he never warned them how much it would hurt when they got hit in the weaker points.

When they finally stopped sparing Samuel’s neck, stomach and shoulders were bruised and aching. It was perhaps the hardest lesson he’d learnt so far, but it wasn’t for nought.

As he fought with the others he watched how his seasoned opponents attacked.

The different styles some used, what worked and didn’t, how to use his shield in tandem with the sword. He didn’t make much progress in terms of the actual combat, but the knowledge would be thought over and tried time and time again soon enough.

The news that this sparing would be done every other day till they were made into soldiers did nothing for his morale however, he may have had ideas on fighting but he certainly didn’t want to try them out so soon. The days were just going to be even longer now he guessed, especially when they were to begin sparring in formations like a real battle.

~

“I’m certain you’re all wondering, why don’t we use the Gryphon and Pegasi’s ability to fly in our army? And why are there no unicorns here?”

“After all why not make use of the abilities of flight or the destructive strength of magic?”

The professor crossed her arms, “I’m going to answer both of these questions today and the reasons may or may not surprise you depending on if you’re a pony or not.”

Turning to the chalkboard she began to write out a couple of different lines, the class was silent for a few moments, only a few small quiet side conversations could be picked out. Eventually she looked back to her students and resumed her lecture.

“Let’s start with our flight bound friends, but before I give you the answers, would any of you like to guess?”

Of the few hands that went up the guesses were good, but none correct.

She smiled as she sat down at her desk, “The main reason is, we do. As scouting units, occasional skirmishing troops when the opportunity presents itself and sometimes even as aerial infantry. However these instances are rare.”

“Through centuries of combat we have found that Pegasi and Gryphons tire very quickly when in flight with full kits, thus making the aerial infantry tactic an unreliable one. We have also found that mastery of the bow in the air is an extraordinarily difficult thing to do. Not to say that it hasn’t been done, but the time and effort that would go into it, never mind the money, is simply not worth it.”

“As for scouting parties of Aerial troops, more often than not it depends on the enemy we are facing. If we are facing ground bound enemies then we will most assuredly use them to scout an area, if we are marching against other flying foes, then that’s tricky. At that point it’s the commander’s discretion, if they want to risk air combat and possibly lose troops or give away a position it’s up to them.”

“Of course all of these rules aren’t set in stone, there’s plenty of examples showing these tactics being successful. However it is important to remember that they are the standard where as most of the successful occurrences we have are the rare exceptions.”

She leaned back, “That’s all there really is to it, if there’s any questions I can answer just ask.”

None of them raised a hand or spoke up, taking the silence as a sign she moved on.

“Okay then, let’s talk about unicorns now.”

She cleared her throat, “Unicorns in the past were great warriors, some even decided the outcome of entire battles. With manipulation of fire and water, earth shattering spells that placed the elements within their command and unbreakable wills these beings once formed the backbone of the military.”

“As most ponies know you’re lucky if you even see one on the streets nowadays. For the past three centuries, due to reasons still unknown despite hundreds of research groups and studies, their population has been in decline. Which for a race that’s never been particularly populous anyway, is a disaster.”

“There’s been measures taken to combat this issue, ranging from incentives for unicorns to marry other unicorns, to restrictions on them joining any part of the military without special permissions. And that’s just one problem they face.”

“Another is the fact that in recent days, the power of magic users and their ability to cast spells has been, stifled. Simple spells like levitation or magical defenses are now overly taxing on the body, never mind trying to teleport without being a master of magic and even then they suffer for days afterwards.”

“According to experts, it has to do with their connection to the flow of energy that allows magic, some think it’s possibly connected to the population problem as well. I don’t understand it very well as I never studied the science of magic, but the point is even if we could get unicorns in, unless they were a master of magic or the princesses themselves, they wouldn’t be able to do anything near what the unicorns of our history could do.”

The blue furred mare turned from the board and set down her piece of chalk, turning around she faced the class. Tapping the points she had finished scrawling out she smiled, “Now remember all this, it’ll be on next week’s test. It will also serve as a preface for our next subject today: modern combat tactics and their proper uses...”

~

“You know Sam I don’t get why you’d rather read those books when you could be getting some sleep.”

Samuel sighed and lowered the tome to his chest, looking over he glared at Gwindor, “Because I’d just rather? You know you’d be getting a lot more sleep if you stopped interrupting me.”

The gryphon shrugged, “I guess I could be, I just don’t get it is all and besides you said I could ask you whatever.”

“Fine, if you really want to know, I legitimately do like it. History that is.”

The bird cocked his head, “I know that, what I’m asking is why do you like it, after all you spend a lot of time on it.”

It was Sam’s turn to shrug, “I guess I like understanding how we got here, seeing what people did in the past, you know, some of the people back then are a lot more badass than they’re given credit for.”

“I guess that make sense, I’ve never had too much of an interest in it myself.”

The human snorted but went on nonetheless, “It also gives me a chance to study war and politics. That’s always fun to read about even if l’ll only ever play a pawn in both of those games.”

Gwindor hummed, “Is there anything else you read them for? Like any neat things you’d like to share with me?”

Samuel set the book on the blanket, sitting up in his bunk he looked at his friend with a raised eyebrow, “Are you just bored dude?”

“Why yes as a matter of fact I am.” He said bringing his hands up to rest under his head.

A smile worked its way onto Sam’s face, “How about this, just ask me what your curious about and we’ll see where that leads eh?”

“Yeah sure, that sounds good.”

Samuel settled back down and resumed where he’d left off, a few minutes past as Gwindor played around with the number of questions he had.

“I got one!”

He turned to his friend, “You know how whenever we take those tests we have to date it, I want to know why we follow it up with SLR.”

“Well that’s easy, it means Since Luna’s Return. The Equestrians use eras as a means to measure history, there’s four of them so far and that’s the the abbreviation for our current one.”

“Huh.” Gwindor narrowed his eyes,“Well why is it important? And what are the other ones?”

“It’s important for record keeping, that’s all. Now as to the other question, the first era is when history started being recorded, the date cited for its beginning looks like it’s hotly debated and changes source to source. Second one is when the ponies unified under the Equestrian banner, the third is after the Equestrian civil war ended and now the current one is since Luna returned after her exile.”

The raptor nodded, “All right, I’m following you.”

“Well I hope you are, otherwise I’m talking to dead air here. Hey you wanna know something else that’s sorta interesting? There used to be four alicorn princesses.”

“Really? I know there’s a third in the Crystal kingdom but, a fourth? Where the hell did that one go?”

Sam smiled, “About two and a half centuries ago, right before the beginning of the current era, she was Celestia’s prized student. Her name was Twilight Sparkle, I know, pony names are weird. Anyway she played a pivotal role in Luna’s return.”

“The mare was also crucial to solving a number of other crises that plagued the kingdom at the time, she was more or less a prodigy with a crack team of troops or something like that behind her.”

He shook his head, “Now I don’t know how it works but in reward for all her service they made her an alicorn, with a new castle and entirely new set of armed forces. From what I read she was the most powerful unicorn ever seen and as an alicorn rivaled even Luna and Celestia.”

“In fact those two were so confident in her ability to lead they appointed her princess of Equestria. Then, and I don’t know how accurate this is, they ascended to meet their mother in heaven.” He shrugged, “As a side note, that’s why they call themselves princesses. In their religion their god is the mother of Celestia and Luna, the queen, thus they aren’t actually dual queens but princesses ruling in her stead.”

The gryphon nodded, “That is actually kind of interesting.”

“Indeed.” Samuel resumed the previous thread of conversation, “About a century into Twilight’s reign a necromancer named Grogar rose up in the south. With a massive army of undead and subjugated worshippers he attacked northwards. There was a huge war, Zebrica was ravaged as he tore through it like a hurricane.”

“Multiple allied armies of ponies and zebras were overwhelmed by the weight of his numbers.”

“Following these defeats some of Equestria’s largest cities were sacked and hundreds of thousands were slaughtered, in the last battle Twilight died too but in doing so delivered a mortal wound to her enemy. His subsequent death marked the end of the war and his armies dispersed without his will to hold them together.”

His friend raised an eyebrow at him, “Gods damn, that’s brutal.”

The man chuckled, “I know, it reads like a hardcore dark fantasy.”

“Yeah, so continue, what happened afterwards?”

“Luna and Celestia returned, along with Princess Cadance’s help they used the resources of the Crystal kingdom to rebuild and revitalize Equestria. Over the past century and a half Twilight has been deified, the patron saint of magic and friendship. There’s a huge church dedicated to her where her castle used to stand.”

“And that’s what I know about that. I’m still reading though so I’m certain there’s more to it.”

Gwindor gave an approving nod, “I can see why you like history, that’s quite a story and I’m willing to bet there’s more like it.”

He nodded, “Oh sure, my people have similar ones with even more destructive wars believe it or not.”

The raptor grunted as he rose up, swinging his legs off the bunk and dangling them over the floor he cocked his head at Sam, “Have you read much about my race yet?”

“I... well, no but I’m going too. It’s next on my list of histories to study, why? You have an interest now?”

The raptor shook his head, “It’s nothing, just, you got me thinking, I’ve never heard any of the great stories my people are supposed to have.”

Samuel cocked his head, “Why’s that? Didn’t your parents ever tell you anything?”

He chuckled, “Nope, but the reason for that is a tale that includes a good chunk of my life story and I’m not sure you want to get that far into it.”

Sam frowned at the dismissive nature of the comment, “Well now wait a minute, I do want to hear about this and as I recall you’ve been asking me a lot of questions about myself recently.”

Gwindor sighed, “You’re not wrong and I don’t really mind sharing it all, are you sure though? There’s not much to me and what there is... is pretty depressing.”

His otherworldly friend gave a firm nod, “I want to hear it and I want to know why you’re here like me, I am somewhat interested in you believe it or not.”

His beak twisted and doubt beset his eyes, “All right then, well, one of the reasons I don’t know my people is because I wasn’t born in the actual Gryphon Kingdom. I’m a colonial, born in the ports of gryphon colonized Zebrica.” He gave a hollow chuckle, “There aren’t many gryphons in the colonies and those that are happen to always be two things, low life’s trying to get away from the mainland or soldiers assigned to the garrisons.”

“My father was the later, brought his pregnant wife along to live with him and boom I’m not actually a Gryphon citizen.” He smiled mirthfully, “Those fuckers and their stupid ass laws, anyway, I don’t remember much from my childhood till I’m about five.”

“When my parents died.”

“I see the look in your face and don’t worry, no need for condolences, I didn’t know them very well anyway. They died during the north Zebrican unification wars, when a large northern tribe’s chief decided it was time to bring his people together.”

Gwindor looked down, cringing as his memories came out, “The bastard was successful, but he was downright cruel, not that you can expect much more from a people as primitive as them.”

He paused for a moment, “No offense intended towards Chakris, he’s not like the ones in Zebrica, he’s a good guy.”

His shoulders lowered and the bird’s demeanor changed ever so subtly, “Anyways the chieftain didn’t just attack the other zebra tribes in the region but our holdings there too. We held on to some of them but it cost a lot of lives from what I’ve heard. My first full memory is of when he leveled my home town, the smell of the smoke, feel of my fathers blood...”

Samuels eyes softened, his stomach felt queasy, what had he asked his friend to remember?

“My dad rushed to our house after the defenses of the town had fallen, he hid me under the floorboards and told me to be quiet. His intention was to hide with my mom somewhere else but he wasn’t fast enough. I watched through the cracks as they stormed the door and butchered him, then defiled and killed my mother.”

He went silent for a moment, his head low, “I got away and wandered for a while until a group of friendly soldiers found me while out on patrol. From there it’s straightforward, I was sent away north to Appleoosa. There aren’t any orphanages in Zebrica and the closest foreign one that took in my kind was there.”

“After that I was tossed around between Equestrian orphanages until I came of age. Most others I met thought of me as a delinquent shit for brains throughout those years and to be fair I never actually was able to handle living normally. When all that ended I found myself poor and in need of work, so came here.”

He looked up with a nervous smile, “Thats why I don’t know anything about my own people and why I joined the army. I didn’t share to much there did I? It’s not a fun story, I know.”

Samuel thickly swallowed as his friend looked expectingly at him, he was caught completely off guard and pondered how to respond for a moment. This was a far more delicate situation than he had envisioned it ever being.

Taking a breath through his nose he spoke.

“I won’t offer you my condolences or my pity, in fact I don’t feel sorry for you at all, instead I’m fairly sure you’ve earned my admiration. Living through something like that and fighting on afterwords, it’s impressive and I know nobody here, myself included could ever do the same.”

He reached out and place his hand on his friend’s feathered shoulder, “All I know is that I’m glad you’re here, I’ve come to rely on you a lot.”

Gwindor smiled and his eyes lit up, “Thank you Sam, whatever this shit we’re in now leads too, I’ll be glad you’re with me too.”

The pair went on to spend another few hours of their free day talking, the deeper level of conversation that good friends often have coming out now that the possibility of it had been breached.

~

The rain beat down on the cluster of helmeted heads with a symphony of metallic plinks, an experience that would have been soothing if not for the squish of the mud beneath their boots.

A heavy wind was upon them, blowing the rain against their faces. It’s chilling bite cut through their armor to the bone, leaving them a miserable pack of scrambling rats eager to find warmth.

All two hundred recruits in the batch that Samuel belonged too were currently trudging through an aging trail in a forest in the middle of nowhere. The sergeant was nowhere in sight, despite the fact they knew this was going to happen before it started it still came as a surprise to not have his loud guiding voice there with them.

This was an exercise that they all had been dreading from the moment Hammer told them it was going to happen.

Blindfolded, the troops had been loaded into a series of carts before the sun rose earlier that morning. They were taken an unknown number of miles out in an unknown direction, then dropped off in the wild. The soldiers were given a single map and the directive to reach the fort by sundown.

The rules were that they could only utilize their senses, not including Pegasi flight, and the map if they knew how. There had been a small lesson on orienteering in the classroom but it didn’t prepare them for this big of a task.

If they failed to complete the objective then they would do it again and again until they came back in time no matter how many days it took.

After the departure of the cart train, Andrik, being the domineering personality he was, took the map for himself and loudly proclaimed he could find the way back for everyone. It was a predictable action when Sam thought about it but not quite so preventable.

The bull stated matter of factly that the others needed to follow him or be left behind and he wasn’t one to come back for the lost. So they followed, after all anyone who would have challenged him would probably get a black eye if not worse.

For hours now they had marched behind him, switching directions more than a few times as he grew frustrated getting nowhere.

It was sometime around midday at this point and the conditions began to take their toll on the weary troops. The onset of rain, moist smell of mud and water, even the rain in the trees began to annoy them.

They were also growing tired of Andrik’s “leadership”.

Samuel let out a surprised grunt as he was drawn out of his mind, he bumped into the fellow in front of him as the relatively organized column came to a sudden stop. Muttering a customary apology he turned to his left and looked at his friends, “The fuck is going on now?”

Gwindor shrugged and Chakris shook his head, “Don’t know, but...” He leaned over and squinted his eyes, “Looks and sounds like there’s another argument going on up front.”

“What, again?! We’ve been going in the same wrong direction for hours now!” The boy huffed, “I’m gonna go up there myself, I’m tired of this miserable shit.”

“Hey now that’s...” Chakris and Gwindor watched their friend exit the line and storm forwards, his boots sinking a good couple inches into the ground with each step.

As he approached the front others looked at him in confusion and he ignored them, instead he listened as the argument Andrik was having became more audible.

It was with... the Mac guy?

“Listen asshole, you’ve gotten us lost and won’t admit it, just hand over the map and I’ll unfuck us, no need to say anything to the sergeant.”

“No, I know exactly what I’m doing, get off my dick and get back in line!” The bull roared.

Andrik narrowed his fiery eyes and flared his nostrils, his horns lowered in a bovine style threat.

Mac, not one to be intimidated, did the same. Bringing his body lower he stamped his foot and stood his ground.

The bull recognizing this challenge to his authority puffed his chest out, took a step towards the stallion and threw the map in his hands away, it’s importance meaning nothing to him now.

Samuel, who had been watching the two big beings posture from off to the side, walked over to where the map had settled. He smiled to himself happy he didn’t have to get ahold of it the hard way.

Picking it up he tucked the now damp paper under his shoulder before turning back to the scene unfolding before him.

“Back down, you’re not as big as me. I’ll break you colt.”

The stallion chuckled darkly at the comment, “We’ll see now won’t we.”

The clearing of a throat suddenly broke the tension between the two, in sync they looked towards it’s source with intensity. Standing there was a rather irritated human with the map in his hands.

“How about instead of acting like dipshits I take the lead, because unlike either of you I actually know how to read a map.” He crossed his arms and glowered, “Or you can beat the shit out of me and at least take me out of this misery.”

They both gazed at him in confusion for a second before the minotaur’s face contorted in anger, “I won’t let you do this again!”

He stood straight and took two heavy steps towards the young man, “You pinprick fuck, you aren’t humiliating or stealing from me this time, god help me you will not!”

From the left Gwindor appeared, stepping between them he held up his hands, “Woah woah, let’s calm down here, last thing we need is a fight to break out.”

“Oh?! And who the fuck are you to tell me what to do?!” The bovine fumed, his eyes wide and flat teeth bared.

Chakris came up behind the gryphon and peaked out from behind, “N-Nobody is telling you what to d-do! We just wanted to see if we could help, Sam here has h-helped us out before. Remember on the march to the fort a-and on the obstacle course!”

The logic went over his head but the references to Samuel’s previous achievements served to enflame the bull even more.

He exploded outwards, “Go fuck yourself!” With speed he leaned forward and prepared to charge.

The gryphon in his path went to shove the zebra back and defend himself, only to watch the red stallion behind Andrik grab the minotaur’s shoulder.

The beast halted and whipped around at the contact, hatred flowing from his eyes.

Mac flinched but didn’t back down, “Come on, he’s got a point.”

Andrik’s hatred turned to incredulity, “You too? Weren’t you just trying to take it from me as well!?”

Mac smirked, “Yeah but come on, you and I are fighters not map readers. Why not let these little nothings do the annoying shit for us?”

He shrugged, “Sides’ he’s helped us before, let’s let him do this. Think about it, if he gets us there we get to sleep faster, if he doesn’t then we try again next time and do it right.”

He gave a hopeful look and fell silent.

There was a tense minute of quiet, only the rainfall present as the gears clicked in Andrik’s head.

At last his mouth twisted and with an angry grunt he roughly shoved Mac away, “Fine.”

Turning around he faced the column, all of whom looked at him with wide eyes, “What the hell are you looking at?!”

The troops turned away immediately and not another word was spoken as the bull begrudgingly made his way down the line looking for a spot to inject himself. Eventually he pulled a poor bugger out flinging him off into the mud and took his place.

Meanwhile Samuel stood with his friends and Mac, a dumb founded expression plastered on.

Mac raised an eyebrow at him before speaking up, “Well, are you gonna fix our problem?”

The man slowly shook his head, pulled up the paper and started unrolling the map. They waited patiently as he looked over the scroll, soon enough he let out a huff and lowered it.

Looking at them from over the papers edge he sighed, “I’m going to need one of you to climb a tree and take a look at the landscape.”

The trio before him paused, with apprehension they looked back and forth at each other. Samuel let out an annoyed breath as he lifted the paper back up.

Gwindor finally gave in, “Fine! I’ll do it, just remember you guys owe me for this you asshats.”

Turning to Sam he crossed his arms, “Anything specific I’m looking for?”

The human didn’t look up from the map as he concentrated on its medieval style markings, “Mountains, hills, anything that could be a landmark.”

“Okay.” The gryphon about faced and made his way off the trail. Looking around he muttered to himself then went to the thick trunk of one of the pines and began ascending.

Mac and Chakris looked at each other, shrugged and made their way back into the column.

Before long Gwindor returned from his task and reported to Sam, pine needles sticking from every part of his feathered body, “There’s a small set of hills to our east, can barely make them out in this rain but they are there. North and south look like miles of more trees and in the west there’s a strong looking mountain range a ways off.”

Samuel nodded as he squinted, beckoning his friend over he held the map up in front of them both, “There’s three places we could be on this map.” He drew imaginary circles around three wooded points on the western side of the map, “What I need from you is to tell me what the hills to looked like exactly. Their placement is everything, it’ll tell me where we are and which way to go.”

The two deliberated over the map, with Gwindor describing how the hills were positioned and where they faced. He took another look in the tree, confirmed his knowledge as true and satisfied Samuel’s need to know.

The human placed a finger on a thickly drawn forest on the north western region of the map, “Alright, we’re around here, this section of forest is positioned in the right place for the other landmarks to be where they are.”

He traced a line with his finger that went south eastwards through drawings of pathless forests and hills, “As far as I can see this is the fastest most direct path we can take, it’s not looking to be an easy one however. Our friends aren’t going to like it and neither will we, but we can be home before the sun dips down.”

He looked to Gwindor.

The raptor shrugged with a tired grin, “As long as we don’t have to do this again I don’t think any of us care how much of a motherfucker this turns out to be.”

With an agreement reached Gwindor began to move towards the column, “I’ll tell them.”

Samuel reached out, “No, wait, I can do that.”

Gwindor paused then shrugged again, “Go ahead boss.”

The man moved to the column’s side in order to face everyone and let them see him, the shivering troops looked at him with wide eyes as he came around the edge of their sight.

“Listen up! We know where we are now and I’ve got a route for us to follow!”

“It’s not going to be easy, no paths anywhere on it so we’ll be off road and in some rough patches. Then we’ve got to get through some tall hills, this will probably take us a few hours to reach our destination.”

A few groans could be heard.

“But! If we push hard we’ll be home before dark and we will never have to do this again! I know it’s hard but I’ve gotta ask you guys to move as fast as you can.”

“I know you’re all tired, I am too, but all of us got through that forced march in our first two weeks, we can get through this too. Hell this’ll be much easier!”

“So come on, let’s get this shit done!”

Some of the soldiers gave enthusiastic go getter cheers, others just nodded, none of them communicated it but they were glad the human had taken command. The honesty he gave them was a refreshing change of pace.

As they marched off the trail and into the forest Samuels voice rose up from the crowd, soon many more joined him.

“A recruiting sergeant came our way from an inn near town at the close of day! He said my pony you're a fine young colt would you like to march along behind a military band...”

The Pegasus that had been assigned to keep watch over the wayward wanderers couldn’t help but smile, it wasn’t everyday he watched a unit pull it’s shit together. Their commander would be happy to hear this story.

When they finally did make it back to the fort the sun hadn’t yet fallen below the horizon, according to the guards at the gates they were the only group to have made it back so far that day.

A distinct cheer in gratitude for Samuel could be heard from his fellows, he’d made a promise and kept.

Much to a certain minotaur’s chagrin.

~

“Who wants to volunteer first then?!”

The Sergeant stood tall, hands clasped behind his back. Behind him the bare sparing arena awaited the first fight to begin, signaling the next hours of pain.

Over the past weeks sparing had become the least looked forward to training. Wounds, injuries and plenty of blood filled spit made the time spent fighting even worse than they imagined it could be.

After so many fights though certain soldiers had distinguished themselves as capable individual fighters. Unlike the rest these soldiers looked forward to sparing.

Andrik was obviously among them, his aggression remaining unchecked, so too was the gryphoness from the first day. All three yaks in the unit had distinguished themselves as warriors possibly even surpassing Andrik and last but certainly not least, was Mac big and fast and ferociously good with a sword.

These soldiers were terrifying, when they entered the arena any bravery the average troop might have had was lost. Each of them loved the reputation, the fear and attention garnered was useful for getting what they wanted.

Once again the troupe of recruits sat before their officer, who was calling for two volunteers to participate in the first fight of the day. A little “tradition” that was done every time they began to spar, it served as an adrenaline boost to get the troops blood pumping.

“Well? Anyone?” Hammer Narrowed his eyes in annoyance, “I’ll pick somepony if I have to.”

“I’ll fight!” A familiar red stallion with his characteristic distorted smile stood up.

The sergeant smirked when the scarred stallion spoke up, giving a nod of approval Mac began making his way through the crowd, “Good to see you again farm boy.”

Mac laughed, “Good to crush another fool sir!”

Hammer snorted before going back to scanning the field, “Well is anyone else going to try?!”

The silence that followed the comment made him chuckle, “Well I guess I’ll pick one of you cowards out then!”

He glared outwards and pointed a finger, “You? No. Maybe...”

“I’ll fight him!”

A sea of surprised eyes turned to look at the now standing human being, who in turn stiffened rigidly at the attention he’d drawn to himself.

The sergeant cocked his head and in genuine confusion asked, “You?”

Samuel saluted, “Yes sir!”

Shaking his head he looked down, “Well if you want to die then be my guest, just come on up and grab a sword off the fence here.” He gestured behind himself.

Samuel obliged, pushing his way through his fellows he emerged off to the side before making his way to the fence.

As he picked up the wooden weapon he turned and met Macs eyes, the confusion in them was visible. Sam gave a smile, “May the best win eh?”

Mac narrowed his eyes and twisted his mouth, the smile he’d had now gone, “Yeah, good luck...”

Walking over to the larger than usual pre drawn square both of them took their sides and fell into position. Shields up, swords drawn and eyes forward.

“Kick his ass!” Andrik’s voice worked its way into Sam’s ears. His teeth emerged as he bared them and a fire lit in his eyes, the silent fury he’d kept hidden suddenly coming out.

Hammer blew the whistle and in a flash the two were moving.

Just as Sam had predicted Mac came forward with a thrust at his head, in response he swung his arm bringing the shield out. The lip of the defensive tool smashed the sword away before it was halfway to him, this caught the pony off guard and Samuel moved forward.

Mac in his characteristic attack style, had lowered his shield to his side as he put everything into a heavy thrust. The thrust that had been shoved to the side.

Taking advantage of his predicament Sam thrust his own sword upwards as he stepped, the stallion gasped and his eyes shot wide as he watched the tip of the blade come right at him.

He couldn’t lean back as his weight had been thrown into the failed attack, so with a loud bang the sword smashed into Mac’s helmet.

The effect was immediate, the onlookers gasped as they watched the undefeated pony reel back from the blow. His sword and shield dropping as his eyes rapidly blinked.

Bringing one hand up he pulled off his helmet and felt his forehead where he had been hit. Letting out a shaky breath he looked at his opponent, eyes wide, Samuel had just done to him what he was trying to do.

The human, stood there, eyes filled with quiet rage, “Go on, we’re not done yet, pick up your sword.” His tone was dark.

Narrowing his eyes Mac let out a breath and slowly lowered himself down, grabbing hold of his discarded weapons he came back up into position.

Suddenly beating his sword on the shield he let out an animalistic yell, Samuel watched in silence his shield held forwards with the sword resting on top of it.

Mac began to run, bringing his shield up he fell into a full sprint, he had the advantage of size so he was going to use it.

His intention was to bash him down and finish him off, just as he’d done with some of the other decent fighters. Unluckily for him Sam had been watching those fights.

Just as he reached his target and began to swing downwards the boy deftly jumped to Mac’s right.

With speed Samuel thrust his sword low, the wooden blade flying with a whoosh moved straight at Mac’s groin. The stallion reacted quickly throwing his shield down to try and deflect it, he managed to push it down only for the sword to hit him right in the unprotected upper thigh.

The pain was harsh and Mac’s leg fell limp, with a thump he fell face forward right into the dirt.

A cheer erupted from the recruits watching, Mac was on the ground and in pain, he had lost the battle.

The stallion’s breath was ragged, the pain in his leg was unbelievable. He had run right into the oncoming sword, he might as well have skewered himself.

As he laid there just pushing through the pain a shadow fell over him. Looking up he saw Sam standing, chin held up, smug smile on his face.

“Well I think we expected that now didn’t we.”

A soft pained laugh came from Mac, the humor of the turnabout was not lost on him.

The human proceeded to turn around and face his ecstatic watchers, even the sergeant, indifferent on most things, had a shocked expression on his face.

“How the fuck did you do that?” Hammer looked at Sam.

The boy shrugged, “Well, I’ve been watching everyone else fight for the past two weeks, watching what works and doesn’t. Then on my free time I worked on my sword play, striking and such.” He gave a smile, “Today I figured I’d finally try it all out.”

“Luna’s tits colt, that’s...” The sergeant flared his nostrils, “That was one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen.”

“Thank you sir.” The young man saluted and his commander saluted back, walking past into the group Sam was received with shouts and jubilation.

His victory earned him a rest for the duration of that sparing period.