Heroscape: The Equestrian Siege

What happened? was all that Agent Carr could think as he lay face first on some hard surface.  Everything was dark, probably due to his eyes being shut, but he took no chances.  He moved his arm around hoping to find his signature shades.  They were within his reach and he quickly put them on.  Ready to brave the bright light that had consumed everything, he opened his eyes.  Everything was dark.

Content that the light was gone, but now unsure of where he was, he removed his accessory and looked around.  He was in a cave.  It wasn't a particularly dark cave when seen with the naked eye.  Around him, the several crooked faces of the wall each reflected his image.  Well, this isn't the first time I've woken up in an unfamiliar place.

Carr looked about the small cavern, finding his sword, his Desert Eagle, and two ways he could go.  “Agent Carr,” a voice said, the words echoing throughout the small cavern.  Startled, he readied his weapons and looked around frantically, trying to find the source of the voice.  Suddenly, his sword glowed with a light blue aura.  He dropped the magical sword, but instead of falling to the floor, it simply hovered in front of him.  The blade righted itself so that the tip pointed to the ground and the hilt towards the ceiling.  Finally, a ghostly image faded into existence around the blade in the likeness of Vydar.

“Agrent Carr, listen to me now,” the image said.  Carr gave it his attention.  “I've not much time, so heed my words carefully.  Valhalla is no more; we Valkyries, Utgar included, have destroyed the land and everything on it.  Utgar was bound to be victorious, and for the betterment of the lives of everything on Valhalla, instantaneous destruction was a better alternative to Utgar's rule.  Ullar, Jandar, and I, however, each managed to protect our most loyal of soldiers from death.  I know not where you are, and I know not what you will face, but wherever you are and wherever you go, you have my blessing.  Agent Carr, I am no more.  You are free...”

The image of Vydar faded, and Carr's sword finally clanged to the ground.  Carr gave a silent honor to his fallen Valkyrie general, but then focused on the more immediate task: getting out of these caves.  The Agent had not done much spelunking in his past, his few instances of doing so happening on Valhalla with others as his guide.  But he was alone now; alone and clueless.

Sighing, he went to pick his sword up.  Strangely, the blade pointed directly at one of the exits.  Carr was not one for superstitions, but he had seen powerful magics happen during his time in Valhalla.  In fact, he had been subject to such power: the teleportation spell that Vydar had used to bring him to Valhalla, and subsequently to where he was now.  And if a Valkyrie could bring hundreds of warriors from throughout space and time to their aid, there would be no reason to doubt that a dead Valkyrie could still manipulate the living world.

With nothing to lose, he gave in to his supernatural curiosities and made his way in the indicated direction.

The ground beneath Carr was inlaid with mine track, and for the most part, the walls of the cave were unchanging.  Occasionally, he would see mine carts and other such pieces of mining equipment, each in varying states of disrepair.  Carr deduced that whatever cave system he was in had been abandoned for some time by some sort of civilized society.  As he walked, he took note of the changes in direction of the tracks that he stumbled upon.  To him, it looked like he was walking along the path that served as the main railway, and the other offshoots indicated that, wherever he was going, it was the way out.

Apart from this, his walk was completely uneventful.  At least, it was until he found himself in front of a huge ravine.  Spanning the distance across the ravine was the stereotypical rickety wooden bridge that looked as if it was going to collapse if any weight were to be put on it.  Fortunately for Carr, Valhalla had its fair share of such bridges, and Carr knew just the technique for getting across safely.  After checking to see if the tautness of the ropes on the side were passable, he took his first step, deliberately putting his foot on two boards at once so as to reduce the strain on any one board.  He followed that step with the largest step he could manage, again landing his foot on two boards at once.  He repeated the pattern until he was safely across.

Carr looked back at the bridge, noticing that the boards and rope actually looked fresh, with no signs of any decay.  Oh well.  Better safe that sorry, as the saying goes.

Ahead of the Agent lay more bland, uninteresting tunnels.  Carr grew slightly frustrated as he continued, the environment continuing to not change.

Suddenly, something caught his eye.  It wasn't because it was shiny or reflective like everything else around; it was because it wasn't shiny or reflective.  Carr investigated the object.  It was dull gray, looked like it had been conical in shape at some point, and it had several withered stems sticking out of the wide end.  Flowers?

Upon closer inspection, the object indeed turned out to be a partially decayed bouquet of flowers.  Small shreds of white fabric also littered the ground around where the flowers rested.  As peculiar is the find was, Carr had to move on.  He wanted out of the caves as fast as possible.

That appears to be the entrance, Carr mentally celebrated as he approached a flimsy wooden door of some kind, though one wouldn't be able to tell from his unchanging expression.  Light seeped through the small gaps between the planks that composed the door, and the sun's warm rays flitted across Carr's face as he peered between the cracks.

Now that he thought about it, the fact that he had to crouch to do so was indicative of some disheartening news: whatever made these mines were small, no taller than three or four feet if the door's size was anything to go by.  Whatever made these mines, Carr would be a giant among them.

And to confirm his suspicions, he finally noticed two figures standing outside the door, their flanks facing the door; flanks, because these creatures were not humanoid; they were horses.  Miniature horses, but horses nonetheless.  From what he could see, they each wore golden armor, similar to that of Marcus Decimus Gallus of the XI Roman Legion.  One had a brown coat, and the other had a white coat and bore wings over its armor.  If not for Carr's experience with the gryphillin Theracus, he'd have been disturbed by the sight.

Carr silently stepped away from the door and moved to the side to avoid detection while he contemplated his next action.  I could try to talk to them, but the chances of them understanding English is virtually zero.  Or, they could react violently.  Perhaps contact should be avoided until I know their culture.

On the other hand, I need to find a place to settle for a bit; get some food, water, shelter...find out where I am.  It's possible that these creatures are friendly and hospitable.

Carr sat for several long minutes mulling over his choices.  Each choice had its benefits and its risks, and either option failing would be an unpleasant experience.  Well, I suppose being beaten, or whatever methods of killing they have here, is much more pleasant that starving and dehydrating.

With his mind made up, Carr crawled back to the door.

“Excuse me,” he said.  Both horses outside the door jumped at the unexpected noise.

“Who goes there?” one of the horses- the one with wings, to be precise- said cautiously.  At the same time, a blue glow encompassed the door, and it swung open viciously, revealing the two horses in their entirety.  To Carr, they were more pony-sized than horse sized, but that didn't concern him.  What did concern him was the two spears that they pointed at him.

“What are you?” the brown one with the horn, evidently a unicorn, said.

“I'm a human,” Carr said, genuinely surprised that they spoke English.  “I'm lost, and I need answers.”  He said it a bit more threateningly that he had wanted to.  The two ponies looked him over, obviously concerned for their well being due to Carr's relative bulk.  And his sword.

“I think it wants to hurt us,” the winged pony said to the unicorn.

“And if we don't give you answers?” the unicorn asked Carr.

“Then I'll get them myself.”

“You'll harm nopony!” the winged horse shouted.

Carr stepped forward, frantically trying to correct himself.  “No, that's not what I-”

The ponies reacted to Carr's advance, thrusting their spears at him as a warning.  Still, Carr's survival instincts kicked in and he drew his sword in defense.  The blade of his weapon collided with the winged pony's spear.  “You dare attack us?” the unicorn growled.

“No, I-” Carr began, but was once again interrupted by the thrusting of their spears, which he once again parried.  Misinterpreting Carr's parry as an attack on them, the armored ponies began to attack.  They pushed Carr back into the cave, allowing him to stand at his full height and maneuver correctly.  The winged pony leapt up and dived at the agent, bringing his spear down in a diagonal arc.  Carr blocked the predictable attack, his sword now glowing sky blue.  As weapons collided, the shaft of the pony's spear snapped.

Wanting to incapacitate the pony armed now with only a stick, the Agent hit its exposed stomach with an upper cut.  The pony reeled in pain, allowing Carr to hit its helmet with the pommel of his sword.  The hard hit knocked the pony out.

With his partner down, the other pony charged straight at Carr.  Carr sidestepped and brought his sword down on the spear's shaft, then spun and delivered an elbow down onto the pony's head.  His elbow hurt from impacting the hard metal, but fortunately for him, it didn't break.  He would have to criticize himself about the recklessness of his action later, though, for right now, the dazed pony was quickly coming to.

The pony shook his head to clear himself of the figurative stars that floated around his head.  He looked up to Carr to see his sword being swung down in a low arc.  The flat of the sword smashed the pony's entire side, and the pain was too much for him.  The pony staggered away for a few steps before collapsing to the floor, unconscious.

Carr stayed still for a moment, listening for any commotion outside the still open door.  After several minutes of waiting, he gave himself the all clear.  He moved the knocked-out ponies to the sides of the door within the cave before slipping out and closing the door behind him.

Carr had followed the mountain path once out of the caves, and it led him to a grand, mountainside kingdom.  The distant spires of radiant white, purple, and gold were a sight for his sore eyes, and he began his trek to the civilization.

By the time he had reached the front gates, the sun had begun to set.  With the cover of night, Carr had infiltrated the outer defenses and now snuck about the alleyways, making sure to not be seen.  His dark clothing and skin helped tremendously with his sneaking about.

About the city, ponies in a wide range of colors began retreating to their homes and their shops began closing.  With less traffic, the Agent progressed more readily through the city.  Where he was going, though, even he didn't know.

Soon, the Agent was lost.  He tried to backtrack, but he had taken too many turns for him to remember where he was going, and many of the intersections looked the same to him in the low light.  Every once in a while, he would have to sprint off his path to avoid detection from other ponies who were strolling about, which further confused his limited familiarity with the area.

Eventually, Carr found himself within viewing range of the grandest structure he had seen thus far on his journey.  Several large towers sprout out of the castle-like structure, each bathed in a blue light from the brightly shining full moon in the sky.  Several balconies lined the glorious towers, casting long shadows on them.  Carr looked at the marvelous building, awe struck.  Never before had he seen a castle in tact; all of Valhalla's had been destroyed by the epic war.

He looked to each balcony, finding all but one abandoned.  That one was the uppermost balcony.  The light from the adjoined room shone through the open doors, and Carr could vaguely make out the silhouette of a pony sitting on it.  While he couldn't make out any features about the pony's body, he could see its mane and tail drift around in the non-existent wind, a white dotted mass of deep blue, resembling the night sky itself.

So far, Carr had not seen any ponies with a mane tail of that size or that behaved in that fashion.  This, coupled with the fact that this pony was apparently a resident of the castle, led Carr to suspect that this pony was important to this civilization.  If he was going to get answers, this was probably going to be the creature to talk to.  With his destination in mind, he stealthily made his way to the castle.

After finding out that the front door was securely guarded, Carr made his way around the side, hoping to find a window he could climb in.  And almost as if the universe was listening to Carr's request, he found a low-lying window with a climbable wall to get to it.  Without further pause, Carr began his ascent.  In no time at all, the window was reached.  He peered over the window, checking to see if the coast was clear.  Just his luck; it was.

Wrenching the window open, Carr pulled himself through, shutting it behind him.  As he looked around, he noticed that there wasn't much to go by in the way of cover; he'd be found very easily.  Conveniently above him was a large system of stone rafters.  They seemed to span the entire length of the hallway.  If I can get up there, he thought, I should be able to get around unnoticed.

The structure was not too unreasonably tall for Carr; after all, it was built scalar to ponies, not humans.  The rafters were no more that twenty feet above him, an easy climb with the proper surface.  Tonight must have been Carr's lucky night, for adjacent to him was a pillar that could be climbed easily.

A couple minutes of climbing later, Carr stood atop the rafters, peering down at the floor below him.  The rafters around me should prevent me from being seen, he concluded after finding his field of vision severely limited by the numerous structures.

With his cover in place, Carr began his careful crouch walk forward, though specifically to where he did not know.

Carr laid still as a large group of ponies passed underneath him.  Two ponies lay on stretchers, each visibly hurt from an attack of some kind.  Such things happen to warriors.  Fortunately for Carr, the ponies on the stretchers weren't looking up as they passed him, leaving him undetected.

Each stretcher was being carried by two ponies each, one on each side, and each wearing armor similar to that of the ponies he had fought with earlier.  All six of them followed another pony, obviously the one in charge of the small group.  The pony wore purple armor with gold lining, but omitted its helmet to allow its mane of varying shades of blue to bounce atop its head as it walked.  “It attacked us...” one of the injured ponies moaned as the group grew distant from Carr.  Hmm...I should follow them; I need to be wary of something that can cause damage like that, Carr reasoned.

And so he did.

Carr stalked the ponies in complete silence.  The ponies remained silent as well, save for the occasional grunt or moan coming from one of the injured ponies.  Soon, they passed through a set of double doors, leaving Carr alone in the hallway.  He crept closer to the doors, hoping to hear some of the conversation inside.

“How are they, nurse?” Carr heard someone ask.

“Hmm...it's nothing permanent.  No broken bones, no bleeding...just some nasty bruises.  I'm going to bandage them up and let them stay the night here.  They'll be fine in the morning,” another pony, presumably the nurse, said.

“Excellent.  Soldiers, could you describe what attacked you?” the first voice said.

“Um, it was really tall, probably five to six feet tall.  It wore clothing; a white shirt under a dark blue trench coat,” one of the injured ponies recalled.  “It, uh, it stood on two legs-”

“Yeah, it kind of resembled a minotaur, but not buff and with completely straight legs,” the other wounded one interrupted.

That sounds like me.

“Did it speak?” the first voice asked.

“Yeah...it did.  It called itself a 'human', and it said it was lost, but then it threatened us.  We attacked it so it couldn't get us first, but you can see how that turned out,” the first injured pony said.

Yeah, that's me.

“Its sword glowed blue and completely destroyed my spear!” the second one, now recognized as the winged pony he and beaten earlier, complained.

“Other than that, Captain, we couldn't find anything else out.  It is dangerous, though, so we should probably keep a close eye out for it,” the unicorn concluded.

The Captain grunted.  “I see.  Well, thanks for the information.  I'm going to inform the Princesses of this threat, and hopefully, we'll have it apprehended before anypony else can get hurt.”

Princesses?  Sounds like the ones I should be talking to.  Looks like I'm following this one now.

Shining Armor strode through the door being held open by his magic and set a quick pace to the throne room.

Shining Armor approached the massive throne room doors and magicked them open, allowing himself in.  The doors slammed loudly behind him.  Carr was several paces behind the Captain, his crouch walking beginning to wear on him.  The doors slammed shut, sending strong vibrations through the rafters that Carr stood on.  He kept his balance, though, and his gear didn't rattle enough to catch the attention of the two unicorn guards at the throne room door.

Cautiously, Carr stepped towards the large wooden doors, hoping to again eavesdrop on the conversation.  The attempt met no avail, but Carr had a pretty good idea as to what was being discussed: him. He waited patiently for a couple of minutes before the doors opened again.  The Captain that he had been following stepped through, accompanied by another pony, this one dark blue with a mane and tail that resembled the night sky.  This pony also wore a small crown and other adornments indicative of nobility.  Obviously, this pony was one of the Princesses mentioned before, and the one that he had seen on the balcony earlier.

“We will have the Night Guard scour the lands for this fiend.  It could not have gotten far, and the might of the guard will surely overwhelm it into submission,” the midnight blue pony said.

“Of course, Princess Luna, and the Royal Guard will be on standby should we be needed.”

“Excellent.  Now, Shining Armor, thou can retreat to thine chambers.  We will handle the situation from here,” Luna said.

“Of course, your highness,” Shining Armor said with a bow before turning to head to bed.  Shining Armor spun and made his way to his chambers, leaving Luna alone with the two unicorn guards and the still undiscovered Agent.  Luna abruptly turned and headed in the direction opposite of Shining Armor.

“We are retreating to our chamber.  Let any who seek us know that we are unavailable,” she said to the guards before walking away.  Carr made to follow Luna.  He turned to face the direction she was going, but moved too fast.  The sword at his side gathered too much momentum as Carr turned, which shook it just enough to noticeably clatter with the rafter he stood on.  Luna, the guards, and Shining Armor, who hadn't made it too far away, looked up to the disturbance.

“I think that's the human!” Shining Armor shouted.  “Get it down!”

The unicorn guards complied and began firing bolts of magic up at Carr.  He narrowly dodged the first couple launched at him.  He then dropped to the floor, rolling to dissipate the landing.  The guards continued to shoot at him, and Carr continued to run to dodge each projectile.  There was nowhere for him to go; he had no plan.  At this point, surrender was the only option that could possibly end peacefully.

A blue aura surrounded Carr.  The guards halted their attacks, and he found himself unable to move.  The aura brought him face-to-face with a scowling Princess Luna, whose horn was glowing the same shade of blue as the aura surrounding him.  “Retrieve his weapons,” she commanded, and the two guards approached the immobile Carr, removing his sword.  Luna continued once Carr's sword was no longer in his possession.  “We are going to release the spell on you, and you are going to surrender peacefully or suffer the consequences.”

The aura around Carr dropped and his weight returned to his feet.  The unicorn guards pointed their spears at him.  The guards tensed further as he grabbed his Desert Eagle from its holster.  “I seek answers, not violence,” Carr said, tossing the gun to Luna's feet.  “I will willingly answer your questions if you will answer mine.”

“You will explain your actions in the morning in the presence of Us and our sister,” she replied.  “Send him to the dungeon, Captain Armor.”

“I will go without conflict,” Carr acquiesced, allowing the guards to lead him to dungeon.