The Rising of the Brothers of Light and Dark

by Dark Dienen

chapter 2

“And never once, NOT ONCE, in my entire fifteen years in the service did I ever let the enemy have the field so easily! I felt like a dog slinking away with my tail between my legs! Are you even LISTENING to me, Codger?!”

“Every word, Commander Twister,” the grey pelted unicorn answered calmly, making no effort to look up from the map he was perusing.

The athletic mare with the light blue coat and storm grey mane turned her glaring red eyes towards the object of her ire. “Then what was the last thing I said?”

“You were making derogatory comments about our retreat and remarking you felt like a dog with your tail between your legs,” the elderly pony answered flawlessly. He turned his icy blue eyes to meet her shimmering red ones unflinchingly. “That was the extent of it, was it not?” Twister’s angry look shifted to one of perplexity for a fraction of a second then to reluctant acceptance. “Okay, I admit it. You’re good.”

Rune, deciding that was as a good a time as any to step in, cleared his throat. “Twister, you knew as well as I did that the plan was unlikely to succeed. I admitted that much from the start.” When Twister’s eyes met his, her glare returned with it. Rune decided to continue. “Nightshade has proven to be a competent tactician and he’s had at least two months of planning for this event.”

Twister snorted at this explanation. “I still don’t see what was wrong with my plan.”

“Charging headlong into a fight, while having the advantage of simplicity, is not the proper response for every event,” Arcane replied, having returned to the map.

“If it works, don’t fix it,” she muttered stubbornly.

Before anything further could develop, a guard appeared at the open flap of the command tent. “General Rune, sir.”

“Enter.”

“The tallies have been finished, sir.” The guard held out a scroll in his hoof. “Thought you and the other commanders would like to know.”

Rune took the scroll with a curt nod, opening it to read its contents. He closed it with a sigh.

“What is it, Rune?” Twister asked, looking concerned.

He gave the scroll to Arcane, who took it in his magic and opened it before him. “Well, you and I were rather lucky,” Arcane replied, “You lost a third of your command while I lost a quarter. Acceptable figures, all things considered.”

Twister shot Arcane a cross look that said more than any word combination she could have picked. Arcane sighed, rolling the parchment up and giving her possession of it. She took it and opened it with more force than was strictly necessary. As she read, her mouth slowly went slack and fell open.

“Rune,” she replied hesitantly, “I’m so sorry.”

Rune looked at his two co-commanders with a determined expression. “They are waiting for our briefing.”

Arcane gave a short nod as his reply. Twister crumpled the scroll between her hooves with a look of frustration plain on her face. She looked as though she wanted to hit someone, but was uncertain who it should be. After a moment, she nodded her consent and made her way to one of the tent flaps.

Each of the tent flaps were closed by the commanders, darkening the interior from the light of the setting sun. They approached a small table with a blue gem the size of a pony’s head inlaid in its center. Arcane laid a hoof on it, closing his eyes in concentration. After a moment or so, the image of four ponies appeared over it, one for each kingdom; Granite Cliff of the Earth Ponies, Shooting Star of the Unicorns Ponies, Funnel Cloud of the Pegasus Ponies, and Cold Stone of the Crystal Ponies. Each of them looked either tired or irritable in some form or fashion.

“Your Majesties,” the three commanders said in unison, bowing slightly as they did.

“Rise and report,” Granite Cliff commanded.

When the three rose, Rune stepped forward. “Your Majesties, I wish to report on behalf of all present.” Seeing that none of the monarchs objected, he continued. “Your Majesties, I regret to inform you that our attack on the fortress failed.”

Shooting Star was the first to react to this bit of news. “And your own losses?”

“Roughly forty percent casualties, Your Grace,” Rune answered emotionlessly.

“And the fortress,” Cold Stone asked concernedly.

“Unblemished, Sire.”

“I knew we should never have trusted some earth pony to come up with a battle strategy!” Funnel Cloud stated angrily.

“That ‘earth pony’ as you name him, has had more success in defending our lands against your raiders than any commander before him,” Granite Cliff stated in defense of his general.

“I think you are both missing a crucial detail,” Shooting Star stated,shooting a glare at Cold Stone. “Our ‘ally’-” gesturing to the unicorn king of the crystal ponies “-gave us his word that fresh troops were on their way to help resupply and relieve our current forces. That was three days ago and we’ve yet to see a hint of the crystal pony banners.”

“Are you stating that I would purposefully leave our lands, and my son, in the hooves of those barbarians?” Cold Stone asked, his tone deliberately calm.

“I think that the subject of the false implications of my general is the matter at hoof!” Granite Cliff stated glaring at the leader of the pegasi.

“False my left hoof!” Funnel growled, looking as though he wanted to reach through the illusions of the crystal to throttle the earth pony king.

“HEY!” Twister shouted, slamming a hoof on the table as she spoke. “Rune just lost half his guys in that farce of an attack that you ordered him to make! He tried his hardest to make that attack work and the next one of you says anything more about his ‘ineptitude’ is gonna get a hoofblade up the flankhole! Courtesy of me!”

The tent went silent due to Twister’s outburst. Rune, deciding to act before any of the rulers could, placed a hoof on Twister’s shoulder and reprimanded her silently with a shake of his head.

“Your Highnesses, might I be allowed to speak?” Arcane spoke, his voice quiet, but clear.

“At long last, a voice of reason,” Shooting Star replied, clapping his hooves together, “Go on, by all means.”

After making certain he had the consent of the other kings, Arcane spoke in the same tone as before.

“First: Allow me to apologize for Twister’s unfortunate eruption. Secondly: Although I can’t agree with her word choice, I can agree with her sentiments. Our effort was a failure not as a result of Rune’s ineptitude, but rather Nightshade’s preparation. He obviously planned for this outcome well in advance and had months to prepare for it.

“Thirdly: Given our current location deep in the Crystal Kingdom, Crystal Skies troops were far more likely to reach us in time than any levies from our respective kingdoms. Even Twister has stated that reinforcements from the Pegasi would be hard pressed to reach us in time.”

This comment was accompanied by a nod from Twister. Seeing this, the Archmage continued.

“Unless I miss my guess, Crystal Skies is traversing along the Cold Stairs. As I’m certain you are all aware, mountain ranges are difficult to travel in spring and summer months, but that one especially so. No doubt the commander wishes to minimize her troop losses by taking her time moving across the mountain range. Allotting for that, it should only take an extra two or three days at most to reach us.

“Lastly: Even without reinforcements of any kind, we still have roughly four thousand troops we can place in the field. We have them surrounded with no means of fresh supplies coming in. I’m certain, with a combined effort, we can hold them at bay until Summers End, if we must.

“Do not let emotions cloud your judgement, gentleponies. I implore you. Rest assured, when the crystal ponies arrive, we will amass a new assault. Until then however, there is little else we can do.”

“My lords,” Cold Stone replied, “we have all suffered the same misfortune. Might I suggest we resume this in three days time. I’m certain Crystal Skies will show before then and we can discuss this with clearer heads.”

“Very well,” Shooting Star replied, looking as though he had swallowed a quart of lemon juice, “If the others have no grievances, we will leave this in your hooves, generals. Inform us should any new developments arise.” As none of the others had anything to add, the crystal went dark.

“Excuse me, but I believe I have some papers that need to be organized,” Arcane said, his cloak trailing behind him as he left the tent.

“Was it my imagination or did Arcane just agree with me? That has to be a first.”

“I think there’s a more important matter we need to discuss, don’t you?” Rune replied, turning to Twister.

“I know,” Twister replied, holding her hooves in front of her, “I should watch my mouth around my superiors.”

“Yes, you should,” Rune agreed, leaning closer to the mare.

“Off the record though,” he whispered, “even though you were wrong for doing so, thanks for sticking up for me.”

Twister cleared her voice uncomfortably. “Yeah, well… Nopony is allowed to chew you out, but me. And don’t forget it either!” Even though she tried to hide it by raising her voice and poking her hoof at his chest, the embarrassed blush on her face was clearly noticeable.

“Sir!” a guard shouted appearing at the tent flap. Twister looked at the guard crossly, but made no further moves.

“What is it?” Rune asked calmly, feeling his own blush appear.

“We have received a missive from the fortress, sir!”

“How do you know it’s from the fortress?” Twister asked, giving the guard her undivided attention.
“It came on this,” the guard explained, pulling a black horse arrow from his shoulder bag.

Comments

[Alticron]

There's a slight problem with this chapter when it comes to the Crystal King. His name seems to shift from Cold Stone to Crystal Quartz and back again.

[NobleValor]

5048345 Sorry, that's on me. I thought I got them all. Thanks for pointing it out and hope you will stick to see where the story goes from here.