With a roaring clatter of stone the western wall collapsed, showering the area with chunks of debris and a cloud of dust. The deer shouted triumphantly and immediately began to divert a portion of their forces to it.

"Left flank!" a centurion ordered, raising his sword to be seen above the confusion of battle. A trumpet sounded from each of the centuries around him, and Victus and his squad moved with the rest of the cohort in a sweeping gallop to cover the gaping hole in the defenses. Toward the rear of the formation a contingent of unicorns threw up a barrier to block an incoming volley of arrows. Some of the more adept among them worked in trios, grabbing the heavy stone balls out of the air and hurling them back at the redtail with grunts of exertion. Squad leaders called out each attack as quickly as they could, and though they could not stop every volley they were, for the time being, keeping many of those on the front lines safe.

The fighting was almost deafening to behold, the largest battle since Whitetail Wood now well and truly under way. The opening ambush of ice arrows and aerial squads had done their part and inflicted a fair number of casualties, but the pegasi had paid a heavy price for it. Their bedraggled remains had flown by mere moments earlier, many of them barely able to stay in the air. The other pegasus teams would have to pick up the slack, else Equestria's one major advantage would amount to nothing.

The onrushing redtail crashed into the hastily erected defensive line with a battle shout, barely giving the ponies a chance to brace themselves before they were met by stabbing spears and crystalline blades. Victus held fast behind his shield as jagged weapon points scraped off his armor. To his left and right his comrades held the line in their three-tiered defense. A buck thrust his weapon out at Victus and swore in frustration, then attempted to rip the shield from his grasp. Victus unfurled his wings and quickly twisted to one side. The razor-sharp blades sliced through the buck's armor and tore into his neck, spraying Victus with gore. A stomp to the thrashing redtail's head soon put an end to his panic.

"As one!" the centurion yelled, and the battle line shoved their way forward, gaining a few precious inches of space. A flight of arrows and siege weapon shots passed by just overhead, clearly aimed for the unicorns in the back. A shimmering barrier was quickly set in place, but it could not stop everything. Agonized cries went out and the barrier grew dim, allowing a second, well-timed follow-up to continue through nearly unopposed. The magical field winked out of existence just as the redtail countered the ground forces with a powerful, magically augmented push that opened numerous gaps in the shield wall. Dozens of ponies fell within seconds, and Victus fought desperately to keep the enemy at bay. To either side his brothers dropped, their positions filled in without hesitation. The wounded were dragged back to the keep, leaving crimson trails in the the snow-slicked grass that had become a slurry of mud and freezing water.

Every small bit of ground that was gained was quickly pushed back. The deer were relentless in their assault, far more coordinated and disciplined than anyone had seen before.

Victus took another step back, nearly tripping over the body of another legionary. One step closer to being backed into a corner, surrounded on three sides. A grim realization came over him: slowly but surely, the Equestrians were losing the battle.

Blood seeped down Gilias' armor and dripped along her beak, the iron tang heavy on her tongue as she spat on the ground. Heavy breaths fogged the air and her head pounded with the sound of her own heartbeat. Every muscle in her body burned, but she was alive. In fact, she had never felt more alive in all her years.

Here, in the middle of the forest, she had exacted her vengeance on the deer. More than twenty redtail Regulars, an entire squad's worth of scouts, now lay around her in a scene of unmatched carnage. They had been torn asunder, impaled against trees, split open. Severed limbs and crushed skulls marked those who had dared to attack her from behind. The air was thick with the stench of offal that still steamed against the frozen ground.

It had been a battle unlike any she'd ever fought. Glorious in its nature, righteous in its fury -- a fight worthy of Steel Spark's name. She hadn't expected to come out of it alive, and in the heat of the moment she would have been more than happy to die a warrior's death. Whatever afterlife he had gone to, she hoped he was smiling down at her now.

Gilias scraped her curved swords against the ground, cleaning them in the snow. The ever-present sound of war was still out there, beckoning for her to return. Yet as she slid her weapons back into their sheathes, she felt an exhaustion like she had never experienced. Not just physical, but mental as well. She did not want to admit it to herself, but for the first time she felt truly tired. Tired of war, tired of death. It had been a part of her for so long that she'd forgotten what it was like to well and truly care for someone, even if that someone had turned out to be, of all things, an Equestrian.

The Emperor had told her that it was her choice, and hers alone, to support the ponies in their war against the deer aggressors. Though he supported Equestria he could not be seen to do so in public, and so he had chosen her to be his instrument; a deadly, precise blade backed by the might of the Griffon Empire. She had jumped at the opportunity, of course. Who wouldn't have? To be picked for combat by His Holiness was the greatest honor a griffon could hope for.

Now, as she considered the layers of gore that clung to her body, she wished for nothing more than to be back home.

An agonizing flap took her above the tree tops once more. From her vantage point the armies of Equestria and Cervidae looked like nothing more than a mass of colorful figures flailing at each other. She just wanted to rest, if only for a few moments. Climbing higher and higher she watched the clouds grow closer, so inviting and pure after the desperate, violent battle she'd thrown herself into.

Movement in the distance caught her keen eye, too far off to be another siege team and too large to be a scouting party. What looked like dozens of deer flitted between trees with the effortless gait that made them so infuriating to predict. They came across a small clearing with a stream and splashed their way through without hesitation, emerging on the other side to form back up before carrying on. A small group of them stopped and yelled something behind them, and in seemingly no time at all the forest was suddenly alive with hundreds of deer. No, not just hundreds, she realized in sudden horror -- thousands. An entire army of them!

She paused with her claws against the cloud. She could stay up here, forget about what she'd seen. All she really wanted to do was sleep and forget about the whole damned day. But...she'd made a promise to Spark, and in all of her years of service she'd never gone back on her word.

"Fuck it," she muttered, diving back to just above treetop level.

General Phalanx was running out of reserves. With his forces split between two separate breaches in the keep's walls, four primary engagement points in the main clearing, and numerous smaller skirmishes, it was clear that his stallions were on a very narrow precipice. Still, he had not yet been overrun, and that was enough to keep fighting.

Someone landed behind him, heavy and wet in the mud. He arched an eyebrow at the sight of Gilias positively covered in blood, with armor that had been so defaced by combat that it was scarcely recognizable.

"The hell happened to you?" he asked in genuine curiosity.

"A bunch of tree rutters bled all over me." Gilias took a moment to catch her breath, surveying the battle with an experienced eye. In the time since she'd flown off, the keep had been practically ripped apart on two sides. The pile of dead ponies continued to grow, and many more wounded were laid out under whatever cover could be found for them. On the ramparts the teams of scorpio operators were firing off bolts as quickly as they could load them, while volleys of arrows were exchanged over the walls with unrelenting regularity. The deer were closer now, and showed no signs of letting up.

"General, I've got some news you're not gonna want to hear," she said.

"About what?"

"There's another army coming. Regulars, I think. Thousands of them."

Phalanx lifted his foreleg in surprise. "What? That can't be possible, we've got scouts watching every approach from here to River Run!"

"You've got them watching the main roads and paths. These fuckers are coming from the east, through the forests. It's difficult terrain, but they are deer after all."

Phalanx swore, already wondering how he was going to divert enough of his forces to deal with them while still keeping the main front at operational strength. "I thought you said this was the deer army! Wasn't that the entire point of your scouting run with Decanus Victus?"

Gilias was already starting to lose her patience. "Like I said before, Elinwynn knew we were there. Maybe she was hiding more deer from us in tunnels or something, I don't know."

"Well this is a great fucking time to find out. I should have known it wouldn't be this straight forward." He stuck his head over the battlements. Equestria was losing ground one step at a time. If he could only hold out until reinforcements arrived, he might stand a chance. "Celestia guide us in our time of need. Alright, we'll deal with it. Battle-Master Gilias, I want you to take two contuberniums and help defend the north-eastern quarter. Delay those deer as best you can, so that we--"

"I don't think so," Gilias cut in.

"Excuse me?"

"Look, I know you're trying to be all stoic and shit, but let me reiterate this for you: there are thousands of redtail reinforcements coming, and you don't have the bodies to throw at them. A good shove from any direction and this entire battle is going to turn into a one-sided slaughter. Believe me, I've seen more than my fair share of them."

"I am not giving up this position! We hold not only the high ground but a solid defensive location. So long as we receive reinforcements of our own, I see no reason to give up our gains."

With a surge of anger and a deep roar Gilias lifted Phalanx by his pauldrons, standing on her hind legs so that she towered over him as his legs kicked in the air. "You listen to me, Equestrian! I just lost the only pony I have ever given a single flying fuck about, and it's only because of him that I'm here listening to your stubborn ass!" Phalanx's personal guards approached with their weapons out, but he waved them off. He had no doubt Gilias could put an end to him if she so desired, and no guards will be able to stop her in time. "Fuck your pride, fuck Equestria's reputation, and fuck anyone who would throw more lives away for an action that will mean nothing! Quillyyn Keep is lost! Do you understand me? You can't hold here or you will be surrounded and cut off, and then it won't matter how many reinforcements you think are coming! You need to fall back to the border right now!"

She dropped him onto the ground, still fuming as he picked himself up. Hundreds of ponies were now watching him with interest, waiting to see how he would respond. He was furious almost beyond words at being disrespected so in front of his own stallions, and he had half a mind to have Gilias arrested on the spot.

"I don't recall giving you all permission to stand there with your pricks in hoof! Back to your duties this instant!" The soldiers quickly went back to their tasks as he shoved his hoof against Gilias' chest. "How dare you assault a senior officer! I don't care if you're the gods-damned Emperor of Skytalon himself! I don't know how you operate where you come from, Battle-Master, but in Equestria we show some respect for our commanders! Pull that shit again and I'll have you tossed into a cell, you understand me?" Gilias said nothing in return, and for a tense moment they stared each other down before he put a hoof to his muzzle. "Let's just think about this before either of us does something stupid. Assuming there actually are thousands more of these redtail coming from the east, it's not as simple as just dropping everything and leaving. We have to do this in an organized fashion, else we'll have anarchy. This has to be a tactical retreat."

The feathers along Gilias' torso ruffled in a ripple of shot nerves. "Call it whatever you like, Phalanx, you're the general here. I'll stick around to help with the evacuation, but after this I'm done."

"I don't believe I heard you right. You're done? What do you mean 'done'?"

"I've accomplished everything asked of me and more. Just ask Imperator Tall Oak, or Cadisius, or, hell, even Victus. I've put in my work and taken my scars for Equestria, but I'm just one griffon. That, out there?" she pointed to the increasingly close battle. "That's the biggest army I've ever seen, and there's more coming. I can't do this alone."

Phalanx let out a long breath, studying her with his good eye. The griffon woman had been of great service in their efforts against the whitetail and the cultists in equal measure, but he supposed everyone had their limit -- especially when they didn't truly have to be there.

"If that is your wish, Battle-Master, then so be it. I cannot order you to stay, though after your recent display I think it might be best if you return of your own volition. Were you one of my own there would be hell to pay for such a disrespectful act. Consider yourself lucky."

Gilias sneered as she took the air, weapons already out.

"Yeah. I live a real fuckin' charmed life."

Victus threw up his shield just in time to stop a pair of knee blades from slicing into his throat, then leaned into it to shove the attacker back. A blind strike from behind cover was rewarded by a shout of pain, and the deer before him fell to the ground with a deep wound to his chest. Yet even as he struggled in his final moments, another took his place. There seemed to be no end to them, and no matter how many he brought down there were always more, a veritable ocean of antlers, flag poles and glinting helmets stretching as far as the eye could see.

The long spears of the principes lashed out through the gaps in the shield wall, only to be answered in kind by the redtail. The deer thrusting weapons were particularly nasty, ending in a barbed tip that tore its way out of anyone unfortunate enough to be in the way. Combined with the unrelenting, highly offensive style the deer so favored and the judicious use of magic to knock the front lines off balance, the cost in lives had been horrendous.

A chorus of horns sounded from what remained of the ramparts, a short note followed by a longer one, repeated three times -- the call to retreat. Victus almost couldn't believe it, sure that he was hearing things until the trumpeters repeated their orders. Equestria didn't retreat! Not once had they been forced to lose ground in their campaign against the whitetail, yet the first battle against the redtail was turning into a rout!

"Fall back!" the lead centurion yelled above the noise of battle. Victus chanced a look around, seeing no obvious way to quickly retreat without facing heavy losses. The slow, steady process of giving up ground while keeping their shields to the front began immediately. Some unfortunate soldiers tripped over the bodies of their fallen comrades, only to be mercilessly destroyed by the now emboldened deer. The line was falling apart, bit by bit, with some of the rear guard taking their chances and fleeing at the expense of others.

A volley of ballista bolts tore through the front lines of the deer, followed by a final swarm of arrows.

"As one!"

From somewhere behind him Victus heard a collective "hah-ooh!" accompanied by the chiming of Equestrian magic. The first three lines of the deer formation before him were suddenly and violently sent tumbling though the air as if picked up by a whirlwind. Some had reacted in time to resist with their own magic, but many were unprepared. Chaos broke out for a few precious seconds, giving Victus and the other legionaries at his side the time needed to turn and run. All pretenses of a methodical retreat, at least for now, were lost as the survivors saw their opportunity to escape.

Equestria's soldiers streamed through the open gate, a mix of blue, yellow and red crests marking each branch's survivors, many of them wounded. The looks of terror and dread from the newest recruits were difficult to behold. Mixed in with them were the dejected veterans, skilled combatants who had come to enjoy victory after victory in their campaign against Whitetail. That confidence had been thoroughly smashed.

Victus yelled for everyone to keep together, but in the crush of bodies trying to fit through the gate it was inevitable that some would be separated from their units. Once he pushed through into the open courtyard that had been littered with arrows, debris and shattered bodies he took cover behind the crumbling wall of an impromptu field hospital. Apothecaries frantically worked on the wounded and carried out the dead. The cries of agony were almost deafening.

"Have we lost anyone?" Rockfall asked as the remnants of the contubernium gathered round. Several of them had been injured, and in the brief moment of respite they tended to each others' wounds.

Victus leaned against the wall to catch his breath. Drying blood matted his coat and made his wings stick together as he attempted to stretch them out. In a moment of dark humor he realized that no one had mentioned that his wing-blades might actually hinder him from flying; just not in the way he would have thought. "Caldrian and Birch Bark are missing. We got split up in the rush and I haven't seen them yet."

Another trumpeting call, this time three short notes followed by one long.

"Damnation. We might have to leave them for now. We need to find Flurry Dream and regroup with the others." Rockfall turned to the squad. "Can everyone still walk? Good. See to your wounds as needed, but make it quick."

As Victus helped one of his squad mates with their wrappings, the unmistakable silhouette of a griffon rushed by overhead with heavy, powerful flaps. It stopped above the keep's entrance, watching the last of the Equestrian army trickle in, then flew straight up until it vanished into the low clouds.

"Leave the damned scoripos! I don't care how you do it, just make sure they can't be used by the redtail!"

General Phalanx took a final gallop along the ramparts, carefully watching for spots where siege weapons had torn gaping holes in the floor. Bodies littered the walls and hung limp against the battlements, and much of the stone flooring had become slick with blood. Those who were uninjured rushed from place to place to gather any equipment light enough to be carried off, and smashed anything too heavy or too valuable to leave to the deer. In the courtyard below, catapults were being systematically torn apart and set ablaze while what remained of his forces attempted to reform their lines in the midst of pandemonium. The retreat into the relative safety of the keep had not gone as smoothly as he would have liked, and for the first time the professional army of Equestria had lost itself to panic, if only for a few moments.

The iron bars of the entrance gate slammed down and locked into place after the last retreating pony made it inside. Phalanx peeked between the ramparts. Hundreds of dead and mortally wounded still remained outside. It twisted his guts into knots to know that they would fall into the cruel hooves of the deerfolk, but nothing could help that now.

A standard-bearing Imperator trotted up to him with heavy limp. Blood-stained bandages covered his right side from his neck down to his flank. "Sir, the 8th Guard cohort has confirmed that their able-bodied soldiers are within the keep. I believe all units are now accounted for."

"You're sure?"

"I can't say with absolute certainty, sir, but as of this moment it's nearly impossible to get a precise tally of every last stallion. It would take far too long to do so, in any event. We'll be ready to depart shortly."

Outside of the keep the deer had begun to march en masse once more. Their officers shouted news of glorious victory, and the collective response of thousands echoed through the forest.

Someone called to him from below. "General, sir, the deer reinforcements are approaching from the east!"

Phalanx gave a final look to the deer who were drawing ever closer with siege weapons in tow, heavy battering rams that would tear through the gate in short order now that little to no resistance remained. To make matters worse, armored deer were now starting to become visible through gaps in the tree line, the same group that Gilias had spotted before her departure.

Standing tall and proud at the rear of the main force, surrounded by his precious Protectorate magii, Brother-General Corvalix locked eyes with him from across the distance. He had no doubt they would see each other again.

"Not one step closer, you bastard." He turned to the squad of unicorns who had assembled along the wall and nodded. One last contingency to cover their retreat. "Do it."

Gathering together into a circle, the unicorns gathered their power into a singular ball of energy that roiled and crackled as its surface swirled with all manner of colors. The orb lifted into the air, glowing so bright that Phalanx had to shield his eyes, and in an instant it shot into the ground just in front of Quillyyn Keep's battered facade. The light faded to nothing as the deer carried on.

Brother-General Corvalix snorted in amusement. What in the world had the ponies hoped to accomplish with that little display? It had certainly been a fascinating sight to behold for the brief time it had existed, and if their goal had been to create a pleasing light show then their mission had been accomplished with aplomb! He'd expected more out of the bedraggled remnants of Equestria's 'mighty' armies. Perhaps if he was feeling generous he would make some of them into entertainers when all was said and done.

The battering rams were nearly to the gate now, each one a work of art as much as a weapon of war. Watching them tear through the last line of defenses would be a wondrous sight to behold.

"Brother-Captain Scalaryx, you may begin at once," he told the subordinate at his side. Scalaryx saluted and prepared to give the order, augmenting his voice with a magical boost.

"Solaan dwyll, shynaa kors--"

A wave of concussive force swept over the clearing with a deafening roar as the ground shook like an earthquake, sending Corvalix, Scalaryx and the entirety of the senior cadre sprawling. A massive plume of frozen soil, grass and snow erupted into the air all along Quillyyn Keep's perimeter, taking with it the bodies of ponies and deer alike that tumbled like rag dolls. Long tongues of dark green flame poured out of the gaping chasm and washed over the redtail in a burning wave, incinerating hundreds outright and leaving naught but charred corpses in its wake. Thousands of deer scrambled to their hooves, turned and ran in a sudden fit of panic to escape the rapidly approaching wall of death. Entire formations were swept up in the maelstrom, their screams carrying for miles around. The emerald flames subsided as quickly as they'd appeared, a wide swath of scorched earth marking their passage while boulders and debris rained down from above, landing among the survivors with heavy thuds and crushing impacts.

Corvalix lifted himself to his knees. His vision churned and his head pounded while his stomach threatened to empty itself at any moment. The destruction laid out before him was unbelievable. A fine mist of dirt continued to rain down upon him as the smoking, burning chasm between himself and the keep came into focus.

He couldn't believe it. The Equestrians had lain a trap for him, using his own weapons, and his army had walked right into it. All around the battered walls an impassable ditch had been torn from the earth in a jagged, blackened scar that belched magical fire. To the east, where once his flanking units were moments from crushing the last semblance of resistance, an entire swath of forest burned with an intensity he'd never seen.

A final, desperate act of defiance by the defeated ponies. They had given their lives to spite him. He scowled at the the temerity of it all. In the end, it would mean nothing. Phalanx and his ilk had only succeeded in delaying the inevitable.

As he regained his commanding stance, returning to his hooves, he saw the faint glow of a flickering dome wink out of existence within the keep's shattered walls. His jaw trembled in anger. It couldn't be...

A collective shout traveled across the battlefield.

"Honorem Equestria! Hah-ooh! Hah-ooh! Hah-ooh!"

A stone catapult ball hurdled through the air and smashed into the ground not ten yards from his position. On it, written in crimson dye, was a message in his own language.

Remember this day.