"Two bolts," I spoke to myself with a grimace as I recovered a couple of ammunition for my weapon. "Definitely not much, but it's better than nothing," I muttered as I examined its glazed surface.

Not a single notch on the metal. Not even a scratch on the wood. "Huh. Good work on the maintenance there, bud," I spoke to the motionless corpse as I snatched away a loose fabric from his clothes.

Wiping off the scarlet stains of blood tainting the weapon with a disgusted scowl, I promptly discarded the bloodied clothe to the ground. "Now then. If only I could find a scope for this thing," I said as I fidgeted the end of it, noticing the lack of a sight.

"Gah. Enough talking about this damn thing," I thought to myself before approaching the skirmish. The unicorns were giving their utmost effort to fend off the zerg with their magical barriers, the excess unicorns were shooting the zerg down with commendable marksmanship from the top of the compound.

What caught my concern was the fact that the compound was just beside a railroad. What alarmed my concerns were the fact that the compound was just beside a railroad.

The possibility of the equines evacuating is jarring. It would be catastrophic, should I allow them to retreat. No, I don't plan on an "Kill them all!" type of tactic, I just do not wish for them to recover their strength.

The non-magical equines, gryphons, and bat-equine-hybrids were shooting away at the zerg with an assortment of ranged weaponry.

Their endeavors of repelling my zerg forces were futile as spears simply bounced off the thick carapaces of the zerg, arrows and bolts simply ricocheted. It appears that only magical bolts are effective against them.

Despite their will to survive, I highly doubt that these equines are going to successfully repel the zerg onslaught. Fortunately for them, I dislike seeing lives being mindlessly wasted.

Once I was just behind the cloud of zerg organisms that was surrounding the compound, which basically denied retreat for the equines.

I shouted to my zerg troops, "Hold, all of you!" my zerg complied as they all stopped hacking away at the cluster shields surrounding the compound.

Although, the non-unicorn equines, and their comrades, did not seem to relent their flurry of projectiles, as my forces were still being harassed by arrows and bolts. Though, it was irrelevant to my concerns, as the projectiles weree unable to even scathe my troops by even the slightest.

"Lower your shields, I wish to speak to whoever is leading all of you!" I stated. The unicorns were seemingly unable to reply as they were far too occupied on maintaining the shields. Tch, I wonder if my words to them were audible? They appear as if they are in considerable pressure.

Addendum, I can see why that these barriers are quite resilient, instead of one powering each individual barrier, there were three, or occasionally four. No wonder my forces are having difficulty to advance through.

However, why my roaches, or infestors, are unable to just simply bypass the barriers through digging a tunnel below the shields are a mystery to me. The barriers must be emitting some sort of powerful magnetic force that causes the ground to be nearly impenetrable.

Although, the ranged combatants stationed on the compound were visibly taken aback, some were even glaring at me. I'm actually quite worried that they might hurl a barrage of arrows at me.

"Ha! And let your monstrosities butcher us all?" I heard one of the gryphon archers retorted.

"Do you rather prefer that I test your barriers' durability? They will not hold forever; lower your shields." I repeated. My sentence did not processed through their thick heads as they simply responded by resuming their hail of arrows.

Quite concerned for my own well-being, I took cover behind a hydralisk. Yes, using one's own combatant as a form of living meat-shield might be deemed as cowardice, but the arrows aren't being directed at you, now are they? Being courageous right now is simply suicide.

Agitation was rising within me, "You bastards-" my words were cut short as the sound of a train's whistle resounded in the distance. Just a few yards or so away from the structure was a train going at a formidably fast velocity.

Finally, the train stopped just outside the compound, suddenly, the archers began scurrying off to the train, much to my annoyance.

"Dammit, all of you, resume the assault!" I yelled out. Without even noticing, the unicorns were actually listening to me. Although, as soon as they heard my command, they closed their eyes once more in concentration.

Eagerly, as if yearning to massacre them all, the zerg troops began their relentless endeavors to shatter the shields. Hydralisks shot their exceedingly honed spines at the shields, harmlessly bouncing off the surface of their barriers on impact.

The roaches, likewise, gave no relent at piercing their defenses. They lobbed a volley of acidic saliva at the barriers constantly, the shields were visibly cracked at this point. The zerglings, they gave it their utmost effort to penetrate the barrier's shell with their scythe-like arms.

The various other zerg breeds were, of course, gave no quarter at the shields. However, ultralisks were absent in this skirmish, although, that should've been expected; If I recall correctly, there were only approximately five of them within my swarm.

The infestors, a very intriguing breed of zerg which specializes in utilizing a myriad of supportive abilities, were regurgitating chrysalis-like, no not the living cheese abomination, eggs within the vicinity of the shields.

Infested equines, such as pegasi and unicorns, and the ones who possessed none of those, emerged from those eggs. However, the infested pegasi were unable to fly over the shield-cluster, most likely due to their wings being heavily scathed during a previous encounter when they weren't infested.

Finally, I could see one of the barriers shattering, with a grin, I shouted, "There, focus down that shield!" my zerg complied, and soon enough, the barrage of projectiles were multiplied by a considerable amount as the barrier finally shattered.

Now that I had an opening, I took the opportunity, "Go, subdue all of them!" I commanded, to which my zerg responded with compliance.

The unicorns did not even retaliate as the zerglings pinned them to the ground, as they were all dazed by the sudden destruction of their barrier. The zerglings that pinned them down began dragging them towards, if I had to assume, the town-square.

They held the unicorns' forelegs in their jaws to drag them across the bloodied stone pavement. The unicorns that struggled where met with a stab to one of their non-vital areas with a zergling's scythe, that would normally subdues them. Some even passed out from either pain or blood-loss.

However, these unicorns are indeed desperate, so why they are refusing to just simply teleport is a cryptic enigma to me. So you ask me what is courage?

But if I had to guess, I assume that they're either magical reserves are just depleted from maintaining the shields, or it's just that they're simply too panicked to cast a spell.

Much to my dismay, however, the train began departing, it looks like they're planning to abandon their comrades. Just then, the unicorns vanished with a flash of light, signifying that they utilized a teleportation spell, along with their barriers.

Suddenly, I heard something gallop towards me from behind me, instinctively, I pointed the crossbow which was in my grip at what I thought to be an assailant.

"Take heed of where you aim at with that thing, you might grievously injure someone," the origin of the hoofsteps, who turned out to be the bug queen, Chrysalis, replied in a snide tone.

"Oh, uh, you startled me. Where have you been?"

"Searching for those two that I mentioned before, I only managed to find the pink one, but I couldn't really do anything, she was basically surrounded in a legion of guards."

"Well, I might've found one of them," I said as I pointed at the train which was now in the far distance, which the bug-queen replied by hitting me with her hoof, causing me to yelp out a pained "ow."

"You let him escape? I thought you were more dependable than this." she stated, her once snide demeanor now replaced with an irritated frown.

"Well, pardon me for my incompetence, but, I'm not exactly an expert tactician." I said, "Anyways, how did you cause the deactivation of whatever was generating that shield?"

"Surprise, surprise, the duplicate heart was powered by love, and if you bother recalling what my species do, we consume love."

"So, you basically drained it until there was no love left?" I asked for clarification.

"It was simple, and quite delicious. Oh, and I forgot to tell you this, the pink alicorn is probably going to reactivate the heart, she's already relatively nearby to the heart, her guards are either skilled, or just quite lucky."

"Gah- What? Why didn't you tell me that earlier! We have to prevent her from doing that, or we're probably going to get disintegrated until we're mere cinders." I exclaimed.

"Well, I'm a changeling queen, so I'm basically resistant to the love that the heart generates. So technically, only you'd be the one that would be charred to ashes." she stated smugly.

I shot her an unamused look before replying, "Well, where is the heart located anyways?"

"Well, I'd be quite content to lead you to it, but I don't think I want to right now." Chrysalis spoke.

"Let me guess, you want to control some of my own forces." I stated.

"Clever one, aren't you?" Chrysalis said.

"Well, it seems that retreat is the only viable option right now-"

"Oh fine, follow me." she said, her tone slightly annoyed, "Besides, I want that wretch to suffer." she spat bitterly as she began walking towards the inner parts of the town.

"My swarm, forget about these equines, follow me, I require you for a much more important task!" I called out to my zerg as I caught up with the changeling queen.

I inspected the buildings, or at least, the remnants of buildings as I walked through the bloodied streets. Most of the buildings were relatively undamaged, just a few spines stuck to the walls and so, and occasionally the green acid of banelings splattered through the walls.

Banelings, a particularly impressive zerg strain; Zerglings have to undergo a mutation phase, once they completed the mutation phase, the zerglings erupt from the eggs that they were mutating in as banelings.

Banelings store an astoundingly potent acid within their sacks that they have on their backs. Upon entering the vicinity of a target, the banelings may cause some sort of chemical reaction within them to cause the sacks on their back to literally explode, destroying the baneling itself and the target.

While walking, I saw a tattered bolt-quiver on yet another body. I picked the quiver, much to my surprise it fits me rather well. This is a better alternative than placing the bolts on my belt.

"Hm, since when did you know how to operate that weapon?" I heard Chrysalis inquire.

"Oh, this thing?" I said as I raised the crossbow, "Um, I guess I'm not actually that great with it."

"Hm, where did you even find it?" Chrysalis asked.

"I might have looted it from a decaying corpse, don't judge me," I said, which Chrysalis promptly rolled her eyes to in response, "Anyways, shouldn't we go a bit faster?"

"Ah, I'm in no rush, and do you really expect that Cadance and her little army can breach through in time?"

"I see, but I'd really rather avoid risking dying a very painful death." I stated.

"Well, you not need to worry further, we're close."

"Huh, it wasn't too far away from where the compound was." I stated as I continued walking.

"There it is," Chrysalis abruptly stated as she pointed her hoof at a bell-tower, well, instead of the bell, it was the Crystal Heart,

"Well, it appears as if Cadance is nearing the heart, probably just a few minutes away from reaching the tower," Chrysalis spoke as she turned her head towards the left.

I too looked towards the left, seeing a pink alicorn which had a sizable group of surviving opposing forces. She, and her army, were walking towards the street, apparently with no form of opposition, she must've somehow gotten through the zerg forces somehow.

"I'm going to go ahead and guess that you're just going to spectate from an amply safe distance?"

"Preferably in the safety in the building in which I can simply view outside leisurely through a window." she stated.

With a sigh, I didn't hesitate as I dashed to confront the alicorn, my own army following shortly behind me. Not a lot of time later, both of our armies were but a few yards away from each other.

I was in the front of my swarm, she too was leading her army. We both exchanged stares for a bit before I decided to end the silence, "So, I assume we're supposed to have some sort of grand final battle on who's claiming control of this town?"

"Stand aside, fiend! You've claimed enough lives as it is."

"And allow you to obliterate me and my swarm?" I rose both of my hands in the air "I'd rather not." I finished.

She replied only with a scowl, oh, and by charging a spell aimed at me. Panicky, I yelled as a bolt of magic struck a rather unfortunate hydralisk that was behind me, missing me by a mere inch, "Oh god, I didn't even do anything!"

Much more to my annoyance, the other unicorns began relentlessly casting their spells at me and my army, coercing me to hide into the much more safe back-row of my army.

I noticed that my zerg were still idle, simply just enduring the bolts of magic that are being barraged at them, "Oh for- all of you, commence the bloody onslaught!" I commanded.

Author's Notes:

So you ask me what is courage?

-

Pre-read by:

Marx T

Mimic Kairatta

ForeverADraconequus (Yes, he changed names once again!)