“Hey Terrain, have you seen Sure Step?”

The palomino turned at the sound of his name. “I think he’s in the medical tent, Aim,” he replied.

The archer nodded. “How’s the shoulder?”

“Sore,” the earth pony replied. “Good thing I’m a scout ‘cause I think I’ll be off the playing field for a few days.” He looked around the encampment at the many other warriors in their army. “I just hope I’m good enough to travel by the time this campaign is over.”

True Aim nodded.

Terrain snorted. “There will be no room on the carts to carry me back along with all our other wounded once this is done.”

The archer shrugged. Having never been in a war against mares before, it was hard to comprehend their staying longer than a day or two for what was certain to be an easy victory. “I would not have believed they were that vicious,” he replied, voicing his thoughts.

“Believe it. Just ask Dark Horse,” the palomino grunted before he trotted off, nodding towards a stake placed in the center of the camp.

Aim followed his gaze. He had been occupied at the other end of the camp when Terrain and Sure Step had returned from facing off against the Marazons and had only heard what had happened from the rumors that had circulated faster than fire afterwards. Not one to believe wild rumors, especially what he had been told, he had come to check on Sure Step and find out the truth at the same time. His eyes traveled up the pole - a plain, wooden stake from the local trees, it turned crimson two shoulder lengths higher up. His eyes went wide upon reaching the top. Ears flattening back against his skull, he whined softly, backpedaled, turned and hurried off in the opposite direction to the medical tent.

“The scouts return!” came the cry through the ranks of the halted Marazon army.

Almost in a single gesture, nearly all the mares within hearing range perked up, stopped what they were doing, and turned towards the west.

Soon the scouting expedition came within sight of all, pulling a litter they had specifically taken with them to bring back their dead.

Two healer apprentices that had attended Fly Away, along with two guards, galloped ahead to greet them. Queen Ainippe watched from where she and the Councilmares were going over their battle strategies with their lead war mare, Commander Xena.

Fly Away came out of the ranks behind the council, galloping towards the returning warriors. She was followed by several guards who had been tasked with keeping her under close observation until they could be certain she was no longer possessed by Sombra’s dark magic.

“That may not be a good idea, letting Fly see them so soon,” Neris remarked.

Ainippe glanced at Xena wordlessly. The grey-eyed warrioress took the cue and spoke up. “She will require closure, Councilmare, in order to heal faster and be of use again in battle. Best she starts it sooner than later.”

“Especially since we are due to engage the stallions so soon,” another mare on the council spoke up.

They were interrupted by the healers returning with the retrieval team’s leader, Outback. The unicorn saluted the Queen and her council. “Your Highness, Council.”

“It is good to see all of you returned to us unharmed,” Ainippe nodded. “You do yourselves honor taking the risk to bring our sisters home.”

“Thank you, your Highness,” Outback bowed. “We cannot say the same for those beasts who served the demon king, however.” She glanced behind her as her other two warrior comrades joined her, leaving Healing Touch to stay with the bodies.

“What do you mean, Outback?” asked Neris, her eyes narrowing.

“They have been without mares for too long,” the white-maned mare snorted. The others rolled their eyes in agreement and disgust. She drew out a blood-stained sword with the black tail hair of a stallion threaded through the open knotwork on its hilt. “I brought back his tail to adorn my sword with. The filth thought they would mount us in payment for returning our sisters to us.” She snorted in disgust.

“Worse than animals,” one of the councilmares spat. “At least beasts have courtship rituals. These dogs feel entitled.”

“Except two of them,” one of Outback’s warriors spoke up. “They took no part and we spared them their lives.”

The Queen appeared unsurprised by this news, merely nodding in approval.

“Your highness, we did find a peculiar thing when we arrived,” the leader added. “There was already a stallion dead near our fallen sisters. A pegasus...dark, with gold braided throughout his mane and tail.”

Neris perked up at this.

“He too had been struck by the same crystals that took down our sisters. The crystal army had left him unburied, at the mercy of the carrion,” Outback finished.

“The death looked to have happened at the same time as our flyer’s deaths,” the other scout added.

Ainippe and Neris traded looks, then addressed the returned party. “Walk with us,” the Queen beckoned as she and the older councilmare broke away from the others, towards the litter with the corpses. When they were out of earshot, the Queen spoke again. “Neris, do you think…”

The elder mare was unusually quiet, even shaken. She shook her head tightly.

“He did have this on his ear,” Outback drew something out of a pouch, something that shined in silver. She dropped it into the Queen’s open hoof. “It is of Marazon design,” she added.

Neris froze, staring at it. Ainippe placed a hoof on the councilmare’s withers. “I grieve with you,” she said quietly. “The loss of a child, even in battle, is never easy.”

The two healers had come back by now with the death cart and Fly Away, who was quietly whinnying and crying. Neris acknowledged the Queen’s gesture of sympathy, but eyed the grieving pegasus. “Fly?”

Fly Away turned her tear-stained face to the older mare. Neris held out the earcuff for her to see. Fly merely nodded, continuing past her towards their army. “Outback showed it to me,” she replied even and quietly as she walked past, flicking her ear where she bore a similarly designed Marazon family earcuff.

“Daughter, your brother has fallen,” Neris spoke out. “We need to stick together at this time - “

“Save it, mother,” the pegasus said in a now choked voice. “Let me be.”

The councilmare trotted after her. Feeling no desire to get involved in their family affairs, Ainippe turned her attention back to the bodies of their fallen scouts. She placed a hoof on one mare’s mane, staring back for a moment at Outback’s sword, it’s new adornment of tail hair swishing as she cantered back to the herd.

Stroking the dead mare’s mane back down into place, she sighed. “Blood has been spilt for blood,” she told her quietly. “Not your killer’s - he is a King and many, many more may have to fall against his power to avenge you, sister. But know that you - you both,” she glanced over at the other fallen flyer. “Have died with honor. I only hope Nyx will be with us long enough to escort your essences to the Other World.”

In the camp of the Crystal Army, Iron Blade sat a short distance from the King’s tent, polishing his sword. It had seen scant action thus far this campaign and he caught himself fussing over it quite a bit - sharpening it, polishing, checking the blade for nicks. It longed as much as his restless soul did for action.

There were no other stallions nearby and that suited him just fine, though not the reason for their scarcity. They were giving a wide berth to the stake set in the ground a few yards in front of him, its crimson stain slowly making its way towards the dirt. Blade grunted, unsure whether to chew Sombra out for such a gruesome display of one of their own who had died in the Shadow King’s service, or whether he was more annoyed at the army who cringed before death so easily.

True, there were a few new recruits and those were still uneasy about killing. It couldn’t be helped as they had run short of young and fit, yet seasoned fighters whilst recruiting for this journey, but he saw another side of the more experienced ones as they too avoided the area. After watching them for a time, the red stallion realized what was bothering them so much.

He had to talk to Sombra about it.

As if hearing his thoughts, Sombra came out of his tent, squinting in annoyance at the bright, noonday sun. Out here, in the open, at the foot of the Seven Mare Mountains, there was not as much cover as had been around the original Marazon encampment and for most of their trek southwards and it had naturally annoyed the King of Shadows. Melting into a more pliable form, he snaked across the face of the tent, sticking to its shaded, cooler side. Iron Blade watched him from the corner of his eye, but lost track of the moving darkness at its edge closest to him. It did not matter. He knew where the King was going to appear -

The Commander glanced down, noticing he now cast not one, but two shadows, the one not his own sprouting emerald and crimson eyes, their piercing gaze demanding his attention.

Blade grunted in acknowledgement of his lord’s presence, but turned his eyes back to his sword.

“You lavish that blade with the affection of a lover,” the darkness rumbled in amusement.

Another grunt. “She keeps me alive, commands respect and in turn I make love to her,” the red stallion said simply. “There is little else to do while awaiting battle.”

“It has always been your way,” the shadow admitted. The eyes turned, gazed at the pole and the Commander could feel its mood change, growing brooding, then irritated, remembering well why he had hefted Dark Horse’s head up onto a pole for all to see. If Blade didn’t stop the restless Umbrum’s slowly-building anger over it, it would be bad for everypony.

“I think you’ve made your point, my friend,” he began respectfully. “Though I will have to explain your actions to the ignorant and seasoned fighters alike.”

The shadow turned away from the pole to look at Iron Blade. “Fine. Make sure they understand.”

“They understand it was a stupid mistake on Dark’s part,” the red horse acknowledged. “but it also disturbs some that he had been loyal to you for many years and ended up like this.”

“He will have his burial, Blade,” the shadow rumbled. “but not before the point is driven home.”

“And it has been, my king. Surely you do not require me to tell you that. Have you not felt their fear at the sight of this?”

“Their fear has been a most satisfying meal,” the Umbrum admitted, unmistakable pleasure underlying the dual-echoed tone to his voice. “A last service to his king, even after death.” He paused, then resumed in a slightly surprised tone. “Surely you do not believe that is all this is about, Blade.”

“Is it, Sombra?” Blade asked, careful to keep his tone as neutral as possible. “The motive fit well into your lesson. After gorging on the terror of that Priestess in the temple, was it a little too rich and sweet to not experience again?”

“Take care, Blade. You tread where others have perished,” the shadow rumbled, growing in size, darkness growing thicker, rising from the ground now.

The Commander sighed. “I just don’t want to see you lose yourself to that damnable appetite again. That and the frustration of having this TimeWitch evade you when she was in hoof’s grasp would gnaw at anypony.”

The concern in his friend’s sincere tone calmed the restless Umbrum. He took solid form within the darkness, still attached at the base of Blade’s shadow, not fully in pony form and yet more substantial than before. Iron Blade’s gaze met the jewel-like eyes steadily, showing neither flinching nor fear - only the caring many years, trials and campaigns had fostered for such a creature of darkness.

The three dimensional shadow broke away from the red stallion, gaining familiar, solid pony features until Sombra stood before him in the flesh.

The king nodded. “Perhaps you are right, Blade. The point has been made and I must keep my anger in check, save it for its proper place in battle.” Without looking up at the stake, he added. “I will remove Dark Horse. Speak with the army, but to make some amends for this, I would require something of them - and you afterwards, my long-time friend...”

Quiet Hoof looked around, taking in the two dozen warriors accompanying her northwards, and sighed.

“Something the matter?” Xena asked her.

The scout’s tanned ears drooped. She shook her head.

“She would prefer to have stayed with the Queen,” Xena’s co-commander Outback replied for her.

“So would I.” The warrior mare glanced at her. Hoof looked away from the ground and met her gaze. “She’s one of the few who can keep the peace between Neris and her Highness.”

“They always find a way to antagonize each other. I just smooth things over as I can.” The mare shrugged, adjusting the bow and quiver across her back until they felt more balanced.

Xena smiled. “You underestimate yourself, Quiet. You have a way of calming even an angry stallion...I’ve seen you do it.” She noticed the scout lift her head, her eyes unfocusing even as her legs automatically carried her along with the others through the patchy grasses below sheltering, twisted oak trees. Xena couldn’t put her finger directly on it, but she did not believe that was what was bothering the scout.

The scout mare snapped her head up, causing Xena to look around, wondering at first if Quiet Hoof had heard something they should be aware of outside their hunting party. Neither seeing nor hearing anything unusual, she looked back to her. “What is it? Do you sense something ahead?”

“No, I - no,” she replied. “But we should - be careful.”

“Of course we should,” Outback snorted in agreement. “This is a fool’s errand, retrieving Neris’s bastard child’s rotting corpse. How the Tartarus she talked the council into backing her up in this insanity, I’ll never know.”

“You’ve never had a foal, have you, Outback?” Xena stated more than asked.

“Of course not! And if I had, it wouldn’t have been as arrogant as Night Swift - if he even kept that name undercover, which I doubt.”

“Well,” the grey-eyed mare reasoned. “Think of it as retrieving one of your squad, then. Perhaps that will make more sense to you.”

Her co-commander said nothing and Xena turned back to Quiet Hoof who still carried that somewhat distant look in her green eyes that told her she was uninterested, preoccupied with - something. “Come on, out with it. We’ll need you focused and you are a hundred hoofsteps away from us. What’s on your mind?”

Quiet Hoof gestured for the two of them to move slightly away from the others. Xena followed, veering out of the others earshot, but going in the same direction as the rest of their party. The warrior mare could see hesitancy and conflict in her companion’s eyes and her posture, but in the end, the desire to unburden herself won out. “Years ago, before the crystal armies came to our lands, I dreamed this journey,” she said at last. “Or part of it, at least.”

Xena didn’t believe in prophetic dreams, but kept her opinions to herself for the moment and instead asked, “What part?”

The scout nodded back to their party. “Us - those chosen, and how many. And the direction and terrain we are crossing.” She looked up at the slowly drifting westward sun of the later afternoon, regarding it for a moment, then looking back at the leather-clad warrioress. “And - another.”

“Who?”

Hoof shivered. “I dismissed it as nonsense at first...we were young and full of energy and curiosity and I mean, I have never seen such a striking color of stallion, so where could my mind have wandered to produce such a fantasy?” She paused for a long moment, but caught the steely eyes of her Marazon sister on her, waiting for her to continue.

“He was blood red, a unicorn, with eyes as grey as yours, actually,” she continued. “I dreamed he had captured me - a slave collar around my neck...he was, well...he...“ she swallowed, her step cantering unevenly with the stress of the memory.

“It’s all right,” Xena tried to soothe her. “It was just a dream.”

Quiet shook her head firmly. “No, it...I...after three nights of the same dream, I was tired, worn out. I didn’t know what it meant and I was afraid to go to sleep. I visited the temple to meditate and clear it out of my head and Nyx nodded when she came in and saw me and said, ‘You fear the red one...a bloody blade of iron.’

“Nyx and I grew up as fillies together, but after her rite of passage went so horribly wrong, mother distanced us. I didn’t want to, but Nyx grew so strange, so erratic. Her magic was dangerous - and all over the place.” She paused to swallow uneasily. “Going back to the temple years after we were separated, I no longer knew her as well as when we were children and I didn’t know what to make of what she had said. It upset me, but I had come for answers, so I ignored her and meditated, trying to find them on my own.

“Two nights there and all that happened was the dreams turned stranger...the stallion smelled so good, he had me pinned and I was drunk with him...I didn’t care…

“It was so confusing. By the third day I was I was desperate and so sleep deprived I could barely get out of bed. The Priestesses asked me if I was ready to see Nyx, but she already knew I would say yes and came in before they called her.

“She said I felt helpless, powerless and that was causing the terror. She said that was only half of the dream, that my fear was holding back the other half I needed to see. She walked with me - just as Princess Luna had nights before, but this time in a waking state.

“With Nyx there, now I was holding the beating heart of the blood-red stallion in my hooves while he yet lived. We kissed and…” She trailed off, this time without fear in her voice. “That changed everything,” she continued after a moment. “I felt calmer, more in control. I slept half a day until I’d recovered. I haven’t had the dream since, but I will never forget her words...a bloody blade of iron...to this very day I still do not know what she meant.”

They walked on for a while as her companion mulled the story over in her mind. “I don’t know, Quiet Hoof,” she finally said. “but I do know you are the least aggressive of us. The thought that you could hold a still-beating heart in your hooves - I cannot picture it at all!”

The tan-colored scout laughed. “I know. Silly, right?”

Xena smiled. “Right! Now, go if you’re better for the telling, draw ahead and see if our flyer has spotted anything unusual for you to check out.”

Feeling as if a weight had been lifted from her heart, Quiet smiled, nodded and cantered off, sticking to the higher golden grasses her hide blended in with so well. Very quickly she was lost to the other’s sight and finally even Xena lost track of her progress.

Waiting another moment, she rejoined Outback and the others. “She okay?” the mare asked her.

Xena’s eyes betrayed no answer as she stared ahead, senses alert for any danger. “I don’t believe this will be an easy retrieval of one dead stallion,” she stated. “We should expect trouble - and plenty of it.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Outback, you were with me in the last campaign against the stallions. Do you remember what the crystal army’s weapons were made out of?”

“Of course,” she replied. “Iron.”

Xena nodded. “Iron.”

Terrain, being the least injured of the two survivors, glanced over at the new reconnaissance party he had been assigned to as they crossed the plains at the base of the Seven Mare Mountains. On one hoof he felt safer with the larger party - three handpicked Lieutenants and their Commander, Iron Blade. On the other, he felt sure that the next time they saw the enemy there would be more than just a handful of mares standing in their way.

Still, he focused on taking comfort in the quiet, confident strides of the red stallion and his Lieutenants. This time there was no joking, no bravado or egos along for the ride. They would focus on getting the job done and returning to the crystal army as fast as possible - and intact.
Iron Blade was known for his fierce discipline in battle, yet with the ability to instantly adapt and change tactics as soon as he gauged the situation demanded it for their survival - traits they would need when, not if, the next skirmish took place.

The three Lieutenants Blade had picked to accompany them - Crimson Mane, Smasher and Fire Bow, while most excellent fighters, had just survived an initiation of one of their own and were not fully recovered yet. They had, however, been the least injured and the healers had done their best tending to their wounds. Even so, they were still better warriors than any of the others with them save Iron Blade.

Terrain recalled what he knew of the three; Crimson was one of two bat ponies within the ranks of the Lieutenants. Besides being the best of the flyers at night reconnaissance and stealth, both pony’s fangs gave them the advantage of being able to rip prey apart as they carried it off. The two often worked as a team, spreading terror among the enemy by carrying off a victim, ripping it to pieces in midair and raining the gruesome results down on those below them. It was a shocking enough tactic to cause the distraction and chaos needed to turn a battle towards their advantage.

It was not hard to recall Smasher’s talents. He was a beast of an earth pony who’s muscle mass was larger than the others, but not overtly so. It was a clever deception that belied their steel-like strength until it was too late for his victims to stand against him. He could break a forged sword with his bare hooves as easily as he could crush half the rib cage of a stallion in one blow.

The last lieutenant, Fire Bow, was orange with black hooves, mane and tail. His eyes were a disturbing color mixture that flickered like embers of red-hot coals in a forge. His talent was as a fire-starter - useful from tending campfires, to lighting arrows in battle in mid-flight and upon impact, or worse, focusing his unicorn magic to focus the rays of the sun wherever he pleased to ignite brush and flesh alike while in battle. Those who laughed at him for being a mere archer in his Majesty’s army discovered quickly he was the last pony they mocked as he ignited the very air in their lungs and watched them burn with little to no emotion save fascination.

Whether the Commander believed these three horrific individual’s talents would actually be required on such a simple retrieval mission, Terrain had no idea. He was just grateful that now the army’s leaders were taking things a little more seriously this trip around and actually relaxed as they covered the territory towards their goal.

“Okay, Terrain, out with it.”

The question startled the palomino just as he had gotten comfortable with the return trip towards their destination. “Sir?”

“You’ve been edgy about this campaign ever since it was Sombra’s intent to come this time around,” Iron Blade stated. He turned his sharp, grey eyes to the scout. “You know something I do not and I don’t like that. Secrets costs lives.”

Terrain glanced over at the two ground Lieutenants and bat pony flying low with them. They were focused on the mission, staring straight ahead, always alert for danger, but the subtle twitch of their ears in the two stallion’s direction gave the palomino no illusion of privacy. Oh well…

He gestured away, changing his stride to lead the Commander away from the herd slightly and Iron Blade followed. A click and a gesture from the red stallion directed the Lieutenants to stay with the others and they obeyed instantly, without thinking, moving away to give the two privacy.

Satisfied with the distance, Terrain took a deep breath and blew it out. “It’s going to be a slaughter, mi’lord.”

Blade thought about this for a moment. “Of whom?” he asked.

“Both sides,” Terrain said in a low voice despite their distance from the others.

“And you base this information on what exactly?” asked the Commander. “Their prowess? We never found the bodies of our soldiers from the last two campaigns. There is no proof - ”

“That is because there are no bodies,” Terrain replied cryptically. “And yes, the Marazons fighting skills, but that is neither how nor why we lost two legions of stallions.”

The red stallion snorted. “You will find very quickly that I am not a patient stallion, Terrain. If you are holding back information that endangers even just one of us, I will gut you myself.”

“I cannot hold back information I do not have, Commander,” the scout nearly pleaded. “All I know is what I saw in the future, but not in the now.”

“What?” Blade was confused enough he came to a dead stop.

“I never lived through this fight, Commander,” explained Terrain. “I was thrown into the future days from now, after we won!”