Chapter 10: Safety Is Secondary

We follow a set of train tracks, leading straight to Ponyville. As useful as the Growlers were, the roads just weren't big enough. My soldiers immediately file out into their respective lines, as Emeris' and Lucretia's troops do the same. The town is full of frantic ponies, screaming at the top of their lungs and running with all sorts of luggage. Doors bang open; cookware and various objects are gathered in a frenzy. We do our best to rush through the middle of the city to where the Og Nag are reported at. The same ponies trying to run to Canterlot now freeze in their tracks once they catch a glimpse of us. I try to call out to them, instructing that Canterlot was the safest place to go, but I can’t be heard over the chaos. I order my men to halt. Emeris jogs up to me. I stop and call out to my troops.
“They can’t hear us, so for now, we stick to the river. Give them a clear, uninterrupted path to Canterlot. We’ll make our way west until we find the Og Nag. After that, we’ll form a defensive line. Let’s make the body count high!” The soldiers roar in response, punching their balled-up hands together and throwing their arms in the air. We’re all eager to get revenge on the same enemy who ravaged our homeland. We jog in five single-file lines, with Emeris’ platoon doing the same several meters behind. We hear a tremendous explosion to the far left. Over the trees across the river, a massive cloud of yellow smoke rises from the ground. I see Celestia darting around the sky, annihilating Og Nag with dazzling beams of magic.

Unfortunately, the sight and sound of it just causes more panic. I hear rummaging in all the houses. Could they really have received so little warning? None of this added up. How did the Og Nag get this far south? How was Ponyville so late into evacuating? None of it mattered at the moment. The Og Nag were already here, storming houses. I hear screaming from a few of the homes ahead; it’s time. I give the order to fan out. We descend into the storm, ready to do what we do best. I order two of my lieutenants to try and block off more Og Nag reinforcements coming from the south, as my last lieutenant and I try to save as many ponies as we can. We spread out, each sergeant taking their group of five soldiers, and entering a house. Screams echo from every building, as I'm sure no pony is expecting a fully armored death machine to come in and try to save them.

I kick in a door and see a family of three. A colt with light tan fur and a brown mane lies in a corner with multiple bruises. A small filly is nestled up against him, sharing her mother’s purple mane. Their mother lashes out violently by hurling every pot and pan in their kitchen at an Og Nag that climbed through a window. He covers his head as he pulls out his sword. There's no room in here to draw my weapon without risking injury to one of the ponies. I tilt my head down and tackle the Og Nag into a cupboard. It explodes, sending wooden fragments through the air. The wall gives in a bit, but doesn't topple out. We bounce off, and end up on the floor. I hear a buddy of his climbing through the window as well. I get up, and boot him back through the windowsill. The Og Nag on the ground reaches for his sword, but I put my boot on his hand before he can grab it. He covers his face as I pound it mercilessly with my fist. Eventually, one of his eyes is hanging out of his socket and he stops moving. A few of my men run upstairs and come back down with an all clear.

The mare begins throwing more materials at me with her magic, which harmlessly bounce off my metal armor. She runs out of cookware and cowers with her family in the corner. Her multicolored purple mane is a mess, and her pink coat has a few minor scratches on it. I take off my helmet and kneel down.
“You need to get your family to Canterlot. This place is about to become a warzone.” She looks at me with her magenta eyes, almost petrified, but rummages her husband from the ground. They begin limping from the house. The colt stops and looks behind him. His beard leads into his moustache, a style I had never seen before. I do my best not to chuckle. He looks down embarrassed.
“Honey can you grab my…” She growls angrily and lifts a tennis racket off the wall and hands it to him. I instruct one of my men to escort them back.

As we exit the house, a large group of 20 Og Nag charges us from the left. Before I can grab my shield, a considerable purple explosion throws them all to the dirt. Luna's shadow races by on the ground. The Og Nag are hurt but slowly get to their feet. She swings back around and gives them another blast. The moment they’re knocked around again, we charge forward drawing our weapons. Not a single one has time to get back up before being executed. Luna was even careful enough not to use a damaging spell, with just the right amount of force to stun them.

She lands in front of us, with a face full of fright and anger.
“Raiden, they’re slipping by us to the North and going after anypony trying for Canterlot! They’re too close for my magic! I need a few of your people!” I nod and motion for three nearby soldiers to join her. They’re surrounded with a purple glow, and are carried off with her.

As we push forward, slaughtering enemies left and right, we finally come to the heart of the problem. A few thousand Og Nag were walking towards us, following the train tracks from the southwest. They're spread out in a long line about twenty to twenty-five Og Nag thick. I pull out my horn, and blow two times followed by one last long tone, meaning “Group on me”. I hear a wave of clanking armor, as units from all around the city move up. I signal for them to form a defensive line by forming an X across my chest and pounding on my shoulders with my fists. Immediately, shields get slammed on the ground in between the last houses and the approaching creatures. I look off to the southwest and still see yellow explosions. Celestia seems to be doing alright for now. I grab one of my units running forward with spears, and tell her to check on Luna, before I take her bundle of weapons.

A few screams makes my head snap towards the Og Nag. A teal colt holds onto his daughter as he storms out of their house in terror. He looks at our shield wall, before glancing behind him to the Og Nag. He has no idea who to trust. I need to hand out weapons before the Og Nag get here, but saving the pair would require dropping them, possibly weakening our first vital tactic. My hands clench around the weapons as I try to decide what to do. I look to my left and see Emeris blitzing towards the shield wall. He jumps on an overturned cart and lets out three arrows in a cone. They whiz over the head of the colt, who huddles on the ground with his daughter. His eyes are shut tight and he trembles with a look of defeat on his face.

Lucretia runs up from my right and uses our hunched soldiers as stepping stones to vault over the shield wall.
She knows full-well we can't help her if she screws up. As she lands, she pulls out her rapier. While she's never bested anyone in a duel, she had a damn good reason for it. Her sword skills relied more on precision cuts and thrusts, as opposed to brute force. She could cut an artery and dance around as you bled to death without you even noticing; not something you can really practice on a fellow soldier. She was wicked fast, agile, and almost never made mistakes. She was exactly what she had to be, given her muscle disorder.

She slides forward across the ground, wrapping an arm around the colt and his daughter. She whirls around, tossing the pair closer to our shield wall. A soldier removes his shield and drags them behind us. Lucretia holds the line for a few seconds, slashing the wrist of the first Og Nag in range. Two arrows fly by her sides, nailing the other two assailants. An Og Nag runs up and tries to swipe at her. Before he’s even started swinging at her, Lucretia already had her sword raised. She takes a small but quick step back, easily dodging the swipe. The moment the Og Nag’s sword moves past her, she brings down her rapier, and severs his hand. His sword goes flying off to his left, cutting off a leg of his ally. She finishes him with a quick jab into his eye, then pulling it back, ready to impale again if need be. She keeps her body turned to the side, with her right arm facing forward so she can take small, rapid steps when need be. Her upper body is perfectly straight, giving her complete balance that she keeps no matter how quickly she darts around.

She sheaths her rapier, and rolls over our units forming the shield wall. The soldier she rolls across, ducks his head. She lands and immediately starts shooing the father away from the front line. The father turns to her and lets out a tearful thank you before running away with his daughter.

I run up to our wall of shields and start handing out spears. Many invaders don’t get a chance to even touch the shields before getting impaled. There was one issue: we had to hold this until the town could be fully evacuated. The bodies of our adversaries were beginning to pile up and we were nowhere close to being done. It was easily the second largest advantage of the Og Nag: no matter how good your defense is, the piling bodies become a problem. They had no other tactics than to run forward with massive numbers. I give lieutenant Albia the order to start clearing houses as fast as possible. Doors get kicked in, followed by screaming ponies. We do our best to seem friendly, but in all honesty our armor was meant to scare and kill. Ponies would run out of their homes, and straight into another house. The chaos started to build up. I called over lieutenant Albia.

“From now on, I want all our soldiers to stay off the main road leading to Canterlot. With any luck, the civilians will automatically run down it.” She nods and passes around the order to her sergeants. The side of a nearby house explodes, as three unicorns send five of my soldiers sailing. I groan loudly.

I hold up my hands to my other approaching soldiers.
“Clear a path, let them through. If they don’t want to be here, let them leave, they don’t need as escort.” One of them looks straight at me, and I have to roll to the side narrowly missing a bolt of fire. My men start charging them instinctively. They can’t hear my orders to fall back over the chaos. Two of the unicorns are tackled to the ground, as a third starts sending waves of magic at anyone approaching that knocks them down. They do their best to wrestle the unicorns to the ground, but with the ability to levitate any type of chain or rope, they become a massive waste of effort. With neither of the trio looking at me, I run over and with a quick fist, knock all three of the poor creatures out. I use the side of my hand, as the small spikes on my knuckles could give them brain damage or even kill. Hopefully they survive this, but prayers were a waste on the Og Nag. Two of my soldiers carry the trio back towards Luna.

I look back to the shield wall, as the pile of adversaries begins to almost match the height of our wall. Every impaled Og Nag is booted back, adding to the pile. My soldiers resort to impaling them, then picking their corpses and hurling them forward. The stress begins to build on me as my scout comes back, telling me that Luna is doing her best, but she’s wearing out fast. I think for a moment.

"Grab two units to assist with her." The scout nods and turns around. I put a hand on her shoulder.

"Wait, one last thing: tell Luna to go for accuracy over brute force, we might be here a while." The scout looks embarrassed.
"Sir, I'm sorry I almost forgot: Luna’s sister is having troubles as well." The stress is doubled as a second scout runs up to me, screaming that half the Og Nag from the south have moved around to the west and are now going to hit us from our right flank. I let out an angry howl as I try to keep my anxiety in check.

I pull another soldier aside.
"Find Emeris immediately and tell him to set up another defensive line to the west." He nods and darts to the south where I last saw Emeris. I try to keep focused, as I talk to the first scout who's going back towards Luna anyways.
"Actually, find Lucretia and tell her to stay with Luna the best she can. Also start dragging dead bodies to the river to help the shield wall." I go over the checklist in my head.

I'm suddenly thrown to the ground as a shrieking Og Nag tackles me from behind. We both go rolling across the ground. I feel his hands lose their grip and he's thrown clear. He had to have somehow been hiding in some rubble. If an Og Nag couldn't flee, they hide and pounce on units they recognize as high ranking. Before I even realize what’s happened, the Og Nag jumps up using all four limbs, and blitzes towards me with a vicious hiss. He gets an arrow in his chest by Emeris, who runs over and helps me up. Before I can start yelling at him about our right flank, he tells me the shield wall is failing.

I curled my hands into fists and yell angrily. There was so much to keep track of.
I look around me: houses had missing doors, windows, or entire walls.
“Emeris, can we use these houses somehow?” He holds a balled up hand under his chin and thinks.
“We can put archers on the second stories or even the roofs so we can pick them off from farther away.”
"Put as many soldiers as we can spare on it!" I yell over all the noise, and make my way to the shield wall.

The pile of Og Nag is almost three feet taller and is in danger of falling on us. I start gathering a few soldiers and begin explaining that we need to topple the wall of bodies backwards before it can fall on us. A massive purple explosion erupts on the right, between the bodies and shields; both are knocked backwards. Luna flies by and waves at me. This was bad. Now the Og Nag had a nice breach to storm, and they go for it. With our units unable to hold the area, the Og Nag let out their high-pitched cries and start moving in.

Emeris takes a large group of soldiers and they do their best to hold the breach. I take archers from a house to my left and order them to change spots to help defend the hole. As soon as Luna lands next to me, I hear a cry from a few soldiers to my right. The Og Nag from the west had finally swung around. I pull out my sword.
“Use the buildings as choke points, but keep moving forward to the river!” Luna starts jogging alongside me. I stop, and she does the same. To my shame I start yelling at her.
“You stay back! You’ve done enough as it is!” I scream, pointing at the massive hole Emeris was risking his life to defend. She looks down and blushes as her ears go back. She sits on her haunches, looking off to the right. My heart shatters as those teal eyes tell me she was only trying to help. She wasn’t a soldier; I had no excuse to yell at her. I try to apologize but my childish pride and anger stop me from taking fault.

I start to run to the west with the rest of my soldiers, when I see Lucretia bolt past me, away from the action. I try to catch up, but she makes a bee-line to Luna oddly enough. They exchange only a few words, with Lucretia pointing at the hole in the wall, then Luna getting up excitedly and nodding. Lucretia turns around.
“Sir, Luna can use her magic to move the bodies back. She was doing that to the North and it made an absolutely critical difference! We were able to stack their bodies up and make a choke point in just a few minutes. Everyone has been evacuated from the town to our knowledge.” The first good news I’ve had all day and I was already feeling the drain. I nod to her.
“Then we need to hold this spot the best we can. Right now, we have a decent defense and we need to use it. If things get better, take your soldiers to Celestia and help out. “

Right as she nods, I hear screams of agony. We both look over towards the west and see a mammoth of an Og Nag wearing a metal chest piece, gauntlets and a helmet. It wields two massive axes the size of your average soldier. He has armor on his legs too, but they only cover his shins and hamstrings. I had hoped only the Og Nag’s basic infantry had been teleported, but their fiercest warbeasts had made it here too: Garges. On its chest piece was the symbol for the nation of Cartridge: a fierce looking hawk with its wings wide open, talons coming straight at you. Cartridge had experimented with creating Og Nag meant more for sieging by enlarging them and giving them special armor. They were also a bit smarter, but their endless rage was a decent counter. It was easily three feet taller than I was, with bulging arms that could sometimes lift a fully loaded Growler on its side: we found that out the hard way.

Lucretia and I dash towards it, as it mercilessly sends units flying left and right. Two soldiers try to brace themselves, knowing it’s too late to run. They’re sent flying through the first story of a house, as the Garge gives them a nasty backswing with its ax. Its victims lay motionless as they tumble out the other side, covered in wooden debris.

Its mouth drools, with multiple teeth sticking out from its jaw. It towers over us, effortlessly swinging an ax at anything that moves. My units do the standard practice of banging on their shields to draw its attention, but the screams and yells of war block out the distraction. I pick up a pot from the ground and hurl it. It makes a loud ding, bouncing harmlessly off its helm. It turns to me, lets out a growl and charges. Lucretia stays crouched behind an overturned cart to my left. Right before he runs past her, I give her a hand wave. She darts out, and cuts off its leg. She nails it right above the knee, in what had to be a mere inch of exposed skin. It roars in anger, falling to the ground.

The nightmare isn’t over, as it swings its axes wildly, causing itself to spin. Lucretia calls out for everyone to watch out. She flings herself backwards and to the ground, barely getting missed with an ax. The sounds of arrows hitting its armor fill the air. Again and again, the archers have a hard time hitting their mark with it having so much plating. It stops spinning, and digs its axes into the ground. The back of its weapons have large points just for climbing up the side of a mountain, digging into and pulling down a stone wall or penetrating the iron plates of a Growler. It roars at Lucretia and begins chasing her. Its strength and stamina are horrifying, as it’s able to keep pace with her just from digging the axes into the ground repeatedly like a horizontal mountain climber. As she turns a corner going around a house, it almost catches her foot with a sweep. Sparks are seen briefly, as the mere scraping of metal is all that stands between her and a brutal end, but the beast ends up demolishing half of the house's first floor.

The former home creaks and groans, as it starts toppling over, with a few archers inside. The beast lets out a deafening roar, tearing after Lucretia, who instinctively leads it away from the bulk of our forces. It was agility over endurance, as she does her best to stay ahead of it. The house falls over, accompanied by the screams of my archers.

I dart over to the debris, my eyes scanning for any signs of armor that I can locate them with. I start ripping out pieces of wood, trying to save them if possible. After a few moments, a single metal gauntlet juts out from the wooden debris, trying to desperately grab anything. I take the hand, and with the help of another soldier, we pull her free. She tells me her partner is alive but critically wounded. A few other stray soldiers dig on the opposite side, pull him out, and carry him off to our other wounded. I take the time Lucretia bought me and fix our defenses.

I hear that familiar roar, as Lucretia comes back into view a few minutes later, at a much slower pace. She does her best to jog, but her arms hang exhaustively at her sides. Emeris and I rush towards her as the creature comes back into view. It takes a few glances around, sees its target and begins its pursuit. We run past her, both of us eager to distract it. I hurl dagger after dagger, which bounce off its helmet. Emeris lets out a few arrows, with only one hitting it in the shoulder. It's my lucky day, as my daggers only seem to piss it off. He howls and charges after me. I have to dive into the air, as it swings its right arm at me. I can feel the scratch marks on his ax as my fingertips graze over the surface of it. I haul it towards the way it came before it can bring it's weapon back around. I don’t have time to go around a house, forcing me to leap into a window.

I plunge through the glass, sending shards all over the floor. I roll when I land, repeating the same action as I dive back out of the house. The wall explodes into wooden pieces as the creature effortlessly blows through the house. Its last few pieces of wood holding it up groan and snap, as the structure falls straight down. It collapses on the monster's legs, pinning it. It cries out in rage, flailing about. I catch my breath for a moment. The grin on my face barely has time to form before the beast looks at me, then at its predicament. In a horrific move, it chops off its last leg and comes at me again, with its massive mouth able to bite me in half. I rush through the front door of the next house, knowing that if I turn for even a second, I’ll get caught with a nasty swing.

It’s able to pick up speed with one less leg slowing it down. There's barely enough time to dive out the window as it's roars are close enough to vibrate inside my helmet. I don’t get as lucky, as wooden planks ding off the back of my armor. The scrape of an ax on the back of my chest piece is just barely enough to knock me off balance. I collide to the ground, the beast momentarily blinded with all the flailing debris. There's no point in getting up; I’ll be dead before I can do anything. A propped up section of wall is to my left. I roll under it and freeze, feeling uneasy hearing my own heartbeat pounding in my ears.

The creature looks around. To my luck, its helmet narrows its vision while it crawls. I could get stepped on at any time, but it's my only chance. Its deep growling vibrates the wall I'm hiding under, as it scans the area for my body. Playing dead wasn’t an option as it would probably give me a few hits just for satisfaction. Maybe I can make a run for it if it looks in a different direction. The bottom part of the wall crunches, as it sets a cautious gauntlet down during the hunt. My heartbeat skyrockets. If he moves one more time, I’ll be just another casualty. Arrows clink against the back of its breastplate as Emeris calls out to it. I hear the beast gradually turn towards him, followed by a roar. I peek out from the side of the wall, and watch its other arm carefully. His right arm will move away from me, and towards Emeris, but its left arm might be planted right down on top of me as it turns around.

I see the wall uncrunch, followed by another plant of an axe. I log-roll from under my cover, as its last arm comes crashing down on top of the wall where I just was. I stay still, not out of the woods yet, as it can still turn around and end my lucky streak. It makes two more moves towards Emeris then pauses. I eyed it curiously. His head slowly turns and looks at me, with bizarre narrowed eyes. It grins as it begins to turn around. I roll on my side several times, trying to get just enough clearance to get up. It doesn’t roar or anything as it moves. Multiple arrows from Emeris do nothing to deter it.

A strange chill runs down my spine as I know something is off with this guy now. I get to my feet, and look over my shoulder. I’m nowhere near far enough to get away. I plant my feet and get ready to dodge. It brings an arm back, and with an unnatural cocky smirk, it begins to swing then stops. Too late, I instinctively dive and roll to my side just like it wanted. It actually pulls the ax back a bit and takes another swing at me, this time with the intent to kill. I have a split second to actually turn on my side, hearing the screech of doom just inches from collapsing my ribs.

I use the momentum of tucking my legs to my chest to back roll to my feet. The moment I stood up, I knew it was over. It already has its arm back, prepared for another swing across. This time, I can easily tell from the angle, it’s going to be too high to jump over, and too low to duck. I grit my teeth angrily, accepting my fate. As its arm begins to move, my armor glows purple and I’m yanked into the air. I look up and see Luna struggling to keep me afloat. She starts taking me away, but the last of her magic reserves fade, and I’m dropped through the roof of a house, landing inside the second story. The creature begins howling angrily as more arrows enter its body. I can hear it move after Emeris.

I need the time to catch my breath. Several soldiers yell outside, along with light hoofs on the roof.

“Luna?” I call out. She peeks her head inside the hole. There's a tad bit of enjoyment on her face at the thought of my predicament. I sigh and suck up my pride.

“T...thank you...for saving me.” She stares at me for a few seconds, tempted to speak. Instead she turns around, and glides off the roof. Alright fine, I deserve it.

I make my way downstairs and outside, leaning against the walls of the house for support. The creature is surrounded by Emeris and several guards, with Luna eagerly awaiting a clear shot. Her head is lowered, eyes fixated on her target, legs stiff as metal. Her stance is flawless. I can’t help it, I have to apologize. I clear my throat.

“Luna, look I’m sorry for-” She cuts me off with a fierce but focused tone.

“Not now Raiden!”

Out of respect, I shut my mouth. The beast lashes out randomly at units. It’s still bizarre, it’s almost like it knows if it begins chasing anyone, it will get pounced. It pauses for a brief second to roar, and that’s all the time Luna needs. With a split second to build up, she conjures up a large ball of energy the size of her body, and hurls it at the beast, striking it dead on in the shoulder. Its arm goes flying, and the creature rolls onto its back from the force of the blast, howling in both agony and rage.

Several soldiers jump on it, plunging spears into its chest around its armor. One soldier draws their sword, cutting straight through the neck. The creature lays there dead. Luna pretends not to glance at me, closes her eyes, sticks her nose in the air, and trots off just to show me up. Emeris jogs up to me. When he sees I’m fine, he lets out a sigh of relief from our little fight. I turn my head towards Luna, who’s still within earshot.

“You know, I didn’t think a princess would be so hardcore.” I say to Emeris. I see Luna step a bit more proudly, as she turns behind a house.

Despite being a peaceful nation, it was certainly the wrong place to mess with.