“You son of a-” I punch Big Mac where I know his wound is. He screams and lets go of my ankle. I roll across the ground and lay there with my arms spread out. Big Mac kicks his rear legs wildly while yelling in pain.

I shake my head slowly. “You should have saved him! Do you know how many of us are left?! I belong in a damn zoo now!” Big Mac charges over and for a moment I think he’s going to ram me. My body doesn’t even bother flinching as he skids to a halt and his helmet ax stops just an inch from my face. His eyes are wide and furious.
“You have no idea what I’ve been through! We got left at Ponyville with no way to get back!”

I turn my head and look at him. “What do you mean...we?”

Big Mac snarls at me and stomps away a few feet. “Other soldiers. Ponies and humans alike. It...wasn’t pretty. There was only one place to hide and that was inside the big ugly ones. What do you call ‘em uh...Garges.”

My mouth trembles and I manage to sit up. “How...how many made it?!”

Big Mac looks over his shoulder and shoots me a nasty glare. “I’m fine by the way, thanks for asking. About forty of us made it out, but only half of us survived. Them Og Nag aren’t too good at searching. Most of yer people played dead and it mostly worked. Og Nag walked over em like they were corpses. We managed to slip into the forest while they marched towards Canterlot, but a few of ‘em saw us and that’s when all Tartarus broke loose.” Big Mac grunts and collapses to the ground on his stomach. His mouth trembles as he tries to hide the pain. I crawl over to him foot by foot until I’m at his flank.

I slowly remove his rear armor and there’s a foot-wide gash on his hindquarter. Its caked in both dried and fresh blood while dashed with a bit of dirt. It sat atop a tender looking bump that spanned the entire wound. He must have had it for a while. I tear off what was left of my cape, fold it and try to bandage the wound the best I can. He cries out a few times and his legs kick a bit instinctively. I take a deep breath as I try to re-secure his armor in a way that keeps the bandage on.

“Look I...I’m sorry I punched you.”

His head whips around. “Yer darn right you are! You got some nerve hittin’ me out in the field! Your soldiers told me you had anger issues, but sweet Celestia!” My shoulders slump at the thought of my own men telling stories about my temper. Big Mac takes in a deep breath and calms himself. He looks over his shoulder at me and studies my face. “Don’t worry, the stories ain't all bad. There’s plenty of good ones too.”

I finish his bandage the best I can and lay back on the ground. “Big Mac...where’s everyone else?”

Big Mac rolls onto his back and lays next to me. “They’re laying low in the forest. They didn’t know how bad the situation was, so I volunteered to go scout ahead.”

I nod with wide eyes. “What are the numbers?” I ask hesitantly.

“You got about fifteen of you humans and the rest are the Wonderbolts who survived the tornado, but they’re not flying anytime soon. Broken wings or that lost in space look.” Big Mac swallows and glances at me while I stare up at the sky. “Raiden...are we dead? Is there any way out of this?”

I close my eyes and sigh. “Big Mac...I gotta be honest, I have no idea how the hell we’re getting out of it this time. The neutrals - oh crap I forgot to tell you. There’s a bunch of Og Nag who are fighting Zaran’s forces. They just showed up out of nowhere. They don’t communicate, but they seem to have the basic understanding that we’re...sort of allies. In the sense we’re not killing each other right now. Then the yaks showed up and they’re evening out the odds, but that’s still around ten thousand Og Nag to go through.”

Big Mac closes his eyes and chuckles lightly. “The yaks. That should be fun. They don’t have the best temper so they’re a good response to the Garges I guess. Those neutrals though, that’s kinda weird. How did they find us? The timing too. You think this is another mind game?”

My blood runs cold as there’s snapping of twigs behind us. I slowly get to all fours and look up at an Og Nag who’s my height. The world around me spins and tilts as I barely get to my feet. The Og Nag walks up to me and stops just a few feet away, staring silently with a blank expression that has a small hint of fury in its eyes. In a green flash, it transforms into a changeling. I recognize the purple eyes: it was Pharynx. My jaw hangs open while he looks me up and down with an unimpressed expression. His voice is deep but filled with confidence.

“When I found these neutrals, they were acting completely confused as if they had woken up from a dream. There’s thousands of them. They just stood in one massive group, not knowing what to do. All it took was morphing into one of them and they just started following me. I killed a few stray Og Nag and it wasn’t long before they started doing the same. I’m assuming some of the information they once had, lingers like a distant dream. I lead them here. It took a long time but looks like it was a good call.”

Big Mac runs up with bulging eyes. “Where’s Umbra?! Is she okay?!”

Pharynx looks at Big Mac without moving his head. “Yeah, she’s fine. She had other ideas of where to go. Wouldn’t tell me, but apparently there’s something she remembered from my time being Luna.”

Big Mac looks over at me. “He was pretending to be your marefriend? That’s gotta be awkward.”

I shoot him a small glare then turn back to Pharynx. “Right quick, how exactly does this shapeshifting thing work?”
Pharynx narrows his eyes and sighs. “Basically, I can assume any creature I can picture clearly. Usually only works with creatures I’ve seen but I’ve heard stories about more imaginative changelings who can create their own sizes. However, the larger and stronger the form, the more magic it burns through. So being like an Ersa-minor would last for a good five minutes, but being a pony, you can easily keep it up almost indefinitely as long as your magic isn’t being used to give yourself more abilities than you naturally have.”

I turn to Big Mac who clearly has his mind somewhere else. “Big Mac I don’t have time for the details, but are you and Umbra good? I know her being a changeling must have thrown you off, but I can’t have you two squabbling mid-combat.”

Big Mac curls his lips inward. “We haven’t spoken since she came out during the battle where we tried to take out Zaran’s tanks. We...we succeeded right?”

I let out a small chuckle, remembering how Big Mc was unconscious. “Yeah Big mac, we won that one. Anyways, is there a way to contact Umbra?”

Pharynx shakes his head and narrows his eyes. “No clue, I don’t even know where she went but it was important enough not to help lead the neutrals here.”

Big Mac turns to me, his face beaming with confidence, “Sounds like she’s got something cooking! We gotta get back into the fight and hold out till she comes back.” The light from his face fades as he remembers that neither of us are in any condition to fight. His mouth moves silently with incomplete thoughts as he struggles to find some solution. He’s never been beaten down this bad and his ego is a noose on his life. He gets the same triumphant look on his face that I see soldiers get right before they go charging in and get murdered.

“Big Mac...don’t. I know you wanna fight, but we need to let ourselves rest.”

He stomps booth hooves down angrily and walks several feet away, sending rocks flying as he goes. Pharynx glances to the left and sighs with annoyance. “Look...there’s a little something I can do, but it’s a tactical call. I can heal you-” Big Mac charges up almost immediately. “Do it! We gotta get back in there!”
Pharynx’s ears go back and his nose wrinkles. “I can heal you, but it will take everything I have and it won’t be very much. You won’t be at Death’s doorstep, but you’d better not take any more hits.”

I massage my forehead and close my eyes. “Forget it, hold off for now and let's assess the situation before we make any decisions.”

Big Mac’s mouth hangs open furiously. “What?! We need to get in there! They need us!”

I let out aloud groan. “You don’t think I know that?! We have no information on how the battle is playing out and we might need Pharynx’s morphing more than healing.”
Big Mac stomps his hooves several times. “You’re just a coward! You don’t want to fight!”
I grab what remains of his helmet and pull his face close to mine. “A coward?! You know what’s really cowardly is being so scared of not being in the fight, that you throw away valuable resources for your own ego! I don’t enjoy staying on the sidelines, but it’s part of commanding! Our fight is failing fast and every resource can make or break our defensive! What do we do if the neutrals don’t understand where to go and Pharynx can’t morph to show them?! What if we see a chance to kill Zaran by having Pharynx disguise himself as an Og Nag and ambush him, but we can’t because we just had to heal ourselves?! What if there’s another unit on the verge of dying and Pharynx is the only one who can save them?! Think when you can, act when you must! Not the other way around! Don’t you remember anything from basic?!”

Big Mac sneers at me but says nothing. Both him and Pharynx follow me while we march towards the sounds of combat. A loud crackle above makes us jump. Large thunderclouds had moved in. The light hiss of rain passing through the trees starts to dull the pounding of metal from my troops. “Big Mac...when was the last time it rained?”

Big Mac looks up as we walk, studying the sky. “Honestly, that’s usually the Pegasus that make it rain. They keep the weather in check. I don’t think there’s been natural weather in hundreds of years.”

Pharynx doesn’t look back at us as he chimes in. “It’s all the smoke from the burning towns most likely."

As I stumble out of the forest, the Yaks have already pushed back the Og Nag considerably. My soldiers have clearly learned to just stay out of the way for now. The Yaks mindlessly plow through their ranks, while avoiding hitting the Garges straight on. Whenever a Garge is busy keeping an eye on one Yak, another plows into the side of its leg and keeps going. They have this unspoken strategy of one Yak drawing attention, while other Yaks decimate everything that's distracted.

Emeris jogs up to me while panting. “I’m assuming since we’re not being murdered anymore, that you worked things out with the Yaks?!” he hollers.

I cup my hands to shout over the rain. “For now, at least! They didn’t know what was going on! Pharynx lead the neutrals here and apparently the yaks fought off the Og Nag that went for them! We got another problem though! There’s a race of flyers that got converted into Og Nag. Half eagle, half lion, big dudes and they’re even worse now!”

Emeris’ eyes bulge and flutter. “F...flying Og Nag?! Doesn’t he have enough units!? Why is he hitting us so hard?! There’s no way we can...I mean...we can’t, right? Is there something we don’t know?!”

I give him a shrug and shake my head. “Sure as hell doesn’t feel like it! Look, we already saw a few! I don’t know what they’re doing, but they’re already here technically! Just keep fighting and holding out! If something doesn’t change soon, then there was no hope for us anyways!” A large crackle through the clouds makes us jump. The world grows dark as the thick rainclouds block out the sun. Water begins pounding my back and soaking into my boots.

Emeris looks behind him for a moment. “I got an idea! I’ll get the yaks in a big line and have them just pour through the Og Nag! They’ll have to dodge around the Garges, but it should help even the odds!” He darts back to the front lines and strikes up a conversation with a yak who’s taking a time out. They only converse for a few seconds, before the yak nods and runs off to get the rest of his kind.

It only takes roughly a minute, but all the yaks are assembled in front of Emeris. He quickly goes over hand signal so he can direct them from afar. Shoulder to shoulder, there won’t be any room for an Og Nag to slip past. Emeris is about to give them the signal when I run up with a small idea. “Wait wait wait! We can’t communicate with the neutrals! Have the yaks hit from the sides! We can’t risk killing any of our own forces!”

Emeris recoils a bit. “Oh crap, thanks! I was going to have them dive into the middle!” It takes just one small tactical error to lose an entire battle. My fingers are sore just from having my fists clenched the entire time. If we lose our momentum or control of the situation, it’s all over. We really were playing for time with only around fifteen hundred neutrals, and still easily ten thousand Og Nag to go through.

Something had to change in our favor and soon. Even more yaks could even out the odds, but we never found out if it’s the Og Nag that learn, or Zaran commanding them. Constantly decimating their frontlines with a yak charge, while neutrals mop up would work for quite a while, but just how much stamina did these yaks have?

Emeris jogs to the far right and gives a few hand signals. He starts by putting two fists together in front of his chest, sticking both hands out towards the Og Nag, then circles his hands in front of him. The yaks nod, line up in front of Emeris then give a mighty roar as they plow into the Og Nag front. Yogu takes a small lead while his allies are perfectly aline. Monsters squeal as they get bounced over the yaks or gored so hard, they get half their chest torn open. The yaks make a clean pass through, continue for twenty feet, spin around and charge again.

Og Nag try to jump on them, but their fur is surprisingly hard to grab enough of. One Og Nag stands in front of a yak and tries to bring his sword down on him. The yak bows his head and the creature’s sword doesn’t even penetrate past the thick skull of the yak. The Og Nag gets brutally trampled and every limb he has, is bent the wrong way once the yaks are clear.

Emeris repeats the same hand signals and the yaks line up again. Right as they charge, a Garge that was pushing the front, suddenly turns around and swings his ax into the very left yak. The poor creature screams right before losing his head.

The two yaks to his left can’t help but gawk in horror. One of them gets a sword to the neck and tumbles to the ground. He gets to look up as several Og Nag jump on him and start biting at anything they can. Yogu skids to a halt and roars as he plows into the Og Nag, sending most of them flying. Behind him, the Garge comes running up, ready to play. Yogu does an impressive turn around and charges straight into the Garge’s right knee. The monster howls then grabs Yogu’s horns. Yogu yells and starts pushing the Garge back.

Two other yaks run over to help their friend get up, but he’s already bleeding out. Yogu and the Garge do a tug of war, until the beast’s knee completely gives out and he falls back. Yogu charges over him triumphantly. Before Yogu clears him, the Garge sits up just enough to bite off Yogu’s back left leg. Yogu screams and hops around while looking at his missing leg in shock. The Garge turns over and roars. Before he can finish off Yogu, I’m already on him.

I run up the Garge’s back and dive forward with my sword in both hands. The Garge has enough time to know I’m there, right before my sword pierces into the back of his head. He goes to the ground silently. I use my boot to pull my sword from his skull and watch as Yogu attempts to comprehend what’s probably his first serious injury. He keeps staring at his bloody stump and won’t stop hopping around.

One of my soldiers, private Ingenia, runs up to him with a bandage and starts wrapping it. Still, Yogu can’t take his eyes off it. “Yak...yak never fight Garge before...always puny Og Nag.” Yogu finally stares ahead, still with his mouth hanging open in a frozen gaze of horror. He takes four steps before accidentally trying to put weight on his back leg. He falls over after a few stumbles and just lays there. Private Ingenia does her best to coax him to his feet, but he’s a thousand miles away. blood gushes from his leg so hard, it's almost spraying out. It only takes sixty seconds, but his sides stop rising with his breathing. He's gone.

Instead of charging, the yaks now try to hold the line while the rest of my people try to get Yogu off the ground. I run over to them and shout over all the panic. “I’m sorry but your friend is dead! You have to leave them!”

Yogu’s second in command charges up to my face. “Yaks never abandon yaks!” He pounds his chest with a hoof. “I am Bargna! Bargna never abandon yaks!”

I gently place my hands on his shoulders and look him square in the eyes by crouching slightly so we’re level. “Your friend is gone and you’re about to lose everyone if you don’t get back in line! You’re meant to trample, not stand still!” Bargna’s face suddenly looks drained and he peers over his shoulder. The other yaks are barely able to stay where they are, with constant sword swings. One of his yaks screams and stumbles back with blood pouring down their face. “My eye! Yak can’t see!” they scream over and over, shaking their head and eventually stumbling over their dead friend.

Emeris runs over and yells at the yaks to fall back. They’re too busy headbutting Og Nag to notice the Assassin Garge blitzing up the middle. Emeris and I shake the yaks as hard as we can, trying to get them to pay attention. It’s too late and we both bolt right as the Garge leaps over the front lines. It has that same long head like a crocodile, but this one has smaller axes. A yak looks up at it and screams. It lands right on the yak with a sickening crack.

The monster reaches over and bites down on the head of a nearby yak who looks up at him helplessly. He lifts the yak up with his powerful jaws and shakes him vigorously then throws him into the neutrals. A neutral Garge runs up to the assassin with an ax. The assassin quickly steps to the side, cleaves off the Garge’s hand, brings his small ax back around and hacks off the Garge’s right leg, causing it to lift off the ground temporarily. The Garge is about to land on his back but before he’s even hit the ground, the assassin has already brought its ax back around and beheads the Garge then bolts towards the terrified yaks.