Author's Notes:

So for anyone who doesn't know I changed the magic deterring potion to unicorn family's that left Equestria for Griffonstone.
They've been supporting the idea of war with Equestria too because they detest the fact that Celestia treats commoner ponies just as good as she treats them.
They want to overthrow her and then fight with each other over who gets the throne, till then though they are working together.
They can use powerful shielding spells to protect the griffon armies from other magic, obviously outside forces influenced by magic can kill them but no spells or anything can stop them.

Hark stepped away from the unforgiving cold of the outside world and into the welcoming heat of his father's hall, closing the door behind him he turned to find Reddick standing before the fire with his hands behind his back. As Hark made his way towards his silent father he noticed that the crackle of the fire seemed to be amplified in the enclosed hall.

Coming to stand beside Reddick, Hark was slightly off put by the expression across his father's face. His father glared into the fire, his eyes reflecting the orange blaze. He had a slight grimace across his face and his brow was drawn down. Hark knew he was in deep thought and decided it best to leave him to his thoughts rather than to interrupt him.

Hark joined his father in the act of watching the fire and before long became lost in his thoughts as well. He couldn't help but wonder about what was to happen over the next few days.

The plan was that over the next few days Hark would lead a raid into Equestria, it had to be in Equestria since the ponies had been the ones who convinced Rutherford to accept weak ideals. They also had to make sure to attack only a little unimportant village, after all war with Equestria was the last thing anyyak wanted.

Obviously afterwards, if the raid was done successfully and no one knew who had committed the raid, Rutherford would have a meeting with the ponies to assure them he would find the yak responsible for it. That would keep Equestria from interfering for a while.

In the time Rutherford was gone Reddick would convince the other yak generals, who were still upset and unsure of Rutherford's decision to be peaceful, that the old yak ways were still best. Reddick would use Hark's raid to bring the point up that the ponies weren't able to defend themselves due to their ideals and that the yaks should try to avoid that by returning to their old ways.

They were sure that this alone would tip the delicate balance of who the yaks would listen to and or follow into Reddicks favor and then he would convince the other generals that they should give Rutherford an ultimatum. If he decided to reinstate the old yak ways then nothing would happen, if not then the yaks would rebel against him.

Reddick had made clear that he disliked the possibility of a rebellion for since he was the most experienced, successful and therefore respected general in the yak military then he would be the one elected to lead it.

He didn't want to lead a war against someyak he thought of as a friend, after all they had fought side by side in the griffon war back when the old king, Rutherford's father, was still alive. Reddick genuinely hoped that if the plan got that far then Rutherford would simply change his mind rather than fight back.

Rebellion also meant that since Rutherford had no legitimate heirs then once he was diposed then Reddick would also be the next candidate for king and as much as Hark liked the idea, his father didn't. He considered it to big a responsibility for himself and wasn't confident in being able to lead his country to prosperity.

He may be good with an army but not a country, at least in his own opinion. Hark thought he would make a good king what with always placing the good of the country before everything else.

Now the really hard part would be after this was all over. That was keeping Equestria quiet, they had invested a lot of time, effort and money into Yakistan. What Reddick and Hark were planning would undo all of their work and could possibly bring war if diplomatic relations weren't handled properly.

That's wh-

"Oh Hark! I didn't realize you'd come, I didn't keep you waiting did I?" His father's voice jolted Hark out of his thoughts.

Blinking rapidly Hark smiled and looked to his father,"No, you didn't, I only got here a couple minutes ago."

"Good, I'm sorry about that I just need a moment to think about things sometimes." He looked down with a scrunched up face, his braided beard twisting. He shook his head and turned around, then gestured to the table,"Would you like a seat?"

Hark twisted his mouth,"Ah no thank you, I prefer to stand." He shifted his weight to his left foot,"I'm more observant when I'm upright... and the fire is nice."

Reddick nodded with a small smile,"I prefer to stand, keeps the blood running in this old body of mine." He gave chuckle.

"Oh I don't know, I'd wager that you could take on every young warrior in the country at once and not even break a sweat." Hark smirked,"After all my father is one of the greatest warriors to ever live."

Reddick shook his head and maintained his smile,"That is true but, you may be just as good, if not better." His father gave a proud smile,"I have seen you when you train and believe me you are very good."

Hark's eyes widened at his father's compliment, it meant a lot coming from him and opened his mouth to speak,"T-Thank you father."

Reddick didn't critique the fact that Hark had stuttered, since he was a child he had a problem with stuttering and his father had been sure to correct him every time. Stuttering showed fear is what Reddick had told Hark and it wasn't until Hark was a teenager that he grew out of it.

In fact Reddick didn't even blink at his slip up and instead smiled,"That's why I'm putting you in charge of our raid, I have faith and confidence that you can lead my soldiers without failing."

Hark felt no small amount of pride at his father's words, his chest swelled slightly, but he kept silent as Reddick continued,"The three hundred soldiers I promised are ready, I have personally trained them all and my personal blacksmiths have equipped them with all the gear you'll need."

Hark raised his brow,"Is there any way the gear can be traced back to us should a soldier die and drop say, a sword?"

"No," Reddick looked to the side and into the fire,"I gave the smiths explicit orders to keep our family crest off of everything, in fact I even made them copy the pony style of swordmaking."

In yak society a lords army wore his family crest on their armor and their weapons have a different style of hilt, both of these things are done for the purpose of distinguishing one yak army from another.

"Good, what ships am I to take? Do we still need to procure any ships?"

Reddick shook his head and gave a smirk,"No Hark we don't need to get any ships, if you remember I own a small fleet."

Hark's mouth dropped and let out a gasp,"You're letting me use those ships?!"

Reddick gave a firm nod,"You will have four skeid ships, that should carry all the yaks you need."

(The skeid is the biggest type of Viking longship and can carry anywhere from seventy to eighty men.)

"Yes that should... just about cover it." Hark couldnt believe that his father would give him ships from his own fleet.

Reddick waved his hand dismissively,"Of course four ships will cover it, now, tell me about this village your targeting."

Hark quirked an eyebrow and cocked his head,"What do you want to know about it?"

"Everything." His father's smile became a thin line and his brow lowered, he took on a serious demeanor,"After all you need to know everything about the location you intend to raid before raiding, that way you can expect just about anything."

Hark nodded as he remembered the old saying, knowledge is power,"Well it's on the coastline next to the northeast border of Equestria, just above Manehatten on a map, It's fifty miles from any other village or town."

Reddick's eyes narrowed,"What's the population like, are there any unicorns?"

"No, I checked out the ponies at were when I was scouting it out." He twisted his mouth,"Just about all of them are earth ponies, unicorns don't live there because it's mainly a farming community and the uppity bastards feel that they're to good for that kind of work."

"Hmm uppity bastards indeed, how would they eat without someone to farm for them... are there any pegasi?"

"No, there was one female pegasus a couple years ago, but she died."

Reddick's smile came back slightly,"Good, no unicorns means no magic and no pegasi means no way for them to quickly send word of the attack." He cocked his head,"You mentioned that they farmed, what do they farm?"

"They farm grain and fish for oysters."

Reddick narrowed his eyes,"Oysters? Ponies don't eat oysters."

"No they don't, but they do have restaurants that serve griffons, this is a village that helps supply those restaurants."

"So this village supplies restaurants... how perfectly unimportant." He smiled,"Now for the important question, how's this villages defenses? How many guards does it have?"

"Well it's got about fifty guards," Hark held back a laugh,"After getting one of them drunk in the village's only tavern I learned that they have no experience or any loyalty for their princesses."

Reddick let out a laugh,"What a miserable bunch they must be, is that all the defense they have?"

"No, there's one more thing that will make the raid difficult," He swallowed,"Theres a stone wall that surrounds the village."

"Hmm, a wall... well how many entrances does it have?"

"One, it faces northward and is made of reinforced wood." He shook his head,"The wall is also more than ten feet thick, making the use of siege equipment to break through all but pointless."

(Typical castle walls like I'm describing are about ten feet thick and thirty nine feet tall, this varies greatly though as Conisbrough Castle had seven feet thick walls while Dover Castle walls were twenty feet thick.)

Reddick huffed,"That is an interesting problem," He looked to the fire with a low brow,"You don't need many men to use a wall well, especially when the wall is that thick and as you said siege equipment would not only be impossible to sneak out of the bay but it would be impossible to break through the wall as well..."

(Sieges didn't usually end with a wall being destroyed like you see in movies, after all how do you break through a twenty foot thick wall? With a trebuchet? Those was great when they were first invented, but after it became popular and more people began using them castle builders compensated by making thicker and sturdier walls.

(That's why siege towers and battering rams, which were old inventions by the time of the trebuchet, remained in use. You see instead of destroying the wall people used them to break through the gate or get over the top of the wall. Once the gates broken or wall secured the sieging army could storm the castle or town.)

(Sorry for the history lesson, I've got all this knowledge on history that will most likely never get me anywhere. If you want to know more about castle defenses then watch this video here.)

"I'll send a battering ram along with you, that's small enough to sneak out of the bay. Other than that you'll have to count on the inexperience and disloyalty of the ponies manning this wall, hopefully at the sight of your forces most of them will desert." He looked back to Hark and smiled,"Now I will have the ships and yaks ready for departure tonight, can you leave tonight?"

Hark shook his head,"Yes sir."

"Good I want to get this over with as soon as possible, now that we've got a plan worked out though how about we get something to eat, I'm starving and you need a good meal before you go." His father paused,"Before that I would like to know the name of the village your raiding." Upon noticing his son's confusion he explained,"I'm just curious."

"Oh," Hark shrugged,"It's called something like..."

~

"...Hoofden." Valkyrie smiled as she placed another couple apples in her bucket.

Sam raised his sweat soaked brow and turned his attention to her,"Hoofden? I've never heard of it."

"Well it is a really small village..."

Sam grunted as he lifted his heavy bucket and placed it on a wooden cart,"So you want to go back?"

"No I don't want to go back," She glanced up at the blazing sun,"I was just thinking about how hot it was here, that led to me thinking about how cool it usually is back home."

"Yeah, coastal places are generally nice during summertime," He smiled,"My grandparents had a vacation house on the coast of Northern California."

Valkyrie nodded,"It is nice during the summer, you know it's been nearly a year since I left my village..." She scrunched her face,"I really miss the place, it might not be that big, but I do have a lot of friends there."

Sam smiled and walked back over to her,"I understand what you mean, I felt like that when I first got here."

"Yeah..." She looked down,"You know you were right about me running away..."

Sam nodded with a toothy smile,"I thought as much."

"Yeah, I... I left my dad behind, he's... probably worried sick about me."

Sam narrowed his eyes and cocked his head, seeing as she had never really talked about herself he decided to listen,"Now that I think about it... I really just kind of left him alone..." She swallowed thickly,"And what with my mom dying only a couple years ago he must be lonely."

Sam made up his mind and questioned,"Valkyrie, why are you thinking about this? You never seemed to mind leaving your home before."

She shook her head,"I don't know why I'm thinking about it, maybe it's because you just finished training me?"

"Why would that make you think of home?"

"Well, I guess it's because ran away to learn how to fight and now that I've accomplished what I set out to do I'm reminded of why I left in the first place." She gave best explanation with a shrug.

He stared at her for a second, she almost sounded like a therapist that had analyzed herself,"Okay, uh, I thought you set out to help protect innocent ponies from danger? What happened in your village to make you want to do that?"

She let out a breath and looked away,"Are you sure you want to listen to a long story?"

"Well you have made me curious."

"Alright then." She looked back to him and scrunched her muzzle up,"When I was a kid our village used to have bandit problems, they drink until drunk then cause brawls, extort from the few small businesses in the village and even raid the grain stores that we relied on for food. At one point one of the outlaws actually tried to rape a mare, that's when the ponies in Hoofden requested help from princess Celestia."

"That sounds like a serious problem, what did she do to deal with it?"

"What you could expect from a busy princess, she stationed fifty guards there and sent a couple of the royal engineers to build a defensive wall around us." She huffed,"I remember asking one of them what good that would do and he said that beyond being a good defense, the intimidation factor of a wall would probably make the bandits think twice before coming back." She frowned,"He was wrong though, instead of stopping the bandits it only made them angry."

Sam saw her tense up, he knew this story probably didn't end well,"They came into town one night, right under the guards noses, they kidnapped twenty ponies, including my uncle, aunt and grandparents. Then they went back out of the town the same way they came in. Celestia's guards claimed they didn't notice that either."

Sam scoffed,"They don't sound like very good guards."

"No they weren't, in fact when it was all over Celestia replaced them with another set of guards because there was evidence of corruption." Valkyrie grimaced and shook her head in disgust before continuing,"The morning after we woke up to find the bodies of our relatives and the rest of the villagers."

"What happened to them?" Sam asked quietly.

She tightened her lips and lowered her brow,"Each mare had been raped then got their throats slit and the stallion were whipped to death. We discovered the bodies just outside the village gate, they had been hung upside down under trees like-like how griffons hang chickens to drain their blood."

The imagery of what she described made Sam cringe,"That afternoon the townsponies gathered together and decided to take the matter into their own hands. My parents made me stay behind while they went with the group to hunt the scum down, at the time I was angry that I couldn't go help avenge my family. Now I understand though that I would of just been a hindrance."

"Were they able to find the bandits?"

"They did, they found their trail a short way off in the woods and followed it all the way to a cave that was being used as a hideout. The only noire village stormed in and were able to take the outlaws by surprise, when they came back to town they had all thirty six of the bandits with them."

"Captured?"

Valkyrie nodded,"Some were dead, some were alive. It didn't matter though, they were hung by the neck that night."

Sam shook his head,"It's a shame that it had to come to that, but at least some amount of justice was served."

"Yeah, you see that's why I came here though. After seeing all and not being able to do anything it made me angry." Valkyrie looked up to Sam with a smile,"So I decided that one day I would learn how to fight so I could defend innocent ponies, like the ones in my village, from bandits and the like."

Sam sighed and smiled back,"Out of all the reasons to learn how to fight that's a fairly noble one," He turned and looked out over the orchards,"Can't say that story hasn't made me curious about the town though."

She cocked her head,"Why? It's just a small place that did what it had to do."

"Yeah but ponies generally don't take things like that into their own hands, they always get help from the guards or something."

Valkyrie shrugged,"I guess so."

Sam looked of in thought,"You know Valkyrie we've worked up a couple vacation days, if you want then we could tell Applejack tonight that we want to take the rest of the week off and take a trip to Hoofden."

She was taken back by his suggestion,"Really?"

"Yeah," He shrugged,"Why not."

Her face lit up at his anwser,"I'd love to go back and see my dad but, are you sure you to go? It's a small and boring place."

"Of course I'll go, I enjoy the coastal air and some rest in a boring little town might be nice after all this work in the heat, besides I'd like to meet your dad."

She smiled,"Well alright, but we'll have to take a train to Manehatten then walk for at least two days before we reach it."

"A little walking never hurt anybody." He replied.

~

The sound of waves lapping against the hull of the ship was calming to Hark, he preferred it to the constant grunting of the yaks assigned to rowing. As of now though the rowing had stopped, they were gliding along the surface attempting to find the shore through this thick fog. His father was right, sailing through fog was like sailing though soup.

They crew knew they were near land, after all before the fog had set in they could see the shore on the horizon. Now though they had to be cautious for they could accidentally ground one of the ships and pulling a grounded a ship back out to sea was difficult as well as time consuming.

Hark stood on the starboard bow looking forward into the grey fog for any sign of the previously spotted land, he had been at the edge of the ship for nearly four hours now and he was starting to see things in the fog. Hark knew it was his imagination but he sometimes thought he saw what looked like shapes in the fog, most were blobby and grey but some of them were more distinct than others.

Sometimes he saw what looked like trees, those were bad because it made him think that they were about to run into the shore. Those weren't the only things he believed he saw, Hark also saw things like the outlines of other ships and sometimes what looked like jagged rocks coming up from the water.

The at least he thought most of the jagged rocks were his imagination, some looked very real. Luckily though most of these things disappeared before he could panic and shout for the ships to stop.

Hark was leaning over the railing when he decided that his strained eyes would only hamper the raids progress, so he would go and get another yak to take his place. He was giving his last visual sweep over the obscured water when he saw it.

As soon as he spotted it his breath caught in his throat and his eyes widened, he felt an overwhelming sensation of totally irrational fear take hold of him. The sight of the shape made him feel cold and he didn't know why but he couldn't will himself to move or speak, he couldn't even breathe.

The shape he saw off in the distance looked bipedal, but it had no distinguishing features on it. From what he could tell it was completely wrapped in rags, even its head was covered. It was extremely detailed unlike the other things he had seen, the weirdest part was that Hark could almost swear he saw it moving.

It looked like it raised an arm and with a hand that was distinctly skeletal pointed back past the ships, as though telling him to go back the way he came. Like some kind of warning.

Then it was gone as soon as he saw it, he could move again and the fear left him entirely. The whole ordeal must have lasted only a couple of seconds but it felt like a lifetime to Hark, he stood straight up and took a couple steps back.

He looked off into the fog for a second trying to understand what just happened, before he could truly comprehend what he had seen though a strong gust of wind hit him. The warm wind broke him out of his stupor and drew his attention elsewhere.

"We got a southwind, The fog'll be gone soon sir!" One of the crew yelled.

Hark smiled to himself and turned about, walking across the ship he passed the many yaks waiting for the orders to begin rowing again. He reached the portside and found his second in command standing there and overlooking the crew.

"How soon before the fog is gone Ralof?" Hark questioned the hardened sailor.

The grey yak shrugged and looked at Hark with his good eye,"Can't quite say, sometimes it takes awhile. But this wind seems strong and constant." He looked back out to the ocean,"Might be able to see in twenty minutes if we're lucky." The scar that twisted along his cheek and over his lips stretched with each word spoken.

Hark nodded at the anwser,"Good, have a map brought up here, I want to see where we are when the fog clears."

"Aye-aye sir." Ralof nodded before walking off to complete his orders.

Over the next hour the fog cleared and the ships pin pointed their location on the map, they were a few miles up the coast from Hoofden. Hark decided he would land somewhere in this area so that there was no chance someone from the village could spot them before they began marching.

Ralof spotted a decent landing spot and Hark gave the order to bring the ships in. Once anchored the small army slowly made it's way onto the beach, the hardest part though was bringing the supplies on shore with them.

They had all the supplies they needed for any possible situation that might occur. They had food to last for a year, camping supplies should they need to camp, each soldier had his own set of armor, a round wooden shield and his own sword or axe depending on his preference.

Hark stood atop an uneven volcanic rock and looked over his soldiers while they organized themselves. The beach he had landed on was covered in grey and black colored rocks, Hark liked it because while yes it made the ground uneven and harder to traverse, it didn't get in his boots like sand did.

The rocky shore was surrounded by a large pine forest, the darkness under the trees cut off all sight past the beach and Hark had to admit it was a little unnerving. The thought that something could be watching them did occur to him and the eerie sound of the trees rustling in the still strong wind didn't help.

It made him think of the figure he saw in the fog, his father had always told him the sea was a strange place and odd things happened in it all the time. Once again disregarding the notion that the figure in the fog was real he turned from the forest to his now organized forces.

"Yaks!" His voice boomed out and echoed across the beach.

Snapping to attention his soldiers all jumped up and faced him,"Yes sir!" They shouted in unison, their combined voices were music to Hark's ears.

His eyes swept over the faces of the soldiers before him, some were young, some were old and all of them came to fight. Which was why his next words were upsetting,"I need volunteers to stay behind," He could see the yaks eyes widen, none of them wanted to stay behind when the others were off on a raid,"I need sixteen to be exact, four to guard each boat."

The whole army stood there for a good couple of seconds without saying anything. Sighing Hark opened his mouth to explain why it was important but Ralof, who stood beside him, cut him off,"Look we know that the lot of you want to go off and earn glory, I do too. But if we take the risk of leaving our ships alone then who knows what could happen. What if a storm comes along and smashes our only way out of here against the shore? What if a pony comes along and figures out what we're doing? What if a simple fire starts and noyak is here to stop it?"

He stared out into the yaks with his one piercing eye,"Look you may not realize it but those of you that stay behind will have the most important job, as well as the most profitable." He smiled at the looks of confusion on their faces.

"What do you mean most profitable job sir?" A yak from the front asked.

"I mean exactly what I said, if you stay behind you're guaranteed to get paid from the captains own pocket, after all you protected his ships didn't you?" Hark smiled at what Ralof was doing, he didn't mind if he had to pay a couple yaks if it meant keeping his father's ships safe.

"But, how's that more profitable?!" A yak farther back had questioned.

"Well think about it, if you come along with us you get to take home whatever loot you find. But what happens when you don't find any because the rest of it has been taken already?" Looks of realization spread out across the many bearded faces and hands began to shoot up all across the crowd.

Before long half the army was volunteering to stay behind, but as Hark had said only sixteen were needed and before long he chose all that were necessary. Hark was happy though, not only did he get his volunteers, but now the yaks here would fight harder so they could have a chance to get some loot.

Then with a shout the yaks formed a marching column, lines of five yaks across, sixty lines deep. Hark stood at the front left and alongside him was Ralof, after glancing at the map the new commander confidently began marching his army into the forest and towards his objective.