"What the hell, Gordul?!" Luxxoria shouted, as she instinctively cast her Ice Barrier spell. "We're on your side!"

"Sorry, but we have our orders." Gordul replied, shrugging nonchalantly. "Now if you'd be so kind ... die."

With a roar, one of the assassins lunged at Luxxoria. Quick as a flash, she began casting a spell.

"SCORCH!" The assassin gasped in horror as he caught fire.

"KILL THEM ALL!" yelled Gordul.

Zorann shifted into his cat form and immediately clamped his jaws around an assassin's neck, breaking it with ease. He spat the limp corpse out and glared at Gordul.

"Two down already?" He laughed. "It would seem that the Shattered Hand is losing it's touch."

Two of the assassins approached the six ponies, who had huddled together in a group.

"Go on then, Twilight!" Luxxoria shouted. "Try using diplomacy!"

Twilight glared at the elf. "Fine!" she shouted back. With a flash, her horn lit up, and she fired two bolts of magic at the advancing assassins, blinding them.

As they flailed around, Rainbow Dash flew up and bucked one of them in the face, knocking him unconscious. The other one pulled his weapons out and began stabbing wildly, but tripped over Fluttershy, who was hiding behind her hooves.

"Oh, sorry!" She squeaked, not realising what she had done. The assassin landed on the ground, whereupon Rarity jumped on him.

"Ordinarily," she said, "I wouldn't resort to violence. But you..." She punched the assassin in the face. "... have left me with no choice!" She hit him again and he went limp.

"That's four, Gordul!" yelled Luxxoria. "Come on, surely you can do better than this!"

"Actually, I can." Said a voice behind her. Luxxoria screamed as the knife plunged into her back.

"Shh, it's all over now." Gordul whispered as he slit her throat. The elf gurgled as she slumped to the ground.

"Lux!" yelled Zorann. "You bastard, you'll pay for that!"

He charged at Gordul, knocking him off the elf's body. The two of them landed in a heap, Zorann on top. Roaring viciously, Zorann tore into Gordul's chest with his claws. The orc grunted in pain as the blows rained down on him. Then, his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he went limp.

But Zorann, consumed by rage, continued to maul the body. Seizing the opportunity, the remaining assassins advanced on him.

Suddenly, they were enveloped in a purple aura. Gasping, they looked across to see Twilight with her eyes closed, a look of concentration on her face.

Rainbow Dash went over to Zorann and grabbed him.

"I think he's dead!" she yelled, her voice quavering with emotion. Panting, Zorann looked down at the mutilated body.

He got off the corpse and went over to the other assassins. With another roar, he swiped out at all four of them.

"You can put down them down now." he said, turning to Twilight, who opened one eye. Hesitantly, she stopped her spell. The four assassins landed in a heap.

"Are they...?" asked Fluttershy.

"Dead? Yes." Zorann sighed as he resumed his tauren form. He walked over to where Luxxoria lay motionless in the grass. The six ponies timidly approached him.

"I'm sorry about your friend." said Applejack.

"It's OK." Zorann said. "She's not dead."

"What?" the six ponies replied in unison. Zorann smiled.

"Not all of my abilities are centred around causing death and destruction, you know." He said. "I may specialise in Feral Combat, but that doesn't mean I can't heal people."

He closed his eyes and began chanting a spell over Luxxoria's body. A flash of white light illuminated the elf's corpse when he finished.

The six ponies looked at the body. Suddenly, its eyes opened, and they gasped, recoiling in terror.

Luxxoria sat up and winced as Zorann cast another spell on her. The wound on her back vanished as she looked around and blinked.

"I died, didn't I?" She asked after a while.

Zorann nodded. "Don't worry about Gordul." He said, pointing at the mangled corpse. "He's not going anywhere."

Luxxoria stood up and walked over to the first assassin she killed. Kneeling down, she began rifling through his pockets.

Twilight and the others groaned in disgust. "Stealing again?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Not this time." Replied Luxxoria, as she pulled an envelope out of the orc's tunic. "I was looking for this."

"It's just an envelope." Twilight said.

"Yes, but it contains the orders Gordul spoke of." Said Luxxoria, as she tore the envelope open and removed the parchment within.

Casting her eyes over it, her eyes widened.

"Thrall's balls!" she shouted. "Everyone, listen to this!" Clearing her throat, she began reading the orders.

Gordul,

As you know, Zorann and Luxxoria are taking those six ponies to Moonglade in order to train them in the ways of magic.

The Alliance are stupid if they think their spies can fool me. These ponies are just humans with very clever magical disguises.

Kill Zorann and Luxxoria as well. Those two idiots have failed me for the last time. That, and they openly admitted to attacking innocents. I will not tolerate another Krom'gar.

In short, I want them all killed. Bring me the heads of the elf and tauren. I will display them above Grommash Hold as a warning. Do whatever you want with the pony corpses.

You and your men are my best assassins, Gordul. I have every faith in you that you will not fail.

Lok'tar ogar, brother. And remember, my eyes are upon you.

GARROSH HELLSCREAM

Luxxoria looked up from the parchment with fear in her eyes. "I don't believe it." She said softly. "The Horde has betrayed us."

"So what the hell do we do now?" snapped Zorann.

"Only one thing we can do." said Luxxoria. "We need to get to Moonglade and hope that the Cenarion Circle can help us."

"But it'll take days to get there on foot!" Zorann groaned. "I can't carry you AND these six on my back!"

Luxxoria thought for a moment before snapping her fingers.

"As a druid, you have a teleport to Moonglade spell, yes?" she asked Zorann.

"Of course." he replied. "But how does that help?"

"If you can teach me that spell, I will be able to open a portal there for all of us to use." Luxxoria beamed. "It will significantly reduce our journey time."

"... I don't know." Zorann hesitated. "Remember what happened the LAST time I helped you with a new portal spell?" He nodded towards Twilight and her friends.

"Right about now," said Applejack, "I'm willing to try anything."

"Me too." replied Rainbow Dash.

Rarity nodded, as did the others.

Zorann sighed.

"Fine. But if this gets us all killed, I'm blaming you." He said, pointing at Luxxoria. He leaned in close and whispered something in her ear.

"Got it." she said. "Stand back."

She began chanting, her hands swirling with balls of arcane energy. With a flash, a portal appeared in front of the group.

"D-d-did it work?" asked Fluttershy.

Zorann peered at the portal. A wide smile spread over his face.

"Yep, that's Moonglade all right." he patted Luxxoria on the back. "Nice one, Lux."

Luxxoria gave him a weak thumbs up. "Hurry up and use it." She muttered. "Casting that thing used all my mana."

"Gotcha!" said Rainbow Dash, zipping through the portal. The rest of the ponies followed.

As the two Horde prepared to step through the portal, they cast a final glance back at the dead assassins and sighed.

"Farewell, Horde." they said together, before removing their insignias and casting them onto the blood stained grass.