Chapter Four

There were six Shang-Xiao soldiers waiting for them along the path. Once they approached them, the commanding officer spoke.

"Thank the gods," he said. "We thought that you all weren't going to make it."

Silverblade walked up to the officer. "So, you guys are the ones who are to escort us to the exit?"

The armored soldier nodded. "We must hurry before the rebels reach the gate and cut us off. They already have reached the southern entrance. It's a bloodbath over there! The only way out is back through the northern entrance."

The group headed off towards the northern entrance of the village, careful to avoid the areas that were consumed by flames.

Luna looked around as she ran. All around, there were thatch huts burning, civilians running towards the shelters, and soldiers barking orders at each other and fighting the poorly armed rebel ponies.

"I hope that reinforcements arrive to assist soon," she said to the officer.

He simply nodded his head. "I hope so too," he replied, "before our defenses are slowly overrun."

"Whoa! Rebels ahead!" Windshield screamed.

Sure enough, there was a group of about twelve rebels blocking the path ahead. They had red and black bandanas around their heads and necks, sported worn leather armor, and were armed with rusty swords. As soon as Luna and her escorts rounded the corner, the leader of the rebel group drew his sword and cried, "Attack! Kill them all!"

"Defensive formation," Silverblade ordered. "Keep them away from the Princess at all costs! Windshield! Shadow! Night Shade! Cover the rear and make sure none of these bastards try to flank us!"

The Shang-Xiao soldiers and Royal Guard ponies shifted their positions and created a close-knit wedge formation just as the rebels threw themselves upon them. Swords clashed against each other as the two groups fought.

Silent Swing was lucky and struck a rebel in the neck. Cobalt was grazed by a sword, but retaliated and struck his adversary down. A Shang-Xiao pony screamed in pain as two rebels took him out. Luna fired a bolt of magic at the leader, striking him in the face and silencing him for good.

"Eyes up!" Night Shade yelled. "They're flanking to the left!"

"On it, boss," Shadow replied. "Let's take 'em out, Windshield!"

"Okay!"

The ponies began to shift the formation to the left to keep the rebels from flanking. It worked; no matter how hard they tried, the rebels could not get past the line.

Shadow parried a thrust and countered, stabbing his attacker between a gap in his armor. "Eat this, you scumbag!" he yelled.

"Watch out, Windshield!" Night Shade cried. "To your left!"

The young Guard ducked just in time for a blade to wiz above his head, taking of a tip of his right ear. He thrust his sword up, piercing the rebel's weak armor and stabbing him in the chest. The soldier coughed, eyes wide with surprise and pain, then went limp.

Windshield pulled his now partially crimson sword out of the body and pushed it to the side. He was breathing heavily and stunned at the fact that he had just killed another pony. He starred at the lifeless body.

"It was either him or you, kid," said Shadow as he nudged the stunned pegasus. "Come on. We've gotta keep moving."

Windshield remained silent for a moment before finally saying, "Okay." He tore his gaze from the dead soldier and moved with the group as they once again started to make their way to the entrance of the village.

The figure came across a large gap that a bridge once spanned. In the dead of night, it could identify the wooden poles that held the bridge up. It looked into the gap.

Instant death, it thought. Then it looked towards the other side. It was a good fifteen-foot span, too far to make in one jump.

It looked over to its right and noticed that the cliff on the side of the gap had a rocky surface. Perfect!

The figure stepped back and broke out into a sprint. As soon as it reached the edge of the gap, it jumped towards its right and landed on a rock that jutted out from the wall. Instantly, the figure jumped off of the rock and landed safely on the other side. It took a brief look behind, then ran off up the path, passing a sign that read "Graystone Village – 2 miles"...

After another brief skirmish, the party finally made it to the outskirts of Yashimoto Village. Cobalt looked ahead as they ran.

"Look!" he shouted. "There it is! The northern entrance! We're almost home free!"

Sure enough, straight ahead of them was the tall arch that marked the village's northern entrance. The flag of the Shang-Xiao Empire furled in the breeze, indicating that the wind was blowing to the east, down from the mountain range. Near the arch were about twenty Shang-Xiao soldiers, clad in the trademark gray armor for the non-commissioned soldiers and red armor for the officers. The leader of the group was wearing a yellow crest on his helmet in the shape of the crescent moon. All of them had their blades drawn. At their feet were the bodies of a squad of bandits who had met their end at the blades of the soldiers.

The commanding officer waved at the approaching party once she realized that they were the ones escorting Princess Luna out of the village. "Come on!" she yelled. "Hurry before more of them show up!"

Luna and her escorts sped their pace up as they neared the entrance. They were almost there! Almost out of the village...

A bright flash illuminated the area. Suddenly, there was a deafening explosion. The concussion knocked back everypony nearby; those that were too close were instantly incinerated by the massive fireball that erupted.

Luna hit the ground pretty hard, but she recovered almost instantly, probably because of the magic in her blood that augmented her natural healing, which is common in alicorns. She looked up at the north entrance. It was no more; only fire marked the place where the north gate was. She felt an ominous presence, just like before, but this time the energy was so strong that she concluded that the source was definitely not anything...mortal.

The cold grip of absolute terror gripped the lunar princess. Her eyes were locked in the direction of the conflagration.

By the gods! She thought. W-what is that?

A figure materialized out of the flames as if it was born from them. The silhouette walked slowly, its massive wings – apparently like those of a bat – were outstretched. The being was huge, taller than both Luna and Celestia and it had a build of Big Macintosh. Yet, the most distinguishing part of this beast was its eyes! Those bright, evil yellow eyes with slitted pupils glowed as if the fires of Hell were inside of them. They were locked onto Luna's own eyes, seemingly gazing deep into her soul.

Subete wa hi ni yotte shōhi sa remasu, said something in Luna's mind. She knew that it came from whatever that beast was...

She wanted to run. She wanted to get as far away from that...thing as possible, but she just could not move! Frozen by terror, the lunar princess remained on the ground, trembling with fear, her gaze locked with the monster that was slowly approaching her.

"YAAAAHHH!"

A Shang-Xiao soldier, screaming bloody murder, ran directly at the beast once it was out of the fire, his sword drawn, ready to kill it. He did not get within three steps from the creature before he was stopped suddenly. Then he was lifted up high into the air. He soon shot downward at a deadly speed, as if something was dragging him towards the Earth.

BLAM!

The earth pony smashed into the rocky ground head-first and never moved again. The beast, unshaken, continued its slow walk towards Luna.

Another soldier – Cobalt – shot forward, his wings outstretched and his sword unsheathed. He swung his sword. It impacted some sort of force field, inches away from the monster's head. The beast growled, and some dark force tore the sword from Cobalt and impaled him on it. The Solar Guard pony fell over dead as Silent Swing charged forward with three Shang-Xiao soldiers. They were transfixed instantly, then lifted up into the air. In a flash, Silent Swing was bent head-over-rump. His spine snapped, then he was thrown away like a rag doll; the two Shang-Xiao soldiers were thrown into a stone wall and killed.

"Princess! Get up!"

A young Solar Guard ran up to the terrorized alicorn and was shaking her violently.

"C'mon! Princess! Snap out of it!"

Luna did not respond. The beast, now only about twenty-five yards from her, drew closer and closer...

"Windshield!" Ironside exclaimed. "Get the princess outta here!"

"I'm trying, dammit!" the young guard shouted back. He heard Night Shade scream in pain, but did not dare to look. He continued to shake Luna and yell at her.

Shadow ran up to the two. "I didn't wanna have to do this," he said as he raised his hoof and brought it across Luna's face, slapping her hard enough to break her out of her trance. "Princess! We have to take flight! Now!"

Now out of the terrorized trance, Princess Luna blinked, shook her head, and stretched her wings. "What about –" she started to say.

"Captain said that we need to get you out of here," Windshield interrupted. "That's our top priority! Let's go! Hurry, before that thing gets us!"

Without a second thought, the midnight blue alicorn started to beat her wings against the air; Shadow and Windshield did the same. Soon, the three ponies were in the air, and they flew off towards the south.

Down below, the beast watched as Luna escaped, then used his dark magic to snap Ironside's neck. It growled in anger, then fixed its eyes on Captain Silverblade, who had his sword drawn.

"Guess it's my time then, huh?" the scarred pegasus muttered. He glared back at the monster. "Let's dance, ugly."

To be continued...