The caribou's side were surprised to see their commander fall so quickly. Yes, they had known for some time their commander was reckless, but to see him fall right at the start of the battle? That was something none of them were expecting to happen at all. As such, a tense silence filled the place while they saw the large, red stallion climb on top of the warbeast and made it turn to them, with the large warbeast grunting and releasing soft grumbles as it turned around from the hole its previous master had just made.
Slowly, all of Ponyville's forces began to show up from atop the wall, with some of the golden clad guards of Canterlot taking their place right next to Big Mac while the rest of the Earth ponies followed their example. Above, Unicorns prepared their magic for their attack, but not preparing a beam or anything fancy. They would comply with the function of throwers, as all of them were levitating rocks or other blunt objects to throw to the enemy. As for the pegasus, Twilight had assigned them the labor of coating the enemy with different liquids from above, hopefully to hold the enemy down without the need of violence.
Still, it seemed despite the show of the previously thought "weak" ponyville, most of the Caribou stood on their place, merely watching as the ponies showed their "might". Yes, it seemed like they weren't as disorganized as they first thought. Still, none of them took a step back or forward.
"How dare thee!?" A voice from behind the enemy lines brought the attention of everyone. The caribou turned around and started to spread, finally breaking their formation, as a figure started to walk from the forest. Or more like stagger out of the forest. Dressed in a large, ragged robe and helping himself with a staff of sorts, the figure extended a bony hand towards the city, shouting with a hoarse voice. "How dare thee deny thy destiny!? Embrace what grand King Dainn has bestowed upon thee! Embrace male superiority!"
Twilight had to use a quick spell to summon her telescope to see the figure closer. A chill ran down her body when she recognized that, despite its looks, it was indeed a Caribou. But one very different to what she had seen so far. Unlike the buff, brutish and though looks of the Caribou right before her, that one was lanky, seemingly weak, but there was still a threatening aura around him. Only when she saw the area before his hooves did she finally notice what was wrong with him. Before him, almost as if he was doing it automatically, a large rune was being drawn on the ground with the bottom of his staff. One that closely resembled those she had seen on the Caribou's armors.
"... a rune master..." Twilight muttered to herself, feeling a chill running down on her spine as she finally knew what the backbone of the Caribou's army was. Much like the unicorns used in the guards, every army had some sort of spellcaster, and they had just discovered who the spellcasters of the Caribou were.
Her hands curled into fists while her horn lit up with a powerful spell the more she watched him, or rather the chain the rune master had in one hand leading to an object behind him. At the same time runes were still being drawn on the ground, the Caribou was still pulling along a slave, one mare whose body now seemed to have some runes drawn on it. The mare's eyes, which could be hardly seen from behind a tight latex like mask, seemed to be unfocused as well, as if she was under some kind of trance.
At the moment, even if they had just taken out the commander of the army, it wasn't the most powerful piece in the board they had. Only by looking at him, Twilight did know he'd be the most dangerous one.
"Our destiny!? Hah! Don't make us laugh, you decrepit old!" The voice of Rainbow Dash sounded from behind Twilight, making the rune master turn to her with a sneer of anger. Even when the cloak covered most of its face, one could still feel its cold eyes turning to see every female with a stare full of disdain.
"YES! It IS your destiny... as females, you are to kneel before us and let males guide you! It is the destiny of EVERY female to be led by a male. You shouldn't have any rights, as it is only fit for you to be led like cattle! You are only fit to reproduce your species! You are mere breeders, and your only duty is to relieve your superiors, be it your mate, your father, your son, your- GAH!"
The rune master was interrupted by a small rock suddenly hitting him in the chest. As one, every head turned to see Rainbow with a slingshot in one hand, still in the pose in which she had shot the small pebble. Finally noticing the stares of everyone on her, Rainbow simply shrugged before throwing the slingshot to somepony else. "What? I was getting tired of his yada yada."
A fiery scream came from the rune master, who was holding his chest in pain before turning to the city.
"You will realize your mistake soon enough, bitch. Your punishment will be severe when we capture you!" The more daring its tone of voice was, it only seemed to fuel the Caribou's will to act, making all of them turn to the city with their shields raised and weapons ready. Upon seeing it, all of the ponies inside got in guard, even Big Mac seemed to shrink over the warbeast, preparing himself for whatever the enemy was about to send towards them.
"GO, CAPTURE EVERY MALE THAT RESISTS! MAKE EVERY FEMALE FEEL YOUR POWER! THEY ARE INFERIOR! GO FORTH, LIBERATORS OF EQUESTRIA"
As one, fueled by the words of their "king", the Caribou began to charge towards the city. Even if it was a small force when compared to the quantity of ponies inside the city, their shout and marching only demonstrated the savage warriors they were.
The ponies inside the wall began to tremble slightly at the sight, knowing the moment they had all been waiting (but didn't want to come) had finally arrived. Even Twilight stopped flying before going to cover on top of the wall. Every pony braced for the impact that would come from the force. Their stomping could be heard clearly, and it was growing in volume at every moment, even making the ground begin to tremble slightly under their force.
Twlight was only waiting for the right moment to give the order for the first part of their defense plan. But first, the Caribou would have to be real close so they weren't expecting their answer. Several ponies were already sticking to the plan, even if most were shaking uncontrollably, and more of them were curled up so tight they looked more like a ball the foals played with.
The tension was suddenly cut short when the wall shook violently with the impact, with several of the wooden beams supporting the structure either falling down or even beginning to crack due to the pressure. As she thought, the Caribou didn't immediately went for a second strike, instead they all seemed to look up for a moment to see if either the wall came down or if the ponies had the guts to throw something at them.
Under an order of the rune master, the Caribou prepared for their second tackle, taking several steps back as one before stopping suddenly. Several moments passed before any movement was made, though when they started, it started again with a fear inducing shout from the Caribou who rushed forward, ready to hit the wall once more the make it fall. They were already so convinced the ponies were just cowering behind the wall, none of them turned towards the upper part of the wall in time to see several ponies pulling heavy rocks over their heads before throwing them towards the Caribou, who had barely any time to react before the rocks clashed against their heads, chests and arms, with several of them falling unconscious immediately while the others shouted in pain, starting to walk back to put some safe distance before them and the range of the rocks.
About one tenth of the force had been knocked down, and several others had dents in their shoulder plates, and even one caribou had one of his antlers broken due to the force of a rock hitting him. The caribou were now looking at the ponies on top of the wall with mixed expressions, some having shock on their faces due to what they had done, not believing for a moment some of them would have the will to do so. Some others were looking at them with anger boiling in their faces, turning quickly to look at their unconscious comrades before turning again to the ponies.
"ARRGGGHHHH! CAN'T YOU SEE WHAT YOU ARE DOING!? THIS IS ALL A TRAVESTY! WARBEASTS! CHARGE!"
To show they were ready, the riders of the warbeasts pulled on their reigns, making the beasts rise their heads to exhale an impressive amount of a burning, bright red flame from their mouths. They had started to advance towards them, letting out fire constantly towards the city in a sign of warning not to mess with them.
Meanwhile, several ponies were still staring in shock at what they had done, some of them staring at their own hands with horror pasted on their faces, as if they had done something unforgivable. Twilight was one of them. Fighting with her magic? She had done so several times, as it had been her main resource and talent for as long as she could remember. But on that moment, she had thrown something heavy with her own hands towards a living being, most probably not killing them, but indeed giving them something really bad on their heads, confirmed by a soft trickle of blood seen pouring from one of the enemy warrior's head.
Never in her life did she believe she'd hurt somepony... or something, that badly. Stunning spells, sleep inducing enchantments, kinetic and even energy beams and shields. But she hadn't been taught anything to kill, so she never intended to do so. Yet, there she was, mere moments after hurling a heavy object towards a living being with the danger of actually killing it.
She had read several books of wars of the past, reading every chronicle she could and making it dig deeply in her mind. In every book, those wars had been described as heroic and worthy, an evil needed for a good purpose. But that was in the novels and foals stories. She never understood why the grown up books were so different. It was only until that moment where she understood why foal stories were so different to the actual stories behind it.
"Look out! Here they come again!"
Rainbow's voice finally shook the princess out of her thoughts, turning to see the wall of warbeasts slowly getting close to the wall, still releasing their fiery breath every so often. The wall shook softly when something underneath moved, showing yet another warbeast coming from the wall, led by big Mac.
"... Eenope..." He turned to the wall to see twilight before making a movement with his hand, as if he was pouring something. Even in her shocked state, Twilight did understand what he was talking about. Before anypony else could say something else, Big mac began to lead his new warbeast forward, followed shortly by Harry the Bear behind, who let out a loud roar before trotting next to Big Mac.
Twilight turned as soon as she could to the other ponies, missing much of the initial encounter between the Caribou and her friends. Instead, she turned to the ponies who had prepared as much as they could of a surprise Granny Smith had suggested for the newcomers. Using all of the tar available (commonly used to seal their roof's leakages), they had started to boil it and several pegasi were ready to pick it up, with some of them using comically huge kitchen gloves.
"Alright, let's use that!" Twilight quickly ordered, making the several pegasi waiting to pick the pot with tar get to action.
The enemy was heavily focused on the bear currently tackling the troops off of their beasts and the large misled male making the troops have a hard time by making its beast ram against another, jumping from atop the best to slam yet another Caribou's head with its hammer, sending it to the ground unconscious and with a bit of blood leaking from its muzzle.
As soon as the runemaster noticed the large red stallion fighting on the females' side, he knew this would not be an easy task. No one had told them they would have an unfair advantage by having a prime example of a male on their side. Still, he knew chances were on their side. Turning to the stupefied ponies on their own side, he rose his staff in the air before pointing it to the city.
"GOOOO, AND MAKE KING DAINN PROUD! MAKE US PROUD! FOR MALE SUPREMACY!"
A soft shine on their eyes begins to form before they began to march towards the city, all hailing the king while carrying pristine, silvery weapons and golden armor, all of them with the sun engraved on it scratched away and replaced by some shining runes amidst the pieces and . Their hoof steps had begun to sound even before they exited the forest. The ones holding their large shields up had taken their place in the front of the formation while the ones with spears had taken the place behind them, pushing the sharp tips of their weapons between the shields and making it a lethal wall of death.
If anything, it seemed like the princess' training had made them ready to catch yet another princess. The training of a female had made them ready to face female! What an irony!
The runemaster grinned triumphantly while the troops marched onward, noticing them to be much more organized than the troops of the lesser tribes King Dainn had so graciously given him. Surely, they would do nicely on trapping the useless females inside the-
"GAHHHH, IT'S HOTT!"
The runemaster's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he saw several of the ponies of his former group having split, some of them covered with a thick, black substance while screaming in pain while others had only droplets or small patches of the same fluid in different places of their bodies, though being enough to make them flinch and scream in pain and break off their formation.
"... hmph..." The runemaster merely huffed loudly as he watched them beginning to break off their formation so easily, with some of them beginning to let out grunts and small shouts of pain while loud thuds started to sound when small rocks began to hit them from a safe distance, some of them being thrown with slingshots and some being thrown by the very same princess. Already, more than half of his "army" had been knocked out and the other half was well on its way to being defeated as well. What a pity.
"... Freyr... Give me strength for this..."
Still until that moment, the runemaster began to slowly move forward, shuffling between his good leg and the staff he leaned on with his hands.
Twilight watched with a bit of worry when the ponies began to shout in pain. She wanted to go with them an try to help them, as it was something a true princess would do. Or was it? Would Celestia go and help them, even if she knew they would betray her eventually and do those horrible things? It was all so confusing!
Eventually, she gathered the courage to start using her wings to try and fly towards the group of stallions.
"Redheart! Gather some other nurses and doctors to tend to the wounds of everypony."
"... umm... everypony, princess?" Said pony asked warily when looking at the group of ponies and most of the knocked out Caribou laying around the ground. If anything, Twilight did understand her caution, making her stop for a moment and consider several ideas that might work on getting them... disabled forever. But again, it wasn't what Celestia had taught her...
"... yes... everypony, Redheart. We aren't monsters like them." Twilight spoke with authority for once, making several ponies to turn to her with a surprised expression on their faces. While several of them still had looks of concern at the decision of their princess, most of the ponies simply nodded with a serious face before starting to go down the wall to do as the princess ordered.
Of course, some of them had the foresight to fetch some rope for the Caribou and the rest of the army, which Twilight thanked. Some were even already tied tightly by the time Twilight started to fly higher to inspect the former field of battle. She had to admit things had gone better than what she had thought before. In fact... it had been far too easy, even if she said it herself. Memories of the time at Canterlot came back to her memory. The Caribou had been brutal and quick, sneaking from every corner to trap the most ponies they could. They were far stronger than most ponies, even most of the earth ponies she knew. And of course, they also had the element of surprise on their side that day. At that moment? They did attack by surprise, but their prey weren't as careless and unprepared as before. In fact, it seemed as if the surprised ones were them. And that was why they were winning, if not completely victorious over this... skirmish.
But why did it feel as if the battle wasn't completely over?
Twilight wrecked her brain as if trying to find the answer she was looking for. Every time, the caribou always had a hidden weapon that could disrupt completely whatever the ponies could come up with. Their magic? Armors engraved with runes in every crevice for protection and absorption of magic. Their strength? Their electric batons which they always seemed to have ready. Their bolas, with which some of them showed their impressive aim, probably due to doing it for all their lives...
Not to mention the Changelings as their secret means of infiltrating, as well as the forced/misguided cooperation of the crystal ponies. What else was she missing!?
"HERETICS! INFIDELS!"
Twilight turned in mid air to look at the last enemy standing on the field... or more like stumbling onto the field while shouting what seemed to be incoherencies for most ponies.
"Hey! Who the buck are you calling infidels!?" Rainbow's harsh voice sounded while she flapped as close to her royal friend as she could, glaring as coldly as she could to the decrepit mess at the other side of the field.
"YEE WHO DO NOT VOW TO THE GODS' WILL, YE WHO DO NOT GET ON YOUR KNEES AND BE GOOD FEMALES!"
Twilight found the answer to what she was trying to figure out... that was the Caribou's weapon. It was the same that powered their king. Some kind of twisted magic guiding them. And that same Caribou seemed like a beacon shining brightly with that same, twisted magic that guided them. How had she forgotten about the rune master!?
"Aw, buck it. I'm pummeling him back into whatever place they came from." Rainbow muttered mostly to herself before she began to crack her knuckles, preparing to give him something he wouldn't forget anytime soon. Deciding to better be safe than sorry, she flapped her wings as hard as she could, circling quickly the Caribou before trying to get him from behind.
"RAINBOW DASH, WAIT!"
As fast as her friend had been, Twilight could only watch as her friend began to dive head first into that living well of foul magic. She began to cast a spell to teleport her friend back at her side, trying to get her to safety before she could even interact with that magic. Her horn shone brightly with uncontrolled magic, sending sparks in the air and making her grunt in pain.
Time seemed to slow down once more as the spell began to make its way towards her friend, almost as if she was looking at those shots of powerful lightning in slow motion. Still, when the spell was almost at the mid way of its route, Twlight realized it would be too late!
Rainbow knew it would only be needed another flap to reach her objective, and as such, she'd only need to deliver a good punch against the back of his head, making him go night night and freeing them of listening to every stupid thing he was saying. And just as she was just a few hooves away did she finally noticed something was terribly wrong. The geezer looked too calm... way too calm, almost like those times Twilight began to do something with her horn.
... oh, buck... he was doing some kind of magic!
Her reflexes, honed after years of practicing dodging obstacles in mid fly, began to act and she twisted her body to an almost painfully degree to flap away from him... only to find her wings suddenly failing as she felt herself passing through something she could only describe as a spiderweb, only not physical. As soon as her body made contact with that, a sudden heat began to expand onto her body, almost as if a lightning was passing through her, or even worse!
While having no control of her body, the pegasus fell miserably to the ground in a ball of dust and feathers flying around, followed by grunts and small screams of pain as she rolled onto the ground.
Finally, she could stop and sit up to assess whatever damage she could have gotten with that fall. Aside of the several bruises a harsh landing always brought with it, nothing seemed bad. No broken bones, no deep lacerations or abrasions into her body, and no blood was pooling around her. Everything seemed to be fine...
She suddenly began to pant when she felt her body beginning to sweat as if she had done dozens upon dozens of laps around of Ponyville... with wind against her! Still... It didn't feel like the bad kind of warmth... it felt like... the uncomfortable type, the type not even a good cold bath could help her.
It was as if she was in heat! And an uncontrollable one! Before she knew what was happening, she released a soft moan of pleasure, having to do a double look to confirm her hand had moved, almost on its own, towards her crotch. And she was even already fingering herself off! In the middle of a bucking war field!
Just what had that freak done to her!?
"YEES! EMBRACE THE PLEASURE! EMBRACE SUBMISSION! EMBRACE MALE SUPERIORITY!"
Her nerves and her body were telling her to open her wings and fly away from him, or at least to try to run! It was with the first thought that made her spread her wings to try and fly... only to suddenly notice the large quantity of feathers spread all over the place where she had crashed... feathers that belonged to her... feathers that were no longer in her wings!
As she did the motion she had done for so many times before to do almost anything, she suddenly found her wings to be nothing more than two meaty appendages devoid of most of the feathers they once had.
With Discord she at least had been left with nothing when he tricked them. But that? That was way worse! She had been left with the same appendages she used to fly with, but instead looking like something out of her scariest nightmares. The more she looked at them, the more it seemed to burn into her mind, at the same time that bucking heat was spreading through her body and making her feel embarrassed, aroused and scared, all at the same time.
Twilight watched scared at what had happened to her friend, seeing how her face suddenly morphed into one showing all the trauma she was going through at the moment until she began to curl into a ball, hugging her knees to her chest at the same time she began to shiver, with tears threatening to fall from her eyes.
Her cutiemark began to glow again as she turned to the rune master with a face full of fury, fury impulsed by all of her magic and something else powering her, making her flap her wings in the same powerful way Rainbow had doe before her, forming a bubble around her to stand the shock whatever spell the rune master was doing and making her look like a bullet going through the air.
What seemed like mere air between the two of them suddenly bursted out in a bright flash with a sudden release of energy produced of the shock between the two magical energies colliding.
"YEE WHO DARE TO DEFY KING DAINN AND THE GODS' WISHES! YEE SHALL GIVE IN, FOR FEMALE PONY MAGIC IS NO MATCH FOR OUR KING'S POWER!"
Even if the caribou was showing just how much energy he had, he didn't seem to be moving an inch away while Twilight could feel her strength and magic already diminishing. She had felt that before, as when the Caribou used their armors engraved with runes to absorb their magic.
Her eyes quickly detected something irregular with the rune master's staff, seeing it had several runes engraved, some of which seemed to be shining with the same color her own magic was. That was what they had planned for the unicorns... always having something to nullify magic.
Before he could have time to seep out everything from her, Twilight used a quick spell to teleport her out of range, finding herself panting from a bit of magical exhaustion and just a short distance from her trembling friend. The runemaster was definitely more dangerous than what she had thought before. He couldn't be taken down by magic... so...
She quickly magicked a pebble at her side, using her magic as a slingshot before pointing it quickly at the Caribou's head, which was so busy talking, or more like yelling like a mad preacher, that he didn't notice what was happening until it was too late.
As soon as she released the pebble as hard as her magic could allow her, it projected quickly against the caribou's head and hitting him straight at where the base of his head, right where it connected with his head, making him suddenly stiffen with a quiet grunt of pain. Before the terrified ponies' gaze, he began to lean to a side, just like a tree before falling. And as such, he began to quietly fall to his side, still as stiff as when the pebble hit him, before he formed a small cloud of dust where he fell.
Still carrying the mallet on his hands, the gentle giant of Ponyville began to get closer to the intruder, quickly taking the staff away from the immobile figure with a simple kick, and only then daring to poke at him first with the wooden handle of his mallet, quickly confirming he was indeed unconscious. Putting the mallet away, he leaned down to look at the old geezer, as if checking if he had anything else on him.
Twilight let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding back until that moment, looking at the big red stallion walking around as if he wasn't even fazed in the least about it while her dear pegasus friend had been deeply affected by the old caribou's foul magic. But upon seeing him calmed and collected, she quickly called for some pegasi who quickly took her traumatized friend towards the city while she began to approach cautiously at the fallen foe.
As soon as she was in reach, she first checked the red stallion, in case something had happened to him due to the foul magic, much to her relief finding her friend alright and seemingly unnafected, and then checking to see the unconscious enemy.
"... What else does he has?" Twilight asked cautiously before leaning down to inspect by herself. Aside of some ragged and dirty clothes that could very well belong to a homeless pony rather than a powerful mage, he didn't seem to have anything else on him... aside of his staff, which was just a short distance away.
"... enope... he didn't have anything else..."
At first, Twilight was relieved to hear such a thing. If anything, she was afraid he had something else on him that he could use to harm anypony else, be it physically or mentally. Her eyes turned to the staff once more, starting to get up to get closer to it, curious about all the runes and just how they were used. How did the Caribou even began to use their foul magic in the first place, and how did they canalize it into their runes, and as such, into their elected objects? If she could get some answers from that object, then maybe she could finish all the matter faster than what she expected before that day.
Suddenly, like a lightning, something struck Twilight's mind when she was at the midway towards the staff, making her eyes widen and a gasp to be released from her mouth. Slowly, she began to turn towards the fallen Caribou, just at the same time a few of the other knocked out Caribou began to wake up.
Both, the new princess and the Caribou were received with the vision of the large red stallion slowly reaching for the runemaster's eyes to close them, before standing up from said position, and looking ready to give the other, awakening caribou a good piece of his mind.
"... is he...?"
The princess couldn't mutter the end of her question, simply staring at the body in front of the red stallion in shock and quickly realizing what she had done.
For the enemy, it was just a testament of something horrible they had missed completely, but could still manage to realize on their own. Their enemy had won, and in one of the most horrible ways for one of their own species!
"... eyup... he ain't no more."
Slowly, the Caribou that could get up began to do so, turning around to run away from what they believed to be the fiercest warrior they had ever faced. They had even left their weapons and beasts behind, simply running away for their lives as they began to vanish inside the forest again.
The battle was over, and they had won. As such, several of the ponies began to cheer at their victory. Several of them, feeling motivated, began to go towards the farm to get more wood to repair the wall where it had been crushed, and other group had begun to fall over the injured and still unconscious Caribou with ropes to get them secured, and then given a good treatment for their wounds, as well as the ponies still trapped in the hot tar.
But as much as a victory as it seemed, to Twilight, it felt empty. She had done something horrible!
It hadn't even been more than a few minutes before she proudly declared they wouldn't become monsters like their enemies... and there she was...
Her mind tried to rationalize it as what it had truly been: an accident. But deep beneath her, she knew the truth... even if it hadn't been her intention... she had killed somepony... she had murdered a living being...
She had become a murderer...
She had become a monster.