Scarlet Shrike!

“Alright recruits, our next assignment is going to be a little bit different from our usual ones.
Today we shall be going over a list of the Principality's most wanted enemies, currently still at large.
I hope that…”

Iron Shield sat and fidgeted, trying his best to listen to the Guard Commander.
Despite his best efforts his mind refused to settle, constantly replaying the events of what he had come to recall that night.
This had been going on for months now, and while normally he could cast the memories out and be able to focus on the task at hoof, today was proving otherwise.
There was nothing he could do about them, so he let the memories crash over him once again.

The small, quiet hamlet of Twin Hearth's had been his home since as long as he could remember.
The fateful night that haunts him itself started the same as every other had.
Iron Shield, who was working hard as the black-smith Sure Steel's apprentice, had just returned from an evening walk. It was a mild mid-spring evening and he had hoped to make the best of it.
He thought nothing of the smell of smoke mingling with the smell of the blooming wild flowers after all the longhouse always had a burning hearth at this hour, so nothing seemed too out of place to him even though the amount of smoke seemed a tad unusual. He was looking forward to the warm meal that the smell promised and maybe even one of Hema's quarry berry pies as a treat if he still had room afterwards.

When he rounded the bend to see the little hamlet ablaze his good spirits fled him in an instant. Most of his home was in an inferno. Somepony was attacking them!
He rushed down to find any survivors, there had to be. They were a close community after Elderberry would think of something, he always did and everything would be fine by morning…

The columns of smoke billowing out of the longhouse and the homes of his friends and family caused a wave of panic to rush through his body. He galloped just to the edge of the village but froze on the spot when he saw large shapes scurrying between the burning structures. There was no mistaking those misshapen forms for ponies.
He was losing hope of finding any pony and the eerie silence that he didn't realise until that had gripped the valley deepened the closer he got to the flames. All he could hear was the fires and the popping of timber.

He was too late.

"The way I see it, you've got two choices." said a mare's voice with an implacable accent and a hint of amusement, "you can either stay and fight me, or you can run away and send some of my pets to play with you."

He spun round to see a pegasus mare sitting in the centre of the road where he had just come from, as if she was waiting there for him this whole time.
She had a staff leisurely draped over her shoulder and far more scars than Iron had ever seen on any one pony, more so than even the few adventurers that passed through some months ago. What chilled him to the bone was her left eye, it had a straight scar cutting right through it and seemingly had been replaced by a smoothed onyx, that glinted with the light of the fires behind him. A foul pressure poured out and into him like some ravenous beast clawing at his very soul.
Her smirk was one that wouldn't have been out of place on the face of a large predatory cat, quelled any thoughts that he was anything but at her mercy.

"why?" he choked out, his voice shaking.

"My army must grow. " she said wistfully, gazing over the flames, where her skittering creations lurked.

"B-but. wha-... why here, w-why us?" Iron asked, mind racing to every conclusion and dreading that they all may have been reality.

She shook her head and snickered at him, far too lightly for a pony responsible for this sheer destruction. "I do this because you are small, isolated and above all else, weak. You are” she looked at the longhouse and a true smile creeped onto her face,” or rather were the perfect target.” she said with a laugh in her voice. She then looked him at him as if she were expecting him to act-whether to run or attack he could not say.”Now then innocent one, with this in mind I ask you instead: why not?" her smile growing twisted and revealing fangs that have no place in a pony's mouth.

"You're a monster" he said in utter disbelief, all the while holding back sobs.

Her laugh was like a cackle and entirely mocking.
Seeing something in his expression her laughter died down and face her softened slightly. She then looked away from him and said. "Sometimes you have to be. This world is not all harmony afterall." her voice was distant and more tired than he would have expected. She then stood up from where she was sitting in the centre of the road and holstered her staff.

She shook her head again, let out a sigh and said."Now my naive friend, I believe I gave you a choice, fight or run. Choose wisely, one is far quicker a death than the other" she said, beginning to walk towards the town.

The next few days after that night was a blur to him, he only recalled vague flashes of him running through the night, gnashing fangs and warped shrieks of the horrid things that pursued him with unnatural vigour.

He made his choice, he could never figure out whether it was the smart move or just cowardice.
Nevertheless he was alive because of it.

Iron Shield surfaced from his reverie to the Commander placing the final wanted poster on the wall.
"This recruits, is a pony I'm sure for many of you, needs no introduction. This is one of the most, if not the most dangerous sorcerers on the continent, this is Scarlet Shrike". The poster of the scarred pegasus had the same smile in the artist's rendition as she had when she destroyed Iron's home and sent him running like a foal into the night.

Iron Shield stared at the wanted poster and vowed that he'd put a stop to her or die trying.