Chronic Reincarnation

The first life after the battle of Nightmare Moon was an interesting one for sure. I was born into a large family, one not quite as large as The Apple Family, but still large. In this life I was called Arcon the Smith, and I was a proud member of The Smith Family. I was born, once again, as a Pegasus. My mane was a steely grey and my coat a fiery orange. My family, in that life, served Princess Celestia by making the armor for the Royal Guard. Everyone in the family worked with some kind of metal and made some kind of useful tool for the Royal Guard.

The Smith Family was quite old, and held many traditions that none but a family member would really understand without some kind of explanation. The first tradition was actually quite obvious; whenever one of the family members earned their cutie mark they would receive an extension to their name. Mine was an addition of the Smith, because I was quite adept at crafting many types of armor and weapons from a multitude of metals. My brother, Johnson, was what one could call a master of crafting swords and as such, he received the extension to his name of: Blade Master.

While all is fine and dandy with having a good family, things were less than peaceful in this life. This life was plagued with small battles between the Royal Guard, The New Lunar Republic, and The Cult of Darkness. The new lunar republic was an organization that was dedicated to creating a peaceful country where the day and night were treated equally, and the government was run purely by elections, not by royal blood lines. They tried to act as a mediator between the Royal Guard and The Cult of Darkness, but the hatred was too strong and they were forced to step aside, letting the other two go to war.

The Cult of Darkness, it was a small but strong organization that sought the return of Nightmare Moon for they believed that she could create a paradise for those who loved the darkness. Among them were the races that Princess Luna created. These races were: Thestrals, Vamponies, Arkaoks which are corporeal beings that can interact with this plane, and “Children of the Night” which were ponies that could command dark magic without the risk of corrupting their souls. This group fought a valiant war against the Royal Guard, seeking to gain back the powers of Nightmare Moon to create their own land on which they could live.

The Royal Guard was in charge of all things defense and crime related, whenever crimes actually happened. They would patrol the borders and towns of Equestria, trying to keep the peace the best they could. Try as they might the Royal Guard couldn’t keep the whole of Equestria at peace, and were left with one choice: let The Cult of Darkness go untouched and spread across Equestria, or annihilate the entire cult. They took the second choice, and so a war began.

This war was one of the few that were commonly known of during the times following its end. My family, which forged most of the armor for the Royal Guard, practically doubled the output to accommodate the quickly growing army. While they made armor for the Royal Guard, they also made armor for The New Lunar Republic, who sought to end the conflict peacefully. The New Lunar Republic wanted to be able to protect itself in case a battle ever broke out while they were trying to work out this conflict.

While all seemed fine in the first few weeks of the conflict, which included no major battles or assaults, that was not to be the case for long. On the 30th day of the conflict The Cult of Darkness made a major attack against the Royal Guard’s HQ, which was located not far from the palace in Canterlot. This assault began with a swift magic attack that served only one purpose, to knock out the walls of the Royal Guard’s base. Once The Cult of Darkness was inside their Earth Pony soldiers began an all-out assault on the Royal Guard. Any pony that was in the way of The Cult of Darkness’s soldiers was either knocked out or killed.

When the Royal Guard had finally rallied it was too late; The Cult of Darkness had destroyed most of the base, killed well over a hundred guards and made off with the majority of the Guard’s equipment, including weapons and armor. The Guard, while severely weakened, was not without the ability to retaliate. They ordered some of the best equipment that they could get from my family and set about finding The Cult of Darkness. For months they chased The Cult of Darkness, with only about a fifth of their soldiers dedicated to the search they had lost their enemy many times. It wasn’t until the battle of Vanhoover where two hundred civilians were killed; that was when the Royal Guard really started to hunt The Cult of Darkness.

After the battle of Vanhoover the Guard dedicated seven-eighths of its forces to tracking down The Cult of Darkness. Within two months the Guard had The Cult of Darkness on the ends of its ropes. That was when The New Lunar Republic stepped in, that demanded that, by Equestrian Law, The Cult of Darkness was entitled to a chance of surrender and the peaceful exportation of any criminals or murderers. This is where I once again step into the picture, at the time I was not only working as a master smith, but as a negotiator for The New Lunar Republic.

The negotiations started of quite roughly, both sides were stubborn and resentful, but with time the negotiations smoothed out. Within a week the ponies responsible for the deaths of the civilians was arrested, with the investigation revealing that they acted separately from The Cult of Darkness. After two weeks of negotiations The Cult of Darkness was given some land upon which no Equestrian government agency could act, and the Guard received their armor, tools and weapons that were taken from them in the first assault. The Guard also was also allowed to have a few of its members on the “Land of Darkness” to monitor The Cult of Darkness.

In a year’s time the Land of Darkness was a full-fledged city, filled with all of the ponies that survived the war. They were happy and glad to have a place to live. It is said that if you were to go to the city that sits on the Land of Darkness, on a full moon, that you would see the most amazing thing ever. The streets would be bustling with ponies of all ages, from foals to elderly mares and stallions. Every new moon their entire land held a celebration, of the life that thrives in the darkness. While they were happy it was not to last.

One year after the construction of the main city of the Land of Darkness, a contingent of guard, who had abandoned the Royal Guard, began to attack the outlying villages of the Land of Darkness. It was at this time that the lunar guard formed. Instead of being made up of ponies from the Land of Darkness, it was made of the members of The New Lunar Republic. This new Lunar Guard took up the task of stopping this group of rouge Guard members.

With the blessing of Princess Celestia the Lunar Guard was given an official standing as the nighttime guards of Equestria. They were given access to the royal treasury in order to buy better weapons and armor from my family. The influx of bits and work for us helped us not only make the armor that the New Lunar Guard needed, but extra tools for them to use in their search. We created many things for them, including a few focus lenses to increase the power of the Lunar Guard’s magic users. If you’re curious, a focus lens is a tall pillar with ring shaped object on top of it that is made of crystal. The focus lens can be used to channel unicorn magic into an extremely concentrated beam. These things are only ever used when assaulting a well-fortified bastion. These focus lenses take only one unicorn to power it, but it becomes a lot stronger with each additional unicorn powering it.

The Lunar Guard tracked the rebel guard down with in six days of getting their equipment. While I would like to claim that it was because of the equipment that my family provided, it was in fact because the users were already skilled in tracking. On the seventh day the Lunar Guard mobilized to the rebel fortress which was hidden in a mountain range that lies to the west of Canterlot and Ponyville. On the eighth day the battle began at dawn. The Lunar Guard, with the help of the focus lenses, was able to break their way into the fortress. By noon of the eighth day the Lunar Guard had captured all of the rebels, and suffered only seven casualties.

By the time the rebels were brought to Canterlot, only nine days had passed since the Lunar Guard had been Equipped with their armaments; they had done better that the Royal Guard had ever done, and asserted themselves as the more powerful group of guards. It is around this time that my involvement in this set of events, and for that matter this life, came to an end. My age finally caught up to me leaving me unable to do anymore work with metal and not long after that I died.

Throughout my life I had seen some more peaceful times . I was able to travel throughout Equestria, visiting the somewhat smaller sized towns that most ponies know of now. I was there for the first annual Summer Sun Celebration, which was held in Canterlot. I visited Manehattan when it was little more than a set of towns living on pony-made island. I saw at the first Nightmare Night in Filly Delphia when I was but a young colt. I sailed to the Griffon Kingdom when I was no more than an apprentice of my father.

While I saw some good times this life I also saw my fair share of bad times. I was the last born son of Janelle, Steel Singer. My mother Janelle died shortly after I was born, a disease killed her, but for some reason left me unaffected. While I was growing up, my older sister, who was about seventeen years older than me, took care of me like I was her own child. While she treated me like I was her son she made sure that I knew she was my sister and that my mom had passed away. She didn’t do so out of cruelty, only because she believed that I deserved to know the truth. As time went on she eventually found a pony to love, who was a member of a similar family to ours.

Eventually the time came when we had to say good bye. She was moving to her husband’s home, and wouldn’t be able to see me as often. She did however promise to bring me some apples, from the farm where she would be living, whenever she came to visit. She also had me go to her house from time to time so that I could learn about her style of smithing, which was working with gold and silver. We spent many days together, and had many memorable adventures in the orchards. While time passed she and I stayed close, and when she was getting older and less able to help out at the farm with her children she would invite me over so that she and I could talk about the good times we had.

While we had good times, they came to an end when she passed on. I was sad, and borderline depressed, she was always like a mother to me and losing her hurt, but I moved on, knowing that my younger half-brother would want to spend some time with me before I passed on as well.

So, at age 99 this life came to a close. My father had long since died, my older brother as well. Though I was not alone in my last moments, my younger half-brother and my two younger half-sisters were there with me. They wished me well in whatever lay ahead of me, and with one last good bye, my life slipped away. I know that they followed my last wish, which was to be buried beside my older sister. Though I feel ashamed that I can only recall my birth-mother and older brother’s name, I have lost all most all memories of the names of my family in that life. Though in the end I know that they forgive me as they watch me from the stars above.

I think that it’s time to move on to what happened next, this kind of sadness is not something that should be suffered for a long time.