Discord flashed away and Valiant fell onto the ground with a clank. His armor locked and it took him a few moments to get up. His helmet had moved to blind him on his left side, so he didn't see it coming. He was hit by a giant hammer and flung over one of the walls.

When he landed he found himself in a shallow pool of water, he got up and fixed his helmet. He looked around in this part of the maze and saw that he was in-between two small areas in the maze. On his right he saw a sword sticking out of the ground. To his left he saw a mirror, just resting there.

Well I am a Fighter he thought to himself and walked over to the sword. As soon as he made it to the clearing the way he came from was blocked off by a hedge wall. Then he saw some old old full body armor disassembled on the ground, "This is curious?" he wondered aloud.

"Is it really?" an ominous voice said, and he was truly confused now, I wasn't Discords. The pile of armor began to assemble itself. After a moment of creeks and scraping sounds the armor was fully assembled and its eye holes were glowing a light orange.

"Living armor!?!" Valiant shouted in surprise. "That magic has been lost for nearly two hundred years!"

The armor set shook its helmet "And how old is my maker Discord?" it asked.

"Oh right, I guess I t would make sense for him to know how to create living armor"

"Yes, exactly!" the armor said moving over to the sword that had been stabbed into the earth. It pulled it out, "Prepare yourself!" it shouted as he began to charge.

Valiant sidestepped at the last moment so that when the armor swung the sword at him it just narrowly missed him by less than a centimeter.

The armor turned incredibly fast and they were facing off almost immediately after the first attack. "to make magic armor you need a pony's soul to animate it, what was your name before you were turned into armor."

"I was known as Broadside before my capture and conversion to this form by my lord before he was captured in stone, and I laid dormant."

"I know your name, you were one of the generals who tried to defeat Discord when he started his first take over!"

"Yes I fell in the last battle of that war, after that I was converted to this armor." Broadside said as they circled.

"But that was over a thirteen hundred years ago! How did you survive?"

"I hid in the castle ruins in the Everfree Forest, but as time went on I fell dormant, during my masters split he sent a chaos elemental to awake me."

"Well then if you’re just armor then all I need is to knock off your head." Valiant said.

"Indeed, but I must warn you I am a master duelist, and you don't even have a sword."

"True but I didn't spend ten years training with the earth pony masters of my order just to learn how to use a sword." valiant said and charged. Broadside swung the sword and Valiant barely dodged it, he was to close for comfort. He used his hoof to hit the butt of the sword launching it out of Broadside's metal mouth. He used his momentum to hit Broadside on the head nearly dislodging it.

Broadside jumped back using his metal hoof to steady his head. "Close but not quite" he said looking up just in time to have the sword thrust through where his throat should be. The sword was resting on his back, Valiant used it as a lever to rip the head off.

"I won't be beaten by you or your beast of a master!" Valiant shouted.

He was breathing heavily his rage had taken hold, How dare Discord tarnish the name of one of Equestrias greatest generals.

Two passages opened and he was given another choice. On one hand he could see another shallow pool, and on the other side he could see one tree. He's allowing me to think I have some power here, this is the Lich all over again.

He grabbed the sword and went to the shallow pool and again he was sealed with it. He looked at his reflection in the pool, his armor had lost its shine from the mud, If I live through this I'm going to need a whole barrel of armor polish. he thought as he leaned in to see a scuff on his helmet. Suddenly the reflections hoof shot out and bashed him in between the eyes.

"You like" he heard Discords voice come from nowhere as his reflection started to climb out. "It's my own personal recipe, the water from the mirror pool and a bit of my darker chaos." Discord said as he began to laugh.

Valiant knew of this pool, he knew that he was facing an exact copy of himself, except of course this one was tainted by Discords magic.

His copy raised its sword and charged, there were sparks as their swords clashed. It wasn't surprising that neither one of them would budge. They broke off and circled for a few seconds before clashing again. They repeated this at least for more times and each time they broke off they had new dents on their armor.

They broke away again, "If we are exactly the same then how will either of us win?" Valiant asked.

"We will go until one of us gets lucky, I guess." the copy answered.

"So you are content to fight and possibly die here?" Valiant was trying reason.

"Oh no but I don't get freedom unless you die here." the copy said.

"Tell me do you happen to know about my little curse?" Valiant asked.

"Of course I know about it!" the copy exclaimed.

"Good, you have ample reason" Valiant said as he charged as fast as he could. The copy realized what he was talking about and locked swords with the original.

"You can't kill yourself!" the copy shouted.

"Wana bet!" Valiant shouted as he brought his sword in a sweeping motion and struck across his copy's chest. The copy fell to the ground and started to mumble as he turned into water.

"Discord! What's next!?! reanimating my old masters, or maybe you'll pull my friends from their prisons just to watch us fight?" he shouted angry at Discord for toying with him.

Discords voice came from nowhere "Oh those were just fillers, why I prepared your real torment." the voice said as just one way opened, it was a long winding corridor. Valiant courteously walked through and it shut behind him.

He took his time getting to the end not wanting to see what Discord had cooked up for him. He was reaching the end now, as he cautiously entered this clearing he saw what appeared to be a little battle. As he looked around the clearing he discovered that it was much bigger than the other two. He also noticed the two factions that where fighting, the ponies and griffons. Did Discord send me back in time? he wondered as he noticed that the model of armor the ponies were wearing was about three hundred years out of date.

Discord appeared in front of him "Do you recognize the surroundings?" Discord asked Valiant.

"No! why would I?" valiant spat at him.

"Well you are in this battle" Discord said as he pointed to a group of fighters wearing similar armor to his.

"Please Discord, I can't be in this battle." he said with certainty, "that would mean I am over three hundred years old."

"Don't give me that shlop!" Discord shouted as he whacked Valiant with his claw.

"What shlop I'm still in my prime, besides I would need necromancy to stay alive this long."

"Oh there is necromancy involved, just not yours."

"I have no Idea what you're talking about"

"I'm talking about this!" Discord shouted as he grabbed Valiant’s helmet, Discord's paw was burning as he yanked the helmet off to reveal Valiant’s head. Valiant tried to cover his head with his hooves but he had no success, his pale white, hairless head was exposed. Discord could see the veins under his skin, his eyes were so completely black that Discord couldn't tell where he was looking.

"How did you know about my curse?" Valiant asked, with deep hatred apparent in his voice.

"Well I did about a month's worth of research on you, and I learned you don't go anywhere in normal clothing. Then I heard the legend of your order and I was wondering if you were the one cursed to see everyone he loves die."

"And you were right" he said bitterly. A stray spear almost hit him and he didn't react.

"Well looks like that Lich has already done the disfigurement job i wanted to do, so I guess I'll just have to settle with increasing the time of your misery. Now how long did the Lich set the necromancy to last?" he asked.

"I will live as long as I am not beaten in a fight via weaponry that I really wanted to win."

"That clever devil I could just kiss him, you know, if you hadn't loped off his head then put it on a steak."

"So what now, the Lich beat you to the punch line what do you intend for me then."

"Well you are in this battle" Discord said smiling. He snapped his talons and the faces of every griffon and pony Valiant had ever killed flashed in his face, he somehow knew their names."

"Remember you destroyed these four hundred thirty two lives, their blood is on your hooves."

More information about the faces was coming into Valiant’s head now, their relatives, lovers, kids, lives. His view of these faces was turning from a dead body to an extinguished life. There was no doubt that after this ordeal he would need therapy for a few, months, years, decades definitely no more than decades. That’s if he survived.

Valiant was on the ground crawling to his helmet, which was by Discords hoof. He was about to grab it when Discord kicked it away, and Valiant followed it.

"You are lucky that your helmet burns me when I touch it otherwise I'd just pick it up just out of your reach" Discord remarked.

"Valiant couldn't hear him over the names and families of all he has killed, even though most of the family members he was seeing were long dead of old age.

"Oh that's right you can't hear me over all those names can you don't worry that will be done in about a month, if you’re lucky." Discord started laughing.

Valiant was so close but he couldn't get his helmet, each time he heard a new name it was as though he knew everything he needed to know to make him feel guilty, age, gender, race, family, it was putting a whole new spin on these wars. What really surprised him was the amount of mares he had struck down. He also noticed that Discord had limited this to just ponies and griffons. It didn't help that much.

Author's Note

TheGrandSpellCaster: Ah yes a curse, it's the perfect explanation of why he could he the only member of an order that has been dissolved for two hundred years or so.
TheGrandSpellCaster's mind: Why did you even bother with the order, he could have been one of Luna's knights and it wouldn't change much.
TheGrandSpellCaster: Stop pointing out obvious announces in the story that I didn't think of till after I finish typing the first chapter of the story.
TheGrandSpellCaster's mind: No!