The Traveler

"Alright everypony, time isn't on our side, so I am going to be quick with this. The human has been preparing for a large scale attack for the past couple of days. However, we will not be performing a large scale attack; rather, a medium sized team will be sent in while the thing is gone to infiltrate its fort to steal whatever they can and rescue the survivors of Princess Twilight's escort squad before the human returns. We don't know exactly how much time you will have, so we will be sending you roughly within a quarter of a mile of the clearing, and our scouts will inform you of when the human has left. Your speed for this raid cannot be stressed enough, so you will be going in without your usual arms and armor, meaning you must avoid combat unless absolutely necessary. Of course, the plan is to not get caught, so you shouldn't have to worry. Does everypony understand?"

"Yes, sir!" called out every guard in unison.

"Good. I expect to see you all back here for a report as soon as you are finished." said Shining Armor, watching the guards as they left the room. The Canterlot Royal Guard will experience a shortage of Pegasi if something goes wrong with this raid, he thought. Thanks to the wonderful world of politics, the human wouldn't have to fear death for a while since the other leaders would take very badly to hearing of a non-Equestrian being killed without a trial - even if getting convicted of twenty-plus murders is hopeless to try and counter - and Princess Celestia doesn't want a blemish on her reign. The Unicorn muttered a profanity at the other leaders; if this thing was on their land and killing their citizens, they would be thinking much differently.

Shining Armor let out a long sigh, choosing to wander Canterlot Castle until his raiding party returned. Twilight had given him some information on the human, and the white stallion hadn't liked what he heard - this 'Kris' was beyond good in combat, an expert in crafting items, had a reaction time that would make Rainbow Dash jealous and, probably the most dangerous aspect of all, his extreme intelligence. This human was just one of many millions that could travel to any part of the universe at will. What if he could call for help, and dozens more came to his aid? Just one was already testing the limits of the Royal Guard, and they are the ones with the superior numbers, training and armament. At least, they were, until this ape showed up. Shining Armor half considered asking for aid from the other nations, but banished the thought. They had magic on their side, something that made them the most powerful fighting force on this half of the planet. Besides, as of now there was only one human against hundreds, maybe thousands of Royal Guards. And yet...

The Unicorn continued trying to reassure himself as he trotted through relatively empty halls, to little avail. The existence of at least one hostile race offered more questions than answers. Are there other races out there? Are they just as hostile as the human? Are they as technologically advanced - Celestia forbid they be more so - as the human? Was he overthinking this? Shining Armor knew he had an answer to at least one of his questions when he nearly trampled one of the castle maids. Apologizing and helping the startled mare to her hooves, he kept going.

Thoughts of the human's weapons drifted into his mind. It used swords and spears and axes, not too unlike the standard issue weapons, but bigger. Bows were at least still moderately useful to the human, and the guard that escaped claimed he had seen at least one crossbow. However, that armament wasn't the concern; rather, it was the strange weapon fired upon the escaping guard. Twilight had described it as a long crossbow without the bow and made of metal, and it unleashed a deafening boom and a flash of fire from the tip when activated. It sounded terrifying on its own, and it - or a weapon like it - was likely the result of the smallish holes covering the trees not entirely hacked down, which brought up the question of what in the world it was doing to the landscape. Both Twilight and the guard had described numerous tree stumps and large ditches dug into the dirt within a mile of the human's house, and the frequency only continued the closer one got until walking was nearly impossible.

Shining Armor frowned. If the thing was looking for resources, it had come to the right place. Equestria rarely, if ever, used its own vast wealth of minerals, preferring to import whatever was needed from other countries. Then, this human has the nerve to start digging holes and chopping up trees wherever he wants after centuries pf careful protection of the environment. It made Shining Armor sick. Looking away from his thoughts, the Unicorn realized he had just made one big circle around the castle and was now standing next to the door to the room he had just briefed the guards in. How convenient.

{--_--_--//=|^|=\--_--_--}

After another two hours had passed, guards began piling through the door, each one holding enough of the humans' possessions to fill a chest twice. They piled their gatherings by the walls, making a separate stack for weapons, armor and anything that didn't fit into either category. The guards remained mostly silent, having a dejected look on their faces. Shining Armor approached one of them.

"What happened?"

"Well, sir, while we did get most of the supplies, we were completely unable to find the captured embers of Princess Twilight's escort squad. There was nothing but bloodstains on the walls and floor."

"Did you try looking around the place?"

"We did, but found nothing. The human must'ave done something to them, I doubt they tried walking back."

Damn. Shining Armor sighed. "Well, you did what you could. When we beat that bastard into submission, we'll make him tell us what he did to the ponies he's captured." For now, we'll just have to keep his junk here. Even if he manages to fight his way into Canterlot and searches each and every room, it would be impossible to recover all of it.

The Unicorn left the room, dismissing the guards as he did. It was steadily beginning to get dark outside, and the human would be disappointed now that all he had was an empty shell to stay in. Now lacking any chance of defending himself, the Princesses could likely force him to surrender with ease. Shining Armor began trotting off to his quarters, almost smiling at the thought of the same creature that had killed numerous guards would now be helpless against the Royal Guard of Canterlot, and would soon be locked in a dungeon in some Celestia-forsaken part of the world.

)-^\/^-++Vv^|^vV++-^\/^-(

The sound of a bell ringing with all its might woke Shining Armor from his sleep. He looked around the dark room, accidentally nudging and awakening his wife, who was curled up beside him. "Shiny?" she asked, looking up at him. "What's going on? You aren't having a bad dream, are you?"

"No, Cady, I'm fine. I guess some daring colt climbed into the bell tower and is trying to give everypony a good scare-"

The door to his bedroom flew open, cracking against the wall. A rather large looking royal Guard stood in its place, holding a familiar set of purple tinted set of armor and a weapon. "What is the meaning of this?!" Shining Armor cried. The sounds coming from outside could be heard a little more clearly now.

"I apologize for my intrusion, sir, but the human is currently inside Canterlot!" he replied, throwing the armor and weapon onto the bed. Shining Armor felt his jaw drop.

"What the hay do you mean, 'the human is in Canterlot'?! I thought that gate was impenetrable!" Shining Armor cried, leaping out of bed and hastily putting on his armor.

"The human didn't use the gate, sir. It just... appeared in a flash of red. Now, it's running rampant through the city, turning everything it finds into a weapon. If we wait any longer, it'll enter the castle!"

"Then it's a good thing we won't have to," Shining Armor said, tying on the last portion of armor and strapping the sword to his side. He felt something touch his shoulder.

"If that thing is as dangerous as everypony says... You'll be back soon, right?" Cadence asked, a nervous tone about her.

"Of course I will, dear. This'll only take a minute, I promise." he replied, letting go of his wife. Meeting his comrade at the door, they galloped outside, dodging other guards that had taken up positions around the castle door, all wide-eyed and gripping their weapons tightly. His fellow guard spoke.

"You will have to be careful, sir. The human is killing anything with a horn on-sight."

"I'd like to see him try."

"Be careful what you wish for, sir. We are about to engage him, after all." The guard stepped towards the heavy oaken doors, giving them a nudge. "Now, let's-"

A muffled explosion accompanied by a flash of light cut off the guard's sentence. The heavy doors flew open, a hole blasted in their shared center. The guard let out a startled scream and fell, impaled by dozens of wooden fragments wherever his armor didn't cover. When the dust cleared, the human stood in the place of the door, clutching a metal sphere with a rope dangling out of one side. Using some other device to set the rope on fire, he threw it at a rather large congregation of guards, the following explosion sparing nothing. Snatching up a fallen guards' spear with one of his paws, it began its assault.

Two guards behind a column were the first to go, their armor doing nothing to stop the strength of the human. Shining Armor launched a spell at their attacker, only to have the bolt smash into a a wall, leaving scorch marks behind. The Unicorn contemplated running away when the human faced his direction, an infuriated look on its strange face. The ward Shining Armor used barely managed to deflect the spear that was thrown at him.

The human charged his opponent, grabbing him by the throat and effortlessly slamming his head into the floor of the castle. Shining Armor let out a stone-cracking kick, but felt nothing but air against his hooves, and a heartbeat later, his entire body as the human threw him at a wall like a sack of flour. Only briefly stunned, Shining Armor charged a spell and let it fly. He gagged as the smell of burning flesh hit his nostrils, signifying a direct hit. The human howled in pain and screamed incomprehensibly, charging Shining Armor a second time and dodging another spell. Something wrapped around his horn and wrenched his head down, nearly making the pony cry out. The human then pinned him to the wall, placing a paw against his throat and squeezing.

It only took a split second to figure out what the human was doing. Shining Armor struggled against the human, punching and kicking and squirming around, but nothing seemed to work to loosen the vice on his throat. His vision began to darken and his blows became weaker and weaker until his body refused to respond. He stared at the human with closing eyes, at all the wounds and blood and the twisted smile he bore upon his face. The human released him.

The ground seemed to rush up very quickly to greet Shining Armor, the sound of metal striking marble filling his ears as he landed. He took a breath, then another, and then another, loving the feeling of being able to breathe again. His head was throbbing, his neck was probably covered in bruises and he felt weaker than a newborn foal, but he could breathe. And as he did, logic returned to his mind. Why did the human just let him go?

Looking up, he got his answer. The human had ditched him in favor of taking on some much more powerful adversaries; Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. The former was doing what she could to distract and possibly stun the human, while the latter was attempting to line up a spell of her own, but any time the human realized he was spending too much time on one Alicorn, he'd switch to they other. A blow landed here and there, but as the Princesses were physical goddesses, the worst the human could do was make them flinch. Closer examination of the battle let Shining Armor know that the human was losing his ground steadily and would soon be against a wall.

Princess Celestia managed to get a kick in while Kris focused on Luna, sending him crashing into a wall. He laid there, until Celestia approached - leaping from the ground, he kicked her legs out from under her, and using what strength he had left, placed her in a headlock and grabbed her horn, bending it every time she tried to escape his grip. The human began stepping backwards, dragging a struggling Celestia with him until he had reached a door. One of the surviving guards tried to flank him, but stopped when Celestia let out groan of pain when the human jerked her head around.

Finally regaining the strength to walk, Shining Armor stood and limped over to where Princess Luna stood. The human had managed to shove the door open, and looking around to ensure he wasn't being flanked, began to bend Princess Celestia's horn even more than before, making the white mare cringe and grit her teeth. Gradually, the control she had was overwhelmed by the pain being inflicted upon her, and a few tears started running down her cheeks. They could do nothing but watch as the most powerful being in Equestria started to whimper and cry, desperately trying to free herself from the human's grip. Finally, the horror show ended when Celestia passed out as a result of the pain, her body going limp. The human unceremoniously dropped her to the ground, vanishing through the door behind him. Without any bargaining chips at his disposal, Princess Luna was free to fire a spell that cut through the door, but if the human had been struck, there was no sound. They collectively rushed to the Sun Princess's side, her sister gently picking up and halfway cradling her.

"T-Tia? Art thou alright?" whimpered Princess Luna, tears forming in her eyes.

"You're slipping up again, sis..." Celestia said, regaining consciousness. She almost couldn't be heard.

"Sister, this isn't the time to make jokes about our speaking habits. That human could have... k-ki..." Luna was unable to bring herself to say the word.

"I know what Kris almost did to me, Luna. And I won't let it happen again, I promise." Celestia replied, hugging her sister.

"I hate to break this up, but that human is still in this castle, and we need to stop him before anypony else gets hurt." Shining Armor said, stepping closer. Making sure he doesn't get his gear back would be good as well.

"You're right, but any chance of finding him within the next few minutes is gone." Celestia said, looking up. "Where are the things you stole? The planning room?"

"Yes, your Majesty. There wasn't room anywhere else."

"Seeing as that door leads right to that room and knows we are still after him, he likely only took what he absolutely cannot survive without and left," said a nearby guard, walking next to the door.

Dammit, he's right! That human could be back in his ship right now, preparing for a second raid! Some shouts followed by a flash of red lit up the room, confirming their thoughts. "Princess Celestia, if you still wish to defeat the human, we must attack now..."