The Traveler

The army that encircled the fortress was simply massive, numbering right around one thousand. Most of them would not be taking part directly in the combat; rather, two hundred would make a direct advance on the building while the rest provided support and ensured Kris would not be able to flee on the ground.

Not that the latter mattered anyways, seeing as the human could just teleport out of harms way if the fight started going badly. Princess Celestia smiled. Either way, the Royal Guard now had the unmatched advantage in numbers and equipment, thanks to the inclusion of captured items in their inventory. Even if Kris managed to survive and escape, the fight was theirs.

The fortress began to loom over everypony as the guards got closer. The two hundred had been personally chosen and led by Princess Celestia and Shining Armor for their bravery and quickly-learned skill with human weaponry, and thus showed no fear against what could easily be the death of them all. Celestia signaled for them to halt.

“Orders, your Majesty?” Shining Armor asked from beside her.

“Wait here. I would like to give the human a chance to take a more diplomatic approach to this. You never know, maybe being faced with unbeatable odds will change his mind,” Celestia responded. Beginning her advance towards the fortress, the doors swung open and revealed a heavily armored figure. Celestia’s horn let off a slight twinge of pain at the sight of Kris.

“What is this?” he asked, cautiously reaching for his swords. His armor was much different than the damaged variety they had recovered, being camouflaged with the occasional bit of blue metal on the edges. His swords were slightly sharper-looking, and one of the ranged weapons hung on a strap over his back.

“Human, you have ravaged this land, killed our guards and threatened my ponies. This is the only chance you will get at surrender. You face an army of hundreds, all armed with your own terrifying weapons. You do not need to throw your life away like this. Surrender now and you will be treated fairly in court; refuse and I promise you that you will leave this world, be it by death or withdraw. What is your decision?”

“Surrender? You want me to… surrender?” Kris replied, contemplating the word as if he had never heard it before in his life. Celestia jumped a little when he suddenly began to laugh. I have survived by the skin of my teeth for the past year, and you expect me to make that all in vain and be locked away in a dungeon for the rest of my life, or – more likely – executed? No, I will make my ‘last stand’ here. If you want me dead, you’re gonna have to get your pretty little hooves dirty for once and do it yourself, since your guards don’t seem to be competent enough.”

Celestia nodded, and then turned around to rejoin the guards she commanded.

Shining Armor approached her. “Well?”

“He would rather fight.”

“I see. Looks like I’ll get my rematch after all.”

Celestia charged a summoning spell, causing large plates of gold and lengths of chainmail to materialize around her. The plates covered most of her body, whereas the chains protected everywhere that needed to retain mobility. Donning a spiked charging helmet, the Alicorn launched a beacon into the sky, resuming the advance.

A small hatch on the fort opened, allowing a barrel to peek out. Fire was ejected from the end, and a nearby guard jerked back, a bloody hole in his chest. The weapon fired again, ending the life of another pony. “Return fire!” Shining Armor ordered, his words punctuated by every guard firing their weapons and casting spells at the same time, nearly all of them striking the fortress walls. Three more guards fell, their assailant unfazed.

Another volley struck the building, some of the more reinforced pieces appearing cracked and dented. Small fires began to burn between the plating. A third volley caused more of the armor to become totaled, flames blanketing the entire area, and visible holes had been punched through the structure’s entirety. Through it all, Kris was still picking off guards that forgot to keep their heads down. The current count had reached the twenties.

“Double-time it, now!” Shining Armor barked. They all obliged, some of them kicking up dust behind them, and the few Pegasi that remained took to the skies. The army was upon the structure in a matter of seconds, and Kris had stopped firing.

They continued to batter the last holdout of their enemy, kicking down walls and supports when weapons stopped making a difference. Celestia knocked down a rather essential beam herself, and heard a cheer from her guards when the fortress began to collapse. All of them stepped back to watch a now massive fire engulf what was left, undoubtedly trapping the human within. It was a horrible way to go, but he had left little alternative. Guards started tossing looted gear into the heat, exchanging a few words over what they would do next.

As soon as the fire threatened to spread to other parts of the forest, Pegasi began to make storm clouds to douse the flames, and the inferno was soon reduced to dying embers and ash. Everypony silently surrounded Princess Celestia, waiting for the next order.

Something moved under the remains. Before anything could be done, a figure threw heaps of burnt wood off itself and rushed at the nearest guard, grabbing him around the throat and snapping his neck in one motion. Kris had survived.

The human looked towards Celestia as he dropped the corpse. He drew his swords, but before he could move, a purple flash knocked Kris to the ground. Shining Armor began to wail on the human, smashing his head into the mud with his hooves. “Nothing! Threatens! Our! Princess!” the Unicorn shouted, punctuating his words with strikes. Kris threw the enraged pony off his chest, and then stood up.

“Oh, really? Is that what you all were all thinking when I nearly snapped off her horn?” Kris said coolly, wiping mud and blood off his armor. His nose appeared broken, and crimson leaked from everywhere on his face. An eye was swollen shut. Drawing his swords, he continued. “I was considering leaving you alive, but since you seem to enjoy getting in my way I will have to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore.”

Shining Armor drew his own weapon, taking a spite-filled swing at Kris, who parried and returned with his own attack. Upon recovery, Armor swung again, only to strike mud as Kris side-stepped the blow. The human kicked his opponent down, then drew the sword out of the ground and lobbed it at another pony that had gotten too close for comfort. Kris kicked the Unicorn several times to ensure he wouldn’t get back up again, and then buried his own weapon into Shining Armor’s side, prompting a groan of pain from the impaled pony. Kris raised his other weapon and swung at his neck, only missing because Shining Armor managed to cast a spell to knock his would-be executioner away. Princess Celestia called some other guards to treat the horrific gash in the Unicorn’s side while Kris tried to get up. No more than a few seconds later did they pick him up and start moving away from the scene, likely to Ponyville.

The Alicorn began to walk towards Kris, who had ditched his swords in favor of his ranged weapon. She felt a stab of pain in her head as she created a ward to protect herself from the rain of lead that was meant to strike her body, watching as the pieces bounced off and embedded themselves in the mud around her hooves. The pain was intensified when Celestia had to pump in more energy to keep the ward alive. At this rate, she would have a migraine for weeks and would be unable to use magic for possibly longer. She winced as the ward collapsed.

Kris took advantage of her temporary vulnerability and jumped to one side, then unleashed another lead shower. Most of the bullets missed on a mix of hip-firing and a lack of depth perception, but Celestia wasn’t lucky enough to avoid all of them. Pain ripped into her sides as three bullets made direct hits, penetrating her armor. At least one went completely through her body, but the others might have bounced off her ribs and hit something vital. Metal fragments from the proven-worthless armor only heightened the pain, and her right wing had a hard time functioning. Her breath felt raggedy and came out like a very faint wheeze. The human must’ve gotten lucky and hit a lung.

It would take much more than that to actually kill her, however; Alicorns could take enough punishment to kill a dragon and treat it like a Sunday morning. Sure, they still felt and dealt with pain like any other mortal creature, but currently there were more pressing matters to attend to instead of going over the strength of an Alicorn. The look on Kris’s face when he realized Celestia had basically no-selled three bullets aimed at vital organs would have been comical had it not changed back to one of determination usually seen during an intense fight. Did humans ever give up?

Sometimes, apparently. Kris was enveloped in a red light as he took full advantage of the fact that he could teleport to safety any time he pleased. Frightened guards approached Princess Celestia, staring at the bloody holes in her body. She manually shook off her armor and examined the damage for herself. Sure enough, one had gone completely through. The others would require a doctor to deal with, however. Something told Celestia that having metal fragments inside one’s body wasn’t a good thing.

“Are you alright, your Majesty?” one of the guards asked, unable to remove his eyes from the wounds.

“It’s nothing. Just a flesh wound, in relative terms.” she replied. “Tell the other guards to form up here so we can count the dead and wounded, then begin our trip to Ponyville and from there, Canterlot.” A few seconds later, guards started to emerge from the woodworks, creating lines so that their commanding officers could easily count their own divisions and then add them with the others.

There was a faint rumbling that filled the air as the guards were nearly finished. At first, Celestia passed it off as thunder, until it started to get steadily louder. Before the princess  could utter a word to the guards to find out what it was, the sound was replaced by a one that was similar to the weapon that had been used to shoot Celestia, but much bigger. Not wanting to be injured further, she created a slightly stronger ward; she ignored the pain it caused her horn.

No sooner did the spell finish than did chaos take hold of the clearing. The grounds itself shook as guards, all grouped up into a massive sea of pony, were reduced to bloody fragments and screams as the earth under them exploded from the force of the weapon Kris was wielding against them, whatever and wherever that weapon was. Something large struck Celestia’s ward, shattered it, and still had the energy to embed itself a foot deep in the mud.

A shadow passed over the already dark clearing, prompting the surviving guards to look up. An oddly shaped ship, roughly the size of a house, flew overhead. Blue fire spat out of largish tubes on the bottom and back of the ship, and once it turned around, a glass canopy with two excessively large barrels sticking out both above and below the window. Kris was at the controls.

Fire suddenly belched from the barrels, and more guards were cut down in droves. Some tried to shoot back, but whether or not it was a blindly fired arrow or a well-made spell, the ship’s armor deflected it. By now, most of the guards had the sense to spread out, but all the same they were ripped to shreds by the cannons, only with less at one time.

Celestia contemplated her options. Calling in the few airships Equestria had seemed like a good idea at first; compared to some of the others made in the past, this thing was tiny. However, it also had greater firepower than the other ships combined, and was more than likely able to take more punishment. It was also quite maneuverable and undoubtedly faster. Her second option was to order a full scale retreat, but as soon as it was realized that the ship would only have a marginally harder time gunning them down, the idea looked silly. The final option she had was to attack the ship herself, at the cost of waking up with a terrible migraine the next morning. It was the only one that had a chance of success.

The ship entered its third strafing run on the clearing. Celestia began to charge a spell, an already slight headache growing at the same rate. She aimed her horn at the center of the ship, feeling the spell reach its peak. She fired.

The beam had gone a little off course on account of her discomfort, but it still struck. There was an explosion at the front of the ship, followed by a series of smaller explosions that caused the metal beast to lose control. A couple engines ceased to function, spilling out smoke and flames along with the rest of the ship. The cannons fired one last time as Kris tried to hit whatever had dealt the fatal blow, but to no avail. Whatever the human was doing to keep the ship from exploding was also causing it to pick up speed and start a rather wild course towards Canterlot. Celestia took to the skies.

Her wing sent shocks of pain in protest of its use every time it flapped, but regardless it was still able to carry Celestia in pursuit of the failing ship. The engines that did function grew brighter and keeping up became harder. The ship was certainly on a collision course with Canterlot.

The Alicorn considered hitting the ship again, but was unsure of whether or not it would help or even if she could hit it, seeing as they were both flying erratically and she had nearly missed the first time. Suddenly, the ship’s front pointed upwards and its rumbling was replaced with a whirring as something within began to power up. The noise grew louder, and Celestia backed off, unsure of what was about to happen. Twilight mentioned that this thing could travel amongst the stars with its FTL drive, though in the ships’ current condition-

A massive explosion – even larger than the one the Princess caused when she hit the ship – cut off her thoughts and white light filled her eyes. The shockwave nearly made her lose control and spiral into the ground, but she managed to keep in control. The ship had lost most of its aft section and was falling – fast. Its remains landed in the center of the city and began to grind along the ground, scraping houses and showing little sign of stopping. It flipped over on its side and rolled a little, before passing right through Canterlot Castle’s doors, and still continued to slide, finally stopping when it broke through the outermost wall and almost going over the edge. Celestia landed awkwardly behind it, her wing nearly useless.

Some flames were trying to spread outward from the destroyed ship, though they would have trouble igniting stone. She could see into what was left of the ship. A heavy door had been pried open, revealing the vast array of levers, buttons and switches used to control everything aboard. There was one slight issue, however; Kris’s corpse wasn’t part of the scene.

Something chuckled behind Celestia, startling her. Turning around, she saw the human limping towards her, an arm twisted at a strange angle. He dragged a bad leg behind him. Kris also held a small version of his previous ranged weapons, but when the trigger was pulled, it simply clicked. Kris’s eyes briefly displayed fear as he threw the weapon down and drew a rather large knife. He flashed a twisted smile. “Let’s dance,” he said.

Even in his wounded state, Kris was a formidable opponent; Celestia found herself ducking and dodging more often than she should have had to. Some of the Pegasi guards had followed the ship as well and were now landing nearby. Wanting to help, one approached Kris from behind and was gutted for his troubles. Kris wasn’t lying when he said she would be doing it herself.

The knife nicked one of her ears, and a second swipe removed a lock of her mane. It was impossible to tell of Kris was simply trying to scare or if he was not able to get a direct hit. Both were disproved when a sizable gash appeared on Celestia’s chest, further covering her in her own blood. Unfortunately for whatever physical combat the Alicorn could manage, Kris made sure she never got the chance to swing. The constant attacks were taking a toll on his remaining energy, and it wouldn’t be much longer before he was unable to continue. The blade left a small cut on the Princess’s face.

As soon as there started to be a full second between attempts, Celestia was able to start putting in blows of her own. A punch here, a kick there… She wasn’t in much better shape than the human, but it would do. Then, Kris made things a bit more personal.

He dropped the knife, and then light flashed in Celestia’s eyes as a fist struck her below the chin, jerking her head upwards. Another, aimed at the base of her horn, nearly brought the ruler to her knees. She managed a punch of her own, aimed at the human’s weak leg, and a second struck his broken arm, prompting a cry of pain. The human was still writhing in pain as Celestia stood up, turned around, and kicked with every ounce of energy left in her body. She swore she heard ribs break as Kris was flung halfway across the castle, almost into the burning wreckage of his ship.

A guard approached the body and upon seeing Kris was still somehow alive, he tied the human up and enlisted the help of a few others to drag him off. The adrenaline rush she had been given during the fight was starting to wear off, allowing pain and exhaustion to creep back in. And with that, Princess Celestia passed out.