The Last Equestrian War

+CHAPTER V+

A Surprising Revelation

The armored pony walks towards you; he readies his mallet for a strike. You unsheathe your blade and the shield that Spike gave you, readying yourself for combat. The pony swings his mallet in a vertical swing, it comes straight down as you raise your shield. The strike echoing through the houses, you riposte his attack with a swing, but the pony is quick, despite his weapon’s weight. He manages to dodge your swing at him. That blunt strike was quite a punch to your defending leg; still, you are in combat and have no time to address thought to the battle. Another round of combat, he dashes to you, spinning his mallet in a surprisingly fast speed. Your most quick reaction is to roll towards him, thankfully, that move helps you find a gap on his defense as you strike his flank forcefully with a powerful slash, it makes a gash on his flank as he grunts in pain, jumping away from you position:

----+----

???:

“I see that we’ve a fighter here, anyways, I’m glad we’re not stuck only with sissy mares here… It would’ve been too easy… I know I love to have some fun, but I just love to have some battles as well.” The pony laughed as he looked to the wound on his flank. “Still, who taught to you fight like this? This is foal’s play. Let me show you how a real pony fights!!” He laughs maniacally, dashing after you for another round of fight.

----+----

You prepare against the crazy pony’s strike, but it is another surprising streak of moves towards you. Strikes from all directions leave you surprised as you cannot dodge the last one; it hits right on your chest, sending you on your back. It hurts, sending pain through your lungs as they are on fire. You look up to the sky as they are a blur, you gasp for air as you feel the ground to receive your back in a harsh and forceful embrace. Looking to the pony, you stand back up, and a few steps ahead, you notice something that flew off Spike’s neck, his necklace, you grab it. This calls the pony’s attention as he stops his second charge:

----+----

???:

“What’s that?!” The pony shouted, while he looked to the necklace in your hands. “That fang… So someone did kill my wyvern...” He looked unamused. “That lousy beast.” Your eyes flourish in pure anger once you hear those words, you say all the stories you heard to the pony, accusing him of being the one responsible for the deaths of the unicorn named Rarity and her parents, also being responsible for the loneliness that Sweetie Belle lives on. “Ah, for real? Do you blame me for such stupid things?” The pony stops, and laughs. “Don’t you think I know these ponies?!” The pony laughs before stopping to remove his helmet, who offered no vision of his face. The face you see doesn’t surprises you, after all, you never saw that pony. A red coat, green eyes, orange hair, those were the defining features of that pony. “Don’t you know who I am?” The pony asks as you just wonder his identity. Hearing a wail of sadness, followed by a cry of desperation, you look back to see Applebloom on her hooves, crying like an infant, she mutters the name Big Mac. “That is right; it is me, her older brother, Big Macintosh…” You turn your head back to the pony, confused, but enraged. You ask him why is he doing this, and for what purpose. “For power, I threw all I needed to away… I became one with my hidden power, and now I possess a much more powerful strength… I overcame the curse… I am now forever free…” He laughs maniacally. “To free myself, I just needed to give myself to the everlasting lord, King Sombra!!” You, as you hear that name, stutter in fear. You shout in anger at Macintosh, saying that King Sombra is long dead. “You know nothing, young pony, my master is reborn, and he brings powerful allies…” Macintosh laughs once again. You look down, what can be happening to this land? You know nothing yet, but you must gather power to face this threat. You look at Big Macintosh, saying that his masters shall once again fall. “Useless to think like that, pony. I see my master’s power; it is growing to unimaginable capacity… You cannot understand its force…” He looks down, grabbing his mallet. “Enough talk… HAVE AT YOU!!!” The pony makes a mad dash towards you.

----+----

Big Macintosh swings his hammer forcefully at you; yet you dodge his swings with precision. The anger from your discovery has honed your skills in battle, the crying of Applebloom makes your heart filled with rage, you dodge the attacks with precision, taking your time, you manage to step on Big Macintosh’s mallet, delivering a kick to his face, looking to his eyes and waving at him to enrage him, your plan to infuriate your foe is working as he swings more and more imprecisely. Over the fury he’s feeling, something triggers a powerful force inside him, you see some sort of muck coming out of his nostrils and he breathes a blinding fog towards you as it does his job easily. You can’t see through the fog, through this power, he hits your legs with a sweeping attack; it knocks you on the ground like an apple falling out of a tree. The last thing you see is a pony ready to strike you with a slamming attack, ready to crush you like a walnut. You ready your shield to impact and it hits you full force. Your head is spinning at the strike, and everything becomes a blur for a second or two, you hear a sad silence, and you see a yellow mare crying in the distance, pleading for her brother to stop, but you see the hammer rising once again, you close your eyes, and from your knapsack, you take a bottled cloud, using it, you are propelled into the sky as the hammer misses its target. Big Macintosh is left confused, once he looks up; he is surprised to see that you are face to face with him, ready to pierce him with your blade. Then it does happen… A loud stabbing sound, a gushing jolt, and then a piercing scream of pain cuts your ears. You pull the blade from Big Macintosh’s back as he falls down to the ground, trembling in defeat, blood pouring from his wound as his aggressive and dark nature seems to leave his body. You look to him with a mixture of confusion and surprise. Applebloom comes to his brother, crying like a filly:

“Brother… Why did you go to the dark like that?” She was crying.

“I wanted to try… I was just a fool for being too fast… You know… In the end I was a dick…” He coughed blood with a smile.

“What is going to happen to you?” Applebloom muttered in tears.

“I am going to die… Like every pony wounded and abandoned by the curse’s power…” He looks up then to you. “I should thank you for freeing me…  I’m glad I could warn you of the evil that is going on here… M-Maybe… Maybe now we can have a chance… Please… Please tell Twilight… That way we might have a chance…” Big Macintosh looked up, coughing in pain.

“Big Macintosh… No…” Applebloom cried for her big brother.

“S-Sister… T-Take my soul… That will give you quite a lot more time…” Big Macintosh said. “Hey… Don’t cry… Look at the mare you became… Even got a cutie mark…” He looked to her sister, coughing again.

“Brother… I…” Applebloom was covered in sadness, but as much as she wanted to save her brother, she knew that she needed to move on, even though seeing her brother for only some minutes, it were the best in her whole life so far, she stopped crying, looking to Big Macintosh. “I… I promise not to cry again… I… Will take your soul and I will keep my study on Blacksmithing to become the best!” She spoke, smiling, but covered in sadness.

“I know you’d make pops proud, he was the best in the family…” Big Macintosh said, before looking up. “Light… I just… See it… I think… I’m going now…” His eyes grew distant and his body started to disappear.

----+----

He was gone. You finally could see how controlling the power of the curse was. Now, with his message, you look upwards, and you see Twilight Sparkle, she looks to you with surprised eyes, apparently she was observing the whole event, the fight and the whole revelation:

----+----

Twilight Sparkle:

“Surprising as it is, not all is bad news. The Herald of Love sends me a letter.” She smiles when she shows you a wrapped letter. “The Crystal Kingdom has decided to move here to Ponyville…  We, the two Heralds, have lot in common. She made a voting with her people, and they decided to move here, since this city became deserted, and the land of the Crystal Kingdom is becoming a focus point of the Cursed Ponies’ attacks alongside Canterlot. They decided to move here to give more time for their ponies to prepare… They have lot of potential, and we are sure they can do a lot in war.” Twilight looked in your eyes. “The Crystal Kingdom was the first place where King Sombra placed his hooves on… A beautiful kingdom turned into a living hell… Think of a house turned into a slavery home. That was every house’s destiny.” Twilight Sparkle looked down. “I think that now that Sombra is regenerating, he is deciding to strike at important places… That soldier that killed Rainbow Dash fell… But that one was a long time ago… Big Macintosh gave us this revelation… Now they’re attacking The Crystal Kingdom… Could they be after the Heart of Crystal?” Twilight looks to you as you question what that mysterious object is. “Oh, silly me, those are one of the few objects that can balance Equestria.”

[TO BE CONTINUED]