Chapter I
Wintertrot
Blue Snow laughed as he looked at his three sons, Light, Frozen and Shield Snow accidently scare away the deer that they had been hunting. Shield was desperately trying to defend his honour by saying how it was not his fault that he had overshot his arrow and missed the deer by a mile.
“This is impossible” Shield complained as his brothers laughed at him, Blue barely supressed managed to supress his laughter
I pray they never have to grow up He thought. He looked to his right and saw a puffed messenger run up to him
“Lord Blue of Wintertrot! Word from Canterlot, Steelguard has been sacked and the only surviving member of the Blade family is Ice Blade who is currently in Marefields” he stammered
The smile on Blue’s face quickly subsided as he looked towards the puffed messenger “who attacked Steelguard?” he demanded
“I-I don’t know milord apparently the king wants to see all of the major families in Canterlot right away, he asks you to be there as well”
“Call a council meeting, I’m not leaving Wintertrot without making sure that it is fully defended against any attackers” Blue said, walking towards his sons
“Yes m'lord” the messenger bowed before racing off through the forest to find the council members.
“It’s time to leave” was all he said before starting back to Wintertrot
“We only just started father” Light commented
“I’m sorry we’ll have to go another time, something is happening right under our hooves”
“What do you mean father?” Frozen asked
“I’m not even sure of that myself”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Steelguard Ruins
Shining Sword looked at the hundred or so remaining guards fighting with him inside the square, surrounded by a legion of enemy soldiers. They stood in the ruins of Steelguard’s main square; Steelguardian ponies died left and right as the fought for their lives. Shining Sword ducked an enemy sword and swung his sword through the enemy ponies’ chest and turned just in time to parry another attack
Damnit there’s no end to them! Shining thought as he impaled another pony
“Shining!” a familiar voice shouted next to him, Shining looked towards the pony that had called his name and said
“Damnit brother this is impossible to win! We are outnumbered by at least five to one and that’s not even counting the rest of the troops that entered the city! What are we going to do Shimmer?” Shining Sword said, on the verge panicking.
“Listen to me” Shimmering Sword said “find a way out and get to Canterlot, Warn them of who the ones that sacked Steelguard were and hurry!”
“But brother I cannot-”
“Yes you bloody well can and will leave me now go!” Shimmering Sword said, pushing him forwards before launching himself towards another guard.
Shining Sword ran towards the western side of the square, trying to avoid any fights while dodging any attacks that came his way. He managed to climb upon a small pile of rubble and saw his brother fighting with an enemy soldier. He saw Shimmering parry a blow but he was left wide open as the solder diagonally cut open his chest.
“NO!” Shining said, trying to run back towards his brother but getting cut off by a large group of soldiers, one of the soldiers tried to attack him but the rage driven Shining easily parried the attack and swung his sword into the pony’s shoulder, dropping him instantly. Shining moved onto the next soldier and quickly took him down, Shining moved from soldier to soldier, killing the well trained soldiers with ease.
When Shining got up to the seventh soldier he jumped backwards trying to dodge a sword but jumped too late and got a large cut across his chest. He dropped to one knee and looked up at the white pony with steel armor as he pointed his sword at his neck.
“You were foolish to try to save your friends boy” he said calmly, as if the battle around him held no importance. He swung his sword upwards, just penetrating the right side of Shining’s head, the tip of the blade caught his right eye and ripped right through it. Shining screamed and fell onto the ground, covering his eye.
“I will let you live this time, only because you may have the potential to one day prove a worthy foe”
“I’ll kill you, you bastard!” Shining screamed, slowly looking up
“Good, then that means that you may one day prove a challenge, my name is Eris Slash, never forget it” The pony said, walking away from the screaming Shining.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stormwinds
“Milord, Steelguard has been sacked” the courier declared with an unemotional voice
“What!?” Sir Blade of the house storm instinctively asked
They were in a circular office with a desk and three chairs, books and scrolls littered the desk to an almost unbearable amount of clutter due to the laziness of the lord. The grimy stone walls gave the room a sense of impeding darkness. Blade sat down across from the standing courier with concerned look on his face.
“Several days ago a large army strong enough to slay the Steelguardian troops was sent into Steelguard, there have been no survivors found” the royal courier stated with a neutral tone
“Well who in Tartarus sent them?”
We’re the closest city to Steelguard, if that’s fallen than we may be next. Blade though worriedly
“It is unknown who the army belongs to at this time”
“How the fuck do you hide an army of that size and seize a city without alerting anyone?” Blade asked with a sense of disbelief.
“We do not know Milord, but the king requests an audience with you and the rest of the heads of the families”
“All of them?” He asked with shock
There’s no way he could keep all of them from slitting each other’s necks, even if he is the king
“Yes m’lord”
“Tell the king that I will be there as soon as possible, but I am not sure how he is going to deal with this problem”
“At once”
The courier exited the room leaving Blade with his thoughts
There is more going on than we currently know, If we have any chance of survival we’ve got to get to the bottom of this, and soon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Canterlot
Sir Wave of the king’s guard looked upon the oncoming wagon, its sides shone bright in the midday sun as it stopped a few meters short from the gigantic golden doors to the royal palace. Wave looked to his left and saw the king surrounded by other members of the king’s guard with their brilliant golden armour. The king himself wore a red clock with golden finishing’s, brilliant gold emblems lined the clock with fantastic animals and fierce beasts that seemed to work their way up to the jewel encrusted crown. The king himself was a brown alicorn with a long dark brown mane; his yellow eyes wore a tired expression and his cutie mark showed a sword in a gravestone.
They waited patiently until a dirt brown steward ran around to the front of the wagon and started speaking “I now present to you, Lord Aguis, First of his name and head of family to the Watchers, the slayer of rebellions and the lord of Dragonvale” The wagon door opened to reveal a solid grey Pegasus with a black mane and a cutie mark that consisted of gusts of wind. He proudly strode out of the wagon and up to the king, kneeling before him
“Your grace” he said politely
“Stand up lord Aguis of Dragonvale, we have much to discuss when the others arrive” the king said in a serious voice
“Of course your grace” Aguis said, standing up and walking past the king, barely containing a smile as he passed
“Sir Wave I request that you see Lord Aguis to his quarters” he commanded, looking at Wave
“At once your grace” Wave said, kneeling before following Lord Aguis
“Long live the king” He heard Aguis chuckle
Chapter 1
-Fin-
Prologue
The four cloaked ponies sat around the fire, which cast a small sphere of light in the forest, past that light however only darkness could be seen.
“How much longer until we reach Canterlot?” one of the ponies asked, he was a grey earth pony with a dark grey mane and a pair of running legs for a cutie mark.
“About another two days if we hurry” another replied, this one green with a deep blue mane
The grey pony sighed “we’ll never bloody get there at this rate Moon, it’s already been two weeks since we left Steelguard and still we-” he was cut off by a small twang as an arrow buried itself in his neck
“Oh shit! Get down!” Moon shouted, ducking beneath a nearby log that he had been sitting on.
The third pony unsheathed his sword and hid behind a thick oak tree, several arrows soon buried themselves in its trunk.
“Get ready guys, I’m going to distract them while-” Moon coughed as a silver long sword slid through his back and out his chest, a shocked look ran across his face as he fell sideways, the bloodstained sword sliding out of his body as he fell. The forth pony, a black pony with an even darker mane stood behind him with a malicious smile as he walked over to the remaining pony, dragging his bloodstained sword behind him
“Night Shade you bastard!” he yelled at his former friend, he lifted his sword up and charged at the traitor, Night Shade ducked to the right and easily dodged the attack, smoothly bringing his own sword up he sliced the head off of the pony, the head fell to the ground while the rest of the body slowly followed. Night shade then wiped his sword on the dead pony’s cloak and walked back towards the campfire where a group of six other ponies were gathered.
“It is done then?” A red stallion with a brown and grey cloak asked
“Yes” Night replied simply
“Well then, I think we best get ourselves back to Canterlot and get ourselves a drink” a large brown pony commented “by the time the king receives word from Steelguard it will be too late”
“Canterlot will fall” an ice blue pony said “but first we must eliminate its allies”
“aghhh” Night shade looked back and saw Moon slowly crawling away, blood seeped out of his open wound and left a trail of blood from where he was stabbed.
“Let me take care of it” Night Shade said, leaving the circle and walking towards the injured steelguardian courier. He unsheathed his sword and raised it above the courier’s head.
“Mercy” He whispered, looking up with pleading eyes.
“Sorry, no mercy here” Night said before slamming his blade down.
That was the last thing the courier ever saw.