Chapters "When the Earth stops, the journey begins."
"You disappoint me Spartan."
A distant voiced echoed inside the cursed one, reminding him of his sudden end. It was the voice of the devil, who had played him until the very end.
A shadow made itself visible, a former event created in blood and rage, culminating in chaos and hope . Was it destiny playing its part? It did not matter now, for the one cursed did not find relevance in the thought.
From between the shadows, a man laid chained in the loneliness of the timeless chamber, surrounded by his only friend which called himself darkness, but this friend did nothing more than accompany the chained figure, for solitude was his punishment.
He, whose life was nothing more than selfishness and cruelty, he who gave everything he loved for power and glory, he who in search for revenge ended his own kin and yet, in the end, he sacrificed himself to save the remains of what he himself destroyed.
This man was marked by the scar that chose him to be the one, the mark that adorned the body of despair, as it was covered by the ashes of death. He would pass to be remembered by few, a temporal anomaly that deserved to be forgotten, yet those few that kept him inside their minds, knew the cursed one´s name, the name that used to shake the very ground from which we stand. The symbol of hatred and anger; chaos and hope, the fear, light and darkness... the Ghost of Sparta.
Time had moved on thanks to his sacrifice, yet Kratos found himself cornered in the dark for many generations. It seemed like he had forgotten most of his past life, yet one memory remained inside. He remembered his last moments on earth and the eyes of a monster. The thought invaded Kratos´ mind, as he once again witnessed Athena staring into his dying eyes; her right hand was grabbing the Blade of Olympus, the weapon that had brought both victories and destruction.
Earth was plunged into chaos, all the evils were roaming freely across the land, infecting everything across their path, however there was something else countering all the destruction.
As one final act of redemption, the dying Ghost of Sparta sacrificed himself and in doing so, he released the most powerful weapon, the most powerful magic... hope.
Kratos´ body flinched, as if he was living the moment again, even the pain invaded him as he saw Athena pulling the great blade from his abdomen, Kratos´ vision became blur, his back reaching the ground, his final resting place over the image of a rising phoenix.
The hands of the underworld raised from the cliff to drag their prize towards their realm. Hell had a special place in store for him... then he opened his eyes.
He did not saw the hands of Hades, he did not saw the pits of Tartarus, he did not saw a single soul, for all that greeted him, was darkness.
At first, he tried to resist, to set himself free, but as centuries passed, his soul simply gave up and accepted its fate; he was now a shadow in pain, locked away in the darkest corners of hell, with no company to hold his hand through the solitary journey. He had achieved what he unwillingly sought... loneliness.
But this moment was particularly different, even if he did not know nor noticed, but someone would come for him and set him free... finally set him free.
1300 a.c.
"Kratos..."
Suddenly, a blue light appeared far away in the long nothingness of this void. The Demigod did not even bother to open his eyes and look up, but the voice talked again.
"Kratos..."
He was not imagining it, there really was someone talking to him. He certainly did not recall any kind of illusions torturing him, then again, hell would not show kindness to a monster like him. Deciding to let this go to avoid the false sense of hope invade him, Kratos simply remained still, ignoring the call, however, not too long before someone talked again. "Kratos... please."
The Spartan was not slow to react, upon hearing something calling for him again and almost instantly, he lifted his face, eyes still closed. "Who is there?" He finally called.
"Don´t you remember me?" The voice spoke again.
Kratos lowered his head once more, his chest going fast as his breathing became heavy. The desperation invaded him, he tried to move, to see the silhouette that came to see him; Kratos wanted comfort from someone else than darkness, something equally real, but far more warm. "Memories are long gone, If I have ever met you, then it is obvious I have ruined your life in the past." The silhouette did not answer. "Come closer."
Finally Kratos witnessed the bright blue light blinding him for beyond his closed eyelids, it was so bright in fact, that he had difficult opening his, until now unneeded eyes. The silhouette placed itself in front of him and simply waited for the man to react.
After a few minutes, Kratos finally got used to the beaming source that he had not seen in many years and lifted his head to see the features of his company.
It was a young girl, her hair made in a pony tail, her robes were long and white, her face screaming with familiarity, something that asked him to see his past. As the Spartan remained silent, trying to analyze the shadow with the sight he had, the silhouette simply remained silent.
Reality hit the spartan like a blade embedding itself into his stomach, for familiarity made him realize the identity of the light. He tried to wide open his eyes, It couldn´t be! Kratos felt a hole in his stomach, his heart began racing as he took notice of the young woman´s features. He couldn´t believe it.
"Pandora!"
"Yes, yes! Kratos... it is me." The voice called again, this time getting closer. The eagerness on her voice did not went unnoticed by Kratos, who for the first time in many ages, began to move his arms in a desperate attempt to break them.
The Demigod shook his head. "It can´t be, it is just an illusion to break my mind further." The voice remained silent. "I... I ended you... I"
A warm hand touched Kratos´left cheek, silencing his ramble. Kratos felt his voice leaving him, as he tried to stare into the eyes of the smiling figure. Finally after a few moments, he managed to utter. "Pandora..."
The young girl looked into his eyes, her wide smile never leaving her features. She took her time to examine the Spartan, before she dragged herself to embrace the condemned warrior.
Her existence being a mere key with ´no soul´, Pandora had retained her young form, even after so much time.
"I have missed you so much Kratos."
The Ghost of Sparta tried to return the hug as much as he could, fighting against the chains that locked his unleash, his eyes closed again, as they struggled to keep the tears at bay. "Pandora, I am sorry..."
"There is nothing to worry about Kratos, you did what you had to do to stop the evil from the past, but now, hundreds of years have passed and it is time to move on." She let go of the Spartan.
"My sins were major, child and my punishment is more than fair, never will I make up for all the destruction I have caused." Kratos replied, his sight getting used to the blue light.
"And that is why I am here!" Pandora beamed, eager for the Demigod to hear the news, Kratos only tilted his head to the side.
"I do not understand."
The young girl released a small chuckle. "After so many centuries, they have finally allowed me to speak with you... something is coming, something seeking to plant its seed in a land you have never seen before, a land that needs your help and with it, reclaim the freedom you deserve."
"And why should I aid them? Why me?" Kratos asked.
"Because the power they hold keeps balance amongst the universe, a power similar to yours." Pandora placed a finger on Kratos´ chest. The man cocked his head to the side.
What power was she referring to? Even if the question plagued his mind, Kratos remained silent. "You will not be alone this time, a holy warrior has granted me a way to break the chains that hold you."
Was this real? After so many years, it almost seemed rather unreal to the Spartan, however, as much as he wanted his freedom, Kratos knew the consequences it could bring. "Free me? Pandora I cannot be freed I will not tear the world apart again!" Kratos exclaimed, trying to get closer to Pandora, in an attempt to get some sense into the girl, but she did not care about this little outburst.
"I see more than the man you think you are, Kratos." The young woman took the Spartan´s right hand, and grabbed it tightly. "I see the potential in you, the goodness of you heart even if it was covered in blood for so many years, but I know, there is something more inside of you. You think of yourself as chaos, but what I see is hope."
Kratos insisted, despite her words. "I cannot, child."
Pandora proceeded to grab his shoulder. "Kratos, after I insisted for so many years, I have finally convinced them to give you another chance... please, take this opportunity! Redeem yourself!"
"And then what? Become a servant again? To be employed as a mercenary? I will not allow myself to be in the service of no one! I will not subject myself to hold another´s heavy burden!" The man replied. He remembered the humiliation of being a servant, of being ripped from everything he loved, sure, Kratos wanted to get free from his torture, but he could not allow himself to become a paid weapon.
Pandora insisted. "Kratos, this "heavy burden" has been inside of you since you were born, you cannot ignore it." The Spartan shook his head. "Don´t you want to be free again? To stare at what surrounds you? Be part of the change this world has gone through? The forests and rivers, the cities and deserts, the beauty of nature, having a chance to live a life..."
Pandora could spot the change in the man´s eyes, he was clearly savoring the thought of what he didn´t know, she pushed further. "Kratos, you cannot endure this misery, this is your opportunity to be free, to really be free, to escape this nightmare... please accept it..."
The Ghost of Sparta lowered his head, thinking for a few moments. Kratos felt a sudden impulse in his chest, a sensation of adrenaline and eagerness, just to savor the knowledge he lacked; he could not resist the temptation, similar to the first time he tasted the flesh of a woman, or the first time he was chosen to join the ranks of his city. After a few more seconds, he turned to face Pandora, and sighed deeply. "Who will be the one to free me?"
The young girl released a wide smile, and her eyes beaming with happiness. "You will know him in a few moments."
"What exactly is befalling into this land?" The Demigod asked.
"In a land like nothing you have seen before, reside too many powerful tools and beings. This power has managed to get the attention of an unknown evil source..." Pandora lowered her face "I do not know what it is, but it feels like Chaos."
"Chaos? But Chaos´ presence was reflected when I gave the power of the box to the world." Kratos replied, making Pandora grimace.
"Chaos will always endure, no matter how much goodness rules the world, but it has always been kept in a balance, until a few days ago. This place holds the only power aside from hope that can stop it, if either you or them fall, this and their world will fall." Pandora took a deep breath. "Your power knows no limits, Kratos, and it is this power that will help them survive the odds we will all face."
"And what of my companion?" Asked Kratos.
"You will need their help and these two will hold your back, no matter what."
Just as Pandora finished talking, the Ghost of Sparta took a few moments to let it all in, then gave a confident nod with his head. "I am ready."
"Thank you Kratos..." With those words, Pandora disappeared from the place, leaving the Spartan once again in complete darkness, waiting for his freedom to arrive.
In the past, someone would have brought a warrior from another universe to stop him, but now, he was not the villain anymore. What kind of being could be more dangerous and evil for him to be asked to step in?
"Are you sure of this, Poet?" Asked a man, whose back ported an enormous scythe. Upon his muscular chest, resided a shaped red cloth covering his nude torso in the form of a cross; his arms, head and legs were covered in armor.
This man was talking to another figure, this one bright blue in color; his chest ported a brown color armor, covering his long white robes. A long brown crown adorned his body, complementing the wise aura of his being.
"Dante, you must open your mind and heart, so that you clearly see the endless possibilities of an unlikely ally, after all, strength is achieved through your allies in numbers, like that of the old mighty empire." The poet answered, waving his long cane around.
His guide and now friend Virgil, was as wise as the heart that sent him to help Dante save his light, Beatrice.
The duo had just finished descending through Lucifer´s hairy torso, and were now heading towards purgatory, when a young woman appeared in front of them.
She had told the two travelers about what would come in time, as well as the world that needed aid, and the soul they had to liberate. The shape that identified herself as Pandora, didn´t give specific details about the soul and Virgil only had a small idea on the shape´s identity.
Dante had sensed evil ever since Pandora guided them towards this section of Hell, which laid just before the exit of the underworld... the travel through purgatory would have to wait.
A dark pathway ran across an unholy prison, full of blacken jails spread across a barren hallway. Blood poured from the walls which was carried away by a small water channel at the center of the hall. On both sides, the screams of the damned assaulted the two travelers, as the made their way towards the principal door at the end of the pathway. This one was special, the door of this prison presented the image of two short crossed swords, with its wood being colored red like blood. There were no screams coming out of it, but rather complete silence that caught the curiosity of the poets. The sense of dread immediately assaulted the Florentine, who had taken hold of his cross.
"I still do not know about this, the tomb stenches of blood and hate, if it wasn´t for the souls that need our help, I would not even think of setting foot in this place, even my heart sinks at the feeling of this evil." Dante replied, his preoccupied expression noted by Virgil, who placed his hand over the man´s shoulder.
"Still, the lady said we would need him, as much as he will need us, even the impasse here must be transcended to achieve the common goal." The poet exclaimed, his voice calmed as ever.
Dante took a few seconds to react and nodded with his head.
"Very well, poet, but I still hope that the love of God guides our steps and protect us for whatever is about to come."
"And the lord might, now, we just have to wait for her to come." Virgil finished, stepping alongside Dante, as the two waited for Pandora to come out.
Silence endured for a few moments as they waited, Dante had taken this time to remember his beautiful city of Florence, the beautiful buildings, the wonderful people and the enormous fields of grass around the place, he was surprise of how much the place had recovered after the battle of Campaldino. Sadness however invaded him, as Dante remembered how even after their victory, Guelph s divided, the consequence of this being the man´s exile from the city he loved, then... the forest, his beloved´s dead.
If only he had known...
His thoughts were soon cut short by Pandora´s familiar sight, who had just returned from the place, a smile crossing her entire face. The two poets had assumed she was successful, and they were right.
"Virgil, holy warrior, I did it." She exclaimed.
Virgil turned to face Dante and the two nodded in confirmation.
The Florentine proceeded to open the wooden doors, before stepping into the room. His body instantly felt a strange sensation, almost like if he was floating into the nothingness, and such was the darkness of this place, that it forced him to light his cross.
After a few seconds, he managed to catch a sight, it was not very visible, at least until he got closer. He found himself staring into the man, his white skin and the red tattoo adorning one side of his body. Dante was feeling uneasy, still he proceeded.
This figure had his arms chained to the empty void. Dante figured there was not a worse punishment than knowing you still have your limbs, but no be able to see them.
The poet raised his cross, the blue light illuminating the figure, who was being engulfed by the warmness, then in an instant, the two of them dissipated from the void, only to reappear outside the dark room and in front of a still smiling Pandora, and a neutral faced Virgil, although, even if his face didn´t show it, the poet was a bit shocked by the sight in front of him, this man clearly smelled of blood.
On his side, Kratos found himself with his hands on the floor, his head noticing how his black shackles had vanished. The relief of being able to see something hit him hard, even though he didn´t show it.
Kratos allowed himself a small bot noticeable smile. He felt good, it has been so many years since he felt this much freedom, as little as it was, but enough for him to enjoy.
Kratos lifted his head, going from the two unknown creatures, to the faint light that provided the flames inside of the cave, and he simply enjoyed every bit of it. As the Spartan took his time to admire the dark cave, Dante approached him and proceeded to stand in front of Kratos.
The ghost of Sparta lifted his head a little, then asked. "Who are you."
"Dante Alighieri and this is my guide and friend Virgil." Kratos proceeded to stand up. "So, you are the one Pandora spoke off, tell me former shadow, what is your name?"
The Spartan remained silent for a few seconds, his sight facing Dante as he still adjusted his eyes to the light. After a few seconds, he answered. "Kratos."
"Kratos?" Virgil entered the conversation. "I have heard of you, I remember the name that has haunted you even in your grave, Ghost of Sparta but I do not, however, know your complete story aside from the great power your heart carries."
"Power? What power are you talking about, poet?" Dante asked.
"It is the power that has guided your steps inside the inferno, what you crave for when all is lost, when the sun shines no more... it is the power of hope and our friend here carries it within his very soul." Virgil motioned with his left hand towards Kratos, who was simply watching the scene, then a thought crossed his mind. Didn´t he gave hope to the world?
"You must be mistaken," The Spartan began, "I have hope no more, I gave it to the world centuries ago."
"Mistaken I am not, Kratos, but maybe the lady should explain your predicament." Pandora nodded in confirmation, as she walked towards the Spartan.
"You may have given hope, but this power and you are one and the same, you simply cannot get rid of your own being." As she spoke, Pandora kept an eye on the Spartan´s sight, expecting to see the blue flame, but contrary to her own beliefs, it never came. No blue flame appeared, no sign of Hope seemed to remain, but she remained silent about it.
This occurrence went completely unnoticed by the two poets, specially for Dante, who found himself surprised by the girl´s words. He had not expected this kind of being carry such a pure power, but yet again, he had already experienced many things inside the inferno.
Dante could not help but to wonder, where would this journey take them? It had started pretty big and he would not be surprised if this journey ended up being bigger than what he had expected. The Florentine turned to face Pandora, and cleared his throat.
"We how now retrieved our companion, but I still do not know what exactly is this place that needs our help."
Pandora let out a small chuckle, as she cleared her throat to speak. "It will be better to show you. One thing though, there is something else this being has requested from you."
"Another task?" Asked Kratos, a little annoyed. "I thought this Chaos-like being was the only one we had to face."
Pandora gave him a sheepish smile. "I know, but I forgot she needed your aid with another problem."
"She?" Asked Kratos. "Who is she?"
Pandora couldn´t help but to chuckle at his curiosity. "As I said before, it would be better if I showed you." Although, Dante´s face held disappointment, the thrill of discovering the unknown invaded his heart, he did not complain, but Pandora´s last words would make them both think. "Right now this someone is waiting for us at the exit of the inferno... or I should say, somepony." Her chuckle echoed through both Kratos´ and Dante´s ears as they began to wonder the meaning behind her words, as such, they shared a look; this was noticed by the poet, who could not help but to release warm laugh at their obliviousness, sure, even he wasn´t sure about Pandora´s words but Virgil could not deny the charm to a good secret soon to be revealed, with this in mind, he addressed the two warriors.
"Patience is of importance right now, although, do not dissolve the eagerness in your hearts, so that when what is hold a secret is revealed, your excitement will not be diminished."
"If you say so, poet." Dante held incertitude in his words as much as his trust for his companion, but he would not let Virgil´s valuable words go unnoticed. However, Kratos did not share this sentiment.
"Wouldn´t you prefer to know what you will face?"
The calm stare of Virgil was directed towards the Ghost of Sparta, who had been waiting patiently for the poet´s answer. His paternal voice invaded Kratos´ ears like a sweet father scolding his son. Virgil saw everyone as equal, with the exception of the lord.
"Your sentiment is well received, although closing your heart so that you don´t trust others, takes away more than you think you can gain. Enjoy the moment which will not be repeated, Kratos, for that which is destined to happen will arrive whether you try to stop it or not and when the time comes, fate will plays its card and you will be prepared."
"I do not understand how you can trust that which you do not know." Kratos´ frustration was evident for everyone present, but he was not to be blamed, as the time when he lived was very different for this age.
Virgil sensed this, and decided to explain the change of time to the ancient warrior. "Man is capable of horrid actions, that much is true, but your sacrifice gave the tools for them to evolve into something better. Life is not what it was."
Kratos had to admit, he had a valid point, this did not meant he would let down his guard, though. His mouth opened to reply the poet´s words, but they were destined to never leave his being, as another figure interrupted.
"We should start moving now, we don´t want to leave her waiting." The trio turned their heads to face Pandora, who was already moving towards the destination; the rest followed.
It wasn´t long before the group left the jail cells behind, and with it, all noise that could assault their ears, but now they found themselves at the mercy of the darkness of a watery cave, although, thanks to the poor light, they did not know whether it was water running down the walls or blood; Kratos was not bothered by this thought as much as Dante, though.
Leaving the possible fact aside, the Florentine focused his attention on the Spartan. He knew that the beginning of this quest was rushed, for neither Dante or Kratos knew anything about each other, but unlike the Spartan, Dante was full of curiosity, as such he turned to face his new companion and prepared his mouth to let the words flow.
"I am eager to know, Kratos. What is your story?"
The Spartan did not bother to face Dante, even though, his words were directed towards him. "My story is of no importance, Dante."
The Florentine pushed forwards. "Oh, but it is, warrior. This journey already seems to be the one to test our limits and we will be holding each other´s well being." Kratos stared at Dante. "I feel the necessity to know the companion who will hold my life in his hands and my guess is that you are no eager to be left in the dark either."
Silence endured once more for a few moments, as the Ghost of Sparta let Dante´s words sink in, then, with a deep sigh he responded. "Very well."
As such, Kratos began his exposition, each word being listened by his companion, who took every part of it with interest and respect. From the loss of his family, to the battle with Ares and beyond, each memory was impregnated in Dante´s mind as if each moment was his own.
The Florentine would not have guessed the pain this man had endured; the loss and death.
He could not help but to flinch at some of the most gruesome memories of the Spartan, less stomach the idea of such mindless blood lust, but he would end up being a hypocrite if he scolded Kratos for such actions.
Aside from the violent moments, Dante was listening in wonder and appreciating how different was the world from what life had casted upon his eyes. The magic of the planet, both metaphorical and literal, the incredible beings that roamed God´s creation and even though they were not as charming as he initially thought, Dante wouldn´t stop thinking about what Virgil said.
Ever since Kratos gave hope to the world, things had changed forever, life as it was known was no more. In these modern days there were no minotaurs or harpies, or... gods?
That was the thing that stuck inside Dante´s mind as he struggled to comprehend the thought of several gods, he figured it was how men of old envisioned angels. He would not scold Kratos for such mind, as it was not his fault to be blind of the truth.
Setting this thought aside, he focused on one fact ´the son of Zeus´. He tried to wrap his mind in this sentence, until clarity came to him... Kratos was the son of an angel.
He is a Nephilim.
There was no denial, Dante was walking alongside a powerful being, but this only raised more questions. Why Kratos? Why a Nephilim, who had spread so much pain and suffering, was encased with such power? God was sure strange when he chose certain people.
As the story went on, Dante could not help but to feel worried about some of the things Kratos told him. First were the angels left walking the earth, next was the disappearance of the blade and Athena free in the world. He had seen many unusual things, and if Athena was loose upon the world since ancient times, then maybe he a parts of the world have already known her. But the world was not as barbaric as those times, and illuminated people had started to act against the ignorance of the church, so maybe the work of Athena was not as chaotic as the Spartan would have thought.
Leaving the old "goddess" aside, Dante focused on Kratos´ personal story, bathing himself with the feeling of the loss of kin. What the Spartan had lived was more than just soul crushing, and it was with this thought and heavy as his heart, that Dante locked Kratos within his sight, as sincere words left his mouth.
"I am sorry for you loss and pained path, Nephilim."
"Nephilim?" Dante was not surprised by the Spartan´s sudden confusion and he was eager to calm his curiosity.
"Those who you call gods were only angels, beings that left their heritage behind to rule the world of man." As he suspected, Kratos was skeptical about his words, proven by the fact of his puzzled face. Now he had caught the spartan´t full attention. "The lord, in all his wisdom, preferred not to interfere with the affairs of mortals, thus granting the beings you saw in your time, to walk the earth."
Far from answering his questions, Kratos found himself even more confused. He saw this as a poor attempt at a joke; he had seen them and tasted their power, it was not possible for beings like them not to be gods... and him? He became one of them, he felt that power, that strength, he was at the top of the food chain, an all powerful being and now this mortal was telling him he and them were less than that.
Kratos struggled to comprehend his predicament, but there was one more detail that had managed to stick in his brain as a leech to the skin. Dante referred to only one god. "You mean to tell me there has always been just one god?" His question was accompanied by a mocking chuckle, although his face remained the same. "You were not alive in that time, I have seen what they were capable of, I have lived as one of them. No angel could be able to hold such power, Dante, now understand this... they were no angels, they were gods and they are dead."
"I do not blame you for such thoughts, for you were born in the time of false gods, but the truth is found in my words." Although it was not an outburst, Dante could spot some anger in Kratos´ words, he figured it would be hard for him to convince the Spartan of the truth. However, Dante got an answer he did not expect.
"If what you say is true, then why didn´t your god deliver me from my torment."
"Excuse me?" That was all Dante could come out with for the Spartan´s sudden question. Kratos asked once more, ire flowing with each word.
"If your god is so powerful, why didn´t he free me from my nightmares! Why didn´t he free me from my cursed fate!" Dante remained silent. "There is no unique god, if there was, the world would not have suffered as it did!"
"He doesn´t want to interfere with the evolution of man, doing this would make dependency the moving force." Kratos let out a small grunt as an answer, as his head turned to face the other way. "You cannot blame him from the faults you have comi..."
"I know what my faults are, Dante! And I know the pain I have caused! I am man enough to accept it instead of blaming an imaginary deity!" Dante was on the edge after the Spartan´s outburst, but he remained calmed. After a few moments of heavy breathing, Kratos let out a final sigh. "What is your story?"
Dante kept walking for a few seconds, thinking about the Spartan´s words and although, he wanted to help him see the light, there would be no mind to openly hear him at the moment.
Letting out a frustrated sigh, Dante began his story. "Not much is to tell about me, other than my beautiful Florence which was consumed by war. You see, in this modern times, the struggle for power has blackened our minds. There can only be one ruler in this game and both the Pope an the Roman emperor took upon themselves to wage war for that position."
"Sounds no different from my time." Kratos interrupted.
"The difference is, that we are reaching an age of illumination. I lived in a city called Florence and lived my life with my immortal angel Beatrice, but those were not merry times. There was a time when a political difference was settled with the sole beauty of the word, but necessity to achieve power created conflict between two factions: Guelphs and Ghibellines." Kratos kept walking, his head occasionally turning to face Dante. "The Ghibellines supported the roman empire, while the Guelphs supported the Pope, I was a Guelph..." Dante´s eyes closed, as he lowered his head, "how wrong I was to support such evil."
"And what happened when you battled?" Kratos asked. Dante lifted his head once more, his face grim.
"When the battle of Campaldino started, I... I did some questionable things. I was blinded by the lies of the church, a lesson I learned some time after the battle´s resolution."
"Every being that knows the heat of war, has done what you call questionable things, Dante. Do not blame yourself for having defended what you believed in."
"But what I defended was even more evil than the inferno itself! After the battle, the victory gained by the Guelphs, we... we split up. Black Guephs and white Guelphs which I was part of. Some time passed before we began to realize the abuse of the Pope, the corruption that had befallen my Florence! But even after we gained a swift victory, the battle against this monster was not meant to be won... I was exiled from Florence. My beloved was offered the opportunity to stay and I prayed for her to do so, a big mistake on my part, a mistake that hunts me every night."
Dante kept walking, silent for a few seconds until he took enough confidence to speak. Life had been so bad for him in his most recent days and everything was going too quickly. His throat struggled to fins his next words, for in this time he was not the poet, but a victim of his own blindness and stupidity, a fact he carried like a tombstone on his back. Finally, he cleared his throat.
"During the war, we managed to capture some of the Ghibellines and we had orders to keep them alive to offer an exchange, however, I was blinded by blood lust, eager to end every single one of those souls." Dante turned to look at Kratos. "Between them was a man with the look of the devil. His wife offered me her flesh in return for their freedom... I accepted. You see, infidelity can gain you small satisfaction and in return it takes away everything you have ever loved. My own selfishness caused what came next. During my exile I spotted that man going towards Florence, but I did not pay attention to it, once again my blindness destroyed me."
The poet´s fists clenched as hard as they could, as the next part of his story left Dante´s mouth. "While I was inside the forest, I had time to think, time enough to decide it was time for me to change my life and as a proof of my decision, I did this." He motioned towards the cross on his chest. Kratos noticed the numerous images impregnated in it, each one of them immortalizing his tale. "But life had something more planed for me, as the soul of my beloved came to me, pledging for my return. It did not take a genius to discover what was happening, as such, I made haste back to Florence, even though its authorities would prevent my pass. It was thanks to god that I found my passage safe towards my home, but my sight and my heart were not prepared for what was inside... my father, my beloved, dead! And all because of my foolishness! For not having stopped this madman from slaughtering an innocent!"
"War is a place of hatred, lives are fragile and loss will always be present. But true warriors do not let themselves fall, they endure and fight back."
"But I am no warrior, Ghost of Sparta. I became one because of the needs of my city." Dante´s fantasies assaulted his mind, promises now forever lost. The poet hanged his head, as his breathing became stiff. "I... I wanted to have a family, children playing outside the house without the fear of war... I wanted to warp my arms around my beloved as I enjoyed a peaceful day, but life is not a fantasy."
Truth be told, Kratos has never been good with giving advice in such moments. The type of life he has lived made him as cold as the winter, it was this fact that prevented the Spartan from talking, he did listen, though.
Dante´s expression returned to normal, as he turned his gaze towards the Spartan. "At least you had the gift of such a beautiful union, you had souls to love and protect."
Kratos shook his head in response, he knew what had been the fate of those foolish enough to get close to him. "I might have had a family, Dante, but it was my selfishness that destroyed it. Sometimes loosing what you had is worse than not having anything at all."
The Spartan´s words made their way inside the poet´s mind. Maybe he had a point, but right now there was no time for a river of tears and soon enough he regained his composure.
"Say, Kratos, What do you think we will find at the end of the inferno? Who will be waiting for us?"
"Hard to say, I just hope we do not get any bad surprises." Dante chuckled at his words.
"Bad luck does tend to follow us." The poet´s mood did not infect the Spartan, whose face held the same serious expression, although his eyes did spot something that interested him.
"Can I hold your scythe?"
Dante wasn´t surprised, he had expected Kratos to be the kind of man that found interest in weaponry. Normally he would not let anyone get hold of his weapons, but Virgil had told him he was of trust and Dante highly respected the ancient poet. He reached for his scythe and tossed it to the Spartan, who instantly grabbed it.
Kratos began swinging the weapon, demonstrating such skills that even surprised Dante. The Spartan could feel the power inside the scythe and instantly knew why Dante seemed fond of it.
The Spartan´s gaze turned towards the cross, where he felt a purer energy emanating from it, making him feel curiosity about it, however, he felt the scythe to be more of his liking.
"A fine and powerful weapon indeed." Kratos kept holding the scythe, his eyes still fixed on its entirety. It had been a long time since he had used a weapon. Finally, after a few more swings, he returned it to his owner. As much as he hated to admit, the Spartan missed his blades.
"My thanks."
"Where did you get it?" Kratos asked.
"I took it from death, you see, my story took an interesting turn once I arrived in Hell." Kratos realized in this moments that Dante had crossed through Hades, not a simple feat for a mortal... the surprise he was in.
As Dante began to tell how his journey across Hell went, Kratos could not help but to wonder how much things changed since he sacrificed himself, but this wasn´t the only interesting part.
Kratos found himself dumbfounded about certain things, one of them being that Charon had actually survived their encounter (or at least his head did), other thing he found interesting was the mention of numerous places and a name he did not recall ever knowing: Dis? Cocytus? Lucifer? What exactly had happened in his absence?
But that was just the tip of the iceberg. As Dante went on with the story about the nine circles, culminating in a fight against this Lucifer character, Kratos was hit with a realization.
All of the souls freed from the destruction of the world, where once again reunited under the watchful eye of an unknown figure.
"I see earth did recover." Kratos answered, his sight taking hold of his companion, who released a smile at the Spartan´s remark.
"Healed it is, Kratos." Returning his sight towards the path ahead, Dante continued his speech. "The power you carry managed to heal the world to a degree."
"To a degree?" Kratos asked.
"Indeed, you see, it did recover the Earth, but it did not recover men´s heart." A grimace appeared on the Florentine´s features. "We are a very destructive race, but we have managed to find that love in one way or another." Once more, his usual smile returned. "It certainly is more advanced than your time."
"Hope.." Kratos shook his head. "Sometimes I wish it did more for me than it did the rest."
Dante could notice a small hint of sadness in the eyes of the Spartan. He had been a monster in his time, a soul that deserved the punishment he received, but he was a soul nonetheless, a shadow that deserved the love of god, as well as the rest. The poet took a breath and opened his mouth to speak, but his words were stolen by another one.
"Do not fret for the past that has long left you, for you cannot change that which has already been written in history, but if you do set your mind in your life, then re think the good you did, the sacrifice you made and let that fact clean your conscience." Virgil had slowed down after a chat with Pandora. He had been keeping a watchful eye on the two warriors the whole time and decided it was time to enter their conversation, however, the long preach would have to wait, for they were close to their destination. "Regardless of your memories, we most forget the painful thoughts for now. The lady has told me we are close to our destination."
Kratos turned to face the poet, his face holding the same expression. "My faults are long forgotten, but I cannot forget my dreams."
Virgil did not answer, as Dante spoke before another conversation could even begin. "So, poet, who is waiting for us at the end of this dark cave?"
Virgil let out a small chuckle. "The lady has already told me, but I will not spoil the moment to enjoy your faces once you discover the wonders of the universe. Maybe next time you should join the conversation involving the one who knows our destination." Dante let out out a small grunt as a response, an expression copied by the Spartan. Virgil smiled. "Well then, make haste, the door is right in front of us and Pandora has decided to speed the walk to prepare the royalty."
"Royalty?" Dante asked. "A king or queen, perhaps?"
"Princess to be exact." Both warriors exchanged a stare before facing the now vanishing Virgil. "Hurry up, I will see both of you up ahead."
Contrary to Kratos, Dante could not help but to feel excitement; his heart was still young and full of joy and sometimes the look of a child was seen in him. His chest was beating each time faster, eager to see what was waiting for them, Kratos however, was skeptic and even on his guard, he was not one to trust someone right away.
"I know that item you carry is also a weapon." Kratos pointed at the cross being held by Dante. "If something unwanted happens, you will give me your scythe."
Dante felt the urge to roll his eyes. "Although I agree that you have to be on your guard, I have no reason to doubt the judgement of my protector, besides, one who needs help does not bite the hand of those who lent it."
"If you continue to blindly trust those who surround you, then deception will hit you harder. Strong bonds are created through years and demonstrations of loyalty."
Dante found some truth in his words, but still, he knew Kratos had lived through deception. "Maybe if you trusted others more, your company would be filled with more allies than enemies."
"Allies I had, but life has shown me, you cannot trust anyone, trust is what led me to my cursed fate."
Kratos was stubborn, that was for sure, but who could blame him? Dante decided to stop giving it any more thought, as he realized how close they were from the warm light of the sun at the end of the cave.
Ever since he entered the inferno, he had long urged the need to sunbath under the beauty of the enormous ball of fire; surprisingly, Kratos felt the same way.
Both Spartan and Florentine began speeding up their march towards the source of such brightness, almost running towards the exit. They could already feel the wind, hear some animals gathering about; it was time for their arrival.
Finally, the duo had managed to get out of the cave, the exit of the inferno and what greeted them was something they would not forget. Just a few feet away from the two warriors laid two horses, one whose coat was dark blue and held the image of the moon on its flank, the other was as white as Kratos´ skin and held the image of the sun.
Both had a pair of wings and one horn on their foreheads and their manes floated as if the wind blew from the mouth of a giant. Their expressions held intelligence, but this fact went unnoticed by the two.
Slowly, Kratos approached the white one and placed his hand over its shoulder. The whole time, neither of the two horses had stopped staring at them. "A fine horse, I wonder what kind of being it belongs to."
"Excuse me?" That had certainly caught both warriors off guard. Kratos took a step away from the source of the voice, as he stared perplexed at the horse, who was holding a fake frown. "You must know I belong to no pony and to your information, I am an alicorn. The shame on you."
"Kind of rude to approach my sister like that."
"Gah!" Dante did not waste any time to jump a step away from the now speaking blue horse. Both warriors had their eyes wide open, never expecting to get this kind of arrival.
The two found themselves on a complete loss for words, fact noticeable by the two alicorns. As several seconds of silence passed, Dante noticed the blue one approaching her sister, who proceeded to whisper in her ear. "Sis? I think we broke them."
You think?" The white one smirked, then turned her attention to the two warriors, her infectious smile returning to her features. "Well then, do not just stand there, introduce yourselves."
"Uh... I... we..." Dante babbled, his reaction gaining a chuckle from the alicorn sisters.
Celestia spoke again. "Okay Pandora, Virgil? What about some help to get these two out of their trance?"
Sure enough, both figures appeared besides the princesses, their smiles matching the two alicorns, with only Pandora almost full on laughter.
Virgil approached the two. "These, my boys, are princesses Celestia and Luna, they are the one who called for us to come to the land they rule, a land far different from what you have known, for its beauty is matched by only that in the heavens." Even the appearance of the two, did not help the warriors get out of their shock, a fact that caused Virgil to let out a hearty laugh. "Come on now, do not be shy, for good and pure royalty is to be respected and loved."
Both Kratos and Dante were still full on shock, but after a few minutes, the Spartan managed to regain some of his composure, the next one being Dante.
Finally, Kratos had managed to prepare his mouth to talk. "I am Kratos and this is Dante. So..." The Spartan was doing his best to get over the fact of the situation, but being him the on the one who has face many familiar situations, was not hard to snap out of it, besides, he has always being known for being straight to the point. "You are the one who summoned us?"
Celestia smiled. "A pleasure Kratos, Dante, and yes, we are the ones who summoned you. I know you came here for one thing, but something else has arisen and I decided to bring you a little earlier than expected, call it a plan B, just in case." As an answer, Kratos crossed his arms, a grunt escaping his mouth. Celestia continued. "For now we wish for you to come with us and tell us about yourselves. We can talk about the rest one we arrive."
Kratos did not like secrets and was about to voice his disagreement, but was stopped by Dante, who had just regained his senses in time to spot what Kratos was just about to do. "It will be a pleasure to come with you."
"Fine then, come, we can talk on the way." With those words, the alicorn prepared to walk, but Dante has just remembered something. His gaze suddenly turned towards Virgil.
"Will you be coming with us?" His eyes gave the small hint of sadness, a feeling noticed by the poet, thankfully his answer would shine his mood again.
"I will do, my boy, this journey has one more seat for me." As he had expected, a smile appeared on Dante´s face as he simply nodded in response.
"Then we should hurry, poet, for I suspect this day will be longer than I originally thought." His confidence had returned after the initial shock, although he certainly felt excited about the journey, an emotion not shared by Kratos, who was walking alongside Pandora.
"Then, you wont be coming with us?"
"I´m afraid not, Kratos, I have something else to do, but I promise to come check on you from time to time." Kratos placed his hand over the girl´s head and rubbed her hair.
"Then take care, Pandora."
"I will, Kratos and be well, I suspect you will need all your strength to remain sane." Kratos let out a small grin as a response.
"I suspect I will, child." Pandora smiled in return as she vanished from the Spartan´s sight, who was know walking towards Dante.
"How can you walk blindly? We were supposed to give them out aid, not walk and gossip with them." Dante could feel a small hint of anger in his words, but Kratos was still calm.
Dante understood Kratos´ way of thinking, but right then, no threat was visible, sure, he had felt an enormous amount of power, something felt by the Ghost of Sparta as well, but it was not darkness that resided inside them, but the biggest hearts around.
Kratos, however, was not as optimistic as Dante. "Let your guard down, Kratos, the sister´s do not seem dangerous and you know we need some rest."
"The enemy will not wait for us to rest and we cannot let our guards down, but I guess I will not be able to change your way of thinking unless life shows you I´m right." Dante frowned at Kratos´ answer. "Relax if you will, but I will not let this kind of weakness bite us back."
With that, Kratos speed up his walk, leaving Dante with Virgil.
A few seconds passed, as Celestia took notice of Kratos, her sister had stopped walking alongside her and made her way towards Dante and Virgil. Celestia figured it fell on her to try and approach the Spartan.
Kratos noticed the princess getting closer, but paid her no attention.
"So... mind telling me why it looks like you are not enjoying this place?"
"That is because I don´t." Kratos´ harsh respond did not take Celestia away from her friendly mood, on the contrary, she has always found interest in complicated stallions, whose mood only caught her attention. "I am not fond of following those who I don´t know without even a hint of what it is all about. I hate being kept in the dark."
"I understand that, Kratos, but the reason for this decision was because I wanted you two to meet the ones that will follow you: The Elements." Her face suddenly released a smirk. "Would you really prefer that I repeat what is happening two times?"
The chuckle Celestia was expecting from the Spartan never came, instead, he asked once more. "Then why didn´t they come with you?"
"They have responsibilities, Kratos." The Spartan released a ´hmph´ as a response, as his head turned to the opposite direction to stare at the other end of the road. "Although, I guess you are right about something." The Spartan´s attention was once more directed towards the princess. "It is not fair for you to follow me blindly, therefore I guess we have time to know each other more, build up trust, so to speak."
Kratos did not respond, he didn´t mind telling his story at all, but he also suspected he would tell it a lot this day. The Spartan released a loud sigh. "Very well, I guess it should be a start."
A wide smile appeared on Celestia´s face. "Very well! What about you go first? Tell me your story."
"How much of it?"
"All of it."
Kratos nodded in response, then cleared his mouth to talk. Celestia was in for quite a tale.
At the mid point on the journey of life, I found myself in a land of talking ponies, for the sane path was lost...
- Dante Alighieri
Inside the enormous walls of the Crystal kingdom, the Elements found themselves waiting patiently for the arrival of the sisters; Twilight, though, was not patient. She had been pacing back and forth for the last hour and it was getting on the nerves of some of the Elements. Cadence on her part was left behind to attend the the duke and duchess of Maretonia, until the other princesses arrived.
Finally, Applejack decided to stop her march. "Sweet Celestia, Twi, could you stop doing that? I already feel dizzy from just watching you!"
"I can´t help it! We are about to meet another species, warriors no less!" Applejack cocked her head to the side, her expression saying a silent ´and?´. "We are not warriors, we don´t know how they will cope with us or how they will react, they could have zero tolerance and worse... they could be killers."
Applejack shook her head. "You are over thinking it, Twi. Princess Celestia asked for their help for a reason, Ah´doubt she would bring monsters in here."
Twilight released a sigh and prepared to talk, but was interrupted by a certain rainbow maned pegasus. "Besides, they are adventurers! How awesome is that?! We will have tons of adventures like Daring Do, alongside rough, strong and full of scars warriors!"
Suddenly, a loud whining sound was heard coming from a white unicorn. "Ugh! That is so barbaric! I was thinking more of a long blond hair, strong, heroic and handsome type." Upon finishing the sentence, Rarity let out various loud moans, as she imagined the whole scene. Suddenly, Pinkie appeared with an enormous curtain with a door at the center and placed it in front of Rarity, then placed a ´Don´t bother´ sign on the knob.
The rest simply rolled their eyes at the scene.
"Ah´still think you´re overreacting. For all I know, we could trust their word if they are brought by the princess and they do not have a reason to suddenly raise war with us." Applejack insisted.
"Being a warrior does not equals honor, Applejack, there have been many important soldiers in history whose story has been less than honorable, what says they are different?" Applejack let her words sink in.
"I´m actually a little afra..." A very low voice tried to enter the conversation, but was interrupted by Rainbow.
"Come on Twi! Aren´t you a little bit excited to be able to go out from all this boredom?" The pegasus never noticed Fluttershy alongside her as she began talking. "We could go to places were the danger is real! With monsters dying to fest on our flesh and ready to launch themselves for the kill!"
As she finished her sentence, the yellow pegasus let out an adorable squeak and ran to hide herself behind Twilight, who launched a dead stare towards Rainbow, who simply responded with...
"What?"
"Not helping, Rainbow...." The pegasus´ cheeks turned red, then released a sheepish smile. "Maybe you are right, girls, maybe I could be overreacting and they aren´t actually that bad, although I honestly hope they look just as Rarity described them, I mean, they shouldn´t be so ugly... right?"
"Actually, I have the feeling Dashie here hit the nail on the head about those guys!" Said Pinkie, who appeared behind Twilight and naturally made her jump of surprise.
After a few seconds of catching her breath, Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by somepony else. "I´m actually a bit afraid of going, girls."
Suddenly, another voice entered the conversation, this one holding a sophisticated tone. "Don´t worry, Fluttershy, you don´t have to go alone."
As sudden as the voice appeared, Twilight reacted. "Discord, what the hay are you doing here?" The big draconequus suddenly appeared in front of Twilight, his face showing the beginnings of an excited smile and in his claw, he was holding a camera.
"Why, I´m only here to receive the new guests."
"Bad idea, you are only going to upset them and Celestia knows how much patience they have." Twilight said.
Discord crossed his arms, a frown appearing in his features. "Oh come on! You are just overreacting, besides, I could learn a thing or two about them." The draconequus sighed. "After a millennia of doing chocolate clouds, it really becomes boring, you know?"
"Not for me!" A pink flash appeared between the pair, who simply decided to ignore Pinkie.
Twilight was by now more than annoyed, a fact noticeable by the big frown painted on her face. "No, you´re only going to make things worse."
"Ýou´re only going to make things worse´" Discord´s less than average impression of Twilight, did nothing to better he mood. "How about a little more faith in me?"
"Faith? Seriously?" Twilight rolled her eyes at his words. The situation was already tense enough and bringing the draconequus in would only cause more trouble. "For all we know this guys could have a zero tolerance policy, plus, if we can barely tolerate you, imagine a pair of hardened warriors with little to no patience."
Discord rolled his eyes. "Oh come on! You´re just being ridiculous."
"No I´m not, things could get really out of hoof." Twilight insisted. "An what says they won´t simply go ahead and try to harm us or you."
Discord released a mocking grin. "Awww look at that! The little princess is worried about me."
"No, I´m not!" Then the game began.
"Yes, yo are!"
"No, I´m not!"
"yes, you are!"
As the fight went on, the rest of the group could not help but to stare at the discussion. The fight would have continued till the end of the day if certain shy pegasus hadn´t decided it was time to intervene.
"Stop!" As the words left her mouth, both Discord and Twilight stopped their discussion to turn and stare at her.
"I´m sorry Discord, but I agree with Twilight , maybe it would be better if you just waited until the princess tells you to make your entrance, at least by then we will know how tolerant they are and I really don´t want anything happening to you." Fluttershy´s sweet face stroke hard against the draconequus, who was having and internal battle about whether or not he would agree the condition.
He really didn´t want to see Twilight´s annoying winning stare, but Fluttershy was very important and dear to him. The choice was simple.
With a deep sigh, Discord unfolded his arms and stared at the floor. "Very well, I will wait here until the ´cute´ little princess tells me to make my entrance." The draconequus could not help but to smile once he heard Fluttershy´s ´Thank you´; Twilight, however, held the ´I win´expression Discord had been expecting. "But try to not to take too long, I could get a little anxious and forget about my promise."
Contrary to Twilight´s roll of her eyes, Fluttershy released a chuckle."We will try, Discord."
A few moments passed as both pegasus and draconequus stared at each other, their smiles never leaving their faces, Twilight on the other hand, couldn´t help but to place her hoof on her forehead.
The little princess´ growl of desperation was cut short by Rainbow. "Relax, Twi, you really should get yourself a stallion." As soon as she finished her sentence, the pegasus was assaulted by the killing stare of Twilight and immediately stepped back from the ireful mare.
Applejack took this moments to approach the duo. "Rainbow´s got this one right... or the ´relax´part at least, we shouldn´t jump to conclusions before even knowing this guys."
The anger expression had already left Twilight, who only sighed as a response. "You are right, Applejack, the most we can do right now, is wait." She now held a more relaxed expression, as her nervousness was fading away. By now, Rarity was already going out of her quick and improvised curtain, a bright shade of red appeared on her face, as she got closer to the group. Twilight could not help but to chuckle at the scene. "Maybe, it won´t be as bad as I thought and if the princess selected them specifically, then what is the worst thing that could happen? "
The trip towards the castle had gone as smoothly as it could, with the princess of the sun taking an opportunity to inform Virgil about the location of the castle, from there, the poet took it upon himself to lead the way.
Celestia could have brought a carriage to take all of them or she could have simply teleported all of them to the castle, but she wanted to know more of the two warriors before introducing them to the Elements, for this, she and Luna had decided they would split to hear both stories. By now, Celestia was wishing she would have chosen Dante instead.
Being immortal, Celestia has seen numerous stories of deception as well as having suffered several loses. She was no stranger to war and the deaths it could bring to both soldiers and families, but she has never heard a tale as pale and cold as the Ghost of Sparta himself.
First things first, he was immortal as well, and not only that, but the son of a god, and the king of the gods no less. This was... interesting to say the least, and it also brought her to the second point, he had been a god, and even though, Kratos neglected his godhood, she could feel a certain power inside of him. Maybe something inherited by his father? She did not know, as it was but a small spark.
Third, he was a cold blooded and psychotic murderer. killing in a war was one thing, slaughtering your entire family without any kind of remorse was another. ´His father, his brothers and sisters´ she thought, mourning inside her mind about the atrocities the Spartan had committed. In the end, she partly understood the Spartan. His wife and child had died, although Celestia did not know how, which was a fact Kratos did not want to share, with the only thing mentioned by the Spartan being that a god killed them. His story was one of revenge, then.
She was now having second thoughts about bringing him to her world, but she had no other choice, something powerful was coming and she as well as the Elements would need help. If what Pandora had told her, was true, then another type of Chaos, even more ruthless than the one they had, would come to her land.
This thoughts aside, Celestia found something interesting. How could Kratos remain calm after all that has happened him? Was he really that strong? Or maybe he is completely nuts to even realize the extent of his actions. Celestia couldn´t help but to feel bad about him, as deep sadness invaded her, sadness noticeable by the way she was looking at the Spartan.
"... At the end, I was expecting one last god to appear, but it seemed hope stopped his entrance." Kratos said.
"What god?" Celestia asked as she saw Kratos´ features releasing a frown.
"The reason why we are here." The Spartan turned to look at her. "Chaos" .
"Of course, I se... Eep!" Suddenly, Celestia wide open her eyes as soon as something made click inside of her mind. Dante and Kratos where here to protect the Elements from Chaos, but if Kratos confused their entity with the one from his world, nopony would even know what the Spartan would do to Discord. She had decided to keep their Chaos hidden until she could clear things up with him, as she was more than sure that Discor would annoy Kratos as soon as they meet each other. Celestia needed to speak with Chaos first.
Unknown to her, Kratos had observed her reaction, and she was now hoping he was not some kind of face reading expert. Luckily for her, Kratos did not see to care about her expression, which made Celestia cease the opportunity to lead the conversation elsewhere. "I am so sorry for your losses, I cannot imagine how it feels to go through everything you have lived."
"I do not need your compassion or your help, Celestia; I have already learned to leave it all behind."
Celestia couldn´t help but to shake her head at the stubbornness of the Spartan, which had made her forget the Discord debacle rather quickly. The princess of the sun had not expected him to be this cold, and decided to tempt the waters, as Kratos turned to face her, his expression as serious as always. "Nopony can live without friends, nopony´s an island."
"I need no friends." His head turned towards the path ahead once more. "I have lost too many of them to the heat of war and the betrayal of those I followed."
She could not believe that way of thinking, and even if she respected others opinions, her heart was struggling to understand that. With this in mind, she took it upon herself to at least try to convince the Spartan. "But you are in a different time and a different world, it doesn´t have to be the same way, maybe here you can learn that friendship knows no bounds and is unbreakable in front of the face of adversities."
Kratos released ´Hmmph´as a response. "Keep lying to yourself, Celestia."
The princess frowned. "I am not lying to myself, Kratos, I am as immortal as you are and I have surely gone through a lot." Celestia took the opportunity to place herself in front of the Spartan. "Mark my words, Ghost of Sparta, nopony can live without company and I will not rest until you see it as well, until you understand the magic of friendship!"
"Then you will be running a fool´s errand... out of my way!" The two beings stared at each other, both of them holding a frown. Finally, Celestia decided that it would be better to let this discussion go.
"Ugh! You are so stubborn." With those words, which Kratos scoffed as a response, the princess proceeded to place herself alongside her sister and let the Spartan continue his march.
The princess had not noticed that both Dante and Luna had remained silent as the small discussion began. Contrary to Celestia, their conversation was way more friendly. Luna found herself more relaxed knowing that Dante was way more amicable; his words flowed with enormous passion as well as his love for all that surrounded him.
Laughs did not falter from their talk, but it was his enormous love for this Beatrice that caught her attention. She had read and seen many tales of love, but nothing as pure and true as the one Dante held for this woman; Luna could not help but to respect the poet. Celestia, however, quite the contrary towards Kratos, a fact noticed by her sister.
"Not as smooth as you thought, right?"
Celestia released a grunt and placed her hoof on her forehead. "He is impossible, I can´t understand how somepony can live without friends, no wonder he is so embittered. Ugh! I´ve seen elder ponies less cranky than him."
Both Dante and Luna let out a hearty laugh at Celestia´s words.
"He doesn´t seem like the type of man who enjoys the beauty of life." Dante said.
"Nor even know what the word ´enjoy´means." Added Luna.
Celestia´s normal smile returned, as she turned to face the duo. "You two seem to be getting along pretty well, at least we have somepony able to make friends."
"Indeed." Replied Dante. "I find your kingdom rather beautiful, it almost seems like a mere dreamland."
Celestia´s mile widened. "Thank you for the compliment, Dante. So... mind telling me a bit about yourself?"
However, the answer would come from Luna. "Well, we seem to have a poet amongst us." Dante couldn´t help but to smile. Before war ravaged his beautiful Florence, the man used to bath himself in the beauty of the plume and the word, often reciting what his heart commanded his voiced, but ever since he entered the inferno, his love for this art left his being. Right now, in this beautiful place, his love for poetry had returned.
Celestia did not wait any moment to make her request. "Is that so? Well then, why don´t you delight us with some of your work?"
Dante chuckled. "As much as want to delight us on this day, I would prefer to know a bit more about you and this magnificent place."
Although a bit disappointed, Celestia understood his decision. "Well, aside from what I suspect Luna has already told you, there is not much more to tell, other than the ascension of my student, besides, neither me or my sister are very good with tales." The disappointed look formerly appearing on Celestia, now had infected Dante, who was eager to know more. "But, you can ask Twilight about the history of Equestria, I am sure she would be more than eager to introduce you to our world and she is also more specific than we could ever be."
"Then I will have to hide my excitement, for I am more than looking forward to know your student." Dante said, his normal smile reappearing on his face.
"Oh and believe me when I say I know you two are going to get along pretty well."
"Eggheads..." Luna´s words made Celestia giver a look, however, Dante simply laughed at it. Celestia immediately knew he would be the perfect contrast to Kratos. It surely felt well that at least one of those two was merrier.
Soon her thoughts were cut short by Virgil, who took not too long to speak, his voice as calmed as the gentle breezes in a cold day.
"Excuse me for the interruption your highness, but I believe we have arrived at our destination and I don´t know if this shadow you see before you is going to resist the urge to explore such beauty."
indeed, they were at the edge of the Crystal Kingdom; a few houses were already visible in front of them and Celestia was about to take the opportunity to calm the citizens so they would not alarm after seeing the three companions. "And explore we all will, Virgil; thank you for guiding our guests as we took the opportunity to know them." The poet nodded in response, but before the walk continued, Virgil noticed the worried expression that suddenly appeared in Celestia´s face. "Say, where is Kratos?"
Virgil wasted no second to turn around to the place the Spartan was supposed to be and released a quiet grunt. "It seems our ´friend´ has taken it upon himself to enter the city without the escort of your beautiful highness, I wonder if that soul knows the meaning of prudence."
The princess of the sun could not resist the urge to plant her hoof on her forehead. "Ugh! That Spartan is going to be a problem." Her gaze directed towards Luna and Dante. "Come now, we must hurry if we want to avoid our subjects from screaming in fear thinking a new invasion has arrived and I´m sure Kratos will contribute to that thought."
Not saying another word, Virgil and Celestia continued their walk, leaving Luna and Dante behind. As the duo began their slow march, the princess of the moon got closer to Dante.
"I have the feeling this is going to be a very long day."
Dante sighed. "How I wish you are proven wrong, although I highly doubt it."
Screams were heard left and right across the streets of the kingdom, the reason for this, a certain angry Spartan making his way towards the castle without a care in the world.
Sure, ponies were already used to weird being visiting them every once in a while, but they have never seen a two ft. tall, angry looking and pale as the moon monster walking down the streets. But his appearance was not what unsettled the citizens, rather the aura emanating from him, the aura of violence.
It had all been very strange for Kratos, probably one of the weirdest days of his life and afterlife, but he was here for a reason and nothing more; if the citizens of the Crystal kingdom wanted to run away from him and scream, it did not matter to him.
Step by step Kratos came closer to what he assumed was the crystal castle. His plan was to reach the entrance and wait for the rest to arrive, if these so - called Elements appeared and decided to introduce themselves, better for him.
Soon enough his walk was interrupted.
"Halt! Take no step further and state your business!" Seeing how pacific this place was, Kratos was not expecting any kind of royal guard to stand against him, but life had managed to surprise him many times by now. The Ghost of Sparta took a few steps further, regardless of the guards saying otherwise and placed himself in front of one of them.
"Move aside, grunts! I came here with your princesses!"
every guard present could feel their hearts accelerating, as they did their best to not look afraid of Kratos, who had taken notice of their predicament.
The Spartan was about to push them aside and continue his walk, but one of them decided to talk.
"If what you say is true, then where are princess Celestia and Luna!" The guard received the stare of the angry Spartan, who wasted no time to tower above the stallion, whose eyes immediately shrunk.
"I do not have to explain myself to the likes of you! Move aside and I will spare your life!"
As nervous as they were, the royal guard was noble to the princess and were able to fight for their honor, as such, each of their spears raised against the Spartan´s face, which remained unchanged. They were sure Kratos would be just a minor inconvenience, even though his looks said otherwise, plus, he seemed unarmed; what none of they knew was that Kratos did not need weapons.
"You have sealed your fate, grunts." The Spartan closed his fists and placed them to his sides, ready to slaughter the royal guard blocking his path, but thankfully for the stallions, a voice they prayed would speak, echoed across the tense streets in front of the castle.
"Halt! Stop your approach, he comes with us!" As soon as the guards spotted Celestia, they moved aside their weapons, this action made Kratos lower his guard.
The rest of the group (mainly Virgil, Luna and Dante) were coming behind Celestia, who found herself looking at Kratos´ angry expression.
"You took your time!"
Celestia grunted. "Or maybe you should learn what patience means, Kratos, but that is not the point right now. What where you thinking by entering the city without us? You could have caused major anarchy within the streets of the Crystal kingdom and most of my subjects could have gotten scared to death by any action you could have committed!"
"I care little for you or your subjects! The only reason I am here is to finally achieve the freedom I have long searched for!" Celestia could not help but to roll her eyes in response, for her, Kratos was nothing more than an ignorant bully.
The next words that came out of her mouth were carefully chosen to pronounce as much sarcasm as she could. "And I am sure acting all mighty and rude is going to help in your holly quest to achieve peace." Kratos´ frown was every second more apparent. "Stop being so ignorant, Kratos, nopony will ever help if you continue to act this way, peace is not achieved through violence!"
"You want peace? Then prepare for war." With those words, the Spartan turned around and continued his march towards the entrance of the castle, but stopped midway to face the princess once more "This is how I was raised."
Celestia, who stayed behind, shook her head. Kratos would not open so easily.
"Sister..."
"Ugh! He´getting on my nerves! Please, let´s just enter the castle and get this over with, before that Spartan decides to create another commotion."
Not wanting to give a heavier weight to the princess, both Luna and Dante silently complied. As the three of them walked behind Celestia, the Florentine turned his gaze towards Virgil. "You know? I am starting have seconds thoughts about our companion, he does not seem to have the heart for this kind of aid and princess Celestia doesn´t seem very fond of him, maybe she was wrong and we really don´t need him."
Upon hearing his words, the poet smiled. "I understand your concern, my boy, but your highness doesn´t know that she needs him more than she thinks and vice versa."
"What exactly are you talking about?" Luna, who had been listening to their conversation, decided to enter the chat. Virgil nor Dante minded and instead greeted her.
"Why would you want to spoil the surprises life has in store for us, wouldn´t you rather enjoy the fresh moment than knowing the end since the beginning?" Upon the look that both Dante and Luna gave him, Virgil could not help but to laugh. "Soon enough, but I hope not so soon, you will know what my words mean."
Dante sighed in response. "I still do not know if he can be of trust, poet, his actions so far have spoken against him, for his rage is what decides for him what to say next, rather than his heart."
Feeling the doubt inside the two beings in front of him, Virgil did not hesitate to put to rest their uneasiness and placed each of his hands on their shoulders. "In time, Kratos will prove himself to all of us, we just need to give him time."
"I´m afraid time is not something we´ve ever had, poet."
Virgil smiled. "Time is all we have and it is what gives us the gift to enjoy the moment." For a moment, Virgil directed his gaze towards the entrance of the castle and spotted both Celestia and Kratos going inside. "Right now, I believe we should make haste, I´m eager to see how this meeting will turn out."
As the poet proceeded his walk, Luna took the opportunity to approach Dante. "Is he ever that cryptic?"
The Florentine released a chuckle. "You get used it, but rest assured he is as wise as time itself, I have no reason to doubt him."
Luna returned the grin. "He reminds me of somepony, somepony long gone by now."
"Come, Luna, I am also eager to see what will happen next." The princess nodded in return and continued her walk alongside Dante. "I have the feeling Kratos will leave a mark on your friends and I don´t want to miss such misfortune for your Elements."
"Ha! You are so evil!" Luna mocked, her laugh infecting the Florentine, who did not think twice to release one of his own, as they both approached the entrance of the monumental castle.
Silence, complete and utter silence was the thing that greeted Celestia, who found herself walking alongside the Ghost of Sparta. None of them where in the mood to talk to each other. On his part, Kratos had found the princess annoying to say the least, he thought Celestia simply avoided seeing the truth in front of her eyes, he thought she has been living in a fantasy all for her subjects followed blindly. Friendship would always end in tragedy, love would always be destroyed by the flames of those whose soul is tainted; decency is non existent, for the heart of man is weak.
All that truly mattered was power and respect, hold your enemies through your might, that was the true meaning of life, his life. This was the only thing he ever had; having being born a Spartan, the rules of humanity dissipated, giving way for the warrior inside to raise, but Kratos was different, he always has been, he was destined to greatness, or so he thought.
As much as she was interested in seeing the gentle part of the Ghost of Sparta, Celestia respected and loved herself so much to go through numerous insults, in the end, all that mattered was the well being of her subjects.
The awkward silence would not stop, at least until the duo arrived at the entrance of the throne room, where the Elements awaited for her and the guests.
Not too far from them, Luna, Dante and Virgil came walking, the three deep in a friendly talk, pretty evident by the loud laughs of the fast made friends. Celestia smiled at the scene; Dante looked like a grown up child, regardless of his own odyssey, his own bloody tale and unlike Kratos, he truly got over his faults and became a better and purer man.
"You enjoy it, don´t you?" A voice Celestia wished not to hear in that moment assaulted her ears, as Kratos placed himself alongside her. "But once the smiles fade, the monster that lives inside of you will crave to see the light and in that moment, I´ll be the first one you see."
Celestia frowned at the Spartan. "Then I´m dying to see that face, the face that knows I was right all along, that friendship is the strongest power of all and in that moment, oh! Will I enjoy seeing you with no other choice than to give in." Kratos scoffed in response.
"Then I´m glad to know you are immortal, for you will wait thousands of years for that to happen."
"You are going to end alone, you know that?" Celestia replied, however Kratos remained with the same expression.
"That, already I am." Kratos turned to face the door, thanks to this, he never noticed the sad look Celestia was giving him.
Whatever she was about to say would have to wait, as her sister approached her. "I have to be honest, I am not looking forward to this meeting." Shortly, she took a look a the two poets behind of her, then returned her gaze towards Celestia. "I am not worried about Dante, but rather your equally albino friend. Do you really think he will beha..."
"I will not harm your subjects, if that is what you were gossiping about." Without none of them noticing, Kratos stepped in front of the two. Anger was not the thing visible on his face, but rather annoyance.
Luna, far from being intimidated, did her best to release a convincing smile. "Heh heh! Good to know, right?"
"Ugh!" Celestia rolled her eyes. "Let´s just get this over with." With those words, she directed her steps towards Dante and Virgil. "So... you ready?" The two nodded in response. "Truth be told, I do not know how they will react and I would prefer if you let us enter first with Vergil, then Dante and finally... Kratos." The spartan scoffed in response.
"We understand that decision, your highness." Answered Virgil.
Nervousness was certainly more apparent in Celestia than Luna, as she did her best to simply nod, then placed he hoof on the door and released a deep sigh before turning to stare at Kratos one more time. Her gaze turned towards her sister, who nodded in confirmation, with that she proceeded to open the door. "Here we go."
The Elements who remained inside, instinctively stood up and stared at the opening door, as Celestia Luna and... something else stepped inside the large throne room. Contrary to the normal greet the two of the would receive, the Elements found themselves speechless as the stared at the floating, bright blue figure.
The door closed and silence was apparent in the moment. Neither the sisters or the Elements made a move, Virgil however, held a warm smile towards the group of ponies.
"Is that a ghost?" Of course, the silence had to be stopped by a certain blue pegasus, who received a stare from Twilight. "...what?"
Far from getting a scold from the ghost, the Elements were greeted with a gentle laugh. "There is nothing to worry about, I understand my aspect causes controversy amongst your pure kind, but your hearts remain the same as mine, for my love for all that surrounds us is as big and powerful as the two beautiful princesses that rule this lands."
None of them had been expecting this kind of greeting, for all they knew, a warrior would have different looks than what came inside the throne room, still, Celestia had told them she had invited two of them.
"I know what you are wondering." The figure interrupted the girls´ thoughts. "And no, I am not one of those two you are eager to see, still, my presence here is to relieve you of the nervousness that haunts your souls and I am excited to answer every question you have, until those two come inside." Some of the tension in the Elements went away once they noticed the figure´s calmness. "First things first and although I am not the one I once was, my name still clutches to me for it is the one the lord has decided to give me, as such, you may call me Virgil."
Everypony, with the exception of the three alicorns, scratched their head, trying to piece together the puzzle that were Virgil´s words.
"Second," He faced rainbow, who gave a sheepish smile in return. "yes, my girl, I am what you would call a ´ghost´. But enough of that, right now I would like to know the names of each one of you and if your curiosity is as big as the pureness all of you hold, then do not let it be lost in history, for I am more than happy to satiate your doubts."
"...Uh?" It was the response Virgil got from the orange mare, thankfully Twilight was there to clarify.
"He told us to introduce ourselves and then ask him any questions we have." Much to the young princess´ annoyance, she got a ´oh´ from the rest of the group, then decided to approach the poet, thus being the first to speak about them. "Greetings, Virgil, my name is Twilight Sparkle the Element of magic and these are my friends...
Rarity, the Element of generosity
Rainbow Dash, the element of lotalty
Applejack, the Element of honesty
Pinkie Pie, the element of laughter and finally...
Fluttershy, the Element of kindness."
As Twilight finished introducing herself and her friends, Virgil listened with the attention of a child upon discovering something new. He was delighted to say the least, fact proven by what he did next. After slowly floating towards the yellow pegasus, who found herself shaking slightly, Virgil proceeded to place himself to one knee, so that his towering stature remained as close as it could to Fluttershy´s height, then gently scratched her mane.
"You are special, little one, never have I seen such compassionate eyes."
"Thank you..." Answered Fluttershy, her voice, although a bit shy, still loud enough for Virgil to hear, who in return assaulted her with a warm smile.
"Do not thank me, for I should be the one to thank you for gracing my sight which such beauty." As she heard those words, Fluttershy could not help but to smile back, her full confidence now returning to her. "Oh! How much would I have given to have such living beings as yourselves to fill my land with the peacefulness and grace of this place."
One by one, the rest of the Elements gave in to Virgil´s sweetness, but without any of them noticing and in between the shadows, a certain draconequus felt a little insecure by the way Virgil had approached her, if only he could...
"And such is your grace, that even our hidden guest feels the evil of jealousy invading the love he feels for you." Discords eyes wide opened, was he referring to him? "Although I would prefer to personally know the shadow that watches this conversation like a crow waiting for it´s prey to die. So... come out and step into the light, for my eyes wish to bask in more of the magnificence of this world."
Yep! He was referring to him. ´I guess he wants an entrance and quite an entrance I´ll give him´ Discord thought. Sadly, Celestia intervened just before he could appear in the room.
"Actually, I would prefer for him to wait until everypony is introduced." Virgil directed his gaze towards the princess with a look of doubt in his eyes. "Originally I did not know how you would react to his presence. Discord is everything but natural and I was afraid you would take offense from his shenanigans, but even though you and Dante have shown me the contrary, I still have my doubts about Kratos and his... godly past, and I would prefer to keep him hidden until everything is settled." Even if Virgil was disappointed, the poet understood the decision and happily complied.
"Very well, your majesty." He looked at the ceiling. "But I would like to at least know the name of the one kept hidden."
"... Discord..." It was all the draconequus managed to respond, as he was still shocked to know the poet had sensed him. Sadly, by the looks of it, Virgil still wasn´t satisfied with the response, fact apparent by the way the poet motioned with his hand for the voice to continue.
"And? Do not stop there! I can clearly feel the excitement upon naming the titles that for some reason you avoid to tell. Surely a creature such as yourself does not go around in the world naming himself with a simple word that does not do justice to describe what you are capable of." Discord found himself confused. "And for the same reason, your highness does not call herself simply Celestia or Luna, but rather princess Celestia and princess Luna."
Now getting where he was getting, the draconequus filled himself with pride as he prepared to say his titles. "My name is Discord, the god of chaos."
Far from the look Discord had been expecting, Virgil remained smiling. "Such a lovely title, my friend and please, do not worry about her," He motioned to Fluttershy, "for I know she has the same feeling you feel for her. Jealousy only manages to break bonds and infect what could have been a lovely union." Discord remained quiet, surprised once again this creature had sensed him. The poet chuckled once more. "Yes, my friend, I did sense your reaction, but do not take my actions to the bad side of your heart, for I had the purest intentions."
This time the draconequus remained silent and Virgil guessed he would speak no more. Thankfully the silence ended.
Celestia gently placed her hoof on the poet´s shoulder to call for his attention and he, with the expression of years of wisdom and love, gave both of his ears and eyes to the princess. "That went better than I had expected, but we should hurry with this, so we can introduce those two."
Virgil gave a small vow. "And hurry we shall, your Majesty." With that, he turned to the Elements. "Well then, do not be shy and let your mind and heart speak, so that I can clarify any doubts you have and at the same time know more about you."
"Very well, who goes first?" Celestia asked, then grinned as soon as she saw who would take it upon herself to ask the first question.
With one big step, Twilight approached Virgil and smiled.
"This is taking too long." Outside the throne room the two warriors remained chatting... well, Dante talked, Kratos just grunted and sometimes answered a few questions or complained like right now.
Dante was far more patient, it was this treat that helped him endure a few minutes with a man like Kratos, however, Kratos did not find the Florentine annoying, part of this was because of the fact he was a warrior as him.
Kratos held a special place for those able to make a stand in battle, however, he still had to see what Dante was capable of and see if whether what he said about his journey was exaggerated or not.
The Spartan struggled to understand many of the things Dante told him, due to the fact that he was basically new to the world he had returned to, as such, his knowledge about the beings roaming the planet were close to zero; but he cared to little about this, as the only thing that interested him was to know how much could Dante endure in battle.
Spartan´s training was savage to say the least and Kratos´ was certainly no different, sometimes he actually considered his demigod, or how Dante put it, Nephilim traits a gift. With his godly bloodline in mind, Kratos wondered if Calliope could... ´No, not right now.´ The Spartan thought.
Trying to set this thoughts aside, Kratos approached Dante once more. "Why would they make us wait? We do not have to hold the sensibilities of six ponies on our shoulders, if what Celestia says about them is true, then she would not have to worry about them getting scared and we should not care."
Dante sighed. "Their rules are as different as this world, I understand the princesses not wanting to create a commotion so that things go smoothly."
Kratos gave his words a little thought, as much as he wanted to get this done quickly, Dante was right about the commotion. Any harsh movement would make this quest harder for him and he did not want that.
As a struggle to keep the impatience away, Kratos tried to start a conversation with the Florentine.
"What do you think we´ll be facing?"
"Although I do not know the answer to that, I have at least one thing for sure." The Spartan looked at him with curiosity. "It is dangerous and powerful."
Kratos cocked his head to the side. "How would you know that?"
"Have you felt that power those two princesses carry?"
The Spartan gave his words a little thought before answering. Indeed, Celestia and Luna carried great power, Kratos had to give them that. "Yes, I have."
"Now, try to feel what comes from the inside of that door." Kratos did as Dante said and turned to stare at the throne room, what he felt... was one of the most powerful magic levels he had ever felt.
It wasn´t just great, it was glorious and pure. As surprised as Kratos was, his face showed nothing and remained the same, his words, though, did revealed amazement. "Then Celestia spoke the truth." The Spartan returned his gaze towards Dante. "These Elements carry something powerful and they haven´t realized it yet."
Dante smiled as he got close to the Spartan. "Or maybe they already have and they just don´t want to show it, maybe they truly give honor to their title."
Kratos cocked his head to the side once more. "Harmony?"
"Harmony indeed and maybe that is what we need." Upon hearing his words, Kratos released a ´Hmmph´.
"At least we can agree on something."
Dante chuckled. "Then I´m glad I decided to speak, my friend."
Kratos faced him once more. "We are not friends, Dante, but merely partners in this battle."
Far from the answer Kratos was expecting, Dante smiled in response and shook his head. "Kind of funny that I have the feeling this world is going to change you more than you think. Who knows? Maybe you could end up singing a song while being surrounded by birds."
"I would rather return to my prison and have a night of passion with Clotho than to welcome that fate."
Even though, Dante had just a mare idea of Clotho, he understood what he meant and released a hearty laugh. "Well then, I accept I went a little to far on that."
As the conversation ended the sound of the door opening greeted the two warriors, who prepared to receive whoever would come from the throne room.
Soon enough, the silhouette of Luna was visible, as she directed her eyes towards Dante. "This is going better than I expected."
"I am glad to hear, Luna." Answered Dante and received a smile from the princess.
"And glad you should be, for I think is time for you two to enter." Dante found himself surprised and motioned with his hand both him and Kratos.
"You mean, both of us?"
Luna nodded. "Indeed, just..." Her stare directed towards Kratos. "Try to behave and not scare them, okay?" The Spartan did not respond and simply crossed his arms, soon enough Luna felt awkward. "Okay then... lets get inside."
No word was said, as the two warriors prepared to enter the throne room, mentally getting ready for what was about to come.
So far the Elements had found themselves comfortable alongside the guests Celestia and Lune brought with themselves, plus, Virgil seemed like a very wise entity, there was something about him that calmed any nerve presentable inside the mares, almost like evryone´s spiritual father.
So far so good. Indeed, he was no warrior, but Virgil would give great balance to the other two beings still yet to be known, the wait would not last any longer, though, as the spirit was just finishing the answer to the last question.
"Yes, I would have loved to taste those which you call cupcakes, but sadly my time has already passed and I´m no longer in shape for eating anything." He finished with a smile and rubbed Pinkie´s mane. "But maybe I will pray the lord to grant me the miracle of tasting such amazing flavor and satiate my soul with such gift."
"Okie dokie lokie!" As soon as she finished the sentence, her head turned towards the opening door and pointed at it with her hoof. "Hey, princess Luna is coming back! We´re going to meet the heroes!"
Rainbow flew fast towards Pinkie, the rest followed her behind, although slower than her energetic move, the with excited words she spoke. "Oh yeah! At last we´re going to meet something really awesome!" The pegasus took a quick peak at Virgil, who remained smiling even after her words. "No offense, dude!"
Virgil chuckled. "None taken."
Soon enough, Luna and the two warriors entered the room and much to Rainbow´s excitement, they looked as she had thought. The pegasus wasted no time into releasing a mocking laugh at Rarity. "Ha! Told you they had to look cool! Rainbow: 1, Rarity: - 1!" The unicorn simply rolled her eyes in response.
With the exception of Pinkie and Rainbow, the rest of the group remained skeptical about the new comers. Twilight noticed Celestia worried for some reason and it gave her a bad hunch.
Neither Dante, Kratos or the other ponies did anything, until Pinkie and Rainbow decided to approach the two warriors.
"Wow!" The pegasus flew straight to Dante. "That scythe looks so awesome! Where did you get it? Did you fight a magic overlord?"
Dante smiled. "Actually, I took it from the spirit of death himself."
Rainbow remained silent for a few seconds and the Florentine began to worry he had scared her, but soon enough she regained her excited expression. "You battled death? And won?!" She gasped.
Behind the two mares, who were all over Dante, Twilight found herself both skeptical and confused. "Wait a minute, If you defeated death, then who comes to claim the souls?"
This was a question Dante was not expecting and it had certainly gotten him to think. On a deeper thought, what will happen now that there is no ferryman and no judge of the dead?
Thankfully, before Twilight could assault Dante with another question, Virgil decided to step in. "Dead souls cannot die a second time, they just remain damaged momentarily before divine power restores their former physic or until the lord decides to replace those souls."
Twilight scratched her mane for a few seconds. "The afterlife sure has a weird way of organizing things, but aren´t our worlds different? Is there an underworld for each universe?"
Virgil placed a hand under his chin. "Certainly, that is a very interesting question, for I have never seen your kind in both my life and afterlife."
Twilight was about to open her mouth yet again, but Rainbow interrupted. "Okay! Egghead reunion is over! Don´t you see we have two awesome warriors in here with us? And one of them actually kicked death´s behind?"
The young alicorn princess rolled her eyes. She certainly loved an interchange of knowledge and Virgil was clearly full of it, but the main reason for them to be there was to meet the other two.
Twilight was the next one to get close. "I am sorry, but I don´t remember catching your names."
As an answer, the Florentine got on one knee. "Indeed, little miss. My name is Dante Alighieri." The poet remained silent for a few seconds, as he took hold of the alicorn´s appearance. "You must be the one your highness speaks highly of. Yes, I remember, Twilight Sparkle, It is an honor meeting you at last and if the princess was correct, then you´ll be happy to know I have questions for you."
And happy she got. Twilight´s cheeks turned red for all the praise she had received and now more relaxed, she offered her hoof to the Florentine, who gracefully accepted it. "The honor is mine, Dante."
The poet stood up, as he noticed an orange mare approaching. "What is that thing you have in there?" She pointed her hoof towards the cross.
"you must be Applejack." The mare smiled in confirmation. "And to answer your question, this is a holy cross, given to me by my beloved Beatrice."
"Awwww!" pinkie stepped in. "Isn´t that romantic?"
Dante smiled. "It is more than just romantic, it is pure and holy, for my crusade was to rescue her from a fate she did not deserve."
The next one to approach was Rarity. "So it is like one of those stories were fate separates the lovers and the prince in shining armor must fight through impossible odds to reunite with his true love?" The unicorn finished her words while pacing her hoof over her head in a dramatic way.
"Have you been watching me?" Dante mocked and received a chuckle from Rarity.
"Or maybe I knew you would be that kind of warrior, which reminds me..." The unicorn pointed with her hoof towards Rainbow. "Rarity: 1, Rainbow: - 1"
The pegasus crossed her hooves. "Yeah, yeah! Whatever, at least he still looks cool!"
Soon, the mares formed a circle around Dante, assaulting the poet with questions and so caught up they were with basking themselves with the Florentine, that they had completely forgotten about Kratos, he did not mind, though.
The Spartan found himself arms cross in a corner of the room, silently watching the scene unfold. Suddenly, he felt Celestia approaching. "Looks like Dante is stealing audience, don´t you think?"
Kratos scoffed. "I could care less."
Celestia released a mocking grin. "Hey! I have an idea, what about you start smiling a bit and maybe you´ll have them around you as well?" Kratos did not answer with words, but rather with a kill look, Celestia however, simply chuckled. "Just a thought, just a thought!"
After a few moments, Kratos felt something pulling his skirt, as he watched the princess´ mocking grin wider. "Who would have thought! One of the Elements actually got close to you."
Indeed, once Kratos looked towards the floor, he spotted a yellow pegasus staring at him.
"Excuse mister, I was just worried that nopony seemed to notice you." Kratos remained silent for a few seconds.
"Worry not." His gaze turned towards the group, then returned to Fluttershy. "I am not here to be the entertainment of anyone."
Fluttershy´s ears fell as well as her head. "Oh, I´m sorry if I bothered you."
"You didn´t." As soon as she heard the words, the pegasus´ mood returned to normal and gave a weak smile towards the Spartan.
"My name is Fluttershy, would you mind telling me yours?"
"...Kratos."
The mare raised her hoof, expecting the man to shake it. "It is nice to meet you." Her smile fell a little once she noticed Kratos was not going to shake hooves, but it did not destroyed her mood. "Why don´t you get close so that the rest can meet you?"
"And what would the point be? I came here to help with a threat and that´s what I am going to do. " Suddenly, his was directed towards the smiling faces surrounding Dante. "Showing myself would just be a waste of my time and yours."
Fluttershy gave a quick chuckle and shook her head in a negative. Yes, there was something of importance that Celestia planned to tell them, but right in that moment, there was no danger. She had decided to approach the Spartan. the reason for this was the curiosity she felt because of his silence, a silence that wanted to tell a deep story. Fluttershy began to wonder if it was a tragic one, a sad life that caused his mouth to close.
Fluttershy has always been a compassionate pegasus and if somepony was in any kind of trouble, she would have to help, besides, Kratos and Dante were there to help them; if they were in any kind of trouble, lending a hoof would be the least she could do.
"Do not think like that, it would be rude of us to simply use you and besides, there is no danger... at least not right now." The Spartan stared at her. Sure, he had expected them to be this way, but not to the degree of them getting close to someone like him. Normally any man, no matter how strong he was, would run away as soon as he got sight on him; his world was cruel and full of hate, but this place held the tranquility Kratos sometimes wished he had. "Come on, Kratos, If the reason you don´t want to talk is for shame, I promise we won´t judge." He did not trust her or anyone and certainly not Celestia, but the pegasus´ words held the kind of truth Kratos has heard very few times. "Even if you haven´t noticed, you are between friends, it doesn´t matter we´ve yet to meet you."
The whole time since Fluttershy took the opportunity to get close, Celestia had been listening closely, waiting to see how things would turn out with the Spartan and much to her surprise, Kratos was not being rude. She had expected him to cast her aside with his all-mighty rudeness, but it was quite the contrary, Kratos was calmed and cooperating with Fluttershy, then the moment came to see if Kratos would truly open up, or at least try and he truly surprised her. Unaware to her, Virgil had noticed as well.
"What do you want to know?"
Fluttershy released a wide smile. "Everything! Or at least... everything you want to tell."
The spartan grunted in response and held his head in thought, indeed, he had already told part of his story to Celestia, but left unexplained some aspects of his life, leaving them as simple as he could. Still, opening up like this was never a very good idea, with this in mind, he decided to leave many things out.
"It is a large story."
The pegasus smiled. "Oh! I have time and I´m sure the rest does as well."
"The rest?" Asked Kratos.
"Come on, I am sure we all want to hear about you." Kratos gave thought to Fluttershy´s words. His head turned to spot the circle still around Dante.
"It doesn´t seem like it." He finally replied and although his word did not present jealousy, they did seem to hold a little sarcasm, however, this went unnoticed by Fluttershy, who chuckled as a response.
"How do you know if you haven´t tried?"
The Spartan remained silent for a few seconds, letting her words sink in, then with a deep sigh, Kratos answered.
"Very well." The pegasus nodded with her head. "But let get something clear, I am not to be forced into speaking, I will talk what I deem important tell."
Fluttershy grinned. "Don´t you worry about it."
With that, the pegasus returned with her friends, leaving Kratos to think, until a voice cut short his thoughts. "I have to say, Kratos, you got me worried for a second there." The Spartan gave her a look. "Are you really going tell them your story?"
Kratos scoffed. "I said I would."
"Its just that I thought..."
"I am a man of my word, Celestia! Although I wont exactly tell everything." Celestia couldn´t help but to flash a big smile. She certainly respected Kratos´ opinion, as such, she nodded in response.
Virgil, who had been taking notice of this whole conversation, just decided to step in the wall of questions towards Dante. The poet was responsible for the Florentine, but Kratos was in the same boat as them and no one would be cast aside. Slowly, he approached the Elements, who found themselves sitting around Dante as he finished his story.
"It was in that moment, where my quest throughout Hell had finished, giving way for a new step of discovery, but fate had decided something different for me and my protector." Each one of the mares were fixated on the Florentine, who, with the words of a holy poet, retold his journey. So much passion held his words that the Elements couldn´t help but to imagine every single syllable told by the poet. Even Twilight, who was still full of questions, had decided to stop asking them and let the man finish. "As soon as we descended and ascended from Lucifer´s side, a shining light came towards us; her voice so sweet that illuminated the darkest corners of the inferno. So much grace held her words that we could not deny ourselves from listening. Pandora had a quest for us, a quest we gracefully accepted to carry; it was in this moment that she explained to us the nature of the problem, she told us about your princess and the aid she was seeking, then..."
"... Then life rewarded us with a new companion." Virgil interrupted, catching the attention of both the Elements and Dante. "Although I know Dante´s words flow like a crystalline river, it is not us who should tell the next tale, but rather he who has decided to let himself be unseen." The poet turned his gaze towards the corner of the room. "Kratos," The Spartan stared at him, "I believe it is your turn to delight these souls with your story."
The Elements, as lost as they were with Dante´s story, they did not notice the Spartan. Some cheeks turned red from the embarrassment of having forgotten about the second warrior, this was followed by the occasional ´oops!´, however, Kratos simply grunted in response and nothing else.
Twilight and the rest of the group could tell there was something different about this new character whose name they just knew, whereas Dante was joyful and cheerful, this Kratos seemed to be quite the contrary. Truth be told, he even seemed to be more aggressive than the surprisingly poet warrior, it was this fact that made some of the Elements feel a little intimidated by the man´s futures.
On the side of Kratos, Celestia had chosen to remain silent as she witnessed the Spartan get close to the group; Luna gave her sister a worried look, as she wasn´t present when the yellow pegasus and the man talked, but to her relief, Celestia gave her a confident smile.
For Kratos, it was uncomfortable and not for the fact that these Elements were about to hear from him, but because he did not want to. Not a single man would be happy if he had to retell the atrocities he has committed time and time again.
Sure, he had left some things behind, but there was almost anything good he could remember to counterweight the bad things flowing through his memory. But there was one thing for sure: even after so many centuries... he missed them.
Each step the man gave, felt like a quake, they could all feel his presence strong as a raging fire.
Just before he made it to the group, Virgil turned to the mares and said. "Gather now, my friends and hear this tale with open hearts, for you are about to listen the story of the Ghost of Sparta, the god slayer."
"God slayer?" Twilight muttered silently.
Dante stood up from his sitting position and made his way towards the side of his protector, who welcomed him with a smile. The mood of the poet, however, did not infect anypony, as the Elements found themselves staring silently at the eyes of Kratos. None of them, not even Pinkie or Rainbow Dash dared make a move, as the towering figure blocked the shining sun from embracing them with its luminescence.
Dante had been cheerful and even his face screamed kindness, but this Ghost of Sparta screamed danger. It wasn´t just his expression, it was his aura, his eyes that seemed like daggers penetrating the strongest hearts.
It wasn´t long before Twilight took it upon herself to speak. "Kratos, right?"
The Spartan kept silent, as he took a look at the rest of the Elements, silently analyzing them, he even noticed the pink one trying to salute him with a cheerful smile, but the nervousness was apparent, then he noticed Fluttershy with a confident smile.
Finally, his eyes returned to the young alicorn. "Yes."
Twilight gulped. "So, uh... would you mind telling us a little about you?"
"What would you want to know?" The Spartan asked. He still noticed the looks the rest of the group were giving him, he did not mind.
"What about the place where you come from."
Kratos crossed his arms. "There is not much for me to tell and I will only say the necessary." The Spartan remained silent for a few seconds. "To answer your question, I was born in the city of Sparta..."
From there, the man made his best to simplify his life, leaving certain aspects like his brother and the dead of his family by his own hands, outside of the tale, he did talk about them passing away, though. He did spoke about career as a general of the great Spartan army, his servitude to the gods; following this, his imprisonment by the furies, his assignment in Attica and so on. Although, the few aspect he kept hidden from the other two humans, the princesses and the ponies, was everything related to Ares, and the fact that he murdered his own wife and daughter, leaving a weird gap in the events of his story. Thankfully, no one would notice.
The Elements remained silent the whole time, most of the time doing their best to not cover their ears as they heard every thing Kratos has made.
On his part, Virgil had expected Kratos to tell certain important aspects of his life, but he did understand why he chose the leave them out. No man, no matter how strong they are, should be able to speak a story similar to that of the Spartan.
Everypony had found interest in the story, but it was Twilight who had taken notice of very interesting things: Is he a god? And the one of war no less. This could certainly explain his actions, even though they do not justify such violence, but setting aside these points, there was one that stroke hard against the young alicorn... Kratos was the son of the god´s king.
She had heard of treachery, but family treachery was something despicable. Family is one of the most important things for anypony and Kratos´ was broken to the point of hideousness.
Fluttershy, who had taken upon herself to get close to the Spartan, found it unbelievable to think she had gotten close to him. She had certainly thought something else about him, still, she could feel there was something Kratos refused to tell, adding to this she noticed the expressions both Virgil and Celestia held.
"Woah, woah, woah! Didn´t Dante here defeated or whatever, Death?" Suddenly asked Rainbow.
Twilight stepped in. "No, he said the embodiment of death, they are two different entities." Added the alicorn. "Although I am not completely sure about something." Her gaze returned to the Spartan. "Which one did you kill? The god of the dead or the god of death?"
"... both."
There was a collective gasp amongst the Elements, followed by wide open eyes and utter silence. It wasn´t too long before Applejack got close to Twilight´s ear. "The god slayer, uh?"
"Yep." Kratos´ story was brutal. True, Dante´s was as well, but it was more because of the inferno itself rather than by his own hand. "And what happened next?"
The Spartan let out a sigh. "After I enacted my vengeance against my father, the blood lust that had blinded me was vanished and in its place I saw..." Kratos lowered his head, his expression frowning in anger and pain. He could feel his heart racing, his hands sweating and his brain asking him to stop. "I saw only death and destruction."
Stares were shared between the Elements, not exactly knowing how to react or what to tell. Some felt a little undigested about such cruelty and selfishness.
After a shook of her head, Twilight asked. "Is there... I don´t know, something actually good that you´ve made?" The Spartan shot daggers towards her, making the princess release a sheepish smile. "No offense."
Kratos took a deep sigh. "There was nothing I could do to help the world which laid destroyed, but I did gave it the tools to survive... I gave what I gained from Pandora´s box."
Everypony released an incredulous look. "You mean the evils?" Asked Rarity. "I´m sorry, but that doesn´t seem too good, unless of course you are some kind of psychopath who thinks OUCH!" Suddenly, Applejack´s hoof collided with Rarity´s side, in hopes of shutting her up, however, somepony else would carry the discussion.
"Who thinks OUCH!?" Said Pinkie, who was scratching her mane, then stared at Kratos. "Mr psycho, do you think OUCH?"
Upon Pinkie´s words, Twilight could not help but to plant her hoof on her forehead. Kratos, however, instead of being angered by this, he was simply confused. Was this a joke?
Thankfully, Twilight clarified. "What she meant to ask was if what you gave to your world were the evils of the box."
"The evils were what infected the Olympians, I did not hold such thing." Twilight released her breath. "What I gave... was hope."
Upon hearing the words, the Elements cocked their head to the side.
"What do you mean by Hope?" Asked Twilight.
Once again, Kratos explained the aspects of his tale. Twilight was having a hard time trying to understand how Pandora was still alive after being used to open the door and once more she and the rest of the Elements thought about the implications of this. The greed on the Spartan was something that sickened everypony in the room, but it was the mere fact that he had sacrificed himself to heal the world that gave Kratos the benefit of the doubt.
In the end, if he was so despicable and selfish, why did he sacrificed himself? Was this connected to the reason of why Celestia chose him?
After this fact, they took notice on something very interesting... Athena. Twilight wondered if she had always been so evil, or if it was because of the evils and something more, how did she manage to return from dead and the other gods didn´t?
Setting the thoughts aside, the fact that Kratos had given up power was one of the redeemable aspects for the Elements, even though some of them were still cautious about him.
There were other aspects of his tale that set the Elements on their hooves, including the fact of the missing Blade of Olympus and Athena´s sudden disappearance from the face of the Earth. In the end, it was no wonder why Celestia had decided to ask them for their help.
"So that´s how you arrived here." Said Fluttershy. The pegasus was already going over the fact that Kratos was a wild animal. It was the detail of his end that gave her Hope towards him.
On their part, Rainbow, Applejack and Rarity were still trying to wrap things up on their mind, trying to decide what to think in the end about him. Pinkie, on the other hoof, tried to give the most sincere smile, an act that of course confused Kratos.
Suddenly, the silence was over. "Well... " Said Rainbow. "Ghost of Sparta sound like a cool nickname." The pegasus gave away a sheepish smile once she noticed the look Kratos was giving her.
As the seconds passed, Dante and Luna shared an awkward and worried look. Certainly, Kratos had caused an impression in a world as pacific as this, thankfully, the silence would not last as suddenly the doors to the throne room opened to give way to Cadence.
"So sorry for the delay, but those two surely... " The princess stopped on her tracks and gave a funny look towards the three new beings inside. Sure, she had expected Celestia and Luna to arrive with humans, but they looked too different from what Twilight described about the other side of the mirror. These looked more... brutal, sadistic; well, at least the one with the cross on the chest looked less animal than the white one. It took her a few seconds to regain her composure and managed to speak. "umm... hi?"
It had not been an specially weird day for Cadence. Indeed, they were already used to surprises. One day the return of an old enemy, the other an invasion of a diabolical queen, they had seen it all... except what laid in front of her.
Cadence noticed the small grin and half salute the one with the cross on the chest was giving to her; the small cordial bow from the blue floating one, and finally the almost rude roll of his eyes the white one assaulted her with. It was an understatement to say she was at a complete loss for words. How much did she miss?
Silence endured for a few moments until the white one turned his gaze towards Celestia.
"I am not telling my story again!"
The princess rolled her eyes in response, then gave a few steps towards the princess of love. "Greetings Cadence, you remember about the guests we were going to bring to help with our problem, right?"
"Yeah?" Cadence replied, moving her eyes from Kratos to Virgil and Dante. Celestia gave a nervous chuckle.
"Well... let me introduce you to Dante, Virgil and Kratos."
Finally snapping out of her trance, Cadence gulped and gave a few steps towards the three. She was feeling quite nervous and by the looks of it, the introductions were long past, it was a little awkward. "Well, then let me greet you to the Crystal kingdom, my name is princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but you can call me Cadence."
Upon hearing the name, Dante´s ears perked up and with a rather excited tone he spoke. "Oh! Cuanto mi piace ascoltare lo bello dell'italiano, donna mia! Per favore, necessito sapere si tu conosci una citta come la mia bella Firenze ed si la tua sangue è di origini Italiane!"
Cadence was rather happy to hear a language familiar to her, it helped calming her nerves and soon enough she felt more comfortable, this was shown by the fact her face bright up. After a chuckle she spoke. "Es cierto, vengo da una linea di sangue molto similare a la tua. Debo dire, ho perso la mia lingua ed la mia casa."
Dante smiled. "Siamo due, mia amica Cadenza." Finally, the Florentine´s hand shook the hoof of the princess. "It is nice to know we are not alone in this world."
"The sentiment is mutual, Dante. Sadly, we do not have a place named Florence, I´m sorry." Dante´s smile faded just a bit, but then his usual joyful face came back. "Maybe we should go visit were I come from, I am sure you will love it, but please, call me just Cadence."
The Florentine could not help but to release a small chuckle. "I am sure I will delight myself in there, but please, do not ask me to call you by the name that does not remind me of my home, for I would love to have the memory of everything I grew up to love."
Cadence suddenly felt herself once more at home. She did love having somepony around that could speak her mother tongue and she understood how Dante felt, also, Cadence noticed something curious about him. "Very well, Durante and forgive me to ask, but the way you talk... are you a poet?"
Dante´s face brighten up upon hearing the remark. Ever since he entered the inferno, he had hoped to have contact with his roots, roots severed by the black guelphs. "I am not surprised that it took an Italian so little to notice the beautiful art of the word and the pen. Of course, I like to think as one myself, for there is nothing more I would rather spend my heart, mind and tears; other than my beloved of course."
Cadence was the princess of love and it was no weird the she and Dante would get along so well, at the end, the Florentine was know for being romantic, something Cadence found wonderful about him, plus, she loved poems, especially those written on her mother tongue. "Please, tell me one! Oh! How much I miss those."
Just as Dante opened her mouth, Luna decided to step in. "Dante did promise one, but we are with little time right now and you should really meet the other two."
"Indeed," Virgil stepped in, "your world doesn´t seem to have the gift of time right now, although I beg to differ. You have heard my name already, but I will repeat it so that it stays in your mind after I´m long gone. You may call me Virgil and I have to say that this Kingdom is as beautiful as the most precious structure that has basked my eyes in glory."
The princess let out a small grin. "My thanks, Virgil and it is a pleasure to meet you." The poet nodded. "I wasn´t really expecting so much kindness and Dante here sure took the cake. Oh! Am I glad that princess Celestia chose you, but please, Virgil, tell me more about you."
Out of the conversation, Kratos found himself staring at the scene. Both him and Celestia decided to stay outside until introductions with Virgil and Dante were made. Silence passed until a doubt crossed Celestia´s mind. "You really aren´t made to make friends, are you?"
Kratos grunted and once again, Celestia rolled her eyes. "Oh, please don´t start again, Kratos, you were doing so well. I really did not expect you to actually be kind to Fluttershy, or even introduce yourself to the Elements."
"I am not a brute, Celestia." With those words, Kratos returned his stare towards the group, until the princess muttered.
"I beg to differ on that." The Spartan instantly shot daggers at the princess, who did not take long to react in a rather exaggerated manner. "I mean, oh! How could I even take you for for a rude person! You, that are so wonderful, handsome and totally not rude... did I mention you are definitely not rude?"
Rather than the angry expression Celestia had been expecting, Kratos gave her an ´are you serious?´ look. The princess sighed. "Ugh! I know, that was a little too far stretched."
"It was."
An awkward silence endured between both of them, until something came to Celestia´s mind. The princess had been formulating her question ever since Kratos told her everything he had done. It was not easy for her to ask this, but she had to know. "Did... did you kill every single god back in your world?"
Thankfully and for the princess´ relief, Kratos shook his head. "I believe there were a couple of gods left, although what happened to them I do not know."
The expression of disgust that held Celestia´s futures had now diminished. Normally, she would not tolerate this kind of violence in Equestria, but she had no jurisdiction on Kratos, due to him being from another world. Thankfully, his answer calmed her a bit. "Mind telling me who are they?"
"One of them was Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation..."
Upon hearing the words, Celestia could not help but to roll her eyes, immediately thinking about the obvious reason of why Kratos didn´t kill her. "... Of course." Not that she had something against sexuality, but Kratos looked like the kind of being who simply couldn´t keep himself away from bed. "is he good?" Celestia thought, but soon enough realized what came to her mind and quickly shook off the thought, leaving a thin red coloration on her cheeks. After this, her attention returned to the Spartan. "Who else?"
"Chaos." The Spartan answered, making Celestia flinch.
"Of course..." She responded.
The Spartan did not notice the princess´ reaction, for he was focused collecting his thoughts. Since the moment he came to this world, he noticed it; the pureness, the peacefulness. It was hard for him to believe there could be a place like this, yet here he was. He could have been a very different man if he had grown up here, Calliope would still be alive...
"How do you manage to keep Equestria so peaceful?"
Celestia released a small grin. "Our world is different than yours, we have always preferred to resolve our problems with the power of the word, instead of the sword and it has proven to be effective to keep the peace amongst realms; in the end, it is one of the lessons we try to teach... friendship is magic." Kratos resisted the urge to roll his eyes; friendship has never helped him resolve his problems, but rather strength and courage, yet this world managed to get the peace he had long sought, he has always dreamed to have. "Sure, we´ve had our disputes and the regular overlord that tries to conquer our land, but in the end Harmony always triumphs over chaos."
It wasn´t for too long, but Kratos did notice the look Celestia was giving him as she said the word ´Harmony´, however, Kratos shrugged it off. "And so good your Harmony has been , that you had to ask our help."
Instead of rolling her eyes, Celestia gave a deep and tired sigh. She had noticed ever since they met, Kratos would always speak so poorly about everything that surrounded him, it was this thought that made her release a mocking grin. "You know? The way you always talk about everything makes me think somepony is just looking for attention and also wants a big, big hug."
A frowning Kratos turned to look at her. "Who do you think I am, woman?"
She noticed the anger in the Spartan and she knew he would not lighten up, making her release a grunt. "Ugh! You are not fun."
Kratos scoffed. "Do I look like a plaything to you?" Celestia rolled her eyes. "If you want entertainment, then go and play with yourself in your room!"
"And... rude Kratos comes back. Geez you should really try to smile sometimes." Trying to avoid her voice, Kratos looked the other way, but sadly for him, Celestia would just keep pushing. "Seriously, if your teeth are the problem, then I have some Coltgate in the bathroom, or maybe we could instruct Pinkie Pie to teach you the secret art of smiling, because at this rate you´re going to get old and ugly... " Suddenly, Celestia took notice of Kratos´ features, then placed a hoof under her chin. "On second thought, it seems we are already too late for you."
Kratos was inhaling and exhaling fast, his teeth were grinding in anger and his fist were closed. Ever since he had arrived, he felt like a mere object of mocks and he could no longer tolerate it, less from Celestia. With a kill look, Kratos turned to stare at the princess, mouth wide open and ready to yell until...
"Cough! Cough!" Both a calm Celestia and a very pissed off Kratos turned to meet the owner of the voice, who presented herself as Cadence, who gulped upon seeing the scene. "Umm... Am I interrupting something?"
Celestia took the opportunity to dramatize. "Indeed you did my dear Cadence, Kratos was about to declare his love with a romantic poem, which included beautiful words like: ´I will kill you´and ´I will tear apart your limbs one by one and then I´m going to feed them to you´. "
Kratos cocked his head to the side and placed with a weird look on his face, then turned his gaze towards Celestia. "I wasn´t going to say that." Kratos noticed how he felt more calmed. Thank goodness because what he was going to say was certainly not going to be pretty. Sadly for him, Celestia would not leave the matter forgotten and with a frown she stared at Kratos.
"Yes, you were going to say that!"
Kratos grunted and rolled his eyes in exasperation. "I wasn´t."
"Yes, you were!"
"I wasn´t!"
"Yes, you were!"
"NO, I WASN´T! AAAAAAAAAARG!"
The two of them kept staring daggers at each other, leaving the Elements, Dante, Virgil, Luna and Cadence staring at the scene, without even knowing what was happening. Soon enough, the princess of love turned around to look at her companions, then cleared he throat to speak. "Umm... are they okay?"
Everypony in the room simply shrugged their shoulders as a response, then Twilight spoke.
"Honestly, we have been wondering the same thing."
Cadence chuckled. "Well, they do look like they belong to each other." Upon hearing her words, Rainbow could not stop her laughter, which resounded in the entire castle of the kingdom. Her laughter would have continued if it wasn´t for Kratos, who gave her a kill look, instantly shutting Rainbow off, who in return pointed towards Applejack.
"It was her!"
The cowpony´s ears perked up, then wide opened her eyes. "What!? No! It wasn´t me! It was..."
Kratos grunted and rolled his eyes.
"Umm..."
He was tired and fed up of every insolence caused by the equines, especially Celestia; even Dante, whom he thought would at least behave like a warrior, proved to be nothing more than a goody two shoes. At least Virgil seemed mature enough to know what and when to speak.
"Um... excuse me."
Yet, for all the downs of this world, he did recognize this was the type of place he would have loved his daughter to be. Soon, his thoughts were again cut short by Celestia´s shoulder which had hit his side. Kratos returned to the real world and stared into the princess´ magenta eyes, who in return moved her gaze, motioning for him to attend the voice calling him.
Cadence was standing in front of him, her eyes locked into his features, almost analyzing everything about him, then with a sweet tone she spoke. "Greetings, I´m Cadence." The princess chuckled. "Well, I guess you already knew that." Kratos remained silent. "And you are..."
"... Kratos."
Cadence returned the smile. The princess of the love couldn´t help but to feel a bit nervous around the Spartan, but did her best to hide the fact from her expression. "Nice to meet you, Kratos. I would love it if you could tell me your..."
"I will not tell my story a third time! If you want to hear it, ask one of the Elements!" In a moment, he pointed with his thumb towards the princess of the sun. "Or this annoying woman."
"Hey!" Exclaimed Celestia, the anger noticeable on her frowning expression..
From the crowd, everypony had their mouths agape and dared not to make a single sound, until Luna broke the silence. "Wow! That was rude!"
"Indeed it was rude!" Replied the princess of the sun, who was now full on attack mode against Kratos. "How dare you speak of me like that!"
"I dare and I speak the truth!"
After a loud gasp of the princess of the sun, the two started another argument, making Cadence place a hoof on her forehead, followed by a deep sigh. Before the discussion could even continue, the princess of love intervened.
"ENOUGH!"
Once again, the two fighters found themselves staring into Cadence´s eyes, who in return gulped under the stress of both stares watching her. Finally she regained her confidence. "Can we just move on with this?"
"We shall." Kratos exclaimed, his answer made everypony release the breaths they were holding, even Celestia´s expression calmed, but the Spartan spoke again. "Until I get an apology!"
The whole group could not help but to give a collective facehoof, with the exception of Celestia who wide opened her eyes in surprise. "Excuse me?" Kratos returned the stare. "It is you who owe me an apology!"
"Me? To you?" Kratos responded, his words came with a mocking tone.
"Yes! You!" Celestia insisted, but only managed to get a grunt from the Spartan. Kratos was really getting on her nerves, she hated the way he behaved, it was so uncivilized and rude. Her breath was accelerated, same with the Spartan, as the two remained locked on their killer look.
"I wont!" The Spartan answered and crossed his arms as a response. Kratos thought he had nothing to apologize about, for it was Celestia the one who had insulted him, as such, he would not even bother; sadly for him, the princess´ thought differed greatly from his, forcing her to continue her attack.
"Yes, you will!"
"No, I wont!"
"yes, you..."
STOP! SHUT UP, BOTH OF YOU! For the third time that day, the two contenders faced Cadence, but this time, she would not let the opportunity slip. The princess of love immediately proceeded to point with her hoof towards Kratos. "YOU WILL APOLOGIZE TO CELESTIA! As the Spartan grunted, the princess of the sun could not help but to release a victory smile, until Cadence stroke again, this time her hoof was pointing at Celestia. "AND YOU WILL DO THE SAME! NOW!" . Both Kratos and Celestia shared a look, then returned their gazes towards Cadence, who grunted in response. "Look! This has been a very tiring day! Shining has been on duty the whole day and I had a lot of trouble with something, so, can we please get on with this so I can finally get some rest?"
The two fighters were breathing heavily, yet they did consider Cadence´s request. It was better to leave a small disagreement on the past and maybe they could put their differences aside, even though they just met the same day. Still, they were going to work together, so being friendly to each other would be the best course of action, as such, both Celestia and Kratos stared at each other and prepared to say the carefully thought answer.
"No!"
"No!"
"Arg!" Roared Cadence. "Fine! Do whatever you want!" Without turning her head, she greeted the Spartan once more. "It was a pleasure, Kratos!"
In the same manner, the Spartan answered. "Likewise!"
The princess of love made her way towards the group, until Virgil stepped in. "I believe we have wasted enough time, princesses, for it is essential that we know the reason of our presence in your kingdom. If what little information I have heard is true, then you are not in position to let time flow without care."
Celestia nodded. "And you are right, what has happened is no mere joke, but something that must be dealt with..." She turned to stare at Kratos. "As your mood."
Kratos scoffed and crossed his arms, then walked behind Celestia. Once the princess found herself just behind the group, she took a deep breath before speaking. "Very well Elements, Dante, Virgil and fellow princesses!" Everypony stopped their conversation and turned to look at Celestia. "I believe we are now well acquainted and it is time for us to reveal the nature of this meeting, so please gather to hear what we have to say."
As soon as the words left her mouth, everypony and everyone moved themselves around a small round table, where Celestia placed an open book. Once everyone was settled, she spoke. "The night after the duchesses came, I had a vision invading my dream, I saw an old enemy..."
As such, Celestia told them the story of Tirek. It wasn´t particularly interesting for Kratos, with the exception of Scorpan. A brother-related topic had always been one of the things that could strike hard against the Spartan.
He could feel identified with him. He had already been in the position of Tirek, he had betrayed and abandoned his brother, while he became a legend.
"But he has found a way to escape." Said Celestia.
Kratos lowered his gaze. "One should not betray his own brother, his own blood." After this, he lifted his head. "How did the centaur escape?"
The one to answer this was Luna. "We believe it happened when Cerberus left his post at the gates.
Suddenly, Twilight raised her hoof. "But that was a long time ago. Why is he just now starting to steal magic? "
"His time in Tartarus left him very weak. He has just now gained enough strength to use his dark powers." Celestia answered.
"But with each passing moment, he grows stronger still." Luna added.
In a moment, a smile appeared on Cadence´s features. "And I know just the princess who can stop him."
As soon as the words left the princess of love´s mouth, a look of determination appeared in Twilight´s face. "Yes. I'll find him and..."
"No!" Sadly for her, Celestia interrupted. "I'm afraid I have already called in another to stop Tirek."
From all, Twilight was the first to react upon hearing the words come out of the princess´ mouth and decided to ask who. Thankfully, Celestia already knew what she was going to ask and gave her a gentle punch to stop her from talking. Sadly, she was not going to be the only one to ask.
"Why don´t you send us to search for the centaur." Asked Kratos.
"You do not have the capabilities to search for any magic anomaly as the one we have sent." Celestia answered, then saw how Kratos opened his mouth and took the opportunity to speak before the Spartan. "I believe it would be a good idea if you go take a look at the Crystal kingdom." Kratos grunted in response, making Celestia think for an answer to convince him. "We do not know where he could appear and if you take the opportunity to see this place, then we can already cross the Crystal kingdom off the list of possible locations where Tirek could be."
Dante, who was paying attention to the sun goddess, noticed the expression she was giving him, her eyes quickly shifted from him to Kratos, telling Dante that she wanted the Spartan out of the castle; the Florentine, far from knowing the nature of this decision, complied at her request, for if she wanted him away, a reason would have to be good, especially when talking about a man like Kratos. He played along. "Not a bad idea, we could map out the zone and look for anything out of the ordinary."
Kratos averted his gaze from the table to look from Celestia to Dante, silently thinking about the oddity of the situation. It wasn´t long before he finally let go of the suspicion. "Very well." With those words, he proceeded to leave the room and walk towards the streets. Dante followed behind, but before he could turn around towards Kratos, Celestia gave him a silent ´thank you´, to which Dante responded with a thin smile and a nod.
Finally, the two warriors left the room, leaving Celestia to release the breath she was holding. The rest of the ponies watched the scene, trying to figure out what was happening, thankfully for them, Virgil, who had remained silent, was aware of the situation. His next words were directed to Celestia. "Keeping a secret under the mud will always come back to bite you, for it will be bad to keep the Ghost of Sparta from knowing our hidden friend." Celestia sighed. "I think it would have been best to let Kratos know, that the one you chose holds the same aura as the one he could not find back in his time."
"You know how he can react." Celestia replied.
Virgil shook his head. "Not if you explain, the words have always been the gate of understanding, if they are spoken correctly."
"Wait, wait, wait..." Twilight entered the conversation. "Who exactly are you talking about and what is happening?"
Celestia noticed the group staring at her, waiting for her to speak. She sighed. "As you are all aware, Kratos is a god killer, but he did not kill every single god, for some of them survived, one of them... was Chaos ."
The rest gasped, then Applejack entered the conversation. "You mean Discord?"
Celestia shook her head. "That is the thing. Discord may be the god of chaos, but he is not the same Kratos had hopped to end; if they happen to meet, I´m afraid Kratos will mistake him for the one in his world."
"But he can´t be that careless, could he? He wouldn´t hurt Discord without listening." Fluttershy said, her expression full on hope.
Celestia thought about the question, she did not Kratos that well, but the few time she had to meet him was enough to tell her there was a high chance the Spartan would not listen to her, as such, Celestia shook her head. "To tell you the truth, I don´t think he´ll listen."
The next one to react was Rainbow, who flow alongside FLutterhy. "Come on! I don´t think he can be that bad... right?"
"Brutes will always be brutes!" Snarled Rarity. "I don´t know about you girls, but that guy screams evil in every turn."
There was a collective nod as a response, then Applejack said. "I agree with her. Anypony that is capable of doing what he did to his brothers and sisters, ain´t exactly a good folk! I don´t know why you chose him." Her words were directed to Celestia, but before the princess could answer, Twilight took the opportunity to speak.
"Actually, that is a good question. This whole Tirek situation doesn´t seem so bad that you had to bring a pair of interdenominational warriors, I mean, Dante is okay, but Kratos seems a bit excessive. Bringing somepony like him ,just doesn´t make sense, he can be more trouble than help."
Suddenly, Celestia felt the stares of everypony assaulting her. The princess had not told the group about the possible incoming danger of the entity known as Chaos, nor about Pandora, as she had decided to keep it a secret until it was revealed to be the truth. She did not want to worry the Elements, as the god´s presence was still uncertain, but now, they seemed to be looking through her words. In a moment, Celestia turned to look at her sister, who gave her a nod of confirmation, then turned to face the rest and sighed. "I am sorry, but for now you have to trust me. The day after cerberus returned to the gates, I visited the entrance of the underworld, looking for something I felt... that is all I will say for now, at least until I know for sure."
Noticing the unsatisfactory looks in the group, Vergil took the opportunity to try and calm the situation. "Things are coming into shape, big things that will need the power of what you call friendship and even if this doesn´t seem as much and our presence is more useless than useful, we all have big parts to play in what is about to unfold, but for now, let us trust in the one that has never led any of you astray, for I´m sure she would do the same."
Twilight shook her head,confused at the poet´s words. "How can you know what will happen?"
Virgil chuckled. "I do not, but fate is big and coincidence is non existent."
Twilight grunted as a response, then directed her sight towards Celestia. "And what about Tirek? Isn´t he enough of a warning for it to be an immediate problem?"
"We do not know what will happen." Celestia replied. "For now, Dante and Kratos being here is just precaution, besides, they could help us well in the search for Tirek." She smiled. "Guys who defeat gods should be enough to make quick work of this."
Her explanation had ended and although it did answer very few questions, it was not enough to ease the Elements. Twilight on her part was deep in thought, there was something she was going to ask Celestia before all of this, but she had forgotten until... ´gods, gods, Chaos ... DISCORD!´The young alicorn thought, instantly opening wide her eyes, as the fact hit her with full force. "Wait! Is Discord the one you chose to follow Tirek?"
Celestia didn´t need to speak to give her the answer, for her face held a sheepish smile, which immediately caused a collective facehoof amongst the Elements ( with the exception of Fluttershy, of course).
Watching the scene, Virgil could not help but to smile, but something was still odd about this. He had the feeling this would not end up being as easy in the end.
There were ponies confused in the streets of the Crystal kingdom, confused because they did not know know whether to run away from the frowning Spartan or to wave at the saluting Florentine, who had a big smile on his face.
Indeed, they had been previously informed that two unusual guests would come, but nopony expected a huge armored beast with a scythe on his back and an albino ape with a kill look.
For the two warriors, it certainly was a new experience. Dante was admiring at all time everything the place had to offer, whereas Kratos was simply analyzing every single spot and memorizing the Kingdom as much as he could, while looking for anything strange. He was not surprised, even though it was all new to him; Kratos was there to complete a mission and that´s what he was going to do.
Finally, after a few minutes of silence, Dante talked. "What do you think of this place?"
Kratos turned to face him, then took a look at the various houses and structures across the street. "Nothing surprising to see here."
Dante sighed. "You should really start seeing the beauty of the things nature gives you, even the citizens here are something to be admired."
"How can a bunch of horses be something to be admired?" Asked Kratos, a scoff escaping his lips.
A frown appeared on the Florentine´s face. "These ´horses´ have been able to achieve something we have not."
"And what would that be?" Asked Kratos.
"Peace."
He was right. The exact same thing Kratos had asked to Celestia. All his mortal life was spent in wars, but deep inside he just wanted something else for those he loved and these equines had achieved it. Sadly, it was reality. "You speak truth, but peace do not always last enough for it to be enjoyed."
Dante grimaced. "As much as I hate to admit, you are right about that one, but that is why we are here, to help them cross a bridge they cannot pass." Kratos turned to look at him. "For so long we have pursued our own gains, maybe its time we do something for others."
"At least your journey achieved something." Muttered Kratos.
As the two kept walking, Kratos took notice on a group of guards walking down the street, it was pitiful for him; even an Athenian looked far more dangerous than these equines, something that concerned him. "We do something for others, but we do not want to hold everything on our shoulders," the Spartan turned to look at Dante, "it is better to teach someone how to fish, rather than give him the fish and by the looks of it, they do not even know what the fish is. This place has no safety at all." Following his lead, the Florentine took a look at the same guards. "If the kingdom´s defenses are as secure as the guard´s usefulness, then we should rather look out for them instead of the kingdom´s walls."
Dante sighed as a response. Kratos was right, but it was not weird at all the little precautions the equines had. "Maybe they are useful to defend themselves from what they have here." As soon as the words left his mouth, one of the guards tripped with his own lance, making Dante flinch. "At least they have weapons."
"Which reminds me." Kratos answered as soon as Dante´s words made him remember one important thing. Not even knowing what the Spartan was talking about, Dante simply opted to follow Kratos, who was now approaching the guards, silently. Soon enough the guards noticed an enormous shadow towering over them and turned almost immediately to spot Kratos and Dante approaching them, they began to sweat. "Take me to the training yard, now!"
The booming voice was enough to set them to the edge, still, one of them made an effort to answer. "Do... Do you have... have permission from the... the princess?"
"Are you mocking me, grunt?" Kratos replied, now more annoyed with the guard who was doing his best to look at him in the eyes, for he was the only one who took it upon himself to speak.
"No I´m... I´m not, I was just..." Rather than angering him further, Kratos simply grunted and dismissed the guard with a wave of his arm. Dante noticed how the guards were to the brink of running away, he had to approach before that happened.
"Calm down." He finally said, his voice peaceful enough to avoid them from panicking. "We have permission of your princess to inspect the entirety of the kingdom, for we only wish to help, but if there is any doubt inside of you, we could clarify this with the princess."
Noticing the peaceful nature of Dante, the guards calmed down, even though the presence of the Spartan was still unsettling, regardless of the fear, they complied. After a nod of confirmation from the other soldiers, the one in the front spoke. "We will take you to the armory, sir."
Dante smiled and nodded "Thank you, friend."
The guard signaled with his head for Dante and Kratos to follow them and once they turned around, the Florentine looked towards Kratos with a win look to which the Spartan replied with a grunt. Now, they were going towards the armory.
On their way, Kratos turned to Dante. "So much weakness, they should be thankful for what they lack in danger."
Dante sighed. "Sad thing is, that different from our world, they are thankful." Kratos did not answer.
Kratos, Dante and the small group of guards made it into the kingdom´s training yard, the whole walk was silent, aside from the sudden silent gossip between the guards; Dante did not care, he took comprehension of the fact that they were essentially new, Kratos however, held a frown that was making itself more and more prominent, finally, the Florentine decided to lighten up the mood.
"Why exactly are we going to the training yard?" Kratos turned his head slightly, as if he was deciding whether to tell him or not, finally, the Spartan took a breath.
"I need to see how trained are these guards." Dante nodded in understanding, but what Kratos would say next, would left him dumbfounded. "You are right, it is time we help the others and I guessed the training yard was a good place to start, they could benefit from our knowledge in combat."
Dante couldn´t help but to smile. "Just remember, Kratos, I am not a general."
"Yet you faced what no mortal could. Any kind of help we give these equines could help them greatly." Kratos answered, gaining a chuckle from the Florentine.
"Quite a noble action, Ghost of Sparta."
Kratos scowled. "Do not get used to it, Dante, this course of action is necessary, besides, I could use some training myself." Suddenly, the Spartan´s features grimaced. "I have spent far too long inside a cage."
Dante sighed. "We have all been trapped inside our own versions of a cage, at least now it seems we have gained a chance." As soon as the grim expression appeared, a slight smile made itself visible in Dante´s face. "Just keep in mind these soldiers are below our power, go easy on them."
Kratos grunted in response. Dante was right, ponies were fragile, but Dante was not. "Then you will face me."
The florentine smiled. "Eager for a friendly match?"
Kratos nodded. "And that way, I will also know if what I have heard about you is true."
Dante rolled his eyes. He understood Kratos need to know if he was reliable, yet his lack of trust from almost any living thing was an exaggeration, still, he would make sure to not disappoint the Spartan.
Soon enough, a loud shout was heard, someone or rather somepony was in training duty, fact acknowledged by the following screams of several male voices. It was perfect timing fro Kratos to see if their current trainer actually knew what he was doing.
"Sirs, we are here." The guard, who was clearly eager to get away from the white monster, informed the Florentine and as soon as he voiced a gentle thank you, the group of soldiers hurried their steps towards the streets of the kingdom.
Dante gave a chuckle at the guards reaction, while Kratos simply sighed in annoyance. He though that if these ones were living proof of their training, then he would have to mentally prepare himself to meet the teacher... then make an effort to not slaughter him and take his place, although that would undoubtedly be better for the kingdom´s forces, at least they would have a capable general to lead them. Shaking the thoughts away, Kratos finally got sight of the higher ranking stallion and although he was still white as most of them, even him, Kratos was glad they had something that could differentiate them amongst the crowd... their flank marks.
Kratos did not hesitate to take a look at his mark, this one being a shield with three stars atop and another big one inside it. Next he took hold of the guards, noticing the way they were practicing with the spears using magic, it kind of reminded him of Sparta, only less brutal.
He guessed that was what they lacked, brutality, because otherwise these equines weren´t doing such a bad job, considering their limitations.
Finally, Kratos motioned for Dante to follow him, as he got closer to the higher ranking one, who, upon taking notice of the duo, directed his voice towards the several soldiers practicing.
"At ease, soldiers!" The stallion shouted, instantly getting the attention of the rest.
Now it would get interesting, as it was time to see what kind of man... stallion this one was, and much to his surprise, he looked rather calmed upon facing them.
Slowly making his approach towards the duo, the stallion took of his helmet. "Greetings, I have received notice of your arrival and if you are here, then that must mean you have already met the princesses and my wife." Wife, Kratos thought. "I am Shining Armor, captain of the royal guard and prince of the Crystal Kingdom and although I regret not being there for the introductions, I think it was good enough that you two decided to come here."
Both Dante and Kratos noticed Shining handing them his hoof, to which the Florentine was the first to react. Dante let out a smile as he shook the prince´s hoof. "A pleasure to meet you Shining Armor, my name is Dante Alighieri and this is Kratos."
Kratos faced the captain, his expression as serious as always. Shining handed him the hoof, yet the Spartan remained the same and just before the moment turned awkward, Shining took the decision to speak. "Greetings Kratos and welcome to the Crystal Kingdom."
Kratos nodded.
"So... what brings you here?" Shining asked.
"We are here to see the quality training of your troops, captain, and lend a hand in their training should we see fit." Kratos answered, getting a teasing frown from Shinning.
"Having doubts about my stallions? I assure you, Kratos, these soldiers are highly trained to face even a hydra."
"Doubts I have, captain." Kratos answered. "So far I have seen the contrary of what your words claim them to be."
Dante seconded this. "I have to agree with him, even though you seem to train them with excellency, they do not seem capable to battle what lies beyond your world, but that is the reason of our presence today."
Shinning frowned. His soldiers have always been more than a match for what could attack them there, he found insulting how underestimated his forces were, yet he was grateful for the duo´s help. "Am I to assume you have any kind of military training?"
Kratos scowled in response. "Do not mock me, captain, I was general of the Spartan army, the most feared force in all of Greece."
On his part, Dante was waiting a mention, although he was not surprised when it never came. He sighed. "Although I do not have the same experience as him, I have some knowledge in the barbaric ways, my soul was not free from war either."
Shinning remained silent for a few seconds, staring right at Kratos´ eyes. "Would you like a demonstration of their abilities, general Kratos? Maybe if you had a spare match with my best soldier, it could give you a clear idea of what they are capable of."
Kratos scoffed. "A good captain does not wishes dead to his own soldiers." Shinning frowned. "This equines do not have what it takes to face either of us." The Spartan was expecting hostility, but what came next was quite a surprise.
"As you wish." With a start, Shining directed his steps towards the crowd of soldiers waiting for their captain to give the orders, then, with a deep breath, Shinning shouted.
"Flash Sentry!"
Suddenly, a bright orange guard stepped into view, his eyes locked at Shinning´s. "Yes, sir?"
The captain smiled. "Why don´t you give us the honors to demonstrate our guest what Crystal kingdom´s army is made of?"
"Sir, yes, sir!" The young stallion shouted, as the rest of the guards moved aside to leave camp for Flash to fight.
On his part, Kratos turned to look at Shinning, a deadpan expression on his face. "Is this a joke?" He really wasn´t expecting this kind of action coming from Shinning, less to choose the scrawny one.
Contrary to Kratos´ and Dante´s skeptical looks, Shinning´s was actually a confident one, still, he knew there was a possibility that the Spartan was right. "Lets make a bet, I will let you two shape my stallions into what you see fit, if you manage to defeat my best soldier."
A few seconds passed, as Kratos stared at Shinning, not exactly knowing how to respond. He knew the stallion was not match for him, and he simply hated to hold back just for the sake of weakness... that didn´t mean he didn´t get to crush a few bones, though. Finally, after a deep breath, Kratos nodded. "Very well."
Just before the Spartan made it to the training floor, a hand stopped his advance, a hand he immediately shook of from his shoulder. "Remember to hold back, Kratos, we are not here to kill these ponies."
Kratos grunted. "I will perform as I see fit!" With that, he jumped down into the training floor.
On his part, Flash looked directly at Kratos´ eyes, trying to apparent lack of fear and even he managed to let his pride get to his head to stop the bad feeling he felt, from being noticeable. He didn´t know what he was in...
"So..." He began. "Doesn´t it bother you to carry that skirt around? I mean, I´ve heard of male fashion parades, but this is just ridiculous." Contrary to Flash´s smile, Kratos remained serious, his eyes locked on the big mouthed stallion.
Dante got close to Shinning, as he prepared to watch the battle, but not before noticing the amusing look on Shinning´s face and even caught a glimpse of malice.
Back on the battle at hand, Flash placed himself in battle position, something Kratos did not even bother doing. The two stayed in complete silence, then...
BLAST!
Faster than the eye could see, a bolt of magic came out of Flash´s horn and made their way against Kratos, who remained still, even after the blast hit him. A thick smoke was generated from the impact, causing the stallion to release a smile. "Handsome stallion: 1, creepy skirt dude: 0." It wasn´t long before the smirk on Flash´s face dissipated, as he noticed a shadow appearing behind the curtain of dirt.
Soon enough, Kratos came into view, with not a single scratch on his body. Once more, Flash placed himself in combat position, as he prepared to physically strike against the Spartan. "You´re kind of tough for a... male? Female? Seriously, what are you? I see you´re ugly and all, but that´s all I can come up with." Same as before, Kratos remained still, however, his face did show a glimpse of annoyance.
"Attack, now." The Spartan growled, his patience wearing thin with Flash.
The stallion couldn´t help but to roll his eyes in response. "Geez, and you are just as demanding, ever thought about marriage counseling?" Same as before, an orange blur sped up against Kratos´ face, as he remained completely immobile, but just before a hoof contacted against him, the Spartan grabbed it with one hand, before kneeing Flash in the gut, whose body fell to the floor shortly after.
On his part, Dante was actually surprised on how much he was holding back and he was even more surprised to see how Shinning still had a smile plastered on his face, hell, it was more like a mocking smirk. It was this fact that made Dante realize something.
"You did know he was not a match for him, am I correct?"
Shinning couldn´t help but to chuckle at his words. "Yep." Was all he answered, making Dante feel more confused by the second, who turned from the already lost battle to the stallion alongside him.
"Then why?"
"Because the little bastard has been trying to hit on my sister and I can´t do anything to him without Twily getting angered or having my soldiers think I´m some kind of bully."
It was good enough reason, which made the Florentine chuckle, although, it was not an honorable action, In the end, even if Dante would still feel that kind of jealousy, he was not one to play with another one´s sentiments, still, he respected Shinning´s decisions.
Soon enough, Kratos walked from the hurt body on the floor and jumped back to the place where the captain and Dante were, leaving the rest of the guards to tend Flash´s wounds, which were not too much.
"Are you done wasting my time, captain?"
Shinning chuckled. "I´m sorry for that, Kratos, seems like we do need your help after all."
Kratos crossed his arms, a frown appearing on her face. "Do not take me for a fool, I heard your motives for pitting him against me, Captain." He got closer. "I will not be played like a toy, just so you can stop a stallion from going into bed with your sister."
Shinning frowned. "Regardless of what you think, and different from Flash, my guards are actually able to put up a fight." Kratos simply stared at him. It wasn´t long before Shinning released a sigh. "Although, I am thankful for the aid you are providing to us, Kratos. When shall we start?"
"As soon as Celestia´s problem is solved." Answered Kratos.
The stallion soon let out a thankful smile, as he nodded with his head. "Very, well, we shall be expecting you until then."
Dante let out a concerned look about Shinning´s decision. "Are you sure you want your soldiers to be trained by beings like us?" Shinning cocked his head to the side. "Our methods are barbaric, and certainly not something you or your soldiers have seen."
"I understand your concern, but I know we will make the cut." Shinning answered, before letting out a grin. "Say, are you hungry? Food in the barracks may be not as good as the one served in the castle, but at least you will find yourself comfortable in a more familiar area." The stallion chuckled. "Believe me when I say it is a great place to be when Cadence gets a little cranky."
Dante laughed at this. "I think it would be a good idea, however..."
"However," Kratos interrupted, "we still need to map the rest of the kingdom, captain."
Shinning nodded. "I understand." He let out a grin. "It was good to meet you, I hope we can have more time to know each other."
"It was a pleasure, captain." Answered Dante, getting a chuckle out of the stallion.
"Come on, just call me Shinning, it not always I get to speak with another uh... male that doesn´t refer to me by my rank." Dante nodded. He was glad the stallion was amicable, however, for Kratos, Shinning´s decision wasn´t something he could agree on.
"A rank earned is a rank respected, captain." Shinning turned to look at him. "I´m sure you will understand if I don´t treat you as a friend."
The stallion smiled. "If that´s your decision, then I respect it, Kratos." With that, he gave the duo a nod from his head, as he turned to leave them. "I´ll be seeing you around."
Outside of the Crystal castle, several figures made their way across the Kingdom´s numerous streets. Alongside them, an all too familiar draconequus accompanied them. After many tries from Vergil, Celestia finally gave in, she couldn´t help it, the old man was wise and he had a good point.
Kratos was not the kind of being that could listen to reason, but keeping a secret from him could be way more dangerous than to face the problem from the root, and Celestia was more than sure she would not simply wait for her silence to come back and bite her, still, she would have to be careful with her words.
"I was dying to get out," said Discord, who found himself flexing his muscles, as he turned to stare at Celestia, "I can´t believe you wanted to keep all this glory hidden, Celly!"
The sun princess sighed. "You know the reasons for that, Discord." She said. "Kratos doesn´t look like the kind of being you can simply annoy, and..."
"And he doesn´t look as tough as you are painting him, Celly." Exclaimed Discord. "The guy´s been kept under lock and key for many centuries, he must be rusty, and I didn´t feel that power he claimed to have." The draconequus got closer to Celestia, as he prepared to whisper loud enough for her to listen. "I should know how that feels, in the end, it was you that turned me into a garden decoration."
As soon as she heard Discord´s words, Celestia turned to look at him with a frown, but the confrontation was stopped by a certain pegasus that took the decision of grabbing the draconequus left paw. "Discord, its in the past, let it go."
"Geez, I hate that song." Answered Discord, getting a kill look from Fluttershy. Letting out a deep sigh, the draconequus turned to look at her. "Alright, I´ll forget it... for now."
Upon his answer Fluttershy couldn´t help but to give him a warm smile.
"Returning to the matter at hoof," suddenly, Twilight entered the conversation, turning her head around to stare at Discord, "Celestia is right, you should try to be less... Discordly."
The draconequus wide opened his eyes, as he placed both of his paws on his chest. "You want me, to stop being me!? Do I come into your house and ask you to be less annoying?" The alicorn frowned. "There is some things in the universe that can´t simply be changed."
"Well," said Applejack, "if you don´t want an angry ape ripping off your head, you better do as the princess says, and keep that good ol´ mouth of yours shut."
Discord proceeded to place his right paw on his neck, gulping hard at Applejack´s words. "I like my head where it is, thank you." In reality, he wasn´t as scared as the rest wanted him to be, he simply couldn´t feel like Kratos was way weaker than the group thought, plus, he couldn´t take seriously a guy using a skirt.
From the three guests, Discord found more interest in Kratos, there was something about him that kept calling the draconequus, some kind of chaos aura and who could honestly blame him?
Knowing the kind of being Discord was, Fluttershy couldn´t help but to feel worried about him, she had a good feeling Kratos would not listen to reason and she didn´t want anything happen to him, not him.
"I still think it was a good decision, the one you made, your majesty." Said Virgil, directing his words to Celestia, who turned to look at him with a worried expression.
"Do you really think he will listen?" She asked.
Virgil let out a sigh. "That depends on how you decide to approach him, keep in mind no being is equal to each other, only similar; what you use with one, may not work for the other."
"And how exactly do you know this, mister big words?" Asked Discord, annoyance clearly shown in his words.
For the spirit, this did not bother him, he knew the reason for the draconequus discomfort, and he wasn´t one to correct him. "The same way I know how you felt, my friend, by knowing, listening, feeling. Some things may be more obvious than others, if you have enough patience to admire what does not appeal to you."
Discord grunted. "I will pretend I understood what you said... no, actually I wont." With that, he sped up his pace, leaving a grinning Virgil behind.
For the draconequus, it was starting to get on his nerves, the fact that the spirit did not seemed annoyed by his words, and he surely knew how to annoy. It didn´t matter what he said, or what he claimed himself to be, he would not let him close to Fluttershy.
There was no denying it, all the group was nervous, with the exception of Discord. Unknown to the group, a certain duo was walking nearby them.
Kratos and Dante had just returned from checking a few stores in the kingdom, and were now heading back to the castle. On their way there, Dante couldn´t help but to admire the beautiful architecture of the place. The crystal buildings and the shinning castle, a fact noticed by Kratos, who turned to look at him.
"It is kind of impressive."
Dante chuckled. "It is! I find it surprising how these equines have so much riches, yet they can be so kind."
Kratos scoffed in response. "It is impossible for a being without ambition to exist."
"What about these ponies? They certainly look like ambition could be the least of their problems, or have you seen an ´all-knowing´priest, claiming the riches of this kingdom?" Asked Dante, gaining a look from the Spartan.
"Look around you, Dante." Finally said, Kratos, with the Florentine doing as his companion asked. "What do you see?"
After few seconds, Dante´s sight returned to the Spartan. "A beautiful city, full of impressive architecture."
"Indeed." Kratos answered. "How do you think this kingdom came to be? It certainly didn´t start from the heart of a selfless equine." The Florentine released a puzzled expression. "No one can create a place like this without the necessity to see it exist. Ambition created each and every single one of this houses, ambition built the princess´ castle, and shaped it to be a sign of power." Suddenly stopping in his tracks, Kratos placed himself in front of Dante. "Do you really think you came to this point without the aid of that which you craved to see being made?" Kratos had a point, every action made by any living being, came from the necessity of satisfaction. Ambition is not only the lust for power, but a means to exist and prevail.
Dante couldn´t deny it, he had been robbed of this discussion´s victory. Maybe Kratos wasn´t as barbaric as he initially thought, and he could certainly be the start of several interesting discussions, as such, the Florentine released a chuckle. "You look like a warrior, but you speak like philosopher, I am sure that should another time had bred you, you would be known as a wise man across many generations."
Kratos turned around, continuing his march. "I was remembered..." He took a deep breath. "Just not for those reasons."
The Florentine followed behind, taking a look at the buildings surrounding him. Back in Florence, he was very known for being a fantastic poet, yet war had robbed him of a peaceful life, now he was unable to spread the word of beauty. Anger and hatred were sure the catalysts of violence, violence that stopped the advancement of the hear, and Kratos was no different. Dante noticed that the Spartan had knowledge and philosophy of his own. "Still," he began, "here you are, having a small debate on whether living beings can live without ambition or not. Maybe you did not have the means to explore that side of yourself, but your words will not be lost in history after this quest is over..." Suddenly, Dante noticed Kratos giving a small jump of surprise and saw his muscles tensing, as if danger was about to greet them. "Kratos, what is wrong."
The Spartan did not turn to look at him and instead muttered the word. "Chaos..." Without a second thought, Kratos sped up his pace, where he would soon see the princesses and the Elements alongside something else. He had never seen anything like it, yet its aura had attracted him, an aura he recognized all too well. "Chaos!"
The draconequus turned his gaze towards the incoming Spartan and raised an eyebrow, while the rest of the incoming group stopped on their tracks, taken by surprise by the Spartan´s sudden appearance. On her part, Celestia couldn´t help but to feel this was not going to end well. She had never expected Kratos to appear out of nowhere and this was going to be catastrophic.
"Hey there, godly cupcake!" Greeted Discord, thinking the Spartan would answer to his ´amicable´ personality, however, Kratos´ face revealed a more aggressive look, which went unnoticed by the draconequus. "We were just on our way to you to..."
"Do not take me for a fool, Chaos! How dare you show your presence in this world!" Kratos replied.
Both Celestia and the rest of the Elements turned to stare at Discord, waiting to see his reaction, which turned out to be a little worried. It was clear that the draconequus found himself spooked by Kratos´ reaction and felt like the rest of the group were about to blame him. "Don´t look at me, I haven´t done anything this time."
"You cannot hide behind your illusions anymore!" Kratos insisted, making Discord raise his claws in a ´whoa there! Just wait a minute´Manner, but the angry Spartan did not react. "I will make you suffer for coming here!"
"Wait a minute, this is getting out of hand!" But his words went through deft ears and as soon as the words left his mouth, Kratos launched himself for the kill.
"O dear..."
Not every day can be maintained at peace, as there will always be something that starts the chaos. This day, it was the turn of a certain Spartan to start it, who with laud roar, launched himself to strike against his opponent. Discord was caught by surprise by Kratos, and his sudden attack, but he was not an idiot, as years of experience were about to put to practice. Such were his skills that the draconequus disappeared in thin air just before the Spartan could even grab him, causing Kratos to fall to the ground. This was the star of the fight.
Wasting no time, Kratos got on his fit, ready to fend off any incoming attack, and an attack he got, just not the one he was expecting. "You know? You really don´t have to do this, how about we sit for a moment and drink a cup of tea! Hey! I could even name you miss Understanding!" The voice of Discord suddenly appeared behind Kratos, who launched his fist towards the source, only managing to hit the air.
The fight had just started, and Kratos was already feeling his anger growing, he simplu hated these kind of enemies, especially the ones who mocked him, and Discord seemed to be one of those cretins. "Where are you, Chaos! Show yourself!" Kratos screamed to the air, but only got a chuckle for answer.
"Oh I´m sorry, am I making this too hard for you?" Discord mocked, appearing once again in front of the Spartan. "Gods in your world must have been a bunch of wusses."
Kratos did not waste any second to try and punch the draconequus, who was having the fun of a life time evading each and every single punch, with the occasional mock to anger the Spartan further. For Discord, someone who was easy to anger, was the most fun to annoy, and Kratos surely filled the draconequus´ necessity to perfection.
"And you are supposed to be the god of war? Even Twilight is more cunning than you."
"Hey!" The young alicorn exclaimed upon hearing the words; Discord simply ignored her.
The punches kept coming and Discord was starting to get bored; by that moment, he was ready to launch a counter attack. A right hook was aimed to Chaos´ chin, but was easily dodged, this time, the draconequus used his open paw to hit the back of the head of the Spartan, launching him to the floor after a rather funny sound. Chaos laughed "Uh oh! I was about to ask if there was something in there, but after that sound, I guess you pretty much answered!"
The laughs, the mocks, it was all angering the Spartan, fueling him to the point where he could explode. Unnoticed by him, something was growing on the inside. The dust under Kratos, masqueraded the black smoke coming out of the Spartan, a smoke that took hold of his arms and his fists. As a sudden rush of adrenaline got hold of his body, Kratos used a very rare speed to strike against Discord, who was surprised by what happened.
He sensed the sudden appearance of the strange energy, but before he could analyze it, his gaze was assaulted by a black thunder covering Kratos´ right fist. Discord reacted in time and managed to deflect it before it could hit him. The blast was strong for sure, but not enough to damage him; if Kratos had hit the mark, it would have been a different story. The interesting thing was the fact of the usage of this strange magic, and its raising power.
"Hey! That could have hurt! Didn´t your mother ever teach you it is rude to blast any one with black thunder?" The draconequus frowned, disappearing and reappearing behind the Spartan. "Seriously in what type of house you grew up in?"
Even though his words managed to anger Kratos further, the Spartan had now taken notice of this sudden magic rush, a type of energy he had not seen ever in his life, but was strangely familiar enough to even disconcert the Spartan. Kratos looked at his hands for a second, before his frown returned, redirecting his sight towards Discord, and launching his fist against him, this time knowing what was going to happen. Discord disappeared as Kratos had expected, and different from the last times, the Spartan simply waited for the draconequus ton appear behind him.
Timing it just right, Kratos felt the sudden black energy rushing from his left fist, and raised it towards the place Discord was sure to appear, and as soon as he did, the draconequus was assaulted by a fist to his nose. The electrifying impact shackled Discord´s very own being, as something was tearing his muscles apart. This managed to stun Chaos, who became dizzy soon after the collision.
Now Kratos had him, and he was going to let the opportunity slip from his hands. Not wasting any moment, he launched a punch to the gut, his fists still covered in the same lightning. The punch made Discord fall on his knees, leaving him open for another brutal attack. Without the draconequus noticing, the Spartan placed both of his hands on Discord´s head and released a charge of electricity. The electrocution would last for a few seconds until he ended the attack with a headbutt, then proceeded to punch the draconequu´s face, sending him flying away from the impact.
Discord reacted quickly and recovered himself in mid air. He was slightly injured, something he did not see coming; he had expected Kratos´ story about being a god to be a mere story, but it was quite the contrary. "The fool hasn´t noticed it yet." Discord muttered under his breath.
The draconequus figured he would have to be careful, for godly magic (aside from the Elements) would actually be able to cause some damage. Now taking things seriously, he proceeded with the fight.
Discord could spot Kratos running towards his position, with the Elements, Dante, Virgil and the princesses, coming behind him, but trying to step away from the battle. The draconequus did spot Dante wanting to join in, but to stop Kratos rather than him; he had felt his power and it was something else entirely. Setting the thoughts aside, he placed both of his hands together, as an enormous ball of fire formed, then without wasting any moment, he fired it towards the Spartan
Each step he gave placed him closer to Chaos, until Kratos saw the attack, he did not stop, though. As his feet kept running, the Spartan, now more comfortable and in control of his new found magic, charged his hands in thunder, then prepared for the ball of fire.
Seconds after, the attack made impact with Kratos´ hands and stopped him for a moment, but not too long after, Kratos roared and pushed further, each time going faster.
From up high, Discord noticed this and figured he would have to get out of the way. How right he was...
The pressure of the beam was starting to be nothing compared to the strength of the Spartan, who was now pushing faster through the heat, then, with one last roar, he charged his right fist and punched the ball of fire with enough force, that the thunder around his fist exploded upon contact, then covered the beam.
The large ball of fire was sent flying away in a remarkable speed after Kratos punched. The Spartan thought he had hit Chaos when it exploded, but sadly that wasn´t true.
"Oh good! You are not just an useless albino, bald ape." The mocking voice of Discord found its way behind the Spartan, who grunted as soon as he heard it, but before he could attack again, the Draconequus hit the Spartan with his tail, sending him to the ground and just a few feet away. "But you do need to watch your surroundings."
Kratos used the momentum and rolled back up, sending another thunderbolt at Discord, who simply deflected it with the palm of his hand. "Ok, this is getting annoying and I know annoying." As soon as the words left his mouth, the draconequus used his finger to fire a violet beam to strike against the Spartan, who crossed his arms in front of him to block it. While Kratos was having difficulty to stop the attack, Discord held a bored expression.
It wasn´t too long before the draconequus used his other hand to summon another beam from under Kratos. He did not see the attack coming. Soon enough, the Spartan was engulfed in the attack, burning parts of his skin and leaving him panting on the ground. Discord walked towards him.
"Oh my! You look terrible, my friend, here! Let me help you with the burns." In the blink of an eye, a barrage of snow fell on Kratos, covering him from feet to head, Discord did not waste any moment to humiliate the Spartan and formed a snow man with the buried body of Kratos. "There! Snow suits you better."
Discord sighed in relief, then, while whistling a tune, he made his way towards the group.
Celestia could not help but to release the breath she was holding, something Dante nor Twilight share, they were almost sure the fight wasn´t over.
"Boy! Discord sure showed Kratos´ a lesson!" Said Applejack, who found herself enjoying the fight more than the rest.
Fluttershy found herself both worried that Kratos was injured and relieved that Discord was okay, fact showed by the way she immediately launched herself to hug the daconequus. Rainbow was left kind of disappointed by the way the fight ended, Rarity released the breath she was holding and Pinkie... well Pinkie was just smiling for no apparent reason at the newly made snowman.
Celestia, now sure that the fight was over, made her way towards Discord to scold him, until something made her wide open her eyes.
A sudden explosion of power assaulted every magic sensitive pony around, a huge shock wave of magical strength. It was so hard that it almost felt like a well placed punch. Suddenly the snowman began to melt, catching everypony´s attention, who turned their heads to see what was happening. They could all hear heavy breathing coming from under what was left of the snow, accompanied by a thick black smoke coming from the center.
Celestia could not believe what was happening, as the power that came from the inside was overwhelming her; she turned around slightly to spot Discord slightly worried about the event.
Soon enough the snow gave way to a bizarre scene. Kratos was kneeling on the ground, his fists closed and placed on the floor; his red tattoo was glowing red and the same black smoke was coming out of his body, then something happened that sent chills down everypony´s spines; Kratos lifted his head and stared directly into Discord and his eyes... were black.
His rage was completely visible, as his features matched that of a caged wild animal, who would launch himself for the kill at any moment.
Noticing this, Dante took a step forward, but was stopped by Celestia´s hoof. The Florentine tried to argue against her, until he felt Virgil´s hand placed on his shoulder, motioning for him to wait. Dante turned to stare at him, to which the poet replied.
"Your majesty is up to something and we cannot intervene, for ignorance is what she wants to avoid." Dante cocked his head to the side. "The fight will have to continue."
After a small grunt, Dante relaxed his muscles.
Not too long would pass before a loud distorted roar came out of Kratos, who had now increased his speed so much, that it took him less than a second to make it towards Discord. The trail of black smoke left behind Kratos´ run, dissipated quickly enough to witness what was happening. Faster than the eye could see, the Spartan lifted his fist right up to Discord´s face, causing a small black explosion upon making contact and was sent flying towards one of the small crystal towers in front of the city, which broke with the impact.
Discord decided to flee to the skies, not expecting Kratos to fly. Once up, the draconequus spoke. "Nice upgrade, but how about we leave this behind and shake hands like good pals." Kratos did not answer, and rather calmly walked towards him, Discord tried again. "Come on! You can´t even fly!"
As an answer, a pair of gray wings appeared on Kratos´ back, making Discord wide open his eyes.
"You have to be kidding me." He silently muttered and seconds later, another fist collided against him, in that small momentum, Kratos grabbed Discord´s face with his hand, and forced himself to the ground, bring the draconequus up front to receive the collision. As the draconequus made impact, Kratos´ wings disappeared.
The Spartan was tired of this game and after he saw Discord panting on the ground, he took the decision to end the fight. Kratos walked slowly towards the draconequus, a kill look on his face.
Discord, on his part, felt dizzy after so many hits, but he was still focused enough to see the change Kratos went through. It was a faint sensation, but strong enough for the draconequus to be able to feel it, and it was familiar to him, something he had not felt in so many centuries. "Is... is that, Fear ?"
The power Celestia had been expecting to see was not present in Kratos, but rather something sinister, something fearsome. Celestia was now feeling worried for Discord.
To her right, Dante was feeling more anxious and with each second that passed, he was a step closer to intervene in the battle before things got out of hand, however, Celestia´s hoof was still locked in front of the Florentine, although more unconsciously than consciously.
It was in this moment, that Celestia began to wonder if Kratos really was what she thought he was. Soon enough her train of thoughts were interrupted by a wild roar coming from the furious animal, who had just launched himself for the kill.
In less than a second, Celestia took hold of her instincts before Dante could and flew straight to the Ghost of Sparta. Kratos was in complete and blind fury, this prevented him from seeing the white princes flying to his position until she was in front of him, however, Kratos did not care, nothing would stop him from killing Chaos.
His march continued, as his hands were already stretched in front of him to push the incoming set of white wings approaching his position, until they placed themselves in front of the Spartan´s track. Noticing this in time, Kratos stopped his advance to furiously look at the princess in front of him.
"What treachery is this?!" Kratos exclaimed, the redness of his tattoo getting more intense, as the angry words made it out of his mouth. No one had ever dared to step between him and his pray, and now here was an alicorn princess intending to do just that. Kratos was sure, that if it wasn´t for the freedom he was promised, he would simply rip Celestia´s head from the rest of her body.
On her part, the sun princess was kind of scared, she had not expected this kind of power coming out of the Spartan. Sure, being the son of a god must have given him extraordinary abilities, but what laid inside Kratos was something else. Pandora had told her about the power from her box, the power this Spartan carried, and while it was bond to his very being, this power seemed more... natural to his existence, almost like a true personality waiting to flourish and it really worried her. Finally, after a few seconds, she found the will to speak. "You cannot kill Discord!"
"Speak now! Why not!?" Asked Kratos, his breath still heavy, as the adrenaline that was fueling him, was denied its satisfaction.
This was the moment, she would have to chose her words carefully if she didn´t want him to kill Discord. "Because he is not the same being from your world!"
Kratos looked at her, completely in silence and contemplating her answer. Sure, he did seem different to what he would look like in his world, but the aura he gave, was too familiar to ignore. It was Chaos , that much was true, but why was Celestia protecting him? "Enough excuses, I would rather hear the reason of why you chose to stop me from killing Chaos!"
Celestia grunted in desperation. "Are you even listening to me? Discord is not the same god of chaos from your world." Kratos looked from her to the draconequus behind the sun princess. "Concentrate, Kratos, does he really feel like the one you were expecting? He may have the same aura, but he is a completely different entity, he has been in Equestria for thousands of years! We even incarcerated him in stone for a couple more!"
"Good times, don´t you think so, Celly?" Exclaimed Discord, who found himself standing up from the ground, as he rubbed his belly. Soon, his stare collided to that of the Spartan, instantly killing the draconequus´ regained confidence.
After a few moments, Kratos retired his stare from Discord, and returned his eyes to Celestia´s. She was right, he did feel different from what he felt back in his world, but he had undoubtedly the same aura. Unknown to the Spartan, the black in his eyes was starting to fade, as well as the glow in his red tattoo; he felt a little calmer, but the lust of blood was still there. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak. "Then why does he feel the same?"
Celestia took another deep breath, she could notice Kratos relaxing, something that made her lower her guard and now, she had the Spartan ready to listen. Sadly, the draconequus answered for her. "Chaos is universal, you know? As powerful and handsome as I am, I cannot be in two universes at the same time." Kratos let out a grunt, as he noticed Discord getting too close to him.
"Stand back!"
Discor raised his palms in front of him to try and ease the situation. "Okay, okay, just calm down. Geez, you must really have zero friends."
Once again, Kratos tried to walk towards the draconequus, but Celestia placed a hoof on his chest to stop the advance of the heavy breathing Spartan. "Enough, Kratos! He is not the same Chaos you think he is, they are two separate entities..."
"... connected to the beauty of chaos, of course." Added Discord and in return he got a stare from Celestia. "What?"
"Not helping, Discord."
Kratos stared at the draconequus for a few seconds, who in return did his best to stare back. Not too long after, the Spartan returned his gaze towards Celestia. "I can feel the same aura, the same joy for destruction!"
"To be fair," Said Discord, "didn´t you destroy your whole world? I mean, I´ve heard of dysfunctional families, but this is just...."
"AAAAAARG! " With a roar, Kratos was once again going for the throat of the draconequus, who instinctively dissipated to avoid being torn apart by the Spartan.
On his part, Kratos had landed on the dirt, before standing up from the ground and shouting towards the sky. "Where are you, coward! Come now and face me!"
The voice of the draconequus suddenly resounded in the sky. "Are you crazy?! You´re going to rip my limbs apart!"
"If you come now, the only thing I will rip apart is your head!" Kratos replied.
"Oh! How generous of you! A true agent of Harmony!" Kratos was boiling in anger and soon he would explode, Celestia wanted to avoid that. She had already seen what Kratos was capable of if he reached his power, if he let anger consume him and it certainly wasn´t good.
"Stop this fight at once!" Celestia´s royal voice caught the duo off guard, as both Discord and Kratos stopped taunting each other, but contrary to Discord, the Spartan´s annoyance was apparent. "Discord, reappear at once!"
"Nope! Nope! Nope! He´s going to..." Discord tried to argue, but it was no use.
"NOW!"
A small grunt was heard and seconds later, the draconequus appeared behind Celestia, keeping a watchful eye on Kratos. Once she saw the Spartan would not attack, she spoke.
"Kratos, why did you attack Discord even after we told you he was not the same god." The Spartan grunted again.
"I take disrespect from no one, Celestia! If he wanted to avoid my wrath, Chaos would have held his tongue!" It was clear he had little tolerance to mocks and jokes, he did not have the patience to deal with these kind of things, something he made pretty clear.
Wanting to calm the situation and with a swift movement, Discord lifted his right claw. "Okay, okay! I´m holding my tongue, see?" Then in a second, he literally ripped and grabbed his tongue before holding it in his claw. "There! Happy?"
Far from being angered further (he did became more annoyed, thought), Kratos gave Celestia a skeptical look, one which Celestia replied with a sigh.
"He´s just Discord, leave it like that and you´ll avoid insanity, okay?"
Kratos did not respond, but rather stared at Discord with the same expression. He had seen many magical beasts and beings, but certainly nothing like the draconequus in front of him. Soon enough he was convinced that he wasn´t Chaos, but rather a pathetic imitation of the ruthless god, as such, Kratos relaxed his muscles and stopped his attack.
Celestia took a few deep breaths to calm herself as well. It had been quite some time since she had used the royal voice and it certainly left her tired, not mentioning the mess that had became her mane, but she would have to deal with that monster later, as right now she had to use this opportunity to calm the two... or rather the Spartan in front of her.
With one more breath, she proceeded to speak. "Very well, now that we are calmed, how about a friendly introduction?"
Kratos grunted in response, but Celestia had been expected this, so she didn´t care.
"Awwwww! Do I have to?" Behind her, Discord whined, causing Celestia to attack him with an angry look that certainly chilled the draconequus´ blood. "Okay, okay! Introducing myself to him now!" He gave a mocking salute.
Kratos was calm, but his expression still remained the same and those eyes... oh dear those eyes made Discord´s hair stand up. Finally, the towering, yet insignificant for Kratos, stature of Discord blocked the sun in front of the Spartan, who simply stared at the draconequus in the eyes.
After a few awkward seconds, Discord finally managed to move. He gulped before speaking. "Well I guess we should settle this, uh? Partner?" Kratos remained unchanged, almost silently saying to the draconequus to drop the act get on with it. Discord, however did not gave in so easily. "Come on! Shouldn´t we gods be sticking together? I mean, even our capabilities are alike! You the God of War, me the awesome and powerful God of Chaos... heh, heh!"
Still, Kratos remained the same. Soon enough Discord gave up and sighed in defeat. "Ugh! Very well mister sunshine! I´m Discord." The draconequus extended his claw towards Kratos and spoke with sarcasm clearly noticeable in his voice. "Pleasure to meet you."
A few seconds passed and Discord still held his claw, but the Spartan did not move. Finally, after Discord had begun to wonder if he had some mental problem, the ghost of Sparta moved and said. "You already know my name."
Once more, awkwardness endured as Kratos still refused to shake the draconequus´ hand and finally, before not too long, he gave up with a grunt of his own and turned to face Celestia. "There! Introductions made! Can I go away from this lunatic now?"
Kratos clenched his fist, but before he could do something, Celestia gave him a nod of confirmation.
"Finally!" Discord said and proceeded to make her way towards Fluttershy. Kratos found himself once more perplexed as the draconequus had seemingly forgot about his entire arm, which laid floating next to the Spartan. Not too long passed before Discord came back and grabbed his limb. "Sorry, forgot about this. I´m going now!"
Once Discord made his way back to the rest of the group, Kratos turned to look at Celestia. "Any other surprise waiting for us? Or is that buffoon the only one?"
Celestia couldn´t blame him, in the end, it was her decision to keep Discord hidden from him, sure, maybe Kratos would have reacted similar, but it would not have transcended into a full blown fight like the one just ended. She sighed. "I´m sorry, Kratos, but this confrontation is what I wanted to avoid."
The Spartan turned to look from Celestia to Discord and back to the princess again. "You did not do that much of a good job."
"And what else could I have done? Is there any other way I could have told you, without going berserk!?"
Kratos grunted in response. Celestia had a point, he knew he had so little comprehension capabilities when locked himself into a fight, there was no denying it, he was in a dead end in this debate. Finally, after a few moments of silence, Kratos spoke. "Chaos will keep his life, as longs as he stays away from me, are we clear?"
Knowing that was as far as she could get, Celestia released a deep sigh. At least, she now had convinced him that Discord was not an enemy, she figured she would have to be thankful about that fact, still, she hoped they could get along and avoid any other confrontation. "Is there any other way for me to convince you to be friendly with him?" She wasn´t particularly fond of the draconequus, but Celestia wanted to avoid anypony from getting hurt. She had to at least try, even though, Celestia already knew the answer.
For Kratos, the little time he spent with Discord was enough to find him annoying. He simply couldn´t stand beings that did not take anything serious, like Hermes, and gods! How he despised Hermes. He knew Celestia wanted to play with her ´peace and harmony´ game, but this wasn´t Kratos´ concerned, for all he knew, she could keep playing fool. "Do not push your luck, Celestia."
The princess rolled her eyes in response. "Guess that´s as far as I will get." With those words, she began to walk towards the group, passing alongside Kratos, who turned to look at her, as she opened her mouth to speak. "Come, there is one more decision to make and it must come from the three of you."
Kratos did not reply at all, and simply followed the princess, where the rest of the group was.
The princesses and the Elements couldn´t believe what had happened. They have beaten Discord before, but the way Kratos did it, was just brutal, and that was not all, but the fact that the power that came out from him, was not pure at all. On his part, Dante found this worrisome, he wasn´t sure why exactly the princess had chosen him to help, as the Spartan clearly seemed more problematic than anything. The Florentine was at least glad that Kratos managed to calm himself, but if it wasn´t for the princess´ intervention, he wasn´t sure what else could have happened, and he would surely not stay with his arms crossed.
Virgil surely noticed it, and he admitted that he was a bit dangerous, he still had hope he would come around. The spirit took the decision to keep Kratos in his sight at all times.
The rest was scared, to say the least. Out of all the enemies they had faced, they had never seen somepony as aggressive as Kratos. This didn´t mean his feats were impressive, though, they just had to be careful around him.
On her part, Luna had found something familiar about Kratos, and the way Discord reacted to his power; she remembered the draconequus calling him Fear . She wasn´t too sure, but the darkness emanating from the Spartan, was similar to a certain event she went through, making her feel a shiver down her spine, as she did her best to shake off the thought.
Contrary to everypony´s attention to the incoming Spartan, Fluttershy found herself in front of Discord, as she checked every part of his body. Sometime she wished he wasn´t so lighthearted about certain things, it surely took him into troubles. "Oh my, Discord, are you alright?" Back to the rest, Fluttershy found herself tending the draconequus, who seemed like he had no visible wounds.
It was strange, each and every single one of Kratos´ attacks, looked like they packed a punch, yet Discord remained unscratched. This didn´t mean he wasn´t hurt, though, fact noticeable by the faces he made each time the pegasus checked his body. Discord chuckled. "Well it only hurts when I do this," he cracked his back, "this," then proceeded to crack his neck, "and this... ouch!" Finally, he lifted his arms, revealing several bumps on his sides.
"How can you be so cheerful at this? You are hurt pretty badly!" Exclaimed Fluttershy, frowning at Discord, who remained as calmed as ever. "Just look at this!"
Discord dismissed her with his hand. "Oh, come on! It is nothing! Just a few mountains growing up on my ribs and that´s all."
His answer was met by a dead stare from Fluttershy, forcing Discord to drop the funny act. "This isn´t funny, Discord, Kratos could have seriously hurt you badly." The draconequus couldn´t help but to agree with her.
At first, the Spartan was proving to be quite a weakling, until he lost control and became something even he feared. Discord lowered his head, as he simply let Fluttershy check on his wounds; the draconequss soon became lost in his thoughts, trying to put a puzzle together, something he could not keep away from his mind, he figured he would have to make a quick trip to Canterlot´s library latter.
"I apologize for what has transcended here." Soon enough, the voice of Celestia too everypony´s attention, with the exception of Discord and Fluttershy. Behind her, was Kratos, who looked as if nothing had happened, regardless, the Spartan took one look at Discord.
Nopony said anything, but silence would soon be over, as Virgil took it upon himself to approach the princess. "Fate will reach to us, no matter what action we take, princess." He smiled. "Do not worry for that which you do not have control."
Celestia couldn´t help but to release a weak grin. "I will keep that in mind, for now, I would like for us to return to the castle, there are still some things to discuss which I would not like to say in here." With those words, everypony prepared to leave the place and headback towards the castle.
The three humans and the ponies silently walked across the green grass, separated into several individual groups, with Celestia. Cadence and Virgil gong in front, Luna and Dante next, and behind them, Rainbow, Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack and Twilight followed, leaving Kratos alone. Fluttershy and Discord had decided to walk a few meters away from everyone, more specifically, Kratos.
The march continued peacefully, with none of them bothering to even look at the Spartan, who, in all honesty, could care less. To the front, Luna had taken it upon herself to observe Dante´s reactions, noticing something about him. "Anything wrong, Dante?"
The Florentine woke up from his daydream to look at Luna. "It is nothing, I´m just a little worried for what just happened." The man had been in hell long enough to recognize evil magic, something that set him on the edge. "Virgil tells me that our mutual friend should have the benefit of the doubt, but I can´t help but to feel something went wrong in that fight."
"You felt it to?" Asked Luna, getting a grin from Dante.
"Actually, I am more than sure we were not the only ones who felt it." The moon princess turned to look at him with a puzzled expression, to which Dante replied by motioning with his head behind him. Luna did as he said and took notice of the Elements walking rather away from the Spartan, while they spoke with each other, a spooked expression on their faces. "They are scared, and they have reasons to."
"Because of Kratos? I know you can put up a fight against..."
"That is not what I meant." Interrupted Dante. "Look at him, Luna, look at the way he reacted. He wasn´t only showing his power, he was showing his life, a mirror reflecting his failures, and ambitions, the way he grew up."
Luna shook her head. "What exactly are you saying?"
"I mean, that the Elements have never been through the things we have lived. The world were Virgil, Kratos and me came from is a place full of evil." Explained Dante, making Luna rolled her eyes at his statement.
The moon princess, as well as her sister, have lived enough for them to know about this things, and she didn´t think his world was as awful as Dante claimed it to be. "Aren´t you overreacting a bit? They may be young, but the Elements have already faced so many terrible things."
Dante shook his head. "With all due respect, but an overlord from here, pales in comparison to a single priest."
Luna gave her a confused look. "Really? Does a priest from your world enslaves your kind and robes them from everything that makes them free?"
The moon princess was surprised to see the grimace on Dante´s words, as he lowered his head. "They do, they enslave and rob, they kill and rape; their greed force them to steal from the people they claim to save and almost everyone follows blindly." Luna couldn´t help but to feel sick at every single word Dante said, but she was still not grasping the idea Dante wanted to deliver. After a few seconds of silence, the Florentine turned to look at her. "Do you want to know the difference between your overlords and the filth of my world?" Luna did not answer. "They do not need godly powers to conquer, only a brain and ignorance from the people."
"I still do not see how this relates to him." Relied Luna, shaking her head in response.
Dante took one quick look behind him, then returned his gaze to the moon princess. "Simple, not only priests are capable of these horrible acts, as it is natural for our kind to hold temptations, however, if we have the will, those temptations will not be able to control us." Once more, Dante´s gaze took a peek at Kratos, who kept walking behind everyone and everypony. "His ambitions consumed him, transformed him, and now, he is a reflection of those temptations, a manifestation of all the evils of human kind."
Luna was perplexed, she never realized a single being could hold so much evil inside of him, and worst yet, that a whole species were prone to such horrible actions without care. She was full aware pony kind could fall to such temptations, but their ambitions were less... horrific. Now, she had a hard time trying to understand why they came to him. "Why ask his aid?" Dante turned to look at her. "Why bring such a horrible being into this world? So far, I see more good in you than him, but I can´t simply understand why Celestia asked for him."
Out of all the answers she could have gotten, Luna got the one she wasn´t expecting. Dante simply chuckled. "Because there is not only darkness inside of him." Luna cocked her head to the side. "I have yet to see it, but Virgil has, and his thought is shared by Celestia, besides, everyone deserves a second chance." Dante quickly took notice of Luna shaking her head in a negative, making him think of something that could calm her nerves. "One thing I know for sure, if he was really that evil, he would have killed our weird friend the first time he got." Luna sighed. "Just think about this, why did he stop? The exterior may be dark, but the interior could be shinier."
´Shinier?´ Luna thought. She really had her doubts about that, so far there had been no indication of a lighter side on the Spartan, and she didn´t like to rely solely on the thoughts of another, like Dante. Luna preferred to listen to her own thoughts, and she would not lower her guard around the Spartan until she saw something about him that could give credit to Dante´s words. Out of curiosity, Luna looke behind her and towards Kratos, this time taking a good look at him. She saw nothing but violence, his topless upper side full of muscles, the enormous scar on his stomach, as well as every other part of his body; his clenched fists that seemed to be able to crush even metal, then she went to his head. She saw the numerous wrinkles adorning the sides of his nose, as well as the ones between his eyes, and just alongside them, the scar that adorned the right side of his face, from the forehead to his cheek... then he saw his eyes. Luna couldn´t help but to a chill going down her spine, as she went back to the time she was just a filly scared of the monster behind the closet, and not because of the maniacal look he held, but because of what greeted her.
Kratos was looking right at her...
Luna reacted quickly, and averted her gaze from the Spartan, silently continuing her way.
Behind the due, the rest of the Elements found themselves looking at Futtershy and Discord. They had noticed the draconequus slightly quiet and nervous since the fight was finished, and they certainly didn´t know why. "Man, I´v never seen Discord like that." Whispered Rainbow to Applejack, who gave her a quick nod as a response.
"Ah´ know, right? Ah´as expecting that fella to come with his tail between his legs, but holy cow!" Replied the cowpony. "You think that was one of them god powers?"
Rainbow shrugged in response. She, as well as Applejack, was not very sure about the things Kratos just did. "No idea, AJ, but I really was expecting Dante here to get into the fight." Suddenly, her mind focused on another fact she had found quite fascinating. "Seriously, I have to admit that Kratos´ wings were pretty cool! I had no idea the dude could fly!"
Applejack gave her an alarmed look as an answer. "Ah´ son´t think that him having a pair of wings is good for us." Rainbow cocked her head to the side, confused by Applejack´s words. "There is one reason why scorpions don´t have wings, sugarcube."
The pegasus scoffed. "Whatever, dude looks cool and that´s all!"
"Uh! Who do you think would win!?" Said Pinkie, as she suddenly appeared from behind the duo, scaring Rainbow in the process. Out of the group, the pink mare seemed like the less affected about the current situation, but then again, she was Pinkie.
Quickly entering the game, Rainbow´s ears perked up. "Oh, my bet is on Dante!"
Applejack raised her hat, grabbing the attention of the group. "Ah´gotta side with Rainbow on this one, guy looks like he´s no joke, also, he seems nicer!"
Stepping up front, Rarity shook her hear upon hearing her friends´ answer. "As much As I hate to admit it, but I don´t think anyone can compare to a brute that kills gods, Isn´t that an immediate red flag?"
It was clear Kratos had caused a commotion amongst them after his fight with Discord, and while evrypony was on their guards, some couldn´t help but to feel a slight sense of safeness around Dante, something the unicorn couldn´t agree on. Rarity didn´t consider herself violent, at least not when she was in a good mood, and even if she did explode, the fashionista was more than sure she could control herself after a few minutes, something Kratos clearly lacked, and it scared her.
Suddenly, a pink blur in the form of Pinkie appeared behind Rarity, raising her hoofs to the air. "And he looks scarier that Ali!"
Rainbow quirked an eyebrow at this. "Ali?"
"Dante Alighieri, silly!" Pinkie chuckled, not acknowledging she was the only one that called the Florentine by his second name.
As Pinkie got off Rarity, the unicorn took one glance at the Spartan before her, before returning her sight to the rest of her friends. "One thing I know for sure, Is that if our uncivilized ´friend´ one day decided to go mad I would certainly do my best to avoid getting close to him."
As soon as the sentence was finished, Rarity could feel a hoof placing itself on her shoulder, coming from Applejack, who had a worried look on her face. "Sugarcube, you are not the only one." Pulling her hoof away, the cowpony turned to look at Twilight, who was deep in her own thoughts, while looking at the floor. "What about you, Twilight?" The alicorn turned to look at her with an absent look. "What do you think about our pal."
Twilight released a small sigh, at the same time her gaze returned to the floor. "I... I don´t know." Quickly, her eyes took one good look at the Spartan behind her. "He seems dangerous enough, but I don´t think he´s going to turn evil on us, or at least, not right now." With a deep breath, her sight returned to her friends. "It´s just that he seems like a time bomb, and I just hope we can stand up against him, should the situation arrives."
As an answer, Rainbow placed her armo over Twilight´s shoulder, as she pulled the alicorn closer to her. "Come on, Twilight! If something happens, I´m sure Dante here will kick that bald ape´s behind!"
Twilight gave her a weak nod, trying to agree with the pegasus, but deep inside her, she could feel the Spartan was far worse than everypony pictured him to be. He scared her for the simple fact that his expression showed none of his emotions, so she didn´t exactly knew what was going inside his head. It was unsettling, to say the least, and it made him unpredictable. In the end, she didn´t know exactly what to think, and even if what he showed was dangerous, there was still a strange aura around him that fascinated her. Sure, he did look kind of insane and violent, but she could feel something else going on inside the Spartan, and Twilight couldn´t exactly place what it was. Leaving this thoughts aside, Twilight remembered his introduction at Cadence´s castle, and the tale Kratos had told them. The alicorn was not a fool, she had taken notice on every single bit of Kratos´ story, and she noticed a few gaps, the question of why he let some things out, was still unknown to her.
As she analyzed the scene again, Twilight noticed that he simply did not mention what happened between his last battle against barbarians and his servitude to the gods, she did know however, that his family had died sometime between these two events. Other thing he left out was his ascension to god hood. If he was a god, why did he have to serve the other ones?
Slowly detaching herself from the Elements, Twilight decided to get closer to Kratos and walk alongside him, her sight never leaving the man, who took notice of her approach.
"...What?" Kratos said after a few silent moments, and it was so sudden, that the alicorn immediately averted her gaze, much to Kratos´ annoyance. "If you are going to say something, then say it, and do not waste my time."
Twilight cringed at this, she had to admit Kratos was far less intimidating from afar, but now that she was near him, Twilight couldn´t help but to feel a little aback by him. "Its just that..." She tried to say, but kept stammering at her words, something the Spartan noticed, however, just before he could say something, confidence returned to the alicorn. "It´s just that I can´t understand a few things about your life."
Kratos turned to look at her. "Like what?"
"Why were you serving these gods?" She finally asked, getting a grunt in response from the Spartan, who returned his sight to the path in front of him.
He could remember it pretty well, the ancient times where he had nothing left to loose. He had gone through a lot in order to let go of these memories. "I... was running a fool´s errand."
Unsatisfied with answer she got, Twilight pushed further on the matter, and much to Kratos´ dismay. "Yes, but why? Weren´t you a god? So far I´ve seen nothing about gods worshiping other gods."
Kratos hated interrogations, he simply despised them, for the sole reason that his life was not the entertainment of another. Why did he have to let know anyone of his life? It was his. "My story is none of your concern!"
Twilight gave a small jump at the Spartan´s reaction. "You do not have to be so rude, you know?"
"Then stop annoying me with questions, I have talked before already!" Kratos replied, as he gave her a quick look, before returning his sight to the front, choosing to ignore the alicorn.
The alicorn sighed deeply, knowing she would not get answers out of him, and simply opted to walk alongside him. The march continued in silence for a few seconds, before Kratos turned to look at Twilight. He was aware that she was an alicorn like the other princesses, and that she was Celestia´s ex-student; she would have to be, otherwise Celestia wouldn´t have chosen her if Twilight didn´t carry so much power. He had heard so little about these Elements, other than the obvious fact that it was a powerful magic against the nature of chaos, but he did not know anything specific about its uses. Setting these thoughts aside, Kratos took notice on an interesting fact about the young princess, something she lacked, compared to her colleagues. "Where is your castle?"
The Spartan suddenly asked, getting the attention of Twilight, who turned to look at him with a ´hum?´ as an answer. Kratos greeted her with silence, it was clear he was not going to repeat the question, but thankfully for the alicorn, she had heard it. Letting out a sigh, Twilight´s face fell, as she was faced with the problem she had since her arrival at the Crystal kingdom. "I actually don´t have one." What makes a princess? This was the question lingering on her mind. The princesses had told Twilight that her time would come, but she was afraid her search would turn out to be fruitless. She felt useless, to say the least, she wanted to prove herself to her friends, to her mentor and to everypony in Equestria. Sure, she had the power, but its implications regarding taking care of a kingdom alluded her.
On his part, Kratos felt surprised about this answer. Twilight was clearly dearly to Celestia, aside from being her prized personal student, plus, he had felt her power, still, Twilight seemed to be on Celestia´s shadow, making her question about gods serving gods, rather ironic. For him, once power arrived, it was not to be wasted, for it was well earned.
Kratos had, somewhat, been in her position before, however, the reasons would obviously have to be very different from his. "Why not?"
"I... I don´t know." Twilight answered, shaking her head as an answer. "I´ve been trying to figure out what I´m missing to prove myself." She turned to look at the Spartan. "I want to take part in royal duties, but all I have done is stand and salute." She lowered her head, letting a sigh escape her lips. "Sometimes I think what I do is not enough."
"Haven´t you proven yourself to Celestia enough?" The Spartan asked, cocking his head to the side in confusion. He had wondered that if she was indeed Celestia´s prized student, Twilight would have certain privileges amongst royalty, something that clearly wasn´t the case.
The alicorn took a deep breath. "I have, but I don´t know why it doesn´t seem like I´m doing anything important!" The Spartan turned to look at her. "I want so badly to take part, but I can´t stop to think that princess duty is overcrowded!" Upon her words, Kratos couldn´t help but to mentally chuckle. Even he thought the fact that four princesses for one realm was rather ridiculous. Twilight let out a sigh, as she lowered her head. "I don´t want to be greedy, but I thought that my ascension would give me the opportunity to help pony kind, I thought it would be different, but I don´t even have a castle or a kingdom to look after."
That word ´greed´, Kratos had never understood why purists seemed to make a huge deal of it, in his mind, this word was only the excuse of the unworthy to avoid their evolution and remain passive before their ´perfect´life. He didn´t like to call it greed, in his mind, it was ambition, and this ambition got him far. He could see this same ambition in Twilight´s eyes, chains that Celestia wanted to keep unbroken, and it was clearly stopping the young alicorn from unleashing. "And what have you done about it?" The Spartan asked.
Twilight cocked her head to the side, as she stared into Kratos´ eyes. "What do you mean?"
"Why haven´t you claimed what you think is rightfully yours?"
The alicorn shook her head at the Spartan´s question, clearly opposing his suggestion. "I can´t simply go and seize princess Celestia´s throne by myself, Heck, I don´t even know exactly how to maintain a kingdom!" A determined look appeared on Twilight´s features, grabbing Kratos´ attention, who kept looking at her. "I need to be patient if I want everything to be perfect, I don´t want to make a mistake and show the princess I´m unworthy!"
Why was she so eager to show Celestia she was worthy? This was the question that lingered on Kratos´ mind, as he kept walking towards the now on sight castle. If what the princess told him was true, then it seemed funny to him how Twilight was breaking her head trying to prove herself to the princess. He thought there was no need for that. Unto another thought, he couldn´t help but to take notice of her determination to do everything right, and how much she wanted to grow up. It was an admirable quality, still, she still had a lot to learn. "If you are expecting everything to be perfect, then you are not understanding what being wise means." Twilight turned to look at him, as she cocked her head to the side. "Learning from your mistakes, stops you from repeating them in the future."
The alicorn frowned. "And how would you know that? You were a god! How can gods make mistakes?"
"Have you heard my story? I have not told you all of it, but you can be sure that the mistakes I made, were far worse than the ones you are so afraid to commit." Averting his gaze from Twilight, Kratos lifted his head to the road in front of him. "Some of them never healed, but I stood up, and learned from them."
Twilight shook her head in response. "But what can I do? How do I know my mistakes won´t be bad for Equestria?"
"A good leader takes risks, if he thinks his actions will benefit his followers." Kratos looked at Twilight. "Do not be afraid of making mistakes, child, and do not wait for someone to hold your hand and deliver you to greatness." The Spartan was glad there was someone who could actually have a proper conversation with him, without the need of using the word ´friendship´ every five seconds. The only thing he needed to know, was how much she would listen to him. "Power is achieved through ambition, if you let it guide you."
Twilight lowered her head in thought, letting Kratos´ words sink in. They certainly were different from Celestia´s lessons, but they were welcomed as well. "I know you´re right, but I can´t help but to think I hit a dead end." With those words, the alicorn turned to look at Celestia, before returning her gaze to Kratos. "I mean, I´m not even as powerful as the princesses."
The Spartan quirked an eyebrow. "Are you not?" Twilight turned to look at him, her expression showing confusion. "Celestia has told me some things about you, child, and it is no wonder why she chose you to become an alicorn, IF what she said about you, was true."
The alicorn released a puzzled expression. "And what did she tell you?"
"She told me how you defeated the enemy of the sun, and how you defeated an ancient god." Kratos noticed Twilight staring blankly at him, clearly letting his words sink, hitting her with the thing Kratos wanted to see: Recognition, and there was no doubt Twilight was remebering her victories. "And I have a slight suspicion that this god was Chaos himself, or am I wrong?"
Finally, Twilight´s mouth was assaulted by a thin smile. "No, you´re not."
Upon her answer, Kratos chuckled in his mind. "When mortals defeat gods, they become the gods themselves." As soon as the words left Kratos´ mouth, Twilight couldn´t help but to look at him, recognition hitting her once she completed the puzzle.
Kratos was alluding at his past life, and in that moment, Twilight knew it shared a few similarities with hers, but that was not the important part, but rather something that shined some light in Kratos´ confusing story... he wasn´t always a god. The Spartan wasn´t only talking about her numerous victories, from Nightmare moon to the cutie mar problem, but he was alluding at his own life. Whether he had killed his way towards godhood or not, was still unclear to her, but it was close enough. Considering this fact was true, Twilight wondered who was that former god of war.
"So..." She said, grabbing the Spartan´s attention once more. "There was a god of war before you..."
Kratos remained silent for a few seconds, silently deciding whether to answer or not. He had no reason to, but after a single conversation with Twilight, he was convinced she was not the being he thought she was, considering Celestia´s pacifist personality. He understood Twilight was a girl with dreams, ambitions that allowed her the worth of growing, and it was this king of people Kratos could rely on. After a few moments, the Spartan took his decision. "Yes, there was."
"What was his name?"
Kratos took a deep sigh, as he clenched his fists, preparing to spell out the name he had hoped he would not hear again in his eternal existence. "... Ares."
´Ares´ thought Twilight. So, it was true, there had been another god of war before Kratos, now, there was one more question for her to ask. "Did you..." Kratos turned to look at her, with an expression that told her the answer before she could even ask. It was as if Kratos had already known what was her question. "Of course you did." She deadpanned.
Without answering, Kratos returned his sight to the path in front of him, leaving Twilight to analyze her discussion with the Spartan. Different from her opinion of him before, Twilight couldn´t help but to think Kratos was not a mindless beast, and actually had a philosophy, his own philosophy, definitely not one everypony would agree with, in the end, he was right about a few things. For so long, she had struggled with her need to prove herself worthy, without even considering the many time she had, but there was simply no way she could grow a castle from nothing. She knew how to be a leader, but being one for an entire nation was completely different, at least now, Twilight felt more capable than before, and she had the feeling a certain Spartan would help her.
On his part, even if wasn´t looking at her, Kratos didn´t feel as annoyed ad he thought we was going to be alongside Twilight. Just as he predicted, the alicorn had the means to overcome her own demons, something that in the eyes of Kratos, was to be respected, besides, she did deserve how own castle just by the mere fact she was now a princess. Setting away these thoughts, Kratos noticed how close they found themselves from the Crystal castle, were Celestia would discuss a few more things.
As strange as all of this was, Kratos didn´t exactly feel surprised, considering the fact he had seen many things for a life time, but he also couldn´t let out the thought that this world was not match for him, and in fact, it was his complete opposite. At least he had seen potential in this world, and not exactly for his desires.
Kratos had decided he would keep his eyes on Twilight.
The numerous group had arrived at the Crystal castle. It had been an hour since the fight between two gods, and everything was now in peace. Silence had soon stopped, allowing the multiple groups to openly talk amongst themselves; between them, a certain Spartan was deep in a conversation with Twilight, who had lost any fear she had.
"... and then Sunset decided she didn´t want to be evil," the alicorn had taken it upon herself to tell Kratos about her numerous adventures, and, to the surprise of everypony and everyone, the Spartan gave her his full attention. "it was then that I knew everypony could change, leave their pasts behind to become better ponies." Kratos scoffed as a response to Twilight´s words, getting her attention in the process,as she quirked an eyebrow. "What?"
The Spartan looked at her for a few seconds before answering. "If I had been in your position, I would have not shown her mercy." Twilight shook her head. "I would have ended the demon without a second thought."
Twilight couldn´t help but to shake her head in response. It wasn´t weird for her seeing Kratos take this approach, aster all, she doubted too much he would worry himself with a peaceful way of solving these kind of situations. "Have you ever considered using the word instead of the sword?"
After rolling his eyes, Kratos directed his gaze towards the alicorn, and grunted. "Do not start with the friendship speech, child."
Noticing his desperation on the matter, Twilight let out a chuckle. "It is not about friendship, Kratos, it is about respect for the living." Kratos cocked his head to the side. "Shouldn´t we have mercy on those who live and breathe like us? I know that not everypony has the ability to change, and that´s why there are places like dungeons or...." In a quick manner, Twilight looked at Discord, before returning her sight to the Spartan. "Stone prisons to keep them at bay, but in the end, they are living beings, and they deserve their lives as much as us."
Kratos shook his head in response. "Forgive me if I cannot see it that way, but in my experience, a bad ivy can come back to hunt you, if you do not destroy it by the root." And this thought actually had saved his life many times, for him to let go of the thought.
"And that root is the heart if you manage to touch it." After noticing the look on Kratos´ face, Twilight took the opportunity to push further. "I know it sounds corny, but if you actually manage to do it, even the most indomitable beast can change."
"How can you be so sure?" Asked Kratos.
"Sunset wasn´t exactly a cup of sugar, now she is the friendliest pony in the human world." Letting out a grin, Twilight turned to look at the draconequus up ahead with Fluttershy. "Discord changed from being a despicable agent of chaos, to Fluttershy´s closest friend, and a... somewhat kindhearted being, and princess Luna..." Following her instruction, Kratos took a look at the moon princess, who found herself walking alongside Dante. For Twilight, reliving that particular memory, was actually kind of terrifying, in the end, the princess was actually pretty feared. "Princess Luna used to be darkness itself, a feared mare by everypony, and now..." She returned to stare at the Spartan and released a smile. "Well, you get the idea." Kratos scoffed in response to the alicorn´s explanation. "Point is, you can always give your enemies a second chance to see how good they are, and it actually gives you more allies than enemies."
"There is one thing you are not seeing, child." Replied Kratos.
Twilight gave him a puzzled look, clearly interested in the Spartan´s words. "And what is that?"
"My world was different from yours, had it been my father the one you faced, you would have been dead by now." After he told her this fact, Kratos could see the shocked look on Twilight´s face. "Scared of the thought?"
The alicorn shook her head in response. "No, I actually kind of feel bad for you, Kratos."
"I do not need your compassion." Kratos replied, a frown appearing on his features. For Kratos, compassion was an insult to ones´ bravery, giving it to a being signified that he was weak, and Kratos didn´t consider himself a weakling.
For Twilight, though, it was stupid how somepony could refuse comprehension and help from anypony else, she had always thought that friendship wasn´t only the strongest force, but it was also a life savior. There wasn´t anything better in a problem, than to have the understanding of your friend, to have a shoulder for you to cry, an ear that could listen. It was clear that Kratos´ ideas were completely different than hers, regardless, she could identify with his thoughts in some way. Before she moved to Ponyville, Twilight´s idea of friendship was that of a heavy burden, she didn´t consider it something helpful, and while most of the time she didn´t care about what other ponies could think about her, she did find discomfort in the thought of herself being weak, especially when she was Celestia´s personal student.
Still, she wasn´t a warrior like Kratos, she didn´t have to worry about feeling that way in the heat of a battle, plus, she ended up understanding that one´s view of himself or herself, didn´t have to change just because somepony gave you a characteristic you didn´t have. Insults, critics, etc. It did not matter in the end, but what did, was you view yourself, and nothing more. Placing herself, in Kratos´ place, Twilight could understand the Spartan´s point of view, pride was an important aspect of one´s personality, and to have this pride destroyed, is to shatter the heart of the same being; it certainly wasn´t a pleasant thought, and she knew that what Kratos was doing, was to defend his existence.
"Princess Twilight!" Soon enough, a voice cut the alicorn´s thoughts.
Twilight lifted her head and looked in front of her, catching the silhouette of an all too familiar pegasus. The alicorn smiled. "Hi, Flash, what..." Just before she could finish her sentence, Twilight noticed how the pegasus was using his wings to travel around, and how his right hoof was bandaged. She waited until Flash was at close proximity and proceeded to hold his hurt hoof. "What happened to you?"
The stallion chuckled. "I kind off hit a wall." Moving his sight from Twilight, his eyes fell upon the enormous Spartan standing before her, who received him with a kill look. "A wall that looked suspiciously similar to him."
Kratos grunted in response, giving one step up front, and getting Twilight on her guard. He wasn´t pleased at all tosee this stallion, Kratos simply despised beings with his cocky personality. "His big mouth caught up with him." After the words left his mouth, Twilight turned to look at him, silently asking what had happened, to which Kratos replied by crossing his arms. "If you want an answer, then you should ask your brother."
As an answer, Twilight simply shook her head, before setting her gaze on Flash, and poked his hurt hoof with enough care to ensure she couldn´t hurt him. "Does it hurt so badly?" The alicorn lifted her gaze, and frowned at the pegasus. "Why are you even here? You should be resting!"
Flash chuckled. "Don´t worry, princess, I still have three hooves, a job and my full confidence and good looks!" In a moment, the stallion noticed the small grin forming on Twilight´s features. Soon enough, his face revealed a worried expression. "Where have you been?"
"In a rather surprising ring match."
Upon her words, the pegasus turned to look at Kratos, a puzzled look on his face. "Did you really feel the necessity to break a few other bones?" Kratos grunted in response, as he began to tense, a warning, Flash did not even pay any mind. "You should seriously get one of those stress balls, they can make wonders with bad humor."
As an answer, Kratos gave one step up front, giving Flash a menacing stare. "Or I could use you as my diversion!" The stallion flinched at this. "Keep your mouth shut, grunt, or I will not think twice before using you as a training manikin!"
Noticing the tension rising, Flash did his best to raise his left hoof, in an attempt to calm the situation. "Okay, just relax, dude! I´m only joking!"
Far from the calmness the pegasus wanted, Kratos still found himself angered by the stallion´s words, fact noticeable by the kill look on his face. "I do not find the joke amusing."
Flash wasn´t an easy to intimidate stallion, making his actions in these kind of situations rather harsh. In the end, he would have to be, being a royal guard was not an easy task, less when you were more noticeable between the rest of the guards, simply by your skills. Though, he had to admit that looking into Kratos´ eyes was a rather terrifying experience, it was like if he was watching into Tartarus itself, regardless he tried to keep his humor up.
"Hey, I have a good idea on how to recover your humor." The Spartan inhaled deeply, trying to contain his ever growing anger, as he already knew what was coming from the stallion´s big mouth. "It is pretty simple, really, it involves you and a mirror... that´s it."
In a moment, Kratos gave one huge step ahead, closing his left fist, as he stretched his right arm, ready to grab the pegasus who backed away from the raging man. Just before it could get out of hand, Twilight stepped in. "Wow, calm down, both of you!" The Spartan stopped his advance, his eyes never leaving the stallion, who could feel his heart racing. "Kratos, I know Flash can be a little annoying." Letting go of his fear, the pegasus reacted ´Hey!´, regardless of his answer, Twilight ignored him. "But he is a good kid, could you stop trying to hurt him?"
A few tense moments passed, as Kratos looked between Flash and Twilight, giving thought to the alicorn´s request. If there was one thing Kratos hated, was big mouthed asses, he could simply not stand a coward´s mock towards him, as he view it as sign of weakness, and he didn´t like being mocked by weaklings. However, he found himself considering Twilight´s request, he did not care about killing one of these equines, but there was something in the alicorn that made him comply with her request. After he inhaled deeply Kratos turned to look at Twilight. "As long as he holds his tongue, otherwise," suddenly, the Spartan gave Flash a kill look, "I will have to rip it out of his mouth."
Noticing Kratos lowering his guard, Twilight couldn´t help but to release the breath she was holding, as a thin smile appeared on her features. "Thank you." The alicorn was clearly expecting a harsher action, and it was a relief to see that Kratos was open to contemplate a different option than that of the murder, because she knew that if he wanted, Flash would paint the walls red with his blood.
Setting this thoughts aside, Twilight noticed Kratos going past them, and into the long hallways of the Crystal castle, before turning around once more to look at her.
"I shall see you at throne room." Kratos said, then set his gaze on Flash, silently launching a threat to the pegasus, who shivered in response.
A few seconds passed before Kratos became lost in the distance, leaving the two ponies alone. It wasn´t long before Flash turned to stare at Twilight, releasing the breath he was holding in the process. "So..." He said. "Who is this guy, anyway?" Giving one quick glance behind him, Flash released a chuckle. "Hasn´t anypony told him that bald albino ape season is over?"
As an answer, Twilight punched him in the gut, causing the laughing stallion to grab his ribs. "Come on, Flash, don´t be rude." Letting out her frown, the alicorn smiled warmly. "He is not an ape, and his name is Kratos."
"So, how did mister Sunshine get here?" Flash asked.
"Princess Celestia brought him alongside two other humans."
The pegasus chuckled, as he recalled his former beating in the training yard. "Yeah, I saw the other one. Not as cranky as Kratos."
She had certainly heard the same complain before. Kratos was not a very friendly being, that much was true, but maybe they weren´t giving him enough time to warm up to them. "I know, he can be a little rude sometimes, but he is not that bad actually." Flash deadpanned at this, knowing how stubborn she could be at times. Noticing this, Twilight couldn´t help but to roll her eyes. "So, how did you meet him?"
"Well, I was pretending to be a punching bag, and he got a little crazy with his punches." The pegasus answered, grabbing his hurt hoof, as the memory of the fight came back to him. Flash wasn´t exactly the type of stallion who freed himself of having injuries, on the contrary, during his infancy, he had suffered from several fractures, regardless, it was not a pleasant situation for him.
On her part, Twilight found herself a little surprise at this. If she thought picking a fight with Kratos was dangerous, now that she had seen what he was capable of, she look at it as suicide. "Wait, why exactly did you pick a fight with him?"
Flash shook his head in response. "It´s not like I had this crazy dream of having my head smashed or anything, but..." In a moment, Twilight could notice a sheepish smile forming in the pegasus´ features. "Your brother may have asked me to represent the kingdom´s forces." Rather surprised by this fact, Twilight wide opened her eyes, as a frown began to appear on her features, realizing what Flash meant to say. "Yeah..."
It wasn´t the first time her brother had wanted to do something like this, in the end, he was rather apprehensive of her, something, she had to admit, part of the personality he shared with her. In the end, Twilight hated when somepony else stuck their nose where it didn´t belong, even if it was her own brother. "Shinning, and I are going to have a little chat after I talk with Celestia."
On Flash´s part, he didn´t want to create a problem, and not because of his position withing the royal forces, but because he didn´t want twilight involved in some kind of fight. "Hey, don´t go too hard on him, he just wants to protect his little sister." Twilight turned to look at him, giving away a deep sigh, as her frown remained in place, making Flash try something to lessen the bad mood. "I would totally do the same if I had one, I just wouldn´t have a monster to kick his behind." Finally, he managed to get a chuckle out of Twilight, causing him to relax a little. Now with that out of the way, the pegasus decided to change the subject. "So, when are you returning to Ponyville?"
"I don´t know, maybe tomorrow, why?" The alicorn answered, cocking her head to the side in confusion.
"It´s just that if you happen to magically grow a castle from nothing, try not to forget about me, okay?"
Twilight let out a chuckle. "I wouldn´t, believe me." As her smile faded, Twilight lowered her head, melancholy invading her, as she remembered her last talk with Kratos. The problem she was facing, which made the alicorn feel a nude on her throat. "I just wish I had a castle, though."
Trying to make her feel better, Flash placed hi good hoof over Twilight´s shoulder. "You will have, Twilight, I know you will." The alicorn lifted her face, smiling at the pegasus. "I don´t know any other pony that deserves one as much as you."
In a moment, both their stares became locked, unable to remove themselves from the sight of the other, it wasn´t until a bit later, that Twilight managed to recover most of her senses to speak.
"Thank you, Flash."
Steps echoed across the shining hallways inside the Crystal castle, as Kratos made his way towards the throne room to meet with the rest. As the walk continued silently, the Spartan couldn´t help but to notice solitude accompanying him once more. The lack of movement, the complete silence invading the long hallway, which was allowing Kratos to even hear his own breath, and it reminded him of his punishment. He had enjoyed this in the past, but the disturbing afterlife he had, was forcing him to succumb into madness. Kratos felt angst.
The Spartan began to take deep breaths, trying to resist the sensation from overcoming him, which seemed like a rather weird thing to the Spartan. He liked having some time to think, but since he had an eternity, the loneliness had caught up with him. Suddenly, the walk seemed to be eternal, almost as if he had found himself inside an endless hallway, where he would walk for years without end, and it caused him to desperate. The Spartan was starting to breath faster each second that passed, coupling with the sensation that the wallks were closing in.
Without noticing, Kratos began fastening his pace, and was soon, almost running across the place. From the corner of his eyes, the Spartan could see a dark shadow starting to blind him, darkening every corner of the place... he could take it no longer. Just as the Spartan thought he would faint, his feet stopped in place, as his eyes took notice of a distant figure, which was soon to be revealed as Celestia herself. On his part, Kratos sighed in silence, feeling his angst leaving him, and at the same time, his breathing returned to normal.
As he began to walk slowly, Kratos clenched his fists, feeling the weakness of loneliness invading him. He had felt something similar to this, back when his brother was kidnapped by Ares and Athena. he thought he had overcome the feeling, but his strength was betraying him. Soon, Celestia noticed Kratos, and began her approach, forcing Kratos to try and remain calm, so he could not show how he felt.
Was she waiting for him? The Spartan grunted at the thought, he did not know why he felt so much distaste on the sun princess, it was as if he hated her for no reason. Sure, she could be annoying, but it was no reason enough for him to hate her, there was simply something about her. Taking the decision of ignoring her completely, Kratos passed by Celestia, as she tried to approach him. Behind him, the Spartan could hear a faint grunt, before the sounds of hooves made their way to his position, making him realize she was not going to leave him alone. "And what do you want?" He asked, forcing the silence to end.
Celestia remained frozen for a few seconds, before she recovered her senses. "Nothing, it´s just that..."
"If you have nothing else to do than wasting my time, then leave me be!"
Celestia closed her eyes, as she gritted her teeth. She was struggling to comprehend what she was doing wrong, but as much thought as she gave it, Celestia could not find a viable answer to the interrogative. Setting these thoughts aside, she tried to come up or an excuse for her to wait on the Spartan, which soon came in the form of her former student. "I was just wondering what you two were talking about." Kratos turned to look at her, his expression unchanged. "I know Twilight, and I know she found interest in you."
"Whatever we were talking about, it is none of your concern, Celestia."
Celestia rolled her eyes at this. "It was only a question, Kratos." As an answer, the Spartan sped up his pace, infuriating the sun godess, who did her best to remain calm and quickly follow Kratos. "Could you stop being so rude for at least a moment?"
"I will, the day I find you of my liking, which is close to impossible." The Spartan answered, continuing his walk, as he was unable to see how Celestia now had a furious look on her face. She was tired of Kratos´ mean personality.
"Okay, that´s it!" In a moment, Kratos stopped his tracks, slowly turning around to stare at Celestia. For him, this was going to be interesting. "I don´t why the Heck you keep treating me like dirt, but know that I will not allow this humiliation any longer!" Celestia raised her hoof, pointing at Kratos, who remained unfazed by her outburst. "You will treat me with respect, or otherwise there is going to be a problem!"
Silence endured between the two beings, forming a sense of dread for the princess to feel. Moments later, a look that scared Celestia to her core, appeared on Kratos´ face, as he slowly made his approach to the princess. The alicorn did her best to keep her angry expression, while feeling the weight of Kratos´ stare. With each step the Spartan gave, Celestia´s heart sank further, not exactly knowing what to expect from him.
It wasn´t long before they were face to face, the silence enduring between the two, as they became entailed in their stares. The alicorn´s heart began to race, as she was silently prying for him to simply turn around, and it wasn´t long before she saw Kratos about to answer for her outburst. "Very well." Kratos´ muscles did not take long to relax, as well as his facial expression, which was now calm. Celestia blinked in surprise, not knowing that Katos had actually found her outburst rather fascinating.
On his part, he did not know what to think about it. Sure, it was time for her to show some auto respect, but he wasn´t expecting her to actually do it. Setting the thought aside, Kratos remembered the reason for him to follow the rest. "What exactly are we going to discuss at the throne room?"
Celestia remained still for a few moments, slowly catching her breath after Kratos´ deception, however, after a quick shake from her head, the sun princess managed to regain her senses in time to follow Kratos. "It´s just that we will not remain in the Crystal kingdom for too long, and I wanted to ask you what you wanted to do."
Kratos raised an eyebrow at this, as he set his gaze on her. "Where would we go, should we choose to leave?"
"Me, Cadence and my sister, to Canterlot," she answered, "Twilight and her friends, however, to Ponyville." Averting her gaze for a second, Celestia noticed the group up ahead, before turning around in time to spot Kratos´ annoyed expression, which made the sun princess roll her eyes. "I know what you´re thinking, and no, you´re not going to be preached about friendship every five seconds in Ponyville." The Spartan scoffed. "I actually find the place rather peaceful, if not for the usual overlord." An idea soon crossed Celestia´s mind, as she set her eyes on the rest of the group. This morning had been quite a ride, and it would be a good idea to provide something to break the ice. "Actually, if you could give me a second." With that, she made her way to the rest of the group. "Cadence, maybe all of us should go for something to eat, while we discuss any further plan."
The love princess gave a smile, as she greeted Celestia, who was now walking alongside Cadence. "Not a bad idea, I´m sure our guests are hungry by now."
Just before she could ask them, the Florentine took the opportunity to step in. "Actually, I find myself quite in need of a feast," Dante averted his gaze from Cadence, to Virgil, "wouldn´t you agree, poet?" Ever since his travel through Hell began, the poet did not have time to feast, something that had actually concerned him. He was desperate to taste the food in his mouth, to remember what it felt like to be alive and outside of the terrible realm of the dead. Truth be told, he wasn´t a glutton by any means, but he could not deny the allure of a fine steak or even a fresh apple in his tongue, it was simply refreshing.
On his part, Virgil could understand Dante´s need of food, even if he was physically in no condition to follow on his footsteps, although, it did not mean he didn´t enjoy Dante´s excitement. "I would, if I had could feel the need to satiate myself with the riches of this world, regardless, I will be there to discuss whatever decision your majesty will make us part of."
Agreeing with the decision, as the rest of the group, Luna stepped in the conversation. "It is settled then."
Just before they could head to their now chosen goal, Celestia stopped on her tracks, looking from left to right for a certain alicorn princess. "Wait a minute," the rest froze in place, turning to look at the sun princess with a puzzled expression, "where is Twilight?"
"I´m coming!" It wasn´t long before an all too familiar shadow came running from the long hallway, soon making her way to the rest of the group. A few chuckles greeted Twilight, as she arrived at the scene, while trying to calm her breathing after a long run.After composing herself rather quickly, the mare turned to look at the several amused faces looking at her, which caused her to raise an eyebrow.
It wasn´t long before Applejack decided to break the silence, and smirked as a thought crossed her mind. "Guess she was getting kissy kissy with that Flash pony."
Immediately reacting, Twilight planted her right hoof on the ground, frowning at the cawpony, as she desperately tried to dismiss what her friend said. "No, I wasn´t!"
Sadly for the alicorn, her predicament was simply too amusing to avoid Rainbow from taking part in the moment. "Really? You sure where taking your time."
Several laughs and chuckles came to her direction, with the only exception of Kratos, who simply chose to cross his arms, was his always serious expression remained in place. Twilight couldn´t notice, but her face went from purple to a very vivid red coloration, some ponies could even say there was some smoke coming out of her ears. Thankfully for the young princess, a benevolent spirit would come to her aid, and it wasn´t the one know as the Ghost. "If it or if it is not, we should not concern ourselves with every action or decision she takes." Twilight couldn´t help but to release a small but grateful smile at her savior, which came in the form of Virgil. "I know, you would not like to be in the same situation."
"Thank you, Virgil." Twilight said, as the chuckles were soon over, letting the alicorn give a sigh in relief. to which Virgil responded with a warm smile.
"It is my pleasure." He answered, before making his way back to the group, however, just before he could proceed, a mischievous smirk appeared on his features. "Though, I have the feeling you WERE kissy kissy with our friend." Far from being angered, Twilight actually found herself rather surprised at this, she didn´t know Virgil could be this amicable and funny, and she was ready to let go of the mocks, until a certain draconequus made his way towards the spirit.
"Oh, believe me, Twilight here often dreams about the guy."
Once more, a furious look appeared on Twilight´s features, thankfully for her, Virgil would come to her aid once more. The spirit turned to stare at Discord, as a smirk appeared on his face. "If I were you, my friend, I would not mock the one being that shares the same passion as you," in an instant, Discord´s as well as Fluttershy´s faces gave away a red coloration, with the draconequus being the one frowning at Virgil, "you don´t know how easy is to forget the mocked being by another which is found more amusing."
Staring into his eyes for a few moments, while deciding whether to answer or not, Discord released a grunt, then, turned around before dissappearing into thin air, leaving a chuckling Virgil behind.
Once the draconequus was gone, Celestia decided to speed up the moment, as she prepared herself to get the attention of the entire group."Twilight´s coltfriend thoughts aside," every pony and man present, turned to look at the sun princess, with Twilight being the only one to release a rather loud´ARG!´. Celestia simply ignored this. "I believe we should hurry, the faster we eat the faster we get to see if Kratos´ bad mood was because of hunger."
Now it was time for the Spartan himself to release a grunt of his own, however, before he could even react, Dante stepped in. "Actually, I would like to see that as well."
"Don´t you start as well, Dante." Kratos answered, clenching his fists in anger, after their careless mocks.
Wanting to ease the mood, Dante got close to Kratos, and placed his right hand over the Spartan´s shoulder, who wasted no time to shake it off. Dante did not mind. "Come on, Kratos, don´t you try to tell me you are not eager to taste the flavor of food in your mouth." Kratos, however, did not answer, and Dante was not going to wait for the situation to become uncomfortable. Kratos was rude, tht much was true, but he was also a warrior that often, if not all the time, took his mission seriously, an aspect Dante respected highly. With this in mind, he did not become bothered by the Spartan´s lack of answer, and made his way with the rest of the group, towards the dinning room, leaving Kratos behind, who hanged his head, as he remained deep in thought.
"Kratos, is something wrong?" Suddenly, the sweet voice of Twilight, cut off the Spartan´s thoughts, as he turned to spot the alicorn staring at him, deeply concerned about him.
The moment he was free from his solitude prison, Kratos had no time to think about the things of this new world he did not know, including the food. Back in Sparta, the feasts were great, something given to its most fearsome defenders, the Spartan army. The thing was, he could not remember any of those things, he was struggling to grasp the tip of the days he had everything, and even those where he had nothing. A fool´s errand. "I have spent so many centuries in the dark," a somber look greeted Twilight, as she stared into the eyes of the forgotten, "I don´t even remember how water tastes." The flavor struggled to infect his tongue, as his mind went through numerous possibilities to this sole interrogative. What was the taste? How did it feel? He even did his best to think about the sensation of the meat, the juiciness of a fresh fruit, the warmness of a kiss... A long forgotten feel, a dead soul in search of that which gave some good to a bad life.
On her part, even if she couldn´t place herself on his shoes, Twilight did her best to understand his predicament. She had never been caste aside, away from those she loved, and the only pony she could come up with, who had that experience, was Luna, however, at least she had somepony to greet her, and love her. Kratos had nopony... There was simply no way for her to give the Spartan, the right answer, and did her best to say something positive. "Then I guess it´ll be like the pleasure of the first time, don´t you think?"
Kratos looked at her for a few moments, before turning his gaze to the front, and walking away from her. Twilight sighed at this, and not because of the rudeness of the situation.
Just before she could give the matter some more thought, Celestia appeared from behind, as she got close to the alicorn, while her stare remained fixed on the fleeing Spartan. "Hard to get, don´t you think?" twilight turned to look at her. "I have tried to get him to open up as well." Suddenly, she set her stare on Twilight´s, letting out a warm smile. "Guess you are doing alright."
Shaking the comment off, Twilight pondered about the interrogative that seemed to be the most important, regarding the Spartan´s presence. "Princess, I´ve wanting to ask you." Celestia looked at her, already knowing the question she was about to be asked. "Why him?"
The sun princess remained silent for a few seconds, then lowered her head while giving away a sigh, wondering the answer of Twilight´s question. "I have yet to know the answer to that, as well." So far, her search for the truth had gone sour, and she felt she was not close to knowing the thing that was occupying her mind at all times. Regardless, she wasn´t sure if she could talk with Twilight about it, at least not in that moment, first, Celestia had to learn a few more things before being able to open up to her former student. "Don´t worry, the moment I know for sure, you will be the first one I tell." Twilight grunted, her gaze going towards the hallway Kratos took. She clearly had a hard time letting Celestia´s secret go, but as many other times, she had a reason for doing the things she did, or at least, that´s what she wanted to think. "Considering you don´t find out by then." ´If I find out by then?´ wondered Twilight, as she struggled to now the meaning of her words. How could she discover it by herself if she didn´t even have any ground to stand? What could Kratos have that could give her a hint? Maybe his power? The darkness he carried? Whatever it was, it only exasperated her further.
As soon as Celestia noticed Twilight´s silence, she decided to continue the walk towards the dinning room. On her part, Twilight was still going through Celestia´s words, and it wasn´t long before Twilight came with a plausible answer to the princess´s riddles, and this answer seemed to be logical, considering the strength both Dante and Kratos held. "Princess," Celestia turned to look at her, "Tirek is not the only thing we are facing, right?"
The sun princess cocked her head to the side. "Why do you ask?"
"Because otherwise you wouldn´t have brought them into Equestria." Celestia sighed at this, almost regretting talking with Twilight. "They seem too powerful for a single centaur."
She was right, even if this wasn´t the answer to what she was hiding, it was a part of it. She had talked to Pandora before, and the young girl had told her about what was coming, yet Celestia remained stoic about it. Of course, she had agreed to get the aid of the two warriors, in the end, it was for the good of Equestria, but whether something was coming or not, she did not know, regardless, Celestia would not take any risks. "I don´t know what will happen, Twilight, but at least we are not alone to face whatever is coming." Twilight raised an eyebrow at her comment, as she prepared to ask another question, to which Celestia quickly silenced with a warm smile. "Let us not think about that for now, we should get our bellies full first."
With no other choice than to comply, Twilight followed Celestia the rest of the way to the dinning room. So far, her mind had been going around the show stopped Kratos, which didn´t let her think about her opinions on the other two guests. Back home, her library contained books about numerous topics, one of those were the adventure type, and while she wasn´t so crazy about those, the young princess did enjoy them from time to time. Now, in front of her, was the vivid manifestation of what she knew about as ´ancient tragedy´, in which the hero often lost his family. Only difference was, Kratos did not seem like a hero, quite the contrary, if he had found his way to Equestria without Celestia´s aid, Twilight was more than sure he would end up becoming an overlord. This thought was not exactly a relief, considering the fact that contrary to other foes they have faced, Kratos had nothing to loose, which made him far more dangerous.
Averting her thoughts from the Spartan, Twilight couldn´t help but to notice that Dante seemed to balance Kratos´ personality, giving it a breath of fresh air from all the bad mood. In the end, she could not go that hard on the Spartan, at least he was not being mean to her anymore, and had actually decided to open up a bit.
Thinking about Kratos and Dante, made her remember some of those psychology books she had studied back in Canterlot. The difference of perception was shown by the two warrior´s personalities, and their way of handling things after a tragedy. Both of them learned from their mistakes, and shaped them into the beings they were now, but different from Kratos, Dante had actually closed the circle with his quest. Thinking about the Florentine, Twilight couldn´t help but to release a smile, his tale reminded her of a love novel, which made perfect contrast with Dante´s sensible side. It was amazing how true love could overcome things, and she was more than sure that Cadence was eating this fact up.
Then, there was Virgil. Although he was hard to read, Twilight could see a lot of compassion, and love. The ancient poet had seemed to take a like on Pinkie, regardless of his opinion about Fluttershy; the reason for this seemed to be related with the pink mare´s abilities.
Soon enough, Twilight found herself entering the dinning room, with the rest of the group going to their places. To the head, sat Celestia, alongside her were Luna and Cadence. To the right was Kratos, with Pinkie bouncing her way to the chair, alongside Virgil, who sat alongside Rarity. To the left, Rainbow, Applejack, and Fluttershy found their sits. The table was quite crowed, and yet voices were lacking. She seemed to think it was because of the latest problem.
The young princess decided to take place alongside Celestia, just as the royal servants came in with several dishes of food, which were placed all around the table. It wasn´t long before everypony, with the exception of Virgil, began grabbing whatever they found palatable. Suddenly, as she sat down, Twilight could catch a fain grunt coming from a certain Spartan, who was looking at his plate with a questioning look.
"Where is the meat?" Suddenly, everypony, and everyone left what they were doing to stare at Kratos, who had a puzzled loo on his face. "What?"
Luna cocked an eyebrow at the Spartan´s lack of understanding, and common sense. "You do realize we are ponies, right?"
Kratos grunted. "And when did I say I cared about what you were?" Luna rolled her eyes in response to the Spartan´s words. "I only ask for meat."
Wanting to avoid ruining the moment, Celestia tried to ease the mood. "I thought humans were omnivorous." Once more, Kratos found himself gritting his teeth, feeling each time more desperate that he did not get what he wanted. Celestia simply sighed at this. "We do not have meat at this moment, you know, considering we ponies do not eat meat." Now that she noticed Kratos calming himself, Celestia decided to break the ice further. "However, we have an special reserve for when a carnivorous kind comes to Canterlot." Suddenly, a thin glimpse of satisfaction could be seen on the Spartan´s features. "I promise that as soon as we get there, you will get to taste some blood."
"I hope so." It was all Kratos answered before he set his gaze on the bunch of apples, the pear he grabbed, and some breath resting alongside his plate, with a glass of water resting alongside him. He became lost in the objects, almost as if he was admiring every single bit of the food. It had been so many centuries since he saw fruits that he struggled to remember their taste.
It was as if Kratos had seemingly stopped wishing to eat them, he didn´t want past memories to flood his mind the moment his tongue tasted the apples, regardless, the Spartan could feel a faint pain on his stomach, which soon evolved into a new language being spoken by his belly, which called for the attention of everypony and everyone present; Kratos paid them no mind. Rather slowly, his hand reached for the pear, before bringing it into his mouth. His teeth began to close, as the fruit touched both them, and the tongue. The sweet liquid made its way into his mouth, filling the vocal cavity with much rejoice.
Kratos gave the pear a few chews, before passing the rest through his throat. If he hadn´t any pride, he would have lot out a moan the moment the fruit passed through his mouth.
Now that Kratos seemed to be absent from the rest, and deep in concentration with his food, Celestia figured it would be good time to talk about their travel to Canterlot and Ponyville. "Setting carnivorous Kratos´ desires aside, I would like to discuss any further plans."
Virgil was the first to react, giving the sun princess, a small cordial vow. "And plans we shall discuss, you highness." Hi gaze was soon met by Celestia´s, as he let out a warm smile. "What has come to your mind?"
"We part to Canterlot tomorrow morning, from there, me and my sister will stay at Canterlot, and the Elements will return to Ponyville. We clearly cannot decide for you, that is why I would like to ask you, where would you like to go?" Celestia asked.
Virgil sighed. "As much as I would like to meet this Canterlot, I would rather stay close to the Elements, and discover everything they have to offer." Taking the moment to cast a quick glance at the aforementioned group, Virgil chuckled. "The chance to walk amongst a power as pure as this, is an opportunity I would not let go, besides..." The spirit raised his hand, as he pointed towards the youngest princess in the room, who received the benevolent shadow with a smile and slight reddened cheeks. "Lady Twilight strikes me as a very illuminated being, and I´m sure I will get to know more about this place, plus, I love towns, I cannot find as much peace and beautiful ambiance as in these kind of places."
Celestia noticed the excitement in Virgil, as he stood up to make emphasis on his own likes regarding towns. He did look like a very family ambiance being, and she could certainly understand his decision, however, he was not the only one with free choice in the room. "Very well." The sun princess set her gaze on the Florentine, almost already knowing his answer. "How about you, Dante?"
"I will head to Ponyville as well." He answered. "I could surely need some peace and tranquility, besides, I could not leave the side of my protector, it makes the journey rather lonely."
Celestia was not surprised by his decision, since they arrived, she could notice Dante´s closeness to the ancient spirit, and by his tale, Virgil had helped him unconditionally, plus, Dante clearly admired the poet. Setting her thoughts away from the pair, her sight went towards the Spartan, who was still munching every fruit that perished under his hunger, and stopped for a moment. An almost sight expression escaped her features, as she noticed Kratos silently enjoying his food like he had not eaten in... ´centuries´, Celestia thought, soon realizing the Spartan´s predicament. The man was so easy to be feared, yet in this moment, the only feeling that invaded Celestia as she looked at him, was sadness. "Kratos?" She finally asked, forcing the Spartan to raise his sight, with a look similar to that of a colt who had been discovered eating something he shouldn´t. "I kind of feel dumb to ask, as I know you are not too fond of peaceful places, and I would really like to have you around in Canterlot, so..." The Spartan swallowed his food from his fourth plate, and placed his full attention on the sun princess. "Where are you heading?"
With his right hand, Kratos cleaned what was left of the fruit he just devoured, and pondered about his answer, when his gaze rested on the youngest alicorn princess. That look, that reminder of a cursed fate, the look of a child that he knew, had a huge future... his answer was immediate. "Ponyville."
Celestia cocked her head to the side, confused by the Spartan´s answer. "Are you sure?"
"I am."
The sun princess blinked in surprise, and nodded silently. In reality, she was not sure how Kratos could react to a town like ponyville, she did not know how ponies would react. Celestia made a mental note to inform Canterlot´s soldiers to inform town about the guests, so to avoid any kind of panic, still, she felt uneasy about not keeping her eye on the Spartan. Celestia figured she would pay him a visit from time to time, once they arrived home.
And so it was that the group continued their talk, with the exception of Kratos, who went for his fifth dish. It was a relief to have the Spartan lost in his food so he could not bitter the moment with some of his rudeness, still, Celestia felt a bit sad about Kratos´ necessity to feel something in his mouth. Averting her gaze from the man, the sun princess spotted Dante chatting amicably with Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow. She had a hard time trying to understand how a man with his looks could be so friendly, yet, she had learned through the ages, not to judge a cover by its books.
Dante had managed to close a circle, complete his journey of self discovery, but it was more than clear that he had to work roughly to be where he is now. The Florentine was a poet, not a fighter, yet he had an aura so pure, that it overwhelmed Celestia´s own control over the shinning sun. Some of it, she recognized as love, which was the same as the one Cadence had, however, there was something else more... divine. It almost was like a comedy, for her to see such a gentle soul butchering his way through Tartarus.
Then her sight went towards Virgil, that´s when deep nostalgia invaded the sun princess. Something about the shadow reminded her about an old and loved friend now gone. He had this gentle expression, a pair of eyes that screamed of wisdom, and the voice of a loving father that could make you fall asleep if you were not careful. Virgil had spent his time trying to stop Pinkie from introducing food into his mouth. Celestia smiled at the mare´s intention of making him taste the sweetness of a fruit, fact that seemed to be highly amusing for the spirit, who took his time to chuckle at Pinkie´s shenanigans.
"Okay!" Said Pinkie, holding a pie on her right hoof. "Here comes the train, open wide!"
Same as before, the food simply fell to the ground, making the mare rather desperate, something that was noticed by Virgil, who placed his hand over Pinkie´s right hoof to stop her from continuing her crusade. "I know you are eager to see me taste this meal, but as you can see, I cannot swallow what any living being consumes, besides," averting his gaze from her, Virgil´s eyes went to the floor, where there was a small food mountain, then looked back at Pinkie, and grinned, "we are really making a mess on the floor."
Pinkie let out a chuckle, as she placed the next piece of pie back on the table. "Don´t you worry, silly, I´ll have this cleaned in a jiffy!"
Faster than the eye could see, a pink blur made it past Virgil and behind his chair. On the ground, almost as if magic was involved, all the fallen food was now gone before the same pink blur as before passed again, leaving the ground shinning. It wasn´t long before the blur made it in front of Virgil, revealing itself as a smiling Pinkie. On his part, the spirit could not help but to laugh at her unusual abilities.
"Are you not a remarkable girl?"
Pinkie chuckled at this. "No I´m not, I´m just Pinkie!"
"And I am sure that means more than anything else." Virgil raised his hand, and placed it on Pinkie´s puffy mane, gently robbing her head. "You heart is as sweet as your innocence."
Cadence, who had been staring at Dante, couldn´t help but to notice his battle costume, ravaged like if it had gone to Tartarus, which actually had. Soon enough, she came up with an idea. "I was thinking about something." Dante turned to look at her. "Now that you are all heading to ponyville, you could spend some time in getting something fresher to wear." The Florentine cocked his head to the side, before looking at his own attire. "I know you must feel uncomfortable wearing that all the time, or am I wrong, Durante?"
The poet analyzed his clothes, noticing the numerous things he made to himself, so to find redemption for his sins, yet it was not a demonstration of the Dante that lived before the battle of Campaldino, but rather the manifestation of his own madness, and blind faith towards those that led him astray. "Wear a mask for too long, and you will loose perception of who you are." Dante answered. "You are not wrong Cadenza, but who will supply us?"
Rarity did not take long to jump into the conversation, less when it was about her own hobbies. She loved making clothes, and she was loving the Florentine´s personality, so it was more than obvious who would aid the poet. "That would be me, Dante, there is nopony better than me to give anything you desire about fashion."
Dante couldn´t help but to release a chuckle at Rarity´s self ascension, and mocked. "I like your modesty."
Rarity smiled at this, as she shook her head in response. "Is anything wrong with that? You just said masks make you loose perception of who you are, and I don´t plan to hide myself any time."
She was right. "Fair enough, lady Rarity, but..." Dante looked on his pockets, trying to find a small bag of coins, but stopped his search once he realized that he did not have money, and the possibility that Equestria´s currency was different from his. His face released a concerned look. "I do not know how to pay you."
Rarity let out a chuckle, once more shaking her head, before assaulting the Florentine with a warm smile. "There is no need for that, Darling, it goes on me."
"Are you sure?" Dante asked.
"There aren´t many gentlecolts in touch with their feelings anymore, and it feels nice to have one with us." The mare did not waste the moment, and gave Dante a wink. "Of course I´m sure."
From her place. Twilight, who was watching the scene, noticed the Spartan´s almost nude body. Being an Element of Harmony, she did not find Kratos being left out, fair. "And what about Kra..."
"Five bits!" Rarity interrupted, her words gaining the attention of the Spartan, who turned to look at her with an annoyed look, making Rarity feel uneasy. "Heh, heh! I meant to say it is free as well."
Kratos scoffed at her false attempt at being friendly, and crossed his arms after letting the newest piece of breath on the table. "I do not need your second hand products, and I highly doubt you are worth enough to forge an armor."
A collective gasp was soon to be heard, after Rarity´s ability for this kind of work was placed in doubt. On her part, the fashion mare found herself in fury after the Spartan´s insult, and immediately lost all fear of him. "Of course not! I´m a lady! Do you really think I would ruin my hooves in creating an armor?"
A mocking chuckle went out of the Spartan, as his face remained as serious as ever. "Then I was right to think you are as useless as you are ugly"
Rarity was about to get off her chair, and go preach Kratos, but was stopped by Celestia who decided to intervene before the Spartan went crazy again. "How about we forge you one at Canterlot?" As she had predicted, the sun princess got the attention of Kratos, who aversed his gaze from the unicorn to stare at her. "We have some of the best forgers in Equestria, and it would suited to your needs."
Kratos´ frown lessened, but before he could even speak, a pink blur positioned itself in front of him. "Uh! Can I forge an armor?" The Spartan gave a small jump, going off his chair, and placed himself in combat position, until he noticed it was only Pinkie. "I´m very good at making armors!"
"When in tarnation have you ever done one?" Asked Applejack.
"You don´t remember?" Answered the party pony, who placed herself on the table, then raised her left hoof to the air, before letting out a serious look. "I remember as if it was yesterday! We were deep under the catacombs of Canterlot, ready to blend the toughest metal in all of Equestria, and..." Then, she pointed at Luna. "You were there," the next one was Twilight, "you were there," then Dante, who cocked his head to the side in confusion, "you were there," after she named her armor building partners, something happened that made Kratos speechless. Pinkie reached her mane with her hoof, searching inside it for a second, before pulling it away with an armor Kratos knew too well, "and we made this!"
There, resting on the pink pony´s hoof, was the armor Kratos wore when he was a god. For a moment, he had wondered if he had managed to find a way to sleep, and still was inside his prison back in hell, but sadly for him, this was all real. Rather slowly, he approached her. "What treachery is this?"
The rest opted to remaain silent, with the ponies already aware of Pinkie´s strange abilities, leaving Dante and even Virgil to scratch their heads in confusion at the scene, but highly amused by Kratos´ reaction to the pink pony.
Pinkie chuckled, waving the piece of cloth on her hoof. "It´s not treachery, it´s an armor, silly!"
As soon as the words left her mouth, Pinkie placed her hoof back inside of her mane, alerting Kratos, who raised his hand to stop her. "Wait!" Sadly for the Spartan, Pinkie´s appendage went back outside without the armor. Kratos found himself highly exasperated- "Where is it?"
"Where is what?" Pinkie asked, as Kratos hurried himself over the table, while placing his hands inside of the mare´s head, desperately searching for the object.
Kratos grunted, as he took his hands off her mane, and looked at her with a furious look on his face. "The armor, you witch!"
Pinkie cocked her head to the side, now confused about the Spartan´s words. "What armor?"
Kratos remained silently looking at Pinkie, his right eye giving away a faint tick. The rest present were observing in suspense for whatever Kratos was about to do. On his part, his mind went complete white, as his... sot of calmness was replaced by fury upon the rather pathetic loss of that fine piece of armor, which he had personally watched being create in the past. Many questions entered his mind, ranging from the numerous possibilities for it to appear inside of her mane, to the numerous ways he could torture her to get the armor back. He was in a nightmare, a nightmare full of buffoons making fun of him, and it aggravated him. His fists clenched tightly, his teeth gritted in anger, but just before he could explode, the Spartan gave up. Giving one small jump, as he came back to reality, Kratos got oof the table and went towards the exit doors, then turned back to look at the rest. "We head to ponyville today!"
With that, the Spartan violently closed the doors, even making them crack. This action made Celestia sigh, who simply placed her hoof on her forehead. So far Kratos screamed of problems, and even when she thought he could behave, something happened that set his fury ablaze. It was clear he did not have enough patience, and could only hope Equestria could get to him, then there was their travel to Ponyville. It was in that moment, that Celestia took the decision of keeping her eyes on Kratos, but even if she was, there was one thing she knew for sure...
"This is going to be a fun adventure."
