A flame in the darkness

Rising at five am the next morning and hopping out of bed you quickly bathe and dress, strolling downstairs something glinting on the wall catches your eye, it’s a large sword, diamonds set into a leather wrapped hilt, the blade large and triangle shaped spilling over the handle by about six inches.

The end of the hilt was the head of a dragon and the blade had ‘The flames may work against me, but no beast shall best me with the blessings of the queen’

As you go to turn away from the unusual sword you find that you can’t, not that your own will was lacking but the room was gone, looking around you there was only blackness, turning back around the sword you found a burly human knight holding it palm up in front of you.

“Young wanderer, you know not what you involve yourself in, but please, take this sword and know my blessing and the oldfathers, may it strike true fear into the hearts of anyone that would stand against you.”

The knight took a knee and presented the blade to you, taking it by the hilt you felt the true weight of it. Before you could say anything further the room returned and you were standing there sword in hand, taking the sheath off the wall and slinging everything on your back you made your way to the entrance hall.

Downstairs the princess had already brought together the royal guard for the blessing ceremony, the paparazzi had been allowed to assemble off of the giant red carpet down the center of the room. As you cantered down the stairs you think about just how strange that whole encounter was. Just before you step into the hall you stop. Seeing you were the first one down you back up against the wall and wait beside a large flowerpot, making eye contact with the princess she winked at you and you heard the same voice cut through your head.

“I see you don’t care for crowds” Not in any particular instance ma’am. “Understandable, I see you also found the dragons bane?” Did you meet Parsees?” Someone came to me dressed as a knight, a human, I was going to ask about that. “Parsees represents all that is pure and noble, the blade you hold now was forged from the fang of a large dragon in the war forge, an ancient thing in itself. The more that blade is held by a single person the more in tune they become.” What do you me… Just then the rest of your entourage plodded down the steps looking quite tired.

“Good morning my little ponies, gather here in the center. Now ladies and gentlemen, today these six brave ponies venture off to save our land from certain destruction, together with the guardian of legend they shall save us and learn many things on this journey. So now as high ruler of this land, with all power I hold I bless these six and ask the guardian to use his knowledge to guard these as his own children. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie and you Fluttershy, Be careful and watchful, the road ahead is dangerous and daunting, but together with Marcus I am sure you can pull through. Now goodbye my friends.”

With that the princess was done, you heard the personal address at the end via telepathy you knew it was time to leave. Sneaking towards the front door you stepped outside and ran to the chariot that would escort you to the edge of held territory. The ponies reached the cart shortly after and you were off.

Dash started in first “Dude you missed the send off ceremony!” No I didn’t, I watched the whole thing, I’ve never been one for spotlights. Rarity’s face turned into a slight frown as she added in “But darling, what is life if not a giant spotlight, you’ve got your own… allure.” I died 10 years ago, when I was taken from my home they faked my death in a plane crash and since then my whole purpose hinged on not being caught. I never existed as far as most people are concerned.

The rest of the short ride was spent by the ponies talking mostly amongst themselves while you told dash about planes and the lack of magic on earth.

Landing softly in a large field you grab your bag and sling your new sword, jumping down you note the sponginess of the ground and how damp the air was, not 3 miles to the north was a large tree patch, Goldeneye swamp.

“Everyone got everything they need” the lead Pegasus pony asked, Yeah I think we’re good, thanks for the ride. “Not a problem sir, good luck to all of you” With that they were off climbing quickly into the air, watching them depart you saw something streaking across the sky. Realizing too late you cry for the 3 ponies pulling the sky cart to watch out, but the missile crashed straight into the side of the cart and it came raining down.

Everyone get away you screamed grabbing the two closest ponies to you and throwing them away, you all started running the opposite direction you saw the missile streak.
When were you going to tell me you had modern war technology? Twilight shot back “I didn’t know we did” Checking the other direction you could just barley make out a group of ponies making their way towards you with a griffin bringing up the lead. Keep running you six, turning on your heel you stopped to meet the attackers, four targets, easy for you normally but now you had no idea how they fought, or how well armed they are you caught yourself thinking. Letting them advance the griffin threw an arm up to his team to halt and drifted forward to meet you.

“Oi ain’t this a funny looking one, tell yah what beastie, you hand those pretty girlees over and any valuables you got and I just might let you live okay?” I’m sorry is all you reply with. “Sorry for what?” Killing your crew. “My crew ain” Taking the second he wasn’t looking forward you leapt digging your knife into his neck and pulling straight down all the way to his breast, as his blood shot out spraying a line down your suit you looked straight into his widening eyes, clutching his throat to no avail you unsheathe your new sword and step towards the rest of them, they all turned tail and left in a hurry. Stepping back towards the girls you realize they are all staring at you.

“You… you killed him, just like that” Twilight managed to stammer out while Fluttershy cried beside her. Well yeah, it was him or us you retort.

This trip was going to be long you sighed and set back towards the swamp.
Stripping the body of anything worth taking you all set off, all the ponies seemed… Well afraid of you, they had never seen death and you were jealous of the innocence that this trip was going to destroy. You stopped and turned to them, sitting on a convenient stump you looked at all of them and motioned for them to sit with you. After the circle was made you started.

Listen guys, after that last reaction I got I figured you needed a talking too, this isn’t another day in the life, you might see some terrible things out there that you don’t like. You may have to kill just to stay alive, I promised to protect you and if that means bathing in the blood of my enemies than I’m sure not averse to doing just that.

“But they are living people, they have lives. What gives us the right to take that from them” Twilight spoke up after a short awkward silence. The fact that if we don’t kill them everyone may die, remember, the world is in our hands, and ill be damned if I fail a planet twice. Now everyone up, we need to get moving. Turning and trusting that they could stay strong you set off.