How the past changes the Future

by Rotcrain

The Warring Battle

Previous Chapter

We arrived on the hill that Celestia, Luna, and I were up on earlier that day, overlooking the soon to be battlefield. What we saw on the other side completely destroyed what moral the ponies gained from my speech. The demons that Discord had behind him were absolutely terrifying. Some stood ten or twenty feet high with blades as big as the hill we sat on. The air above them was blackened with thousands of demons all of them with blades glinting menacingly in the early sunlight.

"Don't stand there gawking at them, they are the exact same as the demons we have been fighting against these past three years. Destroy the head and they will fall just like all the others. Now CHARGE!!!" I screamed. Soon after the meadow was filled with the thundering sound that was thousands of hooves hitting the ground and the screams and shouts of the ponies who truly had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

That is when the demons sped towards them, silently, as they did not possess the intellect to even shout and that only added to their menacing atmosphere. Then we met in the middle of the meadow. Everything slowed down as I watched one demon swing his sword down and cleave about twenty or maybe thirty ponies clean in two. I watched as their bodies fell to different sides, until the demon had hundreds of arrows from the pegasi above splinter its head apart killing it. It was not the first death I witnessed and nor would it be my last.

With that early reminder in my mind I charged onto the front lines decapitating any demon foolish enough to stand in my way. I was one of the few pegasi that was effective with ground combat as I was trained with all three races, unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, so that I could truly be considered the best of us and earn my rank as Captain. My vision filled with the blackened liquid that was demon blood and I soon found himself sinking into the ground as the demon blood ate away at the very ground beneath my hooves.

I took to the air to avoid being slowed down in the blood and took to doing aerial flybys with my sword outstretched to hack apart as many demons as I could per run. After my eighth flyby I looked back over to the princesses and what I saw both shocked and angered me. They were charging up one of the most powerful balls of pure magic I have ever seen. It easily matched or even surpassed some of the largest demons on the battleground. I knew that if they fired that ball now, not only would the demons be destroyed entirely but so would all of the ponies. I had to somehow get all of the ponies out of the area while keeping the demons here. How can I do it?

The princesses were distracted with creating and controlling that giant ball of pure power so the royal canterlot voice was out. That is when I got an insane idea, an idea insane enough it might actually work. I flew down to the unicorn regiment and went straight to the most talented spell caster, Crystal Flare. I picked her up and carried her over to the hill where we were before the battle started. I asked her to create a magically flare that would spell out retreat, my hope was the demons would be to stupid to recognize what that meant and the ponies would notice it and retreat. After she did that spell I needed her to create a magical barrier surrounding the demons as long as she could in hopes that the ponies could get far enough away for the princesses to attack.

Crazily enough, it worked. The plan went off without a hitch. Now with the demons destroyed all we had to do was deal with Discord. I soon found out that that was easier said then done, far easier. Discord enraged by the swift defeat of his army roared in anger an unintelligible shout. Next thing I knew he was inside our ranks slaying all of our ponies as fast as he possible could. Left and right I watched as ponies dropped to the ground dead with blood pooling out of them. I ran to him as fast as I possibly could and soon I was there. Only around three hundred ponies were left when I arrived and I was going to make sure that no more died.

"DISCORD, fight someone worthy of your skill. Fight me." I challenged

"Oh, a pony with some spine in him. How unique, you may prove to be interesting." his snaking voice sent chills down my spine.

He charged at me his sword raised, and I charged at him my sword raised. We clashed our blades and bodies moving faster than an untrained eye could see. I was pushing as hard as I could and he looked... bored.

"All that talk and this is all you can do?" he asked.

I couldn't let him get to me, I had to hold out until the princesses were ready.
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"How can we possibly defeat Discord?" I asked.

"Me and my sister have to use the Elements of Harmony. It will not kill him but trap him in stone for as long as we are connected to the elements." the alabaster alicorn replied.

"And how can you get the elements without him knowing?"

"You must distract him in combat. You are the only pony skilled enough to have a chance at fighting him. During your fight we will slip into the Everfree forest and retrieve the Elements and return as fast as we can."
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I had to keep fighting, I had to wait for the princesses to return. We fought and fought and fought. The longer we fought the more tricks Discord used. He started teleporting around striking out from the flash that his teleportation created. Then, he made his blade invisible, and finally he began to shove my comrades out in front of him as a shield. The battle drug on like this with us trading blows. While I never once landed a clean hit on him, he would get an occasional slash on me and it was beginning to take its toll. I was slowing down, getting clumsy, and missing more. Where are the princesses?

As soon as the thought left my mind the ponies cheered, the princesses had returned to end the battle. All the unicorns created an anti-magic shield around Discord and the princesses began to use the Elements. Just as they were about to fire the unicorns ran out of magic and before Discord was hit he turned to me and said, "You will pay." He shot some spell at me and it flew past me. Next thing I heard was a ripping noise, similar to tearing fabric, behind me and a strong pulling sensation. Everypony looked at me in horror, or maybe it was the thing behind me. Then, I met with my old friend, darkness.