Shroud of darkness

by LeTriggs

Rating: teen
Tags: Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Main 6, Princess Luna
Length: 62608

Face your destiny

Celestia has been murdered and left Twilight and the others with just an old letter and news of an Alicorn aside her and her sister being alive and quite possibly Equestria's only hope from an enemy thought to be long gone.

big thanks to soarinbolt from Deviant art for the cover image and Thedudwiththeface from Funnyjunk who is helping with pre-reading chapters

Published 2011-11-25 13:06:04 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-13 23:34:20 UTC

Prologue

The Birth of harmony

The castle shuddered as three Alicorns ran down the corridor, their destination in sight. The battle had been underway for hours now, and they had seen their opportunity to end the long campaign they had been waging against Discord, the spirit of chaos; it would end tonight no matter the cost and all three knew that fact. Celestia was leading the small group; to her left, her younger sister, Luna, was struggling to keep up due to her shorter stature. To her right was another Alicorn slightly shorter than the elder sister. This one was a stallion, his coat was a deep red, covered with gold armour, the only one out of them to be wearing any. His helmet was, again, a brilliant gold and allowed his horn to poke through a special hole cut for unicorns. The back of it stretched down to his body covering his mane, offering optimal protection. His long wings were tucked against his body, and his eyes, an incredible sky blue were focused on the door at the end of the corridor where they would soon be having their final showdown. A large part of the ceiling suddenly collapsed, as a shot from a cannon hit the castle, undoubtedly shot from one of their own. As the debris fell towards them all too quickly for Celestia to cast a spell to protect them, the stallion leapt into action. Unfolding his wings and taking off with a burst of speed, he kicked the large piece of rock out of one of the many windows that littered the long hallway. As he landed in full gallop Celestia shot her eyes over to him.

"Fast as always, Stargazer." she spoke through each laboured breath from the amount of running they had done that night. Stargazer didn’t say anything and just gave her a small smirk. He had told her too many times that he didn't need thanks for saving a life, but he couldn’t say it now as he didn't have enough breath to speak, considering the running and just kicking a piece of rock that could easily have weighed 3 tonnes out of a window. As they approached the door, Celestia began channeling magic through her horn, as did the others. There was no doubt that the door was enchanted with every defensive spell known to pony kind.

The sound was deafening, the combined spells hit the large double doors, causing one half to splinter and the other to embed itself in the wall on the other side of the castle chapel. As the dust cleared around the ponies, they saw their enemy at the end of the room. Discord was standing in his usual nonchalant way, seemingly knowing of their impending arrival.

"You always did like to make an entrance, didn't you Celestia?" he chuckled as he spoke, infuriating Celestia. "Ahh, Luna. Trailing your sister again, I see. Oh, and Stargazer! You were never far away from these two, were you?" He laughed at the site of his old friends making stargazer speak first.

"It ends here, Discord!" his voice commanded authority, but also showed his true age. In truth, he was much younger than any of the others in the room. He was but a child, only having turned 19 within the past month, but he wasn't scared by the Draconnequus standing before him. As he lowered himself to the ground, ready to lunge at the spirit of chaos, Luna stood in front of him to block him from attacking Discord.

"There's nowhere to run!" The air could be seen visibly moving from her mouth as the night pony spoke. Discord quickly put his hair back into shape as the rush of wind had put it out of its place, laughing silently. As he was about to speak to the group standing in front of him, he was cut down by a voice filled with a rage that was unknown due to its source.

"YOUR REIGN OF CHAOS IS OVER DISCORD, GIVE UP NOW OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!" Celestia was screaming at him, the rage etched onto her face as every word poured out of her mouth. This was the result of all the pain she had bottled up. "YOU KILLED THEM! YOU KILLED MY PARENTS AFTER THEY TOOK YOU IN! THEY CARED FOR YOU LIKE YOU WERE THEIR OWN AND, YOU KILLED THEM!" The tears were streaming down her face now as she recalled the death of her and Luna’s parents. This seemed to touch Discord but not in the way it would touch most ponies. Instead, he started laughing, remembering his greatest triumph. He doubled over as he laughed, and that was when Stargazer saw his chance.

He lunged with everything he had, using his strong wings to blast through the sound barrier as soon as he started moving, giving Discord no time to avoid the incoming attack. Stargazer slammed into his chest, throwing both over the alter that held the elements of harmony which Discord undoubtedly had been trying to destroy before the Alicorns had entered. The Draconnequus hit the floor, hard, with the pony landing near him, equally as hard, but on his feet at least. He jumped backwards as Discord swung at him with his eagle claw, leaving jagged scars in Stargazer's chest plate. As soon as Stargazer landed, he quickly charged and fired a bolt of lightning at his enemy, but Discord was already on his feet and had anticipated the attack. The force merely moved him back slightly as he dissipated the bolt around him. All the while, Celestia and Luna stood dumbstruck at the sight before them. They knew that Stargazer was both strong and fast, but they didn’t think even he was capable of phasing Discord, let alone knock him down in one hit. Snapping back to, reality the sisters sprang into action to aid their friend. Luna had taken to the air and kicked Discord in the back of the head to give Celestia enough time to charge a spell. Discord's focus was now on Luna, and trying to slash at her with his claws, but, in the air, Luna maneuvered too fast for him to hit her. As Celestia’s spell became ready, she shouted to Luna to move. Her sister lost her focus on her enemy and he took this to his advantage to hit her with his strong lion paw, making the ground crack as she hit it. His victory over the night pony was short lived, however, as a beam of pure sunlight collided with him and launched him straight into the wall. As soon as the beam finished firing into the spirit of chaos, he was hit again, and pinned to the wall by Stargazer, whose horn was sparking with a spellthat had been charged to a point that his body couldn’t cope with. Discords eyes went wide as Stargazer unleashed the full strength of his spell, engulfing both of them in lightning. The pain would be too much for anypony but, Stargazer held on, his mind racing.

"If I'm going to die here, then I'm taking you with me!" There was a massive explosion between the two creatures, throwing Stargazer across the room, landing just a few feet away from Luna. His armour had been blown off, revealing his mane and tail, which were both short and a deep natural black. The explosion also revealed his cutie mark, a golden shield with 2 silver crossed swords over the top of it. As Stargazer slowly stumbled to his feet, his head spinning and his ears ringing from the explosion, he looked over to see Celestia helping her sister to her feet. Luna was clearly hurt, there was a massive gash on her front left leg from where Discord had hit her, and her right wing was bent in a position that it clearly shouldn't be. Celestia was obviously in pain too, he realized, it must’ve been both mentally and physically draining to create the explosion, as sparks were still flying from her horn due to the untamed magical energy she had released. He then looked over to where he was standing mere seconds ago, ready to die for Equestria. He saw Discord standing there, not even fazed by the onslaught he had just taken. The only things to show that he had been attacked at all was a portion of his fur being singed, a small cut on his arm and the trickle of blood coming from his mouth. As Stargazer was on his feet, he moved over to his friends to help Luna gain her balance. When she was finally able to stand on her own,Stargazer felt a presence behind him. As he turned his eyes went wide as he looked at the altar. The elements were glowing. His focus has shifted from Discord and he was now fixated on the elements maybe they were....activating? His question was answered as a brilliant shaft of light erupted from each of the stones on the altar. Then, as the shaft reached into the air, they changed their course… straight towards the trio. Two beams of light went into Stargazer as well as Luna, and one went into Celestia. A moment passed before another light poured into the room from an unknown source and shot into Celestia, engulfing them all in magic. As the magic engulfed them a necklace appeared round Luna's neck with a moon made out of diamond as the only jewel on it, and a voice of unknown origin whispered in their heads.

“Laughter.”

Then, a crown atop her head with a sapphire placed in it as the voice hissed:

“Generosity.”

After a moment’s pause, it was evident that Luna’s gifts had stopped coming. Stargazer could feel something forming over some minor wounds on his body. Once the piercing brightness subdued, he could both see and feel the chest plate that now sat on his body. In the center was an Emerald in the shape of a shield. He could hear the voice again, but this time it was as if it was speaking inside of him, not just to him.

“Kindness.”

And then a golden mask appeared on him, similar to the helmet he had been wearing moments ago, covering his head. His horn poked through a hole and the sides of the mask were going down just under his jaw and ending at the tip of his mouth, eventually tapering down to two spikes. A ruby cut into the shape of two crossed swords was in a recess just below his horn, at which point the voice spoke again, this time whispering

“Loyalty."

Like Luna, Celestia was bestowed with a crown and a necklace both containing an amethyst in them, as the voice then whispered

“Honesty.”

And then the voice whispered to Celestia alone

“Magic.”

As they landed on the floor, Discord looked at them and began to speak, this time with a cold focused voice, unlike the way he had been speaking before.

"So, this is the true power of the elements….well there’s nothing that you can do even with that fancy jewelry! Remember, I am Discord, THE EMBODIMENT OF CHAOS!" As he spoke his words he lost focus on the group before him, consumed by his pride he brought one of his hands onto his chest and the other in the air, throwing his head back as he shouted the words to the world. At this point the Alicorns unleashed everything they had at him; as soon as the spell hit him he froze in place. All of Discords features began to turn grey and harden. As the aura left the ponies, Stargazer’s vision began to blur. He had expelled too much magic, his body was utterly exhausted, and as he hit the ground, his vision began to turn black. The last thing he heard before he slipped away from the world was Luna screaming his name.

Chapter 1

At the gala

Pinkie pie was shacking uncontrollably as Rarity was putting her dress on her all the while repeating

"We’re going to the gala! We’re going to the gala!" Rarity was surprised pinkie was keeping as still as she was but still huffed as the pink pony bounced knocking the piece of ribbon the unicorn was trying to fit onto the dress across the room.

"Pinkie could you please just stay still for 5 minutes!"

"But I'm too excited I mean come on we’re going to the grand galloping gala! The greatest party there is!" The pink mare must’ve forgotten about what had happened at the gala the previous year or that she even went before Rarity thought to herself. After much struggling and a few more choice words Rarity was satisfied with her work, calling for the next of her friends to come in to the room she had shut off so that she could fit the dresses in privacy. After some time and a long argument with Applejack saying she just wanted the dress she wore last year and with much resistance Rarity finally gave in not wanting to waste any more time.

As the ponies walked out fully dressed for the gala they were greeted by a very sick looking spike who had insisted on seeing them off. His jaw dropped at the very sight of them. Pinkie was wearing a frilly skirt incredibly similar to a tutu coloured pink, blue and white and had a small white beret atop her curly hair giving her the image of some form of incredibly sweet cake.

Fluttershy had green high heels on that had straps going most of the way up her legs giving the effect of vines. Along with this she had a long green flowing dress adorned with many flowers of different types and colours. Then in her hair was a lily acting as a hair clip. She was nuzzling Rainbow to her left who had a cape that was kept short at her request, being tired of standing on the ends of her previous outfit. It shimmered in the light and almost seemed to change colour as it was looked at going every single colour in the spectrum. Combined with this was a necklace made out of a fine cotton giving the look of clouds being around her neck hanging from it a beautiful ruby cut into a bolt of lightning the same as her cutie mark which Rarity was most proud of.

Applejack was to the far right of the group wearing the same clothes she had worn at last year’s gala but had let her hair out of its usual ponytail for once after a great deal of convincing letting it fall straight giving her a certain amount of grace with her trademark Stetson topping her head.

To her side Twilight was wearing a brilliant blue dress almost the same colour as Princess Luna’s mane with incredibly small diamonds sewn into it to give the effect of the night sky. Her mane had been puffed up a bit from its usual straight demeanour with all manner of hair products giving the impression there was more of it than there actually was.

In the centre of the group stood Rarity wearing a brilliant flowing dress in a deep purple with a glass tiara atop her head and wearing a pair of high heels the same colour as her dress. A simple wow was all that could escape the dragons mouth before he began coughing uncontrollably which made twilight give him a concerned look

“You should really be inside resting instead of out here in the cold” Spike spoke back to twilight through a blocked nose making his speech sound incredibly strained and quiet

“I plan on doing allot of resting Twi but I at least wanted to see your dresses before you leave tonight seeing as I won’t be able to come”

“Fine but you best get straight home after we leave” she said giving him the look of a mother worrying over a sick infant.

Pinkie cried out as she saw the royal carriage land just a few feet from them, Celestia had offered to send it to them to save trouble of having to get a carriage of their own. Each of them got into the carriage excitedly eager to spend the night with each other in Twilight’s home town. As Rarity climbed she spoke in her most regal voice

“Thank you so kindly gentlemen” as she addressed the Pegasus guards pulling the carriage.

“Always the flirt huh Rarity” Twilight said jokingly to her as she got into the carriage herself.

“What do you mean?! I wasn’t flirting I was merely giving my thanks to these fine gentlemen” her pure white cheeks went red as she spoke the words making Twilight giggle slightly.

As the carriage took off the purple unicorn looked over the side to see Spike wandering slowly in the direction of Ponyville library, coughing and spluttering all the way. She sighed as she realised it would be the first time she had been to Canterlot without him since she hatched him from an egg.

The Royal city of Canterlot was a sight to behold on any night but it was even grander than usual with the castle lit up entirely. Fireworks were being set off from some of the many rooftops and the general commotion of the most exclusive night of the year with only the most rich, famous and well known ponies attending. Making Twilight and her friends stick out from the crowd due to their relative lack of fame. Even being the embodiment of the elements of harmony wasn’t enough to set them aside from most common ponies which they were glad for.

As the carriage landed gracefully outside the main entrance to the castle the crowds started cheering as they put their hooves onto the luxurious red carpet leading up to the door the 6 walked up with Fluttershy hiding in the middle of them, Rainbow Dash was lapping up the attention and Rarity was trying to look as glamorous as she could posing for the crowd. Pinkie was skipping all the way singing to herself excited at being at the ultimate party, Applejack merely kept walking not paying much attention to the crowds and Twilight was trying to take everything in noticing a few ponies like Sapphire shores. As she walked she looked into the crowd seeing a few ponies she recognised from the academy screaming as they saw their old acquaintance.

As the six mares entered the castle the air changed. It was allot more calm and quiet compared to the outside but there was still a drone of voices from various ponies talking to each other and soft music was being played. But it was quiet enough to be heard without having to raise their voices that much. As they joined the queue to be greeted by the princess Twilight looked up and realised that it wasn't Celestia greeting the ponies but instead

“Princess Luna” she said to herself in the shock of seeing the night pony in such a high profile place considering how nervous she was at talking to all the ponies at the nightmare night celebration. The others looked up as Twilight said the words them too being shocked to see her with pinkie letting out an audible gasp similar to the one she did when she first met Twilight prompting a few looks from some of the many dignitaries. As they got to the top of the stairs Luna gave them a warm smile in seeing the ponies before her.

“Twilight sparkle it is good to see you” she spoke in a quieter voice than she had done when they last met making Twilight smile as they shook hoofs

“Princess it’s a pleasure and it is good to see you’ve been working on your speech as well” Luna giggled as Twilight spoke

“Yes we thought it be best to work on talking to other ponies in fact it is why we are in this position tonight so that we may help shake off more of the fear for us” she said this whilst shaking the others hoofs until she got to Pinkie remembering her from her visit to Ponyville.

“Ah the ringleader of the children” reaching out a hoof to the pink mare who was shaking out of nerves now remembering the trouble she caused for the princess and slowly raised her hoof out shaking the one held before her

“It appears we finally got the hoof shake that we tried to get on nightmare night” the princess chuckled easing Pinkie a bit and making a smile appear on her face

“Our sister is in the main hall we shall be along soon as there are not many other guests to greet” she spoke this realising that Twilight was looking around for her mentor

“Oh, thank you Luna” Twilight said blushing, they then all bowed and carried on into the main hall of the castle.

“Ack Flootashy!” the unique accent of photo finish popped up as the strange looking pony corralled the extremely nervous Fluttershy making her squeak in fright at the sudden appearance of her photographer from when she was a model.

“Ah graceful as alvays ze best model I have ever vorked vith you must come back to ze modelling community” Fluttershy trembled remembering how bad things got living in the spotlight.

“Um…no thank you” the Pegasus squeaked making photo finish’s face droop into a depressed look.

“I vill never have as graceful a model as the great Flootashy” she said walking away solemnly Fluttershy didn’t have much time to think as she was given a massive hug and a kiss on the cheek from Rainbow causing her cheeks to go scarlet.

“I didn’t think you would be confident enough to tell her no” the Rainbow mare spoke with a huge grin on her face happy at how much confidence Fluttershy gained since they became mare-friends.

“I just thought back to when I did that before and remembered how much I hated all of it” Fluttershy spoke with an incredible softness but squeaked the final word as her eyes landed on a pegasus in the crowd she recognised. It was her father. Lance looked around as he heard the squeak against the drone of conversation around him and looked over to see that Rainbow mare and his daughter looking right at him one’s eyes were filled with disgust and the latter with fear. He immediately turned and walked into the crowd and joined the discussion not really paying attention to what they were talking about.

The two pegasi moved away from where they had spotted the doctor to the others who had inevitably found princess Celestia. She was engaged in conversation with an earth pony who Twilight recognised from the newspapers as a Young CEO of a company based in Manehattan. As the approached they overheard part of the conversation that he and the princess were engrossed in.

“So how is the orphanage your majesty? I hope the donation I made has helped with the running of things” he spoke with wisdom far beyond his years and a genuine concern for the Canterlot orphanage. Something Twilight thought that most ponies of this calibre didn’t care about except for publicity.

“Your donation has done allot more than just help 5 million bits is in no way a small amount to just give away” The princess spoke with the gentleness that she was infamous for.

“I’ve never seen of such a large contribution before. I thought you had gone mad”

“so did the board members” the pony laughed at the thought.

“Oh princess I believe you have some guests” Celestia turned and the smile on her face grew as she saw her student

“Twilight sparkle! I’m glad you could make it, I was just talking with Bruce here about a rather sizable contribution his company made to the Canterlot orphanage last month”

“Please your highness you treat me like I'm some sort of hero. He laughed as he pictured the princess erecting a statue of him

“I think the children deserve something to smile about. I mean my parents were murdered when I was just a little colt but I still had someone to look after me and compared to many foals was in a very privileged state. So the least I could do is donate some of the leftover funds to the orphanage after giving everyone in the company a bonus for their hard work. Oh if you will please excuse me I have a matter I must attend to.” At that he suddenly left picking up a drink from a nearby waiter and latched onto another smartly dressed pony and began discussing something with him that from the look on his face as he turned back was obviously already boring him.

“My faithful student how are you? You must simply tell me about your adventures in Ponyville and what you learnt about friendship. Its all well and good getting letters from you but there is nothing quite like talking about something in person wouldn’t you agree?”

As Twilight looked around she saw her friends had split off to each do their different things leaving her alone with the princess. Rainbow was talking with the wonderbolts with a very nervous Fluttershy next to her darting her gaze around the room. Rarity was conversing with Hoity Toity most likely about fashion, Pinkie was talking to her sister Octavia as she had gotten a break for a few minutes as another band was on the small stage playing music and Applejack was at the buffet table looking at most of the food with a confused look on her face.

“Well as it appears we have some free time then let’s talk” Twilight spoke with a sense of glee at being able to talk long into the night with her mentor.

Chapter 2

Nightmare

The main hall of Canterlot castle had grown slowly quieter over the evening as Twilight Sparkle told both the princesses of her time in Ponyville, Luna having entered and began listening intently just a few minutes after Twilight began telling Celestia everything excitedly. Luna would occasionally chime in asking of different things or to make a comment such as when Twilight told of her saving the town from an Ursa Minor stating that she was incredibly brave to take on a creature like that and that in all of the history she had known from documentation she had read in canterlot library only one other pony had taken on an Ursa single handed and won. To which Celestia shot her a look that made her go quiet immediately confusing the lavender unicorn but she shrugged it off and had carried on. Celestia herself merely sat and listened nodding at the appropriate times or chuckling when she found something amusing in-between sips of her tea, she never had a liking for alcohol and as such had asked a waiter to bring her a pot which he had done so within mere seconds.

Twilight looked around realising how long she had been talking, the hall was almost empty her friends were dotted around Fluttershy and Rarity were talking whilst standing in front of one of the large portraits the hung elegantly from the wall. Rainbow Dash was with Applejack most likely planning some sort of bet between them from the looks on their faces and pinkie was at the buffet table eating all manner of treats her sister obviously having left a while ago, Along with them there was also the pony she spoke to earlier called Bruce talking to who Twilight recognised as Lance Strongshy from his visit to her just last month who was standing on the other side of the room with his back to Fluttershy clearly not wanting to speak to his daughter. She could overhear snippets of their conversation it seemed to be that Bruce was talking about making a donation to Cloudsdale hospital and they were talking about what the money should be used for.

"I swear that Bruce is going to run his company into bankruptcy if he carries on with these donations" Celestia had overheard too and sighed as she spoke

"Still I guess its better than having just another businesspony that is obsessed with making themselves more money he just needs to preserve his employee's jobs" Celestia looked around the room herself realising how long she had been listening to Twilights stories

Along with these ponies there were also 3 royal guards leaving who clearly had drunk too much alcohol as the night had worn on they had their hooves round each other to keep them standing and were singing as they went

“Show me the way to go home! I’m tired and I want to go to bed!” The one in the middle fell as they were singing making the others burst into fits of laughter. They then picked him up and dragged him off in the direction of what Twilight assumed was the guard barracks.

“They’re going have the worst hangover in the morning” Celestia chuckled softly whilst Luna merely looked at her older sister trying to figure out what prank she was planning for them tomorrow to add insult to their soon to be headaches.

The captain sighed as her saw the young soldiers in their drunken state guffawing as they meandered they were towards the barracks.

“Got to remember to give them a few more drills tomorrow to make them not get that intoxicated again at such a high profile event” He spoke to himself as he made the mental note to punish them, not to say he didn’t like to have the occasional drink himself but there was a time and a place such as on a night off or in their own quarters as he remembered his own bottle of scotch on his mantle. Making another mental note that he would open his prized drink and relax he rounded the corner into the main hall to see a few more of the guests had stayed behind whilst the others had left about half an hour ago he instantly recognised 6 of the guests from last year’s gala

“Oh great, them again” he muttered the words so nopony would hear them and kept walking towards the princesses making him the most professional in the room including the 2 Alicorns.

Twilight noticed the other unicorn walking towards them his head held high with a strong sense of pride his coat was white as any other guard but that was where the similarities ended. His mane and tail had gone grey through age which was strange considering that the guards had to be young due to how physical the job was even some of the more seasoned soldiers weren't that old. He wore less armour a chest piece that fitted his body perfectly emblazoned with the mark of both the Princesses which was odd as how most guards wore either the armour corresponding to Celestia a brilliant gold with the sun on the front of it or to Luna which was a black piece same in shape to the other guards but instead with a moon on the front. His helmet was also allot smaller compared to the others hugging his head without the brush that was atop the others and it also had a gold plate over his left eye that had been welded their after its initial forgery, The unicorn also had a number of scars on his legs and flank probably from a fight he had had Twilight had forgotten that even though there hadn’t been a war in over 600 years that there were still criminals that the guards had to deal with from time to time if the ordinary police could'nt handle a situation. He approached them with a salute that seemed to annoy Celestia slightly.

“There really is no need to salute captain it is a party after all” Celestia’s words fell on deaf ears as he snapped the salute off then gave his report.

“The gala has been good as always no incidents to report this year which all the guards are thankful for, we are soldiers after all not cleaners” he shot Twilight a look as he spoke the last part making her ears flop back against her head as she remembered the chaos from last time her and her friends came to gala.

“Yes it’s been the same as it always has been captain, boring,” she looked at Twilight thinking her words through “well not exactly boring but you know what I mean”

“I believe peaceful is the word you're looking for ma'am and it has been this evening, which the guards are surely happy for” he thought back to the drunk trio he saw earlier with shame. He also noticed the lavender unicorn looking at him with confusion specifically at the portion of his face where his eye would have been.

“Lost my eye in a standoff with a terrorist group in Fillydelphia” he knew what the other unicorn was going to ask as everypony he came across asked whether he was wearing his helmet or on his days off his eye-patch. She was clearly embarrassed at being caught staring and timidly made an apology for both staring and over his loss which he shrugged off.

“If there is nothing that you would like me to do your highnesses I will return to my quarters there’s a vintage bottle of scotch calling my” He stopped mid-sentence the sound of fireworks could be heard going off.

“There weren’t any more fireworks scheduled tonight they couldn't fire off anymore they had run out I saw the report myself” he spoke the words as he rushed to the window looking out over the city the other 3 following closely. The air was different as to the usual sound of fireworks there wasn’t the anticipation but more a calm in the air….The calm before a storm.

As the Captain, Twilight and the princesses looked out of the window that had taken up the entire wall at the other end of the hall to the door for what seemed like hours but was a few mere minutes they were met with a sight none of them expected. Buildings all over Canterlot began exploding the fireballs rising high into the air and making other nearby buildings catch fire the sight left them in shock as they watched. Within seconds the sky was covered in a thick layer of smoke and there was a flickering orange glow cast from the fires making the scene unfolding more surreal. The explosions were happening all over the city and didn't show a sign of ending. Celestia snapped back to reality first and turned to the captain

“Activate the automatic sequences! Then get every soldier you can find and help evacuate the citizens NOW!” He didn’t bother saluting and instead burst off through a door to the side slamming it shut as a section of wall came down making it seem as though nothing else was there

“Luna let’s get this door shut we need to protect everypony in here!” the Alicorns horns glowed as the heavy doors began to shut, a small group of guards came rushing in taking up a defensive stance near the doors as the enchantments were cast upon them making them glow brilliantly for a second. All the others in the room were stunned at the speed all this happened within mere seconds the room was sealed becoming an impenetrable bubble within the castle.

Bruce walked cautiously forwards standing near the guards with Lance rooted to the spot in shock.

“What’s happening?!” The earth pony addressed the guards with a sense of authority

“We’re not entirely sure sir the only thing we do know is Canterlot is under attack and that it is our job to guard the royal family” the guard had snapped back to him mostly out of nerves the guard was young most likely more scared than Bruce was himself.

“Fine then I guess if the princesses need protecting then I should help you guys should it come to it” the guard nodded to him waiting. They were more worried about those outside. With the enchantments on the door nothing could break through they were in the safest place in the entire city.

The sound of an explosion extremely close by sounded shaking the room and making Fluttershy squeal in fear they could her metal scraping and rock crumbling before they saw one of the towers that littered Canterlot collapsed landing in the city square. The destruction was immense, none of them had even seen anything like it before in their lives including the sisters who were stunned at ferocity of the attack on their home.

There was no time to react as the doors were suddenly blown off their strong hinges crushing the ponies close to it revealing what resembled………..an Alicorn?! It was different to the Sisters it was about the same height as Celestia It had a long perfectly straight mane that was black almost looking like it had been dipped in oil but with red streaks in it, its tail was the same as its mane. The wings on the creature weren't feathered like any of the other winged creatures in the room instead they resembled bat wings more than anything, leathery and long, ending in sharp tips tucked against its body. Its ears were curved slightly but ended in a point like the wings. its coat was a dark grey with black splodges on it that moved around the body swirling and constantly changing shape.

Applejack was holding Rainbow back the latter’s tail in the former's mouth she had tried to charge the creature as it stood there completely still but obviously being the cause for the door to come away and crush the ponies unfortunate enough to be where they landed. But another Pegasus had taken off and was charging it, Lance had a rage in his eyes, he found it hard enough when ponies died but murder brought out the worst of him. Remembering his wife’s death at the hand of his daughter many years ago when she was a filly. As he closed in on the assailant about a foot away its eyes shot open the pupils were diluted making them incredibly small compared to what they should be like the irises were a blood red with a black slit in them, again it was the same as a dragons. The black swirls had shot to different locations around the creature the largest bits ending up covering its forehead and horn and its chest other splodges were on the legs and flank which was blank. The doctor was stopped in his tracks as he felt a force round his throat gripping it, the creature’s eyes fixated on him and smiled showing its fang-like teeth. There was an incredible cracking noise as lance’s neck was suddenly crushed by the force gripping it and was then dropped to the floor in a mangled mess. Apart from Fluttershy’s screams the rest were in complete silence. Applejack who had let Rainbow go as her jaw dropped was the first to speak.

“Just who the hay are you and what do you want!” The creature's gaze snapped from the pony it just killed and pierced Applejack right to her very soul. It spoke, addressing the entire room the voice was focused showed intelligence that made the creature seem all the more frightening.

“I am the bringer of death and destruction! I am the scourge of aeons! The harbinger of your destruction and the killer of gods! I have no title except what they came to know me as and you all fear my title! For I! AM!”

“Nightmare……..”

Celestia interrupted it with something that Twilight had never heard in her voice before that chilled her to the bone. Pure unrivalled, Terror.

“Good to see you remembered me I thought my legacy had faded away. It’s been over a thousand years since we last saw each other hasn’t it? I still remember back then the last time I saw either of you. One filled with pride and kindness. The other filled with fear and insecurity” He spoke focusing on one sister at a time as he spoke first to Celestia and then to Luna who shrunk back in fear, tears in her eyes as she remembered back to her last encounter with him making Nightmare grin with a sick glee.

“Ah the elements” he was addressing the others now.

“What a pitiful sight such power being contained in a pathetic group of mares. It appears that today is my lucky day I get to destroy the royalty and watch as you are broken” he laughed manically as the thought filled his head but quickly snapped his attention back to Celestia who was charging directly at him. He teleported in a small puff of black smoke to Celestia's side bringing his horn to her and managed to look into her eye for a brief mile-second smiling all the while. Celestia's eyes filled with pain as he blasted her across the room into a mirror making it shatter on impact. She landed on the floor lying on her side, blood trickled out of her mouth a bone sticking out of her wing that had been twisted and mangled by the attack. Twilight ran to her side and nestled down next to her mentor tears filling her eyes at the sight.

“Twilight I need you to listen to me there is something you have to do” Luna had engaged Nightmare moving as seamlessly as he did whilst the others approached the pair on the floor.

“Twilight I need you to take this” she made an ancient letter appear it was sealed formally with a metal clasp but twilight had never seen the symbol before, it was a shield with 2 crossed swords over the top of it.

“Take this. Twilight there is another Alicorn out there, find him and give him this letter I'm sorry to force this responsibility upon you but there is no other way. I’ll get you out of here but from then you’re on your own the most I can do now is take you to where I think he might be”

“I understand”

“And Twilight do me one more thing for me………live” with that her horn glowed and the 6 mares were teleported out of the room. Celestia used a spell to make her able to talk to her sister through her mind.

“Luna I need you to go to the tower and get the elements and then I want you to run do you understand me little sister?”

“Yes Tia but he’s going to catch me he’s too powerful”

“Don’t worry about that I’ll distract him”

“But he’ll kill you!”

“AND IF YOU DON’T HE WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING! NOW GO!” Celestia’s words rang in Luna’s head as she realised the plan her sister had formed.

“I love you Tia”

“I love you too”

Celestia launched a powerful beam of pure sunlight at Nightmare knocking his focus away from Luna giving her the chance she needed, she flew out of the door raced towards Canterlot tower and the secret vault within, all around were bodies of ponies that had been killed in battle. As she reached the door with the elements on the other side she opened the vault and grabbed the box containing the elements she turned ready to leave when she saw something else. On a lone pedestal in a dim light was an incredibly old mask designed for a unicorn with a hole on the top. Just below it was a recess where something once fitted and at the bottom of the mask a piece had been broken. Undoubtedly the same as the spike that was on the other side, she picked it up remembering its former owner with a tear in her eye.

As Luna flew as fast as she could away from the castle there was a blinding light that came from the main hall as a scream was heard all around overpowering the sound of the battle below. Luna didn't dare look back as she flew, tears streaming down her face as she knew what the blood churning scream meant.

Celestia was dead.

Twilight and her friends landed painfully with a loud thud on the grass, there was a thick fog around them making it hard to see anything. Twilight was still holding the letter that had been given to her by the pony she had looked up to her entire life.

“What was that thing!” Rainbow shouted voicing her anger and confusion

“it didn't look like anything!”

“Hey Rainbow simmer down okay none of us know!” Applejack shouted at her then turned to Twilight who hadn’t moved since they arrived she just stared at the letter wondering what was written inside and the curiosity was burning her to open it. What was it to do with what was happening now? And how had she never heard of a third Alicorn before there wasn't even one mentioned in any of the history books she had read in either of the libraries she'd lived in over the course of her life. So how could one have been around for over 1’000 years and not have been mentioned.

“Hey sugarcube? Come back to us Twi”

“Oh sorry AJ what were you talking about?” Twilight’s voice was devoid of emotion as she spoke her mind still asking questions.

“I was asking if you had any idea where we are”

“Wherever we are somepony needs to do some serious tidying its positively vile” Rarity chimed in having stood in a muddy puddle.

“This place is just like the Everfree forest look at everything it's all over-grown” As the fog began to drift away they noticed that Rarity was more right than they thought, they were indeed in the Everfree forest more specifically they were standing just outside of the old Canterlot Castle. More strangely at the top of the tallest tower there was a flickering of light.

Chapter 3

Aftermath

Stargazer’s eyes slowly opened the light momentarily blinding him. He felt pain in his chest and groaned as it flared up prompting a familiar voice to shout out.

“Celly! Celly get in here quick!!” there was the sound of hurried hooves on wood as the door was flung open Celestia standing with a look of dread on her face that quickly returned to relief as she saw the stallion lying there his eyes adjusting to his surroundings.

“How do you feel?” Celestia’s voice was as soothing as it always and was filled with the concern of a mother finding her child in the hospital.

“I guess she IS technically my adoptive mother” Stargazer thought to himself.

“well she’s more a friend than a parent” he put a grin on his face to add some reassurance to Celestia who looked at him worry rising into her face slightly at the pause he took to answer her question.

“Like complete shit” he laughed as Celestia grinned relieved that he hadn’t lost his odd sense of humour. Stargazer let out a gasp of pain that erupted from his side. Looking down he saw the cause of it, Luna had thrown herself onto the bed and was hugging him through the duvet that covered him. He realised the toll the battle had taken on her. Her wing had a piece of gauss wrapped around it to keep it in place whilst it healed and her leg was covered in bandages from the gash that had been there. His eyes shot open and sat up a bit in shock as his mind settled the last thing he remembered they were battling Discord for the fate of Equestria.

“What happened!? We were fighting Discord and we were hurt and he was going to win and then.....The elements! What happened!” his eyes darted around the room in fear. Was he dead? Had they lost? Was Equestria’s fate sealed? Celestia walked up to him and gave him a comforting smile.

“Okay so maybe this is real no way could my mind make her smile that comforting” he thought the words as he fell back into the comfortable bed and listened to his friend talk

“Don’t worry its over Star, we beat him, we don’t have to live in fear anymore. The elements are safe too” she pointed over to a desk where on it was a chest piece and a mask which Stargazer realised how it stayed on his head, there was a thin piece of metal that ran round the back of it designed to keep the mask from slipping off.

“Well that’s good we beat Discord lived through it and got some souvenirs too” he chuckled then coughed lightly cause him to wince in pain.

“One last thing……where the hay are we?”

“We’re in a farmhouse on the outskirts of the town of Ponyville. After you fell unconscious we brought you here it’s been 3 days. Luna hasn’t left your side since” they both looked down to see Luna had fallen asleep still with a firm grip on him. He smiled as he saw her remembering back to when he used to sleep in the same way with her when he was a young colt after having a bad dream.

“You should rest you’ve been through allot. I’ll see you tomorrow” with that she left the room leaving Stargazer in silence save for the soft breathing of Luna. He looked over at the items left on the desktop wondering to himself.

“What was that all about? The elements went into us and then we got those things, and then that voice what was it?” he decided not to ponder on questions he couldn’t possibly answer and let himself drift to sleep comforted by the warmth of his friend.

The next day Stargazer was up and wandering around. It was early afternoon and he had only woken up a while ago due to Luna jumping and falling on the floor due to her shock of having spent the night sleeping next to her friend and had in her embarrassment run out of the room knocking a table over in the process.

He also spent many a minute kindly arguing with one of the family that owned the farm an older stallion with a large build by the name of Applebuck. Who had come with a glass of water and seeing Stargazer already up and checking the full extent of the damage done to him. He was in a pretty bad way but could’ve been worse; his body had bandages around covering what he assumed was one or two broken ribs due to the pain in his side whenever he flexed the area. He also had more bandages dotted around him from deeper cuts but most of the smaller ones had been left to heal on their own along with some burns. He also had a splint tied to one of his hind legs which he assumed had been from the large boulder that he saved his friends from.

“Note to self no more kicking boulders that are ten times the size of you” he chuckled to himself as he made the mock mental note walking down the stairs of the Apple family home and wandering outside.

As he emerged into the orchard he realised that he was incredibly lucky to be walking around at all. All around tents were set up with ponies rushing around, the entire place had been turned into a makeshift hospital for all those that were hurt in the battle. They had expected casualties but not this many he wasn’t even sure if there were this many ponies in the small force they had made to combat Discord. He realised that many of the ponies had been on the side of Discord and that they were being treated the same as the militia. Most of those under Discords command didn’t want to fight for him but were forced under threat of death of them and their families. Only a small amount of Discord's army was actually loyal to him and had escaped the battle as soon as they heard their master was defeated.

“They keep findin more of ‘em out there” Applebuck was next to Stargazer their faces in the same combination of horror and disgust as each other.

“This is horrible….” Stargazer looked at the sight it was something that nopony could be prepared for.

“They can’t even bury em all gotta burn em to nothing but ash. It aint right. A load more died in the night they jus’ couldn’t hang on anymore” Applebuck sighed as he moved over to a cart filled with dead bodies and moved towards a plume of smoke in the distance. Stargazer moved as fast as he could away from the wooden building which wasn’t all too quick considering his broken leg, he didn’t want to be here anymore he felt sick.

As Stargazer meandered over a small hill he saw the town of Ponyville for the first time. It was a small settlement there were only a handful of buildings but it was all the town needed. He remembered Celestia talking about it awhile ago in high regard. Apparently it was one of the oldest locations that ponies had settled at and was situated right near his old home of Canterlot within the Evergreen forest but he had never come out here even when he was forced to leave and go into hiding with Celestia and Luna and subsequently made the Militia to fight back against Discord.

The town had tents in and surrounding it with ponies that weren’t injured in the battle many of the soldiers were in their tents most likely resting they had been through allot and were still taking duties to help clean up the battle that had taken place. He wandered through the town taking in the sights around him. There weren’t many buildings and most of them seemed to be houses with the ground floor turned into shops of different kinds all of the buildings seeming to have the same general design with an old look about them, like a grandmothers cottage. It seemed like a place where everypony knew every other pony and everything about them.

He wandered to the centre of town on the cobblestone path and could see a few foals playing with one of the better off guards making him chuckle it always warmed his heart when he saw ponies having fun. As his mind went on as it seemed to do the ball they were playing with landed by him prompting a small filly to bring him out of his head.

“Hey mister! Can you kick our ball back?” Stargazer quickly knocked it back to the group prompting thanks from the little ones.

“You wanna play?”

“Maybe another time when all my legs are working, besides I got something to do” He carried on towards the building in front of him seeing 2 guards keeping watch he deduced that this must be where Celestia was.

“I simply can’t thank you enough mayor for letting our troops stay here” Stargazer slipped in with Celestia and the mayor of Ponyville a seemingly average earth mare with a brown coat and bright orange hair were talking and he didn’t want to interrupt.

“It is the least I could do your majesty even if you weren’t royalty we owe our freedom to you and the entire…..” she trailed off as she saw Stargazer standing in the corner of the room waiting patiently for them to finish prompting Celestia to turn to see him.

“You should be in bed resting Star you need time to recover” she scolded him making his ears flop back in shame but he had learnt to stand his ground against his teacher over the years.

“I don’t think I could stay another minute in there without going crazy” he looked back hiding his smugness at talking back to the princess as she wavered in front of him.

“Very well then we were just about to discuss the next plan”

“You mean like fixing Canterlot back up and going back to our old lives?” he couldn’t contain his excitement at being able to go back to his old home but Celestia was quick to burst his bubble.

“Actually we aren’t going back we were trying to think of a place where we could build a new home and also what would happen to the evergreen forest and our old home” Stargazer’s face dropped at the prospect but quickly pulled himself up as he had an idea.

“Why not there?” he wasn’t pointing at the map laid on the table but instead was pointing straight out the window at the mountain that loomed in the distance

“That would be an ideal spot wouldn’t it? Just on that flat bit jutting out, it would make the place impossible to attack unless cloudsdale decided it wanted to turn against us and we could get a brilliant view of all Equestria from there.” He stopped speaking as Celestia and the mayor looked on in astonishment at what he just suggested.

“That seems perfect but what about the forest and the old castle? There are some things there nopony should have that we can’t move”

“We leave it how it is, no weather patrols no cleaning up of the forest we just let the world take it. That’s what those who died there deserve, to be left in peace” Celestia nodded at the prospect wrote a few notes down then lead Stargazer out into the town and lead him up onto a hill on the outskirts of town.

“Stargazer I can’t believe how fast you’ve grown up I can remember you being scared of the dark as a little colt and now look at you giving me advice on what to do I keep thinking of you as the little foal from years ago but you’re not now. You’re dare I say quite a dashing young stallion now in both body and soul. I’ve never seen a pony quite like you you’re always throwing yourself out to protect others without wanting anything in return. Ther’s nothing I have to teach you and well. I guess what I’m trying to say is if you want you don’t have to stay with me and Luna anymore you can go and make your own life out in the world that is…..if you want to” Stargazer merely looked straight ahead for a time as the sun began to set. Luna would be raising the moon soon. He looked over at Celestia and saw all the age that she had all the wisdom that coursed through her mind and thought.

“Is that really how my life will be? Immortal? Living through the ages watching others live their lives, grow old and then die? No constant in my life apart from the ground beneath my hooves? I guess nopony thinks about how much a curse it is being able to live forever is until they are able to. All of time spanning out before them sounds kinda daunting when you look at it like that.” The moon had fully risen during the time he sat thinking to himself when he came to an answer and playfully nudged Celestia the same smirk on his face he always had when he was re-assuring somepony.

“Celestia. Why do you think I wanna leave? My life would be so boring without you and your sister to keep things amusing and somepony has to watch out for you two” he indicated to his broken leg with that same grin on his face.

“So Celestia if you really don’t have nothing else to teach me then I won’t stay as your student” she sunk her head as he spoke expecting him to leave but not wanting him to. But that was just something she would have to get used to, ponies leaving her. He put a hoof up to her face and turned her to him as he spoke looking in her eyes with a warm smile completely different to his usual smirk.

“But I will stay as a friend” she leaped at him pulling him into a deep embrace making him grunt in pain. As the tears she was shedding before turned to tears of joy she whispered into his ear.

“Thank you Star. Thank you so much.” She let go of him regaining her composure and stood up to walk back into Ponyville whilst Stargazer merely stayed sat on the grass.

“Are you not coming? It is getting late after all”

“Not just yet I’m gonna stay here awhile I guess I’ll see you tomorrow” Celestia turned nodding at him and continued her stroll towards bed.

As Stargazer sat in the silence of the night he looked at the sky with a content smile on his face.

Unknowing what awaits in his future………

Chapter 4

“My name is Stargazer”

Twilight was snapped away from the thoughts of the letter she had been given by princess Celestia. The flickering light within the castle’s tower gave her something she could do. Unlike before all she had was to wander Equestria in hopes that she could find this mysterious Alicorn but now she was able to do something with purpose. Finding out who had ventured into the Everfree forest found the ruins of old Canterlot and gone inside.

“Come on girls lets go see who is in there, and lets stay quiet I’d rather not take the risk of whoever it is being hostile.” She spoke with a slight amount of optimism her mind being kept away from what had happened merely minutes ago. She looked around at her friends, Rarity was trying to get the mud off of her shoes. Rainbow Dash was pacing around in a huff obviously trying to figure out a plan to go and rescue the Princesses from that creature, Nightmare. The name seemed to fit his image Twilight thought to herself shuddering at the image of him. Pinkie’s mane had drooped down straight as it was accustom to whenever she was depressed and Fluttershy was standing looking straight ahead of her. Her eyes were glazed over her mind had seemed to stop processing information. She had seen her father killed right in front of her, her family was gone. Applejack was standing nearest to Twilight with a reassuring smile on her face obviously trying to be strong for her friends at this time.

“Well then Twi you lead the way, ah was never good at leading ponies” She tipped her hat as Twilight turned towards the door that lead to where the Elements of Harmony used to be held. It had already been 2 years since they had defeated Nightmare Moon but nature had been working its way through the room. The Altar which the stones had been held upon had vines all over it, tree branches were growing through some of holes and window frames throughout the room. The group made their way through the room remembering back to their battle with Nightmare Moon heading towards a hole in the wall on the other side.

They squeezed through the hole and found themselves in a much larger chamber than the previous one. The room was clear at one point a throne room due to the thrones that sat at the other end. They had been chipped and cracked through time and neglect but at the top there was an unknown piece missing from both, most likely insignia’s belonging to their previous owners. The room was much worse than the previous one vines and grass covered the floor and the walls that must’ve been beautiful at one point had moss and leaves growing on the dark cracked columns, the ceiling had a gaping hole allowing the place to be illuminated by the moon and also showed their destination which through a bit of guesswork could be entered by a small set of stairs hidden in the corner of the chamber.

They climbed the spiral staircase cautiously there wasn’t much room for them to manoeuvre and it was dark with incredibly small windows that only shot small amounts of light in where they had been position making it slightly harder to see as their eyes were forced to constantly adjust. From what Twilight could see the tower seemed to be in better shape than the rest of the ruin almost like it had been cared for.

As they rounded the top of the stairs they came face to face with a wooden door that from the way it hung had been kicked open by the occupant that was now inside. The light cast a shadow at the wall letting Twilight decipher what the creature was before entering. It seemed to be a pony in shape but that was all that could be assumed from the shadow. Twilight nudged the door open cautiously not wanting to give herself away before she had at least seen whoever was in the room and gauged the risk of letting herself be known before doing so.

As she cautiously opened the door her friends behind her each holding their breath not wanting to make a sound the one hinge holding it in place creaked. Twilight yelped as a bolt of pure magical energy shot inches in front of her face ripping through the door and then into a brick making it crumble as the pony in the room addressed them.

“GET OUT HERE NOW OR THE NEXT ONE WON’T MISS!” the voice was odd it sounded as if it would belong to a pony around the same age as them but conveyed knowledge far beyond their years with it. They shuffled into the room shaking and lined up against the wall furthest from the bearer of the voice looking at the ground. They didn’t know what was going to happen to them but they were sure it wouldn’t be good.

Twilight was the first to look up and her eyes were met with a sight she hadn’t expected. Before them stood an Alicorn, around the same height as Luna. He was quite lean but Twilight was sure he was stronger than any of the ponies in the room. His coat was a dark red with multiple scars covering him. His horn was mostly missing just a jagged stump left on his forehead and a portion of his right ear was missing giving the Alicorn an intimidating presence. He had a long unkempt mane and tail both of which were black and clearly hadn’t been cleaned for a while. His impressive wings were spread out ready for anything that was going to happen. His brilliant sky blue eyes were focused on the group before him clearly not expecting Twilight and her friends to have come to the ruin.

Stargazer was taken back slightly by the sight before him. Six mares wearing party frocks standing right in front of him inside his old home his mind racing having expected one of the many wild creatures from the forest or worse. But he didn’t want to take any chances he had learnt not to take risks throughout his life.

“And what are you lot doing here? In case you hadn’t noticed this is the Everfree Forest, Ponies aren’t meant to come in here.” His voice came across accusing but he didn’t falter, he didn’t want to show any weakness just in case.

“We….we were….at” The lavender unicorn was obviously scared by him and on the cusp of tears but he used this to advantage. Maybe he could get some information out of them if they were against him.

“What’s that? Speak up unicorn!” She looked him straight in the eye tears pouring out of her eyes and sniffling in-between words.

“We were at the gala with Celestia. And then, and then……….THEN WE FOUND OURSELVES HERE AND WE DON’T KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING!” She was full blown crying now. She obviously didn’t know anything. He could tell that from her outburst, they were clearly just a group that somehow ended up in his old home.

“The town of Ponyville is to the west it shouldn’t be that far. Now get out of here and forget about me and this place you got that” He turned around to get back to whatever he was doing before they had entered which was when Twilight saw his cutie mark. It was a gold shield with two silver crossed swords over the top of it. The same as on the clasp of the letter! She couldn’t believe it was this really the pony she was meant to find?

He looked over his shoulder at the transfixed unicorn confused by her sudden apprehension on leaving, all the time she was talking she kept looking over at the door looking like she wanted nothing more than to bolt.

“Is she staring at my cutie mark? I guess they wouldn’t have seen one like it there hasn’t been any form of war in many centuries.” He pondered to himself as he was accustom to do but quickly brought himself out of his head.

“What? There’s the door now like I said get out of here before I change my mind about letting you leave” he snapped at her annoyed that she had interrupted his studying he had been in the tower for a few months now reading through every scroll and document left behind.

Twilight jumped as he snapped at her making her fumble with her thoughts as she tried to pull out the letter.

“I think Princess Celestia wanted me to give this to you.” she had stopped crying now focused on finding out what was contained in the letter intrigued as to how it could be useful with what was happening now. As she held it up to him he snatched it out of her grasp and began reading it his face turning to a look of dread as he read the words on the paper in front of him.

Stargazer.

If you are reading this then I am either dead or dying and must pass along the responsibility of protecting Equestria to you. I know that it is a great deal to thrust upon you in this way and I hope that this letter never has to be sent. I have just seen you leave Canterlot. What has transpired can never be undone and I deeply regret having to make the decision I made. There is so much that I wish I could have said to you. I wish I could have made things better I know how much it hurt you but I am just one pony and there are things that even I cannot change. So please forgive me and answer this call as I am leaving this as a last resort for the world.

Signed your mentor and friend

Celestia

Stargazer looked up at the ponies in front of him a sense of urgency blazed into his eyes.

“We’re leaving this place in 60 seconds. You need to get out of those frocks and throw them in a pile over there.” He pointed to an empty spot on the floor and headed over to a box which he pulled a chest plate out and put it on. It was old and covered in scratches and in a few places had been chipped away, it had clearly once been a marvellous gold but had faded with time to a dull orangey yellow. He also pulled out two ornate pieces of armour that he attached to his wings, they too were old but not the same age as the chest plate having faded too from their once gold colour. Finally he threw a cloak over himself covering his wings and pulled a glass bottle out filled with a yellowish liquid.

He turned over to the mares satisfied he had the stuff he needed to see they had done as he said and had piled the clothes in the free space on the floor. He uncorked the bottle he held took a swig of the liquid and then poured the rest of the contents over the garments. He then rushed over to where a small lantern was providing the room with its glow picked it up and smashed it against the wall. He took it over the clothes and threw it on them, as the flame hit the liquid it went to a blaze in seconds making Twilight realised the liquid was obviously a very strong alcohol. He then moved over to the exit and beckoned for them to follow.

“So where are going mister?” He turned around to look at the lavender unicorn and spoke to her aggravated from having to answer yet another question.

“I don’t know to be honest but away from here. If you want to stay safe then keep up with me cause I’m not gonna slow down. Oh and don’t call me mister. My name is Stargazer”

Chapter 5

The fall

Twilight, Stargazer and the others were deep within the Everfree Forest the trees were so thick that it was almost impossible to see a hoof in front of her face. The mares were exhausted so much had happened and they weren’t used to a lack of rest yet Stargazer pressed on uncaring of the struggling ponies behind him.

“That’s it! I am not moving anymore!” Rainbow was angry she had tried to persuade Stargazer to fly straight to the castle and save the princesses but he had merely told her no, stating that if she wanted to get herself killed then he wasn’t going to stop her. But now her exhaustion had caught up with her and she wanted nothing more than to sleep. She plopped herself on the ground with Rarity equally annoyed at being forced to wander seemingly aimlessly for what felt like hours through the dark.

Stargazer glanced over his shoulder not breaking stride looking over to the rainbow pegasus sat on the ground glaring at him.

“Fine. Stay here if you want. While you do that I’m gonna be getting myself as far away from Canterlot as I can” he spoke utterly devoid of any sympathy for the tired ponies. He always worked better alone anyway. He felt a tap on his shoulder making him look down to see the lavender unicorn looking at him clearly exhausted.

“Please Stargazer we can’t go any further can you not wait a bit while we rest? We won’t survive in here without you I know you want to leave but can you not wait until at least morning?” She looked up at him with the face of a foal who lost their parents. He looked into her eyes his face a complete blank making her sigh and turn back to the others sitting down defeated. He had sat down himself looking at the group in front of him, The Earth pony with the hat was sat next to the lavender unicorn obviously trying to give some words of encouragement. The white unicorn was trying to comfort the pink pony who kept screaming through sobs

“We’re doomed!” the stress of everything that had happened had caught up with her. The yellow pegasus had broken out of her trance into floods of tears, the rainbow one holding her giving her a loving look he knew all too well. He sighed, his mind made up

“You’re getting soft old colt” he muttered to himself annoyed at his sympathy for them. He used his telekinesis to rip some branches off the tree’s that surrounded them and put them in a pile in the middle of the group prompting the lavender unicorn to look over to him in confusion. She was sure he was going to leave them to their fate but now he was walking towards them lighting the pile of sticks with a small flame he summoned from his horn.

“Okay then I’ll stay. So what do I call you lot anyway? Seeing as we’re gonna be stuck together for a while. At least till I can get you somewhere remotely safe.” Twilight tried to speak but merely flapped her jaw in shock. He was going to leave them to rot a few seconds ago and was now saying he was going to get them to safety. Applejack was the one to answer his question with her usual friendly demeanour.

“Well my name is Applejack this here is Twilight over there is Pinkie Pie and Rarity and then that leaves us with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy and ah just wanna thank you for staying with us on behalf of everypony.” She pointed to each of her friends making sure that Stargazer understood who was who before taking on a more serious tone with him.

“Now then ah got a question of my own for ya and ah think that you should jus’ answer it got that?” Stargazer nodded not a hundred per cent sure of what she was going to ask but depending on what it was it may just be easier to answer instead of needlessly lying.

“Who or what is that Nightmare thingy? Ah never seen a pony like that before but you seem to be acquainted with ‘im” She was looking expecting an answer he knew he couldn’t give as he sighed. He spoke mainly to Applejack and Twilight, the others being pre-occupied either in their despair or trying to bring them out of it.

“I’m not sure what to make of Nightmare. I have only seen him once in my life and what he said didn’t make much sense. He said he has left a butchered and bloody mark through all of history amongst every world. I’m not sure what to make of that. He could be telling the truth or could just be insane.”

Twilight looked at him as he spoke his words, she couldn’t believe what he was saying. He knew of Nightmare but didn’t know anything about him at the same time! He was merely rambling on with theories and his thoughts but didn’t have any solid facts about the creature. She ran off into the woods not wanting to hear another word out of the Alicorn's mouth. She just wanted all of it to go away none of this could be real it had to be some bad dream and she wanted nothing more than to wake up. She kept running through the darkness of the woods not daring to look back.

Applejack and Stargazer both stood up as Twilight bolted off into the darkness. Applejack was about to chase after when she found a hoof blocking her path.

“You stay here and look after the others I’ll go find her” She merely nodded understanding that she would do more good here comforting her friends instead of getting lost in the forest that terrified her once. Stargazer charged forwards after the unicorn, a small part of his heart genuinely worried for her safety.

Twilight kept running her aching body screaming at her to stop. She kept running even with her heart telling her to go back to her friends. She kept running not wanting to believe anything happening was real and that she would wake up in her bed soon in her library with Spike and Owlowiscious all of it being a horrid nightmare. She noticed a faint light ahead of her through the trees, she headed towards it either hoping she would find a sane pony or that it would be a way for her to awaken from her subconscious.

As the trees began to thin she saw what was casting the light pure horror seeping over her face. It was Applejack’s home, the building was an inferno. She stood frozen to the spot looking at the sight in front of her. The front door exploded off its hinges with the familiar shape of Big Mac charging out of it and towards Ponyville with a crying Applebloom on his back.

“Where’s Granny Smith?” She was just about to move to try and find Applejack’s grandmother when she was tackled to the ground a hoof placed over her mouth to keep her quiet. It was Stargazer. He hissed a command at her with such urgency that she would do it.

“Stay quiet” He pulled his hoof away from her and motioned for her to follow him staying low all the time. They peered through bushes at the blaze to see five silhouettes emerge from the building then charge off after Big Mac and Applebloom. Twilight turned to Stargazer with a pleading look in her eyes. He sighed knowing what she wanted to do.

“Fine but we are not going into the town we are just gonna observe.” She nodded at him, she just wanted to check if the other ponies around the town were still alive. He stood up being sure that they wouldn’t be seen by anypony and lead the way to Ponyville staying on the edge of the forest.

They crawled up onto a hill that overlooked the small town Stargazers mind recalling a conversation he had with Celestia long ago. Twilight looked out over her home. The peaceful town was being destroyed with bodies littering the streets. she noticed that what she had thought were silhouettes of ponies before weren’t that. They seemed to be pony in shape but had no features on them almost looking like one of Rarity’s mannequins but were black. The same black that is seen on the cusp of death. Looking for signs of life she noticed the majority of the town being led away by Mayor Mare and Cheerilee, Applebloom and Scootaloo near the back along with the town’s other Foals. She was thankful that Sweetie Belle was with her parents. Then a pang of worry struck her.

“Is this happening everywhere?” Her mind spoke to her like it wasn’t part of her. She focused her attention on the town trying to see what had happened to Big Mac. She noticed him along with a few others she recognised fighting off the assailants trying to keep their attention away from the fleeing citizens.

Big Mac was at the front of the group taking on the majority of the pony-like creatures using his front hooves along with his back to deliver devastating blows to them. Along with him Twilight noticed the town's watchmaker, who she only knew by the name of Doctor Whooves, who was alongside the massive Earth pony kicking any that he could find, clearly exhausted and injured but not giving up. She also saw the town's mailmare Derpy Hooves throwing rocks and any other heavy object she could find on top of the attackers being weighed down by the many items in her bags. Surrounded by a pile of the strange attackers was a familiar purple and green shape that Twilight recognised as spike. He had a wooden pole that he was using to beat the creatures furiously. Twilight was shocked, she had no idea that the little dragon was capable of doing such things. She yelped as one of the assailants snuck up behind him ready to pounce and kill him but he turned and spit out a ball of green fire at it making the creature collapse and slowly burn away, he flipped over the attack of another jamming the pole into the back of its neck causing it to collapse and convulse.

Doctor Whooves slammed into a pony heading for Big Mac’s rear, him being focused on the group of six in front of him. The pony flew through a nearby window making it shatter on impact Whooves landing on the floor just outside of the building hurt by the attack he couldn’t get up before four more came towards him and began tearing him apart the brown pony’s death screams echoing over the hill. Big Mac looked over to see his heart torn out of his chest and whistled as loud as his lungs could manage. Derpy threw one last rock at a pony before following in Big Mac’s wake. Spike leapt up onto the massive pony holding onto the large wooden collar he always wore as the small group charged off in the same direction the town’s other citizens had gone earlier. The assailants turned back to the destruction of the town having lost their prey, they began setting buildings on fire and knocked weaker structures down.

Stargazer put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder as the look of dread on her face became more apparent and signalled her to leave and get back to the others. They crawled away from her hometown and headed back into the forest which seemed strangely safe at this current time and headed towards the small campfire.

As they found their way back towards the others led by Stargazer’s exceptional sense of direction Twilight threw her arms around Applejack crying on her shoulder the site she had seen mere moments ago causing her to breakdown.

“AJ! Oh I'm so sorry I. Your home Granny Smith It….Its…Its horrible!”

“Hey what’s the matter sugarcube?” Twilight sniffled as Applejack lifted her head up looking into the purple eyes of her friend trying calm her. Making Twilight pull herself together and tell her friend what happened this time making sense.

“Ponyville got attacked by these…..Things, they were like ponies but they were something else they burnt down you’re farmhouse Big Mac and Applebloom got out but. Granny Smith. I think she’s dead.” She fell back onto Applejacks shoulder as another wave of tears broke through. Applejack looked to Stargazer hoping he could explain better than the unicorn who was distraught with everything had happened over the course of the night.

“The town was attacked. A lot of ponies are dead, the creatures began destroying the entire place but it looked like quite a few got out in time. That big guy helped hold back the creatures long enough for the others to escape and I believe your Grandmother is dead.” He paused for a moment seeing the look of dread appear on the pony’s face then looked to the others. The yellow pegasus had fallen asleep still whimpering to herself whilst Rainbow Dash cuddled her whispering loving words in hopes to comfort her. The pink and white ones were huddled together sleeping the pink one silently crying. The orange pony seemed to be the only one holding the group together, he had to say something to keep her together or the entire group would break down and then they would die.

“she didn’t suffer” He thanked that he had learnt to lie over the years as Applejack took solace in his words and let a smile crawl over her face remembering her grandmother fondly.

“Well then. I think we best get some rest. Its gonna be a long day tomorrow Applejack and we are all gonna need our energy” He indicated towards Twilight who had fallen asleep in her arms being both physically and mentally exhausted by the events that had passed. She nodded as she laid Twilight down took her Stetson off and took a spot not too far from the fire falling into a deep sleep almost as soon as she hit the ground.

Stargazer looked at the group before him. Apart from the cracks of the fire there was nothing but silence.

“Oh Star what have you got yourself into?” He questioned to himself wondering why he took pity on these mares. He could leave now, just stand up and walk off. His mind was screaming at him to leave them but a twinge in his heart made him stay. He decided not to question his heart anymore, it just made his head hurt. He slowly lowered himself to the ground and looked up at Canterlot letting himself slowly fall asleep.

Chapter 6

A long journey

Luna flew through the night sky the box containing the elements strapped to her body. She was exhausted from the amount of flying she had already done and needed to land soon. She scanned her surroundings trying to find somewhere safe when she noticed a faint light on the ground. She decided it best to check who if anypony was causing the faint glow.

She glided into a small grouping of trees nearby the cause of the glow. It was a grouping of campfires set up in a field. She looked around at the campsite trying to gauge who had set it up. She scanned the site seeing many ponies sleeping some of them being fillies and colts and decided that the risk wouldn’t be too great for her to make herself known. She emerged from the tree line and into the makeshift camp. Keeping quiet amongst the sleeping groups not wanting to disturb them heading towards a pair that was still awake in the centre. Big Mac rose up as he saw the pony headed towards them ready for anything but as the light shone upon the pony a voice called out to him.

“Macintosh sit down this obviously isn’t one of those things!” Mayor Mare spoke with an authority she wasn’t used to using but she needed to in this time of crisis to keep order.

“Princess Luna, What’s happening? Ponyville was attacked by these things and then when we fled to get to Canterlot we saw smoke.” Luna held a hoof up to silence the mayor then took a seat dropping the box gently onto the ground beside her then finally took a breath to calm herself. She needed to remain in control for her sister. She could mourn later.

“Canterlot has been attacked, there is wide spread destruction. From what I can guess this must have been a co-ordinated attack with Ponyville and I assume other locations as well. Celestia was killed in the attack” A small sob exited her as she said the words, Celestia couldn’t be dead she was her big sister she couldn’t leave her.

“Wait where’s ma sister?” Big Mac spoke up making Luna snap out of her depression. He was glaring at her not caring that she was the princess.

“You’re Applejack’s brother right? I don’t know where she or the other elements are, they disappeared whilst I was helping protect the castle. I am sure my sister got them out in time but we have to focus on getting to safety. My sister had a plan if ever anything like this happened, we have to head north there is a safe haven there for us.” Big Mac sat down again hoping his sister was okay.

“Right then! It’s decided, we must head north to this haven at sunrise, but for now we need to rest.” Mayor Mare spoke up trying to remain in control of the situation which Luna was thankful for. She was far too distraught to be leading ponies but she could at least advise the mayor on what to do and where to go. The three ponies laid their heads down on the ground and soon were asleep comforted by the plan they had.

Twilight’s eyes slowly slid open, the light making her squint as her vision adjusted. It was morning. She looked around the camp, her friends were still sleeping and the fire had burned out overnight. The area was incredibly peaceful considering the mayhem that had happened the night before. At some point in her rest she must’ve come to terms with what had happened. She suddenly took a double take around the camp panic rising in her. Stargazer was nowhere to be seen.

“The bastard! He left us here after all.” She gritted her teeth her mind forming an idea of what happened. He must’ve waited for them to go to sleep then snuck off. She sat on the damp ground trying to formulate a plan but her mind kept going back to the Alicorn she had met the night before.

“You’re up, good.” She jumped as Stargazer’s voice appeared right behind her, her ears flopping back hoping that he hadn’t heard her talking.

“Woke up a bit ago thought it best to get some food. It is gonna be a long day after all.” He indicated to his back where he had a smattering of different fruits and vegetables that he had picked. The others began to stir at the noise interrupting the quiet of the forest and slowly awoke.

After their small meal they had set off with Stargazer leading the way for them through the forest repeating what he had said to Twilight and Applejack the night before. Telling of his theories on Nightmare and of Ponyville’s destruction. Unlike the previous night he had slowed his pace so the mares could keep up with him without straining themselves but after a while Rainbow had gotten annoyed with him again as she still didn’t trust him.

“Just where exactly are we going and why the sudden change of heart huh?” They didn’t break stride as he began to explain to them his plan.

“Well we are gonna head north, I know a place that way that will be somewhat safe from all this mess going on and there should hopefully be some other ponies there.”

“Really? What is this place? What do you mean there MAY be ponies there?” Twilight chimed in, her curiosity peaked.

“Me and Celestia came up with the idea centuries ago. A refuge if Equestria ever came under threat, she would have got as many ponies there as she can. So I’m gonna get you there and then I’m gonna go do…..well….whatever I feel like doing.” Twilight’s heart jumped a little in joy at the prospect they were going to be taken somewhere not only safe but Celestia would be there too.

“Well how long is it gonna take to get there?” She could barely contain her excitement as she spoke which made Stargazer’s next words all the more horrible.

“At this pace……About 4 days. But to be honest I think it’s gonna take allot longer the route can be dangerous at the best of times.” He still retained his coldness that she was oddly coming used to. They broke out of the forest with the mares unsure of where they were until looked up to a mountain which they recognised.

“We’ll camp out up at the top tonight, there’s a cave we can use for shelter.” Stargazer had a plan for the evening which he seemed impressed with until he overheard Rarity talking to Rainbow.

“Hey isn’t that the mountain where that brute of a dragon was?”

“Yeah I think it is. I never realised the Everfree Forest went out this far before.”

“So you lot have been here before? Good, means we should be at the top before sundown which would be nice.” They jumped at being overheard by the tall pony and were also confused by his praise.

They made their way to the foot of the mountain and immediately began climbing with Rainbow flying above the group keeping at the same pace as her friends, more out of wanting to stay near Fluttershy than the request of Stargazer who she still didn’t trust. As they made their way up the mountain they found themselves at the site of the rock slide the mares caused last time they were there.

“We can’t go any further this is just bucking perfect! There’s no way I can lift any of us over that.” Rainbow spoke more to the rubble in front of them than anything.

“What are we gonna do there’s far too much to move and it’ll take forever to clear all of it or for you to take us over Star.” Twilight was trying to formulate an idea to get around the blocked path when Stargazer interrupted with an order.

“Get behind that rock there I’ll get this cleared out of the way. They dived behind the rock he had indicated and peered round the edge to see what he was doing. He took a stance in-front of the rubble and took a deep breathe. His broken horn then began to glow, faintly at first but it steadily got brighter as his concentration deepened focusing all his magical energy. Suddenly a massive blast of lightning shot out of his horn and straight into the boulders causing it to explode in a brilliant flash of light. Satisfied with his work he indicated for the others to come out, heading onward to their destination.

As night fell the group was in the cave surrounding a fire they had made apart from one. Twilight was outside in the moonlight firing magical bolts at a sizeable rock trying to mimic Stargazer’s spell from earlier but with no such luck yet.

“Hey what are you doing?” Stargazer had slipped out of the cave as the others reminisced over their friends from Ponyville trying to raise one another’s spirits with memories.

“That spell you did earlier, it was amazing. I’ve never seen or heard of anything like that before and never heard of a unicorn with a broken horn able to use magic again. And I have read every book in the Canterlot library and have been Celestia’s personal student for years. She fired another bolt at the boulder and sighed as it simply bounced off not even leaving a scratch.

“So you’re Tia’s student? I remember back when I was taught by her.” He drifted into his mind for a moment then snapped his attention back to the present.

“Well I can tell one thing you’re doing wrong already, you’re trying to cast a spell that doesn’t exist.” Twilight looked at him more confused than ever.

“It isn’t some complex spell that you have to learn or anything in fact what I did was just a basic lightning spell. I just focused it, a little trick I picked up in my life.” Twilight was shocked hearing this.

“All you have to do is focus yourself on charging your magic, blot out everything around you. Just put yourself into a stance ready for it, the recoil you get from it is pretty intense. Also make sure you breathe in it’ll help you focus and also support your body from the impact of it now try it.” Twilight did as he said, she stretched her legs out almost as if ready to be hit by a train. She then lowered her head trying to think of the lightning spell and took a deep breathe raising her head as she did then fired the bolt at the rock. It flew from her horn knocking her to the ground and then slammed into the rock shooting a hole right through it.

“Better than what you were doing but you weren’t focused enough or ready for it. We’ll go over this again tomorrow.” He helped her to her feet then headed towards the cave.

“What do you mean tomorrow? And what do you mean, you were Celestia’s student once?” He kept walking and shot her a grin which shocked her.

“Gonna get training you lot for whatever’s out there. Like I said it can be dangerous at the best of times.” They walked into the cave to be greeted by the others

“I guess I should explain who I am shouldn’t I? Especially as it may make some of you trust me more” He looked over to Rainbow dash who was still glaring at him but he ignored it as he sat down and began his story.

Chapter 7

Youth

Celestia walked through the halls of the castle on her way to bed. The walls were a mixture of grey and blue which she was accustom to having and lined with many windows, some were stained glass and much larger than the others shining their brilliant colours on the floors and adjacent walls. She was tired from a long day’s work and wanted nothing more than to sleep. As she made her way through the entrance hall something felt off, something in the air was different to the rest of the castle. She moved cautiously towards the heavy wooden front doors waiting for something to jump out at her from the other side as she opened it. She looked down dumbstruck by what she saw. Lying at her feet at the top of the steps leading to door was a red Alicorn baby staring up at the sky. She looked around to try and see who had left it outside her home but nopony was there to be seen. She picked the baby up and brought it inside shouting in a panicked voice for Luna causing the baby to let out a small cry.

The night pony charged through the castle hearing her sister’s panicked shout for her and when she found her was greeted with a sight that made her panic as well. Celestia was in the nursery that they had both lived in when they were babies sat on a purple sofa against the far wall cradling a little Alicorn. The room had many colourful paintings on the walls of ponies and dragons and many other creatures that inhabited Equestria. In the middle of the room was a wooden cot that would ordinarily make her smile but she was fixated on the baby in her sister’s grasp.

“What? Uh….what? How?” Luna could barely speak. She didn’t know of any other Alicorns being in Equestria but here was a baby right in front of her that she knew couldn’t be her sister’s.

“He was just left by the front door I don’t know what to do little sis.” Celestia was looking completely terrified and made a good point. What were they going to do? They couldn’t leave the baby but at the same time they didn’t know what to do with one. Celestia had looked after Luna most of her life since their parents’ death but Luna was past being a baby then.

“I’ll tell you what we do Tia. We keep this baby, his parents obviously didn’t want him so we should do our best to give him a good life.” Celestia looked up at her little sister and nodded. She was amazed by her sister’s maturity, being able to make a decision when she couldn’t. She lifted the little baby over to the cot that lay in the middle of the room and tucked him into bed a smile appeared on her face looking at the small pony yawn and almost instantly fall asleep. The sisters watched the little one sleep for a while before Luna spoke up.

“So what should we call him? We gotta give him a name if he is gonna stay with us”

“Well he hasn’t stopped looking at the sky since he got here so I kinda have got one idea. How about Stargazer?”

“Stargazer. I like that” They watched the baby sleep a bit more before Luna let out a yawn.

“Come on little sister I think it’s time you went to bed. We’re both going to have a busy day tomorrow with this little one.” Luna left the room heading towards her bed without a fuss knowing that they were going to have a tough time with the baby. Celestia walked over to the sofa not wanting to leave little Stargazer and fell into a deep sleep.

A nine year old Stargazer peered round the corner watching the slightly ajar door intently. Placed on top of it was a bucket filled with ice cold water that when the door opened would fall upon his victim. He struggled to stifle his giggles waiting for his prank to be completed. Luna opened the door her freshly combed mane appearing before her, as the door opened far enough the bucket fell on her head just as planned. Stargazer burst into laughter at the sight of the night pony, the bucket still on her head. As she pulled it off she looked over to the red Alicorn rolling on the floor in laughter.

“You’re dead Star!” He sprung up and ran off still laughing with Luna in hot pursuit. He ran as fast as his legs could take him flapping his wings furiously trying to make him run faster from the angry mare. They both ran into the kitchen where Celestia was washing up who at the sight of them used her magic to stop both of them in their tracks and bring them in front of her.

“So what’s going on here?” She looked at both of them Stargazer trying to stifle his giggles looking at Luna’s wet mane.

“He threw a bucket of water on my head! And I had just sorted my hair out” She was shouting annoyed and upset at the prank pulled upon her.

“Star. Is this true?” The red pony went silent and stared at the floor his mane falling in front of him hiding his face. He knew he was in trouble but gave an honest answer to the white Alicorn knowing lying would only get him in more trouble.

“Yes Tia.” Celestia sighed then spoke to both of them.

“Luna you go clear up the mess outside your room. And Star you come with me. I think it’s time we had a chat.” Luna went off in a huff already formulating a plan to get Stargazer back for dropping the bucket on her. Meanwhile Celestia led the worried Alicorn through into the throne room of the castle.

The room was a spectacle to see, the walls were a much stronger shade of blue than the rest of the castle gilded with gold boarders and many paintings. The massive stained glass windows shone colour all around the room. The large pillars lining the room were made out of pure marble along with the floor and helped reflect light around the hall. Just before the steps leading up to the two thrones was an ornate mural of the sun with the moon inside of it. Celestia led the colt through the room to a door that stood off to the side of the thrones almost hidden in the corner. They walked through the door leading to a concrete staircase. The staircase was kept the colour of the bricks that built it obviously not being an area that was visited often by ponies. They climbed to the top where they were greeted with a heavy wooden door. Celestia summoned a simple metal key and slid it into the lock causing the sound of a heavy bolt moving signalling the door was unlocked.

The room they entered was simple yet had an element of warmth to it. There were many bookshelves that stretched to the ceiling filled with books and scrolls. The one small window looked out over Canterlot castle, Stargazer deduced that this must be the tower he could see rising from the castle whenever he went outside and had many times tried to find the entrance to it with no such luck. Celestia sat on a cushion in the centre of the room and indicated for him to sit on the one in front of her which he did so.

“Stargazer I have been thinking this over for some time now and I have made my mind up” Stargazer began to panic. Was she going to kick me out? Leave me out in the Evergreen Forest or even worse, in the mountains? Had she gotten angry with all his little pranks and jokes that he pulled on both of the sisters? He couldn’t stop worrying he didn’t know of any other home and he couldn’t live out in the wild he was only a colt after all. His fear finally took over him as he burst into tears clutching onto Celestia.

“I’m sorry Celly I won’t play anymore jokes I promise! I’ll be good I swear it just don’t leave me in the forest!” He buried his head in Celestia’s multi-coloured mane and sobbed profusely. She looked down at him shocked by the sudden outburst she wasn’t used to him crying. Even when he was a baby he was quiet. She pulled his head up and looked into his eyes already bloodshot from tears and showed him her trademark reassuring smile.

“Why do you think I was going to leave you in the forest? I actually find some of your antics rather amusing and so does Luna she loves having another pony round that she can have fun with apart from me.” Stargazer sniffled as the tears stopped falling down his muzzle giving Celestia a confused look.

“But Luna always gets mad whenever I do stuff to her. And you always look mad too whenever I do things.”

“Yes but when you are in bed we normally talk about how good some of them are and whenever you two come running in and I have to stop you from fighting I always want to laugh it is highly amusing but you still have to be told that it isn’t the nicest thing to do to others. And if Luna didn’t like you then why would she let you get in bed with her whenever you have a bad dream?” Stargazer looked at her and once again threw himself into her mane barraging her with a cuddle which she returned.

“I love you Tia”

“I love you too Star” She pulled him away and he sat on the cushion again wondering what she had taken him up here for.

“What I wanted to say was that I have decided to make you my personal protégée. I believe it would be best if I taught you everything you need to know about magic and friendship. So shall we get started?” The red Alicorn nodded excitedly and she began her lesson.

Stargazer slept in the forest floor it had ben six years since he started his lessons with Celestia and his appearance had changed allot since he was a colt. His mane had been cut shorter so as not to flop over his eyes. He had grown allot too he was slightly taller than an average pony. His legs had gained a slight amount of muscle making him look lean but still being considered quite strong. His wings were impressive even tucked against his body and it could be seen when fully stretched out that he had an impressive wingspan. His coat and mane’s colours had also grown allot stronger over the years and he had an air of confidence about him which he loved to flaunt.

A black cloud slowly moved behind the sleeping Alicorn and stopped overhead. Luna peered out from behind the cloud silently giggling to herself looking at the napping Stargazer. She positioned herself on top of the cloud then jumped causing a crack of lightning making Stargazer jump to his feet and look around his face that of pure shock and fear from the sudden noise awakening him. He turned round to see Luna on the cloud laughing and he quickly moulded his face into the cool expression he was slowly learning to perfect.

“Totally didn’t scare me I knew you were gonna do that” Luna’s laugh turned into hysterics as she heard the bad lie.

“Oh yeah I’m so cool that I just never get scared of anything” Luna started wheezing as she laughed even more mimicking Stargazer’s voice and face badly then dropped to the floor in front of him.

“What is it you want Lu? He was clearly annoyed with her for waking him especially if it was just to make fun of him”

“Oh yeah Celly wanted me to tell it’s time for your lesson with her but when I saw you I just couldn’t resist having a bit of fun!” She giggled and took into the air Stargazer following suit and both headed towards the castle.
Stargazer landed at the front door and ran through the castle into the throne room and up the winding staircase he had come accustom to using in his lessons with Celestia. He reached the top and wandered in to see the white Alicorn looking at him with the same smile she normally had on her face.

“Sorry I’m late Tia” He put a hoof on the back of his neck and scratched slightly as he did when he became embarrassed. Celestia then got up and headed towards him.

“Come with me Star I think our lesson today would best be spent out of here.” Stargazer looked at her confused, he had never had a lesson outside of the tower before but he followed suit following her down the staircase.
They wandered through the castle Stargazer looking around all the while trying to figure out where they were going. They walked around the outside of the throne room to the side of it ending up in the castle chapel which was kept simple. The walls were the same blue as the rest of the castle but were mainly empty apart from an altar at end of the room.

“Wait you’re showing me the elements? But we’ve already been over them before?” Stargazer looked at Celestia more confused than he had been in a long time making Celestia giggle as she sat down.

“I thought I should give you the fine details of the elements. Everything I was taught by my parents, I think you are ready to know now. As you know the elements are powerful relics that a pony can use to give themselves incredible power. Even earth ponies and pegasi are able to use magic if they wield them and they keep all of Equestria in balance. But that is just the basic stuff. The elements themselves are Kindness, Loyalty, Honesty, Generosity and laughter. But there is another element that has remained elusive. I have no idea what this element is but it must be incredibly powerful not to be known by anypony.”

“Hasn’t anypony ever tried to find it before?” He gave Celestia a quizzical look as she stayed silent for a few seconds staring at the altar before answering him.

“Many have tried but it still remains hidden. It is quite hard to find something when you don’t know what it is after all. I believe that this element may not have a physical form but be something that exists within all of us. But I have been wrong before.”

“When have you ever been wrong before Tia?”

“Well until you came along I thought me and Luna were the last Alicorns left in existence, but here you are.” They sat for a few more minutes merely looking at the elements until Celestia broke the silence.

“I think that is enough for today. I’m really not the best teacher am I?” She chuckled as Stargazer gave her a slight grin that she was coming accustomed to with his increasingly confident nature.

“Would you go help Luna with supper? I have something I need to attend to.”

“Sure thing mum.” He put extra emphasis on the last word and shot Celestia a mischievous grin to which she frowned slightly.

“Really? Please don’t call me that, it makes me feel old.” They left the room turning in different directions as they headed off to do their different duties. Stargazer looked back and saw that Celestia was heading directly towards the throne room.

Stargazer slid his Canterlot guard armour on proudly. The gold shimmered brilliantly and complimented his coat perfectly making him look all the more dynamic. He was annoyed that the armour covered his newly formed cutie mark which he got in a training session making him realise his special talent was for combat. He had wanted to join the guard since he was a colt and now his dream had come true.

“Looking good soldier!” Luna entered the room and gave him a slight wink trying to break his confident look which he had managed to perfect over the course of the few months that had passed since she last managed to break it.

“Luna you know I always look good. This just helps improve perfection!” He flicked his short main with his cocky smirk . He then picked up the helmet sitting on the table in his room and inspected it before sliding it on. He didn’t entirely like the brush that was atop the helmet and the fact it covered his mane but he would put up with it after all he had made it into the Canterlot guard and it was his first day so he wanted to make sure he made a good impression. Celestia appeared behind Luna a proud smile on her face as she looked at the armoured pony before her.

“You be careful out there you hear?”

“Oh come on Tia the job doesn’t take much just stopping a few petty things here and there and occasionally sending a Manticore back into the forest.” He made to move past Celestia and made for the front door and headed out into the town of Canterlot towards the guard station eager to get started.

He was assigned to spend the day patrolling the town with an earth pony sergeant by the name of Crawford who seemed annoyed at being paired with a new recruit. They walked through the town Stargazer holding his head high above the other ponies around him which was quite far considering his height. Crawford merely walked ahead not seeming to be interested in anything happening around him looking around at the various shops located within thatched roof houses and market stalls littering the main street. The floor had been left to be a dirt path made by the coming and going of hooves instead of being paved the town priding itself on being as close to nature as a settlement could be.

They headed into a small café where the sergeant bought himself a coffee and sat down Stargazer buying one for himself and then sitting at the table removing his helmet as was custom for when a guard was drinking or eating.

“You know you best get all the ideas out of your head of this job being glamorous because it isn’t.” Crawford didn’t even look at Stargazer focusing on his coffee.

“The job is dull you walk around the town for the day arrest the occasional trouble maker. Then very rarely you group up with a few more guards to take down a Manticore then spend the next two days writing paper-work on what happened.” Stargazer ignored his superior, he knew the job would be exciting he just had to wait for something to happen unlike what Crawford was saying.

A few more hours passed as they made their way around the town with nothing interesting happening. As they picked up their fourth coffee from the café they had entered in the morning something began to happen. The sky rapidly darkened and the ground began to tremble. Suddenly pieces of the ground started floating upwards causing many of the ponies to panic. Stargazer and Crawford donned their helmets and moved towards the guard building in the centre of town where there was sure to be a rally of the guards being given orders on what to do.

As they reached the outside of the guard building they saw the entire guard force engaging an unknown group of ponies of all different varieties. The pair charged forward to help their comrades Stargazer launching a few bolts of lightning at the attackers. As he neared he got a good look at them they all seemed to be wearing the same clothing a black coat covering them with a hood hiding their identity. Crawford leapt at the front line of the attackers and began fighting furiously.

The fight was merely a way of holding back the group whilst a handful of the guards began evacuating the town’s citizens but the soldiers fighting were losing badly. Two of the guards were already dead and the remaining ones were mainly earth ponies only one unicorn and pegasus remained the other pegasus being killed early on in the battle with a building collapsing on them. Stargazer was taking cover behind a pile of rubble with the other unicorn firing bolts at their enemy when he saw the figure emerging from the path within the forest.

The Draconnequus stood proud at what his group had done to that small community his yellow and red eyes surveying the destruction with a cruel smile on his face. Stargazer fired a bolt at him but it bounced off landing in the thick of the skirmish. The menacing creature looked at where the bolt had come from, its eyes piercing Stargazer and committing the Alicorn’s image to memory. Crawford was launched near Stargazer as a unicorn hit him with a beam it had picked up with magic from some of the wreckage. He ran towards the sergeant trying to gauge his injuries but was stopped by his superior officer.

“Stargazer listen to me you need to get the princesses you need to protect them there’s nothing you can do here.”

“But Crawford….”

"Listen to me this is an order! It is your job to guard them you will be their guardian. You will protect them. You got that soldier!” Stargazer nodded, he knew that protecting Luna and Celestia were more important than anything right now, without them Equestria would fall. Protecting them was protecting Equestria.

He ran in the direction of his home as fast as he could move dodging the explosions and bolts that were fired at him through the town. The castle was far enough away from the town that Celestia and Luna didn’t know of the destruction befalling the settlement but the attack would soon reach it making Stargazer need to move fast.

Stargazer burst through the door and started shouting for his friends who came running not expecting him back and looking on in shock at the sight of him. He was covered in ash and sweat with a panicked look on his face. Celestia was the first to speak up barely able to keep the worry out of her voice.

“What’s happening Star?” His eyes darted around for a moment before he regained his composure and gained a level of authority in the situation.

“We need to leave. Canterlot is under attack and it is my duty to get you to safety. I think that it’s the Draconnequus you told me about.” The sisters nodded and followed suit as he took off into the air and flew away from their home.

Chapter 8

Preparations

Twilight and her friends were woken with a sudden splash of cold water making them all jump up in shock. Fluttershy dived behind a rock and began trembling, Pinkie merely looked at the ground still with a solemn look on her face. Rarity was the first to say anything to Stargazer who had summoned the water to land on them a slight grin on his face.

“My hair! Why would you do such a thing?” The other three looked at him clearly annoyed with his actions.

“Hey what’s the big idea!?” Rainbow flew straight towards the smirking pony then turned to get Fluttershy out from behind the rock.

“I told you that you would be up early we got allot to get done today.” Twilight remembered him telling them of his plan to train them all before telling them the story of his life before and during the war he had waged alongside Celestia and Luna against Discord. She had tried to pry a little more out of him but he refused to say anything more than when he had come up with the idea of building Canterlot in its current location. He brought them outside of the cave and lined them up the way an army instructor would speak to his subordinates.

“Right then today you are all gonna learn how to work as a unit. Equestria is now a dangerous place and you are gonna have to work together to survive. I can’t lead you around all the time, like I said the other night once I get you to Haven I am going my own way.” He walked to Twilight first telling her to go and practice the focusing technique that he told her the night before to which she nodded and began channelling magic firing bolts at different pieces of rock. He moved to Applejack who tipped her Stetson at him to which he replied quickly gauging her.

“Hmm you look pretty strong. Wanna learn how to fight hoof to hoof?” She jumped up at the prospect.

“Yeah I wanna fight! That Nightmare thingy is gonna need a start running with me after ‘im.” He smiled at the prospect happy that she was eager to accept his help.

“Right then get over there and start warming up I’ll be along in a minute.” She did as was told and moved over stretching up every muscle in her body. He next spoke to Rainbow Dash who was already eager to show him what she could do.

“So what is it you can do hmm? You don’t exactly look tough” He inspected her trying to make an assumption before she spoke up.

“I am the fastest flyer in Equestria! That! Is what I do buddy.” She spoke in her usual confident attitude mixed with a hint of detest getting a quizzical look from Stargazer before turning to a smug grin.

“Care to put that to the test? Simple race from here to that cloud.” He pointed to a cloud that wasn’t too far to which she nodded her face turning into a look of determined pride. They moved to the edge of the cliff, Rainbow Dash taking a stance ready to take off and Star merely standing as normal. He counted down from three to signal the start of the race. As soon as he said go Rainbow took off with everything she had but her grin turned to a look of horror as Stargazer blasted past her and landed on the cloud before she was even halfway. She reached the cloud a few seconds later exhausted and collapsed in front of Stargazer looking up to see him un-phased from the force he exerted.

“I think that makes you the second fastest flyer huh?” His usual cold exterior seemed to break as he mocked her.

“How? Nopony is faster than me! Not one.”

“These wings aren’t just for show Dash. I think I can teach you to be pretty agile in the air but speed is gonna have to be something you are gonna have to work on yourself I’m afraid.” They went back to the cliff where the others were waiting where Rainbow began regaining her breath. He moved through the other three ponies asking them about their skills and giving them something to do. He gave Rarity the task of learning to fire long distance spells using her keen seamstress eyes to be able to see things from a distance the others couldn’t. He tried talking to Pinkie but she didn’t reply to him eventually causing Fluttershy to speak up telling him of the pink mare’s amazing speed that rivalled Rainbow’s. He then said to Fluttershy that she could get some medical training on top of her basic first aid skills she had learnt.

He stood in front of Applejack who was eager to fight. He told her to go one on one against him at first to which she had charged him and had been subsequently knocked over and pinned to the ground.

“You need to think through your movements anticipate what your enemy can do. Be unpredictable make every move have purpose you are visibly strong so they are gonna be watching you carefully.” He showed her a few different moves then pointed her to a tree that he told her to practice her newly learnt moves on.

He then walked to Rainbow who was getting impatient with him. He told her to take off and started firing small bolts of lightning at her making her yelp and start flipping over the bolts and dodging them. After a few seconds a bolt hit her making her slam into the ground and cut her leg.

“Well then Fluttershy can’t get a better time for some training. Come here and start cleaning this wound then bandage it.” She wandered out of the cave mouth with a small cup of water and a piece of cloth that Stargazer had pulled out from his magical store. She moved over to Rainbow who was lying down her injured leg outstretched. Fluttershy poured the water over the cut causing Rainbow to wince then quickly wrapped the bandage round putting her experience of helping animals to good use.

“There you go Rainbow it should be better in a few days.” She smiled then nuzzled the mare who immediately blushed still in the presence of the Alicorn.

“Okay that’s good enough for today girls. I think we all need to get some rest.” They hadn’t realised that the sun was already setting and how tired they were and as such went inside and collapsed falling asleep instantly.

The next day they all woke of their own accord just after Stargazer which made them feel relieved not to have water thrown on them again.

“Right you know the drill I’ll be coming round and helping each of you out again just keep up the work. He decided that he would work with Rarity first. Walking up next to her firing a magical bolt at a rock on the other side of the cliff they were on. He levitated a small stone up and made it hover about a mile away from them still emitting a slight glow making it visible in the sky.

“Hit that rock. Remember to take your time. That’s the most important thing” She laid down and focused her eyes on the rock. When she was sure she had aimed right she fired a small bolt that sailed past the rock.

“Too fast dear you need to take your time. In a position like yours you will have all the time to get your target.” She nodded to him and took aim once again.

“Take your time……..you have all the time in the world. Just take. Your.” She fired and the bolt skimmed the rock but didn’t hit it. She looked down annoyed that she couldn’t hit a small rock.

“Too soon again but better. Keep up the work.” He headed off to Twilight who knocked herself over as she fired a supercharged ball of fire through a rock. He helped her up then took a moment to explain to her what to do.

“You’re not focusing, you are casting the spell and that is why it isn’t coming out strong.”

“What do you mean I have to cast a spell or nothing will happen!” She was clearly aggravated at not being able to pull off the strength of spell that Stargazer had shown her two days earlier.

“Trust me just channel the magic and focus on it without casting a spell. Your body will bring it forth in a way best suited for you. Now try it again.” She stood in front of the rock got herself into the stance she was perfecting, she looked at the ground and then took a deep breath. She cleared her mind of all thoughts and began focusing on her magical energy feeling it building inside of her. Her mane started lifting up in an unnatural wind that was spiralling around her making the others turn their gaze to her watching the event unfolding in front of them. She brought her body forward and let all the magic out of her. It blasted out of her as pure untamed magic blasting towards the rock tearing through the ground and vaporising the stone that she had been aiming at. She stumbled back slightly but then looked at her work and started leaping in joy proud that she had been able to perform the feat. Her friends rushed over to her apart from pinkie and began cheering. She looked to Stargazer who merely nodded with a smile on his face.

Over the next few days they went through the same process of him training them in their ways helping them improve steadily but always with pinkie being left out until three days later when Stargazer had an idea.

“Pinkie come out here. You’re fast right?” She didn’t answer but kept looking at the floor.

“I want you to hit me. Got that?” She stood and looked at him indicating that she understood. He stood away from her and took up a stance ready for a fight. She moved forward fast and jumped over his hoof as he swung at her trying to get round behind him but he anticipated the move and grabbed her out of the air pinning her to the ground. She winced as he put a slight amount of pressure on her leaning down to whisper in her ear.

“You are weak! Your movements are plastered out for everything to see be unpredictable use what you have to your advantage. Use your anger, use your sadness, use everything you have at your disposal. And above all else pull yourself together!” He let go of her then Shouted at the pink mare.

“Again!” They repeated this process for most of the day with Pinkie moving getting pinned having a hurtful comment then being told to do it all over again. The others were watching the Alicorn break down their pink friend bit by bit shocked at what he was doing. After sometime of the process repeating itself it was sundown.

“You are pathetic! I’ve seen better from little fillies! You think you can protect yourself from the creatures out there?! You think you can save those you love?! Because you can’t! They are going to die all because of you!” Hearing this sent her into a blind rage she lunged at him, he dodged out of the way but she was already behind him. She kicked his legs out from under him knocking Stargazer to the ground she then pinned him there with her hooves on his neck choking him ready to snap it. She was screaming through tears letting everything that had built up on him. The others leapt forward and dragged Pinkie away thrashing and screaming all the while. Stargazer looked up at her and gave a dark smile.

“Perfect.” His voice sounded different, it was dark almost happy that she had tried to kill him.

“How is this perfect!? That you pushed her too far? That you know how to make her angry? Or that you got to spend a day bullying her?” Twilight looked at him angrily which he shrugged off continuing with his sentence and answering her question in one.

“You are all as ready as I can get you for the journey to Haven. You lot best get some rest, we are leaving tomorrow.”

“Wait I thought that this place was safe?” Twilight stared at him trying to break through his defences.

“I’ve seen a few of those….urmm…I guess Shades would be the best name for them lurking around at the southern side of the mountain. That’s why I had to push you so hard today Pinkie.” He looked at her apologetically but then snapped his look back to being serious.

“So we are gonna head out tomorrow for Haven hopefully we won’t be found on the way but just be ready to fight. They moved into the cave that they had come accustom to living in over the past five days and settled down to rest before their long journey.

Nightmare walked through the Canterlot gardens in the dead of night. He looked all around him at the bodies of the ponies that had been slaughtered in his attack. His twisted grin not once faltering, he loved the sight of death it always made him smile especially when it was the death of a pony. He turned his gaze away from the floor and toward his destination. The statue of Discord.

He stood in front of the Draconnequus focusing his gaze as it cracked in his presence. The cracks moved throughout the stone and eventually criss-crossing and meeting each other causing the statue to splinter as Discord stood free once more stretching his limbs out before noticing the pony standing before him.

“Master. You’re back?” Discord stammered his shock at seeing Nightmare before him. He bowed to the creature that took no notice to the act of curtsy.

“Yes I am Discord. I had to come back because you failed me. Twice.” The words flew out of Nightmare’s mouth like smoke moving through air. Hitting Discord’s ears making him flinch guessing what would happen to him.

“I don’t take kindly to failure Discord. You have caused me to accelerate my plans ahead of schedule.” His eyes had narrowed piercing Discord’s soul. He moved forwards and touched his horn against the Draconnequus’ chest making him scream in pain echoing over the castle grounds. Nightmare pulled his horn away as a block orb the same as his marks came out of Discord and went into the creature making him writhe in pleasure for the moment.

Discord’s eyes opened, they had changed from their yellow outside with red irises to a normal white and emerald green. He let out a laboured breath sucking in as much oxygen as he could then turned to face Nightmare the fear growing within him.

“You….no. You can’t be” Discord’s voice was of pure terror staring at the creature before him. Nightmare shot his eyes open and launched him across the gardens into the giant hedge maze. Landing with a painful grunt Discord looked around panicked trying to think of an escape from Nightmare. No matter where he ran at this moment the creature would catch up in seconds. He had one small chance and prayed it would work. He snapped his fingers and vanished in a flash of magic as Nightmare appeared in front of him appearing out of a puff of black smoke ready to tear the Draconnequus asunder. Nightmare stared at the scorched ground where Discord had teleported from and chuckled to himself.

Chapter 9

Remnants

The captain stirred in his sleep. His eye slowly opened darting round the dark cavern he was in. His body ached all over but he ignored the pain. He tried to drag himself into a sitting position but pain shot through him causing him to gasp and collapse onto the make-shift cot. A lone soldier in the room heard his struggles and rushed over to him.

“You need to stay still.” He moved into the flickering light letting the captain see the soldier’s face. He was a black pegasus covered in blood that was clearly not his own wearing the Equestria military uniform. The Uniform was simple just a camouflage coat placed over them, the coat was a combination of black and grey most likely designed for urban warfare.

“What is your name?” His voice was kind unlike his own. It almost seemed to nurture him which was strange for a soldier.

“Captain Iron-hoof. What about you soldier?” The pegasus snapped a salute as he found out who he was talking to.

“Uh…Henderson sir, Private first class” Iron-hoof looked up the Private noticing the Red Cross on his uniform.

“Medic huh? Who’s in charge here?”

“That would be Leftenant Steel sir I’ll get someone to take you to him, I can’t really leave here being the only medic.” He helped the captain up then rushed over to a table where he picked up an impromptu eye patch made out of a piece of shrapnel which he brought over to him then lead him over to the entrance of the make-shift medical area getting another private to take him to the command centre.

He moved through the series of tunnels all dimly lit by torches through which he saw more soldiers and a couple of civilians some he recognised such as Fleur de lis and Vinyl Scratch but he didn’t break stride as he walked. As he entered one of the larger chambers he overheard a few soldiers talking amongst themselves.

“So what attachment are you from?”

“7th armoured what about you?”

“Whoa the 7th? I heard you guys had it the worst out there.”

“No way man we had it easy I heard first recon had it the worst.”

“You’re both wrong I was part of 1st recon all we had to do was help civvies escape from the north eastern ridge it was the Royal guard who had the worst at the castle along with the 5th armoured.”

The three soldiers turned to stare at the captain as he walked through the room shocked at seeing him alive let alone moving on his own. Iron-hoof ignored their hushed whispers and turned to where the soldier pointed indicating the command centre.

He walked in to see Leftenant Steel a tough looking green earth pouring over maps lit by a small candle getting frustrated with them. He looked up as the captain entered and moved away from the table.

“Leftenant Steel. I am Captain Iron-hoof.”

“Captain? I guess you would like a report of what’s going on? Simple really we’ve retreated into a network of caves below Canterlot after being…. Well the best word would be wiped out. There are barely 60 soldiers and 10 Civvies. About 20 of the soldiers are in the medical area being attended to by Private Henderson along with 3 of the civilians. Now Captain I’m still in the dark on what happened out there I was in the north west of the city during the attack so I’m hoping you can shed some light on what happened at the castle.

Iron-Hoof sprinted up the tight staircase he had to act fast. He reached the top moving onto the small circular metal platform and approached the console. He punched different buttons and turned levers making the machine come to life. He then punched a few more buttons in as the machine acknowledged his command setting the sun and moon to work on their automatic cycle. Satisfied with his work he moved out of the door behind him to which another wall slid down as he bolted through the castle sealing away the room from sight.

He moved through the castle as fast as he could passing a number of guards setting up different staging areas preparing for a breach. Part of the wall exploded in several meters in front of him causing him to stop and looked out the hole seeing the amount of destruction befalling his home. He pressed on moving through the castle heading towards the armoury.
Iron-hoof entered the armoury as the last remaining soldiers grabbed their armaments. He pulled an assault rifle off the rack and grabbed a number of magazines with it.

“Right men you’re with me! Stay low and watch your spacing’s.” They each acknowledged him in their own way some with a salute others with a “sir” or merely by nodding. He loaded the rifle then charged out of the armoury and out of the castle.

The battle being waged was ferocious, within minutes the Royal guard had sprung into action in defensive positions along the front entrance. Many of the foot soldiers were taking cover behind walls or in craters created from mortar fire. Machine gun emplacements had been set up in a number of windows within the castle and on the rooftop and sniper groups were situated around as well providing cover for the ground troops. Iron-hoof and his squad made their way out of the side entrance into a hail of dark energy bolts and gun-fire. His earpiece radio blazed with noise as commands and information was passed over the airwaves from the many troops fighting then began buzzing with words he could understand.

“This is the 5th armoured coming to give fire support to you guys.” As if on cue a tank rolled round the corner moving past the group to which they followed behind using it as mobile cover. As it turned the corner to take up position they sprinted forwards standing on their hind legs firing as they moved. They slid behind the low wall the bolts scraping the top of it, Iron-hoof peeked over the top of the wall to gauge the situation. A squad of ponies were pinned down by the pony-like creatures. He opened up the radio channel to them and spoke in a decisive manner.

“Hey we can see your squad from back here you need to move over into the alley to the south we’ll provide cover fire for you wait for my mark. Enemy 100 meters! On my mark! Covering fire!” The group sprung up and started firing at the enemy bringing their attention towards them.

“Move now!” He screamed down the radio ordering the four pony squad to move keeping low and fast. Just before the last one entered the alley they were hit by one of the energy bolts throwing them in the air killing them instantly. Iron-hoof cursed to himself then stood up firing at the enemy again killing the rest of them.

“Soldiers! Move up!” They hopped over the wall and began running to the wall the squad of enemy ponies had been before. As they ran a mortar fell directly hitting one of the ponies in the squad blowing them to pieces. As they reached the wall the pony carrying the LMG peeked over the wall and fell back down with a terrified look on his face.

“There’s nothing their! Where the buck are the bodies!” Iron-hoof looked over to see nothing but the ground then dropped back taking cover.

“Don’t worry about that now! Keep firing!” They popped up at their own accord firing at any of the ponies they saw attacking. Iron-hoof noticed something each time he popped up. Every single one of the attackers was black, and exactly the same as each other the only difference being the ones in the air having wings which even more strangely the pegasus ones were able to fire the magic bolts. He pushed the thoughts aside and focused on the task at hand, driving back the attack and protecting the princesses. The rifle gave a click as the magazine ran out of ammo. He ducked behind the wall using his magic to reload the weapon then stood up and kept firing.

The tanks of the 5th armoured division began rolling forwards to push back the assault. One of them stopped next to Iron-hoof and fired a shot from its main gun making his ears ring and disorientating him. The tank moved forwards another few meters before it was hit with a large bolt causing it to explode adding to the captain’s disorientation. He sat trying to regain his sense making sure he stayed behind the wall his vision returned to him. When he looked up to see Luna flying away from Canterlot at an unparalleled speed, a moment later a scream was heard as a light shone out of the building blinding him. He shook it off and turned back to the battle at hand, he had to fight right now if not for anything but to save his own life. He stood back up ready to fire when he saw a sight that stunned him.

One of the tanks that had pushed further forwards past the layer of smoke flew through the air hitting another killing the occupants inside both. His jaw hung open at the sight as ponies climbed out of another tank before it was hit with a bolt and exploded all around ponies were dying. He looked forwards taking more shots when he saw what had thrown the tank. Coming forth from the smoke was a gigantic armour clad dragon roaring as it walked slowly towards the castle. It stopped as the final tank of the 5th armoured shot it making it open its mouth inhaling, an orb of light began growing in its mouth. It pushed its body forwards and the light turned into a beam shooting through the ground with an explosion following the line a second later. A single pony threw open the lid of the tank and attempted to climb out whilst on fire screaming as he struggled to free himself. Iron-hoof looked about and gauged their situation, they were outnumbered, outgunned and the entire tank division had been destroyed leaving only a small number of the guard left. He made his decision.

“All forces retreat! Staggered line! I repeat all forces retreat!” The others in the area heard his order through their earpieces and began running most of them not bothering to stop every couple of meters and provide cover for their allies like he ordered. His squad kept to their orders and commenced a staggered retreat. He opted to be first to stay and provide cover along with the pony carrying the LMG, They began firing madly ahead of them waited ten seconds then made a run for it. The explosions were tearing the ground and buildings apart, small pieces of rubble would hit him but he ignored it and continued sprinting the bullets tearing past him as his allies provided cover. The pony running next to him was hit. He dropped to the ground in pain then stood and started running before he was hit again, His head exploding and his body skidding across the ground as it fell. He ran past the others who then started running with him they ignored the orders to provide cover. They ran to the left of the castle making to run past it when a mortar hit the ground near Iron-hoof causing him to be thrown to the ground. His helmet slid away from him as he hit the ground unable to stand from the force of the explosion. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was a guard running over to him and picking him up.

“That’s everything I saw before I woke up.” The Leftenant looked at the Captain taking in everything he said up until this point where he spoke up.

“You were brought here half dead by a guardsman whose name we never got. He dragged you here then collapsed from his own injuries, Henderson did his best…..but. Well. He just didn’t make it. We lost allot of good ponies due to a lack of both equipment and medical ponies.” He sighed pausing for a second. “Let’s face it. We’re not gonna last long down here. We don’t have much food, water or supplies at all. We need to move from here but I can’t think of anywhere we can go.” Iron-hoof stood up and headed over to the map on the table with Steel in tow looking at him with confusion as he stared at the map. He tapped his hoof onto the map.

“Aha! There it is.”

“What’s there?” Steel looked at where the captain pointed on the map only seeing what looked like an ink splodge.

“That is an old base from the Alpha wars. Celestia told me about it herself. It was abandoned hundreds of years ago so nopony should be able to find it. We should leave tomorrow.”

“It’ll be a tough journey sir we won’t be able to take the more critically injured. Henderson is good but there is no way he can get the ones that are going to live able to walk by tomorrow.” Iron-hoof then stood up and walked towards the main chamber.

“I’m gonna go help him out myself. I have some medical training so I can at least help him out in making the ones that are gonna die go peacefully. You stay here and plan out a route then inform the troops, we will move out the day after tomorrow.” Steel snapped a salute before returning to the command section whispering to a pony along the way telling him to spread the word of their movement soon then returned to the map he had poured over for so long muttering to himself.

Chapter 10

Voice of freedom

The seven ponies walked through the open field on their journey with the sun hanging in the sky over them. It was the second day since they had left the cave where Stargazer had conditioned the mares for battle and after the first day of journeying through forests the once farmlands were a pleasant change of scenery, even if they weren’t sheltered from the sun. As they pressed on their morale was slowly waning with each step they took. Stargazer looked up at a tree on a small hill within the field they occupied and made a decision not wanting to deal with another tantrum from Rainbow Dash.

“Okay my hooves ache let’s take five on that hill.” The others were shocked by his sudden change from his cold tone but Twilight saw through his ruse but decided to keep up with it for the benefit of her friends.

“Wow I didn’t think you were one to get tired.” He shrugged his shoulders as he moved into the shade of the tree and sat down making a bottle of water appear and began to share it around. Her friends moved past her and took their own spots. Applejack sat down next to Stargazer leaning against the tree like she would do back at home, Rainbow dash flew up onto a branch of the tree keeping an eye on Stargazer at all times whom she still didn’t trust. Fluttershy had sat down next to Pinkie Pie giving her a hug to try and lift her spirits slightly and Rarity had begun preening herself in a last ditch attempt to have some form of normality in their current situation.

Twilight get out of the sun it’ll bleach your lovely coat.” Rarity’s voice broke Twilight from her trance to which she went and sat next to her unicorn friend who began drinking from the bottle then offered the final bit to Twilight who finished off the refreshing liquid then gave the bottle back to Stargazer who made it vanish again.

After their break the group carried on through the fields refreshed from the rest they had and in a much better mood which Stargazer was thankful for. They walked through yet more fields moving through a thin tree line until they found themselves on a small ridge overlooking a town.

“Ah Trottingham.” The town stretched out before them looking similar to Ponyville but larger with a bell tower near the centre of the town. Stargazer suddenly dropped to the ground seeing something that made him uneasy. Up one of the streets were a group of ponies on their knee’s with their fore hooves behind their heads each of them had behind them a Diamond dog. The leader of the dogs walked in front of them speaking all the while.

“We told you ponies to leave yesterday and that you wouldn’t be harmed we gave you a gracious offer and you spat in our faces!” The pony on the far left of the group spoke up as the leader walked in front of him with rage in his voice.

“We’ll never submit to your will we are free ponies and that will never change!” The dog pulled a pistol out from his belt and shot the pony in the head prompting the others to start screaming. The shot echoed throughout the hills and into the hilltop group’s ears.

“Shut up!” The dog spat at the prisoners then moved over to another group of dogs within the town square and began talking amongst them.

“Come on lets go round this isn’t our fight.” Stargazer had no wanting to get into a fight and would prefer giving the town a wide birth but Applejack interrupted him.

“No we gotta help ‘em” She had moved next to Stargazer looking over the ridge at the dogs and she obviously wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“They’re armed you do know that?”

“Then we need ‘a stay quiet like then.” Stargazer nodded then collected his thoughts.

“Okay Twilight, Rarity and Rainbow you stay up here and give us cover while we move in to the town. Applejack Pinkie your with me.” Before the trio moved out a timid voice piqued up.

“Urmm what about me?” Fluttershy looked around scared by what was going to happen to them.

“You wait up here until we call you down there may be a chance that we may get hurt. Now let’s go.” Stargazer, Applejack and pinkie each slid down the ridge and moved across to one of the houses as quickly and quietly as they could. They stuck close to the building and moved along it till they reach the corner to which Stargazer held up a hoof signalling the others to stop.

“There’s one on the second floor, Pinkie I need you to take care of him.” She nodded then climbed in through the window on the side of the house before Stargazer and Applejack ducked below the wall surrounding the house’s garden and moved to the edge where Stargazer looked around seeing a dog on the other side of the street looking away from the towards his allies in the town square. Stargazer moved across the road as quickly and low to the ground as he could making sure he wasn’t noticed and hid behind the wall behind the dog.

Pinkie climbed off the counter which she had ended up on from climbing through the window into the wrecked kitchen. She looked around taking in the sights. The table in the centre of the room had been tipped over with the food that had been on it covering the adjacent wall, her eyes looked over the work surfaces and saw a knife still in its holder which she picked up in her mouth and moved into the hallway. Within the hallway she saw the stairs leading up to the second floor and began to ascend them slowly not wanting to alert the dog to her presence, she rounded the corner on the stairs and looked at the hallway ahead of her. She moved forwards and turned to the first door on her right that was open and saw the dog looking out the window at the other end of the room. She stood up on her hind legs holding the knife in her hoof and walked slowly towards the dog.

Stargazer saw the pink hoof drag the dog away from the window and made his move. He hopped over the wall and snuck up behind the dog in front of him, he wrapped his hoof round the dogs neck and pulled his machine gun up and fired at the dogs guarding the prisoners causing them to panic from the sudden gunfire. Their flesh tore open as the bullets ripped through them killing them. The other group within the town square started shooting at him regardless of their ally being used as a shield. The bullets hit the dog causing him to howl in pain before Stargazer snapped his neck and let him drop to the floor as he took cover against the wall in front of him.

“A.J! Catch!” He threw the machine gun over to her which she caught and began firing at the dogs whilst he shot magic at them managing to kill one before they got into cover and returned fire.

Twilight and the others looked on at the battle before them stunned at what was happening. Rarity was the first to focus herself lowering to the ground and spotting a dog in the bell tower taking aim at Stargazer. She focused her eyes on him taking her time as she was told lining up her eyes with where her bolt would go and breathed in before letting the magic bolt fly from her horn. The dog fell from tower and out of sight behind a line of buildings. Rainbow took off seeing another dog on the roof of the house behind Stargazer.

The dog crawled slowly over the roof keeping quiet as he could, he reached the edge looking down at the Alicorn and held up his assault rifle taking aim wanting to take out the pony in one shot. The dog dropped to the ground behind Stargazer with a sickening snap of bones breaking. Stargazer looked up to see Rainbow Dash who had obviously bucked the dog off the building to which he gave a nod before she took off to cover him from the air. He picked up the assault rifle and began firing at the dogs killing two more before the final three threw their weapons to the ground and began running away from the ponies attack. Stargazer moved into the middle of the street and fired a few shots in their general direction shouting at them.

“Yeah you better run fuckers!” He turned to Applejack and began speaking noticing that Pinkie hadn’t appeared from the house.

“You get the others down here and make sure the place is safe I’ll go check on Pinkie. She nodded at him and waved the others towards her whilst Stargazer moved into the building which he had sent pinkie into.

He walked cautiously through the building checking each room on the ground floor noticing the hoof prints of the pink mare on the dust covered floor moving from the kitchen to the stairs. He held up the rifle as he moved up the stairs wary of any dogs that could be within the house. He turned with the stairs prepared to shoot down the hallway but saw nothing. He heard sobbing coming from the room to his right and saw a small trickle of blood coming out from under the door which he began moving towards more cautiously than before. He nudged the door open with the barrel of his weapon and was greeted with a sight that made him recoil in shock. The room was covered in blood spatters and the bed was the still twitching body of the dog that occupied the room on a bed with a knife sticking out of its throat. Sat huddled under the open window was pinkie sobbing to herself. She looked up at the pony before her and threw herself round him crying onto his shoulder taking him by surprise. He pulled her down from him and tried his best at a reassuring look.

“Hey calm down it’s okay now, let’s get you cleaned up yeah?” She sniffled trying to control her tears and followed him towards the bathroom in which he cleaned the blood off her.

“Thank you Stargazer.” He was taken aback slightly it was the first time he had heard her say a coherent sentence since he met her but put on his usual expression and shrugged it off.

They headed outside to see Applejack keeping an eye out around the town, Twilight assisting Fluttershy in helping the injured prisoners and Rainbow and Rarity gathering weapons from the dead dogs and placing them into a pile. Stargazer didn’t tell them what had happened with pinkie in the room, they needed to band together as friends now instead of question her sanity They had to rely on one-another and not split apart. He thought about the lesson he was taught by Celestia amazed at how even in modern time’s it still made sense.

He moved over to the prisoner that had been next to the one that had been shot, a blue earth mare with white hair that was kept tied back.

“Are you all okay?”

“Yeah we’re fine. If only you got here sooner.” She looked at the corpse of the pony and let a single tear roll down her muzzle.

“A friend of yours?”

“Father.”

“I’m sorry. Is there anywhere you.” He was interrupted by the sound of a voice amongst static. He looked for where the noise was coming from but Twilight beat him to it. She pulled a small radio out from a piece of rubble and began fiddling with the dial until the voice came out clearly.

“Repeat. Everyone should stay away from towns and the main highways, we have had numerous reports of raiders taking up positions in these areas. If you happen to run into these groups run or fight, just don’t surrender they’ll butcher you. This is the voice of freedom.” Twilight looked at the radio with an odd expression on her face.

“That voice has been magically altered.” She looked at it with more confusion, even with the magic enhancements she recognised it from somewhere. Stargazer moved back to his conversation with the mare.

“Is there anywhere you can go?” She snapped her look back to him from Twilight.

“Yeah the rest of the town said they were gonna set up camp to the west yesterday.”

“Go there that’ll be your best bet now.” She nodded and gathered up the rest of the prisoners and began moving to the west. Stargazer then moved over to the weapon pile and gave them out accordingly. Applejack had requested to keep a hold of her machine to which she loaded another belt of bullets into it, Twilight and Rainbow were both given assault rifles the same as his own. Rarity was given the sniper rifle still with a blood splatter on it from the dog that had fallen from the tower and Fluttershy took after a great deal of convincing the dog leader’s pistol. Finally pinkie had taken a shot gun which she had done with her typical silence that the others were starting to worry about.

Stargazer began moving to the northern edge of the town whilst Twilight picked up the radio and with a small piece of rope tied it to her body so that they could listen to this “Voice of freedom” more.

They walked through yet more fields with nothing but the sound of Stargazer’s armour clinking with each step. Rainbow Dash flew next to him on her back mimicking a back stroke.

“Sooo…Stargazer I got a question for you. Why is it you where that armour? It can’t really do anything I mean look at it.”

“I agree that dull orange doesn’t complement your colours at all you need to wear something more vibrant to contrast against your dark coat.” Rarity had interrupted Rainbow Dash but her words slightly confused Stargazer. Why is she going on about fashion? This is armour it isn’t meant for show.

“Well Rainbow this was an Element of harmony so it is still pretty tough even in this state. And Rarity I haven’t cared about looks for a long time.” His quick answer seemed to silence them which he was glad for till Twilight piped up with yet more questions.

“What do you mean WAS an Element of harmony? How can it stop being an Element?”

“The Elements of harmony exist in two forms. There is the physical form such as my armour which is linked to the one that bears the Element that it is linked to. But if the spirit that exists within that pony is broken the connection between the physical part is broken but it stays and due to its magical formation it remains stronger than most things hence why after all this time this armour is still usable.”

“But you said that you bore two of the Elements. So what happened to the other one?” Stargazer stopped in his tracks as she asked the question. Tears began falling from his eyes as he remembered when everything changed for him.

Chapter 11

Interrogation

Year of Equestria, 602, 15th year of the Alpha wars.

Stargazer slowly came to consciousness in a damp cave, his vision blurred, his heart felt like it was beating inside his skull and everything ached. He saw a pony forced into a wooden chair across the hastily put together table by a griffon. Stargazer recognised the pony as one of the many soldiers that had been left to die at Hill 30. A griffon out of Stargazer’s eyesight began barking at the pony who seemed to be in a similar condition to himself.

“How do you know the pony queen?!” The pony lulled around in his chair almost falling over till the griffon moved over to them and smacked him round the face snapping his attention to his capture.

“How do you know the pony queen? Tell me!” The pony looked from the griffon to Stargazer and back again with fear in his eyes. "So young" Was all that came into Stargazer’s mind before it throbbed again as he felt a trickle moving down the side of his head. The pony broke down into tears saying nothing that made sense until the interrogator nodded to a griffon behind him who proceeded to bring a hatchet into the back of the young pony’s head killing him. The body was dragged out of the room and another pony was brought in.

This pony was allot different to the previous one. From what Stargazer could make out through his spinning and blurred vision he was a unicorn, much older than the other brought in before him most likely a seasoned veteran and as such hadn’t been broken by the torture the griffons were undoubtedly subjecting to those that had been captured. He sat down in the chair of his own accord seemingly knowing of what was going to happen and being at peace with it.

“How do you know the demon?” The griffon seemed more calm than before but was still barking at the pony.

“We're soldiers, I don’t know him personally we were all just placed together while those ass holes made a run for it.” He spat at the ground at the mention of the military and was then grabbed round the throat by the griffon.

“Lies! You work together all of you! You know him and as such you must know the pony queen.” His eyes narrowed as he stared into the pony’s eyes who then spoke back still calm.

“I do not know him and I have never met PRINCESS Celestia.” The griffon thrust him back into the chair grabbed the hatchet from the other griffon’s hand and smashed it into the pony’s face who after convulsing on the floor was dragged away through the same doorway as the other. The interrogator then sat down on the table in front of Stargazer whilst he waited for his subordinate to bring in the next prisoner scratching his talons against one another to sharpen them.

“Tell me how you know the pony queen demon and I may spare your comrades lives.” Stargazer stayed quiet unable to focus on what was happening around him. The griffon’s eye twitched in anger and then he lashed out and bit down on Stargazer’s ear and ripped the top of it off making Stargazer scream in pain.

“I know you know your queen pony, I will get the answers I want from you so why bother going through all this pain?” He brought his talon to Stargazer’s face stroking upwards till he got to the Alicorn’s head wound and pushed the talon into it causing Stargazer to scream in agony till he fell unconscious.

Stargazer awoke as the door closed whilst the interrogator put the chair back into its rightful place. From what he could see there must have been allot of others that were killed in the room and some of them must’ve put up a fight from the different blood splatters on the wall. The griffon looked over to him and smiled

“So you’re awake? Good I wouldn’t want you to miss out we only have one of your little group left demon.” His grin grew as he heard the struggling pony being lead towards the chamber in which they inhabited.

The door opened to reveal a pony that Stargazer had known for nearly a decade. The dark grey earth pony struggled against his captures all the while until he was thrown into the chair almost knocking it over. His purple and pink hair held back by a bandanna seemed to be stuck to his head from blood that was seeping from many different cuts he had on his skull. His magenta eyes stared daggers at the griffon before he closed them and looked at the floor deep in thought.

“Satrenko….Where….” Stargazer almost fell out of the chair as he tried to speak but managed to force his body to stay up.

“So you two know each other. Then you will tell me how to kill the pony queen!” The griffon looked smug at his hard work paying off, he would be promoted for this heralded as a hero, the one who made it possible for the immortal queen to die. Satrenko muttered under his breathe making the interrogator move closer to him.

“What was that pony!?” Satrenko muttered again quieter this time making the griffon lean right up to the earth pony’s face.

“What did you say?” The griffon was clearly aggravated and spat the words at Satrenko who kept looking at the ground with his eyes closed.

“I said. Fuck you.” He smashed his head against the griffon’s throwing him back then snapped the bindings that held his hooves together. He pirouetted around the other griffon who charged him from behind brandishing the hatchet that had taken so many pony lives that day. He grabbed the griffon and snapped his neck taking the hatchet from his claw as he fell to the ground and threw it at the first griffon that had begun charging him. The hatchet smashed straight into the griffon’s face making him collapse and skid against the floor stopping by Satrenko’s hooves. He wrenched the weapon out of the griffon’s head and then moved next to the door before another griffon opened it hiding Satrenko behind the door and moved into the room with his assault rifle at the ready hearing the commotion. He moved into the room pointing the weapon at Stargazer having heard many rumours of the infamous pony demon. Satrenko brought the hatchet down upon his head embedding it into his skull. The griffon dropped to the ground with only a slight gasp, Satrenko picked up the rifle from the griffon along with his ammo.

Satrenko untied Stargazer and hefted him onto his shoulder and held the rifle tight against his body to try and limit the recoil he would get from the weapon. He dragged the barely conscious Alicorn through the cave trying to keep out of sight, they made their way into the room where the other prisoners had been kept to see the guards walking away into a different section of the cave having no more prisoners to guard. Satrenko looked at the tiny rusted cages that were lined haphazardly against the walls, Satrenko thought about the many days that he had spent inside his cage watching the prisoners led out one by one to meet their doom then to watch their corpse dragged out and taken into a different part of the cavern. He hefted up his friend and moved forwards through a different door into a room he had spotted when he was brought into the griffon base.

The armoury was filled with piles of different weapons stacked around. Satrenko dropped Stargazer gently to the ground and began scouring the room. He quickly found Stargazer’s chest plate amongst the piles of equipment taken from the mercenary ponies that had been captured, he put it onto the Alicorn and gave the front of it a tap the sound of the emerald ringing through the room before he began re-searching the room.

“Come on there has to be at least one here where are they? Where are they? Damn griffon’s don’t have any sense of order. AHA!” He pulled a small object out of the box he had uncovered with a small grin on his face.

“I knew they would have a time bomb here somewhere and they just went and left a big box out for little old me to take.” He picked up a few of the bombs and placed them into a satchel which threw over his shoulder then picked Stargazer up and made his way out of the armoury.

He followed the route the griffons he saw earlier had taken and entered into the main cavern in the network of caves, all around were boxes of ammo and shells to be used in cannons and tanks along with fuel drums and other items all stacked neatly in different piles. Satrenko leant Stargazer against a group of fuel drums praying that the griffons wouldn’t come into the room whilst they were there. He ran around the room attaching the time bombs he had to different items within the room and whilst placing one against a large shell he saw a map on the wall with many ink marks and circles round different locations which he snatched and stuffed into his satchel. Satrenko picked up Stargazer once more and moved through the room pressing the small button on each of the small bombs starting their countdown. Almost on cue a group of griffons came into the room from one of the many doors and saw Satrenko heading through the largest tunnel, they pulled up their weapons and fired at the pair, Satrenko turned and returned fire at them whilst moving backwards struggling to aim and hold his friend at the same time. He reloaded as the weapon clicked and began running as fast as he could firing madly behind him at the pursuing griffons whilst the light approached them as they headed towards the entrance of the tunnel network.

The light stung the pair’s eyes as they emerged into the open air from the griffon’s underground base. Satrenko didn't have time to admire the view and kept running. He kept running forwards and after a few moments found himself on the edge of a cliff. He cursed to himself at the prospect of being trapped in the open, he placed Stargazer amongst a group of rocks where he should have enough cover from the gunfire and pulled up his rifle ready to fight the incoming griffons.

The explosion rocked Stargazer from his daze he looked around with his still blurred vision, time seemed to slow as he peered round the rock to see Satrenko fighting the griffons furiously. The cloud of the explosion loomed in the distance the combined explosive force of the bombs and other devices within the base had seemed to blow the ground apart and as such killed many of the griffons within the base. Satrenko fired another burst of rounds dodging out of the way of a hail of gun-fire, a griffon tried to slash him with his claws whilst the pony was reloading but Satrenko saw him and hit him with his weapon knocking the griffon to the ground and then fired a shot into his head. He kept firing at the dwindling griffon force, a bullet flew into his shoulder knocking him off balance but he turned and kept firing as more pushed into his body. He kept firing till the last griffon fell then dropped his rifle onto the ground, he coughed up some blood then let himself fall backwards onto the ground at the tip of the cliff. Stargazer pulled himself up his body screamed at him to rest but he ignored it and moved to his friend.

“Hey, Star we had a good run huh?” He coughed letting more blood come from him.

“Don’t talk like that it’s just a flesh wound”

“Liar, I know I’m done old friend.” He coughed again. “Take this it’s a map of griffon bases around.” He pulled the map out of his satchel and handed it to Stargazer who took the map with a tear in his eye.

“Renko…..” The pony grabbed the rifle he had dropped and thrust it into Stargazer’s chest.

“Take it Star, give ‘em everything you got. I’ll be seeing you on the other side.” He gave in to another fit of coughs and spat out a large pile of blood before he closed his eyes. Stargazer looked at his friend as panic rose in him, he checked his pulse. Nothing. Stargazer started pressing down on his chest in rhythm then blew air into his lungs through his mouth the tears streaming down his face.

“Come on Renko you never gave up on anything before and you’re not going to now!” He began punching Satrenko’s chest in a desperate attempt to bring him back. He gave up on his attempts and looked over to the rifle that he had been told to take. He picked the rifle up and stood up looking over his friend’s body.

“Goodbye brother.” As he spoke unbeknownst to him the emerald in his chest plate cracked.

The griffon guards looked out into the darkness spanning from their base. They tried as best as they could to stay focused but they were tired and hadn’t seen any action since the cease fire was called over a week ago. Through the darkness one of the guards noticed something that shouldn’t be out there, movement. A shot rang out against the night as the bullet flew straight through the griffon’s skull. One of his comrades saw him fall and sounded the alarm which blared through the base alerting the soldiers.

Stargazer emerged from the darkness heading towards the base with a look of pure hatred smeared onto his face. He fired a number of shots at the griffon who sounded the alarm which collided with him in a puff of blood and feathers. Stargazer moved into the base courtyard where a number of soldiers were to which he began firing at his shots ripping into them. He reloaded the rifle as more griffons poured out of the main structure and began firing at him. He took cover as a griffon moved onto a machine gun turret and poured bullets at him like fire. The griffon kept shooting whilst Stargazer was behind the cover letting the bullets chip away at it until the machine gun inevitably overheated. He took the chance and aimed at the griffon as he struggled to cool the weapon, he fired a single bullet that went through the griffon’s face splattering the wall behind him with blood. He then moved onto the rest of the griffons firing at him and unleashed the rest of his magazine at them killing them all in one fell swoop.

A single tank rolled round the corner and took aim at Stargazer with its main gun he threw his weapon to the ground and galloped as fast as he could towards the tank. He dodged the shot from it and brought his hooves against the front of the vehicle and began pushing with all his strength he heard the engine of the machine rev as it pushed against him. His hooves dug into the ground as he kept pushing the tank with everything he had, he pushed up against the tank and slowly began lifting the front of it up into air. He threw the tank over making it land on its lid trapping the griffons inside then he jumped onto the underside of the machine and used it as a platform to jump through the window on the second floor of the structure in the middle of the base. The window shattered as Stargazer fell through it landing behind one of the pair of griffons that had taken shelter inside the command centre. He snapped the griffon commander’s neck making the other turn round at the sound dropping his weapon in fear at the sight of the fabled demon.

Stargazer followed slowly after the griffon that had bolted through the door and into the dimly lit corridor. He wrenched a piece of lead piping from the wall and held it in his hooves as he followed after the young griffon. The griffon turned to see Stargazer and tripped falling onto the floor, he scrabbled at the floor trying to move away from Stargazer but unable to take his eyes off him. Stargazer swung the pipe at the griffon smacking him in the face, he grabbed the griffon and pulled him to a standing position and hit him again with the pipe making the griffon drop to the floor once more. He hit the griffon again and again each hit making the emerald in his chest plate crack slightly more which went unnoticed by Stargazer. He then pulled the bloody and bruised griffon up to his face and growled at him.

“You tell the griffon king what happened here. Then. You tell him I’m coming.” The griffon nodded causing his body pain but he knew he had to otherwise he would be dead. Stargazer dropped the young soldier to the ground then moved towards the command centre and took off into the night sky leaving the base. The emerald laying shattered by the half dead griffon.

The griffon king left his carriage in an uncommon wariness he was within a pony fortress about to have talks of peace with Celestia and the other leaders of each country throughout the world but that wasn’t what made him nervous. He thought back to the lone soldier approaching him stating he would speak to none but the king and informed him of the demon’s words. He moved through the courtyard of the impressive fortress looking at all the sights. Ponies were everywhere staring daggers at the griffons but they kept their calm, he saw the Dragon Monks making their way towards the same entrance as him along with the Zebra Prime Minister each with their own escort of personal guards. To his right he saw the President of The Ponies Republic with his own set of guard which stroked their weapons at the sight of the king that had invaded their country. They each made their way into the fortress without a word uttered between them and were led by the Royal Guard Captain to a large chamber containing a table at which Princess Celestia sat. The Captain held a hoof up to stop the world leaders.

“Your escorts are to wait out here.” The dignitaries each nodded and entered the room taking seats in different positions around the pentagonal table the Griffon king and President taking opposite seats so as not to look at each other. The door to the chamber slid closed cutting all light from the room before Celestia’s horn glowed causing the gem in the centre of the table to light up casting a glow around the table and no further so that they could focus on what was happening rather than focusing on the room itself.

“Well then shall we begin?” The silence from the others was all Celestia needed to continue on.

“I am sure you are all wondering why I have summoned you here. I want us to end this senseless violence.”

“Then why have you invited these two!” The President of The Republic snapped smacking his hoof onto the table making it shake.

“I am not just talking about this war . Although this has been the bloodiest and longest yet.”

“Where do you get off calling this war long out of everyone here? My dear immortal Queen?” The griffon king’s sarcasm could be almost felt as the words rolled out of his beak.

“I am no Queen Victus and I believe that my……condition so to speak gives me more right than most of you to talk of a passage of time.” Her words cut down King Victus making him shuffle in his seat.

"What I have called you all here for is to make sure that this kind of bloodshed never happens again.” The others sat in shocked silence as they heard her before the Zebra spoke in his thick accent.

“Do you mean to say a as you would call it peace treaty between our lands?”

“Yes I do and yes I realise that such a thing has never been spoken of before even from before my time.” Celestia sighed, war was something she had known throughout her long life and even she knew it was sometimes necessary. The dragon pulled his hood from his head revealing his face. He looked ancient his eyes showing every bit of knowledge he had gained through time. His once magnificent scales had dulled and become white along with his spines. He bowed his head as he spoke clasping his claws together almost as if he were praying.

“Your highness peace has never been spoken of anywhere near this kind of scale before not any of the ancient texts have spoken of it. Do you believe it possible to achieve peace when nations are left to those that chase after their own desires instead of what is best for the world?” The monk raised his head after finishing his sentence and looked towards Celestia who sighed again hearing his wise words.

“Yes I am afraid that peace as we would all like to have will be impossible to keep throughout time but I believe that if we make the right choice here that future generations will be able to learn from our mistakes and not let violence escalate to this level again. But I believe first that we must talk about ending this current war shouldn’t we King Victus?” He slammed his claw onto the table in frustration again before he shouted at her.

“You blame me for this! You dare make such an accusation? We allowed The Republic to have our ancestors land and they returned our kind favour with their acts of terrorism! I am merely taking back what is our birth right!”

“I never authorised any attacks on your country! They were ponies working on their own accord!”

“Lies I say! You hide now that you realise you cannot stem the tide coming towards you!”

“GENTLEMEN PLEASE!” Celestia’s voice roared throughout the chamber silencing them all. She had not used the Royal Canterlot voice for a number of centuries and didn’t like using it.

“We are not here to cast blame for something that is in the past. We are here to make a better future.” The others nodded and Victus fell back into his seat.

“I believe that the acts of violence against Griffonia were done by those working outside the government and I also see your side of the argument Victus but what has happened over the past fifteen years has been murder, on all parts. What I suggest is that we return to how things were before this horrible war. Victus and I pull our armies out of The Republic and Moon-Dance here regains full control of his state.”

“I agree that this is the best course of action but may I suggest that both Equestria and Griffonia send aid to help rebuild the country that has had so many of its children return to the universe.” Celestia looked at the dragon shocked by his sudden interruption knowing the Dragon monks to always wait to be asked a question before speaking.

“Yes I believe that would be for the best but it will be hard both mine nor Victus’ soldiers can help with a relief effort and your people are scholars not a workforce.”

“I can send many worker to The Republic Princess. They are hardy and a great work-force.” The Zebra chimed in with his solution to the problem smug with his action.

“That would be most helpful Tovas now you have been uncommonly quiet Victus. What do you say to this?” The king shuffled in his seat as he snapped his full attention back to the table instead of around the room trying to spot something that none of the others could see.

“I will agree to this but on one condition. That those found responsible for the attacks on my land be transferred from your countries custody to mine.” His eyes narrowed looking at President Moon-Dance trying to see any sign of treachery.

“I think that is more than acceptable for the return of my ponies’ country. You will have those found responsible for the crimes against your griffons.” They each nodded in agreement before Celestia spoke.

“So it is settled then from this day forth the Alpha war is over. Now let us move onto making sure this never happens again.”

“I hope you are not talking about disbanding our militaries Princess. Doing so would cause our economy to crumble under a wave of unemployment that would destroy Griffonia.” The King looked around the room nervously at the sound of the wind buffeting the stone structure.

“I am not talking about that but merely that we agree now on the spirits of those that have died in the needless bloodshed that has befallen us. And that we pass on this pact to each of our successors in private our subjects cannot know of this otherwise there would be uproar on a global scale.” The other four looked at each other then back to Celestia and spoke in unison.

“I agree to peace for all.” Moon-Dance, Tovas and the dragon each stood and left the chamber leaving Celestia and Victus alone.

“What is it your excellency?” The griffon fumbled for a moment before speaking back to Celestia.

“Princess you talk of peace amongst our lands, you asked for the cease-fire. Why then have you unleashed your demon upon us….upon me?”

“What do you mean demon?” Victus reached into his cloak and pulled out a couple of photographs which he threw across to Celestia.

“Just over two weeks ago we had our first base fall off the grid. A short time after that I had a soldier come to me on the brink of death who said that he had seen the demon himself.” Celestia looked at the images and recognised the pony in them straight away.

“He told me that demon had given him a message that he was only to give to me. He said that the demon was coming for me. Now tell me why you have unleashed this upon me and my land?” Celestia looked up at the griffon keeping her composure.

“I assure you Victus that I have not sent this pony towards you but if you will allow it I will have my guard deal with him.” The King noticed the change in tone of her voice and nodded.

“I hope that your guard are up to the job. He has destroyed five bases in but a few days single hoofed as you would put it.” With that he bowed and left the chamber hurriedly making his way towards his carriage.

Celestia watched him leave then called for the Captain to enter the chamber who did so and sat down in front of her in silence.

“I need you to gather your ponies. I have an important mission for you.” He replied with a nod and moved out of the large chamber to gather his soldiers and prepare for their mission while Celestia looked over the photographs once more with a tear in her eye.

“Oh Stargazer what happened to you?”

Stargazer moved across the rocky plain through the dead of night. His rifle held loosely in his hoof whilst he scanned the map of griffon bases making sure he was heading in the right direction he would be at the castle of Griffonia and King Victus soon to exact his revenge for the death of Satrenko. He thought about his fallen brother, all the battles they had faced all the time they had spent together fighting and how he had laid down his life to save Stargazer. Confident he was headed in the right direction he slid the map into his satchel and carried on walking.

Suddenly a blinding light appeared before him making him go momentarily blind.

“Stop right there! You are surrounded!” Stargazer looked around him to see the booming voice was right all around stood shapes with the bright lights behind them.

“Lay down your weapon or we will open fire!” Stargazer took another take on the group surrounding him when he realised they weren’t griffons but ponies. Royal guard to be specific. He weighed up his options and threw the rifle away from him then took the bag off his shoulder and threw it too.

“Hooves In the air! Now!” He slowly moved his hooves up and put them in the air as commanded. He felt something strike the back of his head. He fell to the ground and into darkness.

Chapter 12

Outer Haven

3 Days earlier

Carrotcake struggled to pull himself up the steep cliff at the rear of the now larger group. His struggle wasn't made easier as he carried Pound and Pumpkin with him, Cupcake had offered to take them whilst they climbed but he knew she wouldn't be able to make it up with them weighing her down. Even though she would never admit it she was exhausted not just from the journey they had been undertaking but that she was trying to look after each and every pony that was in the group. Cupcake struggled to pull herself over the top of the ridge to which Carrot pushed her from behind getting her over and onto the flat ground on the other side. His hoof landed on a loose pile of stones causing him to trip and start sliding down the cliff face awakening the babies, a hoof grabbed his own halting his descent and dragged over the ridge and onto the safety of the flat ground. Cupcake ran over and took the babies trying to calm them down hugging them both tightly, Carrot sat on his haunches wheezing as he spoke.

"Thanks.....Macintosh." The large pony looked at him with his usual apathetic expression nodded then turned heading towards Luna who was looking over a map with Spike next to her. He looked at the ponies as he walked through Applebloom was with Scootaloo and her mother who looked the same as her daughter the only difference being her grey coat, she had been many times in the past mistaken for Derpy who sat next to her being heralded along with himself, Spike and the late Doctor Whooves as hero's. He thought back to the brown pony's gruesome demise by the creatures that had attacked his home. He shook his head from the thought and kept looking round the group, Trixie who had met up with them the previous day was next to Cheerilee using her cloak as a blanket for a few of the young ponies that needed sheltering from the cold. Spitfire was changing the bandage on her leg revealing the wound she had received from a group of bandits before she had joined the group. Nothing made sense to Big Mac anymore, those that were once mean and full of hatred were now kind to a fault and those that were kind and willing to help any had now become murderers that butchered any that they came across.

"This can't be right why would she think that that place is safe?" Luna threw down the map in frustration still looking at it transfixed whilst a quizative Spike looked at the point she was staring at. within a circle of mountains stood one that was larger than any other on the continent that had a circle placed around it indicating the location of Haven.

"What is it Princess? I thought your sister told you where to go."

"Yes Spike but where she has told me to go, something bad happened there a long time ago."

"What do you mean something bad?" Big Mac interrupted his voice filled with contempt that he had been giving her ever since she had met up with the remnants of Ponyville.

"I don't want to talk about." She hung her head in shame to which Big Mac ignored.

"Well whatever happened ya best get over it quick, can't be far now this gotta be the mountains round it. We can probably get there by sun down." Luna looked up into his eyes in shock which he replied with the look of pure contempt he kept shooting her. They stood staring each other down for awhile, he was one of the few ponies that was able to meet her gaze head on due to his size and he used it to his advantage to shock her.

"Fine then lets get going then." She picked up the box and threw it over her head tucking the map into it and making sure the helmet she carried as well was secure whilst Big Mac addressed the rest of the group.

"We aint far now c'mon we can get to this place by sun down so let's keep goin." The ponies that made up the group slowly lifted themselves up and gathered their things before setting off towards their destination.

The group approached the foot of the large mountain just as the sun was setting behind the ring of mountains they had crossed earlier that day. The sight would ordinarily be that of beauty, the sun glistened off the snow covered mountains and ground making it sparkle, the light wisps of snow moving in the wind along with the few bits of grass that poked through the ground reaching up to get the precious sunlight they needed to survive. It would have been the most beautiful sight any of them had seen, if not for the situation they were currently in. They approached the large cave entrance that Luna had led them to to which she stopped remembering her previous time in this place.

"Macintosh you come with me the rest of you wait here while we check it's clear." She dropped her various items at Spike's feet and then moved cautiously into the cave. The cave echoed the howling wind making it sound like a wolf cry but it was warmer than the outside, they moved through the cave in silence not wanting to talk to each other spiralling up through the heart of the mountain. Ahead of them they saw something that made them both slow their pace to a crawl, there was a flickering light ahead of them making Luna's cautiousness of the mountain all the more justified. They rounded the corner entering a large chamber with one large tunnel on the other side and many other small ones dotted around that supposedly led into other parts of the mountain.

"HALT!" The pair froze at the command feeling multiple sets of eyes upon them. From each of the smaller tunnels within the room ponies had appeared from the shadows pointing weapons at them, each one had their identity hidden by black cloaks that helped them blend into the darkness. From the large tunnel ahead of them a singular pony emerged from the shadows unarmed obviously being the one that had spoken the order. He looked the pair up and down then raised a hoof up to which the others lowered their weapons and moved back through their respective tunnels, he then signalled to Luna who turned to Big Mac. He nodded to her not needing to be asked what to do and set off back the way they came to gather the rest of the group waiting at the bottom of the mountain.

The hooded pony then turned and began heading through the opposite tunnel to which Luna followed spurred on by her curiosity of the hooded group. They entered yet another chamber which contained sets of tables and chairs which the rest of the group had moved into. Many of the ponies had removed their cloaks which Luna noticed one thing about them that was the same, each of their cutie marks had scars over them crossing them out. They began talking in hushed whispers as Luna and their leader passed them and kept staring until they moved into yet another tunnel that led into a small room which only contained a table, a set of chairs and a map of the world with a spider-web of string moving over it held in place by pins stuck into different locations. The pony removed his cloak revealing himself, His coat was a pure white he had golden eyes that showed up even stronger against his colouration, he had no mane or tail to speak of and just like the others his flank had the scar over it likely self inflicted as some part of ritual. He sat down at the table and indicated for Luna to sit across from him.

"I guess that you would like to know who we are?" Luna nodded keeping her silence still utterly baffled by this strange little group hiding out in this place in the middle of nowhere outside of any country.

"We are the followers of the star, an ancient group created not long after your coup. Our group first came together after the captain of the guard at the time disappeared."

"Wait you know Stargazer!?" Luna almost knocked the chair over in her excitement.

"No we do not know him he has not been sighted for almost two hundred years now. One of our tasks set down is to gather all information around the world of him to try our best to document his life." He stood up and moved over to the map following one of the lines until it reached a pin not connecting anywhere else.

"This was where he was last seen, in the town of Canterbury where it was said at the time the place was being ravaged by a mighty Ursa to which a pony with both wing and horn set out to destroy to which they never returned and the village was left alone. But of course you must know the story."

"Yes I do. Celestia said that she erected a statue in the town commemorating the one that did it and that she made it to look like him. I had planned on seeing the statue but."

"The order was made by the generals of the Equestrian military just before he left." The pony interrupted her clearly annoyed at her reminiscing and carried on with his explanation.

"The generals were asked to meet with him in secret, he informed them of his plan to leave and that there needed to be those that could act outside of the law to keep the world safe. He told them that one day the darkness would return and that our order would be needed to wage war against it. Since then the order has stood ready for what would happen but now." The pony leant forwards towards Luna his eyes narrowing as he whispered.

"Within the initial attacks our group was decimated. we originally had ten groups containing fifteen ponies in each city and now we are the last left. This war is over before it even began." The pony sat back in his chair and let out a long sigh.

"Is that any way for a leader to talk!" His attention snapped back to Luna shocked by the sudden outburst.

"You can't let yourself be beaten, You haven't been out there you haven't seen what has happened. If you were truly brought into this group to fight a war then you need to fight."

"But how are we"

"We need to fight! Not for land, not for wealth, But for our freedom and for our very lives. If we cannot fight as a true army then we need to fight in other ways. Not as an army. Not as soldiers. But as Ponies. We need to become more than followers, we need to be everyone. We need to be resistance.

The military convoy moved through the blizzard in a staggered group up the mountain road. Their numbers had dwindled significantly from when they were in the caves. Almost all those that had been injured had died whilst a small number had died from the cold whilst they walked through the frozen wastes in the far south of Equestria. Most of them had gone in their sleep or in pain screaming and begging for their lives except for one. Iron-hoof looked to the back of the group to see Fleur walking with Henderson by her side, he had ordered the private to keep an eye on her after Fancy pants had died. His death stuck in the captain's mind the most, he was calm unlike the others that were awake he asked for Fleur so he could say his tearful goodbyes after which he just stopped. With the others there was an indication that they were dead like the life could be seen leaving their body but him, he just merely stopped. His eyes were still open staring at the old pony when he died. It was something he wouldn't be able to get out of his head for a long time, those eyes that would never blink again, never convey that warmth which he gave off whenever he had entered a room.

"Urmmm Captain?" Iron-hoof's mind was brought to the present at the sound of Steel's voice.

"What is it Leftenant?"

"How far until we get to this Windhelm Fortress? We can't stay out here much longer or we're all gonna freeze to death." The pair at the front of the convoy looked back at the rest. It was true they wouldn't last long in this storm, Octavia pushed herself harder and collapsed onto the ground, A passing soldier helped lift her to her hooves and let her use him for balance. Iron-hoof pulled out the map he kept consulting and pin pointed their location on it.

"According to this it's just up this ridge it should be at most an hours hike." Steel turned to the rest of the haggered convoy and addressed them.

"Pick up the pace ponies! Not far now the quicker we get there the quicker we get out of the cold!" The soldiers seemed to speed up spurred on subcontiously from the command whilst the few civilians had to push themselves harder being helped to move by some of the more stronger soldiers.

As they reached the end of the road climbing up the mountain rising above the snow storm that had ravaged them they saw the most glorious thing they could hope for. The ancient fortress loomed atop the flat mountain still as impressive as it had been when it was first built. They approached the main gate to which Iron-hoof ordered two of the pegasus to open the gate from the other side which they did in a matter of seconds. allowing the others to enter into the courtyard. The place was completely empty letting the sound of their steps echo around them as they made contact with the ground. Iron-hoof made a beeline for the entrance to the fortress where the doors were already open allowing the group to hurry inside out of the cold.

"You lot take the civvies and find somewhere to rest yourselves. You three look for some form of pantry and see what the food situation is like. The rest of you search this place from top to bottom to see if anything has decided to use this place for shelter aside from us. The soldiers each saluted him then began rushing in different directions to get their tasks completed. Steel stayed by the captain's side and followed him through into a large chamber containing a pentagonal table, Iron-hoof lit the gem in the middle of the table casting its glow around them.

"This will be the command centre from now on. We're gonna need to come up with a way of contacting anyone who is alive out there. There should be a radio around here somewhere that still works." One of the ponies that he had sent to search the building came rushing into the room clearly panicked by something.

"You need to come see this!"

Chapter 13

Homestead

Twilight tossed and turned on the ground unable to sleep, the ground was as comfortable as it could be, the warmth of the fire soothed her, the night sky was peaceful and her body longed for rest but she just couldn't. She gave up on her futile efforts and stood up turning her attention to Stargazer who was sat on a log at the top of the hill they had decided to rest at. He hadn't spoken a word since she asked him how he had managed to lose the ability to wield his elements of harmony and she was worried about him. She felt odd that she seemed concerned for him, she didn't like him and she certainly didn't want to be friends with him but there seemed to be a part of him that she wanted to nurture.

She moved slowly up the hill staying quiet so as not to wake her friends eyeing Stargazer up all the while. He held his rifle to his side ready for anything that may be out in the fields expanding before them whilst he focused on a small pendant that was dangling round his neck. It was beautiful in it's simplicity, a diamond contained in a small gold ring that dangled delicately from the chain that he must've kept under his armour, he kept flipping it over in his hoof as if he was trying to find something that he couldn't see. She sat down next to him causing him to give her a grunt acknowledging her.

"Where did you get that?" Stargazer shuffled his attention from the necklace and looked her straight in the eye. She noticed his eye's were bloodshot and that there were still the glints of tears on his face but she thought it better to ignore it.

"I dunno."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"When you've lived for as long as I have you forget a few things, a year or two that you just can't quite place so I don't know where I got it from all I know is. It's important." She took another look at the necklace as did he trying to take in its beauty.

"It looks to me like it's a wedding necklace." Twilight had seen many pictures of wedding necklaces in books but she had never seen one up close before. According to the books she had read on marriage the necklace was ordinarily worn underneath an clothing against the chest to signify that the wearers loved one was always with their heart. Thinking about it the idea was incredibly romantic to Twilight although at the time she had read it she didn't care, being focused on her studies she had never really thought about romance even when she hit puberty she didn't care much for stallions or gentlecolts.

"Maybe but I don't remember having been married which I think i would do. Also there really has only ever been one I cared about like that and that didn't end well." He looked back at the necklace again probing it as if it would start talking to him and tell him what it was that forced him to hold onto it.

"So who was the lucky mare that stole your heart?" She kept her tone light so as not to strike a nerve like she must've done earlier plus she couldn't take much more anger and negativity.

"That would be Luna who took it but....Stuff happened that was out of my control." He wiped yet another tear from his eye and took another survey of the expanse ahead of them.

"You mean when she became Nightmare moon?"

"Yeah...Maybe you should get some rest, sun's gonna be up in a few hours." She looked over at him and merely nodded before heading back down to the camp fire and quickly fell to sleep like her body wanted after getting comfortable.

The group had managed to leave the fields before midday and were now out of the country of Equestria moving through the forest that mapped the northern border of the country. The forest was probably the most peaceful place they had been yet the tree's protected the ponies from the sun and the breeze moving through was refreshing. All around them animals scurried around going about their lives occasionally stopping to take a look at the group, birds flew through the tree's singing to one-another. They passed a group of rocks that resembled a pony's head which Rainbow Dash spotted and instantly flew to the front of the group in front of Stargazer.

"Hey! we're going in circles! You don't know where we're going you bucking ass-hole! c'mon girls lets go." He narrowed his eyes at her meeting her glare without faltering before he seamlessly grabbed her and pinned her face first into the ground wrenching one of her wings so that she wouldn't move.

"How many of us are there?" He growled the words at her like a lion or similar creature.

"Buck you!" He applied more pressure to her wing making her gasp in pain whilst the others looked on in stunned silence.

"I said, how many of us are there?"

"Se...seven." He let up on her pulling her off the ground by a few inches.

"Then tell me why there are eight sets of hoof prints?" He pointed her vision over the ground where she counted the sets of prints they left earlier and as he had said there was another set that didn't belong to any of them alongside the prints. The extra hoof prints were larger than any of the others including Stargazer who stood a full foot above them meaning that it was no ordinary hoofed creature following them. Having heard something the others didn't Stargazer turned letting go of Rainbow and snatched Rarity's scoped rifle from her pointing behind them into the tree's. Looking through the scope he saw a hooded pony that must've been allot taller than himself open a strange vortex that pulsed and swirled both purple and black, the pony then looked right at him before walking into the vortex where it shrank away into nothingness.

"What is it? what's there?" Rarity's voice broke his concentration on where the hooded pony had been. He gave the rifle back to the unicorn before retaking his place at the front of the group.

"It was nothing. Let's get going." The others each began following him including Rainbow who kept rubbing her wing where the Alicorn had been pressing on it. Before she began following the others Fluttershy gave her a hug nuzzling her head against her chest.

"Why do you hate him so much dashie?" Rainbow returned the hug letting a smile crawl across her face before she looked back to the others and frowned at Stargazer.

"I don't hate him. I just feel like he's hiding something and what he did to Pinkie was just mean."

"I don't think he means to be mean I think that's just the way he is. Just let up on him, please? For me?" Rainbow looked into the butter pegasus' eyes and let out a sigh before grinning.

"Okay then just for you." The pair shared a kiss before they were interrupted by Applejack.

"Hey get a move on will ya!" They both turned to their friend each with grins on their faces slightly embarrassed at falling behind whilst they kissed.

"Yeah we're coming!" The pair moved off after their friends hoping they would soon be at Haven.

As the day turned to dusk they began to notice the tree's beginning to thin around them. The ground had changed from the damp grass they had gotten used to walking on into rock and dirt, some of the tree's around them had no leaves on them and looked like they were dying. They continued on walking as the ground steadily turned more to stone and the amount of dead tree's dwindled until there were just a few dotted around them. They moved over the rough terrain climbing a gentle slope until they came to the edge over looking a farm house. Pinkie's eyes went wide as she saw the place, she bolted over the edge of the ridge ignoring the calls of her friends and Stargazer.

"Mum! Dad!...MUM! DAD!" She screamed as she ran across the open plain towards the house. Her parents opened the door where Pinkie threw her arms round them stunning them both as she cried into her mother's shoulder.

"Pi..Pi. Pinkamena? what are you.." Her father trailed off as he saw the others moving towards them Twilight at the front of them and pulled Pinkie's hoof off him letting her hold onto her mother tightly.

"Urmm...Hello Mr. Pie My name is."

"Twilight Sparkle yes I know my daughter has told us allot about you lot." He looked at the group before his eyes landed on Stargazer to which he cocked an eyebrow at.

"Well all but you." The pair moved forward to face each other Stargazer keeping his stoic look and Clyde eyeing him up and down.

"my name's Stargazer."

"Clyde. come on then lets get you all inside Sue why don't we get some supper for our guests?" Sue looked over to him and nodded before giving Pinkie a final squeeze before they let each other go.

"Well come in then there's a shower upstairs you can use to clean yourselves up." He let the mares move into the house ahead of him each of them thanking him for his hospitality. Pinkie wiped the tears from her face and turned to her parents trying to force a smile on her face.

"I'm gonna go say hi to Bellamina."

"Okay then don't be too long." Sue gave her daughter the warmest smile she could before she entered the house leaving Stargazer and Clyde on the porch alone.

"So....what are you doing with my daughter and her friends out here?"

"Are you seriously saying you don't know what's happened?"

"Of course I do we've been listening to that Voice of freedom on the radio for the past few days now. But that doesn't answer my question bud."

"I'm taking them to Haven."

"Well then I want you to promise me something. Me and my wife can't do much travelling any more we're too old for that but please. Keep my daughter safe."

"I'm getting them there sir that's"

"No! You keep my daughter safe, you keep them all safe or as Celestia is my witness I will hunt you down."

"I will get them to Haven. That is all I'm doing and them I'm out. There should be others that can look after them there anyway." Stargazer admired the old pony he had guts. Not many had ever been able to hold an argument against but this pony had done just that. Clyde entered the house leaving Stargazer on the porch, he looked through the window inside the house. Rarity was helping Sue cook the food whilst Clyde had sat in a chair talking to Twilight, Fluttershy and Applejack meaning that Rainbow Dash was taking a shower. He decided to move away from the sight to where Pinkie had gone minutes ago.

Pinkie sat looking at the grave stone of her little sister, she brushed away a few patches of moss that had begun to grow on it with a saddened smile on her face.

"Hey little sis. I know it's been a long time since I last came to see you I'm really sorry." She turned as she heard hoof steps from behind her and saw Stargazer standing just a few meters away from her.

"Please don't stop on my behalf." His voice seemed to hit her ears differently it was soft and gentle unlike the sharp coldness that she was accustom to hearing from him. He next to her looking at the grave.

"What happened to her?"

"She was murdered........A long time ago. By a sick colt, he did horrible things to us." She finally succumb to her sadness and burst into another flood of tears latching onto the Alicorn.

"It was all my fault! She died because of me! I made her come with me to play with him, I thought he was nice but then he killed her! And the worst part is....I'm glad she's gone. I mean I miss her everyday and want her to be alive but...."

"You're glad she doesn't have to live through this shit storm?"

"Yeah. That's it."

"honore defunctis, pugna pro viventium"

"What?"

"Something an old friend said. A long long time ago. It means Honour the dead, fight for the living." Pinkie gave Stargazer another hug he hair puffing out into its usual curly demeanour causing Stargazer to recoil as the hair hit his face.

"Thank you Stargazer. I actually feel allot better now." She said her goodbyes to Bellamina and skipped off merrily towards her home with Stargazer following behind her slowly.

As he entered the house he was set upon by Rarity who dragged him across the room and slowly up the stairs.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"You are going to have a shower."

"But I don't need one!"

You look positively vile and to be honest you stink I can't let you go without a shower in this state." He took a sniff of himself which he immediately regretted, the smell hit him like a blast from a shotgun. she kept pushing him through the upstairs hallway that was littered with family photo's through to the bathroom that was still warm from the showers that had been taken that night.

"Fine then I'll have a shower if it will keep you quiet." Rarity pulled the door shut behind her leaving him to his privacy where he took off his armour laying it gently on the floor then turned the shower on. Before he entered the stream of hot water he stretched his wings out as far as he could in the small room he moved into the shower and relished the water splashing on his head. His hair flopped down in front of his face, he could feel the grease and dirt that was in his hair. He reached out and grabbed a bottle of shampoo pouring the goo onto his head and rubbing it in.

Just as the food was dished out Stargazer made his way down the stairs freshly cleaned. His mane had regained its full colour and fluidity yet he still kept it pulled back so as not to obscure his vision and he looked refreshed. He joined the others at the table as they ate the food. Afterwards they decided it would be best to go to bed as the group would be leaving the next morning for the penultimate step in their journey towards Haven, due to a shortage of beds Stargazer and Twilight had to sleep in the downstairs room. Stargazer merely laid down on the floor whilst Twilight slept on the sofa, after awhile Stargazer finally let his eyes close and drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 14

What goes up...

The young guard threw open the door to Stargazer's room panicked and panting. The Alicorn snapped his attention away from the mirror where he was admiring himself in his own armour to the panting pegasus that had intruded upon him so suddenly.

"Princess Luna's been taken hostage! Celestia needs you in the grand hall immediately!" Stargazer burst past the guard and began sprinting through the busy halls barging through the different ponies that littered them causing them to grumble as he went past. He swung past the guards in front of the door to the grand hall which was buzzing with commotion, guards moved around the room passing documents between each other whilst Celestia and the generals of the Equestrian military sat around a table in the centre of the room pouring over maps. Stargazer charged up to the table to which those around it looked up to him.

"What happened!?" Celestia looked straight into his eyes for a second then back to the maps on the table.

"Luna's convoy was attacked whilst heading to Griffonia all we have is a note with these co-ordinates."

"Then why aren't we moving out right now!"

"Star it's obviously a trap please you can't succumb to your emotions."

"AND MAYBE YOU SHOULD! SHE'S YOUR SISTER!" The room fell into silence as he screamed at her, he had never used the Canterlot voice before and it echoed throughout the room. Celestia looked up to him with her mouth agape, his face was contorted into one of rage that she had never seen. She knew that he felt strongly for her but not strong enough that he would give in to anger.

"If you wont do everything you can to save her then I'll do it myself!" He moved over to the table matching the numbers on the paper to the map which he memorised. He bolted from the room leaving the others staring at where he had been unable to say a word. He ran outside of the castle heading directly forwards rushing towards the edge of the city and the cliff that marked it's border, he jumped off the cliff not breaking his stride. He let gravity take hold of him until he stopped accelerating where he opened his wings and pulled up pushing himself faster in the direction of Luna.

Stargazer flew non-stop, through rain and the night and the heat of the days, through storms and eventually through snow as he left Equestria itself. He didn't know how long he had been flying it could have been an eternity for all he knew but he didn't care, he landed on a mountain top overlooking where co-ordinates lined up on the map. He narrowed his eyes and shot towards the mountain looking for any sign of life on it as he circled round. Eventually he reached the bottom of the gargantuan place where he spotted a cave entrance. He landed on the snow covered ground looking into the tunnel hearing the pain filled yelps from Luna echo out. He shook with anger as he stamped his hoof down cracking the ground and began sprinting through the tunnel.

Luna sobbed in pain as he capture let up on beating her again, she couldn't see them properly in the darkness of the cave but knew it was a male and more importantly an Alicorn. His tiny red eyes glowed in the darkness his long wings held high up in pride as he looked down on her.

"Stargazer, Celestia...where are you?" She began sobbing to herself as she thought of her sister and Coltfriend. She couldn't help but think that both had left her to her fate. She had been there for so long in pain and all that kept her holding on was the thought of them coming to her rescue, of being in Stargazer's arms again but with each passing moment the thought slipped further and further away. The creature who had captured her on his own brought his face to her ear whispering to her.

"Not long now...Just one last thing to do." He touched his horn against her body. The pain was instantaneous, it felt like her entire being was being torn apart, like her soul was on fire. She felt like she should be dead the intense pain reached every part of her being yet she was somehow forced to stay alive and concious, forced to endure every agonising second of pain. The pony lifted his horn from her and turned his attention away from her. She heard a noise that broke the silence that had run through the cavern whilst she was there, the sound of hoof steps charging towards them. He heart lifted as she saw Stargazer standing on the other side of the cavern glaring at her capture who stood facing him.

"Who are you!?" His voice shook with anger and confusion looking at the Alicorn before he saw Luna behind him huddled into a ball which made his body shake with rage.

"I am the butcherer of time, my bloody history carved into the dirt and the rock and bone under every sky there is. They used to have a name for me. Nightmare....But you know that already don't you Lucien?" Stargazer cocked his eyebrow in confusion at the pony but quickly shook it off. He let his anger take control of his body and lunged at him. Nightmare's horn glowed enveloping a large rock, it slammed into Stargazer throwing him across the cavern. He landed on his hooves panting from the force of the hit, he charged forwards again dodging another boulder thrown at him. He dived out of the way of a dark bolt launched from the dark Alicorn, Stargazer jumped at him ready to bring his hoof down on his head but just before his blow connected Nightmare vanished in a cloud of smoke. Stargazer landed on the ground looking all around for any sign of him his short harp breaths taking in the smoke around him, the putrid smell made him gag it was like rotting flesh lodging itself into his nose. He looked around himself completely disorientated by the smell and lack of vision he turned to the right where he saw the pair of red eyes mere inches from his face before he felt a bone shattering blow to his stomach throwing him into the air. Before Stargazer could fall to the ground Nightmare appeared next to him in another puff of smoke, another blow came to him before Nightmare teleported around him again and gave another blow and another and another. Nightmare teleported round the red Alicorn beating him again speeding up until his hits became blurs hitting every single part of his body. Nightmare cleared the smoke around them and floated in mid-air charging the aura around his horn before he let the blast of magic fly into Stargazer launching him into the wall one of the spikes on his helmet broke off and cut into his lip splashing blood on his face.

Stargazer landed on the floor looking at Nightmare who was calming walking towards him having not even broke a sweat in his brutal flurry of attacks. Stargazer forced all his strength into charging a spell to attack the dark pony who stood inches from him, Nightmare brought his hooves down on Stargazer's horn shattering it and causing him to wail in pain. Nightmare then began to lean down to him ready to touch his horn against the wounded Alicorn's flesh when he was hit by a beam of light. He jumped away from Stargazer as Celestia shot another beam at him, Stargazer tried to watch the events unfolding in front of him but he could hardly make out anything through his blurred vision. As a small number of Canterlot guard came to assist Celestia Nightmare vanished leaving his putrid smoke behind him. Celestia rushed over to her sister along with some of the guards whilst the rest moved over to Stargazer. He couldn't take his eyes off Luna who wasn't moving his worry and fear keeping him concious as the guard picked him up and began carrying him out of the cave. He heard Luna let out a small whimper lifting a weight from his shoulders to which he let himself fall out of conciousness.

Stargazer stood in his bathroom room looking at the pony in the mirror a deep scar ran through his lip like a crevasse through his face. His horn kept shooting sharp pains through his body he tried rubbing it to soothe the pain but his hoof grabbed nothing but thin air. He moved his hoof down till he touched the jagged stump left on his head then moved it back up to the point where the pain stopped but no matter what he did the niggling pain stayed making grow more frustrated with each second. He looked back to the mirror at himself and let out a scream as he punched the face of the Alicorn looking back at him shattering the reflective glass. He kept his hoof buried into the former mirror, warm blood dripped off of him and onto the white basin before he pulled his hoof out letting some more pieces of glass drop onto the floor and sink. He began slowly pulling pieces of the mirror out of his hoof unaccustomed to not using his magic for a delicate task like this but he knew that trying to use it was no use. Unicorns that had lost their horns were unable to use magic again and apparently an Alicorn was no different. Stargazer thought of when he first realised that his magic was gone, he wasn't trying to do anything special just lift a cup to his face but no matter how hard he tried he wasn't even able to move it an inch. He grabbed some paper towels and wrapped them round his hoof to stem the bleeding before he noticed the presence in the doorway to the main bedroom.

Before he could react Luna had thrown herself round him sobbing into his shoulder her blue mane brushing his face gently. She had grown since they had returned, she was now a few inches shorter than him but with each day the distance between their heights would close, her fur had turned from its soothing light purple to a harsh black and the part of her cutie mark that was originally black had turned violet contrasting against her flank.

"I'm so sorry! It's all my fault that this...this.."

"It isn't your fault....It's mine. I didn't think, it was a trap and I walked right into it." She looked up into his eyes that once comforted her but now they felt different almost like she wasn't looking at the pony she loved but at a stranger she just met.

"It is though....I went to him willingly."

"What do you mean willingly?"

"He approached me awhile ago, he said that he felt sorry for me. That no pony enjoys my night's and instead shun it for the day. I was jealous, I want the night to be enjoyed, I want to be looked up to like Tia but I'm shunned like my night. He said that he could make every pony love the night and make them love me. I went to where he said that I should go for him to make it happen but when I got there he....Well you know the rest. I really am sorry all this is my fault. I did this to you." She buried her face into his shoulder again as another wave of tears broke through to which he let her sob for a moment but then pulled her away before making his way out of their room.

"I need some time alone. you understand?" She sniffed wiping away a final tear from her eye before she nodded to him.

"Take all the time you need." Stargazer left his mare-friend without another word. He walked through the halls of the castle his hooves echoing throughout the empty halls, occasionally either a group of ponies or guard would walk by him staring at him whilst he wasn't looking and muttering under his breath which he ignored. He made it to his destination standing in front of the door to which he knocked. He waited for a few seconds before a voice replied from within.

"Come in." He took a deep breath and pushed the door open entering the room. The room was significantly different to the rest of the castle. It was probably the smallest room within the building lined with books of varying age, a fire crackled shining light and heat around the room making it feel calm. Celestia looked at Stargazer noticing the air of depression around him.

"Hello Star. You here on duty? or did you just need to talk?" She did her best to smile but her face couldn't do it. He walked further into the room past philomeena who followed his movement to Celestia where he sat down and rested his head against her letting a tear break out of his eye.

"I'm worried about her Tia. She said that she went to that thing out of choice."

"I'm sure she just had a lapse of judgement you know she's a free spirit." He looked up into her eye not covered by her pastel coloured mane before he turned his gaze back to the fire on the other side of the room.

"It's not just that. She said she was jealous of you, jealous of how you are seen, how the day is relished but her and her night are looked at with fear. I'm worried she's gonna do something." Celestia put her hoof round him and gave him a hug.

"I don't think she will do anything Star she may get annoyed and jealous but she would never let harm come to any pony. Trust me she's just feeling guilty I'll talk to her."

"Okay then. I believe you..........Tia."

"Yes Star?"

"I'm sorry. I should've listened to you."

"You don't have to be sorry for anything. I was wrong, she's my sister and I should listen to my emotions." The pair stared into the flickering fire talking of Nightmare and how they could safeguard against him.

Stargazer slipped his armour on himself taking extra care not to cut himself against the broken part of his helmet as he had done the first few times he had put it on after he returned to active duty with the guard he took just a quick second to check himself in the mirror before he left the room his air of confidence and pride having escaped his body. He walked through the halls of Canterlot barely taking up any room unlike how he used to walk filling a room with his ego. He looked out of the windows as he walked at the city still under the hue of night, he had decided to start patrolling early as he couldn't sleep and finding that Luna wasn't in their bed. He had shrugged it off as her taking one of her many night-time walks and decided not to question it. He passed a window looking at a clock tower within the city looking at the hands on it reading that it was half six in the morning, he shook his head looking at the clock again. it still looked like it was the middle of the night yet apparently it was early morning. The sun should be already in the sky and yet the moon hung in the dark sky. Stargazer snapped away from the window and began running through the castle looking for Luna maybe she had been incapacitated and unable to lower the moon for Celestia, he needed to find her fast before the citizens of Equestria awoke and began panicking.

Stargazer reached the outside of the astronomy tower within a few minutes hoping that Luna was in her usual quiet place within the castle maybe not noticing the time taken up with her observation of the night sky or maybe caught up in her artwork. He slid the door to the main room of the tower to see the night pony standing at the ledge overlooking the castle. Her mane flowed like her sister's permanently changing little twinkles appearing in her hair like stars she stood much taller than him she turned to him upon his arrival her eyes no longer being soft and gentle but sharp with slit-like pupils that stabbed into his heart. She wore a helmet that fitted to her head perfectly along with a chest piece both a very light purple.

"Ahh my most loyal subject." her voice sifted through his ears making him shudder. He tried to speak but nothing came out of his mouth.

"Do you not have anything to say to your queen? Do I not have your respect?"

"The hay you on about Lu? Queen?!"

"Do not refer to me by that name it is not befitting of this land's true ruler."

"Luna what are you doing!?" Celestia's voice cut between the pair causing them to look over to her. She stood as tall as she could possibly be standing at the same height as Luna.

"You shall refer to me as Nightmare moon dear sister." Stargazer's eyes went wide with fear as she spoke the words. Nightmare. The name struck his heart more than anything had ever done in his life as he stood rooted to the spot.

"Now dear sister of mine the night will last forever in this empire of mine, so the sun must be vanquished." She took a step towards Celestia where Stargazer sprang into action, his body acting of its own accord he grabbed her trying to subdue his life long friend.

"Insignificant whelp." her mane flared up as lightning shot from it throwing the red Alicorn across the room landing in a lump on the floor looking at his two friends. The necklace around Celestia's neck began glowing as did her crown before a light shot out from them and into Nightmare moon trapping her in a field of magic.

"CELESTIA NO!" He pleaded to his mentor with tears streaming down his face but she either didn't hear him or ignored his screams. Luna looked over at Stargazer her eyes briefly changing back to their normal way before she spoke with her normal voice to him.

"I'm sorry" the magic flared around her shattering all glass within the room before the light shot up into the sky leaving the space where Nightmare moon had stood empty. Stargazer held out his hoof touching the ground in front of him, Celestia moved into the centre of the room and began channelling magic through her lifting into the air as the moon lowered and the sun rose the light momentarily blinding him.

Stargazer sat on a bench in Celestia's and Luna's private garden on the edge of the cliff that Canterlot was placed on. It had only been a few weeks since Luna was exiled to the moon but he already looked completely different. His mane had become unkempt and greasy from a lack of washing, his strong lean body was already fading from a lack of food, he had only eaten the bare minimum to keep himself alive. His eyes were bloodshot from both crying and a lack of sleep, he hadn't ventured into his and Luna's room ever since she became Nightmare moon, the walls brought back too many memories for him to deal with. Stargazer looked up at the setting sun shining over Equestria as he heard hoofsteps behind him.

"Hello Star." Celestia's voice seemed frail she had stayed in public view after exiling her sister and as such had to remain stronger than him, he kept his bloodshot eyes focused on the sun ahead of him all he did to acknowledge her was grumble to himself. Celestia sat on the bench next to him and placed a hoof on his shoulder.

"Please Star just say something, anything. I can't lose you too. I...I just can't. Please!" The tears began streaming down her face as she shook him pleading for him to talk to her. To be his old self with his cocky smile, his laugh, his confidence and his own brand of comedy yet he stayed quiet and stared at the ground. The tears began flowing from her eyes more profusely before as she gave up trying to hear his voice again when he let out a sigh.

"Do you remember what you said?" He pulled off his helmet placing it down on the bench whilst Celestia looked at him stunned to suddenly hear his voice, so calm, almost serene. She had expected him to blame her or to be sad but she couldn't predict his actions any more. Ever since Nightmare kidnapped her sister he had drastically changed from the care-free pony she knew into a wreck.

"What do you mean what I said?"

"All those decades ago, in Ponyville." He stood up and walked to the very edge of the cliff where he rose to his hind legs and turned to face her the sun blazing behind him.

"I said that I had nothing left to teach you, that if you wanted you could....." Her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped as she remembered what she said to him on the hilltop. on the bench the crystal in the helmet cracked.

"No Star please, don't." Another flood of tears began breaking through her eyes as he smiled at her seeming to be at peace.

"I think it's time for me to go." The crystal in the helmet shattered to nothing but dust being taken away by the gentle breeze as he lifted his arms up and slowly fell backwards over the cliff. Celestia ran over to the edge where she saw the outline of him flying away from the city rapidly fading away into the sunset. She wiped the tears from her eyes regaining her composure as she turned around and moved to the bench picking up the helmet and looking at it thinking of every memory that she had shared with red Alicorn over their long lives.

Chapter 15

The choices we make

Iron-hoof stared the markings carved into the wall within the dungeons of Windhelm. Ever since the soldier showed the markings on the wall he had rarely left trying to understand what they meant. Along the walls heading to the secure solitary confinement room were scratches and holes and the heavy metal door to the room itself had been torn apart caving in on itself but the strangest part of the sight was the markings next to the stairs leading up to the ground floor of the fortress. He didn't know what language was written in but knew that it had to be a message to someone from the complexity of the markings.

"Could be Dragon-tongue?" The captain jumped slightly as the voice of a young sergeant spoke next to him also checking the markings. His dark brown coat partially blended to the wall behind him, his mane was cut short sticking straight up like most soldiers with his uniform covering his body and flank. Iron-hoof took another look at the markings inspecting them closer before he shook his head.

"Nah it isn't I can understand a few bits of dragon language and this isn't it this is completely different. Who knows maybe we'll never find out and it'll be one of those little mystery's that we have to accept." The soldier looked over at the old pony with a raised eyebrow before once again looking back to the markings and shrugged his shoulders.

"Guess you're right but ya never know maybe we will find out." Iron-hoof made for the stairs after the pony spoke calling to him as he made his way up.

"Well then, back to work soldier." The brown pony stood and moved through the dungeons on his patrol whistling as he walked.

Iron-hoof entered into the command centre as Steel stood in the centre watching over the ponies sat at different positions around the room performing their separate tasks. The buzzing of a radio could be heard being tuned over the drone of conversation and hoofsteps. Steel gave the captain a nod as he approached him both looking around the room proud of the work they had done within the short time they were in the fortress. The place had been locked down and repairs had begun the first day they had arrived with all the civilians they had with them volunteering to work with the soldiers obviously realising that if they didn't there would be a chance that all of them could die. The radio that Vinyl scratch was fiddling with began faintly making the sound of a voice under the static.

"Lock in on that signal and trace it!" Steel jumped over to Vinyl scratch where she began rapidly turning knobs on the radio making the voice come out clearer.

"...stance groups have been reported in Manehatten and the areas near cloudsdale....There has still been no word from Fillydelphia and any locations within the desert or from overseas. Don't give up, fight for tomorrow, fight for your lives, if you see the shades don't go waving the white flag cause they'll just kill you. This is the voice of freedom." The radio once again turned to static once more leaving the three ponies by the radio in silence for a few seconds.

"That signal traced?"

"Yes sir" Vinyl scratch answered nodding enthusiastically proud that she had managed to trace the radio signal to its source.

"Well then let's open up a channel hopefully they can hear us." Steel picked up the microphone and pressed the button silencing the static and began speaking into it.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" He let go of the button letting the static return before a confused voice spoke back to him.

"Uhh yes I can hear you you're a bit crackly but can make you out."

"This is the voice of freedom right?"

"Yes it is. May I ask who you are?" Iron-hoof took the microphone from Steel and began speaking into it next with his authoritative voice.

"This is Captain Iron-hoof of the Royal Equestrian Military."

"C....Captain you say?"

"Yes."

"Give me just a second there is somepony here who will want to talk to you." The radio turned to static once again for a few moments before it picked up again this time with another voice speaking.

"Captain. Is this line secure?"

"As secure as possible given the situation. Who is this?"

"It's Luna."

"Princess!? You're alive?! What happened?"

"It's a long story Captain but the short of it is Celestia is gone, almost everywhere is destroyed these shade things are running amok within the immediate area of Canterlot and ponies have turned on each other. Equestria is all but gone."

"I see, what of the Air force? the Navy?"

"We haven't heard anything on our end. Where are you contacting us from?"

"Windhelm fortress."

"what is the situation like on your end?"

"We have plenty of supplies which run out for a long time, a number of soldiers and civilians too."

"Okay then. Stay there hold up for as long as possible we need to create a network with different settlements around to figure out what to do."

"Okay then your highness we'll do just that when we have the place repaired we'll send out scouts to search for survivors and any settlements."

"Well don't take any risks Captain I have a feeling we'll need everypony we have. I need to sign off now."

"Okay then Princess we'll speak soon with a report on the situation." He put the microphone back as the radio turned once more to static and allowed himself a few seconds to breathe relieved that they weren't the only ones to survive the attacks.

"Right then you heard the Princess let's get this place back to operating condition quick as we can!"

"LUNA!" Stargazer threw himself off the wood floor panting as Twilight slipped off the sofa yanked out of her sleep by his shout. She pulled herself up groaning as she rubbed her head as she did looking over to the Alicorn who wiped the beads of sweat from his brow his eyes darting around the room.

"What is it?" his eyes snapped to her as his breathing slowed and deepened calming himself, the sunlight shot through the open window onto his face making him squint to see the lavender unicorn.

"Nothing.....just a dream." He looked down at the ground as a tear fell out of his eyes. "I haven't thought about that for centuries, why now?" He shook his head letting the question reside in the back of his head with all the others he had left to answer and stood up stretching out his legs each one cracking as he did so.

"Guess there's no point in trying to get back to sleep, gonna have to get going soon. The others best get themselves up or I'll have to give them a personal alarm." He grinned as he thought of a prank to play on the other five upstairs. Twilight looked at him with a raised eyebrow his smile looked incredibly odd for him, it was genuine, unlike the little raises of the corners of his mouth she had seen. She was snapped away from Stargazer as the sound of multiple hooves came down the stairs warily making sure not to fall over in the daze of early morning.

"What's all the ruckus? or do I not wanna know what ya'll are doin'?" Applejack being the most used to early mornings was allot more chipper than the rest due to her early starts at Sweet Apple Acres. She looked at the pair giggling to herself at the sight of Twilight stammering trying to explain that nothing was going on embarrassed that Applejack would think of her doing anything of the sort with their unlikely guide.

After a few minutes of waking up Sue and Clyde had come the stairs to join the others not letting them leave without a proper breakfast. They ate the food stuffing themselves completely and then took a few saddlebags which Pinkie's parents had filled with food and water for them to have on their journey. They stood on the porch wishing them good luck before they got to pinkie who gave them a long hug.

"Pinkamena....If you find Octavia out there...tell her....tell her we love her very much." Clyde put his hooves on his daughters shoulders as he spoke to her looking into her eyes then hugged her.

"And don't forget we love you to dear." Her mother began sobbing as she embraced pinkie who patted her on the back.

"I know you do mum and I'll tell her dad, even though I'm sure she already knows." She let go of her mother and joined the rest of her friends who greeted her with warm smiles.

"We'll stay here and try and keep as quiet as we can. Don't worry about us okay, we'll be fine out here nopony comes out here so we wont attract attention. Now go you hear, you go get yourselves to this Haven as quick as you can." Pinkie nodded before she turned to leave with her friends. Sue let out another set of tears and buried her face into Clyde's body as the group slowly faded into the distance on their long journey.

The group moved through yet another forest in the early afternoon, they had just started moving after having a quick rest to eat some of the food given by Pinkie's parent's and drink some water letting the weight off their hooves. the forest was allot smaller and different to any others they had been during their journey. The tree's were thin and covered in a thin layer of snow as was the ground. Their didn't seem to be any animals running around like the mares were used to having in Equestria and the weather changed of it's own accord which unnerved them deeply. Stargazer munched on a piece of bread looking at it inquisitively with each bite whilst the others happily ate their food in silence.

"Weird I didn't think ponies made their own bread any more. Tastes so much better than that processed shit you're all probably used to." He swallowed his bite before taking another relishing in the taste of the home-cooked bread.

"I can't taste any difference it's just plain old bread to me." Rarity stared closely at her piece trying to see any difference to the bread she was used to but gave up.

"It's all in the details how it's different, this bread is fluffy and light not weighed down with all the stuff they put in bread to make it look so pristine. Plus it tastes warmer and takes on the taste of the crop used for it, it takes in the location the crop is grown in and how it is made. You can't beat a bit of home cooked bread or maybe I'm just old fashioned." He threw the rest of the bread in his mouth and swallowed it taking in each part of it's delectable taste.

"Well then, shall we get going? Or do you lot need to rest more?" Each of the mares looked at him with their mouths hanging open some still with half chewed food in their mouth. He looked back at them with a cocked eyebrow staring at each of them in the stunned silence.

"What? you look like I just smacked you round the face." Fluttershy strangely was the first of them to speak up her timid voice cutting through the silence of the forest.

"Well...um...it's just you never ask us if we need more rest....you just...um..go." She shrunk back as Stargazer looked at her before he turned shrugging his shoulders.

"Okay then you want me to be like that then I will do."

"Oh no no no please it's nice we just didn't expect it."

"Well fine but come on let's get going anyway it's only gonna get colder." He began walking as the others rushed to catch up with him a slight smile on his face as he walked.

After another hour they reached the edge of the forest where they saw a sight that stunned each of them. across the plain ahead of them was a pile of burning wreckage, a small explosion went off amongst the wreckage whilst they looked at it.

"It's an airship, Nightmare's forces must've taken it out. Come on let's go check for anything we can grab." They each charged towards the wreckage weapons at the ready for anything that may be there. They reached the wreckage within a matter of minutes and began scanning the area for anything whilst Stargazer went with Rainbow Dash into the wreckage searching through it. As they moved through the wreckage looking everywhere they could for any supplies a piece of metal fell over revealing a pony still alive but cut in half, they rushed over to him as he groaned with pain.

"Soldier what happened?" The pony groaned more before he looked at Stargazer.

"We were attacked by these things, like ponies but not. How bad am I?" Stargazer looked the pony up and down at his guts that had spilled out of his open body hiding his disgust at the sight.

"You're gonna be fine save your strength." He stood up from the pony who laid his head on the ground staring at the sky. Stargazer pulled out his rifle and took aim at the pony where Rainbow grabbed it pointing it away from the pony.

"What are yo doing! We can't kill him." She hissed at him as quietly as she could so the pony couldn't hear her as did Stargazer.

"Look at him! He's done for you know that as well as I do. It's either this or let him go slowly what do you think is better?" Rainbow looked at the top half of pony on the ground before she let go of the rifle and pulled her own out and took aim.

"I'm so sorry." The shot rang out through the wreckage echoing around them. Rainbow dropped the rifle to the ground and fell to her knee's looking at the corpse of the pony in-front of her.

"Please forgive me." She felt a hoof on her shoulder and looked up into the sky blue eyes of Stargazer. He didn't say anything and began walking back towards the others letting her come of her own accord.

"Let's camp out here tonight we'll do the final leg over the mountains tomorrow." the others sat down on the ground taking of their packs as soon as he said the words and got comfy sitting round one of the pre-existing fires. Rainbow followed slowly after the Alicorn solemnly. Fluttershy went to her but she waved her away without a word and climbed up onto part of the wreckage of the airship looking out at the setting sun. The others began to make a move towards her but were waved down by Stargazer who went up in silence and sat by the cyan pegasus.

"You did the right thing you know." His voice was quiet he knew that he had to be careful with what he said and how he said so he decided that softness was the best way to go. Rainbow sat with her face in her hooves sniffling in response to him.

"I know it doesn't seem like it but it is. The right thing is almost always the hardest choice." She pulled her head up and looked at him trying to fight back the tears.

"Why?"

"Because life is cruel, it's like a bad joke getting played on us by someone. Almost like they wanna see us struggle."

"I guess you're right..." Rainbow wiped her face removing some streaks of tears from her face whilst Stargazer looked at her with a slight grin before nudging her.

"Wow you're agreeing with me? Didn't see that coming." Rainbow laughed slightly grinning at the Alicorn who smiled back at her.

"So Rainbow I gotta know. What's your problem with me? You don't just distrust me, you really hate me. So what is it?" Rainbow pondered with her thoughts for a while before she came upon an answer.

"I guess I've been trying to push you away. Maybe I have some trust issues."

"How so?"

"Well I never knew my parents. They left me at an orphanage when I was a baby so I don't like getting to close to others."

"Looks like we're more alike than we thought."

"Huh?"

"Never knew my parents either. Celestia found me when I was a baby and took me in."

"Well I know they're out there somewhere." She looked once again at the sun as it fell below the horizon with a determined expression on her face.

"I'll find them. One day I'll find them." Stargazer looked at her for a few moments. So young, so strong. He looked back at the other five sat below huddled together chatting amongst themselves.

"So what about your friends?"

"I dunno I just felt like they wouldn't leave me....Although it took some longer for me to trust than others."

"And Fluttershy, you two seem....ummmmm....close." Rainbow chuckled at how he stumbled around saying that they were a couple.

"It took a long time with her to be honest. we only got together a few months ago and I knew her in flight school back in Cloudsdale. But once we got together I knew it would be forever."

"But you still worry that she'll leave you....That they all will." She put her head back in her hooves and nodded sniffling again.

"To be honest I've never seen friendship as strong as the one you lot have once before and the way you and Fluttershy look at each other.....Well let's just say I know that look. You should tell her how you feel though, you don't want for something to happen to either of you without saying what's in your heart." She looked at him the tears having stopped flowing from her eyes before she nodded.

"You're right. I should say something, she wouldn't leave me anyway just look how awesome I am!" she jumped to her hooves smiling and running her fore hoof through her mane.

"Well you have fun with that I'm gonna be by the fire if you feel like joining us." He jumped down from the piece of wreckage with Rainbow just behind him. Stargazer sat down by the fire lying on his back staring at the stars whilst Rainbow tapped Fluttershy on the shoulder and signalled for her to follow. The pair sat just a small distance away from the group so that they could speak without the others hearing them.

"What is it Rainbow?" Fluttershy's soft voice melted Rainbow's heart letting a smile crawl across her face before she gave the butter pegasus a kiss.

"I just wanted to talk. Y'know, about us." Fluttershy instantly dropped her head and began pawing at the ground.

"Oh.......I guess......This wasn't....go-going to last was it?" She became crying slightly trying to stay strong so as not to make a scene when she felt a hoof on her shoulder. She looked up to Rainbow who was still smiling at her tenderly.

"You think I would bust something like that out now? after we went to that other Ponyville, after we had to deal with your father you think I would just up and leave you? Especially with all this shit happening. Shows how highly you think of me." Rainbow winked at her then laughed giving her Mare-friend a hug.

"What I really wanted to say was well.....I dunno how to say it but well. I love you Fluttershy. Like I really love you, I never thought I would love anypony like this but well here we are. I.....Well...I." Rainbow took Fluttershy's hooves in her own and got down on one knee in front of her. Fluttershy's eyes went wide and began to well up with tears.

"Fluttershy.....when all this is over. When we can go back to our old lives. Will you.......Will you marry me?" Fluttershy dived at Rainbow enveloping her in a hug with tears of joy streaming from her eyes.

"YES! YES! OH SWEET CELESTIA YES OF COURSE I'LL MARRY YOU!" The pair shared a passionate kiss calming themselves slightly before they returned to the others who all apart from Stargazer were looking at the grinning pair with a look of utter bewilderment.

"Girls...we have a little announcement to make." They each leant closer to the smiling couple who kept giggling like a pair of school fillies.

"well.....Rainbow just proposed to me!" Fluttershy squealed and flapped her wings in excitement before her friends rushed over to them congratulating them both.

"Oooo dear you need to let me design you a dress."

"Of course I will Rarity I wouldn't dream of going to anypony apart from you."

"Well well Rainbow I didn't think you were the type to tie yourself down."

"Oh come on A.J you're just jealous that I managed to find a special somepony before you did." Rainbow grinned at Applejack who tried to reply but couldn't manage it and merely ended up smiling at her.

"We need to have a party to celebrate!" Pinkie was bouncing around her friends more excited than the engaged pair whilst Twilight who was as excited as the rest was hit by a wave of realisation.

"Wait how are you two going to get married with....this happening." She pointed to the wreckage of the airship mere meters away from them.

"Well that's why we're going to wait till this is over, have it both as a celebration for getting through this and a reason for us to stay alive."

"Wow that's really nice of you Rainbow." Stargazer looked over at the celebrating mares and rolled his eyes. He began to turn his gaze to the sky once again when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He stood up and moved over to a part of the destroyed airship wiping away a layer of dust from part of the ship revealing lettering underneath that read Victory Dawn.

"Well that's a name I haven't heard in a while."

Chapter 16

The guns of Trotterdamn

Year of Equestria, 593, 6th Year of the Alpha wars.

Stargazer stood in line with the other soldiers on the military airship. The Equestrian army had been driven out of The Ponies Republic a few months ago after they tried to aid the Republican military but had failed in their attempts to break the Griffon lines. With a daring show of heroism from pony fishers using their own small vessels to transport troops across the ocean to the safety of Equestria saving countless lives. Due to the crushing defeat the military had for the first time in history begun enlisting ponies to fight in the war without having to endure training and medical checks which is when Stargazer saw his opportunity to earn some money utilising his special talent. Thankfully the ponies within the ship hadn't taken any special attention to him some would occasionally stare for a few seconds but none made any remarks about him having both wings and a horn. The drone of conversation around him quietened as a pony walked onto the podium in front of them. She was a beautiful earth mare, her silky silver mane seemed to hover in the wind, her light blue coat shimmered in the early sunlight. She walked to the podium and placed her hooves on it taking a breathe before she opened her gold eyes.

"Ponies! Today is a day unlike any other in history! You have enlisted to fight under the flag of Equestria which has honoured me so. All of you have signed to assist with this war that has already taken thousands of lives, and threatens to take countless more. When you are out there fighting, you fight for your lives, you fight for your brothers and sisters, you fight for honour, you fight for peace. But above all else you fight for Equestria!" The ponies all began cheering wildly at the mare who stood proudly for a moment before she turned away allowing an Orange pegasus to take to the podium holding a sheet of paper.

"Please listen out for your names and head to your assigned squad." The pony began reciting names off the list with a set of numbers one by one each pony moving over to a different Eagle transport, the latest piece of technology created for the war effort with a different number painted on the side of them. Eventually the pony called out Stargazer's name along with the numbers two, six to which he picked up his rifle and moved over to the aircraft with the corresponding numbers written on it where three other ponies were loading gear into the vehicle.

"That Victory Dawn...I swear she would marry her voice if she could." The average looking brown earth pony with a short blonde mane chuckled as he handed equipment over to the orange coated, grey mane'd pegasus who kept silent focusing on her work. The brown pony stopped staring at the Alicorn walking calmly over to them before he jumped off the vehicle and next to a tough looking earth pony with black hair and a plum purple coat.

"So this is the replacement for Viktor? Why are we getting stuck with.....whatever he is?" The leader of the group held up his hoof to the other pony silencing him as Stargazer came within ear-shot of them.

"Stow it corporal! Be thankful we're back at full strength again and this guy looks like he's seen some action unlike most of this rabble. Soldier I'm Sergeant Blizzard, this here is Corporal Apple and Private Do." The purple earth pony stallion pointed first to the brown earth pony stallion who had been angered by Stargazer joining their squad and then to the quiet yellow pegasus mare who looked at him indifferently.and continued loading equipment into the aircraft. Stargazer joined them in loading the last of the equipment before he climbed into the vehicle having to stoop lower than the others not to hit his head on the frame of the aircraft. Two pilots climbed into the cockpit of the ship and ignited the engine sparking the rotors on either side of the VTOL into life, all around the deck of the ship the same thing was happening with all the other squads. Blizzard slid the door shut just as the aircraft lurched off the floor and away from the airship.

The VTOL's engined rumbled as they flew over the ocean towards the Republic none of the ponies on-board talked but sat in silence Stargazer kept his eyes closed leaning his head against his rifle psyching himself up for the battle they would be entering soon.

"So what's the plan sergeant?" Do had finally spoken up having to shout over the rumble of the engine, Stargazer looked first at her on the other side of the ship and then to Blizzard who was standing holding onto a piece of pipe running through the cramped area.

"Okay listen up cause I'm not explaining this again! We are gonna be dropped behind enemy lines by this Eagle class VTOL transport within the town of Trotterdamn, the job of the airborne is to take out the artillery they have allowing the navy to punch through and unload the rest of the troops and armour and then retake the town. Specifically ours is to meet up with a group of Republican resistance and secure a block within the town as many other squads will be doing. Simple. Oh and out there things are gonna get real hairy real fast so you keep your heads down follow your orders and you will make it out alive." One of the ponies in the cockpit peered his head round the corner their face obscured by the helmet they were wearing.

"sixty seconds! Doors open!" Blizzard nodded to the pony then slid the doors to the VTOL open letting the sunlight in. There were dozens of Aircraft like their own flying in formation, they could hear the cracks of gun-fire from the Griffon artillery and the Equestrian navy. The aircraft flying a few feet away from theirs exploded suddenly as shots began flying upwards into the formation of aircraft.

"Griffon air troopers twelve o'clock!" The pilot's panicked voice came through as a hail of gunfire hit the VTOL.

"Apple get on the 50 cal!" The two ponies dived to the machine guns attached to the aircraft at each door cocking the weapons and unleashing the full force of them on the passing Griffons. A shot from an anti-air cannon hit the right side engine of the VTOL throwing it into a spin as it began falling from the sky. Apple held onto the door with all his might while Blizzard held out his hoof to the corporal, Apple lost his grip on the door and was thrown away from the falling aircraft whilst Blizzard still held his hoof out at the spot where the pony had been just a second ago.

"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" The ponies barely had enough time to react before the VTOL slammed onto a rooftop the sound of metal screeching against rock the rush of noise and G force disorientating Stargazer before they began falling again and hit the ground demolishing a building as they did before they screeched to a halt.

Stargazer's vision slowly began returning to him, the inside of the VTOL was a mixture of sharp metal and rock torn apart from the crash. Each time he blinked the vision blurred more each time focusing quicker, the ringing in his ears stung into his head adding to his delirium. He slowly began pulling himself out of the wreckage landing on the ground in a heap. A familiar purple shape rushed over to him speaking but Stargazer couldn't hear the muffled speech prompting Blizzard to smack him round the face bringing the Alicorn to his senses before handing a rifle to him.

"Come on we gotta get out of here Griffon's are gonna be closing in any minute now!" The pony slammed through the door of a nearby building with Do right behind him then followed by Stargazer.

"What the buck was that! We didn't get told they had AA!" Do ran next to Blizzard darting her gaze around each corner as they ran through the large structure as did Blizzard and Stargazer checking for any Griffon forces.

"Intel dropped the ball! Same shit different day!" Do slowed down before she let a tear out looking at the ground.

"Strudel..." Blizzard turned seeing Do crying to herself and ran over to her throwing her up against a wall.

"He's gone Daring! Don't you go too! We're getting out of here alive!" He looked from Daring to Stargazer who looked back at him with a cold glare.

"All of us." The trio moved further through the building without incident and eventually outside into a street lined with houses all connected to each other towering around them at different heights where they began hearing gun-fire coming from a short distance to them. They each looked at each other and nodded before they began heading to the sound hoping to find a group to which they could band together with and formulate a plan.

The three ponies moved slowly as the gun-fire came louder around them, they knew they had to be close to the source of the fire-fight making them each tense up with adrenaline. They stacked up against a door which they concluded was the last barrier between them and the battle being waged, Blizzard opened the door slowly holding his rifle ahead of him in one hoof just in-case there were any Griffons on the other side. Luckily there were no Griffons on the other side of the door but they could see the flashes of gunfire from around the corner in the dusty building along with bullets slamming into the wall near them whilst a voice kept shouting out.

"Come on ass holes! I get enough for all you! Bring it! Come on bucking bring it!"

"Daring get a trip on that door Star you get behind me and get ready to shoot." The two ponies nodded to the Sergeant before moving, Daring pulled a grenade from her belt attaching a piece of string to the pin hooking it onto the door handle and a table leg that sat next to the door making it so that if anyone opened the door the grenade would go off. Stargazer crouched down next to Blizzard and put his hoof on the plum pony's shoulder letting him know he was ready to move. Blizzard slowly peeked round the corner seeing a single pony crouched below a blown out window amongst the bodies of other ponies popping up every few seconds to fire at the Griffons shooting at him. His mane stuck out in a stunning contrast to his dull grey coat, his mane was short and spiked a vivid combination of purple and pink falling over his face.

"Watch your six! Friendlies coming in!" The Pony turned back to where Blizzard shouted looking down his rifle at the gruff pony with his warm magenta eyes before he nodded and placed the rifle on the window sill above him firing towards the Griffons. Daring put a hoof on Stargazer's shoulder to which he tapped Blizzard's signalling they were ready to move, the trio burst round the corner charging to the wall which they each slammed into the wall where Stargazer and Daring began firing whilst Blizzard talked to the grey earth pony.

"What's your name soldier?"

"Name's Satrenko voulemarche just call me Renko though." The pony smiled at Blizzard in a strange nonchalance considering his predicament unnerving the Sergeant.

"Okay then Renko. We'll save the introductions for later." A flurry of shots punctured the wall between the pair each jumping backwards at the shock of the bullets coming so close to them.

"Stargazer! You go up those stairs and swing round to those Griffon buckers and flank em while we cover you got it?!" The Alicorn nodded and crawled on his belly to the stairs near where they entered the building and began climbing them whilst his comrades fired at the Griffons. Stargazer got to the top of the stairs checking the corners making sure there weren't any Griffon soldiers trying the same plan as him before he began sprinting towards the other side of the building to where the Griffons where shooting from within the courtyard of the large manor. Suddenly as he was running Stargazer was thrown to the wood floor as a missile flew through the window he was just passing exploding against the adjacent wall, he looked up just in time to see a sizeable pony in a black cloak sprinting into a black and purple vortex disappearing from sight as the vortex swallowed itself. He lay on the ground looking at where the pony had gone with his mouth hanging open before he was brought back to the battle as part of the roof behind him collapsed into the courtyard. Stargazer pulled himself up and began sprinting through the hallway turning a corner just before the end and jumping through a window at the end of the adjacent corridor out into the large courtyard where the Griffons were taking cover from his allies shots. He landed on the ground in front of the enemy soldiers causing them to look at him in fright before he rose to his full height and popped a bullet into each of the squad letting them fall to the ground without a change in his steely expression. He turned from the new corpses heading towards the window where the ponies stood looking at him.

Blizzard unfurled a map onto the grand piano in the room sending a cloud of dust into the air looking over it as Stargazer hopped over the wall joining the others.

"So what are your names then?" Satrenko gestured with his hands still smiling at each of the ponies who did not return the same warm expression.

"I'm Sergeant Blizzard, that's Private Daring Do and Private Stargazer." The plum pony pointed at the pegasus who looked out of the window keeping watch with a solemn look and then to the armoured Stargazer who looked the grey pony up and down before cracking the bones in his neck and joining Daring in keeping watch.

"That guy sure don't look like a private. Like, why don't you have that fancy armour?"

"That aint standard issue must be custom made to look similar to royal armour......although it's a piss poor job at a copy. Now I'm gonna guess by your name and accent you're Republican resistance?" Blizzard glanced over at Satrenko before looking back at the map trying to find their location.

"Aye that I am, we were trying to take out the anti-air but got pinned by Griffon forces on the way oh and by the way we're nowhere near there more like over here." He tapped the map almost on the other side of the city to where Blizzard was looking causing the Sergeant's expression to drop.

"Shit we're completely off we should be on the other side of the city making a blockade against this lot......Okay listen up we got a new plan! Me and Daring are gonna go and take out the southern artillery while Stargazer and Satrenko who is now a part of our squad head over to this anti-air emplacement before the next wave of Eagles get launched." A couple of thuds combined with the cracks of cannon fire shook the room causing yet more dust to fall from the ceiling.

"Now lets hurry up before shit completely hits the fan." the four ponies climbed over the wall and into the courtyard of the manor heading over to the large gates to which they parted ways without a word.

Stargazer and Renko moved through the small winding streets of Trotterdamn keeping their rifles at the ready with the buildings towering over them. The sound of distant gun fire, cracks of cannons and pulses of anti-air fire could be heard which they were heading slowly closer towards. The pair slowed down to a walk allowing themselves to catch their breathe where Satrenko pulled a pack of cigarettes out of a pocket on his clothing and then held them out to Stargazer who looked at him with a blank stare.

"You don't smoke? They're good for the tension." Satrenko chuckled as he shook the half empty pack in front of the Alicorn who then sighed and took one lighting it with a match that he took from the grey pony before he sat down on a piece of rubble that lay in the street.

"So Stargazer"

"Just call me Star."

"Ooookay then. Star, care to tell me how you got yourself a set of wings to go along with that horn?" Satrenko took a quick puff of his cigarette enjoying its taste before letting the smoke out of his nose still grinning. Stargazer let a long drawn out breathe of smoke exit his mouth before he looked up from the ground at the smiling pony before him.

"Born this way, long before your time."

"So you're like that, what's her name?"Satrenko began tapping his head trying to probe out for the name he couldn't remember.

"You mean Celestia?"

"Yeah! That's her name!"

"I am like her. Although I'm also very different."

"Well duh it doesn't take a scientist to figure that out." The grey pony crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out making the Alicorn laugh at the sight before he began laughing himself.

"You know Renko. You're all right, even in this mess you still got your head together."

"This aint my first rodeo. I know what to expect."

"Good I can't be arsed with babysitting out here. You lose your cool, you let it get to you and you're on your own."

"Noted. Now I guess we got some AA to get rid of." Both of the ponies threw their cigarettes to the ground and began making their way towards the sound of the cannons faster than before.

The pair rounded the corner as another ground shaking crack erupted from the rooftop in front of them. They looked up as the shot from the cannon collided with one of the Eagle transports turning it into a ball of fire hurtling to the ground a couple of blocks away from them. Another flash came from the cannon as it fired into the sky missing its next target that flew overhead and toward another part of the town to drop its troops.

"Shit they're trying to stick to the first plan, What is that Victory Dawn doing?! She's gotta see that it's all falling apart from her fancy airship. Right let's get to that door Renko looks like we're gonna have to sweep and clear that building. Ten stories, why do they have to make these new buildings so tall?" Stargazer felt a pat on the shoulder from Satrenko who looked at him with his usual grin.

"It's called progress old colt now come on let's get this over and done with before we're spotted." He ran ahead of Stargazer and slid against the door signalling him over to join him. Stargazer joined Satrenko who had dropped his cheerful grin looking the Alicorn in the eye with a stern look.

"I'll go in first you follow me, got it?" Stargazer nodded to him to which Satrenko kicked the door open with every ounce of strength he had pointing his rifle around the room as Stargazer followed him in doing the same. They both nodded to each other sure the ground floor was clear and moved to the staircase in front of them, the pair began climbing the staircase through the block of flats passing each floor opting for the plan of getting to the top fast and avoiding conflict. With each shot of the cannon above them the building shook sending dust falling from the ceiling and more often than once sending one of the pair into a stumble. They reached the top floor of the building where the stairs stopped and began looking around for any sign of another staircase. The cannon fired again causing the pair to drop to the floor as they were deafened by the weapon above them.

"That thing is really starting to piss me off! We gotta get up there now before any more get taken out." Satrenko led Stargazer down a long corridor where at the end stood a door without a number on it with a bar going across it. Satrenko inspected the door then pushed on the bar letting the door swing open.

"How did we let our country fall to those that are so dumb they don't even put a charge on the door?" Satrenko moved up the stairs taking care with each step as he gripped his weapon ready to fight. As he moved ahead he saw the light coming in from the open door around the corner. He dropped onto his stomach and began crawling until he reached the top of the stairs peering out at the rooftop where the cannon was placed. He climbed back down the stairs to Stargazer who was waiting patiently keeping his eyes on the corridor they had just come from.

"Looks like twenty maybe more I couldn't really see much."

"It'll be tough to get that many with just us two." Stargazer spoke with just a hint of worry in his voice whilst Satrenko pulled a cylinder from one of his pockets and looked at Stargazer with a smile.

"Yeah it would be if we didn't have one of these. Those scientists.....They do more magic than unicorns." He pulled the pin from the device and threw it out onto the roof. There was a few seconds before a series of sharp explosions rung out flashing light against the wall. The pair charged out of the door and onto the roof where all the Griffons there were stumbling around blinded by the explosions unable to see the pair in front of them. The pair began firing at the Griffons killing them as they regained their vision. Before they had finished off even half of the soldiers the living ones regained their sight and began firing at the ponies. A bullet collided with Satrenko's shoulder, he dropped his rifle and fell to the floor resting on the sandbags clutching his shoulder as blood poured from it.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! Ahhh buck that hurts!" Stargazer dropped down below the sandbags as a wave of gun fire launched at them. He pulled Satrenko's hoof away from the wound looking it over quickly then placing his comrades hoof back in place.

"Stay here and keep pressure on it you'll be fine." Stargazer grabbed Satrenko's rifle along with his own and took a deep breathe. He rose up from the sandbags and stood on them walking forwards holding the weapons in front of him. He fired the weapons at the Griffons who stared at him in fear as they shot at him. Each bullet they fired at the Alicorn changed their trajectory bending around him as he returned each bullet that was fired at him. Before he killed all but one of the Griffons both of the rifles clicked signalling that they had run out of ammo, the last Griffon looked at the Alicorn who threw both the weapons to the ground still walking towards him. The Griffon made his decision throwing his own weapon down and jumping off the building flying as fast as he could away from Stargazer.

Satrenko stood up and slowly made his way over the sandbags checking around the rooftop. On a small table he spotted a pair of binoculars which he picked up and began scanning the coastline. Along the beach he could see ponies fighting furiously to move up getting hit by either mortars or machine gun fire. Satrenko gritted his teeth in anger as he looked at the massacre happening on the beach. He turned his gaze from the beach to the cannon to the left of his vision, on top of it he saw Blizzard and Daring Do on top locked in combat with Griffons stationed at the gun, he then looked at the heavy AA cannon beside him when an idea came into his head and let a smile crawl over his face.

"Hey Star! Feel like doing our friend's job for them?" Stargazer turned around moving over to Satrenko with a cocked eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"Well we just happen to have a high explosive cannon here and there is a piece of artillery that I'm sure we can hit. Plus it looks like the others wont be done with the first for awhile especially without our help."

"Okay then I'll load a shell you aim this bad boy." Satrenko began turning the wheels on the side of the cannon turning and lowering the barrel towards the piece of artillery lining it up with the sights of the cannon. Stargazer heaved the shell onto the cannon swinging the door to the barrel shut turning the wheel on it locking the door in place.

"So Renko. You wanna do the honours or shall I?" Satrenko who was still clutching his shoulder bowed to him in a mocking manner.

"All yours. Unless you're gonna break a hip on me."

"Hey you should respect your elders." The pair laughed as Stargazer climbed into the seat of the gun making sure that the aim was right. He took a deep breathe and threw the handle down. The shell exploded out of the cannon and hurtled to the artillery engulfing it in an explosion. The pair cheered at the sight of the explosion hoof bumping in celebration before another explosion rung out from the other artillery position stating that Daring and Blizzard had done their job.

"Well then I guess there's just one thing left to do here."

"Right, let's blow this thing up and then get out of here." They each moved around the rooftop as fast as they could grabbing grenades off of the dead soldiers and placed them in a pile at the base of the cannon. Stargazer put his hooves under Satrenko's shoulders who held onto the last grenade they had ready to pull the pin on it.

"You better not be scared of heights! Cause there's no way we're gonna get off this roof without flying!" Stargazer unfurled his wings and pulled the pair into the air hovering just a few feet from the building. Satrenko pulled the pin from the grenade and threw it amongst the others. As the pair moved away from the building the explosion engulfed the rooftop destroying the cannon and letting it fall into the building as the floor gave way beneath it.

Satrenko and Stargazer entered the camp to a roar of cheers from the soldiers within. Many of them moved up to the pair shaking their hooves or patting them on the back shouting words of encouragement.

"Nice job out there!"

"Your guys rock!"

"You gave it d'em Griffons hard!"

"Yeah Equestria number one!"

"Wooooooo!" The two ponies kept their cool under the wave of encouraging words as they made towards the tent on the far end of the camp just outside of Trotterdamn. Outside the tent the guards smiled at them before allowing them to enter into the tent.Inside the tartan shelter stood both Daring Do and Blizzard who's faces picked up at the sight of them.

"Well looks like we got our own guardian angels." Blizzard shook the pair's hooves as he congratulated them then allowed Daring to say her own words to them.

"You guys were awesome, we're lucky to have met you." She smiled at the pair before the sound of hoofsteps came into the tent alerting the squad to the newcomer in the room. Blizzard and Daring both saluted Victory Dawn, her long silvery mane seemed to shimmer in the light as she flicked her head at them all smiling away.

"At ease. I should be saluting you for what you did today." She snapped a salute at them then took a more relaxed stance.

"So squad two, six of the airborne. After being taken out by Anti-air losing one of your members and radio gear in said crash you managed to group together with this resistance fighter." She nodded to Satrenko. "Then you split up into two different groups moving through the town without orders from above going by your own instinct. Blizzard you sent these two ponies one who had only joined your squad today and then one who you had met in the field to go and destroy an AA gun opening a corridor for the air force to make a break through and stop the rest. You sent yourself and miss Do here to take control and sabotage an artillery position so the ground troops could make it up the beach and into the town to allow the pincer move to begin. But whilst you were clearing the first of your targets you got pinned down. That is where these two stepped in, instead of merely destroying the cannon they used it against the Griffons. They used the cannon to destroy the second artillery emplacement allowing you the window of opportunity to destroy your target, you kept your cool in a situation you weren't prepared for, you made quick decisions that changed the course of the battle. Each of you rose above and beyond the call of duty saving not just the lives of the soldiers on the field today but also the fate of the entire war. For this reason Sgt. Blizzard I am hereby promoting you to Leftenant. Private Do, I am promoting you to Corporal, and Stargazer, I am promoting you to Sergeant."

"What about me ma'am?" Victory Dawn looked over to Satrenko eyeing him up and down.

"Ah yes Satrenko Voulemarche right? If you and Leftenant Blizzard here wish it you can be a permanent member of squad two, six becoming an official member of the Equestrian military as the rank of Private first class. What do you say Leftenant?"

"I would be honoured to have him as a member of my team, he's a good soldier and works well with the rest of us."

"Then it is settled I will write the papers myself tonight then they will be sent to the generals right away and I am sure the Princess will want to take a look at them herself. Dismissed!" The ponies each saluted and left the tent apart from Stargazer who remained planted to the ground.

"You are dismissed Sergeant unless there is something you would like to discuss."

"Well Commander, it's about that letter you're gonna send."

"Yes I am sure Celestia would be very intrigued by it especially you I mean it isn't every day that a pony like her is found."

"Well that's what I wanted to talk about. I would greatly appreciate it if you were to leave my.....Status so to speak out of the letter. Just a personal favour for me."

"Well I think I could leave a few minor details out of the letter to my mentor such as race of pony. Something like that could just happen to.....slip my mind." Victory smiled at the Alicorn then winked at him letting him understand her.

"Than you miss Dawn. Mentor you say?"

"Yes I am well more to say was the student of Princess Celestia herself. She taught me everything I ever needed to know about the world, about well....everything. And now here I am leading these ponies to victory liberating The Republic from the Griffons. I am having to go against everything she taught me, all in the name of peace. War for peace. How can war make peace? can you tell me that Sergeant?" Stargazer shuffled on the spot as Victory Dawn let a tear roll down her face.

"I don't know miss Dawn I'm just a soldier, a weapon of war to be used against the enemy. You point me at them and I shoot, it's you that has to deal with the guilt I'm afraid, if you can still sleep at night knowing what you have done then you are fit for leadership which you must've proven to reach your rank. So pull yourself together and get on with your duty."

"Very well. You are dismissed Sergeant, rest up you'll receive orders in due course." Stargazer left the tent without another word into the camp where he was greeted with another round of cheers heading to the tent his squad were sent to already asleep in their bunks.

The Griffon was thrown to the cold hard ground to which he coughed up a pile of blood. The other Griffon paced around him just outside the light obscured by darkness lifting the soldier's head up before he punched the one on the ground snapping part of his beak off causing him to scream in pain.

"Because of you the ponies took the town. Because of you they now have a foothold in The Republic now what do you have to say Traitor!" The Griffon on the ground lifted his head up trying to look the other in the face to no avail. The Griffon hidden in the darkness lashed out again punching the one in the light smacking his head against the rocky ground.

"Talk! Why did you run when attacked by simple ponies?!"

"It wasn't an ordinary pony!"

"You ran from one singular pony? are you that much of a coward!" The Griffon went to hit the one that was keeled over in the light but was stopped by his words.

"It was a demon! It wasn't like the rest!"

"Go on.....Tell me of this demon"

"It had both wing and a horn. Like their queen. It appeared out of nowhere in an unholy light killing most of our squad. It....It walked through fire the bullets turned away from him I believed it best to warn of its coming. The pony queen has unleashed something from the depths of the dark realm upon us and we need to know. That is why I ran sir."

"Very well then. I shall inform the higher ups of this Demon." The Griffon pulled a pistol out of the holster on his belt aiming at the younger of the two.

"May the ancestors smile upon you." A gunshot rung out in the darkness followed by the sound of a body crumpling on the ground.

"Only a pony would make a deal with the dark spirits. Perhaps this will be the downfall of us all." The Griffon moved away from the dead body as the light faded around him leaving the place in darkness.

Chapter 17

Shedding the load

Stargazer laid on his back in the early morning sun sleeping through his memories of the war, of Victory Dawn, of two six squadron, of Blizzard, of Daring Do, of Satrenko. A splash of cold water flooded over him wrenching him from his slumber. He threw himself into a sitting position when the sound of six giggling mares came to his attention. He looked around at the group staring daggers at each of them. Pinkie rolled on the ground in fits of laughter, Rainbow snorted next to the pink one smacking her hoof on the ground, Fluttershy held a hoof up to her mouth stifling a giggle as did Rarity, Applejack was sat on her haunches guffawing at the sight of him whilst Twilight stood in front of him with a smug look on her happy face.

"You know you snore when you lie on your back." Pinkie let out another burst of laughter and began hiccuping adding to her laughter each time she did so. The red Alicorn rose to his full height above the ponies letting the tinniest of grins to appear on his face for a brief second before he shook himself spraying water all over the mares and drying himself.

"Aww come on you throw water on us all the time we get you once and you throw it back?!" Rainbow gestured wildly with her hooves hovering just off the ground with her mane stuck to her face similarly to the others.

"Well you could'a just done that to me but you didn't think about that. Remember to think outside the box." Stargazer climbed up onto a piece of the wreckage of the Victory Dawn looking out over the plain towards the mountains. The sun's rays gleamed over the thin layer of snow causing it to glint like fine jewels. The weather for the day could only be described as perfect, not a single cloud could be seen in the sky, there was no breeze and the temperature was more than comfortable. The only thing taking away perfection from standing there with the mountains and the snow and the weather was the pieces of metal littered around them from the destroyed airship.

"Hey what you doin up there? you see something?" Stargazer looked down to Applejack who shook her hat dry not entirely paying attention to his actions whilst she was cleaning her prized possession.

"Actually I was trying to figure out where the mess hall was on this thing cause to be frank, I'm hungry." Without listening to Applejack's reply he jumped off the piece of scrap out of sight beginning to forage around for any food. He moved through the littered lumps of metal taking care not to disturb any of the pieces lest they fall on him moving towards the largest piece of the once mighty airship in the centre of the wreckage.

At the centre of the wreckage at the main portion of the aircraft Stargazer stood inspecting the large metallic structure for a way in, a door, a window even a hole in the hull of the ship just anything that he could fit through but after his third time pacing back and forth he gave up. He slammed his hoof against the metal in frustration causing a panel behind him to creak and fall away onto the floor with a mighty crash echoing around him. He peeked his head around the corner looking into the ship seeing nothing but a grating floor and pipes along the narrow space. He squeezed his way into the corridor slipping through as quickly as he could through the claustrophobic place away from the light seeping into darkness. His horn glowed slightly as he rounded a corner into pitch black and a tiny orb of light manifested on the tip of his stump detaching itself to hover around just above the Alicorn's head before casting its light in all directions so he could see. He immediately regretted his decision to cast the light as the sight of the dead bodies scattered throughout the room in twisted macabre positions came into view. Flies buzzed around the already rotting corpses swarming around the dried blood. Many of the bodies had some level of decapitation such as a leg or head or even a wing here and there missing from their corpse. Blood was plastered over the walls along with bits of gut and entrails from the many ponies stuck to the wall along with the once owners of the organs.

Stargazer burst out of the wreckage of the airship into the open air stopping a few meters away from the aircraft then doubled over vomiting on the ground. He picked himself up off the floor wiping the vomit away from his mouth then ran as fast his legs could carry him back towards the others.

Stargazer regained his composure before he climbed over the final piece of wreckage where the others would be waiting on the other side. He began taking deep breathes to calm himself before he hastily put his hair back behind his head then made the final climb over the sheet of metal to the colourful group who were split in two talking to either Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash no doubt about arrangements for their wedding.

"Ah the naivety of youth. Hey! there's nothing back there! Let's get moving!" Each of the happy mares looked up at him and replied with either a cheerful yes or okay. Stargazer dropped down onto the ground and picked up his gear whilst the mares picked up their bags and began following the Alicorn except for Rainbow and Fluttershy who shared a tender kiss for a brief moment.

"Hey! Y'all get a move in will ya!" Applejack's voice interrupted the pair causing them both to giggle at getting caught sharing their moment.

"Before you know it they'll end up like Mac and Cheerilee." Twilight chuckled to herself imagining Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy calling each other by pet names and at Applejack's shudder remembering her brother and little sister's teacher's mishaps after being given the love poison.

"Ah don't think Equestria could handle that Twi probably end up doing more damage than that Nightmare fellow."

"Hey maybe we should use it as a weapon against him. The power of Rainbow and Fluttershy." Twilight let out a fit of laughter as did Applejack whilst they walked drawing intrigued looks from both Rarity and Stargazer.

"Ah think that may be going to far Twi even against that thing." Stargazer sighed dropping his head below his shoulders as he walked listening to the conversation between Applejack and Twilight joking about using the pegasus pair's love as a weapon against Nightmare.

"Ohhh this is gonna be a long day."

The sun had almost set by the time the group had climbed over one of the mountains blocking their path to the central mountain Stargazer had remained quiet for the majority of the day merely grunting when one of the young mares tried talking to him taking them back slightly thinking that they had broken through to the old pony's heart. Before they were even halfway from the smaller mountains to the gargantuan one in the centre of the ring. The luscious calm weather from the morning had now been replaced by a strong blizzard that had taken them by surprise, it was almost impossible to see in front of them through the white-out. The mares clung to each other trying to stay warm yet in front of them Stargazer walked along almost like he hadn't noticed the storm raging. The snow crunched under mares hooves as they walked and then collided with Stargazer's behind causing each of them to fall back as he stared at his hoof on the floor. He brushed away some snow from the ground catching site of a hoof shaped hole in the ground the exact size of his own hoof.

"We're here." The others didn't hear what he said but he didn't intend for them to, he needed to say it to himself make the fact dawn upon him. The fact he had tried to push out of his mind ever since the plan to get to Haven had been thought of. He was about to see Luna. Stargazer held his hoof out grabbing onto one of the mares not sure which and neither caring and led them inside the cave entrance pulling the others in after them before following in himself shaking the snow of him as he got out of the blizzard. The 7 ponies walked through the winding cavern Twilight leading the ground and Stargazer staying at the back for a reason that eluded Twilight keeping his steely gaze. The group entered into an open cavern lit by torches flickering light around the open cavern.

"I thought you said that there were supposed to be"

"HALT!" The command froze them all Rarity still with her mouth open looking at the other end of the room where to figures slowly walked out of the darkness. Big Mac and Luna both stood glaring at the mares not noticing Stargazer who was hidden in the shadows behind Twilight and her friends. The pair stared dumbstruck at the sight of the mares as did Twilight and her friends at the pair before the silence was broken by Big Mac.

"Applejack?" He took a step forward as did Applejack who looked at him with a single tear in her eye.

"B-Big Mac?" She charged forwards wrapping her hooves around her big brother letting all the tears she had contained out crying into his chest to which he began running his own hoof through her hair trying to comfort her.

"Twilight Sparkle, how did you get here? How did you know about this place?" Luna kept her eyes fixed on Twilight who noticing she was being addressed looked back to Luna who had a look of utter confusion on her face. Before she could answer Twilight was brushed aside by Stargazer who emerged from the darkness making Luna's mouth drop open.

"That would be me." Luna didn't even take the time to check her mind wasn't playing tricks on her she ran forward throwing herself around Stargazer who stood with the same blank expression on his face.

"She's gone Star, she's gone and I don't know what to do." Luna sobbed into Stargazer's chest much like Applejack was still doing with Big Mac but unlike the siblings Stargazer didn't try to comfort her and merely pushed her away walking forwards and into the cave on the far side.

"Yeah I guessed she was, Celestia wouldn't contact me for help if she wasn't sure she was going to die." Twilight stopped. Her entire world shattered around her. Celestia, her mentor, her idol, her parental figure so to speak was dead. Stargazer walked round the corner out of sight prompting Luna to look at him utterly stunned by his apathy towards her sister's death. Twilight began weeping to which her friends apart from Applejack who was still clinging to her brother to either hug her or rest a hoof on her shoulder.

"Twilight darling let's get inside." Rarity glanced at the others who let go of the lavender unicorn which Rarity began leading inside the cave that Stargazer had entered. The order members and Ponyville survivors each looked at Stargazer walking past them in disbelief, he kept his stern facial expression hearing the different ponies whispering to each other as he walked on by. A bald white pony walked up to him scanning the Alicorn with his golden eyes before he snapped off a salute.

"Sir I'm Zetroca current head of the order. What are your orders?" Stargazer barged past Zetroca who quickly caught up trotting alongside him.

"Sir we need to know what to do I'm not prepared for this none of us are. You and miss Luna are the only ones to have encountered Nightmare but she is not best prepared for this either unlike you." Stargazer stopped and stared at the earth pony for a second.

"I'm not a leader. I'm not here to bail you out come up with your own plan." He left Zetroca staring at him as he opened a small wooden door leading to an armoury which Luna followed him in. Stargazer threw his battered rifle aside replacing it with a semi-automatic equivalent along with a dozen magazines. Luna looked at him wanting nothing more than to hug him but she fought the urge to.

"What are you doing Star?"

"Gearing up what does it look like?" Luna felt the force of his words making her need to fight back a wave of tears as Stargazer strapped a belt to himself placing two pistols either side of his waist in holsters.

"You're not gonna stay and help fight?"

"Nope." He loaded a few pistol magazines into his belt not once looking at Luna who walked up right next to him.

"What are you going to do?" He didn't reply and instead picked up some shotgun shells placing them into the remaining empty pouches on his belt.

"Where are you going?" Stargazer slipped a pair of shells into a sawn-off shotgun which he then strapped to the back of his belt before turning round and facing Luna.

"I don't know yet. Just where the wind takes me." He moved out of the armoury with Luna in hot pursuit heading through the honeycomb mountain and stood in the one cave that was empty save for an opening in the wall where the blizzard was raging stronger than ever. He stood and looked Luna in the eyes dropping his stern expression.

"The world's gonna crash and burn Luna the sooner you accept that the sooner everything becomes easier."

"What happened to you Star?" He turned around facing the torrent of snow outside pausing for a moment before he answered her.

"The Stargazer you know died a thousand years ago. I'm just a soldier without an army." He unfurled his wings and flew out into the blizzard and out of sight. Luna stood in the dark cave for a moment regaining her composure before she headed out of the cavern to find Twilight and her friends.

"Twilight you're okay!" Twilight was bombarded by a fierce hug from Spike making a warm smile crawl across her face.

"Spike, I'm so glad you're safe." She gave the dragon a squeeze before a familiar voice spoke out.

"Miss Sparkle. Who would've though that we would meet again?" Trixie looked at Twilight with a smug look on her face, her cape and hat were nowhere to be seen which changed her visage drastically.

"Oh great you again......We are not interested in whatever you had to say oh great and powerful one." Rarity's face was scrunched up at the sight of Trixie who shrunk her head down blushing.

"Please, it's just Trixie. Sparkle, I....I'm sorry about how I acted when we last met.Is there any chance you can forgive me?" Twilight looked at Trixie unable to think, her mind was filled with her memories of Celestia. Her entire life had revolved around the sun goddess, she was the one bit of hope Twilight had and now that hope was gone.

"Come on Twilight she's been helping out loads round here." Spike's plea to forgive Trixie broke her from her trance as she looked at the baby dragon who stared back wide eyed.

"Come on I'll show you how much she's been helping I think it's that time again anyway." Spike grabbed Twilight's hoof almost dragging her through the tunnel system until they reached an old metallic device covered in knobs, dials and buttons along with a single microphone. Both Spike and Trixie sat down in front of the device, Trixie's horn lit up sorting a couple pieces of paper in-front of Spike and enveloping the microphone in the same aura. Spike looked at the papers grabbing them then cleared his throat before leaning into the microphone.

"Today resistance groups have been reported in both Manehatten and Las Pegasus taking up arms and fighting to evacuate anypony they can. Tartarus has gone dark, so if you are anywhere near there watch yourself the prisoners may be loose. It may seem bad now but band together look out for each other and most importantly don't lose hope. This is the voice of freedom, signing off." Spike moved away from the microphone and waited a few seconds while Trixie dissipated her spell from it before turning to Twilight.

"See I told you she's been a big help."

"You're the voice of freedom?! I knew I recognised the voice from somewhere!" Twilight gave Spike a hug crushing him slightly only letting go when he pushed her off him.

"Yeah. Luna wanted to find some way of keeping everypony's morale up who isn't here and thought telling what's going on was the best way so I volunteered to do it.

"And I offered to assist him getting all the news together and of course using my talents kept it so the signal can't be traced here just in-case any that would cause harm to us followed the signal back here." Trixie quickly wiped a smug grin off her face turning a shade of red before she herself was given a hug by Twilight.

"Well I guess I can forgive you Trixie. If Spike says that you have changed then I should believe him." The three moved their way back through the tunnels towards their friends to figure out what they should do now they had reached their goal of Haven.

Chapter 18

Partition

6 months later

Rarity walked across the open plain with Twilight in pursuit and Rainbow Dash above them circling over keeping a watchful eye out for any signs of movement. The light wind glided over the grass sending a small number of flower petals and dandelion seeds into the air.

"I still don't know Rarity do you really think we should've gone?" Twilight struggled to keep up with Rarity who ever since they had left Haven had kept up a brisk pace leading the trio south-east towards Manehatten.

"Twilight my family is out there I need to find them. Besides it's not like there is any immediate danger I mean the Shades haven't been seen in over a month by either the Haven or Winterhold sentries just those blasted raiders. Maybe they are gone for good." She spoke with an uncommon anger in her voice letting her usual regal accent drop.

"I know but I don't feel right leaving everpony else back there. I mean what if"

"Then why did you come?!" Rarity stopped turning her face back to Twilight her eyes shooting into Twilight's soul with pure rage making her shrink away for a moment before Rainbow landed with a large thud between them causing more petals to blow up.

"Hey! Stop it the pair of you!" Rarity gave the same look of rage to Rainbow who stood her ground against the white unicorn.

"Look we came out here for different reasons but if I have to listen to you two screaming at each other one more time then you can go on your own!" Rainbow shook with anger looking at Rarity then Twilight and then back again.

"But Dashie."

"I don't wanna hear a word of it Rarity! Yes you want to find your family, yes Twilight you want to see what is going on out there and yes you aren't sure if you did the right or wrong thing in going without the others but here we are now just deal with it."

"Don't you feel bad Dash leaving Fluttershy?" Rainbow looked at Twilight before she shook her head and began walking ahead of the unicorns fighting the tears back into her body.

"Yeah I do but she didn't want to come and I had to so she can stay there cowering in that cave for all I care." Both Rarity and Twilight exchanged looks with each other before they carried on in silence heading up a small hill where they began to see the marvellous skyline of Manehatten.

The trio moved throughout the deserted streets of the once bustling metropolis moving over pieces of rubble as the buildings towered over them. Every now and then there would be a hole in one of the skyscrapers in a group or one would even be completely demolished its remains scattered over the roads. As they walked they could hear and feel a thudding getting louder as they moved. The trio climbed up and over a rather large pile of rubble when a deafening roar cut through the air making Rarity stumble causing a few smaller rocks to tumble down as they clambered up.

"Hey keep quiet!" A voice hissed at them as the rocks landed at the bottom of the pile sending small clouds of dust up. They looked around for the source when they saw across the street a dark grey pegasus waving them over. They each got as low to the ground as they could as they sneaked across the street towards the pegasus pressing themselves against the wall he was hiding by. He wasn't much taller then the mares, his short black mane flicked across his face with a red streak running through it the back being stuck up in a spiky mess. He shot his brown eyes over to the trio lined up beside him, he held his hoof to his ear where a small device stretched from it to just next to his mouth and nodded a few times.

"Just getting into position now." He picked up the rocket launcher beside him hoisting it onto his shoulder. They saw his cutie mark as he bent over which was a red electric guitar covering his flank. He rushed out into the street while the others moved to the corner of the building and peaked round. The sight made each of their jaws drop as they looked down the street. A massive dark creature stood further down the road, the creature was roughly four stories tall standing on two legs pacing and letting out the occasional roar as it searched through buildings either side of it piercing the skyscrapers with it's blade like claws. They looked at the pegasus who held his hoof up to his ear again speaking into it before he pulled the rocket launcher onto his shoulder pointing it at the creature. A plume of smoke came out of the back of the rocket launcher as the missile flew out leaving a trail of smoke behind it as two other missiles launched from buildings further up the street. The rockets collided with the creature exploding on impact sending smoke around obscuring the creature from sight before it fell to the ground halting all movement. The pegasus threw the rocket launcher onto his back before he ran back to the trio running past them towards an open sewer cover a few feet away from them.

"Well come on then unless you wanna get killed." he dropped out of sight before the three mares followed. Twilight dropped down the hole first then Rarity and finally Rainbow Dash who pulled the cover over the hole sealing it back up as the roars of more of the giant creatures approached.

Rainbow dropped onto the damp concrete with a loud squelch, she held her hoof up to inspect what had made the noise as she landed noticing the bottom of her hoof was covered in a green mushy substance.

"Eww what is this stuff?" She began scraping her hoof against the wall removing the substance from her before the grey pegasus lit up a lantern and turned round to look at them.

"I don't wanna think what that stuff is."

"How can you breathe down here! I'm suffocating, I can't breathe! I need to get out!" Rarity began hyperventilating moving away from the little stream that ran alongside them then yelping as she touched the wall. Twilight moved over to her and shook her breaking Rarity from her panic then looking straight in her eyes.

"Rarity! Remember why you're here!" Rarity looked at Twilight threatening to cry before she shook herself looking more determined than ever.

"You're right! I am here for my family and I shan't stop till I find them." The unicorns looked at the pegasi one who was looking at them impatiently and the grey one looking with a cocked eyebrow. Rainbow looked at the pegasus taking a good look at his face before letting out a high pitched squeal.

"Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh! You're Spin Disk!"

"You know this guy?" Twilight looked at Rainbow inquisitively knowing her to only start her fan girl squealing when she was around the wonderbolts.

"This is Spin Disk he is only like in the best band ever!" Spin Disk took a smug grin whilst Rainbow talked before an almighty crash came above them followed by a deafening roar.

"Let's save the introductions for later and get the hay out of here!" Spin Disk took off around the corner with the others following behind him closely as the earth shook around them.

The group walked in silence through the damp sewers, the only sound around them the drips of water from the ceiling and the rushing of the dank stream alongside them. They hopped over the stream as they ventured past an adjacent tunnel that latched onto the stream they were walking along adding to the murky water. They came to the end of the tunnel where it opened into a large chamber that stretched up high above them. There was the bustle of ponies moving through the chamber on wooden platforms atop the water going about their business, tending to their children, preparing food and other such things. Spin Disk looked around then flicked his mane out of his turning to the trio of mares.

"Welcome to what's left of Manehatten!" As the pegasus shouted a few of the closer by ponies looked over at him then exchanged looks to each other whilst muttering before an orange pegasus shot over landing next to them. His fiery mane stuck behind his head in a similar style to Spitfire's. His red eyes looked over the mares making them shrink away from his height before he grinned looking at Spin Disk.

"Took your sweet time ass time! Mind you I was always quicker than you." He bent down to Spin Disk's level his grin growing ever wider whilst Spin Disk's eyes narrowed as he began smirking.

"Who told you that Firestorm? Sapphire?" Firestorm jumped back as his eyes went wide and he began sweating.

"That never happened! Stop spreading that shit already!"

"Haha I will do when you stop getting so defensive about it. Now I believe introductions are in order. Ladies this is Firestorm, and Firestorm this is, urmmmm."

"Rainbow Dash!" Rainbow spoke up running her hoof through her mane.

"Rarity my dear." Rarity fluttered her eyes at the tall pegasus.

"And I'm Twilight Sparkle, pleasure to meet you, Firestorm was it?" She held out a hoof which Firestorm bumped with his leaving hers hanging in the air.

"Well then that's that done except for Static. Where is he?" Spin Disk looked around over the pontoons and platforms looking out for somepony before he looked back at Firestorm who returned a solemn look.

"Storm. Where is Static?"

"He didn't make it. Those damn things got to him before he could get out. I tried to help him I really did but there were too many." Spin Disk looked at Firestorm for a moment then suddenly grabbed a nearby table and threw it over scattering bits of paper and other random objects on the floor.

"Dammit! Every bucking time we lose somepony else!" Some of the ponies nearby looked at Spin Disk in shock then hurriedly went back to what they were doing. Spin Disk stood still for a moment breathing heavily before he began walking slowly away.

"Hey wait Spin Disk, let me help!" Spin Disk stopped and looked at Rainbow as she trotted over to him and pulled the rocket launcher off his back.

"uh thanks, just call me Spin yeah." Rainbow nodded to him and followed him off over one of the walkways.

"Rarity? Rarity is that you?" The trio left looked over to where the new voice was approaching from to see Rarity's father galloping over and hugging his daughter.

"Oh thank Celestia you're okay! What are you doing here!?" Rarity struggled against her father's grip as an excited Sweetie belle galloped over joining the pair in a hug.

"Father, Sweetie belle. I can't. Breathe." The pair let go of Rarity who plopped onto the ground catching her breathe before she looked back up with a smile.

"Thank goodness you're okay." Rarity looked around then looked back at her father.

"Where's mother?"

"Rarity, you may want to-"

"Where. Is. Mother?" Her father hung his head down as he stopped himself crying then looked at Twilight and Firestorm who were stood away from the family trying to look like they weren't watching.

"Twilight right? Can you and Firestorm look after Sweetie belle for a moment?"

"Of course I can Magnum. Come along let's get Twilight settled in yeah?" Sweetie belle gave her sister another hug before she followed Firestorm and Twilight leaving the two in peace.

"Father. What's happened?" Rarity began tearing up when she saw her father's face already knowing what he was going to say.

"I'm sorry my little gemstone. She's gone."

The dust storm raged over the desert blotting the sky from sight. The wind howled as the sand joined with the sky threatening to take any that dared wander into its grasp. From the sand a lone figure began to slowly emerge, he came to a halt just before the fine edge of the storm. His cloak covered him blocking his body from the dust and sand. He looked at small clearing within the storm where a simple tent was placed in a dune. He held his hoof out and at the definitive edge of the storm his hoof touched something solid, the second his hoof came to a halt a ripple went out showing the protective barrier around the tent. The Stallion pushed against the bubble which with a bit of effort let his hoof through and then as he forced himself forward his entire body slipped through the barrier. The air inside the bubble was cooler than the rest of the desert by a slight amount and there was moisture in the air. The stallion moved down the dune towards the tent where a young zebra emerged pointing a spear at the pony.

"Boolum nact aise!"

"Sailise nos Drakaia." The zebra looked at him unflinching for a second before he lowered his spear standing out of the way of the tent opening. The pony nodded his head and entered the dark tent, incense smoke floated around the tent filling it with a musty smell that attacked the senses. Around the interior of the tent were trinkets of all ages placed on different tables and desks. On the other side of the tent was a desk that was empty save for a sword placed on its own special rack. In front of the desk a figure raised its head looking at the hooded pony who had entered raising a claw to the zebra by the opening who nodded closing the flap to the tent.

"You don't need to keep up the theatrics Stargazer." Stargazer pulled his hood back spilling sand on the carpet before he sat down removing his cloak.

"There's a storm out there. But I guess that isn't a concern for you in here is it? You did never tell me how you can do magic. I always thought dragons couldn't." The dragon sat in silence for a moment before Stargazer stood back up and began wandering around the room picking up an ancient urn that he began inspecting.

"Star Swirl."

"Don't lie Drakaia, he died long before your time." Stargazer didn't look away from the urn whilst he spoke then placed it back where he found it turning to face the old dragon again. He looked into the dragon's green eyes taking in the features of his face. Scars covered Drakaia's face the largest being at the tip of his pointed mouth dug deep into his grey scales. Stargazer turned away from the dragon once again looking at the many items on the table.

"This world is ending young one. You know it as well as I do. I know you can feel it, it's spreading."

"What do you mean it is spreading? I can't feel anything." Stargazer turned round to have Drakaia place his claw against his chest. A high pitched piercing came into Stargazer's mind reaching into the depths of his soul, Stargazer screamed in pain whilst Drakaia closed his eyes in concentration. The noise began to subside in Stargazer's head until it became a quiet noise in the back of his head almost like feedback from a speaker. Stargazer gasped pushing every bit of air out of his body before he fell to the ground looking at Drakaia who stood in front of him, his tail hanging just above the floor. He turned back showing his back where a set of stumps were where his wings had once been. He moved to the desk where the sword was placed atop running his claw across it.

"The Darkness is spreading Stargazer. It is contained within you.......as it is in me. I made it so you can feel its presence like I can."

"What do you mean The Darkness is within me?"

"Oh dear child you do not yet know the tragedy your life is." The dragon turned around holding the sword and handed it to Stargazer who grabbed the hilt. The second he touched the weapon images flashed in his head of a strange ruin, a light blue unicorn with a beard, a starry cloak and a staff launching a spell tearing up the ground. Of a young Drakaia in strange clothing clutching a scimitar charging forwards. Of an Alicorn with a pure white coat, a long flowing golden mane and the most beautiful blue eyes that he had ever seen. Tears began trickling down the Alicorn mare's face as black veins began spreading up her neck and over her face.

"I'm sorry." The mare closed her eyes before her face turned completely dark. Stargazer was pushed back to the present, he threw the sword to the ground in front of him looking at it then back to Drakaia who had sat back in his original spot.

"What was that!" The dragon picked up the blade again running a singular claw over its blade feeling the runes carved into it.

"This blade is old, impossibly old. As such it carries memories from long ago."

"But who was that? The unicorn and that Alicorn. I.....I know her from somewhere."

"The unicorn was Star Swirl the bearded.Where as the Alicorn....That was Harmonia. A kind soul that I wish I had known for longer than I did. She was also your mother Lucien."

"What are you talking about! My name is Stargazer! I never had any real parents! I was just dumped on Celestia!" Stargazer gritted his teeth as he look at Drakaia who kept the same expression on his face.

"Yes you were given the name Stargazer by Celestia. But your birth name was Lucien. Me, Star Swirl and your mother were once tasked with a quest to seek out those ruins you saw. When we got there.........Everything fell apart. The Darkness was released, it infected me and it turned Harmonia into what you call Nightmare."

"No. I don't believe it! You never knew Star Swirl! You never knew my mother! I'm out of here!" Stargazer stood up and turned to leave but an invisible wall stopped him. Drakaia stood holding a sheath with the sword contained and a rolled up piece of parchment whilst he held his claw out obviously making the barrier that halted the Alicorn's departure.

"I know it's a lot to take in but believe that this is the truth. Take this, it will aid you on your travels. Follow this map if you need proof to what I say." Stargazer clipped the sheath onto him so the sword was on his back then stuffed the map into the strap going across his chest before he left the tent. Stargazer pushed past the zebra sat waiting outside the tent flap climbing the dune out onto the desert where the sand storm had stopped. He moved over the sand letting his body move itself through anger and denial. Eventually when the slight ringing in his head stopped he halted his movement slipping the map from the strap on him and unfolded it looking at the one point on the map that was circled.

"I guess there's nothing else to do but check this out." Stargazer got his bearings and turned heading in the direction of the map marker.

Chapter 19

The battle of Stalliongrad

Year of Equestria 597, 10th year of the Alpha wars.

"Incoming!"

"Take cover!" the mortars hailed down on the ponies sending rock, blood and bone in all directions.The expansive city of Stalliongrad stood as a battleground for the two armies as they clashed in the capital city of the Republic. Stargazer's ears rung as he was thrown to the ground muffling the screams of fear and pain. He looked up to see Victory Dawn firing an assault rifle at the Griffons further down the all but destroyed street. As her magazine emptied she looked over to him and held out a hoof which he grabbed.

"Get up Sergeant! We've got a war to win!" She pulled the Alicorn up before she took cover reloading her weapon. Stargazer aimed his rifle at the Griffons and began firing his weapon at them until the empty clipped pinged out of the top of the rifle brushing against his face. He dropped back under the cover of the trench searching through the patches in his belt for another clip.

"Shit, I need a clip!"

"Catch!" Blizzard threw a fresh clip to Stargazer who caught it then forced it into his rifle. He stood back up firing at the Griffons along with the other ponies in the trench.

"Watch out!" A pony aircraft crashed in the street screeching to halt just in front of the trench that Stargazer was in. Satrenko jumped up into the open door of the aircraft pulling the one surviving member of the crew out calling for a medic which a pony with a red cross on his uniform came immediately and began attending the pilot's wounds. Satrenko then turned and began firing the door mounted gun at the Griffons showering them in bullets. The pony troops held strong as the Griffons fired rockets and tore apart the ground with mortars. After a few minutes of fierce fighting a mortar landed right in front of the VTOL throwing Satrenko out into the make-shift trench and showering the group with small clumps of rock and dirt.

"Victory! we need to fall back!" Blizzard placed a hoof on her shoulder shaking as he shouted at her whilst she retained her calm composure before she batted his hoof away while another pile of a dirt was thrown over them.

"We need to hold the line Leftenant! Armour is gonna be rolling in soon and we need to keep the engineers covered!" A shot ripped through a tower causing it to begin falling towards the ponies in the trench.

"Fall back!" Blizzard screamed over the sound of gun-fire and falling concrete. Stargazer, Daring, Satrenko, Victory and Blizzard threw themselves out of the trench and galloped as fast as they could away from the Griffons who were crushed under the tower along with the ponies still in the trench dumbfounded by the sight of their impending doom.

The group reached the low wall at the end of the street over-looking the rest of Stalliongrad as the tower slammed into the ground. Blizzard looked over the wall trying to decipher a plan muttering to himself as he did whenever he was thinking. On the lower levels of the city a tank crawled into sight pointing its gun straight at them. Before they could react the ground beneath them tore open throwing them to the streets below. Stargazer slammed into the roof of a building then slid off unable to do anything to stop himself slamming onto the cold hard floor where he stayed his head a complete daze.

"Quick get it off her!"

"I can't move it!" Stargazer felt himself being shaken. He moved his head to see Satrenko shaking him violently his magenta eyes full of fear and worry.

"Come on get up! We need you!" Stargazer shook his head coming fully back into conciousness and quickly stood up. Blizzard and Victory Dawn were trying to lift a large boulder that had a small yellow leg poking out from under it. Stargazer and Satrenko joined the pair in lifting the rock with all their strength. Within a few seconds the rock was pushed away freeing Daring from her would-be tomb. A small pool of blood surrounded her. A sharp splintered bone stuck out from her leg and her wing was bent sharply showing the break. Blizzard looked at her then looked up at where they had been muttering to himself again.

"Victory! You get Daring back to the F.O.B."

"But" Victory began to protest but she was cut down by Blizzard who kept his calm talking with his most authoritative voice.

"You're too important to be out here and she needs medical attention now! Private, Sergeant, you two are coming with me. We're gonna go give those engineers time to blow stop that tank column." Satrenko and Stargazer both cocked their weapons in reply to Blizzard who nodded in acknowledgement. Victory nodded to him then threw Daring onto her back as gently as she could then after checking around a nearby corner ran as fast as she could. The trio left moving through an alley towards the main street where they could hear the gun-fire coming from.

Blizzard peaked down the street seeing the last of the engineers in makeshift cover made from sandbags fighting against the Griffons furiously, a bullet tore through his head throwing blood into the air.

"We need to get to that detonator. On my go we move up the street. I'll take the right, Renko you got the middle and Stargazer you take the left." The pair nodded to Blizzard who then ran out keeping low and ducking behind a wall on the other side of the street. Satrenko ran to the middle of the street ducking below a pile of rubble. Blizzard took a second to breathe then nodded to the pair. Satrenko hefted his machine gun onto the rubble and opened fire on the Griffons who immediately scattered diving into cover and returned fire. Stargazer stood taking careful aim with his rifle firing shots at the Griffons each bullet hitting their target, Blizzard ran forward towards a fallen chimney which he dove behind and began giving bursts of fire at the Griffons. He pulled a grenade from his belt and pulled the pin before quickly throwing it at them where it exploded showering two of them with shrapnel. Satrenko vaulted over the rubble he was taking cover behind and began running up the street as fast as he could, an explosion right near him threw the grey pony into the air landing in a heap. He looked up and saw a tank rolling up the street looming at him. He stared in disbelief for a second as it began lowering its cannon pointing towards him, he grabbed his weapon and dove into a nearby alley as the shot fired tearing a hole into the ground and showering Satrenko with rock.

Stargazer looked fired a shot which connected with the head of a Griffon sniper on top of one of the buildings, the clip pinged out of his rifle the tiny piece of metal brushing against his face. Stargazer shoved the new clip into his rifle and began charging forward down the street firing as he did. The tank at the head of the column took aim at him and fired. Stargazer dived out of the way of the shot landing behind a low wall which he began firing from. Blizzard reloaded his rifle and peaked over the chimney he was hiding behind looking to where the engineers were and back to the tanks. He took a breathe and began sprinting as fast as he could, he threw his weapon to the ground and went onto all fours galloping faster than he ever had in his life. The tank fired a shot which threw him behind the sandbags and amongst the bodies of the pony engineers. Blizzard groaned in pain then was reminded as the tank rumbled past him where he was, he threw himself next to a large box with wires leading out under the sandbags and punched the button on it. A series of explosions went up the street engulfing the rear two of the four tank column dropping them into the now collapsed street. The front two tanks pressed on further towards the gate to the central district of Stalliongrad.

Stargazer felt his body begin to course with energy, the same energy he felt at Trotterdamn. He dropped his rifle to the ground and walked into the middle of the street staring down the approaching tank. It pointed the cannon directly at him taking aim, the shell exploded out of the barrel straight at him. The shell stopped just a few meters in front of Stargazer hovering in the air who stared at it with the same look of anger and concentration. He waved his hoof turning the shell around to face the tank that fired it then thrust his hoof forward, the shell rocketed towards the tank which it hit ripping the machine to pieces.

Satrenko pulled himself up and looked at the wreckage of the tank, he grabbed his weapon and fired at a group of Griffons approaching him each one dropping to the ground. He charged out of the alley towards the tank that was now stuck behind the wreckage of the lead. He pulled a grenade from his belt and with his teeth pulled the pin, he dropped the grenade into the exhaust of the tank then dove behind a pile of rubble as the last tank blew open. The Griffons began screeching in fear and quickly began retreating either running or flying from the scene. Satrenko jumped up and fired at the fleeing Griffons as Stargazer approached him.

"Get back here! Get the fuck back here you bastards!" Satrenko screamed in rage as he dropped his gun to the ground and began smacking at the floor tears of rage filling his eyes.

"You are pissed today." Satrenko turned and faced Stargazer looking up at the Alicorn with rage in his eyes.

"Damn right I'm pissed! This is my home dammit!" Blizzard emerged from the sandbags and limped over to the pair gripping his leg which bled from a gunshot wound.

"Let's.....Let's fall back to the F.O.B. no tanks are getting in this way. The others nodded to him then Satrenko let him lean on his shoulder taking the pressure of his leg as they slowly made it back to the base.

Victory Dawn moved as fast as she could with Daring on her back who kept groaning in her unconscious state. The explosions could be heard thumping all around and the shots from anti-air cannons could be seen rising into the air high above the buildings.

"Come on Daring hang in there, not far now." A trio of Griffons landed in front of Victory making her yelp in fear as she ground to a halt. They pointed their rifles at her watching her as she panicked. "Wait wait wait! Let's work out a deal." The Griffon in the middle lowered his weapon and scowled at her.

"What kind of deal?" He growled. Victory gently placed Daring on the floor who kept groaning to herself.

"I'll surrender. Go with you without a fuss. Just get her to the Pony base. Alive." The Griffon stood silently for a moment then pointed to the Griffon to his left.

"You! Get that one back to their base. Go unarmed or they'll shoot you." The Griffon looked to his superior in disbelief for a moment standing dumbstruck. "That's an order soldier. Disobey and I'll kill you myself!" The Griffon dropped his rifle to the ground along with his grenade belt then moved over to Daring whom he carefully picked up and took off in the direction of the Equestrian F.O.B. "Well then ma'am you're coming with us." The remaining pair each grabbed Victory who help up her side of the bargain going without a word.

Blizzard Satrenko and Stargazer finally entered the camp. The place was largely deserted except for sentries, a few soldiers who were resting and the doctors stationed within. The trio moved towards the medical tent where they could get Blizzard's wound bandaged. The medical tent was filled with the sounds of ponies groaning or screaming pain as doctors and nurses ran around tending to their needs. A white unicorn nurse ran over to them who had clearly been at hard work for a long time, the bags under his orange eyes weighing them down.

"What's up with you?"

"Gunshot wound to the leg. I just need a dressing." The nurse quickly inspected Blizzard's wound then rose back up.

"Okay sit there and I'll get you sorted. You guys two six?"

"Yeah, why?" Satrenko replied with a raised eyebrow.

"We got one of your squad dropped in to us about an hour ago. They're over in the far corner if you wanna talk to them. Just make it short they need to rest." The unicorn floated a set of bandages over from a nearby table and slowly unravelled them.

"How did you know we were in the same squad?" Stargazer quizzed.

"She said that we'd tell it was your squad from a mile. And not trying to offend but you stick out like a carrot among cabbages. Now if you mind I need to concentrate." He set about cutting the bandages and went to work on Blizzards leg slowly whilst Stargazer and Satrenko went over to the far corner of the tent where a yellow pegasus sat lay on a cot with bandages covering most of her. She tried to sit up as she saw the pair approaching but quickly collapsed in pain.

"Hey how are you?" Satrenko sat down on a stool next to the bed while Stargazer merely looked at her placing his hoof on her shoulder then turned away.

"I'll be okay. They said I'm being discharged. Not fit for duty with my leg now, gonna be on the first transport back to Equestria tomorrow."

"Well that's good isn't it?"

"I guess. but I liked it with you. I mean who's gonna look after you Stallions now?"

"I'll have to watch out for them from now on wont I?" The pair chuckled as Satrenko spoke.

"You better. And you watch yourself too okay?"

Stargazer emerged from the tent looking at the setting sun followed closely by Blizzard.

"Apparently Victory Dawn got captured en route back here. She bargained her capture for Daring's life. They executed the Griffon the got Daring here not long before we arrived." Stargazer stood still staring at sun as it lowered to the horizon. "Hey buddy. You still with us?"

"Yeah. Just thinking."

"About what?" Stargazer turned his gaze to Blizzard as the sun finally dropped below the horizon.

"This war is going to get a lot worse before it's over."

"And how do you know that?"

"Can you keep a secret?"

Chapter 20

Forgotten city

Stargazer gently passed through a cloud his fur dampened with water when he emerged, as he flew gracefully over the snow-capped mountains adjusting the strap across his chest holding the ornate sword on his back in place. He gave up on trying to make the weapon fit comfortably and began lowering himself onto one of the mountains below him spiralling downwards till he hit the ground sending a thin layer of snow into the air. He looked out at the view of the sunrise over the vast mountain range letting a slight grin creep across his face at the awe-inspiring view.

“You still making your art huh Tia?” He chuckled to himself thinking of Celestia wanting to make the perfect sunrise. He shook his head and took in a deep breath relishing in the sharp cold morning air, not once in his many years of travels had he travelled this far east but he was already stunned by the natural beauty of the place. He summoned the ancient map out in front of him unfurling it in front of him. His horn flashed as he enchanted the map which on top of one of the mountains a little red dot appeared indicating his location. He tapped his hoof onto the parchment and moved it across the map to the area marked with a cross in ink. He positioned the sun to his right and checked the map again making sure he had the right direction. “Well Drakia. This better lead to something.” He furled the map up and put it back in place in a pocket of his magic before he took off once more.

Firestorm and Spin Disk slowly clambered through the ruined building, dust hung in the air showing up in the areas covered in sunlight from cracks and gaps in the outer surface stinging their eyes as they moved past.

“I don’t get it why are we here?” Firestorm spoke as the clambered through a hole in the wall.

“I told you three times already, at the power plant it showed an energy signature here, more specifically the top five floors had power. Not think that’s a bit odd considering everywhere else in this crap-hole is without power?” Spin Disk pulled his extremely tall friend out of the hole dropping Firestorm on the ground before picking up his rifle once more.

“I guess it’s a bit odd, whoa.” They both stood with their jaws hanging open at the sight before them. Before them stretched a massive room, in the centre was a fountain no longer flowing water inviting guests in, at four points around the room pillars rose up out of the marble floor melding with the roof of the upper level and floor, to the right of them a set of stairs rose up splitting halfway and circling round to the floor above them. They walked up the stairs looking at the once priceless art now covered in a layer of dust or on the floor in tatters in the centre a large painting of two earth ponies stood proud with a plague underneath with the words In loving memory, Austerity and Prudence Mane. Taken too soon inscribed in long flowing letters.

“Hey Spin I think this is that Bruce Mane’s place.”

“Who cares whose place this is? Maybe there’s someone here or even better maybe some supplies.” Firestorm took one last look at the painting and then began following his friend up the stairs onto the second floor which was lined with doors.

“Spin, you take right, I’ll take left. We check each door, if you see anything just shout.” Spin Disk nodded and moved to the first door whilst Firestorm moved to the other side. Spin Disk kicked open the door pointing his weapon inside at the ready, all that greeted him was a room stacked with books all neatly shelved. The grey Pegasus sighed and left for the next room. Across the hall Firestorm entered a room filled with dumbbells and other exercise equipment stacked neatly around. “Nice to see how the other side of the coin live” he snorted moving onto the next room which turned out to be a bathroom. Firestorm set about relieving himself before he heard a clattering of wooden poles on the marble floor making him jump in fright. He burst out of the room with his weapon to see Spin Disk on the other side of the room at the end picking himself off the ground from beneath a set of brooms and mops.

“Damn stupid bucking shit falling on me what the buck is using the power here!” Spin Disk shouted to himself throwing the cleaning utensils away from him. One of the mops he threw hit one of the small pony head statuettes placed along the wall knocking the head out of place. A rumbling halted the pair, as they stared at the wall they were stood next to began to part revealing a hidden room full of computers and wiring strewn around. The centre console whirred to life the screen flashing on, numbers scrolling up the screen in rapid succession.

“Sys- boot, func- 90 -cent. Voice systems activated, emergency power siphon activated, security systems disabled. Unknown users present.” The pair gawked at the computer as it ran through its systems. “Unknown users, please state identity.”

“Firestorm” The taller of the pair said as commandingly as he could whilst Spin Disk let out a stammered.

“Spin Disk” the computer scrolled more numbers across the screen before showing a mere red dot.

“Users, Firestorm and Spin Disk. I am an Artificial, Litigation, functionary, Recording, Examination, Doctoral, or you can refer me as Alfred. I am a device built by Master Bruce Mane to run the facilities of his pent house and other private functions, mostly working as advisor for his alias as Manehatten’s Mysterious Mare-Do-Well. An emergency protocol has been implemented in which there has been a period of time without a full source of power and no log in from Master Mane. Under protocol I shall play the following message.” A New voice came from the speakers around the room speaking without the knowing of the pair in the room unlike the computerised voice.

“This message shall only be played if emergency protocol 6 is implemented. First off yes, I Bruce Mane, son to Austerity and Prudence mane, am Mare-Do-Well. I built this A.I system myself to assist me in my vigilante activities. If you are now hearing this then I am either dead or have been incapable of logging into the system for at least 6 months. There is currently a disk having a final back-up of al the data on this system after which it will shut down permanently. Take my research and use it for the benefit of the world, and don’t squander it. Please do me this one favour.” The message ended with a disk sliding out of one of the computer slots. A few seconds passed before the computer addressed the pair once more.

“Are there any queries that you have regarding this information?” The pair looked at each other Spin Disk giving a shrug whilst Firestorm pondered for a moment before he clapped his hooves together coming up with an idea.

“Yes. Do you have any information on the creatures that have attacked?” The computer stayed silent for a moment scrolling yet more numbers before it spoke again.

“Unfortunately there is no data from before Y.O.E 1252 but I can inform you that sensors have detected multiple movement signatures 10 floors down and rising.” Spin Disk cocked his rifle standing at the railing overlooking the lower floor. “You are not currently in possession of sufficient firepower to eradicate the creatures.

“is there anything here we can use to stop these things?” Firestorm enquired.

“There is a fail-safe which I can activate.”

“What’s that?” Spin Disk shouted over his shoulder

“Within the support structures of this building are laced with explosives which when activated will commence a controlled demolition of the building.” As the computer described the programme an image of the building came up red dots appearing on the main support structures, then as the dots disappeared the building fell straight down. The pair looked at each other for a moment, the sound of an explosion not many floors below made them come to a decision nodding to each other.

“Okay then, activate the fail-safe.” The computer did not respond but a timer came up on the screen counting down from 30. Firestorm snatched the disk from the slot it still hung out of. Both of the pegasi leapt over the railing landing on the floor below, they turned and ran to the main door kicking it open. The light of the skyline of Manehatten shone in threatening to blind them, they shot at the glass in front of them causing it to crack and weaken. They both charged through the window and began to free-fall, they opened their wings slowing their descent as they landed on the roof of a much smaller building adjacent to the luxury building. A series explosions ran up the building to the top in quick succession, the air was silent at first but then the tall building began to groan then quickly began to collapse showing dust everywhere around it. The building fell into a pile of rubble blending in with the rest of the environment of the city. The pair stood on the building the building they had landed on looking at the once luxurious building in the street taking a quick breathe before they turned heading back to the sewers.

Stargazer glided seamlessly through the air keeping his eyes focused below him, I’ve gotta be right on whatever it is now he thought to himself. He glided round one of the gigantic mountains and was met with a sight that made his jaw drop. Below
sticking out the side of the mountain below him was what looked like a city. He began to lower himself towards the ground as quickly as he could.

The city was deathly quiet. A thin layer of snow dusted over the ground like powder icing hastily put on a cake, there were scars on the ground and on some of the buildings from long ago. Stargazer landed gently on the ground looking around at the dead city. He moved through the streets quietly looking around at the many stone buildings that had once contained life. On the ground in front of him was a skeleton which he moved towards respectfully, he examined the bones that were devoid of any flesh lining them up together. The Alicorn took a step back in shock as he noticed how the bones lined up, on the skull a horn stuck out which did not surprise him alone but from the body were a pair of wings. Stargazer moved away from the skeleton moving forwards noticing more skeletons the same as the first he came across each having once belonged to one of the same species as him. He came upon a wider street than the one he had been walking on, the cobble street stretched into the cave where a massive building stood looming over the city. The cathedral-like building was covered in ornate murals stretching over the stone.

Stargazer felt his gaze drawn away from the massive structure towards a small building that stood in front of him. He became lost in his mind seeing the building as it stood before. Outside the humble abode the images of flowers nestled amongst each other, above the door he pictured a little wooden sign with the name of the shop carved into the grain, he could almost smell the flowers his mind was placing on the small building.

“Brother!” The voice snapped Stargazer away from the small building. He looked in the direction of the building built into the mountain wall. In the street stood a pony. A pair of wings made out of what appeared to be smoke sprouted from the pony’s back, a horn looking similar to that of a Changeling stuck out of their forehead, their muscle threatened to break out of their dark skin as they held onto a mini-gun, the pony’s red eyes pierced Stargazer looking at him with pure untapped rage. “Do you not recognise me? Do you not recognise the one you left for dead?” they screamed at Stargazer their voice like a demon.

“Satrenko?” Stargazer quizzed back. “Is that you?”

“Bingo” Satrenko snarled back. He hefted up his weapon aiming at Stargazer and unleashed a torrent of bullets at him. Stargazer dove behind the building he stood by taking cover as the bullets chipped away at the wall. He slipped his rifle from his back waiting for a break in the storm of bullets. Satrenko stopped firing letting steam rise from the red hot barrels of his weapon to which Stargazer replied firing a burst of rounds towards his once friend. The bullets bounced off his chest leaving no mark behind, Satrenko looked at the bullets on the ground and began laughing to himself at the futile attempt to injure him. Stargazer burst out of the side street unsheathing his sword to which Satrenko immediately stopped laughing. He looked at the blade with an element of fear, he threw his weapon to the ground to which it disappeared into a pool of dark ooze which faded from existence and took off in the air charging at the smaller of the two, he swooped down and snatched Stargazer into the air. Satrenko threw the red Alicorn through one of the many stone buildings punching a hole through the rock then grabbing Stargazer again as he came out the other side in a shower of rubble.

Stargazer brought the sword up and slashed at his once friend’s chest the tip of the blade just scraping across his body, the blade cut through the flesh like it was nothing. Instead of blooding seeping from the wound a black ooze-like substance trickled from Satrenko’s chest. He threw Stargazer away from him into the ground with enough force to make a crater. Stargazer lay in the crater groaning in pain as Satrenko landed on top of him, the muscle bound pony raised his hoof in the air ready to bring it down like a hammer on Stargazer’s head, Stargazer shot a bolt of lightning at Satrenko launching him away. The pair stood staring each other down, Stargazer spat blood out of his mouth onto the floor then began charging his once friend. Satrenko stood completely until Stargazer was a few feet in front of him, he ducked down to the ground and rocketed Stargazer into the air with an almighty uppercut then took off in pursuit. Miles up in the air Satrenko grabbed Stargazer then turned and began speeding towards the ground like a meteor, Stargazer struggled to free himself as the pair plummeted towards the ground closing his eyes in fear as they came within meters of the ground they headed towards.