Equestria: For Honor

“Let me go, you swine!”

“You are in no position to make demands, ‘majesty’, now keep quiet!”

A Warden tossed Shining Armor into a dungeon cell, causing the ruler of the Crystal Empire to hit the stone-cold floor, hard. Shining barely regained his senses when he heard the Warden slam the heavy iron door shut.

He could tell that he wasn't in the Crystal Prisons beneath the castle from the scent of mildew and old bones that have been here for centuries. He breathed a sigh of relief, because that it meant that they haven't found his wife and daughter yet. He gave a quick glance around the cell. It only had one small window, and looked like It hasn't been used for quite a long time.
Shining looked back at his mangled leg, as if he was still perplexed that it was still attached. He would still have to get used to walking on a lame leg.

A voice caught him off guard. “So… what are you in for?”

Shining turned to see an ivory-white unicorn with a shaggy mane and sharp-green eyes sitting in a corner. Shining was silent for a minute.

“I’m in here because I dared to stand against them,” he said. “And because I refuse to let the Queen, my wife, to be found.”

The unicorn grinned. “Well, well, well. So you are Shining Armor then? And here I thought you had no balls.” Shining forced himself to keep his composure after hearing that insult.

“What about you?” he quickly asked. “Why did they throw you in here?”

The unicorn shrugged, “Because I killed two of their hoofsoldiers with a saddle knife.”

Great. The knights locked the King of the Crystal Empire in a cell with a knife-nut.

Seeing the obvious look of concern written on Shining Armor’s face, the ivory unicorn rolled his eyes. “Relax,” he said. “I’m not going to kill you.”

“...”

“I guess I have to open up a bit, do I?” the unicorn said. “The name’s Ashen, Ashen Spectre.”
Shining raised an eyebrow. “The notorious seeker of dark knowledge? I’m surprised you have not given into the dark.”

Ashen smiled, “So now I have a reputation? That’s pretty cool.”

“If by cool, you mean the greatness of everypony fearing for your safety,” Shining Armor scoffed.

Ashen frowned, and looked at the ground, “I have to do it, you know? I can’t stop when I am so close.”

“What do you mean?” Shining Armor asked.
Ashen shook his head, “It’s nothing.”

Both sat silently for a couple of minutes, then Shining Armor asked, “Do you have a family?”

“My real family is dead, killed on the streets of Baltimare. I was alone for a long time, until I ran into a friend. His family took me in, and raised me as one of their own. But, because of my quest, I left them to strike out on my own, endlessly searching for missing pages for my ‘book’. I remember the fight me and my brother got into before I left. Plenty of blood from that one. I haven’t made contact with him at all, so i’m pretty sure that I’m dead to him.”
“Wait, ‘plenty of blood’? What were you guy trying to do to each other? Trying to kill yourselves?”
Ashen let a small chuckle escape his lips, “In a sense, yeah, we were.”
Then an armoured hoof opened the steel door, and a Warden strode in, his armor clanking slightly.

“You there, the white one. Lord Holden Cross wants to speak to you.”

Ashen shrugged, “it’s not like I have much of a choice.”

Ashen got up and trotted out of the cell, with the Warden close behind, leaving Shining Armor to his thoughts, and concerns, for his family.

(+++)

“Wait here.”

The Warden left Ashen Spectre on the balcony that Shining Armor used to survey the battle, the one that overlooked the city. It was a risky move to leave a dangerous prisoner by himself with means to escape. But Ashen knew that escape was nearly impossible, thanks to the place crawling with Peacekeepers. Even If he activated his magic, a blade would find his heart before he spoke the first sentence. The Knights saw what magic could do, so they took “precautions.”

“Enjoying the view?”

Ashen turned to see the Lawbringer himself, Holden Cross. The knight took of his helm, and set it on the table. Ashen examined the stallion, taking mental notes on the leader of this knightly campaign. His mane was completely shaven off, and that halberd of his looked like it could do some serious damage. He trotted up next to Ashen, the latter keeping his eyes on his enemy.

“I heard that you killed two of my soldiers with only a knife.”

Ashen nodded slowly. “Indeed I did.”

Holden raised an eyebrow. “Hmmm… you seem honest.”

Ashen rolled his eyes. “Thank you captain obvious.”

A Warden moved towards Ashen to “correct” his sarcastic remark made to his superior.

The Lawbringer held his hoof up and said, “Peace, Roland. It's only natural that he greets me with this kind of behavior.”

The Warden stopped, then grumbled something before he put his sword point-down in the balcony floor.

Holden Cross turned to Ashen Spectre, “I will get straight to it. I want you to fight for the Blackstone Legion.”

Ashen was silent, then said, “You do know that I killed two of your soldiers, right? Besides, I only work for myself, and myself alone. I have no intention of joining your army's mission to completely sack Equestria.”

Holden smiled, “I knew you'd say that.” He slammed the butt of his halberd into the balcony floor. Moments later, three legion hoofsoldiers appeared, carrying three different glass cases. Curiosity roused, Ashen asked about the cases.

The Lawbringer waved his hoof, and the cases opened. Ashen’s eyes widened.

“I believe that you are looking for these pages of dark lore,” Holden said.

Ashen shook his head in disbelief. “But how? How did you find the missing pages?!”

“My knights raided the library and the official records. Turns out that you have quite the history,” Holden answered. “Arson, assault, thievery, practicing the dark arts; you my friend are rather infamous. You did all of that to find these three pages to your beloved grimoire.”

Holden held out a knight’s great helm, painted black. “All you have to do is fight in my legion. As soon as your service is fulfilled, I will give you the three pages and let you be off. Like you said, you have nothing that you owe your allegiance to. Join us, so we may be able to feed my citizens and drive back the Chosen and Warborn. Join us, so that you may gain what you have searched for all these years.”

Ashen looked back and forth between the black helm and the archaic, ancient pages that he needed to use to avenge his parents. It was here and now, the choice is his. He drew a shaky breath, and reached out with his hoof, grabbing the black great helm.
Holden Cross smiled and said, “Welcome to the legion, page.”

(***)

Rarity and Fluttershy sat at the Baltimare docks, watching ships come and go. As they waited patiently for their ship to arrive, Rarity began to check her luggage, which could easily fill up a small storage room.

It was so noticeable, a guard from the party that escorted the two Mane Six members shook his head and said, “Is all that luggage really worth it? It seems like an inconvenience.”

Rarity rolled her eyes and turned to Fluttershy.

“Seriously darling,” she complained. “I swear I have gotten this awful question from the Royal Guard too many times.” Rarity then turned to the guard, her chin lifted. “Darling, I cannot stress how important my fashion designs are. I must simply travel with it in case of... circumstances.”

The guard figured that there was no way he could talk sense into her, so he simply shook his head and left her to continue ranting about how important her fashion was. Fluttershy continued to observe the docks, watching ships come and go.

She turned to Rarity. “A-are you sure that our friends are alright?”

“Of course they are, darling,” Rarity said. “It's just Applejack naysaying. I'm sure that they all are perfectly fine.”

But what Rarity didn't tell was that she was wondering the same thing.

Fluttershy continued to survey the bay, and saw an odd ship in the distance. It was oddly shaped like a floating fortress and had an even weirder sail shape. She could see the scrambling warriors dressed in unusual armors commanding the ship.

As soon as that ship began getting closer, she could see an entire fleet of these strange “ship-forts” coming towards them.

Soon the guards and civilian ponies began to see the fleet of ominous ships, making the entire harbor fall silent as ponies stare at the ship with fear and awe.

The guards snapped out of their trances and began to mobilize. Shouting orders to the civilian ponies to get them out of the harbor as the lead ship was about to dock. Instead of using the dock, the ship plowed its way through the docks and smashed aside boats, and beached itself.

The guards have taken defensive positions, aiming ballista and forming a shield wall. Then, a lone warrior jumped from the ship and landed on all four hooves. He stood up on his hind legs and drew a large, slightly curved blade. His red mask his his snout and lower face, but it did not hide the intensity that seemed to radiate off his glare.

“Who is the commander of this rabble? I wish to speak to him.”

Every guards was silent, until one came forward. He was Golden Law, a dear and close friend to Valiant Effort’s family, and captain of the guard in Baltimare.

“Who goes there? Who has the audacity to charge in her and scare the civilians?” The Captain cried out.

The warrior responded, “I am Saburo of the Chosen, and I am hear to make a deal.”

Murmurs erupted from the crowd of civilians and guards alike, speculating.

Golden Law asked, “What is it that you want?”

Saburo replied, “I challenge you to a duel.”

Golden Law gave Saburo a questioning look. “You want a duel?”

Saburo nodded.

Golden Law then asked what the terms were.

“If I win, my army and I take full control of the city. If you win, we leave in peace.”

“And if I refuse?” Golden Law asked.

Saburo got into his fighting stance and said, “Then I storm your city.”

Golden Law turned to his guards, many of them urging him to say “no deal.” But, being on the force for a while gave Golden Law a slight edge in the smarts department. He knew that they knew nothing about this new and strange enemy, an enemy that could wipe them out. So he must play it safe by accepting the duel, so if he should fall, no more lives are lost.

Golden Law nodded and said, “I accept.” the crowd of guards and civilians booed at the captain, hurling insults and calling him many colorful things.

“You chose wisely, commander,” Saburo said. “Let us fight with honor.”

Golden Law nodded and began to draw his sword from its sheathe, when he heard the familiar sound of a spear taking flight.

The spear flew into Saburo’s flank, taking the Kensei by surprise.

Golden Law whirled around to see a guard, spearless, giving cries of victory with his comrades cheering him on.

“You… fools!”

Golden turned to see Saburo pluck the spear out of his armor and swung his nodachi, decapitating Golden Law.

“You fools!” Saburo cried with even more intensity. “You dishonorable curs! I will see you all dead before the suns sets this day!”

The rest of the fleet began to advance, getting closer to the harbor. Then, warriors similar to Saburo hopped off his ship, wielding katanas, naginata, and kanabo gathered around Saburo. Saburo picked up the head of Golden Law and flung it at the crowd of civilians, were it landed on Rarity, splattering her coat and mane with blood.

“Charge!” Saburo cried. As soon as he said it, the samurai charged.

The Shugoki samurai galloped into the shield wall, smashing it apart with their kanabo. These demons personified swung with reckless abandon, smashing many guard heads into mush and popping eyes out of there sockets. The Orochi and the Nobushi were quick to exploit the holes in the shield wall made by the Shugoki, and began to butcher the Equestrian guards with chilling efficiency and accuracy.

The guards were dying off in groups, they were hopelessly outclassed.

The civilians fled in terror as they saw their protectors getting sliced in half and smashed.

Fluttershy grabbed Rarity and pulled her, saying, “come on! We have to get out of here!” Rarity nodded slightly, still in shock, and was shuddering about the feeling of warm blood dripping onto her skin.
The two ran with the crowd, and the Samurai army had just finished off the guards in the harbor and were beginning to storm the city.

Fluttershy and Rarity galloped past confused homeless ponies, office ponies and everypony in between, shouting warnings and such. The ponies looked past them, and shook with terror as they saw galloping Shugoki smashing open windows to businesses and pulling out any guards that were cowardly and ending their lives. Orochi prowled the streets, fighting guards and slipping their katanas through the guard’s rib cages and throats, and chucking kunai at any threat ,civilian or guard, if they dared to hold a weapon.

Nobushi acted more like sentinels and herders. They killed the guards in their way and force the civilians that didn't pick up a weapon to go towards the harbor, often “convinced” by the blade of the naginata.

Through all of this, Fluttershy and Rarity kept galloping. Then a building exploded in front of them, knocking them off their hooves. It seems that the Samurai have landed their catapults.

Together, they got up, and together they attempted to run the gauntlet of collasping buildings and Samurai warriors.

Suddenly, an Orochi appeared behind them and chucked his kunai at them, the blade slicing through Rarity’s hamstring. Rarity flopped and crashed into a street garbage can.

Fluttershy turned and cried out her name. Rarity tried to get up, but, you know, sliced hamstring.

In pain, Rarity gritted her teeth and shouted, “Go, Darling! Get help from Celestia, please!”

“I’m not leaving you!”

“I said go! You are the only one that can get to her. Go!!!”

“But-”

“I said NOW!”

Fluttershy sniffled and spread her wings. She shot herself into the sky, not daring to look back. She was joined by some other pegasi that lived in the city, and managed to not get shot down by the yumi archers.

Together they fled the city-turned-Tartarus, as the screams of the civilians and guards echoed in Fluttershy’s mind.