The Stallion Without A Mark

The stallion without a mark

Everyone has wounds that heal over time but for heroes, wounds never fully heal. I lay in bed. The time I spent sleeping seemed like a mere day to me but it had actually been a month since Luna attacked me. Mother had visited me every day. I had been in a coma for all this time.

A week ago, I awoke to forgive mother but for Princess Luna, things are going to take time. Nightmares plagued my sleep. I hadn’t one happy dream while I was in the medical room. Things seemed out of place. In that month I became very skinny. My left leg hurt as the nurse helped me eat. I guess, the dreams got to me, because who worse at a time like this would come into the room but Princess Luna. Once I saw her, the heart monitor went faster with the beats. the nurse had let her in knowing she was not a threat thanks to mother. As she entered, I saw she had been crying but then, I also thought she had come to finish the job.

Once she saw my face of pure fright, she exited with a whimper. About an hour later, mother came in to see if I was alright. I told her I felt horrible and asked her if she could use magic to heal me but that wasn’t possible as the body was incapable of receiving help with magic. She said my body needed to heal on its own. Two weeks passed and mother had been happy that I was making a good recovery. I began to wonder why that mare attacked me. Mother explained the incident.

“It was my fault she attacked you. I hadn’t informed her about you and once she saw you and smelled your father’s scent, she thought she needed to eliminate a threat… She is my sister and your aunt. She had been trapped on the moon for a thousand years. She was justly freed and brought into the light by the elements of harmony. When we got home… well, you get the picture.”

The time I spent in the medical room, now that I was awake, was passing by so slowly that it drove me crazy. Every day I waited for mother to visit me. I would lay in bed staring at the white wall in front of me thinking about my life. it was torture to be so bored all that time!

The nurse came in and said I could be on my hooves now. I felt weak getting up. Mother stood there smiling with confidence in her eyes for me. As I got up, my leg felt like it was going to fall clean off.

Three days of exercising went by and they cut the cast that had been on my leg. It looked so weird. My brown leg was shriveled! It barely felt attached to my body and a scar ran up to my knee. That wasn’t the only scar I had though. As they took off the bandages on my back, cuts from gashes of glass Were in mixed order all down my back.

as I lowered my head knowing I looked horrid, mother said the opposite. “I think it makes you look strong. No pony will mess with the knight who has cuts and scars like those!”

I got back to exercising. It had been two weeks since they took off the cast and bandages. I gotta say it felt great to be outside again.

While I was doing some pushups one morning, Princess Luna passed by the garden where I was preparing myself to try out for the royal guard service in which, by the way, Only the best of the best got into those ranks. Sworn to protect and serve the royal blood family with their lives. I felt compelled to try that. I had always been a warrior. Sure, I got my butt kicked by a girl almost two months ago but I also defeated a rock troll in the Everfree Forest. I was telling mother about it when Luna came walking up to me. I stopped and turned around. She was looking down on me with a worried face. I wasn’t afraid of her any more though. I think mother thought I was going to run but instead I faced her down. “Who do you think you are?” I asked with rage in my eyes. “Attacking me like that. I hadn’t done anything to you.”

She backed up slowly and mumbled something I didn’t understand. With this newly found anger in my veins, I stared down the princess of the night. She was the one thing that every pony in Equestria feared and I made her tremble! “Attack first and think later? Is this your method of redemption?” I heard her say the same thing I said when she was choking me to death. “Please.” This threw me off the edge as a let out a scream of anger! Mother looked at me feeling a little uneasy. As for Princess Luna, she bowed before me and said “Please, we beg thee for forgiveness son of Princess Celestia. We didn’t know.”

I settled myself down to return to the level headed stallion I was moments ago. “I’ll need some time to think about forgiving you." I stated less loudly. "Remember, you pushed me out of a window, broke my leg, cut up my back, landed me in the medic room and choked me so hard, I went into a mini coma!” With that I left the garden still aggravated. Princess Luna sat there thinking about what I said. Her sister, princess Celestia said “I think that went well. He lost his temper, but he said he would think about it… That’s something.”

Three days of training hoof to hoof combat had really paid off. I was a quick learner and I was determined. I had become stronger than any other pony in the recruiting lines. My weapon comprehension skills were even better. My special finisher was disarming the other pony with my lance, which happened to be my favorite weapon. Every time I held it in my mouth, memories of that rock troll surfaced in my mind. If I can beat something as sinister as that monster, then I could beat any of these other ponies easy.

Tryouts for the guardian squad were first and then the next day was my day to shine; The day tryouts for the offense squad. I was psyched! I sat on my balcony gazing at the moon, when she came in. The blue shine of her mane glowed as she came to me. “What do you want, Princess Luna?” I asked harshly.

She Just walked up to me while I had my back turned. I didn’t expect to get a hug… But then, that’s Luna for you; Unpredictable. Her hooves crossed in front of my chest and for a moment, things were calm. “We… wanted to apologize once more for our behavior." She said. "Do you accept?”

her voice seemed to be so gentle. It was as if she had completely changed. I would venture to think mother had something to do with this but decided to ignore the small bits of information.

“I accept your apology” I said softly. “But… You must do me a favor.” Her head dipped down to mine to where it looked like her head was upside down and said “Anything. Just as long as we can be friends!” I giggled at her and said “Come see me try out for the offense squad in two days.” She pulled me tight and gave a sigh of happiness. Before she left, I said to her “Goodnight… Aunt Luna.” Her smile was wider that any pony I had ever seen. “Good night... Titan.” She said. I curled up to my bed and fell into a wonderful dream. For the first time ever, I dreamed of me and Aunt Luna being friends.

Two days passed and Luna had gone to bed extra early in the morning of the preceding day to be well rested for the tryouts. It was held in the Canterlot coliseum. There were five events that tested speed, strength, accuracy, stamina and fighting spirit. Only one was allowed to win the title of the new royal offensive guard. They held it ever once a year. All the ponies looked tough but as I entered the tryout grounds, they all stared at me knowing I was going to be one tough opponent. The scars on my leg and back really made me stand out to the crowd. I looked around to see Aunt Luna and saw her sitting not in the crowd but with mother on two throne chairs at the end of the turning curve for the track race. We all gathered to hear the rules.

The race was to be fair and clean. No pony is to cross past their line. We were to gallop five miles. In other words twenty laps. Any flyers had their wings tied and if a unicorn used magic, it was automatic disqualification for him. We all took our places. Once the ring of the bell went off, they all ran as fast as they could, while I paced myself. Some of them double lapped me while I jogged for my fourth lap. After that, I took off. I galloped past the others that had doubled me and cleared the remaining laps with little effort! The other ponies that had worn themselves out were baffled by how I came in first place.

Next up was the test of strength. For this, we were to throw weights as far as we could with our mouths. Each pony was allowed three spins before tossing it in a direct location. If you missed the mark; you got a score of zero. I threw mine first and it landed two hundred and nineteen feet, six inches away! The others didn’t come close.

Next was accuracy. They had a target that you had to hit with a lance. This was easy for me because I did this all the time. Needless to say, I took that one by the horns.

After that was stamina. This one was a bit tricky. What they did was they put weights on your back. It started with ten pounds. Then it escalated to twenty and so on until you couldn’t take any more. I lasted up to one hundred and twenty pounds, while the others only got up to ninety or one hundred.

I had done it. It was the final test; Fighting spirit. Considering I won all the preceding matches, I was the one to face the captain of the royal offensive guards himself! All I had to do was hold him off for ten minutes and I was cleared to join. If I failed, no pony joined that day! Pressure was seeping into my mane as I saw the captain. He had a buzz cut for a mane and a tanned coat. His green eyes looked at me inspecting my build. He was a lot more cut up than me, that's for sure. We each chose a weapon. He chose the same weapon as me; a double edged lance. We introduced ourselves before the fight.

“So you’re the princesses adopted son... Titan, right?” He asked in a moderately deep voice. It wasn’t mean but it wasn’t nice either. “Yep.” I said smiling. “I’m not just going to hold my own for ten minutes, I’m going to beat you!” He laughed at this remark of confidence. “Don’t get cocky. I’m not the leader for nothing.”

The bell rang and he came charging at me, lance extended. I dodged and kicked his side. He swung the lance at my face but I blocked with my own. We were caught in a close quarter’s combat situation. Every attack I dealt was either blocked or dodged and vise versa. Then it happened. His lance came down to the ground and I dodged by jumping back. His weapon was caught and he was open for my special finishing move where I disarm him. While he was struggling to yank the lance out of the ground, I jumped up and landed on it, forcing him to spit it out. I kicked him away from it and pointed my lance tip at his nose, just barely close enough to barely touch his face.

I had beaten the royal captain of the offensive guard with two minutes to spare! Everyone was cheering me on. Never had this happened. I was brought up to the stand where mother and Aunt Luna were sitting. The captain himself came up to congratulate me for my victory. “For defeating me in battle.” He said. “I hereby dub you the new leader of the offensive guard!” I didn’t expect this rank. It wasn’t in the rule book that if you defeat the captain, you become the captain. I turned to him and asked why he made the decision. “I’m getting too old for this action and you’re just what these forces need. A smart, young and strong leader!” mother and Aunt Luna congratulated me on the amazing feat but the final battle was not over.

As if fate would be so disagreeable, a dragon had surfaced itself in Canterlot. He flew above the coliseum and his shadow marked my first order of guard duty. As the dragon lowered itself to the coliseum, every pony shrieked in fear and scrambled. I yelled at the captain to get me the sharpest single tipped lance to use in battle. I didn’t know what was running through my head at the moment. Maybe it was the rush of being the new leader or maybe it was the fact that my loved ones were in serious danger but I had to stop the monster from terrorizing this event. I took my lance in my mouth and galloped towards the menace.

He spotted me and spit fire at me. I heaved to the left to avoid being barbequed and stopped to face the monstrosity. “Hey.” I screamed at the dragon. “Why don’t you come down to my level so I can show you what I can really do!”

he came down and landed on the grass. His giant hand lifted up and I had the greatest deja vu feeling in my life! It brought me back to when the rock troll tried to smash me. I dodged the dragon’s claw and ran up to its head. He looked under his hand to see I wasn’t there. I stood on top looking over the coliseum. Every pony was waiting to see what I was going to do.

I grabbed hold of its left horn and yelled to it in a mocking voice “I’m up here!”

he started flying up towards the sky swinging its head vigorously. Just when he jolted it up with full power, I let go, sending me high into the clouds. In the air, I let go of the lance and slid the unsharpened tip as far as I could to the end of my mouth without letting it slide in. securing the lance tightly with my teeth, aimed for the dead center of its head and came thrusting down. As the spear slid straight through its skull and into its brain, blood came gushing out, spraying me! His entire scaly body stopped moving as he started to fall down to the ground. I could feel myself falling to. The wind slapped my face and for a moment, I once again stared death in the face. This made it the third time I thought my fate was sealed.

Princess Celestia became worried as the dragon fell to the coliseum grounds. As it landed, dirt surrounded the dragon causing things to be very difficult to see. She called out my name praying that I was alright. “Titan, where are you?”

I yelled from in the sky that I was alright.

As I floated, she gazed at me asking how I was doing that. “I don’t know.” I said cheerfully. Then, a shadow flew above me. She glided down with me next to her. Princess Luna had saved my life. I tried to embrace her with a hug but stopped myself and remembered what was on my coat, so instead I simply told her that I fully accepted her apology. Every pony crowded around me and honored what I had just performed, though they didn’t dare touch me due to my blood tainted coat. The captain came up to me with his jaw dropped as far as it would go without falling off.

“That… You… You just…” I interrupted knowing he wasn’t going to be able to cough up the words. “I defeated a dragon.” And then it hit me… I really did defeat a dragon. “I defeated a dragon!” I couldn’t help saying this until we got back to the palace.

Mother commanded me to take a shower to get the blood off of my coat and mane. I entered my bathroom. The water poured from the shower as I got in. blood seeped off my coat. I hadn’t realized how revolting it really was until I saw the thick red liquid poor down my hooves and into the drain. The feeling made me sick to my stomach as I realized I had the creatures insides all over my body! I puked then and there. Sometimes, in the moment of glory and conquest, you forget what you’re really doing.

The blood was thick and hard to get off. I spent at least an hour in there shampooing my coat and mane. It was as if it would never come off.

As I exited the shower, my body felt tired and tense. I needed to rest but I had to see the reaction on mother’s face for my success. I entered the throne room and she was staring at the newly designed stained glass. I walked up to her and asked for her reaction. She turned to face me and embraced a hug. As we shared this moment, I said “I will always protect you and Aunt Luna.” She looked at my sheik and fragrant mane and said “So long as you are here, there is nothing that can hurt me.”