The princesses and the beast

Cascades of snow crumble down the steep mountainside, fir trees are lifted by the icy wind and the ground is invisible beneath the crystalline white. Leonidas couldn't believe it himself.

He's back home.

The mountain has no name for the pegasus, only memories, and these are the reason for his coming, or his return. Dressed in leg-warmers, he kept his shirt off, feeling his surroundings as he always did, he thought. He didn't take a weapon either, just hoping a portal wouldn't show up now as he flew over the bleached, barely green forest.

Still knowing the way, it didn't take long for him to find what he was looking for, with a surface brighter than flakes and bark, the ice of his first home reflected back at him. A cave proof against cold, weather and unwary predators, for the top of the food chain sat inside, two stallions devouring any game against the impossibility of growing anything.

It was on entering that he discovered the place was still the same as the last time he'd left it, even the blood from his past meal had been washed away. It was so much the same as always that the most important thing was missing.

His father.

"To what do I owe your coming, stranger!" The familiar voice rang out from the cave entrance, along with the smell of a carcass. Leonidas turned to see him again, two extra scars on his legs were his only differences from the stallion who raised him, who gave him a purpose, a reason to fight and to be where he stood. But also his personal choices, ones over which he had no control.

"I've come back to ask you a few questions, Father!" The child affirmed, every child likes to ask questions and assert things without knowing it.

His father smiled as he set down the deer he'd shot and dragged onto his back, leaving his shoulder and dusty gray coat covered in the prey's blood. The bluish mane, ruffled by the weather outside, and the blackened tips of his hands made him incomparable to his son, who was now looking after his appearance. The missing wings are also a big part.

"I understand, you're finally making your own decisions, that means your stay among them went well I presume." He assured as he headed outside without giving a reason, Leonidas deciding to follow as he told him his facts.

"I'm a member of the Royal Guard, in a high branch of command because I'm directly protecting the new Princess Twilight Sparkle, I've stopped two portal attacks including one where I entered the dragon world to be able to save an inhabitant of Equestria. I've slaughtered over 3,000 pony enemies since that day..." he paused to leave the statistics for another time. "...I've also made friends." His father paused at this word, without changing his happy, tired expression.

"Of course you have, we're talking about ponies, the most peaceful people in these parts." he ruminated, Leonidas unsure whether the information disturbed or amused him. "In any case, good work, and I'm glad you came, this day promises to be special." He said without arguing before finding himself in the cold and snow, the latter reaching up to his knees which pushed it like a shovel.

"I've come to ask you about love!" Leonidas said bluntly, his discussion with Cadence would wait for another time.

The air becoming hot as his words were spoken, the father finally turned to his son, whom he now saw in a different light. Smiling, he began before receiving his famous question.

"So you're already there, it's much quicker than me at your age, but so be it!" He took out two sharpened sticks from a fir tree, similar to the ones they used to cleave the creatures that fed them, not to mention the incessant attacks from the kingdom's enemies. He threw one near Leonidas, who had the reflex to retrieve it with his right hand, asked nothing and let him continue.

"I knew your mother in my thirties, and she was cheerful most of the time when I made my rounds near her quarters. It was only after my victories in the games that we blossomed, and you were expected." He began by sitting down on the trunk torn from the ground, undisturbed by the cold just like his son, a mirror of his own youth who preferred to stand.

"I was assigned to the care of a wealthy noble heir from Canterlot, a little fool but I couldn't hate him, he'd known nothing of life, and he couldn't have known anything more." His tone didn't darken as he recounted. "He died on a cruise, under my protection, and I had become so mad not at his loss, but at my failure to carry out my mission, that when I got my hands on his murderer, there was nothing left of him in less than ten minutes." He watched the eagles circling above him. "My act of savagery terrified anyone who might have seen the body, and although the guard would always have accepted me, I chose to isolate myself alone from this world, I couldn't accept my failure."

Leonidas wouldn't say it, but he was certain he'd do the same to the person who would make all those under his protection suffer, especially the kingdom's princesses. If Twilight were to lose her life through his fault, he'd conclude that her life was worthless, and he'd end it right there and then. The realization that he'd never been afraid of failure when it was more than likely overcame him now, as his father noticed his posture but continued to narrate his past.

"Just before I escaped, I took you away, your mother must have suffered from the situation, if you ever found her alive again, tell her I'm sorry I didn't give her the life she wanted." His tone left no room for apology, he now seemed indifferent to this world and what could happen to it, as if it no longer concerned him. "Now that that part's in the past, let's get down to business. For a start, do you know what we are?" Asked the father, Leonidas understood the meaning though.

"Stallions!"

"Half right, half wrong." He announced with a smile and a sinister look. "My mother was a mare indeed, for the father on the other hand no chance, and what proves it is this!" He moved the joint of his legs, bending it with the point of the knee forward, the reverse of ponies. "This simple change in both our bodies proves that we're hybrids between two species, pony and maybe minotaur, that would explain our strength." He argued as Leonidas asked even more questions.

"Was my grandmother in love with a minotaur?"

"It's simpler to think of it that way, so do." His father replied, but he suspected the horrible truth behind his conception, Leonidas too in view of his answer.

"Know, however, that there is still hope that your children or grandchildren will be normal ponies, admire." He pushed back his mane and showed for the first time two spiky growths on his forehead, almost confirming the minotaur's theory. Leonidas couldn't keep his astonishment bottled up, his eyes widening under the revelation, his father who had raised him all his life had never shown such a physical anomaly.

Before asking, Leonidas checked for himself under tension that his own forehead was unmarked, even observing his reflection near the cave walls with haste. Still nothing new, except the panic of looking like those monsters one day.

"No need to panic, minotaurs get their horns early, you're spared. That should prove that your offspring won't get any either." He said although he had no certainty, their absence was indeed encouraging. "I've always hidden mine, my legs were already too weird for others to consider me normal."

"Are you hiding anything else like that from me?" Asked the stallion in anger, his own father whom he'd always trusted and given obedience to only seemed to, what Pinkie was already calling him, have fun.

"Actually yes, the biggest thing I've never told you is about that mark." He said without wasting any more time, pointing to a scar on his back, the only one present on that part of his body, resembling a deep blue lightning bolt.

"I've always wondered where that mark came from, I've had it for as long as I can remember." He looked up from his reflection of the cave to see the same mark or same place.

"That's because it appeared when you were born just like mine."

"What? How is that possible?" Leonidas asked.

"Magic, we unicorns never understand anything. You should know above all that its marks are the reason why portals have been appearing near us since we were born." He finally let go.

"You never tried to remove it ? You were in the royal guard after all." His son asserted after this new revelation, once again hiding his surprise, even as other new questions came flooding in.

"I've asked some competent unicorns in the guard but I've never been able to pull it off, so maybe you'll have a chance with the princesses." He quickly moved on to another subject, as if it were no longer important. "Anyway, I've come to the last part of our discussion." The elderly stallion stood up and brandished his staff as deftly as his son. "I want you to kill me."

"What do you mean, you're talking nonsense now." The mention of the word kill made Leonidas feel the wind freeze since his arrival, wondering what his father had in mind when he said such a thing. Almost feeling his breath escape and his heart beat at an alarming rate, he held on to his staff so tightly he'd break it in a moment.

"I'm asking you because I'm no longer in my prime, imagine the day when a portal opens and I fail to stop it, hordes of enemies could settle here and prepare an attack."

"I can ask to guard the place for as long as it takes, or better still, I'll take you to see the princesses, they'll find a way to remove this mark." Leonidas wanted to convince him, facing his father in a real fight seemed out of place.

His father felt anger at his solution.

"I didn't leave Equestria to go back, let alone to be watched, my place is here, and I'll die here because I've decided to, and by your hand because I want to witness what you've accomplished and what you still have to accomplish. You'll be the greatest hero this kingdom will ever know, and you'll bring the greatest peace a people could ever dream of, because I've taught you everything to that end." the low tone of his voice began to overhang the forest and the mountain's surroundings, creating like an echo on the cliffs.

"But why do you want to end up in this mountain alone when you can still come back and be part of this peace, see it built with me and all the ponies out there?" Leonidas replied, joining and amplifying the echo created.

"BECAUSE MY LIFE IS COMING TO AN END HERE, I'VE WORKED ENOUGH FOR THIS AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR ME TO REST!" He screamed with such force that his face and the rest of his body showed his veins frozen by the decades, all the surrounding creatures fleeing the ultimate predator of this mountain by air or land. All except Leonidas, who was pointed by his father's rudimentary weapon. "One last thing, be careful with love and feelings, I haven't taught you anything about them because I'm probably the worst person in the world at it, so far they've made me act the way I want like now, the exact opposite of an exemplary guard."

Leonidas didn't respond verbally, assuming his traditional training posture in front of his teacher.

"With your entourage, I know you'll manage, you're my son, my finest creation." he argued, taking up the mirror position of his opponent, a new smile taking place, he even allowed himself to laugh out loud. "Be the one I could not be Leonidas, never fail, remain blameless until your last breath, and now END MINE!" He howled in a final rattle before hurling himself towards his son.

Leonidas' ever-sharp reflexes made him parry the first blow, a fight to be fought without a second thought, father and son swinging through the snow and launching flurries of spear blows at each other, each parrying and dodging with ease as they had done all their lives, passing between trees and rocks. Their speed made them invisible to those still on the mountain, even though the oldest was just an earth pony, the scars on their bodies and the environment not slowing them down at all. The snow twirled with each stride, dazzling their opponents long enough to attempt an approach or a projectile throw, always unsuccessful on both sides.

These are two warriors at the peak of their art, with nothing left to learn in the field.

The earth stallion hurls himself at Leonidas with spear point and horned growths, missing but breaking a tree in two under his charge, his horns too small to stick into the bark. His son follows up by blocking his weapon with his own and a fist that lands on a rock, shattering it rather than the pegasus' hand.

Retaliating with another headbutt, Leonidas receives a new scar, the most conspicuous because his father's horn has hit his cheek with the straightest possible stroke, but this is how the confrontation ends.

For Leonidas' spear is now lodged in his father's ribs, Leonidas holding it so tightly that he shatters it with the realization that he will have no further answer. His opponent's weapon falls to the ground as his eyes meet his gaze, one last proud smile etched on his face before he falls to his knees, then to his stomach to let nature reclaim the mountain.

"I still had... so many things to ask you..." announced the member of the royal guard, scrutinizing the already frozen body of the man who raised him to his feet. "What should I do now, with what you've told me..." he concluded before finally falling silent, with the wind as his only company.

For the first time since he'd been born, Leonidas felt cold, Leonidas felt things he shouldn't feel, not after his father had revealed so much about his life, about himself, about what was him. Keeping his stance and stubborn face intact, it was then that a drop of water spilled from his eye and ran down his new scar, freezing on its way to the ground covered by a million other drops of water.

Today, the mountain was free of its predator.