Soldiers

It was a visual Gordon would never forget. After receiving orders from Sunlight, the remainder of the forces had left to retreat, to make their way back to Canterlot, and hopefully survive long enough to report in and join the main forces amassing to fight back the biggest changeling incursion in known history. They’d barely been walking for two hours before they saw them, and ran into said force. Not changelings, however. Leading the army, surprising Gordon and many of the others?

Celestia herself, garbed in resplendent, gold gilt robes. Beside her strode her sister, clad in armour. Cadenza, Shining Armour, Twilight Sparkle… They were all here. Startlingly, the commander of their forces was the tough, no-nonsense Tempest Shadow.

Although, now that he thought about it, that wasn’t so shocking.

A quick debrief of the various fights, and Celestia looking over the group uneasily, came a simple, but tense question.

“Is Sunlight Blade among the dead?”

Gordon paused, looking at the eldest princess. The others glanced her way too, then looked to Gordon expectantly. He winced, looking at the ground.

“He.. He stood his ground. He’s still back there, fighting to give us time to retreat.”

Celestia looked stricken, then angry, “That fool,” She swore, looking back the way the retreating force had come from, “How fast can we get there?”

“It took us nearly two hours to get here, we don’t know how far along Chrysalis’ army was when we left,” Gordon admitted, “I don’t know…”

“Twilight. You and Discord work on widescale teleportation, or at least a method to get us there in time. He’s sacrificing himself to try to save these ponies, We’re going to have to pull him out of the fire.”

“Sister-”

The glare Celestia levelled at her sister silenced her, but it was clear she didn’t approve of Celestia’s decision to rush their march, all over a unicorn who was probably already dead. Gordon could only hope they made it in time to at least have a body to bury.

Celestia, Tempest, Gordon and Luna were teleported first, with Gordon as their anchor point. When they arrived, the fight was already clearly over. Gordon watched as the warhammer slammed into Sunlight’s chest. He had blood pouring down his face, cuts across his arms. Unfortunately, the trip had left them momentarily disoriented, and the group couldn’t react.

And then, chaos. The group watched in abject shock as the magical destruction began. They felt the heat from where they were standing as he lashed out, melting and burning through everything his magic touched. Gordon heard Celestia gasp, saying something along the lines of ‘it can’t be’, before the sound of space stretching gave way to the rest of the army appearing a company at a time, and Celestia was leading a charge towards the now glowing Sunlight Blade’s position.

Gordon wasn’t sure how he managed to catch the near unconscious unicorn before he hit the ground, but he did remember the last of the fight before the enemy withdrew.

None of it mattered, just shock at the condition of his friend, and the fact they’d reached him in time to potentially save his life left him thanking Ra profusely, and trying to heal the many open wounds of Sunlight’s frame.