He lay on the ground, every inch of his body aching as if he had been thrown to the moon and back. Groaning he-couldn't groan. Eyes widening he tried to say something, anything. He tried to breath in. He couldn't. Attempting to gasp he scrambled to his knees before face planting into the cold stone floor. Reaching behind him, he moved his hand everywhere, trying to locate his bag. His hand landed on the cool leather, calming him ever so slightly. That sliver of calmness disappeared however, when his vision began to fade, encouraging him to hurry up. Fumbling witht he strap, he eventually got it open, grabbing the mask hidden inside. Acting quickly he placed it on his face, not even bothering with the straps.

He needed to breath.

As the mask touched his skin the ventilators immediately got to work, pumping the fresh, much needed air into his lungs. He lay on the ground for a moment,closing his eyes while simply taking deep breathes to try to calm himself. After what seemed like hours yet was only a few minutes, he placed the straps behind his head, securing the mask to his face. looking around he noticed that he was in what appeared to be a large cave, a small pool of water positioned in the centre of it. Standing up, he winced at the pain coming from his arms and legs. Limping over to the pool he looked down into it, his vaguely familiar form in the reflection. Vaguely, due to the fact that the dust that had coated his clothes had disappeared, most likely due to the sheer force of the blast he had sustained.

The blast.

Rage entered his eyes as he screamed, shooting a red bolt into the side of the cavern, making a large crater in it, and also causing a few of the stalagmites to come crashing off the roof and it the hard floor, shattering on contact. He roared at this accursed world, echoing down the long halls of the cave.

Still growling he walked over to the pool, ripples revebrating over it from the quakes he had caused. He stopped at the edge of it looking down into the clear water as it simply lay there calmly, seemingly unaware of the danger hovering above it. His reflection stared back at him, almost judgementally, as it frowned at him. For the first time in centuries he really looked at his appearance. He had ragged black hair, dirt coating it from years of being neglected. Next was his dark black eyes that had seen more things he would have cared for. He then had his mask, being different from his other one, with the top half of his face being left completely exposed. The mask he currently wore was his backup in case he somehow lost his old mask or it was destroyed. His hoodie had also remained the simple grey colour, despite the copious amounts of dust that had coated it before. His gaze flicked to the machete at his side, touching it with a hand as if to reassure it was there.

Where had it all gone wrong. Things had been great. He was the ruler of a country, with thousands of loyal subjects that loved and worshipped him. He had friends.

He had family.

"I will kill those god damn ponies."

He quickly hid behind a corner as it turned in his direction, that terrifying rage still present in those eyes. He held his breathe, only peeking around the corner to see if his attention had diverted. It was Now pacing around, muttering to itself. Taking his chance he shot to the entrance of the cave, flapping his wings lightly so as to gain speed yet not alert it.

No one was going to believe this.

King Guto sat on his throne, rubbing his temples with a claw as he read the latest financial report. The kingdom's debt had almost tripled in the last month, and poverty going to all new heights. He couldn't remember a time when the kingdom wasn't expperiencing economic collapse. His eyes flicked to the document located on his arm rest, detailing a proposal from Equestria to provide economic aid by using their pegasi to alter the weather. He should accept. But he couldn't. He had seen what the Equestrians had done to the Crystal Ponies. They had become completely reliant on the Equestrian pegasi, putting their economy in a stranglehold.

He wasn't sure if the Equestrians even realized this, with all their preaching about friendship and harmony, it was hard to not trust them. Sighing he stood up, alerting his almost sleeping guards as they shot to attention, a serious look painting their faces. Looking to both of them, he walked to a nearby window, looking down at the shamble that was his kingdom. The once proud eyries that dotted the mountain had fallen into disarray, so much so that they were in no way habitable for anyone.

The doors to his throne room slammed open, snapping his attention towards it. Standing in the entrance was a panting griffon, his light leather armor naming him to be a scout. His guards acted immediately rushing over to the griffon. It was clear he had flown quite a way.

His eyes looked up, scanning the room before landing on Guto, "My king!" He said, making to move forwards only to fall flat on his face. Groaning, he stood up with the help of the guards, panting for a bit more before continuing, "My king." He repeated, managing a tired bow, "We have a...situation." He said, tapping his claws together nervously.

Guto raised an eyebrow, "Worse than the one we have currently?" He replied jokingly.

The scout gulped, extremely uncomfortable with how calm and relaxed his king was, "Well, while I was scouting around, I happened upon a cave. When I entered the cave to rest, there was...something else in there. I couldn't tell what it was saying exactly, but it used magic to blow a hole in the cave wall." He explained, unsure of how exactly to tell his king what he had seen.

Guto stroked his chin in thought, "So it was a unicorn?" He guessed, blinking in shock when the scout shook his head in response.

"That's the thing, it didn't have a horn and it still used magic." The scout said.

Guto hummed in thought. A creature that could use magic yet didn't have a horn was unheard of. He turned around, walking towards the door that was situated beside his throne, still stroking his chin. He had a hunch, but was extremely doubtful. Not even bothering to turn back, he gestured for the scout to follow. He would need him.

Moving through the door, he continued past the familiar dusty halls that hadn't been used for maybe ten years, multiple cobwebs calling the crevices in the stone home. Hurrying on, he opened another door at the end, the hinges creaking from unuse. The room beyond was a grand library, with shelves reaching almost ten times their height, books that contained knowledge that many thought lost lining them. Guto ignored all this and instead continued straight on, this time to a dull metal door. Opening this, a much less grand sight was beholden unto Guto, being that of a dark room, with much less impressive bookshelves. There was also multiple different display cases, the items they held not being visible from Guto's point of view. Turning back he hurried the gawking scout inside, shutting the door securely behind him.

The scouts gawking immediately turned to confused nervousness as he looked at the much more disturbing room, the only light coming from a single candle in front of them. Walking to one of the shelves, Guto grabbed a particularly dusty book, opening it to reveal it's contents. Peering over the king's shoulder the cout could just barely make out 'The Great War.' on the first page, the author's name being smudged away. The king continued to flip through the book, showing several pictures that depicted battles yet were too smudged to discern exactly what was happening. Then he turned the page again.

The creature he had seen in the cave was on one side, a strange sword in one hand, while being flanked by griffons dressed in black armor, each with their own swords. On the other side was a large group of ponies of all races, except instead of the similar unifroms the griffons had they wore a multitude of different armor, ranging from metal to leather, green to red, and even axe to bow. The were both charging at each other, marking it as a great battle.

Guto noticed his attention and frowned. He pointed at the creature leading the charge, "Is this the creature you saw?" HE asked, silently hoping that he would say no.

His hopes were crushed, throne into the garbage, than set on fire when the scout nodded. He was back. Guto silently closed the book, walking out of the room calmly, ignoring the confused scout. While he had an aura of calmness around him he was panicking massively inside. Despite this he managed to continue out to the throne room, sitting down on his throne as his guards went back to their positions on either side of him. The scout followed him out soon after, stopping in front of Guto.

"Tell me where is this cave you speak of." Guto said, still struggling to stay calm.

"It was just over the Arahno Ridge my king." He said, pointing out the window towards the ridge he spoke of.

Guto sighed, sinking farther into his throne, "We are so fucked."

Author's Note

Just went into lockdown so you can expect chapters to come out like once a month. An improvement over one chapter every three months if I do say so my self.