Just A Slice

Luna was in her study working on things for Tia so her sister could sleep. Lately there had been a lot of turmoil in Equestria for unknown reasons. She expired yet another quill and picked up a fresh one from the box on her desk and continued writing. It had been nearly a year since she had sent Aeroslash on his mission. When he never returned after about two months, Flashfire had practically gone crazy, spending day and night for weeks in the forge make so many weapons, that they had an absurd number of extra blades that were probably never going to be used. Tia had finally broken through and gotten some answers out of Luna about the same time she realized that he was gone for good. When Tia came to her after two months and asked her, she told her that she had sent him on a rather dangerous mission, and that he was probably dead by now. Tia asked her what the mission was but Luna denied her forthright in her haste. Tia had left the room with a hurt look on her face.

Luna hated that she had hurt her sister like that, but nopony could ever know what she had done. She decided not to send any more packages and had tried to forget about her mistake after seeing Celestia's hurt face. She had to go to Flare and tell her that Aero was probably never going to return, but she could still stay with the employment of a smith. She took the job without any emotion on her face, but Luna could sense the ticking bomb just under the mare's skin. Her guards later told her that the mare had freaked out, smashing everything in sight and crying nonstop all night long. Her servants verified that when they told her about the massive cleaning project. Luna felt awful that she was the cause for Flare's pain. She openly avoided Luna until she went down into the forges, rarely leaving to eat or sleep. The forge-master told Luna and Celestia about how he would leave after a full day at work and return in the morning to see the pegasus still pounding away.

A servant came through the study door in a rush, telling Luna that there was a messenger for her. The servants last words sent a chill down her spine. "He looks like Aeroslash." Looked like him, the words could not be more ominous of foroding. She rushed out of the office and took flight for the Throne Room. Why had he been gone for so long just to reappear a year after his disappearance? If it even was him, her brain told her. The the servant had only said that he looked similar to Aeroslash. But her heart couldn't release the want, or need, that it would be him. She landed outside the Throne Room door and after regaining her royal posture, entered the room like a queen.

The servant spoke true. As she entered, she saw who she thought was Aeroslash at first glace, but after closer observation, he was slightly, yet completely, different. His posture was much more formal and imperious: taller, more muscular. His wings were too long, yet they bore the same strange wingblades that had adorned Aero. But it was his eyes that set him differently from Aeroslash the most; Cold, calculating, devoid of any compassion, and they bore complete malice and cruelty in those honeyed irises underneath a dangerous looking helmet. Aeroslash had been a kind heart, but the pegasus before her was evil and treacherous as any she had met in her long lifetime.

She walked regally to her throne and sat down, trying not to unveil any of the emotions that buzzed around her mind and tried to push themselves to her face. The pegasus stepped forward, and without any regard to decorum or proper etiquette, Began his message. "The Dark Lord asks that you open your gates as promised in your letters to him. He demands the complete surrender of Canterlot and that you and your sister relinquish the ruling of Equestria to him. Comply and none of you will be harmed, deny the Dark Lord, and he will make all of your deaths slow and painful. The princesses will leave Equestria forever and never return, or your doom will be decided before my master."

Her mind exploded into questions as the guards in the room exploded into a defensive frenzy. Several of them gathered in formation around Luna, and several others rushed off to alert the defenses. Luna immediately sent Praetorian to set up the walls for an attack, and ordered a pegasus to wake Celestia and Shining Armour. The messenger stood like a wall, unwavering amongst all the chaos around him. Luna's mind couldn't process all the queries whizzing through her mind. A bit every dozen, she could double the royal treasury. Aeroslash must have succeeded in delivering the letter, but that could only mean, "Aeroslash?"

The pegasus glared at her angrily and spoke coldly, "I am Aeroga, second in command to the Dark Lord, and the harbinger of your doom should you deny my Lord's claims." Luna couldn't believe her ears. She tried again, hoping that this could somehow be the one she knew so long ago. "Did you deliver the package successfully?" His answer was the very thing she did not want to hear: "So you are the one who gave me that. Yes, I did deliver it to the Dark Lord. He was most pleased with it's contents." Some of the ponies looked at Luna in disbelief, but she ignored them. This pony was Aeroslash! Somehow the "Dark Lord" had twisted his mind, or brainwashed him. He didn't even know who he was!

Celestia walked in with her entire retinue of guards surrounding her, and Aeroslash turned to her and repeated his message. Luna cut in before Celestia could respond, "I made a mistake once, but not again. Take your army to the gates of Tartarus for all I care. You will not take this throne!" Her voice rang in the sudden silence, causing a chilling smile of pleasure to crawl its way over Aeroga's face. The Aeroslash doppelganger turned towards the windows, "So be it. You will all die at the hand of my master. Your sacrifice will be for naught and all of Equestria will burn under the fires of hell itself."

Flare ran into the throne room and saw him just as he took flight out the window. She screamed his name and rushed to where he had been moments before. She saw his dark figure fly towards a massive army just outside the palace walls. She screamed his name into the night, but he didn't return to her loving embrace. Didn't even look back. Not even once.

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Aeroga pitied all the ponies that would die. Nopony could stand up to the Dark Lord. A year under his tutelage had driven that into his brain like a spinal chord, the knowledge that the Dark Lord's power was absolute was as natural as his own beating heart. The Dark Lord had shown him the courage the dragon spoke of and taught Aeroga to use it for his own power. Cruelty. Malice. No mercy. Like the ocean waves, Aeroga was unstoppable, besides the his master. He had even managed some minor spells without the use of a horn. The magic was like a nudge in the back of his mind, and he need only touch it to feel the power flow through him like a river of energy. The army had swept across the countryside wreaking havoc, and killing anypony that tried to get a message to Canterlot. Aeroga had been in command of the executions, and he took a sickly pleasure from watching the heads roll from their bodies as his tools cleaved flesh like butter. Such was the fate of all who opposed them, and none would be exempt. The message he had delivered to the alicorns had only been half-truths, Those two would be for the Dark Lord's personal pleasure, but everypony else who did not bow would be slaughtered.

Aeroga grinned at the anticipation as he flew to his master's side. His heightened senses could taste the anxiety in the troops, smell the fear in the defenders along the walls. He could hear the small crowd in the city square a few blocks down, wondering at why there was an army at the walls of the palace. He could see the princesses and a smaller pony looking out of the windows he had just flown from as he gave his report to his master, "They refuse. Not that it makes much difference. We will butcher them all at your command My Lord." The Dark Lord only continued to glare at the walls before them. "The difference is more casualties on our side. I'd rather not risk defeat." Aeroga laughed loudly, having never considered defeat a posibility. "My Lord, there is no such word for you. You will conquer. That is a guarantee."

The Dark Lord had always admired how faithful Aeroga was to him. Believing anything he told him, and believing that he was indestructible. He was a very powerful unicorn, yes, that was true. But he wasn't quite so powerful as his student believed. Not that he minded. He turned to the trio to his right and commanded them to begin the bombardment of the walls. Three unicorns filled their horns with energy, and three explosion spells were hurled at the walls. When they hit, chunks of stone went flying everywhere and the walls sagged under the spectacular force of the magic. The unicorns continued to blow the wall apart as he readied his troops for the charge once the walls were down.

Arrows began flying from the ramparts, a few almost hitting him and Aeroga, and dozens more landing among his troops, yielding screams of pain in every direction. He nodded at Aeroga to take care of the assailants on the wall whilst continuing his preparations.

Aeroga took off obediently and flew straight up. His color was perfect. Dark green, the hardest color to see at night, and he meant to take full advantage of being hard to see. He took a quick dive and cut down at least a dozen archers on the walls before disappearing into the night, hiding in a nearby cloud. The archers were pointing their bows in every direction but his, trying to figure out what was going on. He took another dive and cut down another six, and knocking several more off with his hooves. He landed in their midst and began ripping them apart like rag dolls. A pony in front of him lunged with a sword and he dodged him easily, beheading him with a deft swipe of his wing. He spun and grabbed two earth ponies and tossed them screaming over the edge of the wall. An arrow was fired at him and he twisted in midair and came down on top of the offending archer. He smashed his head in with the helmet upon his head, the three blades turning the unicorn's brains to a sloppy goo. He took a strong flap and flew out of the way of a spear thrust at him. He circled around and slashed the pony across his belly before landing into a gaggle of soldiers, ripping and bludgeoning his way through them. A spear grazed his shoulder before having its owner thrown off the wall, and he blocked a sword with a wingblade, severing the steel with the bright scrape of steel and the scream of its owner.

Aeroga continued to butcher the almost endless soldiers on the wall before feeling the stones tremble beneath his hooves. He sidestepped a sword and jumped of the wall in a graceful back flip, catching himself on his wings as the walls collapsed under the magical barrage. The ponies on top of the wall fell with the stones into the mass of soldiers waiting on the inside, spears poking out of a defensive semi-circle around the collapsing hole in the wall. The army outside rushed for the gap and pushed into the defenders, nearly overwhelming them with sheer numbers. The defenders rallied at the call of a captain pegasus and pushed back the attackers with lancing spears. Aeroga saw the gate tower firing numerous ballista at the ponies assaulting the walls, dropping dozens before they reached the breach. Aeroga dove and landed in one of the narrow windows and deftly severed a fired bolt with a wingblade as it left the scorpion. He leaped into the guard tower and killed all the surprised ponies within, bashing their bodies against the walls, and cutting them to pieces, literally. Adrenaline surged through his body, making him even faster and stronger than before. He loaded a scorpion and readied it to fire, aiming it at the pegasus shouting orders into the formation below, holding them together. He pulled the lever and the scorpion jumped as it loosed its deadly projectile. The bolt struck home, driving itself through the pegasus and into the ground beneath him, spraying the ground with blood. The unit dissolved in the absence of its captain and were quickly overrun by the torrent of warriors from outside the walls.

What few soldiers remained fled to the palace and closed the palace doors to hold back the invaders. They surged forward, flooding the courtyard and after the three siege ponies blew the door apart, they poured into the palace like a rushing river. Aeroga flew in and helped dispose of the ponies and secured the foyer. He led them to the Throne Room, taking them up a staircase to the door where the last remaining defenders had barricaded themselves in, spears poking out like a porcupines quills. The invaders attacked the wall of spears, falling by the dozens, barely taking one ore two ponies for their every thirty. Aeroga, seeing that this was not a good idea, took 50 of the best warriors he could find and they broke off of the main group, racing down the hallways around the throne room. He had seen another door to the side when he was waiting for the princesses, and he planned to hit the unit inside from their flank. The hall had already been cleared by the strike force, and they jumped over several dead palace guards. Seeing the door he was looking for he headed for it before seeing the mangled body of a dark blue pegasus with silver hair.

The memories hit him like the waves that had nearly drowned him in the sea. He saw Luna giving him and the blue pony a room. He saw their first kiss. He remembered the time when they had met, and when he was given the wingblades. Hundreds of memories flooded into his brain and he felt the "Dragon" part of his being shift. Flashfire. Flare. The one he loved. He re experienced saving her from his father. Felt all the emotions of of the past hit him like a mountain, all at once, knocking him to his knees in front of the corpse that use to be his lover. Her throat was torn open and numerous cuts and open wounds adorned her. Dead. Dead. Dead. She was dead. Flare... was... In that moment, he heard the Patriarch's voice in his head. "The time has come." And he felt the dragon in him twitch, and wake.