Holding back Tartarus

Chapters

Wounded and alone.
Help.
Waking up and awkward moments.
Going to war. (I swear THIS is where things get better)

Wounded and alone.

Small Branches and twigs fell to the forest floor as he charged through the canopy, powerful hooves pounded into the dirt and dried leaves lying on the ground. Blood ran freely from multiple gashes and tears in the stallions alabaster coat, stained scarlet by the thick oozing redness that seeped from his deep wounds. The roar of an aggravated monster followed him swiftly through the trees, many other growls and evil noises replied to the original roar, this made the injured stallion feel like prey with a hungry pack chasing after him.The hunt was on.

Leaning against an old, rotted oak tree, the wounded stallion glanced behind him. Huge fires stormed through the forest, his attackers had set them to draw him out, the fire silhouetted the massive, muscular, hulking forms of the pursuing Griffons.

"Damn these stubborn monsters" He growled with a quick shake of his head, sending bright red globs of blood that splattered on the nearby trees. With a fatigued thrust of his hind legs he shot of into the forest once more, clumps of dirt were thrown far behind his muscular legs.

Pain seared through the young stallion, he kept his legs pumping but fearfully looked to his side, a large black arrow stuck out of his right flank, the long wooden bolt had tore through his rough hide and the deep wound let more of his quickly diminishing supply of blood flow freely. Only one thought was prominent in his quickly blackening mind, he had to hide, his vision was only getting more blurred and his legs screamed in pain for rest. He scanned the surrounding area for a hiding spot, blinking to clear his blurred vision, an old fallen tree had appeared just ahead of the fatigued pony 'Ahah! Cover' he mentally exclaimed in delight.

He ran as fast as he could, branches scratched across his already beaten muzzle, sending sparks of dull pain when thin red lines formed from the sharp branches slicing across his face.

'Just a little further, I can rest and wait fo-' THUMP. A large griffon had landed directly in front of him,blocking his escape route, he didn't have time to halt his sprint so his bruised body roughly connected with the pristine black feathers of the imposing griffon.

"You sure are a sly one young Aegis, I'm impressed by your evasion skills" The massive griffon remarked, it's voice was gravelly and harsh. It sounded predacious. "But, nevertheless, my men have grown tired of this little hunt. Time for you to join your team!"

And as the griffon snarled out those final words he brought a heavy clawed hand down across the stallions face and neck. Once powerful legs now gave in to fatigue and gave way, a once proud and strong stallion now lay in a pool of his own blood, left to die and rot in the dark forest that surrounded him. Nopony would know he was there and nopony would find him.

Well nopony except two kind pegasi out for a morning trot.

A skinny red stallion happily bounced along the dirt path. Behind him a timid yellow pegasus slowly trotted in his wake.

“This is gonna be so COOL ‘Shy!” he shouted back at her. She flinched slightly, mentally reminding herself not to let Pinkie Pie give Nolan any more of her prototype ‘pure sugar cupcakes’ she found his excitement amusing but knew the sugar crash would be horrible.

“Uh..umm, Nolan? Could you maybe, I mean if it’s not to much trouble” a long strand a pink mane covered most of her face, providing some security for the timid mare. “Could you maybe slow down...please?” Glancing through the pink curtain she noticed her companion standing very much like AppleJacks’ dog, Winona, would stand while on the lookout for something. His skinny crimson legs were slightly bent and his long ears stood stiff. “Umm, N...Nolan? what are you looking for?” her voice was almost nonexistent, barely a whimper.

“Quiet, I hear something” True to his word, Fluttertshy perked up at the sound of the faint beat of wings from somewhere in the Everfree.“A Pegasus? What pony in their right mind would try to fly through the canopy?” He mumbled pensively.

Fluttershy on the other hand, was not thinking of any pegasi, true, it was most certainly wing-beats but of a non-pony kind. ‘Manticore? No, too slow and no manticore would give up on surprising it’s meal. Cockatrice? Nope, too slow, wouldn't be able to hear one until it was on top of you.’ The young mare couldn't place the sound to any Everfree creature, unless it wasn’t local!

Her thoughts were cut short after thin legs pinned her to the dirt path. Dull pain shot into her shoulder from the rough treatment.

“Griffons!” Nolan shouted in her ear, his voice almost completely drowned out by the sound of many leathery wings rushing past them.

“Whoo! We sure got ‘im din’t we boss?!” the deep bass of the monsters voice rumbled through both cowering ponies.

“We did indeed Hammer, but it would do you wonders to keep it down, your incessant voice is giving me a migraine” replied an even deeper voice, this one was gravelly, he sounded much older and harsher than his companion.

“Yeah Fatty! Stop hurting the boss's head.” This new voice was more higher-pitched and nasally. Making him sound a lot smaller than his flight buddies.

THUNK

“Ouch!” two of the previous voices blared out “What was that for Sentinel?” the smaller sounding griffon questioned irritably.

“The Huntmaster has asked for silence, both of you did not comply” A silky smooth voice cut through the air, somehow slightly calming both cowering ponies as they continued to hide behind both long, black and pink manes.

“Thank you Sentinel, it is good to know at least one griffon with a respect for their commander."

“Of Course Huntmaster” the one known as Sentinel mumbled quietly.

Once the wing beats grew ever more faint until neither pony could hear them, both scared ponies stood up shakily and dusted themselves off.

“Did you hear that ‘Shy? Nolan questioned his shaking friend. “I think they may have hurt something, deep in the forest.”

“Or somepony”

The usually calm red stallion slowly turned his long neck in the direction of Fluttershy. He was on the verge of desperation and anger. Seemingly terrified by the concept of an injured pony, his normally large pupils turned to small pinpricks.

“C’mon!” Nolan practically shouted at the mare, who gave a frightened ‘EEP’ flattening herself to the ground and hid behind yellow hooves. Nolan had already shot off into the forest by the time Fluttershy had regained her composure.

Slowly edging herself into the thick forest, stepping over broken twigs and branches the retreating griffons left in their wake. She could faintly hear Nolan's voice through the darkening forest, and, after quelling her cowardly thoughts, she made off in the direction her friend had ran.

Help.

Chapter 2

Nolan struggled against the weight of the large white stallion he had found bleeding on the forest floor, his legs were already starting to shake under the much bigger stallion propped up against him.

“Hey, Big guy.” he grunted “Wouldn’t be asking too much for a little help?” After a few seconds, the skinny pegasus felt the weight of the other stallion leave him, with a relieved sigh he trotted up to the slowly moving pony.

“So... Big ‘un. You got a name?” He queried, glancing up at him from the corner of his eye.

The white stallion grunted.

Nolan gave a slightly annoyed look. Speeding up ahead of the struggling pony and, without breaking eye contact, placed his red rump firmly on the dirty ground.

“No, I helped you and I could leave you here. All alone. I need to be able to trust you, even a tiny bit. Now please, tell me your name.” Nolan said slowly, his stoic expression never changed, his light blue eyes bore into the scarlet red orbs the white pony struggled to keep open.

“.....”

Nolan mentally cursed at the stallions stubborn attitude. Quickly forming a plan together in his mind, he slowly raised himself from the dirt, spun around and slowly walked away.

“Fine by me, bleed here for all I care!” He shouted back sharply, twisting his head slightly and showing off a small smile.

He barely made it five steps before a weak voice called from behind him. With his hooves planted firmly in the dirt he angled his right ear in the other ponies direction.

“Couldn’t quite catch that “ Nolan smugly said. A thin, wry smile spread across his lips.

“By the Goddess” A weak sigh escaped the white ponies dry, cracked lips “You sure know how to get a pony to speak, little one.”

By now, Nolan had already turned to face the almost prone stallion. He felt great pity for him, the once surely proud, strong and noble pony now barely managed to keep himself from collapsing.His mane hung limply over his battered face. His legs...no...his entire body shook with the pain that wracked his pathetic form. He slowly and steadily raised his head to meet Nolan’s.

“Well, buck it. It’s Aegis, my name is Aegis” The now named pony practically spat out. Nolan took note of the extremely deep and gravelly voice that came forth from his blood-stained lips.

“Good good, I’m Nolan. Pleasure to meet you” The smaller pony replied cheerily. He rushed over to the right side of Aegis and, after some difficulty, managed to push him up and lead him out into the brightly coloured countryside that surrounded ponyville.

He could feel the strength slowly leave him, accompanied by the weeping wounds that littered his pained body. His vision was blurry and the bright colors of the world became increasingly dull with every heartbeat. Tired muscles begged for rest, rest he would probably never...

“Oh my...” A soft voice ripped him from the confines of his mind, after he blinked hard, his eyes began to focus on the yellow blur standing oddly close to him.

It only took a few seconds for his vision to re-sharpen . He could now clearly make out the slightly trembling form of a yellow pony. A gentle face hid behind a long lock pink hair and now he could clearly tell she was a mare, very slim and at least a head shorter than the war-pony. No wonder she trembled at the sight of his massive mangled form.

*groan* “Hey Fluttershy? Fancy helping me here?” Nolan sounded impatient, can’t blame him really. He’s only a little guy.

“Umm... Uh Nolan?” The now-named Fluttershy spoke quietly, with a hint of uncertainty that didn't exactly put anyone at ease.

“What is it now?”

“His wings...” He rasped, and with a look of pure confusion, he stared back at the feathered appendages that brushed the ground.

“Don’t be silly ‘Shy, if he was a pegasus he wouldn't walk now would he?”

“...”

“Here. Look. He doesn't have any- BY CELESTIA’S REGAL TEATS HOW HORRIFYING!”

Nolan clearly doesn't like the look of busted wings.

“Hey, uh maybe you guys should go...get...somepony” The white stallion finally wheezed out. The adrenalin that once ran through his system had dissipated, now replaced by even more pain at the sight of the bent and twisted wings.

And with that. He collapsed.

After a long day working the fields Big Mac happily set the heavy wooden cart inside the huge barn. The wood creaked slightly as the front end was lowered and propped against the back wall. From outside he could hear the faint sounds the others having fun outside.

Walking over to a large pile of hay,he picked up a new piece between his large teeth, the previous one chewed and mangled. The new straw was crisp and tasted fresh between his teeth, a taste he had grown to love after years of working hard around the farm, it kept his hunger at bay and took his mind off the monotonous tasks that came with being a farmpony.

“ Hey Big Mac! Yah comin’?” Shouted Applejack through the slightly open barn door.

“Eeyup” His deep voice slowly replied. He picked up the pace and roughly shoved the heavy doors open, letting in bright rays of sun that assaulted his green eyes.

He raised a large leg to shade tired eyes from the burning sun. With a quick look around the farm he saw everypony having fun.

His sister was currently in a hoof-wrestling competition with a certain polychromatic-maned mare .He shook his head with a small chuckle. Those two are far too competitive for their own good. Apple Bloom stood next to her older sister shouting encouragement, while Apple Bloom’s friend-Scootaloo-buzzed around the head of Rainbow Dash.

A glance at the large house confirmed his suspicions, Pinkie Pie had taken up shop in the kitchen and was in the process of making many sugary sweets. The young purple dragon Spike helped with the baking. Spike had been a good friend of the red stallions ever since he came to Ponyville with Twilight , the lack of other young Stallions in the town made sure that each male grew close and regularly hung out with each other.

A slow walk past the two competitive mares brought him to a small bench setup for food. A certain white fashionista had sat herself under a large light purple and frilly umbrella next to her little sister, Sweetie bell. The older mare wore a pair of large white sunglasses that hid almost her entire face. She also seemed deep in conversation with the young filly about, Rarity herself was very engrossed by the sounds of it while her sister seemed less enthused.

“But Raaarityyyyy” The foal whined, her voice cracked in desperation.

“Now now Sweetie, you must stay here, in the shade. Who knows what this type of heat could do to your complexion.” The older mare calmly stated, her silky and posh voice though, didn't stop her sister from pressing.

Sweetie Bell continued to pester her sister long after he walked away. The sounds of the verbal battle that ensued grew faint as he made his way across the field to where Twilight Sparkle was talking to Jinx.

Jinx had been a new pony in town a few months ago, a small mare that could be one minute like Fluttershy, timid and scared, to then getting as confident and boisterous as either of the Apple sisters. She was also a very strange Unicorn, gifted with magic but sadly had no control over what it did. This often led to her causing havoc by pure accident.

The whole ‘accidental magic’ business coupled with her being massively in love with a certain red pegasus that had no idea she even liked him that way caused her to not be the best at social interactions.

He sat down to observe the magic lessons, a purple aura enveloped a nearby bale of hay. The bale lifted from the ground quickly, as though it weighed nothing and after about a minute of free floating, it rested gently back on the soft farm dirt.

Twilight then turned to her student, said something Big Mac couldn't couldn't make out and then took a step back.

Now, most ponies see Big Mac as being just a dumb farm-pony that could barely hold a sentence together. He's not the kind to care what others think, He's actually rather smart, not incredibly smart, but enough to pride himself in having wisdom that few others have. Just because a pony chooses not to speak, doesn't mean they can’t.

His inner musings were cut short when a large, heavy haystack collided into his side.

“Big Mac!” Two voices shouted in unison, then, as quickly as it came the large hay bale flew off the prone body.

“I’m really sorry Big MacIntosh” Came a small voice from behind the purple mare.

“It’s alright Jinx, it was an accident, no harm done... right?” Twilight spoke with a soft tone he was surprised to hear from the young mare. All that time with the Princess actually did have an effect on her.

“Big Mac, you ARE unhurt?” Her voice changed back to her normal, slightly sharp tone.

“Eeyup.”

The smaller dark grey unicorn visibly perked up at this, a wide grin plastered her face and her bright pink eyes filled with relief.

They all stood awkwardly for a few minutes, nobody having anything to say, Each pony took turns to lazily scuff their hooves across the ground. Big Mac kicked a tiny grey pebble across the dirt, a light cloud of dust filled the air slowly before disappearing into the hot air. His attention was caught by a familiar scarlet pegasus flying frantically towards the group.

“Quick....forest...Fluttershy... big guy...hurt” The small stallion wheezed through short frantic breaths.

“Take your time Nolan...now... what’s wrong with Fluttershy?” Twilight spoke slowly but was clearly worried over her yellow friends involvement by his words.

“Ok ok.” He soon caught his breath and began to look more calm.

“There’s an injured stallion, I think some griffons did a number on him.” A small gasp escaped the two mares mouths, Big Macs jaw tightened at the thought of a citizen of Equestria getting attacked.

“We tried to walk him back to town, but...well the guys huge. I mean HUGE, like...like...BIG!” Nolan blurted out close to speeds that the pink menace reaches while on her daily sugar highs.

“Big Mac, go get the girls and keep watch on the fillies.” Twilight had changed to a more serious demeanor. She had already taken off to a slow gallop with Jinx and Nolan close behind.

He took a quick look back towards the other ponies on the farm, almost all had turned their attention to the little piece of drama, though none had tried to approach. Rainbow Dash and AppleJack sure did look ready and raring to go though. A soft movement of his colossal hoof motioned to them to stay

He closed his already tired eyes and slowly shook his head. His slightly dirty mane whipping around in the air.

“Eenope.”

And with that, He took off in a full gallop towards the injured stallions location.

Waking up and awkward moments.

Fluttershy carefully checked over the injured Aegis (Nolan had informed her of his name hurriedly before speeding off to get help) , he was badly hurt, that much was certain. And as she started looking over his body, her concern grew ever more for this poor pony.

Multiple cuts and scrapes adorned his dirtied face with the worst being a long gash across his eye. The cut was fairly deep and very thick, whatever brute of a griffon did this was large and...well... just plain mean.

Taking a few tentative steps back she got a better look at the entirety of the battered stallion that lay before slowly dying before her.

He was much larger than I had thought, easily dwarfing herself and probably coming close, if not the same height as Big Mac. She suddenly realised she was alone with this strange stallion. Alone. At the edge of the Everfree Forest. A feeling of dread quickly rose in the frightened mare.

She took a few deep breaths and she felt much less shaky. Now, back to Aegis. His coat was very white with the lightest spots being close to Rarity’s snow white colour. The true color was hard to tell through all the dirt, muck and blood... but he looked very white. Next was his mane. Jet black with a dark red streak passing through the middle, small pieces of debris had been caught up and tangled in both his mane and tail, the latter being of similar color and equally messy. Sticky, dried-in blood had matted his mane and tail to his coat and the mountain of grime that covered him sure didn't help the hygienic look he so clearly didn’t go for.

Finally, the thing she really wanted to get a peek at, his cutie mark.

She lifted her yellow hoof and gently brushed away the few locks of tail hair that covered his rump. After she moved aside the few locks of hair her eyes beheld an intimidating cutie mark. It looked similar to a Royal Guard helmet except it was fully black with gold trimmings. Behind said helmet was two crossed swords, both equal in length and color.

This pony did definitely not lead a normal life, at least, not her idea of normal anyway.

Was he a guard? Maybe...probably. The situation, the look and the mark on his flank suggested so. But something didn’t seem right about this particular pony, something screamed at her to stay away from him, that he was dangerous. She quelled her overactive nerves and continued to keep watch over poor Aegis.

After what felt like hours, faint hoofsteps came from behind her. She swallowed fear, something she surprised herself that she was able to do, and turned slowly to put herself between Aegis and the new ponies that were in such a rush to get here.

Then without warning, a large red stallion she was relieved to see barreled over the hill and rushed towards her.

They all stood around the stallion, now named ‘Aegis’, discussing how we would handle him. It was unanimous that he would be taken to the hospital, wouldn’t be right if we didn't, but that’s where the agreements ended. Both AJ (who, despite her brothers wishes, had followed) and Big Mac refused to allow him into town, not out of being mean, but that he was a strange, new and possibly dangerous pony. Not something needed in Ponyville.

Nolan on the other hand was very vocal about his choice, saying how it would be just not pony-like to not help him in his time of need, Jinx had voiced her agreement with him. If she was agreeing with him because of her love-stuck state, or if she actually was being trusting. Now that is a debate that is better left alone.

Fluttershy was being normal Fluttershy, quietly agreeing with both parties and generally keeping her head down, staying out of the way.

Twilight on the other hand was being much louder than most of the group, excluding Nolan. Her and Nolan had been caught up in a short shouting match after the scarlet stallion had made the mistake of telling Twilight her idea of giving Aegis to the princess was “ Dumb and stupid, with a hint of no.” as he so eloquently put it.

This of course did not go on well with Twilight.

After the mouthful Nolan received each pony thought better to disagree with the now ticked off mare that had now pulled out a small piece of parchment and scribbled a uncharacteristically informal letter to Princess Celestia.

A quick burst of purple magic sent the paper to the princess. Knowing that the decision was final and resolved AppleJack decided to change subject.

“So..er..Twilight?” She distinctly drawled “Why d’ya get Spike to always send yer letters when yah just did it fine there?”

“Well, Applejack, he problem with teleportation of certain objects is that it’s rather...tricky” Twilight began to pace in a small area as she lectured. “The paper could end up anywhere, that’s taking into account that it even makes it out unharmed or at all.”

In all honesty the group, excluding Twilight, had almost no clue how teleportation worked. She had once tried to explain but all that ended with was a few headaches and a sleeping Rainbow Dash.

A small groan escaped the rone pegasus that the group had unconsciously encircled, this caused a few red faces as they had all forgotten the poor pony.

Big Mac craned his neck down to the ponies side, and then roughly heaved him up. Taking his massive weight on his back with almost no strain. After a soft grunt to himself, he lumbered towards ponyville with the group of excited ponies in tow.

The walk through town had been uneventful. The stubborn Big Mac had refused to listen to Twilight, who had been telling him it would be more efficient if they used her telekinesis rather than the farmponies strength. In the end the red stallion had reluctantly gave her control of the situation, putting her at ease.

“Hurry up ponies. The princess should be arriving any time now.” Twilight droned on for the 3rd time since she had picked up Aegis. Insisting the princess MUST be met at the Ponyville General Hospital.

The other members of the group were not so enthusiastic.

As Big Mac walked behind most of the other ponies, having no need to stay up front, his sister sensed something was up.

She gave the larger pony a soft nudge with her flank. “He Mac? Yah ok?” She said unusually quiet for her, she only spoke like this when she knew something was up.

“Ah dunno AJ, that pony” He nodded in the general direction of Aegis. “Jus’ don’t seem normal tah me, but y’know me, ah ain’t one for change.” The normally imposing stallion had quickly switched stances, his whole body sagging and his chin almost scraping off the cobbled road that paved the streets of the town.

“Agreed, but keep in mind what Ma and Pa always told us.” A distant look spread across her face, which Bic Mac soon mirrored, as they both recalled the many moral lessons their parents had taught them all those years ago. “Yeah sis, we were tah never trust a book by its cover. Still... ah think we should just keep an eye on him.” Big Mac mumbled.

The two farmponies trotted quickly and soon had cught up with the rest of the group.

Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria, sat hiding behind a large potted plant. A slender pristine white hoof covered her mouth in an attempt to stop any giggles that she may slip. A glance over at a massive velvet curtain made the ‘Prank Princess’ as she had taken to call herself giggle even more. The faint outlines of two ponies was barely visible through the heavy dark red material, the two aforementioned figures were none other than her proud Captain of the Royal Guard Shining Armor and his newlywed wife Princess Cadance, who also happened to be her niece. The three ponies had planned a prank on Celestia’s sister Luna. Days of meticulous planning and shrugging of important duties had led up to the pinnacle of what would be a prank to end all pranks.

At least...until next week... then another prank war would begin.

The royal ponies thoughts were cut short by the sound of slow hoofsteps echoing from one of the many long corridors that branched from the foyer the three ponies hid in.

Stealing a look through the thin leaves and branches brought her face-to-flank with the princess of the night. The younger alicorn was much more easy to trick than her older sibling. An aspect the sun goddess enjoyed greatly.

A lanky stallion bounced alongside Luna, happily engaged in conversation about a popular series of comics called “The Batmare”. The discussion was about the most recent installment and the fact that Batmare had been hospitalized by her arch enemy, The Jokester.

“Now Mitch.” Luna started. “ We both know that Batmare will obviously make a full recovery and stop Jokesters devious and evil plans.” Batmare was clearly the night princesses favorite character. Luna could relate to a pony being alone, with no parents and few friends. They both liked the night and more comfortable in the nights embrace.

“Nuh-uh, Jokesters been planning this from the start. Look how easily Batmare fell into that trap, she’s got no chance of beating him this time!” At this point Mitch had started to bounce around Luna and almost rival her ‘Canterlot voice’ she had gotten rid of, along with her ‘Royal We’ speech pattern, not long ago.

“Just wait until next week, THEN the true- … Uhm...Sister? What are you doing behind that plant?” Luna asked, and after a short pause, turned to her companion eyes-wide.

“Run you fool!” She half shouted in the burgundy stallions face.

Mitch however, did not run, instead he leaped rather gracefully towards Luna and straddled her back.

“Ride Luna! Onwards!” He bellowed with pride. He had two legs placed at either side of the night goddess and all four flailed wildly, blurring together with the speed, and when Luna unceremoniously flung him off using her magic he continued to jerk his four long limbs in mid-air.

Luna then shook her entire torso in an attempt to get the frantic pony off her back. “Faust’s sake Mitch! Geddoff!” Both princesses had grown accustomed to the stallions odd ways, though Luna had grown closer to him because of the similar intrests they shared.

And I barely get time to myself never mind other ponies. As much as I would like it.

“Celestia!” The smaller alicorn almost shouted at her sister, bringing her back to reality.. Cadance and Shining Armor had now joined the ruckus, laughing loudly and annoying the already irate Luna.

“Aww c’mon auntie, it was only a joke.” Cadance had slightly regained her composure and now only had a small smirk on her face. “Anyway, we had been planning for a while now.”

“So thats why my sister has been shrugging her royal duties and leaving me to go to boring meetings. You took days to plan a little scare?”

It was the guard captains turn to speak up at this point. “Well we did mean to drop a big cake on your head. But we had waited for ages and I got hungry... yeah.” Even though the large stallion was basically family to the royal sisters, he normally still acted the part of a guard, this was a rare occasion when he spoke to them as he would his loving wife.

“I think a certain captain of the royal guard should be seeing to the new recruits right about now.” Luna hissed at him, deciding the young guard was as good a target as any for her growing annoyance at the silly little prank.

Just then, a small green flash and a puff of smoke signalled the arrival of a letter from the princesses prized student, Twilight Sparkle.

“Odd, she sent me a friendship letter a few days ago.” Celestia had hoped that Twilight had not forgotten about the previous letter, the poor thing probably went half crazy looking for something to write about.

“Twiley wouldn’t send a letter if it was for nothing.” Shining Armor spoke up, sounded perplexed about his sisters actions.

“Read it! C’mon showmeshowmeshowmeshowmeshowmeshowmeshowmeshowmesh-” Mitch had clambered over Celestia's back and onto her head, narrowly balancing and barely keeping her crown , that had somehow got caught on his long red ear, teetering on the edge. She shook her head to get rid of the young stallion and his antics. His presence had lightened up the the princesses otherwise boring daily routine.

She let out a small chuckle. “I will my little pony, but please, give me a moment.”

“‘Kay.” Mitch spoke happily. He bounced quickly from Celestia's head to the thick carpet under-hoof. Facing away from the princess, he spun to look at her, and placed his flank firmly on the ground. His face contorted into a toothy grin that sparkled before a long pink tongue rolled out between them and ever-so-gracefully lolled to the right side of his mouth.

She only had to peer over the parchment at the strange pony she was so happy to call a friend, his tail started slowly wagging much akin to the dogs she has seen in her years of ruling.

A sharp clear of the throat and she began to read her favored student's letter“Dear Princess Celestia” Nothing out of the ordinary here. “I write to inform you of an odd occurrence happening here in Ponyville. While at a small gathering at Applejacks, a pony by the name of Nolan West arrived to inform us he had found a badly hurt stallion on the edge of the Everfree forest. The stallion is currently with me and some others on the way to the hospital. I fear he may not survive the night without some powerful healing magic, so please, I beg of you to come to the hospital immediately and help the pony.

-Twilight.

P.S We think he may be a royal guard, I suggest checking with my brother to see if any units have went missing lately”

Well...things just got a lot more interesting.

Fluttershy sat hiding in the corner of the large room Aegis had been placed in.

Shortly after the arrival of a half-dozen doctors that brought noise the yellow mare couldn’t handle, she dashed over to the side of the room and hid behind her long pink mane; now hidden from the chaos that went on around her she could slowly calm herself.

Things however did not go as planned when a blinding ray of pure white light slashed through a small gap in the pink hair that protected her from all.

She peeped out from behind her hair to see a scene of somewhat peacefulness.

Both Princesses stood tall over the now calmed doctors and nurses, looking over the limp form of Aegis on the small hospital bed.

“Leave us.” Luna spoke in a commanding voice, it echoed through the large, white and sterile room. Ponies frantically shook their heads and pushed to get through the small doorway.

Fluttershy had not moved an inch, fear gripped her and she locked both forehooves across her eyes, her entire body trembled.

Neither the sun nor moon princess noticed Fluttershy in her balled up state.

Magenta eyes, widened slightly with both horror and amazement at the large white pony in front of her.

“Tia we need to work quickly.” Luna had already galloped past her and stood on the right side of the bed. The tip of night princesses horn glowed slightly; the bue-ish orb of light grew slowly and steadily with powerful alicorn magic.

Once Celestia had got her bearings she joined her younger sister at the stallions side.

Her eyes shut marginally and she focused on pushing all her magic to her horn and keeping it there, intent on building up as much magic force as she could for a powerful healing spell.

Light and dark orbs grew exponentially in size and soon to be overlapping each other. As soon as the two balls of power touched they quickly disappeared. The faint hum of powerful magic suddenly stopped and everything went quiet. Two seconds later and neither princess had moved a muscle until all four large eyes split open and they shone with bright light. Twin Beams of magic shot from the alicorns horns and slammed into the body of the stallion, his torso shook slightly before returning to the previous stillness.

The sound that accompanied the light beams were almost deafening, they seemed to scream across the room and ruffled the sterile sheets of the bed.

“Phew! That was cool!” Celestia craned her head behind her to see a grinning pegasus hovering outside the window.

“Rainbow Dash, I thought Luna told everypony to leave the room.” She wasn’t disappointed in the sky blue pony, in fact, she was rather surprised that she disappointed a direct order.

Coming to think of it, it is to be expected of Rainbow, she is very...nosey. A small smile crept onto Celestia's face. Amused at the small flyer.

“So...What did you do to him?” The polychromatic pony lazily floated through the open window.

“A simple ‘wake-up’ spell; nothing difficult.” Her sister smugly stated.

“Uhh. Suure. Then why isn’t he awake?” Rainbow had now flew past both princesses and was poking the stallion in the face.

“He must have been in worse mental shape than we thought. Looks like whatever ordeal the poor pony has suffered through really took it out of him. He should be up in an hour or two.”Celestia lifted a large wing to usher the prodding pegasus away.

“Fluttershy.” A small eep signalled that she had heard her ruler. “Please go tell your friends they can come in now.”

A flash of yellow and a squeeky door was all that proved that the hidden pony had left the room.

“Lulu. I need you to head to town hall; arrangements must be made.”

After Fluttershy had called for the ponies Luna cast from the room to return the night princess hurriedly flew to town hall.

Her intent was to hold a gathering to greet the mysterious stallion now known as Aegis. The townsponies would meet in front of the large town hall and, once he was introduced, Aegis could say a few words so not all ponies regarded him with complete fear at his intimidating appearance.

However another plan was getting put into play. The large gathering such as this surely needed peacekeepers and nopony better to do such a thing as the royal guard. Their presence would go unnoticed and the added security would ensure that if Aegis was indeed dangerous and unstable, he could easily be dealt with.

Not to mention Twilight Sparkle is aching to show off her new invention. Thoughts projected into a moving picture...such powerful magic should be tested on a more well-known pony rather than a stranger found in the state he was in.

Regal hooves landed lightly outside the large doors to the town hall. A secretary stood patiently just outside; her dark brown coat was slightly pricked up with unneeded fear she held for the night princess.

By tartarus! Why do these ponies still tremble at the sight of me and shudder at the sound of my name? Nightmare Moon is long gone...I just wish they could see that.

The chirpy secretary had no idea to Luna’s inner turmoil, instead, he led her through the halls to the office of the mayor of Ponyville.

Twilight was intrigued.

No...she was amazed!

While her companions had busied themselves with trying to wake the injured stallion she had taken his dirty saddlebag to the small table that sat in the corner of the room.

Twilight used her horn to take out and place the contents of the bag onto the dark wooden table.

A bag of bits, an apple, a piece of parchment and a- Woah!...a dagger.

Deciding to leave the dagger for now, she inspected everything else.

The apple; bright red and remarkably clean,uneaten and untouched. The bag of bits had 50 small gold coins inside and the bag was made from fine black material. The parchment was wrinkled and dirty with discoloration from the ink running due to water was easily recognizable.

Before she could properly open the piece of paper a excited pinkie came screeching to a halt next to her. The pink earth pony managed to thoroughly distract the young scholar and she placed the parchment into her own saddlebag for later reading.

Two hours later...

Aegis felt terrible.

Not only with the the shock of waking up at all froze his mind. The shock of waking up in a strange room surrounded by nothing short of a herd of loud and incessant mares that interrogated him for answers.

Though once he had noticed Princess Celestia he made sure he was fully awake and ready to go. Her casual demeanor confused him, she had been nothing but helpful and kind to him...not that he was complaining... his normal routine of getting balled at by superiors was easily far worse than this.

After thirty minutes of boring check-ups he was cleared to leave the blasted hospital.

This however was not what made him slightly grouchy.

What did, however, was the news he would be speaking in front of the entire town.

Now soldiers he could talk to. Soldiers were fine and calm and not annoying.

Everypony else however were not his soldiers. That was where the problem arose...

He dared not speak his mind to the princess. He would most likely be punished for such insubordination. So he bit the proverbial bullet and waited patiently on the sidelines while a Miss Twilight Sparkle spoke briefly on his behalf.

An amusing scene had played out in front of him though, relieving his stress ever so slightly. A stack of papers as long as his leg has been pulled out from places Aegis didn’t even want to imagine by the purple unicorn; who got interrupted by a cyan pegasus.

She’s loud. She’s assertive. She’s damn funny and cool. I’ll need to make sure we become friends. Seeing as she’s the type of pony i’m used to.

“Yes thanks you Rainbow Dash.” Twilight clearly scowled at her friend.

“Now before we get the stallion-”

“He’s called Aegis!”

“Indeed...Before we get Aegis out here. I would like to read you all something.”

Huh? She wrote something for me? Well i suppose that is kind.

“I found this on him and I have yet to read it. So it will be an experience for us all!”

Oh buck...

Aegis jumped from the padded bench with speed that shouldn’t be possible of a pony of his stature. He had barely put one hoof on the stairs when another one crashed down near his head.

Red eyes trailed up a long and sturdy leg, connected to a large muscled body almost encased in purple and gold armor. The stallions face was serious but calm, though his lips were now pressed into a small, thin, firm line.

“I hope you don’t plan on doing anything to my sister buddy.” This was more of a statement than an answer.”

“Out of the way guard, I have no time for your games.” His voice was gravelly and deep. With him being slightly larger than this new pony, even with all his fancy armor, he sure looked menacing.

“No, you will wait until called upon then, and only then will you go on stage.” This stallion was not the smartest, but he looked powerful; not in physically but he had the potential to be strong with magic. His armor suggested that he was a high-ranking royal guard member. Aegis knew that fighting with him wouldn’t score me any points with the locals and especially with Twilight.

Reluctantly Aegis backed down.

“Now ponyville. The top of the paper reads ‘The charge’. Oooh, sounds exciting! Let me just get it straightened out.”

Aegis had long since closed his eyes in preparation of the reaction he expected the population of the town to have. It was not something he looked forward to.

Shining Armor had turned to face the stage and listen intently to the reading.

Twilight cleared her throat and began.

“To anypony reading this, I am Aegis. You will not know me or have heard of me. But i beg you to take warning of what I tell you, what I have written is an account of what happened at the finish of a long battle I took part in. -Aegis.”

Already the crowd grew restless from the brief words.

Twilight however, didn’t have any sort of surprise present on her face.

“For weeks I have waited in this mud. I'm shaking, I'm wet. The stench of my dead friends. Relieved when we finally march in. This waiting is killing me. Traumatized eyes, as we go in. Bodies everywhere, ponies scream.We can't survive but we march in. Nothing to win but I go in. Don't care if this killing is a sin. I just want to end this hell I'm in. I hit the bottom, we did not win.”

The crowd was silent, eyes wide and watching. Twilight couldn't hold back the horror on her face...or the tears that stung at her eyes.

Aegis had already sprinted off before the unicorn could utter another word.

The sun shone down on the small town of Ponyville. Ponies of all different colours casually walked it’s cobbled streets, every now and again a small ‘Hello’ would be exchanged following the slight movement of the head or a small gesture with a hoof.

Sharp red eyes scanned the peaceful town. The eyes owners knew the horrors that could have fallen onto this town only days previously.

“It was worth it.” Aegis muttered softly. Letting his lips only open marginally and the quickly close shut again.

The figure that sat alone was large and covered in scars. His body was almost pure muscle. The tall pony cast a large shadow as he watched the people below.

He had been sitting on the green hill for over thirty minutes now, simply watching silently. The calm look never leaving his face.

His long ears turned to the sound of small hooves hitting soft grass. He didn’t turn to face the intruder though, he only waited.

“So..all that back there. Did that really happen?” He didn’t have any need to look at the pony that spoke. Her characteristic scratchy voice was none other than the cyan pegasus that had been so eager to meet him earlier.

Rainbow Dash.

He sat for a while longer but still didn’t speak. Only staring at the peaceful village.

“Woah. I’ve never been up here.well, not on the ground at least. It’s...It’s...-”

“Cool?” His deep voice rumbled through his cavernous chest and into the slim form of Rainbow. She could practically feel the vibrations bounce around inside her chest.

“Yeah dude. Cool.”

The pair sat there in silence for hours. One enjoying the peace he had not seen in months. The other enjoying his company.

Going to war. (I swear THIS is where things get better)

Ch4

Three days had passed. Three days since he had been found on the outskirts of town.

Princess Celestia had graciously requested for him to be put in a small house, barely more than a large shed, close to the library.

The house was cold, damp and completely bare, a few windows dotted the walls and broke up the dark rotted wood that almost held back the cold Equestrian nights.

Despite this he felt right at home.

Every morning a basket of supplies had been left outside his door. Nopony ever knocked and he had never even caught a glimpse of the pony leaving them.

The basket was fairly large, it included two bright red apples that he had to constantly fight to stop him devouring the mouthwatering sweetness. There was also a small tin that had been sealed shut; inside was soup, never the same type and all tasted delicious. And finally a cupcake was placed precariously atop the apples. It was large and he soon found to be very sweet, something he cared little for but was at least a good change from the bland rations he had lived on for almost his entire life. The pony that h supplied him these was sure to be getting a good congratulations for their assistance.

On the morning of the fourth day however did not go according to plan. He awoke with no sign of the food, which had briefly troubled him, he hoped the ponies had not forgotten. He may have been trained in survival and food gathering techniques...but he’d be damned if he had eaten his last apple.

His pondering had been cut short by a small orange filly attempting to hide herself behind a small talking bush.

Wait...wha?

Now that is odd.

Aegis dropped his head and briefly wondered if this was the right thing to do.

“Hehehe.” The stallion giggled and then charged full speed towards the bush.

Rainbow couldn't breath. She could barely move.

Her ribs burned, her throat stung and her slender body almost screamed in pain at every heaved breath.

She took a quick glance up from the floor and wiped away a stream of tears that shot from her big eyes in torrents.

Aegis and three fillies sat on the couch, each with their heads angled towards the ground. Twilight paced back and forth in front of the downtrodden ponies, lecturing them about conduct.

Apparently, from what she gathered, the rag-tag group of fillies had decided to spy on Aegis. In the attempt to be sneaky and the like they had gotten hungry and stole the stallions food. Dash was unfazed at this though. What had really got her was when three screaming balls of orange,yellow and white shot through the door of Twilights house, set up a small book fort and then proceeded to pelt a berserk war-stallion with astronomy books.

Unfortunately, the stallion had similar ideas; stockpiling a large heap of history books behind his makeshift cover more commonly known as ‘Twilights couch’.

The short war had been ground to a halt once Twilight, using her magic, had picked up the four offenders and mercilessly began berating them.

During the scolding Spike had wandered in and began talking quietly with Rainbow.

“So you actually trust the new pony?”

“I dunno Spike. He’s cool and all. But I’ve never talked to him.” The poly-chromatic pony replied to the small purple dragon. Her front right hoof brushed against her chin in deep thought.

“Didn’t Twilight have a mind-reading spell or summin’?”

“Uhh you mean the Telepathy spell? Yeah she’s been working on it. Why?”

“Well Spike.” She began, a smile formed on her lips. “ I think we have the perfect way to getto know our dear Aegis.”

Eventually the lecture died down and once the fillies had left the tree house, no doubt in pursuit of their cutie marks, Spike and Dash brought up the idea to the young librarian and the scarred soldier.

“Girls, if I may have your attention.” Twilight spoke with authority and confidence in the presence of her friends.

“I have gathered you all here to witness a magical feat that, hopefully, will let us know more about Aegis.

The five mares had been gathered on short notice to watch the ‘Projected Telepathy’ spell as Twilight called it.

The others however didn’t care for fancy names. They were much more interested in what was going to happen than the name.

Rarity wanted to see the beautiful armor and battle dress she had read about in novels and was sure that Aegis would be wearing.

Applejack wanted to see how dangerous this pony really was.

Rainbow Dash stated she wanted to see the ‘awesome’ and ‘totally cool’ things this stallion could do before zipping around the room.

Fluttershy went with the crowd.

Twilight had her studies and duty as a knowledge seeker to find out as much as possible about the odd pony.

Pinkie pie...well... she was Pinkie Pie.

“Well now that you are comfortable, I will explain the procedure.”

A loud sigh lets loose from Dash

“I will begin by bonding everyone to the subjects mind, an easy and painless stage that will only take a matter of minutes.”

“Then, once preparations have ceased and I’ve built enough energy, the spell will be cast and we will explore his thoughts. I expect we will be drawn to his most memorable times.”

“Hey Twilight? Why can’t we just pick and choose?” Rainbow Dash had stopped hovering and landed on the wooden floor with a thump.

“Sadly no Rainbow, the spell, while it is strong, is also weak. In the sense that only the most engraved memories will be brought up.”

“Excuse me Twilight dear?”

“Yes Rarity?” Twilight said with a slight tone of irritation in her voice.

“How will this work? Like how on earth are we all going to be there? Surely we all can’t be inside his head looking through his eyes.”

“Hmm, no you are correct. We will be there but viewing from the sidelines. We will be there just without any harm to us.”

Seeing the confused look on her friends faces she went into more specifics.

“We will all be standing there, but nopony in the memory will see us nor feel us. We will be very much like ghosts.” Satisfied with her friends expressions she walked towards the clearly nervous Aegis who had sat bolt upright and silent for the duration of the conversation.

“Are you ready?” She asked softly.

“I really think this is a bad idea Miss Twilight. There’s some things nopony should ever see. And I’ve seen worse.

She thought for a moment. Bordering on calling the whole thing off. This needed to be done however; the spell needed testing and this quiet stallion needed somepony to understand what he had been through. So without further words she began the spell.

A bright violet glow emanated from her horn, it grew into a small sphere that quickly shot off the tip of her horn and slowly bobbed it’s way mid-air towards the squirming Aegis.

The purple ball hit him squarely on between the eyes. His eyelids drooped in a fight to keep open then suddenly slammed shut. Twilight did this again, but this time she held the ball until it was the size of an average pony. This larger ball split up into six equally sized smaller spheres each one moved slowly to a specific pony until it pushed into their heads agonizingly slowly.

Six eyes shut.

Nothing happened.

Twilight blinked. She was confused, everything should have worked. It was all planned out.

We should be inside his head by now.

“Uhh Twi? Shouldn't we be, y’know, not here?”

The purple librarian lowers her head and sighs loudly. “I’m sorry girls. The spell isn’t working. We’ll try it another time.”

“Why don’t I just tell you?” The stallions deep baritone voice rumbled throughout the room.

Once everypony had agreed to some ‘story time’ - as Pinkie called it- and sat around the slightly groggy stallion, waiting patiently for him to begin.

“Now, I’m about to tell you mares about a topic you aren't familiar with. War.”

He waited for each pony to stop fidgeting.

“It all began when we got deployed against the Griffons.”

Hundreds of large arrows whizzed through the fog towards the platoon of ponies.

“Barrage!” A young mare screamed as an arrow pierced clean through her chest. Her blood spilled across the already blood soaked ground. Adding to the crimson mess that pooled around the warriors hooves. Before her limp body hit the mud a panicked medic leaped over a comrade. who was grappling with a particularly large griffon in the dirt. She caught the injured mares falling body and started to feverishly wrap her injuries and checking up on her simultaneously.

“Commander! I need to get her out. Otherwise we got another body for the pile.” The medic, now confirmed to be a young white mare by the name of Sun Ray, had miraculously stopped the bleeding and sealed the wound.

“Got it Ray. Ponies! Fall back to the trench!” Aegis bellowed over the screams and shouts around him. He turned to face a burly stallion slamming his blooded hooves into the face of a downed griffon.

“Get your ass in gear Benchpress. I’m not asking again.”

“This bird brain slaughtered Bow Strings boss. I’m gettin’ payback.” The dark grey stallion never looked away from his victim; blood splattered upon his thick muzzle and the griffons beak had been misshapen and started to break under the constant strain of pounding hooves.

“If we don’t fall back now we are both dead. I’m not letting you stay. We’ll both be slaughtered like Bow Strings” Aegis started. His voice wavered on the edge of calmness and anger.

A heavy hoof froze in mid-air and his head slowly rotated to look back at the near irate platoon commander. Without a word Benchpress slid off the newly dead griffon and galloped towards the trench line.

He took a quick look around the battlefield. Both ponies and griffons lay sprawled dead, frozen in moments of fear, agony or rage.

Hold on... Where did the griffons go?

The area had gotten eerily quiet. No ponies and definitely no griffons.

Griffons aren't the ones to retreat...Maybe we got ‘em on the ropes! At the thought of this Aegis had almost, almost jumped for joy.

This wasn't the case however. Aegis had fought all his life, he knew Griffon battle tactics better than most Griffon generals do. Retreat is not in their rule-book.

He began his turn towards the equine line and he had only managed a few slow steps before a loud pounding forced his instincts to kick in. He whirled around and brandished his sword. His placed his body low and scanned the fog for any movement.

The warrior expected a particularly large Griffon. He however was wrong. Very wrong.

The dense fog suddenly dissipated with a soft whoosh and the terrors that hid behind the grey wall were revealed.

Beasts. Monsters. Abominations. Whatever name they went by was rightly so.

An army of them, thousands...no... millions stood snarling at the stoic stallion. They were huge, and they looked terrifying. Each one resembled a Griffon some stood in the classic Griffon way of on all fours, some stood bipedal. Beaks had been ripped off in favor of massive black maws filled with flesh-rending teeth. Feathers had fallen away to reveal blackened skin that writhed with maggots underneath. Each monster brandished claws made from the very bone that tore through it’s skin, each being at least a foot long and splattered with dark blood that stained the whiteness.

While most of them drooled and gnashed at the pony; none moved. They stared at him with black eyes that hinted at nothing but hate and anger and hunger. One stood straight in front of Aegis. He was visibly less monstrous, even to the point of possibly passing as an odd Griffon. Except his eyes. When Aegis looked at his eyes, they glowed with a faint yellow shine; this one was unlike his peers as he looked intelligent.

The fog slowly descended to cover the hoard. And where creatures that looked to have escaped from Tartarus once stood. All was white.

He ran as fast as he could back to the trench. Things were about to get interesting.

The trench was alive with the bustling of hurried ponies. The quiet moans of injured ponies didn't phase him, he had grown accustomed to such a thing long ago.

“Sir! Sir!” A soft voice pierced through him from somewhere to his left.

A smaller than average stallion sprinted up to him. His light brown hooves stuck into the mud and kicked some specks of grey sludge on to Aegis.

“I’m so sorry sir, please-”

“No need Sunspot. Just get the word to Sergeant Cleaver we need the heavy assault equipment soon.”

The normally timid pony feverishly brushed down his unruly dark brown hair. The patting down did nothing to smooth his unkempt mane but it did however seem to slightly calm him.

“Y..yes sir. But I have a message. General Blitzkrieg has arrived.” Sunspot finished with a large smile on hs lips.

By the royal sisters we may have a chance!

“Where Lieutenant?! I need to congratulate that magnificent bastard on his perfect timing.”

“There sir. He’s just behind the command tent.”

Without another word Aegis left up the high trench wall and bounded towards the location of his salvation.

The general may not have held the same status in the Crimson Hoof as Aegis did, purely on the fact he took as many ponies with him, and away from other commanders who needed them, to pointless missions. Despite this the fatigued stallion could only imagine the reinforcements that awaited him.

As Aegis rounded the large command tent he was amazed at the sight that stared at him.

The whole base must be here. The general even brought his honor guards and... are those Juggernauts!? I could kiss that stallion. We may even survive.

The fabled Juggernauts stood near the honor guards. While the honor guards specialized in acrobatics in heavy armor. They were all highly skilled and hand picked. Shining white plates of metal lay under a long red and black robe, each of the guards faces were covered with a large hood. They held themselves with pride.

The Juggernauts were similar. Except the armor they wore fully encased them, yet they still could reach speeds that rivaled many pegasi flight speeds. The armor was large and sharp, the matte black color blended with the decimated battlefield more than their companions armor did. The Juggernauts however were known to be very...unstable. Before battle a ‘representative’ of General Blitzkrieg would pump the massive stallions with as much drugs they could handle, sending them into a blood frenzy before the battle even began. You couldn't control a Juggernaut. only watch as he mowed down hordes of enemies under hoof or shredded them with his massive helmet mounted swords.

Aegis decided to stay away from both parties as neither seemed very sociable. Opting to look for Blitzkrieg.

Aegis was not a happy pony.

“Sir, I must disagree.” The large stallion spoke through clenched teeth. He barely kept his temper at bay because he was talking to a commanding officer.

If general Blitzkrieg kept being this ignorant however, Aegis wouldn't even attempt to hold himself back.

“What are you talking about commander?” Blitzkrieg began, his hooves crashed against the muddy floor of the command tent. “I have been leading troops long before you were born!” He took off his star studded cap to reveal a short cropped brown mane. “As I was saying. You take your troops and the juggernauts out into the fields, I’ll be coordinating the attack from here.”

“So, you're not coming with us?” Aegis turned his long neck and large head to the side and now peered at the general with curiosity. Blitzkrieg always led the charge ‘For Glory!’ his war cries would inspire the younger ponies and his strength was only matched by the strongest Juggernauts.

“So why are you staying behind sir?” A chocolate colored soldier questioned, he then quickly shrunk away at the thought of the generals wrath.

“Good question lad. That is because my guard captain insisted that he, and his men, survey the battle before charging headlong in.”

“And..?” Aegis was quickly losing patience for the old stallions games.

“And I think the tale of how I saved the day. By coming to aid the survivors.” He breaths in loudly through the nose. “Ahh. It would be terrific.”

“Also Aegis? You are to b e taking up my role as head of the charge. No need to thank me, just go and get a squad of your best ponies to accompany you.”

Aegis had already moved quickly out of the tent and away from the incompetent general.

“That bastard! That fucking BASTARD!”

Aegis was currently bucking anything and everything he could see.

Cough.

Aegis whirled around to see three armored ponies uneasily shifting from behind a small tent.

He easily recognized the largest, it was Benchpress, who had seemed to have cooled down from his rage during the retreat.

The large grey stallion clearly had some Clydesdale in him. He came eye level with Aegis (who knew he had no clydesdale background, but was just weirdly large for a Pegasus) but had much larger muscles than the white stallion. His armor was brand new along with the spiked hoof boots that pointed menacingly towards the commander.

The second was a light blue unicorn wearing nothing but a turquoise hood and cape. He reached his short leg to his forehead and brushed away a few strands of purple hair that peeked out from under the darkness. A few seconds passed before he finally spoke.

“Greetings commander. My name is Elusive and it’s a pleasure to meet you.” His voice was silky smooth, out of place in the war torn battlefield. This pony wasn't a soldier.

“He’s a merc boss, Blitzkrieg brought some in for backup.” The grey pony grumbled quietly as he shoved past the new stallion.

“A merc? What the hell was he thinking!?” Aegis snorted and began to trot off. One thing he didn’t like was mercenaries, a bunch of disloyal cretins who would turn on you for a few bits.~

‘If the general hired ‘em...then he’s either went fully senile or he’s not telling us something.’

The third pony unexpectedly shot forward to within legs distance of Aegis. This one worse basic armor that barely covered his sides and looked to be made of cheap metal. The stallions light brown fur contrasted with the dark silver-grey of his armor and helmet. A pair of bright green eyes bore into some indistinct tree somewhere off in the distance far behind Aegis. The scar littered stallion raises his front right hoof and gently removes the ponies helmet, revealing fiery red hair that Blew in the cool breeze.

“Private Harpsichord ready for action sir!” This new stallion was the epitome of the word green. Everything from his clean and unblemished body and enthusiasm to the look of innocence in his eyes screamed lack of experience; this poor pony had no idea of what lay ahead of him.

The younger stallion reverted back to a stoic look that many royal guards could only dream of achieving, but the slight twitches that echoed through his body, the electricity that seeped from his skin onto the surrounding, his long charcoal tail; unbrushed and messy. Aegis knew this one was going to be a handful.

“Enough of that ‘Sir’ stuff son; and stop saluting me, I’m not big on ‘proper military conduct’.” the white warrior screwed up his face and spat out the last few words, enforcing his opinion of it.

“The only good thing saluting will do out there,” He pointed his hoof towards the general direction of the advanced trench-line. “Will be to get your CO killed. So unless you have a particular dislike to me.. I’d appreciate it if you didn't.”

Private Harpsichord clearly struggled to keep all his hooves planted firmly to the dirt. His polished boots wavered millimeters above the mud.

“Say kid? How long have you been out of training? I’ve ever seen you around the base.” Benchpress spoke up from his position perched on some crates. Apple juices dribbled down his chin and ran across his new armor.

“U..uh. Well that’s because I haven't fully finished; my platoon still have a few months left.”

“What!” Both soldier-stallions now rose from their respective positions; Aegis from the ground where he had been doing push-ups and Benchpress from the mountain of boxes.

“Listen private. I need you to think. Was your platoon the newest?” The irate commander held the new stallion by the neck of his leather armor.

“Actually sir. We were the most senior. I was in fact the oldest out of all of the new recruits.” The smugness didn't hide itself from his naive face. A large grin plastered his muzzle and his eyes almost exploded with joy at the thought of his impressing his superiors.

Aegis however, was in no way pleased.

“What is that idiot playing at? Sending in untrained soldiers.” Aegis had reverted back to stomping around angrily and stared daggers at anything that moved.

“S’gonna be a bloodbath Commander. They won’t even know what hit ‘em. Damn griffons will be all over the newbies.”

“Wait... Griffons? Didn't Blitzkrieg send out the message?” Aegis briefly stopped his furious assault on the dirt to look quizzically at his old acquaintance.

“Nope. I-uh suppose we should have?” Benchpress echoed his leaders confused look.

“Whatever out there is not griffon. I don’t think they are even from around here... If you get my meaning.”

“Ahhh yesss,” Elusive spoke from under his hood. The mystical stallion had a strange voice. It was laced with an icy coldness that made the others visibly shudder, and he sounded as though he had two different ponies inside his body; both speaking at the same time but with slightly different pitches. “My scouts have reported two thing; one being that those creatures you saw are demons, the undead griffons are the cause of some evil phantoms. Both seemingly pouring from...Tartarus.”

“Tartarus?” Aegis stepped directly in front of Elusive, squinted his eyes and looked deep into the shadow-ey cowl he worse. “What do you mean Tartarus?”

“I mean that the gates have been opened, the contents splayed across the surrounding area.” He sounded... happy... no that’s not right.

Aegis growled. “Ok ponies, we need to inform the general. Or else our guys will be walking into a bloodbath.”

And with that; the three proud stallions walked off to find the pony in charge of this whole mess.

“Oh and Aegis~” The mysterious pony had not moved an inch. his voice had risen and gained a ‘sing-song’ like style to it. “Please do be careful. Whatever you do this will become a slaughter, of your troops and mine, but Equestria will still be in danger afterwards. The demons will not be stopped today. That task rests on you.”

Without another word Aegis left the odd ‘psychic’ stallion alone and began to mull over his cryptic message.

Nopony listened. The brass laughed him off and threw him onto the front-lines; graciously pushing the charge to an earlier time.

He now stood facing towards the fog. The same fog which held the untold horrors that nopony could ever hope to overcome.

He didn't lie to himself. He was nervous...no he was terrified not only for himself, but for the collective army of brave mares and stallions awaiting the charge into the metaphorical dragons maw.

He checked his armor again. It was his best set. His helmet had been left back at base so he chose to wear nothing on his head. The rest of his body was well armored; a tight black body suit clung to the taut, toned muscles of his chest and stomach, a large pauldron had been secured to his right shoulder with the emblem of his platoon emblazoned on it- a beautifully decorated shield with both of the royal sisters cutie marks etched on- ‘Equestria's First and Last’... the elite of the elite were turned away for being “not that good”. They were living legends among the other soldiers... and he led them in battle.

His chest-piece looked dangerously sharp with its jutting edges and sharp point. The rest of his armor followed with its spiky-ness. The sharp edges served a purpose; to help deflect stabs and cuts from sharp weapons and to intimidate the enemy.

And it looked frikken awesome! He internally told himself.

Something he was surprised with was the wing-guards. After he had gotten all his equipment on he was told he would be given experimental armor. These ’wing blades’ replaced his normal wing armor; they were the same color as the rest off his ensemble and fit nicely with them.

“These are what the eggeheads have been working on Aegis. Blades that attach to pegasi wings. Supposed to make the air support and flight teams have a better time at killing. No need to bring a sword. Also now we got the option of having fast-attack units. Strap a couple of your best fliers up with these babies, send ‘em in, and watch as they tear the enemy to shreds in coordinated skirmish fights.” The gruff quartermaster had briefed him on them. The only problem was that because these are only prototypes the metal was too heavy; thus meaning he wouldn't be able to fly well.

‘Gonna be tight, close-quarter fighting anyway. Might be able to skewer a few of ‘em with these.

He knew he looked good. The whole get-up was the epitome of what the troops are shown in class of how a hero looks.

At Least we will have good moral...until stuff goes wrong that is.

He now noticed Blitzkrieg standing on a lookout tower slightly in front of the trench line. The general stood wearing his best uniform. His barrel chest covered in ribbons and medals that shone against any small ray of light that danced around the dark dank plateau.

“Ponies of my proud army! I will not lie when I tell you our odds. We are outnumbered and against a foe in which we have never faced before. Demons.”

‘Ah so the old coot listens.’

“Feel nothing but pride my ponies. We face glory in the knowledge that if any of you fall here. You fall for the good of Equestria!” he paused to let the thunderous cheers of thousands of adrenalin fueled ponies shout in excitement.

“Now I will sadly not be in the first wave. But my second-in-command will be. Commander Aegis please take the stage.”

He saw a tiny flicker of magic from the generals unicorn bodyguard. Knowing full well the spell only amplified his voice he acted as though it didn’t even occur.

“Mares and stallions! These demons think they can spoil Equestria with all their foul presence. NO! I say that today we will stand and fight the hordes of Tartarus.” He stopped and stared at as many faces as he could; each growing increasingly confident.

He paced now, grinning widely as he did so.

“Even though these new monsters are terrifying to look at. They are nothing more but flesh and blood and bone. And even though we have no place in Equestria as each and every one of us gave up their innocence to protect it we will fight them. We will never have our names in the papers, nor will we have plays or songs or books written about us... but....but we will have succeeded if the residents of our fine country know none the wiser about the brave ponies that held the demonspawn at bay. Follow me brothers and sisters. For we will send them straight back to the fiery depths!” The line thundered with the troops cheering. Thousands of hooves hit the mud as Aegis began the charge across no mans land and into the fog.

“Let’s show them who the real monsters are!.” He bellowed with hate. A resounding ar cry echoed behind him.

A smile crept on his scarred face.

The fog crept ever closer towards the mass of armored muscle that plowed over the land.

Suddenly the fog listed and let loose the creatures of Tartarus. The demons gave their own fierce war cry and sprinted towards the small army of brave mares and stallions.

Thousands of ponies against millions upon millions of demons.

Aegis knew this was suicide. Himself and his troops would get turned undead after the battle. They would replenish the ranks of their enemy.

‘May as well make a sizable dent then’. Aegis pondered before a large dagger made contact with his side.