Holding back Tartarus

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.