Holding back Tartarus

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.