Author's Note

Hello everybody!

It feels like it has been YEARS since I last posted a chapter or done anything of note.

You being here, reading this, means you have returned to see my rewritten work of the first book of the Orion Saga. Welcome back, I have missed you all terribly.

With this new iteration I hope to improve on what I had done before, and really give you all a story truly worthy of your eyes and imagination. As you read through this, you will note the changes I'm sure.

But I won't continue on. I will let my work speak for me, Thanks to old and new readers for coming to take a look.

Prologue: So Be It

Six for Six, Seven for Two.

For the hope of our future, the evil they must undo.

Let us bind Ourselves to their fates.

For their success is our escape.

-Partial Translation of the text of Alvatus Nod Sangra. Starswirl the Bearded, circa 23 AU.

A spasm of pain brought him instantly awake.

"Oh...fuck..."

He hurt everywhere. His horn throbbed painfully in time with the beat of his heart. His skull felt like Mike Tyson had pounded it in for an hour and no bell was wrung for a break. Everything was muffled, as if someone had shoved cotton in his ears, the ringing wasn't helping shit either. He couldn't even smell.

Snorting, and disturbing broken up dust and debris, he lifted his head with difficulty, muscles seemingly unwilling to cooperate.

"The hell am I…" his dry throat made speaking hard.

The ringing in his ears was beginning to lessen now. That might be a good thing. But he was sure whatever he had done would give him tinnitus for the rest of his life.

Looking first at what was before him he blinked in surprise. There, driven into the ground, was a sign. Quills and Sofas. That was Davenport's store. Behind the sign was rubble of what had once been the shop. He was on Thistledown Street. How in the hell had he gotten there?

Looking around he saw that most of the thoroughfare was in absolute ruins. That was important but he couldn’t remember why.

"What was I doing…"

Pushing himself up he found his second surprise, the world went askew as he toppled over to his left to lie once again in the dirt. He was becoming quite familiar with this particular patch of broken ground.

Lifting his head again, and the arm that failed him, he stared in wonder at his left arm. Or what was left of it. A melted lump of metal was all that remained, smoldering. He could feel the heat coming off of it through the flesh and bone part of his arm.

"When did that happen…." He whispered aloud.

A flash and a rumble he felt more than heard brought his attention skyward. A massive object was listing heavily to the side as gold and black lightning strikes pummeled it unrelentingly.

A flight of pegasi, loaded down with others who could not fly were struck down attempting to flee the ship. As it continued to roll over he realized what it was.

"The 'Solar Flare'...." It was an airship. A big one.

Much like the bolts that struck the ship, memory also returned in explosive jerks, not quite complete. "That's right, I used their own storms against them…" Against who specifically he could not yet remember.

He looked at the melted and smoking remains of his left hand once again. He remembered that he had taken a great deal of that output into himself. Why?

The ringing and quiet ended abruptly, what forced its way into that silence was the groaning of metal, and screams. Screams and the roar of thousands of voices in a pitched battle filled his ears. The smell of charred death suddenly flooded his nose.

He glanced up again to see the 'Flare' careening to the earth. He could now hear it's engines straining and exploding as what was left of the crew worked desperately to right the massive airship. The golden black lightning flashed and the thunder rumbled as the storm continued to wreak havoc on anything still airborne. The once mighty airship finally turned belly up and slammed into a gigantic crystalline castle near the center of town. The impact shattered the structure, and made the power cells inside the vessel detonate in spectacular fashion.

The shock-waves from that explosion ripped the town apart, and sent debris along with himself, flying into the air.

He barely felt the impact when he landed. Instead, regret filled him as he now fully recognized where he was at.

"Twilight is gonna kill me…"

He broke her town. Hell he broke her castle. He just couldn't quite remember why he was even doing any of this.

He flipped back over onto his stomach and carefully lifted himself up on the metal stump of his left arm and the still together right, but when he went to get up with his right leg he nearly face planted again. Pushing himself back up the best he could he looked at where his right leg should have been. Instead the mail and cloth had been melted and burned away to reveal a ragged stump of charred flesh and bone.

"How in the hell did that happen…?" Who, what, when, and why were beginning to be all he could think of. With a smattering of "How" thrown in for good measure.

Logically he realized why he was feeling hardly anything, he was in shock. He couldn't really focus on any one thing for long and it felt like his thoughts were pushing through jello instead of air. His body as well, as he attempted to move it.

The sound of battle made his head lift skyward once more, and he beheld Armageddon.

There were more vessels in the air than had been the once proud 'Flare'. Dozens of them floated in the sky. Many listing as crews fought to keep them upright, more pounding away with heavy cannons and magic bolts of fire and lightning from the unicorn forces aboard them.

Thousands of aerial fighters feinted and struck at one another, peppering the air between vessels as the ship's opened fire on each other.

A great winged shape burst from a cloud bank to collide with a fleeing ship. Yndraiss, the great white dragon of the Rathar Mountain Range tore into an already smoking vessel with huge white clawed hands, crystalized dust pouring off of her.

On her back was...someone, mane a multitude of colors as they casted magic that turned the dust into crystalline blades that poured into the rents the dragon had made.

That would make the caster Cadance.

"They're out of formation, why?" Why did he know that they weren't where they should have been?

A groan emanated behind him, and all thoughts of the battle in the above blanked out of his head. He knew and dreaded that groan. He had heard it often enough today.

Shuffling as best he could on hands and knees, he peered over his shoulder as a mass of building debris shifted and toppled to the side. From the rubble, on unsteady hooves, rose a white mare, fur and armor caked in dirt, shaking her head as she stumbled to her hooves.

Her armor, what was left of it, had been torn apart but still held together in some places. Quickly healing scorch marks marred the exposed fur. Her nose poured with blood, but as he watched on with growing horror he could see that slowing.

Their eyes locked, and she grinned. Her teeth were also regrowing, those that had been knocked out. Like a shark on steroids he could see them sprouting back into place.

Dawnbreaker. This war was started to end her reign before it could truly begin. To stop her from breaking the world in the name of a now dead master.

He remembered everything, and with his remembrance came pain. He felt every gash in his flesh, the broken pinkie on his right hand, his no doubt shattered ribs, all of it screamed for attention in his mind. Nearly drowning out the agony from his missing limbs.

He coughed, blood splattering the ground beneath him. The cracks in his horn pulsed painfully as he began to heal himself as best he could. Flooding magic through that appendage was not a good idea, but he needed it working.

His magic was weaker as well, and he knew why. The band on his left arm, forged in oricalcum, had shattered. Some of it was still embedded in his flesh but it was useless as anything other than a very painful distraction.

Meanwhile she was beginning to stumble less, and looking better and better by the second. Even the wing that had been shorn off in the fall was beginning to grow anew. Though the mass of flesh, bone, and exposed muscle was a sickening sight to watch as it stitched itself together.

Supporting himself on his left stump of an arm his right reached into the pocket of his leather cuirass, surprisingly intact, and fingered the ring there. His 'Hail Mary'. It was with sickening realization that he had been correct, he never truly had a chance of making it out alive. Though he had had hope.

"I have to say little, colt. Not even my sister was able to drive me to such lengths. Truly you are impressive." Her silky voice spoke, like poisoned honey as she grinned widely, and strode over a body that had been tossed with him.

The face had been smashed in so he wasn't sure, but he thought that was Sun Heart.

"Oh Jesus….."

The dead surrounded them on all sides. Pegasi and griffons laid together in piles, some still locked as if in battle. He was sure across the nation the dead piled high like stones. He tried in vain to shake the smell of charred flesh from his nostrils.

The shake made his head spin violently. Coupled with the sickening stench he wanted to throw up from the horror his senses were flooding him with. Luckily, or unluckily, he already did that when the bitch hit him in the stomach with all the speed and mass of a train. Nothing left in the tank for more. He could feel the dented plates there now, digging into his bruised stomach.

Distantly, he could hear the thump of more bodies crashing to the earth. A heavy shudder of impact and following explosion told the tale of what happened to the vessel Yndraiss and Cadance had tangled with.

Dawnbreaker kept up her approach, ignoring the chaos above them just as she was stepping over the corpses that separated them. Her hoof steps were sure, she had obviously recovered her equilibrium.

"In fact, I dare say you are likely the only one to ever drive me this far. Not even when...well that's dead and gone. Much like your hopes of victory I'm afraid." Her smile and tone were mocking. "Not that you had a chance to begin with."

"Man, you certainly like to hear yourself talk." She frowned at that, glaring balefully at him.

"You don't like my voice?" She asked imperiously. How the hell did she impersonate Celestia for so long. Their voices were nothing alike. "I at least beat out the colorful skyrat of a Bearer at the very least."

The conversation was, of course, pointless. She was gloating. Even as she drew closer he could see the battle lines advancing in her favor in the air. Despite the heavy losses her side had suffered at the beginning.

He drew the ring from his pocket and stuck it in the side of his mouth. The ornate design digging into the flesh there uncomfortably.

"Well operation 'Hail Mary' is a go."

"We need a plan B. I agree and I think everypony here agrees that there is no doubt of that, but this is suicide to even consider." Sombra spoke up for what felt like the ninetieth time.

"Yeah well I don't see any other options. Luna can't engage her. They may both be Alicorns but clearly one stands above the other. And there is the fact she might pull her punches out of sentimentality." Muttered Bloodbeak. The King of the Griffons shifted irritability on the icy ledge he had first perched himself on, and hadn't moved from for the better part of two hours. He had been smart and planned ahead by placing a pelt of some animal before, but the padding was definitely not enough for the hard surface.

They all had been arguing on how to defeat Dawnbreaker for the past six days. A subject they had avoided during the early planning stages of the war like the plague.

How does one fight a near godlike being?

"I can fight her!" Luna stood in the middle of the chamber, her breath misted from the cold. Her left hand covered her heart. "I can buy you the time you need at the very least!" The fear in her voice was subdued, but it was there. She didn't want to battle it out with her sister. Hell no one did.

Sunny spoke up, his voice echoing in that surprisingly deep baritone for such a small frame that he had. "Even if you could match her, if we don't stop Artful Hammer in the south it's over. If all we do is delay her in Equestria, it's only a matter of time. Artful will break our line there as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow if you are not there to meet her." He sighed. "This is hopeless."

They collectively groaned at that. Since her boost in power no one really could challenge the bitch, well except Luna.

"Look, I do not care if it's suicidal. Honestly I plan to never use it if I can help it. But I'm not so stupid as to believe that I can just beat her in a straight fight. By now we all know my track record against Alicorns." He glared at Candace.

For what was essentially the embodiment of love, the obnoxiously pink turd was absolutely ruthless in a match.

The Love Princess just smiled sweetly. "What? I had to know if you were even capable. Besides, didn't you beat Aunty Luna?"

That pulled a laugh from him. "Yeah, no. The jury is still out on that one. She was still maintaining that eclipse when we fought, and not in the best mindset besides."

"Well then why not I take the field against her. Luna can remain-"

"Absolutely not!" The black stallion cut in, much to her displeasure judging the sour looking she was giving. "You and Yndraiss are essential to the battle at Garden Glow Valley. We don't have enough; the bulk of Dawncunt's forces will be located there and we need the pair of you there spamming the hell out of your aoes as if it is going out of style at midnight." His face took on a pained grimace. "Besides, Luna beat your ass black and blue last week, you're no match for the elder of the pair."

That made everyone go quiet. It had been rather humiliating for the Empress of the Crystal Kingdom. The Princess of dreams had not been gentle.

"Then cheat my little, drake." Bloodbeak chirped into the silence. "You're good at that! As you say, "always stack the odds in your favor whenever possible". What's different about this?"

"Oh just the fact that in her current form she is nearly twice as powerful as before. She may not have Luna's finesse of magic, but she still has brute power that she'll hammer at us every fucking chance she gets. Fuck me, might as well offer myself up in cooking oil while I'm at it. Do you like your stallion fried or extra crispy?" That pulled a laugh from the old buzzard. He turned back to Sombra. "Besides, I'm trying to cheat and this asshole doesn't want me to." He groused.

"That's because you are ignoring the obvious danger of this plan. You would have to be Literally," he emphasized the word, "on top of her in order to accomplish this."

"No shit? I thought I could mail the spell to her in a scroll and she could just cast it on herself at her leisure. We could all go to Horsululu and drink ourselves stupid in the meantime."

The flat stare back was his only response. He shook his head and asked his question again, what had kicked off the arguments in the first place.

"Can this be done? By me."

"With the ring….yes." He replied. "But you have to understand, this will kill you. The power requirements alone would be enough to sear the ability right out of you. But it will take more keeping it going for any length of time. I mean, look at what happened to me!" His gesture took in his current form, a broken off crystal plinth holding what was left of the one time sovereign, his soul.

In the reflection of the surface of his mortal prison, he could see Cadance grimace. She had made it known what she thought of her father's sacrifice, what Celestia had pushed him to do so long ago.

Orion went on.

"Yeah but that was the point. Otherwise keeping the Crystal Empire away from her would have been impossible." The one time "evil" ruler sighed. Was that in resignation?

"Are we sure Chrysalis won't help?" Spoke up Sunny again.

"After the ass whooping she got? Fuck no she practically hurled me out of her hive like a rag-doll. Besides, her family's numbers are nowhere near what would be needed to cover her." He leaned against an ice stalagmite.

"Why not ask my sister's friends? She and they have come through before, maybe they can do some….thing." Shining Armor wilted under his glare.

"The same reason they don't know about the ring! Or this little meeting. They would stop me at all costs even if it meant we would lose. They already despise the idea of me even stepping a hoof on the battlefield."

It had been hard to keep it from them. Especially Pinkie. She seemed to have a knack for snooping out what should remain hidden. She had given him a sad look this morning as they left on the southbound airship, as if she knew what he was planning.

If she did, she at least understood.

"As it stands, without the Elements, this is our only hope if I can't bring her to heel through less costly methods." He glared at a darkened corner of the cavern. "If someone hadn't planted a certain number of plants, we might have had a better option."

Two different feet shuffled on the time worn icy floor. "I said I was sorry, I can't help what I did in my crazy youth." Discord pulled his arm off to bonk himself on the head.

"Dude, aren't you like a million years old or something?" His arched eyebrow got a sheepish grin from the draconequus.

"It's all relative….."

"No, it's not ya old fuck."

"You woun-"

"Enough!" Luna practically shouted. "We are without options regardless of what has happened. The Elements are lost to us now. They never should have been in our hands to begin with, but my sister and I then had no choice, nor did our people."

She turned to him then. "But you should not do this, you are no Alicorn."

"Oh you're correct on that front. But Twilight is in no position to help us!" He ground his teeth, his mistake. "Besides, if she was with us it wouldn't likely matter. She still sees her beloved teacher in her. Do you really think she could willingly strike her down?"

Her eyes dropped to the ground, and he growled. At himself, not at the Night Princess. None of this was her fault, but it didn't matter, Twilight's suffering just made this plan all the more urgent.

He gestured to the assembled group as he formed his argument.

They knew the truth of him now, of what he truly was. They and a few others at least who couldn't make it to this meeting.

In this crazy group he found those that had truly come to understand him and where he had come from. They had learned of his past, in Luna and Discord's case, rather intimately. They knew his fears and why he had kept quiet with what he knew. And they knew, without a doubt, if not for him, they would have been blindsided by the sudden war.

Much of Griffonia was in ruins. Neighbon was just gone. But their people were safe. They had gotten lucky.

"We need a "Hail Mary". This has to be it." Not much of an argument, but it was truth.

"But Orion," Sombra, looking solemn, spoke quietly, "you have to understand, this spell will take everything from you. It will feed upon you to fuel it's requirements, this will kill you. Slowly and painfully it will drain you, you will die." He reiterated. "You might not get as lucky as I was…"

"So be it."

"So be it…" His voice echoed the memory of that final meeting.

A flame erupted from his right palm just as Dawnbreaker had closed the distance to a couple of feet, slamming his body into her, sending them both tumbling back into the debris field.

By sheer luck he remained atop her as they came to a skidding halt. He leaned back straddling her torso just under her massive chest. He really had fucked her ass up, at least her armor, one whole tit was exposed.

"Well now, perhaps I won't just kill you. While I normally like to be on top, there is something to appreciate about a well groomed stallion rutting between my breasts." She grinned as he glared down at her.

Now that was just nasty.

"Yeah how about no." He put everything he had into headbutting her, rocking her head back violently to slam into the broken cobblestone street. His own ears rang from the blow.

He really needed to apologize about breaking Twilight's town.

"I do like it rough colt, but it's me that gets that pleasure, not you." He had a mental fist pump, he had managed to break her front teeth, again, and she spoke past gargled blood.

"What are you going to do? Hmm? Your toys are broken, your allies are barely keeping my forces back. Once I am done with you it will be over." She smiled again, teeth repaired. Damn that was quick.

"I figure once this is all over, I might try and visit Disneyland. I lived by it for years and never bothered to go." Her confused look was worth the chuckle. She had surprisingly made no effort to shove him off yet.

"Give it up Orion, I can fix your leg, I'll even allow you to repair that left arm of yours, it's been too long to reconstitute an entire limb now but you can still have it back. Truly a marvel, and from what I hear, you did the same for the Element of Loyalty too." Her eyes took on a sultry look that made his spine want to leave this plane of existence. "All that I ask of you is for you to become my pet, and I will actually spare them." Her voice was not a pleading tone, but more factual, as if she knew it as a forgone conclusion that he was going to lose. As if she knew the coming events and that he would have eventually caved to her demands.

If he kept hesitating, she would be proven true.

"Here is my counter offer," he reached for her horn before she could react. His right hand nearly shattered under the force of the chaotic frequencies he projected into her horn, cracking it like glass. The last band on his arm exploded, driving shrapnel into his flesh and burning away the fur there.

Her scream of agony silenced the battlefield. Or he could have gone deaf. Either way he wasn't hearing much of anything.

With shaking fingers he pulled the ring from his mouth, placing it around his own horn. There was blood on the green gem. The vibrations from the spell thoroughly fucked his hand and he almost dropped it twice in his haste.

The ring spun it's way down, settling at the base. It had taken twelve unicorns and a master forger from Minos to craft. The crafting had left them all useless for much else, even the minotaur who hammered it into existence was now laid up in a hospital in Minos.

Thirteen of the very best and brightest had forged a masterpiece, and somehow it ended up sitting off center on his horn. The fact that it had decided to do him like that irked him. He pushed all that away, no more time.

Dawnbreaker stared back up at him dazed, her eyes unfocused. "You…. you're always so full of surprises. But we both know….you can't…wait...what is that? What are you doing now?" She was not alarmed, her tone was more disgruntled curiosity than anything else.

But alarmed she soon would be. Hopefully.

He had never been a religious man. That had been his grandparents, more specifically his grandmother's, shtick. But as he opened his lips, more of a distraction for her, the words that spilt forth seemed oddly appropriate.

"Hail Mary,

Full of Grace,

The Lord is with Thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women,

And blessed is the Fruit

Of thy Womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary,

Mother of God,

Pray for us sinners now,

And at the hour of our Death.

Amen."

His grandma would have been so fucking proud of him.

"What are you doing? Are you insane!? You'll kill yourself!" Oh she was pissed and panicking. Awesome.

While he had been praying, he had also been constructing the matrix for this spell. This gargantuan, potentially life ending, spell.

Seven layers of gold and black script, interlinked within itself, hovered above them. His cracked and sparking horn barely held together under the strain. The algorithms for the spell falling into place, almost eager to see this done as the world was. As he was not.

His eyes were beginning to blur as he was sure hers were beginning to focus.

Orion knew she would not be able to tell what it was for, it being only cast once before and even this version was heavily modified from the original.

The pain was starting to eat at him in earnest.

"So be it."

As he touched his horn to her quickly healing one, the world went white with agony.

And he thought she screamed before.