History Lesson

Starswirl has found himself in many strange situations throughout his long life. He had been to alternate worlds via mirrors; he invented a time-traveling spell, tested it on himself, and even befriended a gargoyle. But his current situation takes the cake; He and the rest of the pillars were having their wounds tended to by a half zebra and half pegasus colt. If that wasn't strange enough, they were all sitting around a bonfire with a bunch of foals, a teenager, and a mysterious creature.

The unicorn looked to his friends to gauge their current mood. Rockhoof just stared at the fire and occasionally shifted around. Somnambula looked ashamed and refused to make eye contact with anyone at the moment; the old unicorn didn't think any less of her; it was perfectly natural, considering the circumstances. Flash Magnus had both of his hindlegs in splints while the dislocated wing was set back into place; the pegasus currently looked uncomfortable. Mistmane thankfully regained consciousness and had bandages wrapped around the top of her head. Presently she was staring at the creature's claw in thought. And finally, Mage Meadowbrook laid on her side while the young Zony worked on her wounds.

"I'm grateful that my companions and I are alive right now, but it could have been more-" The sound of chewing cut off his thoughts. Everypony brought their attention to the source of the noise and saw that Raven was eating cooked snake tail. He also had chunks of tiger meat and a goat head roasting over the fire. All the ponies either became a little green or gagged at the sight of this. The smell wasn't any better; it smelled like death to them.

"Delicious!" Raven thought to himself as he took another bite out of his snake on a stick. The meat was nice and juicy and melted in his mouth, and it tasted like chicken! The man noticed that it suddenly got quiet around him. "Something wrong?" He asked with a not-so-innocent smile, showing off his teeth.

Oleander gagged again and spoke up. "You’re eating meat! Aren't you an omnivore? Why eat this in front of us?!" The unicorn nearly screamed up.

The human kept that same stupid grin on his face and kept eating. "My first meal in a long time, and you want me to munch on grass? No, thank you. Also, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to eat something made from three different species." The man finished his snake and moved on to the tiger meat.

He took another bite from the tiger meat, and he was reminded of bear meat; it was tough, stringy, and grimy. It wasn't the worse, but it certainly wasn't something he wanted more of. "Anyways, if any pony or one of your princesses got a problem with it, they can kiss my ass." This caused some of the foals to giggle at his comment, but the group of adults frowned at this. Raven noticed this and gave them his attention." By the way, I still haven't heard a 'thank you’ for saving your hides back there." The adults cringed back, remembering how Raven handled the chimera.

"We're thankful for what you did, but-" the armored pegasus cut off Starswirl.

"You bucking mutilated that chimera; what we saw was not okay!" He threw his hooves up in the air with wide eyes

Raven shrugged "does it matter how I kill it?"

"You're eating it!" Flash shot back

"Rules of nature, I won and killed it, and I'm enjoying the fruits of my labor." Raven finished his tiger meat and moved onto goat meat and goat head. He took a bite of the goat meat and was pleasantly surprised; it was gamey, soft, sweet, and tender all simultaneously. "If only I had some seasoning with me."

The female pegasus with the thick accent spoke up next, but she never made eye contact. "Again, we thank you for what you did, but your methods were..." She rolled a hoof in the air looking for the right word. "unnecessarily brutal, especially how you made it suffer." Somnambula felt a shiver run down her spine.

She had him there with that; Raven could have easily used invasion and killed it instantly, but using such a skill would have ruined the meat. The human shrugged. "You're overthinking this, you're alive, and that's all that matters... By the way, who are you guys, and what were you doing in the forest at night? Especially you old-timers." The man pointed his index finger at the bearded unicorn and the older-looking unicorn mare.

Raven's words angered the old unicorn, causing him to whinny. "Listen here! We are the Pillars of Equestria an-" He stopped when he heard laughter. It certainly didn't come from the creature before him. He brought his attention to the unicorn called Oleander, and he couldn't believe it; the teenager was laughing at him. "Is something funny, young lady?" He lets out a snort in annoyance.

Oleander wiped the tears from her eyes with a fetlock and calmed herself enough so she could speak. "O-oh my, I'm sorry, it's just that, you're all historical reenactors." Her amused smile disappeared, and her expression became serious. "The real Pillars of Equestria would have taken care of a simple beast like that, no problem. Also, where are your artifacts?"

None of them could answer her question; in truth, none of them knew where their artifacts had gone. It was clear that none of them had the strength to prove they were who they said they were. When the young unicorn didn't get any response, she continued. "Regardless, the Pillars gave their lives to save Equestria over a thousand years ago, and since then, Equestria has been in peace for a thousand years.

The pillars were both horrified and relieved at the same time. They were horrified to find out they've been in limbo for so long, and the pony of shadows might be on the loose, but they were relieved that their sacrifice kept the peace for so long. One of them was about to voice their concerns, but Oleander continued. "But that's not true. Discord rose to power and threw Equestria into chaos, and the sisters defeated him with the elements of harmony. Then King Sombra took over the crystal empire, the sisters beat him and banished him along with the crystal empire. Next, Princess Luna threw a temper tantrum because ponies slept at night. Those ponies were so ungrateful!" Her last sentence dripped with sarcasm. "So she became nightmare moon and tried to plunge the world into eternal night."

Raven held his claw out to stop Oleander from continuing; he pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers. He couldn't handle the utter stupidity that was this Princess Luna. "There are many things wrong with what you just said. But I'm sure that wasn't even the worse of it."

Oleander opened her mouth to speak only for moon charm to speak up first. "It wasn't; after Luna became nightmare moon, she came to the thestral clans promising us many things, like finally being accepted by the Equestrians. Two weeks later, Nightmare Moon is sealed on the Moon via elements of harmony. Also, thanks to that whorse-" This caused a few of the foals to gasp, even some of the adults did too. Raven didn't see the problem but shrugged. "The thestrals were even in a worse situation than before, and Celestia didn't do a thing! Most towns and cities we tried showing our faces in started throwing rocks at us or chasing us out of town!" The young thestral snarled, showing off her tiny fangs. "and when Luna came back, she called to all clans to reconcile and serve under her again! And some of the clans bought the horse apples she was selling!" Moon Charm was yelling and hyperventilating at this point.

Raven knew where this was going, so he got up walked over to the raging bat pony. He bent down and picked her up. "I think we get the point." He made his way back with the now squirming filly. He sat back down and placed the filly on his lap and started stroking her mane, and rubbed between her ears a bit. Moon charm quickly calmed down and leaned into the human's hand. "Alright, continue with the history lesson." He said, pointing a talon at Oleander."

The unicorn cleared her throat. "As I was saying before the interruption. Princess Celestia used the elements of harmony and sealed Nightmare Moon on the Moon for a thousand years or so. A year later, the E.U.P is created, or commonly known as the royal guard." The unicorn drinks from her water container and continues. "fast forward a thousand years of 'peace,' and we reach the current era. Nightmare Moon is released from her imprisonment and returns to Equestria to bring eternal night!" The unicorn raises her voice to add effect to her history lesson. "When all hope is lost, Six mares rise to the occasion. These six mares travel through Everfree forest facing trial, after trial, until they reach the castle of the two sisters and face off with Nightmare Moon."

"Using the power of friendship and the unique aspects each one had, they used the newly reformed elements of harmony and freed Princess Luna from the nightmare that possessed her!" Oleander finally finished, and she lets out a long sigh. "That's what most believe."

Raven raised his claw high in the air like a student asking a question. "Yes, Raven?" Oleander said with a raised eyebrow.

"Where was Celestia during all of this?"That was an excellent question, and no one knew where she was during that whole ordeal. Oleander smiled nervously and shrugged.

"Oh, that's easy!" Cozy spoke up, bringing everyone's attention to her; she wore a sweet innocent smile. "Some ponies say that Nightmare Moon ambushed her and sealed her on the Moon or the sun. Other accounts say that she surrendered and was thrown into the dungeons. But you wanna know what I think? Heheheh!" Cozy put a hoof over her mouth to stop her giggling. "I think Princess Celestia stood at the sidelines and watched as everypony did the dirty work for her, Like the bucking coward she is!" Cozy said all this in the same sweet innocent voice. But there was something under all that sweet talk, something dangerous.

The pillars jaws hung open after hearing what Cozy glow said. Out of all of them, Starswirl's temper was hitting the breaking point. The old stallion held his tongue when the thestral was bad-mouthing Luna, but after hearing what that little pegasus said, he needed to defend his former student. "Now listen here, filly! I don't know what you've heard, but my student is no coward! You better watch what you say, little one." Starswirl's nostrils flared in anger.

Cozy could only giggle at Starswirl's anger and kept up her innocent smile and started mocking him. "Aw, the delusional old stallion thinks his Starswirl the bearded? Cute. But she is a coward; her sister threatens to end the world with an eternal night; what does she do? Celestia Sealed her sister on the Moon; she couldn't even finish the job!" Cozy's innocent persona was replaced with rage. " When the time came, she folded like a bad poker hoof and sent six mares to do the job she couldn't. This was under the guise of 'friendship' and 'harmony,' but the truth was she didn't have the backbone to face her past mistakes. " Cozy looked Starswirl straight in the eyes and said. "Celestia.is.a.coward!"

Starswirl got onto his hooves with unspeakable thoughts on his mind. Raven saw where this was going and clapped his hand claw together, creating a loud cracking sound. Everypony flinched from the loud noise, which even caused Moon to fall out of Raven's lap in surprise. "Enough." The man's voice held finality to it, and he dared anyone to question his order. "I don't care what your personal feelings are about the princesses, and I won't have any of you getting riled up over such things. It's been a long day, and it's going to be a long night. If it's not factual, stay quiet." His single eye stared at the old unicorn. "Sit down." Starswirl did as he was ordered and didn't say a word. The cyborg shifted his gaze over to Cozy. "Stay quiet, Cozy."
The pegasus didn't say anything but just sat there.

Moon charm got back on Raven's lap and snuggled into him, while the man himself started scratching behind the filly's ear, but not before gesturing Oleander to continue. "A few months later, Discord is freed from his stone imprisonment, and in less than 24 hours, his resealed via elements of harmony and the element bearers. And no, the princesses didn't do anything. Moving on."

"Well, that was anticlimatic" Raven thought.

Oleander sighed and rubbed a fetlock over her left eye, it was a very long day, and she was exhausted, but she continued. "A year later, Captain of the royal guards' Shining armor and Princess mi amore cadenza were engaged, and the wedding took place in the Canterlot castle. But Princess Cadence wasn't Cadence at all; it was Queen Chrysalis disguised as the princess of love the whole time!" Oleander tried to sound enthusiastic, but she couldn't. She just sounded bored and tired."When the Queen Revealed herself to everypony, she fought Princess Celestia... Princess Celestia got her flank kicked by the Queen."

"Okay, maybe this Princess Celestia isn't all that smart?" Raven thought

"I need to talk with my former student." Starswirl thought.

"Ah, I skipped over a few things." The unicorn goes wide-eyed for a moment before going back to her bored expression. "Chrysalis is the Queen of the changeling emerald hive, and a changeling is a ponylike creature with insectoid features that can disguise itself as almost anything. and they feed on love." Oleander paused for a moment before continuing. "With the help of the bearers, Princess Cadence and Shining armor used the magic of love and repelled the changeling army with a magic barrier. "

"Where was Luna during this?" Raven asked, sounding bored as well.

"I don't bucking know. A bunch of half-starved bugs nearly took over Equestria because Princess Celestia was too blind to see what was in front of her. I'm almost done, so please stay quiet." The unicorn was frustrated with the current topic and wanted to be over with. "Three months later, the Crystal Empire has reappeared, and Princess Celestia sends her lapdogs to stop King Sombra and blah blah blah, a baby dragon saves the kingdom. This brings us up to the current time, the end."

That certainly was a lot to take in. "Clearly this Princess Celestia is brilliant, besides her recent fuck ups, she knows how to play the long game. I need to be careful around her; nothing is more dangerous than an intelligent politician. Raven thought to himself. "Alright, everyone, we'll be moving out soon. Xuez, you almost done over there?" Raven called out to the Zebra.

"Just about finished." Xeuz was standing on his hindlegs, finishing up his bandage wrappings around Mage's barrel. The young Zebra made a healing salve with nearby ingredients and used it on the earth pony's gash. He used some sticks and vines around the area to splint the mare's broken foreleg. He got back on all fours and gave Meadowbrook a pointed look. "Now try keeping your weight off that leg for a while, and don't try any sudden movements for a while, the salve wont completely close your wound, so keep that in mind."

Mage Meadowbrook moved in and nuzzled the winged Zebra, and she gave him a tired smile. " Thank yawl, young wun; keep thus up, an you'll surpass may wun day." This Ponies accent was especially thick. Xuez shuffled around and blushed from the sudden contact and affection.

"I'll do my best." He all but whispered out.

Moon Charm whined as Raven removed her from his lap and placed her on the ground. "Sorry, but it's time to get moving along." The young thestral groaned but started getting ready to depart. The bonfire was put out after having dirt kicked into it."By the way." Raven looked at the pillars" I never caught your names, mind telling me?" Oleander rolled her eyes, knowing what they were going to say.

"Starswirl the bearded." The old unicorn with the robe and hat spoke up first.

"Mage Meadowbrook," The blue earth pony spoke up next.

"Flash Magnus," The armored wearing pegasus said.

"Rockhoof," The large pony answered.

"Somnambula," said the light scarlet pegasus.

"Mistmane." The old unicorn mare said.

Raven nodded; he did not doubt these ponies were who they said they were. "Names Raven Maxwell; I'm a mercenary that's been hired to protect these little trouble makers." He motioned to his charges, which stuck their tongues out at him or made faces. "I'll be escorting you six somewhere near Baltimare; I and my charges are going to Horseshoe Bay, so we'll go our separate ways. Now, form up!"

2 hours later

Raven traveled slightly ahead of the group; he kept his eye peeled for any danger, even though they had already made out the forest. They were following the train tracks that led to Baltimare. "Mister Maxwell, a moment of your time." Raven looked down and saw Starswirl walking next to him.

"What's on your mind?" Raven asked.

"You're not who you say you are." The unicorn said in a monotone voice.

"What gave it away?" The man didn't even bother to deny; he wasn't very good when it came to lying and usually owned up to it.

Starswirl chuckled. "Where do I begin? You're a mythical beast I read about back in my younger years, a 'hooyman.' One of your charges is a dark arts user; she hides it well, but I've been around for a long time, and I know dark magic when I see it."The old stallion scratched his beard with a hoof and continued. "The Foal mountains are gone; me and my companions. have been released from limbo, then you come out of nowhere and save us. All of this can't be pure coincidence."

Raven looked away, feeling a bit guilty. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. I didn't want any of this to happen, but those kids back there saved my life.. I've been asleep for such a long time, even longer than you and your friends."Raven looked down at the unicorn, wondering what else to say. Starswirl beat him to the punch.

The old unicorn let out a sigh. "It's okay; I'm sure I'll be able to come up with something and stop the pony of shadows. By the way." Starswirl gave the human a stern look. "If you're planning anything nefarious for Equestria or the world as a whole, The Pillars of Equestria will do everything in their power to stop you."

The cyborg couldn't help but smile at the old unicorn. "You don't have to worry about that for now, but I'm not certain about the future. I have this...goal I want to achieve, but I'm not sure how to go about it." Raven shakes his head and shrugs. "I'll cross that bridge when I get there. By the way, you can call upon me anytime for that problem of yours, considering Indirectly it to happen. I'll even do it free of charge."

Starswirl's expression softened, and he nodded. "I would like that, but hopefully, it doesn't come to that. Your methods are gruesome but effective."

The group made there way to a hill standing over baltimare and the harbor town of Horseshoe Bay. "I guess this is it," Raven spoke softly.

"It is..Please stay out of trouble; I don't want to hear about you and your group doing something stupid." The stallion said with a frown.

"I make no promises. Let's go, guys!" The Outcasts waved off the Pillars of Equestria, and the other group did the same.

"What an odd bunch." The unicorn said with a smile.

Canterlot Castle Court Yard

Luna stood in front of her nightguards, which were ten in total. They were either equipped with spears, wing blades, or crossbows. "As you already know, There was an explosion five hours ago, and now the Foal mountains are gone. Clearly, this wasn't Discord's doing or any naturally occurring phenomena."

She slowly paced back and forth. "This was an attack on Equestrian soil, we find this fiend, and we bring them to justice!" The Night Princess nearly used her royal Canterlot voice but stopped herself. "Now come, my night guard, let us find this threat and eliminate it!" Luna spread her wings and took to the air after a few flaps; her night guards followed her.

Author's Note

Alright, guys, another chapter out, and things are starting to get heated!