Prologue
Equestria is at a time of war.
The Crystal empire has returned, and so has its former emperor. King Sombra. Under commands to stop Sombra. Celestia leads her Royal guard to battle against the dark king and his hoard of mercenaries.
The war was won by the use of the Crystal heart to banish Sombra back to tartarus, but now canterlot burns.
Chapter 1: canterlot burns
Shining armor POV
At the midpoint on the journey of my life. I found myself in a dark forest, for the clear path was lost… i had set up camp in a circle of rocks with a fire to keep me warm and ward away predators. Next to me lay my armor and weapon as i looked down at my chest and carefully sewed a bit of the cross on my chest that was hanging loose. The cross held pictures on it, pictures od my sins and therefore all of the sins of pony kinds.
No POV
Shining armor cried out in pain as he sewed the loose bit of cross back onto his skin, he magically levitated a knife with his horn and cut the string that he held in place with his hands. On one mural on the cross of Shining armor’s chest was the moving images of a battle. Of canterlot inflames. The images of minotaurs killing soldiers before being turned into skeletons by their enemy were shown so vividly it could have been real. The roars of Ursa Minors and A Major were so loud in Shining armors mind that sometimes he though that there were some about.
And on the large stellar bears backs bore saddles which more minotaurs and some possessed guards fired magical bolts from their horns or arrows from their bows as Changelings flew above the streets swarming anyone who they saw as the onslaught continued. Shining armor remembered the day well. The day he had met death.
A month ago Canterlot city. Day of the battle
Shining armor glad in his purple armor stood in a courtyard with enemies surrounding him and his troops as the battle around them continued, “stand strong soldiers canterlot needs you” Shining armor urged his troops as a a swarm of changelings surrounded him, swinging his habert he cut them down, their frail bodies spewing green blood and black shattered exoskeleton littered the battlefield for his hooves to crush into dust.
“How in tartarus did they even get into the city?” he wondered to himself, as he dispatched a minotaur charging at him with three strikes of his spear, “you die pony wretch” a possessed soldier said charging at shining armor, shining armor had no choice but to dispatch him, however a stray fireball hit the possessed soldier and he collapsed dead on the ground.
“Celestia has fallen!, celestia has fallen!” shouted a voice, Shining armor looked and gritted his teeth, it was Prince blueblood, Celestia’s Nephew and his brother in law, he really hated the bastard, “Defend me! Retreat to the palace and defend your prince!” Blueblood continued to shout, “I Prince Blueblood command you to retreat to the palace and defend me!”.
I don’t think i need to say why Shining armor hated the prince so much.
“Lieutenant Bronze shot!” Shining armor called to one of his nearby commanders, “get commander Flash sentry and tell him he’s in charge for now, tell him to defend the city, i’m going to find celestia” Shining armor looked up at Blueblood a bad feeling in his soul “and i think i know where to start”.
Rushing through the battlefield Shining armor cut down his enemies one by one, making his way into the palace, “captain good to see you” said a private who was helping to guard the gates entrance, they had made themselves a barricade to all bridges of the front gate of the palace and were now tending to their wounded while holding the lines.
“Good to see you to private” Shining armor said, “open up i need to get inside” he ordered the captain who swiftly gave the order to open the front gates, not a lot but enough so shining armor can get through.
“Captain shining armor?” said a flabbergasted Prince blueblood as he met him at the front gates, before adding more furiously “what are you doing here?!”, “you asked for protection and i am here besides a need to talk to you” Shining armor responded, guiding the prince through the hallway they found their way to the empty courtyard.
“Stop” Shining armor ordered, too terrified to do anything else, Blueblood stopped, “Shining armor?” asked a new voice, it was princess celestia coming towards them, “you should be defending the city what are you doing here?”
“Princess celestia? I thought you have fallen?” Shining armor said, “i will not all while canterlot burns” Celestia stated, “well anyway it’s actually a good thing your here because i have a theory” Shining armor continued, “Sombra’s forces were defeated a month ago, after we found the crystal heart, yet Canterlot is now in flames, the guard may never have been the best but the war hardened us and made us better. So why has the enemy infiltrated our ranks and castle”
“Yes?” Celestia asked curiosity getting the better of her, “how could they have possible entered the castle from the inside?” Shining armor continued, “the secret passages” stated Blueblood, “they link to the caves beneath and goes down through the mountain.” “but how could they have known about the passages. only high ranking members such as me or celestia would know about them”. Shining armor said
He then turned to Blueblood, and slowly walked closer to him, Blueblood squirmed knowing what was coming next, “you told them didn’t you” Shining armor accused softly eyes alight with fury. Then his eyes widened as a dagger entered into his back, “yes he did tell us” Purred Celestia as her body suddenly changed in a burst of green fire into a changeling.
And not the normal changelings either, this was the changeling queen from which stories told, “Chrysalis?” Shining armor said painfully as he fell to his knees, “oh don’t worry pretty little soldier, you will join celestia in the Elysium Plains soon enough” she said as she began to walk away followed by a cowering Blueblood.
The world around Shining armor turned a shade of orange like a sunset and as he looked around he saw that canterlot was pulling itself apart and bits of wall floating in the air as dark mist rose up from the floor. And a creature, hideous in it’s green hooded cloak appeared before him, holding a scythe of bone and bore armor of skulls.
“Who are you?” Shining armor asked blood coming out of his muzzle, “i am Thanatos” said Thanatos in a raspy cracked voice “and i claim you and bring you to be judged. In tartarus” the statement struck Shining armor like a punch, “what?” he asked dumbfounded “no i should be going to the elysium. Why tartarus what have i done?”.
“The damned can’t judge themselves, if you wish to be judged then allow me to bring you to be judged” Thanatos said in that ghastly voice of his, refusing to believe such a statement, Shining armor picked up his halbert and stood up, pulling the dagger out of his back “everything i do i do for canterlot and ponykind. And i will not be judged by you…whoever you are”.
“So be it” Thanatos said as he hefted his scythe and readied for combat. As their battle went on and each traded blows, dodging and slashing and blocking each others attack, the world around them changed and soon became a vortex, to Thanatos’ surprise Shining armor began to gain ground, “impressive, i know not how but you stand your ground well” he stated, “i don’t need praises from a ghost” Shining armor spat, “i am no shade, i am death and non can defy death forever” Thanatos responded as his scythe shifted into a spear and shot forward, Shining armor rolled out of the way.
Thanatos swung his scythe in an arc and Shining armor used his shield to block it, “face your sins Shining armor as all of your kind shall” Thanatos probed, as he brought his scythe down only to receive a blow from Shining armors Halbert “i do not now how you can hurt me, even Celestia struggled, you must be far more strong willed”.
“Shut up!” Shining armor as he lunged forward only for the specter to disappear as he slashed, then he felt a sharp side in his chest, he looked down and saw that Thanatos had shot his spear forward and hooked him like a fish. Retracting the scythe Thanatos grabbed shining armor by the neck and holstered him high.
“Hey i must complement you” Thanatos said, “i am so used to taking the souls of the weak and dying, they don’t go without a fuse, especially you ponies, you are so weak willed you can’t even open your eyes. But you…” he tilted his head at shining armor as the captain of the guard struggled.
“You are by far the strongest of wills. But it matters not even your princess cannot resist death. Come we will depart” Thanatos turned heading towards the edge of their plate of earth they had been fighting on and towards the portal. But shining armor was having non of it. His city needed him, his people needed him.
But he had dropped his halbert when the scythe had impaled him, but he had one option left, his sword holstered on his back, Thanatos had been so arrogant and careless that he had forgotten about the sword Shining armor drew his sword and cut at the demons arm, Thanatos yelped in pain dropping shining armor and before he could rebuke shining armor shot a magical blast into the death creatures face.
Blinded Thanatos could do nothing while Shining armor charged and sank his sword deep into Thanatos stomach. “Impossible” Thanatos spat, as he fell to the ground on his hands and knees and dropped his scythe. but it was possible as Shining armor picked up the scythe and forming it into a spear stabbed it through the reapers chest.
He then wrenched it out converting it back into a scythe and swung it around and “NOOOOO” Thanatos screamed as the scythe impacted his neck and his head flew off and into the vortex while his body sunk to the ground and disintegrated.
The vortex around shining armor disappeared and he was suddenly back in the courtyard but now with a scythe as his new weapon, “this will come in useful” he said to himself as he looked at the blade, many questions still burned in his head, but canterlot was not safe yet, he could find answers to those later.
Now was time to kill a traitor.
Author's Note
First chapter done make sure to leave a comment and like and please make the comments polite please
Chapter 2: tragedy
Wielding his new scythe Shining armor made his way through the crumbling castle, questions still burning in his mind, “what did thanatos mean, ponies are supposed to go to elysium if they are worthy” he thought to himself, was he not worthy, “weather i am worthy or not doesn’t matter if defending canterlot makes me unworthy then so be it”
He didn’t find any royal guards or changelings in the castle, the former wasn’t surprising since all troops were ordered into the streets to defend and push back the enemy, however when rounding a corner into another corridor a rock fired from a catapult hit the structure causing the section of hallway in front of shining armor to collapse.
“Damn” Shining armor said to himself, he was going to have to find another way unless… his mind all of a sudden flashed back to his fight with Thanatos and he remembered how his scythe now in his hands had extended and retracted, maybe he could use the scythe as a grapple, looking up at the remaining ceiling he saw a chandelier which he could use to grapple with.
Arcing the scythe forward the bony spine of the handle shot forward and the blade jammed itself into one of the gaps in the chandelier, shining armor swung across before landed and the scythe returning to its original form, the chandelier had been able to take his weight but now it fell off it’s rope.
“Glad that held” Shining armor commented dryly, however through the gap a swarm of six Changeling swarmed through, “the the captain of the equestrian guard” commented one, “let us kill him” said another, “you can try” Shining armor said bitterly as he shot a blast from his horn.
The blast killed the first changeling to have spoken instantly, the others lit up their horns and opened fire, Shining armor used his magic to create a bubble shield around him, the shots ricocheted and hit two of the changelings. The others stopped firing and charged, Shining armor grappled one and using the momentum of pulling the wretched thing back slammed it into the wall green blood remained upon the blade as he swung the blade again and cut down the other two.
He then heard a scream, the scream he recognized, “Cadence?!” he exclaimed panic setting in, she shouldn’t be anywhere near the city, she should have escaped with the other civilians, running down the corridor he rounded a corner and through an open door he saw something on the ground in the room on the other side. He recognized it as the bedroom of Blueblood, walking into the room, he saw on the floor was the corpse of Blueblood, “what in tartarus?” Shining armor said quietly, the prince's stomach had been cut open and his horn broken off and impaled into his right eye, “can’t say you didn’t have it coming” Shining armor said to the dead prince with bitter satisfaction.
Then he heard muffled noises and the sound of something being knocked, a chest was rattling around in a corner of the room, opening it, Shining armor’s eyes widened when he found Rarity, bound and gagged, inside. Rarity was Cadance's maid, and a good friend of hers, “Rarity what happened?” Shining armor asked as he undid the gag and removed it, “i-it was horrible” she stuttered tears in her eyes, “th-that brute kidnapped me, and had that bitch of a queen take my form”.
“No doubt to infiltrate canterlot” Shining armor deduced, “they took Cadence i heard them mention the heart” Rarity said, “i know where it is, i can show you” Shining armor hurriedly cut the ropes that bound her tightly. Lighting up her horn she walked over to the wall next to her, the magic outlines a rectangular brick which then disappeared to reveal the crystal heart in a secret space behind the wall.
Drawing it out, Rarity gave it to shining armor, “you used it against Sombra so use it against them now” she urged him, nodding shining armor exited the room and ran through the corridors once again. Soon he came across a duo of minotaurs, “well well well” said the larger of the two drawing a sword upon seeing shining Armors
“Ponies don’t belong on the battlefield, their too easy to kill, run along and play tea and biscuits or else” taunted the other, Shining Armor drew out the Crystal heart channeling his magic into it he lifted it up and released a burst of light from it which blinded the minotaurs causing them to stagger and shout in pain.
Shining armor looked at the heart in confusion, it must have been weakened somehow, but how?. It was powerful enough to defeat Sombra, so why was it now only powerful enough to temporarily blind enemies, “i’ll worry about that later '' Shining armor decided. Besides blinding the enemy had it’s advantages, He swung his scythe downwards at the first minotaur lodging it in the creatures soldier and with a slight push on the handle he cut the minotaur in half in a diagonal line. Shining armor then converted it into a spear and allowed the blade to shoot forward and into the second’s chest the minotaur gurgled as he lost blood quickly and soon died as Shining armor ran past.
He eventually found his way into the archives, on the other side of the room he saw Chrysalis with some of her changelings and minotaurs with Cadence being led arms tied behind her back. “Cadence!” Shining armor called, “Shining…” Cadence began but then the minotaur holding her clapped his hand over her mouth, Shining armor could see a magic suppression ring around her horn hence why she was not able to use magic.
“Deal with him” Chrysalis ordered two minotaurs and some of her changelings, as she helped led the bound Cadance out the room, “you heard her lads, kill him” the Minotaur ordered drawing out his ax, the first 3 changelings charged, Shining armor didn’t have enough power to use the Crystal heart so he swung his scythe and cut them in half.
Next he rolled to avoid a blast from another changeling before he was forced to raise his scythe and block the ax swing of the minotaur, “nice butterknife, where did a pathetic pony like you get one?” the Minotaur sneered, Shining armor did not give him the satisfaction of a response, instead he fired a powerful beam from his horn right into the minotaurs eyes. Blindined the minotaur staggered.
With the minotaur distracted Shining armor turned to the changelings, “change change” one shouted as they all changed and took on the form of royal guards while one took the form of a creature known as a Arimaspis which looks very much like a goat but is bigger, had large claws and a single eye.
Attacking the changelings in the form of guards charged, shining armor’s body hesitated when fighting them, it was only natural, their faces reminded him of all the soldiers he knew in his life. This took his guard down as the Arimaspis swiped its claws and sent Shining armor flying across the room, “he’s down” said one changeling disguised as a guard “he won’t touch us. Not while we are in pony form. Ponies are too soft to hurt their own”.
Shining armor staggered shakily to his feet, “he’s right I'm being too soft, I need to stop holding back, these aren’t my men and Cadance needs me” Shining armor thought with grim determination, however a plan formed into his head to make this fight quicker and easier.
He took out the Crystal heart and used its magic to create a bright flash and blind the nearby enemies, the Arimaspis was particularly badly effective and it fell to the ground clutching its eye in pain. The changelings changed back to their normal forms in shock. Shining Armor then jumped onto the head of the Arimaspis and swung his scythe downwards and impaled the blade into the beast's single eye.
Now shining Armor had control over it as it howled in pain and staggered and accidentally step on some of the changelings, Shining Armor jolted the handle causing the beast to swing its massive arm and swatted the Minotaur and some more of the changelings and the changeling splattered against the wall like bugs on a windshield.
The Minotaur was more durable but guiding the beast he was riding on over he made the beast slam both it’s hands down and crush the Minotaur, he then turned to the door, “alright it’s your turn now Chrysalis” he said as he hauled on his scythe turning the beast towards the door in a charge and hit the wall with such force that the creature went right through, destroying the wall and squashing some changelings who were unfortunate enough to be on the other side.
He was now in a large room with more than a few enemies around him, at the far end of the room was Chrysalis with a spell book in hand and Cadence on her knees and green magic chains around her torso. “Cadence!” Shining armor explained as Changelings hissed around him, “your two late bold knight, you and your ponies may win the battle but we have what we came for” Chrysalis said.
Chrysalis continued some kind of chant she had been doing, Shining Armor was not advanced in magical spells only the offensive and defencive kind, but he knew that spells that required chants were absolutely forbidden.
And for a very good reason which Shining Armor had no knowledge of.
Shining Armor charged, swinging his scythe he began cutting down the changelings and minotaurs that were trying to stop his path towards Cadance. He was getting dangerously close when a changeling that was too dangerously close for comfort shot him in the leg.
Shining Armor staggered not enough to trip, but enough to allow a Minotaur to pick him up and lob him across the room. “Done yet Pony?“ the Minotaur mocked. In response Shining Armor swung his scythe and cut both of the minotaurs legs off at the knees.
Cadence then screamed as the circle underneath her suddenly glowed a bright green and mist began to from, “yes yes” Chrysalis cackled, “Cadence!” Shining Armor exclaimed as he charged forward, slashing his scythe this way and that before he lept into the air above Chrysalis.
Chrysalis looked up in horror as she saw that Shining Armor was aiming for her, “no!” She exclaimed covering her face but then the green circle exploded in a flash of green light knocking everyone to the ground.
As shining armor got to his knees he heard a haunting laugh he never wanted to hear, “no it can’t be him” from underneath cadance black mist floated and black crystals began to form around the room.
“Lord Sombra” Chrysalis said, falling to her knees and bowing like one would to a god, from the Mist around Cadance a face formed, the face of a black unicorn.
He used the mist to pick a squirming Cadance up, “get your hands…” Shining Armor began but then two tendrils of mist wrapped around his body and trapped him.
Shining Armor squirmed as the Tendrils positioned his body in a crucified position before they shot towards his torso and broke the Armor protecting it. A Red Cross formed on his chest the sides turning into ribbons that cooled around his arms.
The tendrils became arms with hands holding needles, “face your sins shining Armor I invite you to” Sombra said as the needles cut into his skin and sewed the cross to his torso. Shining Armor yelled and thrashed as this happened.
Cadance tears in her eyes watched as shining Armor was placed back down onto his knees blood flowing from his recent wounds and mouth. He looked at her and her eyes met his in a pleading look
“Shining Armor…just save equestria” she said in a strained voice, Sombra shadowy mist then shot backwards grabbing the remaining changelings, minotaurs and Chrysalis as it burst through the back of the room.
Shining Armor broke free of his black shackles and ran forward but stopped dead when he came to the ledge and watched helplessly as the form of Sombra black cloud retreating picking up his forces within the city as he did so.
“Cadence!” Shining armor's despairing voice echoed, cadence was gone.
Author's Note
And there’s another chapter done
