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