Sanctity sits in silence on her bunk, hoof stopped mid-motion hovering over her helmet, armor polish shining on her horseshoe. She stares at the stallion in the doorway, the captain of the Day Guard, her brain trying to find any possibility she had misheard him.
“I repeat, Solar Flare and Sanctity, you are expected in the ring at high noon exactly, you have two hours to prepare. This will be your final fight.”
”Shit,” Sanctity whispers, watching the captain turn and leave. She knew her final fight would be sometime this week - she was prepared for that. She’s been preparing her whole life for today.
But Solar Flare has been her bunk buddy since they arrived at gladiator Basic. Never in a thousand days did she expect that they’d have to, to…
“Damn, I guess we’re gonna have to kill each other.”
Sanctity looks up. Dangling from the top bunk are the face and wings of Solar Flare, helmet already on. “Captain Armor told me today would be my day to shine. He didn’t say it’d be you, though.” She says, dropping down onto the floor in front of Sanctity.
The two mares stare into each other’s eyes, once so open and warm - now closed off, cold, one thought shared between the two - who’s it gonna be, you or me?
Sanctity gulps down the lump in her throat and tries to laugh it off. It comes out as more of a scared whinny than a chuckle, though. “Well, Flare, I guess we shoulda known. We are the best of the best that they have here.”
Solar Flare snorts. “Yeah, guess they couldn’t keep both of us around. Gotta prove our loyalty to the Empress, after all.” She says, a knowing look in her eyes. Their gazes are locked together, as if tied by a rope - but both mares are acutely aware of the other ponies in the room with them. “If we both trotted out of here with our heads held high, sure, She’d get two amazing warriors for her army - but who knows what kind of silly thoughts that might put into our heads.”
Golden eyes stare into emerald eyes, staring back. Neither mare is capable of telepathy but both is certain they know what the other is thinking.
“I’ll see you in the ring, Sanctity. Love ya.”
And just like that, the white pegasus is gone - out the door and off towards the mess hall.
Sanctity slowly starts moving her hoof again, polishing her helmet until she can see her reflection perfectly. She ignores the tears she sees there, and keeps scrubbing.
The mess hall is empty by the time Sanctity makes it over to collect her breakfast, everypony already off for training. That’s fine, she thinks. I like the quiet. Her breakfast is better than normal, packed with protein and nutrients - like one always gets on their Fight Day. If I win, she thinks, I’ll get an amazing feast from the Empress’ own kitchen. I’ll be eating like this the rest of my life.
Of course, in the past, ‘win’ has never carried such a weight. The meaning of the word is suddenly crystal clear to Sanctity - and she doesn’t like it one bit. She’s known, of course, that she’s been killing the ponies she’s beaten - but she’s never really thought about it. How did ending a life become so normal for me?
Killing ponies. Winning has always meant living, and losing has always meant death. But she’s never known the pony she’s fighting before - it was always somepony she had shared a passing hello with, at best, but usually a complete stranger. This time was different, though.
Solar Flare was real. Of course the other ponies where real too, but not to Sanctity. She couldn’t tell you a thing about them if you asked. Flare, though. Sanctity knew nearly everything about her. She knew how the white of her coat was actually a very pale cream color, that she’s prone to cramps in her left wing, that she has a scar on her left nipple from when she wrestled a cat as a foal. Sanctity knows that Solar Flare’s father died before she was born, that her mother is an earth pony that never knew how to raise a pegasus child. She knows that Flare’s fiery red-orange mane has several hidden grey hairs from her early greying. She knows that Flare likes mares, and hates the cold, and thinks hayburgers are overrated, and -
Sanctity slams her hooves down onto the table, flashes of purple magic sparking around the inhibitor ring in her horn. Her breathing grows heavy, panic settling like a lead weight against her ribs. I need to stop thinking about this! I need to get out of here alive, I have to, I have to! How am I supposed to do this when - how am I supposed to -
“How am I supposed to kill my best friend?”
The rhythmic stomping of the ponies in the bleachers has always sounded like background noise, in all her other fights. Even being directly under them, she’s always been joking with the guards as they help her get ready - it’s all just been part of the mood, set dressing for the main event.
Now, though, Sanctity hears the stomping and chanting louder than anything she’s ever heard in her life. It sounds like a stampede, a cursed tide of windigos charging straight for her. The guards are silent as they strap her armor in place, ensure that her horn ring is tight, and fit her with shoulder- and hoof-mounted blades. Her helmet, like the helmets of all gladiators, bears a set of thick, blunt metal antlers. Mouth-held weapons are too easy to lose, Empress Daybreaker has said, and lend victory to whoever disarms their opponent first. She likes longer, bloodier battles - and the antlers also lend the ability to lock horns with your opponent and potentially rip their head off.
The weight of the antlers and the blades used to feel extremely unnatural to her, but after years of training and fighting, she feels better while wearing them than when she’s without.
The trumpets sound, announcing the arrival of the empress - and the apex of the sun. The stomping stops, and silence settles over Sanctity like a weighted blanket. Somehow, the silence is even more overwhelming than the noise was. The usual announcements begin to be made, lauding the triumphs both competitors have had, riling up the crowd, and praising the Empress.
Sanctity can’t focus on any of it, however. The hate has been pulled up, and she can see Solar Flare across the arena from her, walking into the ring with her head held high. Sanctity takes on a similar stance, though she doubts she could ever look quite as regal as Flare, and begins to walk forward.
Time is almost up, she realizes. She has come up with absolutely no ideas as to how she could get out of this, and in less than two minutes, the bell will roll - and her whole world will become violence. Her green eyes meet Solar Flare’s gold and she can’t bring herself to look away. They’re face to face now, muzzles only three feet apart, hooves planted firmly. Their gaze remains locked.
Solar Flare begins to whisper, and it becomes Sanctity’s whole world.
“Hey, I love you. I was gonna ask you to come live with me when we made it out, ask you to marry me…No chance of that now, I guess. But I wanted to tell you. I don’t want either of us going out with any secrets. I love you more than the Empress, than this stupid competition. But I don’t want either of us to live on with guilt.
“So promise me, okay? Promise, with all your heart, that you’ll try your hardest to kill me. And I’ll try my hardest to kill you. We both deserve a quiet goodbye - but we’re not gonna get one. If either of us gives up, looks like we’re not trying, she’ll probably just kill us both. So, we both try to go on and live. Agreed?”
Sanctity can feel herself nodding, even though she doesn’t want to. She blinks the tears from her eyes, and nods harder. Solar Flare smiles at her, her usual cocky grin - but Sanctity can see the sadness in her golden eyes, see the anxiety in the slight twitch of her lips.
“FIGHTERS! STAND AT ATTENTION, AND AT MY COUNT OF FIVE, FIGHT FOR YOUR EMPRESS!”
Sanctity and Solar Flare both gather themselves. They move into a fighting position, antlers pointed, legs steady. The Empress slowly counts to five, and with each number, Sanctity feels her ponyhood slip away.
She’s been turned into a killing machine, and this countdown activates the violence in her blood. Suddenly, she’s not sure she could stop herself from killing Flare even if she planned on it.
At the count of five, both mares spring into action.
Sanctity dodges under Flare’s antlers, unwilling to lock heads just yet. Instead, she goes for the chest, lodging her antlers between the shoulder blades on her opponents chest piece. She digs her hooves into the ground, snorting from the effort, and presses forward, forcing Solar Flare to loose her footing.
Solar rears up, attempting to bring the blades on her ankles up to Santity’s unprotected jaw. Unfortunately for her, that’s exactly what Sanctity was expecting. She rears as well, ramming her head upwards with all the force she can muster.
Both mares are very strong, having been unable to use their magic and wings the entirety of their gladiator training. But Solar Flare, being a pegasus, is naturally very lightweight - making it all the easier for Sanctity to lift her into the air. She does so with such force, it sends Flare tumbling backwards overtop of Sanctity, landing on her back a foot behind her.
Solar feels the wind knocked out of her as she lands directly on her bound wings, a cry of pain rushing from her before she can stop it. She starts to roll, attempting to get back into her feet, and just barely dodges under the hard buck that was aimed directly where her chest had been a moment earlier. She takes advantage of the opportunity, and rolls herself towards her opponent instead of back, sweeping the back legs out from under Sanctity just as she was putting her weight back into them.
Sanctity hits the ground with a thud, but purposely tilts forward as she does so, landing almost face down/ass up. Quickly, she bucks again - this time with much less force, but making a solid hit against the side of Flare’s helmet.
Solar Flare is knocked backwards by the blow, her right ear ringing like crazy. She stumbles to her hooves, unintentionally giving Sanctity the opportunity to do the same. Both mares stand still for a moment, trying to gauge what move their opponent will make next. The crowd stomps and tells, a cacophony of noise - background noise.
Sanctity can’t even hear it any more.
Deciding that speed is her best ally, she makes the first move, dashing forward towards Solar Flare. Sanctity goes for an uppercut, and Flare dodges to the left - so focused on avoiding the hoof blades that she doesn’t notice the antlers coming for her face.
An ear piercing shriek fills the air as one of the antler tips goes straight into Solar Flare’s left eye. The crowd goes wild, the Empress shouts with joy, but Sanctity can only hear her own heartbeat pounding.
Her body knows what to do, how to kill. She doesn’t have to think to win.
She presses forward, as hard as she can. The squelching and screaming intensify, and finally, the crunching begins. When Sanctity hears it he bone begin to crack, she rears up yet again. She can feel her neck muscles straining, the pain hidden behind the adrenaline, but present all the same. She’s never done this move twice in one fight before.
She lifts and turns, tossing Solar Flare haphazardly over her shoulder. She lands on one side, stiff, and Sanctity whips around to face her. Not giving her opponent any time to recover, Sanctity steps close to her quickly and places both of her forehooves on Solar Flare’s helmet. She rears and comes down again, over and over again in quick succession.
She keeps going until the helmet dents, then cracks, blood pouring out from under it in waves, and only stops when it begins to stab at her hooves. She looks down, to confirm what she already knows. The helmet, now flat, sits in a pool of blood. It’s antlers lie a few inches away, mostly intact, having broken off early in the assault. Flare’s muzzle, less intact, lies several inches away as well; the nose portion is largely intact, but the further back nasal bones are crunched and the flanges shattered, some sticking through the intact portion of the skin.
That muzzle seems to be the only surviving portion of her face, the rest a clumpy red paste seeping from inside the helmet.
Sanctity swallows, though the act proves difficult due to her dry mouth. She did it.
“I’m…free.” She says, disbelief and awe and fear all coiling inside her guts.
“Indeed you are, my little pony.”
Sanctity looks up, then immediately bows down. “E-Empress! I present to you this corpse to prove my loyalty.”
“And what a good job you did.” Empress Daybreaker walks a slow circle around the mare and the corpse, blood sticking to her golden shoes. “Normally I check to make sure the loser is truly dead before declaring a winner, but, well,” She gestures at the puddle of gore beneath them. “You showed such passion that you left that helmet so flat there’s no room for any doubt. Truly, Sanctity, you’re a mare after my own heart.”
Sanctity nods, trying her best to look both reverent and excited, despite feeling completely and utterly numb. She is covered in the blood of her best friend. A pony who, if things went differently, she probably would have married.
“So, this is the part I would normally knight you and declare you part of the army, to be called upon when needed - but honestly, I’d rather keep you right here. You are now a part of my personal guard. You’ll live here in the castle, with me. Of course you’ll still get your reward feast, and the bits, and three weeks vacation to go anywhere you’d like and gather all of your things before you settle in here.”
As she explains all of this, Daybreaker uses her magic to remove Sanctity’s horn ring. “Now, go get out of that armor and get washed up, I expect to see you in my dining hall in precisely two hours.”
“Yes, my Empress.” Sanctity says, bowing her head. Daybreaker starts to turn around, but pauses when she hears Sanctity quickly add, “And, uh, my Empress, may I keep her tail? A-as a trophy, to remember my victory.”
Daybreaker looks her in the eye for a moment, and smirks knowingly. “Go right ahead, my little pony. We’ll just be burning her anyway.”
Sanctity turns, looking down at…at the corpse. She quickly sets to work cutting the nub of flesh at the base of her tail off.
She just needs something to remember Solar Flare with.
~•~ Five Years Later ~•~
Sanctity sits bolt upright in bed, whipping her head around wildly. For a moment, she doesn’t recognize the place she’s in - but it quickly settles in that she is in her bedroom.
She looks at her nightstand, seeing the carefully placed glass box containing a braid of beautiful, fiery red and orange hair.
“Hey, Flare. Time for another day. I had another nightmare, about our fight day. No matter how many times I wash my hooves, I always wake up feeling like they’re sticky with your blood. I’m living on, like you asked. But I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get past the guilt, like you wanted.”
Sanctity sighs, climbing out of bed. She lights her horn, throwing all her bedding into a pile for the cleaning ponies to get. They’re all soaked in sweat again, covered in loose grey fur from all her tossing and turning.
She walks into her bathroom, tearing up and placing her forehooves on the sink. She stares into the mirror, at her wet purple bedhead-mane, and sighs.
“Start of my second month as captain of the Dawn guard. In one week, it’ll be my five year anniversary of joining the guard. Of Flare’s death.”
She stares into her own eyes, a quiet resignation on her face. “Suppose I should shower before I go meet with the Empress.”
She stands under the running water, yet another luxury she never could of imagined before she moved into the castle. With soap suds, she draws a familiar scene on the wall tiles - herself, standing with her forehooves on a corpse.
But this time, it’s a corpse with wings and a horn.
Author's Note
I figured I should write something other than just porn, lol. So have some sad violence. :)
Title and chapter title taken from Glory and Gore by Lorde.
Also, some worldbuilding exposition - Daybreaker moves the sun, and while there is no ‘night’, she does provide periods of reduced light - particularly low sunset, kinda, that lasts for around 1/2 the day - the rest is when the sun is directly above in the sky, like a 12hr high noon.
