Flashes of light raced past his face. Stars, black-holes, planets and the cosmos, crossing across his irises in a wonderful display of light. A warped edge loomed at the corners of his vision, distorting the mosaic of colour and causing him to squint in concentration. He held a device in his right hand, his grip like iron so as not to lose it in the void between worlds. His brown trench coat flapped behind him, and his black ball-cap stuck to his head like glue.

Far ahead, he could see a speck. A figure. It's physical form was wreathed in shadow, seeming to coalesce and meld into the background. However, while he could see the figure with his own to eyes, he could also sense it's presence. Malice, hatred, and the putrid smell of death seemed to leech away, giving him a path to follow in the void.

He pushed himself more, angling forward as he picked up more speed. His device entered a personal pocket dimension, and he saw the figure's head turn ever so slightly, its red eyes widening in surprise milliseconds before he collided with it. His arms wrapped around it's torso, and he heard a wicked snarl escape its rotting mouth. It's own hands wrapped around his waist, and the sudden feeling of his stomach rising into his throat threatened his concentration.

A thunderous crack sounded around the two beings and the galactic background was replaced by blues, greens, and whites. The world seemed to slow as the man's eyes widened underneath his hat. He could see buildings rapidly approaching, and adjusted his momentum in a different direction.

The figure he was holding onto let go of his waist and brought it's right hand into the air before slamming it down on the side of his head. The man grunted in pain as he was shot towards the ground like a rocket, his figure a blur as dust billowed from his point of impact.

The sound of crashing could be heard in the distance and the man shook the daze out of his head. He slowly stood, a strange bioluminescent plant falling from his head in the process. His previously indifferent expression settled into a heavy scowl as he levitated off the ground. He recognized his surroundings: the strangely alien trees, the fantastical elements in the air and the ever present smell of magic.

He was in another Equestria.

Another thunderous crash, and the sounds of screaming echoed into the air. The man did not hesitate as he launched into the air, immediately breaking the sound barrier and causing the trees nearby to bend away from the sheer pressure of his speed. His eagle like vision searched the ground for his adversary, and after only a moment, he spotted it, or rather, her.

Landing with force in the middle of the oddly medieval town, he watched as the his foe turned to face him. The town itself was in ruins. Buildings collapsed, rubble strewn about, and dozens of bodies. The man's scowl somehow deepened as his foe lifted a struggling stallion in her telekinesis. His legs kicked, and his body wiggled in an attempt to escape, but the man knew it would be impossible. The two red eyes of his foe glared at him from under her hood, and a wicked grin full of sharp teeth slowly appeared on her shadowed face.

"Back and forth and forth and back. You do not seem to know when to give up, Guardian. Ten worlds we have visited, and ten worlds has the same scenario occurred."

The stallion whimpered as she slowly drew him closer, and the Guardian took a half step forward as he balled his fists.

"You have trapped us here, Destroyer. Had you not pulled me through that accursed portal, we would never be in this situation!" The Guardian growled as he pointed a finger at the Destroyer. "Because of you, we are trapped with these... aliens!"

The Destroyer gave a tsk as she brought a gnarled hand towards the stallions face. There, she dragged it down his cheek as she leaned in to seemingly examine him further.

"These worlds are without the protection of their Archangels as they are not human. These aliens as you call them will make the most wonderous of servants. Look around you Guardian. This is not the same location! We are getting closer to the core, and you know it. You saw the layout of the continents before we arrived. You saw Mankind was once present. This is a land of opportunity!"

She raised her arms and made a pulling motion. The stallion screamed in pain as his bones began to break and his muscles began to tear, and the Guardian heard a little girl cry out from across the town. With a snarl, he pushed his own hand forward with unrivaled speed. An invisible force latched onto the Destroyer's left leg before pulling her to the ground. The stallion whimpered as he was dropped to the ground, and dragged himself behind a pile of rubble as the Destroyer got back to her feet.

"Enough of this! These people do not need our intervention!" Electricity crackled around the Guardian as he spoke, and his voice seemed to multiply in the air. Many onlookers coward in fear as they watched the man begin floating above the ground, little arcs of lightning sparking at his feet. "Whether we are close to the core or not does not matter! So long as I breathe, you will never succeed in your plans for domination! Hear me, Destroyer, for our fight ends now!"

The sky shook, and the earth trembled. Storm clouds were brewing in the distance, and a light drizzle of rain had begun. It was as though a mighty Titan had befallen the inhabitants of this little town, and all were silent as they watched the exchange. The Guardian's coat billowed around him, and his arms rose as he glared down at the Destroyer. Ten worlds he had been forced to enter, and that was ten too many. The Destroyer had done enough damage back home. He could not let this continue.

"So..." The Destroyers voice was like ice, her eyes narrowing, "You finally decide to unleash your full power. If this is where you wish to make your stand, then so be it. The inhabitants of this world will burn before I am allowed to fail. Prepare yourself, Guardian. I am going to kill you, as I killed those you loved. I will no longer hold back."

Rising from the ground herself, the Destroyer cackled. The sky began to blacken, and the wind picked up exponentially. Sleet poured from on high, and the two beings, an Angel and a Demon, faced each other one last time. The inhabitants of the town watched in awe and terror.

Finally, a flash of lightning illuminated the two beings, and just as fast, they collided mid-air.

The shockwave caused glass to shatter, and the rain to part. Ponies covered their ears in pain, and anyone standing was blasted off their hooves. The rain began to pour harder, and the crash of thunder echoed across the land.

The Destroyer was the first to recover from the impact, and flashed across the sky like a wraith as she slammed into the Guardian's stomach. He grunted in pain as he hurtled towards a nearby mountain, but his eyes never strayed from her form as she took off after him. As she approached, the Guardian flipped in the air and brought his arm up, effectively close lining the Destroyer and causing her to tumble through the air. He did not waste a second, and flashed downwards at supersonic speed into her back. The sheer speed and power he was outputting put them both through the mountain and out the other side. Rocks, trees and dirt exploded outwards as they shot through the air. The Guardian yelled as he brought went in for a right hook, but the Destroyer was quick and deflected it with her forearm.

Off balance, the Guardian careened sideways, leaving him open. His rival brought her leg up, and with a devastating kick, sent him crashing through a forest. Trees were uprooted and tossed aside like toys, and a mile-long trench scarred the earth from the Guardian's impact.

"You will bow before me, Guardian. You are still reluctant to hold back! This world has no Archangel, and therefore does NOT FOLLOW OUR RULES!!"

The Destroyer propelled herself downwards at a speed to fast to catch with the naked eye. The Guardian had enough time to cover his face before a shockwave of dirt, stone, and bedrock billowed outwards and smashed him to the ground. The storm was at its peak now, and lightning flashed in time with the Destroyers impact. Cracks fissured inside the earth, and a mighty earthquake the likes of which had never been seen rocked the continent, if not the world.

Standing and coughing, the Guardian tried to see through the dust clouding his vision. His heart thumped in his chest, and a feeling of dread overtook him as he lifted into the air.

Rising above the cloud of dust, his eyes scanned the direction they had come from. It wasn't long before he was glaring at what used to be the town several dozen miles away. Nothing was left. No buildings, no ponies, nothing. Looking around, he noticed the wildlife had suffered a similar fate. Everything had been turned to a desolate wasteland from the Destroyers attack, and the Guardian felt himself begin shaking. Miles and miles of nothing but ash.

"So you see, Guardian. It is inevitable. You cannot stop me, as I cannot stop you. We are forever locked in this eternal struggle for dominance in a series of worlds unknown to us."

A group of beings had arrived at the destroyed village, causing relief to seep through him. Hopefully they could find some survivors. A large white horse followed by a smaller blue one were quickly closing on his position. He frowned, as he knew who those two were. They could not be allowed to interfere.

"You are wrong. I will beat you. You cause so much pain, so much suffering... and for what? To see the world burn? To have unwilling followers that heed your every will like you are some kind of god?"

The Guardian turned as his adrenaline began to kick in once more. The storm, which had slowly been dying, began to pick up once more. Lightning flashed, and the Guardian's eyes were alight with righteous fury. Hail began to fall, and a tornado materialized in the distance, blocking the two approaching equines.

"Done playing games are we?"

Slowly turning, the Guardian faced the Destroyer. There was a moments pause, a small hesitation. For a brief instant, the Guardian's mind told him to stop, that he was about to do something he would regret. But then knew thoughts approached. He saw his mother and brother, murdered at the hands of the monster before him. He saw his girlfriend, skewered as he arrived seconds to late to save her. He saw the worlds he had been to, how he had made friends on the first, only to have them taken away.

An inner darkness boiled inside him, ready to explode. he had tried to subdue her, to make her see reason for so long. Lives had been lost because of his choices. Seeing that Demon sneering at him, her face filled with triumph at his turmoil caused his blood to boil. A sense of nostalgia hit him, and remembered a similar feeling when they had first clashed. He had lost. This time, he would not.

The hail slowed, then stopped. A nearby lightning bolt arced through the sky in slow motion, its light reflecting the fury in the eyes of the Angel. Energy began to coalesce around the man, and without a word, he propelled forward at the speed of light, causing an eruption of molten air to trail in his wake.

The Destroyer merely felt the impact before she was hurtled through the air, gasping in shock and pain. Blood exploded from her mouth, a foreign taste, and she watched the Guardian before slamming into the side of a cliff. She had a mere nanosecond to react before he was on her once again, but this time, she was ready.

The two exchanged flurries of punches and blows, kicks and maneuvers. They traveled fast, moving around the globe twice in their battle. Beings from around the world saw the exchange, two titan's fighting for a fate unknown to them. The sky was alight with fire, and the earth shook as the storm began to expand. Pure energy surrounded the two beings, becoming larger by the second as shockwave after shockwave rippled through the air. Towns were destroyed, forests were annihilated, and the earth fissured and cracked from the brutal fight far above.

Then finally, it stopped.

The Guardian stood, his chest heaving and blood pouring from the corner of his mouth. His eyes glared hatefully at the being laying before him, her own bloodied form hacking a wheezing. It was here that the man raised his right fist. It raised and raised, but it did not come down. And finally, as he prepared to deliver the blow to end it all, he heard crying. A small, heart-wrenching sound that cut through the chaos and fury within his mind.

Turning, the Guardian's eyes zeroed in on what appeared to be a griffon child walking through the rubble of what was once a town. It held a teddy bear with a red bowtie in one of her claws, while the other tried to dig under a plank of wood. He could see a lion's paw sticking out from the rubble, unmoving. He watched, frozen, as the cub called for her father through her tears.

Blinking from his stupor, he finally noticed the rest. His surroundings were once again destroyed, and smoke billowed through the air. Looking down at the Destroyer, he heard her chuckle.

"You and I are not so different, it seems. Here I am, trying to rule this world, and you stand in my way. I raze a town to the ground to prove a point. Then, here you are, trying to stop me, but I do not cooperate. You finally snap, all the death, the suffering, and the loss. It rears its ugly head, and suddenly, you realize you caused more harm than good. Sometimes, all it takes is a little snap before we go too far."

Silence.

The Guardian backed away from the Destroyer, and she did not get up. His eyes traveled down to his hands, covered in more than just the blood of his foe. He looked back to the child, who now sat squeezing her teddy bear, tears pouring from her eyes. A flap of wings caused the man to blink and look up. He met the face of a beautiful mare, her coat as white as snow, and her mane vibrant like a rainbow. With her was a dark-coated mare, younger but just as striking. A sense of loss and longing passed over his face as he saw her, but it quickly faded as they approached. Both stared at him, uncertain, with strange relics floating around them. So focused on them was he that he failed to notice the Destroyer chanting under her breath.

"Thou hast caused much destruction this 'eve, Human," the solar princess stated, a waver in her voice. She sounded younger, jumpier, and more olden-timey. The Guardian did not know when he had entered this world, but it had to be far before the Element bearers, or even Discord. He remained silent. The storm was gone, leaving ash and smoke to float into the air.

The silence remained for some time before the two spoke once more.

"As the Diarchy of Equestria, and on behalf of this world, we decree thou art encased in stone for all time henceforth," the Lunar Princess stated.

There was no room for argument, and the Guardian knew it. In the back of his mind, he convinced himself that he deserved it. All the pain and suffering he had caused because of his loss of control. He suddenly felt tired then, and he seemed to age twenty years before the diarchal rulers.

Standing up straighter, the Guardian stared down the two Princesses. He knew his decision was too fast, too hasty, but he did not care. He needed a break, and he needed to think. Glancing at the Destroyer, he realized this would be his only chance to put her away without further bloodshed.

As the gems around the two alicorns began to circle faster and faster, the Guardian stood tall. He had done something horrible, but as the beam of rainbow shot into the air, he promised himself to do better. He was a hero, one that was needed. If this was what it took to end the monster known as the Destroyer, then so be it.

The Rainbow light washed over him, and he felt his limbs hardening. Almost as a last thought, he glanced into the sky with his eyes and said a quick prayer. Then, accepting his fate, he let the rest of himself solidify, finally allowing him peace.

The same could not be said for the Destroyer. As the Rainbow light touched her, she began to cackle manically. Her cackling grew louder and louder as she began to shrink, causing the eyes of the diarchs to widen in alarm. There was a flash of light, then an explosion. When the dust settled, a smoking mark sat where she once did.

As the Elements of Harmony powered down, the two rulers looked at each other in concern. History would need to be rewritten in order to ensure peace, and the two gave each other a tired nod. The Lunar Princess grabbed the Human in her magic before they both made their way back home.

All the while, neither noticed the traces of time magic that lingered where the Destroyer once lay.

Author's Note

Well, well, well... what do we have here!

That's right, I decided to create a spot to put short stories/backstories/other-stuff related to A Soldier's Harmony. From Non-Canon content to unrelated background happenings, I intend to show a little more about the story and the world I tried to create. Uploads will be irregular, but hopefully this first chapter will suffice in answering a few questions I saw in the comments of the original story. I will also be trying to keep this a teen rating, but we will see.

Until Next Time!