Bright Haze: Archmage of Olde

Celestia finished her story and took a slow, shallow breathe and watched as we took this in. I stood silent like the rest of us. Aeb shifted his weight slightly and Nick folded his cartoonish arms, but nopony did anything else. Just, silence. I looked at each pony in turn, Twilight. Fluttershy. Rarity. Pinkie. Dee. Aeb. Spectra. Applejack. Rainbow. Steven. Nick. Heart Breaker. All broken and scared. Just like myself. unsure what to do. I stood silent. Eventually it was Spectra who spoke.

"So if you killed this guy, how the buck is he back alive now?" Spectra asked, good question. Celestia looked stunned, probably hoping to not answer that question.

"As you may or may not know, the portal between Earth and Equestria which Discord created is still very much open and tiny bits of stuff are fazing through each end. The portal thankfully hasn't been tampered with either end so won't open any further but for some reason won't fully close.-" Celestia said, Heart Breaker took a step away from the group, Rainbow gave a glare at him and he bowed his head.

"-So some old, wild magic is leaking in and out, some I believe, or so my unicorn research team tell me, is that it is old magic from a resurrection spell from thousands of years ago. Maybe before my rule. This magic has leaked into pony bodies and allowed them to come back, I doubt Kalmor, if this is the real one, will have been the only dead pony brought back. But as far as the spells history states, only ponies who need or want to come back will, so thankfully we won't have undeads walking around and scaring everypony. Just a certain few, or one." Celestia added.

"So anypony who hates us could be back alive?" I asked. Celestia just nodded. I thought of the old Sky Dweller king and how the Dwellers would react if their king reappeared. I guessed a revolt, something Luna alone couldn't handle.

"And Kalmor is back alive presumably to hide up and then send a powerful spell onto Canterlot when ponies forget him." Heart Breaker added, another nod. Canterlot was undefended. Well from magic anyway.

"A mage that took weeks to kill and nearly finished you off." Rainbow added. Nod. This would-be God killer would be too hard for us. Unknown threat like normal.

"And you want the Elements of Harmony and the rest of us to bugger off into battle again against some undead crazy?" I asked. Celestia nodded and Dee ran out of the room. i would need to sort that out in a minute.

"Well, we're fucked." Nick exclaimed. Everypony walked away from Celestia in random directions. Furious, scared, pissed. I for one couldn't believe she was asking this of us again. We had retired, four of us married. Dee would be worried and wouldn't sleep again. I would be facing unknown enemies, again. And the rest of us would have to march out in armour and holding blade, not knowing whether we would win or die. The war was over, why must fate be such a bitch. I turned to Celestia.

"I will go." I said. Then looked the goddess straight in the eye. "But not for you, it has never been for you." I was furious with her, but she seemed understanding, which made the situation so much worse. Rainbow perked her ears up to me. She began to trot over to Spectra and began quietly talk to him. I looked to the group, facing away from me, Celestia, and themselves.

"We may be in retirement my friends. We may have won the war and saved all ponykind and given peace and hope back to Equestria. Fuck we may have killed Discord, saved Luna from Nightmare Moon and battled until we fell exhausted. But I will say one thing my ponies! Fate has called upon us again to save our home from this bastard Kalmor, who has stupidly come back from the dead, well my friends, I will tell you one thing, that bastard will wish he had stayed dead, and we will send him back. I can't do this alone, but do not fight again with me for me. Or Celestia, or for yourselves, do it for your home. Do it for Equestria. I will be in the armory first thing tomorrow, but first, I must comfort my wife." I said, not overly proud of my speech but it may have worked. I walked out of the castle, stepping over the bodies of the dead guards and listening to my gold armour clank and squeak. I headed toward mine and Dee's quarters and entered the room.

"How the hell could you even think about doing this! You are retired Haze! You are mine! You promised me no more!" Dee screamed. I stood still, taking it.

"Please tell me you told her no! For fuck sake tell me you told Celestia to go fuck herself you are done fighting! Haze!" Dee shouted, tears flowing downwards uncontrollably.

"You know I can't do that Dee, Equestria needs me." I managed to mutter.

"But I need you." Dee cried out. She had fell to her knees and was in front, crying into my forelegs.

"I know Derpy. I know." I muttered.

"I can't sleep when you are gone. I can't eat, drink. I worry every second. Haze." She said, tears still flowing.

"I am so sorry Derpy Haze. I really am." I muttered, no strength to reply.

"I can't do this Haze. We may be married now, but I really can't do it anymore. I need you with me. Not fighting some dead unicorn. Make your choice, but either way. I'm going home." Derpy muttered and trotted out of the room. I thought about going after her but, stayed. Shocked and scared. Was it over? Had I just single hoofedly fucked over my life with Dee. I was unsure what to do, my heart ached and my body was cold. So very cold. I managed to take a step toward the bed before collapsing, not being able to move I just passed out where I was, still in armour and hurting. Hurting so bad.