My Little Viking: Steel Is Magic

Chapters

One Armed Champion
The Death Lord
Lesson One
A Trip to Canterlot
All Things Heal With Mead
Canterlot Security
A Promise And An Apolgy
A Broken Thing
The Lull
Into the Maw of Darkness
The Downfall of King Sombra
The King's Pendant
War At A Wedding

One Armed Champion

Blood flowed over the ground like a river, soaking into the grass and making mud. I ran through the village yelling and causing as much noise as I could my family in tow. Christians were here on their mission of conversion by the sword, a technique I couldn’t find fault with its wonderful simplicity.

I sprinted for the hall. My wife stumbled behind me only just keeping up due to my iron grip on her upper arm. Behind her came my son who was burdened with our weapons. I finally reached the hall. I forced my family through the door and turned to see light beginning to play from the distant edge of the village. I had never known Christians to be ones to smoke out men, but I had seen it work dozens of times before. I looked into the hall and saw almost no one there.

“Son,” I commanded. He stepped forward, his sword was held shakily between his hands and the light leather he had donned was too big for him. “My axe.” I said. He handed me the weapon shaft first. I inspected the steel.

It was a beautiful thing, this axe. I had watched my own father use a similar weapon before he was felled on the battlefield, now he sits on high drinking mead with the gods. I turned from the hall and set out into the village to hopefully wake as many of the men as I could and form some kind of counter attack.

I ran through the village calling out names of my comrades. Some had already stumbled out of their homes and joined me in the dirt. I ran and expected my fellows to follow me, they did. By the time we reached the blaze I had gathered ten good warriors with me, all angry and set on righteous vengeance.

We ran around the fire searching for our enemies. We found them waiting for us clustered around each other with shields out. I had never seen anything like this before and it was rather confusing. I spat in the dirt and rolled my shoulders in preparation of combat. Then I saw through the smoke, a familiar face.

“Johan!” I roared. My gut tightened as I realized what was happening. This was no Christian attack, this was a raid. Johan was the leader of another village not too far from my own, we had been at peace with him for many years we had even fought wars together and now he stood on my land with a cold glint in his eye and steel in his hand.

Thunder peeled above. I looked up as the rain began to pour down. It was a warm rain, with thick heavy droplets that soaked straight through my clothes and made me heavy. I looked to either side of me. The men nodded. Before we could act, Johan cried out and his forces charged.

We met them with a clash of steel on steel under the heavy downpour. Lightning continued to flash and thunder boomed above our heads, but we did not care. All I wanted was Johan’s head as I continued to swing and my axe hit steel. I couldn’t tell you how many I had felled with that axe, not throughout the years I’ve had it or how many fell to me that night, but I remember the one kill that mattered.

I stepped forward over the corpse of one of Johan’s raiders. I noticed they were in chainmail and leather, nothing I had not face before. Johan stood before me, his axe dripping with blood. All around us men fought and died in a whirlwind of madness, but I had eyes only for Johan.

I didn’t speak, I just charged roaring my anger. Our battle had moved out of the line of homes that were ablaze and the fire raged behind me, what a sight I must’ve made as I swung down onto Johan. He deflected the blow with his own weapon and brought up his free hand to strike my jaw. I had anticipated the move and I ducked his swing just in time. I recovered just as Johan delivered his first blow. I back stepped and he missed by an inch burying the head of his weapon in the dirt. I struck as Johan was distracted and brought my booted foot up into his face. I felt his nose give way as my boot caught him. My opponent fell over backwards. I moved quickly. I brought my axe down on his neck. The weapon cut through his neck and struck bone and stopped. I pulled the blade free and brought it down again and again trying to get through the bone. After the fourth strike my axe went through the entirety of his neck.

I reached down and picked up the head by the hair. The rain came down harder as I roared my victory to the heavens. Then I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. I looked to see my arm had been cut off clean. I looked behind me to see a massive man holding a two handed claymore above his head, he was smiling. He swung as I dropped to my knees. I still had my axe clutched in my hand. I couldn’t think to swing though. The pain from my arm was overwhelming and blood fell like a waterfall.

I looked up to see the smiling man lift his sword up again. Then the red lightning struck.

I don’t know if I was just delirious from blood loss or things had truly slowed. I watched as the lightning came for me. It slowly crept down from the sky reaching long fingers for me. As the tip of the lightning caressed my skin I passed out.

I regained consciousness. I didn’t open my eyes as the pain in my head and my shoulder kept me from moving. I groaned aloud and vomited.

I heard some odd high pitched gibbering from the side. Despite the pain I opened my eyes, before me stood a purple horse with a horn on its head. It opened its mouth and some odd language came out. I felt my stomach tighten with fear. I pushed myself to my knees and noticed my axe was still in my hand. I didn’t hesitate to swing, but my swing turned into a little less than a half hearted slap though the air. The horse pulled back all the same and gibbered some more.

I mustered all my strength I had and screamed my battle cry at the thing. It flinched back farther calling over its shoulder. Behind the horse with the horn came another one, this one colored bright orange and wearing some odd styled hat upon its head. The orange horse turned around. I tried to swing again but the horse was faster as the rear legs flexed and struck me in the chin.

My eyes fluttered open and I looked up at a domed wooden ceiling. I tried to rub the pain from my eyes but I found, to my horror, that I was strapped down to an odd cushion with large leather straps. I struggled against the bonds in a vain attempt to escape. I looked around and saw I was surrounded by colored ponies all of which were speaking some odd incoherent language. Every syllable made me want to rip their tongues from their mouths. One that was an odd shade of red babbled the loudest and refused to silence itself.

“Silence!” I shouted. They all turned and looked at me. The purple horned one peered down at me and placed one of its hoofs on me. I struggled away from its touch. Then the horn began to glow.

I was frozen with terror. I had no idea what this horse was planning on doing but I was utterly helpless to try and stop it. The horn moved still glowing like a star and the horse pressed it up to my clotted stump of an arm. I felt a pinch and watched as my skin stretched and flowed to cover the opening of my wound.

I was shocked as I looked between my shoulder and the purple pony. It appeared to be smiling at me as if expecting some form of thanks.

“Thank you, healer.” I said. I was still perplexed at the horn and how it wielded magic like that, but it appeared these things did not want to kill me, at least not yet. The purple horse nodded. It placed one of its hoofs on its chest and spoke at me. I had no idea what it said, so I imitated it.

“T-twi-twilight-spar-sparkle.” I stammered out. I was more fatigued than I thought and I had barely enough energy to speak. The horse clapped its hooves together in excitement and spoke again. Again I had no idea what it said, but I thought I could guess what it wanted.

“My name,” I took a deep breath as my vision grayed a bit. “My name, is Ol. I am son of Lars who is son of Bor.” I had to keep breathing deeply as I spoke to keep from passing out. The one who called itself Twilight Sparkle spoke again. I gave up on understanding what it wanted passed introductions and let the darkness consume me. Hopefully this was a bad dream.

I awoke next morning and my head felt as if I had drank too much the night before. I tried to rub my head and felt that my arm was still strapped to the bed. I tried to tear free but the efforts threatened to send me unconscious again. I gave up my endeavor to free myself and took in my surroundings.

The place I was trapped in was wide and spacious. In the center was a raised platform with some odd carving placed on top of it. The walls were covered in shelves upon shelves of books. Had I been able to read any of them I doubt I would have understood them anyway.

Through one of the windows I saw the sun rising. I wished I could have greeted the sun properly, but I doubted I would be given that luxury this day.

I heard the clip clop of hooves as the purple horse descended a staircase down onto this level. I never took my eyes from this ‘Twilight Sparkle’ as it yawned and walked passed me. It saw that I was awake and suddenly it was by my side gibbering away in that odd language that it spoke. I stared at it, anger building inside of me. If only I could get out of these bonds I could strangle this thing and never hear it speak again.

The horse leaned down and inspected my shoulder. It poked a bit and then smiled as if it was satisfied. It spoke at me some more and then turned away. I watched it until it left my field of vision. I could hear some banging coming from the direction it left and wondered if it was going to cut my head off as I had done to Johan. Then the horse came back. Floating in front of it was some odd flat plate that had two cups and some odd thing between the cups. The odd thing was round with a small handle on one end and what appeared to be a spout at the other. No matter what it was I didn’t like it. I tried to scoot away from the horse as it set down the plate next to the cushion I was on. I looked from the plate to the horse as one of the cups floated up next to my mouth. I could see inside was some odd brown liquid that had steam coming off of it. The horse lifted the other cup and drank from it, as if showing me it was safe. I had no other option so I drank.

It tasted odd, but not bad. I drank deeply and felt the warmth spread through my body. I drained the last dregs and looked up at the purple horse. It smiled at me taking the cup from me using its weird magic. Next it lifted up some bread. I nodded and it left the hovering bread in front of my mouth. I ate slowly trying to taste any oddities hidden within the bread. The bread itself was rather good, filled with grains that gave it a certain crunch. The horse fed me another piece of bread and then gave me several pieces of sweet tasting fruit. I ate cautiously as the horse talked on and on.

After I finished my last piece of fruit the horse turned its head and called out. I strained my neck to see where the horse was looking. At the top of the steps stood a small scale covered reptilian thing. My eyes grew wide with horror. I had only ever heard stories of wyrms and dragons but before stood what was obviously a young one. I panicked and once again began to pull at my bonds. The horse noticed me and looked down confused. I struggled and grunted but my efforts were in vain as I finally succumbed to the lack of blood and fell into a forced sleep.

I awoke a few minutes later with two horses standing over me. I recognized one as the orange one that had kicked me earlier, I swore I would wear that horses pelt when I was finally freed. But the other horse was the one that had my attention. Its coat was the color of a clear sky on a summer day with large feathery wings on its back, and its mane was the same color as a rainbow. I gasped, could this horse be touched by the gods? I wished to know. Both were whispering over me and immediately quieted down when they saw I had come to.

The purple horse came back into the room and spoke with the other two. It was obviously about me, but I did not care. I was far too taken with the blue horse to care about anything at the moment. Eventually the three horses left the room. I had nothing else to do so I closed my eyes and sleep overcame me.

I was shaken awake by the purple horse some time later. I opened my eyes and glared at the horse. It stepped back from me. Standing behind the purple horse was another much larger horse standing behind it. The larger horse was the color of milk with an enormous horn and a giant pair of wings. It was stunningly beautiful to look at but I was still untrusting of any of these crazy talking horses.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” said the giant white horse. My heart leapt with excitement.

“You speak my language!” I blurted out. The white horse chuckled.

“I do, it took me a few minutes of digging around in your mind to figure it out, but yes, I can communicate with you.” I drew back, this was still a strange talking horse that had me captive.

“What do you want with me?” I asked the horse. The white horse came closer.

“I want to get to know you. What’s your name?” it asked me.

“I am Ol.” I answered simply.

“Excellent,” replied the horse. “I already knew that, but I hope to gain some of your trust.” The horse turned around and spoke to the purple one. The purple one spoke back. The white horse took on a stern tone. The purple horse cowed a bit and moved forward. Using its magic the purple horse freed me from the straps holding me down.

With the straps gone I moved as fast as I could. I lunged for the purple horse. I felt some odd force engulf me and stop me mid-leap. I looked to the white horse and its horn was glowing brightly.

“Ol, I will not have any violence against my subjects.” It said angrily. The horse set me back on the bed.

“My name,” it said. “Is Celestia, I am the princess over this land and you will obey by my laws while you are
here.” She commanded. I nodded. Celestia, quite the odd name, but I was not one to judge a being on his or her name.

“Well, princess,” I said. “What would you like to know then?” I asked angrily. The princess looked down at me.

“For now, nothing but your cooperation, this is my student Twilight Sparkle.” Celestia pointed at the purple horse.

“She has graciously taken you in and has asked to take care of you while you live among us.” I raised my eyebrow.

“What do you mean ‘live among you’, why don’t you just send me back to where I am from?” I asked. Celestia shook her head.

“While you were asleep I’ve had the opportunity to speak with Twilight. You were brought here accidently and there is no way to send you back.” My heart sank at her words.

“What am I to do though? I have one arm and no way to die honorably!” I said exasperatedly. The princess looked down at me again.

“Your arm will grow back, Twilight used a growth spell and it will be returned to you within the year at the latest. As for an ‘honorable death’ you will not find that here, we have very few battles here, your axe arm is pointless here, unless…” the princess trailed off.

“Unless what?” I asked angrily. The Princess turned her gaze back to me.

“Don’t worry about that for now. All you need to worry about is resting up.” The princess leaned her face down to mine and whispered. “And if you so much as lay a finger on my favorite student or any of her friends, to include that dragon, I will rend you limb from limb.” I smiled at her threat.

“As you wish.” The two horses began speaking in their odd language and left the room. I stood and began walking about slowly so as not to make myself pass out again due to lack of blood. I went to one of the windows and looked out. The sun was setting on this strange day, a day that I would never forget.

Author's Note

To those of you who wish to read this story please be forewarned: The depiction of this character is historically inaccurate and if that's going to make you mad then stop reading after this chapter. Do not comment on how I am making this story inaccurate as I don't care that much about historical inaccuracies when it comes to weapons and language and pretty much only care about the religious context. This may confuse some of you and that's unfortunate. If you really have that big of a problem PM me if you have an issue. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

The Death Lord

It was cold here. It was a rather familiar cold, like the cold from the forest back home. I stalked through massive trees that were just far enough apart for me to see a few hundred yards in every direction. A thin fog had settled across the forest floor. My breath misted before me as I inhaled and exhaled slowly, quietly. I was looking for something, I didn’t know what though. I continued to move slowly. In my hands I held a bow that was well worn with use, but sturdy. The wind rustled through the trees as I continued my slow walk through the forest. It looked just like the forest that was not too far from the village.

I inhaled deeply through my nostrils. The smells of the forest flooded into me. A small smile crept onto my face. This was where I was most at home. I continued my search for the forgotten thing.

A bitter wind blew up from behind me carrying with it a rancid, rotten smell. I turned on my heel and brought my bow up to bear drawing the arrow full. I stopped dead at the specter before me.

The being towered over me draped in all black and hooded. I peered up into the hood but could discern no features. Its hands were all that was visible. They were skeletal with long bone fingers that hung loosely. In its left it carried a massive and intricately carved scythe. I lowered my bow.

“Warrior.” The specter said. Its voice rang out and echoed between the trees. The bass was so deep that I felt my very soul reverberate with the power stored within the voice. I placed my bow in the quiver. I didn’t respond. The giant stared down at me unmoving.

From behind the specter stepped a horse. The horse massive as well, it stood well over my head. Its coat was the color of jet while its mane and tail shone bright luminescent white like the moon on a clear night. On the horses’ flank sat the image of a single skull that grinned out at the world eerily. The horse looked down at me with giant, red eyes that burned with controlled fury. There was something sitting behind those eyes however, something I could not make out.

“Warrior,” the specter spoke again. “I am lord of death in your world.” It stated. I nodded staring up into the abyss where the spirit’s face should have been. The massive lord gestured to the horse. “This is my steed. He has power over the realm you have found yourself.” I nodded again looking at the horse. The beast’s glare was intimidating to say the least. I looked back to the lord.

“Why appear to me?” I asked him. My situation did not seem important enough to warrant a visit from such a spirit.

“This is an odd situation you have found yourself in mortal.” The death lord began. “I come to warn you against your new realm.” I cocked an eyebrow.

“Why?” I questioned the death lord.

“The well being of your soul, mortal, has changed.” I cocked my head in confusion.

“My soul will be claimed by one of my gods someday.” I stated. The specter spoke.

“No, it will not.”

I stood for a moment unmoving, staring up into the black abyss that was the face of the death lord.

“How do you mean?” I asked.

“Your transference to your new land has moved you out of the jurisdiction of your gods.” It stated coldly.

I stared up angrily at the spirit.

“Then I’ll bring them here.” I told it. The lord shook its head.

“You can do no such thing.” It told me. I felt my anger rise.

“I brought my gods with me already!” I shouted. Again the specter shook its head.

“Your gods have no presence here and they cannot cross. Their power lies with your people. As does all of the other gods of that land.” I felt my anger rise to new heights.

“Then, what should I do?” I asked through gritted teeth. The spirit looked to its mount.

“Believe in death.” It told me simply.

My vision blurred as my hand dropped to my axe. I charged the huge lord of death my heart racing. I leapt into the air swinging my axe.

I felt a massive force slam into me knocking the air from my lungs. I stopped in about three feet off of the air my axe still in mid-swing. I cursed as I struggled in the air. My attempts failed.

I looked up at the lord of death my eyes trying to burn holes into him.

“Do not think your mind unknowable, fool. I come out of respect for you and your death to come.” He stated plainly. I stopped struggling.

“What do you know of my death?!” I demanded. The specter continued to stare down at me.

“Suffice to say, it is the glorious death that you seek.” It stated.

I stared confusedly up at the specter that claimed to be the very lord of death. I didn’t know what to think, I just wanted things to go back to the way they were. I felt energy begin to drain from my body. My eyelids began to grow heavy. I fell back into fitful sleep.

My eyes fluttered open. I sat up and threw my legs over the edge of the raised cushion. I tried to raise both of my hands to my head. I found that once again I was down a limb. I sighed and rubbed my face with my remaining hand.

I thought on what I had just learned. I thought about my death. It was already confirmed, already predicted to be true. I felt a certain calm fall over my soul. I didn’t have to search for my death anymore it was going to come to me. I placed my hand under my chin. My gods had no power here. It was a concept I could not grasp. To me the gods would not do anything men could not and the only time a man should ask his gods for help is when something is so far out of his control that he had to seek divine help. Even then actually expecting one of the gods to do something was a laughable idea at best.

I looked around for my axe. I saw it on a table not too far away from my resting place, moonlight glinting off of the steel. I stood and walked over to it and lifted it. I inspected the blade with an attention I had never given the weapon before. The steel was rather beautiful. I had had the weapon for only a few years. I had pulled it off of the corpse of some raider after we had ripped some of his brothers apart. I walked over to one of the openings in the wall.

I was surprised to see I could not feel the night air through the opening. I took my axe and tried to put it through the opening. It met resistance. I tapped the surface that kept the wind out. Rather interesting, see through yet solid.

I stared out the window until the sun came up. It still rose over what I hoped was the east. I stepped back as I heard Twilight begin walking down the stairs. I turned to see she had stopped and was staring at me. She was obviously scared of seeing me with my axe in hand. I turned back to the table and buried the blade in the wood. I turned back to look at the purple horse. She smiled nervously.

Lesson One

I sat down on an odd wooden chair that had a back. Before me was an odd shaped table with a small jar, a large piece of parchment and an odd feather. I looked up at Twilight who stood in front of some odd black rock that was encased in wood. There were odd looking runes scribbled on the rock. Some were familiar, Gebo and Hagalaz were there, but most were just odd symbols.

Twilight used her weird magic to pick up some stick which she used to tap the rock with. She talked at me for a second. I just stared at her unblinking. She smiled nervously and tapped the stick again. She used it to point to the first rune on the rock.

“A” she said. I continued to stare at her. I had no idea what she wanted me to do. She tapped the stick again and repeated herself “A”. I nodded in comprehension. She raised a hoof and circled it in the air as if telling me to come on. I raised my eyebrow at her. She groaned.

“A!” and then she went off on a rant with her nonsense language. Her anger was rather impressive. I sighed out my nose.

“A.” I muttered. Twilight picked up her ears. She tapped the stick again. “A.” I said, louder this time. Twilight smiled triumphantly. She moved the stick to the next rune and tapped again.

“B.” she said.

“B.” I repeated. Her smile stayed on her face.

We went through the whole set of runes twice over. Once we had finished the second ‘Z’ Twilight came over to the table. She lifted the feather and dipped it into the small jar. It came out covered a dark and dripping liquid that smelled odd. She held the feather over the parchment and wrote down an ‘A’ for me to see. She then placed the feather into my hand and pointed to the parchment and then to the rock with the funny looking runes. I gripped the feather. She wanted me to scribe the runes on the parchment. This wouldn’t be too difficult.

It took me five minutes to finally put down all of Twilight’s funny runes and some of them didn’t even look right. I stared down at the parchment and I felt anger rise up in me. I felt something touch my shoulder. I looked up and Twilight stood over me smiling.

For the first time I felt some assurance from one of these oddly bright colored horses. She made the same circling motion again with her hoof. I got the signal and I delved into writing down these odd runes again. This time I took more time and most of them came out as near perfect as I could get them. I looked up at Twilight for some approval. She was still smiling and nodded. I smiled at her.

It was odd to smile again. If almost felt like I was accepting my fate too easily. The smile left my face as my thoughts reached back to my home and my family. They would be having my funeral by now. Burning the corpse that wasn’t there of a man who wasn’t dead. My heart began to weigh down inside me.

Twilight placed her hoof on my shoulder again. I shrugged it off and stood from the table. Twilight looked up at me worriedly. I moved past her back to my cushion. I slipped under the blanket and pulled it up to my chin.

Twilight snorted. I felt the blanket being pulled from me. I turned ready to yell at Twilight but she had me in the air using her magic. I glared down at this odd purple horse. She matched my fury as she held me there. She placed me on the floor. I continued to glare at her as she walked away.

Twilight called up to her room. The little dragon poked its head over the edge and spoke back at Twilight. They had a quick exchange. Twilight shot me one last look and then walked out of the front door.

I looked up at the dragon. Its scales were purple and it had a green crest. While they were speaking I could make out familiar sounds but the whole language was still odd to me.

The dragon started making its way down the stairs. I backed away from it as fast as I could. I saw my axe still imbedded in the wood of the table near the window. I ran for it and pulled the blade free. I turned to face the dragon. I know Celestia said not to harm it, but I wasn’t just going to let this dragon be around me and not be armed.

The dragon stared at me as it slowly crept down the stairs. I continued to back away until my back hit a wall. My hand was white knuckled gripped around the haft of my axe as I used the wall to circle farther and farther away from the dragon.

The dragon held up one of its clawed hands. Gripped there was a scroll. The dragon walked over to my sleeping place and set the scroll down. It turned to me and backed away back up the stairs. The dragon disappeared over lip of the stairs. I lowered my axe. I kept my eyes on the stairs as I cautiously made my way to my bed.

I set my axe down and lifted the scroll then broke the seal. There were two rolled up inside. One I could read and the other was covered in the odd runes that Twilight had me write down. I could make out the individual ones but as words they were confusing.

I looked at the other one I could read.

Ol,

I have something I need to speak with you about. The other letter I’m sending I need you to give to Twilight so she knows to bring you here to the capital. Don’t worry I think that the assignment I have in mind for you will hopefully interest you.

-Celestia

I put the letter down. I heard the door open. I turned to see Twilight walk back in followed by a white horse with a purple mane. I noticed, for the first time, that there were markings on their flanks. Twilight had a pink star and the white horse had a picture of three blue gems. I lifted the letter that was for her. She cocked her head oddly and walked over. She took the letter from me and began to read it.

Twilight smiled and exclaimed something. She turned to the white horse and spoke rapidly. The two began speaking rapidly with excitement and I had no idea what they were excited for. We were just going to see some up jumped princess who had no really power, she was just some other noble lord who would lose all their power when it came down to cold steel.

I sat back down at the table and began to copy down the odd runes Twilight gave me. Twilight set her hoof on my hand. I looked up. She shook her head and pointed to the white horse. I stood, not sure what to do. The white horse used her magic to pull out an odd yellow rope. Twilight looked at me. I felt confusion and right behind that, anger. What did these strange horses want from me?

Twilight used her magic to pull my limbs apart. I looked at her angrily. She shied away somewhat ashamed. The white horse came in and began holding the yellow rope up to my limbs. Quickly the white on looked at all my limbs and chest and belly then backed away. Twilight set me down. I glared at them both and turned back to my cushion. I lay down in my covers and closed my eyes.

Twilight again shook me awake. I turned on her and snarled but this time she wasn’t backing down. I rolled my eyes and stepped up. The white horse had quickly fled from the odd house and I hoped her to never return, dealing with Twilight was more than enough.

Twilight held up the letter that I had received from the princess, I shrugged. She rolled her eyes at me. She got up and opened the door and pointed outside. I realized that she wanted me to get ready to leave. I looked down at my bloodstained clothes.

“What should I do?” I asked angrily, knowing full well she wouldn’t understand me. Twilight just stared at me confused. I sat at the edge of the cushion for a few minutes when the white horse came back in carrying a few sets of clothes in front of her.

They all looked interesting but uncomfortable. She set them all down on the table I had been writing on. Twilight looked at me and pointed at the clothes. I stood and picked up one of the shirts. It was made of some odd woolen fabric that was actually rather pleasant. I put down the shirt and pulled mine off which was somewhat difficult with one arm. With my shirt off I looked at my stump. It was surrounded by bruise blackened flesh but it appeared to be larger as if swollen. Twilight stepped forward and prodded the swollen area. She smiled with satisfaction and stepped back. I pulled on the other shirt. It had both sleeves, I still didn’t believe that my arm would come back, but wishful thinking never hurt anyone.

I began to pull off my trousers and both of the girls turned and flung their hooves up in front of their faces embarrassed. I pretended to not notice and pulled my pants off. I picked up one of the pairs of pants. It seemed to be made of the same material. I pulled them on and tested some movement in them. They were loose and comfortable. All in all I was pleasantly surprised. I looked at the white horse.

“Thank you.” I said. She nodded her head pretending to understand what I had said. Twilight held up a hoof under the white horses chin.

“Rarity.” She said.

“Rarity.” I repeated. The white horse smiled. Twilight nodded her approval. She turned and began walking out of the door. She looked back over her shoulder looking at me expectantly. I nodded and followed her out of the door.

A Trip to Canterlot

We arrived at some odd platform and waited. Below us were some odd long metal strips with odd beams of wood between them every few feet. We waited around for no apparent reason to me at least. Then I saw it. It was a massive metal machine beast that roared along the metal strips and break neck pace. My stomach dropped in fear and I turned and ran.

Twilight snagged me with her magic and brought me back struggling. I yelled my protest but no matter what I said or how I struggled the purple horse held me in the air until we were inside the belly of the odd thing.

As we entered through a door on the side I looked in and saw that colorful benches awaited us inside and not the pink innards I expected. I calmed some and Twilight set me on one of the benches but did not release her hold on me. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the benches were padded and comfortable.

No matter the comfort, being inside this monster made me feel uneasy and I began to fidget. Twilight looked out the window at her friends who were waving goodbye. The monster growled and shook. I tried to bolt for one of the openings in the side but to no avail as Twilight only tightened her grip on me.

The beast began to move. I could not believe how terrifying this experience was and yet Twilight just sat there like nothing was happening. We were going to die and she did not appear to care in the slightest that she had let this thing swallow me.

We rode in the stomach of the beast for what felt like an eternity. Twilight spent the time holding me down while looking out the openings in the beast’s side. I struggled every second, not caring how or when I got out. I snarled and cursed at Twilight. It was a good thing she could not understand me or I am assured she would’ve beaten me against the beast’s innards.

Eventually the beast began to slow. Twilight stood from the bench and forced me to my feet. The beast came to a halting stop and Twilight swiftly disembarked with me in tow.

She released her grip on me and I fell face first into the hard gray rock of the platform. I kissed the ground happily vowing to myself to never set foot inside that horrible thing again.

The beast ground away and Twilight poked me with her hoof. I looked up from the ground at her angrily. She used her head to point in the direction she wanted us to go. I reluctantly stood and followed the purple horse.

We entered the city. I had never been in a city before and it was a wondrous thing to behold.

Houses and buildings as far as I could see in every direction, shops and stores with their eye catching wares posted up in the windows. Most of the shops had pictures for signs instead of their odd runes so I could keep up with what most of the places sold, but some of the curios were strange and alien to look upon
.

We walked through my mouth agape. Twilight chuckled at me. I cared not what the horses thought of me, I could have looked at that place for hours. We finally arrived at the royal palace. It was indeed a grand structure, beautiful to behold as the sun reflected off of its high, gold plated walls.

We entered through the main gate and met with a guard whom I could only assume was the horse in charge. To my surprise Twilight embraced the stallion. She turned to me and pointed.

“Shining Armor.” She said smiling.

“Shining Armor?” I repeated confusedly. The two gibbered at each other. The stallion whose name I guessed was supposed to be ‘Shining Armor’ pointed at me. I was too confused to be insulted because his name was idiotic to say the least. Then I thought about the names of these horses and obviously they had been naming themselves, because no man or woman who was sane would ever name a horse Shining Armor, or something as stupid as Rarity or even Twilight for that matter.

I snorted. Both horses looked at me. Shining Armor raised an eyebrow at Twilight questioningly. I made myself a promise that I would hit this one with my axe no matter what the princess threatened.

Twilight finished up her conversation with Shining Armor and we began walking again. We entered the palace proper. The building was rather impressive on the inside, filled with colored pictures of important horses and events was the best I could guess. Standing at the base of an enormous staircase was Celestia. She was talking with some brown colored horse.

I studied the princess. She was much larger than any other horse around her, an obvious indication that she was in charge. But I was confused as to why they showed her such deference. Then it hit me, she was a Gydhja! With this sudden realization I felt my animosity towards her drain.

It felt odd to me that this was the only representation of any faith in this strange place. I watched the princess maybe she was more than just some bumbling fool or greedy black hearted lecher.

The brown horse bowed and left the princess quickly running by me. The princess beckoned to Twilight and me. We walked up. She greeted Twilight and then turned to me.

“And good day to you Ol.” I nodded.

“Good day princess.” I answered back quietly. The princess turned back to Twilight and the two spoke for several moments. They each pointed to me a few times and then Twilight nodded. She turned to me and smiled and said something then turned and went off down a massive hallway. I looked back at the princess.

“Come with me Ol.” She said as she began to ascend the massive staircase. I followed Celestia up the steps and she began to speak.

“I’ve ruled over this land for a few thousand years.” I immediately stopped listening to her. The only beings I knew of that lived that long were the gods and they apparently had no power here, so how could this horse of all things claim to have been alive for as long as a god?

“I would suggest you listen, the assignment I have for you is rather important.” The princess said looking over her shoulder at me disapprovingly. I had been staring off into space the whole time she had been speaking.

“Excuse me?” I said.

“I know that our history may not be of interest to you, but you should at least be aware of some of the dangers you are going to be up against.” She said angrily. The princess turned and continued walking.

We had come up the steps and were in a vast hall filled with more of the multi-colored surfaces that depicted events. I could see one that looked like Twilight surrounded by other colored horses firing something out of their heads at another more menacing horse that was the color of the night sky.

I looked at the princess.

“This is all very nice, but what do you want from me?” I asked her impatiently. The princess turned and looked at me.

“Since you are here and you are now one of my subjects you might as well be of some use to me.” I raise my eyebrow skeptically.

“What does that mean?” I asked her. The princess pulled one of those odd feathers used for writing and a piece of parchment out of thin air. I was getting really tired of this ridiculous magic.

“Firstly, I charge you with the duty of protecting and safeguarding my student Twilight Sparkle and her friends.” I couldn’t believe what she had just said.

“I don’t know if you haven’t noticed but I have one arm and no armor, oh and I’m not a bodyguard!” I fumed.

“That’s why I have this.” She indicated the parchment. “Now tell me what you are going to need to do the job.” She said. Obviously she wasn’t flinching on the guarding Twilight thing.

“Fine,” I said. I would have crossed my arms in indignation, but for the fact that I was missing one. “I need a full suit of plate armor, a claymore and another hand axe.” I told her. Celestia wrote down the small list.

“Take this note to the smith, the way shall be lighted for you.” Celestia said handing me the note.

“In a year’s time you will be back up to top speed and you will have what you need I assure you.” I snorted at her words. This arm was never coming back.

“Can I go now?” I asked incredulously. The princess nodded.

“Yes, you may go, I’ll have Twilight sent to the armory where she will meet you.”

Without another word I turned from the odd room and walked out the massive door.

I looked around for the light she said would guide me to the armory, whatever that meant. I noticed a strip of light on the carpet that ran along the wall and out of sight. I guessed that that was my guide and set off with the note in hand.

It took me about ten minutes to find my way down to the armory. The chamber itself was bisected with one wall gone exposing the room to the elements. Outside the sun shone bright and wonderful down on the practice field that stood next to the armory. I could see guards battling each other with blunted weapons while their commanders shouted at them. I could see Shining Armor in one of the bout rings dealing out punishment to one of his colleagues. I snorted in approval. For how ridiculous his name was he was a skilled fighter.

The center of the chamber was dominated by a massive forge that was vented and led into eight smaller forges arranged in a circle around the larger one. Four horses worked the massive bellows, pumping air into the forge to heat it. I was awed at the impressive display.

As I stepped foot into the chamber I was challenged by a smith. He was a rather large stallion with one over developed foreleg from using the hammer for so long. I had seen such a thing in human smiths who had been at the practice for years. I couldn’t understand what he was saying but I handed him the note. He opened it up and read it. The stallion looked up at me several times while he read the note. He nodded and rolled the scroll up. He said something and indicated me to follow him. I nodded and we began walking.

The smith talked the whole time I just kept silent and nodded politely as he spoke, not knowing a word of what he said.

Eventually we came to the other side of the chamber where several long tables stood covered in various weapons and pieces of armor. Several horses stood around impatiently waiting for smiths to fix dings and dents in their armor. One in particular had a patch over his eye and a massive scar down the side of his skull. He looked mean and formidable. It would’ve been rather interesting to see just how skilled he was.

I looked at the table. I could see a hand axe that was the perfect twin to my own. The smith set a large bag down and began to look me over. He looked at my hand perplexed by my fingers and shrugged. He turned around and picked up a vambrace that was oddly shaped and held it up to my arm. I held out my hand and he slipped it on. It fit well enough, but I was not convinced it would protect me. I tapped the steel against the edge of the table. It thudded resoundingly. I used the edge of the table to pry the brace off and set it down. I plucked my new axe off of the table and slammed it down on the armor. The axe’s progress was halted by the vambrace with a resounding clang. All of the horses surrounding me looked at me indignantly. I just chuckled.

“Good steel.” I told them.

All Things Heal With Mead

Twilight and I stepped off out of the beast. The second trip back hadn’t been as bad as the first but I was still gripped fairly tightly by Twilight as we rode on. I was excited by my new bag of weapons and armor and I wanted to get back to Twilight’s home to begin shining and sharpening.

The smiths had been able to provide me with the weapons I needed and a pair of vambraces and armored boots, but they had to special make a cuirass, leather gauntlets to go under my vambraces and some armored breeches. All in all it was a good day. I would have taken out my new axe and played with it some but I needed a second hand for that. What I was really interested in was where they had managed to produce a claymore from and how they were able to hold and use weapons at all without thumbs.

The sun had set and the moon had come out shining brightly. Usually on a night like this I would sit by the fire with my son and tell him tales of the gods and boast with my comrades. I remembered the taste of mead and licked my lips. I would have to make some while I was here.

Finally we had arrived at Twilight’s home. I walked over to my cushion and slid beneath the blankets. Today had been an interesting day. I had been swallowed by a demon machine, been ordered to protect an annoying purple horse and given a new set of armor and weapons, what a day indeed.

The days would always start the same. Twilight would wake me up for a lesson of some sort. After a month I had the alphabet down and was starting to say a few words. I could communicate barely with Twilight. In that time all of her friends came about. I found the orange one who had kicked me was named Applejack, the blue one with the rainbow mane was named Rainbow Dash, the odd shade of red on was Pinkie Pie, she was the loudest of them all and it took me some time to get used to her. I remembered Rarity who was obviously the best behaved of them all. But the one that perplexed me the most was the yellow horse with wings whose name was Fluttershy.

She fit her namesake, obviously, but I was curious as to her blatant fear of everything. It had taken her a few weeks just to warm up enough to greet me. I had no idea I was that terrifying to a race of talking horses, that can fly and use magic the way they do, but I didn’t question it too much. Eventually Fluttershy was coming over every day to spend time with me which was nice considering she was the easiest to be around.

My arm was miraculously growing at an unprecedented pace. At the end of the first month I had at least two new inches of arm. Twilight thought that after another month I’d have an elbow stump. I was excited at the prospect of getting my hand back.

After the second month I could speak well enough to Twilight and her friends. I found it hardest to speak with the dragon however. I learned his name was Spike and that he was utterly terrified by me. I felt this appropriate as I was somewhat afraid of him considering the stories I had learned as a child. The only thing worse than the apparently hordes of dragons that lived in this land would have to be an ice giant, but Twilight had assured me that giants did not exist here.

Soon autumn came up. I asked Applejack where I might procure barley and other plants I needed to brew my mead. She had scratched her head.

“Now what in the hay do ya need that fer?” she had asked in her odd accent. I had patted her on the head with my stump which I found to be entertaining.

“I’m making something special from my home and I need to make a lot of it.” I had told her. The orange work horse had helped me procure all of the things I needed for making my mead.

The process took me a few days but soon enough I had several gallons of delicious golden mead in a massive barrel ready for the holidays that were sure to come. I was excited for the harvest feast and of course dressing up on new years and the burning of the log at the Yule.

I really wished to try out my mead as I had not made much in the past. I invited Twilight and all of her friends over to try it out.

I served out goblets to all six of them and raised my own in toast.

“To the gods.” I said ceremoniously. The rest looked at each other confusedly and then repeated after me and they all took a drink. Rarity spit hers out immediately. Applejack swallowed and stuck out her tongue. Rainbow cringed and Pinkie danced a little with the mead still in her cheeks. Twilight finished her full goblet with a smirk.

“More please.” She said handing me her goblet. I filled hers and mine again and we each drank deeply. I noticed Fluttershy hadn’t even taken a sip. I knew that mead wasn’t the easiest thing to drink at times but I had made it just how my father had taught me and it tasted just like his.

“What’s wrong?” I asked the yellow mare as in the background Rarity began to wretch, Rainbow had already flown off and Applejack had politely set her goblet down. Twilight was into her fourth goblet already and was beginning to slur. Pinkie had finished her first one but was determined to not be outdone by Twilight and began chugging goblet after goblet.

“It smells funny.” Fluttershy said, I smirked.

“It’s an acquired taste, just try it, if you don’t like it don’t worry.” I assured her. I put my stump on her back and she tensed up immediately. Why I found using my stump to make the girls feel uncomfortable I had no idea as I was not one for humor. The mare took a tiny sip. I could see her face contort just a bit at the taste.

“Ooh.” She said and drained the rest of the goblet in one go. She handed it back to me with a smile on her face. I smiled back and took her goblet in my hand. I went back to the barrel and filled both goblets and handed Fluttershy’s back to her.

At this point Pinkie and Twilight had been going at it pretty hard and had obviously never had anything like this before as they were both on the floor holding each other.

“I, I love you Twilight.” Pinkie said.

“No man,” Twilight answered. “I love you Pinkie, you’re like my bessht friend and you throw the besssht partiessh.” Pinkie waved Twilight off.

“You’re jussht ssshayin’ that.” Twilight pulled Pinkie closer.

“No, n-no, I mean it Pinkie, with my soul.” I set my goblet down and scooped Twilight up.

“Looks like you had too much.” I said.

“Hey, wait put me down you made the room spin Ol!” Twilight cursed and struggled weakly. I moved up the stairs and set Twilight in her bed. She curled up into a ball and immediately began to snore. I chuckled. These girls had no tolerance.

I went back downstairs to see Pinkie still lying on the floor. Rarity had gone and Fluttershy and Applejack were standing over the pink horse with concern.

“Is she okay?” Fluttershy asked. I waved her off.

“She’ll be fine she just had too much to drink way too fast.” Pinkie rolled over and looked at me. Her eyes were glassy and she had a faraway smile plastered on her face.

“That stuff needs to be at every party.” She said with a hiccup. I smiled.

“That good huh?” I looked at Applejack. “Could you make sure she gets home?” Applejack nodded.

“Yeah, I’ll get her there. Come on Fluttershy.”

The two scooped their friend up between them and walked out the front door.

“Wait.” Commanded Pinkie, I cringed, knowing what was coming. Pinkie dived out of her friend’s grasp and dashed out the door and turned. I could hear her vomiting onto the bushes.

“Oh Pinkie!” exclaimed Fluttershy. I laughed, it reminded me of the first time I had had too much mead.

The three horses left and I closed the door. I went and sealed the mead barrel and managed to move it over with the three others waiting to be cracked in the future.

Time went on and eventually the rest of my armor arrived from the palace. Twilight help me put it on. My forearm was still too shriveled to wear the vambrace around it yet so I had to make due.

The armor fit like a dream. I could still move fluidly and deadly. I strapped the claymore across my back and put both my axes in my belt.

“Now all I need is a horn and I’ll be set.” I said. Twilight cocked her head.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well,” I began. “In my land some of us would carry war horns for sounding before battle or if something important was happening.” I explained.

Twilight nodded. She frowned and put a hoof to her chin in thought. She raised her hoof in delight and dashed away up the stairs.

I could hear her clamoring about and an indignant Spike protesting about something. I heard a cry of triumph and Twilight made her way back down the stairs bearing a massive horn.

I took the beautiful thing with my hand and examined it. It was about two feet long and white as a pearl. The ends were coated in sliver and intricately carved to show pictures of horse battling each other. I pressed the end against my lips and blew one long loud note. It sounded beautiful. Twilight had clapped her hooves over her ears and looked at me angrily.

“Don’t ever play that in the house again.” She commanded. Spike stuck his head over the edge of the stairs.

“What in the name of Celestia is going on down there?” he asked. I held up the horn.

“Just testing out my new horn.” Spike snorted and fire came out of his nostrils.

“Well keep it down, I’m trying to sleep.” I ignored the little dragon.

“Thank you Twilight.” I said. Twilight nodded.

“Anything for a friend.” She said politely. I frowned and my brow furrowed.

“I’m your friend?” I asked her.

“Well, yeah, what else would you be?” she asked.

“Your prisoner, bodyguard, I did not expect to be your friend.” Then I paused and looked back at the last few months I had spent in this strange land.

I did not miss my family anymore and my arm was truly growing back. I had been happy these last few months like I had never known before. I looked down at my stump. It was pink and itched madly most of the time but it was still coming back. And then I thought about all the differences between me and these horses. The biggest challenge had been learning to speak like they did with their funny runes and I had done it, no one else I knew spoke another language. I had also tried my best to adapt to a vegetarian lifestyle. I had found that one rather difficult as I enjoyed meat quite a bit.

But in the past few months I had grown used to these horses and their odd ways and maybe they were becoming my friends.

After six months snow began to fall over the land. I would wake every morning before sunrise and train in my armor. It mainly meant just axe swings while wearing the heavy plate, but it was good exercise and I had begun to gain weight somehow in the short time I had been there. My arm had grown past my elbow joint and to about midway through my forearm, soon enough I would have a wrist and fingers again.

Twilight would always wake up as I finished the end portion of my training regimen which was one handed swings with the claymore. At first that had been the hardest but soon enough I was able to use the massive sword with one hand as deftly as if it had been a simple long sword.

I removed my armor and sat on my bed. I removed a bucket of rags and from underneath and began to polish and clean my armor as. That had also been a difficult task with one arm but my stump could be made useful. Twilight came down the stairs yawning.

“Good morning.” She said.

“Good morning.” I replied not looking up from my work. Twilight headed into her small kitchen to get some breakfast for the two of us. She came out with a tray of wheat toast, tea and fruit. She set the tray down on my bed and sat next to me.

“Today is Hearth’s Warming Eve.” She said. I raise an eyebrow at her.

“What is that?” I asked her.

“It’s a holiday where we celebrate friendship and being together.” She said. “We have it on the solstice.” I stopped and looked at her.

“The solstice is tonight?”

“Yes, it’s one of my favorite nights.” She said. I smiled.

“In my home we have a celebration on the solstice as well.” She cocked her head curiously.

“What’s that?” she asked. I went back to cleaning as I spoke.

“It’s called Yule. We all would gather in the hall and celebrate the coming of winter. We would usually have a massive tree cut down and we’d burn it and dance and drink until the flames went out.” Twilight nodded.

“Sounds fun.” I nodded. She ate as I cleaned in silence. I would take my breakfast after my work was done.

“I was wondering Twilight,” I began. She perked up. “If maybe you would like to help me celebrate my way. I mean we could have the others over, you and Pinkie could get really drunk again and we could sing the night away.” I had stopped cleaning and looked at Twilight.

Twilight thought about it as she chewed her toast.

“We could do that, but I don’t want it getting too crazy.” She stated obviously remembering the Nightmare Night party that had gone on here. I laughed.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have so much mead.” She blushed.

“I don’t drink that much.” I scoffed.

“I’d have half of a barrel more if you and Pinkie weren’t determined to drown yourselves every time I open the things.” Twilight laughed.

“You forget Fluttershy, she isn’t exactly shy about getting into that stuff.” I chuckled.

“She’s not, but she doesn’t turn it into a competition like you and Pinkie do, the whole reason Nightmare Night got out of hand is because Pinkie was so far gone that she tried to pry off and use Rainbow’s wings remember? Oh yeah, you don’t.” I said looking at Twilight. She blushed even more.

“Well I think it’d be a great idea to celebrate your way, how do we start?” she asked. I smiled.

“We need a tree.”

The tree was massive, almost too big to fit into the house. I looked to Twilight.

“This tree is wonderful and all, but how do expect us to burn it?” Twilight smiled.

“Come with me.” She said. Together we went into her basement. I had never been in her basement before.

The room was large and nearly empty. There was a massive amount of metal plates that were just lying about like useless junk.

Twilight elevated the plates and began to move them up to the main floor. After she had moved all of the plates we went back upstairs where she began to arrange them into a massive trough big enough to fit the tree.

“This’ll do.” I said nodding in approval.

“You haven’t seen anything yet.” Twilight said. Her horn began to grow brightly. The metal began to light up and shift. There was an intense amount of heat and a bright flash. I covered my eyes. When I lowered my hand the metal had all fused together into one solid piece. My jaw dropped.

“Amazing,” I said “simply amazing.”

“Now let’s get that tree in here.” Twilight lifted the massive thing into the trough. I had taken the time already to remove all of the branches and leaves so all that was left was one massive log.

Twilight set the log down gently in the trough
.

“When do we start the fire she asked.” I smiled.

“Right now.” I called for Spike. The little dragon came down the stairs.

“Yeah?”

“Come here Spike.” I said. The dragon was cautious as usual. No matter how much time we spent together neither of us would ever be truly at ease around each other but I needed him for this.

“I need you to light this tree on fire.” I said plainly. Spike raised a scaly eyebrow at Twilight. The purple horse nodded. The dragon shrugged and exhaled flames onto the wood. The tree caught light and slowly began to burn. Twilight looked worried.

“How long is this going to last?” she asked.

“Don’t worry,” I assured her. “We’ve got a least a good day out of this thing. Now come on we need to get ready.” We both set about preparing for the small party we were going to have. I moved the casks of mead out and managed to get them onto a low table and I set out a series of mugs. In consideration of our guests who were not fans of my mead I found some juice mix that Twilight had sequestered away and made as much of it as I could.

Twilight left to go out shopping for food. I had Spike help me setup a long table and put out plates. I went into the kitchen and had the dragon help me begin baking bread.

“Are you seriously going to start baking now?” he asked. I laughed at him.

“It’ll be done by the time the others get here.” I told him. He shrugged and began mixing. I prepared several loaves and placed them in the oven. That was one contraption that I would never trust truly. It could heat up to temperatures that were insanely hot and didn’t use fire, I didn’t like it, but it got the job done.

Soon Twilight had returned and began preparing fruit and vegetable salads. She had brought several cakes with her of various flavors.

“When will the girls get here?” I asked her. I had changed into my nicest set of clothes for the evening and I was overjoyed that they were going to celebrate with me.

“In about twenty minutes.” I looked out the window. The sun was beginning to set and the light played off the snow beautifully. I sighed as I thought of home. Would it be the same time there? I wondered about my wife and if she had been scooped up by one of my friends. It wouldn’t have surprised me if she had, that son of mine needed another man in his life teaching him the ways of things. I felt a twinge in my heart. That man should be me. I pushed the dark thoughts from my mind, tonight was going to be fun.

I turned from the window to see Twilight smiling as she set the food out for tonight’s celebration.

“Everything is set. I think I’ll have a little drink before things get going.” She said innocently making her way over to the casks of mead and getting herself a nice big goblet. I shook my head at Twilight. That pony would never learn. Soon enough Pinkie showed up with Applejack.

“Hey Twi, hey Ol!” she said excitedly throwing her arms around both of us in quick succession.

“Hi Pinkie.” I said happily and handed her a cup filled to the brim with mead. She took it and had a tiny sip. She smiled widely and took another small sip.

“My new favorite drink!” she proclaimed. I laughed and sat down at the table closest to the burning tree. Applejack pointed at it confused.

“Uh, Twilight?” she asked.

“Yes?” Twilight replied.

“Why is there a big burning tree in the middle of your house?” I answered.

“This year we’re going to celebrate my way. We don’t have hearts warming eve where I am from, but we have the Yule, this is one of our traditions.” Applejack nodded understandingly.

“Oh I see.” She commented. I nodded back.

“Help yourself to something to drink.” I told her.

“Don’t mind if I do.” She sauntered over to the juice and poured herself a cup and came to sit next to me and enjoy the blaze.

After another few minutes Rarity, Rainbow and Fluttershy arrived. I smiled happily as Fluttershy came and sat on the other side of me. I smiled at her and she blushed back at me. I stood up and poured her a drink and brought it back to her.

“Thank you.” She mumbled into her drink. It felt odd that she was acting so shy towards me. I thought we had overcome her general nervousness around me, I shrugged my shoulders to myself and drained my drink.

Everyone seated themselves and Twilight began to serve the food. I stood holding my mead.

“Now since this year we will be doing things my way we’re going to do a little ritual.” I held up my mug.

“Usually we use a horn but the only I have is for sounding. Now I’m going to toast the gods and send the horn around and you all will make a toast to your gods or god and take a drink or small sip. Then I’m going to toast the ancestors and you will all take a sip again and make a toast yourselves and lastly I’m going to send the mug around one more time but you may toast as you please.” They all nodded in agreement and understanding. I took a deep breath.

“To the gods of my home, may they find me here and take me to where I belong when I pass from this mortal shell.” I drank from my mug and handed it to my right where Fluttershy was sitting. The yellow pegasus stood.

“Uh, I guess hail Celestia.” She took a sip and passed it on to Applejack.

“Hail Celestia!” Applejack said. The other’s toasts sounded much the same as they passed the mug around. Rarity hesitated obviously unwilling to drink something we all had drank out of but complied and took a small sip. I took the mug back.

“Hail my father and his father as they sit on high with the gods, may their spirits join us on this day.” I took a drink and passed it.

The girls were a bit confused on what to say so they all ended up toasting their parents or some distant relative. I took the mug.

“Hail my new friends. I thank you for taking me into your lives and making my own life here enjoyable.” I sighed and drank. I passed the drink.

“Thank you my friends for helping me as well and thank you Ol for coming here and making my life more enjoyable as well.” Fluttershy said as she smiled at me and drank.

“I would like to toast you guys as well for giving me such wonderful friendship.” Applejack said. I could see how these were going to go, but what Fluttershy had said stuck in me. Why would she single me out like that? I pushed the thought from my mind as the mug came back to me. There was a little left at the bottom. I drained the dregs and looked down at my friends. I smiled.

“Let’s eat.”

The food was excellent even it was only fruit and vegetables. Together we ate and told stories. I challenged Rainbow to a brag. Everyone cleared the tables and we sat near each other. I explained how it worked. She was to go first and tell a story of some feat she had accomplished if I could not best her story I would drink but if I could she would drink and I would then tell the first story. We began.

She started with some story of how she had flown through a massive and dangerous gorge without getting a scratch. She used incredible detail to tell about the creatures that dwelled within. Some were massive and scaly and could gobble a pony up in one bite while others were tiny and stuck in the fur and went without notice until you fell and died from loss of blood or infection they brought. I nodded but I had a better one.

I told them of the time I had scaled the dangerous mountain north of my home. It had been in the middle of winter and we were on a raid when we were ambushed by a much larger force of enemies. I had had to fight my way free of enemies, claiming six kills at least, and I had to scale the mountain to find refuge from a coming storm. I climbed and climbed as the sun went down and eventually found a cave. I moved into it and started a small fire and began to wait out the night. Little did I know that the cave was home to a massive bear. I had to battle with the bear and ended up killing it with my axe. I took the night to skin the thing and ate some of the meat. I came back to the village the only one alive and with a new pelt to boot. By the time I had finished the story all of the ponies had their mouths agape.

“Did you really do that?” Rainbow asked me. I nodded. She drained her whole mug in one go.

“I quit.” She said.

“Oh come on.” I urged.

“No, if that’s the lamest story you have then you already outdo all of mine.” She said. Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder.

“What about the time you kicked that dragon?” she said.

“That’s Fluttershy’s story though, not mine.” I raised an eyebrow.

“Dragon?” I asked looking to Fluttershy.

“Oh it’s nothing.” She said lowering her head bashfully. Twilight stepped forward.

“Oh don’t be so humble Fluttershy,” Twilight looked at me. “Fluttershy told off a dragon who was causing a massive smoke cloud to cover Equestria and would’ve blacked out the land for a hundred years.” I looked at the yellow pegasus.

“Really?” I leaned back and drained my mead. “Looks like you win that round then.” Fluttershy blushed even more.

“I-I don’t have any other stories though. Twilight what about the time you charged the Hydra?” Twilight shook her head with a smile.

“Oh that’s not that impressive.” She said meekly.

“Hydra?” I asked her. Twilight nodded and told me.

I was aware of Pinkie’s odd ability to be able to predict small things coming with her body and to be honest it scared me, but this was something unheard of. Apparently she had been able to tell that something terrible was going to happen at some bog not too far from here. Fluttershy had been taking some frogs to live in a new home and there she was ambushed by a hydra which was some sort of wyrm with multiple heads that could grow back if cut off, I had scoffed at that, but Twilight went on. Apparently they had run from the hydra and while they were trying to escape over a gorge Twilight had charged the thing to buy time for her friends. I poured myself another drink and drained it.

“Wow, incredible.” I told her. She smiled.

That night they told me many stories that had yet to come up. There was a group of hounds that dug underneath the earth and had abducted Rarity. Rarity then proceeded to annoy the creatures to the point where they, almost literally, rolled over and gave up. Not to take away from the other’s efforts, especially Spike’s who managed to get them to Rarity where they charged in heedless of their own well being. I had never known any such loyalty amongst my own people.

I was astounded to hear of their exploits and journeys. They told me of the battle at Appaloosa. They told me of Nightmare Moon and how they stopped her by using the ‘Elements of Harmony’ which were magical necklaces that enhanced their personalities to the point as to become incredibly powerful magical weapons capable of defeating even the most powerful opponents.

My jaw had dropped by this time and I had drained at least six mugs of mead and my head was buzzing.

“You all win.” I stated. The girls all laughed aloud. Pinkie was already beginning to slump over and Twilight had sat down to keep from falling over. Fluttershy herself was on her fourth mug. Rarity, Rainbow and Applejack looked at us and laughed amongst themselves at our drunkenness. Twilight stood up on wobbly legs.

“Let’s put on some music.” I chuckled to myself. I had learned long ago that no matter how much drink I had had I was never going to be a famous dancer or singer but these ponies had yet to learn such lessons. I positioned myself with my back to the table so I could watch the fun.

Pinkie’s head shot up and she dashed out onto the clear space next to the fire and began to shake and roll herself about like she was ablaze. Twilight began to kick her forelegs about and twirl. I knew who would be vomiting first out of all of us. Flutteshy stood but instead of moving to the impromptu dance floor seated herself closer to me.

I took a massive pull on my mug and belched aloud.

“Oh,” Fluttershy covered her mouth. “Excuse you Ol.” She scolded. I chuckled.

“Yes, excuse me.” I said slurring a bit. Twilight had started to teach me things called ‘manners’. Apparently I was supposed to behave in odd ways like when belching I was supposed to say ‘excuse me’ or if someone sneezed I was supposed to say ‘bless you’. It was all somewhat overwhelming but I did my best.

I sat there next to Fluttershy watching our friends make utter fools of themselves. The night couldn’t have gone better. The food was good, the drink flowed like a river and I was sharing then night with, what I hoped, were my friends.

Fluttershy scooted herself closer and closer to me as the night went on and I drank more and more. On the dance floor the girls all began dancing together and playing dancing games. They would beckon to me and I would casually wave them off saying things about how I could not dance, I had one hand, and that I had to take my drink with me from here on out. They would all laugh and dance away.

I drained my twelfth mug and I felt solidly drunk. Fluttershy set her head on my chest.

“Ol?” she asked me.

“Yes Fluttershy?” I replied.

“Do you miss your wife?” I should have been thrown off by the question, but I was impaired.

“I did.” I began. “But being here, with all of you has made it easier for me to get over my loss somehow. I’ve known men who have lost their wives and could not bear it. Some head off into the woods to find a bear or fell on their spears, but those were extreme cases. Sometimes though,” I stared into the flames remembering my wife. She had been beautiful and sturdy, a good combination wrapped up with just the right amount of tenacity. I had met her when I was barely fifteen summers past and she thirteen. We had made love under an old oak tree in the middle of a summer day. I had claimed her maidenhead and she promised to let no other man into her bed.

After a few months I had staked out a plot of land for myself and began to farm. After a few months I had had a small crop planted and a horse and a cow. I went to her and asked for her hand. We were wed within a month and within six months she was heavy with child. My son was thirteen when I had been taken, almost a man.

“I do think about her.” I finished my thought. Fluttershy picked up her head and pecked me on the cheek. I looked at her.

“What was that for?” I asked, somewhat curious and reviled. She was still a horse. She moved a little closer.

“Kiss me.” She said. I slid away from her.

“No.” I stated. I could feel adrenaline shoot into my system. Fluttershy gasped a little and a small tear came to her eye.

“Why not?” she quietly sobbed, I checked the dance floor. All the others were occupied with Twilight who had begun to vomit violently onto the floor and was rolling around in her own sick, out of her mind with drunkenness.

“Because you are a pony and I am a man it does not work.” I told her. She pointed to Rarity.

“But Spike likes Rarity and he’s a dragon and she’s a pony.” She squealed.

“I am not a dragon and even if I was I have no feelings for you in such manner.” I told her as I set down my mug and stood. She stood as well. There were tears in her eyes as she took off from the table. I watched her go silently as she ran by her friends and out the door. I heard the wood slam and felt no sympathy, what she had wanted was not natural. I was here alone and that was the way it was going to stay.

I wobbled a bit on my feet. The other five looked at me and Applejack spoke.

“What’s with her?” Applejack asked. I shook my head and shrugged.

Canterlot Security

After the party was over Fluttershy had come to me the next day and apologized to me. She admitted that she had had too much to drink and that her actions were rather out of character for her. I was glad to know that only she and I knew of the exchange between us. Twilight was still recovering from the night before and the others were trying to find Pinkie Pie who had galloped off into the night somewhere. I thanked Fluttershy and forgot the whole incident.

Two more months fell off of the calendar and I had on finger. I would look at the finger every day. It was my pointer finger and I would use it to do all sorts of things. I would lift things, practice writing and even swing one of my axes with it. I was overjoyed to play with it day in and day out. I could make out small lumps where the rest of my fingers were slowly developing.

I could wear my vambraces and gauntlets now without too much worry of one falling off. I had continued my practice and exercise I was now more fit than ever. Twilight came down the stairs and looked at me happily. We greeted each other as usual and she went to go make our breakfast. I sat down on my bed to clean my armor when she came out with our food.

She sat next to me and I set down my cuirass. Together we ate in silence and enjoyed the food. Spike came down from his bed holding a scroll. Twilight set her food down and took the scroll from the baby dragon. She unrolled and read it. She looked at me. I raised an eyebrow as I drank my tea.

“What is it?” I asked her. She looked at me.

“Well this says that the princess needs you and only you in Canterlot for a while.” She replied to me. I grabbed the scroll and read it. Twilight was indeed not blind. I lowered the note.

“I guess I’m off to Canterlot then.” Twilight was in shock.

“Why would she want only you?” she exclaimed. I could tell that she was a little shaken at her exclusion.

“Don’t worry Twilight, I’m sure it’s nothing.” I held up the letter. “Did you read the last part,” I shoved the note into her face. “It says I’m needed for some security work. Obviously whatever is happening is more important and needs me more there than here with you.” Twilight took the note and read it.

“Oh, you’re right.” She set the note down and busied herself with cleaning our breakfast. I looked at her. She was quite possibly the oddest being I had ever met, human or pony.

I finished cleaning my armor and packed up my possessions. Packing made me realize that I had so little to my name. In my home I had had land, and a farm and an equal in my wife. I looked at my meager sack of clothing and armor and realized I had nothing here but what was in this sack and it had all been given to me.

I stood and began to head for the door. Twilight called my name from the kitchen.

“You can’t wait for me to take you to the train station?” she said indignantly. I chuckled and waited by the open door. I looked outside. The snow and the cold were gone. Twilight had had me help with what they called winter wrap up, another odd experience to say the least.

These ponies actually had to move the snow and clouds to change seasons. I learned for the first time living here that the pegasus ponies control the weather. I felt it absurd that such a thing went on and an insult to the god thunder himself that such beings as small and insignificant as ponies would have control over such forces. But I had refrained from voicing my feelings as I was the only one out of place here.

We walked through town to the station. The small town had grown on me in the time I had come to live here. The common two story buildings were rather quaint and charming after a fashion.

We came to the train station. I had ridden the train several times since our first disastrous trip and I still was uncomfortable on the train and I had never truly felt comfortable on it. Now, however, I was going on it alone something I had not anticipated before.

We stood on the platform as the train rolled up. It belched smoke from its open maw or what I assumed was its mouth. I still couldn’t figure out how it moved no matter how many times Twilight explained ‘steam power’ to me it was evil and I didn’t trust it a bit.

I stepped onto the train and looked out the window at Twilight. The purple pony waved at me and I waved back. The train’s whistle blew and began to chug along. I settled in for the worst ride of my life.

The journey was different without a traveling companion. The countryside rolled by and I took the time to enjoy the rolling hills and the small stands of trees. I could even spot creatures and critters as we zoomed by.

After a few hours the train finally stopped at my destination. I stood and disembarked from the train. Waiting on the platform stood Twilight’s brother Shining Armor. No matter how many times I met him, and I had spent some considerable time with this stallion since I had been living with Twilight, I could never ever get over how stupid his name sounded to me. I wore armor that shone because I polished it. Even the damn pony wore shining armor. And yet no one could see the obvious idiocy of Shining Armor wearing shining armor.

“Ol.” He greeted me.

“Shining Armor.” I replied. I found it hard to not laugh at his ridiculous name. Together we walked from the platform and we were met by a massive wheeled carriage. It was black and heavily armored with ports. I could see the mouths of cannons poking out of the sides.

“How does this thing move?” I asked the stallion as a door swung open on the side of the contraption.

“Magic.” He answered simply and stepped aboard. I stepped in behind him and the door slammed shut and two massive bars were pushed across to lock it into place.

The interior was dimly lit with a small red light. Two unicorns sat at the fore of the vehicle looking through a shuttered slit for sight. There were four cannons positioned around on pivots and trucks at each corner. There were two sliding shutters on each wall where the cannons could poke out and be fired. Two guards stood at each cannon one for firing and the other to load and clear the barrel. There were two seats in the middle one for the commander that could be raised and lowered so he could see out the top of the vehicle and one for the second in command. I took the latter seat as Shining Armor moved his seat to top.

“Forward.” He said. The massive carriage began to roll. The thing rumbled as it was magically powered forward. Shining Armor came back down and began to talk over the sound.

“There’s been a major threat issued against the city. We’ve had these things recently pulled out of decommission orders of the princess, she’s been calling them tanks, rather bulky and obtrusive in my opinion but these things can bring a ton of firepower to bear and semi accurately.” He told me. I was curious.

“If the princess has brought these things out then why bring me?” I asked. Shining Armor shrugged.

“She said you had experience with siege warfare or something like that.”

I searched my mind for all the battles I had fought.

“I’ve never been part of a siege. The only battles we had that were difficult were against a wall.” Shining Armor put a hoof to his chin in thought.

“A wall huh?” he said.

The tank rolled down the street and came to stop before the palace. I disembarked followed closely by Shining Armor. We entered the palace and headed for the armory. Shining Armor explained further.

“I’m having my wedding soon and this threat isn’t helping me prepare for it.” He stated. I was shocked.

“When did you get betrothed?” I asked him.

“About six months ago actually.” Shining Armor told me. I raised an eyebrow.

“Why haven’t you told Twilight yet?”

“I haven’t had time to. Cadence has been in control of setting up the whole thing and she’s been stressed about it enough without having to worry about inviting all of the guests. With this new threat, well,” he shrugged as we entered the armory. “I won’t be able to worry about anything but this threat and coordination. We’ve been drilling and preparing for all sorts of scenarios for what looks like a possible invasion.”

“Raiders?” I asked him.

“No,” he answered. “No, it’s something much worse than simple raiders, that much is obvious but I have no idea what this threat really is the princess has offered me no information at all other than there is a legitimate threat.”

We stepped through a door set in one of the walls that led into a massive room filled with bunk beds.

“This is the barracks, just pick a bunk and fall into it when you’re tired. There are footlockers at the foot of each bed where you can store your armor and weapons. After you get settled in come meet me in the yard.” The stallion turned and left.

I selected a bunk near the front and popped open the footlocker. I stowed my gear neatly making sure it was laid out so I could access it all quickly. I stood and walked out of the barracks to join Shining Armor in the yard.

One side of the yard was occupied by an archery and magic range and in the middle there were three fighting pits. The pits were sunk into the ground about a foot down and were filled with sand. All three were in use. I moved to the edge of one and watched two stallions trying to rip each other apart with their hooves and teeth.

Neither combatant was armed as they smashed into each other. One of the guards let fly with his foreleg and smashed his hoof into his opponent’s face. The bout had been going on for some time and this was one of many such blows to have landed and the guard who had been struck went down.

“You want to go a round Ol?” Shining Armor asked me. I looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“I have only one fist.” I said holding up my mangled hand.

“Don’t worry, it’s more wrestling than striking.” He told me. I shrugged.

“Fine.” The two combatants were hauled out of the pit and Shining Armor hopped in. Most of the guards started cheering his name. He was the house favorite apparently. I pulled off my shirt and hopped into the pit after him. He faced me and cracked his neck. I popped all the knuckles in my good hand and rolled my shoulders. Some guard above us yelled out “Begin!”

Shining charged me with a grunt and tried to head butt me. I sidestepped and struck him in the ribs with my fist. I heard the air leave his lungs. I tried to reach around his waist to lift him but he swung out with his foreleg and caught me in the forehead. I felt blood trickle down my eyebrow and realized how sharp his hooves were.

The stallion withdrew and sized me up again. He had underestimated my strength. This time I was the one who charged. I ran in and expected him to strike me with his forelegs. The stallion turned around and fired both of his back legs into my chin. The second time I had received a blow like that and the effect was similar as darkness overcame me.

I awoke with a start with a strange metal thing placed on my chest that had a hose the led up to another stallion’s face. The stallion stepped back surprised by my sudden awakening.

“Well he’s alive at least.” the stallion said. Shining Armor was standing on my other side and chuckled. I spat out a tooth and some blood and rose unsteadily to my feet.

“Damn you horses and your kicks.” I said looking at him. The captain chuckled again.

“You left yourself open.” He told me.

“Yeah well next time I won’t go down so easily.” I stated. We went back to the pits and watched the next few bouts.

It was interesting to watch these stallions fight. You could read them like men and they fought with the same attitudes of men. Maybe they were men just trapped in the bodies of horses. I didn’t care either way.

Shining Armor tapped me on the shoulder I looked at him.

“We need to go see the princess. I have an idea to help security.” I placed my shirt back on and together we made our way to the throne room.

The princess sat on her throne regally reading over documents. Shining Armor bowed to her while I stood, I bowed to no creature not even a Gydja.

“My princess,” Shining Armor began. “Ol here has given me an idea on how to greatly improve security around the city until the threat blows over.” Celestia looked at Shining.

“Well Ol, what is it?” she asked me. I looked between them confusedly.

“I have no idea.” I stated flatly. “He has discussed nothing with me but I am also curious.” I tuned to the captain. “Tell us, what is your plan exactly?” I said somewhat perturbed that he hadn’t told me a damn thing about any new strategy.

Shining Armor pulled rolled up map out of nowhere. I was curious as to where the map had come from but after thinking about it a second I would rather have not known. The captain rolled the map out on the floor and began pointing.

“We could encase the city in a massive shield bubble that would only allow exit or entry upon invite.” He said excitedly.

“Oh really?” the princess commented. “And who is going to maintain it?” she asked the captain. I thought about it. As long as it was unbreakable then it could work but if anything at all could break through it the idea was pointless but I did not voice my opinions.

“I would maintain the shield your grace.” Shining Armor stated, bowing again.

“Excellent idea,” Celestia said. “You have my full approval. Now be gone.” She commanded. Shining Armor back out of the room bowing while I turned my back on the princess and strolled out.

We walked on in silence back to the barracks. On the way I noticed the sun was setting.

“So when is your wedding.” I asked the captain.

“In a month.” He told me. “We’re going to be married by the princess.” He finished. I nodded. Before we reached the forge we were stopped by a pink and purple horse that had wings and a horn similar to the princess. Shining Armor put his foreleg around her.

“Ol I’d like you to meet my fiancé Cadence.” I nodded my head.

“A pleasure to meet you.” I said as Twilight had taught me. Cadence pulled a lip up as she looked me up and down.

“Likewise…” she said condescending. She turned her attention to her lover.

“Is this the reason you’ve been gone all day?” she demanded.

“Well, yes, he’s needed to help out with the security work and his knowledge has proved useful.” Shining Armor stated.

“I don’t care, I need your help and I need you, so hurry up or you’re sleeping on the couch again tonight!” she fumed. Cadence stormed off around the corner.

“Wow, sorry to say this Shining but she’s kind of a bitch.” I stated. The stallion shot me an angry look and left me at the door to the forge. I shrugged my shoulders and went to my bunk.

A Promise And An Apolgy

I lay in the infirmary bed feeling warm and immobile as something the nurse called ‘morphine’ dredged its way through my body. I had no idea what morphine was but I had decided to befriend it and make sure it never left my side.

I had been put in here for the last day or so is what the nurse had told me. She had also explained to me about the chaos and destruction that had been wrought in the aftermath of the changeling invasion. She also told me that that was what the enemy forces were known as, changelings. I knew not what the word meant or how it fit but I didn’t care, they were gone and their queen, I prayed, was dead.

I could see bodies and blood alongside burned out buildings along the streets from my window and in my heart I was saddened some. These peaceful creatures did not deserve such treatment. I stopped my train of thought.

If I had been home and we lived near a place such a place as Equestria we would have tried to befriend them, enter into some kind of agreement. But these ponies had very little, it seemed, in fighting abilities. Yes they had powerful magic but that was all. I had never seen any of them actually fight besides the guards and even then most would not last against the warriors I had called allies. The thought made me realize just how much living here had changed me and how these small horses had affected me. It was rather confusing.

I didn’t have time to think on it anymore as Twilight entered and called my name.

“Twilight.” I called out to the purple horse. She walked towards me the door opened again and the other five of our friends poured in after her. I chuckled as Pinkie Pie sprinted up to my bed with a look of shock on her face babbling incoherently. The only words I could make out before she stopped dead before my bed were ‘so worried’, ‘big meany’ and ‘without you there’d be no mead!’.

Pinkie stopped before my bed and inhaled deeply all the while I was wincing in delightful pain at her antics. Pinkie continued to babble but Rarity came up behind her and placed a hoof over her mouth. She smiled at me.

“Sorry darling, you know Pinkie is, she’s just expressing how worried she was about you.” She explained. My smile only widened. The morphine was helping a lot as the girls crowded around my bed all bombarding me with questions and worries.

“Please, please.” I said holding up my good arm defensively. “One at a time girls.” Twilight decided she was going to speak for the group.

“Ol, how are you feeling?” she asked me setting a hoof on my knee. I looked at her happily.

“I’m fine,” I told them. “Don’t worry.” I looked at my bad arm which had been put into a white sling. My ribs had been magically reset or so the nurse had told me and a type of garment used to hold my ribs in place whilst they healed had been placed around my chest. Rainbow Dash raised up in the air her wings outspread.

“That was awesome what you did back there,” she settled back to the floor. “Even if it was a little scary.” She looked down at the floor somewhat intimidated. They all looked at me and I knew that’s what they wanted to talk about. I could see the fear behind some of their eyes, all except Pinkie’s whose eyes I could never read. Twilight spoke before I could.

“It was very brave Ol, but Rainbow is right, it was kind of scary to see what you did to those changelings and Chrysalis, even if she was trying to hurt us.” Now they all looked down from either shame or intimidation. I was confused by their behavior. I frowned at them.

“What’s wrong?” I asked them. Applejack looked at her friends.

“Well Ol, we uh, seein’ you doin’ that to them changelings was, well, we just don’t want you to get angry with us like you did with those things.” the farm pony said. I looked at them and it hit me like a slap. They were afraid of me. I felt myself sober some at the realization.

“You, you fear me?” I asked them. Twilight looked shocked.

“No, no,” she reassured me placing a hoof on my good shoulder. “We just, we just are afraid of what you’re capable of.” She looked away as she finished the sentence. I was shocked somewhat but I could not blame them.

I had seen the lives these ponies had led and there was very little fighting or even arguing amongst their number. I looked at the small, talking horses that I had come to call my friends.

“I, I don’t know what to say.” I looked at Twilight. “You would think that I would turn my blades on you?” I asked her. Twilight removed her hoof.

“It’s just that, you looked really angry and, you’re so quick to become angry and we just…” she trailed off. I was still somewhat confused. Did they think of me as eternally angry? Had I not shown them my own kindness? I looked to Twilight.

“Twilight,” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Where I come from friends and family are incredibly important, quite possibly the most important part of a man’s life.” She looked up at me meeting my gaze. “To think that I would harm you is horrific, and to the rest of you.” I looked at them all. “I have come to call you all my friends and I have learned to trust you which, with all of things that are odd about this world, is a hard thing to earn.” I flared my nostrils angrily.

I took a few deep breaths and felt pain shoot through my ribs. I ignored the pain as I began to calm. “I would never harm you.” I whispered breaking apart from Twilight’s fear filled eyes. Twilight placed her hoof in my hand. I looked back at her.

“Can you promise me?” she asked. I looked around at them all. They were leaning in expecting an answer. I nodded and shifted in my bed. I grasped Twilight’s hoof like I would a hand and looked the purple pony in the eye.

“I promise.” I told her. Pinkie Pie raised an eyebrow. I sighed. “Fine, cross my heart and hope to fly stick a cupcake in my eye.” I said. They all smiled and began to giggle. Pinkie Pie went to throw her forelegs around me but Twilight stopped her.

“No, Pinkie.” Twilight said. Pinkie looked crestfallen. I sighed again my ribs flared up again but the pain was worth it for Pinkie. I opened my good arm.

“Come on Pinkie it’s okay.” I said with a small smile. Pinkie threw her forelegs around me as gently as she could. I put my good arm around her. Surprisingly they all joined in, laughing happily.

They pulled away and I began to listen to them discuss what happened during the ceremony and my actions against the changelings and their queen. Rainbow Dash was enjoying reliving me pulling the jaw off of the second beast using her voice recreated the sounds of the breaking bones and tendons tearing. Fluttershy put her tail up over her face and muttered her usual ‘oh my’ as Rainbow mimicked me in smashing the bone into the changeling’s skull.

Applejack made Rainbow calm down and Rarity began to comfort Fluttershy who was beginning to cry as she mentally relived the events in her mind.

The door to the infirmary opened once more and Princess Celestia strolled in. the girls straightened up, even Fluttershy, and bowed to their sovereign.

“Hello girls.” The Princess greeted them warmly.

“Your highness.” They replied in unison. Twilight stepped forward and embraced her teacher enthusiastically. The princess returned her students enthusiastic hug. I watched the ponies exchange for a moment. Celestia commended them for their bravery during the battle and how, even though they had failed, they had still tried their best to retrieve the Elements of Harmony. I was surprised to hear that my friends had taken part in the combat. Celestia then asked the girls to leave so that she could have a private discussion with me.

The girls left quickly chatting away amiably. The princess walked over to the window next to my bed and looked out onto the ruined city.

“You know,” the princess began. I looked out the window with her. “This is the first actual full scale battle we’ve ever had in this city.” She told me. “It was rather eye opening to see just how unprepared we were even with the warning beforehand.” She turned to look at me and I met her gaze. “If it hadn’t been for you, we would all be dead by now, or at least on our way to being sucked dry of our emotions.” She moved up to the side of my bed. “I owe you quite the debt warrior.” She said as she looked down upon me.

“For your service to the kingdom I release you from your bond here in Canterlot but ask for you to remain as guardian over my student.” She looked down at me. I looked into her eyes. She was a rather beautiful creature. Not in the manner of an appealing woman, but she was beautiful in a regal manner which had previously escaped my attention.

“I will gladly retain my position as Twilight’s guardian.” I told her. She nodded her head and turned back to window.

“I’ve come to speak with you on a personal matter as well.” She said. I narrowed my eyes at her.

“Please, princess,” I insisted. “Go on.” She sighed.

“I would like to apologize for my hostilities between us when we first met and up until this point.” She said. I was unmoved but she went on.

“But what was I supposed to think? I receive a letter from my best and brightest saying that a new, blood-soaked creature has arrived by accident from a summoning spell gone wrong. Then when I arrive I can see that this thing is quite possibly the oddest creature I’ve ever seen. I then take a peek inside of this thing's mind and the first and foremost thing I see is blood and fire. You appeared to me as a beast covered in long hair and caked in blood so I did not trust you Ol but after these events,” she turned her head and looked at me. “I must reconsider how much worth you have truly brought me and my student and your character which I have obviously misjudged by a huge margin.”

She turned from the window and moved back to my bedside. “But for now, I would ask for your forgiveness for my behavior.” She said. I looked up into her eyes.

“I accept your apology princess.” I told her. She smiled.

“Thank you Ol.” she said nodding her head in thanks. She then left without another word.

The nurse came up to me.

“You rather popular today aren’t you?” she asked as she took hold of my arm. “Now hold still while I put this in your arm.” She said happily and she placed a small needle attached to a clear odd rope that led up to a sack filled with water or some other clear fluid. She put the needle into my hand and placed a flat, clear and sticky rope over the top to hold it down. I felt warmth flood my system again and my eyelids grew heavy.

“You just go to sleep now, you’ve had a rough time with saving the country and all.” The nurse said joyfully. It was hard to tell if she was being serious.

A Broken Thing

With the real Cadence now out and about the wedding needed another planning session. I was confined to my bed for the duration but I was still in charge of the security for the event and I made sure that she had at least a ten guard escort no matter where she went. Celestia came to visit me again and I explained to her that I did not care if the threat had passed there were to be twenty guards posted in the room where the ceremony was to held and that all of the princesses were going to have at least ten guards following them closely all day every day until the wedding was over. I even told the captain that he was subject to my will and put a retinue of eight guards to follow him. He objected but I told him that I was still technically in charge and that he had to deal with it or I would slap him with my good hand.

The planning went fine, or so Twitch informed me. This being the real Cadence she was actually a joy to have around and rather whimsical and fun loving. I would believe that when I saw it, then she came to visit me.

The pink princess stood over me with a smile on her face.

“I just wanted to thank you.” She told me. I smiled up at her partly due to another dose of painkillers that had been introduced into my blood.

“Just doing my job princess.” I told her. She set her hoof on my hand

“I know, but what you do was very courageous and you helped me get my lover back. If not for you…” she trailed off and looked away.

“You’re most welcome princess.” I told her. She smiled at me and left without another word. Maybe she wasn’t as bad as I previously thought.

I was allowed out of bed to attend the ceremony. My nurse, who had named herself Redheart, had helped me stand. She then proceeded to give me a few different pills. One, she said, was so that I did not vomit and the rest were a series of painkillers that would allow me to stay on my feet for a few hours if I didn’t pass out first. The nurse then attended me as I walked about the palace for various appointments I had never made.

First we went to see Rarity who measured me for a new set of clothing that would be deemed suitable enough for a wedding. When she needed to measure my bad arm she had to ask nurse Redheart. The nurse gingerly helped Rarity extend my arm to its full length. Thanks to their careful efforts and the magic of these painkillers I could feel very little of my strained and damaged muscles.

After we finished our visit to Rarity I was escorted to an armored carriage and taken to a discreet part of the city where I met with the captain.

“Good day captain!” I said heartily as I disembarked from the carriage with the nurse just behind me. The captain stood from his seat at a nice outdoor table with a large umbrella overhead.

“Good day Ol.” He greeted me. I walked up to him and he saluted me. I saluted him back somewhat confused by his gesture.

“Please take a seat.” The captain offered me. I sat down heavily in a comfortably padded chair. A large mug of cider was placed in front of both the captain and me. Redheart stepped forward and swiped the mug before I could drink any.

“No alcohol while you’re on your painkillers.” She stated adamantly. I nodded.

“I’ll have tea captain if you would please.” I told Shining Armor. The stallion nodded to a nearby servant. I looked about at our surroundings and noticed that there was no foot traffic even though we appeared to be sitting in a café of some sort and there were numerous guards posted up establishing a perimeter of some sort. A large cup of tea was placed before me on a saucer. I picked up the cup and took a sip. It was delicious and warm. I smiled shifting somewhat in my seat.

“This is a pleasant surprise sir.” I told the captain quietly sipping on my tea. The captain raised an eyebrow over his mug as he drank deeply.

“Why is that?” he asked me.

“I thought you would be recovering as I am.” I indicated my arm in a sling. The captain snorted.

“If it weren’t for the orders you handed out I wouldn’t be.” He said indicating the guards surrounding us with his hoof. I chuckled some causing the pain in my ribs to flare up a bit. I winced and shifted slightly. I looked at nurse Redheart and she shook her head denying me my silent request for more painkillers. I shrugged which caused more pain in my ribs and turned back to the captain.

“It needed to be done. I don’t care if the threat is passed,” I paused to sip my tea. “And don’t worry you’re not special in that regard when it comes to overprotection.” Shining laughed aloud.

“Cadence’s only complaint about you is that you’re more overprotective than I am.” I chuckled quietly trying to keep the pain in my ribs down.

“I must say sir,” I began. “This Cadence is much more pleasant than the last one. She is quite the opposite of a bitch.” I stated. The stallion burst into laughter again.

“So I’ve heard.” We shared a chuckled and went back to quietly sipping our drinks. My tea ran out and the servant came up and refilled my tea from a silver teapot.

The object brought back memories of when I first saw a teapot. Being strapped to the bed covered in dry blood and unable to understand a word of what these horses were telling me. I smiled at the thought. My mind cleared as the captain spoke.

“Ol, I believe you might be curious as to why I brought you out here for?” he asked me. I nodded in response sipping more of my tea. “Well,” Shining Armor sighed and turned his head to stare off into the distance. “I wanted to thank you.” He stated. I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

“Really?” I said in mock surprise. “You’re a little late you know.” I scolded him in a mocking tone. The captain was not amused.

“I’m serious Ol.” He told me. I held up my good hand in defense.

“Please continue.” I told him. He nodded and drank from his mug.

“I couldn’t act in there and my mind was so clouded I don’t even really remember what happened. Then Twilight described to me what you did, she spared some of the details.” He cringed some. My smile turned feral at the memory.

Shining Armor reached into his front pocket on his uniform and pulled something out of it. He then placed the object on the table and slid it across to me.

“I wanted you to have this as a token of my gratitude. It was something that my uncle had given me before he passed.” The stallion told me. He lifted his hoof to reveal a small brass coin. I reached for the coin and picked it up and studied it. There was very little of not on the coin except a quote written on one side.

“’Duty and honor are endeavors for those whose hearts are lacking in will and pride but are expectations for those who know the worth of their soul.’” I read off of the coin. Shining Armor nodded.

“It’s part of our creed as guardians of the city and the palace.” He told me. I nodded and set the coin back on the table.

“Why give this to me?” I asked him. “I am no guard, just a stranger who can use a sword.” The captain finished his mug and set it.

“You’ve become more than that here.” He said while looking off into the distance again. “In my eyes you’re an honorary member of Celestia’s personal guard now and maybe even a friend.” I sipped from my teacup and set it down carefully.

“Danke mein freund.” I said quietly. Shining Armor looked at me.

“Pardon?”

“Thank you.” I told him. He nodded and looked back off in the distance. I picked the coin up again and slipped it into the pocket of my trousers. I then proceeded to finish my tea in silence and Captain Shining Armor and I sat in silence on a rather nice day.

Soon the captain and I said our farewells and I stepped back onto the armored carriage to be taken to my last meeting for the day. I was surprised the most by this one when we came back to the palace. I stepped down from the carriage and I was greeted with the sight of both Luna and Celestia standing on the castle steps waiting for me.

I stepped before the ruling body of Equestria and bowed my head respectfully, the first time I had ever done so. The pain in my ribs had grown rather bothersome and I held up a finger before either princess could speak. I turned to nurse Redheart.

“May I have another round of painkillers?” I asked her politely. She shook her head.

“You should be back in bed.” She said. “Besides you have another hour at least until your next dose.” I harrumphed. As the pain came back I felt my mind begin to clear some. Celestia stepped forward.

“If you need to rest Ol this can wait, it’s not necessary and we should wait until you’re feeling better to do this.” She said. I looked up at her confused.

“What is it that you require of me princess?” I asked her unsteadily. I moved my hand to my ribs trying to steady the pain some.

“Take him back to the infirmary.” Luna ordered the nurse. Redheart set her hoof on my shoulder.

“Come on now, heard the princesses, let’s get you back into bed.” I nodded as I breathed out slowly.

We quickly made our way back to the infirmary without any distraction and the nurse put me in bed. I thanked her as the pain began to ease some. The nurse left to go call a doctor she had something about my pain being abnormal for the injury I had. The nurse came back with the doctor who had some papers. He looked at the papers and back to me. He then came to the side where my ribs were broken and his horn lit up.

His face darkened. He looked up to Redheart.

“I need a surgical team now!” He said. Redheart galloped off shouting for a surgeon.

“Don’t worry sir,” the doctor told me. “We’ll fix you right up.” That was the last thing he said before I lost consciousness.

“It was ugly we almost lost him to internal bleeding.”

“How is he now?”

“He’s fine, but it was touch and go for a while there.”

“When will he be back on his feet?”

“Soon enough, before the wedding.”

“Good, we need him, something is coming and he’s going to be needed to help stop it.”

I awoke but refused to open my eyes. I could hear voices around me of my friends. They sounded worried.

“What are you all worrying about exactly?” I asked aloud. I knew that half of them would jump at the surprise. I chuckled internally at Fluttershy’s squeak of fright. The pain in my ribs was less intense but spread out over a farther area now. I tried not to breathe so deeply.

I opened my eyes to see six worried faces around me.

“How are you feeling?” Twilight asked me.

“I feel fine.” I told her. “What is wrong?” I asked her.

“They had to open you up to fix some damage to your organs.” Twilight told me.

“What was wrong?” I asked her.

“When your ribs broke they punctured some of your organs and fighting the changelings tore you up rather badly and there was a little difference between our anatomies that made it a bit more difficult but you are expected to make a full recovery.” She said. I nodded.

“Well, hopefully then I will be back on my feet soon.”

“You will.” Said nurse Redheart making her way through my friends with water. I sat up some and reached out for the large mug and drank deeply. The nurse went on. “You will be able to attend the wedding and afterwards you can return home with Miss Sparkle.” Twilight smiled at the announcement. “Now you all leave and let him rest.” Red Heart shooed my friends away. I smiled at the kindly nurse. She smiled at me and gave me a pill. I swallowed the little white thing and went to sleep.

The day of the wedding had arrived, again. This time I stood in my new clothing which was much frillier than I was normally comfortable with but I let it go. I was permitted to wear my weapons but only ceremonially as this time no one expected that I would have to kill anything.

I stood up on the dais by Twilight’s side. I watched as Cadence came in wearing the dress that Rarity had made for her. The ceremony was quite wonderful. Celestia spoke talking about the importance of love and eternal bonds. Both horses stated that they would take the other in a bond of eternity then placed rings upon each other’s horns, something I found quite odd but then again, this whole place was quite odd.

After the ceremony the party moved outside to celebrate. There was a large table surrounded by some odd looking black boxes.

“Speakers.” Twilight answered when I questioned her.

“What are speakers?” I asked her.

“You’ll see.” She answered with a coy smile. I did not like that smile, that smile meant something terrible was going to happen like getting on the train.

Pinkie appeared behind the table and reached down a pulled another white unicorn from seemingly nowhere. I didn’t question it as I had seen Pinkie Pie do things that made me question if I was really just dead and this was all some kind of odd afterlife due to the impossibility of the acts preformed. Then the giant black boxes began to bounce and move as sound began to emit from them. A small black, round thing was tossed through the air and Twilight caught it and began to sing into it. Her voice was quite beautiful even if the song was somewhat loud and annoying.

All of my friends to include the captain and princess Cadence began to dance on a large flat dance floor that had been fashioned of wood and painted quite gaily for the festivity. I laughed as they dance happily even so soon after such an incident as the attack.

The party outside was rather raucous and impressive as over half of the kingdom must have shown up for this wedding causing the noise level to increase immensely. I had gotten myself a large glass of juice as I was still not allowed to consume anything slightly alcoholic and nurse Redheart followed me like a hound.

I felt a touch on my good shoulder. I turned slowly to see both of the princesses standing behind me. I smiled to them.

“Good evening princess Celestia and Luna.” I said graciously. “This is quite the party. I’ve never seen its like before.” The two looked at each other.

“We’ve come to speak to you on a matter that is rather urgent.” Celestia said. I felt some of my joy drain away at the concern in her voice.

“What do you require of me?” I asked narrowing my eyes suspiciously.

“Come with us, I promise we shall return very soon. We just need to show this to you before you depart from the city.” Celestia answered turning and using her wing to beckon to me. I set down my glass and followed the sisters.

We left the party not undetected as a pack of guards broke off and followed us at some distance.

“May I ask what this is about?” I queried as we entered the palace through a side door.

“We have found something that we need your opinion on whether or not it should live or die.” Luna said impatiently.

“Luna!” Celestia scolded her sister.

“What?” Luna asked indignantly. “We should at least tell him before we get there so he’s somewhat prepared.” My heart began to speed up some.

“What is this thing?” I asked Celestia. Celestia ignored me and continued into the palace.

I had never seen this portion of the palace dungeon before. The stone walls were carved from odd black rock that shone and reflected the light impressively. The air was damp and chilly and my breath would mist in front of me as I took the steep and oddly spaced stones down deeper and deeper into the darkness that was hidden beneath the city.

Before me Celestia moved elegantly over the cold stone her horn shining off of the walls to light the way. Behind me her younger sister breathed raggedly in the chill.

“This portion of the dungeons has not been used for hundreds of years.” Celestia stated. This was one of the few usages of time that I could believe from the princess about either her age or that of the palace.

We came to the bottom of stairs. I tried to see into the distance but couldn’t make out any distance passed where the light stopped. Together the three of us moved slowly through the frighteningly cold corridor.

We moved for several minutes before Celestia stopped before me and turned to her right the light from her horn revealing a set of old iron bars set into the stone. There was a door hung on rotten hinges that squealed incredibly loudly as she pulled the door open. The hinges were so rusted that they had rotted through and broke as the door opened fully and the heavy iron fell to the cold stone floor with a loud clang.

Neither sister said a word but from within the cell I heard chains begin to shift and clink over each other. Celestia stepped into the cell and I followed her closely.

The light was bright as Celestia stepped to the side to allow me to see what exactly was chained up. I sniffed the air as the light moved forward towards the back of the cell. The air was thick with a familiar and sickening scent that I had spent with far too much time with. It brought back memories of a stinking eyeball popping out of the skull with my finger in it the sound of breaking bones filled my ears and I breathed the scent in deeply. I knew what was sitting at the back of the chamber before I saw her.

Chrysalis flinched away from the light her shackles clinking together. I looked down upon her broken form. Her face was utterly smashed and covered with scabs and dried blood. Her wickedly curved horn had been broken off leaving a jagged and ugly remainder. Patches of her shiny black skin were missing showing bone beneath. Her snout was gone leaving her head nearly perfectly round. I moved closer to her and she tried to push herself away from me. I could smell her. The stench was so thick I wanted to vomit. I reached down for one of my axes and pulled it from my belt.

I held the axe just beneath the head as I squatted down to my haunches and held the axe under my chin as I studied the changeling queen.

“I ordered teams to go searching as far as they might think to go making sure to exterminate any and all that they found. They found her near a small volcano struggling up to the edge. They believe she was trying to throw herself in.” Luna said. I nodded in approval. A bug crawled onto Chrysalis’s nose. I moved my axe blade near her face. She flinched away. I slowed my approach and used my axe to flick the bug into the darkness. I pulled my axe back and stood. I placed the weapon back in my belt.

“There is no fight left in this poor creature.”

The Lull

I stared out the window of the train as Canterlot faded into the distance. Under my seat was my bag filled with my gear minus the armor I had worn at the wedding and across from me sat Twilight who was chatting amiably away with Fluttershy across the aisle. My friends surrounded me all nattering away as I remained silent. I smiled it was good to be back to the simplicity of what was my everyday life before my time in Canterlot.

We had stayed for a few days after the wedding but it was more for the others than for me. They did not often get time in the capitol whereas I had spent far too much time there in my opinion.

I was no longer in the sling and my hand had half of a new digit. Twilight told me that in the last portion of the growth it would go quickly and that my fingers would be restored to me in a very short amount of time.

The train chugged on as we headed for Ponyville. I was excited to see the town again though I could not call it home officially. I was even excited to see that little dragon Spike. I turned my head to listen to the main conversation which had turned to some odd subject about a lull and I was curious.

“What do you mean a lull?” I asked Twilight.

“Well it seems like we’ll go for a while having these crazy adventures and then for months at a time nothing will happen.” She told me. Pinkie stood on her seat and placed her hooves on the armrest and twisted her head about.

“Yeah! Last time it felt like forever since we went on an adventure or something amazing happened and then Discord showed up!” she exclaimed continuing to twist her head about in a rather disturbing fashion.

“Who is Discord?” I asked my friends. They immediately clammed up and looked at Twilight. Twilight laughed.

“It’s okay girls we can tell him.” She turned her gaze back to me. “Discord is a Draconequus.”

“A what?” I asked her feeling incredibly confused. There were times that I hated this place because of its oddities.

“A Draconequus.” She explained. “Is a creature that’s looks like someone took a bunch of animals and shoved them all together.” She mashed her hooves together in demonstration. “Not only that he has incredible magic powers and is very skilled at creating chaos.” I turned my head and looked out the window.

“He sounds rather dangerous.” I stated.

“He isn’t so much dangerous as he is, well, chaotic.” Twilight said still smiling. “But we defeated him and locked him away in stone. He’s in the palace gardens right now in fact.”

“Is that so?” I said wondering why I hadn’t heard of this creature until just now.

“Don’t worry, he can’t escape.” Twilight assured me. I nodded silently still staring out the widow. They continued to speak but I remained silent listening to them go on about this Discord creature. If he were to make a reappearance he sounded like quite the foe who could not be persuaded away from his evil. If he did come around again he would have to taste steel.

The train pulled into the station and we disembarked. Spike was waiting for us on the platform along with the three fillies who called themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

I had asked about what the markings on the girls flanks were and they had explained to me that it had to deal with their special talents. They explained that while some may be similar that no two were ever identical and it helped determine what they were to do with their lives. It was odd to me that each of these would have one job and one alone. As where I had come from each man was expected to sacrifice his own time and even his life if necessary for family and community to strengthen the whole not just spend his time tilling his field.

The little fillies all yelled out ‘yay’ as we stepped from the train and rushed to meet their sisters except Scootaloo who demeaned herself by taking Rainbow Dash’s bags. Spike came up to me with a big toothy grin.

“Hey Ol can I take your bag for you?” he asked me excitedly. I raised an eyebrow at the dragon as he had never shown behavior like this before.

“Are you sure, it is rather heavy.” I warned him.

“It’s okay I can handle it.” He said confidently.

“Alright.” I said as I handed my bag over to him. As soon as I released the handles he collapsed under the weight. I moved to help him but he stopped me.

“I got it.” He said struggling to his feet throwing the bag, which was over twice his size and weight, across his back and began to shakily march his way to the library.

“He really missed you.” Twilight said coming up to stand next to me to watch the little dragon determined to kill himself under the weight of my armor and weapons.

“Hmm.” Was all I could manage out of curiosity. I had not thought the little monster had cared much for me at all, but I had been wrong before especially about this place and its inhabitants.

We walked through town and came to the library without much delay. I was ready to relax for a time and with this ‘lull’ coming on I assumed that was what I was going to get.

As we went through the town our friends broke off with heartfelt goodbyes as they retired to their own respective homes as finally we came to ours. Twilight stepped through the threshold first and I followed quickly with Spike bringing up the rear his face having turned several shades darker from having hefted my bag about town.

The small dragon plopped my gear down onto my bed which had gathered an impressive amount of dust in my absence.

“Thank you Spike.” I told the little dragon. He beamed with joy up at me and scuttled his way up the stairs and into Twilight’s room to do whatever he did up there. I sat down on the bed next to my bag and sighed letting the reality of actually having a break from endless reports and patrols and disciplinary actions I felt the accumulated stress slough away like a winter coat.

“So what do we do now?” I asked Twilight as she rummaged about for some old tome or other.

“Well with the lull coming on I usually use the time to plan and practice spells. The others, well, I’m not sure.” She said rubbing a hoof across her chin in thought. Spike poked his head up over the lip of the top step.

“I know!” he said excitedly. He stood up and tried to run down the steps. He tripped and began a glorious tumble to the bottom step with a crash. I winced but was somewhat surprised when the little dragon hopped up totally un-phased by the fall.

“We could go to the lake with Pinkie Pie or we could go on picnics with Fluttershy, or we could go raise a barn with Applejack or any number of things during the lull!” he exclaimed excitedly. I held up my good hand in defense.

“Calm down Spike,” I told him afraid the dragon would throw himself into a fit and fall over he had just finished lugging several stone worth of gear from the train platform to my bed
.

“We’ll have time for all of that it sounds like.” I said. Spike smiled and began to hop around excitedly.

“What do you want to do first?” he asked looking up at me expectantly. I looked down at my bed that I was still sitting on.

“To be frank,” I looked down upon the dragon. “I would like to sleep.”

The days that came were indeed uneventful. I would awake as I had and train some but I found that I was already in good condition that my body needed little work other than to maintain my strength. My hand was indeed growing fast and faster each day as by the end of the first week of the lull I had my middle finger returned to me and both my pinkie and ring finger near completion. By the end of the second week the fullness of my limb had finally been restored to me after all of this time and I made sure everyone knew about it to as I would use the limb for everything I could manage from lifting books to throwing objects. It was a good thing.

To combat the lull Spike, who had decided he was now my best friend and therefore a stepping stool, dragged me about town doing various things of leisure. We visited Pinkie Pie every other day whenever Spike wouldn’t take me to go sit in Rarity's shop to talk to her for hours about mind numbing topics like fabric choice and how to stitch. Spike would lose himself staring at Rarity’s beauty while I would sit in some padded chair wondering what my other friends were doing which seemed infinitely more fun than this.

I finally managed to rid myself of Spike and his ever lessening definition of fun by heading to Applejack’s to volunteer my time to help her on the farm. I explained to her how I had a farm where I was from and I knew how to help run one. She asked if I was any good at picking fruit. I laughed at her and explained that I had no trees personally but I could help with the animals the plowing and sowing of the fields. She agreed to have me on and soon I would spend most of my time helping out the orange workhorse.

The lull was a good time as I spent it working with Applejack and her brother Big Macintosh. I had met the large stallion once or twice before but we had exchanged few words. I admired his tenacity when it came to approaching the workload of the day as I found the Apple family farm was enormous.

It seemed odd to me now that I had spent most of time in Ponyville inside of Twilight’s home doing little but learning from the unicorn and polishing my weapons and armor. Now I was being out and about the town and I was meeting all sorts of wonderful ponies. I finally met the Cakes at Sugar Cube Corner who were rather skilled bakers and Pinkie took me around one day when I wasn’t needed on the farm and gave me a formal introduction to half the town. They had all seen me and knew of me but some were afraid to approach me before then as I was a violent looking shut in who was only ever seen when being escorted about by Twilight.

Now that I was far more accustomed to the world about me it seemed natural now to know the community around me. In my home the community had to work together to survive and prosper here it seemed different though. Here these ponies could get along rather independently without too much struggle. They would ask neighbors for help and assistance but they didn’t quite rely on each other as I had relied upon my friends and allies where I had lived, such a strange place.

Life felt like it had slowed a pace since I had returned to Ponyville. The days were spent either farming or spending time around time enjoying the summer weather. Rainbow Dash would ask me to come with her to watch her practice her flying skills for the Wonderbolts. The Wonderbolts, I learned, are a group of pegasus ponies who perform flying feats for entertainment. I found the idea rather intriguing and would go with Rainbow more often than not.

The lull ended abruptly however.

I was awake early as usual readying to leave when Twilight came down the stairs with a letter held out in front of her.

“We’re going to Canterlot.” She told me. I raised my eyebrow.

“What does the princess need?” I asked her. Twilight read over the letter again.

“It says that she has some sort of test for me and that we need to get there as soon as possible!” Twilight dropped the letter as she finished speaking and began to dash about her home recklessly pulling books down and speaking aloud what she needed.

“Spike!” the purple unicorn called out. Spike poked his head over the edge of the stairs.

“Yes?” he asked incredulously while he rubbed sleep from his eyes.

“I need your help now.” Twilight commands. She looks up at me. “I need you to go get the girls.” I furrowed my brow in confusion.

“Why?” I asked her.

“Just do it!” She said hysterically and continued her tirade around the library. I happily left the tree and went searching for my friends. It being so early the only one awake would be Applejack but the others would not be angry with me once they knew why I had to wake them.

It took me roughly twenty minutes to go about the town and gather up the sleepy mares except Pinkie who had made me promise to never wake her in the morning for fear it would wake the Cake twins who were incredibly light sleepers. With the four ponies in tow we came back to the library where Twilight was still running about like a headless chicken asking herself where this or that was placed. Spike stood in the middle of the vast room jumping up and down catching flying objects in a massive sack he had in his hands.

The girls began to poke fun at Twilight for her antics and I couldn’t help but laugh as she began to blow things out of proportion. Then Spike decided to speak.

“Calm down Twilight, it’s just a test.” The tiny dragon said puffing out his chest.

“Just a test?” Twilight asked menacingly turning upon the little lizard. Spike cowers under her gaze. Twilight begins to drive him across the room as she berates him.

“Princess Celestia wants to give me some kind of exam and you tell me to calm down because it’s just a TEST!” Spike reached behind him and pulls an odd looking helmet out of nowhere and places it on his head.

“Uh, yes.” He answers. Twilight’s eyes go wide with anger and her horn begins to glow as she snorts through her nose.

“I’d say she’s taking it quite well considering.” Applejack says calmly. Then Twilight released the magic stored in her horn with a roar.

The tree was ripped from the ground like an oversized weed and sailed straight up into the air. Every being within the tree except Twilight was hurled to the ceiling with an audible smack. The library plunged back to the earth as fast as it was tossed up and the floor was met with a harder smack.

The library itself was in a state of utter chaos as books and reading material had moved from the shelves to next most convenient space. Twilight stood in the center of the room breathing heavily trying to restore her mental state while the rest of us went about picking ourselves up.

I coughed loudly as several layers of dust had been disturbed in the tree’s abrupt and halted exodus from the ground. I helped up Rarity and Fluttershy who were closest to me and I moved to help Spike who had become lodged in a shelf.

“Looks like the lull is over.” Fluttershy commented as she began to tidy the place up.

Into the Maw of Darkness

Twilight had dashed off to the train station to get on the next train to Canterlot spouting how there was another in about twenty minutes or so. We watched her leave weighed down with enough quills and extra parchment to start a second library and with Spike in tow while the rest of us cleaned the library.

It took us roughly fifteen minutes to finish thanks to there being six of us and Rarity’s magic. We left the library and hurried to the station to catch the train. We arrived at the platform just in time and boarded the train.

I sat next to the window across from Rarity so I could look out the window. Pinkie Pie sat next to me excitedly. For me it felt like I had just left Canterlot behind not too long ago but the girls were glad to be returning to the city.

“So do you think this test is going to be hard?” Pinkie asked rocking back and forth to some random rhythm in her mind.

“She’ll do fine, she always has.” Applejack commented from under her hat which she had used to cover her face so she could rest. I zoned out from the conversation and watched the hills roll by.

We made our way to Canterlot once again only this time I hoped there would be only good news waiting for us.

We pulled into the station after some time and we stepped out onto the platform. I turned and saw Twilight walking towards us with her head down in disappointment.

“Twilight!” Applejack called out to the unicorn. Twilight looked up and smiled. Applejack leapt forward and embraced her friend.

“Did ya pass?” Applejack asked. Pinkie Pie rolled out her cannon.

“Are we going to celebrate your awesomeness?” Pinkie asked as the cannon erupted and she jumped into the air.

“Not quite.” Said Twilight. Pinkie paused mid-air and fell back to the ground and the confetti appeared to be sucked back into her cannon.

“We’re going to the Crystal Empire.” Twilight proclaimed.

“Huh?” my friends all gasped at once.

Snow fell thick and slow and lay like a heavy white blanket across the ground. I smiled remembering my home in the winter. The pristine snow was a beautiful thing after all.

We arrived at the platform and stepped off of the train out into the howling wind. Only I and Rarity had prepared for the cold in any way. We had gone home prior to pack for the journey but Twilight had assured us we would only be here for a few days at most.

While we were home she had informed me of the enemy we were up against and had warned me against Sombra and his powers. She didn’t know if he had returned or not but I was not going into the situation unprepared.

“And you all laughed at me for bringing so many scarves.” Rarity said with a smug smile on her face.

“I didn’t say a word.” Spike said from underneath a pile of her luggage.

We moved to the edge of the platform the girls were holding hooves in front of their faces to shield themselves from the icy gale.

“Twily!” came the call through the blizzard. Shining Armor materialized out of the snow like a specter with a black mask and cloth cover over his face. Twilight ran forward and embraced her brother. Shining Armor turned about and removed the mask from his face.

“Come on, we don’t want to be caught out in the open.” The stallion said.

“Why?” asked Twilight.

“Let’s just say that the Empire isn’t the only thing that came back.” Shining said. Through the blizzard a howl sounded low, mournful and sinister.

“What was that?” Fluttershy asked shakily looking about.

“Sombra.” I growled.

“Come on!” Shining Armor yelled taking off into the snow. We ran after Twilight’s brother into the wind.

On the horizon I could see a light blue dome that could only be a magic shield. From behind the howl sounded again only closer giving us cause to run faster. Twilight lifted Spike as he began to fall behind. I looked over my shoulder and saw a dark mass coming after us. Shining Armor saw it as well.

“Go, get to the palace!” he yelled. Twilight and the others ran on but I halted and turned to stand with the captain. I drew both of my axes as the top of the smoky mass formed into a massive head of a unicorn and roared its triumph to the sky. The head was massive in scale with boiling green eyes and red irises that trailed purple mist the king’s horn was massive and tipped red like the color of blood. I was not to be dismayed however as I stood side-by-side to Shining Armor.

“Good thing you’re here.” He stated as Sombra came on.

“Good to be back in the swing of things.” I replied raising my axes as the head opened its maw and charged us.

I felt blood trickle from the cut above my eye as I threw Shining Armor through the shield wall and dived after him feeling the tendrils of darkness grasp at my leg one last time. I was through the wall and looked back to see Sombra smash his face into the shield. I did not boast over my victory as the series of gashes and bruises the king had left began to be felt.

I placed my axe into its place on my belt and stood up helping Shining Armor to his feet. His horn appeared to be infected as black crystals were showing along the length. Twilight and the others moved to help us.

Twilight took a hold of me and made me stand still as she began to patch up my minor wounds numerous as they were. The others helped her brother fully to his feet.

“We need to get to the palace.” Shining Armor said putting a hoof to his head. We began to move and I finally took in my surroundings.

We were in a beautiful grass field that stretched for miles about and was peppered with huge crystal monoliths. The sky above was clear and bright showing a beautiful blue that few other sights could rival. In all it was breathtaking but it paled in comparison to the sight of the crystal palace in the center of the city.

I followed from the rear keeping an eye on the shield behind us. It did not take long to move into the city which was utterly breath taking in its serene and clean cut beauty.

Shining Armor led us to the entrance of the palace which was below the main portion in one of the four pillars that held up the palace proper.

We moved up into the palace. The interior was the color of fresh ice with heavy red carpets and the walls were hung with fine tapestries.

We entered a grand throne room with massive windows on each side and covered in thick velvet carpet. On the far side was a massive and ornate throne and Cadence sat upon it looking bedraggled and worn. Her horn was aglow with power. She smiled as she saw us enter. Shining Armor stepped forward and embraced his wife. Cadence then broke away from her husband to greet her sister-in-law with their sunshine song.

“One of these days we need to get together when the fate of Equestria doesn’t hang in the balance.” Cadence said. Twilight laughed at the statement.

The smile was wiped from the princess’s face as a burst of power shot up her horn causing her to grimace in pain. Shining Armor gripped his wife holding her so she didn’t collapse.

“The effort required to keep the shield up is killing her. Cadence hasn’t slept and has eaten little and it’s been days. My spell won’t work Sombra is countering it but Cadence has managed to keep him out by using love which seems to be working for now but she’s fading fast and I don’t know how to help her. I haven’t had any time to go ask the crystal ponies for any information.”

Rarity inhaled audibly.

“There are crystal ponies!” she exclaimed pulling on her mane. Everyone stared at her awkwardly.

“Uh sorry.” She said.

“I’ve had no time to research this place either with all of the excursions I’ve needed to take out into the blizzard.”

“A research paper!” Twilight exclaimed putting a hoof in the air.

“Huh?” asked her brother.

“That must be part of my test is a research paper. Let’s go.” Twilight stated.

“Is there a library around here?” she asked Shining Armor.

“Yes I’ll escort you.” Shining said. “Ol can you stay here with Cadence?” he asked me. I nodded and the princess smiled at me.

Shining Armor led his sister and friends away to the library while Cadence trudged her way back to her throne. I stepped beside her and assisted her up the steps.

“Thank you Ol.” she said gratefully as she plunked down onto her rear and sighed tiredly.

“Looking at this you’d think the changeling invasion was a stiff breeze.” Cadence said looking out the window. I chuckled a bit.

“My ribs and shoulder would disagree with you princess.” I told her.

“Ol we’re friends, you don’t need to call me princess. Call me Cadence.” She said as cheerfully as she could considering the circumstances.

“Cadence.” I smiled at the name. “How long have you and the captain been here?” I asked her. She put a hoof to her chin in thought.

“About three weeks now.” She said. I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

“So long and Shining hasn’t been able to come up with anything?” I asked her.

“Nothing, the arctic is harsh on him and he’s been coming back with more and more bruises and wounds. I can’t heal him because all of my magic is being taken up with this.” She pointed to her horn. “And it’s been brutal.” Cadence looked down at the floor looking dismayed. “He’s right though. This shield has taken its toll and it feels like screw is turning in my mind especially whenever Sombra attacks.” She sighed heavily. “It’s good that all of you are here though, I don’t know how much longer I could hold out for but now that you’re here Ol,” She looked at me and smiled. “It’s like someone took my magic armor and added another layer on top of it. Between you and Shining Armor nothing will ever take this place no matter how strong or evil it is.” I smiled back at her.

“I’m not that strong prin- Cadence. I just know what I have to do to protect those who are important to the land and to me.” I told her staring off through a massive window. “If I have to give up my life to preserve those around me then it is spent well. When I first came here I was told to not expect a glorious death but after going through the changelings and then this,” I indicated through the window to the blizzard going on. “I know that I’ll die as I should, protecting those I’ve come to care about.” Cadence set a hoof on my armored shoulder.

“I hope I’m one of those ponies now.” She said. I smiled but didn’t answer her. I thought about the circumstances.

Twilight had become like family to me. Taking me in and caring for me like one of her own and the others even after I’d tried to put an axe into them. They had accepted me and to think that I would lose them to Sombra or some other evil cur. I felt anger well up inside me at the thought. I would not let that happen I would not lose another set of people I cared about even if they were ponies they were like people to me.

Shining Armor returned to the chamber.

“Well their off doing research we should go back out Ol and see what we can do.” I stood.

“No.” Cadence said adamantly.

“What?” Shining Armor cocked an eyebrow at her.

“No I won’t let you go back there not with your horn like that.” Cadence said coming up out of her throne and walking to her husband.

“I won’t let you go back out there even with Ol, it’s too dangerous.” Fear showed across her face. She was obviously more afraid of Sombra than she had told me.

“Okay, okay, I won’t go out again I promise.” Shining Armor quietly reassured his wife as he put his forelegs around her. “But I am going to patrol the city. We need to get some information from these ponies.”

“I thought Twilight was doing that.” Cadence said.

“We’re going to help her.” Shining stated smiling an award winning smile. “And I promise I won’t go out again.” Cadence nodded and put her head on his shoulder. He patted her as he guided her back to the throne.

“Now sit and rest and Ol and I will be back to talk with Twilight.” Shining Armor beckoned to me and together we left the throne room.

“What exactly are we going to do?” I asked the captain.

“We’re going out.” Shining said to me a steel determination creeping into his voice.

We moved through the streets and even spotted Applejack asking about the town but we avoided her. The two of us made our way to the shield.

“What exactly are we looking for?” I asked the captain.

“A rematch.” Shining stated putting on his mask. I laughed at him.

“Why are you laughing?” he raised an eyebrow as he asked.

“Where I come from captain we don’t break promises.” With that I launched a strike to his jaw knocking the captain out cold. “And I’ve been looking for an excuse to pay you back for what happened in the pit.” I pulled on fake leather and fur gloves that Rarity had made for me and smiled wickedly as I stepped into the chill. I was indeed in the mood to see the good king again.

The wind howled like a banshee and the snow had turned to ice in my short time from being inside. I smiled it felt so much like home. The snow muffled my steps as I set out in search of Sombra. It felt like hunting not like when I was home where you stalk your prey carefully tracking it down until you were nearly close enough to touch and then ‘thwack’ an arrow is protruding from your kill. This was different though I had hunted things that could kill a man but not something this dangerous, this exciting.

Trying to find Sombra, however, was something that seemed meaningless when I could bring the king to me.

I reached down and drew both axes. I kept my forefingers just underneath where the steel met the wood and spun the weapons on my hands. It felt good to have steel in both whole hands again and a purpose for it. I locked my hands around the hafts of both weapons and pressed the wood into my thighs to push weapons to their full length. I inhaled the biting air into my lungs and felt the beast within me stir again like an old friend filling my breast with power and fury. I let that fury go and have its control continuing to suck air in until my lungs and belly were full and then I truly let go.

I roared to the icy heavens like one of the gods my call echoing about until my lungs ran dry and my throat went raw and ached. I sucked in air my chest heaving after my verbal outburst. The wind seemed almost silent by comparison. I didn’t have to wait long for the reply. Sombra’s mournful howl sounded out across frozen plain the call answered to the beast within and I could feel the rage build even more.

I could see him coming, the black cloud of shadow moving in leaps and bounds like a dark and dying frog. I gripped my weapons tighter and snarled as the King’s head materialized once again and he was glaring at me. I began walking calmly through the snow towards him as he surged and lurched his way over to me roaring at me like a crazed animal.

The King lunged at me screaming his fury. I screamed back and swung my right axe. I had timed the swing nearly perfect and the steel bit into Sombra’s nose. The King didn’t flinch and plowed into me smacking my chest and burying me into the snow. I swung my left and put the steel into his snout deep enough to be used as a handhold. The King pulled himself from the snow with me still attached by the axe. I pulled my right axe from his nose and swung it again pulling myself belly down onto his snout. The King tried to shake me off but my axes were in too deep and my grip was too strong.

Sombra was again dove for the snow and smashed me into the ground and he disappeared into the air. I rolled over and stood up. I put my right axe back in my belt and I knelt to snatch my dagger from my boot.

I looked about into the wind half-crazed from battle lust and covered in snow. The King however had disappeared into the blizzard. My rage grew again. I had been cheated from a fight that cowardly bastard.

You fight well. A voice sounded from within my mind. It felt greasy and thick dredging its way through my thoughts. I tried to step forward but my boot felt stuck. I looked down to see a pool of thick black muck growing around me.

I wonder how you taste. The voice taunted. Sombra’s eyes rolled up out of the muck and a slit appeared around my ankles and began to open. I fell into ever widening hole slipping down into the hot, wet mouth of King Sombra.

The maw was stinking and wet filled with spit and a writhing pink mass of a tongue. I looked down and could see the King's throat throbbing and pulsating waiting to consume me. I was determined to make myself the last meal this evil unicorn would ever try to eat.

My head slipped below his teeth into the fleshy pink mass. I reacted by jamming my dagger into the roof of his mouth to halt my fall. I could feel the unicorn’s tongue on my back trying to push me down but I fought back. I placed my boots on the roof of his mouth and pushed as hard as I could forcing the massive muscle back into its place still holding onto my dagger and axe.

Sombra closed his jaws up over me but I was not going to die like this. I took my axe and slammed it against his gum to my left just above the tooth. The steel cut through the flesh like paper and the King groaned as blood began to trickle out but I was not finished. I pulled my axe back and continued to assault Sombra’s molars striking chunks of flesh and bone with each swing. Sombra’s tongue continued to writhe against my back which made me push all the harder. I twisted the dagger to make sure the hold kept true and Sombra opened his mouth to roar his pain out flecks of spittle and blood coating my face and armor as his hot putrid breath blew past me.

I slammed my axe into the gap between his two front teeth. Sombra slammed his jaw shut again forcing the axe into his gums. I heard a loud snap as blood spurted down onto my head. The King screamed again as one of his teeth wobbled. I reached up behind and felt the handle of my axe. I gripped and pulled the handle to the right causing another loud snap and another scream from the unicorn. He seemed to have redoubled his efforts with his tongue trying to pry my axe loose. I put all of the power I could into another pull and the tooth came free. The tooth fell and struck me in the head causing stars to dance before my eyes. The beast pushed the pain from my mind in a rush of anger.

Sombra screamed again louder this time in frustration. My axe was free once again and I sunk it back into his exposed gum. I pulled the dagger free and stuck it into the hole with the root of the tooth sinking the steel up to the hilt.

Using all of my power I pulled myself up. I pulled my boots beneath me and pushed off of Sombra’s tongue. I pulled my axe free and sunk it into the side of the other front tooth. No matter who or what the being was nothing could stand this much pain and blood inside of their mouth and Sombra was no exception. Sombra bunched his tongue beneath me and he spat me out into the air.

The change from putrid and hot to cold was exhilarating as the air whistled past my head. I looked down to see the King Sombra retreating back into the ground but I was not about to let this kill get away. As I fell I readied my weapons aiming for one of those massive green eyes.

I’ll be back for you. The voice promised as Sombra disappeared into the white. I slammed into the snow with an audible ‘oomph’. And just like that Sombra had disappeared back into the snow to hide away and lick his wounds. I screamed into the snow surrounding my face. I stood up fury raging through me and I screamed into the howling blizzard my face and body covered in blood, spit and snow. I roared again and again challenging the cowardly king to come finish what we had started. But I received no challenge in return. With every scream the rage began to dwindle like bonfire that had used up its wood too fast.

I fell to my knees my chest rising and falling quickly as I tried to compensate for my outbursts. I finally managed to stand shakily my body catching up with me. I could feel the fatigue in my muscles and an ache in my back as I stood and sheathed my weapons. I began my trudge back through the snow heading for the protection and warmth of the shield as the cold began to set in as well.

It took me several cold and slow minutes to cross back into the warmth of the Empire. My first goal was to find the captain. Stepping onto the grass and feeling the sun upon my skin was a blessing and my mood improved almost immediately.

I picked up my pace and moved to where I had left the captain. He was awake when I found him sitting up with an angry look on his face and a new black eye. He looked up at me.

“That was unfair Ol.” He scolded me. I smiled through blood flecked teeth.

“I just made sure you kept your promise.” I told him.

“How am I supposed to explain this?” he asked me pointing to his eye which had swelled up to the point of closing. I shrugged.

“Tell her the truth. It’s not like she’ll get mad at you for not going out, she might get mad that you lied to her but then you’ll look all the better when you dragged me back in through the wall.” I told him as I plunked down onto the ground next to him.

“What you mean lie to her again?” Shining looked at me. “That just might work.” He laughed.

“It might and then again it might turn out that I should’ve let Sombra eat me.” I chuckled darkly. Shining raised his good eyebrow.

“You’re kidding right?” he was confused. I shrugged again.

“I wish I were.” I told him. “But I made a poor meal for the old king what with my pointy bits and all.” Shining Armor laughed at that.

“Sounds like quite the fight.” I snorted.

“That it was.” I went on to describe my encounter with Sombra. By the time I had finished his mouth was wide open in shock.

“You, sir, are becoming quite the legend.” He told me. I held up a hand defensively.

“I’m no legend captain, I’m just a man with an axe.”

The Downfall of King Sombra

The captain helped me to my feet. He reached up with a hoof and brushed a fleck of spit that was hanging from my earlobe. He turned and led us back to the palace.

We stepped up into the palace and wove our way through the to the throne room where Twilight and all of my friends stood.

“We know what we have to do!” Twilight exclaimed pumping her hoof into the air in victory.

“What’s that?” her brother asked raising an eyebrow. Twilight’s face dissolved into worry as she saw the stallion’s face.

“What happened?” Twilight asked rushing to her brother’s side to inspect the bruise. Shining flinched away from his sister’s touch.

“I got hit in the face.” He told her. Cadence came down off of her throne.

“What hit you?” she put a hoof under Shining’s chin pulling his eye closer to her. Shining shot me a glance. I nodded at him. The captain sighed out of his nose.

“Ol hit me.” He mumbled.

“What?” Cadence questioned.

“Ol hit me.” Shining threw his hooves up in the air exasperatedly. The princess and her sister both looked at me with looks of horror upon their faces and for some reason I found it laughable.

“What happened to you?” they asked in unison looking me up and down.

“The king found that I do not taste as good as I appear.” I answered back without a ghost of a smile.

“Whu-“Cadence whipped her head to look at her husband. “What does that mean?” The captain sighed again.

“He went out into the snow.” Shining Armor declared. Cadence stared at her husband in disbelief.

“If he had not been at the shield when I had gone down I would not be standing before you now.” I told them. Cadence and Twilight each looked between the captain and me.

“Is this true?” Cadence asked pointing her hoof at me.

“Yes.” Shining told his wife with a straight face.

“I don’t know what to say.” Cadence stated. The princess turned and headed for the terrace. Twilight and her friends didn’t move.

“I want to go talk to her but we have a fair to get back to.” Twilight said watching Cadence leave.

“A fair?” I raised an eyebrow at Twilight. She pulled a book out of nowhere and showed it to me.

“This is the history of the Crystal Empire.” She said as the pages flipped open before me. The smell of old parchment hit my nose as runes passed before my eyes.

“How does a fair help fight against Sombra exactly?” Shining Armor asked looking at the book as well.

“It’s going to cheer up the crystal ponies and fill the Crystal Heart with love and compassion which will hopefully banish the king back into shadow.” Twilight said pulling the book away.

She turned to leave and the other girls followed her out. Shining Armor looked to me. I smiled at him sheepishly.

“I’ve done my bit to help, this is on you now.” I told him. Shining Armor sighed.

“I’ve faced down raging guard officers, an insane unicorn king and even Princess Luna, but she scares me most of all.” The captain said. A thought came to my mind.

“’No one should put faith in a maiden’s words, nor in what a woman says; for their hearts have been fashioned on a turning wheel and their breasts formed fickle.’”

The captain stared at me.

“I don’t know if that’s helpful but who said it?” he asked.

“An old wise man who is much older than I, his words are so powerful they are written many places, captain.” I told Shining Armor. “Now go apologize to your wife, it is a dark home where man and woman hold wrath for their loved ones.”

Shining lowered his head and went to go see his wife. I frowned as I watched him go and thought of my own wife.

By now she had probably wed again. I nodded at the thought. You had to sacrifice your own good for the good of others as I was doing now. She would be proud as would my boy. I felt empty inside as I thought of my family, an odd sensation to say the least.

I could hear the two ponies talking from the terrace. I moved further away so as to not intrude upon their conversation which had begun to get heated. I moved to the throne and sat on one of the lower steps fatigue taking hold of me. It felt good to rest after the debacle in the snow. I looked down at my hands still covered in the king’s spit and blood and even a few chunks of bone. I picked the flecks of tooth from my skin and threw them onto the floor. From the terrace the volume increased for a moment from the captain.

“I’m sorry!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. Cadence did not match his outburst and brought conversation back to a level I could not hear.

I continued to clean myself of bone when Rainbow Dash and Twilight came galloping back into the throne room. I raised an eyebrow at the pair.

“We have a problem!” Twilight proclaimed looking about wildly with her book held in front of her. I couldn’t make out what was on its page.

“What’s wrong?” I asked them but I was given no answer as the three ran out onto the terrace.

“We have a problem!” Twilight interrupted her brother.

“What’s wrong?” Shining asked them.

“I have no idea where the Crystal Heart is!” Twilight nearly screamed. I stood and quickly made my way to the terrace.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know where it is or how to find it!”

The two continued their exchange for few moments when Cadence collapsed suddenly a pained moan releasing from her lips. Shining dipped and caught his wife as her horn’s glow died suddenly.

The ponies stared at Cadence while I shifted my gaze to the shield to watch it collapse. I instinctively reached for my weapons stepping back from the edge of the terrace.

On the horizon darkness began to coalesce and writhe. The shadows swirled about themselves and formed into Sombra’s head once again. I felt my heart begin to race again.

“Twilight.” I said stepping back again. The ponies looked up from Cadence up at me. Seeing I was looking out at the horizon they shifted their gaze once again.

“The Empire is under attack!” Shining said. Cadence lifted her head and stared out at Sombra with a determined look on her face. She stood to her full height again her horn ablaze with ethereal blue light. She thrust her head skyward and the shield began to build itself around the city.

Sombra rushed forward only to smash his head against the bubble once again. I inhaled deeply as I watched the fiend dissolve into the cold white once again.

“I need to find the heart.” Twilight told us. She turned to her brother. “You stay here and help Cadence.” She was about to take off when I stopped her.

“I’m coming with you.” I told her, my tone brooked no argument.

“You can’t, the princess said that I was supposed to do this on my own.” Twilight tried to get around me but I continued to block her path.

“Aye, but Celestia also said I am your guardian and I’m supposed to protect you at all times.” I responded. Twilight snorted her derision.

“Fine, wait here, I have to tell the others and then I’ll be back.”

I nodded and stepped aside to allow her and Rainbow to pass. The two took off to leave the palace. I moved back to the terrace edge as Shining Armor spoke softly to Cadence, trying to reassure her. I looked out across the city.

Down below us ponies of all colors went about between colorful stalls to purchase and consume baked goods and other unique little keepsakes. I saw Fluttershy standing behind a stand happily serving mugs full of juice to the crystal ponies. Beyond the shield Sombra had reappeared and was slamming himself into the pale blue wall trying to get in.

I stood there for several minutes as I watched Sombra smash himself into the shield. I cringed whenever he hit particularly hard and I could hear the princess behind me gasp in pain.

I heard Twilight call to me from below as she returned to the palace. I noticed she had Spike sitting upon her back. I turned to move into the throne room. She appeared a minute later.

“Good, come with me.” She said running past me into the small group of rooms beyond. I followed her into a large meeting room that held a large circular table with a hole in the middle atop a massive red rug. Twilight was searching about the room frantically while Spike stood in a corner with his claws folded. The little dragon spotted a fold in the carpet and bent down to inspect it.

“No Spike.” Twilight said. Spike grinned defensively and stepped back. Twilight ran from the room.

“Now where would Sombra hide the heart?” Spike asked aloud as he and I followed Twilight at a distance trying to keep up with the frantic pony. We raced into the throne room.

“We can’t find the Heart because this isn’t King Sombra’s palace!” Twilight said joyfully as she skidded to a stop in the throne room.

“But isn’t this where King Sombra lived while he was in charge?” Spike asked.

“Yes, but this isn’t what his palace looked like.” Twilight said as she adopted a stance in front of the crystal throne her horn lighting up. Tiny bolts of lightning twisted with her magic aura turned black and purple and green mist bubbled up from her horn. Twilight launched the black power at the top of the throne. The crystal standing atop the throne shook violently and began to emit a beam of blackness at the floor opening up a pit near our feet. I looked down to see a massive spiral staircase the led down for an incredible distance.

“Where did you learn that?” Spike asked looking at Twilight awed by her magical prowess.

“It was a little trick Celestia taught me.” The unicorn proclaimed proudly.

Twilight began to move down the steps. Spike and I moved slowly to follow.

“You stay here Spike.” Twilight ordered over her shoulder.

“If you say so.” Spike sounded relieved as he moved further back from the edge. Twilight and I began to descend the steps the temperature within the dark air cold and thick with dust.

We walked down for several minutes with only the light from Twilight’s horn to show the way. Twilight paused and pulled a small stone from the wall. She moved the edge and dropped the rock and listened. I listened as well, waiting for the clink of stone on stone. It took much longer than I had hoped for. I looked down into the abyss feeling a crushing depression settle on my soul.

Twilight stepped down another stair and stumbled. She began to fall over the edge. I lunged to grab her but slipped as well and fell over the side into the blackness. Twilight tumbled down the steps as I fell in the open air. I felt a force wrap around my body and a purple glow encased me as I neared the ground slowing my deadly fall. I was set on the ground gently and watched as Twilight halted her own fall and set herself upon the ground next to me.

The unicorn helped me to my feet.

“Are you two okay?” Spike called down after us.

“We’re fine.” Twilight called back up. The two of us looked about and Twilight spotted a simple door with a gray arch over the top with a dark colored crystal set just above it.

I drew one of my axes as we approached the door. I reached my free hand out to open it but the door had different ideas as it dashed away from my hand up the wall. Twilight’s horn lit up as she tried to open the door magically. The door continued to run away from our efforts.

“Stop moving!” Twilight said a dark beam of energy leapt from her horn striking the crystal above the door. The door flipped open as power flowed into it, a bright light shining from within.

“Spike, I think we found it.” Twilight called up as she ran into the light with me following just behind.

I had to cover my eyes as the light flashed brighter for a moment. I moved my hand and opened my eyes. I was standing over an open pit with a covered body of a man lying in it. My friends stood about the pit looking down angrily.

“Hopefully we can wash this thing from memory,” Twilight said as Applejack began to fill the hole in. “And may the name Ol be forgotten for eternity for his crimes.” Twilight continued as dirt continued to hit the corpse.

“For all of his talk of honor you would think he would’ve spared a few ponies, the cruel beast.” Rarity snapped.

“Not even Chrysalis deserved what he did to her.” Fluttershy said not even looking at my grave.

“Good riddance.” Applejack proclaimed as she spat the shovel out of her mouth.

“May you never know rest Ol knowing you died with cruelty in your heart,” Twilight continued the eulogy. “So we send you to wherever you can suffer the most for your murderous ways.” Twilight finished and with that the six of them each spat on my grave, even Fluttershy.

“Ol!” I heard Spike’s voice like a distant echo but I couldn’t focus. I was going to die with no honor, as a murderer and vagabond. I fell to my knees looking down at the grave tears streaming from my face at my failure. I was to do the unthinkable and dishonor my name and my family.

“Father,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.” I set my forehead against the dirt as the shame overwhelmed me.

I felt a clawed hand and a hoof upon my shoulders as I wallowed in my shame.

“Ol!” Twilight and Spike yelled together next to my ears. I shot up the vision fading from my mind as reality came back to me. I fell over onto my back looking up at Twilight’s and Spike’s face. I reached up and wiped tears from my cheeks as I sat up.

“What did you see?” Spike asked me. I sighed.

“My worst fear, my absolute worst fear.” I told them. Twilight offered me a hoof and a warm smile. I smiled back and gripped her hoof coming to my feet.

“Don’t worry Ol,” Twilight said as she hugged me. “We’ll always be here for you.” I felt my heart warm at her words and wrapped my arms around her.

We released our embrace and Twilight turned back to the door. A bright purple beam lazily made its way from her horn up to the black crystal. The crystal absorbed the energy greedily and the door burst open again only this time without the blinding light behind it. Twilight stepped through the door looked around and groaned.

“What is it?” Spike asked her.

“Stairs.” Twilight smiled sheepishly looking over her shoulder at us.

I inhaled deeply again as I took another agonizing step. We had climbed what felt like several hundred steps already and Twilight had already far outpaced Spike and me. The little dragon was puffing along a few steps ahead of me.

“Twilight,” Spike called out. “What if this is just another one of Sombra’s tests.” Spike sat down breathing heavily. I wiped sweat from my forehead as I leaned up against the wall.

I looked out across the Crystal Empire seeing darkness just on the other side of the shield. Sombra’s head could still be seen but his assault on the wall had stopped. I felt a force wrap around my chest again as I was pulled out into the air.

“Twilight!” I yelled in surprise as I was lifted from the stone of the steps. Twilight pulled Spike and I up to where she stood and then she jumped into the air a bright purple light surrounding her. I felt the pull of the earth change upon my body and I became disoriented as I began to fall up.

Twilight was ahead of me with Spike on her back cackling as if she’d gone mad. The mare was sliding along the smooth stone as we headed, what felt like, downward at an insane speed. It felt like my first train ride all of that time ago only a lot more dangerous. With one step I would fall up into eternity to meet my doom. I watched the stone fly by feeling my stomach begin to churn.

“Twilight!” I called up to the unicorn.

“Yeah?” she called back.

“Sometimes I hate you!” I yelled over the wind. Twilight just laughed harder as we zoomed all the faster.

We fell into an upside-down chamber with huge arches all across the walls that showed the Empire in every direction. Another bright flash from Twilight and I felt the pull on my body shift again as everything righted itself. I looked down as the floor came up to meet me like an old friend. I slammed into the stone floor as the breath from my body was smashed out. I groaned as I pushed myself up to my knees. I was growing rather tired of falling to the ground.

I stood up and beheld the beauty that was the Crystal Heart. The gem was floating a few feet from the ground and was the color of a pale sky cut into the shape of a heart. It was a wondrous sight to behold. Twilight stepped forward with a pleased smile on her face.

Twilight stepped onto the platform beneath the Heart. The platform flashed black and let out an odd sound. I may not have recognized the sound but I knew an alarm when I heard one. I tried to run forward to throw Twilight out of the way but I was too slow as black crystals sprouted from the floor surrounding the unicorn and blocking her escape. I drew my axe and struck at the crystals savagely over and over again but to no result.

“Twilight!” Spike called out.

“Ol back away! Spike stay there!” Twilight commanded.

The Crystal Heart came flying out over the top of the crystal wall. Spike moved to pick it up but Twilight stopped him.

“Not a claw Spike!” she scolded him. I turned and looked out over the Empire to see shadows moving to overtake the city.

“Uh, Twilight, you’re going to want to hurry.” I called over my shoulder. I heard a slam. I turned around to see Twilight hovering outside of the crystal wall only to disappear back inside of it.

“Spike, Ol, you’re going to have to take the Crystal Heart to Cadence and Shining Armor.” Twilight said over the wall.

“But what about your orders?” Spike asked holding his hands under his armpits.

“JUST GO!” Twilight yelled. I placed my axe into my belt as I stepped towards the heart.

Spike bent down and scooped the Heart up with his sweat claws. I bent down and scooped the dragon up placing him atop my shoulders. I looked at the stairs and saw that they were covered with the quickly growing crystals. I stepped through one of the archways to see if there might be a way down when another wall shot up behind me blocking my retreat back into the room.

I looked down and saw that the whole Empire was covered in quickly growing crystals that were brutal in appearance. The smoke had come in quickly and I could see Sombra’s head, which had shrunken, terrorizing the ponies down below us.

A spire of crystal was growing near me and I took a short jump onto a long path-like appendage. I began to make my way down the crystal taking slow moving steps so I would not lose my footing.

I did not look down as Spike called down to our comrades below. He held up the Crystal Heart for them to see in triumph.

The dragon’s grip slipped and the Heart tumbled in the air falling down to King Sombra. I didn’t hesitate as I launched myself from the spire. It was a new sensation, hurtling downward like a stone. I felt Spike tighten his grip around my neck as we plummeted. My only goal was the Heart and keeping Sombra from his goal.

Below me I could see the King moving upward moved by a large black crystal. His body formed into a solid mass before my eyes.

Time seemed to slow as I fell. I looked between Sombra and the Heart knowing what I had to do to keep the black hearted unicorn from coming back into power. Even if I could not reach the Heart I knew that my path would take me into King Sombra’s body and if I had to give my life to stop him, even for a moment for the Heart to be returned, then I would have spent my life well.

I smiled slowly as I stretched my arms out, not to catch the Crystal Heart, but to wrap them lovingly around the King and embrace him into the end. It only seemed a fitting way to end our battle from before.

Then I felt my chest become wrapped up and my fall was slowed. I heard something fly over my head. The heart was engulfed in a blue aura as it was sucked from view allowing Sombra and I to lock eyes. His face was contorted with rage as he stared into my smiling eyes.

I was whipped through the air just before my fingers brushed his face and pulled high into the sky in a whirlwind. I looked at the darkening orange sky and the ever growing crystal spires. It was ugly to see but I had entered some odd euphoric state in accepting my demise and seeing such terribleness did not affect me in the slightest.

I was set upon my feet underneath the castle and Cadence landed in front of me with Spike on her back and the Crystal Heart held before her.

“Use your love!” she commanded the crystal ponies. “Fill the heart and banish King Sombra back to where he came!” The princess threw the heart to the direct center of the castle. The Heart sailed through the air and halted its progress as it came to its place.

The ponies about me began to light up and change their appearance from dull and furry to bright and crystal like. I turned to see Sombra running towards us his shadows being thrown up in his wake.

I turned back to the Heart which had begun to spin incredibly quickly as light grew within it. The light grew incredibly quickly until it exploded lighting up the ground beneath my feet and spreading at speeds previously unknown.

The light infused its way into all of the ponies around and even into my own flesh causing my armor and skin to shine brightly and take on the look of crystal as well. I did not have time to marvel as the light struck Sombra.

Sombra screamed out painfully as the light bored into his flesh like worms into an apple spreading under his skin causing his body to break apart like ice. The King burst apart in a final shriek of torment his pieces of his body flying into the air and dissipating into shadow.

The sky cleared immediately as Sombra’s influence was removed, the bright blue coming through dark orange. The spires and black crystals shattered or reverted back to their previous state.

I felt the pull again as I was gently lifted from the ground up into the air. Cadence sat me down on the terrace next to my friends who immediately swarmed Spike and I voicing their concerns over the two of us. Cadence took to the air again speeding to the top of the castle. She returned momentarily with Twilight held in her hooves.

Twilight leapt towards Spike and hugged him holding her little dragon assistant tight. The captain held his wife close his relief evident.

I turned to look out over the Crystal Empire to take in the beauty of the place again my heart calming as my mind caught up with reality.

Sombra had been defeated and I still had all of my limbs. For once I didn’t have any broken bones. I laughed at the realization.

“No broken bones.” I said as I flexed my hands that still shone like the north star on a clear night.

The King's Pendant

I stepped from the train onto the platform with my gear slung across my shoulders. I was the last to disembark behind my friends who were chatting away amiably about the gifts and the festivities the crystal ponies had provised.

I was not unused to gifts and gestures of kindness but the crystal ponies had gone manic over our victory against Sombra. I had been approached by several artisans and merchants myself and the gifts were more than generous, as several of them commissioned suits of armor for me, some of which were made of precious metals and inlaid with precious stones only to be worn for ceremony. I had to have all of the armor shipped to the library, and the ceremonial suits shipped to Twitch in Canterlot with a note for the lieutenant to hold onto it all for me.

One of them presented me with a massive two handed hammer. The head was rectangular in shape, covered in swirling patterns and depictions of battle. I was so astounded by the brutal artistry, I swore off my blade, even going so far as to hand the claymore to the smith, to use the massive weapon solely.

The merchants of the Empire swarmed me with requests for my services. Some offered me over twice my weight in the golden coins these ponies called bits. I had to deny them each, explaining my obligation to Twilight and Celestia.

We moved off the platform and into the street. I was surprised to see a carriage and escort awaiting us. I was even more surprised to see lieutenant Twitch standing at the front of the carriage.

“Lieutenant,” I greeted the stallion. He smiled up at me.

“Sir, it’s good to see you again,” I chuckled.

“It’s not sir anymore, Twitch, you need to remember that.”

“What can I say? Old habits die hard.”

He held out a hoof and I shook it and then stepped up into the carriage after my friends. They were chatting away about the visit and all of the wonderful things the grateful crystal ponies had gifted to us. Rarity was especially excited about a pendant that was magically activated and would cause her coat to sparkle like she was a crystal pony.

The carriage door shut and we were pulled along the roads, headed for the palace. My friends continued to chat as I watched the buildings roll by.

We were here so that Twilight could report back to Celestia on her success against Sombra.

We came to a halt before the palace and we stepped from the carriage.

“Leave your gear up there, sir,” Twitch told me stepping around to the front of the carriage.

“The princess wishes to speak with you and Miss Sparkle,” I cocked my head with curiosity.

“Why?” I queried. Twitch shrugged.

“No idea, sir,” with that the white and black stallion lead me up into the palace as Twilight told our other friends that we would be right back. She caught up to both Twitch and me and we walked in unison.

Twilight looked nervous as she fidgeted as she walked.

“Calm down,” I told her.

“How can I calm down? I didn’t pass my test, it was you and Spike who managed to get the Crystal Heart to Cadence,” there was despair in her voice.

“You didn’t fail, Twilight. You did what you had to which all any of us can do.”

I could tell she was still unsure but she remained silent. We came to Celestia’s throne room.

“Twilight, could you wait outside for a moment while I speak with Ol?” Celestia asked her student. Twilight bowed and backed out.

Before Celestia spoke I asked a question.

“Did she pass?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“Yes,” Celestia said as she moved beyond her throne. There was a bright golden glow as Celestia picked something up and brought it back out for me to see.

Before her floated a small, red cone that was curved. She floated the cone over to me. I reached up and took hold of it. My mind was instantly assaulted with a familiar presence of darkness that pushed its way into my mind, slowly and malevolently.

Ah, you again. A thick baritone pushed its way through. I dropped the fragment suddenly. Before it hit the ground Celestia caught it with her magic.

“I thought the king was dead,” I looked at Celestia with a straight face. Underneath however I was seething with fury. I had witnessed Sombra be blown apart, I had even ripped his teeth out with my axe, how was he still alive?

“As had I until Cadence had this sent here,” Celestia explained. “Does he speak to you?” she looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

I nodded. “Yes, it is not the first time he and I have interacted with each other.” Celestia’s face turned to questioning.

“What did you do up there?” she asked me. I explained to her about my battle against with the king in the snow.

By the end Celestia had sat down and was patiently looking at me with her eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Well, all the more reason for what I’m about to tell you,” she said as she summoned some thread from the air. She pushed the thread through the horn with some difficulty as she spoke.

“I want you to take this,” the princess told me as she finally managed to thread the horn.

“No, I won’t have that thing near me, besides, you are more qualified to handle this thing,” I said looking at the horn.

“I want you and Twilight to watch over this for me because of its properties. The horn will be safer that way, I will tell her but you are not to tell anypony about this, but the horn will keep you safe from any magical attack except if you are levitated, and this string will keep you from all but the strongest of Sombra’s influences,” she handed me the horn again. “Luckily the most he can do is speak menacingly, which I could not keep him from doing, so I hope you and he can get along some,” she smirked at me.

I reluctantly slipped the horn over my head and again felt the king’s presence with my mind.

“As long as he doesn’t try to eat me again,” I commented. I could feel a rumble in my brain as if Sombra was chuckling.

“I don’t think he’ll be eating anything ever again from there, now please send in Twilight.”

I nodded in respect and turned to exit. The doors came apart and I was greeted with the sight of Twilight pacing back and forth.

“You’re expected within,” I said stepping after her slipping the horn beneath my shirt. Twilight didn’t answer me as she stepped into the throne room and the door slammed shut behind me.

I began to descend the stairs and I felt Sombra stir in my head.

I will have my vengeance, mortal. The king threatened.

“You can have your revenge, just stay on the string and only speak when spoken to,” I told him.

I’ll speak when I wish to! Sombra snapped at me. I laughed at his comment.

“And I’ll listen when I wish to,” I said and ignored the unicorn as I stepped through the palace doorway and towards the carriage to await Twilight’s news that I already knew.

War At A Wedding

Three weeks went by in a blur. I spent every day working and training with guards and patrolling the streets in tanks waiting for trouble. Shining Armor was good to his word putting up and maintaining his shield around the entirety of the city. There had been some complaints about merchants and businesses losing customers due to the added difficulty of acquiring raw materials or finished goods now that the wall was up. Shining Armor often left those problems to me because of my superior diplomatic solutions of telling the good folk of the city to shut up and deal with it.

After some time I noticed that Shining Armor was having some difficulty focusing on everyday tasks of handing out orders and managing patrols since the shield had gone up. He explained that the shield was a huge demand on his system and he needed me to help out more. That being said I began issuing orders and commands. The role of command was new to me but I figured as long as I commanded without obvious nervousness and confusion then the horses would listen.

I received a missive that some important dignitaries were coming on the train. There were six of them and they were to be treated with the utmost respect. I hated dignitaries and I could not fathom how Shining Armor enjoyed his position in the slightest. Since having taken over for him Shining Armor used most of his time to fill out the shield and reinforce weak spots leaving me with the boring end of the work which involved disciplinary issues and dealing with the princesses who were not at all cheerful in any way that I had found especially Cadence who preferred some odd pompous name that I refused to call her because it was even more ridiculous than the captain’s name.

I sat in the command seat of a tank and rolled down to the train station. We were part of what was called a convoy and were to provide armored protection for the dignitaries. The missive hadn’t said where they were from or what to expect just that they were important and in charge of the wedding planning.

We reached the train station and I disembarked. I flexed my latest addition to my hand my new thumb. It hadn’t developed fully but was still capable of doing a lot to include weakly holding an axe. Soon enough I would be able to use them both at once and I might be able to reenter my trance state and become one with my animal spirit again.

The train had stopped some minutes ago as I walked out onto the platform. I waited and hoped I would spot the dignitaries when they arrived. I was, instead, greeted by being knocked to the ground by a pink horse who had thrown herself across the platform just to hug me.

“Oh Ol you’ve been gone so long and I missed you so, so, so, so, so much!” Pinkie exclaimed at the top of her lungs. I tried to pry myself from her grip.

“I missed you too Pinkie.” I grunted out as I struggled from her iron like grip. Twilight and the others came up and managed to get Pinkie Pie off of me.

“Well, well, well,” Applejack began. “Look at you all covered in armor, you look rather handsome in such get up.” she said. I looked at Applejack unsmilingly.

“And you look like you wearing your hat.” I deadpanned. I felt confusion to see all six of them.

“What are you guys doing here?” I asked still looking around for the dignitaries.

“We’re here to plan the wedding!” Twilight said excitedly. I reached into one of the small sacks I kept at my belt and read the missive again. I looked up at my friends and back down at the note. It struck me like a kick from Shining Armor, my friends were the dignitaries.

“Well,” I began. “I’m here to escort you to the palace.” Their face lighted with joy and they began chatting amiably with me.

They told me about their goings on of their day to day in Ponyville. They entered their carriage and I asked that they wait a moment so I could instruct my tank pilots to go ahead.

I stepped down and opened the door to my tank and I was about to tell the pilots to lead the way when my newly appointed second in command Lieutenant Twitch handed me a scroll. I unrolled the message and read it. I dropped the parchment and yelled at the pilots.

“Get moving now!” I screamed. I slammed the door shut and ran back to the carriage and drew one of my axes. I turned to the driver.

“Move now, we need to get to the palace.” I ordered him. The carriage took off. Twilight touched my shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” she asked me. I looked at her and decided they should know.

“I’ve been here handling the security and it turns out that we’ve had a fresh threat issued against the city and the princess and all of the citizens.” I told her scanning the area as we began to pick up speed behind the slow tank. Behind us the other tank began to pick up speed to catch up with us.

Twilight asked me more questions but I stone walled her. This was no time to be dealing with her and making sure they got to the castle safely.

Soon enough we came up to the front entrance of the palace.

“Go, go, go.” I ordered them. They girls disembarked quickly. Rarity began to fuss.

“Oh but I’m going to mess up my coat and my mane in the dust.” She complained. The pilots from both tanks disembarked and formed up around us.

“I don’t care get in the palace.” I told them all as we began to move. Up on the terrace above the entrance I spotted Shining Armor in his dress uniform issuing orders.

“Shining Armor!” Twilight called out and broke from the group. I let her go knowing that she was going to be with her brother and who else would she be safe with if not him? I move the rest of the girls inside and shut the massive doors behind us. I relaxed just a bit.

“Lieutenant,” I said. “Yes sir?” Twitch asked with a salute.

“Get the dignitaries to their suite and make sure they are well guarded, the sun is going down and with this new threat out I don’t want them wandering about.” I ordered.

“What about Miss Sparkle?” Twitch asked me.

“Leave her with her brother I’m sure he’ll take care of her.” I told him. He saluted again and ushered my friends off to their rooms.

I set off for the armory which was my impromptu base of operations to see if I could get some information on this new threat.

I entered the forge and headed for the barracks where I had a small desk setup. As I entered the barracks I found Princess Luna in there screaming at some of my officers.

“Can I help you princess?” I asked her. She turned on me her eyes aflame with fury.

“We would like to know what you lazy twats are doing about the threats against ourselves and our sister!” she roared at me. I had dealt with the moon princess before and I was used to her yelling after having been verbally assaulted by her on several occasions beforehand when I had to personally hinder her from doing too many stupid and unsafe things where my men and I could not keep her safe. If they wanted me for security so badly you would think they would listen to me.

“Well princess,” I began, moving around her to see the new sets of papers on my desk and hopefully to cover them up to keep her from blowing them away.

“I’ve just received the news. Twilight Sparkle and her friends are secured and I would think that your sister is as well which leaves only you,” I pointed at her. “Princess out in the open and unprotected.” She was obviously not amused easily.

“We are the lord of the night!” she roared putting a hoof to her chest in defense. “We do not need to be guarded like some foal fresh from the womb!” she continued.

“Shut up!” I yelled at her. Luna stepped back somewhat offended. As far as I knew no one had ever spoken like that to any princess but I knew that people wanted to. Shining Armor complained daily that Celestia could sometimes be rather demanding as smooth and caring as she may appear.

“I am here to help with the security for the upcoming wedding and until this threat against the palace is over.” I said placing my hands on my desk and leaning forward. I could feel the muscle in my bad hand stretch as I leaned on the finger and thumb. “If you don’t listen to me you could be in grave danger. We do not understand the nature nor the size of the actual force that threatens this place but from the looks of it it’d have to be pretty damned big and I’d rather sit in Hel than see that my job goes unfinished. I didn’t ask for this job or to be magically teleported here from my home where my beautiful wife is but here I am and I’m pretty sick of hearing you yell at me and my men who have worked tirelessly to make sure that you and your idiot sister stay safe from something that may be nothing.” I snorted out my nose at Luna.

By now she had sat down on her haunches and was on the verge of what appeared to be tears.

“Okay, I’ll calm down.” She whispered.

“Good.” I said. “Now I’ll take you back to your tower where you can do your duties.” She nodded and stood. I led the way with my claymore in hand. We twisted and turned and climbed stairs until we finally came to the Tower of the Two Sisters. The tower was immense and ancient it had stood for nigh on a thousand years to hear the stories about it and is where Celestia and Luna would take their turns watching over the land whilst their celestial body was in the air. I always harrumphed at the idea of these two controlling the sun and the moon. The planets were pulled across the sky by chariots and chased by wolves. They only imagined they had power.

I left the princess at her telescope and placed a detail at the bottom of the steps. I then headed back to my command center to see if I could get some more information on this new threat. By the time I arrived Twitch had already set up the pictures I would have wanted. Pictures were a new thing I still couldn’t wrap my head around either. All they had to do was point an odd looking machine push a button and with a flash there was an image on odd looking paper that was permanent and in color. I shook my head at the idea. I sat down and began to study the photographs.

“What is this exactly Twitch?” I asked the lieutenant.

“Well sir, it appears to be some form of marking, ritualistic in nature and written some sort of green goop.” He told me. I looked at the marking. It had no real semblance of any shape. It was circular with random lines crossing each other at odd points around the outer ring.

“What are these markings below it?” I asked Twitch.

“Those are some old dialect of writing, from a rather ancient part of Equestria.” He told me.

“Do we know what it says?” I asked looking between him and the photographs.

“Yes sir, it says ‘We are many, we are one and we come for you.’ That’s all.” I sighed out my nose and placed my hand under my chin and thought.

“’We are many…’ I said to myself quietly.” I stood up and began to organize my desk some. “Alright I want full security on all important subjects that is the bride, the dignitaries and the princesses. I want at least four, no, six guards on them twenty four hours a day until they leave the city or the threat has passed.” I looked up at Twitch.

“Get it done.” I commanded.

“Aye sir.” Twitch saluted and ran off.

I sighed again and studied the pictures. Something about this message didn’t sit right with me and I was anxious to face it. I felt something stir within me, it had been far too long since I had killed anything and I hoped I would get the chance now.

The wedding planning over the next few days was going smoothly. I personally accompanied princess Cadence from location to location so she could inspect the preparations and pass her judgment. As the days went on I regretted my decision more and more as she continued to exhibit her self righteous and quite loathsome behavior as she had towards me.

Her only display of kindness towards anyone I had noticed was she had commissioned a new suit of armor for me. This new suit was made had beaten bronze and copper wrapped around the thick steel plates and when polished appeared to be gold. Off of the back of the cuirass hung a cloak of the purest white with the symbol of the nation, a sun eclipsed by a crescent moon with two pairs of wins coming off of the sides one blue and the other yellow with a lance with a star point coming out of the top. I had thanked her graciously for the armor. She responded by saying that I looked like a vagabond and needed something beautiful if I was to escort her.

Finally the day before the wedding had arrived and the rehearsal, another odd tradition, was taking place. I was present so I could guard two princesses at once. Luna was off asleep as she often did during the day. I watched as five of the girls came walking in chatting quietly and excited. I noticed Twilight was missing and felt my gut tighten. This would not go well.

Cadence then came in all primped and prim walking delicately up to stand next to her betrothed. They shared a quick kiss and stood to look at Celestia.

“I’ll say a few words,” she began. “And then Shining Armor you’ll take the rings from the best mare.”

Shining Armor looked behind him where Twilight should have been standing.

“Has anypony seen Twilight?” he asked. The doors to the chamber burst open and Twilight stood angrily.

“I’m here.” She stated flaring her nostrils. The purple pony began to walk forward.

“I’m not going to stand next to her!” she exclaimed. “And neither should you!” she said pointing to her brother. Shining Armor’s face contorted in embarrassment. He looked to Cadence.

“I’m sorry, I don’t why she’s acting like this.” He told his bride.

“Maybe we should just ignore her.” Cadence said. I began to move to overtake the mare before she made and even bigger fool of herself.

“You have to listen to me!” Twilight yelled as she stopped about midway up the room. I finally met her and wrapped an arm around her. She struggled from my grip.

“Ol put me down this instant!” she yelled at me kicking and fidgeting.

“No,” I told her. “You’re making a fool of yourself and as your friend I cannot allow you to do that.”

“But there’s more to it! She’s not who she appears to be!” Twilight yelled as I scooped her up and began to carry her from the room.

“Set her down Ol.” Celestia commanded me. I shrugged and set Twilight down. Twilight pointed a hoof at Cadence.

“She’s evil!” she said. “She put a spell on my brother that made his eyes go-“ she then twirled her eyes inside her skull which was the most disturbing thing I had ever seen in my life. Shining Armor, however, had had enough.

“Twilight, you come in here and disrupt rehearsal to tell us that my bride to be whom I love more than life itself is evil and you use a spell she cast on me as proof. Well did you know that since I’ve been maintaining the shield wall that the expense is so high that I had to hand over most of my captains duties to Ol so that I could rest and even then I get terrible migraines and Cadence’s spells have been healing me as best as they can.” Twilight looked crestfallen at being berated by her brother. Cadence ran from the room in tears. Shining Armor went after her but stopped next to his sister.

“Maybe you shouldn’t come to the wedding at all.” The stallion left and I followed him behind us came my friends followed by the princess.

“How could she say such things?” Rarity asked from behind me. I didn’t answer her, but I was surprised by Twilight’s behavior as well. The wedding hadn’t even started and it was a disaster already.

I could not sleep through the night. The threat had me on edge and most of the other guards as well so I tripled the patrols around the grounds in case of any actual attack. I watched the sun rise and the festivities began.

Hundreds of ponies began to flood into the city through the various gateways we had set up around the city limits. I had given the guards specific orders, if anyone got too pushy or too loud or began too much of a fuss they were to be ejected from the city limits. I made sure all of the patrons knew that too by making all of the offenders prime examples and public shows of being thrown out of the city and not allowed to return.

I personally stood watch outside Cadence’s door. The only pony I let in was Rarity to help with her dress. After Rarity left there was only a few minutes left before the ceremony began and I couldn’t have been more nervous. If there was any time to attack it was now. I was the only guard near the door for some distance. Most were out in front of the palace or making patrols around places where intrusion was the most likely.

Celestia had forbidden me from posting more than three guards inside the ceremony chamber to include myself. So I had Twitch find our best two for the job. The first was the pony with the eye patch by the name of Spalding. He had seen some fights in his time and he was a good sort to have a drink with. The next was a big brute of a stallion named Gorge. Gorge had been born some distance from here and had traveled specifically for this job and he was recruited on the spot. It was said he was the only pony the captain could not best in the ring.

I knocked on Cadence’s door.

“Your highness, it is time." I said through the door. I had heard some commotion from inside but it turned out she had only kicked over a mannequin in her excitement. I led the way for her to the chamber. She came behind me singing. The song was odd as she was singing to some weird far off beat and she would sing a verse and then pause and then take up again. The song itself was about how she wanted the groom all for herself and how she had found it hard to love anything because she had a small heart. I looked at her confusedly.

“Are you really singing?” I asked.

“Shut up.” she ordered me. I turned back around and opened the massive door and let her through. I shut the door and took my place up on the dais behind the bridesmaids.

The ceremony began and Cadence began singing again. I looked around at all of the other occupants. None of them noticed that she was singing, loudly, about how she had won the groom. I was perplexed but figured it was a pony thing and kept my mouth shut.

The ceremony was almost concluded when the doors burst open. Twilight came in.

“Stop everything! She’s an imposter.” Twilight yelled, I groaned. I had hoped to avoid this again. But I was surprised to see another Cadence come up from behind Twilight and support her claim. This Cadence looked disheveled and dirty like she had been in a dungeon.

“Seize her.” The new Cadence ordered. I drew my axe and looked to my fellows.

“Seal the door.” I ordered them. They both moved and shut the massive door and placed a heavy bar across it. I began to move when the Cadence on the dais began to glow green and transform. I stepped back and prepared to strike at whatever came out of the whirling green torrent.

Cadence’s form grew and changed. Her legs stretched and became perforated, her body elongated and darkened, her hair became pale and green. The transformation took all of a few seconds and before me stood an entirely different creature.

She was as tall as Celestia except she shone black like a beetle. Her wings were pale and filled with holes as were her limbs. Her horn was long and crooked with twists and curves.

“Ah, I finally get to unveil my true beauty.” The newcomer purred. “I am Chrysalis.” She said turning to me. Her horn began to glow and she fired a beam of energy at me. It struck me full in the chest and sent me flying into the wall. I smashed into the wall and fell over unconscious.

My eyes fluttered open and were met with green. I tried to turn my head and found my movements had become sluggish and subdued. I could breathe well enough through the morass but actually moving beyond here felt impossible. I pushed out with my hand and met solid resistance. I slowly managed to inch my face to where my hand was to find that some sort of stretchy barrier held me captive.

I did not panic. I slipped my good hand down and pulled my remaining axe from my hip and attempted to cut through the barrier with the blade. The blade slipped and slid from my grip against the impossibly smooth surface. I tried to reach out to the axe but it had fallen beyond my reach. Now I began to panic.

I felt around for any kind of grip or any piece of armor I could remove to use similarly. I was relieved to find my sword still strapped to my back. I tried to draw the blade but I was too limited by the small space. I reached for my chest where the blade was tied across and found the leather knot. With some degree of difficulty I managed to undue the strap. I felt the sword begin to slide from my back. I whirled about and grabbed the hilt to halt its progress.

From the other side of the barrier I could hear voices but I could not make them out. I doubled my efforts to free my claymore from its scabbard. I pulled inch by inch up the blade and after some time I was rewarded with a blade I was free to swing.

I grasped the hilt and pulled the blade as far back as I could and positioned the tip up against the barrier and pushed. The steel couldn't penetrate the wall and only succeeded in focing me further back until I was up against the opposite side. I had an idea. I climbed my feet up the wall behind me while still holding the blade up against the far side for leverage. When I felt secure I pushed my sword again. The barrier began to stretch from the force exerted on it. I found myself fully extended with both of my hands on the end of the hilt. I had to get just a little further. I drew my body in and with one final effort I used all of my power to extend my body and thrust the sword.

I heard a squelching noise and the blade was through. I howled triumphantly and began to pull the blade down beneath me. The barrier split like parchment before the castle steel and the green fluid poured out like blood from a wound. Little too late I realized I was going with the goop and was pulled out of the sack with the flow.

The ground came up to meet me quickly. I slammed into the floor and felt several painful pops in ribcage. I shuddered at the pain but still managed to come up to my knees. I brought my gaze up to see what was left of the ceremony.

The crowd stared between me and this Chrysalis in awe. All of my friends were bound to the ground at their feet with similar colored material along with the real Cadence. Chrysalis herself was standing at a window looking down at the destruction and chaos she and her brood were causing outside. Behind her stood two of her beasts. They both turned and hissed at me.

I struggled to my feet and took up my claymore again. Within me I could feel a familiar presence stirring. I found it strange as I had not performed any of my rites in some time since coming here and yet I could feel the bloodlust again. I smiled. I ignored the pain in my ribs and took up a two handed grip. No matter how strong my one hand was an extra thumb and finger always helped.

I began to move slowly towards the monsters behind their mother with slow and fluid movenments. Time seemed to slow as I felt adrenaline pour into my system flooding my brain with thoughts of blood and flame. The two beasts began to slink towards me.

These things were rather ugly to look upon. They were about the same size as an average male pony of this world, they had pale, see through wings and small horns upon their heads. They shined like beetles as they moved and their eyes seemed to have multiple surfaces and were colored an alluring light blue. I could smell an odd stink on them like that of a rotting corpse. One opened its mouth and I could make out sharp, black fangs that glistened with spittle.

The one on the right launched itself into the air spreading its wings in a mighty display. I waited until it was almost upon me and dropped the sword to catch it in my arms. The thing struggled and kicked as I dug for purchase on its black plated body. I hooked my bad hand around the base of a wing and used my good hand to go for an eye. The beast squealed as my forefinger dug into the meat of its eye. The eye did not give way easily as I dug my finger deeper, twisting and curling the digit violently to get to the things brain. Blue and black ichor which stank even worse than the beast began to spit from the eye and hit my face and chest, but I was too involved with my task to be distracted.

I finally found my goal as my finger made it clean through the eyeball. I curled my finger and pulled. The eye came out with a loud pop and the beast roared its pain to its fellow. The other beast lowered its head and charged me. The beast's blind charge was a perfect way for me to be rid of my first opponent. I stood my ground and braced myself as the the small horn entered the lower back of the now one eyed fiend. There was another loud roar as the first beast keeled over spewing fluid from its head and back.

I looked upon the last creature. It was shaking its head dizzily and was obviously in pain. I stepped forward and used my good hand to grab its horn. I slammed the thing to the ground and took my bad hand and shoved it into the beast's jaws. I thanked the gods for strong gauntlets as I hooked my thumb around the outside of the upper jaw and my forefinger into the thing's nostril. My good hand I used to wrap up the lower jaw. I sat upon my victim's chest and used my knees to hold down its forelegs.

Using my hands I held apart the jaws and began to twist and pull on the bottom one. The creature began to buck and squeal as I tried to tear its jaw off. I was unpreturbed as my work went on. I could hear gasps and cries all around me as I finally freed the jaw from its mooring. I looked down upon the pathetic thing as spittle and blue blood spurted from its missing jaw. The thing's tongue writhed back and forth as clear fluid cascaded from its eyes. I had caused it to suffer, how unfortunate. I raised the jawbone over my head and rained down repeated blows upon the beast's head. Bone slammed into bone over and over again each time with a loud pop as the jaw caved in the skull.

I stood. I was covered head to foot in stinking blood and bodily fluids. I stooped down and grasped the hilt of my blade. I turned to see Chrysalis with a horrified look upon her face. I could see my friends with similar looks. I smirked and popped my neck. Chrysalis wasted no time and fired another beam of energy at me. I rolled away from the attack. As I hit the ground I heard a pop in my shoulder that belonged to my bad hand. I felt all the energy and power to the arm drop dramatically. I ignored it like I was with my burning ribs that only grew hotter with each breath.

I came up from my roll and started running dragging my sword behind me in my good hand. Chrysalis fired again and again and missed both times. I ran up the small steps of the small stage and swung my sword. My training had helped me wonders thus far and my arm was still strong enough to deliver one blow at least.

Chrysalis caught the steel on her twisted horn. I pushed my face in close to hers.

"Give up," she commanded. "You've already lost." She hissed at me. I smiled again, she was within reach after all.

I released my grip on my sword. Chrysalis stumbled into me and bumped into my head but that was no matter as my good hand wrapped around her horn. My grip tightened and I turned at the waste bringing her down. She lay on her side about to move when my knee came down on her throat. I could feel my heart racing and my blood pounded in my ears my vision had tunneled down so that the only thing I could see was my enemy and the color red.

I relenquished her horn and slapped her face. She looked up at me disoriented from the blow. I pulled my hand back and formed a fist. She quailed and feebly tried to escape again. I brought my fist down into her face and I felt her snout give way much the same as Johan's nose all that time ago. I rained blows down upon her beating her face into pulp.

After so long I had to stop and catch my breath. I looked down and was shocked to see that Chrysalis still lived. Little remained of her face and I could make out a piece of her brain. I looked at my fist and saw that the metal had sheared away and my skin had become exposed and that through my beating I had broken a few knuckles and bruised the flesh around.

I looked back down at Chrysalis and she whimpered and flinched away from my gaze. My heart began to beat again until I heard the tiniest voice in my ear.

"Use my love..." was all I could make out and then I was blinded by a woundrous, white light. I put my hand in front of my face to protect my eyes. I couldn't see anything and then a huge force struck me and all was darkness.

I came to for the second time that day and saw that I was still in the room where the wedding ceremony was supposed to be held. Above me the ceiling danced wildly as the room spun. My shoulder throbbed angrily and my ribs felt like pieces of molten steel within my body. Twilight stepped into view as the crowd had begun to empty. I noticed some of the ponies were pointing at me and giving me odd looks.

“Oh hello Twilight.” I said not looking directly at her.

“Hello Ol.” She said gently lifting me with her magic.

“To the infirmary then?” I asked her knowing we were headed there immediately.

“Yep, and thank you.” She said.

“For what? All I did was kill two of her minions."

“You provided a distraction enough for my brother and Cadence to cast a spell." she told me as we moved along casually.

“Well, I apologize for not believing you when you first said she was evil.” I told her. She waved me off.

“Don’t worry, you weren’t the only one, I mean come on, she even had my brother fooled.” I chuckled and winced at the pain in my side.

“That she did.”