the dark blood bonds

The train moved gently from one side to another, the sleeping ponies were scattered all around the train in small room, the hallways showing the doors to access those rooms was narrow and the only sound was the small wheels pushing against the cold metal of the rail road, my room was quiet, I was alone inside this wagon… I fought to not sleep, but the night called me, but today I must stay up… today is the day and I shall not sleep.

The train stopped softly, you could see the city of manehattan on night, the lights were bright and clouds covered the beautiful moon as well as the stars… It was so quiet, abnormal for a city as this one, it made me remember those dark memories… GET OUT OF MY HEAD! I knew the shadow that haunted me… the blood that covered me and my past still stained my hooves… only darkness would consume me… only darkness waited at the end of my path.

I could hear somepony… galloping to my room… the door opened slowly as a young unicorn entered the lonely room “sorry…” he stood outside the door for a small time “M-may I come in?”

“Yeah…” I said softly with a smile, he smiled back and entered the room putting his bag in the top shelves on top of the seat… finally somepony to talk with “…so where are you going?”

“No-where…” he said looking at his bag while organizing his stuff “maybe to the training grounds in the east… I want to be a Royal Assassin…” he said while sitting in the comfortable seat “and where are you going?”

There was a small silence but I then decided to tell him my destination “to ponyvillle…” at first he was confused then he remembered that today is the summer sun celebration “I want to see the sun rise in there… the beautiful grassland and live peacefully in my small cottage"

“That’s cool” he replied.

“But… Why do you want to become an assassin?” I tried to ask him what reasons he had and why at such a young age…

“I really don’t know…” he said while looking at the window… the stars were decorating the clear sky, we were really far from Manehattan and the pegasi seem to had cleared the sky for the summer sun celebration… it was a quiet night “maybe because I want to be of use to Equestria… I don’t want to be a useless thug anymore… or I just want to be like my father”

The silence was comforting, I’m having trouble trying to stay awake and the silence isn’t helping “so…” I tried to talk a little bit more “your father… ”

“He was an assassin…” by his tone, I knew what happened to him… “He died in the great war when I was really young… in the last battle of the whole war” he began to cry… I knew that feeling too well and the loss was too big.

“I remember that battle…” I tried to tell him how much I suffered at that damned war.

“W-wait…” he said rubbing his hooves in his eyes, his tone change and he took off those hooves to concentrate in my tale… the memories began to appear in my mind.

*_*_*_*_*

What is this sound? Where am I…? I tried to talk and scream but my voice was not coming out and the pain didn’t go away… the blood was flowing like a river and my companions were dying… I tried to run away but I couldn’t move, the fear reached deep in my mind, I was making me crazy… that noise, the noise of those wings flapping… like insects in a hive… the sound of the screams and the flesh that was being ripped off the bones of my companions… I wanted to fight but no force was coming out of me… only weakness.

The smell of death could be perceived far away from the battle ground and the white snow was stained with pure red blood, only one pony was standing… only one pony was alive… me.

“Why did this happen!? WHY!? ” I was going crazy, I don’t know how many nights I was alone, I can’t recall any happiness, only tears covered my eyes and the smell was unbearable… but I kept my promise to my allies… my dead companions… I will stay there, fighting the menace that wanted to destroy Equestria… I will stand tall for them… I WILL BE BRAVE!

I remember… 10 days and 10 nights… I fought without sleeping on those 10 days, the reinforcements arrived on the final day… but I was really exhausted and I fainted just before the battle ended.

I woke up in a hospital room in Canterlot, 3 weeks after the war ended… 3 weeks after the battle ended… 3 weeks after the nightmare ended… in total 10,495 troops died in that day, and only 1 survived… me.

*_*_*_*_*

“Sir… what will happen now?” I was talking to general Solaris, a tall stallion unicorn with a white coat and orange disheveled mane, he and I were looking at the piles of bodies being transported to the cemetery “Are we not needed anymore?” I was angry at myself, at Celestia and at that shining armor… my only friend… now my worst enemy… I hated him with every fiber of my body; everything was his fault… his fault… “Why didn’t they try to help us?”

“Please son…” he looked shadowy and his tone was really empty… he lost his son as well as I lost all my companions… my friends… I wasn’t strong enough, he too considered me like his own son… we were really close and his son was one of my most trusted companions… I considered him my brother… now a piece of me was dead, killed by those monstrosities called changelings “don’t blame nopony… everything was my fault… I wasn’t there to… to…” he started to cry intensely and I was his only shoulder to cry on… I too was crying, but we won the war…

The next day they found his body… he committed suicide and he left a letter signed by him:

This is the last entry of my diary and my final words for everypony, I will make this quick because they are after me:
I’m general Solaris Matutinus III, great general of the assassin force in Equestria and a complete failure to my companions, I was supposed to protect my people as well as my army… but I let them down, they needed me, but I wasn’t brave enough to help them.
As leader of the Royal Assassin Army of Equestria I should had been stronger, but in reality I’m weak. But there was somepony who stood up for this Kingdom and fought for himself against the menace… He is the hero and I was a weakling… as last words I name Nightshade general of the R.A.A.E.
Forgivemyweaknessforgivemyweakness forgivemyweaknessforgivemyweaknessforgivemyweakness forgivemyweaknessforgivemyweakness…

He filled pages with those words… he wasn’t weak, he was a hero but he couldn’t live with the death of thousands… he couldn’t live with that weight alone… I lost my spirit to fight when I realized… I had to inform everypony about the deaths of those close to them… break the heart of young mares, destroy the dreams and incinerate the heroes of those small foals… but I needed to do this alone… I was now alone in this dark world and no aid was coming to me.

*_*_*_*_*

The silence was deep… all I did was cry… “S-sir… I-I’m sorry…” he was impressed that I was crying… I was staring at the ground as the tears began to fall to the cold floor… I wasn’t sobbing nor breaking in tears… only crying, tears that were falling from my cheek without any facial expression… only tears… he didn’t know about me nor my past… my shadow still follows me and my darkness is the blood that runs in my veins.

The silence started to become uncomfortable, my tears didn’t stop…. All those souls that were lost… he gathered all his strength to ask me just one question “did you lost somepony there?”

“Only…” I could still remember the blood and the pain of those days… “my soul” he just looked confused, I lost my light… the real spirit that enable me to fight for what I want leaving a blank space inside me…

“so you fought in that battle!?” he facial expression changed from a confused one to a amazed… I was a legend inside the army… around the world… Equestria and every other kingdom in this world… I wasn’t proud… it was a curse… a curse that is killing me second by second…

“Yes…” I began to tell my story to him… “That battle was just a nightmare that came true… I saw with my own eyes the blood that stained the whiteness of the snow and the screams that broke the singing that me and my comrades were enjoying… they attacked us from the no-where… they came from the darkness and killed us all… except me… I was able to fight them all… but the others were attacked without mercy…” the tale was just beginning and this part is where it really began “they died because we were vulnerable and they knew we didn’t stood a chance against them… they were too much for us… and I suffered for 10 days in that place without hope to win against those beasts.”

I stopped for a moment to begin with the saddest part… “The war just brought to me suffering and left me with nothing… only emptiness…”

“I’m sorry…” he interrupted me “I shouldn’t have asked…”

“No…” I tried to comfort him “it wasn’t everything suffering… I lost my family… but I gained a bigger family than before… something that truly makes me happy and trying to raise my daughter without a mother is really difficult” I smiled because I remembered the good times I have with my small filly and with all my friends… “but well… it stills hurts from the deepest parts of my soul… but somehow it fills me with happiness and joy… thanks to those events I have something that I truly love… that makes me really happy”

“So…” he was a little confused “you lost everything but at the same time you gained everything?”

“You could say that” I was smiling “ I now live in a peaceful town with a peaceful pet and a peaceful family… well not so peaceful” I was laughing with a low tone…

“I want to ask you something sir…” he looked at me trying to focus in my… oh, no… I forgot my bandage and my injuries are showing… “it has bothered me since the time I came in… for those injuries you must have done something extremely dangerous and with that tale I had confirmed my suspicions” I know he has figured out my identity… well I hope he doesn't know… “You are Nightshade the general of the Royal Assassins?” Buck…

Well there were 3 options: 1.-jump out of the train, but I’m too injured to do that; 2.- Kill him before he starts to ask more questions, but that’s betraying my kingdom laws… and it’s wrong to kill ponies… so there’s option 3, tell him everything… sigh… “so… is it true that you destroyed a whole kingdom alone?” he seemed to react as a small foal when you tell them that you are a superhero… so… what was option 2?

“I-I… that’s classified” I tried to make him stop, but…

“No it isn't” his tone was the same… at least his smart “thanks to princess Celestia’s law of total governmental transparency, this kind of events are not classified… I learn it in law school… it was the only time I went” oh, Celestia I swear… one day I’ll kick your Royal Plot… “And even your whole life has been made comic…” wait… WHAT!? “But only those stories… nothing personal… I was able to recognize you thanks to it… the red mane and the brownish coat… even your red eyes are completely equal… wow, they look like rubies. My sister always reads your comics saying that one day you will…”

“I-I think that’s enough” I was laughing nervously and my eye was twitching…

“ooohh… okay…” the silence was deep and the atmosphere uncomfortable… for me, well I think it’s better than… “So is it true?” now he was smiling like a small foal in a candy store… sigh.

“Yes… they are true” I gave up… he wasn’t going to leave me alone “they are all true… I killed the king, destroyed their army and burned their houses… oh, and drank all their cider and ate all those pies” what? It was an order from Celestia herself and I love apple pies… “But I didn’t kill everypony… just the ones that were a menace to the kingdom.”

“You are awesome…” he was really interested… thankfully the train arrived to ponyville just in time…”oh… well then see you next time in the training ground… stay awesome"

“Be brave…” I said to him while grabbing all my stuff and opening the door… but I needed to tell him something before I went… “oh, and try to aim your ambitions higher than a soldier… keep that attitude like always, don’t let them win always be on the offensive and of course… be careful, see what you aim for before you shoot your spear, because a spear can be more trustworthy than your own companions… the screams and the fake companions are always in the battlefield… you need to be cold if you want to make it in a fight…” as I left the room I remembered one last thing… don’t ever hold the hoof of somepony… you may sink with it” he was amazed that I was that cold… but I have experience in war… I know this is cold, but is the right judgment in a battle… you don’t know who is a changeling or a companion.

“YES, SIR!” I heard when I was already outside… “My name is Cloudpiercer, the Pegasus that will surpass you!” I stared at him, he had his bright blue eyes aimed for the objective of surpassing everyone… just like me… he opened the window and slightly got out but he was sustaining himself from the window frame he was smiling his cyan mane was waving in the wind and his silver coat was moving with the soft breeze… he then made a salute.

“Good luck with that!” I was laughing then putting my red cap again with the words WONDERBOLTS in blue an my cutiemark in the right… a spear, a six pointed star in the background and 3 clouds with a dark thunder coming out from them… the train began to move… “Goodbye soldier…” I said in a low tone and a small smile… the night was beautiful and… wait everypony is panicking… I *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

“What the-” *BOOOOOOOOOOOM* another explosion followed by a by tremble and a big dark cloud that started flying away from the town hall… “SCOOTALOO” I saw as 6 ponies went running to the horizon… well the library… the building started to crumble “SCOOTALOO! WHERE ARE YOU!?” I hear her voice behind me…

“Dad!”…

________

There were 2 silhouettes… maybe two mares, they watched how 6 ponies entered to the everfree forest at a slow pace.

The silhouettes were from a small earth pony and a unicorn… “Where are those dumbplots going!?” said the unicorn.

“Please stop…” said the earth pony “if you keep calling everypony that kind of names I will be forced to use brutal force”

“O-Okay…”replied with a fearing tone backing a little from the earth pony “B-But he told us that nopony should pass and it was an order from Celestia” now a whinny tone.

“You never grow up do you? *sigh*” she facehoofed herself “you just want to bust open their skulls right?”

“Yup” She was childish but she had a point… tonight Celestia told everypony to not go near the ruins neither to enter the everfree forest… but still she was childish and the earth pony just stared at her“*sigh* okay, I will not hurt them…”

Then the mare gave a deadly look and started walking to the inside of the everfree forest.

“… much” she began to smile as she began to walk…