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// The Hero 
// Story: Where Did I Go Wrong? 
// by zeroxwolfx 
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        “I move that the council name me as general of the Crystal Army, for the purpose of pushing back the invaders, under my leadership!” shouted the Prince.


        The council came to a silence, all eyes of the older ponies looking upon Prince Sombra.  He had not interrupted the council like this since he was but a colt.  Even then it was only on accident.  Eventually, Gilder Greenhoof, the council speaker, cleared his throat, speaking up in his grizzled old voice, “Prince Sombra… the council has not yet recognised the chairpony of the session to speak…”


        “The council MUST hear me!  The invaders have been moving farther and farther south as each month passes.  Every day more of our citizens are having their lives stolen from them!  Every day more ponies die and we do NOTHING about it!” The Prince looked at them, angry, and determined.


“This is a challenge that the kingdom has not faced before, Chairpony… Prince Sombra, we have been working for some time now to bring our forces to the center, to evacuate villages and towns, and to gather resource-”


“Working?! What exactly have we been working at, and where exactly has our… ‘work’, led us?  It’s led us to more dead citizens and it’s left the invaders closer to our doorstep each day that passes!  We have sat here and waited for them to come and take us.  I’ve studied the tactics and the combat techniques of old heroes all my life.  Let me put this knowledge to use!  Under my command, I can take the fight to the monsters and push them off of our land!  We can-” this time, it was Prince Sombra who was interrupted


        “Studies of ancient mythology are hardly a portfolio for modern combat tactics!” the speaker said, raising his voice, or rather, raising it louder than he had thus far, “If we send the last of our armies forward we could be sending them straight into the maw of our enemy, leaving our capital cities, the heart of our population, completely defenseless!” he took a moment to sigh, pausing and looking over at the other council members before he calmed down and looked to Sombra, “We’re all scared here, Prince Sombra, for the continuation of the Crystal Kingdom and for each and every individual pony.  But we cannot allow ourselves to lose faith the democratic process that we have spent years to build and fall into tyranny!  If we fail to stay civilized, then we lose everything the Crystal Kingdom stands for and the invaders may as well have already won…”


        Sombra looked down, and then back up at the speaker. “Then what is our masterful plan?  How do you intend to defend those citizens against the monsters?” he asked, disgruntled and agitated.


        The speaker clasped his hooves together, “The council is prepared to fortify the city, as we have been doing.  We have more than enough resources and troops to hold a well-fortified position.  If I should remind you, the crystal capitol has never once fallen to an enemy,” he added slyly.

        “And what of the ponies north? The ones that still live, and the towns and villages that are out of our communication range? What does the council intend to do about them?” asked the Prince intently.  

        Speaker Greenhoof paused, looking confused for a moment.  He turned to each side, looking to the other council members.  At this, Prince Sombra slammed his hooves on the table, and he abruptly left.  This was also a first for the council.







        The fools, the old fools, all of them!  What about the ponies of the north?  How could he not talk sense into them? How could they not see the error in their ways?  I had read about battles like this so many times before.  To think that they could live indefinitely in the capital city was nothing short of pure fantasy.  Even to believe that they could live there for a prolonged period of time was madness.  Without fail, every fortified position in history had fallen.  All an enemy needs is time, resources and enough desire to take a position, and they will take it, even if it is by starvation.  If the crystal ponies would not be dragged out and sucked dry of life, they would be starved out, at the stubbornness of the council.

        My moment of anger was interrupted when I was contacted by an old acquaintance of mine.  Marvin Guile.  Guile had been a small time councilor, never being very popular, or political in nature, but I often talked with him.  We shared a similar hobby of interest in our old time reenactment battles.  Marvin was the councilor of a small, older, but very patriotic district of the empire.  He shared my dislike of the slow and tedious procedures of the kingdom and was one of the very few ponies, the only pony really, on the council that I could call a friend.  On this day in particular, we had another thing in common, our dislike of the Council Speaker.
        
        The Council Speaker held a great deal of power in the crystal council, chiefly of which, he decided which matters were brought up when and acted as the judge of past, and any future ordinances that should come to the council.  Unlike the rest of the council members, the Council Speaker held his position for ten years, instead of five, like the rest of the councilors.  Also unlike them, the speaker was elected by the council members, and not by the crystal ponies themselves.  Up until that day, I had never thought much about Speaker Greenhoof at all.  I had only known him to be very methodical, and to follow things exactly by the book.  I also knew him for being rather slow, and having a sort of old, grizzled voice, as well as a very boring tone.

        Even in my anger I remember what Guile told me, “You’re going to want to return to the council procession tomorrow…” he said, with a very slight smile.  I asked him why of course he only said, “Trust me…” with a wink.  Of course I would go the next day, expecting them to make me apologize for my outburst or something like that, but I would instead find myself a surprise and an opportunity of the likes I would never think would present itself to me.  I would be given a chance to be a hero.






        “The council will recognize its chair pony, Prince Sombra… will you step forward please?” said the old speaker pony.  Of course, curiously, the Prince did so.  Speaker Greenhoof pulled out a parchment from his desk, and looked it over briefly before looking back to Sombra, “The council has recently been brought to light on a certain legal document that was not previously considered.  A loophole if you will.” He lowered his head, staring down at Sombra as he said this. “In this law, it states that ‘in times of dire emergency, a head member of the royal family and his personal guard may engage in operations for no longer than sixty days, to directly serve the interests of the crystal kingdom and its citizens.” The speaker put down the parchment, taking off his glasses, and looking again to Sombra. “It seems that you have the complete legal authority to do with your own royal guard as you wish… in accordance with the law, with, or without the blessing of the council.” He rested his hoof on his chin for a moment, sighing yet again. “But in this case, you do have the blessing of the council to partake in any operations that you may wish.  If you should find yourself successful, and your military tactics should be as victorious as you claim, then the council will… consider you for the position of general…”


        Prince Sombra stood there dumbfounded.  He was doing everything he could not to burst out in cheer.  He stuttered for a moment before gathering himself to speak, “I promise to the council and to the crystal ponies that I will not fail.  I will prepare my guard and take our lands back!” He said this with such enthusiasm, that some of the council members began to applaud lightly, a few of them even stood up.  Sombra looked over to Greenhoof, “I leave the closing of this council to the speaker, I have much work to do…” he said with a devious grin.  With that, Sombra knelt before the council and took his leave.  Before exiting, Marvin Guile gave him the slightest of nods.






        My excitement was rather quickly dampened.  As soon as I had left the council hall I assembled my royal guard outside of at the castle parade grounds.  I knew many of them by name, and up until now I had never had a problem with them.  After all their only real job was to look nice and disciplined.  They were not ready to kill, or be killed for their kingdom.  Some of them still had a hard time carrying their spears.  Now that I looked at them with an eye for what they would be doing, they looked like the sorriest excuse for half-flanked soldiers I’ve ever seen.  They would need to be whipped into shape, and fast.  Before I could begin though, teaching them all that uncle Reighloph had taught me in those old books, I would have to frighten them, for I could not have those who would turn away from fear in my company, only those who would turn towards it.  I remember what I told them.

        “Guards, ponies, citizens of the crystal kingdom, you swore an oath to your prince and to the citizens of the crystal empire.  You swore, just like I did, to protect them, and keep them safe from harm, so that they may live happy, and free.  Right now, we are facing monsters, beasts in numbers beyond counting that ravage our kingdom.  They show no mercy and no remorse.  They devour ponies from the inside out, and leave nothing but grey corpses in their wake.  By all means, I, just like you should have a mind to turn tail and run in the face of such a foe.  But I will not!  I will NOT turn away from an enemy, no matter how frightening, that tries to hurt my subjects, I will NOT turn away from ANY foe that would dare to threaten my ponies, and crosses into my lands, that my forefathers… YOUR forefathers fought, bled, and died for!  But alas… going headlong into such an enemy will be nigh impossible, and will be met with such fears, and such horrors that I cannot begin to describe and do them justice.  I do not have the heart to force any pony, no matter the oaths he took in time of peace, to undertake such a task.  Therefore, I as your prince offer you this; anypony who does not wish to partake in his position as guard will be pardoned.  He may return to his home, and family without consequence, and I will think no lesser of him.  If you choose to stay, I will push you through the hardest training you have undergone.  Your body will scream in agony, and you will beg me to stop.  Those of you who make it through training then be thrown into battle where I cannot promise that you will return to your families.  What I can promise is that you will be given the opportunity to be the only hope that this kingdom has, all of it’s ponies, all of it’s families to survive.”

I trained with them.  I ran, I fought, and I performed just as they did.  But alas, I had already experience, with my drills.  My skills where only honed further as I trained, and prepared myself to fight.  I felt bad for my guard, I had to discipline them, had to make it hurt, know all too well that as much as it may hurt now, a mistake in battle would cost them their lives.  To my surprise, many more ponies, outside of my guard decided to conscript into the royal guard.  Even with this, many did not make it through the training.  I pushed them, and pushed them, and pushed them until most of them had broken.  When they had, I built them back up, and I turned their soft, fragile bodies into hard, sleek, coordinated killers.

It took almost two months of training until I finally saw it in their eyes.  I could hear it in their voices, and see it in their eyes that they were ready.  Many had dropped out of the training, only a hundred or so actually made it through.  But damned if they were a hundred of the finest soldiers I had ever seen.  Their spears sang through the air, their swords cut through pure crystal structures, and their bodies moved in sync, like one deadly, beautiful instrument.  We were ready.

        It was not a moment too soon either, as we had heard that the northern small city of Bright Town had come under attack.  We were waiting for this call.  We packed up our weapons, and our armor.  Guile had presented me with something from the royal archives, “Achilles” kings blade, crafted and used by the very first king of the empire.  It was a glorious sword, with a royal purple handle, and silver pommel, and a diamond blade, touched with a streak of blood red, to symbolize the fallen, lost to preserve the kingdom.  I sheathed my blade on my back and mounted the wooly elephant with the rest of my soldiers.
        We would leave, and arrive in dawn, so the insects would still be visible, but we would at least have some cover of surprise.  As we neared the town, I looked at my men to confirm my own feelings.  I felt my skin crawling, my muscles twitching and my blood warming.  We were going into battle.  We may not return alive.  We may have the lives sucked out of our bodies, or worse.  We might all die in just over an hour.  By the gods, this was better than christmas!  I could feel it, my own blade, it ached to tear through my enemies.  This is what I longed for, this is what I dreamed of, combat, fighting the monsters to save my people.  It didn’t matter if I died today, because I knew that if I died it would be fighting for the kingdom, for the ponies that I loved.

        The wooly elephant, for whatever reason was mostly ignored by the insects.  It barrelled quickly through town, carrying the long carriages behind it.  We flung the cloth of the carriage open and poured out, spears at the ready.  We could hear the buzzing around us.  The hissing of changelings, and the crying of ponies sounded.   I looked on the ground, and there was a pony there, she was clawing at the ground, trying to escape something in the darkness behind her.  The insect was growling, and had it’s fangs dug into her.  I rushed towards it, and the insect bared it’s fangs at me.  For a moment, I thought I might freeze up.  The changeling rushed towards me and before I could blink, my sword was drawn and it was impaled right through the monsters mouth.  I pulled the sword out, and flicked it, spraying its blood off of the blade, this was it. This is what I hungered for.

        “MAKE SAFE THE CITY PONIES!” I cried out.  The soldiers spread out, and the insects moved in, flying in from above to dive upon us.  As they came, Achilles swung, and devoured them.  One to the left, one to the right.  They may have been terrifying, but their bodies were just as frail as ours and bled just as easily.  I spotted a small wooden schoolhouse, monsters were surrounding it, trying to claw and break their way into it.  One broke the door, and dove inside.  Another followed him, but I pulled him back and dove my blade straight through his back.  I fought them off and jumped into the school house.  There was one insect on the ground, wiggling in his last breath as crystal fillies beat him to death, and a very angry school teacher wacked him with an iron frying pan.  One filly looked at me in surprise, “Is that you… Prince Sombra?” he asked in awe. I smiled at him, with blood strewn across my armor, “Good work young soldier, now help your classmates, get outside and into the wooly elephant carriage.  Quickly now!” I told them.

        Again and again, blade met changeling blood, piercing, and slicing through them like butter.  They came upon us by the thousands, but we were too great a force to be reckoned with! We could hurt them, we could kill them!  Soon, we spotted a great swarm coming towards us.  It looked great enough to overwhelm us, but it stayed behind as a single individual came towards us slowly.  This monster was unlike the others, it was nearly a foot taller than myself, it had a eerie dark colored mane, and its eyes, although a ghastly green, did not hold the same soulless look that the others had.  Strangest of all, this one spoke, in a chilling gnarled voice, although underneath it, I could hear a females voice, “Who dares to harm my children?” she came closer to me, her swarm following closely behind her, “Well well well, the crystal ponies actually have some fight in them, that’s good.  It was growing a bit boring, devouring them without any fight at all… you’re going to be the most fun of all to devour…” she said, looking straight at me.
        
        My soldiers lined up, facing the impossibly large swarm before them, “Stand your ground men… do NOT like them advance on the civilians!” I cried out, my eyes still fixed on the female leader.  I approached her slowly, her insects hissing and clawing towards me, but remaining still, “Who are you, she devil?” I called out to her.

She grinned a fanged grin at me, “I’m glad you asked, I am Thorn, the youngest sister of the Changeling Queens-” she motioned behind her, “-and this is my brood.  Perhaps you’d like to get better acquainted with them?  Kill the soldiers and everyone else my children! But leave this one to me, I want to taste him…” she cried out.

        There was no way we could survive, not against such a numerous horde.  But I would be damned if I was going to let this monster walk away alive after killing so many of my men, after all the crystal ponies she has hurt! The swarm rushed forward, around me, but before they could I charged, sword first at the changeling queen.  This surprised her, as she flew up, out of the way.  She fired a green charged bolt of magic at me, which I was able to knock away with my sword.  From her position in the sky, I couldn’t get to her, and she kept firing her magic bolts at me, I couldn’t keep this up, I had to bring her closer.  I jumped as high as I could and pulled at her hole filled leg with my magic, using all of my magic to slam her into the ground.  Then something I did not expect happened.

        “No! Wait please Sombra! It’s me, your princess of the night!  Don’t hurt me Sombra… I’ve been cursed-” the pony now before me that spoke was Princess Luna,”-they’ve changed me into some sort of monster… please don’t hurt me Sombra… I love you…” I stopped, and I looked into the eyes of the princess.  How could this be? This wasn’t possible… it couldn’t be!  I felt something loosen in my body, my heart sank, and I began to feel week.  As I looked into her eyes, they flashed green and in that moment I knew exactly what she was doing. With a cry of fury, I raised my sword, and drove it into the chest of the queen with all of my might.

        The queen cried out, screeching out like banshee.  So much so that it shattered my eardrums.  The creature changed back into a queen, and then, her eyes glowed terribly.  Her body withered, and fell to the ground dead.  I looked around me, and I saw that the swarm began to fall to the ground, writhing in pain before the turned into black dust, blowing away in the wind.  A few stray changelings remained and after seeing what befell their brothers, they fled away to the north.
        
In my first battle, I lay waste to my enemy.  I have achieved victory, for myself and for the crystal kingdom!  Now I knew how to beat the insects, the changelings.  We could fight, we could win.  And their hero, Prince Sombra could lead them into battle, and save the kingdom!