By the time Honour Bound was done, Celestia looked just about ready for a barbeque. What wasn’t seared, or caked in soot was still on fire. The green flames made short work of the solar princess, leaving her a whimpering heap of burning flesh. Honour trotted up to her casually, savouring the smell of despair wafting from his fallen opponent.
“You think you know suffering, don’t you?” he hissed mockingly, raising a sickle
Before Celestia could provide a scathing remark, the sickle plunged into the earth centimetres from her throat, trapping her in the hook of its blade.
“Over a thousand years, and to think of you as their leader,”
He rounded on her, staring deeply into the princess with his own blank, emerald eyes. The effect on her was hypnotising, but she kept her focus.
“You are weak!” Honour spat “A pathetic excuse for a leader. What leader deserts her people, for the death of two of her subjects? What leader destroys another’s home, on mere suspicion?”
He pressed his hoof into her throat, making her gag on the ground, and grimace as it touched her singed coat.
“TELL ME!” he roared
Honour lifted his sickle from the earth, and struck her hard with the flat side of the blade. She didn’t even moan as she was sent tumbling down the grassy hill. Honour reached her again with a mighty leap, cracking the ground below at his landing. Honour forced her to stand with his magic, then secured her in place with tendrils of rock, wrapping around her legs.
“A leader who cares for her subjects,” she choked, spitting blood “Would never give up on them. Not like your pathetic Matriarch,”
The changeling’s eyes widened at the insult, face melting into a snarl. With a mighty beat of his four insect wings, he sent a gust of wind laced with dust and small rocks to the captured princess. She grimaced in pain as the rock and sand lacerated her already wounded skin. She slumped in her bonds, only kept up by her stone supports.
“Don’t you dare insult my leader!” Honour shouted “What kind of pony do you think you are, comparing yourself to divinity?”
“I am Divinity,” Celestia retorted
“What Goddess feels the need to banish her own sister for a thousand lonely years?”
Celestia had no reply for that, but was choked into submission by a holed black hoof.
“Suffering, is not a weakness the Gods possess. You are no God, Celestia. You are a Princess who hides behind the guise of a Goddess. YOU ARE A COWARD!”
He lifted her up into the air, shattering her earthen bonds, and tossed her to his left. She was sent tumbling yet again, landing in a nearby creek. The native birds flew away in fright at her sudden entrance. Honour Bound landed beside her yet again, looking at the crippled princess with envy.
“You had everything, and you didn’t even realise,” he said quietly “You had a loving sister, an entire adoring nation at your hooves. What did you do with said nation?”
He picked up a large pebble, the size of a pony’s head.
“You abandoned them,” he growled, crushing the pebble for effect “You wallowed in your pride, and their admiration. Your arrogance brought upon the greatest fall your new land has ever seen since Discord’s reign,”
Celestia went to get up, but Honour’s strong hoof held her firmly in place, keeping her lying limply in the mud and water. He brought his face closer, looking into her eyes once again.
“You know what I had?” he asked quietly “I was born on the streets, to a bastard, drunken soldier and his little whore. I grew up without a father, nor mother. I spent the first six years of my life treading through filth, scavenging for scraps and devouring anything small enough to fit in my mouth,”
His grip loosened as happier memories flooded through him.
“But Astral changed that,” he whispered “He found me on the edge of his forest, starving and exhausted. He gave me food, shelter, a loving family to call my own. They accepted me for who I am, not what I look like. The Matriarch adopted me as her third student, and taught me all she knows. When times of trouble arrived, she gave her life to see that the ponies she looked after remained safe,”
He relinquished her grip on Celestia, and allowed her to stand before him. Even at full height, Honour Bound still towered over her by a head.
“A real leader, would rather die than see her subjects get hurt. You have filled that well today, but the lessons of the pasts must be learned if one were to stride into the future,”
He banished his two sickles with a soft *pop* and turned away, back towards the mansion. Celestia stood there grimly, replaying the words in her head. His lessons were quite relevant, but she came here for one reason and one reason only. She readied a powerful spell, channelling magic into her horn and focusing on a single point. With a mighty cry, she released a thin, powerful beam of light that singed the air around it.
Honour turned in time to see the light, but not to avoid it. He screamed in pain as the laser ploughed right through his armour, exoskeleton and flesh beneath, then remerging on the other side of his body. He slumped to the ground breathing heavily, feeling his flesh being cooked from the inside. His own fluorescent green blood poured from the smoking wound, watering the ground beneath him.
Green sparks of magic emerged, and set about healing his wounds. Each spark restored a small part of the wound, but it was a lengthy process. Celestia limped over to her fallen opponent, using her halberd for support. She fixed a silver bracelet with a blue sigil branded on it to the changeling wrist. As he was bound, the green magic faded away. Honour felt his magic grow weaker, as one after another his bodily processes shut down. The last thing he felt was himself bleed out on the grass beneath. The last he saw was the satisfied smile on his opponents face.
“No… Honour…” he gasped
And with that, Honour Bound breathed his last.
*=_/)|*|(\_=*
Astral Star limped through the hallway, hastily wrapping bandages over his various cuts and bruises. He was in no shape to fight, but he still had to do something. With a splinted front right hoof, and bandages haphazardly wrapped around his other legs and torso, he went into his fake study. To his shock, the key book “A Foal’s Guide to Necromancy” has been taken from the shelf, and the secret passage lay bare for all to see.
Sensing an intruder, he resummoned his zweihänder, and held it before him in a magical grip. Entering the laboratory, he saw signs of struggle. Three Weeping Angels stood around each other, fangs beared, ready to snatch an invisible foe. When two Angels look at one another, they stop moving since neither could blink nor move while looking at each other. It was a deadlock to their otherwise full proof safety feature.
A bat pony clad in the Night Guard’s armour stood at a servicing platform, a narrow runway that led to hoof’s reach to the giant column of light that was the mansion’s power source. Sensing movement, the guard whirled and flung three throwing knives in quick succession at the blue unicorn. Two were blocked with increasing clumsiness, and the third lacerated his left cheek. Nursing a shallow cut, Astral limped towards the intruder.
Not taking chances, the intruding bat pony drew his own sword, gripping it between his teeth, and flung himself towards Astral. He was much faster compared to the blue unicorn, but the giant zweihänder provided for more than efficient coverage for the smaller sabre. Switching tactics, he bounded behind his injured opponent, and took a swing at his rear end. Thanks to magic, Astral moved the blade to block the strike without turning.
With increasing frustration, the intruder flew a safe distance, and flung more knives in a flurry. Astral went for his magic, conjuring a round shield of darkness, much fuller than his previous one, since he had more shadow to work with. Knife after knife fell through the shield, but Astral’s focus was wavering. Injury was messing with his accuracy and skill, so he concluded that he must end the fight quickly. He conjured the same shield directly above the intruder. With confusion, the bewildered bat pony looked up, only to be pelted with the very same knives he had thrown moments ago.
The knives lacked momentum, so the meagre two metre drop caused only slight lacerations and scratched armour. He quickly picked up three knives and sent them flying back towards Astral. The blue unicorn held the knives in a telekinetic grip, forcing them to a stop, then sending them straight back again. The first was easily dodged, while the second took a glancing blow at his left wrist, and the third hit him directly in the right arm.
It impacted with a crunch and crack of broken bones as the intruder roared in agony. With hate fuelled energy, the bat pony renewed his assault. Despite his newest wound, his attacks were incredibly fast. Astral could barely keep up as strikes pelted him like a storm of hail. Eventually, his guard broke, taking slashes across the chest. He slumped to the floor, defeated, in a pool of his own blood.
The victor grimaced as he put weight on his right hoof, but otherwise smiled proudly at his close win. He walked with a limp back to the service platform, sword clenched in his teeth. Astral looked drowsily towards the figure, eyesight blurred by a mixture of blood loss and actual blood. HE clawed for his sword feebly, when even magic wouldn’t work under his pain.
The intruder hefted his sword into his left hoof, leaning against the railing with his right. He looked determinedly at the swirling vortex of light.
“FOR MY BROTHER!” he cried, plunging the sword into the vortex
The blade melted under the intense force and energy, mingling with the raw magic as it travelled towards the mechanical receiver. As the foreign matter reached the apex, the machine began to break apart. Metal was no natural component of magic, and the receiver was not meant to handle artificial material. Wild, pink energy rippled across the ceiling in angry streaks of lightning. The receiver began to detach from the roof, bringing the whole chunk of rock and earth it rested upon with it.
Astral stood weakly, hobbling his way towards the giant green sphere. The incomplete body of Matriarch Amaryllis stared back at him, eyes blank of emotion, unaware of impending disaster. The whole section of earth came loose from the ceiling, falling down into the giant pit from which its energy came. The still spiralling column of light cut through the debris like the super laser it now was. Thankfully, the rest of the roof remained intact, if half the Mansion above did not.
A huge, column vortex of pink light shot towards the sky for all to see. Ponies from all over Equestria could see the mysterious, yet magnificent display. Without anything to receive it, the magical energy thinned out, then dissipated in the space of a few seconds. The intruder, now determined to be Frolicsome Meadowlark, flew through the gaping hole and back into the outside world.
Astral remained behind, weeping over the destruction of his home. Everything he’s ever done, resided in this Mansion, and little more than half of it was even salvageable thanks to the day’s events. The biggest reason he was crying, was the young mare, slumped in a pool of dull green nutritional gel. Without power, its life support system failed immediately. Astral channelled one last spark into the life support monitor. The few seconds of flat green lines and incessant ringing only confirmed his loss. The white mare with the three-toned mane, lay on the floor, dead.
Astral slumped to the ground in defeat. He had lost so much in such a short amount of time. Nothing seemed real to him anymore, only trivial compared to what he’s just been through. He was almost relieved when the guards came, binding his magic and escorting him out in chains.
*=_/)|*|(\_=*
Verity was eventually overpowered by the sheer amount if guards she had to face. They came at her five to eight at a time, disregarding orders to subdue, and only focused on drawing blood. By the time she was out down, she sported deep cuts along the side, shallower cuts and scratches all over, a burn mark to the chest, and a black left eye. Her armour still clung to her only by sweat and blood, most of it broke off during her fights. Her chain flail and sword were discarded on the ground where she was defeated.
The guards threw her into a kneeling position before the Captain of the Guard, right outside his own tent. Captain Shining Armour was supposed to be pleased by the victory, but he felt only guilt and shame seeing the beaten mare before him. Forcing the calm look of authority, he addressed his wanted criminal.
“Verity Honora, by order of the Princesses Celestia and Luna, I place you under arrest on the charge of one account of murder, one account of attempted murder, and innumerable counts of assaulting the Royal Guard,” he stated, checking the prisoner for a reaction “Do you have anything to say in your defence?”
Suddenly, a huge column of pink light shot right into the air, lighting up the afternoon in a magenta hue of colour. The display lasted for seconds, but Verity stared at its position for minutes.
“No…” she breathed, as the implications of the light hit her full force.
She fell to the ground, finally beaten. She cried herself to sleep, right on the floor on which they threw her.
“Take her away,” Shining ordered grimly
Two earth pony guards moved her onto a stretcher, and carried her away from curious eyes. Next to arrive was a midnight blue unicorn, half dressed in obsidian black armour and a tattered cloak. His stretcher was saturated with his own blood, as much of it seeped through the clumsily applied bandages. Frolicsome limped along next to it, grim satisfaction on his face.
Last to arrive to Princess Celestia, looking far worse for wear. She was covered in blackened scorch marks and blood, her own as well as the corpse's behind her. Chained to her halberd was the corpse of the biggest changeling Shining’s ever seen. It was much bigger than Queen Chrysalis, and looked a lot stronger and intimidating. A hole about the size of his hoof worked its way through his right side, then through his left chest. Around it was an ugly scorch mark, as well as some burns. Fluorescent green blood matted the ground as the solar princess carelessly dragged it along. Two Pegasus guard flanked her, each carrying a large sickle.
“Take him with the rest,” Celestia demanded, motioning to the dead changeling “He’s not going to stay down forever,”
“Forgive me, princess,” Shining Armour replied “But, whatever happened to ‘apprehend, not kill’?”
“He won’t be dead for long,” she responded curtly “Now do as I say,”
Shining saluted hesitantly, then ordered a couple guards to carry the changeling to the awaiting prisoner caravan.
The caravan was a series of crude wooden carriages, fitted to house bandits and rogues for transport. Already inside was an unconscious Verity, whose fur was matted by her brother’s blood as he still bled out. Astral was barely conscious, muttering incoherently as the guards tossed Honour Bound inside. The guards closed the doors with a slam, and gave orders for the caravan to go. The carriage lurched forward as they began the solemn journey back to Canterlot.