//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: My little pony: Soul of gold // by Zanaffer //------------------------------// Princess Celestia never considered herself the strongest in all of Equestria, such a concept went completely over her head given that she always favored peace, in the thousand years of her rule there had been no need for her to resort to violence. Nevertheless when the time came she and her sister always proved to be up to the challenge be it against Discord or King Sombra the power of the alicorns always made a significant difference. Yet now a new foe appeared that had not only received the full brunt of Luna's magic unscathed but he also managed to destroy a shield powered by herself and Twilight throwing them back with nothing more than a flap of his wings, such a thing should not be possible even if most of her power was locked away, then again if this stallion was to be believed it was his master, this “Cronos” who was the cause of this. And then there was the timing of this attack, just barely after Tirek's attack had left Equestria weakened, just barely after the elements of harmony were returned to the tree and became unusable, just as the defenceless bearers met with the weakened princesses in the still recovering and reorganizing castle. There were far too many coincidences, especially considering nobody ever knew how Tirek managed to escape Tartarus in the first place. As she recovered from the shock, she saw that the element bearers had moved to shield them and that her newest guest was at the vanguard enveloped in a golden glow, the same glow that she had seen fall from the sky the prior night. Lightning Bolt as he had been introduced by Twilight, a strange stallion that had allegedly fallen from the sky and who had abilities that am earth pony should not naturally possess, said stallion was now using said abilities to defend them. “Insolent fool, how dare you!” Pride furiously yelled at Aioria who had thwarted his attempt at the lives of the princesses. “You have gone far enough, if you insist on fighting I will be your opponent.” Aioria stood defiantly blocking Pride's path. “Who are you? Where did you get those powers?” Pride demanded from Aioria as he regarded him and his cosmo. “That power should be reserved for the servants of Lord Croons.” “I am a golden saint at the service of the goddess Athena, golden saint of Leo, my name is-“ “Lightning Bolt!” Aioria began to introduce himself but was interrupted as he was giving his name by a chorus of hopeful voices calling him the new nickname that had Stockton him since his first meeting with the ponies, he was about to protest about this when Pride continued talking. “So, Lightning Bolt is it?” Aioria didn’t answer and only glared at him. “There is only room for one God in this world so if you insist on standing in my way I will remove you as well!” As he spoke he gathered his cosmo and spread his wings in preparation for an attack. “I won’t allow it! Lightning Bolt!!” Aioria countered striking Pride square in the chest with an explosion of lightning. As Aioria's cosmo subsided he found himself pressing his hoof against the breastplate of Pride's armor, looking in he could see Pride smiling maniacally at him. “Weak.” Was all Pride said as he flapped his wings directly in Aioria’s. The powerful winds blasted Aioria away making him crash against the ceiling while in the floor the ponies screamed and struggled not to get swept away by the wind. When the wind subsided Aioria who was being pressed against the ceiling fell heavily against the marble floor much to Pride’s amusement. “Heh, fool this armor called soma is a divine protection granted to me by Lord Croons himself, it is unbreakable, no harm shall ever befall me as long as I am wearing it. “ Pride gloated having regained the upper hoof but his smile turned to a scowl when Aioria rose on unsteady legs and looked at him with eyes that did not concede defeat. “You still pretend to oppose me? Fool! You have witnessed the great powers bestowed onto me by my lord, a mere mud pony like you will never be able to even put a scratch in my armor, why do you even fight me? My actions here are for the betterment of all ponykind?” Aioria steadied himself once again standing protectively before the terrified ponies and the fallen princesses. “I will never allow tyranny to prevail as long as I draw breath, it is my sacred duty as a saint of Athena.” As Aioria spoke he once again ignited his cosmo to its limits preparing to once again face Pride. Pride merely scoffed at his determination. “Ah yes, the 'goddess’ Athena” He said condescendingly. “don’t you worry, once Lord Croons had raised Equestria he will expand our empire to beyond the stars and reclaim his place as King of the Gods, I’m sure he will be glad to greet this goddess of yours personally” Pride said oozing malice with every word. “What!?” Aioria responded in alarm at the declaration, Croons planned to raise an army and use it to extract revenge on the gods, that meant another front would join the Holy war and Athena's forces has nearly been exhausted between Saga's rebellion and the current battle against Hades, he could not let this happen, feeling his determination rise Aioria reached the depths of his being with his enhanced senses awakening his ultimate cosmo. “I will not allow you to do as you please.” Aioria said as his aura strengthened, the air around him cackled with energy discharging random jolts of golden lightning. Pride took a step back as lightning danced across the room. “You who abuses your power turning it at the defenseless, you who mocks others while gleefully crushing their spirit, You! You will truly know what it means to face a golden saint.” As Aioria spoke a blinding golden light appeared before him forcing Pride to look away, Princess Celestial avatar of the sun focused her eyes into the light, it was like looking into a second sun, within that light she should see something, something had appeared and was shinning blindingly as the sun in front of the brave stallion. When the light dimmed, what appeared to be a golden statue of a lion stood in front of Aioria, all present stared in astonishment, Celestial could feel a great power as well as a faint pulse coming from it. “So you came” Aioria said, a warm smile adorning his face, he quickly regained his serious demeanor and called for the statue “LET’S GO, LEO!!!” As if answering his call the statue glowed intensely and broke into pieces, each individual piece finding it’s place on the stallion’s body, front and back legs, breastplate, even a piece covering his back and cutie mark and finally a five pointed headpiece with an aquamarine jewel in the center. The ponies were once again awed into silence at the spectacle “Lightning Bolt!” Aioria wasted no time and began pelting Pride with consecutive attacks, this time he was being pushed back by the unbending barrage of attacks, he couldn’t see Aioria’s movements and had to resort to defense all while enduring a veritable rain of lightning bolts.” “ENOUGH!!!” Pride roared in anger creating a sphere of wind forcing Aioria to relent, he glared at the gold clothed stallion across the room. “It’s useless, I already told you, you will never defeat me as long as I am wearing this armor” Pride began to say but suddenly he heard the sound of something breaking, he looked down to see a small crack in the breastplate of his precious armor, pride was gobsmacked as the impossible happened before his very eyes, the crack even began to grow and a few stray shards fell to the floor at his hooves. Confusion led to anger as Pride raised a glare towards Aioria. “You...” He said trembling in rage, his cosmo exploding as if fueled his bloodlust. “Enough with the games! Everypony dies now!” Pride declared as he extended his wings at their full length, Aioria readied himself and the ponies behind him braced themselves for anther wind attack. “Perfect Storm!!!” Time seemed to stop for Twilight as she saw the horror that approached, a solid wall of wind raced forward shredding everything in its path to dust, there was nothing to do, no barrier she could make would hold against that and she didn’t even have time to make one, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna tried anyway and were lighting their horns while her precious friends huddled together for protection, but it wouldn’t matter, it would get blown away again, and so would they, and Lightning Bolt, even him with his strange powers and golden armor could do nothing to stop a hurricane Twilight thought in resignation and closed her eyes as a single tear escaped her eyes and ran down her cheeks “Lightning Plasma!!!” The throne room exploded into chaos as countless beams of light collided with the approaching wall of death, both forces battled one another fiercely for dominance causing destruction all around, the floor shook and the ceiling crumbled, from behind the princesses shield Twilight saw as Lightning Bolt stood firm against impossible odds as infinite beams of light cut the wind wall that was intended to kill them all. The two colliding forces eventually waned and stopped leaving two ponies standing glaring at one another. “I am impressed that you could repel my wind, but our battle merely just began, make no mistake about it I will destroy you.” Pride said as he once again spread his blue wings. “Not good.” Thought Aioria. “His attacks have a very destructive force behind them, I won’t be able to protect the ponies while I fight him in this confined space.” Worry became evident in his face as he adopted a defensive stance as he prayed to Athena for a way, any way for him to protect the ponies, his prayers were immediately answered. “Atomic Thunderbolt!” From a large hole in the ceiling came a golden shooting star that proceed to throw a very familiar looking golden lightning attack at Pride but with much more force behind it, Pride managed to dodge it by taking to the air just as the place where he was standing was obliterated by golden lightning. The shooting star hovered in the air for a second before launching itself and landing next to Aioria, the golden glow faded away revealing a light brown pegasus with a reddish brown mane clad in golden armor much like Aioria, the stallions armor opened at the back to let the pegasus's wings out and his headpiece had wing like decorations at he sides, at his hooves was a golden bow with a matching golden arrow, all in all he looked very similar to Aioria, almost like… “B, brother?” Aioria asked cautiously, almost fearfully at the he newcomer as he looked at him with a hopeful expression. “Hey little brother.” Said the pegasus. “Well talk later, right now we've got work to do.” He said fixing his eyes on the hovering Pride. “Hey you, it seems like you’ve been having a lot of fun, but if you insist on continuing I will be your opponent, let me warn you though, this golden arrow pierced The Wailing Wall in the depths of Hades, how do you think you will fare?” The pegasus's golden aura flared to life enveloping his bow and arrow ominously. Pride remained silent for a moment as of considering his options, the he spoke. “It would seem that some unknown factors have appeared, I must return and report this to Lord Cronos immediately, but don’t be mistaken we will settle this at another time.” Pride hovered in the air just a moment longer glaring at the golden armored ponies before shooting towards the roof trough one of the larger cracks. “Brother.” Aioria approached his brother Aioros the Golden Saint of Sagittarius who responded with a gallant smile and a heroic pose, with was all for naught when he clumsily dropped his bow and arrow witch rattled to the ground noisily. “Brother… you don’t know how to use that in this form, do you?” Aioros's only response was to look away. Cantering Castle broke into chaos following the attack, the place had been severely damaged and several guards had been severely wounded, the fact that an intruder had reached the throne room and assaulted the princesses had only fanned the flames. After all the wounded were tended to (including the princesses and the bearers) the princesses held a meeting (despite the protests of the palace guards and the medical staff) with the element bearers and their new saviors, both still wearing their impressive sets of golden armor. “So, let’s see if I got this right.” Said Twilight after they had given a cursory explanation of their situation. “You two are elite warriors from another world who fight for the peace of the world at the service of Princess Athena.” She summarized, Aioros wanted to point out that Athena was a goddess and not a princess but he kept quiet, apparently the titles were interchangeable in this world. “And you were in the middle of a war against an evil wizard who wanted to block out the sun to rule a world covered in darkness.” Princess Luna looked rather uncomfortable at this part of their story and looked away with a noticeable blush, Aioria wondered why but he didn’t want to interrupt now that they were finally getting somewhere. “And!” Twilight emphasized. “You along with the other ten golden warriors, or “saints” as you call yourselves sacrificed yourselves so others could move on and save the princess.” “That’s about it.” Aioria nodded at the extremely shortened version of the war against Hades, although some of the details were somewhat inexact that wasn’t important at the moment. “However, instead of dying we were transported to this world and scattered to the winds, isn’t that right brother?” Aioria asked his brother Aioros for his input on the matter. “Indeed, the explosion resulting from the destruction of the wailing wall should have turned up to dust and scattered our asked to the ends of the universe, but instead we crossed into a completely different universe for reasons I cannot begin to understand, and if we both are here then that means the others probably made it as well.” “What does thou intend to do next sir Golden Arrow?” Lunar asked the contemplative Aioros. “Hmm, first we need to… Golden Arrow?” Aioros began to answer when he registered the name he had been addressed as. “Indeed.” Lunar replied joyously. “We caught thy name whilst thou were boasting about the achievement of bringing down the wall of wailing to the villain Pride.” “But that’s not my…” Aioros began to protest, but his voice was quickly drowned by the he other ponies as they commented on his “name” approvingly, Aioria quietly approached his brother from behind and placed a hoof on his shoulder and gave him a sympathetic smile. “Don’t think too much about it brother.” He said knowingly. “oooh look, it even matches his cutie mark.” Said a female voice on the other side of Aioros where there was certainly no one just a moment ago, startled he turned to see the pink one standing there raising his armor piece that covered his flank just enough to reveal a golden bow and arrow printed on his fur. “See?” “Madam please.” Said a flustered Aioros. “I don’t believe we have been formally introduced.” Aioros moved away from the mate who had managed to escape hid detention and get her hooves on the goods, the other mares wore a sight blush while Rainbow Dash and Aioria chuckled at his discomfort, but the pink one just smiled oblivious to his discomfort. “Hi immediately Pinkie Pie and I already know your name so there’s no need for more introductions what’s your favorite cake? I have to know cause when we go back to Ponyville immediately going to make you a “Thank you for flying in and saving the day” party so I need to know to make it just perfect what about cupcakes do you like cupcakes hrmghlbrg” she went into a long winded speech before Applejack covered her mouth with her hoof to make her stop, Aioria and Aioros just looked at them confused. “Ahem, as I was saying the first thing we should do is look for the others, we will need their strength if we are to go against Chronos.” Aioros quickly got back on the subject. “Wait.” Intervened princess Celestia. “You know who Chronos is?” She asked. Aioria and Aioros shared a look and Aioria began to explain. “Chronos is the king of the Titans, the youngest son of Gaia and Uranus, he killed his father and assumed the rule of the world but was later defeated by his son Zeus and imprisoned in Tartarus for all time.” He was expecting questions but wad only met with silence from the two rulers. “Did, did you say Gaia and Uranus?” Celestia asked with a trembling voice, taken aback by this Aioria nodded, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia shared a meaningful look at the revelation, and then Princess Luna spoke. “Mother and Father?”