The Elements of Honor

by Flanagan

Chapter 47: Hope

“P-Princess Celestia…” Twilight whimpered looking to the door, “Shining Armor…”

Twilight rushed into Battleaxe’s embrace, clinging to him tightly as her tears fell to the floor. All Battleaxe could do was hold her, she had just lost her teacher and a brother, a pain the he had only just recently experienced. She wrapped her forelegs around him tight enough to the point where Battleaxe could hardly breathe.

“My sister…” Princess Luna said with misty eyes, “my beloved sister…”
Princess Luna fell to her knees and let out a sorrowful cry, “MY SISTER HAS BEEN TAKEN FROM ME!”

Tears cascaded down her face while the others rushed to her and Twilight’s side, doing their best to take away the unconceivable pain. The cries of both ponies echoed down the halls of the battered castle, attracting the attention of the three still inside.

“What was that?” Scootaloo said looking up from Prince Gold Heart’s crib, “it sounded like it was coming from the castle entry.”

“It must be the others,” Princess Cadence replied, placing her foal’s doll on a nearby table. “I hope they’re all right.”

“I’m afraid that is not the case, Cadence…” Warhammer said omeniously. “Those cries are from the hearts of those who just had a part ripped from them.” his head lowered bringing fear to those who were with him.

“How do you know that?” Scootaloo asked with a hint or worry in her voice.

“I’ve heard it before… on the field of battle…” Warhammer responded, looking back up to her. “And hearing it once is far too much.”

“We need to hurry to them,” Princess Cadence said grabbing the sleeping Prince. “We have to see what we can do to help them.”

The three made their way from Princess Cadence’s tempoary quarters down the hall to the main doors, not really knowing what was in store for them once they arrived. Once they made their way to the front doors of the castle they saw the bloody, bruised and broken members of the group that was outside. After a few moments of looking at the scene, Princess Cadence spoke.

“What happened out there?” she asked looking around at all of them, searching for one in particular. “And where’s Shining Armor and Aunt Celestia?”

Twilight and Princess Luna paused only long enough to look at Princess Cadence for a few moments before they began crying again, but it was long enough for her to know exactly what happened out there.

“No…” Princess Cadence whispered, making her way to Battleaxe and Twilight. “he… he CAN’T be…”

Twilight looked up to her once again, the tears still falling from her eyes as she buried her head back into Battleaxe’s still bleeding chest. He winched in pain but he didn’t let her go. “I’m… I’m sorry, Princess,” she said whimpering, “B-but… they’re-”

“We don’t know how they are, Twilight,” Battleaxe interrupted, trying to sooth them both. “Shiny could have put up his shield at the last moment.”

“He was too busy closing the door behind us to cast his protection spell!” Twilight cried throwing herself back on him.

At that moment the young Prince began to cry, he had been woken up by the sorrowful cries of the ponies around him. Princess Cadence quickly took him out of his holder and did her best to sooth her foal, but he kept crying.

“It’s ok, baby…” Princess Cadence said with misty eyes. “It’s ok, mommy’s here… mommy’s still here… mommy’s still…”

“We need to open the door,” Twilight said looking to the golden arches, “we need to get them inside!”

Twilight ran form Battleaxe’s embrace to the doors, but she was stopped by Battleaxe. “Twilight… you can’t go out there…”

“My brother’s out there!” she cried reaching for the door behind Battleaxe. “I need to get him in here!”

“Twilight, listen to me,” Battleaxe said forcefully placing one hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “We don’t know what’s going on out there, the whole damn city might be full of shadow fiends again, and none of us are in any kind of shape to take them on.Hell the city might not even be there anymore… Even if Shining Armor’s still alive-”

“I KNOW he’s alive!” Twilight cried pushing away from Battleaxe. “But he won’t be for long unless I do something!”

“You’ve done all you can, Twilight…” Battleaxe said teary eyed. “You’ve done all you can…”

Twilight smacked Battleaxe repeatedly trying to make him let go of her, but her attempts did nothing to him, he just kept hanging on. Once she finally came to her scenes again she looked up to him and with tears in her eyes she buried her head into his chest once again. Battleaxe just placed a single hoof around her and allowed a single tear of his own to fall.

“We need to stay together, Twilight…” he said looking down to her. “You and I have both lost something that can never be replaced, but if we break now… there’ll never be hope for any future…”

Twilight looked up to Battleaxe, “but…” she whimpered.

“No…” Battleaxe said, “I know how you felt about your brother and believe me I’m going through the same thing you are right now,” he pointed to the group of battered ponies. “But they need us now… with or without our older brothers.”

Twilight looked back the rest of the group then back to Battleaxe. “Y-you’re right, Battleaxe… we need to organize them as best we can to even stand a chance against Destruction.”

“Then let’s get planning.” Battleaxe replied releasing Twilight from his embrace as they made their way back.

“WARHAMMER!” Princess Luna cried running into him, “Warhammer, Destruction took away from me my sister!” she wrapped her forelegs around him and buried her face into his neck, “he took my sister!”

Warhammer froze for a few moments, not believing what he had just heard, but when he looked down to Princess Luna’s face he saw the look that he had only seen once before. He quickly wrapped her up in his embrace, trying to take away as much pain from her as he could and for the first time that anypony could remember Warhammer shed a tear. He gently slid one of his hooves to her head and began stroking her mane while her tears fell to the floor.

“Our pain is shared Luna…” Warhammer said still holding her. “We have both lost blood this day.”

“It feels as if my heart has been ripped from my chest, Warhammer…” she said looking up to him, “how do you do it?”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand, Luna,” Warhammer replied, “do what?”

“Be you…” she said with watery eyes. “How do you endure?”

“I endure because I know this isn’t the end,” he said, “I know there is something after all of this and despite my pain, my suffering… my loss, I know I will be with the ones I love for eternity soon enough, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel the pain of their loss now.”

“I found out just hours ago that I’m immortal, Warhammer…” Princess Luna said looking to the ground. “I shall live forever and the only other pony I could find comfort in is gone…” she looked back up to him. “Who will be there for me when YOU’RE gone?”

“There is always hope, Luna,” Warhammer said, “there is always hope.”

“As much as I want to believe you Warhammer…” Princess Luna said looking to the door. “I don’t think any of us will see another day.”

“Then let this night be one to remember…” Warhammer said drawing closer to her. “A night where we stood against our end and no matter the outcome, we will be remembered forever.”

“You are a VERY lucky pony,” Patches said wrapping Event Horizon’s leg up. “Given what Rainbow Dash explained, I’m surprised that you just got out of it with a broken leg and a few lacerations.”

“I guess I’ve got an angel on my side Patches,” Event said looking over to the concerned mare at Patches’ side. “A fast as hell one.”

“No doubt,” Patches said, throwing her bags over her sides. “That’s all I can do with the supplies I have, and I still need to take care of Carmel and Battleaxe’s injuries. I’ll check up on you when I get the chance.”

“Thanks doc.” Event said.

“Just call me Patches, please,” she said trotting off. “Doc is too impersonal.”

“Will do.” he said watching Patches make her way to Carmel and Apple Jack.

“Feeling any better?” Rainbow asked looking him over.

“I would feel better if she gave me a lollypop.” Event said looking at his new cast. “Lollypop’s make the world a better place.”

“I don’t think a lollypop would help us out right now.” Rainbow said with a smile.

“You never know,” Event said smiling back. “Why did you even look for me? You might have not made it inside.”

“You saved me and I saved you,” she replied causally, waving her hoof. “Now we’re even.”

“Last time I checked I still had nearly twenty on you.” Event said grinning deviantly at her.

Rainbow’s face turned a slight red color as she glared at Event. “A simple ‘thank you’ would do.”

“Oh you have my thanks,” Event said, “but I’m still beating you.”

Rainbow’s cheeks went red, spawning even more laughter form Event. Finally deciding that she’d heard enough, she turned to go talk to somepony else, but before she could walk of and pout, he leg knocked into Event’s broken leg.

“MOTHER OF CELESTIA!” he cried painfully reaching for his leg. “Holy mother of… that hurt like hell!”

“Oh I’m sorry EH!” Rainbow said spinning around to face him. “I didn’t meant to-”

“It’s fine…” Event said forcing a painful smile, “accidents happen…”

“Are you ok?” Patches said running back to the two. “What happened?”

“It’s my fault, Patches…” Rainbow said, “I-”

“It’s nothing Patches,” Event said interrupting her. “I just bumped it on the ground a little too hard.”

“Oh, alright.” Patches said looking over the cast before she went off to treat Long Shot. “Just be more careful next time.”

“I will, Patches.” Event said holding the cast while he rocked back and forth in pain.

“Why did you do that?” Rainbow said looking at him confused. “I was the one who bumped you.”

“Sometimes you do things and you don’t know why, Rainbow.” Event said, still holding his leg. “would you mind staying here to make sure nothing else runs into my leg?”

Rainbow looked away from Event, trying to hide her embarrassment, “I guess I could… we can’t have any more bad luck then we already got.”

“I can’t believe that you did this!” Scootaloo said wrapping her hooves around Patches. “I didn’t think he’d-”

“That’s enough, Scoot…” Long Shot said standing up. “Go check on Carmel for your new heroine will you?”

“Will do dad.” she said with a smile as she walked off to that direction.

The two watched her walk off for a few moments then Lon Shot spoke. “You really are amazing,” he said to Patches, “you know that, right?”

“Please Long Shot,” Patches said waving the compliment off. “I’m just doing my job.”

“I know that, but every other medic in my seventeen years of service would have labeled me K.I.A. after taking one look at me.” he hobbled even closer to her, “but not you.”

“I’m not losing another member of the 1025th,” Patches said looking away. “I’ve lost everything once… I don’t want to lose everything again.”

“Or maybe it’s something more,” Long Shot said stopping only a few steps away from Patches, “maybe there’s something about me, something that makes you fight harder…”

Patches tried to walk away but she was stopped by Long Shot’s hoof on her shoulder. “I-I need to check on Carmel.” she said not turning to face him.

“You’re not afraid of losing everything…” Long Shot said turning her around, “you’re afraid of losing ME.”

“I-I can’t talk about this right now…” Patches said doing her best not to look into Long Shot’s eye. “It hasn’t even been a year since-”

“Patches…” Long Shot said, slowly turning her to face him, “I know what it’s like, losing somepony you love, I also know that you still love Comet, you always will, but I’m here for you now.”

He drew her in closer, but before he could kiss her Scootaloo returned. “Hey dad!” she said, “I just want to tell you that Carmel is-” she froze mid-sentence looking in utter disbelief at what she was seeing. “DAD?!” she exclaimed, “WHA-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

The two quickly drew away from one another their faces red with embarrassment. After an awkward silence that seemed to last for hours Long Shot finally spoke.

“You were about to tell us how Carmel was doing.” he said staring directly into is daughter’s baffled face.

“Oh… right, Carmel…” Scootaloo said coming back to her scenes. “He’s fine, Apple Jack got him all wrapped up.” she made her way to Long Shot and Patches, “but what were you two talking about while I was over there?”

“Well we didn’t really have much to say to one another,” Long Shot said looking for some kind of excuse. “I was just thanking her for… patching me up.”

“Right…” Scootaloo said raising her eyebrow. “Then why were you about to kiss her?”

“I wasn’t about to kiss her…” Long Shot said looking away. “She was checking to see if there was something in my eye.”

“And how could she do that if her eyes were closed?” Scootaloo said, pointing to Patches.

“Now is not the time to talk about this,” Patches said smiling awkwardly.
“There are still ponies that need to be attended to.”

Patches ran off to Battleaxe and Twilight on the other side of the room. The two watched her run off then Scootaloo turned her attention back to her father, “So…” she said, smiling deviantly “Patches huh?”

“Scoot…” Long Shot began, “I-”

Scootaloo interrupted him with a hug, “I’m really happy for you dad,” she said, “ever since mom died I’ve-”

Her comment was cut short by a massive earthquake that tore through the castle. Causing the chandeliers and pillars to rumble and fall to the floor. Everypony inside scrambled to avoid the debris.

“We got to get outta here!” Apple Jack shouted. “The whole dang place is ‘bout ta turn us all inta applesauce!”

The group ran for the front doors the quake shook them loose. Warhammer and Battleaxe easily slammed through the doors causing them to fall over to the outside. Once outside everypony looked to the sky and what they saw left them in awe. Destruction had blasted two gigantic holes, one in the sky and one in the earth. They could hardly believe it, Destruction had torn holes in the very fabric of their reality and now he was ripping it apart.

“How are we gonna stop that?” Rainbow said looking at the awesome sight.

“We still have the elements of harmony,” Twilight said looking at Destruction defiantly. “I only hope we’re not too late.”

“And we still have the elements of honor,” Battleaxe added, “Greatsword can still come back to us,” he looked over to Derpy. Her eyes were still watery while she looked at the silver object in her hooves. “There is still hope…”