Age of the Pony
Chapter 1
“From the Ashes”
Ebonyblade was a soldier in Prince Blueblood’s army. He was among those who were supposed to help King Excalibur drive back the Darklings with a flanking attack. We all know what happened when the tower was lit though. Prince Blueblood betrayed his father and set himself up as king.
Ebonyblade refused to leave the people of Ponyville behind however. The small town was among the first to be assaulted by the unchecked Darkling horde. Every Stallion, mare and filly was caught in the crossfire of the battle. But what’s most important here is that this is where we met Ebonyblade…I remember it like it was yesterday…He helped us get out of the chantry and he was willing to get us to safety. Our story begins with our flight from Ponyville.
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Ebony tried to ignore the fatigue he was feeling in his legs. He and his companions had been running for hours since they left Ponyville behind. He had no intention of stopping and letting the Darklings take his newfound friends for a mid morning snack.
He turned around and saw the baby dragon Spike trip on a stone. Twilight turned around and her staff glowed a violet color. A Darkling leaped to try and get at the little dragon but was greeted by a fireball to the face. Spike looked up as Twilight created a wall of fire to seal the path behind them.
Ebony noticed a Darkling trying to ambush Twilight from behind. He wouldn’t have it. He ran to the Darkling and plunged his blade into its neck. The Darkling gave a pained scream before breathing his last. Ebony shook his head and sheathed the blade on his leg. He turned to his companions.
Twilight, a young unicorn clad in robes of the circle was looking at Ebony with grateful violet eyes. “Thank you Serah Blade” She bent down to inspect her dragon companion. “We wouldn’t have been able to escape without you”
“All in a day’s work” Ebony said trying to sound braver then he really was feeling. He looked at Spike with his green eyes. “You alright Spike?”
The little purple dragon nodded and dusted himself off “Yeah I’m okay; I’d rather not have any more of those things attacking me anytime soon though”
Ebony turned to look at the charred corpses of the Darklings “We can’t stay here, there are bound to be other Darklings nearby”
Twilight nodded and looked at Spike “Spike stay close”
The dragon looked at Twilight indignantly “I can fight!”
Twilight’s voice took on a scolding tone “No Spike, I can’t risk you getting hurt”
“I’m a Dragon Twilight! I can handle any Darklings that come my way”
Ebony walked to the little dragon and looked him right in the eye. “I admire your courage Spike. But I don’t want to have to worry about you doing anything crazy”
The young dragon looked crestfallen. Ebony then reached into his considerably deep saddlebags and pulled out a dagger. He gave the dagger to Spike “In case any of the Darklings get too close”
Spike looked at the dagger excitedly and picked it up in his claws. “Awesome! Thanks Ebony!” He gave the dagger a few practice swings.
Ebony’s ears perked as he heard screeching coming from nearby. “Let’s keep moving…”
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The trio ventured along the roads leading out of Ponyville. Ebony had the group stop for a break before the inevitable question came out of Twilight’s mouth “Where are we going exactly?”
Spike looked over at Twilight an eyebrow raised “Away from the crazy monsters that want to eat us where else?”
Twilight shook her head “I’m aware but where do we go after that? We can’t keep running forever”
Spike nodded slowly “You have a point Twilight, so where are we going Ebony?” Spike looked at the dark coated pony expectantly.
Ebony didn’t like this, he really didn’t have a plan beyond escaping the Darklings. He closed his eyes in thought. He could try that, but he hadn’t seen his family in years and would they take him in? Let alone a dragon and a foreign mage? In all honesty it was either this or be eaten by whatever hellspawn showed up first. He didn’t have a choice…this was the only option he could think of.
“I have an idea…” Ebony said after opening his eyes.
Twilight looked at Ebony expectantly “Well we’d like to hear it Serah”
Ebony nodded and answered slowly “I have family in Kanterwall…”
“Kanterwall! Are you nuts!?” Spike said looking at Ebony as if he said he was an Alicorn in disguise.
Twilight frowned at Ebony “With all due respect Serah there are a lot of templars in Kanterwall. And they aren’t exactly kissing cousins with unicorns”
Ebony looked at Twilight seriously “I have family there, I’m sure I can find you guys some kind of shelter when we get there. Also what choice do we have?”
The mage relented from giving a protest “Alright, we’ll need to get to Baltimare to take ship” She started walking past them, leading the way.
Ebony followed and noticed the young dragon eyeing Ebony’s choice of weapon. The dragon looked up at him “I never got a chance to ask Ebony but, what are those things on your legs?”
Ebony smiled and held up one of the harnesses on his leg. He twisted his hoof and out came a long rather thick blade. He gave the blade a few swings “My father invented these, they are blades that allow an earth pony to fight”
Spike looked at the blades with gleaming eyes “That’s so cool! You think your dad would be willing to make me something like that?”
Ebony suddenly got quiet and sheathed the blade. “I’d rather not talk about my father if you don’t mind Spike…”
Spike saw the look in his eye then nodded “Alright, I won’t pry if you don’t want me to”
“Thanks Spike” Ebony replied smiling.
“Guys we got trouble!” Twilight shouted from up ahead.
Ebony caught up to witness what Twilight was seeing. There were three ponies in the clearing, one a large scarlet stallion with a large sword in his mouth. Another was an orange mare with a Stetson cap and a shield on her arm and a short sword in her mouth. Both were trying to protect a small yellow filly from the Darklings surrounding them.
The red stallion swung his blade at an approaching grimlock and cleaved the beast in two. Ebony admired the stallion’s strength to wield such a deadly weapon. The orange one blocked a sword from a nearby grimlock and sliced its side with her blade. Both we’re trying to protect the cowering filly from harm.
Ebony looked at Twilight “You cover me”
She looked back at him “You’re going to help them?”
Ebony nodded “You give us cover fire and try to keep reinforcements off them. Spike you try and get to that filly and keep her safe”
Spike nodded and withdrew his dagger. “It’s time to make some darkling stew…”
Ebony leaped into the grimlocks and swung his blades into the jugular of the first Darkling he saw. Spike ran to the young filly and stood in front of her dagger out in case any darkling got too close.
Ebony danced around the battlefield and blood stained his snow white mane as he cut into Darklings left and right. Here on the battlefield was where he earned his sword cutie mark. He cut into a Darkling about to attack the orange mare. She looked at him with grateful green eyes. Ebony heard a yell though and turned to see that one of the grimlock’s stabbed the larger red stallion with a nasty looking dagger.
The orange mare tackled the grimlock using her shield like a battering ram. She was on top of the grimlock as she shouted. “Yer not gonna get this family ya monster!” She swung her blade and beheaded the darkling letting the blood fall on her.
The last grimlock was hit by Twilight’s fireball and she walked down to Ebonyblade. The earth pony family stood standing opposite the strange trio.
The big red stallion that was leaning against his orange sister was glaring at Twilight. “Stay back ya unicorn! Ah don’t want ya usin your freaky magics on mah family”
Twilight glared back “A simple ‘thank you’ would’ve been nice. We just saved your family from Darklings”
“How do Ah know you aren’t the one who was sendin these monsters tah weaken us?”
The orange one glared at him. “Big Mac, does it really matter if she’s a unicorn? They saved our lives, we owe them our ears at least”
The scarlet stallion looked thoughtful then slowly nodded “Ah apologize, it’s been a rough day on all of us…”
Twilight slowly nodded “Alright, just keep your views on your magic to yourself next time…”
Ebony got in front of Twilight “I’m Ebony, you already met Twilight and this fella here” He gestured to the young dragon trying to look brave in front of a stallion that could squash him with one stomp of his hooves. “Is Spike”
The orange mare nodded and smiled “Ah’m Applejack, this ere is Big Macintosh” She gestured to the now calmed stallion “You’ll have to excuse the attitude, he was just worried about protectin us” She then gestured to the young filly hiding behind both of them “This ere is mah little sis Applebloom”
“Ya ‘all runnin from the Darklings to?” Big Mac asked looking at Ebony.
The black earth pony nodded “Yes, we’re on our way to Kanterwall”
Big Mac nodded “Ya all are headin in the wrong direction then, Darklings comin from east as well as west”
Applebloom looked at Ebony “Are ya gonna help us…?”
The warrior smiled at the young filly “Yeah, if east and west are blocked off, we could try the Wilds to the south…”
Applejack looked at him wide eyed “Ya ain’t serious! Who knows what could be in there!”
Ebony frowned “If the options are south or die I’d like to take my chances with south”
Twilight looked at Big Mac “How’s that wound?” she said gesturing to his bleeding wound.
Big Mac shook his head “Ah’m fine it's just a scratch. Ah don’t think Ah can fight as well as Ah did back there though”
“So we can’t count on you in a fight?” Ebony said looking at the large stallion.
“Nope”
“Alright, you stay in the back with Spike and Applebloom, think you can manage that?”
“Eeyup” was his response.
Applejack looked at Ebony “Ah can fight with ya guys on the front if ya need”
Ebony nodded “Your shield will be much needed on the front lines now let’s get moving”
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Ebony was leading the group when they came to a small clearing. The group had been fighting Darklings for a long time and fatigue was starting to settle in. Ebony tried to appear strong before the group.
“What now sugercube?” Applejack said looking at Ebony expectantly.
“We keep moving…” Ebony didn’t understand how Applejack could trust him. He was no leader; he was only doing what seemed logical right now. What if he did something stupid? He couldn’t forgive himself if somepony got hurt because he couldn’t stop it.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Ebony felt the ground shake as a large beast came upon them. He shouted “Ogre! Everypony scatter!”
The beast was the size of two ponies standing on top of each other’s backs. It had two large hands and sharp teeth that it showed off as it roared at them. It punched the ground and charged at Ebony who swiftly dodged it.
The beast saw Applebloom and Spike in a corner. It began to make its way to the smaller prey before it was tackled by Big Mac. “Yuh ain’t gettin my family ya bastard!”
The beast wrestled with the large stallion and Big Mac managed to get his large blade into the beast’s left eye. Blood poured out of the wound but soon the beast grabbed Big Mac in its massive hands. It got back on its feet and threw Big Mac into a nearby cliff.
The red stallion fell unconscious as Applebloom ran towards him. Ebony looked on the Ogre with a newfound fury in his eyes. This beast wasn’t going to live, not while he was still breathing.
“Applejack! Taunt it!” He shouted as he unsheathed his blades.
“Taunt it?!” Applejack shouted back as she drew her sword and looked on the massive beast.
“Get its attention!”
“Uh…” Applejack looked at the beast and shouted “Ya momma is so fat they have an entire section of the deep roads dedicated to her!”
The beast roared and was prepared to charge at Applejack. She dodged the beast’s charge and stabbed her blade into its leg causing it to fall over. It fell over with an earth shattering Thud.
“Twilight!” Ebony shouted at the violet unicorn. “Freeze it to the ground!”
“On it!” Twilight twirled her staff and stabbed it into the ground. The beast’s hands and feet were now frozen to the earth.
“Now it’s my turn…” Ebony said as he leaped onto the beast and unsheathed both blades. He stabbed them into the chest of the beast and it let out a roar of pain. Ebony kept up the stabbing, blood staining his dark coat and white mane as he kept stabbing into the beast. Ebony was only seeing red as he finally went up to the beast’s neck.
He looked at the beast straight in the eye “This is for Ostrenar…” He then brought both blades to the sides of the beast’s neck and cut off the beast’s head. He breathed heavily as the beast’s body finally stopped moving. He looked over at Applejack who was running for Big Macintosh.
Ebony sheathed both blades and went to join her. Applejack looked over at Ebony worried “Somethin’s wrong, he ain’t waken up…”
Ebony looked over as more Darklings came over the hill. “We got bigger problems now…” He then unsheathed his blades and charged into the crowd.
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Twilight was already firing fireballs at the horde of Darklings “There’s no end to them!”
Ebony looked over and sliced another grimlock’s head off “I can’t keep this up…” He breathed heavily with fatigue.
ROOOOARRRR!!!
The entire group looked up as a massive black and white dragon descended from the sky. It opened its massive jaws and launched a torrent of fire at the Darklings. They yelled screeches of agony as they burned to death around the massive dragon as it landed. It swung its huge tail like a whip at a nearby grimlock and sent it sailing away. It grabbed another in its jaws and chomped on it devouring the beast bones and all.
Ebony stared up at the massive creature as the Darklings ran in fright. The beast looked at him with large…green eyes? They looked almost pony like. Suddenly a massive flash of light came from the dragon. Ebony shielded his eyes from the light and when he removed them he saw a strange sight.
Standing before him was a zebra, obviously female. She was clad in a simple brown cloak and she wiped some blood from her teeth and looked at Ebony with curious eyes.
“What have we here? Ponies hoping to run to Everfree?” The zebra said in an almost sing song like voice.
Ebony closed his gaping jaw and looked at the strange zebra. “Uh, thanks for the save there I don’t want to think about what could’ve happened”
The Zebra looked a little smug “Darkling food you would’ve been, had I not showed up in the end”
Twilight stepped forward and looked at the Zebra with admiration. “I haven’t seen magic like that before”
The Zebra smiled “Many magics are lost to the ages, would take me as long to teach even the brightest mages”
Ebony raised an eyebrow “Which begs the question, who or what are you?”
Applejack looked up at the Zebra her green eyes rife with suspicion “Ah know what she is. She’s the Witch of the Wilds!”
The Zebra looked smug “Some call me that, mostly Zecora or old hag that talks like a twat” She chuckled at her own joke.
Ebony looked at Zecora with new eyes “Why rescue us though? Surely a witch has better things to do”
Zecora then looked at the warrior with strange eyes “You remind me of him, the one who also made an ogre’s lights dim”
Ebony raised an eyebrow “You saved me because I killed an ogre?”
Zecora shrugged “Curiosity is sated now, so no need to stay and bow” She turned to begin leaving.
“Wait” Ebony said as Zecora was about to walk away “Could you help us?”
Applejack looked at Ebony incredulously “Ya can’t seriously be thinking of askin her to help us get tah Kanterwall!?”
The witch turned back with new interest. “Kanterwall? A long journey for ones so small”
Ebony nodded “Can you help us?”
Zecora looked off in the distance, towards the trees of the wilds. “Fate or chance? Not always discernible at a glance…”
The dark warrior looked at her “Is that a yes?”
Zecora turned back to him and nodded “Indeed, I will help you fulfill your need”
Ebony smiled “Great”
Zecora suddenly looked passed him “But before our deal reaches its end…another matter you must attend”
Ebony heard a groan behind him. Big Mac had woken up and he didn’t look good at all. Ebony’s eyes grew wide as he saw that Big Mac’s eyes were now cloudy and almost grey.
Applejack looked over at Ebony frantically “What’s happenin to him?!”
Ebony looked down at his hooves, his long blood stained mane covering his eyes. He spoke not wanting to say the words but knew they needed to be said. “He’s, becoming one of them”
Applejack looked over at Big Mac in shock “He’s becoming a Darkling!? Can we cure him!?”
Ebony slowly shook his head “The only known cure is to become a Grey Warden, and they all died at Ostrenar”
Zecora shook her head “Not all have perished…though to hope they would get here in time is foolish”
The country mare got in the Zebra’s face “Yer lyin! You know some kinda magic that can help him!”
Twilight put a hand on the mare’s shoulder “I’m sorry Applejack, but there are some things magic can’t do…”
Tears welled up in Applejack’s eyes and she turned to her brother. “Big Mac…Ah’m sorry…”
Big Mac shook his head “Don’t go apologizin. Ya gotta be strong sister…fer Applebloom…”
Ebony walked up to Big Mac “I hope you find peace Big Mac…”
Big Mac then reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a red scarf. “This belonged to mah pa...I want ya to have it. Keep it as a promise to…look after mah family when I’m gone…”
Ebony looked at Big Macintosh then took the red scarf in his hooves. Applejack looked at the dark warrior searchingly.
Ebony spoke firmly after putting the scarf around his neck. “He’s your brother Applejack…it’s up to you…”
Applejack nodded, slowly she drew a dagger out of her barding and thrust it into Big Mac’s chest. Big Mac closed his eyes peacefully as death came to take him.
Applebloom went to hug her big sister adding her own tears to Applejack’s. Ebony turned to Zecora who showed the smallest hint of sorrow.
“Without an end” Zecora said firmly “Peace cannot be found around the bend”
She then turned “Your journey has only just begun, who knows? At the end of this tale maybe it’ll be a song sung”
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“Zecora?” Luna said shaking her blue head in disbelief.
Spike smiled “I thought that part might interest you a little”
“Thou means to tell me, that a myth flew out of the sky and saved the champion from the Darkling horde?” The princess said suspiciously
“Yeah pretty much” The baby dragon said shrugging
“Are thou certain you did not add to this tale just to add Zecora into it? To please some ponies that have heard of her and would’ve loved her inclusion?” Luna said raising her eyebrow.
Spike shook his head “I was surprised when I saw it too”
Luna got closer to the small dragon. Her blue eyes searching him “What ist thou not telling us? Did Zecora send somepony with the champion?”
“I guess you could say she did” Spike said honestly
Luna backed up and nodded “Very well, continue then. But if thou are about to say that all of thee flew to Kanterwall on a dragon”
Spike held up his claws to calm the princess down “Nothing so crazy I can assure you…