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// Chapter 2: The Ocolyte 
// Story: The  Shadow 
// by The_Darker_Fonts 
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The ocolyte stood at his usual height, approximately six feet and two inches from the ground, and four feet and eight inches above the Princess of Friendship.  While he preferred a much more imposing nine foot ten, he knew that the experience would be too intimidating and fascinating for Twilight Sparkle to comprehend.  Rather than overwhelm his newest charge, he would build her up to his various talents and abilities.  And, despite the rather minute height he took on, she was already frozen in fear, and, much to her character, awe.
S’sel’walgni’Gar, as he was called in his own tongue, had studied his newest charge since the moment she had become associated with Celestia in any way.  Immediately, he could see the affection Celestia had for the child, and knew that she would become something important, though he had never thought her of the future Princess of Equestria.  However, like many others he had studied, he had found her rather dull to investigate, as if reading merely a manual on her.  He found her rather unique in personality, though, and it had intrigued him to the point of further exploration.
He knew everything about her now, as much as any relative or friend could, and then some, as he had trained too.  Her height, her weight, length, palate, anything that could be used in effect against her.  She wasn’t the only one, and was yet the youngest, as he had studied thousands of ponies over hundreds of years.  Celestia and Luna had made many loved ones and many more friends, and there had yet to be one, until now, that had ever been more than temporary.  The fact that Twilight was now his charge meant that times were changing in more than the means of leadership.  It was as Re’eseht had prophesied.  Slightly concerning, but he was not one to decide history, only that his charge died old.  Well, maybe not this one.  If he failed again that is.
The purple alicorn was still staring dumbly at him, jaw dropped and eyes wide.  She was still in relative shock outwardly, though internally, she was studying his physique and trying to decipher exactly what he was.  The ocolytes were a very seclusive and rare species, with only two other than him living: Re’eseht and G’niwon’Kall.  It was understandable in general to see the reason for her confusion and perplexity, if not slightly annoying.  He was wasting precious time letting her stare at him and not introducing himself, when instead he should be moving her back to a secured area.  As secretive as this cavern was and as well protected as she and the other Elements were with two former Princesses and three dozen Royal Guards, he didn’t want to risk a suicide assault from whoever opposed the newly crowned Princess.
Giving a quick glance around without moving an artificial muscle, giving a millisecond assessment of each of the ponies in the cave.  The other Elements had the same awed and shocked expressions on their face, and even some of the Guards' eyes were widened in amazement.  It wasn’t to be unexpected, just like the tensed muscles of Applejack and Rainbow Dash, nor the slightly lit horn of Rarity.  Pinkie Pie seemed more inquisitive, while Fluttershy was almost hiding behind Celestia in her normal demure manner.  The latter and her sister were smiling softly at him, their old friend and protectorate.  And failure.
Many of the Guard had their faces stoic and stances tensed as they had been trained, though they stole the occasional glance at him.  There was one exception, however, a teal unicorn who was upholding a complex illusionary spell to give himself the form of a hardened yellow pegasus.  His blonde mane was rather long for a Guard, though it seemed fitting on him in a roguish sense.  He hardly gave him mind, as there was a strong spell of despair on him, as if he’d lost somebody incredibly close to him.  It was barely noticeable, a glint in his hard eyes at something that was piercing him deeply in his mind.  He was keeping it especially well hidden, like the one who had gone would have liked.  Probably a male, though it wasn’t unlikely that they were a female, especially if it was one of the Apples.  He, however, was no Apple, instead sharing the same slender but tough look of a Fir or Tosser.  Perhaps even a Belle?
The spoken word of Twilight Sparkle broke his inquisitive thoughts off instantly, though he stored the pieces in a compiled memory to investigate.  “What are you,” the Princess asked, voice heavy with awe and quivering slightly with fear.  “You’re nothing like anything I’ve ever read about.”
“You would not have read about me in even the oldest of books, as I’m older than parchment and  my kind have been concealed for even longer,” he answered emotionlessly.  “In my own language, I am S’sel’walgni’Gar, and my species the Emer’pusdra’ug, though you may call me whatever you please.  I am here to protect you and those you wish protected, nothing less, and nothing you do not wish.  I will answer further questions, Twilight Sparkle,  when you are safely where no word other than mine and yours can be heard.”
The Princess seemed slightly perturbed by the abruptness and formality for which he spoke, but he continued.  “We go to the Castle again, now that I’ve arrived, to conceal and defend Her Highness from the aggressors of the enemy.  I will take lead, and you will follow by wing along with a third of the Guard, and Luna to protect you.  Your friends would best be kept in the lower kitchens of the Castle, where none suspect and there is nourishment for a hold out, if needs be.”  Twilight Sparkle attempted to speak, but sharpening his voice slightly, he broke in, “I am here to protect you, and doing such requires only my knowledge and skill, and maybe your compliance.  Maybe”
Despite the grimness of his tone, he heard Celestia fail to hold her composure, chuckling breaking the sincerity of his words.  “He was always so grim with us, too, Twilight,” she said, looking over her former pupil and then to Luna.  “You remember that too, Luna?”
“Yes, sister, I remember well,” she responded, a smile lighting her face.  She, too, looked over to the Princess, who had torn her gaze from him to the speaking sisters.  “We always called him Inkwell, Twilight.  And don't worry, he’s always this grim.”
Turning his head to either of the two so they could feel his sharp glare, even if they couldn’t see it, he responded, “I am only realistic, and if you can remember four thousand years ago, and my failure then, I guarantee you won’t find this as an over exaggeration of protection.”  That sobered the two sisters up quickly, and he turned his gaze back to the Princess.  She seemed taken aback by his blatant harshness, but he cared not.  He was not to be loved, and not to love, only serve and protect.  “Come, Princess, we must go.” 
He did not wait for response, just turned and began taking long strides towards the waterfall.  As he did so, he began moving his bones within himself, dissolving muscle and tissue on his shoulders and feeding it into newly formed veins.  He set his bones into waiting while his skin flowed to form a protected casing around them, sealing them before pushing it from his existing skin.  The forming wings’ skin expanded as muscle formed around the bones, a string becoming a rope and strengthening his wings.  He flexed them out, testing them as he stopped in the face of the falling water, a sense of determination filling him. 
Looking back, he could see the open gaping of all those had been paying attention to him, including Luna and Celestia.  “Come,” he said gruffly, “We have much to do tonight and there is little time before the enemy moves against us.  I will hold back the force of the waterfall while those assigned to be with the Princess fly out, then I will take point.”
He didn’t need to turn to see the understanding nods of the Guard.  He shot off from the ground on the first flap of his large wings, parting the water like a hoe through dirt.  A dozen or so feet from where he had taken off, he hardened the skin of his legs into steel pikes, stabbing them deep in the rock face with a sharp crack.  He spread his strong wings, causing the water to part.  It pommeled him, trying to push him down, but he kept firm and outward, watching as the first of the Guard passed underneath him.  He was pleasantly surprised to see that they were all focused on their task, not bothering to look up to what was holding the water back.  Even Princess Twilight, when she passed under him, did not look up, only flew by with determined flapping.  Only Luna looked up to him, and briefly even for the speed at which she moved, enough to assess and think on.
When the last of them had passed, he launched in the direction of the Castle, surpassing the Princesses and a few Guards in one beat of his wings, and taking lead in the second.  He allowed himself to glide, as if he had travelled on in the same way, he would have outpaced the entire group by a mile in five beats.  He scanned the town immediately above the waterfall as soon as they reached the elevation to see it.  There were barely ponies out except for reserve Guards patrolling after the incident yesterday.  The moon had risen well enough that only the most astute astronomer would notice the slight angling Luna had made, a result of being unable to view the moon.
They flew in what could’ve been called silence, but the roaring of the wind prevented any noise but it to be heard.  He kept his view constantly on the ground and the ponies behind him without moving the part of his body called a face.  He had mastered full body vision in the centuries of guarding he’d done before he’d discovered the alicorns, and was now able to do so without thought.  He knew that one of the others knew how to cause separate pieces of body to connect vision into one large perspective of an area, but he had yet to master the technique.  He might have to now, he realized solemnly.  
Swift movement from below made him hone his vision in on the terraced second level of Canterlot.  Several pegasi in a group, fifteen to be exact, much too large to be casual night strollers, and much to sellective to be less than a scouting unit.  A cloud nearby, off to their left, made a jerk forward as if pushed forward, small, but noticeable to anypony watching.  A surprise attack, then.  Grimly, he assessed them with two separate viewings, watching their movement.  It was calculated, as if it was a moment to moment movement to movement, new information being received causing the minute, but abrupt, changes.
Giving a third viewing point behind him, he tried to assess which of the pegasi was the informant.  None of them could be though, they didn’t have magic.  He focused his view on the singular unicorn, but found nothing to condemn him as the traitor.  No glowing horn, and no feel of magical use from him, even though he could tell that there was indeed one.  He glanced around at the Princesses, but they were all flying on in mute determination, and he severely doubted that they were related in any way to the attempts on Twilight Sparkle’s life.  No, the source of magic was dead, there, but unable to do much more than rot.  
He began inspecting each of the Guards’ faces, searching for signs of strain, distress or pain.  And he found it.  The Guard to the left of Twilight Sparkle was seemingly struggling to fly, their wings occasionally flapping a beat off.  Her -he knew as per the shape of her face and genitalia- face was showing all of the signs.  She kept anxiously glancing between the Princesses, the Guards, and him, though nopony else would be able to tell in the cloud-covered moonlight.
In an abrupt movement, he curled his wings and pulled back, angling himself at the treacherous guard.  Propelled by the wind, he shot backwards through the surprised Guard, right into the traitor.  He sharpened his legs as he pulled backwards once again, flipping his head windward while his legs stuck straight out like a spear, feet unformed, aimed for her chest.  They collided with a loud squelching sound, bones snapping as the sharpened nubs of his feet easily piercing through her armor, instantly ending the mare’s life.  He flipped forward in a complete circle, allowing him to grab the mare’s body for inspection later.
The strike had occurred so quickly that it was only when he had grabbed the lifeless corpse of the traitor that sounds of alarm started.  “What was that about?” one shouted while another called out “Traitor!” and a third cried “That was Silver Bearings!”
Celestia silenced all cries and complaints, including Twilight Sparkle’s.  “Peace, everypony,” she shouted over the noise of flapping wings and yelling ponies.  The roaring wind had ceased as the party had come to a halt.  Everypony had come to a halt, their eyes on him.  Everypony except the unicorn, who, despite glaring at him, was scanning the cloud that was now behind him.  The ponies backs were to the city and sky, while their attention was to him, a situation less than ideal.  He ignored their bickering while he began a full body viewing, using every surface of his body facing outward as his eyes.  
They were beginning to make aggressive movements, shooting from cloud to cloud now, while the ground forces were taking off on a swerve to hit them from behind.  He wasn’t able to make any accurate calculations to the ones in the clouds, as their movement was quick and sudden, and the colors near indistinguishable in the muddled moonlight.  The unicorn’s glaring intensified as he -also seeing the enemy’s movement- prepared to shout, but was unable to see the arrow shooting towards him.  S’sel’walgni’Gar was faster than it, propelling in the path of the arrow.  It hit with more force than intended, tearing through his black skin and piercing the Guard’s side.
His cry of pain and the ocolyte’s actions had drawn everypony’s attention once more, and the Guards were quickly tightening their circle around the Princesses and their grip on their spears.  The enemy, catching that they were no longer a secret, charged from the ground and clouds. They were two silent, large masses that shot from their hidden points, outnumbering the Guard near two to one.  Some fifty three had charged from the cover of the clouds, while the fifteen flanked from the behind, forcing the Guard to divide themselves.
“Go,” the ocolyte shouted to them, scanning the buildings for the archer.  Finding him, he shot one of his spare rib cages covered in solidified skin at him.  “Take the Princesses to the Castle and fortify it.  I’ll hold them off for the most part, but some may try to bypass me.”  With a glance to his left, he saw the unicorn slipping from consciousness, and caught hold of him.  “Somepony take this one back too.  He is invaluable. And the body.”
Several nodded, complying to his commanding tone and taking the two, and though he heard Twilight Sparkle attempt to argue for his sake, she was silenced by a sleeping spell from Luna.  Several beams of light flew past the group, sent by unicorns being carried by pegasi pairs or levitating.  One was deflected by his shining skin, shot by one of the floating ponies.  His focus intensified, drawing out any other noise but those of battle, which were none at the moment.  His gaze centered only on those who threatened his charge, nearly outlining them with the glow of the moon.  
He focused on the smaller group first, as it would be the easiest to destroy.  He called back the rib he had shot, and obediently it returned, bloodstained, joining his other ribs.  He set them to form a sort of bone armor within his skin and launched himself into the fray, arms nothing more than swords.
The first pegasus attempted to strike his head with a buck of the hind legs, but he ducked under the strike and opened up her stomach with the swish of an arm.  Three attempted to grab him from the behind while two more tried to land strikes on his head and chest.  He impaled one of the ones attempting to blindside him while one in the front split their hoof on his triple layered skull.  His scream was cut off with his head, as S’sel’walgni’Gar made a wide sweep with both arms in a wide rotation, catching another through the head.  The remaining two decided it was past time to escape, but he quickly extended both of his arms, cutting through both.
The action had hyperextended existing muscles and destroyed the newly formed ones, leaving his arms to flop down unsupported.  That was fine, however, as he strengthened them once again as he shot forward with a beat of his wings to catch up with the now single group of insurgents.  They were behind the smaller group of Guards and Princesses, the unicorns firing at the shield the Princesses had formed vainly.  With another beat of his wings, his now longer arms were healed, and in another, he was upon his enemy.  
He struck two from behind, the sound of their bones splitting and tissue tearing covered up by the roar of the wind.  He was able to behead another before one saw him and cried out.  He died as over a dozen turned to face him, including a floating unicorn and a unicorn supported by two pegasi.  He rammed into one of the pegasi, knocking her out cold while slicing the other in half, leaving the unicorn stallion to scream to the heavens as he fell to his death below.  One of the pegasi foolishly charged him, ending with him stuck on the end of his sharpened arm.  The ending of their comrades barely seemed to faze the others as they struck at him with fervor.
One of the other pegasi stabbed a spear into his side where he hadn’t hardened his skin, jamming it between two ribs.  The ocolyte twisted to the side, snapping the spearhead off and slapping the pegasi with the blunt side of his sword arm.  It still hit with enough force to crack the pegasi’s skull, sending the stallion into one of his allies.  Using the latter’s temporary blindness as a body obscured their vision, he slid his blades in between his ribs effortlessly.  
Pulling back, he rammed his back into an oncoming duo of pegasi, though it allowed a powerful magical blast hit him in the lower body.  He felt the enemies’s bones snap against his skin, screams of pain echoing in the night.  As the bodies fell, another beam hit him in his face area. Growling, he turned his body to the imposing unicorn, using an arm to block an incoming arrow. He could see the hope in his enemy’s eyes that they were finally harming their near invincible foe.  Their hope was false. 
In a motion quicker than the blink of an eye, he distorted his body, stabbing limbs and muscled bits of hardened skin at all six remaining enemies.  He pulled back, feeling sore in every fiber of his body, dissolving himself of the excess skin and muscle.  The lifeless bodies fell without a second thought, their inhabitants forgotten, another tool to whoever their master was used up.  Looking around quickly, he found the remaining forty four pegasi and unicorns surrounding him from every direction.  A large patchwork cage made of corpses, he mused.  
A blast, then another, hit him from the front and side.  The insurgents must have realized that, in order for this or any other plan to work, they would need to first eliminate him.  Pity they had all chosen to die, but then again, they had made that promise with whatever oath they had taken on their treasonous path.
He tucked his wings, giving them even more bone and muscle as he fell.  The two pegasi beneath him flew to the side and stuck out blades as if to cut him as he fell, but they hadn’t accounted for the fact that he was impervious to any weapon of pony design.  As he was about to pass, he spread his wings, the heavy wings slamming into them, snapping their necks and several other bones with the impact.  He flapped his wings hard, shooting back up into the air whilst shooting the bodies back to the earth below.  
His launch caught another pegasi in the stomach with his head.  He went straight through, the bits sliding off and falling to the ground below.  More than one of the ponies were fazed by that, he could see, but they didn’t back down.  He spun once again, bladed arms cutting through two more approaching pegasi and warding off the rest.  A sword landed a hit on his back while two spears broke on his hardened chest, an arrow harmlessly bouncing off.  The hits didn’t go unpunished, as he managed to kick one of the pegasi from below with a thickened leg, collapsing the pony’s rib cage on him.   
The others began landing more and more hits on him, attempting to overwhelm him with their numbers.  A mace in the midsection earned a grunt, though not of pain as the insurgents took it, but of concentration.  He spiked the skin on his back suddenly as he curled inward with his arms and legs, the hardened skin catching five of them as they sought more hits on his back.  This bought him time, as the others backed up for a moment, though it was more to allow the unicorns to hit him with several magical blasts.  
His wing beats became slower and more spread, allowing him to drop altitude.  His enemy took it as a sign of weakness, pressing their attack with new fervor, hitting him wherever they could.  
With a sudden large beat of his wings, he shot forward, knocking three of his foes sideways, killing one.  He slashed outward with both blades, catching a pegasus pair and the unicorn they were supporting in a cleaving arc.  Before their bodies had even begun to fall, he turned and cut through the two remaining unicorns who were hovering side by side.  Finishing his sweep, he caught another three in the path of his blades, leaving their bodies to fall in more than one piece.  
Another group of three charged him, though they were unsupported by their allies as they fell back into the much opener ensnarement.  He dispatched the three as easily as he had the others, giving no heed to their falling bodies as he scanned his enemies lines.  They seemed more hesitant to fight him now, seeing as how he had thinned out their numbers into only half of what they had engaged him with.  That was fine by him, as it allowed him to see just how far behind he was from the rest of the group.  Too far, he saw, as the silhouettes of the group were now arriving at the distant Castle, merely specks in the distance.  
The growling of a nearby enemy -in fact, two, nearby enemies- snapped him back into focus.  The group would arrive at the Castle in less than two minutes, and he could get there in roughly a fourth of that time.  He could deal with these enemies individually and in smaller groups, though that would take much too long.  There was one way to dispatch all of his enemies at once, one he had never tried before, though he had thought of it during the slumbering.  The amount of focus it would take, the accuracy he had to have, though, that was the true trick to this specific maneuver. 
Drawing himself inward, all of his body except for the wings, towards his core.  He began pointing all of his ribs outward, forcing them straight and hardening the skin immediately around him.  All the while he was keeping his view on his enemy, watching their movement in body and attitude.  They were being cautious still, though the few with bows had begun raising them, nocking arrows on the bowstring.  The others pointed their spears and swords at him, though more than one panicked look from one to another was exchanged.
Before they could, however, he unleashed.
Spreading his wings out and throwing his arms and feet to the side, he shot the entirety of his rib cage and the spares out in all directions.  Yelps, crunches, and screams of pain all echoed in the night as he pulled his body back together.  He began to reset his ribs as eighteen  bodies began to fall all around him, blood and entrails raining around them.  A groan of pain from the maneuver tried to make itself existent, but even alone with only the falling dead, he would not allow weakness to wrest control of him.  Turning back to the Castle, he began to fly away.