Skeletons of the Past

by Sturrn

The Sigillite of Canterlot

My ‘eyes’ if they can truly be called that, opened to a room completely different from the one I had fallen asleep in. Accompanying this mystery was a new feeling in my body. There was a feeling in my mouth like a worm or something and well I didn’t think after that part. “What the fuck is in my mouth!?” I screamed louder than I probably needed to. I didn’t care. I leaned up in the bed I was apparently placed in and grabbed at my still cloth covered muzzle to grab whatever had made its home in my mouth during my slumber.

As soon as I grabbed the offending creature a familiar pony stumbled out of a chair on the other side of room and ran over to me. “Rorke, it’s okay, that’s just your tongue, don’t try and rip it out or anything.” He said as he placed his hooves on my hands still clamped on my ‘tongue’.

“Mi tongw?” I said.

“I’m going to pretend I know what you said and say yes. You have a tongue now.” He replied while he tried to pry my exposed hands off the slime ridden flesh of my tongue. He succeeded after a moment as I let go of it to question him further on the subject.

“Why do I have a tongue at all? Aren’t those reserved for things that require them to speak, eat, or I don’t know LIVE?” I replied sarcastically.

“Well that requires me telling you what happened to you this morning. A huge flash of light was seen in the library and when the guard rushed in to investigate you were shining like a miniature sun.” He walked back over to his chair and gathered some papers that must have been sent flying as he rushed over. “You were lit up like a hearth’s warming tree for about twenty minutes before the light just blinked out.”

I knew what the light probably meant but I would tell him later. “Didn’t any of you try and wake me up? Sparking up like the sun isn’t exactly healthy, even for a skeleton.”

Rorke opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a tan earth pony mare in a nurse’s hat, sticking her head through the doorway. “I heard screaming, is everypony okay in here?” She asked.

I drew my hands back slightly into the baggy sleeves of my robes that hid them from everyday viewing. “Yes, everything is well.” Sturrn answered.

“Excellent.” She replied with a smile before leaving the room. Only to return a second later. “You know I’m really happy for you two.” The mare said.

“Why is that?” Sturrn questioned.

“Well you don’t let anything get in the way of your love for each other.” She said with a grin the size of texas as she raised a hoof like she was counting with fingers. “You didn’t let gender barriers, species, social distinction, or even occupation stop your love for each other. Mister Chardstone, did you know he personally brought you to the infirmary this morning?”

Sturrn looked stupefied but I was going to keep going, this was something that only happened once in a lifetime. “Is that so? Thank you Lash.” Sturrn took that moment to snap out of it and realize that he was still holding my hands.

“We aren’t gay!” He exclaimed as he let go and backed away from the bed.

“Please Captain, there’s no need to feel ashamed of your partner. We here in the castle are very accepting of relationships of this nature. If your guards knew how dedicated you were to him, I’m sure they will understand perfectly.” She replied happily.

She walked through the door revealing a red brick colored mane and cutie mark that consisted of a pair of needles x’ed over a red cross. She worked her way next to me before leaning in and speaking once more. “Did you know after he carried you in here he stayed in that chair until you woke up.” She “So cute.” I couldn’t help it at that point, laughter was all I could use to respond

“Oh you think that’s funny, do you?” He ran up to and jumped on the bed before he started hitting me with his hooves.

“CAPTAIN LASH!” She screeched as I was pummeled with hooves. ‘Honestly If I could feel any of this it would probably hurt a lot.’ I put up a meager defence but he was getting good shots in. He couldn’t hurt me but getting hit with a hoof repeatedly in the face wasn’t fun either.

After a few moments I struck back and pushed him off the bed. “Okay Sturrn enough of that. Nurse...”

“Killer, nurse Pain Killer.” She said with a little more force than was necessary.

“Indeed, Nurse Killer I assure you that Captain Lash is perfectly straight stallion. Neither him or I are in a relationship of that kind.” ‘That sounded so formal I might as well be wearing a suit.’

She looked at the ground for a moment as Sturrn whispered his embittered thanks to me before threatening to put his hoof in places I’m sure skeletons don’t have, if I were to say something like that again. ‘Someone is a little insecure...’

The nurse looked back up with a look in her eyes that I couldn’t readily recognize. “So does that mean you’re available?” Her smile back on.

‘Quick think of something you idiot!’ “I’m sorry Nurse but I’m afraid not.”

Her smile fell away as she turned her head. “Oh okay, you probably have a mare back home waiting for you huh?”

“Not really.” I admitted causing her expression to fall even more. I had to salvage the situation right then. “I just have a ‘condition’ I guess you could call it. The whole thing makes a relationship virtually impossible.” She didn’t take it too well. “Nurse...”

“No no, I’m a strong mare. This isn’t the first time I’ve been rejected.” She started walking out of the room. “Feel free to leave whenever you want, no sign out required.” With that said she left the room and a silence drifted in to fill the void.

Sturrn spoke first. “Not exactly how I wanted to wake you up, but what can you do?” He stood up from his chair and brought the papers from earlier and dropped them on the bed. ‘Way to be a cold bastard.’

“Do you think I should talk to her?” I asked.

The reply never came, instead a different line of thinking was introduced. “Rorke, here in this stack of paper are the reports of quite a few Equestrian military base in the world as we know it. They all pertain to visitors with some semblance of authority. One in particular caught my eye, around four years ago in a island naval base within the Zebra island chain as well as a year ago, courtesy of everyponies favorite pirate turned revolutionary.”

“What happened?” I questioned but not forgetting my previous line of questioning.

“Princess Kalin of the Southern Dunes, The Desert Orchid, and Priestess of the singing cloud were the honorifics stated in the report. She was travelling with an armed entourage to find an old friend and here’s the kicker, she wasn’t a pony.” He said smugly while nudging me in the ribs. He looked at the paper once more. “The bottom of the paper says that the scribe had a hard time recording things she said because of a thick accent.” He frowned deeply. “What kind of two-bit scribe gets hung up by an accent, they train for that kind of stuff.”

“Sorry to interrupt your scribe hatred, but what is this for exactly?” I questioned

“Come on Rorke really? You’re leaving for Saddle Arabia soon and your people are currently missing in that area of the world. Don't you want to find them? This is a huge clue, it may mean they’re looking for you.” He said excitedly pushing the stack of papers closer to me.

“Sturrn, Rorke has been dead for over 7000 years.” I managed to deadpan. “Why would they be looking for me after all this time?”

“Because magic!” He shouted like a little kid talking about ice cream.

It took an honest effort not to snort twice or laugh at all. After a few moment I composed myself enough to continue. “Just this one time, you ARE going to have to explain.”

He sighed before continuing. “It goes like this. Since you have Rorke’s body that must mean you got some of his traits as well, correct?” I nodded. “Then you probably have his memories or at least some of them. Use them and search for anyone like that.”

“I guess this is a good time to tell you I’ve already been doing that when I sleep. The only name that fits is a Priestess named Galina. She was Rorke’s girlfriend when he became Fero.”

We sat in silence for a minute before he broke the silence. “What’s a Fero?”

“One of their rulers, the other was the High Priest who betrayed the anubites and was killed by Rorke.” I explained

“So the Fero is like a prince?” He questioned.

“Yeah, I guess so.” I replied tentatively.

“See, this Kalin could just be Galina. they’re both Princesses, Priestesses, and come from the Southern Sands.” I had to admit his thinking was impressive but there was one major glaring flaw in his thinking.

“The accent may have obscured the G with an K and taken away the A at the end of her name. That doesn’t however, explain how she has managed to live longer than any mortal could. She would be 7000 plus years old, mind explaining that?”

He looked perplexed for a moment but regained himself. “Three ways this could have happened. She could have been placed in stasis magically, she discovered a way to prolong life somehow, or Kalin is a descendant of hers.”

“My guess is stasis, but how could the descendent theory work?” I asked.

“Ponies don’t exactly have any religion to fall upon but it wasn’t always like that. There have been a few points in equine history were the Princesses have been held aloft as deities. My understanding of religion is that sometimes a member of the group comes forward with a prophecy foretelling things. Maybe your return was prophesied? He explained.

“That makes sense but what about the fact that anubites haven't been seen since Rorke’s death? One just magically coming out of the woodwork isn’t something that just happens. How do we even know it was an anubite and not something else?”

He thrust a paper in my face and grinned smugly once more. On the paper was a word for word description of a typical anubite, on the other side however was a detailed drawing of one in full robed regalia. “Okay okay, you got me on that one but what now?”

His smug disappeared along with his smile. “Well... Um, I’m not entirely sure but if you’re heading toward anubite lands then you might find another. This is pretty much your operation now.”

“Okay next question, what does this have to do with Griffin?”

“Well let me read the report itself.” He sifted a couple of pages around and pulled one close to his face. “Says here he disguised himself and his crew as desert dwellers and tricked their way into a island military base. The formerly ‘Great and Powerful’ Trixie was masqueraded as the Princess. The mayor was well acquainted with the real princess so he knew she was a fake and tried to capture them all. Griffin managed to get himself and his entire crew off the island and escape though. If that incident hadn’t occurred I would never have found the earlier report.”

“Sounds like a psycho or a badass if he can shred through all their defense and still get away.” With that said my questions ceased and I busied myself alongside Sturrn with looking and examining reports from the stack of papers. After about two hours of sifting I had enough.

“Okay Sturrn this is ridiculous, I’m in every bronies dream and I’ve done nothing with it. I’m going out in the city and exploring, pass me that curtain!” Sturrn just looked at me like I was crazy. ‘Maybe he’s right, but I’m going to have fun anyway.’

He reached behind him and removed the tan hospital curtain carefully before handing it to me. I proceeded to tear strips of it off. “Rorke what are you doing!?” He shouted harshly.

“I’m tired of trying to hide my hands and I’m pretty sure some ponies have seen my feet when I walk. These robes can’t hide everything.” I tore off more strips from the unfortunate curtain until I had about eight strips and half a curtain left. I handed the unfortunate cloth to Sturrn. “Can you put this back for me?” He just silently took the curtain and strung it back up.

I began wrapping my hands in two strips each till I covered most of the bone. My feet were much harder to wrap. “Sturrn, can you give me a hand here?” He looked pointedly at me. “What?” He raised his hoof. “Yeah okay I’m dumb, we can agree on that.” It took me a few minutes but I got my feet and hand wraps finished. All that was showing was the bony ends of my claws.

“What are you going to do, just walk around the city and play with your tongue?” He asked.

“Why not? I won’t be able to see Equestria like I wanted to. I gotta get to the Liberator, and then I won’t even be on the same continent as everyone and everywhere I want to see.” I paused for a moment and contemplated latching onto my new tongue for just a second. “I might play with my new tongue later, but for now.” I hopped out of bed and onto my feet. “Lets get going.” But before I could even take a step he grabbed onto my robes.

“Sorry no can do, I have to take care of some Captain business and dig up more info on anything that can help you on your trip.”

“Seriously? Can’t you just take the day off or something? I’m leaving after tomorrow, come on.” I pleaded.

“What do you think I’m doing tomorrow? We both got tickets to the gala remember?” I want to get as much work done before tomorrow.” He replied.

“Okay, I’ll see you... Um, where exactly do you work now?”

“I forgot to tell you, I got my own office in the dawn wing. Just ask somepony in the castle for Captain Lash’s office and they’ll lead you there. Now I have to go, enjoy your ‘Brony Day’ whatever that is.” With that said he walked out of the room and it left me with a strange conundrum. ‘Do I tell him? No, definitely not. I didn’t even tell my friends that were human. Telling a pony that stuff would probably break the world.’

I walked out of the door into the hallway and proceeded outside to grassy areas surrounding the hospital. The scenery actually got me thinking a little, beyond the stares was currently getting and will be getting for the rest of my ‘life’. ‘It’s funny, I’ve only been in Equestria for about six days. I don’t even consider myself a human anymore. I’ve gotten into more fights this week than in my entire life combined. Others have actually tried to kill me, Auburn didn’t even know I was undead or just a skeleton really. He tried to kill me in my sleep regardless.’ My contemplations brought me to a bench that seemed woefully close to the ground for my style, but ponies are hilariously short compared to me.

I sat there contemplating my time in a land of technicolor ponies, even as time for my brony adventure day passed by. “Why am I even a priest? I was freaking atheist before, now I’m some sort of super-pope to a people that are just as dead to the world as I am.” I looked up from my sudden fit of philosophical self degradation and looked into a pair of eyes very close to my own.

“You realize you just said all of that aloud right?” She said as I looked deeper into her eyes before breaking their mental grasp and seeing that it was in fact Pain Killer.

‘Okay, decision time. Lie my teeth off or tell the truth?’ “Yes I realize I said all of that aloud, but in my defense I didn’t realize someone was nearby.” Truth seemed best in this situation.

She looked at me for a few moments. She squinted and un-squinted at me before walking over and sitting on the bench next to me. “What’s religion, or a ‘super-pope’?” She asked inquisitively.

‘Why!? What did I do to deserve being the one that has to break the religion stick over ponykind’s head. Sturrn said its happened before but looks like the world at large is without it. Celestia preserve me.’ I reached my hand up and stroked my make believe beard in a weirdo attempt to appear more sagely than I could ever be. "Religion is strange. It can do so much good yet throughout history it has always been used as an excuse to perpetrate great evil it also promotes hatred and ignorance when done wrong. Following that, it isn't all bad. I guess I’ll just ignore your question for now and ask you to accompany on my drift through Canterlot.” My pseudo-offer made her beam like a girl getting asked to prom.

“Like a date!?” She shouted while standing up on the bench. ‘This could only happen to me. Work tirelessly when I was human, to make myself presentable and behave perfectly, yet I don’t even get a backward glance. Become an undead jackal creature on a planet of ponies and all of a sudden I don’t even have to try anymore.’

“I’m going to come clean with you. I leave for a warship heading to a land literally on the other side of the world. I don’t think a long distance relationship can work that far.” With that said I managed to once more annihilated her dream. ‘For saying she’s a strong mare she seems to be really emotional.’

She looked up at me from her sad state. “Does that mean I can’t go along with you around Canterlot?”

“You can still come with” I replied. “but you can’t ask me about where I come from. Today is all about Equestria and ponykind.”

She was starting to freak me out a little. Her personality flipped faster than Pinkie Pie on a sugar rush. This coupled with a leaping LITERAL face hug that threw me off the bench onto the ground didn’t really help her case too much either. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I promise you’ll love this, I’ll show you the best places in Canterlot.” I wasn’t so sure.

We departed the bench and headed off toward her first objective and the first tiding of doom, Pony joe’s donut shop. “Don’t worry Rorke, he serves more than just donuts you know.” The off duty nurse claimed cheerfully. “In fact, one of his best customers is a cute little dragon named Spike so I’m sure he’ll have some gems for you to munch on.”

That statement ruined every plan I had for the day. “Sorry Killer, I’m not very hungry, maybe we can move past that?”

“Of course we can. We are having dinner somewhere later though. You have to keep your strength up if you don’t want to go back to the infirmary again.” ‘Crap, that failed, better switch to plan B then.’

‘Well, plan B failed worse than plan A...’ We ended up just lazing the afternoon away walking around the city seeing all the best sites in the city. I got to socialize with some of the ponies that were brave enough to approach me, being over twice as tall as most of them didn’t exactly help. Those brave enough to venture a conversation were well rewarded however. It seemed like the bravest ones to talk to me were foals that didn’t have the urgent sense of danger that their parents had. After that and much debating I managed to eschew a formal eating session from our plans and we did something I never even thought of doing before. We went to a bar.

“You’re going to love this place.” Pain Killer gushed as she strolled through the door.

I liked the place itself but the ponies inside could be better. Unfortunately, Pain Killer decided it was in her best interest to get drunk. This immediately attracted the wrong kind of attention, especially when you have an almost seven foot creature pry a mare off the jukebox because she still wanted to sing with Dean Maretin. Two things happened after that. The first was me dying a little on the inside from the pun, and the second was giving her a piggyback ride to her house. This proved more than awkward as I shimmied out of the door and into the dark Canterlot street.

Looking up at the street clock I saw it was almost midnight but I figured tonight would be a great chance to test my no sleeping theory. I walked with her high up on my shoulders up and down various streets because she couldn't really remember where she lived. I couldn’t be mad at her though, as far as I know skeletons don’t age beyond the physical degradation so I had all the time in the world... Okay, and she decided to start nuzzling the side of my face which made up for everything that had happened to me since coming to Equestria. She was the very epitome of soft. “You know, it’s a long walk back to the castle. You should probably stay with me tonight.”

‘Aaaand just like that, my day goes down the toilet, into the sewer and back to the festering pit that my life seems to have become. She’s still soft and that makes it better though.’ I ignored her statement thinking she would forget but she began to gather her coherent thoughts together and finally got me to the door of her house. ‘Yeah, “house.” That’s an villa if I’ve ever seen it.’ The whole house was clean cut and looked like cubes stacked on top of each other in different ways, like the modern homes on earth. I looked over the small fence beside her front door and saw it even had a pretty good sized pool.

“Pain Killer, how can you afford this on a nurses budget? You aren’t pulling a Heisenberg and selling meth are you?” I asked the inebriated mare.

“I don’t know what meth is.” She said between laughter before explaining her home. Apparently her father used to be a huge player in the stock market and retired with more than enough money to suit him.

“You have a key then?” She fumbled around behind me before handing the key over. I unlocked the door and walked in, next to the door was a nice couch I could set her on. She was asleep before hitting the cushions. I searched a closet nearby and brought over a blanket, draping it over her sleeping form before checking a clock and leaving the house. Once it hit midnight I began talking to myself, i’d never figured out why but it always seemed to happen that way. Tonight was no exception. As I walked out of the door and toward the shadows of the streets it all started “Being dead kind of sucks. It has some awesome things about it but the whole thing just sucks.”

If I had been paying attention instead of prancing about like an idiot blathering on about death, I would have noticed the multitude of eyes and clanking of armor that seemed to be following my walk. Eventually I noticed them, as soon as I saw them though, the eyes disappeared around a shadowy corner. I followed them and came upon a single lunar guard who slammed into me as I turned the corner. As much as I didn’t want to think it, this guard was a real pansy. We slammed into each other and he screamed higher than one of the mares from earlier.

He quickly tried to right himself but the damage was done and the eyes were gone. “Oh, um.” He coughed a bit and puffed out his chest in an effort to look more impressive. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“Riiiight. Did you see where those eyes... Why are you staring at me?” I asked slightly irritated. One thing I can never stand is when someone blatantly stares at me, a sneaking stare is fine but doing it openly just rubs me the wrong way.

“Just a random thought but you wouldn’t happen to be Rorke, would you?” He asked with all the confidence of a cucumber.

“What gave it away, the fact that I’m the only one as tall as Celestia or the whole dog in robes thing?” I asked with sarcasm dripping in every word. Losing track of those eyes kind of pissed me off.

“Th-the tall as Celestia thing.” He said as he prodded the ground nervously with his hoof.

“well?”

“Oh um, are y-you a s-ske....” His voice drifting off to Fluttershy levels until I couldn’t even figure if he was making legitimate words. ‘I want to know who’s the idiot who made this guy a guard, he couldn’t fight a pinecone with a longsword.’

“Okay this is starting to annoy me, just tell me what you want.” My voice starting to rise despite myself.

“Are you a skeleton?!” He shouted finally before covering his mouth with his hooves and launching into a flurry of apologies.

“Yes, I am.” I said simply. There wasn’t a reason to try and mince words, it was the reality of my situation. Fortunately he cut his apology off as soon as I said that.

“Wait, what? Are you serious? I thought that was just the Captain trying to be funny.” He said just in time to reflex and stumble back into a mediocre example of a fighting stance. “I won’t let you hurt anyone.” Flaring his now revealed wings as he backed his way into a streetlight. I could finally see his whole body but nothing really outstanding. He looked just like a solar guard except a dark silver instead of gold and with more red than I thought there would be.

“Oh put your big boy pants on and calm down. Have I done anything bad since I’ve gotten here?” I asked plainly.

“Well-” He began earnestly.

“I’ll cut you off there and say no I haven’t. I’m sure Auburn would beg to differ but he’s in jail so I don’t care what he thinks. I thought Princess Luna told you all herself?”

“She just told the Captain to tell us, and what would happen if we spread the knowledge around.”

“Yeah, I’m sure plenty of ponies aren’t going to be so accepting of me. Hey at least I’ve only gotten one pony thats tried to kill me, and it wasn’t even because I’m dead.” I exclaimed happily.

“Can I see?” He asked quietly.

“See what?”

“Your... Well anything really. I want to see your face actually.” He looked up to me eye to ‘eye’ “Please?”

“Let’s cross over to that streetlight and I’ll show you.” We crossed the street and walked into the light before I pulled the wrap on my muzzle and head off. The bone shone off dully in the lamps’ gaze.

“That’s all I needed to see.” He said slowly before whistling out a bird call of some sort.

I heard footsteps behind me and as I turned, out of the darkness came three other ponies dressed in the same dark silver and red armor. “It seems our trust in you was not mistaken, Iron Shot.” They all had swords on their sides minus Iron Shot. What had me minutely worried however, was the stallion in the middle that seemed to be the boss had an outrageously large sword also resting on his back.

“You aren’t Lunar Guards, are you?” I asked calmly.

“No.” The leader, who was obviously compensating with such a large and familiar sword, said. “We are something much stronger than the mere foals that work in our so-called Princesses service. The Argent Crusade won’t stand for scourge beasts like you ruining Equestria.” He said gravely.

I began chuckling and the stallion asked me why. I ignored him and began laughing more even as he drew his sword and began to demand I stop laughing. By this point I was laughing hysterically. “Damnit, why are you laughing?!” He yelled.

“Oh man, this is hilarious.” I wiped away a nonexistent tear. “If I’m a scourge beast does that mean you’re the pony version of Tirion Fordring?”

“My name, is Moroes!.” He said with malice intent.

“Wait wait” I interrupted. “Does this make me the Lich King? Oh man, this is too funny.” I almost fell over from laughing.

The other three soldiers were audibly grinding their teeth, but if they were mad ‘Moroes’ was pissed beyond measure. He swung his sword at me in a wide arc missing by a mile but causing me to leap back. “You will give us the respect we have earned, monster. I’m sure that nurse would agree...”

That got me to snap back to reality. “Stay away from her.” I said coldly.

He smirk as he stood with a hoof placed on his sword. “Maybe she’s an undead sympathizer. We simply can’t allow that to continue.” He said as he waved one of his goons off toward Killer’s house.

“Hurting an innocent to stop evil, looks like you’re becoming monsters yourselves.” I spoke subtly.

“Maybe, but who is going to argue when no body is found and you’re sitting ten feet under.” He said something after that but I was paying more attention to the pony that had run. I needed to stop him. ‘Option A, jump and see if I go as high as last time, hop roof to roof and cut him off. Option B, fight these three and hope Killer can hold her own... Obvious choice there.’

I reeled back and hoped beyond hope to catch enough air that I wouldn’t slam into side of a building instead of getting to the roof. I managed to get to a height just at the rim and grab on before leveraging my way to scrabbling to the top. Moroes began yelling something but I was too far up to hear what. I got to my feet and began to jump from rooftop to rooftop trying to spot the galloping crusader but it was fruitless in the pitch darkness of the city. That is, until I had spotted the shadowy armored pony running past a series of streetlights.

I jumped off the building, no doubt waking up the occupants, and aimed myself for a direct intercept course to tackle the charging stallion. trajectory had other plans however and I slammed directly into the streetlight he had just passed by. A bit of bone actually chipped off the bridge between my eyes but I stood up anyway. I turned and was immediately slammed to the ground by my target. “You’ll regret facing me, you abomination!” He yelled a foot away from my face before abruptly ramming his sword through my skull.

My first thoughts probably should have been about getting a large hunk of sharpened steel rammed through head but they actually drifted to more along the lines of ‘Why is no one waking up from all this yelling? Seriously, I’ve heard nothing but shouting and not a soul has come out to see what it’s all about.’

Eventually my thoughts returned to the situation at hand as he wretched the blade from my eye socket. He tried for another strike but was stopped prematurely by my fist to the side of his helmet. Unfortunately this didn’t get him off my chest but throwing a mean left hook with my gauntlet sure did. He collapsed onto the ground with a spray of blood leaking from his mouth, only then did I realize how he was talking and still able to stab me, due to the fact that he was a unicorn.

“You won’t beat me that easily, skeleton freak.” He said spitting more blood as his sword rose into the air once more.

“Sure do love your smack talk, don't you?” I replied. I was never good at smack talk before a fight but this was really a victim of circumstance. I had never been in a single fight before come here and all of a sudden it feels like an almost daily occurrence. ‘Canterlot feels like a fantasy version of New York. Replace guns with magic and mafiosos with jacked up, mentally unstable crusaders.’

He charged toward me as his sword began to swipe at me mid-air. I could have easily just walked through the blade and been unhurt but I didn’t have another set of robes and those were the ones that made me look like a guard. So it was, I dodged and weaved through the biting lines of the weapon and engaged the pony himself. He reared up and slammed an armored hoof into my ribcage pushing the cloth inward and getting his leg jammed in between a pair of the bones. He looked up at me with a panicked expression and got exactly what he deserved.

I did what should never be done in a fight, a bit of knowledge that even I knew. My enemy was immobilized though so I felt it was okay. I reared my armored fist as far back as possible and slammed it straight into the side of his head. The force of impact actually broke a pair of my ribs as his foot was forcibly removed from my body. The effects following that weren’t fun for him to say the least, his helmet had all but been caved in on the side as he flipped comically through the air.
‘Nothing puts someone down like haymaker.’ I thought as I walked over to the downed stallion. “You know I’m a guard right? You’re definitely under arrest, wish I had some cuffs though.” He leaned up from his collapsed position, a couple of teeth being left on the ground and blood dripping out of his mouth.

“You hold no authority over the righteous” He muttered half heartedly.

“Really now?” I said as I picked him up by the plates on his neck. “Because I’m sure both the princesses and the Solar Guard would beg to differ.”

He chuckled lightly. “I’m sure they would beg from a dog.”

“Don’t test me zealot. I’m not a killer but I’m more than willing to leave you as a puddle on the street.” I warned him as my jaw began to pitch back to bare my teeth despite a conscious effort to stop it.

He smiled showing off his multitude of missing teeth and the blood caking the others. “I’d much rather leave you as a pile of bones left to rot out in the sun.” He said right before his horn began to glow. I heard the scrape of metal coming off stone, it was all the warning I got. I wretched my whole body to the left and let go of the crusader. All I heard was an irking sound of surprise before a crackle of metal sounded on the cobblestone street.

To my right was something I’d seen a million times before but could never be prepared for in real life. No picture, video, or words could describe seeing someone who was just very much alive one second, die right next to you. He had attempted to thrust his sword through the back of my head but couldn't stop the blade when I was no longer in its’ path. Jutting out of his head was his own sword.

I stumbled backwards as I could feel my mind stress and creak as the weight of the situation caved in on it. Hairline fractures could almost be felt on my psyche. “H-h-he’s dead.” I stuttered to myself. Auburn had tried the same thing that one had, but he lived through the attempt, pretty beat up but he lived. The only thing that managed to make the situation worse was the arrival of the other crusaders.

Moroes ran up the street with the other two as I was sprawled on the ground in a heap of disbelief. He stopped so sharply that I could hear his hooves scrape on the stone roadway. “Iron Shod, Venerable, take the body back to the warden. Let everypony know I’m taking care of the problem myself.” I turned and saw them gallop up and place the body on Iron’s back before they ran sprinted away in disgust.

He approached me calmly with his sword held against his side with a wing. “You’re much stronger than I thought you would be. That was my nephew you know. He never was that good of a fighter but what can you do? He did do one useful thing with his life...” He began creeping toward me with a smile on his face only to be stopped by a flash of light from above us. Above us a light had been flicked on inside a nearby house and it was shining right on us.

He had frozen his walk for just long enough to get me out of my episode and up on my feet to run. I had gone just over ten feet before he started giving chase. ‘Okay, okay, I just indirectly killed a pony... Who was trying to kill me. Who jammed his own sword in his eye...’ I kept thinking to myself as I ran farther and farther away from the city with Moroes hot on my heels, sword in tow. ‘How exactly is that my fault? Technically I just punched him, really hard but still just a punch. Something about this situation makes me think I’m not going to sleep tonight though.’

Almost three minutes of nonstop running and getting out of public areas led me to a lightly forested area on the outskirts of Canterlot. I turned and saw the crusader huffing and puffing toward me with his massive sword still in place. I figured that the weight must throw him off in flight too much to attempt it or he would have just flown instead of running. “I-I’ve got you now.” He said before heaving plenty of deep breaths and slipping his sword back out.

“I’m going to kill you and drop your corpse at the Grand Warden’s hooves.” He said confidently as he started to inch toward me trying with all his effort to look menacing but coming off totally inept.

“You know, telling your opponent that you’re going to kill them before the fight has even started is really bad luck.” I warned.

“Bad luck or no, I have the Ashbringer at my side.” He said showing off the blade. “No undead monstrosity can stand before the most holy of weapons.”

‘That’s where I remember the sword from. This means I need to be careful, pain or no pain that thing could turn me to dust if he uses it right.’ I shifted my body into a form that I thought would most resemble a decent fighting stance. He shifted in front of me as he encroached further toward me until at around twenty feet he charged, the glow of Ashbringer lighting the forest up ever so slightly. I was fighting open handed compared to his hyper effective undead killing machine, life just falls apart that way.

He seemed to be holding the sword with his mouth but also guiding it with one of his wings. He stabbed forward as I leaned to the right, I didn’t account for sudden shifts in blade direction as he slammed the flat of the blade against my hips. You wouldn’t figure it from such a diminutive size but that hit packed a lot of power. I was sent end over end across the clearing until I hit a tree and flattened myself against its’ face. A couple of cracks that I could only assume were some of my bones breaking sent a calm echo through the surprisingly quiet forest.

I had barely gotten to my feet when I was faced with the angry crusader in my face again. He swung that blade like it was the fastest thing on the planet, I didn’t have time to dodge all or even half of his attacks but luckily the only fatality of those strikes was my guard uniform. Unfortunately, I had taken off my mail when I went to sleep in the library and never retrieved it, I didn’t know if it would make a difference but it would stop that blade from touching me and burning me down to a cinder.

Barely a minute had passed before the first injury of the fight was incurred. Injury as in pain and wounding, both of those being rested on my end of the fight. He had waited for just the right opening and thrust the blade into the side of my ribs cutting a few of them straight off. That wasn’t the worse aspect, the bones would heal but I felt PAIN. I hadn’t felt pain since getting Rorke’s body but nothing sparks up the memory like first hand experience. The bastardized crusader actually smiled as he twisted the blade. Smiling as he made me scream out in mind splitting agony once more. The blade actually burned my bones and sent the sensation through my entire body.

Time seemed to slow down as the unreal flames of torment coursed directly throughout my body making me attempt to scream but it only came out a little more than a pained gasp. Moroes didn’t say anything but his wicked smile and overtly gleeful expression told me he was eating my torment like ice cream. “You’re lucky you know that?” He said before twisting the blade, pulling it out, and stabbing me through the ribs again cutting the whole left side off and tearing a massive hole in my robe. “Most undead can't stand a moment in contact with the Ashbringer before they die, you’re special, its been a whole ten seconds and you’re still alive.”

At that time I was resigned to my fate. ‘I am going to die and no one is going to know how, where, or why.’ I was actually surprised I could still think through the tortuous grasp of pain wracking my body. So it was that I sat there for almost thirty second of pure undying pain with a pony wrenching his sword through me bones trying to kill me. It was around that time however that I learned one true thing that life on earth had never given me a chance to confront and perceive.

‘I don’t want to die.’ It was a simple as that and I refused to die. I drew up my open handed claw and raked the unarmored section behind one of his legs making him lose focus. I took the initiative and pushed him off of me, he took the sword down with him. He looked wobbly in his stature but it was beyond time to end it. I jumped at him but he rolled away and brought his sword back up to fend me off further. He wasn’t ready for what was going to do next though. I had been fighting his fight up until then; I was taller, lighter, and faster with greater reach so I began to put them to use.

I swept with my legs and used every approach possible to close the distance, to negate the effect his sword had on the fight but he was much better than the pony from earlier. He kept his distance and back pedaled like a champ even as his leg splashed blood with his every movement. It was really a bad idea I had come up with but with such a large sword he wouldn’t have been able to pull it out in time.

He swung wide to keep me from closing in but I persisted until I was right next to him, I didn’t predict his next move though. He reared up and kicked my spine itself with his uninjured leg throwing me back to the ground, that screw up my attack but his next move corrected the course of events. As I fell he brought the slanted point of the sword down and removed my leg just below the hip. The pain was beyond measure but I couldn’t let him redouble his efforts when I was lacking mobility at that critical point. I leaned forward and grabbed the sword with both hand, the passive essence of the sword burning my entire body even as the only contact was the claw tips.

Ripping the sword from his mouth was immediate but the consequence of that was he flopping on top of me, it wasn’t unwelcome as that allowed me to continue my efforts immediately. His face was grimaced as I laid the points of my gauntlet directly into his throat and head as well as clawing the same area. A mere few moments later and the fight was over, my face and chest drenched in blood that couldn’t be my own and the body of my opponent laying right next to me. “How had the day come to this?” I said to myself. “The day started off so well and now I’m drenched in blood, my robe is in tatters, and I have to figure out what to do with this whole situation...” I let the sentence hang in the air as I thought to myself.

‘I have to get up first and that requires both of my legs. I really hope that the cuts from Ashbringer will still heal.’ They did but it took almost half an hour of gathering the several missing ribs and sitting still to have both them and my leg reattach themselves. After that I spent my time carefully handling the overly painful sword and using it as a shovel. I had to dig Moroes a grave, it wasn’t out of respect or anything along those lines. I just couldn’t have some foal walk into the forest and find a dead pony in armor getting eaten by animals.

After about half an hour I had managed to dig a deep enough hole but it left a decision to be made. “Do I take Ashbringer and try to find a way to use it or do I bury it with him?” I felt considering that the blade burned me immensely that no matter how good it could be, it wasn’t worth keeping so I threw it into the hole and pushed the dirt on top of it by hand. My last act in that forest completed I walked out, only to walk back in when I realized I was still covered in blood. After a few minutes of walking I found a small stream that was just deep enough let me flail about in it and get most of the blood off. Then I was finally done and strode out of the forest with my thoughts still tied up by the actions of the day.

As I entered the city something caught my eye. A street clock once more displaying the time, it was fifteen minutes to four as I strode down the street toward the castle. ‘The Grand Galloping Gala is today.’

All aboard the Gala train! I won't be taking part in any of them main festivities you have all seen unless I was told I could. Rorke will be having his own things to deal with regarding that evenings events but he'll be heading toward the 'Liberator' before long. Another update, I'll be commissioning some cover art from a friend of mine that I don't get to see enough but if that falls through I'll draw it myself. Before September is out you will have a picture of Rorke. I think that's all I have to say.
-Sturrn