Stage Five: Asamsakti, Utter Detachment
~BlackRoseRaven
Another step forwards,and the darkness grows deeper, made perhaps even worse still by the light that now shines upon it, by the brief sparks of hope that flare here and there amongst the shadows. But will the rising heroes be able to overcome our beloved villains? Or will Luna and Scrivener continue to devour all that oppose them, even as flashes of their old selves emerge...
An Excerpt from A Warrior's Honor
In the past, the concept of honor was taken very seriously, especially by Paladins and other warriors, although in many ways it applied even to the everyday pony. A pony's honor was their entire life: a pony without honor was considered to be an outcast and unwanted in society, no matter how important or how talented they were. Even the Barons would go to great lengths to attempt to uphold their honor, although ironically often by dishonorable means, such as assassinating or imprisoning those who would speak out against them.
A key example comes from the folk stories of Sol, Titan, and Morgan: Titan is most-commonly depicted as an earth pony, and the little evidence that has been gathered from this time period points to the idea that Titan was likely a Knight of the ill-fated Baron Silverhoof, before his barony was all-but-destroyed. In legend, Titan is depicted as a pony 'strong enough to lift a dragon,' and the same legends say that the arguably-mythical beasts known as 'Tyrant Wyrms' were responsible for the destruction of the Silverhoof Barony. As there is no physical evidence that such creatures as Tyrant Wyrms ever existed, and due to their depiction in legend, it is far more likely that the Silverhoof Barony was overrun by dragons.
As mentioned previously, Sol, Titan and Morgan were said to have hunted Tyrant Wyrms until the species became extinct: bearing in mind what we have discussed so far, it is not inconceivable that instead they hunted dragons in retaliation for the destruction of the Silverhoof Barony. If Titan miraculously survived the attack on the Baron's fortress – the ruins of which can still be glimpsed here and there around the now-town of Silver Hoof – then his honor code would have compelled him towards taking revenge and exacting the same damage back to the dragons as they had done to him.
That is not to say honor is simply about revenge: a pony bound by the ancient laws of honor may be compelled to fight a friend for sake of duty, but between friends and especially family, an honorable defeat did not necessarily mean an honorable death. There are rules and laws of compassion, and the structure of honor is as complex as it is simple, with the one exception being the value of a promise. A promise, above all other things, must be kept: those who break a promise, a vow, their word, are considered to have thrown away their honor and are treated with as much disdain as those who bring violence against an innocent foal, rendering their lives forfeit...