//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15: A Hero's Life 
// Story: Death, Sacrifice, and the man in blue 
// by MrTyrannousaurusX 
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A light-yellow aura formed around the borders of a tall golden set of double doors, its head reaching high above them and nearly touching the ceiling that rested countless feet above it. To the white alicorn princess and the man in blue standing in front of it, they looked like mere insignificant insects compared to the behemoth standing imposingly in front of them. Ever since his departure from Twilight’s library hours ago, all was well in the town of Ponyville on his walk to the boutique belonging to his fashion savior, Rarity. The morning sun was shining bright and clasped him in its warm embrace. The tips of the blades of lush green grass he and his unicorn companion had the pleasure of stepping foot on tickled and poked their ankles. The ponies of all different colors and species that passed by them greeted them as they strolled along to settle whatever business they needed to. Levi vividly remembered the faces of almost every pony who just so happened to cross paths with him like they were his own family that he’d known for years. The very first one he saw was a tall, tan unicorn with a fancy-looking amber mustache with curled ends that made him look like a stereotypical villain in a fairy tale. What little that could be seen of his perfectly slicked back hair shined, the remainder of it being hidden underneath his intricately sewed black top hat. His gentlemanly flawlessly tailored black and white suit, while not failing to make the unicorn in question look great, looked very out of place in the overtly casual setting of Ponyville. Levi could see the illustrations in his head flowing through his mind like a river with each moment that passed. The same mint unicorn with similarly colored hair who’s cup was knocked from her hoof and seeped back into the earth where she stood. A maroon pegasus. And most surprisingly of all, Fluttershy, who stopped to talk for a few minutes before going on her merry way.

However, all good things had to come to an end, and the tranquility of the duo’s trip was no exception. What Levi had not yet realized was that being on the receiving end of a brutal beatdown by a psychopath didn’t come without consequences. He could almost feel the tip of Gary’s rock-hard boot thrusting into his side like a rocket ship, his ribs teetering on the edge of shattering into a million pieces. His side exploded in pain. The agony that shot through his veins like slag being poured down his arteries. That morning, his mind was so focused on explaining to Twilight the story of the very same man who did that to him that he lacked the space in his brain to even acknowledge the fallout of the fight. That was the case until Levi took one final, fateful step forward, a step just like any other he had taken in the minutes following the beginning of his trip. But this one was sent straight from the deepest pit of hell like a sick, ill-favored gift basket sent by one man in particular. Gary. He could almost picture in his head the image of the raven-haired man’s well-toned arm hurling a ball of agony up from whatever lake of fire he was, hopefully, cast to and right to Levi. When his orb of torment hit its intended target, a ravenous and bloodthirsty affliction that followed was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. It felt as though the red-hot tip of a metal spear was driven and twisted right into his kidney, laying waste to his internal organs and setting the inside of his torso aflame with pain. Levi wasn’t one to stop and lick his wounds when he was in a bad situation or a scenario just like that one. However, the aftermath of his clash with Gary the night before hit him like a truck and was more than enough to send him to an abrupt halt. 

In the hours that passed since that fateful moment, the pain got less and less with each step he took. He couldn’t even imagine what he must’ve looked like hobbling into Rarity’s boutique like he was some sort of zombie. His hand clutched over his oblique. Shirt being a tattered, shredded mess akin to strands of royal blue confetti hanging off his back. His face twisted and contorted in torment. He could only imagine what would happen if some pony happened to walk in and see him like that, he wouldn’t blame them a bit if they thought he was a dead man walking. 

The centuries-old hinges moaned noisily as the Princess split the two golden, colossal doors apart, allowing a fresh wave of bitter cold air to splash right onto Levi. His hands were stuck deep in his jean pockets in an attempt to rid his body of chills that wracked it, much to his dismay, his efforts were in vain. His rapidly plummeting body temperature only grew worse at the rigid onslaught that finally escaped behind the confines of the solid-gold entryway, ready and willing to torment anyone that was unfortunate enough to stand in its path. Luckily for him, there were no shredded holes or large gashes in his clothing that could’ve easily made his situation worse tenfold, thanks to one particular white unicorn alone. Despite the morning sun beaming bright throughout the castle like it was nobody’s business, the hallway that seemed to stretch for miles in front of them was oddly dimmed. An impossibly long, lush, deep purple carpet ran from the entrance of the corridor all the way to the end that Levi couldn’t see no matter how hard he strained his eyes into the shade. Mammoth stone pillars standing high and mighty and overlooking the passageway they rested in dotted the walls. Tall, yellow-stained glass lancets were on both sides of each of the columns, only confusing the man even more as to how nearly zero light inhabited the endless aisle. Metal stands were scattered across the left and right sides of the halls, each of them having a half-melted candle held snugly in its black iron slot.

Celestia’s hooves went from harsh clinking against the marble floor to soft pattering as they moved to the rug, a much more pleasant option than having his ears pierced with every step she took. Despite his hesitancy about the seemingly unending and darkness infested hallway, Levi followed closely by her side while she began her stroll to wherever Levi needed to go next. At least where Celestia believed he needed to go. Ever since he got here, the Princess had refused to tell him what exactly was so important he had to drag his feet halfway across Equestria just to be in the castle. The only response he received was that it was a “surprise”, while amusing to hear at first, it gradually began to annoy him each time he asked. Her calm voice with a hint of enthusiasm braided within it didn’t help Levi’s growing frustration either, like she was unintentionally throwing gasoline all over an open flame. He felt sorry for feeling that way towards her considering she didn’t do anything wrong, but those sentiments of regret quickly died as he reminded himself his emotions were completely out of his control. Or so he thought. 

“So-” 

His sentence was rudely interrupted by a sharp hiss escaping his lungs, pain flaring up where Gary’s boot made contact every time his foot returned to the ground where it belonged. “Am I allowed to know where we’re going now?”

Celestia turned her head slightly to look down at the man, the familiar look in her large magenta eyes brought Levi to the conclusion immediately that he was going to receive the same answer he had gotten every other time before. He mentally face-palmed at the fact that he even asked again in the first place. “Patience, Levi. We’re nearly there, and besides, I don’t want to ruin the surprise.” 

There it was again, the same vexation-inducing reply he had been getting for the past..however many minutes he had been walking through the incomprehensible maze she called a castle. Levi fought back a grunt, not only from the aggravation building inside of him, but from the stinging that ravaged him everytime he took a step. The mere fact that the constant torment was inescapable if he wanted to function like a regular person was disheartening to say the least, but the last thing he needed to do was worry Celestia with his, what he considered to be, minor problems. After all, the limp he was struggling to keep hidden was already concerning enough as it is. 

“As you wish” Levi obliged, knowing that any attempt to gain further information out of the alicron was futile. 

To say the corridor made the man feel uneasy would be an understatement. The sight of such a faintly-lighted place in the usually bright and vibrant castle that was bursting with life even at the slightest glimpse was off-putting to say the least. The vacancy in his mind was suddenly chocked full of every possible reality and assumption that could possibly explain the purpose of the passageway clogged with shadow. Could she be leading him to some sort of dungeon? It would fit the gloomy look of the hallway if that happened to be the case. Could it be something Levi couldn’t even predict or prepare for? The only thing that could guide him to an answer was his feet that pushed him forward, continuing to shuffle down the incessantly long corridor as he felt seconds labor on into minutes. The man continued to stay close by the snow-white alicorn’s side as she took a sharp right that was once hidden behind a veil of darkness, one of the few things Levi could make out on the floor was the lush carpet turn from deep purple to stone-grey. Something on the usually bland and smoke-colored wall caught his attention like a shooting star, it was something out of place for the not-so-royal looking corridor Levi had the misfortune of walking in that Levi thought for a split second his mind was playing tricks on him. It was a golden plaque embedded into the ash-tinted bricks like a dove in the night sky, the only thing in that entire hallway that demanded any attention whatsoever to the naked eye. The solid gold the tablet was forged from tried in vain to show its beauty by glinting what little light occupied the space around it, but its efforts were unfortunately fruitless, leaving the panel to sit in shame with nothing to show for it. One would expect a lot of those things to be in a castle of all places, but for reasons no one could understand, the plaquette was the only shred of what this passageway belonged to. A castle.

With what little time he had before the Princess plunged deep into the new even-darker hall, Levi squinted and tried his absolute damndest to read the impossibly small words printed onto the sign. The result was almost exactly what he expected, which was making out little-to-nothing at all. In spite of his struggles, his attempts weren’t entirely nugatory. Out of the many words on the plaque that grazed his eyes, only four were able to be seen in the pestering darkness that concealed them like they were ancient treasures that could never be seen by the light of day. Or lack thereof. “In memoriam” and “Platinum Wing” were the exponentially lucky few that were able to be discerned by the man’s strained emerald eyes. This sent a flurry of questions that lacked any answers flooding his mind that, at that point, was only filled with laments about the blackness that swallowed him whole inside the corridor. 

‘Platinum Wing?’ Levi thought to himself, fighting off the urge to raise an eyebrow in confusion. ‘Who could that be?’ 

His mind wasted no time in becoming a blizzard of assumptions about who this “Platinum Wing” could possibly be. He knew for certain that he had to be someone very important for him to have whatever awaited him and Celestia at the end of the hallway dedicated to him. Levi looked down at the gunmetal grey rug, or more specifically, the platinum grey rug. Whomever this pony could be, the Princesses must’ve taken a great liking to him to put something in the royal castle in his honor. He wondered what position Platinum had once filled that held such a substantial importance to Celestia and Luna that warranted this treatment. Could he have been someone who saved their lives once upon a time? Could he be a part of their family Levi didn’t know about? Could he have been a pronounced hero in some way shape or form? Realistically, there was no way for Levi to tell at that moment. His brain was hungry for answers, becoming more and more ravenous by the second as his curiosity skyrocketed further and further with each pain-inducing step he took.

 The rhythmic stinging in his side was overruled by the overbearing inquisitive-feeling towards the subject. He had no idea why he wanted to know the solution to the snowstorm of inquiries inside him wanted a response so badly and he had no room left in his head to conjure a reason. Maybe it was the need for a basis on why he was there in the first place that he lacked the entire walk there coming to a head. Maybe it was the fact that each similar, barren hallway had been the same except this one. Maybe it was all of them combined. He had no didn’t have the slightest clue of which could be the one like trying to assemble an unsolvable puzzle in his head. In the blink of an eye, Celestia’s horn gained a gleaming light-yellow aura as the corridor, which was once teetering on the edge of pitch-black, exploded with a brilliant golden light. Levi’s eyes were anything but grateful, wanting nothing more than to retreat back into his skull to escape the searing shine that felt like the sun was spawned right in front of him. The only thing Levi could do was close his eyes and hide it from the wrath of the Princesses luminescence. Celestia looked over her shoulder at the harsh-sounding noise with an eyebrow raised high at the wincing man. 

“Ah, damn!” Levi hissed, taking a step back in back in surprise with his hand pressed firmly over his still stinging eyeballs. 

“Oh! My apologies!” Celestia declared much louder than intended, her voice echoing off the walls and back into Levi’s ears more times than he could count. No matter how many amends left her mouth, none would calm the spear-like pulsating in his peepers. 

“I suppose I should have warned you” She spoke, her voice much quieter than before but the regret still braided within it all the same.

Levi removed his manus from his scrunched-up face, rubbing his optics with his fingertips and ridding himself of any discomfort that still remained behind his eyelids. Or, at the very least, rid as much as humanly possible. 

“No, It’s alright,” The man removed his digits and allowed his green irises to see the light of day once more, fluttering them for a second or two before fully opening them and hastily scanning his surroundings. The walls, albeit still drab and gray, were adorned with several red banners that really made the small section of hallway come to life. A stark contrast from the utterly boring corridor Levi had the dishonor of walking through. In the center of the flag were two swords with smaller than usual blades crossing over each other to form an X. The handles were bone-white with a paper-thin gold line going from long-ways along the sides and bottom of it. The years weren’t kind on the crimson cloth that formed the burgee, small holes and tears dotted the fabric, revealing the ugly brown unknown material underneath the layer of the faded and dying red.

“Let’s keep going” The much taller alicorn gave Levi a small smile and a nod, turning her head and commencing her rhythmic footsteps along the silver carpet like a muffled heartbeat in his ears. Levi’s irregular and heavy-footed strides further down the carpet were soon to follow, the curiosity inside of him edging closer and closer to a boiling point each time his foot left and returned to the ground like a volcano ready to burst at a moment's notice. ‘Platinum Wing’ Despite his best efforts, Levi couldn’t clear his mind of the pony’s name. ‘Who could he be?’ It was the question above all questions, the inquiry that would badger his mind until the end of his days if he didn’t find out soon. He had no clue why he felt so obsessed with it. It wasn’t like he wanted to, it just..happened without explanation. If he was being honest, he didn’t want an explanation, or to even think about it at all. He had suffered through enough bothersome queries to last him a lifetime.

After what felt like hours of walking, Celestia’s hooves came to a comfortable stop at the conclusion of the hallway. Her horn, that never ceased shining its bright sun-yellow light that it was trying to illuminate the entire planet, cast away the veil of darkness it once hid behind and revealed every inch of it to Levi’s starving eyes. The solid-iron entryway looked more like something pulled straight out of a medieval dungeon than a castle ruled by Celestia. Long spears were engraved into the border of each aperture, the bottom of the handle touching the bottom corner and reaching all the way up until the tip touched the top corner. In the center of both of them inscribed into it like a gravestone was the very same symbol that adorned the banners, two short-bladed swords crossed over each other to form an X. Unlike the flags however, no color resided in them, just two cutlasses overlapping each other with zero attention-grabbing features to them whatsoever. A stark contrast to its placard counterpart that sat idle on the wall just inches away from the hulking, impenetrable-looking metal door. Just as quickly as Celestia’s light lit up the hallway, it died, thrusting Levi and the white alicorn into the eager mouth of the thick darkness once again. Fortunately, the shadows' ironclad grip wouldn’t hold the man in blue for much longer. Celestia’s horn flared to life with the same luminous golden aura and the identical humming sound reverberating from it blessed Levi’s ears with its presence.

The doorknobs, which were decorated with an ornate floral pattern, gained a scintillating yellow ring without a moment to spare.The Princess wasted no time in turning both of the studs in there respective directions, the sound of what seemed like a burdensome metal bar being slid out of place noisily rung down the hallway as if the alicorn had opened the doors of a bomb shelter. Levi’s nerves were on high alert. His curiosity overruled them, conquering every last inch of his senses. This was it. The answer to all of the questions that were having a bloody way inside of his head for dominance over the man would finally be revealed. In short, Levi couldn’t wait another moment for the steel mammoth entryways to swing open and welcome him into their open arms. The roaring of the hinges, that were bordering on the edge of ancient, only sent half-excited half-anxious chills shooting through his bones like lightning bolts thrown from the heavens. The two hulking solid steel doors agonizingly slowly split apart from one another for the first time in, what Levi could only assume to be, years. Possibly even longer. However, the lack of dust showering down from the head of the apertures like smoke-gray rainfall shot down his theory. Whatever the case may be, the inside of the spacious corridor inside being leisurely revealed centimeter by centimeter only added fuel to the raging inferno of interest inside his heart. The ponies name bounced off the walls of his skull more times than he could ever dream of counting.

The creaking of the doors hinges like the moaning of an old rusty boat was almost maddening. The desire to know what was so important was beginning to eat the man alive from the inside. He needed to know and fast. He struggled to stop himself from leaping out of his skin, that for once felt like a prison holding him back, and dash through the door without a second thought. Levi’s legs flowed fiercely with adrenaline like a horse jacked-up on steroids held back by chains, fighting vigorously to be free like his life depended on it. Straight out of the blue, an almost blinding ray pink-tinted sunlight shot straight into his green irises like a spear. The man instinctively threw his arm over his globes, shielding them from the ruthless beam of luster that laid waste to his vision. He thrusted his eyes into the solace behind his eyelids, the darkness welcoming his presence with camaraderie for the second time that day. In a way, the sea of blackness acted as a surrogate savior to the man’s optics. It rescued him not only from Celestia’s implosion of light but from..whatever caused the streak of radiance stabbing his peekers like spears. If he could thank the infinite dusk behind his lids, he would. 

As quickly as the stinging in his eyeballs began, it subsided, allowing Levi to lower his forearm back to his side and open his optics once more. With the doors now fully divided and whatever was hidden behind them now shown for all to see, Levi’s jaw hit the floor and his eyes pooled with a feeling he couldn’t quite describe. Amazement? Astonishment? Could it be a mixture of both? Maybe. Maybe not. One thing he knew for certain, anything and everything behind the apertures was worth the wait. The cyclone of questions in his mind could now finally be put to rest.

The hall was more grandiose than Levi could’ve ever imagined. The ceiling was higher than any he had seen before in the castle thus far with mountainous pillars dotting the grey brick walls, touching the roof that looked as though it was a hair away from colliding with the heavens above. Lancets sat on either side of the towering pillars with blue, pink, and tan colored stained-glass inside the frame to form an illustration of what the man could only assume to be revolutionary events. 

The same platinum colored carpet ran from the now open doorway all the way to the set of silver double doors standing high and mighty at the end of the aisle. Impossibly long red banners sat on both sides of each of the windows, the triangle-shaped tail end resting dangerously close to the floor but somehow managed not to touch it and risk desecrating its pristine image. The very same X formation of two swords remained in the center, much larger than the ones Levi had seen previously, and took up a lot more of the flag than he intended. Dabbed along the squeaky-clean walls were silver sconces with torches sitting snugly inside them, the fire raging on the head looked like the aftermath of a nuclear bomb. Flames and death as far as they could see. The upside to the constant smoldering was the sickly-sweet scent of a blazing bonfire filling every inch of the grand hall. Alongside the lancets and pillars was a large painting depicting an earth pony donning pure platinum armor with his hoof planted firmly on top of something that Levi couldn’t make out. Whether it was a stone or the head of a fallen enemy, he couldn’t tell. Judging by his experiences in Equestria thus far, any one of the two were on the table.

However, the true star of the show wasn’t the beautifully painted windows or the ancient Greek style pillars, it was what stood in the dead-center of the room, basking in its own glory as if it knew how magnificent it truly was. A pedestal forged out of pure, unadulterated marble with black specks sprinkled from the top to the bottom. Situated at the flat square base at the peak of the podium was an old, wrinkled, and slightly blood-stained chocolate brown leather sheath standing upright inside its rectangular glass container. While the blade itself remained hidden inside the hide holster, Levi could see the hilt jutting out of the scabbard, soaking in all of the attention Levi’s widened eyes were beaming onto it. It was a spotless, shining bone-white metal with a thin gold line bordering it. The light from the morning sun that flooded in through the multi-story windows shone onto it as if it was some gift from God himself, the handle glittering and the solid-gold glimmering in the radiance. 

Levi separated his jaws to speak, but he found all of the air that once occupied his lungs was expelled simultaneously in an awed gasp like a giddy school girl seeing her crush. The man couldn’t stop his head from swiveling from side to side, scanning the surroundings over and over like his brain was forcing him to memorize every square inch of the corridor as though his life depended on it. Levi fully stepped through the silver double doors and into the new and refreshing atmosphere of the majestic hall, concurrently feeling a surge of much warmer air cascade over him akin to a river of lukewarm water flowing over his form. Inside, Levi felt the need to apologize to this long-dead pony for defiling his floor with his filth-ridden shoes. The 

“Do you like what you see?” Celestia’s soothing voice asked, shattering the peaceful silence that formerly conquered the superb corridor.

“I…it’s beautiful,” Levi breathed, just loud enough for the alicorn’s ears and her ears alone. “But I gotta ask, who’s this ‘Platinum Wing’? Was he some sort of war hero or something?” 

The man turned his head to look over at the princess, magenta met emerald, and the solemn look that was written across her face gave Levi more questions than answers. 

‘Could he have been her lover? Maybe her brother? Or her father?’ Each thought Levi cooked up in his head made more sense than the last. Each one would most definitely explain the stark shift in emotions displayed on the alicorn’s face. He could see in his mind the image of Celestia’s face bursting with positivity like an erupting volcano one moment, then for the brief few seconds he had his back to her, the Princess of Equestria was replaced with a whole new pony. Her downtrodden expression made her unrecognizable to the brown-haired man. For his entire stay thus far, he had known her simply as the cheery unicorn with wings that set him on a course to eventually go head to head with Nightmare Moon. But now, seeing her essentially drop a mask and expose her hidden not-so-happy emotions that she held under lock and key in her heart was like gazing into the eyes of an extraterrestrial. 

“He wasn’t just a war hero,” Celestia replied, the sorrow pooling in her eyes like a lagoon of vile sensations told a thousand stories at once. “He was the hero.”

Levi shot the princess a confused look.

“You lost me.”

Celestia let a barely audible sigh escape her lungs, not an action she did out of annoyance or anything of the sort, it was something she did out of very apparent despondency. Hearing Celestia speak in this low, solemn tone was an experience he never thought he’d have and, quite frankly, never wanted. The feeling of, what could only be described as, grief that was braided within her soothing voice was almost difficult to listen to. It was the same, heartache-plagued intonation one would expect to hear from someone staring down the headlights of an oncoming train. Standing there, waiting for the impact. For the reaper to arrive and take them to the heavens above. 

It stung Levi’s heart like a thousand spears to say the least. As much as he wanted the alicorn to cease speaking in her misery-ridden and return to her normal joyous self, he knew for certain that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Much to his dismay.

Celestia’s hung head low like a prisoner marching to the gallows, her hooves going from softly pattering against the rug to harsh clinking against the marble floor once again. She took long painfully slow strides away from the man and over to the mountainous painting that embellished the wall, each labored step she took looked as though she was pulling her hoof out of molten hot slag each and every time.

The colossal work of art with a solid gold frame that glimmered in the sunlight depicted what seemed to be some kind of bloody battle, many lives lost but no clear winner as far as Levi could see. However, the biggest and arguably most attention-snatching part of it all was the ironclad earth pony dead-center on the page. There he was, the answer to the big Bertha of all questions that continued to linger in his mind, Platinum Wing. 

He had basic-looking, as his name suggests, pure platinum armor with the long streaks and splotches of crimson bestrewed along the reflective steel. The metal that completely encased his hooves was caked with rich brown dirt with small hints of blood hidden within it. He had blossoming pumpkin seed colored skin that, much similar to the steel that shielded his muscular form, was plagued with lengthy red stripes strewn across his flesh like someone had swung a paintbrush over his pigmentation. Oddly enough, despite the soldier-like appearance Platinum donned, he lacked arguably the most important article of armor you need to survive in battle. A helmet. Without it however, his sharp and striking features would be concealed to the world. Something he clearly didn’t want. He had a royal-blue mohawk that looked like it had been through some of the worst conditions imaginable. His hair was drenched with sweat and ichor and, despite being matted and bedeviled with grime, the mohawk shape somehow remained standing. Much like the pony it belonged to. Refusing to give in. 

His eyes were a deep hazel color that looked as though they could be as piercing as a sword to some while soft and bursting with life to others. The unicorn's head he had beneath his hoof however was at the receiving end of the hate-filled side of Platinum’s irises. His teeth were clenched like a raging fire of fury had entombed his heart and cast out any remnant of positivity that once lived inside him. Despite the pony being long dead for years, his optics gave the man an uneasy feeling just by gazing at them. He could almost feel the wrath in them scorching his globes at the mere sight. 

The sky was smoke-grey above his noggin akin to a dreadful spectre constantly looming over the bloodshed that showed no signs of stopping whatsoever. Spears were driven into the enemies throats. The chests of Platinum’s men gained the razor-sharp end of a sword. Levi could almost smell the stench of battle through the canvas, the odor of blood threatening to singe his nose hairs despite whatever battle went on in the illustration was long over and done with. Out of everything that was occurring within the confines of the golden frame, the particular weapon that Platinum had fit snugly into a chocolate-brown sheath at his side was a sword. But not just any sword. The very same one that sat upright on a marble pedestal in the focal point of the hall. 

“This is Platinum. He was the head of the royal guard for as long as I could remember,” Celestia gazed up at the gore-covered pony with desolation pooling in her magenta eyes, thinking back to a time long ago when this pony wasn’t just a legend.

“Thousands of years ago, King Sombra and his army invaded the Crystal Empire and tried to take it for himself. He single handedly led the guard into battle and fought valiantly.” 

‘King Sombra? Crystal Empire? Damn..my head…this is all too much.’ Levi thought in his head, confusion beginning to rear its ugly head as more and more names that he didn’t recognize surfaced in Celestia’s words.

“Sombra didn’t stand a chance,” Celestia spoke.

The man couldn’t detect not even a shred of dramatization in the alicorn's voice. Judging by the slaughter of enemy ponies exemplified in the painting, he didn’t doubt that one bit. 

Maybe Equestrian history wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows like he initially thought. Even the purest of places had their times of violence and death. Equestria was no exception.

“Platinum and his soldiers laid waste to his army and forced a retreat. We knew there was a possibility this would happen again and we asked whether he could handle another threat like this. I already knew what the answer was before he opened his mouth.” 

Celestia’s mind flashed back to that moment centuries back to that very moment. She remembered it like it was yesterday. She could hear his boisterous laugh booming through the throne room, acting as if the danger Sombra very clearly presented was nothing more than a joke. 

“Oh don’t you worry about a thing, Princess!” She replayed his exact words in the back of her mind. 

“That old bastard doesn’t stand a chance!” 

“Mind If I ask you something?” Levi inquired after what felt like an eternity without him even uttering a word.

“Ask away.” 

“Was he your friend?” The man asked.

The eye contact the duo held broke for a brief moment by the princess before it returned like it had never even happened.

“Yes..he was. He was one of my closet as a matter of fact,” 

Despite the masquerade the alicorn was very blatantly putting on to hide her emotions, Levi could sense the sorrow braided within her words all the same. 

“I knew him since I was a child, we did virtually everything together.” Celestia responded, avoiding the trip down memory lane at all costs, not wanting to make a scene with her waterworks.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to but..what happened to him?” Levi questioned as hesitantly as he could, not wanting to trigger some momentous emotional moment out of Celestia.

“Oh…right,” Her tone returned to the grief-stricken one Levi was beginning to grow familiar with. 

“Just like I predicted, Sombra did return, and with more power than any of us could’ve prepared for. Due to the uptick in threat, I was the one who led the charge with him by my side.”

Levi was mentally preparing himself for the ending he could see from a mile away was going to happen, simultaneously hoping and praying that Celestia doesn’t burst into tears right where she stood. 

“Some lived…some died…plenty of blood was shed,” Her gaze fell tremendously, not having the emotional strength to look at the painting of her friend any longer. Despite more years than she could count passing ever since that fateful day, bits and pieces of the memory flickered together like a sinister slideshow, stringing together the blood-stained events that led to…what happened to her comrade.

Millenniums ago…

KRAKOOM!

Celesita’s heart felt like it was being torn from her chest as she witnessed yet another slaying of one of her many, many soldiers. While never having met the fighter in front of her, she viewed each and every one of the ponies in Equestria as her family. But now, seeing one of Sombra’s bloodthirsty and barbaric warriors blowing another one of her troopers heads clean off there shoulders with a singular magic blast was proving to be too much for the alicorn to handle.

The crimson fluid that once belonged to the unicorn just inches ahead of her painted her snow-white chest with a fresh, thick coat. All that was left of the soldier's noggin were bits and pieces of his skull and membrane that now peppered the earth beneath her hooves. Blood erupted from the stump of what remained of his neck and sprayed onto the princesses’ golden hoof coverings, infecting their once stainless form with the unicorns gore.

The shock was slow to subside but was quickly overruled by an intense, scorching fury like the fiery pits of Hell rose from her gut and claimed every last bit of her at the sight in front of her very eyes. With a loud thump that was barely audible over the roaring and sounds of swords and shield clashing on the death-soaked battlefield around her, the trooper's cadaver hit the ground. The red liquid never ceased to spurt from what remained of his scrag now seeping into the dirt, coloring the ground a much darker brown and transforming the soil into a thick mud.

Several inches from where the fighters final stand took place just moments before stood the unicorn’s executioner. His dark colored fur brought the stench of battle everywhere he went. His armor was almost completely engulfed by the scarlet ichor of his ruthlessly butchered enemies, leaving the silver color that it once possessed to be nothing more than history. His ruby-red irises pierced Celestia’s magenta eyes, not phased a single bit by the blistering rage that pooled within them like a volcano ready to erupt. She internally snickered at the arrogance plaguing the murderer a foot frontwards from her. His fate was already written in stone. He was as good as dead. The funny part was, he just didn’t know it yet. 

Celestia gritted her teeth as hard as humanly possible, the almost blinding ire beginning to take over her every action. Her horn ignited, the light-yellow aura that was quick to form putting on a much more sinister look than any of the other thousands of times she used her magic. The tip wasted no time in going from a dull golden light, to brighter than she could’ve ever imagined in a matter of moments. The alicorn jerked her head forward, sending the resplendent bolt of energy shooting from her horn like a bullet out of a sniper rifle. 

A deafening blast dominated the ears of every pony friend and foe alike around her as if hundreds of shotguns fired all at once into the sky. The killer’s face went from prideful and bursting with a sickening arrogance, to flooded with dread in the blink of an eye. For a split second, she could see the daunting flaxen light color his face with a gleaming gold color that, under any other circumstance, would look alluring. But now, all it represented was one word and one word alone: Death. 

The arrow of magic that launched from the tip of her horn soared directly in between the unicorn’s eyes before his years of military training kicked in. Maybe in some other life, they would’ve saved him. Celestia on the other hand was not going to let that happen, not while she still drew breath. 

BOOM!

Chunks of his skull went careening in every direction like an exploding egg. A ring of his own blood rocketed out of where his noggin used to reside, giving the alicorn a new scarlet band of gore across her heaving chest. The rhythmic rising up and down of her sternum and the inferno beginning to ignite in her lungs from the massive exertion of magic was painful to say the least. Not any more so than watching another one of her children get his vertex turned into pulp by a remorseless soldier for just following what he was told. 

During that intense battle that felt like it was going for years when it had been merely hours, the once pacifistic white alicorn had blown the enemy troopers' domes clean off their shoulders more times than she could count. When she and her sister first became the rulers of Equestria, their father had warned them that times like this were inevitably going to fall on the duo. They were going to have to fight until their dying breath to protect the land they loved with all of their heart. There was no debating about it. Celestia’s father had fought in wars and taken his fair share of lives during his rule. Just like his father, and his grandfather’s father, and so on and so forth. In a way, she felt that this battle right there and now was a turning point in her life as a Princess of Equestria. Either she leaps into the battle to the death for her people, or she stays behind like a coward and watches her children be slaughtered like pigs. Ultimately, the former brought her to where she was now.

The unicorn’s corpse hit the ground, signaling to the alicorn another one of her soldiers had been avenged. Melting into the ever growing group of revenge killings she had enacted that day. Celestia tried desperately to fill her burning lungs with oxygen once more as sweat streamed from her pores, causing her sherbert colored mane to stick to her skin like she had just left the shower a nanosecond before. Despite the blazing afternoon sun being hidden behind a blanket of grey clouds high above her head, the heat continued to beat down on the white alicorn like never before. The lack of visible sunlight cascaded shade down onto the death-soaked warzone. It was once a peaceful field, now permanently scarred by the abominable massacre that Celestia was, unfortunately, a part of.  

Taking one slow look around her, she found she was a lot more responsible than she thought she was. Corpses upon corpses were scattered about the pasture that was once home to nature, now completely claimed by the viscera of the day’s events. Carcasses bespeckled the field, their heads nothing more than a thing of the past. The only remnant of them that remained whatsoever were the chunks of bone and lumps of brain matter that lay splayed across the battlefront, only adding to the unspeakable amounts of ichor that drenched the topsoil all around them. To add to the carnage, shields shattered into tens of fragments and swords split in half with a single strike bespeckled the ground alongside the remains of the ponies that used them, both friendly and not. 

The alicorn’s chest never ceased to rise up and down forcefully, like she was trying to savor every last breath she managed to suck in as if it was the last in Equestria. The golden sparks shooting from the tip of her horn died. Her breathing, albeit slowly, began to return to normal. If any of the other ponies she executed were any indication, this calm inhaling and exhaling of oxygen was going to be very short lived. She knew that another one of Sombra’s vile, barbaric beasts he called ‘Soldiers’ could rush her at any given moment and thrust her into another fight for her life. One of the many fights for survival she was being forced to endure what felt every other minute.

KRAKOOM!

Celestia felt another blast of magic rocketed from an enemy's horn strike her in the side. Fortunately for her, the custom-made armor deflected the bolt straight back at the unlucky soul who fired it. The concentrated burst of energy collided with the unfortunate unicorn’s face, hitting him like a freight train and immediately casting an intense scorching pain onto his bare flesh. With the enemy’s hooves clasped firmly onto his smoldering skin, Celestia wasted no time in whipping around to face the struggling-to-stand trooper. Just like all the others that fell before her, her horn ignited and the end of her horn glowed as bright-as-can-be. 

BOOM! 

A golden arrow of magic struck the unicorn dead-center in his chest. His life ended immediately, fading into the colossal number of corpses that, just like him, hit the ground with a barely audible sound. The sparks from her horn died. The heaving began once again.

 At that point, the aftermath of every major exertion of her magic was practically torture to the alicorn. The inferno that ignited to life in her lungs with every being she slayed was beginning to grow unbearable. The pounding headache that was slowly dawning within the confines of her skull was like a cancer, expanding and expanding with every pony she slaughtered. To say she utterly loathed what she “had” to do was nothing short of an understatement. She wished with all of her hammering heart that this would all just end, that Sombra could finally listen to reason and surrender. They could finally put an end to the unremitting decimation of both sides. They could live in peace at last. No more death. No more sacrifice. No more of…this. Just harmony. But alas, much to her dismay, she faced the reality long ago that her pacifistic way of ruling wouldn’t meet every ponies demands. Something she learned on that fateful day when the so-called “King” invaded the Empire. 

“LEAVE NO PRISONERS!” She could hear his booming and semi-menacing voice laced with venom soar through the streets of the Crystal Empire, the bloody massacre he ordered his men to commit already in full-swing. 

Sombra didn’t listen to mercy or reason. Sombra, from what Celestia could understand, didn’t care who his actions hurt or killed. As Sombra scowled deep into Celestia’s irises, his scarlet optics burning into hers like blowtorches, a revelation dawned on her. 

If she wanted him to defeat him, she had to speak his language. A bloodbath. The very thing Platinum Wing and his loyal soldiers were beyond fluent in. 

“PRINCESS!” A familiar, breathless, and panic-stricken voice blared over the cacophony of noises that raged on all around her. She was amazed she was able to decipher anything at all over the vile blend of clashing shields and the ear-piercing clanging of swords battling for dominance over one another. 

Celestia’s eyes and her entire body whipped around to face the direction where her title was called out, her horn igniting for what felt like the thousandth time with her signature brilliant gold aura. Regardless of how sure she was that she knew who the voice belonged to, in the hellscape she was in, she couldn’t afford to take any chances. 

Her heart slammed against her ribs painfully, each beat felt like nails were skewering her nucleus. No matter how hard her core pounded onto her bones, it seemed as though her body couldn’t get enough blood to flow through her veins. Her lungs never ceased to burn as if the deepest pit of hell opened up to swallow them whole, casting them into unending pain. Sweat oozed from her pores. A fierce soreness radiated from her horn. Her brain felt clobbered, each rhythmic agonizing blow against the walls of her skull threw it closer and closer to shattering into thousands of pieces. At least that's how she perceived the nearly blinding torture ruthlessly battering her head. Her legs trembled, her bones were teetering on the edge of splitting in two, all the while her hooves struggled immensely to stay planted into the blood-soaked ground. The breeze hitting her would feel immensely pleasurable under any normal circumstance. However, now, it only cooled the sweat that drenched every inch of her skin and stung like a kingdom of wrathful hornets.

The sound of hoof coverings pounding against the dirt akin to four different jackhammers striking the ground rapidly approached her faster than she could comprehend. The silver armor he donned clanged as it bounced with every hasty, thundering step he took. His lungs, similar to the alicorn he was rushing towards, felt enveloped in a raging blaze he couldn’t describe with words. The only one that felt satisfactory enough to describe the torment was hell. Pure, unadulterated, hell. Much like the death and misery in high-gear all around him. 

“CELESTIA!” Now that the voice was much closer than before, Celestia allowed the glowing tip of her horn to dissipate and the aura around it to vanish. 

“Platinum!” The princess called out, her voice lacking the strength to yell any louder. “Is that you?” Her voice was nothing but a meek sound among the sea of shouting and the constant clanging and clashing of weapons but, miraculously, the very pony she was hoping for finally emerged. 

Bulldozing through the ocean of soldiers both enemy and not, charging head-first towards the sound of his name knowing without a shadow of a doubt who it belonged to was none other than Platinum Wing. The leader of the Royal Guard.

 His once stainless-steel armor looked like a cannon full of blood blasted all over him from every side imaginable. One of the metal plates that formerly shielded his leg from the horrors of war was no more, revealing his bare and ichor-stained forelimb for all to see. A large, cavernous gash defiled the once flawless tan skin that covered his appendage. A long and seemingly endless crimson trail was soon to follow, running from the dire wound and touching the top of his hoof. Celestia was nothing but amazed at the fact the pony before her was able to walk after such a grievous injury, much less use every ounce of energy he stored to dash like his life depended on it. Then again, this was Platinum Wing she was talking about. She’s witnessed him do more dangerous and downright life-threatening things before. The laceration was merely child's play in comparison to the copious amounts of other feats he achieved with flying colors.

“Celestia! Are you alright?” Platinum clamored, his voice running dry and raspy from the hundreds of commands she heard him boom from the other side of the battlefield to his soldiers. 

Some of which were long gone by the time they flew from his lungs. Thankfully, he didn’t know yet that he was wasting his breath shouting at corpses. It was better if it stayed that way.

“Yes, Plat! What about you?” Celestia fired back over the deafening brutalities of war all around her, her eyes pooled with enormous swirling worry darting to the egregious slash. 

She half-expected him to reply back with something like ‘Oh It’s nothing Celestia! Worry about yourself!’ in his usual over-the-top cocky tone. The one he somehow managed to keep through almost lethal amounts of stress or the mountainous pressure to win that encumbered his shoulders.

“I’m fine! Are you hurt?” The earth pony yelled, his hazel eyes scanning every inch of her frame like an insect under a microscope.

“No! How many casualties?” 

“Too many! Sombra has a lot more than we do!” Celestia strained her ears to listen to the much shorter pony below her. 

Over the cacophony of death and colliding swords, Platinum’s voice was destined to become a faded whisper among the array of uproar that laid waste to their eardrums. Celestia tried her damndest to make out every word he was saying, going as far as to try and fail to read his lips in a vain attempt to discern every letter that left his mouth. Platinum’s face showed not even the slightest hint of discomfort or pain to the discord that engulfed them, fighting tooth and nail in the battle zone for years hardened a ponies senses to the horrors of war. Regret and discomfort were written across the alicorn’s face, something the tan pony picked up on almost immediately. 

He knew Celestia’s potential in the field more than anyone in Equestria. Her power could decimate Sombra and his entire army in a matter of minutes with no more than a single blast, wiping every last barbarian that screamed there lungs out across the pasture from history. The fact that she couldn’t see the power that was locked deep within her was downing to say the least. However, he knew then was not the time to give his friend a pep talk about finding their inner might, now was the time to survive. Something the pair were not going to achieve by standing there any longer.

Suddenly, a new sound entered the princesses’ earscape, a sound that sent lightning bolts of dread shooting through her bones. A low, gravelly chuckle arose from less than a foot away from the duo. Immediately following it, the familiar robotic-like hum of a charging horn plagued the air with its presence as the unicorn it belonged to channeled all of his magic to blast Celestia to kingdom come. 

Fate’s cruel nature was shown in the form of giving Celestia little-to-none reaction time before the enemy unleashed his wrath upon her. She could almost feel the anticipation radiating from him to finally turn her head into mush for all the comrades he watched her slaughter. Platinum on the other hand was fate’s worst enemy. A stark contrast to her, his lightning-fast reaction time gave him the upper hand to whatever Grim Reaper was watching over them, ready to snatch their souls the very moment their bodies touched the ground. 

“PRINCESS, WATCH OUT!” Platinum’s muscular forelimbs delivered a mighty blow to Celesita’s blood-stained chest, some of the remnant from whichever soldier it belonged to adding yet another stain to his hoof coverings.

Platinum whipped his entire body in the blink of an eye to face the foe who threatened the life of his dearest friend. The concern for his comrade melted from his face and in its place was a searing-hot fury. His sword left the sheath slung around his form and was gripped tightly in his hoof.

The unicorn’s expression went from the excitement of Celestia’ forecasted demise to pure and unbridled horror like a mask had fallen from his features, revealing his true emotions. With what little time she knew the trooper had left to draw breath, she made the briefest eye contact she had ever had in her life up to that point. She was almost unable to make out the unfathomable levels of dread pooled within his lime-green irises before he was struck down.

SHUNK!

Platinum dashed forward with the power of a thousand men and dove his vibrantly-colored blade into the unicorn’s Adam's apple. The pathetic adversary raised his twitching hooves to his gullet just mere moments before his killers forelimb collided with his chest, kicking him from his cutlass and sending his soon-to-be cadaver to the dirt. Fast food for the Grim Reaper he supposed. 

Before Celestia could even attempt to stand, her trembling limbs were granted mercy by the fibrous hooves of her comrade and lifted her to her quivering hooves. The alicorn separated her jaws to speak, but was silenced by yet another concerned bellow from the tan pony’s lungs.

“Are you alright, Pri-” 

“Yes!” Celestia interjected, as loud as her voice could reach. “Platinum, please! I’m fine! You have to go look after your soldiers! They need you! I can handle myself!”

The very instant his lips parted to combat his superior's demand, barreling out from the lagoon of black and silver armor that surrounded them was one of Platinum’s many beloved soldiers. 

His limbs, much like hers, were taken ahold of by violent tremors that shook his bones to the core. The peach unicorn’s face was flushed, dark lines left behind by trails of sweat plagued his usually blemishless features. His heaving chest looked as though it would burst from the armor protecting it. His eyes however were nothing like his overall crummy appearance, they were something far worse. The only word Celestia could conjure to describe them would be fear. Unalloyed, rampant fear that conquered every inch of his pale-green orbs. Celestia felt fright wrap its tendrils around her heart at the prospect of whatever could be out there hiding in the carnage of the battlefield that inflicted so much horror into the soldier that he hadn’t seen before. The alicorn’s imagination had no limits as she tried to fabricate a response to ease her newly distressed mind.

“C-Commander…” The peach pony caterwauled, his voice breathless like he used every last bit of oxygen in his lungs to speak. “We have a s-situation!”

“What is it, Private?”

The lower ranking soldier looked deep into Platinum’s eyes filled with extraordinary levels of worry that the Private could barely comprehend. 

“W-We have a lot of casualties.”

“How many?”

“More than I could count,” The Private exclaimed, regret entwined within his words. “We don’t know what the hell happened!”

“Well tell me something!” Platinum shouted, anger beginning to creep into his tone at the peach pony’s lack of an explanation for the devastating information. “How many was it!”

“One!”

Platinum began to see red.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN ONE!” He thundered furiously.

“There was one!” The Private repeated, only adding fuel to the growing fire of rage inside of Platinum’s heart, in turn adding more pain atop the silent mourning for his fallen soldiers.

Platinum gritted his teeth so hard he feared they would explode like popcorn kernels under the pressure. With the amount of thoughts both angry and sorrowful forming a hurricane in his brain, losing his molars was one of the many things that were placed to the back of his mind to focus on the dire situation. Being told a mass amount of the people he viewed as his own family without him even being there to see it, on top of the fact they were all wiped out by one singular pony was almost impossible to fathom. Platinum wanted to believe the Private was telling some tall tale. That at any moment his men would come running for him, standing there patiently awaiting their orders. If the bloodletting that showed no signs of stopping anytime soon all around him was an indication of anything, the trooper's words were the furthest thing from lies. 

“WHAT DID HE LOOK LIKE! WHERE IS HE!” Platinum suddenly lurched forward, his hooves gripping onto the borders of his armor and tugging him closer. 

Microscopic beads of his superior’s saliva peppered his face, being lost in the mess of sweat defiling his forehead. In all of the years he had been under Platinum’s command, never had he seen him get this enraged over anything at anyone before. Even in all the times and the Private and his comrades had royally screwed up and were dealt an inevitable pep-talk, nothing had ever triggered his outburst. But now, being faced with the reality that all the blood, sweat, and tears he put into his soldiers was all for naught, a tidal wave of wrath came crashing down. Whoever, or whatever, was responsible for their deaths was going to pay the ultimate price. Platinum’s blazing eyes cemented that fact further.

“His horn was-”

CRACK!

A noise identical to a clap of thunder killed the words that were about to leave the peach pony's mouth. Several meters off in the distance, over the heads of the hundreds of soldiers that occupied the battlefield, a colossal flash of lime-green light exploded from the center of a small group that surrounded somebody. Whatever the sudden burst of color was, it was more than enough to force a retreat from the ponies who enveloped him. Screams of terror were somehow audible over the clanging of swords and shields. The pounding of hoofsteps like suppressed gunfire trailed off in every direction, hastily fading from the trio's ears and melting into the sounds of the war, becoming just another morsel of the pandemonium. 

Celestia’s eyes became as wide as dinner plates. Her pupils transformed into pinpoints. Her heart plummeted to the pit of her stomach. To say she knew who the green magic belonged to was an understatement. She was all too familiar with the sickly color that nearly sent biles roaring from her mouth at the sight. Wherever that hue was, whatever place the panic-inducing thunder clap erupted from, death was sure to follow. Something she and, what she assumed to be the entirety of the Royal Guard, learned in the worst way possible. Celestia could only imagine what the poor pony who was at the receiving end of the blast was feeling. Entertaining the thought any longer brought droves of anguish crashing down onto her already aching heart.

CRACK!

Another blast of green light. Another soldier, or soldiers for all she knew, mercilessly slaughtered. 

Sweat broke on the alicorn’s forehead, her snow-white skin shone in what little sunlight was able to penetrate the thick barrier of grey clouds in the sky. She whipped her head over to lock eyes with the tan colored pony, hoping to find even a sliver of reassurance in her time of distress that never ceased to rise with every passing second. Much to her dismay, the look she received was anything but helpful.

His hazel eyes, formerly sharp and brave, were now the exact opposite. Gone were the bold, fearless, courageous irises that were bursting with vigor, ready to tackle anything that stood in his way. In their place were two dying auburn orbs, pooled with dread and an indescribable sense of primal fear, like she was staring into the globes of Platinum Wing’s corpse. With the brilliant copper color she sought comfort in for all the years she knew him dying before her very eyes, the panic that was flickering to life in her heart only expanded like a cancer, putting more and more weight upon her crying shoulders. 

CRACK!

As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she knew without a shadow of a doubt who the blinding discharges of magic belonged to. The garish, fear-inducing, nauseating lime-green color could only belong to one pony and one pony alone. 

CRACK!

Another warrior dead.

The sound felt like it was beginning to bore holes into Celestia’s skull. Her slamming headache grew almost unbearable with each deafening clap that split the air. 

CRACK!

More death and screams. Terrifying, petrifying screams of terror. 

Celestia took several panicked and hasty steps back as the blast that signaled ruthless killing inched closer to the trio.  

CRACK!

Death. Screams.

The sound of pounding hoofsteps scattering in every direction like a frightened murder of crows invaded Celestia’s ears. Roars of pain rang over the battlefield with each ear-splitting explosion of magic. 

“Platinum! W-Who is that?” Celestia stammered, the sheer amount of horror plaguing her heart now conquering her speech with an unwanted stutter.

The only response the alicorn received was the shrill singing of his pure crystal, vibrantly colored, short-bladed sword leaving the comfort of his worn down sheath. Under any normal circumstances, the strident whistle of Platinum’s cutlass would strike fear into the hearts of any damned soul to happen to be in his way. Years and years of training allowed the dagger to transform from just a unique looking blade, to a weapon capable of bringing cities to its knees. Celestia saw first-hand what her friend was capable of with it. The sight of the crimson trail that ran for what seemed like miles and the heavily lacerated, blood-soaked corpses in his wake kept her up at night for days on end. She hoped that now the tan pony could unlock that fighting spirit she knew all too well that he had and send..whoever it was that killed his men back to the hell he spawned from. 

CRACK!

“NO!” The trio heard a voice laced with sorrow and grief roar from the top of his lungs. 

“You son of a bitch! I’m gonna ki-”

CRACK!

The once impenetrable ring of soldiers that surrounded the trio became thinner and thinner with each step the mass murderer took like he was the devil himself marching upon the earth. Judging by everything he’s done thus far, that theory didn’t seem too far-fetched in Celestia’s swirling mess she called a mind. 

The end of swords drove deep into the soil as they fell from the hooves of mortified ponies. 

Shields collided with the ground with loud thunks, the soldiers who once used them to protect themselves from certain death were quick to abandon them without a second thought. 

Shattered pieces of armor bespeckled the ground. Demolished ruins of helmets and chest plates alike were scattered across the gore-immersed field, marking the impromptu graves of valiant soldiers. In life as they were in death: Warriors.

“Group together!” Platinum boomed with all of the air remaining in his lungs. “We’ll have a better chance if we take him on together!”

Celestia’s quivering hooves, along with the Privates' much more collected ones, scurried over to form a mini-battalion with the excessively confident commander. In spite of his hardened gaze and eyes sharp as knives as they glared in the direction of the unavoidable threat, the alicorn saw through her friend’s masquerade as though it was never even there. Celestia knew what a true face of genuine bravery looked like on the tan pony’s features, she knew it like the back of her hoof. The mask Platinum was trying his damndest to keep from crumbling to dust right before his eyes was hard to watch to say the least. Her magenta irises broke through his vain attempt at deception, granting her eyes access to see the true emotions having a battle for supremacy inside of him. 

The glorious clash between the urge to behead the monster who slayed his men and the desire to curl up in the fetal position in fear was a sight to behold. If Platinum’s stone-cold serious stare and rhythmic swelling and falling of his chest was an indication of anything, the duel had a very clear winner. 

His grip on his white metallic handle tightened, the jaws of a starving animal would be envious at the sight. Cannonballs of sweat raced down his forehead and in between his eyes leaving dark trails in his coat in their wake. She could almost hear his heart pounding against his ribcage like a sledgehammer. 

The Private’s brow furrowed. His horn fulgurated, immediately being engulfed in a tan colored cloud in the blink of an eye. Celestia’s eyes shifted over to meet the Private’s for a very brief moment, despite the shortness of it, the consuming terror vanquishing every other emotion in his irises was all too obvious. He, much like his commander, tried his utmost to desperately shield his inner emotions from the outside world. As much as Celestia condemns that type of behavior, for a soldier, it was necessary in a way. If an enemy saw your fear, you're as good as dead. Making yourself look as confident and intimidating as humanly possible gave you a much better chance at survival then if he were to coil up and weep in fright. In spite of his best attempts at concealing it, the alicorn could see it clear as day that it was exactly what he wanted.

CRACK!

The sound of death was growing dangerously close to its destination. 

The tip of the Private’s and Celestia’s horn glowed like the inner core of a lightbulb fixated to their head. 

Platinum’s vice-like hold on his hilt only increased. Veins jutted from his arm as if he had lively colored snakes seeking refuge under his flesh. His heartbeat boomed in his ears. The pounding headache battered his skull, causing him to fear his skull would burst into thousands of pieces under the pressure.

Somehow, over the blend of stampeding soldiers and weapons and shields alike hitting the ground, another sound miraculously made its way into the spotlight. Slow, methodical hoofsteps approached the trio as they anxiously awaited his arrival. Regardless of how faint the noise was compared to the cacophony all around him, it struck a fierce and unforgiving dread into their hearts all the same. For the first time in the years that she had known him, never had the alicorn seen Platinum show even a hint of being afraid in the face of any threat. His defense portraying him as this tough as nails and undefeatable killing machine was crumbling to ashes right before his eyes, thrusting his internal not-so-courageous feelings into the light of day. Seeing her normally undaunted, occasionally brash, friend radiating trepidation like a nuclear reactor spawned immense speeds she never knew were possible in her heart. Each thump of her core casting waves of alarm through her slightly shaking frame. 

Celesita fought back the urge to jump out 10 feet in the air by the skin of her teeth as the menacing being approaching them stomped onto one of the many shields splashed with crimson that bespeckled the dirt. The old dark brown wood was no match for the black metal hoof that came slamming down onto its weakened center like a wrecking ball. The timber exploded, sending fragments and shards alike flinging out every which way with a thundering crack akin to a gunshot. The studded black metal that once bordered the planking was history, becoming nothing more than another grotesque decoration to the gore-infested ground. 

The aura around Celestia’s horn intensified. Her eyes sharpened. Her bones ceased their insistent trembling. Determination to put the monster creeping towards them six feet under burned brighter than the sun could ever dream of doing. 

Soldiers fighting with every ounce of strength in their bodies whipped their heads towards the impending threat. From what little she could see through the punctured holes and cracks in their helmets overtaken by splotches of blood, the alicorn could tell there instinctive will to survive kicked into high gear in the blink of an eye, throwing out any shred of reason or logic that formerly resided inside them. The familiar dread-inducing sound of weapons clanging against the soil rang through the air, almost instantaneously followed by shrill cries of terror as their aching hooves carried them with all of there might to safety. At least what they hoped was safety. 

“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!” The Private thundered, the wrath entangled in his voice wrestled for dominance with the acute fear that aimed to conquer the pony. 

The front of bravery he tried in vain to put on was like attempting to protect himself from a sword with a sheet of cardboard. Anyone with a set of eyes and ears could pick apart the Private equivalent to a vulture tearing apart its next meal. If it was almost pitiful for the alicorn and the commander to hear the courage lacing his tone falling victim to his fight, they could only imagine how laughable it was to the personification of death marching towards them.

Platinum shot a fleeting, piercing glare that stabbed dead-center in the Private’s pale-green orbs. It was a stern yet silent way of demanding the peach pony to take the situation stone-cold serious. It was a mere fragment in the much larger spectrum of Platinum’s hidden and impressive talents. Being able to cast silence onto a pony with nothing but an almost missable scowl was awe-inspiring to say the least. No one really knew how he made his glower so menacing and vicious that it was able to kill anymore words from leaving somebody’s mouth. The fact he was able to do it in the first place provided even more irrefutable evidence that he was born to be a commander. Yet, in spite of the high success rate Platinum’s scorching gaze held with honor, the Private by his side had a fire in his bones that couldn’t be tamed, a flame that the commander's gaze was unintentionally throwing fuel on. 

The Private had a fire in his bones that Platinum had accidentally given life to. The peach unicorn’s sneer contorted into a wrathful sneer, the dudgeon nearly scorching the tan pony just by the mere sight of it. The commander watched vexed, exhausted eyes as the Private separated his jaws to bellow another taunt at the externalized death striding towards them. 

Out of the blue, from the lagoon of soldiers that grew thinner and thinner by the moment, a dark brown wooden blood-drenched spear whistled through the air as it soared at unfathomable speeds. A rich aura surrounded the javelin that, despite Celestia being given less than a few moments to process it, the realization hit her like a freight train nonetheless. The cloud of magic that swallowed it whole was a deep purple and vibrant green that seemed to bubble and swirl around as if restless vipers had made the lancet there home. 

The shrill cry of the air splitting in two from the weapons warpath was enough to cast silence onto the trio, but the sickening and stomach-churning sound that came after was enough to haunt the alicorn and the commander until the end of there days.

SHUNK!

The merciless, razor-sharp end was entirely devoid of ruth. The head drove dead center into the Private’s throat, skewering his windpipe as though whoever threw it was trying to craft some grotesque kabab. The honed and slightly battle damaged tip laid waste to the core of the unicorn’s neck, remerging from his nape with every inch of the once stainless steel with a thick blanket of crimson. Ichor dripped from the keen nib as what little sunlight was able to penetrate the thick barricade of clouds above their heads glistened off the thick red fluid like scarlet jewels under the morning shine. 

The Private’s pitiful attempt to speak only resulted in copious amounts of gore to spew from his gaping mouth, only adding to the fathomless quantity of blood that seeped into the earth. His formerly pearly white teeth were now painted with a fresh layer of his own scarlet sap. Words that he somehow managed to form in his panicked, dying brain only came out in shallow indecipherable breaths. The brilliant hazel color that once resided in his irises began to fade, leaving lifeless sorry excuses for jewels embedded in his sockets. Faster than he could comprehend, he felt every last drop of strength began to secrete from his body as the alarmed slamming of his heart slowed to dangerous levels.

The Private used whatever microscopic strands of energy he could cling onto for dear life to turn his violently trembling head to face the duo. He locked eyes with Platinum, the very same commander that promised him many moons ago to lead him and his comrades to victory. The defeat, anguish, and grief that pooled in his eyes like vile lakes of emotion were almost unbearable to look at. His orbs snapped onto Celestia’s, her formerly vigorous magenta optics were anything but. Where they inhabited sat numb fuschia globes with horror filling them akin to a water balloon teetering on the edge of bursting. 

The only words the walking corpse could evict from his lungs was the title of the pony who swore him a life of vanity, a life of freedom. But most importantly, a life at all. 

“C-Comma-” 

The remainder of the word died in his mouth alongside himself, the blood loss finally ending the suffering of the valiant warrior. His cadaver hit the carnage-infused dirt like a burlap sack filled with sand, sending plumes of dust and sediment shooting into the air mere inches above the newly departed unicorn.

“N-NO!” Platinum roared, the indescribable pain braided within his voice being almost too much for his alicorn friend to handle. “PRIVATE!”

“Finally!” A gruff voice laughed, his boisterous guffaw sending flocks of panic flying straight into Celestia’s aching heart. “He talked too much!” 

‘No…’ Celestia’s mind panicked, “No! No! NO! This can’t be! It can’t be him, right!?”

The crowd of soldiers that shielded the Private’s killer’s image from the duo finally dispersed, allowing their eyes brimmed with tears to decipher who could possibly be behind all of this bloodshed. 

The tons of dread that hit her like a cement truck was bordering on the edge of unbearable. It couldn’t be who she thought it was…right?