//------------------------------//
// Knight-Mare 
// Story: Shatterpoint: Equestria 
// by Commando-Scarecrow 
//------------------------------//

The battlefield south of the Ever-free was a massacre filled with bodies from both sides beneath the eternal twilight. And the battle wasn't even finished yet. The golden armor of the Equestrian guard filled fox holes with unicorns and pegasi. The Equestrian army outnumbered Night Mare Moon's forces three to one. How could they have been defeated this easily? That's when the Princess Celestia's surviving troops saw her. A wraith in black and red armor and cape bearing her mistress's symbol, a winged crescent moon. She brandished a large axe that would have labored even the most stalwart of stallions, but she wielded it as though it were nothing more than a toy. As the destroyer carved through some of the last of troops in the area, they realized that the rumors of an unstoppable warrior under Night Mare Moon's command were true. There she was: Knight-Mare.
"C'mon, Summer!" A black pegasus named Thunderlane with a wing, not broken or wounded, but straight up GONE, carried his comrade in arms, an orange unicorn named Summer Blaze, across the carcasses of those slain in a pointless battle. The goal here was to move the front lines farther south. It didn't work. Night Mare Moon's infamous night guard came out of nowhere, surrounding them and taking them totally by surprise. "We can get out of here!" He had no idea how he was able to move like he was with the amount of blood he'd lost. Hell, he thought to himself grimly. I probably won't even survive the hour, let alone the battle.
"Nah, Thunder," he muttered from under his breath, his voice devoid of any hope. He had small cuts all over his body, but he would probably live through all of this if he escaped. "We're screwed. Ain't no way we're getting out of here except in a body bag."
"Don't talk like that! We just need to... Oh clop." He let out a swear as he saw the axe wielding monster impale one of his friends with her great weapon. Then she turned to him, her dark blue visor staring him down and the horn atop her helm pointed directly. At. Him. With a sigh a regret, he let down his friend. Maybe he'll get smart for the first time in his life and play dead. As the Knight-Mare casually strolled passed the hundreds of fallen soldiers, he thought about all the things he never got to do. He was going to propose to his girlfriend next time he saw her. Fat chance of that happening now. Even if she didn't kill the both of them, he was going to die from blood loss. "Well, she's not taking me without a fight." Brave last words. He picked up a knife with his one wing left and charged at Knight-Mare. "AAGH!" Half his blood was probably adrenaline at this point, although with the amount of blood he had left, that wasn't saying much. Good. He needed every advantage he could get. "IF I'M GOIN' DOWN THEN I'M TAKIN' YOU WITH ME, KNIGHT-MARE!" He finally made contact; at least he thought he did. Then he felt a sharp pain go through his abdomen as his blood and guts began to spill from a last of many wounds the day had given him. "But..."
From his right ear, he could hear the hellish voice of the mare unkillable. "Far better than you have tried, soldier boy." She pulled the spike of the axe out of his stomach. I'll be damned, he thought his last to himself. It hurts a lot worse going out than in. The last thing he saw before the white light was his girlfriend’s beautiful face. Worse things have happened.
The black and red adorned mare strode further across the field, finally stopping at the orange unicorn, playing dead but not well enough. Summer Blaze looked in awe at what would be his death. "I don't suppose you'll be taking prisoners today, will you?"
With both hooves, she lifted her axe up in the air. "Sorry." No she wasn't. "Jails are all filled up." Summer braced himself of the cold impact of oblivion. So this was how it was really going to end, eh? He closed his eyes, resigning himself to his fate. But it never came. What did come, however, was a loud noise of metal colliding with metal.
The orange stallion looked up to see his savior, seeing the golden armor shine brilliantly in the never ending sunset and a rainbow mane flowing in the breeze, standing above him crossing her arm mounted blade with the axe of the shadow warrior. He'd never actually met her before, but her reputation in the guard was legendary. It was none other than the Blue Flash, Lieutenant Rainbow Dash, of the royal guard. Summer felt a small smile creep onto his face. His chances of living through this just got a whole helluva lot better.

Princess Luna of the night wandered through the Ever-free forest. Few animals crossed her, even in her smaller and more compacted form. In her travels back to Ponyville, she had time to finally gather her thoughts on this crisis. Equestria was at war with Night Mare Night, meaning that she hadn't been stopped when she first returned in this Equestria. She understood that part well enough. But then she ran across something that she wasn't certain about. Why hadn't Twilight and the others brought together the elements of harmony and stop the threat that this Equestria's Night Mare Night posed? Luna came to only one conclusion. This was a timeline totally separate from her own. The tiniest change between worlds had caused something undeniably horrifying. And now? Now Princess Luna's home was caught in the chaos and anarchy of a war.
Luna shook her head in sadness and dug desperately within herself to find out what caused this, but nothing came to mind. The world might be even more drastic if it was something from a thousand years ago, and Twilight Sparkle had once told her in passing about a zebra medicine mare living in the Ever-free, although to be honest she really wasn't listening at the time. But if Zecura still lived in this forest, then the changes to this world must have only occurred within the last few years. And if that be the case, then it could be any number of things that caused it. Regardless of how it happened, she had to help stop it and save this world.
Then she came to the last question about this Equestria. The rumor that Night Mare Night had killed this world's Princess Luna. Obviously the truth that they were one in the same was kept from the world at large. While the details were still foggy at best for her, one thing was clear as day. Princess Celestia had been the one to spread that lie. With a small smile and a tear, the princess of the night understood why. Even if Luna was evil, Celestia couldn't bear to have her sister be remembered as an unrepentive monster. And even as an unrepentive monster, the princess of the day still loved her sister. With a deep sigh of regret beneath the amber skies, she finally saw some buildings in the distance, although it was far from the welcomed sight she thought it would be.
From atop a small hill, she saw what she had always recognized as a small and happy community were everypony knew one another. Instead, she saw a beleaguered torn with war-torn villagers. It was almost too much for her heart to take.
As she wandered through the village, she saw what she had recognized over a thousand years ago during the old wars as a town near front lines. Buildings were damaged and ponies of each race were either hurt or starved. Even the once jovial bakery at sugar cube corner was derelict and dying.
"Lady?" Luna felt a tug on the cloak that Zecura gave her. She turned around to see the familiar brown and white face of the earthpony that held a very special place in her heart back in her world. Pipsqueak. "Do you have any food?" He looked at her with his brown eyes, begging at her. It tore her apart to see him like this.
She forced a smile on her face. A violet aura lifted up the flap to her sack and revealed a small loaf of dried bread. She tore it in half and gave it to the small spotted foal. "Here." Luna was happy that her face was half covered up by her off-blue mane. Not because somepony might recognize her, but so that the child wouldn't see just how difficult it was for her not to cry at seeing Pipsqueak being forced to beg for scraps. "Just make it last, alright?"
Gratefully, the young earthpony grabbed the bread floating above his head. "Thanks, Lady." She saw him scamper off to a sick looking mare, wearing the same brown and white spotted pattern for her coat. The idea of her people living like this was almost totally alien to the princess of the night. That was when she heard something totally out of place in this small and suffering village. Princess Luna heard cheering.

She looked across the field of the fallen, the pungent stench of the dead assailing her senses. A lot of good colts and mares died today. "Are you the one who killed all these soldiers?" Her voice was strong and full of unyielding and stoic resolve.
"Only most of them." The blue mare looked across the scores of fallen soldiers, feeling rage as the one known as . knight-Mare said that as if their lives meant nothing. "Honestly, I was hoping that some of them would have provided more of a challenge." As the Knight-Mare arrogantly finished her sentence, she broke the weapons lock she had with her golden armored adversary, causing her to stagger back and complementing that move with a wide swing of her axe. "But I guess I'll just have to settle for you!"
The lieutenant just barely moved in time to dodge. "Whoa!" Whoever this mare was, she was fast. Real fast. The blue flash grimaced. This wasn't going to be easy. The first thought she had was to take the high-ground, flying as to put her at a tactical advantage. She swooped down to make contact with the enemy, but was only met with a sharp parry of her axe. She carried that thing like it was only a tooth pick. Still, Rainbow Dash was faster. She had to be.
As the two traded slashes and hacks with their blades, Knight-Mare finally spoke again. "You fight well!" The golden clad guard could almost hear a smile behind in that voice. "What's your name?"
She grunted as she tried to match the amount of force given out by the black clad menace pound for pound. "Rainbow Dash." Like it mattered. One of them was going to die here today, anyway.
"Never heard of you." It was almost like child's play for Knight-Mare. Rainbow Dash had a feeling that she could end this duel any time she wanted, but didn't. It was a game for her, and Rainbow Dash was hardly even a player. Slash after slash and strike after strike, Rainbow Dash was hardly able to keep up with her. She was like a flash of lighting in black armor. The lieutenant then realized: she wasn't going to make it out of this one alive. A blunt pain shot through her unprotected stomach as Knight-Mare pulled back her right leg. Rainbow Dash didn't even see her move. The pain almost too much to take, the blue mare fell to her knees, barely able to keep from falling completely and using her lade to support her weight as much as she could. "A shame," the black adorned enemy stood above her praising. "You could have been so much more, given more time and practice." She lifted up the great spiked axe above her head.
This was it, Rainbow Dash thought to herself. She disobeyed orders to come here and try to save some soldiers, but it backfired spectacularly. Not only was there only one survivor, and now not only was she going to die, but he was too. "You'll have to forgive me if I don't feel all warm and fuzzy from the compliment." One last snark.
"Don't worry, Dashie. You're forgiven." She brought her axe down on the mare, relishing the crunch of her bones and the fountain of blood pouring on her axe head. Only it wasn't her adversary. It was a royal guard that she'd killed an hour ago. Knight-Mare smiled beneath her visor. "Well, well." She turned to see an imposing pegasus wearing the war combat dress of the Wonder Bolts. It differed only through a helmet and some small armor, segmented so as not to impede the great speed of Equestria's greatest flyers. "It looks like I have somepony new to play with."
"Or a few someponies!" She heard the voice of a colt shout out from the distance along with a magenta blast from his horn, separating her from her beloved axe. As she turned to see whom it was, she felt her heart sank. "I am-"
She cut him off mid-announcement. "Captain Shining Armor of the Royal CANTERLOT Guard. The honor guard." Knight-Mare hid the fact that her heart began to sank. Strange. Was this what defeat felt like? "Your reputation precedes you."
"Then you know we want our lieutenant back!" A strong yet high pitched voice rang out from the wonder bolt. "Surrender and we won't have to make you a part of the scenery!"
"Surrender? Please! Knight-Mare surrenders to nopony!" Knight-Mare began to weigh her options. Her axe a good six paces away. One on one, that was no problem. But given what she was up against, a wonder bolt, the honor guard captain, and the blue flash, this might have been more than even she could handle. "But you may have a point." She reached for her belt to take off a small black ball. "A retreat may be in order." She threw the small ball down and in its place arose a black miasma.
"GET HER!" Captain Armor shouted out, but to no avail. As the dark mist disappeared, it was made clear that so too did Knight-Mare. She'd even managed to take her axe with her. "Damn it!" Shining Armor looked angrily with his one eye at his subordinate. "You!"
He was staring right at Rainbow Dash. "Me." Being a smart-flank wasn't going to get her anywhere, but hey, it's not like she was going to get court martialed. They were in war and she was one of their best soldiers.
"Was flying out here really so damned important?!" His left eye, his only eye, was staring right at her. "The battle was already lost! You knew that there wouldn’t be any survivors from this and yet you broke from the group and went searching for them. WHY?!"
Lt. Dash only looked to the side, pointing to her best friend as she held her boyfriend’s corpse in her arms, his blood staining her yellow coat and her blue eyes streaming with tears. "Because THAT... sir." Even though she only added that last word in as an afterthought, she made it very clear that it was supposed to sound more like "flank-hole" than anything respectful.
"Thunderlane knew what he was getting into when he joined the guard during a war! So did Fluttershy and so did you!" True, but that didn't make it any easier. Especially when they were dying in droves in battles like this. Battles that didn't mean a damn thing. "We all know that when we put on our uniforms in the morning, we could very well be dressing for our own funerals." If Rainbow Dash didn't know any better, she would have thought that the captain almost sounded sad. But she knew that couldn't be true. Everypony in the guard knew that Captain Shining Armor was an unrepentive hard-case off the field, and essentially a ghost on it. Some of the others thought it had something to do with his little sister running off a couple of years ago, but that was all just hear-say. Everypony knew that the captain never talked about anything personal. It was almost like he really was a ghost.
"Sir," she only saluted him, knowing that arguing with her CO would be pointless. "Yes, Sir!" He scowled at her, then turned away, probably figuring he had better things to do than argue with a soldier that was more or less seen as a hero in the guard. "Hate that guy," she turned to her oldest friend, Fluttershy, still holding on to the body of her beloved for dear life. "Fluttershy?" She called out, but she didn't get an answer. No wonder, the lieutenant thought. Fluttershy had been distant ever since she met her about ten years ago. Rainbow Dash saw she was getting picked on by some bullies, so naturally she came to the rescue. A race for them to stop ensued, but in the takeoff, the yellow foal started falling to the earth. Rainbow Dash couldn't just ignore it, so she abandoned the race to save her. That was when the Blue Flash discovered her love of saving others. She got a rainbow shield cutie-mark and everything. After that, it was only natural that she'd eventually join the guard.
"I shouldn't have let him join the guard!" She was weeping as she caressed his white mane and held him in her arms. "It was stupid and I knew it was a bad idea, but I let him do it anyway!"
Boy, was she right. But he would've followed the yellow Wonder Bolt anywhere. Even to hell if she asked him too. Too bad that's exactly what it came down too. Rainbow Dash walked over to her friend’s dead beloved and hoisted him on her back. “C’mon, Fluttershy. We can bury him under that one tree he liked so much.” It probably wasn’t as comforting as she meant it to sound, but still. He deserved a good burial. So the four of them, including Summer, left for Canterlot. This battle was over. And there was still a war going on.