//------------------------------// // Once a Soldier, Always a Soldier // Story: The Fire of a Spartan // by FIREDRA6ON //------------------------------// I feel a rock smack into my forehead. I snap my eyes open. In front of me through the rusty iron bars, is a pure white unicorn who is roughly twice my current size. I recognize him as the deep voiced pony from earlier. I got a better look at him to see that he has a mangled dark red mane with his sharp horn pointing out. He frowns down at me, a crude grey scar etched into the side of his face stands out. I notice his eyes squint, and his mouth forms a scowl. "Time to get moving, the boss is ready for you." The bulky pony attempts to use that magic horn of his to take out the key, but it's obvious that he still doesn't know how as he keeps dropping the key. He growls at himself and I can hear him mutter under his breath "I'll never understand this blasted magic, don't know how the boss can do it so easily." I move my hooves around to stand up and feel a tug just above the fetlocks. I look down at them to see blatantly obvious metal cuffs hindering my movements. How I didn't notice them earlier is a mystery to me, but I can see that these aren't as loose as human made cuffs. The cuffs are moderately tight and have a strong blue plasma string going between the two metal rings. I shoot my head up at the sound of metal on stone. I see that the Elite pony has opened the heavy rusted gate. He stares at me and motions for me to exit the cell. I stand up and trot out the gate and see two other ponies to my left, both have red coats and have makeshift belts holding the shaft of an energy sword. I'm assuming that these fine gentlecolts are going to be my escorts for the evening. How wonderful. The large unicorn closes the gate and walks up in front of my face. "Alright Demon, you're going to follow me this way, the boss won't like it if you're late." Apparently, this elite has been informed that I'm a Spartan, for that's what they call us, Demons. I am in very little shape to fight, but now isn't a good time to meet with their boss, Frost. I just know that we aren't going to have a friendly chat while drinking tea. I most likely won't be able to stand up against whatever Frost decides to do with me, and I don't want to see Eric's smug face as I'm dragged through the tests Frost has planned for me. So I will have to come up with a plan of escape fast. I look down at my cuffs and then look over at the guard to my left. I notice that the guard's energy sword glows the same color as the energy string connecting the cuffs. Maybe the energy sword can destroy the energy on the cuffs... Well I don't have many options, and they probably want me alive, for now, so it's worth a shot. In one quick movement, I jump the guard to my left and attempt to take the sword out using my mouth. The other guard quickly pulls out and activates his weapon. The deep voiced pony in front spins around and growls at me. "You're not getting away that easily you Demon!" He roughly grabs my waist and pulls me off of his companion, but I pull free the first guard's energy sword. Although he throws me into the wall, causing both a crack in the wall and a rib or two. The sword flies out of my mouth and lands out of my reach. The deep voiced unicorn kicks the weapon far off before I could scramble over to it. I quickly slam my head into the side of his face, causing him to stumble and fall on his side. The guard who had been watching decides that now is a good time to strike. He charges and I barely manage to dodge his sword, but his blade grazes across my face directly under my left eye, causing a large cut to form. He attempts to slice me again and I drop below his swing and slam my cuffed hooves into his chest. As he stumbles back, the large red unicorn comes into my view, he raised his left hoof and slams it heavily into the right side of my face. He then presses it against the wall in attempt to restrain me. I bring both of my front hooves over and to the back of his head and using the plasma wire, I pull down with his head smacking straight into the concrete floor. His hoof leaves my face and I jump over him toward the two other guards. I take a quick glace back to see the red pony lie unconscious on the floor. I turn back to the others and take a restrained fighting pose. The unarmed pony jumped at me first, swinging his hoof at my head. I swiftly ducked under it and brought both of my hooves into his face. He backed off as his friend took his place. He attempted stab me straight in the chest with his energy sword. I brought my hooves up just as the hot blade neared me. The sword melted through the metal cuffs and absorbed the energy connected the two cuffs together. The melted metal constraints fell onto the floor, freeing my hooves from their imprisonment. Before he could realize what he had just done, I spun around and bucked him square in the chest, sending him barreling into his partner. I quickly ran off down the corridor and took a turn right. I could hear foot, er hoofsteps not too far behind me. I take a left and then I notice a door to my right. I quickly push it open and close it behind me. I can hear the hoofsteps of the two guards as they run past the door in search. After I can no longer hear their hoof falls, I look around the room. There will most likely be other ponies in the place, so I will need some way to sneak past them all. hmm.... Hey, is that the royal guard armor I've been seeing occasionally? Why would the elites have this? Looking around the room a bit more, I notice that the armor is the only thing that has any use to me. I walk over to the royal guard armor and begin putting it on. After placing on the Golden Greek Spartan look alike helmet, I examined myself and was quickly reminded of all of the damage I've endured, and how much blood I've lost. Remembering the still bleeding cut on my cheek, I look around and find a white cloth sitting on top of pile of crates. It's a bit dirty, but it'll have to do for now. I pick up the cloth and press it against my cut, slowing down the blood flowing out. After a minute or two, I remove the cloth from my face and glanced at the blood soaked rag before hiding it behind the crates. Leaning my head against the door, I listen for any noise that is out of the ordinary. I hear nothing strange on the other side. I push open the door slowly and then walk on down the corridor taking turns around different corners, following the crudely drawn signs pointing toward the entrance. Surprisingly enough, I didn't run into anyone else along the- "HEY! You get back here!" Glancing behind me, I see the two ponies from earlier running toward me. Turning my head back around, I dash forward down the hallways in the direction of the entrance. I can hear them getting steadily closer, I need to escape soon, because my damaged stature can't handle running for much longer. At last I can see the entrance to this cave/lair, escape is in my sights. Running out to the daylight, or rather limited daylight due to the large mass of trees surrounding me. I can lose my followers in this forest for sure. I just have to weave around these trees. I can still hear the hoofsteps of the ponies on my tail, but they seem to be having trouble going around the trees. After a while I hear a thud and taking a quick look, I see that one of the ponies got tripped by a root from one of the trees. The other completely ignores the other and continues his pursuit. Ahead of me shows that the trees go on for quite a long time, but the farther I go in, the thicker the treetops are and the darker the forest is. I take a sharp left and hide behind a large tree in one of the darkest spots I saw. Falling for my trick, the elite runs past me, most likely thinking I kept on running. I wait until I couldn't see nor hear him before getting out of my hiding spot. I look around and search for any indication of which way leads out of the dark forest. A bit far off in the distance to my right, I see a light coming from out of the treetops. It seems as good idea as any, so I start my walk toward the strange light. As I near it, I notice that it is a small clearing, and one of the only areas I've seen in this forest that has so much light coming in. Walking into the clearing, I can see a small pond almost directly in the center of the area. I walk up to it and I see that there appears to be an impression in the grass next to the pond. The impression seems to belong to a pony, who ever was here, was here for quite a while. Anyway, deciding I should take a drink I walk up to the edge of the pool and peer in. For a split second I can see the reflection of a brown furred pony with jet black hair, how odd. I bend down and go to put my hands in the pool to cup water in my palms, but I was quickly reminded that I don't have hands or palms to do that. Well, I guess I'm going to have to have to be a bit of an animal for this. Dipping my head down into the pond, I drink up some of the water and, for some reason, I can taste sadness. Can water even hold emotions? I'm probably just imagining things, I mean I can barely feel emotions myself, so I doubt water can. Taking my head out of the pool, I search around for any indication on how the pony that left the indentation had gotten here or if there was anything pointing toward civilization. Looking over at a nearby tree, I notice that there is something etched into it. I trot over to it and see that there is an arrow pointing forward and it read "Ponyville" underneath. Seeing as I don't have anything else to work with, I hope that this sign reigns true. I walk into the dark in the indicated direction. After about an hour of uneventful walking, I see the edge of the forest, finally. Looking around, I notice a surprising amount of royal guards everywhere. Odd. Hmm... I'm not sure how long I've been in that cave/lair, but I'm sure that Twilight made it back to Ponyville. If I ask around, I should find her, she'd be too predictable if she went to her house. There were some of the Elites following her. Maybe I can knock on peo-I mean- ponies doors to see if they know anything. Although if I go to that bakery I heard about, there's a larger chance that Twilight could be there, or at least someone who knows where she is. I mean it is said to be a very popular place. Now where could it be.... oh wait, it's probably the gingerbread house looking building right over there. I walk up to the door and push it open. Upon entering, I can see sweets of all kinds, cookies, cake, candy, and cupcakes. I walk up to the front counter. There doesn't seem to be anyone around. Almost as if by magic, the pink puffy haired mare from yesterday appeared. "Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! What do you need? Do you want a cake? Because I'm making a cake for somepony who's new to Ponyville and I want to throw a super duper party for him! I was going to have it yesterday, but Mrs. Cake said that we couldn't because we were getting more batter for more cakes..." She sure talks nonstop, if I want to get any information, I need her to stop talking. "*Ahem* ma'am," she stops mid-sentence. "Yes officer?" "I actually came here to ask you some questions." Her smile disappears from her face. "But why? I didn't do anything wrong." She puts her hoof to her mouth, "Although I accidental made Spike fall down the stairs that one time..." she narrows her eyes to ponder. "Don't worry ma'am, you're not in any trouble, I just need to ask you a few things, that's all" She opens her eyes and puts her hooves back down. "Oh, sorry, so what do you want to ask?" her perky smile returns. "Have you seen a purple mare recently?" "I have, but which on are you looking for? Cause I know Cheerilee, Berry Punch, her daughter Ruby, although she's more pink than purple..." "The mare is also a unicorn." "Then you must mean Twilight! She normally secludes herself in the library. But yesterday she was with somepony new!" Behind me I can hear the door swing open. I turn to see a royal guard standing at the entrance. "Soldier! What are you doing here? I saw you come out of the Everfree Forest!" Oh, I really should have thought this before hand, I need to come up with a believable story, and fast. "Sir, I was on patrol in the Forest," I started. "Alright, but the Princess is having a meeting with all the royal guards, follow me." He motioned with his hoof. "Sir yes sir!" I reply with a salute, slightly out of habit, even though I should really go find Twilight, and I'm not actually a royal guard. "Now soldier, what's your name?" "Sergeant Cloud sir." "Ok, what were you doing here?" The guard asks me. Pinkie starts hopping up and down, "Oh oh! I know this one! She came here for cake! Wait," she stops bouncing, "I asked her if she wanted a cake, she asked if I know Twilight!" "Why were you looking for Miss Sparkle?" his eyes narrowed slightly. "Well, that isn't easy to explain, I-" "Come with me. I think I know enough about you." He turned and I followed behind. "Bye! I hope to see you again miss officer!" Pinkie Pie waved at us. ------------------------------------------ The Royal guards stood lined up in many rows in the Canterlot Courtroom, filling in all but one area leading from the giant doors to the thrones. At the front of it was the co-rulers of Equestria, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Luna seemed worried, "Sister, is this really necessary? We don't know much about this alien, and the reported attacks could have been by monsters." Celestia looked at her, "We do know that this alien at least has an appearance of a pegasus, and that my apprentice has been with the alien throughout these two days. Also, we know what his appearance is," she turned back to the guards, "Good evening soldiers, you have heard that a large metal object has fallen from the sky. One of your comrades saw a pony under it and a few hours later, we found this." She pulled out a plasma gun and levitated it in front of her. "We're not sure what it exactly is, but we know it is a weapon of some kind. Also, somepony must have been attacked near Everfree Forest, for there are evidence such as skid marks in the ground and burns in the dirt and trees. We also found some kind of small metal handle," she levitated Dragon's energy sword, "we're not sure what this is ether, but it was found next to an imprint in the grass with dried blood stuck to some of the blades of grass and dirt below it." She put the weapons down. "if anypony finds any more evidence of this alien, send it straight to me." Dragon's POV The royal guard and I walk out of Sugarcube Corner. He glares at me, "alright Sergeant Cloud, who are you really?" I stand my ground. "That's classified, if you want to get anything out of me, you're going to need to try harder." He snorts, "Fine, I'll take you to the princess, she'll get it out of you." "How are we going to get to the princess? Doesn't she live in a castle far away from here?" I saw a demonic grin appear on his face. I quickly spun around and ran for it, knowing full well that the following events will not end in a good manner. I was stopped by some kind of magical barrier that restricts my movements. I push on the barrier to no prevail. The guard walks up in front of me with his grin still on his face. I hadn't noticed before but he has a shining horn sticking out of his helmet. He signals over a pegasus guard and whispers something in his ear. The guard nods and walks away, behind one of the buildings. He returns with another pegasus guard and a gold plated white carriage. The unicorn guard roughly throws me with his magic into the carriage. No matter how much I struggle, I can't break his magical grip. He gets in next to me as the pegasi harness up. When they are done, they take off toward the far-off castle. The trip was uneventful except for my attempts at escape ending in failure. We land in front of a large section of the castle with oversized double doors. The unicorn steps out of the carriage and drags me to the door. The magic border around me fades away. I think about my options of escape. 1. Jump off the edge to the ground hundreds of feet down with damaged wings 2. Running down the walkway into the larger section of the castle most likely getting caught by other guards. Neither of these options seem reasonable, especially the first one. I decide that the best option is to not attempt escape and meet this world's ruler. I've meet the royalty of other species before... Although, they have been quite ugly. "Ok, move it, into the building," the guard interrupts my thoughts. He pushes me through the doors into a huge room. Within the room are rows of royal guards and a red carpet leading up to large white pony. She has a light multicolor mane that seems to sparkle and glow and somehow it dramatically wavers in some nonexistent wind. Much like other ponies, she has a cutie mark resembling the sun, although hers appears to be larger and almost luminous. On top of her head is a large golden tiara with a jewel embedded within it. Unlike other ponies, she has both giant wings and a long horn. She's both a pegasus and a unicorn... a pegacorn? or a unisus? Whatever. Sitting next to her is another pegacorn, or whatever they are. She has a dark blue coat color and her hair is a lighter shade. Her cutie mark is hard to determine but it appears to be a crescent moon in the night sky. She also has a tiara but this one wasn't golden. In fact, it is completely black with a thin blue border. They're obviously royalty, though I'm not sure if they are queens or princesses. Either way, everypony in the room turn their attention onto me. The guard behind me pushs me along the carpet. I stop before the royal pair. The guard speaks up, "Princesses," he starts solving my inner question, "this mare here has been impersonating a royal guard." "Do you have evidence?" the white pegacorn speaks in a majestic regal tone. "Yes, I do your highness, I saw her walk out of the Everfree Forest after we sent the restriction of entering to all the guards after that earlier report. Also, she went into Sugarcube Corner and asked Miss Pie where your student, Miss Sparkle, was without giving us a reason." "Hmmm..." the princess stands up from her throne and walks over to me. I wait with my usual frown donned upon my face. She stares at me looking from the top of my helmet to the bottom of my hooves. She seems to be looking for something. I open my mouth to speak, but stop when I begin to feel a warm liquid slide down my right wing. It continues down, then drips off onto the tiled floor. It makes a tiny 'plop' noise that echos throughout all corners of the silent room. I close my mouth and look at where the unknown fluid is. There is a thin red streak coming from the base of my wing leading to a small red puddle on the tiled floor. The princess's horn glows as I feel my armor be tugged at. The straps loosen and fall free. Both my helmet and body armor is lifted up off of my body. My mane falls freely from underneath the golden helmet. The princess makes a small gasp as she stares at my battered form. I have known of my destroyed state, for I can still feel the intense pain radiating from every point of my body. What keeps me going is the reminder from my coach in physical training say, 'the injured who complain will be killed on the battlefield, the injured who push through will live and continue until an honorable death or aid to their health.' More warm liquid slides down my legs and wings. Despite this, the princess seems to be more focused on my cutie mark and color scheme. She broke the silence, "You're the alien, aren't you?" Wait, what did she just ask? "What? What makes you say that?" "Our records on an alien that had appeared yesterday tells of a male pegasus with an orange coat and dark orange mane color. This extraterrestrial's cutie mark is two blue lightning bolts much like yours." A few of the royal guards start talking among one another. "Wait a minute, you said male pegasus, not mare." More of the guards start their own little side conversations. "Well it appears that the writer of our observations of you had written one letter wrong. Instead of male, he must have meant mare." The guards side conversations grew in size. I shift my eyes around to see the guards. "Then I demand to see these papers of yours right now!" I finish by slamming my bandaged hoof on the ground. That was a stupid mistake. A shock of extreme electric pain was sent through my foreleg. I try to ignore the pain, but it was too great and I collapse onto the floor in my puddles of red. For the first time in years, I feel weak and defenseless. The princess lightly places her hoof on my head. I look up to see her face with a look of half fear, half sorrow. She is probably afraid of me because I am not from this planet and I had arrived with weapons and a disguise. She probably holds sorrow for me because of the quite obvious pain that I am showing. "I have many questions for you," she speaks, "But you need medical attention so that can wait until later." I look around one last time to see royal guards running up to me, but I become light headed... Hey, I can see bubbles! Hah ha, Bubbles. My eye lids close slowly as I lose consciousness. ...Aren't bubbles, like, so pretty?...