//------------------------------// // How it all Began // Story: The Moonstone // by Trolloas 2 //------------------------------// I stumbled as the world came back into focus. Everything was a jumbled mass of confusion that hurt the eyes and mind. It was like I was looking through a kaleidoscope but instead of nonsense they were... Memories? I stared on as different things flashed before my eyes, each more confusing than the last. I watched as I dueled against a man in red armor, but in the end I was victorious. I saw myself take his body to his brother and make him believe that some princess had killed him in cold blood. I shook hands with the administrators as people cheered, my high school graduation was pretty awesome. The same mans brother confronted me, his spear some how getting past my defenses and stabbed me through the heart. OH DEAR LORD THE PAIN! "Urggh...Gaaaaah!" Was the final thing from my mouth before I fell off my wyvern. My first girlfriend slapped me, it stung but I just laughed because I didn't give a shit about her. One of my best friends introduced me to weed, which was a fun time had by all. I stared hungrily at the princess of Renais, her beauty and will was not an exaggeration made up by the people. I wanted her. I must tame her! Something stopped the endless maelstrom of memories, a dark figure now stood in front of me. I tried to take a step back but something held me in place. "So, you are what has become of my general?" The dark figure said, it reached out a clawed hand and placed it on my head. All of a sudden a weight grew in my mind, my memories collapsing in on themselves. The only memories I had now were of... Valter, that's what my name is. Valter, The Moonstone. The clawed hand withdrew and a large smile grew on the dark figures face, it's large fangs sticking out of it's mouth. "You are more than adequate for my plans." It said with a dark chuckle then disappeared, leaving behind only wisps of smoke. That's when everything went black. I awoke quickly, a cold sweat running down my brow. That had been some strange nightmare. That's what I thought until I looked around. I was lying up against a wall made entirely of crystal in a throne room entirely constructed out of crystal. I knew it was a throne room because there was a large black throne made of obsidian at the other end of the room. Sitting on the throne was a creature that scared a very primal part of me. It wasn't so much it's appearance as the presence of it felt wrong in so many ways. The creature was bipedal, but had hooves instead of feet, much like a satyr. A dark grey coat like a horse covered it's body, it also had a muzzle instead of a normal mouth. It wore armor that befit a King, and wore a crown which basically proved it was a King. It had a curved horn that ended with a red tip, and it's eyes were the most unnerving part about it. It had blood red eyes and the whites were a neon green, wisps of a purple mist rose from the corners of it's eyes. "Rise my minion." It said in a voice that sounded identical to the dark figure that had been in my nightmare. Standing up I walked towards the King without a second though or with fear in my heart. As I got closer I noticed the presence of two others. One was an old man that was hunched over slightly. He wore a long black robe and had gold cuffs around his wrists, his fingers ended in claws like a demon. Bags were under his eyes but a lopsided grin that would be seen on a man half his age played across his face, his red hair combed back. The other was a man that was more around my age and height, a smirk ever present on his face. He wore a steel breastplate and shoulder pad but other than that he wore normal clothes. He hefted a large double sided axe on his shoulder, occasionally tossing it into the air and catching it by the hand again. He had a head of orange hair and a glint in his eye that said not to get in his way, or he would bulldoze me like he had many others. Stepping next to them we all brought our attention to the King who smiled kindly at us, like a father who was looking upon his sons. "It is good to have my three generals back." The King said as he stood up and walked up to us, inspecting us to find something. Being satisfied with his inspection the King returned to his throne, a more malicious smile now playing across his face. "Valter, Caellach, you both shall be given an army, I expect you to train them." The King said with an air of finality. Me and the younger man nodded our heads, looking to the older man as he stood up a little straighter. "Riev, you shall raise Revenants and summon the other monsters of my legion." "Yes my King." Riev bowed and teleported away in a strange glyph. "It shall be done." Caellach said with and air of arrogance hike he twirled his axe. "I shall have fun breaking my men..." I stated, seemingly having no control of my body. I walked out of the throne room with Caellach by my side, his smirk never leaving his face. "So you are Valter." He said, his smirk growing slightly larger. I growled and turned to him, I pointed a lance that I hadn't realized I was holding at his chest. "Do not test me Caellach, you know perfectly well who I am." I said, an edge to my voice that seemed to be a growl. "Calm down Valter, I was only joking." Caellach said as he walked a little faster, easily out pacing my long strides. I shook my head at this and continued to the training grounds, my army wasn't going to learn to fight by themselves. The walk to the Everfree was uneventful, though it was funny when I heard snoring and realized Luna had fallen asleep. Night had fallen not to long ago, but I didn't want to chance resting until I reached the Everfree. To keep myself entertained I talked to myself, as I wouldn't have much to talk about with Luna even if she was awake. "I wonder how the Crystal Empire is doing." I said as I walked through a large field. "Maybe the Demon King has been able to hold them off this whole time." I chuckled at that. It would be nice if he did but I had fought the princesses, and I have no doubt that he would beat them one on one, but together they would defeat him. My head swam as a presence forced it's way into my mind, making me almost drop to my knees. "Valter, I am going to be banished. Find Riev, he holds the Dark Stone, he can summon me back to this plane of existence." The Demon King said as the presence was ripped out of my mind. It took me some time before the world stopped spinning, which I was amazed that I had been standing that whole time. The Demon King had been... Banished? I didn't even know that was possible! Who would have the power to banish the King of all Demons?! "Unless..." It dawned on me that he had mentioned an artifact that he couldn't destroy no matter how hard he tried to, which was saying something. He had called it... The Crystal Heart. It was supposedly an artifact that would absorb the love of the crystal ponies and repel evil, which he had simply corrupted the king at the time so that he would seal away the Crystal Heart. After that he had taken the kings body until he was able to locate a temple that was supposedly hidden in the Everfree. Which is why we went to war with Equestria. They had no problem with the Demon King enslaving the whole Crystal Empire, but as soon as he took one step into their land they fought to the death. It was sad that they spewed so much filth about friendship and harmony when they didn't even try to help their neighboring country. Realizing that I had been standing in the field just thinking I began to walk again and pulled out the compass to see if I was still heading south. Still going the right way I began to talk to myself again. "The Demon King is gone, but it won't be for long." I looked around and saw that far to my right was a village and just starting to appear in front of me was the Everfree. I could easily tell it was the Everfree just by how much more natural it was than everything else. The rest of Equestria just had this wired feeling to it. The wind would blow but the clouds wouldn't move unless a pegasus moved them. The plants would grow but they were weak unless an earth pony took care of them. It was some of the strangest things, watching earth ponies water trees that shouldn't need to be watered and weather that was planned. Where was the natural order of things? No wonder Discord had shown up, the world was just trying to bring chaos so that it could balance with harmony. Discord had been a cool guy, though he was a bit insane at times. "Heh, he did know how to have a good laugh though." I said as I remembered my first meeting with Discord. He had popped into existence in the middle of my camp while I was on a patrol and had turned one of my soldiers into a flower. When I asked him to turn him back into a pony he had shrugged and poured a glass of water on the flower. Within seconds the flower grew until it was the soldier again, who was shacking like a leaf from fear. I couldn't help myself and laughed for a good minute or so before I thanked him and asked that he help my men's morale. To say the least my men found him to be a great comedian and prankster. Luna mumbled something in her sleep but I couldn't understand it nor would I have wanted to. She had started squirming and making some interesting noises not to long ago and unfortunately I was too tired to be in the mood. Though maybe before I slept once I made camp I would have some fun and begin to break her. My thoughts were interrupted by the beat of wings as I looked to the skies to find where it was coming from. From behind me I could see that there was a small group of pegasi that's err flying my way. It wouldn't have been hard to track me once I left the smaller woods and entered this field. Looking back in front of me I wasn't that far from the tree line and once I was in the Everfree they wouldn't be able to follow me. Sprinting as fast as I could I was maybe ten feet from the trees when a pegasus landed in front of me, blocking my path. The soldier seemed sure of himself as the rest of them landed with him. In the end it was only six of them which wasn't a very fair fight, for them. "Hand over the princess and we won't hurt you as badly." One of the pegasus said, he sounded so sure of himself that it almost made me not happy to kill them. "Listen weakling, I have fought more men than the whole Royal Guard combined and have lived to tell you that you won't win, so why don't you do me the favor and fight back with all you've got." I said with my infamous smile as I spun the iron lance that I had taken from the last guards that had tried to stop me. The pegasus growled and lunged forward, his lance slicing through the air fast enough to make a slight ripple. Too slow. I stepped to the side and he missed by an inch, the lance I wielded cut through his right shoulder which made him drop his lance. "Tut tut, don't you know not to attack while angry? It makes you clumsy." I said with a wolfs grin as he retreated behind his fellow soldiers who attacked at the same time. Dodging jabs with difficulty as I wasn't used to holding someone while fighting, I swung my lance which hit the first pegasus on my left who got an extra smile below his mouth. The others flew into the air and dived down at me, one got skewered on while the others lances screeched off of my armor which awoke my passenger. "What is going on? Are we being attacked?!" Luna squirmed as I held her tightly and still managed to hold of the remaining three as they tried not to skewer Luna's royal posterior. Using this to my advantage, I stepped into one of their attacks, making them purposefully miss and allowing me to punch a hole in their lungs. Drowning on his own blood the pony choked and fell to the ground struggling. The last two seemed ready to flee but I killed one before they could escape the other took off and fell to the ground, my lance sticking from his back. Turning I found the injured pegasus about to fly and made a split second decision. Dropping Luna who made an adorable eep I tackled the pegasus who screamed as he fell on his injured shoulder. Flipping him onto his back I stood up, a wing in each hand and a foot placed on the square of his back. "Now, I want you to tell me if you have any friends who will be joining us soon..." I said as I began to pull gently but firmly as the pegasus whimpered. "No, we were the last patrol I swear!" He said as I pulled harder, the grinding of bone could be heard as it was slowly being pulled from it's socket. "Good, good." I stopped pulling but held them firmly where they were. "Now tell me, how has Ol' Celestia been doing?" I had a crazed grin on my face, I could feel it, but it just felt so good to be in control of this pegasus! "She has been worried sick about her sister, especially when the survivor of the patrol that had encountered you was found." He said as quickly as he could, a hysteria in his voice that made me shiver. "Please let me go I want to live!" He said as he began to cry. "Aww shhh you don't have to cry! I was going to let you live anyway!" I said as I let his wings relax as I only kept a loose grip on them. "R-really?" He said as he looked back at me as I gave him a kind smile. My grin turned wicked as I gripped his wings firmly and with a mighty pull ripped them both off. His screams filled the air like a ballad from hell, a melody that filled me with excitement. He eventually passed out from the pain but I had spoke the truth when I said I was going to let him live. Taking out a vulnerary I used just enough to stop the bleeding and seal up the wound, but not enough to numb the pain. Walking over to Luna she was watching me with a mix of sadness and fear. "I know that you can be compassionate and show mercy, but you show it in the worst of ways." She said as I picked her up and walked into the Everfree forest, a sad smile on my face. "That's because a little voice in the back of my head tells me to." I said as I walked for ten minutes, and when I thought we were far enough in I found the tallest tree and climbed it while Luna hung onto my neck for dear life. Getting to the highest branch that I thought was strong enough to hold us both I laid down with my back to the trunk and held Luna to my chest so that she wouldn't fall off and drifted off to sleep.