"It sure looks like crap." Rainbow decided to openly admit, gaining a nod only from Applejack.
"Rainbow!" Fluttershy chastised her friend.
"Ah think even it agrees with Rainbow sugarcube." Applejack makes note as she points a hoof towards the one they only know as Sentinel. As the others all followed the line of sight some couldn't help but giggle as it seemed to be looking over itself
"Hmm," Rarity hummed, "I think I know just what it needs!" she exclaimed with a smile.
"<gibberish?>" the creature called Sentinel looked at them all as it said something that they couldn't understand.
"I think what it needs is to learn proper equestrian." Twilight flatly stated as she deadpanned at Rarity.
"Well of course deary," Rarity said back to Twilight, "But in the meantime I think proper attire is in order."
"And how would you know what kind of attire is proper." Rainbow asked rarity, "for that?".
"Trust me Rainbow," Rarity lifts her muzzle with a smug grin, "He will look absolutely fabulous!"
Sentinel out of the blue seems to shudder, causing Rainbow and Applejack to laugh aloud. The creature then looked around, taking a moment to look into Rainbow's eyes who in turn puffed out her chest a bit as nopony noticed Fluttershy trotting back with a wet cloth in her mouth.
"Fluttershy?" Applejack questions her friend on what she was planning to do, only to watch her just keep right on trotting over towards the Sentinel creature with absolutely no hesitation. "Hey Fluttershy!" she then says louder, trotting over herself as her yell caused all the others to immediately watch Fluttershy might of been doing causing some of them a few tense moments.
They all watched as Fluttershy trotted right on up and immediately started trying to clean some of Sentinel's wounds, which by then, had turned into blood soaked scars. Applejack took notice of Sentinel's eyes immediately shifting towards Fluttershy.
"<gibberish>" Sentinel said in it's usual tone before they all took notice of it's one exposed eye slightly close, "<gibberish>" as it just kept looking down into Fluttershy's eyes.
Dropping the cloth on Sentinel's knee, "You don't have to hurt anymore okay?" Fluttershy tried to tell it just as it's eyes had shifted towards where the cloth landed, and then to the piece of metal sticking out as it took hold of it.
"Ah No don't do that!" Fluttershy cried out just as Applejack rushed up and batted the appendage away from the metal shard, giving her best "Behave yourself" look she could muster.
All of a sudden the creature jabbed what appeared to be long talons on the end of it's appendage towards something behind Fluttershy and Applejack, causing both to turn around to look, "...nothing there." Applejack muttered.
"What did you do?!" Fluttershy cried out as she saw blood rushing from the wound, making Applejack jerk her head back around and then narrow her eyes.
"Consarnit!" Applejack yelled out as she took her stetson off her head and proceeded to slap him on the lower unwounded appendage a few good times.
"Do you think it doesn't feel pain?" Fluttershy asked Applejack as she turned her attention away from Sentinel.
"Don't matter none its just making it's wounds worse." Applejack said back to Fluttershy, turning to look at her.
"<gibberish>" Sentinel muttered, causing both Applejack and Fluttershy to once again look back and freak out.
"Now ah know you're doing it on purpose!!" Applejack yelled out as she proceeded to start wacking him with her stetson, nailing him along the face a few times as he stuck his tongue out and blew to try and get out the dust.
Just as Sentinel seemed to be getting agitated Fluttershy rose up and unfurled one of her wings as she wrapped it over and pulled in one of the creature's upper appendages. The creature then mumbled something while pointing at Applejack who just snorted back.
"Now Fluttershy, be careful darling..." says Rarity with concern, getting a few side glances from the others. Quick to defend herself from misunderstanding, she attempts to explain "Its not that I think this... um... Sentinel would hurt our dear Fluttershy on purpose. But we saw just how much brute strength it had." she explained, hoping to get her concerns across correctly.
"In other words..." Rainbow cut in, "you think it's just a dumb brute."
Rarity gasps with shock, "Well I never!" She proceeds to stomp a hoof down, lady like of course, before turning up her muzzle. "If you must know Rainbow Dash, I am just worried that it might be too used to handling those demonic ruffians to know how delicate the underside of a Pegasi wings are." Rarity said, defending herself, yet again.
Rainbow slightly narrowed her eyes, "Yeah, still sounds like your calling it a dumb brute."
Rarity, easily aggravated with a tinge of pink in her cheeks, "Hmph!".
"C'mon you two. We've ALL had a very long and stressful day." Applejack says, attempting to diffuse the situation.
"But Applejack!" Pinkie yelled, "...all this happened at night!" she said in a hushed but playful tone, getting only a half lidded stare from Applejack.
"Its being very gentle with me girls. Please don't worry." Fluttershy whispers as she continues to mend what she can on Sentinel. So far, and she is clearly thankful for it, the being she is tending to is tolerating her touching it. When she first started to treat the wounds, she could feel it tense up whenever it was touched, and not just on wounds, but contact anywhere. She knew deep down, from having taken care of pets that weren't treated well, that this was on the instinctual level, not just related to her alone. She pushed back the sadness, to be dealt with later, and fluttered on.
"See you two?" Applejack states, "Now I think we've been through way too much today for you two to get into something petty over this." she continues, "Do each other right and apologize.."she finishes with a encouraging half smile.
"Why should I apologize!?" yells Rainbow Dash, "That Sentinel or whatever, may be a lot of things, and not all good!" she continues on her rant, "But the one thing it ain't is stupid, " she says lowering her voice. "Or cruel".
All of the ponies around her, including Twilight whose been entirely focused on Sentinel indirectly, gave Rainbow at least some of their attention now.
It was Celestia who broke the silence, giving encouragement, "Go on my little pony".
Rainbow dash looked down at the ground with concentration on written all over her face, as if to try and think and better form what she wanted to say, to just shake her head. She was never good at explaining anything but through the fire inside her at the time.
"Its how it fought those things." She just said nonchalantly, "It was one of the most honest thing I've ever seen," giving a look towards Applejack who in turn flicked her eyes open wider at the compliment, "Yeah it looked cruel and brutish, but if you've been trained in any form of fighting you know there is a lot of showmanship." She gives a moment to look at all the others.
"And just how," Rarity asks, but not in a condescending way, "does that show that it isn't cruel or brutish?".
"I think what Rainbow Dash is trying to say is that this Sentinel here, even if looking like it's attacks were cruel, were actually merciful since they were straight to the point." Princess Luna interjected, for Rainbow's sake.
"Um.. yeah..there's that..." Rainbow said to confirm what Princess Luna said, even if it was a bit too bookworm like for her tastes, and far less cool than what she was about to say.
"Was there something else, maybe a little more to heart, you wanted to say my little pony?" asked Celestia, in her motherly tone, hoping it would get the normally closed up Pegasus to keep going.
"Do..." Rainbow hesitated, but continued "Do you think you could of taken that big demon down, Princess?" she asked, directing through sight the question to Princess Celestia. Silence filled the air, as the question quite the loaded one.
"Yes." Celestia answered, but was quick to say more even as Rainbow was about to say something else, "But in order to do so would of brought great danger to all of you and nearly everypony in Canterlot." she closed her eyes for a moment, before continuing "many of our fellow ponies would of died if that battle hadn't end when it did." she finished.
Rainbow lowered her head a little and looked at no pony in particular before saying something even more loaded, "I think.. it knew."
Celestia's pupils dilated for a moment as Rainbow continued speaking.
"At first I thought it might just be another demon thing, fighting the others so that it could take their prize." Rainbow said, before shaking her head for clarity, "But after what Princess Cadance said about what happened to it's home I just thought it was after revenge." she said as she furrowed her brow a little, "Cause if something came here and took all of you from me, and literally destroyed my entire world... I'd come after them too..".
Rarity was about to speak but Rainbow, ever the brazen one, wasn't going to let any pony get the hoof up on her while leading the race. Rainbow raised a hoof, at best her own way of being lady like in asking Rarity to remain silent, which she did.
"But I think... if I was hurting that bad that I'd be going after the hurt." Rainbow remarked, grabbing even more of their attention, as it was quite unlike Rainbow to say something like this.
"Ah think I'm starting to get whatcha trying to say there Rainbow." Applejack injected into the one sided conversation.
"Like if I wanted some pie, and..." Pinkie says as she gasps,"Rarity had eaten all the pie!" Pinkie actually accuses, pointing a hoof and giving somewhat of a stink eye in the process.
"Pinkie, for the last time, I did not eat your Pie!" Rarity shrieks.
"But like, the reason Rarity ate my pie, was cause she..." Pinkie almost gets out before Applejack puts a hoof in her mouth.
Sighing, "Thank you..." Rainbow says to Applejack, who nods.
"The demons might of caused the hurt, but the hurt came from losing my friends. So If i wanted to stop the hurt I'd have to save my friends, but I wouldn't be able to because they were already gone." Rainbow continues her explanation.
"So all I would have would be to try and put the hurt on those demons." Rainbow pauses, "But if I was like that Sentinel creature and followed them to a brand new world that had ALL of the things that was taken from me..." she looks up at her friends and Princesses. "I think I'd try and save what little I had left, of me, by doing whatever had to do to save them from becoming like me".
"I mean the way it stood right before it shattered..." Rainbow let it hang with that. Every pony who heard seemed to take a moment to reflect on what Rainbow had said, and insinuated, on a personal level.
"aaaawwwwwWWWWWW!" cried out an ever impeding Pinkie, as she lunges into a huggle on Rainbow, much to the dismay of the latter.
"Pinkie Pie!!" Rainbow yelled.
"I think I have to offer my apologies Rainbow," Rarity said with true sincerity, before also latching on.
"Ugh, Rarity?!" Rainbow cried out, growing ever more uncomfortable.
"You surely didn't think you'd get away free from that compliment did ya?" Applejack, giving a wide goofy smile, before giving all three one of her bone crunching hugs. "Hey Fluttershy and Twilight! C'mon in, I don't think Rainbow has had enough!" she said, laughing along with all but Rainbow who struggled to get free, causing them all to topple over.
"Are you okay?!" Fluttershy yelled so low that over the commotion she couldn't of been heard.
"What if it hates us..." Twilight added in.
The comment was enough to take all the wind out of the fun before her, even if it wasn't at all her intention, but just openly commenting on her worry. The four bearers now grappled together on the floor were absolutely confused by the comment itself, as not one of them could find a reason why Twilight might worry of Sentinel hating them. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, however, had already been internally debating just how they would approach this potentially damning situation if it came to pass.
"S..Sentinel?!" Fluttershy once again shouted, her fore legs propping her up on Sentinel's knee as she was frantically trying to find out why the creature was looking so pained.
"It...it lost everything!" Twilight just blurts out, "We can't even say hello! What if our cultures can't co-exist?!" she started pacing back and forth drawing almost all attention to her. "What if we can't find a way to make it a good life? Or out of pain?" she continues on her frantic ramblings as another goes on behind her still unnoticed, "What if we can't even make it happy?".
The sudden clanking of metal on the marble behind them causes them all to look over, only to finally notice that their new arrival wasn't wearing it's helmet any longer. However worse of all was that it also looked like it was in terrible pain as it clenched the side of it's face. Scrambling over, all of the bearers and both princesses wore looks of concern, worry, or sudden guilt of not even noticing a crying Fluttershy or agonized Sentinel as they laughed and rambled on.
"Whats wrong?!" Princess Celestia asked the Sentinel creature, getting only a single opened but bloodshot eye in response.
Noting where it held it's hoof, "Show me." Celestia then lifted her foreleg and gently tapped her hoof against it's own.
"<gibberish>" was all Celestia heard in return with no movement of it's hoof.
"Now!" Celestia yelled a little louder as she slammed a hoof onto the ground, growing more frustrated at the very situation, "Is there no way to get something across?" she almost growled, just as she looked up in time to see Sentinel shaking his head "no".
"Yep!" Applejack declared, "Rascal is messing with us!"
Princess Celestia, ever the calm and gentle co-ruler of Equestria, then did one of the things only Princess Luna had the luxury of ever hearing. She growled.
"I command you to let me help you!" she almost yelled as she surrounded it's appendage with her golden magical hue doing her best to pull it away so that she could see what had happened.
"<gibberish!>" Sentinel almost growled back, narrowing it's one open eye as Celestia did the very same as the tug of war began.
"Oh oh, please calm down!" Fluttershy tried to reason after she release the creature's appendage from underneath her wing. Seeing that it was to no avail, she then did a quick turn towards Princess Celestia, "You'll hurt him!" she said a little louder.
"I said stop!" Fluttershy screamed at Princess Celestia just as the pony in question realized what she had been doing but in the process of shock sent a big push into her pulling grasp. The sudden influx yanked Sentinel's hoof free long enough for everypony to witness the blood soaked inner hoof, ear, and down the neck.
As everypony let out a scream, especially Fluttershy at seeing so much fresh blood, the magical grip popped out of existence, allowing the full strength of the creature's pull to blast him with a now closed hoof right into it's ear sending it over the pile of debris it had been sitting on.
"Oh no!" Princess Celestia called out as she literally galloped around the debris as Fluttershy flew over top of it, to check on their new guest. Tears were threatening to well up in both ponies, one from empathy and the other from frayed nerves, as they helped Sentinel up off the ground.
"I'm sorry..." Celestia, pushed past her usual ability to withhold emotions, was just about at the breaking point. This, combined with the worry of having injured an already injured creature under her care, was just not what she needed right now. But she was once again brought to her senses when she felt a small hoof pressed softly against her foreleg.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you Princess..." Fluttershy said trying to apologize as she hunkered down in shame.
Celestia craned her neck to nuzzle Fluttershy, "You have nothing to apologize for little one. It is I that should apologize to you and this Sentinel, for having let my frustrations get the better of me." she said as she heard murmurs from the others at the display of what they all loved about their princess. "Now I think..." but she was interrupted by the clanking of falling metal.
Celestia, along with Luna and the bearers, all looked over to see that Sentinel was checking it's plate armor in frustration. It would shake a part, say something in seeming frustration, and discard it.
"Ah! Don't throw it away like that!" Twilight, ever the curious one, was eyeballing each piece as something precious, instead of trash as Sentinel was now treating it as. She lifted up with her purple hued magical grasp a decent sized piece from it's lower barrel, holding it overhead and bringing it closer to inspect it.
The others watched as Sentinel checked itself over a few more times before pitching another piece from it's upper shoulder close enough to Twilight that she shrieked in fright, sending the metal in her grasp flying behind all of them.
"Buck!" yelled a white stallion with a blue mane, trotting alongside Princess Cadance, albeit now somewhat staggering as it shook it's head as Cadance looked as if she was fighting back rage, or laughter.
Twilight shrunk down, having instantly realized who the voice belong to along with realizing where the wayward armor now landed.
"Shining, it was an acciden...!" Twilight quickly said as she spun around.
"Twily!" the stallion called out, as he brought her in for a strong felt hug.
"I'm so mad at you right now..." he said as the hug tightened.
She shut her eyes, she was prepared.
"You promised!" the stallion yelled, not in anger, but in hurt and worry.
Twilight's eyes shot open as she barely mustered out, "Wha..?"
"You said you would be careful!" the stallion yelled once again, but a little softer than before.
Twilight merely, as she was somewhat barred much movement, looked around in an attempt to gather her bearings. She saw that her friends and three Princesses were all giving her both looks of thoughtfulness and sympathetic abandonment. Wait...
"You said that you'd be careful and if things got out of hand that you and the girls would seek shelter." The stallion pulled his head back so that he could look Twilight in the eyes, "We had just gotten all of the civilians into the caverns under the castle when one of the scouts looking for stray civilians reported that" he paused as if still reeling from it, "... the elements of harmony fell...".
She was prepared. To be a fool maybe. Did she really forget who it was that calls her Twily? So she pushed down all of her compulsive worry and did the only thing she could. She hugged him right back with an even stronger one.
"BBBFF!" Twilight called out, both from relief of her worry and feeling a bit giddy over her bigger brother showing how much he cared.
"Twilight?" the stallion, a bit surprised by the strength put behind the return hug, "Thank Celestia that you're alright. I was freaking out most of the way here" he elaborated.
"Wait. Didn't Cadance explain all of this to you?" Twilight asked, a bit surprised Cadance left him in the dark.
"Like I had time!" exclaimed a rather flustered Cadance, "I went over, he saw me, gave me a bruising hug, started to cry as he called out your name..." she rattled off giving no pony time to interrupt, much to the embarrassment of the stallion.
"Liquid...!" he yelled.
"I had to drag him away as so many ponies had already seen Shining Armor, Ex-Captain of the Royal Guard turned Crystal Empire Prince, have a mental breakdown." Cadance finished, sounding rather mean without the much needed but absent context.
"Cadance!" cried Twilight, releasing Shining from her death hug.
"Shining, dear." Cadance kindly addressed him, "What was the first thing that I said before you literally clobbered me to the cavern floor?"
Rubbing the back of his somewhat bruised neck, Shining chuckled as some red hued his cheeks, "You came and told all of us that everything was okay and that we won, along with every pony making it out alive." he let out a short chuckle.
"I think I might have totally ignored her....." Shining admitted, getting a disapproving look from Cadance before quickly adding, "But on the way here she reexplained everything that happened."
Peering around Twilight, Shining was finally able to acknowledge in pony the one he wanted to talk to most right now, just as they all heard a rather loud clank.
Everypony's attention was snapped towards the noise, save Celestia, Luna, Shining Armor, Fluttershy whose attention was already. The creature, called Sentinel, mumbled something that came out as nothing but gibberish. He then proceeded to close it's extremity as it lifts a single talon, towards the sword now in it's lap. It finally looked to the side before mumbling something else and finally going as silent and unmoving as if in a trance.
"Is that...?" Shining whispered, somewhat on guard due to not knowing how to take this, "Normal?" he continued, both to himself and the others nearby, slowly bringing himself into an internal monologue.
Looking around, he took note that even from Twilight, who normally should be overly energetic in learning everything about Sentinel, even she looked as if lost on how to answer. Having been shown through a mental link with his wife, he was privy to more than just the words the other all heard. He was able to both feel the influx of emotion that had come from this Sentinel creature along with bits of distorted memory.
Perspective Shift : Shining Armor's Internal Monologue
To say that Shining was conflicted would be an understatement. For the second time in his 28 years of life, he had found himself in a situation that he had absolutely no control, with a possible Pandora's Box sitting before him. Even as things stood right then and there, if this Sentinel hadn't showed up, his sister along with her five best friends would of died. Princess Celestia had shifted and while he was privy to just the bare minimal of info being the ex-captain, he knew enough to know that she had to of held back, for there were no shadows of ponies flared against the structures.
Yet this Sentinel had come after the demons finished culling it's world. The what of Sentinel could wait, but the Why was the much needed context that made Shining nervous. Very nervous. Cadance had showed him up to this creature being hit with the physical representation of the elements, only to seemingly perish regardless. Then, seconds and one rainbow implosion later, it was dropped back into Equestria, with a blessing no less.
But he had seen with his own eyes through the mental link Cadance and him shared on the way over Sentinel's relative life. It was, simply put, horrific. Some of the confrontations Sentinel would of had to of taken on made even he himself shudder.
But as he looked at the creature's eyes, which seemed focused on nothing but the ground, he couldn't deny that there so much more to him than the horrors his caste placed on him.
"His caste...like our cutie marks..." Shining remarked.
A pony's cutie mark could be easily misunderstood. Often times Griffons and Minotaurs thought that the cutie mark was random and chose for the pony what they would do in life. It was entirely untrue. A cutie mark only appears when a pony finds their true passion in life, and the mark is just a manifestation of those intense feelings. He almost shuddered when he considered it being the other way around, until an almost frightening prospect reared it's head.
"Maybe... he didn't get to choose?" He considered.
The prospect was indeed frightening to him. Whether it was just because it went against what ponies were or more of what he specifically represented, it mattered not. It would be like losing all control and being forced to see, hear, and act according to what somepony else wanted.
Like a puppet, used to further somepony's agenda, regardless of merit, was something he could personally understand. Understand the hurt. Understand feeling like you had betrayed yourself and loved ones. Understand that even when everypony else said it wasn't your fault, you often sat staring at a mirror still trying to convince yourself if that was true. Then, even when you almost did, you realized you might as well of just admitted how weak you were. Understand, that no matter what realization you came to, you lose.
"Maybe, if allowed the chance..." Shining thought, with some rising determination.
Perspective Shift : Ponies
"Even if we could ask em, " Applejack interjected, "How would we?"
"Nicely?" Pinkie sincerely asked.
"How do ya ask nicely to talk about everything behind ya that's dead and gone." Applejack said in a serious tone.
Perspective Shift : Sentinel's Internal Monologue
To say that Sentinel was conflicted would be an understatement. He had absolutely, for the first time in the entirety of his 23 years of life, nothing to do. If even the slightest hint of any of those demons still existed he would know it, literally, thanks to the same thing that made him into a Sentinel. He felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. And, therein, lies the problem. You never realize just how empty your cup is until you've taken the last sip. Now left in a world without demons, he had to accept reality.
"Yesterday, I was Sentinel, harbinger to the demonic horde." he internally proclaims.
"Today I'm the creepy thing, carrying an empty cup in the wrong backyard." he internally face palms.
With all joking aside, however, he had to consider his options. He was stuck in another world with creatures that for better or worse, were nothing like himself. The butterscotch one was really caring, mending him like this. The orange one with a stetson was pretty ornery, in a playful sort of way. The big white one somewhat put him off base with that whole motherly look it had given him while the butterscotch cleaned him up. Still it felt... genuine.
While it made him a bit uncomfortable he wasn't entirely against it. What he was against, and actually somewhat scared him, was the prospect of where his compass landed with a new set of rules. Back home, even though he wasn't welcome at the Havens, he was still mostly considered somewhat of a hero. A throwaway hero, but one nonetheless. Neither him or the other Sentinels ever felt like one, but all in all, were okay with the premise given the alternatives.
But here...
"...here..." he thought, "maybe I'm not that good of a guy." he grimaced.
He knew humanity had had some rough times. A lot of fighting, on all levels. But he always felt that the Havens displayed the very best that his people could offer. They worked together. They protected each other. They held rules and guidelines even in a world where utter madness above ground had taken hold. It felt that the less hope they had, the harder they fought to keep the lack of it from destroying what little they had left. They had reached the event horizon a little over a year ago as far as newborn against mortality rate goes, even if they kept building the inter connecting passages between Havens. It was...humbling.
Yet then again one would have to also acknowledge the bad as well. Sentinels. An act by a select few that brought back to light the potential for humanity as it's worst. Conventional weapons failed. Theoretical bleeding edge ones unreliable and unable to mass produce or maintain. Hell, each human that died became a weapon against other humans as the raw material was used by the demons for their abominations. So a few scientists thought if one could play that angle, why not us?
Perspective Shift : Ponies
Before the conversation went into full spring, Shining Armor walked past Twilight, the clopping grabbing everypony's attention.
"Shining?" Twilight asked, not getting any reply.
Shining trotted right up to Sentinel, who was looking down and seemingly at nothing. Fluttershy even stopped for a moment, looking out the corner of her eye at Shining and whatever he was going to do.
"Sometimes," Shining remarked, catching the attention of Sentinel by being so close.
"You don't ask." Shining and Sentinel's stares meet, while shining slowly lifted up a foreleg, holding his hoof out.
"You offer." Shining finishes saying while holding his hoof out steady, his eyes never shifting or faltering.
Shining and Sentinel held a gaze as if they were the only two on some desolate battlefield. Even when verbal communication is not applicable, if there is one thing that those familiar with the blade can always infer, its symbolic understanding.
The other ponies watched silently as Sentinel slowly slides his appendage out along the blade of it's sword and then gently nudges Fluttershy back away from him who was trying to mend him once more. As he stood, he reached over and takes up the hilt of his sword, raising the curved long sword into the air. Slowly, showing no other body language, he shifted the sword to pointing down edge out, right where shining was still standing.
"Shining!" yelled Twilight, before Sentinel drove the blade down, making a screeching sound as it drive into the melted marble. When Sentinel released the hilt, it stood eye level with Shining, the edge barely beyond his outstanding hoof. Sentinel then removed his left gauntlet and grasped the blade from the dull side. Letting his fingers wrap around the edge, he slid down from underneath the hilt to where the blade and Shining's hoof met, leaving a smear of blood along the once shining metal.
Shining hadn't moved nor even flinched, as didn't feel the intent to harm from Sentinel, but merely a message...
"Until this barrier is broken, we cannot come to such an understanding." Shining spoke, both to and for the other ponies behind him.
Shining let his hoof rise until it touched the hilt, as he gave a little pressure back and forth, noting not even the slightest budge. As silly as this looked, smeared blood notwithstanding, he was at the very least extremely impressed by how... poetic it was.
The range of looks and emotions being conveyed from the other onlookers, however, was a much wider spectrum.
Princess Celestia, for the better part of her poker face, actually looked very worried. Princess Luna, in contrast, looked quite amused and was really starting to like the bluntness of this Sentinel creature. Princess Cadance, having almost witnessed her husband's murder, looked bored.
Applejack however looked annoyed, almost thinking that he used this opportunity to hurt himself to spite her. Rainbow's "I'll take any challenge!" flared up and it showed. Fluttershy of course was crying, unable to process why it had hurt itself on purpose. Rarity surprisingly was leaning more towards Shining Armor on the poetic flare of it all while Twilight was downright pissed.
"What the hay is wrong with you!?" Yelled Twilight, getting looks from everypony.
"Twily, Sentinel had no intention of..." Shining started to say as he suddenly got tackled.
"I'm not talking about him! I'm talking about you!" she said, muzzle to muzzle with her older brother. "We can't communicate with him at all and you go and approach him and reach out your hoof!" she almost growls out, "What if he took it as some form of challenge!?"
Shining couldn't help but chuckle, making Twilight get even more angry, simply because she was starting to ask like his Twily again finally. "Twilight. He and I may not be able to speak words, but I can assure you that we were communicating exactly what we wanted to just now." he says as Twilight begins to back off so that he can get back up. "Now we know where we stand."
"What do you mean where we stand?" Twilight asked. "We need to get him checked out and start working on some form of proper communication!" she started to yell again.
"Why wouldn't we just walk around the sword?" asked Applejack.
"Do that, and you close a door that won't ever open again." Shining replied in a low and serious tone.
"<sniffles>..why?" asked Fluttershy.
"We can't..." Twilight says, sighing. "When he put that sword down, and put his blood on it, it was like a blood oath." she recalled from reading one of her many books on ancient pony history, "Unless we break that sword, he will refuse Shining's offer, which now..." she proceeds to narrow her eyes at her brother, "represents all of us."
"Not that I don't wanna break that sword just to show em I can!" Rainbow exclaimed, "But I bet if we waited it out, that Sentinel dude would come around." she confidently stated, "Not like he has anywhere else to go right?".
"Rainbow!" chided Rarity, before she looked over to see Pinkie batting the hilt of the sword with her hoof, "PINKIE!".
"Um...Twilight?" asked Fluttershy, "What else did that book say on this...blood oath...". Fluttershy immediately shrunk down and gave a nervous smile when she noticed the disapproving look from Rainbow.
Twilight, doing a 180, "Oh! Glad you asked Fluttershy!" she happily proclaimed, causing Rainbow to groan, "It talked a lot about how back then there were a lot of rules about engagement, honor, and how friendships were formed in and out of battle."
Twilight continued, "There was actually an example like this one. One group was attacked by another, that had just decimated another group that no one helped defend. A survivor from the decimated group came and helped stop the second group from being destroyed. When that group extended their hoof in friendship, the survivor drove his sword into the ground just like Sentinel did."
All of the ponies, even those who knew just how exaggerated this story was from the actual truth, listed intently. Even Rainbow, who enjoyed adventure, started giving her interest to the story.
"Well it was written that no pony could break the sword because the only way it would break, since the survivor only took it up after his home was destroyed, was to restore what was lost." Twilight flared her foreleg up and out to signal the end of the story.
"What happened to the survivor?" Fluttershy asked, actually feeling sorry for somepony that, for all chances, was made up. Given how Princess Luna's tongue was ever so slightly sticking out of her mouth during the entire narration, chances doubled.
"Uh..." Twilight tried to recall, "Oh!" she said as she finally remembered, "It said on the third day he took his own life with the very sword that wouldn't break in order to be with his family once more." She stated nonchalantly, while Fluttershy looked like she just watched a forest of bunnies burn down.
Silence...
Silence...
Boom!
Like a gunshot, all of the bearers save for Pinkie who wasn't really paying attention to the last part started to either freak out or declare how the sword was going to go down, as if it actually cared. Shining, however, looked about as constipated as constipated can make you look. Princess Cadance was shifting between the same look and wanting to double facehoof. Princess Luna, co-ruler of all of Equestria, just kept that little tip of her tongue sticking out as she pondered if she could instigate this further.
Princess Celestia, however, was actually getting very worried about this entire fiasco playing out before her eyes. While she knew the story was just that, a made up story for grandeur and poetry, she wasn't quite sure if the notion could be applied to this Sentinel creature. Then she had to worry about the bearers, who while adults and all competent, were still young and prone to rather rash decisions on the play. Pair a VERY sharp sword stuck in the ground of what is about to become a tug of war....
"OK pinkie, you push I pull!....Pinkie! Don't push you might get hurt!...Rarity get back here and help me pull on Rainbow!...Alright girls, on the count of three!..." many voices going off at the same time, huddled around the sword in question.
"Hnnnnnnnngggggg!!!!" come the united front of all six bearers.
Perspective Shift : Sentinel
He was pretty confident that what he just did displayed exactly what he intended. The white equine with blue hair had reached out it's hoof, and in return, he offered a compromise. He drove his sword into the ground before it, close enough to get it's attention but not enough to harm it. He removed his gauntlet and cut himself on the edge. All the equine needed to do was the same, and together, he would be willing to break his sword and take their offer.
"Now." He mentioned internally, "Show me the sincerity of your mettle, Equines."
"<Gibberish!>" the lavender yelled out as it tackled the white one.
"..." was all Sentinel could say, inwards or out.
Sentinel continued to watch as many of the equines suddenly started making strange faces at his sword. The cyan one looked like it wanted to actually fight it. The one with the stetson, like it tricked it. The butterscotch one was crying, again. But before he could make any observations of the others...
<paddle..paddle..paddle>
Sentinel looked back down at his sword to see the pink one with pink hair paddling the hilt of his sword with it's hoof. Confusion. That was what he had to settle for. Its not like he didn't try to find a better word for what he was watching, but like what was before him, he was not up to the task of describing any of it properly. So he just watched.
<gasps>
Shifting his eyes over to what sounded like shocked gasps, all he noticed was the pure shock and horror plastered on the face of the butterscotch one, as the lavender one looked quite proud of itself. Trying to process what he was seeing without jumping to conclusions his sight shifted for a split second back to the pink one, then back to the others, then suddenly back to the pink one.
It was smiling....right...at...him. <paddle...paddle..paddle..>
"You're purposely messing with me, aren't you..." he said to himself.
That was about all he got time to think before five other ponies all rushed and attacked his sword. At first he thought they were just playing around, making fun of him even, which given the sincere context that he had given when planting that sword into the ground, was slightly annoying him.
Yet before he could let it actually get anywhere in his head, he was brought back down when he noticed the look on their faces. They were concerned, upset, and more than just the butterscotch one looked like it had tears in it's eyes. They were all huddled, even pulling on the others tails, to try and bend the sword. To break it. But the one thing that only he knew was that the sword was specifically made to be next to unbreakable.
Hell, it was more dense and better purity than his body armor. Essentially, something that he had set up to be a symbolic gesture to a new beginning, using both his and the equine's combined effort, turned into setting up six seemingly overly friendly and happy beings for failure. He looked up, for a moment, to notice the large white one looking at the six with concern in it's eyes, before looking into his own with the very same.
"If there is a hell, I just bought my lifetime membership with this one didn't I...." he said, now annoyed with himself. He was about to reach down and help when he heard something that froze his stead, crackling.
"What the..." Sentinel said as he looked towards the noise.
He watched as near the base of the blade, where it met the melted marble, it started to spark and glow red. The six equines gave another unified pull, as more sparks started to fly and hairline cracks began to form. Then another, and another, and another. Finally, with what seemed like their best hoof forward, they all reared back...
<snap!>
At the same time, somewhere so close that no one can even see it, but at the same time so far away no one can get to it, another part of the frozen landscape changes. Where once laid a pond perfectly frozen in time...hairline cracks began to slowly form.
Perspective Shift : Ponies
Gathering for a group hug, all six embrace and cheer their accomplishment.
Pulled out of their moment, all six, along with the three princesses and prince, look over towards the clanking noise. What they see is Sentinel, slowly pulling off what remained of his armor. He was well built, and while his chest had given them a glimpse, they had to note just how hairless he was. When finished removing all of his plate, he stood there utterly naked save for what appeared to be some skintight materials from his lower abdomen to halfway to the knee.
But their innocent curiosity was short lived when without the armor the sum of life with demons left their marks, all over his body. But it was Princess Luna who vocally made the most damning observations of all.
"It was like he was always outnumbered." Luna gently commented.
The looks, especially from the six, was enough to get her to further elaborate.
"He has less scars on the front than on the side and back." she stated, "That means that he never had any pony watching his blindside." she then pointed with her hoof, "The long drag marks on the back of his legs to the bend, show how he was drug down by something on many different occasions, " she lifted her hoof up higher, "and the scars on the side of his barrel were moments where he was defending from something much taller than himself, only to be attacked while doing so by others."
Reading it like a journal, Luna continued onwards, "The deep gouges on his upper back and shoulders means that he often had multiple attackers latched onto him for extended periods of time."
"Luna..." Princess Celestia whispers, somewhat concerned with how the others will handle such details.
"If our intent is to help this being, then we need to understand it." Luna defended, but not harshly. "It let us break it's weapon. Now it has removed it's protection." she made sure to note, "Its giving us a all of the cards but we would be a fool to assume that it isn't used to always playing with an empty hoof." Luna finishes, giving explanation to the merit of her statements.
"Princess Luna, if I may, but why do you keep referring to it as an it?" Applejack asks, "Princess Cadance already called it a stallion."
"But Applejack," Twlight interjected to defend the notion, "Her observations are only that, observations." to further infer, "See? I'm rather confident that those are teats on the upper chest area." she says, pointing her hoof.
"Yeah, but I can tell ya now, observation or no, that this one here is a stallion." Applejack said with confidence.
"Okay...Well I see teats. That means female. What do YOU see that says male?" Twilight asks with a challenge.
Applejack only deadpans as she slowly lifts a hoof, allowing all of the others who hadn't already realized, to follow it's trajectory. Slight hues of pink spread across the audience, until Sentinel looks over, looks down, then slowly back up with an arched eyebrow. He just seems to shake his head, what appears to be laughter, and then place his helmet over the edge still sticking out of the glass marble floor.
Walking past his chest piece, he pulls out a small pouch before walking over towards the ponies, stopping in front of them as Princess Celestia comes to the head of the group. She nods her head, getting the very same back from Sentinel, before turning towards the large Castle not far away. With Sentinel and every pony else in tow, they all begin the start of what should be a rather interesting turn of events.
"Tia! We're late!" Luna exclaims.
"So much for a night of sleep..." Celestia comments, before both princess of night and day begin to concentrate, horns glowing brightly. While everypony else knew what this meant, Sentinel was proverbially still in the dark of such things. So one shouldn't blame him when he looked up and noticed the moon moving alarmingly fast.
<Gibberish!!!!> Sentinel yells and he seems to run for cover, just as the sun's crest shoots eye burning rays of light, causing him to go mostly blind since his eyes were adjusted for night. Sadly his legs did not get the memo, or the number of the half crumbled wall they slammed Sentinel into.