“Crucible Handler Spike, Log Entry Fifty-Thousand and Eighty-Four. I’m currently heading to Twilight Gap. Saladin has called me out here for an emergency… Why he didn’t just tell me what the problem was, I don’t know. But this did interfere with my Twilight Time, so I hope to resolve this soon”
“I will be recording this little meeting for the record, nearing destination… Spike out”
My Jumpship scanned the area for a safe landing, but if you asked me, there was no such thing in this place. The Twilight Gap, a battleground once painted with Guardian and Fallen blood alike.
I think it was three, four-hundred years ago?
I partook in this triumph for Ponykind all that time ago. We still had hold over the Crystal Empire, but we thought it was over when the scouts returned from Old Ponyville. Well, I should say scout, but given that only one came back alive while carrying his dead comrades on his back, still badly hurt himself… I count those brave souls for as long as they had lived.
He told us that they were caught in a crossfire with the five Fallen Houses. We couldn’t believe what we were hearing, the scout then told us that the houses were planning a siege on the City. The Fallen were aiming to kill us all.
So to make sure that never happened, we readied ourselves for a last stand.
Gathering as many Guardians as we could, we marched onto Twilight Gap with an army of over sixteen-thousand Soldiers. And that with the combined Crystal Ponies, volunteering to follow me into battle, our forces doubled to thirty-two-thousand. However matching the Fallen in numbers, each side took heavy losses, but in the end, Ponykind had driven the Fallen apart.
And to this day, the five Houses have never reunited again.
“Now landing” my Jumpship alerted me.
I must have been thinking too much to notice. The Jumpship had landed near a similar looking Regulus colored golden green with streaking red stripes.
Only one Dragon had enough Glimmer to purchase red paint… Lord Saladin, standing in front of his Jumpship, that swank posed like a Celestia damned hero. But who am I to argue, that drake saved my life back then, and I he.
I got out of my Jumpship, looking back at it in comparison to Saladin’s, painted purple and green, like my handsome scales. But even I am just a little jealous of that beautiful crimson.
“Long time old friend!” Saladin roared.
“Not long enough if you ask me…” I responded, walking to him in a slouch.
“Spike, I didn’t know you bared such an ill will toward me?”
“And I don’t, but there is somepony back at the Tower that I’d rather not keep waiting” I answered Saladin’s concern.
“Well,” Saladin was lost for words “Then we best hurry, eh?”
“That would be great thanks… So what’s this emergency? It better not be another Engram cave, because if it is, I swear on Diamonds that I’ll cave it in myself!” I said to Saladin in monstrous tone, warding him back an inch.
“Calm minds comrade, no Wyvern need be swearing on those beautiful bounties,” Saladin raised his claws, patting the air in hopes of calming me down “And as far as the emergency, it would be best if you heard her out”
“Her?” I said, looking in the direction Saladin had pointed, peering at the Moon in the sky to only see a figure, eclipsed in front of it.
“Who goes there!?” I demanded, drawing both of my Hand Cannons at this mystery Mare. Who was standing atop a bunker, staring down on us with bright white slits for eyes.
She dropped down from the bunker, firing up her jetpack, safely landed on the ground. This Mare was extraordinarily tall for a Pony, but she still fell short compared to myself and Saladin. She also wore a mask, pale like her coat, this Stanger’s only feature was that light red mane of hers. Everything else was shrouded in a gray cloak and white armor that seemed to have been through one too many skirmishes. An imposing Stanger, but that’s exactly why I didn’t trust her.
“Not a step closer!” I told the Stranger, and she stood her ground.
“Your ‘help’ isn’t very trusting is he?” the Stranger said.
“Apologies, but Spike here is the best we could get for this situation” Saladin responded, walking up to me to lower my firearms. I struggled with Saladin from holstering my Hand Cannons, but if it wasn’t for the trust that he had earned from me, I would have opened fire then and there.
“What do you want Stanger?” I asked her as she stepped closer to us.
The Stranger said nothing, looking into my eyes through my helmet, it felt like she was peering into my very mind, taking a gander at all my secrets and memories that I hold close to my heart.
This made my scales crawl, I felt my claws strangling forearms as I stood there arms crossed.
“You appear stressed, Lord Spike…” the Stanger finally said “Find yourself something strange? Perhaps something valuable?” she might as well attempt to interrogate me at this point. I could tell she knew about Twilight.
And how could she not… This Stanger, whenever she gets involved it’s never simple. She might as well be the next incarnation of Discord for all I care. For every time I’ve fought alongside this maniac, fellow Guardians and the like die, and at the end of it all, it ends in her benefit.
So it shouldn’t bother anypony if I was a bit sore to her.
“I would cut to the chase Stanger, I can’t guarantee your safety if he snaps” Saladin warned the Stranger, likely trying to avoid a conflict, but I doubt I’ll be leaving this place without shedding a little blood.
“Fair enough…” the Stranger agreed, trotting to the left of me, coming to the edge of the Twilight Gap’s cliff edge.
“A massacre is coming for the Empire my Lords…” the Stranger told us.
“And what Stranger, makes you say that?” I asked her.
“No more than twenty-eight hours ago, a disturbance occurred in Old Ponyville…”
“And what, did the Fallen tamper with the Sparrow grid again?” I stabbed at whatever was trying to say.
“No, but perhaps you’re a tad uninterested in the Last City’s only chance at survival? Given that you are so busy…” the Stranger said as if I should take my leave, and I would have gladly done so, if it weren’t for Saladin.
Saladin elbowed me on the side gently.
“Ow…” I said sarcastically.
“Please take this seriously my friend” Saladin asked of me, but I still failed to understand why this had any relevance to me or the City. But I did as he said, and heard the Stranger out.
“I believe that an Alicorn has returned…”
I nearly flinched at the mention of the word ‘Alicorn’, but the Stranger noticed my discomfort, so ‘nearly’ was enough for her to put the pieces together.
“You know who it is don’t you?” the Stanger said to me. But I stood my ground. Refusing to say a word.
“I have no idea what you’re on about…” I answered. But I have never been good at lying. And my comrade and the Stranger saw strait through me.
“Spike, you…?” Saladin was shocked. Shocked that I hadn’t told him yet, but I had my reasons for staying quiet about it.
“Which Princess is it?” the Stranger confronted me.
“There is no Princess!” I answered again, but my saying that only confirmed their theories.
“Stop lying!!” the Stranger roared at me.
“You first!!” I retorted, the Stranger looked phased for a moment, but she stepped back and looked through her saddlebag.
I laughed under my breath as she did “Besides,” I began “I’m pretty sure you have a guess of your own don’t you?” I asked the Stranger, and she had finished searching her bag.
“Dose this ring any bells?” the Stranger said, tossing a small stuffed animal at my feet. And as soon as I saw it… I recognized it instantly.
“Smarty Pants…” I whispered under my breath.
“Who. Is. The. Princess?” the Stranger asked again slowly.
…
“Fine, I admit it… Princess Twilight Sparkle is here at the Tower…” I answered aloud, causing the Stranger and Saladin alike to step back a few feet.
“Then its then I thought…” the Stranger said, looking back to the City, now actively scouting off the cliff.
“But what does this ‘massacre’ of yours have to do with her anyway? Explain!”
But the Stranger didn’t answer me. Typical.
Saladin had left for his Jumpship, he was now talking through the ‘All coms’ radio line, he said something about backup needed and that an attack was imminent. And when I had turned to him from hearing that, I spotted two Dregs up on a hill in the forest behind his ship.
I reacted and drew my guns, but shots had already been fired, and the Dregs rolled down the hill dead, headless and gushing with blood.
I looked back at the Stranger, her gun’s barrel was coursing with electricity from being fired.
She had just saved Saladin’s life.
The Stranger walked passed me and we both nodded to another.
“Saladin! Tell the Tower to secure the Wall, the three of us will hold Twilight Gap for as long as we can!” the Stranger ordered Saladin, and he did so.
I was about to run to a vantage point, but the thought of the toy by my feet caught my attention. It laid there in the dirt, still in decent condition from when I last saw it.
I focused on a one of Smarty’s back legs, noticing a small rapping of white bandages around the leg. It was there because I bit Smarty there in my infancy. Twilight was terribly sad about what I had done. But it all worked out in the end, because it gave Twilight a chance to be a doctor. Back when she could choose a career she would one day lead. Those were simpler times.
But a battle was about to begin… I have no time to look back on the past now.