I kicked the griffin off The Sun’s Wrath as I glanced over the battlefield. Countless ponies and griffins littered the forest unmoving. I adjusted the straps on The Moon’s Shadow as the field experienced a momentary break in the action.
I tighten my grip on my sword as I scanned the area for my next opponent, my left arm rising reflexively as I heard something closing in overhead. I grunt as I feel what I assumed to be a spear collide with The Moon’s Shadow. A second later my guess is verified as I see the weapon fall to the ground. Looking up I see two griffins dive bombing me one of them still holding a spear in its talons, I enter a defensive stance waiting for them to fly into range.
After a second, I thrust both my shield and my sword forward. My actions earn me a startled squawk and a sudden weight on both, lowering my shield slightly I see the armed griffin struggling to stay in flight, and the other impaled on my sword. Bringing them together I withdraw my sword the weight transferring to my shield for a moment before another body hits the ground. The armed griffin glares at me before turning around and flying away.
I take a moment to catch my breath as my eyes flicked back and forth. My body froze as I saw smoke coming from the direction of the castle.
I break into a run, heading for the castle, praying that everyone was alright. I burst through the treeline, and see something that turns my blood to ice...
The castle was burning.
I see the castle servants fleeing from the battle as I sprinted forward. I saw the pegasi that were still standing trying to save the castle from the inferno by summoning rainclouds. The unicorns were creating storms to bring the griffins to the ground, and the earth ponies were trying to protect the civilians. Several running shield first into large groups of griffins to buy others time.
I lunge forward, running another griffin through as I reach the front gates. I start shouting commands to the guards as I turn to face several more griffins trying to surround me.
“Everypony activate your armors!”
“Pegasi! I want a category three tornado in the clearing. No griffins are to leave the ground!”
“Unicorns! I want a storm that blocks out the sky I want those fires history!”
“Earth Ponies! I want a defensive wall around the unicorns, and I want it yesterday!”
Ponies scramble as they try to carry out the orders. A second later I am shoulder to shoulder with fifty plus earth ponies, and I feel the air pressure dropping. Thunder booms as griffins dropped out of the sky, the vacuum from the tornado making them ground bound. Several spears bounce off the shield wall the earth ponies made before the tornado started redirecting their trajectory.
As soon as I see every griffin in the area hit the ground and the sky blocked out by the clouds I ordered the earth ponies to attack.
“Earth Ponies!! Primordial Spikes!”
The earth ponies discarded their weapons and shrugged their shields onto their backs as all of them raised their hands above their heads, and as one all fifty plus of them slammed them into the earth.
It was devastating. Stone spikes shot out from the earth impaling countless griffins. The earth ignored the unicorns and the pegasus, but brought its full wrath against the battle hardened birds. Many squawked in surprise or fear, seeing so many of their comrades killed in an instant.
The tornado slowed down and the pegasi became visible again, all of them glaring at the surviving griffins. The unicorns and the earth ponies also gave the birds glares as if daring them to attack again.
The griffins retreated, and the cheers that followed were deafening.
After the griffins disappeared over the horizon almost everypony collapsed. The final attack straining their bodies and minds to their limits.
I huffed as the adrenaline started wearing off and looked over how many of the guard was still standing and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the castle was still standing as well.
However the victory was short lived. The pegasi who had flown to disburse the storm suddenly found themselves wingless, and screamed as they fell from the sky. The unicorns who attempted to catch them couldn’t as their horns were removed. The earth ponies cried out as arrows pierced through their heads.
Walking up to a unicorn was a hooded being with an oversized sword. With a swing of the huge weapon the head of the unicorn came clean off as he moved with grace though the lines. Several ponies tried to stop the being from approaching, but they found their hooves were stuck to the cobblestone and a moment later found themselves on the ground with a hole in their chests. With a final impairment the hooded being walked up with his blade in hand. Coming up from behind the hooded figure was the god of chaos himself.
“Looks like this was another pyrrhic victory.”, the hooded figure said. I despised these two beings; for the whole war was going nowhere because of them. Whenever we claimed a victory these two came and inflicted enough damage to render it null and void.
“Come on Renna, no smile?”, the hooded figure asked, and with a flash a white blade with a glowing magical orb appeared it was five feet long yet he held it like it weighed nothing. The rune blade glowed with the magic within.
I looked around at the scene before me, trying to memorize every face of the guards that were cruelly cut down. I see Darkhoof lying in a pool of blood, and Kooper trying to stop the bleeding from his stump of a leg. I turn back to the figure, my arms shaking in fury. I feel something snap as his hood shifts and I see him smiling.
“This. Is not. A GAME!” I screech at him. I feel my wings manifest on my back warming up the castle grounds as the flames took shape. My sword and shield transformed, the sword becoming a blade of pure sunlight, while the shield became a swirling void.
“Allen.” I spoke, my voice saturated with magic. “This ends today, you have been found guilty of your crimes. Choose: Trial by combat, or a quick and painless death.”
The hood was replaced by a suit of armor a spell quickly followed bathing it in light. “Given my healing factor the second choice is impossible.” His blade glowed.
“I choose option one, are you prepared to die?” He said with his blade in a fighting stance.
I screamed in rage as I flew towards him.
“THAT IS ENOUGH!”, a voice bellowed from the sky.
My eyes snap open, as I feel something pinn me to the ground. I try to shake the being off only to be headbutted by them. I froze at what happened next ,“Enough, Renna! Thou are not getting up until We say so!”
I recognized that voice, it belonged to somepony I considered a sister. “...Luna?” I asked, forcing my eyes to focus on the pony above me. A dark blue muzzle comes into focus as she smiles down at me.
“We are glad to have thou back among the living Captain.”
“Captain?” I hear somepony ask beside us. Turning I find that both Celestia and the guard who doesn’t know jack about protocol beside us, and I am laying on a bed. “Captain of what?”
Both Luna and I frown at Celestia. I knew I had been out for a little bit since I woke up in a patient’s bed, but not enough for the guard to get as sloppy as this one was. Turning to the unicorn I address this point, “A guard always addresses a superior by name and rank maggot. That is Captain Renna to you, and you’d best remember it.”
The unicorn sputters for a moment before giving me what I think is a ‘glare’. “I have no idea who you think you are, but I’m Captain Shining Armor, and will be addressed as such.”
I give the unicorn a bored look before turning to Celestia with a raised eyebrow… Only to find her rubbing her forehead.
“Shining Armor,” Celestia started. “Meet Captain Renna, the first captain of the royal guard, and its founder. Renna, meet Shining Armor, the current captain of the royal guard.”
I frown, and turn back to the unicorn finding a similar expression on his face. I look him over again trying to find something positive to say for my ‘successor’, but everything he has done and said has been sloppy at best.
I turn back to Celestia and tell her what I think. “Bullshit.”
Shining Armor’s head whipped around as he leveled another ‘glare’ at me. “Hey, you can’t tal-”
“Bullshit”,I said cutting him off, “you can’t be a captain of the guard. You don’t even meet the minimum requirements to try out for the position.”
“...And just what are the requirements?”, Shining Armor asked with a raised eyebrow.
“For a unicorn they would need to be at least a level four to even try out for the position. Considering the amount of magic you’re giving off I’d classify you at a high level three, although I’m being generous with that rating.” I give him another glance over before I add, “I bet you couldn’t even hold a barrier around a city for a day without dropping it.”
Shining Armor sputters again before telling me something that makes me cringe in horror.
“I’ll have you know ‘captain’ that I was ranked at the top of my class.”, he states a hint of pride in his voice. “And furthermore nopony has done something like that since the seventeenth captain of the guard Nightshade. Who repelled an invading force at the battle of Canterlot over seven hundred years ago”
I turn to Luna who was still on top of me, ”How long have I been gone for?”
Luna turns her head away from me and I quickly turn my gaze to Celestia who looks at me with a pained expression.
“A thousand years Renna.”
I felt the world stop for a moment as my mind processed this. ‘A thousand years? People don’t live for thousands of years… and neither do ponies… Oh God. They’re all gone. Kooper, Nightwing, Chrysalis, they’re all gone!’ I clinch my fists as I feel my eyes moistening, and push these thoughts away with a more pressing thought. ‘If this stallion is the best we’ve got now, then by God as my witness I’m going to make him one of the best. We’re going to need it if the guard has sunk as low as I think they have.’
I shift my gaze back to Luna, “Princess,” she looks at me again. “Can I get up? Shining Armor and I have to have a talk.”
Luna pauses for a moment before nodding her head, “We suppose We can allow this.” she says as she climbs down off the bed. It’s then that I realize that she’s the size of a teenage filly.
I shook my head derailing that train of thought for the moment. ‘Start training first, then catch up on what has happened.’
Sitting up, I hiss as my muscles pop from disuse before I turn back to Shining Armor.
“Shining Armor,” I start, grabbing his attention “give me a report of all you can do, and your daily routine for training. You said you were the best in your class, but right now you’re downright pitiful. I’m going to change that, and by the time we’re done, you’re going to live up to your title of captain.”
Shining Armor looks at Celestia as if asking what to do, and after a few seconds she nods her head a letter appearing before her as she did.
“Alright, we’ll stop by the training room and get started, are you ready to go?”, He asks me standing up as he does so.
I’m about to reply, but Celestia beats me to it, “I’m sorry Shining Armor, but a situation has come up. We all need to head for Ponyville right now.” She turns to me and tells me something that makes my blood boil, “Renna… Your brother has made an appearance.”
“......FU-”
<Allen's POV>
Discord and I came walking out of the everfree forest as he filled me in on what happened. “So Luna went crazy and attempted to bring about endless night, and Celestia had to banish her. Thus she lost her connection to the elements, and now Luna is back to normal?” I said summing up everything Discord told me.
“Pretty much. After Celestia left the everfree forest I effectively became its ruler being the single most powerful force in the forest and all.” Discord said. As we walked up we saw this yellow pegasus with a long pink mane outside with animals.
“Hey.” Discord said. The moment she turned to us and looked in fear. She then took off running. I turned to Discord and gave him a glare. “What?” He asked. I sighed, we did kinda come out of the everfree forest decked out in full armor.
“Let me do the talking next time.” I told him. We walked a bit along to the town. However I felt my danger sense flaring up behind me. “Discord, something’s about to attack us.” I was proved right a moment later when a rainbow maned pegasus tried to dive-bomb us.
Discord turned around and used his powers to stop the pegasus by removing her wings. She fell on the ground with a thud. However my sense flared again. A lasso was seen coming at me. I pulled out a sword from my hammer space and cut it in half, an orange earth pony glared at us from a distance, the other end of the lasso in her hands. “Well this can’t get worse.”
A lavender Unicorn was seen walking up to us. “Ok thats it.” Discord exclaimed and used his magic to stop everything.
“Discord can you let them down.” I told him. He gave me a confused look.
“But they attacked us.”
“Yes but we did just walk out of the everfree forest, you know the things within there see ponies as food right?” I asked him. Discord set them down.
“Sorry about that, he hasn’t have connect for a thousand years.” I said. “My name is Allen.” I turned to Discord giving him a glare.
Discord gave a laugh. “Oh right.” Snapping his talons the pegasus got her wings back. “I’m the Lord of Everfree, Discord.” He said with a crown on his head in mocking bow.
I rolled my eyes at him and returned my blade to my hammer space. “Wait the Everfree Forest has a ruler?” The lavender unicorn asked. Discord rolled his eyes at this.
“Well Tia didn’t seem to tell you everything, well seeing as how I haven’t been seen for a thousand years I can let that pass.” Discord said with a toy of Celestia in his talons. He stopped for a moment with a strange movement. “Oh my.. You’re the current bearers of the elements of harmony.” He stated.
That caused me to raise an eyebrow. “How can you tell? You didn’t read their minds did you?” Discord gave a moment to pause. He had a halo over his head.
“I didn’t need to do that, I can tell after all I’m the opposite of the elements.” Discord said as he laid on a cotton candy cloud.
After a few minutes of defusing the tension the lavender unicorn Twilight sent a letter off to Celestia about Discord and me. Its not like anything bad could happen. I turn to my fellow adventurer and friend Discord. “Hey Dis, what happened to my sister?” I asked him. Discord stopped eating his cakes, a thoughtful expression on his face.
“Well if you must know the spell that froze you also froze your sibling something about the elements being used with their full power or whatever, so she’s most likely also freed and awake.”
“Oh ok.” I said.
Three... two... one…
Processing complete.
“Oh crap.”
Well I guess no better time than now to get ready for another fight with my sister. Hopefully this wouldn’t end with Discord and Celestia turning us to stone by accident like last time.
Yeah, its not going to end well. “Discord I might need to armor up after all, so where’s my sword?” I asked him. Discord looked though his pocket dimension and found my prized sword. “Here it is.” Oh how I missed you Heavens End.
Ok then, come at me sis.