//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: The beginning of a new life. // Story: Chronicles of a brave heart // by MaverickHunterZero //------------------------------// Chapter 4: The beginning of a new life. Dear Mom and Dad: I decided to write this journal to have a way to communicate you my adventures, and what I have learned through the passing of time. I used to have dreams about you two before the Ursa incident, but since then, they have become less frequent. It has been a couple months since I met Princess Celestia. She is as magnificent as you described her to me in your stories. She invited me to join the royal army, at first I had my doubts, but it has proven to be the right decision. At first I didn’t fit anywhere, the Pegasus squad didn’t took me in, because I couldn’t maintain a formation with them, they said I wasn’t disciplined enough, and the unicorn squad said my wings wouldn’t let me concentrate enough ( lousy statement if you ask me). But then I met this small squad, it’s a squad that consists of the three pony races; they call themselves ‘The Dawn Warriors’. They are Celestia’s Special Forces, when there is a problem the normal squads can’t solve they send in the Dawn Warriors (or DW for short) to take care of the business. They made me feel like I was part of a family right away, and had taught me a lot. Some of them even served under you. When they heard that I was your son, they thought even better of me, they said my abilities did resemble yours. The squad leader is an Earth pony named Siegfried, quite an unusual name for a pony if you ask me. Anyway, he said he was the one that came with the idea to form the DW when you left; he is a remarkable swordspony, the princess told me he is one of the best in all Equestria. We have sparred a lot, and he has taught me some tips to improve my swordplay, but I have never been close to beating him. While I’m currently part of the DW, princess Celestia wants me to join her personal guard especially to protect her young pupil, she is a young lavender unicorn with a purple long mane and a pink stripe running through it, I’ve heard that her special talent is magic, and that she surpasses even at her young age some of the most experienced unicorns in Canterlot. Today is the day I will take the examination to see if I will be able to serve as a Personal guard, so I will have to leave you, I hope to be able to go visit you soon, but until then words on paper will have to do. “Wake up, Brave. Hurry, we got less than four hours to prepare you for your examination” Brave snapped out of his trance, just to find Siegfried by the door in his room. He had a tan coat, a long blonde mane and green eyes, a scar adorning his left eye, and his cutiemark was a Claymore with a silver colored cross shaped crest, and a red hilt. “He he, sorry Captain, let’s go” apologized Braveheart with a sheepish smile. The Young Pegacorn who now had stopped concealing his horn or wings from everypony else, found himself in a special place the DW liked to call Zone Zero. Zone Zero were the training grounds used by the Dawn Warriors. It was a vast green field outside the city; it had been modified by the members of the Dawn Warriors, to be the perfect training grounds for all the pony races. It was located in a vast green plain, with strong winds, that would help the pegasus to gain strength on their wings, as it pushed them for an extra effort so they could move forward. The unicorns used the plains along with the Earth ponies to build their muscle strength. Plus, all the obstacle courses that had been built were used by everypony. The other eight members of the DW squad were already training by the time Brave and Siegfried left the tent. Two earth ponies were running laps; three unicorns were using their magic to throw plates as fast as they could, while three Pegasus used their wing blades to cut the plates while performing different aerial maneuvers. The eight ponies stopped when they noticed Brave and Siegfried closing in. they stood in line, with Braveheart taking his place among them, they saluted their Captain as he saluted back. “As all of you know, Brave is the newest member of our big family, but, he has been given the opportunity to defend our beloved princess as one of her personal guards, so it’s our job to ensure that he is ready for such responsibility.” As Siegfried ended his small speech all nine ponies cheered Braveheart with encouraging words like ‘show them what you’ve got’ or ‘Make us proud.’ But the one that caught Braveheart’s attention the most, was the one said by Siegfried as he looked him with a warm smile: “you would make your parents proud.” After some warm-ups and a collective sparring match that ended up with all the other ponies being KO’d except for a unicorn, Siegfried and Braveheart. Everypony left to rinse themselves, and to get ready for the big event. Brave stood beside his bed, gazing at the armor and sword that belonged to his parents. They looked just like new, with a flash from his horn he levitated his armor and used a spell to put it on, then proceeded to levitate his sword, and hung it on his back. “Hey Brave are you ready?” Asked his roommate, a pegasus stallion called Windbolt. With a nod and determination in his eyes, he replied “let’s do this.” It was a short walk to the Canterlot coliseum, where a variety of events took place. It was an elliptic shaped building, with enough seats and rows to fit in almost all the citizens of Canterlot; it was built in memory of commander Hurricane, who died in a long war to protect the nation she and the other pony leaders had founded so long ago, at the entrance a golden statue of commander Hurricane had been erected, in memory of one of Equestria's first war heroes. All along the hallways were paintings of some of the famous ponies that had performed there, from famous play actors like Neighspeare to musicians like Beethhoofen, and most recently, famous bands like Stratomareious, or Sonata Marectica. The benches that would normally be filled with citizens, now were full with soldiers from all platoons, some to root in for their companions, and some other just to get a distraction on their free day. In the first row, all the Dawn Warriors were cheering for their youngest member, as he stepped into the arena. Being one of the Princess’s personal guards was a big responsibility, so only the best of the best could join. In the arena were five ponies aside from Braveheart: one Pegasus, two earth ponies, and two unicorns. They stood in a single row. And as the sun princess appeared in front of them, they bowed. “Rise soldiers, you have been chosen because of your abilities, to become a personal guard. This is not an easy task, and if anypony thinks he or she isn’t up for the challenge you may leave.” None of them moved, there was a big tension on the air. Even the spectators, were quiet. And silence reigned all over the arena. None of the ponies dared to move a muscle until their princess spoke again. “Well then, good luck to the six of you, and may the best pony win.” The princess rose to the air, and flew to her balcony where she was met by her student. “Princess why do you host such a barbaric event?” “Twilight maybe you don’t understand this because you have never seen war, but everypony in this army shares some bonds with each other, and this ‘barbaric events’ as you call them, allows them to make those bonds stronger.” “If you say so princess….” Just as Twilight was about to speak she was interrupted by her eager dragon assistant. “Oh yeah finally something interesting, who do you think is going to win?” “I don’t really care spike” exclaimed Twilight with a bored look on her face “I just came here because I wanted to spend time with you and the princess.” “Oh c’mon Twilight lighten up, I think that silver coated pony is going to win…” Spike stopped to scratch the back of his head “what was his name again?” “His name is Braveheart, and he is quite a remarkable pony if I do say so, he’s got more magic than most of the unicorns of his age, but I don’t think he surpasses Twilight, at least not in normal magic.” Replied the sun princess. “Wait!? He can do magic? Isn’t he a Pegasus?” inquired the young student. “Not at all, he is a Pegacorn, and son of two of the most remarkable ponies I have ever met.” “A Pegacorn huh? Is that even possible? I had never heard of it before!” “Well then my faithful student why don’t you just take a look at the fight then and figure out for yourself.” As soon as Celestia landed on her balcony the five ponies broke their formation and headed to different parts of the coliseum. A green coated unicorn, with an orange short mane stood in the center of the arena, his cutie mark was a whistle, and he was going to be the referee for this event. Using a voice increasing spell he said “WELCOME EVERYPONY. HERE ARE THE RULES: THE CONTESTANTS CAN USE ANY RESOURCE THEY BROUGHT WITH THEM TO THE ARENA, IF A PONY SHOULD FALL UNCONSIOUS HE OR SHE’LL BE DISQUALIFIED, IF YOU LEAVE THE ARENA BY ANY MEANS YOU’LL ALSO BE DISQUALIFIED, YOU MAY USE ALL THE VERTICAL SPACE YOU WANT, BUT WE WILL HAVE THE WONDERBOLTS KEEP TRACK OF YOUR LOCATION. NOW GET READY, SET… FIGHT!” The referee teleported away as the match started. The Pegasus flew up high trying to avoid all combat, meanwhile one of the earth ponies charged at one of the unicorns, and before the unicorn could cast a barrier, he was tackled by the earth pony, sending him to fly several meters before he landed chin first against the ground, the other earth pony mimicked his equal, but the other unicorn was ready and used a barrier to stop the earth pony on his tracks just before levitating the earth pony and throwing him against Braveheart, who was up till now watching the fight. With a swift jump he got out of the flung pony’s way and decided to rise to the skies and bring the Pegasus down. Just as he started to fly Brave noticed the wonderbolt known as Spitfire tailing him As the Pegasus flew up he could see Soarin tailing him to make sure he didn’t leave the combat area. Feeling relieved by the height he were, the Pegasus relaxed and… WHAM! He was hit in the stomach by the young Pegacorn's extended front legs. The Pegasus recovered quickly and bucked Brave away almost sending him past Soarin. Braveheart managed to keep himself from exiting the ring. Brave readied some magic but the Pegasus was moving too fast for him to keep his aim on, so he opted to an easier way to hit the Pegasus. He grabbed his sword not removing the scabbard, and just when the Pegasus stopped to buck Brave on his flank, he turned and swung his blade with a strong downward motion, making it crash against the Pegasus’s armor, and sent him straight to earth, unconscious. Seeing the mistake in his plan, Brave dove to rescue the Pegasus before he crashed to the ground. Being followed by the two Wonder bolts and feeling the tension and adrenaline, pulling himself to the limit of his flying abilities, Brave managed to catch the body with his magic just inches before it crashed against the ground, and left it to rest on an empty bench near him. An announcement was made just then by the referee “ONLY THREE PONIES REMAIN” Brave then took notice of a damaged Earth pony defending himself from a slightly tired unicorn. Taking his chance Brave gathered magic on his horn and launched a stunning spell against the unicorn. The unicorn broke his spell over the damaged earth pony and raised a shield just in time to dispel Brave’s enchantment. The earth pony took that chance and tackled Brave with all his strength, the impact was too much to bear for the tired earth pony and fell unconscious after the hit. The young Pegacorn was sent flying to his side some feet away, he was trying to refill his lungs with air when the unicorn took hold him using his magic. Brave started to feel a sleeping spell taking over his body, his legs going numb, his vision getting blurry. Is this it? I’m going to lose… maybe I wasn’t fit to be the princess’s guard. “CMON BRAVE WE ARE COUNTING ON YOU!!” Huh? Is that Sieg? “COME ON LITTLE BRAVE GET A HOLD ON YOURSELF!” Shattershield? “YOU CAN DO IT!” Swiftbolt? “GO BRAVE!” “DON’T GIVE IN!” Everyone, you’re right I can’t give up like this. Not now. “NOT EVER!!” roared the Pegacorn reaching to whatever energy he had left, Brave got on his feet and as the other unicorn was starting to celebrate his victory he was met with an ice beam radiating from Brave’s horn that left him frozen in a cube of ice, then Brave levitated the ice cube and dropped it to the ground revealing the unconscious unicorn. The young Pegacorn gasping, trying to reach to whatever energy he had left, still felt numbed because of his opponent spell, but the feeling was fading now. “THE WINNER AND NEW PRESONAL GUARD OF PRINCESS CELESTIA IS: BRAVEHEART THE PEGACORN!!!” announced the referee. Everyone on the stage was cheering at Braveheart, not only he had broken a strong spell that already had a grip on him, but managed to defeat the rival with one spell. A spell that was considered to be ‘Rank A’ magic, and that no pony could ever hope to master at such a young age. Feeling relieved Brave fell on his rump and started to relax himself. He had won; he was going to be one of the royal guards. Still he felt uneasy, the Dawn Warriors had been like a family to him, and now he was leaving them. Siegfried and the others ran towards Braveheart, gave him pats on his back, hugs, and praises. “You did it little foal” “way to go Brave.” “We knew you could do it.” All this words meant a lot for Brave, but there was one pony that made him remember that no matter what he would always be a part of the family of the Dawn Warriors. “You are as impressive as your parents were at your age. I’m sure they are as proud of you as we are right now.” “Thank you everypony. Siegfried, can you help me get up? I need to go get my prize he he” “No problem.” Said Siegfried with a smile, and then proceeded to act as a support for Brave, who was still trying to recover from the damage he had received during the fight. “WOW” exclaimed an exited Spike “did you see that Twilight, Braveheart was spectacular!” “I see it, and I don’t believe it.” said twilight while rubbing her eyes “where did he learn that spell? I thought the only ponies that were allowed to the knowledge’s of rank A spells, were unicorns with a high level of command within your ranks princess. And not only that, but he broke the sleeping spell that was casted on him, and with all the numbness he managed to cast and hit his target.” “I knew you were going to get caught in the event Twilight” teased the princess “now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go congratulate our winner.” Celestia took off the deck and descended on the arena, just in front of Brave, and Siegfried. “Siegfried, you did a great job, I knew that I could count on you to refine Braveheart’s abilities.” Praised the princess. “It was an honor your majesty.” Replied the earth pony. “Braveheart you displayed, enormous feats of agility, strength, kindness, control, and focus on this test, and because of that it is an honor to bestow upon you the title of Royal Guard, now kneel young Braveheart.” As being told Brave knelt in front of the princess, and the princess’s horn glowed as it touched the pauldrons of Braveheart’s armor. “It is an honor to be able to protect you princess; I will do my best to keep you safe.” Said Braveheart in a gentle fulfilled tone the princess looked at the tired pony, with a warm smile on her face. “I’m sure you will, but enjoy the rest of the week, you will start on Monday.” “Thanks your highness” with one last bow Braveheart said goodbye to the princess, and left with Siegfried and the other Dawn Warriors to celebrate. Monday. “Well Brave here you are, about to start your new life as a royal guard.” Brave told to himself. He had spent the whole Sunday giving his goodbyes to his platoon, and had even sparred with each one of them before leaving, as a parting gift Siegfried had polished his armor, and sharpened Dawnbreaker. Brave stepped inside the Canterlot Castle, and decided to head into the castle barracks to meet his co workers, and the pony in charge of coordinating the castle guards. “You must be Braveheart” said a middle aged stallion, a grey unicorn sporting a golden armor. “My name is Stonewall, and I’m in charge of giving every guard their chores,” Stonewall levitated a clipboard infront of him, and after reading it he directed towards Braveheart again “you are to keep company to the princess's pupil, and help her in any way you can.” “Sir, yes sir.” After asking some of the maids and butlers for directions Brave finally found the library, which acted as a home for the lavender unicorn. Brave approached the marble white tower, and knocked tree times on the door. “Spike could you please get that?” was all that could be heard from the other side of the wooden door. After a couple seconds the door was opened, and Braveheart was greeted by the baby dragon named Spike. “Welcome to the library how can I……” the young dragon was shocked by the pony in front of him. “Sweet Celestia you are Braveheart. I saw your examination the other day, you were totally awesome. Oh where are my manners, my name is Spike.” “Nice meeting you Spike, I had never seen a talking dragon before. I came here to talk to Twilight Sparkle” Replied Braveheart “Well what are you waiting for come in” the baby dragon stepped aside to let the pegacorn step in, and proceeded to call the lavender mare “Twilight! You are not going to believe it. Braveheart came to visit the library!” “Uh-huh. I’ll be right down, I’m finishing some studies” “He he sorry about that, Twilight is always like that when she’s studying.” “Not a worry. This is quite a nice building.” And it was. It was marble white tower, filled with bookshelves and those were filled with ancient knowledge, as well as some of the most popular stories in all of canterlot. it was adorned with white columns that ended in the bust of a different pony, and right in the middle was an enormous hourglass. “Sooo… Brave do you need anything? Something to eat or drink? I can get it for you.” said an eager Spike. “Not really I’m just here to…” just as Brave was about to finish his scentence, there was a flash of light, and the lavender unicorn appeared. “Hello my name is Twilight Sparkle, protégé of the princess, how can I help you?” “well let’s see.” said the Pegacorn in a playful tone trying to be as friendly as possible “First of all it's nice finally making your acquaintance miss Sparkle, I’ve heard great things of you and your abilities, and to answer your question I give you another. How can I help you?” “What do you mean?” said a confused Twilight. “Stonewall sent me to keep you company, and help you in any way I can.” With a cold gaze Twilight looked Braveheart in the eye, before speaking.“Thanks for the offer, but I’m going to have to decline, as you can see I’ve got Spike to keep me company and to help me, now if you’ll excuse me I have some research to do.” Making her horn glow Twilight teleported away leaving just the baby dragon, and the Pegacorn alone in the room. “Sorry about that, well it was nice to meet you Braveheart.” “It was nice meeting you too Spike.” Said a disappointed Brave, and left the library. What had he done wrong? he had been polite and friendly, but even so he had been turned away. Brave decided to explore the castle a bit, he had to know the terrain he was supposed to defend, after a couple of hours exploring he headed to the barracks and decided to call it a day. “Hey, Braveheart.” Huh? What is it Stonewall?” “She turned you down again, didn’t she?” “How did you know?” inquired the Pegacorn sarcastically. “You are not the first one to be turned down by Miss Sparkle. It’s been a week already, why don’t you give up?” “I’ve never given up before. So why would I start now?” answered the Pegacorn proudly “I really admire your foolishness.” Teased Stonewall. They both shared a small laugh, and as they were saying their good byes a scroll materialized in front of Stonewall. After reading the scroll the unicorn turned to Braveheart. “Looks like you won’t be resting right now rookie.” Said the gray unicorn “What do you mean?” “The princess wants to talk to you; you are to go to the terrace located in the east tower. You have one hour to prepare.” “What would she want from me?” “How the hay would I know, the princess almost never asks to meet somepony personally after the sunset.” “I better go then.” Brave went to his quarters to rinse himself, and afterwards headed to the tower. Celestia was admiring the mare in the moon and her four Guardian stars seemingly closer than what they had been last night, wondering what would happen at the summer sun celebration a few days from now. “Princess did you want to see me?” asked Braveheart as he reached the top of the tower and bowed before Celestia. “Braveheart… can I trust you?” The question took Braveheart off guard, and with a quizzical look on his face he managed to ask. “Whatever do you mean princess?” “Your father used to be a great advisor, he would find answers, where no pony would ever have dared to look, and so I ask again. Can I trust you like I trusted your father?” Asked Celestia with a stern look on her face. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be as helpful as my father, but of course. What is the matter princess?” “Well I guess it’s better to start from the very beginning…. Have you ever heard of the tales of ‘The Two Royal Sisters’ and ‘The Mare in the Moon’?”