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// Those Who Write History 
// Story: That Others May Live 
// by CptBrony 
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Those Who Write History





        Duke stepped off the train, the weight of his gear generating a small shockwave on the platform. Other ponies who stepped off were startled by the unexpected shaking, and while normally, they would have felt more comfortable seeing one of the famous humans there, there was something distinctly off about his presence this day.

        Duke made a beeline for the castle. He didn’t stop to greet anypony as he passed, didn’t acknowledge anypony who waved. He made it very clear that he wasn’t here for a friendly purpose, but that he was on a mission. And only he knew what that mission was.

        There were guards patrolling the streets, but they all stepped back when they saw him in his state. They all figured he must be here to talk strategy with the princesses and probably just had bad news. They weren’t about to cross a human in any mood, not with the history their kind had in Equestria.

        Duke reached the path to the castle and looked up at the alabaster walls and amethyst-purple roofs. It made him sick to see it; the decadence of the princesses while they so idly threw lives out the window in an effort to protect what was probably just themselves. It made Duke even angrier to see it.

        As Duke ascended up the path, the royal guards didn’t treat him quite the same as the guards throughout the rest of the city. Most of them looked sideways at him, some with curiosity, and some with concern. Did he plan to see the princesses, unannounced and looking ready to eat somepony? One guard didn’t plan to let that happen.

        “Hey, human!” he shouted, running over to Duke.

        “What?” Duke replied, venom dripping from his voice.

        The guard startled. “You need to relax before you go up there,” the guard said.

        Duke laughed. “Believe me, if you knew the things I knew,” Duke said, shaking his head. Suddenly, he leaned toward the guard and got right up in his face. “You wouldn’t be saying that.”

        “My duty is to protect the princesses,” the guard warned.

        “And their duty is to lead your nation properly, correct?” Duke asked. Confused, the guard nodded. “Then you see? This is a one-way relationship.”

        The guard blinked, but Duke didn’t stay to explain. It would all come out soon enough, and the ponies of Equestria would learn what kinds of ponies ruled over them. It was a shame, really; the populace was fine. Skittish, but hey, they were ponies. Yet their rulers were clearly cut from a very different cloth.

        Duke walked up to the massive double-doors and slammed his fist against them until they finally cracked open. A secretary opened the door and gasped when she saw the unexpected human before her. 

Recovering, she cleared her throat.  “Mister Duke, you weren’t expected.”

        “No, I wasn’t,” Duke replied. The secretary could practically see the anger seething in his words.

        “Uh, h-how can I help you? You should have called ahead,” the secretary said.
        
        “I have to see the princesses NOW,” Duke said. “It’s of vital importance.”

        “What happened?” the secretary asked.

        “You’ll find out when the princesses do,” Duke said.
        
        The secretary hesitated. Clearly, nothing good happened. The man was in his full battle garb, angry, and… the other man was nowhere to be seen. Duke must have decided to handle this on his own as an officer and left his partner at home.

        “O-okay,” the secretary said. Duke yanked the door open and shoved his way past the secretary, getting alarmed looks from the guards.

        Directly ahead, the princesses both sat in front of a group of delegates from far away lands. They all turned when Duke exploded into the room and wore expressions ranging from terror to childish excitement to neutral surprise. The princesses looked surprised but not unhappy at first, but as Duke came closer, their expressions changed to match those in front of them.

        “Duke, we weren’t expecting you,” Luna said. “I’m afraid we’re having an important meeting-”

        “We can do this now in private or in front of everyone,” Duke said.

        Princess Celestia’s eyes widened, and she quickly addressed the group and sent them away. She knew that something went horrifically wrong, given Duke’s demeanor, and she suspected she knew what. There was a good chance he would… be…

        The delegates were gone, leaving Duke and the princesses alone with the guards. Luna looked concernedly at Duke, and Celestia asked the question everyone now had.

        “Where is Frost?” Celestia asked grimly.

        “I think you know the answer,” Duke spat. “Frost was killed in the line of duty on a botched mission to rescue OGA.”

        “I am sorry to hear that-” Celestia began. Duke cut her off.

        “So now you care about us and our mission?” Duke said. “We had a deal.”

        “What are you talking about?” Luna asked, growing angry at Duke’s accusatory tone.

        “Oh, so it just HAPPENS that there’s a chemical plant where you sent us, OGA is nowhere to be found, and we were the best fight for avoiding GOD DAMN DRAGONS?!”

        “Dragons?!” Luna asked. “What- where did you go!?”

        “The dragon lands,” Duke answered.

        Luna blinked. “OGA isn’t there,” Luna said. “What…” Luna suddenly realized something and turned to Celestia. “Sister…”

        Celestia remained silent, looking down at the floor, thinking. Duke grew more and more impatient and angry with every passing moment.

        “What the hell is going on here?!” Duke demanded. “OGA wasn’t in the dragon lands! You gave us false information, and a man DIED for it!”

        “More than just a man died for it,” Celestia said.

        “I do not give half a damn!” Duke shouted. “And what’s this about you pulling us into Equestria to fight your war for you?”

        Luna and Celestia snapped their heads to the man before them, jaws agape. They didn’t know how he had learned that.

        “It’s complicated,” Celestia said.

        Duke was sick of the beating around the bush. He had rapidly grown to hate these princesses. He didn’t care about the fate of their nation any more. In one swift motion, Duke pulled Frost’s rifle up and pointed it forward. On the sidelines, the guards raised their own weapons instantly but did not rush forward for risk of starting the fight and likely losing.

        “You have the rest of your life to explain,” Duke said. “Might as well get into detail.”

        “You don’t want to do that, Duke,” Luna said.

        “Ha!” Duke laughed. “Can I even go home? I have no idea. If you say yes, how do I know you aren’t just lying to save your own asses? I want my answers, and I want them now.”

        Luna looked at Celestia. “Sister, I think you owe him the full explanation.”

        Celestia sighed. “Very well,” she said.

        “This better be good,” Duke muttered.

        “We’ve been involved in a war with the Southern Gryphon Colonies for a very long time,” Celestia began. “We tried to fix the trouble there and then make our way out, but it didn’t work. Everything fell apart after we left. The locals were resentful about what we did, because, at least before, the region had been stable. Now, it was chaos, despite our best intentions.”

        “You may know of a conflict like that,” Luna said. Duke spat at the floor.

        “As the war went on, we began to lose hope. Then, one day, a relationship began that changed the face of Equestria forever,” Celestia went on. “Luna can explain this better than I.”

        “Indeed,” Luna said, casting her sister a look. “I started watching a young human male through a special pool in my basement.”

        “Freaking creepy,” Duke commented. Luna ignored it.

        “He found himself in the hands of Haqqani terrorists. While I watched over him, Discord, the Spirit of Chaos whom you have not met, escaped his prison and went to the human world and watched over him as well,” Luna sighed. “Neither of us knew about the other trying to help the young man, and we pulled him in two separate directions. Ultimately, the young man followed Discord more than I and lost himself to madness. He killed the Agni Narendra character he sought, but was killed in the process.”

        Duke felt a chill up his spine. “I remember that story,” he said. He knew every available detail of that story; it was what inspired him to go into the military as a special missions airman. The young man in question had been taken by human traffickers, somehow escaped, and tore through Southeast Asia to find the people who took him and his friends for revenge. Like everyone else in the world, he thought that the kid died out there.

        “Discord; or rather, another special character who remains very mysterious; pulled the young man into this world, which was when we found out that was possible,” Luna explained. “While here, he recovered from his madness, and ultimately went on a rescue mission to retrieve a special operator from the southern gryphon colonies with a makeshift team. He is the reason we have the Nighthawks today.”

        “I don’t see where this is going,” Duke said. “I had heard of another human before. How does this relate to you pulling us here?”

        “Like I said, this showed us that it was possible,” Luna said. “When the young man went back home, he joined up with a unit known as the Navy SEALs.”

        The princes paused, and Duke took a moment to process what she just said. He knew the story of the young man in Southeast Asia. There had been rumors of an operator somewhere in SOCOM who eerily matched that kid. He had never believed it before, though.

        “No,” Duke said.

        “The goal was to pull HIM in when HE was tasked with a rescue,” Luna said. “At first, we just wanted someone who could help, but when it failed so badly, we saw the opportunity. We tried to pull strings to have him sent, and it nearly worked, but some difficulties came up, and it ended up being the two of you.”

        “So what you’re telling me,” Duke said slowly. “Is that you screwed up your plan and got an American kidnapped by terrorists. Without a care in the world for him, you tried to get an individual SEAL to come fight your war for you, and by some stupid mistake, you pulled Frost and me?”

        “Yes,” Luna said.

        Duke just stared. “This is unbelievable,” he said. “Frost is dead now because YOU made too many stupid mistakes.”

        “Sister, I believe this is where you come in,” Luna said, her own voice taking on an unhappy tone. “ Why weren’t they sent to the western lands to assault the compound with OGA?”

        “Sister, you of all ponies should understand,” Celestia said. “That chemical weapons cache was too well-protected for even our special operations forces to get into. They lacked the proper gear to execute that mission; that’s why I’ve been having our engineers reverse-engineer the rounds for the men’s weapons.”

        “You could have dealt with it yourself,” Duke said. “Mine and Frost’s presence didn’t make a difference.”

        “Duke, I understand that you are angry-” Celestia tried to say.

        “Like Hell you do!” Duke shouted. Celestia flinched. The gun was still pointing her way.

        “We needed that cache destroyed!” Celestia shouted back. “How many ponies would have died if it hadn’t been taken down?”

        “You say that like I care,” Duke spat.

        “I know you do,” Celestia said.

        “Maybe before,” Duke said. “But now? I couldn’t care less about YOUR subjects, because that’s all they are to you. You use them, like you sought to use OGA, to use that SEAL, despite him actually being your FRIEND, and how you used us.”

        “Duke,” Celestia said.

        “Well, it’s done,” Duke said. “You broke your end of the bargain. Now, you’re going to do the only thing you can.”

        “What’s that?” Celestia asked.

        “Tell me where OGA is, get me there and us back, and send us home,” Duke said. “I’m done helping you. You aren’t done helping me.”

        “Duke, arrangements will be made immediately,” Luna said. “What’s happened here is condemnable, I assure you. Justice will be done.”

        “I’m not interested in justice,” Duke said. “There is none, not in your world, not in mine. I’m just trying to save the few people who are good and kill the bad guys whenever I can.”

        “You can do both of those things,” Luna said. Her horn glowed for a moment. “The Nighthawks are on their way now. You will go with them to the runway, fly to OGA, rescue him, and fly back. A replacement team-”

        “I only need Aprotelese,” Duke said. Luna blinked.

        “Duke, the forces may be considerable,” Luna warned.

        “This is a two-man operation,” Duke said. “I’m down one, I only need one other. Aprotelese is the only one coming.”

        “If you are sure, then very well,” Luna said. “You may go to the runway and await Aprotelese. He should arrive within the hour.”

        Duke turned to walk away, but before he left, he had one last thing to say.

        “I hope it was worth it,” he said coldly. With that, he walked away from the princesses and any role he had in Equestria’s well-being for good.

        When he was gone, Luna turned to Celestia. “You’ve gambled and lost, sister,” Luna said. “How great a loss are you willing to risk?”

        “For my little ponies, I will go to many lengths,” Celestia said. “Though now, I am not so sure what I am willing to do.”

        “I’m taking over this war effort,” Luna said sternly. “I am clearly the more fit one to do this.”

        “Perhaps,” Celestia conceded. “You always have had more of a mind for battle than I.”

        “You always had a mind for peace and harmony,” Luna said. She stood up to leave and prepare for Duke’s last mission in Equestria. “Which is why I’m so disappointed in you.”

        Luna and Celestia both decided to take the fast ways out of the room and teleported to their respective destinations. The guards were in a tizzy over it, as they knew not where Celestia was going. She needed time to ponder her actions and grieve so many losses, and there was only one private place she could do that. Hopefully Luna wouldn’t mind the small intrusion of her quarters.

        Her entire plan had failed from the very start, every aspect. It was a massive loss in the end; one Equestria might not fully recover from. She could only hope that things calmed down soon with Duke’s final assault, or it could spell disaster on a scale even Discord wouldn’t muster up.





combine and/or shorten.  As it is, it breaks the flow a little