Battle Ready

by D101 Reviews

Chapter Eleven: Close Encounters

Chapter Eleven: Close Encounters

"It's a deaths spell for Luna's sake! I didn't even think that ind of magic was real, and now I find out one of my friends has a book full of them? I mean, what am I supposed to do?"

Zecora nodded slowly as Twilight paced around her hut. She had gone to the zebra for two major reasons. One, Zecora didn't know Battle, and so her opinions on him knowing a series of death spells would not be biased. Two, Zecora wasn't as judgmental as other ponies, and so her opinion would most likely be a clearer and simpler one.

"As your thoughts are so clearly impaired, I must ask you what makes you scared? If it were some other pony would you still care? Or is it only he, to which you are unfair?"

"Unfair?" Twilight cried rounding on her friend. "He knows how to kill using his magic! I think that warrants some suspicion, especially since he kept this a secret under my nose!"

"Appearances can be deceiving dear Twilight," Zecora said mystically. "Remember Princess Luna on Nightmare Night? She was feared, alone and sad, while every pony thought she was still bad. Or perhaps you forget when we first met? If not for you, ponies would fear me yet."

"I don't see how any of this has anything to do with Battle," Twilight sighed.

"What you see Twilight Sparkle you assume to be evil. But tell me has Battle Ready given you reason, to be treated ill? Can you think of anything he has done or said, that would make you believe he'd use this spell of death?"

Twilight paused and began to think. Battle hadn't yet given her a reason to be afraid of him. In fact he was the most out of the way of all of her friends. He was helpful, kind and charming, but also distant... melancholy... He never told them where he came from or what his life was like before. Like his past was somehow painful.

"All I can say is... I think he's hurting," Twilight said simply. "I think he's in some kind of pain... like whatever it is he came here for is haunting him."

"This I can understand, truly I can," Zecora said. "But does alone this warrant your fear? Or is there something else, you must clear?"

Twilight sighed and sat down. She pressed her head into her hands and rubbed her eyes.

"I just want to understand him a little bit more," she said at last. "He's so distant, but so nice and... and..."

Twilight looked at Zecora.

"I think I'm falling for him."

Zecora raised an eyebrow.

"And this is a bad thing because? After all, love does, what love does."

"That's just the thing," Twilight muttered, tracing her finger on the table-top. "I don't think he loves me..."

---

He wasn't used to this. Battle kicked an empty drinks can down the corridor and planted her head against the wall, groaning to himself. There were things he could deal with. Pain was one of them. Pain was one of the few things that Battle expected and anticipated. It wasn't as though pain was pleasant in any way, Battle just knew it would arrive sooner or later.

Guilt, that was something Battle was finding harder to deal with. It was a constant pain that throbbed and burned every inch of his insides. It wasn't something he could get used to, and it wasn't something that would go away anytime soon.

But now this? Battle growled at himself. He was a fighter for Celestia's sake... not a lover.

"What in the hay is it about her?" Battle grunted to himself as he sat down behind his desk again, head in hands, grasping at his hair. Sure once upon a time he had thought of her as cute, and when he finally got to know her he thought of her as pretty. When did his passive interest in Twilight begin to grow into something much more potent?

Pain he could understand. Guilt he could barely just handle. Love? This was new, unfamiliar territory for him.

He was almost thankful when he heard a crash from above him. He got swiftly to his feet, running through the now familiar motions up to the intensive care ward. He needed to get his mind off of the lavender princess.

---

Twilight wandered through the darkened streets of Ponyville. She debated on speaking with one of her other friends about her realization at Zecora's but she was confused enough as it was. She didn't need Rarity or Rainbow Dash or Applejack trying to tell her what to do about it. She sighed, imagining what sort of things the girls might say.

You're a Princess, darling. If Battle refuses your advances I think it would be fair to assume he's playing for the other team, if you catch my meaning. Yes that would be Rarity's response.

Listen sugar-cube, if he don't say yes when ya'll ask him on a date, then he ain't worth the time of day. Applejack's advice no doubt.

Pffft, forget about it Twilight. Let him come to you, that's what I say. And if he doesn't, I'll convince him for ya, how 'bout that? That definitely sounded like something Dash would say.

She sighed. Even in her head her friends were being more confusing than helpful. She wanted so desperately to seek their advice on this matter, but she knew that if she did ask their opinion she would be left in a worse position than she was right now.

A few drops of rain began to fall onto Twilight's face. She sighed. Maybe she should just go back to the library.

---

Battle slid down the bark of the library wall, panting, his face twisted into a grimace of distaste. He was beginning to regret asking for a distraction now. That distraction had come in the place of two possessed ponies.

He sighed. Back home he would have had another pony watching his back, someone to keep track of one problem while he hunted the other. But he wasn't back home. He didn't have anypony to watch his back. In Ponyville, he was pretty much alone.

A shadow caught his eye dashing over the rooftop nearby. Battle leaned forward and raced across the street after it.

Almost alone.

---

Twilight saw something move in the alleyway beside her. Her horn glowed with purple light as she tried to penetrate the darkness. There was a quiet whimper and some scuffling sounds, as whatever was in the shadows retreated deeper into the alleyway. Twilight frowned and followed whatever it was. Some tiny voice in the back of her mind was screaming at her that this was dangerous, that she should turn and run and let somepony else handle it. But would Twilight listen?

She crept deeper into the darkness, looking slowly from either side of the alleyway. A few old and empty barrels stood in a stack on one side. A stagnant horse-trough filled with old and filthy water lay unused a little further on. And still Twilight had not reached whatever was making that shuffling, whimpering noise.

The little voice at the back of Twilight's head was screaming louder than ever, telling her to turn and run the other way. This was dangerous, it said to her. Yet still she ignored the voice in the back of her head. Morbid curiosity had consumed her and left her compelled to find out just what was going on.

"Is anypony there?" Twilight asked softly.

As she spoke, her light reached the back wall of the alley and a nightmare greeted her eyes.

A monster stood before her, hunched over what she could only assume was the remains of its pony victim. The less she looked at the blood spattered mess and gore the better in Twilight's opinion, but she also didn't want to look at the beast that did it. A hulking brute of a creature, with obscene and distorted muscles. Its body was covered in twisting, moving black markings and a patchwork of acidic green blood-vessels. Its skin had split in between its knuckles, yielding long, pointed blades of bone and great spurts of steaming green blood.

Twilight took several hurried steps back before tripping over something behind her. She landed heavily on her rump, before she tried to scrabble away, moving backwards from the thing. The monster however had noticed her, and turned to face Twilight with large, booming steps. Twilight however had inadvertently backed herself up against the stack of barrels. She gulped and looked over her shoulder, realizing she was trapped. She looked back up at the monster as he took another booming step towards her. Twilight blanched as she screwed up her eyes, trying to think of a spell that could help her.

Her mind however was blank. Every spell she had ever learnt, every incantation had just flown right out of her head. Even something as simply as levitation had disappeared. She was alone, defenseless and without magic, facing perhaps the most fearsome creature she had ever seen that wanted perhaps nothing more than to see Twilight rendered to the same state as the pony behind it.

The horror and terror of the situation came crashing down on Twilight. She opened her mouth and screamed. A true scream, one of pure terror that could only be produced by someone who knew they were staring down their death.

The beast's distorted mouth twisted in what Twilight could approximate as a grin, and that served to make Twilight scream even louder than before.

She didn't know what to do. She had no ideas, no plans and no conceivable way to defend herself... She was going to die...

The creature lunged suddenly, with a speed Twilight would have thought impossible. Twilight screamed again and rolled out of the way, getting clumsily to her feet. She began to run unsteadily away from the monster, eyes filling with desperate tears. The monster behind her roared with such a power that Twilight lost her balance and landed painfully on the ground. She looked backwards, petrified as she saw the beast lumbering towards her, clawed hand raised to cut her to ribbons.

She closed her eyes and sobbed, waiting for the monster to reach her.

Something moved swiftly over her. There was a cry of mutual pain from the monster and whatever had collided with it. Twilight opened her eyes and looked up. Where the monster had been there was now a tangle of limbs as another, more spindly creature was now tangled in the larger's grasp. It took Twilight a moment to realize she had been holding her breath and took this time to suck in a deep breath of night air.

A breath that came out almost instantly in a short shriek as she felt a hand clasp her shoulder.

"Hey, calm down!" a voice cried as she wriggled away from the grip on her shoulder. She turned around and saw a hunched figure, black against the night, silver eyes glowing at her. Twilight opened her mouth to scream when the figure's other hand came to her face and covered her mouth.

"It's me, Twilight!" hissed the figure, his horn glowing to shed light on the two. Battle's face loomed into view, looking even more weary than usual.

Twilight stopped struggling. Instead she threw herself at Battle, wrapping her arms tightly around her friend and sobbing hysterically. Battle put his arms awkwardly around Twilight and began to pat her back. The tender moment was ruing when Battle pushed Twilight aside and back-flipped as something flew at the space where they had just been. Battle landed on his feet as he stared down the two monsters, the larger of the two already grabbing another barrel to throw at him, the second, spindly one crouched and ready to run at Battle.

It was clear to Battle that these two were beyond saving.

He rolled his neck, his tense and weary body relaxing. All the aches and pains seemed to dissipate as he focused on the one thing he was born to do. Kick some flank.

The hulk threw his barrel, but Battle was ready for it this time. His hand shot out, surrounded in silver light and the barrel exploded at his touch. The splinters and fragments that would have cut or damaged Battle's face on hands evaporated into something less than dust against a mysterious silver barrier that appeared.

Not giving either of his opponents an inch, Battle dashed forwards, moving with a speed Twilight was sure would make Rainbow Dash green with envy. Battle leaped into the air, delivering a punch to the head of the hulking creature that Twilight was sure would have taken the cranium off of any other living being. As it was the monster merely roared and stumbled backwards, blinded by pain.

Dropping in a cat-like crouch Battle ducked a swipe from the spindly creature ad thrust his own hand out, sending the creature backwards with a blast of light. Twilight had never seen a pony do the things Battle was doing He was using such simple spells in such a fluid, ruthless manner. It was like he was some form of well-oiled machine. Controlled movements, rapid attacks, unyielding strength. The qualities of a near-perfect warrior. From watching the way Battle was now pulverizing the two monsters Twilight now knew what his Cutie Mark represented.

It was the mark, of a violent guardian. A soldier.

Twilight's revere was cut short when Battle was lifted bodily off the ground and thrown down the alley and past her, landing in a heap on the floor. Her concern for his well-being was short lived, replaced by admiration as Battle returned almost instantly to his feet. He rolled his head on his shoulders for a moment or two before his horn flashed and something small appeared in his hand.

A dagger. A foot-long blade that seemed to draw in all the light. Even from her current distance she could see the words engraved into the blade.

Victorium Omnibus Modis.

Victory at all costs.

Battle raced down the alley again, jumping and kicking off from the wall. He flipped like a gymnast and landed behind the two creatures, his blade slashing at the back of the larger one's leg. He roared and dropped to one knee as Battle leaped over a strike from the other creature and landed on the hulking beast's shoulder.

"Open wide," he snarled, driving the blade down the creature's throat. The monster gargled around the metal, green blood bubbling up from his slashed throat. Battle didn't waste time, instead removing the blade and drawing a deep, savage cut across the creature's throat. The monster spluttered before he began to teeter forwards. Battle slid off from his shoulder and with barely a glance, rammed the blade into the heart of the other monster.

With in a moment, both creatures were on the floor, blood oozing from their wounds as the life seeped out of them. Battle turned from the carnage he had wrought, silver flames leaping into life, consuming the bodies almost instantly. As Battle stepped away from his work, his weariness seemed to return. He walked up to Twilight and sat down beside her.

"I suppose I owe you some answers," he said quietly.

Twilight nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

"Well... what do you want to know?"

Twilight gulped and looked at him sternly.

"First and foremost," she said sharply, "I want to know this: Who are you?"

Battle twirled his dagger in his hand before replying.

"I am Battle Ready, Commander in Chief of the armies of Warhorse and heir to its throne and its empire as its prince."