Soren the Alicorn Part 3: A True Hero?

by KingNyroc15

The Frozen Army

The Next Day

As the sun slowly rose over the horizon, Soren looked at the Doctor's lab through the bedroom window. In the background, he could hear Rainbow Dash's light breathing while she slept. 'It's amazing that she can sleep so soundly at a time like this, but then again, she doesn't understand,' Soren thought. With a sigh, Soren decided to go down to the tavern for what could possibly be his last drink.

To Soren's surprise, the tavern was empty. One would think a pony would spend their last remaining hours drinking if given the chance. Soren was impressed yet slightly disappointed at this fact but it didn't matter. Sitting at the bar, Soren asked the bartender for two drinks. 'Two drinks to symbolize the fall of an army. What army that is depends on the Doctor at this point.'

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It was two hours before noon and Rainbow Dash couldn't find Soren anywhere. She already looked through two entire floors with no sign of him. Upon giving up on this method, she flew outside to ask the Doctor. As always, the Time Lord was busy at his lab. With two hours left to complete the project, who could blame him for staying here constantly? Rainbow Dash landed far enough away to not get in his way but close enough to speak normally to him.

"Doctor," Rainbow Dash said.

"Yes?" he responded as he ran around the place, trying to finish his work as fast as possible.

"Have you seen Soren?"

"He's probably just preparing for later. Have you tried the tavern or armory?"

"Why would he be in the...? Wait. The armory? Of course! Before I go, can I ask you something?"

"Of course. What is it?"

"You told Soren that he knows what has to be done. Why did he look sad about that? What's going to happen?" The Doctor stopped working. He looked at her and sighed.

"I supposed I could tell you now. I was going to have to tell you anyway if we want to save the Crystal Empire." The Doctor motioned Rainbow Dash to take a seat with him next to a table.

"When the EMP is complete, we are not going to use it here." Rainbow Dash tilted her head. "Let me rephrase: we aren't going to use it on this day. We plan to use it three years in the past; the day you and the TARDIS disappeared. However, there's a catch: everyone in this timeline will no longer exist." Rainbow Dash's eyes widened. "That point in time in the past isn't fixed, so if we prevent this from happening, this Soren, and everyone else, won't exist."

"But what will happen to you?"

"That's an easy one: You and I will be traveling to the past. In other words, we will be the only ponies to remember any of this. So to recap: we take the bomb to the past, you set it off to prevent this future, and Soren and all of the Crystal Empire will never have to experience these things ever again." Rainbow was silent. It was the perfect plan, but could she technically kill off Soren and the entire empire? 'I'll still have my Soren,' she thought. 'He just won't remember any of this.'

"I'll do it," Rainbow answered evenly. The Doctor smiled.

"Great, and don't worry, everything will be fine. You'll see."

"I trust you, Doctor. More than you know."

"Well, find Soren and tell him that the EMP is almost ready. I'll be here until it's finished." Rainbow nodded and flew off towards the armory.

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Soren, Rainbow Dash, Star, and the three ponies from the conference room a few days ago stood at the entrance to the area underneath the castle. They were all waiting for the 'army' that the ice ponies promised. When it was finally noon, the clouds became pitch black and the temperature dropped considerably. Many, if not all, ponies were freezing, but they refused to show it. They simply waited for the army to appear. After minutes passed, snipers sounded off that they can see the army. Within seconds, everypony saw what was coming. There were hundreds, possibly thousands, of ice creatures which ranged from manticores to ponies to horses to wolves and even basilisks. 'The big horses and dragons are new' was Soren's only thought. The Frozen Army stopped about half a mile away from the castle.

There was silence.

Rainbow Dash looked at Soren and Star. Soren had two snipers slung across his back and two daggers holstered on his sides. He was wearing full iron armor that was much nicer than the earlier set she had seen. Star had her trusty pistol, which she was levitating, and a sniper and a dagger, which were holstered on either her sides. Star also had light armor on, which was made of something Dash couldn't name. The rainbow pegasus herself was given two handhelds to try out. She had no practice with these things but then again, there wasn't time.

A single word shattered the silence.

"CHARGE!!!!" Soren shouted to everypony. The countless defenders of the palace opened the gates and charged out of the walled-off area, while the Frozen Army charged to meet them.

Within seconds, the two armies clashed in chaos. Ice was shattering, weapons were flying, and magic was soaring. Soren and Star decided to save their magical weaponry for later since they were busy attacking ice creatures with their daggers. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was in the sky shooting at any and all ice creatures that came within eye sight. She had decent aim, but her elevation made it difficult to produce a strong enough blast to down the beasts in one shot. She flew in closer and soon heard a similar yet more powerful handheld go off. Looking around, she noticed Star using her own weapon. From what Rainbow could see, Star's weapon was probably the strongest pistol. The younger mare managed to take down three creatures with two bullets. Refocusing on the battle, Rainbow Dash turned around just in time to see two griffons flying straight at her. She grinned and unloaded two shots right at them.

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"Getting tired?" Soren panted while running with Star. She shook her head, too focused for words. Both of them were sweating from all of the dodging and levitation they was doing. Soren wished he could use his strongest spells against these creatures, but sadly, too many ponies were too close. Right after they both jumped on top of a manticore and killed it, Soren's armor started beeping.

"Cover me, Star," he commanded as he investigated the noise. An alarm was going off on his right fore-leg. He looked at it and saw the words 'Project: Nova' flashing in red txt on a small screen. Soren chuckled. 'So that's why the Doctor helped to make this. I'm on my way, Doc. Just gotta grab Rainbow Dash.' Soren looked towards Star. She downed another two enemies and looked back. They exchanged a silent conversation, and Star nodded.

"You better come back" were Star's only words as Soren flew into the air.

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Rainbow Dash was starting to be surprisingly good with her weapons. She was becoming more accurate and destroying ice creatures with one shot. To her, it felt like this place was slightly changing her, but she shrugged it off. Rainbow Dash barely saw Soren out of the corner of her eye as he flew towards her. After making sure nothing would attack her, Rainbow flew to meet up with him.

"How are you holding up?" Rainbow Dash asked when the two became close enough.

"I'm still alive, aren't I? Anyway, the Doctor finished Project: Nova, so we have to go meet him." Soren paused. "Did he tell you the result of the spell?" Rainbow simply nodded. Soren put a hoof to her shoulder. "Don't worry about us. It's better this way." The couple then flew off towards the Doctor's lab.

At his lab, the Doctor took one last look at his masterpiece. It was a golden chest piece with a glowing rainbow-colored gem on the front. The Doctor chuckled. 'Rainbow Dash will be wearing Soren's cutie mark just to save everyone.' The Doctor heard wing beats. He turned around and smiled at his arriving friends.

"Glad you two came as soon as possible," said the Doctor. "It's finally finished. Now we just need to take it to the past, set it off, and all of this will never happen." Rainbow Dash nodded, but Soren tilted his head towards the ground.

"What's wrong, Soren?" Rainbow asked. "You said it yourself, it's better this way."

"I know, I know, it's just that...these ponies had lives, even if they were in a hell hole. Some of them had dreams and...love." Soren whispered the last part so Rainbow couldn't hear it. "But I'm just thinking of the present versions of them. Just go set it off so none of us have to go through this." Rainbow could hear the sadness in Soren's voice, but before she could say something, Soren turned away and hurriedly flew back towards the battlefield. Rainbow was about to go after him, but she felt the Doctor stop her.

"Let him go. He has something that he needs to do, and I think it's more important for us to do our part of the plan. After you arrived, the TARDIS came to me. She's in the armory right now so let's go."

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Meanwhile on the battlefield, the Frozen Army was charging at the Crystal Palace nonstop. Ponies were becoming tired and impatient at the possibly never-ending army. Only the leaders of the resistance remained stalwart. Star has never given up in her life, so she wouldn't start now. She assumed that she had destroyed the most monsters by now since Soren left for awhile. Speaking of the alicorn, after Star's umpteenth kill, she heard his wing beats. She's been fighting with him long enough to know the sounds of solely his wings.

"'Bout time you got back," Star stated. She noticed that Soren was a little sad. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he responded. "I just need to find the right time to do something important." Soren paused as he scanned the battlefield. He saw that nothing had changed in the past half hour that the battle has been going on. Absolutely nothing. "This needs to end now."

Soren flew up above the battle so he could see the transition between the two armies. Since there was no definite line, Soren felt bad about his next decision. Using magic, the alicorn created a tall barrier that separated most of the ice army (and some of his own army) from the Crystal Palace and its respective army. Soren was on the side of the Frozen Army when he landed.

"EVERYONE, RETREAT IF YOU CAN!" Soren shouted to his teammates. "I SHALL HANDLE THE REST!" His fellow fighters were hesitant, but they trusted their leader. Soren fended off the ice creatures long enough for the others to pass through an opening in the barrier that Soren created. Once everyone was through, Soren sealed the gap, leaving him to face the Frozen Army alone.

Soren faced the slowly approaching army and sighed. Soren knew that the Doctor's plan was relatively flawless, so he had nothing to lose. It didn't matter if he died here; he was technically going to die anyway. Why not go out with a bang? The beasts seemed to enjoy the idea of a lone alicorn fighting all of them. The red ice pony appeared out of nowhere.

"Foolish alicorn. You dare fight us on your own. You will die within the minute. Once we kill you, we can easily take the castle and destroy your lab!" Soren grinned as the ice creatures growled in amusement. "Before we begin," continued the red ice pony, "I believe your friend has something to say." Soren turned around and saw Star standing very close to the barrier. Soren walked up to her and noticed the extremely cold stare she was giving him.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked evenly with a hint of worry. "You're going to get yourself killed." Although everypony knew that the Doctor could help save the empire, they didn't realize that they would be wiped from this existence, and Soren wasn't about to mention that, even at this moment.

"I owe it to somepony to make sure she doesn't die before me." Star's eyes widened, and Soren teleported her into the Crystal Palace. Soren sighed once again and faced the ice army that was waiting for him to be ready. Soren stood tall as he and the creatures stared at each other. The two forces just waited...then the ice creatures charged first.

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"That bucking alicorn!" Star cursed to herself as she ran through the castle. "I need to get to a sniper's post." She rounded a corner and ran upstairs. She had to run up four flights of stairs before reaching the lowest sniper balcony. 'If those beasts don't kill him, then I will.' After a minute went by, Star finally made it to her destination. One second she was happy that she made it to her destination quickly, then the next she wished she could crawl into bed and forget what she was looking at.

Down below, on the battlefield, was a horrendous sight to almost everypony watching. Soren was indeed fighting off the army but...he was already horribly injured. Star grabbed a nearby sniper and used the scope to look directly at Soren. From what she could see, he had a gash on his forehead near his horn, cuts on his legs and body, and a limp or sprained wing.

Soren was smacked by a manticore, flew back a few meters, and landed with a hard thud. Star saw that he wasn't getting up. 'C'mon, Soren...You can do this.' Star's hope was in vain as two manticores held Soren down, his stomach pushing against the ground. One manticore held down Soren's body while another spread out Soren's wings. The biggest ice pony anyone has seen so far then walked up to Soren. Soren looked at him dead in the eyes then just rested his head on the ground in defeat. The big ice pony smiled as he stood up high on his hind legs. The pony whinnied then slammed down on both of Soren's wings, breaking them both.

The sound alone made Star throw up.

Comments

[Dark_Night]

hmm... i think i require MOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAARR!!!