Very different beneath the surface

by Slick Dash

For Flutt

Dashie bolted into the sky, closely followed by Cloudchaser and Flitt. The speed of the little Cyan Pegasus was phenomenal even after all these years! The three flyers set their sights on the three dark guards who hung in the sky like vultures. Dashie’s sped past them catching their attention, then the two following mare’s slower speed showed the guards they were locals. The three dark Pegasy followed, pulling away from the main battle to pursue the fleeing three.

“Right!” Called AJ as she began to move towards the battle, “We’ll punch a hole, and you gals get your tails movin’ when we do!” and with no further communication. The group silently moved out. A black soldier, clad in the silver armour of the kingdom of Celestia was stood on the side lines, looking for any enemies, the squad of white guards had dwindled down until only the strongest survived. The main assaulting force was no focused on these last survivors, leaving many of the dark furred guards to search the bodies of the fallen to ensure they were dead.

The guard never saw them, he only heard the thunderous hoofsteps of a large group of ponies before he felt something hard and solid collide with the back of his head, just below the lining of his helmet. The guard went down immediately without a fight as the girls and Big Macintosh rushed over him and into the main body of the battle.

Big Mac flexed his left hoof stiffly after the contact with the guards hard head as they rushed on. “You ok?” Asked the hatless AJ who rushed alongside him, forming the point of the attacking force. The red stallion looked behind as he ran, locking gazes with his Stetson wearing little sister behind him. The orange pony gave him an encouraging yet nervous smile, silently saying all that needed to be said. The stallion smiled back and looked ahead as they reached the wall of warring bodies.
“Eeeyup!” He yelled as her brought his forehooves down on an unsuspecting enemy’s back.

..........................

“Yeeeaaarrggghhh!” The black armoured commander thrust his horn hard, skimming Shining Armours cheek by centimetres. The captain countered with a point blank range blast of energy from his horn. The shot hit the commander squarely in the face. The shot sent him reeling backwards, skidding several feet across the floor. When he stood, a singed red mark was left on his face. With smoke still rising from the injury, the commander charged again without hesitation, a mad gleam in his eyes at the prospect of a challenge.

“Finally!” The black clad unicorn screamed, as his horn clashed against Armours with a hail of sparks as the result. “A challenge!” Another smash, and another shower of sparks. “All I’ve ever wanted!” SMASH “IS!” SMASH “A CHALLENGE!” With each clash of their horns, the dark Shining Armour grew more frantic, more excited and more vicious with his swings of his sharpened horn. Finally on his final word, he brought his horn down and smashed his lighter double’s horn away and brought it inches to his skull.

The captain moved fast in his moment of desperation, resorting to a dirty move, he kicked his buckling hind leg out, smashing it into the other stallions foreleg. With a cry of anguish, the black armoured stallion fell to the side in pain. Through his injuries and aching bones, the captain brought himself back up. His back screamed in agony, as did the muscles of his neck from swinging his head with such force. The captain stood panting, desperately trying to pull some air into his frantic lungs.

“Hehehehh.” The other Shining Armour stood once again, tenderly testing his foreleg after his fight. With a yell of pain he pulled his leg back up as it made contact with the ground. “Besides basic training, I’ve never had a broken bone in my life!” Laughed the black armoured warrior. He threw his head back and screamed with ecstasy and laughter, “This is wonderful! Finally! I thought chasing down those little bitches would be boring, but this!” His head snapped back to stare at Shining Armour “This is what I’ve waited for, this is what I’ve lived for all my life!”

Armour couldn’t help himself, he had to know. “How?” He asked, taking a step towards his enemy. “HOW?” He repeated, loud enough to top the noise of the dwindling battle. “How could you be like this? What could have possibly happened, to turn me...” He stared at the stallion before him, looking at the countless scars, the manic smile and the twisted gleam that lay behind his eyes. “Into you?” the captain finished.

From behind, Armour heard a commotion, different from the usual screams of battle, it sounded like a push, a final push by some unknown group as they charged in. The captain took his eyes off the commander, and looked behind. He saw several of the black stallion soldiers of the empress fall beneath the hooves of the huge Big Macintosh, and another few fall to what seemed to be Applejack. As the two fighters punched a gap into the wall of soldiers, Armour saw her.

His little sister, Twilight was running, through the countless enemies, and towards the other side of the battle field. Her determined frown told the stallion that his little sister had a plan, forgetting himself, and forgetting his situation, Armour smiled at the sight of his sister. His mistake was costly. In the moment of his opponent’s distraction, the other Shining Armour had approached slowly. He lunged for the local Armour’s throat.

Shining Armour turned back just in time to see a sharpened horn tip soaring for his neck. He let out a cry of fear as he stared into those maddened eyes, unable to move from shock.

.........................

The cry chilled Twilight to the bone, her ears pricked up immediately and her hooves grinded to a halt. She searched frantically through the battling bodies to find the source of the scream, she knew it far too well, and the noise seemed to crush her very soul.

“Twilight Come on!” Shouted Rainbow who now zipped past her through the air towards the battling Celestia’s.
“Big brother...” Twilight whispered in fear. Searching frantically still unable to find him.
“What’s wrong Twilight?” Asked Pinkie who had caught up with the unicorn.
“Sh-Shining Armour...I heard...” There! A gap in the fighting showed Twilight what was happening. A unicorn soldier, clad all in black was standing over her brothers struggling body. The enemy’s sharpened horn was mere millimetres from the flesh of Armour’s throat, but her big brother was fighting valiantly, using all his strength he was pushing the hulking body of his assailant away with his forehooves as he lay on his back.

Twilight took a step towards him, but was met by a large red furred hoof. She looked up into a pair of big green eyes. “Go on, keep goin’ I’ll go help.” Twilight looked back to her struggling brother, yes Big Mac would be the logical choice to help Armour, but this was Twilight’s brother! Logic had nothing to do with this.
“Twilight! Darling! Whats keeping you?” Asked a panicked Rarity. Twilight glanced over her shoulder to see her friends slowly being penned in by a group of black and silver soldiers. Twilight looked back to Mac.
“Go.” He said, and charged after the two battling unicorns, leaving Twilight with only one choice.
With worry in her heart, Twilight reared back, then charged forward Using her magic as best she could, she created a small bubble around herself. The strength of the barrier, and the speed of her canter combined to create a bowling ball effect, which knocked the silver clag warriors down and cleared the way for the friends to make the last push to empress Celestia.

.................................

Spike flew through the air, screaming as he did so. With a loud crash, he landed harshly in a bush outside one of the houses on the outskirts of town. Spike had lured Draig out here for a reason, that way if the brute used fire again, there was less chance of it causing as much chaos for the ponies he knew were hiding within the many thatched houses. However, his pursuit of the slim dragon had made Draig furious. So now the savage brute was flinging the smaller dragon around like a rag doll.

“DRAGON!” Cried a familiar voice. So shocked were the two reptiles at the sound of another voice, they stopped and gazed at the approaching unicorns. Spike recognised one as the DJ Vinyl Scratch, and the other was one of the Twilights, but he wasn’t sure which one. “Dragon...” Repeated the magenta pony, showing she didn’t know his name. Twi.

“We’re here to help.”Spike opened his mouth to speak, but in the corner of his eye he saw the hulking Draig charge.
“MOVE!” He cried as he pushed the two unicorns away, throwing himself in the line of fire. Draig sent him soaring through the air, and with an agonising crack, ploughed into the side of the house. Spike fell to the floor hard and skidded to the hooves of the two unicorns he had saved.
“You alright?” Asked Vinyl as she helped Spike to his feet.
“Yeah I’m- Eeeaarrrgh!” The dragon collapsed to his knees clutching his stomach. With a gut wrenching cough, he spewed out a mouthful of blood onto the gleaming grass.

“You’re hurt!” Cried Twi in worry. She rushed to help the dragon up, but was pushed aside as the dragon pulled himself to his feet.
“I’m fine.” He said, wincing as he did. “I need... to keep going! I almost have him!” He took a step forward and teetered for a moment, Vinyl and Twi grabbed him and held him steady.
“You’re on the ropes man! You’ve got nothing left!” Protested Vinyl, trying to convince the local dragon to stop.
“NO!” He yelled, pushing back towards the cloud of smoke and dust that was the house that had stood there only moments ago. “I NEED TO... TO... MAKE... AMENDS!” He staggered on, back to the growing growl as Draig came to.

“For what?!?” Cried Twi, running in front of the dragon and blocking his path. “What’s so important that you need to keep fighting until you die?” The dragon looked surprised.
“B-But you come from a place where...”
“Yeah! A place where nearly everyone dies for no reason! I don’t want to this place be the same!” Cried Twi heartbrokenly. Tears threatened to fall from her beautiful violet eyes, they were just like Twilight’s.

“B-but I...I told...Flutter-Flutt to...” The dragon seemed lost. Twi frowned, blinking back the tears.
“What? You told Flutt what?” The dragon seemed to bite back some tears of his own.
“I told her to leave, that you all ruined everything. That... that it was your fault...” Twi’s eyes grew wide with surprise, this was the first being in this world that she had met who hadn’t been downright hospitable to her and her friends, and yet here he was fighting a losing battle to protect them.
“Make amends...” She whispered. The dragon nodded.
“You were running, you were scared, and because of my own mistakes, I caused problems that I then blamed on all of you.” The tears of disgust began to fall from his eyes now. “A-and now Flutt’s... dead... I saw her body as I was fighting... I... I never said...” He stood tall, suddenly focusing on a spot just over Twi’s head. “I need to do this... to make amends.”

The dragon began to move, he walked around Twi and continued towards the demolished wall of the house. From inside a series of grunts and roars proved Draig was back to his angry self and was ready for round two. Not that Spike had really won round one. “Let us help man!” Shouted Vinyl, catching up to the dragon as he made his way back.
“How could you?” Asked Spike coldly. “I’m probably gonna die here, or at least get injured beyond repair. So if I can’t beat him, a dragon! What can you two unicorns do?”
“Well we have magic!” Suggested Twi, “Have you seen any kind of weakness? Anything we could exploit.” Spike stopped, realisation taking over, his stomach began to feel warm at the idea.

“I’ve got it!”

..............................

“Chaser! Behind you!” Screamed Dashie over the rushing wind. Cloudchaser glanced behind to see two of the three guards gaining fast.
“What do I do?” Asked the spiky mane’d Pegasus, rounding around in a sharp circle, hoping to gain some distance, to little effect. Dashie glanced over at Flitt, who had the other guard on her tail, literally, the black Pegasus was centimetres away from grabbing the slower mare’s tail with his teeth. ‘Ok then’ said a little voice inside Dashie’s head, it sounded so much like Flutt. ‘These scumbags whant to fly? We’ll make them fly!’

Dashie arched into the sky, allowing her two fellow flyers and their pursuers to pass beneath her. Dashie bent her back, looping completely until her stomach was parallel to the floor once again. Flutt would have been proud. Now pursuing the group of Pegasy, Dashie aimed for the one behind Flitt. The dark stallion’s teeth were nearly on Flitt now. Dashie soared slightly higher than the two, then pointing her body like a bullet, she streamed into the large dark Pegasus and pushed him several feet down in the air. Still on his back, Dashie took hold of his wings, stopping him from changing their direction, using her own to keep them in the air; she tilted him towards the lower pursuit beneath them. with a burst of speed and a hard kick of her hind legs, Dashie sent her prisoner flying straight into his two comrades, resulting in a giant painful heap on the ground.

The other two Pegasy stopped and backtracked to Dashie. “WOW!” Shouted Flitt in amazement.
“That was amazing! Even Rainbow Dash probably couldn’t do that!” Dashie frowned at the compliment. Inside her head, the voice like Flutt’s gave a small and encouraging cheer. ‘THAT’S MY GIRL!’

Without a moment’s hesitation, Dashie turned back towards the town centre. “C’mon! We need to keep the others safe!” And with that the three headed back for town.

.......................

“Who’s the little cunt you were looking at there huh?” Laughed the manic Black Armour. His smile fast turning in to a snarl. On the outside he was ecstatic, but inside his mind he was terrified. No matter what he did, this bastard could stop him and counter. He had wanted a challenge, not to meet his match! So now he set out to defeat the stallion in a different way, distract him, and then the battle was over! “She’s pretty! Maybe I’ll ask the empress not to flay her when we win. Or at least not that face, that’s all I need anyway!”

“NO!” Cried Shining Armour, sickened at the insidious mocking of the stallion above him. That was his sister! Even in his world, Twily would be his sister! So how dare he say such disgusting, sickening and repulsive things! Armour realised his stray thoughts had lost him all the ground he had fought to gain, the other stallion’s horn was now just grazing his throat. Any second now, Armour would feel it puncture his flesh and then it would all be over. The last thing he would see was this insane stallion’s horrible smile, the last he would was his spit spewing onto Armours face in his frenzied gasps of breath through his gritted teeth, not the loving touch of his sister, or of his wife back in Canterlotte.

With a blur of red, the stallion was thrown from above Shining Armour with a startled yell. Armour bolted to his hooves to find the enemy crumpled on the ground with the stallion Big Macintosh stood above him. Though crippled from the brutal impact of the large work pony, the black clad stallion gave out a forced and pained laugh. “Not got it in you to beat me yourself? Gotta bring in the prick who I hunted down back in my world huh?” He tried to stand again, “Not...” His forelegs buckled. “Strong enough?” He gasped as his muzzled crumpled against the dirt floor.

“You sicken me.” Armour said, turning away from the vicious double.
“DON’T TURN YOU BACK ON ME!” The dark stallion screamed! “I didn’t come all this way to be beaten by a lame ass prick that can’t even finish a fight!”
“Finish it?!” Armour screamed, turning back and charging towards the other shining Armour hatefully. Thrusting his horn between the eyes of the floored stallion so he could see the tip and how perilously close it was to his face. “Should I finish it now? Blast you away with no chance of survival? Should I stoop to your disgusting level?” Armour screamed angrily.

The black clad unicorn was speechless. “SHOULD I?!” Armour asked again, expecting the coward to back down.
“Maybe you should.” And with that, the stallion spat at the captain. The specks of saliva spattered his muzzle, and boiled his blood. “If you don’t. I will! And then I’ll kill your men, and your friends. And then finally I’ll skull fuck that purple whore of yours!” With a cry of rage, Shining Armour lost it. With a blast of purple light that erupted from the tip of his horn, the two were engulfed from sight.
“NO!” Cried Big Mac, too late to stop the unicorn captain.

When the light lessened, and the scene came back into focus, Shining Armour could be seen, panting over the smoking body of his double, a facial expression of both fury and agony etched across every inch of his muzzle. His eyes were filled with tears of disbelief and self hate. How could he have just done that? Even after all he had said and done?

“The commander!” Cried a nearby black stallion. Turning onto the two standing local stallions. Big Mac pushed up against Shining Armour, preparing to cover his back from any attacker, as more and more of the black guards saw one of their strongest had fallen. “You ok?” The red earth pony asked of the unicorn captain.
“I-I- I can’t believe I...” Armour stuttered out bleakly. Staring at the body at his feet.
“I’m sorry partner but we got bigger apple’s to fry!” Macintosh said as the swarm of guards began to approach.

.....................

Lying on the floor, with his body failing, and his flesh singed and burning was the commander of the army’s of the kingdom Celestia. He gazed up through almost what seemed like a tinted and fogged glass. He saw the shapes of the two that had defeated him slowly back away followed by far darker shapes. What terrible creatures those dark warriors seemed like now.

Was it his proximity to the shades of death that opened his eyes? Or was it simply that he now saw them for what they were by some divine joke? Only when he lay there broken and dying would he see them for what they are.

How had this come to be? How had he failed? ‘Again.’ The word rang through his mind. Had this been the first time? No, there was something else. He had failed someone before, but who. In his last moments, he searched with all his power for a name, but none came, so he looked for a face. Delving into the archives of his mind, he searched restlessly, knowing that time was not on his side, he needed to know! To know now, or to forever lay in torment. Who had he failed.

A dark day, the clouds are tinted with a Hugh of red as lightening forks across the sky. The stench of burning wood and hay fill his nostrils. Two unicorns lie before his hooves. There blood drenches his hooves as he stands by his parent’s bodies. Had he failed them? No. They weren’t the ones. The memories continue, and the young stallion runs to a small shack. The safe house, surely it’s safe? No, it burns like all the other houses!

She’s in there! She must be in there! He dives in, ploughing through the burning planks that collapse around him. They scratch and burn his face, but he continues on. Only when he’s in the centre of the demolished shack does he hear it. “BIG BROTHER!” He barges through the flimsy wall, and the small house collapses behind him. He bights through the burning pain, and the stinging smoke in his nostrils and searches with tear filled eyes. He spots her.

A magenta unicorn filly. Carried away in a cage, along with six other small unicorns. One with a long shimmering purple mane and filthy white coat, she sits next to the magenta filly and puts a hoof on her shoulder. “NO!” he screams, running after the leaving cage. He trips on something, falling in a heap of pain to the scorched ground below. When he looks up again, he sees her small terror filled eyes vanish over the ridge of the hill.

Hoofsteps behind him. He turns. Looking into the eyes of the empress. They gleam in the glow of the embers all around, the smoke rises and combines with the substance of her mane and tail, making them larger and more dense. She’s a monster, a terrible reaper of death a destruction. She bends down. Lowering her horn to his temple. “A lot of spirit, we’ll need to break that first! Then, maybe you’ll be of use to me.” Her tip glows, as she places it to his temple.

He gasps, staring up at the blue sky above him now. Blue, he like the sky being blue, red was too angry, to dark, blue was...nice. The black armoured stallion gave a few more rasping breaths. Knowing now, his greatest failure. His failure to protect her, his failure to stick to his parents ideals and becoming some blood drunk monster. His failure, to his sister. “Twily...” He rasps, drawing in one last breath. How could he let himself forget her, his sister, his reason for life, his one...and...only... His eyes freeze over, and his mind fades leaving only and empty husk on the battle scortched earth.

Comments

[Slick Dash]

apologies for the lateness, been working hard at this to make it the best it can be, always wanted to do a big battle sequence, so whant to milk it for all it's worth. hope you're all enjoying it still!

[CSpud]

welp looks like Evil Armour wasn't so evil after all.

[Thespurgin]

Okay... NOW I feel angrier than fluttershy with the stare on max.

Also, one compliant. You have been using harsher language, and while that's probably justified, IDK if it's the best option. Just a random thought there.