Skeletons of the Past

by Sturrn

Into the Maelstrom of Battle

Chapter Seven
Into the Maelstrom of Battle

This Chapter is pending a re-write.

I entered my dreamless void once more, content to wait for the slideshow of memories to begin in earnest. My anticipation was rewarded shortly, far off in the black distance a flash of memory came forth. I wasn’t going to waste any time picking a memory so I just stuck my claw out and grabbed the shimmering screen as it came by. The glimpse of the memory that I saw before touching it was interesting. The whole thing was a series of fights Rorke was in. ‘Maybe I’ll learn where he got his knack for fighting.’

An eternity passed before I opened my eyes once more, but the location was different from last time I recounted his memories. I noticed a few things right away. One, Rorke was just waking up, and the first thing to catch my eye was a very female anubite that had managed ensnare his chest in a vice grip of sleep cuddling. The second thing I noticed was really weird. The bed looked like a modern bed setup, somehow a civilisation that was behind the present by thousands of years had acquired the knowledge of coiled spring mattresses.

However to top it all off the same dog that was with Rorke last time, was looking at him through a partially opened doorway. He looked ragged and anxious, like he need to speak immediately. Rorke looked up at him and took notice of his state. “Solaron? Why are you in the priestess’ house? What do you need this urgently?”

Solaron spoke fast and incoherently but somehow my body’s last owner seemed to understand it. “Can you go a little slower my friend? I didn’t quite get all that.” Or he didn’t but can I blame him, not really. “I said Rorke wake up...” ‘I swear to whatever dead anubite priests swear to, if I wake and can’t retrieve this memory I’m going to be pissed, and the pony who woke me up is getting a claw to the eye.’

Unfortunately that was the case however. The dream started to peel away like wallpaper revealing the black void of the dreamscape. Once every bit of what could have been historical context was ripped away my eyes opened. How does someone without eyes or eyelids open their eyes? I’m not entirely sure but it works like this. I wake up and my eyes open after that I never blink and they only close when I attempt to sleep.

A sweet voice like dripping honey on sugar cookies spoke. “Please wake up Rorke, we have much to speak of.” I turned my skull toward the sleeping time offender while my right claw launched like a missile toward their face. Rather bad luck though. The offender was none other than Princess Celestia and my claw was still rocketing toward her eye. I wretched my arm back, stopping the bone knives I call my fingers mere centimeters from her right eye. ‘She doesn’t even have a hint of fear in her eyes. That’s impressive but considering the fact that she could bring the power of the sun down to earth I wouldn’t fear much either.’

“I’m glad my face can remain intact another day, this is almost reason to celebrate.” She said with a genuine smile of no ill intent as I brought my claw away from her face. “I was joking about the celebration but I did bring an old friend a present. Maybe in hopes that you would help me with a project tomorrow.” She fluttered her eyelashes at me like one would expect Rarity to do.

I sighed “Well let me get out of bed and put my gear on. Are there any guard in here or coming in?”

“No, nopony is in here and I’ll put up a barrier while you change into your “gear”.” She rose her hooves up in air quotes. Her horn gave off a light for a moment as I brought my body away from the bunk before it resumed its’ normal white unglowing appearance.

I decided to tease the alicorn a bit, seeing as I’m at least for the moment a free person. “Now princess, don’t look while I change. Wouldn’t want you to see something you couldn’t unsee.” I started taking off my robe as she spoke. “Oh but Rorke, I truly enjoyed your little strip show yesterday in court. I think I dreamt about it last night with all that excitement.” ‘Wait what did she say? Not the strip show part, yesterday?’

I continued reassembling my apparel into satisfactory condition as I questioned her. “Princess, what do you mean yesterday? How long was I sleeping?”

“We tried to wake you several time but according to Captain Lash, you were down for at least eighteen hours. It’s currently nine thirty two Canterlot time.”

“That’s weird, but not entirely unheard of to sleep that long, it was a stressful day to say the least.” I finished putting on my armor and only needed my gauntlet and weapons then I would be done. “Does the whole castle know about me yet or just the guard?”

She grimaced but relaxed just as quick. “I swore the solar guard to personal secrecy and that it would be viewed as a personal offence for them to reveal your skeletal nature to those outside of the guard. Seeing as Pvt. Auburn was part of the Lunar Guard, my sister also had to tell her guard, even though none of them knew. So no, no one beyond my sister and I as well as the Solar, Lunar, and the three branches of the Royal Guard.”

“I thought it was weird that there was a Solar, Lunar, and Royal Guard. Would you mind explaining that a bit?”

She gave a calming smile that reeked of serenity. “Of course, it can be rather confusing to those outside of the guard. First there is the Solar Guard, they are the daytime police force for Canterlot and handle daily patrols in the city. The Lunar Guard handle the same work just simply at night.”

‘That made sense, I can at least keep up to that point.’ “Ok, I’m with you so far. What is unique about the Royal Guard that confuses people?”

“The Royal Guard is split up into three sections for each race of pony. You being human probably already know about Captain Shining Armor, do you not?” I nodded as we stood in the middle of the barracks. “Good, he is considered the Captain of the Royal Guard in actuality he only leads the unicorns segment. Captain Barricade Shy leads the pegasi and Captain Harbinger Doom leads the earth ponies. Together they make up the Royal Guard and they are the ones who are responsible for the defence of the castle and would be the first ones into any battle Equestria finds itself in. Any questions so far?”

“Yes but not really about the guard, would Captain Barricade happen to have any relation to Fluttershy?” She nodded. “I’m guessing... mother?”

She gave me a calm smile. “You would be correct, but how did you know? Barricade could be a stallion or mares name.” ‘Time to flash a little thought process... even if I did just guess.’

“To guess that her father was in the guard would seem a little obvious, especially considering the female to male ratio. She probably gets her eternal shyness from her father correct?”

“You would be correct in that assumption.” She said. “Though I have yet to meet her father, apparently meeting me gets him so nervous he can’t follow through. Quite a shame really, I would enjoy meeting him. Is that all?”

I searched my mind for another question and a couple rose up. “So you made Sturrn the daytime equivalent of police chief for Canterlot? Wasn’t there already a Solar Guard Captain, and wouldn’t there be a lot of paperwork or something?”

She had this little self approving smirk on that told me she bent the rules on that one a bit. “You would be amazed how much red tape can be cut simply by being a princess. To answer your question though, no there wasn’t one before him for approximately three months. No other good prospects came up, so I put them all under the command of Shining Armor.”

‘That pretty much sums that up. She said something about a present earlier though, and it isn’t even my birthday.’ “You can lower the barrier now princess, I’ve been decent for a while.” She blushed slightly and the visible twinge of magic on the door down the hall left. “It seems I was swept up in the conversation, you are really a most inquisitive human.”

I stared at her with what I hope was exasperation. Not having eyes or any facial muscles to speak of can make it hard to express emotions through visual aspects. Having my face totally obscured by cloth doesn’t help either. She looked at my cold stare, and it seems she understood that even with my short stay in this body I can no longer consider myself human and being labeled as such feels wrong.

“I-I’m sorry Rorke, excuse me I shouldn’t stutter. You don’t seem to appreciate being called a human, would you like to be called an anubite or something else?” She said

“I would like to be called an anubite, being called a human seems a little disrespectful to my predecessor. Enough of that though, you said you had a present earlier if I help you with a project?”

The glimmer in her eyes was there. “Yes, but first we might want to go to another more suitable location. What do you think of the castle dining hall?” I nodded. “Excellent, I’ll teleport us there right now.” Her overly long horn sparked up with a bright light and we were standing next to a dining room table fit for two. We both sat down as she began. “I’m glad that you can’t be affected by teleportation sickness, it can be rather messy to clean up.”

Did I even want to guess what teleportation sickness did to someone? Probably not, it most likely involved the evacuation of one’s lunch from their stomach. I spoke in a whisper so as not to alert anyone. “Yes well being dead does have some benefits. No pain, fatigue, or biological functions. Good or bad they’re all gone.”

She stared intently at me but her gaze was lower than my face. I looked down and saw that there were plenty of gashes in my robe. All of them were revealing bones and areas that would usually be occupied by internal organs. “Princess-” She interrupted quickly but in a calm way. “Actually Rorke, you may just call me Celestia or...” She had the faintest of blushes on her muzzle. “Tia if you want, it’s up to your discretion. Just don’t say it in front of other ponies.”

“Okay Tia, can you work a bit of magic and fix my robe? I don’t want to freak out the tailor and have to explain what I am to her.” Her blush disappeared and I could feel the threads on my robe weave back together. “Thank you, now this mysterious gift?”

“Ahh yes, one second.” True to her word a second later a medium sized box came into existence next to her head and floated its way over to me. “This belonged to Rorke of the past and I thought you might want it. He gave it to me along with the axe, sword, and gauntlet you now possess. I kept this out of the museum because it felt important to do so.”

I tore into the simply wrapping on the box and used my claw to cut the box open. Lifting the flaps open revealed a type of hat that was purely egyptian in form. A difference was prevalent though by way of a metal fixture on the top. Celestia saw my confused stance as I peered into the box. “It’s the headdress of the High Priest, Rorke wore it when he led his people. It has been kept magically preserved like your gauntlet. Why don’t you pull it out and take a better look at it?”

I did as she said and pulled the headpiece out. The metal part was some kind of steel segmented mohawk. The pieces of metal were as thin as the back of a kitchen knife and the tops were just as sharp and flat. They were spaced about an inch from each other and resembled a shark’s fin if you cut about a third of the way down. They were about four inches long and just as tall, with five segments in all

The rest of the piece was a sturdy cloth that was striped except on the inside where a piece of unknown material secured the steel segments to the rest of it. “The whole thing is called a nemes.” Celestia’s voice snapped me out of my examination stupor. “The metal part was originally a separate headpiece but Rorke united the two crowns of the lower and upper southern sands. He fought the previous high priest for the title. I think he called the event...” She sat in her chair and pondered for a moment before coming back with an answer. “I believe he called it ‘The Horus Heresy’ for the name of the main instigator, Horus. From what he told me, a fully half of his priesthood rebelled and fought against their fellow anubites.

‘Wait, what? The Horus Heresy... was the name of the event. Where half of the priesthood committed heresy and attacked their fellow brothers?’ My mind was flooded with previously forgotten knowledge. ‘Seriously the HORUS HERESY! They couldn’t have picked another name!? I get it, Horus is the war god of Egyptian mythology but seriously?’ Once more the Princess brought me back to reality. “Why don’t you try it on? It is yours after all.” I placed my axe on the ground and held the hat with both hands.

‘That smile again, I swear it’s almost like mental compulsion. She could get anyone to do what she wanted with it.’ I slipped the rather eccentric crown on and stood up as I adjusted it. The whole thing clung to my head rather snugly, but what can you expect when it was made for me by my predecessor. “This actually feels rather fitting. Does it looks as good?”

“Yes, you look like the very image of Rorke himself. I suppose that is a bit redundant though considering you are him. Now, do you have any question I can answer? I’ve taken today and tomorrow away from preparing for the gala.” She replied

“Any chance an old friend could join the party?” I asked half joking half serious. The Doctor did say other humans would be making their attendance known. I wasn’t expecting her reply though. “Of course you can have a ticket, you are a castle guest after all. Sturrn will be receiving one too, as a congratulation present for his promotion. Don’t worry I’ll put both our names on the card.” She said that last part with a cheeky smile but it was funny.

Actually getting a ticket threw me for a loop though, I didn’t imagine she would be that free with the tickets to such an exclusive event. ‘She IS expecting a band of pirates and some kind of wolf to show up though, so it may be expected.’

We continued talking for a few hours on various subjects. They ranged from the exploits of her favorite pirate, the so called “Griffin the griffin” to current news among Canterlot. Apparently my jump onto the rooftops by the marketplace was seen by a few passersby. Eventually I broached the subject of Rorke and who he was like, she had a lot of knowledge about him but almost nothing about the anubites themselves. ‘She probably has some books in the library about them.’

Right then, my favorite chef came out of the kitchen door with his sous chef in tow. They had perfect timing as well because the conversation was just ending. Spoon and Square both bowed to the princess as they approached. “Greetings Princess, is there anything would like to eat seeing as it’s lunchtime?” Soup Spoon said. ‘Square Cut looks a lot less grouchy when she doesn’t have an incapacitated chef to haul back to the kitchen.’

Neither Celestia or I had been around anyone together since talking, but apparently when she talks to her subjects she puts on a mask of sorts. The kind where she looks totally serene and calm, that everything in the world is at ease, and the gaze she casts from her eyes just oozes of ancient wisdom. “Of course, I’ll have a daisy sandwich with a glass of ice water.” She turned to the idle sous chef. “And Square cut , if I could have one of your signature salads in a small bowl please.”

“Of course Princess.” They both said in unison, Soup turned to me. “Unless you’ve grown since last night I don’t suppose you’ll be having anything to eat, will you?” I shook my head. “No okay, one daisy sandwich with ice water and a house salad on the side. We’ll have it out here for you as fast as possible Princess.” The two chefs made their way back toward the kitchen door.

“It seems you have quite the bond with my head chef. How did that come about, might I ask?” I told her of the quest for coffee and bouts of drinking that had occurred up to this point. “He knows that you aren’t exactly alive but does he know that you were human?” She asked with a tinge of worry.

“Yes he does, a pair of guards named Flamberge and Starfall know as well. I explained it to them and drew a picture of what one looks like with some jam on a cutting board.” She looked like she was between emotions, whether it would be better to worry more or laugh. “What flavor was the jam?” She asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“I think it was either raspberry or strawberry, but apparently I’m quite the artist when it comes to rudimentary diagrams with roughly human like shapes.” I replied. It must have been the right answer because her urge to laugh won out.

“Let’s see if my skills.” She snickered a little. “Can match up to your gelatin based artistic prowess.” A brief flash of light and a cutting board was floating in front of her with a jar of strawberry jam floating next to it. ‘She seems a lot more playful than I would have expected she would be.’

“Why don’t you take a heroic stance and I’ll make a portrait of you?” She said.

I needed a little input first. “Which would look better, the sword?” I drew my khopesh out of the cloth that comprised a makeshift belt/sword sheath and held it in my right hand. “Or would my double ended axe be better?” I reached down and picked up the weapon in question as I spoke.

She put a hoof to her chin as she pondered the choice. After a moment she lowered her hoof and came to a decision. “The sword looks better in a portrait, so why don’t you put the axe back on the ground and we can get started before my food gets here.” I did just that and then proceeded to strike the cliche pose, sword pointing up and forward like I was leading a charge of men. “Yes just like that, hold still now I should be done quick.”

A couple minutes later, her food had been delivered and she was almost done. “This turned out to be a pleasant day, no calamities to speak of at all quite a change of pace.” She relented.

She might have spoken too soon, a pony in rather familiar looking armor was running up to her from across the dining room. “You might want to rescind that last statement, somepony is coming over here.” She huffed a sigh and didn’t even bother to turn her head. “I guess having an uneventful day conversing peacefully just wasn’t in my future.” I just maintained my stance and watched the guard coming closer.

About twenty feet away from us the guard, who I could now discern as a stallion began to gather magic in his horn as he charged forward. I broke form and looked at him. “Rorke I’m almost done, just a little longer.” I couldn’t properly form words at that moment. The stallion had released his magic causing a giant three by three kite shield made of purple magic to rocket toward me. “Shining Armor?” I muttered

My identification of the stallion was a little late however. The Princess looked at me just in time for the shield to zoom past her and slam into me HARD... If I still had a normal body that probably would have killed me, as it is I heard several breaks and could feel my right forearm dangling by almost nothing. That wasn’t the worst part though, Shining had kept charging after his attack and Celestia had screamed in surprise falling out of her chair in the process. She wouldn’t be stopping this fight immediately.

I got the worst of it though, and was sent literally flying across the room because of my lack of mass to slow me down. Everything in my flight path to the other end was either forced out of the way or shattered on impact. Unfortunately, shattering was the fate of a few chairs and a single table. “Die!” He shouted in his surferboy accent as he charged toward my still flying body.

I thought to myself as I flew through the air. ‘I didn’t think he would actually sound like that. He should get a voice swap with Sturrn, a lot more commanding.’ The actually stopping process to my flight took almost five seconds, luckily this was a smooth floor or my robe would have been torn apart. I picked myself up and realized I no longer had a weapon except my gauntlet.

He was still charging in with magic flaring on his horn as I righted myself. His magic formed into a purple sphere around his body and it looked like his intent was just to slam into me. “I’ll put you in the grave assassin!” He shouted... five feet away from me.

I had knew I couldn’t win that fight, why not have a bit of fun with it? “You might want to have a chat with your Princess, she could tell you NO GRAVE can hold my body down.” ‘Of course, let’s start death based banter. That always wins people over.’

He seemed dead set on proving me wrong because when that shield hit me my body couldn’t give an ounce of resistance Why should it provide resistance though? He couldn’t hurt me even when he tried too. My body crumpled to the floor several feet from my launching point, I just got up again. He must not get a lot of things that get up from his attacks that much because he looked legitimately confused. “Now I’m not much for fighting, would you like to stop this and perhaps have some lunch with me and Celestia? Maybe we can figure out why you’re so aggressive. Did your dad not give you enough hugs?” Times like that were moments when I wished I could smile, he didn’t share the same sentiment.

If mentioning Celestia made him angry, the crack about his dad got him pissed. He dropped the shield and started firing bolts of magic at me from less than twelve feet away. Surprisingly no other guards had ran into the hall even with all the noise. He shot his bolts at an impressive rate but I dove behind an overturned table. There was no sense in just giving him an easy target, that is until he levitated the table up and slammed it on top of me.

Totally pinned underneath the circular piece of wood, he actually had the gall to saunter over to me as I lay on the ground. “You shouldn’t have come here. You’re under arrest for the attempted assassination of a royal Princess, damage of castle property, and resisting arrest.”

I couldn’t feel my hat on top of my head anymore and that wasn’t something I wanted to lose. “Hey Shining do you see my hat anywhere?”

“What?” He looked like I had just asked him to tell my fortune, and just stood over me. ‘At least my face cover had stayed on this time.’

I explained. “My hat, you see it’s the crown of my people and I don’t want to spend my time in jail without it. So could you be a pal and get it for me while CELESTIA GETS UP!” I shouted the last bit past him hoping she would intervene. I didn’t feel like rotting away in jail till my bones turned to dust.

He got butthurt at me for it though. “Hey, don’t talk to my Princess like that, she deserves respect” He leaned in toward me. “and you will give it to her.” This set up a moment that no matter how much I detest them, I couldn’t give it up.

Luckily I could see Celestia getting up and taking flight over to us. I waited until she landed to continue. “So Shining, you want me to give it to your Princess?”

“Yes.” His look of triumph was unmistakable, and much to my amusement Celestia stood behind him quietly.

I went on. “So, what you’re saying is that you want me to give it to your Princess, and you want me to give it to her because she deserves it.” It took a moment for him to understand but when it came his face went red immediately.

“T-t-that’s not what I meant I-” He stuttered but a large alicorn behind him coughed gently to draw his attention. He turned around as if doing so would be a death sentence.

Celestia had her trademark grin on as she spoke softly. “Shining Armor, though I appreciate your attempts to set me up with Rorke I should inform you that the discussion on my love life has been moved from today to the council meeting next week.” The poor stallion looked flustered at best but since I still had a table on top of me, I went on.

“Now Captain, does this mean I can spank her too?” After that comment I almost felt bad for him. Almost. His face told me he understood but I even got a blush to cross the royal face.

She was quick to rebuttal though. “I’m sorry but it just couldn’t work between us my friend.” The smirk that I knew foretold a pun spread onto said royal face. Shining heard the friend part though and set to work lifting the table off of me as she spoke. “You just don’t have enough meat on your bones.”

‘SON OF A... GAHHH!!! I thought Trollestia was just a stupid joke from the internet! I guess some things take ground in reality. If she wants to play this game though, I’ll play and I will win.’ “Princess, you break my heart like a toy” I pointed at her horn with just the tip of my claw so I wouldn’t have to speak with Shining till this little competition was over. “but I can tell you’re excited to see me, you horn is rock hard..” ‘If this had been a boxing match, she would be on the ropes right now.

Her face ran red quickly and I took the lull in our verbal sparring to stand up and retrieve my crown, which lay a few feet away from where I had been on the ground. She spoke again once it was secure on top of my head. “You seem to be really good at this, but you would have to be or it would be the death of you.”

‘This is just getting bad now, a last volley perhaps?’ “Yes well, I’ve been able to wing it for quite a while.” ‘That sounded so much better in my head...”

She looked at me and then Shining before coming back to me. “Rorke for all our sakes, let’s say you won so we can bring my confused guard Captain up to speed.”

“I think that’s a good idea but you won that, my last one was pretty bad.” She nodded in agreement before we both turned to my least favorite pony at that moment. “Why don’t you take a seat right over there.” I gestured toward a single upright table set up with three chairs. The Chris Hansen impression was just a little bonus for me. Celestia’s horn lit up a bit and everything in the room began to piece itself back together before it stopped and she took a seat at the table.

So began the dreaded hour long discussion and eventual culmination of my favorite event, the great reveal. I looked to Celestia for the go ahead, she gave me the nod so I proceeded forward. “So Captain Armor what can you tell me about the anubites?”

He looked perplexed but the gears were moving. “Umm... Well they were a race of creatures similar to diamond dogs but they stood up much straighter and were quite tall. They hailed from the currently uncharted Southern Sands of the world. According to the archives, they suffered some sort of catastrophe and have either been wiped out or are yet to be located in any number.”

‘Seems he knows his history, let’s see if we can bump it up a notch and jog his memory on particulars.’ I prepped a couple questions in my head real quick. “You’re pretty well versed in the cultures of other nations but you captain a third of the Royal Guard so it’s to be expected. Now for the hard stuff. What do you know of their culture and their leader?”

He didn’t seem to like my questioning even with the complement I paid him. “I’m sorry Princess, but what is this all about? Why am I getting a history review about a dead race?”

Ever calm in the face of emotion, Celestia spoke up. “I’m sorry to just spring this upon you Captain, I’m sure you’re quite busy but it is wholly necessary that these questions be answered.”

“Okay Princess.” He turned back to me with a well disguised scowl. “It seems your parents must have been history buffs as well, because the leader of their nation and populace was named Rorke Chardstone. He was some sort of religious figure as well as a political one. Their culture was very similar to how Equestria is run today, even their technology was thousands of years ahead of the times in places such as having modern mattresses to sleep on.”

‘The knowledge is pretty old but the Princess probably wrote it down and put it in the library if the guard knows about it. I wonder if he will freak out, get angry like Sturrn, or just roll with it like Spoon and Sturrn’s friends?’ I stood up just to be a little dramatic with the whole thing. “You have quite the knowledge on the subject, considering this info is what 6 or 7000 years old, right Princess?”

“Rorke I told you to just call me Celestia, there is no need for titles from one ruler to another. But yes, I would say around 7000 years old.” The accented unicorn in front of me must have caught the ruler part, because his eyes grew bigger than what was probably healthy for him.

“Well now he knows that I’m a ruler, but he should have known that from earlier when I called my headwear a crown. Now is the time for a leap of faith my horned fellow, can you guess what nation I lead?”

He stood up and walked over to my side of the table to begin his examination of my person. He looked up and down my body from every conceivable perspective. He put a hoof on my gauntlet and examined it for a moment, luckily he didn't try to peer into my robes but that probably would have been inappropriate despite my lack of skin.

He finished his look over and we both took a seat at the table once more. Celestia looked as though she knew her bright Captain would know the answer easily, I wasn’t so sure. He actually had to think about it and examine me, if he was listening he would have guessed anubites immediately. “Do you have all your info in order? Are you ready to give your answer?” He nodded. “Well let’s hear it and please go through your thought process please.”

“My thoughts go along this line. You seem to be extremely tall to my estimates around 6’9”. I haven't seen you slouch once since meeting you. When we fought you took hits that others simply could not take without serious injury. I can see you are dog like in your appearance but lack a tail. You have weapons I have not seen in action and ponies don’t know a lot about your people at all. That being the case we couldn’t know that your style of headwear would be a crown or just a fashion statement. So my guess would be...”

Celestia had a grin spread across her face and though I was skeptical, I figured he would probably get the right answer. He stood up from his seat and slammed one forehoof on the table and pointed the other directly at me. He didn’t quite shout but used a loud voice to announce his answer. “You’re an Alpha diamond dog leader from one of the hollows in Gem Fido her to negotiate with Princess Celestia.” My face couldn’t change expression but Celestia’s did.

Her mouth dropped to the floor and her eyes were staring at her guard Captain, silently asking how he could have possibly come to that conclusion from our conversation so far. He obliged her with an explanation. “We haven’t met any alpha’s in some official capacity, we do know that any alpha has certain traits about them though. Traits like being much taller than other diamond dog’s, excellent speech patterns, having much better combat prowess along with a higher resistance to pain and being able to ford through damage that others of your race couldn’t.” He took a breath before continuing.

“The crown threw me off for a moment but like I said we don’t know a lot about your nation or its tradition headgear. The gauntlet is what sealed it for me though, other dogs respect gem wealth and power. Using a little magic I saw you have some incredibly powerful enchantments on that glove of yours. I’ve never seen the black metal or the script that is written all over it but it reeks of authority and the gems have the capacity to hold insane levels of magic in them. That is why I think you’re an Alpha diamond dog.” He put his hoof down and resumed his seat with a sense of hubris about him.

Celestia and I both performed our versions of a simultaneous facepalm. I had used my gloved hand but lowered it quickly so I could speak. I leaned in across the table slightly as Celestia mumbled ‘Oh Captain Armor.’ Truthfully I didn’t need to say it but it would be better for him to hear it from me. “Are you dense or something? Who do you REALLY think I am?!” He didn’t look like he appreciated being called that, but Celestia was right on the edge of agreeing with me if I hadn’t blatantly insulted him. “I’m a goddamn anubite! I AM Rorke Chardstone.” I leaned across the table further.

“My parents weren’t history buffs, they were history. Why would we talk about the anubites otherwise? I fit every criteria for them, even my name was from them and you still guessed wrong.” I backed off the table and sat down again, crossing my arms.

He looked pretty pissed off and embarrassed that he guessed so wrong that I was insulting him for it but Celestia spoke before he could say anything. “Rorke, though I don’t agree with you insulting my guard Captain, I think it would be prudent to show him why he was wrong. Maybe an apology too, if you can muster it.”

‘Okay maybe I didn’t need to insult him but he was so wrong it hurt.’ I put my arms back down. “Sorry about the dense thing but that answer was really far off, I can see where you came from though.” That seemed to placate him a bit. “Let me show you what I mean when I say I’m Rorke, because you’re probably thinking to yourself how it could be possible, am I correct?”

“That would be correct.” He said. “But more so in the fact that Rorke died, his body was on display in a museum a while back. So either you're lying to me and the Princess or something happened that shouldn’t have.” He looked particularly grim and it gave me just enough of a feeling to know he wasn’t going to take kindly that one of the dead had risen up. ‘Technically it would be spirit possession. A body without a soul gets reanimated by a soul from another.

“Celestia can you make sure no one comes into the hall as I do this?” I said.

“Rorke, don’t you think it’s odd that even with all the shouting and breaking objects, that neither a guard or any pony at all has come in her besides our two chefs from earlier?” I tilted my head slightly sideways in the universal sign for the requirement of further explanation. “I placed a spell on all the doors leading in here so that the opener must have my permission to enter, additionally I soundproofed the room and put a two way vision spell on the windows. Right now this room is totally confidential toward all the knowledge within it.”

‘Clever thinking, all the place is missing is a bug sweep for listening devices and nothing would get out.’ I turned to the guard as I stood up. “Captain Armor, just know that we have been talking peacefully and I would like it to stay that way.” I took of my mohawked crown and slowly peeled off the coverings, revealing my fleshless skull to him.

I kept him directly in my vision for a few seconds before moving on. I shifted a bit in my armor and robe before finally getting a wide opening that showed off my rib cage and lack of organs. I thought he was white regularly but if I didn’t know any better, I would have sworn he contracted the plague and was in the midst of dying. His mouth was moving but words refused to come out so I moved on. I bent down and pulled my robe up a couple feet, revealing my leg bones as well as the strips of brown fabric I had put on my feet to stop the clacking of bare bones on the ground.

He was blanched at the sight of me but it looked as though he wouldn’t become violent, I couldn’t blame him though, I probably looked like some abhorrent undead demon creature sent here to gain their trust and kill the Princesses. Luckily ‘Tia came to my rescue with some calming words. “Captain Armor, please look at me.” He tried to pull his eyes from me failing a couple times in the process before succeeding in looking toward the her.

“Rorke has been in the castle, working with the Solar Guard for almost a week now. You heard this earlier already, but he exposed a xenophobic and potentially violent guard to us before he could hurt anyone. The creature you look so worried at, was set on fire in the process of apprehending a market thief. He could have hurt many ponies already but instead helped them, even going on trial to prove his worth and innocence.” She got up and placed a hoof on him as he looked to her. “You have nothing to fear, you’re the Captain of the Unicorn Guard and I know, nothing can break you.”

He stopped looking at her and looked back at me. I saw a bright spark of life behind his eyes, it looked like her words set his soul aflame. He stood up from his chair and walked over to me as I had busied myself with putting my face wrap back on. “Rorke, can you take off you head wrap and come down to my height?” I obliged him and revealed my skull once more, before lowering my stature till I was on one knee and looking at him eye to eye.

He gave a breath before reaching up with a hoof and touching my skull. It was one of the more uncomfortable moments in my life... ‘Okay he’s been touching my face for almost a minute and he’s going awful slow about it. If I didn’t know about his wife, this would probably be a little suspect.’ I stood up and apparently the action had snapped him out of his daydreaming because he jumped a little. “Okay, this has been an experience but i’m done having my face touched.”

“I noticed your magic was working slightly, what were you doing?” Celestia questioned. I hadn’t seen his horn glow though.

He backed away from me before answering. “I was flooding magic into my hoof and reading the echo’s of magic off of him. I wanted to see what is keeping him alive.” ‘Wow, I don’t think I appreciate him doing that without telling me. He wasn’t inclined to say anything before Celestia asked him, seems like he wasn’t going to tell me.’

I took a step toward him but he spoke before I could. “Can you do magic?”

“No I can’t, and whatever you learned about me I want to know, now.” I used my most authoritative voice possible but it didn’t faze him in the least. That is until Celestia spoke up, using a not quite angry voice but she was mad.

“Captain Shining Armor, you will stop this blatant aggression and provocation toward my friend immediately or there will be repercussions. Am I understood?”

“Yes Princess.” He said with his head hung low.

“Good, now Rorke I told you about a project earlier correct.” I nodded. “Well it would have entail doing what he did but with your whole body. I would flood your system with magic and we could visibly see what is keeping you alive. Captain can you tell me what you saw?”

He perked up a bit. “Of course Princess, I saw nothing but power. His body is like a living gemstone, it’s burning magic to keep him alive but like a regular body it’s also making it too. The reason I asked if he could use magic is because, he has more power stored in him than Cadence does, if he could tap that power he would probably give my sister a run for her money.” This got Celestia to pay special interest to his words. “The problem is that all of its inert magic, even if he had a horn to channel it nothing would happen.”

“I see, Rorke we must go to the library and find some things for tomorrow. Thank you for listening Captain.” She started to walk away.

Shining walked over to her. “Wait Princess, I came here originally to tell you something.”

“Yes?”

“Knightmare will be finishing reconstruction some time tomorrow. Is there anything you need him to do before he comes back?” He spoke Knightmare like it was venom.

“No, tell Captain Barricade that they should come back as soon as they’re done.

He nodded and they both began to walk away. I still had something to say to Armor though. “Celestia, I’ll meet you in the library. I need to talk to the Captain her.”He wasn’t expecting that but she did.

“Of course Rorke, don’t take too long he still has some prepping for the Gala to do.”

She walked a bit before opening the door and walking out. I grabbed my crown off the table and put it on as I walked over to the only pony in the room. “Armor-”

He interrupted immediately “It’s CAPTAIN Shining Armor.”

“Okay look, I’m done trying to be nice. You throwing a fit because of me doesn’t add up, you sassed your Princess, and have been an overall asshole since I meet you. What’s wrong? You’re a Captain, things like this don’t just happen for a reason.”

He shifted his eyes a bit, like he was mentally weighing his options before coming to a decision. He huffed an angry breath and lowered his head a bit. “Queen Chrysalis actually has the gall to show up at the castle, like she didn’t ruin my wedding day.” He brought his head up. “She comes back after a failed invasion that almost killed Princess Luna, succeeded in killing several ponies, as well as kidnapping and impersonating my wife!” He slammed his hoof down to accent his anger. “Then there’s Knightmare, another changeling that Celestia seems to have taken an interest in for some reason.”

He continued in his rant. “Then a bucking skeleton dog shows up, what would you be acting like!?”

I knew exactly what I would act like. “You want to know what I would act like? I’ll tell you what I would act like, I would deal with it. I know there is no point in talking to you about hating changelings in general but don’t dwell in your hatred. You should love your wife more since she’s back and make sure nothing like that ever happens again. If you dwell too far into the past, then you risk not being able to get out. As for me showing up, just remember that I have done nothing but good for Equestria since getting here.”

He searched my nonexistent eyes for a moment before speaking. “Okay, I will. I’ll deal with it, and something like that will never befall Equestria again as long as I’m still standing.” I nodded a bit. “I’m still going to hate Knightmare and Chrysalis though.”

“You act like I was trying to change that. No, that’s your choice entirely and nothing I can say would change that. I should get to the library though.”

“I can see why you’re the Princess’s friend. You’re a good thinker and if it’s a conciliation, I’ll put in a word for you to the Royal Guard and the other Captains.” He gave me a genuine smile with his statement as he walked away.

I soon followed him out the door and began my walk to the library and the Princess.

Comments

[Sturrn]

There it is, and it only took me three days to write. Why did it take 2 weeks to update you ask? A combination of friends wanting me to spend time with them, viruses, and losing half the chapter because I had to purge my entire computer.
Next chapter won't take nearly as long but a good section of it if, not all of it will be a memory in the dreamscape. It's an important event in Rorke's life but it had been rudely interrupted by Celestia waking him.

I'm not very good a regulating my sleep but it doesn't affect me as much as it should, a combination of mental endurance and writing has kept me up for far too long. Fun fact about the story: The story was supposed to start in a train junction city call "Ironrail" but I panned it in favor of Canterlot because of the museum. Rorke has to take a train eventually though right? Right, that will be the first city he visits on his journey after leaving his current path.

[Knighthawker]

Horus is actually a war god. Ra is the sun god. I have been reading up on my Egyptian mythology.

[DaveTheBrony]

I see what ya did there.

[AliCentaur Br0ny]

“I’ll put you in the grave assassin!”

Rorke: No thanks, I've already been there. I didn't like it; too boring. So I think I'll pass.
The puns! Oh, the egregious puns... I love them!
Great chapter.

[Sturrn]

937322 I feel levels of shame that are indescribable right now. I'll fix that, thank you for pointing it out.

[jakeedge04]

LOL when i read the horus heresy the only thing that i know is the one in the Space marine history lolololol

[Liqwidice]

Great chapter.

[AppleTank]

Knightmare's here. He's here already? I'm a bit lost with the timeline here...

[Sturrn]

941865 You're the first person to ask about the timeline but it's really confusing and I had to talk with JJ just to sort it out. The timeline goes a little something like this.
Universal beginning: This is the day where every character is still human and gets recruited by their god to be a piece.
First day of the game: This is when every piece lands on 'Terra'. (I use Terra as the planet name because no concise name for it has been discussed as far as I know.) Since 'The Doctor' isn't a true god or a being of immense power, he couldn't just drop Rorke into Equestria with his new body. It took around 13 months for the seal on Rorke to fully set and begin to activate. So Rorke technically started at the beginning like Griffin but he only became fully conscious when he did.

Rorke's awakening: He 'wakes up' a week before the Gala. When he first meets Sturrn is when Knightmare first comes into the world. Said changeling has his battle with Captain Barricade and in the basis of their combat they wreck the surrounding area. Celestia told both of them to fix it up and JJ told me that the repairs take about a week so that's why Rorke can walk around the castle and isn't mentioned by Knightmare and Knightmare isn't mentioned by Rorke. (That and I wasn't really thinking about the setting and where other authors were placing their characters. I was very lucky that me and JJ's time spacing mixed so perfectly) Knight's first day is the beginning of the gala and we know how that is going. I have something really special planned for the Gala even though Rorke won't be talking to Knightmare, Griffin, Aoi, or the bugbear (Sorry, I can't remember the name. I think he was called by a title 'Lord Fester')

Sorry for the hilariously long comment but I hope that this supplies an answer that you and everyone else will get. For being first to ask about the timeline though I was wondering if you could do me a favor. PM with any names for history books I need about 4 names. They can be as ridiculous as you want but still have to resemble a history book. If you don't want to that's okay.
-Sturrn

[AppleTank]

942179
bugbear = Celt
or the one that hath too many damn titles.

[ExoskeletalEccentric]

I think that perhaps Shining Armour goes from distrust to smiley happy a bit too fast, other than that, cool story, bro. Oh, and if you can change it, you have a mistake in the title of this fic. That apostrophe should not be there. Just a heads up, people may be put off by it, the title is the first thing read, after all.

[Sturrn]

959818 You are correct in thinking he goes from distrust to smiley too fast. However I did that because Shining Armor's respect is paramount to a series of events much later in the story. Since Shining would be occupied in Knightmare's timeline the next day and since I'm sending Rorke off on his adventure during the Gala this was the only time Shining Armor was available for anything. This is really a justification for why I did it but it was rushed and I admit it.

As for the apostrophe, I should change it shouldn't I? I'll do it when the next chapter comes out, which with some luck should be tomorrow. As it should be noted, criticism is always welcome.
-Sturrn

[ExoskeletalEccentric]

960261 Ah, that makes sense. The perils of a shared universe, I suppose.

[Killbot3.0]

Warhammer references GOOOOO!

[JawsOnYou67]

1124349 I saw those also! I knew having Sturrn in this story wasn't just a coincidence. Glory to the Hive Mind!