• Published 4th Aug 2012
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Honor Above All Else - Honored Service



Honored Service returns to tell the tale of his year long disappearance.

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So it Begins in Fire

PICTURE TIME!

A wonderful drawing from a close friend who shares in the military lifestyle. A picture of Johnson and the Nightmare when the two were united together and trying to get back to Canterlot.





This was crafted by BronyAustralia (here). A glorious remake of the Equestrian Honor Guard symbol and what the Diamo


Honor Above All Else
Chapter 31
By Honored Service
Pre-read TheDrakAngel AND Tbone5363 (holy shit TWO pre-readers? Count them- TWO!)


“Oh, my head.” I opened my eyes and regained consciousness to the calming beeping of a heart monitor. I was lying on one of the small cots in the medical tent. “Wow, déjà vu… for like the hundredth time.”

“I’ll say.”

I rolled over on the bed and looked up at the pony standing above me. “Well, hello to you too, Luna.”

“I swear human, you do this to yourself on purpose for the attention.” Luna smiled and levitated a bundle of armor to me. My Royal Guard armor was cleaned and patched up. Even the golden helmet with the feathered top was repaired to its pristine condition.

“You know this is just going to get ruined again.” I flashed my trademark smile and slowly rose out of the bed. My joints popped and cracked as I stretched out my limbs. “So, how long was out for this time?” I yawned and picked up my old combat uniform and put them over the boxers and undershirt I was currently wearing.

“Well it’s been nearly a day. Fluttershy worked her magic alongside the doctors and had you all patched up before the sun went down. The rest was done by your magic. You seem to be developing some kind of resistance to internal damage, and that isn’t an excuse to run around willy-nilly getting stabbed by shadows nonstop."

“Of course not!” I placed a hand over my chest. “I would never use my powers of awesomeness to kick some shadow ass.” I laughed as I locked the shoulder armor pieces in place and secured my belt along my waist. The golden leg armor was fitted on next and the armored chest rig covered most of the ACU blouse. I rolled my shoulders, locking everything into place. “Oh yeah, that feels better.” I crisscrossed the swords on my back and let the rifle dangle to my side from the tactical three point sling. “Back in business!”

“How’s Fast Skies doing?” I asked as I made my way from the medical tent, Luna trotting next to me as I wandered around the camp, deciding to see how progress was being made in preparation for the oncoming shadow assault.

“Well, your rather harsh and quick promotion of the Sergeant Stand Bold is actually proving to be quite good.” Luna turned to face me before mumbling under her breath, “but perhaps you could have run it by me first.”

“Sorry, Princess, wasn’t enough time. So where is the airship? It is rather important to the whole plan, and I need to brief Stand Bold on the operation itself.” We walked around another tent and made a straight path towards a large tent with the royal seal on it. Two Night Guards stood by the door, armed with swords strapped across their backs. I nodded to them as they saluted the both of us, while we entered the tent.

“Honored!” Six voices called out at once. I was smashed to the ground in a multicolored wave of ponies as Rarity, Applejack,
Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Pinkie, and Fluttershy all tackled me to the ground in massive dog pile hug.

“Good morning, Lieutenant.” From across the tent stood Sergeant Stand Bold. By the sound of his voice, I could tell he was jealous that he wasn't being tackled by six young mares. Either that…or it was amusing to see the ultimate warrior knocked down by six mares.

“Morning to you Sergeant. How is the airship doing today?” I slowly removed myself from the pile of hugs and gave each of the girls a friendly smile.

“The crew is prepared, the weapon hold stocked, and well we are shooting all tens sir!” Stand Bold replied happily. He stood proud at his accomplishment and I’ll give him that. Taking control of that airship and then whipping a crew into shape in a matter of days is no small task.

“Please, Bold, you can drop all the sir nonsense.” I looked over to Princess Luna who was staring at me with a questioning glance. “Because, I'm making you my right hand, er, hoof, man, err, pony. I like your attitude and motivation Stand Bold. I want to call you a friend.” I extended my hand to the tan pegasus who just looked from my hand to my face.

“Listen if you don’t want to-“ I was cut off as a flash of tan and red knocked me to the ground in a hug.

“I’M FRIENDS WITH THE HUMAN!” Stand Bold stood atop of my chest and shoved a hoof into the air. “Take that, mom! You said I wouldn't meet anypony interesting in the guard. Well, who’s laughing now? I'm friends with the only living human!” I just laughed as Stand Bold turned red and climbed down from my chest.

“Um hehe sorry about that.” He coughed and rubbed a hoof in the dirt floor of the tent.

“It’s okay buddy.” His head shot up quickly and his eyes were round as dinner plates.

“I'm your buddy?” Sergeant Bold asked not blinking once.

“Um, yeah.” I said while climbing back to my feet. “But don’t get all weird!” I added as he took another step closer to me.

“Okay so to brief you on the upcoming battle I need you and the airship –“ I was silenced as one of the Night Guards bolted in through the tent flap door.

“Princess Luna! Lieutenant Service! There is something here to see you.” The guard panted while pointing a hoof at the door she had just burst through.

I rolled my eyes and shrugged to the Princess. We both marched side by side to the door where it was lifted with a dark blue aurora of magic.

I jerked my rifle up and had it trained on the creature that was here to visit us.

A shadow.


It was just another guard shift for Night Light. She was standing by the door when the human and her Princess walked up. Saluting quickly, they passed by her with a simple nod.

“Well, that’s high point of my day.” She sighed. Sure they were under a possible threat of invasion and being overrun by an army of unlimited shadow things…but sitting guard sucked.

“Oh, cheer up, Light; at least we don’t have to stand here for much longer.” Her fellow guard, Boogie Night, said. “And at least this position is safe. We got the eight most powerful beings in Equestria right behind us. The Elements, Princess Luna, and the human.”

“But still the shadows could launch the assault whenever.” Night Light added. Arguing was all the two guards could do for the next two hours.

“Yeah, but what are they going to do? Send us a shadow, who just walks right up to us and offers to tell us when they are going to attack.” Boogie Night chuckled to himself when he heard hoof steps approaching.

“Hello pony guards,” The shadow walked right in front of the two ponies, arms raised over its head, “I come in… um what was it… ah I come in peace!” It smiled, reveling four fangs in a blood red mouth.

Night Light did what her extensive twenty weeks of training and three years in the guard had taught her to do… she ran for the next most powerful being she could find. And they were right behind her.


I frowned at the shadow and kept the rifle trained perfectly on the things chest. “The fuck you want?” I asked sternly.

“Yes, what do you want creature of the dark?” Princess Luna asked while levitating the two blades from the dead griffon king beside her.

“This just got good!” Pinkie Pie said from behind us. Everypony nearby stopped to stare at her, before returning to the shadow that was still standing in front of the command tent.

“I’ll ask you one more time,” I said very calmly while slowly racking the charging rod on M16, “what the fuck do you want?”

The shadow visibly gulped before opening its mouth.

“I come here to aid you.”

The sound of every jaw opening and falling to the ground was audible. Even I was left dumbstruck. The silence that followed that statement was unbearable. The shadow raised a hand and coughed into it, “So I’m sure you have some question-“

I leapt forward and grabbed the creature by its neck and drove it to the ground. I held it against the ground while the gauntlet slowly tightened around its throat. “I'm not falling for any of Day Terror’s tricks. Forget you and forget her attempt at tricking me!” I reached down with my free hand and drew my knife from its sheath before placing the blade against the shadow’s neck.

“WAIT!” I stopped just as the blade began to move. I turned my head to the side to see Fluttershy standing next to me, panting hard. She looked visibly upset and about to cry. Her eyes were tearing up and her lips trembled. “He’s trying to be nice. You can’t kill him for being nice.”

“Thank you, Miss Flutters-“ The shadow began to speak, but I reached out and backhanded him before positioning the knife back against its throat.

“Make one more move and I’ll…I’ll…I’ll…uhhhhh.” My threat died in my throat as I looked up to Fluttershy. Suddenly my mind went blank and I found it hard to even breathe. It felt like every fiber of my being was being twisted and pulled as she unleashed the stare on me. I struggled to breathe, to gasp out and suck in air, but nothing worked. I could feel my eyesight slowly fading as everything began to fade.

Then it stopped. I was gasping for air lying on my back being stared at by everypony and a shadow. I shot up and grumbled to myself before retreating backwards against the tent. I grumbled to myself before glaring at the shadow.

“Thank you, Miss Fluttershy, now please allow to me to explain before you come to any rash and barbaric decisions.” The shadow turned and looked directly at me. I continued my death stare at it. My knife was still resting in my hand, and a ball of blood red magic was floating in my gauntlet, ready to lash out.

“Speak, shadow.” Luna said bluntly, her two blades still floating in the air behind her.

“I came to help, to join you in the fight to stop Day Terror.” The shadow calmly explained.

“Okay I'm just going to have to call bullshit.” I said from my corner at the tent. Everpony turned to look at me. “Shadows are created by Day Terror, and each one is created to kill, destroy, and harm anything in its way.”

“Is that not what you do?” The shadow shot back at me. I opened my mouth, but closed it soon after. “Normally, you are correct, human, but even self-proclaimed gods like Day Terror make mistakes. I’m that such mistake.” The shadow gave a flourish and a bow.

“Day Terror had a momentary lapse of concentration while I was being spawned from the darkness. She let Celestia slip into consciousness for just a moment, and your Princess took that brief chance to flash a memory of friendship she had heard from the story that you yourself, Honored, told her. Your old friendship with the Nightmare. And in that briefest of moments, I took my form with the thoughts and ideas of friendship, and well, being friends with you.”

Everypony was quiet as I thought, then I burst out laughing. “Okay, so you expect me to believe that you are my friend.”

“Yes.”

“And that you are in no way evil or wanting to destroy me.”

“Correct.”

“Well, again, I’ll call bullshit!” I stood up and walked towards the shadow. “I have slaughtered near thousands of you stupid things. And yet you come in here trying to make me believe that you are different.”

The shadow cringed under my words as I took another step closer to it. “Please. I'm just asking for a chance.”

I looked at the trembling creature. The shadow was hunched over trying to seem smaller than it actually was. Normally a shadow had its arms turned into four foot long blades, but yet here he was with normal human looking hands. And he was showing emotion. Something that the recent shadows hadn’t shown.

“Fine.” I sighed and sheathed the knife. “One fucking chance. And you will not leave my sight. You will be my shadow.”

There was another long pause before everypony exploded into laughter. The shadow also let out a chuckle. I frowned and turned beet red. “Stop it! That wasn’t one of my clever puns! This is serious guys!” I scuffed a boot on the ground.

As the laughter died down, I felt a small tremble in the earth. I looked up to Luna who stared back at me. “You felt it too, Honored?”

“Yeah, it’s time.”

“What time is it?” The shadow and Sergeant Stand Bold asked at the same time.

“The army is moving. That was the command I'm guessing.” I took a deep breath and ran over the plan one more time in my head. “Sergeant, get to the airship. Begin phase one of Operation Amputate.” Sergeant Bold gave a salute and then raced towards the open field that held the landed airship. Within moments I heard the steady thumping of the propellers and watched as the armor clad mobile artillery platform rose into the sky and began floating towards Canterlot.

“Princess Luna, and you girls, get to Ponyville and help finish the final preparation for the oncoming assault. The gorge should hopefully wipe out most of the army, but just in case, I want Ponyville ready to defend from the reaming force.”

The Elements took off together towards the town, while Luna stayed. “Now, Honored, remember your part in the plan.”

“Yeah I know.” I looked off into the distance, focusing on the burning city of Canterlot.

“Johnson.” I tore my gaze away from the city and to the Princess of the Night.

“Yes, your highness?” I asked.

“Please. Come back safe. That’s an order.” She smiled. “Detonate the charges and fall back. There’s no need for this lone wolf nonsense that you like to do.”

“Of course, your highness, but I'm not alone this time.” I looked to the sky where the fading airship began to circle a certain spot above the long winding road down from Canterlot. “And I also got this guy.” I jerked a thumb over to the Shadow who was tapping his fingers together nervously. “And I actually don’t know how much of a help he’ll be.”

“Hey!” The shadow called out, audibly hurt from my insult.

“And I need a name for you, shadow.” I turned around but suddenly he was gone. I spun back around, but he was nowhere to me seen.

“Call me, Covert.” I gasped in shock and looked down to where the voice had come from. And there he was. Covert had taken the form of my shadow on the ground. I moved my hand, but my shadow didn't, instead it cracked a smile that revealed his blood red mouth.

“Okay, I’ll admit, that’s pretty cool.” I smiled as Covert slowly rose off the ground to his standing self. “Okay, Covert, now you just have to gain my trust and then I’ll see about calling you a friend. You good-for-nothing shadow.”

Covert sighed and fell in behind me as we began jogging towards Ghastly Gorge. The battle of Ghastly Gorge was about to commence, and I’ll be damned if any more ponies die on my watch.


“First battalion, move up!” The Shadow Champion Commander called out from the front of the massive army. A rank of nearly five hundred shadows moved into position. “Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth, fall in and began the march towards Ponyville!” The massive group of twenty-five hundred Shadow Humans began marching from the road towards Ponyville.
The town was still about an hour’s march off, but the slaughtering of stupid ponies was worth the wait.

BOOM

A giant explosion tore the center of third battalion to bits. Chunks of shadows and earth rained everywhere. Soon another explosion was heard, followed by another. And another. And another. The Shadow Commander watched as slowly his massive army was being obliterated by some kind of unknown firepower.

“Report! Where is that coming from!?” The Shadow Champion screamed at his subordinates. Another shell landed mere feet away, and blew the Champion to the side. It bounced on its hands and came up onto all fours before rising onto its hind legs. “NOW!”

“There!” A Shadow Human called out pointing a bladed hand towards the sky. The Shadow Champion looked at a hovering air ship that was firing cannons down on their position. The longer it took it to decide what to do, the more shadows that were being lost. And the next regiment of reinforcements was still another hour behind.

“Shadows! Head for the gorge! The high walls will provide cover from that ship!” The Shadow Champion issued the order and slowly the shadow battalions began racing for the safety of the gorge. The Shadow in charge had been created with the knowledge of Ponyville and the surrounding landscape. It knew its enemy, and it understood the tactics of how the human fought. It fought with brash, suicidal, head on attacks, that while foolish, still left ranks of shadows decimated.

And given the choices of the Ghastly Gorge or continue along the open road and have the rest of the shadow ranks destroyed, the Shadow Commander chose the safety of the gorge from the well placed fire of the airship.


“Well, holy fucking shit. It’s actually working.” I watched from atop the crest of a hill overlooking Ghastly Gorge. The shadow army, a bit smaller than what I had expected, was funneling its way directly into the trap. Once the entire army was in the confines of the gorge, I would blow the charges and send the army straight to hell. Boom another victory to the almighty human!

“Why are you surprised?” Covert asked me. He had remained silent for the walk to the hill and for the better part of watching the army move into the trap.

“Well yeah.” I laughed and tucked the binoculars into a pocket on my ACU pant leg. “Mainly because I thought the leader of the army would be smarter than to head into a gorge, when they knew we knew that they were coming.”

“So this whole thing could have failed?” Covert stated while slowly changing one of his hands into a double bladed sword.

“Nah, I wouldn’t say that.” I slowly removed a detonator switch from my pocket. There were three buttons on the simple magical switching device. An arming button and a red and blue button. “You see this?”

Covert gave a simple nod.

“One button triggers the explosives lining the walls of the gorge to explode. The other button causes the extra five hundred pounds of explosives that I hid in the Ponyville damn to explode flooding this entire valley with water, destroying Ponyville and all the Shadows that would overrun it.” I stated this matter-of-factly before smiling and holding onto the detonator tight.

The shadow cringed at me. “But that would kill all the ponies you are trying to protect.”

“Nope. Princess Luna knows about this. This is the last stand switch. If this fails, and the guard and myself are unable to hold back the army, then we hit the kill switch. This entire valley becomes a flooded graveyard for all. No more Shadow army, and the survivors can make the push onto Canterlot.”

Covert just stood there, mouth agape, staring at me. “You're insane. Brilliant, but insane!”

“I know.” I smiled my cocky smile and watched as the army of shadow nearly filled the entire gorge. “Ready for a show, Covert?”

“I guess.”

“This is how I will decide whether or not to kill you. You do know this right?” I looked back at the shadow, all smiles gone.

“What?”

“If you don’t show me if you can actually help me, or if you try and stab me in the back, I won’t hesitate to drop you dead right then and there.”

Covert took a deep breath and swallowed. “I understand human. I will show you that I'm not the same as the rest of these shadows.”

“I hope so.” I held the detonator up and flicked the yellow arming switch. The faint sound of magical energy chimed through the air. I stared at the red and blue buttons.

“Shit. Which one blew the gorge?”

“Really?”

“Fuck it. Red one.” I pressed down hard on the red button and a quick burst of purple energy launched forth from the end of the detonator towards the gorge.

“Haha, close one!” I placed the detonator back into my pocket and readied my M16A2. “Oaky Covert, let me show you how this works.”

CRACK-BOOM

The entire gorge lit up in multiple flashes of bright explosions. The walls shook and wavered as the charges detonated, sending massive chunks of rocks hurtling down towards the un-expecting army below. The lead Shadow Commander made no attempt to dive out of the way of the boulder that dropped straight on top of him. He had failed. This was better than returning a failure.

The army of shadows disappeared under the wave of rocks and boulders. Dust and dirt billowed into the air and filled the gorge with a dusty haze.

“And that’s all I have to say about that.” I looked at Covert and smiled. “And I didn’t even have to break a sweat.”

The friendly shadow raised his unchanged hand and pointed it towards the gorge.

I sighed and turned to face the dusty haze. I couldn’t see anything. I reached into the pocket where I had stowed the binoculars and pulled them out. “What is it Covert? I don’t see jackshit…oh shit.”

From the end of Ghastly Gorge, through the haze of the dust and floating dirt, I could make out glowing red eyes.

Thousands of glowing red eyes. Slowly the shapes of Shadow Humans and Shadow Warriors began to emerge. They climbed over the debris from the explosions and began making their way across the top of the rumble.

“So it seems that wasn’t the army.” I sighed and dropped the binoculars to the ground. “Perfect. And here I was thinking I wouldn’t get to do any up close killing!” I smiled and ran forward, startling Covert with my sudden movement.

“LET’S GO HAVE SOME FUN, COVERT!”

Play to make scene 20% more violent.

I jumped onto the slanted surface of the gorge, and began sliding down the edge of the gorge towards the oncoming army. The rifle was held tight in my grasp and I kicked up dust behind me. I flipped into the air as I approached the bottom of the wall and landed perfectly on my feet. I aimed and fired the rifle down range at the first Shadows climbing over the hill of rocks.

A trio of shadows stumbled under the well places bullets and toppled forward, bouncing to the ground, leaving a bloody trail behind them all the way down.

“Oh, it’s going to be a good day.” I smiled again and felt the rifle kick into my shoulder as more shadows slipped and fell under my fire to the bottom of the ruble. I leapt to the side and crouched, taking a kneeling position while spraying another shadow with bullets. It collapsed into a heap as a Shadow Warrior moved into the way.

It raised its two massive arms and lifted a boulder above its head. I ducked as it hurled the chunk of rock at me. It crushed the area I had just occupied. I dropped the rifle to my side and ran head on towards the towering enemy. Jerking out both swords on my back, I ducked underneath its tentacles that lashed out and stabbed the air.

Weaving in and out of the warriors stabbing shadow blades I got in close and swung both swords at one of its legs. The creature roared and toppled over to one side, thrown off balance the lack of one of its limbs. As it struggled to right itself, I jumped into the air and landed on its head. My combat boots drove its skull to the ground where it exploded like a pumpkin.

“HAHA!” I laughed manically while slashing the blades against a shadow that dared to fight me. The magical Zappy sliced through the shadow’s arm blade with ease and lodged itself in its chest. I lifted a foot and kicked the shadow in the gut, sending it flying of the blade and toppling into a rock, where I jumped forward and spun on my heel and lopped off its head.

I spun in a circle and ducked to the ground just as another blade passed over my head. I stuck the diamond sword forward and caught the shadow in the gut, spilling black blood everywhere. I ran forward through the chaos and sliced at any shadow that passed by me.

Shadow warriors chased after me, hurling rocks and anything else they could to try and cut off my run that was causing their ranks to implode on themselves.

“What's the plan?” A calm voice spoke from beside me. Covert seemed to just appear next to me. Both his hands had morphed into double pronged blades.

“Plan?” I laughed at the thought and ducked under a thrown rock. “There is no plan! Just kill shadows and slow them down while Ponyville prepares to fight what gets through.”

“That doesn’t sound like a plan.”

“It isn’t!” I laughed again and stopped running while slamming the blades backwards, both swords goring two shadows that had been following to close behind. I yanked the blades free from the dead shadows and sheathed them on my back. I lifted the rifle in one hand, and gripped my pistol in my gauntlet, allowing magic to flow into the chamber. “We hold them. Luna will send a scout to see how the trap worked. When he reports that the army is a lot bigger than expected, she’ll know to evacuate, because then comes the flood.”

I snorted and leveled the rifle to my side and fired a shot into the skull of a shadow. It flipped over backwards and tripped up several charging shadow humans. I quickly turned and brought my arm up deflecting a cut from a shadow. It staggered backwards, while I aimed the pistol under my arm and fired off a quick trio of magical bursts into its chest. I whipped around and fired the pistol while firing the rifle in the opposite direction. Shadows dropped left and right. Black blood slowly began to coat the rocks and ground around me with its slick tendency. Shadows began to slip in the gore of their dying comrades. I could only bask in the glory and thrill of fighting.

I turned to check up on Covert. I had yet to see him doing fighting. But then again I just realized why. I stared dumbstruck as a quick blur of a shadow moved from shadow human to shadow human. After that quick moving shadow moved from one, the shadow human would simply drop to the ground blood flowing freely from its chest or sliced open neck. Covert moved so quickly and silently, it was as almost he wasn’t even there, just a shadow being carried on the wind.

I turned my focus from Covert back to the shadow that was approaching me. It was moving slowly and deliberately towards me. Two long black curved horns protruded from its head and along both of its arms it had a long spike facing backwards. One of its hands was morphed into the shape of a medieval flail, and the other was a direct copy of Covert’s double pronged blade.

“The fuck are you?” I asked.

It gave no response. It just stared me down from across the blood soaked earth. Covert continued to fight in the background, but the surrounding shadows had stopped their attacks on me. I laughed and raised my rifle and fired a round straight into the chest of the new shadow.

It simply moved. Well it flashed to the side. One moment it was standing in front of me, the next it was right beside me, pulling its arm back- oh shit!

The flail caught me square in the chest armor plate. I flew backwards, coughing and clutching at my dented armor. I gasped as I struck the earth and toppled backwards, rolling to a stop against a boulder. I struggled to breathe as I sat up. The spike flail had pierced my armor and left multiple stab wounds across my chest. Blood was slowly trickling out of the holes and out from under the armor.

I looked up to see the shadow running right at me. There was quick flash of movement and I saw Covert step in front of the charging shadow to only be bitch slapped by the sword and sent hurtling against the gorge wall.

“What the hell are you?” I asked climbing to my feet, but my answer was kick to my stomach that knocked me backwards against the boulder, knocking the breath out of me. I flopped to the ground gasping for air. I aimed the pistol from my position on the ground and fired magical burst after magical burst at the shadow. It dipped and dodged its way around the shots and slowly got closer and closer. The pistol began to glow red from the heat building up along its barrel from the rapid firing of it. The shadow moved in for the kill.

It lunged forward, blade outreached to pierce my heart. At the last second I dove to the side, the blade stabbing into the rock I had been leaning against. The shadow grunted as it tried to pry its blade free. I walked up and pressed the red hot barrel of the pistol against its neck. But the shadow merely shook in pain. Not a sound escaping from it. I drew the diamond sword and placed the tip of it against the shadow’s neck. I slowly pushed inwards, letting the blade slowly slip into its neck, pitch black blood spilling forth from the wound and covering the ground. The shadow stopped struggling and finally went limp, slumping against the boulder. I panted, out of breath, and turned to face the remaining shadows. Covert stepped out from nowhere and stood next to me.

“That was a Shadow Champion. The best of the best. Solely created to kill you.”

“Wow that makes me feel real good.” I lifted my rifle up and continued the now somewhat labored attack on the shadows. The normal shadows felt like very easy mode on a video game compared to that…that shadow champion. I hadn’t been able to hit that thing once with my rifle or pistol. I hope there wasn’t any more of those Shadow Champions.

“Let’s fall back, Covert. I think the damage we have done will slow them down. I’ve got a few more aces up my sleeve.” I pulled out a second detonator and tapped it against my golden helmet.