• 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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Elements of Sanctuary

Honor Above All Else
Chapter 33
By Honored Service


I sat up in my cot and stretched my arms above my head. The sun was just beginning its rise over the horizon as I stepped out of my small tent on the outskirts of the tent city. I brushed some dust off my shoulder armor and adjusted the pistols along my belt. I left my rifles and shotgun locked inside a chest in my tent. No need to be armed to the teeth at this point in time. The only change I made to my armory were the silencers to the two Glock 21s. Mix it up a bit, first time I’ve had a silencer in Equestria.

“Morning.” I nodded to a group of the remaining guards that were sitting around a campfire. Only twenty-five of them left. The reserve force of guards, the ones guarding other cities and towns like Appleloosa and Manehattan should be arriving within the next few hours. Tonight we would prepare and assemble the troops, and then tomorrow at noon, when the sun reached its apex, we would launch the assault on Canterlot.

And of course I would be leading the head on charge.

Someone had to be the distraction while the real assault force hit the city from under it. Luna had made the suggestion of using the underground gem mines to assault up and take the shadows by surprise. That and with the drop shock guards dropping in from Fast Skies, we would have the city surrounded and chocked off in a matter of hours.

Move like lightning. Hit ‘em fast where it hurts.

“Good morning Honored.” A chipper voice called out from above. I looked up to see Sergeant Stand Bold float down. He was dressed up in his full battle armor. “What's on the agenda for today?”

“Get you some more balls.” I said with a smile.

“Why I should knock-“

“Cannon balls you thick headed feather brain.” I sighed and looked away from the pegasus. “We’ll reequip Fast Skies for the assault on Canterlot. But I want to try and do this quietly. No more of this massive battle shit. To many ponies have died already.” I looked at the field behind Ponyville. The once lush and green field was now covered in graves. Lots of graves freshly dug. Even as we spoke, new ones were being dug for the recently killed at the last battle.

“I feel you buddy.” Stand Bold hovered back into the air. “I want this all to end so I can just go back to my lazy routine. Wake up, go to formation, go to sleep.” He laughed and sped off towards the mess tent to load up on breakfast. I decided to skip the meal for now and go and check up on the girls and Luna.

And Covert. Where was that shadow?

“So-“

“AHHHHHHH SHIT!” I screamed and ran head first into a pole sticking in the ground. I rubbed my forehead and turned to face the shadow. “What did I say about doing that sneaky shit!” I wasn't really hurt…well other than my pride.

“Sorry. I don’t mean to. I can’t really help it. Being stealth is my talent.” Covert stated matter o’ factly.

“No really?” I smiled at him. “Okay well how’s everything with you?”

“Cant complain. New weapon worked wonders on the battlefield and we had a great victory against Day Terror. I only wish to see and end to this, something I'm sure you do too.”

“You have no idea.” I was about to ask Covert another question when I noticed something in the sky far in the distance.

Three dots were chasing each other around. Except the dots continued to grow in size. “Covert you see that?” I raised my hand and pointed in the direction of the dots.

“Well I see three black things fighting in the sky.” Covert squinted his red eyes at the shapes. “But I can’t really see anything.”

“Me neither.” I bolted back towards my tent where I kept something that certainly could make out the objects. I ducked under two guards carrying a large slab of wood and slide across the ground. I hopped over a small barricade and dashed through a tent where some guard was just climbing out of bed. Leaping through the window in the side of the tent, I tucked and rolled across the ground, coming up to my feet and slid through the tent flap into my quarters. I flicked the lock open on the large green case and quickly pulled out the XM2010 ESR. I ran out of the tent and propped the rifle up on a pile of bricks from a destroyed house nearby.

I focused the large optic sight on the dots and zoomed the scope in. the shapes soon began to focus in. The dots soon grew wings, then legs, and a tail. Then colors began to appear. Brown and whites, black and greys, tan and brown. With a few more turns on the magnification sight, the dots finally became recognizable shapes.

Griffons.

My interactions with the feathered creatures has been less than ideal. First being thrown into prison and worked like a slave for two months by them started off a bad relationship. And then to find them aiding damn Day Terror. Well I would put it as me having a slight grudge against them. I slowly adjusted the sights for elevation and distance, and began to ease finger onto the trigger.

I was about to squeeze the trigger when I noticed a flash of light purple on the griffon being chased by the other two. Light purple feathers around the eyes. “Gilda?” I re adjusted the rifle and squeezed the trigger.

“Show me two birds, one bullet.”

CRACK


“Just leave me alone featherjockeys!” Gilda dove to the right as the griffon giving chasing slashed at her with sharp talons. “I don’t want to be a part of this war!”

“Not your call !” A griffon with tan feathers and brown fur yelled back. “You were enlisted into the fighting force!”

“Yeah, the new general wants you dead or alive, so you're coming back; one way or another.” The griffon with gray feathers and a black body called out. “And your dead body won’t fight back!”

Gilda dove again down into a rapid dive away from her two attackers, but they were close behind her. She leveled out and speed rapidly towards Ponyville. It was the last place she wanted to go, but that’s where the human was. And the human was her only chance of safety.

CRACK

Something whistled by Gilda’s head. She jerked her head around to follow the noise, but only saw the body of Bloodfeather plummet towards the earth. Grayback still continued to pursue her, but he was bleeding from one of his hind legs. That wound would make his fighting on the ground sloppy. She had him now.

Gilda angled herself in a step dive down towards Ponyville town square where she would have enough room to fight the other griffon. She landed hard and ran to a stop while Grayback limped after her.

“Stop running you worthless chick!” He spat at her. “Come face me like a true griffon warrior. You shame your family by fleeing form a fight. You are the biggest coward that Griff-“

PSSH PSSH PSSH PSSH

A very soft popping-hissing filled the air. Gilda turned her head to the advancing griffon. She watched as Grayback’s body jerked backwards and slumped to the ground, blood slowly pooling out and forming a puddle on the cobblestone street. She looked at what had just killed her opponent.

The very human she had come to see was standing behind her holding one of his unique magic hand weapons. It had a long thick cylinder protruding off its front with a small wisp of smoke curling out from it. A long weapon was held to his back by a black sling that crossed his armor. His armor had a dull shine to it as the morning sun rose into the sky.

“‘Sup?” He said calmly, while dropping the pistol into a holster on his belt. “I was wondering if I’d see you again.” The human faced Gild and very slowly drew another small weapon with his gauntleted hand before lazily aiming it at the griffon.

“So Gilda, I see your forelimb healed up nicely.” Honored dipped the barrel of the pistol so it pointed at her leg that had previously been shot during the first assault on Ponyville. “I'm surprised that you would show up here again.” The pistol’s opening on the barrel began to shimmer with a deep red. “Now why shouldn't I drop you where you stand?”

Gilda’s beak open and closed like a steel trap, but no words came out. Her mind was running wild, trying to think of some answer that would save her from death. “I... I… Please I came to fight with you!” Gilda screamed out. “Please! I don’t want to fight with Day Terror and the griffons. She has promised our nation wealth and prosperity but it’s all lies. It’s not cool!” Gilda bowed towards the ground, presenting the back of her neck to the armored human before her. In griffon culture, such a gesture was a sign of respect, humility, and trust to show such a vulnerable spot to another.

Gilda heard a click and prepared herself to be reunited with her ancestors.


I flicked the safety on the pistol and dropped the Berretta back into the holster mounted on my belt. “Get up. We need to talk.” I turned around on the heel of my boot and began walking towards the center of the tents. “Well are you coming?” Gilda slowly got up from the ground and quickly ran towards me, stopping just shy of my side.

“First things first Gilda, you're going to make nice with Rainbow Dash and any other pony that was hurt by your visit last time you were here.”

“How…wait how do you know about that?” Gilda asked me while clicking her beak at me. I simply smiled and tapped the side of my head with a finger.

“Don’t worry about it.” I kept my smile up and opened the cloth flap to the tent where the girls were staying, “Now let’s get in there and make some friends.”

“Um hi Dash.” Wow this was awkward. I was standing behind Gilda who was pawing at the ground nervously while Rainbow Dash glared daggers from across the tent.

“Honored why is she here?” Rainbow dash asked me from across the room, choosing to simply ignore the griffon in the room.

“Gilda is here to help us. She doesn’t want to be a part of Day Terror’s army like the other griffons. Go ahead Gilda, tell her.” I urged her forward with a wave of my hand. She was treating this like a nervous child handles the first day of school or something. I sat down at the edge of the tent and took out one of Glocks and began to break it down while the girls had their talk.

“Dash please listen.” Gilda began, but Rainbow simply turned around and walked towards a cot with a Wonderbolt blanket on it.

“I don’t want to hear it Gilda. I wrote to you. Letter after letter, but not once did you respond. I tried to get you to come back and try again, but you didn’t even have the bucking gall to tell me to fuck off!”

I politely coughed from across the room, and locked the slide into place on the pistol. It slid into place with a click. I looked at Dash and shook my head.

“Sorry.” She mumbled under her breath. “Gild I was hurt that you treated my friends like losers and that you didn't write back to me. I wanted to stay friends, but you wouldn’t let me.” Dash turned back to Gilda and quickly wiped a hoof across her eyes.

“Dash…I never wrote back because I was scared. I was afraid that we wouldn't be friends again. That you would judge me after what I said. Even if what I said was lame.”

“Yeah a flip flop was a pretty stupid insult.” Dash cracked a smile and Gilda copied her. The two old friend locked eyes with each other and broke out into laughter.

“See isn't it better when we talk things out and not just shoot each other and stab each other and grind our enemies into the dirt?” I laughed while the two girls just looked at me with shocked looks. “Kidding!” I held up my hands, “mostly.” I added under my breath. “Okay well you two hug and make up.”

Gilda shuffled her claws on the ground while Dash kicked a hoof into the dirt. The two looked up at each other and jumped into a hug. “Sorry G.”

“Sorry Dash.”

“Good. Good. Now stroke each other’s fur. Yes. That's nice, maybe a little kiss?”

Both heads turned and looked at me with death bringing glares.

“Jeez lighten up you two.Just a joke. Come on. I'm out of here, you two play nice.” I shrugged my shoulders and left the tent as Gilda and Rainbow Dash could catch up on everything they missed. I walked back to my tent and put my sniper back into the crate before locking it up. I flopped down onto my cot and waited for Luna to get back from the reserve unit of guards. We needed a count on how many ponies we had total. I was still down for a one man assault bringing nothing but death and destruction on anything that stood in my way. Slaughtering anything that moved as I pushed my way up through the street of Canterlot, not stopping until I reached Day Terror. Then I would have Twilight teleport herself and the other Elements to my position, blast Day Terror with the friendship beam or whatever and pry Nightmare from Celestia.

Then the real fun would start.

I will make that two timing worthless excuse of a villain wish that death would come. I would make him see death as an escape to horrible things I have planned.

“Honored are you in your tent?” Luna called out as she got closer.

“No.”

“Haha very funny.” Luna poked her head into the tent. “Come on, follow me to the command tent. It’s time to make adjustments to the plan, because I found something that you might like.” Luna added with a smile.

“Ughhhhhhhh but I just laid down!” I complained, and suddenly found myself flying out of my cot and through the tent flap. I flailed around in midair, trying to grab onto anything and wrench myself free from the crazy alicorn’s magical grasp.

“How are you thought to be so tough? You can’t even get out of a simple levitation spe-“

Click

Luna turned to face me. I was hanging upside down with both silenced pistols aimed directly at her. I cracked a daring smile and nodded my head towards the ground. Luna rolled her eyes and dropped me head first into the dirt. In retrospect, I should have seen that one coming.

“See I also could have used my own magic to cause a burst of repel magic to disrupt your flow.” I said while holstering the pistols. Luna wore a very surprised look on her face. “I’ve been taking lessons from Twilight in my spare time. I can now pick things up without them turning into weapons. So that’s pretty helpful.”

“Indeed.” We walked into the command tent were the gathered creatures surrounded the map of Canterlot and a large red ruby sat on the map. Swirling colors floated inside of the gem.

Covert, Sergeant Stand Bold, Gilda, and Luna took position on one side of the table next to me, while Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy stood opposite of us. The old map was spread before us. I looked it over before coughing, drawing attention to myself.

“Now everypony, griffon, and shadow, I am still in favor of a one man assault on the castle and then having the Elements teleported to my spot once the resistance has been dealt with.” I crossed my arms. I'm sure the ponies would make their arguments just like before.

“Simply loco in the coco!”

“Darling that is a truly barbaric plan.”

“Ah know all about taking on more than you can handle.”

“Statistically the odd of you reaching the castle and still having enough energy to fight Day Terror is highly against you.”

“Listen man, you just aren’t fast or cool enough to do it.”

“You um… might get hurt maybe.”

“Honored this plan could fail before you even reach the castle gate.” Luna ended the arguments.

“Okay hold on; let’s just check my K/D board.” I summoned magic into my palm and focused on a very simple spell of light illusion Twilight had taught me. A bright neon red board appeared above my head. It had my name, Honored Service, on one side with a K and a D column on it. The K had +10,000 on it and the D had a large 0.

“I think my record speaks for itself.” The board vanished and I slowly clapped to myself. “Now Luna you said you had something good to show me?”

“Yes. We will discuss this ludacris plan of yours latter, but here is what I though you should see. It was recovered by a forward recon team yesterday at the base of Canterlot Mountain. Luna poked the gem with a hoof. It rolled over to me and stopped on the sharp point standing straight up. I watched in disbelief as it began to spin. Faster and faster until the colors swirling inside of it leaked out and formed the shape of a unicorn’s face above the spinning gem.

“Lieutenant Honored Service, if you're hearing this than that means this recording gem was successful.” I was staring at a recording holographic image of Short Blade. His orange goat and brown and black mane were covered in dirt and looked shaggy and cut in certain spots. There was a large cut along his face running from over his left eye all the way down to the bottom of his chin. “Honored the remaining members of Saddle Company are still operating in the city of Canterlot. I say again we are holding onto a very small section of the underground gem caves in Canterlot. We are dangerously low on supplies and about to be overrun. We have been using guerrilla tactics and hitting the enemy whenever we can but we need help.”

The image flashed briefly before disappearing, but a moment later it flickered back up. Battle Plan was now standing I in the place of Short Blade. He wasn’t as skinny and lanky as the last time I saw him. His glasses were cracked and his sage coat was just as dirty as Short Blade’s. His silver mane was cut so low it looked nearly nonexistent. “Honored, I'm going to shoot this gem off from the city towards Ponyville. Hopefully it will find a way to you. I know that you've been giving them hell. I saw both armies head off towards there in the past few weeks. If you can’t get here in time it’s alright. We all know what we signed up for. We’re going out swinging and that’s what counts.” The image flickered again and a large blue earth pony occupied the hologram.

“Honored, it was an honor serving with you. Sky would have been proud to see what you've done to save the ponies.” Hammer Strike adjusted a massive hammer that rested on his back. “What we wouldn't give to have a couple of you humans up here. Give ‘em hell sir.” Hammer gave a salute and the image went dead. A flash of yellow took up the screen as Quick Flurry limped into the frame. His yellow coat was smudged with dirt and his normally erratic orange mane was burnt on one side of his head.

“Hey there sir… sorry I can’t do this all solemn like. Sup buddy! Care to lend me a wing?” he turned and showed the left side of his body. His side was covered in a wicked burn that started at the neck and went all the way to his flank. But the worst part was his yellow wing was gone. Nothing but a little stump remained. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Luna all jerked at the sight of it. “It hurt like hell Honored, but I was able to pull through and save Battle Plan so it was worth it. I'm still the fastest, even on the ground. I just can’t fly anymore. I’ll try to save some shadows for you!” the image flickered back to Short Blade who coughed and looked very sad at the ruby.

“Well Honored, this was supposed to be our last words kind of thing. I hope I'm wrong.” The picture of Short Blade fizzled out into nothingness. Everpony stood in silence around the table, soaking up the information that had just been dumped. Slowly all the eyes surrounding the table turned and focused in on me.

I calmly placed hands on the table and leaned in so I was closer to everyone gather around. I waited as the gathered ponies and creatures inched their heads in to hear what I had to say. I wanted a good dramatic pause to accumulate throughout the tent. Then I broke the silence.

“This assault just became a search and rescue with a secondary objective of stopping Day Terror.” I quickly brought my arm across the map and moved all the chest pieces to one side. I placed four pawns in the center of Canterlot to represent the members of the trapped Saddle Company. I moved the other chest pieces, a queen, rooks, knights, some bishops to Ponyville to represent the standing Royal Guard force that would attack Canterlot. I then reached out and plunged my knife into the space between Ponyville and Canterlot. “That’s me.”

The ponies, griffon and shadow all gave me curious glances. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Okay we have trapped group of ponies that have been fighting the shadows at the heart of their operations. I am going to get them out. The plan is simple, I head to the city first, using sneak and elusiveness to get in the city, refraining from any actual fights, and get to the trapped group of guards. With some type of signal, the main assault lead by you Luna will advance once I have met and secured the guards. Then we punch through the castle from two sides. The main assaulting force and the hidden guerrilla force which I will now be operating with.” I crossed my arms across my armored chest and waited for my fellow guards and friends to make comments.

“I don’t like it.” Luna said while running through the different scenarios on how this could play out. “But having you on the inside would cause unimaginable chaos for Day terror.”

Gilda just shrugged her shoulders, “seems like a cool plan to me. Honestly dividing the city into two fronts would put a strain on Day Terror’s already spread thin forces. That last failed attack she tried nearly wiped the city clean of all its defenders.”

Covert looked at me and grinned his red smile. “If you're going, then I'm going too.”

“Oh no you don’t.” I looked back at him and spoke sternly. “I need you here on the front lines of the assault force.”

“And sure, you're a master of stealth.” He cocked his head to the side and vanished into thin air, only to reappear behind me on the ground as my shadow. He then reached up, grabbed my boots and flipped me to the ground, catching me before I hit the dirt and flipped me over, not making a sound as he then placed one of his double pronged blades across my throat. “I on the other hand am a master of stealth. It’s what I do.”

I glared at him, but then eased up and relaxed. He stood up and extended me one of his arms. I took it and stood up. “Okay. Me and my shadow will infiltrate the city and rendezvous with the lost squad. Any questions?”

Pinkie pie raised a hoof into the air and began to bounce up and down rapidly while groaning like a small child. I sighed and immediately regretted asking.

“Yes Pinkie?” I said through gritted teeth, this wasn't the time for her games. I needed to get to Canterlot like yesterday. If this ruby was recovered late yesterday afternoon it could be too late for Saddle.

“What are the,” Pinkie turned her head upside down to read some words scribbled onto the bottom of the map in front of Princess Luna, “Elements of Sanctuary?”

“I…” my voice died in my throat as I grabbed the map and jerked it off the table. I looked at the small scribble in the corner. It was written with ink, but somepony had tried to smudge it out so it was barely visible. I could make out the top of the writing; it said the Elements of Sanctuary. Under that was a small list, which was completely smudged through so nothing was legible.

I slowly put the map down and looked at Luna. “Spill it.”

“We…I have no idea what you are talking about!” Luna’s eyes darted around the tent avoiding eye contact with me.

“Talk. Please.” I sighed and eased up my death glare. “Luna I know I heard you mention something about ‘new Elements’ before, so please tell me, tell us about them.”

“Fine, I suppose there is no point in hiding the truth any longer. The Elements of Harmony aren’t the only Elements in existence.” She lifted a hoof to the mane six who were on one side of the table. They all wore their respected Element around their neck, save for Twilight who wore her magic tiara. “They were found by my sister and myself long ago and served as our magical tools from the beginning of Equestria. They could be used to build land, construct mountains, fill seas, and even in extreme cases, be used as a means of defense.” The memories of Nightmare Moon and Discord flashed through everypony’s mind.

“But recently Honored, while you were gone for the year, I was reading some very old tomes regarding the Elements, that there might have been some way to use them to locate your body for a proper burial.”

“Wait what?” Gilda asked with a hocked expression. Rainbow Dash simply placed a hoof on her back and shook her head.

“Shhhhs it’s a really long story.”

Luna coughed, “the Elements of Harmony weren't made to act as a weapon, even in defense, so basically they created an opposite set of Elements. The Elements of Sanctuary. They were created to act as the main defense force for Equestria and every land on our peaceful earth. Whenever trouble would arise, the Elements of Sanctuary would intervene and act as-“

“The protectors.” I cut in, finally realizing what Luna was getting to. “But then the ancient humans of Hum-gia died off, and the Elements of Sanctuary were lost.”

“Precisely.” Luna nodded at me. “Humans were the main carriers of the Sanctuary. Sure a pony here and there would carrier one, but the humans were just natural made to-“

“Protect.” I cut in again.

“Yes.” Luna said through gritted teeth, “now would you like me to finish explaining?”

“Please.” I said innocently.

“Once the humans detonated their light bombs to destroy the nightmare once and for all, they elements of Sanctuary were lost. But I think, this is me just thinking widely here, that some force, more powerful that Celestia and myself together, ripped a living creature not only from another world, but from another universe and brought them to Equestria. I think that the Elements of Sanctuary have been reactivated and you are the heart of them.”

I stood their stunned. New Elements? Some magic ass rocks are the things that pulled me here?

A

Rock.

Seriously?

“So you're telling me some magical necklace pulled me through time and space to become its new bearer?”

“No.”

“Thank god.”

“The Elements of Sanctuary were not and will not be necklaces. They are magically enchanted weapons that wield power beyond belief, but can only be used for protecting by its bearer.”

I dropped to the ground, flat on my ass. “I don’t need this shit now!” I sighed. “Okay so what are the Elements of Sanctuary?”

Luna stopped for a moment and thought. She lit up her horn and floated a quill out of an ink well and began to write on the map in the same spot as the smudge was. “There was Protection, Stealth, Control, Strength, Wit, and Steadfast. Each one worked together to bring Sanctuary to the land.”

“Did you find any of them?” I quietly asked. I had a good idea about a couple of them, but some of the Elements still eluded me. “Not the weapons, but the bearers.”

“Well I can’t be sure, but I think I have. But the only way to test that is the bearers have to come into contact with the physical Elements, the weapon for each one. You obviously are one of the Elements. The Element of Protection, both Celestia and I were positive on that one. The others, well not so much, I have some ideas but nothing solid yet.”

“Okay well we can worry about that later. As far as I'm concerned we have come this far without the knock off Elements, we don’t need them now.” I grunted and walked towards the door of the tent.

“But Honored-“

“No. there isn't time for a whole side quest adventure to find some mysterious Elements! There are brave ponies trapped in Canterlot. My friends are trapped by vicious shadows and I sure as hell am going to get them out. Magic rocks or not.” I stormed out of the tent and towards my tent to arm myself for the assault. I would need stealth. All the stealth.

I unlocked the container and loaded myself down with all of my weapons. The main weapons though would be the small Glock 21s. Their silencers just became the most valuable things for this mission. Well the swords and knife were stealthy too, but just not as effective at range.

I strode out of my tent and made a beeline towards the edge of Ponyville. Covert joined up with me a minute later. He nodded to me and we began our two man march towards Canterlot, both of us choosing to remain silent as we were lost in our own thoughts. I wondered about these new Elements. Fuck them. They haven’t helped for shit for the last year and half. It has been only the hard work and sacrifice of ponies that have made progress against the evils in the world, not some magical Elements that have refused to help.

Fuck the Elements of Sanctuary.

And fuck Day Terror.