Soldiers Die

by Gimtek

Chapter 2

Chapter two

A Really Bad Day

The two ponies got settled in, Twilight put on some more coffee while Luna made herself more comfortable. It would be a long story and thus a long night. There was a silence between the two, the unicorn trying to prepare herself mentally for the wave of incoming knowledge, the alicorn trying to to figure the best way to share it. "Luna," Twilight finally broke the silence as she returned with two mugs of coffee this time, "I really want to be able to understand Princess Celestia the best I can, but I'm not certain I'm quite ready for all of this just yet."

"You are more ready than you believe, Twilight Sparkle." The moon princess gives her a reassuring smile as Twilight takes her seat. "My sister adores you greatly, and trusts you to a fault, I know you harbor just as much admiration and trust for her as well. You are quite possibly the only pony alive that would hear this tale of Xiphos and understand the full meaning of it."

Twilight sips her coffee and bows her head slightly, looking at the floor. "Am I going to regret hearing any of this, will this change the way the Princess and myself see each other?" Her voice is low and dull.

"Yes, it will change things greatly." Luna's voice becomes calming and she puts a hoof on Twilight's cheek, bringing her head back up. "I believe it will be a good change though." Twilight looks up at Luna's face, feeling a little better she mirrors the princess's smile. The young unicorn nods and sits attentively as Luna pulls her hoof back begins to sip at her own mug. "I believe the best place to start would be the beginning."

Xiphos was barely a stallion.

Before him stood what was left of his patrol, and a pair of gryphons that they had been hunting. For weeks they have been chasing this pair, male and female, around the settlements north of The Everfree forest where they had taken to hunting ponies for sport. The male gryphon, roughly three times his size, looks upon him with a murderous smile as it licks some blood off his beak. The female behind him, slightly smaller in stature but just as ferocious as it seems, finishes off one of the other pony soldiers that was already mortally wounded. A few other ponies lay scattered about, some dead, others hurt pretty badly.

He was on his own.

"Looks like we only have one toy left to play with, sis." The gryphon takes a step toward Xiphos, his large claw stomping down loudly, kicking up dirt.

"That's a shame." The other says and flys toward Xiphos with a claw extended. "Guess we can always find more after we break this one!"

Xiphos had only recently joined the army. 'Protect Equestria! Defend Ponykind! In service of the Princesses!' The posters would promote when he was a little tan colt. When he was in school he had a reputation for always sticking up for the smaller ponies from the bullies, especially the unicorn and pegasi ones that claimed superiority over him and his earth pony classmates. He learned at a young age how to fight against aerial opponents and magic alike in these schoolyard brawls, growing tougher and more resilient with every challenge. When he got out of school he had already earned his cutie mark, a blue round shield with a small red heart in the center of it, symbolizing his protective nature. He enlisted because he wanted to help make a difference and protect those that cannot protect themselves. When the gryphon raids in the north started growing in frequency, he volunteered immediately, thinking he would have no problem fighting a winged lion or two.

He was wrong. Combat, REAL combat, was much different than schoolyard brawls. His opponents weren't trying to merely beat him or others up, they were after blood. His training in the army didn't quite prepare him for this level of terror. A chill ran down his spine when the two gryphons first ambushed them, dropping both unicorns in their first attacks from above, crushing the pony's bodies under their larger mass. Then they had taken to the air and picked off the pegasi that flew up after them, forcing the earth ponies to watch them fall one by one from the sky. Once they returned to the ground he and the other earth pony greeted them with their sword and spear, his blue pony friend went down, leaving only Xiphos left, staring at the carnage.

His commander was one of the unicorns that was dropped in the first moments of the attack. She had a blue coat and pink mane that was tied back in a long ponytail. Her death brought a sense of reality to it all. They had socialized in the past, becoming good friends. He even got to meet her famous brother, although she might have been showing off to him. Her pink mane was now crimson and brown from the mud and blood that mixed into it. When she got promoted to commander, she personally insisted he gets brought into her unit, to, as she put it, 'keep him close'. He shook his head, still shocked at her death, without realizing what it all meant, all the signs, he was angry for not realizing that there was something more, and how foolish he was for not realizing it until it was too late.

When the female charged, his mind wasn't on the fight anymore. It was on the ponies he and his fellow comrades had seen in the villages nearby. Bodies torn asunder by claws, pegasi missing wings and unicorns with their horns snapped off and left to live, these gryphons were beyond cruel with their acts. Colts, fillys, stallions, mares, the elderly were all victimized. Broken and defeated and butchered like she was. Defenseless against these beasts many times their size, the villagers had no chance, they cheered at the arrival of troops from Everfree castle, hope filling their hearts.

Hope was all they had left now. He was all that they had left now. That hope fueled his spirit and extinguished his fear as his eyes narrowed on the speeding gryphon as he ducked low to the ground under the gryphon's claw at the last possible moment, it's eagle head shooting a surprised look downward as Xiphos quickly rises back up, sword in mouth, slashing the underside of the beast. The momentum of the attack helped lodge his blade into the gryphon's torso as she went limp in midair and rolled into a collapsed heap. Unarmed, Xiphos turns to the other gryphon, who has a myriad of expressions from surprise to shock to anger as it begins to run on all fours to extract revenge on the tan stallion.

Front Line had just woken up. The blue earth pony had been slashed badly on the side and knocked down, passed out from the pain. He winces in pain as he stands up slowly. Observing the fight in front of him for a moment, the large gryphon that took him down was fighting with Xiphos in claw to hoof combat. Both were extremely agile, avoiding each other's bucks and swipes. The gryphon was wary to take a direct hit from a stout earth pony, and the pony was avoiding the deadly blood stained talons of the gryphon, both knowing that one solid strike will win the melee. He looks around for anything that might help. Finding his discarded spear, he slowly picks it up in his mouth and gives it a heave toward the fight. "Take this you monster!" He yells after loosing the projectile then collapsing in pain once again.

The gryphon, upon hearing an unexpected shout behind him, cocks his head to the side at the source of the noise. Catching a glimpse of an iron spear landing a good twenty hooves short of its mark. He grinned for a split second when he noticed the spear was no threat. Unfortunately for him it was never meant to hit him and Front Line knew this when he threw it. Too hurt to make an accurate throw without risking hitting Xiphos, he did the next best thing.

He got the gryphon's attention for a moment.

He didn't even see the hooves that hit him square in the neck. Tumbling down to the ground, losing control of his body as his field of vision was limited to the ground and a cheering blue pony laying on the ground. It was strange that he barely felt any pain, only some pressure. Slowly his vision became blurry, then dark.

A few hours later, three ponies showed up along the edge of the village. Front Line, helped along by Xiphos, beside them both is a black pegasus named Onyx Daggers, her wing broken and bandaged up, she had gotten lucky and fell into some soft mud when the gryphons broke her wing mid flight. They were only survivors of the engagement, two unicorns and one other pegasus were not so lucky. Many ponies in the village raced to their aid, bringing fresh water and bandaging and food to the three worn out and beat up ponies. Some asked if there would be more attacks, others asking questions as to what happened, and others were giving thanks for their efforts. Xiphos tries his best to calm the crowd down, giving a few villagers the location of the fight so they can retrieve the other's bodies for burial.

"Three cheers for Xiphos, hero of Equestria!" Front Line shouts above the crowd. Still holding his bandaged side but grinning through the pain at his fellow soldier. "He defeated both gryphons single hoofedly and stopped their reign of terror!"

There was a short silence as the crowd soaked in that information. Xiphos took a step back with his eyes widened as heads turned toward him one by one. "No.. I... We..." Was all he got out before cheering drowned him out and he was thrust upon the backs of several ponies that began parading him around and praising him. Onyx chuckled a bit and helped Front Line up to follow the crowd.

"You sure you don't want some of the credit?" She raises an eyebrow at the blue stallion.

"No way, you know how much I hate the attention." He laughs back as he watches the parade carry Xiphos off. "Besides, it'll help get his mind off, you know..."

Onyx bends over and kisses him on the cheek. "You know, they would've made a cute couple if only they had taken that step.". She jabs at his good side. "We should be so lucky."

The two lean on one another a moment, happy to still be alive. "Maybe we should think about that step then... Before one of us..." He is silenced by a hoof on his lips as they just hold one another.

A brief speech from the village elder honoring the dead brought it all out in Xiphos. Tears began to flow as those around him tried to comfort him. The wounded ponies had called it an early night, retiring to their room that the villagers had set up for the night, allowing Xiphos to soak in all the thanks and gratitude the villagers had to spare in an attempt to cheer him up. Despite putting on a smile for the townsponies, he kept choking back memories. A burden had been lifted off their town, many of them happy for the first time in weeks and he didn't wish to ruin it for them. The following morning several carts were set up. The strongest townsponies volunteered to carry the soldiers and their fallen back to the Everfree castle, a few day's journey away.

"Wait, who are these other ponies," Twilight pauses Luna's story. "this 'Front Line' and 'Onyx Daggers'? Where are you? Where is the princess? Where is Star Swirl?" Her battery of questions attack the lunar princess rapidly. "And what is the Everfree castle? Is it related to the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters?"

Luna finishes her mug of coffee and sets it aside. "I started at the beginning, and Front Line and Onyx Daggers happened to be there at the beginning." She pushes her mane away from her eyes with one hoof and her eyes narrow. "As for the castle, your assumption is correct, the Everfree castle is now the ruins where you fought Nightmare Moon." Twilight grins happily like she just got an 'A' on her test. "They were with Xiphos when I first took notice of him and his heroic acts. They were soldiers, and good ones in their own right, and they were his friends." She gets up and stretches her legs, staring out the window, the sun was already starting to set and it was almost time to raise the moon. "When they returned to the castle it was nightfall, and thus my duty to take their report of the mission."

The castle had never looked better and worse at the same time. He knew he would be the only one able to make the report to the princess before making his other stop. Xiphos walked alongside the two carts. In one cart his wounded comrades, that were still too injured to make the journey on their own strength, rode and occasionally snuggled. The other cart contained three forms covered in black sheets. He tried not to dwell on one of them, but thoughts and memories kept creeping in. The armored guards opened the front gates to allow the entire party into the main courtyard. At that point they all were split up. Doctors and nurses pull Front and Onyx away to treat them at the infirmary, another group took the covered bodies to begin arrangements.

Xiphos was given a quick once over by a nurse and told to get some bed rest for exhaustion. He thanked her and promised to do so once he gave his reports. Sore from the bruises he received and that long walk home, he is thankful for the journey to be near an end, to have time to be alone with his thoughts and mourn. He passes several heavily armored guards that grant him passage into the main keep of the castle. Climbing up the short stone stairway to a pair of large ornate wooden doors, a pair of princess Luna's personal Nightguard stop him momentarily.

"I am from commander Misty Swirl's unit, dispatched weeks ago to deal with the gryphon problems in the north." Xiphos stands at attention to the pair of ponies, the personal royal guards of either princess are considered equal in rank to commanders in the field should the need arise for them to take command in the defense of the goddesses.

"Where is your commander? Should she not be the one giving the report?" One of the guards replies strongly, eyeing the weary pony up and down with a suspicious look.

Without hesitation, Xiphos retorts. Shoving the emotion down deep to not show any of it. "Commander Swirl died in battle a few days ago, along with two others in my unit, the other members are all injured and in the infirmary." He turned his gaze at the guard eyeing him. "Her brother hasn't been notified yet, I would like to hurry this along so I may deliver that news myself."

The guard steps into Xiphos's face, their noses almost touching. "How dare you brush off Princess Luna for another errand just like that, you should know--".

Xiphos straightens his stance, an angry scowl washing over his face as he towers a few inches taller than the guard, leaning forward over him. His face full of fury at the obstacle between hisself and the princess. "You should know that you are impeding a formal military report from being made, and a subsequent message to the Royal Sister's personal student! How do you think the princess will react to your obvious posturing to a soldier back from battle from a guard that hasn't seen combat in his entire career!" The guard steps back in shock.

"I'll have you thrown in the dungeon or banished for that comment! I'll--" he is interrupted by his fellow guard who puts a hoof to his shoulder and whispers into his ear. The color fades from his face as his mouth hangs open, eyes widened in horror. He steps back to the door and opens cracks it open. "Ri-right this way, the princess will see you now." Xiphos walks in tiredly, trying to forget the guards and forces hisself not to scowl as he walks down the hall. "How was I supposed to know Misty was..." He hears behind him in whispers as the doors swing closed with a loud echo.

"YOU MAY APPROACH THE ROYAL THRONE, SOLDIER!" A loud echoing voice resonates throughout the hall, causing Xiphos to grit his teeth before approaching and bowing before Princess Luna. "Rise and report." She orders in a slightly less eardrum shattering decibel level.

"I am Xiphos, your majesty, of commander Misty Swirl's unit..." He never looks up, his eyes clenched shut. "Dispatched by yourself several weeks ago to investigate the gryphon attacks north of the Everfree forest." He thinks about her again, a teardrop full of regret splashes onto the midnight blue colored runner leading to the throne. "We took casualties but found a pair of gryphon, brother and sister, and defeated them." Her pink mane and a smile are all he sees for a moment until he opens his eyes and sees a pair of hooves in front of him wearing royal regalia. He stands slowly, raising his head to view the rest of his princess.

"We understand your commander was among those that did not return." Luna says, softer than before but still enough to jab the skull. "The threat to our little ponies is gone for now, but at a cost. Hast thou approached our apprentice with this dire news?" She remarks without changing her expression from her typical stern look.

"No..." He hangs his head down. "No princess, I came to give my report to you immediately upon my return." He feels miserable and begs silently to be dismissed.

"Your report can wait, Xiphos. Return to us once you have finished this important task. We will mourn for Commander Swirl as well, she was a good pony." She turns to head back to her throne, slowly seating herself. "You are dismissed, Commander Xiphos."

Commander? He had just been promoted to her position just like that. He felt even worse than he did before he arrived at the castle. "Commander, your highness?" The insolent question just blurted out, questioning a princess was very high on the things no pony ever did, not that he cared right now.

"I thought about zapping him right there on the spot." Luna looks at Twilight and sips her coffee, the moon already on the rise.

"Why would you do such a thing! He was just in shock, everything that happened to him was just horrible!" Twilight exclaims, hooves waving in the air.

"At the time, I did not have that information that he and commander Swirl were an item. Nor would it had mattered, one did not simply speak that way to a princess in that day and age." The moon princess explains. "It was a much darker time, attacks like with those gryphons were the least of our troubles and we... I did not have time to explain every military decision I made. At the time I needed a new commander, and he seemed right, I sensed it was a good decision at the time, although my sister disagreed the next morning."

"You and princess Celestia disagreeing? I thought you too got along so well, because well.. You are sisters!" Twilight tilts her head sideways a little.

"We have and we still do, it's natural for everypony to not be in agreement from time to time." Luna gives a teasing smile, "Of course It would be nice if we all had relationships like you and your BBBFF."

"Well, I guess I was a special case, having the best big brother ever." Twilight blushes a little at the compliment. "So I assume you decided not to zap him, why?"

Luna just stares off out the window, looking for any sign of her missing sister, but finding none yet. "Because Twilight, at the time, I thought zapping him would be too merciful for him, somepony still had to tell Star Swirl. He wasn't a violent pony, but very talented, and always looking for an excuse to test new spells."

Comments

[pahnazd]

And another jab in the heart, good job. If you keep this up, each new chapter will be better than the previous

[Master-Chief]

Excellent.
Five stars

[TwiceMarked]

An excuse to test new spells?
...
Brilliant.

Loved the chapter, especially the talk down that Xiphos gave that guard. Ponmpous little @$#%.
Maybe that's the reason why they don't talk or show emotion, not for dignity or whatever, but because StarSwirl got so annoyed with them that he tested a new spell on them that made them the emotionless statues they are today!

(Yes I know that there were guards who talked during Philomena's episode, so maybe the higher the rank the easier it is for them to perform as normal ponies)

[Silverstein]

Great story!