Darkness of Ages - Book 1: Greyhield

by YoungQuillMaster

Chapter 17: Retribution

Blaze rolled his shoulders once more, letting his armor settle a bit more into place. The cloth undergarment did little to stop certain parts of the chain mail poking him and sections of the plate mail jabbing him in the sides. He had been fortunate enough to have been able to convince one of the smiths that had been able to escape from Canterlot to make him a suit of armor that covered a good bit more area of protection along with a suit of chain mail that hadn’t been common place in the guard for the longest of times, mostly since the guard didn’t want to be encumbered so much by its additional weight after an incident that caused Celestia to be attacked during the time it took for the nearest guards to arrive.

“Just, confirming that you want two more of these made for replacements in case one sustains heavy damage?” The smith asked, adjusting another strap on Blaze’s armor before sliding the piece of cloth between two of the plates.

“Correct, my hooves on approach to battle tend to make me soak up the fire during a battle, so there is no guaranty that this suit will even survive this battle upcoming battle.” Blaze stated. “Be sure that I will try my best in spite of the fact.”

“Try hard to get this thing to a state of ill repair or try hard to keep it in decent shape?” The pony asked as they tucked the last strap in its place. “There, see what you think about the fit and weight.” Blaze stepped off the fitting stage and took a few steps, letting the weight of the armor settle with each step.

“I’ll be taking this to the running track to make sure. I need to know if Ï can maneuver enough to even think about dodging.” Blaze explained as he left the fitting theater. Blaze made his way towards the exercise area, which had formerly been a ball room, in a brisk trot, letting the heftiness of the armor really sink in as it bounded on his form. Several guards he passed gave a small salute as he passed by, Blaze only giving a nod in return as he didn’t want to stop. Eventually he entered the wide space which was cluttered with several pieces of equipment that had been taken when the guards had left Canterlot, though the sheer amount of it was quite surprising, especially the magic absorbing stones.

“Nice suit of armor, Blaze.” Half Pint commented as he set the weights he had been lifting to the side as he sat up on the table, which had been the best improvisation the guards had been able to find. Blizzard looked over, still bobbing up and down as he did his wing pushups with a few sacks of sand on his back.

“Looks like you got a bit more coverage than usual with that set.” Blizzard noted. Blaze nodded slightly as he came to a stop and used his magic to take one of the groups of sand bags that were sown together to form a set of practice armor that was accurate in the score of the typical weight of the real deal from the pile of a dozen or so others like it and draped them over the armor he already had on.

“I’m going to see if I can keep up under the weight of these guys. They might give me a more favorable chance at living through a blow, but if I can’t handle lifting them and charging around the battlefield with them than they’re no good to me.” Blaze replied as he flexed his shoulder muscles and let them relax, letting the bags settle more, not wanting them to fall off from him doing his routine.

“Well, if you want I can set up some obstacles for you.” Half Pint offered. “It would be a nice cool down exercise for me.” Half Pint bounded from the slanted table and started moving obstacles into the course, not even waiting for a response from Blaze. Blaze shook his head as he moved over to the starting line. His two friends had begun training ever since the ponies had suffered the attack those few days ago, both of them expressing their wishes to join the guard reserves as soon as possible.

Soon enough, the obstacles were set and Blaze was ready to test out his mobility in his new armor. Half Pint sounded the whistle, and Blaze took off, slipping to the side of a wooden wall, the edges of it covered in still wet red paint, as every other obstacle on the course. Blaze slid beneath another wall, stumbling to his hooves before jumping over a small hurdle and slipping past a row of wooden walls that only had a small gap between them. Suddenly a bag swung across the course, only giving Blaze enough time to hit the dirt and roll beyond it before pushing off the ground to avoid hitting another knee high blockade before having to slip past another row of walls. Blaze continued running through the clear strip of track, the intensity of the workout already getting to him as his breaths became more labored as he attempted to regain some of the breaths he hadn’t had time to take between obstacles.

As he drew nearer to the next group of obstacles, Half Pint threw a heavy wooden sword his direction, which he caught with a wisp of magic. He jumped over a knee high wall again before a wooden reptilous flipped out from the wall in front of him. His mind immediately turned the wooden shape into the real deal, the beast raising its spear that already had blood dripping from it. Without thinking, Blaze turned on his hooves and bucked the creature in the legs before sending his sword where its head would be as it fell before doing a back flip and a twist in midair to return to facing forward, keeping what little speed he had left as best as he could as he fumbled the landing under the weight of his armor.

Slowly, the wooden cut outs and stone ceiling of the room faded, replaced with a narrow alleyway in Canterlot, reptilouses occasionally jumping out of a side street to assail him before being dispatch by his sword that was starting to glow red with the blood of the beasts. A reptilous jumped out in front of him, a pony under one of its arms as its sword swung out to meet him. Blaze shot his sword out and cut the arm off and used said falling arm to strike the monster in the face.

Blaze jumped over a trashcan that lay on its side before sliding under a low strung clothes line when three reptilous appeared, one in the street with two others, one climbing on each wall. Blaze cut the one reptilous’ arm off, using the sword he gained along with his old sword to dispatch the two others, leaving the sword he had just acquired in the body of one of the reptilous.

Blaze eventually broke free of the alleyway, jumping through a window into the last house on the row. He rolled out of the jump and continued to run, the fatigue becoming an afterthought on his mission. Suddenly a grandfather clock was thrown out at him, barely missing as he slid under it and shot his sword out towards where he had glimpsed the reptilous’ form. He burst through the front door and kept running down the street towards where he saw the castle, even though there were several more rows of houses in the way.

He smashed his sword into the door of the next house, the door breaking from its hinges almost too easily. A reptilous fell from the ceiling as he entered, only to get Blaze’s sword jammed in its stomach. As Blaze ran on, he dodged by fallen cabinets and open doors that blocked his path. He jumped through another window and, surprisingly, found the castle right before him. He ran by the main gates, meeting with little resistance as he charged past the main doors.

He dodged by yet another pile of sandbags that had bodies of guard ponies scattered around them. He grimaced as he saw the door to the main hall come closer and closer. He blew it open with his magic charging on through, finding a horde of reptilous and even more blockades.

He jumped over a knee high wall and slashed a reptilous across the chest before three others came out with various weapons, each of which dispatch quickly and without mercy and he charged on through, dodging obstacle after obstacle, taking out reptilous after reptilous. Suddenly a force drove itself directly into his side, throwing him to the side until he finally landed on the cold hard ground. He opened his eyes and found himself back in the training area of the Castle of the Two Sisters with Half Pink charging over to him. He looked back where, for all his life, he had thought was the main hall of Canterlot Castle, but saw nothing but bashed plywood cutouts of reptilous and occasional sandbag of wooden blockades and a bag of sand suspended by a rope where he had been standing mere moments before.

“Blaze, are you alright?” Half Pint asked as he helped his rather dazed friend to his hooves. Blaze cracked his neck and shook himself.

“Yeah, I guess I just didn’t notice that one coming at me. Well played, you should be the new obstacle course crafter; that really was something.” Blaze commented.

“Well, you only ever got hit by that bag; you dodged most everything else by what I can tell.” Half Pint stated. “And by the looks of it you were getting ready for a second lap by the way you were running. Did I even wind you?”

“Well,” Blaze began, rolling his shoulders as he tossed the sandbag armor to the side, “While running I couldn’t tell if I was getting tired.” Half Pint seemed to slump in disappointment at this. “But now that I can actually think about how I’m feeling, I really can say I doubt I should try for a second lap if I only got close and not past the finish line.” Half Pint immediately perked up at what he could only take as a sign of accomplishment of his course’s purpose.

“Well I guess I better get back to work if I’m going to make one that makes you really think twice about how you’re doing before pushing on.” Half Pint said as he galloped off towards a small table by the edge of the room where he picked up a pencil between his teeth and began to make a sketch of what he thought might make his course even better.

“Do you even know what you’ve just unleashed on the guard?” Blizzard asked as he approached Blaze from behind with a towel around his neck. “Last time we encouraged him to do something he became a bit over zealous and went overboard.”

“What might have that been?” Blaze asked turning to the white pegasus who shook his head as he remembered one of the most hectic days of his life.

“He built a stack of milk bottles in front of Sugar Cube Corner as a sort of promotion for the milk delivery service when his family was really starting it up, oh… five years ago.” Blizzard recollected. “Well, Amber and I told him how impressive we thought it was. Looking back now it wasn’t really, it was just four rows of milk bottles stacked in a pyramid with a sign dangling from between the second and third rows, but back then, the mere fact that it had been Half Pint who had made it made us marvel at it for how hard it must have been.”

“So, I guess he decided to put together something much more daring and it backfired harshly.” Blaze summarized.

“Actually, no,” Blizzard replied, “He did design and build something extremely outlandish and almost crazy, but against all odds, it didn’t fall or break.” Blizzard stated with a smirk as Half Pint threw a crumpled paper towards the waste bin behind him, the paper, however, bounced off the rim, just short of its target, falling to the group of other pieces of crumpled paper that laid strew about the basket. “If he didn’t get his cutie mark in delivering milk, I’d say he would get it in construction, though I guess the fact his father is an engineer certainly helped him.”

“So you believe he’s going to go overboard again with this new obstacle course and make something outlandish, yet functional?” Blaze asked, gaining a nod from Blizzard. “I see no harm in it. It’ll keep him occupied while the troops begin to march on Canterlot.”

“Wait, you’re shipping out?” Blizzard asked.

“Yes, we need to retake Canterlot before they can take us down at our position.” Blaze stated. “We’ll need to take the fight to them if we’re going to stand a chance of winning this thing before it starts. If we can take out Greyhield, the chance of his army falling to bits is rather high.”

“Well, why not just hunker down here and let them attack us and break their own forces against us?” Blizzard proposed. “We handled on attack just fine. Who’s to say he can’t do it again? They’ll just waste their forces trying to get in here while we hold out until their forces are weakened so that we can just march into Canterlot and take the place without much resistance.”

“That might work; if those we beat we’re seasoned veterans and were using the best tactics they could muster.” Blaze agreed. “But unfortunately we have good reason to believe that was a force of rather untrained soldiers performing a maneuver lovingly referred to as ‘testing the waters’. We suffered three casualties as a result of that test, so just imagine is they were even sneakier and had better training and were all around better.” Blizzard froze, the imagine coming quite clearly to his mind’s eye. “What we’re planning on doing is getting a small unit into Canterlot, take out Greyhield, and then fall back to a better position where we can fend them off until news of their leaders defeat reaches their ears.”

“You really think it will work?” Blizzard questioned, looking very uncertain about it all. “If they’re as good as you say, couldn’t they eliminate any group of soldiers that tried to get in Canterlot without much trouble?”

“Yes, they very well could.” Blaze agreed. “That is why we’re going to divert their attention to another part of the field while the small unit breaks through and gets into Canterlot through the dried up waterway.”

“And… when exactly is this all going to take place?” Blizzard asked, casting a glance towards Half Pint who tossed yet another ball of paper towards the bin, this time actually getting it in.

“Tomorrow morning, at the crack of dawn,” Blaze responded. “It will give enough light to see the battlefield for the troops fighting and give the special insertion unit the visibility necessary to see any patrols and yet the darkness to be able to hide themselves and any reptilous that gets in the way.”

“Is there a possibility that I can join in the fight? I hate being trapped down here, not being able to do anything to help the war effort.” Blizzard stated.

“This operation can only really have the cream of the crop on the field. Those fighting as a distraction need to be highly trained so they can hold the reptilous’ attention long enough for the insertion to take place without a hitch. In either position your life is put in more danger than I like.” Blaze replied. “Keep training and soon enough you’ll be a staple figure on the battlefield, but right now I need you to stay here.”

“Usually you’d be saying this type of thing if you were the adult and I was the young foal, and yet I’m fairly sure I’m older than you.” Blizzard commented. “But I do understand. I’ll stay here and hold the fort.”

“Good, and make sure Half Pint doesn’t try to follow us after he finishes with the obstacle course.” Blaze ordered. “We’re starting the march in a few minutes, so make sure he doesn’t try anything.” Blizzard nodded before heading over to Half Pint, weaving through the obstacles the blocked his way. Blaze trotted back up the stairs, ready to give a positive report to the armor smith.

Blaze walked back and forth, looking over the mass of soldiers. They had been training fiercely ever since the defeat at Canterlot, and now, in accordance to his orders, only ponies of sergeant or higher were armored and readied for the march back to Canterlot. Several medical ponies were scattered throughout the crowd, each wearing a thick, white, cloth armor. Blaze didn’t know if reptilous would adhere to organized warfare protocols and not attack the medics, but he wasn’t about to take the chance, having already assigned a guard for each medic to ensure their safety.

“Alright every pony, let’s take back Canterlot!” Blaze shouted. “We all know our parts in this battle, so I expect only the very best from each of you!” He continued, looking over each and every pony. “This battle won’t be a cake walk. We’ve seen what reptilous can do, so let’s show them what we can do in return. Remember, this plan might not be the very end of the war, but it surely will signal it if nothing else. I have every faith in all of you; so let’s show these reptilous what Equestria is made of, and let’s take back Canterlot and end the war before it can even start!” The castle broke out into cheers at an almost deafening level as everypony showed their support. “LET’S MOVE OUT EVERYPONY!” He shouted, waving his hoof towards the newly constructed bridge before taking his first few steps on the long march that was ahead of them. He looked up, as he came to the bridge, at the stars that were beginning to shine across the sky as the sun dipped below the horizon as the moon inched above the hills on the opposite side of the heavens.

The march had been long and rather arduous, made all the more slower by the cannons and munitions they had brought along with them. Despite all the factors working against them, they made it to Canterlot on time, setting up their tents and fires as a preliminary stage of attracting attention to their location.

“And then we’ll sweep around the side here to the river,” Blaze stated to the higher ranking ponies around him, using a twig to point out the area he was referring to, “We’ll use a spell to slowly block the flow of the water and get into the riverbank and then let it do the leg work and get us in, straight into the mill at this point.” Blaze pointed at another chart that had the diagram of Lower Canterlot. “There’s a stairway going up out of the water so that ponies can do repairs on the water wheel, we’ll use that to get onto dry ground and then begin our way up through here,” He continued, tracing a line through the city until he reached the gate, “We’ll then use the eye of the needle and continue through here. We should reach the castle in roughly thirty minutes, it will then take roughly ten minutes to get to Greyhield and deal with him. After that it should take us to the end of the hour to get to Celestia and Luna and get them free.”

“So we’ll need to hold the ranks for an hour? The last battle barely lasted twenty minutes and we suffered heavy losses from it. Are you sure we can even make it through that?” One of the guards asked.

“We were going far too offensive, when we should go on the defensive. If I’m right, we can hold then just fine if we make ourselves like a turtle with cannons on its back.” Blaze replied with a slight smirk. “We’ll use the cannon to stave off most of the incoming reptilous and then we’ll have to fall back on a shield wall. We’ll move the cannons back into the line when the reptilous get close enough, but once they get through the first line they’ll find another wave of cannon and archer fire to greet them before they can get to the second line. The rain we get from the pegasus troops should also make it a bit more interesting for their advance.”

“You’re suggesting deliberate sacrificing of a line of some of our best ponies for the sake of one more volley of fire on the enemy?” Another pony exclaimed in an unbelieving tone.

“It’s gruesome, but there’s no other way we can make it work. We need to thin them out as much as possible, but we won’t have enough space between us and their line in ratio to how fast they can move to do enough damage on them. We need to spring the one last volley hitting hem if we really want a chance at breaking them.” Blaze explained. “I don’t want to sacrifice anypony, but this is the only way I can see to really get them. The ponies in that line will fight with their all, if not to do as much damage on the line before they break through and get a face full of grape shot.”

“There is one thing I hope you are actually considering in this plan.” Another pony chimed in. “You do realize, by telling us to pick ponies to be in that line, or by you choosing who will be in that line, you’re ultimately saying who will die and who will live. You are making yourself the all powerful force by deciding which ponies will die first.”

“I-I know,” Blaze stuttered, the weight of the situation pressing down on him even more, “I have thought about it like that, and I do agree that it is true.” Blaze stated. “This isn’t something I want to do, but it is a necessary evil for this plan to work out and for the greatest amount of survivors to come out of this and grant us enough time to complete the objective.” The ponies gathered with him looked at each other, sharing the same type of spark, the same resolution as their fellows.

“Very well, this is war; there are sacrifices that need to be made for victory to be achieved.” One of them stated finally. Blaze nodded and stood up, lifting his golden helmet onto his head, completing his ensemble.

“Get ready, the attack will begin when you deem best. We’ll get inside as quickly as possible so that we can get back out before to many lives have to be wasted.” Blaze stated. “May the fortunes of war smile on us today, stallions, now let’s get to our places and start this battle for the good of all of Equestria.” The ponies nodded, each taking their helmets and putting them on before walking out after Blaze.

Blaze looked around at the various tents, the sounds of metal scrapping against whet stones, as soldiers prepared their weapons for battle while others used a spit shine to make their armor glisten, a measure soon to be counteracted though few knew it. He looked to the sky, the field of grey clouds released from Cloudsdale Cloud Bank formed a menacing mass in the sky as it inched forward, occasionally forming a small enough break to let Blaze see the glint of one of the pegasi’s armor. Cannon that were scattered across the field had small pavilions set up above them along with a special cloud that kept them of off the ground that would doubtlessly be more of a bog than a grass plain within a few minutes.

Blaze moved through the mass of soldier that crisscrossed the field, preparing for the battle. Blaze watched a group of soldier beginning to put up the palisade wall, the wooden poles sharpened at one end pointing at a sixty-five degree angle, forming a last layer of, hopefully, and unnecessary protection for the forward operating base. Other ponies pulled carts of cannon balls and packages of premade gunpowder for the cannons. And still other ponies were lugging around large bundles of bolts and arrows for the archer divisions. Blaze looked towards the wall of Canterlot, the sheer greatness of the large structure meriting each bit of preparation that the ponies were making. He could make out the vague shapes of reptilous passing by the distant murder holes, blocking out some of the light from the torches inside for a brief instant.

Blaze finally entered his destination, pushing the flap of the tent as he went inside. Inside were three guard ponies along with the Elements of Harmony and Spike. The ponies all turned to him as he made his entrance.

“Ah, Blaze, are we ready to shove off?” One of the guards asked him as he finished tucking in the last of his straps into his armor. Blaze nodded taking one of the shields that had been leaning against a group of crates by the edge of the tent.

“The attack will be starting soon enough, we’ll need to get to the river bank and make our way inside the city.” He replied as he drew his sword while unbuckling the strap that held the sheath to his side and then tossed it towards the same stack of crates where he had gotten his shield. “Equestria counts on our success. We need to get Twilight and her friends to Greyhield so they can use their power to take him out by whatever means deemed necessary.” The guards nodded, and the six pony friends looked at each other with slight concern while Spike looked pensive. Blaze motioned with his head for the ponies to follow as he made his way back out the way he came as the first booming blast of thunder rocked the sky.

Eleven shapes charged by the side of the river, one of them using magic to quickly block the river’s flow before the ponies and dragon jumped down to the still soggy bottom on the river. Blaze continued to gallop down the wet soil, raindrops pounding down on his armor, making a monotonous drone of the water pelting the gold alloy armor. Twilight slowly let go of her grip of the river’s flow, and all at once the river swept them up as Blaze used a blast of magic to make the metal bars that crossed the river’s path bend out of way, giving the ponies a safer passage as they swept by the wall before Twilight once again blocked the flow, allowing the ponies and dragon to charge towards the stairs by the mill and get to the harder turf on the coast before another surge of water filled the canal, causing the massive, aged, water wheel turn ferociously, the sound of the internal mechanisms rattle under the strain.

“Alright, now we need to take the road between the bakery and the old ponies home. Go!” Blaze ordered the ponies. The group charged up the small cobble staircase that had several of its stones missing, giving the ponies an occasional stumble into the mushy earth below as they charged up the path towards their destination.

As they approached the first row of houses, a reptilous on patrol walked across the street, unaware of the oncoming ponies over the sound of roaring thunder and hammering rain and the distant sound of battle. Blaze poured on more speed, approaching the guard and quickly shoving his sword into the creature’s chest while prying the sword from its claws and launching it into the reptilous guard that had appeared behind the first. Blaze quickly pulled the two sword back while removing the second reptilous’ sword and levitating it along with his two others.

They eventually reached the gate without too many more incidents. Blaze quickly found the smaller door to the side of the massive portcullis and broke the rather weak door from its hinges, sending it flying into a cart of apples on the other side. One of the guards charged past him, intent on clearing the area when a reptilous jumped down from the ledge above and impaled the pony, the beast’s lance lodging itself deep into the path below. In the last moment, the guard summoned al his power and concentration and sent his sword straight into the reptilous’ jaw, the reptilian soldier’s head snapping back, giving a gross cracking sound before it fell completely limp against the wall.

Blaze jumped out from the door and quickly spotted several other reptilouses that hung from ledges, each of which quickly receiving a blast of fire and a blade through the chest. Blaze took the weapons from his dead enemies and soon had a group of seven swords, two lances, and three shields, more surprised at the fact the reptilous had shields than anything else.

“We need to keep moving! We all should know the way to the castle!” Blaze barked the order, the ponies quickly nodding and charging up the main street while Blaze gave one last salute to his fallen comrade before charging off to get back with the others.

Surprisingly, there was no resistance as they continued up the sloping road towards the castle; even the main gates to the castle courtyard were unguarded. Blaze bucked the front doors of the castle open, sending them flying open as he turned around to face a surprisingly small amount of reptilous than what he had expected.

Blaze shot a spear out at one them, but the reptilous guard simply grabbed it with its free hand and planted it into the castle floor, the point shattering against the seamless marble. A collective roar was issued out by the reptilous, replied with a battle cry from the three pony warriors.

Blaze shot a fire bolt at one of the reptilous, but the best lifted its shield, the wave of fire splashing off of it like a wave against a rock before the reptilous sent its spear toward Blaze, but the pony used his magic to drive the spear into the ground before sending one of his sword towards the reptilous, who twirled to the side, letting go of the spear while it drew a sword and charged Blaze.

Blaze rolled to the side, the fatigue of the battle starting to get to him as he stumbled out of it. Blaze lifted his shield just in time as the reptilous slashed out at him. Blaze shot a curving bolt of fire, which the reptilous received without even flinching. The reptilous used one of its feet to grab the spear behind him while he let go of his sword, letting it stay in Blaze’s shield. The beast caught the spear perfectly and jammed it into Blaze’s shield with such force that it went straight through, making it necessary for Blaze to jump back so that it wouldn’t him.

Suddenly a second reptilous with two swords charged up towards Blaze, gaining his full attention quite quickly. Blaze lifted his shield, both swords slamming against it with such force that it echoed in Blaze’s skull. Blaze worked past the pain as he sent one of his spears towards the reptilous’ gut, but the reptilian soldier let go of its swords and jumped off of Blaze’s shield, effectively dodging before it grabbed the same spear in midair and charged Blaze with it in a firm grasp.

Blaze put up a shield at the reptilous’ knee, causing it to stumble forward, but the trained warrior simply rolled out of it and ended the roll with a jump and an arching motion as it came down on the pony with fierce energy. Blaze jumped to the side only to have the first reptilous come down on him with its spear, necessitating Blaze to throw up a shield to cut the spear in half and then stop the point from coming any closer.

The second reptilous, a black scaled fiend, launched itself at Blaze, its spear pointed with deadly accuracy towards the colt’s shoulder. Blaze jumped backwards, avoiding the flying reptilous, but then the other reptilous, a green brute, ripped its comrade’s swords from the shield Blaze had let drop in his haste. The black reptilous turned on a dime upon landing and shot right back for Blaze’s throat, but he rolled to the side, avoiding yet another attack, but then the green one dove at him, both swords screeching down from either side. Blaze shot a fire bolt at each hand, and surprisingly, the reptilous let go off the blades, but the danger was far from over as it bared down on him with its claws. Blaze jumped back again, sending one of his spears at the beast, but it simply caught it and ripped it from Blaze’s magic, giving it a twirl in satisfaction.

Suddenly a blue reptilous slammed into Blaze’s side, knocking him to the ground. The beast lifted its sword for the kill, but Blaze shot a flame bolt into the creature’s face before rolling away, the sword slamming into the cold marble instead of his side. The black reptilous charged up to Blaze as he got back to his hooves, lance ready for the kill. Blaze used one of his swords to cut the shaft of the weapon, removing most of the danger, but the reptilous simply let go of it with one hand and brought it down towards Blaze.

Reacting on instinct, Blaze grabbed the falling part of the shaft that had the point with his magic and sent it towards the beast, who, seemingly, without reason turned in midair and grabbed the shaft of the projectile and brought it down towards Blaze, who rolled to the side, but still had the blade scrap the shoulder of his armor. Blaze shot a fire bolt into the reptilous’ face, and prepared his sword to finish it off, but as it recovered, the green reptilous jumped over it with the two sword bearing down on Blaze.

Blaze jumped back, but one of the blades still scrapped his helmet, giving Blaze a tremendous headache. Blaze blasted the reptilous with a fire bolt, but the beast shrugged it off as it shot both blades out towards Blaze, intent on the kill. Blaze shot up a shield, blocking both blades, but as he struggled with the two on coming swords, the blue reptilous charged from the side, Blaze raised high. Blaze rolled to his left, and as his concentration broke, the shield fell, allowing the green reptilous to continue to dive forward, which resulted in the serendipitous death of the blue reptilous as the green reptilous’ blades pierced the landing warrior in the shoulder and chest, the bloodied black form slumping to the ground.

Blaze threw up another shield as the black reptilous jumped back into the fight, both weapons ready for the strike. The reptilous slammed into Blaze’s magic shield and used it as a drum as he continued to try to get through. Each strike on his shield came as a resounding explosion in his skull until suddenly a purple beam of energy shot from across the room. Twilight and her friends stood watching the fight from the stairs to the main hall. Blaze looked back towards the black reptilous, now limp on the ground with a sizable burn mark in his side. The green reptilous charged Blaze, but received several blasts of fire to his face and chest, causing his to tumble behind Blaze as the pony charged up towards the six ponies and baby dragon.

“Go, I’m right behind you!” Blaze shouted to the ponies before turning and sending his next to last sword at a reptilous who swatted it to the side with a wave of its blade, only to receive the full force of the bolt of fire following it. Blaze turned back and charged up the stairs, following the ponies that held the only key he could think of that could stop all of this.

Blaze entered the throne room, and as he did the door slammed shut behind him in a deep purple aura that was much stranger in energy than Twilight’s, which meant only one thing. Blaze turned and saw Greyhield standing before him along with Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon, the two equine fiends looking confident, and almost confident while as Greyhield looked quite ambivalent.

“And so the ponies of Equestria believe they may end it all.” Greyhield stated with little to no emotion present in his voice. “I may say that for a colt, you have surprised me with your amount of knowledge of the battlefield and of the way of the sword. It is quite impressive if I do say so myself.” Greyhield offered. “But in comparison to others, you are merely a few steps ahead of the class, and unfortunately for Equestria,” Greyhield continued, “I have had many eons to think, to learn, and there is not a single mind in this world that could hope to match me, nor hope to match the prowess of my warriors’ blades.”

“Greyhield, today your reckoning has come! Today, you will face punishment for all your crimes!” Blaze shouted as he took the head of the formation of the ponies.

“SILENCE!” Greyhield roared, his teeth bared, each like a gigantic ebony pillar in a hall filled with darkness. “Ponies are no more fit of a judge of me, my actions, or my motives than a pebble can judge a mountain on its pride.” Greyhield retorted in a booming voice, the windows of the hall rattling with each word. “If justice is to be done in the world, than ponies shall lay down their swords and face the reptilous’ blade without resistance as they are extinguished, never fighting until each pony has faced their judgment by steel.” Greyhield stated simply as he furrowed his brow.

“You are the being that destroyed thousands upon thousands of pony lives! We fight against you and all you stand for, for the simple fact you kill our families and loved ones!” Blaze replied, baring his teeth, which were quite a bit less menacing than Greyhield’s.

“Ponies have never understood justice, and nor will they until they face their own.” Greyhield shot back. “And now, I will show you what become of those who do not wish to join me or face justice.” Greyhield lifted one of his fists, whirling his wrist, generating a purple aura which slowly drifted from his claws and to the center o the room where it began to swirl and twist as something began materializing. Slowly it formed into a distinct shape, and then the crackling magic dissipated, leaving only what it had brought with it. There, in the center of the room, were two posts that had not been there before with a being chained between them, its head hung low. The form was very distinct, unmistakably familiar and unquestionably singular in the world.

“Discord!” Fluttershy shouted with horror etched in her voice.