Prologue: Don't Drink And Cast (Pre-Beta)

Prologue: Don't Drink And Cast. (Former Title: A Bet Gone Wrong)

It's a late summer eve in a bar somewhere within Scandinavia and the people of the city are drinking for reasons partial to themselves. Out of the many where two odd drinkers among the bar. A middle aged heavily built man, overweight but with height and muscles, his dark brown unkempt hair is thick with sweat and the uneven hair of his chin and jaw is grown into a thick beard. A pair of grey sad eyes are looking into a glass of whiskey with a big piece of ice. A glass the drinker had brought with him to the bar, a single bottle of whiskey rests by the glass but the label is unreadable because of the poor lightning of the bar disk.

He's dressed in a black suit with a sweat stained white shirt with a black tie, a pair of well worn sneakers disrupts his stylish wear and from the looks of it is there stains of water and salt on the tux's black fabric, tear stains. He's been sitting there with his glass for two hours, not drinking a single drop of the whiskey.

The other odd drinker of the bar is a woman, a beautiful, voluptuous and red haired woman dressed casual in a blue blouse, tight black jeans, pink sandals and a brown coat folded in her lap. In front of her was a glass of red wine and next to the glass were four bottles, three of them empty. The woman had sat down there almost an hour ago and had been drinking wine in sips nonstop ever since.

It was eerie how different in looks and behaviour these two people were, it was making the woman acting as bartender starting to feel a bit like a viewer of a tragic love story in progress. The silence from the two alone was making her skin crawl and she was feeling that if she remained near them for too long she would question if they were even breathing.

She was glad when the red headed woman suddenly took a glance at the man's still full glass and spoke for the first time. “...Ain't thou going to drink that?” Her voice was slightly slurred from the alcohol but she had a strange accent, almost medieval.

Sighing the man lifted the glass and looked at it with while resting his other arm against the wooden desk of the bar. “...I am not sure if I want to...”

She gave a raised eyebrow at his answer and drained her glass before starting to refill it, asking the odd man as she poured her wine out of the container. “...Why would thou buy a drink but not drink it?”

He was silent still, but then a rough voice that sounded younger then the man appeared, with a Swedish accent, responded in clear English. “...Because I have never tasted strong liquor before... but today is a special day and my friends told me to at least try to drown myself in something other than snacks and soda...” At his response the woman blinked in confusion before noting that the man was still just looking at the glass of whiskey.

“...Hath something tragic occurred?” She asked in a solemn voice.

“...My mother's funeral was today... now both my parents are dead and gone... and my siblings didn't bother to meet me after the funeral so I came here alone...” Both the bartender and the woman flinched. Damn that was not just tragic but cold as well, no wonder he was depressed

“Ah... I see...” The woman murmured softly into her glass.

Silence reigned again, this time with an awkward sense of tragedy. But then the man broke it and asked the woman a question in turn. “What about you?”

The redhead blinked in confusion and glanced at him again, noting that he was still staring at the glass, not even looking at her. “Me?”

“You may not show it... well okay it's pretty obvious with the constant drinking... but your voice sounds sad and alone, a bit like myself... So yes... what tragedy has occurred to you?” His response made the woman pause before she put down her half empty glass of wine and rested her shin in her left hand and sighed

“I was separated from mine daughters... both of them too young to be left on their own... I vast... how dost I put it? Exiled... yes that term seems fitting... I was exiled from mine home and hast been unable to return.” The bartender was feeling rather awkward and sad from the two people and felt like she was intruding in a personal discussion.

“Huh forced from your home... that's fucked up... my name is ****** ***** by the way...” At the mention of his name the woman blinked a bit before snorting into her glass before speaking up with a chuckle, the first non-sad sound to be spoken from the two that entire evening.

“Hehe sorry for mine laughter at thy name. It be unique that is certain. I be Laura Faust.” At her name the man blinked before for the first time turning his head to look at the red head and slowly chuckled before responding to her questioning gaze.

“You have almost the same name as one of the creators of the cartoon My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic. Her name is Lauren Faust.” At the mention of ponies the woman jerked her spine straight and stared in shock at him before she schooled herself and spoke up in curious and hopeful voice.

“Ponies?”

"Yeah. It's a rather popular cartoon for both girls and boys, I do like a bit of it but I am not really all that into it. Here I can show you the wikipedia page on my smartphone.”

What followed was the odd sight of a grown woman and a grown man viewing My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic on the man's cell phone for almost an hour. The woman, named Laura Faust, seemed to react mostly to the information and pictures of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the man could have sworn he heard her muttering sweet nonsense while looking at the images of the two alicorns.

“...I take it you enjoyed that?” He asked after putting away his phone, the woman was smiling in a happy but sad way her eyes wet with unshed tears as she drank the last of her wine.

“...Aye... I did... mine beautiful little fillies...” She brushed away her tears and sniffled a little before noticing a large rough hand, belonging to the man next to her, holding up a clean paper napkin for her to use. Nodding in thanks she took the napkin and dried away her tears Before blowing her nose into the napkin. “Thank ye.”

He just nodded before looking back at his glass. “You're welcome. Now I just need to build up the courage to drink this...” Laura suddenly reached out and took his glass from his hand before she pressed it against his mouth with a coy smirk.

“Let me aid thou friend.” The man felt a bit odd being fed his own drink by a woman he didn't really know but decided to take life by the reigns and drank. The sensation and taste of the alcohol was like he had expected it to be, bitter, raw and dry. Then came the warm sensation of the alcohol burning in his gut and he felt a bit more at ease then he had the entire evening.

Then came the coughing as the burning in his throat became too much but it only lasted a few seconds before it cleared out, blinking to himself he looked at the now empty glass held by Laura and chuckled a little. “Heh... guess my mother was right... sometimes you just need someone to give you a push.”

"Aye that be something mine daughters could learn as well.” The two laughed a bit before falling silent again, the man could feel that alcohol burn in him it was way stronger then he'd assumed. He then began to drink the rest of the whiskey until the bottle was empty and his head was hazy.

Then came the words that would change both of their lives forever.

“Want to make a bet?” Laura asked with a coy smirk as she eyed her new friend.

“What kind of bet?”

“If thou can satisfy mine needs for this one night I shalt grant thy one wish.” The bartender, who had been steadily creeping away from their place at the bar, could feel a blush rise on her cheeks at the turn the discussion was taking. It was making her imagine a sort of reenactment of Beauty and the Beast with live actors.

“...Okay... and if I can't as you put it 'satisfy your needs'?” He asked with a humorous voice.

"Then thou become mine servant for the rest of thy life.” The bartender felt like she was watching a form of drunken proposal, it was bizarre and yet she couldn't look away.

“Heh... well do or die as they say... I accept.”

“Heh I knew thou would. Come I hath a place nearby.”

As the two drunk adults left the bar together the bartender couldn't help but feel that neither of them would get what they wanted out of this bet.

(Time Skip)

Laura led her new friend to her apartment by the docks, it was a four room apartment filled with books, scrolls, artefacts and even stone tablets of ancient lore. As the man entered he couldn't help but feel like he had entered an ancient museum or somehow gone back in time, there was even a line up of complete sets of armour, four different types, one samurai armour, a knight armour, a conquistador armour and even what seemed to be a roman legionnaire armour kept in a airtight glass display.

“Dost thou like mine collection?” Laura asked with a proud smile as she noticed the man eyeing her collective lore and artefacts.

“It's very cool. I am not much of an archaeologist myself but I know a bit of ancient history and even if I mainly studied art can I tell that those armours are genuine, that roman armour is well preserved but the cloth has lost all colouring and looks ready to fall apart. But the bronze and steel parts are well preserved and cleaned, you can even make out the original links of the chain mail and the straps. Heh that's something awesome you got there.” The man then noticed a soft giggling coming from Laura and turned himself away from the armour to look at her in confusion only to blink as she was covering her mouth with one hand and her face blushing from keeping herself from laughing.

"I started rambling didn't I?” He asked with an awkward smile while scratching his neck, the woman only nodded while she kept giggling like crazy.

“Hey now it wasn't that funny.” But Laura just lost her restraint at that and clutched at her stomach as she started laughing like crazy.

Feeling a bit silly the man watched her for a bit until he noticed a change in her laughter, her clear warm laughter was starting to turn into choked sobs. Moving over to her to see how she was doing he had barely time to catch her as she fell forward, her hands gripping the arms of his tux before she pressed her face into his chest and started crying.

Keeping himself standing the man gently hugged her and rocked her slightly as she let out her emotions onto his chest, her tears, snot and saliva staining his already stained tux. After a few moments had she calmed down and was just breathing heavily into his chest, he felt a bit awkward considering he hadn't taken a shower yet so he probably stank but she didn't pull away.

Helping her to stand up again he lowered his head to ask her if she felt better when she suddenly ensnared her arms around his neck. Laura pulled her tear stained face onto his and kissed him with an almost animal like hunger.

At first he had a hard time reacting except just standing there in shock but he soon enough warped his arms around her waist and hugged her against him and returned her kiss, albeit less wild. The two just kept in that position toying with each other's mouths and tongues until they had to pull back for air, a trail of saliva connecting their panting mouths together.

“Mine *pant* bedroom *pant* now!” She practically growled into his face before practically dragging him to her bedroom, she kicked up the door with her sandal covered foot before pushing him down onto the bed before jumping onto his lap and pressed her lips against his again, this time her finger working slowly and sensually with the buttons of his tuxedo.

His own hands didn't remain idle, slowly he pressed his left and right hand against her sides, rubbing them beneath her blouse before slowly rubbing them towards her stomach, this thumbs starting to rub her toned abs in circles for a bit before he began to rub his large rough hands against the smooth skin of her belly as he slowly began to unbutton her blouse with his hands beneath it. Ever so slowly his hands began to reach her breasts and when his rough hands pressed against the mounds beneath the blouse, finding them to be without a bra. As his fingers pressed into the soft skin of her bosom he could feel her gasp into their constant kissing, giving him a wide and inviting opportunity to be the one to dominate the kissing this time.

Laura moaned as his kissing became just as aggressive as her own had been, her nimble fingers had unbuttoned his tux and the shirt beneath it by the time he had unbuttoned her blouse. He had a hairy strong physique that smelt of sweat and while it would normally be discouraging was his natural musk much appreciated by this woman.

Eager for more Laura pressed her bare chest against his and began to rub her breasts into his manly scent while removing his tux, tie and shirt, leaving him topless while he did the same to her blouse. The woman was grinding her hips against his cloth covered crotch while she was tracing down her hands along his back to the rim of his pants before sliding down beneath the fabric to squeeze his buttocks. He retaliated by grasping one of her breasts, heaving its large soft flesh in his hand, his fingers digging into the soft flesh and skin as he began to gently squeeze and grind his fingers and palm into the flesh. His other hand was sliding down along her bare belly, down past her bellybutton and across her abs, before starting to unbuckle the belt of her jeans.

Laura growled hungrily into his mouth as she felt her jeans start to slip down her hips while his own pants were kept in place by the fact that he was sitting down. Deciding to turn things even she pushed him onto his back and ripped off his pants while stepping out of her own, panties and boxers following soon as well. The redhead then jumped onto the bed and pressed herself onto him with a smirk, her red hair wild and frayed, making her look like a war goddess as she straddled him.

But he wasn't going to let her have control and before she could react she felt his hands grasp her hips before yelping as he suddenly lifted her up and flipped her on her back before pressing his face into her stomach. His beard, hair and breath tickled her tummy and made her giggle a bit before suddenly she gasps as he starts sliding his tongue across her stomach, sliding the wet warm muscle down towards her honeypot.

Laura's eyes widens as she suddenly feels her wet slit get tenderly probed by the man's large tongue while one of his thumbs starts to probe the wet entrance between. “Ooooh! What art thou doiiiiiiiiiiing!” She let out a delighted scream as his thumb is replaced by one of his fingers penetrating her, the thick appendage reaching slowly deeper and deeper inside her while his tongue tries to wiggle inside her as well. Her fingers grip his hair and her thighs tries to grasp his head and force him deeper but his elbows are keeping her legs spread.

Twisting his finger around he slowly begin to work a second one inside her wet warmth while his tongue continues to taste the sweet tender walls. Her body twists and turns, her gasps, moans and pants like music to his ears. Her spine arches and her nails dug into his scalp while her arms tried to press him deeper into her loins.

The delicious sensations of his finger and tongue was driving her into a haze of burning pleasure. Then when he tenderly rubs his teeth against the sensitive clitoris of her pussy is a sudden rush of pleasure arching through her from the rough sensation of his teeth rubbing against her clitoris. Her nails almost dig into his flesh as she throws back her head, arches her back, pressing her crotch harder against his probing face while screaming out in bliss as her body erupts into a powerful orgasm.

Soon enough she relaxes and strokes his head while she pants, her face red and her body shining in a sensual afterglow as she enjoys the afterglow. She doesn't reacts as he moves up from her drenched, glistening wetness and kisses her panting lips. Laura can only moan and groan as she feel his hot and throbbing member rub against her still tender pussy, the sensation of the foreign flesh rubbing against her is making her afterglow turn into excitement once more.

At first she wants to protest that she's not ready, that she is too tender, but when the tip of his throbbing manhood splits her wet entrance she feels sparks of pleasure flood her and her eyes rolls back in bliss as she moans into his still kissing lips as he penetrates her. Slowly, almost teasingly, he pushes himself inside her until their crotches meet, her warm wet muscles squeezing his length as he starts to grind his hips.

Then his thrusts starts to build up more speed and momentum. It doesn't take long before the man is rutting her delightfully like a horny animal, her own hips pushing against his as best as she can as he pumps his rod in and out of her slit like a rapidly moving piston. After ten minutes is the bed beneath the two lovers moving and slamming into the wall behind them as their rutting grows even more intense as they start to reach their final climax.

Laura was seemingly lost in a stormy haze of pleasure and was trying to make her hips retaliate against his own thrusts while playfully biting and scratching her lover's lips, throat, chest and neck, leaving tender but not damaging red marks across his thick skin. He on the other hand was thrusting in a steady but rapid rhythm and was feeling his orgasm approaching, the load up of his balls gathering up inside his loin and preparing to shooting out.

Pressing his face into her neck he growls into her ear while licking and nibbling her earlobe. “I am going to come!” “Then come! Come inside mine loin thou virile beast!” She growls into his ear before suddenly shrieking out in bliss as he suddenly moves one of his hands down to her loins and plunges his thumb into her slit, rubbing the inside of her vagina while his throbbing cock was pumping in and out of her slick wetness.

The sudden intrusion of his thumb joining his manhood made her body jerk in pleasure and her inner muscles clamped down onto his length and thumb like a vice as her orgasm approached. Her lover let out a groaning moan and gently bit down on her neck as his hips began to thrust in uneven rapid speed and the red headed beauty bit down on his own neck while digging her nails into his back. Their hips slapped against one another as their body fluids built up in pressure before they both burst and their once constantly moving hips slammed against one another one finally time.

Laura's legs locked themselves around his waist while his hips pressed her rump into the mattress and the two were locked in a sensation of their loins erupting in orgasmic explosions. This kept going for about three minutes until they both fell limp into the bed, exhausted but content.

Rolling into his back the man pulled Laura on top of him and kissed her panting mouth tenderly before leaning back into the bed, her head resting against his chest, her fingers playing with his chest hair. The two just laid there in silence, resting their sore but satisfied bodies while listening to each other's breathing, until Laura broke the silence. “Thou truly satisfied mine needs tonight.” She looked at him with a tired but content smile from her position on top of him and the man swore he could almost hear her purring.

He only let out a huffed chuckled, a bit too out of breathe to make a proper conversation. Laura just smiled at him and gave him a quick kiss. “So what be thy wish?”

The man hadn't really thought about the whole wish deal actually, figuring it was just the alcohol talking. “Heh... well I honestly didn't think about that bet.” Was his honest answer and Laura just chuckled before shaking her head. “Thou are an odd one, though truly, what be thy wish? If it is in mine power to grant I shall.”

Feeling a bit awkward at the conversation, yet still slightly drunk and fuzzy could the man only answer in one way. “Not to sound doubtful... but even if you'd make the sexiest genie ever, would it still be hard to think you can make wishes come true.”

“Oh humans, thy art a doubtful lot.” Laura stated with a laugh before getting off the bed. She spread her arms and was suddenly surrounded by a shimmering white mist like shroud. Once it dispersed she had been transformed into a white pony sized horse with wings and a long spiral horn, with a long mane and tail in the same auburn red as in her human form. On her flanks was a symbol in the shape of an open scroll being written on by a quill. She flicked her long mane over her shoulder and gave the stunned human a sultry look with her equine eyes and spoke up with a smirk. “Dost thy believe me capable now?”

“...Okay... I totally believe you now.” What else could he say to the physical evidence of magic and non-human intelligence right in front of him? Either he was dead drunk and hallucinating or this was real… he was leaning towards dead drunk. Though if it was real so was the thoughts nagging at his brain that found itself becoming the first sentence that made it's way out of his mouth. “So... did I just bone a horse and like it?” Not all that 'first contact friendly' but give him a break.

Laughter erupted from the winged unicorn who fell on her side, her forelegs clutching her sides at the human's reaction. After a few moments she managed to stifle her laughter and stood up again, seemingly not caring about the love juices that had leaked out of her tender slit and onto her nice carpet. “Truly thou art unique among thou kind to react to us like thus.”

The still naked man slowly sat up on the side of the bed, resting his arms in his lap while Laura walked over to him and rubbed her muzzle against his shoulder. Then he remembered the show he had shown Laura in the bar earlier, and it clicked. “So... you're an Alicorn right? Like those two princesses we saw on that homepage?”

“Aye that be the truth. I be Laura Faust, formerly Princess Tender Crown before my ascension, former Queen Regent over Equestria.”

“Huh...Does that mean Lauren Faust and Hasbro broke the copyright law or is this part of the whole multiverse theory? Either case is just as insane.” Yep he’s definitely drunk beyond imagine if those Words came out of his mouth.

Laura just snorted and laughed a bit more. “Hahahaha! Oh thou I like! Yes this be the latter of thy guesses. I vast banished to thy realm five centuries past. Mine work to return has kept me busy thus I have not seen the work of mine counterpart of this world. Once or twice every century or so I seek company and passion during times of duress. I am glad thou be the one to do so, for I have not meet many males of thy kind that would aid one such as I without sinister intent. And the few that I dost meet hast not been able to please me like thou hath.”

“Well my parents raised no fool nor a jerk, I won't force myself on anyone and I don't intend to take advantage of anyone either. Not even if they're beautiful women who apparently are also pretty horses.” Laura just smiled at his words, noting with her unnatural senses the truth of his honesty, such a refreshing human after all these centuries.

“Thank thee for thy kind words, thou mine kin be ponies not horses. But we art getting off topic. What is thou wish?” She asked with a smile at the human.

“...Huh... well I guess... Hmmmm...” Thinking to himself the human considered his options... he could wish for something not for himself but others... he could wish for something for Laura... but then again if he didn't wish for something for himself he would be dishonouring her intention of rewarding him. If that now was a thing, he wasn’t sure.

However... yes that could work, now if he could just word it correctly. Besides... he couldn't say he didn't find the concept of using powerful magic amazing. And since this was more then likely just a very vivid drunken delusion so were there no real risks as far as he could tell.

“Okay I am going to try and give a description of what I will wish for so hear me out first please?” At Laura's questioning look but slow nod he took a deep breath before letting it out, like the old saying goes 'when life give you lemons, make lemonade'. But then again, and again, he was most likely stone drunk and just hallucinating but what the heck, should at least be entertaining to see how things would go.

“I am probably insanely drunk at the moment but I am just going to go with this. I wish for myself to be granted the powers of an Alicorn like yourself, with the powers of Terror and Courage to be the source of my strength, the basis of my powers and to my special talent as an Alicorn. Through this transformation I will swear on my life and soul to aid Laura Faust to return to her own family in her own home realm, no matter the cost.” Laura blinked slowly as the human's words registered in her brain's thought center. She could almost feel her heart leap up to her throat and how her eyes started to get teary at what he had wished. While it was an extraordinary wish even by her own standards so was it a wish that would grant her aid in her future attempts to return home, she was both grateful and concerned, she had never transformed a human into anything before.

But the wish had been spoken and she was honour bound to fulfill it the best she could and she had transformed regular ponies into Alicorns before. Well not many ponies, she had only done it to her two daughters after her own ascension to ensure they could care for themselves after her banishment. The gods had predicted her banishment if she ascended, but it had also been the only way to protect her daughters so she had been willing to pay the price, even if it was tormenting her to be apart from them. But the gods had granted ascensions to non-ponies... probably... likely... maybe? So it couldn't be that much of a difference for her to ascend a mortal from another world, right?

Even so, she was a bit concerned about one part of his wish. “I will do mine best to grant thy wish... but art thou serious about claiming such aggravating a title as Prince of Terror along with the title of Prince of Courage? I dost love mine little ponies but they art not always accepting of beings different from themselves. And why woulst thou wish to be a pony?”

The human just smirked. This might be a hallucination and his brain making up insane plot devices, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t stay true to himself. He would probably wake up hungover and with regrets still fresh tomorrow so it wouldn’t harm to give his reasons for picking such a power line up. “No need to worry, I am used to being an outcast. Plus I can just stay here in my home realm if I want to. As for being a pony, well I figured that it would be easier for me to learn how to use magic if I had the body of something that can use it naturally, besides you seem capable of shape shifting so it's not like it would be a permanent form. One of the first things I would learn would be to learn how to handle magic as an alicorn and then learn how to transform myself.”

Laura nodded at this but the man wasn't done explaining and kept talking after taking and releasing a deep breath. “But the reason for me picking two titles are rather simple really. I doubt I know any 100% correct thing about magic but I do know a thing or two about sources of power, and these two titles would grant me a power source unlike any other. Both of these titles are based upon a game I played a lot as a Child. Diablo. In which there are embodiments of the Negative and Positive aspects of a sentient being. Terror is powerful in all life forms, it has no end as long as there is life, it can break the weakest of spirits or the bravest of souls. To overcome your fears that Terror invoke takes a powerful will and discipline to bring out your inner courage. And there's no limit of people overcoming their fears. Courage can be broken by Terror. Terror can be broken by Courage. Thus it is an never ending cycle of balance, a never ending supply of power. This should be of use not just for me but you as well. Well once I actually learn it unless all of this is nothing more than a wild drunken dream on my part. Although to be fair, I just think the titles sound cool.”

Though she was a bit skeptic, was the alicorn finding his argument compelling. One of the major issues with her exile from Equestria, was that she didn't have the power herself to breach the curse that repels her from her home dimension. But if the man before he could help her, providing the powers of Courage and Terror truly could supply such unlimited power... then she would be more then willing to take the risk. Although there was a nagging voice in the back of her head trying to tell her something, she could not hear it though in her drunken state.

"Very well... We shall attempt to grant thy wish. Keep thyself still, we hath never done this on another species before this day so we art uncertain what may happen.”

The man blinked a bit before stammering out something as his brain registered the ‘We Hath NEVER done this on another species before’, that could spell disaster even to a drunk in most cases, “W-wait what? Hold on a moment!”, he cried out in alarm.

But it was too late to protest. The Alicorn Queen of Equestria lowered her horn and carefully touched the tip against the place on his chest where his heart lay and began to chant. Her horn began to spark in a white aura and strange runes began to take shape across his torso, they were tingling his nerves a bit but nothing too bad.

*I-I felt that! I-is this real!?* He thought to himself as the air began to feel heavy and his body began to feel as if cold and hot water was flowing through his veins.

Let Thy Earthen Born Strength Be Granted To This Man By Thou Kind Heart Oh Great Mother Yggdrasil!

Let Thy Heavenly Wrought Flight Be Granted To This Man By Thou Firm Will Oh Great Father Asgard!

Let Thy Ocean Faring Spirit Be Granted To This Man By Thou Fare Judgement Oh Great Lord Triton!

Let Thy Arcane Crafted Spark Be Granted To This Man By Thou Keen Mind Oh Great Lady Arceus!

Let Thy Eternally Mending Touch Be Granted To This Man By Thou Caring Hoof Oh Great Spirit Equera!

The Power Of Courage And The Power Of Terror Art To Be Wielded By His Hooves!

Let His Body Be Changed! Let His Mind Endure! Let His Spirit Fly!

What came from that... was a sudden sensation of static energy filling the air. Laura's eyes widening in panic and a man's scream of pain filling the air before suddenly a loud 'swomp' was heard all over the neighborhood as the apartment imploded into itself, causing the building to collapse.

The sudden collapse of a large apartment building in the center of the large city sprung out a mass of panic as terrorism were suspected of having used a strange new weapon. Within hours were police and government agents working to identify the threat, uncovering several hundreds of secret terrorist groups and plans within the coming months.

But the origin of the collapsed building was never discovered. And the man and woman who had been seen entering the building together were presumed to have been at the point of origin of whatever caused the collapse and were both declared dead after a week of searching through the ruined building.

However the man and woman, read secret alicorn pony, were both still alive, but would never be seen again within this realm of existence.

(Scene Skip)

The twisting realm known as Limbo is the plane of existence that separates the planes of time, space and reality from one another. In short it's the dimensional wall that keeps all other dimensions, realities and alternate timelines separated from one another. To travel to another realm of existence you have to travel through Limbo, it's hard to do so normally unless the dimension in question has a particularly weak barrier or if the people summoning are highly skilled or powerful in doing so.

For untold existence it has housed nothing but empty and distorted time and space. In all of its existence has there never been something that had stopped inside its barrier. But this emptiness would suddenly and abrupt end.

A single point of light suddenly flares into existence amongst the empty vastness of mixturing colour, dimension and time. The point of light fluctuate for a few seconds, before sound for the first time is brought to existence within Limbo. And it came in a mixed sound of thunder and cracking ice. It then detonates into a spherical wormhole like vortex for a few seconds before dissolving into nothing.

Where the vortex had been came two living creatures into the twisting nether. Around their unconscious bodies was a widespread floating cloud of books, pieces of armour, scrolls, stone tablets, notepads, pencils, inkwells, pens, quills, sprays of dust, shards of wood, pieces of concrete, rags of fabric and even entire furniture.

One of the creatures was the white pelted and red haired alicorn Laura Faust, former Queen Regent of Equestria, and inter dimensional exile. Her recent trip through the dimensional barrier having disoriented her badly, but she is quick to recover when her sensitive ears registers the sound of cracking bones, splintering flesh and pained screams coming from the other creature.

Her eyes focused and she felt horror and dread fill her at the sight of the misshapen being that had been her human lover just a few moments ago. The Alicorn Ritual was reacting aggressively with his body, it was like his very biology was trying to resist the change, it was something unheard of. Feeling her power levels she knew she didn't have a lot of time or power to use, the dimensional barrier was weak at the moment after the unintended wormhole her ritual had created.

If she didn't do something and fast would both of them be stranded in Limbo and he would most likely die if he wasn't in a dimension with enough magic to power the transformation. Focusing her magic, and casting the spell she had been developing through research and experiments for several centuries, Laura managed to breach the dimensional barrier that lead towards her own home realm for the first time since her exile.

A runic circle was emitted from the tip of her horn and then a conic shaped spiral made up if lines of runes erupted forward and moved as if drilling into reality itself. It lasted for a few seconds before it erupted into a swirling vortex leading towards a bright light. A new wormhole had taken shape, the spell was a success, but she could feel the strain of keeping it open already sap away at her already limited energy. Clenching her teeth the exiled alicorn reaches out at the struggling being that had once been a man and pushed him into the wormhole, unable to speak out to comfort or reassure him, only able to hope that he could come through and recover.

The Alicorn mare could only stare as the wormhole swallowed up his twitching and shifting shape, before it closed, leaving her among the remains of her belongings of the human realm. Once again alone, although this time floating among the endless and time shifting realm of limbo instead of a physical realm. Despair, shame and hope being her last emotions before she loses conscience to the strain she had endured.

To Be Continued

Chapter One: The Night That Brought Terror (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter One: The Night That Brought Terror

The night sky of Equestria was ablaze, twinkling streaks of brilliant blue and golden yellow flies across the air as small meteorites and star dust began to colour the night sky in a brilliant display of light. Like a brilliant artwork it was dazzling to view. And the ponies of Equestria, having finally been freed from Discord’s ruthless reign, were cheering and partying all night.

Discord had recently been defeated, well if you count a year as recently, turned into stone by the Elements of Harmony utilized by the two Alicorn sisters Luna and Celestia. The two sisters had been ascended by their mother while still foals themselves, around thirty years ago, although during Discord’s reign it was hard to keep track of time. But their mother barely had time to grant them a few basic lessons and knowledge of their Alicorn bodies when Discord made her disappear.

They had spent those three decades working, training and researching while constantly hiding from the draconequus’ chaotic sight. They had several close encounters with him and his minions but in the end they managed to not only discover a way to defeat Discord but to restore the disorder he had made of the world. But in the end they couldn’t find a way to bring back their mother from her banishment, for the elements to do so they would have to affect her personally and they didn’t even know where, or when, she had disappeared to.

While it had been almost a year since Discord was petrified had Equestria not stopped cheering whenever they could. The Castle of the Royal Sisters Sisters had been completed in three months after Discord’s defeat. Once the location of their home as little fillies, which was destroyed by Discord when he banished their mother, now it was a majestic castle of spires and towers with a fast growing town on the other side of the ravine separating the cliff upon which the castle reside from the rest of the Everfree Forest.

And since it is the day of their victory over Discord had the princesses decided to make this day of cheering extra special by making the day dashingly warm with a gentle breeze while the night turned into a beautiful artwork of falling stars.

Upon the western balcony of the central keep of the castle stood Luna, watching with a smile as her little ponies cheered and danced throughout the night. Life was wonderful. Although she would have enjoyed it more had they managed to save their mother as well. With that in mind her smile fell flat and her eyes turned sad as she looked up at the crescent moon she had prepared for this special night.

“Mother. . . where art thee?” Her question carried itself out into the breeze of the summer night as her mind traveled back to the past when her family was whole. As the young alicorn let her mind travel to the distant past of her foalhood was a something ominous happening

(Scene Shift)

Up in the outer atmosphere of the planet Equera, just at the edge before the endless expanse of space, had a vortex emerged out of nowhere. It was a dimensional maelstrom, its warping structure breaching the very fabrics of reality. After but mere minutes after it first emerged it seemed to grow unstable, shrinking, and then something flew out of it, just before it collapsed into itself, restoring reality to its former state.

The object flew down towards the planet below, and as it did was its structure put alight in green fire. It was as if the very planet was trying to reject the object from its very air, trying to push it back into the void. Yet the object fell faster, and faster.

Soon a green meteor was taking shape, falling down amidst the star dust created by Princess Luna, its only difference being its size and green colour. And as it grew closer towards the planet, began some of the ponies below to notice the growing falling star and its green glow.

(Scene Shift)

It began with some stargazers admiring the green star, glowing beautifully in the night sky. Then came the little children making noises of admiration of the pretty green star. Those who noticed next were the active guards, admiring the work of the night princess. And finally Luna herself noticed, and instantly felt that something was wrong, for that was no star fall made by her.

The alicorn first felt shock then she felt anger and she glared at the green star fall as she stomped on the stone floor of the balcony, shouting out her anger. “What is that? That is no star made by Our magic! Who would dare to interfere in Our night sky!?”

Luna then realized something, she could not sense the star. It was as if that speck of stardust was not part of the sky at all. And yet she could sense it. Just not like it was a star. “No... wait... that star hath no presence in mine sky... It does not feel like a star at all. It dost feel… alive?”

It then hit her as to why she could sense the star, yet not as if it was part of the sky, with a single sensory spell cast upon the night sky she narrowed her eyes. The star had a life sign, it was no star at all. Something alive was falling towards the planet. “It truly dost feel alive... We better wake sister up before We do anything, this could be nothing, and yet it could mean disaster.”

Swiftly the night princess ran into the castle, her metal covered hooves making loud noises as she moved towards her sister’s tower. She almost ran into Starswirl who was moving in the hallway with a book. “Sorry Starswirl! We need to wake sister!”

Starswirl was an old unicorn and some may say that he was getting senile but when he saw the concern in Luna’s eyes and the panic in her voice he started to follow her, his old joints as springy as ever. “What is happening princess?” He asked calmly as they ran up the spiraling stairs towards the Solar Tower.

“A strangeth star hath fallen from the void!” Luna shouted as she slammed up the doors at the end of the stairs with a blast of magic. “It hath no part of Our magic and it hath no presence in the sky! It dost hath a life sign within it! We need to wake Our sister in case this be another outsider like Tirek!”

Starswirl’s mind was running a mile a minute at those words and he then spoke back. “Good thinking Luna, whatever is approaching could be very dangerous, best for both of thee to be awake when it arrives.” The elderly unicorn and the alicorn princess remained silent for the rest of the run towards the royal bedroom of the Solar Tower.

(Scene Skip)

Celestia had been peacefully snoozing in her warm bedding, dreaming of wide warm sunny plains with trees growing with sweet pastries and handsome stallions picking said pastries before feeding them to her. Hey don’t judge her, she got her private fantasies and desires just like anypony. But sadly her peaceful rest would be disturbed by the sound of her doors being kicked open and her little sister shouting out in the Royal Alicorn Voice into her room. “Celestia!! Wake Up!!! We need Thy aid!”

Groaning Celestia looked up from her pillows and looked at Luna with tired eyes. “Luna thou better hath good reason-”, she got interrupted when Luna physically grabbed her and began to rush out of the room towards the royal armory, Starswirl following in a steady phase. The old unicorn was no slouch even at his old age.

“NO time sister! A green star most foul is falling from the void! We art unable to affect it with Our magic! It hath the feeling of life and magic sister! It could be an Outsider! Now arm up thou cake bloated flank!” Celestia’s eyes widened at those words and she righted herself as Luna threw her into the armory and landed perfectly on her hooves, used to her sister’s antics.

“Armour up thou own big flank then Luna! Starswirl warn the guards! Have them get Our ponies to safety!” Magical auras erupted across the armoury as gold and silver plated swirled around each of the two sisters, decorating their bodies in powerful enchanted armour forged from the strongest of enchantable metals.

Yet it would be too late.

(Scene Skip)

[Start Music: Mass Effect 3 Soundtrack Remix - Leaving Earth + An End, Once and For All by scoutct6]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE8Rhmy8v0E

The green star fall was now the size of the moon and ponies below were getting nervous. That nervousness was ignited into a panic as hordes of guards bearing Night and Day armour suddenly marched out of the castle and began to pull ponies towards the castle for safety.

Then the star detonated. In a sudden explosion of green light it shattered. It was torn asunder by the atmosphere of the planet and its fragments fell upon the soil of the Everfree Forest. The shock wave from the atmospheric detonation made by the fallen star's fragmentation was like the sound of a giant screeching bird of prey for the ponies below as they clutched their ears while windows and glass work shattered.

What followed would mark the start of a horrifying experience as the fragments struck ground. Each of the impacts caused a powerful fiery detonation of heat, green flight and pure kinetic energy. The amount of force behind the impacts was strong enough to make waves of burning soil up heave the lands around the city into an inwardly approaching wave of destruction.

The ponies who had been celebrating in a night of cheer and joy, were in such a short time, reduced into stampeding unruly herds of equines. Ponies began to run, teleport, fly and stampede towards the castle in randomly moving masses. Even as the burning waves tearing up the outer foundations of the city, mere seconds after the impacts.

The enclosing wave blew apart buildings and tents of the improvised town. With the force of full blown hurricane the very foundations were torn up from the earth itself, enlarging the mass of the wave as it tore up more and more of the town. Panicking ponies unable to escape the wave, would barely have time register the impact as their bodies were turn asunder before swallowed by the wave of dirt, grime, fire and debris.

(Scene Skip)

It took but mere moments for the two sisters to become fully armed and armoured, their once beautiful and enchanting forms now looking like intimidating beacons of warfare. Sheathed on their sides are their personal arms. Celestia’s halberd the Solar Flare and Luna’s crescent shaped khopesh the Crescent Fang.

Looking at her younger sister Celestia took a step forward, the heavy step of her left front hoof marking the first of a march of war. “Let’s go sister.” Luna only nodded before following her older sister out of the armoury and down the hallways, their sprinting hooves carrying them towards the main gate leading towards the courtyard.

But as the two warriors rushed out of the open gates they were greeted by a group of massive explosions erupting outside the castle walls. The sky was filled with green light and a powerful shaking was making the entire castle groan in protest. Yet as the shaking stopped Celestia and Luna could only stare in horror at what they were seeing out of the open gilded gates in front of them. The Everfree Forest was moving towards them in a massive wave of dust, soil, trees, rock and mud, the entire thing burning with an eerie green flame. It was a wave of devastation swallowing up the panicking ponies outside their gates, dragging their poor fragile bodies into the destructive power of the wave.

Even the pegasus ponies who tried to fly out of range of the wave found themselves torn apart by the powerful shock waves following the wave. Even if they survived they would lose their flight capacity as the vacuum behind the wave would render their flight capacity null and void for several seconds, letting them fall down to their doom.

Starswirl’s voice broke the sisters from the shock as he stood outside the gates, using his magic to amplify his voice. It was not on par with the Royal Alicorn voice, as the sisters liked to call it, but it was still impressive. “GET INTO THE COURTYARD! DO NOT STOP! DO NOT FLY TOO HIGH INTO THE SKY! IT IS TOO DANGEROUS! IF YOU CANNOT GET TO THE COURTYARD GET INTO COVER!”

Luna quickly ran forward, followed by Celestia, towards their former mentor. “STARSWIRL GET OUR PONIES TO SAFETY! WE NEED TO ACTIVATE THE ELEMENTS BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE! GET AS MANY AS THOU CAN INSIDE NOW!”

Starswirl looked grim but nodded, turning his focus towards the ponies outside he stood up on his hind legs and began to focus his magic even further. Hundreds of ponies who were lagging behind were suddenly picked up by the powerful magical grip of the old unicorn and they found themselves flying towards the castle.

The guard ponies called and guided to the best of their efforts even as some of them were lost to the wave. Time was running out and they could not save every pony, even though it tore at them for it.

As the waves were almost fifty meters away had the last pony in sight or reach been saved. The gilded gates were slammed shut and Celestia and Luna pressed their horns together and called upon the power of the Elements of Harmony.

Six gemstones emerged from the packs of their armours and began to swirl around them. A sensation of serenity and warmth began to fill the courtyard as powerful energies began to be given a purpose. To protect.

A massive light engulfed the sisters and expanded out into the very structure of the castle. Then a force field in all the colours of the rainbow covered up the castle in the last second before the wave struck.

The result? Calamity.

The wave engulfed the castle and struck into a central point that erupted like a geyser. The force field held the impact at bay, but the sound of the roaring debris, mass of earthly components and the burning green flames was grinding against the ears of the ponies beneath the magical shield. It was like the very earth itself was fighting against the powers of the Elements of Harmony. The ground was shaking, the sky above the force field was covered in a cloud of dust and green flames, darkening the world in green light and creeping shadows.

As if reaching out for the sky itself the pillar rose up and up. The rising dust clouds beneath it was making the world look like a murky brown ocean put on fire. As the gargantuan spectacle reached its peak it suddenly stopped, and then began to fall. Its shape collapsed and everything that had been part of it began to fall down.

The force field buckled and groaned as tons upon hundreds of tons of debris and dirt began to rain down upon it. It even shrank for about ten meters until it was stabilized. Ponies were hugging each other in fear and terror as their world was forever changed from its peacefulness by the calamity happening around them.

Then as the final stone struck down and the dust cloud began to drift away, letting the moon shine upon Equestria once more, the sisters released the force field.

The town was torn asunder, as if flipped over by a massive giant foal throwing a tantrum. Pieces of wood, rock, stone and fabric lay all over, a thick layer of dirt, earth burning in green fire covering most of the ground and what few buildings remained standing. It would take months, if not years, for the town to be repaired. This was not registered by the two princesses though as they were too busy recovering from forcing so much power out of the elements in such a short amount of time.

“Ar-are thou okay Luna?” Celestia asked in a strained voice as she leaned her side against her sister, who was doing the same. “A-aye, We think so sister.” The princesses seemed to sag with exhaustion and relief. But then they heard it.

A Thunk. A Thud. A Splat. A Crack: A Thump. A Splotch. A Chink. A Crunch. A Thock. And more and and more of such horrible wretched sounds.

Sounds that could only be described as flesh landing on earth, stone and metal. And it was all coming from behind them and upwards. The sisters looked up and their eyes widened in horror as they were greeted by an image that could only be described as a living nightmare.

Upon the spires of their castle, upon every tower, every wall, every balcony and flag pole, hung the broken bodies of animals and ponies alike, with even more raining down from above. Foals, adults, elderly, no pony was spared from the devastating power of the destruction brought by the star fragments, breaking even further upon the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. Their beautiful home turned into a mocking display of death, carnage and despair as more and more pieces of their peaceful ponies landed upon it, like a mocking offering from the gods.

Luna’s mind was running rampage as she stared upon the horror in front of them. *Nononononononon! Please stop it! Don’t harm them anymore! They hath suffered enough!*

While Celestia’s mind was almost dead silent in shock as she watched the corpses of her subjects being skewered or broken upon her own home. “...This be too painful. Please, stop hurting our little ponies. We beg of theeu.” Was all she could choke out, barely a whisper, as tears began to build up and in her eyes and slowly trickle down her cheeks. Yet there was no remorse, no decline and no stopping of the rain of despair.

But the most painful sight had yet to come.

There was a low flutter in the air, a sound of something falling, and then a small shape struck the ground, breaking it's broken shape even further. Like a rag doll thrown to the ground. It was a little filly, a unicorn, both of her eyes torn apart, her hide flayed, her legs mangled, her spine snapped, her guts hanging out from a big rip in her barrel, and her horn snapped in half.

As the broken body of the filly hit the ground in front of the sisters the ponies around them screamed in utter fear and despair as more and more bodies hit the ground. Some were unlucky enough to be hit by a body. Starswirl called out for the guards to get the ponies inside or under shields. And they scrambled to do so, even as bodies and pieces of ponies and animals kept raining down.

Even as all this happened had Celestia and Luna not been able to stop staring at the little filly in front of them.

They knew her. Her name was Clever Clover, she was a promising little filly with an ambition of becoming a great spellcrafter like Starswirl. Starswirl himself had even spoken of her talent for thaumaturgy. She had a hatred of carrots, a love for apples, she also made some pretty hoofmade sketches for the princesses’ birthdays. So full of life and promises, so happy and cheerful. Now, a broken wretch of bones, meat and blood, broken like an egg on the ground.

(Flashback)

Sitting by her own personal desk was the Princess of the Night trying to solve the runic cluster she was working on. It was needed for the armour of the guards to keep their physical identities hidden. The blue alicorn threw up her forelegs in frustration and shouted out in frustration. “Oh glue this bucking nonsense!”

Suddenly a bar of soap hit her on the head from the doorway. Turning to glare at the intruder she was surprised to see a little filly wearing a big patchwork hat that was similar to Starswirl’s, glaring at her. “Hey! No potty mouth languages! Mum say not even princesses be allowed to talk potty! Or their dirty mouths be washed with soap!”

Blinking in shock the princess’ lips suddenly twitched until a grin spread across her muzzle and she started giggling. The filly looked at the princess with a crooked head and a confused look, making her ridiculous hat wobble like a pile of fabric shaped pudding.

Finally Luna fell off her chair and collapsed into laughter.“Bwahahahahahahaha! The hat! Ahahahaha! Oh by Our moon! Ohahahahahaha! It be outrageously humorous! Hahahahahaha!”

“Hey! Stop laughing! My hat be not out rockerly tumorous! It be the most awesomest hat, ever!” Little Clover shouted in frustration. Only managing to make Luna laugh even harder.

(Flashback End)

(Flashback)

Swish! Shing! Clink! Click! That was the repetitive sound of a sharpened edge being moved in a draw, slice and sheath motion. Out in the courtyard of the Castle of the Two Sisters was Princess Celestia trying to work out how to handle her new sword, given to her by one of the Crystal Ponies. It looked like a curved wide scimitar made out of yellow crystal with a green handle.

The weapon was a bit uneven and strangely balanced but had a decent sharpness. But Celestia couldn’t help but think that something was strange about the gift. It was nagging at her brain since she received it, yet she couldn't quite put her hoof as of why.

“Ooooh! That be one pretty banana!” Came the young voice of a filly nearby.

Sheathing her blade Celestia looked around to see a little filly wearing a truly ridiculous wizard’s hat. Not one to laugh openly at other’s fashion senses the princess just smiled kindly at the little filly and asked in a warm voice. “Terribly sorry Our dear little filly. What did thou say?”

The little filly smiled and pointed at her sheathed blade with her little hoof. “That be one pretty banana! It look kind of silly with those ball shaped leaves but it it sparkles real pretty like though.”

Celestia’s mind went numb for a second, then she slowly unsheathed the blade, and gave it a long and criticizing look. Her eyes went wide as she finally registered the phallic shape of the blade and the odd ball like green cross guard. It looked like a penis out of the sheath!

“...We… We… Oh dear gods… We think... We art going to have a ‘talk’ with blacksmith Pounding Gladius about his... generosity and creativity… of this… ‘banana’ shaped blade...” As she spoke her eyes slowly went from shock to horror and finally to cold burning fury. She then slowly began to march towards the castle, muttering under her breath as the guard ponies quickly retreated sensing their sun monarch’s fury.

“‘Be sure to handle your blade properly’? Well, well, well Our dear Gladius, We shalt show thee how well we ‘handle’ your ‘blade’. Up thy own sheath.”

(Flashback End)

The little filly had been such a sweet little thing, to warm their days of boredom and work with her childish protests, silly hat and innocence.. Celestia had promised to take her flying, Luna had offered her a visit to Starswirl’s workshop. Both promises now forever lost along with her life.

Then suddenly and without warning, Celestia scooped up the broken body of the filly and hugged her to her chest, murmuring through tears and sobs how sorry she was. Luna was not far off, she warped her own forelegs around the filly and began to bawl into her sister’s mane.

This would forever be known as the Night of Terror. And sadly enough, it had yet to end.

(Scene Shift)

The soil was shifting at the centre of one of the craters. Rocks were loosened. Dirt began to pile up and then, something began to rise out of it. Then like a squirming mole or snake the thing beneath the earth began to borrow out of the crater.

As it reached the edge of the crater the burrowing thing erupted out of its confinement in a gush of green fire and melted stone. It was a bone, a rib, glittering like molten steel while covered in green fire. It flew like a spinning dagger through the air before it struck another bone that had erupted from the ground. The two metallic bones met with a loud clang, like the sound of a big old church bell being rung.

The sound seemed to vibrate through the air and the earth. And then more bones flew out to collide. It was like magnets being connected to one another. Each of the strikes ringing out into the world with the loud choir of a bell. And in this mad burning ruined town, it was like a ringing of funeral bells to the inhabitants.

A pair of legs flew out, the humerus connecting to the scapula on the front. While a pair of hind leg bones flew up and connected together to the pelvis bones by the femurs. Parts of the spine from the thoracic vertebrae to the caudal vertebrae connected together together. The connected parts then began to swim through the air in a twisted and swirled movement, similar to that of a sea serpent, before suddenly lunging forward between the scapula and the pelvis. With a loud clang were the hind legs and the forelegs connected to the spine.

Twisting and turning its headless and flesh-less shape in voiceless agony or death cramps the skeletal shape rolled down upon the ground, smashing through ruined buildings and debris as it twisted and turned around. Its powerful motions tearing up earth, shattering stone, breaking wood and crushing debris.

Erupting like javelins from the soil came the parts of the ribs, the cervical vertebrae, connecting like a mass of teeth mending themselves into the spine. Then the parts of what could only be described as bird wing bones jammed themselves into the middle of the spine connecting together into a large example of bird wing bones.

All parts but one connected the incomplete skeleton suddenly collapsed, going perfectly still. The green flames burning it's silent and still shape was the only thing that could be seen. And then, the screams could be heard.

They were muffled at first, like a voice buried beneath a mountain of cotton. Yet it grew louder and louder. Then like a phantom out of hell flew the screeching skull of a pony out of the earth and flew in a chaotic pattern towards the still bone pile.

With a loud clang the skull connected to the neck and the skeleton seemed complete. Yet something was missing for upon its forehead lay a hole meant for the horn of a unicorn, yet it lay bare. Revealing the boiling organic flesh of the brain within the skull.

The skeleton rose like a ghoul off the ground, its body moving like a badly made and damaged puppet until it stood up. It soon started jumping, bucking and thrashing around as if trying to kick off an invisible rider. Flesh began to grow upon its burning bones, organs began to heal. Eyeballs began to appear in the orbit, the orbits, the eye holes of the skull.

Yet as it regenerated the burning bones deteriorated the flesh and organs into rot and decay, as if the fires age as well as burns the flesh of its host. Pieces of burning organs, meat, hide, feathers and black ash like blood erupted like erupting boils from the skeletal alicorn. The eyes either popped into steam and bits or poured out like a liquid, making it look like the skeletal skull was crying tears made out of melted eyeballs.

And through this entire spectacle could the ponies hiding the castle only gape in horror at the terrifying sight in front of them. The two princesses had lost themselves in their sorrow and were not witnesses of the first part of the spectacle, too lost in their despair over Clover's death. Yet when the skeletal alicorn’s screams came and drowned out the sound of the burning and the dying they found themselves looking up with teary eyes before said eyes widened into a state of shock at the sight. The sisters could only stare in silent shock at the sight of the burning being in its endless torment, like a soul of Tartarus being punished for its sins. The fact that it was in the shape of an alicorn skeleton, a stallion from the shape of the bones, almost made it a mockery of their own ascended selves.

Finally the deteriorating and yet regenerating skeletal being found a momentum to its trashing and suddenly burst out into a rapid sprint, running over and through anything in its path without a hint of stopping. Its jaws were open agape, practically unhinged, and a rotting and regenerating tongue dangled from its flesh free jaws. With burst of ash, fire and rotten blood came echoing neighs out from the half shaped and half rotten throat of the undead being. The unnatural flames within its bones turned the already awful noises it was making into a ghastly screech of torment and agony. Its burning shape disappeared from the ruined town and disappeared into the hellscape that had been the Everfree Forest, leaving the ponies to recover from this ordeal even as its howling screams echoed through the night.

Nobody, pony or otherwise, would realize the truth behind that night. Not until a century later. And until then was the thing that came with the green star refereed to as the Stallion of Torment.

To Be Continued

Chapter Two: The Isolated Kingdom (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Two: The Isolated Kingdom

“Luna? Luna!? Luna! Art thou listening!?” Shouted the the pink furred alicorn at her little sister who was staring out the window at the sunset. The two sisters were planning an expedition into the newly grown Everfree Forest that had grown up from the desolation caused by the Green Star as it fell in the Night of Terror ten days ago.

In mere days after the star fell and the Stallion of Torment emerged out of the burning ruins, were things starting to act strange. All over the impact crates and near all nearby water flows were rapidly growing strange plants emerging. Also the weather was starting to act wonky. It didn’t follow the laws of the magic airflow, it was harder to alter with weather magic and the pegasis couldn’t find anyway to change or alter it for more then a few hours at best.

The Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters was cleaned up from the tragic event of the Night of Terror, the corpses that had decorated the spires had all been removed and carefully buried with tender care. There were so many pieces that some ponies were not intact enough to be identified.

Both of the alicorn sisters had taken it hard. Celestia was trying to bury herself with work to not collapse in tears, but she would find herself crying every night into her pillow. Luna would act irrational, go from silently depressed to explosive rage within moments. Things were tense and even worse, the Stallion of Torment’s screams could be heard still now and then as his running form moved through the land like a spectral reminder of the horror that had happened.

All attempts of isolating or capturing him had ended up in failure, for being a half regenerated corpse it was surprisingly fast and powerful. Tearing apart enchanted chains with ease with its warped undead strength.

At first Luna wanted to shout, she wanted to scream, she wanted to cry. But she grit her teeth and spoke back to her sister, not looking away from the window. “We… We art listening sister… Captain Heavy Stomp shalt be leading ten patrols of ten guards to investigate the wild woods.”

“...” Celestia fell silent as she watched her sister. Before suddenly launching herself off her chair and hugged her baby sister, babbling and crying. Letting go of her persona as a perfect pretty princess and just collapse into a mess of tears. Or that is what she wanted to do. Yet she could not. All she could do was give humm of understanding and gently fold the paper work into piles before slowly moving over to her sister’s side and gently hugged her side before leaving the room for her office.

Starswirl had told them to not let their emotions run rampant. It was uncertain how intense emotional outburst would behave for an alicorn. Although it was doubtful even the old unicorn was feeling well after that night considering his many late hours of research the last few days.

Luna remained where she sat, just staring out the window as the sun began to settle as her sister called forth her power. Almost absently the Moon Princess called up her own equivalent, but not even the soothing light of her moon could make her sorrow cease aching not even for a moment. *Why? Why did it happen?* Her mourning thoughts echoing in her head.

(Time Skip)

“Attention!” Shouted out an Earth Pony wearing golden plate mail, the cutie mark of a boulder with a hoofprint smashed into it. In front of him were ten squads of ten guards. A total of one hundred ponies armed in the regular armour of the Novice Ranks of the Equestrian Day Guard.

The squads stood in lines of two in front of the gates of the castle. It was the early morning and each of the ponies were armed and ready for their mission. A few civilians were taking a peek at the activity, even as they were rebuilding their homes.

The big wizened pony officer trotted back and forth in front of his troops, shouting out his words like a drill sergeant, every word reaching to every single guard. They were well trained and disciplined, they knew how to fight and how to act. And this was their leader, using inspiring words to make them gain morale and courage to face the unknown.

“We shalt be going into unknown territory! This new wicketh forest hath surrounded our beloved home for too long! We shalt march out and clear out the infection! Now! We want thy gear ready and thy mind sharp! For our Princesses! We march! For Equestria!” The squads saluted and shouted out, “For Equestria!”, to their commanding officer who smiled at his troops’ discipline.

In steady columns of two by five the soldiers moved out into the twisted wilderness. The ponies of the town made cheers as the soldiers marched out, intent of fulfilling their mission.

Yet, no pony of the expedition force would live to tell the tale of what happened within this wilderness.

(Time Skip)

The Squad designated as Seven Pointed Star was made up by a group of rookies and a few veterans. Five earth ponies, three pegasis and two unicorns. Creeking Hill was the Sergeant of the squad, an old wizened earth pony older then Captain Heavy Stomp. Some ponies say that he’s the oldest guard, having been around since the time of the Platinum Guard before the reign of Discord. He was well past one hundred and fifty summers of age, yet nopony dared to challenge his authority.

His coat is a dull faded crimson red, his mane is pale grey while his cutie mark is that of a grass covered hill with tall dead trees growing on top of it. He was in a full plate armour and armed with a two handed battle axe.

Then there were the two groups of twins. Tearing Pear, Streaking Bolt, two earth ponies, sisters, whom were an excellent combination of defence and range. Tearing Pear was a dark green pony with a teal mane, with the cutie mark of a pear smashing a shield. She uses heavy armor while equipped with a large tower shield and a short sword while her sister Streaking Arrow used medium armour while wielding a heavy crossbow augmented with an axe edge to act as a close range weapon. Streaking Bolt was teal in fur and green in mane, the opposite colouring of her sister, with the cutie mark of a crossbow bolt flying through a cloud.

The other twins were the two unicorns. Fire Ball and Frost Ball, brothers, one was red in fur with yellow mane, with the cutie mark of a ball of ice, while the other was light blue in fur with a white mane with the cutie mark of a ball of fire. Their opposite colouring was bit of an inside joke between the squads, though they never understood it themselves. Both of them were armed with magical focuses, golden staffs with crystals.

Then there were the individual earth ponies. There was Rock Bottom, an overweight dark brown middle aged pony with a dirty short cut chestnut coloured mane and tail, with an empty tankard as his cutie mark. He was the slouch and slacker, equipped in heavy armour with a warhammer for a weapon, but he barely seemed to use it.

The other was Grass Whistler, a silent scout who was about as much of a conversationalist as Rock Bottom was a non-alcoholic. He is light green in colour, with a mane of blue with streaks of turquoise, his cutie mark is a leaf shaped like a flute. He is armed with two daggers and wears a camouflage enchanted cloak over his light armour.

Finally there were the three pegasis. Storm Wing, Solid Gust and Prancing Cloud, each of them wearing light armours while wielding javelins and light shields. They looked like twins, sharing identical colourings, yet were not related in any way. All of them had dull dark grey fur with manes of white with streaks of light blue. Storm Wing had a pair of open wings surrounded by an arch of lightning as his cutie mark. Solid Gust had a tornado shaped as a brick as his. While Prancing Cloud had… a cloud wearing a flamboyant hat.

Each of these ponies were green as may come, having only finished their basic training a month before the Night of Terror. The only experienced guards were the old sergeant Creeking Hill and Rock Bottom who was about as useful as a bag of socks.

Currently the group was moving through a clearing in the strange woods. They could not notice much of anything except for the occasional rabbit, insect or bird flying around without a care. Which was weird since they were used to seeing animals being cared for by ponies and not handling things on their own.

Rock Bottom fiddled with his weapon nervously as the birds flew into the sky, he was feeling uneasy. Moving ahead of the others the old guard pony muttered to their squad leader. “This place be givin’ me da creepsies Sarge. Somethin’ ain’t right ‘ere.”

Creeking Hill hummed in agreement as he saw a strange blue flower bloom from the soil in front of them. “Indeed. But this is the safest place we have found thus far for camp. But it is strange. There be a small spring here of fresh water. Yet there are no animals here to drink from it. And these flowers that art growing here... I hath never seen anything like them.”

“Oh lay off already old timer, what can some water and sprouts do to us?” Came the brash and synchronized voices of the Ball Twins, Rock Bottom and Creeking Hill just snorted at the brash youths and moved ahead past.

“Bloody unicorns got nothin but magic in them pointy noggins.” Muttered Rock Bottom as he took a seat on a big rock, pulling out a leather flask with some strong wine.

“”Lay off the grog Rock Bottom, we art in unknown territory. Keep thy ears and eyes sharp.” Creeking Hill stated as he moved over to the stream. Lowering his head the old pony sniffed the water, he could not sense anything wrong with it. Pulling out a wooden cup the sergeant filled it from the flowing waters before carrying it over to the others.

“Inspect this.” Was his short words to the unicorns and the pegasis who all did as they were told. The unicorns scanned the entire thing, while the pegasis used their abilities of weather magic to inspect the water. Yet they could not find anything dangerous or out of place within the water.

“It be safe old timer. Nothing in it.” Fire Ball and Ice Ball said together as they floated the cup back to the officer who nodded before carefully licking the water in the cup, it tasted a bit too sweet, almost like it was flowing with brown sugar, but it didn’t tingle with anything he could point in as dangerous. It was just very clean and fresh water, the cleanest he had ever tasted in fact.

“Good. Put up the tents, I want at least two ponies at guard at all time.”

The rookies went to put up the four tents, of the ten guards would eight be resting, that would mean two ponies per tent at any given time. And two keeping watch.

As the night time began to fall and the moon rise was Rock Bottom and Storm Wing given the first watch.

The older earth pony took a drink every now and then while his companion kept sharpening his weapon, or checking his gear. The blue flowers had spread through the entire clearing by now, but other then that had nothing out of the ordinary happened. Rock Bottom drained his flask before looking at the blue flowers illuminated by the moonlight. He had always preferred the moon to the sun, it was gentle in its glow and soothing in the warm summer nights when you lay out cold from a night of drinking. *She too liked moon lit nights. If only she could be here today.* Sighing softly the earth pony looked at the treelines, nothing out of the ordinary yet.

Young Storm Wing seemed intent on being silent for the entire watch, so not much of a conversation there. Hopefully his other flasks were yet to be empty. Reaching for one of his spare bottles Rock Bottom uncorked it before chugging down a mouthful. In his drinking he didn’t notice a dull blue glow coming from the flowers even as the moon was covered by clouds for a short moment he, nor the pegasus, noticed.

The old Earth Pony drained his flask in another heavy gulp and as he pulled it away from his muzzle he barely had time to react as Storm Wing fell forward into the flowers, unconscious. Rock Bottom tried to reach for him when he felt his body seized up, as if he was paralyzed. His head turned to look at his own body but got stuck as his neck shifted, the only thing he could see was the moonlit field of flowers, the beautiful moon above glowing upon it. Before his thoughts faded his stony lips cracked into a fond smile as a name rang through his head one final time. *Moon Gaze...*

His still shape stood still in the field, even his armour losing its golden hue, turning into a black rougher surface. Standing like a statue of a solemn hour the earth pony seemed to sag together, the soil beneath his still shape unable to hold his uneven weight. The still shape of the pony stood upright for a few seconds before he began to tilt and then fall to the side. A loud crumbling echo of rock breaking apart was the last sound to be heard in the glade before the eerie silence of the night returned.

(Scene Skip)

The night was silent and calm. Even as Luna laid down on her bed early, exhausted and tired, yet she could not sleep. Her heart ached, her mind was at unease and her thoughts heavy. While lying down on the cover she looked up at the night sky, watching the stars tinkling as her moon gently shone upon the land below.

It didn’t make her feel at ease, but it distracted her for a few moments. But it didn’t take long for her heart to clench and for her dry eyes to ache as she wanted to cry, but no tears were to be found. Burying her head beneath her pillow Luna wanted to scream but found herself too exhausted to do so.

Then a soft humming filled her ears. It reached over her body and made her relax.

“Through wind so calm, moon so bright. Hear our song through the night.”

“Let thy soul be at rest. Our voice ringing like a chiming bell, lifting thy pain away.”

A white hoof gently pulled the pillow of the princess’ head, an aura of magic grasping her head gently and lifting it up before pushing the pillow beneath her head.

“Through wind so calm, moon so bright. Hear our song through of the night.”

“Let our lullaby bring you to sleep. A soothing sound of a melody. That puts all at ease.”

Then an aura gently grasped the cover and pulled it up to her neck.

“”Through wind so calm, moon so bright. Hear our song through the night.”

“Sleep peaceful sister dear. And let thy soul be at ease.”

The moon princess had fallen asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. After having been tucked in properly the voice stopped singing and just kept humming as it gently drew the curtains over the window, covering the room in darkness.

“Hummmmhummmhum. Hummmhummmhummm. Hummmhummhummhummmmmmm.”

Then a low creak was heard as the door to the room was opened and then silent steps moved out of the room before closing gently.

The white alicorn behind the doorway let out a soft sigh before walking down the silent hallway. How she missed the happier times they used to have.

Walking through the silent halls of the castle Celestia looked out the windows as her sister’s beautiful moon shone upon the recovering town below. She then noticed a green glow coming from Starswirl’s tower, she was starting to feel a bit concerned for the old Unicorn, he had not come out of his tower for three days now.

Intend on speaking to the old stallion tomorrow the princess of the sun left for her own tower to try and sleep. Unaware of the horrors happening in the night.

(Scene Skip)

The Tower of Starswirl was the tallest of the towers of the castle, also the only one equipped with a proper telescope. Here Starswirl’s workshop and personal library could be found. And before the Green Star it was a source of working students, princesses and a laughing little filly.

No pony knew of the secret life of Starswirl the Bearded. In his youth he had been a filly chasing play-colt, an arrogant genius with an iron solid belief in his own capabilities as a Magus and a Unicorn. His full name had been Starswirl Bloodbeard, of the Blood Clan, one of the older noble families of the Unicorn Nobility.

He had been through it all, the rise and fall of the Windigos, the Rise of Discord, the Ascension of Queen Tender Crown and the two Princesses, the fall of Discord, the Fall of Tirek, the Disappearance of the Crystal Empire, and many more incidents. But one incident, the most recent, had made a deep scar in his soul. The Fall of the Green Star, which brought about the destruction, and following mutation, of the forest. The source of the aching in his heart and soul was the Stallion of Torment, the physical embodiment of the Green Star, the thing that killed his former student, and secret wife Sparkling Cupcake.

He had found her as a young mare struggling through a mire of chocolate fudge filled with gummi snakes, she had used magic and herbs to discourage and clear her path through the candy horror land. She had been a beautiful mare, enough to make the more then eighty years old unicorn feel like a hot blooded rascal once more. She had enchanted him with her mind and looks and he in turn had ensnared her with his intelligence and wit. He took her in as an apprentice, not openly, he was still teaching the two princesses by this time and could not openly accept another apprentice.

But it soon grew past that stage and into a secret relationship. For a nearly century old Unicorn Lord and Archmagus to enjoy the tender touch and love of a much younger mare would have been a scandal and disaster not just for them but for the kingdom they were founding as well. Of course such things were much more acceptable, but it would still have made a smear upon his image, and by association the image of the princesses. So they kept it secret, even from the princesses, who were too busy working their courts to be safely told of the relation. Starswirl had intended to tell them of it, but never did, too much work and too little time. A few years into their relationship they had a daughter, and that brought a much needed warmth into his life.

And it also brought a lot of danger. A child born of noble blood outside of an official marriage was a capital offence to the unicorn nobility, it would lead to his and Cupcake's execution as well as the adoption of his little filly into an orphanage. Thus they had to separate from one another, and his little filly, Clever Clover, was never told of who her papa was, unaware that he was the old kidn unicorn who said he liked her hat.

But then came the Green Star. Destruction. Pain. Despair. All was brought by its coming and the Stallion of Torment's rise acted like a cataclysm, a scapegoat, for Starswirl's rage when he found out the fate of his family. His secret wife had been at the point of one of the impacts her ashes scattered over the land, while Clover had been torn asunder by the shock wave by the impacts.

Starswirl wanted justice, no! He wanted revenge! He wanted to hunt down the source of his pain and cause it so much more agony in return.

But he remained silent for the first week, only doing menial tough labor to find survivors, to keep his mind focused. And his workshop had remained dark and barely lit for days. And yet this night, it was a dark and gloomy place, but one of activity. Once bare and unused tables were covered and filled with open tomes, boiling concoctions and tools of magical origin and purpose.

Upon a white block of marble, strapped into contraptions and holders of black iron, was a long black horn, glowing with a green flame like aura. And examining it with all manners of magical glass lenses and chemicals was a white old unicorn by the name of Starswirl. His once clean and well kept beard, fur and clothes covered in days’ worth of grime, dirt and chemicals.

Voiceless whispers were echoing through the room, the old unicorn seemed to mutter along with them from time to time, speaking words of no more reason then gibberish.

His purple eyes were focused on the horn to the point of mania, his magic absently writing down notes into a scroll of parchment as he kept muttering. Inbetween the mad gibberish his words were clear and coherent. “The scale of the horn’s interior would rate the body to be above the average height registered for an Alicorn. Around seven point two feet in height, two feet above the tallest registered pony in existence, High Club. And one foot taller then Celestia, the tallest registered Alicorn. The horn appears to be made not out of bone or hardened hair but some sort of metal.”

Using a black knife of obsidian the unicorn began to try and scrape off parts from the horn, yet nothing seemed to damage it. The old unicorn had found the horn a few days after the disaster when he volunteered to look for survivors.

(Flashback)

Amongst the ruins of the town was Starswirl, his once clean blue robe now dirty brown from the many hours of looking for survivors or deceased. As he pushed aside a wall of crumbling bricks with his magic he saw a dead pony, a mother covering her foal with her body, the foal seemed to be breathing however.

Reminded of the reason whyhe was volunteering for this grunt work Starswirl covered up his sniffle with a dry cough before gently pushing away the rubble from the foal and his mother.

“Come on little one, let’s get you to safety.” The old unicorn murmured as he levitated the little colt free from his mother’s corpse. Carefully handing the little one to the guard accompany him Starswirl turned to move forward through the ruins once more when he spotted something just past the ruined house he was standing by.

There was something sticking out from a small crater. A black pointy object. Curious the old unicorn walked over to the object, grasping it with his magic he pulled it out from the soil. It was a horn, a long unicorn- no, this was an Alicorn’s horn. It was radiating green energy, similar to that of the Green Star and the flames that had been burning for so long.

(Flashback End)

A sound of something small hitting stone alerted him from his memories. Looking down he saw a small amount of metal shavings hit the white marble, small pieces of metal fragments from the horn. The first damage upon the horn and it had taken the use of a reinforced obsidian blade.

An unhinged and creepily wide smile grew upon the unicorn’s muzzle and a hissing manic monologue ran through his head as he levitated the pieces of metal shaving towards another work bench. *Yessssss!! With this We shalt begin Our Vengeance!! Clover, Cupcake, just wait for Us.*

Pulling out more tomes and tools the unicorn set the obsidian blade to a continuous, scraping against the horn, while pulling out a mirror frame and a necklace. “First We shalt use the power of the fragments of the horn to power some of our older projects. We need to discern the energy’s potency, structure and effects. So many thingsss will be realized if we can unlock the secrets of the metal and this green energy. And thus we can find a way to destroy the beast from which it came. Yessss… That is good.”

Unhinged chuckles fills the laboratory as the unicorn begins to experiment, analyzing and combining the fragments of the horn into his contraptions and unfinished projects. Not noticing how his once violet eyes, are slowly turning green.

Nobody would realize the horrors born from that fateful meeting between Starswirl the Bearded and the horn left by Stallion of Torment. But if anyone had any hints or foresight of it, they remained silent.

(Time Skip)

Young Storm Wing had never experienced a hangover before. Yet he had heard plenty of descriptions of it from his ma whenever he asked why his pa would act like such a grouch every saturday- This felt a lot like how his ma had described it so he was certain that the pounding pain in his skull could attribute to a hanover. Now he was all the more certain that he would never drink alcohol then ever before.

His vision cleared as the sun rise began its rise from the edge of the world, granting the world its warm glow. Looking around the camp he felt a rising panic as he tried to find the others, that’s when he noticed two things. One, there was a big pile of rock just lying on the ground next to him with a familiar looking warhammer and leather flask lying next to it. The most disturbing thing though was that the pile of rubble looked way too much like it was once in the shape of a pony.

The second thing was the most disturbing, his wings were sparking like a lightning filled storm cloud, the feathers puffed up like a porcupine’s quills!

Opening his mouth to scream out in fear, all that came out was the sound of rumbling thunder, sparks of lightning arching out from his teeth and tongue. Startled but determined Storm Wing tried to stand up from the ground, finding it difficult with his deranged wings.

For a few minutes the young pegasus struggled himself upright and then began to step slowly towards the tents, not wanting to trip. Struggling towards the closest tent he looked inside only to let out a crackling thunder as he gasped at what he saw in there.

Where there had been two sleeping bags laid instead a pile of ashes and a pile of melting ice. Within each pile laid what could only be the bones of ponies within them, in fact the ice itself looked like it had been around every single piece of bone, as if replacing the flesh, before melting.

Now even more frightened Storm Wing scrambled as fast as he could towards the second tent. Inside laid not two guard ponies but two skeletons of two ponies. Both of the skeletons were covered in small cocoons of what Storm Wing recognized as the cocoons of some kind of insect. The left corps had pieces of branches sticking out of it ,as if they had laid root in it, while the right hd patches of rotten flesh.

Storm Wing could not run but he made a good effort as he ran towards the third tent, when he got there, he saw two ponies sleeping, sighing in relief that at least two were alive he tried to wake them up. But they didn’t react to his rumbling. His heart clenched with concert and worry, slowly he strode over to the two ponies, the two sisters from what he could make out. And as he moved aside the covers he hag to prevent himself from puking.

Tearing Pear’s flesh was no longer flesh, but the sweet smelling fruit meat of a pear, her eyes, nostrils, ears and mouth were gone, replaced with solid texture of pear. While Streaking Bolt looked like she had been skinned before her flesh had been replaced by wood and gears, her mouth shaped into a wooden barrel, a bolt head sticking out from it, a lever replacing her tail, two bent wooden frames sticking out from her wides, a long slot on her spine, with ten holes in each of her hips, with ten large crossbow bolts inside them.

Screaming out thunder and lightning Storm wing ran for the last tent, had the poor colt had any sense he would have realized it was futile, but panic gives no place for common sense.

The fourth tenth was probably the worst and Storm Wing made no effort to keep himself from throwing up, releasing a bile of lightning sparking black storm clouds from his mouth.

A tree shaped as a pony’s skeleton was growing out of a pile of rock and dirt. The treeäs dark, old and withered frame groaned and moaned in a tone and manner similar to the old sergeant, and it did that at the slightest shift in the wind. A wind caused by a floating white cloud, shaped like a certain childhood friend. And the fact that out of the cloud were bare pony bones sticking out at odd angles, as if it was hanging limp within the cloud itself, even as its cloud frame floated gently around, producing gusts of wind, made Storm Wing lose all sense of reason.

Screaming bloody murder the pegasus tripped and stumbled as he frantically tried to run out of the glade, leaving the remains of his comrades behind as he tried. Frantically thinking how he did not wish to die and how he wanted to see his family again. Uncaring for anything the young mutilated pegasus fled through the woods in the direction he and the others had come from.

He ran, tripping, falling and stumbling, but never stopped. For what felt like forever he soon enough stumbled upon another glade of blue flowers and spotted at the other side of the glade the tents of another squad. Feeling hope and joy Storm Wing ran towards the glade, but as he crossed the tree lines he suddenly felt something sharp bite into his left thigh.

Screaming crackling noises the pegasus looked back and stared in fear at the sight of a pack of wolves, one of which was biting into his leg. Brutally kicking the wolf’s skull he fled into the glade. Hoping the wolves would be frightened of the flowers like the animals before had been.

Yet the wolves were mad with hunger and followed.

The young pegasus barely had time to rush into one of the tenth, and felt all hope die at the sight of the tree shaped corpse of his sergeant and the cloud corpse of his friend, he had gone around in a circle.

Then his body jerked as a big furry shape slammed into him and knocked him down. And even as his throat was ripped open he just cried and and cried, begging for the nightmare to end. *Mom, please… save… me...* As the pegasus fell limp the wolves joined in on the hunt for meat on the carcass. But then as one of the wolves tore into the dead pegasus’ wings, the energy within was released like a storm burst. With a massive crack of lightning and thunder the entire glade was torn apart, chunks of earth and soil flung away into the sky.

What remained were the corpses of ponies and wolves. Yet as the hours went by, lightning began to arch through the tree that had once been Creeking Hill. The roots of the corpse tree was sucking up the blood of the pegasus, the wolves and the rotting remains of the other ponies, along with the energy from the lightning. It kept doing so, until a loud zap like sound was heard, and in bright flares of white light, emerged rainbow coloured apples from the branches of the tree, and all the other trees around the glade.

Then the wolf corpses began to twitch and turn, before their flesh eroded, their bones twisted and their organs dissolved, and then this mass began to turn and turn upon the ground of the glade, turning it into a swirling soup of flesh, wood, soil and dirt. Then the rainbow apples fell down upon this murky mixture. which went still.

Not an hour later the substance hardens into a wood like texture before breaking apart like an green goo filled egg. And from out of this goo, and from the shards of the ‘egg’ came thin wolf like beings made out of wood with green glowing eye sockets.

Crawling out of the murky mixture the wooden constructs snarled and growled at one another. Until one large growled them all into submission. The green goop had disappeared into the soil of the glade, and as if acting as a powerful fertilizer, the glade was being filled with blue flowers once more. Then the big wooden wolf howled into the air, and the rest followed. Howling as one the flock of wooden canines let their unnatural voices sound through the woods, then after having given their announcement to the world the tree creatures sprang and leaped away from the glade, dispersing into the forest.

And this was but one of the thirty squads to meet their doom within the new Everfree Forest.

(Time Skip)

None of the soldiers returned. Days and Months went by with no response from the expedition force. The Princesses did nto dare to send out another expedition force and only allowed certain volunteers to enact further expeditions into the forest. And so it was realized by the ponies of Equestria that they were isolated within their own lands by the nightmarish forest that now surrounded them. The nights were filled with the sound of monsters, tortured screams and the howling of abnormal wolves.

Little by little the ponies tried to survive, the Princesses performing all manners of magic to keep the creatures of the forest at bay while trying to find a solution. Yet there was none to be found. It would seem that the ponies would soon have to abandon their new home after only so recently building it.

And the Princesses would not accept this. This was more then a new beginning for their species, this was their foalhood home, this was the last place they saw their mother. They could not abandon it.

So the sisters began to work, training more guards, developing new gear and new spells for them. Working the best they could. And for a time they were making progress.

(Scene Skip)

Celestia looked up from her notes as she stirred the chemical filled cauldron in front of her. It was a mixture of herbs and plants she had, had her guards gather after they had been discovered through out the edges of the forest. It had taken some effort but she had managed to identify some of their properties and even found a decent amount of use in them. But some of them were down right hazardous and were to be burnt before they could spread into the town.

The mixture would grant high nutrition to soil, making it an excellent fertilizer, but not only that it would also make it possible for the plants to grow at a much faster rate, making it possible ot make two harvests a year if they were properly used. Of course the only way for that to work was with the new glass houses Luna had made, they worked perfectly for keeping in plants and when built in large enough scale they could be used to keep making crops even during the winters.

And since the weather of the Everfree Forest was now out of their control were these glass made houses a blessing, winter and summer seemed to follow a twelve month pattern within the forest, yet was random at how harsh either weather condition would be. Luckily had old Starswirl managed to discover a spell that allowed the unicorns to clear out the clouds above them in case of a particularly harsh storm, blizzard or other hazardous weather.

Stopping her stirring for a bit Celestia looked at her mentor who was making a rune line smith hammer, for making the enchantments of the royal guards without having to scratch every inch of the armour. He looked so tired and spent. Like he was not sleeping, she was getting increasingly worried, as was Luna but she didn't take it so seriously.

"Starswirl, art thou alright? Thou looks like thou hath not slept for days." Celestia's question made the old unicorn stumble in his work and he nearly carved a hole in his table.

"Huh!? Uh! Whut?" He asked tiredly, rubbing his sore eyes with his left hoof. Summoning a cup of water he drank it up before turning towards Celestia. "Oh, We art fine Celestia, just a bit too much focus on this hammer. We art to be done soon, then we shalt take some rest." In truth that was a lie, but Celestia didn't realize that and only smile in relief and gave the old unicorn a peck on the check before returning to her pot.

"Oh don't be such a grump darling. Go have some rest now, work later." Came a lovely voice ringing through his ears, the sweet voice of the mare he had lost during that day.

Following it was a voice he wanted to hear just as much, but would never be able to hear again. The voice of his little filly, lost forever. "Oooh! Papa Starswirl's be a grumpy! Get some sleep papa! Thou can carve that there scorpion lion corpse later!"

*Not yet. Too much work. Need to finish. Yesss. Need to finish.* The old unicorn thought to himself and his delusions, his eyes shifting green for a few moments as his thoughts came upon the black horn in his secret study. He would need more material, more subjects, the scorpion and lion hybrid he caught and killed last night was proving fascinating buti t was not enough. *No. Not enough. Need to do more, need to finish. More subjects needed, get hold of them. Another squad lost in forest. Get their bodies. Yessss. That is good.*

(Scene Skip)

Things were looking up for the society, ponies were surviving, and the alicorn sisters and their mentors worked to find a way to clear a path out of the forest.

But then it happened. After over fifty years of experiments and research Starswirl the Bearded, made his move. The stallion was over one and a half century old by now and had isolated himself within his tower for years. Not even the princesses could bring him out from his research, only visit him whenever they could, which was few times and far between.

His experiments had grown more bold, more daring, more… dangerous. He had made so much progress with the horn, its metal and the metal’s properties. It had progressed his research centuries ahead of its time. And yet he had not unlocked all of its secrets, and time was running out for him, literally.

Starswirl was getting past his magical prime, he was already past his physical prime by twenty years. And even if he was magically strong, even for an unicorn, would his physical shape not be able to handle much in thirty more years, he knew it. He had another fifty years at best then his magical potential would begin to shrivel and degrade until he would die at maybe three hundred years of age as a magicless unicorn, if he was careful. No he had to enact his plan now and get justice, there were no more time windows.

And thus began the fall of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, not by an outside force, but by the actions of an insider.

(Scene Skip)

Celestia knocked on the door to Starswirl’s lab, hoping to speak to her mentor about the efforts on the magical barrier system that would enable them to protect the town and the roads without constant guards. Yet nobody responded. Curious she knocked again, it was rare for her mentor to not bark out in a grouchy tone nowadays so what was so different today?

After another five minutes Celestia pushed the door open and entered, finding nobody, only scattered notes, tools and other things. Hoping to find her mentor she went towards his private study, yet there was no one there either, only his bed and wardrobe. Turning to leave she stopped, as she noticed something strange.

The wall by the wardrobe, it had a shadow lining in the middle, where it was supposed to be flat. Curious and now slightly concerned Celestia walked over to the wall and noticed how there were scrape marks on the the floor.

“A hidden doorway? Why would Starswirl have something like this?” Murmured the Princess of the Sun before grasping the doorway with her hoof and pulled it open. A vast well lit laboratory greeted her, it was filled with all manners of objects, blackboards, notes, books, tools, components, reagents, strange machines and… corpses.

All over several different tables, dissected, dismembered, mutated, mutilated and preserved. Corpses of animals, sentient animals, diamond dogs, lion scorpion hybrids and… ponies. Dozens of different ponies, some of the few corpses retrieved from the Everfree Forest, supposed to have been cremated before returned to the families, yet that was obviously false. Instead here they laid, cut open on dissection tables with notes stapled upon their various mutations or mutilations.

Already horrified Celestia tried to find reason and sense for this senseless butchery, when she stumbled upon a desk with notes and a small painting. It was a painting of three ponies. One was Starswirl, another was a beautiful mare with chocolate brown fur, red mane with yellow streaks, with a cupcake for a cutie mark. A small filly, barely a month old from the looks of it, with a silly looking hat, Clever Clover, Celestia recognized her immediately.

Looking at the back of the frame Celestia saw the words written by an elegant hoof, a style she recognized anywhere

“‘The True Treasure Is Family.’ Oh Starswirl. We hath no idea.” Celestia murmured with tear glistening eyes before looking down at the desk, and immediately felt a shiver down her spine at the complex pentagram painted upon it. It was the same pentagram he made as an attempt to kill Discord, only for it to fail when the chaos god made the pentagram into a bowl of spaghetti and eating it with a pair of wooden sticks after shouting ‘This Ramen Pentagram is the Food of the Gods! Believe It!’ in Starswirl’s face while wearing some goofy orange outfit while wearing some kind of weird headband.

Yet it was altered, and it was also with several notes of ill note. Starswirl wanted to kill the Stallion of Torment, he thought of it as the true form of the Green Star that killed his family. It noted how he found a horn after the disaster and had theorized that if used as a catalyst for his ‘Soul Ripper’ Ritual, it would be able to kill the Stallion of Torment as the horn was once part of it. Using its own power against it.

But the power required to kill an Alicorn, or at least Alicorn-like being, would be enormous. Even if the horn was from the Stallion of Torment would it not nearly have enough power to kill it. And even then, killing the being would more then likely only bring more disaster, its powers were too unstable, too irrational for a proper containment.

What Starswirl intended to do was to lure the Stallion of Torment into the pentagram, bind it to place, then stab it with the horn, and enact the ritual. But these alterations had turned the Soul Ripper into something new. It was not just tearing out the soul, it was to use the powers of the soul and energies of the Stallion of Torment to enact a secondary ritual.

Oh dear… oh my. That was not good. Starswirl intended to use the ritual to resurrect his dead family, by using the Stallion of Torment as a sort of crude catalyst and power source for the ritual. But the calculations, theories and experiments on resurrection magic was centuries from being completed. And Celestia could tell, this ritual would not be a true revival, it would repair the bodies and make them live, but there was no anchor for the soul, and that was far more complex then anything ever made.

If Starswirl attempted this he would have to make a pentagram the size of a town square just for it to be able to contain the energies and not disrupt itself. And to lure the Stallion of Torment here he would have to be able to draw it here somehow, and it was just randomly running around. Unless… unless he was going to use the horn. Use it like a lure, using its energy resonance as a call for the Stallion of Torment to reach for.

And even then he would have to do it in an area where the energies would resonate strong, and the only place where the Stallion of Torment was noted for having been in for more then a minute was… here.

“Oh by Our Sun!” Celestia shouted out as she realized just what Starswirl was planning. IT was insane! To enact such a powerful ritual in the middle of the settlement would not only risk the town but the ponies in it as well! The Soul Ripper ritual would draw in the souls of all within its range and use them as a power catalyst for the incomplete revival ritual!

She had to get help! She had to get Luna! Starswirl must be stopped before he could destroy the entire town! Grabbing the ritual notes Celestia rushed out of the hidden lab, out of the workshop and down the halls. Her hooves clopped upon the solid stone floor and guard ponies all around could only stare in shock at the sight of the terrified princess running down the halls clutching a stack of paper in levitation magic.

(Scene Skip)

“Sister! We art in most dire need of thy assistance!” Celestia shouted out in the Royal Princess Voice as she entered the night court, barely anybody entered it now-a-nights with the creatures and dangers of the Everfree getting more active during the nightly hours.

The dark blue alicorn, who had been sitting on her throne looking out at the beautiful moon, jumped in her seat at the shout and looked at her sister with wide yes. “Wh-what be thy concern Sister?”

“Starswirl! He hath gone mad!” Those were not the words Luna had been expecting, ever.

“”Starswirl? Mad? Art thou sure thou did not just fall asleep on thy paperwork again?” Celestia growled and ran over to the balcony and pointed out with her hoof.

“Look for thyself!” Running over to the balcony Luna looked down and saw a large runic circle drawn upon the courtyard. Down there Starswirl was standing within the middle of the massive runic array, using his magic to carve it out of the stone of the courtyard. Several guards were trying to call out of him but a magic dome shield was preventing them from entering.

“He plans to call the Stallion of Torment to the town! For the purpose of sacrificing it in a modified Soul Ripper Ritual to empower a Revival spell to bring back his dead family! But the ritual is incomplete! If he enacts it, it will kill everypony within our settlement!” Luna stared in shock for about five seconds before she looked at her sister and spoke up in an emotionless voice. “Bring out our armours, now. We need to get down there in full gear. We will hath to arm ourselves on our way down.”

As the sisters scrambled to reach the courtyard in time they summoned their armours and weapons forcefully from the armoury, not intend on putting them on properly, only swiftly and loosely fitting for them to do their purpose. The view of the princesses running down the halls, pieces of armour attaching to their bodies while an array of weapons floated behind them was enough to make the guards scramble for their own gear, if the princesses were reacting as they did, it was for the best if they brought out the newly built bolt throwers.

(Scene Skip)

“Yesssss! Soon! Soon! Hehehehehee!” Starswirl muttered in a disturbed giggling voice as he carved the final rune into place. The runic array circle was complete, in its center was an oval shaped table of black marble, upon it laid the horn. Now all he had to do was call the beast, and all would go according to plan.

“Time to bring in our guest!” Starswirl stated with a wicked smirk as he lit his horn, casting a spell upon the air above the altar. Just before he was about to activate the beacon spell was he interrupted by two desperate voices.

“Starswirl Stop!/This is madness teacher!” Looking over his shoulders, Starswirl looked upon his two students, their bodies covered by hastily put on armour. The old unicorn’s eyes were no longer a gentle violet in colour, but pure poison green, his once brilliant white coat a dirty mess of grey and brown, while his robe and hat were damaged and filth with years of dirt.

A twinkle of emotions runs through his head but his eyes goes unfocused and then the giggling began, before he erupted in mad cackles. “Madness? Hehehehehheeee! No this is not Maaadness!! Heheheheeee! This is JUSTICE! Hahahahahahaaaa!” As if slamming his horn down into an invisible opponent Starswirl activated the spell, and a loud ghostly echoing dong was sounded out across the town and into the forest. And it kept repeating.

Celestia and Luna tried to focus their powers to overcome the shield but it was proving to be too strong for them, the shield felt like it was absorbing their magic and empowering itself with their energies. Desperately they slammed their enchanted weaponry against the barrier, yet it held firm. “Noo do not do it!” “Please Starswirl! This can only bring disaster!”

But their pleading was ignored as the deranged unicorn laughed, cackled and giggled as the resonating sound finally dismissed itself. But by then it was already done, it had done its purpose. And all ponies within the castle and the town around it, felt chills running down their spines as a familiar ghastly screech was heard from the Everfree Forest.

First came the voice, the howling agonized screeches from the woods. Then a green glow began to grow in the shadows of the trees. And as it got closer came the evening mist of the forest like a flowing gas, the moisture was starting to take on a glowing green tint as the green glow came closer.

The ponies grew anxious and afraid, seeking shelter within their homes, the guards pulled out their weapons, including sending crews to arm the bolt throwers at the towers surround inth the town and the castle. But it would not work. Then, Starswirl began to sing, his voice a deranged mess of dark insanity as the song carried out his desire for revenge

(Music Start: Vengeance Is Mine - Iced Earth (Lyrics edited) )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxvdO8eodaI

In a burst of green fire and swirling mist emerged a running winged pony corpse, once it had been but naught bones and a few rotting pieces of meat, now it was half covered by skinless muscles and beating organs, spraying body fluids that burst into ash and cinder as they reached the air outside the green flames. This was the spectre who emerged from the fall of the Green Star, the Stallion of Torment, not seen by any pony since the last failed expedition to contain him attempted almost ten years ago.

“Take Aim! Fire!” Shouted the grizzled officers by the soldiers. A rain of arrows, bolts, spells and ballista bolts flew towards the approaching horror. Yet even if they hit, would the projectiles be reduced to ash by the fire like aura while spells were merely dissolved by it. shards of metal and wood would scatter through the wind as the stallion kept moving, causing the ground to be littered by sharp shards of wood or shards of metal.

“Hear now this story of the pony that should not be!
A ghoul of greenish torment, sullen atrocity!
A kindred soul to the Draconequus’ own, destruction personified!
Born from a hellish night he molests the purest light!”

Shouting out orders to stop the beast the guards raised rails of sharpened metal pikes to act as a makeshift phalanx barrier. Yet the stallion rushed into the like of pointy metal without care, even as the weapons pierced its flesh and organs he kept moving, the fires coming from his body twisting and dissolving the metal touching him within seconds.

The undead creature kept running, not caring for what or who was in his path. Even as he broke the lines of pony guards trying to stop him

“Profaner to ponies, a menace of flesh and bone!
The screams of this tormented beast to Us be the sweetest tone!
Undying in Our will to kill him, Our bloodlust art profound!
For the blood of those We loved, We shalt bring him down!”

“Raise the barrier!” A Unicorn Captain shouted out and a squad of thirty unicorns conjured a wall of solid magic in front of the gates of the castle. The barrier was three folded with a hexagonal shape to give it strength.

It was the latest in barrier spell, a fortress of small dense focused energy lense based magical barriers put together into a network of equally strong barriers, in three layers, making it the most complex and strongest made magical barrier made thus far.

Yet the unrelenting burning undead was not to be stopped. As its burning shape reached the hexagon patterned barrier, its powerful aura corroded the spell structure and made it shatter like ice before it smashed through it. The force of the impact sent the unicorns behind the barrier flying into different directions, before those unlucky few were run over by the half shaped and half rotting beast’s flaming metal hooves. Several of the unicorns tried to body slam him with thick chains or improvised weapons, only for him to toss them aside before his running undead shape, slammed into the barrier of Starswirl, and went straight through it.

[Chorus]
“For those two lives that thou hath slain!
Fear now thou shalt obtain!
Vengeance shalt be mine!”

“For mine loved ones that has died!
In thy mindless genocide!
Vengeance shalt be mine!”

Yet even as his barrier failed to keep the mad spirit out was Starswirl not showing nervousness or fear, instead he seemed almost ecstatic with joy as his barrier fell and the Stallion of Torment rushed towards him. Standing up the old unicorn spread his front legs wide, as if greeting the approaching horror and spoke up in an unhinged voice as he began to call upon his magic. “Yessss! Come! Come and die! Eheheheheheheee! This night shall be thy last! Hehehehehehehaha! Thou shalt suffer the greatest of pain before I end thy existence! Come! Come to thy doom! Ihihihehehehahahahaaaaa!“

As the half rotten creature reached the center of the pentagram Starswirl’s horn lit up and from points within the circle came thick black chains of iron out from the ground. Two chains lashed out in front of the rushing creature, connecting to one another and bringing its charge to a halt, even as the ground holding them groaned in protest, they held for a moment. And a moment was all that needed for the rest of the swarm of linked black metal to warp around the struggling undead alicorn and binding it into place.

“We shall do what the law won't do, We can make the sacrifice!
In the names of the bodies which held such precious life!
Mine is not to ask forgiveness this deed We have proudly done!
Without concern nor care, with this final act We shalt have won!”

Smirking Starswirl dragged the rotten creature towards the altar, even as it struggled its strength was unable to break the chains. Not even the green fires burning through its flesh had any effects on the chains. “Thy foul fires will not break these chains creature! They were forged with fragments from this horn, THY HORN! Thou can not break these chains without strength! And thou art weaker then our princesses, thus thy end is neighn.”

A wicked gleeful smile erupted on Starswirl’s muzzle as the struggling mindless brute was finally chained to the altar, its body too tied up to find leverage to pull itself free. The black marble beneath it began to hiss and boil, but it would not be free by the time that Starswirl was done. The insane unicorn strode forward, the horn held within his hooves and he sang.

[Chorus]
“For those two lives that thou hath slain!
Fear now thou shalt obtain!
Vengeance shalt be mine!”

“For mine loved ones that has died!
In thy mindless genocide!
Vengeance shalt be mine!”

Striding up towards the creature he scrapped the horn along the marble of the stone altar, scratching a thin line of runes around it. Next to the slab of marble laid two bundles, each one surrounded by an encirclement of runes. The unnatural glee in the old unicorn’s eyes were as clear as day and night, and as he finished carving the final rune he strode up and raised himself on his hind legs, the horn in hoof.

[Chorus]
“For those two lives that thou hath slain!
Fear now thou shalt obtain!
Vengeance is mine!

“For mine loved ones that has died!
In thy mindless genocide!
Vengeance is mine!

Ehahhahahahahahhhaaaaaa!“

Raising the horn Starswirl struck it down towards the bound creature, the princesses tried to divert the energies of the shield to drain it but could only stare in horror as the horn struck the bound creature’s skull… and shattered.

Starswirl stared at the shattered fragments of the horn, his eyes went wide, and the sound of something snapping could be heard. He frantically tried to scoop up the shards and put them together, even as they began to melt, melting his hooves in the process. “WHAT! No! No! Nonononononono! This was not how it should have been! Thou were meant to die! Our family alive! Thou need to die!”

Frantic with madness the old pony scraped up what little of the melting horn he could gather and tried to punch the bound creature’s skull in, uncaring how his hooves shattered, of how his bones cracked, or how his flesh corroded from the green flames. Finally spent in energy the old unicorn collapsed on top of the bound creature, begging for it to die as its flames began to corrode his flesh.

“No thou was meant to die. No. This is not how it is supposed to end. We can fix it, yes. We just need time… yes time. To fix this.” Standing up from the bound creature Starswirl turned to gather up more of his tools when an energy bolt of magical energy suddenly hit his side and sent him flying off the altar.

Snarling the half dead unicorn stood up and turned his glowing green eyes towards the spot where the magical bolt had come from. Luna and Celestia had managed to collapse the shield dome into itself and were marching with a squad of heavily armed guards towards the altar. “Starswirl! Thou need to end this foolishness now!” Celestia shouted as she swirled her newly constructed polearm, a glaive, before pointing the blades at the unicorn.

Luna had four curved daggers floating around her, her eyes were looking at Starswirl with disdain and sorrow, the same as her sister. “How low thy hath fallen Starswirl. Were it not thee whom told Us not to play with forces beyond our reckoning?”

“Kaaaahh! Betrayal! We will not hath this! We art Starswirl Bloodbeard! Archmagus and Lord of the Blood Clan! We art not finished! We shalt have vengeance!” The derange unicorn shouted. A torrent of pentagram erupted around his body and a shockwave of magic struck out at the approaching force. Only Celestia and Luna managed to push through the wave of kinetic energy, the remaining guards were pushed out of the runic circle.

Then a loud crack was heard and Starswirl, swirled around to stare in horror as the chains holding the Stallion of Torment, began to crack and melt. “No! Impossible! We made those chains indestructible! We made them with black iron and fragments of its own horn!”

“And that be thy folly Starswirl! If that horn truly hath been part of him once then it is impossible for it to harm him!” Celestia shouted as she fired a bolt of fire at the unicorn who sent it into the sky with a swat of magical force.

Snarling the old unicorn’s deranged but genius rated mind tried to figure out what the princess was talking about, then it hit him, literally. As a bolt of magic struck his face the pony found himself hitting the wall next to the castle gates, cracking the stone wall. Unheeding of his injuries the old unicorn stood up, his mangled body seemingly unshaken by his will and resolve.

“When object art removed or cut off from another object, given time or events, it changes in a different way then the other. And art thus no longer considered part of the whole! Thou kept that horn for years, using part of it, it can no longer be considered part of the Stallion of Torment!” Luna declared as she lashed out with her daggers. Starswirl sent the daggers into the ground with a direction alteration spell.

“No! We hath come too far to allow a mere technically to end our ambitions! We shalt have vengeance!” Starswirl shouted in pure lunacy as he rushed forward, his ruined hooves and legs leaking red and green blood over the floor. But then another crack was heard and the unicorn barely had time to move his head when the altar in the center of the ritual, erupted in green fire.

The Stallion of Torment leaped out of the inferno, its endless rush once more enabled, its hooves carrying it towards the direction of the main gates. Starswirl summoned more chains but the mutilated undead creature was too fast and disappeared from the courtyard. “Noooooo! Our vengeance!” Shouting out in despair Starswirl tried to come up with a way to get his revenge.

But then his body sagged as the final spurt of energy left him, and he found himself in agonizing pain as his life fluids leaked out upon the ground. Celestia and Luna moved over to their former mentor with solemn expressions, they knew he was too far gone to save. “It is over Starswirl. Please let it go.”

At Luna’s words life seemed to spring into Starswirl’s eyes and he began to cackle and cough. “Let it go? Hehhehheeheee.. Cagh! Huuk! Kooch! We shalt never let it go. Hiehehihiheehee… Thy hath destroyed mine revenge now I shalt destroy thy lives… Hak! Huuh! Heed mine words ‘Princesses’. Thou and that foul beast shalt all end up in pits of despair, as I hath. Thy end will never come! Heehihiihiieheee. Hurk! The Beast, Moon and the Sun, shalt fall and the lands shalt be covered in an everlasting darkness of despair! Let see thee care for each other now mine dear students. Hehihihiheheheheeeeeep...”

With a final laugh the old unicorn’s body collapsed, his eyes went blank, and his withered flesh and fur, began to burn in green fire, before leaving a blackened skeleton surrounded by black ash. Luna and Celestia hugged each other and wept at the lose of their last remaining friend from before the fall of Discord, even if he fell to madness, neither of the two alicorn could bring themselves to hate him.

Thus came the end of Starswirl the Bearded, also called Starswirl the Deranged for a few centuries, until the tale of his madness was lost to history except for a selective few, and only the kind mentor of the Princesses was remembered.

But his curse remained, and in but another few decades, it would have claimed its first victim. Marking the fall of the Ponies first home. Yet that was not the only situation

(Scene Skip)

The Stallion of Torment ran through the woodlands without care, it's anguishing screeches frightening even the mutated monsters of the forest. Soon enough it was running over an old bridge, old, rickety and rotten. As its heavy metal hooves slammed upon the middle of the bridge it collapsed, sending the regenerating and burning creature into the strong currents of the river. It sank into the murky depths, unable to move out of the currents with its mindless motions, and soon enough it curled into a fetal position, warping its half rotten wings around itself and went still. Drifting aimlessly until it would disappear into the mud of the waters. The creature would not be seen again, at least not as the Stallion of Torment.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: Well that was a big one, I will be working on Chapter Three later, it will probably not be as big as this one, I kept adding more and more at the end as things just kept escalating. Hopefully it fell right into place, even if it was a bit rushed at the end.

Pinkie: Yeeperonies! This was the biggest one yet!

Staadnauthursil: Ah... you. Could we not do this today, I am sore in my wrists and need some sleep.

Pinkie: Okie dookie Loki! But first! Give me some of that cake of yours!

Staadnauthursil: You ponies cannot handle my cake, last time ended with disaster for all of you when you went cold turkey.

Pinkie: Ooooh! Come on! I want me some wonder cake!

Staadnauthursil: The answer is no. *Turns towards the readers* The art work I have made for this chapter can be found at the end of this note and at my blog post.

Art Work

Scene - Do It!

Scene - The Phantom and the Mare of the Moon

UPDATE!

Staadnauthursil: And we're back, with some suggestions and talk I have decided to alter the chapter quite a bit. Ending it at Starswirl's death and the disappearance of the Stallion of Torment, the art will remain since I kind of jumped the shark, or rather alicorn, here. So I will be posting a new chapter, involving a much more detailed part of Luna's degrading mind by the curse and finally her fall to Nightmare Moon, whom I will explain a bit about as well.

Pinkie Pie: Cake now?

Staadnauthursil: Still no.

Chapter Three: The Curse of Starswirl (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Three: The Curse of Starswirl

Life went on after the second coming of the Stallion of Torment. The truth beneath it spread like wild fire through the population and for a time were all unicorns, especially the Blood Clan, targeted by discrimination for nearly bringing an end to the ponies. Yet the royal sisters kept the peace, guards were given instructions to always patrol streets and alleys in shifts of ten minutes, it made it clear that no 'accidents' would occur to the innocent unicorns who had no part in Starswirl's descent into madness.

Yet even if the peace was kept were times getting tense and harsh. The Stallion of Torment's presence in the Castle Courtyard had caused a deep infection in the soil from where its had been bound. It had taken a week for any one to realize what was happening to the soil beneath the cobblestone and it was noticed only because something big occurred.

And sadly to say would those who discovered this not be able to do much.

Scene Skip

Solid Stance, a middle aged dark brown earth pony with a white mane with pale green streaks, green eyes and a cutie mark of a red shield being struck by a sword, and repelling it. He was a royal guard of the Night Court, a Night guard as some ponies have started calling his order. He wielded a shield and spear, a common weapon combination for most Earth Ponies in the guards. Currently he was moving towards the gates leading towards the courtyard. Ever since Starswirl's mad ritual attempt and death had the courtyard been mostly left alone, only the big slab of marble and the remains of the black iron chains had been removed.

The courtyard looked the same as it had before the eve of that incident. Yet even after the remains of the ritual and Starswirl had been removed, and even the stone beneath replaced, was the air of the area tense and made most ponies at unease, especially at nights with a full moon out. Some ponies would swear they could make out the silhouette of a skeleton lying on the spot Starswirl died when the moon shone upon the area.

Sighing to himself the earth pony looked out at the massive trees surrounding the town like a looming mass of shadows. Even if the night was calm and beautiful in the city was the mere presence of the Everfree Forest and its fearsome creatures and flora making those at the deepest part of the town feel at unease. Even the guards at the castle felt ill at ease when standing guard at the nights with the darkness of the forest surrounding their home. *By the Moon and Sun when will we be able to get past this horrible forest? Some days I just wish that the princesses would burn it all down, or at least clear a path for us to escape. But that have yet to work.*

Indeed. In the earlier years the ponies had tried to burn down the surrounding forest after the disappearance of the 300 expeditionary force. Yes the trees burned and disappeared after being reduced to ashes. But only the next day they returned with a powerful and intense growth rate, as if the ashes of their former kin was acting like a super fertilize. Of course burning the trees constantly for days cleared out the edges of the town, but it would be impossible for them to clear out a path like this without risking putting the entire forest on fire. The only reason the trees had not managed to recover and close in on the town was because the two royal sisters had erected several thaumaturgic circles on the walls built around the town, they disrupted the growth of plants, this made the soil around the walls dead and hard like stone but the ponies did not care if it kept them safe.

The circles were too large to fit on anything smaller then a house's exterior wall and with Starswirl's death had the research on them ,along with the research on the mobile force fields, been brought to a near halt. Though the sisters were smart and very inventive, were the complexity of the project too much for them when they had so many duties to attend to. That was another thing that bothered most of the common ponies, the princesses were so constantly busy that it was starting to feel like nobody but them were running the kingdom and the nobles just made less and less effort to work.

As Solid Stance sighed to himself he wondered if someone had told the princesses about this distress, when he felt a slight shaking beneath his hooves.

Looked down at the smooth newly made cobblestone pattern beneath his hooves the young pony had barely time to react when a swarm of black tendril like branches erupted from the ground. He had no time to scream as the twisting and rapidly growing branches pierced his flew, tore through his veins like roots, flooded his organs, and tore his body apart. Flesh dried up as its nutrition was devoured. Eyeballs shrunk into black shriveled dots. Dried up like sand fur and skin flaked off the body and turned into dust. It barely took ten seconds and all that remained of the young colt was a skeleton, held within the embrace of the tree, stuck in the pose he had been standing when alive, his armour and weapon still in the same ready pose.

If it wasn't for the fact that all that remained were bones and gear, would his stance and posture been a proud and steadfast, like a true guard and soldier. The flood of blackened branches grew up and the other guards in the courtyard fell to similar faiths as young Solid Stance. The mass of black trees lifting up their bony remains like twisted looking fruits until it went still. Leaving an eerie beautiful black mass of trees, flowing with blue leaves and red flowers, the three pony skeletons, held up in its branches.

The following morning, chaos ensured, the discovery of the dead guards and the sickening beautiful tree broke the peace. Luna was the most affected by this, those three ponies had been three of the most promising recruits of her guard. She had personally trained them, picked them up into the ranks. And now they were dead.

The lunar princess buried her face in her hooves and shouted out, releasing her rage, sadness and frustration."No! Why doest this happen!? Why must they die!? Has not enough died already!? When will it end!?"

Celestia laid a wing over her little sister and rubbed her muzzle into her head and murmured to her. "We know not Luna. We know not." But the comfort of her big sister wasn't helping. Luna struggled out of her sister's comfortign wing, she glared at the black tree with tear stained eyes and then, she shouted out in pure anger, her eyes ablaze with energy, her horn it up. And then a massive light erupted.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!" Blue and white energy soared out from the ground, erupting like a lance of burning ice. The intense heat and light from the blast made the ponies back away and take cover in sheer fear.

The light lasted for fifteen seconds before dissolving. What remained of the tree was a molten field of rock and soil, melted into a solid mass of molten earth. Standing by the melted earth, a panting Luna, sweat dripping down her body, felt spent, frustrated, empty and sad. She wanted to be angry, she wanted to be furious, yet she could not bring it out.

Tears still running down her cheek Luna turned tail and ran into the castle and towards her room. Celestia raced after her, and called out for her. "Luna! Please stop! Let Us talk with thee!" But to no avail, the moon princess slammed open her personal chamber, before closing the door and locking it. She then tossed herself into her bed, clutched her pillow to her face, and cried.

Celestia stood outside the room, and tried to find words to comfort her sister with. Yet nothing came. Only the sound her little sister crying could be heard and it tore at her hearth. Her ears fell flat and she sat down by the doorway, intent of staying there until Luna came out. Yet as the hours of night came, and Luna remained in there, Celestia had to go and lower the sun and raise the moon in her sister's stead. Before she could return to her vigil by the door she found herself covered with work that had remained undone from the day.

That incident started the drift between the two sisters. It would also mark when ponies started to not only fear the night, but its princess as well.

Scene Skip

The courtyard was restored a third time, this time it was remade into a solid floor made up by thick square stones, covering the marks of Luna's fury. The stones were painted in different bright colours to prevent anyone to feel uncomfortable yet no one but the bravest ponies would walk upon those stones for an entire year.

Luna returned from her self inflicted isolation after two days. But she would not start up the night court until a week later. And even then she was barely speaking to anyone, even her sister. Celestia tried to reason with her and to make her feel better, but Luna only seemed to shied away from her comfort and presence, as if uneasy or even afraid.

Celestia felt increasingly worried but her duties began to pile up as more and more work found its way to her office. It was almost impossible for her to get as much time with her sister as she had in the past. And it had gone unnoticed to her because of the low gradual increase.

Unknown to either of the sisters was another presence starting to make its mark in Equestria. It had been only a whisper in the beginning, a stray soul of gibberish and fear. Brought to life during the Fall of the Green Star it had slowly developed, from a whisper in the wind into a shadow in the night. Then Starswirl's ritual and death brought about a sudden change in it. It was no longer a witless soul drifting aimlessly and blathering nonsense.

It had gotten a purpose. The final words of malice from Starswirl as his body was destroyed brought a powerful change in the air. The spirit had been drawn to the presence of the Stallion of Torment and been caught up in the ritual, it had been enclosed within the ritual pentagram of the unicorn. And when his final words cut through the air and his life left his body, the spirit gained something. A sense of self. And a sense of purpose.

It, no, SHE, was born of the Despair of the Dead and the Malice of the Dying. No longer a mere spirit travelling the world as a shadow, she was now a far stronger being. It took years for her to develop and form into a person, but when she did she knew her purpose and desire, the destruction and despair of ponies, especially the two princesses. Her work began when she witnessed the despairing rage of Luna as she incinerated the black trees that had consumed three of her guards. The negative emotions drew her like a moth to the flame, or in this case, a demon to a goddess.

Luna's despair was sweet like honey, her rage like strong coffee. And oooh how her frustration felt like the smoothest of wine. But she was still strong, she would have to weaken her further. She would have to make her plunge further and further down the pit of negativity before she could break her down completely.

Yes she knew what to do.

When Luna began to call upon the night after her seclusion to her room he spirit, no demon, began her work. Her presence spread out from the castle, a dull grey mist would rise from the ground, act a medium for her powers. Slowly but surely the peaceful nights of the land would change. Those awake, and those asleep, would feel a new presence, its cold and heartless sight spreading chills down their bones. Her powers began to drift into the realm of dreams through those that slept.

The spirit had found it by accident, yet it revealed a whole new way for her to enact her purpose. She would cause pain, despair and fear to all who sought the embrace of the night and its comforting darkness. For lo and behold, no pony would be able to sleep comfortable from here on out. For the Nightmare had come.

Scene Skip

Little Blue Rose was enjoying herself, the fields were green and filled with beautiful flowers! There were butterflies and bunnies everywhere! The little filly rolled around in the grass, enjoying the warmth of the sun. She had only seen such a sight in story books or paintings. This was he desire, to enjoy the wide open freedom of the world.

Then the warm glow of the sun was covered by something. Blinking the little filly looked up and saw dark skies growing, the warm sun replaced by a red wicked moon. The bunnies in the field were gone and the butterflies seemed to fall down, withering to dust. Then something began to approach.

Dark tall shapes of trees began to move in, the field of flowers began to shrink. The little filly began to panic, she did not like the dark creepy woods! She wanted the warm sun and the open fields! She tried to move away from the woods, but it was all around her. Gettign closer and closer.

Shaking and shivering the little filly tried to call for help, but her voice only seemed to draw the woods in faster. As the field began to disappear and the dark woods was all that remained, she began to run, trying to get out of the woods. She ran and ran. Dark shapes, wicked laughter, evil eyes and chilling winds following her everywhere.

Then as she spotted an open place in the distance she felt hope. And as she ran out of the woods land and into the open fields again she smiled. But then something grabbed her., making her fall on her tummy. Looking back slowly the filly could only feel terror fill her as a dark wooden creature in the shape of an alicorn was crawling out of the earth, one of its root like hooves grabbing her hind leg, a pair of wicked snake like eyes staring at her.

A wicked smile grew upon the creature's face, revealing yellow sharp rotten teeth as its spoke up in a voice she had heard before, the voice of princess Luna, distorted as if spoken from rotten vocal cords. "You are never getting out!" The shape then began to drag her into the woods, she frantically tried to get away but the dark shape dragged her away from the open fields, and the all she could see was darkness and a pair of wicked eyes laughing at her.

She woke up screaming.

Scene Skip

The Nightmare did her work well. No pony could sleep soundly with it's wicked presence targeting their open minds within the Realm of Dreams. Even the princesses were targeted, though only when their minds were bare to influence. And the nightmare took its shape after Luna's. basing its reign of terror upon pony kind's dreams in a corrupted form of the Moon Princess.

And this affected the ponies very effectively. Within just a few years the attenders of the Night Court would disappear one by one as the visage of Princess Luna drove fear into their hearts as the Nightmare's wicked dreams drove them to fear not just the night but the Night Princess as well.

Soon enough Luna would find herself isolated and alone, her attendants were gone, her guards were not receiving new members and the servants kept avoiding her. Her only connection was with her sister who, despite the bad dreams, would be there for her when she could. But with the rise of attendants in the Sun Court was Celestia finding it hard to find time even for herself, and this made it hard for her to even speak with her sister.

Scene Skip

The royal court of the sun was busy, it had been getting more and more work for the last thirty years, it was making things hard not only on the princess but on the servants and the nobles as well. Currently was Celestia sitting on the throne and looking with a kind smile upon the merchant speaking before her.

Externally she was calm and serene but internally she was about as bored as a talkative parrot surrounded by a bunch of mimes. *By the Sun and the Moon! How many dost this make today!? We art in serious need of aid! If this dost keep up We shalt no longer be able to leave the throne room!*

After the merchant left Celestia called for a short break for food and left the throne room. After slamming shut the doors behind her the princess all but collapsed onto the floor of the hallway, letting out aloud agonized groan as she rested her face in her hooves. She did not want to have to do this! She barely had time to relax, eat or even go to the bathroom! She wanted to eat pastries! She wanted to tease and/or prank her little sister! She wanted to research magic and other interesting subjects to improve her ponies' lives! She did NOT want to be an over glorified secretary! She was a bucking princess!

Sighing Celestia stood up and walked over to the dining area for a quick lunch. Hopefully she could get things finished early so she could at least try to speak to Luna, she had not seen her for a week now and she was getting increasingly worried.

About thirty minutes, and twenty cupcakes, later she returned to the court and took her seat. And the line of pleaders and butt kissers continued. Yet behind the scenes were not just the wicked magic of the Nightmare doing its business, for the nobles of the kingdom were shoving more and more of their duties onto the Princesses. The generations of once strong, supportive and productive nobles had been replaced by obnoxious, inflated, arrogant, pompous and greedy parasites. And with the steadily growing animosity towards the Princess of the Night, they were seeing opportunities to grab more power.

Scene Skip

With the Nightmare's work in the realm of dreams poisoning the minds of the ponies were the two princesses finding themselves isolated or overcrowded, neither of them could handle the out of control situations to get their bearings. And with the Nightmare manipulating the view of Luna from a benevolent and righteous ruler to a fearsome tyrant in their dreams, things were getting worse and worse.

The Nightmare was laughing in glee as the princess' mind began to bend and shake as her negative emotions grew and grew. It would not be long before the Nightmare could enacts its final plan. Once Luna's mind was weakened enough, Nightmare would play the last card, and break her. She just needed one final push to make her snap, and indeed, it came.

Scene Skip

""

Scene Skip

Half a century has gone by in the forest, nothing but wild beasts and dangerous plants making life difficult for the ponies. Yet something was going on today, something out of the ordinary even for this strange place. Out by the shore of a lake in the forest something was moving beneath the water.

A dark shape was moving through the thick murky mud of the bottom, pushing itself out of the murky layer of soil. With frantic movements it struggled straight forward and soon enough up towards the shore. Then a mod covered winged pony erupted from the water and flopped down stomach first onto the shore, coughed up water, slime and mud upon the grass. Gasping and coughing the mud covered equine struggled to its hooves, moving awkwardly back towards the waters where it tried to scoop up water with its hooves, and failing, and tired to clean out the mud from its face.

Muttering curses the pony dipped its head into the water and began to shake its head inside it, clearing out the mud from its fur. It soon went into the water entirely, and began to clean up its entire body. Green and brown lake mud was removed, revealing a thick shaggy like fur, as dark as pitch black ink. A mane of the same colouring was revealed as well as a pair of black wings. What came out of the mud was a black pony stallion, of incredible size. He could easily be considered the tallest pony alive, larger then even Celestia.

After having cleaned himself from the mud the pitch black pony moved out of the water and tried to dry himself up by shaking his entire body. It only managed to get the surrounding ground a bit more wet.

Pressing a hoof to his left nostril the stallion blew out dirt and snot through his other nostril, before repeating it to the other. Then he rubbed the trails of snot off with his hoof, before wiping said hoof clean on the grass. Brushing his still soaking wet mane out of his eyes the stallion sat down on the grassy field by the lake and looked at his hooves before speaking up in a deep male voice. “Okay… how much did I have to drink last night?”

Letting his body fall on its back to rest himself he landed with a thud, the pony felt something very painful when his body hit the ground. The jolt of pain caused him instantly shoot up and clutch his left wing, as he had landed on it when he had laid down on his side. Cursing in pain the big pony rubbed his sore wing the best of his abilities with his hooves. “Damn! Shit! Motherfucking Bitch! Ooooooh! Fuck!" Having calmed down and managed to massage the pain out of his wing the stallion grumbled to himself. "Okay that hurt like a bitch! Note to self, this is not a dream and try to learn how to sleep on your side or back without crushing your new appendages.”

With his recent incident of wing crushing the stallion did not feel like trying to lay down. Instead he struggled up on his hooves and tried to figure out where he was. “Well… I am not in Gothenburg any more that is for certain… Although… something about all this feels… oddly familiar.” He tried to take a few steps with his four legs and found it surprisingly easy, it was as if he subconsciously knew how to move this body already, though he could not figure out how or why that was. Must have been included in the transformation.

Then his head struck a tree branch as he walked around aimlessly in thought. “Argh!” Clutching his head as a headache assaulted his brain the pony only managed to slam his hooves into his forehead, sticking something sticking out of his skull. Feeling seriously freaked out the pony felt the thing with his hooves, it was kind of hard but he could feel sensations through his hooves, a bit. The thin sticking out of his skull was… weird. It felt like it was ridged, sharp and bent in an angle at the middle before pointing forward, ending in an up swinging curved blade like tip.

*Is this a horn sticking out of my skull or some kind of brain contraption?* He thought to himself before moving over to the lake and and tried to get a clear view of his face in the water. What greeted him was an odd sight, a black pony stallion with a shaggy black fur, a wild uneven hair, a pair of red eyes and a horn in the shape of what looked like some kind of weird insect or arachnid like leg slash tail. It was coloured green and purple, but seemed to alter colour when he looked upon it. It was segmented in parts of curved saw like claw segments, each segment looking like it could be bent or shifted, the tip was the largest and was long, curved like the blade of a sabre.

Touching the horn with his hoof he could feel it move a bit, wagging the horn around a bit he could feel something in his forehead shift along with it, like a muscle he wasn’t aware of. After a bit of experimenting he managed to shift and alter the shape of the horn without his hoof, it was slow but the progress was steady.

“Okay… so Laura really did turn me into an Alicorn… wow. I sure hope this horn was the only bug in the transformation, not to mention sending me… to wherever here is now. Or I might get a bit upset.” Looking around for a bit the former human noticed a big tower reaching above the tree lines in the distance, seeing no better option the black alicorn began to walk towards the tower.

As he walked he noticed something weird about his hooves, they were metallic, and had a dark grey chrome colour instead of black like the rest of his body. But it didn’t seem all that important considering his current situation.

The sun was setting rather fast in this place though. He noticed that as he reached to the end of the forest after a few hours and came upon a big town surrounded by a stone wall, with a castle in the middle, the castle's highest tower had been the point he had been following. When he reached the unused cobblestone road leading to the town he could see the sun going down, and followed by a beautiful moon rising. *Wow, that was the fastest moon rise ever… did she actually send me to her home world or something? Because the moon back home is NOT that big.*

Moving into the town he didn’t notice that there were no guards by the gates as he entered, unknowingly moving through it just as the day guard changed shift with the night guard, mere minutes before they would lock down the town gate. As he moved through the town he noticed two things, the people living here were not humans or anything humanoid shaped, these were ponies.

"Come on now Sweet Talk! We need to get home!" The speaker was a young looking brown unicorn mare with a white mane and tail with the brand of three bottles, filled with different colored liquids, red, blue and yellow. Following her was a little foal, a colt, with no brand, he was a unicorn as well with green fur and brown mane. "Coming sis!"

And that answered his earlier question if Laura had sent him to her own world. The second thing that he notices was how ponies were moving into their homes with frightened looks in their eyes. Nobody seemed to so much as glance in his direction as he moved towards the castle, it was very strange behavior.

Another, perhaps trivial, thing that he noticed was that compared to the other ponies, he was most likely over three times the size of an average adult pony, like comparing a giant war horse to a common pony. It made him feel a bit awkward but he ignored it, he had to find Celestia and Luna, and tell them about their mother.

Walking down the street he wondered why none of the ponies were looking or even glancing at him, it was like he was invisible, or they were too focused on going home to notice him. Yet that still did not explain why they did not even take a glance at him. He pondered if he should try to speak up to one of the passing ponies, he reached out with his hoof to touch one of the ponies, when he noticed something, his hoof was like a shadowy wisp.

Baffled by the sudden change of his physical attribute he shook his hoof and stared in blank surprise as the shadowy mass seemed to flick off hiss flesh like oily water when he waved his hoof. Giving his entire body shake he noticed how he had been entirely covered by this black mass. What had that been? When had he been covered by it? He had not noticed anything when he walked through the woods. Was that why he had not been spotted by any of these ponies? Shaking his head the large equine looked around, the streets were bare and empty by the time he had recovered from his surprise, curtains and windows were closed.

Figuring he could figure things out later he moved towards his goal, the castle. And it was just as unprotected as the town gate for some reason. The gates to the castle were wide open and there were no guards at them, which was even more strange, what was going? Walking into the main entrance the large pony tried to reason just where the main hall was, deciding to take the middle path he moved through several doorways until he came upon what he thought was a big pair of doors leading to a grand hall, but instead he found a big library.

While not all that keen to read was the library’s content not just books, upon the walls laid murals of historical events, painted glass windows with great detailed figures in such events as well. Deciding to take a look the alicorn moved along the wall, the murals showed ponies of three different types, regular pony, pegasus and unicorn. Living in peace but in separate kingdoms.

Then came descriptive details of how war broke out between the tribes. A great snow storm came with the war and the ponies were forced to flee from their homelands or perish. The tribes fled, fell into disorder when they fought with one another even as they reached new lands, and the snowstorm followed. Then a unicorn born of the royal bloodline was born, from what the alicorn could tell was this Laura Faust, when she was the unicorn Princess Tender Crown.

The murals showed how Laura united the tribes, quelled their disorder. Then it showed her discovering and banishing ghost like spirits in the shape of ponies circling in the snow clouds. After that came a coronation, of the three tribes proclaiming her their unified ruler. Then another showed a wedding between her and three other ponies, one mare and two stallions from the way they dressed.

From there was the birth of Celestia and Luna, but by the names engraved upon the mural, in English thank the gods, were their birth names Sun Beam and Moon Light. Then came the events of a being of disorder and chaos, Discord, wreaking havoc upon the lands, sending everything into a state of disarray. Laura could be seen fleeing with her children into the woods, hiding in an old tower by a cliff. There were a few childhood scenes between the three, but then Laura left when her daughters were old enough to care for themselves in their home.

It showed a summary of how she wrestled through snow storms, raging volcanoes, wild oceans and dense jungles. Then came a show of Laura ascending from the heavens, as an Alicorn. She was shown coming home, and ascending her own daughters, how was not revealed, before starting to teach them.

Then came Discord, who banished her by punching her with a giant salmon into a black hole in a toilet bowl, that made him chuckle a bit, the chaos god had some good points for style right there. Then came the sisters, fighting discord, unifying the ponies and then turning him into stone using six magical gemstones, the Elements of Harmony from what was written on it. Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, Honesty, Loyalty and Magic.

How exactly these could be the Elements of Harmony was lost to him but then again, according to his wish was his own elements of Courage and Terror made up by Bravery and Discipline for Courage and Screams and Fear for Terror. So he was not one to talk.

Following the defeat of Discord are the ponies seen dancing and laughing in joy and happiness. There are then some scenes of a castle made out of crystal being covered by shadows, Celestia and Luna sealing a dark spirit and the crystal castle away with the elements. And another showed a strange minotaur slash centaur creature attacking the lands, only to be brought down and chained within a dark cavern, with a three headed hound guarding a giant gate.

Then came the partying ponies again, almost as if the two dangers were only a footnote compared to Discord. But then came a sight that made him uncomfortable. A green star is seen falling from the night sky. The ponies look up. Then the green star hits them and explodes. Next is a scene of the castle he was in surrounded by green fires, and then, and then was the sight of a skeletal winged pony with a hole in its forehead, erupting from the flames and running into the night. The Stallion of Torment, was written beneath it.

Feeling uneasy the pony moved ahead, the sight of a dark and evil forest growing up from the green flames, of guards going into the woods, never to return. Next were images of ponies improving and trying to regain control of their lives. And then of the mage Starswirl’s fall into madness, of how he experimented on living and dead creatures, using a black horn surrounded by green fire.

That uneasy feeling before? Yeah it was growing. The images seemed to blur, the sight of the old unicorn capturing a now zombie like Stallion of Torment. The next sight is of Starswirl trying to stab the creature, how the horn shattered, then flashes of the old unicorn trying to bash in the head of the creature, only for him to end up damaging-

Suddenly shaking his head the male alicorn felt his heart ache as he realized something. *Wait. Those images were not on the wall.* Looking up at the mural he could only see a still image of Starswirl and the black horn, yet nothing of what he did with it. The next image was of Starswirl dying surrounded by roses, yet the image felt wrong to him.

Looking at the images, again and again and again the alicorn could only feel his head ache as more and more images, no, MEMORIES, emerged. Pain like no other, his body alight in green fire, of how he was bound in chains, of how a madly smiling unicorn had tried to stab his skull and then tried to smash it into bits with his melting hooves! “Oh no… oh no! No please do not tell me that… that was me!?”

Feeling chills and quivers the alicorn slumped beneath the last moral, his head hung low, his wings hung lose, touching the floor, his ears flat and his left hoof pressing against the wall beneath it. His eyes were wide and his mouth agape with horror and he tried to speak, he tried to think, yet nothing came out.

Finally he drew in air and let out a long breath before shuddering and pressed his head against the wall. his horn folding itself back over his neck and flattening out to let him press his forehead against the stone, and muttered to himself. “How many? How many died because of me?” His question echoed through the silent room, and no answers were given, but he felt it still, the gnawing guilt running through his soul as the despair and depression settled in. “Gods… why did this happen?”

But then something broke his depression, as a song began to fill the castle.

(Scene Skip)

The Moon was high in the sky and everything was at rest. In the Castle of the Royal Pony Princesses sat a lonesome figure on her throne, looking out at the moonlit fields of the gardens of the town. For five decades she and her sister had worked to maintain order and protect their subjects, yet things were dire. Even with their improved agriculture were the fields they had bearing too little for their growing population. And the Everfree Forest was a constant threat with its dangerous creatures and flora.

With the danger of the night the ponies did not dare to move outside, it had gone so far that no pony ever visited the night court, only the Night Guards were active at night and their numbers had fallen to an all time low in recent years because of the ponies’ fear of the night and its ruler. And with Celestia's duties growing larger, her petitions, visitors and meetings taking up a tremendous amount of time, was the ruler of the day not able to see her sister because of the night and day cycle of the two courts. And thus Luna was left alone, more often then not she found herself sitting on her throne or by her desk, only speaking to her sister, though only for a few moments before she or her sister went to sleep, or the staff. It was at the point that nobody even seemed to bow to her anymore. And it was grating at her nerves and heart like a woodpecker’s constant pecking.

It was driving her up the walls in frustration, her hooves carrying her in circles through the castle and back to the throne room, and repeat over and over. She had been doing this for years now, finding herself wandering the empty halls of the castle, only her thoughts as company. But this night was even more nerve wracking then those that had come before.

The nightmare was making her final move. Luna's psyche had been worn down to the point of near instability, she would just need to grate those final nerves in one more illustrious manner. Then she could claim what was rightfully hers. To do this the Nightmare went to the point of her birth, the courtyard, she required... a boost.

The dark shadow of the wicked creature slithered across the ground of the courtyard like a mass of darkness. Twisting and turning she reached the center of the courtyard and there the shadow like being began to force its way through the stones of the courtyard, pressing between the thin cracks between the stones. She spread out her influence through the barren earth, her dark shape pushing through soil, rock and hardened molten soil until she found what she was looking for. A sensation of corrosive heat, a fragment of the green fire from that night fifty years ago.

She had tried to absorb the energy residue of the green fire before, but if she did so it would only empower her for a day and then leave her heavily weakened. But she was going to put all her bets on this one plan, no like she had a lack of time if it failed.

With an almost frenzy like hunger the Nightmare submerged itself into the earth and sought out the traces of the green fire that had been inside it. Then she began to absorb them. As she did that she felt her power grow. And as she finally absorbed the final traces of the energy she enacted the second part of her plan and her dark shadow like form, began to shift into something larger.

At first there was nothing, but then, through the cracks of the stones of the courtyard, began a greenish glow to appear. The green glow grew stronger and stronger until a wicked hissing sound of boiling liquid was heard. In the beginning there was nothing more then green vapor, but then as the glow went out and the courtyard went dark again, was something starting to flow out from the ground.

it was a cloud, a cloud of pale green mist. It grew and grew, slowly starting to cover the courtyard, and while parts of the mist flowed out upon the town was the main part of the mist starting to flow towards the castle. Its green gaseous nature would have made it visible to the average eye, yet as the mist spread out through the castle it became thinner until only a slight green sparkling could be seen, making it almost invisible. No one, not even the few guards stationed by the doorways, were able to notice it and neither did Luna. And as the mist drew itself upon her she was unaware of its existence, let alone its purpose.

As the nightmare focused its power into the Alicorn's barely protected mind Luna's emotions began to grow out of wack. Only feeling more and more anger, more frustration, more jealousy, more envy and more desire.

Then the mist seemed to be absorbed by her body, a slight shimmer began to fill the room for a few seconds. And then. Then. Luna began to sing.

(Start Music: Moon Rises by PonyPhonic(Lyrics slightly altered))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vBJAgbiBTY

“Now the hour has come at last.
The soft and fading light.
Has crossed the west horizon.
And has bidden us goodnight.
And what a lovely night it is.
To walk a moonlit field.
To see the softer shades.
That are by starlight now revealed.”

The music carried itself through the castle like a phantom, making chills run down the guards’ spines. The song was beautiful yet it held so much contempt within it.

“So why is it that now,
When all is quiet and at rest.
When candles glow and all the world,
Is at its very best.
The ponies of Equestria.
Should lock themselves away.
To shun the moon and wait instead,
For Sister's sunny day?”

Ghostly voices sang out strange words in the background, as if inciting the walking princess to sing louder.

“In umbra Luna est.”

Her eyes seemed to change into a new colouring for a few seconds, taking on a bluish green tint and her pupils turning into slits, like that of a cat’s. Yet they changed back after a few blinks.

“Are We so wrong to wish that they,
Would see things like We do?
And are We so wrong to think,
That they might love Us too?
Why shouldn't they adore Us?
Is it not within Our right?
We will not be overshadowed!

Ours is not the lesser light!
We have waited long enough now,
For them all to come around.
And though the Sun may plead and threaten,
The Moon will stand her ground!”

Standing upon a balcony Luna looked upon the moon and her horn lit with energy and then the night sky began to change, the moon being surrounded by a reddish glow while black and red colours began to shift across the sky.

“It comes to this at last:
We will no longer yield the sky!
If they cannot love,
But one princess alone!
See, the Moon is rising,
She has come to claim the heavens for her own!”

Her eyes were once again in their cat like state, her teeth turned jagged and sharp and as she began to walk towards the throne, her body began to shift and change. Growing more menacing, dark and unhinged. Finally as she reached the throne she stood in front of it, turned around ,spread her wings and declared out her final lyrics as the castle began to morph and shift, green flames erupting from the torches as her voice sang out into the halls.

“And all will know the wonder,
Of Our dark and jeweled sky!
When all the world is wrapped,
In an eternal lullaby!
So say goodnight to this,
The final setting of the sun!
Tomorrow dawns in darkness;
The nighttime has begun!
Bwahhaahhhaahhhaaaaaa!”

“Nocte.”

(Scene Skip)

He had no idea what was going on but it was not right. The entire castle felt wrong, it was shifting and turning into a mockery of an evil wizard or warlord’s castle. Moving out of the library he tried to find his way, the turmoil in his heart growing as he began to hear shouts and screams all over. Then he felt the ground shake and saw a beam of energy fly through the air outside and cut a swat into the courtyard, torching the ground into molten rock.

Looking up at the spiraling staircase the alicorn gulped but tried to run up the stairs without tripping. *Oh Gods! Legs do not fail me now!* He ran up the staircases as armoured ponies rushed around outside and inside the halls, the sound of metal clashing and energy flying around could be heard from above the castle.

Reaching the top he used his front legs to smash open the door and got out on the top. There above the castle were two ponies fighting, armed in yellow golden and crystal blue armours, one pink and one of the darkest blue. The alicorn recognized them instantly from the images he had seen on his phone from that night.

As he tried to come up with something to do he spotted his wings but shook his head at that, he had no idea how to fly so he was not going to try it. But instead, he would have to try and do something, anything.

Getting an idea he bent his knees a bit and jumped up with a light skip, he jumped a good bit before landing, but it would not be enough, he would need something more. He did not know how to use magic or how to fly, but he knew that if he now was an alicorn, he would have to be stronger then your average being, he just needed to figure out how to use that.

Spreading his four legs apart, spreading his wings and hunching down, he tried to push as much of his physical strength through his legs and wings as he could. The result was not what he had expected, instead of just jumping a bit over thirty feet, he went sky rocketing up and into the clouds, the tower beneath his hooves crumbling apart by the force of his leap.

He punched through the clouds and tried to stop his ascent by flapping his wings, and with some kind of miracle he managed to stop his up going. Only, now he was falling down.

*Ah shit!* The stallion thought to himself, he tried to halt his descent in all manners, spreading his wings, flapping them, angling them and so on. Even if his body could walk and move without problem, could he not fly or access magic. To fly with wings was something he could only assume needed practice, only not as much practice as learning how to wield magic.

Even if he was certain he would survive the fall, was he NOT comfortable with falling like this, he was afraid of heights. "Oh how I wished this body came with inbuilt instructions!" He lamented as he helplessly fell down towards the town below, closing his eyes and hoping that the impact would not hurt 'too much'.

But as things would turn out, he would not have to worry too much about hitting the ground. Although, that might have been preferable.

(Scene Skip)

Celestia frantically tried to stop her sister’s rampage but nothing seemed to be working, the Princess of the Moon was overpowering her with sheer ferocity. Her sister was skilled and powerful, just like she was, but they were no stronger then the other. Something was so wrong here.

Blocking the long sword aimed for her spine with her spear Celestia fired a lightning bolt at Luna who deflected it with her wings. “Luna! Stop this! Please come to thy senses!”

A furious screech answered her and she had to dodge a beam of plasma trying to strike her. The beam struck the Everfree Forest, creating a scorched scar in its length, the ground seemed to shake from the impact. “We art no longer Luna! We art Nightmare Moon! And we shall rule Equestria! As is Our Right!” Luna, or rather, Nightmare, shouted out in pure rage.

*This can not keep going on like this! The town and the castle will be destroyed if we keep fighting like this!* Then a thought struck her and she looked towards the shrine on the eastern wing of the castle, the location of the Elements of Harmony. *The Elements!*

She had to reach the elements and fast. But it would be difficult, her sister was chasing her like a bloodhound, what could she do to reach them? Her answer came from an outside force, as a black shape suddenly flew down from the sky and into her sister, sending her and the dark shape crashing into a tower.

Deciding not to take this moment for granted Celestia flew towards the shrine and scrambled inside towards the altar containing the elements. Meanwhile was her sister and the unknown interfere struggling.

(Scene Skip)

The corrupted alicorn slammed into the stone and felt a big heavy shape pressed on top of her, her instinct for a few seconds registered a strangely exciting musk, but then her temper blew those thoughts away. "Who art thee, fool who dareth interrupt Our moment of triumph!?" Nightmare Moon roared out in anger as she tried to kick off the being on top of her.

Said creature grunted in pain as a pair of hooves slammed into solid ribs, bruising flesh and organs. But then it retaliated by suddenly warping a pair of large forelegs around her neck and hooking themselves, effectively putting her into a grapple.

"Release us thou lout!" Furious at the humiliating hold the alicorn princess summoned a blast of plasma on her horn, only for her assailant to be too close to her to strike a proper hit. Releasing the spell she blew asunder the tower they laid in and hope to get free of the hold in the fall.

A loud grunt escaped from her now identified, male assailant, but he did not release her from his grip. Furious the possessed alicorn let out a incomprehensible scream and launched herself against the nearby stone wall of the castle, slamming her assailant through it like a battering ram. Yet he did not let go.

Nightmare Moon screeched out in pure rage and with a brutal push of her entire body flew straight forward and smashed him through the thick stone wall of one of the towers. But he kept his grip tight. Flaring her wings she flew straight through one of the walls of the tower and slammed him into the stone floor of the courtyard, cracking the stone beneath it. Yet he still kept hold of her.

Grunting and groaning in pain as his back, wings and sides hit whatever surface the mad alicorn was slamming him into, the male alicorn could only contemplate of how he wished he had never made that bet. Of how he wished things had not turned out like this. Caring little of the pain from his body being used as a wrecking ball he just let her went out her anger, he didn't fight back but neither did he let go.

He did not want to hurt anyone, he never intended to and had never thought he ever would. But now he had found out he had caused the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of living breathing and self aware beings, all because of that stupid bet. Not to mention the suffering of the two girls, or mares, he had promised to help. The guilt in his heart was aching like rain of needles upon his soul.

The dark princess screamed and pushed him through another wall, and the pair found themselves in some sort of shrine.

Noticing the white alicorn by the altar with the stones he realized those must be some kind of magical objects, or weapons, why else would she go here during such a crisis? And with his determination of paying back for his sins, he steadied his resolve, and his grip, and shouted out at her.

"Do it! Before it is too late!"

(Scene Skip)

Meanwhile Celestia had reached the shrine containing the elements. Her hoofs carried her over to the decorated orb and stars containing the jewels containing the power of the elements. Releasing the Element of Magic from its confinement the rest of the jewels began to shine. She knew she could use them. But she hesitated. Even if she could use the elements on her own. Could she do it? Could she really use the elements on her own sister? What would happen? what would be the effects?

So many questions so little time to get answers. She tried to find a solution, an answer, something! Yet there was none, for the elements where not predicable in their effects, one could influence them to seal, heal, harm, protect, change and so on, but that was just the intent, not the effects themselves.

A crash sounded from behind her and she turned around to see something that made her eyes widen and her jaw drop. A giant black stallion, not a pegasus and not a unicorn, or an earth pony, but an ALICORN STALLION, was laying on his side, his wings pressed against the rubble of the wall he had been slammed into, the struggling shape of Nightmare Moon held by his forelegs.

The stallion’s eyes meet her own, blood dripped and flew from his mouth as he shouted out through the pain as Nightmare Moon slammed her knees and hooves into his gut.

“Do it! Before it is too late!”

His voice sounded like thunder to her ears. And the words made Celestia make a decision, and with resolve she activated the elements. The gemstones spun around her like a halo, flaring and shifting in colours and brightness. Then they stopped, assuming a perfectly still position around her. A sudden flash came, before a powerful explosion of white light flew out, striking both the stallion and Nightmare Moon. Their bodies flew like leaves into the night sky.

The light faded away and then their bodies started to sparkle and fade as they flew up. The fading was slow and steady, and soon enough nothing of them remained, their shapes seemingly disappearing into moon. And as they faded away, the moon began to shift and change as a line of craters began to take shape on the right side of the moon, forming a pattern in the shape of a unicorn,

Stunned Celestia stared upon the moon where she had sent her sister and the stranger. Then she heard the voices, the voices of the elements.

“For One Thousand Summers She Shall Remain.”

“For One Day She Shall Return.”

“One More Use, And She Will Be Restored.”

The elements then went still, their magic spent and their purpose done. Celestia then noticed, how her once pink mane had been turned into a rainbow like colour pattern and her once bright pink fur, was pure white.

But then those words registered in her mind. One Thousand Summers. Her little sister would be sealed within the moon for one thousand years. Along with that innocent stranger. And it was all her fault!

Her vision grew blurry, then the tears ran down her cheeks and finally she just tossed her head up into the air and cried out in despair. Uncaring for dignity or stature, mourning her lost sister, feeling more alone then she ever had in her entire life.

(Scene Shift)

The surface of the moon was covered in bright stone and endless sand oceans. A silent and serene place upon which no living thing had touched its surface for unknown time. But that was all to change when something fell upon the surface of the moon, striking through the sand dunes. A cloud of dust and sand erupted from the soundless impact, but was swift to settle as with no air, the dust and sand had nothing to hold them up. Once the dust cloud had settled came a familiar looking black alicorn stallion out of the crater he had made on his landing. Soundlessly groaning in pain he shifted his jaw and chin from the bruising he had taken from Nightmare Moon when he landed on her in midair and good her really mad at him.

Cuts and bruises littered parts of his body but were healing rapidly because of his alicorn physiology. Standing up from the crater the Alicorn looked around, trying to figure out where he was when he spotted the blue and green planet in the night sky. Thankfully there was no air on the moon, and his alicorn magic kept him alive, or many would have heard his profound swearing even down on the planet below.

Frowning the alicorn stallion looked around, where was Princess Luna? He had been holding her when the light of colours had hit them, so where was she? Moving down the sandy dunes he tried to get some orientation of his surroundings. That's when he noticed something, a green coloured mist was rising from the sand beneath him. Leaping gracefully, thanks to the weaker gravity field of the moon, he flew up and away from the spot. After around ten seconds of jump aided flight he landed on big dune. Feeling a bit safer he turned around and looked down at the green mist, it did not look safe.

*What the hell is that?* He pondered to himself, he didn't intend to investigate it however and was about to leap further away from the mist when it suddenly surged towards him like a tidal wave. Caught off guard he tried to scramble away but found himself choking as the mist forced itself into his nostrils and mouth. As the last piece of mist forced itself into his body he fell down and rolled down the side of the large dune, when he stopped rolling he just laid there. His eyes open and still, glowing red and green as whatever had forced its way inside him tried to take control.

(Scene Shift)

Blinking slowly he looked around. He was... standing on a vast field? *What in the actual hell is going on?*

Then a wicked laughter began to echo through the place. "Ohoohoo! What a treat We hath found! Yesss! This body shalt make Us invincible!"

Looking at the direction of the laughter he managed to pinpoint the location of a strange black mass of... slime? Ichor? Or whatever ooze like substance it looked like. The thing was in the shape of an alicorn, similar to Luna, only... This one looked more bulky and taller, not as tall as himself but about as tall as Celestia.

Frowning the alicorn male stepped forward and spoke up to the mare, she was off her rocks insane but he had no patience for trying to reason with some crazy gal right now. "Okay lady, two things. One: stop it with the creepy laughter, it is annoying. Two: where the fuck are we?"

Jumping a bit the ooze like creature turned around, revealing green glowing eyes and a jagged equine mouth. She hissed at him and snarled. "WHAT!? How are you still conscious!? I should have taken over your mind by now and suppressed you into your subconscious!"

"...Wait whut?" Was the dumbfounded response from the stallion as the words of the creature registered in his head. "My mind? This... is my mind?" He took a look around the vast open fields, noticing some structures, mountains and forests in the far distance.

As his head was turned he suddenly found himself struck by a pair of hooves from a buck kick, not even feeling pain he simply let his body adjust itself correctly, like a cloud, not even feeling anything out of place. The strange creature hissed at him and fired a globe of green and black goop. Yet... even as that orb of creepy paste moved towards him, he did not feel afraid.

In fact he felt... serene. In control. Calm. He could not describe it, but he... did not feel like anything could harm him.

Calmly raising his left hoof the stallion simply focused his thought, and the globe of untold slime, suddenly stopped before cracking apart into what turned out to be a swarm of moths.

The oozing creature stared in shock at what had happened to the spell of corruption she had cast. Never before had something like this happened to her in a mindscape. "What!? No! This is my domain! I am Nightmare Moon! I am the ruler of Dreams and Horrors! No pony can best me in my domain!"

The stallion just glared at her and began to slowly walk towards her. Snarling in mad fury the Nightmare cast spell after spell at him. Yet none of them so much as phased him.

He thought of what he knew of nightmares from his old world, and could see some similarities to those horror striking horses to this black goop of shadows. And then he realized something. Even as a sphere of fire reached him, it just exploded into a winged fat little imp laughing in a wicked high pitch voice. "It is true that you are a nightmare, a spirit who feeds on the negative dreams of the living. However."

A solid sphere of rotten flesh and bones struck at him, turning into a mass of worms crawling into the ground. Yet he kept talking, not even bothered by the horrors he created from her magic. "However. You are not the ruler of this place. You are not strong enough to take hold of my mind. That is something beyond you." Screeching at his words the Nightmare summoned a massive black snake of black ichor and sent it at him, it exploded, turning inside out before its innards and bones turned into rotting decomposed corpses of humans, zombies.

Her eyes widened at the rotting monsters growing out of her spell. The once bright and warm sun was being covered by a dark shadow of storm clouds. The grass was turning brown, rain started to fall and lightning began to crack across the sky. Across the howling gales and the sound of rising waves of water, the Nightmare screamed out. "This is impossible! Nothing alive can have such control over their own mind and fears! This is my domain! How are you doing this!? Who are you!? What are you!?"

But the stallion was gone, as if swallowed by the sudden storm of havoc emerging around her. Instead a loud rumble answered her as the ground began to crack and lava began to erupt across the storm, as water began to push in from around, raising massive explosions of steam as the heated rock met the waves. More and more monstrous beings began to emerge from the waters, the ground and the sky. Swarms of bats and flocks of crows flew screeching over her head. Masses of rotten creatures reached out with decomposing appendages for her flesh. A massive white creature swam out of the water, its pale flesh riddled with massive hooks, spears, harpoons and pony sized maggots, its massive jaws of uneven teeth revealing a massive stomach below.

Even as the Nightmare flew away from the horrors below there was more waiting for her above. Tornadoes tore down from the sky, carrying pieces of corpses and winged beasts tearing at the flesh of the pieces. A massive winged reptile with a beak snapped at her wings. An insect the size of a house snapped its wicked mandibles and curved claws at her. Swarms of locusts flew over her body. A massive black being of horns with wicked pincers snapped at her while the five heads of a hydra tried to tear her wings apart.

Then even as the ground beneath the mountain peak erupted in green and black fires the nightmare glared around and screeched out. "Tell me!"

A strong light shone upon her, temporarily blinding her, then as her vision recovered, she saw something that sent chills down her non-physical body. A massive equine like head of green and black flames was floating in the center of the storm of horrors, out of the flames of its form grew the horrors, like monsters born from a horrid imagination. Shapeless monstrosities that made her eyes hurt just by looking at them. The equine like head looked at her with two crimson red eyes of fire, before opening a jaw that looked more like the fang filled mouth of a dragon then that of a equine, and then spoke, even as a third eye on what could only be described as its forehead, opened, revealing an eye of green fire. A voice of echoing thunder and nightmarish screeches, cracked across the mindscape of horrors. "I am the Danger that Stalks Those who seek to Harm Others in the Pitch Dark Night! I am the Talons clawing at the souls of the Wicked! I am the Foundation of those Who who have Doubts! I am the Chill that runs down the Spines of the Corrupt! I am the Source of Horror and Bravery! I am the Sovereign of Courage! I am the Lord of Terror! I! AM! MALEFICUS! VICTORIA!"

All Nightmare could do was scream as the tide of horrors rose up towards her, grabbing her with teeth, appendages, slime, tentacles, mandibles, claws and more. And as the horrors held her in place the burning aberration in front of her opened its burning jaws wide, revealing the dark core within, a single shape standing within the darkness of its throat, staring out with cold red eyes, before swallowing her whole.

To Be Continued

Chapter Four: The Fury of the Sun (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Four: The Fury of the Sun

Celestia had no idea what had happened, only that it had been the most monstrous hing to ever happen in her entire life. Turning her head she looked at the Everfree Forest, the forest that she had once called home. Now a shifting monstrous thing that had taken everything from her. And to think that it had been their own fault for their current situation.

After she had stopped crying and recovered her composure after the final clash with her sister and banishing her and the unknown stallion to the moon, she had spotted something highly important. The blasts of magic she and her sister had been firing had caused damages to the city, the more important being the rune engraved wall surrounding it. Parts of the wall was melted, other parts torn apart or even vaporized, it would take weeks to repair it on her own.

But with the Everfree Forest on fire, it would be impossible to do that. The flames were fueling the growth of the corrupted forest and if she did not do something then the entire town and its citizens would all be swallowed by the corrupted forest. She had to make a decision, the second hardest decision in her life. She had to abandon her home.

With her magic she broadcasted her voice across the town, and called for all ponies to gather whatever they could and join her at the eastern wall, the last retaining intact part of the town wall. Then she ordered the guards to gather up wagons, carts, and whatever kind of cargo bearing object they could find. It was a wild and chaotic couple of hours, and the state of the moon was not helping with the panic.

Upon the surface of the Moon was something going. It had started mere minutes after the banishment of Nightmare Moon. The entire surface was shifting and turning with black and green shapes, it was like an army of black and green phantoms was crawling all over the surface of the moon, fighting each other. The ponies of Equestria were delirious in fear and many cried out in despair of the Nightmare breaking free from the moon, but they kept gathering their belongings and whatever supplies they could, and in an unorderly wave moved towards the Eastern Wall. Even as their fear made their hearts and souls tremble.

Princess Celestia had her entire armour on, wielding a pair of pole axes, around here where the guard ponies, at least half of them pulling or pushing some kind of cart, wagon or similar, all of which was holding supplies and other things. She had then ordered them all to follow her and to not stop moving, if anyone fell, she would try to retrieve them personally. But any pony who had difficulty moving in a rapid phase, would need to be put on carts or carried.

She then aimed her horn at the eastern gate and with a powerful flash of intense heat, she fire a lance of brilliant golden plasma and seared a massive trench into the forest. Celestia then leaped forward, followed by her guards and her citizens. It could not be described as a wave of people seeking freedom, it was more like a wave of frightened people trying to stay alive. The forest was swift to swallow the scorched earth so she had to take to the sky and blast apart the forest in front and at the rear to keep her ponies safe. This repeated for almost two hours of rapid marching until the outlines of the forest could finally be spotted and the ponies ran out into the open fields of the unknown land they ha been sealed away from for over a century, only a bare hundred or so had been old enough to remember the time when they had not been sealed within the Everfree Forest.

At that point Celestia crashed into the ground, her stamina utterly spent, having fought her corrupted sister, using the Elements of Harmony to banish her and then to continuously blast a path to get her citizens to safety. She staggered herself upright once more, and looked back as the forest swallowed up the path to what had once been her home, ears lowered in sorrow. Even as she and her ponies wandered away from the forest she would keep glancing back at the forest, longing for times long since gone.

Meanwhile had the shadowy fragments of the moon stopped shifting and instead had taken on a solid black mass was slowly taking shape upon the left side of the moon. At first the ponies feared it to be the nightmare or something falling towards the moon. But then something, possibly even more terrifying then the Nightmare getting free, happened. Out of the black oily mass emerged a giant eyeball. Its massive shape blinked once and twice before it shifted and turned before focusing its iris as it looked straight down at the planet below. It seemed to quiver as it looked upon the planet before bursting apart like a cream filled pastry, only it did not erupt in white cream, but in green fire. The flames lit the entire shadowy mass into a sea of black and green flames. The ponies had been started and did not want to stop moving, not until the forest behind them was far out of their sight. The burning moon above them looking like a monster gleefully smirking down upon them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0jkZTlQ8TQ

Celestia had been stunned by the burning phantom taking shape on the left side of the moon and could only imagine it represented the Nightmare or the unknown alicorn stallion. But for what reason it would take on the shape of a black mass burning with green fires was unknown to her. It was terrifying even to her however.

When the refugees had wandered for the entire night, intent on leaving the horrible forest behind them as far a possible. Then they came upon a lake by a large mountain, the marching had been swift and relentless, many were exhausted to the point of collapsing. The fresh water soothed many throats, legs and bodies. Celestia knew many of her ponies did not want to stop, but she could not just wander further off beyond their old border. The lands outside of the town were an unknown, the ponies had been isolated for over a century, they could not just wander off into dangerous unknown territory.

So she made a decision and along with some architects, began the plan to construct a new town by the mountain. Its name would be, Canterlot. She would have to use her magic to aid in the construction, just like she had when the Castle of the Royal Sisters had been raised. Only it would take much more time now that she was without her sister. Her heart clenched at the reminder of her sister's banishment but she didn't show it, she could not show weakness when the situation was so dire.

(Scene Skip)

Upon the moon the stallion woke up from his forced dream, his mind was a fog of pain and dizziness. As his nausea cleared and the pain faded, he spotted something incredibly offsetting. The sand lands of the moon, was burning in green and black fire, the sand beneath him was not melting and the flames held no heat. Yet... somehow the intense power of the flames compelled to him, these were no harmless illusions. Yet they did not feel dangerous.

The now named Maleficus Victoria rose up from his spot among the burning sand and began to move through the burning landscape. As he wandered down the sand dunes he felt something within him, knowledge he had never had seemed to emerge as he thought and pondered. Was it an after effect of devouring the Nightmare in his mindscape? Or something else?

He would have to take the time to figure this out, however that would have to wait until he could find a spot on the moon that was not a burning desert.

Wandering past the burning wasteland he tried to gain some sort of order to the strange headache he was experiencing. The memories and knowledge were all a big scrambled mess. But he could sense a few of them more then others.

*Just what did I do when I ate the Nightmare? I mean. I know I killed it and in essence 'ate' it in my mind. But... did that seriously let me devour its very memories? Its knowledge? How does that make any freaking sense!?* As he pondered that he spotted something up ahead through the flames. *Is that the edge of this massive field of fires?*

Running forward he found himself breaching the dark flames and out at the bright white sand land of the moon once more, which he felt much more content with then the big field of dark fire. Wandering further away from the fire Maleficus tried to figure out a way for him to cast magic, he WAS an alicorn, it should not be all that difficult for him to at least fire a burst of pure mana right?

Finding a decent sized piece of moon rock Maleficus shifted his segmented horn until it was pointed at the rock. He then tried to focus, to go on the sensations and memories he had been trying to sort out. *Okay let's see here... if what I can sort out of those mangled memories are correct then I do this and-* A bright flash and a soundless explosion erupted from where he was standing, the alicorn found his hind legs and flank buried into the side of a crater, his entire body shaking from the aftershock.

*Oookay... this is going to be more difficult then I had imagined it.* Pulling himself out of the sand the stallion moved back to the spot he had tried to cast magic, the spot he had been standing was scorched black while the rock he had been aiming at was unharmed. Trying a different approach Maleficus tried to mentally aim at the rock instead, focusing on it with his eye sight, while trying to fire a blast of magic at it.

The result was a bit better, the energy beam came out. Sadly enough it was more light a very bright flash of light then anything else. But at least he didn't hurt himself and it was a step in the right direction. *Okay better get to practice, not like I got much else to do here.*

(Scene Skip)

The earth cracked and splintered as the solid marble beneath its rough surface soared up through it. As a solid twenty meter tall, thirty meter long and thirty meter wide block of marble floated out of the soil. Leaving a large square shaped hole behind. Then a blade of golden energy lashed out, cutting through the block like butter. It repeated this movement several times until the block was cut up into fifteen pieces of two meter thick, twenty meter tall and thirty meter wide pieces of marble.

Then with precise movements the individual blocks floated out before being put together with several already place blocks, adding a total of four hundred and fifty meters to the town wall of the growing city of Canterlot. Princess Celestia brushed out flecks of sweat from her brow and drank from a flask of water as she inspected her work, her body dressed in golden armour in case of dangers. All around her ponies were working on buildings, towers and foundations. The mountain was decently rich in minerals, marble and ore, it was a very good spot for extracting materials and also for making a foundation for the city.

She had spent the last week cutting out a large plateau out of the side of the mountain, it would make a solid foundation for the town. Walking over to the stone wall she had put up she checked for cracks or weak points, using her magic to seal up the damages. Taking a glance at the one thousand, three hundred and fifty meter of wall she had constructed in the last hour made her feel good about herself. This was far more satisfying effort then being an overrated secretary.

Even if her duties to raise and lower the moon were her only 'royal duties' at the moment, did she realize that once ponies got settled down, they would start up the whole 'line up and ask the princess' thing again. She had to figure out a way to at least divert the flow to somewhere else. But for the moment she would just enjoy the effort of hard labour alongside her ponies. At the speed they were constructing she was certain the town would be ready within the next three weeks.

There was however a bit of a snag, the food was not going to last forever, they needed to make new fields to grow more food. she had sent out several groups of scouts to check for decent fertile grounds. But in the mean time were the ponies making some fields by the river side for some fast growing flowers, clovers, herbs and mushrooms to keep up the food stocks. "We hope the fields are doing well... by the stars We could really use a cupcake or just some cookies right this very moment."

(Scene Skip)

Time went by as the two Alicorns did their best to recover from their ordeals. Maleficus would spend hours casting magic, trying to use the fragmented memories and knowledge of the Nightmare to learn how to do more complex things then telekinesis or pure mana projectiles. He would find himself thinking of food and water from time to time, but his newly made physiology did not seem to require much sustenance, if any at all. Or it was something involving the magic that sent him to the moon in the first place.

He would need to find a way to at least send a message to the planet... whatever its name was. Equestria was just the name of the country of the ponies not the entire planet. For now he would just call it The Planet, not like there was any other planet in this solar system that he cared about at the moment. If he could find a way to even send himself to the planet would be most wonderful, but for that to work he would have to figure out the fragments of the Nightmare and from there develop his own spells, hopefully the 'Intent', 'Imagination' and 'Magical Power' theory was in effect, would explain a lot if it was.

Celestia on the other hand, or hoof, would spend the most of her time in the following month to carve out blocks of marble to add to the city. With no real need for courts would most Nobles put in some efforts to construct the city, but mostly focused on building their own, overly extravagant houses/manors. The city would need to be built into different districts, one for the ground level by the lake as a harbour and storage area, another mostly for housings, one for the markets, shops and workshops, and two for the academies and military grounds.

At the center would the castle be built, it would not be to make the castle too complex or large, not as things were at the moment. The design would be simple yet elegant, it would be enlarged and decorate further later. A central square keep with two tall circular towers sticking out of its left and right sides. It would be surrounded with a tall circle shaped castle wall with six watch towers connected by lanes and ramparts to the walls and the central keep.

The castle would have to be the largest building in the city, if the ponies were attacked would it be crucial for them to have a way to put the citizens in safety in such a case.

The castle would not be finished until another month however. The city would be completed before that, but it would be a lot of empty space so that there could be expansion inside the city before it was enlarged. But until the castle was completed would the city's town hall be used for court.

(Scene Skip)

Time went by as the city began to grow at an impressive rate. It would be finished within the following thirty days, with the castle following up with another month of work. Even as the Burning Moon was raised and lowered the ponies began to feel less and less skittish about it. Sure they were still bloody bucking terrified of it, but it was easier to ignore now after things had settled down. Celestia had to get back to Court, but even the bad news of the Court being brought back on, was not going to make her less happy about the bakeries of the city being opened for the first time and pastries became available again. She was only happy that she could slow down court opening until the bakeries managed to start producing their goods again.

While the month had finished, would the ponies now need to work hard to recover and restore order and law to their subjects. Guards would have to be recruited, guilds opened, teachers made available for schools and more and more. As the city of Canterlot pulled through its first winter and spring began again, had seven months gone by since its construction had been decided and the first foundation had been made. The ponies were recovering and returning to their everyday lives. Yet that would soon change.

(Scene Skip)

While on the Moon had Maleficus managed to get some headway through the several months of self studying and learning. He would not say that it had been swift or easy... it had been fucking awful, like being in high school during the exams without any ends of the tests. His efforts ha paid off however, he could use all of the basic abilities of a unicorn's magic. He had developed and refined some of the spells he had in the Nightmare's fragments.

One very important thing that he had made however was 'The Interface', a holographic magical computer of sorts. It was more like a big collection of holographic screens he could manipulate either with magic or his hooves. The functions of the screens were mostly basic and simple. He had made it to act as a computer for him. Yet it was more then just a computer feature, its screens helped him develop his magic far faster then just physically casting magic while trying to figure out the missing bits of the Nightmare's fragmented essence.

The screens that made up the Interface acted as a medium for his magic, each of the screen where made from his own magic, hardened into a solid light like form. He had discovered how to make them by accident when he tried to cast magic through the sand, he had originally wanted to make glass or at least earthbend the sand, but instead he made the sand particles and his magic combine into a sort of malleable solid light mass.

Maleficus had no real idea why the sand of the moon reacted as it did, possibly because it is, well. MOON sand. Could be that this had never been discovered before. He doubted anyone had even attempted this before.

When the magic had been combined with the moon sand and he no longer channeled his magic through it, were the screens no longer connected to his magic and instead a form of magical crystallization. Which he discovered could act as magical mediums, or foci, for his spells and magical developments. He could use them for casting and developing such refined and complex spells that would have taken years to develop. It also helped that he was more used to working through a computer interface then hands on building, it made the progress smoother.

The screens let him focus his magic through them, and with his experience with computers, and the fact that he designed the Interface to act like an old style computer, made it possible for him to use the screens like wands. The data he entered into the screens helped him develop the purpose of the magic and then with some channeling, he made the effect possible. This would also limit his ability to use those magical powers without the Interface, but with steady practice once he got the feeling for the spells down, would put an end to that. But it would take weeks of developing and testing the spells in the first place to make it possible to start practicing with them.

What he developed with this holographic medium was a collection of spells he would need to visit the planet. He had not managed to discover a way to get his physical body down to the world. Instead he had decided to try another way to do so. He had managed to discover how to use the shadowy mass that covered his body while he entered the ponies' town in the wild forest. It was a form of... darkness or shadow, given physical form whenever his body moved through a field of magic, it was some kind of reaction by his body to cover it in the dark mass whenever i went through a magical field. It covered his boy like a shroud when it was raw and unrefined, making him hard to spot or see, sort of like making him shrouded from mortal sight.

Refining it had let him literally become a shadow, it made him visible as a 2 dimensional shadow on surfaces, but it let him move like a ghost. While this did not help him get to the planet, it gave him an idea how to indirectly get to the planet. It took some efforts, and a lot of side projects. But seven months after he got sent to the moon, an three months since he started trying to get back to the planet, he managed to get some progress.

Seven screens adjusted themselves on top of one another, each tuning wide and round, making a sort of tower of plates. The screens shifted and adjusted themselves, then a square screen directly beneath the tower of plate shaped screens, revealed an image of the planet. Using his Interface's screens like a telescope he could view the planet below, not directly to the surface but to about cloud level.

And that was all he needed. Raising his horn towards the telescope Maleficus adjusted the position so that it was pointed at a landmass, he then took aim and cast his spell.

What he was doing was simple. He was using the telescope not only as a scope, but as some kind of focus gun, a wand in the shape of a gun in short. The alicorn summoned forth his magic, and fired it through the lenses. A bright beam of energy flew through the lenses, each time it passed through them ,it doubled in size, until it shoot out in the shape of a massive blast of crimson energy, the spell would need to be boosted for it to even get to the planet's surface without sizzling out like a badly made firework. The massive spell matrix fell down towards the planet's surface, it was a bit of hit and miss since he had no real idea on which part of the planet he had come from, but he knew at least which continent he had been on.

As the spell flew through the atmosphere its shape shrunk as the energy maintaining its shape, purpose and speed, fought against the planet's own magical field, thus making it look like a fading falling star. But it had enough power to hit the ground, after all, Maleficus had tested this way of casting his spell towards the planet, one lens at a time after each failure until he hit pay dirt, literally.

The spell struck the surface of the planet, not making a sound as its purpose was not destruction, and through the Interface Maleficus watched as one of the screens grew fuzzy until the sight of a wide desert came to his sight. He had managed to send a probe slash reconnaissance in the shape of a spell used for giving the caster an adjustable view of a location down to the planet, sort of similar to the Eye of Evil spell from Dungeon Keeper 2, and could now see at the planet's level. This was step one. Now he would send in more probes, their design was basic, only one purpose for each of the spells, but it would fit with his work.

One by one the Interface boosted his spells as he cast the through it. Spells flew down towards the planet, glittering like twinkling star dust as their massive shapes shrunk within the atmosphere. Not all of them were aimed at the planet's surface but at the atmosphere itself.

These were spells cast not as a pure magical structure, but was actually fired with a mixture of Moon Sand, as to make it take the shape of a sphere of light. These spheres each contained two lens screens, view transmitter spell and ha the possibility of being remote controlled once he figured out how to network the things more efficiently.

In essence he was creating a sort of network of spy satellites. They were all crude and unrefined, but they would do their purpose for what he wanted to achieve. Using the satellites to view the ground he cast the visual probe spells at the locations with signs of civilization near a forested area. He discovered seven new species before one of visual probes came down to a spot near the ponies' new home.

On the screen he could clearly see a big city built out of marble and granite. It looked as if it had been carved out of the mountain, it most likely had been considering the crazy magic of the ponies. It might not have been obvious at first sight that this was the ponies' home. But the two dozen statues of regular ponies, unicorns, pegasi, and three alicorns, located on each side of the road towards the drawbridge was kind of a clincher. The test were working as they had on the moon. Now he just needed to do the most complex part.

He intended to send his own mind, consciousness, soul or whatever you want to call it, to the planet below. Well not literally sending his consciousness. But a way for him to connect his consciousness to the planet from the moon.

By sending a mass of shadow, with his mind linked to it, to the planet's surface. He would do just that. Like a sort of neural linked shadow drone. While he could have just made it linked to the visual screens of the Interface, would it not be something he'd like. He wanted to experience the world, even if through a secondary medium, rather then just viewing it from a screen. That was the reason it had taken three months, even with the Interface, to develop these spells, they were highly complex. But the fragments of the nightmare had given him the knowledge on how to do it. And now was the moment of truth, to cast his first Shadow Capsule, and hopefully not mess it up.

Closing his eyes and focusing Maleficus cast the spell he had spent the last three weeks testing. And a sudden surge of black light flooded his senses before the world turned all sparkly and white. Then the intense brightness made way for the sight of waving grass and the dark night sky, with the sight of a moon burning with a monstrous flame on its left side. "Yessss! It worked" The shadow hissed out as it whooped for joy at its success.

So much work! So much effort! And it finally paid of! It was almost worth the hardships he went through to achieve it. *Oh gods just thinking about how it failed the first time I tried it out just makes me feel all... eugh!*

(Flashback)

Maleficus summoned the black mass onto his body, his entire body becoming shrouded in darkness. Shifting the mass off his body took a bit of effort, but once he figured out how to feel the difference between the black mass and his own hide he could grasp it with his magic and pull it off. A black blob of shifting mass levitated off his body, holding it out he moved it to the ground a few dozen feet away from him and let it go. The black mass remained at the spot and then Maleficus cast out his second spell, a Mind Link spell.

The spell struck the black blob. But... instead of just hitting the shadowy mass, he also struck the glittering moon sand that had landed on top of it. This was unfortunate since the spell was not filtered and instead of just possessing the shadowy mass was he also possessing several thousands of sand grains. The feedback he received caused him an infernal headache, not to mention a powerful nausea that caused him to discover that yet, gravity on the moon is lighter and liquids go farther then normal when spat. But that still won't prevent you from hitting yourself when puking out several galleons worth of stomach acid and water.

*Note to self, include a filter on the next spell.* Maleficus groaned to himself as he clutched his head as he laid on his side on the sand dune.

(Flashback End)

Shaking its intangible head clear the shadow focused its attention towards the walled city and began to slither across the ground towards the city. The shape of the shadow was at first just a shapeless blob, but soon it had taken the shape of an pegasus. The head part of the shadow had a pair of glowing red eyes, while its forehead, had a third eye, which glowed green. Its purpose clear the shadow moved towards Canterlot, unknowing of what its presence would cause for the planet's future, even more so then it already had.

(Scene Skip)

Within a sparely decorated throne room stood a white alicorn by the window, looking at the frightening sight of the burning moon. The Princess of the Sun hummed something to herself as she watched the moon. She had lowered the sun and raised the moon just a few moments ago, and found herself watching the moon with solemn eyes.

The Sun Court had stopped for the day and Celestia had managed just fine. There were no over inflated number of ponies seeking an audience with her so far. But that did not mean that she did not spend several hours sitting on that giant well cushioned throne of hers to speak with her subjects.

But she wanted to do something different today, she was not eager to do anything involving the court or research. She needed some kind of physical activity. Taking a glance at the courtyard Celestia noticed the leftover equipment of the newly restored Day Guard. *Yes! Why didst We not consider this option before!?*

Feeling like hitting herself for her stupidity Celestia trotted down to the courtyard with high purpose, not to hit herself but to hit a target. Once outside she took a deep breath of the fresh night air and closed her eyes. After around two minutes she walked over to the equipment. There were several different types of dummies, targets and training equipment.

But the equipment was made for regular ponies and not for an alicorn like herself. She would need to summon her own gear for the Sun guard's regular gear was just too fragile when wielded by her.

Her horn lit up in a golden light and then through a flare of golden energy, she materialized her golden full plate armour onto her body. A recent technique she and her sister developed together after Starswirl's death, as to not lose time during an emergency because of their need to put on their gear. It had been their last project together, around fifteen years ago, before her sister completely stopped talking to her and she got too much overworked to find the time to spare.

Calling forth a pole axe from her personal armory, Celestia spun the golden sun designed weapon within her golden aura of magic. Then she swung it at one of the dummies, the reinforced wood and straw giving no resistance to the powerful weapon as it split the pony shaped dummy clean in half from head to groin.

Standing up on her hind legs Celestia started kicking and punching the air, going through the Earth Pony physical fighting style taught to her by one of her mother's retainers during their fight against Discord. It was called the Heavy Stomp Style and involved powerful kicks of various shape and forms, along with high jumps and light but fast punches, its signature technique was a powerful stomp in a diagonal angle at the ground, it was not just crushing but if the hoof was aligned in a certain way, or covered with military grade horseshoes, was it able to pierce as well.

After a few repeated jabs, kicks and jumps Celestia switched style.

Other then the Heavy Stomp she knew the Pegasus physical fighting style called Piercing Dance. It was based upon an old, pre-unification even, mating dance of the Pegasi. This physical fighting style involved swift movements, heavy utilization of the wings and the rear legs, with the front legs acting as guards.

Swirling her body in a clockwise motion, Celestia swung her wings in a downward arch, she then spun and buck kicked her hind legs, after that she leaped back with her front legs and repeated this, alternating between down and upward wing swings, different angles of buck kicks and different directions to which she leaped away with her forelegs.

Then the third style came into play, the Unicorn's had few physical fighting styles, but the most basic of them was called the Tearing Charge. Unicorn fighting styles were far more vicious then earth or pegasus ponies' combat styles. They were from the time that unicorns fought not only other ponies or even predators, it came from when they fought one another for dominance over herds or mates. It was mostly focused on powerful lunges, aiming the horn to stab or slash at the face of the opponent, smashing and ripping with the forelegs while prancing. And then came the most vicious of the ways of attack, biting, aiming for face, throat or neck, a unicorn would bite down and rip out chunks of flesh. Unicorns and pegasus could both digest meat, yet only the unicorns would actually eat meat of mammals unlike pegasi which kept to a strict aquatic diet.

Celestia knew this style by heart, it was the style her mother had taught her after all. She stood up on her hind legs, flailed her front hooves in a vicious swirl of dangerous movements, for her invisible opponent. Then came the horn down as she lowered her front ,making a stab before lunging forward, then she opened her mouth and began to make sharp biting movements, careful to keep her mouth and cheek as far away as her teeth as possible. One of the reasons why unicorns do not practice this style too often is because more often then not, one would bit off pieces of their own mouth or tongue by mistake if not careful.

As she finished her warm up Celestia summoned a flask of water before pouring it over her sweaty head, making her cloud like hair to fall flat as the manifestation magic ended when in contact with the liquid.

Then a black shape appeared near the corner of the courtyard and a male voice spoke up, startling her enough to maker her lose concentration and drop the bottle she had been levitating.

"Greetings Princess Celestia. I come, bearing words for you and your ears only."

Celestia turned around as soon as she got back her bearing and pointed her poleaxe at the dark shape by the corner. “Who art there!? Show thyself!”

“Peace Celestia, I am not here to bring harm to anyone.”

Hesitatingly Celestia lowered her poleaxe. She did not want to trust the shadow creature, but she did not want to give it a reason to attack her, she knew nothing about it. “...Very well. We shalt let thee speak creature.”

”Thank your Princess. Now let me first start with saying... that I am sorry. I am so, sorry for the pain I have caused. I know I do not deserve forgiveness, nor will I ask for it. All I can do is say that I regret everything that I have unintentionally caused to you and your land. If I could, I would make it so that it never had happened.” Celestia felt unease fill her, as the shadow creature seemed to lower itself in a... bow like fashion? It was hard to tell, but she was certain that the creature was showing some kind of remorseful sign of submission, but it was hard to tell.

She decided to confront him further and spoke up. “What do thou speak of creature? We hath never meet nor seen thee before. What disaster could thou hath caused that would bring our attention?”

“Yes you have...See that is the thing Celestia... You have seen it happen, you have experienced it and you have endured it. For one hundred years has disasters come and gone. The Fall of Green Star, the Rise of Stallion of Torment, the Fall of Starswirl... the Fall of Luna, the Rise and Fall of Nightmare Moon and the Exile from Everfree. And yes, I admit it, that I AM the cause of those disasters. And no words can describe the shame I feel for causing all this. Not consciously or intentionally... yet I still am the unwitting cause of all this.”

“My name is Maleficus Victoria... known to you as the Stallion of Torment... and as the Green Star of Disaster.”

Celestia took several steps back from the shadow, her eyes widened in shock and horror at the concept of the Stallion of Torment being both the Green Star, and a sentient being at that, and not a manifestation of pained spirits taking the shape of a rotten horror as a side effect of the Green Star's impact. It was a He, a sentient being, who had caused all that destruction and death, and then been brought to life through it, as a rotten burning mockery of life. She felt a bit ill at that.

”Surprised? I would be too. You see, I was not originally a pony, no, I was another kind of being. But then someone offered me a wager, that someone was your mother Laura Faust, when I meet her in my home realm.”

"Mother?! Mother is alive!?" Celeista asked in a startled voice. Relief filled her as she heard of her mother still being alive. Yet a twinge of... anger was starting to rise within her. Why was her mother not here?

“Your mother is alive, that much I know, but I do not know where she may be. You see, when we made that wager... we were drunk. And when I won the wager, we were both still very much drunk. And from what I have discovered is alcohol the most dangerous substance to have consumed before using magic.”

Celestia physically felt like someone had punched her in the nose at those words, her body wincing as if taking a blow in reality. Drunk and wager, when involving magical creatures, especially alicorns, was not a good thing. She almost felt physically ill as the shadow creature kept talking.

“I do not know if it was the alcohol or my unique nature coming in conflict with your mother’s power. But when she ascended me into an Alicorn... something went wrong. I can remember a flash of light and then searing pain spreading through out my body before everything goes dark. I cannot remember much after that. I only recovered to a proper state just hours before I tried to stop Luna’s rampage. But I remember some bits, most of it involving the scent of burning flesh, the sensation of fire in my skull, my body burning inside out and the constant screaming. Gods the screams.”

Watching the shadow creature Celestia was uncertain how to feel. The creatures seemed to be in pain, yet, yet, she could not help the rising, swelling sensation of anger rising within her. And even as she tried to keep herself calm and serne, as the creature kept talking, she felt more of her anger rise. Like a swelling tide before the giant wave.

Shaking her head she tried to keep the rising anger down and tried to ask soemthing ,anything, that could remedy this rising unsteady sensation of rage inside her. "H-how couldst mother hath been intoxicated? She-she always told Us and Our sister of the dangers of alcoholic beverages." The shadow's answer, would not help.

“Yes your mother was drunk, and so was I, we were both feeling down and drinking to forget our sorrows. So we were both at fault for making a wager and going through with it in our state. I can only assume that after whatever she did went wrong she sent me to this world somehow, and in doing so, caused me to appear in the upper sky as the Green Star. It was my body falling down towards the ground that was burning green, I can only assume that my body broke in the atmosphere and then reassembled itself because of my alicorn physiology. But my body had a bad reaction to this world somehow, and causing me to burn in green fire. I can only assume that I somehow adapted after so many years going by.”

Celestia frowned and shouted out at the creature. "How dare thou blame mine Mother! Mother wouldst never hath done anything wrong! Mother wouldst never hath done magic while intoxicated willingly! This be thou fault!" That caused a reaction from the creature calling itself Maleficus and the shadow responded to her shout, with an outright roar of anger.

“DO NOT PUT THE BLAME ONLY ON ME CELESTIA! I HAVE SUFFERED AS WELL FOR THE MISTAKE CAUSED BY ME AND YOUR MOTHER’S ACTIONS! ONE HUNDRED YEARS! A! CENTURY! A WHOLE FUCKING CENTURY! OF BURNING AGONY! BROKEN MEMORIES! NEEDLESS DEATH AND DESTRUCTION! MEANINGLESS SUFFERING AND PAIN! FRAGMENTS OF CONSTANT ANGUISH TORMENTING ME! I-I-I-I HURT! PAINGAGONYITBURNSMYGODITBURNSTURNITOUTITHURTSITBURNSHURTSBURNSITHURTSMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPITBURNSSTOPSTOPITMAKEITSTOP!” In mid rant Maleficus started screeching put frantic rambling. Memories of his time as the Stallion of Torment suddenly surged through him and sent him into a wild panic. All that could be describe was that he was going through complete and utter agony as he tried to block out the memories that suddenly surfaced during his ranting.

(Scene Skip)

On the moon the black alicorn had fallen to the ground and was frantically turning and tumbling around as if trying to cover his body in sand, as if trying to put out an invisible fire. His forelegs constantly rubbing his head, trying to stop the painful sensation of his head boiling.

(Scene Skip)

Celestia stepped back as the black shape seemed to twist and spasm as if in physical agony, the shape seemed to tear himself apart, taking on the shape of a twisting mass of tearing claws, mouths, fires, eyes and tendrils. In his state he had begun to prattle out incomprehensible gibberish as his mind went through a feedback of pain from latent memories. His panic and gibberish like screams continued for a good while before suddenly he fell silent, only his laboured, heavy, breathing giving away that he was still there. “By our sun.” Was all she could say as she watched the shape recover from his panic attack.

“Ah! Ah! Ah! Okay... I am okay... I am fine... Aaaaah.... huuuuu... Okay...” Seemingly taking a deep breath the shadow manifestation seemed to calm down. Yet Celestia was not calm at all. The opposite even. Something had obviously snapped within her, the anger boiling over inside and now all she could feel was anger and despair. "Thou will pay for thy crimes creature! We shalt put thy head on a pike!"

The shadow creature just stared at her, reaaaally stared at her. making her feel a bit awkward, if still furious. Before finally shrugging and seemingly crossing its forelegs. "Okay. Fuck it. I don't care anymore. I have spent an unknown amount of time on that dust ball of a moon trying to find a way to talk to you, to apologies, to inform you that the creature possessing your sister is dead and even tell you that your mother is trying to get back home. And THIS is what you do? Sentence me to Death? I accept that you are angry at me but to put a death sentence on me for something that is not my fault alone, and for something I had no direct control over? That is absolutely fucking stupid."

Celestia glared at the creature, her mane flowing in the wind, sparks flowing from her horn. "Silence! We shalt put an end to thy evil presence! We shalt take vengeance for mine sister, our mother's honour and our kingdom!"

The Shadow creature seemingly face hoofed before grumbling then he spoke up in a frustrated voice. "Don't you get it? I don't care. I am not going to do anything. And there is nothing you can do to threaten me about it. I. Am. Stuck. On. The. Moon. You cannot reach me, let alone carry out your stupid sentence."

Infuriated rage filled Celestia at the words bearing down upon her and through a fit of inspired anger, she decided to prove the creature wrong. Through six swirling vortexes, emerged the glowing gemstones that made up the Elements of Harmony. The shadow creature named Maleficus, did not seem impressed, at all.

"Oh what are those going to do? Make me feel pretty or something? I am not even physically here. This is just manifestation through a miasma made of magic and shadows."

"Silence! We shalt have Our vengeance! We shalt have thy head! Through Our Will and the power of the Elements of Harmony! Thou Shalt Be Bound! We Shalt Call Thee Down Upon The Soil Of Our World! Thou Shalt Be Brought To Justice! We Art Celestial Radiance! Princess Of Equestria! Our Will Be Done!" Her voice rang across like the echoing clang of church bells, the elements glowed and shone upon the dark creature, who did not as much as flinch. Celestia panted as she felt a sense of satisfaction, it was done, the creature would be bound to appear upon the soil of the world.

"Okay... so what exactly was that meant to do?"

Was the monotone voice of shadow creature. Celestia gave a smirk and pointed her hoof at the creature who called himself Maleficus. "Thou hath been bound creature! Thy body and soul shalt be forced upon the soil of this world and thus We shalt have Justice!"

"...Are you serious? That's your grand plan? To FORCE me to physically manifest on this planet?" Maleficus was flabbergasted, this was just down right ridiculous. What kind of fool did she think he was? Was those Gemstones some kind of OP Game Changes Weapon or something? Should he file a complain say, Element Marbles of Order too OP, Plz Nerf?

At that point, he had, had enough and his shadow seemed to twitch and shift as he started canceling the spell. "You know what? Fuck you. Fuck your bull shit gem stones. I. Am. Not. Doing. This. Bull. Shit. You and your pretty little marbles can bugger off cause I am not going to dance to your flute because of your tantrum."

The six gemstones shone as he tried to stop his spell and he felt a sudden surge of static shook run through his entire body, forcing him to keep the spell going. He howled in agony, the princess smirking at the sight of the creature in pain, feeling satisfaction that the creature was already paying for his crimes. "Aaaaargh!!! Fuck! What the hell!? Did those things just fucking hurt me!? Are you actually using slave magic or something with those things!? I thought those were the Elements of Harmony not fucking Elements of Slavery!"

Celestia frowned at his offensive verbal assault upon the ancient gem stones she had used to save Equestria along with her sister. It felt insulting and down right infuriating to have the source of her anguish and sorrow for the past century call these sacred relics the Elements of Slavery. "Shut thy mouth monster! These are the Elements of Harmony! They bring order and justice! Thy shalt not escape Our wrath!"

The shadow looked upon her, the two silently looked upon one another, even as the voices of the Elements Spoke into their minds.

"At The Rise Of The Red Sun, He Shalt He Be Summoned."

"At The Birth Of The Moon, He Shalt Be Made Of Flesh And Soul."

"At The Death Of The Moon, He Shalt Be Returned"

Then Maleficus' voice poke up as he looked upon the Princess of the Moon, horror settling into his soul and mind as he progressed what was happening. "...You are seriously going through with this aren't you? You and your pretty rocks are going to wage war on me? DO you even know what that means? For you? For your kind?"

"We shalt defeat thee! We shalt judge thee! We shalt execute theee! It shalt be done in the Grand Glory of War!" Celestia shouted out, her heart was beating with her anger, excitement was filling her, she would ride the tide of war once more. For a just cause just like in the past. But not against the foul Chaos Lord, but against a far more weaker foe! It shall be glorious.

Maleficus had other thoughts on this matter. He was in fact, horrified at this, and was feeling like he wanted to smack his bloody head until it cracked with what he was hearing. He shouted out at the princess, trying to stop the madness that had affected her. For it could not be anything else but madness in his eyes. The Madness of Rage. "No! YOU! DO! NOT! KNOW! WAR! War is nothing glorious! War is nothing grand! War is blood, death, destruction and sorrow!"

"Do not do this Celestia, hurt me if you must! But do not start a war over this. Please do not do this. You have no idea what this will do!" If Celestia had not bee as afflicted by anger and battlelust as she was, she might have been taken aback by the shadow's frantic begging. Yet she was not. Instead she was only given more fuel to her inner fire, and she responded, with a Declaration of War.

A golden poleaxe was flung down and pierced the ground the shadow was manifested upon, even as it begged her to not start a war she glared at him and shouted, her mane and tail bursting out into golden flames as her anger rose. "THOU BROKE MINE SISTER! NOW WE SHALT BREAK THEE!" The two stared at one another, yet the unspoken demand from Celestia was clear. Turn yourself in. Or wage war.

"...No I will not turn myself in. I am a living breathing being. I have never intentionally hurt anyone, nor have I been able to even make proper decisions to even make myself guilty of anything. So NO, if I have to pick between an unfair judgement or war? I will pick war." The shadow form of Maleficus rose up from the soil, taking on the shape of an alicorn shaped gas cloud. His burning eyes stared into Celestia's. There was no turning back now. The two Alicorns stared down upon one another, eyes glaring, not backing down. "I will not back down. I will not retreat. I will not surrender. I will fight for my rights. I will not let myself be treated like a form of scapegoat for your anger. I will fight and I will win. and I will do so, by not taking a single life of your subjects. Just to prove a point, I will not kill a single one of your subjects. Let's see how well you can handle someone whose kind took over their entire world. My kind did not as much WAGE wars Princess, as we MADE wars. And guess what? We still do."

"All bets are off Princess. May the best War Lord win." The shadow then dispatched like gas, leaving Celestia in her anger. The white princess turned off her burning mane and dislodged her poleaxe from the ground and marched towards her throne room. She needed to gather her officers and heralds. Troops had to be gathered, trained and armed. The ponies were going to war.

To Be Continued

Chapter Five: The Dawn of a New Age (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Five: The Dawn of a New Age

The surface of the moon was silent serene, except for the burning fields of green and black flames, and the grumpy wandering shape of Maleficus Victoria, the Alicorn of Terror and Courage. He had only just recently managed to calm down from his rage at Celestia's declaration of war. Things had not gone as anticipated, he was still stuck on the Moon, and would only be summoned down upon the Planet. Whenever a Red Sun rose and it would last for a month and then he would return to the Moon.

At least that was what he got from that messed up prophecy shit that the Elements of 'Do What We Want Or We Shock You' told him and Celestia after they gave him a seizure for refusing to play to their tune. But he could not just wrap his head around it, why do something so... overly complex? *This is just fucking weird. Would it not have made more sense to have me executed right away then bound to appear on the planet a specific time for a month? What is up with those freaky marbles?*

Looking up at the planet he let out a silent sigh, he would have to investigate this Red Sun that the elements mentioned. But he also needed to know what to do when confronting Celestia's troops. When he had made all those loud boasts he had been a bit...upset and had said things before thinking. While what he had said was technically true so had he never actually been in a proper war or battle outside of tabletop rpgs, tabletop minature games, strategy based video games or a small fist fight with a less then reasonable drunkard. *Oh man... I am so going to get my butt kicked if I don't figure something out.*

He thought and through, wandering in a big wide circle around the large dune where his Interface was located. As his hooves traced the sand below him he got an idea. It was not perfect but it would work if he could use what he remembered of the battle games, animes, cartoons, comics and tv shows in his old world and his magic, along with the Interface.

Galloping rapidly towards the Interface, Maleficus tried to remember as much as he could. The stances, the weapons, the armaments. Everything had to be modified for his new body, but if he could just interact with his memories into the Interface, he could at the very least make himself able to fight, even if only in the pure basics.

Once at the Interface the alicorn stallion began to move the different screens around. Effect, Cause, Intention, Process, Duration and Restoration. Those were the main components of his new Interface Pattern, he would use his memories of the different entertainment mediums and documentaries he enjoyed watching or reading, to train his body. He would not be able to use much, he had only a limited time, the Red Sun could come up within days if not hours if he was unlucky. Thus he had to prepare himself as much as he could.

*Let's see... I cannot use animated shows at the moment, they are not all that focused on the aspects of the how and there are not really any proper way to use the technique from them. Comics and tv shows are not that good to use either. If I used something from TV shows then ti would be limited to Documentaries and War Entertainment Shows, for the equipment I will use. But the actual fighting style i not something I can learn from that. I will need to use something that is relatively simple in context,yet complex enough to be useful in battle. And I know just the Game to pick.* With these thoughts in mind Maleficus touched the interface and focused on the character he intended to use as his first training module for the Interface. The Viking Raider of the game For Honor.

The interface worked with what it had, and it worked, a bit. He did not keep a one hundred percent complex transfer of the movements of the human warrior. Yet with some alterations and editions, by focusing more of his memories through his magic and into the interface, he managed to construct a three dimensional image of the Viking Raider out of moon sand crafted Hard Light. The image was just a three dimensional network at the moment, capable of moving in different ways and using the three different stances of For Honor.

Now came the difficult part. He would have to alter the image and make it more pony like. After that he would have to make the movements of the image fit with the new pony shape and from that point he would have to work on a way to temporarily link his body's movements with the image's and from there learn from automated movements on how to move and fight as a pony. Hopefully it would not be too difficult. He had already finished the first step. Only three more to go.

(Scene Skip)

Celestia slammed up the doors leading to the war room. She was still wearing her armour and her mane and tail was still burning in golden flames of anger. All of the guard ponies were nervously eyeing her as she took a seat by the table and shouted out to the nearby guards. "Call Our Generals! We hath important matters to discuss!"

The room was emptied in a matter of seconds, leaving only dust clouds of the guards to fade as they zipped out of the room, leaving the furious princess alone in the chamber.

Celestia stomped around the large oval shaped table, her teeth clenched and her nostrils flaring as she snorted out gusts of air in an angry fashion that would remind most people of a bull then a pony. In her mind she was focusing all of her thoughts into how to best face the incoming threat. The creature that called himself Maleficus had not the speech of a great scholar or noble, in fact his mannerism and speech was more befitting a commoner. Yet he held astounding intelligence and cunning even if he acted crudely. He was dangerous and her quest to avenge her sister would not be without a challenge, this much she knew.

She would have to improve the guard even further, increase the amount of troops, more gear and most importantly, build up new weapons. The ballistaes her ponies had built in their old home had been powerful, but they would need to improve the strength of the projectiles. Other forms of large scale weapons would be needed to face the foul fiends this creature would bring forth to combat her and her ponies.

Raising her gaze up towards the ceiling of clear glass Celestia glared at the burning phantom upon its surface, the constant reminder of her foe's crimes. "We shalt hath to work with haste. The Red Sun shalt come within the next Fall. We hath but four moons to spare." She muttered to herself before hearing the approaching hooves of her officers. Times would start to get rough for her guards, but it was all for justice, her sister would be avenged.

The number of generals in Equestria was very limited, for there had been no major battle or achievements by the Sun or Moon Guards since the Fall of the Green Star. Currently there were only five Generals who were actual Generals and not nobles who were just given a rank to be made important. These were her only trustworthy military leaders and they would be her hammers to nail in the nails for Maleficus' coffin.

Of the five generals were only two capable of speech however. The oldest of the five was a one hundred and twenty years old unicorn named Blood Gorger, his coat was dull blue and his mane a pale grey, he was mute from taking a spear to the throat during a bandit raid. A young Earth Pony with black coat and blue mane with the name Clever Ploy had never spoken a word his entire life, apparently he was just unable to speak from birth. And Fearless Charge was a pegasus who was paralyzed from having been exposed to the fire of the Stallion of Torment when Starswirl tried to kill it. She had to be pushed on a wheel chair, but her knowledge of tactics made her far too valuable to retire, not that she'd want to anyway.

Of course, even if those three did not have any way to speak in the regular fashion had they overcome these handicaps through different manners. Blood Gorger used a magical necklace that let him speak, it was only able to let him speak short sentences but it was enough to get the point across, when not using the necklace he communicated through written text. Clever Ploy was able to communicate through facial expression and body movements in such a way it was as if you could hear him talk to you. While Fearless Charge used an unicorn assistant who would transmit his speech by communicating with him through telepathy.

All of the ponies, except for Fearless Charge, used Hoof Code for communications as well, a form of sound based code system using short or long scraps with ones hooves. One could use loud or low taps as well but it would be difficult ot understand if you were not trained to understand it.

The two that could talk were the younger members of the Generals. A Unicorn with red coat and yellow mane by the name of Scorched Retreat, a logical and arrogant unicorn like most nobles, only he had the skills to back it up. While the last one was a recently appointed General by the name of Certain Victory, a green coated and black maned Earth Pony who made huge leaps in the military ranks when he raided abandoned forts and towns housing bandits in their new land. The bandits were surprisingly enough ponies and other sentient creatures, all low lives seeking to survive on the work of others through murder and theft.

The first of the Generals to speak was of course Certain Victory, one of the more blunt officers in the army. "Princess Celestia why hath thou summoned us?"

"We art at War."

The five Generals blinked at the blunt and clear statement of the princess. Then they looked at one another and thought at the same time, *What the buck?*, clearly this had not been what they had expected to hear when the Princess of the Sun had called them to an emergency meeting.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus stared at the figure standing in front of him. It had originally been the image of a Viking Raider, but now it had been changed into the form of a pony. And... he had to say that the result was far more impressive then he'd expected it to. Sure it was a pony dressed as a viking raider but... the image was still impressive. Since the image had to be the same size as himself for him to learn how to use the movements had he not realized just how big he was. But seeing a pony the same size of himself and then comparing the figure to what he knew of the regular ponies below, it made a clear picture of just how much larger then your average pony he was.

It had taken him a week to remake the image into a pony and now he was ready to try and use the Synchronized Movement spell he had been developing. The spell would link his body with the image and then the image would activate and go through the different stances, attacks and movements of the Viking Raider in a pony body.

Taking a deep breathe, well there was no air but the motion helped him relax, Maleficus summoned four screens of the Interface and aligned them with the image of the Viking and himself. Then he focused his magic and cast the spell. *Okay lets get this show on the road. Initiate Contact. Establishing Link. Activating Motion Synchronization. Setting Time Limit. Link Established. Motion Synchronization Activated. Time Limit Set. Contact Initiated. All Systems Go.*

The first thing that came apparent was that the spell was a success. That was the good news. The bad part was. The spell was a success. Maleficus had been stretching and exercising his body several times to soften up and prepare for the stress the training would cause. But the problem was that the movements of a veteran warrior in an untrained physically fit body, is not something one can simply do.

He stood up on his hind legs. His spine protesting painfully at the unnatural movement, he gripped the staff he had been preparing and began to swing it, his legs moving in odd angles and uncertain movements that caused his muscles, bones and joints to scream in pain. He charged, jumped, rolled, swung left, right, up, down and so on. The Alicorn grit his teeth together as his body moved around in a painful manner, it was most definitely way too stressful for his body.

Thankfully his time limit had-... Wait. Had it not already gone past the time limit? He was certain he had made the time limit five minutes! He would have to check the data stream from the Interface monitors he had made. His horn lit up as he focused his magic and managed after a few minutes of movements to get a reading from the Interface monitors and the result made him pale. *You have got to be kidding me! The input got multiplied!?*

Yes as a result of the magnifying effect of the Interface monitor had the time limit been extended by five, and then that value had been increased by five and so it had been increased, a total of 5 times. The original time limit had been Five Minutes. But instead it became much higher. 5 times 5 = 25, 5 x 25 = 125, 5 x 125 = 625, 5 x 625 = 3125 and 5 x 3125 = 15625 and split that with 60.... That was around 260 hours. That would mean he would not be able to stop moving like this for eleven days!

The Alicorn had not made a fail safe to end the spell, so he would have to physically move through the stances, attacks, moves and reactions of the Synchronization Spell for eleven freaking days! *Oooooh my Gods!! Stop it! I can't keep moving like this! This is just too much!* He mentally called out as he jumped off a dune and made a downward strike before leaping back before bull rushing across the sand. The Interface monitors and the image of the Viking Warrior floating behind him, following him as to help him maintain his movements.

This was not how he had intended to learn how to fight with his new body. And if there had been anyone around to tell him that it would all be worth it after all the pain and agony he would have shut down that train of thought with a crude but efficiently clear statement. "NOTHING Is Worth This!"

(Scene Skip)

The Ponies of Canterlot were hard at work. Not only was their new home in need of supplies and work, but now a declaration had caused many ponies to fear the future.

On the main square before the gates to the main castle of Canterlot, had a crier spoken out a message to the masses from the Princess.

"Equestria is at war."

The once active and sound filled square had turned dead silent at the the first words of the message. The messenger continued to read the message, using the silence of the crowd to make his voice heard across the entire square.

"As of last night hath Equestria declared war upon the Phantom of the Moon. The Phantom of the Moon be a creature going by the name of Maleficus Victoria who hath committed great sins upon our great nation. He is the source of the Pain and Death we hath suffered during the Fall of the Green Star and the cause of the fall of Princess Luna. He shalt be brought to justice. Upon the Eve of the Red Sun he shalt be brought down from his prison on the Moon and face the might of Equestria's Guards.

Thus a Call for any able body pony to join the newly established Equestrian Army hath been announced. Production of Arms and Supplies hath been started. We hath Four Moons to build up our forces. Four Moons to prepare, to train and to work. We Shalt Be Ready. And We Shalt Have Justice!

These are Mine words and hear them Mine subjects.

We Art Princess Celestia, We Hath Spoken!"

The message resounded across the square and within mere minutes was the town stunned in complete shock. It would take a few hours but the ponies would soon realize what the message meant as they processed the information. And soon, the ranks of the Equestrian Army began to swell as ponies of all ages and profession joined. While others, not keen for fighting, began to work earnest to support the growing war machine of their nation.

Blacksmiths hammered metal. Carpenters carved wood. Tanners made leather. Bakers baked bread. Tailors made bandages. Brewers made alcohol. Enchanters of various kinds began to enchant Gear.

Recruits were lining up, being armed in gold, silver and bronze armours pending on their military purposes. Each of the armours were enchanted with the latest Military Grade Protection Runes, ten times as efficient as the protective runes first developed by Starswirl and the Princesses. Each of the newly recruited Soldiers would be trained by a Veteran Sun Guard, put through a rapid and hellish basic training before placed in their respective groups of type of soldiers.

The Bronze Soldiers would be the Foot Soldiers, armed with Bronze Splint Mail Armour and Melee Weapons. Silver Soldiers would be the Archers and Spell Casters, acting as the Ranged Attackers with either Ranged Weapons or Magic while dressed in Silver Chain Mail. While Gold Soldiers would be the Support Soldiers, handlers of Supplies, Medicine and War Machines, they would be the life line of the army and be the ones to use the newly made War Machines. The Gold Soldiers were in fact the least armoured soldiers, dressed in Padded Clothes with Helmets and Leg Guards of Gold.

While the Officers of the Army would be the Sun Guards, in their own Gold Enchanted Full Plate Armours were they the far better equipped soldiers. There would also be a separate unit of purely Sun Guards to act as an Elite Unit and personal Guard of the Generals and the Princess during the battle.

All of Canterlot was amassed in a frenzy of work. Near the training grounds of the Sun Guard stood a newly constructed wooden hangar the size of a small fort. The wooden structure was called the Workshop and in it were scholars and craftponies working on the war machines Celestia wanted built. With their spirits burning with desire of revenge, justice, glory, hatred or other emotions, they went beyond just constructing the war machines. They improved them, and even began to designing even more dangerous constructions with even more bloody purposes.

And the Mages, Unicorns whose magical skills were refined for the purpose of different purposes pending on their special talents, were working on creating a school for Unicorns, to teach and train new Mages, or Battle Mages in this case. For the training of offensive magic would have to be done by a skilled Mage and not a Sun Guard, thus would most of the Unicorns of the Bronze, Silver and Gold Soldiers be taught by the mages at the place were the school was to be built. Thus when not training their bodies they were training their magic.

The location of the Battle Mage Training Ground would later become the foundation of the first Magical Academy of Equestria. Yet its purpose was not born out of the necessity or joy to teach, to learn, to develop or to research. It was born from a desire for vengeance with one clear purpose, War.

And thus it began. The shifting nature of the ponies would change everything. Equestria would change from a newly born nation of peaceful pony refuges, into a battle eager nation of vengeful pony warriors.

(Scene Skip)

Upon the surface of the moon was an odd sight playing out. A black alicorn was rushing across the sand without stopping, his body was standing on hind legs most of the time except when stimulating falling and getting back up. The black fur of the pony was glistering with pouring sweat. His eyes were bloodshot and his fatigue was clear, his entire body was shaking like a leaf even as it moved through the battle motions.

*How... much... longer?* He whimpered to himself as his screaming muscles just kept moving. Even as he performed a wide swing, his arms felt numb and heavy yet he could not stop moving them. He had lost the feeling of his body six times already and had actually fallen asleep four times even as his body kept moving. Never had he ached like this before, not even when he broke his arm during his first year of High school had he been hurting so much. And it never seemed to end!

Backstep, side swing, down swing, block, parry, jump, charge, jab, punch, kick, headbutt, stomp, and more and more. His body never seemed to stop moving, it kept repeating the motions without stopping. He had actually cried several times through the training, the fur of his cheeks stained with dried salty streaks. Yet the time was almost up, soon his torment would be over and he could rest.

And then it came. As if an invisible puppeteer was finally bored with his puppet's performance the alicorn suddenly stopped moving and just went limp before collapsing into the sand beneath him. His entire body was twitching and cramping as he just laid there. Smiling in relief the alicorn just laid there and hugged the ground, he fell asleep within seconds, his fatigue making it impossible to keep himself awake for any longer.

As he slept his body started recovering, the unnatural physique of the alicorn's body began to restore the muscles, the tendons, the joints, the bones and so on. The recovery he was going through was not only helping his recover, it was also strengthening his body, the level of fatigue he had gone through was enough to harden and improve even the strong muscles of his alicorn body.

He slept and slept, his body laying still as all his parts were put back into their proper order, now far stronger and flexible then they had been eleven days earlier. His body recovered as he slumbered, a week passed by as the exhausted Alicorn recovered from his physical endeavor, his body barely moving as it laid there upon the sand of the moon.

As he slept the world beneath him was growing tense and harsher as the ponies were preparing for war. The actions of Maleficus would cause changes beyond foreseen by anyone, be it mortal or immortal. Even the oracles and deities of the realm could not foresee the fate of the world, it was not like the pure randomness of the Lord of Chaos. No, this shift was an act of fate being broken and tossed to the wind. There was no clear line anymore, the future that once could have been would most likely be lost or heavily changed.

Once the black alicorn woke up from his slumber he would spend most of the time stretching and taking it easy. His experience with the linked Synchronization Spell Matrix through the Interface had not left a good impression. He knew he would have to use it again, but it would not be for a long time. For now he would have to rely on his own intuition and the harsh eleven day training regime he went through.

One thing was clear though, the training had results, very, very large results. He could stand up right without feeling pain in his spine, he cloud move around faster, jump higher and he felt far stronger and lighter then he had been before. also, he noticed how his chin and jawline was starting to get even farrier, his fur was black ,as was his mane and it was most likely that he was growing a beard, but it was hard to see that since his beard was apparently just as black as his fur.

He knew that he could not take it easy for too long, while he had the skills, he was missing two things. Armour and Weapon. It would be possible to gather materials through the Interface with some Teleportation Arrays, but how to build and craft them would be the challenge, especially since he was no craftsman, er craftspony. He would have to investigate the ponies in their work, or failing that, just gather materials and try to shape them with his magic to make what he wanted with his imagination.

Maleficus had a feeling it would be latter one of those two options that would be picked no matter what he decided. So for now he needed to find some materials to make his armour and weapon. And he would probably have to do so by checking out the planet below.

Wandering over to the Interface he activated the Telescope function and tried to find a proper source of metal ore to start with. Shifting some sensor arrays into the Interface Monitors let him scan for materials, sure it took five minutes to scan a ten by ten mile radius at a time, but by focusing his search on mountains he was positive he would get results quickly.

The Interface scanned place after place on the planet. He found several rich deposits of various metals, yet for some reasons was there a very big lack of iron around the mountains of the Ponies' homeland. In fact the ratio of metals were out of whack, there was an overabundance of gold, silver, copper, platinum, tin and various other valuable metals, yet almost no iron, mercury, flourite, bauxite or even cobalt. The ratio of metals was just... weird.

Soon enough he found his iron supply, a large ore deposit laid upon a mountain range bordering the southern edge of a frozen wasteland. Tracing the metals with the aid of the Interface he began to drain out the iron of the mountain. Well it was less of a drain and more of a replace. He replaced the ore deposit of iron with moon rock and moon sand, it would probably cause a collapse in the mountain structure but hopefully there would be no issue with it. He had not seen anything alive except for a few birds and wild animals on the mountain where the iron was located.

As the spells lanced down towards the planet there was a flare upon the patch of moon he was using to replace the Iron with. A large chunk of moon rock and sand disappeared for a few seconds, only to be replaced by a thick slab of solid black iron ore. Apparently the spell removed all the impurities in the metal when summoning as he had specifically made to extract the Iron and nothing else, thus the iron was pure metal with not as much as a grain of dirt in it. As time went by the patch of land got replaced more and more with iron and soon enough he had made a ten by ten kilometers large rough circle of iron about thirty meters deep.

He was pretty certain the mountain would collapse once heavy rain hit it. Perhaps he had taken too much of the iron but he would rather have it and not need it, rather then not have it and need it.

But now he would have to start the trickiest part. Molding the iron into a properly fitting armour and a decent weapon. He had a little idea how to mold and fold the metal with magic, he had even read books and watched shows showing the forging techniques of antique weapons. But the knowledge was not fresh and he had never actually considered making something like this on his own. Sure he might have been interested in LARP but he had never actually ever done anything like it, he had been allowed to wear an actual metal helmet and try some of the gauntlets of people who made real metal armour, but that was all.

To actually make the armour he would have to figure out the design, how to fit it to his body without restricting or putting strain upon his body. And the only thing that would let him do that, was time and effort. And he had just spent 25 days developing and using a training simulation spell. The first seven days was to develop the spell while eleven of those days had become a miscalculated force training experience. While another seven was to just recover from almost two week long training period.

He was just glad he had installed a watch and day counter into the bloody Interface or he would have lost the time entirely, even if he had no clue what year it was according the pony calendar.

Stretching his entire body from hooves to hind legs by arching and turning his entire body like a snake he felt his bones pop right back into proper place, to almost made h m grow a boner from the sweet release of the tension in his body being put straight. Using his magic he grabbed a good chunk of iron and began to try and mold it into a proper shape. He surrounded the chunk of iron in an aura of magical energy and began to squeeze the metal while raising the temperature of the magic holding it, efficiently creating a magical furnace effect contained to the metal he wanted to mold.

It was not very fast or energy efficient but it would be the best course of action to make sure each part of the armour and weapons would be made properly. Plus, he had a darn good reason for not wanting to use the Interface too much.

He would still use the Interface but it would not be a priority for this project. For he did not want another mistake to occur like it had with the Synchronized Motion spell and intended to not use it except if he had to. He would probably return to his old way of using the Interface as a training tool, but he would need to recover a bit not only physically but mentally before he intended to use it as much as before.

So he would be putting a more, hooves on approach, to making his gear. It would help him focus and it would most certainly be less boring the just training and sleeping like he had done since getting stuck on the bloody moon. Besides, the sight of the ore melting into a flowing mass of glowing metal with the stars and the void surrounding it causing it to stand out even further with its crimson illuminating glow. Maleficus had never actually known that melting metal and shaping it like this would cause such a beautiful sight. It almost made him feel like he was molding a new life form or even a planet with how the flowing blob of molten metal shifted and turned at his mental commands.

It was rather soothing actually.

The molten metal would bend and shift at his will like a clay. It reminded him of his lessons in high school. He had enjoyed molding and shaping clay, to create something out of the mold able material. This was almost like that, only far more dangerous, and not done by physical contact.

*Twist... a spiral like motion, this will create the core, a drill like shape will be the center of the weapon from pommel to tip, this way it will not break so easily.* swirling like a vortex the blob of molten iron was reshaped, a long spiral shaped rod was shaped out of the tip of the swirling vortex. At a sufficient length Maleficus began to cover the spiral in a lahyer of fluid metal, to give it a round shape, he then reshaped the soft shape of the handle by making the upper layer shift into a scale like pattern.

Then the head of the weapon began to take shape, a thick sharp axe head was shaped out of the remaining tip of the molten metal, it was shaped, thinned, sharpened and remade into the head of a battleaxe from the game of Skyrim ,the Elven Battleaxe. The reason for this design was because it reminded Maleficus of the old Dane Axes of the Vikings, one of his favoured warrior types since he himself was Scandinavian.

This specific battleaxe was not an exact copy of the Elven Battleaxe however, normally the scales would be in the shape of feathers and there would be a eagle shaped crow's bill sticking out of the back. Instead the scales were shaped like that of a serpent, the head that of a dragon. And the axe head itself has five Norse runes carved into the side of the blade. The runes were lined from top to bottom as following, the Rune of Death, the Rune of War, the Rune of Thunder, the Rune of Love and finally the Rune of Protection. Each of these runes were made after his four favourite Norse gods and the main symbol of the Asgardian Faith. Odin, Tyr, Thor, Freya and the World Tree, Yggdrasil.

Cooling down the metal Maleficus smiled as he looked at the weapon, it looked fine and he was certain it was sharp.

Spinning the axe around he maneuvered it through the air, making it look like some kind of buzzsaw as he moved it around rapidly. Satisfied with the design he decided to test its endurance and toughness. Summoning a block of iron he swung the axe at full strength with his front legs.

The axe sank into the metal, and then the handle snapped and the axe head cracked apart. It managed to cut about three inches into the metal block, then it broke apart. It was way too fragile. He would have to work out a proper process in working the metal to not leave it brittle. Hopefully he would finish the procedure before the Red Sun event happened. all he could do was try and finish as soon as possible.

(Scene Skip)

Someone might have said once that there are no such thing as an aggressive pony but that was something said about the ponies of a future now long lost. The current ponies of Equestria were burning with a hunger for vengeance and glory in battle against a most hated foe.

Upon the fields outside Canterlot's walls were lines of soldiers standing in formations. Over two thousand soldiers had been gathered and Celestia had decreed that no more volunteers would be allowed, for in the case that the foul beast betrayed his words and killed her soldiers, then the ponies would lose even if they defeated him. The ponies' numbers were limited because of the Everfree Forest limiting their living conditions. now that they had more space then they could handle, they needed to repopulate and spread out. Thus they could not carelessly attack Maleficus with their entire strength.

Even Celestia in her own unrelenting anger and desire for vengeance knew this. And thus she had made the decision to limit the number of soldiers to the bare maximum she could spare without risking the future of her ponies.

Thus the forces would be gathered up in several blocks, each lead by a specific trained officer who would be in charge of his or her group. A group of these blocks would be part of a squadron, lead by a higher ranking officer, who would in turn be lead b the Generals.

The amount of experienced or competent officers were uneven and the ponies had difficulties handling this new war like way. Yet their spirits and fury seemed to help them pull through. Even as officers were demoted and privates promoted, to fill the ranks with competent leaders, the Generals were working on their strategies on how to handle the creature calling itself Maleficus.

They would develop a mass attack and solid defense tactic against this foe. To keep him suppressed with magic and projectiles, to keep him off guard with lines of shields and spears, while weakening him bit by bit until the princess could deal the final blow. The strategy was far more advanced then that in truth but that was the basic structure of the strategy, weaken the Phantom of the Moon with bug bites while keeping him from running away.

Both of the Warlords preparing for battle would complete their hasty preparations in good time. Both Celestia and Maleficus would be ready, the question remained, who would be the victor? The result would be unexpected.

(Scene Skip)

The Red Sun rose upon the land of Equestria, a solar eclipse when the sun is aligned with the red planet called Estrus, the planet symbolizing War and Love. It was once believed that the Red Sun symbolized a war between the Gods, thus the Rise of the Red Sun is also called the Dawn of War. While also symbolizing the coming of the Mating Season of the Ancient Ponies before Tribe Wars.

Sadly to say would it not be Love but War that would hold the biggest purpose of the coming Red Sun. And it would all unveil as two events would occur that would mark the Dawn of a New Age.

First as the Red Sun rose and the moon lowered itself, something happened. The Phantom of the Moon, the burning black specter upon the surface of the moon itself, started to twist and shift, altered its shape.

It started as the first crimson rays of the sun broke the horizon. The black and green flames began to twist and convulse as if in pain. The once grinning jagged mouth of the specter seemed to drop into a look of utter despair.

Then the eyes and mouth of the specter disappeared, closing up as if clutching itself in pain. As if rolling around in agony the burning shape began to twist and turn, black and green flames swaying and turning in rapid wild uncontrolled ferocity.

The inhabitants of the planet were staring in fear at the uncontrolled flame twisting and turning upon the surface of the moon. And that fear turned into utter horror as the flames suddenly began to swirl and turn like a massive vortex. Before suddenly a bright flash black and green erupted upon the moon and a burning black and green fire ball flew down towards the planet like a falling star.

As if mocking the horrors of the survivors of the Green Star, the black and green fire ball struck the ground in front of the Everfree Forest in the distance behind the mountain range between Canterlot and their old home. To the ponies, it was as if a second star had fallen upon their old home.

Standing on the battlement of her new castle Princess Celestia physically flinched as she saw the star fall down behind the mountain range. Her eyes narrowed in anger at the audacity of the creature for mocking her like this. She would make his end a most painful one.

And as the Phantom of the Moon struck the land the second event occurred.

The large wooden gates of the city wall were made out of solid oak, over thirty meter tall they are connected to the sixty meter tall Gate House that is connected by a stone bridge to the road leading down towards the plains beneath the mountain. And normally these gates were closed or slightly ajar to let ponies enter and leave the city. Now however, things were different.

Two groups of ten earth ponies moved over to a pair of turn wheels at the base floor of each of the two sides of the gatehouse. There they attached the latches and reins to their bodies and began to move. Even with the strength of ten adult earth ponies was it slow to get a momentum, but soon enough the wheels began to rotate.

And as the wheels began to move, the massive wooden gates did so as well. The wooden structures groaned as they were pulled open, as if a massive giant was waking up from a deep slumber. Five minutes went by as the massive gates pulled open and then as their wooden shapes slammed into the stone of the walls of the passage inside the gatehouse, a horn was sounded. And the sound of metal striking ground in a steady rhythm could be heard.

And out of the shadows of the gatehouse and into the red glare of the Red Sun, the armed forces of Equestria, moved out for war. Their hooves moving steady and repetitive, causing the very earth to shake and shiver as over two thousand pony soldiers, marched out of Canterlot. A song reaching out from their ranks, a song that work mark the birth of a new age. An Age of Crusades.

[Song: The Dawn of War. Text Only. Creator: Staadnauthursil]

"The Red Sun Hath Risen Up In The Distant Sky!"

"A Warm Glow That Makes Our Hearts Cry!"

"This Be A Sign That Hath Called Us All!"

"For This Be The Dawn of War!"

"And We Shalt Answer The Call!!"

"In Our Princess Name we Marsh Off For Glory!"

"We Shalt Strike Down Our Foe For All That Art Holy!!"

"By Our Conviction We Shalt Never Fall!"

"By Our Cunning We Shalt Strike From Afar!"

"For This Be The Dawn of War!"

"And We Hath Answereth The Call!!"

Everything would change and nothing would be the same. For now the Ponies have gone to war, and they would keep doing so for a long time. For once the thirst for battle has been ignited... there is little one can do to quench it.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: Well it was a little late but here it is. The next chapter of the Maleficus Tome. The Dawn of a New Age. Following up this little event of preparations and anxiety is the first battle between Celestia and Maleficus. It will be interesting, that much I can guarantee.

Pinkie: Wohooo! Great work Staady! When is the next one?

Staadnauthursil: I am actually about one fourth done with the Sixth Chapter already. But it might take me until August to have it ready if I do not get enough spare time. But until them. Enjoy this chapter everyone. Do not forget to review and subscribe if you enjoyed it or want to offer any kind of efficient advice.

Pinkie: Hey Staady! Do not forget!

Staadnauthursil: Oh yes, and one last thing. If anyone has any suggestions for how to properly prepare a Song Lyric please give me a suggestion or a link to a group who can help me. I need to work on some more lyrics, the marsh song I made for the final part of the chapter took em a week to finish.

Chapter Six: The First Crusade (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Six: The First Crusade

The fields outside of the Everfree Forest were scorched black for several hundred meters, the scent of ash and burnt soil in the wind as it blew across the fields. A large crater laid near the edge of the forest, a lone figure standing amid the smoke and ash. The figure looked up at the red sun and tsked before moving out of the smoking crater and up onto the scorched land.

A pony stood there, an alicorn, his entire body covered in a heavy metal armour, forged in the pattern of large scale plates, chain mail and splint mail. In short it was a mixture of several kinds of armour, put together into a hybrid armour of protection and mobility. His black fur and mane were seen upon his bare head, a strangely shaped helmet strapped to his side. His strange horn with its segmented parts looked like a curved claw of an mutated mantis, or a nasty mandible or tail of a scorpion.

Maleficus Victoria, breathed air once more. Even if the air was tainted with smoke and ash he just breathed it in, after having spent so much time on the Moon he was just glad to enjoy the sensation of wind against his fur and air in his lungs again.

"Ahhh... air... I have truly missed you." He sighed softly as he cleared his nostrils and throat from dust and sand from the moon. Even as the glaring red sun shone upon the land he felt at peace. Then he heard it, the rumbling of the ground, the sensation of vibrations causing his own armour to rattle. And in the distance he could see the lines of soldiers approach.

Twisting his neck, side by side, he enjoyed the sensation of the bones popping and the joins aligning properly. Looking around he saw how the ground was leaning down hill from the forest, and about five hundred meters ahead of him it was raised into a flat fields before shifting into small hills. The size of the army meant that they would have to stay along the flat ground to efficiently use their numbers. He highly doubted they could use the hills as proper staging grounds considering how large the units looked.

He had the look out of the battlefield, he did not know how they would position themselves, but he had an idea on how to handle them. There were ballistaes, some kind of catapult, rows of spear and shield wielders, staff wielding unicorns, groups of pegasi, lightly armed support units arming the siege weapons, several lines of units wielding... okay that was just weird, they did not even have a proper equipment line up except or Swords, Spears and Shield,s the rest of the units were just mixed up like someone opened several hundreds of Booster Packs for a miniature game and stuck them together without bothering to check if the units were of the same type or had the same kind of equipment.

But even then, he could tell that those units seemed to be the best equipped with their full plate armour. *Wonder if that gold is real... It makes no real sense if it is real gold. Why make armour and weapons out of gold, silver and bronze? Is the ratio of metal even lower then I assumed? Bronze is at least something endurable, but silver and gold are no ideal metals for armour.* Maleficus decided to drop the subject, he would figure it out once he got to the confrontation. Not like he had any way to escape an army of this size even with his alicorn powers. Since he had no clue on how to fly yet.

Deciding to let the army settle up into proper formations he sat down and waited, his satellite system floating in the atmosphere would give him the information he needed, he had a small monitor from the Interface on the moon inside his side pouch. It was not designed to let him cast spells through it like the Interface, but it did allow him a direct visual connection to his satellite network. Through a transition spell and some selection slides he could get a visual image of his surroundings or a far distant locations from an eagle eye's point of view through his satellites.

Sure it was not perfect, the images were not always clear, clouds or even smoke could block the visual image if he was unlucky. But his little free fall to the planet had cleared the clouds in the atmosphere in the immediate area so he had a good view. He had not installed any kind of marking or sensors into the monitor, but with the reflective, practically shining, metal armours of the army, he had little problem spotting the troops of the ponies gathering.

There was a single large rectangular block of bronze soldiers with shields and spears at the front line of the center, practically acting like a massive bulwark for the silver and gold troops. Behind the large bronze unit's two sides were two silver units, standing in rectangular formations with a slightly angle. Directly behind the bronze unit were two blocks of gold units. And behind all of them were ranks of slightly less gold units, with the siege weapons, in a large half circle formation. And in four wedge formations in the rear, split up to two units by the sides of the golden support units, were pegasus units, dressed in silver and bronze armour.

The purpose of the formation was clear, to maximize their firing power against him while still keeping him in one spot. And to be able to move against him should he flee. Celestia was truly not pulling any punches in her agenda against him. But even with all of this... he felt like something was wrong. The units did not look... stable. No not that... they looked... *Raw... unrefined... basic... green... fresh... these units are all freshly trained recruits. There are no proper discipline... experience... courage... insight... not even a bloody killing instinct. Some of them are more trained then most, most of them being the full plated gold soldiers. But even they appear... relaxed. Overconfident. These are not soldiers. They are militias and conscripts.*

Maleficus wondered if he should feel insulted. But then he realized just why these ponies were so unrefined and weak as units. They had never been in battle, let alone war. They were inexperienced considering the hardships of battles. Sure Maleficus was the same, but he had at least experienced truly horrifying and painful things, he had experience, even if small. and he had knowledge as well ,which was something the ponies appeared to lack as well. They had a basic formation structure, but not the discipline or command to keep these units in good order.

There was more then likely that there would be glory seekers, hot tempered berserkers or even zealots among these units. They would not work as soldiers, not like this. But then again, he did not seek to kill anyone. So perhaps he could use this to not only help himself but the ponies as well?

But for now, he would let the ponies prepare, he had not spotted Celestia anywhere yet but she would be among the soldiers soon if not already. Not that hard to spot a winged pony twice the size of a regular one dressed in gold armour.

And spot her he did, not that it mattered much, she landed by what he assumed to be HQ. Could be hours before the army put a move on. Plenty of time for him to enact some tricks of his own.

(Scene Skip)

The ponies had been marching for four hours when they reached the plains where the Phantom of the Moon had crashed. And the smoldering crater was a pretty good way to confirm this. The first to arrive were the Bronze Soldiers, numbering up to a thousand strong they were a single block of units, yet remained split up into groups of one hundred to make it easier to control their numbers.

The lined up at the front as they were the ones to keep the one called Maleficus at bay from reaching the rear lines. Behind the line of Bronze Soldiers gathered the Silver Soldiers, the Sun Guards and behind them were the Gold Soldiers. All of them gathering up in the decided formation of the Generals. The Silver and Bronze Pegasus Soldiers flying over the grounds troops by the sides in their wedge formations.

Even as they gathered up by the plains they had not spotted the enemy yet. All they could see was the smoking crater and the smoldering field of ash that surrounded it. The smoke and ash in the air was making their eyes sting and the ponies had to scrub their eyes to not get blinded by it.

Princess Celestia arrived last, her armoured hooves landing by the support lines at the read were the Five General were gathered in the Command Tent located behind the lines of Siege Weapons. The Ballistaes, or Sky Fangs as the Pegasi like to call them, and the Catapults, called the Grudge Thrower by the Earth Ponies, were lined up in a nice order of of ten Ballistaes with ten Catapults behind them and five of their new secret siege weapon behind the Catapults. This line up was repeated three times, making a line of Thirty Ballistaes, Thirty Catapults and Fifteen Secret Weapons.

Eyeing the formations with a smirk Celestia strode into the Command Center and saw her Generals gathered by the Battle Map with their assistants and younger officers at the ready. As she entered all of the ponies before to her or saluted, except for Fearless Charge who let her assistant verbally acknowledge the Princess.

She waved a hoof at them to be at ease and spoke to them in a calm voice, hiding her internal turmoil. "At east Mine subjects. What art Our progress on the battle plan?"

Blood Gorger would be the first to respond to her inquiry, his necklace speaking up in a genderless echoing mechanical voice. "WE ART FINISH WITH. THE INITIAL PREPARATIONS OF. THE BATTLE PLAN. PRINCESSS. ONCE MALEFICUS HAS BEEN. FOUND. WE SHALT ENACT PHASE. ONE OF THE PLAN."

As the General spoke Celestia looked upon the battle map, the outlines of the figurines upon the map showed the set up for the battle's first turn of events. The battle was simple yet elegant in its nature. She was certain that the foul fiend would fall to her Generals' tactical knowledge and strategic thinking. "Excellent General Blood Gorger. What be Our next course of actions once the fiend hath enacted Phase One?"

The General pulled out a scroll containing a detailed image of what looked like a wagon with two large spears sticking out of it its front, each spear was inserted in a spring loaded launch mechanism and connected between them was a long link of thick rune engraved iron chains. "PHASE ONE SHALT BE. THE TROOPS TIME TO. TRAP OUR FOE'S MOVEMENTS. ONCE HE HATH BEEN PINNED. WE SHALT ENACT PHASE. TWO. WHICH SHALT INVOLVE. OUR BATTLE MAGES AND. THE SUN GUARD TO. SEAL HIS MOVEMENTS AND. CHAIN HIS FORM WITH. OUR SECRET WEAPON. AS YOU KNOW WAS. THE STALLION OF TORMENT. SUCCESSFULLY BOUND BY STARSWIRL. WITH MAGICAL SUPPRESSING CHAINS. OF BLACK IRON. WE HAVE COPIED THESE. CHAINS AND CONSTRUCTED A. FIRING PLATFORM THAT WILL. LET US FIRE THEM. AT OUR TARGET. NOT ONLY THAT BUT. WE HATH EVEN MANAGED. TO IMPROVE ON THE. ORIGINAL ENCHANTMENTS OF THE. CHAINS STARSWIRL THE BEARDED. CREATED. THESE CHAINS ARE TWICE. AS POWERFUL AS THE. ORIGINAL CHAINS. WE CALL THIS WEAPON. THE RESTRICTA."

Eyeing the plans of the weapon Celestia felt pride for her ponies, they had truly done well to design such a impressive weapon from Starswirl's mad experiments. The fact that the chains did not contain the essence of Maleficus was irrelevant, these chains were twice as strong in all factors so they would work for their intended purpose. Which was to ensnare Maleficus so that she could bring down all of her might upon his foul form. "Excellent. We shalt be most pleased to see Our foe rendered powerless. He shalt not escape Us! He Shalt Face Justice. For Equestria!"

"For Equestria!"

"FOR EQUESTRIA."

Raising their hooves in salute to their kingdom and princess the ponies cheered for their future victory, soon justice would be satisfied as the fires of vengeance struck down the despoiler. But such things are far more fragile then they appear. Their bravado and cheer was shattered by the sudden loud boom, followed by a powerful tremor shaking the very earth itself for a few seconds. The Princess and her War Council left the tent post haste and witnessed the first sight of their foe, as he proclaimed himself to the world.

(Scene Skip)

The signal came that the battle had begun not from the ponies but from the one they were searching for. For as Celestia and her Generals were talking and planning had Maleficus decided to make the first move.

It had actually been a spur of the moment thing, but he found himself enjoying it. When he had been human he had, had a big case of stage fright since his early childhood. Now he felt free, refreshed and unbowed. Thus he would make his first impression to the world one to be remembered, forever.

The clouds of ash and smoke had been starting to settle when he got the idea on how to get the show started. He jumped up a bit, about twenty meters, and slammed down into the soil. He enforced his legs and hooves with magic and thus enlarged the impact of his landing, even with the heavy armour and his own body's physiology did he need to use more... 'oomph' to make the right kind of effects caused by the impact.

And he got a fine result from it.

The earth shook and the ash riddled ground erupted into a large cloud that expanded outwards as the shock wave of the impact did so as well. The wall of black smoke flew out across the field and the ponies were panicking at the sight, some of the older ones even going into shock at the familiar sight of the billowing wave of smoke and ash. But no pony moved, they held the line, even as the wave of ash and dust flew straight into their ranks.

Their eyes began to sting, their throat got irritated and their nostrils got clogged. Within seconds was the entire Equestrian army, except for the rear lines and the aerial forces, coughing and choking on the ash cloud.

It did not last long, only around two minutes, then the ash and dust settled into the ground. Coughing and spitting the ponies scrubbed their eyes clean from the dirt and ash, only to hear a loud and rumbling voice that caused chills to run down their spines.

"Pathetic."

One word was all that had been said, yet it resounded across the entire field like a resounding echo of a brass gong. The one who spoke the word was hidden among the settling ash clouds, yet even if barely seen was the dark shape's glowing eyes, glaring down at them, as if spearing through their very souls with its intense glare.

"One little gust of dust and ash and you are reduced to this? I would have thought that Celestia would have heeded my words when we last spoke. It would seem that my words went ignored."

The clouds settled and more then one gasp was heard from the ranks of the ponies at the sight that greeted them. A black alicorn stallion, that was what they saw. The largest alicorn, the largest pony, ever seen was standing among the burnt ground.

A pony's body, yet it was all wrong. It was a body large and thick with muscles, a savage like pelt, an unruly and wild mane and tail along with the most bizarre looking horn they had ever seen. All of this made him appear far more alien then any hybrid monster they had seen before.

The Alicorn was dressed from hoof to head in a thick and heavy looking armour of black metal. His black mane and tail billowed through the air, his own pelt was just as black as his mane, making it almost impossible to discern his features, jet a row of teeth with a pair of large canines gleamed in the red sun light, while a pair of crimson eyes glared out from the fur of blackness that covered his face.

The segmented claw like horn upon his skull shifted and twitched as if anticipating violence and his large crow like wings were spread out. This was the one they had come to fight, this was the one who the Princess had declared an enemy. This was, Maleficus Victoria. Known to be the Phantom of the Moon and suspected of being the Stallion of Torment and the Green Star.

"You are all green. Weak and unrefined. Raw and naive. I look upon you and I do not see Soldiers, I do not see Knights and I do not see Warriors. You are regular people, given a weapon and a small amount of training."

Ponies all over the field twitched and frowned at his description of them. It felt down right infuriating that this stranger would declare them weak when they had trained with vigor and intense motivation for months just to defeat him.

"I say this because what you are about to embark upon is NOT something to take on lightly. This is bloody serious if you intend to go through with it. For once you take a step upon the battlefield. There. Are. No. More. Time. For. Regrets."

Taking a single step forward Maleficus's entire body seemed to grow larger to the ponies as he took that small step forward, the sound of his hoof beating into the burnt soil was like the sound of a giant. It was such a small and seemingly simple move, yet all of the ponies felt a chill down their spine as he took, one step, forward.

"You are not here for War. You are not here as Soldiers. You are here for a Lynching. You are here as a Mob. You seek not Honour, Glory or Duty. All you seek is Revenge, Power and Murder. You do not know the expectations or consequences of War. All you know is whatever glorified imagination world you got stuck in your thick skulls. You think you are prepared and ready. You are not."

Maleficus began to slowly walk forward, each time he took a step, the entire army seemed to shirk back as if physically struck. They did not know it, but the presence of an opponent with a hostile intent, was far more different then a wild beast. This was no wild animal, this was not small time pony bandit, this was a sapient hostile trained soldier with the strength and muster, far beyond their own, and it was their own bodies' instincts that was betraying them, making them react like skittish animals.

"You are not prepared. I can see this very clearly. I have shaken your will. I have rattled your minds. All it took was words and some physical effort. That was all it took. And I have already affect all of you to the most fundamental of levels."

The ponies tried to reason with themselves, they tried to shake off their unease. Some managed, but most did not. For Maleficus was right, he was affecting them, more then they were willing to accept.

"Your lines will not hold me. Your ranks will not contain me. Your weapons shall break. Your shields shall bend. Your arrows will shatter. Your bodies will scatter. All if this will be done by me, and me alone. And do you know why I will be able to do this? It is not just because I am an alicorn, no, it is something far more basic."

Maleficus stopped walking, he was now a mere one hundred meters from the first ranks. A wind was picking up and clouds of ash was flying around him like a black mist.

"You are still, at your core, herd animals with a safety mentality. Violence is not a natural reaction for you. I was originally an omnivore, an apex predator at that. My species dominated the entire world I came from. And I still hold that mentality even if I am now a pony. So listen to me and listen well."

Suddenly he rose up on his hind legs, his barrel expanded as he inhaled, his nostrils flared, his jaws opened and his axe flew out to float by his right side. and then he spread out his wings and stomped the earth with his forelegs and shouted out at the ponies. His eyes glowing red while wisps of ashes flew around his dark shape. His voice making the ponies' stand rigid and tense, as if their very nerves were frayed with frost and lightning, they were frozen stiff with fear.

"You. Are. Not. Prepared!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gTX2tyZUIw

(Scene Skip)

Celestia had not realized what was going on until after she heard her hated foe speak. Her eyes grew wide as she listened to his speech and noticed how her soldiers grew anxious and uneasy. The way Maleficus spoke, the way he moved, it was making her proud ranks of trained soldiers act like skittish cats. Their armours were practically rattling as their bodies began to shiver in uneasy or down right fear. *He seeks to weaken Our ponies through intimidation! We hath to stop it!*

Growling she spread her wings and prepared to take flight and charge at the black stallion. when suddenly, he did that himself. His hunched shape suddenly sprang forward like a javelin as he roared out a battle cry that sent chills down her spine, then her eyes widened as the mighty bulwark of solid enchanted bronze shields, was folded together to meet his attack, and without even a hint of effort, was broken, as several of the soldiers within the front line charged to meet him.

She felt a twitch in her left eyebrow at the sight of several dozen of her newly trained ponies, break rank, charge their opponent, and thus weaken the large bulwark's front. "We... might be in trouble."

*No bucking kidding.* The assembled officers all thought at their ruler's words, this was going to be a big mess.

Of course, they had no idea just how big of a mess it would become.

(Scene Skip)

Sergeant Rough Stock was a grizzly dark brown earth pony with a solid short cut black mane. He was all around rough with bad hygiene, bad manners and, badassery, as he called it. But he was one of the most efficient trainers of the new recruits. Too bad or him did he have to end up with one of the most unmotivated and lazy ponies of the lot for his unit in the Bronze Soldier's front lines.

Glaring at the source of his frustration fidgeting with his shield the Sergeant barked at the earth pony next to him“By the Gods! Would ye stop that Private Weak Guts! Yer messing up yer bloody grip more then normal!”

“Sorry Sarge, dese here straps be tough te handle ye know.” The small dark green earth pony muttered as he tried to properly adjust the straps of his large bronze shield, his yellow mane sticking out of the back of his helmet.

“Ye bloody well know it be yer lazy ass shit attitude that be de problem Private Guts! Now strap on ye bloody shield good an' proper before We smack it on ye thick skull!”

Grumbling a bit the younger earth pony adjusted the shield's traps, again, at his leading officer's barking. "Aye, aye, Sarge."

Then the earth shook and every single pony in the ranks of the Bronze Soldiers had barely the time to prepare their shields and weapons when a wave of ash and dust hit them. Weak Gut and Rough Stock were at the center of the very front of the entire unit, and had to spend a good moment clearing out the ash and smog from their faces and lungs.

"Pathetic."

It was only One Word, yet one word was all that was needed to shake them, Guts and Rough both felt chills down their spines as the dark shape within the smoke stared at them and their fellow soldiers with glowing red eyes.

"One little gust of dust and ash and you are reduced to this? I would have thought that Celestia would have heeded my words when we last spoke. It would seem that my words went ignored."

The clouds settled and Weak Guts heard more then one gasp from his fellows, he was too shocked to realize that he was one of them, at the sight that greeted them. What he saw was the largest pony, ever, wings, claw like horn and all covered in black fur and iron armour. The sheer power resonating from the Alicorn was making his armor rattle, although that could be his legs shaking, he wasn't sure.

Then the Alicorn spoke once again.

"You are all green. Weak and unrefined. Raw and naive. I look upon you and I do not see Soldiers, I do not see Knights and I do not see Warriors. You are regular people, given a weapon and a small amount of training."

Weak Guts agreed with the alicorn, he was a farmer, not a soldier. Yet he knew that more then one of his fellow conscripts were not going to take those words lying down. And sure enough could he hear angry muttering, growls and snarls among the ranks from Ponies all around him, Sergeant Rough Stock was still calm though, not bothered by the Alicorn's sharp words.

"I say this because what you are about to embark upon is NOT something to take on lightly. This is bloody serious if you intend to go through with it. For once you take a step upon the battlefield. There. Are. No. More. Time. For. Regrets."

The black alicorn suddenly took a step forward, it was only a small gesture of movement, yet the way the Alicorn's body moved was not normal. In Weak Guts' eyes it was not like a pony's body movements at all. It was far more like a prowling wolf. And it was making Weak Guts' body break out into shivers and cold sweat at the sheer sight of it. And the Alicorn was still moving towards them even as he kept talking, the slow walk driving more and more unease into him and the rest of the unit.

"You are not here for War. You are not here as Soldiers. You are here for a Lynching. You are here as a Mob. You seek not Honour, Glory or Duty. All you seek is Revenge, Power and Murder. You do not know the expectations or consequences of War. All you know is whatever glorified imagination world you got stuck in your thick skulls. You think you are prepared and ready. You are not."

"Sarge... We art not feelin' all too good about this. Da others... some of 'em hath tempers ye know." Weak Guts muttered to his superior who was frowning.

The grizzled Sergeant took a fe seconds to survey the situation before he nodded to the soldier. "Aye. He be messin with Our brains an' he knows how to. He may look like he be a pony. But he sure as Our old ma's grave do not act like one. Ye better stay close te Us private an' hold yer place in da ranks."

"You are not prepared. I can see this very clearly. I have shaken your will. I have rattled your minds. All it took was words and some physical effort. That was all it took. And I have already affect all of you to the most fundamental of levels."

"Sarge..." Came the uneasy voice of Guts as the ranks of the entire unit were now down right unruly and not even holding their stances in some places.

The older earth pony nodded and adjusted his grip on the shield and spear in his hooves. "Aye lad, We see it. He be real clever this one. We art not willful enough te handle somepony like him yet. We art not trained nor experienced enough in both body an' noggin yet. Jest be glad there be no more ponies like him or we be real an unproperly scrowed. All We can only endure it an' hope fer da best."

"Your lines will not hold me. Your ranks will not contain me. Your weapons shall break. Your shields shall bend. Your arrows will shatter. Your bodies will scatter. All if this will be done by me, and me alone. And do you know why I will be able to do this? It is not just because I am an alicorn, no, it is something far more basic."

Weak Guts and Rough Stock bolt felt like they should do something to stop the now highly agitated ponies in the ranks, some looked ready to charge, some looked ready to flee and some even looked ready to faint. But the visage of the alicorn was making it difficult for them to speak, let alone shout. And things were steadily getting, worse and it seemed like the Alicorn was preparing the coup de grace. And even if this was the first largest scale battle of the ponies of Equestria since the Fall of Discord, were neither of them willing to bet that things would work out.

"You are still, at your core, herd animals with a safety mentality. Violence is not a natural reaction for you. I was originally an omnivore, an apex predator at that. My species dominated the entire world I came from. And I still hold that mentality even if I am now a pony. So listen to me and listen well."

"Sarge! He is gonna do something!" Weak Guts practically shouted as he tried to anticipate just what to do. There was no way to run, Sarge would make sure of that. There was no way he could attack, he was the weakest of the unit. And he sure as bucking hell did not think he could do much to deterrent the charge of an alicorn, as mentioned just a moment ago, he was the weakest of the unit.

"Aye lad! Time fer some last second effort before da big party starts!" But apparently, this fact did not seem to phase Sergeant Rough Stock one bit. The large earth pony laughed and slammed his pole arm into his shield to get the troops attention, well the attention of those within shouting range that were not lost in rage, fear or arrogance. Then he started doing what he did best, shouting out threats and orders.

"Alright listen up ye flank holes! Ye better grip yer shields tight or it be yer buckholes that will be smeared to da ground! By US! So ye better get yer brains on straight an' LINK YER BUCKING SHIELDS!" There was a flurry of movements as the soldiers reacted to the voice of the Sergeant, rune engraved bronze shields linked up like a row of dominoes falling into place. Yet there were still several holes and uneven lines of the shield wall because of the psychological warfare of the alicorn.

Then the black giant of a pony rose up onto his hind legs and then he slammed his forelegs down upon the earth, it felt as if their very souls were being judged and found lacking as his voice slammed into them like a physical force.

"You. Are. Not. Prepared!"

Then, he charged.

[Start Battle Music: Ferelden At War - Dragon Age: Origins Soundtrack]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fqf-iZv6Zg

Weak Guts shivered as he saw several dozens of his fellows break ranks and charge at the alicorn. And then his eyes widened as without even pausing in his charge the alicorn swatted the ponies aside like leaves in the wind, a wing slap sent one spinning into the air, a toss of his head sent another straight into the sky, a forward way push with his shoulders sent two of them somersaulting up in the air and then down into the ground. And even the group of twenty who tried to charge him en mass was thoroughly slammed into the ground, literally, in an instance.

If it had not been so terrifying to see over a dozen armed ponies beaten so soundly, would he probably have found the sight humorous.

Then the alicorn's voice spoke up as he approached the front lines and Weak Guts got a very awkward feeling in his stomach as the black mass of iron and muscles charged, towards him. *Oh glue.*

"There are far more weaknesses to a shield wall then the weak discipline of the wielders!"

He could feel the presence of the alicorn come closer, he covered behind his shield, lowering his head as he tried to grip the shield with all of his strength.

"If one knows how the shield wall works! If one knows how to align their weapons, tool or natural born implements according to the wall's shields!"

Weak Guts tried to steady his hind legs into a proper steady stance. He was gripping the handle of the shield next to his own, as was taught to him in basics when it came to how to properly hold together the shields. And while he gripped the other pony's shield, was Sarge holding onto his. While the the straps on the center of the inside of the shield was strapped tightly to his other front leg.

"Then it is no more difficulties to breach the wall then there is when you flip over an empty table!"

And then he felt something shift at the bottom of his shield, he had barely the time to notice a black spade shaped object slip beneath the bottom of his shield. The spade suddenly tore upwards and wrenched the shield off him, nearly dislocating his foreleg as the straps broke. The shield went flying into the air while Weak Guts himself got the forehead of an alicorn slammed into his gut.

Weak Guts felt his stomach churl and burn as he found himself hanging limp on top of what appeared to be the horn of the Alicorn, reshaped into what looked like a mixture between a line of plating spread out over the top of his muzzle from forehead to nose before ending up in an up curving spade like blade. The poor pony had no time to register all of this however, since he was too busy spewing out his breakfast over his comrades as he hung on the head of the alicorn like a sack of carrots.

Rough Stock shouted out at him but Weak Guts had no option to respond or react as he found himself the unwitting passenger of a ride he would never want to go through again. He seemed to be stuck as the alicorn slammed through his fellow soldiers and smashed the entire front lines and the ranks behind them like dominoes, yet he remained on. As the shields began to fold against the sudden shift in weight and pressure the ponies started to panic and the shields began to fall back over their wielders en mass.

As the alicorn began to move on top of the falling shields the puking earth pony named Weak Guts could only think, *This... sucks... so... much...*, while gurgling out stomach juices. Acting like an unwilling puke launcher as his stomach took a repeated deep pounding from the bouncing his body was making on top of the alicorn's head.

(Scene Skip)

[End Battle Music]

[Start Battle Theme Music: DA Inquisition - The Descent battle - OST - High Quality]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4zyMa-aFeQ

As Maleficus rushed forward he was attacked by several bullheaded fanatics screaming bloody murder. The first one to try and strike at him was a big earth pony who had decided to turn aside his polearm and use a short sword with his shield instead.

Flexing his left wing he swept the earth pony stallion up into his feathers and then with a sharp upwards flex sent him spinning like a discus into the air. The screaming pony flew away from the battlefield and disappeared into the hills, he would not have flown so far away had he not been holding so tightly onto his shield.

Another pony tried to attack him, this time a mare unicorn wielding a pair of floating spears along with her shield. He ducked his head beneath her attack and rammed his head into her shield, making her body fall over his head and neck, before throwing his head upwards, sending her flying up into the air.

He could have sworn that she had made a Wilhelm Scream when she landed again.

Next were two earth pony mares, each wielding spear and shield, they were trying to lam their shields into him from opposite angles. An interesting tactic but he met their charge and pushed his upper body against their shields while slamming his armoured forelegs into the lower part of the shields. The lower part of the shields slammed into their own lower body and the upper part folded against his, causing the two ponies to flip up into the air before slamming down into the ground.

Next up was a group effort of earth ponies, unicorns and probably a pair of pegasi. They were an unruly mob of random efforts and he took care of them in a less then humble way. First he swept his wings, causing a gust of ash to hit their faces. And then he suddenly spun his entire body in mid charge and slammed one of out folded his wings into the back of their heads, burying their upper bodies into the ground as they lammed face first into it.

After he had forced away the attackers he noticed the sudden change in stance of the unit in front of him. *Hmmm... interesting that is the basic form of a Shield Wall... Guess my shouting had more of an effect then a I thought, it is rather shabby considering the way some of them are shaking.*

Maleficus knew the shield wall more then the ponies. He had always found the concept of the Shield Wall to be the most basic of formations when it came to using shields as a unit. If someone knew how to properly align the shields together and move together, they would essentially become invulnerable to most medieval weapons.

"There are far more weaknesses to a shield wall then the weak discipline of the wielders!"

Of course even the Shield Wall had a great deal of weaknesses, something that he knew as well. One of the earliest solutions to the shield wall was a strategy called the Boar Snout, developed by Viking Mercenaries. In essence it was another Shield Wall but with a wedge formation ,where the largest and strongest of the group was at the ground to breach past the shield wall with brute force.

"If one knows how the shield wall works! If one knows how to align their weapons, tool or natural born implements according to the wall's shields!"

What he intended to do was something different. The ponies knew how to use the shield wall a bit, but he noticed instantly something very important about the way they held the shields. And he knew how to pierce it.

"Then it is no more difficulties to breach the wall then there is when you flip over an empty table!"

His horn shifted and altered its shape, the segmented parts from the base and up to the middle flattened out over his forehead and down between his nostrils before shifting upwards into a flat spade shaped horn. He lowered his head and slipped his horn beneath the lower rim of the shield in front of him, that had not been lowered into the ground. Then the black alicorn raised his head and sent the shield flying into the air.

He then felt something press down onto the top of his muzzle and stared at the sight of a pony hanging on his head, puking uncontrollably over his allies, the straps on the left side of his armour had gotten stuck on Maleficus' horn. *Oay... this is messed up in more ways then one.* Maleficus thought to himself before he returned his focus to the fight. *I hope you are not going to get traumatized by this kid, for things are about to get even rougher.*

Maleficus then spread his wings and tilted over the ponies on his side, the force of the gust he caused sending the troops on his sides rolling to the ground, their shields making them unable to stand as the forces of the wind made them lose their balance.

Slamming his front hooves into the shields behind the front line ended up causing a domino effect. The shield bearers could not handle the sudden shift in weight as the iron armoured alicorn pressed himself against the shields. This caused the shields to fold back over their wielders and into the shields behind them. And as the shields in front of him became tilted enough he pressed his front legs and heaved himself up on top of the falling shields and began to sprint down the unit on top of their own shields.

The ranks behind the first were unable to handle the increased weight and pressure of their comrades' bodies and shields collapsing against them and fell backwards as well with their own shields pressing down on them. This was all caused by the weight of their own shields and Maleficus' body weight pressing down upon them as he ran on top of the folding shields, and thus causing them to fall to the ground.

This pattern of falling shields was repeated as Maleficus charged down on top of the shields. His still puking passenger still stuck on top of his muzzle like a unwitting weapon used for a mixture between psychological and biological warfare. Rank after rank fell and collapsed beneath their own shields and back over the other, making the entire Bronze Unit collapse like a set of dominoes.

All Celestia could do was gape and stare as her proud unit of a thousand strong, was flattened by a single charge, with no use of magic whatsoever from what she could tell.

Her Generals stared in shock, amazement and agony at the sight of their well trained Bronze Soldiers reduced to a rabble and mockery within a manner of minutes. Yet they felt a grudging respect for the Alicorn for achieving it, even if they wanted to strangle him because of it. Yet the Generals and the Princess were both fearing just what manner of evil scheme he would come up with to handle the Silver Units.

(Scene Skip)

[End Battle Music]

[Start Battle Music: Primeevil Battle - Dragon Age 2 Soundtrack]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jAZ8BHx-rU

The Silver Soldiers had readied their weapons at the sight of the Alicorn Breaching the lines, crossbows were ready, bows were pulled back with arrows notched and spells were being charged. But as the alicorn got closer so noticed the front ranks his unwilling passenger and shouted out at the others in their troops. "Sir! The enemy hath one of Us on top of his head!" The Sun Guard in charge of the unit cursed and shouted out at his and the other silver unit. "Hold yer fire! Don't thou recklessly shoot! That foul fiend hath one of our fellows hostage and be using him as a living shield! Aim for the legs!"

Now in a perfect world would this order have gotten through and both sides would have whittled down the alicorn's armour with ranged attacks and forcing him to stop his reckless charge. Sadly though, this is not a perfect world and it is proven when the Sun Guard in charge of the second Silver Unit, disregarded the orders from his fellow Sun Guard and gave another order. "Disregard that fool's command! We art taking this fiend down now! Our fellow shalt be remembered for his brave sacrifice!"

The other Sun Guard did not appreciate this and shouted out at the other Sun Guard. "Quit acting like thou art a thick headed snake Glory Seeker! That there be one of us! Do not dare put his life at risk cause of thine ambitions!"

"Shut thy manure filled muzzle Kind Protector! We art taking this foe down, no matter the price! Our princess hath told us to act and thus we shall!"

"If thine head would separate from thine buckhole for more then a minute, thy would understand. Thou art putting a life of one of our fellows at risk by thy own greed for success! Do as I hath ordered! Aim for the legs!"

"No! Care not for the lose of one life if we can win this battle! Shoot to kill!"

The Silver Soldiers of both units were equally confused by the argument between their two superior officers and they could not make a decision in how to handle things properly. Some shoot to kill, some shoot to cripple, yet because of this was their coordination bad, very, very bad. There is a reason why ranged units do not fire in random manners while in formation, it is dangerous not only to them but their allies as well.

Projectiles and spells were fired in a random unprofessional fashion towards the charging alicorn, but nothing would hit him, most of it was because he shifted his position by charging side ways left and right to avoid any kind of strike. But other then him dodging was more then one third of the attacks misses because of the spells interacting with one another and thus disrupting the other projectiles. Some were harmlessly dispelled in gusts of wind, pretty sparks of light, a flash of light or possibly become a pile of ice or snow. Yet other spells were far more devastating, and dangerous, in their reactions, some exploded like fireballs, of those explosions were a few ice or light based, others erupted into electrical discharges and a few even managed to create freak weather conditions like small tremors and tornadoes.

And this total chaos of magic and projectiles, lead to the Silver Units imminent defeat, not at the hooves of Maleficus, but at their own lack of proper order ad coordination with their fellow soldiers. Most of the blame could be put at the Sun guards but the Silver Soldiers had minor officers who should have taken command when the situation became as it was. Yet they too had conflicting interest and thus, this was the result.

A pair of spells detonated into a freak snow storm. And for a few seconds was every body blinded by snow and frost blowing into their faces. Once the chilling wind had cleared could everybody open their eyes again and saw that the small storm cloud had disappeared and in its place was a massive block of ice in front of both the units. It looked like the largest piece of ice ever for many of the ponies, it looked like it could chill many a drinks for an entire summer.

But those daydreams came to an end when that block of ice was destroyed by a powerful eruption of fire and molten rock as another pair of spells reacted to one another. The icy and molten stone shrapnel of the spell did not hurt anyone, yet it did cause quite a disaster to the Gold Units, the ones with control over the Ballistaes and Catapults of the northern Gold Unit to be exact.

The Sun Guard in charge of the Gold Unit had seen the impending disaster and shouted out at her men when the ice began to crack. "Take Cover!" All of the Gold Soldiers took cover behind the closest things they could find to act as a solid cover. Most of them took cover behind the wooden frames of their siege weapons, and that would end up being a bad decision.

Icy shards of ice and pieces of molten rock flew out from the explosion, most of it went sky high but quite a bit of it struck at the northern Gold Unit because of the angle that the Ice Block had exploded. Ice sharp as razors and molten stone pieces from the size of coins to the size of heads rained upon the siege weapons. And then, the first ominous sound was heard.

It sounded like something tightly strung up was being unfurled, as if what had once tied it in place had gotten loose. Then a loud twang erupted as one of the ballistaes' strings went slack and the two strung back wooden arms of the large crossbow slammed forward. The force of the two arms springing out at full speed without a restraining support rope tied to its frame caused the weapon to suddenly fall apart.

Or rather, first all the screws and nails holding it together flew out of it like shrapnel and once it could not hold its shape together the entire weapon platform collapsed as it fell apart. This buried its crew beneath a pile of timber, yet no one was seriously injured.

The same could not be said for the Siege Weapons.

The ice and molten stones had struck every single one of the catapults and ballistaes. The ice shards and cut rope, pierced wood and dented the metal. While the molten rocks had burnt rope, set wood on fire and melted the metal. Like a mockery of their hard work of constructing the weapons, training to use them and caring for them ,the massive wooden frames groaned, and then began to slowly tear themselves apart like the slowly build up to the final note of a wicked orchestra.

The Gold Soldier Ponies were running around frantically trying to save the war machines. Yet with the amount of damage they had taken in such a short amount of time was it no chance they could save them. The ballistaes were ruined in different ways, their ropes being ruined, the frames burning, their infrastructure torn apart and so on. Each ballistae tore itself apart in a different fashion and some of them even made a great final effort to make an impression by either flipping over or shooting off parts of their frames into the air.

But the catapults were a different story, they were all built in the same manner and even if they had been hit by a vast amount of both ice and molten stone, were the events the same. Their security ropes snapped and the large wooden spoon like launchers swung up and fired the hundreds of already loaded small metal orbs that had been prepared for the fight, and then the wooden structure's launcher tore off from their foundations and flew off into the center of the battlefield.

The result? The defeat of the Silver Units.

(Scene Skip)

They came like a rain of horseshoes. A cloud of solid metal spheres the size of a golf ball covered the red sun for a few seconds, making everybody in the battle field stop and look up. Their eyes widened as they witnessed the cloud of metal falling down from the sky. Even as the units tried to raise shields to protect themselves they could not do anything to stop the barrage. They had no time.

It took only around two seconds for the sphere to impact the areas of the two Silver Units. Each of these spheres had been prepared for one purpose, suppressing Maleficus' movement. To prevent him from being able to attack or flee while the Bronze until held him at bay. Within each orb was a single crystal surrounded by a runic array.

The small gemstone was loaded with a small amount of magic and when the thin copper sphere containing it was cracked, dented or impacted something very hard, the spell of the array would activate. Even if the sphere was intact would the spell inside it still activate after it registered an impact, it would only be delayed by ten seconds.

A single sphere struck the head of the Sun Guard Captain, Glory Seeker, and as he tried to shout out in rage, the sphere cracked open and a bright light emitted from the sphere before a rapidly expanding mass of pink gunk erupted from it, covering up to five meters in radius. The Captain was covered from top to bottom in the slimy mass and found himself furious as he tried to pull the sticky mess off his fur. "What be this disgusting-! Wait what!? We can not move!"

All over the area were flashes of light erupting and soldiers were finding themselves stuck in a mess of pink hardening slime."Aaaah! This thing will not come off!"

This was a mess and would make the entire Silver unit immobile since most of them had expended most of their magic recklessly attacking Maleficus, they were either too exhausted to cast magic or fearing of injuring themselves trying to cast magic while encased in a hardened pink slime. "We... can... not... move..."

Some were of course less focused on the whole, military issues of the situation. "Ewwww! It be in mine mane!" And more on the icky parts-

While others were enjoying being stuck in slime a bit too much. "Hroohh! Mmmm!" *Translation: Oohhhh! Mmmmm!*

While those stuck to those enjoying themselves were finding it rather annoying. "Thy better stop enjoying this Hot Flank or by the Sun we shalt beat thee like a straw dummy!"

"Oooommm mesh! Chloud huoi lo wlath wogll lon ubs fldofk themer!?" *Translation: Oohhh yes! Could thou do that to us Thick Member!?* Came an eager muffling from the slime covered figure, the mare's barely covered eyes sparkling through the compound like a pair of fire flies was making it obvious that she did not find that much of a punishment.

The stallion stared at the sparkling eyes of his fellow silver soldier before he closed his eyes and slowly counted to ten. "...We do not want to know what thou just tried to say."

The pink slime was a newly made compound of water conjured through magic combined with a powder, made from a stone discovered at the mountain of Canterlot. Even if the compound was fluid and sticky at first would it hardening into a solid mass in mere seconds after being in contact with air. But that was only when combined with magical conjured water, when combined with naturally produced water, it would heat up at a high degree of temperature before hardening. The stonecutters of Canterlot were very eager to develop it further for architectural purposes, even if the compound was far weaker then the magical version, was it still far sturdier then some types of rocks they had been using when building the city.

Also, the magically conjured version would become brittle after a few hours but was strong enough to hold even an alicorn in place, Celestia had accidentally gotten herself stuck to a boulder after forgetting to wash her hooves when touching one of the produced slime masses during a test. It had been a bit embarrassing to discover she could not remove it even after dislodging the ten ton boulder from the ground in a struggle to get it off. Even if the situation had been an embarrassment so had it helped them realizing that the compound could hold an alicorn in place, even if only for a few minutes.

As compound grew weaker in a progressive state so could a being a strong as an alicorn get themselves free after around ten minutes, yet for a regular pony so was there a too large a difference in physical capacity for them to get free in such a short amount of time.

The compound was rather weak to magical attacks though so it would only be used as a supportive weapon against Maleficus. At least, that had been the intention, until things turned out like this. And with the majority of the unicorns in the silver unit too exhausted and the rest too nervous to cast magic, they were pretty much stuck. And then as they units laid there immobile by their own support, came several large wooden spoon like structures flying in the air before descending and slamming like tree trunks into their ranks. About one third of them were struck by the wooden spoons and many would have some broken bones form that disaster, yet no one was severely injured.

And to top it all off, Maleficus had not even reached them when all of this happened.

Celestia felt like crying at the sight and one of her Generals, Blood Gorger, fell over from a heart attack and had to be revived by his fellows while the rest were trying to figure out, what, had, gone, wrong.

(Scene Skip)

[End Battle Music]

[Start Battle Music: Dragon Age Inquisition Soundtrack - Battle for Haven]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGbxrB71CVM

Had anyone been able to see Maleficus face for a few moments they would have seen a, very, very heavy grimace that made it look like he was in intense physical pain.

He watched as the Silver Units fired like mad raccoons with laser pistols and bows. And twitched.

He watched as the misfired spells caused their own long range Siege Weapons to misfire and get destroyed. And twitched.

He watched as a rain of metal spheres impacted the Silver Unit, spheres that later exploded into a pink slime like concrete that trapped the entire unit. And twitched.

He looked with a curious fascination of disbelief as several launch pads, looking rather spoon like, flew from the siege weapon units, and slammed into the trapped Silver Units. And twitched.

It was... awful to watch. It caused him near physical pain by the sheer sight of the ludicrous buffoonery in front of him. *........What.... the.... actual.... fuck..... are.... they..... doing?*

The alicorn was wondering if this was a sign that he was still sealed on the moon he was having a very lucid dream. Yet he could not stop to ponder the acts of Murphy. So deciding to not take this for granted he raised his speed for a few seconds before suddenly making a forward leap, pounced and then jumped.

Maleficus did not know how to fly, or even glide properly, but he did know how to jump and with his powerful muscles he could jump far farther then any pony. He spread his wings to get some more distance just to be safe. But he had forgotten about his unwitting passenger, who had decided to once gain, puke. There were many cries of disgust and outrage down bellow him. It made him almost pity the soldiers beneath him, had they not all made a Monty Python like act n front of him mere moments ago.

It was rather hilarious, but it was also making him ponder something. *Just how much do you have in that stomach of yours? Did you eat a whole barn's worth of food or something before the battle?*

But Maleficus did not voice his curiosity and instead silently pondered while staring at the swirly eyed pony hanging over his head. He then noticed the ground approaching. Shifting his fore legs and hind legs he landed smoothly, excluding a loud burp and groan from his passenger, and then, he kept charging forward. Straight towards the Sun Guard Unit in front of him.

Smirking the alicorn raised his head, his passenger groaning but he ignored that, and as he came up upon the gold armoured soldiers he roared out, "Now that the comedy is out of the way! Let us have a bit of proper fun!", and charged straight into the unit.

The front line of the golden unit was made up by soldiers of full plate golden armour, yet every one of them wielded a different weapon, no unity or focus. Just random weapons for everybody. So when he charged straight into the unit he aimed for the weak point, were there was only a group of four soldiers, each wielding one or two one handed weapon,s no pole arms, no shields and not even a two handed weapon.

Two earth ponies, one wielding a mace and one wielding a pair of daggers. A unicorn wielding a long sword. A pegasus wielding a... short handled pitchfork? Or was it some kind of weird looking sai or short handled trident? Well either way they were not suited for handling the charge of a full plate covered alicorn.

They tried to swing their weapons at him from different angles, they had decent team work but little else. All of their weapons were made of rune engraved gold and... well they bent when they struck his solid iron armour. He gave them no time to gape as their blade, knife, mace and... pitchfork, were ruined in their attempt to strike him. Forcing himself forward he pushed past them with only the force of his forelegs and chest slamming straight through them like they were a group of fence poles. All four got slammed hard into the ground as his armour covered forelegs and chest slammed straight into their bodies.

And then he stood up on his hind legs, grabbed the closest opponent, a greatsword wielding unicorn, with his left hoof by the helmet, and swung him like an improvised club into his fellow soldiers. Now charging on his hind legs he swung his unwilling living weapon in a wide arch, slapping aside three ponies with every wing like they were rag dolls. After ten swings he then threw the pony in his hoof to the side like a javelin, making a line of ten or so fall to the force of their buddy's body flying into them.

Side stepping he avoided a pair of spears from the left, grabbing onto the spears beneath the spear heads he made another sweep, this time taking out a group of ten. But after having swung the spears in a 120 degree arch into ten ponies, with their wielders still holding onto the ends, the wooden shafts broke and their wielders flew off into the back of the unit, hitting more of their fellows as they landed.

Throwing aside the spear heads Maleficus jumped over a group of shieldbearers before kicking them to the ground with a backwards aimed wide side kick sending them as a group to the ground. The amount of unconscious or fallen ponies were starting to pile up as he moved through the unit. The Sun Guards were starting to get desperate to take him down, it was infuriating that he was handling them so easily!

Four ponies attacked, one pegasus and three unicorns, each wielding a shield and a different type of bladed hand weapon, a longsword, a shortsword, a saber and what looked like an oversized butcher's knife. Their aim was to press their shields into him from the sides and stab at his weak points. Sadly for them though, was their target already on the move. The large alicorn stallion reached out, grabbed hold of one of their shields, and with a brutal rotation of his entire body, swatted them all aside with the use of their own companion's shield and body like a crude kind of club.

Letting go of his unconscious weapon the Alicorn rushed forward and pressed his forelegs against another shield user, and started to use the shield, an its wielder, like a protection as he rushed straight forward through the unit. The Sun guards tried to stop him ,they tried to form up and delay him. Yet he was not to be denied and with his unwilling battering ram he pushed through half of the unit, when something unexpected happened.

The Sun Guards scattered, reforming away from him, leaving a wide area free to him, yet still surrounded him. Still holding his, now unconscious, living weapon the alicorn casually tossed the pony to his fellows and lowered himself back on all four of his legs, and for the first time, stopped charging. Something was up and he was not willing to continued his charge until he realized what was going on.

As a human he had experienced, watched and read, way too many ambushed in entertainment medias like games, comics, books, cartoons and movies. He had also experienced an ambush, when Starswirl the Bearded tried to murder him, even if the experience of it was hard to recollect because of the state he was in, so is the feelings he experienced still there. And the feeling he got from this was very similar to what he can remember feeling just before Starswirl enacted his ambush. Yet even if it was an ambush... he did not feel threatened or unsettled. It was hard to put it in words but he felt like he was not in danger, even if there was an ambush.

That's when he heard something in the distance.

It sounded like something being cranked up, it reminded him of the sound a key winding up an old clock made. Only much heavier in its resonance. Whatever was being cranked up was big and from the steadily extended periods of the sound, it was very tightly strung. *I wonder what kind of device it is. Well, I better make sure to prepare myself, I do not want to be caught off guard if things get out of han- I mean hoof... *Sigh* I miss having hands.*

Calling forth his power he traced a runic circle into the ground around him. The Sun Guards were watching him with tension and were trying to disrupt his concentration by firing spells and projectiles at him. He took a few hits yet nothing too serious, but it was the first injuries he had taken for the entire battle. A few arrows struck his but were forced aside by the slight updraft his magical preparations were causing. Some spell hit him as well but did little else but singe his fur a bit, and even if they hit so did they not even slow down his spell.

The Sun Guards were stunned at their failed attempts at disrupting his spell casting. Normally when a unicorn, or even an alicorn, is casting long time channeling magic, they can be easily distracted by outside interference. So the most common way to fight someone casting a long time channeling spell is to hit them to disrupt their focus.

There was a reason why most Unicorns preferred short time spell casting rather then long time channeling, it required far less focus and time, even if less powerful. The slightest hit on an Unicorn when channeling could disrupt the process. And if hit on their horns they could even get a very powerful migraine that would keep them from casting magic for a while.

Yet that was not efficient in this situation. Maleficus was not casting magic like a normal unicorn would, his acquired fragments of knowledge over the arcane was too... well, fragmented, to make him able to cast magic the same as any other horned pony could. Instead he channeled his magic through his entire body, not just his horn. While his horn was his main focus point, was it by no reason his only means of channeling magic.

Maleficus was also able to ignore pain and distractions because of several simple, if uncomfortable reasons. He had spent a century as a regenerating burning corpse, feeling constant agony to the point of insanity until he went sane again after the century had passed. He could endure pain.

He had also always been able to ignore people and tings in his surroundings since he was human. In fact he was sometimes so focused on what he was doing that he would lose track of his surroundings and even time. He once spent whole day reading a book, non stop, he did not even put it aside when he ate or went to the toilet. And he did that when he was a kid, not even a teenager, he was even worse during that period of his life. So ignoring the attacks and shouts from the surrounding Sun Guards, was not even a challenge for him.

As the runic array beneath him was completed the black alicorn positioned himself, hind and forelegs spread out to the sides his body lowered, as to give him a good stance to sprint or jump away should it prove more dangerous then he could handle.

The cranking then stopped as a loud click, or rather, clack sound was heard and there were loud voices speaking out in the distance, from the less armoured Gold Units he had seen before. And then came a loud voice shouting out, "Fire!", before several loud kachunk like sounds was heard from all around him. Then something could be heard whistling through the air towards him.

He had barely the time to register the fact that fifteen pairs of spears, each pair linked together by a thick iron chain, flew towards him from almost all angles except for his rear, and then they struck. The spears pierced through not flesh but grass covered soil, their spear tips shaped to act like anchors once they hit something. As they struck the chain between each pair of spears, latched onto whatever was between them like a primitive bola, useless on its own, but rather efficient when using multiple of them.

Of course several of the spears were not able to hit him, about six of the fifteen pairs shoot at him missed, and one of them struck at his body. He had to lift and constantly shift his head rather swiftly to keep the pony stuck on his head out of harms way as the spears flew at him, the poor guy puked some more but was unharmed. The spear that actually hit him struck at his left side, yet only managed to create a loud clang like sound that made his ears ring when it impacted his armour and it ricocheted into the ground. The rest ensnared him from all sides, the heavy chains tugging into his body, tying him into place while the spears held the chains straight. He looked like a cartoon character wrapped up in chains.

After then surprise had left his system he investigated the chains, and his eyes instantly narrowed when he recognized them. These chains were very similar in design to the chains Starswirl had used when trying to kill all those years ago, he could not really, recognize them by sight, with his haze of pain, and the fact that his eyeballs had been burning, made his visual memories unclear. Yet he recognized the aura from the chains and the way they felt, far more refined then those that last tied him up, yet still based upon the same design in purpose and feeling of the magic.

He smirked and shook his head a little, his movement might be restricted by the chains but he could still move a little. "I see. So that is your plan Celestia. To keep me in one place, heavily trapped by both physical and magical means, so that you can enact your revenge. I'd say it is rather clever, had not Starswirl the bearded attempted the same thing all those years ago."

A sudden flare of light erupts i nthe distance and Celestia's voice explodes out from rear ranks of the army, he could feel her anger even while so far away. "Do not speak Our teacher's name fiend!"

He just snorted at that. "Hmph. I will speak the name of that deranged old goat any day I want to. You cannot tell me what to say and what not to say. I am not a slave. To speak one's mind is not a privilege, it is a right. And I will not take back my words about him, even if he once was a great person, he tried to chain me down and murder me with my own horn. So he will get neither pity or respect from me." The alicorn then looked at the surrounding smug Sun Guards and just sighed before he shifted his body a little getting the feeling for the chains holding him.

[End Battle Music]

[Start Dramatic Build Up Music: One Piece - OST - Overtaken]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daFi4MScfl8

"Now then, let me tell you ponies something, you are included in this Celestia. Something VERY crucial that you have overlooked when it comes to this situation we have right now." The ponies looked at one another in confusion, but kept their weapons and horns steady and aimed at him. *Hmmm... these ones at least got some discipline.*

"These chains may be enchanted with runes to nullify magic, it is actually a very impressive runic array, very refined and works like a buffer when combined with the other chains, making it stronger the more chains there are. Yet these chains only stop the magic from touching the chains themselves." The ponies winced as the levitating axe, which had just been casually floating around next to him, flew over and around his head, proving his point.

"If I am casting magic that reached not for the chains there are no effects of the anti magical arrays. Plus I can still cast magic on myself or the area beneath me. So yeah, this limits me a bit, but it is not much." Celestia winced, she had thought the chains would act like a sort of seal, she had never actually used the chains like their intended purpose, she was not willing to chain herself down to try it out. She was far too uneasy with being tired up with magical suppressing chains to even consider it.

The ponies were shifting with unease as the alicorn's words begin to register in their heads. But if they thought he had finished talking, they were very wrong. "And there is one more thing you have overlooked." Celestia wanted to cry, it was so frustrating to hear him tear apart all of her hard work and then just keep on pouring salt onto the wounds! Truly this was a fiendish foe! Not even Discord could aggravate her like this! Her Generals were all equally uneasy and she could hear the assistant of General Fearless Charge, call out the command for the Silver and Bronze Pegasus Units.

"General Charge wants all air units to make their move right away, they need to attack the target now before he gets free of the chains."

One of the Sun Guard Officers turned his horn towards the sky and with a brilliant flare of his horn, signaled the Pegasi units to attack.

Now here's the thing, the Bronze and Silver air units were each given a specific purpose. Bronze, close combat, Silver, ranged combat. It was that simple. So when each of them were given the same order, they went at it in a different way. The Bronze units flew off into a sudden downward charge towards the target. While the Silver Units flew above them with their weapons ready to throw or fire. With their trained speed limit, as to not endanger other flyers who were too slow, they would reach the target within a minute.

Yet Maleficus did not just stand there and wait for them attack him. Even before the units began their charge towards him he spoke. "These chains are nullifiers, but they do not just nullify the magic cast on them or make it hard for those to cast magic they hit. Since they are linked to the spears you used to launch and anchor them, I highly doubt there are any kind of enchantments on the spear heads to keep them in place. This soil is not even stone or rocky, it is moist and soft. So all I have to do to get out of this, is this."

The ponies felt their courage waver and break as the alicorn shifted his entire body and without even a slightest resistance, the spear heads slid out of the soil they were buried in like they had been anchored in pudding. He then shifted his forelegs up to his neck and spread them, pulling the lengths chains down from his neck, past his sides, hind legs and to the ground. It had not even taken him ten seconds.

Casually shaking his head, cranking his sore neck into order, he looked up at the approaching flyers and then back at the units behind him, he could hear the Bronze Unit star to get back up on their hooves. And eve nif the Silver Unit was still tied down, was the two Sun Guard units not doing him any favours since they were blocking his path better then before. He was very much in a tight spot, not bothering to turn his head around he spoke to the surrounding ponies. "Now let me give you a piece of advice that I learned from someone else. When things get tough, when a situation may seem dire, when you lose your edge and all hope may be lost. You do what you have to do. You pull yourself out of despair and anxiety and act. And sometimes, what you have to do. Is to IMPROVISE!"

The alicorn reared up onto his hind legs his mouth opened wide and the ponies could almost see the wind being sucked into his throat and he took a deep breath. Celestia, seeing the behaviour of her hated foe, shouted out at the surrounding units to act. "No! Stop him! We can not let him escape!" She was too far away to do anything herself so she had to rely upon her loyal subjects to handle the situation.

With their ruler's orders the Sun Guards charged as a mass. It was a crude and undisciplined charge, yet it was the first offensive act that the ponies had managed to properly follow according to command. Yet it would not do a thing to stop Maleficus.

His lungs were filled with air and magic and as his forelegs lowered down towards the ground he was being charged by ground and air troops from all sides. But as they came inches close to him, his forelegs slammed into the soil, his spine arched, his wings went half folded in a down ward angle, making him appear more draconic then equine, and then, as his jaws opened, he screamed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rtI86rgZ9I

To call it a scream was like comparing a lizard to a dragon, it was more then a scream, or even a screech or a howl. It was a baseless sound that should never have been uttered by a pony. Yet it was sounded from Maleficus It spread like a piercing gale across the battlefield, it filled the eardrums and hearts of all who heard its piercing sound.

Celestia felt the sound press down against her, it was like nothing she had ever felt before, her entire body was shaking and shivering, it felt like she was having a panic attack. Then as the sound passed she found herself gasping for breath, slumped down on her forelegs in utter exhaustion as the pressure disappeared. Yet when she looked up, she was greeted by a sight that almost made her heart stop.

https://youtu.be/xDR4U9w6I7o?t=38

The entire army of Equestria was frozen, as if time itself had stopped. They just stood there, as silent and unmoving as statue, and then, it happened. It started when the pegasis flew through the air, and fell to the ground like rag dolls, their bodies impacting the ground in droves. Then a single earth pony ground trooper's eyes rolled up into her sockets and then she fell down, unconscious. And then a stallion unicorn fell, his eyes rolling up as well, revealing only whiteness. And then another, and another, and another. All of them falling to the ground. Before long was every single pony soldier falling like leaves to the ground. Landing with gentle rattles and thuds as their minds just blacked out from the sound that had shaken them to their very souls.

Celestia barely registered the thuds of her Generals and officers near here, their bodies falling to the ground just the same as the regular soldiers. For even them, the most hardiest of Equestria's soldiers, had yet to be prepared to handle such a sound. A sound of utter, mind blowing, bloodlust infused, terror.

And within mere seconds laid the entire army of equestria on the ground, completely defeated. With Maleficus Victoria standing tall and proud over their unconscious forms, not even wavering in his stance.

[End Dramatic Build Up Music]

Maleficus stood tall and silent, not even uttering a word, yet in his mind he was panicking like crazy while swallowing mouthfuls of blood from his shredded vocal cords and throat. *Ooooh gods! That hurt like hell! I cannot open my mouth or blood will gush out! I must endure it, let my throat heal, just stay quiet until-*

Celestia decided at that moment to snap out of her shock and screamed out in outrage at the alicorn. "W-w-what hath thou done monster!"

Maleficus remained silent, his throat was no longer bleeding but it was still useless, he could feel it healing though it would take a bit of time, internal injuries took far longer to heal then external injuries. But apparently was staying silent only making Celestia even angrier. *Ah shit.*

Screaming out Celestia drew forth her axe polearm and pointed it at him , her floating rainbow mane and tail started to grow brighter. "Answer Us!"

As well as anyone with a still recovering throat could speak, Maleficus just decided to do what he did best, annoy people. So he just turned his head and smirked, his mane covering his eyes, giving him an arrogant look.

Celestia sputtered and her eyebrow twitched dangerously at the blatant arrogance of the stallion. She grit her teeth and then she slammed her axe into the ground and shouted at him. "We shalt end this Maleficus! Thou art to face Us! And Us Alone! We shalt break thee!"

*Well that was going to happen either way so you are just announcing the, well, obvious here princess.* Maleficus thought as he rolled his eyes. That's when he noticed, or rather, remembered, the pony stuck on his head. The earth pony as groaning and drooling like crazy from his constant puking, but... he was not unconscious. Yet he had been at point blank range of the scream Malefius had done. Plus, there was the runic circle he had not used yet.

*Perfect! One distraction coming right up.* Maleficus raised his head and before Celestia could enact her charge towards him he let his magic flare, the runic circle he had carved out earlier. The circle started glowing blue before it exploded out into a bluish white light that engulfed the battlefield. He had intended to use it like a flare to blind his attackers but this was just as good.

Celestia covered her eyes as the bight light erupted and had to blink away the spots that had come from it, yet when her vision cleared, Maleficus was still standing there. Only this time, he opened his mouth to speak again, he sounded a bit hoarse but that barely lasted more then a couple of words before he could speak clearly again..

"There is no need to rush Celestia, we will have our fight. But there are currently far too many non-combatants around us to properly fight." His horn glowed and the soldiers around them moving, the crimson red aura of telekinesis grasped Gold Soldiers, Silver Soldiers, Bronze Soldiers and Sun Guards before lifting them off the ground and towards the hills behind the Princess. They were placed in lines, making the hill look like a primitive amphitheater or gladiator arena.

As the two Alicorn were left alone Maleficus made a show of surprise on his face as he shifted his horn and dangled the groaning pony soldier into his field of vision. "Oh right, I forgot about you for a second there kid." He then gently plucked the Earth Pony off his horn and smiled at the pony as he held him in the air with his hoof like he was a cat. "I am impressed, out of the thousands of soldiers I've meet today, were you one of the more tenacious. You did not even black out when I stunned the entire army into unconsciousness with my scream earlier. You got potential kid, make sure to properly nourish it and you will become something great in life."

He then levitated him off to the other soldiers with a smile before turning towards the confused Celestia. "You should be proud Celestia, that pony was able to withstand not only a ride on my head through the entire battle when he got stuck on my horn, but he even stayed awake through my Cry of Terror, even when he was at point blank range. He got a bright future if you or someone else can properly train and motivate him."

Celestia wanted to speak out, she wanted to rage, she wanted to curse, she wanted to scream, yet no words came out. The fact that Maleficus was praising one of her ponies, was... befuddling and not to mention a complete and utter shock to her already strained mind. But she bit through it and glared at him before pulling her battle axe out of the ground and aimed it at her hated opponent.

"Thou shalt answer for thy crimes Maleficus! We shall deal out Justice for Our sister!" Maleficus just smiled at her, lazily pulling his own axe through the air with an elegant grace. The two stared down one another, the crimson sun above them making the air feel thick and hot as it boiled down upon the battlefield. There was a thick tension in the air and even if Maleficus had a calm and serene look on his face, was his internal mind just as tense as Celestia was.

The silence held command over them, the only sound was the wind flowing through the fields and the burnt ground. Neither of them moved, making themselves appear as if posing for a dramatic portrait. It was like a mosaic moment, a historical moment that should be embodied forever in an artwork worthy of its splendor and drama.

One black like the night, a foul creature burn of another world turned into a god of fear. The other white like the freshest of snow, bearing a golden divine like armour with the power of the sun. A pair of odd beings, opposites because of circumstances outside of their control, and their own personal reasons giving them cause for conflict. The black alicorn Stallion in his black armour, wielding a large axe of black iron stood with his wings folded to his side, his calm crimson eyes never leaving the rage filled purple eyes of the white gold armoured princess in front of him. Minutes went by and neither did as much as move. Their stand off was passing the point of tension and to the moment of ridiculousness.

An hour had gone by, yet they had not moved or even spoken.

(Scene Skip)

The soldiers at the hill felt themselves awakening from their terrible nap. Their bodies were too weak to properly stand without collapsing, yet they were able to raised their heads or roll their bodies. While Weak Guts just sat quietly next to him Sergeant, watching the pair of immortals preparing for a clash of the ages. He felt like he was watching history in the making, the start of something both gran and terrifying.

"Wh-what happen' te us?" Muttered the older earth pony as he woke up from his uncomfortable nap. The last thing he remembere was charging after Maleficus to keep him from escaping deeper into the ranks. But as he passed the glued Silver Unit he felt a powerful pressure before a beyond terrifying scream was heard, and that's when he blacked out.

"Oh, yer awake Sarge." Rough Stock looked to his side to see Weak Guts sitting on his flank looking straight ahead. The old Sergeant looked at what the smaller pony was looking at and his eyes widened as he saw Maleficus and Celestia, staring each other down upon a field of grass, ashes and mud.

"What de buck is goin' on?" Weak Guts chuckled weakly at his officer's confusion and pointed his left hoof at the confrontation between the two alicorns and gave, his own, honest opion. "Dere be a clash comin' Sarge. And it will be a a Clash of de Gods."

Sergeant Rough Stock looked at the sight of the two Alicorn, and he could almost taste the static build up of power in the air and he sighed tiredly. "...Oh vey... We never hath a dragon's dung pile of a chance against dat fellow, eh Guts?" Weak Guts only nodded and muttered softly in response. "Aye Sarge, indeed."

(Scene Skip)

The two stared down one another. Their powers rising around them steadily as they never looked away from one another. Then a single drop of rain fell down from the darkening sky, impacting the ground between them with a soft plop, and then... the fight began.

To Be Continued

Chapter Seven: The Princess of the Sun Vs The Lord of Terror (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Seven: The Princess of the Sun Vs The Lord of Terror

The skies of Equestria was shifting. Once there had been a clear open, red, sunny sky. Yet now, turmoiling clouds were billowing forth from the Everfree Forest. As a testament to the wild spirit of the forest, its weather was just as unpredictable as the plant and wildlife. And even as the dark clouds carried themselves over the scorched fields and hills, the two alicorns beneath them, looked upon one another.

One was as black as midnight, both mane, tail and fur. He taller then any known equine, armed in armour of blackest of iron, a long handled battle axe floating by his side. His name was Maleficus Victoria, and even if he held a calm and serene smile on his face, was he actually distressed within his own thoughts as he faced his opponent. This had not been how he had wanted things to turn out, yet there was nothing he was willing to do to change it, he was too stubborn. *I wonder what my parents would think of me like this... No. Better not think of it. I made my choice. Now I got to live with it. One way or another, this will not be over. Should either of us win, it will not be over. Not like we are now. We are too damaged, too stubborn... too stupid. I know this. I think she does too. And yet, here we are. About to lock ourselves in a conflict that might not ever end.*

Opposite of Maleficus was an alicorn mare as white as the snow, her mane and tail floating like clouds of solid rainbows, her body covered in rune engraved plate armour, a large golden pole axe, held by her magic. Her eyes glared upon her hated foe, her fury causing her multi coloured mane and tail to flare up with intense heat and light. She was Celestia, the Princess of the Sun, Eldest Daughter of Queen Laura Faust, current sole ruler of Equestria, and her thoughts were just as frantic and distorted as her appearance showed. *This be it! We shalt avenge thee sister! He shalt regret ever harming thee! Our fury shalt burn him to cinder! We do not care about what may happen to us as long as he pay!*

The billowing clouds furrowed over the sun, covering its crimson rays. Even as the darkness began to cover the land bellow, the battlefield was still lit up by the ambient energies of the two alicorns, their rising powers causing a soft glow to emit from not just their bodies but their very surroundings as well.

As the clouds completely covered the sky, was a soft sense of moisture filling the air, a heavy taste of iron filled it as well. And then even as rumbling emitted from the clouds and flashes of light began to emerge beyond the Everfree Forest, a single drop of water fell down from the skies, and struck the soil between them.

What followed, was a clash that would shake the very land itself.

(Scene Skip)

[Start Battle Music:

Epic Celtic Battle Music - Battle For Camelot (Tartalo Music)

]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBpu3Fhvkdc

Maleficus was far less experienced when it came to the body movements of an alicorn with his mere year and a half compared to Celestia who had around two centuries worth of experience. Yet while he lacked experience in the natural movements of his body, was his instincts and combat movements, far sharper.

Even as they both sprang forward, axes raised to strike, he had aligned his body to get as much impact as possible. His head was lowered, his horn shifted into the form of a thick blade that suddenly changed direction about three inches up and changed into a upside down crescent shaped blade pointed forward, the tip ending two inches above and five inches in front of his nose. This gave him not only a sharp edge for the charge, but a form of protection as well.

So as their hooves beat the soil, kicked up grass, ash and dirt, their axes were swung at the speed of sound. The resounding crack of metal striking metal echoed across the field as lightning split across the sky. And then a loud scream of pain and anger filled the air as the two alicorn slammed into one another. Celestia aiming to skewer her opponent's skull upon her horn, and Maleficus, to defeat her without being too injured himself.

Celestia's golden armour covered the most vulnerable points of her body, yet left many areas unprotected, most of them being joints for maximum flexibility. And this was not a good thing for this battle, because Maleficus took advantage of these weak points in her armour. Rather then letting her get a chance to strike at his head with her horn, the black alicorn suddenly hunched his entire body before springing upwards headfirst. His hunching made her miss her intented target and left her wide open as Maleficus slammed his horn into her chest. The blade of his horn sliced into the unguarded space between her left foreleg and body, cutting a deep gash into the pit of her left foreleg and launching her entire body into the air by the sheer force behind the impact.

Celestia had screamed out in pain and anger as the horn of her foe sliced up her flesh. Yet she focused through the pain and, even as she flew into the air, she charged her horn with a powerful energy before unleashing a beam of solid light at Maleficus.

Flinching the black alicorn stopped his charge and turned his head to the side as to not get the intense energy into his eyes. The intense heat of the beam scorched his front armor until its black mass had turned into a cheery red glow, the scent of scorched flesh and burnt fur filling the air. Maleficus let out a growl at the aim but it was not as painful as it could have been, his armour was layered so thick that only a small area had been burnt.

The energy beam faded as Celestia landed on her side on the ground, grunting slightly in discomfort as her already healing injury stung painfully from the impact. She sprung up on her hooves instantly and readied to charge again when the flat side of a large black battle axe slammed into her left armour covered cheek, the force of the weapon slamming into her head and the resonance of her helmet left her head ringing.

Maleficus let the distorted Princess recover while he took two rapid backward leaps as to get some distance, then his horn began to glow as a sphere of blue energy appeared in front of him, it was the size of a football at the beginning but then began to condense as he focused, showers of intense sparks of yellow and blue shooting off it.

As Celestia's head recovered Maleficus reared his head back before making a headbutt into the air, and the sphere detonated into a lance of lightning. Celestia hastily put up a magical shield in front of her, yet the power behind the magic was enough to overload the energy shield she tried to hold up and it exploded. Her entire body twitched as it was once again sent into the ground.

She recovered quickly however and to up from the ground with a powerful flap of her wings. The Princess did not bother to stay still and charged at Maeficus who was charging up another lightning lance. She summoned her own magical powers and a stone rode exploded out beneath Maleficus and struck his armour covered stomach with a loudly resounding clang, the force behind the blow send him stumbling on his side.

The downside of this was that the lightning he had gathered exploded out uncontrollably. The arcing lightning stunned and blinded her as the ozone smelling plasma struck at everything nearby, including her.

Struggling up from the ground Maleficus shifted his entire body, popping his bones back into their proper order. There was a large crack in the center of his barrel's plate armour. His injuries were mostly internal but just like with Celestia, they healed too rapidly to be much of a bother.

Celestia rubbed her eyes, and once her vision cleared, glared at Maleficus who returned it with a serene smile, said smile turned a bit feral when the two of them charged one another once more. Maleficus' axe slammed into her own, sparks exploding at the incredible forced behind the two magically wielded weapons. Then the two alicorns were the ones to clash.

Maleficus kept his vulnerable parts away from Celestia's horn and instead sought to tackle her to the ground. However, Celestia had anticipated this and instead enforced her forelegs with magic and raised up her hooves into his chest and physically halted his tackle. As the two large ponies impacted one another a great physical struggle began. Maleficus was far larger and physically stronger then Celestia, yet she was far more able to absorb his strength with her legs since she knew how to properly handle it from her spars with her many sparing partners and trainers.

The stalemate could not last and it did not as Maleficus figured out what to do about his current situation. With a sudden heave of his forelegs and spine, he stood up on his own hind legs and pressed his hooves against Celestia's front, mirroring her own stance. Smirking he spoke to her, for the first time since their fight started. "This is most fascinating! I have learned a lot from you so far Celestia! And I know that I still have much more to learn!" Then with a heave he pushed her.

Celestia almost fell on her back when the force behind the push made her fall backwards, yet she managed to push herself up with her hind legs and then flapped her wings to flip upright so that she could once more land on her hooves. A bright white glow filled the air suddenly and she felt a freezing chill as the black alicorn fired a sphere of blue ice at her. With a jerk of her neck she swung her horn upwards and a curved energy slash erupted from her horn and sliced the iceball in hall.

Lowering her head she fired a golden beam of magic at him, he retaliated with a beam of his own, only red. The two struggled for a bit until the clashing energies dispatched in a bright flash. Maleficus then fired a bolt of lightning, which was absorbed by a stone spike summoned form the earth by Celestia.

The black alicorn then decided to try something different and rushed forward, his body glowing in a red coloured aura, his movement blurring as he suddenly jumped into the air. Celestia barely had time to teleport out of the way as the super sonic alicorn slammed into the area she had been standing on, a fifty meters long and three meters wide trench taking shape from his miss with the jump kick.

Appearing ten meters away Celestia sought to target her foe before he could take on the initiative again. Once more her horn was engulfed in a golden aura before arrows of fire exploded out from the air around her. The javelin shaped fire projectiles flew like whistling arrows towards Maleficus, yet the male alicorn stomped both his foreleg hooves into the ground and a six feet tall wall of soft stone rose up. While the projectiles were stopped by the flimsy looking wall, was said wall destroyed in the process.

Yet that did not matter, as Maleficus charged straight through the cloud of smoke and flames and head butted Celestia's muzzle with his forehead, his horn shifted into the shape of a mandible once more, scratching a deep gash into the forehead portion of her helmet. It felt like she had been hit by a war mace and she struggled to recover from the impact when a pair of powerful hooves grasped her by the neck and suddenly threw her like a sack of carrots into the ground.

Gasping out in pain Celestia released a powerful bright light from her horn, blinding her attacked. As Maleficus' rubbed his eyes she shifted her body around, getting free from his grip and then she bent her hind legs and kicked him straight in the chest, sending him rolling onto the ground a good couple of meters away.

The two alicorn pulled themselves up and glared/smirked at one another. This time their horns glowed far more intense and the two Warlords spread their legs to brace themselves and aimed their horns towards one another. Physical combat was over for the moment, now it was time to cast some high tier magic.

"WE SHALT END THEE MONSTER!!" Celestira roared as she fired a sphere of blue light at the stallion who retaliated in a similar fashion. "THIS IS FAR FROM OVER!!" The blue sphere was meet with a single beam of black energy that pierced through it, both spells detonated and released an intense light while freezing the ground in black frost.

Maleficus charged another spell and this time spread his wings apart, the black feathers sparking with energy as well. *Okay let's see if I can get this right. Charge up my wings with magic, activate the spell pattern through the power surge from my wing tips, as well as the tip of my horn. Then link the spells together through a triangular pattern in the air so that they connect as a pointed focus, then I need to reverse the flow the the point of impact to create the singularity. By creating a point of joint impact at the moment before the singularity I will create a link between them that will create a denser energy flow.*

Even as his thoughts processed the way he was constructing the spell was the very air around him starting to shimmer and shift as if reality itself was shifting. His thoughts still focusing on his spellcrafting, he spared this no mind.*By focusing the point at the tip of the triangle pattern will I be able to aim the focus point in a focused pattern as to make sure it does not back fire or explodes before it does its thing. Now the difficult part will come up. I need to charge up, shape the magical pattern within my wings and horn, then fire them at the same time and then inverse the flow at the point just before impact to get the reaction I want. Then I need to stabilize it while I charge it up before firing it.*

Celestia's spell was a bit more flashy, a ball of fire was summoned into the air, the size of a boulder. But she was not finished, the fire ball was shrunk down further and further until its crimson flames had turned bright blue, almost white. *Focus! Charge! Compress! Intensify! Maintain Stability! Prepare Activation! We Shalt Not Lose!* The intense heat of the sphere was making the air steam while the ground beneath her started burning and melting.

Maleficus' wings was shifted up wards, his head lowered, and as the magical energies began to surge he activated his spells. and horn fired a bent arc of glowing red energy, each of the arcs was gathering in front of him in a curved pyramid slash triangle like pattern, the tips of the arcs were pressing against one another, gathering into a fluctuating sphere of crimson energy. The sphere had grown to the size of a football when the energy of the arcs dispatched and all that was left was a glowing red sphere, that was black within the core.

It was as if the sphere was swallowing all light and darkness around it, dragging it into its shape.

Celestia's own spell was by now the size of a baseball but was glowing with the intensity of a sun. But even that bright light was being swallowed by the crimson black sphere.

Glaring at her hated foe the Alicorn Princess shouted out a wordless cry of hatred and fired her spell. While Maleficus did the same, without the shouting.

With a sudden rush of energy the spheres were fired like cannon balls. The energies containing them in the air were cut off with a loud crack, causing the backlash of the spheres themselves to move forward. Their spells were near identical, only difference was in how they had made them and with what manner of energy they had used.

And then as the black and white sphere connected. There was a bright light that swallowed the land, before the intense light was swallowed by an even greater darkness, then the light rose from the darkness with an ever more intense brightness, until the darkness swallowed it again in an even deeper void, and so they kept struggling and growing. The ponies on the hills were forced to lock away as the intense brightness and darkness erupted. And then, as the struggle between the two forces of reality reached it peak, a calamity was born.

It came without a warning, the struggling darkness and light suddenly pulled into a single central point the size of a needle. Maleficus had only time to stare in horror as he realized what was going to happen. And Celestia was only able to stare in confusion. And then, then the small unstable black hole filled to the brim with the energy of a small star, exploded into a small super nova.

(Scene Skip)

Weak Guts and Rough Stock both gaped at the sight in front of them. The Princess of Equestria was fighting like a goddess of war against the monstrously strong Maleficus. The sheer physical strength, the magical power, it was making them feel rather... inadequate to act as the soldiers of this powerful being. Yet then again, it made them feel proud and delighted that they were entrusted such a responsibility by her.

Weak Guts got an uncomfortable feeling when the two alicorns started charging up their magic. The atmosphere felt heavy, the very air around the two deities was heating up and shifting, making it seem like reality itself was starting to bend and shift. He tapped his Sergeant on the shoulder and spoke up in a nervous voice. "Eh Sarge, We do not think this be safe."

The older pony nodded and stood up from his seat on the hill and shouted out at the watching army. "Oi! Listen up ye lot! This may be gettin' ugly! We better be backin off!" It might have been a bit slow of a reaction but the ponies got off their asses and began to move away from the battlefield, moving so that they could lean over the edge of the hill top to watch the battle from safety. The line of ponies peeking up from the hill side looked very silly.

Then the clash of light and darkness crashed. An intense brightness mixed with shifting nerve wrecking darkness blinded the pony soldiers. And then the struggling forces of light and darkness began to implode into one another, disappearing into a single point of intense energy, before it broke and released its unrelenting force. The light made it feel as if the air was on fire, and then the ground began to rumble, before a powerful wave of destruction and heat began to mow down towards the hills like an unstoppable behemoth.

Soldiers, officers and volunteers of Equestria, all felt helpless by this. Some of them even going into shock as the memories of the Green Star began to surface.

(Scene Skip)

A bright flare of intense white light blinded the world. It was a light like no other, so bright that no shadow could be seen within its center, there was not even anything visible except for the intense bright whiteness. Even as the light burnt the world of its darkness was an intense rumbling emerging. It was as if the very earth was being shaken. And even as the light still shone, came a perfectly shape circle out of the wave along the earth.

The powerful wave of force expanded from the central point and within it, perfectly contained by the circle like edge of the expanding circle of force, was the entire battle field being torn asunder into particles. And inside the edge of the circle was the kinetic and vibrating forces within moving hard enough to break apart the ground into sand. Then just mere meters behind the crumbing earth, was the sand particles melting into dripping glass and ashes by the intense light that was following the shockwave.

It was a wave of compressed air behind the kinetic force wave, compressed and heated up so much that it was was flash melting it into ash and glass mere meters behind the first wave. Yet before this monstrous explosion of force and heat could touch the terrified exhausted army of ponies, something happened.

The shock wave suddenly stopped, a crimson and gold aura surrounding the outer rims of the expanding explosion, containing it. It stayed still for what felt like forever, the destructive forces held at bay only by the mixture of gold and red energy holding it back. Then the glowing field of red and gold became more compressed and began to apply pressure by starting to compress against the explosion.

There were only two ways the explosive force could travel with its sides surrounded by a force field, and of those two ways, was one far less resistant then the other. And even as the magical force field pressing against it groaned, as it began to struggle against the forces of destruction, the explosion went form a snail pace expansion, into rapid volcanic like eruption.

At first the half sphere shaped explosion seemed to just flow out of the force field's top, but then as soon as the energies containing it were removed at the upper portion of the field, it escalated upwards. With a loud thundering crack the powerful explosive power erupted upwards into the sky. An almost solid looking pillar of light and heat vaporized the clouds, leaving a circle shaped hole in the sky, as it flew out into the empty void above the atmosphere.

Even the crimson sun shining through the hole seemed far less brighter then the destructive energies which were being diverted upwards into the heavens. It seemed like the explosion would force itself to expand further as the force field struggled to contain it. Yet as cracks and groans were heard from the force field, the rising beam of destruction seemed to become dimmer, until it suddenly seemed to fade. Then it suddenly cut off from the bottom, as if cutting its loses, before disappearing upwards into the sky, disappearing.

Silence was all that was heard for a while. Then the dark rain clouds swallowed the hole that was left within the sky, and the sound of rain hitting the ground replaced the silence.

[End Battle Music]

(Scene Skip)

[Start Dramatic Music: Emotional Epic Score ( Triumphant Orchestral Music ) - Royalty Free Music by Carlos Estella]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrMNG1dFrlY

Rain fell harshly upon the battle field. Beneath the dark clouds laid a perfectly circle shaped crater about two hundred meters wide and thirty meters deep at the center. It looked like some enormous giant or god had taken the largest cigar in existence, took a smoke, let it burn a little, before deciding to press it into that exact spot before removing it.

Ash and molten glass covered the smoldering crater, and within the center of its bowl like shape laid a small lake of molten glass, earth and ash, glowing an eerie red as liquid rock and glass flowed down the sides of the crater and down towards it core. Even as the rain began to pour down could not its cooling drops not even impacting the molten ground as it was too hot for it to even reach the ground before evaporating into steam by the heat one foot above the ground.

The droplets of water fell without end, the darkened skies fighting against the overflowing heat left by the intense explosion. Even as steam filled the air and cooled int oa layer of mist the rain kept on pouring even as the warmth of the crater kept evaporating it.

Even as water began to flow down the crater's edges it barely managed to reach further then five meters before the condensed heat within the crater mad the pouring water evaporate into steam. For the uneducated it was almost as if the pouring streams of water disappeared into thin air.

Yet even the intense heat of the crater would have to give sooner or later, for with the air growing cooler by the pouring drops of rain chilling the heat of the air was winning over the temporary intense heat of the crater. Even if took far longer then one would assume, was the rain winning and the crater, now filled with a cloud of mist and steam, was growing colder.

Even as the crater slowly began to cool there were no movements from anywhere within it. The ponies were too frightened to move closer to examine the landscape of hell that had been left from the clash between Celestia and Maleficus.

Yet what they feared mattered little for within the crater, as soon as the lake of molten glass and earth hardened, there was a loud resounding crack as something moved out of the hardened mass.

[End Dramatic Music]

(Scene Skip)

[Start Dramatic Music: Fight for Glory ( Action Trailer Music ) - Royalty Free Music by Carlos Estella]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeOMUL7F38Y

The center of the crater had been turned into a blackened solid mass of glass and melted earth,. As the rain water began to flow across the surface, slowly filling it up, there was a sudden noise of glass cracking as a spot in the crater began to buckle and shift. A loud resounding crack erupted in a steady five second interval, each time the glass and melted earth buckled upwards, shards and fragments exploding off the surface as the cracks spread across it.

Then in an eruption of melted glass and earth a black stained foreleg split apart the crackled surface and slammed its hoof into the ground before starting to push itself against the surface. Cracks spread across the surface around the hole, then the hardened mass of glass and melted earth bulged upwards before erupting in a spray of glass and still liquid earth.

Pulling herself out of the hole was Princess Celestia, covered in molten glass and earth, coughing and gasping as she got free of the confinement of the hardened mass. Staggering upright she wiped away the still burning hot glass and melted earth off her body. The rain fell upon her black stained body, washing away the grime and the soot, revealing her clean white fur beneath. Her golden armour was gone, melted into slag in the explosion, she was exhausted and extremely strained.

When the explosion had occurred she had been in intense pain. Yet the pain had stopped after a few seconds. So she took the opportunity to use her magic to stop the explosion before forcing it upwards into the sky. It had been exhausting, far more then creating the powerful spell that had been half of the reason of the cataclysm in the first place. She was dangerously low on magical energy and even if she was an alicorn was there a limit to how much energy she could spend within one day without negative side effects. Even if she recovered would it take far longer then it normally would.

Blowing out a nose full of dirt filled snot the princess took a deep breath before looking up at the raining heavens. The cooling rain drops making her prismatic mane fall limp as it got wet, the cooling sensation was wonderful for her tired body. *We art exhausted... can not cast another spell... at least that fiend hath perishe-*

A loud crack resounded through the air, lightning arched across the sky and the wind grew more intense. Celestia's eyes were open wide in shock as she heard that loud crack and slowly she turned her head to look at where it had come from. And felt despair as she saw a skeletal limb explode out of the hardened mass of molten glass and earth, burning with green flames, before pressing down hard into the ground with its hoof before pulling itself out of the hardened mass.

Out of the blackened mass of earth and glass rose a skeletal figure of burnt flesh and green fire. A figure that awoke horrid memories to the princess and those ponies who could still remember it. A chrome like skeleton, tattered burnt flesh regenerating beneath the burning green flames still licking the flesh. Organs and intestines hanging out from the torn open stomach, being pulled inside, even as the green flames burned around them.

As muscle tissue began to expand out of the bones like tendrils of meat, the creature was standing upright, a burning alicorn skeleton covered in regenerating flesh and green fire. Only this time the hole upon its forehead was covered by a mandible like horn and its flesh was regenerating at a far faster rate. The creature raised its skeletal heal and even as its throat regrew and as furless skin began to expand over nerves, veins and fat, it screamed.

This was the skeletal phantom that had haunted the ponies of the Everfree Forest after it fell from the sky as the Green Star. It was the zombiefied spectre of nightmares and horrors, it was the source, the symbol the very essence of their fear, hatred, despair and madness. It was the Stallion of Torment.

Or as he had told them, Maleficus Victoria. And even now as this screaming ghoul regrew its fur ,as his black mane, tail and red eyes became whole, as his screaming voice grew silent. Upon his regenerated flanks rested a three eyed demon like face of dark green flames, two eyes of red and one of the brightest green upon the forehead. The Ponies of Eqeustria knew now for certain, this Alicorn, was the source of all of their torment, for the last one hundred years.

And all that this figure had to say as his regenerating body was restored was this. "Well. That was painful."

Celestia's left eye twitched while most of the older ponies of the Equestrian Army, felt a burning sensation of unrelenting rage, fill their bodies. This fight would draw to its close soon, yet they all knew. Win or lose, the ponies would not stop their pursuit of justice until he had paid for his crimes.

[End Dramatic Music]

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus shifted his neck, left and right, shifting stiff bones and fresh tendons and nerves into proper order. He made no big show of it, but it had been painful, it had been so much like the time he suffered as a living purgatory. The alicorn stallion was only grateful he had not endured it for too long and that he had managed to endure most of the pain.

But he had no time to mentally recover, not that he had much energy left. He had spent most of his energy shielding Celestia when the explosion went off and also aiding her in containing the explosion before sending it skywards. It had taken a lot, Celestia had handled most of the containment of the explosion, while he aided in it had he mostly focused on shielding her. Why? He might be a bit of an asshole or vengeful when put in a nasty mood, but he would not want to make someone suffer like he had suffered, maybe not someone who deserved it. But Celestia was not someone who deserved such an experience, no matter how much she pissed him off.

Anyhow, back to the presence, there was a battle still on going and he was not going to admit defeat just yet. "Now then. I doubt either of us have the energy to keep casting around magic and using weapons. Both of our armours have been destroyed, so there's only one way to go from here. Unarmed Combat."

Celestia just glared at him, the rain fell upon their bodies like a waterfall, yet neither of them were bothered by this. Even as the blackened crater was being filled up by the torrent the two stood there, facing one another.

"You know... the whole long dramatic pause thing is getting old. So let us just get to the fighting." Maleficus said after a minute.

The princess blinked before she held back a snort, before returning to her angry stare in mere milliseconds, she had been surprised by the humorous situation but she would not let this fiend make her relax or laugh. She would bring him to justice. "We agree fiend! Let us end this!"

Celestia then entered the stance known as the Heavy Stomp and prepared to fight. She would show this cretin the might of the martial arts she had been taught and mastered.

Maleficus also assumed a stance, only his stance was far more... different then any she had ever seen, read or heard about. He stood upright on his hind legs, both of them slightly spread apart diagonally for stability, at odd angles, his spine was bent so that his upper body was straight and he had his right foreleg held up in a 'come on' motion, while his left rested in a low position near his flank.

It looked... unnatural for a pony to assume such a stance. Had a pony been trying to stand like that, they would have injured their spine. And even then would the pain have forced them to lower themselves on all four before they could even reach half of the height that Maleficus' spine was arching now. It was giving her chills of how wrong it looked.

But the time for concerns about such trivial matters was long gone, it was time for action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY1k1GcZRww

[Start First Round Battle Music: Undertale - Megalovania [METAL Ver.] - Caleb Hyles (feat. RichaadEB)]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_9JFqe3Ueo

A soundless signal was given and then the two rushed towards each other. Celestia started off the fight with a furious jump, her forelegs aimed like battering rams for Maleficus' torso. The black alicorn turned out of the way and tried to use his momentum to side kick Celestia in the head. She ducked and tried to buck kick him, he moved to the sided and slammed down his left foreleg towards her spine. The princess avoided the attack by kicking the ground with her left hind leg and foreleg, making her jump lightly away from his attack.

Now Maleficus was on the offensive. He stomped froward in heavy strides while swinging his left and right forelegs in a mixture of lightning quick jabs, swift cross punches and short upper cuts. The manner of fighting was completely alien to celestia but she was able to rear back and block most of his strikes with her own forelegs. Most of. A powerful swing from his right hoof came far too quickly for her to dodge or block and she took a heavy blow to the muzzle. A loud resounding crack was sounded as blood flew through the raindrops in the air.

Stumbling backwards Celestia regained her bearing before she spat out spit, blood and a tooth. Even as he muzzle regenerated she retaliated by suddenly launching a stomp into his left kind leg. She kicked with enough force to break metal. Yet as her hoof struck his leg, she felt as if she had tried to crack a diamond as a loud echoing clong resounded from her kick hitting his leg. Her hoof actually ached from the impact.

She had no time to react as Maleficus suddenly roundhouse kicked her in the side before grabbing her tail as she was about to fly off into the ground and swung her like a flail into the ground. Celestia let out a gasp and spat out a gush of blood as her body struck the ground. But she was not down for the count. Her hind legs kicked up and struck Maleficus straight in the face. Another resounding clong was heard yet Maleficus felt the impact, rearing back and clutching his nostrils and eyes where her hooves had hit him.

As her hated foe recovered Celestia got up on her feet again and entered the stance of the Piercing Dance, her wings flapping and swaying as she spun around in a half circle before kicking Maleficus in the gut. His stomach looked like it was being crushed by the force of the impact. even as he kept his mouth closed blood forced its way out like a small fountain. The stallion's hooves left the hold of gravity as the kinetic force of the impact made him fly like a rag doll about seven meters before he hit the ground. Maleficus' body went stumbling into the earth and he rolled around for around sixteen meters before he managed to stop his momentum. He stopped upright, if bent forward, with his hind legs bent down, kneeling, his forelegs grasping the earth to steady himself.

Standing up on his hind legs once more Maleficus spat out a large amount of blood and spit on the ground. He took a breath to steady himself before he let it out slowly, his body seemed to relax after a while and he opened his eyes and looked at the glaring princess. His own eyes seemed to burn with some sort of inner fire, a fierce look within them as he smiled before resuming his stance. Things were starting to get fired up in this battle.

[End First Round Battle Music]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMIC8mekiKg

[Start Second Round Battle Music: Hajime No Ippo Rising OST - The Finisher]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwHnxIVmHHA

It echoed like thunder as hooves slammed into flesh and bone, the two powerful immortals had straight out slammed their hooves into each other's faces, sending blood flying. And even as their flesh regenerated, they reared up their other forelegs and punched each other in the gut.

Wide stances, no grace, no dodging, no blocking. Only wide and powerful punches into each other.

The fight had turned from an extravagant fight of grace, dexterity, strength and skill into a plain slug fest of powerful blows. Neither of the alicorns were keen on showing off, neither of them wanted to waste energy and neither of them cared about anything else but punching the shit out of each other.

Celestia roared out in pure utter anger as she released her pent up frustration and rage upon her hated enemy, blood was flowing out of her mooth and several of her teeth were regenerating only to be punched out. Yet she kept on going.

Maleficus was screaming out in utter glee as he meet her anger with a wild ferocity that was more like a wild beast. Even as his flesh was torn by her hooves, even as his flesh swelled and blood flew out of his mouth, he did not stop.

The rain poured down upon them, and exploded off them as the sheer strength of their punches caused their bodies to discharged the energy through their bodies and out into the air on the other side. This made the sweat, water and dirt on their fur to explode out like small eruptions of kinetic force.

Even as he slammed a upper cut into her gut he laughed like crazy, like he had discovered his purpose in life. Even as Celestia's own hoof slammed into his left side he kept on laughing and shouted out with glee.

"Ahahahahaha! This! Is! Awesome!"

Celestia grit her regenerating mouth in anger and slammed both of her hooves upwards into his jaw. A loud clang resounded from the impact and she promptly ignored the stinging sensation in her hooves as she struck his metal like bones.

"We Shalt Not Let Thee Win!"

Maleficus shifted his upper body and slammed a right hook into her shoulder, creating a loud crack as the bone beneath his blow either fractured or outright broke. And yet Celestia did not even seem bothered with this as she slammed a straight punch into his throat, even as he laughed.

"That is what I want to hear! It would not feel right to win without a proper challenge!"

Celestia howled out in pure rage and rapidly punched his head back and forth with rapid side way going punches. The sound coming from the impacts was almost like that of a church bell. She kept this up repeatedly, making his head slam side to side, making his flesh swell and bleed as she tried to tenderize his face.

"Shut thy trap and fight!"

Slamming his forehead against her left hoof Maleficus broke her barrage of blows and punched her four times in the face, making her rear back as her teeth and parts of her skull were broken. Yet she retaliated by slamming a down ward angled flail like punch into his skull as her skull and teeth regenerated.

"That's the spirit!"

Hearing his words Celestia punched him in the gut two times with a rapid uppercut, screaming at him for mentioning such a foul subject.

"We art not drinking! We art fighting!"

Maleficus froze for a few seconds, letting her rain more blows onto his gut, before he grinned and laughed even as he slammed his left foreleg's elbow into her shoulder, dislocating it.

"...Hehehehehe! Even if that pun was lame, the fact that you did not realize it, makes it funny."

Frowning Celestia grabbed her dislocated foreleg and shifted it back into place before slamming her horn into his neck with an angry shout. This stallion was making her infuriated!

"We doest not know what this 'pun' thing is, but we know thou art mocking us!"

Pushing her away from him, the stallion just stared flatly at her before turning his neck left and right, the hole in his throat regenerating completely as he began to speak. His tone was rather flat and the earlier humour was gone, his smirk lost.

"...Okay that was just sad. Let us just beat the tar out of each other, okay?"

And yet again he did not seem to quite get it that Celestia did not understand the idioms and quotes of humanity. Not that it should surprise him, yet when you are on a battle high with a powerful opponent for the first time in your life? Yeah details get lost.

"We doest not have tar inside us thy disgusting deviant!"

Of course that did not stop him from frowning at her furious shouting as she gut. Even as blood spewed out of his mouth her frowned, his ears folding back and his eyes' fire seemed to grow a bit dim.

"... I am going to shut up now and return my focus to the fight."

He then suddenly reached out, grabbed her outstretched foreleg and slammed his free hoof into her face three times. Each of his blows were heavy and fractured her face, he had actually not really notice how much damage he was causing her with his blow until now. His battle high was wearing off and he was gettign a bit disgusted with himself right now. Even as she slammed her own free hoof into his throat, muzzle, cheek, neck and left eye.

"Finally! Something that We both may agree upon!"

*Yeah... I don't think we do actually. Now that I am thinking a bit more straight... Yeah. I better end this before both of us are traumatized for life. Well... more then we already are.* He thought to himself before releasing her fore leg. Maleficus hefted both of his forelegs upwards and then he swiftly punched his right hoof forward with a lightning fast jab, the strike was aimed at a specific point on her head, the left ear.

The blows grazed her skull and tore off her ear, causing her to feel dizzy and disoriented as her sense of balance got very messed up by the blow. Her body felt heavy and unfocused, she was starting to loose the concentration to keep herself standing on her hind legs, her spine was starting to ache something fierce as well. *No! We art not defeated! We shalt not let this villain win!* She narrowed her eyes and forced herself to remain upright, trying to stop his light blows by punching him in the face and the gut.

But Maleficus pressed on, a swift blow to her left cheek, then one to her right, then one to the base of her neck. Then one to her throat, followed by two bows to the side of her skull. A powerful jab into her muzzle and then a powerful strike at the base of her horn. It was meant to be a light blow ,something to cause her nausea and disorientation. Maleficus had no idea just how much of a beating the horn of a unicorn, or alicorn in this case, could take. Celestia had been charging powerful magic through it for more then a few hours, it had been hit several times and used as a physical weapon more then once. And even an alicorn's horn could only take such wear and tear at such a short period of time.

So when his chrome coloured hoof struck the base of her horn, there was a loud resounding crack erupting through the entire battlefield, not even covered by the rumbling of the skies. And then the horrifying, spine chilling, scream of agony of a female pony filled the air. Celestia had fallen, and fallen hard. The white pelted alicorn laid curled up the ground, clutching her skull, crying out in agony as blood leaked down her head and into the water rising up to their knees.

Upon the ground between them, floating upon the rising water, laid the broken horn that had once been part of Celestia's skull. The blood leaking from the middle of the horn only showed just how much painful it must have been.

[End Second Round Battle Music]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Esq_AbRN-i0

Maleficus just stared in silence, he was stunned. He had no idea that the horn was so fragile. His own horn was nothing like Celestia's, and he remembered how Starswirl had tried to kill him with what had been his original horn, which had been broken off when he fell from the skies. He was not sure if Celestia's horn could recover itself or if it could be restored. The stallion was not even sure that his own horn was something unique or common. But he would try to help her recover from this, even if it had been a brutal fight, was he not comfortable knowing that he might have crippled her because of this.

But he could not show his anxiousness, he had answered her challenge and he would not show himself vulnerable. But that did not mean he was an complete asshole, he knew things had gone too far, but there was little he could do but to try and make things easier for her. So all he could do was to try and restore her horn, hopefully restoring it to its former strength.

He lowered himself down on all four and gently lifted up Celestia from the water and put her on his back. Lowering down his head he lifted up her horn with his mouth, gently as to not damage it further. He then proceeded to climb out of the crater. The battle was over, hopefully the ponies would learn from this and not mess things up like they had done this time.

*Wonder if the next fight will be as strange as this one was... Oh for fuck's sake! I am even considering doing something like this again! I must still be crazy to even consider doing something like this again.* He thought to himself as he climbed over the edge of the crater and stepped onto the wet ash covered ground next to the crater. Carrying Celestia a bit further from the edge he slowly lifted her still curled up and crying form from his back and lowered her onto the ground.

He let her lay there for a bit while he inspected her horn, the break looked like it had been clean, yet there were signs of tearing on one side, it would at least make it easier to see how to properly put it back in place. But he would have to improvise a bit on repairing it once he tried. *Hmmm... if I would try to combine a mending spell and a healing spell I should be able to restore both the structure of the horn and the inside as well. Yes... although I would have to do the mending first then do the healing, or I might deform the interior of the horn if I am not careful.*

Sighing a bit the stallion pondered if he should try to do what he was considering. He had fragmented knowledge and information, he was no real healer. But if he did not try to repair the damage soon he was not certain how long it would take for Celestia to recover, if she even could. He had not recovered his own horn into an able shape and it had apparently taken him from fifty to a hundred years for his mandible like horn to grow.

This was not something he could allow to happen to Celestia, she would be unable to properly use her magic and he was fairly certain that many backstabbers and glory seekers would see this as an opportunity to take control over her Kingdom in her weakened state. No, he had promised her mother to help her, he had failed both her and her sister, not intentionally but he still felt extremely guilty about it. He would not allow it to happen again, no matter how much she may despise him, he would still help her. It would be bit of an effort to try to restore her horn now, with his magic so drained. But he would have to try and hope for the best, or things could go very wrong, very quickly.

Sighing again Maleficus held the horn with his telekinesis and slowly reached down with his right foreleg. The Princess flinched as he touched her hooves as she clutched her bleeding wound, her cries of pain buried in tearful sobs. "Shhh Celestia. I do not mean harm. You need to show me the wound so that I may try to heal it."

She shook her head, not willing to put her faith in the hooves of the one who had harmed her so. The stallion sighed, again, before he gently grasped her forelegs and pulled them apart from her forehead. She tried to press them together but his strength was greater then her own. Slowly he lowered his head and examined the wound. bloud was pouring out fro mthe snapped off base of the horn, but he could make out the shape of the breakage and compare it to the broken end of the horn.

Slowly he lowered the floating horn onto the stump, pressing it against the wound as to put it back into its proper position. The Princess cried out in agony and tried to flail her head but her held her head still with his hooves gently, but firmly, holding both of her hooves against her cheeks.

"I am sorry to say that this is going to hurt quite a bit, but hopefully this will restore your horn." A crimson light emerged from his horn and flowed towards Celestia's own horn. The energy engulfed the broken pieces and they seemed to turn into clay at the broken area, flowing up to meet one another like some sort of liquid glue. It was as if the broken hor nwas being regenerated.

This was a mending spell, a spell meant to repair broken lifeless objects. And a horn, while containing blood, was not a living object. But it was still being reconnected to the nervous system of her skull and Celestia howled and screeched as the pain grew even louder. It took around five minutes, yet it felt like hours and days for the two alicorns.

As the horn's structure was restored the other phase of the restoration began as Maleficus encased the horn in a healing spell, one meant for repairing damage to living tissue. The inside of the horn was being restored by his magic, reconnecting veins, nerves, blood vessels, mana clusters and other vital parts. As the final pieces were put back into place Maleficus inspected the horn carefully, it looked fixed, it did not give off any sign of damage and from what his scans could tell was it a bit tender but completely repaired.

Nodding he looked into the red puffed eyes of Celestia glaring at him and gave her a small smile. "Your horn has been repaired, it will be a bit tender but that should subside with time. I would suggest you do not cast magic with it until then, I do not know if there are any sort of issues that I may have missed, you should have a professional healer examine it." He then released her hooves and head and stepped back.

Celestia still laid there, rubbing her aching horn with her left hoof, staring at him with silent contempt. Maleficus just sighed, the rain pouring down upon them without stopping.

"This is my victory Celestia. Now you have gotten a taste of war. I hope for you and your people's sake that you will put a stop to this foolish endeavor. But if not... I will face you again, and next time, things will be far different then they were now. I know that you have learned from this Celestia, even if you have not learned to stop this foolish crusade so have you and your subjects learned from this fight. And you will learn even more the next time, and the next. And after each battle, no matter if you win or lose, you will do better." At his words Celestia just grit her teeth and glared at him, she wanted justice for her sister, she wanted vengeance for her ponies and her mentor. She wanted revenge for what he had done to her. And yet she could not help but feel a slight grudging respect at him for keeping his word of not killing, and for restoring her horn, even if he was a monster was that still worth a little respect from her.

The black stallion gave her a little look before he turned away and began to walk away. Even as the army of Equestria moved in to aid the princess he did not look back, even as Celestia shouted out at him that she would have justice for his crimes, he did not look back. His hooves carried him from the burnt out battlefield and into the grassy plains. Upon the grassy field he moved further and further away even as a shroud of thick mist rose from the earth.

Not once did he turn back, not seeing the stare or the glares, as the white clouds of the mist swallowed up his shape more and more until he had disappeared from sight.

(Scene Skip)

The Ponies of the Army of Equestria were marching back home. Their aching bodies, lowered heads and solemn eyes showing that their mission had been a complete failure. Yet even as they dragged their hooves and pulled the carts of wounded towards Canterlot, were some of them, even if less then a quarter, finding comfort in their experience from the battle with Maleficus.

Celestia was being examined by several medics and healers, all of them astounded by how her horn had been repaired. It had never been done before, a broken unicorn horn had always been treated like a crippling injury. It had happened in the past that Celestia and Luna had broken off their horns during their fights with the evils of the land. But their horns had regrown within a month's time.

It was clear Maleficus had, had no clue about this when he had taken the time to restore her horn. No one had ever managed to repair a broken horn before, not even the Princesses or Starswirl the Bearded had managed to restore a broken off horn, even on the Alicorn Sisters And yet so had Maleficus managed to restore and repair Celestia's horn perfectly. It was even stronger then it had been before the battle.

One of the healers was an earth pony mare with a green and blue coat with yellow mane and tail, her cutie mark was in the shape of a bottle of leeches and a clear glass bottle of yellow liquid. Her name was Bloody Healer and she was ecstatic by the repaired horn. She may not have the magic of a Unicorn but he had a talent to examine injuries and restored body parts with but a touch, sure it was touch and go with the theoretical parts, but she knew what she was doing for the most part. "This be incredible! The horn's structure was reconnected somehow before the interior of the horn was repaired! Hath he done the reverse he may hath caused severe damage that would hath slowed down the Princess' recovery by a year! It obvious that this process be painful and yet it hath strengthened the structure and density of the horn by at least one third!"

Not exactly something Celestia wanted to hear, that her horn had not only been repaired but improved by her own enemy. And yet she saw an opportunity with this. If her horn had become stronger, there might be a chance that she could handle far more magic then she had before. She was not willing to go through with the operation again, no amount of strength was worth that kind of suffering.

She looked out at her troops and knew that their morale was an all time low. It was not difficult to see why they would feel like so. Maleficus had not only defeated the entire army on his own, he had quite literally broken down their battle plan and the spirit of their soldiers' morale. It would take time for her ponies to recover from this, but she would make sure that they did. *After all, We hath yet to obtain justice for Mine sister.*

Unnoticed to her or the healers, was her pink eyes glowing green for a few seconds as her thoughts darkened.

The gates of Canterlot opened as the army returned. What would follow from the failed crusade was a solemn yet determined people of ponies who went to recover their strengths before attempting again, in the future, their next assault upon the Stallion of Torment. They would recover, they would learn from their mistakes, and they would return ever so much more stronger then they had before.

Maleficus knew nothing of the ponies' determination for justice and plans for vengeance. He was enjoying himself far too much to care about the world around him. It had been a long time since he had been able to just enjoy himself.

(Scene Skip)

The rain was pouring downs and Maleficus was enjoying his new found freedom. He ran through the grassy plains with gleeful laughter, even as the rain fell down upon him he did not care. With powerful leaps he let the wind carry him before he landed with a soft tumbling, rolling around on the grass fields like a child, rubbing his body into the grass with a childish glee. And then he got up and repeated it.

He passed the rain clouds and was greeted by the bright red sun as it was settling in the distant mountains. It was a beautiful sight and one that made his childish rolling in the grass even more enjoyable. "Ahahahahahaa! The sensations of wet grass! The smell of moisture! The taste of rain drops! I never thought I'd miss it so much!"

After two hours he had run and stumbled around like a kid several miles. He laid down to rest beneath a large tree near an old abandoned shack in the fields. The tree looked far more tempting to rest beneath then the ratty little hut. But before he slept he encased himself in magic and changed his appearance from a large black shaggy looking alicorn, into a red pelted pegasus with orange mane, wing feathers and tail.

It was for the best to not let others see him in his true form. With the war he had just fought in was he certain that the ponies would not enjoy watching him walk down the road. And he was far too tired to bother with such things so soon after the battle. *Yeah this is for the best, plus, this way I won't risk harming anyone by head butting them if someone wakes me up rudely.*

Laying down by the tree he conjured a blanked out of a shroud of magical energy, he was not sure what season it was, but going by the slowly discoloring leaves of several trees, it was at least autumn. So rather then sleep through a possibly cold night, even if the weather was nice and warm, he would instead wrap himself up in this nice large blanked and sleep nice and warm.

Folding his forelegs over one another the pegasus lowered his head and slowly fell sleep. Even as his large shape breathed softly beneath the street were the stars and moon glittering in the sky above. And then something shone upon the moon's surface. With the burning specter gone from its surface was it impossible to notice, and yet had the eye of the Mare of the Moon, started to twinkle.

(Scene Skip)

Sighing in contentment Maleficus rolled over in his blanket, hoping to stretch his spine a little to ease some of the tension he was feeling in his back. When he did that however he found himself rolling over the edge of something before feeling like he was not moving at all. Opening his eyes he saw that he was floating in the middle of what could only be described as a star filled darkness, he looked behind him and saw a small floating island with grass and a large tree, his blanket was still on him. "Okay... what the heck?"

A weak voice echoed through the darkness, it was almost like a soft breeze, yet with the echoes he could make out the words. "Thou art asleep."

"Who is there? Where am I?" He asked as he floated around in the void, he then noticed something, a twinkling light i nthe far distance.

"We art Princess Lu-"

Realizing something he interrupted the barely comprehensible voice with his own."No wait, I think I get this. This feels like when I was confronting that Nightmare chick before. This must be a dreamscape... or is it mindscape? I dunno. Let me just try to adjust it a little."

He closed his eyes and suddenly there was a heavy sound of water, earth and wind flowing togethe like a mixture of storms, landslides and floods. When he opened his eyes had the empty void been transformed into a large beach by the coastlien of a large ocean and a clear blue sky with a warm sun shining down upon it. On the opposite side of the sea laid a open field with a large medieval castle on top of a hill around one hundred meters away from the beach. "There, that's better. Now then, I assume that you are Luna?"

As he asked this he turned his head to look at the foal sized alicorn who was sitting five meters to his left, who was currently trying to find her voice as she stared in shock at how easily he had manipulated his dream. Waving his hoof in front of her face the stallion managed to break her out of the shock and she sputtered a little before taking a deep breathe, calmed down, and spoke up.

"Y-yes We art Princess Luna. Ho-how did thee do this?" She asked in a shaking voice as she tried to figure out just what had happened.

"This is my dream right? And since my dream is part of my mind. I can change it to my desires as much as I want to. Dreams are only limited to your imagination and there are no limits to imagination."

"Ah... that... that doest explain it. We... hath no idea dreams were so... interactive." Snorting at the Princess' tone the former human just rolled his eyes and summoned a beach chair and laid down on it.

"Yeah well. You ponies have, had no real way to interact with others except yourselves. So I highly doubt you could get many opinions and ideas with such a limited population. although that is partially my fault I guess." He muttered a little before summoning a parasol from the earth that gave him some shade.

Luna flinched a bit, but swallowed her anxiety and spoke up again. "Aye, We know about thou origin and of thy... actions... and We know of Our mother's error in judgement. We saw pieces of Our mother's encounter with thee."

"Huh... guess you also know that I boned your mom then."

The sound of a glass window breaking echoed in the distance as the Princess of the Moon's eyes went blank or a few seconds, then she opened her mouth, closed it, then she opened it, and closed it. And then she finally jumped up onto his stomach and grabbed him by the neck with her tiny hooves and made him blink in surprise when she managed to shake his head like a rag doll while screaming like a fog horn into his face. "THOU DID WHAT WITH OUR MOTHER!?"

*Huh, I guess she did not know then. Perhaps the alcohol prevented it? Or did she just not notice it?* He though to himself while the furious foal sized princess screamed at him for sullying her mother's body with his dirty advances.

Not all that bothered by the raging little moon princess Malefius just calmly let the tiny princess release her anger upon him. After she finished screaming she physically lifted him and threw him out of the beach chair and into the wall of the castle. As he laid there in the wall, embedded into the the stone of its surface, upside down, he thought a but more as the little Princess flew over to him and screamed at him while slapping his face. *I can definitely see the resemblance between her and her sister. Makes me wonder if they take after their fathers or their mother... huh... that's a scary thought. Hopefully it is not Laura they take after, it is hard enough to deal with two hot tempered princesses. I'd rather not deal with a hot tempered queen of all things.*

To Be Continued

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: And that is a wrap. Wow, that took a lot less effort then I thought. The fight between Celestia and Maleficus felt a bit lacking in detail, it was actually my first fighting scene written with such details.

Pinkie: Great work Staady!

Staadnauthursil: Thank you Pinkie. And also, I would like to thank Mix-Up for his splendid work on the New Cover for the story. It really gives you a feeling for how things went wrong for both the Ponies of Equestria and Maleficus when he crashed into the nameless town surrounding the Castle of the Royal Sisters. A very good piece of art and I am happy that he made it for me. I will be adding a Link for his Deviant Art Account and his Fimfiction Account on this note, on the Chapter Description and on a separate Blog Post.

Pinkie: Wohooo! Mix-Up he is our pony! Ask for him when you need something bony!

Staadnauthursil: ...Hahaha. Yeah... Bony, because my Self Insert is a bloody chrome dome skeleton on the Cover, brilliant pun there Pinkie... not.

Mix-Up's Fimfiction Account: https://www.fimfiction.net/user/195663/Mix-up

Mix-Up's Deviant Art Account: http://amalgamzaku.deviantart.com/

Chapter Eight: The Last Lawbringer (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Eight: The Last Lawbringer

If anyone had told him a year earlier that he would be brutally beaten up by two pony princesses, one of which he beat up in return, all in the same day, he would have called that person insane. Now, he was just running with the punches, for while pretty princess ponies are well... pretty, are they brutishly strong.

*Good thing this is a dream and I am not actually experiencing pain.* The stallion thought to himself as the foal sized shape of Luna punch slapped him repeated in the face while screaming in olden english how he had defiled her mother, after having embedded him twenty inches deep into the stone wall of a castle in his own dream. It had been going on for a good amount of time now and he was starting to have enough.

Pulling his right hoof free from the wall he caught the Princess' hoof and asked in a calm voice while looking her in the eyes, feeling a bit like spiderman since he was upside down. "Okay, I think that is enough. Do you feel better now that you have brutally punched me in the face?"

"A-aye We feel rejuvenated. This was most pleasant." The little princess said as she lowered her hoof and slumped down on her haunches, panting softly as all of the energy spent beating him up made her both tired and awake at the same time.

Although, Maleficus was getting kind of tired with all of the old way speaking going on. It was getting a bit annoying. "Okay. First of, the olden english speech you ponies us is getting old, no pun intended. You speak like a LARP:er who is overly enthusiastic with fantasy games. Second, it is good that you feel better. Now how are you inside my dream?"

Luna just stared at him, his words making her brain hurt as she tried to figure out just what in the name of the gods he was talking about. "Olden Aenglish Speech? Fantasy? Games? Lairper? Thou art speaking foreign words to Us."

Maleficus groaned and pulled his hind legs free and shifted himself upright, thus pulling himself out of the wall. "Ah... right never mind. You ponies speak like this because you ARE stuck in the middle ages. Bloody hell I do not want to have to educate the entire population on how to talk, I am not a certified teacher. Nor is English my natural language either."

The Princess of the Moon decided that she did not want to figure him out anymore, she was getting a headache, so she went to answer his second statement. "We art here in thy dream because when thou devoured the Nightmare, the link she hath with Us was connected to Thee. The link is bound by the Curse of the Elements of harmony which bound Us both here upon Our moon. Only thou art not mentally bound to sleep for a thousand summers. We suspect that the curse did not affect thee like it did Us is because it was meant to affect Us, as we were the main target."

"So when I absorbed the freaky blob thing I absorbed not only her fragmented knowledge but also the mental link that she had with you? All of this possible because of the shiny marbles of dumbass?" At the Princess' nod the stallion just stood up on his hind legs and rubbed his forehead with one of his foreleg hooves. "Oh lovely. As if it was not enough that the Harmony shit nuggets messed up my life, now the nightmare blob did it as well. Well at least the nightmare part was my own fault, partially. At least I know how the mess with me and Celestia got going, even if she over reacted. Man this is so fucking stupid."

Luna blinked at how he insulted the Elements of Harmony, but with her recent exile to the Moon, she was willing to let him insult the gemstones to his heart's content. But it made her wonder just exactly what had happened while she had been asleep? And what was this about a mess between him and her older sibling? "What is wrong? Hath something happened while We were asleep?"

Maleficus froze at her questions and "Ah... Well shit. Let's see... How do I put this delicately."

He did not, in fact, put it in any fashion of the word 'delicately'. "I told your sister about how I am the Green Star, the Stallion of Torment, and apologized like a groveling dung beetle . She decided to demand my death, I declined, she declare war at me, cursed me to appear on the planet's surface for a month every time there is a Red Solar Eclipse. I fought her and the Equestrian army just a few hours ago. I beat up the army, which was stupid enough to take out some of its own, I got into a fight with Celestia, and won. I accidentally broke her horn during the fight, but I fixed it. She swore that she would keep on hunting me and put me to the sword. And that's it. pretty messed up right?"

Luna stared, she just stared, then she slowly stood up, opened the gate to the castle, entered, closed the gate. And then the entire structure began to vibrate and shake like a mixer when her incomprehensible, but clearly frustrated and angry sounding, screams started.

Pondering if he should calm her down the stallion moved over to the door way to open it when a swarm of blades suddenly impaled the door from the other side, making the gate look like a makeshift porcupine. Seconds later the sound of stone cracking was heard as a stone spike the size of a tree split apart one of the castle walls. *Ah... yeah. Even if I know that I cannot feel pain in this place am I NOT going to try to calm her down when she is such a bad mood.*

Deciding that he had better things to do then to risk further mental trauma, Maleficus went back to the beach and sat down on a new beach chair. Leaning back he enjoyed the sun and the sound of the waves, sure the agitated screams and sounds of destruction were a bit of a let down but he would take what he could get, plus it was fairly easy to just imagine some earplugs. Soon his vision darkened and he felt his dream disappearing, he was probably waking up. Should be right, it had felt like he had been in the dream for several hours.

(Scene Skip)

The red shine of the Red Sun shone upon the land of Equestria, and its glaring light pierced the veil of sleep of the one known as Maleficus. His transformed body yawned as he rose from his slumber. Standing up on his hooves he stretched his limbs, including his wings, before feeling something he had not felt for years. Hunger.

Realization hit him, even if he was an immortal being, was his body still having cravings for sustenance to replace the energy he had spent. Since he had been able to drain the magic of the Moon while in his Exile he had not required food or water, but now. Now all of those years of solitude and famine was striking his body like a sledge hammer."I... I have not eaten for over a century... Gods I am starving."

As luck would have it was the tree had been sleeping beneath a fruit tree, a plum tree to be exact. And since it was autumn were the fruits ripe, even if some of them were almost rotten. Lifting his left hind leg he buck kicked the tree, not at full strength, at the base of the trunk and smirked as a shower of fruit rained down upon the ground.

Scooping up the better looking fruits he gorged himself on their sweet juice fresh, even going so far as to chew up the seeds. While he had been human he would have felt an intense pain or distaste from tasting the plum seeds. Yet now he was starving enough to not give a damn that his metallic teeth let him ground up plum seeds like they were peanuts, nor did he care about the disgusting taste.

Scooping up a hoof full of plums he hefted them open his open mouth and then squeezed them, making plum juices drink down like a waterfall into his mouth. He repeated this savage eating manner for up to an hour, even some of the rotten plums ended up being eaten. At the end had he eaten half of the fruits on the tree and felt for the first time since he came to this world, satisfied.

Sighing in content he let out a soft burp before wiping himself clean with the blanket he had conjured, the cloth would disappear after a day or so anyway. Magically conjured items were not permanent unless you put some effort into making them. Looking around he took a bit more notice of the shack near the tree had slept beneath. It was old and abandoned, looked more like an old workshop, a forge perhaps?

Walking over to the open doorway, the door way lying rotten and rusted on the grass in front of the doorway, looking inside he saw what could only be described as a mess. It was clearly an old forge, there were several forge based tools, two large anvils, rather well preserved, and a large stone built furnace like forge oven at the end of the room. There were some books and personal effects lying around, from what Maleficus could tell was this place left in a hurry, there were... regular chairs lying scattered on the floor? Seriously? How do they sit in chairs? Anyhow, fallen chairs, a small round dirt covered table, some kind of bench covered with various dirty old boxes and scattered black piles of rot that could be assumed to be cloth, wood, leather or even food, far too long gone to tell the difference.

*Not much use of... anything really. I should probably check the boxes at least, they could have something of use.* He thought to himself as he moved over to the boxes. Opening one of the wooden lids he discovers that the content of the box is was NOT what he was expecting. It was not metal ingots, it was not tools, it was not nails, it was not rotten food, it was not leather scrap or even a pile of rust. It was pieces of various types of armour. He could determine that there were chain mail, plate mail, splint mail and even scale mail. It was... a lot of pieces.

There were no breast plate like he had designed his own armour, instead there was a pair of metal harnesses made to be strapped on the belly and on the back. There were no holes for wings however and judging by the hole in the helmets' foreheads were these armours made for unicorns. At least the helmets, could be that some could have be made for earth ponies.

The armour pieces were made out of what looked like a strange kind of bronze, it did not look like bronze, it was not tinted, and it definitely did not feel like bronze. It had a high density, equal to iron actually. This was more then likely some kind of alloy, perhaps used by ponies before they got tossed around by that Discord guy. It was designed like a medieval knight's armour, the helmet even had a visor with several circle shaped holes.

*Hmmm... this helmet design reminds me of the helmet of Holden Cross in the game For Honor.* He blinked as that sentence ran through his mind and he smirked as an idea got into his head. Summoning his powers he altered his shape once more, no longer was he a crimson red pegasus with a golden blond mane, now he was an elder looking Earth Pony. His pelt became dark brown, looking slightly faded and grey with age. And a short cut mane and tail that looked like they had once been pure brown were a pale brownish grey, almost white. His eyes were golden and upon his flanks laid the mark of a golden maltese cross.

Checking out his changed form Maleficus nodded to himself, he could not make out anything odd about the new shape he had made. Felt a bit weird to not physically have wings or a horn, but he was not concerned, he could still use his magic through his hooves. *Perfect. This disguise will work. If needed I can just use the lore of the Lawbringers from For Honor and make up some crap to fool the people of these lands. That Discord fellow sure made a lot of things possible when he tossed around the ponies. Hopefully the disguise will last me the entire month or I might have to consider less subtle methods.*

Rummaging through the pieces of armour the disguised Alicorn donned himself in the strange armour, it felt rather well fitting, as if the pieces molded themselves to his body. Checking the back of the small smithy he found a lot of dust covered weapons and tools, most of them had wooden and leather strapped hilts or shafts, all rotten into dust, only leaving the metal parts behind.

But he found a most fascinating weapon, a poleaxe, or as more commonly called, a Halberd. A polearm with the tip of a spear, the blade of an axe and the blunt edge of a hammer. There were around five of its kind in the storage closet, all of them made purely out of metal. *Wonderful work, I wonder what manner of metal this is. It would be very interesting to find out how they made it. Perhaps i can figure out a way to discover it through magic? It should be possible since I doubt the secret for this metallurgy was secret if they were made in this small shack.* Spinning the weapon a little in his hooves he nodded a bit in satisfaction, it had good balance.

He would try and save what he could of the books, parchments and notes in the workshop. It would probably not be as effective as a professional, but he did not want to risk losing any of these tomes. So he took a large piece of dusty linen, well kept inside a crate, and made it into a sack. He then sewed a runic pattern into its fabric. It took a bit of time and effort but soon was the simple linen sack glowing blue as the runic array activated. He then opened the sack and with a careful application of telekinesis, put everything of value, except for the weapons and armour, in the hut inside its dark insides.

Not even as a pile of tomes, notes, books and parchments flew into its dark shape did the sack seem to be filled up, it was as if it was larger on the inside then on the outside. Closing the sack after the final piece of parchment had been put away, Maleficus looked around the old workshop one more time, to make sure he had not missed anything, before tying the sack to his left side.

*Okay... now what to do about these weapon and armour... I cannot fit them into the sack I made, it is still limited by the size of its entrance after all.* He then got an idea, smirking he temporarily called forth his horn and began to cast an advance transmutation spell.

Advanced as in, multiple transmutations in a wide area to make different parts to then put together into a single object.

Planks shifted, nails pulled, support beams groaned, glass vibrated, stone shook, hinges creaked and screws well screwed. The entire structure groaned like a dying beast as the magic of the alicorn shifted it apart. First came the roof, breaking apart into shifting spiraling planks, wooden beams and roof tiles. Second came the walls, doors and windows, exploding out into fragments of wood, metal and glass that joined the shifting mass of material. Then came the floor, the foundation and the furniture, erupting into a shower of metal, wood, stone and sand.

The objected shifted and changed as the transformed alicorn stood up on his hind legs, spread out his forelegs far and wide, as he coordinated the process. Wood linked together into a frame and structure while metal reinforced it and protected both its exterior and interior. Stone tiles were put into a small roof on top of the wooden frame while stone was embedded into the wood of four newly shaped wheels. A flowing mass of sand and glass melted together into wooden frames, forming lanterns. Strings of fiber and leather shifted and changed into leather straps and reigns, connected to the frame's front by a two long wooden poles to which they were tied to. And then as the final piece of stone embedded itself into the wooden wheels, laid his new construction complete.

Smirking a bit in satisfaction Maleficus made his horn disappear once more before moving over to his newly shaped wagon. It was a bit of a makeshift job but he felt a bit of pride in its construction, no matter how basic it might be. It looked a lot like the wagon of a wandering gypsy, fortune teller, entertainer, merchant or charlatan of the old west. He would make sure to carve some runes into its frame later, for now he was content with his product and now he just needed to load the weapons and armour into its interior, then there would be nothing left of the old shack but a square shaped hole in the ground.

Carefully he put the weapons and armour pieces into newly made barrels and crates. He then made one final adjustment of the wagon, and put up a linen cloth banner on top of its frame, coloured black, green and yellow in the shape of the symbol of the Iron Legion of For Honor. A black sword with roots growing into the hill beneath it, a black tower with a white cross shaped window on each side of the sword on the hill. A black sun on the upper left and a white crown on the upper right. With a background of three vertical lines, one white on the lower left, one yellow on the middle and one green on the upper right. He did not realize why he had picked this symbol, perhaps it was nostalgic, perhaps it was on a whim, all he knew was that it felt appropriate.

Looked out at the unused country road the old looking earth pony strapped himself to the wagon, his halberd and sack strapped to his sides, and with powerful strides began to pull it towards the road, uncaring of which direction he was going. All he cared for was the road ahead of him, a chance to enjoy the world he was so limited in experiencing, even if for only a month.

(Scene Skip)

The Red Sun had faded back into its original golden brilliance upon the waking of twilight. White clouds remained after the heavy rainfall that had come the day before, the fields and trees were moist with water and the birds were singing as they bathed in the springs and the puddles along the overgrown road going through the country side.

A long line of wagons were going on the road, pulled by groups of two or four. There was a total of twenty wagons, each designed in a unique manner by its owners or their earlier owners. This was one of the many caravan wandering nomad tribes of Equestria. Ever since the Chaos God Discord drove the land into chaos had many ponies been separated fro mthe rest of the kin. Even after his defeat were they unable to reach their brethren as the Green Star fell upon the land and covered the lands around the Castle of Two Sisters with what was now called the Everfree Forest. No pony could breach its wicked thorns, thickets and branches, an evil forest denying them the kinship with their own people. And with the disappearance of the Princesses and their castle, had many ponies outside of the forest taken up different ways of life.'

Many decided to become nomads, wandering the lands like their ancestors did when they left their ancestral home in the wake of the Windigos. Others settled down into different manners of settlements. Others started up orders and groups of explorers, adventurers and knights, seeking to bring some manner of order and prosperity to their scattered people.

Sadly enough had not all ponies taken up the peaceful or honourable aspects of life. Far too many had taken up the ways of banditry and murder, there were many bands of such disturbing characters all over Equestria. The reason being that even with the honourable orders were founded, was there a far too great lack of power to enforce law and order through out the land. This meant that there was no way to properly stop the ravaging bands of bandits and raiders, the lack of order had giving way for far too many less decent ways of life.

This group of wanderers were called the Blue Grass Clan, they specialized in wandering the steeps and fields of Equestria, gathering foods from the fields, drying the plants and even the grass itself, into long lasting rations. They were not the largest clan yet they were not the smallest either. Yet the years had not been kind to them and their numbers were limited to a bit over one hundred, more then thirty of them foals not even past their fifth summer.

But recently had the clan been feeling anxiety and fear. When the moon grew a black shadowy monstrous image upon its shape, the crater formation of a unicorn directly next to ti. Then a massive eyeball formed out of the darkness before catching fire, taking on the shape of a burning green and black fearsome creature. And then, less then a year later, was something stirring again. On the morning of the rise of the Red Sun the burning specter on the moon's surface started twisting and turning, turning into a spiraling vortex of darkness and green flames. Before it exploded down towards the land into a second Green Star. And ever since that event had the clan been fearing that once more a dark force would put the world in danger.

Yet there was hope, just a week before the event had they heard words of the reappearance of one of the Princesses, the Princess of the Sun had returned. And a new home for all ponies had been built out of one of the mountains of the mountain chain known as the Bucky Mountains. A place called Canterlot. So they had decided to travel to this new home of the ponies, Canterlot, to finally settle down in peace after a century of being separated from their kin.

One of these wagons was more like a small eatery on wheels then a wagon. It had a base floor split into two rooms, one being an open surface with four rectangular tables with chairs, and the second being a fully stocked kitchen with three magically enchanted stone stoves sued for cooking in all manners. The upper floor was a single large room with hay mattresses, some furniture and many toys.

Inside of the kitchen of the eatery wagon was a young pegasus pony filly helping her pegasus mother with the preparation of the food. The filly's pelt was cream white while her mane and tail was lime green, while her mothers pelt was chocolate brown while her mane and tail were lime green just like her daughter's. Astoundingly enough was the mother without a cutie mark while her daughter had one, in the shape of a pie decorated with a chocolate sauce based smiley face on its yellow surface.

The filly's name was Happy Meal and she was the daughter of the nomad's main chef Grand Feast. Her father had been one of the guards of the Caravan, a brown pelted and white maned pegasus named Shifting Wind with the cutie mark of a cloud shaped like a spiral. He died less then a year ago protecting the caravan from a manticore who had come rampaging out of the Everfree Forest in a mad sense of terror, obviously frightened witless when the dark flames of the moon were ignited. Shifting Wind took down the Manticore but died from its poison.

Sadly enough was this not the first death of their little family. Her husband's second wife Swift Delight had died from raiders four years ago, along with her son Grand Stand and Grand Feast's own son Wonder Sail. All that was left of their herd was her and her daughter and she had, had little time to morn these events, she needed to remain strong for her child who was too innocent to know of what had happened to the rest of their family.

"Oh mom! The third chestnut pie has been finished!" The little filly said with a wide smile as she pulled out the recently finished pastry from the oven of the second stove before putting it on the wooden table were they were putting the finished food products. Grand Feast just smiled at her daughter and ruffled her head a little, making her little filly squeal in protest as she struggled away from her mother's ruffling hoof.

"We be finished with the seventh pie honey. Be sure to check the other ovens while we put it in." She said in a kind and warm voice as she put in the newly finished pie into the now empty oven. The little filly saluted, her large wooden spatula held like a weapon of honour. "Okay mom!"

And so the family of two kept on cooking, enjoying the quiet morning as the wagons rolled down the road.

(Scene Skip)

Upon a hill a far bit away stood a gruff looking pony dressed in Equestrian Gold Armour of the Support Unit, his pelt was orange and he had blue mane and tail, with the cutie mark in the shape of a wooden flute. He was holding a spyglass and looking down the road when he spotted the group of wagons moving along it. Smirking he shouted down the other side of the hill.

"Hey Boss! There be a group of them nomads approaching, counting thirty wagons at least!"

At the other side of the hill was a group of around forty to fifty armoured ponies, each dressed in armours ranging from bronze to gold plate. The one the scout had shouted out for was a tall unicorn with a yellow pelt, green mane and a cutie mark of a silver goblet. Said unicorn was dressed in the full plate armour of the Royal Guard, and as for the reason why he and his fellow soldiers were here and not with the main force back at Canterlot?

They were deserters. Soldiers who took the defeat of not only them but their Princess as a show that they had no more reason to remain loyal to their monarch.

The one who had organized this group of deserters was the unicorn Royal Guard, Silver Feed, who was born a noble pony but denied his inheritance. Thus he had sought for more riches then what his family had. He sought to use the army to achieve this, yet when the fiendish alicorn Maleficus ruined the army and defeated Celestia, he saw Equestria no longer as a gold laying goose but a shitting goat. Silver sought to get his justifiably deserved riches, even if it meant going behind the Princess' back and roaming the country side for it.

He had no reason to return, his family had given his younger brother Gold Bar the right of inheritance when it was discovered that he had no desire to use his riches for anyone but himself. The army had failed to grant him an alternative income of riches, so he took the best option available to him, in his mind, banditry. Of course the actual dirty work would be done by his minions, he was still of noble blood and thus had no reason to dirty his hooves with common work. Besides, he had always enjoyed being the brain rather then the brawn.

Even if his group was more commoners then nobles would he use them to their full potential, no need to let the truth of their inferior status affect their minds. He could play the benevolent leader like any truly educated noble pony could. Now he was about to pluck his first golden egg, the first of many to fill his coffers. "Excellent work Animal Call! Gather up colts! We got us a golden opportunity here! Prepare for ambush!"

The group split up into portions of melee, ranged and support. Just like they had been taught during their brief military training. However this time it would be different, this time it was not the unstoppable force of nature that was an alicorn, this time it was just some rag tagged group of nomads. And they had every confidence in their capability in handling such weak opponents.

There were mostly shield and spear bearers, making up one third of the total number of soldiers, thus they would act as the front line force and cover for the ranged soldiers. The caravan approached the two hillsides the road was going through and the soldiers had hidden themselves behind a line of tall thick leaved bushes the unicorns had planted and rapidly grown to grant cover for the ambush.

As the caravan approached the soldiers got ready. The moment felt intense, yet they were certain. Then as the line of wagons reached past the check point of the hill, the unicorns cast their spells.

First came a shower of red fire balls the size of dogs, they struck several of the wagons and more then ten of the armed warriors wandering on hoof around it. The nomads reacted rather quickly and disciplined, obviously used to ambushes. yet they were not ready when a wave of magic and projectiles was fired at them. Magic in the shape of ice spikes flew along with arrows, javelins and crossbow bolts, piercing the lined up warriors like lambs for the slaughter.

Not even letting the wounded nomads regain their senses the melee range bandits charged out of the bush lines in a shield wall motion, linking their shields together to shield from the projectiles and spells of the few remaining defenders. The result was not pretty.

As the former soldiers reached the wounded and disoriented warriors, they shifted their spears and jabbed them forward with powerful straight thrusts, and pierced their unprotected body areas, throat, gut, side and muzzle. Pony blood was shed by pony weapons. And the soldiers turned bandits swarmed the caravan in a mad frantic frenzy of blood, greed and... lust.

(Scene Skip)

Grand Feast had no idea what was happening, one moment everything had been a normal great day with her cooking with her daughter. Then a loud resounding shout emerged from around them and the wagon began to shake. she could hear the clash of metal and the screams of pain. She had to get Happy Meal to safety that was all that mattered. Clutching her daughter she carried her into the storage room at the back of the wagon.

"Mama, what be happening? We are scared." The little filly murmured into her mother's fur. Her mother smiled at her and gently rubbed her head before lifting her up and looked her into her eyes. "Everything shall be fine Happy Meal. We will keep you safe." The little filly did not notice how her mother did not mention her own safety, and thus she did not protest when her mother opened the lid of one of the empty barrels and put her inside.

Gently rubbing her daughter's head she murmured into her ear. "Whatever may happen, stay in here until it be safe once more." The little filly sniffled, her eyes slightly teary but she nodded before speaking. "What about you mama?" Grand Feast did not her own personal fear emerge and just gave her foal a brave smile. "We will be fine honey, now keep quiet, just like when we play hide and seek. We love you Happy Meal." The mare gently kissed her little foal by the cheek once last time before closing the lid, but not before hearing her daughter respond to her feelings. "Okay, we love you too mama."

Choking back tears Grand Feast moved out of the wagon, she had to attract the attention of the bandits, make them more interested in her then in her wagon. She had barely the time to run past five wagons when an aura of blue energy grabbed her by the legs and she found herself lifted into the ground. The one holding her was a pony bearing a golden plate mail armour, a unicorn. He had wicked smile on his muzzle that sent shivers down her spine and when he took her to a open space among the caravans she felt a chill down her spine as she saw her friends and clan members being treated like sex slaves by the bandits.

The unicorn holding her removed the cloak she had covered herself with and seemed surprised by her appearance. "Well, well, well. What doest we hath here? A fine rose among these loitering weeds. Thou shalt make a fine broodmare for our future kin." Grand Feast did not need a translation,she knew the intentions of the stallion. Yet her own safety and humility she did not care one bit for, she only cared about one thing. Her daughter.

Not even as her legs were chained and her hind legs spread apart with a wooden pole connected to her hind leg shackles, did she utter even a word. *Gods please protect Happy Meal! Please, whatever may happen to us! Keep her hidden! Keep her safe! We beg of you!* Grand Feast thought with tears streaming down her cheeks as the bandit leader unbuckled his lower armour, before mounting her.

Even as her body was ravaged she kept silent, not willing to give him the satisfaction of hearing her voice. Around here were some experiencing even worse fates then she was. A young mare was being used by a group of three, her hooves not even touching the ground as they kept thrusting. Two mares were being forced into a sixty nine position while a group of six mares and four stallions was forcing themselves upon both of them. A stallion was being double teamed by a mare and a stallion.

A young colt foal was being used by a pair of mares, while many young fillies were being treated in similar ways. It made her nauseous and also heartbroken. This could just as well happen to her own little girl if she was discovered, intensifying her mental prayers even as the stallion raping her released his first load inside her loins. *Gods! Please! Keep her safe!*

(Scene Skip)

A lone wagon was rolling down the main road, a heavily armoured earth pony wearing plate armour was pulling it. Of course this is Maleficus in his disguise as an earth pony. He had been pulling the wagon for a few hours and already traveled a good distance.

*Sure is a nice day today. No rain, no clouds. Yeah. This is a wonderful summer day.* The immortal pony thought to himself as he pulled the wagon down the road, the fields were thick with grass, flowers and insects. The trees and the bushes were sprouting berries, fruits and colorful flowers. It was truly a wonderful sight and the warm sun and the gentle breeze was almost making him feel sleepy.

But it was disturbed all of a sudden when a thick scent of burning wood and burnt meat filled his nostrils as the wind shifted. Blinking in shock he tried to see the location of the scent and saw the thick column of black smoke rising up from behind some tall hills in the distance. *That is not a good omen, I just know something is going on and it is NOT a barbecue.*

Raising his forelegs he began to speed up, the wheels of his wagon creaked while the entire frame groaned in protest as he rushed down the road. His hooves kicked up dust, stone, grass and dirt into the air as he used his weight to get a better grip on the road to launch himself forward with powerful short leaps.

Soon enough he passed the hills and came upon the sight of a large group of wagons, some of them burning, with the dead bodies of ponies lying around it, while armoured ponies gleefully roamed around like thuggish bandits. Even from the distance could he see it, it was not a nice view.

Maleficus had seen a lot of terrible things even before he came to Equestria, but what he stumbled upon was a sight that would haunt him for a very long time. A sight that he, himself, would use as a reminder, that in the end, no matter how you justify it, your choices bring consequences and it is more often then not that it is not you that pay for them, but others. And it was also a motivator, a motivator to do something he had never done before his entire life, for the first time he would take a life to save another.

The armored earth pony took a second glance at the ravaged caravan and the immediate area around it, it was a frightening sight. Several of the wagons were burning, corpses littered the group in the dozens and the screams and cries of the tormented was filling the air. Truly. This was something he could only describe to be hell.

Then one tragic sight caught his eyes, a small foal, skewered by an arrow while clutched in the forelegs of its butchered mother or father, impossible to tell because of the burns. The image blurred for him for a few seconds and he could almost see a human child, a toddler, clutched by its parent, both brutalized, the image felt so intense it almost made him go into shock.

The intense moment passed and then the sensation of a hollow growing within his chest stopped, to be replaced by an intense fire that began to spark a great bonfire. The burning rage boiled up his blood, he could feel his entire body tense and clench as it flowed more rapidly through his veins. He felt his jaw clench so hard that blood started sipping from the gap of his metallic teeth. Unstrapping himself from his wagon he took his helmet from the wagon, put it onto his head, and ran straight at the hellish scene in front of him. *THEY WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH THIS!*

There were no chance for the outer guards to miss his approach, he stomped forward like a rhinos, his armoured body making a loud resounding metallic clang and clink as he moved. The four ponies stationed as look out shouted out for their comrades who were enjoying themselves with the defeated nomads, but the four look out also decided to take care of him themselves.

"Ey pal. Looks like we got us some would be hero ei?" "Aye, just like them fools that remained with the army." "Well we have already give words about his approach, shall we take him out?" "Eh why not. Makes our guard duty less boring." After all, he was one pony, even if heavily armored, what could he do to four trained former Equestrian Soldiers?

"Aim for the legs!" They lined up their bows and fired. The gold tipped arrows flew with true aim and speed and impacted the plate covered forelegs of the charging pony. Yet to their surprise bounced their arrows off the armour without even nicking it. Growing a bit uneasy they tried again, yet again to no avail. Growing desperate they drew their weapons and charged at him.

Once he might have shown mercy, once he might have held back, once, he might have let them live. But unfortunately for them, was he not willing to give them any of those options.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Roaring out Maleficus meet their charge. Rearing back he slammed his forehead forward and his helmet's horn skewered the first attacker in the eye, piercing straight through his skull. Then he tossed the first one aside with a flick of his neck and then he reached out and slammed his left foreleg into the unprotected snot of the second attackers. There was a loud resounding crack as the pony's head went from up right to upside down, as his forehead meet his back as it was broken apart like a twig, his muzzle crushed into a meaty pulp. The corpse had yet to collapse even as Maleficus charged past it.

The third and the fourth had barely time to flinch when the earth pony reached them and slammed their skulls together after grabbing them by the helmets. With a loud crunch the two ponies' heads folded together as their helmets were crushed along with their helms. Flesh poured out of the visors, grounded meat and bits of bones erupted down the neck, eye balls exploded out of the visors with the blood. And THEN, as the metal was being pressed tighter and tighter together there was a loud crackling sound before a geyser of bits of brain and bone sharps erupted as a large crack was formed on the top of the helmets, completing the grotesque work of blood, flesh, bones and metal, which had once been a pair of helmeted pony heads.

Tossing the two corpses aside Maleficus lowered hos forelegs with a heavy stomp before he once more charged forward. His gore covered hooves carried him past the line of wagons and a spear of bronze was sent straight for his head. The spear appeared out of nowhere, yet he reacted in time to not only stop it, but retaliate as well.

Launching his left foreleg in an upward angle he punching the spear head. He not only halted the momentum of the thrust, he flattened the spear heard and pushed the shaft back with a tremendous force, sending the pommel of the short spear straight through the chest of the bandit who tried to stab him. Using his own momentum he moved forward and with a heavy gong slammed his hoof into the already dead bandit's chest and sent him flying into a pile of wreckage.

What greeted him, once his vision was no longer hindered by the armoured bandit, was a sight he had been expecting, yet was not eager to see.

There were mares being raped, some even being used by more then one bandit. Even some of the stallions were not safe, and were the unfortunate victims of either bandit mares or stallions. Bloody and gory bodies of butchered ponies laid across the ground, some even showing signs of having been raped post humorously. All the while the bandits laughed and cheered, only to halt when Maleficus made his entrance. The front view of the consequences his actions had brought. He felt shame, self loathing, anger and despair. And yet he drew out of it, he drew out of the billowing emotions trying to drown him, and then... he acted.

(Scene Skip)

Silver Feed snorted as the outer scouts shouted out that some armoured pony was approaching and fast. He was having a good time with this nomadic mare, and he would not have some random hoodlum disturb him. "Go and bucking kill the interloper then."

Few of his underlings wanted to leave the carnal pleasures they were enjoying with their captives. Yet one of them decided to do as ordered and went to the side of the wagon where he could heard the approaching pony. Obviously the outlooks did not bother attacking him so he was most likely just some would be grunt who wants to play hero. As the heavy hoofsteps approached closer the raider jumped out and made a swift front a stab with his short spear.

In return he found himself skewered by the pommel of his own spear and sent lying into a pile of a wrecked wagon, dying as blood poured out of him like a fountain. In his place stood a very big and very heavily armoured pony, his forelegs plates and hooves, dripping with fresh blood.

The group of confused former soldiers looked as the earth pony killed one of them, having expected him to die easily. Their surprise was evidently big since they had not even registered the fact that they had removed parts of their armour to enact their vile desires. And when the earth pony stopped and looked upon the scene of the raping and the killing, he stood up on his hind legs, drew his poleaxe and began... to sing.

[Start Battle Music: Wrong Side of Heaven by Five Finger Death Punch]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaF42BrBK2s

Silver Feed snarled out as the music began, things would not go well if they just acted like staring foals. "Kill him!" Meanwhile was the voice of the earth pony being carried through the wind, his voice making it feel as if the very air was vibrating.

"I spoke to the Gods today and they said that they're ashamed."

Several of the soldiers scrambled from their positions and drew their weapons and shields from the ground before getting into formation. It took less then a minute. One of the unicorn fired a spear length of ice at the earth pony, who stepped to the side before moving forward.

"What have I become."

"Line up shields!" A line of ten shields took shape in front of the moving earth pony and they aimed their spears in synchronization and made an attempt to stab him from many angles. He took a step backwards, making them stab empty air, before moving forward and pressing oen of his hind legs down on the overlaying spears, pressing them into the ground.

"What have I done."

The armoured earth pony swung his polearm at the shield wall with a wide sideways swing, the blade of the axe missed the shields, instead was the beard of the axe blade used to hook into the first shield and then he forcefully dragged the weapon into all of the other shields with brutish force.

"I spoke to the devils today and they swear they're not to blame."

This momentum caused the shields to slip off their forelegs. Ponies have no fingers and thus they only used straps to keep hold of the shields. But that was not only all, the spear tip of the poleaxe, was long enough to not slice open their jugulars as it passed through their ranks. Ten ponies fell to the ground, clutching their throats as they began to bleed to death.

"And I understood 'cause I feel the same!"

Stepping on top of the skull of one of the dying he crushed it with his hoof before leaping forward over the dying and the dead, his poleaxe swung downwards, splitting the skull of an archer.

"Stance wide open!"

Pulling back the corpse he blocked a rain of projectiles and spells, the poor deceased pony was torn apart by the force fired at him.

"I stand alone!"

A charging unicorn wielding a pair of swords got the pommel of the polearm slammed into his throat, crushing his wind pipe, causing him to fall to the ground as he tried to breath as he could no longer get any air into his lung, choking to death on his own crushed throat.

"I'm no hero and I'm not made of stone!"

A powerful thrust from a unicorn in the sky was blocked by the flat side of the axe head which was then used to slam into the pegasus' left side, crushing her ribcage. The flying bandit landed in a bloody heap on the ground, spewing blood as her crushed ribs pierced her lungs.

"Right or wrong!"

A pair of earth ponies bearing Sun Guard armour found themselves beheaded by a sudden sideways slash of the polearm as they tried to charge him together. Their corpses collapsed on the ground three seconds after they lost their heads.

"I can hardly tell!"

The polearm's pommel struck out into the face of a unicorn wielding an axe trying to attack him from behind, the metal pommel crushed the bone and pierced through the skull of the unicorn by brute force, shattering the horn that was in its way in the process.

"I'm on the wrong side of heaven and the righteous side of hell!"

The unicorn's corpse was used as a meat shield from another wave of spells and projectiles, torn apart just like the earlier makeshift shield had been by the intense force of the spells. Leaving the armoured earth pony unharmed.

"The wrong side of heaven and the righteous side!"

Side stepping a beam of light the earth pony spun his pole arm with his forelegs before gripping it with the spear head pointed downwards. He then hunched down and leaped forward with his kinds legs while making a forward downward aimed thrust with his polearm.

"The righteous side of hell!"

Silver Feed's face got splattered with blood as the polearm's spear head was sent straight into the open mouth of one of his bandits and out through the mare's neck. The spear tip erupted out of the flesh along with a fountain of blood. He held back a high pitched scream of horror, barely, while most of his underlings began to back away from the blood covered pony as he tossed aside the corpse stuck on his weapon, sending the dead mare into a burning wagon.

Even with their shields linked, their weapons and spells ready, the raiders' bodies were shivering with fear, making their armours rattle. The bloody monster of an earth pony in front of them, was making them more afraid then what that alicorn Maleficus had ever done.

Spinning his weapon clean of blood the earth pony stepped forward, still standing on his hind legs, he looked less like a pony and more like a bipedal demon to the bandits. And he resumed singing.

"I heard from the Gods today and they sounded just like me."

One of the bandits lost it and in a frantic madened state rushed forward with a great sword, swingign like a mad pony at the heavily armoured opponent. "Ahhhh! Die! Die already! Di- URK!"

"What have I done and who have I become."

The fanatically screaming pony went silent and limp as the spear tip of the poleaxe pierced his throat and left him hanging like a straw dummy on top of the Weapon. Even more blood filling the air in crimson streaks as it coloured the ground and grass red.

"I saw the devils today and they looked a lot like me."

With a savage yank the pony dislodged his weapon from the corpse and stepped over it. His movements carrying his blood soaked form towards the second shield wall.

"I looked away, I turned away!"

Charging forward the earth pony slammed straight into the frightened shield wall, his initial impact sent two ponies flying like rag dolls into a burning wreckage. Their screams echoed through the battlefield as unlike their earlier brethren, they were not lucky enough to be dead when impacting the flames.

The rest of the shield wall scattered by the impact, two of them stuck on their backs while the rest tried to gather up around
the large earth pony to take him out.

"Stance wide open!"

Stomping down with his left hind leg he crushed the skull of one of the downed soldiers while splitting apart the skull of the second by thrusting down his poleaxe's axe blade into her helmet. Blood soaked hooves stepped onto the ground ,bits of bone, brain and meet mixed among the mass of blood.

"I stand alone!"

Eight spears and two halberds were sent from all angles, yet the pony shifted his forelegs as to guard his face, letting the weapons impact him.

"I'm no hero and I'm not made of stone!"

The bandits felt their despair flee and their determination grow as they felt the impact of their weapons. Yet they grew pale and horrified when they saw the tips of their weapons bent or flattened as they failed to penetrate the plates of the armour.

"Right or wrong!"

A brutish sideswipe cut off the upper part of the skull of one of the shield wielders, cutting it off perfectly where the skullcap's edges ended.

"I can hardly tell!"

The pommel of the poleaxe was sent with a thrust backwards after the side swipe and slammed into the visor of another, crushing his face and breaking his neck as the force of the thrust flattened his visor and muzzle.

"I'm on the wrong side of heaven and the righteous side of hell!"

A second wave of frantic thrusts slammed into the pony, yet they did not do anything but further damaging the bandits' weapons.

"The wrong side of heaven and the righteous side!"

With a wide swing were three heads crushed apart like overly ripe tomatoes as the hammer head of the poleaxe sailed through the air. Bits of bone and brain covered the other shield wielders who let out shrieking screams.

"The righteous side of hell!"

But their screams were silenced as the axe head of the poleaxe was swung back into a full circle and cut off their heads by the necks, sending their frozen screaming frightened faces into the air, while their bodies fell over, one by one. The earth pony did not even both turning around to watch the heads fall to the ground, instead he stepped over the dead bodies that had once surrounded him and once more, spun his poleaxe clean of blood.

"I'm not defending."

A rain of fireballs was sent at him this time, but he quickly hefted one of the corpses on the ground up with his poleaxe and blocked the spells and kept moving forward even as half of the corpse he held was blasted apart.

"Downward descending."
'
A rain of arrows and bolts pierced the flesh of the corpse but did not penetrate through it. Rearing back his gruesome cargo the earth pony threw the pin cushioned pile of dead pony meat at its still living comrades who fell back screaming in panic, some of them outright fleeing.

"Falling further and further away."

With four long strides he hunched down and took a powerful leap up into the air and then landed hooves first on the back of one of the fleeing bandits, a unicorn. The impact not only send the poor stallion to the ground it also crushed his spine when the weight of his killer's body and armour pressed down upon him.

"Getting closer every day!"

Grabbing hold of a discarded spear the earth pony threw it, it pierced the back of one of the fleeing pegasus who tried to fly away, making her land in bloody heap upon the ground. Her body skewered from the stomach and out of the neck.

"I'm getting closer every day."

Now almost all of the bandits were fleeing, yet the earth pony kept following. There were no more pegasis alive so there was no way of the other ponies to flee but on the ground. They were surprised when the earth pony suddenly rushed up on top of one of the burning wagons and leaped onto the ground in front of them, making them scramble to halt as he stood in front of them like a nightmare made flesh.

"To the end, to the end, the end of the end."

As if preparing for something huge the earth pony spread his hind legs, gripped his pole axe by the handle and held it low. And then as the bandits clenched their teeth, tears streaming down their eyes, he roared.

"I'M GETTING CLOSER EVERY DAY!"

Rushing forward like a mad bull the earth pony slashed his poleaxe no longer with the grace and finesse of an experienced warrior, but that of a mad berserker. Blood flew through the air, legs were dismembered, head were split open and armour was utterly rendered as he became a whirlwind of utter carnage.

"Stance wide open!"

He slammed his pommel through the throat of a unicorn and then ripped off her head with his hoof and slammed it into another, skewering the unfortunate bandit's skull with her horn.

"I stand alone!"

His poleaxe free he made and upward swing and cut open one from the stomach to the throat with the spear tip, spilling his frontal organs and even his tongue for the world to see. A shower of blood pouring out over the warrior.

"I'm no hero and I'm not made of stone!"

With a savagery headbutt his helmet's horn pierced the eye of another of the bandit, instantly killing him. Yet he did not even bother to pull the corpse off his helmet as he impaled another onto his poleaxe.

"Right or wrong!"

The corpse slipped off as he swung down the hammerhead of the poleaxe and crushed the helmet and skull of an earth pony, the shield she had wielded folded like tinfoil by the force of the blow.

"I can hardly tell!"

Stomping down upon the foreleg of one of his targets he broke bone and plate armour with ease, sending the screaming unicorn to the ground before crushing the head with another stomp. Brain matter, flesh and blood was by now covering his hind legs' hooves like a bloody mass of meatloaf.

"I'm on the wrong side of heaven and the righteous side of hell!"

Silver Feed was stunned and appalled, the ruthlessness ,the savagery, it was not anything he had ever heard or even witnessed before. Not even the blood lust he had experienced while murdering and raping was anything like the brutal butchering he was witnessing as one of his fellow Sun Guards, a unicorn mare, was bent in half by an axe had splitting her in half by the middle of the barrel, pilling her blood and organs over the ground.

"I'm on the wrong side of heaven and the righteous side of hell!"

And still the murderous earth pony kept on singing, and silver Feed was feeling he was reaching the final parts of the song. And yet, there was but two of his raiders left, himself not included.

"The wrong side of heaven and the righteous side!"

The last remaining earth pony tried to flee past the earth pony while a unicorn tried to frantically kill him with a spear. Yet the unknown warrior sent a side way blow with his free hoof and the earth pony's neck not only broke, his head was split open like an overly ripe cherry.

"Righteous side of hell!"

The final bandit, the unicorn, found herself sent on her side when the pommel of the poleaxe struck her side. And then, with a savage thrust the opponent impaled the unicorn through the stomach and then sliced to the side, splitting her guts over the ground. He then looked upon the pale and shivering Silver Feed, blood dripping from his entire armour and weapon, and began to walk towards him.

[End Battle Music]

"W-wait! Please stop! We hath Bits! We can give thee money!" The approaching warrior did not even pause at those words. he kept moving forward, ignoring the begging of the bandit leader.

Silver Feed squealed in fear when the poleaxe was impaled upon the ground in front of him, and the smell of carnage and death was joined by a stinging scent of urine. The unicorn almost blacked out by fear when he found himself grabbed by the head by a powerful foreleg hoof, his teary eyes quivering with fear as the blood covered visor of the warrior looked down upon him.

And then a chill ran down his spine as the second hoof of the pony, reached out for his horn. "Wait! What art thee doing!?"

The thick, angry, rumbling and utterly thunderous voice beneath the helmet almost made him faint, but the fear of what was going to happen to him was making him unable to faint. "You have brought death, destruction and depravity upon the innocent. Thus in accordance to your crimes, I, Golden Cross, the Lawbringer, shall bring Judgement upon you. And deal upon you, your punishment. As is fitting for your crimes. "

"In the Name of the Gods."With a powerful grip upon the horn, the now named Golden Cross began to shift his hoof, and Silver Feed could feel the strain of his horn as it was slowly being bent. "In the Name of Justice." And pure utter panic struck him and he tried to struggle free from the grip, screaming frantically whole punching and struggling to no avail. "And In the Name of the Innocent." "Stop it! Stop it! STOP! STOP!"

"Amen." The pain grew even more, there was a startling sound of cracking, creaking and twisting, Silver Feed howled out i nutter despair and pain. "NOOOOOOOO!!!!" Before a loud resounding crack filled the air, as Silver Feed's horn was completely broken off the base of his skull.

Released from the grip of the earth pony the unciorn clutched at the bleeding hole on his forehead and cried out in pain and despair. "AAAAHHHHH!! OUR HORN! GIVE BACK OUR HORN! AHHHHH!" Yet no pity was given and a powerful blow to his jaw knocked him out cold, his torn off horn tossed into the fire where several of his bandits laid burning.

Slowly turning towards the frightened and traumatized nomads, Golden Cross removed his helmet, revealing his elderly visage. Holstering his helmet onto a hatch on his flank armour plating he moved over to the nomads and began to untie them. "Do not be afraid, I have come to aid you."

The nomads were still frightened beyond words by this ruthless warrior. And yet as their bonds were removed and their freedom returned, the feeling of fear slowly receded.

One of the mares, one who had been violated by the bandit leader. Reached out for the elderly warrior and spoke out to him in a choking voice. "Please, our daughter, she be hidden in our wagon in a barrel. Please, make sure she be safe for us." Gently removing her grip on his armour he pulled out a blanket from the pile of loot the bandits had gathered near their 'pleasure spot' and warped it around her before speaking. "I will find your daughter and bring her to you."

He then moved away from the recovering nomads to find the lost child.Using a bit of his magic he sensed the life sign of a small pony within one of the wagons. Walking into the slightly looted wagon he found a barrel marked 'flour' and gently knocked on it. "It is safe now, you can get out of there."

(Scene Skip)

Happy Meal shivered as she laid inside the barrel, the fighting, the screaming and the shouting had stopped. She had no idea if it was safe to leave. There were voices outside, yet she could not make out whom they were. She was scared and sad, she hoped her mother was okay.

Then a gentle thump was heard as something knocked on the barrel. And then a kind and warm male voice spoke up, even if muffled it still sounded friendly. "It is safe now, you can get out of there."

She went still, not willing to move, the voice was that of a stranger. There was no way of telling if he was one of the meanies, one of her clan or a stranger. A second round of soft knocking sounded and the voice spoke up still kind and warm. "I know you are afraid kid, but there is no reason to be frightened. The bad people are gone now. Look, I will even open the lid and let you look for yourself."

Happy Meal wanted to protest, to say no, but when the lid was slowly removed she heard the sound of her clan members talking, there were crying and weeping, she did not like that. but her clan was alive still, and that meant that the voice did not lie. He was not one of the meanies.

Slowly she stood up and looked out of the edge of the barrel, an elderly earth pony dressed in strange metal clothing greeted her with a warm smile on his muzzle. The earth pony was clearly old, his mane so pale in colour like her old granny and grampy's manes had once been. His muzzle was slightly wrinkled and his coat a worn out pale colour. This was a very old pony. "Hey there, you are safe now." He gently reached out and lifted her out of the barrel before putting her down on the ground.

Fire was being put out by several of the surviving nomads, the unicorns summoning water while the pegasus created small rain clouds, while the earth ponies carried buckets of sand and water to toss over the flames. The little filly was uncertain what to do, her home looked damaged and many others of the clan's homes looked hurt or destroyed. Were was her mother? She missed her. The old stallion gently pushed her with his foreleg and nodded his head towards a group of mares and stallions covered in blankets and drinking from cups. "Come, your mother is very worried."

At those words a jolt went through her tiny body. Happy Meal did not wait for the old pony to guide her, she ran frantically over the red stained old cobble road and with tears running down her cheeks she leaped into the warm fur of her mother who hugged her tightly. "Mama!" "Happy Meal!" Mother and daughter cried as they hugged each other. It brought some small joy to the surviving clan members, even if it was only slight.

The old stallion smiled at the scene before moving over to one of the overturned wagons, it had bee nturned over onto its side and it would have to be manually flipped upright before anything else was done. Hunching down he grasped the side of the wagon with his forelegs, took a deep breathe and then began to heave a he lifted with his lowered hind legs and with a loud groan and a thud the wagon was turned upright. It was a feat worthy of legends, a wagon of such size would be something even a group of five earth ponies would find difficult to turn upright.

Several of the nomads stared at the old earth pony in shock, but he did not seem to notice and just investigated the wagon for any damages before moving over to another wagon. This one was completely destroyed. So it was obvious that it would have to be taken apart to save resources. He began by emptying the wagon of anything that was intact or could be repaired before gathered the ruined or destroyed into a pile. he then began to pull the wagon apart into piles of different parts.

Normally the nomads would have helped, but they were in no condition to do much physical labor in the state they were in. Almost one third of their clan had been killed or severely injured. The rest traumatized in different fashions. Without pause the elderly stallion moved along the line of wagons, repairing broken ones and dismantling destroyed ones. While also trying to save what could be saved form each wagon.

Happy Meal and Grand Feast did not leave one another, the mother and daughter not wanting to leave the other's side after the horrors that had happened this day. Grand Feast looked on as the elderly earth pony worked, his blood stained and armour covered frame moving along the wagons, helping wherever he could. When he approached her wagon she felt a bit uneasy, but all he did was grab a broom and start to sweep out the damaged items and ruined food. He even went as far as to covering the pies with cloth as to keep the dust from getting on them.

"He be kind, that elderly saviour of ours." She muttered softly, the nomads that heard her nodded in agreement. Even for them, for a strange to act in such a selfless manner was rare, even other nomads and the pony villagers in the land did not act in such a benevolent and generous way.

It would be the early afternoon when the last wagon was fixed and the elderly stallion returned to the nomads. "I have fixed what I could. Sadly enough could not ten of your wagons be saved, I had to tear them down into separate parts. I tried to save what I could from the wagons while leaving what had been damaged beyond repair in piles by each wagon they were part of. This way you can try and put together your homes as good as possible considering the circumstances."

The corpses of the bandits had by now been tossed into burning wreckage, no one gave a single mind to memorize their looks or cutie marks, they were just tossed onto the flames to be burned. While the dead clan members were dug a line of graves, each with a specific grave stone with the pony's name and cutie mark engraved into the stone by the elder of the clan. They had been doing this an hour after the mysterious stranger started fixing their wagons.

An old unicorn walked forward, his name was Tall Sprout, his mane was grey and his pelt orange, he had the cutie mark of a growing bean stalk. "We thank thee for thy aid stranger. We art Tall Sprout, leader and eldest shaman of the Blue Grass Clan. Please, tell us, what be thy name?"

*Oh geez, why did it have to be Olden English? And badly spoken Olden English at that?* Maleficus, currently being Golden Cross, groaned in despair at the mangled words he was hearing but kept it inside himself and just responded with a polite voice. "I am Golden Cross, of the Lawbringers, sadly enough the last of the Lawbringers."

The old unicorn nomad nodded. "We art grateful Sir Golden Cross. We of the Blue Grass Clan will forever in thou debt." Golden Cross just smiled a bit, but said smile was a bit strained when not only the elder bowed to him, but the entire clan did. *Gods this is awkward, I am NOT used to such attention. Just keep your face straight Maleficus, just keep it straight.*

Reaching out with a hoof he raised the bowed elder up from his posture. And then Golden Cross spoke to the clan in a kind voice. "I just did my duty, my order is one that brings law, order and judgement upon the lands were no laws are followed or given. And those who act in the ways of the lawless and the criminal for their own selfish gains shall be given the just Judgement of the Law which I bring upon them. to protect the innocent and judge the guilty, that is what I do."

The old pony then gave a bow of his own to the clan before turning around and walking away from the caravan and towards his own wagon, left a good distance ahead of the caravan. Once he arrived at his wagon he checked the straps, the wood and the interior, no one had tried to touch or steal anything. It was probably safe to assume that he had taken out all of the bandits, well hopefully, there might be a possibility that some stragglers escaped, he could not be certain.

As he finished examining his wagon he ventured down towards a river that was flowing down by the side of the road. He would need to clean up his armour, both it, his fur and his weapon were... rather dirty.

Unlatching the armour, piece by piece, he undressed it from his body, even pulling off the chain mail after wards. He then lowered himself into the edge of the river, the water was pleasantly cool in the heat. And then he began to scrub, not only himself, but each piece of his armour clean.

As he dragged the piece of clothe he was using over the metal, the water beneath him began to turn red and flow down the river, like a crimson streak swaying in the waves. Remembering the song he had sung during his battle he looked into the crimson water, and the red image of his pony face, and began to sing softly, in an low and sorrowful voice.

"I spoke to the gods today, and they said that they're ashamed. What have I done. And who have I become?"

As he sang he thought about how he had changed from who he had once been. He thought of the lives he had taken he felt shame, as he thought about the pain he had brought he felt depression and he felt his body twitch at the memories of his body burning inside out. Shaking his head clear of the depressing thought he focused on his work, unwilling to let the ghosts of his own mind drag him down. *I will not go down that path. There is nothing but misery dwelling upon it.*

An hour went by as the disguised alicorn cleaned up his armour. The sun warmed up his body as he got out of the water, the armour pieces were dried by a dry cloth and after completely cleaning up his own fur and drying it he began to put on the pieces once more. Once he had put everything back on, except for the helmet which he holstered onto the belt on the right side of his armour, he began to walk back towards his wagon. *Alright, let's get going.*

(Scene Skip)

Happy Meal was happy that her mama was okay, even if she seemed much more sad then before. The little filly had inspected their home with her mother after she had recovered from the shock. At first they had been expecting a mess of bins, pots and wares turned over and spilled out. Yet apparently had Golden Cross not only leaned up the dust and dirt from the wagon, he had put everything back up straight and proper.

Even the pies they had been painstakingly cooking all morning were okay, cold but otherwise completely untouched. Then Happy Meal got a bright idea, an idea to offer her thanks to the nice old pony who saved her mama and her clan. "Mama! Let us make Mister Cross a pie! We will make him the biggest tastiest pie ever!"

Grand Feast looked at her brightly smiling filly for a few seconds before hugging her and ruffling the giggling foal's mane, while speaking up with a smile on her muzzle. "Oh bright child of ours. A most wonderful idea. Let us not just make one for our savior, let us make a grand feast as well, to celebrate our arrival at Canterlot."

The mood of the family wagon got warm and comfortable once more and the sound of cooking could be heard from its interior, a mother and daughter both happily laughing as they cooked together. Even with the gloomy atmosphere and the sorrow of the other Blue Grass Clan Members, was the sound of Grand Feast and Happy Meal making them cheerful once more and the clan made preparations for resuming their journey towards Canterlot.

It would not be long before the Blue Grass Nomads once more would be on the road.

Old Tall Sprout smiled to himself as the cheer was brought back to his clan. He had an idea of how to keep their spirit up on their journey towards the city of ponies, and it would require a bit of aid from their savior. So with a confident stride in his legs the old unicorn walked down the road where he had seen Golden Cross wander off to.

(Scene Skip)

What Golden Cross found when he got back to the wagon was the elder of the nomad clan waiting for him. And what the old unicorn had to say, was not what he was expecting. "So wait just a minute... you want ME, to guide YOU, to Canterlot?"

The old horned unicorn nodded. "Aye indeed. We art no longer as secure as we once were. We hath lost several of our clan members. Thou art a strong warrior and thus we would ask thee to aid our clan to reach Canterlot."

Sighing the old earth pony rubbed his forehead a bit. He had not wanted to go to Canterlot yet, he had wanted to explore the unseen regions around Equestria. But then again, it was perhaps for the best that he made himself familiar with the exterior and interior of Canterlot while he had the chance. It was far more likely then not that there were already several dozens of pathways and tunnels made in the city and the central keep's architecture. If he had a chance to explore the city before time would erase the records of the constructions, then he might make use of them in the future.

"Very well I will act as a guard and guide for your people until we reach Canterlot. I have not been there myself though, I only know the way from some passing soldiers and farmers. My Order's duty is to bring justice upon the lawless and the guilty, not to act as a guide, but in case there are more deserters turned bandits like those that attacked you, it might as well be in my interest to keep you safe."

The relieved look on the old unicorn's face made him assume that there were more reasons for having him guide them then being protection. Hopefully it wasn't anything dubious or ill intended, he was not certain how he would deal with anything like that right now.

"I will be moving out soon, so you may as well tell your people to prepare themselves. Since I will be moving at a steady pace do you not need to worry if you cannot see me, I am just down the road ahead of you." The old unicorn disappeared in a blur towards his clan, leaving a befuddled Golden Cross behind. *Wow... how the heck can such an old person move so freaking fast?*

Deciding to not think too much about it the disguised Alicorn went over to his wagon and began to check on his pantry, he had gathered some fruit and veggies when he had been going down the road. He had no real stove in his wagon, he might have to invest in one in the future, so for now would he survive on some fresh apples, wild carrots and various kinds of berries. Golden was rather amazed that the world he was in had so many similar kinds of plants, fruits and veggies to that of his own home world.

As he was pulling out a bowl of apples from his pantry he caught the whiff of a strangely delicious smell in the air. It was making him feel tingly. The scent smelt a bit nutty and fruity, with the sweet hint of a scent of honey with a weak background taste of baked sweet pastry, and it was making him drool quite a bit.

Putting back his goods he tried to discern the source of the scent, sniffing the air loudly, his stomach growling like a mad beast every time the scent filled his nostrils. He was sniffing the air like a blood hound as he looked out the window of his wagon. Sensing to where the scent was coming from he looked down the road towards the hills were the Nomads were located. The scent was overpowering the smell of burning wood and flesh, it was the most delicious thing he had been smelling for ages, and yet it made him feel so nostalgic.

The scent was a bit nutty but it also held a familiar cooked fruit scent that was making him think of his childhood. Of something he and his siblings were given as a dessert from time to time by his parents. *What was it... what was it that father used to bake back then? Back when I was a child. I know it. It was... it was.... apple pie!*

As much as he wanted to run down the road in a childish glee did he not want to presume too much, as much as he'd like to have a taste was he not sure if it would be alright. Even if he had saved them all, would he not want to intrude upon them just because they were baking one of his childhood favorite desserts.

Even as his stomach grumbled he just leaned out the window eyes closed and enjoyed the scent, it was far more enjoyable then one might think. Besides, once the scent was gone, he would enjoy his fresh apples even more.

(Scene Skip)

"Pie is done mama!" Happy Meal called out as she pulled out the large apple and chestnut pie she and her mother had baked together. As she laid the big steaming crust covered pastry onto a table. Grand Feast took a piece of white cloth and tied up the hot pie, as to keep it from getting cold.

"Come honey, let us give our savior his reward." The mare said with a smile while her daughter nodded with a smile on her muzzle. With the pie in fold the duo left their wagon together and walked down the road towards were the Clan Elder has said Golden Cross' wagon was located.

As they moved down the road they saw the rickety wagon, it looked a bit shambled and run down ,and yet had a bit of charm to it. The old earth pony could be seen leaning out the window, his armoured forelegs crossed over one another to give his head a spot to rest. His eyes were closed and he had a nostalgic smile on his muzzle for some reason, his nostrils sniffing the air.

"Hi! Ser Cross! We hath a pie for thee!" Happy Meal shouted out, the old earth pony seemed a bit startled as his head sprung up and he looked around a bit in surprise before spotting the pair approaching his wagon.

"Oh. Hi there. Wait. Do you mean that pie is for me?" Grand Feast was honestly surprised by the confusion and shock on the old earth pony's face, it was like he was not used to being thanked or given rewards. But she guess she could not blame him, if his Order truly acted out like he had done before, there were no little chance that ponies would shun them for their actions. She knew, shamefully enough, that if she had not been a victim herself, she might have been too terrified to even approach him.

Her sweet innocent filly Happy Meal however was just smiling brightly and nodding her little head. "Aye! We and our mama made it for thee!"

The old earth pony's eyes seemed to grow glazed and slightly teared for a second, but it seemed to disappear, but the warm smile on his muzzle, did not. "That is most kind of you. I have not eaten a home cooked meal for decades."

While those words made Grand Feast's heart clench a bit, she steeled herself and just smiled at her savior and walked over to the old pony's wagon and held up the pie for him. The old earth pony accepted her tribute with a smile and then seemed to ponder something before speaking up. "Say, would you like to come in? I would not mind sharing. It is a big pie."

"We... well..." At first Grand Feast wanted to decline, but the kind face of the Golden Cross and the pleading look on her daughter's face, not to mention her own stomach slightly grumbling, made her agree. "Very well."

Stepping into the wagon she felt a bit uneasy by the lines of weapons and armour kept in one of the rooms, thankfully was the old earth pony only opening the room to put away his weapons and armour he had been wearing. The old pony's coat was lined with old scars from all manners of wounds. It made her amazed that he was able to function with how many of the scars were located by his joints, spine and throat.

There was no kitchen in the wagon, only a pantry with a small room for eating connected to it. The room had a square table, some short stools and a cupboard with wooden bowls, wooden plates, knives, spoons and some strange small pitchforks.

Golden Cross lead them to the table and with a swift hoof he cut up the piece into several smaller pieces before pulling out three plates for each of them, with a spoon for each of them. Having a seat the old pony smiled as Happy Meal sat down on the opposite side along with her mother.

As the old pony took a bite out of the pie his eyes seemed to quiver before he swallowed the bite and spoke up with a wonderfully warm voice, his eyes closed, a lone tear sliding down his left cheek, "This, is the most delicious thing, I have eaten, in a long, long time."

"Yeah! Mama makes the best food in da world!" Happy Meal cheered while chewing her own piece of pie, while Grand Feast just smiled while eating her own piece. The old earth pony and the mother and daughter ate together, enjoying the cooked meal together while talking about various subjects.

Most questions came from Happy Meal. Were did he come from. How did he get his cutie mark. How long did it take for him to get so strong. And so on.

The old pony answered each question as best as he could. He was from a now destroyed fortress in the east. He got his cutie mark when he was dubbed a Knight of the Lawbringer Order by the Grand Master. He trained, and still trained, since his early childhood. It was a variety of topics but those three subjects stood out the most. It gave Grand Feast a bit of insight into Golden Cross' childhood and Order.

He was most likely born and raised in the Order, trained for an early age and since he was knighted must the Order have either been commanded by a noble or been a group of self proclaimed knights. It would not be a rare thing, when Discord threw everything into disarray was there no way of knowing who was noble or not. most records had been destroyed and so had many proclaimed themselves noble to gain the privilege.

But even if the way he was raised was a bit distasteful for her could Grand Feast not disagree with the result that the Order had made if Golden Cross was an example of their members. It made her feel like the world was a bit safer with people like Golden Cross around, even if he was the last could there be other similar ponies doing things for the good of the people, she was sure of it.

Finishing the meal the mother and daughter said their good byes to the old warrior who waved back at them. He then went back into his wagon to put his armour back on, he would be on the move soon, and so would the caravan of the Nomads.

(Scene Skip)

*That was a most fine meal. I hope I can eat like that more often, it is not like I can cook food on the Moon.* Golden Cross thought to himself as he walked down the road, pulling his wagon while just a hundred feet or so behind him, was the caravan of the Blue Grass Nomads following him.

Even with the good food in his tummy was the situation not one he felt comfortable with. In fact. He felt very, very awkward acting like a guide for such a big group. It made him ponder about the great figures of legends and religion he read while in school and on the internet. *If this is even an inkling of how it was for Moses when he lead the Hebrews out of Egypt then I applaud him and his efforts. It could not have been easy.*

The trail of wagons rolled down the road in a perfect line up. Even upon the old and untended cobblestone road the wagons moved with ease, showing just how used the nomads were to wandering these old ruined roads. Golden Cross' wagon was shaking a bit more, but his was far smaller then the wagons of the Blue Grass Clan. And he did not seem bothered by it, just walking forward without a pause in his legs.

As the road reached a small mountain area it became steeper as the wagons were forced to ascend the hill side of the mountain to reach the path of the road going through a pass between the small rocky peaks. As the caravan passed a cross road when they had passed the mountain pass, they were greeted by another group of nomads, also pulling wagons. Golden Cross did not pause nor speak to them, he just strode forward, determined and unrelenting in his goal.

The sight of the heavily armoured pony guiding the Blue Grass Clan seemed to inspire the other Nomads to do the same and soon the trails of wagons had doubled in size. And even as they moved further down the road, more and more ponies joined up with them. Many individual wagons and many groups on hooves trailed after them. eEven two more nomadic clans joined the march.

Golden Cross felt ridiculous about the whole thing. He thought he was just to guide the Blue Grass Clan to Canterlot as a favour, how did it end up with him guiding what seemed to be the entire Nomad population in Equestria!? *How the fuck did this even happen!? I am quite certain we have become four times as large a number of wagons then before! And that is NOT counting the individual families of ponies to boot! There got to be over a thousand of them!*

As the ponies behind him chattered and laughed, some of them even bursting into song, he restrained a groan of frustration and tried to not show any kind of grimace while he just kept on moving. The roof tops of the taller buildings of Canterlot could be seen in the distance. Once they passed the next hill they would be within eyesight of the city. and as he reached the top of the hill he let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the city walls greeting his sight. *Good, now I just need to get these ponies there and I can get some time to inspect the place by myself.*

He stopped and looked back at the ponies behind him, all who had halted when he did and looked at him in curiosity. "We are soon there. Just a bit further ahead is Canterlot, it is a magnificent view. Rejoice, for you are soon home." The old earth pony then turned his head forward again and began to walk down the road towards the city. He felt a slight twitch on his lips as the ponies behind him cheered at the sight of the city, the awed gasps of the foals and the warmth filled laughter of the elderly. Yeah. It was a good feeling, to help others.

(Scene Skip)

Meanwhile in a hidden spot beneath a dark mountain side, was a group of shadowy forms gathered around a candle lit map of the region. There were five shapes in total, two of the far larger then any pony, the remaining three were pony sized. One of the large shapes looked upon the map and spoke with a gleeful voice filled with twisted desires. "It be good then, yer info?"

"Aye, those deserters art filled with information. The Princess of the Sun is temporarily wounded by the Stallion of Torment, he who hath called himself Maleficus Victoria. Her wounds makes it so that she can not cast magic." One of the pony sized shadows said.

Another pony sized shape giggled in a mad fashion while scrapping something sharp against something metallic. "Ehehehehehe! Then we art ready for the biggest heist in our lives! So many necks to slit!"

"Ahahahaha! Indeed we be lucky! Those richie ponies in them pretty houses of theirs must hath good booty!" The other large shape said.

"So we all agree then. We shalt gather all our forces, and conscript all of the local clans to our cause. This coming full moon. Canterlot, will burn." Said the final of the pony sized shadows while slamming a jagged dagger into the spot of the map were the mountain were Canterlot stood, was marked. All five of the figures laughed and cheered, while outside of the dark gathering, were shapes of various creatures working in a large campsite, a campsite, filled to the brim with weapons and siege equipment.

Danger was fast approaching Canterlot, and with the recent defeat of the Equestrian Army, was there little doubt that it would have dire consequences. But for whom? That is yet to be determined, for anything can turn the tide of the disaster into a windfall of victory. All one need, is an opportunity.

To Be Continue

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: Well that's another late chapter, but it is finished now. Even if I did not enjoy writing some parts of it.

Pinkie: Why did such bad things have to happen!?

Staadnauthursil: Can't be helped, I wanted to show that my Inserted Self's actions had consequences, and not to mention that I cannot know how well I would have handled myself if I experienced and saw in such a scene. The me in this story has experienced years of pain, loss and more. I can say for certain that I would never intend to kill someone, but for the me who has been traumatized and experiencing PTSD? Yeah that's not so clear and thus I must make harsh decision about what I might do in such a state of mind even if I do not like it.

Pinkie: It is still saaaaaaaaad!

Staadnauthursil: Of course it is. That is the point, not every point of a story is nice, not every story has happy endings, and your actions bear consequences, no matter your intentions or situation. This makes the happy parts stand out more.

Pinkie: I guess... At least that family will come through this.

Staadnauthursil: Aye, You will hear about the Meal family later as well. But when is not to be told yet.

Chapter Nine: Golden Days & Lurking Shadows (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Nine: Golden Days & Lurking Shadows

The gates of Canterlot had been open during the sunrise like they had ever since the Princess had decided upon the opening hours of the city. A pair of ponies are standing on top of the large Main Gatehouse of the city, having the incredibly important, not to mention dead boring, duty of guarding the city gates.

One of them, a pegasus with yellow pelt and green mane with blue stripes, was looking out from the gatehouse, trying peer his eyes as much as possible to look into the distance."Hey Far Sight."

A big, and slightly overweight, unicorn with lavender pelt and a short cut orange mane and tail, answered his partner while looking out through a spyglass in the same direction. "Aye?"

"Are ye seeing what We be seeing?"

"Aye."

"So that dere giant group of new ponies not be our imagination?"

"Aye."

"Thank ye fer dat... We probably should signal da horn, right?"

"Aye."

"Well... We better be doing that then."

"Aye."

And thus the silence of the day was broken when the pegasus walked over to the wagon sized hollowed out dragon horn, grasped it firmly by the tip, took a deep breath. Before blowing into it so hard that his hind quarters sprung up into the air and floated there while his hind legs were spread out like wings, while his wings were spread out as well. The horn shook as the air circulated through it and rumbling BRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH sounded out over the city.

After stopping his body rested down on the ground, he took a second deep breath, before repeating it.

(Scene Skip)

While the day was beautiful and the weather fine, were all of the city in a sense of mourning. The Equestrian Army had failed in its Crusade against Maleficus and the fact that Princess Celestia was severely injured, and then healed by the enemy, made them feel even worse.

Most of the foals were unaware of the adults' plight and depression, just enjoying their lives in the city, playing and laughing together. Some of the foals knew of the adults' negative mood however, some more then others because of how the adults 'handled' their emotions.

Sufficient to say had a lot of issues sprung up among the population since the return of the army. Many of the soldiers had gone down a dark path of drinking away their humiliation, others were focusing so much on training that they were ignoring their friends and loved ones. While a few, had deserted the army and the nation completely.

In her throne room was Celestia sitting on her throne with a vacant look on her face as she looked out on the sunrise, she had been almost unable to lower the moon and raise the sun, the pain in her horn had been excruciatingly painful but she had managed to raise it properly. The pain had been even worse when she had to lower the sun and raise the moon last evening.

She could not use anything outside of the basic of telekinesis to lift small objects as she currently was and her healers told her she would have to refrain from doing any larger bits of magic outside of lowering and raising the sun and moon for up to two months. Her horn was repaired but it was still very tender and would require a lot of time for the nerves inside it to be completely restored. if it was not for the fact that she needed to lower and raise the sun she would have recovered within a week but since she had to do so, was the time extended quite a bit.

But that did little to stop her internal struggle as she tried to figure out why her ponies had abandoned their home, their nation, their princess. *We hath thought Our subjects loyal and true to Our cause. When were We deceived? Where did We fail? Why wouldst they betray us like thus?* She sighed deeply while looking out through the open doorway to the balcony, her throne room was barren of guards and no petitions had come all day, she had wanted to be left alone.

Although she doubted that even then there would be anyone coming to put forth a petition. With how depressed her city was at the moment she doubted they wanted to have anything to do with her. It made her feel guilty and shameful that she had lost, it also made her sad and furious, she wanted revenge for her sister and she would have it. Why did her subjects not realize that the effort would be worth it? Why did they not see that one failure would not mean their defeat?

Her thoughts were broken by the sound of a horn being sounded in the distance. It was coming from the main gate of the city and it was a signal from her guards stationed at the Gate House. If she remembered correctly were they signalling something about... approaching ponies?

She had yet to memorize the meaning behind each different horn signal, but she was certain that they were signalling about approaching ponies. Which was a very strange signal because it had never been done before. *This be odd, there hath not been any reason to signal newcomers before.* The alicorn pondered before getting off her throne and walking over to the doorway to the balcony, once outside she looked at the land outside of her city. With the central keep of her city being taller then the walls and gatehouse around the city she could see clearly why her guards were signalling.

There was a literal army's worth of ponies, many of them pulling wagons, approaching from the southern road. It was a ridiculous amount of ponies, the largest number of arriving newcomers she had ever seen. Well over one or two thousand if what she was seeing was correct. "We need to greet these newcomers, perhaps this shalt brighten up the spirit of Our subjects." She said with a thoughtful look on her face before smiling a little before leaving the the balcony, she did not need to dress up to greet the newcomers, but she still wanted to make a good impression so a quick bath was probably in order.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus Victoria, currently in the disguise of Golden Cross, stopped his wagon in front of the large stone bridge leading towards the large gatehouse of the city the ponies had constructed. One big thing that rang through his head when eh saw the city was kind of... criticizing however. *Why did they make a moat but not build a fucking drawbridge instead of a solid stone bridge?*

The rest of the city, the large stone walls, the tall towers and the even larger keep in the center of the city, was far more impressive. But that eyesore of a FREAKING, SOLID, STONE, BRIDGE, BUILT, OVER, A, FUCKING, MOAT, was making his internal Gamer punch the nerves inside of his skull to make his left eye twitch madly. *Why did they build such a stupid thing on their fucking MAIN GATE!*

"...I am honestly kind of underwhelmed. And disappointed." He said out loud before walking over the insanely badly placed stone bridge and towards the open gates of the Gatehouse.

Behind him the wagons were putting up a camp outside the city, considering they probably knew that they were too many to properly fit in all of their wagons into the city streets. Well he alone would fit in quite easily, and he was only interested in staying around for a while before leaving again.

Passing the massive wooden gates he found himself standing at a large wide street, more like a very long rectangular shaped square. There were a large amount of ponies mingling, all of them looking very depressed or solemn. He had an... idea why they might be so depressed but he was not going to say anything, no reason to give himself away because of stupidly babbling about things he should not know.

Walking a bit further into the wide road he tried to spot some of the guards to ask for them to meet the nomads and the ponies when a group of ponies bearing bronze armour marched down the road in a pretty good looking formation. They were in two groups, lined up to five by ten, a total of one hundred soldiers. And between them was Princess Celestia, not in armour but with a pretty crown slash tiara with a large gold necklace with jewels around her neck. But the most notable thing was the gentle look on her face and the warm smile on her lips, which were painted in golden lipstick of all things.

For a second he found himself staring at her a bit more intensely then he wanted to and had to shake his head a bit. *Oookay. She is a lot prettier when she is not frowning, glaring or crying. That's... good to know I guess?* He was not sure WHY he was even thinking about it, but he had to admit that even if she was his enemy, was she still attractive, she reminded him of her mother's pony form, well what he could remember of her. *Gods I hope Laura won't hurt me too much for what I have done and what I will do in the future. But I'd rather she blamed me then herself, even if she is just as guilty as I am of this mess.*

Princess Celestia broke his thoughts when she spoke up in a kind and warm voice, making him curious if this is what she normally acts like or if she was just hiding her temper behind a nice act. "Greetings stranger, We art Princess Celestia of Equestria. May We ask thy name and purpose?"

He responded by giving a short bow with his head before speaking. "I am Golden Cross, Knight of the Lawbringer Order, the Last of the Lawbringers am I afraid. And my purpose here is only to guide the ponies outside of your city gates to reach your city. The original group was a nomadic clan named the Blue Grass Clan and I aided them during a raid of bandits pillaging and ravaging them. When they asked for me to help them the final rout towards Canterlot, I agreed. For it is one of the duties of my order to Protect the Innocent." Celestia's guards seemed a bit uneasy by his accents, he guessed it was because he did not speak the 'olden english' way like they did. But screw them, he was not going to try and change himself for others, he had already been changed enough as it was.

"That be a most virtuous duty Ser Golden Cross. We wonder, what manner of duties dost thy Order hath?" Celestia's curiosity was clearly peeked, she had not heard of anything called a Lawbringer before. But if this old earth pony was one, then he might be part of one of the lost Knight Orders that went missing during the Reign of Discord.

Golden Cross raised a hoof and began to speak up again, moving his hoof against his chest into a form of salute. "It is a group of rather simple guidelines which a Lawbringer is to follow at his own leisure. They are as following. Duty to the People. Which means protect the innocent and avenge the fallen. Duty to the Law, which means that we are to act as the protectors of right and persecutors of wrong, we judge the guilty and bring down the lawless. Duty to the Gods, we are not required to follow the Gods' will or orders. But, we act in their stead to bring judgement upon those would break the laws of reality with wicked intent. Duty of the Path, a Lawbringer will almost never be with another Lawbringer unless married, related or gathered. We act in solitude, wandering the land, bringing weapon and law in our hooves for those who need it, and those who flee it."

Sanding up on his hind legs he unsheathed his pole axe before kneeling down on one of his hind legs as he pressed the pommel of his weapon against the ground and rested both of his hooves against the shaft of the weapon, while speaking out a prayer. "I am Judge, I am Jury, I am Justice, I am Lawbringer. Where the Law is Broken, I Shall Come, Where the Innocent are Hurt, I Shall Come, Where the World is Tainted, I Shall Come. And thus I shall act. As the Scale of Judgement. As the Blade against the Wicked. As the Shield for the Innocent. In the Name of the Gods. In the Name of Justice. In the Name of the Innocent. Amen."

A heavy atmosphere could be felt in the air as Golden Cross stood up from his prayer and put his poleaxe back onto his back before returning to stand on all four legs once more. Celestia looked upon him with scrutiny. The Lawbringers sounded almost fanatically zealous in their believes of judging and protecting. It made her feel a bit uneasy but she knew she could not just blindly demand his order to change its ways, even if he was the last of it.

"We see. Thee act as a Bringer of Order, an Agent Against Chaos and Disorder?" She finally asked as she managed to get past the uneasy feeling in the air.

But Golden Cross shook his head. "No. I am not an agent of a higher power. We Lawbringers were founded by a group of Knights, that is true. But all were welcome into our ranks, be it mare, stallion, pegasus, earth pony, unicorn and non-ponies. Social rankings held no meaning to us. All that we ask is that you wish to act against the wicked and cruel on your own volition. We do not ask for worship, we do not ask for kindness, we do not ask for tribute nor do we ask for payment. Lawbringers bring judgement upon those who would use the state of the world to spread their dark intentions like plague in the fields. We may not be seen as heroes, we are not always wanted, but we were what was once necessary."

Looking at the bronze soldiers Golden Cross seemed to correct himself at the final part. "And I fear that we STILL are what is necessary. With no one to bring judgement, we acted on our own will and intentions. I cannot say that all of our numbers were good, decent or even neutral people. Some were zealous in their duties, some were corrupted during their duties and would be judged for their own crimes, while others would remain indifferent. No one is perfect. But in a world were chaos and depravity reigned, were the innocent suffered. We were a necessary evil. And I am sad to say, that we still are. Even if I am the last one, I will still do my duty, for it is all that I have left since the fall of my order."

The silence that came and Celestia seemed to look at the Lawbringer with a hint of respect and concern. She was clearly suspicious, yet his words, they hit deep even if she did not want to admit it. The old earth pony then shook his head towards the large gates and spoke up again. "But enough about me and my dying order. The ponies outside wish to speak to you Princess. I will not take part of it however, my duty to them is over now that they are safe and sound. So I shall take a bit of a rest before leaving the city to travel once more."

He then walked past the dumbfound guards. But the voice of the princess made him pause in his strides. "Thou spoke of bandits which thou judged. May we inquire, what was the punishment?"

Stopping in mid step the old earth pony did not even turn around as he answered the princess' question. "Out of the forty or so raiders I judged were all except one of them given the same punishment for their crimes." He stated in a calm and cool voice, while internally he was trying to not break out into a nervous twitch. *I sure as fuck hope she won't over react. I do not need more stress on myself.*

"As we asked, what be the punishment of those thou judged?" Celestia inquired once more and the old earth pony just closed his eyes and sighed softly.

"For the crimes of thievery, destruction of private property, severe physical abuse, rape, murder and desecration of the dead. I judged all but One with the punishment of Death by Execution, in Battle." The guards around the princess physically flinched at those words, while Celestia's eyes grew sorrowful and haunted, making him feel rather guilty for causing it, even if he knew there was nothing to be done about it. He would not lie about it, it would not be a good idea. The truth hurt, but it was better to get it out now and keep it straight, rather then letting the lies pile up more then he had already done so far.

"As for the final bandit I judged. He was a unicorn in golden armour, the apparent leader of the band. And he deserved more then a quick death in battle for his acts. Not only did he lead the bandits, he personally raped four of the mares. And he did not even try to fight, ordering those around him to fight while he enjoyed his victims. He covered behind his group of scum through it all, still raping a mare until the bandits started dying." A few of the guards retched in the background, and a scent of decomposing food matter could be smelt as stomach acid and soldier rations were poured out onto the cobblestone of the square,

Yet the stallion was not done, and kept talking, his voice unmoved and his eyes calm and quivering as he turned his head around and looked Celestia in the eyes as he told her of his judgement upon the bandit leader. She was not making any outward reactions, but he could see it in her eyes, she was sad and angry at the same time, and it was confusing her. "But when the last of his band fell he tried to bribe me to let him go. And thus I punished him severely. I gave him the punishment of Mutilation and Humiliation, I broke off and burned his horn into ash before putting him in chains to show others of his ilk what would happen to those who sought to harm the innocent. Ignorance is not bliss when it makes others ignorant of the consequences of their actions."

As if the gods had been listening was a soft rattling of metal links heard beyond the gate as a group of ponies entered through the gateway. One of them was the Elder of the Blue Grass Clan, Tall Sprout, the others were strangers Golden Cross had not meet before. And behind them, with all four hooves chained to one another, was the still unconscious Silver Feed being dragged by a pair of large earth ponies.

The princess looked slightly ill when she saw the broken bloody stump on the unconscious unicorn's forehead, and absentmindedly touched her own horn as if feeling a similar pain. Her soldiers reacted far more violently, the entire row of soldiers took a hasty step backwards, making it seem like it was made through discipline, yet Golden Cross knew the truth. The fear in their eyes revealed it, they had all backed away in fear of not the mutilated unicorn, but in fear of him who had dealt the punishment.

"A word of advise princess. When you judge someone, let not someone else deal the punishment. Those who give the verdict, should be the ones to deal it out. I will take my leave for now. This is my first time in a city in several decades." No pony made a move to stop the old warrior as he left the square, the crowd which had gathered to see what the commotion on the square was all about, let him pass by splitting apart like the red sea did for Moses. And he disappeared into the streets, only the sight of his wagon made it possible to discern his position. But it soon, had also disappeared from sight.

(Scene Skip)

Celestia stared upon the prisoner the nomads had brought before her on the square. Silver Feed had been part of her Sun Guard, the highest privileged military unit in the nation. And yet his greed was apparently strong enough that he would preform desertion, murder and rape to get what he wanted. She felt anger and shame, not only at the Sun Guard, not only at Maleficus, but at herself as well. And she felt incredibly infuriated that the old earth pony had lectured her while telling her that he had killed some of her subjects in battle... well... perhaps former subjects was the more fitting term for them. Did not make her feel better however.

"Sergeant!" She barked out at her soldiers, making all of them jerk in surprise at the loud shouting from the princess. One of them, bearing a white mantle and a red comb on his helmet, stepped forward with a salute. "Aye milady!"

"Take him to the Dungeons. Tend to his wounds, but do not heal or repair his horn. He will face Our judgement with his crime fresh in mind." With a wordless salute the Sergeant pointed at four of his soldiers who stepped forward and took the prisoner's chains from the Nomad guards who nodded silently to them as they began to drag Silver Feed towards the Castle Dungeons. *Thy art a pony with the greed of dragons Silver Feed. And the manners of beasts. How far did it take for thee to fall We wonder, or were thou already such a pony and just covering thou depravity?*

Her thoughts were broken when she started hearing one of the newcomers speak to her. The old unicorn of the group had bowed deeply to the Princess and begun to speak out in a almost tearful manner, the old unicorn was so happy that his emotions were starting to spill over. "Thank ye Madame Celestia, We are Tall Sprout, Chief and Elder of the Blue Grass Clan. We are a clan of well traveled nomads who have wandered the lands fer a century since yer disappearance during the Fall of the Green Star. We hath thought ye lost to the Star until we heard about yer return. We are most relieved for yer return."

Feeling slightly less depressed Celestia smiled at the old unicorn, he reminded her a bit of how her old Mentor once acted like, how she missed those days. "We art not leaving again if We can help it Elder Tall Sprout. We hath faced a century of isolation in the Everfree Forest. And thus We art most ignorant of the dealings of the world of the present. We would be most grateful if thou told Us what thou know."

"We shalt do Our best to indulge whatever information we might have to yer people Madame Celestia. But first We have others here whom might be of aid to yer people." Tall Sprout straightened himself, his spine popping and cranking like a rusty crane before he moved over to the other newcomers, except for his two guards, who stood like a formal sign of protection by the Elder's sides.

While the Princess was introduced to the newly arriving leaders of the ponies who would be joining her kingdom, was the old earth pony Golden Cross elsewhere. She still wanted to confront him, but it would have to wait for later, for now, she wanted to bring some warmth and joy to not only the newcomers but all of her subjects.

(Scene Skip)

"Here seems like a good spot to park my wagon." He said as he looked around, he had wandered through the streets until he came to a park located on the inside of the city next to what looked like a large training field. From what he could tell was there no rules against parking his wagon on the grass of the park, the 'Don't Step On The Grass' law had not been invented yet.

Unstrapping himself her pushed his wagon beneath a young but well grown tree that looked a bit like a peach tree. He was not sure but the sweet scent from the tree was soothing. Pulling out a chain and padlock he linked the chain between his wagon's front wheels, over and around the wooden frame holing the straps, before tightening it a it before putting the padlock into place.

Feeling quite a bit tired from his day he climbed into his wagon and locked the door and windows on the inside. He did not want to be disturbed, he had not had a peaceful sleep for a long, long time. Carefully cleaning his teeth, even if it was not necessary with his teeth now being metallic, he made sure to secure his wagon from those who might try to magically searching or scrying for his true self. The runic array he engraved into the wood would block out magical sensory and keep the magic inside his wagon undetected, so if he was having night terrors, he would not make anyone notice unless he destroyed his wagon. Hopefully it would not come to that.

Golden Cross finished carving the final rune into place as the sun was settling, he had been exhausted through it all but he was able to complete the runic array- But now he needed sleep, his eyes were warm, heavy and stinging with exhaustion. Laying down the knife he had used to carve the runes into the wood he stumbled into the sleeping quarters of his wagon. Yawning loudly he smacked his lips before pulling back the cover on his sot hay filled mattress, he made sure to blow out the candle in the lantern on his bed stand before laying down on the soft bed. He would take the rest of the day off and just rest in a soft and warm bed, for the first time in two centuries. His head had barely hit the soft surface of his pillow before he was out like a light.

(Scene Skip)

In the dark shadows of the Equestria were many a twisted fellows moving through the land. Words were being whispered, messages were being written, and a call was being made. And for the first time in centuries, roamed the cutthroats, cut pursers and bandits as one, like a mass of gold starving locust through the night. From beyond the borders of Equestra were mysterious sinister beings following the call as well.

The masterminds behind the gathering were gleefully watching as their plans were being prepared from their camp beneath the dark shadow of the mountain. Within the following weeks there would be no trace of the once numerous criminals on the land. It was a cheering thought for many. But of those less ignorant of the workings of the darker side of the world, was this a dark omen.

Evil forces were at work within the land of Equestria. But for what purpose would not be discovered until it was too late to prevent it.

(Scene Skip)

Celestia looked up at the moon of the evening sky, the image of her sister remained upon its surface reminded her of Maleficus being free and roaming the lands on his own. It made her so frustrated and angry that she was still too injured to go after him. Even if the repair of her horn was done would it take two moons for her magical nerves to recover because of the repairs he had done to it.

*If he hath done this intentionally, he be a more fearsome foe then We anticipated.* She thought to herself as she walked inside of her room to lay down for some sleep. The newly arrived nomads and wanderers would become part of her city tomorrow once proper living areas had been prepared, there were a lot of empty buildings but they would still need to be examined for errors and make certain that the new ponies had a decent area to open their own businesses. She was just thankful that she had ordered the city to be designed so large and easily changeable, it would make things easier for her and her subjects.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus Victoria woke up within his dream realm once more. But this time, he was alone. Luna was nowhere to be seen and he was not sure if he even could find her. He had no real experience in looking for someone else within his own dream outside of when he just tried to make her more present when she was trying to contact him.

Feeling that it was for the best to not bother the, possibly still upset, princess he just imagined a warm summer day by a field of grass, a hammock and one of his favourite pass times, watching cartoons. He had not seen any kind of cartoon for years, and even if he was just using what he had already seen to rerunning the episodes in his dreams, was the episodes of several cartoons and Japanese anime worth re-watching in his opinion.

He spent the entire night watching several of his favourite animes and cartoons. Overlord, One Piece, Berserk, HarmonQuest, Phineas and Firb, Murphey's Law and some other ones. It was hard keeping track of it all but he found it to be most enjoyable even if he mixed up the episodes a bit from time to time before realizing it.

Maleficus was enjoying watching the final battle between Momonga, aka Ainz Ooal Gown the Overlord, and Shaltear Bloodfallen, the mind controlled Elder Vampire, when he felt the dream realm shift. He was waking up, he sighed a bit, he had hoped to enjoy the episode to its completion. But he had, had fun, so it was enough for now.

As he faded away from the dream realm, he never noticed the blue pony princess who entered it. She looked around in confusion until she spotted the strange contraption floating next to a hammock. Curiously she walked over to it, and gasped when she saw the epic battle between two strange humanoid beings, one clearly undead, and the other a form of twisted divine being!

Luna kept watching, and even as the final battle ended she wondered how the story had started. That's when she noticed a strange thing inside the hammock, a rectangular black block with strange round soft things on it that you could press. Pressing one of the buttons, she saw how the screen shifted, revealing a list of names. She could interact with the screen through the strange device, and soon, she found something called 'Overlord Episode 1'. That had been mentioned in the final battle, that word, Overlord.

Trying she pressed a few of the solid bubbles, and had to backtrack a few times to get back to the list after pressing the wrong soft thing. This kept going for a bit until she pressed a round button with the word OK on it. And the screen started playing. The princess pulled herself up into the hammock and rested her forelegs over the edge, while resting her head between them to watch the screen. She was intrigue by this moving and talking picture book and wanted to find out more.

(Scene Skip)

Yawning softly Golden Cross stretched his hind legs as he stepped out of his bed, by the look of the sun it was almost noon. He had not slept for so long in a long, long time. It made him feel nostalgic. *How much I miss those days. Things were so much easier back then. Mother. Father. I am... I am sorry.*

Shaking his head clear of his depressing thoughts he went into the bathroom of the wagon and brushed his teeth and emptied his bladder into the toilet he had designed. It was a seat shaped for a pony, he could both poop and pee into it without discomfort. It was lined with runes which would transmute his body waste into a powder based fertilizer, which would be released into the wind to spread across a large area as to not over fertilize anything.

It was probably a bit overly complicated but he had not come up with a better solution for what to do with his body waste so this was the best he could think of. Plus it gave him something to do.

After brushing his teeth he moved out of the wagon to check that everything was in order, as he did so could he see a group of foals standing around his wagon, looking at it with curiosity on their muzzles. Chuckling a bit he tapped his left hoof against the frame of his temporary home. “Is this wagon of mine very interesting to you little ones? Are there not other wagons within the city?”

“It be weird looking! In a funny way!” A little earth pony filly said with a grin, a pegasus colt nodded and spoke up in a chipper voice. “Aye! It looks shoddy and funny!”

“Art thou a minstrel?” A little pegasus filly asked with a curious look on her face. “No! We said he be jester fer sure!” A unicorn colt said with a glare at the pegasus filly who stuck out her tongue at him as a response. “No way!”

Chuckling softly the old earth pony rested his hoof on one of the wheels of his wagon. “Hehe. Well it will be easy to explain it. This wagon was built by me, I am no carpenter, this was my first attempt at working wood. It looks shoddy because of my lack of knowledge and experience in the field. Yet I let it retain this look even after I have improved upon its stability. I like how it looks.”

“And no, sorry children. I am neither a minstrel nor a jester. I am something far different then that. I am a Lawbringer. Someone who wanders the world, bringing justice against the wicked while defending the innocent.” He reached into the wagon and pulled out the helmet he had been wearing yesterday, the little ones gasped in delight at the sight of the helmet with its sharp horn on the forehead, the eye holes of the visor, and the neck plates. It was a far different helmet then the ones worn by the guards and the soldiers.

“Awesome!” One of the children said and the old earth pony laughed heartily at the naive wide grin on the foal's face.

“Yes. Indeed, that is one way to describe how I felt when I first started out as a Lawbringer. The brightest, warmest sensation within my chest, the wide grin on my lips, as I journeyed out for the first time. Ah... memories.”Putting his helmet back into the wagon the old earth pony motioned with his left hoof at the children. “Now you lot better go back to your parents, you would not want to miss lunch now would you?”

The foals gasped at the possibility of missing lunch and disappeared with a blur which was replaced by a dust cloud shaped like the foals, making the old pony laugh at the silliness of the cartoon like physics he had just witnessed. Smiling a bit he entered his wagon once more and began to look inside his pantry for some food.

He was just about to take a big bite out of the apple he had pulled out of his stocks when a familiar voice called out to him. "Mister Golden Cross!" Pausing for a moment he looked out the window and saw the sight of Happy Meal approaching, carrying a cooked dish on her back with a wide grin on her face.

Smiling softly he put down the apple onto the bowl on his table and walked over to the doorway to let the smiling child into his wagon. *This kid. She is not going to let me finish my own food is she?*

"Are you not with your mother today?" He asked while slowly slicing the chestnut pie the filly had been carrying into six slices. The little filly shook her head with a grin. "Mama wanted Us to find ye and ask for ye to join Our clan tonight! We art going to celebrate Our arrival at Canterlot at Our new home! We wanted to do so yesterday, but old Bean Sprout told Us We had to wait until proper living quarters were prepared fer us!"

"I see. I am glad that things are going well for you." The old earth pony chuckled softly and gave the little filly a plate with a piece of pie, the filly eagerly chomped down on the slice while he took another plat and ate a piece himself. The filly eagerly asked him with food in her mouth.

"Sho whut yuh sway? Yuh whull choume rhught?" Gently booping the foal on her nose with his hoof Golden Cross spoke up with a smirk. "Swallow your food before speaking Happy Meal, you might choke on your food and that is not pleasant."

Blushing a bit the filly lowered her face and quietly chewed her food. Golden Cross chuckled again and finished his second piece of pie before speaking up as he swallowed the final piece of the pastry. "But yes, I will come to the event. I have not experienced such a thing for almost a century. Tell your mother that I will be happy to attend."

The filly swallowed her third piece of pie after snarfing it down like a dog in a bowl, her face covered in crumbs and chestnut paste as she grinned and cheered. "Yay! Ye will have a good time fer sure Mister Cross!" Her muzzle was then covered by a piece of cloth held by a hoof that began to clean off the remains of the pie on her face.

"I am sure I will, but try not to make a mess little one. Having sticky fur is not pleasant." Once more the filly blushed in embarrassment but still she grinned and jumped off her chair and ran out of the wagon and out of the park to inform her mother of the great news. Golden Cross just smiled and took the final piece of pie onto his plate and began to eat it, humming softly as the rays of the sun warmed him as he ate. *I do not know how it will go, I have not been to a party in a long time. But perhaps it is a good thing to go. There is no harm in having a bit of fun. Besides, if there is food like this at the party, I am definitely coming.*

Finishing his pie he exited his wagon, locked the door and walked through the park towards the city wall located near its edge. As he walked he focused his magic through his limbs, down into the ground, and began to try and get a proper 'echo' from his magic. He got the idea from the seismic sense used by a cartoon character named Toph, a blind girl with the power to bend the earthly elements, which she used to negate her blindness by sensing things through the earth with vibrations.

Trying to mimic this power was difficult, at first was all he got a white and black blur in his head that gave him a headache. But soon the image began to become clearer, and as he refined the energies in his limbs and shaped the intent of the magic, he increased not just the details of what he was sensing, but also the radius of what he could sense.

He walked down the park and onto the street, the difference in density and mass made it clear that solid materials carried the vibrations better, allowing him to sense the vibrations in more detail and size then on the soft earth. It allowed him to not only increase his search radius and speed, but also made him able to feel the flow of magic in his body, and control it better, since the soft dirt muffled the sensations in his limbs. *After I master this, I am going to try Wall Walking. Heh, considering I can turn into a living shadow and my flesh burns in green flames when it regenerates severe injuries, does that make me the first Hokage? Hehehehe.*

For the rest of the day Golden Cross wandered the city streets, walking around and watching and listening to the city life of the recently constructed citadel of Canterlot. All the while he was examining the secret passages of the city by using his internal magic to sense the internal structure of the walls and the tunnels beneath the earth. And while sensing the different passages and entrances hidden within the stone he had his small Interface Screen, he was keeping on him, act as a connection to the Interface to load up the mapping he was making of the city and its secret tunnels and chambers. It was a rather progressive day for him, even if he was only able to map around one tenth of the city.

'Then the sun began to lower itself as the Princess of the Sun lowered it, and he moved towards the newly prepared area of the city for the newly arrived ponies. It was easy to find the festivities when bright lights and music could be seen and heard from the southern part of the city.

(Scene Skip)

The spirit of the night was bright and warm as ponies danced and sang together by the large camp fires they had set up in the newly established park by their new home within the walls of Canterlot. As the festivities started had it just been the newcomers, but in just a single hour had the crowd grown even larger as the earlier settlers of Canterlot began to join the party.

Several dozens of guards had gathered by the edge of park to keep watch as to maintain order, but several of them had joined in the festivities themselves. It was first party of its kind within Canterlot and it was giving their tired spirits a lot of joy to enjoy themselves.

Old Tall Sprout smiled as old, young and adult ponies joined together in the celebration. His old joins felt like they were twenty years younger from the bright smiles of his clan and their fellow nomads. It felt like the start of something glorious for not just his kin but all of pony kind.

Then he spotted the large shape of Golden Cross approaching from the edge of the park, not wearing his armour the elderly earth pony's many years of battle could be seen upon his pelt. It made tall Sprout slightly envious of the other old pony that he was so nimble and strong in his old age. But he himself had earned his aches and pains and knew that the earth pony probably experienced worse pains then he did if the locations of his many scars were to judge.

The old unicorn walked over to the approaching earth pony and bowed extravagantly to his clan's savior and spoke up in a excited voice. "Welcome to Our festivities Ser Golden Cross, We hope ye will enjoy Our hospitality."

Golden Cross just gave him a small smile and a nod before a small blur leaped out from the dancing crowds and a small filly latched onto the startled knight's forleg. "Yay! Ye came!" Came the adorable squeal of Happy Meal as she hugged Golden Cross' left foreleg with all of her mighty strong filly sized legs.

Raising his left foreleg into the air Golden Cross looked at the giggling filly latching into him like an octopus, only far more adorable. "...I promised that I would attend and so I have. Now for the more important question... where is the food cooked by you and your mother?" He gave the smiling filly a smirk and she laughed before jumping onto his back and climbed up onto his head and pointed her hoof towards a group of large tables next to a large set up kitchen.

"Mama be over there! She be making the best pies ever!" Chuckling the elderly pony walked towards the catering tables, leaving old Tall Sprout to smile at the view, only for the old unicorn to get a frown when he spotted a black spot on the left hind leg of the earth pony. *Could that be... if so... he doest not hath long... and he probably knows...* He looked upon the old earth pony with a sad frown on his muzzle before walking back to the festivities, he would not prattle out the condition of the knight, it was not something he would want someone to tell others without his permission after all.

(Scene Skip)

Grand Feast put a bowl of her newly cooked cabbage casserole onto the large wooden table her clan had put together for the festivities. There was an array of pies, stews, salads, bread loafs, beverages, cheeses and pastries made out of various types of fruits, vegetables, roots, herbs and flowers. It was the largest and most diverse amount of food she had ever made before, and it felt really good to do it.

As she put the bowl down came the deep voice of her clan's saviour from a short distance away and she turned to see the elderly earth pony approach with her little filly riding on his back with a wide grin on her tiny muzzle. "Hello Miss Grand Feast, I must say, your name is very fitting."

"We beg your pardon?" Grand Feast asked in confusion at the stallion's words. He just chuckled and pointed at the tables of food, drinks and snacks.

"Your name. Grand Feast. It is a fitting name for you, since you are such a capable chef that could cook such a large amount of food for so many people. Not to mention, the great food, the smiles, the laughters, the festivities, does it not give you a warm feeling? That makes this, a Grand Feast in my eyes." As he said this the old pony took a plate and took himself a piece of blueberry pie and took a bite out of it after finishing speaking.

Grand Feast was stunned silent, she was not sure what to say. That her name, would be such a fitting name for her because of her enjoyment of cooking for many, had never been something she had considered. And as she was having this revelation, she felt a soft tingling sensation through her body, and she instinctively knew that something had changed. Her daughter would help her realize just what was different.

"Mama! Ye got yer cutie mark!" And just as her little foal had said, or rather shouted, was there a mark upon her once bare flank. A table with a white table cloth and a wide variability of food and beverages with a twinkling crescent moon above the table. She felt her breath hitch as her lips trembled, her eyes began to water and even as her girl jumped off Golden Cross and hugged her neck, she could not help but let tears of joy run down her cheeks as she started crying like a little filly as she clutched her daughter to her. She had been fearing she would never have a cutie mark, she was thirty five winters old, that she would always be a blank flank, oh the relief and joy she was feeling was wonderful.

Meanwhile, Golden Cross just silently ate his pie while watching the pair with a slight smile on his muzzle while their clan members walked over to congratulate the mother. *Sometimes, I envy how they are able to discover and realize their talents, would have been wonderful if I could have found something I was good at as a human. But then again, I would not trade away my experiences for anything.*

The rest of the evening and into the early morning hours, was festivities and songs, the Clans celebrated their new home and the recently obtained cutie mark of Grand Feast. Well past an hour into the celebrations, went Golden Cross home, leaving the ponies to party to their hearts' contents.

Entering and locking his wagon he made sure to take care of his teeth and laid down to sleep, unlike the earlier two nights, he had no dreams this time, just a dreamless content sleep.

(Scene Skip)

Celestia looked down at the bonfires surrounded by dancing ponies from her tower, the music was carrying through out the entire city and the jolly tunes, songs and dances, warmed her hearth deeply to hear such sounds after so many disasters. She actually wanted to join in on the festivities. But she was tired after working for most of the day in improving her guards' training and researching on some of the runic arrays of her troops to possibly improve them.

So while she wanted nothing else but to go down, gorge herself of good food and dance wildly, was she too tired to do any of that and just went to sleep. Her dreams were uneasy and disturbing, the pain of her aching horn making it difficult for her to get a proper night's sleep.

(Scene Skip)

A week had gone by since Golden Cross had arrived at Canterlot with the nomadic clans and pony settlers seeking to join the city's steadily growing population. He had managed to map down the entire city thus far and had found himself wandering the streets and watching the different ponies as they went through their daily lives. He was... extremely bored. While he was not all that.... active in his old life was he down right itching for something to do other then walking around the same street ten times a day, it was growing tedious.

When he walked past a food stand he noticed something in an alleyway. A small shape lying beneath a wooden box covered by dirty linen. Curious, Golden Cross walked over to the box and looked down, only to see a small foal, so thin that its ribs could be seen. Gently he gripped the foal by the skin of its neck and carried it out of the alley.

A guard was standing just a few meters away and Golden Cross walked over and gently cradled the foal with his right foreleg before speaking up. "I found this child, it is half dead from starvation."

The guard looked at him and spoke up. "We art unable to act or aid the homeless by order. We art only to act if them urchins and thieves break the laws. No fur off Our neck though, the world hath no need for more street rats." A swift hoof flew straight into the guard's chin and sent him with a loud crack into the wall of the building behind him. The unicorn guard fell down to the street, unconscious.

The street turned dead silent as the ponies stopped their activities to stare at the unconscious guard and the furious earth pony who had just knocked him out cold with a single blow. Gently lifting the foal by the neck with his teeth again Golden Cross glared at the downed guard. After snorting in disgust the old earth pony walked away from the now silent market and carried the foal down the street towards where he knew there would be ponies he knew he could get help from.

(Scene Skip)

The little foal, a colt as it was proven to be, was sleeping even as his pelt and mane was being washed by soap and warm water in a large wooden bucket. Grand Feast looked down at the little with sad eyes as she washed the grime and dirt off his coat, revealing a white pelt and a red mane and tail. It was a miracle that the child was still alive. The Blue Grass Clan lived in the southern district to the west of the great gates of the city, and even if they were no longer Nomads were they still a clan and thus still family.

Some of her friends had cleaned the many wounds on the foal's body, it looked like he had been beaten and probably ran away. She did not want to believe that a parent could do such a thing, but she knew, sadly enough, that there were ponies with wicked hearts and intents who would not care of the consequences of their own actions.

When she had been outside her new bakery slash restaurant, hanging up newly washed table cloth with her fellow mare friends of the clan they had gasped when they saw Golden Cross gently carrying a small half dead foal. She had confronted him as of why he had not asked a guard for help, turns out that he had, but the guard was unable to help him since apparently the guards had been ordered to not act upon the homeless of the city unless they broke any laws.

She felt that there was more to it, but she did not ask, since she could tell that the old stallion was in a bad mood at the treatment of the foal. And she felt that she would not be very happy herself should he tell her the rest, nor did she want to be the one to explain to her little girl why the guards would not help a foal. Grand Feast just hoped that the Princess was told of this as soon as possible, the white alicorn did not strike her as someone who would let children be harmed or mistreated like this.

The little colt in her hooves let out a snort as he slowly blinked awake as she washed his mane and he blinked in confusion at where he was. Before he could panic Grand Feast gently scooped him out of the now dirty water and warped him up in a towel. "Hello there little one, We art Grand Feast and We art going to care for ye until ye get better."

The little colt looked at her with teary happy eyes and buried his muzzle into her fur and cried, and her heart throbbed in sorrow at the thought of such a sweet little one being hurt. If this did not reach the Princess' ears she would personally marsh into that castle and tell her, herself.

As it turned out, she had no need to worry, for said princess was just getting words about the incident on the square.

(Scene Skip)

Princess Celestia was feeling a migraine building up in her skull as she tried to keep her composure and serene smile in check as she received the report from her guard captain of the Gate District, as her subjects had come to call it. Her left eye twitched a little and her smile looked a little forced, as she responded to her guard's report. "So tell Us if We hath heard thee correct Captain Straight Line. Thy guard was, and we quote, 'brutally struck down by an elderly earth pony stallion for not helping a useless street rat'? Did We recount thou tale correct?"

A dark orange pelted pony with lavender coloured mane and tail with the cutie mark of a white stripe lined over a graph paper, bearing the helmet and markings of a captain, spoke up. "Aye milady! We shalt have the cur punished most seve-" A magical aura surrounded the captain's mouth as he was about to rant and he found his mouth force shut as the princess' horn glowed and her forced smile twitched a little while her serene face looked like it was trying to not make a frown. The captain thought it was from the pain of the magic she was using, but some of Celestia's older servants knew that it was more of a frown of anger rather then pain.

"Oh do not bother speaking dear Straight Line. We art most certainly going to punish, somepony, for this most brutish and vile behaviour to Our little ponies." The word vile was practically vibrating with sweet burning venom as the princess looked upon the pony who looked smug even as his mouth was being forced shut. The surrounding Sun Guards and servants all noticed something that Straight Line had missed, she had to spoken to him, with his title of Captain. It would seem that the doctrines and behaviours of the City Guard would be given a very intense investigation and conversation in the future.

"Oh but do not worry any more about this matter Out dear Straight Line. We shalt tell thee everything once thou hath awakened." The armoured pony blinked a bit in confusion as those words were registered in his head. *Wait, what doest-* A white foreleg with a hoof decorated with a golden horseshoe slammed into his jawline and he was sent to the floor out cold with a broken jawbone. Celestia glared viciously at the unconscious pony in her throne room before, as if switching a light, she went into wide and calm smile. "Hmm that felt oddly satisfying."

A shiver went down the spines of those within the throne room as the princess turned towards then with that same wide smile and spoke up in an unnervingly serene voice. "Oh pardon Us, wouldst thee be willing to take Former Captain Straight Line to a nice and comfy stay in the dungeons?" Needless to say, the order was followed with much haste and much vigor.

(Scene Skip)

Golden Cross looked up at the ceiling from his bed as he laid on it, the little colt he had found earlier was still severely malnutritioned and weak but apparently he had woken up and was being cared for by Grand Feast, at least that's what Happy Meal told him a few hours ago. But one thing was clear, the colt could not speak, he was mute. It was uncertain if he was mute from birth or through some other means, but until a proper medical expert could examine him was he being cared for and feed by Grand Feast and her clan.

*Great... now I feel guilty for leaving for my home so soon. I guess I will make up for it by visiting when he starts to feel better.* Looking out his window he could see the afternoon soon slowly settle down towards the horizon. He was kind of bothered by another matter, he had not been visited by Luna in his dreams for a week now. It was concerning, but hopefully had nothing wrong happened. Plus, he wanted to watch more of his cartoons.

So he laid there, trying to sleep, pondering a of what he should do tomorrow after visiting Grand Feast, Happy Meal and the mute colt. Perhaps visiting the training grounds of the guards, he felt like he needed some proper exercise.

(Scene Skip)

"Why we not attack them ponies yet!? It been week since ye started yer silly planning!" A large shadowy shape shouted out from one side of a table, a large fist smashing into the battle map.

One of the non-large sized shapes tsked at his behaviour and spoke back. "Tch! Brutish fool! We need to act subtly! Celestia may be unable to wield her magic but she still art dangerous!"

The large shape just roared back in anger at the smaller shape. Pointing a fat finger at the location of Canterlot on the map. "So!? Just send one of ye little rats an deal with her! Even if ye little squirmy rodents no kill her, ye still can weaken her further ye git!"

One of the other small forms, who was just about to speak up, paused, rubbed its chin, before speaking up. "...That... that actually art a rather devious idea. Did not realize thou had it in thee."

The big shape went from mad to happy at the compliment. "Oh thank ye huhuh! Me go get some munchies!" The big shape then left the room.

The one who had been shouting at the larger shape looked around the table beore speaking up."...Well this hath been an interesting meeting."

"Yeah truly, who knew that lump hath a brain?" The third pony sized shape spoke up to the second large shape sitting next to it.

"Humph." Grunted the other large shape as he stroked a large object on his lap.

(Scene Skip)

Two days went by and Golden Cross explored more of the city, he did not want to visit the colt until he felt comfortable doing so. Grand Feast had told him about the colt being shy and scared of strangers, he had told her that he would visit the colt when he was ready and not any sooner. She seemed a bit relieved by that, he was not sure why but he felt that she was growing rather attached to the colt.

And now the start of another day started when the morning sun shone upon Equestria and in the city of Canterlot were things becoming active as its inhabitants began to do their morning routines. St the edge of a park was a strange looking wagon resting as its owner kept on sleeping inside its walls. Well until a soft knocking on his door woke him up.

Snorting softly the elderly earth pony pulled himself out of his bed and cleaned his face with some of the water he had on a bowl on his nightstand. Feeling a bit more awake he moved over to the doorway and unlocked the door before opening the door. He blinked as he was greeted by a smiling Happy Meal and Grand Feast, with a small familiar looking shy colt hiding behind Grand Feast's hind leg.

"Ah good morning Lady Grand Feast and Lady Happy Meal." As he made a short formal bow the little filly giggled while her mother let out a soft chuckle at the over extravagant voice of the old warrior. As he straightened up he spoke up again. "How may I help you?"

"Well We hath a little one whom wishes to see thee." Grand Feast said with a smile and gently looked down at the colt hiding behind her hind leg. "It be okay dear, Ser Golden Cross art a kind soul. It be him who brought thee to Us,"

Slowly the little colt moved out from behind the hind leg of the mare and slowly walked forward and looked at the ground. As he looked ready to bolt in fear a hood gently rubbed his head and a warm kind voice spoke up. "It is okay lad. I am not going to hurt you, I will never intentionally hurt a child."

The foal seemed to relax and leaned into the hoof before pulling back his head and then hugged the other foreleg tightly, his entire body shivering as tears streaked down his little cheeks. Rubbing the colt's back Golden Cross looked at Grand Feast who looked a the scene with a sad smile. "I take it no one has come to claim him?"

"Nay, We art not certain We would want to let him go back to such bad ponies though." Grand Feast stated with a smile while Happy Meal, innocently ignorant of her parent's sadness, jumped over to the cold and hugged him from behind and laughed a bit as Golden Cross' large hoof rubbed both her and the colt's heads.

"Good. I will see if I cannot speak to the Princess or petition someone to send her a notice. Hopefully she will be able to make sure something like this won't happen again. I am sadly enough doubting it will ever disappear from society, but one can hope and dream." The old pony said with a sad smile of his own before he scooped up the two foals and put them on his back. The colt gripped his mane and looked around a little scared before seeing the kind smile on Golden Cross' muzzle and smiled a little while Happy Meal cheered in joy as the large old earth pony walked down the street next to her mother with the two of them riding his back.

"We art glad thou were the one to find the colt Ser Golden Cross." Grand Feast said with a smile as she saw the mute colt smile for the first time. "Thou hath a manner of saving others, even those most ponies would ignore."

Golden Cross just chuckled and walked towards the training field he had been interested in going to, he needed to get some exercise, plus, it would hopefully entertain the children. As they entered the sandy field there were lines of guards and soldiers going through stances and formations. There were no more then a hundred in the field, which felt a bit odd considering the field looked like it was made for for more then that. But then again, it could just be that the soldiers and the guards had shifts as to not leave the city undefended.

As they stopped to look at a line of soldiers hold shields and thrust their spears, Golden Cross felt that they had gotten a bit better since he first saw them. But they were far from decent and it was making his eye twitch at the sight of one of them fumbling with gripping the spear.

*Okay, let's not be too hasty. They could be just having a bad day.* As he said that came the drill sergeant and shouted out at the group of soldiers. "If thou lousy runts were not Our current best greenhorns We would have, had thee clean the latrines!" Golden Cross' face meet his hoof and he muttered and grumbled while the two children on his back looked at one another in confusion while Grand Feast tried to hold back a giggle as the old stallion started grumbling.

Taking a deep breath Golden Cross walked over to the edge of the field and put down the children from his back and down on a bench. He then walked over to a pile of training weapons, not even properly sorted, grabbed a golden staff of some kind and moved over to the Drill Sergeant and gently tapped him on the side.

"What doest thee want Civilian!?" The Sergeant shouted straight into his face, but after his, many, many, misfortunes in life, Golden Cross, was NOT taking any kind of bullshit and shouted straight back at the Sergeant's face. "I want, to teach you useless sacks of manures how to properly wield a weapon you misconceived pile of waste!"

The sergeant went stock still and silent, Golden Cross waited five seconds before pushing him aside, making the stiff pony fall on his side like a statue. The recruits, grew suddenly very nervous as the large earth pony walked towards them, tapping his weapon against the ground with every step.

"I am Golden Cross, I am not part of your military, but I am a Lawbringer, a Knight Order former during the Age of Chaos and I know how to wield a weapon. Unlike you sorry excuses for soldiers. So listen, and listen well, for I am not going to sugar coat just how much you guys suck at wielding a weapon properly." While most of them were uncertain what suck meant, they could get the idea that it was an insult.

"But I am going to keep this simple, if you people want to wield a weapon, you need to know HOW. I am not going to make you go through the same training I did, I doubt you would handle an hour before collapsing. So We are going to start off with the basics." Shifting his stance Golden Cross moved so he was standing sideways to the soldiers.

"Now, watch what I do, do not do anything yet. Just watch." He gripped his staff and then he shifted his hind legs so he was standing up right, making man of the ponies feel uneasy at the sight. "I can do this because of years of hard training, it was worth the effort for while we ponies are strong, are we not all that good at handling weapons with us being four legged."

He made a thrust with the staff, like it was a spear, first while on his hind legs, and then he lowered himself onto all four and made a similar thrust again, the speed and strength he used while on two legs was far better then when he was on all four. Golden Cross then began to show the soldiers the different ways to use a shafted weapon while standing on hind legs and on all four. This he repeated for an hour, the soldiers and his three companions watching in fascination.

Finishing the old warrior spun his staff and looked at the soldiers. "Now that I have shown you. Let's see how well you can do it yourselves. Repeat what I just did, to no stand too close to one another or you might hit each other."

Fidgeting and moving around a bit the soldiers got into a more spread out and loose formation before they began to try and repeat his stances. They could only managed the hind leg stances around ten times before it became too painful for their spines and they were forced to do it on all four for the rest of their practice.

Golden Cross nodded as he felt they were ready to keep on practicing on their own, and so he walked over to the Sergeant, who had woken up thirty minutes ago and just been staring, tapped him on the head and pointed at his now practicing troops before putting back the staff he had been borrowing in the piles of practice weapons on the field. The officer just rubbed his helmet, trying to rub his forehead to relieve his piercing headache, before sighing and just walked over to join his troops with the practice, he would make a report later.

Golden Cross walked over to Grand Feast and the two foals who were watching the soldiers practice, Grand Feast looked both amazed and amused while the two foals were looking on the training troops with silly grins on their faces. "I hope that was entertaining for you." The colt nodded shyly while Happy mean cheered about how cool it all had looked.

"How come them soldiers ain't as good as ye?" She wondered with curiosity glowing from he large eyes. He just chuckled and rubbed her head before answering her. "I have spent years training my body to handle the strain of standing on my hind legs, They have not gone through my training so it will take them a while, but for now will they at least not be as bad as they were before. Practice makes you better, not perfect however, there is always room for improvements."

Looking around the training court the earth pony stallion figured he had done what he wanted to do, as well as something he had NOT wanted to do, but just felt like he had to. So he hunched down on his four knees and smirked at the foals. "Come on, let's get something to eat. Practice is a decent way to build up an appetite."

Happy meal cheerfully jumped up onto his back while the little colt carefully climbed up. Standing up again Golden Cross looked at Grand Feast, who was smiling in a strange way, and spoke up. "Food for thoughts?"

Blinking Grand Feast got a confused look on her as she tried to discern what he was saying, then she figured out the meaning and spoke up with a sad little smile. "Thou remind Us of Our husband, he too was a kind soul. We just feel... nostalgic, watching thou cheer up the little ones."

"Heh, I will take that as a compliment, he sounds like he was a great person. I am happy to be compared to him. Come on, let's get something to eat." The elderly stallion said with a grin before walking away from the training grounds with Grand feast and the two foals.

"Say, do you have any pies left at your place? I could go for some pie." There was a bit of silence before Grand Feast's laughter broke out as the group walked back towards the Blue Grass Clan's living area.

(Scene Skip)

A while later were the group back at Grand Feast's eatery and sitting on one of the tables enjoying a wonderful meal. Golden Cross was eating his own large blueberry pie with enjoyment while Happy Meal was trying her best to keep up with her new found friend the mute colt, who was currently making a rather good impression of a starving wolf. The little colt was eating like a raving beast, his muzzle buried in a pie and gorging on it like a predator tearing into a carcass.

Golden Cross just chuckled and swallowed his mouthful of food before speaking to Grand Feast who was trying, and failing, to make the two foals eat less savagely. "You know. We should give him a name, he has yet to write anything down so I do not know if he knows how to read. But it is probably for the best that he has a proper name."

Grand feast, currently trying to shield herself with a towel while at the same time trying to calm down the two foals, looked at him in surprise before nodding. "Aye. We thought so as well. We art not certain what manner of name though. We hath never heard of somepony being named by anypony except the parents."

The foal almost seemed to flinch at the word 'parents' but nobody except for Golden Cross seemed to have taken notice, the old earth pony pondered a bit while stroking his chin. "Well. There is always a first time for something." He then turned towards the colt who was looking up in confusion, his entire muzzle covered in blueberries and pie crust. "So kid, how would you like a name?"

The child looked concerned and a bit worried for a moment before his eyes narrowed and he nodded purposely to the old earth pony who smiled at his fierce expression. "That is a good face to have lad, and I am not sure if it fits you. But let us get back to the subject at hoof. I figured, if anything, it will be ironic and amusing to name you after something that is both grand and musical, for even if you are mute, will music always be something that you can create and play. It is a magic in itself you know. So how about it? Would Grand Music be a name for you?" The foal looked into the eyes of Golden Cross, a twinkle seemed to shine in the old pony's eyes and then the foal's fierce expression seemed to turn slightly tear but he quickly wiped his eyes and just nodded.

"Grand Music it is then, now try not to eat too much or you will get sick and throw up. And then you will not be able to eat properly for a while." The foal's ears folded and he looked a bit ashamed, but Grand Feast just wiped his muzzle clean with her towel and smiled at him. "It be a wonderful name, but tell Us Ser Golden Cross, why name him after Us?"

Golden Cross just grinned and chewed on a piece of pie before swallowing. "I thought that was obvious, why would I not name a lost child after his new mother?"

There was a silence as Grand Feast dropped her towel and she as well as the newly named Grand Music stared at him in shock. "W-what? But. We art not-"

He interrupted her swiftly and pointed a spoon at her. "Did you aid him?"

Looking startled she nodded and tried to respond, stammering while doing so. "Well yes, but only after thee brou-"

Interrupted again she could only gape as Golden Cross spoke up more "Did you feed, wash and nurse him?"

Blushing a little at the last words, but she had admittedly, done that since he had not been able to eat properly. And she was still lactating because of her body not stopping after Happy Meal's birth. How did he even know!? "Y-yes. But anypony would-"

Again Golden Cross broke her dialogue. "Did you, or did you not, let your daughter befriend him, as well as care for him? While keeping him safe and comfortable away from strangers?"

Looking very uncomfortable she rubbed her foreleg awkwardly. "B-b-but that be just sensib-"

Finally Golden Cross smiled at her, put down his spoon at his empty plate and rested his head on his two hooves, while the two foals looked at Grand Feast with wide big wondrous eyes. "Do you, or do you not, already care and love him, like he is your own?"

Startled, blushing and stammering Grand Feast tried to respond ,but she was finding it difficult to speak. Even if she had only known the foal for three days had she almost instantly wanted to care for him, he was so sweet and shy, he was wounded in both body and soul, just like she was. He was just as much as victim as she was and she knew that she needed to help him to get past it, just as much as she needed him just as much.

But she had not really realized just how much she had grown to care for the child and had not wanted to be selfish and claim him when he could have a better home. Failing to realize that she had already practically marked him as her own when she nursed him. She opened her mouth and tried, and failed, to speak a few times. Until she finally let out a small croaked, almost tear choked, response. "W-we. W-well... We... Eh.... O-ou....... yes."

Chuckling Golden Cross stepped away from the table and walked towards the doorway. "If that is not something that makes you worthy of being his mother, then the world needs to recheck its values. Now take care you three, I will be at the park if you need me." He then left the awkwardly silent eatery were Grand Feast was blushing up a storm while trying and failing to speak up to the little colt who looked at her with big teary eyes.

"We-we... Oh by Queen Faust just Buck IT!" The mare screamed out, throwing her forelegs upwards in a 'buck it' motion before reaching out and hugging the startled foal to her body and nuzzled his head. "If none want thee, We will gladly have thee. As Our Child." The little colt tried and failed to keep back his tears and he hugged the mare back while Happy Meal joined the hug, cheerfully proclaiming to the world. "Yay! We got a little brother!"

Outside Golden Cross heard the cheerful shouting of Happy Meal and he just smiled a bit sadly, thinking of his own parents, and how much he missed both of them, before venturing through the alleys back towards his home.

But unknown to him, were several dark shapes following him through the pathways in between the streets, the sun standing tall and bright in the twilight zone.

(Scene Skip)

The disguised Alicorn noticed something was off when he heard unsheathed metal, a sound he had heard many times in movies, games and even in his new life on this strange new world. He tapped the earth and with his vibration sonar managed to spot his stalkers. Eight ponies, all of them unicorns wearing dark robes and leather harnesses, wielding daggers, throwing darts, crossbows and what seemed to be some kind of short rapier with a thicker blade at the base of the handle.

Looking around the alley he could see some crates, some barrels and a pile of worn down pieces of cloth. His assailants, not realizing that he had spotted them, began their next move. He heart the whistling of a dart in the air, he made a show of looking down at something behind a crate, making the dart miss him and hit a barrel ahead of him. He made another show of looking up startled at the barrel before shrugging and keeping on walking, each time he stepped her used his sensory.

A crossbow bolt was fired at his side and he made a show of walking around the pile of cloth, making the bolt hit the pile instead. His attackers were gritting their teeth in anger and he knew they would be getting reckless, so he walked over to the large stack of barrels and he made a show of inspecting the dart sticking out of it. When the eight attackers leaped out from behind the crates they had been hiding on and charged him, he pushed the closest barrel.

(Scene Skip)

Silent Shadow had been an assassin for ten summers, and she as good at what she did, being a unicorn with mediocre power made her make up for that with finesse and physical skill rather then magical power. But when the political situation in the town by the Castle of the Two Royal Princesses went bonkers when Princess Luna went... well bonkers, things had gone slightly downhill for her profession. No one wanted to hire an assassin while on the run from a creepy forest and moon bound demi gods creating green slash back burning monster flames on the moon after giving the entire pony civilization the evil eye.

But now they had reestablished themselves a power base in the newly made city of Canterlot and managed to sabotage, steal and murder once again. Things were looking up and then a big golden opportunity had arrived. A cloaked stallion, a messenger most likely, carried a contract as well as payment. An elderly earth pony by the name of Golden Cross was to be killed and his corpse made into a message for the mare Grand Feast of the Blue Grass Clan while also demanding she abandoned the colt Golden Cross had given to her. If she did not comply, both her and her daughter's lives were forfeit. And it would be better for Silent shadow if they did not comply, she would get extra payment if they refused.

It had been an easy plant, an easy target. The old Earth Pony was walking through the alleys of the city without a care. And now it was the time to enact it. She signaled her fellow assassins to get ready, and then she saw an opening and threw a toxic dart straight at his head. Only for him to lower his head to inspect something. *Oh but for buck's sake!*

The assassins' breaths hitched as the dart impacted a barrel further down the alley, the old pony looked up for a moment before shrugging and moving forward once more. Growing slightly uneasy, and very irritated, Silent Shadow gave the signal for Bloody Wound to shoot him with his barbed crossbow bolt, the pain would be enough to paralyze the old pony for them to finish him. *We got thee now old oaf!*

The old pony turned around a pile of discarded cloth to inspect the barrel the dart had impacted just as Bloody Wound fired and the arrow flew straight into the mess of cloth. Two perfect shoots, two misses by chance. Finally having enough Silent Shadow gave the signal for them all to charge and just kill him. *Buck it! Let Us just kill him already!*

With silenced hooves they rushed forward, weapons drawn or levitating, when the old stallion suddenly gave the barrel he was looking at a push and the entire stack of barrels began to roll down towards her and her team like an avalanche of wood and metal. Unable to cry out in surprise with their voices silenced the assassins tried to avoid or stop the onslaught of wooden iron bound objects. But too many of the barrels rolled towards them and soon Silent Shadow felt her legs give away as a barrel struck them and she yelped noiselessly as she lost her balance and began to fall.

Another assassin tried to jump to freedom but ended up riding a barrel straight into a wall when he was unable to stop moving his legs. Two got buried beneath a pile of the wooden objects. Bloody Wound got one barrel stuck on his head and was unable to removed it as another impacted his legs and knocked him unconscious as his head, still stuck in the barrel, struck the ground. Then another found themselves assaulted by five repeated blows to the head by small barrels, they had barely the time to clutch their aching skulls when a big barrel slammed into them and knocked them to the ground.

She had barely enough time to see the rest of her team lose their balance and fall over or getting buried by barrels, when one struck her head and everything went dark. Her last thought being how she should have investigated the target before attempting to kill him.

(Scene Skip)

After the humorous scene had been complete Golden Cross took a bigger barrel and pushed everyone of his would be attackers into it, making sure to remove their weapons. He then began to roll out the barrel from the alley and notified a guard. The mare whom he notified looked at the barrel of crooks in confusion, he handed her the weapons he had confiscated from them.

"These thugs tried to attack me in the alley, not rob but to murder considering they tried to shoot me first rather then threatening me for my money. I have rendered them harmless and leave them and their equipment for the City Guard to handle. Good day." Not giving the gaping Guard mare a glance he just kept on walking. The immortal in disguise was not too concerned about the attackers, he had probably made someone upset when he punched that guard or when he dehorned that bandit leader, not unlikely that he was being targeted for either of those reasons.

Unknown to him, were it neither of those incidents the reason for his unexpected afternoon assault. And it would be a while before the truth of the matter was revealed.

(Scene Skip)

[Half Time Mark Reached! Remaining Days: 15]

It had gone about six days since Golden Cross visited the training grounds, for the most part had he been trying to read the books he had gathered from the old shack. He had to be rather careful since the old papers were not very well maintained and would crumble apart if he was not careful. Luckily had he had the foresight of scanning each page with the Interface Screen he had with him, it was a slow process but he managed to copy every single page into fresh pages.

He would have to keep the fresh pages secret however since he did not want to make other wonder how he managed to reprint a book without magic or a printer. But he had managed to obtain a lot of information. The books did not contain the information about how to make the strange bronze alloy his new armour was made of, but it did give him plenty of details on how to make other things.

There were instructions on how to make a magical smithy from the ground up. How to create various types of crystals by forging base type gemstones in a magical fire. There was even some references on how to make Golden Alloy, something similar to the bronze he was using, yet different in some manner. It was all rather fascinating and was giving him plenty of ideas. But one page that made him, VERY, intrigued was the instructions on how to melt down Moon Sand to create Moon Glass. By the inscriptions was it simply like melting regular sand into glass, only that the resulting glass was as hard as diamonds and not as brittle.

There were several notes on locations were Moon Sand was said to be available. The Crystal Empire, the Southern Deserts and other strange locations. Apparently the moon shed a slight amount of sand every time it moved and it sprinkled upon the surface of the planet, carried into specific area were the wind moved. But he had no need for the small supplies of Moon Sand on the planet's surface since he had plenty on the moon itself.

He still had not managed to enter his dream realm, which was making him rather concerned, why would he be unable to enter his own dreams cape? Was something wrong with it because of the Elements of Harmony keeping him on the planet for a month? He could not figure it out and had to occupy his mind with reading.

But he did not spend all of this time just reading. He left his little wagon from time to time to visit Grand Feast and her children, enjoying a good meal and decent conversation from time to time. The little colt now named Grand Music was warming up to not just him, Grand Feast and Happy Meal, the rest of the Blue Grass Clan treated him with kindness and warmth and the little foal truly enjoyed it all.

Grand Music was having a hard time communicating with others but with some help from his new mother he was starting to learn how to read and write. It was a work in progress and Golden Cross was more then willing to give aid when the child wanted some support.

At the moment was the day bright and warm, the sun slowly turning into its afternoon position, sending its warm rays over the parts of Canterlot that had been shadowy or dark during the morning hours. Currently was Golden Cross sitting on a bench near the training grounds, watching the, now much more improved, soldiers go through their stances. He did not know that ever since his little training interference had all of the soldiers started to shift and adjust their stances to like that of the first group he taught.

It was like a domino effect and the officers and veterans were all baffled at the sudden improvement that one elderly earth pony had caused just by showing the troops some stances for an hour before letting them try and go through them by themselves. Truly it had all been a mess for them to figure out. But in truth was it a rather simple reason, motivation. The fact that an old earth pony showed such physical prowls and martial skill without the slightest use of magic motivated all of the soldiers to improve themselves, it had shown them that it did not matter if you used magic or not, with enough practice you could be someone great. And what better motivation for the young and the eager is there but the concept of fame and glory?

But that was all lost to Golden Cross who was just sitting on the bench and watching from a distance, next to him was Happy Meal and Grand Music, both of them grinning widely as the soldiers moved around in formation and going through their stances. He had intended to get some exercise himself, but Grand Feast had asked him if he could keep the children entertained while she worked, apparently her eatery had gotten rather popular, and he had not the heart to refuse.

He was rather curious as of why they never seemed to grow tired of watching the soldiers practice, had he been at their age he would have found it dirt boring."You two seem to enjoy watching them practice, any particular reason why? I mean, I am just glad they've improved from the mess they were a week ago, but why do you like to watch them?"

Happy Meal looked at him with a grin. "We think it looks cool! When We grow up We will be just as cool!" Grand Music just gave a shy grin and some nods in agreement, Golden Cross chuckled and rubbed the heads of the two foals who soaked up the attention like a pair of adorable sponged.

"Perhaps you will be, one day. But you're both already more special then any soldier could ever be." They looked a bit confused at what he meant but he just grinned and rubbed their heads again, making them forget his words for the moment.

Then the mood turned sour when an aggravating and obnoxious, male, voice broke the serene atmosphere. "Hmph as if such common born foals could ever stand up to the might of Our ancestral blood is laughable." Golden Cross did not bother to look at the direction of the voice and just kept petting the children, not wanting them to get sad. "Do not listen to the voices of ignorance and bigotry, there are no one born with more rights then others. All are equal in life, it is just the restrictions others would try to place on others and those you place on yourself, that limits you. All obstacles can be overcome, and no matter what you or others believe, there is never a limit nor an end, only a line that you need to cross."

The voice did, apparently, not enjoy being ignored like such and tried to rebuke Golden Cross' words with a scoff and snarky words. "Hah! Dreams art not part of real life. No matter those plain peasants want, they can never reach Our grand standard."

Finally Golden Cross decided that he was having enough, the two children did not seem to take the strangers' words well, in fact Grand Music almost seemed to want to hide behind him when he heard the voice a second time. Yet still not looking towards the strange he just spoke up again. "I would appreciate it if you took your stuffy attitude and left. Speaking ill of others, especially children, does not make you out as a decent or respectable person. If anything would I rather compare you a bully with a dictionary then a noble."

The stranger sputtered and spat like an angry llama and the old earth pony got off the bench and the two foals followed him, Grand Music keeping himself out of sight of the stranger as much as possible. "Come on children, let us leave." Golden Cross said before leading the pair away from the red, and still unseen, stranger, who apparently still could not find his voice, too angry to properly respond.

"Let's get you two home, Grand Feast has probably some of her goodies left from lunch." The sputtering voice snapped silent as the trio disappeared from the training field. As they walked towards the eatery, now named the Happy Eatery, they did not notice the stranger's reaction as he watched them leave. Not strange since they never took as much as a glance at his direction.

(Scene Skip)

A unicorn stallion with a blue pelt and white mane and tail, dressed in a finely golden weaved decorated military uniform, watched the trio leave, he had almost not recognized the foal but now that he was looking more properly he could see the white pelt and red mane. On his flank was the mark of a golden medal with seven gold coins surrounding it in a circle. Frowning he walked away from the training grounds to a luxurious house near the central keep of the city. Once past the door he snarled and stomped up to an officer with bookshelves, paintings and a large ornate desk.

"Those stupid assassins failed! We though that accursed freak dead already!" Glaring at a large painting of another unicorn, this one an older looking unicorn, dressed in a golden armour, and snarled. "If thou hath not written off thy fortune to that little freak We would not hath to do what we hath to do father. It falls to Us to clear Our family of the cursed foal before he come of age! Nothing shalt stand between Us and Our rightful heritage!"

The noble then got a wicked glint in his eyes and with a burst of telekinesis he pulled out a book and began to check through until he slammed his hoof onto one of the lines in the tome and cried out in triumph. "Aha! Yes! We hath thee now freak! We shalt see thou cursed existence buried!"

Pulling out a parchment he began to write down a message and after rolling it together he sealed it with wax before stamping his family sigil onto the melted blue wax on the form he rang a bell and a servant, a mare dressed like a maid, came. "Hath this delivered to the Royal Adviser's Office post haste!" She quickly took the letter and scampered off to deliver the letter, the chuckling pony pressing his hooves together with an evil smirk.

(Scene Skip)

The following day as Princess Celestia was going through her personal messages in her personal office, she was NOT going through paperwork in her throne room. Currently was she reading through a letter from a group of soldiers out on a scouting mission reporting the finding of a large beautiful waterfall to the north east of Canterlot, it was the source of the river filling the freshwater lake next to Canterlot Mountain.

There were some petitions on what to name the waterfalls from the patron, with them being the finders. She was not sure if someone would be visiting a spot named Neighagra Falls, but it was the better option of the list of suggestions the scouts had sent her, why someone would make the suggestions Big Butt Fall and Big Leak Fall baffled her.

She was pondering if they could construct a form of water guidance system for better fresh water, the water of the lake was not entirely clean to drink. And while most adult ponies had developed proper digestive tracks to handle the dirt in the water, but foals and elderly were more likely to succumb to water that had not been boiled or filtered clean.

As she was pondering what manner of delivery system they would use she heard a rapid knock on her door. Looking up from her paperwork the monarch spoke up in a absent voice before looking back at the report. "Thou may enter."

The door opened and a well dressed unicorn servant with a most frivolous mustache, pink pelt and lavender mane. It was a beautiful looking middle aged mare by the name of Solid Pink, her cutie mark being that of a pair pink throwing daggers on an open parchment. A former member of her Sun Guard's Scout and Infiltration Unit , now her personal Adviser and bodyguard. Giving the princess a salute the former Guard spoke up. "There hath come a message for thee Princess Celestia, it be from Lord Mighty Rich."

Rolling her eyes the Princess accepted the letter and muttered to herself as she broke the seal open and unfurled the scroll. "Oh what doest the Lord of Muck Talk want this time? We swear ever since We made him, Commander of the Bronze Soldiers, after his father, Commander Mighty Strong, unfortunately passed away ten days ago, he hath been insufferable!" Solid Pink made no outward reaction to the Princess' disdain but a hint of amusement could be seen within her blue eyes. Celestia read the message and her eyes widened as she read more and more and finally she rolled to scroll together, pressed her head into her hooves, and groaned out in despair. "Ooooooh why didst it hath to be legal! Curses! We should hath known that law would come back to bite Us in the flank!"

Thumping her muzzle into her desk, as to not hurt her still recovering horn, she waved the now opened letter at Solid Pink. The Royal Adviser read the scroll and her normally stoic and neutral face grew into a face of shock and outrage until she suddenly blurted out some rude words. "What in the name of the Gods' holy dung piles art he thinking!?"

The white pelted alicorn princess groaned from her desk ad bemoaned the stupidity on letter. "We doest not know!" After bemoaning and grumbling Celestia sighed and straightened herself up again and flicked her momentarily slackened mane back into its ethereal form. "Uuuugh, nothing We can do except to deliver the message. Lord Mighty is just going to have to find out how much of a pit he hath dug, for We art not telling him."

Solid Pink gave a short bow before leaving the Princess in her office with the now opened scroll. The Royal Adviser's face was back into its disciplined stoic and calm demeanor again, but there was a slight glare in her eyes. It was obvious to those who had served with her that she was in a bad mood and every one of the Sun Guards just stayed out of her way as she walked through the halls of the keep, not willing to get her attention on them.

Unwilling to bring an escort the Royal Adviser opened the doors of the keep with a toss of her head and a flash of magic before leaving for the open streets of the city. Not that she needed anyone to guard her with how she was the former top scout and spy of the Sun Guard. Why would someone need a spy in their own guard? It had become necessary to scout out the edges of the Everfree Forest to the best of one's ability to not get noticed by its dangerous occupants. And Solid Pink was one of the few who had managed to scout out an area in the forest and return alive, it had not been easy but it had allowed her to aid her fellow ponies when they fled the Everfree Forest almost a year ago.

Moving through the alleys she seemingly shifted through like a noiseless blur of pink, it took her barely an hour to travel through the city to reach her destination. The Sun Park located next to the Military Training Field, were the wagon of the one she was looking for was residing. She stopped when she caught sight of the wagon, it looked a lot more shabby then she had thought, it looked far from what you would imagine the home of a wandering knight would look like. But then again, reality is far more different then fairy tales, she knew it more then most.

Stepping forward she swiftly rapped her hoof against the doorway a few times before waiting. As the seconds went by she felt bit concerned that he might not be home. And she was about to know a second time when a voice spoke up behind her, making her jump up with a squeak as she had, never, been sneaked up upon before. "Good morning, can I help you?"

Turning around, clutching her chest, she saw a tall, very strong looking, earth pony looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "Wow... you seem awfully tense."

Shaking her head, Solid Pink regained her demeanor and coughed into her hoof to remove the awkwardness she was feeling. She had a job to do. She presented him with the scroll containing the matter of why she had come to him. "Pardon Us, We were startled by thy voice. Ahem. We art Solid Pink, Royal Adviser of Princess Celestia. We bring to thee, Ser Golden Cross, a Message of Challenge from Lord Mighty Rich, whom hath invoked an Official Duel with thee for besmirching his honour as a noblepony. if thou doest not accept this Challenge hath Lord Mighty Rich declared that thou shalt be Exiled from Canterlot for a year."

The old earth pony just blinked and looked at her. She felt a bit awkward, fearing that the old knight, had, had a heart attack, when the old warrior just sighed and unfurled the message and began to read it. She heard him mutter a bit beneath his breath before he rolled up the message and returned it to her.

"Tell that stuck up pile of a dung beetle's treasure cove that I accept his challenge, he can challenge me today if he is up for it. He has yet to voice the deciding factors of the duel, but I, as the challenged party, may pick the weapons. And I say, Free For All. Let him come armed to his asshole if he wants to, won't make any difference to me." He then opened the door to his wagon and entered it, leaving the stunned Solid Pink behind. She had been certain that the old knight would have accepted the challenge, he seemed like a proper warrior. But, he was far more... 'brutal' about this matter then she had imagined him.

Silently she left the park, glancing a little at the wagon as she left, curious as of why the earth pony was so confident in facing the Lord. Even if he was much older was an earth pony not often capable of handling the magic of a unicorn, and he had even left the Lord free to pick anything for the fight. It was very intriguing and she found herself pondering all this even as she started writing a response to Lord Mighty Rich, leaving out the less kind words. Although she was tempted to let the message remain unedited.

(Scene Skip)

Golden Cross, aka Maleficus Victoria, was not happy. He had been coming home after enjoying a nice breakfast with Grand Feast and the children when he saw the strange mare knocking at his door. And after she recovered from the care he gave her, she gave him the news, the bad and the worse news.

Apparently there was a law about nobles taking insults to their statures to far and challenging others to duels to clean up the dirt on their good names. He was getting a migraine, he should have been expecting there to be such things though, this was not modern times of the human realm, these were the bloody middle ages.

Thankfully was he certain that he could handle a prissy golden spoon fed noble. But he felt like there was more to it then was being told, but he was quite certain that the Adviser had no knowledge of it. So that meant it was something not even Celestia knew.

He was going to have a bit of an investigation into this Lord Mighty Rich's personal area. There was something going on here and he was not willing to let it remain hidden from him, he did NOT want a fucking Red Wedding incident.

Locking his wagon from the inside he let his disguise as Golden Cross melt away into his black pelted and mangy maned alicorn form. Focusing his magic over his body he melted into a shadow and slithered out of the wagon. He would have to scour for information about the Lord before he approached his home. But hopefully it would not take too long, he would just have to make some less then noticeable inquiries to the locals, gossiping is, after all, common in all manners of societies and the ponies were no different.

Sliding into the shadow of a pair of gossiping housewives in the market he waited for a proper moment before making the voice of a young female appear as if in the distance, making it sound like a pair of mares talking while walking off in the distance. "Oh, what strange things be going on! Lord Mighty Rich hath been acting strange nowadays," "Indeed! We swear We saw him trying to enter the wrong house!" "May hap he not be of rightful mind?" It was cringe worthy making those voices and that olden speech dialect but he got the mares' attention on the topic of Lord Mighty Rich.

It took a bit of enduring the nagging of the two gossiping females, he enjoyed some talking but boy were those two taking it to another level, it would not amaze him if their words broke the stratosphere of the planet by the end of the day. But he managed to discern that Lord Mighty Rich lived in a large fancy mansion near the Military Training Grounds, close to his own home's current location. *Huh... fancy that, I am neighbor with stuck up nobles with skulduggery dealings. Can't say I saw that one coming.*

From there it was a relatively easy for him to 'Shadow Walk' through the streets until he came upon a large fancy looking house, out of a dozen other large fancy houses, not much of a mansion but it was to be expected since the insides of a city does limit property sizes.

How he knew it was Mighty Rich's house? The big sign on the golden gate of the fence with the words 'Mighty Mansion' tipped him off.

He shifted beneath the doorway and through the halls of the house. It looked freshly made but there were several furniture and objects that looked ancient in comparison. Made him wonder what poor sod was force to carry all that through the Everfree Forest during that horrible dark night.

As he shifted past a pair of ornate pine doors he came upon an office with a lot of extravagant decorations and expensive looking things. *Now then, let's see what you are hiding.* Exiting his shadow form Maleficus tapped the floor to sense the vibrations of the room, now with his senses enhanced by magic. It took less then ten seconds for him to feel and see the hidden latch in the wall behind one of the portraits. Not bothering to figure out how to open it he shifted into a shadow and slithered into the hidden compartment through the paper thin gap.

Once inside he looked around. It was a small space but he could make out a pile of papers, most likely letters, and some kind of locket and a parchment sealed with a wax seal like that which he had seen on the challenge note. By the amount of dust inside had no one opened this place for days, or weeks even. Engulfing everything inside Maleficus transported himself and his new found loot to his wagon through a rapid shadow transition.

Placing everything upon his table he made sure to transform himself back into Golden Cross before exiting the shadows himself. From there he began to read through the letters, but left the sealed scroll and the locket alone for the most part. Once he had read through everything was his eyes narrowed and glaring. He looked at the locket and lifted it up before opening it, revealing a picture of an elderly looking unicorn, a pegasus mare and a small bundle containing a white pelted and red maned unicorn foal.

"...Oh you are going to regret your actions Mister Mighty Rich, you are severely going to regret them." He muttered to himself before closing the locket. Marching into his armoury he began to put on his armour and strapped his poleaxe to his back. He then took a satchel and put the letters, the scroll and the locket inside before leaving his wagon. Slamming the door shut with his rear leg he locked it before stomping off, the ponies of the streets spread apart as the large armoured pony marched towards the keep of the city, even beneath his helmet they could feel the burning glare of his eyes.

The guards at the front of the gates crossed their spears as they saw him approach when his murderous rage filled eyes glared at them and made them freeze up. He walked up towards them and stared the two guards in the eyes before his voice rumbled out from beneath his helmet like a mechanical growl. "Open. The. Gate."

Wordlessly the two guards opened the doors and let him through, they would later deny having soiled the stairs by the gate of the central keep, not that their superiors believed them. They were grateful to only be forced to clean up their own mess rather then facing time in the dungeon for letting an armed stranger into the keep.

(Scene Skip)

Celestia had just seated herself on her throne and about to call in the first petitioner when a loud ruckus could be heard from behind the great doors leading to her throne room. She could hear her guards and servants protest and scramble, only to be pushed aside, or tossed, she was not sure. Then the tow doors were kicked open and the two guards on either side of the doors got slammed into the walls behind each door, leaving them imprinted into the marble walls like a pair of hieroglyphs.

Out of the door came Golden Cross, dressed in his armour with his weapon strapped to his back. His heavy hoofsteps slammed down like the strikes of a church bell and his glaring eyes could be felt even beneath his visor. The lrge earth pony stallion stopped in front of her throne and gave her a bow before speaking up in a rumbling, angry, voice. "Princess Celestia, I, Golden Cross, Lawbringer, has come to bring judgement upon one of your subjects for crimes against not just the laws of society but the laws of kin and family."

She felt a migraine grow as the old stallion looked at her and she sighed before motioning for her scrambling guards to stop, she knew the old pony was a powerful warrior, he had proved it when she heard about him lecturing her soldiers and giving them instructions. As much as she would love to have faith in her guards, was she quite certain they did not have the skills to handle such a strong opponent, yet.

"We wouldst hath preferred being told beforehoof before thou barged into Our keep. But very well, what art the crimes and who hath committed them?" The old pony straightened himself and took out a satchel he had, had strapped to his side and offered it to Solid Pink who had been standing by Celestia's side.

As the her aid opened the satchel and began to read through the letters and broke up the rolled scrolls, her eyes widened as she read further and further, Golden Cross spoke, his voice cracking like thunder through the large throne room. "The crimes are as following. Blackmail, Forgery of Documents, Falsifying Legal Documents, Theft of the Grandest Order, Inheritance Fraud, Bribery, and finally the Mistreatment, Abuse and Attempted Murder of a Minor and Relative, to be more specific, the attempted murder of a Half Brother. As for the one who has committed these crimes, it would be the self proclaimed Lord, Mighty Rich, who has been trying to murder his own half brother, who was to be given his father's title and the majority of his holdings upon his death."

Dead silence. The entire throne room was as silent as a graveyard at night. Celestia wanted to react, she truly wanted to, but she had to admit that she was too much in shock to properly react. She had never dared to think such thoughts about her subjects, sure Mighty Rich was a braggart and a stuck up mule, no offense meant, but she would never had picked him for a murderer of his own half brother!

But she had to accept it when Solid Pink handed her the letters, letters written by Lord Mighty Strong to his Mistress, about his wasteful son and his lack of proper handling of military matters. The, now opened, will of the Lord, naming his Mistress' son as his inheritor rather then his son, who was still given a large amount of bits to support himself. and the locket containing the small painting of the lord and the mistress and the foal.

As the shock settled she felt a burning shame and anger inside of her and she shook her head before looking at the knight who had been silently watching her, she then spoke up to him. "What wouldst thou wish to do? We know thy order act in matters of Law, and We art willing to let thee act upon Lo-, Mighty Rich's crimes. But We art not going to let thee kill him in cold murder."

But the old pony shook his head at her word. "As I said. I am here to bring judgement. And since the prat was good enough to challenge me to a duel, I think we can put both matters to rest. One way or another." The old knight then pointed at the window, straight out at the courtyard beneath the grand balcony and spoke one final line. "Call him here."

Golden Cross then turned around and walked out of the throne room, Celestia felt her body slump as she felt a great depression rise inside of her. She had not wanted things to turn out this way, but she was not willing to just overrule the laws, that would only cause misery to her and her ponies. Even if Ser Golden Cross lost, she would bring judgement upon Mighty Rich, but she would let the old Earth Pony have his chance, after all, he had far more years of experience of such matters then she. There were few murderers or even attempted murders in her and her sister's kingdom, that she knew of at least.

Turning towards Solid Pink she gave the order. "Call in Mighty Rich, tell him his challenge starts today, if he should refuse it. tell him that then he shalt be the one to be exiled." She then stood up and left for the balcony, she did not feel like speaking to petitioners today. Even if she felt a bit shameful about it, did she want to watch the duel, she had not seen a proper duel since her childhood when her mother challenged would be suitors of her and her sister during the Age of Chaos.

(Scene Skip)

Golden Cross stood in silence at the courtyard, a crowd was gathering, he knew that the word had been spread but it had been less then an hour and already had over a hundred civilians gathered. It was quite fascinating if anything, since it probed that gossip traveled faster then news. He did not move as much as an inch and kept silently standing there upon the smooth marble stone pavement of the courtyard.

He took a while to admire the beautiful courtyard and its surrounding garden. It was decorated with flower beds, two fountains, several dozens of columns, some of them holding statues of ponies. There were benches, sculptures and even a pond. Seeing the pond he felt a craving for bird meat and pondered if he should go hunting for some bird meat later.

That's when that aggravating voice he had heard yesterday spoke up and he saw the form of Mighty Rich for the first time, dressed in the golden plate mail of the Sun Guard, five weapons were sheathed on a leather strap on the right side of the pony's armour. Each of the weapons was a form of blade, yet each one was different from the other. "Hah! We hath figured thou a coward! Now We know thou art a fool instead! None could dare to oppose Our superior skill and gear!"

"Actions speaks louder then words. And your actions, makes you not a Lord, but a common criminal. And it is my duty to judge criminals." The noble glared at the earth pony, who had the audacity to insult him.

"Watch thy words peasant! We art Lord Mighty Rich and We shalt not take thy insults lightly!" Golden Cross just gave him a flat stare, the gathering crowd looking on at the two ponies, the tension growing.

Then he spoke up again. "As I said, actions speaks louder then words. And your attempt to not only destroy the Will of your father because of your wasteful ways speaks lowly of you. But the way you brought your half brother's near death by starvation and abuse speaks the loudest, and makes you less worth then the dirt in the ground, in my eyes." The gathering crowd gasped in horror.

Mighty Rich's nostril flare and he snorted angrily and reared up before stomping his forelegs into the ground. "We hath no brother! Even if We hath, We wouldst not waste a single bit upon caring for those born broken!"

Not rising up to the riled noble's words the old earth pony kept calm and spoke up again. "As I said, actions, speaks, louder, then, words. Now pick yours very carefully young one, for it might be your last chance. Now start it, so that I can end it."

His temper made way for his arrogance and vanity and Mighty Rich tossed his mane back and gave a laugh at his opponent. "Hah! We shalt not take thine mockery lightly fool! This duel is to the death, unless thee art coward enough to leave like a sensible dirt pony, i say thou art finished!" Once more, the crowd gasped in horror, things were starting to get ugly and the nervous twitching of the guards showed that they were feeling it too.

Sighing Golden Cross just shook his head, this fool had brought it all upon himself, now it was up to him, to bring him down as well. "And I say, you have acted, foolishly. For now this not your world of bribery, words, back deals, blackmail, privileges and forgeries little false lord. This is this is the world of the warrior, and here, I am the one who brings the law to the wicked and the guilty."

The noble just snorted and unsheathed his five blades, and started spinning them before rotating them around his body like a wall of rotating saws. And Golden Cross, pulled his poleaxe free and began his own preparations.

Spinning his polearm in his hoof the old knight slammed the pommel into the sand of the field beneath his hooves. His visor staring straight at the arrogant lord who was floating his five enchanted elemental weapons around him like a rotating shield of blades. The pony noble was totally confident in his strategy and it was making Golden Cross rather annoyed that he thought just standing there and rotating his weapons was going to go anywhere.

And then he spoke. "I, Golden Cross, judge you guilty of Blackmail, Forgery of Documents, Falsifying Legal Documents, Theft of the Grandest Order, Inheritance Fraud, Bribery, and Mistreatment, Abuse and Attempted Murder of a Minor and Relative. I dub you Kinslayer, I name you Child Beater, I declare you Fool. And so I shall bring Judgement upon you i naccordance to your crimes. In the Name of Justice, In the Name of the Gods and in the Name of the Innocent. Amen."

Standing up on his hind legs he turned his head left and right, shifting his bones into their proper order and then he took a deep breath before letting out slowly. Then as he finished exhaling he sprang forward like a gazelle, his body moving five meters in an instance as his left hind leg slammed into the ground and he spun his entire body, swinging his weapon in a large arc with the momentum, gripping it with both of his forelegs' hooves.

The axe head of the weapon slammed into the swirling weapons and sent two of them flying into a wall, the sharpened ends striking through the rock and embedding the enchanted weapons into it. While startled at the earth pony's strength was Mighty Rich still confident and he sent two of his blades at him while pulling out the two blades free from the stone wall.

[Start Battle Music: Sanctum Dominus by Powerwolf (Slightly Modified Lyrics)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNHMiTt7gns

Sacramentum
Nocturnarum
Nefarious

And then music started sounding through the courtyard, and voiceless whispers began to echo through the courtyard as Golden Cross began to humm.

Sacramentum
Nocturnarum
Nefarious

The Sun Guards had seen the rising danger to the crowd and quickly put up some barriers to keep anything from hitting anyone not part of the duel, it also gave them the option to shield the view of the foals trying to get a look by making the barriers darker in colour at the bottom.

"Hah! Thou strength might be mighty, but no dirt pony shalt overcome the power of magic!" The Lord shouted out tauntingly as Golden Cross shifted his poleaxe and deflected the blows of the enchanted golden blades with the shaft and blade of the weapon.

Oremus
Deus sanctus, deum filium
Dominum
Martyrum

But the old earth pony did not give into the noble's taunts. Instead he reached out with his free hoof, grabbed hold of one of the blades, and pressed its tip into the ground at angle. The noble seemed about to gleefully taunt him further, but before he could, stomped Golden Cross down with his hoof upon the weapon's bade, causing it to bend like tinfoil. And with its shape destroyed, the weapon could no longer house the magic within it and stopped functioning.

Oremus
Convertere apostolicus
Cedere
Animus

"No! Mine ancestral blade!" The noble cried out in despair as his weapon broke. A blade that had predated the Age of Chaos, now broken by the hooves of a common dirt pony!

He then glared at the filthy commoner who had destroyed his heirloom and his four remaining blades started spinning faster and faster. His rage boiled to a steaming point as he screamed out in spiteful fury. "Thou shalt suffer for that thou dirt born mongrel!"

Golden Cross just spun his poleaxe and with powerful steady steps he began to move forward. His large armoured shape felt to be twice as large as in reality to the ponies watching, yet Mighty Rich did not seem to have such a perceptive.

Debitus
Et catholicus
Debere
Deum animalum

With a wordless roar charged Mighty Rich at his hated foe, each of his spinning magical weapons aiming for the joints of his armour. The noble may be arrogant, self righteous, greedy, twisted and depraved, but he knew how to fight. But his opponent was far better. The old earth pony slapped aside the first two weapons with a swipe of his poleaxe before he spun his entire body, rotating himself as he moved forward, and dodged the other two weapons.

Dominum
Et imperitum
Here We are

Then Mighty Rich's vision was slightly disoriented by the sudden blurry movement of the earth pony in front of him He had no time to react when a powerful hoof was sung forward and slammed straight into his breast plate. There was a loud resounding clang as the metal buckled inwards and the force of the blow made the false Lord lose his breathe before the power of the strike sent his body flying backwards into the air.

He slammed into a stone column with a loud clang as his armour softened his impact, but he could feel several of his bones creak in protest at the impact and the stone he struck was cracked with a cobweb like pattern from his impact. But he was sturdier then he looked and he was soon back up on his hooves and Golden Cross had to leap aside as the four weapons came flying at him from behind as Mighty Rich took gold of them with his telekinesis once more.

E nomine
Sanctus dominus - Halleluja
Christus animus - Halleluja
Et sanctus spiritus
Call Us in the fight

The unicorn charged his horn with magic before firing a lance of energy at the earth pony who just stepped aside, the energy beam impacted one of the shields and the guards managed to hold back the attack from getting past them, although it was fairly exhausting. This left the noble wide open and Golden Cross took the opening with a vigorous charge.

His hooves cracked the stone as he stomped forward like a charging bull, his head lowered, his halberd strapped to his side as he lowered himself on all four earlier. The large pony rushed forward and with the power of a runaway train he tackled the momentarily exhausted noble straight in the front.

He pushed the pony into the stone pillar a second time, this time pressing him into it with his entire body weight and momentum, cuing the noble to cry out in pain as some of his ribs cracked from the impact. This time the column broke apart and Mighty Rich flew a good five meters through the dust cloud as the column collapsed. While he coughed up blood and started to try and recover, was golden Cross moving out of the dust and debris.

Sanctus dominus - Halleluja
Christus animus - Halleluja
Et sanctus spiritus
Call Us in the fight

Scrambling upright Mighty Rich launched two of his swords, which had been dropped when he was thrown through the column, and Golden Cross had to jump back as they buzzed past his head and neck. This let Mighty Rich recover and the noble pony took the time to plan a better strategy against the earth pony.

Seeing a bench he jumped up onto it and with his better altitude he began to coordinate his blades against the approaching earth pony. And as Golden Cross came closer he began to jump up onto benches, stone fences and some of the sturdier sculptures to get the higher ground and away from the powerful warrior.

Oremnus
Deus sanctus, deum filium
Dominum
Martyrum

The earth pony was undeterred and he moved after the noble with finesse and dexterity one would not have expected from someone wearing such heavy armour. The spinning enchanted blades kept his at bay as Mighty Rich got himself some distance from his foe. Golden Cross had to lean back to avoid it when the blades were aimed, or duck beneath them ,or move to the side, but he had yet to be hit by them.

Oremus
Convertere apostolicus
Cedere
Animus

By now was he getting fed up with the spinning blades, they had been buzzing around him like large angry bees and keeping him from reaching the noble. With a quick reflect Golden Cross reached out and grasped one of the blades as it tried to piercing his helmet. The noble pony tried to get it out of his grip but the physical hold of the weapon was too strong to break and the noble had no time to protest as the earth pony flipped the blade so it was pointing down and then brutally slammed it into the ground, impaling it to the hilt. No matter how much Mighty Rich tried to pull it out, it remained buried in the stone pavement.

Debitus
Et catholicus
Debere
Deum animalum

Getting his momentum back the old earth pony rushed forward with powerful strides. Even as Mighty Rich desperately launched spell after spell at him, blowing up some columns and one statue, the old earth pony moved with swiftness and evade each shoot.

Dominum
Et imperitum
Here We are

Then the three remaining swords flew at him from all directions, he deflected the first, dodged the second and buried the third into the ground like he had done to the fourth. Mighty Rich was getting fairly desperate as his most powerful advantage was slowly being weakened by the old earth pony. In his desperation he launched a smoke screen to get some visual cover, only for Golden Cross to erupt out of the smoke cloud like a demon for him to scream out in pain as the horn part of Golden Cross' helmet, slammed into his breast plate and cut deeply into his flesh.

E nomine
Sanctus dominus - Halleluja
Christus animus - Halleluja
Et sanctus spiritus
Call Us in the fight

Rearing his head back the Lawbringer tossed the screaming noble into a boulder, an apparent work in progress. The noble scrambled back, feeling his wound, while spinning his blades at the still approaching knight. His arrogance was gone and so was his confident, he was now desperately trying to figure out an advantage to win.

Sanctus dominus - Halleluja
Christus animus - Halleluja
Et sanctus spiritus
Call Us in the fight

Then Mighty Rich ran away form his pursuer, he needed to get some distance and he launched spell after spell behind himself while constantly sending his swords back and forth like a shield to keep that monstrous earth pony at bay. Then as he approached the edge of the courtyard he saw a familiar looking unicorn foal, watching the fight along with a pegasus filly and an earth pony mare. And then, in his twisted mind, he decided to take the child down with him.

Golden Cross had kept a steady pace, not slowing down in the least. The attacks from the noble had not slowed him down and the swirling blades had gotten a lot less dangerous with how the twisted unicorn was not focusing a lot of effort into wielding them against, it made the pattern of their movements much more predictable and they were not as dangerous with how they were no longer aimed at his vital points. So when that rotten weasel suddenly made a beeline for the crowd, he instantly saw it. And without hesitation, he raised his poleaxe, and threw it.

Sanctus dominus - Halleluja
Christus animus - Halleluja
Et sanctus spiritus
Call Us in the fight

Mighty Rich smirked with glee as the unicorn foal grew frightened at his approaching form. It reminded him of when he had beaten him up before throwing him out onto the street after his father's death. Oh revenge would be sweet, even if he would lose it all today, was he going to enjoy it to the bitter end.

That's when the spear end of the pole axe impacted his side and he collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air as his lungs were pierced by the speartip. The crowd screamed as blood erupted and several foals had their eyes covered. Which was a good thing, for Golden Cross came forward, his entire form darkened by the mid day sun. He grasped the handle of his weapon and jerked it out of the noble's body. And even as the noble struggled to ignite his horn with magic, he raised his axe, and swung it down.

Sanctus dominus - Halleluja
Christus animus - Halleluja
Et sanctus spiritus
Call Us in the fight

The head of Mighty Rich rolled down the pavement before stopping in front of the crowd, his face twisted in a grimace of rage and insanity. There was panic and chaos from that point on and the guards had to moved out to calm down the riled up crowds.

[End Battle Music]

Golden Cross just silently moved past them, cleaning his weapon, before seeing Grand Feast, Happy Meal and Grand Music, all of them cheering at him, with Grand Music's smiling face crying tears of joy. He pulled off his helmet and walked over to the trio and put the helmet on Grand Music's head, the horn cleaned, and chuckled as the foal tried to keep the helmet from sliding over his eyes.

Meanwhile up at the balcony, a sadly smiling Celestia looked down at the corpse of the former Lord. Pondering if she had been blind to the corruption of her own ponies or if it was something that had come up recently. Both of those possibilities, frightened her deeply.

(Scene Skip)

A lone shadow moved along the moat of Canterlot, wearing a dark cloak, which did little to hie the long fluffy red tail sticking out beneath it. As the figure reached the stone bridge to the gate house it moved up to the edge and watched as two guards spoke to one another. Then a wagon approached, as the guards moved to inspect the wagon the figure moved, not past the gates, but up along the shadowy part of the left side of the gate house.

With clawed fingers the figure climbed up to the roof top of the gatehouse before leaping off the roof and landing on another, before moving from roof to roof, keeping out of sight from anyone on the walls or in the sky. The figure then entered a dark shady looking tavern named the Green Goblet by a roof window.

Past the window was a room with a large table, several hammocks and more dark robed figures. As the figure entered they all drew wicked blades and crossbows before relaxing when seeing the figure was one of them. Then one of them pulled out a large scroll and unfurled it on the table ,revealing a blue print of the Central Keep.

"We all here now. We all know the mission. We all know the plan, yes?" Some nodded some did not as the figure who unfurled the map spoke in a squeaky voice.

"Week from now there be big party planned, We enter big castle, two by two. Then We gather at specific points at inside roof. Then, We shoot pegacorn Princess Sunny with painful poison arrows." As the figure spoke it pointed with a clawed red furred finger at the areas of the blueprint an each of the figures watched intensely, they knew the price for failure to their leader. And they'd rather kill themselves then end up fed to the pigs.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: Well then, Happy New Year and Merry Christmas. This was a tough nut to crack. I had to cut out the unfinished bloody battle sincei t was taking up too much time for me to finish the chapter. So hopefully you guys will accept a bloody duel at the end of this chapter instead.

Pinkie Pie: *Sniffle* Why must all these ponies get hurt!

Staadnauthursil: This story is about bloodshed, war and other negative consequences caused by your foolish actions, even if they were made drunk are they far too severe for it to be an excuse.

Pinkie Pie: But why all the suffering and pain! Why not laughter and happiness!?

Staadnauthursil: It is not all blood and gore, but it is a very important part of the story. Besides, even if my inserted self's actions may be down right idiotic or random at times, do some of them bring out good things. Like for example Grand Music getting the proper family he deserves rather then his abusive and murderous brother Mighty Rich, who gets a proper punishment.

Pinkie Pie: Okay... still not enjoying the bloody business though.

Staadnauthursil: I don't expect you to, but it is an important part of my story and I am not going to alter it to please those who cannot handle it. If someone does not enjoy how I write this grim dark and bloody story of medieval pony land then they are welcome to their opinions and they always have the option to not read it.

Chapter Ten: The Final Stand of Golden Cross (Pre-Beta)

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*Disclaimer: Please note that I do not own anything copyrighted or owned by others.

On a second note: Support the official releases of the songs I am using in this story, and support those wonderful youtube musicians, video makers and singers who can make great songs even greater.*

Chapter Ten: The Final Stand of Golden Cross

[Time Remaining: 7 Days]

The sun was shining upon Canterlot and all of its streets were filled with buzzling ponies wandering around and chattering. What had them so up and about gossiping was not just the upcoming Gran Galloping Gala, the first Gala to be held in Equestria since the Age of Chaos. It was also about its Guest of Honour, Ser Golden Cross. It had been a week since the duel between Golden Cross the Lawbringer and Mighty Rich the False Lord and Former Commander of the Bronze Army. The brutal defeat and death of Mighty Rich had made waves through the entire city and all of its social circles from the poor to the rich.

Through out those seven days had Golden Cross been hounded by nobles seeking his favours and soldiers asking to be taught in the way of his Order. It had been infuriating since he had been forced to actually accept the training part since he had already given the bronze soldiers the basic training regime, which now all of the armies and even the regular guards were using. It took up some of his free time to read and research but he found it enjoyable with Grand Music and Happy Meal joining in on the training.

He had not been very keen on making up training regimes for his 'not-totally-made-up' order but he ha some ideas from training regimes from the knowledge he had from his home world. Imitation is the finest of flattery and he hoped that this would include him giving the ponies the basic training regimes of the Spartans and the Romans, he was hoping that they would refine it on their own. He had stated how he had not gone through the basic training of his 'order' for years, considering he knew them by instinct by now was he not able to properly remember everything, hopefully this would lead to the ponies developing some of their own training techniques.

It had come as a surprise to him that the two foals wanted to train in his way, but he had not had the heart to refuse them. And it would give them a decent exercise to keep healthy. Plus, training the soldiers gave him an excuse to not see those nobles constantly wanting to ask him how he had obtained those documents revealing Mighty Rich's evil deeds. The princess had been curious about it had accepted him explaining that he had sworn to not reveal the identity of the one who found the documents, which was true since he was not certainly not going to reveal himself as Maleficus Victoria.

But even if he manage to evade the inquiries of the nobles could he not evade the Princess' invitation to the Gala. He had wanted to reject the invitation but he knew that he should accept it, even if he was a loner by nature was his Golden Cross persona a knight and thus bound by chivalry to attend such events. Even as he told them he had never been part of an official party or event outside of a few gatherings of his order, the ponies had only seemed even MORE motivated to getting him to attend.

Heck, Grand Feast insisted on it even if she had not been invited yet. It made him feel slightly nauseous but the fact that he managed to get Celestia to also invite Grand Feast and her children made it all worth it in the end. There was also the fact that one of said children was the Future Lord of the Mighty Family, which probably going to be renamed into the Grand Family since he has a new name now.

Grand Music had not wanted to live in his family home ,it held too much painful memories, instead he, after having received some telepathic communications by the aid of one certain General's assistant, he told them to make the house into a branch of his new mother's eatery. Grand Feast had been protesting but the foal refused to not repay her and the mare found herself the owner of two of the most well visited eateries in the city, which she repaid her newly adopted son by giving him lots of hugs and treats.

She still preferred her original store at her Clan Home but she would go between each store to check up on things and to make sure that none of her new staff went without instructions or aid if required. The heirlooms and belongings of his former family was gathered at his new home in the apartment above Grand Feast's eatery, said apartment had been expanded by two floors while a basement had been made to expand the eatery. Once again, all decided by Grand Music to repay his new mother who would in vain try to tell him that he did not need to.

Golden Cross had enjoyed those events, they had been the far most enjoyable parts of the last seven days. Second being watching the two foals try and mimic his stances and going through the basic training he had developed for the soldiers to develop proper spine muscles to stand upright. It was rather adorable and he made sure to keep them from over doing it, he did not want to get a stern talking to by Grand Feast for letting the foals over exercise themselves.

He did not want to admit it, but he felt a twinging sting of paternal pride in him, something he had never felt before. It frightened him a little, he was not used to such sensations, and yet, he enjoyed it far too much to not want to keep feeling such sensations. So he personally gave them tips and aid whenever they needed, some of the soldiers even offered the two foals some suggestions and light spars to help them along, the two foals had essentially become the mascots of the Equestrian Military and Militia forces.

But such pleasant things were not part of his life at the moment, seeing how he was going through what he personally called, a stagnation of pinching suffering, or otherwise known as tailoring. He had made an absent mention of going to the Gala in his armour and Princess Celestia had gotten wind of it from Solid Pink who had been told by Grand Feast, an the three mares had in secret hired a group of tailors to make him a proper suit for the Gala.

*And boy do I regret stating that facts right now, since rather then telling me about it they just decided to ambush me after I washed up after practice and dragged me into this store. Juuuuust great.* He thought to himself as he kept stock still, not giving the tailor the satisfaction of reacting whenever she 'accidentally' inserted the needles a bit wrong and struck his hide beneath the yellow and green cloth they were putting on him. The tailor had been sticking him with needles for over an hour already and he figured she was doing it on purpose now just to get a reaction out of him.

The uniform was based upon a tabard of a knight's armour, but it was designed to be more like a uniform rather then a sleeveless breastplate decorating tunic. And his neck was decorated with a golden necklace marking his status as a knight. He felt awfully silly but did not want to show any reactions to the three giggling mares watching him from the other side of the store. Celestia (disguised as a pink pegasus), Solid Pink and Grand Feast, the three evil witches who had bound him to this torture.

They had become rather close friends since the whole Duel Debacle, apparently Celestia visited Grand Feast's shop whenever she could and always ordered freshly made pastries for when she could not go there herself. While Solid Pink had started chatting and gossiping with Grand Feast whenever she came over to check up on Grand Music or gathering the Princess' deliveries from the store.

A pricking needle almost made him flinch but he managed to keep himself still, it would not do to let himself get distracted in his current torture chamber. Although he had to admit that the yellow, green and black fit with his mane and pelt in some strange manner. Not that he was going to try and figure it out, he had never seen the point of such meaning even before he became a pony.

"So Sunny when exactly shalt the Gala start? Thou didst not specify a time." Grand Feast asked the Princess, disguising herself as a pink pegasus named Sunny Day, while she and Solid Pink shared some of the snacks available in the store. They were just some sugar cubes and mint tea but it was not bad and she found it enjoyable to eat something someone else had cooked for once.

"Oh the Princess said it should be by Eight of the Evening. Which shalt also include much delectable treats, like these delicious pastries." The Princess in question answered before munching on a muffin from a box of pastries from Grand Feast's shop she had been carrying with her the entire time.

*Makes Us jealous of her alicorn body, would be wonderful to eat so much and not gain any extra weight.* Grand Feast thought as she watched the disguised princess devour several pounds worth of sugar. Solid Pink seemed used to such scenes since she was not reacting to it and just calmly ate her sugar cubes and drank her tea.

Unknown to the preparing ponies, would there be some uninvited guests coming to the Gala, with less the honorable intentions.

(Scene Skip)

In a dark attic room was a group of robed, two legged furry creatures, going through gears and weapons. Vials, arrows, strange small pellets, cloaks, ropes, crossbows, short bows, throwing knives and daggers. Everything was being given a look over, nothing was to go wrong on this mission or they would not live to loot the city.

"We got everything, yes?" The leader of the group asked with a nervous twitch in his voice, this was the moment, they could not make any mistakes. As he received the nods of confirmation from his fellow assassins he gave them a nod and opened the window, revealing the moon lit night of Canterlot.

"Good. We move now, swift and silent." And with a soundless leap he sprang out onto the nearby roof and with springy legs and clawed feet and hands he and his fellows moved towards the large majestic keep at the center of the city. Tonight would be a night of murder and death, today they would assassinate Princess Celestia. A mission near impossible, yet still may be possible, yet if they should fail killing her, at least they would severely weaken her.

The group of dark robes leap and climb across the roofs without being spotted, the dark night, even with the moon shining, hid their shapes even better then the shadows during the day. But the difficult part was approaching as the brightly lit central keep with its white marble walls, pillars and towers were lit up by torches, glowing crystals and braziers. There was a large crowd of ponies entering the castle as the dark shapes leaped off a roof and started climbing up the castle wall on the opposite side of the main entrance.

While the dark rouges were moving from the roofs of the city to the external walls of the castle, was a certain alicorn in disguise entering the castle ground as well.

(Scene Skip)

Grumbling Golden cross was shifting his newly made suit, rubbing the tightly woven fabric around his neck, not really enjoying the awkward feeling. The fabric felt too tight on his body and was restricting his body movements, it also itched a bit too. "I cannot believe I let you guys convince me to attend this peacock party."

The mare and the two foals just snickered and giggled at his discomfort as they walked together through the large crowd going through the street. Grand Feast was dressed in a green and blue dress that fit her chocolate brown pelt and lime green mane and tail. While the little Lord Grand Music was dressed in a small black suit decorated with emblems and a knight's chain across his neck, made for his size. Happy Meal was dressed in a yellow and orange dress that made her look like a mixture between an orange and a lemon, but she did not seem to mind with how she kept jumping around in joy.

"Oh thou should not bother thee too much Ser Cross. A knight like thee should be comfortable attending such events." Grand Feast said with a grin while Golden Cross just gave her a flat stare and she just giggled at that. The old knight had told her that he had never attended events like the Grand Galloping Gala, he was a wandering Knight who sentenced criminals while fighting the dangers of the lands, not a pompous knight who attended parties.

"You knows perfectly well that I have never attended any event like this in my life. None of the members of my order were ever part of such grandiose parties." The old pony said with a snort as they entered the courtyard, Happy Meal just giggled at his frowning face and even Grand Music was finding the old warrior's discomfort amusing. He felt like he was the butt of some kind of joke but he was not sure which or even how, but decided to put that aside for much later, when he was not feeling himself being strangled by his overly tight suit of uniform.

The larger gates to the castle were spread wide open by a pair of well decorated Sun Guards, their golden plate mail shining in the available lights in the courtyard. Ponies of all manners were wandering about and enjoying themselves, and Golden Cross could practically taste the self importance radiating from some of them. He noticed how there were not many ponies outside of the nobility, not that he would even imagining them enjoying such a gathering, but it still felt a bit off.

"Wonder why so few above the ranks of nobility are in this so called gala, I thought it was supposed to be shared by many from all social standards, not just those of high status." He muttered while eyeing the crowd, Grand Feast did not say anything but she felt that things were not right either and when they spotted a pegasus stallion in highly decorated armour talking with a well dressed mare unicorn by the entrance of the gates they noticed a line of some kind at the edge of the gates, with a lot of disgruntled ponies waiting in line.

"We art telling thee, We hath been invited! We shoved thee Our letter of invitation!" The mare said in a highly frustrated voice while the pegasus guard just shook his head.

"We art sorry madame Bright Locks, but thou art not part of the Guest List-" That's when Golden Cross stepped up towards the doors, the soldier moved to intercept the large earth pony.

"Halt! We need to know thy name before entry!" Golden Cross's eyes bore into the Guard's and the pegasus felt a bit uncertain of confronting the large earth pony but he pulled out an elegant parchment with a long list of names on it and tried to not shake as the earth pony spoek to him.

"Golden Cross, Knight of the Lawbringer Order. With Grand Feast ,caretaker of Lord Grand Music, along with her daughter Happy Meal." The knight found two of those names on the list, but not Grand Feast or Happy Meal's names.

"We art sorry Ser by those commoners art not on th-" A large hoof reached out and grasped the guard by the throat and lifted him up into the air , pulling him face to face to a disgruntled old stallion whose expression spoke out of how much he cared about said list.

"Now you listen, and listen good, I know how the Princess personally invited Grand Feast and her Daughter. I was there when she and her personal adviser handed her the letter of invitation so I know this as facts. And now you are telling me, that because of a list YOU are telling us is more important then the personal invitation of your Monarch, they are not allowed entry?" The guard gasped and struggled in the powerful grip, trying to demand his release, he looked to the other guards at the entrance but they were all currently busy looking at the castle garden for unsavory ponies, that was their story and they were sticking to it.

"I think we can have this all fixed in a nice, and proper fashion, by asking the Princess herself, what is the true way of conducting invitations." As the pegasus' face grew pale was a smirk growing on Golden Cross' muzzle before he casually tossed the guard to the side. He looked down as the pegasus regained his breath and snorted.

"The next time you, or those giving you instructions, try to mix up another scheme like this, I suggest you think very, VERY, carefully before even considering it. Because unlike me, I am fairly certain that the Princess will give you a far harsher punishment then public humiliation." He then walked past the guard, who scrambled himself upright, rubbing his throat. The stallion looked ready to try and restore order and shout out orders at his fellow guards, when he got knocked unconscious by the line of ponies that had been standing outside of the entrance s they trampled him down to get inside. Too bad the other guards were too busy doing their duties or they might have been able to aid him, huh, funny how things work out in the end.

Golden Cross had a satisfied smirk on his face as they entered the large entrance hall, with Grand Feast giving him a bemused look while the two foals were giggling. "Thou art a mean old grump with the mind of a foal Golden Cross." Grand Feast finally stated with a smile on her muzzle and the old earth pony just gave her a smile and a raised eyebrow as if asking her if she just realized that. She then broke out into laughter and bumped his shoulder as they walked through the large hall with the two foals in tow.

(Scene Skip)

A lone guard pony was standing guard on the castle wall grumbling to himself about the unfairness of him being stuck up on the wall rather the being inside the castle and enjoying the party. So into his bad mood was he that he never noticed a group of dark shapes climb up onto the castle wall behind him. The group looked at the disgruntled guard and raised and eyebrow at one another as if wondering if they even needed to do anything about him.

In the end they decided to continue on their way and leave the guard to his grumbling, it would be foolish to alert the ponies by killing a guard so soon into the operation. Best to keep it nice and quiet for now.

With light and silent steps the group of assassins moved across the wall towards one of the towers. As they moved across they noticed a far larger amount of guards by the tower entrance upon the walkway reaching across towards the central keep. Then one of them noticed a line of rope holding a line of banners in the air and motioned for it. The group looked at one another before nodding.

The first one tested the sturdiness of the rope and how well it would hold. He got up on the edge of the wall and pressed down one one of his clawed feet upon the rope. It held and was very firm and almost no slack in it, it must have been tied down tightly to prevent the rope from risking falling down in a gust of wind. Well it would work against the ponies this time. Hunching forward the figure grasped onto the rope with his clawed hands and slowly began to walk over the rope, and soon the rest of his brethren followed.

And so, with clawed fingers and feet they began to walk over the rope, careful to not disturb the banners too much with their body movements, it would not do to gather the attention of the guests and guards in the courtyard. Slowly but surely they crawled from the castle wall to the central keep.

Pressing themselves up against the walls and moving through the shadows, the assassins began to move towards their goal, the throne room.

(Scene Skip)

Princess Celestia wanted the night to be a good and warm time for all of her subjects. It was to be a celebration for their survival and prosperity, were their worries could be forgotten for a time.

The castle was lit up by torches and crystals, chandeliers with lit candles were hanging from every ceiling in all the rooms and halls. Large tables were covered in a mountain of food and drinks all over the main hall. She was seated upon her throne enjoying the music of the musicians playing in the halls.

Several nobles had been attempting to scurry favours or conversations with her all evening, but she had politely declined, waiting for her personal guests whom she wanted to enjoy the gala with. And soon they came, out of the large open gates to the main throne room came the large form of Golden Cross with Grand Music, his mother Grand Feast and the cheerful little filly Happy Meal, with a large crowd of other ponies entering as well.

She wondered why so many arrived at once but figured she would figure that out later, for now she was going to enjoy the evening with decent food, Grand Feast's pastries were really starting to spoil her appetite, and some of her newly made friends. With a smile and a light skip in her steps the alicorn moved over to the quartet as they moved over the white marble stone floor and she eagerly hugged Grand Feast when she reached them.

(Scene Skip)

"Oh We art so glad that thou came! We were starting to get traumatically bored!" Golden Cross just gave the two hugging mares a raised eyebrow, but then he looked around and took noticed of how most of the nobles in the room were acting more like this was some kind of conference or business meeting rather then a party. He could figure the reason for her boredom even at a large feast like this.

But now a fresh crowd of non-nobles had entered and the atmosphere of the dull and boring party was starting to take a turn for the better. The air was no longer tense, the music was slowly turning into a more rapid and wild theme, and the sound of laughter and sight of smiles of content, was skyrocketing.

He could feel a strange warmth as he watched his friends interact with one another. How long had it been since he had just been hanging out with some friends? How long had it been since he had felt like this? How long had it been, since he had not felt alone?

Smiling the old earth pony chuckled as Celestia scooped up Grand Music and Happy Meal into her forelegs and gave the two foals a warm hug. He could see an elderly stallion pegasus noble talking with an elderly earth pony merchant, the pair seemed to be having a grand time from their laughter. He could see some children, of all tribes and all social standards, play with one another and eating good food together. All the while the warm music played out. Truly, it was impossible to miss the change of the atmosphere of the gala.

*Huh. Fancy that. In just a few minutes this entire place feels a lot more welcome and warm. It makes feel a bit... oh what's the word... excited? No... happy? No. Hmmm... Wait. I got it! I am feeling content. Huh... content. I have never felt content at such a gathering before, this is a new situation for me. But. I do not dislike it.* As he was thinking to himself the old pony walked over to one of the food tables with the princess and his group, the scent of the tasty meals upon the table was making him feel hungry, but he felt a bit sad that it was not Grand Feast's cooking.

*That mare's cooking is seriously spoiling me.* He thought with a smile as he took a plate full with various foods and pastries when he noticed Happy Meal and Grand Music both carrying a big tray of food together over to their mother who looked both happy and concerned, possibly because they took so much food from the table.

Silently the old stallion walked over to a bench and put down his tray of food and began to eat while watching the crowd. He was enjoying this far more then he had anticipated, there was no expectations, there was no scrutiny and there was no cold ignorance. Silently he ate and watched, content, as the party progressed.

(Scene Skip)

Celestia looked over at the stallion as he sat down on a bench while Grand Feast rolled her eyes at the old earth pony's behaviour. She could feel his tiredness, his tension and his regrets, she had been feeling them herself for years, only far stronger for the last few months since her sister's banishment. She felt a kind of kinship with the old knight, knowing that he had gone through many a lot of things and was not openly showing it, just like she was doing.

"We were worried that Golden Cross would be just sulking in a corner, but he seem to be enjoying Our gala, although We doest think he be a bit distant." She said with a small smile to Grand Feast, her new friend just chuckled and patted her on her left shoulder.

"He didst complain about his suit being tight, We hath to admit We were worried he would just be brooding in a corner. But, he doest seem to be enjoying himself so far. It makes us glad that he is enjoying himself, he deserves to enjoy himself just like every other pony. Sometimes We fear he doest not think himself worthy of appreciation or joy." With a sad smile Grand Feast looked at her saviour and did not take notice of how Celestia flinched at her words. The alicorn had, had experienced such things herself and it had not been pleasant of being reminded of such. But it also made her a bit glad, knowing that Grand Feast was looking out for the old stallion, who obviously needed someone to keep him from derailing into depression.

Now, if only she could find someone who like that for her own problems. She knew she was being selfish, but she wanted someone who could look out for her as well, or even care for her. But finding someone like that among her people, was not very likely, she was held in far too high a standard and she doubted any stallion would be willing to get to know her unless she began to disguise herself.

*Oh no! We shalt NOT drag ourself into such a mess! We hath been reading too many of Luna's romance novels!* She thought to herself, shaking her head as to clear out the stupid thoughts that had momentarily filled her brain. To distract herself she decided to grasp a large cupcake from the table before walking off to talk to some of her guests.

Grand Feast gave her a raised eyebrow before noticing how the musicians in the room were starting to change the mood of the party, it was growing into a steady rhythmic melody. She knew that it meant dancing on the open floor, she could already see several ponies gathering in pairs. And that's when she got an idea and a wide smile spread on her muzzle as she walked over to Golden Cross, who was finishing the last of his food, and pulled him out of his seat, making the old earth pony almost choke on his mouthful of cake.

"Come on thou silly old colt! Thou need to ask Princess Celestia to dance!" She declared with a grin and began to drag him towards the princess.

"Wait whut?!" Was all he managed to cough out after having forcefully swallowed his food. He could have struggled and pulled himself free with ease, but for some reason was the mare's grip not letting him go. Making him ponder just how it is possible for her to do so, this was not an anime or cartoon, yes he was aware of the irony. *Are women in this worlds this strong when they have decided upon something? Or am I experiencing some kind of messed up 'cartoon reality' effect?*

When Grand Feast reached Celestia, who was having a conversation with one of her Generals, she pushed Golden Cross up in front of her and spoke up with a wide grin. "Princess Celestia! Golden Cross would like to dance with thee!"

Golden Cross could only give Celestia a pleading look while Grand Feast was not letting him back away, making the Alicorn grin in humour at the scene before sealing the poor stallion's fate. "We would be most pleased."

The look of utter betrayal on his face as she reached out and lead him to the dance floor by the scuff of his suit was making her lips twitch as she suppressed the urge to laugh. She felt relaxed and at ease, it had been a great idea to have this gala.

(Scene Skip)

A large area of the throne room's floor had been cleared out for the dancing ponies. And Golden Cross was being dragged by a skipping Princess towards the dance floor, many of the guests and staff staring in wonder at the Princess' behaviour and the grumpiness of the knight.

As he found himself at the center of the room he shuffled his hooves a bit in anxiety and muttered a bit, loud enough for Celestia to hear but no one else. "Errrr... I have to confess that I actually do not know how to dance."

Blinking in surprise Celestia tilted her head and looked at him in confusion. A knight who was not taught the basics of dancing? She had scarcely heard of anything like it before. "Truly? Thou must be joking. A fine knight such as thouself doest not know how to dance?"

He shook his head and tapped at the symbol upon his uniform, before explaining. "My order was less keen on formality and focused more on practicality. We spent most of our time learning how to wield weapons, survive in the wild and such matters. We rarely had events like parties and even then, few of us dances."

She pondered for a bit, this old stallion would be quite the challenge to mold into a proper dancer. But then she got an idea, one she had used herself when she went through her earlier lessons of dancing. The memories of her mother's lessons both made her happy and sad, but she did not let it bother her too much and reached out to the stallion and started to guide him as the music began to speed up, "We shall aid you Ser Cross, just follow Our lead and think of it as a spar."

A soft sigh and a grunt wad all she got in response before the old knight tried to keep up with her. He was clearly a novice of dancing, but he was a quick learned as it only took about five minutes of practice before he managed to keep up with her. It was a rather old melody and type of dancing, it had a slow waltzing momentum with two partners grasping one another with one of their forelegs and turning around with one another, shifting forelegs on every second complete turn.

As they danced Golden Cross frowned a little as the music kept playing, he was trying to keep a sparring concept into the dancing, but the music was putting him off. He could not find it in himself to get a proper sparring mindset with the medieval music, which reminded him of polka for some reason. "This music is not for me, I am not really able to get into a sparring mindset. Plus this dancing just feels... awkward."

Blinking in surprise Celestia tilted her head as they rotated around and spoke to him in confusion. "Truly? This is one of Our nations oldest dances, we know all of the tribes hath their own version upon it but the music and steps are very similar. "

He nodded and shifted his grip from his left foreleg for his right before speaking up again. "Aye, my training makes me prefer the movements of my hind legs. I am not sure if it would be proper but I do know about, mind you, know about, a dance my parents used to dance while I was younger. It is a bit more fast phased and has a more hooves on approach then this. It requires a strong spine and some proper rhythmic music but I think it would be far easier for me to do such a dance then this one."

Grinning and almost clapping her hooves in excitement, which was impossible with them dancing, Celestia spoke up with cheer and vigor. "Oh it sounds delightful! Would thou like to try it out with Us?"

Blinking a bit the old pony felt a bit awkward and wanted to rub his head in embarrassment, but unable to with his limbs occupied with dancing. "Well... I guess, but we would need to get some better music. And I cannot properly express music into notes you know. Even if I remember some of the song of my earlier years at my old home."

"No need to worry, just set thy mood and the Magic of Music shalt handle the rest." He gave her a loooooong hard stare at those words and looked at the scattered groups of musicians around them before giving her a raised eyebrow. The alicorn just grinned widely and he rolled his eyes before ruefully smiling.

"Alright, I will try to not embarrass you too much. Just do not blame me when I make us trip or accidentally step on your hooves." He then took a deep breath, before pulling away from her and took a deep breath and slowly began to concentrate, he tried to feel the rhythm of the song he had seen his mother and father dance to. It had been a wonderful song, one he had only heard from the television at home. It was in his native tongue so he had no clue if it would even be heard, but it mattered little. It was not the lyrics he was after, it was the music.

At first there was just an awkward silence, but then a strange melody began to fill the air, the musicians felt the music flow and they began to move, shifting from the slow melody, into a strange and yet exciting melody, they had never heard before,

As the music began to pick up, Golden Cross raised himself up onto is hind legs, shifting his hips as to make sure his uniform was properly fastened, before turning towards Celestia and offered a hoof.

[Start Dance Music (Music Only): Timoteij - Kom (Come)]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASRry6HQ54w

Celestia was not sure what she had been expecting, a rapid folks melody or a form of more speedy version of the music of the court. But this, this was a music of speed and rhythm that she had never heard before, it was, quite enjoyable actually. She was eager to see just what the old colt would show her with this strange music of his and stood up on her own hind legs and accepted his stretched out foreleg with her own.

And then, Golden Cross gently stretched her hoof forward, warped her free foreleg around his back while doing the same to her, and then he smiled and said, "Just follow my lead, I think I got it.", and then he began to dance.

He used his foreleg to guide her momentum, taking strides with his own hind legs to make a sort of rotating movement, she felt small as his surprisingly strong frame was able to almost lift her off the ground. She felt their bodies press together and grew flustered as the old pony began to truly move.

Spinning both of them around before slowly letting go of her back, holding her other hoof she felt herself spin before regaining her balance, in similar pose s his own, two hooves connected, their hind legs spread out and their free forelegs held out into the open air.

He then spun her back to their original position, reconnected their hips and spun around, his movements were bit awkward but they were wild and exciting. It was the most wild and extravagant dance she had ever experienced, and she loved it! *We hath never danced like this before! Truly marvelous! It is as rapid and straining as a full combat spar, and yet far more enjoyable!*

Golden Cross, or rather Maleficus Victoria, had never danced like this before. He could barely remember a time when he had even danced with someone else before. And yet, he could feel his legs move with ease and without hesitation. It was all his anxiety and doubts had been thrown to the wind.

*When I first came to my senses in this world... I did not think I would ever experience something like this but. Heck, I never thought I would have the courage to even dance with someone. But, it is actually not that difficult, once you get into the rhythm..* He thought to himself as he shifted his waist and spun Celestia away and then back again, it was not as embarrassing as he had thought it would be, it was actually, quite enjoyable. Now if only he could keep himself from moving round in the combat stances from his training stimulation on the moon, it was messing up his movements a bit.

Grinning widely the princess began to adapt to the rapid and wild movements of the dance and Golden Cross' eyes grew a bit surprised when she started moving along with him and pushed further into the movements of the dance, speeding it up further.

The ponies around could only stare in amazement as the Lawbringer Golden Cross and Princess Celestia tore up the dance floor in a dance they had never seen before. It was wild, unrefined, nontraditional, and yet, the rapid movements, the wild speed and the exciting body grinding, was making more then one pony feel a desire to experience that same music and dance.

Ponies all around were watching, some of them even trying to imitate the two, and yet the movements and the stance of the dancers were far too straining for the ponies to handle. So after a few strained hips and spines they decided to be content watching.

As the music began to build up its finale Golden Cross lifted up Ceelestia by the waist for a short second and spun her in the air before letting her land after almost a complete 360 degree turn. The princess seemed caught of guard but kept up with the dancing and as their hearts raced further and further into the music and the dance, were several dark shapes gathering on the balconies and ledges high on the walls around the throne room.

And then as the final step ended with Golden Cross leaning Celestia back with him leaning over, almost as if to kiss, her, the shadows made their move.

[End Dance Music]

(Scene Skip)

Grand Feast had never seen anything like it. She knew almost every dance type in the known lands of Equestria, and yet she had never seen such a way of dancing and neither had she ever heard such rapid and wild music. It was... entrancing. Watching those two larger then life figures dance together like two forces of nature. She felt herself grow flustered when she wondered if Golden Cross would mind offering her dance lessons after the gala, she wanted to dance like that some day.

As the music ended, the ponies around her began to clap, cheer and... whistle? Wondering where that whistling came from she looked up and saw several dark shapes, one of them whistling, before pulling out various types of... weapons!? Her heart leap up into her throat and the young mother had barely the time to rush out of the crowd and tackle the pair before the shadows fired their weapons. "Assassins!"

She slammed into Golden Cross and Celestia, pushing them a decent distance with her body's velocity. Yet even if the impact was not hard, was she blackening as a sharp pain struck her body. The last thing she felt was hitting the marble floor and something warm leaking from her body, before darkness claimed her, while the cries of the ponies erupted into the room.

(Scene Skip)

Golden Cross fell on his side when the smaller mare tackled him and Celestia, he quickly got up to see Grand Feast down on the ground with an arrow sticking out of her side. Next to her laid Celestia, with an arrow through her left flank. Both of them were out cold, and he could guess why. Poison. He had to act fast.

"Shit! Someone call healers, these weapons are poisoned!" The guards were rapidly pushing out the crowds of the throne room but some of them along with servants were running off to gather healers. Looking around Golden Cross tried to find something of aid before he spotted a guard approaching.

"Give me a dagger or some kind of small blade!" He barked out at the soldier.

The soldier faltered and looked at him in confusion before speaking up. "Huh? Why would thee nee-"

Not willing to handle the skittishness and stupidity of the guard Golden Cross roared out loud enough to vibrate the floor. "NOW!"

Squeaking out the guard tossed down all of his weapons on the ground before covering behind this forlegs like a foal. "Eeeeeeh! Here!"

Not sparing the pathetic whimpering fool a second glance Golden cross moved over to grand Feast and pulled out the dark from her side before pouring some wine from a bottle on the floor over the wound and onto the blade. He then carefully cut open the wound a bit and let the blood flow out. With care he then repeated this to the princess. The blood flow would leak out and thus hopefully remove the poison, or at least part of it.

"There, hopefully the bleeding will remove most of the poison." The disguised alicorn muttered as he got up on his hooves and grasped the spear that the guard had thrown on the ground. He saw a group of frantic healers approaching, carrying bags of various kinds. He took the two arrows he had pulled out and handed them to them.

"There is poison on the arrows, it may be extracted to create an antidote. Or give you a clue on how to save them. Now save them!" With a final bark at the healers Golden Cross began to move out of the throne room at a rapid phase, one of the guards shouted out at him. But the guards did not stop him, the burning eyes upon the large earth pony's eyes was like staring into the sun itself, and the way he was wielding that spear in his mouth, made them less then willing to confront him.

"Halt! Where are thou heading!?" Golden Cross ignored him and the other guards and just ran up the stairs towards the upper floor and started using his vibration based sensory magic to find the culprits. His nostrils flared and he snorted out in utter fury, his teeth were clamping down on the spear in his mouth, almost biting through the wood. While mentally muttering to himself. *I am going hunting.*

A door was rapidly approaching, yet he knew this was the way to reach the fleeing assassins. he lowered his head and slammed skull first into the door and the blue coloured wooden frame split apart before his physical strength and in a shower of splinters he burst through it and his hooves slammed down into the marble floor, cracking it as he started to speed up.

Up ahead in the corridor he could see dark robed shapes shutting a door close at the end of the hallway. His eyes narrowed and he jumped around five feet in front of the door and slammed himself into it by the shoulder. The door flew open by the force of the strike, slamming into the stone walls by the frame hard enough to fracture the walls and the doors themselves, Golden Cross flew out of the doorway and landed on his hind legs on the floor of the balcony outside, with the spear grasped in his forelegs.

Looking around he soon spotted the assassins, trying to flee by climbing down a long rope with banners. Glancing around he saw no quick way to reach the castle walls from his position. So he would have to improvise.

Reaching out he grasped the rope with his free hoof, he pressed his two hind legs against the stone fence were the rope was tied. He then took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and then yanked the rope. Very, very hard.

(Scene Skip)

The assassins were cackling with glee as they were sliding down the rope towards the castle's exterior wall. Their mission was a success! The Princess was poisoned, the ponies were in chaos and even the less skittish ponies had not been able to stop them escaping as they closed the doors behind them to stall them.

Their clawed hands griped their sheathed weapons as they used them like zip liners to slide down towards the exterior castle walls. But then everything went down hill, literally.

The rope they were siding down upon suddenly went rigid, making them bounce a little, the one at the rear looked back in confusion and then his eyes widened as the sight of a lone earth pony grasping the rope from the castle balcony, before yanking it, hard.

With a loud twang the entire rope went from slightly rigid to iron hard stretched in an instance as massive force was put upon its fibers. The assassins had less then five seconds to realize what was happening before a loud crack was heard in the distance and the robed killers stared in horror as the iron ring holding the rope in place on the castle wall, was torn out of the marble stone and they all fell plummeting towards the ground.

Four of the eight shapes slammed into the hard rock of the courtyard. Their soft bodies striking in a fatal velocity as bones and organs were broken and ruptured by the impact, leaving them broken like dolls on the ground. The ponies of the courtyard screamed in panic and began to flee en mass while the remaining four assassins, who landed in a large fountain, struggled to their feet.

That's when a loud crack was heard from behind them and the black robed killers turned around so see the spear wielding form of Golden Cross kneeling on the marble stone of the courtyard. Beneath his hind leg hooves was the stone cracked and splintered. It had been broken apart like a layer of ceramics and glass on soft sand from the impact of him jumping down from the balcony.

Straightening himself upwards onto his hind legs the large pony cracked his neck, left and right, popping his bones into place, before glaring at the four killers. He spun the golden spear in his right hoof and took a step forward, speaking to them with a wicked twisted smile on his muzzle in a voice that sounded both courteous and mocking. "Oh honoured guests. Do not leave just yet, we have not even gotten to the best part of this event... the entertainment."

The way the final word was growled out with his twisted smile and burning eyes glaring at them, gave the assassins chills to their cores. But they could not falter now ,they had to escape the city, they had to report their success to their leaders. The four black robed shapes drew out daggers and short sword from the shadows of the black fabric clinging to their wet bodies. And then they all screaming out in wordless battle cries before charging the unarmored knight.

They attacked as one, from different angles and different speeds to make it difficult for him to dodge or move out of the way. But instead of evading or blocking, he spun the spear between his two forelegs and slammed the wooden part of the weapon into their hood covered heads.

The assassins clutched their heads, not letting go of their weapons but pressing their clenched fists against their skulls, their assault halted. Moving forward without hesitation, Golden Cross shifted his grip on the spear and aimed the spear head at one of the smaller targets. With a swift jab with his forelegs and thrust the spear forward, the golden metal tip slipped into the shadowy hood and briefly meet a resistance before it sank into it. Before exciting in an eruption of blood and brain matter as it went through the skull and out of the back part of the hood.

There was no chance to react to the situation, the assassin barely had time to go limp before the weapon was jerked out of his skull and he collapsed on the ground. The remaining three killers decided to split up and surround him from different directions. Crouching down they shifted their grips on their weapons before rushing forward, their feet barely making any sound as they rushed over the stone pavement.

Shifting his body Golden Cross suddenly drove the wooden end of the spear into the floor and with powerful heave with his forelegs lifted his entire body up into the air, avoiding the attacks. With their attacks missing only one of the assassins managed to not stumble past their intended target area, but that would end up being his undoing. With one of the assassins directly beneath him, Golden Cross swung his hind legs down and slammed the robed creature into the pavement as the hooves of his hind legs landed on the cloth covered back of the silent killer. The impact of his heavy body landing on the robed killer's back broke the bones beneath his hooves, essentially crushing parts of the killer's torso, including parts of his lungs and heart.

Without a pause he spun the spear around in a wide arc and slammed the flat side of the spear head into the skull of one of the attackers. The flat spear head was the size of the palm are of a pony's hoof, and it was big enough to cover two thirds of the opponent's hidden face, essentially flattening it. The assassin could not evade or turn with the blow and his body essentially was flipped into the air by the force of the blow before impacting and tumbling on the ground for a decent ten meters like a rag doll before laying still. Golden Cross straightened himself from the wide swing he had just done and stepped off he corpse he had been standing in and stared hard at the remaining assassin.

Said assassin was afraid, terrified and frustrated. This strange old pony had come out of nowhere and killed everybody but him within a span of two minutes! it was infuriating for a prey species to be stronger them! a prey should know its place dammit! Charging in frustration and mindless savagery the terrified assassin flailed his two blades in a shower of attacks, but his frantic thrusts and slashes got stopped instantly when the old knight rushed forward, swiped his flailing arms aside with his spear, before shoulder bashing him into the marble column behind him.

The robed killer's body let out a loud crack as bones and stone were broken by the strength of the impact, and his entire rib cage and internal organs, were essentially crushed between the stone column and the powerful tackle of the pony. The assassin could only gurgle and gasp as he began to choke and gasp for breath, slowly dying as blood poured out of his throat from his crushed internal organs, essentially choking him on his own blood

As the final assassin collapsed on the ground as blood began to pour out of his mouth, Golden Cross snorted at him before moving away from the dying killer. But while the assassins were down, was the situation still not over and done with. Walking over to the one he had slapped in the head with the flat side of the spear, Golden Cross grasped the robed assassin's limp body and lifted him up into the air, the shifting of his body, making his hood fold back, revealing the poisoner's features.

His eyes widened at what he saw, what he had been expecting, was not this. Then his eyes narrowed and he spoke up in a calm, yet cold voice. "Well, well, well. I never thought I'd see the day I saw one of your kind, rodent."

Beneath the hood was the head of a rodent, a rat or mouse, was hard to tell with the half crushed nose, but the features were there. And the most damning thing was the cloths on him, the colours, and most of hall, the extended canines that looked like they would fit better on a vampire then a rodent, broken, but still there.

"Many have told me that things are not always as they appear to be, but I doubt that in this current circumstances. It is not often after all, that a member of one of the four Carnivore Factions, poisons a princess." The rodent twitched at his words and seemed to sputter and spit at him.

"Oh yes, I know your kind. So tell me." Pressign down his hoof upon the chest of the rodent, Golden Cross looked him deep in the eyes and spoke to him in a deep and rumbling voice. "Which faction were you part of?"

"The Civilized?" The beating of the assassin's heart was rapid yet not frantic, that was not the faction this one was part of.

"The Longcoats?" No change in its heartbeats, yet it was frantic and terrified whenever he spoke those names. Clearly was this person assuming there could be no one knowing about his origin and factions.

"The KSR?" Yet again no change in his heartbeats, yet the fear was growing and Golden Cross grinned as he drew the conclusion he had, had for the last few moments.

"Ah. A Commonfolk, a member of the Red Army." There the heartbeat jumped like crazy and the pony grinned at the captive beneath his hoof.

"Then that makes things far easier for me. Considering you are acting as an assassin are you not part of the Commonfolk no more, it is not your style to fight with skulduggery and deceit, that would be more like the Civilized and the KSR, That means the pigs failed in killing you all at the end of the Mouse Wars." There was another spike of heart beats, Golden Cross had not been certain if the lore that he knew about these people was part of this world's history, but it appeared to be partly correct.

"So. A new faction, I can only assume the remnants of the four armies managed to repel or persuade the pigs and the hogs from killing you." Yet another jolt of his prisoner's heartbeat, so the pigs had either joined or taken command of the four armies. That was not a good thing, the lore of Tooth and Tails was the opposite of the ponies and their harmonious ways, even if he had forgotten much about either of those games had he still remembered the base of it and it was not good.

But one thing in particular was bothering him, a lot. Where had the Four armies come from? Had they been sent to this world like he had been? Or had they been part of it all along? It was giving him chills since if either was true, it was nothing less then terrifying.

"Tell me, who controls you now? Is that one armed field mouse Hopper in control? Or is that vengeance filled aristicrat Bellafide still burning down homes in his rage? Maybe the Quartermaster of the former secret police has made her bid for absolute order through orderly murder. Or. The far most logical conclusion. HE is in control, like he always has been." Glaring into the eyes of the assassin he could feel the shock and terror flood from the quivering rodent's psyche as he pressed his hoof harder onto his chest.

"That silver tongued parasite of a mouse. That twisted child killing gourmet. That gut retching sick genius who invented the harvest system after the great winter. Tell me. How does Archimedes the Forefather fare?" The name made the assassin try to frantically twitch and spasm, trying to escape the pony. Even when unable to speak, this stallion was barring every secret, every hidden speck of information from him without even demanding answers! How was it possible!?

"So. Archimedes still live. And he is either in control of the pigs, the remnants of the Four Armies, or both. And by the way you have acted, he is at least in control of the Four Armies, and now he is targeting Canterlot. And I can only figure one reason as for why you twisted killers would even attempt it. Meat." The assassin was squirming like a worm on a hook. His fear was making him scream out in wordless torment as he tried to claw himself away from the terrifying pony.

"You seek to butcher the ponies just like you did to yourselves. Well I can tell you this already, you, will, fail," The old pony growled out and pressed his weight heavier upon the panicked rogue's chest, the bones groaning beneath the pressure, while the rodent just kept on screaming and flailing in utter horror.

And then, as Golden Cross glared down upon him, attempting to ask him another question The heavy beating heart, strained from physical and emotional exhaustion, gave out. And with a final gasp, the rodent died on the pavement of the courtyard. With a grim look on his face, Golden Cross pulled his hoof away from the deceased murderer. He turned and looked at the crowd of guards that had been watching him interrogate the assassin until he died of fear, and gave them a tired smile. "Canterlot, is in dire danger. I need to speak to the Generals, Princess Celestia needs to be informed as well once she recovers. But this cannot wait."

Not uttering a word the soldiers and guards let him pass, some of them rushing off to send messages to the Generals and the healers handling the wounded princess. The guards looked at corpses of the assassins sprawled out over the courtyard and shuddered a bit, the old knight was truly something else and they were extremely grateful that he was on their side.

(Scene Skip)

Entering a room with a large circular table, Golden Cross handed over the bloodied spear to a guard as he entered. As he did came five ponies into the room as well, one of them in a wheel chair. As they gathered around the table, Golden Cross stepped forward to speak to them. The alicorn in disguise bowed to the well decorated officers and spoke up in a polite voice. "I am Golden Cross, Knight of the Lawbringer Order, and I bring ill news."

The ponies looked at one another before one of them motioned for Golden Cross to continued. "There is a danger approaching Canterlot, a force of meat eating animals who will ransack the city and devour everybody inside of it to sate their craving for meat. It was their assassins which attempted to kill Princess Celestia this evening."

An old pony pressed a hoof to a medal across his throat and spoke up in a monotone voice that reminded Golden Cross about about the text to speech devices used by mute people, like Stephen Hawkins. "How. Doest. Thou. Know. This. To. Be. Them?"

He tapped at the symbol of his order on his uniform. "My order's origin is a large mountain bound castle, it was upon it which we swore our oath as Lawbringers and Knights. We were near the borders of the lands of these butchers. I will first need to explain a bit about them though, it is not a pretty thing however. Could you provide me with a parchment and some kind of writing implement?"

It took a few minutes but soon he had a large scroll, one made for maps, and a collection of quills, coal and ink wells. Dipping the quill into the ink he slowly drew an simple sketch of the various creatures of the Tooth and Tail universe. And as he did so he spoke to the Generals. "The nations itself was inhabited by various kinds of animals. In the beginning it was a sort of feudal society were the herbivore worked the fields and the carnivores demanded monthly tributes in meat from the herbivores, and as in meat I mean they had them butcher their old, deformed children and all their crippled to be made into food for the carnivores."

The five Generals frowned at this information, the attendant to the one in the wheelchair gasped in horror. Yet Golden Cross was not done and continued to speak while he sketched out the snakes, the toads and other animals. "This system had been in place before my order even existed, but a few decades later, a harsh winter struck their lands and forced the herbivores into the cities. During this winter, both herbivores and carnivores volunteered to be butchered to feed their starving people. It became a holiday for meaningful sacrifice, as a consequence, all of the animals except for a few, started eating meat, even the herbivores. It was at first only a small rising of self sacrifices for their people once a year but then, the Civilized emerged."

Next the earth pony drew the head of the leader of the civilized a wizened old rat like mouse dressed in fine robes. and he glared upon the image as he spoke. "The Civilized were a group of clergies, members of faith and the feudal ruling cast, whose spiritual leader carved out the mess that followed. Archimedes the Forefather, the last remaining person to remember the Great Winter, he was the one to initiate the Lottery system. A group of random people would be picked and then butchered to feed the masses. It was his solution to make sure the Civilized would never go without a feast of meat, or morsels as he called them, while also making it so that the victims were never the same, and thus offering him more flavours to his tables. And at first it worked, but then less and less of the Civilized faction were chosen by the lottery until they were never picked again."

Then the head of the Quatermaster appeared, a feminine mouse dressed in uniform. "People began to refuse the results of the lottery as more and more of them realized that the Civilized were just picking victims to feed themselves. So to pick up their victims they formed the KSR, a secret police force which would gather those chosen by the Lottery and keep the country in order. And so the lottery kept going for years, until finally, they picked the wrong sacrifice."

Next came the crude image of Bellafide, the leader of the Longcoats. "Bellafide, a rich aristocrat and merchant who had built himself up from a simple fist fighter into one of the richest in the land. His view is that if you do not work for a better future, you are better to contribute to it with your meat. And this view came into effect very much when his son, a child of less then ten summers, was picked by the KSR when the Civilized called a harvest and when he saw his son bring eaten by the city, he went into the underground tunnel system of the nation, called the warrens, and roused up a revolution. intent to change Lottery system so that those who did not contribute or fight to succeed were butchered."

Then appeared the image of Hopper, the one armed nomad field mouse. "Coming from this is Hopper, a field mouse who sought to instigate a change into the lottery system, to change it fro ma random pick and into a democratic voting system. She had sacrificed her own arm to feed her people, and when Bellafide called to revolution, she joined him at the beginning. And together they confronted the Civilized and the KSR and brought the nation into an era of war and mindless butchery."

Then he drew the image of a pig and a boar. "At first things went well for the Revolution, until the leaders broke off from one another when their ideals started to strain their relations. But, things were not as they seemed. After several months of battle, a harsh winter came upon the land. And food was once more scarce, the armies had fought for month and feasted upon one another until almost nothing remained of either side. and then they were instigated to fight one another for one final push. And then, the pigs arrived."

He pushed the art forward, showing the crude image of the commander and the animals, surrounded by pigs wielding weapons. "The pigs were the only ones who worked the farms and ate like herbivores after the great winter, they were treated like subspecies, lesser beings, by the other animals. And the pigs, utilized this superiority complex, and drove the armies upon one another from day one of the war, making them butcher some of their own allies, weaken them until they became scattered, and then kept pushing each of the four sides against one another until they were weakened enough for the pigs to kill them all."

That was all he knew about the Tooth and Tail lore, there was nothing more after that. Now he would have to improvise a bit and hopefully not make it too unrealistic, he was certain they were doubting his words but hopefully he was able to get some of them up to speed about these factions and their ways. "That was the last I heard about the Four Armies, and that was years upon years ago. Yet it appears the final battle between the Four Armies did not end with them butchered by the pigs like we were told. Archimedes still lives and has taken control of the remnants of the Four Armies."

He looked up upon the generals and pointed out at the balcony, overlooking the city of Canterlot. "And they, are coming to Canterlot." As those final words sounded through the room, the generals began to frantically communicate with one another, while the guards in the room looked quite ill and green from the way he had described the history of Tooth and Tail, and he did not blame them.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!" Although he was not impressed when the panicked scream from one of the guards cut through the silence. Said guard started running out into the hallway screaming all the time, with other guards trying to calm him down. The sight of that made him raise an eyebrow at the Generals who tried to not take notice.

Sighing he pressed a hoof to his forehead, his impression of the Canterlot soldiers were not the best. *Things was going to get messy once the four armies arrive, hopefully things do not turn out too bad but... I seriously have my doubts.* He then vowed to the Generals, who were busy conversing and sending out messengers, and moved towards the doors.

*I hope these fuckers don't have fire arms, bombs and poison artillery like in the game, the ponies are not going to be able to handle such weapons as they are now,* Golden Cross thought to himself as he left the room. He had to find Grand Feast and Celestia, he would have to make sure they were okay, especially Grand Feast since she did not have Celestia's alicorn physiology.

It would hopefully not take too long to find them, but he was less hopeful that he would be able to speak to them.

(Scene Skip)

It took him five minutes to find the room, the trail of running servants and loud shouting made it easy to find though. What he found was a large doorway with a large group of guards, with a constant rushing of servants, healers and other professionals, running in and out with various items and objects. Notes, vials, blankets, water bowls, pots and... was that a fruit bowl?

"Get Us warm water and blankets!"

"We need the Royal Alchemists!"

"Get Us a bottle of strong alcohol!"

"No! Apply the solution AFTER We use the leeches! The leeches need to suck out the poison!"

He silently watched into the room and saw how several robed ponies were surrounding two tables, both of the groups working and shouting, while servants and other robed ponies handed them things and took things in return. It was clear that most of their healing techniques involved potions and magic, but hopefully it would turn out okay. He waited for a while, around ten minutes, until a tired healer stepped out to get some air and spoke out to him.

"I am sorry if I am bothering you, but I must ask how the Princess and Grand Feast a doing." The pony was an elderly pegasus, dressed in blue robes with white runes and arrays upon the fabric. He looked upon Golden Cross and rubbed his eyelids a bit before speaking.

"Aye, the Princess is recovering, although the poison is powerful is her body fighting it. But we art working to remove it completely from her body to speed up her recover. The mare on the other hoof, she is in a serious situation, her body could give out any second if We doest not keep up our efforts. We do not know how long it may take but We shalt do our hardest to cure her." He gave the pony a bow of gratitude and left him to recover.

*This is not good. The princess is doing better but Grand Feast is in critical condition and the healers needed to work as much as possible on both of them. I should not stay here, I do not want to disturb the healers at their work. Plus, I need to find Grand Music and Happy Meal, those two must be terrified by now. I can worry about the state of the city's defenses later.* The alicorn in disguise thought to himself as he walked down the hallway towards the throne room, hopefully the foals were not too far away from where he last saw them.

Walking through the halls he soon found the familiar looking entrance to the throne room, the room was vacant of guests with only guards searching through every nook and corner to make certain no more uninvited guests were around. He looked around and tried to find the two foals, tapping his left foreleg hoof on the floor, acting as if anxious, to use his sensory spell. He soon spotted two life forms, out in the garden. Swiftly he began to run through the halls and with agility unlike someone his size, he evades servants, guards, nobles and other ponies in the hallway before reaching the main entrance.

Reaching the courtyard he looked around rapidly to where he had sensed the foals, the bodies of the assassins were gone thankfully, removed by the guards. He opened his mouth to shout out the names of the two foals when a pair of small bodies slammed into his legs, nearly knocking him over, and a pair of crying foals clung to his forelegs. "Mister Cross! We thought ye had disappeared! Is mama okay!?"

His ears folded but he smiled kindly at the crying faces of the two foals and gently lifted them up onto his back, letting them cling to him on his back rather then on his legs. "Your mother is a hero little ones, she saved me and Princess Celestia from assassins. She was injured, but the best healers in the country are helping her right now and I am certain she will be right as rain in no time."

Looking back at the castle he sighed softly, he had to get the foals back home, he needed to inform the Blue Grass Clan about the situation. *Hopefully they can take care of Grand Music and Happy Meal while Grand Feast recovers. I guess... it was a good thing I did not leave right away as I originally had planned to.* He then started walking away from the castle, both of the foals clinging to him, sniffling his uniform with snot and tear,s but he could care less about that, it was just a piece of fabric.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 6 Days]

The sun had yet to rise as he woke up from the hectic night he had gone through, he was not certain what time it was, but it was beyond the sunrise time. He was laying on a mattress of hay stuffed linen on the floor of the bedroom of Grand Feast's home with a simple blanket over him. When he had spoken to Elder Tall Sprout he had heard that few of their clan members could take care of the two foals with how many of them were already taking care of other foals who had lost their parents during the raid on their caravan.

Thus it fell to him to handle the two foals until he could find someone who could. He had put both of the foals to bed in their home and taken to sleep on the floor on a spare mattress after having removed his uniform. What he now woke up to was a pair of foals snuggling into his neck from left and right. He was not sure if he should move, the two looked so adorable.

But then the rays of the sun rose and he felt a spark of hope, if Celestia was able to raise the sun ,then there might be a chance that Grand Feast had recovered as well. Slowly he removed the foals' gripping forelegs from his neck and stood up on all four, stretching his spine and neck as he did so.

Silently he moved into the kitchen at the bottom floor by the eatery and found some left over flower sandwiches, salads and pastries. Grabbing a bit of each along with a pitcher of water he walked up to the bedroom and put the breakfast on the table next to the small coach by the windows.

Next he gently poked the two sleeping foals on their heads and chuckled as they tried to shuffle away and bury themselves into the blanket on the bed. Gently he rubbed their heads and spoke to them softly. "Wake up you two, I have breakfast for us. And I believe we might be able to get news of your mother after you finish eating and brushing your teeth."

He pulled the blanket away and almost laughed when the foals tried to grapple the blanket from him, only to end up rolling off it when the blanket slid off the bed. Chuckling a bit he gently helped the two sleepy heads up on their hooves and lead them towards their breakfast.

The two foals were slow to wake up with some gentle pushes they were soon eating and cleaning up for the day Golden Cross watched with a sad smile as the two of them started waking up, remembering his own life as a human, he used to be a lazy morning person too. *I would have been the one to be forcefully woken up by my alarm or possibly my mother. Now I wake up on my own, feeling fresh as a daisy most of the time. Things sure have changed for me, some bad some good, I just hope it won't be more bad then good.*

"We go see Mama now!?" Happy Meal's voice rang out and he made a soft grunt as the little mar jumped up onto his back and warped her forelegs around his neck, while Grand Music quietly climbed up on his back and just tried to sit. Smiling at the two he opened the door to the bedroom and left, leaving the empty tray and plates to clean up later, it could wait.

Once outside he began to move towards the central keep. The streets were riddled with ponies of all manners like it normally was. However, a major difference was the massive amount of guards and soldiers marching around in grounds of ten to thirty. The attack on the Princess and the brave pony who tried to save her had spread like wild fire, the entire town was in a gossiping mood and he felt like he should try to not make himself too known to the people, he did not want to get hounded by panicking ponies every time he took a step outside.

So he quickly went back inside and picked up a hat left by one of the costumers he put it on his head and returned outside. The streets were brimming with active ponies and patrolling guards and thus he had a hard time coordinating through the crowd with his two passengers. It took a bit of effort but he managed to get through the streets and soon reached the central keep.

The guards were all over the place and the security was strict, but they let the trio enter without any kind of inspection, which made Cross rather confused as of why they would give them special treatment. He did not notice the nervousness of the guards as he walked past them and the sighs of relief they made when he got out of sight.

Retracing his steeps from the night before he walked across the hallways, Grand Music was looking around in curiosity while Happy Meal was oohing and aahing at different things as they rode past it. It made him smile a bit, he had always enjoyed the company of children, they could be cruel that was true, but most children were not like that, they were kind and welcoming with curiosity burning in their eyes.

His ears perked as he heard the scrambling of hooves up ahead and he sighed a bit in relief as he saw a large group of healers and other educated ponies sitting on couches, or sleeping on them, eating food and drinking cups of various drinks. Walking up to the group of resting healers he bowed his head in greeting and spoke up in a polite manner. "Greetings, I am Golden Cross, the Lawbringer, I bring the children of Grand Feast, the mare who attempted to save me and Princess Celestia last evening. How does she and the princess fare?"

The elderly healer whom he had spoken to last evening coughed a bit before spitting out some kind of black chewed mass into a napkin, reminded him of licorice, which made his spine shiver, he HATED licorice. His unpleasant memories of the taste of the candy was broken as the old pony spoke up, "Well, Our Princess hath recovered enough to once more wield her magic to lower and raise the Celestial Spheres. She hath to remain in bed for a few days but shalt recover soon. As for Lady Feast, she be asleep, We managed to purge the poison out of her body. She shalt recover, but it will be weeks until she no longer requires bed rest."

Looking at the happy teary eyes of Grand Music and Happy Meal the old earth pony smiled a bit, how own shoulders no longer burdened by anxiety and fear, and spoke up to the healer. "May we see her?"

The old pony just gave a smile and a nod and motioned for the ten guards to let the trio past the doors.

Once past the door they were set upon by the stale sterile scent of a hospital room, although only Golden Cross knew what to compare it to. The two beds were still occupied but Princess Celestia was lying on her bed, going through a report with a pencil levitating in a weak field of telekinesis, while Grand Feast was laying down on her side, sleeping soundly. The mare's body was pale and she looked rather sickly, but as Golden Cross' hooves stepped over the floor towards the bed, her eyes opened and she looked towards the doorway with a confused look on her muzzle.

"Mama!" Came the loud cheerful voice of Happy Meal as she and Grand Music scrambled off Golden Cross' back and climbed up the bed to hug their mother who was startled but then smiled an hugged her two foals as tight as she could, soothing their tears and cries with warm motherly love. Celestia dropped her pencil and looked up with a startled look on her face, which soon softened into a smile as she saw the scene of mother hugging children, feeling a slight twang of jealousy as it made her yearn for her own mother, even after more then two centuries she still wanted to be that little foal once more and be hugged by her mother.

She then noticed something, there, just a few meters away, stood Golden Cross looking at the scene with a sad smile on his face. Celestia looked at him and saw how he looked so old and lonely as he stood there a few meters away, watching the hugging family, and she felt a sort of kinship with him and smiled a sad smile herself. *We truly feel old right now, do We not Golden Cross?*

The old earth pony slowly left the room to let the foals and their mother get some alone time, and stepped out of the room. Leaving Celestia to her report as she watched Grand Feast and her two foals fall asleep together on the bed, making her smile a bit brighter.

Once outside of the room Golden Cross rubbed his head and sighed. He felt awkward and self pitying at the moment, he wanted to do nothing else but to lay down on a bed and let the day go away. As he walked past the recuperating healers he looked out through the windows and looked at the sun, when he felt a sudden pain in his chest.

Reaching up he rubbed his chest and patted it a bit. Then he suddenly lost his breath as a sudden sharp pain exploded out of his throat. He collapsed on his knees and clutched at his throat, gasping and gargling. He could hear nothing but the pounding of blood in his ears, even as the gathered healers scrambled from their seats and moved towards him he could not hear them.

He then reared back his right foreleg and punched himself in the barrel, the impact pushing down on not just his stomach but his lungs as well and he let out a loud gargling burp as a lump of blood and black ichor flew out of his throat and splattered onto the floor. Panting he slowly staggered up right and brushed aside the blood from his mouth and looked at it, ignoring the healers as they tried to make him lie down to be examined.

"Haa...haaa... I guess my time is approaching." He muttered out loud before moving away from the concerned healers as he walked away, acting as if nothing was wrong. The healers and other educated ponies were examining the blood and ichor when one of them spotted something.

"Oi fellas." The other healers looked at him and he pointed towards Golden Cross.

"That there fella's right hind leg, he got some kind of Black Cutie Pox." They looked at where he was pointing and saw how the entire hoof of Golden Cross' right hind leg was pitch black and black tendril like ink marks looked like they were stretching upwards towards the rest of his leg.

"That be no Cutie Pox there, that be da Black Mark. It only appear on ponies that be way past their prime." One of the older ponies said and the other, older ponies nodded.

"It be da disease which strikes when a ponies be reaching da end of his natural life, even if he be able to survive de side effects of it will it not matter. Once the mark reaches him there cutie mark, he will be dead." A solemn silence filled the hallway as they looked at the old earth pony as he left the halls, seemingly ignoring them.

Golden Cross would spend the rest of the day in his cart, writing on parchments and tome pages.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 4 Days]

Sighing Golden Cross looked out at the sun, it had been a hectic time for him lately. The two foals had to be retrieved by him the following morning after they first visited Grand Feast, apparently the healers thought it to be safer for both her and the foals to not risk any remnants of the poison infecting the foals.

They had told him that they two children were fine but they wanted to be on the safe side and it would also make it so that Grand Feast could recover more as she was in need of a lot of sleep, food and water for the next couple of weeks. The problem was, Golden Cross did not have a couple of weeks left. It was not long until he would be forced back to the moon by the curse the Elements of Idiocy put on him, the blood and ichor he spat out two days ago had not repeated itself, but he was starting to get a straining sensation through out his entire body.

*I need to do something in case I cannot remain before my time on the planet ends.* He thought to himself as he looked down at the book he was finishing writing. It was a made up chronicle about the history of his order, he had used the screen which connected him to the satellite network around the planet to investigate a possible origin spot for his order, he saw a decent area with a destroyed fortress a great distance away from Canterlot, it was located a bit to the north east with a cluster of mountains and a vast region of grass and tundras.

It had taken him the better part of the last two days to write it, he had entertained the two foals by telling them stories while he was writing, it had been a rare sight, to see the two foals so silent and calm. But it was worth it to see them so enthralled by the stories he told them. Most of them were folk lore tales, cartoons and movies he had seen a a human, edited into a pony version, but it seemed like the foals did not care for the origin of the stories as long as they were entertaining.

Closing his eyes he wondered what options he had. He had not the time nor the ability to create a sort of flesh golem to control, he could not create an illusion it would not function for too long and he most certainly could not... *Wait... hmm... That could actually work, at least until my banishment is resumed.*

He fell into a state of deep thoughts as he tried to figure out the best way to make the necessary adjustments to the spell he was intending to use, it would be a bit difficult to make it up on a whim, but it was the best option he had for the moment. His ears perked up as he heard soft snoring and he looked at the couch the two foals had been sitting on and smiled a bit as he saw them sleeping against one another.

Softly and gently he carried the two to the bed of his wagon and covered them with the blanket. He smiled and ruffled their manes a bit before looking out the small window of his wagon and saw how the sun was settling. Time had flown by rather quickly, the day was already ending. But that mattered little, he had research to preform, and hopefully that research would let him keep his identity secret during the last of his days on the planet.

Carefully locking himself into the storage room of the armours and weapons, Golden Cross let go of his transformation spell and resumed the shape of Maleficus Victoria. He then sat down and began to meditate, magic flowing out of his horn, forming a complex pattern in the air. He had just barely over three days worth of time until his banishment back to the moon and he would make the best out of it.

The glowing crimson and green pentagram shifted into form and he carefully spread his forelegs while sitting kneeling on his hind legs, and spread out his fore legs, focusing the magical energies our through his entire body, shaping the array of the magical energy into its desired pattern.

It took him a decent amount of the night to fixate the pattern properly unto his body. But once he did, he managed to activate its purpose. And once it activate, he shifted into a shadow for a few seconds and left behind, a perfect copy of himself, only... dead. In essence, what he had done was creating a spell that let him 'shed' his physical form, for a lack of better words, and then reform it a distance away, leaving behind a dead empty shell.

"Well... it is not perfect, but it will just have to do." He muttered to himself as he inspected the corpse, stuck in a standing position by the rigor mortise afflicting its body instantly. The copy did not have his regenerative powers and it did not have his metallic bones either, and he also discovered that the appearance of the shell was based upon that form in which he was in when he activated the spell, which worked for him just fine.

The only drawback was that the spell made his entire body far more fragile then in its regular shape, his bones turned into normal bones and he did not regenerate like in his real body without the use of his internal magic. And he could still feel pain and his real body suffered injuries if his 'shell body' suffered injuries. So it really wasn't all that good of a spell at the moment, but it would do for the purpose he had designed it for.

It had taken him most of the night to craft the spell, but he needed to sleep so h shifted into the form of Golden Cross once more and laid down on a pile of pillows he had stacked on the floor of the kitchen and fell asleep like a rock.

(Scene Skip)

In the far distance of Equestria were dark things moving once more. The news of the Princess' poisoning had reached the ears of the shadowy leaders and they were eager to prepare their move.

The War Camp was buzzing with activity. Various animals were carrying tools, materials and getting dressed in different armours, uniforms and gears. It was a mad house, and the wicked blood lust and hunger within the eyes were clear. Among their numbers were plenty of ponies, former cutthroats, pick pockets, assassins, thieves and deserters, who had joined to survive. While most of the lowlifes of the troops, were there for one purpose only, obeying their leaders to not be eaten by the pigs.

The majority of the animals were pigs and boars, each of them big, powerful, fat and drooling with an deep, dark, hunger. More then one poor sod was devoured each day by the pigs when their cravings grew too powerful to stop whatever reasoning remained in their heads. And yet the pigs were not killed in kind, for they were a group who stayed close together, and they followed only one voice among the camp or outlaws and raiders, the charismatic rodent who acts as the leader of their band of misfits. Archimedes.

Even if he was but one of the leaders of the camp was he the most devious, clever and charismatic of the lot, and it was by him that they had managed to survive the second Great Winter and become a united army and survived for so many years. He would always guide them to places of great opportunity, the amounts of meat and valuables they had ransacked through the last couple of decades had been enough to allow them to construct their secret hideout beneath the dark shadow of this vast mountain. If things had gone differently in the Mouse Wars, they might have died long ago.

Speaking of the old mouse, he was moving out of the tent from where he had his compatriots had discussed their plans, and he felt a need for a speech to the troops. After all, he had plenty of experience making speeches.

Even though it had been a long time since the Mouse Wars, was Archimedes still spry and healthy for a mouse over two centuries old. He was still as deviously clever and charismatic as he ever had been, with even more years of experience to make him even more dangerous. Dressed in fine robes decorated with golden threads and velvet he walked through the camp towards a large stack of crates, it was nearing the time for the main course and he was more then eager to savoir the taste of victory once they ransacked Canterlot to the ground.

*Aaaaaah! We can't wait!* Drool was pouring down the edge of his mouth and the rat like mouse quickly wiped away his drool before climbing up onto the crates. He then raised his arms and the entire camp went dead silent as the raiders saw their leader prepare a speech, something that always rallied their spirits.

As the old mouse lowered his arms he spoke up with a gleeful smile upon his rodent face, his voice echoing through the underground war camp like rumbling thunder as he used the echoes of their camp for the maximum effect upon his troops. "Once We were a society of scattered wretches! We hath lost Our ways and God punished Us with the Great Winter! We worked and We reclaimed Ourselves even after the second group of heretics brought the Second Great Winter upon Us! Then We were saved by God! And he brought Us here to these lands! Our Grand Crusade in the name of the Most Holy shalt soon commence! We hath been waiting for months for this opportunity. Ever since We heard about the ponies and their mythical powers We hath feared Us doomed."

His grew grew wider and he spoke up even louder. "But then We were granted salvation by God! Celestia hath been defeated in battle by His Chosen, the First Saint, and left injured. And now We hath furthered her weakness through Our assassins! With the heretic Goddess lying weakened it is Our time now! Our forces hath grown stronger and Our numbers hath risen greatly! Now be the time! With their Goddess weak and defenseless We hath the chance! And We hath the power! Now We shalt take what We desire! Let their bones and meat fill Our bellies as We go to War!"

"But first! Let Us enjoy Ourselves with these fine appetizers before the main course!" There was a confused look among some of the raiders, but then wicked grins grew on the older members and suddenly with claws and blade, were the throats of ponies slit open and the raiders began to tear apart the deserters, pickpockets, spies, assassins and other outlaw ponies who had joined their numbers.

Pony limbs were being roasted, their organs made into sausage, their bones boiled into soup, all the while the raiders feasted upon their meat.. While Archimedes, screaming out with mouth spitting out drool in his mad hunger, finished his speech. "Feast! Let Us Feast! For by noon in three days! Once Our army reaches Canterlot itself! We shalt celebrate with the meat of a Goddess! Hahahahahaha! All Praise God and his Chosen, the Saint of Feasts! All Hail Discord and Saint Maleficus!"

And as one, the remnants of the Animal Kingdom, cheered to their unknowing Saint, as they feasted upon the poor sods who had tried to join them. "Hail Discord!" "Hail Saint Maleficus!"

And out of the cavern to the War Camp, rose a black cloud with the scent of roasted meat and murder, blackening the skies around the already dark mountain, with its ill intent.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 2 Days]

The morning was bright and shining as Golden Cross got out of his wagon, the two foals were still asleep and he did not want to disturb them. They deserved to sleep in with all that had happened. He had a purpose today, it was important that he did not let himself get too distracted, hopefully the various fruits and toys he had left for them would entertain them until he returned.

He had spent the entire day yesterday in his wagon, studying and experimenting with his magic, while the foals played outside and kept him company when he took breaks. Elder Tall Sprout had come once during the afternoon to talk with him about Grand Feast's current state of health. The old ponies had talked for a good while but had in the end come to an agreement that once Golden Cross was... gone, Tall Sprout would do his best to keep the two foals safe until grand Feast recovered.

It had been a relief to know that the foals would be safe once he was back on the moon. And so he spent the entire afternoon reading and writing the Chronicle of the Lawbringers, the decided title of his book on his order. He read to the foals while he wrote it down, them correcting him when he accidentally made mistakes, which he played off as his old memory playing tricks on him.

The entire time with the foals had been very enjoyable and he had not even realized that the two younglings had fallen asleep on the couch until late into the evening. So once he had put them to bed her began to finalize his spell that would ensure he could return to the moon without revealing his identity. But once he had slept and woken up to the sun rising, he needed to make some final physical laboring tests to complete his Chronicle, if he could not show an example of the skill, it would most likely end up being ridiculed as tall tales.

Well it was, he was making it up and he went. But the idea that he had gotten last evening, was worth trying. It was something he could find useful in many forms of combat, and hopefully it would give the ponies a way to develop their own combat arts with him giving them some foundations.

The disguised alicorn moved to the Training Grounds, with him he had his magical bag that he had crafted upon his second day back on the planet, it also was where he contained all of the crafting tomes and notes he had taken from the hut. Tossing the bag to a bench he took a deep breath before letting out slowly, he then looked around the training field and made sure that nobody wad around with his sensory magic and sight.

He then reached into the backpack and with a heave pulled out four stone cubes, he had taken from one of the construction sites, they were unusable for the construction and had been meant to be grounded up into gravel. Then he touched them, one at a time, and with some concentration, expanded them from one times one times one foot long cubes into five times five times five cubes. They were not exactly five meters on all corners, nor were they all that even in shape and form, but that was not important. As they were at the moment was enough for their purpose, which was training. Yet ,not the conventional kind of training.

Standing up on his hind legs he started a stretching routine, angling his spine, his forelegs, his hind legs and his joins, he wanted to flex his muscles before doing anything overly straining on his body. A habit he had picked up since he spent several days nonstop training on the moon, it had kind of fixated him on never feeling muscle cramps again, ever.

He shifted and stretched for a good thirty minutes. His joints cracked a bit as he stretched, angled and rotated them for maximum effect. Soon he felt ready and tapped his front hooves against each other and let out a deep breath he had been holding in.

Walking up to one of the boulders, he reached out with his hoof, he pressed it against the surface of the boulder and he focused his internal magic before he suddenly made a twist like rotation from his shoulder to his hoof, like a corkscrew punch from boxing. A loud resounding crack erupted from the boulder and the entire cube shaped boulder fractured like an egg before bursting apart into a pile of dust and gravel.

Looking down at his hoof with a frown Golden Cross tsked to himself while muttering. "Not good enough, I need more control." He then moved over to the second boulder and pressed one of his hooves against it and focused.

By now had several groups of soldiers and guards gathered for morning practice. They had been witnessing Golden Cross' stretching, several of them wincing when they saw him so many weird stretches while on two legs. And then they witnessed him reaching out to the massive piece of marble before reducing it to dust. No sound came out of their shocked mouths as they stared in astonishment at the incredible feat. And then their gaping jaws dropped to the ground when their brains registered what he had said.

*HOW IS THAT NOT GOOD ENOUGH!?* Was their collective thoughts of the guards and soldiers before yet a second resounding crack was heard and they stared, even if less surprised since the first event, as Golden Cross had, instead of reducing the boulder to gravel, cracked it apart into larger chunks.

The old earth pony kept frowning and muttering how it had been far too long since he had done something like this and went to the third boulder. By now were the soldiers and guards too busy staring to even get into formation, heck, even their Sergeants were too busy staring to berate them for their lack of discipline.

He took a deep breathe and once more pressed his hoof against the stone's surface, he focused his internal magic further, this time focusing it just outside of his hoof, rather then his entire foreleg. And then he twisted his arm. A loud boom was heard as the boulder burst apart into dust and gravel like the first, but this time, Golden Cross was smiling, as in the grip of his hoof, was a fractured but mostly intact, five meter cylinder, held at the end by his hoof.

"Wonderful, it remained intact this time, but now, for the final step." Walking over to the lat intact boulder, Golden Cross repeated what he had done, initially. He stood on his hind legs, he pressed the hoof fo his right foreleg against the surface of the boulder. But now, as he focused his magic through his limb and into the boulder, he focused it further into the boulder until it reached straight through it. And then he twisted his entire arm.

This time, a loud resounding crack was heard, along with a small cloud of dust erupting from two ends of the boulder, but other then that was the boulder completely intact. At first the soldiers wondered if the final attempt had been a failure. But by the looks of the wide grin on his muzzle was that not the case. And when he pulled back his foreleg, they saw why.

Out of the boulder, inch by inch, came a five meter smooth cylinder, around the same area as Golden Cross' hoof's curve, all around, making it a perfect circle. It was smooth and shining, as if polished. And inside of the boulder, was a blank surface that was as smooth as glass, with not a single fracture in it.

"Excellent. Now, to make sure I have gotten this right." And the soldiers and guards, still not moving, just kept staring as Golden Cross repeated his technique on the boulder and pulled out cylinder after cylinder of smooth marble. After an hour was the entire marble square lined up with several holes, shaping it almost like a massive model of an engine filter, with a line of two hundred smooth five meter long marble pillars leaning against the side of a barrack wall. The marble block looked like a massive sculpture.

Golden Cross had by now noticed his crowd, and decided to mess a little with the ponies, he had to find some enjoyment out of this charade of his right? Making a show of rotating his shoulders and complaining about cricks in his joints he muttered loudly as he began to remove the remains of the boulders he had destroyed to a pile next to the training field. "Eh I am getting old, I should have been able to finish all four of those cubes without breaking one. If my old teacher had seen how much I had slacked off he would have forced me to repeat this fifty more times."

He then left the field, unsure if he had managed to impress the ponies to improve themselves, or if he had just broken their self confidence. Either way, he hoped he had done something to aid them. The technique he had developed was meant for tearing apart armour. But, this technique could just as easily rip apart flesh, so hopefully it would be of use to them once the remnants of the armies of Tooth and Tails attacked them. He did not have time to teach them more thoroughly, but he was hopeful they would at least learn something.

The pale faces and whimpers on the guards and soldiers made his day and Golden Cross returned to his wagon with a cheerful smile as he left the shaken soldiers and guards to assume their training. All of them glancing fearfully at the line of two hundred marble pillars leaning against the wall of one of the barracks, like a testament of how easy they had it compared to others. But many of them saw this as a challenge to reach beyond the old and become better themselves, and several of the guards and soldiers would find themselves trying to imitate the technique they had just witnessed.

It would not happen instantly or even in months, but the ponies would learn from this show of power, focus, control and grace they had witnessed far more then Golden Cross might anticipate.

Unknowing about his influence upon the future military strength of the ponies, Golden Cross entered his wagon to see a pair of foals happily chasing one another with wooden swords and shields. It made his smile widen a little and he chuckled a bit before taking some of the remaining fruit on the table to eat himself. He would see about visiting Grand Feast today, hopefully she had recovered enough for the foals to see her again.

Finishing his meal he turned to the two children and said with a grin. "I will try to have you two see your mother today, hopefully she has recovered enough for you two to see her." There was a loud cheer from Happy Meal and a loud wheezing yip from Grand Music, rubbing the pair on their heads Golden Cross finished his breakfast and left for the door with the two giddy foals following him.

(Scene Skip)

The streets were active as they had been when they last tried to get to the Central Keep, there were still patrols of guards and soldiers marching through the streets. But for some reason was there a distinguish lack of beggars and homeless ponies. Golden Cross had not really taken note of this before, but when he first arrived at the city were several dozens of less then well off ponies wandering the alleys and streets simply begging or robbing.

But now, there were almost no one at all. There were barely even any beggars, and even they seemed to be confused by it all. A homeless pony in Canterlot had it rather easy compared to what humans were like, they were given rations of food by the city, and offered various temporary jobs for coin and were even given temporary homes in the unused buildings of the city. Truthfully, there were less then fifty homes that were unused at the current date, yet there were more then enough ponies offering space for those who needed it.

So why were there so few of them out? It was making his head hurt as he tried to figure it out. It was giving him slight chills knowing so many people were just... gone after such a short amount of time. What was going on? *Hmmm... this is weird, well I cannot really look into it without giving myself away too much. Nor do I do not really know where to even begin. Not to mention I do not even have that much time to spend on looking. But considering the amount of soldiers marching around, it might be possible that they were either frightened or were they recruited by the army? I have no idea, but I just hope it isn't something sinister.*

Looking up at the open gates leading to the central keep he narrowed his eyes and strode past the guards who instinctively gave him a salute, something he did not take note of. *I have more important things to worry about at the moment. Grand Feast has to know, that I will not be around by the end of tomorrow. *

Once the group reached the medical wing he was glad to see that only a few healers were around, doing menial works rather then keeping a constant watch on Grand Feast, it must mean that she is getting better. Taking a deep breath he walked forward and spoke to one of the guards. "Excuse me, I am Golden Cross and I am curious if it is possible to see Lady Grand Feast, her children would like to see her if it is possible."

The guard was a bit uncertain but he walked into the medicine wing and the trio waited for about three minutes, then the door opened and a familiar looking elderly healer opened the door with a kind smile. "Lady Grand Feast is healthy enough to be visited, she is still limited to bed rest but it is safe for you and the children to visit her."

He nodded. "Thank you, also. I have a favour to ask of you." The old healer looked confused but the serious look on the old knight's face made him consider it. But when Golden Cross whispered what he wanted the old healer narrowed his eyes and made a questioning look on his face.

"I do not intend to use it on any pony. It is a last resort. For myself." A lot of understanding went into the old pony's eyes and he nodded before leaving the medical wing door open for them ,before closing it behind them and leaving to do what Golden Cross had asked of him.

Princess Celestia was still in her own hospital bed, but she now had desk to work by since she had grown strong enough to sit up in the bed to do her paperwork, but she was forbidden from leaving the room. And there, sitting up on her own bed, was Grand Feast, giving them a bright smile as they entered.

Happy Meal and Grand Music both charged over the clean marble floor and leaped up onto the bed and hugged their mother who hugged them back. Golden Cross smiled but then sighed as he remembered the most important reason for why he had come to the hospital.

"Sorry to break this moment Grand Feast, but there is something very important I have to tell you... and the children as well." The serious look on Golden Cross' face made the foals slightly worried, but their mother just gave them some gentle hugs before sitting on the bed as Golden Cross walked over to it.

She spoke up with a slightly tired but still clear voice. "What is it thou wish to tell Us Ser Cross?"

Golden Cross sighed deeply before he slowly turned his head and looked at his hind leg, where the black mark, had started to reach the lower side of his flank. It was now or never, he could not keep it silent, he needed to tell them. "I am sorry to tell you this Grand Feast, but by the end of tomorrow I will no longer be able to keep watch over Grand Music and Happy Meal."

She looked a bit concerned and sad but had a look of understanding in her eyes that made him feel even more ashamed that he was essentially lying to her face, but he had decided on this and he was not going to stop just yet. Grand Feast spoke up with a concerned voice, the two foals looking in confusion at the old earth pony. "Oh. May We ask thee why? Art thou leaving Canterlot?"

Golden Cross sighed again and slowly spoke up, trying to find the words to say, but it was tough, yet he tried. "In a manner of speaking... truth to be told. I am not long for this world. I will be dead by the end of tomorrow."

The look of surprise on the ponies in the room would normally have made him laugh, but he did not find it humorous. Yet the healers in the room did not look surprised at his declaration, although Celestia herself looked rather shocked.

"W-what doest thou mean Ser Cross? Thou can not be dying, thou art healthy!" Grand Feast's voice sounded less tired but far more frantic and sorrowful, the two foals were not yet realizing what was being said, yet.

Golden Cross just gave the kind mare a sad smile and tapped on the black part of his hind leg. "I am dying, I have been for over a year now. My Order's unique training and techniques have made it possible for me to repel the Black Mark, but it does not last forever. And at the rate it has been expanding for the last month, I am not going to survive to see the sun rise after tomorrow's eve."

The room was silent, but Golden Cross did not take heed of the silence and just kept talking. "I am sorry to say this, but, I am not going to be able to care for Grand Music and Happy Meal afterwards. So I spoke to Elder Tall Sprout, he is willing to look after them until you recover. He did not have the chance to do so a few days ago with how his family had no space, but apparently had several of his grand children recently moved out and gotten their own homes, so he can look after them until you recover. So even after I am gone, they will be-huff!"

He was interrupted by a pair of hooves hugging him and a sobbing mare's head being buried into his chest as Grand Feast sobbed into his fur. At first he looked a bit confused, but soon he just got a sad smile and rubbed her mane with his left hoof and let her cry. And soon a pair of crying foals hugged him by the sides of his neck, and he found himself stuck between two crying foals and a crying mother.

Princess Celestia looked upon the scene with a sad look on her muzzle. Truth to be told she wanted to find a way to cure the old pony, she found him pleasant company and a rather strange if inquiring stallion. She could still remember the way he had dance, having said he had never danced before she could scarcely believe it. But she had figured out just how he had been able to move as he had without knowing how to dance while resting in the medical wing. The old knight had used combat stances and movements in his dancing to not lose balance, it was rather ingenious.

She was old herself, she had already lost several friends to not just harsh and sudden death but of age as well. But to see such an old pony speaking more of concern about others surviving after his own demise, made her realize just how much this pony had lived through. Here he was, over two centuries old, and he cared more about how strangers he had known for barely a month would be able to be cared for after he was gone, rather then being concerned about his own death.

The Princess blushed a little as some rather heated thoughts started to run through her brain and shook her head clear and tried to ignore what she had just thought on. But a small line inside of her own mind betrayed her true feeling. *Hath he been younger, hath We hath the time to know him, perhaps We might have made him Our first cohort...*

Sniffling Grand Music wiped away her tears and looked at him with a determined face and spoke up with a slightly strained voice. "P-promise Us, Golden Cross, promise U-us that thou will protect Our children and let thy final hours be peaceful."

"...I cannot make that promise in its entirety. But I can swear this, even if I have to drag myself on the edge of death, I will protect them. After all, they are my family too." That final kind smile on his old face made Grand Feast smile in return, even through her tear stained eyes he could tell that he had no regrets. And so she just hugged him and slowly fell asleep, enjoying a final moment with her savior, and honorary grandfather.

Gently putting the tired mare to sleep Golden Cross walked out of the medical wing of the keep, the two foals hugging his back with teary eyes, leaving the room in awkward silence as the healers, guards and princess in the room felt a bit awkward at what they had witnessed. It had been touching but they felt like they should not have been there, it had felt too private for them to interrupt though.

As he left the healing wing, the healer he had spoken to approached him. "We art finished, We doest not know why thou wouldst want to use this rather then end in peace. But it be no business or Ours. Take care Ser. May the Gods watch over thee."

Accepting a bottle of shimmering purple liquid, the old knight just gave a nod to the healer before leaving with the two sad and hungry foals in tow.

It would be a long day for Golden Cross after that incident. The rumors about his impending death had spread like wild fire through out the city and he had to even avoid his own wagon to not get mixed up with a crowd of fans and a few so called 'miracle healers' who wanted to offer him a cure. So he spent most of the time at Grand Feast's house, taking care of the children and helping the chefs in the eatery with the cooking a bit during the rush hour when he went to cook for himself and the kids.

Although he was away a few times did he not spend much time away from the foals, he enjoyed their company and it would sooth the aching if they enjoyed the final time they had together. Even if he would not be able to enjoy their company afterwards did he hope they would be able to keep going after he was gone. But because of this devotion of time for the children did he not have time to preform research of magic or even reconnaissance with his Interface screen. Maybe if he had, he might have taken note of the large forces marching beyond the horizon.

A horde of meat craving beast like animals who seek to devour all in their path. Carving across the landscape they marched like a massive swarm of locust, those unfortunate to end up in their way and not go unnoticed, were torn apart and eaten, War machines pf various designs and purposes were being pulled by lines of strong pigs while a large strange wooden structure was being pulled by several hippos and rhinoceroses, on top of it was a group of individuals standing, their mad craving even more profane in their eyes then in the eyes of their minions.

Perhaps if they had been noticed before hand, they might not have reached Canterlot without difficulty. Maybe if they had been delayed the ponies might have constructed proper defenses of their city. But instead they fell unnoticed.

And as the army of meat eating maniacs marched over Equestria was Golden Cross asleep on the main bed of the bedroom, knowing the foals would not let him go and he did not want to let them sleep on the floor mattress, had he decided to sleep there. And as he slept, he was in ignorance of the approaching danger just like every pony in the city. But then again, even if he had known about the approaching forces of the carnivores, what could have been done about it without revealing his true self? Who knows.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 17:43]

The sun had barely started rising when the large horn of the Gatehouse was being sounded and a loud echoing 'braaaaaaaah' was sounded one, two, three, four and five times, signalling something every pony had been fearing since the failed assassination attempt of their Princess. The five signal sound meant one thing, Hostile Forces Approaching.

Several messengers ran across the military district, their words causing officers to slam open the doors to the barracks and shout out orders to the half awake soldiers who were not part of the night shift. "We hath received words about approaching hostile forces! All soldiers art to prepare for battle, all gear art to be put on this instance! Now go and ready thyselfs for battle!"

Those words brought life to the half asleep ponies. It was a scramble form there but they were well trained from months of training, and with the recent drills of Golden Cross they were even more prepared then they had been before. Armours were put on, belts with supplies, emergency items and possible special gear was strapped on ,and their weapons were pulled out and held in place with by strap or telekinetic grip.

In the training grounds they gathered in force, flooding out of their barracks they went from mad mobs into well formed units who were rapidly ordered to march to the city walls. The sound of marching soldiers echoed through the city and then the sound of heavy equipment being pulled out of storage followed as whatever available war machines the ponies had were being pulled out to prepare for a siege.

It took the soldiers less then thirty minutes to reach the tops of the city walls, it would take thirty more for the war machines to be pulled to position, but the stationary war machines on the wall were already prepared so those were good to go. However, once the soldiers reached the top of the walls, their high spirit and courage wavered at the sight of a veritable horde of raiders of all manners of creatures, shouting out from the hills located between Canterlot and the mountains, in which the pass leading to the quickest route to Everfree Forest is located.

If the army had entered from the mountain path, then the scouting parties were either isolated, in hiding or long since dead.

(Scene Skip)

The hills were covered with the horde of hungry killers. They were lined up like a massive group of unorganized bandits. Over two thousand meat craving lunatics, the last remnants of the Animal Kingdom. Foxes, Rabbits, Squirrels, Rats, Pidgeons, Owls, Mice, Pigs, Boars, Wolves, Dogs, Hedgehogs, Skunks, Lizards, Snakes, Toads and many other species, all gathered for one purpose, to eat.

They were coloured in a mixture of blue, red, green and yellow. Some of them were wearing uniforms older then themselves, others were wearing ragtag like clothing with patched armour pieces and chain mail. It was a massive mixture of colours with no real clear organization. And yet they were coordinated. As soon as they arrived the animals started digging into the hill side, creating trenches and strange small huts.

At first they attempted to dig into Canterlot by the underside, but the ponies never noticed, nor did they need to worry, the walls were placed down to the bedrock of the mountain. The animals who had hoped to catch the equines by surprise were rather displeased by this but instead started expanding and supporting the tunnels they had made for the coming invasion.

However, such constructions are not easy to make when working beneath a moat. And the animals' diggers, the moles, had never worked with one before.

(Scene skip)

Walfred Stonebone was an old mole, he was not old enough to remember the Mouse Wars, but he was old enough to remember the day that God saved them. He could remember it even now, the sight of the misshapen avatar of divinity who brought them from cold and starvation to this bountiful land of tender meat and warm sun.

He had learned the old ways of mining from his own mother, a former member of the Longcoats who had died to let him and his family live by offering herself for them to eat during the Second Great Winter. The Engineers For Hire were long gone, but he still had the knowledge and had taught future generations. All of which were working in these tunnels for the sake of securing the future and food.

Grinning on his white wizened old face the muscular and tall mole hefted his pick axe and looked across the tunnel they had been expanding. It would take some delicate work but they would be able to expand the tunnel enough for the army to reach the bottom of the castle walls.

That was when he saw a young mole raise his pickaxe to chop into a big boulder. And then his eyes widened as the pick went straight into the boulder. It was as if it was made out of soft stone. At the point of impact the entire structure of the stone started to fracture, causing its entire frame to start crumbling. And then came a strong chill down Walfred's spine as water began to trickle out from the gaps between the metal and the rock.

Raising his head to scream for the others to get out ,he had only time to open his moth, when the entire ceiling and right wall of the tunnel exploded into rock, earth, mud and water and in a loud flush, the moles working in the underground tunnels, drowned as their entire network was flooded by the rapid waters from the deep moat above them. The sudden flood caused the ground in which they had dug to collapse and several parts of the grass fields outside of Canterlot collapsed inwards into a strange formation of lines.

This setback did not even discern Archimedes and his fellow raiders, instead he had the toads fish up the corpses of the moles, to feast on after the battle. A fitting end.

(Scene skip)

Golden Cross had woken up by the sound of the city horn, luckily were the foals still asleep. But he could not just leave them alone. Thankfully there were a few there who could keep an eye on them for a short while, He rushed down to the eatery where the morning staff were working on preparing the store, confused by the sound of the signals.

With a clack of hooves landing on wood he stood by the doorway to the outside and turned to speak to the personal. "I must see what is happening, the children are still asleep, please, care for the while I am away, I will be gone just a short while."

He then rushed out of the eatery and sprinted through the active streets of Canterlot, leaping over wagons, side stepping individuals and pushing aside crowds. Soon he reached his goal, his wagon. Swiftly he unlocked it and pulled out his bag. He then went into the armoury and put on his armour and grabbed his poleaxe. But before leaving he grabbed something off his work bench in the armoury, a necklace designed in the fashion of a shield with a carving of a scale on it. It was an improvised magical item he had made to imitate one of his favourite movies, he was not sure how effective the spell was, but it would hopefully never need to be used.

And then he moved out of the wagon, locked it, and rushed back towards the eatery, his large armoured frame making ponies part way for him as he rushed through the streets like a rhinoceros. As he reached the eatery he grabbed the handle and just as he was about to enter, his entire body seized up and he collapsed into the shop coughing and gasping as he could no longer breathe.

Unclasping his helmet he forcefully removed it with shaking hooves as he started losing focus, he loosened the straps around his neck and removed the chest plate protecting his front. And then he reared back his hoof and with an loud meaty thwack, punched himself in the chest and he coughed up a sphere of blackened meat and blood. Frantically he sucked in air into his lungs and laid on his side in the eatery as the staff moved over to help him.

He was still gasping and panting as they lead him to a chair where he could sit down and rest. They were swift to clean up the blood and meaty ichor and put it in the large oven like heater in the basement. As he panted he looked out the window and stared at the silhouette of the city walls as ponies lined up upon them and slowly closed his eyes as he tried to steady his breathing. *I guess I am of no use here. Hopefully they will be alright without me.*

The staff nor Golden Cross would explain to the children why he looked so sick when they came down to eat breakfast, the old knight just smiled and told them that he was not as young as he used to be. Then he told them about the pending siege and the staff gasped in fear while the foals, had a, different reaction.

"So cool! We wanna be out there watchin' them soldiers kick butt!" Was the cheer of Happy Meal and the agreeing nod from Grand Music. Golden Cross looked stumped for a bit, but then he smiled and rubbed the foals' heads gently.

"War is not something for foals unless there are no other options. It is not a game nor something anyone would wish to be part of once they know the consequences of it." The foals seemed a bit put off by this.

"But why? Ye fight bad ponies all da time Mister Cross!" Happy Meal's question made a sad smile emerge on Golden Cross' muzzle and he looked out at the battlements of the city.

"I am sad to say that even if I was never consciously aware of it, have I taken the lives of innocents as well. In the heat of battle, when you have enemies on every turn. When every hidden crook or canny can hold a dagger or sword... you do not often have time to think of what manner of damage your actions might cause to those not part of your struggle. Nor can you know... that throwing a torch to defeat a hiding foe... might also kill those who are hiding from not only your enemy, but you as well." There was a solemn atmosphere in the air but the sweet innocent foals just grinned at the old knight.

"Yer silly Grandpa Cross. Ye art de best knight ever, and there be no pony better!" A slight teary look come to his eye but he did not let them fall, with a sad but happy smile, Golden Cross just closed his eyes and petted the grinning foals on the head once more. That was the first time. Grandpa. Someone had called him that, even before he was called father. He had always wanted children of his own, and yet he never found someone to do so with.

And now, after less then a month with these wonderfully naive ponies... one of them called him Grandpa... and he could not express how much that meant to him. How much it touched his heart. And how much shame he was feeling. For deceiving them all.

*These ponies... they are truly special. More so then any alicorn, demigod, demon, devil, dragon or god could ever hope to be.* He thought to himself as he smiled at the foals who were trying to lift his poleaxe together, the weapon being too heavy for them to even budge, and yet they did not give up and he just enjoyed the moment. Even with the turmoil awaiting outside, he had not felt so happy in a long time.

(Scene skip)

The first siege of Canterlot was soon to happen, an event no pony had ever expected to happen within their lifetime, and yet here it was, less then a year since their city's foundation and now an army of savage beasts were preparing to lay waste to their city and their lives. Had the ponies not had developed their military so much for the last few months would the situation probably have been far worse then it was not.

Princess Celestia, weakened though she may be. Was having meeting with her Generals about the impending siege and what they knew about their forces. What little they already knew from Golden Cross' did not help them determine their strengths and weaknesses, and with the old knight dying was it less then likely that they would be able to figure something out before the siege. So they had sent out scouts, along with a lone messenger to ask for the army's intention.

The scouts had done their job well. However the messenger's fate... was just proof of Golden Cross' words about the mad craving of these monster like animals.

While bearing the white flag and asking to parley, had the messenger been grabbed by a swarm of pigs who with wicked blades and their weird monkey paw like appendages, tore the poor mare apart. The last they saw of Sweet Words was her intestines being eaten raw by a group of ten pigs. There was no chance for peace talks.

But the scouts had done their job efficiently and returned without failure. The entire army was equipped with a random mess of weapons from primitive bone and stone weapons to high quality weapons of iron and bronze. There were no gold or silver arms or armours among them. Several large and weird looking birds were equipped with strange fruits and some massive looking owls even swallowed completely equipped mice whole and alive. And their siege engines were of a different make then their own. It was too dangerous to investigate but from their word were there large ballistaes, some strange looking catapult with a net and a big pendulum like weight on it and several weird looking cubes with circular holes in them.

The entire battlefield as well as the city, was put out on a big map on the War Table in the War Room of the Central keep, with figurine marking out the ponies' forces, the civilians, important supplies and the various types of enemy forces.

In normal cases would the event of a siege be holding its strategy meetings by the castle walls in a special designed watch tower in the center of the city. But with Princess Celestia being weakened were the Generals forced to work out their plans from the Central Keep's War Room. Something Celestia would make sure to find a solution for post haste once the siege was over.

General Blood Gorger was standing on one of the table, examining the set up of the map and the figurines representing the troops while General Clever Ploy was marking down eventual weak spots in the enemy formations and the possible assault areas of the enemy forces. Their terrain advantage was obvious, but the scouts reported that there was no sign of any one wielding magic or having magical equipment except for scavenged pony gear.

This entire army was without the power of magic and if that was the case, then their ability to win this would rely on their unicorns. But in that laid a weakness. The unicorns could not cast magic too long or too powerful, most of their trained unicorns were still recuperating from injuries from the battle with Maleficus. The majority of their current magical forces were unable to handle such powerful magic, not to mention their air forces were limited as well for similar reasons.

The Generals Fearless Charge, Scorched Retreat and Certain Victory were all working on coordinating their forces to the best of their advantage. However, Fearless Charge wanted to make an attack on the enemy forces before they could properly assemble their forces. While Scorched Retreat wanted to prepare traps and wards on the inside of the city should the wall fail. And Certain Victory was trying to find a middle ground to work on, but it was difficult. with their numbers limited to just over seven hundred were they heavily outnumbered and it was not easy to place their units in a proper position when they were lacking forces.

And Celestia was still recovering from her poisoning, she had to be carried on a bed to the War Room to work with the Generals and she was not finding much of a better strategy to use then, dig in and wait out the storm. It was not easy to decide an option as limited as they were, and most of their siege weapons were being repaired after the battle with Maleficus Victoria a month ago. They had only around ten catapults and seven large ballistaes complete for usage, and their Restrictas were completely out of action. Even with their newly developed tower weapons, was it unlikely it would turn the tide of the fight for too long.

Things did not look good.

(Scene skip)

It had been hours since the army started preparing for their siege, ignoring any calls from the ponies. The stupid small horses had even sent out a messenger under a white flag, she made an excellent appetizer. As the final hour of the morning was reaching they made a final meal of the final rations of pony meat was shared along with acorn whiskey. As they feasted were the final preparations being completed out on the large cliff side at the side of the hills, facing the south western side of the city. Upon the top of the cliff stood a line of massive constructions, these were the siege weapons being prepared for the incoming battle.

As the feast ended there was a final preparation made by the ground forces. Timber and crates with material was being brought out to several groups and those who knew how to tie rope, hammer nails and shape wood and bone were put to work. Within less then an hour were very long and strong ladders of wood and bones being constructed to scale the walls. Those not working on the ladders were working on other preparations, such as maintaining gear and ammunition, while others were preparing ropes and grappling hooks.

And as the sun reached its peak, the army was ready. But before they could ravage the city of its bountiful and tender citizens, there was one final thing that had to be done by their leader. A speech.

Upon his seat on the large wooden structure sat Archimedes. He was grinning wickedly at the walls of the city, it was but a thin membrane keeping them from the tasty morsels inside. With drool leaking out of his mouth he turned to his fellow leaders and spoke up an almost mad voice. "We art soon to lay siege upon the city. Art thy forces ready?"

The group of five was various and yet each of them were a wicked and twisted being who would do almost anything for profit or meat.

"Me boyz be ready. Them ponies be no expecting them ladders an hook ropes We make." Said the second of the large beings, a large minotaur, or rather a pig with the horns of a minotaur. His name was Borgus, a pig and minotaur hybrid, the leader of the pigs. He was the biggest and strongest of them ,and thus he was the leader, after he ate the first one.

"Hmph, just try to stay out of Our way." Grumbled the largest figure, this one was a massive boar, dressed in metal and leather he wielder a strange metal contraption with a tube of some sort connected to a large metal cylinder kept on his back ,which was also connected to a hope at the end of his torn trousers.

This was Butters, or Uncle Butters as many called him, a mercenary and murderer by trade. He had spent his earlier years as a spy for the pigs in the Longcoat Faction before betraying the faction for the pigs, until God sent them to this realm. Now he was a leader of similar minded individuals, it did not matter their species, as long as they were smart, strong or clever, they could join his special forces.

"Oi vey! Why doest We hath to suffer meatheads like these art a mystery! God Why Doest We Hath to Suffer Them!?" Cried out a short black dressed blue furred female fox as she traced the curved blade of one of her daggers with her paws. Her name was Athens, she was a former member of the KSR and worked as the main leader of the assassins and scouts of their little group.

"Oh do shut yer trap, We hath bigger thing to focus on!" The one who said this rather rude comment was a grey pelted, old and muscular wolf, dressed in a worn out green military uniform with a spiked helmet on his skull. This was the Sergeant, a veteran of the Mouse Wars like Butters and Archimedes. A former member of the KSR, just like Athens, but with a distinguish difference, he follows only the commands of the KSR leadership, which Athens is the last remaining member of, since she killed them all.

However he had long since abandoned his name and just called himself Sergeant Wolf. He was the leader and trainer of the lower ranked raiders and bandits of their group, he was the bridge between the meat shields and the leaders, sort of. He was not part of the group's inner dealings, he handled the troops rather then taking part in meetings.

"Art We doing this or art thou going to just blow hot air through thou mouths?" Came the annoyed voice of a sophisticated male being, who turned out to be a skunk of all things. His name was Leroy de Champagne, former member of the Longcoats. His family had been a group of famous brewers of alcohol and perfumes before the Second Great Winter.

Now he and his kin were the main researchers and developers of weapons and equipment for the remnants of the Animal Kingdom. With the lack of resources in this world they had no way to craft the amount of black powder needed to make bullets, nor did they have the proper tools to even make mass produced cannons. It was a fight with resources and thus he became the quartermaster as well, since he managed a tight ship on both production and resource management.

Thus he too was never part of any immediate meetings, his research and works were too important to waste time on idle chatter. This would probably have made him less influential if he had not been a genius inventor and craftsman of all manners of components and gadgets, their more 'unique' siege engines were his design. He was still trying to find a substitute for gunpowder and had some success, but not much.

"Oh what a dull bunch thou art, Archimedes, darling, please resume. We art getting terribly bored." The sultry voice of a seductress is said to be far more lethal then any poison or blade. And Madame Delores was a dangerous example of this, a seductive female panther with curves and attitude to make most males and females feel weak in the knees. Her sole purpose was to handle information and torture.

This panther seductress was far from just a pretty face in a white dress, she knew how to pull out all of your vital organs and not let you die for hours, before butchering you still not cold body for the kitchen to cook. As a former member of the Civilized, she had developed this habit of torturing those who would become her meal, saying that those who suffer before they die, have far more tender and juicy meat then those who dies in other fashions.

The old rat just gave them a wide grin and motioned with his clawed hand towards the city. "As the Lady request! "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXnImIYY68k

He then stood up and spread out his arms as a pair of pigs carried over a large cone of leather, constructed to let him speak out in a far louder voice then normal. As he opened his maw, his voice thundered out over the land, sending chills down the spine of the ponies. "Listen to Us oh sweet ponies of Equestria! We art the Predators! We hath come to do Our sacred right as decreed by God! To Eat Meat! As any Civilized Animal does!"

His drool was leaking at a heavy phase at the moment and his stomach was rumbling in anticipation. But he did not stop his speech, saliva and drool was flying out of his fang equipped mouth as his gleeful and mad voice crackled across the ears of all outside and within of the city. And as he spoke, his troops began to chant and sing. "Thy city shalt be the first to fall to Our hunger! We shalt take to the streets and lit it aflame to cook thy meat!"

Drums were being sounded in the background as he began to reach the finale of his speech and a strange rhythmic melody began to fill the air as the Rattenfänger troops, chanted and sang as his speech reached its crescendo. "Who art the Chosen of God!? Who decide the Fate of Animals!? Once We asked if it were the Longcoats, the Commonfolk, the KSR or the Civilized who could decide Our Fate! But then God graced Us in Our final hour of need! And decreed none of Our factions to be those who decree Our fate! And thus as Chosen by His Will! We made a new faction and art now God's Chosen! We art Rattenfänger! Our decree is chosen by God is as thus! Those who triumph shalt go hungry no more! Those who fall! Shalt! Be! Dinner!"

And at those final chilling words, the entire army of animals raised their weapons into the air and as one screamed out a battle cry out from the hills, which echoed like an avalanche over the land and made the ponies fear that the world itself was going insane. "Huuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

And then, as the sun passed the hour of Midday. The Siege for Canterlot began.

(Scene skip)

It was the Rattenfänger who acted first. They started with the siege engines, large catapults called trebuchets, with their nets and ropes holding tightly onto large groups or individually large pieces of rocks. The heavy weights on the bottom of the arms were released and with tremendous force was the payload of the siege engine flung out in a high arch towards the city. A rain of boulders falling towards its interior.

That's when the defenders made 'their' first move. Unicorns aligned their horns and several hexagon shapes of solid energy took shape as shields and while they only lasted for one blow, was that enough to send the boulders reeling backwards, away from their original trajectory. And thus away from the city, but with most of their kinetic force lost from being repelled they did not return to the siege engines that fired them. Several of the rocks still hit some of the unluckier foot soldiers of the Rattenfäger, yet none of them seemed to even care about it.

Then came the ballistaes, bolts more then three meters long were fired from the massive crossbow like structures. There was no way to shield from these projectiles efficiently. However, the ponies still had a back up plan for this. Units of pegasus soldiers were flying up in the sky and used the very wind itself to create small and temporary tornadoes, which caused the ballistae bolts to swear off and hit at most the city wall or the mountain wall behind the city.

But then came the strange tube like weapons. Their entire structures glowed with blue light before in a loud rumbling boom were large orbs of metal launched out of them. The orbs hit with such speed and power that chunks of the wall were blown out, not enough to destroy it or make a hole ,but enough to shake its very structure.

However, one of the orbs flew a bit off and struck the inside of the city ,slamming through a tall wooden building at the other side of town, making it crumble apart by the impact. There was no reason to think that any one inside would survive the power of the impact and the building collapsing. The ponies had taken first blood.

"Huaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" And with this sensation of victory the first of the foot soldiers charged down the hills and towards the city, carrying the long and heavy siege ladders over their heads in groups of ten.

Captain Glory Seeker, former member of the Sun Guard, now a lowly Captain of the Gold Army, raised his right hoof and pointed it towards the approaching beasts and shouted at his subordinated handling the catapults. Ever since his old rank had been revoked he had taken a turn for the better and become less of a self righteous noble and more of a proper military officer. "Take in the trajectory to hit them before they reach the moat! We cannot let these monsters enter the city! Fire at will!"

With a loud heavy thud swung the ten catapults up their spoon like structures and sent their payload over the wall. At first it looked like simple pebbles, but they were not. As soon as the small stone like objects reached the other side of the wall, the spell on them was released and massive boulders flew down like a meteor shower upon the invaders. The catapults were inaccurate but the spread out rain of size reduced boulders were enough to overcome that disadvantage.

The boulders fell upon the grass field and while most missed, were more then two hundred attackers crushed as the boulders struck ground and rolled forward like big balls of doom. The were not perfectly spherical, or they might start rolling back. But they were smooth enough to gain a proper momentum from the point of impact. However, the foot soldiers were not deterred by the show of brutal force.

"Gah! Thou shalt not enter Our city beast!" Screamed Sergeant Sky Spear as he used his lance to spear through a large owl as it tried to spew out a torrent of mice upon the battlement bellow. The tip of the weapon went through its entire body and as it fell downwards its stomach burst open and a group of four mice leaped out to try and attack the walls, only to splatter on the ground as the winds of the pegasi sent them tumbling away from the wall.

"Keh! Just how many of these foul things art there!?" The Sergeant growled as he had to duck beneath the razor sharp talons of a vulture and a dive bombing pigeon. Raising his lance once more he signaled his unit and they flew in a line towards a cluster of birds harassing another squad.

Up in the air above the city wall was a swarm of vultures, pigeons, owls and other birds screeching about ,slashing with talons, beaks and special made bladed weapons. While the pegasi repelled their assault with enchanted weapons and weather magic. It was like a battle between birds the weather itself from the sound of screeches and flapping wings mixed with clashing metal, sound of thunder and the screaming gale winds. The birds were far more weaker then the ponies but had the numbers. And yet the ponies had an even greater advantage, their weather magic. It took all of their strength to keep the flying ponies occupied, but that was their purpose in the siege. To occupy the winged ponies.

Meanwhile at the ground was a squad of ten animals of various types charged forward across the field. Each of them holding onto the long ladder. Bare or covered paws, claws and feet pressed into the soft soil of the grass and the soldiers moved over the field without pause. As they started to reach the moat the rear group started to angle the ladder higher from their end, while the front started to lower it and hunched down to run with their torsos almost touching the ground. The ladders were twenty meters long, this length was enough for the ladders to reach over the moat and onto the edge of the city wall's battlements.

Up on the had a young soldier taken note of the approaching ladders and shouted out to his commanding officer as he drew back the string on his bow to fire and arrow. "Sergeant! Approaching ladders! They intend to climb up the walls!"

Nodding at his subordinate's words the pale grey unicorn dressed in bronze armour called out to his unit. "Ready weapons! Those of ye lot who know how to shoot worth a spit better aim fer da ladder bearers! Ye have da order ta Fire at Will! Da rest of ye lot prepare ta break them ladders!"

A rain of projectiles flew down upon the horde. These was practically no way t miss them just shoot and someone would get hit. But even as the ponies fired arrows, stones, javelins and spells at the approaching ladder bearers, unless the ladders were broken apart would the dead bearers be replaced almost instantly. More then four hundred of the enemy had died since the start of the siege and yet none of them seemed to even care about it.

Even as a boulder slammed down upon one of their fellow ladder groups and crushed them as it rolled over them, they took no heed to the loses. Instead, when the manic animals reached the edge of the moat the front group slammed the front end of the ladder straight in the soft soil at the edge of the moat. Then the second pair ran up and climbed up onto their comrades' backs and the third climbed up on theirs and so on. It was a rapid succession of momentum that made the massive siege ladder stand upright, its wood and bone structure heaved and creaked before falling forward and slammed straight into the upper edge of the city walls.

And soon were more ladders being raised up towards the city walls, out of the fifty siege ladders would only fifteen managed to reach their goal, but that was more then enough for the foot soldiers to start climbing. But the climb would be treacherous, even though the ladders were hard and tough enough to withstand the physical blows of the ponies weapons, would five of them be destroyed by spells before any of the beasts could gain a foot hold on the walls. and even then were a never ending shower of projectiles peppering them from the walls like a rain of death.

But with their large wooden and metal shields they began to climb up the ladders, all seemed to go according to pan. Until something else began to fire upon them. A goat was about to reach the top of the wall when a loud twang was heard and a brief fluttering of air before a large thunk was heard as a large arrow speared him in the side and sent him flying off the ladder and into the moat. This made the soldiers take pause, since they had not been looking at where the attack had come from. Looking to the side they saw what had killed the goat.

Up on the walls were ponies firing without pausing. But to the side was a tower, one of the many towers located o t he city wall, and upon it was a up lifted platform with a small ballistae aiming at those climbing the ladders. The small ballistae on the tower shifted to take aim at the others climbing the ladders and the gunner started to pedaling on a strange pair of pedals on the base of the small ballistae's base. It was the latest invention of the Engineer's corps, a rapid firing ballistae, called the Manticore.

With a plain circle of glass with a cross painted on it as an aid to aim the small ballistae's bowstring was pulled back, a bolt was loaded out from a wooden box on top of the frame of the large crossbow and then as the gunner kept pedaling ,the bolt was fired and speared another climber off the ladder. And then more Manticores started firing from the towers and the foot soldiers found themselves held as they were not able to evade or block the bolts of the Manticores.

Then a horn was sounded from the Rattenfänger side and the foot soldier stopped trying to climb the ladders, confusing the ponies. Until a loud kadunk was heard as the trebuchets launched a second volley.

"Incoming Barrage! Raise the shields!" Cried out one of the soldiers to his comrades as the boulders flew towards towards them. With strained focus and magic the unicorns started crafting their hexagon shaped shields once more. However, things did not go as well as the first time.

This time the mages were only able to repel most of the rocks, several of them were too busy healing wounded or firing spells at the ladders and the invaders. And thus as the shields appeared, were two of the boulders able to clear past them and strike at the city wall. One boulder slammed into the upper portion of one of the smaller towers and made the top collapse. The second rock to hit struck at one of the towers as well, but the impact only left a dent in the lower section.

The damage could have been far worse and the ponies let out a sigh of relief. But then chills ran down their spines, they had forgotten something. The enemy had more siege engines then those catapults!

But then the ballistaes on the enemy side fired, and the ponies' air forces were occupied by the attacking birds, and thus they had no way to stop the massive projectiles from striking the towers on the walls. Out of the several shoots fired, went several into the city wall or into the distance, but several struck true, some of them aimed at the same target even. Overall were four Manticores destroyed by that volley, but fortunately enough were the tubes not firing another volley.

Sadly enough was the destruction of the Manticores enough to turn the tide and the invaders were no longer being repelled, instead they were focusing their efforts on the ladders closest to the gap were the Manticores were gone. Even as over six hundred of their numbers had been killed by now were they still not giving an inch, their determination only equal to their frantic murderous craving.

*Not good! We need to signal the Generals!* Thought the Town Guard as he watched their defence being slowly pushed back. He moved from the front edge of the gate house's top and to the rear, the part facing the city. He reared back his foreleg and struck the gong located there, three times. The powerful sound echoed through the entire city and the Generals were instantly aware that their defences were starting to fail.

By now had the sun passed to the point of noon, over three hours had gone by, and the very air of the city was tense and on edge as the sound of battle flew over the interior from the battlements on the walls.

And then, the Generals gave the order to guide the civilians to the central keep.

(Scene Skip)

At the part of the wall connecting to the mountain side was a group of squirrels dressed in black robes climbing up the wall, their work was to travel to the interior of the city and take out the commanders of the pony forces. They would be free to pillage and eat as they wanted afterwards.

The smooth rock surface was easy for them to climb with their sharp claws, not to mention the nicks inserted into the stone by the spies and assassin they had sent months ago when they first infiltrated the city.

As the first assassin reached the top of the wall he looked around, dead silent and empty. Grinning he pulled himself up and signaled to his companions to get up. One after one, until a group of ten killers were on the wall.

"Hehehehe! Those stupid beasts have no idea We art coming. Those fools should hath prepared better after We poisoned their Goddess." One of them stated with a grin and chuckled which was joined by the others.

"Welp, We better take Us a break here. Those fools ain't moving anywhere and We could use a bit of a rest after climbing that wall." Said one of the older squirrels who sat down on a wooden crate and started massaging his aching claws. The other nine agreed to it and the assassins started to find spot to sit down on and take a shot rest.

After about five minutes the felt ready and one of them noticed how the older squirrel had yet to stand up. "Oi old timer, ye need ta get-" As soon as he touched the old squirrel, he fell over, dead, his face completely frozen in a closed eye moment of serenity.

"Hey! Did that old timer just kick it?" One of the younger members asked the others as they examined the old squirrel.

"Looks like it. He's got no wounds, no sign of injury anywhere, looks like he went out peacefully... So wanna eat him?" One of them asked the others. The others looked a bit conflicted, they were hungry but it would take time to prepare a meal out of the old squirrel.

"Eh. Fine. Would be a waste otherwise." And so they started stripping the old squirrel of his equipment and started skinning him and started a small fire with some coal and a metal pan and started cooking the old assassin's meat.

Drools were running down their chins as the meat was being cooked and then they eagerly started digging into the roasted meat of their dead comrade. And then as the first bite fell into their mouths, they started coughing and gagging as they found it difficult to breath.

A cool and chilling voice spoke out as they frantically clutched at their throats trying to breath. "Oh We were more then prepared for thy treacherous ways beasts."

Then the wooden box upon which the old squirrel had been sitting, was raised as a pony mare hidden within it stood up and pulled the wooden box off of her body. Beneath the crate was a mare dressed in solid black cloth and metal armour, hugging her well toned and flexible body. There was a hint of a pink lock ticking out from the face mask strapped over a helmet like hood made out of woven cloth and metal plates. Out of a hole on the armour on her flank, was a long pink pony tail of.

"We thought that doing to thee which thou foul kin did to Our Princess to be poetic justice. Thus We hath prepared several ambush spots in Our city where thy foul creatins sneaked inside. It took Us but days to track all of thou fellow assassins movements, We shalt never leave Our city weak to such attempts again." Pulling out a long and thin bladed dagger like sword with a oversize cross guard, former Sun Guard member Solid Pink glared upon them as they lay there, choking on the poison they tried to kill her nation's monarch with.

"This poison thy hath is an interesting one. It stays within the flesh of those it kill. Unless the one afflicted with it is cured, then their bodies shalt be poisonous. We pricked thou friend with this poison. But do not fear, thy end shalt not be long." he then sheathed the stiletto like blade and pulled out a curved dagger with a jagged edge and the squirrels felt chills down their spines as a cold grin grew beneath the cloth of the face mask as the creepy pony started moving towards them..

She reached out and grasped the head of one of the squirrels and gently stroked the blade against his throat. Before whispering into his ear as she slowly started cutting up his throat. The final words each of they would hear was coldly whispered to them, as cold eyes looked down at them, as a sharp jagged, and by the first kill, bloody blade split upon their throats. "We shalt make certain of it."

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 7:54]

Golden Cross frowned as he looked out from the top floor of Grand Feast's house, the window giving him a clear view of the defenders on the walls, their pained screams echoing through his ears and shaking his very soul. The raiders were too many and there was no way for Celestia to come to the ponies' aid with her body recovering from the assassination attempt, the poison was yet purged from her body.

This was the final day of his life on the planet until the next Red Sun. He had made a promise to protect Grand Music and Happy Meal. With Grand Feast stuck in the medical wing of the keep he could not just leave them. But it was dangerous to just ignore the battle. He had made a promise to protect them. But he had to do something or that promise would not be possible, even if it meant to leave the foals, he had to do something or the entire city would be ransacked.

And most of all. He wanted to make things right, had he never injured Celestia at their fight, this would never have happened. Now was his last chance, or he would have to wait for ten years until the next Red Sun to be able to do anything, and by then it would be far too late.

Closing his eyes the old knight sighed, before standing up from his seat and walked over to the table were his helmet and poleaxe were resting. Stroking the helmet with his hoof he slowly turned towards the curious foals looking out the window, and his eyes narrowed with resolve. He could not stand by. Or those two would... he dared not even consider it.

Reaching out he grasped his poleaxe and helmet and walked over to the two, on his hind legs, he then knelled down in front of them and spoke to them as they noticed him approaching. "...I am sorry you two, but this is where I must leave you."

Two small blurs flew into his body and he felt two pairs of limbs grabbing him by the forelegs. "No! Ye promised mama!" Happy Meal cried out in tears while hugging his foreleg together with Grand Music who was also crying, yet unable to voice his sadness because of his lack of voice.

It was tearing him apart inside, but he knew what would happen to the city should the gate fall to the raiders. And that thought, terrified him far more then anything in his entire life. So he gently lifted up both of the children and hugged them softly while speaking to them gently. "I know. But if I do not act now. There will be a lot of ponies being hurt. And no matter how much I want to stay by your side and personally keep you safe, can I not do so now without leaving. If the gate falls, will there be many innocent lives at stake here, yours included, and if I am to keep not only you, but them safe as well. I must go."

Sniffling the little filly choked out as she hugged his neck while her adopted brother buried his muzzle into his fur. "But! But! Ye are dying! If ye fight ye will die!"

Gently he lowered them to the bed on the room and hushed their crying as he petted them on the heads. He smiled a warm serene smile upon them, letting all of his joy and cheer out, showing them, even if only through his face, how much they had affected him. "Shhh it is okay child. I will keep you safe through this night. And even if I may not be by your side physically afterwards, do not doubt that I will still be by your side. After all, you two and your mother, are the closest I have had to a family, in over a century. your lives, are far more precious to me then my own."

Their sad eyes looked upon him and they sniffled. Happy Meal spoke up, her voice choking a little as she tried to refrain from crying. "...Y-ye have to keep all of Us safe? Even if ye... die?"

It broke his heart to see them like this but he kept smiling and nodded, still petting their heads gently as he spoke to them. "Aye. Death is not the end child, it is but the next great adventure. And though I am old, even though I am dying, does this old body of mine still have the strength for one more fight. I will gladly take up arms, even if it means my death, I will welcome it even. As long as I am able to keep you, your brother, your mother and all other ponies within these walls, safe."

Teary eyed but with determined and fierce looks on their muzzles, Grand Music and Happy Meal, spoke out to him. Happy Meal was the voice, and Grand Music, moved his lips and tried hard to make noise, and combined, Golden Cross could have sworn, he heard them both speak to him. Even though he had never heard Grand Music's voice, he swore he could hear his as well. "Ye... Ye better kick their flanks good Grandpa Cross!"

It was a slow and silent moment, but then a wide grin grew upon his lips and raising his hoof and bopping the two foals on the noses. And then he spoke up. With a voice as warm as the summer breeze, full of life and strength, as if he was healthy and young once more. "Aye! I will!"

He walked out of the room, tall, proud and his heart aching with shame and guilt as he walked down the stairs to the eatery. The staff were gathering by a table by the door, looking out with worry at the city wall. As they saw him walk down the stairs, dressed in full armour, his movements as graceful as if he was descending from the heavens, several of the mares grew hefty blushes as he approached.

And then he spoke, a voice of solid iron, a will of steel and a vocal cord as well sharpened as a sword. "Please, keep them safe." The staff members nodded, knowing who he meant, and then he opened the door and closed it behind himself, before he started walking towards the city gates.

For the rest of their lives the workers of the eatery would tell the story of Golden Cross as he left for battle that noon, and how much of an example he was which any knight, no, any pony should strive to be.

(Scene Skip)

The Walls were standing as strong as they could. But the fierce waves of Rattenfänger soldiers were overwhelming them. As the fifth hour of the battle started, were some of the foot soldiers able to get a foot hold on the walls.

The Sergeant on the wall by the Gatehouse swore as he watched a large wolf climb up onto the wall and quickly jabbed his spear at his cut. Said wolf howled in agony and fell off the wall to the moat bellow. But more were starting to limb over the edge and the Sergeant knew the situation was getting worse. So with his spear and shield ready the Sergeant screamed out for his unit. "Withdraw! We can not fight these scoundrels as scattered as We art! Withdraw, gather up in formation, trap them between your formations!"

With rapid movements and commands from all over, moved the ponies from the position of the ladders and linked their shields together and with a loud shout, slammed their shields into the stone floor of the battlement, their spears held ready as the enemy climbed up and started charging them. With their bodies braced and their stances firm, the impact of the horde of killers was halted and with a thrust of their spears, they skewered the first line of enemy foot soldiers, the enchanted bronze spears splitting through cloth, metal, bone and flesh.

With a jerk back their foes fell and blood started spraying out into the air, but even more attackers were coming up from the ladders and the unit could tell that they were moving in force towards the Gatehouse. The second charge was even more brutal, two of their members were unable to hold back and fell back, their comrades reached out to help them when claws and pas ripped the two soldiers into a mass of murderous beast and toe them apart. With rapid thrusts was the second group of attackers killed, but the two soldiers were dead even before the beasts were killed.

Now the squad could see even more enemies moving towards the gatehouse, pushing back more of their fellow soldiers. With grim faces the soldiers prepare for another mass charge at their location, while the unicorn in their group fired off a bright red energy beam into the air.

(Scene Skip)

Lieutenant Weak Guts was positioned with Captain Rough Stock, both of them having received promotions after the battle with Maleficus a month ago. The pair were in command of the units of the gate house and they were quick to fortify it as the enemy started to pour up onto the eastern wall. With all manners of archers and spell casters on the top roof of the gate house they were hoping to keep off any of the attackers from reaching it.

"Sarge- Sorry Captain, there be a single signal beam sir. Red. Them beasties are attempting an assault on Us." Weak Guts said as he grasped the handle of his broad sword. Ever since he was promoted he found out that he preferred using a two hoof wielded blade over a spear and shield.

His old Sergeant, now a Captain, was still using his shield and spear combo. The veteran glared at the mass of foes which were starting to press themselves against the outer defenses by the Gatehouse. "Bucking glue sniffers better be ready fer a good beatin if they be stupid enough ta think they be getting through here!"

"Hrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!" A loud roar echoed over the city walls as suddenly a mass charge of almost a hundred foot soldiers rushed forward and slammed into the shield walls of the unit of fifty holding them back from reaching the Gatehouse. The first initial charge left the defenders staggered but still steady and more then half of the attackers dead. But then a second charge of a hundred soldiers came rushing towards them.

Captain Rough stock noticed immediately what was going on. Every time the charge failed, those who charged first moved back to sit down and rest, while a fresh group of chargers moved forward afterwards. "Oh bucking hell! They be tiring out Our defence by sending in fresh meat heads ta replace each group of chargers! We art going ta lose da Gatehouse at this rate!"

The situation was dire and the pair saw with tension how their fellow soldiers were torn apart bit by bit. Things were going to get difficult once the raiders reached the interior of the Gatehouse. Rough Stock took to action and moved down to the interior, with Weak Guts following him. He pointed out one of the guards who was guarding the large chains used to open the gates. "Hey! Ye over there! Ye name, army an rank soldier!"

With a yelp the lone guard when into a tense salute and spoke in a shaken and nervous voice. "Ah! Private Generic Guard, Sir! Canterlot Town Guard Forces, Sir!"

"Good lad! Now tell Us! How do We break da gate mechanism!" Weak Guts could almost feel the deja vu, this was an almost identical situation to when Rough Stock was Sergeant and demanded to know the best spot to destroy a bridge by asking a soldier who was a local of the area.

The guard, not yet realizing the purpose of the question ,being too much in soldier mode to even comprehend it, responded appropriately. "Yes, Sir! Thou need to break the master gear located behind the latch in the lower right of each of the internal winches, sir! Eh why would thou ask that sir?"

With a grin Rough Stock reared back his spear and slammed it through the latch and into the delicate machinery inside, and broke it all apart. "Cause We are gonna break them! Lt. Weak Guts! Do yet thing!"

With a quick salute Weak Guts rushed over to the other winch mechanic and slammed his sword through the latch. then a load groan was heard as the chains connected to the internal winches suddenly went slack. The guards in the gate house, stared in shock at what the two soldiers had done.

"W-why sir!? It shalt take weeks ta repair!" One of them shouted out in despair at how long it would take to properly fix the gatehouse mechanism.

The Captain just grinned and jerked a hoof at the horde of invaders through one of the archer windows. "Cause now those there glue sniffer can not open da gates from here! Even if we die here, We be da victors! Ahahahahaha!"

As the Captain laughed a loud crack was suddenly heard and there was a sound of several being screaming in agony. The two officers looked upon each other and rushed up the stairs to the rooftop to look out to where the sound was coming from.

"What be that noise soldier!?" The captain shouted at one of the soldiers with a spyglass, the soldier, who was staring with gaping mouth at something, wordlessly handed his Captain the spyglass and just pointed at the other end of the wall.

A bit confused Rough Stock looked through the spyglass and he nearly dropped it at what he saw. And as a second loud crack was heard he could not help mumble out loud. "Well put Us in a dress an call me a cutie pie. That be something e don't see every day..."

Having gotten his own spyglass Weak Guts looked at the scene himself and muttered some words of his own. "By Epona's Teats."

(Scene Skip)

Sipping a glass of fine acorn whiskey and nibbling some nicely made mole steak, Archimedes sat on a chair watching the siege with little interest. Everything was going as planned, soon the gates would be open ,the main force would move through it, and from there, they would ransack and butcher the entire city. Even as he had a mouthful of meat he was drooling and growing steadily more hungry. *We want to taste it! The meat of a Goddess!*

His thoughts of the delicious future meal of a divine being's meat was interrupted when a messenger came to him. "What doest thy want? Sergeant Wolf shouldst be taking the gates soon."

The nervous messenger fidgeted a bit before speaking up. "Pardon Us Lord Archimedes, but... a problem hath occurred on the walls."

Raising an eyebrow the old mouse wondered just what kind of problem had come up. "Well do not be such a mule, speak up."

"It be better if thou look fer thyself Lord Archimedes." The messenger said as he handed a spyglass to the old mouse who picked it up and looked at were the messenger was pointing.

*Nothing out of the ordinary. Our troops art tearing apart the morsels. Our ladders art holding strong. Our flyers art keeping them pegasus occupied. A lone pony be wrecking Our troops. Our forces art charging at the Gateh- Wait. What!?* Swirling the spyglass to what he had just seen, and what he aw as he found the spot he had been looking at, he dropped the spyglass in shock.

"How in God's name is that pony disrupting Our entire Siege!? Who be he who defies the will of God!?"

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 6:12]

It had taken him a decent effort, with all of the town guards evacuating the ponies to the central keep had he been forced to wait or side track to get past the large numbers of moving civilians. But he had not ever though it would take him almost two hours to reach the city wall, even if the battle was located on the other side of town was there no reason for it to have taken so long. But then again, traffic had always been a problem even in situations of emergency, back on his old world. Perhaps this was something similar?

But besides that, he had reached the city walls and he could tell that the battle was fierce, bodies of not only ponies but other animals were littering the base of the walls, most of the animals who had died on the other side of the wall were birds of various types, expected considering how they were attacking the pegasus forces in the air.

Taking a deep breath he relaxed before slowly letting it out. Then he moved through the units of ponies standing behind the walls, using their catapults, spells and ranged weapons to attack over the walls. No pony seemed to take note of him and he had to make sure he had not entered his shadow form by mistake. Soon he was marching up the stairs leading towards the corner of the city wall. This side of the wall ended with a single large tower before continuing on the other side of the tower.

Ignoring the cries of the dying and the fighting he kept on climbing the stairs, even as blood rained and the head of a pony flew down he did not react. Even as a wolf jumped over the ledge of the wall battlement and down onto the stairs, howling in delight of being first over the wall, he did not react. Instead he moved forward, using his mass to push the wolf over the side and letting him strike the ground with enough force to break apart his entire body from the impact on the stone pavement below.

Only as he reached the rear of a unit of ponies did her react. They were blocking his path as they were working in a tight formation and trying to push back their attackers. Clearing his throat he spoke up. "That is enough young ones, let an old warrior handle this."

There was a brief moment of shock from the soldiers as they turned to see the sight of Golden Cross, wearing his full armour. But before anyone of them could protest, he raise a hoof and gently pushed them aside. Not forceful, not rough or even powerful, he just, gently pushed them aside and they moved, like little foals being gently moved aside by an older pony.

(Scene Skip)

The Rattenfängers were confused as of why the ponies had gone silent, and why they were looking backwards and not at them. As they considered taking advantage of the situation, the ponies moved aside, and a single, large and fully armoured pony, walked past them, like a king of old being presented.

Once the large pony emerged from the unit and stepped out to the front, he looked upon the confused beast like animals in front of him. Then, with a tired look in his eyes, he sighed and stood up on his hind legs and withdrew a large poleaxe. And then, he started to sing.

[Start Battle Music: My Funeral by D.O.P.E]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOG0vz_H7OU

"Now as I stand here in the dark." His entire body turned and shifted as he brought the pole arm in his grasp into a full body swing. The first strike came as unexpected as it was silent, the axe was but a blur. The curved edge of the axe blade sliced through flesh, bone and armour without pause. It carved through the throat, neck and shoulder of one of the pigs, then another, and another, and another. As his body finished its momentum had a group of four pigs lost their heads.

Each of the heads flew off the necks in a geyser of blood, flying out into the air. And then, as the heads fell down to the stone pavement of the wall, erupted the headless necks into a wicked red fountain of blood as it sprayed out of the now split veins. The crimson liquid sprayed upwards like a crescendo to the rising music in the air. The ponies stood still, just watching as Golden Cross stepped past the corpses, as they slowly fell down to the ground, and kept singing.

"And I think back to the start." Yet another strike, this time the swing was made in a lower point. The edge flew through the air, streaking of blood and murder. It dug through the flesh, organs and bones of a thick burly wolf, and a thin feminine looking goat. And as they were both brutally cut in half at the waist, their upper torsos were sent flying off into the air while the lower legs kept standing even as Golden Cross moved past them. And as the upper portions of the corpses flew out into the air, trailing behind them blood, pieces of organs and a line of unfurling intestines. The Rattenfängers were starting to feel chills down their spines. This pony was not normal, he was far too brutal, far too good at killing.

"I know some things have to end." A third strike. With a sudden shift in his stance he grasped his poleaxe in a forward pointed stance and made a single thrust forward with his entire body. The spear tip flew forward and speared through the eye of a skunk, the poor sod had no time to react as the cold metal blade pierced through his brain and out of his cranium. even as the now dead skunk hung on his spear as a twitching corpse he kept pushing the spear forward. And then it slammed into the head of a second skunk, the axe blade dug into the muzzle of the first skunk's face and split it open to let the spear blade pierce out and then into the skull of the second skunk,

With this one a thrust, he had in essence pierced through the skulls of two skunks. And even as their bodies twitched and rattled on his weapon, the armoured pony lifted them up, like a hunter showing off his prey. He held them high up in the air before he tossed them off the wall and into the moat.

"For the next one to begin." He reared back his weapon with both his forelegs and swung it down in a fast and heavy strike from above. This fourth strike, a downward strike with the hammer head of the weak crush the skull of a cat. The hammer head did not as much crack and split her skull, rather, it instead crushed her entire head into paste with a single blow. The music was starting to pick up phase and so, was the pony warrior.

"I walk alone, free at last." He stepped forward, shifted his grip and while holding the spear with a forward grip he used his other hoof to thrust the spear tip forward. The spear head pierced shoulder, stomach and knee of a large bear who was trying to block is path. After he had essentially immobilized the bear he twisted around and gave the big bear a powerful kick to the gut. The hoof impacted the leather covered stomach, causing a massive ripple to appear, before it sank deep into the stomach and a loud crack followed by a fleshy pop was heard.

The bear bent over, clutching at his gut, and was lifted up off his paws by the still straightening leg. When the hoof stopped its momentum, the bear kept moving up flew up three meters into the air before falling down, impacting the ledge of the wall, before tumbling over the edge and down to certain doom. And by now were the Rattenfänger soldiers starting to fight back. And yet, he kept on singing and attacking.

A group of five foxes rushed forward, wielding curved blades and gauntlet blades they jumped forward and attacked him from all angles. Twenty blades of hardened bronze impacted his unyielding form, but even as they put all of their strength and skill behind the blows, their weapons let out loud cracks as they shattered as they impacted the powerful plate of the knight. As their claws and blades broke against his armour Golden Cross , he made a large swing and pushed five of them off the wall. "I feel the pressure letting go."

With a sudden rush he took four rapid steps forward before bending his knees and jumping up into a forward going leap, in the air he bent his left hind leg and straightened the right while holding up his pole axe above his head. The hoof impacted the skull of a bull, possibly a minotaur, the hoof fractured teeth and bone as it first hit. But as the rest of the force behind the strike was transferred, broke the nose and muzzle of the bull into paste.

The hoof then slammed into his flattened face and pushed him down to the ground as Golden Cross landed his entire body and armour weight on top of his skull. In a loud dull crunch his hooves turned the thick head beneath him into a mess of meat, bone shards and crushed crushed the head of a bull to paste. "From the very bottom of my soul."

Using the momentum of his jump he rushed forward in a shoulder tackle, his body impacted the foot soldiers who thought they could handle him. Even with a group of ten animals of various sizes using shields and weapons to brace themselves, they could but give away to the sheer strength of the on force of his attack. His tackle forced them all back and made over seven of them fall to the ground. And then he just stepped forward and made a single downward slice and cut the throats of those on the ground. Bloods sprayed over his frame as he walked past them as they were bleeding out. and as he walked past them, he swung his blade another time and with the edge of his axe head, and split the heads of the three who had not fallen to the ground, sideways from cheek to cheek. "Flesh and bone for the past."

"Like the ashes in the rain." By now were the soldiers starting to feel a mixture of fear and rage. They were being forced back, by a lone warrior, a pony of all things! A rhinoceros stomped forward into a big heavy charge. He was roaring out in utter rage and lowered his head to impale the meaty pony upon his massive horn. The pony in question spread his hind legs to brace himself and then bent his upper body forward and hefted his poleaxe, aimed downwards, as if aiming at the rhinoceros face.

At first they thought he was going to skewer him in the face, which would hopefully end up with him losing his weapon from the charge of the rhinoceros. But then he surprised them all. As the rhinoceros head reached his ranged he suddenly jammed his weapon forward, and caught the rhinoceros' horn between his spear and the blunt side of the axe head of his weapon. The rhinoceros was still charging but he just tightened his grip on the weapon and stood up straighter, pulling himself forward and avoiding the horn of the massive creature. And as he did so, he aligned his weapon with both hooves until he was standing next to the rhinoceros' head, holding his weapon like it was lever.

Then with a back going pull on his weapon, he forced the head of the rhinoceros to turn over ninety degrees, and with a loud crack, broke the chargers neck before he could even react. The big meaty body stepped forward five times, before collapsing. It all happened too quickly for the invaders to even register what they had seen right away.

Grasping the corpse with one hoof the pony lifted it, the massive muscular rhinoceros easily three times his body weight and size, and he was hefting it like it was a sack of wool. And then with a hefting motion, he threw the corpse over the edge of the wall, and a loud crack was heard. "And fade away."

The Rattenfänger soldiers stared in horror as one of their few remaining ladders, broke apart from the impact of the corpse striking it in the middle, sending even more of their numbers to their doom. And now, the song and the music was speeding up even further! "It's my funeral."

By now was the pony giving no pause nor edge, he rushed forward and with a wise right swing of his poleaxe. A rabbit got his head split open, a rat got her throat bisected, a deer got his waist cut in two and a pig got his chest sliced open by the end of the strike. "Welcome you all."

Even as they started to retreat he kept going, using his body strength to pushed or throw them over the wall if they were within his reach. He reached out, grabbed a fox by the tail and threw him off the edge. He kicked a mouse into the air and over the edge. With a tackle he forced a large pig who tried to charge him, against the ledge, crushed his throat, before pushing him off the edge. "This is the end of the line."

A thrust of his spear and he pierced through the back of a squirrel ,spraying blood forward and backwards as he jerked the weapon out of the corpse. A second thrust of the pole arm pierced the skull of a goat. With another jerk back another pay of blood was released. A third strike split through a rabbit's gut and into the skull of a lizard, they were almost impale through and into the stone of the wall's floor. With a jerk of his weapon he sent both corpses off the edge before rearing back for side swing and with the hammer end of his weapon, struck the head of a moose. The horn fracture and broke apart, before the hammer head pressed down into his skull and with a tremendous crunch, broke the entire cranium open like an overly ripe melon.

Stepping past the carnage he once more more charged forward. A large horned big was bellowing commands and charging with a massive double handed axe. The pig reminded him a bit of an oni of japanese lore, only mixed with a pig orc. Feeling a bit nostalgic he rushed forward and hefted his spear. But first he kicked the leg of the pig who cried out in agony as the hoof slammed into his knee, and crushed both muscles, flesh and bone making the entire limb break in half like it was a fruit.

Then he thrust his weapon forward, the tip pierced through the gaping screaming mouth of the pig, entered through the flesh and bone within his mouth, and erupted out the back of the pig's skull in a spray of blood and brain matter. With the pig speared like a, pig, he used the still, surprisingly enough, living and gurglingly screaming pig. He hefted the pig up with his weapon and swung forward before suddenly stopping. The horned pig's head was torn open as the blade split apart its cranium and it fell limp down over the edge and landed on the ladder there.

The fat body impacted the wood and bone frame, its weight and velocity making the entire thing bend downwards, groaning in protest. Then, with a loud snap and crunch, the entire ladder broke apart at the center and fell down with the corpse and other, still living, soldiers. The screams of the falling soldiers were loud, but they soon ended as they crashed into the moat. "So thank you for coming along."

Suddenly a large and muscular wolf dressed in uniform charged forward with a claymore, screaming bloody murder. The downward swing of the massive sword made the air scream as it passed through it. But Golden Cross stepped to the side and retaliated. He made a backward swing ,raising the weapon back away from his target, before suddenly swinging it downward and then upwards in a rising slash.

The tip of the spear sliced through cloth as it impacted the groin of the enemy and in a bloody spray, cut the wolf open from going to throat in a single motion. Without pause the warrior moved past the collapsing beast, sparingly kicking the twitching wolf over the edge of the wall as he walked past him, and cut down a pair of mice who tried to shoot him with their crossbows. His axe slicing through their thin bodies like a scythe through wheat. "My time has come."

"I don't want to leave you behind." By now were the forces of Rattnefänger on the walls in full retreat from the brutal killer of the ponies, their mad hunger was giving away for a far stronger sensation, fear. And yet as they ran he kept following, cutting down all who fell behind. A downward slash split open the skull of a deer, a punch crushed the face and broke the neck of a dog, a thrust impaled a snake through the skull and so on. Then a small screaming rat came flying towards him and he absently swatted the vermin away with his pole arm, practically batting him aside like soft ball, over the edge and down to them oat below. Some of the soldiers had seemingly taken to throwing their smaller allies at him to stall him, but he just cut them apart in mid air or swatted them off the wall, and kept following.

"But this one I'll do on my own." With a sudden leap forward he slammed into the back of a tortoise and broke the neck of the creature before suddenly flipping the corpse upside down so that the shell was resting on the ground. He then stepped back a bit before taking a running jump and slammed onto the tortoise corpse, which began to slide forward at a rapid speed forward.

He swung his halberd and the entire shell began to spin and he essentially began a circle of death as he rotated forward on on the city wall. Like a circle of death the rotating weapon sliced through the body of a boar like it was nothing, the torso of the pig impacted the rotating pole arm and bounced off by the force of the momentum.

On the floor as the shell rotating and as it rotated and moved forward, was a lizard caught by the tail, dragging her into the center of the rotating shell, and slowly grind crushed her into mush beneath it. Essentially the shell crushed whatever was unlucky to be beneath it with rotation and weight. And so it kept going with his weapon tearing apart any one in its path, while the shell he was on, crushed those who were small and too slow to run away. "Now as we stand two worlds apart."

Suddenly he jumped off the shell and gave the now mutilated tortoise corpse a brutal buck kick. It shoot forward like a cannon ball, the size, mass and weight of the mutilated corpse as it flew was lethal on its own. it impacted a pig, breaking all of the poor thing's bones in an instance before landing on top of four mice, breaking their small fragile bodies. Then it impacted a bull, breaking his spine as it hit him in the back, before rolling forward over five mice and seven lizards, breaking their bones beneath its tumbling weight. And then with a loud crack it impacted the edge of a ladder, breaking it an causing it to collapse. And then it stopped. "The time's hardened up my heart."

Rushing forward Golden Cross swung his weapon upon those who had fallen and were not dead, cutting their throats as he rushed past them. not even sparing a glance as his spear blade split through necks and his axe head sliced open throats. "From a world of no regrets."

"That I hope won't soon forget." Reaching a another ladder he raised hiss hoof and slammed it into one of the poles of the ladder. The sheer force of the blow caused the entire left side of the ladder to bend in an up going arch, the force of the bending of the ladder and the shaking caused all of the climbers on it to fall off. And then, as he released it, the entire left side of the ladder splintered and fell off, soon followed by the other part, as it could no longer support its own structure.

He rushed forward once more and the Ratttenfängers were now regrouping by the last remaining pair of ladders and were gathering in lines with shields and spears. "I walk the line on broken glass."

Without stopping he slammed into the battle line and the boars and pigs holding the shields grunted in shock as they all were knocked on their backs, before something heavy stepped on top of them and a sharp spear blade was sent down into their skulls and throats. "I let the passion take control."

"Of the very bottom of my soul." The first line of shields had fallen, so a line of archers took their place and fired a volley of projectiles at the large pony. Yet to their shock the weapons just dinged off of his frame.

The pony retaliated by lifting one of the shields and throwing it at them. It flew like a discuss, rotating as it flew through the air. Before it impacted the first of the archers, a cat, her head was torn off by the rotation and momentum of the shield, it happened almost instantly. The dog behind her had his skull torn clean off as he tried to catch the shield with his mouth. A lizard had her neck ripped part in a spray of blood and bone as the shield flew through it, and then it flew straight through the skull of a rat.

After it had split apart the skull of a rat it had lost a lot of its rotation and speed, and yet it was still able to deal one final blow to the invaders. It impacted the big stomach of a pig. A stomach covered by leather and plates of bronze. And yet the shield cut straight through metal, leather, skin, flesh and organs, until it had practically dug straight from the stomach to the spine, burying itself almost all the way through the poor pig's midsection. The pig stared at the large piece of metal embedded into its stomach before it collapsed forward, the shield pushing up through its back as it impact the stone floor of the wall. "Cross the line, fade to black."

"Hold the candle to the flame." Reaching out Golden Cross grasped a spear sent towards his visor. A fox had tried to sideline him and attack him from his blind spot. He lifted up the spear, along with the fox, and casually threw both the spear and its wielder, over the edge of the wall.

"And light the way." A group of knife wielding mice flew down from above and they tried to stab at his weak points, but with a brutal swing of his arms he used his bare hooves to strike them. The hoof impacted a stomach, the blow ripping apart parts of the cut, leaving a massive gash. Another had her throat crushed by the strike of a hoof. One had their entire rib cage crushed as the hoof impacted their torso. Some of them were lucky and had their heads crushed or necks snapped by being punched in the face. The sheer pain was making the mice who survived collapse as they clutched the parts of their bodies he had essentially crushed or torn apart with his hooves. Although their pain was ended as his hooves stomped down on their necks.

"To my funeral." A sudden shout was sounded as a group of two tigers, a wolf, a snake and four lizards tried to jump on top of him with claws and blades. Instead of evading, Golden Cross braced himself, held out his poleaxe by the shaft, wide, and caught the killers on his weapon's shaft. All eight of them struggled to break down upon him and attack him, but then they all felt a shift as their momentum was changed. And then they screamed as golden Cross judo tossed them over the ledge of the wall with some help of the staff portion of his pole arm,

Taking a running start he jumped up and slammed into a tiger who was trying to flee. He grappled the large killer kitten down, and warped his left foreleg around the big feline's throat and clenched his muscles in his foreleg and squeezed. With a twist of his foreleg, he forced the head of the tiger to turn backwards, killing it instantly. "Welcome you all."

Standing up he grabbed the large feline corpse by the tail and swung it up around in the air before throwing it at the closest ladder. "This is the end of the line."

"So thank you for coming along." With a loud crack the ladder was stuck by the corpse of the tiger, who bounced off it the ladder after the point of impact. But the ladder could not handle the sudden force and as it straightened up, it broke in half, its lower half falling into the moat while the upper half slammed into the wall before falling into the moat as well.

There was only one more ladder left and the Rattenfängers knew, that if they let the pony break the final ladder, they would be the next meal of the week. And so they mustered their strengths, they pulled out their better soldiers, with the best weapons and armour. "My time has come."

And yet even as they prepare,d even as they outnumbered the lone warrior several times over. They, could, not, stop, him! "I don't want to leave you behind."

"But this one I'll do on my own." Even as a group of five tall, powerful and heavily equipped polar bears charged him, he made no shown effort in putting them down.

The first went with a stab through the throat, then the knight spun around and used a kick to break the leg of the second before crushing his skull with a down ward strike with the hammer head of his weapon. "Ohhh, ohhh, ohhh"

"It's my funeral." Then he ducked two swings from two magical greatswords, and retaliated by grabbing both blades before they could pull them away. His powerful forelegs pulled the two swords past one another, and the sound of meat piercing flesh was heard as Golden Cross forcefully made their owners stab each other from stomach to spine and out the backs.

The final polar bear, was rather embarrassing. The big warrior had climbed up on the ledge of the wall and was roaring a challenge at him. Golden Cross just gave him a solemn tare before pushing him in the stomach with the pommel of his pole axe, making the bear fall down to the moat for a watery death. "Welcome you all."

The Rattenfängers were getting more and more desperate and terrified as the situation grew worse and worse as the pony just refused to die! But worst of all, that song, that serene, heart aching and yet heart pumping song. Even as he butchered them all, he just, kept, on singing!. "This is the end of the line."

Not even slowed down, not even panting for breathe. Not even as he punched a bull's skull hard enough to make his head break apart like a ripe tomato, he did not stop singing. "So thank you for coming along."

"My time has come." With yet another brutal tackle he pushed several of their numbers to the floor once more, and once again, slit their throats. He was fast, he was efficient, he was strong, he was brutal and he was skilled. They could only wonder, just how a pony could become so powerful.

Yet they could not speculate and wonder at a time of battle. With their numbers lessened and only one ladder remaining were other ponies gathering in force to retaliate as well! "I don't want to leave you behind."

"But this one I'll do on my own." Rushing forward, the pony spun his blade and split apart a swarm of toads, each bearing daggers and spikes on their heads and legs, the little vermin had been waiting for an opportunity for when he would reach their little hiding spot, a group of corpse. Too bad it had been wasted.

Now the Rattenfängers were getting frantic and desperate. In a last ditch effort they charge en mass at both the gatehouse and at Golden Cross. "This is the end of the line."

"So thank you for coming along." With swift agility and strength the large pony weaved away from their attacks. He parried, he blocked and he dodged. At first they thought he was getting tired, that they had a chance.

But then he broke those hopes, when he suddenly rushed right and pressed his back to the ledge of the wall before rushing forward with his pole arm held between his hooves and brutally pushed them. He forced them back, he forced them further and further. Soon the backs of those in the rear hit the ledge of the wall. But the knight did not seem to concerned about that and without stopping ,without pause, just kept on pushing and made them all, one by one, tumble off the edge. "My time has come."

No mercy, no remorse, he just pushed them off the edge. Not even sparing a glance he turned towards the remaining few and stomped his way forward with his pole axe spinning in his right hoof, still singing. "I don't want to leave you behind." (Don't want to leave you behind)

For a few seconds the entire force of Rattenfänger froze as those words were heard, and not from the pony, but from the very empty air around him. What was going on!?

He rushed forward, rapidly slicing his weapon left and right, cutting them down like wheat. And then, as a brave, but foolish, pig, rushed off the ladder he had been climbing and jumped onto the pony, trying to crush him beneath his weight, the pony just caught him and held him up by the stomach. "But this is the end of the line." (The line.)

Slowly he walked towards the edge, towards the ladder. The pig's eyes grew wide and frantic and he tried to tear and slash with his butcher knife, yet to no avail. and even as arrows, rocks and spears pelted his frame, the knight made no notice of it s he slowly hefted up the pig over his head. "It's my funeral!"

"It's my funeral!" And threw him down on the ladder. Breaking it and the spirit of the Rattenfänger foot soldiers who made their final option, with as few of them remained, and jumped off the wall, willingly committing suicide then returning as failures.

[End Battle Music]

Golden Cross looked out at the battlefield from the wall were he was standing. he took a glance at the wall and took notice of how many of the smaller towers were rather destroyed and flinched a little when he saw the half eaten corpses of ponies on the floor of the battlements.

Things were force then he had feared, up above he could see the ponies fighting the flying forces of the enemy. He had never seen the vultures or some of the other birds before. But then again, for all he knew could Tooth and Tail had been waiting for an expansion or something like that, he would probably never know about it.

For now he needed to do what he could for the ponies, and stop these nightmarish animals from hurting them any further. As he pondered this, a loud rumbling horn signal was sounded from the enemy forces and the sea of animals bellow began to retreat towards their encampments, pulling with them whatever corpse they could find and carry.

*We have a moment to recollect ourselves... but for how long?* He thought before moving towards the gate house, the ponies within it cheering loudly as he walked towards them. There was more cheering from the other forces, but this cheer was special, it was cheer for him... something h had never experience before... He was not sure how to feel about it. But it did not feel bad.

As the ponies cheered, was a gong sounded from the gate house, five times. Signaling one thing, Enemy Pulling Back.

(Scene Skip)

Celestia let out a sigh of relief as she heard the signal about the enemy having been pushed back. The Central keep was being filled by the civilians of the city, the lower parts of the castle essentially a massive underground complex to keep her beloved subjects safe in cases such as this invasion. Of course there some complainers but she paid them no mind, the safety of their people was far more important then luxuries and extravagant meals.

She looked out at the city wall and the gate house and gave a mental prayer to the Gods to keep her people safe. Turning towards her Generals she pointed out the enemy forces having retreated. "We doest not know how long this shalt last. Send out supplies to the City Walls. Along with materials for emergency repairs as well as ponies whom art willing to do said repairs."

Nodding the Generals sent the order. As the continued the War Plan came Certain Victory to have an idea. He pointed out the large towers on the the corners of the city. "If We could get the large ballistaes up onto the large towers, We may be able to take out the war machines. Our ballistaes art of no use for the moment, with them being behind the city walls and being prepared for the invaders to breach the gates. We can put them to better us on top of the large towers."

"How wouldst We get such heavy military equipment up there?" Asked Celestia, she did not mind the idea, but the method on how to get it here was important.

Certain Victory pointed at the Gold Army units. "We hath unicorns and skilled engineers, We shalt ask them to lighten the weight of the ballistae to make it possible to carry it up to the top of the towers. Or perhaps levitating it, We art no expert but it should be possible milady."

It was true that unicorns often used levitation to lift objects far heavier then themselves. It was actually used as a training exercise for many unicorns to develop their magical endurance and power since ancient times. Many denied its effectiveness but in the end was it still in use even after the Age of Chaos, and thus spoke of its effectiveness. So why should it not be possible for a group of unicorns to lift a two ton war machine up a forty meter tall tower? There sure was nothing Celestia could say was impossible, in fact, she found the idea rather intriguing.

Nodding Celestia looked at the other Generals who seemed to find the plan agreeable. She then nodded and pressed her own hoof onto one of the towers. "We shalt try thy plan General Certain Victory, call the engineers and the mages available, have them aid Our soldiers if they can."

(Scene Skip)

As the ponies were making their own reparations and recuperation was Archimedes going through a rather hard time as his carefully made plan had ended up in failure. All because of a single pony.

The old mouse slammed his fist into the table with his war map in the tent that had been prepared for him at the beginning of their arrival. "Just who art this pony!? We hath not received any words about such a powerful knight among them!"

"We art not certain ourselves Archimedes. The last We knew, was there no words about such a powerful fighter among the ponies. God must be testing Us." Was the words from Athens as she cleaned her claws with a dagger. Around the table was also Butters, Madame Delores and Leroy.

"Where art Sergeant Wolf and Borgus?" Archimedes asked while rubbing his forehead and taking a drink of whiskey.

He almost choked on it when he got a rather blunt and unexpected answer from Butters. "Dead."

Glaring at the others he growled out. "Just how did they die?"

Athens just sighed and threw her dagger, it landed on the position of the moat. "Their bodies were found floating in the moat. Apparently they were on the wall and got killed by that big pony fellow before being thrown off the wall. Just more meat for God's banquet in the end."

Sighing in frustration the old mouse tried to think of a solution. Things were not going as planned, for now he was having more ladders being prepared. The siege engines would have to be used more heavily now that the initial charge had failed to breach the gates. They had lost over half of their forces, just under a thousand raiders remained healthy enough to fight.

"Very well. We shalt hath to make do. We want Our forces to prepare new ladders and for the Gas Cannons prepared for another volley." At those words Leroy grimaced.

"Will be difficult, them cannons art not complete, only prototype stage. We shalt need two hours to prepare them." Nodding Archimedes motioned for him to leave before resuming to look on the war map when Madame Delores murmured something.

"What should be done should that brutish fellow on the wall shows up again?" Archimedes gave her a glare and jerked out the dagger in the map and slammed it into a piece of roasted pig meat.

"He shalt die, just like the rest. No one shalt defy the will of God. If forced to, We shalt use the Horn of Destruction upon him. He shalt make the first test subject before We use it to sacrifice his Goddess to God."

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 2:47]

"Steady now!"

"She's almost in position! Don't drop the levitation!"

"There! Now fasten it to position and levitate up the ammunition!"

For over three hours had the ponies been making preparations, their work was almost finished. The damages to the walls repaired with a new Manticores up on the recently restored towers. Just the sight of those killing machines added a lot to moral. Not to mention the fresh rations of fruit pastries, hay sandwiches and fresh water.

By the time they were finished had the sun settled beyond the horizon and the moon was rising. But dark clouds had come burrowing out from the horizon, clouding the night sky in a pitch darkness. And thus the forces of the Rattenfänger were only visible by their torches and camp fires.

And upon those campfires, even though you could not see, did every one know that loads of meat was being cooked. Some of which had once been living ponies, just like them. The scent of barbecued meat was filling the air of the city walls and most ponies were feeling slightly ill by the scent. But Golden Cross was not, instead he was feeling a craving for a big slab of grilled meat like he had never craved it before. And yet he was also repulsed by this feeling, since he knew that the meat being cooked, had been self aware beings before they were killed. It was a craving that made him feel mentally ill.

Golden Cross had spent most of the last couple of hours sitting and meditating in a single room, which was a lie. In truth had he been using his moon sand made Interface Screen to investigate the enemy forces and their preparations. He knew they were working on the war machines, their siege engines, and by that reason he would have to do something about them once the battle started, or before that.

He did not have much time left. This little rest was good for his body though, the pain he had been feeling in his throat and chest after the fight had subsided. But he knew it would return, it was a signal of sort, marking his final moments before the end of his month on the planet. And it would be ten years until the next Red Sun. He had read up about it in a local library, a period of five to ten years was normal to occur. And according to the calendar he had been checking on, would the next Red Sun not appear until ten years from now.

Sighing he closed the Interface screen by rolling it up like a glittering scroll and put it away into his side bag. He could not leave the bag of holding behind, he needed to keep it with him. He stood up and walked out of the room, his weapon and armour ready.

Outside he was greeted by Lt. Weak Guts who gave him a salute before leading him to the top roof of the Gatehouse were Captain Rough Stock was looking out at the battlefield.

"Ah old man Cross! We were starting ta worry ye were gonna miss da party. Them vermin be moving about, things art gonna be harsh fer Ye soon."

"Yes, I know. And I would have it no other way, if it is like this, then no more ponies needs to die." Golden Cross stated as he looked out at the field, he had explained his plan to the two before he left to meditate. It was a risky plan, but it was a plan that would make him the sole target of the Rattenfänger, he hoped.

Lt. Weak Guts shifted nervously and looked at the old knight who had become sort of a hero from the regular soldier. The young officer did not like what he was planning, but he did not think he would be able to stop him. But her could, at the very least, try. "Art thou certain thou wish to do this Ser Cross? We art strong, We can fight. Thou doest not need to sacrifice thyself."

Golden Cross jut started laughing and patted the young officer on the back. "You are a kind kind Lt. Guts. Do not worry, I know fully well what may happen. And I am prepared for it, I am an old pony, I have lived a long and eventful life. And yet has the month that I have lived within this city been the warmest of my life since my childhood. Not to mentions so are there three special ponies living in this city. Ponies who has made me part of their family, a kindness from strangers I have never experienced in my entire life. And if I can keep them safe, then I will defy death itself if I have to."

The old pony grinned walked past the befuddled youngster and looked out at the city behind the,. "So long explanation short. Yes, I am willing to offer my life for this city. For I have something precious to protect for the first time in a long, long time. And if I can do so before my death, if I can do so WITH my death, then I can say, that I have lived, a good life."

He then silently left the rooftop and walked down the stairs, leaving the sad but inspired ponies behind.

Once down in the interior he walked past the confused guards and out of the side doors and out onto the battlements once more. Once there he walked towards the balcony which reached out just above the edge of the solid stone bridge in front of the main gate, the area were the signal horn had been located before it was removed to prepare for the siege.

As he reached the center point of the balcony he looked out over the dark night, with only scattered campfires and torches to light the way to his foes. But he was not going to let that remain for long. He knelt down and rested his poleaxe's spear blade into the ground, holding the shaft with his left hoof, lowering his head, while reaching into his side bag and pulling out his Interface screen.

Secretly he traced the screen and began to activate some of his magical satellites. As he began his arcane work, he started chanting out a prayer. "Oh Gods of this Land, Hear my Prayer. I ask for your blessing. To protect the innocent, I shalt offer my service of this final night, until the Sun rises I shalt not fall."

His voice was being raised and the dark clouds in the sky, started to spark and rumble with white lightning, and the ponies around, began to feel like this was not something natural. And as Golden Cross' chanting prayer was heard, as if carried by the wind, they almost could feel the power of the gods bearing down upon them. "Let My Body Be Their Shield! Let My Spirit Be Their Sword! Let My Valor Be Their Light! Let My Life Be Their Hope!"

Golden Cross stood up, his voice roaring out like lightning into the sky, as he held up his poleaxe and aimed the spear up at the rumbling clouds. Each of his words, was shouted out, each a statement, each a declaration, each, a sentence. "Let! My! Death! Be! Their! Salvation! Amen!"

A bright flash erupted through the clouds and a lightning bolt of multiple colours flew down and struck his weapon. Clenching his jaws shut beneath his helmet he let the magic flow through his body and swiftly made one final stroke with his hoof on the Interface screen. A loud crack was heard through the land and the lightning stopped. His poleaxe sparked and hissed as it glowed like a beacon. And up in the sky, were once a mass of thundering clouds had once been, was a clear night sky with stars twinkling, and the moon shining.

The moon's bright night light broke the darkness upon the land as if cleansing the sinful darkness out of sight. All of the ponies had fallen down to their knees, their heads bowed, as the words of Golden Cross prayer and the sheer magnitude of the event that had just occurred, struck them.

"I leave them in your capable hooves, farewell." And with those final words, Golden Cross leaped off the edge of the balcony. Gasping in shock several of the soldiers and guards rushed forward to save the knight from his own suicidal death. Then, as they reached the edge, a loud crack was heard and as they looked over they gaped at what they saw. There upon the fracture rock of the stone bridge stood Golden Cross tall and proud, glowing halberd in hoof, unharmed.

The same could not be said for the bridge however, the entire structure was cracked from each side to the other, effevtively breaking it free of the foundation, and as Golden Cross walked over it, the ponies could tell it was not going to hold for long even if no one walked over it. When as the old knight reached the other side of the bridge, he planted the pommel of his weapon into the ground, releasing a loud crackling boom, and screamed out at the invaders.

"Hear Me! I Am Golden Cross! The Lawbringer! I Come To Bring Judgement Upon You! Your Crimes Have Been Growing Since Before The Birth of My Order! And Thus I Shalt Not Bother Reading Them Up! Instead! I Declare You Lawless! I Declare You Murderers! I Declare You Kinslayers! I Declare You Defilers! I! Declare! You! Cannibals! And As Decreed By Me, In Accordance To The Law, In Accordance To Justice, And In Accordance To Gods Your Punishment Shall Be DEATH!"

At first there was silence, then the invaders started laughing and jeering, some screaming out that he shalt taste good, other that he shalt pay for his blasphemy. In response Golden Cross turned around, and punched his hooves into the edge of the stone bridge, and there was a loud, resounding groan could be heard from the structure, as inch by inch, Golden Cross, pressing with all of his might, lifted up the entire crossing part of the bridge. There was a pair of loud crumbling cracks as the solid marble broke off at each side of the moat, leaving only the stone columns, which had been holding the stone fence in place.

And then as the massive stone slab was being pulled up right, Golden Cross straightened himself, stood up on his hind legs, and turned around, facing the Rattenfängers, with the massive piece of marble, held aloft over his head.

(Scene Skip)

The laughter and jeers slowly died off and soon enough had the entire battlefield, from the city to the enemy camp, turned utterly silent. There stood a pony, a small and insignificant prey animal, lifting, the entire crossing section, of a stone bridge over his head, alone.

"Oi. Oi. Oi. Art We high?" Asked Leroy his fellow leaders, all of which had come out to witness the strange magical storm and then heard the pony's speech and then witnessed, this.

"We doest not know. If We art, We shalt have to kill the chef." Muttered Archimedes as he stared at the sight of a pony lifting several dozens of tons of stone over his body. This was a sight he had never imagined seeing before in his long, long, life. It was absolutely absurd!

He then noticed two of them being absent. "Wait, were art Delores and Athens?"

The others looked a bit confused before a loud humming sound was heard in the distance and they looked over to see a large group working by the siege weapons, especially the Gas Cannons. Aiming said weapons towards the city walls. Leroy cursed and turned towards the others. "Art they mad!? They hath no idea how to even fire those weapons! Only We, th one who designed them, can properly handle such a complex devices!"

(Scene Skip)

Golden Cross knew he could not hold this thing up for too long, he had already revealed too much of his strength, but he was seriously out of options to take, and fucks to give. He reared back his spine and then with a heave he used both of his forelegs to toss the slab of curved marble stone into the air. The large white piece of stone bridge flew, rotating in a disoriented spinning, before slamming into the bottom section of the cliff, with its edge.

To his surprise the bridge sank into the cliff side rather easily. And then he noticed how the earth beneath the cliff started collapsing downwards and blinked as he saw how the cliff started pouring down into a large emptiness in the ground beneath it, and as it collapsed, along with the animals on top of it. Tumbled what looked like large primitive cannons into the sink hole, and exploded within it. As the explosions within the earth erupted, were the hills directly next to it, starting to collapse into themselves as well. It was as if the hills and cliffs next to the city were right on top of a large hollowed out section of earth! And the explosions from the cannons firing within the ground had triggered a chain reaction and was collapsing the entire section of land of hills next to the mountain pass to Canterlot!

*Wait... did the ponies just cover up the sections of earth they dug up for marble with loose dirt and stone and leave it there!? Or did they just tunnel beneath the hills and leave big going unsupported holes there!? Either of those things are just insane!* He thought to himself and looked at the city with a rather profound look on his face, hidden by his helmet. *What's even more frightening, is if they had done the same to their city, it might just have collapsed down the mountain side.*

(Scene Skip)

"Darling doest thy even know what thou art doing?" Asked Delores as she sat on a crate while smoking a cigarette. In front of her was Athens giving orders for the Artillery Weapons known as the Gas Cannons to be prepared to fire upon the pony in front of the gates.

"We know what We be doing Delores. That impudent fool hath angered God with his Blasphemy! And We shalt punish him for it!" The fox snarled out in a twisted snarl on her mouth. She would not life to see such blasphemy declared in front of the army of God!

"Oh vey. We truly doest need to talk about restraint." Delores said with a sigh.

Then they felt the ground shake a bit and looked around in confusion. There was a bit of a silence before suddenly the very ground beneath them split apart. The two Rattenfänger Elites had barely the time to scream as the entire cliff began to collapse beneath them. Their bodies was swiftly dragged into the down flowing wave of dirt, rock, wood, earth and metal, crushing and mangling them in mere moments.

(Scene Skip)

The earth shook for a moment as a loud crumbling sound was heard and as one the Leaders of Rattenfänger, who had been looking at each other, turned back to look at the cliff, and saw how the entire cliff side upon which their siege weapons had been located, collapsed into a large inverted landslide. A massive sink hole. Animals were screaming as they scrambled to get stable footing, but the crumbling earth and stone dragged down the siege weapons as well as those who tried to climb up on them for safety.

Then as the cannons rolled down over the edge, they fired their loads and several explosions erupted across the already crumbling cliff and soon was the entire side of the hill connected to the cliff collapsing as well. And more and more of the hills, started to collapse as well. It was domino effect of repetitive sink holes!

"Get to safety!" Screamed Archimedes as he started running away from the command tent. The others ran as well and soon was the entire army of Rattenfänger running from the collapsing hills. Even as they scrambled away were many of them unable to escape the collapsing ground and many of them were swiftly killed within the massive sink holes which were swallowing up the hills one by one.

A deer collapsed and tried to reach out for help, only to sink into the collapsing earth. Two rats tried to climb onto a tend, but the entire thing weaved and shifted before sinking into the ground, taking the rats with it. A bull and a pig rushed together, pulling a wagon each, yet the wagons wheels sank into the loosening ground, the bull asked for aid, yet the pig abandoned both the wagons and the bull and ran off, as the earth collapsed, taking both the bull and the two wagons with it.

Meanwhile up on the city walls were ponies of all manners starring in shock at the sight of what they seeing. This, truly was, in their eyes, a miracle made by the gods, and the one who had invoked their powers, Golden Cross. Completely unaware that it as their on faulty and unsafe mining techniques that had caused the collapse.

(Scene Skip)

As the collapsing of the hills stopped were Archimedes and his cohorts were standing on the only solid ground remaining after the sudden collapse of the earth. The fields. Looking back at where there had once been large hills and a cliff, was a steep ravine which ended just by the road leading to Canterlot, leaving a massive gap were there had once been solid ground, effectively making it so that Canterlot was no longer at the base of a mountain, but at the upper middle of it.

Hundreds had been killed, all of their siege weapons lost, only the experimental weapon created to kill the ponies' Goddess remained. Snarling Archimedes punched his fist into a toad, crushing it, licking the smeared frog meat and blood off his fist he looked back towards the city and narrowed his eyes as he saw how the large slab of marble stone was no longer held by the knight by the gates. And he put two and two together.

Screeching out a wordless cry of utter rage he stomped his foot onto the ground and pointed with his finger while glaring with bloodshot eyes at the knight who had dared to destroy their efforts and deny the will of God. "Kill Him! He Be The Cause of Everything Collapsing! Kill Him In The Name of God! Avenge Our Fallen!"

The remaining six hundred raiders, all raised their weapons and appendages into the air and howled out their rage through the land, their eyes glowing red with utter rage. "Huaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

And then as a massive wave of murder, muscle and hunger, they charged at the city gates. and as they did Archimedes turned towards Leroy and growled out with a look of utter manic rage on his face. "Prepare the Horn of Destruction."

(Scene Skip)

Heavy trampling caused the earth to shake, Golden Cross smirked as he started walking forward, spinning his still glowing halberd in one hoof as he walked to face the horde charging at him. *Here they come. Not as many as I had feared, but enough that this is not going to be easy. I am actually quite grateful for the lack of logic behind the ponies' work. Had they done a proper work, things would not have gone so well. Must have taken out more then one third of them in an instance.*

He felt his spirit sink a bit as he looked upon the Moon, once the day had gone past, he would be back on its surface, locked away for ten years until he could return. But instead of letting despair shake him he jut stepped forward, focusing, and as the sound of music started to rise through the air, he looked back towards the charging horde and raised his pole axe and narrowed his eyes. And then he spoke up, unknowingly voicing his thoughts out loud, as he moved forward. "No time for regrets, no time for what-ifs, just live with the consequences of your actions AND FIGHT!"

After saying that, he calmed down, and slowly pulled out the medallion he had tucked beneath his chest plate, and grasped onto it tightly. Before he started singing.

[Start Battle Music: Children of the Smith by Blind Guardian (From the Game Dwarves.) (Altered Lyrics)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5X7MXfLxEg

"The old rhymes." At first, as he sang, there was silence, but then came a smooth and calm melody, a trickling building of violins and horns. The spear tip of his halberd intensified its glow before releasing a sudden jolt of energy into the medallion in his grasp, and as he kept on singing, the medallions began to glow as the glow of the halberd grew dimmer.

The horde did not stop too lost in their madness and rage they ignored the singing and the melody. Even as the glowing of the halberd was slowly being transferred to the medallion ,they did not stop charging."They‘re on my mind."

Yet Golden Cross did not stop singing, the ponies watching from the walls were trying to see what they could, even with the song being heard all over the place, they could not see all of it. But they could see something, the constant flow of energy from the halberd in the shape of an constant lightning bolt, flowing into something being grasped by Golden Cross' hoof. "We were one tribe."

The song kept going, and now the horde were but a hundred meters away, and yet he did not stop singing. "We shared our memories."

With a final sputter the halberd was empty of its ethereal glow, and now the medallion ,was glowing like a start within Golden Cross' grasp."Clear and bright."

"We walked each as one." Removing his medallion from his neck he knelt down and held up the medallion to the sky, as if offering it to the gods.

"Our lives were bound together." The melody began to grow solemn, slower, calmer and less intense. And yet, the air was growing far more tenser, something was coming.

"We shared fate." There was a light pitch, a spark of something moving through the air, as if something touched the mind of every pony, from the city wall to the furthest land, they all felt a warm spark flow through their bodies.

"We shared one fate." One more time, the feeling flew through their bodies, and the glow of the medallion grew far more intense. And then, as if going silence, the medallion stopped glowing for just an instance.

And then, Golden Cross snapped open his his eyes, and shouted. "We shared fate!"

A bright flash illuminated the night and the charging horde of monstrous animals cried out in pain as their eyes were blinded by the bright light. But as it subsided, a great and powerful melody began to be heard through out the battlefield, as small sphere of light, swirled out of the medallion and began to dance through the air.

And Golden Cross, stood up from his knelling position, and Sang! "Voices calling, I‘m the last one."

A bright flare erupted from the small sparkles and they flew into the earth, disappearing into the soil. "A glorious vision."

A soft rumble began to fill the ground and the animals cried out in fear of yet another earth shattering event occurring, but that was not what was happening. And as Golden Cross' voice sang out over the land, "What could have come.", the land responded.

"Now let our axes sing an anthem." A series of cracks erupted around Golden Cross, and spectral hooves tore out of the earth, revealing a see through, thin and almost skeletal like limbs, each grasping, an axe based weapon.

"To the glory of all knights." The spectral figured pulled out of the soil, revealing, the armoured shapes of ponies, clad in similar armour to Golden Cross, each wielding a similar weapon. They numbered up to a hundred in total.

"Protector of the free lands." As the old knight sang the ghosts sang with him, their spectral voices echoing over the land. Their bodies stood up on their hind legs, grasping their weapons and walked forward, to stand side by side of their fellow.

"We redeemed our mission." As one, Golden Cross and all of the ghosts, knelt and bowed their heads, pressing their weapons into the soil, as if praying or bowing to a higher power.

"We were brothers, one by one." And then they stood up, the frightened eyes of the animals in front of them not making a single of the ghastly figures and their summoner flinch.

"Divine Judge‘s valiant sons." A single pony among the ghosts stepped forward, a large unicorn, bearing a mantle and a massive double edged great axe, he was almost as tall as Golden Cross, whom he was standing next to. and by then the ponies on the walls realized just who these ponies were, these were the spirits of the Lawbringers, come to aid their last member in his final hour!

"By Equestria!" As one the Lawbringers, both mortal and ghosts, got into identical stances. And as the ghosts and Golden Cross sang out once more, "It was our destiny!", they charged the horde.

"We were the chosen." Axes flew through the air and the Rattenfängers found out that even spectral weapons, could cleave through flesh. Heads were split, torsos torn apart, limbs chopped off and necks crushed! It was a rain of dismemberment.

"We were the Lawbringers." And each time they swung, they sang, as a group of professional singers and killers in one swoop. And with each swing of their weapons, the ranks of Rattenfänger, were torn apart.

"We were forged in fire." Without pause, without remorse, without hesitation, they swung their weapons like a ghastly meat grinder.

"And made of stone." Even as arrows, spears and other projectiles were sent at them ,they ignored them, even as green spectral goo splattered over the ground ,they did not falter and just kept on moving forward.

Golden Cross then broke the formation and jumped up on top of a tall bear's shoulders and stabbed him through the top of his head and into his neck. As the massive beast fell he jumped off, and just kept on singing, all of the ghosts around him singing as well. And now none of the Lawbrigners were in formation, instead they were just rushing forward and attacking anyone within their reach. "We were the guardians of the realm. From our beginning till our end."

"We would praise the Divines. Whom shall last till eternity." Spinning his poleaxe he parried a claymore sword fro ma wolf and then made a quick thrust wit the pommel to smack the wolf in the nose. And as the beast clutched his aching nose, the pony beheaded him with a swing of the blood covered pole axe.

"Forged in fire we were born." The music began to grow more solemn and slow, and the Lawbringers moved back into formation, leaving the confused animals to stare as the ghosts moved away from them.

"We were made of stone, by the Judge‘s hooves. Gave life to us, and more." And as one the Lawbringer's knelt together, and their ethereal bodies, once pale green and see through, seemed to gain a more whitish colouring, along with a more healthy appearance. They looked far less skeletal and dead now.

"Then from father to sons. He made us knights, and the guardians of the lands." Then they rose, their spectral bodies, now looking almost solid. Their eyes glowing with various colours as they glared upon the criminals ahead of them.

"Still we carried on, standing side by side." Walking forward slowly, they kept singing, readying their axes, even as the Rattenfänger forces, started fleeing.

"We would defeat the fiercest enemy." The last word was hissed out and the mortal and ghost knights began to speed up their marching steps.

"Enemies." And they kept increasing their speed, now in a fast sprint, as they snarled out the word like it was a curse.

"Enemiesssss!" Then with a final snarl they leaped up into the air and slammed into the fleeing horde. The music, once more speeding up into a rapid phase, as the combat picked up once more.

"We were the chosen. We were the Lawbringers." Golden Cross spun his entire body, his axe cleaved through whoever was unable to avoid his massive swings. The battlefield was turning into a blood bath, the ground stained with blood.

"We were forged in fire and made of stone." And yet the Lawbringers kept going ,even as their white spectral shapes were splattered with blood, they kept moving, they kept charging, they kept swinging and they kept singing!

"We were the guardians of the realm. From our beginning till our end." Blades and voices sang through the night sky and sprays of blood coloured the ground, as the spectral warriors of the Order of the Lawbringers, fought once more.

"We praise the Divines. They will last till eternity." With each sound of their song their spectral bodies seemed to gain strength and density. Once where their bodies were light and floating, they now seemed to be as solid as those thy were fighting.

"We were the chosen. We were the Lawbringers." A lucky strike from a claymore tore of the head of a ghost knight, his body stood still for a few seconds before disappearing into sparkling light. Seeing this the remaining forces of Rattenfänger regained some of their morale and tried to target the ghosts.

"We were forged in fire and made of stone." But the specters were learning and avoided many of their attacks, only with sheer numbers could they jump onto a ghost and stab and stab until it was gone.

"We were the guardians of the realm. From our beginning till our end." While they were able to take down about ten of the ghosts, the rest of the ghosts were a different story, the ghosts were avoiding their attacks and blocking them with their weapons.

"We would praise the Divines. And the old ways as We held the line!" And while they were busy focusing on attacking the ghosts, Golden Cross was focusing his effort on taking out those not occupied by his spectral aids.

The battle was no longer one sided, the ghosts were no longer able to push and massacre the Rattenfängers like they could before. But neither could the Rattenfänger forces kill the ghosts like they once could. Only twenty or so ghosts had been killed so far and the battle had gone on for a good while. But even then, the ghosts and Golden Cross, never stopped singing. "We were the chosen!" (We were the chosen ones!)

"We were the Lawbringers." As they sang, their stamina increased and their strength as well. Their blades sang through the air as they cleaved flesh, metal and leather. They could not push forward, but they were still thinning out the numbers of enemies.

"We were the Lawbringers! And we were born to be." Golden Cross decided to break the stalemate and rushed forward, his axe swung in a wide arc towards the front line of foes in front of him. Even as a line of shields tried to block him, his sharp axe blade split through the shields while the several inch long blade of his spearhead sliced through faces, throats and guts of those holding them with its sharpened side edge.

"The guardians of the realm!" And even as the wounded and dying clutched their would, he redirected his weapon for another swing, and severed their meat and bones from torso, neck and skull.

"We were the Lawbringers and we were born to be!" The music was reason a crescendo, the finale, and Golden Cross was pushing through the ranks of the enemy like a whirlwind of death. His valiant ghostly fellows followed him and once more, the balance of the fight was turned to the side of the ponies.

"The valiant guardians of the realm!" Golden Cross screamed out the final part of the lyrics of the song as he stood on top of a massive boar, piercing through his skull with his poleaxe's spearhead. As he jerked the weapon out of the skull of the beat he turned to face the rest of the army, and his eyes widened as a massive structure came rolling down the road.

It was a structure of wood and bone, it was shaped like one would think of a massive mattering ram. But instead of a mattering ram, it had a massive tube like structure, it looked like a cannon made out of bones. But it was not made out of bones, it was entirely made out of unicorn horns. The sheer amount of horns used to build it was enough to make all ponies who saw it cringe, there was over a thousand horns, all of various shapes and sizes from foals to adults.

A cackling Archimedes stood on top of the wooden frame supporting the massive structure and as he laughed he pulled back a lever, and out of a pair of clear crystal spheres held at the front and back of the tube came a storm of lightning. The scent of ozone filled the air. Golden Cross had no idea what that thing would do, but it was aimed straight for the city gates. So he took a leap and in mid air he had but a fraction of a second to react, as the entire structure lit up like a christmas tree and in a loud ear shaking bang, fired off something massive straight into his gut, his visor erupted in blood but he did not let go of his poleaxe even as the object that struck him, flew off with him still impaled upon it.

The music ended as the body of Golden Cross flew over the field and impacted the gate with a massive crack.

[End Battle Music]

(Scene Skip)

The entire Gatehouse shook with the force of a dragon tackling its doors. The ponies had no option but to grab onto each other or solid support to not fall over, but more then half of them were falling over at the point of impact of whatever hit the wall. Captain Rough Stock fell on his side as the gatehouse shook like a dragon was knocking on the door. Scrambling up on his legs he rushed down to the inner portion of the gatehouse and down the stairs to the inside of the city.

Once he came outside there was a crowd of soldiers and guard staring at the gates in horror. "What happened!?" Wordlessly they pointed at the gates and he looked up, there in the bright light of the moon and stars, was the curved, almost drill shaped, form of a massive iron spike, one meter of it had drilled straight through the gates and was sticking out like a bloody nail, bits of intestine and organs skewered all over its form.

"By da Gods! Prepare fer battle! Golden Cross hath fallen!" Wincing at the sight of the blood leaking through the split in the wall, the intestines and organs rolling all over the spike he almost hurled. "Bloody bucking glue! Is no way he lived through that. At least da old pony took down more then half of em bastards."

The former Sergeant then saw the look of utter despair and shock on the soldiers' faces and reached out and slapped a pegasus mare hard on the cheek and shouted straight in her face. "He took that damn thing fer Us ! So ye better offer him ye bloody thanks once We be through this! If not fer him ye all would be dead! He sacrifices himself fer this city an' US who live in it! So if ye want ta just stand and cry here, an' make his sacrifice worth nothin' then ye can bloody well go back home!"

Turning away from the now shaken soldiers Captain Rough Stock marched up the stairs towards the Gatehouse and shouted out for Weak Gusts. "Signal da bloody artillery units ta bucking shoot da bastards!"

Weak Guts rushed over to the signal gong and struck it, eight times. Signalling for Artillery support. And afterwards, he signaled ten times. Which meant one thing. Ally Has Fallen.

(Scene Skip)

Celestia's ears dropped as she heard the second signal. The old pony had held out more then any pony reasonably should have. With the black mark, with his age and with the constant battling he had gone through. He had survived more then any pony should possibly have.

Sighing she looked up from her bed and stared at the horizon, soon she would need to call on the sun. But now, she needed to tell some ponies some very sad news.

She looked over to the bed of Grand Feast as she and her two foals were sitting on it together, just content with each other's company. It made the alicorn feel so vile that she had to tell them this, but it would be best to get it over with now rather then later. Gently coughing into her hoof she gained Grand Feast's attention.

"Yes Princess Celestia? Were those signals news from the battle?" Grand Feast asked, her voice no longer weak or trembling, but she was still too sick to properly walk on her own.

Celestia gave a nod before looked at them with sad eyes as her ears remained folded and spoke up. "Yes, We art sad to tell thou this but, Golden Cross hath fallen in battle. The signal we just received told Us-"

"No! Grandpa Cross would never lose now! He made a promise!" Happy Meal shouted, her eyes growing teary, making the alicorn feel even more guilty as she tried to not break the heart of the little filly by denying the promise of her adoptive grandfather.

"We would wish nothing less little one, but We can not deny the truth, or We would bury Ourselves in lies." But apparently were neither Happy Meal nor Grand Music interested in listening to this and both of them were glaring at her, something she had never witnessed before from any foal.

"No! Grandpa Cross made a promise! He said he would not even let death take him until We were safe! We shalt prove it!" An then before either Princess or mother could react, the two foals rushed out of the medical wing and disappeared out the doorway as an old healer entered, nearly knocking him over.

It took a few seconds for what had just happen to click into place and the two mares looked at one another in horror, if the two foals meant what Happy Meal had said, then. "They art heading towards the City Gate!" They cried out together and Celestia called for her personal guards as she struggled off the bed and gave support to Grand Feast, the two walked out of the medical wing together. Together they moved out to the courtyard to be received by a strange sight.

A pair of Sun Guards came running down the street and into the courtyard pulling a... cart? A very nicely designed and formed cart with... blades folded up on each side? No this was no cart, it was a chariot! A war chariot! Bowing to the Princess the two guards spoke up in perfect unison. "Where shalt We take thee Princess Celestia?"

"Two foals art foolishly running towards the city gates! We need to catch up with them before they art harmed!" Celestia shouted out as she helped Grand Feast up on the chariot, and made notice of a pair of handles for someone to stick their hooves into. She carefully helped Grand Feast grip there, which was good since when the two guards took off running the two mares almost fell off if they had not been holding onto the war chariot's inner handles.

Celestia made a note to ask why these chariots had not been used against Maleficus a month ago, when she realized that she herself had said that utilizing chariots against a single enemy would be pointless.

The two rode down the street on the chariot and Celestia had to be amazed at how fast the wagon was moving through the streets. It was not just its speed though, the way the two guards were pulling the wagon and she and Grand Feast was riding the rear, this also gave her an idea to figure out later. But she had far more important matter to care about now, she and Grand Feast had a pair of foals to save!

(Scene Skip)

Happy Meal was running down the street with her brother Grand Music, the two foals had used the thin side streets of the city to move towards the city gate. The two had gotten used to moving through the streets with how Golden Cross had walked with them several times through the maze of alleys and roads in the city.

It would normally take thirty minutes to run straight for the City Gate, but by using the short cuts of the alleys the two foals managed to get there in only twenty minutes.

Scampering through crowd of soldiers the two foals were about to reach the Gatehouse itself when the crowd suddenly parted ways when a wagon pulled by a pair of guards suddenly rushed through the crowd and the two foals heard their mother's voice cry out over the crowd. "Happy Meal! Grand Music! Where art thee!? It is not safe for foals to be here!"

The two tried to sneak off, but were quickly found by one of the soldiers who held out a hoof and stopped them from sneaking off. "This be no place for foals, it be dangerous here. Ye should-"

"We art not leaving until We see Grampa Cross!" The volume of the filly's cry was heard all over the area and as one, all of the soldiers and guards flinched, not at her volume, but at what she had said. and they all turned to look at the gate. The soldier reached out to cover the foal's eyes but they scampered past his forelegs and he cried out to the, "Wait! Stop! That's not something foals should see!"

Happy Meal rushed forward, along with Grand Music, even as the curved iron spike came into view, she knew that Golden Cross was not yet dead, he had promised. Even as she saw the red dripping down the wall she still had hope. Even as he mother's forelegs caught her and her brother and hugged them to her, she cried out to the gate, unwilling to let her beloved Grandpa break his word. "Grandpa Cross! Don't die yet! Ye Promised!"

(Scene Skip)

[Remaining Time: -6:23]

His vision was blurry as he woke up. The impact of whatever had stuck him had knocked him unconscious for a moment there. As his sight got straighter he felt an immense pain in his midsection and looked down. He groaned in pain as he saw a giant drill shaped nail, sticking straight through his midsection, the bloody thing was seven meters or so long on the end no piercing through his gut, it must be about ten or twelve meters long or something.

He tried to lift his limb. But could not, the pain was too immense, in his weakened state he could not push through the pain like he could as an alicorn, another setback in his spell he had not discovered. *Fuuuuck... this hurts... so fucking much... a rail gun... a motherfucking rail gun... made out of unicorn horns... oh those sick ass fuckers... fuuuuuck...*

Then he saw sparkling little spheres of light, each with a rather unnervingly familiar colouring and he heard whispers speak out from them. He groaned mentally as the voices of the Elements of Harmony spoke to him.

"Maleficus Victoria, The Time Has Come For You To Retu-"

He groaned mentally as the voice of the Elements of Slavery, started speaking to hi,. *So not enjoying this right now!*

"Grandpa Cross! Don't die yet! Ye promised!" Jerking his head back he tried to look through the wooden doors were he had heard that voice, that voice of the little foal who had called him Grampa. *No! If she's here then she might die! I must get, gah!*

"You Shall Be Returned To The Moon As The Tim-"

Maleficus Victoria, aka Golden Cross, gasped out as he looked upon the horizon, the sparkling lights around him, he ignored. "Not... yet..."

"

You Shall Return To The Moon, Maleficus Victoria. The Moon Has-"

"Shut up. The Sun... the Sun has not yet risen. The day has not come yet. So you can go fuck yourselves. I am not leaving, until the Sun rises... You got it! Gah!" He gasped out, coughing up blood and black ichor. But his trembling forelegs reached up and grasped the base of the massive iron spike going through his chest. He then, with intense muscles power, twisted the entire thing to the left, and it broke apart. As the ten meters of iron fell to the ground with a loud clang he reached back and pushed against the gates he had been nailed to, and began to push his bloody body forward.

(Scene Skip)

The ponies behind the gates gasped as the massive nail began to twitch, turn and finally, with a loud rack, was pulled out of the wooden gate. A crying Happy Meal smiled and hugged her brother as their mother hugged them both as they heard the gasping breaths behind the massive door as heavy steps walked forward.

A voice, strained but clear, spoke up from the other side. "Thank you, for everything." And then, a deep melody began to fill the air as the hoofsteps moved away from the gate and the soldiers began to scramble for the wall.

Celestia stood where she had seen the spike impaling Golden Cross through the gates disappear. She was lost, she was confused, she was down right... amazed. *Such a powerful will... Even on the brink of death he broke through because of a little filly's voice. Perhaps it was true what he said. Back then.*

(Scene Skip)

Archimedes laughed and cackled as he danced on top of the masterpiece of Leroy. The ghastly specters whom had fought alongside Golden Cross had moved after their fellow and were now standing in a formation of two lines in front of the broken bridge. After the old vermin had dance so for a bit, he turned towards the remaining three hundred of his army, most of them pigs. "We hath defeated the infidel Golden Cross! now We shalt-"

Then a loud metallic crack was heard in the distance and Archimedes felt numb as he turned around to look towards the city gate where he had seen Golden Cross' body be impaled upon it. Only for his eyes to widen, as limping away from the gate, barely able to stand but still alive, walked Golden Cross, his entire mid section still impaled by a three meter fragment of the iron pike's tip, the same projectile Archimedes had shoot him with by firing the Horn of Destruction.

The pony's armour was torn and ripped apart, only barely holding together. As he stumbled across the moat he slowly climbed up the ditch and up onto the road. Once there he reached up and unclasped his helmet, and pulled it off, dropping it onto the ground. Then with the aid of his poleaxe, he heaved himself upright and began to walk down the road toward them. And as he walked past the line of ghosts, they raised their weapons with two hooves and them up in front of their faces, saluting him as he moved past then.

Then as he had walked past them all, they moved down to all four and formed a line in front of the bridge. And then the specters just stood thee, watching him as he moved down the road towards the remnants of Rattenfänger.

"How in the name of God art he still alive?" The old mouse mumbled in utter shock. But then his eyes widened, as a melody started to flow through the air and he turned towards his fellow leaders and screamed at them. "Take him out! Kill him!"

The army of Rattenfänger did not charge or even move, they were too busy staring numbly at the pony wandering towards them.

[Start Battle Music: Bring Me To Life by Evanescence - Cover by Caleb Hyles (feat. RichaadEb) (Altered Lyrics)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66E_q7VWTB8

Sucking in a deep breathe the pony suddenly started screaming out lyrics as he started running over the road. To Rattenfänger his voice was less like the voice of a mortal more like the voice of God.

"How can you see into my eyes like open doors?"

With reckless abandon Golden Cross jumped into the numb troops and started to swing his weapon through them. The first strike sending a shock through the troops as four heads of pigs flew up into the air before a second strike split one down the middle from skull to groin.

"Leading you down, into my core."

In mad desperation the animals screamed out and charged him, their claws sought to tear him apart.

"Where I had become so numb, without a soul."

He evaded most of the blows, but a wolf managed to clamp down his teeth onto his left elbow and brutally tore out a chunk of his left arm's muscles before a blow to the neck killed him. Yet Golden Cross did not stop.

"Without a soul!"

The wounded pony sent a roundhouse kick into the skull of rat, snapping it. He stomped down on the clawed feet of a tiger before slicing up his gut.

"My spirit was sleeping somewhere cold."

A wild swing sent a pig tumbling backwards, before a thrust speared through the pigs belly and out his spine, before pulling back, making a mess of intestines rain out.

"Until you found it there, and lead it, back, out!."

The boar mercenary Butters roared as he jumped off the Horn of Destruction and pulled out his old flamethrower, fueled by gas produced by his own farts. He ignited the flamer an a cone of fire erupted towards the wounded pony.

"You woke me up!"

Yet Cross moved alongside the flames, evading them by an inch before reaching Butters.

"You woke me up inside!"

He brutally kicked the old boar in the leg, breaking his knee, he then used an upward swing with his poleaxe to send the flamethrower out of Butter's fingers and over his back.

"I couldn't wake up!"

Then he brutally buck kicked the flamethrower up the old boar's dung hole, in which a dupe for methane gas was already located, and without even a care, he stomped down on the flamethrower, causing it to erupt in fire. Butters screamed as his insides were caught ablaze and he rolled around trying to put himself out, dying as a big fat boar roast on the field.

"You woke me up inside!"

Golden Cross kept moving past the brutally burning Butters, he head butter a weasel, breaking his face and neck in a single strike. He then used his left hind leg to back kick the face of a pig into a broken mess before stomping down on said pig's neck, killing him.

"You saved me!"

Rushing past a group of pigs he used the blades of his pole axe to slice open their tendons. Their heavy bodies collapsed forward.

"You called out my name and saved me from the dark!"

With a back swing he beheaded the kneeling pigs with his weapon, ending their lives.

"Let my blood run dry!"

A swarm of toads jumped out at him and clawed at him from all over, but he did not care and just crushed them one by one, leaving an scratches upon his limbs, and the left side of his face almost completely thorn to shreds from lip to jaw.

"I can't let you down!"

Pushing through a bear, he stabbed the bear in the tailbone, severing his spinal nerves, and then he struck with the pommel at the bear's neck, breaking it.

"Before I come undone!"

Clawed hands tried to rake his face and throat open ,but he leaned back and thrust the shaft of his poleaxe forward, pushing his attackers back.

"For you saved me!"

Spinning around he sliced through flesh and bone of a group trying to surround him, their bodies sliced apart after his rotation spin.

"You saved me from the nothing I became!"

A fox leaped up on his back, trying to stab his neck, ended up impaling herself upon the large iron spike sticking out fo his back. He just shook her off to not have too much dead weight.

"Now that I know what I have been without!"

Leroy was working frantically to reload the Horn of Destruction, his hands pouring reagents after reagents into tubes and spinning on strange mechanical apparatus parts to transfer energy to the spheres.

"You can just leave it to me!"

Archimedes was screaming orders, demanding the head of Golden Cross, snarling out spit and saliva like a rain forest as he howled out orders in an almost insane frenzy.

"Breathe and know that you made me real!"

Most of the ponies up on the walls, along with Celestia and Grand Feast, were staring upon the spectacle in utter horror and disbelief. As the almost dead knight, fought with brutal strength and savage brutality to tear apart his opponents.

"You brought me to life!"

Happy Meal and Grand Music however, were cheering him on, unable to see properly, they still tried to cheer for him from their location at the top of the gatehouse. Weak Guts and Rough Stock also cheering him on, while keeping the children from seeing too much gore.

"You woke me up!"

Golden Cross leaped to the side to avoid the charge of a pig.

"You woke me up inside!"

He spun around to avoid the blade of a boar.

"I couldn't wake up!"

With a thrust of his poleaxe he pierced through the skull of a chicken.

"You woke me up inside!"

Spinning his poleaxe around with one hoof he deflected seven throwing daggers from a group of cats.

"You saved me!"

Impaling a rat in the gut he user her corpse as a shield from another volley of daggers.

"You called out my name and saved me from the dark!"

Rushing forward he swung his poleaxe and managed to slice through several parts of the cats as they dodged, they stumbled to the ground clutching their wounds.

"Let my blood run dry!"

Tracing his poleaxe's spearhead across the ground he slit the throat of the cats, one by one.

"I can't let you down!"

A dog bit down on his left arm an tore off meat so that the bones of his elbows were revealed before a hoof grabbed his neck and broke it by twisting it 180 degrees.

"Before I come undone!"

Golden Cross was running across areas now to reach his foe, the Rattenfängers were so few in numbers and so scattered that they were more like a several groups of skirmisher units rather then a large horde unit.

"For you saved me!"

Arrows flew towards him, he dodged most but some pierced his shoulders and midsection.

"You saved me from the nothing I became!"

Reaching an archer he speared the rat through the head and threw him like a projectile at another rat, sending them both to the ground.

"You brought me to life!"

Once more he rushed through the field, chasing another foe.

"I was alone in a lie, I was nothing inside!"

Another volley of projectiles, this time javelins, one managed to pierce through his left hind leg in the thigh.

"But then you brought me to life!"

Rushing forward he jumped and stomped down on the lizard that threw the spear, crushing his torso beneath his hooves.

"Once Frozen inside, without your care!"

He reached down, grasped a spear and chucked it at another lizard, spearing him through the stomach, when he aimed for the head.

"Without your warmth, my friends!"

Picking up his poleaxe again he reared back as a big crocodile erupted from a hole in the ground and tried to bite him in half.

"Only you have been the lights of my life!"

Instead of being bitten, Cross flipped his poleaxe upside down and inserted it into the crocodile's mouth, as it bit down, it split apart its own jaw on the metal.

"Among the dead!"

Jerking up the weapon he split open the skull of the crocodile and let the now falling corpse free of his weapon, allowing it to hit the ground.

"I've been sleeping, for a thousand years it seems!"

A pair of dogs rushed him from left and right with spears, he spun and with his crippled foreleg, slapped them in the face, making them rear back, clutching their noses.

"Got to open my eyes to everything!"

With a pair of swift thrusts he jabbed the spear tip of his weapon through both of their skulls, one at ta time.

"Don't let me die yet!"

Then it was off to running again, this time a lion was his quarry.

"I can yet do more!"

A shower of rocks were thrown by a flying pigeon carrying a rat.

"Just, keep, me, alive!"

Golden Cross ignored the rocks and just leaped up onto the lion and used his hind legs to grab hold of the lion's skull before twisting his hips left. What he did was essentially breaking the lion's neck with the strength of his hind legs.

"You woke me up!"

Impaling his poleaxe into the soil he grabbed the lion's crossbow, aimed up at the pigeon, and fired.

"You woke me up inside!"

The crossbow bolt flew through the air and impaled the bird through the neck when Cross had been aiming for a wing. With a loud thump both rat and pigeon crashed into the ground from a lethal fall of twenty meters.

"I couldn't wake up!"

Rushing forward once more he had to evade shoots of javelins and arrows this time.

"You woke me up inside!"

Reachign a lizard he impaled it up his poleaxe and started running again.

"You saved me!"

As he ran he used the body of the lizard to absorb the arrows and spears the others were shooting and throwing at him.

"You called out my name and saved me from the dark!"

The corpse became too heavily riddled with projectiles to be of use, so instead he threw the corpse of his pole axe and towards the archers and spear throwers.

"Let my blood run dry!"

Spinning and flailing wildly the body slammed into a pair of lizard and the broken bits of wood and the pointy javelin spear tips, pierced through their bodies rather effectively, making them die by bleeding out beneath their dead friend's corpse.

"I can't let you down!"

By now had Leroy managed to reload the Horn of Destruction and the skunk shouted out to Archimedes. "It be armed!"

"Before I come undone!"

Gleefully Archimedes rotated the massive rail gun made out of unicorn horns and turned to aim it at Golden Cross.

"For you saved me!"

But Golden Cross jumped up on the head of a pig and jumped into the air, breaking the pig's neck in the process, and landed on top of the Horn of Destruction.

"You saved me from the nothing I became!"

Archimedes looked down in utter rage and shouted out at the troops. "Don't let him damage the Horn!"

"You brought me to life!"

Golden Cross rushed over the surface of the Horn of Destruction, each of his steps was deliberately made into powerful stomps upon the defiled horns that made up the weapon.

"I was alone in a lie, I was nothing inside!"

Leroy screamed out in panic as the spheres began to sparkle and churn to life as Archimedes activated the Horn to try and kill Golden Cross with the voltage of the spheres. Leroy was fried as he was directly in the way of the voltage stream, essentially the high voltage of the energy flowing into the horn was enough to turn him into ash in an instance.

"But then you brought me to life!"

Golden Cross jumped off the horn and slashed through the line of pipes connecting the apparatus to the spheres and the Horn. And the entire thing started to spark and spasm.

"You brought me to life!"

Archimedes screamed out in fear as he was forced to leap off the Horn of Destruction, as it blew up, sending shrapnel of horn, wood and bone all over the area, piercing through many of the Rattenfängers with its lethal pointy load. And then the music ended.

[End Battle Music]

Archimedes laid panting and cough in the ground when a powerful hoof reached out and grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up into the air. The glaring, half torn, face of Golden Cross glared at him. "I have wanted to meet you for a long time, Archimedes."

He threw the rat to the ground and stomped his left hind hoof onto his stomach, while pressing down the rat to the ground he reached into his belt bag and pulled out a vial with a certain concoction. Lowering his hoof over the rat's face he held the vial in front of him. "Do you know what this is? This is the poison your assassins used to poison not just the Princess, but a mare who has become like a daughter to me."

"At first I just intended to kill you, and kill the rest of your men by my own. But now, a more... poetic justice seems far more fitting." The cold voice and the bloody smirk of the pony made Archimedes feel chills down his spine. And then he gasped as the hoof pressed down upon him again and he suddenly found himself gagging as the hoof holding the vial, was pushed down his throat, and then hoof left his mouth, but the vial remained in his mouth. In panic he tried to cough it up, but before he could do it, had the hoof grabbed his lower jaw slammed his mouth shut, shattering the vial inside of his mouth.

As the old mouse struggled and pleaded he could not help but swallow the poison as the cold eyes of Golden Cross glared down upon him. "And now for the coup de grace."

Grabbing the gagging and twitching rat by the tail, Golden Cross held him up high and shouted out to the remaining members of Rattenfänger. "You want to eat meat!? There here! Eat your so called Leader! I bet he taste just great!"

The confused eye of the animals looked at one another, then at the dying form of their leader, whose eyes were pleading for mercy. And then wickedness grew in their eyes and life a swarm of locust the remnants of Rattenfänger swarmed upon the body of their former leader, and ripped him apart.

His legs were torn off, his hands bitten off, his intestines was ripped out, his heart gorged, his skull broken, his brain eaten, his tail torn off and so on and so on. And as the lat hundred or so members of Rattenfänger feasted upon the meat of their leader, Golden Cross walked back towards Canterlot.

He did not turn around as the first gasp was heard, nor when the gurgles began, nor when the coughs, the puking ,the twitching and the thuds were heard. Even a the entire force of Rattenfänger fell victim to their own poison, dying by their own hunger, he did not turn around.

Instead he walked, tumbling forward, the explosion of the Horn of Destruction had blown a hole in his left side, his intestines were being dragged on the ground as he used his poleaxe as support. He struggled forward and soon, reached the bridge were the specters he had summoned remained.

There he shuddered and groaned, collapsing onto one knee in front of the specters, it was no show, he was utterly exhausted and in severe pain. He looked up upon the night sky and he struggled to stand.

"The sun... I cannot die until, I see... the sun." Golden Cross muttered out loud, slowly staggering up, even as half of his intestines had pooled out of the hole in his side, he straightened himself up and stood on his hind legs, looking towards the horizon.

Up on the city walls, Celestia had rushed over to the gate house as she saw the old knight struggle back from his victory. She was weak and could barely use her magic, but she leaped off the edge of the wall and glided down to Golden Cross' side.

The white specters bowed to her, standing by his side, all of them were looking with Golden Cross towards the horizon. Celestia reached out and touched the dying knight's shoulder, it was cold as ice. "Ser Cross, thou art victorious, thou can rest." She whispered to him with a choked voice.

"Can not... need to see... the sun. One final time. One last time. With my family." Muttered the knight ,his half glazed eyes were looking, never blinking, towards the horizon, Celestia gave him a sad smile and nodded and walked a bit away, leaving him with the white specters and then, she raised her head. And her horn ignited into a sparkling bright aura of gold.

The moon lowered itself beyond the edge of the mountains, and then, a light broke through the darkness, and then, like a beacon of golden red warmth, the sun rose up and brought its warm, bright light upon the land.

Golden Cross undamaged side of his mouth, turned into a bright smile and he twisted his head a little to the left as the light meet his eyes. And he muttered out one final gasp of words. "Aaaah... it's bright..." He did not move, he did no fall, he stood there, tall, unmoving, unyielding, undefeated, to the end.

The white specters smiled upon the bright light of the sun and walked forward, disappearing like sparkling mirages into the sun light, and for a moment, it felt as if an additional form had followed them into the light as they disappeared. A form that seemed so familiar, and yet to different.

And thus, in the Seventh Month of the First Year of Canterlot's Foundation, Golden Cross, the Last of the Lawbringers, died.

"Grandpa Cross!" Came a voice from behind the city gates. Celestia smiled sad, yet happy, that Cross had kept his promise. She walked over to the old knight and sat down next to him, and looked at the sun rise, as the sun rise, resting her wing over him, hiding most of the damaged of his body from sight.

The large gates groaned open as a group of thirty earth ponies pushed and pushed the massive wooden gates open. And a crowd of soldiers, civilians came walked out of the city, stopping by the edge of the moat. All of them poked at the scene of the princess draping her wing over the still standing form of Golden Cross, who stood so tall, so proud, and yet, unmoving.

Grand Feast, with both of her foals, struggled through the crowd together and stopped by the edge of the moat as well. To the ponies of Canterlot, the moat could just as well be the marking of an unreachable goal, a path none of them could ever reach, to reach past their limitations, to ascend past their expectations. At the end of that unreachable goal, one would stand equal to those who were like gods, and with the sight of the silent, unmoving and yet proud body of Golden Cross, standing tall next to their Princess, they all felt like he had proven something. There are no limits in life, only those you put on yourself.

When the teary sob of two little foals filled the air, many started to lose the air of wonder and amazement, and an air of sorrow began to replace it. As one of the greatest ponies to ever life, had died. But then something, happened, Celestia, started singing.

[Start Sad Theme Music: Worlds 2017 - League of Legends: Legends Never Die (ft. Against The Current)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btYJLQmUNnQ

"Legends never die when the world is callin' thee.
Can thou hear them screaming out thy name?

Celestia's voice carried out over the streets, her voice a clarion to the rising sun, raising the spirits of those who despaired. And as their spirit rose, so did their voices, their cheer. And as one, the ponies of equestra, screamed out the name of their savior for the whole world to hear.

"GOLDEN CROSS!"

Their combined shoute echoed through the fields, out past the mountains and over the valleys and forests. Carried like a call of the gods, a praise to the great, it echoed through out the land. With Celestia's voice, singing.

Legends never die, they become a part of thee.
Every time thou bleed for reaching greatness.
Relentless thou survive."

Even as her own eyes were sorrowful she sang as she watched her nation's savior's body standing tall and proud in the face of the morning sun. And then she turned her gaze to the the sun, her wonderful sun, the bright warm light that had made this old warrior's final moment, peaceful, and kept singing.

"They never lose hope when everything's cold.
And the fighting's near.
It's deep in their bones..
They run into smoke when the fire is fierce.
Oh, pick thy self up 'cause."

Her voice never wavered, even as her visions turned blurry, even as drops of tears began to run down her cheeks. She smiled brightly and sand, never removing her wing from the cold, still body, of Golden Cross.

"Legends never die when the world is calling thee.
Can thou hear them screamin' out thy name?

Once more, her ponies answered, her sweet wonderful ponies, cried out his name to the sky once more. As if asking the gods to join them in calling out the name with them, it echoed, so loud, and yet so wonderful.

"GOLDEN CROSS!"

Even as tears began to pour down their cheeks, the ponies kept cheering, they kept chanting and they kept screaming, out his name. While their princess, sang.

"Legends never die, they become a part of thee.
Every time thou bleed for reaching greatness.
Legends never die.
They're written down in eternity.
But thy will never see the price it costs – the scars collected all their lives."

Even with what little could be seen of Golden Cross' body, it was clearly torn and wounded, even before the battle. He had scars older then most of them had been alive. His entire body was history of battle, valor and justice. There was no great testament, to his greatness.

"When everything's lost, they pick up their hearts and avenge defeat.
Before it all starts, they suffer through harm just to touch a dream.
Oh, pick thy self up 'cause."

The song kept going, it never seemed to stop, even as her eyes hurt, even as her heart ached. Even as her tears dripped down to her neck, she kept on, never stopping.

"Legends never die when the world is calling thee.
Can thou hear them screamin' out thy name?"

And just like her, even with tears and strained bodies, even as their throats hurts, the shouted it out once more to the world. His name.

"GOLDEN CROSS!"

Without pause, she kept singing, her voice calling out to the world. Even as her body shook from the pain of the poison, she kept on calling out to the world

"Legends never die, they become a part of thee.
Every time thou bleed for reaching greatness.
Legends never die.
When the world is callin' out thy name, begging thee to fight.

Once more the city of Canterlot, shouted out his name, the name that meant something, for all of them.

"GOLDEN CROSS!"

With the cries of her ponies behind her she felt her spirit soar and she kept singing, the music starting to reach its ending point. She would not stop yet, she had to finish it!

"Pick thy self up once more.
Pick thy self up 'cause.
Legends never die when the world is calling thee.
Can thou hear them screamin' out thy name?"

One final time, they called out his name, the entire city, shaking as they shouted it out together. But even with the chaos of voices, she swore she could hear the voices of three ponies, one adult mare, one young filly, and young colt, crying out the loudest. And that, made her heart soar and she looked at his still form with a bright smile as tears kept running down her eyes. *Didst thou hear them Golden Cross? Were thy able to hear them call out thy name?*

"GOLDEN CROSS!"

And then, as the final crescendo of the melody reached them, Celestia cried out, standing up, both of her wings spread wide,her head held his and she shouted out the final lines to the world.

"Legends never die, they become a part of thee!
Every time thou bleed for reaching greatness!
Legends never die!"

[End Sad Theme Music]

And thus the tale of Golden Cross the Lawbringer ended.

(Scene Skip)

Upon the surface of the Moon the black and green flames once more covered the left half of its surface, and a flying figure streaked through the non existing atmosphere before impacting the ground next to a large rotation magical construct of floating glowing energy screens.

Groaning in pain Maleficus rolled onto his stomach and just laid there as his intestines pulled themselves back into his body while his many other wounds regenerated. As he laid there he glared at the planet above him and snorted. *Fucking Elements of Shit did not take my little lawyer attitude kindly it seems. Or am I going to be tossed around like this every single time?*

As he struggled up onto his hooves once more he wandered around his Interface structure for a bit, his head hanging low. *Fuck... why did it end up like this? I mean... I was just trying to make myself into a cool guy. To not cause too much of a fuzz. And then everything went to shit. I mean... the duel of honour was fine and all but... the fuck was an army of Tooth and Tail characters doing here?*

Sighing he laid down on a sand dune and looked up at the planet with sad eyes, his ears folding as he wondered about those three ponies he had grown so close to for the last month. *I hope they will be okay... I mean I... left them the wagon... the weapons... they should be able to use it right? I still kept the bag... and that made up chronicle is theirs to... I just... I just... Ah I can't take it... need to sleep. Yes. Sleep sounds good right about now.*

Lowering his head onto his crossed over fore legs he closed his eyes and tried to sleep. But then, a few seconds into his rest he swear he heard something, his ears perked up and he looked around. There was no atmosphere, how could sound reach him?

Then it was there again. He looked around, once more confused and a bit frightened. But then it came a final time, and he could hear it clearly, the voices of Grand Feast, Happy Meal and Grand Music, shouting together, the name he had made for himself.

"GOLDEN CROSS!"

Then there was silence once more, he looked up at the planet again, and felt something wet on his cheek, he reached up and touched it, tears. Guilt wracked his entire body, but he felt gratitude that they would remember him, no matter how fake his persona had been, he was still grateful. And thus Maleficus Victoria, once more sealed on the surface of the moon, laid down his head and tried to sleep, unable to stop his tears.

To Be Continued

Chapter Eleven: The Calm Before The Storm (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Eleven: The Calm Before The Storm

The headless corpse of a pig was lying on the ground, a pegasus, bearing a full body armour, inspected it before marking off something at a sheet of parchment with a piece of coal before speaking out to his subordinates. "Just rags, nothing of use, throw it into the fifth pile."

A pair of earth ponies moved over and grabbed the headless corpse of the pig by its arms and legs, they were wearing hoofkerchiefs over their mouths and nostrils to protect themselves from the growing amount of rot and flies in the air. Dragging the corpse a dozen or so meters they reached their destination and lifted the corpse up by its limbs. They started weaving the corpse back and forth they shouted together before throwing it onto a growing pile of corpses."Heave! Ho! Heave! Ho!"

By the pile was a pair of unicorns using their magic to inspect the pile, then at the confirmation from one another, their horns lit ablaze with energy and they fired lances of solid hot energy upon the top and bottom of the pile, igniting it into a burning inferno. Then they fired a secondary set of spells, and a clear blue dome engulfed the burning pile, essentially trapping the smoke and fire inside, while still allowing air to flow through it. They then began to move over to the next pile, leaving behind them a line of five domes covering burning corpses.

The city of Canterlot was in a solemn mood. A week had gone by since the meat craving army called Rattenfänger attempted to lay waste to their city. Only the brave and vigilant ponies who had defended them with their lives had saved them the fate of being eaten. Over a hundred ponies had been severely injured during the siege, over fifty of them having crippling injuries while around thirty of them had died.

But the one who had gone beyond the limits to keep them safe was a certain pony by the name of Golden Cross. An old earth pony who single hoofedly fought against the never ending tides of gluttonous beasts, with the aid of the gods and through sheer tenacity, he broke through the limits of body and soul and kept moving, even after having been torn to shreds. All so that he could keep a promise to a little filly whose family he had grown to think of as his own.

It had been a wondrous moment in the history of ponies, and yet also the greatest tragedies in their history as well. A great warrior, an honourable knight and a wonderful person, fell in battle that day, defying death until he could see the first rays of the sun.

His body had been left there beyond the gates, standing tall and proud. He had been so cold in his final moments that it had felt like touching ice. his body had run out of blood even before he staggered back to the broken bridge. Celestia had confirmed it.

Ponies spent the entire day cheering, dancing and singing together. Praising him and his name, and never stopping. A few kept to silent mourning, Happy Meal, Grand Music, Grand Feast, Solid Pink and Princess Celestia would meet at the castle in silence, the foals crying constantly while Grand Feast would sometimes join them. Solid Pink, a bit less refined then when she was last seen, had a bit of a teary look in her eyes as well as she gave the grieving family comfort food and tissues.

Princess Celestia had grieved when she sang to his honour, she had shed her tears, and now she just offered a comforting presence to her friend Grand Feast and her two foals. And she would keep doing so for the rest of the day, until she had to lower the sun and raise the moon.

When the first day since the battle had gone past and the sun was lowered. There was reaction from the still standing body of Golden Cross. The body finally succumbed to the will of nature and its joints fell slack and he collapsed onto the ground, as the moon was raised. And there up upon the surface of the moon, as if laughing at his final fall, the burning mark of black and green fire, the Phantom of the Moon, had reformed itself onto the moon's surface.

His body was put to rest in a coffin of the finest marble, his wounds dressed, his uniform placed on top of his chest, with his forelegs clutching his poleaxe, none had been able to make his body let go of the weapon, even after he fell down his hoof just refused to let go. Black and white petals were throw out into the air and in front of the streets as his body was put into the coffin, and slowly carried through the streets towards its final resting place.

Golden Cross was carried in a solemn parade through the city by ten volunteers. His horrid wounds were not bare for the city to see, most of it was covered by the well folded tunic as well as several bouquets of flowers put around his body, hiding the bloody remains of the proud warrior. They carried him in silence from the city gates to the Central Keep, there the body was placed within a large stone sarcophagus in the courtyard's garden, the sigil of his order carved out upon its surface. And then it was lowered within a large stone monument, a statue of him, of stone, marking him as one of the heroes of Equestria.

There was no cheer as the hero's body was finally put to rest. Only solemn silence and tear stained cheeks. But life must go on and so Celestia declared this day to be a holiday for all ponies to remember those who fell in the horrible battle with Rattenfänger, and the one who sacrifice everything to save them.

The cheerful and happy day turned from cheer to solemn grief and the ponies began to work to rebuild what they had lost. For days the walls would be examined, repaired and improved. The remains of the Rattenfängers were gathered in piles and burnt up to ash to be used a fertilizer, while whatever gear, objects and documents they had in their camps, was taken by the ponies.

But the remains of the unicorn horns used to create the Horn of Destruction, were gathered up, from the smallest shard to the largest horn, all of them were gathered together, and buried to honour those who fell to the Rattenfängers. A memorial was being prepared to be placed on the market square by the city gates. There was some debates about what would be a fitting monument, but in the end, it was decided to be a memorial stone with the names of the fallen carved out upon its surface, with a statue of Golden Cross in his armour, standing on his hind legs, holding his halberd with his right hoof while holding his helmet in the crook of his left.

As time went by and the week reached its end, was a document discovered upon the kitchen table in Golden Cross' wagon, a Will, written by him days before his death. The wagon itself was well guarded by ten guards, who were constantly shifted out, none of them wanted the belongings of their saviour desecrated by anyone. Although no one could enter the wagon without the key, a key, Golden Cross had left with Happy Meal and Grand Music before he left to fight.

It had been Grand Feast who discovered the Will when she and her children went to look in the wagon at the end of the week. The Will was written and stamped with the sigil of Golden Cross' order, the Lawbringers. It was an official Will and thus it would need to be read by an official, but Celestia, once she had been informed about the will, decided to do it herself.

(Scene Skip)

It was around mid afternoon, the reading of Golden Cross' will was to be had at the throne room. Originally had Grand Feast wanted to have it read in private, but when Tall Sprout got wind of the will he stated that he wanted to hear it as well. And then several others joined in, most of the members of the Blue Grass Clan and several soldiers and guards who had been part of Golden Cross' training regimes.

In short, the amount of ponies wanting to listen to the Will was staggering and thus would have to be held in the throne room. Celestia had not realized how much of a deal it would have become and had been rather surprised when a group of fifty or so ponies came into her throne room to hear the Will of Golden Cross. When Grand Feast had asked for them to use the throne room she had not been expecting this many! *We hath though perhaps twenty or so ponies. But over fifty? By the Gods, art thee serious!?*

Even if she was a bit confused and shocked by the sudden increase of listeners to the will she managed to keep her 'unflinching ruler' face on and had several chairs and seat pillows pulled out by the servants for the visitors. Once everybody had taken a seat she coughed politely to gather attention before speaking out the crowd. "We art gathered here today, for the reading of the Will of Ser Golden Cross. We, Princess Celestia, shalt be reading it out for all those, invited here today, to hear."

The crowd of ponies, who had been discussing and murmuring together, went dead silent and looked at her with concentrating looks on their faces. Celestia's face was blank but mentally she was feeling very awkward and nervous with the sudden change in mood. But she kept her face straight and broke the seal on the Will before unfurling it, levitating it before her eyes with telekinesis.

Taking a short moment to skim through it she coughed lightly to clear her throat, before she started reading the words written upon the parchment. "This is the Will, of Ser Golden Cross, Son of Ser Golden Heart and Lady Bright Heart, Knight of the Lawbringer Order, Lord of Blackstone Keep. And I, Golden Cross, of sound heart and mind, write down this final message to those who are willing to listen to an old pony's final words."

Celestia was a bit confused herself by one of the titles written by the old earth pony on the paper. He spoke of himself as both a knight and a lord. It was not something possible in normal cases, a Lord was too high a rank for a knight. But... perhaps it was so that Golden Cross' rank as knight was like that of a noble having a military service? She would have to check it up some time.

"If you are reading then, then I am dead. I am sorry that it had to come to this, but I knew already, since a year back ,that I was dying. Yet I do not regret it. I have lived a long live, and yet the last month was the most special, where I meet many new friends along a trio of ponies who would become like family to me. And so, I have written this Will, to offer my final act as an official Knight of the Lawbringer Order."

She felt both sad and happy. To know that the old pony had been happy in his final days of life for the first time in over a century. Knowing that her ponies had made such a difference made her proud. And yet she still felt sorrow that the old knight had to die so soon, it felt like it had been too early, she had wanted to learn more about him ,to know him further. But time had not been kind on her or him, sadly as it was.

"To Princess Celestia and the City of Canterlot, I leave the scattered tomes and notes I have found during my travels across the land. They are not many and some of them are unreadable, but hopefully you may gain something off it. I know you will be able to count on Grand Feast and her children to offer you support as well. For they are the heirs to what little I have left."

Smiling a little the Princess of the Sun felt gratitude to Golden Cross' generosity, even if what he offered was not a large amount, was any of the lost knowledge and lore of the old ponies and their ways more precious then any amount of wealth. Knowledge was a thing they had lost at Discord's rule, and to even have a small fragment of it back, was truly extraordinary.

"To Grand Feast, Grand Music and Happy Meal, I offer all of my earthly possessions, as well as my spiritual ones. I offer you my wagon and its contents. The armours and weapons of my order, their manufacturing lost long ago, they are yours to do with as you wish. My self written book about my Order and our ways and traditions are yours as well. I have already written the necessary paperwork for my final gift to you."

Celestia's eyes grew wide as she read up this part of the Will, and slowly as her words rang out through the room, were the eyes of those listening, including the on duty guards and servants, widening as well. And the teary eyes of Grand Feast, Grand Music and Happy Meal, grew largest as the words registered in their minds.

"I, Golden Cross, Officially adopt Grand Feast and her children into my Clan. And thus, as the head of my clan, I offer you all the rank and title of Knight, may you find these titles and items beneficial in your lives. With Grand Feast inheriting my title as Lord of my clan, she will be the next head of my clan. With the title of Knight, and your adoption, you are entitled the lands of my clan. Which consists of the ruined keep of my Order, Blackstone Keep, located to the far east upon a mountain peak. I hope these final gifts of mine, will be of use to you."

The Princess wanted to make a pause there but she could not stop reading, even as tears began to run down the cheeks of the three ponies and the others in the room, she kept reading, not even noticing how light trail of tears was streaking down her cheeks as well.

"And a final message to you all. Do not cry for me, I am an old soul and I would willingly offer my life to let you live. My ways are old and of much use for the future, at least, not a future I can be part of. Try not to rely too much on the old ways and do not fear the unknown. Try to seek your own path. That said, if you can learn from the past, from the old, to improve the future, then this old knight is happy, knowing that he made a difference in the end. No matter how small it might be."

Brushing aside her tears, having noticed them, Celestia read the final lines of the Will, a simple and plain will, and yet so heartfelt and powerful in its purpose. "Signed, Ser Golden Cross, Knight of the Lawbringer Order, Head of the Cross Clan, Lord of Blackstone Keep."

There was a solemn silence as the ponies in the room digested the words written. It would take a while for them all to slowly leave the throne room, leaving the Princess and the Feast family behind in the silence. Grand Feast was frozen in shock while her children looked so confused, sad and yet so... excited at the same time.

Celestia was feeling a little uncertain what this could mean for the future, but she knew one thing. Golden Cross had made Grand Feast a far more powerful pony in the city then most of its original nobles. Smiling gently she walked down from her throne and led out the still stunned Grand Feast and her two foals out of the throne room to talk about her new titles and social standing. *Things art going to be interesting from here on out. We can tell.*

(Scene Skip)

A few days passed after the reading of Golden Cross' Will, the nobility of the city were trying to persuade the Princess to not accept a new member of nobility who had not earned her titled. Of course she rebutted rather thoroughly by telling them that many of them had earned their own titles the same way and had no way to rebuke the decisions of a Will.

Grand Feast was having a bit of a hard time adjusting herself to the life of a Knight and Lady, she still preferred to live in her old home and even if the Princess offered to have the lands of golden Cross' examined for her, she felt that it was not needed. Those lands had not been used for over a century, there was no reason to run wild over them just yet, especially now that the ponies needed to gather their wits and recover.

If anything was Grand Feast's down to earth attitude a refreshing air for the court according to Celestia, several of the nobles accepted the former commoner as one of their own rather civilized or even friendly. Some of it may have been because of her relationship to the saviour of the city, but some nobles did actually have proper manners and knew how to behave nice with others, even those who art not of the same origin as themselves.

Sadly enough are those kinds of nobles getting fewer as time runs by. Once all nobles had been just that, noble and honourable ponies who had deserved their grand titles and wealth. But few of their inheritors had inherited the same behavior and it was not as common as it had once been.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus laid on his back on a sand dune, his wings spread out to not get cramped or hurt by his own body weight, he was looking up at the planet above him in deep thought. He almost flinched a bit when he shifted a little, feeling the painful sensation through his body.

When he had been sent back to the moon his body had been half torn apart, it had taken his body the better part of several days to completely repair itself. His flesh and organs had been torn apart and was riddled with iron fragments from the spike that had split through him before. His body had been forced to gather up the metal fragments and... dump them through the natural fashion rather then just forcing them out of his body.

His asshole was still sore and tender from that experience, it had taken him around four hours to shit out all of the metal along with whatever else kind of nastiness he had been filled with during the battle.

He had not really moved a lot since he had recovered. For days he just laid there, contemplating, thinking and sleeping. It was not easy for him to be back on the moon, now that he knew he would be stuck there for several years, a decade even.

He felt hopelessly unmotivated to do anything and just wanted to recluse himself into his dreamscape and watch cartoons for the next ten years. Even as a small crater formed next to him as a small meteor struck the moon's surface he just laid there, watching.

*Why should I bother returning to the planet... I will probably just mess up things even more... Perhaps i should just let Celestia win and see if she can execute me...* His depressing thoughts were creating a dull and dark aura in the empty atmosphere of the moon. It was like the dead and silent landscape was even more depressing, the glowing screens of the Interface almost seemed to grow dull and grey as his depression filled the land.

For all of his physical and magical development, had he taken notice of something. His body and mind was unnaturally fast at learning the arts of war and magic. He was not sure how it actually worked, he just knew that he could learn at a faster rate then normal. Even he figured that it should not take him a few hours of morning practice to learn the move he had developed a few days ago.

But he did not really consider it a handicap, sure it made him feel uneasy, but anything to help him attune himself was worth it. Although he did feel like he was cheating, but so were many others when you think about it. For now, he just wanted to lay still and not think too much about it. He sighed and closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them, looking across the darkened planet as the night sky began to roll down upon its surface.

That's when he noticed something on the planet's surface. It was small and barely noticeable, but he could see small bright dots glittering over the area were Equestria was located. Getting nervous and concerned he scrambled up from the sand dune and rushed over to the Interface.

With a flare of his horn and a tap with his hoof he activated the magical structure. The screens flared up to life and lifted up a few inches and started rotating apart, letting their creator enter the empty space between them. Colours and shapes began to emerge from the screens as the large floating plates making up the telescope/wand segments of the Interface started to shrink and grow in different manners as the magical energy within the structure began to activate its purpose.

He stood up on his hind legs and pressed one of his hooves against one of the larger screens and began to drag it across the surface. As he did this were the screens around him altering themselves in size while the floating circular plates shifted and angled themselves, pointing towards the place where he was seeing the sparkling lights.

Then upon the largest of the screens he could see an image of the planet growing larger as the telescope of his Interface started zooming down towards the planet. The planet's surface approached rapidly, the atmosphere was passed, the night sky became clear as the moon light upon its surface revealed the features of the land bellow.

And there, down upon the land within and around the City of Canterlot, Maleficus Victoria witnessed a wondrous sight.

There upon the fields, among the parks and upon the courtyard of the castle, were pillars of bright light being pointed around, the ponies had somehow managed to create skylights! But that was not what was making him stunned, it was the sight of what stood upon the main square by the city gates, as ponies were gathering around it, holding up candles and praying.

There, upon a large cube shaped piece of marble, stood a statue, a statue of solid gold depicting Golden Cross, standing tall upon his hind legs, holding his poleaxe as it rested its pommel on the ground, while in the crook of his left foreleg, was his helmet. It was an image of his fake persona, in his final stand, without injuries or destroyed armour.

Gently he zoomed further in, to view the statue properly, when he saw them. Happy Meal and Grand Music were standing next to Grand Feast, looking up with bright and happy smiles upon the statue, even if their eyes were puffy from many tears did they look happy and healthy. And there, next to them, stood Celestia and Solid Pink, both of them smiling up at the statue as well.

He felt so touched by this he could not properly describe what he was feeling. It was indescribable, something that gave him so much joy and yet so much shame it hurt and healed at the same time. *I cannot do much from here... but... I can at least do this.*

With his thoughts echoing through his mind he aligned the Interface properly, a bit above the city itself, and then he ignited his horn, and released a spell through the Interface. The beam of solid red struck the glowing magical construct, and it was shifted from plate through plate, each of them adding and mixing the magical energy, until it began to flare up along the telescope plates.

Each time the energy passed through the focusing plates of the Interface it expanded, doubling itself each time it moved through. And as it left the final lens, was a powerful bright beam of light fired out of the Interface and towards the planet bellow. Without the amplified force of his magic, his spells would never even reach halfway towards the planet before dispatching.

Smiling softly, Maleficus watched as the beam split through the atmosphere and began to descent towards the city. at thus point it had not lost any of its size but it had become increasingly paler. But that was by intention. Carefully he shited his hoof across the interface, the view of the screen shifted upwards and he watched as the beam of light, now only a bright beam of light, streamed down from the sky and struck the statue, causing it to glow brightly.

As it did, the ponies on the square gasped and moved away as the statue was covered in what, to them, looked like glittering moon light. Then, Maleficus shifted his hoof upon the Interface so he could see the statue from the front and smiled as the golden metal of the statue, was slowly painted over. Like an invisible painter working upon the metal was the entire frame slowly being painted until it was made into the same colour theme as his shape as Golden Cross, making the statue almost look alive.

Watching the stunned ponies, he smiled, and he made the moon light twinkle away slowly, leaving behind, the perfectly painted statue of Golden Cross. After the shock settled, the ponies erupted into cheer and started celebrating. He could see the teary but smiling faces of the three ponies he cared for and smiled, they would be safe, and that was good enough for him.

Yet that did not stop the shame burning through his heart even as he disengaged the image link.

Sighing softly into the soundless realm of the moon, Maleficus closed down the Interface and moved away from the sand dune it was floating over. He walked through the sand, once more lost in thought, before just laid down on his side, and folded his wing over his head, as to cover his eyes from the bright light of the planet and the sun. And there he laid, slowly falling asleep as a small smile grew upon his lips as he remembered the good times he had, had with those three, and with those warm thoughts soothing his mind, he fell into a deep slumber.

Not noticing how a wisp of green energy emerged from his body and floated away towards the planet like a tiny dot of sparkling stardust.

(Scene Skip)

Golden Cross' eyes blinked and he found himself inside his mindscape once more, he felt happy to be able to enter it once more, it had been. But something was different about it. Namely the blue decorated office with the sight of Luna, still in filly form, sitting on a desk, going through a collection of paperwork from a pile labeled 'Ideas & Development' she was transforming into crystals and tossing into a large bin with the label 'Magical Comprehension'.

"Okay... THIS is what you have been up to this last month!? Paperwork!? What kind of paperwork is there to do in my fucking mind!?" Was his loud proclamation. His voice echoed over the room and the filly on the chair almost fell over at the sudden noise. She looked up from her work and smiled at the sight of the black alicorn stallion and shouted out at him while waving her left hoof in the air.

"Oh! Thou, sorry, you are back! We- sorry, I was worried you would not return to your mindscape!" Her broken speech made him a bit confused, but he got the gist of it, at least she was making an effort. Although it was rather fascinating that she was improving her speech pattern and accent at such a rapid level, although he had no room to speak.

He sighed and scratched his neck with one of his forelegs' hooves before walking over to the desk and sat down on a cushion he manifested by his own thoughts. "Yeah well... I haven't been able to enter my dreams for the last month until I was sent back to the moon. It has been lot of dreamless nights, not very uncomfortable, but I'd like to have my dreams back. And an explanation about this... whatever it is you have been doing."

Luna smiled at him and nodded before pulling out another sheet of paper, the last, and read through it while speaking to him. "Well I have no real understanding a of why you were unable to dream. But I have been able to learn quite a bit about you and your situation while in here. Not to mentioned I have been able to let you comprehend the ways to use and alter magic without causing serious miscasts or accidents. When you tried that Flesh Puppet spell a few days ago you almost made yourself explode. Thou, sorry, you are lucky I am here to make these ideas of yours possible for your mind to comprehend on how to make."

"..."

A silence filled the room and Maleficus stared, really stared, at Luna as she shifted the last parchment into a crystal and tossed it into the bin while commenting. "Interesting idea to alter the Flesh Puppet spell into a Flesh Golem spell, might be of use to your future play war with min- sorry, my sister. But personally I think that colour alteration spell you crafted a few moments ago was better in its purpose, plus it was rather beautiful and sweet how you used it."

That made him snap out of his silence and he stood up on his hind legs and slammed his forelegs down on the surface of the desk and stared boggled eyed down at her, shouting out in a very, very concerned, and loud, voice."WOW! Wow! Wow. Wow. Are you telling me, that the only reason I am able to comprehend and alter magic like I have, at such a fast rate, is because you are processing it for me!? Like some kind of mental secretary!?"

Nodding Luna chuckled a bit at his reaction, she had to say that the face he was making when he realized it made it worth it. Calming down her laugh with a light cough she shook her head a little before stepping off her chair and pointed at the bin she had been tossing crystals into. "Yes that is correct. We- sorry, I had to spend most of the nights managing the information influx and adapting it to function with your mind. It will take several years, decades even, before you are able to alter and research magic on your own, but until them am I your training wheels."

Maleficus was silent for a bit before he lowered himself down on all four again and walked over to look at the bin, it was more like a black pit with a fancy bin like fence around it. He sighed and rubbed his forehead and spoke out his thoughts. "...That is both incredibly cool, yet incredibly disappointing, for me I mean. I actually thought I was developing things on my own, I just thought that the knowledge I devoured from the Nightmare allowed me to act upon it."

Chuckling again Luna lead the dismayed stallion away from the bin and out of the officer, outside they came to a large room decorated like a VIP movie theater. It even had its own supply of food and toys. There were line of large black leather retainers, a popcorn machine, a soda machine, a massive ,wall sized tv screen, and a large array of prop in a massive closet. It was heaven for any otaku or nerd in any franchise from games to movies to cartoons to animes. As she lead him through the red carpet covered floor Luna talked to him. "Nay, you may have assimilated the power and fragmented memories of the Nightmare and its own components, but that would never allow you to cast such advance magic like tho- sorry, you have. You need years of dedicated training to come up with such advanced and mentally taxing spell crafts, let alone casting them."

Blinking a bit he nodded in understanding, he made a comment as he looked into the large array of props and outfits. "Huh... so... what else have you been doing? I mean, I highly doubt you have been doing only paperwork in here. Plus I can tell you have found interest in my media memories, but I figured it would not hurt to ask."

She perked up instantly and giddily clapped her hooves together and jumped into the closet and began to speak out in a happy and jolly tone as she began to put stuff on. "Oh! I have been watching those moving story books on that magical crystal plate of yours! We- sorry, I love them! Those moving images, the music, the sounds and the voices! We hath, sorry, I have never witnessed something so amazing before! Not to mention the clothes, weapons and accessories your mind link them to! And those wonderful games! I have never had so much fun! There are so many variants and types!"

A bit stunned Maleficus pondered just how in hell his world's media entertainment turned an alicorn magical warrior princess into a freaking otaku nerd... But then he realized just how redundant what he just though was and made a 'meh' motion with his shoulders before grabbing a familiar looking red and white cap with a green symbol on it before putting it on his head. "Huh... Do you mind if we start watching some anime right now? I could use some entertainment after having this fucked up situation revealed to me. And I do not feel like playing any games at the moment."

Out of the closet emerged Luna, now dressed up like Naruto, orange jump suit, goggles, head band and ninja weaponry, she was in his shadow clone jutsu pose when she shouted out in a cheerful and loud voice. "YES!!! Let's Us watch Naruto! His wonderful adventures despite his origin inspires me!"

*Not to mention I think you guys are both rather identical in loudness and cheerfulness it seems.* Maleficus thought to himself before he pulled out a blue vest, with holes for his wings, and a belt with white and red balls.

After he had put them on he walked over to the soda machine and got himself a big soda mug with some fruity red soda as Luna filled up a big bucket of popcorn. As he carried his drink in levitation he spoke to her as she bounced on the chairs , levitating a bucket of popcorn and a soda mug filled withe cola. "As long as you do NOT try to convince me to watch the Shippuden Arc or those pointless fillers then it is fine. I think it is for the best to just watch the first season, then we watch some Pokemon. I want to re-watch the Kanto Arc."

Jumping off with a flip Luna landed on one of the large retainers and seated herself before punching her right hoof into the air and answered his request as the lights were turned off and the screen was activated, and the intro song of Season 1 of Naruto started. "Agreed!"

Sitting down in his own Ash Ketchum outfit, Maleficus sipped on his soda, enjoying the sensation of a carbonated fruity drink after so long, and watched the anime with his unlikely roommate.

(Scene Skip)

Canterlot had recovered from the attack, with the revelation of the statue and the memorial the ponies started to build a graveyard outside of the city walls. With the sudden deaths of loyal soldiers, and several elderly and sickly ponies passing on, there was a need for a place for their bodies to be laid to rest. And thus the Canterlot Cemetery was scheduled to be constructed for the future use of all common and noble ponies of Canterlot.

The Cemetery was to be placed upon the eastern edge of the city, by the mountain side it had been carved out of. Even as several days since the memorial and its statue was revealed, had the ponies been working. There were several who had started making proclamations of the Will of the Gods, several groups of various believers were starting to form into actual religious cults. Not to mention the amount of ponies who wanted to take part of the newly minted project by Lady Grand Feast and her two children, the creation of a new Knightly Order. To honour Golden Cross and the Order of the Lawbringer.

Celestia had been more then willing to accept his proposal to create an official Knightly Order of Equestria to honour Golden Cross and his order. Several of the nobles wanted to recreate the Lawbringers when the proposal was put forth, but Grand Music and his family decline that option. When confronted with why they would decline the opportunity to recreate the Lawbringers, Lady Grand Feast spoke out to the nobles to explain why.

"Ser Cross told Us this himself, his Order was not perfect, it was home to the just and the corrupt, he sounded both regretful and happy to be the last of his Order. We shalt not make light of his Sacrifice nor the actions of his Fallen Order to protect Us by just recreating the Order. A New Order is to be made, one that We hope will be greater then the Lawbringers, an Order that will make Ser Cross and his honourable brethren proud of Us all."

Those words by Lady Grand Feast had put the arguments to rest. And thus was the work to create and establish the yet to be named Order started. The many documents left behind by Golden Cross would be used as a guideline to establish the rules, parts of the training and recruitment requirements for the Order. But after that would the Order have to test and work out

The first thing to do, beyond establishing the purpose, rules, organization, recruitment, membership requirement and authority of the Order, was the construction of a Head Quarter of the new Order a must to properly handle recruitment, training and founding of the order.

And thus was a large construction project started for a headquarter for the new Lawbringer Order, the number of volunteers for the construction was astronomical, those seeking to join the newly founded Order was not as high, but still far higher then normal. Celestia had not been able to hide her shock when a group of five hundred ponies volunteered to design and construct the building, for free.

The real kicker was among those who volunteered, over fifty nobles, among them, ten Lords. THAT, had almost made her fall off her throne. Luckily had she not done that, but she would give Solid Pink a bit of a frown when she startled giggling, even looking completely unfazed, one could hear the former Sun Guard giggle within her mouth.

(Scene Skip)

Grand Music was standing next to his sister and mother, watching the project he had initiated just a few days ago. He had been surprised how quickly his proposal had been accepted. But it made him feel happy, knowing that he was fulfilling not only his wishes, but the wishes of his family as well.

"So. You. Think. Grandpa. Cross. Would. Be. Glad. About. This?" The young lord asked his adopted mother as they looked at the construction site of the large, cathedral like building, being constructed by a large group of workers next to the beautiful park Golden Cross' wagon has been parked ever since he came to Canterlot.

Piles of the finest timber and massive boulders of the finest marble was filling the entire area as a massive group of ponies worked together to construct it. The amazing part was that they had started building said area just two days ago, and they were almost halfway done. From the ten meter deep basement area to around thirty meters up from the ground level, they had completed the entire base area of the massive building within just two days. Now they were working on building the towers and the large chamber, which would also act as a shrine to the gods.

Grand Feast just smiled at her little colt and rubbed his head, the little pony made some giggling sounds, emitting his voice through the enchanted choker he had been given as a gift by General Blood Gorger. The old general wanted to contribute to the promising young Lord's life as a thank you to his adopted grand father, by giving him a stretchable choker with a gemstone enchanted with the same speech device the general used himself. Only, set to a less intimidating voice.

"Grandpa Cross would love this place! We bet he would be giving ye a damn good hug an' snuggle brother!" Happy Meal cheered, but her mother was not amused by her choice of crude words, even if Grand Music was cheered up.

"Happy Meal! Where hath thou learned such foul words!?" The little filly, looking startled, and moderately uneasy, took off running towards the park. Grand Feast wanted to run after her but Grand Music just laughed and pointed at some of the workers swearing as they had difficulties lifting a big piece of rock.

"By da fucking flanky shit on da Gods' buttocks!" "This thing be fuckin' heavier then ma wife's flank!" "Oi! No speakin' of ma sister dat way ya daft cunt!" The amount of crude words and swears made Grand Feast's eyes narrow further and further until she was in a bonafide mother's wrath glare. It was at such an intense focus of motherly protection and righteous fury that the workers felt shivers down their spines and looked around in confusion, before yelping in fear at the sight of Grand feast glaring at them.

The glare Grand Feast sent at the workers kept going for almost an hour. Its constant presence made them all feel uneasy and concerned, uncertain as of why the recently made Lady was giving them such a harsh glare. But they just lowered their heads and quietly worked until the scary mare walked off with her colt to find her other child, satisfied in having wordlessly chastising a group of twenty stallions with just a glare.

(Scene Skip)

Up on her balcony Celestia watched as the Lawbringer Temple was being constructed in the distance, it would easily be the tallest building in the city once it was finished, well next to the central keep, but it would not be expanded further until the nation of Equestria was properly established. For now she was only in control of a small region of her own nation ,she needed to send out messengers, scouts and couriers to spread the word of her foundation of Equestria.

The plans of the future brought up old memories of her life before being a royal Princess. She could recall the times she played with her sister in the woods, learning magic from her mother, eating sweet fruits and jam covered breads. Those days had been the best of her life, then suitors started to show up as the reign of Discord caused many ponies to seek the true heir to the throne to reestablish the old, or found their own, pony kingdom.

Her mother had answered all suitors with a trial of combat, something very few left without a sever injury. But the reign of Discord had made it hard to adapt, even with their isolated lives in the Everfree keeping them away from his notice was his chaotic shenanigans spilling out over the world like a plague. Her mother had been forced to leave her and her still too young sister to fend for themselves for a few years.

She had cried so many times during those harsh years, comforted by her sister and comforting her in return. Luna had always had a close relationship with her, the two of them drew strength and comfort from each other. When their mother returned and ascended them into Alicorns, Discord had finally found them and their mother distracted him long enough to let her flee with her sister into the unknown outside world.

Years she and her sister wandered, fighting Discord's evil while gathering allies and researching what could be used against Discord to stop his mad rampage. Then they found the Elements of Harmony, the six powerful gemstone fruits of the crystal Tree of Harmony. The reign of Discord ended with the twisted Chaos God in stone, he had been one of the few things to be pulled out of the Everfree, to keep him from being freed out of his prison.

After Discord's defeat she and Luna founded a new kingdom in the Everfree, and for a time all was well. Then the Green Star struck, her mentor fell to corruption and soon so did her sister. And the rest was history. Now she was seeking vengeance upon the one who had wrought such destruction and despair upon her ponies and her family. Just the thought of that brutish Alicorn stallion being alive and well on the moon made her grow furious.

As she started to lower the sun for the day she glared at the moon's burning phantom as she raised it up, growling out nasty words as she tried to burn the moon's surface with her glare. "Just what kind of foul plans couldst that monster be planning even now? Even as We seek to avenge Our sister, We know he be plotting further misdeeds there upon the moon. We shalt need to prepare Ourselves and Our ponies, We hath ten summers to prepare, We better spend them well."

She gave a final scalding glare at the moon and its burning specter before leaving the balcony for her personal chamber to get some sleep, she was going to have a busy day tomorrow. A princess' job was never done, but that was something she preferred, it kept her distracted from falling into depression and unrelenting rage at the thought of Maleficus Victoria running free.

(Scene Skip)

A pair of alicorns were smiling at the massive screen as the final ending of the Kanto Arc played out with Ash and Pikachu standing on the Indigo Plateau Stadium, smiling at the memories of their efforts and found no regrets.

*Ending Credits of Pokemon - Kanto Arc*

"We art happy We watched this. The Gods only know how much We wish Ash Ketchum could develop himself into a better character then what the series later portray him as, but he is still a person worthy of the title hero, even among my people." Luna said with a smile as she tossed her empty mug and popcorn bucket into a black hole trashcan.

Maleficus grinned and nodded, it had been fun watching his old time favourite anime. Perhaps next time they could watch some cartoons, non-animated movies, documentaries or possibly just play some video games. But then a thought struck him and as the pair left the entertainment room in his mind and entered a large forest area, through the same door the office had been, he asked her about it. "So tell me this Luna, why exactly are you acting as a magical filter for me? I mean, I know we are connected, somehow, but other then the safety of myself I cannot find a good reason to not let me learn from my mistakes."

Luna looked at him for a bit before sighing. "Well it mostly is because the spells you try to do and how you try to do them, are about as efficient and safe as a dragon hatchling acting as a miner in a gemstone mine with pockets filled with natural gas. I was able to filter your magic when you fought Ou- sorry, my sister the first time. And at the time the amount of damage you did to not only yourself by the area around you could only be described as devastating."

A bit confused Maleficus tapped his hoof against his chin and tried to figure out 'which' one of his dangerous spell attempts could be described in such a manner. Then he remembered the First Crusade, and realization struck him, and he let out a drawn out, "Ooooooh..." as he did.

With an awkward silence following he fidgeted a bit before he turned to Luna and asked in a slightly, ashamed tone as he rubbed his neck nervously. "You mean that cry, or wail, of terror I did, which tore up my throat, and... that black hole I made during my fight with Celestia?"

Luna just nodded and conjured a cup of tea and began to drink it as Maleficus summoned a garden table and chairs for them. The conversation felt awkward, but Maleficus did not want to appear rude to his mental roommate, although it still was a bizarre situation."To put it bluntly, those two things, were the worst things out of that entire fight. Had you NOT tried to create an artificial black hole, which I found out later as I watched those documentaries of yours, is beyond idiotic to even consider, I might have been willing to allow you to do your own thing. But with the dangerous knowledge you have and the lack of magical restraint and control, I am not willing to make any chances and allowing you to blow up my sister and our subjects by mistake."

Sighing he nodded and drank a glass of water, the freshness of the cool non flavoured liquid just made him more relaxed, he preferred sweet drinks, but he had a fondness for cold water. Suppressing his urge to sigh again he kept the conversation going as the two of them sat there in the middle of the forest decorated mindscape. "I see your point, I was on a battle high at the time, but later on I really realized just how insane what I had done was. Had I and Celestia not blocked the backlash of the miniature supernova, there would have been a very big crater left behind."

Luna just nodded and resumed talking after he was done. It was a bit odd that she was not furiously screaming our shouting at him, which she had done when they first meet in the mindscape. But he did not mind, he never enjoyed angry confrontations, they made his heart ache with unease and sadness, even if he was the one being angry. He never liked being angry, it made him feel less like himself. "Yes, you are correct. But you need to realize that your magical strength is beyond normal and while i have a few theories, none of them make much sense to me. Most of all I think you are using magic with such force and amount that you are constantly tearing and healing your magical pathways and thus expanding them. The second theory is that the unnatural material making up your bones are a powerful conduit of magic, but that makes no sense."

Rubbing his forehead Maleficus stayed silent for a few moments before he looked up at the blue sky above the trees and thought about what she had just said. The fact that his own body was alive being a miracle, that he could move at all being a miracle, and that he was so magically powerful, being a side effect of said miracle. Perhaps it had occurred during the one hundred years he spent ass a wandering burning skeleton zombie. But he was not too sure, he had assume a theory of his own, not all that possible. But it could be.

Turning to look at Luna, he expressed his own little idea of how he was able to even breath. "Yeah, I have a theory of my own. It is slightly similar to your second theory, only I do not think it involves my bones, entirely. You know how some metals are heavier then other right?"

"Aye." Luna answered with a nod, she preferred silver armour, because it was lighter then gold armour after all. Although the fact that silver fit with her dark complexion, was not entirely wrong either.

He raised up his right foreleg, and Luna almost gagged as with his imagination, he peeled off his skin and flesh intl only bone remained on the entire leg. As he spoke he shower how his entire limb, was pure, metal. A metal, unlike any other. "Well... the metal in my body seems to be a very, very, heavy metal, when I land after jumping the ground beneath me crack. And that's when I am not wearing armour. So I am considering if my body is using so much magic internally to allow me to stand or even breath, that my magical capacity is constantly growing because of this constant strain."

As his flesh was put back into place Luna closed her eyes, pressed her hooves to her forehead and started making calculations, theories, estimates and analyzes. It took her a decent while but her eyes sprang open and she stood up with her forelegs on the table, almost toppling it over, as she finally managed to figure out what he just had said meant. "Wait... you mean that you muscles are too weak to support your bones and thus your body naturally started using your magic to support your body structure. Essentially constantly draining and straining your magic to keep you from collapsing on the ground? That... is both insane and plausible. Your muscles would be as weak as a foals if you ever managed to remove the magical energy holding you upright!"

Nodding Maleficus looked at his foreleg and rubbed the upper portion, around the elbow part, and muttered a bit as he did so. "Yes. That is my conclusion as well. If I somehow remove the magic from my muscles... My bones will be too heavy for them to hold onto. Essentially, the weight of my own bones will rip off my muscles and tendons, in other words making me break apart from within... Until my magic forcefully regenerates the damage to the muscles and tendons until my muscles are of proper strength to allow me to... well... live... Though the restoration process will... at least I figure... would take a long time, years even, and it would be about as painful as being burned alive for a century as my nerves, tendons, veins and muscles, would essentially tear and restore themselves, constantly.."

He solemnly kept rubbing his right foreleg, it was painful to even imagining it. It made his entire boy tense and freeze up in phantom pains of burning acidic fire. But he bore through it, even though his mindscape fractured in the background for a few seconds, fractures in reality itself of the dream realm appearing in the very air, before returning to normal. And he kept talking. "So I do not know if I will be able to mentally handle such an experience again. I am probably never going to recover from my burning stage as the Stallion of Torment. I still get mental breakdowns. But this... might break me if it happens. I do not like to admit it... but I cannot deny the possibility."

Luna looked at the stallion, her eyes wide in horror as she witnessed the reality of the mindscape fracture, before being restored, right before her very eyes. Something that should be impossible. She had not a long experience being an immortal. But she thought that even Discord could once have been a sane being, then been broken through some sort of trauma or other situation. It would make sense, but she was not sure, she had never actually voiced her ideas after he was defeated. She did not have pity or concern for the Chaos God, he was a foul being who played on the fears and pleasures of others to break them into his little toys. But she still had her theories about hoe he became like he was.

But Maleficus was different, he was not born of this world, he was a mortal made into a demi-god, or full god depending on how you looked at it. Just like she and her sister had been. The difference was, he was neither corrupted or ignored by the populous. He was alone, isolated, hated and traumatized, with only his own regrets to haunt him as he tried to live in a world that had first sought to kill him by burning up his flesh until he grew immune to its attempts.

Sighing Luna tried to figure out what to do. She had no clear idea how to fix this mess, and it was a proper cluster fuck of a mess too. But for now, she would aid him, keep him company, and try to help get past this new ordeal.

That was when Maleficus got an idea and looked up at the newly made night sky and up at the moon above them. "...Hey Luna, just how low is the gravity on your moon?"

Blinking in confusion Luna pondered the question before responding. "Around... one tenth the gravity of the planet, why do you ask?"

He gave her a small smirk. "I have an idea... a bit crazy. But it might work. And it involves, making me remove my magical support on my body's muscles, and learn how to move, while on the moon."

".......WAIT WHAT!?" Was her loud response and he just rubbed his ears before starting to explain his plan and idea. And for all of the doubts she was having, Luna could not help but consider it, and finding it to be possible. But for it to work. Maleficus would need to learn how to deactivate and activate his body's internal magic, without her aid.

She had a feeling it was going to be a looooong time before Maleficus could properly move around. But at least it was a start. But for now... she would support him, for even if it was only a slight chance, was it still a chance. And that was more then many ponies could say that they had, sadly enough.

The pair of mentally linked Aliorns worked together for what felt like weeks, getting Maleficus ready to start removing the magical crutches in his body to let him develop his muscle strength properly.

(Scene Skip)

Author Attribute (I got this text from wikipedia as they told me to attribute the author.): By Image by ChrisO. - english Wiki -, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19062

Down in Equestria was a joyous celebration being held as the Temple of Law, the final name decided for the HQ of the new Knightly Order, was finished construction. A parade of newly accepted recruits for the order wandered the streets as confetti was thrown into the air and trumpets sounded. Princess Celestia stood by the large gates of the massive cathedral like building, with Lady Grand Feast and her two foals, standing by her side, the young lord Grand Music, in a small uniform of his own.

He was standing with well combed mane and tail, in a similar uniform like Golden Cross had worn to the Grand Galloping Gala, only a slightly altered colour theme to fit his white fur. The uniform was yellow in the base with green strikes and the black symbol of the Law Bringers, stitched onto the shoulder and side. With his attempt to look stern and important was not very effective, were more then one foal in the crowd inspired by him. And to everyone else of adult age or above, he looked absolutely adorable.

Grand Feast and Celestia were both trying to refrain from cooing and cuddling the little uniformed colt as he stood there and tried to act important. His sister Happy Meal was in a similar uniform, making silly faces at him to make him break out of his 'boring' stage. It was funny, adorable and absolutely heartwarming to watch them. It was not a large inspiring knight or lord, but even then, were there no low spirit in the entire parade and the recruits were eager to know that they would be training alongside the adopted grandson of the Last Lawbringer.

As the line of two hundred and fifty recruits, the final number after going through over seven hundred applicants, an exhausting endeavor by itself. Princess Celestia strode forward and stood tall in her golden plate mail armour, shining in the sunlight at the top of the stairs leading to the temple. And then, she cleared her throat, before starting a loud and grandiose speech, with the Royal Voice.

[Start Theme Music: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Soundtrack - Rohan's Victory]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0HhFUultWw

"Ponies! We welcome thou all to this grand day! The day We bring forth an Order, made in the image of the Last Lawbringer! It shalt be thus named! The Order of the Golden Cross!"

The entire city cheered out when the name was spoken and for a few minutes was the name Golden Cross chanted out through out the city. With a proud smile she kept up her speech, not willing to stop just because of her ears ringing.

"A new Knightly Order hath been founded today! Lord Grand Music, adopted grandson of Golden Cross, hath been the one to fund this endeavor! The Order of the Golden Cross! He shalt also join Our proud recruits in their training, and eventually try to become the first Grand Master of the Golden Cross Order!"

Another loud cheer echoed through the city and the face of Grand music almost twitched as he tried to not wince at the volume, Happy Meal cheering into his ear was not helping much either, but he would not trade this moment for anything. And then Celestia continued her speech.

"All who become part of the Golden Cross Order, shalt be given the duty to guide and protect the innocent within Our nation! We know We shalt be proud of their efforts as they become true Knights of the Golden Cross! They shalt aid and advise the armies, they shalt act as Our Sword and Shield in battle! Now! Recruits! Swear Thy Oath!"

As one the recruits knelt down before the Temple of Law, their weapons held by their forelegs so that they could rest their foreheads against them. Then, in a chorus of voices, the first recruits of the Order of the Golden Cross, started swearing their oath. An oath made in the memory of Golden Cross' arrival to Canterlot.

"We Swear Upon Our Souls!"
"To Serve the People!"
"To Protect the Innocent!"
"To Guide the Nation!"
"By Our Own Will!"
"We give Our Lives to the Order of the Golden Cross!"
"From This Moment!"
"We art Justice!"
"We art Order!"
"We art Protectors!"
"We art Knights of the Golden Cross!"
"When the Law is Broken!"
"We Shalt Act!"
"When the Innocent art Hurt!"
"We Shalt Act!"
"Where the World is Tainted!"
"We Shalt Act!"
'"With Accordance of Heart and Harmony, We shalt act."
"As the Scales of Order!"
"As the Blades against the Wicked!"
"As the Shields of the Innocent!"
"In the Name of the Gods!"
"In the Name of Justice!"
"In the Name of the Innocent!"
"In the Name of Equestria!"
"This We Swear!"
"Now And Forever!"
"Amen!"

(A/N: Did not find any better image of a banner then this one. Just imagine the black as purple and the cross in gold.)

As the final part of the oath was sworn was a pair of large banners unfurled from the top of the two large towers, the symbol of Golden Cross' cutie mark upon a purple background. The sheer noise of the cheering people of Equestria, was like a shockwave through the land. Bearing upon their joyous voices, the name of their saviour and new Knightly Order. Golden Cross.

The following months would be harsh on all of the recruits, including Grand Music an Happy Meal, both of which had joined the order as recruits. Grand Feast was considerably nervous about her two foals joining an order of Knights, but she could not help but being proud of both of them. But from here on out it would be a long journey of physical training and education for the first generation of Golden Cross Knights to take form, to establish a decent foundation for the new Order. And even if she still felt nervous about the whole situation, did she know that her foals would make her, and their honourary grandfather proud.

As the ponies of Canterlot cheered, the recruits started to enter their new home to be given their new roles as members of the Golden Cross Order. as they moved past Celestia and the three nobles, Grand Music turned towards his mother and spoke to her.

"Mother. We. Wish. For. Our. Order's. First. Mission. After. Finishing. The. Training. To. Be. To. Travel. To. Grandpa. Cross'. Old. Home. The. Blackstone. Keep. It. Will. Let. Us. Investigate. Your. New. Lands. Too." Grand Feast looked with nervous eyes at the determined and focused eyes of her son, she tried to refrain tears from falling as she reached out and hugged him and just cuddled her little colt to her chest as the recruits entered the keep.

She did not verbally answer her son's request. But sometimes a mother does not need to speak out loud to tell her child that she is reluctantly letting you do as you wish even as she wishes for you to remain safe.

[End Theme Song]

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus woke up to the surface of the moon. He was not sure how long it had been since he laid down to sleep. But it had been a progressive time within his own mindscape with Luna to guide and aid him. But first thing first. He needed to start his newly designed training program he and Luna had developed.

The large stallion stood up from his position on the sand dune, stretching a little as he did so, before walking a bit further away from the Interface, he did not wish to damage it if he was too close to it.

Once a decent distance away, he sat down and closed his eyes and began to concentrate. He felt the magical energy as it flowed through his body. And slowly, with focus, he began to drain it away from his body. There was no immediate change. But soon it became clear that it was affecting him, as his boy began to press into the sand and he felt his entire body grow heavier.

Once he felt like his entire body was carrying a full body lead suit, he let go of the magic... which was a BAD thing to do. The result was immediate when he cut off his manipulation of the magic, it went into a flux before it stabilized by being expelled from his body at the sudden change in the flow. In short, he cut off all of his body's magical boost with that one move.

The result? A mega ton like face plant impact upon the sand, leaving a decent sized crater around his body as even on the moon, his body weighted too much without the magic supporting it or altering its weight that he was essentially sinking into the sand.

Maleficus gave out a soundless grunt and tried to pull himself up. It was hard to move, his entire body felt sluggish and he was already feeling cramps and burns through his entire body by just moving.

He pressed his forelegs into the moon sand and pushed himself upwards slowly, his forelegs were shaking and quivering but he managed to lift the front portion of his body upright. Then slowly he did the same with his hind legs. It was unbearably heavy and even as he tried to take a single step, the sheer weight o it made a small crater form beneath his hoof and he tripped forward, managing to shift to land on his side rather then his face, forming an even larger crater on the surface of the moon desert.

Slowly he struggled up once more, even a he felt his muscles burn and protest, he knew he had to do this to not let his body end up like a sack of useless flesh should something happen to his magic. And slowly, but surely, after about seven trips and falls, he began to slowly walk across the surface of the Moon, practically dragging his hooves through the sand to move forward, around the hill where the Interface was connected. He raised his wings and started to move them in various movements as he walked, adding to the strain on his body, while he tried to move as many muscles as he could.

His constant circling began to shape a moat or ditch around the hill, with the eight of his boy making larger then normal crates form beneath his hooves, and whenever he tripped. But those things were not something he was focusing on. Instead, he was trying to keep moving, while mentally distracting himself with some mental illusions, by essentially closing his eyes and visualizing a tv screen onto his own eyelids, he was in simple turns, exercising while watching subtitled movies and cartoons.

That was put to a stop when he tumbled on the first sharp edge of a small crater. Instead he ignited his horn with magic and summoned an Interface screen and had it float in front of him, letting him watch various sights on the planet bellow. Mostly he used it to have some pretty scenery to watch, as he was not willing to link his memories of cartoons onto the Interface. For one, it would take far too long, and second, he was not sure if the floating construct of solid light could even hold such amounts of memory after all he had been doing with it for the last year or so.

So he was content with just a scenery screen to not get overly dulled by the moon desert around him as he walked. After around six hours of constant walking, the strain on his body became too much and he felt his legs start to give away beneath him.

*Fucking dammit... this is going to take a loooooong time. I just know it!* He grumbled to himself as he slumped down on his knees when the strain on his muscles became too much. Once he collapsed his rib cage began to feel awfully tight and he focused his magic and enforced his body, The pain of his rib cage ceased but after that he stopped boosting his body, he needed to have a strain even as he slept, for his body to adapt to a lack of magical support even as he slept. It would probably not be as efficient as he wanted it to be, but... fuck it. He did not many other options.

(Scene Skip)

As time went by, was a schedule was formed on the moon for the ascended former human. During his waking hours he would move around with less and less magic supporting his body's muscles and bones. Using a floating Interface screen to entertain himself as to not get over boarded by boredom as he exercised. He would sleep with the bare minimum of magical power as to let his body adapt to it as he slept. and as he slept, he was enjoying some off time by watching TV and playing video games with Luna.

The Moon Princess was a rather awkward player at first but soon he was not willing to play against her as she became less awkward and more brutal in her gaming. It was especially frustrating on Halo since she kept spawn killing him, well at least until he returned the favour and let her experiences it, in the end they both agreed to not play on opposite sides again.

No one enjoyed being spawn killed.

But he, nor Luna, noticed something strange going on as they kept doing their schedule. And it would take a good while for them to notice just what it was.

(Scene Skip)

In the meantime, down on the surface of the planet in the nation of Equestria were the recruits of the Order of the Golden Cross working together to become great knights. They were given a special schedule to keep during their first year as recruits.

First they would be woken up and be given an two hour long, training pass of physical exercise in the courtyard of the temple. Then afterwards they would eat a good breakfast with a break time of thirty to sixty minutes. Then two hours of studying and learning from various subjects from basic reading and writing to basic military tactics. After that there would be the second physical exercise pass of the day, then lunch. Next would be an hour of Lunch followed by one hour of Resting. After that they were given a lot of free time to study, exercise and develop themselves on their own interests, or just being lazy.

The studying and exercising was rather rapid in its construction, but this let the recruits spend the morning training and studying until lunch before having essentially the rest of the time for doing self training, self studying or do something else. It allowed them to develop as individuals as well as knights.

It was a slow progress for many, it was an unusual and new way to teach, and yet its effectiveness was not to be doubted. The physical exercises with running laps, handling heavy weights and going through stretches to strengthen their spines, allowed many of the recruits to adapt their bodies, even the older recruit were able to adapt to it rather fast. It would take quite a while before they could move on their hind legs with such ease like Golden Cross had, but it was not an impossibility.

Out of the many recruits were the biggest hopefuls the two youngest, Grand Music and Happy Meal. While Grand Music was not as physically adapted as many of the other recruits, was he very smart and had already developed a decent start on developing his spine's muscles from what little training he and his sister had gone through with their honourary grandfather.

Happy Meal o the other hoof was a physically active and strong mare, her development as a warrir was without a doubt amazing, and with her wings allowing her to fly, she was the most agile and movable of all the recruits. She did find most of the education boring but with Grand Music there to help her out, she made at least an effort.

For the following year it would become a routine. They would exercise, eat breakfast, study, exercise, eat lunch, sleep and then have a free period for the rest of the day. Many of the recruits were on the edge of stopping, there was no shame in quitting, but the sight of a pair of foals working together to become stronger and smarter, gave the older recruits motivation to not give up. In the end, not a single pony dropped out of the first batch of recruits who sought to join the Order of the Golden Cross.

A month before the end of the study year, the holiday to honour Golden Cross, and the fallen ponies of the Rattenfänger Siege, was held. During all holidays, such as Heart's Warming Day, Canterlot's Founding, and so on, the Temple's students would be given free leave, to celebrate with family, friends or to just enjoy themselves.

While the Order progressed, so did the nation of Equestria. Farmers began to develop better farming techniques, using a periodic shift in what they planted to not let the ground grow stale. Yet another piece of knowledge found among the Chronicles of the Lawbringers. Smiths began to work on alloys rather then pure metal. Trying to develop the Sacred Bronze the Lawbringer's weapons and armour had been made of, something they apparently lost knowledge of when Discord ruled the lands.

Ballistaes, Catapults, Trebuchets and other siege engines were being fixed and made into stronger, larger, and sometimes smaller, versions. Celestia was focusing much of the industry of the ponies to develop their military forces. And for the most part the ponies agreed. The Rattenfänger invasion had made most of the ponies aware that a strong military was needed to keep their city and nation safe from not only bandits, but enemy forces as well.

With the rising of the military were many parts of Canterlot left to its own devices to develop on their own turns. This had some bad side effects however. With the disappearance of almost every thief and beggar within the city were there many empty nooks and alleyways for new uncouth figures to gather among the shadows.

But those went unnoticed by Celestia and her personal Advisers and Generals. For as the Eight Month reached its conclusion, the event many had been waiting for came. The graduation of the first Golden Cross Knights.

(Scene Skip)

Meanwhile up on the moon. Maelicus Victoria, spent most of his time exercising and training. He was rebuilding his body strength from the ground up. He was not certain if he could handle the gravity of the Planet, it would have to be figured out on the next time he was sent there. So until later he would have to keep on exercising and developing his muscle strength and retrain himself in martial combat.

His stamina and strength increased many times over from the many months of constant exercise he was having. Though he wanted to, he never looked down to Canterlot, wishing to not let the images there influence him and make him act recklessly. He wanted so much to speak to Happy Meal, Grand Music and grand Feast, but he knew it would not be worth it.

Even if there had been possible once, was it not possible anymore for him to confess. He had built up a lie so big it would ruin them. No matter how much shame or guilt he felt, he did not wish to ruin them. When he had been a human, he had seen what things such revelations could cause. Good and bad. And it terrified him beyond reason to even consider telling them the truth to the ponies and their naive life views. And Luna, for all of her words about trust, honour and honesty, agreed with him. Telling the ponies the truth about Golden Cross would only cause harm as it was.

So he focused on his training, moving over the sand, jumping over the dunes, kicking the air, swinging weapons and sparring with unseen opponents. Never stopping until he collapsed in exhaustion and sleeping soundly, spending time with his mental roommate as to not go even more insane then he already had.

(Scene Skip)

[Start Theme Music: For Honor OST - Wolves Among Sheep]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogJKT4TdVw8

Grand Music was a bit bigger now, as was Happy Meal, both foals had turned twelve during the spring, they were already experiencing the growth spurts that would get them to adulthood. Grand Music was still very thin for his age, but he was no longer unhealthy. Happy Meal was a good five inches taller then Grand Music was proving to be growing into a very large mare from the amount of growth she was experiencing.

Both of them stood at the front of the two hundred and fifty recruits who were graduating, It was held in the shrine area of the Temple of Law, the Princess, the Generals and the Nobility would be granting them their Positions among the Order of the Golden Cross. Of course, there would be no Grand Master yet. For no pony had earned the title yet.

The Positions of the Order was spread out in accordance to their specialties and skills. There were those specialized in combat and military endeavors, the Crusaders. Another position was the Wardens, agents of Order and Law who would act as aids to town guards, judges and the common ponies through out the realm of Equestria. This order seemed much like the Lawbringers, but the Wardens were more like a force of detectives and lawyers.

Then there was the Heralds, those who excelled as military officers and strategic advisers. Following is the Peacekeepers, the stealthy agents of the Order who acted as its shadow to gather information from all the corners of the realm for the Order to use to keep the nation and its citizens safe. Another Position was the War Priests, the religious followers and preachers of the Gods, they acted not in accordance of Religion, but of the Moral Guidelines of the Gods. Their duty would thus be to protect holy sites, retrieve ancient relics, discourage others from misusing religion in any manner, they would hunt down those who would corrupt the world or its inhabitants and they would also act as medics and emergency healers for those who are ill or wounded.

And lastly was the Keepers, their duty was focused on maintaining the Order's funds, its equipment, its bases, its supplies, its defences and its own development projects. Their duty was supportive in nature, but Keepers are just as vital as any warrior, healer or priest. The Keepers would be those to teach the future generations of Knights their common educations and offer them the paths to learn crafts and lores they might find of use in the field. The other Positions of the orders are the branches and trunk of the Order, but the Keepers, were the roots.

There was also, one yet to be sanctioned Position, the Templars, the rank of those who were taught in the ways of two or more Positions. Once a Templar had earned his or her way into four or more positions they would earn the title of Grand Templar. Those who earn a rank among all the Positions in the Order, is granted the title of Enlightened.

The Ranks of the Order was as following. Recruit. Knight. High Knight. Master Knight. Grand Master. To earn the Rank of Grand Master, does not require you to be an Enlightened or even a Grand Templar. A Grand Master, though a Rank, is considered an unique Position on its own. And only those, who have earned it, with true leadership, honour, courage, decency and humility, shalt be given the chance to bear it.

It came as no surprise to either Grand Music or Happy meal that they were both given Positions as Heralds, for both of them, while Grand music was more mentally adapt and Happy Meal more physically so, were both of them very good at tactics, strategy and theoretical warfare. They attributed this to the short while they had watched and learned from Golden Cross, not to mention the book he had left them gave them many maps with details of tactical warfare, enemy movements and counter attacks and so on.

Out of the Two Hundred And Fifty recruits would there be. 65 Keepers. 50 Crusaders. 45 Wardens. 35 Heralds. 30 War Priests. 25 Peacekeepers. And after this graduation, would there be even more recruits who would join the Order for their own chance to become members of the Order.

Even as the trumpets played, the commoners cheered, and the wind was filled with the warmth of sun light, the two foals never stopped smiling. Even as the decorated golden sword of Celestia was lightly tapped on each of their shoulders, they did not stop smiling.

For they were now one step closer to their goal, to become just as good as the old knight they admired the most. And not even their mother crying and smothering them with kisses and hugs could make them stop smiling.

(Scene Skip)

Upon the surface of the moon moved a certain alicorn stallion out of a wall of green and black fire. He rushed over a sand dune and somersaulted through the empty atmosphere of the moon's surface before landing face first into another sand dune.

With a brief struggle he pulled his head out of the sand and sat down. Once on his rump he spat out lumps of sand before blowing out sand and snot from his nostrils and then cleaned up his face before he got up on all four legs again and resumed his exercise. It was getting easier to move around and his body required less and less magic to support itself on the moons surface.

What had once taken him an entire day now took him only about half a day, which left him some time to craft and alter magic, with the, now acknowledged, aid of Princess Luna. He had begun to alter the spell he had used to create his flesh puppet copy. It had been a bit of an effort to alter the spell, even with Luna's aid, but he was making progress on making the Dead Flesh Replacement spell into a proper Flesh Golem.

So far had he only managed to make about fifty dead corpses, of around twenty had exploded and five that had been transmutated into pile of mud, a pile of sand,a wooden figure, a block of granite and for, some odd reason, a living goat, which had promptly died. But despite those setback, he was making progress.

Light would cascaded out over the sands whenever he initiated his magical experiments, and it would probably have been more impressive, had it not been completely dead silent.

(Scene Skip)

A months after graduation, it is a new day and the winter season is reaching Equestria. With the pegasus working to establish a proper control over the weather around Canterlot to handle the harsh uncontrollable winters of before.

But even with the chilling morning mist and the bright sun streaking through the cloudy ground, were there muc cheer in the city as the gates were being opened. Out of the gates, upon a properly made wooden draw bridge, strode out lines of well equiped ponies, dressed in bronze armour with a golden cross upon their helmets. With the banner of their Order carried high by each group of specialized ponies.

At that moment was the ponies of the Order of the Golden Cross wandering out of the Gates of Canterlot with the people of the city cheering on their departure, for it was a grand and important quest on their shoulders. They were going on their first official mission as Knights of Equestria. As Grand Music had requested were they to investigate the former hold of the Lawbringers, Blackstone Keep, to possibly recover whatever fragments of knowledge and lore could be gathered from its ruins.

But their mission was more then that. On this journey they would aid the common ponies however they could as they passed by. This would test their character.

They would spread the word of the nation of Equestria to those not in the known. This would test their dedication.

They would protect the innocent and punish the wicked. This would test their honour and courage.

And finally, they would place out mile stones marking the direction and distance to Canterlot. This was not as much of a test as it was an important task the Princess found could be used as a test for when the ponies started building out the old worn out roads.

She had gotten the idea from the notes in Golden Cross' book, speaking of the old tales from his father about miles of roads with a stone marking every mile, with a common saying that Every Road Lead To This City. The name of the city had apparently been forgotten even by his father, but the concept of mile stones was intriguing so Celestia wanted to give it a try.

Grand Music and Happy Meal both struggled a bit as their mother hugged then and frantically asked them if they had everything with them. Even if they were almost as big as their mother they could, for some unknown reason, not struggle out of her grip when she became like this.

The long marching line of knights glittered in the morning mist and the bright sun. Looking like sparkling saints and heroes of legends as they wandered off on the road to the unknown regions to the East.

Even as the two young ponies had left for their fellow knights and disappeared beyond the sight of the city, was their mother still waving and crying. After it had settled down, would Princess Celestia move down to the square in her Pegasus disguise, and look up at the statue of Golden Cross, with a smile on her muzzle as she thought of how proud he would have been if he could see those two young ponies now.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus sneezed, and cursed as the spell he had been crafting became a messed up mass of green slime, which he quickly burnt into a black goop. Sighing soundlessly he stood up on his hind legs and spread apart his hooves and began to focus once more. starting yet another attempt at creating a proper flesh golem.

(Scene Skip)

The Knights marched on the old road to the East. Each mile they placed a marker in the shape of a cube shaped stone, with the distance, in miles, to Canterlot marked on it. The first two weeks went without anything in sight except for woods and mountains. Their large numbers deteered most animals and beasts from approaching.

Their mood was good and their morale high, even if the journey was long were all of the Knights of the Golden Cross Order prepared for it with wagons of supplies and several of them knowledgable with what is edible upon the wilderness in case of emergency. The days were filled with the sound of marching hooves and idle talks. The nights were mostly quiet if not peaceful as they slept out their aching legs while some of them stood watch.

Then as the third week started, they reached their first obstacle. A large wooden wall, built upon a pass in the mountains, essentially blocking the path through the mountain. Their ranks pulled to a stop and the Heralds gathered to discuss their options. The decision was made to send in the more stealthy of the peacekeepers to investigate the strange wooden wall and its lack of a gate.

A group of ten moved through the foliage and the sky. With either flight, magic or silent hooves they moved up onto the wall and began to scout out the surroundings. What they found was surprising. Beyond the wooden wall was a large amount of boulders and rocks, a land slide had occurred here.

Given the state of the wall and the moss and plants growing on the walls, it had happened ages ago and just been walled off.

Once the Peacekeepers gave their report the ponies wondered what to do next. When Grand Music got an idea. "If. We. Cannot. Go. Over. The. Landslide. We. Will. Just. Have. To. Go. Through it. Let's. Dig. A. Tunnel."

The idea was given some debate but it was the best option given their situation. With magic and tools it took less then a week to dig through the land slide, with the unicorns essentially fusing the rocks together into a solid mass, to not let ti collapse the newly made tunnel.

Breaching past their first obstacle, with a twenty meter wide and ten meter tall tunnel to show for it, the Knights of the Order of the Golden Cross, marched on once more. The work they had done had been tedious and very straining, but it had been a decent effort for a group of less then three hundred strong ponies.

From there on out it was thick woods and more mountains. The old road was so overgrown the knights had to essentially rebuild the road as they wandered over it. After two weeks, marking the end of the first month since they left, of wandering through the forest, the Knights reached their next obstacle. This one, was much more difficult then a blocked mountain pass.

There in the distance, upon a hill by a rapidly moving stream, was a small village, barricaded with a simple wooden wall. Surrounded by two legged dogs wielding axes, spears, bows and torches, howling out at the village with wicked intent. Upon the walls of the village were what looked like ponies, or at least four legged creatures, wielding slings, spears and bows.

The dog creatures were separated from the village by the deep rapid stream moving by its side and the mountain side behind the village. Yet they seemed undeterred from their siege. The dogs numbered nearly five hundred strong from what the Peacekeepers could tell as the Knights once more gathered for a council.

It was uncertain if the dog creatures were there to eat the inhabitants, to rob them, for vengeance, or some other reason. But form what the Peacekeepers had been able to discover was there no sign of pony bodies being eaten by the dogs. Rather instead, they had found what looked like piles of gemstones, and wagons with cages and chains. And they had seen the dogs, EAT the gemstones.

This made Grand Music certain that these... Gem Dogs? Stone Dogs? ...Well the name could wait. Anyhow. Grand Music was certain that these dog creatures were not here to eat anyone, since apparently they ate gemstones rather then meat. Instead it was more then likely that they were here for one thing only, slaves. Just by the fact that they had empty cages and chains spelled out their intents to capture the villagers for some nefarious deed.

Grand Music looked upon the crude map of the area the Peacekeepers and the Keepers had managed to supply, when Happy Meal pointed out something on the map. "Hey! That there cliff side in them woods. It be above those dogs right?" The other Heralds looked at her and examined the map, got some confirmation from the scouts and told her yes.

"Well I think it be pretty clear then! We just break apart that there cliff on top of them dogs! Then we rush in and clean up!" The others considered the idea, it was simple, crude, but by the Sun if it was not the most clever plan they had thus far.

The Crusaders and the Keepers moved together to the cliff side by the dogs' camp. It was a thirty meter tall cliff side covered with tall pine and leaf trees. The Keepers discouraged all animals and birds quietly away from the cliff using some scent based potions and balms to make them move away. Then they and the Crusaders got into position a decent ten meters away from the edge of the cliff and ready to run should the entire thing start collapsing.

Then a burning arrow was sent into the camp, striking a dog in the head, causing him to catch fire, howling out in pain. That was the signal. As the rest of the dogs in the camp moved to discover what the commotion was, was the combined force of over fifty ponies working together, slammed into cliff.

(Scene Skip)

Gravel the Big was the Alpha of the Pack. His kind was a race of two legged dogs who ate the shiny rocks in the ground for nourishment. They had no name for their own race, they only called themselves dogs. He had grown up a miner in the mountains, flailing claws into the dirt for months for even a scrap of food. He had hated it and had never wanted to do it ever again.

But how would you never have to dig for your own food? The answer came to him when one day he and his father visited a village filled with four legged creatures called ponies to sell inedible stone called coal to them. They were smaller, but could carry much and some of them were strong and some of them could use a mysterious power called magic. And thus he got the answer to his question.

The way to get food without work. Make someone else do the work for you. And thus he began to physically train himself, to one day challenge the Alpha of the pack. And after twenty years he succeeded in killing the alpha in one on one combat. The Alpha had been old and soft, too weak to guide the pack. Now Gravel was in charge and Gravel wanted food for less work, and thus he would need them ponies to work in the mines for him.

The Alpha's word is law. That is the basic fundamental rule of all dogs. Alpha decides everything for pack. And thus, Gravel had them make chains and cages, and tools for the ponies to use. He was of no mind that he could convince the ponies to dig up his food for him. He himself would never want to do so again, thus, the only option he saw was to force them to do so.

And so he and his pack laid siege to the village. His pack was big and strong. The ponies were lesser in number and smaller and weak. But Gravel made mistake and not know how to handle siege on a village with a wall and a powerful stream to protect it. But Gravel confident he can break the ponies' defences given time.

After two days of siege, he put down two challengers for Alpha position. He would enact plan to use trees to cross the stream, ponies had withdrawn their wooden rope pulled bridge before siege. Gravel make mistake to ask for surrender, no make that mistake again.

A loud scream in camp. One of Gravel's pack harmed. Gravel moved closer to sound. But then there was a strange terrifying sound, a familiar sound to any who work in mine and mountain like Gravel and Pack.

There was a loud resounding crack and all of the dogs looked up startled, as a landslide of boulders, trees, dirt, earth, pebbles and rocks crashed down into the middle of their camp. They had barely the time to scream as more then three hundred dogs were crushed beneath the force of the landsline as it struck them.

After five minutes of intense rumbling and shaking was the mountains calm once more. Then several claws popped out of the stone and dirt and several wounded and shaken dogs dug themselves out of the dirt. And then another sound was heard, a cry out from the road to the west. "CHARGE!" "FOR THE GODS!" "FOR PRINCESS CELESTIA!" "FOR THE ORDER OF THE GOLDEN CROSS!" "FOR EQUESTRIA!"

Ponies, an army of ponies. Gravel, who had been able to avoid the landslide, pulled to his paws and drew his two axes and howled out to his pack to attack. Rushing forward gravel meet one of the smaller armoured ponies with his axes. A young mare from what he could smell. At first he though of his opponent as weak and stupid to charge a much bigger opponent. No reason to go after the stronger opponent when there are smaller and weaker oens around after all.

He raised both of his axes and howled out in glee as he slashed at the small pony's armoured side. Only for his shiny gemstone axes to shatter upon impacting the pony's metal armour. Those axes should have split apart that pony's armour like tinfoil, and yet they had shattered like fragile quartz.

Snarling in anger he prepared to leap forward and rip out her throat. But then the mare hefted her weapon and made and upward and then downward arching strike with its hefty axe head adding more power to the strike. The Sacred Bronze metal of the two handed great axe struck down upon his helmet and split it apart, before splitting his fur, then his hide, next the flesh, then through bone and finally into brain tissue.

With the force of the strike his entire skull split apart, and Gravel had barely the time to blink at his opponent as his skull was cracked open like a melon, spewing blood and brain fluids into the air. He stood there, his face twitching and his vocals making shuddering yips. The mare stared at him with wide eyes through it all- After a good two minutes his body went limp and his head dropped down, off the edge of the axe, and with a loud thud the aspiring slaver collapsed dead on the ground.

The pack was unable to put up a proper defence to the attackers. And with more then half of their numbers already dead, it was not soon until they all fled howling up into the mountains from the terrifying pony warriors.

[End Theme Song]

(Scene Skip)

The Order of the Golden Cross was victorious, with Happy Meal's strategy they managed to defeat their foes without losing a single life of their own ranks. Horns were sounded in triumph and the villagers cheered for their saviors. But while the cheering was going on, was Grand Music comforting his puking sister, who killed a large dog by splitting open his skull. He himself had killed a pair of dogs with his broad sword, but not as graphic as Happy Meal, who was obviously shaken by the bloody death she had caused.

Together the two supported one another. They would get through this together. But it was certain now that both of them found an even deeper respect for their adopted grandfather and his old words of wisdom. Truly he had been right, war and battle, was no place for children or the ignorant. And they were ever grateful for his words, though it had not registered too deeply so long ago when they first heard them, it still gave them the strength to handle what they had done.

They were no longer little foals.

The villagers would welcome the newcomers who had saved them and help the newly blooded warriors recover from the shock of taking their first lives. Just as well, winter had started and the snow was covering the path, the Order of the Golden Cross would spend the Winter in the village, which they found out was named Hefty Crack Town, apparently named after the deep crevice were the stream was flowing down from the mountain.

(Scene Skip)

[Start Theme Song: Most Wondrous Battle Music: "And The Sky Shall Unfold" by Johannes Bornlöf]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP4eWOEnY9Y

Maleficus stared upon his creation, an adult pony, with the biological functions of a living being, with no mind or soul to control its momentum. He had made a breakthrough in his attempts of creating the body, now, he would need to make it possible to control the flesh golem properly. He would have to make it possible for it to receive signals and move in accordance to those signals.

Luckily he did not need to alter his spell anymore on the golem itself, now it was just a matter of creating a proper control conduit spell to properly handle the golem's movements and actions.

(Scene Skip)

Happy Meal smiled at her brother as they left the village of Hefty Crack Town, it had been three months since they made camp by the village. it had been an eventful couple of months. Both of them had worked hard with the other Knights to convey the intent of Equestria and the Golden Cross Order.

The villagers had not heard of Equestria and were apparently concerned about the concept of an Alicorn Princess controlling the Sun and Moon. They had explained to them that the rulers of these lands were a pair of self proclaimed barons. Both who a pair of pegasus stallions who had split the region in half from the mountains to the coast. There were no real and proper knowledge of the time before the age of Chaos, heck the villagers barely knew about the Age of Chaos.

The two Barons had split up the region along the central area of the coast, the known coast at least, and ruled form old keeps from the age before Chaos, each keep with a harbour town. The Barony of the Northern Regions, filled with mountains, fields, hills and wastelands. This region is rich in metals, grains and gemstones. And this was used to great effects by its self proclaimed ruler.
'
His name was North Wind, Baron North Wind, he was apparently a pegasus with a rather cold and self preserving attitude. He cared only for results and improvements of his realm. A one point had the majority of this area been a thick woodland, but the Baron had within just a few years, turned it into a prosperous farmland, even if harshly controlled.

Baron North Wind's banner was a blue background with a black cloud with shards of white ice beneath the cloud.

To the south laid the Barony of the Southern Regions, a land of woods, rivers, mountains and swamps. it was not as rich in metal and grains as the northern region. Instead it was rich in woods, clay and fabrics. The Baron of this region was quite the opposite of the northern ruler. Baron Summer Breeze was rash, opportunistic and quite a big waster. But he was just as greedy and self centered as his northern fellow, only far less cold and pragmatic in his personality.

His banner was in the shape of a yellow background, with a red upside down triangle on the upper portion of the banner, with a clear white cloud with raindrop shaped specks of fire beneath the cloud.

Neither of these Barons sounded much agreeable for the Order to make contact with. The villagers could not tell much else about them as most they knew was from outsiders who might have a coloured perspective of the two Barons.

They knew also that the Northern Region was a common home for the Gemstone Eating Dogs, although they were mostly friendly unless one of their less then friendly numbers gained control of a pack, like the pack they had defeated. Besides the dogs was there something of even greater importance the villagers knew of. The entire coastline was an area were dragons would come from across the sea to tear open the land to sate their massive hungers.

Dragons was something unknown to the Equestrians, and the fact that Golden Cross' personal notes mentioned dragons as beasts of incredible size, power, greed and intelligence, made them quite nervous. But apparently were dragon incursions so rare it could be decades between them.

From there the villagers could not tell them much else. They knew not of the towns or the villages beyond the mountains, and even then they had not seen or heard from them in months. It was not surprising for the former nomad Happy Meal that even close neighbors could be ignorant of each other. While the rest of the Knights who were not experienced like Happy Meal or some of the older knights, were rather baffled by this.

But while the villagers could not tell them anything else of importance about the region or its inhabitants, they knew a few more things, even if only a hoofful of them even remembered it, was it very good to know. Since apparently, a few of the elders of the village and heard about the Lawbringers and their ancient fortress Blackstone Keep. Apparently had they heard about both the Lawbringers and Blackstone Keep from old tales, rumours of wanderers and in the songs of minstrels. This surprised both Grand Music and Happy Meal, pleasantly of course, since Golden Cross had apparently been certain no one remembered his Order.

Apparently had there been whispers and rumours about an order of knights wandering the roads to keep the peace and fight the wicked. Apparently it had been a common sight a long time ago, but then all of a suddenly, they all went up to their fortress and then disappeared. This happened way before most of the villagers were even born. They knew about the Blackstone Keep, the ancient fortress of the order, though they did not know the name, but there could be no other place ,considering the name. There was once a large black stone fortress on a mountainside on the eastern edge of the Foal Mountains, which as apparently the name of this mountain range. It had laid on a mountain peak, just west of the large hills and fields separating the mountains from the coastline in the east. The old keep had been left alone for decades, no one dared approach it, and just as well since a falling star had destroyed the fortress around one or two years ago.

It was hard to get a proper timescale when all your news came from travelers, merchants and the occasional rangers.

The villagers were more then happy to tell them the path to the ruins of Blackstone Keep. and once they were told of the values and moral standings of the Golden Cross Order. And when they were told about Golden Cross, the last of the Lawbringers, the stallion who inspired the creation of this new Order, which was named after him, they felt awed and honoured to have been told such a tale from those who had witnessed this event.

And with the positive explanation of Celestia's manners, not to mention the Princess' kind personality, they were more then willing to become part of the nation of Equestria. Especially if it meant aid such as protection and supplies when they were experiencing harsh times. Some of the older generation had been a bit grumpy about it, but they saw it as the lesser of three evils considering how the two barons were feuding across the lands rather harshly.

"What are you smiling about Happy Meal?" Grand Music asked as the two of them marched over the drawbridge and into the mountainous woodlands. The keepers had managed to improve the voice device on his throat so his sentences were no longer broken up into single words.

"Just glad grandpa's old home was not entirely gone ya know. Plus. I be sure mama is going ta love ya new voice, it sounds real cool!" The unicorn blushed a little a rubbed his neck awkwardly before coughing and focused on marching, with the mare next to him giggling at his shyness.

As the Order of the Golden Cross marched down the old road the Keepers pulled on ten large wagons, each of which was covered by a cloth of oil soaked linen. Rain would be falling now that the winter was over and spring was making its way across the land. What lay beneath the linen was something the Order's Keepers had been working on, along with some aid from the other Positions, during the winter to prepare for the possibilities of hostility from the two Barons.

(Scene Skip)

The Order Marched for two more months before they came out of the Foal Mountains. Through this jorueny they connected with several other villages and minor clans of nomads through out the woodlands and mountains of the Foal Mountains. Not all were receptive or friendly, but the majority were willing to listen and even join the growing nation of Equestria.

Now they had come upon a vast open region of woodlands and fields. It was so open tat you could almost make out the ocean from where you stood by the mountain side. And up ahead of the road, was the two regions of North and South almost split in the middle. And in this center between these two regions, was a large blackened field, which held a foul air.

And on either side of this black mark of soil was a pair of large war camps, one within the woodlands to the south and one on the field to the north. Both of the war camps were flying the banners of their respective Barons and the land between the two war camps was littered with corpses and carrion eating birds and animals.

It was like a punch to the nostrils. The intense stench of decay and death was like nothing the knights had ever experience before. A few of them ended up puking. Not that anyone blamed them for it.

With one look at the situation between the two barons, all of the rumours could be considered truth, at least the hostility between the two. The Knights of the Golden Cross Order gathered for a meeting, and a decision was made. Neither of the two self proclaimed Barons would be considered allies until further information was gathered.

The army of knights marched north towards the location of Blackstone Keep, evading the battlefield and its two war camps entirely. Even as scouts on both sides reported the sighting of the vast force of armoured ponies mwarching northwards, neither of the armies of the Barons knew what to expect from these strangers.

And by the time word reached the two Barons, would things start to change, rapidly, for the regions.

(Scene Skip)

A bright flare filled the land of the Moon for a few seconds as a fresh Flesh Golem was created by Maleficus' magic. He had proceeded the magical array for creating, sending and receiving commands for the Golem. It had gotten a bit easier once he managed to properly make it so that Flesh Golem was not just an inert magicless breathing puppet of meat. He gave it a magical core, well, more like an organ that processed and circulate the magic within its body like a unicorn horn did.

Now he just needed to test giving it orders.

"..."

And that's when he realized something of an issue. There was no air to transfer commands verbally on the Moon. He would have to find an alternative way to send the orders to the Golem, without sound.

He facehoofed, hard, at his blunder.

(Scene Skip)

Another month of travel up the northern road lead the Order to the mountain they had been notified of. And indeed, it had once been a proud peak, but now it was a large mountain with a big crater taking off half of its height.

Marching up to the large crater the ponies of Equestria began their work to scavenge whatever scraps they could find. and they found a surprisingly big amount of remnants. There were pieces of ruined stonework, melted down nuggets of metal of what had once been various types of items or weapons. While it was mostly scraps, there was one major thing they discovered that made it their goal to establish a base her.

A basement. Within the bottom area of the crater there was a collapsed tunnel leading directly down into the core of the mountain. Digging it out took less then a day. and what they found, was astonishing. It was not a dungeon, it was not a treasure vault, it was not a storage room, or even an escape tunnel. It was a temple. A temple to the Gods.

Beneath the roots of the mountain, within a vast cavern with a crystal clear lake of water, there was a ceiling of glittering gemstones making it appear like stars and planets when a light was lit within the cavern. And upon a square shaped platform, levitating above the lake, connected by a levitating bridge made out of pure crystal, stood a massive structure. A spiraling cone stretching up towards the ceiling, though it was mistaken as a temple at first, was there no more doubts of its purpose once they found the engraved gates of the building. It was a hidden underground, and flying, temple, the size of a castle.

Reaching the temple ha taken no effort. But entering was another question, a pair of golden alicorn statues, one a mare and one a stallion, stood vigil before the large gates to the temple. Upon approaching the gates, both of the statues would speak up to those who sought to enter.

"Thou Who Seeks To Enter Our Sanctum. Bare To Us. The Answer Of Our Riddle. And Thou May Enter."

"A Harvest Sown And Reaped On The Same Day
In An Unplowed Field,
Which Increases Without Growing,
Remains Whole Though It Is Eaten,
Within And Without,
Is Useless And Yet,
The Staple Of Nations.
What Art We?"

None had found an answer to the riddle yet. But the Knights were not willing to give up and began to carve out the crater in the mountain to form a circular shaped wall, to form a large castle out of the mountain's own destroyed peak. The stone they carved out of the melted down craved was shaped into proper blocks, and foundation was made and slowly, the base of the new Blackstone Keep began to grow.

For a month they laboured, building two stories of stone and carving out large circular shaped walls with towers and turrets on the mountain side. Morale was still high, but the tension was growing as the ponies felt hope start to fade as the tempel remained unopened.

Then one morning it came to them. The Knights were going through their collective notes on what the riddle might mean, none of the suggestions had been voiced yet since no one was willing to make a wild guess just in case the statues would attack those who answered wrong. When a young Peacekeeper came to report.

"Heralds! News from the south! The forces of the Barons hath clashed once more. But this time the Northern forces hath split off from their little war and is heading northwards, possibly towards Our position."

The Heralds muttered and spoke to one another, trying to figure out the best way to approach this, when Happy Meal leaped up with a grin and shouted out, startling everybody in the tent. "That be it! I know that be the answer!"

As one the Heralds in the command tent looked at her in confusion and before any of them could stop her she marched off towards the tunnel. There was a short silence before all of the knights rushed after her, Grand Music at the front of the group, shouting out to his sister to not act rashly.

With rapid steps and flight the knights ran down the tunnel and barely managed to avoid falling down together. They ran out into the cavern, startling the guards and workers setting up camp there, and ran over the bridge after the cheering mare.

"I got yet answer!" Happy Meal proclaimed with a wide grin to the two statues, who seemed to give her a confused look at her bright and happy mood, before responding in their monotone voices.

"Thou Who Seeks To Enter O-"

With a loud shout Happy Meal interrupted the two guardians. "No need fer all that fancy talking just tell me ye riddle already so I can solve it!"

It was quite a sight to see two statues staring with a mixture of baffled and upset looks on their faces. They then looked at each other and decided to just do as the mare wanted.

"A Harvest Sown And Reaped On The Same Day
In An Unplowed Field,
Which Increases Without Growing,
Remains Whole Though It Is Eaten,
Within And Without,
Is Useless And Yet,
The Staple Of Nations.
What Art We?"

"War. That be war yer talking about yeah? Grandpa Cross' book mentioned some philosophy talk about war being da tool of countries." Happy Meal said with a grin. And all of the Heralds blinked as they slowly realized, just how right she was.

"Thou Hath Answered Correctly. Thou May Enter Our Sanctum."

The large golden gates split open and the knights entered the temple called Sanctum for the first time. It was a massive interior built with the intention of worshiping the gods, but it also held several other things. A large library, though many books remained altered by the Age of Chaos was there much to discover. There was a smithy, some workshops, storage with crystals and a warehouse filled with weapons and armour made out of the Sacred Bronze of the Lawbringers.

A loud cheer echoed through out the caverns as the Order of the Golden Cross, had accomplished their mission. Once the base was established, the majority of them could start their journey home.

[End Theme Song]

(Scene Skip)

Up on the Moon was Maleficus still working on his prototype Flesh Golem, thus far he had managed to make it, walk, stop, jump, lay down and poop, that last one had been a mistake but it was still a mark in progress.

(Scene Skip)

Down on the planet, were things starting to turn from better to worse. As the Peacekeeper had reported was the forces of Baron North Wind marching towards their location. But it was not just a force, it was his entire army. Apparently was the pegasus not willing to share power with others, especially those who established military outposts within his own borders.

And not only that, Baron Summer Breeze was chasing after Baron North Wind, possibly thinking that he was having the other Baron on the run. Thus was making it so that two full scale armies were marching towards the new Blackstone Keep. The news had made morale plummet, even if they were two hundred and fifty strong knights were the forces of battle hardened soldiers numbering in the thousands, not something they could handle.

But that was not what Grand Music was thinking.

"I do not think we need to consider fleeing. We have everything we need to win right here, on this mountain." When he said those words during the war meeting, had no one even dared to breath. While many of them were skeptic, had Grand music and Happy Meal both provided on numerous occasions the Order with ideas and tactics that worked far beyond what you'd consider possible.

"So what's yer plan Music?" Happy Meal asked with a grin as she sharpened the edge of her new poleaxe, she had claimed a weapon just like the one held by Golden Cross, it just felt right to her. While Grand Music was still using a heavy greatsword.

"We have the advantage of having ten meters thick solid stone walls. And the ten surprises we have constructed duringthe winter will be most favourable against their forces. But more then that. With the approaching rain we got words of from the pegasus Peacekeepers, we have the biggest advantage. The terrain around Blackstone Keep will become either a muddy killing field or a massive mud based landslide. While we will be standing on solid stone with proper drainage to not let us get washed away." He marked down the six towers of the keep, each a big and strong structure, in truth ws the keep built for at least a thousand strong to properly manage it. But they had been building for the future.

"We place six of our surprises here. On each of the towers. And put the remaining four on the roof of the now finished keep. The keep's rooftop reaches above the wall so we will have a clear view unless the rain blocks too much of our vision." He then marked down the walls by the large gates of the keep, facing towards the now wood free mountain side leading down to the road.

"The castle walls will give us leverage and range advantages over our opponents. Though they are mostly pegasi will they not be able to properly fly in such weather. Thus can half of our troops on the walls focus on handling the soldiers on the ground." He then marked down the gate house of the keep and tapped on the path leading up to the keep.

"We will not need to directly face them. But it is best to be prepared should they managed to reach past the walls and attempt to open the gates or attack us from within. Thus I suggest we place the majority of our close range crusaders by the gates to act in case someone slips past the walls somehow." Everyone looked at the battle plan, it was efficient, it used the terrain, the coming rain and their higher vantage points to their full potential. Now they would just have to properly act upon it.

"Well We art not sure if this be the right course Lord Grand Music... Morale be low right now. We shouldst find a way to encourage Our comerades." One of the older heralds stated, rubbing her chin in concern as she looked out at the less then cheerful crowd training out in the courtyard.

"I will handle morale. Just tell them to gather at the courtyard in five hours and I will try to raise morale." Grand Music said with a determined look on his face. Even if they held the advantage, the morale was too low for the troops to be efficient. He needed to raise morale, the question was only how. At the moment he just know he had to do something, but what he could do was uncertain.

He then looked at the metal of his helmet, a metal horn shape on the forehead to cover his own horn, to act as protection in combat and still allow him to cast magic. It reminded him of the time he had worn Golden Cross helmet. And it also reminded him, of when Golden Cross had given him his named.

(Flashback)

Golden Cross just chuckled and swallowed his mouthful of food before speaking to Grand Feast who was trying, and failing, to make the two foals eat less savagely. "You know. We should give him a name, he has yet to write anything down so I do not know if he knows how to read. But it is probably for the best that he has a proper name."

Grand feast, currently trying to shield herself with a towel while at the same time trying to calm down the two foals, looked at him in surprise before nodding. "Aye. We thought so as well. We art not certain what manner of name though. We hath never heard of somepony being named by anypony except the parents."

The foal almost seemed to flinch at the word 'parents' but nobody except for Golden Cross seemed to have taken notice, the old earth pony pondered a bit while stroking his chin. "Well. There is always a first time for something." He then turned towards the colt who was looking up in confusion, his entire muzzle covered in blueberries and pie crust. "So kid, how would you like a name?"

The child looked concerned and a bit worried for a moment before his eyes narrowed and he nodded purposely to the old earth pony who smiled at his fierce expression. "That is a good face to have lad, and I am not sure if it fits you. But let us get back to the subject at hoof. I figured, if anything, it will be ironic and amusing to name you after something that is both grand and musical, for even if you are mute, will music always be something that you can create and play. It is a magic in itself you know. So how about it? Would Grand Music be a name for you?" The foal looked into the eyes of Golden Cross, a twinkle seemed to shine in the old pony's eyes and then the foal's fierce expression seemed to turn slightly tear but he quickly wiped his eyes and just nodded.

"Grand Music it is then, now try not to eat too much or you will get sick and throw up. And then you will not be able to eat properly for a while."

(Flashback End)

Putting on his helmet Grand Music looked past his great sword strapped on his back and then notice something as he walked out of the tent. There was a soft humming coming from his blade as it tapped against his chair. and it got him thinking. And idea sprung to mind.

He walked over to the keepers by the courtyard and whispered softly to them if they had any decent musicians in the Order. There were a surprisingly large amount of musically adept ponies in the Order. So Grand Music had the keepers makes some instruments, anything they could in a short time.

Five hours goes by and Grand Music takes deep breathes as he stands behind a wooden stage prepared by the Keepers for his speech. He hoped his plan worked out, or he would be more then making a fool out of himself. As the knights gathered he let out a long slow breathe and tried to relax, before he put his game face on and slowly strode up onto the stage, helmet strapped to his side.

He walked up to the front and looked out with intense eyes upon the crowd, seeing Happy Meal waving at him in the distance with a cheerful smile on his face, and he felt a lot calmer then before. Grand Music then made a signal with his right hoof, and the musicians by the stage, started playing the song he had been writing, rather hastily, for four hours. He just hoped it worked out.

[Start Theme Music: Most Epic Battle Music: "Warriors To The End (Mix)" by Epic Score]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1xzKtMqe_4

As the music started to build up he stood up on his hind legs and pointed out his right forleg at the crowd of knights and began to speak, loudly.

"Now listen to me! My name is Grand Music. I once had a different name. But when I was thrown to the gutter I left that name behind me! Instead a kind soul took me to those I now call family, he gave me my new name! He took this worthless mute little foal in the street and saved him!"

The knights in front of him were no longer nervous or skittish, they were focusing all of their attention on him. Even as he spoke out his darkest hour he did not let it deter him, for he was not ashamed of his past. Instead he kept talking, as the music carried out across the courtyard.

"For no cost! For no reward! For no expectation of gratitude!"

He walked back and forth, not looking away from the crowd, he just kept looking straight at them. This was it, the moment of truth, he had started it and he was not slowing down!

"He saved that which was considered worthless by others! And here I am today! All thanks to him! That pony was the closest I had to a grand father!"

Realization started to appear in the crowd's eyes as he spoke about his saviour, the pony whom he considered brighter then even the Princess. And he felt no shame for thinking such ways either.

"And you all know him! There is no one in Canterlot or the borders of Equestria who does not know his name! His name was Golden Cross!"

There was no sudden gasp from the crowd, only a dawning realization, and a deep intense emotion running through their bodies. And a burning heat started to fill their hearts as the music resounded with their spirit. As Grand Music, pointed out at them all, his sword now held with blade down in the stage, looking like an knight of legend.

"And I stand here today, as a founding member of the Order named after him! As a member of the Order YOU are part of as well! An order made in his honour! And I want all of you to know this! No matter what come! No matter what be! We Are Knights of the Golden Cross! And We Are Just Starting!"

Backs, once slack and hunched, grew straight and strong. A sense of pride filled them, yet a pride tempered with the knowledge that they were not within the reach of such a great pony, not yet. But they could be.

"Let the ignorant insult us! Let the corrupted attempt to hinder us! Let the greedy attempt to sway us! Let the wicked attempt to slay us!"

Determination started to fill their eyes, their heads were held high. and even as Grand Music's voice carried through them. The thundering music flowed through their souls like a volatile fuel put on a bonfire.

"For We fight not for Ourselves! We do not act for Ourselves!"

Once more, the truth. They fought not for themselves. It was something that had been drilled into them during basic training. A knight was not a humble servant, nor was he a pious lord, nor was he a mindless warrior. A Knight of the Golden Cross was someone who fought for the order, stability and safety of others.

"A knight's worth is only as strong as his heart! And We all know what such strength can do!"

Yet another truth. The tales. The sights of the still remaining scars on the city walls was all the proof needed to know it. There was no limit to the strength of one's heart. And a knight's heart was not just his, or her, own. It was the strength of many.

"I say let them come! Let them break upon our walls! We stand not by Ourselves! We stand with our friends! Our family! Our brothers! Our sisters! Our Princess! Our nation! So I ask of you! To face the approaching storm! And show the world! Who We Are!"

As one, the knights in the courtyard stood up, drew their weapons and held them in front of their muzzles, and shouted out together. Even as Grand Music's own voices rang through their ears, their hearts beating with intense, warmth and comfort in knowing, no matter the end. They were knights, and they would not fail in their duty.

"Aye!"

Taking a deep breath Grand Music pointed out his sword at the crowd, and the music grew more intense, and he shouted out to them. "And who are we!?"

The knights raised their weapons into the air, and shouted out together, their voices shaking the very air itself.

"Knights of the Golden Cross!"

[End Theme Music]

the music grew to an end, and a long silence resounded through out the courtyard. And then there was cheer and the once dull and hopeless morale of the Blackstone Keep, was strong and bright once more.

Swiping off the sweat on his forehead, Grand Music looked out over the cheering knights with a smile before looking up at the bright afternoon sun. "Music... is a magic in itself... Is this what you meant Grandpa?"

"Music! You got ye cutie mark! That be so awesome!" Came a loud cheerful voice from his side and he barely had time to react when a most energetic Happy Meal tackled him in a hug that sent him tumbling off the stage, making the knights break into frenzied laughter.

As Grand Music laid there being hugged by Happy Meal, he realized just what she had said and looked at his flank. And saw there a grand stage, with a golden sword inserted into its center, with a violin and a flute crossed behind the stage. And he smiled brightly in joy at the sight. *Thank you grandpa Cross.*

(Scene Skip)

On the surface of the Moon, within the mindscape of Maleficus weres both Luna and Maleficus watching the ending scene of the first Pokemon Movie, the death and resurrection of Ash was the most touching of the scenes, making both of them a bit teary eyed. Then they decided to watch another kind of movie, and Luna made the suggestion to watch a cartoon she had seen written among the many titles he had within his memory.

"How about we watch the cartoon movie called... err let's see... Karl Bertil Jonsson's Julafton... does it mean that Christmas thing your species enjo-" A loud crack resounded through out the mindscape, interrupting her words. And fractures took shape across the room and the very space itself.

Luna stared as thick cracks had taken shape in the walls and items within the mindscape. Spreading like spiderwebs across the room. She rose up from her seat and grabbed Maleficus, who was staring blankly at the TV screen, and shouted into his face. "Maleficus! Are you okay!?"

Maleficus just gave Luna a calm smile, even as the bordeline fissures in the space of his Mindscape began to seal shut. "Do not worry Luna. Everything is fine."

The Alicorn princess looked at him with worry and felt that things were far beyond fine as it were. She needed to figure something out and fast.

(Scene Skip)

Down on the planet. The siege of Blackstone Keep was soon to happen. Even before the sun had settled had the army of North Wind gathered by the base of the mountain. But with him came the rain clouds and the soft tinkling rain. Which would soon turn into a full blown storm.

The knights were more then ready, and it was clear of the Baron's intent as he sent no messengers to parley. He intended on taking them all down, one way or another. And with the approaching forces of Summer Breeze coming from the south, there was no time to waste, yet North Wind was a careful planner and he wanted his troops to not be unprepared for the coming siege.

And thus as the sun settled and the night was filled with lightning and the light of torches and lanterns. The Baron sounded his war horns to assault the Blackstone Keep in the night.

It ended with disaster. The Baron had known his forces would not be able to fly properly with the storm and the rain. Thus he had planned for a massive ground assault upon the keep. He had considered the location stable enough to attack without risking a mudslide.

But he had made a miscalculation. That the ponies had not prepared an artificial mudslide of their own. It had occurred to the Heralds that the best way to make the mudslide happen, was to make it so that it would happen. And thus they built wooden fences on several points on the mountain side and piled up tons of sand and mud into them.

Then as the army of North Wind charged up the mountain in a frenzied charge, the Knights of the Golden Cross activated their trap. There were magical rune stones which exploded in powerful bursts of kinetic energy buried at the bottom the now mud and water filled fenced areas in the mountain side.

So when they detonated, they not only released the mud in the fences, but caused several more tons of rock and mud to slide down with it. The brown wave of rock and mud buried the entire army in moments, even flooding down over the war camp by the base of the mountain, burying the unsuspecting Baron and his closest commanders alive beneath the wave before they had a time to react.

The instant victory had been a surprise and the Knights had originally not known what to do. But then their options were picked for them when a new war horn was sounded and an army of ponies charged over the now settling mud and up towards the mountain side. Summer Breeze ha sneaked up on the war camp of North Wind.

He had intended to take out his other opponent first with a strike force from his main army a bigger distance away. Bu the sudden defeat of his rival by the strangers had made him very irritated. He had wanted to take down the other Baron on his own, and not use a proxy victory to achieve his goals. The name Summer Breeze was to become the foundation for the region and all of the surrounding lands. And no upstart sparkling pretty knights with dumb luck were going to upstage him!

And so he had sent out his main force to charge the now defenceless fortress. The invaders would not be able to handle his far superior forces. Of this he was certain.

With a gleeful smile on his muzzle the self proclaimed Baron watched with a spyglass from a comfy chair how the siege ladders were put to use to scale the tall walls. So kind of North Wind to leave them unattended.

But then things went from good to concerning. As a loud twang was heard from the keep and then a bolt of solid wood struck one of the rank of ground troops, tearing them apart by the sheer kinetic force of a wooden bolt enchanted to split apart into shrapnel, hitting their ranks. Staring up with his spyglass Summer Breeeze snarled as he saw the source of the projectile. Upon one of the towers stood a large crossbow like construction.

It was a newly made prototype, one of four. It was a Heavy Ballistae, twice as large as the common Ballistae and with more special ammunition. But that was only four out of ten siege engines made by the Keepers during the winter. The other six were something else.

A brave group of the baron's pegasus soldiers flew up along the side of one of the towers to take out the siege engine, when a lout repeating sprat like sound was heard from the central keep. The force of twenty pegasus were torn to shreds by a swarm of wooden shafts piercing their leather armour covered forms.

The source of this shower of bolts was a newly made weapon called the Hornet's Nest. A rectangular shaped box filled with cylinder shaped chambers, about forty or so, resting on a mobile tripod platform. Each of its cylindrical chambers was filled with a single pure wooden bolt. The gunner just needed to aim the weapon in a direction, and with a burst of magic, the runes within each of the box's chambers would launch the projectiles like a single massive buckshot, at the speed of a common bow shot. It took a while to reload and the enchantments were not easy to maintain ,but it was efficient as a prototype.

Snarling in fury Summer Breeze ordered for his beast tamers to bring forth the war beasts and break down the door. The only reason North Wind had not been defeated by these beasts was because he had known how to handle them. Now these strangers would most likely not know how to handle twenty manticores.

With the crack of whips and the shouts of orders were two groups of ten manticores sent towards the gate. Their wings had been clipped to prevent them from flying away, thus leaving them far more developed for ground combat.

The twenty beasts charged in two waves, ten at a time. But then, on the two towers on each side of the gate house, was a loud kaclunk heard before a bright flash of lightnign struck the sky, blinding most ponies. Then pair of loud resounding bangs erupted from both towers.

Out of the wooden frame of what looked like a mixture between a magical wand and a cannon, was a single bolt of magical energy fired from the clear blue crystal tip of the wooden siege weapon. The bolt struck the approaching manticores and the powerful lightning fried their large muscular bodies to ash in an instance.

They were called Energy Rods. They were used by slowly gathering natural energies, like heat, cold or electricity to charge its crystal tip for a solid energy attack. The problem was that currently it took hours to reload, unless of course you had a source of instant energy available, like a lightning cracking storm for example.

Summer Breeze was at this moment frothing in utter rage and was about to scream out more orders. When suddenly a loud whistling sound was heard. Curious he looked up, only to stare in shock as a bolt shot from one of the Heavy Ballistaes, expanded into the size of a forty meter tall and three meter wide tree trunk, enchanted with the shrapnel runes. The Baron had only time to curse his luck ,before the massive projectile struck the center of his camp, before detonating into a storm of wooden shrapnel.

And even with the few soldiers bearing metal protecting him. Were the metal no match for the solid force of shrapnel the size of branches flying at the speed of sound. The attack broke the morale of the enemy forces and they fled into the woodlands, leaving some perplexed but happy Knights in their fortress.

While they had been certain of victory, for their siege engines to handle their enemy forces so well was astonishing. But perhaps the fact that most of the soldiers in both of the Baronies had little more then cloth and leather armour made things a bit more in their favour?

The Order of the Golden Cross had essentially killed both of the Barons of the south and north of the region, within one and the same night, without losing a single life. It was... astonishingly humbling for them to realize just how much of a different proper equipment and training could do for you in a fight like this.

For a year the Order remained in the mountain and the Blackstone Keep. There they established a proper source of supplies, information and materials from the regions. With the barons dead there was now a lot of self ruling towns and villages no longer swearing fealty to anyone.

The Knights of the Golden Cross had to march out of their keep at several occasions to put an end to depravity and outlaws for a long time until it started quieting down. From there they started establishing connections and trade with the locals. While the knights sought no rewards were they more then willing to offer profitable services to others, but they never established contracts or mercenary works, they were no thugs for hire, nor were they free agents. They were Knights of Equestria and their loyalty was absolute.

An idea was put forth after the Battle for Blackstone Keep. Each newly graduated Knight would travel to Blackstone Keep and stay there for a year for training and practical experiences. Communication with Canterlot was slow but it took less time to travel back now that most of the road had been cleaned up.

Of the two hundred and fifty who arrive,d would one hundred and fifty return. Leaving one hundred knights of various positions to handle the Blackstone Keep until its was properly filled up with new knights. And among those returning home to Canterlot was Grand Music and Happy Meal, now both sixteen years old.

(Scene Skip)

On the moon were things not going well Maleficus was exercising and experimenting and trying to distract himself with his vast memory of TV entertainment. But recently had Luna started noticing his mind fracturing, even when he was not actively inside the mindscape. The frequency and intensity was growing and she was growing steadily worried for the alicorn stallion.

It kept going for months, possibly years. He tried to dissuade her, telling her it was nothing, and just kept going, closing up his emotions and thoughts and ignoring them. Which ended up, as it always did, in a total break down. One day, even as he calmly jogged over the sand, Maleficus' mind just could no longer handle the strain and without warning his eyes rolled up and he essentially, collapsed out cold on the sand of the Moon, while his mind went into total break down.

(Scene Skip)

A loud crack erupted through the mindscape. Luna, who had been sitting and reading a comic book, looked up and stared in shock as the walls around her started to break apart. Spiderweb like cracks and fissures spread over the floors, the walls, the ceilings and the objects within the mindscape. She jumped off the sofa she had been lying on and stared in shock as it collapsed into dust sized fragments which began to pour into the cracks.

Flapping her wings she broke out of the fracturing room she had been in. The fractured wall split apart like glass and revealed a massive shifting and twisting mass that had once been a vast black void. Closing her eyes as a blizzard of ice and fire erupted in front of her she flew through it and screamed out into the vast area as one of the shifting masses turned into a twisted face with five eyeballs, three ears, two noses and one tooth. "Maleficus! Where art you!?"

Her cry echoed through the vast space of twisted chaos and she was forced to evade a swarm of flying scarabs with octopus heads with burning kabuto beetle horns. The swarm pestered her, trying to grab, bite or molest her shape before they all exploded into black ichor as a misshapen metal figure with two legs and two arms wielding a burning salmon with the head of a frog as a weapon to swat the swarm.

Then a massive crack formed amid the chaos and a massive black hand like appendage reached out of the void, with a large white masked face grinning at her from the split space in the mindscape. Gritting her teeth she fired off a lance of pure energy and it struck the hand and it deteriorated into a swarm of flying rats with the wings of butterflies and the tails of snakes.

Furiosuly frustrated she tried to think and figure out just how to reach Maleficus. Even if he had broken down mentally, should his mental avatar still be possible to find. She just had to figure out where to find him. That's when she noticed something. All over the space of utter chaos was a single black untouched space, a black void amid the unsettling insanity sticking the mindscape.

Her shape split through the blackened mass that made up the darkness and reached a vast dark space of nothing, yet she could see, just beyond the edge of the darkness, the writhing chaos and insanity twisting across the rest of the mindscape. Turning towards the deeper area of the void she flew forward, and as she did, she began to hear it. The frantic mumbling, slurred languages, twisted ramblings and broken words of the mindscape's owner.

"Jag... I _w^ant... _mam^ma- ^yes! _Min.. _m^y- m^ys_el^f.. ^m_a^m_ma... _fat^he-.. _pap^pa..."

The voice grew louder as she flew further and further into the darkness. The shifting chaos outside almost seemed like preferable, in the void there was only the sound of the broken voice of a young stallion, echoing across it like the mourning ramblings of a tortured spirit. Luna was not sure if she preferred the round and endless chaos to this silent, mentally pressuring, darkness with the rambling voice within.

"_Jag ^vill... _I ^wa^nt_... _h^{ur s}k_a,,, ho_w d-.. _V^a_r^f_ör!? ^Ha_h^aeh_eh^ee... ^Green S_tar! ^Wro_ng... a_llt... f^el.... s^{o m}an_y.^.. så _många^... de^ad._.."

"^Vi... _bo^rde... s^ho_uld _w^e _make... ^Broth^er!_... Th_e.^.. B^ro_r..^.. v_i... s^ist_er.^{. I} ^wa_nt_.... ^jag_... ^vi_....^Lord _o^{f T}e_rro^r_!"

She saw something in the distance. The voice was growing louder as she approached the shape there beyond the edge of her vision in the darkness.

"_Frien^ds... _we.^{... ja}g._{.. v}i_{ll n}i.^{.. ha}r ^v_i... pl^a_y ^some _gam^es... ^wo^rk._.. _för^äldr_ar^.._. g^ra_v._.. ^dead._{.. a}loⁿe..."

The Princess of the Moon suddenly found herself landing on solid ground, even though she could not see any kind of solid surface, nor had she even been attempting to land, it was like she had gone from flying to running in less then an instance. but she shrugged it off and ran towards the limp shape lying there in the darkness, rambling to himself.

"^Arb_eta m_i^{g u}t _i... _ge^t _{a li}f^e... L_aur^a! P_on^y da_m... b_ea^u_... p_r^e_tt^y._.. _dri^nk _up ^me _pi^rat_es y_oh^o! ^Se_xy t_i^me._.. ^I w_an^t.^.. j_ag ^vi_ll h^eh_eh^eh_ehe^ee!"

The voice grew more frantic and insane as time passed by. Luna knew she had to reach him quickly, he was devolving into an utter mess and if she did not break him out of this he could revert into a childish mind state, or worse!

"G_old^en C_ro^ss! .^.. A^he_he_he^e! _I ^a_m.._.. M_al^ee_eee._.^.. Fⁱk_us_..^... ^Vi_cto_r^y._... _eeh^heheh^e_ee! S_hitt^{y Ge}m_{s o}f^... _sl^a_veri!"

She reached him, her hooves stepped over the empty void as she slowed down to a halt as she came within a few meters of him. He just laid there, limp like a broken puppet, mumbling and rambling, his shape distorted by the darkness. It made him appear more like a mass of shadows in the darkness. but as she approached him, the more details became visible.

"H^app_y._... ^Mea_l... i^nga _pom_mes... ^yea^{h n}_{o fr}i^es.^{.. J}a^g ^gil_lar^... ^Gran_{d M}us^ik..^{.. p}r_otec^t..^{. ba}r_nen... sk_ydd^{a th}e c^hild_ren..^{.. Gr}a_nd F^east.^.. le_{t u}s e_at!.^.. ha_pp^y... w^ar_mt^h... _v^arm_t... ^fa_milj.._.. sk_yd^da..^{. pr}o_te^ct_{... h}ur^t..."

Luna reached out and grabbed the limp form of the babbling alicorn. She made a startling realization that he did not look the same as she had seen him before. The once solid black pony alicorn looked like a misshaped mixture between a brown monkey and a black pony foal. He was barely the size of an adult. And as she grabbed him, his rambling gre more intense and then his jaw unhinged into a mad laughter before twisting into an echoing scream.

"P^ai_n.._{. s}il^enc_e..^{. in}g_en ^me^{r tys}t_na^d... sⁿä_lla... _var ä^r._.. w^her_{e a}m_... q^ui^et s_o.._.. ty^st._.. sa^v_e.._{.. he}l^p... ^Mig_... h_jäl^p... ^sn_äll.^... _varf^ör^..._{. wh}^y... a^aa_hh^aa_ha^ha_h.^... Aa^aa_aa^a_aaa^aaaa_aa^ahhh_hhh^hA_A^AAAA_AA_AA^AA_AAAA_AAAA^AAAA^AAA-"

Even as he screamed out in utter heart splitting despair, she grabbed him by his misshapen head and looked him straight in the eyes and spoke out to him. Breaking through his screaming with her soothing words. "Maleficus. Calm down. You are not alone. I am here. You are safe."

"-A_AAAa^aaaaaa_aaaaa^aaaa...ha_aaa... haaaaa..."

His unfocused pure white eyes seemed to twitched for a moment, and slowly he stopped screaming. She gently stroked his cheek, which was slowly reforming into a pure pony shape, and whispered gently to him, tears running down her cheek as she looked at the broken creature who was her friend. "Calm down. It is okay. Shhhh."

"Ha.....ha....." He made soft gasping breaths, his eyes were still unfocused, he was still limp in her forelegs. But he was no longer screaming or rambling and the twisting chaos around his black void, was slowly but surely, disappearing. She just looked him in the eyes until they slowly regained their colour and a bit of their focus.

And then.

"Huhuhuuuhuuuuu..." The broken stallion broke down into tearful sobs and just started crying.

Luna hugged him to her chest and let him bury his face into her fur and gently cradled the crying stallion to her and gently rocked his head as he clutched her in a desperate embrace, and just wept until he blacked out and fell asleep within his own mindscape. "It will be okay."

It would be a long time until Maleficus recovered from his break down. But with Luna there to support him, he would get through.

(Scene Skip)

The following seven years would go past mostly uneventful. The Order of the Golden Cross would expand its numbers and spread out across the nation to do their duty. With Grand Music as the newly appointed Grand Master after returning home.

Equestria began to expand its borders to the eastern coastline, establishing the towns of Fillydelphia and Baltimare in the northern and southern region for a steady supply of goods. With the outlaws of the immediate region gone would the ponies start tending larger fields and producing much larger and varied amounts of crops, thus adding more to the nation.

The unexplored southern, northern and western regions would be investigated in the future. But for now was the nation content in developing in its already existing territories. New towns and villages would have to be added along the newly restored Mane Road. With the Milestone System being put to use immediately.

Celestia still focused mostly on military development, and the lack of support to other parts of the kingdom and its needs was starting to cause a bit of a shift between the Crown and the Nobles. It was growing into such a problem, that a group of ponies, would start making plans, to make Equestria recover from its war efforts. With or without the Princess permission.

Up on the moon Maleficus would slumber deeply for almost six years, his mind needing a long time to recover from his break down. Luna kept watch over him, comforting his disoriented mind self through the intense nightmares and memories haunting him. She thought she had figured out the reason for his mental collapse. aligning it with his already damaged psyche from his many years of torment as the Stallion of Torment. Followed by his lack of reaction to his sudden change form human to pony. Not to mention the emotional drama of being made into a villain and sealed on the moon only to be charged with attempted execution every ten years or so.

It was in the end, uncertain but she thought she had the right idea about how and why he had his breakdown. But she would probably not know for certain yet since not even Maleficus himself could even speak to her about it. He needed time to recover before he could even consider investigating the cause of his break down. But she was not certain if he was even willing to try and do so.

But even if he did attempt to investigate the cause of it, would she do so in his stead. Perhaps it was for the best, it would help her in handling such cases in the future, not to mention allowing her to learn more bout the stallion she was sharing a mindscape with.

And thought it pained her to watch him just soundlessly sleep for such a vast amount of time, she knew his mind needed rest to recover. And so she remained by his side as the years rolled by, helping his aching mind and heart to recover from the horrors he had experienced, while also entertaining herself with a small tv screen to watch cartoons and anime as he recovered.

To Be Continued

Chapter Twelve: The Second Crusade (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Twelve: The Second Crusade

[Current Date: 1/7 - 111 AD]

Maleficus looked up towards the planet from where he was sitting on the soft sand of the Moon's surface. He had been asleep for a long time, years had gone by before he even knew what had happened. He felt... lightened, relieved, when he had woken up. His mind felt clear and open, as if an invisible pressure that had been steadily growing had disappeared.

He had checked up on the Planet below after he woke up from his sleep. Luna had insisted he made a check up on Equestria and its inhabitants, she was especially insistent on checking up on her sister Celestia. He could understand why.

And what he had seen both made him relieved and worried for the ponies. The city of Canterlot had grown far larger then the last time he had seen it. The broken down area of the mountain side beneath the city, which had once made a cliff side to the river leading to Saddle Lake, was now being constructed into a harbour, already he could see small boats sailing across the river and the lake, gathering what he thought to be water plants and possibly some kind of pearl clams.

But the biggest change was the mountain that had once covered the back of the city like a large wall. It was being carved out into a new section of the city. It was all rather impressive. But what impressed him the most was not the new building projects or their mass escalation in producing crops and water based goods and vehicles, it was the ponies themselves.

Through out the courtyard of a large cathedral like building, he knew had not been by the park before, stood lines of ponies bearing bronze like armour, going through stances, doing exercises and sparring. This new group was something he wanted to know more about. But the Elements of Harmony denied him the right to send his mind through his shadowy miasma like he had done before the First Crusade. So he was limited to audio and visual signals from the planet through his crudely made satellites and the spells he used through the Interface.

And what he was seeing and barely hearing, he was rather impressed. Not to mention very proud and touched. Grand Music was the Grand Master of a Knightly Order named after his alter ego Golden Cross, had reclaimed lost knowledge, defended the innocent and with his sister had won four major victories since the Order was founded.

The pair had defeated an army of slave hunting dog creatures. Then they defeated two selfish barons laying siege to their newly made fortress, which he was destroyed an large group of bandits attempting to ambush one of their patrols and later destroyed said bandit's main hideout. It made him both proud, and sad.

The two of them had grown up to a fine pair of people. Endured various hardships and obstacles. Fought in battles and saved lives. He could not help but feel a rush of pride as well as a stinging sadness, for he had never wanted them to live through such things. But they had, and they had came through it stronger then they were before and had gained both prestige and recognition for it. They were by far greater then his false persona could ever be, and he was happy for that.

But there was bit of a snag in the whole thing.

*I bet Celestia is going to use the Order in the upcoming battle. And I will be forced to face those two among a sea of enemies... Gods... what do I do?* He thought to himself as he looked up at the planet. No one would wish to fight ones friends, let aloen those they consider their own children. And those two as well as their mother were the closest Maleficus had as a family while he was on the planet. And it made him anxious and afraid to even think of fighting them.

But then. He looked at his Interface and slowly he started considering... just what kind of fight could he got into with them? *What if I... intentionally got into a fight with them? Yes. That way I can control the situation and location of where that will occur. But it will have to be planned for it to work, I need to know the area where the fight will occur.*

Determination filled him as he walked over to the Interface and as he activated the construct of floating solid light screens he began to search through his memories as he began to scan the lands of Equestria. He could not plan where the Elements would toss him to, but he could very fucking well plan were the fight would occur. All he had to do, was find the best spot and to figure out the best tactic, or remember it, to use there.

And so the stallion shifted and moved screen after screen, scanning landscape after landscape all over Equestria and its surrounding regions for the ideal battlefield for his indirect meeting with his adopted family. He would keep them safe, even if he had to act harsh, even if he made them hate him, he would keep them safe.

There was just a few weeks left until the next Red Sun. He was going to have to make it count.

(Scene Skip)

Equestria was an active nation and so its most active spot was Canterlot, it was not only expanding in size but in population as well. What had once been a city population of four thousand ponies had become twenty thousand within the past ten years with the expanded borders, new comers, expanded city construction and increased birth rates. But the largest growth was its military forces and the knightly order called the Order of the Golden Cross. Within less then ten years has this Order turned into the largest Order of Knights in Equestria, followed by the Sun Knights of the Sun Guard and the Equestrian Order of Chivalry.

The Order was currently numbering in a total of one thousand three hundred and fifty seven, with two hundred of them being the current year's recruits training to become knights of the Order.

After the great success of the Order of the Golden Cross had the nobles initiated their own project for a knightly order, but it was not as efficient since the noble's Order only accepted those of nobility or military prestige as members. And those things were something you were born with or earned through military service, not something a commoner could hope to achieve in their younger years.

Thus the Equestrian Order of Chivalry was more like a personal training ground for the children of Nobles and the few military veterans wishing to stand on equal grounds with the Nobles. While the Sun Knights were Sun Guards who had been in service of the Sun Guard for five years or achieved great accomplishments. And while they far outnumbered the Equestrian Order of Chivarly, were their numbers far lower then those of the Order of the Golden Cross. The title of Knight in the sun Guard was less of a rank and more of an achievement, it was a title in name only.

While the Order of the Golden Cross allowed all forms of applicants as long as they were willing And after a year of harsh training, education and tests would they graduate as knights, be allowed to try again next time, or be given leave from the Order. Thus far had only fifty applicants in the last eight years been rejected from the Order for being unfit of knighthood.

Ever since the Order of the Golden Cross completed their mission and liberated the Eastern Middle Coast of Equestria had the nations resources, knowledge and population skyrocketed within the last ten years. With the path to the mountain free, with the new milestone system and the constructed fortress of Blackstone Keep and the Hidden Temple of Sanctum beneath it, there was a whole lot more ground for the ponies to travel, explore and exploit.

Not to mention, the two towns of Baltimare and Fillydephia were both producing a lot of goods, and had opened possible sea routes for future trade along the coast, and in the future, the distant sea.

But the future was far away. And currently was a lot of thing happening within not only the Order but the Nation of Equestria itself was experiencing deep change.

On top of a staircase next to the courtyard of the Temple of Law stood a tall white pelted unicorn stallion with a crimson mane and tail, bearing a black robe with golden emblems and green gemstones. This was Grand Music, now 22 years old, the First Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Cross.

He was smiling proudly as the Recruits swung their training weapons, worked out and stretched. As he looked out at the field he was approached from behind by a grinning shadow that suddenly tackled him and made him face plant onto the top of the marble stairs leading down to the courtyard. "Hey there Music!"

It was a tall pegasus mare, easily one head taller then Grand Music, with a well toned body covered by cream white pelt with a wild mane and tail of lime green colour, wearing an armour of Sacred Bronze. Happy Meal, the daughter of Grand Music's adoptive mother, and one of the one hundred Master Knight ranked members of the Order. She was also the only member of the Order thus far to earn the title of Enlightened. While there were over two hundred Templars and fifty Grand Templars, one of which was Grand Music who had earned the title of Grand Templar by learning the ways of the Herald, the Keeper, the Crusader and the Warden, had Happy Meal been the first to master every aspect of the Order.

"Hey there Music!" She said with a grin as she looked down at the flustered face of Grand Music as he gave her an irritated look as she was pressing him down on his back with her armour covered body. The metal of the armour not even slowing her down.

"Hello Happy. Do you mind getting off of me?" He asked with a frustrated sigh.

The mare made a thoughtful look ant tapped her chin as she tapped the other hoof on his throat before grinning and standing up, lifting him up onto her back out of nowhere, he blinked in confusion. "Okay! Come on now! Mama wanted you to come over for lunch!"

Sighing with resignation the Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Cross just let the hyperactive mare carry him out of the Temple of Law, giving a nasty glare at the rest of the veteran knights of the order who were snickering at the sight. It was a common theme.

Grand Music's achievements as not only a knight but Grand Master had earned him a lot of fame, fortune and fans. Many ponies looked up to him and he had a lot of families offering brides or individual mares trying to seduce him. And he had to admit that if it had not been for Happy Meal keeping him safe with her antics, he might have been a father before he even became Grand Master.

But like him had Happy Meal many ponies looked up to her for this achievement, and many stallions sought her favour as well. He kept her safe from those vipers just like she was keeping him safe. Neither of them intended to settle down just yet, well at least Grand Music had no plans for it, he had no clue what Happy Meal wanted for the future, she never told him.

Though while neither of then had families yet had their found love a second time in her life. And apparently considering their three new sisters and two brothers, it was a very happy marriage.

Grand Feast had found a new stallion, as she was still young enough to have foals and a noble mare at that, was she rather sought after. And five years ago she had meet a fine, slightly younger stallion, by the name of Applejack, a member of a large family of earth ponies called the Apples who had been wandering the lands of Equestria since before the Age of Chaos. And still were wandering the lands, each member of the clan was apparently trying to find their ideal home, and since ideals could, and were, very different from one another would some of them settle down while the rest of them wandered on to other parts.

The ten years younger stallion was light blonde in pelt with a mane and tail of dark red with the cutie mark of an apple tree with a pair of axes behind it.

And Applejack's clan had arrived at Canterlot at that time and visited the large city and explored it with curiosity, having heard rumours about the city and journeyed to it after meeting the Order of the Golden Cross in the eastern Foal Mountains during the yearly march towards Blackstone Keep. The Order had told the clan about the City and the clan was more then eager to finally see the place were the new Pony Nation was being created.

When they had initially arrived had the stallion not intended to settle down there, let alone marry someone, he had originally just gone to one of Grand Feast's shops to eat some food of the city along with his relatives. And just like a certain old stallion from a long lost Order, was the thirty five years old stallion in love with the cooking of Grand Feast at first bite. He started coming regularly to the shops, visiting various ones to test their flavours, and finding that the shop in which Grand Feast worked in regularly was the one with the best flavour.

Grand Feast had not been paying attention to the younger pony until he one day tasted her apple pie and started asking about the apples she was using, and if she used certain kinds of apples. It had grown from a conversation about apple types, various flavours and cooking techniques with apples. The following winter would Applejack's clan remain at Canterlot and the stallion would visit her shop and talk about various topics, mostly apples and foods but other things as well.

Then as spring broke out and the snow started to melt, Applejack made a sudden move that would change everything. He carved out a heart of wood, painted it red, wrote the words 'The One Who Has This, Owns Applejack's Heart' on it in... less then elegant letters. And then in the middle of the shop as Grand Feast carrying out a plate of pies, Applejack strode in, carrying the heart, and in front of the whole store and its customers, gave her the heart.

At first Grand Feast was curious and looking at the wooden carving ,before she started reading the words, out, loud. At the end she was as red in her face as the heart and the entire store was silent as a nervous Applejack shuffled a bit with his forelegs. Then she sniffled with tears in her eyes before mumbling about how she was too old for him.

That's when Applejack decided to do something even more daring, and strode forward, and kissed the blushing and teary are on the mouth, not a tongue kiss, not a long kiss, but a gentle kiss with their muzzles touching softly. and then he pulled back, smiled at her wide eyes and blushing face and said with a smile. "No one is too old fer love darlin'."

Apparently the mare decided to retaliate, by pulling the stallion to her and dominating his lips, and making him blush like a tomato instead. This had the entire shop burst out into cheers and laughter at the sight of the mare dominating the stallion. The news spread like wild fire and the idea of giving heart shaped gifts to the one you liked appealed to the mares, as well as some stallions, and by the end of the week was there so many heart shaped gifts being spread around that Princess Celestia, declared that the day it all started would henceforth be called Heart's & Hooves Day and be celebrated every year, on the first month of spring, for all ponies to express their love to another.

Applejack and several of his clan decided to remain at Canterlot, the rest of their Clan left for the open road. And they proved their use rather quickly by becoming the prominent apple farmers of the apple tree fields near Canterlot. He and Grand Feast got married on the Summer Sun Celebration that year when it was confirmed Grand Feast was pregnant. And after five years had the happy couple received five foals, two twin colts, two twin fillies and one more filly, who was the older sister. The colts' names were Sour Green and Sweet Red, while the fillies were named Grand Harvest, Pink Lady and Grand Meal.

Both Happy Meal and Grand Music loved their new siblings and had been acting as caretakers when their mother and her new hubby were a bit busy with work. The Order of the Golden Cross had unofficially accepted the five siblings as their mascots, jokingly calling them the Quest Takers with how the little ones brought laughter and warmth to the temple whenever they visited and acted out their shenanigans to achieve their cutie marks.

But even if times had been wonderful and kind to not only the Order, the Ponies and the Nation of Equestria, were there still some who were not liking how things were going. In the corners of the alleys have new dark shapes been seen during the night and whispers of unrest have barely been heard in the dirtiest of taverns. Something was going on, but with the approaching storm that would be the Second Crusade against Maleficus Victoria, was there very few who worried about it.

(Scene Skip)

Princess Celestia looked out over the various battle strategies, formations and gear her nation had prepared for the upcoming Crusade. It had been a long ten years and a lot had happened, but she was feeling confident that everything would turn out for the better. Sadly enough though had her five Generals retired during the lat couple of years. But together had those old veterans started acting as teachers for future promising soldiers and officers in the Bronze, Silver and Gold Armies.

Currently she had three new Generals, each one having experience from battles and raids with bandits and self proclaimed warlords in the Eastern Region were the fragmented armies of the Two Barons had spread out and claimed several smaller parts of the regions borders as their own kingdoms and established small forces to raid Equestrian soil. It had become not only a ground for much combat, but also a place were many fresh troops were sent to aid the Order of the Golden Cross to handle the various warlords on the borders.

Each of the three Generals were the leading officer of one of the Three Armies. There was Bloody Courage, grandson of Blood Gorger, a well mannered unicorn with a lot of tactical know how and cunning wit to use against his enemies. But he was not unwilling to brave the front for his troops. Bloody Courage had a blue pelt with white mane and tail, like his great-great-great-great-great-grand-uncle Starswirl the Bearded. Only without the beard. He was the commanding officer of the Gold Army and the youngest Pony General in known memory at the age of twenty.Bloody Courage was also the only member of the Generals to not have been part of the Siege of Canterlot, having been only twelve at the time.

The only mare of the trio was a pegasus by the name of Aerial Grace, she was a pink pelted mare with a white and red coloured mane and tail. Her cutie mark was in the shape of a coin shaped silver medal with a pair of wings stretched out from each side, with a green ribbon connected to the top of the medal. She was a survivor of the Siege of Canterlot and had personally lead a squad of pegasi against the flying forces of Rattenfänger, turning the tie of the aerial fight, she had ever since risen through the ranks until she . She was the General in control of the Silver Army.

General Rough Stock was a veteran earth pony soldier who had faced dangers of the Everfree Forest, the first Crusade and the Rattenfänger Invasion to name the tree most important events. His pelt was dark brown, his short cut mane was black as was his tail. His cutie mark was a slightly worn out officer's helmet made out of bronze. He was the one in control over the Bronze Army.

The Princess looked upon them and pointed at the newly made map of Equestria's regionpainted on the war table and spoke up. "We hath gathered thee here today for a most important matter. The Red Sun will soon rise and Maleficus Victoria will be freed from his imprisoment on the Moon once more. We hath to plan accordingly to what he may bring upon Us in this upcoming battle. Just as We hath been preparing, so hath he."

Rough Stock was the first to response to her inquiry and pulled out some of the papers o nthe pile and spread them out on the table, pointed on each of the suggested battle plans. "Well yer highness. Ey doubt We can make as big a mess as last time. So ey suggest We make Our troops train how to change formation. We train em to stand in some base formations that should be simple enough to reform in accordance to da change in da fight. We need ta be able to alter dem formations nice an proper, which should take some practice, but be doable, thus ey suggest We make smaller spread out units, in accordance to what gear dem be using, an use sound and light signal to command dem how ta alter dem formations."

"Nay, nay. Small units makes far too weak to stand strong. We need to use Our numbers properly. At least medium sized formations, five hundred strong, for Our front line units. We should spread out the Support and Rear Guard into units of one hundred strong. With the Silver Units in Groups of ten to twenty." Bloody Courage stated as he pulled out his own suggestions out of the pile and spread them out.

Rolling her eyes Aerial Grace pulled out some sheets of her own and pointed at them as well. "You two need to consider the battlefield as well. We do not know where the battlefield will happen, and I seriously doubt we will be fighting Maleficus at the same spot he landed ten years ago. So yes, we need a flexible formation order and proper spread of our units. But until we know the terrain where we will fight we need to use scouts to properly get a hold of the terrain before making the final battle plan."

Celestia watched with a smile as the three Generals discussed their end game together. She kept silent and just watched them draw up plans, pointing out errors, possibly terrains, advantages, troop formations and time frames. It was an educated moment not only for them but her as well, as much as she did not like to admit it had Maleficus been right about her and her ponies, they were not properly prepared for fighting large scaled or long lasting battles, not yet.

And with her being forced to handle much of the politics of Court was her own education as a leading officer lacking, thus she spent most of the meetings with her officers watching and listening to their discussions, learning from ponies far more experienced in battle and warfare then she was herself.

She got a smirk growing on her lips as she felt confidence fill her. The ponies of Equestria were far more experienced and hardened then they were ten years ago. Maleficus Victoria would not find victory so easily, even if he had been preparing himself, was he still just one lone pony, and it would not be possible for him to have prepared to face her large army once they faced off.

Ten years ago, her troops had numbered up to a thousand strong. But now, she had ten thousand troops to spare for this confrontation. Not even counting the possible reinforcements from the various outposts across the nation and the large garrison of Blackstone Keep. This time she would avenge her sister and that monster would be punished for his crimes.

But then she realized something stated by Aerial Grace and moved over to look at the currently made map of the Nation and a frown formed across her brow. *This may be a problem for Us. We hath to make preparations in case We art unable to find a solution quickly.*

As her generals talked she signaled Solid Pink and handed her a pair of messages to deliver. Things were going to get hectic, rapidly. But it would still be her victory, she would make certain of it.

With a glance out of the window towards the horizon, she narrowed her eyes and her horn ignited with a golden aura as the sun started settling, and the moon slowly rose up, revealing the burning specter and the unicorn shaped mark on its surface. *We shalt have vengeance for thee sister. We promise thee.*

(Scene Skip)

Luna was glaring at the large screen in front of her as her blue armoured soldier was suddenly run over by a large monstrous metal wagon with a large metal pipe firing fire and thunder as a weapon. She then glared at a grinning Maleficus as the screen shifted into a Victory/Defeat message, with the AI Red Team having won the match.

"I told you playing the Scorpion tank in an open valley makes for easy killing. But noooo you wanted to defeat your opponents without relying on vehicles. Not even bothering to destroy them to keep them from using them." The stallion said with a teasing grin on his muzzle as he laid on his stomach on a large sofa, eating chips and drinking soda, while watching her being creamed by the AIs of the Halo game.

"Shut your mouth Maleficus! We would have won had your lousy brain matter not been causing the game to lag!" She screamed out in frustration as she crossed her forelegs with a grumpy pout on her face.

"Hey, my 'lousy brain matter' as you called it, is supporting a certain Moon Princess who is taking up a lot of RAM and Processing Power with her over sized posterior." A pillow was thrown into his face, making him break out into laughter as the blushing Princess started flailing at him with a large cushion. This kept going for what felt like hours, but probably was less then fifteen minutes.

After the Princess settled down they just sat there and looked up at the screen, showing the dead moon planet the game match had been playing out on. The approaching moment making both of them solemn in thought. "So... tomorrow is the day right?", Maleficus finally asked as he looked at the screen.

Luna sighed and rested her head on her slightly flattened cushion before speaking out to her fellow prisoner. "Aye. Tomorrow will be the next Red Sun. And most likely will you no longer be able to dream of this realm after a day or two on the surface. Although I cannot explain why I can access your dreams while you cannot. But it is most likely some sort of mental lock down because my mind is not as closely connected to you as before, and thus the Curse holding me on the Moon cuts you off from your dreamscape while allowing me access... for some reason."

Sighing the alicorn stallion just nodded and stretched his neck back. "...Hah... Well that is not what I am most concerned about though... This coming fight will be tougher then the last one. I just hope this time I do not end up beating up Celestia like I did last time. I do not want to end up going all bloody crazy berserk mode on your sister, the rush is exciting but you feel awful afterwards. Freaking sucks to lose control like that. In the end you just feel like shit mentally."

Luna silently agreed and laid back down on her own seat and just decided to take a nap. The two alicorn just sat there in the silence, enjoying a good quiet rest, before the chaotic day would approach them both.

Then, as his vision started to darken and he could feel a powerful energy fill him, he knew the time had come, Maleficus sighed an closed his eyes, muttering a little as his body evaporated from the dream realm. "It's show time."

(Scene Skip)

He woke up on the surface of the moon ad the light of the sun was flaring down upon him with a crimson glare. It reminded him of the first time he had been summoned. And just like last time, his body started floating up from the surface, the black and green flames began to swirl towards him and physically pushed him further and further away from the Moon's surface until the flames were less of a pus hand more of a powerful rocket booster.

A shield shimmered into existence around him, he was prepared for the rush of entering the atmosphere this time. Last time he had been forced to go through it with his body burning up ad regenerating constantly from the planetary reentry. He saw the approaching land bellow him and he saw that he was heading towards a different spot then the last time.

Rather then being fired towards the Everfree Forest, was he falling towards what was known as the Foal Mountains to the east of Canterlot. With a smirk he spread out his wings and began to try and forcefully change his course as he flew through the upper layer of clouds, tit was a bare inches of alteration, but those few inches were enough to alter his landing spot by several miles. And the location he was aiming for would let him get to the location he had found while on the Moon. his perfect battlefield.

The ground approached rapidly but he was not concerned and smirked even as his shielded body speared through a cloud layer and straight towards a mountainside. *Round Two is starting now Celestia. Let us see how well you do this time.*

He then struck the mountain, hard.

(Scene Skip)

Princess Celestia stared up at the night sky as she started lowering the Moon, and as she did, she saw the swirling vortex starting to form out of the black flames and knew Maleficus was on his way. Before the moon even reached the horizon, the swirling mass of black and green fire flew down towards the land.

Her eyes widened in shock as the vile entity falling towards her country, altered course, and flew eastwards, further and further to the east. The fall burning monster streaked through a couple of clouds before disappearing beyond the peaks of the eastern mountains. *Curse him! Doest he attempt to escape Our reach!?*

Then a loud resounding bang was heard and a pillar of smoke rose from beyond the mountain peaks. Even if the smoke was seen could Celestia tell it was a great far distance away from her city. She needed to mobilize her forces to march and quickly to catch up with the fiend.

Snarling in frustration Celestia summoned her magic forth and raised the sun, the crimson glare shone upon the city. She then summoned the latest invention of her Mages. Ever since the foundation of the Battle Mage Training Ground and the workshop had enchanted goods skyrocketed in production and new magical gear was being invented, researched, rediscovered or tested almost every day.

The invention she was levitating was one she had requisitioned herself to the Order when she realized several issues about Maleficus possibly landing at another spot. Communication Sphere, or Far Speech Orbs, the name was a work in progress. It was a clear orb the size of a melon, it was made out of magically made crystal. The Sphere itself was not magic, but the runes upon its inner core, when enhanced with magic, would connect to another sphere. Thus was were there only a two way connection between two specific orbs, it had been finished just two days ago so it was just a prototype.

But it fulfilled its purpose, contacting the other region of Equestria. The other Sphere had been transported by pegasus flyers to Blackstone Keep to keep contact with the Order of the Golden Cross and the Garrison located there. Had Maleficus landed to the West, the South or the North, would Celestia had been forced to send out teams of scouts, so it was a blessing in disguise that he landed to the east.

"This be Princess Celestia calling Blackstone Keep, art thou able to hear Us?!" She spoke, loudly, into the Orb and watched as she soon saw an image appear on the orb's surface, an image of a unicorn dressed in Sacred Bronze armour, saluting her through the orb. As she marched down the hallways she heard the telltale signs of marching hooves, clinking armour, orders being shouted and moving wooden wheels.

"Princess Celestia, we hear you loud, and a bit unclear, but we hear you. This is Master Knight and Grand Templar Rock Steady, current Caretaker and Commander of Blackstone Keep." The pony's voice was a bit vibrating and twitching through the transition, the sounds of the prototype were not perfect, but they were efficient and worked for the while being.

With a frown on her face she started to shouted out commands at the orb, making the commander on the other side almost flinch at the sudden volume increase. "Maleficus Victoria hath returned to Equestria! He hath fallen into the Foal Mountains, We doest not know how far away from Canterlot he might be! Send out words and scouts all over the region, We need to know his location! The hunt for Maleficus' head starts now! The Equestrian Armies shalt march East!"

The knight rubbed his left ear a little to clear out the ringing before nodding to his ruler and saluted her. "As you command your highness. We shall call upon all available scouts, messengers and patrols to not only search for him but spread the word of his presence within the region. Ave Equestria."

The image disappeared and Celestia put the orb into the waiting hooves of Solid Pink, who was dressed in a less then conspicuous military outfit, who pocked the orb... somewhere. The duo exited the large gates to the courtyard, were several ranks of officers were standing ready, behind them, beyond the gilded gates of the castle walls, was a powerful event occurring.

Golden armoured, silver armoured and bronze armoured soldiers were marching together out, in an orderly fashion. Their hooves cracking against the ground in a steady rhythm. Lines of silver armoured pegasi flew over the roof tops and the sound of war horns being sounded echoed over the city. And among the ranks of Gold, Silver and Bronze, marched another group of units, dressed in Sacred Bronze Full Plate Armour, with its unmistakably reddish tone, these were the units of the Order of the Golden Cross. The knights and troops were marching out of the city in a steady phase, hundreds upon hundreds of armoured ponies, marching out to the cheers of the populous.

"Hear Us Ponies of Equestria! Maleficus Victoria hath once more returned to Our Lands! Now We Shalt Hunt For His Head! Let! Us! March! East!" A loud cheer erupted from the gathered officers, and the ponies as the voice of their princess rang out over them, their spirits soared, their hearts burned and their voices cheered.

And then, Princess Celestia walked down the marble stone decorated courtyard, her officers giving her a clear path through them, and then as she passed them all by, they all turned after her and marched after her.

As the Princess with her escorting Officers entered the march as well was the cheer more or less erupting over the city. And as the confident ponies and their princess marched out of the City of Canterlot, they started chanting a familiar song, one chanted before, during the First Crusade.

[Song: The Dawn of War. (Slightly Updated Version) Text Only. Creator: Staadnauthursil]

"The Red Sun Hath Risen Up In The Distant Sky!"

"A Warm Glow That Makes Our Hearts Cry!"

"This Be A Sign That Hath Call To Us All!"

"For This Be The Dawn of War!"

"And We Shalt Answer The Call!!"

"In Our Princess Name We March Off For Glory!"

"We Shalt Strike Down Our Foe For All That Art Holy!!"

"By Our Conviction We Shalt Never Fall!"

"By Our Cunning We Shalt Strike From Afar!"

"For This Be The Dawn of War!"

"And We Hath Answered The Call!!"

The chanting grew, louder and louder as the soldiers marched out of the city gates. Out on the open road, their massive number became less of a march and more like a moving tide, a shifting mass of various precious metals glittering in the red sun light. And a their song repeated and repeated itself, the Three armies marched Eastwards. Their goal, Maleficus Victoria.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining. 30 Days]

On the mountain side of one of the larger peaks of the eastern Foal Mountains, was a certain Alicorn feeling a bit... 'miffed' at the moment to say the least. And for a three specific reasons.

His recently magical energy shield, which was built to handle the atmospheric reentry without burning him to a crisp, could NOT handle the sudden impact of the FUCKING LANDING.
He had been buried a good ten meters into solid stone, with several more piles of stones landing on top of him after said impact.
He had spent a good THIRTY MINUTES trying to dig out a fucking PEBBLE stuck inside one of his NOSTRILS!

So yeah, this landing was obviously worse then the first one. But he had finally managed to get that stupid rock out of his nostril after digging himself out of the rubble. And currently he was looked out from the mountain side and feeling slightly shivery as he got awful memories. As a human, he had been afraid of heights, and those fears had not disappeared completely.

Taking a deep breathe he slowly gathered his thoughts before looking left and right, to the left was the eastern region to the coastline. This he could tell from the fact that there was a glimpse of the ocean in the distance, mostly because of the great view he had at this high mountain peak he had hit. Although he could only make out a slight hint of the ocean was it good to know the way he had to go.

To the right was Equestria's central region, and Canterlot, but he could barely make out he mountain the city was located on. But he visibly flinched when he saw a small speck of glittering colours just beyond a small opening betweeen the peaks that let him see Canterlot's mountain. Those specks of glittering colours, were moving.

*Yup Celestia sure does not waste time.* He thought with a sigh before once more looking down. But he then noticed something as he looked down towards the ground, his body felt... far heavier then it had on the moon. That's when he noticed another thing, the trail of small cobweb like cracks forming on the ground beneath his hooves, next to the edge of the hole in the mountain side. His body was too heavy for the rock to support!

"Shit I have to-" A loud crack interrupted him and the Alicorn looked down with folded ears and pleading eyes as he saw the entire mountain side crumble beneath his heavy weight and he barely had the time to curse, before he started falling down with the rock slide.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!" He frantically lowered the weight of his bones and kicked against the mountain side. The force from that badly aimed one hoof kick launched himself a decent thirty meters away from the mountain. This let him gain momentum enough to straighten himself. The alicorn pressed his forelegs upwards int ohis torso and let his rear legs stick out straight rearwards, he then spread his wings and prayed to the Gods he managed to keep himself up in the air. Maleficus did not having a fucking clue how to properly glide on the surface of the planet, having only done so on the moon, so he tried to do as much as he could and lowered his body weight and filled his wings with magic to try and let his heavy body ride the winds.

Thankfully was he more or less able to stabilize himself and started gliding across the mountains and towards the eastern shore line. The wind was biting into his face but he was safe for the moment and was a decent height away from most mountain peaks and tree tops.

There was one little snag on the whole situation though. Maleficus, while being able to use basic gliding, at best, did not know how to properly fly. He could not control in which direction he was going.

"Shit! Fucking assholish misfortune! I fucking hate this!" Maleficus was experiencing a bit of a panic attack as he was not able to properly fly and could only glide in one direction. He had no clue how to anything but glide with the wind, and even then he did not know how to even turn. So he was without proper steering techniques ad just flew towards the eastern coastline. And through it all he could not bring himself to lock down at the ground as he did not want to freeze up and fall down, heck he could barely look at where he was heading with how the mountain peaks made him feel awfully uncomfortable as he passed them by.

This of course lead to another bad situation as he came past the mountain range, and was suddenly without the powerful uplifting winds, and started to slowly glide down. Before he realized what was going on had he hit the side of a wooden structure, which collapsed in a shower of wooden fragments and stone as his body flew straight through it, groggy from the impact he was not able to recover before he struck dirt, face first, and ended up buried to the waste in the middle of a moist swamp.

The alicorn struggled out of the murky soup of muck and rot he slipped a bit but managed to pull his head out soon and sat in the middle of the swampy area, his entire front body covered in stinky swamp mud. As he wiped off a thick amount of mud off his face he glared at the sky and started walked off, spitting out and snorting out dirt from his mouth and nostrils. *I. Fucking. Hate. Heights.*

(Scene Skip)

Heavy Storm was a proud pegasus Recruit of the Golden Cross Order, he was native to the region now called Eastern Equestria. His village was one of the coastal fishing ones located just a few days journey from the relatively freshly made town of Fillydelphia. The Barons had made a mess of the land back before the Order arrived, and though the ten years that followed the Barons' deaths were harsh to many, were the ponies of the East free and happy.

The young pegasus wanted to join the Order of his family's saviours and ha traveled to Canterlot five years ago on the yearly March back to Canterlot the Knights made. He spent many happy months there, learning new things he never could have considered possible before. And four years ago, he returned home to the region as a graduated Knight, and he had been happy to stay here rather then march back to the Temple of Law and learn further ways, he was content being a Peacekeeper.

His pelt was brown, his mane and tail pale blue with dark blue streaks, his cutie mark, the form of a cloud raining not rain drops, but black orbs. Heavy Storm earned his mark when he bravely handled a warlord war camp by taking worn out tent fabric, filled them with various heavy objects, before flying over the camp and dropping the heavy things from over two hundred meters up in the air. It had been crude but effective.

As he remembered that faithful day he smiled, and then frowned, as he heard a strange whistling sound. Walking over to the edge of the watchtower he looked out towards the location of the sound. He was currently located on the top of the watchtower located at the southern most outpost of Equestria before the southern area of the Eastern Coastline called the Hayseed Swamps, a large unexplored region of wetlands and bogs.

The whistling sound grew louder and the pegasus felt nervous and moved to signal his fellows about it. Then a sudden increase in the sound came before the entire tower erupted into a massive tremor shaking its very structure apart. Heavy Storm barely had time to leap off the tower as it collapsed down onto its foundation, he saw a streak of black fly into the swamps before a massive plume of muddy water and dirt exploded out from deep within the swamps.

Blinking in shook he flew up there for a moment trying to let everything that just happen settle down into his head, while the camp bellow was in total panic. And then he spotted it, out of the marshland came a lone black shape, a large pony. And it was walking, eastwards, towards the coast! And that was no ordinary pony, even from all the way over here, Heavy Storm could see it, the horn and the wings, it was the evil alicorn! Maleficus Victoria!

His head then decided that it was nap time and the poor pegasus knight fell down onto the ground, breaking both his wings from hitting a wooden beam jutting out of the pile of debris.

It would be a few hours until he was awake, and by then would Maleficus be long gone, but his direction was now known and messengers were sent to the Blackstone Keep, to send word to Celestia and the Three Armies approaching from the West.

(Scene Skip)

The Foal Mountains were peaceful and quiet, normally. But today the serene aura was disturbed by the sound of marching hooves and creaking wagon wheels. Through the tree lines next to the main road leading through the mountains were the leaves and pines shivering as the ground vibrated. Then over a steep rising on the road, arrived the frontline units of the marching ponies, an after them came the main force of the Equestrian Army. Bronze, Silver, Gold and Sacred Bronze, each of these forces added their marching beat to the vibration of the earth.

Their tact and rhythm were steady and strong, giving them a decent speed to move over the road without slowing down. The power behind their beating march was enough to cause some of the rocks on the side of the mountain to loosen and fall down in small rock slides. Echoing through out the mountains their marching hooves signaled their approach, with the few villages and town in the mountains cheering them on as they marched past them.

It had been one day since the Three Armies had left Canterlot and they had already come halfway through the Foal Mountains. The restoration of the main road done by the Order of the Golden Cross was enough to speed things up, but it was more then that. For the Workshop and the Battle Mages had designed new gear for the army.

Upon their hooves were horseshoes, engraved with runes granting them more stamina and strength to carry heavier burden and wandering further. Upon the wagons and siege engines were spells and runic engravings enchanting them with a lower weight, making them far easier to carry then before. Ever since the first attempt of using weight reduction spells on siege weapons during the Battle with Rattenfänger, had the concept been researched and improved for the military, even their basic backpacks and armours had been given slighter versions of the enchantments and runic engravings.

But even with their improved gear and equipment was there still things that would halt their progress. And one of them was clear when the army reached a specific point in the central area of the Foal Mountains.

(Scene Skip)

"Sooooo... Tell Us if we art wrong, but... this was not here last time right?" A scout asked her partner as she looked up ahead with glazed eyes.

"No it was not." Said the stallion as he too, stared ahead with glazed eyes.

"Okay then... Well... This be... bad right?" She asked him, as she just kept staring ahead.

"Indeed." He responded flatly, staring ahead just like her.

"...Princess Celestua will be furious once she hears."

"Clearly..."

"..."

"Not It!/Not it!" They shouted out together.

There was a moment of silence and then they turned and glared at one another and tried to mentally force the other to reconsider.

(Scene Skip)

"...What?" Princess Celestia asked the two scouts who had just returned from their mission.

"There be a landslide up ahead Princess. One of the peaks of the mountains hath collapsed down onto the road." The stallion said with a resigned tone to his voice.

"It be blocking the sides of the road damn good too." The mare said with a sigh.

Princess Celestia rested her face in her left hoof and tried to think for a moment, then Solid Pink appeared next to her holding the Orb of Communications, yet still to be properly named. "Message from the Commander of Blackstone."

Sighing the Princess dismissed the two scouts, who left with relieved looks on their faces, before levitating the orb out of Solid Pink's hooves and in front of herself. "What news doest thou bring Us Commander Rock Steady?"

The Knight had a very serious and intense look on his face and Celestia almost dreaded, and hoped, that his report would involve her quarry. "We have words from one of Our outposts Princess. They were attacked by Maleficus, the outpost is in ruins, but no one was harmed.", came the damning words of the commander and Celestia had to restrain herself from gleefully smiling as she made a look of concern on her face.

"Where hath he been seen Commander?" She minced no words and got straight to the point, and then she got a bit nervous, when the commander coughed awkwardly into his hoof before he responded.

The Commander brought up a scroll and made a double check on the words written on it before continuing his report to the princess. "He was last seen at the South Eat Eastern Border, by the Boggy Mane Outpost. This outpost is located just north of the middle of then northern edge of Hayseed Swamps. He apparently slammed straight through the watchtower, flew into the swamp, then moved out of the swamp before heading towards the coastline. We lost track of him afterwards. We believe he intends to travel to the coastline to escape the country."

Her lips turned into an angry frown for a few seconds but she hook her head clear and spoke up to the Commander. "Though Maleficus may be a vile being, hath he not backed away from battle just yet. If he art not facing Us directly, then he must be planning something. We shalt make haste towards the South Eastern Border and hope Blackstone Keep shalt be able to aid Our endeavors."

"Of course your highness. We art at your command. We shalt report anything of interest that may occur." The knight stated with a salute before the orb stopped glowing and the image disappeared from its smooth surface.

Celestia handed the orb to Solid Pink before marching out of the large wagon she was using as a mobile home and exited through the doorway, greeted by a pair of Sun Guard Knights who saluted her as she exited. She looked towards the front of the still army and frowned at the massive pile of rock blocking the path. "Order Our troops to back away from the rock slide. We shalt handle it."

They both saluted and one of them wandered off to contact the Generals. Sighing Celestia pulled off her golden helmet and shook her mane a bit as her command was received by the troops. It was quite a sight.

Almost as one the troops turned 180 degrees and started marching away from the collapsed mountain path. Their marching hooves made the ground vibrated and leaves to shake. In just thirty minutes had the entire force of ten thousand ponies marched behind their Princess' wagon.

Said Princess, dressed in fine golden armour, with a longsword and shield strapped to her sides, walked towards the large pile of rock and stone. At one hundred meters distance she raised her head to the sky and then, a soft golden aura started to grow around her horn, her once prismatic cloud like mane and tail ignited into a golden aura of fire. The glowing of her horn grew more intense and then, as a sphere of light the size of a basket ball grew in the air above her, she opened her eyes.

A pair of glowing pink spheres of energy pulsed within her open eye sockets, and as the magical energy grew larger and denser, she could see through her eyes the magical energies of the world in front of her. She lowered her head and aimed her horn forward, the pulsating orb of energy floating in front of her horn, then she made a upwards aimed thrust with her neck, and released her spell as she did this.

Normally you would think such an act would release a powerful energy blade or shockwave of some kind. This was not one of those kinds of spells. As she thrust her neck upwards, she released the orb she had been maintaining ever since she materialized it above her horn's point. The sphere, flew upwards, around one hundred and fifty meters, before it slowly began to turn in an arc. It flew in a long half circle forward before tumbling down towards the hundred meters tall pile of rock and stone.

The glowing sphere struck the pile of rubble and then, all ponies watching had to avert their eyes as a brilliant flare of light emerged as an explosion of almost white fire and golden flames expanded out from the point of impact. The light came just a second before the sound of the explosion. A loud resounded crack filled the air followed by what sounded like a rapidly increasing sound of boiling tar.

Then an intense heat flooded the air and some almost felt like they could no longer breathe. The intense heat from the wave of air from the still expanding blast was enough to make the nearest plants burnt up, including trees. With a pulsing beat the sphere expanded and expanded, its burning mass pulsating with the sound of burning matter, it was less of a sound of boiling tar and more like the sound of fire and wind rushing through at hurricane strength.

The light was growing dimmer and the expanding sphere of plasma grew from its once brilliant white flare into a darker red. Then as the mass of heat had expanded to cover the valley from wall to wall, it stopped, before suddenly, in a rapidly increasing speed, shrinking down until dissipating with a loud snap.

As the expanding ball of plasma had disappeared it left behind not a pile of rocks blocking a mountain road, nor the comforting green forestry around said blockade. Instead it left behind nothing but a bubbling lake of lava and molten stone covering the valley from both sides, with a field of ash and burning trees up to two hundred meters way from the pool of molten earth.

Celestia ignited her horn once more and powerful jet stream of water erupted from her horn tip and struck the molten stone. An explosion of steam filled the area, but Celestia just kept on firing the water stream at the molten metal. Soon, as the mist lifted, it revealed a massive patch of land, melted and hardened into a lake of blackened stone and volcanic ash.

It had all taken less then five minutes, yet for the awed soldiers, knights and officers staring in shock at the sight, it had felt like hours.

Not even showing sign of exhaustion or even a hint of sweat, Celestia turned towards her awed subjects and barked out a single command. "WE MARCH!"

Needless to say, they obeyed.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining. 27 Days]

Maleficus looked out over the area he had reached, since he was without the ability of flight, until he properly learned, he had spent a few days wandering east. It had taken him about three or so days after his little uncontrolled gliding that ended up with him having demolished a watch tower and then impacted a stinky marshlands.

But his efforts had not been for naught, he had reached the coast by day two. And then he had decided to speed things up a little and had a day later, he had found the spot he had been investigating during his final time on the moon. It was a rocky coastline with narrow rocks grounded smooth and sharp by the power of the sea.

The location had most of what he needed, a large mountain side with a long, wide and flat path leading between the sea and the mountain. It was mostly ideal, but there was a problem.

*There's no bottleneck path at the end of the path. There's not even a mountain blocking it.* He had not been able to view the area completely, his observation satellites and spells could only do so much with so little time. So now, he would have to make the final preparation himself.

Currently Maleficus stood at the end of the flat stone path. Beyond its end was an up going hillside which lead into the thicker part of marshland, the air from the south was far more hotter then it had originally been. This gave him all the information he needed, it would not be long before IT would happen. He had not much time to work with, so he would have to do what he did best, improvise.

Stretching his neck he took a deep breathe before slowly letting it out, relaxing his entire body, then he opened his eyes and a crimson aura surrounded his horn and the earth around him began to quiver and shake. As his magic grew in strength so did the tremors and as he narrowed his eyes he muttered out loud as he prepared to enact his spell. "Hope you are ready for a big workload Luna. For this is going to get magical. Very. Magical."

Then he reared back and slammed both his front hooves into the ground, the magic he contained within his horn flared up and traveled through his legs and into the soil, and then, the earth fractured and splintered as something began to move up through its rocky soil. Maleficus kept his body in the same position, focusing his magic through his forelegs and into the ground, controlling and shifting whatever he was doing within it through his connection to the ground.

The fractured earth slowly began to give away at two points, one on each side of him, one hundred meters away from him, two hundred meters away from each other. Then a pair of jagged and pointy rock spikes began to grow out of the ground, the sound of grinding stone filled the air as inch by inch, the rock spikes began to emerge from the hardened ground. it was a slow, almost snail like phase, but it was steady and unrelenting.

And in just one hour, had those pony sized stone spikes, grown to the size of hills, reaching fifty meters upwards, while growing steadily thicker as more and more of their forms were pulled out of the soil. The cliffs by the side of the two pillars were starting to fracture and split apart as the power of the two rising rock spikes began to push against the root of the mountain and the cliff formation by the sea.

The sound of grinding stone grew even louder. Maleficus himself was slowly being raised upwards, as the two stone pikes' thickness reached his hooves and began to pull him upwards in a wedge shaped made by the two connecting stone spikes, who were no more then a pair of spike shaped mountains, slowly growing into one bigger mountain.

As the third hour went by collapsed parts of the flattened rocky path and the large mountain side as the two stone pikes pushed even higher up into the sky. At this point had the points of both of the stone mountains reached the same height as the mountain side. But Maleficus was still making them grow larger.

Then as five hours had gone by and the moon was starting to rise, had the shaking stopped and the coastline was once more ruled by the sound of waves, wind and birds. Maleficus stood upon the large mountain he had made, it covered the entire paath, connected to the sea to the mountain side, a pair of jagged peaks were reaching fifty meters above the mountain side.

*Good, the mountains are well and done. Now for the more refined spellwork.* He thought to himself as he slid down the mountain side to the slightly less flattened ground at the base of the newly made mountain. His metal hooves made sparks fly as he slid down the hard rocky surface of the mountain and as he reached the base he made a short jump and landed with a loudly resounding clang as his two hooves impacted the ground.

His horn once more ignited with a crimson aura and he moved his head and shifted the segmented, claw like, horn's to aim it directly at the center of the mountain. Then he spread his legs, braced himself, and released his spellwork. What came from his magic was a massive beam of water, it was highly pressurized and fast in its momentum, it blasted into the base of the mountain, and a loud shrieking sound emerged as the water split through the rock with mere moments. Then, Maleficus slowly moved his horn upwards and after ten minutes, he had cut a path through the solid rock.

But he did not stop the spell, and for a good reason. *The passage is to narrow, it needs to be at least twenty meters across.*, And with that in mind, he kept firing the water, slicing off more of the mountain, now split in twain by his water beam, slowly and surely grinding the solid stone into a wide passage.

After an hour he finally released his spell and grinned at the sight of the mountain path he had created. The moon was high in the night sky and he felt both mentally and physically tired and hungry, but he was done with it.

"Gonna get me some food now." He said with a grin before frowning, realizing something rather important.

He had no idea if there was anything edible in this region. "...Just what do I eat? I mean... I don't even know what there is to eat here."

Tapping his head with his left front hoof he sat down on a rock and tried to think, it would not work to just magically create something, he had not even the slightest idea how to even make food with magic, let alone transforming something into food.

Maleficus was in a bit of a pickle he was hungry, in the middle of nowhere, with no idea what there was to eat and he was very tired already from having been wandering for three days without food or water. But at least not cold since the warm air was keeping him from feeling chilly.

That's when he heard something, a splash. His ears perked up and he looked towards the sea, and his eyes widened as he saw a fish with wings, and by no means fins, but literal wings, leap out of the water and fly for a couple of meters before flying down into the sea again.

He stood up in joy and cheered out in his mind as drool began to pour down his chin at the sight of that big fish in the ocean. *Fish! That's right! I can still eat fish! ...But... I hate fish.*, an there was his cheer gone as he remembered just how awful fish tasted to him.

After five minutes of contemplating he narrowed his eyes and ignited a crimson aura around his horn before stomping forward, snarling out in frustration and hunger. "Fuck it! I am eating tonight! No matter how bad it might taste!"

A quiver came from the water as his hoof stomped down, and his eyes narrowed and his horn ignited, then out of the ocean blue, came a big blue fish that looked like a spherical tuna. It was held by the alicorn's telekinetic grip. With a victorious grin the stallion reared back the fish before slamming its head first against a rock, effortlessly killing it.

He put the fifty pound fish on the ground before he walked over to a big boulder, there he reared back and slammed his left foreleg's hoof into the rock, edge forward. There was a loud resounding crack as the rock was split apart by the force behind his punch. The black alicorn then grasped hold of one of the flat sides of the now split boulder, he focused his hoof's natural grip aura and expanded and intensified it like he had done to the marble boulders at canterlot. Then with his physical grip on it, he rotated his hoof, and with a loud crunch, he split off an almost perfectly round piece of flat stone, about the size of a wagon's wheel.

Putting down four round big rocks he put the big flat piece of rock on top of them, then he focused his magic upon the rocky ground beneath his makeshift stone table, and with a ray of focused energy, melted part of the ground into liquid lava. The intense heat of the molten stone made the flat stone table on top of it, heat up like a stove.

Once more Maleficus levitated the fish, first he magically sliced it open and removed the guts and washed out the inside. Then he peeled off the scales and skin, he cut off the head, removed the tail and the bones. Left was a pair of large almost round pieces of fish meat. He put both of them on top of the stone plate and grinned as the sound of sizzling meat began to fill the evening air. That made him think on something, he needed a bit of spice to the fish, but the only spice he had available, was the spice of the sea. Salt.

Maleficus reached out with his magic and summoned a large sphere of sea water into the air. From there he created a green square enchanted to filter out anything that was not water that passed through it. First though, he boiled the water with some applied air pressure, this would essentially kill any kind of bacteria in the water and thus the last.

Then he poured the boiling hot water through his filter screen and grinned as once the almost fifty galleon water bubble was gone, there was a nice handful, or hoofful in this case, of salt left upon the green screen. He touched some of it and tasted it, it was salty and he could not taste rock or anything else that could have come with it. The boiling had done its work.

Almost absentmindedly he flipped the two pieces of fish and applied the salt to the newly cooked sides, it was enough to put salt on both sides on both pieces of fish meat, so he was content with that. In fact he felt nostalgic, a happy nostalgic, as he stood there, cooking the fish by the ocean.

That's when a fragrant scent found his nostrils and he looked at the two sizzling pieces of fish, his eyes slowly widened and drool began to pour out of his mouth and down his chin. The scent was not that sharp stinky smell of fish. No, it had a... meaty... almost pork or beef like scent... the smell of the roasted fish meat and the simple saltiness in its fragrance was making him drool like crazy.

"Is this really fish?" He muttered as he levitated the big slap of meat over and stared at the golden roasted sizzling size that had just been finished. The scent, it was driving him insane with hunger, such a scent, he had not smelled anything like it since he was human. It was... like a long lost memory brought back to life.

Slowly he sliced off a piece of meat with his hoof, having created a small air blade at the edge of the tip of his hoof, he levitated it in front of him. The slice was sparkling and shining, like its meat sauce was made up of stars upon a golden roasted galaxy, it was almost too beautiful to eat.

Slowly he brought the slice to his mouth, opened his jaw and let out his tongue, and let the hot piece of meat land on his tongue. It was like a spark ran through his body as soon as the taste hit his mouth, his tongue darted into his mouth, taking the meat with with it and he began to chew it in a slow and steady pace.

The meat was so tender, sweet and fat that it was like he was eating meat flavoured butter. IT was melting into a liquid mush in his mouth as he ate it, even as drool kept pouring out of his mouth he kept chewing, he could not stop. And as he chewed, he remembered, those happier times.

"This taste really good!"

"Why did you not become a chef son?"

"Your cooking is just as good as mom's and dad's!"

Tears ran down his cheeks as he looked upon the meat as the memories ran through him. He smiled, a sad smile, and sliced another piece of meat off the fish before he started to eat it as well. The tears never seemed to stop, but he was glad, no matter how much it hurt, he was glad, to remember those wonderful times.

Looking up at the moon lit sea he smiled a bit as he chewed, thinking of happier times, as he ate the meat. Not even bothered by the tears sliding down his cheeks.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining. 25 Days]

The morning sun rose and spread its light upon the lands of Equestria. Its warming rays enlightened the peaceful quiet atmosphere of the East Coast. There on the main road leading south from the mountain pass in the north, was the peaceful tranquility shattered by a loud rhythmic sound. Animals perked up their heads to look towards the sound, some ran while others looked with curiosity, as an army of ponies, marched down the main road, relentlessly moving without pausing.

It was the main force of the Equestrian Military Forces. Without rest had they been moving for the last two days, only eating and drinking on the move. Their quarry was far away and they needed to find him to avenge the many deaths and terrors he had caused to their people and nation.

Celestia was marching herself, she felt a need to move at the head of the troops, the very front, she wanted to show she was not just going to rest on a wagon, she would move through the dirt just as much as the soldiers. This show of humility and leadership had made her forces feel even more determined and eager to follow her.

*We art certain of it. We shalt reach Maleficus before the day hath ended. We can feel it!* The Princess thought with a vicious smile on her face as she imagined the terrified face of her hated opponent as her army reached whatever area he had moved to.

Her thoughts were broken by Solid Pink suddenly emerging from the marching troops, bearing the glowing orb once more. "Message from Commander Rock steady your highness.", She said with a salute while holding up the orb to her.

"Thank thee Solid Pink." Celestia said with a smile as she summoned the orb, Solid Pink bowed before disappearing to... somewhere. Looking upon the crystal ball Celestia cleared her throat before activating the link, what she got was the frantic face of Commander Rock teady, who was NOT looking good at the moment.

"Princess Celestia! We have a big problem! A massive earthquake shook the entire southern half of the coast last night! We have reports of several buildings, piers and stone towers being broken apart by this! No one has died yet, thank the gods, but we have severly injured ponies all over the east coast! We are mobilizing our forces to aid the common ponies across the region, but we shalt not be able to aid you during your Crusade until we have managed to handle the situation! Commander Rock Steady Out!" The orb then went silent after the old knight gave a short salute before deactivating it.

Celestia stared at the orb for several seconds, not even pausing in her marching, her troops who had heard the message, feeling rather awkward at her silence. Then she spoke up in a rather... profane manner. "Oh Maleficus thou glue sniffing piece of RANCID MANURE!"

Snarling in anger she put aside the orb and proceeded to keep marching south east, she did not need to look back to see her soldiers both nervous and determined. Their morale was not broken by the news, which spread like wild fire, but the fact that Maleficus had caused a massive earthquake for some nefarious purpose made them nervous, and determined to stop him.

They kept moving, for hours, never pausing, never resting. They had been moving at a steady pace since the day before yesterday and not taken a single moment's rest since they started their nonstop stride over the main road. Fields, woods and mountains passed them by as the sun glared down upon them ,many a soldiers were sore and tired from the constant walking, but many of them were used to it. A pony could endure a lot of physical endeavors even without much training, so for these hardened soldiers and knights was a two day march without sleep not outside of their regular training.

As the afternoon hours reached them they had reached the sandy shores and began to wander south. In mere hours the forward unit, along with Celestia, spotted something up ahead. A large patch of dry, rocky and flat coastline appeared up ahead, with a large smooth mountain side by its side creating a walled off piece of rocky coastline. And when they reached the rocky coastline they saw beyond its rough exterior the long flattened path. And beyond that path, laid a large mountain, with a single passage running through its center.

Celestia knew they had reached the spot. And for a rather obvious reason. For at the other end of the flat rocky landscape that made up the coastline, stood a single dot of black in front of the passage. It was without a doubt him. He was there, just on the other side of the coastline. Waiting for them.

Grand Music, the Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Cross, spoke to her as he looked upon the end of the path. "Princess. That mountain was not there when my Order scouted the Eastern Coastline, nor a year ago when our last batch of recruits returned from training. I think we now know the cause of the earthquake last night."

"Indeed, Maleficus must hath created that mountain to better defend himself. But it shalt be irrelevant. We art ready for battle." The white alicorn said with a smirk before turning to face her troops.

"Halt! Prepare camp! We hath found Our adversary! Rest and prepare!" She shouted out to her troops and a loud cheer erupted from their mouths. Both for the chance to rest and the knowledge that their long eluded foe had been found at last.

The Three Armies spread out and began to put up tents and provisions, they required much rest and food since their two hour march. For without rest would their fight with Maleficus just end up in failure. There was no need to rush at him, they had time to recover and prepare.

Or so they thought.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus put some roasted fish into his mouth and chewed as he watched the ponies prepare their camp. He had been waiting for them, and he had not spent the time just idly sitting. No. While it might not look like it, had he been preparing for this fight far more then one could assume.

"They should have attacked me instantly. Well it is too late now. It will soon be here, and then, Celestia's forces will have lost one third of its fighting capacity." He stated with a grin after swallowing his food. The black stallion looked out at the coastline and felt the hot and cold air strike him in the face and inhaled the scent of the salty breeze before slowly letting it out of his nostrils in a soft sigh.

"Haaah... Things are going to get nasty once the battle starts. I just hope Celestia and those two will be okay from all of this." With those words in mind he looked towards the preparing Equestrian forces and smiled a sad smile, wondering how things would go when he faced his two adoptive grandchildren once more.

"Fuck this is so messed up. But... At least I will be able give them something more out of this spectacle between me and Celestia and her forces. Although..." He took a glance behind him, into the shadows of the mountain pass, and smirked a little at the massive group of shadowy shapes hiding in the shade.

"This time I am not alone."

(Scene Skip)

It had taken several hours but even as Princess Celestia took note of the hour and had to start lowering the sun, was the War Camp ready. It was built on the grassy area before the rocky path leading towards Maleficus and his mountain pass. Tents, a wooden Palisades and wagons had been positioned into a circle like pattern, to make it easy to assemble and dismantle.

The camp was being built by the non-combatant forces of the army while the troops had been sleeping like logs in their tents, which was the first to be put up. And with their lack of sleep from two days catching up to them, they would be properly rested once the night started and the moon rose to the sky.

Although it would not be seen, because of the dark clouds bellowing in from the coast. A strong warm wind was blowing in from the west and everyone of the ponies felt refreshed and relaxed by the warm breeze and the scent of he sea. They did not know of the approaching danger, even those native to the coastline had never been so far south, they did not know what was approaching.

The hour came at last and the horns of war were sounded. With rested bodies and hearty spirit the soldiers moved out of their tents to assemble. Their lines were starting to assemble to completion, when a powerful gust blew across them. The Pegasi' head turned with a snap towards the ocean as their attuned senses to the weather told that something big was coming.

And it came. Like the strike of a hammer.

It started with Celestia getting out her tent, when a pegasus of the Silver Army suddenly flew down and screamed out in utter panic. "Princess! Princess! Big! Really! Big! Something! Bad! Big! Bad! About!"

"Calm thou self soldier, what hath caused thou to panic?" She asked with concern, trying to calm down the pegasus who was taking deep breaths into her hooves to calm down.

"We felt something big approach from the sea Princess. It is... big. Powerful. We think it is some kind of storm. But it is the biggest storm we have ever felt before. None of us, us Pegasi I mean, want to leave the ground! Our instincts are screaming at us to take to the ground and seek shelter!" A loud rumble was suddenly heard from the sea and the pegasus mare let out a squeal of fear and disappeared beneath a wagon, shivering in utter terror. Several of her fellow winged ponies did similar actions.

Celestia was momentarily stunned by the actions of her Pegasi soldiers. She turned towards her advisers who had exited their own tents, General Aerial Grace was not with them. "Were art General Areal Grace?"

The two Generals looked at one another with frowns while the other advisers looked confused. Rough Stock then stepped forward, coughed into his hoof before speaking up. "She ehm... fainted in her tent yer majesty."

There was an awkward silence as Celestia and the other, non officer advisers, including Grand Master Grand Music, stared in shock at the two nervous Generals. Then an enormously loud crack resounded across the air and the wind picked up even more. Ponies had to cover their eyes as a stinging hard wave of rain drops joined the harsh wind. And then as their eyes adjusted to intense wind and rain, they looked out towards the sea and stared in horror at what was approaching.

But the one taking it the hardest was Celestia herself. The Princess of the Sun stared in shock at the enormous mass of dark lightning spewing clouds was blowing towards the mainlands, a dark blue veil of rain was pouring down from them, and the wind was picking up something fierce. As she stared came powerful wave and struck the coastline, a massive spray of salt water drenched several of her assembled troops.

What came next was utter chaos. The blackened clouds enshrouded the night sky and lightning bellowed all around the torrents of rain and wind as they sheared into the coastline. Several tents were torn up and tossed to the wind, parts of the palisade collapsed from the brute force of the wind's strength. And a lightning strike struck one of the flag poles holding the flag of Equestria, essentially burning the flag in the middle of a hurricane.

Celestia nor her troops had anticipated the approaching hurricane. They had no clue about the sudden shift in the sea's and winds' temperatures. It had not been discovered yet how hot and cold air currents flowing together could create powerful, and massive, storms. It was something unpredictable for a people who had never experienced such harsh weather in generations. Not to mention they had never experience natural weather because of the reign of Discord during the Age of Chaos, which lasted enough for the next generation of ponies to not know what natural weather even was.

For ponies, the weather was malleable bur mostly unpredictable with their current lack of knowledge and experience. Even for the born fliers of ponies, the pegasi, could not predict such a weather phenomena.

But there was someone who had predicted it. And exploited it.

Slowly it dawned to her. The long distance away from the landing area. His construction of the mountain. The waiting for her army, not even bothering to move. And as she realized that she had been played, she screamed out in utter anger into the thundering storm, her advisers and two conscious generals getting terrified looks on their faces as they realized what he meant. "He planned it... that bucking monster planned this to happen!"

She ran towards the edge leading down towards the flat stone path and glared through the rain and wind towards the large mountain on the other end of the path. and she screamed out in rage at her opponent. "Thou think thou hath won Maleficus!? Hear Us now! Thou art mistaken! We shalt not let this stop Us! This is far from over!"

(Scene Skip)

"There is far more to war then troops, strategy and gear Celestia. The environment and the weather plays just as important a role as any of those earlier parts. And this storm is something you have not experienced before I wager." Maleficus said to himself as he looked out towards the panicking forces, their flickering torches, fires and spells dancing around as the hurricane strong winds tore into their War Camp.

He sat there by the coastline, the wind of the storm tossing out his black mane and tail as the rain struck at his black pelt. It did not bother him, the sensation of rain, the sound of thunder and the hard wind, it felt familiar to him. Even if he had once been one to get into cover and hide away from it when he was human, had he missed this sensation so much, that he did not want it to end.

The ponies were struggling to keep their camp safe as rain, wind, lightning and waves struck out at them. It was a scene of utter chaos. And it only made it clear that his plan had worked. The pegasi were unable to take flight in this weather and thus, he had essentially grounded Celestia's entire areal force without doing a thing.

"I am born of a coastline town. In a nation that got hit regularly by decent sized storms. I know just how dangerous a storm of this magnitude can be. But you and your forces, do not." Smirking a little he levitated a cold piece of roasted fish into his mouth and ate it as the rain and wind kept blowing upon him. His horn then lit up in a crimson aura and the shrouded figures beneath the shade of the mountain path, raised their heads as crimson eyes behind face guards, lit up like torches within the mountain pass.

"Soon she will act. And when she does. We will be there to face her and her forces." He stated with a sad smile before standing up from his seated position and began to move forward. Behind him, began large groups of shadowy figures, shrouded by the darkened sky, to march out after him.

The forces of Maleficus Victoria, were getting ready for battle.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining. 24 Days]

Princess Celestia grit her teeth in frustration as she looked into the distant horizon. The storm looked like it had no end, even as the clock used to help her maintain the order of the night and day, did little to help her keep track of the daily hours. Her pegasi were all unable to act, their bodies were frozen up and still, their natural instincts to seek cover in the wake of the storm overruling their minds.

One third of her force was out of the game and the battle had not even started. But the storm was not a fierce as it had been a during the night, and the camp was properly secured and reinforced to handle the winds now. The pegasi would be left behind sadly enough, they were too deeply in shock or instinctive fer to be of any use in the battle. And even if they were not frozen by fear, did she doubt they could fly safely in the harsh winds.

She looked upon her assembled troops, they were wet and tired but determined, the night's harsh weather had not driven them to admit defeat just yet. And she felt proud of them for it, but she needed to show them that she was just as determined, if even more so. She spread out hr wings and pointed out at her forces and spoke out to them, her voice overpowering the wind and thunder. "Listen to Us! The fiend Maleficus hath driven Us into a corner with his vile plans! But We art not defeated! We shalt not admit defeat just yet! To Arms and prepare for Battle! Ave Equestria!"

"Ave Equestria!" Cried out her soldiers and she smiled with pride as they began to march down the flat rocky path towards their intended target. She could not follow them properly, she needed to allow her Generals to lead the three armies. But one of the armies did not have a General. With General Aerial Grace out of the battle already, was she giving command of the Silver Army to a young Captain by the name of Weak Guts of the Bronze Army, who was an experienced officer.

She looked over at the remaining forces in the camp, half of the the Order of the Golden Cross and the incapacitated pegasus soldiers. Grand Master Grand Music and Master Knight Happy Meal were both marching at the read of the Three Armies, acting as a vanguard. Their other senior members of the Order were standing at the ready along with the other advisers and Heralds to give support to her campaign.

Half of the Order was held back for an obvious reason, they were an already hardened elite force of knights but they were not officially part of the Equestrian Armies. In the eyes of many older officers, they were an outside force that offered support to the Kingdom. Thus they were not given an big active role in the earlier stage of the battle. Personally Celestia thought it was just some of the nobles and military officers trying to get some glory for themselves by denying the already prestigious Order of the Golden Cross more fame by claiming the front line and reducing the Order to half strength at the rear.

Politics were always a hassle, especially when it concerned nobility and military factions during a state of war. But she had no time for politics when the cursed fiend who harmed her sister and her nation was within reach. And thus let them play their meaningless games while she concentrated on more important matters.

*Like this coming battle.* She thought to herself as she turned her gaze toward the coastline, the harsh rain was making it hard to see anything but the glittering armours of her forces made it easy to discern their positions. And short range communication had been established by couriers and signal horns, no complex light signals could be used because of the weather. Now, she needed to watch and get ready to act in accordance to Maleficus' actions.

(Scene Skip)

General Rough Stock liked to call himself a veteran, a hardened and enduring soul of the battlefield. But this was the first time he had been forced to march through rain, thunder and waves to even reach a fight. The old earth pony looked backwards towards the silver army where Captain Weak Guts would be trying to keep command of the ranged soldiers, with the pegasi down would the Silver army's ranged support be most important.

"Hope da young ones be ready. This fight shalt be messy." He muttered a bit before turning his head forward and glared through the rain towards the large peak being illuminated by the lightning. They were about halfway across the stone path and he thanked the Gods and the Princess that their gear had been improved since the last Crusade and the Siege of Canterlot, it had made things for more easier. Plus he did not have to feel water trickling down between his armour plate and chain mail, bloody annoying.

Water poured over his visor and almost reached his eyes but the enchanted armour blocked the rain from hitting his face and just let the liquid wash off him. His entire vision was blurry by the mass of rain drops striking at the field protecting his eyes but he could still see far more clearer then if he had not had it.

Up ahead were his forces marching in spread out formations of three units side by side, given the limited space of the flattened rock path, each of those unit were one hundred soldiers strong. And there was a total of thirty of those units in the Bronze Army. Making for a long trail of ponies marching forward across the stone path.

Behind the Bronze army was a similar numbering of Silver Soldiers only they were put up into two blocks of five hundred strong units, this was made in accordance to the lose of two thousand pegasus troops. And further back was the golden units with the siege engines and support lines. they were marching in ten groups of two hundred strong, lacking one thousand pegasus troops.

And further back behind the Golden Army was the five hundred strong unit of the Order of the Golden Cross, who were split off in accordance to the battle plan, which Rough Stock personally did not approve of but was outvoted by the other Generals and advisers. Even if the Order also had lost two hundred Pegasus units were they still an elite force that the General would gladly have fighting by his side in the coming clash against the monster known as Maleficus.

The only army not affected by the lose of Pegasus Units was the Bronze Army, mostly because there were no active Pegasus Units in the Bronze Army, since they were mostly made up by front line fighters and few Pegasus units could hold their own in melee like an Earth Pony or Unicorn.

But the biggest difference from the First Crusade and the current one was a major one, Officers. The Sun Guard was not given the privilege of commanding the armies. Instead had properly educated, experienced and deserving officers been promoted to respective ranks. The command structure was not perfect but it was far more unified then the last time and that was what Rough Stock considered a most important factor to the coming fight.

Beyond the old General's thoughts there was a loud resounding rumbling of lightning, but soon a different sound broke through the constant flashing cracks in the sky and a pony ahead in the front lines screamed out a message to the rest of the troops.

"The path is getting wider up ahead!" At those words perked General Rough Stock up his head and smirked, with more ground to cover he could properly align his troops' formations to that of the other forces. Turning towards one of his Captains he whistled at him, getting the unicorn's attention.

"Make sure da spread da word, align yerselves into a wider line, ye need ta cover da area properly!" It took less then ten minutes for the Order to circulate through the Bronze Army and as they reached the wider area of the path. The troops swiftly began to march into their new formations. In just moments the three thousand army went from three ten unit long lines of century units in line to six lines of five century units instead.

Nodding with a proud smile on his muzzle Rough Stock marched forward and noticed how the Silver Army spread out into a pair of units behind his Bronze Army's formation, and the Golden Army and the Order of the Golden Cross were moving around a bit themselves.

Then as the mountain loomed above them as they approached the large gap at its front, one of his soldiers arrived from the front. "Sir! Private Green Horn sir! We hath spotted a blackened figure standing upon a pillar in front of the Mountain Pass! The figure hath been confirmed to be Maleficus Victoria, Sir!"

"Excellent work there lad! Ye hear dat ye lot!? Our target be close by! We shalt give dat dere monster a bloody welcome aye!?" His soldiers cheered and their tempo seemed to increase, he was glad they were feeling enthustiastic, cause he was feeling all kinds of nervous. He knew just how powerful and dangerous Maleficus was and he knew that if the black alicorn got serious would none of his fellows return home alive, he could only hope things did not escalate to bloody mayhem and pointless deaths.

Then a group of messengers arrived, a flustered Silver Soldier, a nervous Gold Soldier, a frantic Bronze Soldier and a confused Knight of the Golden Cross Order. "Sir!" Screamed the Bronze Soldier before the other messengers could speak.

"Aye? What be da problem lads?" He asked as he looked at the group of wet and weirdly behaving soldiers.

"It be Malefiucs Sir, he... he sent message to Us and the other Armies. Telling thee and the other Officers and Generals... to... meet and speak to him before battle... under parley..." The other soldiers gave similar messages and General Rough Stock stared at them for a long awkward silence.

Then he spoke up, in a voice of disbelief. "...Whut?"

"That is what General Bloody Courage, Grand Master Grand Music and Captain Weak Guts said as well Sir."

(Scene Skip)

Grand Music had always wondered what his first confrontation with the Great Enemy of Equestria. He had imagined insulting taunts, silent treatments, feral growls, illogical arrogance and other such meetings in the heat of battle and so on. He had NOT in his wildest dreams ever imagined THIS. "...Just... What am I looking at here?"

What he and the other Generals and Officers of the Three Armies and the Order of the Golden Cross were looking at, was a fifteen meters long and three meters wide solid stone table, covered with plates of fruits, berries, vegetables and... fish? And at the end of the table, sat a large black figure, dressed in an armour of solid iron, waking familiar memories to those who remember the First Crusade. And behind him, on a solid pole of metal, hung a white flag, marking the parley.

"A bloody banquet... with Us being da freaking guests... hosted by da bucking Stallion of Torment... We be imagining this right? This be too insane to be real. Or art We dreaming right now?" Muttered General Rough Stock in shock and confusion as he tried to make sense of this sight.

Nervously looking at one another the ponies wondered what to do before Grand Music decided to just go with it and took seat, prompting the others to do so as well, as far away from Maleficus as possible. That's when they noticed something strange. At the moment they sat down, they could no longer feel the wind or the rain striking at them.

Well they could not earlier either but at lest they saw the rain drops strike at their visors and hit the ground around them. But even as lightning flared up in the sky above them, there was not a single sound.

And then... Maleficus stood up from his seat and began to speak.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus looked upon the officers of the army, he knew he would have meet Grand Music and Happy Meal again today. He feared he would miss them, not recognize them as adults, even though he had watched them for a while from the Moon. But those worries were needles as when he saw the crowd of ponies approach, he spotted a pair of two knights. One unicorn and one earth pony, each bearing a high ranking insignia of the Order of the Golden Cross.

Even should they have been old and wrinkled, he would have recognized them. Those joyful and curious eyes he remember seeing when reading stories to them. Even among a crowd of ponies, he could make them out, his two precious grandchildren.

And as Grand music took the initiative to take a seat, the alicorn smiled behind his helmet's visor, proud of the boy for taking the initiative. The table, plates and food had been prepared by him and his... hidden assets, it was nothing fancy, except for the fish. Most of it he had taken from the wildlife after recognizing them. It was all for one purpose, to make an impression. And with Grand Music taking the initiative, he needed to act before the ponies took the the first move of the parley.

He stood up on his hind legs and took a look at the ponies gathered at his table, the enchantments protecting them from the wind and the rain allowing his voice to travel out towards them even from fifteen meters away.

"I welcome you all to this battlefield Soldiers of Equestria. I see you have grown strong in my absence, and I am very happy to see that." Maleficus spoke in a polite and gentle voice, even smiling in a little to put them at ease. He ate some of the fruit on his own plate, the few pears and apples he had found were both sweet and sours in flavour, but he was content with it.

"Here I wish to speak to you all about the upcoming fight between my forces and the forces of Celestia." The confused and concerned ponies looked upon one another and he would have been amused, had he not been so focused looking at the two ponies chewing on some of the food. Or rather Happy Meal eating while putting food into Grand Music's gaping mouth, making him unconsciously chew it.

"Thou wish to converse with Us? Why?" One of the old looking higher ranking officers asked with a critical tone in his voice, Maleficus could practically feel the unease, fear and barely restrained anger beneath the old pony's voice.

The black alicorn nodded to the old pony's inquiry. "Yes, I wish to make you an offer. But pardon me, I forgot to offer you something to drink, please, allow me."

He raised his right hoof and slowly pressed it onto the table, the table began to vibrate a little before settling. Then, out of the solid stone of the table, were slowly but surely cylinder shaped cups being shaped out of the stone. As the mugs were being shaped were fruits and berries suddenly levitating out of their bowls and swirling around in the rain above the table, being crushed and mixed into various juices, before being poured into the cups.

With his display done, an his audience properly awed, Maleficus continued to speak now that he had rectified his error. "I will offer you all this, let us put aside our weapons and wait out the weather. I do not think anyone wish to come to harm fighting in a storm."

Grand Music's voice was the one to break the stunned silence that followed after those words. "Wait... you want US to not attack you until the weather clears up. Is that all that what you want?"

Happy Meal just blew a raspberry at him, making him smile behind his visor as her carefree and bubbly personality was still strong and bright, even after ten years. It made him glad to hear her speak up, even if it was to speak down at him. "Well ye can forget it ye old goat! We shall never back down! Right Grand Music?"

The unicorn stallion had apparently been surprised by Happy Meal's sudden intervention in the conversation but he swiftly recovered and gave her a smile before turning towards Maleficus with a serious look on his face ,along with a slight smile. The sight made his heart warm up and his own lips to split into a happy grin beneath the visor. "Indeed Happy Meal, neither of us would want Grandpa to be ashamed of us."

Straightening himself he kept control over his voice as to not give away his pride and spoke to them, with concern and caution, asking them something most important. "Are you sure young ones? Once you have made your decision, you must be committed to it, least you do something you regret."

The other ponies seemed to have grown confident and relaxed, some even eating more of the food around them. And at his inquiry, the atmosphere got tense once more, until Happy Meal stood up and pointed at him with her left foreleg and shouted out with a wide grin on her face. "Yeah! Bring it on! We shall take ye on and show our strength!"

His hidden smile grew, the warmth in his heart also so, while his eyes began to grow teary as pride and happiness spread through his body for those two wonderful children.

And his smile grew to an almost strained limit when Grand Music, stood up next to her and joined in her confident attitude and gave his own, rousing speech. "Indeed! We shall never back down! Not now! Not ever! Even if I only have a little strength, as long as I can swing my weapon then I will do so!"

Those words sent chills down his spine, it made him fearful for Grand Music and Happy Meal's safety, and yet, he had never been so proud as he was right now. And he made a short bow to the pair and spoke up in a warm and happy voice, unable to stop his tears from sliding down his cheeks as he spoke to them, hidden by his visor. "Those are fine words you two. And I like the fire you have in your hearts, it burns strong and yet controlled. You make for great Knights. Please, tell me your names."

The pair looked at him with surprise, before grinning and pressed their right hooves over their chests, speaking out their names to him together, with pride and confidence.

"I am Grand Music, Adoptive Grandson of Golden Cross the Lawbringer!"

"I be Happy Meal! Adopted Granddaugher of Golden Cross the Lawbinger!"

His eyes glittered flowing tears and pride and he spoke to the proud pair of knights he loved like his own children. His voice warm, kind and sad at the same time. "I will remember them, even if one day death comes for you, even if the world forget you. Know this. I will still remember you."

This startled the ponies and Happy Meal and Grand Music almost gaped in shock at his words, a heavy silence struck the table and then, Maleficus Victoria, stood up from his seat. And then he spoke out to his guests, ending the parley. "Farewell little ponies. We shall meet again soon, this time, on the battlefield."

*I am so proud of you both right now, I just wish I could tell you.* He thought with a sad smile as he walked away from the table, not looking back at the ponies. Not wanting them to notice the tears dripping down from his chin. Unable to stop them from shedding as his heart beat with pride, happiness and love for those two little ones, who had grown up so big and strong in his absence.

(Scene Skip)

As Maleficus left the table, were the other officers and advisers of the army staring with awe at the two young Knights who had spoken out so brazenly to the most feared of enemies of ponykind. And yet ,even a they stared at the pair, they did not seem to notice their reactions, instead looking after Maleficus as he slowly began to disappear into the rain and wind.

"Say Music... am I imagining things or did he... remind ye of grandpa a little?" Happy Meal asked with a confused voice to Grand Music who was looking just as confuse as she was.

"A bit... I guess it... it was his voice, his way to speak. It was very alike and yet... different. His voice holds a lot of warmth and yet... sadness. Just like Grandpa Cross' voice did." The Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Cross muttered, with confusion and concern clear in his voice. He had never meet a pony so similar to his honourary grandfather. It was clearly impossible and yet... it had been such a likeness in behaviour and speech it gave him chills.

The pair looked out after the long since lost figure of Maleficus Victoria even as the other ponies by the table started to grow uneasy sitting at the table in the middle of a silent, but still active, storm.

Soon enough the ponies gathered up and left for their own area of the future battlefield, taking with them the food, leaving behind the plates and cups on the table, since they could not remove them for some strange reason.

As the ponies disappeared from view, something happened. The stone table, the plates and the cups, melted down into a glowing hot mass of liquid stone. Once the mass of melted stone settled flatly upon the ground, it hardened into a slightly uneven but smooth layer of blackened stone.

(Scene Skip)

Just mere moments after the parley ended, was the strong winds of the storm starting to let up. The ponies felt relieved that the wind had slowed down, allowing them a clearer vision. But as they started to move forward once more towards the mountains, a horn was heard in the distance ahead of them, a horn, not of Equestrian make.

"Hear My Words Soldiers of Equestria!" Rang out the voice of Maleficus Victoria, tearing through the wind and thunder as if they were only ambient sounds. The forces of Equestria straightened up and took into tighter formations as the voice was heard. While the Bronze Army linked up their shields prepared the Silver Army and the Gold Army their ranged weaponry, while the Order of the Golden Cross tightened their own formation in the rear as to not allow for a rear attack.

"I face you NOT as a lone warrior this time! This time I face you as a Warlord! I face you as a General! I face you as an Opposing Leader! And as anyone knows! You are neither of those things! Without! An Army!" Even several hundreds of meters away from the mountain they could hear his voice as it cried out across the dark landscape. And what he said, gave them chills.

Then, after the echoes of his words died down, they heard something else. A familiar sound they had grown familiar with for over ten years now, the sound of marching hooves. And as the sound grew louder, they felt something. The earth beneath their hooves, vibrating.

[Start Marching Theme: Imperium Aeternum - March Of The Spartans (Epic Heroic Orchestral Choir Action)]

[Lyrics by Staadnauthursil]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANy0-SUnX-0

"Buck! Fuck! Shit! "Grand Music swore as he and Happy Meal rushed towards the front line along with some of their more elite order members as music began to fill the air. They reached a large flat rock where they saw the Generals gathered on the top staring ahead.

A purple aura surrounded them and Grand Music lifted them all up onto the large rock. The music was growing louder and the marching of hooves was by now echoing through out the area, with the ground almost shaking from it. "Generals! We are here!"

"Good timing lads an' lasses, but We be in quite da pickle." Rough Stock said with a frown as he looked ahead, the Knights followed his and General Bloody Charge's gaze and almost flinched at what they saw.

They were marching out of the shadow of the mountain, large, heavily armed and covered from hoof to head in plates of black iron. They were like earth ponies, but far larger, even larger then Golden Cross had been. If anything, were these ponies equal in size to alicorns, if only slightly smaller.

And as their marching came closer, they started to chant out together. Their voices cracked through the sky like thunder, as their marching hooves stomped in tact with the rising volume of the music.

"The Earth Shakes!"

They stomped down, hard, the earth seemed to vibrate.

"The Sky Weeps!"

Rain started to fall down in a far heavier force then before.

"Our Will Is Strong!"

They did not care about the rain, the wind or the thunder, their bodies marched across the flattened wasteland of rock and stone without pause.

"Our Hearts Are True!"

Grand Music stared in awe at the sight, it was like an army of knights like the Lawbringers. Their nature almost felt equal to that of his late Grandfather. It was giving him chills to consider even fighting such a force.

"Heed The Voice of the Gods!"

Thunder cracked across the sky and the Generals and the Knights swore under their breaths as the light illuminated the marching forces of Maleficus Victoria, it was like a horde of metal giants marching towards them.

"Through Wind, Rain and Thunder!"

The force of the weather increased, yet the enemy was not deterred, they kept marching and by now, the ponies could see the figures of siege engines at the rear of the large army.

"Answer The Call!"

The soldiers raised their weapons and into the air and let out a unison chant of a gutsy cry.

"ORA!"

Their numbers felt almost endless, and yet Grand Music knew they numbered far less then the forces of Equestria. but that did not make the unease he was feeling disappear. *Quantity is a Quality all by its own, that is true. But there is a reason for why Quality sometimes triumphs Quantity, Grandpa proved that.*

"For The Horses Have Gone To War!"

And once more, the soldiers raised their weapons, but this time, they slammed them onto their shields or armour, and chanted out once more their gutsy cry while clanging their weapons.

"ORA!"

"Whores? No.. Horses? Wait... We hath heard about these... horses... be them not... Our ancestors? Father spoke of them... they were lost before the Tribal Wars." Bloody charge stated with a look of confusion on his face, while the rest of the military leaders of Equestria grew looks of awe and horror on their faces.

"Metal Bends!"

They were not just facing some kind of army of doped ponies or forceful recruits. This... this was an army of the Ancients!

"Stone Breaks!"

Maleficus Victoria had brought an army of their ancestors through time itself to fight them! Or worse! Had he tampered with the bones of their ancestors to build an army of defiled corpses brought to a false mockery of life!? Either case was just as bad! How far does his depravity go!?

"Feel the Will of Your Kin!"

The front line soldiers flinched at those words, it was as if they could feel the battle lust and restrained madness within the army itself. A force of destruction before the Age of Chaos, brought to life to face against their own kin. This was beyond cruel.

"With a Clarity of Light!"

Lightning flared and the entire army of the Ancient Ones stood proud and tall before the awed and terrified ponies, a force of over a thousand strong, armed to the teeth. All covered in the black iron plates while bearing white banners bearing the cutie mark of Maleicus Victoria.

"Beware the World Trembles!"

The army stopped, one hundred meters before the Bronze Army of the Front Line, they stomped down their hooves and their weapons and their banners into the ground, making the earth tremble by their might. And then, they declared out the final words of their War Chant.

"For The Horses Have Gone To War!"

"ORA!"

[End Marching Theme]

"Well... this be a ripe bucket of bucking glue." Rough Stock said with a sigh, while those around him just gave him flat stares.

"Oi! Quit yer freaking staring. Ye be Knights an' Soldiers of Equestria, quit acting like freshly made rookies ya little punks!" Assuming part of his inner Drill Sergeant spirit, Rough Stock barked out at the staring ponies who went rigid and into salute by sheer reflex by the voice and shouted out together.

Not only the officers, every single soldier within hearing distance reacted the same. Rough Stock had truly earned his nickname as General of Sergeants. He still made an effort to instill discipline into not only soldiers but officers well after all.

"Sir! Yes! Sir!"

"That be what we thought. Now go an' prepare yer bucking forces! We got a War ta fight!" They scrambled off like frightened rabbits and Rough Stock shook his head in resignation at the sight. The younger generation had a far way to go before they were able to properly take over from the old generation.

(Scene Skip)

The Ancient Ones were not in fact the original Horses, they were all created artificially by Maleficus while he was on the moon. They were Flesh Golems, shaped after the body of a horse, the largest and most physically strong of all Equines before their race died out in ages past.

They were strong, they were tough and they were totally obedient. But they were not very innovative, Maleficus had to work for a year with Luna on how to make them able to move and obey orders. It had taken Luna a lot of time to refine the progress while he recovered from his mental breakdown. But they were efficient and creepily alive that it made Maleficus curious if it was possible to create totally sentient beings through magic alone.

Luna had told him it was something no pony had ever tried, the closest was the art of Necromancy but that art had disappeared from the world and was only spoken of in myths.

But the ponies had no knowledge about the true nature of Maleicus' army and thus, spread their theories about Time Travel and Necromancy from the lowest grunt to Princess Celestia herself, in less then twenty minutes. Her reaction... was rather spectacular.

(Scene Skip)

(I did not find a Celestia Face like this so I had to use Rainbow Dash as a replacement, just imagine it as Celestia and let your humour do the rest.)

"Bluh!?" It took the willpower of the ponies present to not laugh or even twitch into a smile at the dumbfound look on Celestia's face when the message about Maleficus having an Army of Ancient Ones, one of the lost tribes of pony kind.

They did NOT have enough willpower to stop themselves from flinching as her mane and tail caught fire and her screamed out in utter fury. "WHEN SHALT ENOUGH BE ENOUGH WITH THAT MONSTER!?"

She glared at the messenger, who was proud to say she had NOT soiled her armour, she had not been wearing her cod piece so all she did was soil the ground. And her thighs.

"Give the Generals their orders. Destroy the enemy forces! Release Our tormented ancestors!"

Needless to say, the messenger was off in a streak of blue and yellow. Which was odd since her pelt was purple, her mane blue and she was wearing Silver Armour.

(Scene Skip)

[Start Battle Theme: For Honor OST - Jarl]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zAhzifQLkU

The front line troops of the Bronze Army were armed with a well developed combat gear. Large shield, spear, shortsword, hoof axe and full body plate mail made out of reinforced bronze. There were other troops of Bronze soldiers with more focused or mixed gear. But the majority of them were equipped to handle most situations from defence, offence, retreat and maneuvers.

So when the command from Celestia came and was given, they acted as they had been trained, and armed themselves for a frontal assault upon the enemy forces. Of course, they could not rush forward on their hind legs, only veteran members of the Army and the Knightly Orders had developed their spines and legs strong enough to handle such a straining endeavor.

Thus the absolute front line troops of the Bronze Army, strapped their shields onto their backs, while letting parts of the shield rest on the top of their helmets. They holstered their spears and pulled out their short swords, and bit down on the handle. They then hunched their front down, while raising their rears. Almost making it look like they were offering the troops behind them to 'mount' them. Then, the front lines rushed forward as one wave of bronze armoured battering rams.

Behind the wave of rushing soldiers were the rest of the army following, not moving ass quickly with their shields and spears, but moving enough to not leave much of a gap between them and the first wave.

Then a loud voice rang out through the stormy weather and gave the Ancient Ones, a command. "Prepare For Battle! Engage Defencive Positions!"

"ORA!" With a gutsy cry the horses suddenly shifted in their formation, holes began to appear within their rear lines, not that the ponies could see them because of the weather and lack of pegasus scouts.

The first row of soldier hunkered down and pushed down their large shields to the ground. In a domino effect of blackened metal striking stone emerged a row of massive black round shields of iron. The shields were pressed into the ground, and then a few seconds later came a second row of shields and was put on top the first line of shields. Long spears with a crossguards just at the bottom of the spear tips emerged out of the gaps of the shields.

This tactic, was known as the Joint Defence. It was an old tactic used in China during the 500 Year War. There was a row of soldiers acting as defenders and attackers, while behind them, in pillar like structures, were soldiers who physically supported the front lines with their bodies and shields, acting like physical support for the front line soldiers.

The Bronze Assaulters rushed forward and with powerful leaps, tried to physically stomp down on the shields and stab at the gaps. Their hooves struck iron and loud resounding clangs rang out over the battlefield as they tried to bend or dent the shields and hurt their wielders.

Neither of which happened.

One of the soldiers leaped up and slammed his hooves into the thick iron shield. But the Ancient One he was attacking absorbed the impact with ease and even as he tried to jam his shortsword into the gap between the shields, all he struck was iron. The opponents were far too well armoured to be properly struck down by such tactics.

Then the Ancient Ones retaliated, their spears struck out and just as the tips pierced through Bronze Plate, a powerful shock struck those who got hit in the flesh, and their bodies suddenly went limp as the enchantment upon the weapon knocked them out cold.

Just as Maleficus had promised, he would not kill anyone of Celestia's loyal subjects. Instead he had enchanted the weapons of his army to render anyone who was struck by them with a powerful sleep enchantment that would knock them out cold for at least a day. Unless the had some sort of resistance or immunity to mental magic or sleep effects. Each weapon had been made to made as little damage as possible to those who to hit by it.

As over half of the First Wave fell unconscious to the ground the second wave, the main force of the Bronze Army, struck at the shield wall of the Ancient Ones. The Ancient Ones braced themselves and absorbed the impact, before starting to, in an almost machine like rhythm, lash out with their spears.

Chaos erupted and the two forces struck out at one another. Ponies were rendered unconscious by the blows of the Ancient Ones' enchanted weapons. But the ponies had no such effects on their weapons. And the few times an Ancient One was struck by them, they bleed and died just as well as any other mortal foe.

But even as dozens of Ancient Ones got cut, stabbed, crushed or even choked to death, were the rate of ponies falling to their spears far more in numbers.

In less then an hour had the Bronze Army lost one fourth of its numbers before the ponies started to evade, parry, block or in some rare cases, break or steal, the weapons of the ancient Ones.

But even as they struggled to get the upper hoof, would the Ancient Ones not even tire from the constant attacks upon their shield walls. Content in defending and retaliating whenever they were assaulted by the ponies.

Then the Silver Army and the Gold Army enacted their part of the battleplan. Lines of spell casters marched to the rear of the Bronze Army, and from there, they were given the locations to attack and they started firing off dense magical attacks able to pierce through the strong winds.

Their horns lit up in auras of various colours, then a series of zapping or zooming sounds emerged as rows of large ice spikes, boulders, lightning bolts and other forms of dense elemental magics, flew towards the enemy forces.

Then Maleficus' voice cried out once more.

"Engage Formation Change! Fight In The Shade!" And his soldiers were quick to react, shouting out their gutsy war cry once more.

"ORA!"

Then suddenly the once spread out supportive formation altered itself, all of the soldiers went into a massive block, and raised up their shields above their heads or out on their sides, essentially blocking off all sides with their shields. This had a side effect of creating an almost bread loaf like shape out of their joined round shields.

The magical attacks struck at the shields. All of the attacks did some damage, but the jointed shields protected the soldiers far more then them allowing the attack to just hit them directly.

Boulders crushed several dozens beneath their own shields and weapons. Icicles pierced iron plate and sometimes stuck vital areas, causing them to either bleed out or die from shock. The lightning spells were ineffective as the lightning went into the ground rather then their bodies as their iron plate armours were engraved with shock insulating effects to prevent lightning strikes.

Around one hundred died from the first strike of magical bombardments. Then, the Gold Army's siege engines fired off as well.

Loud resounding echoes of groaning wood and pulled rope being released was heard as siege engines of various kinds fired off their powerful loads towards the enemies. But since the winds were so strong could none of the ballistaes be used in the weather as it was. Nor could the Energy Rods be use either, since they needed high elevation to not hit their own soldiers. But the catapults and the redeveloped trebuchets, taken from the remnants of the Rattenfänger army, were able to fire in the weather.

This time however, the Ancient Ones did not hunker down. As Maleficus gave out his command. "Engage Anti-Artillery Protocol!"

"ORA!"

With yet another gutsy cry the Ancient Ones at the farthest rear of the army engaged their own siege engines. There were several pangs sounded from the shadow of the mountain before suddenly a swarm of crimson lights flew out of the shadow and flew straight towards the approaching boulders of the Equestrian Siege Engines. And as the lights impacted the boulders they detonated into bright flares of white light.

Once the light died down, was there nothing left of the boulders or the mysterious projectiles, or possibly magic. And then Maleficus gave yet another command to his forces. "Engage Combat Priority! Shield and Spear!"

"ORA!"

Now the Ancient Ones altered their attack formation and began to move forward, they utilized their shields like physical weapons to force back or knock out their opponents, slowly marching forward. They held up their shields in front of them to block attacks, while stabbing their spears forward.

The spears had a farther reach then most of the polearms and spears used by Equestria and thus they were far more effective at hitting. Not to mention the Ancient Ones were moving forward in groups of five moving forward in a V formation, this was done in a wave of a thousand strong, essentially creating zigzag patterned wave of spears.

Several ponies tried to charged past the spears and attack their wielders. But the secondary spear wielders in the formation made it almost impossible. Then came the most damning factor, the shields. With a brutal back hoof the Ancient Ones used their shields like large burl weapons, the force behind the strikes were enough to break bones. The Ancient Ones were pushing back the Bronze Army bit by bit, as their spears relentlessly stabbed at their weaker cousins.

By now had half of the Bronze Army's strength been lost and things were looking rather grim.

[End Battle Theme]

(Scene Skip)

Grand Music frowned at the progress of the battle, the Bronze Army was barely holding on and the attacks of the Silver Army and the gold Army were both too inefficient to effect the battle in the long term. He tried to figure out what to do, he had studied tactics, he had lead expeditions, he had engaged in sieges and defended in sieges.

He needed a deciding factor, something to turn the tide. Then as he tapped his hoof against his chin, he realized something, he looked upon the rune engraved horseshoe on his hoof and then towards the West, toward the mountain side blocking off the mainland to the west.

"Say Happy Meal." Said mare turned to him, chewing on a mouthful of apples she had gotten from the banquet table.

"Hmm whut yu wunt?" Looking at her with a raised eyebrow the mare blushed a little before swallowing and rubbed the back of her head with an awkward smile. "Ehehee sorry, what ye want?"

"You remember how these horseshoes of ours work?" He asked her with a sigh.

She made a struggling look on her face before having an 'eureka' moment. "Yeah they be making us lighter an' stronger or sumethin."

Grand Music gave her a flat stare again before he rubbed his forehead. "...Not a perfect recollection but good enough. How many Keepers do we have at the moment?"

"Eeeeeh... about one hundred?" Happy Meal stated after about two minutes of mental counting.

Nodding he pointed at her and gave her, her orders. "Good. Tell them to com here quickly. I want them to help me with something."

"Sure thing Music!" She said with a grin before bouncing off.

(Scene Skip)

Four hours since the battle had started and the situation for the ponies was turning very grim. The Bronze army as down to their rear lines, the rest were either unconscious or too injured to be of any use in the battle. Rough Stock was shouting out orders and asking for support from the Silver and Gold Armies. He had received it, but things did not improve.

Princess Celestia had sent in the remnants of the Order of the Golden Cross at the sight of the battle turning to the worse along with the reports from her messengers. She would enter the battle herself soon if things did not turn out for the better soon, and Rough Stock along with Weak Guts, did NOT look forward to it. Remembering the last time she went hoof to hoof with Maleficus.

The General of the Bronze Army was now standing side by side with Weak Guts, wielding their respective weapons against the frontal units of the Ancient Ones. The large equines were tough and their relentless attacks were wearing them own quickly. Even with the Golden Army and the silver Army joining up at the front were they barely holding off the increasing assault of the army of Maleficus, who had yet to fall to even half strength.

"Where be da Order!? We need some bucking support and now!?" Rough Stock shouted out as he dodged a spear tip aimed at his chest and deftly jammed the tip of his spear into the slit of his opponent's helm, killing him.

"They told Us ta hang in tight Sar- We mean General! They be making preparations fer some kind of retaliation." Weak Guts said as he blocked a row of spears before breaking them off by the middle with his sword, leaving them open for his Silver Soldiers to attack.

"Well when da buckin' hell would those darn foals be ready!? Before or aft'r ey get-" The frustrated cry of the General was interrupted by the sound of horns, pony horns.

The fighting was brought to a halt as the two fighting forces stopped to look towards the West, only to face the massive stone wall that made up the mountain side cutting off the coastline from the mainland. Their gazes turned upwards until they reached the top of the mountain, were the entire Order of the Golden Cross stood, at the very edge of the mountain, bearign their banners high and proud.

"Well if that ain't da craz'est shit ey've ever seen." General Rough Stock stated in a dumbfound voice as he stared at the spectacle for a force of knights, who somehow climbed a sheer, smooth, stone, wall over fifty meter tall. And was now, preparing to charge DOWN said SHEER and SMOOTH mountain wall.

"How in the blazing pits of Tartarus did they even get up there!?" General Bloody Charge shouted out in dismay as he tried to figure out just how the entire Order had managed to climb up the mountain at such a short amount of time.

(Scene Skip)

Grand Music smirked down at the staring forces of both Equestria and Maleficus, he had originally only intended to send himself and an elite unit up. But Happy Meal had been more then willing to convince the rest of the Order to 'join in on the fun' as she called it.

It had been a rather simple idea. He had the Keepers alter their horseshoes runic engravings. It removed their endurance boosts, and instead added a physical grip that allowed their hooves to grip any kind of surface and stick to it. Like the smooth rock wall of a mountain side by the coast. It had only taken them ten minutes to walk up the entire thing and then move past the battle lines and reach the western most flank of the enemy.

The time of removing the horsehoes, altering their runic arrays and putting the horseshoes back on had taken the most of their time. But with around one hundred keepers had it taken less then thirty minutes to prepare their entire force of eight hundred strong.

Grand Music drew his greatsword, a beautiful weapon of sacred bronze, and pointed down at the center of the enemy forces, the area he could see Maleficus, standing like a dark beacon in an open circle within the horde. He then spoke out to his comrades. "Brothers and sisters! Let us breach the darkness! With Our Duty as Our Light! Let Our Courage be Our Sword! Let Our Valour be Our Shield! Ave Princess Celestia! Ave Equestria! Amen!"

"Ave Celestia! Ave Equestria! Amen!" Their resounding shouts echoed over the battlefield, even as te rain struck at their armour, even as the wind slashed at their faces. They stood proud and ready, to breach the darkness.

[Start Battle Theme: Generdyn ft Zayde Wolf - Heroes (Epic Powerful Vocal)]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npKKfjf2EBI

And then, Grand Master Grand Music sheathed his sword and shouted out to his Order, "Charge!", before he charged down the cliff, running on it as if gravity was tilted.

"Urrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

They came like a rumbling storm cloud down the cliffside, the Ancient Ones were apparently dumbfound because they did not alter their formation to block their charge. And thus, as they reached the bottom of the cliff, Grand Music unsheathed his Greatsword and leaped off the cliff and towards the bare flank of the iron plated horses.

With a powerful swing he cleaved two soldiers in half, and then in a burst of purple energy he blasted several of them apart, creating a breach. Then his fellow knights joined him, and widened the breach, but focusing at one area, like a charging stream of knives cutting through a single area of thick slice of meat.

I can hear the lost crying.
I can hear the truth hiding.
The shadows are calling us out.

Grand Music cut through two Ancient Ones, their Iron Armour unable to stop the piercing power of his Sacred Bronze sword. As their torsos flew into the air, a wall of shields and spears moved to face them.

I see the fear rising.
Yeah but my hope is burning.
The shadows are calling us out.

Happy Meal charged past him and with a swing of her poleaxe cut apart the iron spears and then with a second swing brutally stuck at their shields. The impact and strength of the blow was enough to allow her to force five horses into each other before essentially making them fall over, where the rest of the Order's knights could kill them off.

We are heroes.
Heroes in the darkest times.
When there is no light.
We are heroes.

Four Master Knights rushed forward with their respective weapons. One pierced through two enemy soldiers. A pair cut down four together and the fourth brutally crushed the skulls of three.

Heroes in the darkest times.
But we'll rise above.
We are heroes.

Happy Meal used the hammerhead of her poleaxe to buckle the shield of one of the Ancient Ones before Grand Music finished him off by stabbing him through the visor with his greatsword.

It's feeling like the sun's hiding.
But we're gonna keep moving, surviving.
No we won't go quiet tonight.
Stand up and shout louder.
Oh no we won't be silent.
The shadows are calling us out.

The Order of the Golden Cross charged through the sea of black iron, their weapons and armour superior to the black iron of the Ancient Ones. They moved forward, in an arrow like line, sharply wedged at the tip ,before following a straight line. And they could spread out to fill up the area whenever the Ancient Ones tried to fill up the gaps or cut parts of their unit off from one another.

We are heroes.
Heroes in the darkest times.
When there is no light.
We are heroes.
Heroes in the darkest times.
But we'll rise above.
We are heroes.

It was impossible to tell just how deep into the horde of Ancient Ones they had cut through. But they knew they had not been slowing down, they had been fighting and running nonstop since their charge into the enemy lines. Even if they were outnumbered, did they know there was a limit to the enemy's numbers and they could not be far from reaching their intended goal.

When the night is starless.
Only we can spark it.
Light it up in the darkness.
When the night is starless.
Only we can spark it.
Light it up in the darkness.

Grand Music leaped forward, cutting through one of the Ancient Ones, splitting apart the horse's head from the neck to skull in an upward going swing. His weapon leaved through flesh iron and bone like a knife through paper.

Happy Meal slammed the pommel of her poleaxe into the throat of one of the Ancient Ones. The horse seemed to shrug off the blow, but he faltered from the impact . This gave her enough time to swing up her weapon and slam it down on his skull, crushing hi helmet and skull into a bloody mess.

We are heroes.
Heroes in the darkest times.
When there is no light.
We are heroes.
Heroes in the darkest times.
But we'll rise above.
We are heroes.

A group of ten shield wielding knights rushed into a line of Ancient Ones wielding their own shields, once the shields was against one another, the knights drew back their long swords and stabbed through the iron armors' joints and cut down several of their foes before they kept moving forward.

Grand Music slammed his sword's crossguard into the skull of one of his foes, the sharpened point of the blade piercing through the eye-socket and through the skull. He then pulled it back before splitting open another Ancient One, from the waist to chest in a wild upward swing.

Happy Meal rushed forward and slammed several Ancient Ones over onto their sides by tackling their shields, making them collapse on one another. Following behind her were the other knights, using stabbing and slashing weapons to take out the downed enemies.

By now was the Order of the Golden Cross covered in blood and gore from their fallen enemies.

Heroes in the darkest times.
When there is no light.
We are heroes.
Heroes in the darkest times.
But we'll rise above.
We are heroes.

Happy Meal and Grand Music pierced through soldier after soldier, their weapons cutting up the very tip of the road they were making towards their goal. Behind them their fellow knights were following, by now had they lost several of their numbers, but they were not faltering in the least as they followed the two strongest knights of their order.

We are heroes.

Then with a final cry of triumph, Grand Music cut through the last line of troops, cleaving five ancient Ones' heads apart. he made a physical effort to struggle past their bodies, before there was no longer anything keeping him back. An open area within the sea of ancient warriors was revealed to him. There, in the center of the open area, was the calmly sitting form of Maleficus Victoria, looking at him, just around a dozen meters or so out of his reach.

[End Battle Theme]

(Scene Skip)

With a proud smile on his lips Maleficus watched as the Order of the Golden Cross suddenly appeared from the top of the vast mountain side, utilizing magic to rush down its steep side before ramming themselves into the western side of the front lines. The Bronze Soldiers in the western area of the fight had started to falter and lost their formations, thus had his own soldiers gotten a lot farther into the enemy lines an thus left themselves far more exposed to a flanking maneuver.

It was an insane move but it worked. Knights rammed straight forward like a spear through leather and decimated his forces. And now they were forcing back his central forces, straight towards his location. *Impressive. They managed to get back the momentum from the battle with that move. Reminds me a bit about the final battle of Helm's Deep in the second movie of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Man I want to watch them again when I return to my minds cape in a month.*

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of battle cries and clashing metal. Up ahead he could see them tearing through his forces, straight towards his location. Their alloyed armour, made out of the same metal he himself had worn as Golden Cross, bearing banners of Purple with a golden cross. It was flattering.

Normally a Military Leader would move, retreat or give orders, he did none of those things. He did not even bother to stand as he sat there, waiting for those precious children. This was something he felt needed to be done. No matter how much he may wish to avoid hit, did he need to do it. *I hope you do not scold me too much for what I am about to do Luna. But... I cannot stand it. It is tearing me up. It is something I need to do.*

"Maleficus Victoria! In accordance to the rules of warfare! I challenge you!" Maleficus turned towards the voice shouting at him and his heart clenched at the sight of a grinning Grand Music pointing his greatsword at him.

"Very well. However, you alone will not be enough. You may let your mare friend join us. I can tell, you two are the strongest in these forces." Grand Music blinked in confusion at the alicorn, but then he remembered just how powerful the black stallion was and he narrowed his eyes. Also, he got a slight blush on the marefriend comment, uncertain on how to react to that.

*This is not good, he knows we are not strong enough to defeat him so he intends to defeat both me and Happy Meal to destroy the morale of our troops! If I alone was defeated then Happy Meal could at least rally them. I need to-* But he did not have time to decline when a certain mare, spoke for herself.

"Gladly! I want da chance ta give ye a good beatin!" Grand Music facehoofed and stared at his adoptive sister with a flat look on his face, said mare ignored him, being more focused on staring at the large alicorn with a smirk.

Said alicorn returned her smirk with a smile and a soft chuckle, then he stood up on his hind legs and waved his right foreleg while holding his great sword with his left, and shouted out to his forces.

"All Units! Cease Fighting!"

The Ancient Ones stopped in the middle of their battle and suddenly started moving back into their proper formations, while the ponies stared in confusion as the army of giant stopped attacking them.

"Alter Formations! For Honour!"

Maleficus' words created another reaction from the army and they raised their weapons into the air and let out their gutsy cry.

"ORA!"

Then the middle section of their forces started to retract from the battlefield, forming a half moon shaped open space between them and the enemy lines, with Maleficus left alone in the center. A single officer of the Ancients moved forward, bearing the standard bearing the flag and banner of Maleficus, and rammed it into the middle of the field, before retreating to the battle lines. Maleficus stood there, along with his now silent and unmoving army, waiting for the ponies' approach.

And the ponies acted as well. Well, one of them did.

Grand Music turned towards his fellow knights and started barking orders at them. "Tell one of our Order's standard bearers to come here and place our banner next to the enemy's!" He then turned towards the Bronze Army, who were now able to see just how far in the Order had reached with their insane charging maneuver. The Grand Master took a deep breath before he gave them instructions as well.

"Get this message to General Rough Stock! Move back your central forces and make a similar formation as the enemy forces! Grand Master Grand Music and Master Knight Happy Meal of the Order of the Golden Cross shall enter an honourable duel with Maleficus Victoria!" Grand Music shouted out towards the Bronze Army.

There was a slight pause but soon the confused Bronze soldiers moved back as well, making the circle complete. Then out of the lines of bronze came a standard bearer of the Order of the Golden Cross, bearing the banner of the Order as well as the flag of Equestria hanging above said banner.

The banner was placed directly next to Maleficus' an the standard bearer retreated from the empty circle.

A moment of silence hung in the air, but it was soon broken a the Army of Maleficus, reared back their weapons, and started banging them into their shields. A loud resounding rhythm of metal striking metal started to echo across the landscape through the wind and the rain. Grand Music and Happy Meal both stood up on their hind legs and drew their weapons, standing just five meters away from him. The three combatants started to slowly circle around.

*Come now you two. Let this old fool give you one final lesson.* He thought to himself as he stood there, the rain pouring down upon his form. The large empty space made by the two armies was large and the clanging of weapons striking shields was echoing over the storm.

Yet neither of the three took any heed or notice of this, their weapons were drawn and their stances were tense. Their constant circling almost seemed to rotate with the clouds of the storm above them. But then, as a soft melody began to ring across the air, the fight started.

[Start Sad Battle Theme: Beast In Black - Ghost in the Rain (LYRICS)]

[Modified Lyrics by Staadnauthursil]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAkEfIb99rU

"I am here again."

Grand Music and Happy Meal were both startled by the voice singing into the wind, it was the voice neither of them could ever forget. It was the voice of Golden Cross!

"Before your eyes."

Maleficus rushed forward through the rain and swiped hi blade at their shocked forms, they barely had time to leap back as his massive two hoofed greatsword cleaved the rain drops in the air.

"A ghost within a dream."

As they leaped back Maleficus stood there, resting the tip of his blade against the ground, looking at them, as if waiting. Neither of them liked this, the fight felt less of a duel, and more like... a mock battle between a master and students.

"Things that I wanted to do and say."

Even with the ghostly voice of their Grandfather singing in the wind they rushed forward. Happy Meal struck out with her Poleaxe in a sideways going slash from the right while Grand Music made a downward going diagonal slash from the left to the right.

"Just kill me every time."

A loud resounding clang erupted as Maleficus blocked both of their attacks with his greatsword. The large alicorn then lifted his right hind leg up before kicking forward, into Happy Meal's breastplate. With a loud clang she was thrown on her back and rolled a decent five meters away from the fight. Grand Music had no time to react before Maleficus used his superior strength physically push him backwards, making him fall on his back from the force.

"Is this how, how it will stay."

Maleficus started to circle the two downed knights, tracing the ground with the tip of his greatsword, which he held with only one hoof. The pair struggled up from the ground and grasped their weapons.

"By the sea I walk and wander on."

This tie Grand Music charged forward while Happy Meal attacked him from the right. Both of them seeking to pincer him between their weapons.

"I'm an old warrior on a journey all alone."

He stepped backwards and evade Grand Music's slash before lazily shifting his greatsword to parry the strike from Happy Meal. Essentially making her tumble into Grand Music by pulling her by the bearded part of her poleaxe.

"Will you let me show you the way once more?"

They got up once more and this time Happy Meal went alongside Grand Music, both of them charging side by side towards Maleficus.

"Always yours, ghost in the rain."

Maleficus parried Grand Music's stab, he sidestepped Happy Meal's slash. Then he reared back his sword and swung it towards them, even with the two of them blocking the blow, they fell on their rears from the strength of the strike.

"I wish I could undo."

He shook his head at them and rested his blade onto his shoulder pauldron before motioning at them to try again. The two knights were feeling rather humiliated by this. But they grit their teeth and stood up once more.

"My greatest mistake."

Nodding at their determination Maleficus got into a stance, gripping his blade with both hooves, he then made some lazy light swings and rotated his shoulders, before he suddenly leaped upwards and made a downward strike towards them.

"And say the words unsaid."

The two knights separated and got a hoof each in their side, Grand music got a foreleg in his side and Happy Meal got a hind leg in her stomach. They both ended up on the ground once more, feeling like they had just been hit by a battering ram.

"Obsession grows like flames."

Maleficus rushed towards Grand Music and made a downward swing, the unicorn rolled out of the way as the sword cleaved the ground, leaving a deep jagged cut in the solid stone.

"Time only makes it worse."

Pulling out his sword Maleficus gave a nod at Grand Music, who felt confused. Then Happy Meal tried to attack Maleficus from behind, only to end up buck kicked in the gut.

"It hurts yet I'll be strong."

The Mare clutched her stomach but did not let go of her weapon, glaring at the alicorn who nodded to her. She then had to roll out of the way as his sword nearly cut her in half.

"By the sea I walk and wander on."

With their bodies sore and bruised the pair of knights started to rapidly slash and stab at Maleficus' intend on swarming him with blows.

"I'm an old warrior dreaming of lost hope."

He blocked, parried and evaded. The way he used both of his hooves to grip his weapon was what frustrated them the most. Maleficus was holding his sword by the handle and the middle, letting him gain an easier way of moving his weapon to block theirs.

"Will you let me open the door for you once more?"

They swung together at his his neck, he blocked them again. But this time, he retaliated.

"Always yours, ghost in the rain."

He slid his blade down along the pole and blade of their respective weapon. Happy Meal had to let go of hers as the blade closed up to her hooves. When the crossguard of Grand Music's greatword was struck was the resounding impact enough to shake his grip on his weapon and force him to drop it as the pain in his hooves came too strong and sudden for him to maintain his hold.

"The wind will bring a gentle storm."

They reared back before attempting to retrieve their weapons. But before they could were the weapons suddenly surrounded by a crimson glow. They suddenly flew up into the air an levitated next to Maleficus who gave them another motion to try again.

"Under the pain for more."

Looking at one another the two ponies wondered what to do. Then Grand Music noticed something and signaled at Happy Meal with his left hoof, which was hidden from Maleficus' view.

"Facing my fear!"

Once more they attacked, but this time, they did something different. Grand Music ignited his horn and fired off a flare of light straight into Maleficus' visor. The alicorn was temporarily blinded by the sudden light and covered his eyes with his left hoof.

"A neverending despair!"

Happy Meal leaped forward, grabbed hold of both her own and Grand Music's floating weapons, and made a down ward intersecting slash at Maleficus' head.

"For you to be safe in life!"

A loud clang and crack was heard as the sword struck Maleficus' hoof, and did nothing to it, not even a scratch. While the poleaxe split open the left visor and part of his helmet, baring his red eye and black fur to the world, undamaged though.

"By the sea I walk and wander on!"

Maleficus kicked her back while touching his damaged helmet, and a strange look came into his eyes, a look that made both of the knights feel a strange sense of deja vu. They had seen a similar look before, but did not remember where or when.

"I'm a grandfather on a journey all alone!"

Deciding to put the matter away for now the pair charged at him once more. Their weapons swung at him from left and right.

"Will you let me show you the way once more?!"

He slammed his hoof into the ground and a stone spike erupted up on his right, blocking Grand Music's strike. Then he grabbed Happy Meal's weapon by the handle in her mid swing, then he pulled her towards him and head butted her, his claw like horn tearing up part of her helmet.

"Always yours, ghost in the rain!"

Happy Meal reared back, clutching a bleeding nose, her helmet was torn in half by the front, revealing half of her bruised face.

"By the sea I walk and wander on!"

Grand Music charged forward with a angry battle cry, only to end up roundhouse kicked in the ribs for his efforts.

"I'm a grandfather dreaming of lost hope!"

As Grand Music clutched his side Maleficus grabbed him by the shoulder and tossed him into Happy Meal.

"Will you let me open the door for you once more?!"

The two got up once more and glared at him, but then their glares turned into surprise when he embedded his sword into the ground and got into a familiar looking stance before he motioned at them to come again.

"Always yours, ghost in the rain!"

They charged forward, more confident this time to take him out. But then he raised his right foreleg and pressed it into Grand Music's breastplate. Then with a sudden twist with his hoof and rotation with his entire shoulder, the breast plate twisted and was essentially twisted apart like tinfoil.

Then with a forward push he sent Grand Music flying five meters, with two broken ribs. The young unicorn stumbled for a decent four meters before he stopped rolling, he did not seem to be able to get up from the blow he had just been struck.

"In the raaaaain!"

Happy Meal stared in shock and gaped at the sight of what the alicorn had just done. She did not move as Maleficus moved towards her and just gaped in shock. What she had just seen, was something that only on pony should be able to do. None of the Order. none of the Army. Buck, even Celestia herself was not able to do what Maleficus had just done, at least not without tearing apart whatever was inside as well. Only one other pony had been able to do what he just did.

"Like a ghost in the rain."

Maleficus stood in front of her and got into his stance, and slowly pressed his hoof against her breastplate, but she did not move. She knew what she was thinking was insane, but she needed to know, she HAD to know.

"G-Grandpa Cross?"

Maleficus froze for a second, and hesitated. That was all the clues the young mare needed. Then came the final proof, as Golden Cross' voice, was heard not from the air around her, but from Maleficus himself. And those words were the final words of the song, as well as the end of their duel.

"You call my name."

With a twist of his hoof and shoulder he shredded her armour and with a push sent Happy Meal into Grand Music, making the pair fall into a pile on the ground, both of them with two broken ribs. Slowly he walked back to his sword, and pulled it out of the ground.

The duel was over.

[End Sad Battle Theme]

Silently Maleficus just stands there, watching the two as they laid there on their sides, staring at him in utter shock, their tired, sore and exhausted bodies unable to stand. His eyes shines with unshed tears. But he stood proud before them, proud, not of himself, but of them. His strong and beautiful grand children, whom he loved like his own. He smiles at them beneath his visor, closing his bared eye into an eye smile before he slowly turns and walk away.

His voice... no Golden Cross' voice, rang out through the wind once more as he walked away, leaving his final message to the two. "No matter what. Stay true to yourselves and live life to its fullest. And know this, I will always be proud of you, and I will always love you like my own. No matter how much you may come to despise me."

The two ponies did not know how to react, they did not know how to handle this revelation. They clutched each other and fell into blissful unconsciousness as the heavy hoofsteps of Maleficus Victoria, the true identity of Golden Cross, walked away from the sight of the duel between himself and his own adopted grandchildren.

There was no victor in this fight. There never was.

(Scene Skip)

The battle between the forces of Equestria and Maleficus was brought to a halt as the Grand Master and one of the Master Knights, Happy Meal, had been defeated in a duel between them and Maleficus himself. Neither of the powerful knights would be fighting for a while, but they were going to recover.

But this meant that the stalemate they had brought would not remain as the Ancient Ones started to regain their strengths as the Order of the Golden Cross could no longer properly handle them without Grand Music's leadership and Happy Meal's ability to keep up morale.

Princess Celestia, who had received the news by the time the duel was well and over, grit her teeth in frustration before she stood up and pointed at Solid Pink. "Solid Pink."

Said mare saluted her Princess and spoke up in a no nonsense fashion. "Yes Your Highness!"

"Order Our forces to retreat away from the battlefield. We art taking the field now. Thou art in command until We return."

"As thou wish!" Solid Pink said with a sharp nod before moving away to do her duty.

Soon a sphere of light was sent up into the sky above the War Camp were it exploded into brilliant signal flare. They needed to get the message out clear and swiftly. It would not do to let their own troops be caught in the crossfire between their Princess and the monster known as Malefiucs. Thus the, by now, recovered pegasus units of Equestria, moved out to offer support to the retreating armies to not let them be caught up in the coming fight.

Celestia looked out towards the battlefield with a furious glare on her muzzle. Her mane and tail started to smoke and spark, until they ignited into flames. Then, she spread her wings, and let out a wordless battlecry before she flew off like a lightning bolt towards the last known location of Maleficus Victoria.

(Scene Skip)

The fighting was going strong, the ponies of Equestria were struggling to stay their ground against the Ancient Ones. Even though the Order of the Golden Cross had managed to bring them time to recover were they in no doubt that they were too outnumbered and outmatched to handle the Ancient Ones without Grand Music's command over his Order.

Then a golden flare erupted from the War Camp and all of the armies gave sighs of relief, they were ordered to pull back. And they made no hesitation to pull back.

But before they could even reach the war camp, a golden bolt of light streaked out from the war camp and flew like a screeching war bird towards the Enemy Forces, who were not moving after the ponies.

The streak of light struck the core of the army and a bright light flared up and engulfed the coastline, blinding not only the Ancient Ones but the ponies as well. A rush of heat and force made many fall over as pillar of intense fire erupted upwards into the sky, dissolving the clouds into a cloudless afternoon sky.

But the storm was still going strong and the hole was rapidly being filled up. But as the flames dies down, the ponies witnessed the burning form of their Princess, standing before the black form of Maleficus Victoria. And those who had seen this before, knew that the shit had just hit the haystack.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus had been expecting Celestia to act, but he had not been expecting a sudden Air Strike like this. But it had mattered little. As when the flames dispatched and the rain regained dominion over the sky, he calmly walked forward. He knew his army had lost over half of its original strength with that strike, thus he had given them the order to retreat.

This was a fight between him and Celestia, just like last time. Only, hopefully not as bloody.

The black cloud of smoke and ash dispatched by the rain and he calmly emerged from the smoke like a phantom out of a nightmare. Celestia stood a bit to the right , glaring straight forward towards the remnant of the smoke and ash, having expected his survival. But had not spotted him just yet.

"Just as ill tempered as the last time we fought. But you have grown stronger, Celestia." While speaking, Maleficus slowly turned around towards her. His entire armour was covered in scorch marks and ash, yet he was unharmed from the intense flames she had fired at him.

Princess Celestia turned around as well and glared upon him, her mane and tail a pair of flowing masses of fire, her horn ablaze with golden energy while her pink eyes seemed to burn with crimson energy. "We hath prepared for this moment, Monster.", Her voice was like burning fire and exploding volcanoes, a vocal embodiment of her rage.

[Start Trailer Music: OST Soul Calibur V - Lord of Terror]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v3n4ylUqSA

Maleficus Victoria turned his neck left and right, straightening his muscles and popping his bones into their proper place.

Then he grasped his greatsword from the ground, stood up, and rested his right foreleg on the pommel while pressing the tip of his blade into the ground.

And then he spoke to her, his own voice rumbling like thunder as his eyes and horn began to glow with crimson light.

"So you say, but let me tell you something."

Wisps of black smoke began to emerge from his tail and mane and Celestia glared even more, as the black hair of his mane and tail, erupted into black smoke, which soon gave away to green, poison green, flames.

His mane was now a large mass of green flowing, roaring, flames. As was his tail, standing out even more on his darkened fur.

Next the thick fur on the back of his hooves ignites as well, creating a sinister effect of making green flames scorch the ground were his hooves directly touched it, leaving horseshoe shaped marks of green fire.

And then the same happened to his unruly beard, igniting a line of green flames from his sideburns to the tip of his jaw.

Even his eyebrows erupted into green fire. Then as his transformation was complete, he looked at her and with his crimson glowing eyes, glared into hers and spoke, his thunderous voice letting out three words.

"So have I."

[End Trailer Music]

To Be Continued

Chapter Thirteen: The Second Clash (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Thirteen: The Second Clash

[Current Date: 7/7 - 111 AD]

[Start Dramatic Battle Theme Music: Two Steps From Hell - Unleashed (feat. Merethe Soltvedt)]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO6Zrk-WZFE

The sky was dark and cloudy. Were once there had been rain, lightning and wind there was only dark murky clouds billowing over the coast. Even as rain fell upon the sea and upon the mainland, it did not fall upon this part of the region.

A single rain drop fell from the clouds, its clear blue shape fell down towards the rocky ground of the coast, but as it rapidly approached the sight, it began to smoke. Then it began to bubble. Then it evaporated into a puff of white steam, which was blown away by the wind.

Down past the evaporating raindrops, stood a pair of ponies, armed and armoured, prepared for combat. One as black as tar, dressed in an armour of black iron with a mane, tail, beard, eyebrow and hoof fur in the shape of toxic green flames. The other pony as as bright as snow, dressed in a golden armour with a mane, tail and eyebrows burning in the shape of golden fire.

The pair stood there, seizing each other up. In the grip of their hooves were large, thick and heavy weapons normal beings would find difficult to even lift. Within the black stallion's grip was a long, thick and heavy greatsword made out of solid iron, engraved with runes along the central area of the blade. Within the grip of the white mare was a massive warhammer, a maul, of sacred bronze. It's surface was engraved with runes and the hammerhead was in the shape of a curved horn, giving it both a piercing and blunt end to use in different ways.

They just stood there, watching one another, intense emotions and magical pressure pushing against one another in the air. This intense contest of will and magic was creating a thick tension which was super heating the air around them, making steam and smoke rise from the ground around them as water and blood began to evaporate into the air.

Then, after the pair had stood there for thirty minutes, had the mare had enough. And Princess Celestia, ruler and founder of Equestria, rushed forward towards her foe, hefting the large and heavy weapon before making a powerful downward aimed strike toward the black stallion's helmet.

"Thou shall fall monster!" She shouted out as her hated foe dodged aside and made another swing, this time aimed at his gut with the pointy end of her hammer, aiming to split open his armour and pierce his guts.

Maleficus stepped to the side to avoid her second strike. He then aligned his sword to the right and blocked the powerful left kick she made towards his midsection. The impact of her hoof upon his iron sword almost forced him back, but he instead let the impact strike his weapon, shifted his body with the kinetic force behind the blow and turned with it.

"I seriously doubt that!" He shouted out as he shifted his grip as he spun round in a perfect circle. In the middle of his spin he started to swing his own weapon forward. And doing so he was using the rotation of his own body to raise the speed and strength of the strike significantly. The large blade of solid iron tore through the air and swept towards her midsection like a sharpened iron beam.

But the Princess of the Sun kicked off the ground, lifted up off the ground into a beautiful back flip, avoiding his swing before landing a few meters away from him on both her hind legs, her weapon still held by her left foreleg's hoof.

Now Maleficus was taking the initiative. He charged forward and made a forward going stab with his weapon. She evaded it like he had evaded her earlier attack by side stepping. Then the black alicorn suddenly swept out one of his wings and swatted Celestia in the face, making her get a faceful of feathers. But the reaction he had sought for, was not what he got.

"Blah! When did thou last clean thy wings!?" She screamed out in utter disgust as she reared back and clutched at her nostrils, trying to remove the irritating tickling sensation his feathers had caused, as well as the stench of unwashed wings. It had been like she had been forcefully pushed, muzzle first, into a pile of rotten and moldy cheese older then her mother!

Her nausea was temporarily forgotten when she was forced to buckled over and gag, as a powerful hoof kick slammed into her exposed midsection. The force behind the kick force the air out of her lungs and she felt a big bruise take shape before her hooves left the ground and she was sent flying for a second before hitting the ground and rolled away from her foe for a decent ten meters. The impact of the hoof had been strong and hard enough to leave a head sized dent with the imprint of a horseshoe in the sacred bronze plating of her armour.

"Well excuuuuuuuse me princess! But there is an awful lack of water on the FUCKING MOON!" The embarrassed alicorn stallion shouted at her as he shuffled his wings in slight awkwardness. He did not appreciate being pointed out as dirty, he had actually forgotten all about cleaning himself up. And the swamp water he had landed in, and NOT cleaned off, when he first arrived had not helped. Seriously though, he had absolutely forgot about cleaning himself up ever since returning from the Moon.

As he shuffled in slight embarrassment was Celestia not going to let her foe just stand there and feel awkward. This was a fight for the finish and not a bucking health discussion! She used her own body's momentum to flip up on all four and glared at the form of Maleficus before she raised her head and ignited it in a golden aura.

Maleficus knew that the fight would become more focused on magic now, but he did not let go of his sword, he might need it. Eyeing her charging magic he began to power up himself, igniting his horn in a crimson aura. As he did so he gripped his sword with both hooves and held it at the ready while starting to move sideways, as to not give Celestia clear shot at him.

Then with a echoing scream, Celestia aimed her horn towards him, and fired off a beam of white light. Had it not been for the fact that the ground and air around them were already intensely heated up by the two alicorns, would it have erupted into a powerful steam explosion. Well not likely but it could have happened. But instead the ground beneath Celestia started to melt while an intense heat almost started to sear and burn Maleficus within his own armour. The intense heat from her quickly expanding beam of light was hot enough to sear the ground into a glowing hot sludge of lava, even if nto directly touching the ground.

The alicorn swiftly dive jumped to the left as the beam of intense light speared past him and disappeared from sight for a few instances of a second, before striking the mountain side behind him. It was an instant momentum, with the massive beam of light flying past him like a javelin of intense death, before disappearing in a brief twinkle into the mountain There was a brief pause, not a single soul moving, nor the sound of the world being heard.

That is, until a massive explosion erupted from the mountain side where the beam of light and struck. The earth shook and the air quivered, as the intense pressure of heat and air seemed to shake the very world itself. Massive chunks of stone and earth shook off from the seaside cliffs as well as the recently struck mountain wall.

The mountain looked someone had slammed a hammer and chisel into the weak points and broken its integrity. Massive jagged scars could be seen spread out across the coastline, with piles of rocks in and by the sea, and beneath the damaged line of mountains. The only spot not possible to see was the area were the light had struck, being covered by a massive cloud of dust and steam rising into the sky.

A few tense moments passed by and the shaking died down, as did the light and smoke rising from the impact, revealing a fifty meter, in diameter, wide circular shaped crater, melted into the side of the mountain. Surrounded by the jagged fractures left from the sever shaking caused by the detonation. But Maleficus did not look towards the explosion, he was too busy looking at the left side of his armour, which was by now half melted by the intense beam of plasma Celestia had tried to disintegrate him with.

"Well... this is going great." He said sarcastically as he looked down at his damaged armour. The armour had been enchanted, powerfully so, and been made to be light and defensible. He had spent a lot of time making this armour, ad here it was damaged in its debut fight. It was clear, he needed to figure out a better way to make armour not only for himself, but his forces as well.

But for now did he not have time to worry too much about those facts. He had to get back into the fight. Thus he started to gather his wits, and balance, and began to stand up.

When he stood up he rested his red glowing sword upon his left side, the heated metal not even bothering him as his extra thick pauldron blocked it The the black alicorn made sure to look out across the battlefield. There was plenty of space, no ponies, only dead bodies of his own soldiers and the storm was still raging on. Celestia was a decent distance away, and she seemed a bit winded, but swiftly recovering. This would give him time to act, and he knew just what to do, he would just have to show her some magic of his own.

Maleficus sheathed his blade to his side. He then spread out his forelegs and took a deep breath, his hooves starting to glow white as the green flames behind them started to burn more intense. After a few seconds the warrior then clapped both of his forelegs' hooves together, a loud resounding clang erupted from his hooves before he pulled them apart.

As he pulled his hooves apart, was a small spark was being formed in the empty space between his hooves. And as the spark was formed, it began to intensely glow, practically flaring out intense brightness When he started to pull his hooves further and further apart, the small white dot of sparkling light in the empty space between his hooves, began to expand into a bright white sphere.

It grew further and further as he had pulled apart his forelegs more and more. And then, as Maleficus had pulled his forelegs apart as far as he could, was there a sphere of intense white light, surrounded by an aura of blueish white sparkling energy. At this moment had the orb reached the size of a large coconut. By this point was the air around his hooves starting to steam and smoke as part of his fur next to his hooves, started to catch fire.

Then he made a forward push with his forelegs, and the sphere flew forward like a cannon ball. Arches of energy flew off it as it passed through the intensely hot air. The sheer power the sphere was giving off made Celestia feel shivers even in the intense heat around her and her foe. Thus she quickly decided to take actions to evade being hit. The white alicorn princess channeled her body with augmenting magical energy, bent all four of her legs halfway, and then, she jumped.

Earth splintered and stone fractured, as she leaped twenty meters up into the air, the white sphere flew past her former location and flew out into the storming ocean. and then, as a few seconds passed by and Celestia landed on the ground once more. There was a blinding flash of light from the ocean, making both Celestia and Maleficus turn away their eyes and cover them. But even with her eyes blinded, Celestia smirked at his folly.

"Thou hath terrible aim foul beast!" She shouted out as she rubbed her eyes to try to quicken her sight's restoration. The Princess of the Sun felt more confident, having seeing his waste so much magical energy on a missed attack. Maleficus was about to respond to her biting remark when the surge of electrical energy created as a byproduct of his attack reached their location.

A twitching sensation covered their bodies as a wave of energy surged through their bodies, but they were not harmed. Once their eyes recovered was there no sign of the sphere. But there was thick scent of ozone and something else in the air, as an aftermath of the focused explosion.

Turning their attentions back to one another, the two warring immortals drew their weapons once more. Maleficus started to channel magic into this greatsword, causing green and red runes to appear upon its surface. While Celestia, created a golden aura of light over the hammerhead of her maul.

Maleficus gripped his long handled greatsword, the veins and muscles in his forelegs were bulging as he finished channeling his magic into his weapon, the blade was by now surrounded by an aura of green and red flames, green on the right side of the blade and red on the left side. Then, he raised his sword up above his head, holding it up with both of his forelegs, and shouted out into the sky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHZF1Dy13to

"I! HAVE! THE! POWER!"

A loud crack erupted through the air as the green and red flames of his sword suddenly swirled around and combined into a mass of black fire. His weapon, was glowing like a crimson core of magma within the red flames, the runes upon the blade's surface all that was maintaining its form.

*I have wanted to do that ever since I was a kid!* He thought with a grin on his lips before pointing his glowing weapon at Princess Celestia, as if showing her his mythical might. But in fact he was just following a scripted scene from one of his oldest favourite shows. And then, as the growing darkness of his sword stopped expanding, but instead, grew thicker and darker in coloration. When his blade looked like it was being burned by the fires of hell, Maleficus charged.

He stepped forward with his right hind leg, and hunched down on the leg, before he leaped forward with a powerful push. The speed of his lounge was impressive, but Celestia was well prepared. She moved forward herself, and meet his charge with her own.

Their weapons sang through the air and there was a tremendous impact that shook both of them to the core, but they endured it and reared back their weapons for a second attempt. Once more their weapons split the air and and clashed, the resounding clang echoing across the battlefield.

Rearing back their weapons, they suddenly altered their attack pattern and went into quick and rapid strikes. Their forelegs blurred out of sight, as did their weapons, and there was a light show of sparks in the air around them. There were momentarily images of a hammer head and a sword blade clashing whenever an explosion of sparks erupted in the air.

It was a storm of ghostly weapons striking at one another, erupting like thunder and lightning with each impact. And as they did so, the echoing clangs of their weapons striking one another, started to escalate into something that sounded like a crescendo of church bells ringing. While the wind let out moaning howls as the weapons tore it asunder.

They kept it up, not relenting, not giving up the momentum. Evenly matched in speed and power they just swung and swung, not caring about how their muscles screamed for it to stop, they did not pause in their all out assault upon one another. And then, as it would seem like the very air would be destroyed by their rapid attacks, they altered their tactis once more.

As if someone had put the video to slow motion the two alicorns ceased their trade of lightning quick strikes, and instead reared back their weapons ,held by both of their forelegs, glared at one another. And attacked, this time, not with speed or finesse, but with pure, and utterly brutal, strength!

The two warriors swung their weapons, Sacred Bronze and Solid Iron at one another, and the result, was a clash of might. A pair of ancient and traditional weapons, held by mortals beyond the known history, meet in a tremendous impact. And the occurring clash against each other would be yet another made in a pointless duel of futility. For neither warrior could overcome the other. But neither of these warriors were concerned about this, being too focused on over coming each other to see just how evenly matched they were.

There was a tremendous crack as the sharp edge of the enchanted iron blade slashed against the flat end of the enchanted hammer head. The edge of the blade seemed to grow fractures in its very aura, even while the hammer's surface seemed to crack like someone had punched a mirror. The auras surrounding the weapons fought against one another, creating loud resounding booms, cracks and screeches as their wielders fueled their powers into their weapons. Both wielders hoped that the power of their magic combined with their weapons' enchantments and their owb physical might would overcome their adversaries.

And yet even as their wielders struggled against each other. Even as their magic seemed to grow strong enough to break the air itself. Neither weapon gave away, not even as fractures took shape in their metal, they did not give away. It was clear, the weapons would break before their wielders did. But neither Celestia nor Maleficus took heed of these events, they were too busy fighting each other to notice.

"Admit thy defeat!" The Princess of the Sun shouted out in utter anger as she tried to push him back and gain the momentum she was looking for.

"Not in this life!" Maleficus retorted as he tried to push back against her own pushing. The stalemate still on going, even as they tried to overcome each other.

They grit their teeth and snarled at each other as their forelegs pressed forward, their hips and spines tensed, their hind legs pushed against the ground. Then with a loud clang their armoured heads slammed into each other, their horns crossing and grinding against each other. Through it all they glared into each others' eyes, said eyes glowing like a group of stars.

The Princess of the Sun broke their stalemate, she ignited her horn and fired off a fire spell at point blank into Maleficus' barely armoured head, searing his fur and flesh with a blast of fire. Something Maleficus had not been expecting. His eyes were practically burned out and he reared back with a loud pain filled cry, clutching his eyes. Then she brutally kicked him in the chest before swinging around her hammer in a 180 degree swing, and slammed it straight into the right side of his helmet covered head.

A loud clang erupted from the impact of the sacred bronze maul upon the alicorn's metallic skull, giving the stallion a severe headache that would be amplified by the ringing of his own cranium. The force behind the strike was enough to make the alicorn fly up a meter above ground while he was sent soaring backwards for several meters before hitting the ground with a meaty thud. His body tumbled over the solid stone ground, his limbs flailing about as he rolled and tossed around like a broken rag doll until he slammed sideways into a big boulder with a loud crack.

There was a brief pause in the fight, with a surprised Celestia staring at her weapon, before a grin appeared upon her muzzle and she turned towards her downed foe. Only for her eyes to widen as he struggled up on his hindlegs against, his regenerating flesh and fur being restored as he recovered from the impact. The stallion reached out, gripped the surface of the boulders, and lifted himself up from the ground. By the look on his face, was he NOT as happy about his landing like Celestia had been.

His horn ignited with a crimson aura. And then his sword, which had laid on the ground, was engulfed in a similar coloured aura as he telekinetically gripped it. Then the large blade flew towards him and was soon once more held by one of his hooves. The alicorn turned his neck, left and right, cracking his bones and stretching his sore joints, as his flesh was completely restored. His pelt was restored and his hair, aka his mane, tail, eyebrows, beard and hoof fur, was still burning.

Maleficus then reared back his left hoof and stomped it down onto the ground, a loud crumble filled the space around them, several hundreds of fractures, cracks and holes began to take shape as the tremor grew in strength. And then, all of a sudden, the tremor stopped. And just as it stopped, the points with cracked ground burst apart as growing jagged and pointed stone logs grew out of the earth at a rapid speed.

What had once been flat ground had suddenly become a rapidly growing forest of stone spears, with more erupting from beneath the ground. Celestia barely had time to fly upwards as the jagged stone spears came soaring out of the ground in a rising forest of death. As she flew higher and higher she noticed that the forest of stone spears had grown large enough to cover Maleficus from sight, the only reason she knew where he was, was because of the glow coming from his green fire hair.

From the sky she glared down at the location of her hated foe and began to gather new magic into her horn, igniting it in a golden aura, preparing to enact her own magical attack upon him. But before she could enact her plans, acted Maleficus before her. The black alicorn stallion stomped down, hard, on the ground once more. There was another sudden tremor, the earth seemed to split and crack at the base of all the spears. Then there was a sound crack as the stone spears, sticking out of the ground, erupted skywards as the ground beneath them erupted in small explosions of stone and air.

Celestia used her gathered energy to create a shield around her as the stone spikes shoot up at her. There was a collection of loud resounding cracks and crunches as the stone spikes crumbled apart against her force field. But then, out of the swarm of rock and stone, appeared a dark shape.

Out of the storm of stone, rock and dust emerged the armoured shape of Maleficus, wielding his sword with one hoof, holding it low, to his hip, with his other foreleg, reared back. He swung forward with his hoof and Celestia tried to enforced her magical shield more, but the moment the chrome coloured hoof struck the energy field, it split through it, shattering the shield.

"Surprise!" He shouted out with a gleeful grin as he destroyed her protective barrier.

Even before she could think of dodging was her body struck by several sharp rocks, brutally bruising her armoured body, while a few managed to scratch or tear up patches of her flesh in the exposed areas of her body, like her wings, throat and face. Then her face was struck by the powerful downward punch of Maleficus Victoriea, and Celestia found herself falling down as her head was suddenly flung downwards. Her head hurt like hell even before her body shoot down into the ground, the impact of her body striking stone left a deep imprint of her body in a ten meters wide crater.

"Oooh... We hate that brute." She muttered as she pulled her legs out of the fractured ground they had been embedded into. The crater she had created on impact looked like a bowl filled with cracks and gravel.

The Alicorn Princess struggled out of her landing zone and spat out a mouthful of broken teeth, piece of tongue flesh and bone shards, grimacing as more of her teeth were regenerating out of her recently destroyed, now repaired, jawbone. Her tongue was tingling, but whole after she had accidentally bitten off the tip. Within moments she had recovered and got up on all four and glared up at Maleficus as he fell down and landed on the ground with a loud thump a dozen or so meters away from her.

Celestia retrieved her maul with a telekinetic grip and let it float by her side as she charged up a spell, causing her horn to light up before releasing a powerful flare of light. Temporarily blinding Maleficus who had no time to react. She then flapped her wings and suddenly the intense heat of the air turned chilling cold, and rain began to pour in from the ocean as she released the powerful heat pressure she had been emitting, and a white mist began to shroud the coastline as the hot ground began to vaporize the raindrops striking its surface.

Maleficus snorted and backed away, disappearing into the mist like a ghost, while Celestia did the same, and the two fighters began to prowl through the mist, trying to gain an advantage over the other.

[End Dramatic Battle Theme Music]

(Scene Skip)

Back at the War Camp were the ponies staring in fear and anxiety at the insane light show they had been watching, until it was shrouded by rain and mist just mere moments ago. The fight must have been insane since the intense pressure between the two powerful ponies could be felt even from such a far distance.

It was a good thing Celestia had ordered a swift retreat when she did. The recovered pegasi troops had managed to speed up the retreat enough to keep all of their forces from being caught in the cross fire when Celestia made her fiery entrance. Many had been bruised or slightly over heated by the attack, but no one had been severely injured or killed by it.

In one of the tents laid a pair of ponies, an earth pony and a unicorn, laying on a pair of special made beds for wounded soldiers. Happy Meal and Grand Music, were both awake, having woken up during the retreat, and witnessed the power of Celestia, a brief sight of Maleficus' engaging her, before they were put in the care of the healers who rushed them back to the War Camp.

The sound of the battle between Celestia and Maleficus could be heard even by them, and the fact that their adoptive Grandfather, was alive, and a demigod of all things, who had... essentially lied to them to keep them ignorant of his true self, even acting as a old knight, telling mostly made up tales and historical facts. Tales and historical facts they had allowed to affect their entire lives. Even made a Knightly Order out of those said lies. All of this would have made them severely upset.

If it had not been for one thing, making them unable to decide just what they should think or feel about it.

"W-why do ya think Grandpa... saved us back then? I-I mean... he did not have ta... save me... mama... or you..." Happy Meal muttered softly as she laid there, her voice strangely clear and accent free, for the most part, as she laid there, thinking.

"I... I do not... Grandpa... he... was not.... he.... did not.... hah..." Grand Music tried to find words to explain, he tried to figure out a reason, a purpose, anything, for the evil alicorn Maleficus, to save a poor street child from the streets and a filly and her mother from bandits. It did not speak of an evil soul, even though it felt like he was a bad pony... Grand Music could not find it in himself to even consider his grandfather evil or bad, even if he lied to him.

For he... saved them. He saved them all. More then once. That kind old stallion, saved them all. But... that did not stop either of the two young ponies from feeling depressed and frustrated. But they knew one thing they had to do, they needed to speak to the one pony, who could clear things up for them.

"...We got ta tell mama." Happy Meal mumbled as she laid there, and Grand Music, while not vocally responding, just silently agreed. They needed to tell Grand Feast about this, it was the only thing they could do to make sense of everything.

(Scene Skip)

[Start Battle Theme Music: Most Wondrous Battle Music Ever: God of The Sun]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucmaSFfqpok

The coastline was covered by a mist so thick it made it hard to see beneath your own legs. But this did not discern either Celestia or Maleficus. The two alicorn moved through the fog like a pair of wolves hunting the others in a massive bloody game of hide and seek.

Flares of light emerged from a spot in the mist, but were just a distraction as a wave of fire erupted from somewhere else, dispatching an area filled with mist. A storming shower of ice shard to plummeted upon the land a rain drops were frozen into javelin sized icicles. A massive sphere of darkness flared up into existence before disappearing in a singular pop, leaving a spherical hole in the ground, which was soon shrouded y the mist.

For what felt like hours they kept it up, moving silently through the thick white mist, using the wind and the rain pouring down upon them to cover up the sound of their movements.

Then Celestia decided to end the farce, her intention to use the mist to her own advantage having backfired rather spectacularly. A flash of light emitted from within the mist, amplified by the mist's water crystal structure, the flare filled up the entire seacoast like someone had ignited a sun in the middle of the coastline.

"For fuck's sake! Why is it always the eyes!?" Maleficus shouted out in pain as he was, for the nth time, blinded by a bright light and had to rub his sore eyeballs.

Then he realized just what a blunder he had made when Celestia came running out the mist, covered by an aura of fire, and brutally tackled him, forcing him back, before sweeping her wings towards him.

He reflected her wings with his own and frowned as Celestia started to... dance? No, not dance, she entered a sort of combat stance. She began to move in strange circular movements, sweeping her wings and legs into wide curved attacks towards his body's joint.

Maleficus flapped his wings and jumped backwards, using his wings to make a slow, almost sassy, glide away from her. Celestia's burning eyes glared at him and her aura of fire shoot out towards him like a expanding snake, or tentacle, of plasma.

With his sword he swept through the plasma like tendril and moved forward. The massive tendrils split apart into a massive swarm of slithering tendrils of heat, trying to whip, stab and entangle his body. Feeling VERY insecure about the entire situation he held his wings forward at a downward aimed angle, before filling them with magic, lightning arched off his wings like they were thunderclouds.

His lightning meet the tendrils and the two plasma types clashed against each other, but Maleficus was more focused on intensifying the lightning to make it denser the normal, essentially creating a shield of lightning. Celestia' thinner tendrils were unable to pierce through his lightning field and Celestia had to abandon her attack as Maleficus reached her.

A field of lightning and a shield of plasma, clashed. There was a bright flare of light before a loud resounding crackling boom erupted from the point of impact. A pressure filled wave of heated ozone and air flew out from the struggle between the two higher beings, and with it came with a powerful kinetic force that started to fracture the ground around them, cause the ground to shake and for the sea to quiver.

The white mist that once covered the coastline was torn asunder by the intense heat wave, bursting apart into wisps of water droplets as the sparkling ozone pushed itself upwards into the sky and outwards into the sea. Once the energy packed wave struck the heavens were the clouds began to emit tiny sparks of lightning across their cloudy dark surface.

Sparks streaked across the surface of the clouds, erupting outwards from several various spots like blossoming explosions of electrical bursts. The air grew thick and heavy, all by the coastline could feel the tension rising in the air and they could taste something metallic in the air while their fur, manes and tails started to stand up or spark with energy. Then the clouds made a low, steadily growing rumble, before erupting into a massive cascade of lightning with a overwhelmingly loud crescendo of thunder.

Even as the lightning arched across the sky, even as the ocean started to glow bright blue in certain spots, and the ground of the entire coastline started to vibrate and fracture, the two embodied forces of power, kept up their struggle.

Maleficus stared with a hardened stare upon Celestia's glaring face as they pushed their magical energies against each other. By far had both of them produced and maintained magical energies beyond what they had used during their first match. And now it was not as one sided as it had once been.

But then things shifted, for the worst.

The two fighting alicorns pressed harder and harder their magical auras, while physically trying to push through the other's field. That's when it happened, the steady flow o energy had built up to such intensity that the very ground beneath them was fracturing and melting at the same time.

And thus, when the ground beneath them started to give away, melting down their struggling energy fields, into the molten earth. That's when the two dense magical fields, focused and powered to the maximal output of the two alicorns, suddenly started to flux and shift in stability. Until, in a sudden strange noise, fractured, mingled together, and burst apart.

The two fields of heat and electrical energy, even if maintained plasma, could not be properly controlled when the foreign elements of the heated earth got mixed up in the struggling energies, thus causing a chain reaction.

There was a tremendous boom, once more, and the night turned into day for a brief instance, then a wave of fire engulfed the battlefield, but thankfully did not reach more then a mile in diameter, well beyond the pony War Camp.

A pair of flying figured impacted the mountain sides on the south and northern edge of the rocky coastline. There was a pair of loud bangs as the two streaks impacted rock, causing am massive dust cloud to erupt from each of the mountain sides, before settling, revealing a pony shaped hole in each of the mountains. In there. Embedded twenty meters into solid stone, laid the regenerating bodies of Maleficus and Celestia.

"Fuck... third crash today." Maleficus muttered as he struggled out of the stone tunnel his body had made when he impacted the mountain that he, ironically enough, had made himself. His body was sore and pained, but recovering, but he had lost his enhanced body form, thus his body's hair, aka the mane and other hair based areas, were back to their regular solid black colouring.

His armour was fractured and melted in several places. But that did not bother him too much, his sword was still intact, though no longer a cool black fire sword.

As he struggled out of the mountain. Was Celestia doing the same in the mountain in the opposite direction.

Her prismatic mane and tail were no longer a clouds of colours but roughed up lengths of prismatic coloured hair. Her armour and weapons were intact, well for the most part, the pointy end of her maul was broken, as in snapped off, while her armour was half melted in several places. But other then that was she mostly okay from the impact.

"Curses. The fiend is even stronger then before. But he hath not bested Us yet. " She muttered with a growling voice as she managed to struggled free out of the deep hole she had made, about five meters deep. The alicorn then glared ahead towards the opposite direction, the sky raging in a storm of chaos, revealing the ruined landscape in front of her.

The once flat stone path by the coast was now in tatters, several kilometers of its structure were fractured and in several places were parts of the pathway just gone, and had been replaced with deep crevices and chasms being filled by sea water. She spread her wings and took flight, her mane and tail turning into prismatic clouds once more as she recovered her energy.

On the other side of the coastline had Maleficus jumped off his own mountain side and was using his improvised gliding to soar forward, his own hair assuming its newly made state of green fire.

Both of the alicorns flew, or glided, through the wicked storm, unconcerned about the calamity around them, as they sought to engage in conflict one final time before their bodies were spent.

[End Battle Music]

(Scene Skip)

It was utter chaos out there. The battlefield between Maleficus and Celestia was so intense it was affecting the ponies, even more then two miles away from their struggle. The ponies knew that their Princess was powerful, they knew that Maelficus was powerful. But none of them, not even the veterans of the First Crusade, nor the veterans of the Everfree Forest, could ever have guessed just HOW powerful an alicorn could become.

Because what they were causing now, was not a display of power, it was display of utter divine might.

The earth shook and heaved, making the earth ponies cry out in horror. As lightning and thunder split and cracked the sky were skin tearing winds of intense heat and rain of biting cold splattering over them, making the Pegasi fearfully hide within cover once more.

But probably those most affected by all this. Were the Unicorns, their magical senses allowing them to feel the barest hint of magical energy, if trained enough. And the sheer and utter power flooding their bodies was making them feel like they were being crushed by an invisible wave of water.

Then all of a sudden, there was an intense bright light and a brief sensation of pressurized heat and a thick ozone scent in the wind. And what followed, was a madness none of the ponies dared to even look upon, as the weather went mad with rain and lightning ,while the sea roared up powerful waves, and the sound of rocks breaking and crumbling apart in the distance filled their ears.

In his private tent, using strange runic symbols to block out the sensations, General Bloody Courage was writing down something on a piece of parchment, while glaring furiously into the paper, muttering to himself. "Far too reckless... they hath no idea what madness their kind hath wrought... the carnage... the destruction... We hath to prepare in haste for the future... Pony Kind... will hath control over itself once more..."

A particular loud rumble beyond the fabric of his tent made him turn his glare hatefully towards the sound, his eyes almost piercing the fabric of his tent as he glared towards the coastline. "We shalt show them. We doest not need them as much as they need US!"

(Scene Skip)

[Start Battle Theme Music: Two Steps From Hell - Star Sky - Extended]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUZCedq9a4Q

A stallion alicorn, as black as the darkest of nights with mane, tail, hoof hair and beard of green fire, flew down through the storm, not even concerned as lightning struck him, almost as if he was not affected by it. His wings were spread wide, his forelegs held up against his chest, while his hind legs were held outwards, acting like a crude way to guide himself.

A mare alicorn, white as snow, with mane and tail in the shape of prismatic clouds, flew through the storm. Even as lightning flared in front of her, even as she instinctively shielded herself, she did not steer away from her goal.

The two spotted one another within the storm, their eyes narrowed, they unsheathed their weapons, and in the middle of the lightning filled air, they clashed, screaming out the other's name.

"CELESTIA!" "MALEFICUS!"

With a loud resounding clang their weapons struck one another for the nth time. But there was one point in this flight attack they had forgotten, or rather, momentarily overlooked. The landing.

Maleficus' had only been gliding, he had no experience in fighting in the air outside of his light skirmish with Nightmare Moon over eleven years ago. Thus he could not maintain his body in the air as he impacted Celestia, he did not need to bother however.

Celestia could fly, rather good at that, but she had never fought in flight like this before and when their weapons clashed, she had been too focused on her weapon, to properply prepare for what came afterwards.

The two alicorns' slammed into one another as their weapons clashed and repelled one another from the force. Maleficus tried to align himself for a proper landing while Celestia tried to regain her flight, causing the two to struggle into a messy heap of limbs and fur, their own weapons cutting into their armours and flesh as they struggled in mid-fall against each other.

As one the pair fell down and when they impacted a solid patch of stony earth, there was a loud meaty thud and crack.

There was a few seconds of silence before Celestia was kicked in the rib cage and got sent tumbling off of Maleficus who had been at the bottom of the pile when they landed. The Princess of the Sun swiftly leaped up on her legs once more as Maleficus got up as well.

They glared at one another, summoning their fallen weapons to their hooves once more, as a wave of water cascade over the edge of the broken coastline and struck their bodies. The dark water blocked them from sight for a few seconds, before Maleficus leaped out of the water, unconcerned and unaffected, swinging his sword towards Celestia, shouting out in frustration and anger. "Why do you do you not see reason!? This conflict of ours is pointless!"

Celestia parried his blow and she moved in a circular motion, stepping over the fractured stone beneath them. Maleficus circled as well, his far more heavier body striking the unstable surface beneath their bodies, causing the cliff side they were standing on, to shake. "Pointless!? Justice for Our sister shalt never be POINTLESS!"

"This is neither Justice nor what your sister would want!" Maleficus said as he swung his sword at her, stepping off a section of the ground, which splintered off and fell off the cliff. As he moved forward, each time his hooves took a step, he pushed off sections of the unstable cliff. With each collapse, were pointy and jagged rocks taking form at the bottom, just a few meters above sea level, some of them several meters tall.

The Princess of Sun hefted up her weapon by the handle, holding it with the pommel upwards. Then she slammed the heavy head of her maul into the ground. There was a loud resounding crack as Maleficus was forced to jump, as an entire section of the cliff's edge shattered and became a landslide falling into the sea. At the same time as the large mass of rock and boulders fell down into the sea, would the bloody and charred corpses of the Ancient Ones tumble down, some being speared on the newly shaped jagged spikes on the fractured cliff, others would sink into the sea.

"Thou know nothing Maleficus! Thou art an evil wound upon this world!" She snarled out at him, her anger making her golden flame hair and mane turn crimson for a few seconds.

Another clash of bronze and iron sparked between their weapons. Maleficus used his hind leg to kick Celestia way from the edge and onto more solid ground ,he did not entertain the thought of fighting on the edge of a collapsing seaside cliff. She retaliated by firing a beam of intense heat towards his torso, he had to roll out of the away as the beam cut through the ground and sliced off a section of the cliff, leaving a smooth 70 degree angled cliff side in its wake as the several ton section of the cliff she cut off fell down into the depths.

"I know enough! And I know this is not how you are, you are NOT crazy! You are NOT unreasonable! You are NOT stupid! You are none of those things Celestia!" Maleficus leaped upwards, he hefted back his massive sword, it ignited for a short second in a crimson aura, before he swung it down wards, Celestia blocked it with the shaft of her maul, the ground beneath her hooves fracturing as it was deformed into a small bowl shaped crater from the force of the blow.

"Indeed We art not! Thus We know We art RIGHT!" With a heave she tossed him off her weapon and towards the cliff's edge once more. Maleficus flipped in mid air and landed on his hind legs once more, the force from his landing fracturing the ground beneath him even more and the once smooth edge of the cliff began to shatter and fall apart.

"Then why do you not see just how stupid this entire situation we are is!? Why do you not see how much suffering your conflict with me is causing!?" He shouted out at her as he stepped forward, avoiding the gaps on the ground as to not slip down the collapsing cliff.

Celestia rushed forward and made a right swing at his torso, he hefted his sword, caught the hammer's head with the flat side, and then used his powerful muscles to push the hammer aside, parrying the blow. But Celestia just used the momentum of the parry to spin around and made another attempt at striking him, this time aiming for one of his knees. "We hath not caused this! THOU art the source of all of Our and Our subjects' suffering!"

Maleficus spread his wings and flapped them, forcing Celestia to close her eyes as a cloud of raindrops and dirty feathers struck her face. Her swing missed him and a punch to the gut sent her staggering back a few steps, but she was able to absorb the blow.

"I am no more the cause! I stopped being the cause when you became hellbent on revenge! You do not think of the consequences! You are all the cause of your own suffering from here on out!" Maleficus' heavy blow made more and more pieces of the fractures cliff to fall off, by now was a forest of jagged pointy rocks taking the shape down below, a reef of fang like rocks. But he held his balance and he shifted his wight and spun around another of Celestia's strikes, now they were both standing on the edge, facing each other with the sea to one side and the mainland to the other. Beyond the edge of the vision, within the wild large waves of the sea, was a large shape moving towards the coast.

"No more of thine lies! We shalt have vengeance Maleficus! Thou can not hide from US!" With powerful but wild strikes Celestia hammered at Maleficus. The stallion was forced to dodge or deflect her strikes with some of his own. Echoing clangs erupted through the thunderous storm as the two powerful ponies tried to break the other's guard.By now had the edge of the sea turned red, the source of the colouring was the jagged fang like rocks that had taken shape from the two fighting alicorns.

Upon several places on the nasty looking forest of jagged spires, broken fangs and bent spike like rocks were the impaled corpses of Ancient Ones, leaking blood into the ocean, turning it red. And by now, had the large strange shadowy shape within the waters reached the crimson area.

"Well I would like to- Wait... What is that!?" Maleficus was speaking to Celestia when he notice as the strange shape within the sea, began to move upwards towards the surface. The waves were it was rising became a calm spot as the water began to bulge upwards. As this happened, Maleficus put Celesita's hammer in a block and just stared at the strange thing coming out of the ocean. It was big, whatever it was.

Celestia struggled to break out of the block, screaming out at Maleficus as she tried to break his hold on her weapon. Then she was interrupted. "Thou shalt not fool Us with-!"

The bulging surface of the sea by the coastline burst apart in a spray of water, as a massive, blue scaled, serpentine body rose out of the depths. It was over a hundred meters long, just the part reaching out of the ocean, it must be at least three times that size. It was covered in sharp looking blue shapes, with a horned head with yellow eyes, a snake like mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, and fins upon its head and some areas of its slithering body. the massive creature let out an air shattering screech towards the two battling alicorn's, a stinky breath along with a spray of blood, fish meat and seaweed hitting them in their faces.

(Artwork by Nightlyre found on the Power Listing Wikipedia Page: http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Sea_Serpent_Physiology)

Maleficus realized almost as soon as he saw it, what it was, something he had read about in religious books, heard about from the old myths of his homeland and seen in several games he had played. It was one of the most dangerous mythical beings to be found within the ocean. "SEA SERPENT!"

A jaw of teeth the size of boulders tore down towards the two ponies. They had to jump away from each other as the massive creature's mouth tore out a big chunk of the cliff and pulled it off, before dropping it into the sea. The creature did apparently not like the taste of rock and was staring with hungry eyes at the two ponies, it would take a lot of ponies to feed this thing.

"What in the names of the gods is that!?" Celestia shouted out while she jumped away as a large tail with a fin curled out of the ocean before swinging upwards and then down towards her location. The serpent was obviously trying to crush her beneath it to later devour her mangled corpse.

The tail struck the ground in a loud resounding crack and the sheer strength behind the strike caused the tail to tear through the rock. A gash was left by the tail's impact, and it quickly started to grow larger as the unstable stone started to fall apart. The once ten meter long gorge in the cliff's edge expanded out and became a fifty meters deep chasm in the ground, reaching around one hundred meters inland.

While it had been rearing back its tail to strike at Celestia had the sea serpent's head screeched as a spray of high pressure water shoot out of its gullet and towards the other alicorn. Maleficus had to hunch down and then leap out of the way as the water beam sliced a ten meter deep gash into the ground, making a swirly like pattern as it tried to hit the dodging alicorn.

"A Giant Sea Serpent! A form of enormous carnivorous reptile which dwells in deep oceans! It must have caught the scent of blood from my fallen soldiers and been attracted to the coastline!" Maleficus stated as he landed next to Celestia and looked around, the area was scattered with rocks, Ancient Ones corpses, damaged or ruined equipment and several puddles of sea water. They needed to work out a way to take care of the sea serpent.

Magic might be of use but it was highly unlikely that the sea serpent would just let them hit it unless they used a massive spell, which could possibly destroy more of the coastline. Not to mention the possibility that they might injure the ponies at the War Camp if the serpent decided to go there instead.

Celestia turned towards him and started to shout at him in anger. "See! Thou art the cause of-"

Maleficus interrupted her by grabbing her by the shoulder and dragged her aside as the serpent made another attempt at swallowing them up, it tore out a big chunk of the ground, once more spitting it out in distaste. He then glared at her and pointed at the massive thing trying to kill them, while holding her by the shoulder and looking her in the eyes.

The stallion then too a deep breathe, before he opened his mouth and gave her some shouting of his own, with plenty of spit and saliva flying out as he almost barked out words at her. "Oh would you fucking give it a rest and help me stop this thing!? Those at your War Camp are virtually helpless if this thing decides it'd rather eat them! It might not even be satisfied with that! It is possibly that it might tear its way into the country side and kill hundreds if not thousands of your people if we do not stop it!"

With spit dripping down her face Celestia stared blank faced at her hated enemy, as the information he had just told, or rather screamed, to her began to sink in. There was a slight glimmer of green in her eyes, hidden by the light emitting from them, for a short second, but she narrowed her eyes, which returned to their natural pink colouration. She then sighed before glaring at him, not liking that she was forced to work alongside him. "Fine! But this be far from over!"

"I. Do. Not. Care." Was all Maleficus said in response before he let go of her shoulder and assumed a stance, gripping his sword with both hooves.

The sea serpent was not just letting them stand there and talk, it had started to slither up one of the undamaged sections of the cliff and onto the solid ground of the rocky coastline. Its massive serpentine body was coiling up as more and more of its huge mass rose out of the sea and onto solid ground.

It reared its head back when half of its body had reached ground level and then released yet another powerful screech like roar and slithered towards the two ponies. The pair of alicorns had to leap aside as the jaws gorged out the ground were they had been standing. Then a massive wall of razor sharp scales was swung towards them.

Maleficus reared back his sword and swung it at the tail trying to flatten them. As the sharp edge of the enchanted iron sword struck the natural hide of the beast was there a shower of sparks as the sharpened scales was grounded against the weapon. There was a loud screech of metal scratching metal as the tail forced itself against the weapon. But then Maleficus took one step back, gripped the sword by the handle and the flat side of the center of the thick blade. And then, with a great show of strength the alicorn made a hasty push forward with a step forward, and with a powerful heave with his weapon with both of his forelegs, he made the several tons worth of scales and muscles, fly back.

The tail flew back tens of meters, causing the massive serpent to lose a bit of balance as it tried ot ite down at Celestia, making it face plant into the ground, hissing in anger at its sudden disorientation.

Celestia glared at him as her hated foe was 'only' able to push tail away from them rather then damaging it. And voiced her irritation, loudly, while slamming her hammer into the chin of the creature's face, making it rear back in pain. "Doest thou even know how to fight this thing!?"

Maleficus did not respond to her inquiry, he was too busy scanning the creature's features, trying to gauge its weak points and strong points. It had a massive body and it was covered with thick scales with razor sharp edges. He would need a good decent amount of momentum to get the strength necessary to even damage those scales. This fight would probably have to be relied on magic rather then brute force.

With an angry hiss like growl the sea serpent reared back its tail, shaping the tip a bit, like a rattle snake, and Maleficus felt a chill as he realized just what it was doing. He quickly jumped backwards, along with Celestia who too noticed the behavior of the serpent. A massive spray, more like a wave, of green and brown ichor erupted from the creature's maw and splattered across the ground, the sizzling sound as it struck solid ground was more then enough to clue him in just what it was.

Acid or Acidic Poison, either case was bad news. He would have spent more time contemplating what to do. When... Celestia broke his train of thoughts by shouting into his ear after they had to dodge away from the serpent's acidic attack. At full volume. Straight into his fucking ear. "Thou shalt NOT ignore Us!"

Gritting his teeth Maleficus rubbed his ear frantically to ease up the aching pain as he heard a constant ringing after having received her royal voice straight into the eardrums. That hurt, a lot. Finally easing up the pain in his ear he glared at her and snarled back before rushing towards the serpent. "Just shut up! For the love of the Gods do you not have control over that voice of yours!? We do not need needless distractions from your shouting! So be quiet and hit the fucking thing!"

Glaring at his back Celestia followed the stallion towards massive serpent. The creature was glaring at them and had opened its jaws to bite down upon them, its head shoot downward towards them with the speed of a charging bull. But the two alicorns dodged aside as the lower jaw dug into the ground they had been on and the serpent only got a mouthful of tasteless rock.

Maleficus leaped from the ground, soaring over twenty meters up into the air, above the serpent. He then adjusted his hind legs and shifted his grip on his sword, before released his magical weight limit. With a flutter of wind in his spread wings he plummeted down. He impacted the serpent's neck, his hooves slamming into the hard scales with a loud resounding crack a the scales beneath his hooves were fractured like grass. His sword pierced through its thick scales and into flesh, a geyser of blood erupting from where he had stabbed the large slab of iron into its hide.

The creature reared back its head and screeched out in pain. As it opened its mouth and screamed out in pain, a golden hammer suddenly slammed into its lower jaw and a loud crack was heard as several of its teeth were torn out as well as a a good meter of meat and bone.

Celestia grinned victoriously at the serpent who turned and glared at her. She was about to make another strike when the serpent decided to do something new, it began to roll its entire body. The Princess pf the Sun had to flap her wings and by fly the rolling massive body of the creature.

As the serpent began to rotate its body Maleficus let go of his sword and ran along the rotating hide of the giant reptile, keeping himself on top of the creature without losing balance. He timed how fast the creature was rotating itself before reaching out with his right hoof, grabbed the handle of his sword and with a strong yank pulled it out of the serpent's flesh. As he jumped off the serpent was a spray of blood colouring the air behind him as the serpent screeched out in pain and stopped rotating.

He landed next to Celestia and he was about to turn around for another attacked when the serpent had, had enough and snapped out with its bloody mouth out of its coiled body and snapped up the two ponies in its mouth. As soon as it senses the two morsels finally hitting the inside of its mouth it snapped down its mouth, only, to not be able to shut it completely.

Maleficus and Celestia both stood with hunched hind legs on each side of the inside of the serpent's massive mouth, standing directly next to were two long curved fangs were grinding against their armour. The pair of alicorns were holding the mouth partly open by pushing their forelegs upwards against the row of teeth above them, holding onto their weapons to block the sharp teeth.

The serpent hissed and tried to close down its mouth, but the two powerful demigods were far too strong for its mouth to overpower. A stench of rotten flesh and fish filled the mouth of the serpent as it began to prepare to spit up another round of acid.

Celestia turned towards her partner in jaw and glared at him as she struggled to keep the massive row of teeth from chomping down on them. "This be all Thy fault!"

"So not the right time for that!" Maleficus shouted back at her as he looked at the throat of the creature. The situation was bad and he knew it, he needed to find a way to get out of this thing before it bit down on them or covered them with rock melting strong acid. While they would survive, did he not consider it something he would ever want to experience. And both of them could not properly use their magic to attack the creature like this, its body was strangely enough resistant to their magic.

He had taken note of it as his enchanted blade had not even scratched its scales. Only Celestia's hammer had done any damage but that was only on the creature's teeth and bones, and the blow had only been as damaging as her physical strength, not the magical enchantments of the hammer itself.

Then the struggling stallion noticed something, the forked tongue of the serpent ,slithering out to taste the air. And an idea reached him. He turned towards Celestia and said, "Get ready! I am going to try something!", then with a heave he pushed the mouth further up.

*What art he doing?* Celestia looked on as he acted, confused as of what he was trying to do. The serpent appeared to be struggling even more, trying to bite one with all of its strength. But Maelficus' strength was too much for the snake to bite down on. The water serpent's anaconda sized tongue slithered out and that was when Maleficus acted. He lifted his left hind hoof up from the fleshy mass of the lower jaw, balancing all of the mouth's pressure on his right. And then he pressed down his left hind hoof down on the tongue as it sltihered out next to him, trapping it.

The serpent did not enjoy having its most important sensory organ crushed by the weight of a alicorn and its own jaw's strength and tried to turn and shifts its entire head to lodge its tongue free. But no matter how much its struggled or tried to jerk back its tongue, it did not get free. And then, as he got his bearings, Maleficus dragged the tongue into place, beneath the point were the massive fang was aimed, he then heaved up even more, making the fang slide free of the bottom of the mouth, he then dragged the tongue the last few inches. And then... he stopped pushing back against the mouth.

The ivory coloured fang jammed down like a falling stalactite, the pointy end of its poison filled mass, split through the black flesh of the tongue and a pool of red blood and green poison began to ooze out of the tongue as Maleficus made the sea serpent bite down on its own tongue. Essentially forcing it to poison one of the most sensitive spots in its entire body. The tongue with which it used to smell.

There was a sudden rush of stench filled air as the creature snapped its mouth open and screeched out in pain, its tongue corroding as the potent poison of its own fang hurt its own flesh. For while the serpent had a poisonous bite, was it body not immune to its own poison.

A wail of utter agony, along with a powerful stench filled breath of air the strength of an artillery cannon, allowed the two ponies to spread their wings and fly out of the creature's mouth by its own breath. Wind tore at them as did the rain, their armours no longer able to support their enchantments. Their flight was rough and harsh but both of them managed to adjust their bodies and landed with all four of their hooves slamming into the rocky ground.

A bit disoriented from the flight and scream of the creature, the pair of alicorns had to gather their wits. But they had time, the massive serpent was too busy twisting around in agony as its own poison acted against it. And once he got his bearings straight, Maleficus saw something close by that could help him and Celestia end the fight.

The creature's magical resistance was a fact, but it did not account for non-magical means. Thu he reached down and grabbed a big piece of a two hoof thick chain. It was a very long, special, chain left by his army when Celestia blew up most of his siege weapons. Its purpose was to interlink all of the siege engines, so that they may fire at the same time, it could be separated into smaller pieces of chains, but it had never happened with Celestia's fiery bombardment.

He reach out grabbed the other end of the chain, conveniently just a few meters from the other, and threw it at Celestia. She caught it and stared out it in confusion while he started to rush towards the trashing sea serpent. Shouting out to her. "Get ready! We are going to take it down for good!"

It took Celestia a few seconds to realized his plan and followed his lead. running another direction, dragging the chain with her as well. She did not find this plan plausible but the stallion had a way to break the common sense of things before, so she was going to let him act out his strange plan. No matter how crazy it was. "Thou art insane!"

As the serpent was still screaming in pain and trashing around, Maleficus ducked beneath its head as it flipped into the air in one of its pain filled trashing, he had to duck and slide on the ground to evade being crushed. When got clear of the creature's neck he made a sudden stop and turned directly in the opposite direction and leaped over the creature's neck as its head slammed down into the ground.

"Tell me something I do not know already!" The black alicorn stallion shouted out as he flew through the air before he landed next to Celestia, still holding the other end of the chain. With the snake trashing around, the chain held around its neck, the two alicorns held each an end of said chain and Maleficus knew just what to do, and Celestia knew what he was going to do. They looked at each other and nodded before suddenly running away from the serpent, still holding the chains.

They ran until the ground suddenly disappeared beneath them as they jumped over one of the newly made chasms by the coastline, or more specifically, the one located directly next to the forest of stone spines. As they did this had the serpent managed to tangle up its neck even more in the chain. The chain had tangled up so much that it went from slack to rigid as they landed, but they kept their grips on it.

Not stopping they kept moving and pulled on the chain, the thick length of iron links began to tighten and while the thick and sharp scales of the creature protected it from sharp and piercing blows, did it not protect from the chain tightening its neck like a noose. The serpent was caught off guard and made a gargling screech is it was suddenly dragged by the strength of two alicorns. It trashed and tried to worm its way free of the chain, but the links were holding strong and its head was too big for the chain to slip over, especially with the fins.

It managed to grip onto the edge of the cliff and tried to pull back. Celestia and Maleficus both had to turn and grip with both their forelegs and pull against the struggling serpent. Maleficus grounded out words as they heaved together, pulling on the serpent's body closer and closer towards the edge of the massive chasm. "Here! We! Go!"

There was a loud crack a the stone the serpent's tail was gripping broke and the creature screeched as it was pulled off the edge of the chasm, and dropped down onto the massive forest of jagged stone spikes. The weight of the falling serpent started to pull the two alicorns back towards the chasm, but after a few seconds, Maleficus shouted out at Celestia as he let go of the chain. "Drop the chain!"

The Princess let go of the chain as well and the hundreds of meters long length of thick and heavy iron disappeared into the chasm along with the serpent. There was a loud screech as the reptile struck the bottom of the seaside ravine, looking over the edge they could see just how brutally the serpent had been skewered by the stone spires. No matter the toughness of its upper scales, its lower scales were far softer and proved no protection from the jagged stone spires and spikes sticking out of the torn up coastline.

Razor sharp tips of jagged rock and pointy spires of stone pierced through the softer scales, piercing through hide and flesh. Then pressed up against the inside of the thicker scaly hide, before pushing through the inside of the scales. This kept going for a bit before the sharp points of the rocks pushed the scales apart and then split through them in several eruptions of blood and other bodily fluids, as several important organs were pierced through as well.

The serpent let out one final screech of gut ripping agony, trying to move its impaled body, tearing it up even more. And kept screaming, for what felt like hours. Until finally it went limp and silent, dead among the forest of stone, colouring the sea even more red with its blood.

[End Battle Music]

The two alicorns stared at the chasm, anticipating the massive serpent returning for another round. After five minutes they let out sighs of relief, their burning manes and tails went out, their eyes stopped glowing, and then they collapsed onto the ground. Their bodies were tired and sore from the entire ordeal, not to mention the amount of magical energy they had spent during their earlier fight. Even as the rain fell upon them and the storm kept on rumbling, they just laid there on the ground, too tired to care.

"Hoooo... We must hath strained Our... everything..." Celestia groaned out as she laid there, the rain soothing her sore muscles as her badly damaged armour's enchantments were inactive. She had not been this exhausted in ten years, since she was poisoned by the Rattenfänger assassins.

Maleficus sat there, breathing heavily, resting his sore legs and just thought about the entire situation. and found himself actually not considering it to be the worst day he had experienced. Although it was still bad it was not the worst. "...Meh... feels like an average day to me."

"...Thou hath got to be jesting." Princess Celestia said in disbelief as she laid there, staring at him in utter disbelief, which turned into a stare of annoyance as he gave his response.

"I am not going to bother answering that." He said with a sigh as he struggled up on his legs again and began to walk away. Celestia did not bother shouting out at him, too tired, both mentally and physically, from what had just occurred.

The second fight had ended, it was clear that Maleficus had won. But this time, he had, had a far bigger struggle then the firs time. Both of them were growing in strength, this much was clear. And Celestia found this as a great motivator. Vengeance, was not an impossibility.

She looked up as she heard the sound of approaching hooves. A group of knights of the Order of the Golden Cross were approaching along with some of her Sun Guards. Smiling a bit in relief s they helped her up she looked down at the bloody corpse of the sea serpent. "We art not there yet, but We now know, We can become stronger."

Solid Pink offered her a bowl of water, which she was very much appreciating, as they walked back towards the War Camp. As she cleaned out the dirt and sweat on her head she spoke to her retainer. "Give Our troops the command to return home Solid Pink. We art done here. It may not hath been Our victory, but We hath come much farther then before."

The servant saluted her Princess before disappearing once more.

A few hours later, the tired and defeated Army of Equestria, began their march back home. Many of them glad to be alive, several were glad of their improved odds. But some... some were holding a grudge... and not necessarily, for the right reasons.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus looked out over his surviving troops, a force of two thousand strong, and there were about one thousand and three hundred left. Celestia had taken out almost as many as her own troops had, it showed a lot. But he was not satisfied by it. The ponies were still not ready for proper warfare, but they were improving, and it would hopefully not be long until they became a challenge for him, for he would be improving as well.

First thing though, he needed to heal many of them up, several of them were so badly injured it hurt just to look at them. Some were half burnt to a crisp, some had lost limbs. A few had parts of their heads gruesomely damaged. And there was around fifty of them walking around with weapons still impaled in their bodies. There was even several with body parts missing.

So he gathered forth his magic and crafted a restoration spell that would regenerate their bodies to prime condition. The crimson glow around his horn flew out,altering itself into a beam of green light the moment it left his horn. The green beam stroked across the entire horde of horses and for around fifteen seconds he kept it going before releasing his hold of the spell and watched in satisfaction as the wounds on his soldiers disappeared.

"Ah... okay... after I remove my forces I am not going to be casting advanced magic until after a loooong rest..." The alicorn said to himself as he stretched his sore body. As he did he contemplated his future, finding it grim no matter how he looked. The ponies of Equestra were improving at a rapid rate, it would not be long until they actually became too powerful for him to handle. The battle he had, head earlier was proof of that.

Thinking about the battles he had oh so recently experienced, he looked up at the sky a bit solemn. It had not ended like he had wanted it to. But he could not deny it felt good to no longer feeling the pressure of guilt for not telling the truth earlier, although it did not sooth the pain of shame he was feeling.

"Ha... things went a bit less good then I wanted but... I cannot argue with the results." He muttered a little to himself before his horn ignited with a crimson energy. The army disappeared in a red mist. There was a time and place for his army of horses later, but for now, they were to be put back into storage, for now.

*They performed far better then I had hoped. Sure they might have been... basic in performance, but they did well in their programming. But before I advance that any further, I need to get some proper rest.* He thought to himself as he began to walk up the path away from the, once flat, rocky coastline path.

There was a lot of information he needed to gather before he could even begin to think of using his created horses as a way to gain proper information from the world. Yes, his flesh golems were not just made for battle. Sure that was their main purpose, but he needed to be able to use them not just as tools, but socially accepted beings as well.

It would be a while until they were ready for such complex programming. But he knew that he could draw up a lot of ideas on what to base it on. Just by listening on the ponies' weird theories about his troops and reading some of their historical documents, could he find what he needed.

But until then, was he too tired to care about such complex plannings. He needed to find a proper place to sleep, some place with shelter from the rain.

He wandered north on the upper portion of the coastline, above the, former, flat rocky path. There was about a mile of fields between the mountainous edge and the swampy region. The rain was coming down harder and he was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable about it.

That's when a flash of lightning revealed something to him.

A small cabin made out of wooden logs. The cabin was old and covered with moss. And while the roof was intact, was the door long since gone, apparent there might not even have been one there considering there was no even any hinges on the wooden frame. There was so nothing inside except a scent of moisture and dust.

With a quick flash of magic, he had the place cleaned up with some created and simply animated brooms and mops. It was a bit nostalgic, reminded him of that old Mickey Mouse movie. But he was too tired to think about old memories.

As he dragged himself into the recently cleaned up cabin, he pulled off his ruined armour, conjured a big pillow and blanked, before simply collapsing down onto the big pillow. His eyes closed in seconds and he almost instantly fell asleep, only half covered by the soft blanket.

He was not even bothered by the sound of the storm raging outside.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining. 23 Days]

The sun was shining brightly upon the world as the morning hour was brought to life. A clear and blue sky, free of clouds, was letting the rays of the sun shine upon the ravaged coastline where the massive storm had hit yesterday. Several villages were in ruins and the growing settlement of Baltimare was half covered by water. But the ponies had endured the monstrous hurricane and were repairing the remnants of their homes, rebuilding them stronger then before.

The Equestrian Armies were marching homewards, they were tired and sore, but there was a sense of purpose among most of the ponies. Even as a few of them looked solemn or frustrated, were most of them relieved, glad or even determined. But a pair of ponies, were neither. They were instead holding cold, blank faces, hiding the turmoil within their hearts as they wandered home.

Grand Master Grand Music and Master Knight Happy Meal, both of them had learned a shocking secret during the Second Crusade. The revelation made them doubt and question everything. They only knew that they had to get home, they had to tell their mother. She was the only pony who could sort things out and help them clear away their doubts and fears.

Princess Celestia was still sleeping, only awake long enough to raise the sun. She was covered in bruises and dirt from her battle with Maleficus, but even as the Princess slept like a log in her wagon, she had an aura of purpose. Those who could see it, knew, that Princess Celestia was defeated, but she was not down for the count. She would rise up, stronger then ever after this battle. and that was more then enough to make most of them feel determination as well.

The Ponies may have been given a bloody nose by their hated foe. But things were far from over. Equestria was far from done.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus was sitting outside of the mossy old cabin he had been sleeping in. He was enjoying the scent of the sea and the sensation of the wind on his body. But as he took a deep sniff of the wind he caught the wisps of an odour that felt like a cloud of acid vapour had been poured into his nostrils. The sheer stench made him cough and snort.

He looked around, left and right, trying to determine where that foul scent had come from. Then he went still, and slowly lifted up one of his wings, and pressed his nose against it, and sniffed.

His eyes went wide for a few seconds, before he suddenly heaved and barfed onto the ground. Coughing he wiped his mouth before staring at his incredibly foul smelling and shit dirty wings and sighed in resignation. He had not cleaned up for years, he could not let it be so. But... how exactly do you clean up wings?

Rubbing his forehead he wondered what to do, when he looked out at the sea and decided that it would probably be for the best, if he found someplace to wash himself. Somewhere, without stinky salt water to make it worse.

"Guess I have to use my Interface screen for this." He said with a sigh as he pulled out a rolled up scroll made out of glowing light before unfurling it into a wide screen and began to swipe the tip of his hoof against its surface. The screen blirped and the image of the planet appeared as the link between the screen and his Interface and Satellite Network, worked perfectly.

Zooming in he began to search the immediate coastline to find a proper spot to clean off. That's when he took notice of a small section of river, or stream, just north of the rocky coastline, filled with fresh water from the mountains. It did not look particularly dangerous or near any settlement so it should be fine to go there and clean up himself before he stank even more.

"Gods... This got to be the most unsanitary state I have ever been it." He muttered to himself as he put away the screen into his satchel. It would take him a few hours but he would reach the lake before lunch time if he hurried.

For six hours he would walk across the grassy fields and through the few thickets and woods along the way between him and his destination. Once he reached the lake, in a fairly good amount of time, he began to prepare to wash himself up. The lake was big, half circular shaped, well more like a curved zigzag pattern.

He pulled off his armour and walked over to the edge of water before feeling it ,it was cool ,and yet of a non-chilling temperature. And so he took a few cautious steps to make sure he did not step into a deep crevice or similar deep area, before stepping out into the water. Although, as soon as he stepped into the water, he realized quite quickly a problem. He had no idea how to clean up his wings.

Maleficus stood there for a while, contemplating on how to properly clean up his wings. When he noticed something ,his dirty fur floated in the water, and he shook it about a little and watched as dirt and loose air was removed from him just shaking his hoof. That gave him all the inspiration he needed.

What he did was simple. He walked into the water until it reached above his shoulders, essentially leaving only his head from the neck and up above water, then he spread out his wings, below the surface, to the maximum length. Spreading out every nook and crack in his feather. And then he just soaked his wings in the water for a while, letting the water reach inside of his feathers to the roots, touching he skin of the limbs beneath them.

After about ten minutes he began to act. His wings began to vibrate as he twitched and shook them with small but powerful motions through out his entire wings. It was essential him creating powerful small ripples through his entire wing structure to shake off dirt off them. This did not only shake off dirt, it also let him shake all loose feathers and the grime caught between his feathers as well. The water splashed and rippled as he moved his wings around beneath the clear blue surface.

Well it was not all that clear blue as he cleaned himself up, a brown and grey trail of dirt and moon sand covered up a large spot of the water, flowing down towards the rapid stream going towards the sea, leaving a brown trail of dirt on the surface. He had to move away from his spot when he realized the water he was in was too dirty to wash in anymore, and stepped away from the brown spot, and repeated what he had just done.

After about two hours of shaking off damaged and loose feathers as well as dirt, he felt very refreshed, although the lake could not be considered overly clean at the moment since there was a trail of dirty feathers and grime floating down streams.

*I am just going to lay back and relax for a bit. Not going anywhere for at LEAST an hour* He thought to himself as he floated there in a cleaner section of the lake's water, just floating on the water, enjoying the sensation of the cool water refreshing his tired body.

But he was relaxing, was other things moving, other forces then the returning army of Equestria or the lone alicorn floating on a lake.

(Scene Skip)

'
Canterlot was a very active city, even without the main army, a large portion of the knights of the realm or their Princess around were many still working and living their lives. But some, some were acting out work, not meant for their daily lives, but works best considered treason.

In a dark chamber deep beneath the earth stood a circular shaped table made out of some kind of black stone. By the large dark table stood six chairs, each a different colour with a specific symbol upon the back of each chair.

A door opened to the chamber, a floating candlestick bearing a trio of burning candles entered the room, followed by a black robed figure. As the figure entered the room the floating candlestick settled down upon the middle of the large table in the chamber. The figure then took a sea upon one of the chairs, one bearing the mark of a gnarled and scary looking tree.

Then four more doors opened, each on the side of a specific chair. And and out of each doorway came one more figure in a similar state of dress as the first. With them they too had candlesticks, which was either levitated or put down on the table's center. Then each of them took their seats.

One on a chair with the symbol of a silver arrow drawn back on a decorated silver bow. Another on the chair of a hammer. Then the smallest of the group sat down on a chair bearing a white kite shield with a red drop on it. And the final one settled down on the chair with the symbol of a white snowflake with a black snowflake on top of it.

Two chairs remained empty, but the meeting was started anyway for some reason. "We hath started this meeting of Our secret order for the first time." Said a young stallion from his chair with an hammer, ironically holding a wooden mallet, signalling the start of the meeting.

As the strike of the hammer struck the stallion spoke up further as the other members of the meeting did not initiate the first subject of the meeting. "As We all hath discussed, as We all hath planned. We all seek one thing. To bring down the rule of the alicorns. Celestia's senseless wasting of resources and lives hath cost Us and Our families much for the last ten years. She hath weakened not only the standing of the nobles but the merchants, the economy and Our greatest concern, Our very existence.

He kept talking, pointing out at each of the other members sitting in their chairs. "Thus We all found one another, and founded this Order, this secret society, which shalt bring down the alicorn who hath corrupted the bloodline of the old Pony Kings and Queens. And thus make Equestria a nation ruled by Unicorns, Earth Ponies and Pegasi. A nation independent from monarchy."

"This doest bring Us to Our first subject of the meeting. Thou all know it by know, the report from the Front Lines of Celestia's Second Crusade." The stallion then went silent, waiting for someone else to pick up the subject.

"What news doest We hath from Our other member?" A young mare asked from her seat with the symbol of a bow and arrow.

An elderly voice responded to this, from the elderly stallion sitting on the chair with the shield with a white background and red drop on it. He pulled out a strange orb from within his robe as he spoke to them. "We hath words from Our member within the Silver Army. Celestia lost to Maleficus, not as badly as the first time. But she still hath lost. This doest confirms Our group's intentions. The Alicorns, art not capable of leading the ponies. We shalt need to work out Our plan soon, or Equestria shalt end in ruins by her crusades."

"Buckin' hell. We was at le'st ten time as strong as last time! How da glue did We lose!?" The stallion on the chair with a hammer shouted out in frustration.

"Maleficus' strength doest no longer lie in him alone it doest seem. He hath forces of his own, an army of Ancient Ones, horses from ancient times bound to his will. Either through Necromancy or Temporal Magic, he hath summoned them and utilized them, quite efficiently, to defeat Our armies. Even the Order of the Golden Cross, although managing to clear a path through the Ancient Ones, failed to defeat Maleficus in battle." The elderly pony responded as he read the report he had written down when receiving the report from their spy in the armed forces.

There was a collective wince at the mention of the Stallion of Torment with an army of his own, one made up by their long since extinct ancestors to put the cherry on the top. But the old pony was far from done, and there was plenty of chocolate sauce to add to the sundae of bad they were being told.

"Then he fought Celestia to a standstill. But a massive monstrosity from the sea, dubbed to be a Sea Serpent by Maleficus himself, interrupted their fight. They were forced to team up and kill the creature and by then they were too strained to keep fighting. Then, he left, having beaten Celestia a second time." He continued before putting down the report.

"Just what manner of a monster art he?" The young stallion on the chair with the snowflake on, stated as he rubbed his head while slumping down in his seat. The other members of the secret order did not respond to this, too busy contemplating this information themselves.

"We hath to work on a plan to take down Celestia and put up a decent ruler before Equestra ruins itself either in warfare or economy. Our resources doest not last for long if We art to keep up with her demands for military advancements." The stallion by the chair with the spooky tree said with a grim resolution in his voice.

"Aye. But what manner of plan could We use?" Was the response from the mare in the group, and there was a collective silence as they tried to figure something out. It would take a lot of meetings for them to figure something out.

The young stallion with the mallet struck the table once more, ending the meeting. "For now, let Us end this meeting. And may this be the first of many meetings, for a fruitful future for all of Equestria!"

Then as one, each member shouted out the name of the Order, praising its purpose and message. "Praise be the Society of Heraldry, Independence and Trade!"

They then went silent and all of the ponies gathered their respective candlesticks, and left the chamber through each of their respective doors. Leaving the chamber to its darkness.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining. 21 Days]

Now, yesterday had been relatively calm in comparison to the day before that. But when Maleficus had finished cleaning up and just wandered into a randomly picked forest for several hours, he had been expecting a common forest. Animals, nuts and trees. Well he got all three. But he also got some very crazy stuff. Like intelligent looking animals, sort of like one of those intelligent cartoon animals. He also saw a real life manticore sleeping on a sunny rock... he left it alone. And then he saw the tracks of a big cat the size of a car, bigger then the manticore.

He had made a small camp with a crude tent made out of transmutated leaves and branches, it was simple but comfortable. He had slept like a log... hehe. But then he woke up to a new day... and things went from slightly weird to freaking unbelievable.

Maelficus had seen a lot of weird things in his time as an Alicorn, but the sight that greeted him when he woke up that morning, was NOT something he had ever been expecting.

"...Just where the fucking hell did you come from?" There, in the middle of the clearing, laid a corpse, a corpse of a strange creature he knew as fiction.

It was a fucking cockatrice. A bloody. Fucking. Cockatrice. Tail of a snake, and body of a chicken. The thing was dead, crushed by a fallen branch. Its body had been picked clean of meat and only a mess of feathers, scales and bones was left. Well that and a pair of interesting statues.

A statue of a confused looking pony, looking to be barely the age of an adult. and the statue of a... griffin... a big and seriously muscular griffin with an angry snarl on its beak. Possibly male, it did not look feminine, but he was just going to take it at face's value this turn around.

The pony was dressed in the outfit of a farmer, well, old style that reminded Maleficus about a farmer at least. Possibly a mare going by the flowers in the pony's hair but he was not going to base someone's gender on that alone and he was not going to inspect closer. It would just feel wrong.

While the griffin was dressed in a kilt, like a Scottish highlander, bearing a seriously looking claymore. The griffin looked like the oldest of the two statues, and Maleficus could tell both of the statues were long since dead. How did he know this? The bite marks from a teethed beak having eaten up legs, pieces of the head and the torso kind of clued him in on how the cockatrice fed itself.

That's when he spotted something, one of the broken off forelegs of the griffin, a four fingered talon, or rather, three finger like claws with a curved claw and a rear finger with a curved claw that could act like a thumb. It was a predator's claw. But it was also something that gave Maleficus a sort of idea.

A way for him to regain something he no longer had. Hands. Or at least, a variant of them. Even if it would be a bird of prey talon, would it be far more... flexible then his blunt hooves. He just needed to figure out how to transform his body parts into that of a griffon.

He took a seat on the ground and examined the claw closely, examining it with his magical aura to determine what it was made up of and how it was shape. Sure it might be stone but it still contained far more information then anything he had available.

The fascinating thing was that the cockatrice may have turned the entire being into stone, it had not however, transformed the entire thing into a solid block of stone. It was instead like each part of the being, was a different type of rock, still retaining the anatomy and shape of the bones, the veins, the nerves and even the skin beneath the feathers. Had it not been so bone chillingly horrifying would it have been fascinating.

This gave Maleficus a lot to work with, but he still did not have a lot of information on how to transform his own hooves into talons. It would need to be worked on a lot, he only had dead material to work with, but with his Interface screen he had managed to get a proper scan of the talon. Not much to go on, but it was more then nothing.

"Well... I cannot work on this here, need to find a proper place to work on it." The alicorn stallion said to himself as he examined the broken talon. Then he realized something. Something he had overlooked.

Why look for a place to work on his transformation spell, when he can MAKE it on his own!?

Rearing back one of his forelegs he slammed it into the ground, and a pulse of energy flowed out of his body and through the ground. With his eyes closed he sensed every root, every pebble, every animal and every strand of grass. Then... he found what he was looking for.

He instantly turned his head in the direction of what he had sensed and his horn ignited with a crimson aura of energy. Then he bowed his head low, before raising it up, slowly, and as he did, there was a loud rumble as the ground of the forest began to shake with violent vibrations.

Then in an eruption of gravel, dirt, earth and roots, a pillar of solid rock emerged out of the soft soil a hundred meters or so away from his location.

Maleficus walked over to the stone pillar, it was cylindrical in shape, about thirty meters in radius with an height of fifty meters. Smirking he ignited his horn and the entire thick was engulfed by a crimson aura, then the once solid stone shape vibrated as something began to rotate from the peak of its cylinder shape.

After ten minutes, the vibrations stopped, then there was a loud grinding sound, as a section of the pillar's inside, carved out to leave a one meter thick hollowed cylinder in its place, as a second, much thinner stone pillar, rose out of its core.

Levitating the stone pillar to the the ground Malefivus examined it closely, then he began to carved out marking, a strange zigzagging pattern, across the entire pillar, stopping at certain points. Then after he was done marking the pattern ,he marked out areas of the pillar with two lines ,at five different points on the pillar. The area the two lines were marking was about two meters wide.

With that done he ignited his horn with arcane energy, before conjuring a blade of solid light. He then proceeded, to slice up the five areas he had marked out and created five two meter thick circles. With a push he started to roll them aside from the remnants of the pillar they had been part of recently. He rolled each of them to the hollowed out cylinder of stone and leaned them against tits surface.

Then he returned his focus to the remaining parts of the smaller pieces of cylinder and his horn ignited once more and a white light began to gather n the air. But this time, the light he conjured did not assume the shape of a blade. Instead, it flowed over to the lines, carved into the surface of the separate pieces of stone cylinders, and then, it filled up the carved lines with its light.

When the final line was filled, Maleficus narrowed his eyes in focus, and the lines of light, began to sink into the stone, melting through it. After about twenty minutes of careful focus and precision, he altered the shape of the light, and cut out parts of the pillar. The parts he cut out, fell off like cut out pieces of apple.

The parts that he did not cut out, but had carved out from the smaller stone cylinders, were a group of sets of cylindrical stair cases. Sure they were not perfect, but it was a fairly good first attempt.

He then lifted up the first staircase part with magic and levitated it into the hollowed out stone cylinder, once it was in place, he fused it into the walls and foundation by melting the rock through super intense heat created by magic, and then letting it fuse with the stone of the wall and bottom before letting it cool.

Then he levitated one of the stone plats, lowered it down into the hollowed out cylinder of stone and put it on top of the recently placed staircase, and then, he fused it into place just like he did with the staircase.

And then came the second staircase, followed by the second plate, then the third staircase and so on. As the fourth and final staircase was put into place, Maleficus levitated the second last piece on top of his recently made stone tower, the fourth stone plate.

After fusing the stone place to the top of the tower, he took the fifth stone plate, and carved out five cake pieces from the plate, each identical in size and shape. And then, he put those triangular like shapes on top of the tower, and put them together, as a pointy roof, melting them together with the top of the tower.

"Well that was fairly well done. Now for the less easy part,got to carve out the interior for my work." He said to himself before he cut out a door frame from the solid stone and entered the tower to carve out all the proper windows, entrances and to add walls and rooms to the entire structure. While not an interior designer, was he at least going to try and make his newly made workshop is not too spartan.

He created walls, windows, furniture, blank paged books, writing utensils, glassware, a rooftop garden, a proper bed and a magical toilet, through the utilization of magic an runic arrays. It would take him a few hours to finish the tower, just about mid-afternoon, and then he began to work on the reason for him creating this building in the first place. The concept of allowing him to transform his hooves, into talons.

Maleficus made sure to gather both of the petrified corpses, he did not know why but it felt wrong to separate the two long since dead creatures.

The mare statue was not of much interest to him, but he kept it in his lab along with the griffin statue. While not a fully proper human or wizard lab, was it enough for him to analyze the griffin and try to work out what to work with. The stallion knew that Luna would help him understand and process a lot, but he was fairly certain she had no idea what a griffin was an thus had no reason to know how to transform into one.

Thus Maleficus began to try to study the griffin's body. Utilizing magic and a fairly basic knowledge of biology, at least basic for the human world, he began to try and figure out the solution.

Even with all of his aid and intelligence would the alicorn find it a difficult trial. His initiate transformations into earth pony, unicorn and pegasus had worked because his body had been essentially made up by the essences from all those three creatures. Possibly more but he did not know anything about that.

But that was the thing, he could easily transform into ponies, equine beings. The griffin, was made up by eagle and lion, it held no physical relation to the ponies. There was no real way to transform into one unless someone knew how to transform into animals, but that was something Malefiucs very much doubted.

Thus, he would have to think outside of the box to even attempt to transform part of himself into a griffin. And even then would it most likely take him quite an amount of time to even figure it out. But he was more then willing to spend time on it, after all, time was a resource he had quite an amount of.

(To Be Continued)

Chapter Fourteen: The Return of the Ancient Ones (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Fourteen: The Return of the Ancient Ones

[Current Date: 19/7 - 111 AD]

[Time Remaining: 18 Days]

Princess Celestia smiled as she saw the approaching walls of her home. The hike through the mountains had taken far longer then anticipated. With the destruction of several hundreds of enchanted armours, her own included, was there no way to keep up the intense tempo they had managed to keep going when they first marched out to battle. The soldiers' now far more limited stamina and the pulling of the wagons of the injured lead to a long amount of rest for her ponies to handle the march home.

"It doest feel good to be home." She said with a smile as the large gates to her city opened, welcoming the defeated armies back. While there was no loud cheering was there no solemn despair either, the feeling of the soldiers, a mixture of determination, fear, hope and defeat.

The armies of Equestria had been beaten, but they were far from defeated. They had grown stronger and they knew they could grow even stronger. No matter what others might tell them, they knew. Equestria had a chance to defeat Maleficus.

They only needed to improve.

But that time had yet to come.

The ponies of Equestria would have to recover their strength before they could learn from their mistakes and improve themselves.

Celestia looked straight ahead, not even glancing at Solid Pink as she gave her, her new orders. "Hath all officers gather information from Our soldiers who fought the Ancient Ones. Also tell them to report their own experiences from the battle. We must gather more information from what happened. This time, We were but a heartbeat from overpowering Maleficus. Hath he not had his enslaved army, We may hath won this time."

"As you command you Highness." Solid Pink said with a salute before she disappeared into the marching troops to spread the orders given by the Princess.

The armies marched into the city, a rain of flowers greeted them as the ponies, while knowing of their defeat, saw the not yet defeated soldiers, and could not help but cheer them on. Showering them with praises, not for winning, but for not giving in to defeat.

While the praises were appreciated, were several ponies not concerned about praises, or were down right infuriated by them. But others, were solemn and confused, seeking answers to questions they could not solve themselves.

And so, when the forces split up by the Castle Gates, they left to assemble at their local headquarters and barracks. While a certain pair of Knights, left for a more personal visit, for a far more grave matter.

(Scene Skip)

Of course, 'grave matter' could also mean 'run home to mother' in some fashion, well in this case at least.

Outside of Grand Feast's Eatery, and home, the two knights fidgetted for a bit, trying to work out how to tell their mother about what they had learned about Golden Cross.

They had not needed to bother as Grand Feast burst out of the doorway and engufed her two startled children in a bear like hug, pressing the two heavily armoured ponies to her like a pair of plate covered teddy bears. "Oh! My darling little foals! Welcome home!"

"Gah! Good to see you mother!" Squeaked out Grand Music as he felt his armour and bones groan from the powerful hug from the mare who took him in.

Happy Meal was eagerly returning the hug and praising her mother's warm hug of doom like it was just a wonderful and warm hug. "Hehehe! Ye give de best hugs mama!"

Smiling she let go of her two children and motioned for them to get inside. "Well don't just stand there! Come in! We hath just finished making a fresh load of pies and bread loafs!"

And so the pair entered the eatery and found themselves gorging on a vast amount of pies, bread, cheese and fruits. The entire ordeal was spent in utter silence except for the two ponies eating like they had not eaten for weeks. This caused a frown to slowly appear on Grand Feast's muzzle as she slowly began to realize that something was wrong.

So she decided to end the silence and gently tapped her hoof against the table to get the attention of her two children, at the sound of her hoof hitting the table they both paused in their eating and looked up, pieces of food smeared over their faces. Normally she would have laughed at the sight, but she was too concerned to feel amused and gently spoke to them while looking them in the eyes. "Now tell Us what is bothering thee."

Startled the two averted their gazes from her eyes, almost making her smirk as she knew how those two could not lie to her without looking away. *Heh We still got it.*

"Wha-what do you-" She raised a hoof and gave Grand Music a stern look and he silenced up instantly.

Grand Feast then got off her seat and walked over to her fidgeting children before pushing a chair between them and sat down. Then she warped er forelegs around them and gently hugged them to her and spoke to them. "Thou hath been quiet for more then ten minutes, both thou and thy sister would both be speaking about thy adventures ten minutes ago. What hath happened?"

The two ponies, even though they were battle hardened knights and survivors of horrifying events, could not help but feel like little helpless foals when their caring mother acted like this to them. They were hesitant for a moment, but then Happy Meal and Grand Music, began to talk. "Well Mama... Ye know..." "It's kind of like this..."

And so the two ponies told their mother about their fight with Maleficus and his Ancient Ones, about their duel with him. About how he dragged out the fight into an almost lesson like manner before giving them both a final blow, a blow that only one pony should have known. And they had even heard him speak in the voice of said pony.

They spoke about how he fought and defeated Celestia, decimating an entire coastline in the process, before leaving. Almost like an afterthought, as it had not been as important as how the pony who had saved them and given them so much those ten years ago, had been a lie, made up by an alicorn who was the highest enemy of the government.

And as Grand Feast had listened to it all, she had made several reactions from aghast, sad, happy, angry and accepting. But in the end, she could only smile at her two children, and gently rubbed their heads and said to them in a warm voice what she thought about it all. "Doest it matter?"

"Wh-what do you mean?" Grand Music asked with a slight stutter, no matter what he had accomplished, no matter how strong he had grown, he would always be that shy little colt when facing his adoptive mother. But what she had just said was making his head spin.

Happy Meal was not saying anything, bur she felt just as confused as him. Grand Feast may be her mother and she could understand her mother better then most, but that did not mean she did not confuse her sometimes.

Said mare just smiled kindly, her eyes shining with a look of understanding. "Doest it matter who Sir Cross really was?"

"Of course it does!" "Of course it does!" They shouted out together, then blinked a they realized they had spoke up at the same time like that ,and felt embarrassed about it for some reason.

Their mother just giggled and booped them on their noses, making them sneeze and glare at her as they rubbed their noses. "Why though? Why should it matter?"

"B-but! H-he lied!" Happy Meal cried out, her eyes teary as she felt so sad that all she had known about her honourary grandfather had been nothing but lies.

Grand Feast just smiled "Oh honey, ponies lie all the time. What is important is the reason why he lied. We cannot speak for Cross, nor for Maleficus, but We know one thing about him that thou may hath overlooked."

"...What?"

"Golden Cross, was a good pony. Maleficus, who could hath killed the both of thee, spared thee. Even told thee the truth about himself. That makes him a decent pony to Us."

"Whom art We to say Maleficus did not love Us? Even though his name and history as Golden Cross was false, he saved Us, all of us. And rather then leaving after saving us, he supported us, he protected us and he endured... horribly pains for us. He even endured having to fight thee, the two little ones he grew so found of, and had to restrain himself enough to only deal light injuries. That shows Us, that no matter who he may be in the eyes of others, Maleficus is a good pony."

There was a brief moment of silence as the two ponies digested what their mother had just told them. And slowly they started to realize the truth of her words. That did not mean they would forgive Maleficus for lying, but... they could not fault him for it either. No matter the lies, he had acted in good faith, he had done good deeds and he had been a good pony. In the end... that was what truly mattered to them. That their adopted grandfather, no matter his true origin, was still that kind and good pony who saved them.

Grand Feast smiled in pride as she saw Grand Music and Happy Meal slowly draw their own conclusions about Golden Cross. To her, no matter whom he may truly be, would Maleficus still be that knight in armour, who saved her and her little ones, and became like a second father to her. No matter who he might truly be, she knew he was still that kind pony who saved her and her family.

The mare then got a mock angry look on her face and crossed her forelegs while speaking in a clearly false angry voice, looking at her two eldest with a twinkle in her eyes. "Doest not mean that We shalt not give him a thorough shouting, for hurting my poor little foals in his stupid fight with Princess Celestia."

"Mama!" "Mother!" The two embarrassed knights shouted out together, their faces flustered red in embarrassment. Grand Feast then started laughing and soon, the two flustered ponies felt their lips twitch before they joined her in laughing.

The pain of the heart was stronger then the pain of the body. But the guiding hooves of a loving and understanding mother is worth more then any band aid or healing magic. The two ponies would recover, and grow even stronger then they had been before.

(Scene Skip)

"I don't get it!" Maleficus shouted out in frustration, slamming down his hoof on the wooden surface of his table. The large table he had carved a few days before was covered with notes, diagrams and sketches. He had been spending so much time trying to figure out the way to transform, at least partly, into a griffin. A total of three days!

With what he had learned from analyzing the petrified remains of the griffin statue he had managed to learn so much about its biological structure, the bone marrows, the veins, almost everything. He had even attempted to create a griffin flesh golem with this knowledge. But that attempt only ended up with a mass of misshapen meat, bones and claws.

The alicorn had no idea why. But for some reason he could not figure out the most important part about the entire thing! It was as if there was only that final grain of knowledge needed to learn to even conjure up a flesh golem griffin. But it was such an important grain that it might as well have been the equivalence of a nuclear power plant!

"Why can I not figure out how to transform my body!? It should not be so difficult! I know just about everything about the structure of the claws and the flesh, the vessels! what else is there-!" Then he went silent, and contemplating look came upon his face before he buried his face in his hooves and groaned.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid... No matter how much information I can gather from a piece of petrified flesh, can I not use that to learn a proper transformation as a living being! I need a blood and flesh example! One that is actually biological! And not a fucking piece of lifeless rock!" The Alicorn shouted out his frustration and flipped the table, scattering all of his work across the floor of the lab. He then took a deep breathe and tried to think of what to do.

"But how do I get one? I mean... I am quite certain there is some way to reverse the petrification. But... I do not even know where to-" He stopped and went into a thoughtful look, pressing his right hoof against his chin, rubbing his beard, thinking. Then, slowly, a wicked grin began to grow on his lips.

"No wait... I DO know where to begin. At the source." He walked over to one of his self made windows and looked out at the forest, specifically, in the direction of where he had seen the Cockatrice. The strange mythical chicken must have caused the petrification somehow, even if not biologically, there was still a chance he could study the creature's body and find a a way to duplicate, and then hopefully reverse, the petrification.

The alicorn walked down the stairs, leaving his lab behind, there was still daylight so he had plenty of time to hunt for the little cretins. But to hunt for a creature that turns others into stone, he would need... some gear. A short while later he had made a pair of sunglasses with a reflexive surface, a set of rope, a bird cage and of course, a hunting hat. Maybe not the most complex of gears, but sometimes was simple the best option to pick. "I believe it is time for some good old fashioned... hunting. I was getting hungry anyway. Wonder what a lizard chicken tastes like."

He left the tower, closing and locking his door with a telekinetic grip, before marching out into the woods. Smirking in a wicked fashion as his dark shape was absorbed by the green foliage of the forest.

Every cockatrice within the woodlands felt a chill run down their spines that day.

(Scene Skip)

In the dark chamber beneath the surface of the city of Canterlot, was a new meeting being held by those who sought to usurp Celestia.

Upon the black table were several piles of papers and notes, with each of the members, along with their sixth and final member, arguing about how to proceed. They had been trying to figure out a proper plan for the last three days, although the sixth member had not come until this day with the return of the defeated armies of Equestria. But the mare had been working up on some ideas of her own.

After a few hours of arguing, appeals and explanations had they decided to take a break from the planning stage and just speak about other matters. There was plenty of economical talks, the cost of the repairs to the East Coast by Maleficus' earthquake, the damages on the gear and siege engines of the Equestrian Armies.

Then another subject came up, from the elderly stallion sitting on the chair with the white kite shield with the red drop on it. "We hath news to speak of, important news. We art too old to handle the hectic skulduggery of these meetings and Our duties at the same time. Thus, we shalt have Our grandnephew take Our place in this secret society. For he hath awoken a flame of hatred for his defeat in battle by Maleficus' army of enslaved horses."

"We shalt test the young colt before making a decision. But with the influence of a General in Our order, We shalt be able to reach far more then We can now."

"...Just how art we to test him?" One of the other members stated in a moment of curiosity.

There was a brief silence as the order tried to figure out just how to test the young General. When the pony with the mallet just slammed it into the table. "We shalt hath him prove his loyalty, by... supplying the order with at least one suggested manner of plan to take over Equestria from Princess Celestia."

"...Agreed!" The rest of the members said, eager to have somepony else give them suggestions.

(Scene Skip)

The moon rose up and shone its bright glory upon the lands. Night had fallen upon the world, and yet there were those who were active during these dark hours.

A lone cockatrice strode through the forest, its stomach was grumbling and it was eager to get some food in it. The reptilian tailed bird moved out through a bush when a strange cent caught its attention. Turning its head to the left it spotted a strange looking thing, a pile of seeds, located on top of a crimson looking mark painted onto the grass.

There was a sign on it that, even thought the monster could not read it, said 'Free Bird Seeds' in big bold red letters.

Tilting its head it looked at the sight in confusion before trotting forward and looked down at the pile of delicious looking seeds. Sure it enjoyed meat far more then seeds but it could still eat them.

As its beak started pecking at the seeds, there was a moment of peaceful feeding, before suddenly a loud snap was heard, followed by a loud squawk and a dull crack. As the oversized mousetrap hidden beneath the pile of bird seeds, snapped its metal strap down on the cockatrice's neck, breaking it when it slammed the neck against its wooden surface.

Out from behind a tree came Maleficus, levitating a cage holding the carcasses of six cockatrices, grinning like a loon. Using tricks from one of his favorite childhood cartoons had not failed to take out any foolish Cockatrice that was willing to try it out. "Hehehe. Wile E. Coyote. No matter your failed attempts as a hunter, know that your traps are still genius."
'
That Road Runner would be dead had it not been so quick, although, he had to quit using the boulder and catapult traps since they just ended up destroying his targets, or send them flying out of sight.

Whistling in a cheerful tone he levitated the latest catch into his cage and rearmed the trap and added some more seeds before trotting off to check on his other traps.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 17 Days]

Upon a plate of stone, laid a whole roasted bird with a serpentine tail, its golden skin crispy and smelling of earthly herbs. Slices of fruits laid along it and a single cup filled with some kind of warm sauce stood next to it, steaming.

A black muzzle hovered above the roasted animal, drooling in eager anticipation, while a pair of eyes were staring in hunger at the roasted meat. Maleficus Victoria was more then eager to try out the latest addition to his culinary experiences on Equestria.

He had spent a lot of time,, from the early afternoon to late evening, yesterday hunting. All for the opportunity to eat this morsel. And it had been worth it. Oh, and totally restoring petrified beings, yeah.

With his recently constructed oven he had spent over three hours cooking it, going through old memories to make it taste as close to what he had eaten while human. It had not been easy but in the end, as the sun started to rise, he was blessed with this perfectly cooked fowl.

"Mmmmhmmmm! Delicious! Gods I have missed the taste of roasted bird meat." He was practically moaning deliriously as his sense of taste was overwhelmed by the rich taste of roasted bird in his mouth, he felt like there was an orgy going on in his mouth. Something he had never thought possible before. The juices of the meat, the sweet, spicy and crisp roasted skin, the sweet fat, the firmness of the texture and the fresh fruits combined with the thick sauce.

It was heaven!

As he ate he looked over his bounty from his hunting. Several dozens sealed glass jars were sitting on top of one of his work benches, filled with various parts of the cockatrices he had killed. He even had a blackboard with a diagram of cockatrice's body, as well as the cut up cockatrice, which he had dissected, strapped down to a small stone table

*I got several eyeballs, but what I have found out already is that there is a magical energy in them that petrifies others through a connection of sight. But... There is nothing in the eyeballs that speaks of how it can remove the petrification.* Reaching out with his telekinesis he grabbed one of the jars and floated it in front of him, chewing on his food even as he brought out his Interface Screen and started to scan its content. In the jar was a pair of eyeballs were floating within a slimy green liquid, the veins and nerves still connected to them.

The data his screen gave him was still the same. While the cockatrice was alive could it control the magic of its eyes to petrify living beings, with sight, by connecting their eyes and channeling the petrification into their bodies through sight connection. They could remove the petrification, but for that they had to do it all together, they could not partly remove or petrify someone, it had to be done all at once or the petrification would disappear after a while.

So how did it eat its petrified prey? There had been bite marks on several parts of the statues, yet the cockatrice's beak and teeth were not strong enough to pierce through such a hard surface. And the stomach did not contain any sign of rocks or pebbles.

As he thought about this, and ate, he tapped his chin and tried to figure out the puzzle, when he licked up the meat juice dripping out the edge of his mouth. And he froze for a few seconds before he slowly slid his tongue back into his mouth again, and looked at the dissected cockatrice with critical eyes. "Wait... The eyes petrifies someone entirely, or remove the petrification, entirely. But for the cockatrice to be able to eat the prey, it needs to be able to remove the petrification in part, not all at once. So that means... I have to check the insides of its beak."

Levitating a turkey leg sized drumstick to his mouth he took a big bite of meat as he reached out with his hooves and physically opened the beak, there were six sharp teeth on the inside of the beak, nothing supernatural about them. The throat had nothing out of order. but the tongue, it had a gall of some kind, at its base. Pulling out the tongue he scanned the tongue with his scanner and swallowed his mouthful of meat before smirking in victory.

He then took a single piece of petrified hoof, and dragged the tongue over it, and his smirk grew, almost deranged like, as the piece of stone hoof, turned into an organic piece of a hoof.

"Eureka."

Taking another bite out of his floating drum stick he walked over to a bowl and put the tongue it in. Then he spread out the Interface screen over the bowl and left it there, letting it scan the tongue's properties. It would take a while, the Interface could only receive so much information at once. He would need to load up the data into the Main Interface on the moon through the satellite spells in orbit that helped him maintain a connection with it.

So for the moment, he would return to his meal and work out what to do with his remaining days on the planet. It might have been silent and calm since he fought Celestia. But he knew that things would get intense soon, they always did. So he would take a short break and develop further on what facts, appearances and backgrounds to make of his new fake persona. That said. He would not take on said persona until he had completed his work with the cockatrice's magical abilities.

So for now, he had to take his time and make sure he could get the results he needed. But there was another reason for him to take his time. There were three special ponies out there, he did not feel ready to speak to yet.

Taking a glance out towards one of the windows of his tower he looked out towards the mountain peaks of the Foal Mountains, and he sighed before returning to his meal.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 15 Days]

Night was falling upon Equestria. The Moon rising from beyond the horizon as the magical power of Princess Celestia lowered the Sun before raising its counter part. Twinkling stars and bright moon light began to shine upon the land, while the cooling winds blew in and soothed the heat from the warm summer day.

Within the woods of the Foal Mountains were there plenty of activity even at this dark hour. Upon the main road was a large caravan of twenty wagons moving towards the east coast. At the front of the line of wagons was a family of pegasi, dressed up in a strange clothing that looked like a mixture between scholar robes and leather armour.

These were the Lore Seeker Family, and they lead this Nomadic Clan ever since its foundation. They had founded the Clan to aid them in one specific purpose. To gather and sell objects and knowledge from before the Age of Chaos.

The Clan was called the Wind Striders, they sought out the lands for all manners of items and resources to sell at local markets. While also recording lost historical facts and knowledge to sell to scholars and schools all over the lands. In short, they were a clan of scavengers and scribes who sought to earn a living by selling whatever trinkets they could find, a well as whatever lost knowledge they could recover. And knowledge, could be sold at any village for a decent price since no one had a way to properly spread it out yet.

And the Lore Seekers had managed to build up a powerful reputation not only as reliable traders but as spreaders of lost lore and knowledge. But this also meant that they had many enemies, for there were more then a few who would be more then willing to claim said knowledge for themselves. Not to mention the many trinkets, riches and artifacts they had collected over the last one hundred years.

Thus were all of the clan's members taught to fight, not a single pony in their group did not know how to wield a weapon or to break rock with their bare hooves.

A chilling wind blew out over the nomads as they reached a large clearing, the moon was bright and there was a small spring in the middle of the clearing. But even with its tranquil nature, were several of the older members of the clan nervous, for there was an uneasy feeling in the air.

And for good reasons. For this region of the Foal Mountains, was very dangerous, especially at night.

Pulling on the leading wagon was four ponies, all of the pegasi, one was an old stallion with a pale green fur with a dark brown mane and tail with white streaks. He had the cutie mark of a rune carved out in a stone surface.

"Ey. Pa. There be a tense mood in the air." A young mare, located just behind him, stated with a nervous glance around her. Her pelt was brown with a mane and tail of black with green streaks. She had the cutie mark of a castle ruin.

"Aye Ancient Ruin. There be a strange sensation in the air. Better have more guards out tonight."

"Ma! Grandpa Rune Wall!" A small brown pelted and orange maned pegasus colt came running from the rear of the caravan, bouncing around like he was on a sugar rush, grinning widely. "Ey find something!"

"Not right now Truth Seeker. We need to prepare camp fer the night." The old stallion said as he started to unclasp himself from the wagon, the mare just giggled and scooped up the giggling like ball of energy and hugged him.

"Now, now, what did ye find my little treasure?" She said with a smile as she nuzzled his head.

The colt had a wide grin on his muzzle as he pointed with one of his hooves towards the eastern edge of the clearing. "There be a big stone house that way! Ey saw it when Ey flew up in the trees! It looked like a not destroyed pole building! All big, tall and not broken down!"

"Ye mean a tower my little treasure, and, just how far away would it be?" The mare asked kindly, while she felt a bit of uneasy build up in her heart at what her son was saying.

The little foal tried to think and clenched his eyes shut and tapped on his forehead, trying to figure out just how long it would take to fly to the Tower. Soon enough he managed to come up with an answer, although it was mostly guessing. He was not all that good at math. "Uuuuuh... maybe a few min'tes of flight?"

"That be great little treasure. If possible, we will go there tomorrow. But we be a bit too busy setting camp, and it soon be bed time." She said with a kind smile while she rubbed his head, the little foal giggled at the patting on hi head, not noticing how his mother's eyes were filled with dread by his words.

After putting the little colt to bed she walked out of the wagon and walked over to her father as he was hammering wooden poles into the ground for a simple wooden fence. She felt nervous and awkward, she did not want to worry her father over nothing, but she needed to voice her worries if whatever her child had found could harm the clan.

"Pa... Truth Seeker spoke about a tower in the woods. It be just a few minutes flight to the east. Ey... feel uneasy. There had not been a tower thee a year ago. What could it have come from?"

The old stallion looked towards the woods and hummed deeply as he thought about just what to do. But he could not come up with a decision, it was late, the clan was tired form their long journey. And those who would be guarding the camp site at night would have it far more rough then the rest.

"Ey do not know. But we shall inspect that place tomorrow. For now, we all be needing rest."

With unease in their hearts the nomads settled down for the night. Even with ten guards watching the camp, they knew it would be folly to feel safe. For these were the woodlands of the Foal Mountains, they have never been safe.

Even as the guards kept watch, even as their magical lights shone upon the trees, were hidden figures watching them with eyes glistering with madness and greed. For what lay within these woodlands, were not just the common bandits, crazed cultist or flesh tearing monsters.

Something far more wicked had risen up among the darkness of the woodlands. And it was already far too late to evade their notice.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 14 Days]

The woodlands of the western region of the Foal Mountains had no real name. Some areas or landmarks might have received their own names or designations by the ponies living there, but there were no real and proper name for the woodlands.

But even then. It had a nickname. Not an official name. Nor a common name. It was not even a name that recognized the woodlands itself, but something that was apart of it. Something sinister. The Woods of Blood.

The forest was infamous for the massive quantity of bandits, wild beasts and dangerous cultists lurking within its foilage. It had a bloody history older then the Fall of the Green Star. But when the star fell, things grew... dangerous within the woods. In the olden times the woods were still relatively safe to pass through.

But when the Green Star fell and isolated the ponies from their rulers for over a century, the cultists within the woods, grew more powerful. So powerful, that they started recruiting various groups of bandits and even sending out spies and kidnappers to obtain fresh victims.

This made travelling the western region of the Foal Mountain extremely dangerous, even by day. But in recent years, with the arrival of the Equestrian Knights from the Order of the Golden Cross, came a source of danger to the bandits and their cultist leaders. Then the knights started patrolling the main road, making it hazardous for those who sought to claim lives.

Sure the knights could not protect the entire region 24/7 but they lowered the amount of bandit attacks by more then half in the last ten years.

But now. There was a window open for the bandits. The Second Crusade and the massive earthquake that struck the east coast had ravaged the lands and weakened the hold the Order of the Golden Cross had over the woodlands. Sinxw they were too busy aiding the ruined towns and villages along the east coast. And with the withdrawal of the Three Armies, there had been a big supply of something none of the bandits had ever had before.

Deserters.

Hundreds of experienced soldiers, abandoning their Princess for allowing their Armies to be defeated by the Ancient Ones brought to life by Maleficus. And with them, they brought knowledge of war, knowledge of gear and knowledge of the patrols of the region.

And while that was bad beyond measures, were even worse things coming. And that would be the one thing that had affected the region the most. And that was Maleficus himself.

The Cults in the region worshiped a various amount of beings, from Discord the God of Chaos, or Tirek the Magic Thief, to forgotten horrors of the twisted and insane. But now, a new cult had arisen. One that worshiped the latest 'evil' being to rise upon the world.

Maleficus Victoria. The Alicorn of War. No one knew just what his governance as an Alicorn was, but for his fighting capacity, his skill at war and superior military tactics, had many come to the conclusion that his special talent was War. And for the Cultist within the Woods of Blood, such an alicorn, one who brought war with an army of the long forgotten horses of old. Was more then worthy of worship.

And this gave birth to a whole new range of trouble for the region, as Cultists calling themselves the Warfoals began to act within the region. Not just as blood sacrificing zealots, but as rampaging war lords hunting down sacrifices in the name of their new Lord and God. Maleficus, the God of War.

They swarmed over the region like deranged wolves, tearing anything apart in their sight.

Within the last couple of days has the entire region gone from a dangerous but controlled region, into a blood crazed pit of madness where there was little difference between ponies and monsters.

One of these warbands of the Warfoals were controlled by a specially ruthless and fanatic individual by the name of Blood Lust, an earth pony with an orange pelt, red mane and tail, with the cutie mark of a mouth drooling blood. He was a big and powerful fighter, and a merciless leader who killed anyone who spoke back against him or the Priests of the Warfoal Cultists.

He had once been a common bandit, but when the news of the battling alicorns reached his ears, as well as the very, not, subtle propaganda and whispers of the Warfoal Cultists, he was turned into a zealot for bloodshed, murder and rape. And he did not mind doing it in different orders.

It had just been a few days since he was made into this twisted monster, but he had always been gullible and easily manipulated even before he was turned into a zealot. And for a bandit already used to murdering innocents for a living, if it was turned into a glorious faith, he was more then willing to embrace it. He was a clear example of what had become of the region, from a common bandit, to a blood crazed zealot of a war lord.

Today's morning would mark the third battle of his warband. They had raided a small town, razed it to the ground, ravaging its people, pillaging its valuables, and sacrificing the living and the still bleeding corpses of the villagers, and their own dead, to Maleficus in a cruel ritualistic murder ceremony. They tied the sacrifices to wooden poles, raised them into the air, and then disemboweled them, letting their innards spill out and hang down the pole, while chanting Maleficus' name.

The second battle had been with another warband from another cult, a cult of ponies worshiping Discord, and sought to bring chaos to all. They got plenty of chaos, and death, when Blood Lust charged into their flank as they were making some weird ritual involving sultry dressed mares, and stallions, foals covered in chicken feathers, all ponies wearing jester hats, as well as several various types of pies and several make up wearing pigs, one even had a blond wig. The weirdness was a bit of a turn off and none of his warband wanted to do much more then kill the crazed chaos cultists and their warriors, there was just something really freaky about it, even for them.

And now the third target had been marked.

His scouts had reported a camp of nomadic scavengers in one of the many camp site clearings along the main road. it was a golden opportunity for blood, rape and gold. He spun his great war axe in the air and pointed it in the direction of the camp and screamed out in utter glee, drool and spit flying from his mouth. "As the God of War has decreed! "In the fires of war! No one is innocent! In the rage of battle! All are equal! To die in battle! Is to die a Saint!" Let Us Burn! Let Us Pillage! Let Us Ravage! Let Us Kill! Let Us Bless! Let Us Die! Amen! Hahahahaha!"

Their movement was not silent nor was it strategic, they were just a rushing horde, rushing through the trees and bushes towards their objective. Those that tripped or fell during the stampede were trampled by their comerades, nobody cared to stop and aid them, they just rushed over their fallen shapes. And the few who did not die from their own allies running them over, joined the rush, mad with frenzy.

There was no reason for their behavior, just an unnatural craving for battle, murder, plunder and rape. Even should they die, they did not care, far too lost in their disillusioned faith in their new God of War, to care about such trivial matters.

But this wild rush of gleeful screams and stomping hooves had alerted the nomads. They knew they would not be able to escape the deranged bandits, but they had time to muster a defense. Now it was just a matter if they could stem the tide of crazed zealots charging towards them. Or if they would be one of the many clans to be wiped out and forgotten, like dust in the wind.

(Scene Skip)

Elder Rune Wall of the Wind Strider Clan stared out at the woods with a frown. The bloody maniacs were charging towards, had for the last five minutes, and were not even stopping. These were more then mere bandits, they were more like crazed animals then ponies.

He had hoped to sleep a good night's sleep after a long day's of pulling a big heavy wagon. But after only a few hours were the warning bells being rung and woke him up, as well as the others of the clan.

The old pegasus had instinctively jumped out of his bed and rushed out of his portable home on wheels, snagging his leather coat and bullwhip on the way out. He was one of the first to come out of their wagons. And as he Elder and Leader of the clan he had to act to keep them alive.

His leather coat was made from the tanned hide of a chimera from one of his clan's investigation into an ancient tomb. It bore both his clan and family colours, the blue and green stripes of the Wind Striders as well as the brown and black diagonal lines of the Lore Seekers. Over this background was a single white cloud with a green hoof mark on its surface, the symbol of the Wind Strider Clan.

Rune Wall walked towards one of their supply wagons and climbed up onto it. Once on top of it he stood there and grasped his whip with his left, hoof, before whipping it in the air, causing a loud crack to get their attention. And then ,he began to shout out orders at them. "Grab yer weapons! Get all foals, old, sick an' expect'n mothers to da armoured wagons! Set up ambush points! Get yer flanks into position ta keep us all safe! Prepare fer combat!"

It was a mad scramble from there. The Clan rushed to assemble a solid defense against the approaching raiders. They used logs to make improvised walls and palisades. Clouds were summoned or gathered from the sky and gathered above and around the camp, with the more skilled weather mages preparing to unleash Tartarus upon their approaching foes.

Their foals, elderly, sick and pregnant members were all moved into a trio of large heavily armored wagons, covered from top to bottom in layers of rune engraved metals of various kinds. Of course, not every one of them could fit into the wagons, so a few of them were being kept safe in one of the sturdier wagons.

Rune Wall frowned as he looked out at the dark woods, they had done what they could to prepare, but the rumbling of the ground and the screams approaching from the woods, made it clear to him that this would not be an easy endeavor.

The branches and the ground were shaking, the light of torches could be seen up ahead on the main path towards the camp and through the narrow glimpses between the trees. And with their keen eyes could all of the Wind Striders see the horde of crazed ponies charging towards them like a stampede of madness.

Some were foaming like rabid beasts, some were coldly silent, some were giggling like crazy jesters, and some, some were hollering out praises towards their god or screaming their intentions for the clan and its members.

"Kill them all!"

"Die for the War God!"

"Let us feast upon the banquet of war!"

"Wahahahahahahaaa!"

It was clear, these ponies, they were not going to give anyone the chance to surrender, nor would they escape. It was do or die.

The Wind Striders prepared themselves for the signal, and as the horde breached into the torch lights they had put up a hundred meters ahead of the camp, it came. The old pegasus Rune Wall raised his right hoof and as he saw the front of the horde reach the third set of torches, he swiped his hoof in a down motion.

And there was a rumble, before all hell broke loose.

(Scene Skip)

Nasty Reaver grinned nastily as he rushed alongside his brothers, his chin ripping with drool as he imagined the glorious murder, rape and carnage they would be committing for their new god tonight. A loud rumbling filled his ear and his grin grew louder as he raised his head to smile with pride towards the heavens.

His smile instantly disappeared when black clouds sparkling with electricity blocked his view and before he could as much as scream out a warning, was his vision blocked by the sudden, bright and intense light of lightning streaking down towards him and his fellow acolytes. The raider had no time to even feel pain as dense electricity surged through his body and fried him inside out.

It lasted only for a few seconds, but that was enough, to melt his eyes, char his flesh, fry his organs and set his pelt, mane and tail aflame. The corpse of the raider fell to the ground a smoldering heap, alongside several others.

But those who survived did not bother to halt in their charge and their hooves crushed the burning corpses of their fallen comrades into lumps of burning ash.

(Scene Skip)

The Wind Striders watched as their cloud defenses streaked across the large horde, frying more then a dozen strong ponies. But they were not able to keep their spirits up as the horde did not even halt or stumble in its rush, it just flowed over the burning corpses, crushing them as they ran them over.

"They be utterly crazy da lot of them." Rune Wall said with a frown at the utter lack of care for themselves and their own members. He spat to the side and waved at his clan members.

Various ranged weapons were fired at once and a shower of projectiles slammed into the front line of the charging horde, more collapsed as arrows pierced their flesh, rocks bruised hide or broke bones, and spears struck at them. But the horde did not stop and Rune Wall knew that they had killed at least fifty bandits already.

Another signal was given and lightning once more flashed across the sky and more bandits were struck by the arching bolts of plasma from the heavens. Again and again the clouds delivered their deadly load. But this could not be kept up, there was a limit to the amount of lightning one could produce in a cloud, and there was not many available this evening. Nor did they have time to create more clouds.

"Get ready ta fight! For da Wind Striders!" Rune Wall unfurled his whip prepared to lash out with it, as the horde breached the outer line of wagons and the chaos of battle filled the camp site.

(Scene Skip)

Ancient Ruin shivered as she clutched her son close as they heard the carnage outside. She was regretting volunteering to stay inside the sturdy wooden wagon as she heard the screams and the fighting. The wagon was tough and had runic enhancements, but it would not hold against an assault like the armoured wagons could. She and the other five mares and their children in there were like wheat being protected from farmers by being put in a plain wooden box.

This wagon would not hold, she was certain of it.

And she was proven right, when a large metal axe head split open the upper portion of the barricaded door, the bronze weapon was shape enough to cleave through the wood and sink into the wooden frame of the desk they had used to block it. Ancient Ruin could not tell who was screaming in terror as the blade was jerked out of the wood and back into the darkness of the night. Then heavy breaths, choked with insane laughter, could be heard as slowly the crazy face of a blood soaked pony stallion emerged in the crack in the door, staring through the gap. Straight at them.

A far too wide smile spread across the stallion's muzzle ad he spoke up in a crazed fashion to the ponies hiding in the wagon. "Heeeeeeeere is Blood Lust!"

As the face withdrew to slam the axe into the door again spoke one of the mares in the group to the rest. "Get out through da escape hatch."

Ancient Ruin looked at the one who had spoken, it was Gold Digger, a yellow pelted pegasus with red mane and tail. On her rump was a cutie mark in the shape of a shovel on a bed, with a pile of gold coins and gold nuggets beneath the bed. She was the official... comfort mare in the clan. There for any free stallion or mare to enjoy for a short fee. Her true passion laid in digging for gold or treasures but she made the courtesan business more like a hobby to sate her needs.

Most of the married mares did not like her, feeling like she was offering herself to all the male ponies, even if she always told them she only wanted, no attachment sex and no married stallions. Ancient Ruin had to admit that she had always been uncertain if her own husband, who had gone missing four years ago, had ever visited the comfort mare while they were married.

"But what about ye auntie Gold?" One of the foals asked with big teary eyes. One thing many could agree on was that while Gold Digger was an uncomfortable element for some of them, was she an excellent caretaker for the foals of the clan when the families could not care for them. The fact that Gold Digger had two foals of her own, none of which she knew the father of, also helped.

The mare just petted the little filly on the head and winked. "No worries sweetie, no dumb bandits can handle this mare. Now go."

The mares and the foals exited through the hatch, some offering thanks, some too frightened to speak. When the hatch was closed Ancient Ruin began to lead the others to a safer location. Clutching her little foal as she did so.

(Scene Skip)

Blood Lust smiled wickedly at the sight of the cute mares in the wagon, here were the treasures who would be sharing the glory of war before being offered to Makleficus Victoria!

"Heeeeeeeere is Blood Lust!"

With that declaration the pony began to cackle as he pulled back his head and began to chop at the doorway, the screams of the mares and foals inside causing shivers to run through his body as drool began to pour down his chin. He cackled in glee ad he felt his dick harden and grow out of his sheath. Behind him were a dozen of his raiders and acolytes cheering him on to break open their 'treasure box'.

Finally, as the hinges on the door was halfway torn off and the door was almost broken in half, he took a few steps back before running forward to tackle the door. He slammed into the doorway and crashed through it in a shower of wooden shards. Blood Lust collapsed to the floor, covered in saw dust and piece of wood, but he soon sprung up and stared around for his new victims, leaking all over the floor as his arousal grew.

But the mares and the foals were not in the hut, they had exited through a hatch at the floor. Snarling in anger he turned ot leave, when suddenly a pair of slender forelegs warped around his neck, and a husky hot voice spoke into his ear. "Oooooh? Are ye colts leavin' already? Why do ye not stay an' entertain poor little sweet Gold Digger."

As the hot warm voice spoke into his ear, he, and the rest of the stallions who were staring with gaping jaws at what they were seeing, could only swallow as one of those slender forelegs got lower and started to rub his balls. And the hot voice spoke out to the rest of the raiders by the doorway. "Come in. Ey hope ye colts can handle one. needy. little. mare."

At each word spoken in the final entrance, the mare who called herself gold Digger, nibbled on Blood Lust's ear and began to rub him even more extravagantly. There was a scramble as the raiders rushed into the wagon, and what was heard from it was the sound of roughhouse sexual deviancy,at the least. And through it all was the entire thing shaking back and forth like some kind of rocking cradle of love.

(Scene Skip)

Ancient Ruin ran through the chaos that was her clan's campsite. Her son was following her closely, trying to be brave, but she knew he was afraid, she was too.

There were fighting ponies everywhere, corpses of strangers and friends laid across the ground like a mocking artwork of horror and sorrow. She was almost halfway to one of the armoured wagons when a raving earth pony wielding a large sword came screaming towards her in a mad frenzy.

She barely heard her son scream out her name as the madpony charged at her. But then the raider was intercepted by the cracking shape of a whip, the strike slice up part of his face and dislodged one of his eyeballs. The deep gash in his face sprayed out blood into the air before the stallion clutch his face and scream in agony, blood pouring down from beneath his hooves.

Her father's voice cried out a distance away and she saw him retract his whip after the strike heh ad just done. He was bleeding from various wounds but he stood tall and strong even then. "Run Ruin! Take Truth Seeker an' run fer da woods! Get ta safety!"

Ancient Ruin could not speak, she was too much in shock to do so, all she could do, was reach for her terrified foal, lift him up with one of her forelegs, and began to run out of the campsite.

A brown pelted and blond maned pegasus wielding a pair of daggers leaped off from a roof and landed in front of her, making her halt in fear. The pegasus grinned at her and licked his bloody daggers while he looked at her with twisted eyes. "Hahahaha! Yet another mare ready to receive the pleasure of-GAH!"

The stallion was interrupted when a whip lashed out and warped around his neck, and her father's voice spoke out again in a loud angry tone. "Stay away from me family ye sick fuck!"

With a strangled glurg the pegasus was flung off his hooves and slammed into the side of one of the wagons, there was a loud crack as his head struck the side of the reinforced metal, and he fell down, neck broken. Ancient Ruin took off running once more, in the distance she could hear more raiders coming, several of them screaming in anger.

"He killed Bloody Death!" A blue pelted and red maned earth pony screamed out in anger as he rushed forward with a sword held by one hoof.

"Thy bastard!" A green maned and orange pelted unicorn wielding a staff shouted out.

A fat red pelted and blond maned pegasus wielding a warhammer rushed past his two friends and jumped at the elderly pegasus. "Kill the buckhole!"

No matter how much it pained her she did not turn back, she ran into the woods and never turned back. Not even as the pained cry of her own father was heard ,as well as the despairing cry of her son crying out for his grandfather. "Granpa!"

She ran into the woods, never stopping, for she could hear them following her.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus stood outside of his tower and was levitating an open book, reading through several notes he had recorded from the data recorded by the Interface. For the last two days had the alicorn been working on the data he had managed to retrieve with his Interface Screen from the magical energies of the cockatrice's tongue.

So far was all he had managed to do not all that impressive or complex in itself. With the energy readings from the tongues and the eyes of the cockatrices he had killed he had managed to copy the energy signature of the cockatrice's petrifying stare and the restorative effects of the magical residue in its tongue.

With this energy signature Malefivus could artificially create the transformation from flesh to stone and stone to flesh, having experimented on a few plants and insects. And about a day back, he had started petrifying much bigger things, and in greater numbers.

"Alright then, once more." His horn lit up in crimson and he raised his head and looked forward, his eyes narrowed and the energy became more dense, before it ignited into a bright glow that flowed out of his horn and out into the empty air in front of him. The light seemed to gather together into a solid form before it slowly began to fade, revealing a large armour bearing horse that had seemingly been conjured out of nothing. The horse stood tall, unmoving and at full attention of his summoner's future commands.

"Strike a pose, acting as if you are in the middle of battle." Reacting without questions or hesitation, the artificial equine stood up on his hind legs, grasped his spear and shield, and hefted the shield up, as if blocking a strike from above, while hefting his spear back as if preparing to stab at something in front of him.

"I apologies in advance, but I am preparing something for my next interaction with the ponies. Do not worry, you will not be stone for long. "Maleficus' horn was once more engulfed with crimson energy for a few seconds, then the colour of the energy shifted into a bright green and there was a bright flare that brightened the large glade were the master of the stone tower was working on his latest scheme.

Once the bright light dimmed, what stood there, was a statue of a horse soldier, made of solid stone. Maleficus slowly walked around the statue, examining it carefully, before nodding. He then levitated the petrified horse to a spot in the glade. There among the grass, the bushes and the trees, stood thousands of horse statues, each one a petrified soldier created by Maleficus.

They were spread out across the field as if they were in frozen in time during a great conflict. He had made plants, moss and dirt gather on them through magical means, to add authenticity to the age he would base his new persona's backstory on.

It was all part of his plan, he was hoping to create a decent excuse as for why his army was so different from the modern day ponies. He could not just wanted forth like he did with Golden Cross, the ponies were more spread out, more learned. he would not get lucky so often.

So now he had to work out a way for him to disguise himself easier in pony society. Thus he came up with the idea to create an ancient army of horses petrified for unknown ages. And his persona would be part of these newly restored horses. It was a decent attempt for a backstory. Now he just needed to create the final piece, his own alternative self's body.

But it had to be something special, a form unique to even to the horses, or it would not work out, since he still had to give the horses orders. He had some ideas, one of them he was currently working on, but there was another issue. Since he needed to be one of those trapped in stone could he not be the one to activate the process to curing the petrification, luckily he had a solution for that.

That's when he heard it, clash of metal, cries of battle, fire burning and ponies screaming. He looked towards the woods and saw the burning light ahead. Cursing he wondered what he could do. Though he may be an alicorn was he not ready for intervening in pony affairs. There were still so many issues to solve, and if he just rushed into the...

The crying of a child filled the air and seemed to make his body jerk in pain at the sound.

A twitch grew on his left eyebrow until he just tossed up his head and forelegs into the air and shouted out in frustration as his guilt and conscience would not stop bothering him. He had to do something to help whoever was in trouble or he would feel like shit! "FUCK IT! I am just going to do it! Better to give it a try before I end up chased by Celestia's troops. Plus, I can give help to those ponies with the tower's capabilities."

He rushed into the tower and made his final preparations, this was a gamble, but he would just have to work with what he had for the moment. Until then would his tower's protective functions deter anyone of wicked intent from being able to act upon those wicked desire. Well not much deter as much as it would force them back from whoever they were trying to harm, it would keep most of the ponies safe, hopefully.

Plus, there was another feature of the tower that he would be giving a test, one that would hopefully work or his work would have been down right wasted.

(Scene Skip)

Ancient Ruin rushed through the woods, her legs moved in a blur as she clutched her child to her front with her left foreleg, leaving her to run with three legs rather then four. Her child was crying into her fur as she carried him as she ran.

Behind her she could hear the brutish voices of those horrible ponies who had killed her father and was ravaging her clan. *No, not ponies. Those... things are no ponies. They be monsters.*

"This way! We can smell them!" "Hunt them down!" "Yaahahhaaa!" It was like a swarm of mad cackling bees following her, pony sized bees. That train of thought made her suddenly think of one of the many nightmares she had, had as a filly. A swarm of giant wasps hunting her, capturing her before taking her to their hive to be eaten, or worse. She had a scary imagination even as a foal, still did apparently.

The darkness of the night made it hard to see much but she had run through the wilderness at night many times and knew how to move through it. While the light was almost gone was her eyes able to make out the silhouettes of trees, bushes and roots. And for every passing second everything became even clearer to her.

Grunting she leaped over a fallen log and scurried through a line of bushes. The leaves and branches dug into her pelt and she had to close her eyes to not get anything in them as she pushed through them. But then as she pushed past the last of the foliage, her vision was suddenly blocked by the moss covered grey form of a big boulder.

It was pure luck she managed to react. She spread her wings and reared her body upwards, bent her hind legs, and then jumped over the big rock. Her left hind hoof scrapped against the surface of the stone, making her stumble a little as she landed on the root covered ground on the other side.

Ancient Ruin had to make a short leap to regain her balance, and to not trip on the crooked and gnarled roots of the trees in front of her. Her breath was ragged and her brow was dripping of sweat as she started to jump and skip over the thick growth of roots. She was deep inside the woods now, the trees were growing larger, denser and so were their roots, with the grass disappearing, leaving only dark brown soil with small patches of moss or grass.

It was getting more difficult for the mare to keep her legs moving, not to mention how much her right fore leg was starting to feel like it was being prickled by needles and daggers while being burned by acid. The effort to carry her little foal was far greater then she had anticipated. But as she heard her little colt cry into her fur, she bit through the pain and strain and just kept running. Not letting her legs rest for a moment.

Then she saw it, the sight her son had told her about earlier. Past the lines of the trees, a large stone structure could be seen, towering up, slightly higher then the trees around it. And around the massive structure of stone, was a wide open field of grass, filled with... hundreds of stone statues?

Spread out, in various poses, stood hundreds of statues of large ponies. Each of them were depicted wearing an armour that Ancient Ruin had only seen in old scrolls and on ancient hieroglyphs in ancient ruins. Had the situation been different, she may have stopped to investigate the various stone shapes in the large clearing.

But she did not do that.

Instead the young mare only spared a glance at the statues as she moved past them at rapid speed, the lights of the windows gave her hope and even though the door knocker was in the shape of a scary looking helmet, did she not hesitate. She grasped the heavy ring of iron, and knocked hard on the solid wood door.

A heavy clang erupted from the solid iron ring as it struck the wooden surface of the door. It resounded like something one would heard from a temple bell. The deep resounding sound echoed through the glade like a ghostly foreboding signal of the dead.

But she did not care one bit about that. Her child was in danger, she too was in danger, they needed to get to safety. And if that meant knocking the ever living manure out of a door with a scary sounding doorknocker? There were not even a reason to hesitate.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus raised his head as he heard the heavy clang of the enchanted doorknocker. It had taken a lot more time then he had thought, but it had given him plenty of time to prepare the tower's defences. Not to mention. His stand in.

Turning towards a robed figure standing in front of him, the alicorn spoke out a series of commands for the newly created Horse to follow. "Engage Personality and History Portfolio: Old Hermit Horse Mage. Alignment: Good. Flaws: Senile and Old. Strength: Knowledge and Magic."

The robed figure twitched and spasmed for a few seconds, making it look like the robe was being worn by a vibrating furniture, before an old male voice spoke out to him. "As you command my creator."

He got shivers from just how that voice reminded him of a certain wizard headmaster, and from how the voice was no longer blank or plain, it was emotional and with a tone only an elderly person could develop. Quite frankly, it frightened him how alive his golems looked and acted like after he installed their mental coding. "I still get shivers whenever I think about how much more alive you guys appear to be. Not to mention how much easier it has become to create fake personalities for you guys in such a short time."

Maleficus felt the anxiety as he pondered just what he had create with his golems. Could the magical programming he had designed turned out to be more advanced then he thought? Could his creations actually have gained some manners of self consciousness as a side effect? Perhaps wills of their own, or maybe eve... souls?

*Okay this is getting way too complicated. Better not think about it for now. I have enough problems already and do not need to get overly anxious or nervous over something that might just be nothing.* Shaking his head he walked over to large object covered by a large blanket and focused his magic across his body's exterior.

Slowly his body began to shift in mass as smoky wisps of shadows began to flow from its form. It took less then five seconds for him to lose his solid shape and turn into a mass of darkness. The mass began to collapse into a shadowy miasma which flowed down on the floor, taking the form of a smoky shadow. He spoke one final time as he moved across the stone floor towards the covered shape. "Prepare the final step of the Anti Petrification Ritual. Aid the ponies who come here before engaging the Ritual by activating the Anti-Aggression Ward."

"It will be done my creator." The old horse said with a slight smile on his muzzle, making the wrinkly old face look severily creepy with how blank and emotionless it had been a few moments ago. Good thing Maleficus was not looking at him or he might have been feeling even more uneasy about it.

The black mass of shadowy smoke flowed forward and slipped beneath the white blanket, and disappeared into the shadows beneath the white cloth. There was no movement beneath the cloth and the shape looked the same. Whatever the alicorn had done was a mystery for now.

As his master disappeared beneath the cloth moved the recently created horse down the stairs towards the main door, once blank and empty eyes now held an old and wizened soul that seemed to twinkle with mirth.

The elderly horse reached the doorway and reached out, unlocked the hatch, and pushed the door open.

(Scene Skip)

Ancient Ruin reared back the knocked for another strike at the door. Her heart beating even harder as she had been standing there for a good minute and nothing had happened. And no doubt the constant ringing would be alerting the bandits were she was.

As she contemplated running away from the glade, there was a loud crack, and not from the knocker. With a series of mechanical sounds the door shook a little, before, with a low crumbling of wood scraping against stone, it was pushed open from the inside.

What stood in the doorway almost startled her. It was the biggest pony she had ever seen, and he was an old one too. A fur of dull grey with a mane and tail of ghostly pale white with grey tints. With a pair of twinkling blue eyes on a wrinkled old kind face with a well combed and short cut beard.

Before the old pony could so much as speak she stepped forward ,still holding her sniffling son, and cried out to him, tears starting to leak from her eyes as she felt desperation beat through her entire body and soul. "Please 'elp us! There be bandits comin' fer me and my son!"

The old pony blinked before he nodded and pushed the door open entirely and motioned for her to enter. "No need to scream, please enter. Do mind your step though, there might be some shards of glass on the floor. Been meaning to clean that up."

Ancient Ruin rushed inside and almost instantly collapsed onto her flank as she entered the torch lit chamber within the base floor of the tower, her exhausted legs collapsing beneath her. She gasped for breath while hugging her, no longer crying, son to her breast, nuzzling his mane as she just tried to recover from her exhaustion.

The elderly pony raised a hoof and traced it in the air in a circular motion. His hoof glowed a pale green and as it did took a glowing orb of light form in the air in front of the hoof. As he put down his hoof to the floor once more began the orb of light to float above his head. He then nodded at the pair and began to walk towards a set of stairs. "Please, come with me. You must be tired, I have food and water in my kitchen. Plus some warm blankets and some spare piles of hay if you need. Sorry for not offering my bed but I do need it for myself, I am not as young as I used to be."

Ancient Ruin gathered herself and staggered upright, her legs were sore and so were her lungs, but she was no longer in danger and could take it easy. Truth Seeker seemed to have recovered from the ordeal, the little colt was looking around with big and curious eyes at the mural covered walls of the tower and the strange collection of statues on the base floor.

They followed the elderly pony to the next floor and Truth Seeker gasped in awe at the sight of the advanced contraptions, diagrams, piles of scrolls, parchments and books, and not to mention the various jars filled with parts of beasts. It was like the little foal was having a dream come to reality.

Ancient Ruin felt more insecure among the workshop, it looked partly like some kind of alchemy lb with the floating parts of animals, but the diagrams and the various stone parts she could see, hinted on something else.

Meanwhile was the elderly pony laughed at the little pony child's bright expression and patted him on the head. "I see you like my workshop little one. Well you are in luck, for tonight is something quite special going to happen. I am going to break an ancient curse. We can have some food later if you wish to see the event yourself."

Gasping in awe the little colt put his hooves in front of his gaping mouth, muffling his loud voice as he said his opinion about the old pony's plans. "That be aw'some!"

"Superb. Well then, let me introduce myself. My name is Cursed Blessing, well that is my pony name I use when speaking to ponies like yourself. In private I prefer my other name. Asclepius." As he said this the old pony walked over to a jar containing a green ooze that was filled with small red and black meaty looking things the size of a worm.

Both mother and son looked completely confused when the old pony refereed to himself by two names, and one of the being what he called a pony name. As if he was not a pony.

The old equine noticed their confusion and as he took the jar he eased their confusion by explaining why he had two names. "Yes I have two names. As tradition since ancient time by my kind. We are given a pony name, and a birth name. As you may have figure out, though I may look like a pony. Am I in fact not a pony. I am an older species. A horse. One of the few hundreds remaining to this day. I, specifically, am part of a clan of scholars who has sought for unknown ages to restore our once proud race."

"Woah! Ye be one of da Ancient Ones!?" The foal gasped out in awe while his mother just tried to register what she just had heard. To find out that the Ancient Ones, the horses, were not a fairy tail or extinct like so many believed, was a bit too much to swallow at once.

"Well that is the name of our ancestors before we ended up so few. Let me tell you how it went." Chuckling the elderly horse patted the foal on the head before he strode through his workshop and towards a large stone door, upon it was the carving of a helmet in front of a round shield with a spear behind the shield. Only someone of earth would recognize the design, if they knew their history, it was the design of a Spartan helmet, slightly altered to fit upon the head of an equine being.

The elder motioned for the two to follow, the foal eagerly skipped after the old horse while his mother followed at more... awkward phase, she was still feeling completely out of it because of the recent events combined with what she had just been told. But her attention was once more focused on the now, when the old horse raised up his light orb, and revealed the long spiraling stair case, and the mural covered walls on its sides.

As they walked up the stairs, the old horse began to tell the tale of his people. While they passed by each mural, depicting the events he spoke of. "Once upon a time. The horses were a strong an powerful race, we held none of the talents of the ponies, nor did we have cutie marks. Instead we had adaptability and the capacity to learn anything."

Images of ponies working their talents with magical affinity, earth affinity and sky affinity, each bearing a cutiemark marking that affinity. But then came an image of the horses, with no affinity. Instead, it showed the horses working on different things, be it magical or non magical, and though not all of them found something they excelled at, were all of them able to master the basics of whatever they tried to learn. No horse had any cutiemarks, depicting their unsure but adaptable lives.

"This of course lead to a lot of folly on our part and our culture grew... arrogant to say the least." Then the horses went their separate ways from the ponies, seeing themselves as superior with how they could use all manners of things, while the ponies were limited to being specialized in one thing. The horses began to build houses, then towns, then cities. And while they did so, they developed weapons, armour and warfare. Several clashes were depicted, each with ponies, horses or other creatures fighting the horses.

"War was waged several times between ourselves and even the ponies or other races. But none were as warlike as the Spartans. And they became partly the reason for our race's fall. But that fault laid with all of our ancestors in truth. Although the blame could also be put on the hooves of the gods themselves." The images went to show a group of horses wielding spear and shield, bearing the symbol of the spartan helmet upon their shields, while also wearing them.

"There was once a beautiful mare named Helen, or Sacred Beauty, as was her pony given name. She was the daughter of an unknown Lord of Sparta, and according to some version of the legend, a god. She was considered the most beautiful of all mortal beings back in the day." A scene depicting a white pelted and golden maned filly appeared, with a spartan horse by her left and a white glowing mare on her right.

"She was betrothed to powerful stallion by the name of Menelaos, or Endless Ambition. He was to become the new Lord through this marriage. But. Something disrupted this union, although many say that it could have turned out the same even if the event of the Golden Ball had not come to pass." The white filly with golden mane and tail grew into a graceul mare, a pony bearing not the armour of the Spartans, only the helm, stood by her left side.

"In the realm of the gods, well those the legends around Helen speaks of. There were three Goddesses, Hera, the Goddess of Relationships and Fertility, Athena the Goddess of War and Wisdom, and Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and Passion. There was a party happening within the realm of the gods, and another goddess, Eris, was making a prank on the three Goddesses." The murals showed the cloudy realm of the gods, depicting the three goddesses as ponies glowing with a strong auras of light, one blue, one pink and one green. Next came an image of a purple glowing figure holding out their hooves above their head, where a golden sphere was floating.

"She created a beautiful Golden Ball, engraved with the words 'A Gift to the most Beautiful of Goddesses', and then, she tossed the ball and let it roll into the gathered trio. And they instantly began to argue, who is the most beautiful." The shadowy mare pushes the sphere to the three goddesses, the words upon its form being read by them. And then it turned into a strange looking fight of mane and tail pulling began between the three goddesses as they argued about who it was meant for. While the prankster goddess stood giggling behind them.

The little foal named Truth Seeker stared at the wall depicting the fight between the three goddesses and looked at the elder with a deadpan face. "...That be stupid. Ah real mess is what that soun' like."

With a mirth filled voice the old horse laughed and nodded at his guest's assessment of the behaviour of the three goddesses. "Yes it became a mess as you said lad. And it was something stupid to argue over. But these legends are by no means perfect, things may have been completely different. Alas, arrogance and pride is something even deities can be afflicted with. But there is little chance of knowing the real truth of what happened. But one thing that we do know is that there was some kind of conflict among the gods back then."

Clapping his hooves together the elder resumed his walk up the stairs, his floating orb of light illuminating the murals ahead, revealing the images of a young handsome stallion with golden pelt and white mane and tail, bearing a blue and green bejeweled silver crown. The three goddesses then appeared, offering him different things. "Anyway back to the story! The three goddesses asked a young stallion Lord by the name of Paris, or Prancing Heart, the chance to judge which Goddess was the most beautiful. And in accordance with the gods giving a mortal a request, they offered a boon for his efforts. As to say, they bribed him with various tempting blessings and gifts."

"Athena offered him wisdom and knowledge. Hera offered him riches beyond his dreams. But Aphrodite. She offered him something special. She offered him, the love and compassion, of the most beautiful mare in the world. You can see where this is going, correct?" By the looks of the horrified look on the mare, and the nodding head of the colt, Cursed Blessing knew that they understood what he meant. The horses' downfall was not just the fault of the horses themselves, but the gods as well.

With a shimmer the glowing sphere floated forward, and revealed the image of Aphrodite being given the golden ball by Paris. And the image of Helen of Sparta appeared next to paris, their bodies surrounded by the outline of a heart. While in the next image, the armed forces of several different clans of horses lead the new Lord of Sparta, Menelaos. They are seen sailing across the sea towards an island with a city surrounded by a massive wall. Helen and Paris both were standing on top of the city. "Paris was given the love of Helen, the goddess stole her from her homeland from beneath the eyes of her future husband, and delivered her to Paris, completely smitten by him and him by her. Helen's fiancee, Menelaos, reacted by declaring war on Paris' homeland of Troy. And from there a decades long war broke out between several of the Horse Lords."

As they kept walking the stairs would light of the levitating sphere reveal more images of the various battles made between the horses. In the end, the murals revealed an image of soldiers hidden within a wooden statue of an alicorn, which was pulled inside a city, and then the city was once more shown. Only this time it was burning. "Heroes rose and fell within this war. All wrought by the vanity of the gods themselves. In the end, Troy was sacked, Paris and his entire family killed. But Helen's fate after this tragic war was unknown. That is, until a few years later."

A large door came at the end of the stairs, engraved with the image of a spartan helmet with a shield and gladius behind it. The elderly pony pushed it open and what was revealed on the other side, was a massive collection of statues. Two of which, was covered by cloth, the second of the cloth covered statues was larger then any other in the room.

The elderly pony walked over to the largest of the two cloth covered objects, and started to pull on a rope tied to the top of the cover with a hoof. Speaking as he did so. "Helen returned, having sworn vengeance upon not just the horses who destroyed her life, but the gods for causing it all. She had indulged herself in various magical rituals, essentially transforming herself into an unnatural being. A gorgon. She no longer answered to the names Helen, nor Sacred Beauty. Instead she gave herself new names, names that would grow to become the source of many nightmarish horrors in the ancient times."

Ancient Ruin let out a gasp of horror as the cloth was pulled off, revealing the monstrous being beneath it. It had the lower body of a snake, the front body of a pony, a mane of snakes, a head twisted into a mixture between saurian and pony. And yet, there was a bewitching beauty about the creature's face, even with its disturbing features. "Medusa, or Stone Gaze. That was whom she had become. She waged war against all horses, and their allies. With her she brought armies of gorgons, cockatrices and basilisks. And they all shared the same terrifying ability that she did. The ability to turn anyone who looked in their eyes, into stone."

With a sigh the old horse walked over to the smaller cloth covered statue and gripped the cloth on it and began to tug. "It took decades and the death of hundreds of heroes. But in the end, it was Achilles brought down Medusa. A veteran of the Troyan War, he was a horse who sought only to prove his worth. A rather selfish person at first glance, but many tales say that he was an honourable person, and one who never killed civilians. Of course some stories say that he died during the war, but his petrified body is proof enough that he did not die. He managed to turn Medusa's own cursed gaze against her, petrifying her just as she petrified him."

The old horse struggled a bit as the cloth got caught on something but soon enough was the large piece cloth was pulled off, revealing a statue that was... well patchwork repaired. A large stallion, dressed in broken fragments of armour with a badly damaged helmet. He was holding a shield in front of his head, as if trying to protect himself from the monster's gaze. The statue was still symmetrical and in the decent shape of a horse. But. The various parts that made up its cracked body were not all parts of a horse. There were two wings of a pegasus, the horn and left side forehead of a unicorn. And his right foreleg from the lower joint to the hoof had been replaced with a four fingered talon of a griffin.

Looking at the statue of the ancestral hero of his people the old horse sighed as he patted the statue on the left hind leg's hoof. "But, by the time he had defeated her, had it become too late for us. The numbers of killed and petrified horses were so many that we were starting to degrade in numbers, rapidly. We survived in our ravaged homelands for centuries, growing less and less in number by each passing year. Then came the final blow. The Windigos came and drew nourishment from the conflict between the ponies. We barely able to survive the Great Winter when it was brought about. And to this day is there less then five hundred of us left."

"Of course when we first recovered his petrified body was it in pieces. So we had to assemble whatever parts we could find and hopefully put them back together properly. Of course with so many pieces missing. We had to... improvise a bit. Around half of his original parts remain. I am not even sure if the wings we pasted onto him are even from the same petrified pegasus." The elderly pony said with a shrug as he walked past the revealed statue and over to a strangely shaped block of stone at the end of the room. Behind him were both the eager child, and his terrified mother, following.

"Y-you used p-pegasus parts?" The mother muttered in shock as she looked at the two wings on the two top halves pasted to the horse's destroyed frame, unconsciously hugging her wings tightly to her sides.

He nodded and pointed towards a section of the room where a wide array of intact parts of various petrified beings was located. "Aye young lady. There are not only thousands of petrified horses but also hundreds of petrified ponies, and some non-equines, in these woods because of the cockatrices here. Making it an ideal ground for researching the petrification cure as well as repairing Achilles."

"Several of them were broken beyond repair and we used those parts to repair Achilles to the best of our abilities. Took us a good two hundred years to just to find Achilles' main parts and assemble all the parts needed to repair him, originals included. Putting them together took another three centuries of work. Putting together a petrified body with other parts is not exactly easy. We never managed to find a proper hoof for one of his forelegs and had to give him a griffin talon instead." The old pony pushed down a circular shaped rock on the stone altar and a loud groaning sound began to fill the tower as the sound of grinding stone could be heard from the floor above them.

"I am the last one remaining of those who wished to attempt the restoration of our long petrified ancestors. I had almost given up hope of ever breaking Medusa's curse upon my people. But just a few days ago I got a boon." With a grin the old horse tapped on the jar of tongues he was holding.

"A black alicorn came to me, by the name of Maleficus Victoria. He offered me aid in curing my people, in return for his own copy of the petrification magic and its cure. He showed to me how the cockatrice removed the petrification from its victim, by the magic enchanted into its tongue, to be able to eat its victims. I never would have imagined that the cockatrice's tongue held the vital clue to how to cure my people." A rumbling was heard from the stone altar and a circular shaped hole emerged from the once solid middle of it. Cursed Blessing put the jar holding the tongue filled green fluid into the hole. And pressed a square button on the other side of the hole, the hole closed itself.

"Woah! That be so cool! A real life alicorn help'd ya!?" The little colt said in awe, making the elderly horse laugh at the youngster awestruck face, it look so cute and funny at the same time. The once sad and gloomy air around them had turned a bit brighter.

Calming down Cursed Blessing coughed a little as he stopped laughing.With a grin on his face the old horse patted the colt on the head and motioned with his hoof towards the staircase leading to the top of the tower. "Indeed child, a glorious moment that aided me in the final discovery needed to cure my ancestors. And now, it is time. Come. Let me show you, just how I shall awaken the Ancient Ones."

With almost skipping steps Cursed Blessing began to walk up the stairs, the eager foal and his nervous mother followed closely. The top of the staircase had no door, only an open doorway leading to a wide open space on the top of the tower. As the old stallion moved towards the center of the wide open space, the two ponies looked around in confusion as of why the tower no longer had a roof.

"What happen'd to da roof?" Young Truth Seeker wondered as he tried to spot where the roof had disappeared to, his mother noticed, being taller, the sections of the roof, folded out from the top of the tower. Held in place by glowing rune engraved gears.

Smirking Cursed Blessing stood up and held out his hooves as if to praise the world, as dark thunder clouds began to emerge above the tower. As he did this he shouted out to his guests to be heard over the rumbling thunder that started to emerge from the clouds above the tower. "It has been opened lad! The roof has been folded open and the parts are now hanging out like external balconies from the sides of the tower! But that's not what is important! Now I shall end this curse! The Horses shall return!"

Runes began to shimmer into existence across the floor from where the stallion was standing. They appeared at such a speed that it was like they were being painted by glowing light as they emerged upon the floors and unfolded sections of the roof.

Sparkles of lightning were erupting from the mass of storm clouds above the tower. Its dark shape was expanding ever so more across the sky like a blanket above the moon lit night. But as the lightning began to grow with intensity, it began to alter in colouration, turning from its normal bluish white, into a toxic green.

"Awesomel!" The little foal's eyes were sparkling in awe and wonder. The scene before him was like nothing he had ever seen before, it was so amazing and awesome that he was feeling a rush of adrenaline in his tiny body he had never experienced before! He wanted to feel like this forever and ever!

Ancient Ruin warped her forelegs around her eager foal as the wind began to pick up, she did not want to risk her child being thrown off the tower by the whipping wind. "Truth Seeker! Do not get too close!"

The foal pouted as his mother clutched him and made a little struggle before eventually he just relaxed into his mother's forelegs and whined a little as he looked at the cool stuff happening around him. "Awww mama!"

[Start Magic Theme Music: Dragon Force - Fairy Tail OST ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQwxKpu-HfA

Cursed Blessing was standing upright on his hind legs, the storm above him was cracking ominous thunder and spitting green lightning. As he stood there, the glowing runes on the surface of the tower shone in a bright light, it was like the light itself was being drawn towards the old horse mage.

As lightning arced across the cloudy, began tense sound of music to fill the air. As if flowing with the energies building up in the atmosphere above the tower. And as the music began to intensify, the old horse started to chant.

"Hear Me, Gods of the Lost Age!"

His voice cut through the thunder and the wind, it echoed across the woods around the tower. It was like his voice was being enforced by the winds themselves, rather then being hindered. As he chanted, his eyes began to shone with green light and sparks began to emit from his now glowing body.

"This is the Last Sacrifice of the Old Sage!"

The glow from the runes grew in strength, and you could no longer see them. Yet as the light covered up the runes, a pattern began to emerge as the light from the runes began to link together. Rapidly the lines began to emerge across the floor and even over the five extended pieces of the roof, until a massive network of lines, curves and circles had emerged into a pentagram with several smaller lines within its structure making up even smaller arrays.

"An Offering from the Serpent's Bones!"

As those words were spoken, lines of light began to emerge above the roof, forming into an even larger matrix. Within seconds had a second massive array been shaped. And as soon as the final lines had been connected, a new one ,even larger began to emerge above that one.

With eyes wide with awe and wonder, young Truth Seeker and his mother, Ancient Ruin, stared in wonder as another matrix took shape above the third, then a fourth, then a fifth. By the time the pillar of runic array had ended, had a pillar of over one hundred such been shaped, covering the forest ,and the surrounding mountain, in a deep intense glow of green light. and from those who stood beneath the massive pillar of arrays, it took on the shape, of single massive matrix of arrays and pentagrams within one another.

"To Release those Locked within the Stones!"

The pillar rose up through the clouds and pushed them apart, a massive vortex of lightning sparking clouds took form around the rising pillar of pentagrams. Within moments, was the pillar rising out through the clouds, revealing the full moon in the sky above. And a beam of moon light, struck the tower and the land around it, intensifying the glow even more.

No one who lived upon the East coast or even the central regions of Equestria, could miss to see the massive light show emitting from the swirling pillar of green light. Not to mention the vortex of black thunder clouds surrounding the lower half of the pillar like a black swirling mass of snakes, which were emitting green lightning.

It was especially difficult not to notice, as the pillar rose higher and higher, lighting up the night like a mountain sized glow stick. And as it rose, it stretched upwards, until its very tip, touched the surface of the moon herself. And the light gree even more intense.

[Scene Skip]

Princess Celestia had been sleeping soundly in her bed when suddenly there was a loud and repeative knocking on her door. She struggled out from beneath her warm covers with a loud yawn and let out a burst of energy to make her tangled mane assume its flowing cloud state.

As she opened the doorway she saw the frantic and panicked face of one of her maids. "What be the reason for-"

"To the East! Pillar of Light! Piercing Clouds! Touching the Moon! Loud Rumbling!"

Blinking slowly at the barely understandable rambling of her panicking made she slowly walked towards her balcony, pushed it open, stepped out, looked towards the east. And her eyes slowly widened at the sight of a green pillar of light sticking up from beyond the mountains, reaching high enough to touching the surface of the moon. Of. The. Moon. With its lower half surrounded by a swirling tornadoes and tendrils of black clouds spitting out green lightning.

All the while loud thunder and music was echoing through the air. She slapped her face to wake up, and after feeling the stingy sensations on her cheek she slowly turned towards the panicking maid and spoke in a, slightly strained, voice.

"Tell Solid Pink to send out words to Blackstone Keep, and to send out Scouts to the East Coast. We hath to know what hath happened."

[Scene Skip]

"Let the World Know and Take Heed!"

The massive arrays of light began to shift and rotate, slowly creating the illusion of a swirling vortex. But then, a loud humming sound began to emerge as the center of the pillar began to fold into itself, until the moon and the night sky could be seen. As the moon became visible, there was a stream of clear white light through the now hollow pillar of green light.

It shone like a beacon upon the tower and the aged horse mage raised both of his forelegs, as if to catch something from the sky. And something did happen, the once green lines upon the surface of the tower, turned from toxic green, into a solid white. And that light grew intense, in a rapid manner, and soon it shone out as if a small star had been born on top of the tower, covering the entire woodlands in a shining glow.

"For the Horse Lords Are Free!"

The hollow pillar of green light, suddenly collapsed into itself, taking on the shape of a solid beam, and rapidly shoot down into the glowing white light. With crackling thunder and rumble the storm clouds detonated into sparkles of green and white, showering sparks all over the woodlands, while the once white glow, turned into a pale green.

Then as the light grew to an eye blinding shine, it stopped, and after a few seconds, started to rapidly shrink. Growing smaller and smaller until it imploded into the air above Cursed Blessing. As the light collapsed into itself there was a loud crack and the once brightly lit woodlands, turned dark once more. With only the moon as a light source. But as it collapsed, a final wave of light emitted from its point of implosion, and spread out through the region.

And something, happened.

[End Theme Music]

(Scene Skip)

A petrified horse warrior stood tall in the moon light, his moss covered shape looked like a dedication to the ancient times. A warrior lost to history, with only his stony shape within the woodlands that had once been his battlefield. That is, until tonight.

As the ritual enacted by Cursed Blessing reached its end, the small barely tangible wave of green light struck out through the wood lands, rustling leaves and branches as if shaken by an invisible force.

It passed through the petrified horse warrior, making the statue tremble for a short instance. Then, after mere seconds, a cracking sound was heard as the outer layer of moss covered stone that covered the warrior's left foreleg's hoof, grew cobweb like cracks. Then after another short moment, there was an even louder crack, and another and another.

And as the sound grew louder and louder, the cracks on the statue grew as well. They split out over the surface of the warrior's muscles, armour and weapon. Something began to shift and push against the cracked stone, flakes began to drop off, revealing a beige coloured fur moving beneath the cracks. Legs with black fur from the knees down began to split free.

A mane of dark brown shifted out of the layer. And then, a clear blue eye was revealed blinking from beneath the crackled face of the statue. Then, with a loud wordless shout, the armoured horse kept sealed beneath the stone, broke free. His body flexed out against the fractured stones and in a shower of dust and shrapnel, he tore himself free from his confinement.

Stumbling forward, the horse looked around, and he spotted, more and more of his fellow horses, once petrified in stone, breaking free. And he raised himself upright on his hind legs, and raised up his spear towards the moonlit night sky, and with a deep breath he roared out, breaking the silence!

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

And soon, more of his brethren did the same, raising their weapons towards the night sky, crying out a wordless call. A call of primal relief and joy. A scream that could only be described by one word.

Free.

(Scene Skip)

For Maleficus had the last hour had been nothing but darkness and silence, well that an an annoying itch that never seemed to go away. And it was felt all over his, entire, body. Yeah he was not too happy about the situation.

But he could deal with it. His work had been prepared with what best options he had. Sure he had only made small experiments before making his current body. He had been conjuring things, then petrifying them. Followed by breaking then apart and then with him putting them together, in an artistic manner.

Like that medusa statue. It was easier to create something, less so transforming yourself into something. Why? Fuck is he knew. All he got out of those tests was that petrified things that were broken ,and then put together, could still retain life and even use the new boy parts. But that chances were less then two in tenth of a chance.

And he sure as fuck was not going to test if it was more efficient using non-created beings. He was sticking to his own artificial creations rather then innocent bystanders or suicidal volunteers, thank you very much!

But back to the present. He had created this body using this method, creating various living beings, petrifying them ,then breaking them apart ,and putting them together into this body. The rest of the parts were left on the various tables to act as props for the lab. This would be the first time he took control over one of these bodies, and he was not certain how things would turn out.

*Sometimes I really want to step back in time and punch myself in the face for doing reckless and stupid shit like this.* The currently petrified alicorn thought to himself. Then he felt the sensation of magic filling the air around him, the first thing he had sensed since the ponies and his newly made horse mage had left for the roof.

*Ah good, won't be long now.* Smirking mentally the transformed demigod felt the magic hit its crescendo. And then, the anti-petrification ritual went into effect. Sure the whole thing was overly exaggerated but it was made that way as to make a show of how complex it is supposed to be. Not everybody could have a magical pony princess for a training aid.

*...I would say that that sounded better in my head. But I''d be lying, since it still sounded awful.*

Finally Maleficus felt the petrification curse that once held sway over his new form dissipate. The shell of stone that covered his body broke apart as he flexed his body through it. There was a moment of clarity, the sound of shattered stone, the sensation of air and the brightness of light.

Then he felt great intense pain as the sections connecting different parts he had made and put onto the new body erupted into sprays of blood and flesh. He collapsed on the floor and screamed incoherently. As he did so, he ignited his horn in magic, a blue aura from the horn, and made his some rapid first aid to regenerate his damage flesh and connect his apparently, disconnecting, body parts. In a bright flare of light his body was covered in a thick aura of blue light, which was almost slime like.

As the aura engulfed him. Its regenerative properties, went into high wire when it tried to restore his body parts together. The process was successful, but as a side effect it, instead of just removing his injuries through a mystical healing light. Healed him in another fashion. HIs magic made the blood his wounds had spewing out from his attached body parts, turn into blue fire, and in a rapidly, burning yet healing manner, brutally heal themselves into fleshy matter.

As the searing hot blue flames died down, his body was covered in bulbous, red lines, that looked like freshly grown veins the size of small snakes, scattered over his body like a network of crimson scars. He looked like a Frankenstein monster made from parts of mystical creatures glue together by raw flesh, instead of sewed up human body parts. As the pain receded Maleficus took deep breaths and leaned against the side of the podium he had been standing on.

When he looked around he noticed the various statues of his horse warriors recovering from their own recent restoration. He sat there for a moment, recovering from the agony he had been in a few seconds ago and slowly regained his senses. As he did he remembered the importance of what he had been preparing for.

"Just det, jag måste rädda ponierna... Vänta... Vad sa jag just nu?" (Translation: That's right, I need to save the ponies... Wait... What did I just say?) He reached out and felt his throat, he tried to speak in the language of the ponies, which he had been able to speak since arriving at this planet. But for some reason. He could not. All he could speak. Was his original human language, his native tongue, Swedish.

And no pony would ever be able to understand that.

he knew exactly how to handle this new turn of events like the mature and calm person he always was....... not.

So when Cursed Blessing and his two guest came scrambling down the stairs, they were meet by an interesting sight.

(Scene Skip)

Cursed Blessing had been prepared for a lot of events... well that's a lie. He was winging it ever since his creator's ritual had been completed. But he could admit that he was floored with a moment of... surprise. When he saw the zigzag like shape of his creature, slam his newly unpetrified forehead, with horn, into the side of the stone podium that had been holding his new body a few moments ago.

He did this head butting therapy session with a frantic fervor worthy of a zealot. And he did so all the while swearing... a lot... and loudly.

"Auuuugh! Jävla skit magi! Haaaaa! Av alla jävla sido effekter som kan hända, så är detta den minst passande!" (Translation: Auuuugh! Fucking shit magic! Haaaaa! Of all the fucking side effects that can happen, so is this, one of the least appropriate!)

Making a slow motion blink the old horse stared at his creator and tried to figure out just what had gone wrong. And then he realized that his creatore was not speaking the common tongue of the ponies. It was like he had reverted to his old vocal limits as a non-magical being. "Oh. Oh dear. That was not supposed to happen."

Truth Seeker was perplexed, the cool looking warrior was alive, as was the rest of the Ancient Ones. And yet he was acting like his grandpa did when he made a stupid mistake. It was rather dismaying really. At least he still looked cool. But he did not understand a word he was saying. "What is he sayin mistah Blessing?" When in doubt, ask questions.

Cursed Blessing rubbed his forehead and sighed as he tried to come up with a proper answer. At least his fellow horses were regaining their wits and balance, all of them were starting to stand up once more after having fallen to the floor after their bodies stopped being petrified. Then he figured out how to exlpain things, without breaking his creator's cover. "Oh he's mostly cursing and swearing, probably because of the intense pain he is in right now because of his body getting used to the foreign body parts we attached to him. Amazing how well his body is holding together actually."

"Oh... So Ey should not ask what he be sayin?" As he asked that, the living and talking patchwork horse stopped slamming his head into stone. Instead he was now punching the floor with his hoof, screaming out in his incomprehensible language. And the foal realized that the question might have been redundant.

"Om jag någonsin kommer på ett sätt att resa bakåt i tiden ska jag slå mig själv i ansiktet och tala om vilket jävla idiot jag är!" (Translation: If I ever figure out a way to travel back in time, shall I punch myself in the face and tell how much of a fucking idiot I am!)

Cursed Blessing flt a it embarrassed at his creator's behavior an coughed awkwardly into his left hoof before nodding. "Indeed. I doubt your mother would approve."

"Darn right Ey would not!" Said mare said with a glare at her son who let out a squeak and hid behind Cursed Blessing's left foreleg with a nervous smile on his muzzle as he looked out from behind the leg at his mother who was giving him the look only a stern mother could.

Sighing Cursed Blessing decided to try and calm down his creator. "Well I am going try to calm him down. Sorry if you do not understand what I am saying in a few moments. The tongue of the Ancient Ones is not really easy to understand unless you have heard it spoken before."

The foal and mother both watched as the elderly horse walked forward to the cursing chimera like horse, and began to try and talk to him. And ass he had mentioned, the words he spoke were almost alien to their ears, strange and unrecognizable

"Min Skapare. Jag får be dig att lugna ner dig. Du har-" (Translation: My Creator. I have to ask you to calm down. You have-) His words were interrupted however, when his currently disguised maker, grabbed him by the heck with his talon foreleg and hoof foreleg, lifted him up two feet above the floor. And started shaking him like crazy while screaming into his face.

Both Truth Seeker and Ancient Wall were horrified by the disrespectful and brutish behaviour of the ancient warrior. But considering what he had woken up as, they could tell he was upset.

But unknown for them, he was not upset because of his, deliberately, patchwork made body. No it was something more... surprising from his perspective. Of what his creation had just said to him. Especially in what language he had just spoken with.

"HUR FAN KAN DU TALA SVENSKA!? Jag installerade aldrig någon form av information från mitt förra liv på Jorden!" (Translations: HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU SPEAK SWEDISH!? I never installed any form of information from my past life on earth!)

The shakes were making it hard for Cursed Blessing to inform his creator, but he tried his best to respond to his inquiry, even as he was being shaken around like a sack of potatoes. "Ja-ja-jag lä-lä-lärd-de mi-mi-mig frå-från di-dina mi-minnen Skap-Skapare!" (Translation: I-I-I le-le-learned fr-from yo-your me-memories Cre-Creator!)

"Samma här Skapare." (Translation: Same here Creator.) One of the other horses mentioned, waving at his creator.

Maleficus went dead silent and turned his head to give the horse who just spoke a dead, cold, blank stare, while holding the slightly dizzy Cursed Blessing in the air. There was a few more seconds of silence. Then the disguised alicorn broke out into more screaming and swearing as he realized something stupidly wrong had happened once again with his attempt at using magic. All the while jerking the old horse he was holding by the neck around like a rag doll.

"Oh för in i helevete! Jag skapade er Hästar med magi via hjälp från Luna! Jag vet hur processen funkar, jag vet hur er mentalitets installtion fungerar, jag skapade båda! Det borde inte ha installerat något mer förutom det jag skickade in i era hjärnor!" (Translation: Oh for fuck's sake! I created you Horses with magic through aid from Luna! I know how the process works, I know how your mentality installation works, I created both! There should not have been anything else installed except for that which I sent into your brains!)

Cursed Blessing raised a hoof to speak as his creator ranted, and gulped as he was glared at, before coughing and speaking up his own personal theory. As small as it might be. "Erm tja, du kanske... omedvetet gjorde det?" (Translation: Erm well, maybe you... unconsciously did it?)

A dull crack could be heard in the background as the big patchwork chimera horse went dead silence, again. Cursed Blessing swore mentally that he should perhaps have remained silent, and not uttered another word that could have made his creator even more upset.

Sadly enough, this was what he had done. And the consequences were to be expected.

"...HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! AV ALL JÄVLA SKIT! VARFÖR KAN INGENTING JAG GÖR FUNGERA SOM DET SKA!?!?!?!?!?!?" (Translation: ...HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! OF ALL THE FUCKING SHIT! WHY CAN NOTHING I DO WORK AS IT SHOULD!?!?!?!?!?!?)

More screaming and swearing. However, said screaming and swearing were about to be brought to a halt. By a certain mare.

By now had Ancient Wall had enough, she strode forward to the screaming horse and reared back her left hoof, before she swung it forward. Her hoof slammed into the left cheek of the horse and his head reared back, he dropped Cursed blessing to the ground, and he ended up landing on his side, on his right wing. Making his open his mouth to swear and scream even more.

That's when a glaring mother slammed down her hoof next to his head and lowered her head, and gave him a stern mother's glare, making him shut his trap. As she spoke out to him i na no nonsense voice. "Ye better stop swearin'! Mah foal shall not pick up bad habits! An' quit bein so loud! Yer frightenin' mah child!"

With a toss of her mane Ancient Wall straightened herself and walked over to her quiet son, who was staring with gaping mouth at how much of a badass his mother had just been, something no son ever expects from their parent.

Meanwhile was a certain downed chimera pony staggering up on his hooves again, rubbing his cheek as the pain fro mthe blow he had just taken subsided. After a few moments of contemplating having been struc kdown by an angry mother, and feeling slightly shameful for his bad behaviour. Maleficus, or rather, Achilles as his disguise was called, decided to just stay silent.

After a few minutes the disguised alicorn ,slowly turned around and started to walk out of the room, the elderly Horse rubbed his neck in an awkward manner as he looked at the manner who had just slapped his Creator in the face. Said creator spoke up in an emotionless and hollow voice, as if he had lost all motivation and purpose, and just wanted to find an end to the madness. "Okej. Det var dropped. Jag går nu och dödar några banditer. Världen kanske blir mindre galen när jag kommer tillbaka. Men jag tror knappast på det." (Translation: Okay. That's the last straw. I am going to go now and kill some bandits. The world might turn less insane when I come back. But I doubt it.)

"Jag föreslår banditerna som håller på att plundra deras klan." (Translation: I suggest the bandits who are currently plundering their clan.) But Cursed Blessing's helpful suggestion went ignored, or at least, Maleficus did not bother to turn around or stop when his creation spoke u phis suggestion, and just left the room. The rest of the horses, except for Cursed Blessing, following him.

Truth looked as the horses left the room and walked over to the elderly horse as he slowly stood up from where he had been dropped on the floor. "Where are they goin?"

Stretching his sore neck the old hose responded to the little colt's inquiry, his body a bit pained after his creator's treatment of his poor joints. "Apparently to violently beat something up to release his frustration and anger in a productive manner I suggested the bandits in the woods you mentioned."

The little colt pondered something for a few seconds. Then he looked up at the elder again and asked, with big curious eyes, something rather obvious. "But how da glue does he know where ta go or who da buck them varmints are? Ey mean, our clan are all pegasus but... how by da balls of Discord will he know who be who?"

A smack on his flank made the little cold let out a loud yip in surprise as his mother stood behind him, glaring at him for swearing. She was in no mood for such manners. "Watch yer words young colt or yer in fer a much harsher spankin! Where have ye picked up those words!?"

"Ah! Sorry mama! " Truth Seeker cried out as he turned his rear away from his mother, afraid she might give him another ass whooping should he say bad things again.

Meanwhile had Cursed Bleesing been staring blankly for the last few seconds, realizing, slowly, how the young foal's words were correct. His creator had no clue where to even look, or what his foes looked like! "Oh fuck you're right. We need to hurry up after him or they might not make it to your clan!"

He then let out a yip as Ancient Wall struck him on the flank as well, much harder then she did her son. The elderly horse felt awkward being scolded like a child, but being only a few hours old, well not counting mentally, made him not realize just how degrading something like that should be.

The mother glared at him as he started to run towards the stairs, she followed, with her soon following her, glaring at him for speaking such foul words. "Ye better watch yer words as well ya old goat! Or Ey will smack her face too!"

"Sorry madame! But please let us focus on saving your clan for now! Tell me what distinguishes your clan members from the bandits!" Cursed Blessing shouted out as he ran down the stairs, totally not willing to let the young mare get within foreleg's reach in case she intended to hit him again.

Snorting the mare rushed after the older equine and shouted out at him as she tried to keep up with the surprisingly spry elder. "Mah clan wears cloths and wields weapons made from ancient techniques! We all also wear our clan's colours and symbol on our cloths! Da bandits all wield metal weapons, many dirty, an' they wear armour pieces an' rags!"

As they came out of the tower, an incredible sight greeted them. There in the center of the glade, surrounded by an army of recently unpetrified horses, stood the chimera like body of Achilles on a boulder. His body was still bare of armour, but now he had a shield strapped to his back ,with a pair of short swords sheathed on a belt.

The elderly horse spent no time waiting to be acknowleged and qucikly sent a flare up, making all the attention turn toards him. He then started shouting out at his creator. "Skapare! Ponierna av Klanen som håller på att bli plundrar bär en heraldik symbol som hard gröna och vita ränder som backgrund, med ett vit moln med en grön hästsko på dess yta! Alla andra är antingen banditer eller fångar!" (Translation: Creator! The Ponies of the Clan that is being pillaged all bear a Heraldry in with a green and white as a background, with a white cloud bearing a green horseshoe on its surface! All the others are either bandits or prisoners!)

Cursed Blessing panted and tried to regain his breath, his body was newly made but he was still an elderly horse in physical capacity. So after having rushed down several winding stairs he was a bit out of breath.

As the old horse recovered was Achilles standing there, his eyes unfocused for a few seconds as his brain registered the words he had been told. Then he turned his head towards his army. All of the horses slowly turned to face him as he slowly stood up on his hind legs, gathering the attention of his army.

He raised his head and looked up towards the moonlit sky and a small nostalgic smile spread across his muzzle, before he closed his eyes.

"Hör mig nu. Vi ska göra oss till en legend. Vi ska slåss och vi ska segra. Så som Spartanerna en gång slogs till det sista. Så ska ni. Så hör mig nu." (Translation: Hear me now. We shall make ourselves to a legend. We shall fight and we shall win. Just like the Spartans once fought to the end. So shall you. So hear me now.) Then he opened them and he punched his talon into the sky and he cried out to his soldiers.

"För det är tid! För strid!" (Translation: For it is time! For battle!)

And as one, the horses raised their hooves into the air, and cried out to his declaration with a loud cheer. The horse were going to battle.

(Scene Skip)

Truth Seeker may be a young colt, but he was a smart colt, even his mother agreed on it. And he knew that what was happening was something very big and important.

The flashy magical ritual that had restored the petrified horses was kind of a big give away. But the way the horses' leader, the Hero known as Achilles had overcome his situation and taken command of the armies made it clear that he was more then a common soldier.

After having declared something, probably a cry for battle, that much the little foal could tell, the horses had been pulling themselves together and started to march through the woods. The young foal, together with his mother, and Cursed Blessing, were being carried on an improvised wagon thingy with only two wheels through the woods.

The horses were marching through the woos like an endless tide. Hooves leaped over roots, bladed weapons cut down trees, strong bodies tore up stumps and roots to clear the way for the wagons. All in a matter of seconds, while on the move like a mixture between soldier and craftpony.

He was looking awe at the marching horses while his mother was speaking to their leader about their camp, the number of raiders she had seen, which was around two hundred, and her clan's capabilities in a fight.

With Cursed Blessing there to translate were less then reassured when she described her clan's normal weaponry, training and gear. One of them even commented on how it was be difficult for their clan to hold out for a long time, thus making it crucial for the horses to speed up their march.

But even if he was only a foal could Truth Seeker see another problem. The horses were still new to the land, they could not speak the native tongue, though some were apparently starting to speak in the common language. But it was taking too long for them to properly communicate without the aid of Cursed Blessing.

Heck the only reason he knew what they were saying was because Cursed Blessing was translating everything they were saying out loud.

Thus the little colt felt sad and worried, even if they arrived what had happened to his clan and family? What had happened to his grandpa? Thee thoughts plagued the young foal even as he looked at the marching horses with awe.

Then something strange happened. A set of horses pulling a larger wagon, with two more horses on them, were give a signal from somewhere. Because they cried out something to the two horses on the wagon, a word that sounded a bit like music but Truth Seeker was not sure.

That's when the two horses pulled out a pair of stick s each, and began to drum on the two big barrel shaped drums held on the front of the wagon. Soon another group pulled out some sort of string instruments, while another duo pulled out some sort of... he had no idea what those tubes were, they were not flutes, but they made a neat sound.

Soon the various sounds of the musicians on wagons began to form a pattern, a rhythm, a song. And as the horses approached the clearing where Truth Seeker's clan was fighting. they began, to sing. And not in their foreign language. But in the common tongue of the ponies, speaking, as if they had been born ponies.

And that song. Was something he had never heard before in his entire life.

[Scene Skip]

The camp of the Wind Striders had been enduring a lot of pain and blood for the last hour or so. While their families were mostly safe within the reinforced wagons or with some of the weather mages, had they thus far lost more then half of their clan's fighters to these raiders.

Sure they had taken down more then a dozen bandits each. But with the seemingly endless tide of raiders it made it painfully clear that unless a miracle happened, would the Wind Striders be destroyed like so many others who had traversed these woods and mountains.

They had received a moment of freedom when a strange magical effect covered the woods, a powerful spell was being weaved and it had protected the Wind Striders, as well as their opponents, locking them in a staring contest. Whenever somepony tried to strike another pony, their bodies would be frozen, as if paralyzed.

It had kept the bandits at bay for a while, with their mad and frenzied troops losing not only their berserker liek strength, but gaining fatigue from trying to break out of their paralyzed state. Everypony had been forced to wait, and watched as a massive amount of large scale mythical circles filled with runes and arrays, rose like a pillar of light to the night sky. It had been a magnificent, if terrifying, sight and it had distracted the bandits from attacking.

When the magical surge had come down from the pillar, and causing it to break apart into pretty sparkles, had the power that held the bandits and the Wind Striders in place was removed. It had taken a few minutes but soon the melee was on once more as the bandits regained their wits and remembered why they were there.

And while the Wind Striders had managed to recover their wounded, and frozen, clan members and put up defenses, were the raiders starting to overwhelm them.

A young colt, barely adult, wielding his dead father's axe, blocked the downward strike from a frenzied raider, making him tumble back. The young pegasus rolled with the blow, his clan garments getting dirty on the ground, but allowed him to regain his stance and let him strike the raider in the chest.

The stone axe with its runic engraving split through the golden plate of the stallion and through his front, making him collapse into a bleeding heap. With an exhausted body the young colt tried to look around, half of his face covered with blood from a recent head wound, when, a sound was heard.

It was subtle at first, only a light tremble of the ground. But soon, the entire camp was shaking as the sound of stamping hooves and rumbling drums were heard from the woodlands. At first the young colt felt fear and terror. Had the bandits received reinforcements!? Was an army of cultist arriving!?

Then he got hope that it might be the Order of the Golden Cross and its knights.

As smoke and fire rose from the various burning wagons and barricades around him, the young colt tried to look through the smoke. And his eyes widened, as massive shapes marched out of the trees, dressed in a strange bronze armours he had never seen before. Their voices, striking like thunder through the air.

[Start Battle Music: Sparta by Sabaton (Altered Lyrics by Staadnauthursil)]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr09vOJC-t4

"Oh! Ah!"

A wave of spear wielding warriors strode forward towards the camp site. Their bronze coloured armour hiding their features, but not their size. These ponies were massive, larger then any pony anyone, be them raider or Wind Strider, had ever seen.

"Oh! Ah!"

With a heavy stomp the soldiers stood up on their hind legs and drew shields and spears. They then marched forward, their weapons held forward and their shields linked together. Towards the fighting ponies.

"Oh! Ah!"

The bandits thought at first they were allies, fellow cultists to the God of War, and cheered. But as the Wind Striders felt hope dwindle into nothing, the bronze covered warriors reared back their spears. And with thrusts faster then the quickest pegasus could follow, they stabbed the bandits.

"Oh! Ah!"

Bronze tipped long shafts of metal were pushed forward. As they were greeted by metal plates of various metals, they were for a short instance, stopped. But then, in just as short a moment, they split through the metal, as if it was nothing, and out through the other side of the raider they had stabbed.

"Oh! Ah!"

Sprays of blood filled the air as over twenty bandits fell, their bodies riddled with holes, their armours sundered and split apart where the spears had struck them. There was a moment of silence, until one of the raiders raised an axe and rushed towards the shield wall with a mad frenzied cry.

"Kill da bastards!"

"Oh! Ah!"

There was low whoosh through the air, and then a loud thunk was heard. The frenzied raider stopped cold, as from his side, a throwing axe of black metal, struck him in the skull. The edge of the curved blade of the axe splitting his skull apart from the ear to the bottom of his jaw. A spray of blood filled the air as the body tried to pump blood through the massive head wound, and the raider collapsed to the ground. A corpse.

As one the bandits turned towards the direction the axe came from and they saw another group of massive ponies. These however, were not dressed like the ones with the shields and spears. Many had little to no armour, revealing their tattooed muscular bodies, some had chain mail, but all wore pelts and leather, they all had horned helmets that made them look monstrous. These were bearing large round shields as well, but with a different design, and their main weapon were beard bladed axes and strong looking swords rather then spears.

And from all around them, voices began to sing.

"Many many years ago, when Medusa's monsters came ashore!"

There was a sound of tense strings being released and something flying through the air, several bandits ended up with arrows through the back of their heads or other vitals. Out from the opposite side of the axe wielding warriors, came another group, these ones bearing strange armours, monstrous helmets and long curved swords and large strangely shaped bows.

And from the final edge of the camp, into the light of the fire, strode several massive ponies, dressed in thick metal plate, wielding large swords, maces and crossbows. And as the final group arrived, the large warriors strode forward, their voices ringing through the camp like thunder.

"Heeding their Lords' call, the Horses went to war!"

A high ranking raider saw the situation, and it was bad. He raised his sword and gained the attention of the other raiders and pointed towards the warriors with the least armour, those with the shields and axes. "Open a path! Cha- argh!"

An axe rolled through the campfire light and struck his throat, the iron blade slicing through hide, flesh, veins and muscles until it finally it got stuck at the base of the spine, at the back of his neck. Nearly decapitated, the corpse collapsed onto the ground, with its head dangling backwards.

"Joined by their brothers, a thousand against the monstrous horde!"

There was a wordless command and the four groups charged forward. A group of raiders made their own shield wall and rushed to face the axe wielding ponies. But one of them, even larger then the rest, strode forward with his shield, he slammed into the middle of the raiders. There was a struggled as the raiders tried to push their shields against his own, it might have succeeded had he not pushed his shield upwards, and flung the raiders' shield wall apart.

With a roar the big pony swung his axe down. It shattered a shield like it was made out of rotten wood, before splitting up the nose, jaw and throat of the pony who was holding it.

A raider tried desperately to stab at one of the big warriors with his spear, it shattered against the large round shield and he got his forelegs and neck shattered when the shield was used like a battering ram and slammed into his front.

"Hellenic hearts are set aflame, the hot gates calls their name!"

Several unicorn raiders bearing dirty, but still whole, golden plate, charged towards the warriors with the curved blades, seeking to push through them. The rear line of the strange looking warriors grasped their bows , pulled back, and fired. Five ponies died, each with one arrow in each eye, straight through the slit that was supposed to protect their eyes.

As the armoured unicorns reached the strange looking sword wielders, they charged their horns with magic and fired blasts of magic towards them. The large sword wielding ponies spun around the arcane blasts in an impossibly agile manner, their heavy looking armour not even bothering them in the slightest.

Then they swung their blades, the curved glistering edges disappearing in a blur, like they had never been real to begin with. And then, as the golden armoured ponies passed them by, they slowly sheathed their blades. And as their blades hit the end of the sheath with a soft click, a loud splat was heard as the heads of all thirty unicorns knights that had passed them by flew off their own necks, spraying blood into the air. Their bodies kept running for about five seconds, before simply falling down into a heap.

"A final stand, stop the monsters, with hooves in sand!"

The large heavy plate armoured ponies charged forward, their thick plate mail armours making many of the deserters of the Equestrian armies feel traumatizing memories reemerge as they realized just what it was they were facing.

"It's da Horses! Da Ancient Ones! Da Forces of da God of War be upon u-rrgh..." His voice was silenced as a horse wielding a large two handed sword sliced his throat open. The knight rushed past the collapsing body before slamming the pointy end of his cross guard into the eye socket of another raider and straight into her brain. There was a second of pause as he jerked out his weapon's cross guard out of the raider's eye socket, it was not long before he was on the move once more. Starting with cutting off the limbs of a third trying to stab him in the side.

"Form a wall, live to fall, and live forever!"

A slender looking knight wielding a pair of daggers suddenly darted out from the group of armoured horses and started to weave and dance through the disarray of the battle. She weaved past a raider and gracefully traced her blade across his throat before he knew she was there. With a spin she stabbed another in the throat, while then she lashed out with a one hoofed buck kick and crushed the skull of a third against the wall of a wagon.

"Epona! Hellas! "

As this was going on the Wind Striders had pulled themselves to cover or into their wagons to keep a safe distance from the bloody carnage playing out before their very eyes. Whatever these so called Ancient Ones were, they were far too dangerous for the clan to handle. Not to mention far too many.

"Then, and again. Sing of one thousand and ten!"

A large crash was heard and each group of horses split up, creating a path towards the woodlands around the camp. Several bandits took the chance to rush into the gaps. They did not get far.

"Slaughter! Monsters!"

Wagons, war chariots to be precise, crudely made but still equipped with a metal reinforced frame, rushed to meet those who were fleeing. Two large horses pulled each chariot, with another pair in the chariot itself, wielding spears and javelins. As the chariots came out of the woodlands, were a pair of blades, which were folded up like fins, folded out now that the trees were no longer in the way.

"Glory and death, the Horses will never surrender!"

The bandits had barely time to scream as large metal covered horses trampled over them, with large wooden wheels crushing parts of their bodies. Those were the lucky ones who died quickly, some were not so lucky as the blades attached to the sides of the chariot sliced off body parts without mercy as they passed by.

"Oh! Ah!"

The eight chariots meet at the center of the camp and instantly passed by one another, riding out of the camp to avoid being cramped up by the enclosed space. As soon as the chariot came out of the camp, the soldiers closed the gap.

"Oh! Ah!"

As the chariot disappeared there was a second wave of attacks, the raiders were down to a hundred by now and were close to breaking entirely.

"Oh! Ah!"

That's when it happened. A signal they had been hoping to hear, the sound of a war horn. A war horn from one of the Cultists of the War God. Another raider band was approaching.

"Oh! Ah!"

But they had no time to consider themselves safe as the warriors finally closed the distance, and in a brutal manner of blood and gore, cut down the remaining raiders. The horses then turned to face the direction the war horn signal had come from and their archers pulled out strangely shaped arrows, and fired them in the direction the horn had been heard. As the arrows were fired, they let out a shrill whistling screech that filled the woodlands.

"Oh! Ah!"

The Wind Striders looked out from their wagons as the warriors began to take up formations, facing the direction the horn had come from. A line of shields and spears was formed by the bronze armoured warriors between two large wagons and the front of the road leading towards the camp. The knights bearing large swords stood behind them with their swords held ready.

"Oh! Ah!"

The archers began to take up a formation of a square in the center of the camp, drawing back their large bows, aiming towards the black road. As they did so took the warriors with their axes and shields and moved out of the camp and disappeared into the woodlands. While the warriors with the long curved swords took defensive positions around the archer's square formation with a two line layered circle formation.

A loud rumble was heard in the distance and soon enough could the light of hundreds of torches be seen in the distane among the woods and the road, charging towards the large warriors. Within mere moments was a frenzied horde of raiders charging into the light, their froathing mouths screaming out profanities and battle cries.

A wave of arrows greeted them, killing dozens with a single arrows hitting through their eyeballs, even with visors or face guard equipped helmets to protect them. The tip flew straight through the white orbs and straight into their brains, before exiting the skull and either being stopped by the helmet, or splitting through it.

"Morning had broken, that day they fought in the shade!"

The first wave collapsed as several of their members died, making them tumble into their corpses and lose balance. But the collapsed raiders were given no chance to regain their balance when they were trampled down by their comrades of the second wave. Their fellow raiders did not give a second thought about them, be them dead or alive, and just rushed over their broken bodies.

"When dark wings blocked the sun they fell, tonight they dine in hell!"

At first all hope seemed lost as the wave approached the camp, they were just so many, and their saviors so few. But then, as the second wave rushed into the shield bearing warriors in front of them, they dug their hooves into the ground, pressed up against the large round shields. And even as hundred of soldiers crashed together, putting more pressure against their bronze shields, were none of the pushed back.

In the end, it was the raiders whose entire charge was grounded to a halt by a line of shields. There was a cry from the large warriors and they raised up their shields, bashing back the frontliners, making them lose balance, and then with a savage thrust they impaled the first two ranks of raiders through chest, throat, head or side. Sprays of blood scattered into the air as the spears split through their bodies.

Then with a powerful jerk they pulled their weapons free, and entered into a shield wall before the raiders to push forward and attack them. Another group crashed against the shield wall, they were halted once more. But this time there were no spears, instead, the shield bears made gaps in their shields were large two handed swords were swung down from behind the shield bearers. The massive blades cut through metal, flesh and bones with ease, decapitating off limbs, split heads and sliced open chests as the knights behind the shield bearers, slashed their massive two handed swords.

"Victory for a price, flesh to stone, a hero's sacrifice!"

The horde was halted yet again, their frustration clear they tried to disperse to the sides, attacking the camp from the flanks rather then the front. But as they moved to go left and right to by pass the shield wall, there was a loud battle cry heard from the woods as two large groups of heavily armed axe wielding warriors rushed out of the woods and straight into the backs of the raiders.

A curved axe blade split through the helmet of a raider, the black iron blade splitting apart the enchanted gold helmet without any effort. The axe split open his cranium from the top of his forehead to the base of his neck, leaving the raider with his head split open from forehead to neck. A spray of blood, spinal fluids and brain matter erupted as the raider collapsed to the ground.

"Know his name, know his fame will last forever!"

Suddenly there was a burst of light from the tree lines and a wedge formation of five chariots charged out of the woods, four more, carrying music playing horses, and drove straight into the scattered murderers. The swaying blades upon the wheels sliced into unprotected flesh or broke armoured limbs.

Javelins flew as the chariots plowed through the crowd of panicking raiders as the two horses upon the back of each wagon reared back their forelegs and threw their shafted weapons into the air. The iron tipped weapon streaked through the air like lying teeth and fangs, as they meet flesh and metal they split through either and impaled the weak flesh beneath.

As the chariots drove straight through the once mighty horde of raiders, there was a second flare of light and a single large warrior rushed out of the woods and started hacking at the troops with two blades. The warrior was wearing nothing but a tribal tunic while carrying a large round shield upon his back, which did nothing to hide even a little of his monstrously zigzagged body.

"Achilles! Hellas! "

In a burst of movement the warrior drove forward through the bandits, he sliced with both his swords, one gripped by a hoof, the other by a four clawed bird like talon. With incredible precision and skill he spun around the approaching spear of a raider, ducked beneath the swing of another's sword, before he traced his left sword upright, stabbed it straight into the spear wielder's throat. Before he made a slicing swing with the right sword, and sliced the jugular of the second raider as he stepped past him.

"Then, and again. Sing of one thousand and ten!"

As the warrior rove himself further and further through the panicking bandits his body features became more and more clear. He was a horse, made up by parts of other equine beings,. There were two sets of wings, each a different colouration. Parts of his head was that of a unicorn, which included a horn. One of his forelegs was a talon. And all of these macabre discoloured parts, were linked together by a sickly red looking pattern of red vein like lines.

But while some of the raiders, and plenty of the Wind Striders felt sick at the sight, were the horses undisturbed. It even seemed that he was a leader or somepony of great importance to the horses. Since when he raised one of his weapons and cried out something as he made a downward swing forward, a group of various manners of warriors charged out of the woods in said direction.

"Slaughter! Monsters!"

The horses charged into the thinned horde of raiders, lead by the patchwork horse who apparently went by the name of Achilles. Said leader leaped up onto a particular big earth pony wielding a hammer, and stabbed one of his blades into his neck as he stood on top of the brute's back. There was a spray of blood as he jerked out his weapon from the raider's throat and jumped off the corpse as it fell towards the ground.

"Glory and death, the Horses would never surrender!"

There was the sound of pulled back strings once more, and then another volley of arrows streaked across the sky and impacted the heads of the raiders, never hitting even one of their own troops. As the raiders tried to regroup and get some counter attack going, the shield wall they had been blocked by moved forward and a wave of spears and swords cleaved through their bodies.

The ground of the campsite had by now been turned red with gore. With each dead raider there was more of the crimson colour added to the site. Achilles sheathed one of his swords and ran forward to some of the tougher looking raiders. A group of five raiders tried to tackle him to the ground, but he reached out with his talon and with the curved claws on it.

With a clench of his griffin talon's clawed fingers he gripped his foe's head and dug his claws into any weak spot he could reach, including the eyes. With a bloody scream and a splat of body fluids, two of his claws dug through and past the eyeballs and into the brain. Then he heaved the screaming raider by the bloody holes he had dug into his head and used him like an improvised club to slam into the other four raiders.

"Ares! Hellas! "

The pile of groaning and screaming raiders were used like a stepping stone for the warrior and he pushed his hind legs to their limits and jumped into the air. With a somersault in the air he landed right before one of the larger raiders on his hind legs. The big brute tried to swing his big weapon, a two handed warmace, into the horse's face. But Achilles leaned to the side, stepped forward ,and stabbed his sword into the big raider's face.

With a pained grunt the raider tried to grab Achilles but he let go of the sword and ran past the brute, before reaching back and grabbed the handle of his sword. He then jerked his sword through half of the big stallion's head, leaving half of the left side of his skull cut open. Blood and brain matter erupted from the brutal wound as the big brute collapsed to the ground.

"Then, and again. Sing of one thousand and ten!"

One of the axe wielding horses rushed past his leader and towards the line of bandits before him. With brutal strength beyond his size he swung his weapon, the curved blade singing through the wind before it slammed into the wooden shield one of them tried to block his strike with. The shield shattered, the pony's foreleg snapped and then the bearded axe blade beheaded him and the two other raiders next to him.

As the warrior raised his axe into the air he let out a loud wordless battle cry. As he did so Achilles rushed forward and jumped up on the handle of the warrior, who just moved with his momentum and let him jump five meters into the air. With one sword drawn and his shield held by his other foreleg, Achilles held the shield downwards as he descended upon the panicking bandits. He slammed down like a boulder ,crushing three ponies beneath his shield.

"Slaughter! Monsters!"

Behind him a wave of axes and swords sliced apart more and more bandits, clearing a path to his spot in the chaos. But even before his allies reached him, he stood up on his hind legs, let go of his shield, since he was standing on it. With his talon free he reached out and grasped a spear about to stab him, slammed it back into the face of its wielder, and stepped off the shield, before making a brutal stab into another pony's throat. Blood sprayed out of the wound as he pulled his weapon free from the flesh.

"Glory and death, the Horses never surrendered!"

He stomped down on the edge of his shield, which flipped up into the a air, it would have landed on his front ,had it not impacted the skull of a raider pegasus who tried to make a fly by attack with a claymore strike at his head. As the pegasus crashed into his fellows Achilles just jerked back the spear he was still holding. And thus pulled it out of the grip of the pony he had hit in the head with the spear's pommel.

With a spear and sword held by his forelegs he rushed forward once more as the rest of his warriors joined him. He jumped and slammed his left knee into the side of the groggy pony's head with enough force to break his neck. As the patchwork pony landed behind the falling corpse he used his remaining momentum to slam his recently acquired spear towards a pair of bandits trying to attack him from the front.

The spear split through the first one's throat, went through the neck, and into the face of the second, before entering the brain. Letting go of the spear he reached down and took a long sword from one of the fallen raiders and rushed past the two dead bodies.

"Oh! Ah!"

A shield wielding horse slammed the edge of his mighty shield into a foe's neck, breaking it. The sword of a knight split another in half by the waist. One horse warrior wielding a small shield and a one handed sword, slammed his shield into the face of one foes, breaking his face, before slicing the leg off another. The curved blade of a strangely intimidating horse warrior blurred like silver in the moon light and the raider who had been trying to attack with an axe, saw his axe split apart at the length, before his own body did as well.

"Oh! Ah!"

One graceful looking tribal warrior bearing leather armour, small shield and spear, let out a shrill cry before suddenly charging forward, stabbing the spear at such speed and precision, that no blood seemed to remain on the spearhead. A light armoured knight wielding a pair of daggers erupted from behind a raider and slit his throat, before dancing around, slicing the tendons of another foe's legs, before stabbing a third in the head through the gap of his visor.

"Oh! Ah!"

A pair of warriors, one wielding a curve bladed polearm and another wielding a big club, worked together to take out several raiders. The one wielding the massive club rushed forward, and used his club as an improvised battering ram to knock his foes to the ground, while the light and quick polearm wielding horse stabbed and sliced their fallen bodies.

"Oh! Ah!"

All of these various types of warriors, knights, tribals, bronze and demonic looking warriors cut through the raiders, their voices crying out the lyrics of the final chant of their song. By now had the once mighty horde been reduced to just a mere hoofful of raiders remaining.

"Oh! Ah!"

And even as Achilels sliced the throat of another big foe, he stood there, graceful and strong, even though he looked like he had been made from the shattered bodies of a dozen poor souls. But as the final wicked foe fell to the blades of these unknown ancient beings, the horses raised their weapons and cried out the final part of their song, marking the end of the battle.

"Oh! Ah!"

[End Battle Music]

Maleficus Victoriea, in the form of Achilles, let out a sigh and stretched his left foreleg's shoulder and then his right. Looking down at his talon he flexed the four clawed fingers and with each flex a grin slowly spread across his face. The disguised alicorn clenched his talon and a look of determination spread across his gruesome face.

*It works! It's just a beginning. But it works! I can feel this talon and move its parts it like I did my old hand. Sure its one less finger, but it still feels so good to have fingers again!* Closing his eyes Achilles smiled contently as the thoughts of once again having fingers made him feel such relief.

It had been decades since he could even remember the sensation of fingers, palm and thumb. It was such a relief to have it once more. And soon, he would break down how to transform his new alicorn body, and alter its true shape. That was his goal. To transform his original body into an alternative state to regain his human body.

His eyes opened as he heard his soldiers going quiet and he looked to see what was causing them to go silent, that's when he saw the forms of Truth Seeker and Ancient Wall, clutching at the corpse of an elderly pegasus, crying in sorrow. He no longer felt good or content, now he just felt shame and sorrow, that he could have prevented the needless killings.

Rubbing his forehead with his talon he sighed before he looked at his silent troops and the corpses littering the ground. He needed to clear out the dead before disease and beats were attracted to the area.

"Ta liken av banditerna och släng dem på hög. Bränn dem sen till aska." (Translation: Take the corpses of the bandits and toss them into piles. Then burn them to ashes.) The horses saluted and began to gather the corpses of the dead corpses of their foes and dragged them off to the glade by the tower to throw them into piles to prevent forest fires.

As the horses worked on their gruesome task, Achilles walked over to one of the chariots and sat down on it. He could not walk on all four with one of his forelegs as a talon, it was far too unbalanced for him to move without risking a fall, so he had to walk on his hind legs.

Sitting there the patchwork horse warrior let the gentle summer breeze flow across his face and he just tried to relax, even as the despair and cries of the Wind Striders filled the night a they mourned their fallen. He was tired, not physically, but mentally he felt utterly drained.

*Aaaah... Some days I just want to silence the world and not feel anything at all. Just silent and emotionless peace. That way, I would not feel like such a shitty person.*

The elderly looking horse Cursed Blessing looked at his creator and then at another of his fellow horses, and the two shared looks of concern before going their separate ways. Cursed Blessing went over to the two mourning ponies and offered a comforting presence, while the other horse resumed its duties in gathering and burning the corpses of their fallen enemies.

(Scene Skip)

[Start of Clop/Lemon Scene]

The pegasus stallion Wild Whip was a young adult pony, recently of age by the law of his clan. He was a single child, an orphan really, but many of the Wind Striders were like that, it was not easy being nomads. And this terrifying night had only proven how bad things could turn out.

He had been one of the defenders, he had fought and killed to protect the clan. Elder Rune Wall had died protecting his family, it made Wild Whip both happy and sad. Sad that the kind Elder had died, but happy that he protected his family. But as the battle progressed, young Wild Whip grew more and more nervous as the enemies never seemed to stop coming.

Even with the short respite of the strange magical phenomena only gave them a bit of a breather to recover.

But then as the situations seemed to be at its worst, came a group of big and strong warriors of various manners and slaughtered the bandits.

Wild Whip had been in awe of their fighting styles, so many different types of weapons and armour, wielded with such finesse, strength and efficiency. It was both enlightening and terrifying.

When the raiders proclaimed these big and scary looking warriors to be the Ancient Ones had the young pony felt a shiver of shock course through his spine. The only Ancient Ones he knew of were the long lost race of Horses, the ancient fore bearers of the ponies who went missing before the Great Winter.

And Wild Whip was more then willing to accept this new information. They looked so much like the ancient scripts and wall paintings described them. Big, strong, warlike, brutal and disciplined.

His awe was broken when he took note of how the rest of his clan had moved to safety while he had remained out in the open, staring in shock at the battle. That's when he thought to look around to spot any of those who had been in the wagon with Elder Rune Wall's daughter and grandson. Especially, he was trying to spot Gold Digger.

While the mare was more commonly known as the 'comfort mare', or whore as some less the pleasant mares liked to call them, was young Wild Whip ensnared not just by her sheer beauty and sensual passion. The mare had protected him while he was a foal from a bandit. While she was no fighter, was she more then skilled enough to warp her legs around a stallions neck and breaking it.

She had jumped on the back of the large stallion, warped her hind legs around his neck, and essentially crushed his windpipe and neck with nothing more then the muscle strength of her thighs. All to protect a young colt of ten summers age. And she asked him in a kind voice while hugging his shaken form if he was okay.

That had been eight years ago and ever since, had young Wild Whip been ensnared by Gold Digger, not just as a beautiful mare, but as a kind protector. He felt a crush at first, and a need to become stronger, someone who could protect her just like she had protected him. For years he trained and grew stronger, he also spent time with her, talking with her about the various things they had seen and experienced.

Of course Gold Digger would almost always start going into dirty erotic tales of her sexual endeavors with other clan members or attractive strangers. But young Wild Whip did not mind that, he actually was rather intrigued by her life as a comfort mare and never belittled her for it. He never saw the issue, she was not just an intelligent and beautiful mare, but she was also one who used her desire for comfort and pleasure to give the same to others.

It came as a realization to him as of two years ago, that his crush had grown into genuine affection. But he did not have the courage to confess. Plus he did not feel like she would be willing to even consider him as a possible partner, being so much younger and inexperienced. So he kept himself from confessing, and just kept with the friendship he had with the older mare.

Back at the present the young stallion had searched the camp he became increasingly worried. There was no sign of Gold Digger and none of the others had seen her either, and those who had been with her last were unwilling to say where she was. Which only made him even more worried. That's when he heard a faint voice coming from one of the wagons. And it did not

"Gold Digger! Are ye alright... Woah..." The young stallion's words were slowly brought to a halt as he stopped just after the doorway of the wagon. And stood there, staring with wide eyes at the incredible erotic, and yet terrifying, sight before his eyes.

All over the floor of the wagon laid the dehydrated bodies of over a dozen raiders, their bodies so drained of body fluids they looked like they had been mummified in a desert. The entire floor and their bodies were covered in white smelly fluid, as well as clear transparent fluid as well that made his body feel oddly warm at the smell of it.

"Oh! Ah! Ah! Ah need ta cum!" A sweet erotic, and almost melodic, voice cried out in frustration from the middle of the pile of not breathing raiders.

There, riding cowpony style on top of a large, not breathing, raider, like a dominant golden pelted and red maned goddess of beauty and mating, was Gold Digger. She was bouncing her drooling pussy up and down a limp pony cock that was so drained it was more like a noddle then a penis.

The limp member was dripping with clear sweet smelling love fluids, the two sacks beneath it had been so utterly drained that they had become like drained baloons. Even the white semen that covered the loins of the big stallion had been ashed off by the mare's constant riding.

"Oh! Ah! Come on ya lousy limp dicked brute! Did ye not say ye be da badd'st fuck'r around!?" Even as her erotically large and firm flank slammed down against the unresponsive groin beneath it, she did not receive any response. Since her partner had expired from sheer exhaustion and dehydration. The sheer frustration and need in Gold Diggers voice and eyes were like burning infernos, she was clearly not satisfied by the raiders' attempt at 'handling her'.

"Ye an' ya fr'ends only made me cum ten times! Ah! Come on! Get dat bloody cock hard again! Ah need some release of mah own!" Even as she cried out these frustrating words, she kept trying to pull out a final orgasm from the corpse beneath her. She was so into it that she never noticed the young stallion, until he tried to get her attention.

Young Wild Whip nervously stepped forward, unable to look away from Gold Digger's watering entrance trying to find release on the limp member of the dead raider. The lips of the hole were suckling the meat like a mouth suckling an icicle or stick with syrup. "Ah... ehm... miss Gold Digger? Ah don' think he be alive... nor the others."

A little startled Gold Digger paused in her attempts to relieve herself and looked back to see the young colt staring at her. She felt a rush of shame course through her body, as she had never wanted Wild Whip to see her like this. She had wanted at least one friend who did not make wild assumptions about her, even if some of them were true. "Ah ah... oh? Hello there youn' Wild Whip. Ah may be a bit pent up ye see. These brutes had no clue how da please a mare good an' proper."

"Nnnngh... Ah!" She let out a gasp as she pulled the limp member free of her loins. She slowly staggered off the corpse of the dead raider and almost immediately began to try and rub her drooling pussy like crazy to find relief. Going so far as to try and push her hoof into her cunt and almost fist herself to get an orgasm.

*...Ah cannot look away...* The young Wind Strider pegasus thought as he watched the incredible erotic sight in front of him, feeling his own little warrior starting to stand up in attention.

The young stallion was also worried and confused, Gold Digger may be a tough mare, but he knew she was probably still hurt emotionally, even if she used herself to distract and defeat all these raiders. He knew she would not be emotionally stable after going through something like this.

And he was confused, since he felt a sudden rush of courage, something he had not felt in a long time. And he just knew. He just knew, that if he did not do something now. He would never get another chance.

Wild Whip decided to act upon his new rush of bravery and stepped up to the trembling shape of Gold Digger as she was rubbing her marehood with a hoof, and hugged her from behind.

The yellow pelted mare went tense as the young stallion's forelegs warped around her sexually frustrated body. Her eyes were blinking in confusion, even as unshed tears seemed to be gathering in them. She never realized how much her heart was beating as the younger pony hugged her sexually stained body to his leather covered body. "Oh my! Wild Whip!? What are ye doin'? Ah am dirty!"

"Ye are not dirty Gold Digger! And Ah got ta tell ya somethin'!" The young stallion shouted out to her, the mare felt flustered at the sudden change in the young stallion she had known since he was a little colt. He had such a look of determination on his face that she could feel her heart skip a beat as he looked her straight in the eyes, even as her hot and needy hole was drooling against one of his hind legs.

Her body went tense as the young colt hugged her tighter and she felt the strong muscles of his hind leg rub against her loins and she tried to push back as her body wanted to arch in pleasure. "No wait! Ooooh! Ah! Wild Whip! This may not be da best! Oooooh! Time!"

But the grown up colt was without mercy to her sexually frustrations and just hugged her tighter, her trembling forelegs were soon pushed up against her breast and she found herself nose to nose with the young stallion. And she could not help but notice how big and handsome he had become, she had always seen him as that cute little colt she saved all those years ago. But he was grown up now, and she probably only realized it now how much he had grown. "No! Ah must tell ya! Or Ah may never have da courage ta do it again!"

"Wild Whip! Please not now! Ah! Mah loins are burning! Ah need a bit of-Humph!?" The mare's eyes widened as the lips of the young colt captured hers and she found herself being kissed by the passionate youngster. Her loins felt like they were on fire as the unskilled but passionate stallion hugged her close and kissed her, while looking her in the eyes with such warmth. It was making her feel like a young innocent virgin.

"Mmmmphaa! Ah love ya Gold Digger!" Releasing her lips the young stallion released out his secret, his love for her, there was no going back. He was going to show her how much he loved her no matter how much it took.

Said mare was gasping, her cheeks flustered, a trail of drool connecting her tongue with the young stallion's mouth. Even as her cheeks were burning crimson she tried to regain her composure and respond to his feelings, to tell him she was not the mare for him, when eh claimed her lips again. "Whu-whu-what are ya sayin Wild Whip!? Ah am too old fer ye an'-hmmm!"

This time the kiss went on for much longer, and the young stallion let his tongue slide into her own mouth and her eyes almost went gloss eyed as she felt his tongue enter her mouth and her own rising up to rub against his. Then, as the kiss ended, young Wild Whip denied her words and just let out his hearts. Not caring in the least of how the older mare was trying, and failing, to make him see reason. "Mmmmph! Ye are not! Ah don' care if ye are a comfort mare! Ah don' care if ye are older! Ah love ye Gold Digger!"

Gold Digger was not a mare often flustered, but for the first time in years she felt like a love struck little filly, her gaping and drooling pussy rubbing against the strong and muscular thigh of a much younger stallion who was declaring his love to her. Even after having seen her raping the corpse of a raider, a group of over a dozen she had essentially fucked to death. She tried to make him see reason, to make him stop, before he actually made her fall for him. "Stop it Wild Shape! We may end up doin somethin we both may-hmmmmmmm!"

He silenced her by kissing her again, and the mare found herself welcoming the kiss. She no longer resisted his advances and her forelegs were starting to stroke his leather covered chest, her eyes fluttered s she felt herself become ensnared in the passion. Even as something hot and throbbing started to rub against her left thigh, she could not find it in herself to care, not any more. "Mmmmm!"

She slowly pulled back, her tongue hanging out from her mouth as she panted, the air between their panting mouths almost looked foggy. With a husky voice she spoke to him, trying to make him see reason, even as she had already lost to him. Even as she shifted her hind legs and started to rub her hot and needy pussy against the thick and vein covered length of his young stallion hood. She tried, but utterly failed, to not take it too far. "Pah! Oh ye stupid colt. Nah. Ye stupid stallion. Ah am not a good mare fer ye. Ye deserve betteeeeer! Ah! Ah!"

He responded to her halfhearted denials by embracing her and pushing his member against her dripping entrance. It felt so warm, so inviting. Even as he slowly probed her warm and wet tunnel, her spoke to her, letting out all of his passion and desires, all of his love and care, even as she pushed against his trusts, slowly pushing the head of his member into her hot entrance. "Ah don' want anypony else! Ah want Gold Digger! Ah want da mare Ah love! And I shall show ye how much Ah love ye! Haaaaa!"

Gold Digger let out a gasp of pleasure as the thick head of his member spread apart the lips of her neither regions and began to push inside. Even as she verbally protested, she pushed against his thrusts, pushing him deeper and deeper. and then, as she felt he was pushing too much at once, he grabbed her by the flanks, lifted her up, and sank his length straight into her. Balls deep in one thrust. "Aaaah! Oooh! No! Stop! Too much! Ah! Ah! Ah am not readiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Oooooaaaaaah!"

The warm and wet flesh was clenching around the member like a vice, even if Gold Digger had laid with the raiders, had none of them been as thick and long as Wild Whip had been. Heck she could not remember a stallion that had filled her up so good before.

Even as he began to thrust and pump his length in and out of her body, pushing into her womb with each thrust, she was let out passionate screams of pleasure while hugging his neck. The sound of flesh hitting flesh began to fill the wagon as the passionate duo began to release their restraints. "Aaaah! Sooo warm! Mmmpha! Ye feel soooo good Gold Digger! Ah am never lettin' ye go! Mmmm!"

She moaned out, kissing him as he kept thrusting into her older body with his younger and virile cock. Between kisses she berated him, even as she hugged him and kissed him, she berated him like a foal who had taken a cookie out of the cookie jar. She could feel his body tense up, and she knew she would end up pregnant.

An ironic twist of faith considering she had managed to make the raiders cum outside of her womb for several hours, and yet here this young colt of a pony was breeding her like a true stud. "Ye stupid colt! Ooooh! Stupid silly. Ooooh! Oh ye better. Ah! Be prepared fer da. Oooooh! Consequences!"

"Ah am coming! Ooooooooh!" Young Wild Whip screamed out this as he rapidly began to pump Gold Digger up and down his cock before he suddenly arched his spine and slammed himself balls deep, and erupted into her womb. The sensation of gushing sperms flooding her inner core was enough to make Gold Digger cry out as her entire body sparked out into an intense orgasm together with the young stallion.

"Aiiiiiiiiiiiih! Yesssss! It feels soooooo gooooood!" Drool was leaking out her mouth as her tongue was hanging out, her eyes rolling up, showing only whiteness, as her boy released all of its pent up tensions and frustrations from.

The two pegasi then collapsed onto the already stained flood, with Gold Digger lying on top of a panting Wild Whip who looked like he had gone and come back from heaven. They laid there for a while, recovering from their short but intense love making.

"Ah am stuffed... ha... feel sooo good..." Gold Digger softly moaned out as she waited for her legs and waist to recover. Her muzzle buried into the neck of her new found lover.

"Ah... ah... oooh... Ah am in trouble aren't Ah?" Wild Whip panted out softly as he laid there. His body felt sore and yet relaxed, and even though he had just come, was his member starting to harden as the wet warmth of Gold Digger's clenching insides were pleasuring him.

Said mare pushed her foreleg hooves against his leather covered chest and smiled down at him, flicking a lock of hair behind her left hear before grinding her hips against his. The sensation was making his member harden even faster and soon she was slowly and sensually pushing her wet and hot hole, up and down his member. "Ye better believe it. No stud of mine is goin' ta leave me unsatisfied!"

The young stallion moaned out as the mature mare began to ride his cock with the professionalism only an experienced and talented comfort mare could. And then he blinked in realization at what she had just said and looked up at her with a growing smile. "Ooooh! Wait. Yer stud? Ye mean?"

"Consider this mah answer ye silly colt." She said with a grin, before raising up her hips, pulling her sperm filled womb free of his thick member, releasing a thick splatter of white hot batter over the floor and his groin. Before suddenly slamming it back down, and arched her back moaning out in bliss as she did so.

"Ooooooooooh! Gold Digger!" Wild Whip began to try and thrust back against her bouncing flank and the sound of flesh hitting flesh filled the wagon once more. Gold Digger leaned down and kissed Wild Whip passionately as she rode his thick member.

"Mmmmmmmmmm! Good boy! Ah! Fill mah body with that big dick! Ooooh yeeeeesssss!" The mare declared as she moaned. With increasing fervor and desire she raised her flank into the air before pushing it down, repeatedly, and with rapid speed. The recent orgasm had made her even more sensitive and the young stallion beneath her had good stamina to keep up with her needs.

"Ooooooh! Yer a keeper alrig't!" She declare while licking her lips sensually. The mare was going to be enjoying her new partner in bed. And she was not going to stop anytime soon.

It would be a good while before the two lovers would stop mating in the wagon. Which goes to show that even the most tragic of events, can bring happiness and love to those who survive.

Life finds a ways.

[End of Clop/Lemon Scene]

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 13 Days]

The sun rose and brought light upon the nation of Equestria. And as it rose it also brought light to the vast ocean next to the Eastern Coast. There an island stood, a volcano to be precise. Located just outside of the coast of the western continent, it was an island of no life except for the fire spewing mountain of which it had been made from.

There deep within a dark cavern, a pair of large green glowing orbs appeared within the shadows as the sun light reached the entrance of the cavern. As the orbs enlarged, a black orb appeared within the center, before narrowing into a slit like shape. A soft rumbling filled the cavern as the, now identified, eyes narrowed and the large creature who they belonged to, stepped out into the sunlight.

A massive reptilian talon covered by black scales slammed into the brittle volcanic soil outside of the cavern. The large dark shape stepped out of the cavern and stretched its long serpentine neck and a large pair of bat like wings. Slowly it curled back its wings and neck before turnings its large serpentine head to look towards the west.

"Hrrrrmmmm!" A deep rumbling growl erupted from its throat as its large nostrils flared and its eyes grew narrow as its caught something new in the wind since it had last been awake. A smell that contained not just the scent of woods, manure and ponies. But it also the smells of metal, blood, death and... something unknown.

It was clearly not really concerned about the unknown scent, but the rest made it agitated. And as it grew more agitated, its large stomach made out a loud rumbling, and it discarded its concerns for something far more important. Hunger.

With a big frown it glared towards the west and began to stomp down the side of the volcanic island. Its massive wings slowly spread out once more as its large limbs began to move more and more rapidly. Until it reached the edge of the shoe, and with a powerful leap, jumped several meters into the air, before flapping its massive wings, taking flight.

As it rose through the air and towards the sky, the large shape let out a loud and sky shattering roar that echoed across the ocean around the volcanic island, and towards the main lands.

The sound vibrated across the sandy shores, into the rocky valleys and across the volcanic mountains. There, within dark caverns, deep valleys and cores of volcanoes, the sound vibrated down into the deepest crevice. And for a moment, there was sense of silence and peace, but that silence was soon broken, as beings who heard the cry of the beast, responded with roars of their own.

Across the western coastline close to the island rose winged shapes from the wastelands. One after another, they rose to the sky. Perhaps over one hundred of their massive bulks rose into the sky, their scale covered bodies held by massive bat like wings, all of various colours, shapes and sizes.

The flock of massive beings followed the large black one as it flew at incredible speeds through the skies, the sunlight not even reflecting upon its blackened scales, making it look like a black silhouette upon the blue morning sky as it head west. And so they followed, towards the region now known as Equestria.

For soon the world would once more know, that the Grand Feast of the Dragons, had begun.

(Scene Skip)

Princess Celestia walked down the halls of a large incomplete structure she had ordered to be made a few years ago. With the appearance of the Ancient Ones, the Lost Tribe of the Horses, she knew that Equestria needed to improve even further.

Thus she started by taking some ideas from the chronicles written by Golden Cross. The first thing she ordered when she and her forces returned home to Canterlot was to let her forces recover before sending them off to non-combatant missions.

She had scouts map out the areas of her nation, there were far too many blank spots in the kingdom for her liking. Even with the increased infrastructure and population had her subjects only managed to map around one fifth of the lands. And most of that was open terrain or close to the roads and settlements.

Her next decree was for the construction of the Magical Academy, the new school for all magical capable ponies, not only including the unicorns. It would be the home of the new Battle Mage Training Grounds and act as the nominal school for all unicorns of ages of eleven and up in Canterlot and its nearby settlements. This would give the future generations of unicorns a proper education on how to use their magic efficiently. Although that was mostly just an excuse to get more proficient magic wielding unicorns into her armies.

The lack of magical support had hit her forces hard. And unicorns were more lazy then most other kinds of ponies, so hopefully would this Academy give them some motivations involving the army as well. Even if only supporting the military would that still be an improvement.

Thus the construction of the Academy had become the main focus for her city, the architecture was almost completed with the extra labour she had received. Then after it was done, it would just be a matter of equipping it with the proper tool, teachers and lore to teach the future generations of unicorns.

Celestia's third and perhaps most daring project was to create a school, for all ponies. Something she noted from Golden Cross' chronicles was that young foals who learned things early, either through play or study, depending on the pony, could become somepony of great talent in the future if given a chance. The return for creating not only school buildings but a school system, for all foals the age of five to ten would be time consuming. But it was a long term goal and the payback she would get for giving all her subjects a proper education, would improve not only her military, but her entire nation.

She had been offered aid from the Order of the Golden Cross in developing the Schooling System. Thus giving her free room and time to develop proper plans for the constructions of foalhood schools, the naming was still a work in progress, in not only Canterlot but all the settlements.

This had made her rather busy however and even though she still received reports from Blackstone Keep about the restoration of the East Coast were there no news about Maleficus. And there had been no news about the large glowing pillar of light that was spotted last night. But it had only been half a day since the event so she could realize it would take more time to get news.

Speaking of news, she intended to have the Communication Orbs developed into a better model and spread out across the kingdom. This would not only speed up the transferring of information, it would also make certain that if something wrong happened, the information would reach Celestia, no matter the distance.

Celestia's recollection of the past few days had made her lose track of time and she almost felt like rubbing her head in annoyance when Solid Pink appeared, carrying a tray with scrolls and a quill pen with an inkwell. Even when she was outside and surveying her projects she could not evade the eternal torment that was paperwork.

(Scene Skip)

Ancient Ruins rubbed her son's tear stained cheeks as they watched the fire burn. It had been a harsh night, a bloody night. But the sun was rising and they were alive. Though the same could not be said for her father or twenty other members of the clan. But even with the deaths that had occurred, was she still comforted that her son was alive and that the horses had come to their aid.

The mutilated hero Achilles personally lead the forces, setting up the ambush points and preparing the main force to handle the reinforcements arriving. Even though she had been safe among the main force on a chariot had she felt anxiety and fear, but when Achilles charged with his troops and started to cut down the raiders like wheat, she felt no more fear.

With skill and strength that had to be built from years of training and battle, she witness him and his fellow Ancient Ones break the raiders like wheat in a field yielding to the edge of a scythe. Even though his appearance was monstrous and tragic, was she still glad that he remained the hero as the story Cursed Blessing had told her.

But even with Achilles' forces had blood and lives been lost long before the horses even were cured of their petrification. One of these victims was her own father, Rune Wall.

The old pegasus had used his whip and long sword to cut down at least five more raiders before being stabbed in the back of the skull and through the throat by four other raiders. When she had seen the shape of her father lying down on the group next to his cherished weapons, she leaped off the chariot and flew over the skirmish, her son clinging to her neck.

She had cradled his long cold body against her and cried alongside her son. His strong forelegs that used to comfort her, carry her and play with her. A father who gave her all the love she could ask for, one who comforted her when her husband died all those years ago and helped her raise her son alongside the rest of her family.

All gone now. Only the memories left.

The bodies of the raiders had been dragged away by the horses to be burned to ashes, as to prevent diseases from spreading. At least according to what Cursed Blessing translated from Achilles' explanations when some of her clan members asked why they were gathering the corpses of the raiders.

The Wind Striders had a similar tradition, when someone of the clan died they would put the body on a pile of stacked logs, and then the closest relative or friend would ignite it with lightning from a cloud. It had been her duty to ignite her own father's pyre this night. It had hurt more then anything to be the one to have to ignite the pyre meant to burn her own father's body, but she had done it, and felt... relieved.

Sparks and flames filled the campsite as the pyres of the fallen clan members burned. The horses had aided them in gathering the wooden logs and clearing out spots for the pyres, they kept a respectful distance away as they lit them up, one by one, and watched their fallen friends, brothers, fathers, sons and husbands turn to ash and cinder.

As she watched her father's fire burning she hugged her sleeping son close, the little colt had fallen asleep, the events of the night too much for his young body to keep awake. The sparks and smoke almost seemed to dance in the wind as she watched them.

She heard hoofsteps and glanced to the left to see the old horse Cursed Blessing, carrying a blanket which he held out to her with a kind smile. Ancient Ruin silently accepted the blanket and warped it around herself. The old stallion sat down next to her and pulled out a pipe from... his beard... and ignited the herbs within it with a spark of lightning from his left hoof.

Puffing on the pipe the old horse inhaled some smoke before he exhaled it. Out of his lips came not a simple cloud of smoke, but a smoky figure in the shape of a pony, or horse, moving across the empty sky. The silence of the solemn air of the camp was only broken by the choked sobs of the mourning and the cracks of the flames.

Cursed Blessing looked out over the camp and watched as the various ponies huddled close or stood alone ,watching the fires burning. His 'ancient' kindred were watching from the wagons and beyond, having settled down outside of the Wind Striders' camp for some rest. His creator, masquerading as Achilles the Hero, was still sitting on a chariot. His tormented creator had not moved an inch since he sat down on that chariot last night.

The old looking horse of a sage inhaled once more smoke from his pipe, and slowly released it, this time, the shape of a pegasus appeared. And it joined the still prancing smoky earth pony slash horse, which was still moving across the air. Then, old Cursed Blessing began to hum softly into the morning air.

At first none of the pegasis or hoses took note of his humming. But a twitched came from the ears of one of his kindred and slowly the horse looked towards the campsite were the strangely familiar tune was coming from. And slowly, he began to walk past the wagons, to listen closer.

The ponies also took note of this strange melody the old horse was humming, it broke the silence of the solemn moment, and yet, the soft and slow tunes of the humming felt... fitting.

Then a horse dressed in armour made from elather and fur, with his beige coloured pelt tattooed with blue tribal markings, horned helm covering most of his red mane, and with an axe strapped to his back, came to the circle of ponies. The large stallion was following the sound of the humming old horse and followed it, slowly walking over to the spot were Cursed Blessing was sitting. And then he sat down on a log, listening to the humming melody of the old horse.

Another horse, this one dressed in cloth and bronze came, carrying no weapons. With its red mantle and bronze armour was it hard to discern much of the horse's appearance, but there was a pelt of brown and a mane of black. This horse too walked over to the humming old sage, and sat down on a log on the other side of the one the barbarian had sat down on.

Slowly the ponies began to take note as more and more horses began to appear, most of them stayed by the wagons, but it was clear, that the strange humming of Cursed Blessing was attracting them. Some walked forward and sat down close to the old horse as he hummed. The sound of strings being tuned could be heard as a horse mare dressed in tribal leather armour with a winged helm strapped to her side, sat down on a rock with a strange looking lute.

She was soon joined by another mare, this one dressed in strange armour with wide and flat shoulder guards, her demon faced helmet strapped to her side. In her grip, was another strange looking lute like instrument. Flicking the strings with a wooden spatula of some kind as she tuned them.

Then a third mare sat down next to them, this one dressed in cloth and chain mail, with her plate helmet strapped to her side. She too had a string instrument, only this one, had something additional to it, a piece of wood with a string attached between both ends of the stick. Next came another mare, this one dressed in bronze armour, her red combed helemt strapped to her side as well, with a golden harp she put down on her lap.

Soon the humming of Cursed Blessing grew, as some of the horses began to hum alongside him. A plate covered horse sat down next to a tribal barbarian, and offered him a bowl shaped drum, which the axe wielding warrior accepted.

The ponies watched with confusion as the horses hummed and gathered around the pyres, but then they saw how one of the groups parted ways, and some let out gasps as the gruesome shape of Achilles stepped forward. The patchwork like horse hero walked over to an empty spot by the two warriors with drums sitting next to Cursed Blessing.

Achilles, or rather Maleficus, did not know how the horses had gained so much memories from his information transfusion, but he knew that he needed to keep u phis act and join in the moment, even if he did not really want to. But this song, was made by a fan to the movies of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, and the quality and emotion within those songs. Was amazing. And he could not deny that he felt proud, to even being partly the reason why it was coming to life within this new world.

And as Achilles sat there, the two drummers raised their hooves, and lightly began to tap them against the drums, while those with string instruments, began to play on them. With the rising music began some of the horses in the crowd to pull out various instruments of their own, although only thirty of them had instruments, and began to play a well.

And as the music found its harmony, Cursed Blessing blew out another mouthful of smoke, this time it grew into the shape of a unicorn. And then a second gust of smoke came after a soft inhaling, and an earth pony joined the trio, making it a quartet. And as the four smoky figures ran around in the air, the horses raised their heads to look towards the morning sky. As the old sage began to sing.

[Start Solemn/Lamenting Music: The Lament for the Rohirrim by Clamavi De Profundis]

[Altered Lyrics by Staadnauthursil. Note. this is one of the most amazing songs based upon the works of Tolkien I have ever heard. It is a wonderful piece of art and the artist made this, even without getting paid for it. Please check out more of their great work and support both the artist and the official Tolkien Franchise.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YTBgFmK_bs

His voice rang out across the campsite, his voice carried with the wind and the melody being played. The song was simple, the music too, and yet it held so much emotion that it was being heard by everyone in the camp, even those asleep. "Where now the horse and the monster?"

As he sang the horses hummed to it, their humming becoming a backstage choir to the melody as the instruments gently played along. Old Cursed Blessing blew out another puff of smoke, making more figures of dancing horses and ponies. "Where is the horn that was blowing?"

The smoky figures began to danced around in the air, moving around the burning pyres, dancing with graceful and playful movements. Their smoky shapes shifted and twisted as the wind blew through them. For some reason, it felt like they were dancing to the slow and solemn song as it was being sung. "Where is the helm and the hauberk?"

Sparks flew out from the burning pyres, and flowed along with the smoky figures, some of the sparks even got stuck in the smoky shapes and made them appear like small moving constellations of ponies and horses. As the old horse sang, the smoke from the pyres themselves, seemed to flow out and join the dancing smoke figures, shaping landscapes of fields and hills for them to dance upon. "And the bright banners flowing?"

The ponies watched the spectacle, at first they did not know how to feel. But then, one of the young foals who was still awake, listened to the song and began to feel something. The little filly did not understand much of what was happening, but the gentle and solemn melody made her feel sad and yet happy at the same time, and rather sleepy. So she leaned against her mother, and began to hum along with the song. "Where is the hoof on the bowstring?"

With the humming of a little filly joining the choir of the fully adult horses, some of the larger equines glanced at the little foal, some of them even smiled, before resuming to listening or humming to the song. And slowly, but surely, began another pony to hum along with the melody. "And the enemies' eyes glowing?"

The lyrics felt alien, the ponies did not understand what they were about. Well not at first. But as they listened, and as they watched the dancing figures of smoke, some of them glanced at the humming horses and noticed something. Within the eyes of the horses were looks of nostalgia, a look of longing, a desire, a wish, that could never be fulfilled."Where is the cities and the towers?"

A young mare noticed how one of the horses playing the strings, her large body made her look amazonian but she had a graceful appearance if you looked beyond her size. And there was a sad look on her face, with her eyes half open, as if to hold back tears. Soon more and more these small signs told the ponies of the Wind Strider Clan just what they were witnessing."And the tall grass growing?"

It was a song of lament, for a people who had been forgotten to history, and now returns, to find they had lost everything. A song for mourning those they had lost while turned into stone.

Then something happened Cursed Blessing returned his pipe to his mouth and stopped singing. Instead began one of the warrior sitting close to him, the one dressing in the strangely folded armour with demonic helmet, to sing instead. And as he did, all of the horses bearing the same attire as he, looked up towards the heavens more then before. "They have passed like rain on the mountain."

After he finished his part of the lyrics, he lowered his head, and so did his fellows.

Next was the night knight seated next to the demon masked warrior. And as the knight raised his voice, did his fellow knights and plate armed warriors, raise their heads to the heavens. With a gust of wind flowing across the campsite, stirring the flames. "Like a wind in the meadow."

He too stopped at only one part, and he and his fellow knights, all lowered their heads just like those before them had done.

Next sang the bronze covered warrior. His voice echoed over the wind and his fellows raised their heads like those before them had done a his voice rang out. The dancing smoke horses and ponies were by now moving within the flames of the pyres themselves, making it appear like dark silhouettes dancing together within the flames. "Those days have gone by in the East."

As the bronze armoured horse went silent, he and his fellows lowered their heads as well.

Finally it was the tribal barbarians turn, and he sang out his part of the song with a deep tremor, a voice much deeper and rough then the others. But even with the deeper tune and bass, was his singing just as good at the other three. And as he sang, would all of his kindred raised their heads and look towards the bright heavens above. "Beyond age and years."

He too fell silent and lowered his head after just one line, and as with the others, his fellows lowered their heads as well.

Then the warrior with the frightening helm began to sing again, but he did not raise his head, nor did his fellows. All kept their heads lowered, as if bowing to something. "And into shadow."

The knight sang next and just like his other fellow, he too did not raise his head, and just sat there, with his head lowered, singing to the melody. "Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning?"

Without a show of movement the bronze warrior too began to sing, his red mantle fluttering in the wind as his voice echoed over the campsite. And by now, were all of the ponies, humming along with the horses. "Or behold the coming years?"

Once more the tribal looking warrior sang out, without raising his head either. His voice almost seemed to be part of the final ending of the song as he fell silent after finishing the lyrics. None of the horses had raised their heads, heck some of the Wind Striders had even lowered their own heads. And by then had the smoky figures that had been dancing within the pyres, disappeared. "Of the Lost returning?"

But the song kept on play, the trickling of strings, the beat of drums and the humming of throats. And at first the ponies wondered if the song was over and it would just be music and humming. But then Achilles the hero, the one who had been silent, not even humming, raised his head and looked into the fire. And as he did the rest of the horses raised all of their heads as well and looked straight ahead, into the flames.

There was a moment of tranquility ,as the music rose to a new kind of depth. As if the very emotions of those around, were bleeding into the song itself. And then, as the fires grew from their normal orange glow, into an intense yellow, the horses opened their mouths, and they all began, to sing together. Their voices working together with the intense power of emotion, only a choir could bring to life.

"Where now the daughter and the mother?"

It was like thunder had been struck across the campsite, the flames seemed to gain life from the music itself. The yellow flames rising upwards, taking on the shape of pillars, as the vocal cords of the Ancient Ones, woke the spirits of the flames to life. Though all this the ponies were staring in wonder. Their eyes unable to look away as the light and flames of pyres almost seemed to glow brighter and grow larger, in tact with the voices of the once forgotten tribe.

"Where is the flag that was blowing?"

Ancient Ruin did not know when she had joined in the song, but she just did. She had no reason to sing with these strangers, but she did. It was like the song itself was speaking through her, like music itself, was helping not only her, but the horses and her clan, to heal from their ordeal.

"Where is the son and the father?"

With small flares the flames beat upwards into the sky, making it look like they were trying to reach out and tear themselves free of the wood they were being produced from. More and more ponies, were joining in the song, and soon, were the entire clan of the Wind Striders, singing with the horses.

"And the bright smiles glowing?

Achilles, or rather, Maleficus, sang the song with his creations. He had no real idea why the horses wished to sing this song. But he could feel his body and mind being rejuvenated by it. It was like the music itself was mending something within his soul, like a crack he had never noticed until now. Even though he knew he would still mourn and cry for what he had lost, was this song making him feel a moment of pure relief from his mental demons. It felt... wonderful.

"Where is the hoof on the harpstring?"

The joint voices of the horses and the ponies echoed over the woodlands, the morning sun shining warmly upon their forms as their song almost seemed to bring life back to the once dreary and dark woods. Animals peaked out of their nests, birds began to sing and the trees began to whistle.

"And the warm fire glowing?

Even though the music was solemn and sad, it held such warmth that even though it felt ill fitting, it felt right. Even if it was meant to be a song for the tired, the mourning or the sad, was it bringing warmth to the soul. It was like the song itself was removing the mourning and depressing feelings within you, and filled the hollowness with warm relief.

"Where is the spring and the harvest?"

Cursed Blessing sang along with his creator and fellow creations. He had been certain singing such a song like this would aid not only his master, but the ponies as well. And by the creator, it felt amazing to be part of such a grand moment. The music was bringing relief to the mourning and helping them recover. It was truly, magnificent.

"And the tall corn growing?

By now was the entire camp singing together. Their solemn voices echoing over the forest, the music and the lyrics playing forth across the once quiet and depressing air, bringing a comforting presence.

"They have passed like rain on the mountain."

The burning pyres seemed to pulse and shift even further, their intense flames almost seemed to take on the shape of those burning. All of the Wild Striders stared in wonders, yet did not stop singing, as the faces of those who had perished, appeared within the flames, and smiled upon them.

"Like a wind in the meadow.

A mare cried as she saw her husband and son smile at her from the burning pillar of fire that was coming from their pyre. The comforting smiles and grateful eyes, they were at peace, she could not ask for a more reassuring vision.

"Those times are now gone from the East."

A young colt, barely old enough to speak, was sleeping soundly in the arms of his grandmother, who was smiling at his father and mother, who were smiling down at them, with forelegs warped around each other. The old mare was glad to know her children would be at peace, she would be there for her grandson and other children.

"Beyond the heart, and into silence. "

Two ponies, a mare and a stallion, both hugged their smiling daughter between them, as they saw their son's face in the flame. The same cocky and arrogant look on his face, the same confident but happy smile, the bright and cheerful eyes.

"Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning?"

One by one the mourning ponies saw the faces of their lost loved ones, smiling at them. Giving them comfort that they were at peace. And through it all, both horses and ponies, sang together, not breaking out of the rhythm of the song.

"Or behold the coming years?"

A certain mare with her sleeping son, smiled with a tear stained face, as her grandfather, with his old hat on his head, kind old smile and gentle eyes, tilted his hat to her. Telling her that everything would be okay. She barely felt the forelegs of her older brother and his own two soon adult daughters hug her from the sides as she clutched her son softly to her breast.

"Of the Lost returning?"

As the lyrics finally grew silent, the fires started to go out, the melody kept playing for a while. And as it did, the fires disappeared, one by one, leaving black ashes behind. Ashes and smoke. And among the rising smoke, coudl the shape of rising pegasis and horses be seen, a swarm of black shapes, galloping and flying to the heavens. Before disappearing into the winds above the forest.

[End Solemn/Lamenting Music]

Achilles looked up at the heavens for a while, his eyes were still sad, but not as burdened as they had once been. He slowly stood up from the log he had been sitting on and walked out of the camp, leaving the horses and ponies to look at the trailing smoke together.

He felt exhausted and needed rest. And so he laid down on the chariot he had been sitting on earlier, resting his head between his mismatching forelegs, and fell asleep.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 12 Days]

"We part ways now my dear lady Ruin." Cursed Blessing said with a smile to the young mother, who gave him a soft smile in return while her son was hugging a large book to his frame, looking up with teary eyes. He had received the book as a gift from Cursed Blessing, a copy of a history book, detailing the history of the various Horse Lords and their ways.

"Aye so it would seem. We are all grateful fer ye and yer ancestors' aid Cursed Blessin'." She said with a polite voice as she gently patted her son on the head.

They were standing on a Y split in the road, the Wind Striders would be heading down the northeastern road, towards Blackstone Keep. There they would be trying to sell their services as scholars, treasure hunters, scouts, craftsponies and weather mages to the Order of the Golden Cross, maybe even join the Kingdom of Equestria as official citizens and no longer wandering nomads.

Cursed Blessing was leading his lost, now recovered, ancestors to the west, towards the Foal Mountains, to gather up the rest of his people. To restart the horse civilization, they needed to gather together, possibly find and restore more petrified horses, and find a new home for their kind. Even with Achilles as a good General and Warrior, were no one of the horses knowledgable of the areas of Equestria, and thus, needed the old horse's aid.

His tower had been sealed up, its content gathered in newly made wagons, with some of the inbuilt defenses left active, just in case someone tried to start trouble from his tower. And now was the force of over a thousand horse warriors on the road. They had traveled with the Wind Striders for a day, before deciding to go to the designated spot Cursed Blessing would find the rest of his modern age born people. And thus it was time to leave.

"Take care of yourself and your clan now Chief Ruin." The elderly stallion said with a smile, patting the mare on the left shoulder. While Achilles, who stood behind him, dressed in a black robe, just gave her a soft nod.

The mare looked a little bashful before she shook her head and poked the old horse's beard. "Yesh. No need fer titles friend. Just call me Ancient Ruin. Ah am sure Ah will get da chance ta meet ye again someday. Both ye and yer crazy ancestors."

Achilles gave the elderly looking horse a raised eyebrow, and snorted out a chuckle as the mare's words were translated to him. He reached inside his new robe, and unstrapped one of his sheaths, and pulled it free. He pulled out one of his bronze short swords, and held it out to the mare who looked surprised at the sudden gift.

"Ah cannot accept-" She wanted to protest, but the ancient warrior just pressed the sheathed blade into her front and let go, making her catch it out of instinct. Realizing she had been tricked to picking up the blade she gave the ancient hero a glare, only to receive a chuckle and a large hoof rubbing her head gently before the owner of the hoof turned around and began to walk towards the rest of his kin.

The mare grew a little flustered, and turned to glare at her clan members when she heard giggles and chuckles from them. Cursed Blessing just smiled and gave the little colt by her a pat on the head before he too left to join his ancient kindred.

Their large shapes marched down the road towards the Foal Mountain and the main road. Thousands of the once thought lost tribe, was now wandering the world once more. The Wind Striders watched them disappear down the road, until the final straggler disappeared from sight.

The nomads then resumed their own journey towards Blackstone Keep. They had a path they wished to attempt to seek out. But none of them would forget the night and morning they spent in the company of the Ancient Ones. Nor would their new Chief and her son ever forget the strange tower and the miracle of magic that had been performed to free them.

(Scene Skip)

Princess Celestia's orders had been carried out with the swiftest of manners. Scouts and flyers had been sent out, their numbers small but fast. For two days had they been flying and running towards the location of the strange magical phenomena that had occurred.

One of the first to arrive was a young pegasus of the Silver Army who had been in the Blackstone Keep as a messenger. Her name was Splendid Flight and her pelt was white, her mane blue and her cutie mark was a sword with wings. Her main weapon, surprise, surprise, was a long sword and she was dressed in the regular silver armour of the Silver Army.

She had flown for days, catching a decent wind to speed her flight up without risking too much of her health. The mare could still feel the wind biting in her face even after she had landed on the ground and not moved for an hour.

When she reached the area she found a large stone tower with a large wooden door with no lock or handle. It only had one big knocker. She reached out to knock on the door, but the metal ring was so heavy she had to struggle with both of her forelegs to even lift it. And even as the loud and heavy clong from the door knocker was heard, was there no response from the tower, even after she repeated the effort.

Looking up at the tower she tried to fly up into a window, only to discover that the tower had no windows, at least none visible from the outside. Feeling frustrated she tried to land on top of the roof to find a way inside. The roof was just as well sealed, covered in solid stone that had to have been magically produced to make such a seamless finish.

She finally decided to try the hard on approach and reached out for her sword and stabbed it into the roof of the tower, trying to force her way through. There was a flash of light and Splendid Flight suddenly found herself thrown off the tower. She barely had time to blink, let alone take flight, as she landed face first in a big patch of mud and grime in the glade.

Pushing herself out of the dirt she glared at the tower and slowly whipped the mud off her face before stretching her neck, raised her sword, and charged. Then Splendid Flight let out a wordless cry as she rushed towards the door frame, intend on breaking down the wooden door to proceed with her mission.

But as soon as she swung down her sword and struck the surface of the door, there was the sound of a loud clang. There was a moment of silence as she once again felt a lack of gravity, before suddenly feeling herself impacting something wet and sticky.

The second scout to arrive, arrived to see the first one fly through the air and land face first in mud. And as the earth pony tried to register what had just happened, the mare had stomped out of the mud, and with an angry shout, tried to strike the door again. And with another loud clang, was sent flying into the mud, again. And then once more. And again. And so on.

It took over thirty tries and thirty in-volunteering mud baths for Splendid Flight to stop in her furious attempt at assaulting the tower. Though it became more of an inside joke later, had Splendid Flight forever sworn off mud baths ever since that day.

She was the first but she would not be the last to try and force her way through the magically sealed tower. The scouts of the various forces of Equestria tried to force, trick or talk their way in. Of course none of them worked, but only the talking option did not result in a mud bath. Well except for the one time one of them insulted the tower rather harshly, so none did that again.

By the end of a week had all of the scouts given up and reported a failure of investigating the tower to their superiors, who just labeled it as, unimportant. With the occurring Dragon Invasion. But that's for later.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 9 Days]

Maleficus, in the shape of Achilles, was standing in a tent watching a map produced by his horses. They had settled down a camp upon a large plateau on top of a mountain a day ago. With his magic he had managed to discern a proper camping site that would give his creations free space and privacy, plus plenty of resources.

The mountain top was covered with trees and even had a large lake, it was rather impressive really. But unimportant at the moment since something he had been planning for a few months now on the moon was starting to turn out right. Even Luna had not had any idea how to do what he was going to do.

A fairly large piece of parchment laid upon the side of the world map he was looking at. And upon the surface of the sheet was a complex design of some manner of apparatus. Its structure was a bit based upon the old steam engines of his home world from the industrial revolution. But no coal was used to drive this thing. No, what would fuel it was instead the gathered magical energies of the world itself.

It used a Conversion principle. It used the natural flow of magic to create movement within its vents, and thus rotate the arms that would empower something. Sure creating it required a bit of imagination and the need to investigate a lot of various kinds of metals and crystals. But he had spent a decent amount of time gathering the lore while on the moon.

Now he just needed to find a way to make the thing absorb residue magical energies from the air to create movement, or rather, power. It would probably not be the safest of constructions, at least not at first, since creating something that could absorb and harness magical energies.

And magical energies were not often known for being a reliable source of power. But while it would more likely then not be rather unstable during the prototype stages, would it still be a preferable goal to find a way to harmlessly harness residue magical energy, then to create some kind of technological revolution by creating real steam engines or, gods forbid, nuclear power plants.

And while Maleficus was certain he did not know ho to make a Nuclear Power Plant, did he know he could make a steam engine. Which could lead to the discovery of nuclear power. And that was something he was not willing to risk. He was not even sure if uranium and plutonium was a thing in this world, but he was not going to take any chances.

Tracing a hoof over he plans for his Mana Engine, not very original but it did not sound stupid at least, Achilles pondered how to best utilize it once it got past the alpha and beta stages. He already had some ideas on what to use it on. But just what would he first decide to use it on?

*Let's see... I cannot use it to create tanks, nor super soldiers for that matter. I could create some manner of train or car. But that's not really going to be of any use since ponies are able to pull their own carriages. And I doubt it would be safe to even create or use them.*

The disguised alicorn pondered his options and contemplated what to do with his creation in progress. Normally one would just assume he should wait until the invention was completed. But he could not help to prepare for the future possibilities of what his invention could accomplish.

So deep in his thoughts was he that he never noticed how one of his horses stepped into his tent and coughed to get his attention. As the messenger noticed that his creator was too busy muttering to himself while looking upon a map and some manner of blueprint, he decided to take actions into his own hooves.

Stepping up behind his lord he reached out, and patted his creator on the shoulder. The response was swift and merciful. The hoof of Achilles struck his face hard and the messenger found himself knocked prone with several teeth broken and his face half ruined.

"Oh Gods I am so sorry!" Realizing his mistake Achilles reached out for the wounded messenger and instantly began to channel energy through his forelegs and into the messenger's face. It was a sort of magical healing, and therapy, that would recover the damage of the wound, and aid the mind in handling the rapid recovery.

"No need to be sorry my Creator, I should not have startled you." The messenger said with a grin as he was helped to stand up by Achilles. Once on his hooves the horse then coughed deeply to clear out his throat before he began to explain to his leader just what was going on.

"My creator, we have identified several veins of metal and gems in the mountains. The wood of the peak and the sides of he mountain are being fathered as we speak. And as you instructed have we added support on the ground to prevent sudden rain from washing us or the camp down the mountain side with a mudslide." Nodding Achilles pulled out a parchment and began to write down the various metals notified by the horses digging for the metal.

It was a fascinating list of metals. Not much iron, but plenty of gold, silver, copper and other valuable metals, including several veins of unidentified metal that he was going to have to take a closer look at. For now he needed to use the information from the horses about the gemstones, also located within the mountain.

But for now he had no real metal to work with. He needed to identify the materials the miners had discovered, he would also need to know how to maintain or properly use it. But until then would he have to be satisfied with knowing that his forces had found a lot of potentially useful things.

Maleficus, or rather Achilles, knew he needed something to work with the newly designed plans of Mana Engine. It would not work with just making up some random doohickey and then call it a day. What he needed was a comprehensible device or transport that he could power with the Mana Engine.

That's when his messenger, again, tapped him on the shoulder. This time the disguised demi god did not punch him in the face however, so progress. He had gone off into his own little world again and missed a message. Again.

Blinking rapidly Achilles tried to regain his composure and coughed into his hoof before speaking to the messenger. "Again sorry, was it anything else you needed me for?"

"Yes. We have discovered something among the few natural caverns in the area. Normally we would just consider it worthless. But we would like to offer you the suggestion to examine it and decide on what to do with it." As the messenger completed his final part of the message tapped Achilles his forehead with his talon, and he soon decided that it would not do to just stand in his tent and try to figure something out without proper tools or materials.

"Alright, please take me to what you have discovered." The messenger bowed and guided his creator and opened the exit of the tent wide, offering him courtesy.

Achilles exited the tent, the campsite was in full activity a he and the messenger strode through the crowds an tents. Horses stopped and bowed softly to Achilles as he walked past them and towards the area with the caverns and mines. Which was just to say that they had blasted holes into the mountains to retrieve the metal veins and crystals by mining.

Blasting holes in a mountain took some efforts and courage, but it had to be done even if it may frighten those around you. For it would be otherwise impossible to reach the resources within the mountain rock. Well unless you decided to use unicorn magic. But that would be stupid since a campsite made by ancient warriors could not become too advanced or magical just days after they had started their so called 'Gathering'.

Stepping past a wagon filled with rocks Achilles soon caught sight of the mines. It was a small hill on the plateau which was rather wide and tall and had room to allow three mine entrances to be made. By blasting holes in the wall with internal magical energy or weapons.

And there in front of one of he few natural caves a few meters to the left of the leftmost mine tunnel entrance, stood a group of horses, muttering together as they looked at something on the ground in front of the mine entrance. They spread apart as Achilles came closer, or that might have been because the messenger spoke out to them. "Alright people ,spread apart, let the Creator see just what you have found."

Achilles sighed and rubbed his forehead before he let out a deep breathe and stepped forward to the item that had been causing such a stir.

And what he was, was rather confusing at first. But then his lips twitched ,before he reared his head back and started laughing like crazy.

"Hahahahahaha! Oh my gods! This is just ridiculous! A freaking egg! A Dragon's Egg!"

There before the baffled faces of the horses, laid an egg the size of an ostrich egg, with a scale like pattern across its surface. The egg had been within the cave for a long time, but for some reason could Achilles, or rather, Maleficus, still sense life from the egg. What ever laid inside it, was still alive after having been left there for so long.

"Take the egg to my personal tent, be sure to put it in something warm and safe. We do not want it to come to harm." Achilles said to some of his horses. Said creations bowed to him and began to lift the large and heavy egg up together, it took four horses to lift that one egg together.

As the group began to travel back towards his tent, Achilles turned towards the messenger with a grin. "Anything else you might have found?"

(Scene Skip)

Within a dark chamber strode General Bloody Courage, he was bearing a thick looking scroll. Before him was a levitating candlestick. He had received the mission to create a plan to take over the power from the alicorns and return it to the proper care of the ponies themselves. OR rather, the chosen rules of pony kind, not pony kind in its entirety, let's not go overboard.

Passing through a secret tunnel beneath the surface of Canterlot he moved to the designated meeting spot. It had not been easy but he had come up with a plan. A long timed plan. But it was the most efficient and reward giving then most of the other plots he had been considering.

A doorway soon greeted him to the left, and he went past it. Instead he entered a doorway a hundred meters past the other one. Pushing open the door he looked inside and saw the decorated chairs and the large round table. The members were already gathered and he knew that now was the time to prove his worth and give them the plan they had wanted.

Well he was certain ti was not THE plan they all had wanted. But considering their options, resources and time, it was the safest bet that would give them the chance to retake control over Equestria from Princess Celestia and her mad family.

"Ah young General Bloody Courage. We hath been waiting for thee. Please hath a seat." One of the members said as they saw the young military officer enter the secret chamber. The young lord walked over to the absent seat his Grand Uncle, who had passed away a few days ago, leaving the Lordship of the Blood Clan to him. The kite shield with the blood drop decorating his seat would have to be altered to fit with his own cutie mark later.

"Let this meeting of ours begin. Praise be the Society of Heraldry, Independence and Trade!" The pony by the sea with the hammer said before slamming a mallet into the table, marking the start of the meeting. And as he did, the others by the table recited the words he had said as well.

"Praise be the Society of Heraldry, Independence and Trade!"

"We shall start with the most important of matters, since it is the sole reason for our meeting this time around. Young Lord Bloody Courage, please, what manner of plan hath thou come up with?" All eyes turned towards the young general who grimly pulled out his scroll and unfurled it. It would take some time to properly describe his plan. But he would go through with it in every detail. And hopefully would his work not have been a complete waste of time.

"Very well. As thou all know art Princess Celestia the sole heir to the Royal Family left upon Our world. All other relatives art too distant or too dead to be made into proper replacements. Or to even hath the chance to make a claim on the throne." The rest of the conspirators nodded at this, it was rather common information not just for them but for the entire upper class, even many of the middle class, of Equestria's political and noble circles.

"Well there art a loophole in this here situation We can make use of. But. It shalt not be easy. We need to obtain the trust of Princess Celestia herself. And in doing so. We shalt hath the perfect way to claim the throne from her foolish rule." Now things were getting interesting. And the secret society leaned forward to properly hear every detail of the young lord's plan.

The explanation of the plan went on for almost an hour. Sometimes a lord, or lady, would want to scream out in shock or outrage, but stop to save face. But as the explanation of the plan went further and further, the conspirators began to see the pattern that General Bloody Courage had developed.

And they, in turn, were very, very intrigued and eager, to put this plan into action. Though it may be a plan that may take far longer then your average conspiracy, would it by no means be any less effective. In fact, considering how well things may play out if they go through with it, they may not even be considered traitors when the plan went into action.

After all, history was written by the victors. And the Society of Heraldry, Independence and Trade, intended to be just that.

(Scene Skip)

Upon a beach on an island was a red crab wandering over the sand. Its beady eyes were looking for something, a scent that had caught its attention. The scent of food. It scuttled over the sand, its search taking it close to what was commonly refereed to as the 'village' by the strange talking beings on the southern shore of the island.

The inhabitant of the wooden rocks and floating trees were often willing to share food with the wilderness, especially fish since they did not eat it. They were a strange sort. But kind. The animals of the islands had known them for generations and knew they were more willing then not to offer aid in case an animal needed it.

But as the crab scuttled past the final creek of the beach to reach the village of the kind talkers, it was sent reeling with fright at what it saw. The once flourishing village of wooden huts and boats, were nothing but burning ruins, with the burnt skeletons of four legged creatures scattered across the ground, many of them in pieces, as if eaten and then spat out.

Black smoke rose from the ruins, but they did little to hide the massive black head of a winged dragon. It stood at least ten times taller then the tallest tree on the island. A massive black beast who was sniffing through the wreckage of the village.

With claws digging through the death and decay, it pulled up claws full of fish and pony corpses. And with a gleeful look in its eyes, put it all in its jaws. The crab promptly hid behind a rock and stared at the monstrous being as it devoured the dead ponies who had once lived in the village. One of its victims was a small filly the crab had known to offer it small fishes, a sweet and kind little thing. With a red pelt and white mane.

Barely five summers old. The filly was still alive from the looks of her hooves trying to push her wounded body out of the pile of fish and corpses. Her frightened eyes looked into the eyes of the crab as she desperately tried to escape the creature's open mouth. But then her head and body was crushed, along with others, with a terrifying crunch, as the beast closed its mouth.

And the small red crab eye's grew even more frightened, as it saw more columns of smoke rising from the other islands in the area, with several large flying creatures, looking much like the one in front of it, flying over the islands.

The massive black beast swallowed its mouthful of fish and meat and a deep rumbling chuckle filled its throat as it turned its red eyes towards the west, and a deep voice spoke out from its blood dripping maw. "Huhuhuhuhu. An excellent appetizer. Soon though, we will reach the main course."

Drool flourished from its chin as it looked towards the place it knew was filled with more delicious little ponies.

The feast had begun in the scattered islands across the sea. Here the dragons would feast and devour what they cam across, but hopefully leave enough alive for their numbers to grow large for the next feast.

And it would only be a few more days before they reached their main goal, the continent of the ponies.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: Okay, this one took a long time. But that's mostly because of the intense scenes and the intense heat of summer making me feel like a baked potato.

Pinkie: Mmmm! Baked potato are delicious with frosting!

Staadnauthursil: Uuuuurgh! Anyway. It is not a 50k chapter but a 40k chapter. So I hope you are still glad to read it. I apologize for the 3 month wait but I have had a lot of work, in both real life and on this story itself, that took far more then I intended to. I had to cut this chapter off to not let it grow too big.

Pinkie: Oooh darn! I wanted to see a 60k chapter!

Staadnauthursil: Not yet, maybe when I get a good inspiration. Now I am just tired and I may have made some hasty errors. But the chapter is up, andn ow I am going to drop dead on my bed and sleep for twenty hours. I have not slept for two days. G'night-ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!

Pinkie: Good night!

Chapter Fifteen: The Draconic Incursion (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Fourteen: The Draconic Incursion

[Current Date: 29/7 - 111 AD]

[Time Remaining: 8 Days]

A flourishing field of wheat waves in the wind. The sound of hoofsteps approaches and the sound of metal being drawn is sound. Then with the flourish of habit, the curved blade of a scythe sliced through the stalks of the wheat and cut a path through the golden field.

The one gripping the scythe was an elderly looking unicorn, or rather, levitating it. His name was Proud Seed, a farmer who had been working his family's fields for generations. As he harvested his fields he took a moment to pause and ponder while looking down towards the coastline, where the growing city of Baltimare was bursting with life.

Ever since the warring barons had been defeated by the Order of the Golden Cross had the town of Baltimare and the town of Fillydelphia been given a lot more power. At first there were raids by dangerous warlords or bandits, but the Knights would protect not just the towns but the villages as well. Very few lives were lost and the knights even offered medical aid to those who needed it.

It had been ten years since the Barons were defeated. And it was more obvious then ever, that neither of the barons would have made proper rulers of the region. Considering just how well their Princess had handled the region through her knights made all ponies of the East of Equestria more then willing to serve. And Proud Seed was no different, offering part of his harvest to the Order of the Golden Cross to help them with winter supplies.

Truly he had never thought things would turn out so great. His five sons were all grown up, two of them were working with him on the farm, while the others had spread out and become good ponies he was proud of. Wheat Stack was becoming a good merchant, selling and trading all over Equestria. Heavy Lift had joined the Equestrian Army and was now a Sergeant. And Strong Stalk had become a member of the Golden Cross Knights' Order.

Truly he could ask for nothing more. His farm had grown from a small hut with fields with overgrown weeds, to a medium sized house with two big barns and large fields of wheat, corn, carrots and onions. The new farming method introduced by their new government was proven efficient, altering what you farmed on each field, every year, gave far more then replanting the same thing over and over.

It was not just his farm that had grown. So had the town of Baltimare. Which could now only be considered a city.

The coastal city of Baltimare had flourished for the last ten years. It had grown from a small collection of hamlets next to a big castle into a large coastal city of trade and goods. Even with the powerful earthquake created by the terrifying Maleficus Victoria half a month ago were none of its citizens going to leave their home.

They had rebuilt their city stronger then ever. And in this warm morning's sun light there was a cheer in the air as the ponies began to wake up and prepare for the morning of their wonderful lives.

Proud Seed smiled a bit before he lifted up his scythe and began to cut more of his wheat.

Meanwhile, towards the east, beyond the shores of Equestria. Up in the blue sky of the horizon, were something approaching. Small dots began to appear in the horizon, closing in on the coast. Not noticeable at first, only specks gathered in a single spot, looking like a dark faded cloud.

But by noon had they grown from the size of pinholes to the size of grains. And their small shapes were covering one third of the eastern horizon, like a cloud of locust expanding in size. Some noticed it, and one of these, knew what they were.

An elderly earth pony sailor, took one glance at the cloud, and grew pale. The old stallion fell forward, clutching his breast as he felt his heart race at an unhealthy rate. Even as several ponies came to aid the elderly, he clutched at his chest with one hoof while jabbing his out towards the eastern skies. Before his life expired, before he fell limp to the cobblestone square of his hometown, he gasped out one word. One word. A single, seven lettered, word, that would sent a wave of terror through the land for years.

"D-d-dragoooonnss..."

And the ponies of Baltimare, began to feel a sudden chill of terror rise up inside their bodies.

(Scene Skip)

High Knight Iron Wing of the Order of the Golden Cross had been sitting by his office desk, working on a report to the Commander of Blackstone Keep. He was the Captain in command of Baltimare Castle, thus he was in command of the local forces of his knightly order. The Equestrian Order of Chivalry had their own base in a larger castle between Baltimare City and Fillydelphia City, but no one really bothered with them since they rarely did anything.

His duty and purpose was to maintain the safety of the ponies of Baltimare and its closest surroundings and offer aid to any other lesser outposts or patrols in need of support. But even with such important tasks was he still not as busy as his superior.

Master Knight and Grand Templar Rock Steady was the Commander of the Eastern Equestrian forces of the Order of the Golden Cross, as well as the Caretaker of Blackstone Keep, and thus the Guardian of the Hidden Temple of Sanctum. Thus the older stallion had a lot more work to do as he was the one to give aid to all outposts, castles and patrols in the entire region, while trying to keep track of them all.

Which was no easy task.

But back to Baltimare's situation.

The young Captain had just been signing a document when a pair of knights, a mare and a stallion, opened the door to his office and a crowd of screaming ponies could be seen out in the great hall of the castle, screaming out an incoherent mess of words. It was amazing he had not taking notice of the loud screams and shouting from the hall, it must have occurred recently.

"What the blazes art going on?" He asked the two knights as they pushed the door close, as to prevent any of the panicking ponies to get into his office.

"Problems Sir. The townsponies hath spotted dark dots in the horizon approaching the coast." One of the knights said as he walked over to one of the windows and pushed the stained glass window open, revealing the summer sky, with the horizon looking like it had a swarm of black dots on it.

"They say they be dragons, sir. And if that be da truth. Then them be at least a hundred or so dragons approaching." The second knight said as she put a scroll on his desk, it was mostly just a blank scroll, but its purpose was more important. And the knight captain instantly drew his quill from the inkwell, and began to write on the scroll.

"Alert all the troops, send out messengers to all local settlements, outposts and patrols. Get me our fastest pegasus Peacekeeper, Sir Rapid Fire, I want her here now. Have the towns ponies be taken to safety. Prepare and arm all of our siege weapons and prepare the magical defense barriers." He kept a calm and even tone as he wrote on the parchment. It was serenely calm, but High Knight Iron Wing had been in plenty of frightening situations, not even counting the Second Crusade.

The officer knew what had to be done and it had to be done fast. For even though he had no real ideas about the capabilities, powers or desires of the dragons, did he know one thing. A dragon was dangerous, a hundred dragons, was a calamity on the move. And he was going to do his best to protect not only the civilians, but his own soldiers as well.

Rolling up the finished message he sealed it with the sigil of the Order of the Golden Cross on some melted red wax, sealing it. He then held out the scroll as a pegasus mare came flying in from the open window. "Knight Rapid Fire. Get this message to Commander Rock Steady of Blackstone Keep, as fast as you can. You depart now."

The mare saluted and instantly grabbed the message and flew out the window just as swiftly as she had arrived. Iron Wing watched her leave and let out a soft sigh of relief as she disappeared over the castle walls and towards the north. Even should he fall, was at least his daughter safe. She was indeed the fastest flyer of his troops, which made it convenient for him to send her as far as possible out of danger.

He got off his chair and moved towards the window, and looked out at his castle as his knights and troops were blowing signals, hitting warning bells. While sending out messengers and opening the storage to bring out ammunition and gear for the coming danger. Even as the large gates opened and his best soldiers went out to bring out the message, he felt tense and worried.

Iron Wing looked at the approaching spots in the distance. As a foal he has always enjoyed the tales his mother told him about the dragons. The large powerful creatures who craved treasures not just for their greed, but for their hunger. Beings who flew, breathed fire, grew as large as mountains and devoured precious gemstones.

Back then, he dreamed of being a dragon. He dreamed of flying on a dragon. Having adventures alongside his foalhood friends and his imaginary dragon friends. But that was back then.

Now a grown up pony. A veteran of over twenty years of grueling fights and two crusades. He could only imagining the ferocity of their eyes as their large winged bodies brought fire and death to all he loved.

Iron Wing looked towards the north, where he could barely make out the sight of his scouts flying beyond the trees and fields. One of them was his daughter. And he would be damned before she came to harm. And so, with a determined look on his face, Iron turned away from the window and walked towards the door.

He could brood later, if he survived, for now he had to get geared up soon. After all, he was still the commanding officer of this castle. And no fire breathing lizard would find him easy prey. "May the Sun and Moon guide us to victory."

Two hours later. The Dragons arrived.

(Scene Skip)

The dragons flew over the sea, their meat caring eyes could see something none of them had seen before. A large village of stone and wood surrounded by what looked like a stone wall. That had not been there during their last feast. But their minds did not registers the advanced infrastructure of the ponies as a threat. To them, the ponies were still nothing more then talking snacks, whose meat tasted ever so sweet and tender.

With eagerness folded several of them their wings slightly and lowered their long necks, and raised their tails upwards, and began to dive towards the settlement down below. Their eyes scanned for their desired prey, but they felt frustration as they could hardly see any of the ponies in the open. They turned their attention towards the houses, they would have to tear their large village apart if they were to get their promised feast.

One of them was a relatively young dragon, barely adult, this was his first feast along his brethren. He was eager to feed. The light appetizer he and his fellows had feasted on, on the way to these lands had been the sweetest morsels he had ever tasted. And he was eager for more.

His green hided wings flapped as he flew over the stone wall around the big village. turning his head left and right he flared his nostrils and sniffed for any kind of strong scents. For a few moments he felt frustration at the lack of any strong sources of pony smell, when he felt a light tingling in his nose as he sniffed somewhere in the direction to the center of the big village.

With a grin he flew down towards what looked like a big open space with strange wooden constructs with wheels on them. Possibly an offering to them to spare the rest of the town? Well he was not going to ignore it, but it was pointless to even consider offering their own for their own lives. They were fair dragons, everyone they found would be eaten until all of them were satisfied, with his elders getting the most of the food during the later portion of the feast, those were the rules of the Dragon Feast.

He landed on the strangely unnaturally even stone ground and sniffed the air for the scent of ponies. The wooden structures had nothing in them except for strange plants and what smelled like... baked seeds? Huh. Ponies were weird.

The young dragon followed the scent as good as he could while his fellows flew down and began to tear open the large huts in their search for ponies. He soon found the source of the scent. A strange big wooden structure with a big opening large enough for a dragon of his size.

Curious and hungry the young dragon pushed his head into the large structure ,sniffing the air. He looked around ,ti was filled with piles of grass and plants. To the left was some kind of wooden structure with four legs and a large flat surface. IT was littered with bits of metal and wood, it looked weirdly out of place.

The dragon then heard a click from behind his head, and had no time to turn around, before a loud thunk was heard and something struck his head by the neck. There was short sensation of pain. Then nothing. As the drill shaped arrow head of a ballistae bolt penetrated out through the back of his skull and out of his left eye socket. The ballistae bolt carrying one of his eyes with it. The young dragon fell instantly to the ground, dead before he even started collapsing.

"Surprise ye ugly beast." Muttered the young bronze armoured earth pony stallion as he stood behind the head of the dead dragon, a small but still powerful portable ballistae, strapped to his back. Behind him were two other ponies bearing bronze armour, one of them carrying a quiver with bolts, and the other carrying a shield and sword.

"We be relocating to da sewers. Quickly." The mare with the shield and sword hissed to them as she moved into the corner of the large barn and pulled up a sewage entrance cover for the catacomb like sewers beneath Baltimare. The two others followed her into the sewers, but only after they had pulled out the bolt out of the dragon's skull.

None of the dragons took notice of the death of one of their own. Thinking he had just laid down for a nap. It meant more meat for the rest of them.

(Scene Skip)

A three story tall and ten meters wide building made out of stone bricks and hay covered wooden roof stood calmly next to the large wall of the city. Several almost identical buildings, with varying colouring and shapes, stood in line along the walls, with a small gap of ten meters between them. The base floor of this particular building was a store for a baker with the two floors over it being the home and attic of the house.

The house was covered by a shadow for a brief moment. Then a loud crack erupted as four large powerful limbs slammed down on the rooftop. The entire structure groaned in protest as the twenty meter long shape of a purple dragon landed on top of the house. Its structure not meant to support such a massive weight.

But the dragon was not bothered by the weakness of the structure beneath it and instead reared back both of its arms before swinging them down at the building's roof.

Large claws dug through the wood and stone, powerful muscles gripped into rooftops and then strong arms tensed as their muscles tensed and with a great heave the wood and hay was ripped off the building with a loud crack. Two large venom green eyes scanned the now bared attic, before narrowing in frustration as nothing living was seen.

The dragon punched through the floor of the attic and began to tear asunder the cover of the other floor. But it was just as bare. Finally ,as it breached the bakery down below, it was meet with no ponies yet again. In its frustration it let out a powerful roar and bellowed out a large gush of fire into the air.

Similar roars of frustration echoed over the city of Baltimare as their massive intruders ripped apart the homes of the ponies and found none within the wooden structures.

But as the dragons' frustrations grew, was a loud sound heard from somewhere in the town, and every dragon turned to see one of their fellows, a large green dragon who had been standing on a stone street, roar out in agony as something struck his neck. The large dragon clutched at its throat and tried to pull out whatever was biting into its throat. But as it got a grip on the stick shaped object and pulled it out, it ripped open its own throat, and fell to the ground, tossing and turning in agony, as it began to choke on its own blood.

Several dragons rushed over to the wounded green dragon to see what had occurred. When two of them, a blue and a red dragon, crossed by a large strange stone structure with an upside down shin bowl in it, and a big stone building, was that odd sound heard again, two times this time around. And one of the dragons, the red one, screamed out in agony, as something long and sharp struck the left side of its upper jaw, and split through both insides of its large mouth.

The blue one suddenly went limp and collapsed to the ground. It tumbled and rolled for a decent thirty meters before impacting another big hut. As the limp body uncurled from its rolling it revealed the dragon was lying unresponsive on the ground, dead with a wooden stick sticking out of its right eye socket.

With an angry roar the red dragon opened its mouth and a gush of lightning shoot out of its jaws, the lightning sparkled over the direction the strange projectile had come from, demolishing parts of the thick looking stone structure. That's when that strange sound was heard again, from behind the red dragon, and it stopped breathing lightning, and collapsed forward and over the stone structure, a wooden stick sticking out of the back of its neck, directly below the base of the head.

The big purple dragon looked on at this, curious and slightly nervous at what was happening. He was wondering if it would be safer to leave this strange big village. It may not even be a village. Sure there were huts and smell of ponies. But surely no pony could make such things. Could it be some of those bird cats? They were dangerous in large numbers to a single dragon.

But the purple dragon had his theory busted when he spotted something down in an small road between two large buildings in front of him. A strange looking metal coin was flipped open in the alley way and out of it came a pair of hooves, followed by a pony, and then another and finally a third. It blinked in surprise at the sight, who knew ponies had started to live underground like the dragons did. Were all these huts just decorations? Fascinating.

The trio of ponies, one of them wearing some weird wooden structure, spotted the dragon looking at them and started working with the strange wood thing. Smirking at the familiar sight of panic the dragon bent forward and gripped the front of the building. It was about to leap at them and gobble them up.

Then one of the ponies said something, and that strange wooden structure let out that familiar thunk sound. Something flew straight towards the dragon's face and it had barely time to blink as something black and pointy flew straight into its face. Then there was a burning sensation of pain in its eye, then an agonizing tearing feeling ripped into the inside of its head. It had barely time to rear back its head and screech out in utter agony, before its remaining eye went blank and its once mighty and strong body went limp and began to fall.

With a loud groan the massive beast tilted backwards, then its back and wings struck the stone wall before it rolled over with the moment and dropped over the other side of the stone wall. Its body impacted the grassy ground by the stonewall, its neck snapped in an awkward angle, but the head remained in its screaming agonized expression, with a big wooden stick sticking out of its right eye socket. Dead.

And then, all hell broke lose.

(Scene Skip)

[Start Battle Theme: Baldur's Gate 2 - Dragon Battle Music (Remastered) (HQ) uplodaded by Armchair Magpie]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hsg664cyf1c

Iron Wing watched the dragons ravage the city. Their numbers were many, they were covering every rooftop with their frames. And there were more in the sky above. But his skirmish units had taken down four dragons so far with their portable ballistaes. The dragons had taken notice of the danger of the town and had gotten cautious.

Every siege weapon in the city was covered up, hidden from sight with thick cloth, tarps or natural camouflage. Thankfully had none of the dragons even deigned the towers of the city worthy of investigating. It was like they did not even know what a tower was.

And that had given his troops the time to prepare, and for his skirmish units to guide the citizens to the catacombs beneath the city. Even taking out four dragons had been far more then they had ever dreamed of this plan achieving. But it had worked, and now it was time for action, for he who took initiative in a fight, held the advantage. One of the many teachings the history of Golden Cross' old order had been given to Equestria.

So when the fourth dragon was slain, its massive boy collapsing over the city walls, the Captain raised his poleaxe into the air. The glistering surface of the axe blade and spear head, both made of sacred bronze, shone in the sunlight. This got the attention of his troops, and as he saw everyone was looking at him, he made a slow downward swing with his weapon. And shouted one word to his troops.

"FIRE!"

And as he shouted out this word, was a large gong in the castle struck, one time. Its sound catching the attention of every dragon in the city. But by then, would the ponies be ready.

Tarps, sheets of linen, vines and leaves, all manner of cover were thrown off the towers of the city, not just the towers of the castle but all of the twenty towers on the city walls. Upon each tower were at least three siege engines. One Heavy Ballsitae, one Energy Rod and one Hornet's Nest, each manned by a group of four ponies. And upon the large box shaped fort making up the main structure of the castle, was four Heavy Ballistaes, four Hornet's Nests and eight Energy Rods unveiled by unicorn magic.

Each gunner of a heavy ballistae aimed their respective weapon at the dragons flying above their home, and with incredible precision, fired off their siege weapons. Over thirty wooden bolts flew off into the sky above, and the dragons above the down roared out in shock as the wooden bolts expanded to the size of trees, and detonated into a showers of wooden shrapnel.

A few dozen smaller dragons screamed out in pain as shrapnel the size of branches pierced the membrane of their wings and forced them to fly away to land or fall to the ground depending on how much hit them. The wooden shrapnel did little to harm the larger dragons, but the concussive force of the exploding tree trunks were enough to knock the wind out of their wings or scramble their head as if struck by a tornado. Explosions rang out above the city of Baltimare while it started to rain wooden shrapnel.

The Hornet's Nests were aimed at the dragons in the city. The two meter wide and half a meter tall honeycomb shaped holes of the artillery box was mounted onto a pair of metal rods, connected by gears and springs. These were connected in turn to the center of a wooden wheel that was rotated by a pony. While the gunner handled the box itself by the grips on the metal limbs that altered the angle it was raised at. While one pony stood with a spyglass with inscribed angles in the glass, and determined were the weapon need to be aimed.

Working as one the ponies rotated and angled their shoots. And then the pony gripping onto the siege weapon released a burst of magic through their hooves and into the rune engraved bronze of the metal they were gripping. The magic would instantly trace up to the Hornet's Nest and activate the five hundred runes engraved inside each of the holes. And then would each separate rune release a powerful and focused burst of force straight out of the holes.

The projectiles within the hornet's nest were lifted up by the kinetic force of the runes and launched out of each of their holes in a burst of dust and blue light, making it look like they were being fired by several small bursts of blue fire. And as each of the bolts were fired out of the box and it finally ran empty, it was swiftly taken off the bronze contraption, and an already prepared Hornet's Nest box was stacked onto the siege engine, ready to fire instantly.

Each of these contraptions released a shower of metal tipped bolts that shoot out with a rapid sound that was like thousands of darts being fired out of a thousand blow pipes. The metal tipped projectiles flew like small clouds of death for a few seconds, before impacting their intended targets.

The dragons on the ground struck by dense bursts of metal tipped crossbow bolts. Some were struck by more then one shoot, some were hit by the same shoot as the arrows spread out as they flew through the air. The metal tips of the bolts pierced through their wings and soft stomach scales, over thirty dragons fell to the ground, either dead or severely injured as over a hundred bolts penetrated their bodies.

Then the Energy Rods fired their own volley. The wooden frame had been remade into a metal frame in the shape of a V on a rotatable wheel. And the metal rod itself was positioned at the point end of the frame and was in a spiral form with a crystal sphere on the tip. Each side of the frames had a pair of handles, each which were used to raise and lower the angle of the weapon's aim.

It was based of the same design as the Hornets Nest's firing platform. Only a bit more bulky because of the added weight of the Energy Rod's metal frame.

A recharge was still needed for the rods to fire after firing but with the improved runic array in the rods and the sphere could the rods now hold up to five shoots before emptying out the magical energy. Or they could fire a single powerful shoot.

What the ponies of Baltimare used these for, was the first setting. For with the amount of dragons within and around their home, they could not spare time to bother powering up the weapons. And thus, all shoot counted.

The crystal spheres lit up with various manners of natural energy, mostly pure magic or fire because of the availability of these energies. And out from the spheres came bolts of intense light, no longer kept in the form of their natural element, but shaped into an energy bolt. There had been too many incidents when the energy fired went out f control and struck things they were not meant to.

A bolt of blue light, signifying it was made from lightning, struck the torso of one of the dragons, the bolt burst apart into a thunderclap and arcing sparks that struck the bolts sticking out of the dragon's body. The lightning passed by the normally protective scales and hide and into the blood stream itself, and a pained screech erupted from the dragon's throat as its body convulsed and twitched as the lightning coerced through its insides and boiled its very life essence.

As the sparks stopped the smoking body of the dragon just stood there, upright, mouth agape, smoke coming out of its throat, its eyes having bursts apart like microwaved eggs. The smoldering husk of a beast then fell down, dead as a smoked piece of beef.

Another dragon tried to evade a bolt of red light, it passed it by and struck another dragon in the head. A powerful burst of intense heat filled the air and when the smoke cleared was the soot covered face of the dragon blinking in confusion as of what had just happened. It was still relatively unharmed, but the explosion itself had burst its eardrums and it was had been rendered completely deaf by this.

Two dragons folded their wings in front of them to shield from the bolts. A clear white bolt struck one of them and there was a burst of chilling cold wind as the dragon's wings were suddenly frozen stiff by a one meter thick layer of ice. There was a loud resounding crack as the wings broke apart , revealing the completely blue chilled corpse of the dragon behind them, collapsing onto the ground, breaking apart into small frozen fragments when it struck the ground.

The second dragon was struck by a green bolt of light, and at first it thought nothing had happened, until suddenly it felt a great burning sensation through its wings and it roared out in fear and agony as it saw how its massive and beautiful wings, were starting to melt apart by a green flowing liquid. It inhaled and blew out fire upon its wings, trying to remove the foreign substance, but as it did, the green light ignited into flames and it screech out into agony, as it began to burn and melt apart from the super intense fire, which never seemed to stop burning.

It flailed around, slamming its burning body into buildings, other dragons and finally into the stone wall of the city. The flames spread like wild fire and the dragons who were burning by them screamed out in agony as well. And soon was half of the city covered in a bright green fire, burning with a burning acidic and rotting flame that not even a fire dragon could withstand.

That had been an Energy Rod, powered by the green and corrupting energy of Maleficus Victoria's fire. It had been discovered that by taking trees from the Everfree Forest and lighting them on fire, before letting the wood dry, caused a powerful and acidic fire to burn from them. It had been discovered by accident a year ago when one of the patrols of the Equestrian Armies by the Everfree Forest made camp near the forest and used some of the fresh wood as firewood.

The fire had burst into the air and burnt for over a day before finally stopping. It had been lucky none of the patrol ponies had died. And the unicorn and pegasus mages, who had been sent to investigate the incident, could confirm that the Everfree Forest had NOT spread to the burnt area where the fire had been burning. But the acidic nature of the flame rendered the soil black and lumpy, like freshly rotten manure that made plants grow at an increasing rate. It was a form of hyper fertilizer.

The investigating mages came up with a theory, that for the Everfree Forest to spread further, would the corruptible flames have to burn a living tree and not just a single branch. Thus had the Everfree Lumber been registered as a Mark Five Illegal Product, the first of its rating, only to be handled by the Equestrian Military and the Research Department of the Magical Academy of Canterlot, when it was officially completed.

The green fires had been set alight within a stone room and then a single orb had been pushed into the orbs and absorbed the energy. Had the orb not been enchanted to absorb large amount of energy would it have melted or exploded from being filled up too much. But even then was the weapon a bit incomplete. The green energy acted like a acidic oil, and would ignite with a single spark. But if it was not ignited, it would turn into a poisonous fume that would rot anything it touched for over a day.

Thus standard procedure to handle the Everfree Fire, as it was being called, was to light it on fire and NOT put water on it. Water only made the green fire explode. And though it removed most of the green flames, it had a side effect of vaporizing anything within ten meters with a high density steam explosion.

Luckily they only had one orb loaded with this energy and it had been pretested, with only one charge remaining since it was not safe to reload the darn thing. Thus were the Everfree Fire ammunition of the Energy Rod out and it could not spread anymore then it already had. Hopefully.

Thus the corrupting fire burnt and killed over thirty dragons and ruined half of the town in an instance, while more bolts of energy struck the wounded or the uninjured dragons, killing another fifteen or so before the Energy Rods had run out of energy. By now had the dragons decided to stop playing passive and surprised. And their retaliation was swift and brutal.

A group of five young dragons flew at one of the towers, spewing fire as they flew over them. The flames struck at the tower, the unicorns managed to shield most of the flames but dragon fire is a ferocious fire and not one so easily dismissed. While they managed to deter the flames themselves, was the heat of the flames so intense they broke down the magical barrier.

Seeing their targets still alive the five dragons flew down and landed on the edges of the tower, reared back claws or opening jaws they struck out at the armoured ponies. Two ponies were grabbed and crushed by powerful jaws before being eaten in loud crunches, blood erupting from between the teeth and out of the lips of the dragon who was devouring them.

One was crushed beneath a large palm, her crushed corpses scrapped off the stone and licked up by another. Three ponies using the Heavy Ballistae managed to fire off one of the bolts into the gaping mouth of one of the dragons. The bolt was swallowed and the dragon blinked in confusion, before its stomach erupted as a sharpened tree trunk expanded out of its innards, it gripped its guts and screamed out in pain.

It had just the pain to do this before the trunk exploded, showering the entire tower in wooden shrapnel and dragon bits as its body, from neck to lower gut, burst apart, eviscerating the remaining ponies with bone and wood shards. The other dragons found their wings shredded apart by the wooden shrapnel and screamed out in pain as they fell off the tower, unable to fly.

Two dragons flew down on opposites sides of a single tower. One of them streaked by and with a snapping bite of its fangs, bit three ponies into halves, and crushed the Hornet's Nest they were handling between its teeth. While the other dragons tore apart the heavy Ballistae with its claws and impaled the crew on its claws, gobbling them up as it flew away.

One of the remaining ponies desperately cranked the Energy Rod from, FIRE to ABSORB, and as the dragons were flying back towards the tower. After he had done that he opened the hatch covering the staircase leading down into the tower. His two fellows followed and they desperately ran down the stairs, closing the hatch shut behind them.

The two dragons saw that the ponies had disappeared from and rather then risking their heads by tearing apart the stone structure, they inhaled and flew over the tower, and blew their fire over the tower. That's when something freaky happened. Their flames, normally burning and sparking like... well... fire. Began flow and swirl like a vortex. before disappearing into something that was glowing on the rooftop of the tower.

Completely stunned by this the dragons just hovered over the tower, staring in confusion at what had just occurred. But then they got seriously annoyed. A dragon took great pride in their power, and that included their fire, and for something to just absorb their flames so easily, it was easy to see that they might have gotten upset.

They inhaled and blew out an even larger amount of fire at the tower. and they kept it up, even as their flames kept being swallowed b the strange glowing thing on the tower. They flew closer to the tower, blowing more and more flames. Not willing to let this thing made by those prey animals beat their glorious fire breath.

Then a loud crack was heard, before there was the sound of shattering glass, before a rush of heat and light blinded the dragons for a few seconds, before the tower, and over fifty meters of stone wall around it, exploded into a one hundred meter tall and over one hundred meter wide fire pillar, the concentrated dragon fire, the intense flames did not burn their bodies, but the oxygen around them was snuffed out and they found themselves unable to breathe and as the intense heat of their own flames invaded their lungs, they collapse to the ground, dead.

For while dragons are normally immune to even their own fire do they require air to breath. And even if you breath fire, and even if you can swim in lava, when the air in your lungs is burnt up by the intense heat of dragon fire, which then invades your own air ways and stomach to find things to burn, you do not get a chance to regain your breath.

A massive blue dragon flew straight along the stone wall, its massive mouth opened and it bit down upon not the ponies or their weapons, but the entire tower tops. A mixture of crushed ponies, gravel, wood, stone and metal found itself being chewed and swallowed by the massive beast, as it broke apart the ponies' defences with far more ease then its younger brethren.

Another dragon, this one young but clever, flew down and used its tail to smash apart one of the towers, and watched with glee as the ponies on the tower fell to their death along with their weapons, crushed by the stone of their own defences. While an adult dragon just blew a lightning bolt at one of the towers and with a zap of light and the intense scent of ozone it vaporized the entire top, along with its defenders.

As this was going on was the massive black dragon flying above in the sky, and he was not amused by what had happened. Deciding to take matters into his own claws he folded his wings and fell down from the sky towards the point with the most defenders, the large stone structure on the mountain in the large pony village. His four clawed limbs slammed down with a loud crack upon the tops of the large cylindrical stone structures surrounding the big box shaped stone hut. He felt the familiar sensation of bodies and wood being crushed beneath his palms and toes.

Roaring out in victory he grinned as he moved his head to look into the fearful and pleading eyes of his next meat. It added so much spice when they cried in his mouth, so much wonderful flavours one could get by just playing with your food.

But what greeted him was not fear or despair, heck there was not even awe or even discomfort. The ponies standing on top of the large stone structure were glaring at him, with determination, discipline and courage. And it made the large dragon's stomach twinge at the thought of such baseline creatures even THINKING of being even ALLOWED to look at him in such a disrespectful manner!

"Fire!" The pony in decorative armour shouted. There was a sudden burst of projectiles from the various siege engines And the massive dragon grunted as hundreds of projectiles struck at his stomach, but then he let out a choked snarl as four massive tree trunks slammed into his gut and made him spew up smoke and magma from his mouth, causing parts of the towers he was standing on to melt as it dripped down over his talons.

With a furious twitch in his left eye the dragon shifted his hind legs and stood before the gathered ponies, his rear legs standing on the ground before the gates, he inhaled, he opened his jaws and a torrent of fire and magma burst out of his maw. The ponies did not back away, they did not quiver, they did not falter. They stood valiant in the face of death, and they died standing, even as their bodies were burnt to ashes and the stone beneath them melted.

A smug grin grew across his lips s he surveyed the destruction of the ponies' stone structure. That's when he noticed a glint of something, and he barely had time to close his left eye before that decorated pony, suddenly slammed a strange metal object against his eyelid. And in a great shower of sparks,drew a jagged mark over his left eye. His tail instantly reacted and lashed out like thunderclap, striking down the pony into the courtyard of his destroyed home.

The massive best rubbed the mark on its face before looking down with a glare at the tiny figure who had dared to injure him. And as he lowered its massive head to glare at the broken ,but still alive, shape of the pony, he began to growl out a vicious message to the pony, smoke, ash and embers bursting out of his mouth and nostrils as his anger boiled beneath his thick hide. "You have done a big mistake thinking you can take on beings like us! You prancing little grasslickers will regret ever trying to stand up to the might of dragons. Your home, your kin and your very race, shall burn."

"Hehehe. We may die here. But We hath won this battle fiend. Our citizens art safe and We hath warned Our nation of thy approach. And they and Our Princess shalt bring thee down to thy doom. Thou. Shall. Fall. Before. Equestria. Beast. Hehehehehee-" Captain Iron Wing of the Order of the Golden Cross died smiling, his final mocking laughter ending as the massive claw of the black dragon slammed down upon his prone shape, a loud crunch echoed across the ruins of the burning castle as the last of its defenders were put down.

The black dragon growled and glared at the bloody smear that had been the cause of so many of his kin dying. He was furious, he was going through such a rush of hatred and anger of which he had never felt ever before. But he had not grown this old by being careless or stupid. Size, power, hoard size and age, those factors made up the social factors of dragons, and he was one of the oldest of the species and he was not going to let some bite sized herd animals defy his right as an apex predator.

But he was not stupid, he could not show weakness before his fellows or he would no longer have control over them. He would have to convince them, both the easily influenced young and stupid and the older and ore smarter of his kin. But he had centuries of experience and knew just how to motivate even a lazy and unmotivated slug like dragon.

Turning to face his fellow dragons the massive beast crushed the remains of the pony in his palm and growled out to them as smoke and embers erupted from between his teeth. "These morsels have grown a bit too arrogant in their folly. We shall show them the errors of their ways. By burning down their stone huts, devouring their kin and destroying their little kingdom. One. Piece. At. A. Time."

The dragons around him grinned widely and roared out in eagerness, their flames gushing out into the sky like geysers of fires. All the while standing within the burning ruins of what had once been Baltimare City. The fields around the city, burning into ashes and there in one of the burning fields, laid a badly bent and burnt scythe. Just a short distance away from the burning ruins of a once large farmstead.

[End Battle Theme]

(Scene Skip)

Achilles, the disguised form Maleficus, looked down upon his designs. His various attempts at utilizing metal, crystals or wood had not worked as he had intended. None of the metals or crystals could harness the ambient energies of the world and turn it into a steady power source. If the ponies could, he did not know, but he knew that he needed more time and effort to properly figure out a way to make the mana engines.

After fifteen various kinds of failures, most of them explosions or duds, he had decided to think over something different. Rather then creating an engine to create the power he needed, he would utilize a magical array, that would have to be powered manually, but would maintain its power for long periods of time. But for the array to work, he needed to have a properly made surface to put it on. The more compelxx the array, the larger the surface needed to carve it.

To make the array permanent, he would have to carve the entire network of runes, lines and pentagrams into the surface he wanted it to work on. Thus far had he been trying to combine the runes of Earth and Wind with the pentagrams and array patterns for Power and Time. It was not entirely working, he had only been making tests on some big boulders, it had made them spin around for... well two hours and not stopping. Butit was not his intended result.

"Okay... I have to link the lines of runes into the pattern of the pentagrams. Which I will then have to connect through a larger set of runic lines to link the array together. But even then..." He contemplated and looked upon his various notes and prototypes scattered across his workshop desk in his tent. He had been working on away to great a power supplier for a magical effect on a larger scale, but there was more then one problem, but the biggest one was pretty important.

"Just... what do I do with it?" That's right. Maleficus had been working out this entire new kind of conductor for magical power and even the ground works for a mana engine, without figuring out just what to do with either of them. Sure he had thrown out some random ideas about enchanted carts, wagons, cars or even trains. But he had not actually figured out how to even apply it in practice rather then theory.

Sighing he decided to take a break and walked out of his tent and looked around the camp as his horses worked. There were high activity across the campsite, he had even created new horses and applied knowledge to them to create them as the modern horses of the world having gathered together. It was a work in progress and they looked more like nomads then soldiers, but it fit with what he was building up.

He walked past a pair of mares giggling while discussing something ,and felt a shiver at how lifelike they had all become since he gave them their personalities and knowledge. It felt just... weird watching what was essentially artificially created flesh puppets with the biological age of toddlers acting like long lived adults.

The disguised alicorn walked past a tent designated as the mess hall for the horses, when something white suddenly flew out of the tent and got stuck in his mane. He blinked as he pulled off the thing that had found itself on his head, and stared at what he saw. "What the?"

It was a piece of white parchment, folded, into the shape. Of an airplane. It was a paper airplane. The thing was just so... innocent and yet so utterly bizarre that he found himself staring at it in utter confusion. But then... a twinkle of an idea began to roll in his head. And he slowly began look towards the piles of lumber his troops had been gathering. and a small smile grew upon his lips, steadily growing into a wide and gleeful grin. As he got a very interesting idea.

He turned his head and looked into the tent were many of his horses were eating or tossing paper planes around. And he whistled, loudly, there was a sudden silence as all of the horses turned to look at their creator, who grinned and waved a hoof. "Hey. Gather everyone. I have something important to tell you."

Maleficus then left the tent, hearing the horses scrambling to deliver the news. He stopped by one of the big piles of lumber, and levitated one of the pieces of the the pile, and began to carve the entire thing into a different shape. It took a few tries before he felt content in the look, but he finished making the shape before all of the horses had gathered around him, with a respectful distance.

"Ah excellent." He said as he finally took notice of the horses. He then levitated the newly carved wooden shape in front of the group and asked them a question.

"Does any of you, know what this is and how you make one? Show of ha-I mean hooves if you do." There was a moment of silence as the horses looked at their creator's latest work, before all of them raised their forelegs into the air.

"Wonderful. Now. Do you know you need for this thing to be of use?" There was another brief moment of silence, before all of the horses nodded together. And a grin grew on the face of Achilles, as the mind of Maleficus worked out its latest idea.

"Excellent. Now. I want all of you to gather whatever wood you can. And get to building those. We got a lot of work ahead of us so do be ready for a lot of overtime." The horses all saluted before moving out, grabbing saws, knives, hammers, mallets, nails, ropes and many other things. And then they all began to pull out pieces of lumber. and work them into shapes.

As they did this were another group of them gathering buckets, cauldrons and brushes, before moving into the cave and forest to gather material.

And as this was happening was Maleficus working on his own project, the wooden object he had just recently made. And along its entire length and flat end, he began to carve, a runic pattern, that would take on the shape of pentagrams that would link together into an array.

*If this works will nothing be the same. Thus I better keep it only for my own forces for the moment. They will keep this a secret from anyone who would misuse it, after all, I programmed them loyal to me so I know they will keep this safe.* He thought to himself as he craved out the markings in the wood, while floating over different types of gemstones,for testing.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 7 Days]

The Northern Road lead forward along the eastern fringes of the Foal Mountains.Normally it was a well traveled road with many patrols and travelers crossing its well made stone paths. But ever since the Second Crusade and the massive earthquake had patrols turned scarce because of the amount of damage needed to be repaired, travelers traveled less because of the lack of protection.

But some still dared to take the path. And one of these groups were the Wind Strider Clan. Their caravan of wagons pulling along the stone road towards Blackstone Keep, just mere hours away. The dark stone structure and its massive towers and walls could be seen beyond the rising hills and small mountains the road was moving around. As it had been built to prevent as much issues as possible when building it. Thus flat ground had been a preferred option rather then making tunnels or steep paths unless there were no other options.

Wild Whip was fidgeting nervously as he walked next to Gold Digger, the two had been close together ever since that awful night all those days ago. The two never left each other's side for long and they had even gone so far as to start sleeping in the same bed all the time, their nightmares less of an issue when they were close to one another.

For several days had the Clan been traveling north, trying to reach the Blackstone Keep to find a way to properly settle down, the recent fight that ended with their old chief and elder dead, proving that they needed to adapt to survive. Their passion for treasure hunting, history, crafting and exploring would not be put aside however, they did not intend to just stay idle.

But they wanted a home. A place they could stay at, were their families could be safe without the risk of the nomadic lifestyle they had endured for so many generations.

Gold Digger did not mind settling down, she still had a love for digging for treasures, but she could sate her curiosity by learning about the treasures others found. And now that she was in a dedicated relationship again, she would not be the clan's Comfort Mare anymore. Many stallions felt this was unfair, but the mares found it romantic and a relief knowing that they would not be risking their stallions visiting another mare not part of their herd.

Wild Whip was a bit uncertain about it all, but he was going to support gold Digger all the way, especially considering she was pregnant, with her having gone through pregnancies before, the mare knew what she was talking about. Her other children supporting her and her new fiancee, even if some of them made joking threats to castrate him if her hurt their mother.

The young pegasus stallion was nervous, because he had been working up his courage a lot lately. Gold Digger's care and sexual attention had helped his confidence a lot but he was still fidgeting when making decisions. And what he was deciding was something rather important.

But the thought on that was removed from his mind as one of the scouts from the clan came flying down from the air, carrying an unconscious Golden Cross Knight pegasus who looked like she had been flying through thorn bushes by the amount of scraps and bruises on her body.

"Chief Ancient Ruin! Ah found an unconscious knight! She was nearly killed by wolves an' wild cats!" The scout shouted out as he landed in front of the caravan, the unconscious knight resting over his back. Wild Whip looked ahead in curiosity as their new chief Ancient Ruin stepped forth and began to examine the unconscious knight.

"Get her in a bed, care fer her wounds, and prepare some food an' water. We shall take her with us to da castle." The scout nodded and carried the unconscious mare to the wagon where one of the clan's more medically taught families lived. He watched as the unconscious pegasus was carried inside and looked at Gold Digger in confusion.

"Why da blazed do ya think that knight was doin' out here bein' mauled by beasties? Were they lost or somethin?" It was weird since the knight was a pegasus and the castle was just around an hour's walk away, less so by flight.

The mare looked curious about this as well but just shrugged and bumped her side against her stallion's and nuzzled his cheek. "We can wonder about that later stud. Let's keep movin'. We're not far now."

Nodding to his lover the young pegasus kept up with her as they walked down the road. The large structure of the black fortress growing ever closer.

After around an hour or so they reached a small village built by the base of the mountain. It was more like a hamlet, around ten different buildings. There was a single gatehouse built out of the cliff of the mountain side, there was no wall connected to the gatehouse, instead was the mountain side filled with small paths, each connected to a small doorway in the mountain side. While a single ten meters wide road went up to the black fortress in a zigzag pattern, to allow wagons and siege weapons to reach the castle interior.

There was a lot of activity in the village, ponies walking around, shopping, working, talking and singing. A lot of laughter and cheer, the village was a recent built one, only a year old, but it was growing very fast because of the protection and wealth of the Blackstone Keep and its owners the Knightly Order of the Golden Cross.

"Wow that is darn impressive." Ancient Ruins whistled out as she looked up at the big stone structure sticking out of the mountain top. The sheer size of the beast of a castle was very awe inspiring, especially so considering that it was easily standing at more twice the size of the castles of Canterlot, Baltimare and Fillydelphia.

"Well we better get started y'all! Da sooner we can talk to da shiny knights da sooner we can get ta work!" There was a cheer from the other nomads and the new chief felt a bit more confident at their joyful chorus. As their clan approached the gatehouse at the base of the mountain, where a pair of knights noticed them, and one of them struck a large bronze gong, two times, signalling the castle of their arrival.

After thirty minutes or so had a group of knights come down and exited the opened gates, a large Unicorn dressed in Bronze Plate, wearing a purple mantle with a purple circle and golden star on his left shoulder pauldron, moved at the front of the group. He was easily the most decorated of the knights and thus was probably the one in charge, or a representative of the Order. Ancient Ruins straightened herself, she needed to prepare herself to speak to this big shot of the Order, even the good knights had some bad foals among them from time to time, no matter their gruesome training and personality tests.

As the group of knights stood before them stepped the large unicorn before them and gave a short bow in greeting. Ancient Ruin could not help but notice how buff the unicorn was, those muscles looked more fitting on an earth pony. And then he spoke up, in a voice that almost made her knees weak, that voice was like the dark echo of an ancient catacomb, mysterious and deep. "Welcome to the village of Blackstone Keep, We art Master Knight and Grand Templar Rock Steady, Caretaker of Blackstone Keep and Commander of all troops of the Order of the Golden Cross located out here in the East. What art thy business here and how may We aid thee?"

*Okay, way bigger big shot then Ah'd expect. And a far better lookin' unicorn then Ah'd ever thought possible.* The mare thought while trying to not make a nervous twitch appear on her face, this was her first diplomatic talk as chief of the Wind Strider Clan, she could not mess this up!

So she took a calming breath before she spoke up. "Ah am Ancient Ruins, new Chief of da Wind Strider Clan an' new Head of da Lore Seeker Family. Me an' mah kin wish to find a place ta settle down at, to plant our roots. So our families an' friends can have a place to be safe an' sound."

"Your clan's fame is far and wide milady. And you have a most worthy endeavor as wells. We of the East Branch of the Knightly Order of the Golden Cross will be more then willing to aid you in settling down." The big unicorn's warm smile made the chieftainess flustered but she bit through it and nodded, while reaching out with a hoof to shake the big... warm... and... strong... hoof... of the stallion. Avoiding to look him in the eyes as her face was starting to turn red, unable to see how the Master Knight looked a bit confused as of why the mare was acting so strange.

Coughing a little as her clan began to cheer she tried to change the subject, the curios stare of the Commander making her feel a bit nervous. "Ah. Right. Our clan found one of ye knights in da woods on our way here. She was badly wounded by wild animals, apparently fell unconscious when our scout found her. We have her in one of our wagons. Not sure why she was in da woods, but Ah recon she was on important business if she risked her life like dat."

The Knight Commander's face turned serious and he nodded. "Thank thee for aiding one of our own, though we doubt she come from Blackstone Keep. And yes, it is strange for on of our knights to risk their health like she hath. The situation must be dire for her to be willing to take such risks. We shall take her to the fortress and help her to the best of our capabilities."

He then turned towards his knights and nodded at them. The knights saluted and moved over to retrieve the unconscious scout. Commander Rock steady then turned towards the Chieftainess and smiled kindly. "We thank thee once more for thy aid of one of our own. And we hope thee shall find yourself at home in these lands."

"Hey Commander! It's Rapid Fire! This knight is Sir Rapid Fire from Baltimare! She hath a message for you! She be barely awake!" Came the shout from the knights in the caravan, the Commander looked in the direction with wide and startled eyes. He knew that young knight, she was the daughter of the Captain of Baltimare, Sir Iron Wing, one of the fastest flyers in the East Coast.

The group of knights came galloping forward, the barely conscious form of the pegasus knight being carried on the back of four of them. As they approached the barely conscious mare saw the commander and weakly pulled out a scroll from within the fold of her armour, and tried to lift it up to the Commander.

A big hoof gently patted her head and a telekinetic grip gently pulled out the message from her hoof. The kind face of Commander Rock Steady smiling down at her. "Good work soldier. You did a fine job, please, rest and recover now."

"Y-yes... s-sir..." The mare mumbled out before she closed her eyes and began to snore, loudly.

Rock Steady looked at the knights carrying the once more unconscious messenger and pointed towards the fortress. "Take her to the medical wing of the fortress, but be careful, she is badly injured."

They all nodded and moved away, one of them calling out to their commander as they passed him by. "No need to tell us that Commander."

"I hope we can meet later lady Ruins. but for now I need to return to Blackstone Keep, know that you may enter at any time during the day if you wish to talk with any member of our order." The chieftainess gave a short nod before she shouted out to her clan to get moving. As the clan moved on walked Commander Rock Steady back to the Fortress, not taking heed of his troops gossiping about the newly arrived clan.

He had far more important matter to consider. Like the message he had just received. *If Rapid Fire was sent then it must be dire news.* Commander Rock Steady thought to himself as he ripped open the wax seal of Baltimare and unfurled the message. What was written there, gave him chills.

This is a Message from High Knight and Crusader Iron Wing of the Baltimare Outpost of the Order of the Golden Cross.
Dragons have been spotted in the western horizon. They blot the sky with their numbers. We cannot hold them off, they are far too many. I will have the citizens hide in the Catacombs and Sewers of Baltimare City, as well as the deeper Dungeons of Baltimare Castle. They will hopefully be safe down there after we fall.
We shall fight to the last. But I know we cannot last in the coming storm of claws, fire and death. Thus we shall delay them as long as we can. And pray that it is enough for these dire words of this threat to reach you before the threat itself does.
I have sent messengers to all nearby outposts and to Fillydelphia City. But this one I send with my most trustworthy scout and daughter Rapid Fire. I pray she arrives safely and that Equestria is warned by this coming catastrope. For I know that my time is running short even as I am writing this.
Please keep her safe, and avenge the fallen, may Equestria prevail.
Farewell Rock Steady my old friend, farewell Rapid Fire my dear sweet child.
Ave Celestia, May Your Sun Guide Our Spirits.
Ave Equestria, May We Give Our Lives So You May Survive.
Signed, Sir Iron Wing of the Order of the Golden Cross

Rock Steady closed his eyes and took a deep shallow breath before he opened them again and saw that he had come to the gatehouse. He quickly pocketed the scroll and barked out orders to the ponies at the gatehouse. "Signal out for assembly at the courtyard!"

They jumped a bit but saluted and began to sound the signal for assembling at the fortress courtyard with the gong. Rock Steady ran past the open gates and began to rapidly jump up and over the cliff sides of the zigzagging road, not caring one bit that he might fall. Soon he reached the large gate and ran past it and nearly knocked over the two ponies about to greet him on the other side.

He ran past the open courtyard and slammed open the doorway to the central keep. Jumping over ponies and opening doors and leaping up stairs he took the quickest route to his office, where the crystal ball that connected him to Canterlot was located.

Grabbing the crystal he rushed out of the office and soon reached the large hall were the soldiers often gathered for meals, meetings, festivities or such matters. He ran through the hall and shouted out orders to the troops who were just about leaving to assemble in the courtyard. "All Scribes listen! Bring us quills, ink and parchments! All messengers art to prepare for take off on the double! All of thee art to meet us in the courtyard ready to work on the fly!"

The knight ran through the open doorway of the hall and rushed up the left staircase and soon reached the larger balcony that overlooked the large courtyard, were he could see his troops scrambling into position. They were all working over time to fulfill his rapid orders but they were still a big lacking in the execution. But he could not blame them since most of the knights in Blackstone were newly graduated recruits who were there to gain experience in the duties of knighthood.

And so he waited a few minutes, letting the final stragglers come out of the keep, before he ignited his horn and telekinetically held the Communication Orb before him. And then he activated it and as the line on the other side answered, he began to speak out to not just his troops but Princess Celestia as well. "This is Master Knight Rock Steady of the Order of the Golden Cross speaking to all knights of Blackstone Keep and directly to Princess Celestia!"

"We have just received dire news from Baltimare City! A day ago there was a sighting of a large mass of dragons from the west approaching the coastline! Sir Iron Wing has stated in this message that he and his troops have gotten the citizens into the underground beneath the city and the castle to keep them safe!"

The knights looked at one another nervously at the mention of the dragons. All ponies had been told stories about the dragons. But more those who had lived on the East Coast, their grandparents telling them about the dragons invading the lands to burn down villages and devourer their inhabitants. They had not thought much of the stories, but now, now they had just been given the truth. The dragons were real and they had already arrived.

"But the message also told me that he and his troops will not be enough to repel the dragons, but that they would be fighting to the last to stall them! We hope that Baltimare City has not fallen! But we cannot make such a speculation! Equestria is being invaded by a horde of dragon as we speak! We need to take action!"

At those words the knights all raised their heads. If Baltimare City had fallen then things had gone from bad to worst. Baltimare was the third largest supplier of goods in Equestria. For the city to have fallen would mean disaster to the economy of Eastern Equestria. Not to mention the lose of lives once winter came without the autumn harvest from the city to feed the southern half of the coastline.

"Thus we are giving out orders to all outposts of Eastern Equestria! Scribes! Write!"

Over a hundred ponies pulled forth quills, ink bottles and parchments and began to write down the message their commander was shouting out from the balcony. The sound of quills scratching paper and clicking against liquid filled glass echoed across the courtyard as the ponies tried to write down the message into as many duplicates as possible.

"All knights and troops of Equestria are to gather all civilians and take them to safety! All forms of siege engines and high tier magic is allowed for confronting this threat! Gather information about the dragons if thou can! But it is not your primary objective! The priority is the survival of the civilians, all other things are secondary! We shall weather this storm of fire and claws and bring down these invaders! Ave Equestria!"

All ponies, except for the scribes, saluted their commander and shouted out together, their voices echoing out over the courtyard and over the castle walls. The Knights of the Order of the Golden Cross would take actions, or all would be lost.

"Ave Equestria!"

*May the Sun Guide our path.* Commander Rock Steady thought with a solemn look in his face as he ended the transmission to Canterlot. If Princess Celestia wanted to contact him he would respond as swiftly as possible. But for now he needed to focus, for time was running out. And had been even before he received the message from Iron Wing.

(Scene Skip)

In Canterlot was the Day Court under way, Princess Celestia sat upon her throne listening to the laments of the nobles, the commoners and the organizations of her nation. It had taken up a bit of her time meeting these ponies and talking about their worries, needs and/or requests. It was making her feel like when she had been ruling from the Everfree Forest.

She was frankly glad she had made the court hours no more then three hours a day or she would have been forced to sleep in her office rather then her bed before she was finished with her other duties as princess. Though for why she was the one who needed to approve the patrol patterns of the parade units from Equestrian Order of Chivalry was anyone's guess.

The Princess of the Sun had put that stupid request in the garbage where it belonged since the parade would have been pointless. Not only was it pointless the route would have gone through half of Canterlot's main streets during the most active morning hours, and would have caused no small amount of traffic issues.

But Court matters were by far worse then the paperwork, since at least the paperwork was not a pony who verbally tried to make as much of a claim as possible by making stupid suggestions, crazy ideas or attempts at frauds. She may be a princess but she was no air headed fairy tail princess who just sat around combing her mane waiting for a strong prince. Although she could not deny that the concept of a handsome stallion taking her away from her busy life was not intriguing.

One of the court matter she had just recently completed had been about two ponies arguing about who owned a specific spot of land. The problem was that the 'spot of land' was the Everfree Forest. When she asked them where they had brought their 'totally legit paperwork' they both said 'some noble with a mask'. When she asked for an identification she almost facehoofed when one of them said that the mask looked like a peacock, while the other argued that it was a parrot.

Clearly the two were the victims of fraud, but were too stupid to take note of that. So she had in short lay terms explained to them that their paperwork were about as worthless and real as a pony trying to sell the Water of Youth while filling bottles with water from the city well, where he had made his stand. THAT had been an interesting court case, easily made her top ten of the year. And then she had told them that they had been fooled worse then a rabbit being told by a fox that it was a vegetarian, and believing it.

Both ponies had been rather humbled, a bit poorer, but wiser after this and had left the court. And both vowed to find the one who had sold them the fake papers so they could take him to the town guard, if they ever found him again. Which she seriously doubted they could achieve if they could not tell the different between a parrot and a peacock. But she just smiled and nodded as they left.

The white mare was about to call out for the next court matter when suddenly Solid Pink appeared by her side, carrying the glowing Communication Orb. Her closest aid raised the orb to her, the pulsing light glowing and dimming rapidly. "There is a call from Blackstone Keep, Princess. The amount of light signals it is urgent."

"Court is temporarily adjourned." The Princess called out as she grasped the orb and held it up to look into it as she magically activated the answer function. An image of Commander Rock Steady appeared within the orb, he was not looking directly into the orb, he was looking forward and he was outside from what she could tell by the cloud and sky above him.

He opened his mouth and began to speak out, loudly, his voice vibrating out of the orb as if he was there directly. His words echoing though out the throne room, making the ponies who had been about to leave, halt and stop to listen.

"This is Master Knight Rock Steady of the Order of the Golden Cross speaking to all knights of Blackstone Keep and directly to Princess Celestia!"

The guards did not stop them as they too were distracted by the sudden loud voice coming from the orb, this was the first public usage of the Communication Orb outside of the Second Crusade a month ago. And the message it was receiving, spelled disaster for Equestria.

"We have just received dire news from Baltimare City! A day ago there was a sighting of a large mass of dragons from the west approaching the coastline! Sir Iron Wing has stated in this message that he and his troops have gotten the citizens into the underground beneath the city and the castle to keep them safe!"

Loud gasps filled the air as mares and stallions felt horror fill their hearts as the words told of the impending terror that had already reached their nation's borders. The panicked ponies began to discuss and murmur among themselves while the loud voice of Commander Rock Steady kept going, the Princess' attention locked onto the orb, not caring one bit about the panicking ponies in her throne room.

"But the message also told me that he and his troops will not be enough to repel the dragons, but that they would be fighting to the last to stall them! We hope that Baltimare City has not fallen! But we cannot make such a speculation! Equestria is being invaded by a horde of dragon as we speak! We need to take action!"

Yet more gasps filled the room and one of the mares of the nobility actually screamed and fainted, as she came from Baltimare City. A guard was swiftly there to catch the mare as she fainted and was quick to put her on a couch in the hall outside of the throne room so she could recover. Princess Celestia's eyes had gone wide at these words, before they narrowed into utter and burning fury, her mane momentarily sparking into golden fire before assuming their prismatic miasma after she regained control over her temper.

"Thus we are giving out orders to all outposts of Eastern Equestria! Scribes! Write!"

As if by reflex began several guards, servants, civilians and nobles, to pull out parchments, quills and ink and began to scribble down the words of the Knight Commander as his voice boomed out over the panicking crowd in the throne room. His commanding voice strong enough to evoke the basic training reflexes of anyone who had worked, even just as an apprentice, as a scribe.

"All knights and troops of Equestria are to gather all civilians and take them to safety! All forms of siege engines and high tier magic is allowed for confronting this threat! Gather information about the dragons if thou can! But it is not your primary objective! The priority is the survival of the civilians, all other things are secondary! We shall weather this storm of fire and claws and bring down these invaders! Ave Equestria!"

At his final words there was a loud and resounding rumble of voices echoing out of the orb, as Celestia realized that the Caretaker of Blackstone Keep was speaking out to his troops and they were responding to his speech. She also took note that her own troops responded to his final words by saluting and repeating them along with the troops in Blackstone Keep.

"Ave Equestria!"

And the orb flickered out, the call over. And there was a moment of silence before the ponies scattered out of the throne room in either a reckless panic or in a focused and steady pace, going to spread the words not just all of Canterlot's Military Leaders, the Battle Mages, the Knightly Orders and the Sun Guard's High Captain. But to the civilians as well.

While their princess just sat in her throne, staring at the with narrowed eyes and an angry frown on her face.

Princess Celestia did not know what she had been expecting when the call from Blackstone Keep was made. But this. This was something she had never ever dreamed of. How could she? She had never seen a dragon, only the old stories and whatever lore gathered out of the ruins of the Age of Chaos remained and each gathered scrap of clear information on the fire breathing creatures barely filled a pamphlet, let alone a book.

Even the few recovered records of dragons showed nothing about their physical or magical abilities, only the amount of destruction and lives lost during their occasional raids. And she knew that this lack of information would be one of the biggest issues for the coming battles.

"Gather Our Generals and the Leaders of the Knightly Orders as well as the Arch Mages in the War Room. We will need to have a meeting and plan for the dragons. Canterlot and Equestria shall not be unprepared like we were during the Rattenfänger Siege." Solid Pink nodded and disappeared in a blur, making the princess chuckle as he could never figure out just how the mare could more like she did. Even when she had a tracking spell on her during one of the military exercises before she became her personal aid, had the spell just fizzled out and not been able to keep track of her after two minutes.

Getting off her throne she stood up and walked out of the throne room, she needed to prepare for the coming military activity. For she could not just fly off and leave the capital without sharing her orders with her subjects, she would be a poor ruler if she just left without words. No matter how much she wanted to fly out, armed to the teeth, and personally slay the fire breathing beasts attacking her nation.

For now she had to prepare a force before she could move out and aid her nation's people. Then, then she would march with the fury of the sun upon these invaders.

(Scene Skip)

Eastern Equestria, often just known as the East Coast, was burning. Dragons were rampaging across the skies, their fiery breathes and massive bodies tearing up the country side in a massive slaughter to avenge those who had died. Their feast had been spoiled by the resistance of their prey and they were not willing to let such insolence pass by.

A group of fifteen dragons flew towards one of the nearby towns, more specifically the town located just west of Baltimare City. The city was alerted of the dragons however and even before they had come halfway to the town had the civilians fled into the underground dungeons of the nearby fort of the knightly order.

And the Knights of the Order of the Golden Cross, had armed their siege engines.

Five dragons flew at the front, eager to rip apart and feed upon the insolent herbivores. But as their shapes flew over the first house of the town, a loud thunk was heard as the four Heavy Ballistaes mounted on top of the four towers of the fort, fired.

The dragon in the front got its head and neck crushed as a tree trunk suddenly expanded out of a tiny bolt and slammed into its face just below the speed of sound. The other four tried to move out of the way of the other three bolts, but one of them got struck in the side, several bones and organs crushed as it struck its side. The other two flew past them.

Before the corpse and the injured dragon could even fall the trunks detonated into shrapnel. The three young dragons who had not been hit screamed out in agony as their wings were torn to shreds by the wooden shrapnel. While the first five dragons crashed into the town buildings, three of them barely alive, but unconscious, the two explosive tree bolts detonated just ten meters away from the other ten dragons.

The shower of shrapnel caused fear and disarray among the dragons as they had witnessed how destructive they were not just now but earlier as well. They flew up into the sky above the city and began to bombard it with their fires, lightnings and ice breaths. But even as they bombarded the town from over five hundred meters above, the bolts kept firing up towards them and discouraged them from getting closer.

In the end the dragons set fire to the town, but they dared not approach it, fearing being struck by the siege engines. None of them were adult dragons, they could not take hits from such massive projectiles.

Thus they decided to leave the now ruined town behind, telling themselves that the ponies had learned their lesson.

No pony died from this attack, but over half of the town was destroyed. But this was a rare occurrence, for while the Order of the Golden Cross had fortresses, forts, castles, towers and outposts across the East Coast, do they not have them everywhere. For while they were the most numerous of knights in the nation, are they not numerous enough to post outposts at every single town and village.

And even those towns and villages who were defended by the knights, did not all fare well. Since only the settlements closest to Baltimare and in the direction of the north had been warned of the dragons. And that barely covered one tenth of the settlements of the East Coast.

(Scene Skip)

One group of four dragons flew over a large vast field, where in the distance they could see a tall stone tower sticking out of the road next to a village. They flew with unrestrained fury and evaded the bolts fired from the Manticore Ballistaes mounted on the top of the tower. While the rapidly fired wooden projectiles were good enough to handle bandits, would be war lords, beasts and cultists, were they of no use against these new attackers.

Wooden bolts would impact the thick scales of the adult dragons and with loud thinks they would bounce off as they had been tooth picks thrown at a cauldron. Though thankfully were the dragons still rather frightened by the weapons, remembering how their younger brethren had been killed similar projectiles. And thus they tried their best to avoid being hit by the projectiles. So the militia of the town and knights of the tower were able to distract the dragons long enough for the civilians to seek shelter within the underground dungeon of the tower.

The defenders perished to the last pony when one of the dragons grew brave enough and body tackled the tower, toppling it over, crushing the knights on and in the tower. While the other two tore down and ripped apart the ponies on the ground before they spewed fire upon the town, trying to scare out anyone hiding within the buildings.

But even as the fires of the dragons' breaths ignited the wood of the town and the rubble of the tower no more ponies came out. After the last of the buildings were burnt down to the ground had the dragons decided to seek another target since they could not find more ponies to eat with the ponies hiding beneath the rubble of the ruined tower.

Said hiding ponies would come out later during the evening, having been forced to push through the rubble over the tower. Their homes laid in ruins but their fields were still intact and the majority of them were still alive. they could rebuild.

Sadly enough however, was these situations not the most common. Since very few towns, let alone villages, were supported by guard towers. The most common cases, were far less lucky.

(Scene Skip)

Eight young dragons along with two adults stomped down through the streets of a town by the southern part of the coast. The ponies were fleeing in panic as the massive beasts slammed their talons and claws through their wooden buildings.

The villagers were not able to defend themselves properly from the dragons. They were fishers and scavengers, their weapons were no match even for the younger of the dragons who stood easily the size of a small hut.

Blood was spread across the ground as the young dragons gorged themselves on the flesh of the villagers. Their teeth tore apart pelt, crushed bone, ripped flesh and ruptured organs as they bit down upon the unprotected flesh of their screaming or dead preys.

Not even bothering with burning down the village the large creatures crushed the wooden huts in their hunt for meat. There was no mercy in their eyes, only hunger and anger.

A young filly hid between a pair of large boulders, her small shape covered by seaweeds as she clutched her eyes shut and tried to remain as still and silent as possible as her home, family and friends screamed out as the horrid monsters tore it all apart.

*Mama! Make it stop! Please stop hurting my family!* The little filly cried in her mind as she tried her best to hide.

After an hour or so the sound of destruction ended and the screaming stopped. She did not dare move however and just remained still and silent.

Then she heard hooves rushed over rock and she dared to take a peek out of the seaweed. Only to see her younger sister, running towards her location, she opened her eyes to shout out. When a massive mouth of razor sharp teeth suddenly appeared from above, and crushed her sister's body between its massive jaws.

The blood flew out from between the jaws as her sister screamed a loud and horrible noise that she could never ever forget. It sprayed out and struck across the ground, some of it splattering across the sandy ground before her hiding place, where she was forcing her hooves into her mouth.

She did it to prevent herself from screaming. While tears streamed down her eyes as she watched the foreleg of her sister caught between the teeth flail around as she screamed. Before it was bit off as the jaws closed down, silencing her sister as it crushed her body, and then the monstrous mouth began to chew.

Even as the dragons finally left, she did not leave her hiding spot. Nor did she look away from the spot where she had seen her sister get eaten, nothing but blood, the front half of a foreleg and strands of hair left behind.

And there she would remain for a long time. Trying to recover from the horrors she had witnessed and experienced, not even reacting, when some of the survivors found her. And took her to a safe place, she did not stop staring emptily forward, unable to make a sound.

(Scene Skip)

"Just a bit more! Get it to an height around three meters!" Cursed Blessing shouted out as he surveyed the work of his fellow horses. They had been working nonstop since yesterday, not even sleeping except for naps, alongside their creator. Chopping trees, making lumber, gathering tar, hammering nails, weaving linen, gathering gemstones, forging metal, carving patterns and putting it all together into several large structures.

Structures they were now raising into the air using wooden cranes, which were still needed to be manually pulled as they had not all of the material needed to make a more functional crane.

"Heave! Ho! Heave! Ho!" The horses chanted as they pushed on the large rotating wheels that pulled in the thick ropes. Slowly but surely the large wooden structure attached to the ropes groaned increasingly as its entire hull was lifted off the ground. Then, as soon as it reached three meters above the ground they tied the ropes to trees, iron poles, giant boulders and other big and solid surface to properly anchor the ropes so that they do not get loose.

This particular structure was 45 meter long, 3 meter deep in the center and around 7 meters wide. And as it was fastened and held above the ground, moved several horses beneath it and began to carved out the wood as instructed by their creator. With chisel, hammer and knife, they carefully carved out a long and complex pattern upon the wooden surface.

Another wooden structure was being raised into the air next to the other one. This one was a bit shorter but much taller. Around 40 meters long, 6 meters wide and 10 meters tall. It too was raised to three meters above the ground and was being carved on the bottom of its wooden surface.

Next up was yet one more kind of wooden structure, it was far more box like in shape, but while it was smaller then the two before, was it solid in structure. It was around 36 meters long, 10 meters tall and around 12 meters wide. And its wooden surface was covered by iron plates. But the lower section was not covered just yet as the horses needed to reach the wood to be able to carve out the runic engravings.

The fourth, and final wooden structure was not as boxy in design as the third, but was by far the shortest of the four structures. It was around 22 meters long, 6 meters wide, an height of 6 meters and a tall structure on its rear that was around 4 meters higher then the rest of the body.

'Maleficus, in the disguise of Achilles, grinned as he watched the four prototypes being made. Ad beyond their large frames being engraved with the runes he had prepare,d were several more of each type being made. He then heard something in the distance and looked towards the west, but could not see anything.

Then he took notice of something just beyond the edge of the mountain peaks. It looked like a flock of birds flying all over the sky. Only... now that he looked a bit more. they were far too big to be birds.

*What exactly are those things?* His curiosity sparked he pulled out his Interface Solid Light Screen and he connected it to the floated visual satellites and began to alter and shift until he found his own location, and with a slide of his hoof he began to zoom in and shift the view a bit to the right so that he could properly examine the east coast at large.

At first he did not see anything out of the ordinary. But as he got a closer view, he spotted something ominous. There was a large spot of black on the coast side, one he was very certain had not been there when he last looked from the moon.

Shifting and zooming his view he soon pierced the cloud layer of the atmosphere, and what he saw was shocking and not to mention rather disgusting. The entire pony town was burned down to a black crisp. Even part of the mountain castle that the city had been built around was burnt to the ground. And all over the wreckage were large, and colourful, creatures moving through the burnt debris.

And as he zoomed even closer. He finally saw them, dragons, dozens of them. Eating the burnt remains of ponies from the burnt down town. He felt his stomach churn and something try to rise up his throat when he saw the half burnt corpse of a pregnant mare bit in half by a dragon, who ate her bit by bit with a delighted smile on his bloody maw.

"Oh fuck me that's just disgusting! Fuck!" He shouted out and abruptly put away the light screen when he thought he could see the undeveloped fetus of the mare slide out of her half eaten stomach. Only to be eaten by the dragon like a lemon drop.

Maleficus hunched over and an acidic sensation and sour taste filled his throat and mouth as he began to throw up the food he had been eating for the last day. He was puking for a good thirty seconds before it stopped, and after having gasped for air for a few moments he seemed to have gotten control over it. But then he resumed puking another ten seconds.

Summoning a cup of water he gargled his mouth with water and then spat it out to rinse out the taste. He threw aside the mug, gasping and stumbling a little as he stepped away from the pile of bile and sat down on a wooden log. Putting his hoof and claw over his face he took deep breaths and slowly let them out, calming down his nerves after that disturbing sight.

Soon he removed them and opened his eyes to see the concerned eyes of Cursed Blessing looking at him, or at least, that's what it looked like. But the flesh golems should not have such an advanced personality design, yet.

"Okay... Speed up the process." There was a moment's pause as Cursed Blessing tried to register hat his creator had just said. But then his creator gripped him by the shoulders and started to scream him in the face, rage and utter disgust apparent in his eyes. Green flames began to burn out of the red fleshy veins all over his fake body, his eyes began to burn with green flames and pieces of his body began to burn off like ash. The emotion the alicorn was going through was making his magic going a bit... out of control.

"You heard me! Speed. Up. The. Process! Dragons are attacking Equestria as we speak! Complete this before sunrise tomorrow! We need to help the ponies before more of them are butchered!" Finally letting go of his creation Maleficus rubbed his head and felt like ripping out his mane. The danger to the ponies was tremendous! And if that scene was playing out all over the country, then more innocent lives would be lost to this senseless butchery!

So why had he been trying to make this point out to one of his flesh golems!? Was the shock finally settling and the stress was making him bonkers!? *Why am I talking to this guy!? He's not programmed for-*

"As you wish creator. We shall speed up the production." Cursed Blessing said, interrupting his creator's train of thought. The green flames burning out of the patchworks of his fake body went out with a puff, the damaged flesh regenerating in seconds, as the shock of what just made his mind go blank. So with a gaping face the disguised alicorn just stared at his creation and almost felt like trying to voice a question, then he just closed his mouth. Then he opened it again when the horses all responded to the order of their fellow, acting independent, annnnnnd after a few seconds just closed it, again.

Finally he decided to drop the subject. Instead Maleficus assumed his more natural form and ignited his horn as he began to trace across the Solid Light Screen, and examined the locations of the dragons. They were spread out all over the East coast, but the majority of them seemed to be focused in the center.

*If only I knew how to fly. If I just went out there running I would just have ended up arriving at a fucked up sight o butchery... Not that that doesn't make me feel any less guilty.* He thought to himself before he reluctantly dismissed the Solid Light Screen. Rubbing his head he let out a loud and long suffering sigh, before he decided to do something productive then just feeling sorry for himself.

Walking over to a pile of wooden objects that had yet to be carved he picked one of them up with his telekinesis and began to focus on working on carving out the piece of wood with the runic pattern he had prepared for it. The faster he got it done, the faster he could aid the ponies. He tried to just forget what he had just witnessed from his Interface and the actions of his creations. It was not easy but focusing on carving the wood into a pattern helped him feel less bad, and less... concerned.

*I mean... I could not have created sentient beings. My magic is not that advanced. I mean... That can't be it. I am not good enough for such a thing... yeah... that's right... not good enough...* As he held those self doubting thoughts in his head, he focused his entire attention on the wood he was holding. But unknowingly to himself, as he pressed the blade of the knife into the wooden fiber and let his attention of his surrounding disappear, something happened.

It began with a twitch, a knife on a nearby desk rolling a few inches. A chisel vibrating. More and more of these tools began to twitch and roll, until, with a burst of silent movement, they began to levitate into the air. The tools floated over to the prepared wooden objects behind their unknowing controlled.

A knife began to carve into the surface, while a chisel began to shape sockets for crystals. Together the tools began to carved out the runic array pattern the alicorn was working on. At least fifty different pieces of wood while working by hoof on one.

By the time he was done with the single object he had been working on, had the remaining wooden objects been completed. The scattered tools lying on the ground made him think that the horses had been working on them while he had been working on one. And it made him slightly proud to know that his creations were so efficient at their work.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 6 Days]

Equestria woke up to a new day. A day marked by the horns of war being sounded once more as the Gates of Canterlot opened wide to let out its forces. A majority of the Three Armies had once more been assembled, their goal was the East Coast. And while normally the armies would be more focused on infantries rather then support, was it the opposite this time.

Princess Celestia had spent the whole afternoon, evening and night planning with her Generals, Arch Mages and Knightly Leaders. What little they knew was that dragons preferred to fly above their targets and either breath some manner of elemental breath, most commonly being fire, that could burn almost anything. And then they would either use their massive physical strength along with their large claws, long tail and sharp teeth to tear apart their targets.

Dragons had the advantage in size, physical strength, magical resistance, physical resistance and had even their elemental breaths to consider. Thus it was decided that the forces of Equestria would focus on heavy ranged weaponry to take on the flying beasts and take them out before they could harm anypony else.

The Workshop of the engineers next to the Battle Mage's almost ready Magical Academy had been working overtime at completing new siege engines to handle the dangerous beasts. And Grand Master Grand Music of the Order of the Golden Cross had offered the support of his order's engineers to replicate the Order's siege engines for the Equestrian armies.

And by sunrise the next morning had the combined effort of the Order of the Golden Cross and the Workshop engineer,s, as well as hundreds of volunteers, constructed a massive arsenal for the armies. It made the marching troops look less like an army and far more like a massive caravan of heavily armed traders.

50 Heavy Ballistaes, 100 Hornet's Nest Platforms, 50 Manticore Ballistaes, 100 Regular Ballistaes, 50 Restrictas and 30 Energy Rods. All of them prepared with wagons and firing platforms for better targeting and maneuverability. It was the largest amount of siege engines assembled within such a short amount of time and the Order of the Golden Cross had emptied all of its stored siege engines within Canterlot to aid in the effort.

There were still the regular siege engines protecting Canterlot, but it would prove to be a rather bad decision to not have at least some of the Order's more unique siege engines left behind to protect the capital.

Princess Celestia had wanted to join in the march to save the east. But the nobility of Canterlot had protested that she leave the city, the ensuing argument between Celestia and her court had been... heated.

(Scene Skip)

"Thou want Us to STAY BEHIND!?" Princess Celestia's voice roared out across the throne room, her mane was just moments from bursting into fire, sparks and smoke emitting from her rapidly flowing cloud mane and tail. She stood before a group of nobles who were sweating nervously as they had just asked their princess to not rush to the east.

"W-well you cannot just... rush off! The city needs you here to defend it!" The stallion unicorn yelped out as he tried to put up a brace face in front of the glowing eyes of the alicorn as she turned her burning gaze towards him.

"Canterlot is far more capable of handling a dragon incursion then Our less fortunate subjects by the East Coast! We shalt not stand idle while Our subjects art being butchered by wicked beasts!" The Princess' stance was clear on the matter but one of the older nobles stepped forth to try and reason with her, with a rather, logical, if cold, explanation.

"Thou majesty. There is no easy way to say this. But if thee leave Canterlot. All of Equestria shall fall." There was sudden silence in the throne room, the only sound being made was the crackling sound of sparks emitting from Princess Celestia's mane and tail.

Said Princess turned towards the elderly noble and glared at him, not as harshly as the younger noble, but still glaring. "Explain thy words carefully, Bloody Baron, now."

Clearing his throat a little the old unicorn nodded and stepped forward as to speak properly before the gathered court. While he had retired as Lord of the Blood Clan was he still a powerful figure in the politics of the court and held much respect and influence. "With the sudden incursion of Cultists and Bandits in the east, we have taken notice of increasing numbers of similar lowlifes in the lands near Canterlot as well."

"Thou hath yet to tell Us a proper reason still Bloody Baron." Princess Celestia growled out as she tapped her left foreleg's hoof against the cushion of her throne.

The old noble just held up a hoof to ask for the alicorn to have patience, and kept talking. "We are getting there milady, be patient. Ahem. We hath received words from our grand nephew Bloody Courage that these lowlifes art not just some common thugs or deranged mad ponies. There art some of them who art descendants of the Church of Clucking Chaos, and thou know all too well how dangerous those crazies can be."

There was a moment of stunned silence, before Celestia's left eye suddenly twitched and she grounded her teeth in utter rage and frustration.

The Church of Clucking Chaos, once a group of desperate ponies who sought to offer their servitude to Discord during the Age of Chaos to not be used as toys at his whims. But it backfired, spectacularly, Discord found their worship and prayers boring and even worse, annoying. Thus he decided to liven them up a little.

He turned the Head Priest of the Church, into a pony sized chicken. And then he turned all of his 'followers' into chimeras of chickens, roosters and turkeys, while still being partly pony.

The cultists went insane and declared themselves to have been blessed by Discord and declared themselves the Church of Clucking Chaos and their insanity spread like wildfire. They enacted orgies, blood sacrifices, chicken dancing parties and insane self suicide rituals, sometimes at the same time.

With the amount of insanity and bloodshed they spread was it a wonder there were even any ponies left for Celestia and Luna to save. They had thought they had eradicated those insane monsters after defeating Discord, but apparently some of them remained. And she knew that none of her subjects knew how to handle the insanity of one of the C.C.C. Why they decided to shorten themselves to that she had no idea.

Glaring at Bloody Baron she stood up from her throne and stepped down to face him directly and she was practically snarling in his face as she reluctantly agreed to his words. "Fine. We shalt remain here. But heed Our words, We shalt not remain idle for more then five days, unless We hath words back by then, We shalt act."

She stomped out of the throne room and without looking back at the relieved nobles she spoke up in a growling voice before slamming the doors shut behind her. "Court dismissed."

(Scene Skip)

To put it mildly Princess Celestia was in a foul mood even as she sent all the forces she could to save her subjects in the east. And with the improved roads as well as the lack of a large amount of infantry, would the speed of the army be much greater then that of the march during the Second Crusade, it would still take time however.

Thankfully, even as the main arsenal of siege engines in Equestria marched down the main road towards the East and Princess Celestia reluctantly remained behind, were others moving on their own to aid Equestria.

(Scene Skip)

Upon a mountain top in the Foal Mountains were a lot of activity going on. And had been for two days, but since yesterday had the work been escalated to an even faster pace. The once forest covered mountain top was now bare of any trees, as were the surroundings of the mountain itself, which was now constructed with catwalks and wooden platforms for the numerous mine entranced carved out of the mountain.

There upon the plateau that made up the peak stood a veritable armada of wooden constructs never seen before upon the world, well this world at least. Held up by ropes strapped to improvised cranes the large objects were held tree meters above the ground of the plateau. There was a total of forty, ten of each kind of structure. And as the sun rose and brought its light upon the mountain, were their once shadowy silhouettes finally revealed.

Forty massive ships, made by the hooves of horses, designed by the minds of a former human. Each type of ship was made for one specific faction upon which the horses were based upon.

The largest of them were the Skeids, which in the ancient Nordic tongue meant 'To Cut Through Water'. These ships were the largest longboats in existence, used by the vikings during their golden era. The largest Skeid ever known of being made by man had been of around 37 meters in length.

However these specific longboats were 45 meter long, making them the largest ever constructed. Their wooden hull was treated with tar, paint and metal, giving them a dark brown base colour with golden runic arrays and painted old Norse runes across their surfaces and sails. There were forty seats for rowers, twenty oars on each side, and each oar was gracefully engraved with gold filled runic patterns as well as having gemstones implanted into the runic pattern.

And for some reason was a strange wheel attached to the oars where they were inserted into rower ports. And thick round shields covered the sides of the ship. It could hold up to one hundred and fifty horses easily with its length and surprisingly large space..

What ship came next was the ship of the Spartans, or rather, the ship of the Ancient Mediterraneans. The Trireme, one of the most infamous ships designs from the Ancient Times of Human history. Their structure was very solid, made for speed and endurance, for few ships could handle the war times and waves of the Mediterranean Sea. It has two decks and a large width and length that made it capable of supporting a lot of weight and people.

But those had been built for crews of two hundred humans, of which one hundred and seventy had been rowers. Their size and structure was more often then not built with the same measurements and no large differences. But these triremes were different then those made by humans. They were much larger and yet had no apparent rowers. Instead, sticking out of its sides, not out of rower ports or similar but attached to the structure itself, were inbuilt oars which were connected to one another by metal bands.

The entire structure was engraved just like the longboats, but had metal plating upon its hull as well. More specifically a fang shaped battering ram sticking out of the front of its hull. And upon the surface of its deck were ten platforms, each holding a siege engine, a ballistae, made entirely out of metal. But the ship held space in its lower deck for a crew of 100, and though it was far more static in its structure, then the ship it was based upon would it be a dangerous thing to face.

These hips' hulls and frames were coloured with red, white and orange with patterns of black helmets and black horses upon their sails.

As for the Samurai based horses, the design of their ships based upon the ancient Japanese war ship known as the Atakebune. A box like ship that in the human world was built with the concept of a sea turtle, covered with thick metal plating and manned with archers and soldiers. It was a clumsy ship, one often commonly to capsize and sink in the rough storms of the Asian seas. But it was tough and sturdy in design despite its flaws.

But this design was by far even more of a block of metal then a ship. It was 36 meters long, 10 meters tall and around 12 meters wide. And its wooden surface was covered by iron plates, both its wooden frame and the iron plating had been engraved with the runic pattern to allow it to function better, and as before had the pattern been filled with melted gold. Its front area held a large pipe of iron engraved with runes. It had no sails, only a thick row of oars attached to its hull, which looked quite a bit like the fin of a lion fish.

It was coloured black, red and pink, in a fish like scale pattern across its surface. In the original design there was enough space on the ship for over 100 humans, but in this design, it only had enough space for 50 even though it was larger. And one of those reasons were the pipes sticking out of its frame. One row of six on each side of the ship pointing straight outwards, and one row of six diagonally pointing out from the sharp corners of the bottom of the hull. Their function, unknown.

The final ship was the knight's vessel. And it was based upon an old and trusty design that had reigned over the Atlantic waters for many centuries, the Carrack. It was a three, or four, masted sailing ship that was developed in the 14th and 15th centuries in Europe, and would be the base for the major ship designs that followed. It was fast, sturdy and reliant, equipped with a good amount of fire power that helped it against pirates or enemy ships.

Instead of having eight cannons, four on each side, there were instead eight slingshot like structures the horses liked to call, well Slingshots. They just really wanted that name for some reason. These metal frames with large rubber bands and metal springs were as they appeared to be, giant sling shots, and their purpose was, to launch stuff. However while their design was pretty childish and innocent looking, if the size of a small ballistae, was their payload not any of those descriptions. They had four different kinds of ammunition to fire at a surprisingly long range of over three hundred meters, made possible by the metal springs used in the design.

And those were not all of the armaments on the ship. It could carry up to 80 horses with its compact design would it be cramped but it could. With its three sails and no oars, was its design of the four ships out of the ordinary. Though it looked rather slow in comparison. So yes, it had something more to it then sails and Slingshots, including a prototype weapon.

The Carrack was by far the shortest of the four ship designs constructed, but unlike the other ships was it built with a compact and sturdy frame. It had three decks and a separate tower like structure on its rear that held an impressive weapon. Normally that would have been the location for either the Captain's quarters or even the steering wheel for the rudder, but instead it was now a veritable guard tower which held what appeared to be a harpoon gun, a weapon once used to hunt whales.

It was built in a simple fashion, in the shape of a one and a half meter long and five centimeters wide pipe out of iron that was not mounted on a firing platform, it was hoof held weapon that had to be manually held, loaded, aimed and then fired. And it took more strength then one horse could manage, as the thick iron pipe and the ammunition weighted a lot. And the recoil was very much dangerous if you tried to fire it alone, one horse shattered his entire left foreleg and part of his shoulder and rib cage when the first test firing happened.

The iron pipe would launch the projectiles loaded into it by a set of powerful magnetic bursts that would essentially magnetize and launch the harpoons like a miniature rail gun. This powerful magnetic thrust came from magically powered runic arrays engraved into the inside of the pipes.

The Harpoon Launcher's size and ammunition was built at a scale more fitting for hunting other ships then whales, the projectiles were easily two meters in length and were each made out of solid iron with simple runes engraved upon them to make it possible to fire them without them just falling down.

It was so heavy even with the light weight runes that it required two horses to wield and use it.

Only the Carracks held this weapon for it was a hastily made and very much improvised project that Maleficus made during the night when he needed to figure out a way to properly handle the dragons. He was proud he could get the things to work, but only ten prototypes had been completed before sunrise and thus he decided to have them placed on the Carracks that had the highest firing positions to use them with.

Each harpoon projectile had a ring on its end, that could be attached to a collection of chains next to the Harpoon Launcher. The reason why the weapon was named launcher instead of gun was because it was magic powered magnetic acceleration cannon which utilized magnetic force to fire rune engraved iron spears. So it made more sense to call it a launcher then a gun, since it was not a weapon that utilized explosive powder to launch projectiles.

These were the ten ships made by Maleficus and his horses in the last three days. A force of over a thousand horses working together in perfect sync and with the unwitting knowledge of their creator, they had done it. Creating a fleet of forty ships within three days. Many of them were exhausted both mentally and physically, but they could rest one they got the ships moving.

With a grin on his face the disguised alicorn stepped up the stairs leading up to one of the longboats. He walked towards the front of the ship and stood up on the dragon head sticking out of the prow. He spread out his forelegs and called out to his creations. "Prepare all ships! Check all preparations! Double check all safety precautions! We are off to save Equestria"

The horses cheered and raised their hooves into the air and began to march up the ramps to their respective ships. Several of them would remain in the campsite to prepare a proper settlement for the horses' backstory to fit into the made up lore of Maleficus.

Horses climbed up their respective ships, going to their stations. While the horses on the ground level began to examine the hulls and the gold filled arrays twice over, chipping out any slight defects or repairing anything that could cause disaster later on. For the magical array engraved into the ships was the most important factor of these ships.

"Prepare to Attach Oars!" Maleficus shouted out to the horse Vikings, they each grasped hold of an oar and dragged a bit of the long shafts into the ship, a loud click resounded as a spring mechanism in the wheels attached to the oars clicked into place.

"Oars Attached!" They cried out as all of the oars had been properly attached to the wheel mechanism.

Nodding Maleficus gave the next command, while the other Viking Captains did the same to their own crews. "Start Test of Oars!"

All of the sailors hefted back the oars and began to make test movements with them, the wheels rotating as they did so And sparks began to emit from the tip of the oars as they swung them through the air. "Oars Tested!"

Around them the other ships equipped with oars, but not movable like the longboats, called out that all oars had been checked as well. Sparks emitting from all of the oars as they were tested.

"Check Sails!" Came the next order and two horses, who were already up in the crows nest, got out and began to check the sails as they were unfurled, the decorated cloth flapped out wide in the wind. And as it did, began some of the runes on the sail to glow.

"Sails Ready!" Was called out from all around as all of the sails had been unfurled and their runes glowing just the same. All minor faults corrected swiftly.

Nodding Maleficus walked over to the prow and and shouted out to the ground crew beneath the ship. "Report Check of Runic Enchantments!"

All ground crews beneath all ships responded back with the all clear, the runes upon all the hulls began to spark and glow golden as magical energy slowly began to be channeled through them. "Check Complete! Enchantments Are Ready!"

Grinning the disguised alicorn called out to all ships and pointed a hoof towards his personal crew as they gripped their oars. "Activate Runic Enchantments!"

"Activated!" The viking by the rudder cried out as he turned a lever located next to the rudder, and a loud rumbling emerged from the longboat. Sparks began to emit from the oars and moisture began to gather beneath the hull of the ship until it took the shape of a black cloud, sparking with electricity.

Soon all of the ships activated their Runic Arrays and dark clouds emerged beneath them, engulfing the lower parts of the ship, making it appear like they were floating on storm clouds. And that, was essentially, what Maleficus had been planning all along. For to the wood of the hulls the cloud was as solid as deep ocean water from the way the cloud's dark fluffy shape splashed against the hull and oars.

The ship shook suddenly and many almost lost their balance, but all managed to hold themselves straight, as the magically created clouds began to rise upwards, and with the rising pull of the storm cloud, rose the ship as well. All manners of cheers and hurrahs spread across the crews on the ships and on the ground as the fleet off forty ships, began to rise up from the ground. And fly.

"You have attained cloud based levitation! Creator! The enchantments are working! You have attained flight!" Cursed Blessing called out from down below as his Creator's ship began to rise more and more into the sky.

"Hahahahaha! Yes! We have attained flight! Isn't it amazing!?" Maleficus laughed out as he felt the ship rise into the air. A wild idea that had sprung to his mind had been made into a grand success!

It was the first time he had made such a complex runic array on his own, even the overly dramatic Anti-Petrification array he had made before had been nothing more then the same array repeated with some aid of the Interface on the moon.

He knew that pegasi could walk on clouds, he even knew that they could manipulate clouds. And he also knew that unicorns could manipulate clouds and weather. So that gave him an idea. To create a ship, enchanted with near weightlessness along with a powerful weather based runic array that would allow the near weightless ship to float on clouds.

That was the most difficult part, to make it so that the ship would be able to float on clouds, like a pegasus could. Once it had been near weightless, he added an additional set of runes, that acted as a sort of catalyst, that made water vapor,that which clouds were made of, act as solid matter for the ship's hulls. Combined with an artificially created cloud through runic engraved oars and sails would allow it to gain altitude. An altitude that could be raised and lowered, by adjusting the strength of the weightless enchantments of the ships. *I actually did it! I actually managed to create flying ships!*

The disguised alicorn called out to the horses left on the ground as they began to grow smaller in sight. "Prepare the next step of the plan Cursed Blessing!"

"I shall my Creator!" The shrinking figure of Cursed blessing called out as the ships rose higher into the sky. and as they did, the vikings began to pull on their oars, and began to row. Sparks turned into thunderclaps as the oars were moved and with each rumble, the ship moved forward. The oars enchanted to interact with the cloud and winds near them, to make it so that the wind streams and the clouds themselves, became like water for the oars to push through with powerful bursts of kinetic energy.

The other ships began to do the same, their oar not moving, but still releasing bursts of thunder. The secret being the large hamster wheel like structures within the lower decks of the ships, powered by the running power of two horses to keep the ship moving. Each ship had four of these wheels and could thus keep up with the viking's superior speed.

Lightning crackled out of the oars as the wheels turned. Flashes of lightning arcing out and crackled out over the sky, the black clouds beneath the ships growing large enough to cover up most of the ship's features if looking up from below.

With thunder in their oars, with wind in their sails and with clouds on their hulls, the horses began their campaign against the draconic invaders of Equestria.

(Scene Skip)

A lone knight of the Order of the Golden Cross tried to run as fast as he could through the woodlands, his saddlebags filled with news, information and most important of all, maps. He was the Captain of one of the strongholds of the Order, but when the massive group of over fifty dragons approached his castle from the air he knew would not be able to even stall those monstrous beast and called out for his troops to retreat and take the civilians with them.

But before he himself escaped he took all of the documents of his orders with him, there was plenty of reports from scouts and survivors about the effectiveness of the siege engines against the dragons and what had failed utterly. It was crucial to get it to Blackstone Keep.

For days had he been running towards the north. He knew the dragons were following him, he could see their silhouettes through the trees and among the clouds. Had he been a pegasus or even a unicorn he would have had the ability to escape or hide himself, but he was an earth pony he was ill fitted for hiding from such powerful predators. Nor did he have the training for it.

How much he regretted not training with the Peacekeepers when he had the chance.

His train of thoughts were interrupted however when a massive black claw suddenly slammed down upon the ground before him. He swiftly threw his saddlebag into a hollow tree and drew his two short swords and glared t the giant figure staring down upon him.

"Ah. Finally decided to give up little prey? Good. I was getting bored chasing you." Talos the Dragon Lord said with clear boredom in his voice. He had been casually pursuing this particular pony for over a day and he was rather annoyed, and hungry.

The knight did not verbally respond, instead he threw his left sword at the dragon's face. The spinning blade impacted the dragon's nose and dinged off with a loud cling, making Talos give the futile attempt a raised eyebrow.

He then slammed down his tail tip and caused the entire part of he wood to erupt into a shock wave as his tail struck the ground. There was a loud thump as the badly hurt knight landed on a wooden trunk of an uprooted tree. The same tree he had been hiding his saddlebag in ,which was now lying on the ground.

The large claw of the dragon reached out and grabbed the pony by the torso and lifted him up to his face and began to interrogate the less the bite sized herbivore. "I know you are a high ranking pony, you were the one to give out the orders before you fled your little stone hut. Thus I know you hold a lot of information I need. Now, tell me where I can find your so called Princess. I have a great desire to... dine with her."

"Go fuck yerself." The earth pony spat out, his bloody saliva hitting the snot of the dragon, who just rolled his eyes at the defiance of the smaller life form.

"Oh that's too bad. I was hoping for a better source of information. Guess I will just have to have one of my little snacks translate your notes for me." The dragon said with a dramatic sigh before opening his jaws and tossed the pony into his mouth.

"W-wha-" The startled captain had barely time to speak before the giant teeth between the large and powerful jaws crushed his body into paste.

After two seconds of chewing the pony knight's body was swallowed and Lord Talos turned towards one of his followers and held out the saddlebag containing the documents of the pony that laid upon the palm of its massive claw. "Have one of our little appetizers translate this, if they lie to us. Well, we will just have to ask the next one not to."

The other dragon bowed and pulled out a large wooden cage made out of tree branches and rope. And lifted it up to its face, the dozens of terrified ponies within shivering in fear. "The one who translates this, will be free to go."

*Into our belly.* The dragon thought the last part to itself with a smirk as it watched the ponies fight each other to be the one to translate the documents.

Soon the ponies would learn their folly and once more be the docile prey they were always meant to be.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining. 5 Days]

Yawning Achilles, aka Maleficus, stretched his limbs as he sat up from the pile of furs he had been sleeping on. The sky ships had been sailing for the entire evening. Yet no dragons had been sighted, only the burning remains of their rampage had been spotted. Thus the exhausted horses and their creator anchored the ships in the sky.

By raising the oars and spreading them out like a giant horizontal sail, while folding the sails, the sky ships essentially becomes immovable and just hover in the sky on white clouds. When the oars are not moving will the thunderclouds assume the shape and colour of common white clouds.

Unless a sudden gale capable of capsizing boats struck them, would none of them be moving. And thus had all of the horses and their creator taken a long deserved sleep. Most of them had been out cold when they had anchored the ships and had slept for over ten hours.

So when the first light reached high enough to light the ships, had some, but not all of the horses, woken up. One of those who had woken up was Maleficus in his disguised body, his mind used to waking up even with too little rest since he was human. It was actually bit of a sore subject to him, he could feel as if he had not even gone to sleep sometimes in the mornings because of this. In fact, ever since he had become an alicorn, he had, had the best amount of sleep ever since he finished high school. And yet he could not stop waking up when the sun if there was any way for the light to hit his face during the morning.

But contemplating his odd sleeping patterns aside, Maleficus was feeling rather well rested at the moment and could focus on the more important matter of the day. These rampaging dragons needed to be stopped before they could butcher more of the ponies.

Pulling out his Solid Light Screen Achilles spread out the flt surface and once more connected it to the visual satellites. He zoomed in upon the east coast and began to scan for the dragons. And he began to notice something, how the dragons were all moving to one spot.

*They must be regrouping... but what for? I better keep watch of how they move.* He thought as he sat down on a barrel tied down to the deck of the longboat. And as he watched his face grew more and more concerned, as he saw the dragons gather into a large group in the middle of the East Coast.

After two hours the dragons split up, into two large groups, moving in two directions. And Maleficus could see their destinations very clearly from the direction they were going.

(Scene Skip)

Blackstone Keep had been a stalwart symbol of the Order of the Golden Cross since it was first made. Commander Rock Steady had been the caretaker of this wonderful structure since it had been built, given command of it by Grand Master Grand Music himself. Even had a plague in his office signed by the Grand Master as proof.

That kind mare Chieftainess Ancient Ruin, had been rather impressed by the fact. Or could it have been how he showed her son the library of the castle? Well either way was Rock steady a proud protector of this mighty fortress.

But today would both him and his beloved castle be tested. Hard. As a horde of dragons had come by the morning sun, their vast numbers easily over a hundred strong. At the first sight of the dangerous beings had the signal gong rang out from the castle and out over the nearby settlements.

All of the civilians were swiftly escorted to the underground tunnels of the fortress and down into the massive cavern where the Sacred Sanctum was located. Rock steady had personally sent words to the Wind Striders' campsite for them to see cover within the mountain beneath the castle. They had offered to help in the defence but the Commander had not been willing to risk civilians in the coming battle, no matter how skilled.

Thankfully had the dragons still been quite a distance away and thus allowed him time to put the citizens of the are to safety. Now he could give his entire focus on handling these wretches who sought to bring harm to his keep.

"Accursed fiends! They have no idea the folly they are about to commit." Rock Steady growled out as he looked out from the main battlement of the central fort of Blackstone Keep with a spyglass at the approaching horde.

"We count at least two hundred or so dragons, thirty tower sized, seventy two story house sized and one hundred or so one story house sized." His second in command reported with a salute as he reported the number of approaching enemies.

"Good. If what Iron Wing wrote is correct were they numbering in the hundreds, not in the thousands, if we take out these we will have taken out at least two tenths of their numbers." The large unicorn stated as he folded down his spyglass and handed it to his second in command who accepted it.

"Are our siege engines ready?" He asked as they walked along the battlement of the rooftop of the fortress' central keep.

His second-in-command nodded and pointed out at each of the towers as he began to count out the armaments of the fortress. "Yes sir. Ever single tower is equipped with one Heavy Ballistae, two Hornet's Nests and four Energy Rods. The main fort hath been equipped with four Heavy Ballistaes, ten Hornet's Nests and over eight Energy Rods. We have ten more of each type of siege engine, including the ten Everfree Fire Charged Energy Rods, in storage ready to be pulled out in an emergency. We art just grateful we hath so many siege engines in stock."

Snorting Rock Steady shook his head at the statement, which was rather ridiculous considering just what one of the purposes of Blackstone was. "Feh! This is one of the main testing ground for the Order's siege engines. You know we get new siege engines ever sixth month or so whenever new ones are made or old ones are improved. How can we not have a good number of them? Now. Tell us what the situation is with the civilians."

Rolling his eyes the unicorn responded to his commander's inquiry, the two had been recruits together and even been part of the Silver Army before they joined the Order of the Golden Cross. And Rock Steady could never stop being such a know it all. "All accounted for, down to the last foal and pet. The cavern of the Sacred Sanctum is large enough to house them a thousand times over. Thy lady is safe and sound sir."

Blinking in surprise Rock Steady slowly turned his head and looked at his second in command with a curious look on his face. "What in the name of Tartarus' bloody holes are you talking about?"

Looking straight ahead, with a face that screamed 'casually innocent', the other unicorn just responded back with a bland voice. "Oh nothing sir... Just that Lady Ancient Ruins sends words of gratitude and wish you luck by the way."

The commander looked a bit startled at that and grew a little flattered by the words of concern from the mare he had bug to get to know recently. "Oh! Really? Ah... hmmm... perhaps we should send words back to her?"

His second in command's poker face impressive and it was impossible to see if he was being smug when he responded to the commander's muttering without even a hint of amusement in his voice nor the slightest hint of a smile. "Already done sir... along with an invitation for the victory feast. We suggest thou wear thy clean uniform, sir. And bring flowers."

"...Are... are you giving us dating advise!? Right before a bloody siege!?" Rock Steady stared incredulously at his old friend. The mere idea that he was being put up on a date of all things mere moments before a major battle was weird even for his old friend's weird attitude.

"Of course not sir... We both know thou would not even know the difference between a date or a siege anyway." His second in command said in a non nonsense voice, not even muttering as he said the last sentence in a slightly faster manner.

Rock Steady nodded, then the words finally registered in his head. He blinked before his eyes narrowed and he turned his head around to glared at his fellow knight. "That's right! ........Wait... what did you just say!?"

The front row of the dragons suddenly began to dive down, and fly at a lower altitude. They were trying to fly lower to make it harder to hit them.

As the dragons made this move the second in command pointed out and made a totally emotionless gasp void of surprise or shock at the sight. Heck even his face could not have been making a more false look of surprise unless it had been painted with hoof paint. "OH! Look sir! The dragons are making the first move!"

Rock Steady glared at his second in command and old friend and growled out a bit as he once more pulled out his spyglass to investigate the approaching dragons. "You and us are going to have a good talk after this!"

"Save it for Lady Ruins sir." The second in command stated while he began to walk away to join his own station at one of the siege engines.

His commander shouted out at him while still looking out through his spyglass. "Shut it Be Boop! We do not need your sass talk! By the Gods we wish you took after your other relatives more! At least they act funny."

"We art proud to say auntie doest approve of our manners and sees much of our family traits in us. She also asked us to tell thee to remind our Grand Master Grand Music to invite her to his wedding after this invasion." Master Knight Be Boop, nephew of Solid Pink, said with a monotone voice as he walked over to his own post.

*Do not ask! Ignore it! Ignore it! Do not ask! It is a trap!* Rock Steady frantically thought to himself as he tried to keep his focus on the approaching dragons. He did not need to know whatever horrifying secrets laid beyond that sentence nor what manner of crazy explanation there would be. Nopony should ever try to understand the workings of the Pink family, or their relatives. That way leads to madness.

As the dragons finally came within firing range the commander felt a sigh of relief leave his lips as he focused on the less taxing task of fighting off the foes of his nation. "Energy Rods are to hold fire until the bigger enemies approaches! All other Siege Weapons! Target either their wings, heads or bodies! Now! Fire at Will!"

There was a loud resounding collective of cranks as each of the siege engines were rotated and angled to aim their payload at the horde of dragons flying just above the tree layer as they were well within their range of fire. Then there was an nonrhythmic sound of prattling arrows, heavy cords being released and the sound of thousands of arrows and spear sized bolts whistling through the mountain air.

(Scene Skip)

Young Clash had always considered himself to be a proper dragon. Always trying to follow the steps of his grand father Talos' teachings. Things always worked out when you followed those teachings.

But this time it had been different. This time, the dragons had been the one hurting, by their own prey. That made Clash confused, and angry, like many of his siblings and elders.

Through out the land of the ponies the dragons had been hunting and feasting for three days ever since their devastating attempt of sacking the big stone village the ponies called Baltimare City, which they never bothered to remember. More then one of these locations had brought down a fair deal of younger dragons, even a few adult ones. This had lead to a great deal of unrest of gather among the dragons, their former prey was starting to fight back in a manner not befitting a prey animal.

Young Clash knew that things had gone rough, but he had not seen any need to try and return home, not yet. The sweet taste of pony meat was so exquisite, surely it was worth the effort of feasting upon these foolish animals? Grandfather was always right about these things and had not been proven wrong yet.

His grandfather knew he had to act quickly before there were some uprising youngster or elder who would rather retreat back to the homeland rather then putting down this uprising. For in his eyes this was a rebellion against nature itself, as herbivores had no business in fighting an apex predator, they were there to be eaten, and they should be honoured being given such a purpose.

But no, these lower beings had decided to rebel against their very purpose in life, in nature itself. and decided, to fight back. It was sacrilege to their kind and his grandfather and Lord, Talos, who saw himself as the supreme predator in the world, with none who had dared to fight back against any of his feasts or hunts. And thus saw only that this meant that the superior beings in the world, were his kind. Anyone else, were prey, and could not fight back.

These ponies, were going against everything he had ever believed in. And it was driving his already bad temper into new heights. He needed to make an example of these lesser beings and prove once and for all, that none should dare to stand against his kind, least they end up like the ponies.

Clash could understand his grandfather's anger at the animals trying to fight back against their prey. He just had a nagging feeling it would not be so easy to solve, but he was just a youngling, barely old enough to attract a proper mate. What did he know? His grandfather knew how to act on these thoughts and emotions, like he always had.

Thus on the eve of the first day of their entrance into these lands, and mere moments after he received words of the several dozens of killed dragons by pony defenders, he had to make a serious decision. And thus he had given out orders to capture ponies, and make them cooperate or eat them. And then eat them after they had done their jobs. For while his species was far stronger and superior then any of the preys they hunted. Could he not read the tiny scripture of the herd animals, more often then not tearing apart the flake sized pieces of parchment.

It was through this he had received words about a certain middle sized stone and wood village with an important pony fleeing. Thus he had personally decided to hunt for the pony, intent on discovering where the ponies had their main village. So he could sack it and devour their so called 'Princess', as to show them their place in nature.

Young Clash wondered what a Princess tasted like. It sounded sweet, was probably very tender too.

Through various methods the dragons had discovered the locations of the largest locations of the ponies. With the information about the big pony made mountain peak hut to the north and the large pony made pony stone village in the west, they had been gathered together once more by Lord Talos.

Not all of them had been gathered however, many of their numbers were still too far away or too busy indulging themselves in feasting upon the populous of the ponies to answer his grandfather's call. They would be properly disciplined once they returned home.

And from the sacrifice of three ponies they had managed to translate the scripts the pony leader had been carrying. One of those said scripts had been a strange looking painting of a landscape, apparently of the lands of the ponies. And from what those three ponies had explained, were the two largest 'castles' owned by the ponies, located to the north and the west.

Clash could not understand the purpose of these weird buildings an objects the ponies had made. Like the word castle for example. Castle, castle, it was a weird word for what was essentially just a big stone hut.

One of these so called castles was apparently called Blackstone Kasheep, or something with an Ksheep sound to it, hard to tell as you tossed the screaming translator into your mouth. Apparently it was the largest source of pony fighters and the unnatural tools used to kill their kindred.

The other was a weird place called Canterlot, or was it Prancalot? Who knows with these weird pony names. It was apparently the ponies' main home, their... capital? Yes that was the word. And there their super pony ruler Princess Celestia held command over them.

Young Clash was starting to feel rather eager in proving himself, plus engulfing himself during he feast with some proper tender ponies was something all true dragons should look forward to. But even he knew that they could not all fly off in one direction, least the ponies in the other location run away and hide.

Thus had Lord Talos had decided to send half of his numbers to the Blackstone hut to tear it apart. His words had been as specific as.

"Tear that source of these abominable things they think will allow them to stand up to our might to the ground and burn the entire mountain into slag."

Yeah Clash's grand sire and leader was clearly not in a good mood. And who could blame him? Their favourite food was starting to fight back and act against the natural order of things. Any dragon who held true to the ideals of Lord Talos would realize how wrong the situation was.

Thus he had given the command to one of his eldest followers, as well as his second oldest brood, Thorn. A large dark brown dragon with curled up horns with thorn like spikes along their curled shapes. He was large, strong and brash, even for one of the oldest dragons was he a rather aggravating person, even to other dragons.

Heck even Clash did not like his company, and he was his son. The big brute was more likely to bully others he considered weaker then himself then to try and earn their respect or awe.

Might have been why he had given the command to him, as to give him some experience and perhaps mellow out, or maybe just to not have to deal with his son's annoying persona. Who knows. All that the dragons truly cared about was feasting and then returning home to their volcanic homelands.

So while his grandfather went westwards with the majority of the older dragons, to tear down the main home of the ponies, went the other half of the horde, numbering of around two hundred strong, northwards. And young Clash was sent on the front line by his father to fly to the big stone hut called Blackstone.

Their wings were strong and even their largest or clumsiest of flyers could fly at neck breaking speeds. Like a flock of massive birds they streaked across the sky, their large shapes blotting out the sun, while their shadows crossed the ground. Their eyes were focused upon the northern horizon, looking past blurring woodlands, fields and mountain peaks. Searching with wicked glints in their slitted eyes.

And as the sun rose on the third day they saw it. The large black structure stuck out like a sore claw out of the jagged mountain peak, mocking the dragons of what should be possible by such weak creatures. For the structure was something worthy of the glorious dragons rather then these tin little herbivores.

*There it is!* Clash thought to himself with a triumphant grin on his face. The young drake could see the big stone building as he and his kin came closer and closer. Then the leader of the first wave began to make a dive and fly shallowly across the tree lines.

Young Clash followed, knowing that his elder knew best in how to handle the ponies' weird weapons. He flew downwards alongside his fellows and began to zigzag across the tree lines, making himself a far more difficult target.

That's when a burst of black dots flew out from the stone structure, growing form tiny to humongous in mere seconds. And several of them expanded outwards into massive tree trunks. All of these projectiles were meet by a sudden gush of fire, which burnt down a large amount of them.

However, while many of the smaller bolts were burnt to ash, was young Clash and his kin, unable to stop them all.

The young drake let out a roar of pain as a sharp sensation split through his wings as four different bolts struck through his wings and joints. He tried to retain his altitude but he found himself stumbling through the air, and barely had time to blink before his head impacted a large pine tree, and he blacked out. A weak thought of how everything was wrong, being the last thing in his mind before he lost conscious.

But the fall of the young dragon was ignored by the rest of his kin as they charged towards the large stone structure.

Of the twenty dragons who charged as the first wave would none of them reach the castle as another volley of projectiles tore them asunder. The older dragons could resist a lot of damage, but even they could not handle tree sized javelins striking their heads and exploding with the force of a volcanic geyser eruption.

The second wave flew from the higher ground. Another group of twenty, this time only the exploding tree spears were used, as the smaller bolts were unable to reach so high. Explosions of wooden shrapnel and kinetic force covered a section of the sky as the wave tried to dive down over the castle's top to attack it from directly above.

But the ponies' defences were not as limited in maneuverability as they had thought. For the platforms holding the siege engines were suddenly rotated back so that they were facing straight up. Another volley shoot out in a concentrated burst of heavy ammunition. The enlarging bolts flew up and expanded into what looked like a flying forest before they struck the ten remaining dragons, the cuing explosion tore them all asunder.

Four dragons slammed down onto the castle's courtyard, the remaining six crashed into the mountain sides around the fortress. Twenty ponies got crushed by the falling bodies while another thirty got injured.

But now the dragons had decided to do another tactic. For while their current leader was brash and arrogant, did it not mean he could not learn from his mistakes. And thus he gave the command for the remaining one hundred and sixty dragons to split apart into four groups of forty and attack the castle from four fronts. East, West, South and above.

For while the ponies had a lot of powerful weapons, were they far too few to take out so many dragons as once.

And thus four large strike forces took shape and flew off to attack the castle from three sides and from above. The ponies adjusted their weapon's aim accordingly, focusing most of their defences upwards but also dealing out a lot of projectiles towards the other three flocks. Even bolts of energy now shoot at them, striking with explosive force of various types of elemental projectiles.

But it was still not enough and even as fifty dragons fell to the attacks, the remaining one hundred and ten acted upon the next step of the plan. With loud suction sounds the flying behemoths inhaled air deeply into their lungs just as they approached the large stone structure. And then as they passed above it, or came closer from above, they opened their maws and released a gush of fire, ice or lightning upon the siege engines of the castle.

Ponies screamed and died as the entire upper section of the towers, walls and central keep of the castle erupted into explosions of dragon fire, ice and lightning breaths. After their initial bombing run the dragons flew northwards as to by pass the castle and prepare another attack.

Then came the biggest flaw of the plan. Even though the dragons took out the majority of the weapons firing at them, they had been coming in large numbers from four different directions. With only one other point of exit. So the air space just north of the castle, was suddenly flooded by the collective number of a hundred and ten adult and elder dragons, at the same time.

It was an utter cluster fuck worthy of its own description in a dictionary for the top 100 'Stupid Ideas' in the world. There was no other way to explain or describe the mess that followed. And it was also one of the reasons why you make reconnaissance and proper planning actions whenever possible, as to NOT mess up like the dragons just did.

The dragons could not maneuver properly in the air when in such a tight formation. They were essentially hitting each other with their large wings and whipping tails. Anger, frustration and confusion filled their ranks as they tried to figure out a way to fly through the mess.

Someone flew left, crashed into another, causing both of them to struggle as they lost altitude. Their struggling shapes slammed into the ground bellow the mountain, their bodies tumbling across the woodlands, tearing up a long line of trees as they crashed through them. Their broken bodies eventually stopped deep within the woods, motionless.

Another tried to fly up, only for her head to slam into the crotch of a male. The infuriated dragon male roared out in pain and anger as he lashed out with his large rear claws to try and gash her in the face. He missed and hit the wing of the dragon flying just behind him.

The dragon's wing got badly shredded and it roared out in pain as it started to stumble in the air, it grasped out to try and gain support, and both of its large claws reached out and grabbed hold of the tails of two much smaller dragons. They could not maintain their flight with the added weight of the much bigger dragon and they crashed into the struggling male and female dragon.

But then came the biggest danger for the frantically struggling dragons. The tall mountain peaks of the Foal Mountains, for the cloud covered peaks were not all smooth or covered by green forest. There were several jagged, rough or pointy peaks that rose up like giant daggers and swords through the cloud layer. And with the dragons flying at such an erratic manner, they could not properly focus to fly safely or high enough for it to be safe, they tumbled straight through the cloud layer.

Five dragons struggled against each other, roaring and screeching as they fell down through the air. With a loud crack they impacted the side of a small mountain. None of them would fly, some of them would not even live to see the coming day, as the force of the impact had been enough to crack the stone they struck.

Their bodies had hit with enough force to break wings, limbs and necks like twigs. Thus the five broken dragons fell silent as they hit the mountain, and then after a few minutes their slack bodies began to roll down the mountain side. They rolled down like rag dolls through stone, sand, dirt, grass and trees before disappearing into the valley below, a cloud of dust and dirt covering the area.

Four dragons tried to fly in opposite directions, from opposite sides, they impacted each others' heads in a comical fashion. They had no time to start a fight as they suddenly slammed into the side of a tall mountain peak, their skull buried into the solid stone. Their heads were essentially burrowed into the stone and their horns wedged stuck leaving their unconscious bodies hanging out of the stone surface like limp turkeys.

Another eight tried to fly left and avoid impacting the tall mountain, but their tight formation made it impossible for them to change direction when another mountain appeared out of the clouds. The leading dragon tried to slow down and fly up, but the other seven slammed into her from behind. She impacted the mountain peak chest first, the jagged tip of the peak splitting through her torso, killing her instantly.

The other seven were less fortunate as their crash into their flight leader's body left them without air to fly. And thus as they tried to flap and gain altitude, they ripped apart their wings against the jagged cliffs sticking out of the mountain. They could no longer fly, thus all they could do was helplessly flap their shredded wings as they roared out in utter pain and despair. All the while watching as they fell down to their doom, the ground approaching rapidly to their fear filled eyes. Then their roars and descent ended as their bodies impacting the rough stone surface below with sickening crunches, leaving a pile of dead dragons bleeding upon the rocky mountain side.

Through the final burst of the clouds the dragons spread out as they finally regained their momentum and control. But several more of their numbers impacted the mountain peaks or crashed into other dragons. In the end, out of the one hundred and sixty dragons that had originally started the four direction assault upon the castle, only sixty five remained.

Fifty lost to the ponies' powerful weapons, and the other fifty five lost to the faulty planning of their leader, Thorn.

But Thorn, having flown through fine and clear without any issue, did not saw the fault as his own and only the fault of the others, having failed to properly follow his orders. Thus as the dragons reformed into a group once more, he started to fly back towards the ponies' stone structure once more, roaring out another order to his unnerved and frankly exhausted followers. "Charge! The ponies are defenceless now! Let us feast!"

As he flew forward some of the other dragons looked at each other, then down at the dead corpses of their brethren on the mountain ground and peaks. Some of those had been their next of kin, children, parents, siblings. And now... they would risk it all over again?

"...Let us return home. I will not be part of this madness any longer." One of them finally muttered, before flying off towards the east, several others soon joining him. Their faith in the teachings of Lord Talos shaken so much, that they had started to doubt them enough to leave.

Out of the remaining sixty five dragons, including Thorn, would only twenty nine follow their leader, thus leaving a total of thirty. The rest, began to fly east. Finally having enough of the pointless bloodshed. Uncaring about the punishment Thorn would give them once he realized they had deserted him, not to mention Lord Talos.

But Thorn did not know of this, and none of those who followed him were willing to rat out those who had left. But that mattered little, since he would not find out about the deserters anyway.

(Scene Skip)

The dragons came with an intense wind of heat, light and sound. Fire raged all over the castle and ponies screamed as the sheer force of the dragons' elemental breaths covered the entire upper section of the fortress, melting parts of the battlements and causing every magically enchanted siege engine to rapidly combust into fiery explosions, sending metal and wooden shrapnel everywhere.

As the dragons passed by the ponies struggled out of the remains of their once proud and powerful defences. The burnt corpses and ruined siege engines littering every wall and tower as well as the courtyard and the roof of the central keep. It was a disaster, a bloody disaster that had cost the dragons as well, but not as much as it had cost the ponies'.

Luckily, were there still survivors and among them, the leader of the fortress itself, had somehow survived.

(Scene Skip)

Smoke and fire filled Commander Rock Stead's eyes as he finally regained conscious. The last thing he had remembered were the dragons flying over them like a massive cloud spewing fire, thunder and hail upon his battlements. *...Ooooh... shit... what hit us?*

Coughing he spat and snorted out several wads of sot filled snot and saliva, clearing out what kept him from breathing through his nostrils. Then he unstrapped his helmet and rubbed his eyes clear of soot before strapping the helmet to his belt. The he shakily began to stand up from the slightly cooked stone roof of his fortress's central keep.

Rubbing his forehead he felt a bleeding gash just below his horn, something wooden was sticking out of it, a piece of fragment left by one of the exploding siege engines. "Buck that's not good. Going to need to have that cleaned pronto." He muttered before he walked through the destruction, he could see ponies heaving debris, corpses and wounded all over the place.

"Ah just great. Wonder how many we lost." He said with a sigh as he stepped over the burned out husk of an energy rod.

Be Boop appeared by his side, his own armour badly burnt but still relatively whole. "Around 224 knights and 45 soldiers sir."

Not even reacting to his Second In Command appearing like a ghost Commander Rock Steady just winced at the numbers, those were a lot of ponies who would not be going home to see their families. And each of them would have to be consoled by either him, the regional captains or the Grand Master himself. "Ah. Great. Most of those would be our Caretakers and Gold Troops I take it?"

"Around 90% from those two groups sir. If thee doest not count those twenty whom hath died when those dragons landed on us. The rest was 50% of our Soldier support from the Gold Army." Be Boop said with a slightly sad tune to his voice, a minor frown on his lips as he looked around at the damages. Even though the fortress itself had come out relatively unharmed had its defenders not done so well, considering they had lost just over half of their knights and one third of their soldiers from that one assault.

Letting out strangled growl Rock Steady grumbled out curses before he began to give new orders, the ponies around him working as he did so. "Bucking glue buckets this is not a good situation. Have our reserve siege engines brought out, we need to prepare for the next coming strike-"

Be Boop interrupted his command by pointing over the edge of the battlement and up towards the northern sky, where a much smaller swarm of dragons was flying towards the castle. At a rather rapid speed. "It doest appear that they art already flying towards us again sir. Only around thirty this time around though. All of them doest appear to be about twenty meters long at least and one fifty meter long appear to be leading them."

Burying his face in his hooves Rock Steady let out a frustrated groan before he looked up at the sky where the dragons were coming from. Even if his troops were already pulling out the prepared siege engines they had kept in storage, since not all of them could be used at once, he knew they would not be able to bring them up to the battlements before the dragons reached the castle. "...This day is going to get a whole lot uglier soon. Still have our orders sent out. We need the power of those siege engines. If we survive this next assault."

"Indeed sir. We hath already sent out thou orders." Rock steady smiled at those words and let out a soft sigh before he winced as a Caretaker walked over, pulled out the wooden shrapnel from his head, and with rapid proficiency and speed, sewed the gash shut after cleaning it with an alcohol soaked clean rag.

As the Caretaker rushed off to attend the next wounded pony the Commander put on his helmet and, with a telekinetic grip, unstrapped his war maul from his side. The large long handled war hammer of sacred bronze he had received when he and the others of the first generation found the Hidden Sanctum. "*Sigh* Thank you Be Boop. At least we will keep the civilians and the future generations of knight safe, a death worthy even Golden Cross himself would approve of I am sure. It's been a pleasure old friend."

Smiling at his friend the pony just nodded and drew out his long sword and shield, while other knights pulled out their own weapons and started to move into positions. "Same here sir."

Then their determination to go down fighting was interrupted when a pegasus suddenly flew down, carrying a spyglass, the mare saluted and shouted out a report to the two confused officers. "Commander! Sir Be Boop! Something art approaching from the west! It looks like storm clouds!"

Commander Rock Steady blinked in confusion, there had been no reports of bad weather coming from the west, there would have been a forewarning from Canterlot. Something was going on. Was it a natural thunderstorm? "Storm clouds!? There were not meant to be any kind of bad weather today!"

"They are not made by us nor do they really feel... natural sir. Just. Look here." The pegasus held out her spyglass to the commander who accepted it and unfolded it before looking towards the west.

"Let us see... hmmm... well... what are we looking for... wait... What in Tartarus' shiny gates are those storm clouds doing flying against the bloody wind?" In the distance there was a large black storm cloud, rumbling with thunder and lightning as if a horde of pegasi was kicking at them constantly. The cloud itself was not an overly large one ,but it was so thick and dark and spewing out so much lightning and rumbling with thunder that it looked just... wrong. Not to mention how they seemed to be floating against the wind, moving in the opposite direction they were supposed to.

"They appear to be moving towards us sir. With... oddly rhythmic thunder and lightning bursts at that." The mare said with a uncomfortable voice as she looked towards the west, the approaching thunder cloud moving rapidly over the mountain peaks like an omen of disaster. There was several strange looking sparks of lightning and thunder. It looked an awful lot as if something emitting lightning was swimming through the clouds, in the opposite direction the clouds were moving, which made absolutely no sense what so ever.

Then Rock Steady's left eat twitched as he heard something absurd, he lowered the spy glass and turned towards the two ponies next to him."Doest anyone else perhaps hear music? Or are we in need of a check up from hearing damage?"

With a nod the mare confirmed his suspicions about the music not just being him, and pointed towards the storm clouds. "Yes sir. We can hear it clearly. It appears to be coming from the clouds."

Pulling up the spyglass once more Rock Steady tried to closely examine each section of the dark mass of water vapor and lightning. As he traced across the clouds he thought he spotted something. "We think we see something now! Where....... There! There's some kind of... What the absolute buck...?"

Floating on top of the dark mass of clouds, was a veritable forest of sails, and connected to those sails, were boats, large wooden and metal constructed vessels meant for the roughness of the sea. Not the cloud layer of the skies! "Is that a fleet of large sea vessels floating on those storm clouds!?"

Be Boop blinked and walked over to his old friend and put a hoof on his shoulder, thinking his old friend was having a nervous break down. "...Art thee alright sir?"

He got the spyglass showed into his chest for his troubles, as well as a glare from the large unicorn. "Just look for yourself before you judge us insane Be Boop."

Looking through the spyglass Be Boop blinked at the sight of the floating ships. He kept his eyes on them, a bit more to confirm it, when he saw something. Several of those large sea vessels were equipped with siege engines. And they were being crewed by ponies, large ponies. "Huh... Sir..."

"Yes?" The commander asked as he received another spyglass from another scout.

"We doest not think we should worry about the dragons any longer." Be Boop stated with a slightly nervous voice.

Rock Steady blinked a bit before asking for clarification. "Why not? Are they targeting the ships instead?"

Be Boop shook his head and just watched as the crews of the ships fired off bolts from those thin looking ballistaes, and saw five dragons fall, their heads, necks and wings embedded by ballistae bolts. "No sir. It be because those ships art equipped with siege engines, which just fired upon the dragons. Plus, all of those vessels doest appear to be crewed by what we think art... large earth ponies... VERY large earth ponies."

There was a moment of silence before Rock Steady looked up with his own spy glass and examined the large earth ponies working on those ships. And cursed when he recognized them from the reports from those who had fought during the Second Crusade. Those were not earth ponies. Those were horses. The soldiers brought to life from ancient times by Maleficus Victoria. "Horses...Bloody fucking horses!? What is the freaking army of Maleficus Victoria doing with a fleet of flying boats!?"

Be Boop just shook his head as he tried to look for the dreadful flag of Maleficus that they had been told of being used by the forces under his command during the Second Crusade. "We doest not know sir. Only... we doest not see the flag of Maleficus anywhere on the ships, they hath four different emblems on their flags. These doest not appear to be horses from Maleficus' army, at least, not from what we can tell."

Then both of them went silent s they saw something utterly absurd occur as the flying ships and their horse crew descended upon the dragons. Ten very long ships took the lead and charging straight into the dragons. And what they did next as they reached the dragons, just two miles outside of the fortress, left the entire fortress stunned in shock. Every single pony, just gaped as the horses flying the ten sky ships at the front assaulted the dragons in a most peculiar manner.

"...Did they just?" Rock Steady asked, as he tried to make sense of what he had just seen.

"Yes sir. They just took out two dragons doing that." His second in command confirmed with a voice of disbelief.

"And then they just?" He asked again, his left eye twitching rather... unhealthily.

"Indeed sir. Also, four more dragons dead." And again he was given a confirmation from his old friend.

Finally deciding that enough was enough Rock Steady just handed the spyglass to the stunned scout next to him and began to walk towards the stairs. "...We are going to check on the refugees now and then we are going to report to Princess Celestia. Get to us when the world turns less insane. Take care of matters up here Be Boop."

"As thou wish sir. Good luck with Lady Ruins." His second in command said with an emotionless murmur as he tried to register what he had just seen.

"Yeah, yeah." Rock Steady responded with before he went down the stairs.

Then a loud clink was heard followed by the sound of an adult stallion screaming out in shock at losing balance. Then a loud metallic crack was heard that soon turned into what sounded like big beanie bag covered by metal plates rolling down a loooong staircase. "Woahk!"

Be Boop looked towards the latch covering the staircase with a wince as the loud clattering of flesh and metal hitting rock faded away as it kept going down the stairs. That's when he remembred just where those particular stairs were going. "...We probably should not hath made those stairs spiral down to the secret entrance to the Sanctum. The door is open and... well... That is a long trip down... Fly ahead and call for a medic for the Commander scout. We shall keep track of the battle."

The pegasus scout just nodded as she flew down the open latch, making certain to fly slowly down stairs as to not accidentally fall as well. All the while the cursing words of her commander, as well as the sound he was making as he kept rolling down the long staircase, could be heard even from five floors up. Every time a particularly loud crack or clang was heard she winced. *That got to hurt.*

(Scene Skip)

Thorn spotted the black clouds approaching from the west. But he thought nothing of it. He should have.

The black moving sea of storm clouds rushed over the mountain peaks like a black sludge, their lightning illuminating the forests and mountains beneath them as they flowed over the skies. Gusts of white mist erupted from the top of the clouds, covering them in a mist like layer on the upper surface, making it look even more unnatural.

But then a strong wind came bellowing from the east, it blew over the clouds with a sudden gale like force, and the thick white mist like cloud above the storm clouds dispersed into the sunlight. Out from the now removed cover of white water vapor came what appeared to be a large fleet of wooden structures as large as adult dragons. Their wooden frames sailing forth across the moving storm clouds as if it was solid water, their flags and sails flapping in the winds as they moved across the heavens.

And as the boats moved into an intercepting course with the dragons, a powerful music began to fill the air.

[Start Battle Music: Linked Horizon - Guren no Yumiya (Lyrics) amv by cody landhammer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MwVLsO1tbw

Voices sang out from the armada of sky ships, singing out in a tongue unknown to any pony or dragon. But the words struck out with more strength then thunder or lightning.

"Seid ihr das Essen? Nein, wir sind die Jaeger!"

Ballistaes made out of iron moved with well greased gears and joints, the horses crewing them using the cross eye scope as an aiming guide. And with careful aiming by guiding the target, aka moving the aim a bit ahead of their intended target, they fired. Five bolts pierced the skull of one of the larger dragons, a second had their wings rendered into shreds, a third found their throat and wings pierced by metal bolts, while a fourth and fifth were both shoot with so many bolts that their entire right sides looked like a dragon sized porcupine had landed on them.

"Feuerroter Pfeil und Bogen!" A large knight sang out from one of the ships with no sails. A tall person even for a horse, his metal armor and longsword making him appear like a non-organic being as his voice rang out across the skies. While the corpses of the five dragons fell to the ground.

And after his words, a chorus rang out from all other knights, responding to his words in a similar tongue as his.

"Wir sind Jaeger!"

"Und wir sind Jaeger!"

"Fumareta hana no namae mo shirazu ni!" But then another began to sing, this time, a pony wearing metal and silk armour, bearing a peculiar helmet with a mask in the shape of a demon's face. His voice ringing out in another language unlike the one used by the knights.

"Chi ni ochita tori wa kaze o machiwabiru!" And as he sang, the horses on the box shaped ships all drew back the strings on their large bows and took aim.

"Inotta tokoro de nani mo kawaranai!" A loud sound of a large amount of tense bow strings being released was heard, then a cloud of arrows flew out from ten of the ships, each arrow flew with intense speed and accuracy, yet the dragons were not caught unaware this time and flapped their wings to blow the projectiles away.

"Ima o kaeru no wa tatakau kakugo da!" But a few arrows still struck their targets and with the horses' unequal accuracy, was it not hard to pinpoints where they struck. Two of the remaining twenty five dragons roared out in agony as their eyes were rendered useless as ten arrows struck their faces, five for each eye.

Thorn glared at the interlopers. *How dare they! The skies belong to us! We are the true masters of the world, that includes the sky!*

Inhaling the large dragon spewed out a massive cloud of fire at the flying boats. All of the dragons stared with intensity as the flames washed over the cloud ships, eager to see the abominations burn. But to the stunned disbelief of all the dragons, the ships flew through the flames, or more specifically, the thick storm clouds they were sailing on smothered the cloud of dragon's fire.

"Shikabane fumikoete!" The demon faced horse kept singing, and as he did flew ten ships forward, the longest of the lot. Their length almost equal to that of Thorn. Each ship flying on an individual storm cloud.

"Susumu ishi o warau buta yo!" And as these ten large ships flew forward, began a horde of ponies, armed with spears, axes and swords, stood up on the sides. With one of the ships holding what looked like a horse made out of parts of various ponies.

Frustrated and furious Thorn turned towards his fellow and pointed at the approaching ships. "Tear those things apart!"

"Kachiku no annei kyogi no hanei!" The dragons flew forward with fervor. They could handle these wooden structures with their fire, now that they were not so close together, their flames should burn them with ease.

"Shiseru garou no jiyuu wo~!" But as they approached the leading horse with a patchwork body, reared back one of his forelegs, one bearing the claw of a griffin, and roared out an order.

"Prepare for boarding!"

"Torawareta kutsujoku wa hangeki no koushi da!" Ten dragons flew forward ahead of the other ten, each targeting a different ship, they inhaled air and flew up alongside the ships to spew fire upon the foolish ponies on the decks.

"Jouheki no sono kanata emono wo hofuru JAEGER!" They lost their breath and their composure, when over fifty large earth ponies jumped off the ships with loud battle cries and landed on the dragons. A few missed but they had long lengths of ropes which they swiftly used to climb back up to their ships. Those who landed on top of the flying dragons, started to hack away at any weak points they spotted with a ferocity worthy of a recently tickled sleeping dragon.

"Hotobashiru shoudou ni sono mi o yakinagara!" A large horse bearing a metal helmet, fur harness and wielding a large axe rushed forward and with a powerful swing embedded the blade of his axe into the softer scales of the dragon's neck. A geyser of blood erupted as he savagely jerked out the blade from the pierced flesh and howled out a victory cry as the dragon tried to stop the bleeding by clutching the wound, only for a bolt from one of the ballistaes to strike him through the skull.

"Tasogare ni hi o ugatsu!" Another dragon found her wings hacked to shreds, leaving her to crash down with a fear filled scream as she could no longer maintain flight. Four more found themselves dealt with in such brutal manners, their crippled wings making them fall to the ground at lethal speeds.

"Guren no yumiya~!" The remaining four dragons quickly dived down to evade the fanatical slashing from their attackers. One of them went down too quickly without looking ahead and slammed into the side of a nearby mountain peak, his neck broken from the impact.

Once more the knights sang out to the skies, their languages echoing across the skies.

"Wir sind Jaeger!"

"Und wir sind Jaeger!"

The dragons were not willing to give up to these interlopers. And they decided another tactic, to assault from any directions like how they had handled the large pony stone hut down below.

"Ya o tsugae oikakeru yatsu wa nigasanai!" Once more the demon faced horse began to sing. and as he sang the thirty ships behind the long ships spread out into lines.

"Ya o hanachi oitsueru keshite nigasanai!" The dragons ignored this since it looked like the large ponies were making it easier for them to burn up a majority of their floating wood structures with such a faulty tactic.

"Genkai made hikishiboru hachikire sou na tsuru!" They flew in from the left side, the right side, from below and above. Thorn took the lead from above, going a bit slower then the rest to keep a better track of the ships.

"Yatsu ga iki taeru made nando demo hanatsu!" With murderous intent the dragons flew at the ships, four from down and above, three from the left and right.

"Hemono wo korosu no wa dougu demo gijutsu demonai!" As the dragosn approached began the strange metal pipes sticking out of sides and bottom of the samurai ships' hulls began to glow. The clouds covering u pthe pipes and hul lwas still not enough to hide all of the glow coming out from the rune engraved pipes.

"Togi tsumasareta omae jishin no tetsui da!" Then as the dragons came within range to shoot their payload, the energy within was released. And what came as a spherical force field around thirty meters wide in diameter. The energy fields intersected with one another and became a single force field.

"Wir sind die Jaeger! / Honno no you ni atsuku!"

As the dragons came flying, the knights and samurais began to sing together. As if acting in defiance against the dragons, unafraid and uncaring of their might. The knights singing the first half of a line ,with the samurai singing the next.

"Wir sind die Jaeger! / Koori no you ni hi yayaka ni!"

The dragons spewed their flames, but the force field held strong against the fire. And as the dragons flew past them, they were assaulted by the sound of a loud zapping crack, as if lightning had struck rock, as the ten harpoon launchers of the knight ships, fired at the dragons.

"Wir sind die Jaeger! / Onore ya ni komete!"

Four dragons had their hide skewered by the magnetically accelerated harpoons and found themselves stuck with thick chains holding them in place. Even as the Carrack's groaned as the dragons struggle to tear off the chains and harpoons, the samurais turned their bows, and fired.

"Wir sind die Jaeger! / Subete o tsuranuite ike!"

With no way to escape or flap their wings the dragons tried to look away from the arrows to not be shot in their weak points. Only to stare in horror as the front of a longboat suddenly appeared from the side and slammed into their skulls at full speed, the metal enforced front of the ship wither breaking their necks by the force of impact. Or knocking them unconscious.

"Angriff auf die Drachen!" As the four dragons fell erupted the end section of the harpoons in small detonations, breaking the chain link connected to the harpoon. And as their bodies impacted the ground, the leading knight began to sing out some kind of poem, while the ten remaining dragons turned around to try again.

"Der Junge von einst wird bald zum Schwert greifen!" But the horses did not allow them time to plan, As soon as the energy field covering the ships flickered out of existence, the crews went into action and as one they all move. Every single ship began to turn, tracking those who had attempted to attack them, and with a sudden burst of thunder and lightning from the clouds beneath them, they flew towards the anxious dragons.

"Wer nur seine Machtlosigkeit beklagt, kann nichts verändern!" The ten remaining dragons found this new sensation coursing through their bodies to be unpleasant and decided to try and evade the pursuing pony structures. For it had been many centuries since they had felt the sensation of being preyed upon.

"Der Junge von einst wird bald das schwarze Schwert ergreifen!" The ten long triremes flew forward, their decks armed with several metallic ballistaes, their stationary oars sparkling with thunder and lightning rapidly as they speed up to chase after the dragons.

"Hass und Zorn sind eine zweischneidige Klinge!" Rapid chanting came from the long boats with their viking sailors, rowing the oars rapidly, drums beating in tact with the music to speed up their efforts. The sheer speed of the skeids were faster then any of the other ships.

"Bald, eines Tages, wird er dem Schicksal die Zähne zeigen!" The Carracks and the Atakebunes were by far the slowest, but they had good defences and powerful weapons to make up for it. With the Atakebunes sailing just in front of the Carracks to act as shields should the dragons try to target them.

"Nani ka o kaeru koto ga dekiru no wa!" As the poem of the knight ended, the samurai began to sing once more. The dragons were on the run, not even Thorn's threats and furious roars could instill any manner of morale into them. Especially not when a shoot from one of the triremes skewered one dragon's wing and made him spiral down into the woodlands below the mountains and rolled through the trees for a while before impacting a small hill with a loud crash.

"Nani ka o suteru koto ga dekiru mono!" One of the spartan ships, a Trireme, managed to force a dragon to slow down as the ballistaes on it struck its wings. The battering ram on its front struck the flying fire breathing creature in the back, piercing through its back and out through the stomach, killing it instantly. The corpse had to be pushed off least the ship risk falling with it.

"Nani hitotsu (keshiku) nado seowanai mama de!" On the Skeid long boats flew upwards above one of the fleeing dragons. A single barrel was thrown off the edge of the ship and struck the dragon on its head, a black sticky mass covered the dragon's face, making it roar out in frustration and confusion as its eyes and nostrils was covered by the black gunk.

"Nanika ga kanau nado!" It breathed fire but that only ignited the black mass, which did little to harm the dragon but it sure as hell did not let it see how its struggling in mid flight had caused it to steer off course, it barely had the time to blink when it saw the rocky surface of the mountain side before it struck it face first at diving speed. A loud crunch could be heard as the dragon impacted the mountain side, before it slid down, its head flopping around with a broken neck.

"Angu no soutei tada no genei!" four of the dragons flew in a U turn as they decided to attack the boats following them. The triremes and the skeids were not following them for some reason.

"Ima wa mubou na yuuki mo!" With smirks on their faces the dragosn flew at top speed at the twenty less dangerous and much slower ships. Sure one of them had shields and far too accurate archers, and the other one had a powerful metal spike weapon, but they had far less dangerous weapons then the other ships.

"Jiyuu no senpei kake no kousei!" The front pipes of the finned ships began to flow white, and the dragosn got a sick feeling at the sight of the glowing light coming from the finned ships.

"Hashiru dore ni shouri wo!" With a loud whoomp the pipes fired not a projectile nor a proper energy blast or even a gush of fire. No, it fired a sphere, a shield sphere the size of a pony. and it flew, at the speed of sound. Of the ten shoots fired impacted five of them, three on the same dragon, the rest on others.

The impact of the fired force field was enough to shatter the thick scales of one of the dragons' skull, before the field could no longer maintain itself and erupting inside of the head, causing the entire cranium from forehead to lower jaw to explode.

The other two were far more lucky as the shoots only broke the bones of their front limbs as their covered their faces with their large claws.

"Kaserareta fujouri wa shingeki no koushi da!" But then a loud whump was heard and several canisters were launched from the Carracks. The stumbling dragons had no time to react as the canisters struck them and shattered and released a thick jello like mass that glued itself to their bodies, and became so hard they could no longer move. They slammed into the woodlands bellow the mountain range, badly injured but alive.

"Ubawareta sono chihei sekai wo nozomu ACHILLES!" Achilles was standing at the front of his ship, he was wielding a large spear given to him by one of the valkyries. He hefted the spear back, took aim, charged his horn, making lightning spark through the spear, before he threw it.

"Tomedo naki shoudou ni so no mi okasare nagara!" A sickening splat was heard as the spear shoot down through the back of the skull of one of the three remaining dragons and out through his lower jaw. Even as the corpse fell to the ground, Achilles pulled back a second spear and took aim for the second dragon, the smaller one.

"Yoiyami ni shi o hakobu!" Thorn felt the tingling sensation of being targetted, something he had only felt as a hatchling! It was infuriating, why were the ponies able to fight back!? This was wrong! All wrong!

"Meifu no yumiya~!" Another sick crack was heard as the last of his fellows died, a metal tipped big stick tearing through her skull in an instance. And at the sight of the final one of his aids dying, something snapped within Thorn.

And he turned around, his eyes glowing red in a berserker like fashion before he flew with a loud animal like screech towards the boat pursuing him. He gushed out fire and smoke like he was frothing, his mind completely and utterly broken down into a state of utter rage and bloodlust.

"Wir sind Jaeger!"

"Und wir sind Jaeger!"

Achilles looked into the mad eyes of the beast and put down the spear he was holding and unsheathed his bronze sword and his shield. And then he took a few steps back, before he suddenly charged off the front edge of the boat with a powerful leap, unfolding his wings and using them to glide towards his target.

"Wir sind Jaeger!"

"Und wir sind Jaeger!"

Thorn roared out and spewed out fire towards the approaching foe. But a circle shaped shield of iron burst through the cloud of fire, badly melted, but still intact. And then, the face of a horrifying pony emerged from behind the shield, rearing back a small metal fang being held by a griffin's claw.

"Wir sind Jaeger!"

"Und wir sind Jaeger!"

The pony slammed into his face and Thorn had only time to glare, before the small metal fang, was pushed into his left eye, through the eyeball, and straight into his brain, before with a powerful and jagged push, the metal fang cut up the insides of his front lobe. While lightning arced out from the pony's horn, and into his brain, effectively frying his head from the inside.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Pulling out his foreleg and claw out of the now dead dragon's break Achilles watch as the dead beast still glared at him,as its now limp body started to fall to the ground, even as he hung by the waist of his lifeline, he watched as the massive creature kept glaring up at him. Until its body slammed into solid ground as it struck the large cobblestone road next to the pony settlement, falling slack against the surface on the ground below.

[End Battle Music]

He hung there in the air for a moment, contemplating what he and his creations had just done. Though he knew his ships were going to be effective, he had not realized just how much. This changed a lot of how he had planned to do things. For he had a deep respect for the legends of dragons, they were his favorite mythological creatures since his early childhood.

To see these mighty creatures he had always wanted to see, defeated with such... ease. It boggled the mind. And he knew that his decision to keep the sky ships, and now the arsenals of said sky ships, only in the hooves and knowledge of the horses, was a good decision. He did not want to be the cause of a World War because he carelessly spread out the knowledge of advanced weapons.

Looking up, finished with his deep thoughts, he called out to the crew on the longboat. "Pull me up! We are not done yet! There are more dragons to the west who needs hunting!"

With a final roar of victory, the sky ships of the horses flew over Blackstone Keep, they bellowing voices echoing across the lands as their ships altered course, towards the west. Leaving behind its confused but grateful defenders.

(Scene Skip)

Lord Talos landed on top of a mountain peak, his eyes glaring towards the west. He had been searching for the so called home of the ponies, but he had not found it! Even though he had been flying west for almost a day had he not seen the place called Canterlot.

"Hrrrrmmmmmm... Why are we not there yet? It should not have taken us more then half a day to reach the other side of these mountains." He looked around in confusion, he knew these mountains fairly well and he knew how to fly over them. Yet for some reason had he not seen the other side of the mountains yet.

Around him his smaller kindred landed and began to seek shelter to sleep. He remained on top of the mountain looking out over the seemingly endless mountain chain. Something was obviously wrong here. Could he have taken a wrong direction? According to what he had been told would the ponies' home be across the... middle... of the mountains.

"Accursed simpletons! Of course they cannot describe a proper direction if the were given a straight line to walk!" Growling the large dragon clenched his claws as he realized just what had occurred.

The dragons had left the center of the mountain range for sure, from THEIR perspective. For while the maps of the ponies did not cover the entire mountain range of the continent, the dragons could clearly see it. and thus, they had flown through the center of the mountain range, far too the south of their intended destination. They needed to fly north now!

Grumbling and growling Talos laid down around the mountain top, dreaming of roasted ponies and gemstones as he began to fall asleep. Unknowing that in his error he and his horde had evaded the siege engines of the Equestrian Gold Army as it marched through the mountains.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus sighed as he dropped down onto a soft pile of furs and cloth. He was exhausted, he had spent three days working on the ships and one flying them. It had not been easy to figure out how to steer and move the ships properly, a few accidents had occurred but nothing major. And thankfully were his horses better equipped to learn about the ships then he was.

And though they had slept for twelve hours last night, was he still extremely tired and needed to recover. But he knew they had far to go before they could properly rest, but that did not mean they could not recover a bit. The dragosn were still moving towards the west, towards Canterlot, and he could already feel his anxiety growing as the dragons were approaching the city were the ponies he had grown attached to lived.

"I am going to rest now. Be sure to sleep as well. Tell the other ships about this as well. We have all been active... a long time. Anchor the ships if necessary so that everyone can get some sleep, or work into shifts, it is up to you." He said to the horses before he just leaned backwards and collapsed onto the pile of fur, his unconscious form snoring after just mere seconds.

And so the ships' crews kept moving as they moved into shifts, those who had fought and spent a lot of energy went to sleep while those still awake enough kept the fleet moving. The speed of the ships became clearly a lot slower after this but they were steadily heading towards the west to aid Canterlot. Though how soon they would arrive to bring aid, was uncertain.

(Scene Skip)

The sun was settling in the horizon and Canterlot's walls and towers were lit up by the torches, crystal lanterns and lamps spread out across the households. A great tension had been filling the city ever since the Gold Army forces had left Canterlot to hunt for the dragons.

Uncertainty and fear was high in the air. Unpleasant memories of the Rattenfänger Army and its attempted invasion of Canterlot a decade ago made many ponies feel high unease and tension. Even the Sun Guard was not unaffected by this, though they did nto speak of it publicly, had several of their members been having bad tempers or emotional breakdowns for the entire day.

On top of the left clock tower of the Temple of Law stood a certain pegasus mare, Happy Meal, staring solemnly over the city. Her normally cheerful and happy face sad and contemplating, her once wavy and flowing mane looking slack and straight as if it had been washed with bleach and starch.

*Will we be okay?* She wondered. The situation that was occurring was so alike and yet so different then all those years ago. It was not an army of land bound foes eager to tearing apart and eating the ponies, instead it was an army of flying fire breathing monsters eager to tear them apart and eating them.

"Are you okay Happy Meal?" Came the soft voice of Grand Music from behind her, she made no move to turn around as the stallion walked over to her, a look of concern on his face.

"No... Ah feel like things are goin' ta turn out bad fer us. Like... like last time." At those words Grand music got a look of understanding in his eyes before he closed them and let out a soft sigh. The two just stood there for a moment, silently thinking about the harsh events that had occurred ten years ago.

"It will be alright." The Grand Master of the Order of the golden Cross said out all of a sudden.

The sudden change of tone made Happy Meal blink a bit in confusion before she spoke out to him. "But how can ye-"

She was silenced by a hoof gently pressing against her mouth, and she felt her cheek fluster a little as the determined face of Grand Music leaned forward and looked her in the eyes. He looked so handsome with that cool look on his face."It. Will. Be. Alright. Happy Meal. We are stronger, we are better and we got... we got..." He faltered a bit, as if trying to speak out the words he did not want to say.

So Happy Meal gently lowered his hoof down and spoke up with a sad smile. "Grandpa? That's what ye meant to say right?"

"Ah... errr... I...." The stallion stuttered as he tried to find the words to say. He just... could not find it in himselw to respond. For as much as he felt betrayed and angry, he also wanted to have his honourary grandfather there, to help them like he had done in the past. And he did not know if he was willing to admit it.

Happy Meal just shook her head, making her mane wave around a bit in the wind, a small smile on her lips, no longer sad, but still a bit solemn. But she had a less depressing look in her eyes. "Ah get ya Music. Grandpa is still a sore spot, even fer me. But... Ah can't help it ya know? Ah can't help... wantin' him ta be here. Protecting us again. Like last time."

"..." Grand Music just remained silent, and the two knights stood there on top of the tower, looking out over the city as the sun settled down in the distant horizon. Their minds swirling with uncertainty and anxiety, but still a bit more comfortable now that they are no longer alone.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining. 4 Days]

A bed bound Commander Rock Steady glared at the orb he had been holding for the last two hours. In his haste to regain some sanity he had... erm... slipped on the stairs. And had for over an hour rolled down the entire set of stairs running down fro mthe top fo the fortress and down into the bottom of the Hidden Cavern where the Sacred Sanctum was located.

Why there had never been anypony meeting him on hiw trip down had been mind boggling ,but what really made him salty was that a pegasus scout flew over him and prepared a medic. Rather. Then. Helping. Him. That scout would be cleaning the latrines for a YEAR... once he could remember what they looked like. Everything past the fourth floor of the fort had turned into a blur to be honest.

As he finally struck dirt... literally... he had broken at least two bones in each of his legs, he had a major concussion, over six of his ribs were fractured, he had badly twisted his neck and his spinal cord had at least four bad bents. A group of panicking ponies had rushed to his aid, lead by Lady Ruins.

The mare pegasus had used her weather magic to create a cloud cushion for him to lay upon as to not risk his health any longer, which only caused her to blush in shame when he just slipped through the cloud. That was the moment when he fractured his horn as he hit the ground head first when he slipped through the cloud cushion as Lady Ruins forgot that non-flying ponies, cannot walk on clouds.

So when he woke up from his trip down the stairs he was bed ridden, with plenty of bandages and straps, in a quest roo mthat had been onverted into a medical room. And to top it all of was it already past midnight and nopony had bothered to send a report to Celestia. Although Be Boop had entered the room a few moments after he woke up, to read a report he had written down, which was... very detailed and very enlightening of what had happened.

Be Boop explained of how the horses had slaughtered the dragons with their sky ships and how they had been heading west afterwards, then Be Boop wished Rock Steady a good recovery and left the room.

The report brought him some joy, as it confirmed the defeat of the dragons, and no more lives had been lost. Well... the report and the fact that Ancient Ruins was currently sleeping with her head resting on the side of his bed, apparently she had been worried sick for him and refused to leave. Her son was also in the room, sleeping on a cushion.

And while he was grateful Be Boop had not made fun of him because of this, was he still rather frustrated that he was unable to connect to Celestia's Communication Orb. It had been two hours and it was almost sunrise, he knew Celestia was asleep but she should have left somepony to check on the orb right?

Then, the orb lit up and the image of a sleepy looking Solid Pink appeared and the Commander took a deep breath before he began his report. "This is Commander Rock steadyof Blackstone Keep. We have fought the dragons and we have lost many lives, but the dragosn are defeated. However... the dragons who fought us were not defeated by us. While we managed to clear out at least one third of their numbers, and the terrain did a lot of damage to them s well, were we saved in the end... By horses."

Solid Pink's face instantly turned awake and she looked at him with full attention. And that face turned into a rare sight of shock as the Commander tried to describe what he had witnessed and been told. "Horses... flying boats... row and sail boats... in the sky... armed with siege weapons and some manner of magical shield. These horses appear to be part of four different factions then the horses under the command of Maleficus. They appear to be hunting the dragons however."

And so he told Solid Pink all the information. The appearances of the boats, the ways the dragons were slain. The amount of ponies and gear lost to the dragons' fiery breaths upon the castle. For over two hours he spoke and before he knew it was the sun starting to rise and he felt death tired as he finished the report.

"Recover Commander Rock steady, you have done Equestria proud. Tell our nephew that he is to take care of your duties until you recover." Solid Pink ordered before the sphere flickered out and the orb was once more just a purple hue.

Rock Steady slowly levitated the orb back into the bag by his bed and laid back his head on the pillow. His sore left foreleg once more resting in its straps after having been used so intensely while badly injured. With the comforting presence of Ancient Ruin and the knowledge that his duty had been done and that his home was safe, Commander rock steady fell asleep once more. Unaware of the horrors that was about to strike the center of Equestria.

(Scene Skip)

Princess Celestia strode out onto her balcony and looked up towards the shining silvery sphere that was the moon, and for a moment her eyes grew teary and she almost burst out into tears. Yet she shook her head and gripped hold of her emotions. She had a duty to uphold, and she could not let her emotions get the better of her.

Her horn ignited with a familiar golden aura. The moon began to shift across the surface of the planet, moving down beyond the mountains and forests. And as it finally disappeared out of sight she let out a deep sigh before rubbing her eyes with her left hoof, wiping away the moisture from her eyes.

Then she ignited her horn again and slowly began to raise the sun. it was always calming to her, moving the sphere of fire she had always had a deep connection to. It always fascinated her when she had been told by her of how groups of ten unicorns had moved the moon and sun during the ancient times before the Age of Chaos. The tales of how the sun's warm light brought life to the world, while the moon blanketed it in a comforting glow during the night, had fascinated both her and her sister.

Celestia had always enjoyed the time she shared with her mother and sister, she had grown even more attached to it when their mother began to wander off to seek something. She never knew her fathers or her second mother, but she knew that both she and Luna were Laura's daughters and that was all that truly mattered. But in one of those old stories, Laura had spoken of the sun and moon, as the children of the heavens, brought to life to bring warmth and comfort to the world.

A sad part of the tale was that after some mishaps, both siblings grew distant, so much, that they could no longer share the heavens and thus, night and day were born. That tale made Celestia and Luna sad, and the two had wanted to bring the Moon and Sun together again.

That was the day that the two had gone out on the night, and ignited their horns, and broguht the sun and moon together. They had barely been ten years old when they did so, and when they did, their cutie marks appeared. Their mother had scolded them both something profoundly, but... it had been one of the happiest days in her life.

That tale and that eventful night was what made Celestia want to bring warmth and comfort to all ponies, just like she and Luna had reunited the sun and moon.

Smiling a bit at the memory the Princess softly hummed before she left for her bedroom, once inside she looked up at a ponnyequin, holding her golden armour. An armour that had been recently repaired and improved after she returned from her failed Second Crusade against Maleficus. Reaching out with a hoof she softly touched the golden plate as her eyes narrowed into a glare as she saw the faint scratch mark fro mwhere that burning great sword had nearly split through her chest area.

It brought her once serene and calm mind to a burning rage as she remembered her vow to hunt down the stallion for his crimes and bring him to justice. It had yet to happen, even after ten years had she not been able to do anything. And now the hunt for the demon alicorn was put on halt because of the Draconic Incursion in her nation.

Even though she still wanted to send scouts to find the fiend she could not spare them. Her orders to expand the maps of Equestria had lead to a large amount of the Silver Army being spread out and the Bronze Army was too busy patrolling roads, protecting outposts and acting as strike forces against bandits or monsters.

And now with the Gold Army acting as the main force sent to hunt the dragons in the east coast, with a small amount of Silver and Bronze troops acting as support, ironically enough, she had no more forces to spare outside of her knightly orders. Which she could barely spare any for anything.

The Sun Guard was too important guarding the Palace. And the Equestrian Order of Chivalry was more of a group of parading roosters then a proper fighting force. While the Order of the Golden Cross was too busy with their many duties, which included fighting the dragons in the east coast until reinforcements arrived.

Pressing her forehead against the cool metal of her armour she closed her eyes and mumbled softly to herself as she sought the soothing coolness of the armour's metal to help her aching head. "We will hath justice for thee sister. No matter how long it may take Us."

She then heard knocking from the door and straightened herself up and began to levitate her jewelry and tiara out of their boxes on the nightstand. "We shalt be ready soon Solid Pink. Please bear with us for a moment."

As she levitated her tiara onto her brow she heard the words of her personal aid. "We have an important report from Commander Rock Steady your Highness... The dragons were defeated, by a fleet of flying boats. Crewed by... horses. Not part of Maleficus' forces."

There was a sound of precious metal hitting a carpet covered stoen floor before the doors to Princess Celestia's room burst open and the Princess grabbed her startled aid and dragged her into the room, eyes wide with shock and wonder while blurting out orders. "Tell Us what thou know right now! How many factions were there!? What manner of heraldries were there!? How did their ships fly!? What manner of magic did they use to power the energy shields?! Horses doest not have magical powers! They art even more inert with external magic then earth ponies! What manner of trick did they use!? How were they able to utilize such unheard of magical techniques!?"

Solid Pink tried her best to calm down the frantic princess as she had a small mental breakdown. The mess of orders and questions was making it very difficult to understand what she was saying.

Fortunately, or unfortunately in some manner. The frantic triad of questions and orders from the Princess was finally broken, when the signal horn on the gatehouse of Canterlot, sounded out a signal that had not been heard for over ten years.

Enemies. Approaching.

(Scene Skip)

Talos smirked as he saw it. There beyond the top of a cluster of mountains next to a large lake was it. There was no doubt that that carved out mountain was the home of the ponies. This... Canterlot they spoke of with such sickening loyalty and awe.

But seeing it made Talos reconsider his doubts about its grandeur. While much of the large stone village was unfinished, was it still a rather... well made structure. To carve out a mountain worthy of any elder dragon, and shape it into your own, that was rather impressive.

*And it does confirm my suspicions. The source of the ponies' abominable behavior stems from this place. This must be were this so called 'Princess Celestia' lives. Well. She is about to find out that her working against the law of nature, is going to bring about the end of her home... and her life.* With a swoop down he spread his wings and landed upon the large cliff side facing the large stone walls covering the city.

There across the surface of the pony carved stone and wood he could see the ponies running around, but not in panic, well not entirely, there was an order and a steady discipline within the small herbivores. Even as his forces of over three hundred strong arrived with him, landing on the mountains just south of the large stone village, or maintaining flight in the air just above him.

No one may move before he did. For he was Lord Talos, and there was no dragon willing to risk his wrath by breaking his commands. Thus, the only time the dragons would begin their destruction of this twisted mountain village, was when HE gave the order to do so. Never earlier.

His gaze looked over the large stone structure, he could see several of those accursed weapons that had killed several of his kindred. But he knew their weaknesses now. All he had to do was sending the larger dragons, those able to endure the hits, and have them destroy the weapons. Then, all he had to do was send in the rest, and this Canterlot, would crumble apart, and order would be brought to the world once more.

But before he could do so. He needed to make an announcement. For it would not do for him to just recklessly kill all of the ponies here and leave no one to remember the lesson he and his clan was about to bring upon their pitiful kind. Thus he reared back his head and spoke out with his loud and rumbling voice, its vibrating essence making the mountains around him shake as if tremors were going through them. "Hear me ponies! I am Lord Talos, the Lord of the Rockfire Clan! The Greatest of the Five Dragon Lords!"

"You have broken the will of nature! You have tried to best your betters with these abominable weapons of yours! We are the apex predators of this world and none shall have the power to face us! The fact that you have tried this is blasphemy!" as he shouted out the last word he clenched his left front claw into a fist and punched a hole into the side of a mountain, making cracks form in its surface with a loud resounding crumble.

Pulling back his fist he glared upon the city, his large blood coloured eyes glaring upon every soul within those walls like burning beacons of murder and hate. "We considered just killing you all, but that would not be a lesson, just a punishment. Oh no, no. We need to make an example of you, one that shall brand it into your minds to never stand up to your betters!"

"Thus we shall render this mountain home of yours and your so called Princess into ash right before you! So that you and all of your short lived descendants all may remember your place in the food chain! As our prey!" And with a final roar he stood up on his hind legs and let out a massive gush of fire and magma into the air. All the other dragons around him roaring out with the Lord of their clan.

And yet even after the inspiring speech he had just given, could Lord Talos tell that the ponies had not lost faith nor had they lost morale. If anything, they seemed even more motivated to fight back. It infuriated him ,but he guess he should not be all that surprised. After all.

*A cornered animal will still fight back no matter the odds. But in the end, it is just an animal.* He thought to himself before he looked towards one of his eldest kin, a green dragoness.

"Have the elders attack first. Clear out those weapons on their stone huts and walls. They are too weak to harm them, and thus, once we clear out those pests, we correct this mockery of the natural order of things."

"As you wish Lord Talos." The large green dragoness next to his stated before she bowed and spread her wings before flapping them to take flight. She flew up and let out a loud roar to the mass of dragons around her, spread out the will and order of her Lord and father to the other elder dragons. Whom all stepped forth, while the adult and young dragons stepped back to watch the oldest of their kin clear out the ponies' defiance.

(Scene Skip)

At the first sight of the approaching winged terrors had the forces of Canterlot been put into actions. Armories were opened, armour was put on and weapons were prepared. Lines of soldiers marched through streets, alleys and walls setting up the defences of the city. While the Knights of the Three Knightly Orders began to guide the civilians to safety. Well the Sun Knights and the Order of the golden Cross did. The Equestrian Order of Chivalry decided to 'protect' their HQ, which translated to 'hiding at home' in military speech.

Up in the Bastion, the small garrison fort built just before the center of the city walls made for the sole purpose of war time activity, stood a large group of ponies in various types of armours, looking out at the large force of dragons on the mountains south of their home. While listening to the largest of them, this Lord Talos, speaking out a lot of words that sounded eerily familiar.

General Rough Stock snorted as he looked at the large dragon speak out his nonsense to the city. The earth pony was dressed in his refurbished bronze plate armour, his trusty shield and spear read by his side. He had been asked to assume a different weapon set, but it just did not feel right.

"Yeah this shit is just like dat fucked up rat fella who spouted nonsense ten years ago. Only this time around it be a bucking dragon instead of a darn rat. Can we ever get a break?"

Captain Weak Guts just shrugged and waved a hoof at the still speaking dragon, his new greatsword, which looked more like a two meter long and one hoof thick slab of sharp bronze then a sword, lying on his back, as it was too big to carry on his side. "Well to make a point. Last time we had no Princess to aid us. This time we do. And we doubt Princess Celestia is going ta let that big ole lizard and his flying snakes do as they pleases."

The General of the Bronze Army chuckled and patted the younger officer on the shoulder. "Point made there Captain." And the duo chuckled together at the small joke between them.

But the General of the Silver army, General Aerial Grace, glared at the two earth ponies. The situation was awful and these two were joking about it? She was not enjoying how they were not taking this seriously and was more then willing to scold them for it. "Are the two of you going to take this serious? Princess Celestia cannot be in two places at once! We have to do our duty to protect the city!"

Not her best decision as General Rough Stock turned around and gave her a harsh glare he that made her flinch back at the intense anger behind that stare. Then... Rough Stock started shouting at her, in his best Sergeant Voice. "Don't ye ever speak to me about duty! Ey have been fighting for this nation before ye were born litte missy! Ey know our duty and though Ey may be acting light hearted like at da moment do not doubt mah sense of duty! We art ponies of Equestria and we ALL shall do our duty or die doin' it!"

He turned away from the pegasus and walked over to a messenger to bark out orders. Aerial Grace felt rather discouraged by the stallion's harsh voice and his lack of tact, but she could not help but feel shame as well for doubting his sense of duty and honour just because he was making it easier for his troops.

A large hoof patted her on the shoulder and she turned to see the kindly smiling Weak Guts patting her on the shoulder comfortably. He spoke out to her as he did so. "Do not take it too hard. Rough Stock have always been rough around da edges. He may be a big shot General now ,but he shall always be that good ole screaming hardass of a Sarge to us veterans in da Bronze Army. No need to worry though, we may act a bit silly at the moment, but we shall do our part just like ye will Lady Grace."

With a final pat on the mare's shoulder Weak Guts strode over to General Rough Stock to keep track of the orders being given, least he ended up being the one to get shouted at next. While General Aerial Grace shuffled her wings and tried to not glance after the Captain as he trotted away.

"Did Captain Guts just draw your fancy ma'am?" Came the words from one of her own Captains and the pegasus glared at the other pegasus mare in question, with a slightly pink face.

"Better watch your words carefully Captain Sharp Wit or I will be making you wash the latrines of the barracks every time we have chili day." The purple furred pegasus went starch pale in an instance and just made a zipping motion over her lips.

With a snort and a toss of her mane Aerial Grace walked past the properly scolded, read threatened, Captain and spotted the shape of Grand Master Grand Music coming out of the doorway leading up to the top of the bastion. With him were three other knights, including Master Knight Happy Meal.

"We have sent out messengers to send word to the Gold Army, they flew at low altitude to evade sight and has been reported flying into the mountain pass. Princess Celestia has sent with them the order for one fourth of the Gold Army to return to the city to aid in the defence, she will keep the city safe until then." The Grand Master of the Order said as he walked over to the edge of the battlement.

"Ya. Hopefully them shiny colts will get back here before we finish these big lizards!" Happy Meal said with a wide grin as she skipped over to her adopted brother, who just rolled his eyes, a small smile on his face.

Aerial Grace let out a relieved sigh, the fact that the messengers had managed to get past the dragons was good news. But then her brain registered a part of the sentence that Grand Music had just said, at the same time as General Rough Stock did as well. And the two Generals walked over to the two kngihts and asked together.

"Wait. Princess Celestia will do what?" "Da Princess will do what?"

"Protect the city ya silly goofs!" Master Knight Happy Meal said with a wide grin, the two Generals blinked before looking at each other in surprise. Did the Princess intend to fight off the dragons all on her own?

Their train of thoughts were interrupted when loud roars emerged from the dragon horde and a group of fifty massive dragons flew out from the horde and flew like a wave of flying forts towards the city walls. Their maws alight with various manners of elements.

"They are flying towards da towers and da siege engines!" Shouted Weak Guts as he noticed how the large creatures were flying towards the spots of the walls and the large towers. All of these were the closest locations of the siege engines to the dragons.

(Scene Skip)

[Start Battle Music: Dragon Age Inquisition - Fereldan Frostback Battle Theme (The Hinterlands)]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez1CwNwrkrQ

The elders flew out from their younger brethren. Numbering at least fifty strong they flew like a flock of flying whales, their massive shapes blotting out the sun. Before they even reached halfway across the distance between them and the large stone walls moved several of the larger ballistaes on the larger towers and aimed towards the flying titans.

Several dozens of tightly strung cords were released and giant metal bound wooden bows straightened out. Several loud kachunks erupted as the wooden frames jerked by the force of the armed bolts were fired.

These were bolts of sacred bronze, prepared by the Order of the Golden Cross in all haste. Only a few had been produced so each of the large ballistaes were limited to twenty each. And thus the opening salvo was one of these newly made bolts.

And unlike the regular wooden bolts, was these metallic bolts of unnaturally tough bronze rather effective. Of the several dozens shoots fired, would around thirty strike. Several struck the thicker scales of the chest, shoulders and legs, only able to penetrate a few inches before getting stuck.

Four bolts streaked straight through the membrane of the left wing of one of the elders, each bolt tearing up massive gashes that rendered the wing into a badly torn mess. The massive beast managed to land with a loud crunch on the fields before the walls and staggered up right to glare at the walls, and began to march towards them.

Two bolts slammed through the softer under scales of the throat of a dragoness. She reached up and clutched at the bolts and gripped them before trying to pull them out. But she only managed to pull them hallway out before the blood filled her lungs and she lost conscious. Her massive body fell downwards in a hapless tumble before striking the grassy ground, dead.

Ten bolts split through both wings of another dragon, this one a male, he roared out and tried to fly in a crashing course towards the gatehouse, intent on destroying the large structure. The two Manticore ballistaes on the gatehouse turned and aimed for his head and fired, each bolt struck his skull straight on. But instead of just pinging off, they exploded, with the force of a cannon ball.

The force of the detonations sent his head backward, his eyes rolled up and unconscious, blood dripping out of his ear holes. His body's momentum had been momentarily halted but soon resumed, only into an uncontrollable roll in mid air that was causing his body to roll forward and slam into the moat before the gatehouse.

Two of the elders were struck down as they were pestered by around ten bolts each, of which one struck through the eye and into the brain stem. While the other had their eyes penetrated by a bolt each and their throat skewered by six bolts. Their bodies slammed into the ground with loud crunches.

As the remaining forty five dragons charged past the half point mark, took the rest of the smaller ballistaes aim, and fired their own, rapid fired, volleys.

(Scene Skip)

Private Keen Shoot of the Gold Army rotated his Manticore ballistae to take aim at one of the approaching monsters. Adjusting his aim while muttering under his breath.. "Stay right where you are you scaly beast."

Then his eyes narrowed as he took in the pattern of the flapping wings, and for a brief seconds he spotted it, the section of the wings were the joints were all connected, like the wings of a bat. And after five seconds, Keen Shot saw his window, and began to rapidly pedal the firing mechanism of the siege engine.

The small but compact ballistae let out a stream of bolts, though the siege engine was not much different then it was ten years ago, except for being covered with more metal to allow more power to be drawn from its cords, was the ammunition all new. Freshly baked rune bolts from the Workshop, the latest brain foal from the engineers of Canterlot.

It was a wide and flat, almost crescent shaped, arrow head on the bolt. And upon its surface laid two runes. A rune that increased the force of the projectile. And another. That would, when stopped, cause the bolt's arrow head to explode with the amount of kinetic energy it had been gathering while moving so rapidly through the wind and impacting.

As he pedaled he fired six arrows a minute, of those first six he fired, two of them struck the joints of the wings. The bolts struck past the light scales, sank into the flesh and struck the bones. Then there was a gruesome sound of kinetic force detonating within a meat filled balloon, as the palm like joint area of the dragon's left wing, exploded into a gaping hole of flesh and bone.

The dragon crashed into the side of the city wall, alive but unconscious, and never going to fly again. Ten other large dragons had been taken down either by concentrated fire or good aim, but that still left a good thirty five flying behemoths heading their way.

"One down. Plenty more to go." Keen Shoot muttered before he altered his aim. Taking aim at a large green dragon who was flying towards the tower next to the location of the wall he was stationed on. Around him the Bronze and Silver Soldiers prepared their weapons to fight off the insanely large monsters.

As he aimed for the glaring red eyes of the green beasts he noticed something and looked away from his aim sight as a bright light began to appear from the city. And as he started to turn his head to look back, he was nearly blinded when a golden orb of light flew over the city wall with a loud sonic boom, a circle of golden light detonating from the air as it broke the sound barrier. He looked up in awe as a most amazing sight occurred before him.

The headless corpse of the green dragon falling to the ground as the glowing figure of a winged pony with a tail and mane of golden fire flew past the falling body to attack the now stunned dragons.

Princess Celestia, had entered the battlefield.

(Scene Skip)

Howler flew over the ground between them and the city wall. The ponies stationary defences were not as powerful or as effective against her kind as those of the first large stone village they had raided when they first arrived. But while they were not as strong were they far more numerous. Ahead she could see the largest numbers of the bent wooden frame weapons and their deadly cargo fire at her kin and winced as she heard their screams as flesh, scales and bones were rendered by these small yet lethal projectiles.

*Why do we have to fight and die like this? For Lord Talos' pride? If nature had intended us to dominate these creatures, why can they now fight back? Does that not prove that we have stagnated?* With a toss of her head she narrowly avoided being struck by a shower of bolts, someone behind her was not so lucky and she winced as she heard another body crash into the ground. She may be several centuries old, but this... this was something she had never experienced before, and the only thing she could describe it to was when Lord Talos was angry at someone and you did not know who among you it was.

*Fear... I am... feeling fear... I am... afraid...* Howler realized this as one of her old friends Crunch was suddenly shoot down in front of her, half of his head tearing apart from the inside by several explosive projectiles that struck the inside his open mouth. She had always told him to never fly with his mouth open and hanging out his tongue like a dog, it had been so disgusting, now she regretted never physically forcing him to close his mouth.

"I want to go home..." She muttered softly as she spun aside from a spray of explosive projectiles from the thick gathering of pony crewed weapons located on the thick stone walls on either side of a tall tower and located on the tall stone tower itself. It was big group and she knew she needed to take them out before they could kill anymore of her friends and kin.

But the sheer amount of fear that was boiling within her was nerve wracking. Pushing through her instincts to flee she opened her mouth and began to inhale as she came within range. But before she could release the mass of eletrical energy building within her throat, came a flash of golden light from within the large stone village.

There was a sudden explosion as a disk shaped eruption of golden light erupted just in front of her head, deafening and blinding her, making her reach up to clutch her eyes. But as her claws reach up to clutch at her eyes, there was ntohign but an empty space, as lightnign and blood erupted from her decapitated neck, while her head flew off and slammed into the tower she had been heading towards-

The decapitated head of Howler slammed into solid stone surface of the tower, making a massive fracture take shape from the impact. There was a few seconds of silence before the head tilted backwards from the hole its snout had made, and thus it fell down and struck the ground at the edge of the deep moat. Her facial features were frozen in a state of clutched eyes and intense agony. A few seconds later her headless body slammed down into the moat itself with a massive splash, the once clear blue water turning crimson.

In the air past the place she had been flying, flapped a white alicorn adorned in golden armour her wings, as she swung her battle axe in the air, making the drops of blood on it fly off. As she prepared to face her next foe. All of the other dragons' attention, was on this new and dangerous threat.

(Scene Skip)

Princess Celestia had seen the turmoil of the fight. No ponies had been lost yet but she felt anxious and fearsome. She never wanted another disaster like the Siege of Canterlotb y the Rattenfänger army. Thus she had put on her armour and equipped her best gear, and started to look out from her balcony, trying to get as much informatio nabout the dragons from her aid Solid Pink as she received reports from the frontier forces.

Then she received words of the approaching behemoths and she saw them arriving in the distance, even without a spyglass she could see them. They were that big. and she knew, if she did not do something, the ponies defending the city walls, would all perish. That. Was unacceptable!

"We shan't wait any longer Solid Pink. We need to aid Our subjects. This is not going to turn out like the massacre ten years ago." She finally said, her eyes determined and her mind set. Solid Pink just gave a nod. Some of the nobles of the city would no doubt complain that the princess put herself at danger after the battle was over. But the aid doubted it would ever really matter, for in the end, it was Celestia who gave the orders and made the decisions, and that was just fine by her.

The white alicorn took a few steps backwards until she reached the doorway of the balcony, then she hunched forward, spread her forelegs, and lightly unfolded her wings. Then with a rapid dash over the marble surface of the balcony she rushed to the edge. With a light skip she jumped up onto the railing. And with her hind legs folded down she pushed her forelegs skywards, made a large powerful flap with her wings, and began to spring up her entire body with a powerful push of her hind legs, that caused the railing to shatter. with a loud crack she flew off, her mane and tail igniting into golden fire as she empowered her body with magic to push more and more speed into her flight speed.

The city blurred before her, the city wall approaching in what felt like an instance. Then there was a strange sensation of... something letting go, and there was a bright flare from her body and she flew even faster! In the blink of an eye she came face to face with a massive green monster, closing is eyes as the bright light had blinded it.

With reflexes born from years of training and many battles, Princess Celestia swung her battleaxe, and the speed and force of her strike, sliced through the thick neck of the monster with ease. She could practically see the scales and flesh bend away as she carved through it in slow motion. Before she flew past it and the entire head, flew off as lightning a blood erupted from the now gaping neck, sending the head flying off the neck.

Slowing down Celestia flew through the air, in a levitated she swung her golden battleaxe, sending the blood that had been smeared over its curved blade off. Her eyes narrowed and focused as she looked forward at the dragons before and around her, not even looking back as the large headless corpse of the green beast she had just decapitated fell to the ground.

The dragons retaliated swiftly, but she was faster.

She twisted to the side to avoid a gush of fire, the heat of the flames not bothering her as she was rather resistance to heat and most manners of fire. But she was not interested in finding out if dragon's fire could harm her. The spray of fire guided her towards a large beat of brown, its gaping jaws open to bite down upon her.

With a smirk she surrounded her body with an energy field and flew straight into the beast's throat. Inside, she slammed through the flesh and bones of the back of its throat and erupted out of its neck in a show of fire, flesh and bone while the beast's body slumped down as it fell.

Flapping her wings she turned around in a U turn, avoiding a massive claw from striking her body. Her axe spun rapidly and flew with a buzzing sound upwards and with a loud grinding sound pierced through the lower jaw, up through the lower cranium and out of the forehead of the purple beast that just tried to smash her.

A massive white dragon spewed out a cloud of blue freezing gas, she folded her wings together and with a sudden kick with her hooves she released an explosion out of her hooves and flew forward with a sudden rush. The bone freezing cloud left bits of ice on her armour and feathers but with a flare of her mane and tail she evaporated the frosty moisture before it could disrupt her ability to fly.

She flew up straight into the face of the startled white dragon and let out a loud cry of rage, as her horn ignited with a golden light, and a sphere of white light erupted from it towards her foe. "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

The sphere of plasma struck the ice dragon's face and though it was an old being and highly resistance to cold, and to some manner heat, and even to magic itself. Was it not able to stand against the intense heat of plasma powered by the magical might of the Alicorn of the Sun herself. Its face scales melted, his blood turned into steam and erupted out of its melting face, the eyeballs popped like microwaved eggs before the plasma slammed directly into its snout.

There was a bright flash of light as the plasma sphere detonated, and as it did there was a secondary explosion, a far more... dull and splattery explosion. As the dragon's skull to explode as the super heated ball caused all the body fluids in its head to rapidly turn into steam, causing its brain to explode within its own skull. With the pressure of the steam causing the cranium to crack and explode like a bomb stuffed turkey.

Two dragons flew together from opposite sides, seeking to take out the dangerous magic user with their sheer physical might. Princess Celestia did not seek to win a physical test of might against these foes, she was here to fight, not to have a contest of strength. So she flew down towards the ground, releasing a cloud of ash into the air from her mane and tail as she did so, and the two dragons' vision was momentarily blocked, causing them to crash into one another.

Before their bodies to fall out of the smoke Celestia raised her head as she made a U turn back skywards and released a beam of blue light from her forehead. It struck the ash cloud and as it did, the cloud became heavily charged by electrical energy and lit up with hundreds of lightning bolts just sparkling out of the cloud.

Two charred skeletons fell out of the cloud after a minute, four other dragons who had gotten too close to the cloud had each been so intensely fried by the electrical current of the lashing lightning bolts that they had essentially been turned brain dead by cardiac arrest and fell to the ground along with the two smoking skeletal corpses.

A large orange dragon flew at her and managed to grab her body with its massive claw, it smirked at first as it began to try and crush the tiny creature it was now holding. Only to blink in shock as its claws were slowly being forced apart by the much smaller creature, it tried to clench its other claw over the other and clench even harder. That's when a strange tingling sensation filled his claws, before he screamed as four of his claws were broken clean off as the rear legs of the alicorn buck kicked two of the claws holding her, breaking both them and the two other claws above them.

As it clutched its bleeding claws, roaring in pain, the alicorn flew out of the gap between its knuckles and with a sudden searing light, she fired off a blue bolt into his face, causing the dragon's head to be covered by a five meter thick layer of ice. Its mouth was caught open screaming and thus as it tried to breath fire, the ice holding its head, shattered, along with its own head, as the super heated dragon's fire caused the ice to rupture in a spray of blood, ice and sparks.

By now had the other large dragons grown rather nervous, they had lost twelve of their numbers to the much smaller creature, not even counting the fifteen they lost to the initial wave of projectiles shoot by the ponies' weird weapons. They were down to twenty seven now, almost half of what they started with. Though they were not eager to flee, Lord Talos would not be merciful to those who disregarded his orders, but how could they fulfill those orders with this... sun pony killing them?

But their indecision to flee or fight cost them. For Princess Celesta, seeing the dragons' indecisiveness, began to channel her magical energy into a runic pattern before her. An array of runes and liens connected into a seven pointed star, with an image of a tornado within the center of the array. A second set of lines grew out over the array, causing it to double in size.

This was a trick she had learned from her first fight with Maleficus. Multiple sets of runic arrays crafted by magical energy, each array acting as an amplifier, alteration or focus for the magic if done properly. And this particular array pattern, was one she had been developing to fight Maleficus for a while, but she had not gotten the chance to try.

The storm during the Second Crusade made it impossible for her to properly concentrate to carve the array, for while she was grudging to admit it, was she not as skilled or fast when it came to magically crafting runic array patterns as Maleficus. But that did not mean she did not know how to.

Smirking the royal pony spread her wings and let lightning arch out of her wings and into the array, and the once golden light of the pattern, turned blue, and began to glow with a thicker intensity. And then, as the array turned into a solid mass of light, it shrank down into a single point of light that glowed with such intense blue light that it was like a blue star was being held in the sky.

The dragons' attention had been taken by this and as they all stared with slowly widening horrified eyes the Princess shouted out at them as her magical array activated. Calling out to them, a sort of prayer, a prayer she had heard several pegasi during her childhood shout out during battle when they utilized their storm cloud based magic. "We bring forth the power and aid of Asgard, the Lord of the Heavens! Witness his might!"

She was feeling nostalgic as the magic went into effect.

A loud crackle could be heard, a thick scent of ozone filled the air, and then a powerful gale erupted from the glowing light, before it exploded out wads, into a thirty meter wide runic pattern, and out from that pattern. A lightning spewing pitch black tornado came out of the center of the array. It flew outwards and expanded in size as more and more of its length exited the array pattern.

It spun around and twisted out as it moved forward, its shape twisting and shifting like a massive serpent. The spinning clouds within the wind force making up its surface sparkling with blue lightning, as it twisted left, right, up, down and not in a set pattern. It was a twisting mass of chaotic weather only restrained by the fact that it had not come out of the runic array completely yet, and it had been at least thirty seconds by now.

Even as it was still expanding outwards the winds emitting from its still growing shape tore at the dragons, the sudden gale force winds made them clutch their eyes as the winds almost ripped at their eyes. And as they did so, they raised their talons to shield their eyes to properly see, the massive lightning emitting tornado flew forward as it exited the array completely. And as it struck the chest of one of the dragons, it detonated.

An explosion of lightning covered half of the skies, the intense force of the powerful winds that lashed out send ponies on their backs, it nearly toppled several siege engines, ant those were the winds NOT facing the dragons. The winds moved in a forward direction with the force of a typhoon that had been pressed into a single tornado, and then let loose.

These winds sent all of the dragons, including the two hundred and fifty dragons a quarter of a mile back, spiraling into the air as they were struck by the gales, even those standing on the ground. The only one not affected by winds, was Lord Talos, and only because he had managed to grab hold of two mountain peaks with his large hind legs and used them as dampeners.

But the poor elder dragon at the front of the explosion was torn to shreds by the intense winds and lightning, while eleven other elders were tossed and broken by the wind forces before being slammed into the mountains south of Canterlot like broken rag dolls. Over seventy other dragons landed on the grassy fields, BEHIND the mountains, none too badly injured, but VERY much rattled. While the rest managed to retain flight or land safely among the mountains.

Then the lightning that had been sent skywards by the explosion began raining down upon the mountain and fields were the dragons had been scattered across. Lightning bolts struck the ground as if a city of pegasi had begun a lightning based bombardment with a cloud the size of a city. Their blue arches cut through ground and rock, vaporizing, melting and scorching everything they struck.

Thirty seven dragons flying at the highest altitude, got struck by so many lightning bolts, that they were fried inside and out to the point were their charred skeletal remains rained down upon the fields and mountains below them. Another thirty three dragon on the ground had their bodies charred badly by the arching lightning, their wings rendered numb and their bodies unable to properly move as the electrical charge made them unable to properly move. None of them were dead but they would be unable to move or aid in the fight

Eighty two dragons, twelve of them elders, taken out by a single spell by a single pony. It truly made Lord Talos furious, even as he and the more experienced dragons let the lightning arching through their bodies sink into the ground as to not take too much damage from the shock. This was not his first time being struck by lightning, but it was the first time he had witnessed such a powerful lightning emitted by a weak little creature like a pony. It made his anger go from boiling to volcanic.

And to add salt to injury, Princess Celestia spread her wings wide, her golden mane and tail making her appear almost divine, and she shouted out at them, her voice lashing out like thunder over the recently shocked dragon horde.

"We hath come to bring judgement upon thee, thou foul beasts! We art Princess Celestia of Equestria! And all of thee shalt fall before Our Wrath!"

All of the ponies of Canterlot let out a rupturing cheer at this, the loudest being the soldiers on the walls and towers, as they sounded their war horns to honour their princess.

(Scene Skip)

Lord Talos growled at the accursed hybrid flying before his clan. It was obvious, even before she said it, that she was the so called Princess Celestia, and by the cheers of the ponies and the sight of her butchering twenty of his fellow elders, on her own, he could see where they had gotten their unnatural arrogance from. "Abomination! You shall be made into ash!"

"No. It is YOU who shall feel OUR wrath! Bring that fool down! Turn her into ashes!"

He turned towards the rest of his forces, and let out a aloud rumbling roar. And the first one hundred of his forces, flew off and flew like a swarm towards the glowing pony before them. Lord Talos spread his wings as the wave flew over him, and hunched forward, gripping the front edges of the cliff. His large black shape almost looking darker then it normally did, with the glowing red eyes glaring, while crimson magma began to pour out from between his clenched jaws.

Princess Celestia just glared at the so called dragon lord as he sent his forces forward. A coward who let his underlings do all the work weakening her so he could get an easy kill and thus an easy victory. A worthy strategy to some, but to Celestia it only spoke of the dragon's lack of morale and selfish ways, he was beyond help, an eyesore to the world she sought to build for her sister to return to. Just like that monster Maleficus.

She levitated her battleaxe while arcane energy began to glow across her horn. It would be tough fighting off all these beasts so close to the city, but she would do it. She would fight off these fiends who had dared to attack her nation, her home and her subjects. These. WORMS. Would regret the day they ever hatched.

[End Battle Theme]

That's when a loud rumble was heard from the east. A loud rumble that echoed out over the air from the mountains, with a loud and steady rhythm that caused all activity to halt. Even the dragons in the sky, just hovered in mid air, as every pony and dragon looked east to spot what was making the sound.

And they spotted it. Loud gasps erupting from either side, as a sight of something that had never been seen before by either forces, came out of the eastern mountain range.

Lord Talos and Princess Celestia turned their heads together towards the loud rumbling of thunder, and stared with slowly widening eyes, as a FLEET OF BOATS. Sailing on fucking STORM CLOUDS. Flew over the peaks of the western edge of the Foal Mountains like a swarm of celestial vessels of ancient myths, bringing the wrath of the storm with them.

And upon those same FLYING sea vessels, were hundreds of armed horses, shouting out a war cry, as a deep and powerful music began to rumble from their vessels. As they announced themselves. Drums, strings, trumpets and flutes playing out, as the rumble of the storm clouds, rumbled in a particular rhythm, that fit with the rising music.

*They truly do hath flying boats! This is amazing! Art those runic arrays carved into the frame!? Truly astounding!* Princess Celestia thought with delight as she saw the ships she had recently received words about from Commander Rock Steady, it was truly a marvelous sight! Her mind completely forgetting about the dragons invading her kingdom for a moment as the sight before her made her inner scholar practically foam with curiosity.

Then as the ships flew forward, a lone horse stood up on the bow on one of the larger ships, his body a patchwork of various pony creatures except for his right claw that was the talon of a griffin. He was holding onto the dragon shaped figure head of the ship, a smirk across his face, of which one third was that of a unicorn. That was pretty intimidating to Celestia, but the sheer ingenuity of the FLYING BOATS, was making her momentarily ignore it.

Then the patchwork looking horse started to sing. And things just went crazy.

(Scene Skip)

Meanwhile on the bastion, the faces of the Generals and the knights of the Order of the Golden Cross, all stared in awe at the sight that was approaching from the east. Stormcloud riding ships, bearing four flags never seen before.

"What in da blazing pits of Tartarus." General Rough Stock commented as he looked out through a spyglass at the sight. The flying ships were floating on clouds. As if they were pegasi.

"How da buck does those things even float!? One of them looks like it has been made with a ton of metal on it!" Weak Guts shouted out as he too tried to look on the ships with a spyglass of his own ,which frequently got snatched by Aerial Gace who too wanted to look. Why she did not just get a spyglass of her own was anyone's guess.

"They appear to be floating on the clouds somehow. Perhaps some manner of artifacts from the time before the Age of Chaos? Or perhaps just a proof of the ingenuity of the Ancient Ones?" She muttered out loud as she looked upon every single surface of the ships and the clouds they were floating on.

Happy Meal and Grand Music both looked at each other. They could see the hoof work of Maleficus from over a mile away. But they could not break it to the others yet, if this was their honourary grandfather's way of helping them against the dragons. Then they were willing to keep quiet about it.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus scanned the sight before him intently as he stood on the bow, the dragons were laying siege to the city. But they had yet to properly go beyond the walls from what he could tell from the large dead bodies lying on the ground before the city walls. And Princess Celestia was flying out there like a glowing beacon, armed to the teeth.

Letting out a soft sigh of relief as he realized that there were no dead ponies on the ground and on the walls. Only a few damaged structures. That meant that Grand Feast and the others were safe as well. Smiling brightly he muttered a bit to himself, grateful. "Thank you for keeping them safe Celestia. Now I will do my part. Even though you will probably never know it."

Then he straightened himself up, rubbing his sore eyes, his lack of proper rest having left a mark on him. Even though he had slept, he had not slept well, his worry acting like a constant wake up call. Now he felt as if a heavy weight had been removed off his heart.

[Author's Note: The Speech of Achilles to the Myrmidons (Of which the coming speech of Achilles/Maleficus was based upon): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZctCxAmzDs ]

And with narrowed eyes he drew out his short sword and pointed it towards his horses. "Hear me horses of Ancient Hellas! Today history will happen! Soldiers! Warriors! Heroes! Many will have worn, and many will have earned, these titles! and though many will be forgotten, many will be lost, many more will, will their efforts live on in the lives they saved!"

The horses began to stomp their hooves against the wooden frames of their ships, their chanting echoing out over the storm clouds as they were momentarily left to glide on their own for a few moments. As the horses responded to the speech of their General.

Stomping over to the other side of the figure head and he stood tall before them, spreading out both of his forelegs. "But here! Today! Is different! Here we shall claim ourselves a title like none other! We shall not just be Soldiers! We shall not just be Warriors! We shall not just be Heroes! We shall be Legends!"

More and more the horses responded, their hooves stomping faster and faster against the floor boards, the ships vibrating with the sheer utter power of their hooves striking the wooden surface.

"You all know what lays there! Ahead of us! With that swarm of dragons, death and destruction!" He shouted as he pointed towards the swarm of dragons blotting the horizon before them with his sword.

Pommels and hooves were now being pounded against the wooden surface and the repeating chants of the horses echoed out even more. As if building strength.

Achilles, the disguised form Maleficus Victoria, pointed with his hoof towards the horde of dragons before his fleet. And he shouted out the final words of his speech, as he pointed his sword towards his forces, held by his talon. "What lays hidden there is Immortality! Now let us reach out! And take it! It is ours!"

All of the horses be them viking, samurai, knight or spartan, all raised their hooves into the air, some bearing weapons, some bare. but they all answered the call of their creator and they roared out as one, their voices rumbling over the sky.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

[Start Battle Music: Hammerfall - A Legend Reborn (Slightly Altered Lyrics)]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwpMNwbYgKE

The horses scampered to their posts, and upon each vessel, moved a set of horses to the rear and grabbed hold of instruments. Stick with cotton stuffed cotton ends began to beat against drums. Metal strings upon a wooden or metal frame were being played by skilled hooves. Wooden hollow pipes were pressed to lips, with hooves pressing against various holes. And metal shields were being struck in a beat by weapons to the rising tempo.

Oars were being pulled, causing the thunder to rumble in a particular rhythm. And then ,as the ships flew into the swarm of dragons, Achilles rushed forward. There alongside the first wave of his warriors, the physically mismatched General jumped off the ship, and began, to sing.

"You've been fighting for much to long." His hooves struck the left side of a smaller dragon, before the creature could snap out at him and bite his unprotected body, he jammed his sword down against the thick scales of its skull. The short sword penetrated the forehead and split through the cranium bones and sank through the brain, rendering the once dangerous creature dead.

"You saw the future and what to come."With a jerk back with his claw Achilles pulled out his weapon before he used the slowly falling body as a platform to jump to the next target, a large adult dragon with white scales.

"Restless spirits out on the run." All around him were hundreds of viking warriors howling out their battle cries as they slammed into dragons, sometimes in groups as large as thirty on particularly large ones, and began to hack away at their bodies.

"Beneath the shadows of the sun." Achilles leaped, his hooves moving in a running momentum as he flew through the air, his wings spread out to guide his movement and he slammed into the back of the large white. It turned its head around to breath what looked like some manner of blue gas, but Achilles ran forward and sent a lightning bolt out of his horn into its face, causing it rear back with a roar of pain.

"You stood proud in resistance just now." Rearing back his short sword into the throat of the dragon ,the blade pierced past the joints of the scales and drew blood. As the beast roared out in agony he moved along the throat, dragging his blade through the flesh past the lower jaw, past the throat, and out the other side of the neck. Slicing the entire space beneath the jaws open, releasing a torrent of blood and gore.

"We've come to give you our aid somehow." He let his body drop off the creature, and at the same time gripping the rope that was his lifeline and used it like a climbing rope to kick himself away from the collapsing behemoth. And then he swung himself through the sky and slammed both of his hind legs, hooves first, into the face of a small dragon, crushing its head and breaking the neck in a single strike.

"Beyond the past and in secrecy." Vikings were no longer the only fighters. Even as a two handed axe cut through the back head of a big dragon's neck came a group of spartans down from a triremes and skewered a group of ten smaller dragons that had been harassing a group of climbing vikings on their spears.

"We might reveal it all, or hide it forevermore." Achilles swung past the scene of a heavily armoured samurai slicing off the head of two dragons with his long nodachi as he blurred past a group of lightly armorued samurais stabbing and slicing off the wings of a group of smaller dragons together, each of them cutting down one at a time by leaping between each intended target. Before slicing off a wing and then jump off to repeat the process on another foe.

"We come from the age of chivalry." Upon the stomach of a large brown dragon flying upside down stood a knight wielding a flail and shield, currently using said shield to protect against the torrent of fire gushing out of the beast's jaws. The shield was not large but the armour of the knight protected a lot of its from the burns of the flames, although sections of it were melted. But it ignored this as it rushed forward and with a flick of a switch on the shaft of its flail, the chain of the spiked ball extended to a length of several meters.

"Stone prisoners, now unchained and free." The knight swung back its foreleg and with a powerful lash, sent the ball of the newly made chain whip flying towards the left side of the dragon's neck. And soon the chain had warped itself around the dragon''s neck, the spikes on the flail end acting like a grappling hook on the rough scales of its body. Then the knight jumped off and used the weight of its armour and body to tighten the chain's grip on the dragon's throat. While a knight wielding a longsword landed on the stomach and ran forward before stabbing the struggling behemoth in the throat with a viscous thrust.

"We are here for you to see." Kicking his forelegs upwards Achilles slammed his forelegs into the lower jaw of a small dragon, breaking its neck. Then he used the corpse to push himself backwards before it could fall and began to climb up the ropes. Until he climbed up onto the deck of his ship, stepping over to the edge to look out towards Canterlot s the ponies just... stared at the sight before them. And as he did the horses all began to sing out the chorus part of the song as they kept fighting the dragons

Now singing together the warriors all climbed back to their ships after their successful first wave of attacks. And the ships themselves began to act as the majority of the crews returned. Metal ballistaes turned and fired upon any dragon close enough to instantly kill. Samurai Archers fired off their arrows, striking any weak points they could spot. While the knights prepared to fire their slingshots.

"Flying on wings of zeal, thundering, we are breaking the seal."

The energy fields of the Atakebunes were activated to protect the rear of the fleet as some of the dragons got smart and tried to attack them from the rear as they passed through the swarming beasts, yet again the shield protected the ships as the flames only washed over them.

A Knight uses his hooves to spin a small wheel to pull back the rubbery band of the slingshot. A small metal tooth jerks up as it is in position with a click, locking it in place. Then a canister is loaded into the half bowl in the middle of the rubber band. Next the slingshot was shifted, the aiming area unmarked but know by practiced eyes that began to track one of the approaching dragons. And with a loud twang the canister was released into the air. The fragile clay that it was made of shattered upon impact and the dragon let out a chilling screech of disgust as weeks old manure, urine, tar and other dirty substances splattered over its head and body.

As it inhaled to burn the stinking mass off its face, the brown goop began to burn into a thick stinking smoke of shit and tar, choking the dragon's nostrils and eyes in stench riddled smoke. Its suffering was ended swiftly when a bolt shoot from one of the triremes struck it in the neck. This scene repeated itself in different variations, with some dragons swallowing it and going sick, but the results were the same. Dead dragons.

"Fighting for the oath we sworn, to spread the word of a legend reborn."

The vikings' longboats lead the fleet out of a window through the horde, before the crews all aligned their oars as to make a sharp turn around, and the other ships mimicked this, only at a much slower pace as the longboats of the vikings were far faster and maneuverable then the other ships.

And once more, the fleet charged into the cloud of dragons. This time the dragons retaliated by flying towards them. An error on their part. As the longboats did not deter in their movement, instead, they anticipated the dragons' charge, and made their own counter attack.

"Moving forward like a gentle breeze." With a sudden heave of their forelegs the vikings shifted the oars of their ships and caused them to suddenly ascend upwards as the powerful weave of the oars released a powerful burst of thunder and lightning from the clouds beneath the ships. The arching lightning erupting from the cloud upon which the ships floated and with angrily sparkles and zap lashed out over the approaching dragons and gave them quite the scare. All the while Achilles once more began to sing.

"We're the horses of Hellas and we do as we please." Once more rushed the vikings off the ledges of their longboats and leaped into the air to assault the dragons again. Achilles climbed up to the crow's nest as this was going on.

"We are the restless, we are the wild." Four burly viking raiders body tackled an adult dragon and warped their thick forelegs around its neck ,wings and tail, and began to use brute force to make it fly in the direction they wanted. Their destination, to crash the adult dragon through several smaller dragons like am improvised battering ram.

"Burning hearts that never died." By now had the dragons decided to try something of their own. Four of them flew at the ropes holding the vikings in the air and opened their jaws and bit down upon the ropes. For their troubles, they managed to sink their teeth into the ropes, before a rain of spears skewered their bodies.But the weakness of the ropes had been revealed by now.

"We are going against the tide." All the vikings began to climb back to their boats, they knew that they could no longer jump off like they used to. Instead they decided to a different variation. While ropes were replaced, Achilles reached the crow's nest and stood up on his hinds legs and spread his forelegs wide as he kept singing.

"The hammer has fallen, a thorn in their side." A swarm of smaller dragons flew towards the ships ,opening their jaws to burn the offending structures, careful to avoid the storm clouds beneath the wooden frames. For their efforts, they received a chance to fire their breath, when the sight of vikings throwing grappling hooks attached to chains at them caused them to pause. They blew their chance.

"Break the silence or take the fall." Iron wrought grappling hooks flew out like a swarm of fishing hooks, the dragons at the front of the swarm reared back in panic as the thick iron hooks latched onto their limbs, scales or sank into the membrane hide of their wings. As they tried to melt off the chains of the hooks, which they only managed to do with a few, the rest of the charging dragons slammed into them from behind.

"The mighty horses will aid you all." With powerful heaves the vikings began to pull in their catches, while others among them threw out spears and axes into the now halted swarm of smaller dragons. Many shoots went wild but many dragons fell, one by one ,axes and spears splitting through their young bodies. Soon enough the swarm of dragons were dispersed and the dragons hauled into the side of the ships were cut down by vikings swinging down sword or axe into their necks, claiming the decapitated heads as trophies.

"Welcome the new age of chivalry." The other ships rejoined the fighting effort and the Spartans once more took aim with their ballistaes and fired. Bolts of solid iron tore through the flesh of a large adult dragon, causing its dying shape to fall to the ground. Meanwhile was Achilles unlatching the safety hook of his lifeline, and stood up on the edge of the crow's nest, gripping the flag pole of the mast, the flag bearing a Celtic pattern in the shape of a golden yellow dragon on a blue background swaying behind him as he sang.

"Were we all will be set free." Spreading his forelegs he slowly tilted forward, before he moved over the edge and fell off the crow's nest. Dragons and ships flew around him as he no longer fell but instead began to glide. It had taken him a few practices with the lifeline, but he felt confident he could at least glide safely, no proper flying yet, but it was a start. Thus with his sword drawn and his shield strapped to his hoof foreleg, he slid across the winds before he slammed into the face of a large pale green dragon.

"It's the time for you and me." As he sang he reared back his sword while his horn sparkled with lightning, then eh struck it into the eyeball of the beast and as it roared out in utter agony, he released a surge of lightning out of his horn and down his limb. Frying the dragon's brain through the nerve connected to its eye, as lightning arched out of its mouth, eyes and nostrils.

All round him, the horses began once more to sing as he jumped off the dead creature, and after a few seconds of fall, began to glide once more. His flight pattern leading him towards another adult dragon, an orange on this time. And this dragon had decided to not be prey, and it turned tail and began to fly away. Achilles let him flee, and instead turned towards another target.

"Flying on wings of zeal, thundering, we are breaking the seal."

Once more projectiles flew out from the warships, this time however the harpoon launchers were shoot as well. One of these teams of two hefted the heavy iron pipe together, with the harpoon loaded. But with a slight different. The knight aiming had removed his helmet and was carefully positioning the launcher in the direction of one of the larger dragons. And with a sudden burst of lightning and ozone as the magnetic charged accelerated the harpoon, he fired the weapon.

But before the harpoon was even halfway across he turned towards his partner and cried out. "Load the second harpoon!" Another harpoon was put into place even as the large dragon let out a scream of pain as the bolt pierced through the thick scales of its left thigh and got buried inside the flesh. This harpoon was also slightly altered. And this time another dragon was the target, and with another burst of a lightning emitting magnetic surge the second harpoon flew off. and the duo watched intently, as the second projectile closed onto its target.

"Fighting for the oath we sworn, to spread the word of a legend reborn."

The harpoon struck true at another large dragon, it split through the joints of the left wing and embedded itself into the shoulder, effectively nailing the dragon's left wing to its left shoulder. With a roar of panic and pain the dragon began to fall, but as it did, the chain connected to the harpoon stopped and a sudden meaty rip could be heard as the dragon's entire left forelimb got dislocated, the harpoon having dug into the bone, while the other dragon that had been struck first, found itself dragged down by the sudden weight of a falling adult dragon.

Struggling with its sudden added weight the behemoth tried to tear apart the chain in its thick, but before it could get free happened something bad. The frantically struggling dragon on the other end, managed to strike the top of a mountain, effectively crushing its neck as it had not be ready for the impact. While the dragon above suddenly found itself unable to maintain flight as its momentum was broken as its leg was suddenly torn out of its socket while two bolts from a passing triremes struck its wings, causing it too to fall and collide with the rocky mountains bellow.

"Ponies and horses fight or fall." Achilles sang again, his voice carried over the battlefield as he flew up in the face of a red dragon the size of a small house as it was about to breath fire upon one of his ships. It looked up with wide eyes as it spotted him and tried to fire off its fire at him. But he managed to fly past the rising wave of fire as it came out of its jaws and land on its snout. With a stab into its eye and a lightning charged burst he fried its brain and kicked off the now falling corpse, landing on the bow end of the longboat it had just tried to burn.

"For your families and princess." Cleaning his sword on a rag he walked past the vikings as they fired arrows at the smaller dragons while throwing spears and axes at the larger ones. Even though the vikings held no siege engines were the dragons no more willing to risk anything with the crazy berserk ponies after having been hauled in and slaughtered like fished whales.

"We're standing one for all." The ponies below stared in awe as the music began to reach its end. They had just been staring in shock at the sight of forty flying sea vessels, bringing carnage and destruction upon the dragons with such ease and brutality that it was dumbfounding.

Princess Celestia however just looked on with a barely disguised look of concern. While she still burned to examine the ships and speak to the horses, she saw the ways the fought and the ways the moved. These were no ragtag group of nomads or sky sailors. These were bonafide warriors who had fought in the skies for years, for she could not imagine someone without the power of magic or flight to dare to fight like these horses had just done. Leaping off ships to attack their goals, their only lifeline, a literal line. It was rather courageous though.

"Flying on wings of zeal, thundering, we are breaking the seal."

Once more the song of the horses carried out in a chorus, and now the dragons had, had enough. And they began to join the example of the orange dragon who had been the first to flee. The horses kept flying after them on their ships, bolts of iron, harpoons, spears, arrows and canisters.

"Fighting for the oath we sworn, to spread the word of a legend reborn."

The draconic horde broke apart into smaller groups and spread out to flee from the forty ships. It was also an attempt to corner individual ships as to break them apart easier. But the horses did not spread too far apart from each other. As had been instructed by their creator, they could not just let their forces spread too far apart or they would be easy prey for the dragons.

"Flying on wings of zeal, thundering, we are breaking the seal."

Soon only a few stragglers of the dragons remained. The ground before Canterlot, from the moat to the tops of the mountains across the chasm and the grassy fields, was covered with the broken bodies of over a hundred and fifty dragons of various sizes. The horde had been brought down by over half of its numbers in one fight. It was a harsh blow to them and even the ponies knew it.

"Fighting for the oath we sworn, to spread the word of a legend reborn."

With a final bursts of notes from the fast paced music, the horses let out a victory cry as the final dragon disappeared beyond the mountains to the south. The ponies joined them and the first day of the dragon's siege of Canterlot ended. but they would be back, that was certain.

Especially more so as the massive black dragon who had been staring at the disaster that had just occurred to its kin. And with intense fury in its eyes, it snarled out towards them as it stood up on its rear legs, its voice rumbling over the evening sky. "You may have prevailed today ponies, but at first light we shall return. And then you and your entire city will BURN."

It then leaped into the air and with a powerful flap of its wings, flew southwards after its retreating brethren, smoke and fire bellowing from its jaws as it roared out a cry of utter contempt.

[End Battle Music]

With his ship slowing down Achilles stood up on the front of the ship and called out to all other ships of his fleet. They needed to land and check on every inch of the ships, he had no idea if there had been any damages to the hulls in that fight. "All forces prepare for landing on the field outside of the city! Check on all ships twice over! Act accordingly and do not cause any trouble, if anyone tries anything, come to me or one of the officers."

The ships flew off and made ways for the large patch of grassy fields that lay before the chasm to the west of Canterlot and the moat of Canterlot. As the ships began to lower themselves and dropping anchors, Achilles' longboat did something different.

He turned to face his own crew and pointed towards the city walls, the flying shape of Celestia was gone ,but he knew were she was most likely to be. After all, she had remained to watch the entire fight, that much he could tell. "Take me to the gatehouse, the Princess will most likely be there to greet us." The crew nodded and began to pull the oars once more, moving the ship towards the large gatehouse, upon which Princess Celestia's white pelt, golden armour and prismatic mane and tail could be seen standing.
'
It kind of stood out.

(Scene Skip)

Princess Celestia landed on the gatehouse slowly, she no longer needed to just fly above the city walls for the battle was over. And what a battle it had been. It was worrying and yet she could not help to feel giddy, for such marvelous creations to be discovered again after so long. But the fact that it was horses, possibly those under the command of Maleficus Victoria, made her less the opportunistic. Then again, that fact was why she doubted such a possibility. After all, the fiend would not risk his life or anything of worth to save her city.

The fleet of flying boats began to turn around and at first everything seemed to get tense as the ponies around her went stiff, as if expecting another fight. But as the ships began to slowly but surely lower themselves towards the grassy plains on the outside of the city and on the other side of the moat, the soldiers began to relax.

As the long wooden frame came closer she could make out the edge of the complex runic array carved out of the wooden hull that was sticking out of the black storm clouds. And though it was just a small fragment of the pattern but she could see that it was an array of extreme complexity. Plus the fact that they had even gone to the trouble to fill the carved out wood with gold spoke of their knowledge of magical enchantments.

She had never in her life ever considered carving runes into wood and then fill them with gold to empower the array, which would also prevent much of it from decaying with time. It was ingenious! The Princess had to wonder if it was possible to do something similar to either silver or bronze armour.

It was something to consider researching into in the future, for now would the hoof carved enchantments remain. Especially since the Order of the Golden Cross had shown that carved runes were capable of being altered quickly. Probably not as probable with carved runes filled out with gold.

*Perhaps a set of gold runes on the INSIDE of the armours? Could the integrity of the armour's frame support the additional array matrix?* She pondered, almost about to reach out and tap her chin in consideration. But then her train of thoughts got broken as the rumbling of the cloud riding ship erupted a few meters ahead of her, almost making her jerk back, but she managed to only flex her ears.

Upon the wooden deck of the frame stood the same patchwork horse, which was what he had most likely been before he was... sewed together? He had adorned a black woven cloak to cover up his lower body, leaving only his head bare as a decorative cloth of some manner covered his neck and torso. But you could still make up some of the red veins crisscrossing across his flesh, especially the ones connecting the four fingered talon to one of his forelegs, which she had no idea what it was, but it reminded her eerily of Discord, and that was not a good feeling.

But her personal feelings aside she could not openly distrust these strangers just yet, as they had aided her against the dragons. Even she would not have been able to keep hundreds of dragons from invading her city alone.

A pair of large horses hefted up a long and wide wooden plank which they latched onto the edge of the ship with metal hooks before flipping it over, making it slam into the stone edge of the battlement. The physically mismatched stallion stepped up onto the wooden frame and as he began to walk off it, he spoke out in a polite manner. His voice was rather... exotic and almost made her flush. She had never heard such an accent before.

"Greetings and salutations Princess Celestia of Equestria, I have heard much about you. I am Achilles of Hellas, the current leader of the Horses. We have come to bring doom upon these murderous beasts." With a small half bow of his head he greeted her, not too low, for that would make him out to be a low ranking person, and not too high, for that would be too personal and disrespectful for a first meeting. His mismatched eyes looked at her with a focused and cold stare, one only an experienced soldier could have.

This was a stallion who knew war and she was pleased to hear that he was on her side. She needed more allies, especially now.

Giving him a half bow as well she lifted up her left hoof to her breast, a sign of gratitude, and spoke up with a smile on her lips as her pink eyes looked at him. Though she was slightly covered by sooth and blood, was she still a sight to behold. At least that would be the case, had the one she spoke to been a pony. But this was a new tribe, a horse, though mismatched in body, she needed to be careful. "We welcome thee to Canterlot, Lord Achilles of Hellas. We art, as thou apparently know, Princess Celestia, ruler of this young nation. We art grateful for thou aid against the dragons."

Stretching his neck, left and right, there was a disturbing sound of bones popping into their proper place as Achilles relaxed a little. he then chuckled and waved his talon towards his crew. "It was no bother. Me and my kin saw the murderous acts of those monsters out in the East and decided that they would make excellent target practice for our newly made Sky Ships. And we have done rather well I will say."

The crew gave small cheers, some of them even lifting up the heads of some of the smaller dragons they had claimed as trophies, Celestia felt a bit uneasy by that sight. But tried to remain polite and ignore them while focusing her attention to the speaking horse before he. "So far we have fought them in four locations, one in the north east close to a large black fortress. Two times in the mountain ranges as we chased after those flying west, and now this one. So far have our Sky Ships been working as they should."

At the word Sky Ship the Princess let her eyes look at the wooden structure that floated before her, her innate curiosity was frankly vibrating within her like the time she had been a filly and about to learn more from her mother or the few teachers she had. She managed to bite down her eagerness to learn about the floating ship and turned her attention to more important matter. "Yes they art rather... spectacular. We hath never seen anything like them before."

Snorting a little Achilles whistled out to his crew and a few of them pulled out horns and began to blow into them, in the distance the ships that had landed signaled back. Some of the vikings began to pull out long wooden poles and some coloured large cloths. Meanwhile was a group of thirty horses moving out of the landed sky fleet and began to march towards the city, bearing three flags. "I should hope so. Hasn't been a sky ship made by horses since before the Abominable War, at least not from what I have been told about the current state of the world by my more modern born kin. The knowledge has apparently been lost for untold ages."

Blinking slowly Celestia turned to face the mixed being and spoke up in a slightly, disbelieving, voice. "Wait. Thou mean. Thee were alive during the Unification War?"

Achilles shook his head at that. "No. Not this so called Unification War. The Abominable Wars was between us horses and the abominations created by Medusa around six or seven centuries before the Great Winter. Medusa, or Stone Gaze as she also was called, was an insane mare of my kind who went down a bad end after a large disastrous war destroyed her home and family."

He unsheathed his blade, a gladius of bronze, and looked at it, the surface of the blade was engraved with strange static lines, with images of a horse bearing a shield and spear upon the leaf shaped blade. "She returned a monster and in her twisted new form she caused tens of thousands to die or become petrified by either her own gaze or the gaze of her basilisks, cockatrices and gorgons. Beings she created from natural born critters, animals or captured horses and ponies, turned into petrifying beasts of torment and death."

Then he sheathed the blade and looked at Celestia with a blank stare, something she realized one who had gone through a lot of horror gained when they were remembering things they' rather not. "I was the one who killed her during the final fight. But not before she left her mark on me in turn, which in turn is the reason why I can say I was not alive during the Unification War, but am alive today. But that is not important right now. We can discuss me and my people's history later, for now, we need to prepare. That large black dragon sounded like he meant business."

He then motioned for the group of horses approaching along the road towards the gatehouse, ten of the vikings starting to gather together, two of them carrying long wooden poles bearing a sort of banner. "So for now have I sent for my more knowledgeable warriors, they will be approaching the gates soon."

She wanted to ask questions, she wanted to know more, but she bit her cheek to focus on the present. "Very well. We wish to ask thee more later, but let Us focus on the matter at hoof. We shalt hath the gate opened for thy soldiers."

Celestia then turned towards one of the guards next to her and the pony just saluted, not even needing to be given any orders, and left to transfer the orders to open the gates. As that was done she turned towards the Horse Lord and gave hi ma slight smile before motioning with her left wing towards the staircase leading down to the ground. "Please come with Us and We shalt guide thee to Our castle."

"Much appreciated your highness." And so Achilles followed the princess down the stairs, with ten of his troops following after him. With another thirty stepping over the lowered draw bridge and the opened city gates.

Things were about to get interesting in the city.

(Scene Skip)

Relief was the best way to describe how Achilles, or rather, Maleficus, was feeling right at this moment. He had been so close to cracking and acting out in a way that would have been very bad, considering he was speaking to Princess Celestia of all people. She could very well have decided to have him executed if she ever got the idea that he either was afflicted with... well... himself, or if he was too dangerous to trust. Thankfully had he been able to get past that, incredibly enough.

*I cannot believe that actually worked! Gods that was so exhausting! I cannot believe I managed to keep my face straight! Shit! Should my heart be beating this erratically?* Maleficus though to himself as he walked after the Princess to the palace through the streets. With him were ten vikings, ten samurais, ten knights and ten spartans, all marching behind him in lines of five, at the front of each of the eight groups of five were the banners of their peoples strapped to harnesses on the horses at front.

Princess Celestia felt a bit weird guiding these strangers through her city, and she could not help but notice just how odd all of the horses' varying armours, weapons and banners made them look... hostile. Not hostile as in, willing to kill anyone they see, it felt more like... they should be fighting each other.

In front of the samurais were flags bearing the symbol of a blue and white bird of fire upon a white background with a crimson sun.

The banners of the knights were painted with a golden yellow kite shield with a white sword with blue hilt going standing behind it on a grey field background.

As for the spartans, their banners held the sideline image of a black horse head, outlined with yellow lines, upon a blue circle formed shield on a black background.

While the vikings bore their own blue fielded banner bearing the golden yellow Celtic pattern in the shape of a dragon.

At first the streets had been silent and empty, but as the sound of battle had ended so long ago were the citizens no longer cowering in the central keep of the palace. And slowly but surely, they began to move out from their homes and look out of their windows they had just recently returned to. As the strangest sight in their lives came striding down the street.

It was... a strange and yet magnificent sight.

Down the main street came Princess Celestia, slightly dirty from battle, and yet still elegant and beautiful with her golden armour. But there was... a group behind here that was... really out of character from what normally would be marching down the streets of Canterlot.

There were two each of these banners and they were being carried next to one another. It looked very strange, four different looking groups of large ponies marching down the street. One o them was a savage group bearing furs, large round shields and axes with horned helms. A line of refined looking knights that looked very similar in design like the Knights of the Golden Cross.

Then there was a group of scary looking warriors bearing demon faced masks with curved blades, strange hexagon lined clubs, polearms with sharp looking blades and large weird looking bows. And finally, a group of horses that were covered with bronze armour, large round shields and with long spears, looking scarily like the troops that fought for Maleficus, only not in black iron, nor as heavily armoured and with differently designed helmets.

All of these strange looking large ponies were being lead by a cloaked big pony whose head looked like it had been broken and then put together with a unicorn's forehead attached as spare part. At first the intimidating strangeness of the newcomers made many of the ponies skittish or fearful, a common reaction. But soon words spread, that these strangers had aided their city by driving off the dragons.

It started with a small clap and cheer from some foals, then it grew to some of the older foals joining in, then a few of the adults began as well. And before anyone realized it, was the entire city cheering the new comers who had helped protect their city and lives.

Achilles looked over at the cheering crowds and felt... oddly proud of himself. He had not... expected it. These ponies always came up with new ways to surprise him. It was weird and frankly a bit disturbing, but also... it made him feel appreciated. And he liked it. Even if it was mostly drowned out by his guilty conscience was it still a nice feeling.

The golden gates to the courtyard were pushed open by ten Sun Guards. And in the courtyard itself, leading up into the open gates of the castle and into the great hall inside, stood two lines of Sun Guards, bearing the banner of Equestria. Even though he had only seen it in on TV, comics or games, did Achilles know exactly what this was.

It was a Procession, of what type he did not know, the only thing he did know about it was that it signified important events. *Guess us temporarily driving off the dragons worked in our favours.* Not realizing that the forty horses marching behind him was also a manner of Procession, and the ponies had just responded with one of their own.

Achilles and his soldiers went through the gates of the palace and with steady steps they passed through the halls and soon reached the throne room. There was a crowd of various nobles, knights and even some civilians there, as the central keep of the palace was the nominated safe house o the city during invasion, thus there was some who still felt a bit too nervous to return home just yet.

Princess Celestia strode up the steps to her throne and levitated her battleaxe into the waiting hooves of one of her guards who walked off to the smithy to have it checked and repaired if needed. She then unstrapped her helmet and pulled it off, letting her mane flow free again and quickly accepted a wet towel to clean off soot and blood from her face.

Tossing the dirty towel aside she gave a smile to Achilles as he patiently stood before her throne with his forty troops standing at attention. It was good to see that he was not taking it personally that she washed her face a little after having pulled off her helmet. Speaking of helmets, her golden helm was given to another guard who strode off to have it checked in the smithy as well.

Having given herself some time to prepare she spoke out to the horses before her with a calm and polite voice. "We art grateful of thy aid Lord Achilles of Hellas. We officially welcome thee and thy kindred to Canterlot, Capital of Equestria."

Lord Achilles just gave a short half bow and spoke out as well, his voice calm and collected, and with that exotic accent that made her heart flutter a little. "I am grateful of your welcome to your city your grace. As you know I am Achilles of Hellas, one of the recently restored horses of the age before the Unification Wars."

There was a loud murmur of discussions and whispers at this. But Achilles ignored it and just kept talking, he needed to make a point that the horses the ponies were seeing before them were not part of his other forces as Maleficus. "We however, as you might have noticed, are not part of the forces commanded by this 'Maleficus' your citizens and our descendants have spoken of to us. We were restored to life around ten days back, by one of our people's last remaining descendants. The sage Cursed Blessing of the Solid Stone Tower near the so called Woods of Blood."

Gasps and loud discussion erupted at this but were silenced as Celestia raised one of her forelegs to have the crowd silenced. Then she spoke up her own questions to the Lord before her, hoping to be a... little tactful as she wanted to know how he ended up as a piece of Discord Art. "What doest thou mean by 'restored to life'? We do hope We hath not insulted thee for asking."

"No it is of no worry your highness. I and my brethren were all turned to stone an untold number of years ago by a monster called Medusa, I spoke to you of her earlier. Well Medusa and I have a personal history, one I do not wish to speak of at the moment, for it has no real meaning to drag it out during such a time of duress." A noble perked up at this, having heard this sentence he knew that there was a weakness to exploit her. And anything that could be exploited out of the horses would be of great gain for not only Equestria but his family as well!

"What do you mean no real meaning!? We deserve to know the acts of tho-" A harsh glare from the mismatched eyes of the horse gave the noble who spoke nearly enough fright to pee themselves. All ponies around the noble took a few steps away from him as to not be targeted by the piercing glare of the Horse Lord.

"The last time I remember before waking up in this... broken shape of mine. Was me fighting Medusa, turning her own petrifying gaze against her a she petrified my people, and me. From what I am told, my body was broken into tiny pieces during the long time between this battle. When I was put together, they had to take parts from other horses and ponies and glue them to my fragments, using grounded up piece of small parts of other broken petrified victims, to properly fit me together." He then released the strap of his cloak and there were several loud gasps, and even a few screams, as the patchwork body of Achilles was revealed to the throne room.

Even Celestia, now seeing it up close, looked rather appalled at the mismatching body. Even Discord had not looked so... wrong. It made her feel sad and sympathetic for the horse, having to go through being put together like that to be restored to life.

"THIS, is the result of trying to put together someone who was turned to stone without the proper parts!" Achilles said in a loud voice as he stood up on his hind legs, and revealed the red fleshy veins connecting all of his multi coloured parts.

He then pointed at his face with one of his claws and traced the red vein going across his face, blood pouring out of it as his claw pierced the vein. Several ponies began to retch at this sight. "The sensation of waking up in a body with the once glued together joints burning with blue fire as they are being melted to properly fuse to your body is not something I'd wish upon anyone. Thus I do not wish to speak of what occurred in the past just yet, it is a bit too fresh for me to wish to speak of it. And I do not care if you wish to know it now, I will not tell until I am ready to do so."

With a snort he ignited his horn and with telekinesis lifted up his cloak and strapped it back to place while speaking to Celestia. "Back to the matter at hoof. The dragon leader said he would assault the city again tomorrow. And though my Sky Ships are strong, will the dragons more likely then not, know how to handle them now. Thus I wish to offer me and my people's aid in the defence of Equestria, even after this fight is over. In return, I wish for Equestria to recognize my tribe, the Horses, as our own independent nation, with a clause to aid us in turn if we require it."

There was a great murmur from the gathered crowd, Achilles ignored it and just looked at Celestia. He needed to make this work. If he could get the horses accepted as a sovereign people of another nation, he could work out ways to keep Equestria safe while at the same time not making them too reliant upon him.

For a while the Princess was in a contemplating moment of thought. She then came to a decision and once more raised her hoof to silence the crowd and spoke out to the Horse Lord. "We would be glad to accept this Lord Achilles, however. How doest thee think thou can aid Us against those monsters?"

Achilles smirked and pulled out a bronze tube about one meter in length from inside his cloak. It was a tube meant to contain scrolls of large size. And this was his ace in the hole, the reason why he could give as much as he had promised, a work he had already done, that only needed a slight alteration. "By using the techniques of my people Princess. I have the plans for a device that can with a powerful enough source of energy can hold off a horde of a thousand dragons."

Princess Celestia perked up and practically bounces off her throne and with her horn opened the doors on the wide wall of the room and motioned as the crowd split up to not get in her way. "Thou hath my attention! Shalt we discuss it in the War Room?"

Achilles decided to just go with it and followed her with a nod. "As you wish."

A cheerfully smiling Celestia skipped down the hallways and a befuddled, but also highly amused, Achilles following behind her with his horses following him as well.

(Scene Skip)

Once in the War Room the horse leader pulled out a set of large folded scrolls from the bronze tube he had retrieve from his side bag and unfolded them over the table. There was a set of runic arrays upon the parchments, as well as the design of the Shield Array Pipes of his atakebune ships. There was also several more blank parchments and scrolls being loaded onto the table by the Princess' aids.

"What manner of device doest thee speak off?" As she asked Achilles levitated the image of the Energy Field Pipe's blueprints. It was a rune engraved iron pipe that when conducted with energy released a powerful shield for a short duration of time. It needed an external power source to function however.

"It is a shielding array engraved pipe. We use these pipes on the hull of our Atakebunes, the ships with no sail and only oars. It is a pipe of iron engraved with two powerful enchantments, a shielding spell and an expansion spell. That together when powered by an external power supply creates a temporary energy shield, with its size and duration depending on the power added to it." Princess Celestia scanned the blueprint closely, a quill moving rapidly across parchments as she studied the description of the pipe and its powers. It was a highly dense and powerful shield conductor, and with several of them working together they created a fully enclosing energy field that acted as a shield.

But just one pipe would not create an energy field, just a shield bubble. Hmmm perhaps there was way to work around that. She looked up from the parchment and spoke out her curiosity to the horse lord. "So how doest thee think thou shielding array would work as thou sayth? From what we art able to tell, this shield array needs to work with a conduit of several pipes across a round surface to create its shape."

Achilles nodded at her words and his own quill moved across parchment, sketching out the image of a cone shaped device, with a sphere shaped orb on the top. Engraved with a slightly altered runic array like the shield generating pipes. As the Princess examined the hasty sketch he began to explain his idea. "Well we would need to adjust the array itself into a proper focus, conducting the shield array's energy into singular point of exit. And then give it a way to shape the expanding shied outwards into its proper shape by utilizing a focus point. Like a crystal or glass ball, preferable spherical in shape as this will create the focused shape of the shield itself."

A really simple and yet clever idea. To use the natural shape and light altering pattern of a crystal of spherical shape to create a spherical shield. She could really see it working with this device. The trouble was just what to power it with. "We see... what about a power source for the shield itself?"

He pointed at the illustration of a sky ship flying with the wind flowing through its sails, with arrows pointing from the flowing sails to the storm clouds beneath the hull. There was also arrows going from the oars, with lightning symbols in the arrows, going to the bottom of the ship. Indicating that either the sails or the oars had generated the cloud. "That would require the usage of a sympathetic power link, which is partly the reason why our Sky Ships can work with so many different enchantments and array without destroying themselves. A sympathetic power link requires two things. First the shielding array needs to be carved into a material that can absorb or direct energy, be it natural, magical or unnatural, so that an external force that power it. Secondly, the power source needs to be external, it cannot be directly inked to the array or it will get overloaded."

The patchwork stallion made another sketch, showing a simple image of the device and the symbol of a lightning bolt, with an arrow going between them. He spoke out as he pointed at the device and the lightning symbol, empathizing how the relationship between the two needed to be done. "What we need to do is create a power source that can be conducted into the runic array without a physical line. And since this thing will most likely be carved out of gold entirely. I think we would need to use either magical energy provided by an outside source, like unicorns or a magical item of great power. Or some manner of natural, or unnatural, energy force that can be absorbed by the array and the gold, like either lightning or a direct flow of sun light."

Celestia gasped at this, a source of energy not related to magic!? Her attention was all over it and she pulled out a fresh bundle of blank parchment so her quill to keep writing and stepped over to the horde lord and took a seat next to him, pulling the blueprints of the runic array over so they both could examine it. While asking about how this, non physically power source would work. "Amazing! How doest thee use this Sympathetic Power Link without magic?"

He pointed out the storm clouds on the image of the flying sky ship. He did not explain how the storm clouds were actually generated, but he explained the concept. The lightning from the storm clouds were not just for lifting the ship, they actively powered the energy of the array carved into the surface of the ship that made it light weight. Thus he did not wish to reveal the enclosed details, only the concept. "We utilize the storm clouds that our Sky Ships creates, using the lightning itself that is created to power the runic engravings. The sails have a similar function, taking power from the winds, but they are not as efficient as lightning. We cannot do it with this thing however as it would be far too dangerous to try and conduct lightning through a device made entirely out of gold. Especially since I would have to think of a way to properly seal off the bleed off energy of the lightning with runes, and that would take at least two days of work. Our safest bet is to have unicorns hitting the device with magical energy."

Celestia muttered as she took notes, by now she had over four hundred parchments and two dozen scrolls from her frantic examination and evaluation of the work. She was a bit sad that there was only the runic array of the shield, but it was something beyond precious since she could use this as a base for a lot of her future projects. "Incredible. Thou hath amazing knowledge of the past technologies! Were all of thy kind educated like so?"

He shook his head. Had he had an education that had prepared him for even half of what he had been learning for the last ten years he would not have been forced to have Luna translating his works and efforts for him. The day that Luna did not need to aid his magical work would be a good day for him, it would let him know that he was ready to handle it without aid. "Not so much, this technology was common place in Hellas, but it was also one of the most dangerous. Thus was this knowledge mostly limited to military forces or specific groups given permission to create them. I am just lucky I was a General and thus needed to know all this to properly command my armies and fleets."

Letting out a sigh she looked over the runes, the lines and the instructions on the large unfolded scroll. To have such a large abundance of ancient knowledge near, and yet only be allowed to know so little was making her feel so frustrated. Yet she was grateful for it was more then she had when she and her sister studied under Starswirl. "We wish We hath the ability to make such wonders Ourselves."

Chuckling a little Achilles understood her a little better. Apparently was Celestia rather interested in ancient knowledge, or knowledge in general. He was not sure, but it gave him a deeper insight to her as a person and he could say that he admired it a bit. Gods knows he had been nowhere near as interested in the knowledge itself as her when he started, yet he had to learn it to survive with his new magic. Now he was quite interested in it himself and could understand how she felt a bit. "Perhaps in the future, for now we need to protect your city from those beasts. I will have my horses prepare to aid you in constructing the device, sadly enough do we not have a lot of iron. So we may have to use another metal."

Celestia nodded at that. Iron was rare and very valuable. Her nation's largest amount of iron ore came from the armours and gears her troops had retrieved from the fallen soldiers of Maleficus during the Second Crusade. A truly valuable and yet so hard to get metal. "Speaking of which. How doest thee have so much iron? It be a rare metal."

He patted his forehead with a smirk, signalling that the secret of the iron ore was in hi head. Which was true, since he just summoned it from the moon whenever he needed more of it. "Stockpiles spread out in the various ruins of our homes and in different hidden chambers left behind by the ancient past. Iron is an excellent tool for magical enchantment. Even though it is very magically resistant and cannot hold an enchantment on its own, when combined with a gold filled engraved array pattern, the enchantment is a hundred folds more strong then if you had made it out of pure gold or silver."

She pressed her hoof to her lower chin as she tried to figure out something she had been bothered about. But she could not figure it out and finally decided to just ask Achilles about it. "How does thee not cause the metal to deteriorate from the magical and lightning surges? The lightning must be dangerous even though it is produced by thy ships."

He pointed at the set of runes he had developed to handling the discharging lightning from the clouds and the array itself. They worked like a sort of repellent, or sealant, keeping the energy from going up. "By adding a set of conductive arrays along the inside of the wooden and metal hulls on the other side not engraved with the storm cloud based arrays. We limit the power flow of the magic and the lightning to not move in any other direction then down. This makes it so the metal does not deteriorate form an overcharge of energy and keeps the crew from being injured by stray shocks. Of course this makes it dangerous if someone is directly below us but even pegasi should know not to fly beneath an active storm cloud."

"But what about the..." The Lord and Princess kept talking as they drew plans. Celestia kept asking questions about the arrays and devices made by horses and Achilles explained with straight and plain sentence even a first year mage student could follow. But never revealing anything beyond the theories and functions, he still eneded to maintain secrecy of most of the crafting and activation of the arrays.

For several hours the plans for the device was drawn and the two just... kept talking.

The horses and ponies in the war room all looked at each other in slightly uncomfortable manners as the complex magical theories, techniques and debates that were being flung out between their leaders were way over their heads. Not to mention so boring some of the guards were starting to fall asleep standing.

Then one of the horses decided, fuck it, and left the room. Then another horse left, then a pony, and finally as the hour of the evening bells struck the plans for the device was completed and both the Princess and the Lord wondered just where their guards and soldiers had gone.

(Scene Skip)

"DISGRACEFUL WEAKLING!!!!"0 Talos' voice roared out like a crack of thunder. And with a brutal crunch his massive claw crushed the head of the recently mutilated body against the side of the mountain. The corpse was of the dead dragon who had initiated the retreat from the ponies. He was furious. Everything about the Grand Feast had gone wrong ever since they arrived at the continent.

There was no other way to put it. It was a mess and he had to do something about it. He had lost over half of his clan, the ponies were unwilling to be proven their proper place. and now. Those forsaken heathens had created flying huts! The utter gal to dare intrude upon the skies, the domain of his kin, with... with... FLYING HUTS, was nothing less then gut wrenching.

Oh but he would have his vengeance. Justice would be served! The order of things would return to what they were! Even if would cost him everything! He would NOT STAND FOR THIS!

"Gather your strength and wits. For at the first sign of dawn we strike, as one, from all directions we shall swarm over their entire mountain village, and melt it to the ground. Those who seek to flee, shall face the same judged as this coward." The dragon lord then stepped over the fallen corpse and stomped over to a cliff side where he sought to rest. While his frightened kin huddled out of sight, many of them injured and frightened by both the ponies and their weird flying wood huts.

But even those things did not put them at such unease as the idea of what Lord Talos would do to them should they flee. After all, the orange one was lucky. He had only had his legs, wings and forelimbs broken before Talos crushed his skull.

(Scene Skip)

The meeting between Celestia and Achilles ended and the Horse Lord left the castle with his troops. It had been a productive evening and he would be sending a group of four hundred horses, one hundred of each warrior type, and hvae them aid in the preparation of the device.

He was thankful it had gone so well. The plan for the device had taken a bit longer then eh intended but it would be fairly easy to construct it with the gold that Canterlot would be supplying and with the skills of the so called Workshop, the Mages and the Caretakers of the Order of the golden cross, he knew they would have it made before dawn.

Even as he moved halfway through the city he saw lines of horses marching into the city towards the Temple of Law. Each of them carrying a saddle pack of tools and supplies, while some pulled small carts with various crystals and gemstones. The most important piece would be the focus point of the device, and it could not be any crystal. It had to be strong enough to channel the energy and spherical enough in shape that it could spread out the shield evenly.

The troops all stopped and saluted him before marching on as he passed them by. He just gave nod in response as he kept moving. Soon enough he exited Canterlot and reached the fleet. Where several horses were working on the enchantment arrays of the hulls. And he was told about what they had found out about the ships' arrays.

Apparently had the wood corroded a bit by the constant and intense energy being flown through them. Worst were the Longboats as they had no metal plating on their hulls to absorb the energy. It was easy enough to repair however. But Achilles, or rather, Malefius was worried. For he had no idea what would happen should the arrays be damaged or destroyed. The amount of energy the ships held was no laughing matter.

So he decided to have the horses prepare another set of runes on the deck of the ship on the railings, edges and ledges. It may or may nor be of any aid. But any chance above 0 percent was better then nothing in his books.

But he did not personally take part in the constructions. He had a more... personal matter to attend to. Something he needed to do. There was only four days, soon three, remaining. then eh would be sent back to the moon. And he had investigated the most recently updated calendar of the castle. The Red Sun would be sent through a long waiting period of nearly two decades, of not more, if what the calendar said was true.

He had to do this now. Or he would regret it for the rest of his life. And he already had enough regrets. There was no need to add more to it.

(Scene Skip)

"Mama! Do ya need any help with da food?" Happy Meal asked as she stood next to her mother in the kitchen of her mother's eatery. Both she and Grand Music had decided to eat together with their family, for the dangerous day that was approaching was making both of them nervous, and they felt like they needed to be with their mother just to feel better.

Anypony was free to call them pathetic or clingy, two grown up ponies, both knights and one of them even the grand master of a knightly order. But in the end, sometimes a pony just need their mother's, or father's, comfort.

Grand Feast just smiled and pulled out the finished apple and chestnut pie she had been baking for dinner but never cooked until so late into the night with the dragon assault startling her to hide in the catle. Her store had been closed for several days because of the news of the dragon attack. It felt weird to have the normally active and homey place be so quiet for so long. So she appreciated her two oldest coming home for a meal, even if it was very late, her husband Applejack was with their foals at his family clan in the western forest, visiting the other half of the family for a month. Something she was grateful for.

"No need to worry child. We have been making food for your hungry tummies long enough to know how to do it. No need for concern." Happy Meal just made a playful pout before she broke out into giggles and hugged her mother before walking out of the kitchen to prepare the table.

Soon the eatery was filled with laughter as the two ponies ate and talked with their mother. but as the meal progressed into the early morning hours, there was a loud knocking from the doors of the eatery. After a few seconds of sudden silence there was another set of knocking.

"Wonder who that could be at this hour?" Grand Feast said with a wondering tone as she walked over to the doorway and unlocked it. As she opened it stood a large cloaked figure before the door, a pair of glowing red eyes beneath the hood.

"I apologies if I am disturbing you miss Grand Feast of the Blue Grass Clan. But I needed to speak with you... and your kin. It is most urgent." The voice was a strange one, and yet somehow the manner behind the speech felt familiar. so she nodded and let the large stranger into her eatery and part time home.

The stranger looked at her two children and let out a deep emotionally loaded sigh, sounding exhausted. Then, as she walked over to the table to invite him to sit down, he pulled back his hood. And the head of Maleficus Victora, with the black mane, fangs, pelt and a mandible like horn, was revealed to the.

"YOU! What are you doing here!?" Grand Music shouted out at the uncloaked head of Maleficus Victoria. Glaring at him with a furious look on his face. Standing up protectively before Grand Feast and Happy Meal who had both given out startled gasps.

"To talk to you. About something you and your family need to hear. While I still have the chance to speak of it." The large black stallion said with a serious look in his face. Grand Music wanted to attack him but he had left his armour and weapon back at the Temple of Law, least he anger his mother who had told him to never bring such dangerous stuff into her eatery, unless there was an emergency.

So he just decided to keep glaring at the alicorn.

"What do ya want ta say Mister Maleficus?" Happy Meal asked with a cheerful, but strained, voice as she stood next to her mother, unwilling to step away from her. Even though her mother was giving both of her foals a stern mother's gaze, would neither of them stood standing protectively before her.

Maleficus smiled sadly at her before he sighed and sat down on his haunches on the floor before he began to speak again. "I am here to speak the truth of what happened ten years ago. What I told you when we had our duel during the Second Crusade."

He took a deep breathe, closed his eyes and contemplated for a few seconds. Then he opened his eyes, his decision made. The die was cast.

"I was the pony known as Golden Cross ten years ago." The blunt spoken truth was sharp and without wit, it was just fact. Pure and simple, the truth coming from the souvenir itself. But that did not help the two young ponies from staring at him with widening eyes, while grand Feast looked at him with a concerned face.

"And I shall prove it, to you. Not by words, but by actions. So that you. Will know the truth." After he said that, Maleficus closed his eyes and a shimmering light enclosed his body for a short moment. Then. His body began to shift and alter itself, as if being molded and painted by an invisible sculpture.

As he changed, Grand Music's glaring eyes seemed to burn with anger, his horn sparkling. While Happy Meal began to cry sobbingly while her mother just smiled sadly at the sight. The older mare had known it would have come, it was not easy to confess the truth or your faults, but the Alicorn was apparently one of the few to do so.

The form of Maleficus melted apart, shifting and altering its colour, shape and size. Growing a head smaller, his wings shrank away, his horn disappear, his face grew wrinkles while his pelt and mane turned into pale and grayish colours. Finally, his frightening phantom of a cutie mark, transformed into a golden cross.

"Do you believe me now that I look like this?" The form of Golden Cross asked the family, his voice solemn and his face in a sad smile. Sadly this only made Grand Music more angry and Happy Meal just kept crying while her mother gently rubbed her head while she warped one of her wings over her daughter.

The adult stallion was furious and got into Maleficus face and started to scream at him, poking his transformed chest with his right hoof. As if trying to break whatever spell he had used to transform himself with harsh pushing. It did not work, the sobbing of Happy Meal echoed through the room. "No! You do not deserve to be him! Do not sully his memories to us!"

"Look, I... I am truly sorry. But I cannot keep lying to you to make you feel better. I am Maleficus Victoria, and Golden Cross, was a fake identity created by me. That, is the truth." Happy Meal was not sobbing any longer but she was sniffling a bit, brushing the tears out of her eyes, while Grand Feast was rubbing her head still. The young mare may be an adult, but she was still just that little filly in the eyes of her mother, and seeing her hurt like this hurt both Grand Feast, and Maleficus greatly.

But Grand Music, in his emotionally unbalanced state, reacted far more physically. As he broke out into a frenzied rage and reared back his right hoof. Maleficus, did not move out of the way, and just stood still.

"SHUT UP!" Grand Music shouted out as he struck the face of the motionless alicorn, there was a loud clang as his hoof struck the jaw of the one who had lied to him. And while the alicorn's face was slightly bruised, disappeared those injuries swiftly. While Grand Music himself felt like he had cracked his hoof and fractured the bones of his foreleg.

"ACK! Buck! My hoof!" The knight cried out in pain as he clutched his foreleg, Happy Meal, no longer crying, silently walked into the kitchen and poured cold water onto a towel her mother gave to her. Grand Feast just gave her adoptive son a sad look as he clutched his foreleg while Maleficus looked at him with regret, hurt and sadness, for the fact that the small foal he had known all those years ago had struck him, hurt more then the blow itself.

"I am sorr-" He tried to voice his regrets but the young stallion would not hear it and interrupted him while he clutched his hoof.

"Stop saying you are sorry! Buck that hurt." Happy Meal walked over and warped the wet and cold towel around Grand Music's hoof. The Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Cross let out a hiss of pain but became silent as the comforting coldness of the towel slowly soothed the aching pain in his hoof.

Maleficus remained silent, unwilling and uncertain, he did not want to upset them anymore and he did not want to say something stupid. So he went with a common rule of his old world, silence is golden."..."

But this did little to comfort the feelings of Grand Music and Happy Meal. The mare gave him a stern look as he just stood there in silence and spoke out to him in a slightly harsh voice, a voice that Maleficus could hear was shaking with pent up emotions and held back sobs. "Don't ya just stand there all silent like! Ye need ta say somethin'!"

He tried to form the words, stuttering a bit. Before he finally just sighed and asked them. "... I... I... haaaaa... what do you want me to say?"

Grand Music spoke up for the group, his voice slightly pained as he gripped his still tender hoof. But his words were still clear and sharp. "Tell us the truth! Why did you tell us those fake stories!? Why did you lie to us about yourself!"

The alicorn just gave a sad smile as he tired his best to explain his reasons. Reasons he knew would most likely never be acceptable for them, but it was the truth and he needed to clear everything. "I never meant for my fake persona as Golden Cross to harm anyone. Or to become such a big deal. It was just meant to be a way for me to travel without causing trouble for Equestria by needlessly fighting. "

"But... some of those stories. Were not all lies. I truly did come from a home. A place were I had parents, my three siblings. I had... I had a family.... once. But they are far gone now... long gone. And I, am the last. And I always will be the last. For there is no other of my family's bloodline alive in this world." With a sad smile on his face the alicorn looked upon them, and they could almost feel the pain that he felt as he spoke of his home and family. Lost to him forever, it was... something none of them had considered. But now that it had been said. It seemed to obvious.

He took a shaking breathe and slowly let it out, gathering his wits and restraining himself from breaking down into tears. It was not the time to cry, he could cry later. When he was alone and isolated, where no one could hear his shameful sobs. For now, he needed to keep talking, before he lost the heart and courage to speak. "That's why I never tell much about my past. It hurts, more then you know, it hurts so deep I cannot help but cry. My father, my mother, my brothers and my little sister. All gone, and I am the only one left. It is almost unbearable to even think about it, let alone try to speak about them."

"B-but why did ye... why did ye care fer us? Why tell us da truth now?" Happy Meal asked, her tears returning, but she was not sobbing. Her mother gently patted her child on the head, a sad smile of her own growing on her muzzle. As the older mare began to realize and understand Maleficus and his reasons.

His lips turned into a nostalgic smile as he remembered those good times ten years ago. The smiles, the laughter and the warmth... how he wished it could have lasted forever. But it never could have been, but even if that was the case... he regretted nothing about it. "...Because... even if it was just for a short month... you were the closest I've had for a family... since I became an alicorn. And that... that is worth more to me... then any false facade built on necessity could be. Though no matter how much I wanted to reveal the truth, I could not find a proper way to do so."

He rubbed his left shoulder with his right hoof, looking away from the three ponies as he felt his shame return. Even though he wanted to, did he not want to look them in the eyes any longer as he revealed his cowardice. It hurt but he would survive it, he always did. "And I felt shameful, that I caused you all so much pain. I never intended to become attached to anyone, I never intended to care for anyone. I never wanted anyone to care or become attached to me in return. For I knew it would end in painful separation each time the month of my freedom on this world would end. And I would not be able to see anyone again for several years, decades even."

"You stupid stallion. You may be an alicorn, but you are just as dumb as any mortal male." Grand Feast said with a strained smile as tears streamed down her cheeks. She was both sad, hurt and happy, sad for him, hurt that he lied, but glad that he still told the truth. Even if it hurt to know much of it had been fake, was she still happy to know he was still alive, no matter the lies.

"I know, and I am truly sorry for that." Maleficus said with a haunted look on his face, the large alicorn could not stop but feel sorry for them ,sorry that he lied. And he was more then willing to endure the pain, both physically, emotionally and mentally, as long as it helped them. He was fine with a bit of pain and hurt, nothing he had not gone through before.

But he would be surprised, of the forgiving nature of the ponies. As when Grand Feast stepped forward, and began to berate him with a kind, not scolding, voice. "Stop saying you are sorry Gold- no, Maleficus. You may have lied to us. But you protected us. You saved us. You saved this city. Even if it was just for us three, you still gave your all, even behind a false identity and limited strength, you went through Tartarus for us and this city. That proves, no matter the lies, that you, are a kind pony. No matter what you may have wrought. You are not a bad pony."

He blinked, and could feel the stinging sensation of tears starting to take shape in his eyes, he blinked slightly rapidly and inhaled, managing to halt his tears. And as he let out a long and slightly shaking breath, he spoke up, with an uncertain look in his face. "...Are you certain you are fine with this? Even knowing the truth of myself and my past wrongdoings?"

Happy Meal, no longer crying, her sad face once more a bright and happy smile, cried out with a cheerful voice that seemed to vibrate the room. "Yeah! Grandpa Cross or Grandpa Victoria! Does not matter! Ye be da best grandpa ever!"

"...Mmmhmmmm..." Grand Feast hummed with a smile at him.

"I... ah... I... fine... yes. Yes I forgive you... grandpa." Grand Music mumbled out, blushing a bit as he could not find it in him to be angry any longer. It was so awkward, but he felt a bit... better about it all now.

The shocked look on the alicorn's face was almost heart aching for the ponies to see. He had actually come to them ,fully expecting to be denied and thrown out, and yet he had done so, knowing that the truth needed to be told. No matter how it hurt. But this. This was something he had never expected, and it showed itself in his eyes and expression, as he looked a them, in stunned silence.

Then his eyes seemed to grow moist for a few seconds, his lower lip quivered slightly, as he inhaled, choking down his emotions. And he blinked rapidly, keeping his tears from falling. Before he smiled, a warm and joyful smile, that mirrored the smile he had worn as Golden Cross, but upon the face of Maleficus, it looked natural, even more so then when he had been disguised. "...Thank you... thank you all so much."

There was an awkward silence, before Grand Feast stepped forward and hugged the alicorn gently. Her forelegs were barely able to reach up to his neck, but she managed to hug him still. and he hesitantly, warped one hoof around her, and hugged her back, a content smile on his lips.

Neither Happy Meal nor Grand Music stepped forward to hug him, too hesitant to do so. But when their mother slowly let go of the stallion who they had grown to adore as a grandfather figure, the ancient stallion gently reached out and patted their heads. His warm smile making both of them choke down sobs as they saw he was not upset, and rather, looked so content and happy that they had forgiven him.

Their mother gently hugged the two with her wings and smiled at the kind stallion who had saved her family several times. And he smiled back, happy and content, knowing they had forgiven his lies.

The moment was broken however when the large horn of Canterlot gatehouse rumbled out a signal across the city. All of them looked towards the windows of the store, and before the long and open streets they could see it. The light streaking down upon the city walls and slowly bringing light to the sky. The dawn had come. And Maleficus knew, that as the Dragon Lord Talos had promised, the dragons would come to try and raze Canterlot to the ground at first light.

"I have to go. The dragons are coming soon and I need to help Celestia stop them. Do not take part of this fight unless absolutely necessary." The two knights looked at each other, they wanted to fight. But they had been commanded by Princess Celestia to use all their resources to guard the Shield Cone, as the device had come to be named, it was far to vital to just leave defended by a light force.

"Will we meet you again?" Grand Music asked, a bit of uncertainty and concern in his tone. Happy Meal just hugged him as her close friend tried to act tough. Knowing how he really felt.

"The next Red Sun is within twenty years. So stay safe, stay healthy, stay good and stay alive. And we will meet again." With those words said Maleficus' horn shone with a crimson light and he covered the outer portion of his body with magic. And a the supernatural energy touched his hide his form twisted and shifted into a black miasma.

At first he just looked like a flowing and almost unseen phantom, near invisible to the naked eye. But then he focused more magic upon himself and his shape turned more clear, but less solid, as the once vague near invisible pony shape turned into solid darkness that melting into the ground into the shape of a moving shadow.

He moved out of the restaurant, moving out of the lower gaps of the door in the entrance. And disappeared into the morning light, moving to once more assume the identity of Achilles.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining: 3 Days]

Talos woke up before the dawn would come, and he stomped over to the large horde of his remaining kin and followers. With glaring eyes he looked to spot anyone who had dared to flee during the night, he counted five gone. And would make examples of them once he finished with the ponies.

He had a plan for how to handle the ponies when he himself entered combat. After all, the ponies had shown they were compassionate, protective and caring, all points that he could exploit with a resource he had been gathering for the need of information. Now they would get a final use before their end. "Get me the remaining 'snacks' we have and put them in a single cage with a long chain on it."

The dragons complied and gathered the remaining ponies they had captured, most that remained were young foals or elderly ponies too small or too tasteless to be filling or enjoying the flavour of. As their snacks cried and begged they put them all into one slightly larger then average cage they had made out of melted metal from the pony cities. Then they put the chain of a sail boat's anchor and welded it into place on both sides of the cage.

With a smirk Talos watched them work. This would be his edge against those compassionate ponies. A living insurance that he could use, to destroy them without being targeted. A most excellent use of small snacks if he got to say so himself.

When it was done he took the cage with over a hundred cramped ponies and put the chain over his head ,careful to not let it tangle into his horns, and finally felt it rest around his neck. Then he smirked and turned to face north, where the mountains blocked the sight of the city that had so profoundly humiliated him and his kind. IT was time for it to disappear.

"Fly now! Cover all directions! Give them no way to keep you out of their mountain home! Melt it to the ground!" Then eh took off and over a hundred dragons followed, spreading out and flying into a large encircling formation. They followed their leader's orders with an intent on assaulting the city from all directions.

While Talos took the lead, flying ahead, with the cage of screaming ponies around his neck. Confident that none of the ponies would dare to shoot him as long as he held their oh so precious kin on his body.

(Scene Skip)

The wings of hundreds of flapping bat wings filled the morning air as Celestia raised the sun. As the first light of dawn cracked down upon the city. And with her horn glowing Celestia made a swinging motion with her hoof towards the ponies gathered upon the roof of the castle's central keep. A large gong was struck and the signal to activate the Shield Cone was sent.

Why Achilles had been laughing when she suggested the name was a mystery. But he was more the happy to let the name stay, saying it was going to make him laugh every time he heard it.

Even as the sun light revealed that sky was filled with a spread out force of dragons flying from all directions, she knew they would be repelled. For the shield cone had been ready for at least an hour because of the many hours of work made by her ponies and their horse allies.

It was funny. Had she not been besieged by dragons she might not even have let the horses enter Canterlot itself. What would have happened then? She dared not think about to for too long, feeling rather uncertain about herself and that was not needed at the moment.

"We shalt endure this storm. And We shalt bring an end to these monsters." The Princess vowed as she stood there upon the fortress, glaring at the beasts intent on destroying all she had been, and still was, working for.

(Scene Skip)

The signal was hard as Achilles looked out through his spyglass, given to him by General Aerial Grace when he mentioned that he had no such gear for his fleet. The echoing of the signal horn could be heard resounding over the city. And down upon the right tower of the Temple of Law, were the Shield Cone was located, were a team of ten unicorns firing off raw magical blasts at the cone's golden structure.

Achilles smothered a snicker as he thought about that name for a second before resuming his focus as he watched the runes upon the cone light up.

The so called Horse Lord and his Sky Fleet had relocated themselves to the city's mountain side were the ponies had begun carving out the mountain to make the city larger without expanding out into the fields, hills and deep chasm by the city. He knew he could not depend on the ships and thus he had ordered them to only act as support for this battle.

For even if the shield held would the dragons not just leave. They needed something to handle those creatures and persuading them to leave Equestria alone. But how?

The answer to that question came as the dragon horde was revealed by the sun light.

For at the front of the horde, flying from the east, along the mountain side connected to Canterlot itself, was Talos, flying like a black giant whale towards the city. had it not been because he was in a spot to look over the entire area of the city, would Achilles never have spotted the dragon.

"He's much more clever then I'd assumed. But just as sadistic and vile as I thought." Achilles muttered as he saw what appeared to be a chain aroudn the dragon's neck, and on it, dangling from the big beast's throat, was a large cage. No doubt containing at least fifty or so ponies.

"Using the natural instincts of the ponies against them by using their own kind as hostages AND body armour? I am both impressed and appalled. That is something worthy of some of my Dungeons and Dragons playing sessions with evil PCs. Gods I hope this guy isn't as clever as some of those guys or we're rightly fucked in the ass." Folding his spyglass Achilles handed it over to the captain of the crew before he jumped off the longboat and onto the large tower sticking out of the side of the mountain.

"Have the ships spread out above the city. We need to have the advantage over him so we can free the hostages. Be sure to keep track of the battle the best you can and once they have been freed, pull them to safety. The assume bombardment combat against him." The horses saluted and signals were sent out to the rest of the fleet and soon the Sky Fleet began to rise above the city, spreading out like small storm clouds above the city.

Achilles checked his blade, the bronze covered iron sword was well and done. But he felt a slight nauseating sensation through his chest and for a second he thought he was just feeling slightly nauseous from his memories. When he suddenly lurched forward, coughing and gagging. Clutching at the ground with his hoof he reared back his talon, clenched it into a fist and punched himself in the gut.

With a loud splat a familiar looking black and red globe of flesh erupted from his mouth and he wiped his mouth as he stood up, panting. He glared at the fleshy lump reminding him of how limited his time was and spat a wad of saliva and blood over his shoulder, muttering. "Fucking elements."

Then a his attention was caught elsewhere as a bright purple flare erupted from the Temple of Law and Achilles turned his head to see how the Shield Cone activated. The magical energy had been stored and amplified by the cone structure, then focused out at the peak into the smallest exit point. Were the crystal sphere, a massive purple amethyst, released a great and powerful light as the magic went into effect.

As the light grew denser, not as bright but much more... mist like, there was the sound of what could only be described as something heavy hitting grass with a loud grassy thump. And with the speed of an explosion a purple field erupted from the purple mist like light and expanded outwards. It spread out from the center of the city were the Tempel of Law was located ,ti crossed over the markets, the shops, the parks, the palace, the mansions, the city wall and finally, over the edge of the mountain and up over the sky ships.

All in a perfect dome shape. and as the shape stopped expanding, it went from a glowing misty like energy field, into a solid mass of energy. The dragons flew at the barrier, intent on breaking it.

The only thing they broke were their pride, and some of their bones. Not even their dragon breaths were strong enough to penetrate the magical shield, their flames, ice gasses and lightning bolts only washing over the surface like rain.

All except for five. Lord Talos and four dragons one elder and three adults, had been fast enough to get past the barrier. The elder had not managed to get past the barrier entirely, as when ti had turned solid, he had been halfway through it. And thus had been.... cut in half. So his lower half was rolling down the other side of the mountain, outside of the barrier. While his front half was rolling down the mountain side, leaving a massive bloody smear over the surface.

The three adults flew over the walls, and were swiftly slaughtered by the projectiles of the ballistaes, their bodies fell into the city and smashed into three or four houses before laying still.

Lord Talos, however was entirely fine. And had taken the advantage to fly towards what he thought was the location of the Princess. The large stone tower that had been carved out of its side, which reached from the bottom of the mountain's root to near the top of the peak. For a dragon such a high position was a good spot to rule over their lands and regions.

But the thing is that Celestia is not a dragon, and her home was at the base of the mountain not in the tower. The large tower Talos was heading towards was just to be a large tower used as a transportation aid for the construction work on the mountain.

Where a certain disguised alicorn was getting ready.

(Scene Skip)

[Start Battle Music: Fantasy Music - The Last of His Kind by BrunuhVille]

[Author's Note: Please support the maker of this awesome song, there are many more like this one among their many musical products.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFawgUfNXP8

Talos flew over the walls of the large stone village. His roar echoed out from his lungs and through his throat as he released a torrent of lowing magma over the buildings bellow him, in a single instance had over three hundred houses been set ablaze. And even as s few bolts of magic or wood struck at his thick hide, they did not even scratch the surface.

He spread his wings and with a powerful flap and boom he flew up along the surface of the tall stone tower. His red eyes glowing with triumph. Talos thenfolded his wings and reached otu with his massive claws, and with a loud crack, grabbed hol of the top of the tower.

But as he glared down at the top of the tower, he saw not the white pony who had declared herself the ruler of these lands. Isntead ,ti was a patchwork like pony, looking like he had been sewn together from various types of ponies, and griffin. A freak of nature to the dragon Lord's mind. "What kind of abomination are you!? A mockery made in the face of nature's true rulers!?"

The so called freak just smirked at him and pointed a metallic fang at his face, a determined and strong voice echoing out over the gales created by his wings and bellowing over the mountain peak. "I am Achilles, General of the Horses, last of the Horse Lords. And I bring your death dragon."

"Haahahahahaha! How amusing! A mismatched creature born of weaklings is threatening me! Me!? Lord Talos!? I have never been so amused! Hahahahaha!" Talos the Dragon Lord roared out an echoing and rumbling laughter that shook the entire tower, his two large wings spreading wide as he tossed his head back and kept cackling. But that was an error he would soon regret.

Achilles raised his sword towards the sky as he stood in front of the massive creature, and shouted out. "FIRE!"

"Fire? Where- ARGH!" The confused expression of the massive dragon was turned into one of pain as four iron bolts were fired from the floating triremes above him. Solid iron ballistae bolts piercing through the joints of his wings like big nails, essentially nailing the wings into the stone of the massive tower. Talos had essentially just been nailed in place to the large tower, and he could not just rear back his wings to remove the bolts. If he did so he would damaging them further, because of how they had been struck through his joints.

"YOU VERMIN! I SHALL INCINERATE YOU ALL!" The dragon roared out in utter fury as he turned his head towards the floating ship and was about to inhale and fire off a massive fire, when suddenly a piercing pain pierced his neck as a lightning bolt struck the iron bolts nailed into his wing. He turned his head and glared balefully at Achilles as he stood there, his horn sparkling with electrical energy.

"Come on you overgrown lizard! Show me that so called superiority of yours!" The physically mismatched horse cried out as he drew his short sword and ran towards the dragon's chest area. Intent on striking at the most common weak points of a dragon he knew not just from what little he knew of the dragons of this new world, but also from the lore of dragons from the many books and games he had enjoyed as a human.

Their arrogance and pride. Greed was a big factor as well, but for a dragon like Talos, were these his major weak points. And Achilles' taunts worked perfectly, perhaps a bit too well even.

"I SHALL DESTROY YOUR ENTIRE RACE FOOLISH HORSE!" Talos roared out as he slammed down his talon upon the tower. A loud crack erupted as the stone beneath his talon crumbled apart, shaking a good chunk of the structure as he caved in half of the roof.

Achilles suddenly appeared from beneath his elbow, hanging by his sword which eh had jammed into the thick scales of the dragon's body. Which were not connected to any nerves and thus did not feel the small blade piercing them. The dragon rotated his limb to slam down his palm upon the horse, who dodged by running around the dragon's limb again.

Then his voice echoed out as he disappeared from sight once more. "Like I have destroyed your forces on the east coast!?"

Talos went silent for a few seconds as he tried to contemplated what he had just been told. "...What did you just say?"

"Those dragons you left raiding the east coast. We killed them all." Achilles' voice responded, it was impossible to tell were he was located even though the tower and the dragon himself were the only places to be on at the moment so high up on the mountain side.

"LIAR! Foul cretin! There is now way my son would lose to such weaklings!" Talos erupted into a rage and reared back his claw and crushed the remaining parts of the roof top, releasing his wing in the process as the stone his wing had been nailed to were crushed. But Achilles had not been on the still intact part of the body.

He appeared right on the dragon's nose, smirked upon him with his blade pointed at the dragon's glaring eyes. "If your son was the big stupid red scaled brute with the frothing mouth then yes, I killed him. Fairly easy at that, just stabbed through his left eyeball and fried his brain by flooding it with lightning. Shall I demonstrate?"

"Lies! Lies! My brood are not weaker then a fucking pony!" Talos responded by tossing and turning his head, trying to throw off the interloper. The ponies in the cage around his neck cried out in fear and panic as their prison swayed and weaved around dangerously.

"Again, I am a horse, well, mostly a horse. I am partly pony. But I am still mostly a horse." Achilles held himself in place by kneeling down and stabbing the short sword into the thick scales of the dragon and holding himself in place using it as an anchor. Even as the dragon turned his entire head back the patchwork horse remained on his head.

"You know what let's just call me a chimera made of equine beings, that works better." With a wordless roar Talos slammed his head into the mountain. Achilles jerked out his sword and ran over the dragon's head, making a point to kick him in the eye as he did so, not having enough time to stab him. An explosion of boulders and stone poured down as the dragon smashed his snout and forehead a good ten meter into the rock, leaving a rather big hole in the middle of the mountain top.

With a jerk back he freed his head and scanned with his eyes and head, sniffing the air to try and track the so called horse as it no doubt was hiding on him again. Roaring out in rage he climbed up onto the top of the tower and pressed his back against the mountain. "Shut it! You filthy mockery of an animal and submit to your betters!"

"No one is anyone's better. All are equal in the face of battle, no matter their size or power. All face one another as equal in combat, only skill, determination, luck and heart can affect the course of battle. And you are no different." The voice of Achilles state from, above him. Standing on the edge of the hole Talos had made when eh headbutted the mountain.

Deciding to go on the ways of taunting the dragon turned himself around, giving the horse no way to climb onto his back. He then smirked and grasped a claw around the cage hanging around his neck. "Shut it you freak of nature! I know your weakness horse! You and your pony kin are weak! You are unwilling to harm your own and is thus helpless to properly fight me!"

Getting a serious look on his face Achilles stood on his hind legs and flexed his wings. Obviously agitated. "Then I will just have to free them from you!"

Talos smirked and gave a barking laugh, not letting go of the cage he was grasping, unknowing about the glowing figure flying up behind him. "Ha! I'd like to see you try!"

With a glare Achilles hunched down and got ready to charge off the edge of the hole. "Not going to try. I am going to do it. There is no if, no when or no try. Only doing!" And with a sudden push of his hind legs and forelegs he burst out of the hole towards the dragon who reared back his free claw to crush him.

But a certain alicorn of the sun had decided to take part in this fight in her own manner.

"TAKE THIS FIEND!!" Princess Clestia shouted out as she blasted into the back of the dragon as the brute was about to attack Achilles. A powerful burst of light detonated from the impact, tearing up a good chunk of the dragon's left shoulder as she tore through it like a drill.

"Aaaargh!" Talos clutched his shoulder with his free hand, giving Achilles enough time to land on the dragon's body and rush off to disappear from the beast's sight.

Furious Talos let out a stream of magma towards Celestia who suddenly dived down and flew out of sight from him and he turned around to spot her. Still grasping the cage with one claw, unwilling to let his advantage disappear. "Get out and fight you dirty grassmunchers!"

"There is a big error when fighting as small as I am when you are so big. It makes it far too easy to avoid your sight. You should have realized it by now." Achilles' voice rang out once more fro mall around and the large dragon was starting to get enough. And spread his wings to take off from the tower.

*Let us see how well these little worms can handle a sound burst!* With that in his mind Talos flapped down his massive wings and the collected wind burst down like a gale, with a loud boom emitting as he flapped. With the push of his wings he flew off the tower and narrowly avoided being struck in the elbow by the bolt of golden light that was Celesta.

As the Princess let go of her golden aura she summoned a misty shroud that engulfed the air above the tower and made the dragon lose sight of her as well. And he was not happy by that move. As he roared he let out a stream of magma from his maws, the molten rock raining down upon the city below him, causing a whole city block to catch fire. "Show yourself you coward!"

"Says the big strong dragon hiding behind hostages held around his neck by a flimsy looking chain and a big crude cage." Achilles' voice at first was just echoing out. But then at the end of the sentence, his voice could be heard, from behind Talos' head. And there was suddenly a loud crack as lightning coursed through Talos' body from his neck followed by a loud detonation as the chain on the back of his head, exploded into shrapnel.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!" As the exploded metal links dug into his neck and pierced his flesh there was an intense pain like he had never felt before. The Dragon Lord instinctively reach out with both of his claws and tried to dig them out, not realizing ,that he had let go of the cage.

The chain shattered and the cage began to slide off the flying dragon's neck. Four Longboats flew under the belly of the monstrous dragon. Vikings swung grappling hooks and threw them at the falling cage. Clangs of metal striking metal echoed out over the skies as the grappling hooks struck at the bars or crude metal roof and floor of the cage. More then twenty managed to latch on the cage's bars. and that was enough for the ships to work with.

With a loud groan the cage stopped falling, instead it nearly made the sky ships capsize as the weight of a hundred ponies inside a two ton cage made up of various pieces of metal, pulled at their cloud flying shapes. But after a few seconds was the cage no longer groaned, and neither were the ships.

Thus the crews shifted actions and began to row their oars to fly away from the rampaging dragon's massive form. Talos took note of this and roared out in anger, lashing out with his claw towards the cage to grab it from the wooden sky ships. But before he could came a glowing Priness Celestia flying, with her foreleg hooves first, straight into his head. The physical strike was enough to send his entire neck and upper body reeling back from the incredible blow behind it, but it was not thorn open like the last strike that hit him had as it had not been as intensely concentrated as the first blow Celestia struck.

But the gust of wind from the claw as it missed was enough to make the cage wave and wag, and one of the bars broke off the rest and fell down. The ponies in the cage managed to hold themselves together and keep away from he new and obviously dangerous opening. But a small unicorn filly trying to cling to her mother's legs, was suddenly dropped when her mother was pushed in the side. The little filly struck the tilting floor of the cage and rapidly slide down and out of the hole while her mother frantically tried to reach out for her. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaah! Mama!"

"Dining Bell! NOOO!" The mother cried out and tried to use her telekinesis to lift up her baby ,but a sudden shaking of the cage made her lose concentration and by then had her child dropped too far for her to reach out.

At the cry of the mother Achilles leaped off the dragon's shoulder and as he slide down the dragon's upper arm he saw the filly falling and let out a curse. "Shit."

He then spotted one of the grappling hooks dangling in the air, down at the elbow he was standing on and looked at the filly and made a decision. *Sure hope I am as crazy as she said I was or this will probably not work.*

With a kick of his left hind leg he struck the elbow at one of the torn off areas, were he hoped there was a nerve that was like the one of a human. There was a loud roar from the dragon and the limbs suddenly flexed out with intense force and Achilles used this to launch himself towards the grappling hook.

He caught it and swung himself through the air with the line and reached out with his hoof, and managed to barely catch the filly before she could strike the rooftop of a building. "Gotcha!"

His eyes then widened as he saw Talos glare down at him as he dangled there and released a flood of magma towards him. Not even bothering to speak he turned his back to the dragon, lit up his horn, and created a shield around both of them. The magma covered the shield and Achilles grit his teeth as he tried ot keep as much of the head fro mreaching the filly he was clutching to his chest.

Then as the magma burst ended his shield flickered out just in time for him to crash into the wall of one of the towers of the castle. He had to let goof the grappling hook as he reached out with his talon and grabbed the edge and hung there. His wings were badly roasted, parts of his body looked like they had been boiled or roasted, and his horn. Was fractured.

"...Gah! Haaaa... Ouch..... damn that... fucker hit me good there... you okay kid?" He gasped out a cloud of ash and smoke before coughing. The pain was intense but he bit through it, he had gone through worse after all.

"I want my mama..." Little Dining Bell sniffled as she hugged the strange patchwork pony who had saved her from falling.

Achilles just closed his eyes and let out a deep sight. He knew the feeling, it was a feeling he felt almost every time he contemplated his sins, his life and his future. It always made him wish to return to his mother's warm embrace, her soothing comfort. And it almost made him cry, knowing he would never know that again. "Yeah... I know that feeling kid..."

A loud crack filled the air as the patchwork body of Achilles let out a jerk as he clenched his teeth together to not scream out in pain. He looked up and saw that the crimson flesh that had once fused his talon to his foreleg,, was stretching out, and blood was pouring out from the tearing flesh, the bone was no doubt broken as well. "Shit... That's bad."

Then a voice cried out from the top of the tower. "Are you alright Lord Achilles!"

The badly burnt patchwork horse looked up, his left eye blinded by the fire, but he could still see the worried face of General Aerial Grace as she landed on the ledge, reaching out to grip his talon.

[End Battle Music]

[Start Dramatic Scene Music: Pirates of the Caribbean - What Shall We Die For]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2nMwMOUIos

"Don't touch my claw... it could break off at any given moment. Just take the kid, get her to safety." Then the tail of the flying monster that was Talos struck the tower and it shattered apart, Achilles' eyes widened for a second as he felt the tower heave and fall, but he just kicked back, letting his talon hang limp, as he spread his burnt wings and flew across the courtyard where the golden streak that was Celestia slammed into the neck of the massive dragon, pushing him away from the palace.

Reaching out with his badly damaged claw again he grabbed hold of a flagpole sticking out of the external wall on the highest section of the fort. Panting badly he knew that the body he was inhabiting would not last much longer. Aerial Grace was flying with her troops, trying to stay out of the fight between Celestia and Talos. She could not get close to the palace with the two struggling against each other.

Achilles grit his teeth as bloody line of his wrist suddenly stretched out an inch with a loud tearing sound. There was a spray of blood erupted from his now unmoving talon. The claws had dug into the rock itself before the nerves finally tore off, so it was anchored for a while at least. He tired to look up to see if anyone had seen him yet, and was rather surprised to see the face of a familiar looking earth pony Captain he remembered as a Private.

At seeing the shocked face of Weak Guts looking out over the edge he gave the earth pony a motion with his head towards the foal he was holding, and the Captain's face got serious. Letting out a sigh he hefted the filly in his hoof and muttered to her as he felt the last piece of stretched flesh start to rip apart in his foreleg. "Get to safety kid. You got a whole future ahead of you. Cherish... every... moment..."

Then he tossed the filly with all the strength he could, straight up. The little filly let out a startled cry as she flew up past the stone walls and up above the edge of the castle's edge, were the arms of Weak Guts caught her. Then there was a loud ripping sound and Achilles' wrist was torn off, leaving the talon gripping the window's ledge as his body fell.

[End Dramatic Music]

As he fell his body felt surprisingly light and he could feel it, the sensation of magic ringing through his soul. And he began to move his nearly broken body as the energy seemed to fill his body. It was strange ,he had not elt like it before, but it felt... familiar for some reason.

Thus Achilles spread his wings and he flapped them and began to glide towards the battle. And as he did Lord Talos let out a torrent of magma at Princess Celestia who retaliated with a beam of light that disintegrated the magma flow. But neither of the powerful beings were willing to quit and thus were pushing each other's attacks back. Closing his remaining good eye he flew through the ensuing fire storm.

And even as the heat of the fires burnt his fur and feathers he flew through it. And he pulled out his sword with his hoof, the stump on the other end no longer bleeding as profoundly as the flames had slightly cauterized it. Even as his eye burnt out he knew he had slammed into the left side of the torso of Talos, using the sensory magic he had developed as Golden Cross, and began to use his short sword as a climbing tool up the dragon's left side.

Princess Celestia flew out of the way of another gust of fire from Talos while she stared at the badly injured Horse Lord as he climbed up the dragon's side. She had no clue what he was doing but she knew that she needed to keep the dragon's attention off him.

Even as the winds and fires blew out among the battlefield no one noticed, as Princess Celestia used a bright flare of light to blind her foe while powerful fire balls exploded against his face. rendering his eyes and ears useless to spot the climbing Achilles. And with the pain nerves of the dragon's body not extending out into the thicker scales made it possible to climb it without being spotted.

To Talos it would not even have registered as with his enormous size, such small prickling stabs would be as noticeable as the bite of a mosquito. And in his rage as he lashed out at the Princess, this was impossible to notice.

Soon Achilles reached his goal, as he felt the winds slash against his face as he felt powerful muscles move. The wings were just above him. Putting the sword into its sheath he climbed up the rest with his three hooves and soon felt the boundary line between the thick scales of the body and the much thinner but still several hooves thick leather like membrane of the wings.

He unsheathed his sword, stabbed it straight into the membrane at the base of the wings just below the actual shoulder slash armpit part wing itself. And with one hoof griping the blade he began to rapidly run along the base of the wing, slicing up the membrane from the base of the wing itself and towards the other end, while a spray of blood erupted from the massive wound the sword was slicing up.

The dragon lord let out a roar of pain, as he definitely felt THAT. He swiftly turned his head around and released a literal stream of magma and fire towards the growing wound that was leaving a large gap in his left wing. A waterfall of molten rock and fire struck the bleeding gash. Waves of molted earth and liquid fire pushed against the membrane, and though it covered the wound and seemed to seal it up, was it not as effective as Talos might have hoped.

Talos was a fire dragon, his body was initially and externally immune to the effects of heat and fire, while he had sealed the wound and made the blood stop flowing, had he not healed the actual gash itself shut, in fact, he was widening it further as the force of his lava pushed against the membrane of the wing, and tore up the gash even more.

Until it finally reached the end of the wing, where a loud snap was heard as the thick nerve cluster that ended at the base of the membrane, was cut off. As the dragon screeched out in agony, as the inner sail of the left wing flapped was now flapping loose in the wind. At the same time erupted a small shape out of the not yet hardened magma.

It was Achilles and he was badly burnt, his body scorched pitch black. It was a miracle that his body was not just ash at this point. But he had done it the entire left wing of Talos had now been rendered useless.

Achilles' mouth opened and he let out a blarping burp of ash and smoke from his lungs. And then he went limp and tumbled off the dragon's body. But his sightless eyes were glowing with light somehow, even though no life could be seen from his scorched body as it began to fall in a spiraling pattern to wards the streets below.

Princes Celestia flew forward her eyes glaring furiously at the monstrous being before her who just slew one of the brightest minds she had known since the death of Starswirl. She was furious, her body was glowing like a falling star as she streaked through the air towards the dragon lord tried to retain his body in the air.

There was a bright flare as her forelegs struck the dragon's chest and the resounding explosion sent the mountain sized monster tumbling through the air and through seven houses, before his body stomped with a loud crash in the large open training field next to the park.

(Scene Skip)

The charred remains of Achilles rested upon one of the streets of the badly burning city. Within it the essence of Maleficus was contemplating what to do. He could not just assume a new form out of nowhere, there were too many eyes active. He could not just enter the fight as he was.

There was also the fact that he could not remain within this charred mess any longer. It was very uncomfortable.

Deciding to exit the body he went from a flowing mass of darkness into the barely noticeable physical form that to him made his body appear covered by darkness. This way would there be no one spotting him moving out of the corpse, hopefully.

But as he assumed his non tangible sense, something strange happened. He felt something, an invisible force, pressing down upon him. From... all over. At first it was just like a heavy cloth over your body. But soon it became like a heavy rain. and there was a white noise in the background.

"GAAAAAAAAAAH!!" A white noise that suddenly erupted into the crying voices of over a thousand individuals shouting out things into his skull. It was having an earthquake in your skull!

Maleficus clutched his head and tried to hold out the sound but it just kept ringing through him. Finally he had enough and even if it risked him being spotted he roared out in pain. "JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!"

As if put on pause the voices stopped and the alicorn groaned as he rubbed his head. After around a minute, the voices spoke back, speaking a sentence together.

"You can hear us?"

"...Yes. Yes I can." He admitted it right away, which he regretted profoundly when the voices started shouting out at him again. Making his head feel even worse then before.

"Quiet! I cannot hear a word you are trying to say!" The voices went silent again and he rubbed his poor ears.

"Okay what are you and what do you want? Please try to not speak too loudly or incoherently." In response to his question the voices seemed to murmur together for a moment. Before they all responded together to the alicorn.

"We are the Fallen. We seek to obtain peace and rest."

*Ah. Okay. I am apparently able to speak to the dead while I am like this... huh? Who knew? I better ask Luna about this when I return to the moon. But this could work for me though.* Having spent his time thinking a bit Maleficus came up with some questions he needed to ask the Fallen.

"Alright so you guys are the Fallen, which I assume means those who had died recent, or long ago. I am just guessing at the moment, since, how would I know? Anyhow. How would you obtain peace and rest?" His questrio nseemed to bring a pause to the voices, before they spoke out again and once more a twisted mass of answers, only not as loudly.

"With the death of Celestia/Ponies/Maleficus/Dragons/Talos!"

"Wooooaaah! Hold your horses! What exactly do you mean by that? Talos I get, but the rest? Why do you wish to kill all ponies, dragons, ME and Celestia?" Another moment of silence ensured but the voices responded again, but this time, it felt like it was not as many that responded to his inquiry. The strength of their voice appeared to be linked to the amount that spoke.

"Dragons/Celestia/Maleficus/Ponies killed us. And some of our families/friends/associates/rapists/murderers/teachers/victims/hoes/eggs/homes."

"Okay.... so you are all victims from this Draconic Incursion that is occurring. I get it. but let me ask you this. Do you know why the dragons invaded in the first place?" There was moment of silence before the voices spoke up again, many of them answering differently.

"No/Talos/Faith/Demons/Maleficus/Gnomes/Sockpuppets/Gods/Widnigoes."

The alicorn blinked at some of those theories, and frowned when he heard his own name mentioned again, did they think HE summoned or controlled the dragons? But he decided to ignored it and just kept talking. "...Okay ignoring a lot of those things. Anyhow. One part of you, those I assume are either the dragons or other beings in the known, know who it was that lead the dragons and made them act as they are. Tell me and the rest of the Fallen. Who was it?"

"Talos."

Smiling he nodded, it was working. Now he just needed to get them to focus on that fucker's name. And things could work out for them. "Correct. Talos lead the dragon clan that has invaded Equestria, and is the direct cause for all of your deaths. For who was it that made the so named Rockfire Clan behave like they could fly and slaughter everyone without worries or consequences?"

"Talos."

The voices were vibrating now, the name of Talos growing stronger as more and more of them, felt the logic and anger flow through them. As they began to realize, who they should despise. "Who was it that personally ordered the death of others just for the sake of proving dragon superiority over others? And then caused the death of his own by sending them out to be slaughtered by those they no longer could just hunt at a whim?"

"Talos."

The voices kept growing stronger and by now the shadowy realm around Maleficus began to feel like it was vibrating. And yet he felt no worries, it was like he did not have to worry, these spirits could not harm him. But they could aid him, and he could aid them. He just needed, to give them purpose. "Who was it that personally lead these so called hunts and killed and had other kill, for the sake of his own personal views of what the world is like? And killed those who disobeyed his commands or sought to escape the madness?"

"Talos!"

*Now for the coup de grace.* He thought to himself as he could feel the voices vibrating with fury. A final push and he could get them all to listen and things would be able to work out.

He inhaled and he spoke out, his voice echoing out over the darkening realm around him. The streets of Canterlot no longer visible, only the gathering shapes moving out of the dark corners, shrouding the world with their malice and anger. "Who. Is the cause of your deaths, and thus, is the reason why you all are spirits, floating around in suffering. Until he perish?"

"Talos!!"

It was done, now, he just needed to get them to accept his proposal. With a smirk Maleficus raised a hoof towards the dragon as he stood there in the park, fighting Celestia still. "Well then. I suggest you go about it this way. Join forces."

The Fallen had no idea how to respond to that statement, it was like all of them had gone 'huh' or 'durp' at the same time. But Maleficus decided to keep up the advantage, the spirits would get their rest and he would obtain a way to help Equestria without being directly linked to it! Everybody wins! *Well except for Taos, but who gives a shit about that guy?*

"Put all of your focus into one purpose. Focus it together and move it, here, through me. And I will lend you the power to physically manifest and kill Talos yourselves. You will not only save those he would needlessly slaughter, you would also get your peace and no one else have to suffer from Talos like you have. Do we have an accord Spirits of the Fallen?" There was a long momentary silence but then the world seemed to shift and twist. The shadowy shapes that had gathered, seemed to gain mass, and become more numerous. And as they did some began thousands of blue eyes to glow and they all were looked upon the alicorn, all of them unified for one purpose. The death of their tormentor, to obtain peace.

"We do."

Smirking Maleficus held out a hoof as if inviting them for a hoofshake, and said one word as the shadowy shapes surged towards him like tidal wave. "Excellent."

And then he felt as if his entire body was turning as cold as ice as the black shapes flowed into his chest and pile up inside his body like someone was force feeding him liquid nitrogen. He had a moment to contemplate and consider something as the black mass moved through him and his body began to feel physically fatigue, drained, hungry and cold. *Okay maybe I did not think this one through.*

The shadowy mass that was the Fallen had begun its work to worm itself into the physical realm. Through him. And that process of using his body as a medium to reach the physical realm was heavily draining his magical and physical strength. It was having your entire body drained of all of its energy, blood, water and nutrition at once.

Before he could so much as protest that they moving too fast, was as the area around him starting to turn dark as a black crack made by the use of his physical and metaphysical essence appeared out of his spine and Fallen erupted out of his back and out of the crack. They moved out in the shape of flowing geyser of black mist, taking on the shape of black fog into the physical realm. All natural and supernatural fuels of his body was rapidly being drained out of him as the black mass moved through his body and out of the crack.

It was not in an instance but it barely took half a minute. And as the final drop of magic left his body the final tendril of shadowy mass moved out of his body. Then the alicorn stallion's eyes rolled back into his head and he dropped to the ground, unconscious. Still invisible to the physical eyes, but unconscious.

But the real world in turn, kept moving, with some new guests. Guests in the shape of the now physical growing mass of spirits, out to seek justice and vengeance.

(Scene Skip)

Out of the air above the fallen charred remains of Achilles, a black shroud was starting to take shape. The shadows of the streets grew darker, the lights of the burning fires seemed to shiver and turn dim. Then a chilling wind blew out of over the street and a black rip in the air appeared, releasing a black flowing fog that moved out over the streets and alleys of the burning city block.

The mist expanded like thick billowing smoke, engulfing burning ruins, charred streets and cindering piles of ashes. After two or so minutes the crack closed, the thick and almost sludge thick fog started bellowing with the chime of dull bells and squirming like a living ooze. And then, it kept growing, now more like a black slime then a fog.

As the black shroud engulfed the burning section of the city, a quiver went through the ashes and the ground. A vibrating shaking began to erupt from the burning and charred portions of the city. In a burned down building, among a deep pile of ash, the pile shook and vibrated, before a loud crack was heard from beneath it.

Everything went still for a few seconds, and then a skeletal hoof erupted from the pile of ash. And then, out of the ashes, rose the ashen grey skeleton of a unicorn. It reared back its head, the empty sockets glowing blue, before letting out a ghastly cry.

And as the cry erupted across the streets could another crack be heard. and out of the burning remains of a car emerged the bony form of a dead earth pony. Another crack was heard and out of the smoldering ruins of a tree emerged the skeleton of a goat.

Another crack, this time a skeletal dragon the size of a filly dragged itself out of the ashen remains of a store, along with it came a swarm of filly sized pony skeletons. All crawling over the ground in a squirming lizard like manner. Out of the crackling fires of a ruined stone tower emerged a giant serpentine like skeleton the size of a guard tower, its slithering skeletal spine bearing two fore limbs with claws and fin like horns on its head and spike, a sea serpent of some manner.

More and more cracks erupted, and more and more skeletal beings emerged out of the ashes. And as a singular mass they began to crawl, walk and stride towards the park. Their glowing blue eyes staring at the battle between Celestia and Talos, and slowly the ground began to shake, as the Fallen strode over the city streets like an army of the dead. Intend on bringing themselves peace, through violence.

(Scene Skip)

"Keep the shield energized! We cannot let it fall no! Give it more magic!" Grand Music shouted out to his fellow unicorns as they kept charging their magical energy into the Shield Cone.

The glowing runes and crystal upon the golden structure were glowing blue and purple, and every time the magical energy shield the yahd produced started to grow weaker, the runes would slowly start to fade from the lower end of the device. Thus they needed a single unicorn to refill the depleted energy of the machine, at least once every ten minutes.

But something had caused the device to fluctuate, and more energy was being drained now then ever and they needed to have a pony recharge it every minute now. And there was no amount of unicorns available to keep that up.

"We need more magical support, call in any volunteers from the caretakers or the civilians in the Temple!" Runners were sent, pegasus specifically as they were the quickest. The four hundred horses who had helped create the machine were all trying their best to improve the energy output. Adding secondary rings of runes around the cone itself, acting as amplifiers and containers of the magical energy flow.

Heck Grand Music had even seen some of them physically touch the device and add magic through it by themselves, only letting go when falling unconscious! How the buck did horses know how to cast magic!?

But back to the matter at hoof. The machine needed more power and he was rapidly running out of options. He knew he was the magically strongest and though he was the Grand Master of the order, was he a unicorn as well and thus he could contribute to the effort of maintaining the shield.

Especially now, that there was no more unicorns left to recharge the device.

With his eyes narrowing he stepped towards the machine, pulling out a bottle of water, drained it dry, before igniting his horn with magical energy. At the sight of this Happy Meal ran before him and tried to convince him not to do it. "Grand Music what art ya doing!? Ye can't charge that thing up alone! Ye need at least two more fer it to be safe!"

"I have to! Or the city will be over run!" He argued and walked past her. She tried to hold him back but the unicorn used telekinesis to hold the teary eye pegasus away until he reached the optimal range for recharging the machine.

Happy Meal cried out as she was held back by his magical grip, tears running down her face as she helplessly watched him prepare to charge the construct. "No! Stop it! Ya can't risk yer life like that! Ye cannot die like Grandpa did!"

"Sorry Happy Meal, but I have to. Take care of the Order for me until then."

"Grand Music! Please stop yer releasing too much! Yer body cannot handle the drain!"

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!" With a roar the unicorn stallion fired of an even brighter and wider blast of magic from his horn, the beam glowed like a beacon across the city as it struck the magically draining runes of the Shield Cone. He kept it up for as long as he screamed, the amount of energy he released lighting up every rune of the Shield Cone until he finally felt his energy sputter out.

He heard a loud crackle from beneath his throat, and the sensation of something burning against his front for a few seconds before it cooled down. And then, all of a sudden, he felt so exhausted and tired, that he stumbled and began to tilt over.

"GRAND MUSIC!!!!!!" The last thing Grand Music heard before he blacked out was the screaming voice of Happy Meal crying out his name as he collapsed from having used up almost all magic within him to refuel the Shield Cone. As the Grand Master collapsed arrived a group of unicorns guided by knights whom all rushed to pull his unconscious body away from the machine. One of them starting to recharging it again.

After what felt like forever blinked the exhausted unicorn awake as he heard someone crying. At the same time he felt something wet push against his neck while something warm was warped around him. His vision was blurred for a few seconds but soon he could see the crying shape of Happy Meal, hugging him while crying into his neck.

He tried to speak but a loud crackle was heard from his neck and he knew that his Vocal Necklace was damaged. His voice spoke out in long drawn out hollow gasps as he realized what had happened to his necklace. "Huuuuhhh.... oooooh... mahhh.... voicocoooo.... brookkkkkk...."

"Oh ya stupid, moronic, witless, buckin rock headed dumdum!" Happy Meal screamed out at the still slightly delirious stallion as she hugged his limp body to her, her tear and snot stained face glaring down at him.

"Shorrrioe...." He tried to apologies to her, and though the word was still properly heard, he could not speak in full sentences to explain himself. But apparently was the young mare not interested to hear his apologies or excuses.

"No! Yer not sorry! Yer not sorry ya saved da city! Yer not sorry ya made me watch ye almost die!" She shouted at him, glaring at him with teary eyes while holding up his limp body with her hooves gripping him by the shoulders to keep him at eye level with her. He could not do much but speak and blink as he currently was unable to look away from her upset eyes and face.

"Aaahm..." He tried to speak out and apolgies, and got a very sympathetic feeling for his grandfather when Happy Meal interrupted him again. And his respect for Maleficus grew a great deal as he now realized a portion of what he had gone through as Happy Meal started shouting at him again.

The mare in question was shaking and almsot crying against, her hooves almost eager to shake him as she looked at him with so much raw fear, sadness and relief. It hurt to see her like this and he swore to apologies to his grandfather the next time he saw him if this was anything like he went through when he told the truth to them before. "No! Do not speak! Yer magic necklace broke! But dat does not matter! What ya did was stupidly dangerous! Ya made me so scared! Ah thought ya was going ta die like Grandpa did!"

"..." He could not turn or lower his head in shame so he settled for making a sad face while folding his ears while she glared down at him. The ponies and horses nearby tried to not make themselves noticed as they kept the Shield Cone charged and operational, but some of them were watching intently at the drama occurring.

"Ya made me realize now. How much ya stupid, dumb and cute self mean ta me... But Ah know dumb mama says colts are so so Ahm goona say it mah way!" With a determined look on her face she warped her forelegs around Grand Music's neck and pulled him closer. Making the stallion blink before trying to ask what she was doing.

"..Whhhhaammmph!?" Annnnnnd promptly found his broken voice silenced at the lips of Happy Meal claimed his own, with his first ever real kiss. The dumbfounded unicorn stallion found himself blushing scarlet as the strong pegasus mare held him tight there on the rooftop of the Temples tower. Hugging and kissing him like she felt he was going to disappear.

And after a few moments, his eyes rolled up and he blackened out as he fainted from the sudden rush of emotion. After a minute Happy Meal cried out in shock as she realized he had fainted on her and quickly began to drag his limp body to the medical wing. All the while the horses and ponies on the roof all started laughing and wolf whistling together. Her cheeks glowing scarlet as she realized that everypony on the rooftop had seen that.

(Scene Skip)

"I AM LORD TALOS!! THE OLDEST AND STRONGEST OF ALL DRAGONS!!! NO WEAK LITTLE HERBIVORE SHALL EVER HAVE SUPERIORITY OVER ME!!!" Talos roared out as he slammed his closed fist into a large building near the large park he had landed in. Celestia flew past him and fired a javelin of ice which skewered the dragon's side, but the dragon had began to heal himself by covering his wounds with magma.

While it did little to actually heal the injuries, did it help stop the blood flow and the pain. and Celestia was starting to feel rather tired, even the supportive fire of the sky ships were no of much aid. As five of the ships had flown too close and been engulfed by magma. Every ship had detonated into a lightning burst flinging wood shards, metal fragments and body parts over the area.

After they had lost two of their Carracks the horses decided to keep a distance and support Celestia with their ranged options. Which helped in annoying and distracting Talos very effectively. But it had still not given her enough time to charge u pa spell that could kill him in one go.

But then something happened, the ground began to shake. Not by Talos or any magical blasts. It was like... thousands of hooves were rushing together. And then, she heard something from the burning section of the city.

"Art that... music?" She muttered as she turned to look and her eyes widened as she saw something that reminded her far too much of something she had seen over two hundred years ago. A sight that still partly haunted her dreams and memories.

But this sight, was something far beyond that.

(Scene Skip)

[Start Scary Battle Music: Dark Souls Song by JT Music - Undead Lullaby]

[Altered Lyrics by me, Staadnauthursil. Please support the official game and the group that made this awesome fan song of the Dark Soul game.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JY5bBMj5kw

Black and ashen shapes were moving out of the flames of the burning sections of the city. Some were small like fillies, most of them were the size of ponies but there were also several ones as large as the dragons she had killed. And they were all moving like a horde of ashen skeletons. Embers were burning through out their bodies, the charred bones and hollow skulls glowing with blue lights within empty eye sockets as they strode forward like a horde of death.

Then as their number reached the edge of the park their voices rang out over the city like a crescendo. Their voice crackled and echoed over the wind as they marched out of the black fog that was flowing through and over the burning streets and buildings A massive chorus of twisted voices that none could decipher the identity of those who sang as their voices rang together into a twisted chaotic harmony.

Deep in the dark!

Celestia stared in shock at the approaching army of corpses. Their rattling and crackling bodies striding over the soft grass of the park towards Talos. Like moths drawn to the flame.

We felt the fire flicker!

The first of the skeletons stopped, and began... to hug each other. The black billowing fog began to flow out into the park, shrouding the approaching skeletal creatures as they began to move into a singular spot. Their ashen hooves, claws, tails, teeth and paws reaching out and grasping one another, as they began to pile up over each other.

Ignite the flame and give us life!

And even the attention of Talos was gathered at this sight. As the ashen figures that emerged out into the park with the black began to frantically climb on top of one another. As more and more of the skeletal forms gathered into the pile, their shapes seemed to meld together. It was like they were folding and shaping themselves into a new shape, built out of their own gathering bodies.

That cursed mark!

As the skeletal shape of two dragons joined the pile Talos let out a rumbling roar and released a gush of flames at the gathering pile of skeletons. A massive explosion erupted as the magma struck the skeletons and their shapes blew off the pile and scattered across the park like sticks and stones.

And hollow hearts grow sicker!

Yet even as the smug grin of Talos grew, the parts that he had blown off or destroyed, began to quiver and vibrate before slowly sliding back together. Piece by piece the skeletons slowly pulled themselves together. Even as their ghastly frames were only half shaped they raised their half restored limbs and slowly began to crawl or walk back towards the pile. And as they reached it they once more began to attach themselves to each other. At an even quicker pace then before.

Out of the shadow cometh light!

Black fog bellowed out over the growing pile of bones, the intense magical energy flowing out of the fog made Talos shiver as his body told him to not touch the black smog. And he stepped back as the pile of bones grew larger and larger, the black fog almost turning into a corporeal mass as the bones of the skeletons melded together.

Blinding faith, give me sight!

The song grew louder and stronger. Talos once more spewed forth magma over the monstrosity growing before him. But even as a massive burst of ashes, fire and embers erupted from the blackened blob of fog and corpses, it reassembled itself and resumed growing larger.

Praise the sun, day or night!

Then a loud crack erupted from the darkness and a twisted misshapen head rose out of the black fog, a misshapen mass of skulls held together by smaller skeletons, taking the twisted disproportionate shape of a pony head made out of skulls. Out of the thousands of heads making up its shape were there seven large skulls from dragons, sea serpents and elephants rose out of the black miasma. Their glowing eye sockets staring at the Dragon Lord with what could only be described as contempt.

Break the fog, dark and light!

Talos roared out once more and even as he blew out another stream of magma from his jaws the massive massive bone head rose higher out of the darkness, a veritable sea of skeletons crawling up and attaching themselves to its ever growing body. The neck rose up, a skeletal frame of bones and darkness. And then the shoulders began to take shape ,as well as the long and twisted spine covered by bony spike and spire.

Life and death, black and white!

Then one of the legs took shape as the giant creature of bones pulled out its assembling limb and made a step forward ,out of the black miasma. A massive foreleg slammed down upon the grassy field. It was a bare boned limb with a hoof made out of what looked like a twisted combination of dragons claws and pony skeletons. A few moments later, the other foreleg was pulled out, but it was much more different then the one that had just been pulled out.

Warmth and cold, wrong and right!

A long and multi segmented limb that looked more like it would fit on a praying mantis that had mated with a scythe grew out of the darkness. The scythe blade made out of the long spiky spine of a sea serpent with thousands of lesser skeletons attaching themselves to the inner curve of the scythe, giving it the vision of being a curved blade. And the massive blade was pressed into the ground, used as support to let the spine of the creature to raise up the rear end of its skeletal body out of the black smog.

Bliss and pain, health and blight!

The right hind leg rose out of the darkness. And then the left followed. And soon a long whip like tail made out of thousands of skeletons attached together emerged from the black shroud. With the tip taking the form of a curved sickle blade, made out of the spine and tail of a dragon. A pair of long lengths of thin bone erupted from its sides, behind the shoulders, and a pair of massive bony bird wings absent of any feathers finally took shape. And with its final parts out of the darkness, the massive giant of bones and skulls, reared back its head, and opened the thousands of mouths making up its surface, and screeched.

We feel disparity preparing us to die!

Lord Talos took a step back as the massive black and ashen coloured shape as it stood there. In the the shape of a massive pony monstrosity built out of the skeletons of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of beings, ponies, dragons, griffins, dogs and other beings, making up its twisted body. But as it turned its howling heads to face him, it began to walk towards him ,each step shaking the ground.

"Die you freak!" Howling out in utter rage at the abomination Talos strode forward and released a low of magma that struck it in the chest, as it struck exploded the front of the body, releasing thousands of burning skeletons to the ground.

Kill us again? We'd like to see you try!

But as the dragon grew a confident smirk on his lips, the broke shards and pieces, began to flow back and reassemble themselves into the broken hole. And the massive thing, turned towards Talos, and thousands of empty eye sockets across their entire body, began to glow blue. The black miasma they had grown out of flowed up into hollow spaces of the large shaped and filled it up, and then a myriad of voices began to sing out. As the collective of corpses and darkness marched forward, intent on ramming down the dragon.

You took our lives, We fail to die!

A massive shock erupted across the ground as the skeletal giant stomped forward against the Dragon Lord. Talos swung his tail at the beast who just let his smash apart its left limb, which shattered like brittle bones. A spray of broken and intact skeletons flew off at the impact and rained over east side of the park. It did not fall, but it lot its momentum.

The fires fade, now close your eyes!

But before the pieces all even finished landing on the ground they seemed to flow back together into full skeletons. And they began to crawl or run back towards the abomination they had been part of. They reached the broken off foreleg and began to climb up the surface like a swarm of ants and began to put themselves back into place. This looked as if a swarm of grey ants were repairing the broken off limb, until it eventually reconnected with the upper portion that was still connected to the main body.

And sing our undead lullaby!

With its limb restored the abomination reared back its scythe like fore limb and swung it at Talo's gut. The dragon stepped aside, the massive blade slicing a deep gorge across the ground. The thing then used the grip it had obtained with its scythe like limb and used it to pull itself forward in a quick rush towards Talos.

The dragon will fall and perish by light!

Talos leaped backwards and used his tail once more. This time the massive bone heap evaded by standing up on its hind legs and raising both of its forelimbs into the air. It then tried to slam said limbs down into Talos' body.

To fill our dark hollow insides!

The massive dragon moved aside and the massive scythe and hoof slammed into a large stone building, the impact smashing the entire thing apart like it was made out of sticks and rocks. Gravel, dust and sawdust bellowed from its massive limbs as it stepped out of the ruined building and turend its thousands of glowing blue eyes towards Talos, glaring at him,

And yet our death is all but nigh!

It tossed up its hoof limb and a spray of ash, dust and gravel struck the Dragon Lord in the face, making his clutch and cry out in anger. And it charged forward with earth shattering gallops, lowering down its head for a head based charge.

Sing our undead lullaby!

With a brutal slam of its head it struck Talos in the chest and sent him crashing backwards into the ground. It reared back its massive scythe blade and swung it down towards the downed dragon who managed to roll out of the way as the forty meter long blade sank into the earth.

We sing our undead lullaby!

It tore outs its scythe like limb and made a move to kick him with one of its hind legs. The dragon took the hit in the side but only stumbled back as the hit had not been as complete as intended, still hurt though.

So far from life, yet cannot die!

Then creature turned around and jumped at Talos, who grasped its two forelimbs with his claws and held it back, its thousands of mouths signing out into his face. A scent of a thousand corpses spraying him in the face as the wind of their voices struck him like a the stench of a rotting hydra in a toxic bog. Their limbs pressing down upon him with incredible strength even though they had no muscles.

This is our undead lullaby!

"Shut up! Shut your filthy mouths and die!" Talos snarled out and let out another stream of magma onto the head of the creature, blowing it apart like he did its chest before. But he let out a snarl of frustration as the pieces of the head just climbed back into place. Even though he blew another gush of fire, it only seemed to encourage the thing to move faster.

Our cursed undead lullaby!

With a heave of his legs and forelimbs Talos pushed back the massive behemoth of bones and darkness. It shifted its body and landed on all four, not falling over or onto its back. And it began to circle the dragon who mimicked this, their massive claws and hooves tearing up the ground of the field and park they were moving over.

Sent to our graves, again we rise!

With a rush the two massive beings rushed towards each other. Talos blew out another flow of magma out of his maw and the head of the creature detonated, spreading another rain of corpses across the land. But once more the tiny pieces began to crawl back, while the main body tackled Talos in the gut.

To sing our undead lullaby!

Princess Celestia landed on a rooftop and stared in shock as the massive skeletal figure rushed forward, even with a still regrowing head, and tackled Talos to the ground, it began to pound the dragon across the head with its none-scythe hoof as the blade was being used as an anchor to keep the dragon from escaping.

We were told we must rekindle embers when they dwindle!

Talso blew a gush of magma at hisopponent but they pushed his head to the side with their hoof and his magma struck out at the trees of the park, igniting more of the former green place of tranquility into a burning battlefield.

But it wasn't darkness that marked us with this symbol!

A strange circle of red embers began to take shape upon the front of the skeletal being's neck as it sang, the glowing red circle seemed to symbolize something. Another strike from its hoof tore up a gash across the Dragon Lord's face and the sound of bone cracking was heard.

It was Talos - Lord of Dragons, he's the cinder in the Kiln!

Talos spat out blood and grabbed hold of the skeletal mass that was striking him in the face with both of his talons. As his claws dug into the bony limb the tiny skeletons holding it together were he was gripping suddenly started tearing and biting at his claws and scales.

Destined us to be undead - least HE gave us an iron will!

Gritting his teeth in pain the Dragon Lord glared at the burning blue eyes of the head, the stinking, near toxic, breath of the gaping skulls making him feel nauseous. But his eyes narrowed at the latter part of the lyrics, it was clearly indicated that someone had summoned this creature. When he found them he would make them regret they ever lived! No one insulted the Rockfire Clan or the race of Dragons like this!

The infernal Age of Dragons is not eternal!

"Wrong! We dragons are eternal! Our rule shall last forever! And no walking and talking bone heap shall convince me otherwise!" Talos screamed out in an utter frantic and insane manner as he spat out a stream of magma upon the corpse leg keeping him anchored and managed to tear himself free and throw away the creature. Half of his face was badly cut up and some of his teeth were fracture but his eyes were just angry.

Until his flame is out we'll bear the cursed burning circle!

Talos glared and swung out with his talon at the beast. It had admitted it would not stop until he died. Thus he could no longer take it easy. He needed to tear this thing apart and burn its remains! His claws tore out chunks of bones and darkness, scattering pieces the size of houses out of the grim being's body.

We descended through a fugitive pony - yet you'd never know it!

But no matter how much he tore, broke, melted or punched. The broken parts would return and repair themselves. The creature endured all of his strikes and even when he managed to push it onto its side he howled out in frustration as he stomped down upon it with his heavy rear claws and crushed bones into dust. And yet they restored themselves.

Cuz we have joined path with all our souls and we have each become the Eidolon!

Princess Celestia jumped up and took flight as the dragon lord tried to slam apart the bone creature that had just called itself an Eidolon, with his claws and fists, slamming, stomping and punching with all of his might. But even as he tore apart another part, would another heal.

Though HIS words we'd learned, what was needed if we'd like to defeat him!

*Who could hath summoned this being? Could it hath been Achilles? No he hath no time to enact such an endeavor before he fell. Could it hath been Maleficus? No, he would not hath aided us in this battle. Who could it hath been?* Her thoughts tried to decipher who could have summoned such a massive creature of undeath and darkness to sick it upon the dragon. Could there be a new Alicorn? Had some kin of necromancer arisen and vowed revenge? The possibilities never seemed to end.

That we needed to join forces, and become the dragon's grimm!

A loud crack erupted as the skeletal being reared back its head and slammed its misshapen head into the dragon's jaw. Talos reared back, clutching his mouth as his jaw hung lose, having been dislocated by the strike. The Eidolon stood up on its three limbs and screeched out at the dragon.

Growin' stronger with twisted ire, all for the sake of snuffing out his fire!

Talos pressed his jawbone back into place and moved it around for a few seconds before he glared at the bone creature. With a twist of his legs he made a forward charge and with a powerful blow with his right closed claw he punched through the misshapen head of bones and shadows. But as he tried to pull his limb out of the fractured skull, the smaller skeletons tried to grip and tear at his limb, to hold it in place.

The divide between the living and us is growing even wider!

With a loud crack he jerked his claw free, pulling out thousands of clawing skeletons out of the misshapen head. Black miasma flowing over his talons and he roared out in pain as he felt his scales and claws corrode by the darkness. As if they had been bathed in acid or aged rapidly.

But we won't stop at any cost, we've not forgotten all that may and have be lost!

Then Celestia noticed something in the distance, the massive scythe limb that had been burnt off was twisting and shaking, the dismembered limb's stump twisting and shaking ,as if trying to dig its way back towards its main body. At the same time Talos grabbed there creature by the head and let out a torrent of magma into the gaping hole in its skull. But like before it healed rapidly, and he quickly let go. Not intent on letting his left talon get damaged like the right had been.

As we conquer impossible odds, with the aid of the strongest of gods!

And then the Eidolon lashed out with its tail. The tail warped around the left forearm of the dragon as it was pulling back. Talos reached out with his damaged right claw and tugged at it, intend on breaking free of the tail. But then the massive scythe blade's stump slammed into the soil and with a powerful twisted of its double jointed segments,launched itself out of the ground and flew in a spinning manner through the air. Flying towards the occupied dragon from behind. There was the sound of bone slicing through flesh, a loud thumb, and a roar of pain as the cut off right arm of Talso dropped out of the grasp of the tail.

And the consequence of resurrection - barely feel alive!

Talos clutched his bleeding stump, screeching out in utter agony. And then the hind leg of the corpse creature struck him in the stomach and sent him crashing through four large houses. And the Eidolon rushed after him, its restored scythe limb raised.

At least we've got disparity preparing us to die!

In a state of panic Talos swung out his tail at a low angle and tore apart the hooved limbs, causing the entire thing to fall on its back. he the nrushed forward opened his jaws and bit down on the thing's head. His teeth sank through the bone and black ichor as magma flowed out from his throat. and for a moment he thought he was winning. But then the sick taste of rot, decay and body waste filled his sense and he reared back, barfing magma and stomach juices over the downed Eidolon.

Kill us again? We'd like to see you try!

Then a golden beam of light struck him i nthe side and sent him tumbling into a set of buildings. He glared at the glowing figure of the alicorn who had struck him with the powerful spell. The beam of light had left a large gash in his side looking like it hard melted a deep gouge in his thick scales and flesh. He climbed out of the ruined house and spun around to gain momentum and swung his tail towards her.

You took our lives, We fail to die!

"How long hath thou been tormenting this world Lord Talos? How long hath thee been slaughtering ponies for this madness to occur?" Celestia asked the furious dragon lord as she flew away from his tail.

The fires fade, now close your eyes!

The massive dragon's rear limb lashed out and with a loud crumbling and crashing sound the massive limb destroyed four buildings, including one she had been standing on. Above her the Sky Ships kept a safe distance, unwilling to clash with either of the two fighting behemoths.

And sing our undead lullaby!

The Eidolon stood up, its limbs regrown and the massive gap in its head gone. Its clawed limb shifted and twitched a bit before it reached out and slammed down into the ground. Then with a great and heavy pull of its multi segmented parts, it tore out a large chunk of soil and stone from the ground.

The dragon will fall and perish by light!

Rearing back on its hind legs the skeletal creature raised the large chunk of earth above its head before it threw it towards to occupied Talos who was trying to strike down Celestia. The large projectile flew through the air like a flying hill and struck the dragon in the side. The mass of dirt, earth and stone shattered, but the speed and weight of the impact had sent the dragon realing back, and the Eidolon charged.

To fill our dark hollow insides!

His bleeding stump paining Talos blew out a mass of magma over it. Before getting an idea. He did the same to his remaining arm, covering the entire thing with a layer of magma. Then as the Eidolon charged towards him, he lashed out with a punch and smirked as it sank into the chest of the thing, and he could not feel the back ichor or the skeletons within tearing at his flesh.

And yet our death is all but nigh!

Feeling confident once more he blew another layer of magma over his arm and punched out, a large section of the collective of corpses erupted into black ooze and falling skeletons. These ones were far slower to recover the damages. And Talos found out the weakness of the Eidolon, it needed to physically hit something alive to recover its injuries quicker!

Sing our undead lullaby!

"As long as I cover my body with a layer of protection, I shall have victory!" He cried out and he began to pummel the corpse giant. Lashing out with rapid punches with his magma covered arm, tearing out chunks of the creature. But then the Eidolon lashed out with its tail and a deep gash appeared across Talos' right wing, and as the dragon reared back in pain, the damage dealt was being restored.

We sing our undead lullaby!

Talos tried once more to resume his tactic of magma punching the corpse creature to death. But the Eidolon managed to dodge his first strike, and headbutted him, sending him reeling back. And the creature of bone and darkness raised its claw to strike at the disoriented Dragon Lord.

So far from life, yet cannot die!

But as the Eidolon swung down the scythe came one of Talos' legs up and kicked it back. And with another physical effort the dragon lord jumped backwards, blowing out magma over his upper body as he did so. Then as he finished he made a rush forward, intent to bull rush the massive bone heap. But the skeletal creature was ready and grabbed hold of the dragon's neck with its hoofed foreleg and used his own momentum to turn around with him, and then released him in a sideways motion. Throwing him off balance,

This is our undead lullaby!

The throw sent Talos into a forward fall and there was a loud crash as he land on his back. There was a loud crack as the left wing of the dragon broke. And the dragon let out a pained roar before the skeletal being descended upon its prey with the scythe blade held high.

Our cursed undead lullaby!

As the creature sang it sank in the scythe blade into the dragon's left shoulder. Causing him to roar out in pain as the curved blade claw spit through his shoulder, splitting the bones and nerves.

Sent to our graves, again we rise!

And even as the dragon let out a torrent of magma, tearing off parts of the body they tore out the scythe blade in a bloody geyser before slamming it down into his other shoulder. And then again it tore it out. And then again ti slammed it down, this time into his left knee. And the next it was the right knee.

To sing our undead lullaby!

Again they tore it out, again Talos tried to melt them apart. Again they stabbed the massive blade down ,this time into his cut. The dragon lord screamed out and tried to grasp and break the blade with his remaining claw. But let out another scream of pain as the edge blade cut off his claws and left him with only a thumb on his ruined right claw.

Darkness is falling.

The skeletal giant reared back the blade again, tearing out a long stretch of intestines and them slammed it down into the gut again. Talos screamed and roared ,but never did he beg. He was the Lord of the Rockfire clan, and he would die before he begged for his life.

And you hear them calling.

Not that the Eidolon seemed to care about that as it tore out another strip of his intestines, rendering another scream from the dragon as several gashes across his chest and stomach had bared his organs to the world. Upon the middle of the skeletal scythe claw were two long stretch of intestines now impaled, stretched out of the screaming dragon's gut. And with this in claw the Eidolon made one final brutal act upon Talos.

The shadows are coming to life.

It shoved ghastly blade one final time, in and down the throat of Talos. Forcefully stuffing the gagging dragon lord's mouth with the gristly blade as it tore through the back of his neck, not in the spine but next to it. That would have been far too kind.

But we won't rekindle.

Then the creature just went still, and let the scythe clawed limb rest buried there. Letting the once proud dragon lord choke on his own stretched out intestines, as body waste was pushed out of them and down his throat. A better end then he deserved, and it watched with all of its thousands upon thousands of glowing blue eyes, as the dragon's fearful eyes, began to fade.

The embers that dwindle.

And as the light of life finally left the eyes of the monster who had killed an untold number of beings. The skeletal giant that was the Eidolon removed its claw with a jerk, took two steps back, raised its misshapen head to the sky, and finished its song.

As we finish our undead lullaby.

Its physical structure sagged as the blue glow of the eye holes of each corpse that made up its physical structure flickered out like candle light. Pieces began to fall, off, black ichor began to pour out of its internal parts. Until it finally began to crumbled apart, its shape collapsing with a loud groan.

As its shape struck the ground of the park it broke apart and became nothing more then a giant pile of charred corpses. The black misty ichor that had filled its hollow spaces poured out and disappearing into the earth, swallowed up by the soil.

Over a million different beings, acting as one to kill the one source of their torment. And a sense of clarity and comfort could be felt as their corpses no longer moved. Their souls finally at peace.

[End Battle Music]

After a while moved ponies and horses into the ruined remains of the park, flying down ro mthe sky above them came Celestia. Who had flown off to tell her subjects that talos had been defeated.

But the way he had been defeated was baffling, and concerning.

As Princess Celestia walked over to the sight before her she felt conflicted and confused. Her city was badly damaged but only a few had lost their lives. All thanks to the aid of the horses and the large skeletal being that had rose out of the ashes of her burning home to kill the dragon. It was so confusing that lat part. She did not understand a thing.

"What was that being We wonder?" She muttered as she looked at the pile of bones her troops were sorting out. It was so much that it would take weeks to clear out so the park could be restored. Not to mention the large corpse of Talos needed to be handled somehow.

A horse bearing the armour of a knight came walking over to her, bearing an leaf shaped sigil upon his shoulder, marking him as a Captain. "Princess Celestia. We wish to have a word with you."

"What doest thee wish of Us?" She asked with an absent look on her face, still trying to contemplate the insane event that had oh so recently occurred in her city.

The horse nodded and gave her the short and simple question he wished to ask of her. "Me and my kin wish to take the head of Talos, as a trophy and as a scare tactic against the dragons."

At first the words did not register in her mind and she just agreed to it, "Do as thou wish... wait... what did thou say", then she realized what she had just heard.

"Thank you for agreeing Princess we shall begin immediately." The horse said with a half bow before trotting off to gather the rest of his fellows.

Princess Celestia ran after him shouting out to him, trying to figure out what he just said meant. She needed some clarity Tartarus dammit! "No wait! What does thou mean by trophy and scare tactics!?"

(Scene Skip)

The dragons flying outside of the city had been at it for several hours at trying to break the barrier. But no luck thus far. And there had been no more sounds coming from the barrier ever since they had heard their Lord screaming in anger and pain.

And the silence had only gone to make them even more nervous. The Rockfire Clan was down to one fourth of its original numbers, including those who had remained home in the East. If the other dragon clans got nose of this, things would turn ugly for them as Lord Talos had few allies within the other Clans.

The hundreds of dragons all turned their heads to look towards the large mountain home of the ponies as they head a strange humming sound. And then their eyes widened as the large purple light wall that had covered the city, began to dispatch, fading away in the afternoon sun light.

At first they wanted to charge forward and do their Lord's will! But the remaining few Elders held them back, feeling that something was wrong. and their fears were confirmed, when the flying wooden huts of the ponies emerged out of the center of the large stone village.

At the front of the now less then forty vessels flew three ships with multiple sails, the Carracks. And hanging down beneath these three leading ships, hanging from three long and thick chaisn, hung a grisly sight. A blood leaking terrifying and mind shattering sight.

The badly torn up, but mainly intact, head of Lord Talos of the Rockfire Clan, hung upo nthe chains, his dead and empty eyes staring out at his clan. And the ponies upon the vessels, all raised their hooves into the air, and roared out a cry of victory!

Panic was the one word to describe what followed as all the dragons realized that their Lord was dead. Killed by ponies.

One of the younger ones cried out first. "Lord Talos is dead!"

"No way!" Another older dragon cried out in shock.

"Retreat! Return to the homeland!" One of the elders shouted out as she flew away from the crazy place. Their lord had tried to kill the ponies like they always did, and now he was the one who had been killed. Madness! The World was going mad!

They roared in fear and despair, their wings flapping out and those of them unable to fly running as fast as they could. The rumbling of the storm clouds beneath the ponies' flying huts as the followed causing their hearts to escalated int oa rapid beat of utter panic and terror!

And as the ships finished routing the dragons over the western peaks of the Foal Mountain, the horses of Ancient Hellas, all smirked together and cheered. While the city behind them did the same.

"Do you see what I meant by Scare Tactics now Princess?" The Captain asked an amused Princess Celestia as they both stood on the gatehouse of the city, observing the fleeing dragons along with the rest of the Generals and high ranking Knights of the city.

"We truly do Captain. A bit unsavory for Our taste but efficient no less." Princess Celestia responded with a slight smirk on her lips. To see those beasts cowed and retreating was such a relief to her stress levels it was slightly funny. Now if she could work out something similar in handling court matters then things would be even better.

For the rest of the day the ponies and horses worked on repairing most of the damages dealt to the city. It would take a good amount of work but Canterlot would recover from this ordeal. Sadly the same could not be said for those who died saving the city. One of them being the Horse Lord Achilles who died saving the life of a young filly and grounding the Dragon Lord Talos by slicing up his left wing with his final psakr of strength.

A death worthy of a legend, equal to the feat of Golden Cross.

While this all was going on was a certain unconscious alicorn still slumbering in the streets, but he would remain hidden for the entire duration of his rest. And only because of his horses covering up his shape. Using the excuse of preserving the body of Achilles by having the part of the street were he crashed blocked off, and a big tent prepared. With an excuse that they needed to prepare Achilles' body for its final rites they could do so, and thus could protect their Creator as he slumbered within the tent..

No one dared to bother the horses tending to their dead Lord. And by the next day would things have gotten even more interesting, as some other guests would be arriving. By Sky Ship at that.

[Time Remaining. 2 Days]

The morning sun shone upon the city and a pair of gards were both taking the early hour watch, and about to end their shift, when one of them spotted soemthing in the distance.

"You seeing what I am seeing?" The pegasus town guard asked his colleague.

"Yup." Was the agreeing statement of his fellow.

"So another go at the horn?" He asked again and his fellow guard just nodded and responded with another easy to understand answer.

"Yup." Truly a marvelous communication system.

"Just great." With a sigh the guard walked over to the signal horn and inhaled deeply. Then he put his mouth to the horn and exhaled with such force that his rear body flew up into the air and stuck there for the duration of the blow. It was impressive how much force he could put behind that.

And thus the City of Canterlot was woken up, to the sound of a signal being given.

Allies Visiting. A signal that had not been given until now.

(Scene Skip)

A group of three small Sky Ships sailed over the walls of Equestria. Bearing two tall masts bearing wide rectangular sails and frames only as long as twenty meters and about seven meters wide. These were cogs, the precursor of the Carrack, a smaller ship only capable of holding up to about fifty people. They also had no oars on their shapes, instead they had four large wooden fans sticking out of the lower hull, and the clouds beneath them were white clouds not of storm or rain variation.

They were not as glamorous or defensively equipped as the war ships the horses used. These were more civilian in appearance. And as their shapes flew over the city ponies looked up in wonder at the three ship sailing on white clouds moving over their city. They were just as curious about the ships with the storm clouds, but these were new having just arrived.

Silver Army Pegasi troops flew up and guided the ships to the Palace were they began to lower down towards the ground. In and outside of the courtyard were over two and a half thousand horses gathered in formations, looking up at the ships arriving from above with anticipation.

Princes Celestia with her own Sun Guard stood by the stairs leading to the large gates into the palace, her battle armour replaced by a beautiful white gown and golden jewelry. Her pink eyes looking up with eagerness as those the Ancient Horses had spoken of. Their descendants.

And as the three ships landed on the courtyard were long and wide wooden planks lowered down. And down from the ships came robed horses, bearing with them various books and staffs, floating by invisible magical grips. The modern horses strode forward, lead by an elderly looking stallion with an almost pre-madness Starswirl look about him, it almost made Celestia mistake the large horse for her old mentor.

The leading horse stopped before the Princess and gave a decently deep bow, a sign of respect to her, and spoke up in an elderly and kind voice that gave him a clear grandfather vibe. "We are honoured to finally meet you Princess Celestia. We are one of the last clans of the modern horses, the descendants of the Ancient Ones. My name is Asclepius, otherwise known as Cursed Blessing, the elder of the Tome Keeper Clan. I hope me, my clan and my ancestors, may bring a great future for both your nation and our people."

Princess Celestia returned the bow with a half bow, she did not know this horse after all but he was being very respectful and polite. "We welcome thee to Our home Elder Asclepius. Though We art curious, why doest thee hath two names?"

Smiling a little Cursed Blessing gave her the honest answer for why he had two names. "After the fall of the horses and the Windigos bringing the Winter of Conflict, we tried to keep to ourselves for the most part. But my clan decided a different path, to disguise ourselves as large ponies, thus allowing us to hide among the ponies as to work without hazard to restoring our ancestors from their curse. Thus we took on pony names to make it more convincing, even painting ourselves with cutie marks, and the tradition to take pony names has ever since remained among us."

Princess Celestia blinked at that. She had not been expecting to hear that the horses of this particular group had decided to rather then hide away in isolation, hide in plain sight as earth ponies. "We... see... That must hath been difficult."

Smirking at that Cursed Blessing chuckled and tapped his face. "Truthfully your highness, we have been part of pony society since before the Age of Chaos, apparently one of my clan was even part of your mother's court before he fell to Discords twisted magics. I believe he was named Ground Shaker, his true name was Taurus. Discord apparently turned him into a twisted creature called a Minotaur."

Almost dropping her jaw in shock at that revelation the Princess tried to hide it by coughing into her hoof. She decided to put the current subject off and focus more on the present, she needed to regain control of the conversation. "We wish to extend Our most sincere gratitude for the aid thee and thy ancestors brought to Us against the dragons. We art sad however that Lord Achilles fell in battle doing so. He hath a remarkable mind for arcane theories and devices."

Cursed Blessing gave a sad smile and nodded to the Princess. "Aye my dear Princess. Lord Achilles was one of a kind, a General, a Fighter, a Gladiator, a Leader and a Hero. One who fought impossible odds and came out with victory grasped in his hooves. But he died a good death, a death worthy of his heritage as a Spartan and a Viking, to die in battle for either, is to die with honour and to receive the greatest blessing upon death."

The viking slammed their hooves into the ground and cheered out with their axes pointing out towards the sky, shouting out the world. "VALHALLA!"

While the Spartans slammed their spears into their shields and raised their spears into the sky, shouting out a different words. "ELYSIUM!"

And both of the forces cheered out together with pride. While the Samurais bowed with respect and the Knights knelt down and prayed with their weapons resting against the ground. The ponies of the Sun Guard and the various bystanders, including a lot of nobles, awkwardly looked on at this scenery.

Seeing Princess' Celestia giving him a questioning look Cursed Blessing explained what was happening. "Elysium and Vahlalla are two names for the Afterlife of Warriors if the Vikings and the Spartans, two specific Horse Clans of Warriors. Both of these symbolize a place after death where those who die in battle, in duel, or with honour, are carried beyond either a rainbow bridge into the realm of the gods or through a mythical rivers into an underground paradise. To join other heroes in the afterlife and enjoy the finest of feasts, the greatest of battles and the most sweetest of delights, for the rest of eternity. The myths differ for either group, but the intents are the same."

Celestia nodded and understood a bit better now. After a while the horses resumed their normal stoic looks. Although the so called Vikings and Spartans seemed a lot more relaxed. "We see. But We should move forward, We hath to properly finalize the alliance Lord Achilles sought to sign with Equstria. And We also wish to know what thee wish to do with Lord Achilles' remains, as We wish to witness it Ourself."

Cursed Blessing smiled and nodded. "Of course your majesty. I am currently the one in charge of my people, but a leader may be chosen for each group in the future once we have become more unified. For now, I shall do what I can to bring a great future for my kin and your nation."

And so the elderly horse entered the Palace alongside Princess Celestia, and the horses and ponies outside, cheered out as some of the Vikings brought out kegs filled with various manners of sweet drinks made out of honey to celebrate. While the other horses offered various forms of food like various types of sea weeds, some manner of sour fruit the Knight's called a lemon and a berry the Spartans called olive.

While the ponies brought pastries, bread and fruits. The ensuing celebration spread across the city like wildfire. Celebrating the defeat of the dragons and the alliance of the Horses and Equestria.

As Princess Celestia lead the elderly horse past the hallways she wanted to ask him something she truly could not figure out. "Pardon Us asking Lord Asclepius. But if thou hath two names. Doest that not mean that the other horses doest now that they no longer art hiding?"

Chuckling a bit Cursed blessing shook his head. "By now it is more of an old tradition. But I know that several of the horses who came from the ancient times wishes to take pony names, as to start over with entire new names and lives. As to not let the past haunt them."

"Did... Achilles take such a name?" She felt a bit bad asking, for Achilles had never spoken of it, but she felt a need to ask. For some reason she was truly curious about it.

"Aye, he did. Not a common pony name either. He wanted to use his old name as an official name, as a Horse Lord, with his pony name being less official and more private. He would have revealed it to you Princess had he gotten to know you more." At those words she felt a bit flattered that the elderly horse thought that Achilles would have revealed his more personal name to her. It made her feel a bit... happy.

She then asked what manner of name he has chosen. "What name hath he chosen, if We may ask?"

The gates of the throne room opened up and her aids were moving in with paper work and had even put up a small table for the two to discuss matters face to face ,as her instructions had been for it to be a meeting for equals. Cursed Blessing chuckled at her question and told her. "The name he had chosen was based upon his mother, the woman who raised him and gave him the power to become a hero. She supposedly had him blessed by the gods by dipping him as a foal in a magical river. Thus he had picked the name Holy Water."

With a smile on her muzzle Celestia closed her eyes and let the name roll over her lips. Envisioning the horse lord in her mind, telling her this new name. "Lord Holy Water... a fine name." And indeed it was.

There was a bit of a silence again, until they both sat down by the finely made oaken table and the paperwork began to be put on the surface for them to work with. But as they did, another question struck Celestia. When she saw the elderly horse make a half circle movement with his hoof, and cause an quill to levitated out of an ink well, and start writing. "How doest thee use magic? We hath never heard of non-unicorns wielding arcane matters before."

Chuckling again Cursed Blessing raise his hoof and Celestia saw a blue glow emerged around it. "It is no real secret that all ponies and horses have magic within us. While the Ancient Ones were more inclined to the arts of crafting magical devices or artifacts, learned my clan over the centuries how to channel the internal magic of our bodies to cast spells like unicorns. We are not as quick as a unicorn when it comes to magic casting, nor are we a strong when compared. But we horses are known for adapting and thus we can use a wide variability of magic unlike most unicorns who seem to be limited to a limited numbers of spells."

And so the two leaders went through the paperwork of finalizing their alliance. While discussing theories and facts about the ways of magic based upon the arts of external and internal magic to create spells. It took a while, which was a good thing since it made the paperwork bearable.

(Scene Skip)

In a tent outside of the city, next to the anchored Sky Fleet, laid the unconscious shape of Maleficus on a bed. The alicorn had been in a manner of coma ever since he let the Fallen use his essences to physically manifest themselves into the world. A horse mare was treating his boy wit water, grounded up foods of various types, feeding him carefully while making him swallow by pressing various pressure points.

His body was so thin and malnutritioned that it looked like a mummified corpse. The horse mare looked towards the doorway when a small shape poked their head into the open flaps, and the face of a concerned Happy Meal entered. "Is it okay ta enter?"

"Yes young one. You and your beloved may enter." The horse mare said in a kind voice and the blushing mare entered the tent alongside her newly confirmed coltfriend Grand Music, who was being lead in by a smiling Grand Feast.

The sight of the unconscious and near skeletal body of Maleficus made Happy Meal nealry tear up but Grand Music gave her a comforting hug before she could and she just sniffled a little. Grand Feast looked at the mare who as treating te alicorn and asked her about his condition. "How does that stupid stallion fare?"

With a sigh the mare pressed a wet cloth to the alicorn's forehead, letting the moisture pour out over his head as she washed it slowly. "He's not any different from yesterday. We truly do not know what he did to end up like this. But it must have involved summoning that massive beast of bones that brought down the dragon Talos. Whatever it did it drained his body of all manner of nutrition, be it magical or not. His magic is rapidly recovering and the more food I feed him the more his muscles and body fat is restored. But he's still unconscious."

"Will... will grandpa be okay?" Happy Meal asked with teary eyes. The horse mare smiled, when she had decided to take the initiative and inform the three ponies her creator was so found of, of his current state, she knew it had been the right thing. And she was glad she did, it truly proved her that her creator was a good person, no matter the faults or flaws that he kep trying to push onto himself.

"Even should he not have been an alicorn do I doubt he would let himself remain like this for long. No he will be okay, and perhaps he will learn to not take stupid risks, but I doubt it. He's fr too willing to hurt and sacrifice himself to not do so when necessary, though many of us wish he would consider his own health and our concern for him." The mare finally stated with a sad smile at the unconscious alicorn. He felt like a victim and yet treated himself like a criminal, seeking atonement for the deaths he indirectly caused. The alicorn could just not find it in himself to forgive himself, he was treating everything he did as mediocre, not something worthy of praise, and while he did not wish to submit to being treated like a common criminal, did he still see himself as a monster for what he had caused.

Even though he had paid back for all of those things a thousand folds. He would never stop hating himself for it. And thus he would not stop the risks of hurting himself, to atone for it. And all of his creations knew, they just knew somehow, that he could not keep doing so. Or it would destroy him.

Thus she had asked these three to visit him, thinking that at least their presence and voices, would give him some comfort. He truly needed it. "I will leave to get some more food and water. Take care of him for me until I am back please."

Grand Feast just gave the large horse mare a smile and nodded. "Ye did not even need to ask. Me and mah kin owe too much to this stubborn bone head of a pony to just let him decay like this."

The mare smiled and walked out of the tent. Grand Feast walked over to the sleeping form of Maleficus and reached down and put the wet cloth against his still form, rubbing it over his head, horn and mane gently. His ear flickered slightly as the water tickled him, but he kept sleeping, not even snoring as his soft breathe made his thin frame raise and lower itself.

"Ye stubborn old fool. Yer far older then me, yet ya are as dumb as they get. Hurting yeself needlessly like this. Ye could just have hid or escaped, not needing to aid the Princess when she had everything under control." She smiled sadly at the sleeping face of the alicorn, his sleeping face covered with marks of exhaustion that could be seen even beneath his thick black fur. He must have worked himself ragged for days, never sleeping properly.

"Hey Grandpa. Ah wanted ta tell ya something when ya woke up but... da Horses are gonna leave fer da East soon ,ta bury their big shot General. And me and Grand Music need ta stay home and repair da city. So Ahm honna tell ya now. Ahm dating Grand Music, he acted just like ye, a self sacrificing and rock headed dumdum who cannot think of others feelings when risking yer darn life!" At the end of her rant she jumped up on the bed and hugged his side, sniffling into his fur. The large soft body felt comforting, familiar, even if he was not in the shape of Golden Cross, it still held that warmth, that comfort she had felt back then all those years ago.

Grand Music grew flustered and looked away a bit, fiddling with his newly made Vocal Necklace, as his old had been too damaged to repair. He felt slightly silly and childish, he wanted to do what Happy Meal did. but he did not know if he could do it. It had been so long since he had done that, and no one but Grand Feast and Happy Meal ever did it to him. It felt so awkward and yet he wanted to do it.

"Just hug him already ye silly little colt. Hug yer silly grandfather while he be restin'. No 'ne here is gonna make fun of ye." Grand Feast said with a kind smile to her adoptive son, and perhaps soon to be son in law. She had known about the growing feelings between them. With Happy Meal growing closer to Grand Music without really realizing it, and Grand Music growing more attracted, and thus more protective, of her in turn, and also not realizing it.

It brought the mature mare a warm feeling to her heart, knowing that those who had finally discovered their growing attachment to each other. It truly felt wonderful.

Grand Music in turn, at the comforting and encouraging words of his adoptive mother, slowly reached out, climbed up on the bed and joined his marefriend with hugging their honourary grand father by laying down on his back, resting his head on his neck, where he used to ride as a foal.

The comforting warmth from his black and ragged fur making the two ponies feel like they were little foals again, sitting next to him, falling asleep against his fur. As he told them stories in his wagon.

In the end Grand Feast watched with a smile as her two eldest fell asleep on and next to their adopted grandfather. And she saw a look of comfort and enjoyment spread across the unconscious alicorn's face. A sign of content that mad her reach out and gently rub his cheek, feeling the fatigue and exhaustion in his body even as he laid there asleep. "Yer always welcome back to us, whenever ye return here. We will be waiting for ya as long as we live."

When the horse mare returned she found a rather adorable and heartwarming sight. Sleeping on his side and on his back laid Happy Meal and Grad Music, snuggling into his fur. And next to happy meal, laid a sleeping Grand Feast. And upon the tired face of Maleficus Victoria, laid a look of content and a slight smile that made the mare smile, satisfied that she had made the right decision. And then left to speak to the other horses about delaying their schedule to the East for as long as possible.

In the end she managed to delay the lift off to the East for two days. As the time of Maleficus' return to the moon was approaching. And the horses knew they had to move swiftly to keep things on track. Thus they left at the light of dawn, carrying with them the body of Achilles and the hidden sleeping shape of Maleficus. With the three ponies waving goodbye to the Sky Fleet s the entire city of Canterlot cheered and waved farewell to the horses.

[Time Remaining. 6 hours]

The sun was near the evening and by the coastline of the East coast, just between Baltimare and Fillydeplhia, stood a large gathering of ponies and horses. Over ten thousand ponies and over four thousand horses. It was massive gathering, with ponies from all over the nation of Equestria, gathering to take farewell to the one who had fought to save their home and died doing so.

It had taken 12 hours for the horses to fly from Canterlot to Baltimare, and through that time their ships had spread out in a wide formation and any dragon actively raiding or murdering was given the sentence of death by Assaulting Sky Ships. With them, hanging from large thick chains, they carried the decapitated head of Talos, making all but the more stupid, stubborn or brave dragons flee Eastwards.

The ships did not all fly off at every dragon they saw. The three Carracks did not just carry the Head of Talos, they carried the body of Achilles as well and was thus heavily guarded by seven more ships.

News had been spread by Celestia to Blackstone Keep about the sacrifice of Achilles, the Rise of the Eidolon, and the death of Talos and the horses routing the dragons by using the head of Talos as a psychological warfare. Commander Rock Steady had in turn decided to travel to Baltimare along with the Wind Strider Elder Ancient Ruins and her son, as they had been saved by Achilles in the Woods of Blood.

Others had come with them, and others had heard through rumours about the ancient hero of the past who died in the final fight against the dragons. and thus had more then a few come to view the final farewell of the Horse Lord. A monument had been set up by Celestia upon the hills outside of Baltimare, a ten by ten by ten meter sized cube shaped rock with the statue of Captain Iron Wing standing proud with the banner of the Order of the Golden Cross held above his head. The names of all those who died saving the citizens of Baltimare, Canterlot, Blackstone and all other villages and towns were written down there.

Numbering over two thousand dead knights, five hundred dead horses and four thousand dead soldiers. A total of six thousand and five hundred when rounded down. The city of Baltimare would be restored and ti would grow stronger from this event of Equestrian history.

But for now, it was time to take farewell of one of those who had died ending the Draconic Incursion.

[Start Epic Funeral Music: Viking Funeral - Helvegen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLGeGXH8fRw

Upon a wooden rowboat, engraved with runes filled out with gold, upon a pile of weapons, gold and fur, laid the warped up remains of Achilles. His shield and sword, both melted into misshaped lumps, rested upon what remained of his chest. A single sail had been put into the rowboat, the sail bearing the symbol of the Vikings and the Spartans.

Cursed Blessing stood by the boat alongside one of the Vikings, both of the speaking out in the ancient tongue while pouring out clear oil over the cloth covered form and down onto the floor of the rowboat. As they did a solemn music was being played by the horses.

Among the crowd of thousands of souls watching the preparation of Achilles' final rites stood a pair of knights. A young pegasus mare, Sir Rapid Fire, the daughter of Iron Wing, leaning against the side of her coltfriend Sure Shot, one of the few surviving knights who held back the dragons at Baltimare. She was tired, sad and yet hopeful. her father died saving as many as he could, her coltfriend survived, only losing his left eye when the dragons burned down the city.

Both of them listened to the strange music and the strange lyrics of the two chanting horses. they had both come to a decision, they would start over, rebuild and make Baltimare the strongest city East of the Foal Mountains. Together.

An elderly earth pony stallion carrying a badly burn but still repairable scythe was standing next to his family as they watched the strange form of funeral of the one who had aided in ending the dragons who burned their home and fields. It had been hard to escape his home when the knights and town guards had come to guide him and his kin to hide under the city. But they had survived, their home could be rebuilt, their fields resown and they would farm again.

Dark clouds had flown down from the mountains and a gentle rain had begun to fall upon the coastline. A soft rumble of lightning ad thunder echoed over them softly. But no one was bothered by the falling rain.

Then as Cursed blessing and the Viking ended the final rights, they walked off the boat. and together a group of twelve warriors gathered in the waves, and each reached out ,grabbed the edges of the boat, and began to push it out into the waves. While one of them unfurled the sail.

A soft gust struck the cloth and the small boat sailed off towards the golden red light of the sunset. And the Vikings chanted out together as they watched the body of their General and Leader float away. The waves seemed to aid the small ship in its journey and no pony moved as they watched the ship reach such a distance that ti almost seemed to have disappeared.

But then four horses strode forward, each bearing a long bow of their specific culture. One Viking with a thick and rough looking longbow. A Samurai with a sharp curved long yumi bow. One Spartan bearing a smooth and supple long bow. And a Knight bearing a longbow equal in size to the yumi, but much thicker and not out of the same manner of wood.

One of the modern horses walked over, levitating a bowl of burning oil and held it out to the four archers. Each archer pulled out an arrow from a quiver and dipped the tip into the burning oil. And then they nocked the arrows to their bows and began to pull back the strings and wooden arms of the bows. The wood made almost creaking sounds as the bow string was pulled back, and the muscles of the four ponies pulsed with strain as they reared back their hooves further and further.

All ponies were staring in confusion. Wondering how anypony would even think of hitting suc ha distance target. It had to be at least a kilometer away from the shore by now!

Their answers were given. When each archer let go of their arrows, and as one the four arrows flew like falling stars across the heavens, rain nor wind stopping them. They whistled through the air and water, flying i nan arc over the waves and then began to dip down.

And soon they rapidly began to fall, until they struck the surface of the wooden boat, each arrow struck a corner of the wooden frame, holding Achilles' body. And in a burst of light, the ship caught fire. And the sunset finally settled itself down, and Princess Celestia let a single tear drop down her eye at the beautiful sight of the burning ship as the sunset settled. It had been a wonderful sight, one of her better efforts.

Commander Rock Steady, Ancient Ruin and Truth Seeker all looked out together at the burning light. Two of them seeing their saviour being put to rest. The other seeing a respectable and old warrior reaching the end of his journey.

Gold Digger hugged Wild Whip as they looked out at the sight together. Both ponies sad to see the saviour of their clan gone, but glad to know he was given a proper ending.

Several other ponies bowed their heads in appreciation. Many of them were of those who had survived the dragon attacks. Others were f those who had been in Canterlot when the dragons attacked. Some had been saved when the Sky Ships made their swift journey, scaring off or hunting down the remaining dragons. And some were just glad, that the nightmare they had witnessed or been part of, was over.

But some... were looking with anticipation and concern at the horses. Thinking of plans that now needed to take these newcomers into consideration. And maybe even try to find one among these large giants of the past, who shared their mindset for a better future for Equestria.

Plans and schemes were being made in the shadows, and the horses would find themselves tested. Even with the knowledge and abilities they had been granted by their creator they knew little of the interactions of ponies. Their minds were less of that of a herbivore and more of that of an omnivore. Their integration into society would be difficult not just for them but their new neighbors as well.

But they would do their best to follow the guidelines of the Creator. To establish themselves and their future generations a home they could be proud of in the locations they had been told to use in the construction of their cities and towns. For they were the Horses of Maleficus, the personal creations of the one who commanded Terror and Courage at a whim, and to him, they were eternally loyal. Even if it would mean their deaths.

Their mental pep talk completed. The horses all looked up towards the ocean. And as one they all saluted their fallen General, each in their own way based upon their culture, to honour not just the fake facade of Achilles, but their creator Maleicus Victoria. Each Clan of Horse performed this show of respect in a different manner but that mattered little to them.

As their respect and loyalty to the stallion who had created and lead them, was worth more to them then anything. And as the final prayers of the rite was sung out by Cursed Blessing. The ship disappeared out of sight and the funeral ended.

[End Epic Funeral Music]

As the boat finally sank down under waves of the ocean, the hero Achilles was put to rest. And the ponies felt a great deal of comfort, knowing that he had lived a good life. While the horses were glad that their creator's false persona had been so respected, even though it had mostly been made up. Was it still comforting to them.

Princess Celestia smiled softly at the scene of the burning boat sinking beneath the wave, before her horn ignited with a magical aura. And she began to raise the moon from its slumber, yet her eyes narrowed with anger as she saw a sight she had momentarily forgotten she would see. As the moon rose.

The burning specter, marking that Maleficus had been returned to the moon. And all of the horses began to murmur with each other. Acting as if they had never seen it before. While the few horses who were made to be of the modern age, began to explain things to them. While the ponies grew uncomfortable, as the tale of the Stallion of Torment, was revealed to the newcomers.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus' unconscious body had been lying on the bed of one of the Sky ships when the sun settled. hours before the moon had risen. As the final ray of light was gone, there was a bright flash of light and his body had disappeared from the bed it had been laying down upon.

And up on the surface of the moon ,a bright flash emerged out of the sky above the pale grey desert. And with a soundless thump the body of Maleficus landed like boneless heap upon the moon's surface, still unconscious and unable to wake up. He just laid there among the dunes, unknowing that he had been tossed back to the surface.

And thus, as the moon rose, it rose with the burning specter once more upon its surface. Its prisoner once more in his isolated hellscape. Only now, unconscious and unable to wake up. But for how long would that last?

It is hard to tell how long it may take for Maleficus to wake out of his forced slumber. But as his body lay there, limp and motionless among the dunes. There was a content smile upon his lips, even as he laid with his face buried into the silvery sand of the moon desert.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: Okay this chapter is... huge. It is massive. It is NOT beautiful. But it is the largest chapter I have ever written. And I am pretty proud of that.

Pinkie: Yay! Go Staady!

Staadnauthursil: But there is a problem. Because you see. This chapter. Is Fucked Up. I have already spoken of how much this thing is fucked up that I cannot even give a fuck to describe how much this thing is fucked up. I cannot for the life of me find a more proper way to describe this thing then the words. Fucked. Up. Even though this is my largest chapter, EVER, it is also my most fucked up one by far.

Pinkie: Oh don't say that! It can't be that bad.

Staadnauthursil: Pinkie. I somehow managed to write in the death of a pregnant mare AND her unborn fetus. Without. Realizing. It.

Pinkie: Oooooooh...... Okay that IS fucked up...

Staadnauthursil: Exactly. That's why I am both proud and horrified of myself right now.

Pinkie: Cupcake to feel better?

Staadnauthursil: Yes please, with chocolate coating and stuffed with fudge filling if you can.

Pinkie: Okie dokie!

Chapter Sixteen: The Rise of Horadrim (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Sixteen: The Rise of Horadrim

[Current Date: 1/1 - 112 AD]

A brush discolored in red was pressed into a bucket of clean water, the already brownish red discolored water turning into an even darker shade. The soaked wet brush was pulled out and shaken, removing the majority of the stained water. Then it was pressed against a stone wall with large splatters of dried blood and it began to scrub the stained stone clean.

This brush was held by the levitating grip of a unicorn who was utilizing ten different brushes to remove the stains of pony and dragon blood on the city walls of Canterlot. Around the unicorn were soldiers pulling stones, wood, and tools, repairing the destroyed sections of the city.

Outside of the city were teams of hundreds of ponies working together on another vital clean up of the city.

A group of ten earth ponies was coordinating together next to a large wooden frame. Standing in groups of ten they were gripping ten long and thick ropes with their teeth. A pegasus was coordinating their work from above while a unicorn was beating a drum to give them a rhythm to give them better synchronization.

"Pull!"

With a tug, the earth ponies pulled with their necks and dug their hooves into the ground. A loud thump was heard as something big and heavy rolled over and struck dirt. The earth ponies kept gripping the rope, moved a bit further away until the ropes went rigid. And then the unicorn cried out again.

"Pull!"

This time it took them a bit more effort. Pulling their bodies in rhythm and in sync as to make the large object roll back and forth, back and forth. Each time the object rolled with a larger margin. And finally, after thirty pulls they put all of their strength behind one final pull and the large object rolled over not once, not twice, but three times. And with the final roll it slammed into the wooden frame of the gigantic wagon.

Collapsing from overexertion the earth ponies took a breather while looking at their work.

The final corpse of the dragons had been packed up in a massive cloth made out of plant fiber. It was one of the larger dragons that had been killed during the invasion and landed in the moat. Thus it had been a pain in the flank to remove. The other corpses had taken a lot of time to remove as well but this particular corpse had been sunken into the moat and with the magical resistance of the large dragon's hide, not to mention the massive weight, could the unicorns not properly remove it.

While Princess Celestia may be able to use her superior magical strength to remove the corpse was she too busy to do so. So the ponies had to rely on their physical strength, technology, ingenuity and enchantments to properly handle the larger corpses.

Thus physical labor had to be used and it had taken three months to get the corpse from the moat, one o those months had been just to construct a large and sturdy enough wagon frame to carry the corpse. And now finally they had managed to get it to the main road.

Even the corpse of Talos had not been so time-consuming, but that was mostly because the horses used their flying ships to remove his head and corpse, claiming it all as spoils of war. Apparently had the horses a bit of a tradition to keep the heads and/or bodies of dangerous monsters, beasts or villains. A bit of a grim taste in tradition but none the less the ponies were more than grateful for the horses aiding them with removing the corpses.

Said bodies were all being buried in a massive valley in the foal mountains. Which had been named the Dragon Bone Valley, it just felt fitting. The bodies were not just left to rot and decay, but buried in graves and caves, each marked down by the dragon's coloration, elemental breath, horns, and body size.

A time-consuming effort but the Princess was hoping that if any dragons came to reclaim their fallen or avenge them, she hoped they would listen to reason by being offered their dead brethren. Not to mention she did not want rotting corpses in the vicinity of her lands, the Chronicles of Golden Cross spoke of plagues and epidemics caused not just by vermin and filth, but rotting corpses as well. So she needed to be careful.

Especially considering that more then fifty dragon eggs, in total, had been inside some of the dead dragonesses, horrifying many of the ponies as it dawned on them that they had killed pregnant females. It was a very demoralizing revelation, but some ponies seemed to not care or wanted to destroy the eggs to prevent more dragons from arriving.

But Celestia had, had the eggs put away in a safe location, sealed to not age or mature. It had taken some effort on her own part as most ponies had not the capacity to utilize such a spell or rune craft, but she had made the Preservation Chamber soon enough and had the eggs sealed away until they could be returned to their proper homes.

Five months have gone by and the city of Canterlot has recovered from the Draconic Incursion, as many have come to call it. With the aid of the Horses of the newly founded Horadrim Kingdom were the repairs of the city finished four months after the attack. This deepened the bound between the two equine nations.

The Horadrim Kingdom was the officially chosen name, but many just called it Horadrim as there had yet to be a King named for it. Many had asked about the meaning behind the name and had been told that the name was chosen by the Ancient Ones. The newly restored horses had chosen to honor their descendants who had freed them from petrification. As Horadrim was the name of Cursed Blessing's clan.

Many had been curious about the horses and their origins. The fact that many of them had been hiding among the ponies ever since the end of the Unification Wars boggled the mind of many. And these large equines were more then willing to trade stories about themselves and their home, Ancient Hellas. But those talks about old tales were not wide spread yet as the ponies had to escalate the harvest to recover much of their lost crops and supplies that had been destroyed by the dragons.

And it was a good thing too, since the once Summer all year around weather of Equestria was starting to show signs of disappearing.

The Winters of Equestria had been mild with warm sun ever since Discord was defeated. But many of the tales of the old times spoke of a time when the lands of the region were seasonal, shifting between cold and warm. And yet was there no pony alive, not even Princess Celestia, who had ever seen a proper winter before. Only the unnatural winters of the Everfree Forest.

But as the winter month started out, a shift in the weather was note by the Pegasi as a sudden chilling wind from the north made plants wilt and leaves to turn into colours never seen before.

The first chilling winds of the winter time had come since before the Age of Chaos. After almost constant summer weather, had the central region of Equestria started to experience its first real natural Autumn weather since its founding.

Many of the scholars and mages of the Magical Academy and the many independent researchers had come up with an assumption of why the weather had begun to act on its own rather then being controlled by the Pegasi like it had in the past before the Age of Chaos. The Pegasi themselves were rather frightened by the concept of a weather they cannot manipulate or control, reminding them too much of the terrifying weather of the Everfree Forest. Said forest HAD brought winter weather into itself during the century long isolation of the two Princesses, but it was never considered natural weather by any of the ponies.

But to consider the possibility that the weather of the Everfree Forest was NATURAL, was making even more ponies nervous at the implications. Some even thinking that the corruption o the Everfree Forest was spreading somehow. Yet there was no one who could provide proof to confirm those theories.

Yet it had become clear to many that the weather was starting to become seasonal for the region. One of the more accepted theories was that the after effects caused by Discord's actions during the untold years of acting out with his madness, damaged the entire planet's weather pattern. And it was only now that it was starting to recover.

And yet it also brought a lot of strangeness to the ponies. Especially the Pegasi, as their magical abilities to create and utilize clouds with their magic had become much power powerful in recent years. But at the same time, they had taken note that they could no longer control the weather as easily at a large scale pattern even when in groups. The recovering weather and seasonal patterns were making it difficult for their weather magic to alter it.

Even Unicorns could no longer manipulate the weather for too long. Even the Earth Ponies with their fabled abilities to farm and care for nature, could not bring forth seedlings or sprouts with their tender care during the colder weather. It was simply too cold for the plants to grow.

Some of the more illogical theories that were brought up was that when Princess Celestia invoked the name of Asgard, the God of the Heavens, she caught the attention of the Ancient Deity. And thus, caused the weather to resume its old pattern before the Age of Chaos. It was viewed with skepticism but Celestia could not say if it was wrong or right as she herself did not know the answer for that.

Her chant had been on a whim after all. Something she had wanted to make to fight against Maleficus, she had never intended to use it against another foe or at such a large scale. But she had and now she had to live with that.

There was a lot of assumptions and theories. But in the end, was no one able to properly explain why the weather and seasonal pattern was starting to shift on its own. Only that it was. And thus the ponies of Equestria had to work hard on their harvest to make sure to keep themselves feed during this Autumn like Winter period.

The Horses of Horadrim were making some preparations of their own for the Winter months, but not for farming as far as the Ponies could tell. But their focus laid not on the Winter but on something far more important. Namely the final orders of their Creator to their official leader and diplomat, Lord Asclepius, or Cursed Blessing if refereed to by his Pony Name. To complete the habitats of the horses, Project Skyheim.

For while the Nation of Horadrim was recognized as its own nation, would the horses now have to develop and utilize their new borders to properly care for them. It was a good thing then that the defence of the lands of the Horadrim would be rather easy to handle, as they were all located in rather unorthodox locations.

Horadrim had a few cities and towns marked down along the mountains from the north to the south. As well as one by the east coast and one by the unexplored west coast. But apparently was one of their ancient cities located there. But there were no proper regions or borders. And for a good reason.

It was kind of difficult to put down borders on a map when said borders were constantly moving. Not that the ponies knew that particular reason just yet.

(Scene Skip)

The chilly winds blew across the top of the battlements of the walls of Canterlot. Tossing the manes and tails of the equines working on them as they prepared for the departure of their long time guests.

Lord Cursed Blessing had spent a good deal of time with Princess Celestia talking about trade deals, lost lore and about Achilles' ancient past. It had been an educational time and while the temporary leader of the Horadrim Kingdom would leave a group of four hundred horses to interact with her subjects, did he have to return to his people and help them properly establish their borders.

The fact that he had not marked down the borders of his nation on the map was a bit concerning. But when he explained that everything would be revealed by the next decade at the earliest, she realized that he had a lot more work to do then she did. While she and her ponies had been able to establish this new kingdom together, was it not as easy for the Ancient Ones, those horses would have a hard time interacting with the world since the world they had lived in was lost a long time ago.

She did not envy the modern horses as they would have to work with their prehistorical ancestors to get them to realize the difference of equine society. Just the manner that the Spartan Clan had been treating their foals had turned her stomach if any foal was found crippled, weak, deformed or sickly, they were tossed off a cliff or given to one of the other Clans. She was just glad that such a thing would not occur again as the Horadrim Clan would guide them into a more acceptable social standard.

"We art grateful for thy people's aid to Our nation Lord Asclepius. We do wish thee and thy kin a most fortuitous future alongside Equestria." Princess Celestia said with a smile to the elderly scholar as he was about to walk up onto his flying ship that was currently levitating off the edge of the gatehouse of Canterlot.

The old horse gave her a smile and patted her on the shoulder. "You take care of both yourself and your nation now Celestia. I know you have been working overtime to handle all of the repairs and constructions in your land. But you need to take some time for yourself or you are just going to collapse one of these days."

She snorted and rolled her eyes a bit, the old horse had been like a dotting uncle to her and her high ranking members of not just the court but the military as well. Telling all of them to not overdo it and to take it easy from time to time. It was kind of sweet but no less annoying to her, seeing how she was older than him. Just about as annoying as her subjects could be at some times. "Hmph. We would probably hath taken heed of thy words if Our subjects were not so... how do We put it?"

As she said that a loud boom could be heard from one of the many wizard towers in the city as a pillar of lightning and fire erupted out of the cone-shaped rooftop. The pillar of illuminating fire and sky plasma roared for a few seconds before disappearing, leaving the city silent as the top of the tower was now burning with blue fire. Cursed Blessing raised an eyebrow at the sight and turned to her. "Eccentric?"

"Yes, We find that term more polite then the one We hath been about to speak." She said with a grimace on her face as she looked at the burning tower. Oh, how she wished her subjects could NOT give her a headache for one day. That burning wizard tower was going to give her at LEAST half an hour's worth of paperwork! Sure! She knew that her nation needed to experiment and research magical development to properly function but there was no need to work on such reckless experiments in the middle of the bucking city!

*Oooohoohohoooo... Whyyyyy doest the Gods keep Us from Our pastries....* She internally cried as she knew she had once more lost more time for one of her favorite past times, trying out new sweets. It had been four months since she last tried out a new sweet, it was like cold turkey treatment. Whoever had caused the incident was going to be given a very, very large fine or possibly even community service for the damages, risking the health of the city and disturbing the peace. If they could not come up with a VERY compelling explanation for this incident.

Cursed Blessing just chuckled and walked up to his ship. The land bridge was pulled in and Princess Celestia waved with a smile, while she was mentally wailing in self-pity as she could hear the approaching paperwork on her desk even halfway across the city!

Horns and trumpets sounded across the walls as the ships' wooden frames floated away from the stone structures. White clouds bellowing beneath them like waves of mists as the winds of the sky took hold of their sails.

The three cogs flew up into the air and the fleet of Sky Ships that would be protecting them flew around them. And as their wooden frames gracefully flew over the mountains the ponies were waving and cheering as the magnificent structures disappeared from sight one by one.

Sighing Celestia walked dejectedly down the stairs of the gatehouse while her subjects went back to their ordinary routines of enjoying life. *Back to Our duties...*

(Scene Skip)

"Well, that was five interesting months. Who knew that the natural state of the ponies was loony toons worthy insanity?" Cursed Blessing stated with a grin to the rest of the horses, who all let out chuckles at that.

The elderly looking stallion then shook his head and walked over to the captain's cabin. Once past the doors, he had one of his fellows unfold a large map onto the large table in the cabin. He then put his hoof on the detailed map of the continent of Equestria, made from the image sent from their Creator's orbiting spell matrixes. "The locations we have chosen for our new home have been prepared, correct?"

One of the Horadrim nodded and pointed out with a floating piece of chalk on several different spots along the mountain range south of the Foal Mountains. "All ready Lord Blessing, ten locations have been picked, each made up by a vast location of high altitude mountains rich in soil and various types of ores. We made certain to investigate each spot before we began to the constructions of the havens."

Nodding at that the elderly horse pulled out one of his creator's scrolls and unfolded it, revealing the Mana Engine's structure and functions. "Excellent. Once we have the infrastructures prepared we will prepare the Mana Engines for their initial tests. We cannot leave anything to chance."

Another horse nodded and pointed at the blueprint of the engine and began to point out parts of the design. "We can be certain that the Creator's design is sturdy and will function. But the runic matrix array it is going to be connected to is going to be difficult to prepare at such a fast rate as the creator when he created the Sky Fleet. The phase of development and construction he made was beyond insane."

"Indeed. Speaking of transportation. How fares Project: Bifrost?" Cursed Blessing asked as he pointed at one of the spots they had been talking about.

The one who spoke first pulled out a small message he had received by carrier pigeon a few hours back before they left Canterlot and gave it a quick read before reporting to his fellow horse. "It is still in its initial testing phase but our brethren has assured us that the runic array will be ready to use before the Creator returns. They are still taking every security measures to make sure that nothing goes wrong. Not that I blame them."

Cursed Blessing sighed and rubbed his forehead. Project Bifrost was a dangerous endeavor and one that would lead to a brighter future for all equines, but it could be potentially devastating if it did not work out. Not only that, it would be the foundation for the Creator's attempt of fulfilling his long time promise. But the danger of this type of magic was far too large to rush through with it.

Thus he knew all to well how much care and safety you had to prepare to even attempt it. "Aye, working on a way to create a stable Portal Gateway system is going to be difficult even with the Creators knowledge in our brains. We need to work out all the dangerous or fatal quirks and faults before we even attempt to activate it."

He then looked back at the Mana Engine and pointed at it before he pointed at the marked locations on the map. "For now have Project Golden Apple and Project Skyheim marked as high priority, we need to have our nation properly structured before we can even start to establish and proper culture for us and our Creator. And the mana engine he made the base design of is to be properly refined and constructed for our new nation to work. Let us make him proud once he returns to witness our homes made in his honor."

The old horse then raised a hoof to his chest and raised his head high to look skywards. And praised his creator. "Ave Maleficus."

"Ave Maleficus!" The rest of the Horadrim horses echoed his praise before preparing to send words to the other locations b carrier pigeons, orders had to be sent and there was a lot of work to prepare and do.

*We will complete your work Creator... no... Father. And we will make you proud.* Cursed Blessing thought to himself with a small smile as he looked down at the blueprint of the mana engine.

(Scene Skip)

It is the playground of the Warm Care Orphanage in Baltimare City, a late evening. Most of the foals are either sleeping or playing inside. But one was not.

Sitting along on a wooden log among rose bushes near the large wooden fence sat a lone filly. She was a small bright pink pelted and clear blue maned/tailed unicorn. And she was silently carving a block of wood with a knife she was holding with her left hoof. Her dull and lifeless, yellow, eyes staring hollowly at the wooden surface as she slowly shaped the wood.

Her name was Bright Light, a unicorn from one of the many coastal villages that had been demolished or ravaged by the dragons. Ever since the night her village had been destroyed she had just become a silent and empty shell of the once bright and warm person she had once been.

The villagers who had survived had traveled to Baltimare City to seek shelter and safety from the dragons. Her father had survived, but he had lost both of his hind legs and was thus forced to spend the rest of his life cared for by others. He could no longer work as a sailor and his eyes had become hollow and empty just like Bright Light's had become.

He lost it. Taking the blade he had been given by his father, and slit his own throat, and died a day after the assault, unable to handle the sorrow.

That dagger was the one she was using now, it was the last thing left by her family. It was all she had now.

When the news arrived about the flying ships hunting down the dragons a sliver of light shone in her eyes as she saw those flying wooden boats chase after the dragons as they fled. But when the ships did not pursue them over the sea she felt a cold sensation of anger in her heart, as those who had hurt her family had escaped.

Then the Funeral of the Achilles had happened, she had witnessed it, the weird songs and the burning of the small ship. She thought it pointless to waste arrows and a good boat on a single pony, or horse in that case. But it had soothed her soul a bit, for a while at least, knowing that the Princess and her allies had been fighting the dragons.

Not that they had been able to save her family. All they had done was offer her a new place to stay at the newly established Warm Care Orphanage. But while many of the foals were either recovering or ignorant of their loss, was Bright Light unable to stop her growing anger and hatred.

Her train of thought was broken when she almost stabbed herself as she sliced off another scrap of the wooden figure. And she looked at it, it was the head of the dragon who had eaten her sister. The same dragon who haunted her dreams every single night.

Her yellow empty eyes narrowed and a twisted sneer grew across her muzzle, she reared back her dagger and with a brutal downward swing stabbed the dagger straight into the forehead. Tears began to leak from her eyes and she jerked out the dagger from the wooden head before she tossed it aside. The wooden head struck the ground and cracked apart from the force of the impact, splitting into smaller parts.

The filly then clutched her father's dagger to her chest, tears dripping down her chin as her choked sobs echoed out from the corner of the playground.

(Scene Skip)

Happy Meal hummed softly as she skipped down the halls of the Temple of Law. For five months had she and Grand Music been declared an official couple and while their daily routines had mostly remained the same had she grown to enjoy their new interactions with one another.

And today she had a big surprise for her special somepony. He had been stuffed far too long in his office ever since the construction of the Magical Academy had been completed. Though he was the Grand Master of the Order did he need some time to relax as well.

She grinned at the two guards outside of her coltfriend's office, the two mares giving her salutes and smiles as they saw what she was carrying with her. Happy Meal gave them a smile in return before using her foreleg to slam up the doors, making a certain unicorn stallion jolt in his seat as he was reading a report.'

"Hi Music! Time fer a break!" The mare cheerfully cried out as she skipped into the office, carrying a basket on her back. The stunned stallion blinked a few times as he struggled with mentally realizing what she was talking about.

"W-wait. You mean right now?" He asked with a slight stammer in his voice, looking over the piles of papers on his desk, and mentally cried as it felt like they had grown even larger since he started working on them.

But his marefriend just grinned widely and trotted over to his side and began to push him out of his seat and push him towards the door. "Yes! We are gonna have a picnic!"

"B-but I got to-" He tried to protest but then let out a yelp as his marefriend gave him a stern look, while still somehow looking cheerful.

"Is stupid paper worth more then time with me?" That question, spoke in a cheerful and yet hostile voice, made warning bells ring off in the Grand Master's head and he quickly shook his head at even the mere suggestion.

Her eyes turned cheerful and she said out in a less hostile voice. "Then everythin' is fine!"

Grand Music still tried to make an effort to protest, but by then had Happy Meal pushed him out of the office, causing him to trip as he suddenly lost balance and land on his stomach with a loud thump. Happy Meal just giggled and petted his prone shape while the two guards giggled.

As the Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Cross turned to glare at the guards he suddenly felt a tug on his tail and felt himself being dragged on the floor. His expression turned from one of anger into one of horror as he realized what was happening.

Happy Meal had taken a hold of his tail with her mouth and was dragging him down the smooth stone floor of the hallway, uncaring about how humiliating it was to him. The unicorn covered his face in shame and let out a loud, suffering, and drawn out groan as laughter and wolf whistles filled the temple a the sight of the Grand Master being dragged out by his tail by his marefriend.

*When I get back from the picnic am I going to have everypony doing exercise drills and examinations of the city sewers for a week!* He grumbled in his mind as he was dragged down the stairs leading down from the main gates to the streets of the city. With his face still covered he felt his face turn red as murmurs from the ponies on the streets could be heard, as well as giggling mares, laughing foals, encouraging stallions and all around cheering ponies.

He had never felt so humiliated in his entire life and his face was burning against his hooves for the twenty minutes it took for Happy Meal to drag him through the streets and onto the soft moist grass of the park where his grandfather had once lived. Once she let go of his tail he just laid there, whimpering in shame, unwilling to move and wish that he could burrow himself underground to escape the humiliating experience he had just gone through.

"Oooh Music! Cheer up! Ah got ye some blueberry pie!" Happy Meal's voice broke through his demeanor and made him want to shout at her in anger and frustration. But when he finally removed his hooves and opened his eyes his eyes went wide as a piece of blueberry pie was stuffed into his mouth, and a pair of soft lips with a said piece of pie held in them kissed him.

Their lips clutched against one another, the crumbling pastry shared between their mouths as their tongues rubbed against the crust and berry filling within their mouths as their shared saliva broke it down even further. Then their tongues no longer could taste the sweet blueberries or the pie dough, and instead rubbed against each other. But even as their mouths swallowed the grounded down mass of pastry, they did not stop kissing each other for a good couple of minutes.

When finally they broke off for air, a trail of blue colored saliva connecting their blueberry stained muzzles, they stared at each other with intense heat and passion as they panted to regain their breath. Happy Meal's wings were spread out to their maximum capacity while Grand Music's eyes were glowing a little.

Then the mare's lips turned into a wicked smile and she suddenly tackled him and rolled him onto his back. The blushing stallion stared at her with wide and nervous eyes as she looked down at him with predatory eyes that reminded him far too much of a hungry cat.

Happy Meal then pressed herself against his body, pressing her strong and warm body against his, her toned muscles pressing down onto his own. The mare slowly leaned down and pressed her cheek against his, her voice murmuring in a husky tone into his ear while tracing her tongue over it. The hot air from her lips tracing over the freshly licked ear gave him pleasant shivers while her voice vibrated his very soul. "Is that big carrot pressing against mah tummy all fer me?"

Blushing even redder then his own mane he tried to find words to say, to make any kind of noise as the amazonian mare began to nibble his ear, his growing erection by now pressing up against her toned stomach. In the end, he only managed to gasp out a single word. "Ah... ah....yes...."

The mare hummed in satisfaction before she began to trace kisses down his cheek, along with his neck and down his breast. Grand Music could only whimper as he felt her slowly trace her kisses down deeper and he could already guess the goal of her teasing lips.

"Mama, what are sister Happy and Grand doing?" The voice of a foal made both of them tense up and slowly turn to look to where it was coming from. and paled when they saw Grand Feast, carrying a big basket, with her husband Applejack, who was trying to hide a grin behind his hoof. Their little foals looking at the almost fornicating couple.

"...What. Indeed. Are. They. Doing. In. The. Open. Park. I. Wonder." The cold voice and chilling glare from their mother made their once-hot make out session in the grass turn into the two grown ponies groveling on the grass, bowing their heads to their mother.

"I am sorry!/Ahm sorry!"

"You better be sorry!" Their mother shouted out before she started scolding them for their behavior out in the open like a pair of frolicking rabbits.

But even as their mother scolded them the two ponies glanced at each other and smirked, their bodies and breaths getting warm once more. They intended on following through with their little escapee somewhere else. Well, after their mother stopped lecturing them.

While his wife lectured the two adult ponies walked Applejack over to the picnic spot picked by Grand Feast and Happy Meal. He then took and unfurled the picnic blanket next to the one already there and sat down to watch the show. His children trotting over to lay down and watch their mother lecture their older half-siblings.

*Heh. Ah'm certain those two are just gonna get all frolicky again once she turns her back.* The earth pony thought with a grin as the lecture finally ended and the two scolded ponies followed their mother to the now shared picnic spot. And Applejack almost started laughing when he saw their tails wrap around each other while they're pressed against each other.

*Oh yeah those two are just like a pair of bunny rabbits in heat. Hehehe love is an amazing thing.* He thought before helping his wife take out the food from the basket she had been carrying.

(Scene Skip)

The surface of the moon was quiet and silent like it had always been. And yet it had, had a lot of activity for the last decade. But now, it was once more a place without so much as a hint of anything going on.

Partially buried in the sand laid the motionless body of the alicorn Maleficus. His malnourished body looking almost like a mummified corpse. He had not woken up for over five months since he foolishly allowed a million sized horde of souls to use his body's as a medium to reach the physical realm.

The stallion would normally have recovered because of the regeneration ability granted by his alicorn physiology.

But something was off. His body was utterly drained and even though the dense magical field of the moon should have aided in his recovery, was he still in a coma and looking like a dried out husk. Even though he had received care, food, and water for several days had he not recovered his total body mass. Worrying, as the magical energy of his alicorn body should have restored his body instantly.

He had been partly melted by plasma and still recovered almost instantly. He had been torn apart by explosions, flesh ripping winds and magical weapons. All damage had been restored in an almost instant manner and he had not even lost consciousness even for a second. And yet there he laid, unmoving and unresponsive to the world, comatose for several months.

So it was little to no surprise that this was greatly concerning for a certain alicorn princess residing within his mindscape.

(Scene Skip)

Luna walked through a twisted cavern, all around her the darkness was like a constricting force with the walls and ceilings making it feel like everything was shrinking. But that fear was dispelled by her knowledge that this was the mindscape of Maleficus and thus it was not any real danger to her. Plus she had a floating sphere of light ignited on her horn acting lie a comforting light source.

For an unknown time had she been wandering the dark tunnels that had taken shape after Maleficus foolishly made a deal with the dead spirits that called themselves the Fallen. She had tried to scream out at him, even going as far as to fire large scales spells and explosions in his mindscape to get his attention and warn him to not make any foolish mistakes.

She had been unsuccessful and now had Maleficus lost his conscious once more and essentially been rendered a prisoner to his mindscape like he had been ten years back when he had a mental breakdown. Only now it was not an emotional breakdown that had torn his psyche asunder. No, it was almost the opposite. As if rather then his pent up emotions, thoughts, and guilt broke his mind, had his mind been rendered dull and void by having all of his mental essences drained empty.

It also made it far more difficult to find his mental manifestation, with the dark maze-like hollow feeling masking his presence. She felt like she was a hero chasing after a cowardly minotaur that was constantly trying to avoid her, in a labyrinth. The dark and cavernous appearance of the mindscape was not helping

"Bloody hell Maleficus where have you gone to now..." Luna muttered as she reached a crossing, one that was identical to the earlier thirty she had passed through. Reaching out she pressed a hoof against the stone surface next to her. There was a gentle blue glow from her hoof and when she removed it from the wall was the wall marked with a glowing horseshoe print.

Sighing she looked left and right, trying to see anything out of order. Even going as far as to send out a blast of light down the tunnels. Nothing thus far. Snorting she shook her head in frustration before she kept walking forward, no need to take turns yet, it would be simpler to keep her movement straight until she either found a dead end or the terrain changed.

(Scene Skip)

Deep beneath the streets and buildings of Canterlot was a certain group of ponies gathering once more. Their faith in their princess shaken even further with her inability to properly defend their home from the draconic invaders.

Things were tense and the mood bad. It would not be long until someone of their numbers was going to lash out in anger and frustration because of the helplessness of the situation. And indeed, it came.

"Princess Celestia failed us all. She could not properly defend this city even with the aid of the horses. In the end that... THING! Came to our rescue! It be shameful to us all!" A mare shouted out with utter rage in her voice as she punched the stone table in front of her, shaking it and leaving cracks where her hoof had struck.

"So it is decided then?" A stallion said as he levitated an unfurled scroll into the air, showing the detailed plan that had been proposed by Bloody Courage.

"Aye. It hath been decided. We shalt enact Bloody Courage's long term plan. We shalt have several short term plans as well should things turn sour. But for now, let Us focus the majority of Our resources on this plan." Another stallion said as he held up a sealed scroll in his left hoof, sealed with red vax.

"Very well then. Meeting adjourned! All Hail the Society of Heraldry, Independence and Trade!"

"Hail!"

As the group left the chamber was one of them thinking of something as they left the room. *Why doest it feel like we art the butt of some manner of joke whenever a meeting ends?*

(Scene Skip)

Upon the mountain top of a secluded mountain were massive pine trees covered its solid rocky surface with a green and brown layer was something going on. Several trees were shaking and twitching as if trying to move out of the soil holding them rooted in place.

Then a loud crack was heard as a particularly large tree fell down, its massive shape crashing down and pushed down several other, though smaller, pine trees with its massive trunk.

Snow, rock, and dust erupted from the impact. Then the massive trunk began to glow in a mixture of colorful auras before it was slowly levitated off the ground. The forty-meter long tree floated through the chilling mountain air, snow and dirt drifting off its massive shape as it was slowly put down on a large plateau on mountain opposite of the one it had been growing on.

A Viking horse dressed in furs and leather bearing a massive long shafted axe walked out from among the branches and gave a wave at the group of forty Horadrim horses who had utilized their magical abilities to lift the massive tree. His long mane and beard braided and decorated with small iron axes. "Want me to get another one or is this fine for now?" The warrior asked as he jumped off the massive tree as other horses began to chop off the massive branches.

"No need Axe Beard we will spend all that we can get out of this large tree first before we gather another one." One of the Horadrims said as the larger horses hummed softly while sharpening the blade of his axe.

"Good. Good. So when is the Allfather's project getting done? I mean. We have almost finished the living areas and the Shrine is complete." That was a thing that appeared different among all of the horses when it came to their preferred reference of their creator and father Maleficus. The Vikings called him Allfader (Allfather), the Samurais called him Otousan (Father), the Knights called him Sancti Patris (Holy Father), the Spartans called him Patér (Father) and the Horadrims simply called him Father.

There had been some arguments from the Horadrims that simply calling him by the title Father or Creator would work, but the other horse clans wanted to speak the terms they found most fitting to their creator. And so it had been agreed that each clan would be allowed to call Maleficus by their own chosen titles. But all of them would be allowed to just call him Creator or Father if they so sought.

One of the sages rolled up a large parchment and examined it for a bit. Turning around the robed sage looked up towards the mountain peak rising up into the clouds, were hundreds of horses were working on carving buildings out of the mountain's surface, a most peculiar manner of constructing a town. The entire peak was being reshaped into a city of a similar architecture of a middle age castle citadel. "We will have the citadel's external parts finished before the next winter, but the internal work and the runic arrays we need to insert are going to take a lot more time and effort to complete, however. The complexity of the runic arrays will be difficult to carve in a precise manner. Thus we might need to utilize a lot more of our stores of iron and gold then we'd like."

Blinking, slowly, as if trying to figure out the meaning of life, the Viking finally gave a response. "Ah. Okay. I see... I will be going to get me belly some food. Call me if you need another tree chopped!" The Viking said with a wave as he walked off to get some food from the nearby campsite on the plateau rather than getting confused by the technobabble, or rather arcanospeech. As he did so the Sages just returned to their work, trying to work out how to best utilize the stone of the mountain for their creator's project.

Even if they had been given the knowledge of their creator, were not all of the horses able to utilize it or understand it properly. Something that limited their productivity. When their Creator had been physically working with them it had been so easy to work through everything, but for some reason had their mentalities changed slightly. Some of them were not able to work with others like they had been able to do a year ago.

It was rather obvious by this point. The horses were changing, not physically but mentally. They were starting to develop their own personality traits outside of those given to them by their Creator. But those personalities were still based upon the same foundation.

Thus the Five Clans of the Horses, were rapidly developing into their own cultures. Something no one, not even their beloved Father could predict the outcome of.

(Scene Skip)

Beyond the vast oceans to the east were far less calm then Equestria. The Five Dragon Clans were in great upheaval. The Rockfire Clan, once the strongest of them all, had left for the annual Great Feast. But after less than a month returned around a hundred out of the eight hundred that had left. The entire clan had been torn asunder and rendered fewer than the former weakest clan, the Stormfang Clan.

And it had all been done by the weak herbivores known as ponies.

The survivors of the massacre spoke of flying huts, massive villages of stone, contraptions capable of killing grown dragons from a distance. And the worst news of all, how Lord Talos had been slain by the ruler of the ponies, a pony of both pegasus, earth pony and unicorn power. Called an Alicorn, and her name was apparently Princess Celestia.

Many of the dragons felt a great unease as they realized that one of the oldest and strongest of dragons had been slain by a pony by all things, sure a magically powerful pony but a pony none the less. The Rockfire clan had drawn into themselves, deciding to seclude themselves from the rest of the world. More than a hundred families grieving the loss of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, cousins, sons and daughters.

Not all of the Dragon Lords believed in the tales. Only the Stormfang and the Ironclaw Clans' Lords believed in the stories. While the Frostfire Lord was skeptical while the Skyhorn Lord was not even going to bother fancying such a thing.

But the belief of the Lords did not affect the belief of the common dragons. And with the tales of ponies killing dragons spreading like wildfire through out the Dragonlands, was it no wonder that many grew uneasy.

It was a great unrest for many of the dragons. Realizing just how much the species around them had adapted, evolved and improved. While the dragons had become stagnant and idle, growing lazy with arrogance and hubris. It caused a great upheaval of ideals that had stood unshaken for millennia, now broken.

Their faith in their racial superiority had been shaken and something had been fundamentally broken in the hearts and souls of those who had fled from the west. The Rockfire Clan would take no more efforts to endanger themselves or their families. A once mighty, powerful, arrogant and self-assured clan, now reduced to quivering wrecks, flinching at the smallest of shadows, their once burning eyes hollow and soulless.

And so a meeting had been made between the other four dragons clans. They could no longer act carelessly and just let the time pass them by. If a weak herbivore species like the ponies could usurp the skies, create weapons to kill dragons and slay the oldest of dragons. Then they had to develop themselves as well.

But how they would proceed to do so. Would take time, but thankfully, time was something they all had in abundance.

(Scene Skip)

Princess Celestia looked out from her office window and smiled a little at the sight that greeted her.

Standing out by the western city walls, stood the recently completed Magical Academy. A central building containing a large circular shaped room like a theater for large events, discussions, debates, experiments and so on. With over ten towers for various matters of research and teaching.

It was a wonderful sight. The white marble stone of the walls, the varying red and blue colourations of the roof tiles and the sparkling crystals hovering above the towers. It looked quite a lot like the sparkling buildings of the Crystal Empire, only not made out of crystals, but still with a magical glow to their colour and shape. A most glorious view. And a most glorious purpose, where her mages would learn and develop all manners of discoveries. Perhaps she would indulge herself in teaching or even learning at the place from time to time?

"Luna and Starswirl would no doubt hath loved it." She muttered with a sad smile on her muzzle before she returned her focus to her work. And in an instant her ears folded, her eyes grew wide and teary and her lower lip trembled as she let out a whimper at the sight of the already big pile of paper, which looked like it had grown another hoof's length (About 4 inches) during the two minutes she had been looking at the Academy.

(Scene Skip)

The year went by with an almost unnatural speed. Equestria restored its homes and fortifications steadily. Princess Celestia's recently completed Magical Academy and the recently made Public Education Act had both been great successes, bringing a lot of joy to both the nobility and the commoners with the promise of their children being granted an education.

As well as a lot of angry pouts from foals who did not want to go to school.

Smaller school buildings ha been constructed in the Central Region of Equestria, the Public Education Act would make it so that all foals from the age of two to eight would receive a six year education for the basic of knowledge of some very vital subjects. History, Math, Literacy, Basic Crafting and Nature Lore.

The teaching would be done by one or two teachers who would have gone through the education themselves by educated scholars and officials, before being given the needed materials and books to teach foals. Foals would have school from varying hours of the day, mostly depending on the places the schools were located. But no more then eight hours and no less then four hours were allowed to be spent teaching the foals.

At first were many parents worried or frightened that their children would be unable to handle the teaching methods or end up outcasts among the smarter foals. But before even six months had gone by had the Public Education Act been made an astounding success, with foals learning far quicker then an adult pony ever could. It was frankly amazing how quickly the little ones could learn from their teachers.

Although a certain phrase had begun to circulate among the teachers as a 'sign of warning' whenever their students would speak of it. And many parents would also agree to it being a rather... nervous causing thing.

Before the Public Education Act were most foals taught at home or being given chores. The life of a foal was one of helping their families while being taught whenever their parents had the time. But with so much free time now opened up for both parents and children, were the foals starting to get eager to use their newfound knowledge and curiosity to discover what every little foal wanted in life.

Earning their Cutie Marks.

To discover their special talent and earn themselves a Cutie Mark was the dream of the majority of all foals. Thus had the words 'This will certainly earn us our cutie marks!' had been the sign of a lot of chaotic situation for the adult ponies as the foals got into all manners of shenanigans to discover their special talents.

While it was charming and sweet to see their little ones play around so much, were some of the things they attempted doing rather stressful for their teachers and relatives. But whenever one of the little ones discovered that special something that earned them their special talent and cutie mark, the happiness and cheer in those big eyes as the little ones discovered their special talent would make it all worth it in the end. Well for the most part.

But things were not all cheer and joy within Equestria. Far from it. The aftermath of the Draconic Incursion was still not over.

Almost fifty villages, up to twenty towns, one hundred and two towers, thirty one keeps and four castles had been destroyed during this event. The amount of work it would take to restore the damage was enormous. And even with the aid of the military and the Order of the Golden Cross, was the repairs of the nation not even halfway done after one and a half year had gone by.

It was still impressive for such a vast amount of damage to be repaired so quickly. But that was only because the majority of the towns and villages destroyed were made out of wood and stone and were fairly easy to repair in comparison to the cities, the keeps and the castles which were made almost entirely out of stone and enchanted metal support.

Only one castle had been restored completely and that was Blackstone Keep, which had only lost one tower and parts of its walls and central keep. And even had a major task force of its own to handle the repairs.

No the repairs would take a long time to complete. Possibly even half a decade. But the repairs and restorations of the lands were not the only issue. Insubordination and crime had run rampant in the East for months and even with the Order of the Golden Cross doing their best, were they too understaffed and busy with repairs to be everywhere at once.

Not to mention the fact that the dragons were not all gone from Equestria.

Many straggling and/or wounded dragons were chased out of the nation's borders before the end of the summer. But many of those wounded were far too crippled to be able to ever fly or even walk again. Over a dozen of the badly crippled dragons had stopped eating or drinking. They just allowed their bodies to waste away until finally they died of starvation, unwilling to live as cripples.

It was a disturbing sight to many the ponies. The sight of such a broken being deciding that they would rather die then ask for aid or try to adapt. But some ponies took delight in the dragons' suffering and some even killed some of the wounded dragons themselves to satisfy a desire for vengeance or a deep hatred.

Both the Three Armies and the Knightly Orders had these individuals, even the Order of the Golden Cross had some ponies who developed a paranoia, hatred or out right phobia for the dragons.

Grand Master Grand Music of the Order of the Golden Cross would be forced to give the order to exile almost a hundred promising members of his order for the coldblooded murder of incapacitated dragons.

Princess Celestia did not involve herself in the matter as she felt it was something the Military should learn to handle on their own. But she did not support the acts of murdering the dragons, taking them prisoners to interrogate and either exile or execute, but not just killing them on the spot.

The Horses aided in the capture and protection of the remaining dragons still within the borders of Equestria. Over fifty dragons were captured in the end, of which ten were murdered by ponies within their own prison cells. The remaining forty had committed, or been part of, quite a number of grave crimes, including murder, eating ponies and destruction of property. But around one hundred dragons died either by suicide, murder or in combat.

Those captured would be either exiled or given forced labour to repair the damages they had caused. But the date for the trials were not going to be decided for a long time so the dragons would have to remain prisoners of the Blackstone Keep, Baltimare Castle and Filly's Fort in Fillydeplhia. The reasoning for this delay was two folded. There was a lack of time to properly judge the dragons. And the rising hatred and spite for dragon would make it impossible to make a non-lethal judgement without causing riots.

Not to mention, one of the dragons captured, was too valuable to just exile or force with labour. But this was kept a secret to not cause anger among the general populace.

Equestria was grateful for the aid of their new allies. But the horses could not be everywhere and the negative feelings for the dragons was high among the ponies. With a certain group of hidden manipulators actively fueling the flames of hatred from the shadows.

In the end would over five hundred ponies within the military and the various knightly orders be dismissed from their positions for allowing or taking part of these murderous activities. Helpless victims, even dragons, were not to be murdered in cold blood. But the fact remained that there were still ponies who seemed unwilling to punish these acts, and some even encouraged them.

And through this turmoil period came an old face of the Pony society from before the Age of Chaos. directly after the horrifying events of the Draconic Incursion there was a great distress among the pony population. And many began to do what a common pony would do when faced with such haunting memories, they would seek aid from others, they would preserve through the hurtful memories with sheer will, or pray.

This solemn mood was noticed by those who thought they could bring an answer to the sorrowful ponies of Equestria. What emerged to give comfort to the grieving and the lost were groups of individuals who sought to do something forgotten by many of the current and older generations.

Preach.

It was a spread out mass of Priests, Priestesses, Shamans, Monks, Scholars, Acolytes, and many others. There were even Horses of Religious Belief of the Horadrim Kingdom who left their lands to offer comfort and guidance through either faith or miracles. And all of them came out of hiding to spread the words of the Gods. Many were meet with either apathy or scorn.

The Church of Clucking Chaos had made Religion a dangerous topic among the older generations of ponies. So many feared the prospect of active worship through an established religion. Even though the so called Temple of Law was called a Temple, were there no active worship.

Even with the story of Golden Cross and the Gods offering him aid in combat against the Rattenfänger, were there too many old tales and stories about the horrific acts of the CCC. Thus the only active worship of the gods were private or in the Order of the Golden Cross, and even were there no one to teach the old ways. Not even Golden Cross' Chronicles held clues to the worships of the Gods.

It only held a few prayers to the Order and the guidelines of the Order itself when concerned with the Worship of the Gods. One may pray to the Gods, but do not expect answers for everything, for the Gods are not your caretakers. They are a higher power of which you may follow in return for aid or guidance, but that does mean they will answer to everything.

It was a confusing sentence, one that made many a debate among the Scholars of Equestria. But all ponies could agree that Golden Cross' view of the Gods as Guides and not Caretakers, were pretty fitting. But it made none of the old fears disappear, only more confusion.

But the Believers of the Old Ways, as they came to be called, preserved through the persecutions, the disdain, the scorn, the distrust, and the fear. Many were charlatans or mad ponies seeking to take advantage of others and while some made getaways with ill gotten gold or items, were most given sentences befitting their crimes.

And after a year went by and the Believers kept going, began some of the ponies to act less hostile or cold against them. And soon, strange things began to occur. Miracles began to emerge out of the Believers of the Old Ways and those who experienced them, were those they offered comfort and aid to. And more began to turn to the Believers to seek aid from them.

The one incident that changed the view of Religion in the entire land of Equestria. Was when Princess Celestia, was asked by an elderly Priest, if he may preach to the Knights of the Order of the Golden Cross.

Celestia had been a bit concerned at first. But she saw no harm in allowing the Priest to speak to the Order. There were still many injured knights working as staff at the temple who could use help. Even if they rejected the Priest, would it at least have been tried to give them comfort. And that by itself was worth something.

She contacted the Grand Master of the Order, Grand Music, and he gave the approval of the Priest to preaching at his Temple to the distressed members of his Order.

The next day the elderly Priest entered the Temple of Law, went straight to the Grand Hall, were Grand Music meet him. They shook hooves and the old pony was guided to the shrine in the Grand Hall, bearing the faceless statues of the Old Deities.

Before the Priest began his preaching ,he asked if he may pray to the shrine first. Grand Music told him no one of the Order was ever forbidden from praying, as long as it did not take up too much of their time in the temple. But few did and thus the shrine was not used as often as one might think. So the Priest, an active worshiper, was more then welcome to pray at the shrine.

The Priest knelt before the shrine, clasped his foreleg hooves together and and lowered his head. Before speaking out a prayer to the shrine. The prayer was in a strange language, one that Grand Music had never heard before, but it felt... slightly otherworldly, or at last so foreign it was like a pony was not meant to speak it.

That's when a beam of light shone through the painted glass window above the shrine. A golden ray of sunlight had breached the cloud covered sky, and was covering the priest in a beacon like pillar of sun light. The activity of the Grand Hall went dead silent as the light shone upon the Priest.

Grand Music got an eerie feeling that he had seen something like this before. and he realized that he had. Back when his adopted grandfather Golden Cross, or rather Maleficus Victoria, prayed to the Gods at the final battle of the Siege of Canterlot during the Rattenfänger Invasion. It was so alike he almost wanted to ask the Priest if he was his grandfather in disguise.

And he almost did.

But before he could mistakenly ask the Priest anything, had the old pony opened his eyes in awe, tears streaming down his cheeks. He then turned to Grand Music and spoke up in a joyous and warm voice. "The Gods have spoken to me. You and your honourable grandfather's efforts to keep ponies safe has reignited the Old Ways back. And with the return of the Old Ways will the powers and the miracles of the Gods be returned to the world as well. The Gods will commune with us once more thanks to your Order and the pony it was based upon. And for that, you and he have their gratitude and blessing to keep up your efforts."

Grand Music, his mouth open to speak, or rather ask, went still, frozen with his left foreleg hoof raised and mouth open. He then closed his mouth with a loud clack. Stared at the old priest for a bit. And then decided to leave the hall to think. Leaving the Priest covered by the glowing beacon behind, as well as the hundreds of staring and gaping Knights and Trainees at what they had just heard.

The Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Cross had to keep his head from spinning by the sheer fact that the Gods were actually a real thing. And apparently both he and his grandfather were blessed by them for protecting and aiding ponies. And were more then willing to let his grandfather commit his various schemes, act out his shenanigans, and play war with Celestia. He was not certain how to feel about that.

Back at the Grand Hall was the Priest, still glowing, smiling at the retreating back of the Grand Master. He had never received such a clear message from the gods before. It had nearly given him a heart attack. But now he felt so enlightened. So proud of not just his faith, but the acts of these wonderful ponies who now needed his aid. And so he turned to the stunned hall. And began to preach to them. And they all listened well and long.

Things became drastically different from there on out.

Religion was no longer the persecuted subject it once was. With the revelation of the Gods' approval of Golden Cross and the Order based upon his methods and teachings, for restoring their power. It became clear that the Believers were there to say.

The news of the contribution to the Gods made by Golden Cross and the Order spread like wild fire. All manners of Believers began to find their prayers answered, the Gods speaking to them once more. And soon they could do more then just speak to the Gods. They could act as mediums for them, and act out miracles in their names.

One such instance was a young Priest giving a foal born blind, sight. A child that was born without vision, was granted it by a prayer to the Gods. Of course, the prayers were not always answered, especially if not very complex, unclear or power taxing. Minor things, healing injuries, restoring virility, curing diseases, blessing foals, and other various effects,

The Believers of the Old Ways would be converted into the Old Religion, the restored Faith of the Gods of the times before the Age of Chaos. And all beings in the world, felt a change occur during this great restoration of faith. It was as if the very planet itself, was gaining a bit of strength, from the restored faith of the ponies.

But this, sadly enough, was just a small band over a large wound for many. With deaths from starvation, disease, or banditry was still high because of the great calamities brought forth by the Draconic Incursion.

It was a harsh and enduring time for many, even with the return of the Old Religion were things still unstable, though not at
a breaking point. But the following year would remedy the tragic and bloody events.

(Scene Skip)

[Current Date: 24/12 - 115 AD]

The warm interior of the office of the Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Cross was crackling with the hot glow of a burning fire place as a certain unicorn knight was sitting by his desk, looking at a wooden box. He had not been moving for at least two hours and just staring at the box, intently, as if it was going to disappear from sight if he looked away.

He absently rubbed his hoof along the smooth edge of the pine wood making up the box's structure. The box itself was expensive, what laid inside it even more. It was a good thing that Grand Music never actually spent much of his income as the item inside had cost what he would have earned in three months, easily three thousand bits.

But all the expenses for producing the item would be worth it in the end. Well... if he could build up the courage to enact his plan. So far he had been trying to muster up the guts to move out of his own office and enact his plan. He had been wanting to make it a special moment and had even waited for Hearth's Warming Eve, but now that the day had come and the holiday was bringing warmth and cheer to the country was he unable to act upon his plan.

It was like he was chained to his chair, unable to break free of a containing pressure that had him glued in space.

The fire place sparked for a bit as he kept staring at the box in silence. Then a particularly loud crackle was heard from the fire place and he nearly fell out of his seat as his body went tense in an instance and he looked around to figure out where that loud crack had come from. And facehooved when he spotted the crackling fireplace.

"Gods... I cannot just... sit here but... what do I do?" He muttered to himself solemnly. Then he looked around his office, it was rather lacking in decor when compared to the rest of the Temple of Law. There were two bookcases, large windows with thick purple curtains, a large desk with a comfy chair, two large comfy chairs by a large stony fire place, and five decorations spread out over the otherwise plain walls.

The fang of a hydra of the Everfree Forest. A glass case containing the broken gemstone weapon of a gemstone eating dog creature. Another glass case containing a row of medals. And a big painting over the fireplace, bearing the image of his honorary Grandfather, Golden Cross, or rather, Maleficus Victoria, standing tall over the defeated shape of the leaders of Rattenfänger, the bloody details not included.

And as he looked at the painting he could almost see the eyes of the painting looking at him. Telling him to stop hesitating.

Shaking his head he rested his head against the smooth surface of the red painted mahogany and mumbled through the edge of his lips. "Great. Now I am hallucinating.... just great."

Then his ears twisted as he heard a strange shifting sound. He looked up and saw the painting swaying from side to side, as if something had moved it. and yet there was no one else in the room and there was no wind coming through the fireplace, the closed doorway or the closed windows.

For a few seconds he pondered if his mind was just playing tricks on him. Then the rope holding the painting snapped ant it slammed into the floor in front of the fireplace and slammed forward onto the tone floor, the glass on the painting splintering at the impact.

He jumped out of his seat, grabbed the box, and ran towards his office's doorway. Screaming out in a frightened voice as he scrambled across the floor. "I am going! I am going!"

Grand Music opened the door and rushed out, and returned a few seconds later to telekinetically put the painting against the wall on the opposite side of the room as to not risk it getting further damaged. Then he closed the door and ran down the hallway. As he left the room, a small squeak was heard as a mouse crawled out of the small hole in the stonework of the fireplace that had been blocked by the painting.

It blinked in confusion, wondering why it got bright all of a sudden. And where that tasty string hanging in front of its new home had gone.

(Scene Skip)

Happy Meal was sitting in the great hall were the many knights of the orders off duty were celebrating Hearth's Warming Eve, there was a big abundance of food and many gifts and kisses were being shared among old and new couples through out the Temple of Law. It made her happy to see so many loving couples in the Temple, and made her also a bit displeased as she wished that her coltfriend was with her at the moment.

It was their second Hearth's Warming Eve together as a couple, and they had been together for seventeen months now ever since the final day of the Draconic Incursion of Equestria. She had given him a nice ginger spiced apple pie last year, it had really... spiced up, their bedtime fun. He had given her a scarf he had made himself, and that had been a shocker, knowing that her coltfriend knew how to knit and sew.

So it was to no one's surprise that she was a bit put off that he had not joined in the festivities like last year. Why was he absent? "Ah will just have ta drag him out of his darn office if he takes too long."

After having muttered that little sentence she heard something from the doorway leading towards the staircase leading to the upper floors. It was the sound of horseshoe equipped hooves trampling down on carpet covered stone floors in rapid succession. It sounded almost like some kind of weird dance.

Then the doors to the grand hall flew open and a frantically running Grand Music appeared from the doors. Every one in the hall stopped moving and just stared at the sight of their Grand Master running over the marble floor until he finally made a screeching halt in front of a staring Happy Meal.

He then got down on one knee and presented a fine box to her, containing within it was a silver ring with a heart made up by two gemstones, a topaz and a ruby. The Leader of the Order of the Golden Cross then took a deep breath before practically shouting out to his marefriend.

"Happy Meal. Will you marry me?!" There was a very awkward silence for a few seconds.

Then Happy Meal snorted and covered her mouth with one of her hooves and looked at him with warm eyes. And spoke to him in a voice that just felt like it was spoke with such warmth and joy that it made the entire worm feel jolly. "Ya never needed to ask me. Ahm already yers ye know."

Grand Music opened his mouth to speak, and closed it. He then slightly looked away, his face turning into the same red colour as his mane and tail. Muttering a bit to himself as the moment he had built up for so much had turned out to be a bit anticlimactic. "Still, I thought you would appreci-apmmh!"

The mare silenced her coltfriend's muttering by grabbing him by the collar of his ceremonial robe and pulling his muzzle against hers. And then she tied her lips to his and began a very drawn out and passionate kiss in the middle of the temple of law.

With the rest of the ponies in the hall string at them in utter shock. No longer confused but rather shocked to the core at what they were seeing. Several of them blushing scarlet at how the passionate couple were almost moaning into their kiss.

"Mmmmmmpha! That clear enough fer ye?" Happy Meal stated after having released their long and passionate make out session.

Grand Music, no longer blushing, and having lost his nervousness, smiled at her before warping his forelegs around her and pulling her off her seat, making her squeal, and he hugged her close to his, rubbing his nose against her, murmuring passionately to her while looking into her eyes. "Hmmmm... I am not sure. I might need another reminder."

His fiance smirked and pressed back against his nose with her own and confronted his confident words with her own. "Oooh yer going to get one right now Mistah!"

The great hall then erupted into cheers, laughter and whistles as the newly engaged couple began to passionately make out in the middle of the room. And the warm festivities of Hearth's Warming Eve filling out the Temple of Law once more, the light from its windows glittering over the frosty rooftops and streets around it..

(Scene Skip)

"Be Boop... You know that you are my best friend right?" Commander Rock Steady stated as he stood in front of a large wooden door, nervously rubbing at his ceremonial clothes, the chain decorating his neck marking his rank as a knight.

Next to him stood his second in commander Sir Be Boop. Who just nodded and stated in a calm manner while looking straight at the door without even twitching in the slightest at his commanding officer and old friend's plight."Aye, sir."

Rock Steady turned and glared at Be Boop who did not return his stare. "Then why the bucking hell are you letting me suffer like this?"

"It is just my duty as your best stallion to keep you secure and ready for the big event sir." Was the smartass reply of his old friend.

The large unicorn pressed a hoof against his face and let out a long and drawn out sigh. As he did so he absentmindedly pocked his hoof against a black iron ring engraved with runes that was decorating his horn.

But it was not a decoration, it was a form of Anti-Magical Shackle that utilized the refined Anti-Magic Chains utilized during the First Crusade. It was not able to keep the magical power of an alicorn at bay but it could seal up the majority of the power of an even highly powerful Unicorn.

Like Commander Rock Steady for example. "...That still does not explain why you have put a Anti-Magic Shackle Ring on my horn."

"To keep you from utilizing magic in a fit of panic, sir." Was the straight and blunt answer from the other pony.

Rock steady turned his head to stare at a lower pot, trying to keep his cheeks from showing his fluster as he felt a bit shameful. When the Chieftainess Ancient Ruin had started visiting him during his recovery from 'wartime injuries' they had grown rather close. And as the time had gone by had the two entered a relationship. Heck her little colt had even started calling Rock Steady papa of all things.

The two had gotten engaged six months into their relationship and marked the date for the wedding during Hearth's Warming Eve. And in the time between that declaration and the planned event, had Rock Steady grown steadily nervous and panicky to the point that he would start acting overly dramatic to the point of fainting. It had happened thirty times thus far and had not been the Commander's proudest moments."...Ah... Well I can't deny that I guess...."

"Yes, especially since your beloved asked me to do this to keep you from repeating the 'Cake Incident.'"

Rock Steady just sighed while looking up at the ceiling of the grand hall. "...The ONE time I try to bake a cake without supervision and it ends up filling the entire kitchen with vanilla sponge... it was still delicious though..."

"Totally agree sir. Although your Lady was less then happy about the clean up the kitchen staff had to do because of your mess." Indeed Lady Ancient Ruin had not been amused when the kitchen staff had to spend all day to clean the kitchens, forced to cook outside in the courtyard to feet the inhabitants of the fortress.

Rubbing his neck Commander Rock Steady kept looking at the ceiling, his entire body felt anxious and uneasy. Today was supposed to be a special day but he was having such a hard time not thinking of what could go wrong and it was making him feel like his nerves were about to collapse. "Well that's fair.... So... how much longer?"

"We are to enter in one or two minutes sir." Be Boop said as music began to resound through the door and fill the fortress. His Commander and foalhood friend growing more nervous.

His hoof now rubbed the neck area of his robed and he was taking deep breaths while trying to calm down. His ears were beating like something was bashing against his skull from the inside. He was having a hard time properly breathing and his body was feeling far too warm to be healthy. "Gods... Oh Gods.... I feel like I am about to choke..."

"That would be your escalating blood pressure causing your uniform to feel tighter around the neck sir." Be Boop said in a helpful manner, which only made Rock Steady feel nauseous.

"Great... how do I fix it?" The Commander of Blackstone Keep said as he rubbed his throat, trying to swallow properly without choking as he was feeling an awful lot of saliva gather in his mouth.

Then a sharp sensation of something poking his flank caused him to jump two meter up and let out a frantic neigh as his body went rigid in mid air. He collapsed onto the cold stone floor and just laid there as his rapidly beating heart calmed down and he turned to glare at Be Boop.

"By calming down sir." His friend just said, the barest hint of a smirk on his lips, while swirling a sharp dagger in his hoof.

"You can be an absolute jerk sometimes Be Boop." Rock Steady finally growled out before standing up again, brushing off his uniform and straightening the fabric. He did not bleed and the painful poke had helped him calm down so he would not punch Be Boop in the face. Did not mean he wasn't going to give him a punishment for it later.

"Thank you sir Rock Steady. Oh look it's starting now." With one final glare at his friend Commander Rock Steady took a deep breath and slowly let it out. And then as the music shifted into another theme, the doors to the grand hall of Blackstone Keep opened and the duo entered.

There was a crowd of ponies gathered in rows, there was a group of priests standing before a shrine made out of solid marble, as a site of worship for all the deities of the Old Religion. And there, at the end of the red carpet leading up to the shrine, stood Lady Ruin, dressed in a white and green robe, with a similar coloured veil over her face

And so Commander Rock Steady walked forward. His head held high, as he proceeded to the moment that would become one of the happiest memories of his life.

(Scene Skip)

Horses were gathering upon a round shaped stone square in the middle of a large town, a town made out of oriental designs of the ancient times of Japan. All of them were horses designed for Samurai Faction of Maleficus' Ancient Forces.

And they were gathering for one purpose, to celebrate the completion of their new home. The mountain town that would be forever known as Yamale. (Rough Translation from Japanese: Mountain Home) It was the first town to be completed for the Horadrim Kingdom and it was a glorious sight.

From the housings based upon the Japanese suburbs to the big stone and wood wall, which was based upon the Japanese design for castle walls. Said town wall rose up in a straight pattern across the mountain with several large defence towers rising out of its structure, with no city gate to be spotted. The first set of walls had been built along the outskirts of the town while another set rose up at an higher altitude around the middle of the town.

The city was built like a network of broad streets, there was no proper way for a stranger to properly orient themselves because of the high buildings and walls, making for excellent defence against intruders or invaders. And to reach the upper area of the mountain, you had to either use a large crane like elevator or walk around a spiraling pathway donned with ten gatehouses.

This split up the town into two sections. With the lower one being the Earth District, it was the one mainly used for housings, farmlands, schools, planted woods and artificial lakes. With the second section of the town being called the Wind District, it was the housing of barracks, workshops, labs, temples and dojos. But the most important structures laid on the peak.

On the top of the mountain peak rose two large castle or monastery like structures, unofficially called the Water District, with the western being a bit lower but far larger in width and mass. It was the Sky Harbour, the place were the Sky Ships would be built and where they would be landing. While the other taller structure was the Palace, where the chosen Daimyo of the city would be housed.

At the top of the city between the two large structures was also a large reservoir of water was located, being constantly refilled by artificial rain clouds, thus its unofficial name. And from this endless source of water came a tall waterfall that poured down into a horse made network of channels and ponds through out the entire town, creating a great source of water for the town. And it all was connected to a single exit point where all the water would pour out into a massive waterfall to gather in a hoof made large lake at the farming area of the Earth District.

A secondary but still important structure was a smaller tower standing in the middle of the mountain town. A four stories tall Japanese tower with a massive crystal structure on its top. It was the Lighthouse, and not in the manner one would think. It was based upon the same principles as the Shield Cone, only refined and based upon another power source. But when not used to shield the city, it could very well act as a source of guidance for ships with its bright light.

What had once been a tall and lonesome mountain peak in the southern corner of the Foal Mountains had now been remade into a city sized town that had been carved out of the stone of the mountain itself.

The Samurai horses stood proud upon the stonework they had made together, the snow of the chilling air of the mountains lightly flowing down upon their furs and armour. Upon a large shrine like structure in the center of the square stood a large samurai pony dressed in thick armour, his helmet strapped to his side, with two mares dressed in finely decorated kimonos.

This stallion was a bloodied warrior, having fought and lead a one of the ten Samurai Sky Ships against the dragons, a Kensei, bearing the best armour available for all Samurai warriors, wielding the long handled katana known as the odachi. Having shown Valor, Heart, Strength and Skill in battle as both a warrior and a commanding officer was he the First of the newly chosen Daimyos of the Samurai, the First Warlord out of all of the Four Factions. He would be making his first announcement as the new ruler of this town very soon. All of the preparations had been made and now it was just a need to wait for the sun to settle and for the moon to rise.

As the twinkling lights of the stars began to appear as the sun settled down, were all manners of colorful lanterns lit and hung up over the streets and buildings of the new town. A pair of muscular horses with white bandannas on their foreheads began to beat their forelegs' hooves against a pair of large barrel shaped drums. As the beating drums bean to echo over the town, the Daimyo of Yamale stepped forward, his large frame easily spotted upon the wooden shrine he was standing upon, behind him, a massive bell of green coloured iron hung, engraved with the oriental imagery of a dragon facing a horse.

The crowd fell silent, their eyes looking up to the First Daimyo. And as the beating of the drums settled, the Daimyo stood up on his hind legs and spoke out to the crowd. "I welcome you all to this wonderful moment in our race's history. We have completed the first of many towns for our Creator, our Outosan, may his name resound through the heavens."

As one the entire crowd pressed their left forelegs against their breasts, bowed their heads slightly and spoke out together a prayer to their creator. Their voices echoing out over the mountains around them.

"May his name resound through the heavens!"

The Daimyo pointed his left hoof towards the Water District, where the Palace and Sky Harbour stood like two giants. "Our work is not done and we will need a lot of time and effort to even finish a fraction of it. But I know we can do it. No. We ALL know we can do it. We shall make Him proud, and show him Our worth! And this town of Yamale is but the foundation of our dedication to Him!"

He then spread both of his forelegs wide, as if to embrace someone and spoke out with a wide smile to the crowd as streaks of light flew out of the top of the Palace and blossomed into colorful explosion of firework created through arcane means. "Now let us drink and celebrate! Let us forever know this date as the Founding Day of the First Mountain City! Yamale! And with I! Strong Valor! Also known by the name of Kyouyuuki! As your Daimyo! Long live the Horses! Long live the Horadrim Kingdom!"

A loud cheer erupted across the crowd and the two mares stepped up to the massive green painted bell and together they bit onto the ropes by its side and together they gave a simultaneous tug. The massive wooden log behind the bell swung back before slamming into the large metal frame, and a loud resounding clang erupted over the mountain range.

With the signal given, the horses began to celebrate their new home with gusto. Food made by trial and error was eaten, drinks, also made by trial and error, were drank. Many a poor soul would ended up with a painful head and/or stomach the next day.

But none of that mattered. For this night was a night of celebration, the first of many if they had any to say about it. Music would resound from the mountain and across the peaks of the Foal Mountains for the entirety of the night. With the moon looming over them with its burning specter staring down upon them, not frightening them, but bringing them comfort.

(Scene Skip)

In the cities of Baltimare and Fillydelphia were the festivities bright and warm, even more so then last year. As the damage of the Draconic Incursion were still not done being repaired had the spirit of the holiday been rather dampened. But with the repairs on the city progressing much better in the recent year has the ponies begun to experience a lot more holiday cheer.

The streets were lit up with bright lights, stands with various kinds of food, toys, candies, clothes and other things were spread out all over the cities. With hundreds of ponies walking around eating and having a merry good time celebrating the holiday in a proper manner of spirit since the horrific incidents that occurred during the Draconic Incursion.

Many of those who had gone through a lot of hardships were feeling better about the future at the sight of the smiles, and the sound of laughter, filling the streets. There was very few faces without a smile on their lips as the citizens of Equestria began to truly recover from the horrors they had lived through.

But not every pony was having a cheerful time in the east. In a slightly obscured area of the city's recently restored park, was a teenage filly hitting a wooden pole with a heavy wooden stick. Loud whacks and thumps could be heard as the filly swung the wooden structure in a mad frenzy. The wooden pole was well scratched up and cracked at several places from her constant hitting it.

She swung it in a sideways arch, the pole swaying at the force behind the stick made its shape bend slightly. The filly felt her forelegs shake from the impact but she let out a gutsy cry and swung it back in a reverse up going diagonal swing, and the pole swayed to the other side as another loud thwack was heard as it was struck once more.

Bright Light had not recovered from her traumatized experience of the Draconic Incursion. If anything had her hatred, anger and motivation only grown ever since. Half a year after she ended up at the orphanage she stopped isolating herself, if only to keep up a facade of false mellowness to the mare handling the place.

But when she was in private she would study what books she could, she would sneak off at nights and spend hours training combat techniques described within many of the books she read. All for one clear purpose. To become strong. Strong enough. To one day take her revenge. And kill all the dragons.

Rearing back both of her forelegs she swung down the stick and a loud crack erupted and splinters flew around as the wooden stick in her hooves shattered. The young filly slumped forward and panted loudly as sweat dripped down her face and onto the grass. Her forelegs were so strained that they felt numb, she could barely move them.

She grit her teeth as she struggled to stand up, unwilling to let herself quit just because her body was protesting. After five minutes she struggled up on her rear legs again and reached down to pull up the more intact part of the stick, changing her grip from a two hoof grip to a one hoof grip instead. Wielding it not as one would a sword, but a one would a light blade or a thick dagger.

Rearing back her left foreleg she screamed out a wordless battle cry and made a stabbing movement at one of the larger cracks of the pole. And when her broken weapon struck the wood there was a loud crunch was heard before a loud thump followed, a the wooden pole finally had, had enough and splintered off at the middle. The fibers of the wooden pole tearing themselves apart as the force behind the strike finally made them break and caused the upper half of the pole to hit the soft grass on the ground.

Panting Bright Light felt her body fall forward, unable to stand as she had finally exerted herself too much. Her small body struck the ground. Exhausted enough to not be able to move her head without a painful sensation, the filly leaned her cheek against the base of the wooden pol. Breathing heavily she just laid there on the grass, feeling the strain on her body as muscles all over it experienced spasms and twitches from overuse.

Bright Light's muzzle was pressed into the grassy ground, filling her nostrils with the scent of sweat mixed with dirt and moist grass. Her eyes were still acting though, unwilling to stop burning with such an intensity one would assume she was ready to spring back up and rip apart another target, if it was not for the fact that she was lying down in a state of utter exhaustion.

Growling out in utter frustration she grit her teeth and tried to struggle up again. Only to slump back down with a groan. She hated how weak her body was. It was infuriating how little she could do. She was not able to train, not able to fight and not able to kill dragons.

As she laid then grumbling in anger about her own weakness, came the sound of hoofsteps from behind the bushes blocking out the sight of her tiny training ground. She went dead silent and tried to make herself as soundless as possible, even going as far as to close her eyes and slowly try to enter a state of sleep.

Nopony was to discover her actions. She did not want to be restricted from leaving the orphanage, that would delay her plan to grow stronger! And so she tried her best to just lay down there and pray that whoever was walking in the bushes did not spot her.

Her hopes were dashed when the voice of a mare spoke up from behind her. "Oh you foolish foal. You are going to kill yourself like this."

A pair of strong hooves lifted her off the ground and the young filly could do nothing but play unconscious as she laid there on the pegasus mare's back. The feeling of soft wings against her hind and forelegs giving away the species of the one carrying her.

But none of that mattered to little Bright Light, for her mind was focused on one thing at the moment. Why did the mare speak as if she KNEW that she had been training like this before tonight? Had she been spied on and not realized it!?

She had to grit her teeth as to not scream out and demand answers as the mare carried her through the streets o the city. Everypony were too busy partying to take much notice, and even then it just looked like a young foal who had fallen asleep and was being carried home.

Bright Light did not make a sound as the familiar outskirts of the orphanage came into view, the mare carrying her opened the door to the orphanage. How she had the key made no sense to Bright Light as far as she knew was only the caretaker allowed to have the key and she was an earth pony.

She felt herself being tucked into a familiar soft and warm bed, her sore muscles twitching even as the mare was very gentle and careful when putting her down on the bedding. Bright Light felt a hoof gently rub her head before the mare spoke up with a solemn tone. "I cannot fault your behavior. I too lost much of my home and family when the dragons came. The Gods only know how much I have overworked myself, mentally and physically, for these past two years."

A soft and drawn out sigh was heard before the hoof rubbing Bright Light's head was removed an the mare left the room. Before the door closed the mare spoke up one final time before closing the door. "If you still desire to learn how to fight, seek out the Order of the Golden Cross. There, you can learn at a phase suited for your age. You do not need to join if you do not want to, but you can still learn."

Bright Light opened her eyes as the door closed and looked up at the ceiling of her room. She was not certain how, but that mare had known she had been awake the entire time. It made her feel insecure and awkward. But at the same time, it also made her think about what the mare had said.

Seek out the Order of the Golden Cross. She had no idea one could do so as an orphan without financial support. But if what the mare had said was true, then there was a chance that she could learn from the order. She did not need to join it, only learn from it.

That was all she desired.

Five days after the celebration of Hearth's Warming Eve would young Bright Light leave the orphanage to seek out the Order of the Golden Cross, and from that decision would a legend rise from Equestria. One spoken of for countless generations.

(Scene Skip)

[Current Date: 3/4 - 118 AD]

Princess Celestia was standing in the garden of her castle. The roses starting to push out of the spring warmed soil. Her eyes were looking upon the statue of Discord as he stood there, like a mocking insult to her with his cheerful visage. She truly did not wish to be reminded of his insanity and wicked pranks.

But she needed to keep an eye on him, especially considering that he had nearly broken free two months ago. One of her guards had reported it to her. He had spotted small cracks taking shape on Discord's petrified form.

In a panic she had retrieved the Elements of Harmony from the sealed vaults beneath her castle and rushed out to reinforce his petrification. It made sense, the Lord of Chaos was locked within stone by the Elements of harmony over a century ago. It should not have deteriorated so quickly and certainly not like this!

When she had used the Elements to empower the petrification had she at first felt relieved. But, as if to mock her, had new cracks appeared upon Discord's body after seven days.

Thus she had to utilize the Elements in a way she had never considered before. She positioned six pillars of marble around Discord's body, and by utilizing the techniques she had learned from the Horses she crafted a suppression field, powered by the Elements of Harmony's magic to keep Discord's petrification in place.

So far had nothing wrong happened since. But she made sure to make regular checks on Discord's prison from there on out. and kept a constant watch over his prison with patrolling guards.

It had been a terrifying event. One that had distracted her a bit from her regular duties. But she had pulled through. Discord would not be getting free just yet.

But she was concerned, deeply concerned, for why Discord's petrification was being released so early. According to the information she and her sister had gathered would the Elements of Harmony's magic last for a thousand summers. It had not even been one fifth of that period of time.

Though it concerned her deeply, she made a note to investigate it later. For now, she had to keep an eye on another important project of hers. One involving an important prisoner that could very well end the threat of another Draconic Incursion. Said prisoner had made a deal with her, one that she had been reluctant but willing to agree to, as long as he kept his end of the bargain.

So for now. The issues with Discord and the Elements of Harmony had to be put aside for a while. At least, until the immediate danger had passed.

Glancing at the stone statue that was her old foe she let out a long suffering sigh before walking back towards her office. She needed to get in contact with her forces at Baltimare City. The future interaction with the dragons depended on it.

(Scene Skip)

Captain Rapid Fire looked out at the training area in the courtyard of her HQ, the Iron Castle, the recently finished castle had been named after her father who died in his attempt in stalling the dragon's first assault of Equestria. It made her both proud and sad knowing that his sacrifice would be remembered long after he died.

She was dressed in her uniform, but still had her greaves and shoulder pauldrons on even when off duty, a habit she developed because of her experience with the dragons. She would normally wear all of her armour, but her belly was swelling because of a pair of growing foals inside and thus she could not properly wear her armour's belly and breast parts. It was a joyful event for her and her coltfriend, turned fiance, Sure Shot.

But currently those warm thoughts were not what was occupying her mind. Her mind was focused on another matters. Out in the courtyard were a group of ponies going through various stances and movements while wielding wooden weapons.

These ponies were all part of the Recruitment Test Period. A test made by the Order of the Golden Cross to give ponies an option to learn basic combat skills and several basic skills like survival, medicine, magical treatments and tactics, just to name a few.

But the true purpose of the Recruitment Test Period was one rather obvious. It was the basis for the recruitment drive of the Order of the Golden Cross, were ponies with potential, skill or other positive values, were offered positions as Recruits of the Order. Ponies showing good talent, character, body, charisma and heart.

Even should the ponies not be able to pass the trials of the Recruitment Test Period, would they still have obtained a great deal of physical and mental discipline for any danger that may befall them in the future. And should they wish to retake the test, they would be allowed to try again.

Each Test Period lasted half a year and those who passed the requirements were offered to become Recruits by the Order. This way of seeking out recruits had been decided by the Grand Master of the Order, Grand Music, after the Draconic Incursion. For he had foreseen that his Order needed a different way to recruit new members, while at the same time offering aid to those outside of the order.

Thus the RTP had been formed. Causing the popularity and recruitment of the Order to skyrocket within the last two years, nearly doubling its recruitment result since its foundation.

And one of these current recruits was a certain young filly that Rapid Fire had grown rather attached to. It had been an incident really, she had been going on a walk, visiting various parts of the town, when she got to a certain part of the park. There she had found a young unicorn filly swinging a wooden stick at a crude but sturdy wooden pole.

At first she had wanted to offer the filly support and guidance. But then she saw how the filly let out a wordless cry and swung her wooden stick into the poke, breaking the stick in half. Before breaking down into tears. She realized that the filly was one of the victims of the Dragons, she was not the first she had witnessed bearing anger and sorrow ever since those horrible days.

So she kept her distance, but kept watch of the filly, helping her out with minor things from outside of her sight. Repairing her wooden pole, putting down wooden swords in the bushes. Putting down a bag of apples, making it look like they had been dropped. It had been a year since she started secretly supporting the young unicorn.

And when she saw her work herself to exhaustion, the first time she had ever actually seen it, she knew that the filly would only endanger herself if she kept going like she did. So she moved out of hiding and gently carried the young foal back to her home, entering by using the key given to her by the mare who ran the orphanage. And before leaving she offered the young foal an advice, to seek out her Order and participate in the training offered by them.

It was a decision she was not regretting. The young filly was training hard, but at a pace better suited for her body. She would spend the time she was not training or taking lessons, by reading various books and scrolls in the castle library. It was free for anyone to seek knowledge, one of the creeds of the Order of the Golden Cross was that a healthy mind was just as important as a healthy body.

The subjects mostly involved dragons, various kinds of weapon techniques and combat spells. But she also read about tactics, history, herbology, mechanics, engineering and any other subject that she could find. It made it clear that the filly was not learning things just for the sake of learning. She had a goal and it was one that Rapid Fire had realized long before she suggested the foal to take this path.

"She reminds me of you a bit Rapid." Her fiance Sure Shot said as he walked up next to her by the window. The Earth Pony wore a black eye-patch and had tattooed a dragon skull, with the number 1 on its forehead, to his left shoulder, marking him as the first pony to kill a dragon. He was not as decent a shoot as he once had been but he could teach and he was still a better shoot then most even with his handicap.

"Hmmmm... how so?" She asked him while looking as young Bright Light swung her wooden sword at another potential Recruit who blocked it with a shield, before kicking said shield, and making her opponent fall on her back. Bright Light then pointed her blade at the throat of the other filly, and the instructor announced her as the victor, before going into a long lecture about stances, unpredictable opponents and using tricks in combat.

"She is constantly training or studying, she does not speak much to others. No one seems to be willing to approach her as she acts cold and focused to the point that she seems emotionless. Oh, and she apparently has a secret enjoyment for sneaking into the kitchen to steal cooking, while pretending to be training stealth." A loud whack sounded through the office as the chuckling stallion got a loud, but painless, slap on the back of his head by his fiancee who was blushing crimson.

"I told you, sneaking into the kitchen is an excellent way to train yourself for infiltration! Avoiding those stingy chefs is an effort in itself!" Her fiance just raised his hooves in surrender as she denied his awful accusations. She was Captain Rapid Fire! A powerful commanding officer of the Order of the Golden Cross! She did not have a sweet tooth! And going by the gentle kicks in her belly was her little darlings agreeing with her!

"Sure, sure." High Knight and Herald Sure Shot said with a grin as she glared at him.

He then turned serious and looked out of the window at the young recruit as she was being shown the way to use an axe to destroy or remove shields. "So I take it you have spoken to our... guest, about the circumstances for his release?"

She let out a suffering sigh before walking over to her desk and pulled out the paperwork she would have to work on. "Aye. He is willing to teach them what he knows, but in return he wants something peculiar."

"What would that be?" Sure Shot wondered.

Rapid Fire pulled out a sheet of paper and stamped her sigil on it before showing him it. "He wants some of our recruits as students. So that he can mold into ponies who can show his kind the errors of their ways. Through violence."

The knight looked at the paper sheet in his hoof and his eyes grew wide. "You cannot possibly mean to give him Bright Light as one of those recruits."

With a heavy sigh the Captain of Iron Castle began to write on the paperwork on her desk. She did not like what she had to do but it was for the best for everypony, and non-ponies. "I do. Young Bright Light is a promising student and would no doubt fit all the marks that he wishes for in a pony to teach. And I doubt she would refuse the offer, after all, she desires it just as much as he does."

"I can get that he is an important figure. But why are we giving him so much leeway with our recruits, he is a prisoner!" Rapid Shot bit out in a loud growl. He disliked the prisoner in question on principle alone, but he knew the reason why they were to treat him with such respect.

As his pregnant fiancee was swift to remind him of, not that he needed it. "A ROYAL prisoner. Who is not just the oldest of the few dozen remaining members of his family but also one who has lost all will to fight against us. And Princess Celestia stated that we are to keep him safe until he has recovered enough to return home to his homeland so his kind keeps away from us. Or at least stop seeing us as prey or weak targets."

Sure Shot pressed his left hoof against his face and let out a long and drawn out groan as he tried to think up something, anything, that could make his headache lessen. He did not find any solution. "I don't know why but I feel like we're not going to be the only ones who feel like we've won and yet lost at the same time."

And going by the sour look on Rapid Fire's face he was clearly not alone in thinking like so.

After all, how could they not feel like the battles fought had a bit less value, when one of those who assaulted their lands, was to be sent back. Even though crippled physically and mentally he was still one of the monsters who had killed and wounded ponies all over the kingdom.

No matter his purpose, he was still a bloody monster of a dragon in their eyes.

Then her door opened and she looked up as a soldier arrived. A mare earth pony dressed in bronze armour, carrying a glowing orb in a basket strapped to her side.

Saluting to the two knights the mare then reached into her basket and held out the orb to the two officers. "Messenger Steady Phase reporting in Captain! I am carrying a Comm Orb connected to Princess Celestia! She intends to watch the interaction of the Prisoner and the Cadets from a distance!"

And Captain Rapid Fire felt a headache rising.

(Scene Skip)

Bright Light swung her wooden axe at the left side of her opponent as she blocked his own wooden axe with her shield. The wooden blade struck the joint of the armour and dug into the older pony's side. She did not smirk, smile or frown at her defeated foe. She merely nodded at him when the Knight watching over the spar announced her victory. "Bright Light wins!"

As the two ponies stopped fighting the trainer turned towards the others, all of them battered and dirty from fighting each other. "That's the final sparring match for today. Line up in proper order and wait for now. Captain Rapid Fire has a special announcement to make today."

The two ponies left the sand filled square and walked over to join the rest of their fellow trainees as they were getting into a line as they had been instructed. Soon the line was established, ordered by size and age. Each of them were standing at attention, trying to keep their shaking legs from showing as their trainer inspected their postures.

It was not a harsh inspection, they were not true soldiers or knights, just volunteers who were being trained and tested. So complete military discipline and training tactics was not on the menu. Though their physical training was harsh was it meant to push them to their limits, while motivating them to keep going past them.

A work in progress but the results were very promising.

Ten minutes went by as the group of thirty or so trainees stood at attention in the courtyard, then the two large doors to the central keep of the fortress opened. Out came a group of thirty knights, and the two leading officers of the castle. Rapid Fire and Sure Shot.

Behind them were the gates still open, and the trainees could all see even more knights moving inside of the great hall of the keep itself. They were moving in a large group, armed to the teeth, some even wielding their weapons with their mouth. they were guarding something that was being taken out of the keep.

But no one could see what it was, except it looked big, and red.

Had Rapid Fire not started speaking would their attention been entirely on the doors behind her. "I am glad to see you are all progressing well. It has been a good few months since you all started training with us and I am proud to say that you all show great promise."

Most of them grew smiles and stood a little straighter, but some, among them Bright Light, did not show any clear reaction to her compliments. But that did not bother Captain Rapid Fire, but she still made a slight frown as a loud stomp was heard from behind her and she really did not want to speak about what she was about to, but it was a royal decree so she had to do her duty.

"As you all may have heard is Princess Celestia working to prevent any further conflicts between us and the dragons. But as you might have guessed, are we rather limited in connecting with them since they live on the other side of the Celestial Sea. Thus Princess Celestia has gotten into contact with someone who... can help us bring words to the dragons." The recruits looked at one another at those words. They had indeed heard about the Princess' efforts in handling the dragons, it had been hot news for a year now ever since Celestia made it clear that she intended to ensure that the dragons would know the consequences if they decided to try another invasion of Equestria.

But the fact that she was going to use diplomacy was news to them. Many had believed that Celestia would be utilizing her military or even her magical abilities, to force the dragons to submit. The fact that she was not going to do so, made some of them unease, but many felt relieved, since no one felt like invading the dragon's home turf, which was unknown territory.

Bright Light felt frustration and anger fill her body at the thought of ending hostility with the dragons. She did not enjoy the thought of those monsters escaping judgement for their crimes.

Her thoughts were muted however when Rapid Fire spoke up again, and made a sweeping motion with her left foreleg towards the open gates of the central keep. "And we, have the 'privilege' to be housing said person, until he has recovered enough to return to his kin. Presenting Prince Clash, the eldest heir of the Rockfire Clan."

Out of the gates came a red dragon the size of a small house. A long serpentine neck, a snake like head with two curved horns, yellow eyes, thick crimson scaly hide, four large muscular limbs, and two large bat like wings. The body of the dragon was large and clearly powerful. But it was badly injured. His left wing was half covered by white bindings and wooden straps, while his left hind leg was supported by a wooden frame with a wheel. Slash marks all over the frontal portions of the body were covered up by either salves or improvised bandages.

It looked like the dragon had flown into a forest of swords, and somehow survived.

As one the cadets opened their mouths to scream out in either fear, anger or shock. Bright Light glared at the monster and reached towards the dagger she had strapped to her left side.

But before anyone could do anything, was Rapid Fire's voice cracking out like a thunder burst and every pony in the courtyard went stiff. Even the dragon reared back a little at the strength of her vocal cords."No interruptions!"

She gave a stern look an a strong glare at the recruits, all who felt a little ashamed of their lack of discipline. But then her expression softened and she let out a sigh before speaking out to them once more. "Believe me none of us are happy with this. But the alternative is that the dragons may attempt to invade us again. What Prince Clash is meant to do, once he has recovered. Is to go back and tell the other Dragons, in the best manner he can, to cease all hostile actions with us and in turn, we won't be killing them on sight, unless the dragon in question deserves it."

At those words the dragon let out a rumbling snort, a gush of smoke erupting out of his nostrils. And for the first time since he had been revealed, he spoke. "Hmph. Believe me pony. None of my kind would have considered that threat of yours even worthy of attention, once. But that's no longer possible for either me or my other kin. You ponies have defeated and killed some of the oldest and largest of my kind. Proving that we need to change like you have, or our lives, if not the existence of our very race, might be in jeopardy."

At those words the cadets went silent and looked at the crimson beast with confused, shocked, angry and slightly, wondering gazes. This was the first time some of them had even seen a living dragon, most of them had seen or encountered dragons before. But none of them had heard a dragon stating that he considered ponies to be a threat not just to his family and home. But his very species.

It felt slightly sickening for some of them, and yet they also felt slightly... proud, that such a creature would show their kind respect, when before all they had been in their eyes was talking food.

But Clash did not take note of this. He was young for a dragon, but that just meant he was able to adapt better then the elders of his kind. But it was the leadership of one such elder that had nearly caused the death of his entire clan. So those old slugs could go fuck a volcano for all he cared, their traditions would not become the death of the dragons. Even if it took him or them, preferable them, dying while he was trying to beat sense into their thick skull.

Sighing softly the large dragon rubbed his left cheek, were a deep gash covered by red stained white cloth was stretching over his cheek, jaw and left eye. He had been lucky he had not lost the eye, and even then he might not be able to see properly through it for years. "The old ways have lost their purpose now that you ponies have proven yourself more dangerous then my kind. If we dragons are to survive in a world with dragon hunting ponies, we have to change too. I will have to take control of my clan and tell them how things are going to go. Spread the word to the other clans and try to convince the elders that we cannot remain as we are. Even if some of them die because of their refusal to change, is the death of a few stubborn fools a better alternative then you ponies killing us all because of arrogance and stupidity. Flaws that I myself, was guilty of before you ponies defeated me and left me near crippled."

The group of recruits, heck even some of the knights, looked rather uncomfortable with what the dragon was saying. For a dragon to be willing to literally commit murder on other dragons to ensure his race was not rendered extinct by ponies was... disturbing. Both the fact that the dragon was speaking so casually about murdering his own kind, and that he actually thought ponies would hunt his kind to extinction if he did not go that far.

The only pony not uncomfortable by all this was Bright Light and the veterans of the Draconic Incursion. But while the veterans were jaded and hardened to such brutal truths, was Bright Light actually finding the whole thing inspiring, and amusing. For a dragon to be willing to kill his own to keep the rest safe from ponies was the peak of irony.

Rapid Fire took the chance to explain further to the slightly pale ponies. "Which brings us to one of the reasons why Clash has been let out of his cell today. You see, we have been gathering intel and volunteers all over known Equestria for the last year for not just recruiting and training ponies. But we have also done so to complete one of the two requests made by Prince Clash. It may seem a bit odd for a prisoner to request something in return, but in this case, it makes sense."

"I will explain it to them." The pony knight let out a snort of disgust when the dragon spoke up but let him have his say.

The large draconic being stepped forward and sat down before the gathered trainees. Their bodies were shivering at the close presence of the massive predator, but their training and will made them endure his close presence. but some of them looked more skittish then brave when the dragon opened his jaws, and began to speak to them. "Now listen up. What we dragons use to mark our status among the clans are the following, Wealth, Size, Power, Age, and Cunning. While you ponies are lacking in Size, Age and Power have you overcome us in Wealth and Cunning enough to overcome the other three."

"But there is going to be those who will dismiss these factors even if it would mean their, or our very race's, doom. Thus I made two conditions for me to help you stop my kin's self destructive ways. One of them was that I wanted students. I want to recruit some of you ponies, to teach you how we dragons act and fight. I want to develop a group of dragon hunting warriors, for the sole purpose of showing my kind, just why we have to break down our traditions." There was a long silence a the recruits stared in shock at the dragon. Even Bright Light had lost control over her facial expression and was staring with wide eyes and slightly agape mouth at what she had just heard.

"You intend to teach us, to hunt your own kind!?" One of them finally shouted out in a loud and baffled voice.

Clash, just nodded and confirmed the insane statement, as true. For that was indeed his plan. "Yes. For I know, as many of my surviving kin know, that we cannot hope to return to the old ways. The world has changed a lot in these short centuries, with the banishment of the Chaos Lord and the sudden growing strength of your kind. We dragons are slow to adapt, some say that it is not us who adapt but the world around us adapt to our presence. And in some ways this is true. But this time, the world has adapted in a way that could end us. If we do not start adapting we will be lost, piles of bones of a dead species."

He lowered his head and looked at the cadets, slowly scanning their faces and eyes while he kept talking. His breath, stinking of sulfur, ash and burnt flesh made some of them cough, but no one was willing to look away from his scanning eyes. "Thus I ask of you, are you willing to learn from me? To learn the ways of my kind, so that you can help me in making them change those ways. Are you willing to learn from your former enemy, so you may hunt those of us who will not change their ways? And prove yourselves, superior. What say you?"

There was an eerie silence as the recruits mentally digested the cascade of emotions and thoughts running through their brains from the overflow of information they had just received. Many of them almost went blank, on the edge of going into shock, at the concept that if they agreed to this insane scheme, they would be made into a group of ponies, trained to hunt down dragons.

It was not an easy concept to swallow. Especially when considering that the one who would be training them. Was a dragon himself.

The young adult dragon looked at each of the cadets and his yellow eyes almost glowed as he looked at them. None of them were backing down, sure some of them were shaking or even flinching, but no one physically backed away from his gaze. And so he asked, one final time, for their answer. "What say you?"

(Scene Skip)

While laying down on a large cushion in her personal room was a certain alicorn levitating a glowing orb that was glowing as an image of the occurring scene in Iron Keep.

And as she looked at the dragon as he offered to teach the young ponies how to fight his kind she felt both disgusted and curious, of how things would proceed. She personally could not figure out why he would be willing to teach ponies how to kill his own kind just to make a point.

Had it been one of her own ponies willingly offering to teach an enemy how to kill ponies, she would no doubt had considered them either insane or deranged. But she knew that she could not compare the behaviour of a dragon to a pony. They had another way of thinking and acting.

The world would be so much easier if all creatures behaved like ponies. But that was wishful thinking. She knew that even among her own kind are there those who can act just as violently as a dragon, and find that they had done no wrong, or had acting for the good of the many.

Sighing she levitated the Comm Orb closer as the dragon asked once more for an answer. And examined the faces of each recruit as they were given the option, to be taught by the dragon. "We cannot tell what may occur in the future. But We know this much. Things art not going to be boring."

Putting down the, no longer glowing, orb on the table by her large cushion Celestia flopped over onto her side and let out a suffering drawn out groan. With a flick of telekinetic magi she tossed off her tiara and covered her eyes with her forelegs. She laid there in contemplation of what the future would bring her nation and people.

But those thoughts were momentarily shrouded, as her eyes shimmered green for a few seconds and she found herself snarling as the memory of Maleficus' confessing his sins to her all those years ago.

Slowly pushing herself up from the cushions she slammed the glass doors to her balcony shut and shrouded her room in a zone without sound, effectively rending the entire room mute. And then she let out a scream of rage as tears began to pour down her cheeks and she launched bolts of energy at the white marble wall inside of her own room.

A few moments of rampaging later she was sitting on the cushion, her eyes glowing while her mane and tail were clouds of flames. Her entire room a ruined mess. She turned her head to fire another bolt of energy when her eyes went wide at the sight of the painting hanging on the undamaged portion of her room's southern wall.

The painting of her and her little sister, sitting together on a pair of thrones, smiling. It was an old painting, one of the few things she managed to save from her old home in Everfree. It had gone undamaged in her rampage, but she realized that had she fired off the bolt currently sparkling above her horn, it would have been torn asunder.

Her magic sputtered out as her temper cooled. And thus her mane and tail turned back to their rainbow like cloud like state. But her tears kept flowing, her forelegs started trembling, and then she finally cracked under the pressure and broke down. Her forelegs went limp and the Princess of the Sun's went from sitting to collapsing on the cushion.

She laid there, her tears unable to stop flowing. Her body was shaking as her emotions ravaged her soul and mind. When her strength started to return to her limbs, she slowly pulled them up and crossed them beneath her head. And then she buried her face into the folded space of her forelegs and started weeping. Her wings, roughed up by her rage, were folded out in a downward angle, touching the floor, in an undignified manner.

The ponies outside would never hear her pained cries as no sound could be sensed from the room. Nor would they see her washed away tear stains or red shot eyes as she left it after repairing the damage had caused. And yet, a deep dark shroud fell upon the castle that day and night. With many ponies feeling rather uncomfortable inside of the castle until Princess Celestia went to sleep.

She dreamed of lost times and lost battles. Constantly reminded of her own failure in defeating her hated enemy. Needless to say, Celestia was not in a good mood for quite a while.

(Scene Skip)

Within the jagged snow covered peaks of the mountain chain known as the Foal Mountains stood a tall tower, carved out of one of the earlier mentioned peaks. A grey snow covered stone tower with thick straight lines going up its cylindrical shape, four in total, one marked for south, north, west and south. The thick lines moved upwards along the entire length of the tower, before ending up into four thick obelisks which stood out at the top of the tower, making it look almost like some manner of grown or misshapen claw.

Inside of one of the chambers of this tower, was a group of robed individuals gathering within a large chamber. Large equine beings dressed in well made common robes. Horses, members of the race created by Maleficus, his secret agents acting in his absence to protect the ponies and the land they live in.

These specific horses were the Horadrim, the leaders of the Horadrim Kingdom, and today, was one of their important meetings to discuss matters not for others to hear.

"How is the progress of Project Skyheim and Golden Apple going?" Lord Asclepius, also known as Cursed Blessing, asked his fellow Horadrims as they gathered once more by a large wooden table, bearing the map marking their developing cities and strongholds.

One of the horses pulled out a scroll and unfurled it. As the mare read the scroll she gave him the report verbally. "Skyheim has reached fifty percentage in completion. While Project Golden Apple has reached thirty percentage of completion. Of the ten spots we have chosen have seven reached 100% completion in structure and architecture. Yamale of the Samurais was the first to be completed. Followed by Järngård of the Vikings. The Saints' Chapel of the Knights was completed a bit afterwards. Then the Spartans finished with Póli ton Álogo a few months ago. While the two larger farming spots have completed their neutral trading towns just this week. Both of the farm towns have been given names, after the main crops they produce. High Corn and Grand Grainosa."

Muffled snickering erupted from some of the horses as she told them the names of the two trade towns. It was obviously humorous, but most kept a straight face. The mare kept talking, not even reacting the snickers of her colleagues. "Two of the remaining three spots are the resource rich spots we have prospected for acquiring ore, wood, herbs and other things we are not capable of producing ourselves en mass, not yet at least. Since these spots are the largest will the time for their completion be the longest. At least another two years by our worker's best estimates. Eight by the worst estimates."

There was some nods from the other horses in the chamber, the time they had to finish the job was well beyond the estimated timeline made by their workers. As long as the work was completed before the next Red Solar Eclipse then all was well.

The mare then finished her report with the words on the final spot. "And lastly there is the Tenth Spot, which is not only our intended Main Stronghold, but also the spot for where we shall be developing and producing most of our tech and magical projects. One of which is the delayed Project Bifrost."

Ears perked and the horses listened with deep interest to know of the progress of the project for their main stronghold and research facility. The importance of the Tenth Spot could not be questioned. It was vital for not just the future of their nation, but the future of their Father.

"The location in question is secret to anyone except for us horses. As the place we have chosen is isolated and with a lot of snow and rock has progress been slow. But they believe that they will be able to finishing the carving of the exterior and interior of the fortress within the next three years or so. As it does not cover such vast space like High Corn and Grand Grainosa. Project Bifrost is still on stand by since we do not wish to risk working without the proper working space and gear." She took a deep breath before letting it out. The mare drank some water from a wooden cup by her seat by the table. And then cleared her throat a bit before she continued reading.

"Project Golden Apple has reached the experimentation phase, and should be completed within the next four years or so. The team working on the project has notified that a smaller test model has been created and functions as intended. So both of our current Priority Projects have reached a total progression of forty percent. And out of the two is Project Golden Apple the one that may take the longest because we need to finish Project Skyheim first." And with those final words spoken she closed the scroll bearing the written report and looked at the other Horadrims.

"Thus I conclude the report." Happy smiles and eager murmuring filled the room as the report was concluded. The fact that one of their most important projects would be completed within less then half a decade was great news to their efforts.

Cursed Blessing tapped the table to get the attention of the others and spoke out to them as they finally stopped talking. "A great result of our current efforts. I have even personally witnessed the prototype of Project Golden Apple. It is currently being tested in a secret location. And even though it is just the size of a large building is the very fact that it is working proof that we are on the right track."

He then raised a hoof and levitated a blueprint bearing the blueprint of their father's prototype mana engine. "As for my personal efforts. I have managed to create a prototype of Project Uru, the mana engine works as described by our father's notes and theories. It converts atmospheric mana into power and can even store a large amount of mana indefinitely from what tests I have conducted. The prototype alone was enough to power the prototype of Golden Apple for almost six hours. And it had only been allowed to absorb mana for ten minutes. It converts the raw mana into a far more potent power, nearly ten times more efficient. The energy does not appear to be harmful but tests are still being made as we speak.. "

After that report went things to less important, but still essential matters.

Things were going great and not just with their planned projects. But some were a it worried about ho the population of the horses had grown exponentially ever since the end of the Draconic Incursion. Almost to the point of recklessness.

With partners picking out one another and having foals to raise. The first natural born horse had been a mare, and after it had been proven that they had not been made sterile in their creation ,had the horses exploded into a population boom.

What had once numbered in less then two thousand, had become almost six thousand in the past three years. With more then one average case of twins, and even triplets, accounting for it. Not to mentions that many of the mares somehow found the process of raising foals and wanted more to raise. There was even a case where a single mare had given birth up to nine foals, three once a year, and she was already pregnant again.

It was almost so that the stallions could not keep up with the mares. But the horse were made equal in physical stature, which included stamina and strength, and thus had there been no reports of unsatisfied relationships as of yet.

The happy murmurs and smiles spread once more and more reports were spoken, not as exciting as the great efforts and successes of their projects but still a great morale booster to the horses and their efforts. Two hours went past and drinks were shared, before the meeting was adjourned and the Horadrims left the chamber, taking their notes and reports with them.

Leaving behind the large map, with the markings of their Holdings along the Foal Mountain. Each marking in the shape of a triangle of either blue, green, black or red. With another, Eleventh Marking, located not in the Foal Mountains. But further south east, in the thick unexplored Marshlands of the east coast. And unlike the other markings, it was only marked with a yellow circle, not with a coloured triangle.

(Scene Skip)

[Current Date: 1/2 - 119 AD]

The cold winter night blew across the city of Baltimare. Thick specks of snow falling down upon the region as the firs naturally occurring snowfall of Equestria was brought upon its lands. The streets were empty except for a few guards patrolling, while pushing aside the snow to better move across the now white covered streets.

But not just the guards were active. Within the first lower floor of the dungeons was a large cell located net to the courtyard. A large iron barred window was located on the upper edge of one of the four falls inside the large cell. Flakes of snow was flying into the cell, dancing with the wind and moving through the dim light of a burning candlestick.

A large shape was lying down on a pile of pillows, a large talon gripping a large wooden pen the size of an oar, while slowly writing upon the surface of parchments the size of war banners. It was the red dragon Clash, the oldest heir to the Rockfire Clan.

Clash silently sat by the large table he had been given, his heavily bandaged body had almost recovered to the point where he could fly again. Thus he only had about half a year before he would be returning home. He had to write down what he could about his grand father's failed feast and of the progress of the ponies. But Clash was certain his documents would be ignored by most.

Very few dragons outside of the ruling families of the clans even knew how to read or write. Nor did they write on such thin material like parchments, nor with ink. They wrote down their records on solid stone walls or flat marble slabs, using their claws as writing utensils. It had taken Clash a good month to learn how to write with this over-sized bird feather and the strange black ichor called ink on the flimsy parchments the ponies had given him a year back.

It had taken him a good deal longer to learn the alphabet and written language of the ponies to write his reports. He had, actually had no idea that writing a report in his own language would cause such a strange reaction from the ponies. It was as if they expected the dragon to be illiterate, or even know what words and letters were, even though he had asked for something to write on even before he made his efforts to train his volunteers.

It was still a whimsy tool, but at least it was an efficient whimsy tool. Plus it gave him something to do while he was recovering or when he was not writing down the progress of his students.

As he contemplated this he heard a soft thunk in the hallway beyond his cell. But Clash did not bother looking up from his work and verbally greeted his visitor. "Good evening Bright Light, I see you have completed your final task of the day."

A dirty and exhausted filly dressed in thick clothing walked down the hallway to the cell. She was covered with snow and mud, and by the scraps on her hooves she had been doing some rather straining physical work for a long time.

She did not respond to the dragon's greeting and just stood in front of the bars of his large cell. Clash did not speak up for a bit and just kept writing, and Bright Light remained silently standing in front of his bars.

As the final strokes of the claw like letters was drawn the dragon rested the large quill in its ink bucket and turned to face Bright Light.

"A test. Your mind is your most vital weapon and thus you need to hone it. If you fail, you are to work for the rest of the night on digging the trenches outside of the keep." Bright Light raised her eyes and looked at him coldly, the dragon good a smirk on his lips at that determined face. It reminded him so much of what he was like just a few years back.

"Never whispering, Never speaking, Never screaming, Never howling, Yet you always hear me. What am I?" The riddle echoed through the dungeon for a few seconds and a drop of melted snow slid off Bright Light's coat and struck the rocky with a loud prickling sound.

She answered just before a second drop hit the ground. "Your heart."

Chuckling Clash nodded and pulled out a small emerald from a bowl on his test and rolled it between his talons. "Yes, very good. Now this one."

And the dragon spoke out yet another riddle. "Always there, yet never seen. Always breathing, yet never speaking. Always moving, yet never stopping. What am I?"

"The Wind." The answer came almost instantly and the dragon tossed the emerald into his mouth and chewed the gemstone slowly before nodding with a content smile. The sweet taste of gemstones was always joyful to his mind. And so was Bright Light's answer. He missed the sensation of the wind while flying, and soon it would be returned to him.

"Correct. Now for one a bit more difficult." The dragon curled up onto his pillows and rested his head between his folded forelimbs. His large head resting a few meters in front of Bright Light's cloth covered body with the bars between them, even though he could very easily just break with his large frame or melt them with his fire.

"Broken in an instance. But always returns. A companion for the loner. Yet an enemy for the blind. What am I?" This time there was a bit more effort for the young filly. But before even half a minute had gone by, she knew the answer.

"The answer is Silence." A low chuckle filled the air as the dragon once more nodded to her successful efforts.

"Good. Very good. Now how about this one?" As he spoke the next riddle, he lazily stretched out his tail and grabbed hold of a sack in the corner of his cell.

"I last forever and yet you might have too much or too little of me, either way you will have enough of me. What am I??" The dragon opened the sack and moved his claw inside of it while the filly worked on the riddle.

The filly pondered this one a bit more, but before a minute had gone by she realized the answer and spoke it to her teacher. "...Time."

"Indeed Time is after all, something that all have, but will never have enough of. But it will not stop even if times run out for you. Very good. Now. This one is a bit tricky."

"I am whole when I am broken. I am broken when I am whole. The Poor have Me. The Rich want Me. The Dead know Me. The Blind sees Me. The Deaf hear Me. What am I?" There was a moment of silence, before the filly looked up.

"Nothing."

Erupting into laughter the dragon nodded. "Hahahahaha excellent. Now. The final question."

He reached out with his right claw, holding the retied sack in it. And spoke his final riddle. "What do I have in my sack?"

"Huh?" The sheer absurdity of the riddle made Bright Light fumble her words and she tried to figure out what he had just said. Since it did not feel like a riddle. It was more, like a question.

"Your answer?" The dragon asked with a wide grin, his jagged teeth showing as he looked down upon the filly.

Said filly untied the thick cloth over her head and glared at him. She then opened her mouth, and gave him her answer.

"..."

The dungeon erupted with the bellowing laughter of a massive dragon. The answer for that riddle, was indeed, something special.

(Scene Skip)

Canterlot was covered with a light layer of snow. The rooftops looked like frozen mountain peaks and hills out of the windows of the taller buildings of the city. A bright shine of illuminated white covered the entire city and the mountain it was built from.

And yet, even with the snow covered roofs and streets, were there a great deal of colour hanging over the streets, decorating the entire town in festive decorations. These were no decorations for Heart's Warming Eve, no, this was something else.

A celebration of a most wonderful of events that would involve some of the city's most beloved citizens.

The weeding between Grand Master Grand Music and Master Knight Happy Meal after having been engaged for over four years now. And though most of their efforts to plan the wedding had taken a hit with the rising disturbances through the lands ever since the Draconic Incursion ended, were they finally going to commit the deed.

Although with the fact that Happy Meal was four months' pregnant had made their mother finally put her hoof down at them putting aside the Wedding Day for so long. Grand Feast was NOT going to let her children create trouble for their foals, and her grandfoals. While many ponies did not care about unmarried pregnancies, were there still plenty who did, especially among the nobility.

So when she was told about the pregnancy, a MONTH after Happy Meal got her buns made, she gave both of her foals a big lecture about proper sexual intercourse and the benefits of not telling your mother you were with child, spoiler alert, there is none. After thoroughly making her children blush into the colour of tomatoes she went from scolding mother, to scolding yet concerned mother.

Although she was surprised that Happy Meal had not gotten pregnant earlier considering how much of a pair of hornballs her children where ever since they started dating. It was like they were part rabbits.

So after scolding them for a bit she turned on her 'mothering' phase. And the two thoroughly embarrassed adult ponies found themselves convinced to pick a proper date for their wedding by their mother. Words got spread like a wild fire after the date had been decided, and even Princess Celestia was surprised, and yet delighted, by the news.

The Princess had been so busy working on the military build up of her forces for the Third Crusade that she had not even noticed the state of Happy Meal until she made a visit to the Temple of Law. She had been thoroughly scolding herself afterwards for forgetting to check on the ponies of Canterlot in her fervor to improve the military.

So the Princess decided to personally help with the wedding preparations, it had given her a most needed break from her self indulged guilt and fury. It also gave the military a chance to actually go through with several of the Princess' plans without her making them work overtime.

And now the date for the grand event had come.

Banners were drawn between the rooftops of the main street leading up towards the Temple of Law, flowers were decorating the city in numbers never before seen. Foals were laughing and playing among the adults as vendors were selling various types of food, toys, decorations, and other such items. While parades of music playing soldiers and knights were walking the streets, filling the city with a cheerful spirit.

But while the city was filled with music and laughter, was the Temple of Law filled with knights, nobles and commoners, talking and laughing together within the Great Hall of the temple. Lines of benches had been prepared, a large table filled with food and drinks had been prepared. And even a row of Horadrim visitors had arrived to the festivities.

Princess Celestia herself was standing at the end of the large hall, dressed in a fine golden armour with a decorative white tabard bearing her cutie mark surrounded by patterns made by golden threads. Over all this she wore a fine and elegant looking cloak that reached down from her neck to her rear legs. Upon her brow rested a golden crown bearing a purple gemstone.

Next to her stood an old earth pony mare by the name of Old Faith. Once a member of one of the many tribes wandering the world after Discord was defeated. She was the newly designated High Priestess, chosen by the various Priests of Equestria's recently restored religion.

This would be the first established marriage committed by the High Priest, or Priestess in this case, of the Old Religion. IT would mark the start of the return of the Old Ways and restore faith for the ponies that they could openly believe and pray to the Gods once more.

On Celestia's other side stood a cold faced, but slightly smirking, Solid Pink, dressed in her finer uniform, which was essentially the same only with some medals on. That mare was a bit lacking when it came to non-professional attires, but she was more then professional enough to get a pass for it. But Celestia felt like it always made her appear less personal and sensitive then she actually was.

"The bride and groom should be approaching soon." The Princess said with a grin as she looked out over the crowd, it almost felt nostalgic. She had never witnessed the old ceremonies of her mother's kingdom before the Age of Chaos, it had been told to her by her mother in stories. But it had never actually been detailed just what the ceremony would entail.

"Aye. Them youngsters are very nervous and yet eager to be wed. Ah can see that much. Reminds me of mah own wedding when ah was younger. Aaaaah those were da days. A nervous winter flower Ah was, while mah hubby was such a sweet and shy thing, and good in the hay too. Ah gave him lots of foals before he expired one warm summer night with a smile on his wrinkly face." The Priestess said with a wide grin. The Princess blushed a little but still maintained her poker face, while Solid Pink just looked as cool as ever. Although her lips had had turned slightly and taken on the look of a slightly cheeky smirk.

Then the music started, the large piano and orchestra on the western wall of the temple, began to play a warm and cheerful tune as the large gates opened. The crowd went silent as a pair of ponies began to walk up the long red carpet leading towards the shrine.

One of them was a pregnant pegasus mare wearing a white and blue coloured dress with a hoof knitted veil covering her face except for her eyes. Her hooves were decorated with golden horseshoes and her mane and tail braided while her wings were decorated with straps holding a set of golden beads and feathers.

The other was a unicorn stallion, dressed in a ceremonial robe of purple, orange and black colours. On the back of the robe was the symbol of the Order of the Golden Cross. Lines of golden threads decorated the robe and the cloth covering his chest and legs were decorated with medals, sacred symbols and even bore a decorative set of chains over his neck, marking him as a knight and noble.

With steady steps the two ponies walked up along the red carpet. Behind them came a slightly middle age looking mare, with a group of smiling foals carrying baskets with glowers they were spreading behind the couple. And as they did, the crowd began to toss out flower petals and bouquets over the couple. No words were spoken, only wordless cheers, but the spirit of the Grand Hall was high and bright as the pair finally reached the Princess, the High Priestess and Solid Pink by the shrine.

The old Priestess smiled kindly upon the duo and bowed to them both in a polite manner before speaking out to them. "In the view of the Gods, may the blessings of Fertility, Love, Health, Prosperity, and Virility grant these two a bright future together. May their bodies and minds be joined in the Herd they will shape and may they enjoy all the joys of life."

She then reached out, holding up a cup of water and gently poured the water over the head of the two ponies. And even as the water poured down over their manes and fur, did it not stain or ruin any of their clothes, in fact. The water almost seemed to make the pair appear more... bright and clear to the group in the temple.

Then the old Priestess raised her head and spoke out another set of lines. "May their hearts be true, their blood strong, their fields green, and their minds clear. Bond together by love, by truth, by trust, and by faith."

"Gods bless these two young ones. Grant them the bounty of your divine might. And let them remain happy to the end of their time on this world, and even beyond it." As this line was spoken seemed a pair of bright sun light beams to grace the temple for a few seconds, passing over the two ponies by the shrine, it lasted just for a few seconds. but it looked almost like a force of divinity had reached down, and touched the Grand Hall, to grace the couple.

And then the Priestess spoke out the final line. "Grand Music, do you take Happy Meal as your mate, your wife and your love?"

Grand Music gave a bright smile and looked Happy Meal in the eyes as he answered. "I do."

The Priestess turned towards the veiled bride, who you could still see the smile of even as she had her face covered. "Happy Meal, do you take Grand Music as your mate, your husband and your love?"

The mare stared into her stallion's loving eyes with an equally warm look, as she gave her own answer, mirroring his. "I do."

"Then in accordance to the Gods and the Law, I, Old Faith, proclaim you, Husband and Wife. You may now kiss." Grand Music gently lifted the veil, and captured the lips of Happy Meal, and the two embraced right there before the shrine and the crowd, in a passionate embrace with one of the most searing kisses they had ever done.

And the ponies went wild. Their voices practically shaking the foundation of the city.

The cheering filling the temple spread out of the halls and reached the streets. And from there it seemed to infect the city like a virus, spreading cheers all over the city as the wedding ceremony ended.

It was truly a wonderful moment in the history of Equestria.

But it was not over yet. For as the newly wed couple walked down the carpet towards their waiting carriage, Grand Music, and Happy Meal, began to sing.

[Original lyrics by Staadnauthursil (No music available, sorry): A Song of Gratitude, sung by Grand Music & Happy Meal]

"All is fine, all is cheer. We are alive, we are glad, that we're here." Their voices rang out over the temple as they walked down the carpets. Music began to flow over the ceiling, as their voices rang out together.

"We will strive forth, carry through with faith and pride. There is no reason to hide." The duo reached past the crowd, and were now standing before the large staircases leading down towards the carriage down on the main street.

With a smile on his lips Grand Music began to sing of his memories when he lived on the streets. "My life was once cold, wet, and dark. My only comfort was the end of the misery."

Not even as the cheering crowed began to fall silent did he top, he did not care. It was no secret, and he did not feel like it was needed to hide it. After all, that was how he meet his honorable grandfather. "But then he came and lifted me up, like a torch in night. Carried me home to you and the rest is history."

Happy Meal picked up after him, her own voice singing of the time her clan was raided and she was hiding inside a wooden barrel. Uncertain if she would live or not. "My life was once in danger, from fire, steel, and murder. My mother was hurt, and my cries were silent."

By now had every pony in the vicinity stopped cheering an were listening intently as the pair walked down the stairs, Happy Meal singing out of how she meet a certain knight. Who saved not just her but her mother and clan as well. "But then he came, like a knight of old. He slew the evil and brought down the tyrant."

Then they began to sing together once more, stopping before the carriage. But everypony nearby could tell they were not looking at the carriage, they were looking at a statue, one recently made to honour their grandfather, depicting him standing in his armour before the Temple of Law. "To others he was a Hero, to others he was a Godsend."

They smiled at each other as they sang. Knowing that no ponies would ever truly know the truth, not even they knew everything about their grandfather. But they were content with what they knew. "To us he was our Grandfather, to us he was our Friend."

Turning around they faced the silent crowd, stood up on their hind legs, gripped each other with a foreleg, and spread the other out, as if greeting a crowd on a stage. And sang out even louder! "So here we are! Two unlikely souls! Saved by a stranger who broke us free of our roles!"

The music was still going and the crowd began to feel their spirits and cheer reignite, as the two sang out to them. "So we shall seek to do the same. Save others and relieve their pain."

Leaning their heads against each other, Happy Meal and Grand Music, sang out together. Proclaiming their intentions of the future. "Let us make a brighter world. Together we're strong!"

The crowd began to cheer again, this time less for the occasion. And more by the cheer will and pure intentions projected by the two singing ponies before them. As they sang out their intentions to the citizens of Canterlot. "Nothing shall stop us! Those who might think so are wrong!"

They pointed their free forelegs' hooves upwards, towards the heavens. And the crowd was mesmerized by the performance, their cheers growing with the music. "For we shall carry his will! We shall stand defiant!"

They hugged each other and kept singing as they did so. The cheers of the gathered ponies around them raining over them s well as the hundreds of flowers and petals being thrown into the air. "We shall cry, we shall smile, we shall laugh, but we shall not be compliant!"

They then spread out their hooves again and sang out to the crowd. "So hear us now! For we won't be backing down!"

At first no pony truly knew how to react by what followed. But it was a glorious declaration, one that could be appreciated by all who had gathered there. "Let us make the world a better place!"

Once more the couple hugged and sang out together. Turning their heads to look at the statue of Golden Cross once more. "Let's make Granpda Cross proud with heart and grace!"

"Let us make the world a better place." And now the crowd was joining in with the singing, as the couple stepped up onto the carriage. The four knights pulling the wooden carriage began to trot down the street, and the music was being spread all over the city.

The voices of Grand Music and Happy Meal was carried out over the crowds in the streets. And as they did, the ponies joined in with the song. "For your families, your home, make the misery disappear without a trace!"

The carriage went through the main market of the main street, the crowd around the street were singing ,cheering and throwing petals and flowers like never before seen. "Let us make the world a better place."

Happy Meal leaned against Grand Music, who warped his left foreleg around her neck, and they both looked towards the painted statue of Golden Cross, the first one to have been raised, as they slowly rolled past it. "Yes we say let us make the world a better place."

"Let us make the world a better place." The city was still singing with them. But this time, their voices were almost unheard, as their voices were not meant for the city, but for themselves.

And as they passed through the gate house and over the drawbridge and out of Canterlot, they hummed the final parts of the song into each other ears as they left the city behind. To travel to Baltimare for their honeymoon. "Like he did for you and me."

[End Lyrics]

But even as they disappeared beyond the city walls. Were shadowy figures scowling at the cheerful singing emanating through out the city. Their plans were still far from coming to fruition, thus with the leaders of the Order of the Golden Cross occupied with their honeymoon, they would have more space to prepare.

And a certain Princess, was fighting with herself. As she liked the music, the message and the intentions of her two friends. But something inside of her was screaming out at her to put down those weak thoughts and to focus on what was important. Vengeance.

For now she ignored it, content in enjoying the mood of the city as its citizens sang together. But her smile never reached her eyes, as she stood there by the altar, struggling with her internal turmoil.

(Scene Skip)

Luna sighed as she scratched a mark on another wall. She was so bloody sick of this endless network of tunnels. It had been at least five hundred thousand crossroads since she first started. And she hadn't even found the first marking she had done so she was not going around... she thinks.

Hard to determine your location while inside a mindscape.

"Ooooh... this has got to be the most frustrating thing I have ever experienced..." She then blinked as she gave that statement a long thought. For a while she just stood there, contemplating.

And then she buck kicked a wall and screamed out in utter fury. "AND THAT IS UTTERLY CORRECT! I HAVE BEEN WANDERING DOWN THIS STUPID PLACE WITHOUT A SLIGHTEST CHANGE OF SCENERY FOR WHAT FEELS LIKE AN ETERNITY! IT IS BORING AS FUCK!"

She let out a deep sigh, and then suddenly, she heard something from behind. Turning around she looked at where she had kicked the stone wall and dropped her jaw as sparkling twinkles were emerging from within the cracks on the wall.

But those twinkling little sparkles soon turned into an almost liquid like mass of pure white slime. Pouring out of the cracks like molten magma. She did not want to touch the stuff but it had been the only thing to happen since Maleficus lost himself, again.

And she felt rather off put that she had not done it earlier and smacked her own cheek while growling in frustration. "Stupid think outside the box, don't just follow the path."

The Princess of the Moon made a decision and turned her attention to the small crack bleeding the glowing white slime. She reared back her right foreleg before slamming it into the wall. There was a loud resounding crackling sound of stone splitting apart, more shining slime emerged from them.

Luna reared back her hoof for another blow when suddenly the entire cavern began to shake and rumble. Stepping back she looked at the slime as it began to pour out of the now swiftly growing cracks. She kept backing up until she was at least a hundred meters away from the growing cracks. Then a loud crumble was heard and the alicorn gaped in shock as the entire cavern suddenly began to crumble apart.

The white slime poured in like a torrent and Luna thought to fly away to safety when suddenly the ground beneath her disappeared and she fell down into a deep void. She spread her wings and attained flight and looked up at where she had fallen from and stared in wonder as a massive cube of stone, made up by several smaller cubes, was revealed. Even as cracks emerged from the massive stone structure and white slime began to pour out of its parts, she could see the various pieces move back and forth like a constantly moving puzzle.

That's when she realized just what had been going on. She had not been going into circles, every time she had reached a different part of the stone cube puzzle it would move her back to the spot she started. She had never left the spot she originally began to travel from. The markings she had left had just been removed, she could have been marking the same spot this entire time!

"What manner of fiendish mind could think up such a horrible thing!? I have spent years walking around that fucking stone maze and I never left the first fucking room!?" Luna screamed out in utter outrage and anger at the unfairness of it all and pressed her forelegs' hooves into her face and let out a muffled wordless screech of anger.

Then a loud crumbling sound was heard, echoing out across the voice, like stone crackling within a deep cavern. She removed her hooves and stared up and watched as the massive stone cube, now cracked all over, with white slime pouring out from the fissures of its surface, finally broke apart.

At first, she wanted to fly away and thus avoid the falling mountain-sized stone pieces. But then she spotted something.

The falling rocks were breaking apart into fine white dust. Becoming a swirling cloud of white that fell down upon the void, and she noticed how it began to land on something, and just a hundred meters below her, began a massive field of white to emerge. And there, at the center of the field of white, she saw the pony she had been trying to find for so long lying motionless among the whiteness.

Maleficus. She had finally found him.

Luna flew down and landed upon the field, and let out a shriek as a sudden cold sensation filled her body as the white dust, felt like ice to the touch. Lifting up a ball of white dust she looked at it and then realized what it was.

"Snow. This is snow." And as she realized this she felt a warm wind stroke across her wings and looked around to see where it had come from. That's when she saw them. The sparkles were now trickling down from the space where the giant stone structure had floated. But they were no longer slime nor white in hue, instead the once slime-like mass of white had broken apart into glittering sparkles of golden light.

*Beautiful.* Luna thought to herself as she watched the sparkles rain down from the dark void above the white field of snow. It looked like fire flies floating down from a dark night sky.

But then something odd occurred.

As the golden sparks fell down upon the field of snow. A strange melody began to fill the air. And that's when a chorus of voices began to hum out from the sparkles as they reached the snowfield. And stopped falling and just kept floating a meter above the ground, creating an image of a million of twinkling stars or candle flames floating above the snow.

[Start Christmas Music: Light A Candle by Triad (English Version Made and Sung by Rob Lundgren)]

[Lyrics Altered by Staadnauthursil]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVPyyEumICc

Dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom.

The floating sparkles began to shift and move. Not all of them, but a majority of them began to spin and focus into a single point as if being gathered by a vortex. Their golden shapes combining together.

Dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom.

Two golden shapes began to take shape out of the golden sparkles, growing larger as more and more of the sparkles joined the growing masses. That's when Luna noticed something. Maleficus had raised his head, his eyes were open, but they were dull and blank. Looking dead to the world.

Dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom.

She kept watching as the two growing golden masses became larger and larger. Soon they had grown to the size of young foals, but they were still growing. And as they grew in size the humming voices grew louder and stronger.

Dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom.

While all this occurred was Maleficus just lying there on the ground of his own mindscape. His red eyes were dull and lifeless. But he was reacting to the music, his left ear was twitching as the music and vocals grew in strength. He was reacting, which was something he had not been doing ever since he made that a pact with the Fallen.

Dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom dom.

The two glowing masses of light had by now begun to take shape of something. It was hard to distinguish features with their bodies being made out of light. But Princess Luna could only think of one creature that stood so straight on two legs, standing almost as tall as Maleficus when he was standing up. Clearly larger than your average pony.

Human. They were human in shape.

As she realized this, the two shapes slowly walked over to Maleficus, one of them was holding something, a plain looking candlestick made out of silver, holding a single unlit candle. Before she could rush forward to stop the strange beings from harming his fragile self to ruin, the two shapes knelt down by the lifeless shape of the alicorn and then, one of them lit the candle the other was holding.

And then, they began to sing.

"Light a Candle, and let it Burn Bright."
"Never let Hope disappear from your Life. It is getting Dark now."
"But it will get Brighter again."
"Light a Candle for what you Believe in."
"For this World that we all Live in."
"Light a Candle."
"For a Brighter World."

Their voices were strange and otherworldly. Spoken by vocal means she had no clear idea of. And yet they felt...warm. A familiar kind of warmth she had not heard or felt for... centuries.

Dom dom dom.

She stood there, watching as one of the shapes gently reached out and began to stroke a five digit appendage through the black unruly mane of Maleficus' head. The strange being gently began to rub his head through his mane, rubbing the back of the large stallion's left ear. He made no outward reactions except for a small twitch in his ear as it was being rubbed.

"We both saw you disappear from the heavens."
"We do not know where you ended up."
"But We know We wished."
"That you would be safe."
"For an eternity we searched for you."
"For an instance, we lost you."
"But then we heard their song."
"Among the crowds they sing about you and a Peaceful World."
"We choose to believe in those wonderful Words."

The song kept resonating and Luna felt mesmerized by the words and the meaning they carried. And she began to realize just who these glowing specters were. A pair of people the former human had told her about a few months after their first meeting. Two humans who had meant the world to him and who had cared for him.

Dom dom dom.

*They are the souls of his dead parents! How are they here? The dead should not be able to traverse into a mind scape. Especially not if they come from another realm of existence.* Luna thought to herself as she looked at the beautiful scene before her, as the two spirits of light, gently petted the still alicorn. It looked rather sweet actually and she actually considered walked over to see how it felt to be petted by humans.

"Light a Candle, and let it Burn Bright."
"Never let Hope disappear from your Life. It is Dark now."
"But it will get Bright again."
"Light a Candle for what you Believe in."
"For this World that we all Live in."
"Light a Candle."
"For a Brighter World."

The Princess of the Moon watched closely as the two specters sang for their son. She could make out more of their features as time went by. A tall and slightly thin looking, yet intimidating, older looking man with glasses and a strong face with gentle eyes. And a slightly shorter and quite a bit thicker looking woman, neck long cut hair, slightly curly, a kind motherly face with a slightly wrinkled face.

Dom dom dom.

She felt like she was intruding upon their reunion. The two long since dead parents, breaching death and worlds, just to offer their son comfort. It made her feel shameful to watch it, it felt so private, and yet, she yearned for something like it herself. To feel the comforting touch of a mother once more. Even though she never knew her father, she would have liked to meet him.

"We sent signs through heaven."
"We do not know if you saw."
"But We are glad that you are still the same."
"For you are the same Sweet Boy."
"The same Kind Soul."
"That We raised Together."
"Now rise up and stop Dreaming."
"Rise and stand tall for what you Believe in."

The singing was wonderful, it was a balm to the soul just to hear the lyrics and the music accompanying it. Luna had not felt so comfortable since she began to hang out with Maleficus in his mindscape. She had always felt so isolated and alone, the month period she was unable to commune with the stallion was like a reminder of hell. And her last expedition through his mindscape during his recent mental collapse had not been the most endearing of situations.

Dom dom dom.

She then realized that she was standing directly next to the three forms, almost as if she had unconsciously walked towards them in the mindscape. Luna felt both silly and shameful and made to step back, when a gentle hand patted her head. She looked up in surprise to see the kind smiling face of the woman and let out a light yip of surprise when the hand began to pet her right ear. Magical was the best way to describe it as she felt her disappear as the wonderful sensations flowed through her as the kind woman rubbed her ear.

"Light a Candle, and let it Burn Bright."
"Never let Hope disappear from your Life. It is Dark now."
"But it will get Bright again."
"Light a Candle for what you Believe in."
"For this World that we all Live in."
"Light a Candle."
"For a Brighter World."

Slowly Luna lay down on the other side of Maleficus and just leaned her head against the kind hand petting her head. Closed her eyes and just enjoyed the sensations and the music, she could feel all of her fatigue disappear as she relaxed. It was such a great feeling that she wanted to try and transform into a human, to share this wonderful sensation with her sister and maybe even her mother, once they were reunited.

Dom dom dom.

The twinkling lights, the soothing music, and the warm comforting presence and touch of these people. It was something Luna had always thought she'd never experience, and yet here she was. Inside the mind of the only living friend she had, being sung to by his deceased parents inside of his mindscape. It was surreal and yet she was too grateful to even bother feeling uneasy.

"Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year."
"Promise to take care of yourself."
"Our sweet child."

She had no real clue what Christmas was but it was probably some manner of holiday that involved the start of a new year. Luna was not certain how, why or when it would occur. But it felt... fitting. And she could not help but wish to know more. Perhaps she would ask them after they finished singing?

"Light a Candle, and let it Burn Bright."
"Never let Hope disappear from your Life. It is Dark now."
"But it will get Bright again."
"Light a Candle for what you Believe in."
"For this World that we all Live in."
"Light a Candle."
"For a Brighter World."
"Light a Candle."
"For a Brighter World."
"Oooooh! Light a Candle."
"For a Brighter World."

The music faded away, far too soon in Luna's mind. But the two glowing people and the twinkling specks of lights remained.

[End Christmas Music]

Then the male of the two gently stood up, his hand still stroking the head of his motionless son and spoke up in a firm, and yet warm and kind voice, towards Luna. "Greetings miss. I am certain you wonder who we might be."

Luna just remained sitting there, enjoying the hand stroking her ear and simply spoke back with a smile. "No need, your son told me much about you. I am Princess Luna, daughter of the last Queen of the Unicorn Kingdom, Laura Faust. I am glad to have meet you, parents of Maleficus."

The female spoke next, looking with sadness upon her silent boy who had been through so much. "Not his true name, but it has been so long, I do not know if he even remembers it. But he is still a good boy, trying his best to satisfy the needs of others before considering his own. He should act a bit less selfless, but I know he will just feel guilt about it."

The Princess nodded, she knew exactly what his mother was talking about. Maleficus was many things, stubborn and kind, but one thing he was rarely was selfish, at least when it concerned other people. "Yes he is a bit of a head strong person, but most males are like that. But at least he's not just some random violent stubborn person and actually cares. I am glad to have meet him, even with the circumstances as they were, and are."

Chuckling Maleficus' mother rubbed Luna's head, making her let out a content humming. "I am glad that our son meet such a kind girl like you to keep him company during the harsh moments of his life."

She let out a content sigh, the sensation of being petted by a human hand felt truly wonderful. Sure it made her feel a bit childish but she could care less, she was not a Princess to these strangers so why care? "Thank you, your son spoke highly of you both. About how you raised him and his siblings and kept your family happy as best s you could while not letting them derail into bad behavior. And I can see him sharing some of your traits through, kindness and stern will, just to name two. You should be proud of him."

Maleficus' father smiled a sad and bitter smile as he petted his son's head. But there was great pride in his eyes, even as he spoke to Luna. "Yes we are, and we would wish to remain here longer. But we do not have much time. All we wish to ask of you, young lady. Is for you to keep our son safe."

Luna felt confused as of why they could not remain a bit longer. It should not be any kind of limit for how long they could remain here as long a Maleficus did not banish them or they left willingly. "I will do my best to keep the stubborn pony safe. but why can't you be here for a while longer?"

Maleficus' mother gently patted her head one last time before walking over to her husband and she smiled sadly at her son's unresponsive shape. Before turning towards the kind mare who had kept her son company for so long, and gave her a solemn response. "Sorry but no. We have broken some rules by being here, and no doubt will someone come to collect us soon."

"I am sorry but what do you-" Whatever questions or answers could have been brought would never be given answers. For as Luna was about to voice her question, was she suddenly blinded by a golden light erupting inside of the mindscape. And an echoing voice spoke out of the light, holding within its verbal cords a deep sense of pride, arrogance and self righteousness.

"They mean someone like me, abomination." The golden light grew more intense and filled the mindscape for an instance. Then it grew more dense and took on the shape of a sphere, and out of the sphere emerged a human shaped being dressed in golden armour. It was tall, easily twice the height of Maleficus father. Almost four meters tall.

Said sphere disappeared after the winged humanoid completely left its embrace.

The being was covered in a golden plate armour, decorated with blue and white sigils and runes Luna had never seen before. Floating above the head of the being was a golden circle of light that was surrounded with an external four pointed star shape aura, while the internal part of the circle looked like some kind of inverted sun. Sticking out of the back of the being was a large pair of slender, almost tendril like, wings of yellow light. It looked almost like bat wings, but without the skin between the wings' indexes, and the bones replaced with solid light.

Upon the head of the being was a helmet with a full face covering wedge folded face visor. Where the mouth would be located were six dot shaped holes, half located along the sides of the central line of the wedge of the visor in a triangular shape. While were the eyes were located, was a pair of cross shaped eye holes, and within said eye holes was a pair of white glowing orbs of light hidden within a veil of darkness.

It was gripping some kind of weapon but the light was too bright to take note of immediately.

"What are you doing here!? What are you!?" Luna shouted out as she stood up from the ground ,she moved to summon forth what powers she had within the mindscape when a blast of golden light struck her and sent her tumbling at least fifty yards away, rolling through the snow like a rag doll before ending up on her back in a pile of snow and bruises.

Even as she struggled up from the pile she found herself in, her bruises disappearing, the winged hum... No. Luna did not think this thing was human, not one bit. *Whatever appearance it might have is it not of human nature!*

So the winged, CREATURE, pointed a sword at her, the weapon had a four feet long silver like blade that was attached to a wing shaped golden cross guard, the entire length of the blade was glowing with an otherworldly golden light. And as it did so it spoke out in the same echoing arrogant voice. "Stay out of this you vile thing, my quarry lay not with you or the twisted monstrosity that maintains this realm. no, my business lay with these two. For having broken the rules of the Heavens."

The two human souls walked in front of Luna and Maleficus, their eyes looking in defiance at the winged being. And the man spoke out against him, rebuking the creature's actions. "There is no need to act so violent against this woman. You said it yourself, you have no business with her or our son. So keep them out of it angel."

"We accept our punishment, for we know, we did the right thing. Something we doubt you can truly understand." The woman said in turn, they stood next to each other, holding each other by the elbows, unafraid of the winged being before them.

The so called angel just flew forward, and with an effortless swing of its weapon, sliced through the two golden figures. They shattered apart into golden sparks which were absorbed by the sword the celestial was wielding. Snorting in disgust the angel spoke as he looked at his blade as the final piece of the human souls were absorbed. The sparkles that had been floating in the air, died down and disappeared into nothing, leaving an empty snow covered field. "Admirable. But pointless, for the punishment will still be performed upon them. No matter how much they might cooperate, their sins are too great. They shall be cleansed."

And that's when Maleficus, finally began to stir. His body suddenly twitching, and the sound of air being sucked in and muscles shifting stiff metal bones could be heard from him. And then, he spoke.

"..................What.........................did...................................you...................................do................to..................them........" It was barely heard, but Maleficus' lips were moving and his once dull and blank eyes, were starting to gain focus. And Luna from where she lay on the ground, could see the familiar looking burning spark within those eyes growing. Whatever this intruder's answer would be, it had better be good or he would be in for a lot of pain.

"You have no need to know abomination." The winged humanoid, an angel by the looks of it, answered in a cold and stoic tone while sheathing the blade he had used to absorb the two souls. His answer, was by far the worst one he could have picked.

Maleficus slowly stood up, his head rose, his eyes slowly starting to glow crimson as his voice rose in strength and volume. The rage barely contained with his vocal cords, exploded out of his lips and his eyes began to shine red. And took a large heavy step forward, and then another, and another, towards the angelic being. "I......said....what....DID....YOU.....DO....TO....THEM!?"

"And I said, you do not need to know." The glowing angel stated before turning around, unconcerned about the approaching alicorn, and spread his wings a if to fly away. Not even glancing over his shoulder pads.

He would come to regret that decision.

A loud resounding crack was heard and the golden armored figure flew into a tumble across the snowy field as the hoof of the black alicorn slammed into the back of his helmet covered skull. Snow bellow through the air and Luna had to shield her eyes as Maleficus marched through snow, his eyes literally burning with crimson fire.

As the alicorn stallion marched through the white snow-field loud clicking sound could be heard as metal began to appear out of thin air. Metal circles knitted themselves together into chain mail, metal plates with nails and screws attached to hardened leather covered up the chain mail and began to cover his body except for his head and neck. A set of scale like metal plates covering his entire spine from the lower neck, between his wings and to the base of his tail.

And finally, a pair of pauldrons emerged upon his shoulders, the white bony head of a bull-horned dragon emerged upon his right side while a pauldron covered with sharp teeth emerged upon his left side.

Reaching down he grabbed the angel's sword with his right hoof, and with a glow of his horn he levitated up the angel who reached out and grabbed onto the crossguard of his sword to wrench it from the alicorn's grip

With a wordless scream Maleficus slammed his forehead into the angel's visor, a loud crunch was heard and golden ichor erupted from the holes of the visor. The Angel cursed and stumbled back, when suddenly his back slammed into a solid surface, a wall of solid ice appearing behind him from the snowy field.

Stepping forward Maleficus stabbed the golden sword into the icy wall, just next to the angel's neck, even stabbing through the angel's floating halo in the process. He pressed his left foreleg up against the angel's throat and screamed out into utter fury into the angel's visor as his eyes burned with crimson fire. "WHERE ARE THEY!?"

The angel struggled, trying to get the equine being to release him, trying to grab hold of the so called abomination's foreleg with his right mail covered fist, only for his divine strength to lose against the alicorn. Said alicorn pressed the angel even harder against the wall of ice, cracks forming within the ice itself, while the angel coughed up golden ichor as more pressure was made against his throat. "ANSWER!"

Realizing it could not get free of his grip the angel decided to taunt him instead. Letting out a drawn out and strained chuckle it verbally provoked the alicorn, practically spitting in his face. "Kuhh...kuhh...kuhh...kuhh... You will never see... them again... you freak... Kuh... They have broken... the laws of heaven.... Thus they shall... be punished by... the Seraphim..."

The taunt worked, thought not as intended by the angel. As rather than breaking down into tears of despair, the alicorn's eyes narrowed and he flung the angel against the ground, pulled out the sword from the ice wall. Then he walked over to the angel, put one of his hind legs' hooves on his torso and pressed the blade against his throat.

Glaring down at the celestial being he snarled out, his angry eyes glowing like a pair of red suns. "Unless you want me to rip off your wings and stuff them up your ass. You better tell me where they went. NOW."

"Kuhuhuhuhu! Fool. No one can breach the Heavens, least of all an unworthy heathen such as yourself. The All Mighty One will never allow- GAAAAHH!" The angel's taunting was interrupted when his own blade stabbed into his shoulder, straight through the bone and out the back, nailing his torso to the snow covered ground of the mindscape.

Looking down at the angel with burning eyes Maleficus spoke up in a steady and cold voice. The atmosphere of the mindscape was both chilling and burning, the physical shape of the alicorn stallion flickering with black and green flames. "That is all I need to know. All I need to DO now. IS to get there."

He reached down to the angel, grabbed him by the throat and hefted him up into the air, tearing him and his sword off the ground, spraying golden ichor into the wind. As he held the angel up in the air, his black fur and hair began to spark and shift into fire and his shape began to grow, taking on the near feature shape of black and green flames. Soon his spectral shape stood ten times the angel's size, holding its entire body with a hoof of fire. His horn had melted away in the darkness of the fire as the last of his fur and flesh transformed. In its place was a massive green eye upon the forehead of the draconic and equine shaped head of fire.

Thus Maleficus had transformed entirely into being of dark flames, the same manner of transformation he had used, when his mind was invaded by Nightmare moon over fifteen years ago.

The angel struggled in his grip, even as the jaws of his maw opened, revealing a mass of various manner of horrors within the center of the jaws. He struggled as panic began to settle into his celestial mind, for what lay beneath those jaws, was unnerving even for an angel. And so did the thought of what the former human, was planning. "Wh-what are you doing?"

"You invaded my mind. You apparently thought yourself hot shit and all powerful. Thinking you could punish my mother and father for their apparent sins. Well you are about to learn something very important you pigeon shit." The burning head of Maleficus growled as he slowly lifted up the angel he was now holding with a talon of fire, who was starting to struggle to get out of the claw of fire gripping his torso.

Maleficus' voice cracked like thunder while screeching like iron nails dragged across a blackboard. His jaws opened and closed, each time revealing the horrors sealed within his spectral flames. While the surroundings began to becoem a burning inferno. While the darkness above them, began to shimmer and twinkle, with twisted eyes appearing where there had once been stars. "In the world of dreams. He who is awake. Is God. This is something I learned, when I devoured my first unwelcome visitor and absorbed their knowledge into my own."

And as those words rang through the mind of the angel, it felt chills. The implication of what he alicorn had done to another intruder of his mind. And what he had said about needing to know how to reach Heaven, gave the celestial being all he needed to know to realize, that he was fucking screwed. "...No... no you can't mean to. This is insane! THIS IS BLASPHEM-URKGH!"

The talon gripped the angel tighter, ending his crude attempts of speaking. And the burning phantom shape of Malefics, snarled out , before raising the angel above his head. Glaring at the struggling angel within the grip of his claw. "No. What this is. Is simple. It is Poetic. Justice."

"Now. Learn the folly of your Pride. Angel. For it will be your doom." And with those final words Maleficus opened his jaws and the angel let out a horrified scream as he fell down into the twisted neither of the Lord of Terror. With a loud crack the jaws closed, the burning teeth pierced through his divine armour and flesh, spraying olden ichor into the air.

He screamed out in agony. And then the jaws opened and the angel tried to struggle free to fly out of the burning maw. But that option was denied when a hundred limbs of claws, pincers, hands, stump, talons, hooves, tentacles and more, reached out from within the throat of the fiery jaws, and grabbed hold of his body.

Then the jaws began to close as the angel found himself being dragged down into the abyss that was the core of the Lord of Terror. He was barely able to let out one final scream of horror, before the mouth snapped shut. Silencing him forever.

Closing his burning jaws Maleficus' swallowed the anger and his burning shape began to glow for a few seconds. His three eyes narrowed and he lowered his head for a few moments, remaining silent for a while.

Then, slowly, his burning shape began to shrink. And soon he was a pony size again, though still made out of green and black fire, with his three eyes bared.

"Luna... Keep my mind safe. I am going to save my parents." He said after a while his voice no longer rumbling and crackling like the combined voice of a tyrannosaurus and a sawmill. Luna, who had been watching the entire spectacle just gave him a reassuring smile and gave him a gutsy foreleg pump.

"Give them a taste of Tartarus Maleficus." Was her contribution to his agenda. For she knew, if the roles had been reversed, she, and her sister, would have done the same.

Maleficus' fiery shape smiled and he nodded, feeling relieved to have such a good friend. And so he stood up on his hind legs and spread his forelegs apart, and a crack emerged within his mindscape. soon taking the shape of a swirling portal of gold and white. "Oh believe me."

"I intend to." And with those final grizzly words he stepped into the portal and left his mindscape. Leaving Luna to keep things in order for his return.

(Scene Skip)

It was night over Equestria and the moon was steadily shining with its bright silvery glow, while the dark green and black flames of the specter was giving it an eerie green glow. All was well and quiet through the soothing cool winds of the winter times. A layer of white snow lay over the streets and rooftops, twinkling in the moon and starlight as crystals of frost had grown over the white powder layer.

Over the streets lay flower petals, wrappings, candy sticks, dropped food items, and small vermin scattering over whatever edible remains they could find. And through the silent streets, were small beacons of light slowly moving along the alleys and over the walls of the city walls.

The Town Guards of Canterlot wandered the streets with their lanterns, shields and spears, keeping safety and order through the streets even when night had fallen over the tired city.

No pony could have been expected for the vigilant protectors of Canterlot to cause the next great unrest of the city, especially when not even a day had gone by since the joyful celebration of the wedding between Happy Meal and Grand Music. With their wonderful melody sung to the honour of Golden Cross.

Yes, no one could possibly have known.

A group of young guards were walking over the main street leading from the main gate of the city and directly towards the Royal Castle. Five young ponies, two unicorns, two pegasi and one earth pony, each wearing the uniform and armour of the town guard. While being armed with round shields, bronze spears and carrying brightly glowing lanterns hanging from a set of curved hooks sticking out just beneath the spearhead.

"It's very quiet. It's almost weird, just two hours ago the party was still going strong. And now, it's as quiet as a graveyard." A unicorn stallion murmured as he raised his lantern to get a better look down an alleyway.

The two pegasi mares just rolled their eyes and spoke to him in unison. "Must you keep comparing every quiet moment to a graveyard? / Must you keep comparing every quiet moment to a graveyard?"

The earth pony mare just shook her head and patted one of the two pegasi mares on a shoulder to get their attention. "Stop bothering him, there's not much else he can compare it to. I mean, heck, we have been here a year longer then him and we keep comparing silent nights like this to graveyard duty."

The other unicorn, a mare, just sighed as she levitated her spear and lantern to scare away a small group of rats nibbling on a pile of syrup apples. She levitated the pile of rotten food into a oiled leather sack, which was already nearly full, before closing it up with a set of ropes sewed into the neck of the opening, sealing it near air tight. "Well the smell can be compared to it. Why must we be the ones to clean up whatever junk we find?"

Rolling his eyes the lone male of the group levitated a half eaten pie into his own sack after having wrestled it out of the teeth of a particular large rat. "Because since we are the only ponies working night shift in the streets are we those who gets wrestled with the duty for cleaning up the streets. Since leaving all of this garbage about will only attract vermin and wild animals and we do not need a repeat of the 'rabid squirrel incident'."

There was a shared moment of horrified shivers at the mention of that particular disaster.

In short words. A group of ponies had left a lot of food in the park, the squirrels had eaten the food. And the unbalanced sugar levels of the food caused the squirrels to go into a sugar rush rampage across the park and to all nearby streets. Tearing up wood, fabric and denting metal as they ricocheted across the streets like projectiles. In their mad frenzy of energy they consumed up to a ton's worth of sugar.

The incident only ended after an hour but by then was two blocks torn apart ,five buildings needed to be demolished and the fifty squirrels died of a collective heart attack as the collective sugar in their bodies clogged their already worn out hearts after the sugar rush ended, and ended up dead all over the streets.

Since then was it forbidden to feed the animals in the city sugar rich foods, and even then was no one to feed wild animals or leave food behind. But the rule was only two years old and thus had not been enforced as it should have, thus the clean up duty came to the unlucky sods of the Town Guard who patrolled the city day and night.

After a moment of contemplation of the horrid incident the group returned to their duties. And that's when the pegasi sisters noticed something was off. The normally white, and slightly green tinted, snow, looked much brighter now, although still a bit green. "Hey. Does anypony else think that things are a bit bright right now? We've never had a night as bright as this right? / Hey. Does anypony else think that things are a bit bright right now? We've never had a night as bright as this right?"

The others looked around a bit, a bit confused but soon took note of the oddly brightness of the moonlight hitting the ground. But the earth pony mare just snorted though and rolled her eyes. "Oh goody. The night is a bit brighter and now we are all doooooomed~ For buck's sake if you're that concerned why not just look at the moon to see if its still fucking there and not replaced by a second sun if this is a matter for concern."

And one of them did do that, the unicorn mare looked up towards the moon, something many did not enjoy doing because of the glowing spectral fire upon its surface creeping them out. And she let out a strangled meep as her eyes grew into tiny dots and her body froze.

The stallion noticed her odd behavior and walked over to her, the others taking note as well as he approached her. "What's the matter Night Watch?"

"T-the P-phantom of the Moon. I-it's, it's, look, just look at it!" She squeaked out in a tiny almost choked voice filled with fear, while reaching and hugging herself to the surprised stallion. Tears streaming down her cheeks.

While the stallion tried to calm down his fellow unicorn the other three mares looked up and they too suddenly darted towards the young stallion and hugged them, while letting out screams of utter terror. The group ended up falling into a pile on the street, their reinforced lanterns clattering over the cobblestone street.

The stallion looked up from his trapped position as the frightened mares screamed and hugged him, not really something he minded, but it still felt incredibly awkward. And he nearly blacked out at the sight of the moon.

Up there, on the silver surface, bearing the formation of the Mare in the Moon, was the burning specter known as the Phantom of the Moon. But it was not the same. Normally the Phantom would be resting its head on the opposite direction of the Mare, which was the left side of the surface of the moon. With the Mare being on the right side of the moon's surface.

However now, was the mass of black and green flames, rearing outs its neck, outside of the surface of the moon, revealing a trio of bright glowing eyes upon its draconian skull, the third, being on the forehead, glowing a bright crimson. All three eyes were glaring and the normally grinning jaws of teeth was open in a vicious looking snarl.

And reaching out from beneath the neck, from behind the visible surface of the moon, was a massive limb of black and green fire, ending in a five clawed talon that was gripping a glowing golden orb of light that was just a short distance away from the moon.

It looked as if the Phantom of the Moon, had taken hold of one of the stars of the night sky. And was attempting to either destroy, devour, or throw it down at the world beneath the moon.

The poor town guards could not be blamed for reacting as they did, collapsing into tears while sobbing and screaming in utter horror. And this group was not the only one, the other patrols soon took notice and while many ended up reacting like the first, would some raise the alarm or rush to report to the sleeping military officers of the city.

And thus ended the joyful day of the Wedding of Happy Meal and Grand Music. With the ponies of Equestria being woken up at after midnight, to screams of horror, ringing alarms, and the horrified sight. Of the Phantom of the Moon, clutching at one of the stars of the night sky with a massive claw.

Not even the calming words of the Believers or Princess Celestia herself, could make the ponies calm down. And for nearly a week, the ponies of Canterlot, could barely sleep.

(Scene Skip)

Inside of a glowing realm of white clouds and clear blue skies, stood a massive wall of clear white and silvery blue crystal. Spread out like a vast line of crystallized glory and wonder it stretched for miles through the realm, seemingly acting as a border of reality rather then a wall. The vast fortification reached an height, unimaginable for a mortal being to even consider for a wall, it dwarfed most mortal castles with its height.

And beyond it lay an even more brilliant sight.

Buildings, towers and floating crystal structures filled the space behind the vast walls. Each made out of the same silvery blue and white crystal material, stretching upwards until nothing could be seen, for miles upon miles. And there among the top of the skies. From the very peak of the tallest and largest of the structures, there was a bright light shining like a sun, bringing a glorious light upon the realm.

And then there was the gate itself. It was tall and made in an oval shape, with the crystalline material shaped into blue and white wings stretching for quarter of a mile up from the midsection of the gate, until the very peak of the gate was reached, where a massive gemstone of some kind, was shimmering in a light of comforting blue.

While beneath the large winged shaped top of the gate, laid an upside down pyramid shape made out of a pure white material, with a large exotic looking eye embedded with a golden orb as the pupil. Two prismatic cones were sticking out of the ground beneath the oval gate up to quarter of a mile, and thus covering the lower half of the gate.

The two tall cones were framing in the pyramid shape of the lower half of the gate, and it seemed like they were merged with the gate, and thus one could imagine an identical pair of cones were sticking out of the other side. Each of the cones were made out of a dark blue material, not seen on any other part of the walls.

Before the large gates was a pale blue staircase of glass like material, reaching down to a square shaped layer of clouds. And other opposite side of the oddly shaped cloud layer, was a prismatic stream of light flowing downwards towards a floating platform of crystalline like the walls and gate were made of. And upon the center of this platform was a circle made out of what one could imagine being a glowing slime or jell from a distance.

But up close was a different matter. It was made of what looked like glowing solid light, and it was not in a state without motion. No. Within the glowing matter that made up the circle there was a swirling image, something that would remind a human from earth of a vortex one sees when flushing the toilet.

The surface of the circle looked to be flat and motionless, but the imagery upon the surface of the circle was a chaotic vortex that seemed to be flushing golden light and black matter into a endless tunnel that did not appear on the other side of the circle. And just seemed to appear as an image upon a flat surface.

It had been in a state of activity for an unknown time, and it had never changed it shape, colour or size ever since it was active. But as of right now, as of this moment, would something change that.

A green tint of light seemed to spark within the center of the vortex tunnel. At first it seemed like nothing, just a small speck of green discoloring the center. But then it grew more potent and brighter and soon a bright green glow appeared to be moving through the swirling vortex within the circle. Coming towards the flat surface.

And then the surface was broken as a pair of crimson eyes appeared within the green light and an intense rush of heat erupted from the swirling circle And then it erupted. A bright flare of green intense light seared across the cloudy landscape, smearing a bright and intense green glow upon the once white and blue coloured walls of the massive citadel.

The circle was gone. In its stead was a burning pit of jagged stone, spewing forth ash and molten magma upon the once pristine surface of the platform.

And then something moved out of the fiery pit, climbing out of the flowing mass of molten rock and green fire. What emerged was the black furred shape of a horse sized equine, with an exoskeleton like claw for a horn upon its forehead and a large pair of crow like wings sticking out of its side. Dressed in an exotic and dangerous looking armour.

The crimson eyes of the alicorn looked upon the realm around him, and then he let out a disgusted snort. Before he stepped out of the molten pit of stone and fire. As his metal hooves struck the glass like surface of the platform, it obtained a greenish colour upon where he stepped. And as he took another, the green 'stain' he was making spread, like oil upon the surface of water, like an inky mass of green sickness.

He stepped towards the prismatic bridge of light and stepped onto it, the multi coloured bridge let out a loud static like noise as he stepped upon it. And as he stepped upon its surface, turned that point of the bridge into a mass cloud of ash and green cinders.

The bridge of light was slowly transformed from a brilliant beam of solid colour into a bellowing bridge of smoldering ash filled with green coloured cinder.

The stairs before him looked to be quite long, about a mile at least, so he decided to speed things up. And just leaned forward, focused his energy through his legs, and leaped. He came about halfway across the stairs, almost slipping when his hooves struck the glass like staircase. But he could care less, he took another leap and landed before the large gates of the citadel.

Once upon a time he would have been in awe of the place. But because of what he knew, what he had gone through, he knew very well that it was all a lie. The knowledge he had absorbed from the so called angel, offered much information. And thought it was not easy to understand it all, did he get the gist of it. And he knew, that this realm might appear divine and holy. But it was anything but.

He reached out to push the massive gates open when he heard something from above. Leaping back he saw a burning sword strike the ground he had been standing at, it was not the same as the one the angel that invade his mind had been wielding, it was a silvery colour rather then gold and looked much more plain ,except for being on fire. And then an angel, even larger then the one he had fought within his mind, with even thicker wings of light, fell down from above, dressed in a highly refined plate armour out of some silvery blue metal. The large angel had landed before the sword, reached out and gripped the handle, pulled the weapon free, and point it at Maleficus.

"Intruder! Turn away! This is the Gates of Heaven, you are not welcome within the Divine Citadel or the Realm of Heaven! Begone abomination!" The echoing voice of the angel rang out over the silent cloudy realm and the glowing eyes beneath the silver helmet were of a golden colour, rather then white like the other angel's eyes had been.

Maleficus had come to gates that would take him to the inner core of the realm of the heavens, to seek out those who had punished his parents. And he was not going to let some pumped up pigeon winged man with a torch for a sword block his way.

Standing up on his rear legs Maleficus turned his neck, cracking the bones properly into place with metallic cranks. He raised his left front leg and a telekientically pulled the golden sword strapped to his back free and held it out, pointed at the angel before him. "I have come here to give you a resume about one of your employees. They lacked the skill for their services and I did you a favour by terminating their contract. And now I am here, to give you a deeper education in pain, free of charge."

The angel's reacting was hard to discern, the glowing golden light beneath the visor seemed to fade for a few seconds, before reigniting. And then he made a jabbing movement towards the alicorn with a cry of anger coming from his helm. "Foul beast! You shall pay for your insolence!"

A stream of golden fire erupted from the sword and engulfed Maleficus' form, ash and smoke erupted from the impact, but the angel did not let up the assault. More and more fire seared forth and the floor beneath the angel began to to bubble and hiss as the heat of the flames made the glass like surface to melt.

The golden flames suddenly erupted into an explosion of green light. The angel felt his body being pushed back by the explosion, and as the explosion ended, was the upper half of the staircase covered with toxic green and tar black flames.

A thick scent of burning tar and sulfur began to fill the air, and within the sea of green flames, emerged three glowing eyes, two red, with an even darker green eye above the two. And a rumbling voice spoke out from within the fire. "Ooooh? Did I hurt the turkey's feelings? I guess I will just have to leave you alone, with a complaint."

There was a sudden movement from within the fire, and the angel had no time to react as a massive red skinned muscular multi segmented limb lashed out from the fire. At the end of the thick meaty limb was a pitch black stinger the size of a lance. The tip struck the silvery breastplate of the angel, pierced through it, and erupted out of the back. A splatter of golden ichor erupted from the front and back as the angel let out a echoing cry of pain.

Reaching out the angel tried to grip the limb and tear it apart. But then he felt his power begin to fade, and he looked down and stared in horror as the golden ichor that was bleeding out of his body, was being absorbed by the stinger. Thick glowing green veins began to appear over the red flesh of the limb as the ichor was being absorbed. And the limb shivered and twitched, shaking the bleeding angel around like a rag in the wind.

And there was a rumble coming from within the flames, and the limb, and the stinger impaling the angel, began to expand in size. The angel let out another cry of utter agony as the stinger impaled through his torso expanded into twice the size. Then there was a loud sickening crackle as the metal plate split apart, and the angel's upper body split apart, erupting into a spray of golden ichor before collapsing into a pile of ash.

The limb retracted into the flames and the eyes glared up towards the large gates blocking the way. The misshapen form of Maleficus Victoria took a step forward out of the flames. Most of his body was still shrouded by the green flames, but out of the flames, came a thick meaty limb covered with red blood coloured flesh.

Upon its massive tree trunk sized limb were several finger like appendages growing out of the outer sides of the limb, out of the flesh were the joints were located, and along the back of the hoof. At the end of the thick finger like growths were claws sticking out, some just a few inches ,others up to six feet long and bout five inches thick at the base. And at the end of the thick limb, was a large thick and cloven hoof the size of an ox.

The flesh twitched and squirmed beneath the crimson hide as the limb moved, the cawed fingers twisting and grasping as if trying to tear everything nearby apart. The thick hoof was hefted off the ground by the massive limb, raised high, and then it was pushed forward with the speed of a truck. And as the massive hoof struck the crystalline like gates, was a loud crack hear as cracks appeared all over the surface.

The limb was reared back for another punch when a rain of golden spears of light struck the ground before Maleficus' twisted form. with a loud crackling boom was Maleficus sent back into the flames as a shock wave erupted from the strike of golden light. His three eyes glared out of the smoke, ash and flames at where the light had come from.

Up on the top of the gates and the walls was a host of angelic beings, wielding various kinds of silver weapons. Their glowing wings and halos making it appear as if an army of saints had come to battle the lone invader.

"Hear my words abomination! I am the Valor of God! General of the Angelic Host! Your doom shall be swift Intruder! None have dared to invade the Realm of Heaven ever since its foundation! And you and your soul shall pay the ultimate price for your Sins!" A particularly large angel shouted out from the top of the gates, wielding a pair of sickle like blades and dressed in an ashen grey robe with a helmet of red tinted gold on his head.

Maleficus just glared at the anger and his eyes seemed to rise up higher within the flames. "And yet, here I am. Unimpressed. And Unharmed. Geez, who knew the so called 'Angels' of Heaven were such push overs."

It was a taunt, not a complex or even a well hidden one. Most of the angels knew it and did not react to it. But there were far more among them who did NOT enjoy this freak of nature mocking their angelic brethren, or themselves. And sought to bring the truth of Heaven's might to him, through example.

"Kill him!" No one of the angels knew who cried that out but a swarm of over a thousand angels flew toward the flames, bearing swords, spears, axes and many other types of weapons. and then they charged into the flames, unafraid of the consequences, seeking to impale the intruder upon their weapons.

When the first angel flew into the toxic green and tar black flames his glowing wings and halo was practically swallowed out of sight. The angel flew straight towards the three eyes he was watching, only to suddenly feel a sudden pain in his back, and everything went dark.

Next came a group of thirty, they flew like a stream of comets towards the glowing eyes within the fire. But as they came closer upon the eyes, were they intercepted. A forest of blackened claws and jagged spikes erupted out of the lower parts of the flames around them. Before they had a chance to scream, were their celestial bodies impaled upon the spikes in multiple areas, rendering them dead before even a sound could be uttered. They would then disappear as the spikes and claws retracted down into the flames.

Another group, this time a swarm of over a hundred angels, flew like a row of aerial fighters, throwing glowing spears of light into the flames as they flew through them.

A blackened shape came rotating out of the flames around them, an inverted curved claw that looked like a combination of a praying mantis claw and a scythe. The claw had jagged teeth across its entire edge and in a brutal show of strength the claw swung into the row of angels, who had no time to evade or block the ambush, and slammed straight into them.

But they were not just cut in half, no, they were grasped by the saw like claw which then folded itself, and crushed the angels against the rows of jagged spikes and finger like claws coming from the lower portion of its limb. Those who survived the initial impact let out gargled screams of agony ,as the claw began to grind itself against the rows of clawed fingers and spikes, essentially sawing them apart.

Finally a horde of over three thousand swarmed the sea of flames, essentially flooding it with their numbers. they flew towards the glowing eyes, wondering where the earlier attackers had disappeared to. A row of over a thousand lances and swords stabbed towards the glowing eyes, only, for them to pass through the coloured fires that had made up the eyes.

Nothing more then an illusion, or rather, three eye shaped fires coloured differently then the rest.

"Where are you coward!?" The leading angel of the assault force cried out into the realm of fire they found themselves within.

There was a moment of silence, before suddenly a low rumbling was heard, and suddenly the flames went from harmless, to intensely burning. And the angels within them screamed out in pain as they suddenly caught fire within the fires.

Before the first angel could die as he began to fall as his body was being incinerated by the toxic flames, came a giant trio of eyes out of the lower parts of the fires. The massive misshapen head upon which those eyes rested opened its twisted maw and snarled out in a voice that made the area shake and shiver. "Right here."

As the screams died down within the fires the remaining angels outside looked at the toxic green flames in worry. The large angel, who had called himself the General, by the massive gates raised one of his sickles and pointed towards the growing area of green fire. "Fear not his deception! He is but a harmless worm of a twisted mortal soul! Unable to fight our combined might without his trickery! Bombard his cursed sea of fire with our holy light! Cleanse this area of his taint!"

The angels upon the Walls of Heaven reared back their arms, and conjured spears of light in their hands. Before throwing them at the toxic green fire. it was like the stars of the night sky had all decided to gall down at the same spot. The searing heat and brightness of the holy spears were like a second sun.

Sinking into the sea of fires the angels watched patiently as explosions upon explosions erupted within the flames. After a few moments was smoke and ashes flowing out of the flames, but nothing else occurred. Many of the angels looked at each other and their leader with anxiety.

The General frowned and conjured a spear of light himself and chucked it at the sea of fire. This spear was far more powerful then the other spears had been on their own, the explosion it caused was like nuclear bomb, the powerful shock wave, bright light and almost mushroom cloud like effect proved this.

And yet the large angel's eyes widened in as the sea of green and black flames seemed to grow in size after his explosion ended. "Impossible! This mortal may be powerful his he does not have the strength to withstand our combined might!"

A loud chuckle emerged from the sea of fire. And large, heavy and steady crumbling footsteps, which sounded more like large boulders striking ground, began to resounded out over the area. As the intruder within the fires, began to talk, as he walked towards the gates once more. "Ooooh you are partly right about that. I might have been unable to fight you all, ONCE. But as of a few moments ago. That is no longer the case."

"Gather in front of the gates! We shall prevail against this twisted evil and destroy his cursed soul with our might! Let his lies not deceive you from the truth and justness of Our cause!" At the order of the General the angelic hos flew down before the expanding sea of fire, they conjured shields of light, and created a solid phalanx wall of massive shields linked together.

The shield wall looked like a wall of half round lamps, shining like a wall of skylights at the twisted sea of fire before them. Behind the slowly growing mass of fire, were the clouds started to grow darker, sparks began to emit from the blackened clouds as green cinders and blackened ash flew out of the dark flames and into their sky.

All the while the massive steps echoing out from within the flames grew louder and heavier as they came closer to the gates and the wall of angels protecting it.

"Hold fast! No being can breach our shields! Hold strong and add support to one another! Let us all hold back the approaching plague and render its efforts futile!" The General cried out as he flew above the Angelic host, his sickles held out, one of them pointed at the sea of fire, while the other was pointing at the angels bellow him.

The steps grew more rapid and the entire foundation of the ground that supported the angel's city began to shiver and quake. And a loud rumbling voice, erupted like thunder out of the flames. As a massive shape could be seen, moving with a steady galloping momentum towards the angels. Three enormous eyes staring out from the upper portion of the massive being. "Oh that's where you're wrong. Here. Let me show you."

And then a massive cloven hoof the size of a truck erupted out of the flames, and a massive spike and claw decorated limb, covered in black flesh decorated with cracks of red, the size of a tower followed. The angels stood fast and tried to repel the massive limb but it was no use. The large hoof crushed a large group of shield bearing angels beneath its massive shape. Then a second limb reached out and did the same.

Then emerged a twisted head, in the shape of a mixture between a horse, a dragon and what could only be described as a spider's lower jaw. The upper portion of the head had a equine shape, with draconic features, scales, horns and spikes sticking out of it, all in black and red colouring. With a pair of crimson eyes upon the sides with a third toxic green eye staring out from the forehead, where a unicorn's horn would normally be growing.

The lower portion of the head had a split jaw, which ended with a pair of hook like triangular fangs, a row of triangular fangs along the inside of the split jaw, which open and closed with thick slimy membranes and veins acting as muscles to move them. A long blood red tongue with black veins hung out like a thick meaty rope, drooling green slime over the ground.

Down the neck was a row of thick plate like scales, reaching down to a thick lower body with the lower areas from the throat to the stomach covered in thick scales. the upper back from the base of the neck was covered in thick black spikes with green veins, their jagged forms going down the entire back, even along the shoulders, and eventually down along a long serpentine tail with spikes growing along its entire length until ending into a row of claw like spikes.

The rib cage of the front of the creature was bare and twisted open, revealing a thick ooze of green slime filled with dark shapes pressing their skeletal wings and hands against the surface of the slime ,as if trying to get free.

Out of the back where a pair of wings had been in his Alicorn form was a pair of massive multi jointed arms with a row of large meaty fingers with sharp claws sticking out of them along the elbows. On the inside of the elbows were lines of pulsing green skinless flesh, almost insect like, that looked like cables. And out of the end of the massive limbs were black, long, sharp, and needle like claws reaching the size of flagpoles, they were not straight, instead they had in a slight inverted curve.

As the massive creature emerged out of the sea of fire, ash and smoke, it roared out a gargled screech that was like the combined sound of a stone grinder and a screeching bird of prey. The sound was so intense, so vibrant and loud, that the shock waves from it was visible to the naked eye. And they struck the angel who had called himself the Valor of God, and even as the massive creature stomped through the gathered angels, was the General screaming out in pain while clutching his eyes as he flew backwards.

Right into the central section of the cracked gate.

[Start Battle Music: Skillet - Monster]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9NStVkSCuk

[Lyrics Altered by Staadnauthursil.

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of this music, nor the music video, the lyrics I have slightly altered and thus are not the original, in their entirety. And nor am I posting this video to cause copyright infringements for the one who posted it. Please support the official music and its creators. And please support those who make it possible to listen to these wonderful songs on youtube.]

There was the sound of cracking and breaking glass, before the massive crystalline gate shattered and began to fall apart. And a deep resonating music began to sound through out the realm of the Heavens. And as the massive body of Maleficus Victoria, smashed through the parts of the collapsed gates, and his voice began to sing out without his jaws moving.

"The secret side of me, I never let them see."

The Angelic Host, scattered by the massive monster that had just torn through the very Gates of Heave, flew up to retake formations as the intruder slammed down a massive hoof upon the prone shape of the general, crushing him.

"I've kept it caged but now I don't want to contain it!"

Maleficus charged into a massive crystalline structure and broke through it, the shards of crystal like material flew out across the streets as he stomped forward. The collapsing structure fell with a loud groan, causing several more buildings to be torn apart by the impact.

"So I hope you are happy now, this beast is ugly."

A swarm of angels flew aroudn his head, trying to spear his skull with their magical spears of holy light. But his scales were too thick and as soon as they got too close, his jaws opened and he lout a horrific screech that shook the very air around him.

"Can you feel the rage now that I don't restrain it!"

The strength of the screech was enough to tear dozens of angels to shreds with sheer pressure alone. All nearby buildings and structures shattered by the intensity of the shockwave, while the taller buildings collapsed as the lower sections shattered.

"It's scratching on your walls, from the darkness, it enters your halls!"

Rearing back a massive limb Maleficus punched through another building, his clawed limbs lashed out like a pair of spider legs and actively impaled angel after angel, until they had to slam the twitching corpses against a structure to get room for more.

"It has comes awake and I choose to not control it!"

A swarm of large winged beasts bearign a strange resemblance of angel winged cherubs the size of yachts, flew down from the light coming from the massive tower at the center of the crystalline tower. The sixteen wheel sized winged babies let out holy Gloria choir like cries, as their bodies began to emitting intense light so bright it was burning the lesser angels.

"Once hidden with my dread, in my body, in my head!"

One of the Cherubs flew like a suicide bomber at the charging creature destroying the holy city by the gates. Maleficus answered the glowing giant baby's challenge, by grabbing hold of a large sharp piece of a fallen structure, and chucked it like a javelin.

"Why would somebody come and make me call for it!?"

A loud and meaty thunk was heard, followed by a choir like cry of agony, as the Cherub found its massively over-sized head impaled by the improvised weapon. As it fell into the ground, Maleficus stomped over the corpse, and impaled the head with one of his talons. And then he reared back and used the cherub as an improvised flail to swat down a swarm of angels.

"This shall be your end!"

Then something weird happened, as Maleficus' claw was impaling the Cherub's head, began his shape to twitch and spasm, as if experiencing nerve twitches. And as it did so, began his muscles to expand, the spikes upon his back began to grow. His tail grew out as he grew in size, and suddenly, out from a geyser of green goo, erupted a pair of massive insectoid claw like limbs out from the rear part of his body where the tail had been expanding.

"I feel it deep within, it's just beneath the skin!"

Maleficus rushed towards a tall egg shaped building, his new pair of limbs adding to his speed as he ran up onto the egg and jumped off it and onto a large tower. And began to use his clawed legs and arms to climb the crystal structure like a siz legged lizard.

"I must confess that I feel like a monster!"

Two Cherubs flew towards him, their glowing shapes melting parts of the crystal structures as they approached. But Maleficus was unconcerned and just focused on climbing, until he was on top of the tower.

"See just what I've become, but the nightmare's just begun!"

The two massive baby angels let out Gloria choir calls as they released golden lasers from their eyes at the twisted shape before them. Maleficus went low, slide down to the edge of the tower's peak. And then with a hefty push of his six lower limbs, jumped off the tower, making it fall as the force behind his push broke it off its foundation.

"I must confess that I feel like a monster!"

He flew through the air for a few moments, before his two forelegs slammed into the emotionless faces of the massive Cherubs. As he did so were several dozens of angels, impaled upon the spikes and claws upon his body, covering him in a rain of golden ichor. With fine precision, even as he began to fall down with the two giant baby angels held by his forelegs, he impaled their heads with his talon like arms.

"I, I feel like a monster!

Maleficus and the Cherubs struck the round rooftop of a large temple like structure. They crashed down upon a garden of crystal trees and fountains. The weight behind Meleficus' massive body shattered the cherub's heads beneath his hooves, spraying golden ichor across the area, without any meaty parts.

"I, I feel like a monster!

Once more the golden ichor was absorbed and Maleficus' shape began to twitch and spasm within the collapsing structure. His three eyes were narrowed as he gazed towards the sky above the collapsing building, where he could see an army of Cherubs and Angels fly down the the massive pillar.

"My secret side I kept hidden under lock and key!

As the building collapsed upon him, shrouding his shape in a dust cloud of crystalline matter, began the Cherubs and Angels to bombard the area with beams and spears of light. After a few moments of nonstop firing they relented and waited for the strike point to be revealed.

"I've kept it caged but now I can't bother to control it!

What was revealed as a section of the massive cloud of dust and smoke opened. Within this crack in the sea of smoke and fire was a massive area of molten crystalline glass. The angels let out a cheer of victory over the intruder. But then they noticed something. The song the intruder was singing, was not over, and his voice had not stopped singing either.

"'Cause now that I've let him out he'll tear you up, break you down!

And that's when a massive clawed limb the size of a skyscraper erupted out from beneath the angels and cherubs. It impaled seven Cherubs upon it before a second limb reached out, this one in the shape of a three fingered talon, grabbed hold of five Cherubs and several dozens of angels, before crushing them like grapes.

"Now despair for nobody shall come and save you from this, or make it end!

And then a massive tail covered in jagged spikes swung out and hundreds of angels were smashed apart by the force of the strike and the wind of the limb itself. As the tail finally disappeared emerged out of the burning city below, the remaining forces of heaven began to desperately to fire upon the large black shape that was now revealed, moving across the ruins like a massive snake.

"I feel it deep within, it's just beneath the skin!

The sound of flesh tearing, bones grinding, body fluids pumping and ooze bubbling could be heard from the massive cloud of ash, smoke and fire. And that's when the angels took notice of another horrific revelation, one fourth of their city was burning with green and black coloured fires.

"I must confess that I feel like a monster!

A massive trio of glowing eyes appeared within the smoke, larger then the limb that had emerged out of the smoke a few moments prior. The eyes moved forward, up and out of the fire and smoke, and revealed, just how big Maleicus had become.

"I hate what I've become, the nightmare's just begun!

His head was the size of a castled, his body had grown and expanded over a hundred new limbs along the length it had grown, he looked like some kind of demonic centipede combined with a demonic horse slash dragon at the front. And the massive head, opened its monstrous jaws, and let out a sound that made all of the angels above it, break apart.

"I must confess that I feel like a monster!

Maleficus ignored the raining drops of ichor and resumed his march towards the massive tower. Even as large as he had grown was he but a small worm compared to the tower's size. But he was not concerned about this. He was not her to bother with the technicalities.

"I feel it deep within, it's just beneath the skin!"

He was there for a very simple thing. Vengeance.

"I must confess that I feel like a monster!"

As the monstrous hundred legged creature that was Maleficus reached the base of the tower, reacted the glowing sun at the top of the pillar. And a swarm of Cherubs began to pour down, as well as another being that flew down with them, whatever it was was it even larger then the Cherubs. Even larger then Maleficus' current form.

"I, I feel like a monster!"

Maleficus took no notice of this as he was focusing on using his vast number of monstrous limbs to grip and climb the crystalline surface of the tower in a circular motion. Intent on climbing up to the top.

"I, I feel like a monster!"

A beam of light struck at him, not damaging the tower at all, but nearly splitting his body in half as it seared his flesh. He turned and glared at what was approaching, and almost lost his grip at what he saw.

"I am hiding in the dark, my teeth are razor sharp!

It was an island sized angel in the shape of a buxom woman dressed as a nun, bearing two large glowing wings and a veil over her large face. In her left hand was a Sword, and in her right, was a scale. Her skin was pitch dark and she had no halo, only hair of golden fire.

"There's no escape for you, I wants your soul, I wants your heart!

"I am the Justice of God, and you are to be punished for your crimes." Her booming voice did not stop his ascent, but he could not risk her hitting him, instead he made a move across the circular surface of the tower, and as the large angel reached out to crush him, he jumped off and landed on her hand.

"No one can hear you scream, know this is not a dream!

He crawled beneath the sleeves of her outfit and began to crawl up her arm towards her shoulders. The angel screeched out in a strange and alien voice, but it was clearly not pleased by having him crawling on it. A large hand the size of his own body tried to crush him beneath the cloth.

"Now that it's inside of you, join this monster!

Maleficus crawled around and into the armpit as the hand tried to crush him. Not stopping he went past the armpit and onto her back ,where the joints of her wings were sticking out. And even as she screeched at him to stop, he reared back both of his claws, and strapped them into the base of her wings, and began to tear and rip into the flesh, spraying golden ichor out like fountains as the angel screamed out in pain as Maleficus began to dig his way into her body

"You feel me deep within..."

The angel let out a cry of despair as the misshapen creature tore his way into her back. She could feel his skittering limbs tear and rip through her sacred flesh. His voice rumbled out from her body even as she stabbed the places she felt him move with her sword.

"I'm just beneath your skin..."

The pain grew larger and she could feel him growing within her body, his shape was squirming within her flesh and appeared like a large centipede was growling beneath her black skin. She slammed her back against the tower and tried to crush him within herself, even going so far as to have a swarm of Cherubs tear and rip at her skin whenever his crawling form could be seen. Her outfit was torn to shreds, thus leaving her naked shape laid bare to the Real of heaven as she twitched and squirmed against the Tower while trying to tear out the thing burrowing within her.

"You must confess that I..."

There was suddenly a moment of nothing as the shape stopped moving, Justice thought he had perished and let out a breath of relief. But then her eyes widened, as she felt her stomach bulge.

"Feel like a MONSTER!"

In a geysers of golden ichor, and what could only be described as 'intestinely' awful, erupted Maleficus out from the angel's lower stomach, his shape now growl to equal her size. And as he crawled out of her was her intestines dragged out ,as well as her other internal organs. The angel let out of a wailing cry of utter agony, unable to take the pain and horror she was experiencing, so when the creature climbed over her head she did nothing to stop it as it, in a brutal show of mercy, crushed her head.

"You may hate what I've become, but the nightmare's just begun!"

The Justice of God fell down from the tower, her headless, naked and nearly dissected body turning into ash before it even hit the ground. While Maleficus resumed to crawl up the tower, his shape was still growing and as he reached the half point mark was his body expanding as much down as it was going up.

"I must confess that I feel like a monster!"

With Justice dead the Cherubs were inactive, unable to act without a command, and no angels had approached the battle or been seen since Maleficus screamed them to death. But his progress would not be left unchallenged, as when he reached the halfway point he came upon a large platform sticking out around the large tower, and two large winged behemoths, equal to the size of Justice, stood before him.

They hefted their weapons, one holding a large sword and the other holding nothing but a massive thick shield. Their bodies dressed in fine white robes, one of them bearing a hood with a crimson halo while the second had a helmet with a cross visor on it, with a blue halo. They spoke as one as they stood in his way. "Halt Intruder! You shall not pass! Prepare to face the might of the Sword and Shield of God!"

"You see it deep within, it's just beneath the skin!"

Maleficus charged forward, his body was almost half the length of the tower by now, but his thickness was about one third greater then the height of the angels. So he would not bother playing games and just rushed at them. Shield rushed in front of Sword, and hefted his shield against the massive centipede like demonic force before him.

"You must confess that I look like a monster!"

A shield the size of an island, a force to defend as much as to protect. And yet its massive form, was dented by the impact of the rushing shape of Maleficus as he slammed his two forelegs with their now mountain sized hooves into the front of the shield. The force of the impact was enough to send Shield crashing into the wall of the tower.

"I've gotta lose control, here's something radical!"

"Die abomination!" Sword cried out as he charged from the side, having used Shield's shield to hide from sight as to flank the enemy. His efforts were proven futile however when a bulge of flesh grew out of Maleficus side and a limb bearing a sharp looking mutated crab claw, erupted out like a mutated tumor growth, and grabbed his sword.

"I must confess that I feel like a monster!"

"Sword!" Shield cried out as he charged to aid his fellow angel, his large shield held for a large tackle against Maleicus' shape. But Maelficus was not playing games, and even if he was would he not even bother playing fair. He ripped the sword out of Sword's hands and brutally threw it, point first, at Shield.

"I, I feel like a monster!"

The sword penetrated not only the shield, but Shield's head behind it, making the angel fall down with a slump ont othe ground. While Sword cried out in despair at the sight of Shield dying by his sword. "Shield! No!"

"I, I feel like a monster!"

His cries were silenced into gurgling as three spike like claws impaled his body from behind through the neck, the chest and the head. The angel splattered and twitched before falling limp. Maleicus then impaled the dead shape of Shield, and kept going up the tower, his size expanding ever further with the absorbed powers of Shield and Sword.

"I, I feel like a monster!"

Even as his song began to reach its end, even as his flesh and bones expanded beyond the height of the massive tower, even as the he saw the top. He knew his goal, and he would fulfill it, one way or another.

"I, I feel like a monster!"

And with a final roar he reached out with his cloven hoof and heaved his body up onto the top of the tower.

[End Battle Music]

(Scene Skip)

Seven tall angels dressed in fine robes and armour were gathered upon the peak of the tallest building of the Divine Citadel, the Tower of God. They were the Seraphim, the Arch Angels of Heaven, and it was their sworn duty to protect God and the interests of Heaven.

Already had five of their numbers fallen to the intruder, Gatekeeper, Valor, Justice, Sword and Shield. But the remaining members were unconcerned. For while the intruder may have dealt with the five weakest of their council, would he no doubt fall to the collective might of their remaining seven members.

Floating above the massive open top of the tower was a massive clear glass orb, the size of a large island. Within its clear surface was a swarm of white shapes, moving in a rotating pattern within the orb like a swarm of fish. They were the source of the strong light emitting over the Heavens.

The orb was decorated with a massive triangular shaped band of gold, bearing countless sigils, symbols and runes. With a circle shaped seal upon the center of the triangle bad, bearing a triangle with a circle inside of it ,with a smaller triangle inside of the circle, with a smaller circle within the smaller triangle. All of these markings were glowing with a bright blue light.

Above the massive orb were two floating platforms the size of small islands. Each of them were bearing seven golden swords embedded into seven pedestals. Well one of these swords were missing on the right platform as one of the pedestals were empty.

Connected to the two platforms with a pair of ramparts was a hexagon shaped platform with a four clawed bottom, and a circle shaped contained on the top of the platform, holing a pool of blue liquid.

[Start Combat Music: Immediate Music - The Path I Have Chosen (Epic Choral Action)]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gKLrvkGUvk

[Disclaimer: I do not own this music nor the music video. All parts belong to the original creators and I am not claiming ownership of anything. Please support the official releases and support the great youtubers who make these great music videos.]

The calm and serene nature of the area was being disturbed by screams, explosions, the sound of battle, and the tell tale roar of a monster. But the seven remained where they were standing, completely assured of their superior strength. Even as the tower began to shake and shiver and massive heavy clicking and cracking sounds could be heard.

Then a massive cloven hoof reached up from over the edge of the top of the tower and rasped onto the flat surface, and then the monstrous head of Maleficus rose over as his second row of legs grasped onto the top of the rows, sinking twisted and jagged claws into its surface. The massive centipede like monstrosity that his body had taken shape of rose up higher and higher, until he was almost at the same height as the lower half of the floating orb.

The angels were not intimidated by his size, even as he stood above their mountain sized bodies, they felt assurance in their own might to make him pay for his crimes.

"You know why I am here." The monstrous voice of the abomination rumbled out as his three eyes glared upon them.

"Foul twisted mortal! You have invaded the Realm of Heaven, broken the Sacred Walls and Sanctum of the Divine Citadel and desecrated the Tower of God with your presence!" A female Arch Angel spoke out in defiance to his words, nto answering his statement.

"Oh I highly doubt this place could be called heaven, nor do I think any God worth his salt would let something like this occur. After all, with parasites like you draining the power of human souls for your own ends, doesn't strike me as very Holy, at all." There was a collective silence as the Arch Angels gripped their weapons.

It was true, they were not in fact divine beings. This realm was one they had created, utilizing the souls of dead humans who had passed on. Taken before they could reach their intended afterlife.

In other words, this Realm of Heaven, was nothing more, then a Realm of Thieves. But they would never reveal this to anyone, not even those who knew the truth.

After all, once this intruder was dead, there was no need to fear him spreading the truth.

"In the name of God, I the Voice of God, say this. Destroy this foolish mortal for his lies." The female spoke out once more, holding out a golden scroll before her, and the arch angels held out their hands. And began their attack upon the intruder.

The Arch Angels fired beams of golden light out from their palms. All were aimed at Maleficus' massive head.

But he was prepared for this, there was a sickening crunching and ripping sound as his scales and flesh split apart on his head from his snout to his neck. And then, the split skin began to pull to the sides. And there was a loud sickening crack, as his skull, brain, throat and spine were cracked apart, and fell left and right.

He had effectively split his own head apart. And thus made the powerful laser beams fly past his split skull and then reassembled it together. A massive limb lashed out, the angel with the ribbons cried out as her stomach was pierced by a massive needle like claw.

Another Seraphim tried to save her by cutting off the claw with his scythe, only for one of the large finger claw on the limb to reach out and impale him through the head. The female died a few seconds after he did.

"Death and Hope are gone." Voice stated to the remaining five who refocused their efforts in destroying Maleficus, this time summoning forth pillars of fire, swarms of insects, swords of ice and other mass area attacks. But the thick body of the transformed alicorn was able to tank the strikes.

Maleficus opened his jaws and a swarm of skeletal angels erupted from his maw, they flew like howling banshees towards the Arch Angels. Crying out for aid while tearing at them with skeletal limbs.

The two remaining male angels combined their spears and fired a focused blast of plasma upon the specters, the swarm was dispersed, for a few seconds. Before it overwhelmed the pair, as they struggled to fight off the spirits, were they slowly but surely torn apart, bit by bit until nothing remained and the specters disappear, as Maleficus closed his jaws.

"This is not good, both Wisdom and Sight are gone now, this just leaves three of us." A Seraphim stated as she swung her axe through a set of tentacles with screaming beaks.

Voice spoke out to them, even as she conjured a swarm of diamonds to tear a massive claw to shreds. "Do not falter Courage and Love! As long as I remain I can restore everything that God has let us create through the Divine Scroll!"

She realized the error of what she had just said when Maleficus turned his eyes on her and spoke up with a smirk on his draconian jaws. "Oooh? So as long as I take out you or your scroll, there will be no more issues in taking out the rest."

"Voice look out!" Courage cried out as she tried to shield her from a limb of flesh covered with jagged iron spikes. She was crushed for her efforts.

The silent Love, even with just her and Voice, swung her morning star at Maleficus' head. But he just caught the orb, ignoring the searing holy fire burning his flesh, and yanked it. Love blinked in surprise when a limb that ended into the jaws of a shark appeared before her, and bit down, devouring her whole, before a row of saw like tear, ripped her to shreds inside.

She never made a sound even as her ichor was released out from the closed teeth, it looked the shark mouth was drooling gold. And Voice, realizing she was on her own. Decided to take desperate measures.

The Voice of God flew upwards, bearing her scroll, and raised it high to summon an intense fire equal to the surface of the sun upon the top of the Tower of God to incinerate the intruder. Or she would have, had not her left arm, which was holding the scroll, and her two legs, to been sliced off her body when a swarm of piranha faced worms erupted out of a massive boil on Maleficus thirty seventh limb. She fell crying out in agony and shock, but still alive.

Maleficus snorted at he downed angel, one of his many limbs reaching out and taking away her golden scroll. He then looked up and raised his upper body high to look at the massive orb the so called angels had called God. "I learned more and more of you and your race of parasites as I devoured you. But you 'arch angels' held the most knowledge. Especially about... this. The so called 'God'."

He looked at the swirling shapes within the orb with am upset expression on his monstrous face. "A massive orb used to trap human souls. Constantly growing to adapt for the constant influx of souls you thieves take. Using your Soul Stealing Swords to steal souls form other realms, before absorbing them into the orb. You also take those who have died or hoped for a peaceful afterlife, lie to them, give them a false sense of hope, false promises and a fake heaven. Fooling them to think of your Divine Citadel as Heaven. And then you seal them here to power your sick little race of soul snatchers."

Voice coughed and placed her remaining hand at her bleeding stump and glared up at the twisted freak who had invaded the realm she and her kind had worked so painstakingly long to build. But she had an ace, as long as the freak killed her she would resurrect by using the power of the souls making up God, it was a crude way to reassemble yourself but she knew she had little other choice if the Realm of Heaven was to survive.

So she kept her mouth shut and began to trace the magic upon herself as the thing kept talking. "I can only guess my parents were only able to contact me because they had yet to be taken to 'meet' God. Feh. God. It's nothing more then a giant battery for you parasites to utilize the power of human souls for your own purposes. This is not the Heaven my parents were told of."

Then she knew things were starting to turn bad, when the unnatural mortal did not just kill her after speaking those lines. And she looked up, to see him glaring at her. But not approaching, and she felt a chill, wondering if the creature knew about her power of resurrection by sacrificing human souls.

"And this is not the Heaven they were promised. Trapped within a large glass orb to be processed into power for you parasites to use like common batteries." Maleficus growled out as he glared down upon the badly wounded arch angel as her golden ichor poured out and stained the once clear blue crystal floor of the tower.

His massive centipede like body raised its front part and the monstrous form of Maleficus began to gag and hack, before with a loud wet splat, he barfed out something from his split jaws. A golden sword fell down, covered in green and black slime from the interior of Maleficus' massive body.

Before the weapon could strike the ground it was gripped by a pincer like claw sticking out of one of the many misshapen limbs of Maleficus' body. The sword was raised up and Maleficus glared upon it, before glaring towards the orb that was 'God'. "This Soul Taker was used to take my parents within it. Now it shall be used, to free not only them, but all whom you have held prisoner here."

"Look upon your false God, one last time. For now. It ends." He reared back his twisted limb and with a wordless shout threw the golden sword like a javelin, it flew with a screech towards the clear glass frame of the orb with the speed of a falling star. The swirling mass of white figures within the orb, watched as the sword flew towards their prison.

But then the voice of the arch angel cried out as she flew up and held out her one remaining arm, and conjured a shield of diamond like crystal to block the sword. "Nooooo! You shall not destroy God!"

[End Combat Music]

There was a loud resound king crackle, like lightning striking ground, as the sword struck the angel's shield. There was a bright blinding light from the impact, a loud pained scream, and then a loud crack was heard. And as the light subsided, was the angel slammed into the frame of the massive orb. Cracks had taken shape upon the surface behind her. But compared to the rest of the orb's massive size were they not even one thousands of the size.

Panting the angel held up her remaining hand and glared at the demonic creature that had nearly cost her everything. Her hood had been torn off by the explosion, exposing a humanoid head of black energy, with hair of golden fire. With the golden hair exposed, and her hood gone, was her once glorious halo no longer there. Even with her bright white wings she looked far from angelic in Maleficus' eyes.

"You insane freak! You nearly destroyed everything! Countless years of efforts! This entire realm is tied to God! If you destroy it will Heaven be no more and these souls lost! All for your misguided sense of right and wrong! There are no such things! They are inventions made up by your human society! All it takes to alter them is your own opinion which may as well be clay with how much you change them!" Her ranting echoed over the decimated tower, her fury almost making the entire area shake and shiver.

Maleficus just stared at her, unimpressed. "Well that's just YOUR opinion then."

She sputtered and almost frothed in fury. But then Maleficus spoke up again,and her eyes widened. "But your opinion matters little, parasite. The opinion of those you have held prisoner, matters more if you ask me."

[Start Dramatic Cut Scene Music: Calliope Music - Testament (Epic Grandious Orchestral)]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpHcvSWkkSI

[Disclaimer: I do not own this video, nor do I proclaim myself to do so. The music is owned by its creators. Please support the creators of this wonderful music and those who are making such fine music videos with them.]

And he turned to look up at God, and she looked over her shoulder, and felt a slight shiver as she saw that the souls within the orb of God, were no longer moving. They were all motionlessly still, floating in place like a horde of onlookers, looking down at her and the intruder, as if noticing them for the first time.

Then that accursed interloper opened his jaws and spoke out to their audience. His voice echoing out over the peak of the tower, resonating across the Realm of Heaven.

"Hear me! Souls of Mankind! You are trapped within a shell made to power the ambitions and desires of these false angels! You are forever trapped with a giant glass orb, forever to be utilized like a source of power! No better then pigs being harvested for their meat!"

"So I ask you! Now that you have a choice! Do you intend to remain like this!? Trapped forever in a ball of glass!? Or do you take this chance to make a choice!? Now that your freedom and liberty are mere inches away! Remaining trapped here or finally freeing yourselves! WHAT DO YOU CHOOSE!?"

The word echoed over the area and for a few moments a breath was held.

Then the arch angel let out a sigh o relief and turned with a smirk towards the demon like creature before her and spoke at him with an arrogant voice. "Your efforts are futile, they do not wish to forsake God by breaching the orb! Humanity will not submit to the whims and lies of a twisted creature like-"

And that's when it happened. A single spectral being of white, almost transparent, moved towards one of the cracks, and reached out with a spectral hand. And gripped the handle of the sword, and began to visibly try to pull it. It did not budge and inch.

"Fool you cannot hope to breach my power with such a futile attempt! Return to God and know peace again! Do not listen to the monster before you!" The angel said with an unconcerned tone. But Maleficus' face just smirked at her as he witnessed the soul struggling to push the sword through the diamond like shield of the angel.

And that's when another soul flew towards the cracks. It too squeezed through the tiny gaps of the cracks in the glass. It too reached out with spectral hands and began to tug at the sword. Still no real effect.

The angel started laughing at this point. But Maleficus just smiled and slowly raised his head up closer and looked upon the soul's struggling to push the sword. And then he looked at the rest of the human souls trapped within the sphere. And he could see them looking at each other in contemplation. Before slowly, another brave soul left he hesitant billions and slipped through the cracks, and also joined in the efforts.

Now three souls had pushed out of the cracks and were pushing at the sword. And then a group of four slipped out. They too gripped the sword and began to pull and push it towards the orb. Then a group of seven followed. And a group of ten. Twelve. Twenty. Thirty. Forty. Fifty.

And then, like an invisible dam had been broken, flooded the souls of humanity towards the cracks and urged over the startled angel to grip the sword holding their salvation.

More and more spectral being flew out of the orb and gripped the sword, it was like a spiraling hurricane of ghosts trying to push the final nail into their own coffin. And as thousands upon thousands slipped through the cracks, the pressure of the sword began to increase.

And slowly, cracks began to appear upon the surface of the angel's diamond like shield.

She let out a scream of utter despair at the sight and frantically swung her wings at the mass of souls before her, they scattered like locust for a few seconds, before returning like angry wasps and pushed even harder against the sword.

"Noooo! What are you doing!? Stop it! This is blasphemy! Do not defy God!" She cried out as she frantically tried to push even more power into the shield while pushing away the souls.

But her efforts were in vain. As when the sword slide deeper and deeper through the shield. The resounding echo of a billion voices, rumbled out from the orb that was 'God'.

"WE HAVE CHOSEN!!!"

And then the sound of breaking glass was heard, as the sword split through the angel's shield. The golden blade's tip penetrated through her chest, right below the throat, making her release a strangled echoing cry of agony. Then the blade, and the angel, were impaled into the cracked surface of the orb.

As the blade struck the orb, the sword itself began to glow. And the souls of humanity, were sucked up by the sword, and entered the arch angel's body, and exited through the tip of the sword inside of the orb, then moved out of the orb, and entered the sword.

Resume and repeat.

The arch angel's body was growing bloated and crackling with golden light, as more and more power went through the sword, through her body, and into the orb. Cracks began to grow over the orb as the arch angel's power began to run out of control and she screamed out in strangled agony while the smirking form of Maleficus looked at her.

"Poetic Justice. At its finest, don't you agree? Enjoy your final moments with your 'God', parasite. Let this wicked place end with you, your lies and your false Heaven." With that final taunt spoken, Maleficus' massive body broke apart into blackened ash and green cinder, the corpses and ichor of countless angels spilling out of his grotesque form as it broke apart.

Like a massive organic domino filled with corpses of angels, the massive centipede like body began to burst apart, spilling its gory content all over the Divine Citadel from the top of the Tower of God an down towards the Celestial Wall.

Back by the Gates of Heaven, the tail end of the massive body burst apart and Maleficus, back to his alicorn form, ran down the cracking and burning realm that was the so called Heaven. The burning pit that was his exit out of this realm was looking rather unstable and the alicorn speed up his momentum even more.

And then ,as he was mere inches away from the portal. The false arch angel, known as the Voice of God, let out a final gargled cry. Before detonating, and the Orb of God, shattered along with her. A bright light shoot out from the ruined peak of the Tower of God, breaking apart everything it touched. Right at the same moment as Maleficus jumped into the portal pit.

The light reached his location in a near instance and the no longer transformed alicorn found himself flung faster then intended through the pit and felt himself lose the connection he had on the other end. As both it and the fake realm known as the Realm of Heaven, disintegrated into nothingness.

[End Dramatic Cut Scene Music]

(Scene Skip)

In a realm of pitch dark sky and snow fields was a single portal of black and green flames was illuminating the landscape with its sickening glow. Just a bit away from it was Princess Luna watching the vortex intently, now that the mindscape was more or less restored she could sense the proper passage of time again.

It had been a week since Maleficus left his mindscape through the portal he had opened after devouring the strange intruder who had taken his parents' souls.

She was getting a bit worried that he had bitten off more then he could handle. But then the portal began to pulse and shiver, as if it was being stretched and torn at by invisible claws.

At first she intended to move forward to try and stabilize it to keep Maleficus from being lost to his own mind. Then she saw something moving through the center of the portal's vortex like structure. And decided to get out of the way as the familiar shape of a certain black stallion came flying towards her.

The portal detonated like a small bomb and a loud collection of meaty thumps was heard, but Luna saw none of the actual movements as sh e was busy having her head buried into two hooves height's worth of snow.

As she pulled her head out of the snow she saw the rising shape of Maleficus as he struggled to stand up, only to fall over a bit.

Walking over to the disoriented stallion she gently reached out and helped him stand. "Are you okay Maleficus? What happened within that portal?"

Maleficus rubbed his head, trying to remember he was not in the shape of a massive monster centipede, nor did he have the power of several thousands of angels anymore. It was disorienting to go from being so powerful to less powerful. It was like he would have to learn how to walk all over again.

"Let's just say that things did not turn out as intended. Though I still managed to free both of my parents, did I do much more then that. I will explain later, for now, I really need to wake up and move my body. I need to be alone for a bit." His body faded from the mindscape and Luna looked after his disappearing shape in concern, but then the snowy field vaporized, and reformed into the familiar looking building she had been hosted inside.

"Well I might as well go and watch something, been too long without a TV." She said to herself before striding into the entertainment room and sat down on the couch, and for the first time in over half a decade, she relaxed. Which was only possibly now that Maleficus had recovered.

(Scene Skip)

It is day upon Equestria, but on the other side of the planet, is something most interesting occurring. Upon the surface of the Moon, the clutching shape of the Phantom. And as Maleficus returned to his mindscape, with the fake divine realm destroyed, the Phantom broke the star.

Its burning eyes grew narrow as it clutched its talon one final time around the golden star, and a bright flare of light illuminates the world beneath it. Those down upon the surface staring in fear at the sight of the dark fire burning upon the surface of the moon, destroys one of the stars of the sky.

The spectral fire retrieved its limb back and laid downs its head upon the surface of the moon once more. Returned to its original position, it stopped moving. But the action it had taken had been noticed the world over through out the week. And thus, things were going to get a bit different, now that the denizens of the world had realized something.

Whatever the fire on the moon was, was it not as inactive as they had once thought.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus' eyes opened and he stood up from the sand of the moon's surface. His body was heavy and unsteady, but he felt much better then inside of his mind. Slowly he walked towards the Interface, the floating structure of solid light screens began to shine and shift as he approached it and he smiled a bit as several screens lit up with images and texts.

Sitting down on the snow he reached out to the oldest of the reports and began to watch and read it. He had a lot of things to catch up on before he could resume his work.

And so the alicorn sat there, swiping through the screens, watching, listening and reading. Scowling at some parts, smiling at others. And when he saw the wedding of his two young charges, he smiled and cried tears of joy, tracing his hoof over the image of the happy couple hugging each other. *I wish I could have been there.*

He let out a deep sigh and kept going through the flux of information. And that's when he came upon a specific set of information about a specific set of beings, his eyes grew wide. He quickly reached out and activated the viewing function of the Interface, the screens with information floated away and the large floating line of circle shaped disks shifted in angle towards a specific point of the planet above him.

Standing up on his hind legs Maleficus conjured forth a sphere of moon sand and infused it with magic, forming its once grainy mass into a fluid mass of light. And then he shaped the mass from a shapeless lump of clay into a pyramid. He then focused and lines of runes began to etch themselves into the surface of the Solid Light, before being absorbed.

As the final line of runes disappeared he let the pyramid float up a bit and closed his eyes, and the pyramid, suddenly went fro ma white colouration to a mixture of black and green. Before erupting into a black mass of almost oil thick gas. The gaseous shape suddenly altered its form and took on the shape of the front body of a pony, with the back body being a black, almost slime like, mass of smog.

Three eyes appeared upon the head of the gaseous shape, two red on the left and right sides were the eyelids were, and a green one appeared upon the forehead. The shape looked around a bit, testing out its body movements, then it looked upon the still form of Malefiucs, reached out, and poked him on the nose.

No Reaction.

Nodding the shape suddenly imploded into the pyramid once more, leaving the once white mass of solid light as a black pyramid that looked like it was made out of solid darkness. And Maleficus opened his eyes again and shifted his neck, left and right, stretching out the stiffness of his bones.

He then reached out for the floating pyramid, held it out to the first of the circular shaped lenses of the Interface's Telescope, and pressed the pyramid against the surface.

There was a black flare for a few seconds, then a black blur shoot along the lenses until erupting out like a flying blob of tar towards the planet.

Maleficus activated the Interface's viewing functions and utilized his floating satellites of solid light around the surface of the planet to keep track of the pyramid. Making sure it went were it should.

The black pyramid did NOT land where it should, instead of landing among the Foal Mountains if flew further south, past the Haysed Swamps and straight into a large tropical jungle, yet to be explored by Equestrian ponies.

Frowning Maleficus conjured another pyramid of solid light from a hoofful of moon sand, his accuracy was far off then it once was. He would have to try several times to hit the right spot. Until then he would have to try and work on his control and focus, he was not looking forward to it. But he knew it.

He had lost a lot of his control over his magic and that would not do well for him in the long run.

(Scene Skip)

It had been six nights of bone chilling fear of Equestria ever since the Phantom of the Moon grasped one of the stars of the night sky. But just as abruptly as the fearsome image came, it disappeared.

As on the seventh night had the ponies of Equestria grown fearful of what manner of plans of the Phantom of the Moon, or rather, Maleficus Victoria, was preparing. But as they looked upon the moon once more they felt a great sense of relief at the sight of the burning specter once again having assumed its rested position on the opposite side of the Mare.

But that did not remove the fact of what had occurred.

The disturbance would cause many to wonder, just HOW well sealed are Maleficus Victoria and Nightmare Moon for one of them to be able to manipulate the night sky in such a horrifying manner. It would leave many sleepless even weeks after the events that had caused them such great distress.

All the ponies knew, was that Maleficus Victoria was still active, even when he was sealed upon the moon. And it made many of them wonder, just what manner of horrifying acts had he been committing during these long years?

(Scene Skip)

[Current Date: 1/1 - 122 AD]

A wave of blue water splashed up against the frame of a large wooden vessel travelling over the clear blue sea known as the Celestial Sea. A large dual masted boat beating four sails each was moving across the water towards a large land of crimson sand, black mountains and thick jungle vegetation. The vessel was long, wide and had a sculpture fastened to its front in the shape of an pegasus mare spreading her wings.

The Dragonlands was what it was named. A fitting name for the main home of the winged creatures that had struck awe and terror upon the world for untold ages. And now was one of its inhabitants, returning.

Sitting on top of the wooden deck of the Reckless Spirit, the name of the ship, sat Clash the heir of the Rockfire Clan. He had recovered, his wings restored, and his wounds mended. Only scars remained, ones he bore with pride, to show that he had survived something few could.

He was sitting alone on the deck, except for the various crew members and soldiers working. No one interacted with him outside of his students, and he was fine with that. Clash had not spent the last three years working with the ponies to let their behavior disturb him right before things could improve.

The red dragon puffed out a small gust of smoke and inhaled the smell of the sea and the ash and sulfur coming from the volcanic mountains beyond the thick jungle. He let out a pleased humming sound before turning his head to look out to the other ship sailing next to the Reckless Spirit.

It was an almost identical ship, only with a longer body with the head figure of a merpony. It was the Sea Maiden, and it was there with the weapons to kill him should he act against his students or Equestria itself. But they were also there for a secondary purpose.

To colonize.

If things were to turn for the better would the ponies have to have connections with the nations on the other side of the ocean. Which included the dragons. And so the first ever Colonization Project had been made by the Equestrians, gathering not only materials but volunteers as well.

While it had been a bit concerning at first was Clash more then willing to allow it, as long as it meant less hostilities between his kind and the ponies. But for that to work out he needed to prove that he and his students could bring forth reason to the rest of his kind, by force or other methods mattered little to him, as long as it got done.

And that's when he noticed it. A black shape flying out from the volcanic mountains, he looked and nodded, it was a small shape, near his own size. Clearly a young and curious dragon who wanted to inspect the boats approaching. Ignorant of the dangers.

"We have an approaching young drake, I suggest you ponies prepare yourself it it should prove hostile." At his words the ponies went into a frenzy of activity and the two boats brought out their weapons and troops, ready for a confrontation should the approaching dragon prove hostile.

A young blue dragon flew over the boats, but did not attack, instead it circled around a bit. It looked rather confused but at the same time intrigued. It then spoke out to the ships, it was male.

"Hey you! What are you doing on these floating things and what's with the ponies!?" Clash was at least glad the stranger did not ask if he could eat them, it probably meant he was from one of the less aggressive or predatory clans.

"My name is Clash, of clan Rockfire, and I am returning home. After having been defeated in battle by ponies ,as was the majority of my clan, when we enacted our annual Grand Feast." That stumped and shocked the blue dragon who almost fell out of the sky by surprise alone. But he quickly regained his balance and slowly flew over to the front of the ship, flapped his wings as to slow down, and slowly landed on the front ,careful to not break anything as he was unsure how stable the boat was.

"Okay. I was NOT expecting that to be the answer. Normally you Rockfires are all about eating and being stronger then others. This is a big change. Did the ponies actually beat your entire clan?" Clash just sighed and nodded at that, it was a fair point.

"Why don't you fly over to the pony nation, which is called Equestrian, and ask my grandfather, Talos. I believe his head is being mounted as a trophy in one of the cities." Again the other young dragon felt shock and almost lost his balance when the boat was hit by a particularly heavy wave.

"Aahh.... you're joking right? Talos the Terror? The Magma Spitter? The Strongest of the Five Dragon Lords? Killed by ponies?" The bafflement of the dragon was clear and Clash knew that had he been in his situation ,he would probably have reacted worse.

"No. I am not. You can ask young Bright Light over there just how skilled ponies are at killing dragons. She's been holding a knife to your throat ever since you landed." At those words the dragon went still and slowly turned his head and almost went pale at the sight of a young mare dressed in a mixture of leather and plate armour, with a helmet with a bar lined visor covering her head. A curved dagger, held against the softer scales of the young dragon's throat.

"Ah. Yes. I totally believe you. And I am not going to make trouble, I am not into eating ponies." The pony held the dagger in place for a few more seconds before removing it, and jumped off his shoulder. She landed almost completely silent, except for a soft shifting of her plate and leather, and gave the dragon a final stare before walking away. The dragon rubbed his throat nervously while looking at a smiling Clash.

"She is one of the Equestrian Dragon Hunters, they are trained to hunt and kill dragons who would cause harm to her nation. But even the common warriors of Equestrian can kill dragons if they have the skill or the equipment to do so." At those words the other dragon just nodded and slowly took a breath before letting it out, calming himself down.

"Well. Okay. This is going to baffle father when he gets to hear about it." The blue dragon said with a sigh as he looked at the ponies who were no longer pointing strange looking devices and weapon at him.

At the mention of that, Clash got interested. He did not know who this dragon was, let aloen their father. "Oh? Whose your father? And for that matter, what is your name?"

"Oh sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Torch of the Ironclaw Clan, the only hatchling of Pyre, the Dragon Lord of the Ironclaw Clan."

"Greetings Ironclaw. I hope you and me can prevent the possible extinction of our species." Clash said with a slight smile as he held out his claw in greeting to the other dragon. Talking as if he was talking about the weather and not about the end of their very race.

"Yeah, that would be a real bummer." Torch said with a twitchy smile and reached out to shake Clash's claw.

And so Clash the heir of the Rockfire clan, meet Torch, the only hatchling, and heir, of the Iron Claw Clan.

(Scene Skip)

Once upon a time would the worlds holiday, semester or honeymoon have about as much relevance as a common work day. But with the development of Equestria had many such days become great events of festivities, joy and recovery of the mind, soul and body.

Ponies could take longer breaks, enjoy days without physical or mental efforts. To spend time with family or friends. Even go on vacations or long trips during their honeymoons or anniversaries.

Grand Music and Happy Meal were no expectation and many expected them to take a while to enjoy their new life as newly weds before returning to Canterlot.

But none had foreseen a three years long honeymoon. Ponies had almost gotten into a panic when it became clear a year later that Happy Meal and Grand Music had not returned yet from their honeymoon.

Although to call it a honeymoon would be bit of a stretch. The two knights were constantly pulled into one adventure after the other as they journeyed the Equestrian roads and towns. It was like the Gods wanted to keep them distracted from enjoying themselves.

And for some unknown reason would they always be forced to move to the next problem as if fed breadcrumbs of mysteries and dangers along the entire time.

Luckily were there no real issues among the Order or Equestria for the past three years, it was peaceful period. And the married couple had more then one reason to enjoy their lives.

Happy Meal had given birth to twins, a pair of fillies. Cutie Pie and Twinkle Twinkle. But apparently had two fillies not been enough and during their honeymoon she had gotten pregnant a second time and given birth to a colt by the name of Grand Symphony.

At first they had wanted to name their little colt after Maleficus, but they felt like Grand Symphony was more fitting for some reason.

And so the duo returned to Canterlot by carriage once more, with Happy Meal and Grand Music dragging said carriage. With their happy foals sitting on the back, cooing and awing at the sight of their parents' hometown.

"There she be little ones, this be ye ma and pa's home. Canterlot." Happy Meal said with a grin while her husband smiled. They were happy to be home once more, the time spent away had been some of the most fantastic adventures they had been through. But they were more then happy to be back home.

"Your grandmother is going to be so disappointed she missed your first couple of birthdays, so be prepared for a lot of food and lecturing." Grand Music said with a grin while his wife gently bumped him in the side with her hip, giving him a mock glare, which he returned with a smirk.

(Scene Skip)

A single black streak fell down the night sky. It looked like a piece of the night sky had been gathered together in a blob and fallen down from the dark heavens. It streaked down across the clouds, over mountains, seas and lakes. Before finally it slammed into the side of a lone mountain peak.

Just on the other side of the valley next to the mountain, stood a tall mountain city built from the middle of the mountain to the peak. It was a large city made with stone and wood structures. This was the city of the Vikings, Järngård, or Jarngard as it was spoken of by the ponies and other horses.

It was the main home of the Vikings and held a larger structural significance then one would expect, as the city of Jarngard would become one of the most famous cities in the known world very soon.

It was a large place, built with four great walls, splitting the city into four district because of the tall stone structures circling the mountain. Each wall had a large gate, and gatehouse, located in a different navigational direction.

The lowest wall, the one separating the city from the lower parts of the mountain, had a large wood and metal gate decorated with fine tribal carvings and symbols of dragons and horses. Two great statues stood on the other side of the deep moat before the drawbridge, each one in the shape of a pair of large horses, dressed as vikings, one a mare the other a stallion.

This gate was located in the direction of the valley, which was East. The inside of the district, known as the Stone District, was home to most of the town's farmlands, common homes and public markets. There was also a lot of woodlands and smaller shrines through out the Stone District, with wild animals, priests and shamans being common sights.

The next gate was on the other side of the mountain, located to the West. It was separated from thee Stone District by not only a drawbridge and a gatehouse, but by a secondary gatehouse behind it. It was the thickest of the four walls. Behind this gate was the Bronze District.

It housed much of the shops and stores, as well as many housings. It held the most taverns, breweries, parks and arenas. The Vikings were not just warriors but merchants and knew how to handle both steel and gold as any soldier and merchant could. There was even a few auction houses and a large lake, where most of the town's fish and water was gathered.

The next gate was located to the North, and was located on an out sticking cliff side a good fifty meters above the ground. It was the tallest of the four walls, being seventy meters tall with the natural stone below it, and had a large gatehouse with two draw bridges. Behind this gate laid the Iron District.

It houses most of the military facilities, the blacksmiths, the training grounds, the barracks, richer housings, several specialized shops, meeting halls, judgement circles and a large Colosseum that was essentially a massive fighting pit. Outside of the architecture there were also several temples, shrines and even monuments dedicated to worship and important horses.

The following gate was located in the direction of South. The wall it was connected to was the smallest of the four walls but it was the most defensible. As it had more then twice the number of towers, the gatehouse itself was connected to a tower that was one hundred meters into the Iron District. One needed to walk a one hundred meter long draw bridge to even reach the gate, at an height of thirty meters.

Behind this gate, laid the Steel District.

It housed the Palace, a large stone and wood castle built in the accordance of the old Viking traditions, but with stones replacing much of the wood. It was the housing of the Great Jarl, the chosen leader of the Vikings. It housed the Jarls, the lesser members of nobility and military matters. It housed the Sky Yard, a large tower that stuck up like a giant cylinder of stone with a circle shaped platform on top with a large ship shaped building on said platform.

There was also the main military headquarters, the Main Temple, the Sacred Garden, a garden of various trees and plants made in reverence to the gods the the Allfather. But most important was the large pond of water, not as large as the lake in the Bronze District, but much deeper, with its artificial rain cloud pouring down an endless source of water for the city.

Out of the side of the mountainside in the Iron District, poured a waterfall down into a system of channels and artificial rivers, and poured down to the mountain until it reached the lake in the Bronze District, where it poured out into a single river into the Stone District.

And upon each of the four walls, laid a collection of towers and fortifications, holding soldiers and siege engines at the ready for unexpected assaults.

This was Jarngard. The home of the Vikings.

And they had taken note of the black star which had struck the mountain opposite of their home. The Great Jarl, wasted no time, and had words sent out to send scouts to find out what had happened, while also conversing with his Horadrim adviser located within the keep.

What they found, would change many things, and not just for the horses.

(Scene Skip)

The following day had the leader of the Horadrim gotten words of the matter and swiftly traveled to Jarngard, luckily he had already been nearby when words reached him through the message sent by his fellow Horadrim.

As the elderly looking horse entered the Palace where the Viking Leader and his Jarls were waiting for him around a large oval shaped table. And upon that table, rested a pitch black pyramid that seemed to be so black, it was absorbing the light around it. When one put a candle next to the triangle, it looked as if the shadows caused by the candle ,and the light itself, were being sucked into the darkness of the small pyramid.

"Well this is interesting." Asclepius, or Cursed Blessing as he was sometimes called, muttered as he looked at the strange artifact. It reeked of magic, so much that it was almost like one could taste it in the air. He slowly reached out, and touched the triangle, before slowly grabbing hold of it before lifting it up to examine.

"What is that Asclepius?" The Great Jarl, Mjölnir, or Thunder Hammer as his pony name was, asked as he walked over to the Hroadrim leader's side. He was a tall muscular stallion with red mane and tail with a dark brown body pelt with black hooves.

"It's defiantly magic, very magic. I am having a hard time determine what it is or where it comes from. But the magic within it feels... almost famili- ack!" His trail of thoughts and words were broken as the pyramid suddenly let out a loud crackling sound, and thick black smog begins to trail out of its surface.

The Vikings draw their weapons while Thunder Hammer pulls back Cursed Blessing as he drops the pyramid. And he pulls out a war hammer and stands at the ready as black bellowing smog erupts out of the pyramid, shrouding it from sight. The moving mass of darkness then seems to shift and become more dense, before the shape of a large equine front body, floating from a cloud of dark smog like matter, grew out of the darkness.

It looked almost like a black version of a genie. And when three eyes of red and green opened upon its head, with the green eye upon the forehead, the horses began to realize what they were seeing.

And then, the being spoke, in a familiar, if echoing, voice. "Testing. Testing. Ahem. Can you hear me?"

"Ah... Creator? Is that you?" Cursed Blessing asked nervously as he walked past the baffled Thunder Hammer.

The black shape looked upon Cursed blessing and nodded. "Yes. I have managed to develop a way to by pass the Elements of Harmony's block on my ability to transfer my consciousness onto the planet. I have been trying for the past three years to send you messages through these, let's call them Black Beacons, for now. But I haven't been able to reach you until now. And not to mention have not all of them remained intact when hitting the ground, or lasted past the atmosphere."

"But Creator, you have succeeded, and that is all that matters for now. What do you wish of us?" Cursed Blessing asked with a wide grin as he felt relief and joy fill his heart at the thought of serving his Creator directly once more.

The black smog figure let out a sigh and rubbed a limb of darkness against a non existing forehead, since it too was only darkness. "I have been keeping track of your progress with your projects. I can see you have finished the preparations for completing Skyheim and Golden Apple. The ways you have built the cities and the foundations of the projects make this very clear."

Cursed Blessing nodded with a proud smile on his lips. "Indeed Creator, we have almost completed project Golden Apple. We just need to find a proper way to utilize the Mana Engines to power the array to enact the project in practice."

Maleficus nodded before reaching out and grabbing hold of a blank parchment and began to write across it with his black murky hooves, as if the letters were being written by an invisible writing utility. "You have completed most of the requirements for the engines. But you need to think of the scale you are going to be using it for. Thus you need to consider the amount of power necessary for the array to be able to function without the power being to little, too much or too unstable."

"Indeed Creator, thus far have we only been able to utilize Golden Apple on two places, and they are only the size of large monuments not anywhere near the size of the Skyheim Projects." Cursed Blessing said with a sad frown on his lips.

"Then the answer is simple. Create a network of multiple Mana Engines, and add sympathetic links to the arrays. Keep the arrays spread out as to not cause interference between them. And make sure to add a back up system in case the mana engines fails, gets sabotaged or are destroyed." After saying that Maleficus held out the parchment and Cursed Blessing accepted it, and began to read it, his eyes slowly widening as he read.

"Follow those instructions and you should be ready to construct and activate Golden Apple with Skyheim within the next year or so. Might be later but that's only if you run into trouble. But I cannot foresee the future. I will be leaving you this Black Beacon. If I need to contact you will I be sending a cloud of smoke from the Beacon." The vikings bowed to their leader's commands and Cursed Blessing nodded eagerly as he kept reading the parchment, memorizing everything upon it.

"For now I need to return to the moon and rest. I haven't been sleeping for two days straight. And that's not even counting the amount of time I have spent overworking the past three years. So be well." With those words spoken the smog like form of Maleficus dissolved as the darkness was once more absorbed by the pyramid, leaving it laying down on the table once more.

Asclepius (Cursed Blessing) smiled bright and quickly left the room, speaking eagerly with Mjölnir (Thunder Hammer) about the future of the Horadrim Kingdom and the way the creator's instructions would escalate Project Golden Apple into completion.

But in their haste they, and Maleficus, forgot something rather important.

While it was true that many of the beacons Maleficus had sent were destroyed during the transfer. What about those that remained intact?

(Scene Skip)

A group of gathering figures meet upon a circle shaped table once more. Their robed shapes hidden from view, this time not even chairs had been prepared. With the return of the Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Cross and his wife things could not be done as easily as before.

But that was not the only reason. Princess Celestia's Magical Academy had started on a project, to produce Communication Orbs, in a larger quantity and quality. The change in development was worrying ,especially for a hidden group of conspiring traitors such as themselves.

As the one of them spoke, could no one tell from where the voice was speaking, it was being distorted among the chamber. So that it could not be pin pointed where the voice was coming from. yet another safety measure.

"We hath completed the preparations. The initial part of the plan shall be engaged within the next year."

"And then We shalt incubate the project for at least twenty years until it hath become good enough for the secondary part of the plan."

"Indeed. Without a long stage of preparation art Our plans doomed to failure. We shalt need to investigate the Sun thoroughly, not just her history, but her personality, her likes, her dislikes and so forth. We shalt need to be able to foresee and prepare for everything."

"We hath to prepare not just for the Sun, there art unknowing interlopers who could shake Our plans if they get involved. We shalt need to make certain that no pony be able to interact with the Sun so closely that it be risking the success of Our plans."

"Indeed. We shalt not let it go to chance that the Sun will meet others that can cause disorder for Our plans if We art unaware. So We shalt hath to find ways to 'handle' anypony who art unwise, or unlucky, to get close to the Sun."

"And in the end, We shalt be free of the alicorns and Our nation and people, in turn. shalt be rid of them."

"Aye. Keep the progress recorded and keep the incubation period in mind. Our initial strike will be within the next twenty years or so."

"Oh just to be clear. When thee sayth 'handle' thou art insinuating We kill them correct?"

"...Aye. We thought it obvious that, that was what We hath meant."

"Just wanted to make it clear."

"On another note. We hath received words from one of Our... supporters. They hath discovered something of extreme magical power that they think will be interesting to study."

"Oh what could it be this time? A magic mirror that already hath been broken? Oh wait! We know the answer! It hath to be a book that devours thou very soul!"

"Nay. By the description given, is be a pitch dark pyramid the size of a pony's head. The entire surface of the object art pitch black, but if one were to flows magic through it. One may see a complex networks of runes and arrays within it shouldst one do this."

"...Okay We doest admit that be slightly more interesting then We hath been expecting."

"We will discuss the matter of this... pyramid item once it hath been retrieved. But for now doest We call the meeting adjourned. Unless anypony else hath something to mention?"

"..."

"Very well then. Meeting adjourned! All Hail the Society of Heraldry, Independence and Trade!"

"Hail!"

And without further sound the ponies left the chamber. Unwilling to risk of their plans or ambitions being taken note of, not with the rising magical and military strength of Equestria turning towards communication. They could not risk anyone overhearing, even if by mistake, so they had to be careful. And for some reason that included while talking inside of a sealed underground chamber deep within a mountain.

(Scene Skip)

[Current Date: 1/1 - 123 AD]

Princess Celestia looked out over her city, down in the courtyard were several lines of troops doing drills and plans. The time would soon come that the Third Crusade would commence against the greatest foe of her nation. As she looked out she could see twinkling snow drops fall down over the city's white covered roofs and walls.

So many ponies had come to her nation in the past twenty years. It had been two decades since the Second Crusade, many of those who had fought in the First were not as strong as they used to. But they served as mentors, seniors and even as teachers to the next generation of soldiers. It was a very warm thought just knowing that her ponies were working together to end the plight of their nation.

Even those who were not working to aid in the war effort were contributing in different ways. Among them being the Dragon Hunters who were working out from the first Colony of Equestria, located in the Dragon Lands. Though she was uncertain if the name the colonists had chosen was... appropriate. She could not really understand why someone would name their town Bangcolt. It felt... a bit off.

But the Hunter's Guild, as it had come to be named, was well worth the weird name of the colony. With the aid of Clash the Hunters had been hunting down any hostile dragon with brutal efficiency. Over fifty dangerous dragons had been brought down this year alone and none of the Dragon Hunters had died.

One particular member had been responsible for twenty of those kills on their own. There was never any official names written in the reports, as to keep the hunter's identities secret from ponies not involving in the matter. Least things could turn badly for the colony if somepony or some dragon figured out how to take advantage of the information.

But the pony had a nickname a most fitting one. Dragon Slayer. Apparently it was a mare, well trained and armed. Dressed in a leather armour with protective chain mail and some enchanted metal plates on various vital areas. As well as a strong helmet decorated with a pair of dragon horns, a bar lined visor.

This mare had brought down a lot of dragons and Clash in his letters admitted that she was his best and most liked student. And not just that, she was creating a reputation as an unstoppable hunter of the wicked dragons, it was resolving a lot of morale issues that had once been cropping up after the Incursion.

Clash was in contact with his clan and was going through a set of tests to determine if he was to be the next heir, as there were still others that wanted to succeed Talos. And thus was there were promising reports. The turncoat dragon was even on good terms with one of the future heirs of one of the other Dragon Clans, a certain dragon named Torch of the Ironclaw Clan.

So things were going excellent on the other side of the Celestial Sea. Even at the western edges of Equestria had some ponies been exploring what was now called the White Tail Woods, one of the larger forested regions to be discovered to the west. And to the north had large fields and thin woodlands been discovered beyond the Neighagra Falls. There was even reports of sightings of tall mountain ranges covered with frost and ice.

But she knew those areas, after all, she and her sister had fought and sealed away a great danger there before the Fall of the Green Star. The Crystal Empire was still gone so there was little point to explore the region, least someone might disturb the foul creature who had sealed away the Empire and escalated events even further. No better to leave it alone.

Though much of the regions had been changed with the fall of the Green Star, like how the Ever Free Forest covered far more of the region south of her city. And the mountains that had been blocking her path to the place she founded Canterlot, had not been there before the Green Star fell. So many question unanswered for how things have been changed so much.

But except for an uncertain amount of altered landscaping had things been going pretty excellent thus far.

And that was a bit of a problem.

She could feel a certain amount of unease however. With how peaceful the last couple of years had been it was almost unerring how well things were going. She felt anxious, uncertain, itchy and constantly watched. It was like danger was constantly around her and she could not see or find it.

And with the Elements of Harmony now used as anchors to keep Discord sealed within the statue in the garden, was she no longer able to utilize them to keep herself calm. Many nights after the First Crusade when she had been depressed, angry or anxious she had went down to the secret vault where the stones were kept and utilized them to calm herself down, it had been working for several years before Discord's statue started breaking.

Now she could not properly handle her emotions ,she had been lashing out in anger and frustration at things. No ponies, thank the gods. But she felt like she was about to crack. Not to mention, she knew that the next time she had her heat period, she would not be able to handle it like she had done before. An alicorn was only fertile during their heat period, unlike ponies who could breed every time of the year, but were most fertile during their heat period.

She had bee negating her heat by utilizing the elements to suppress the urges. She had been doing it one time ever since she and her sister defeated Discord, an alicorn's heat period was once a century and Celestia's heat would come within the next forty years. She had never experienced an uncontrolled heat period before. But now she was without the elements and she did not have her mother to offer her guidance, nor could she ask another pony for help. How would they react knowing that their Princess did not know how to handle her heat period?

Celestia felt trapped with her own body and uncertain if she could handle the strain of the heat period she was to experience. And most of all ,she felt frightened what she would do and what the consequences would be.

Not even the approaching Crusade could make her feel distracted from the unease and fear eating away at her soul.

The Princess of the Sun was gradually losing control of herself. And there was nopony there who knew about it, and nopony that could do anything about it.

Her eyes glowed green for a few second as she contemplated the anxious future of her heat period, and for a moment she blinked. Before her eyes narrowed, and she turned to look towards the training troops outside. Her mind, as if given a new focus, seemed to burn with anger and fury once more as she put down the cause for her suffering as one certain pony.

Maleficus Victoria. He was the cause of her sister's fall and now he intended to cause her own fall. She would seal herself into the Sun before she let him win.

(Scene Skip)

A large green dragon was walking past a set of rocky hills. His eyes were narrowed, his nostrils were flaring and his mouth was in a frown. His name was Haze, a member of the Stormfang Clan. He had been a scout for his clan for over six hundred years and he had never sees such things as he had the last couple of months.

Several dragons had gone missing. Only bloody trails could be found at most, and even then was there hardly any sight of a struggle or battle. Even the hoards of gemstones they so painstakingly had been gathering and guarding were left pristine and untouched. It was unnerving many.

And now had words reached his clan that the Rockfire clan was not as inactive as they had thought. They were not leaving their region of the land but they were no longer hiding among their caverns and lairs. Instead they were gathering by one of the larger volcanoes and had been there for over a month now.

The Trial of the Burning Rock was no doubt occurring. But the timing was off, the remaining heirs to the clan had been either unwilling to take the Trial or been too young. And yet now someone was taking the test.

It was worrying his clan's Lord and thus he was sent out to scout the borders between the Stormfangs and the Rockfires lands.

Thus far had he found several empty caves and a few aggressive mothers guarding their eggs. But nothing unusual.

At least. until he reached the north western edge of the border.

He caught a smell of blood i the wind and the sound of a roaring dragon, possibly someone hunting for food or fighting a rival. But the latter was not possible since he could not hear another dragon.

So he decided to investigate and as he passed by a few rocky hills, after having landed as to not be noticed, he looked up over the top of the hills and was shocked by what he saw.

The dragon was someone familiar to him. It was a dragoness by the name of Flare. A member of the Rockfire Clan. She was a notorious hunter and aggressive dragon, even fellows of her own clan avoided the lands near her home.

She was tall, easily twice the size of Haze who was as larger then a small hill. Flare was not the oldest of dragons but her unusual size and aggressive behaviour made her one of old Talos' favourite subjects. A merciless killer and hunter of anything that caught her fancy, even other dragons.

And she was currently wounded, severely wounded. One of her wings were hanging limp to the side, clearly broken. she was clutching her side were a deep cut was made. And she was running on two legs, she was not fighting, she was fleeing. And where there had once been a smirking face of arrogance with eyes filled with barely restrained ferocity and blood lust that was now a face of utter terror and eyes that looked broken and hollow.

He looked past her and he gaped in shock at what he saw further ahead.

It was not Flare who was screaming out in a battle cry. It was another dragon, this one a male, and he was brown in colour with a set of bull horns and a barbed tail. And he was fighting a small four legged figure wielding a small round disk and what looked like a fang on a stick.

The brown dragon was Gorge, a well feared hunter, of lust. He was one of the more notorious dragons, he belonged to no clan and was among one of the most hated. A brute who forced himself into the nests or lairs of female dragons and beat them up before ravaging them ruthlessly, even going so far as to eat their young or eggs if he's feeling particularly nasty.

For some unknown reason had Flare been chosen as his next victim, it would explain why she looked as she did. But the small figure who was fighting him was no dragon. That much Haze could tell.

Gorge was breathing acid in a great green cloud of melting death, but the small figure seemed to run out of harms way. The rapist tried to swing his tail into the tiny figure, only to cry out in pain as something sharp suddenly flew out and struck him in the armpit of his left upper limb.

The big brute reached down and pulled out what looked like a stick with a pointy metal tip out from his flesh. He then glared at where the shoot had come from and roared out again as he let out another burst of acidic gas. Only to cry out in pain a few seconds later as the small figure suddenly jumped down from the cliff side behind him and stabbed him in the neck with its weaponized fang.

Haze was distracted from the struggle as he saw Flare, still running straight forward, which was in the direction of the hill he was behind. She was limping and looked unnaturally pale, she was clearly losing blood quickly and would more then likely bleed out before she could get to safety.

And while he might just be a scout and not the bravest of dragons, was he not willing to let a wounded dragoness run off to bleed out. He raised his head and waved at haze with one of his wings and called out to her, trying to not draw the attention of Gorge and his opponent.

"Hey! Over here! Take cover behind the hill!" Flare did not appear to notice at first as she kept running ,but she did not change direction and ran over the hill, and stumbled over and would have severely injured herself further had not Haze managed to reach out and catch her.

Haze took hold of his long green mane and cut off a big chunk of it. It had taken a century to grow but it was for a good cause. He quickly began to use the hair as an improved way to seal the whimpering dragon's wounds. And tried to verbally comfort her as he covered the deep gash on her side. "It's okay you will be okay."

Flare reached out and grabbed hold of him and spoke out in a voice dripping with fear. "Keep them away from me. They're both monsters."

"What?" Haze was baffled why she wanted protection from the tiny figure and Gorge when the tiny figure was clearly helping her, at least that's what it looked like to him. But that's when he heard a loud and heavy thump and quickly turned his head to look towards the fight.

Which had ended with an unexpected result.

Instead of Gorge chewing on the dead corpse of the small being, as Haze had been expecting the fight to end. Was he not. In fact lying there, on the ground, on his side, not moving or breathing, was Gorge, dead. And standing on top of the side of his skull, stood the small figure. Which Haze now could see and recognize as a pony, dressed in a metal and hide outfit. And it was currently pulling out, from the back of Gorge's skull, a blade made out of sharpened dragon scales.

The pony then pulled out a whistle of some sort and blew into it. And a few seconds later, came a group of thirty winged ponies, carrying ropes and chains. And began to drag away Gore's corpse.

Gorge's killer sat on top of his head even as his corpse got dragged away and stared in Haze's direction, making a slicing motion over its throat with one of its front legs before disappearing beyond the hills and cliffs with its kill.

And Haze got pale himself as he slowly realized something.

It was not Gorge who had been causing the disappearances of the dragons.

It was the ponies.

The ponies were hunting dragons.

"We're getting out of here." He whispered to Flare, who just made weak nods. Haze glanced back at the site where all that remained of Gorge was some blood splatters and some melting ground, before slowly guiding the dragoness away from the site and towards Stormfang territory.

The Lord of the Stormfangs would have to be informed.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus stare with a smirk upon the imagery he was looking upon. For the past year had he been improving his deteriorated control over his powers. It had taken some efforts but now he felt like he had obtained control once more. And that he could focus on a project that he had been eager to try out ever since he found out there were dragons in this world.

The image before him was the collective scans of the corpse of Talos, the dragon who had tried to burn Equestria to the ground. His horses had been more then willing to utilize the Black Beacons to let him scan the dragon more closely and now he had all the data he needed to start his experiments.

He walked away from the Interface, with a single Solid Light screen next to him to record his attempted transformation. Once he got about fifty meters from the Interface's location he stood up on his hind legs and held out his right foreleg. Like when he created the flesh body of Achilles did he attempt to conjured the image of what he wanted to transform into.

He focused his eyes upon his hoof and began to alter his physical form like when he did when he transformed into a pony. It began slowly but surely, his hoof began to melt and shift, becoming almost like a liquid metal. Shifting and altering into a skeletal claw with no flesh or skin. That was stage two.

Strands of flesh and nerves began to grow over the bony appendage and then began a network of thick scales to cover the flesh. The stumpy ends of the appendage twitched and shifted a bit before long sharp claws grew out of the tips. And he had it. His right foreleg's hoof had been transformed into a dragon's four fingered, including thumb, claw.

Clenching and shifting his new appendage he smiled a bit. It felt enjoyable to be able to move fingers again. And he slowly undid the transformation, remaking his hoof by removing the scales the flesh and molding the bone back into a hoof.

Letting out a silent sigh into the empty void around him he slowly turned towards his left foreleg, and began to repeat the process. slowly transforming it into a claw, and then removing the transformation.

Doing it like this had several points and reasons.

It would let him learn to transform his body into a shape it was not used to, which was logical since he had never actually transformed himself into anything that was not a pony .he had been possessing flesh golems, but never actually transformed his physical self. So he had to be careful.

The process was slow but it would get him the familiarity of transforming into something. Since normal transformation magic did not affect him, it had been painful to realize that he could never actually use the transformation spells developed by the unicorns. An attempted transformation from alicorn into a griffin only ended up with him reverting to his old self, although, very painfully.

By repeating the steps, over and over, he would soon not need to focus so much energy and effort into the transformations. And thus require less time for it. It was a mental, magical and physical training exercise to let him transform at a quicker rate then what he currently could.

And most important of all. It would let him feel the new body bit by bit until he got used to it. And thus not have to relearn how to walk, move or breath while in the shape.

It would be a time consuming effort of mental strain and fatigue. But the opportunity, just the smallest of chance, to become his favourite mythical creature? To soar and fly with wings like hurricanes, tail like thunder, breath of fire and death, claws like spears, teeth like swords, and a hide with the size and endurance like a mountain? It would be beyond priceless.

And he had time, it was one of the few assets he had, being on the moon.

Plus Luna was not helping in restraining him as she found his fascination with dragons and possibly being a dragon, both cute and interesting. That he could still retain his childish desires and dreams after experiencing so much pain and suffering, it made her admire him a bit.

(Scene Skip)

"Grandma! Grandma!" Grand Feast smiled brightly as three voices cried out a greeting as she opened the door to her eatery and got tackled by three happy little foals. She gently warped her forelegs around them and hugged them close. The three foals were dressed in winter wear and were covered in slight amounts of snow from the snow covered streets outside.

"Oh this is a wonderful surprise. Ye all came to visit your poor ole grandma did you?" She asked with a wide grin as she looked down at the giggling foals hugging her.

"They were eager to come mama. After all yer foods da best in da world." Happy Meal said a she came walking over to the entrance. Grand Music was there behind her, levitating a basket of exotic fruits and vegetables.

"We bring some exotic food we got as a gift from General Rough Stock last week. It's apparently imported from Bangcolt." Grand Music said with a kind smile as his adoptive, and step, mother smiled at him before patting the heads of her three grand children.

"Well do not stay outside now. Come inside. We were just about to get ready for the big day and We can't have Our cute little foals and grandfoals stand out in the cold." Grand Feast was pushing seventy, a respectable age for an earth pony mare. But she still looked rather healthy and spry for her age. Or as her husband like so say. She looked not a day past thirty.

"Sour Green, Sweet Red, Grand Harvest, Pink Lady, Grand Meal! Your older siblings are here with your nieces and nephew!" The two older ponies were greeted by their five younger half siblings who came over and hugged their nieces and nephew warmly. As they all went inside could they see a large group of ponies with apple shaped cutie marks, some members of the Blue Grass Clan and Grand Feast's own husband waving over with his part of the Apple Family waiting for them.

Their half siblings were mostly active with the Apple Family or worked in their mother's business at different locations.

And so the annual Family Reunion of the Grand, Meal and Apple family began. A tradition that would grow to become a common sight once every year. The specific time of the reunion would wary, but it would mostly be occurring during great times of celebrations or convenience. As there were few times that all Apples were gathered together.

The only thing that could have made the reunion better in the mind of Grand Feast and her two oldest children. Was that if a certain honourary family member could have been part of it all. They were certain he would have enjoyed it, and that the rest of the family would have liked him.

Perhaps he could be part of it the next time he returned from the Moon?

(Scene Skip)

The Warlords of the Horses of the Horadrim Kingdom were gathered upon one of their Sky Ships, the Skeid longboat named Sky Dragon. They were flying above the city of Jarngard were Project Golden Apple was about to commence.

Upon the deck stood the Great Jarl Thunder Hammer, the Warlord of the Vikings, dressed in a leather armour with fur and chain mail, his trusty warhammer hanging over his side. Next to him stood Daimyo Strong Valor, the Warlord of the Samurai, dressed in his samurai armour with his nodachi resting on his side.

Next to the Daimyo stood a tall mare dressed in a thick plate mail armour, with her long yellow mane and tail braided. She had a dark orange fur colour and had a longsword strapped to her back. Her name was Sacred Sword, also referred to her Horadrim name, La Tizona, she was the Warlord of the Knights, and their Knight Commander.

Next to Sacred Sword stood another mare, this one with a white mane that was cut short, while her tail was kept tied in a braid. Her fur was reddish brown, a red wood like colour. She was dressed in a segmented bronze armour over a red silk tunic. Her legs were covered with engraved bronze plates and a red mantle was draped down over her back. She had a longbow of dragon bone and a pair of gladius blades sheathed to her back.

Her pony name was Wild Mare, while her Horadrim name was Hippolyta. And she was the recently chosen Archon and Warlord of the Spartan Horses. The Spartans had decided to pick their leader based upon skill, deed and personality. She had been one out of a hundred candidates to be chosen as she was not only a good fighter but also skilled tactician and had a keen mind to adapt to unexpected situations, she was also well spoken and knew how to interact with those who were not horses.

Which was rare among the Spartans.

And behind these four Warlords stood a group of warriors, scholars and officers of the various tribes of the Horses. Most of them were Horadrim mages and scholars but there were plenty of members from the other tribes as well.

And in front of them all, facing them, stood Lord Asclepius, also known as Cursed Blessing. The chosen Elder Sage of the Horadrim and the temporary leader of the Horadrim Kingdom. He had a wide grin on his face and was looking over them all eagerly. "I welcome you all to this grand moment of our history. We shall soon engage Project Golden Apple for the first time and start an age of wonder never before seen in this world."

He held up a Black Beacon, which was swirling with darkness, three glowing eyes staring out of the interior of the pyramid. "Our Creator will be watching us as well and though he may not be able to openly appear, as he does not wish to cause unnecessary trouble for us all. So be will watching from this Beacon. So let us all make him proud and show the world what we can do!"

There was a collective cry of 'Ora's and 'Hurray's from the horses before him and the old horse smile almost seemed to grow impossibly wider. He then placed the Beacon upon a small pedestal that was standing by the edge of the ship and when he got the confirmation that Maleficus could see properly, he walked over to the railing and raised his right foreleg.

A sphere of blue light emerged out of the air before his hoof and he shoot it out into the sky above the city. And it exploded into a shower of glittering sparks.

Down below a lone horse was looking out with a pair of binoculars from a small wooden tower located by the mountain side in the Stone District. At the sight of the blue explosion he turned towards a bronze pipe sticking out of the floor of the tower and he shouted into the pipe. "Blue Light Confirmed! Activate the Mana Engines!"

The voice echoed down the pipes, flowing down beneath the wooden floor of the tower. Crawling past dirt, soil and through stone. It kept moving, sliding past meters upon meters of solid mountain. Until it emerged out of an opening, within a large chamber, within the center of the mountain.

"Blue Light Confirmed! Activate the Mana Engines!"

The chamber was circular in shape, almost like a dome, it was the size of a football stadium. And yet the voice echoed through out the chamber like it was spoken from an elder dragon. There were several lines of crystals embedded into the walls, runes of gold and iron were engraved upon the surfaces, a vast networks of arrays and runes were lining the interior.

A massive pillar of crystal like material, engraved with runes and arrays upon its surface, was standing in the center of the room, piercing through the rock from floor to ceiling and beyond either surface for an unknown length.

Standing at ten different points along the walls, were a set of large stone cubes. The cubes were around the size of a human jeep. And upon the front of each of these stone cubes were a set of runes engraved, along with four large levers, each one marked with a set of symbols.

Inside of this chamber were over thirty horses standing. And there were two of them standing by the stone cubes as the words echoed through out the chamber. And they grabbed hold of the first lever to the left, and pulled it down. While crying out to the room- "Initiating Phase One!"

A great humming sound began to fill the chamber, the runes, once dormant and colourless, began to glow with a light green glow. And the pillar of once clear, almost glass like ,crystal, gained a toxic green glow.

Ten horses were standing by the crystal pillar, checking instruments and readings from various areas around it. And then one of them cried out to the rest. "The power levels are stable! Phase One is Complete! Proceed to Phase Two!"

"Initiating Phase Two!" The horses by the stone cubes cried as they pulled down the second lever to the left. This time the entire chamber was vibrating and the runes were glowing a dark purple. The crystal pillar in the center of the chamber took on a bright indigo colouration.

After a few seconds the team around the pillar cried out to the other horses. "The Mana Output and Power Flow are still too weak to Initiate Activation! Initiate Phase Three!"

The third lever was pulled down and once more the voices of several horses called out to the others in the chamber. "Initiating Phase Three!"

Now the entire chamber was almost shaking, but not as much as a speck of dust was falling from the ceiling. The runes were glowing a deep red now and the pillar had taken on a bright yellow colouration. And then something seemed to change.

A streak of red flew up along the pillar's inside. And then another, and another. and soon it was like a constant stream of laser beams were flowing upwards along the pillar. The horses around the pillar cried out in joy as the shaking stopped and cried out to the rest of the team.

"Power levels are nominal and stable! The Mana Flow is steady and has attained circulation through the Power Arrays! Initiate Activation of Golden Apple!" One of the horses cried out and a single horse, who was standing by a particularly large lever, nodded and buck kicked the lever. There was a loud crank as the lever was kicked down. And then a loud shiver could be felt as the runes suddenly lost their intense glow, still glowing, but just gently. The pillar was still flowing with red streaks of light but it had lost its yellow glow and once more almost transparent, only the streaks of red light giving it colour.

And that's when a loud crumbling could be heard as, the mountain city of Jarngard, began to shiver and shake. And the horses on the sky ships above the city, and the horses within the city, began to cheer and rejoice. Music began to flow through the skies, and as one, the Horadrim Kingdom, began to sing.

[Start Theme Music: Rasmussen's Higher Grounds]

[Lyrics Altered by Staadnauthursil]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Zz5eQViv0

Disclaimer:I do not own anything copyrighted. This includes all of the lyrics and youtube videos I use to give a touch of flair to my stories, please support the official releases along with those who work hard on these great youtube videos. Please support the official release.

"Nation in the making."

Jarngard shook and shivered, loud fissures were taking shape down at he base of the mountain's roots. The horses' structures were unshaken by the vibrations, having been prepared for the approaching events. It was like the mountain was a sleeping giant that had been woken up and now wanted to stand up.

"Bound for a higher shore."

"Sky for the taking."

"Horses back forever more."

"Boarding and hoisting sail."

"Yes, victory has prevailed."

A loud crack was heard, and a line of glowing crimson runic lines and arrays engraved into stone and iron plate, emerged from the shattered stone of the base of the mountain. As the horses sang out the Mountain of Jarngard, broke free of its foundation, and began to rise up.

"Raise the Mountain into the air."

"Make your mark and see it rising there."

"Be the first to rise above."

"Take the leap to land on higher ground!"

Horses began to dance and chant as the mountain began to float up from the ground it had been broken free of. The lower parts of the mountain was covered with miles lone bands of metal plates and stone columns, engraved with a vast network of runes and arrays.

"Taka stökk til hærri jörð."

The mountain continued to rise further and further upwards. Its massive size covering the mountains and valleys beneath it in a vast shadow as the sun shone brightly upon it from above. Flags of the Horadrim Kingdom were hoisted upon flagpoles and standards, waving in the strong winds as the mighty mountain and the city upon it flew past the tallest peaks of the mountains it had once been part of.

"They call it, surrender."

"Still, does not feel like defeat."

"Horses laying down their swords."

"Each of their own accord."

The sky ships flew after the rising mountain, their crews singing together with the townsfolk as the mighty structure of Jarngard, flew skywards. Like a sight out of living myth, the tale of a castle in the skies, or the giant whom dwelt among the cloud within his fortress. A vast and otherworldly sight that only those who were watching, could understand just how mighty such a view was.

"See the mountain in the air."

"Make your mark and see it floating there."

"Be the first to reach above."

"Take the leap to stand on higher ground!"

Cursed Blessing cried tears of joy as he watched the city and the mountain it rested upon float through the winds. The time and effort spent on not just research but construction of the arrays utilized to allow the mountain to attain altitude had been harsh but worth it. All for the sake of watching a mountain become airborne.

"Raise the banners to the sky!"

"Face the future and hold your head up high!"

"Oooh-oooh, oooh-oooh!"

"Take the leap like you were bound for higher ground!"

The mountain split through the cloud layer above the mountain peaks, reaching higher then any mountain had ever done before. And as it reached through the sea of white and reached past the cloud layer, was the banners glittering with droplets of moisture in the winds, while the horses were singing out together.

"Taka stökk til hærri jörð."

Beneath the mountain were three waterfalls flowing down from the edges of the Stone District. The pouring waters flew down and began to spread out across the winds and into the clouds below. And a shimmering image began to take shape beneath the mountain, until finally, were a group of rainbows taking shape beneath the water falls as the sunlight flew through the spread out water and took o nth image of multicoloured rainbows.

"Fly the mountain in the air!"

"Make our mark and leave it hanging there!"

The mountain stopped rising, its massive mile high shape floating like a divine sight out of the old tales above a sea of clouds, which broke apart in the distance to reveal the sight of the Foal Mountains and in the distance beyond them, the Hayseed Swamps. The horses' voices rang out over the cloud layer and echoed through the skies, bolts of light were fired out from the airships, detonating in bright explosions while the city sang.

"See the Mountain in the air!"

"You made your mark and left it hanging there!"

"You're the first to turn around!"

"Having taken the chance to stand on higher grooooooooooouuuuuuuuuund!"

"Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!"

The mountain began to float northwards, the clouds beneath its moved like waves as its large shape began to gain a slight amount of speed. And as it did were the airships followed it from all sides. The voices of the horses echoing out one final time, as the sight of a mountain flying through the skies of Equestria, disappeared towards the north.

"We're the first to rise above!"

"And has taken the leap to live on higher ground!"

[End Theme Music]

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus watched the events with a smile. The sight of a mountain attaining flight was amazing. He had never thought his mana engines would have been utilized like so when he first designed them, but the horses had developed a way to utilize them in a way he had never foreseen.

*It makes me wonder what else they may be capable of. I had designed them to be not just strong but above average intelligence, well in most cases. Perhaps I can have them work on some of my own projects in the future?* And as he thought this he never actually considered the possibility that the horses had been developing on their own. He had never considered the possibility, or had outright told himself that he could never have created something with a will of its own.

They say that the biggest critic of a person's work is that person's doubt. And doubt, can cause a great amount of misfortune for those unable to bear or ignore it. Even for those considered to be powerful beyond mortal limits.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Valentines Day, and happy whatever else I completely missed. I apologize for my long absence but I have recently gotten into a lot of economical issues. And I also received the news that one of my oldest DnD friends, and my first DM, has recently passed away. And some other stuff I'd rather not talk about.

Pinkie: Oh no worry Staady! You are back and better then ever!

Staadnauthursil: We will see. For now am I going to state this. I am officially opening my first ever Patreon page. And will be posting the link at the end of this Author's Note and upon my Profile and on my story's front page. This is to give myself a chance to keep not only being an author but to also to prepare myself for starting my own first Youtube Channel. I am planning on recording some of my old DnD adventures, in honour of my first GM, and hopefully some people will find them fun or interesting enough to read.

Pinkie: Ooooh! That means that if you get enough bits, you can write more! Excellent plan Staady!

Staadnauthursil: Thank you Pinkie. But that also means that I will have to work on meeting the goals I am going to be setting for my Patreon. If someone pays a certain amount of money, I will have to offer them something in return for their financial efforts. And I am pretty limited in what I can offer, but I can say this much. I will never offer any spoilers of my story's progress, as I do not wish to spoil anything, at most I will offer OC spots, Plot Twists, Songs and maybe even some artwork. But not much more. As I am pretty limited in what I can offer right now.

So be sure to check out my Patreon Link if you want to support my future work as an author and possibly even my future work for youtube.

Thank you.

Patreon Link: https://www.patreon.com/TreasureHoard

On a Side Note: In a few days will be the second year anniversary of this story. And I am thankful for all of you readers for reading, commenting and rating my story. And I hope you will keep enjoying the future chapters I have planned.

Thank you everypony.

Chapter Seventeen: The Third Crusade (Pre-Beta)

View Online

Disclaimer:I do not own anything copyrighted. This includes all of the youtube videos I use to give a touch of flair to my stories, please support the official releases along with those who work hard on these great youtube videos.

Chapter Seventeen: The Third Crusade

[Current Date: 1/12 - 127 AD]

Within a mountain range was a loud crackling sound erupting among the peaks. The sound of breaking stone and fracturing ground. Avalanches of ice, stone, and snow tore down the sides of various mountains and cliffs as they shook in strong tremors as the sounds echoed throughout the mountain range.

Then the crumbling escalated until they resided into a gentler crumbling sound of falling rocks and boulders. And something large rose out of the peaks of the mountains, it was a large city carved out of the peak of a mountain. Its architecture was in the shape of Gothic-styled stone structures. Upon the top peak of the mountain rested a large Gothic tower with towers, spires, and turrets.

The castle easily covered the entire peak, and floating above it was a group of ten flying ships with storm clouds floating beneath their wooden frames. Around the castle was a large courtyard and garden decorated with various statues, smaller inner walls, and exotic plants. While the castle itself had a Gothic appearance was it decorated with a varied combination of evil, good, and wild-aligned creatures of various myths.

It was all manners of beasts of myths decorating the city, from statues of dragons and heroes to statues of monstrous hounds and beautiful cat-like creatures. There were all manners of mysterious creatures carved into shape upon the city and resting upon its buildings and among the larger streets.

Even as the mountain the city and castle rested upon rose out of the mountain range and into the heavens, was the city unaffected by the shifting mass it was resting upon. And the sheer scale of the city not to be ignored, even with its medieval architecture already making it appear like the imagery out of a steampunk fantasy game, was the city not compact.

It was spread out with wide streets, bountiful gardens, impressive statues, four exotic looking cathedrals, and fourteen lesser keeps placed along a twisting path that moved in a spiral across the entire city from the bottom to the peak. Along the entire pathway were tall and thick city walls lined with towers, between the walls were the fourteen lesser keeps lining down the entire path. Creating a murder path leading up to the top.

There were a set of main gates at the bottom of the path at the base of the city gate afterward came to a keep, and then another keep, only there's no gate to the path after the keep. Instead one has to travel around the city to find the pathways leading up to the next district to then travel back to the path to breach the second group of keeps. And it would repeat this like a battle of attrition.

The fourteen keeps were split up into a total group of seven, splitting up the city in Seven District. From the bottom up they were named as follows, the Humble District, the Prayer District, the Golden District, the Sanctum District, the Judgement District, the Cross District, and finally the Crown District. Each district was mostly identical and had no specific purpose. The knights had no agricultural land or buildings like the other cities, instead, they relied on trade and what underground crops they could produce, a lot of their dishes involved all manners of moss, insects, and mushrooms.

Only the Crown District was special, for it was there that the Knight Commander and Warlord of the Horses reigned over the city.

This was the city of Saints' Chapel, the citadel city of the knights, known as the City of Myths and Miracles. And it was the last of the horses' constructed homes to attain flight. It marked the completion of not just Project Skyheim, which was the construction of their nation's cities and resource outposts, but also Golden Apple as well.

Golden Apple was the project meant to raise the lands of the horses to the skies, making them a Nation of Flying Islands, or mountains if you want to be specific. This was the reason why they had only marked down ten spots on the map when they marked down their borders.

For their borders would be ever-shifting and never at one place for long. Thus creating a nationwide security system for the horses and their homes by the very nature of the floating islands they had created. But because of this were they forced to pick the largest, sturdiest, and resource-rich areas they could find for this to even work.

And with the collective information about the planet's intermediate resources available to them by the scans of Maleficus' Interface Satellite System, were they able to find the areas without spending years of manual prospecting. Through the aid of this information, they picked the largest, the most fertile, and the sturdiest spots to build their new homes and to raise them into the skies.

Yamale, Jarngard, Póli ton Álogo, each of these cities had been granted the power of flight through Project Golden Apple. Not only these four cities had been granted this blessing. The other sites of the horses had been augmented with the Golden Apple Projects

The large and vast farming communities of High Corn and Grand Grainosa were essentially floating islands easily twenty miles in width and length, almost perfectly circular in their shape. These lands hold vast amounts of farmlands to produce crops and other manners of food items to spread out to the other cities. While also producing quite a bit of material from plant or wood matter. The defence lines of the two farming communities were constructed with two large circular walls, with the larger cities built by the edge of the central city wall. There were smaller villages spread out with large watchtower by each community and along the walls. With large artificial lakes in the center of each area.

Not much population when compared to the Great Cities, but a lot of resources.

And then there were the three resource-rich communities. One was a large round-topped mountain that was once an active volcano, long since dormant. The hole left by tearing out the mountain from the mountain chain left a lake of magma as the volcano was dormant, but the magma was still connected to the bottom of the mountain.

The mining community upon its surface was named Gemrutter Town, a crude name but fitting with the rich metal and gemstone within the mountain. Large towers and a single large keep protects the mining town, there's no city wall, but the labyrinth-like interior of the mountain makes one irrelevant.

While Gemrutter was the main producer of rare metals and gems were another mountain the producer of not just metal but also coal, herbs, fungi, wood, and rare plants through glass buildings built among the city. This flying mountain had two flat peaks, plateau-like areas. Upon these areas were two halves of a single large city constructed with a single bridge connecting them. Beneath said bridge was an artificial lake made by making two dams between the peaks and creating artificial rain clouds above them to fill it up into a water reservoir, the bottom was reinforced as to not leak into the mines.

Beneath the halves of the city were deep elevation shafts leading down to industrious mines and factories. While on the surface the two city halves were producing other things. The surface area beneath the city was covered with pine and leaf trees, with spread-out guard towers, with four large keeps on each end of the sky floating mountain island.

there were no city walls except for at the peak where the two halves of the city were surrounded by thick walls. But the spread out towers made this mining outpost capable of as much offense as defence. Which was a lot considering it had over a hundred towers spread out among the woodlands, not counting the other fifty spread out along the two city walls.

Its name was Coaltike, a bit of a horse pun with some interesting references mixed into it.

The third resource location was the main producer of wood, charcoal, tar, sawdust, fungi, herbs, exotic plants, and other forest slash swamp products. It was no mountain, instead, it was a massive piece of forest that had been essentially carved out of an entire valley, making what was left even deeper. Creating a thirty mile long and twenty miles wide floating forest. It was the largest of the Ten Holdings of the Horadrim Kingdom, and for good reasons.

It was covered in various types of forests, with hills and even swamps. With two large lakes on each end of the landmass, with a network of rivers and smaller lakes and ponds all over the place. Over twenty camps had been made for processing wood products were built on the floating forest. But there were also producers who made charcoal, tar, glue, gathered various kinds of seeds, fungi, herbs, a few kinds of animals, and so on.

There were ten towns on the floating island, each named differently. Woodbuck Town, Hill Filly Valley, Roundhouse Town, Shroomboom Village, Giftmouth Town, Manelure Hamlet, Hooferdam, Haystrom, Prancing Hill, and Bigbuck City. Each settlement is connected by a set of roads and paths.

But in the center of the forest island was a large city built upon one of the medium-sized lakes in the middle of the river system. It was constructed with a network of bridges and several walls and watchtowers. With a large castle and a Sky Harbour for the Sky Ships like a big airport located on an island in the center of the lake. This was the city of the island, Strotholm, and here the horses would get products through the waters they received, either by carts, skyships, riverboats, or carriers. Which they would later make into various kinds of objects to sell.

The entire island was named after the city, as to mark it down as the most important settlement on the floating forest. And also gave the horses something to use when messing with future tourists. Like when asked what the name of the city of Strotholm is and thus create a chain conversation where the tourist is trying to figure out what the name of the city is, as they think they are being told the name of the floating island.

Horses can be pranksters sometimes.

The final location of the ten spots is the floating stronghold carved out of the strongest mountain found. A mountain-sized fortress carved out into the shape of a massive castle. It looked less like a floating mountain and more like a floating castle the size of a mountain.

(Author's Note: Best Image I could find, just imagine the mountain behind the castle on the floating island is carved out in a similar architectural style as well and you got a pretty good idea of how it looks like.)

It was crafted with over ten walls, over two hundred massive watchtowers, and double that in smaller watchtowers. It had gatehouses, bottleneck locations, murder holes, archer holes, battlements, and so much more. It was created to be able to withstand any army, as it was not just a floating fortress. It was the location of the main research facilities and holding vaults of the artifacts and secrets gathered by the horses.

It is known as Girthenburg. The main stronghold of the Horadrim Kingdom.

All of these floating islands had been created by ripping out large landscapes out of various locations that had been marked down on the map of Equestria when the horses marked down their borders. An act only made possible with the utilization of the incomplete mana engine blueprints of their creator to create a complete and functional version that could be used to power the large scale arrays that would tear the heavy masses of the Ten Spots free from the ground they were bound to.

And they had succeeded. Now all of the major landmasses of the horses were floating among the clouds like massive airships of stone, earth, and soil.

But that was not all the horses held within their borders.

The horses still had holdings and outposts on the ground as well, specifically within or near the large pits formed by tearing out their now flying islands from the landscape. And even outside of their borders they held a large number of informants, diplomats, spies, and agents. There were several hundreds of horses living among the ponies, but the horses' mainlands are still the floating islands.

And currently, are all of these flying landmasses gathering in a secluded location within the mountain range of the Foal Mountains. Even though they are hard to hide are the horses able to move their floating islands by moving above thick cloud layers and creating artificial clouds around the islands to cover them from sight.

And currently, above the eastern central region of the Foal Mountains, were the sky islands floating with an armada of skyships flying around them.

Within the highest tower of the large stronghold of Girthenburg was a large gathering hall where a large banquet was being held. A large square-shaped table covered with an abundance of various types of food, drinks, and refreshments stood at the center of the large room, with a dozen or so smaller round tables holding different types of snacks and drinks, not as diverse as the table. Sitting by the vast table, or standing by the smaller round tables, were a large number of important figures of the Horadrim Kingdom.

The Warlords, the Horadrim Mages, the Sky Ship Officers, the newly founded Merchants' Guild's Staff Members, and even the recently chosen Mayors of the five islands utilized for productions of goods, materials, and food.

There was also the temporary leader of the Horadrim Kingdom, Cursed Blessing. The elder looking horse was seated on a chair by the large square table and he was sipping a glass of red wine made from the grapes of Grand Grainosa, the rush of the sweet alcoholic drink was a pleasant experience for him. Though he made a mental note to not do any magic until a few hours had gone by and the alcohol was out of his system.

The feast had been going on for a few hours now and all of them were well fed and slightly buzzed from drinks by this point. And thus the horse sage decided that now was the best time to speak to everyone without anyone getting overly tense or asking a lot of questions. He raised a small brass bell next to his plate of roasted corn with marinaded chicken wings and rang it out to the gathered diners.

"If I may have your attention please." He said as he rang the bells. And after a few moments of ringing the bell gently, he saw that he had the attention of the room and that no one was talking. He slowly lowered the bells down to the table, and stood up from his seat, and addressed the room.

"We all know why we have gathered together here today. We are soon reaching the moment for the return of our creator from the moon. The time has been confirmed by not only our own astronomers but the ponies have realized it as well." The horses went a bit stiff and looked at each other but did not speak or murmur, and just kept listening to their leader.

"At the start of the first of the seventh month next year, the Red Solar Eclipse will be occurring. Maleficus will be returning and I have already received words of his plans through the Black Beacons he has sent us. We will keep out of the conflict, our nation will instead aid Equestria with its defences along with the areas the army will be gathering its soldiers from." Some ponies might have spoken against this fact when it was spoken to them, but the Horses of the Horadrim Kingdom were only able to aid Equestria in any conflict if they were attacked, not if Equestria was the aggressor.

Princess Celestia had known this and had agreed to the terms even while knowing this fact. She did not want to drag another nation into what she considered an Equestrian matter. Even though her conflict with Maleficus was causing a lot of unbalance not only with her nation's military but also causing much disorder and distress with opportunistic bandits, raiders, or monsters taking advantage of the lowered amount of patrols in the nation.

"We will be aiding Equestria to the best of our abilities. Our Sky Fleets have grown, as have our troops and civil numbers. By now we number over twenty thousand adult horses and about half of that in youths. We have been blessed with good progress of expansion, but we cannot stay idle. We need to make sure we have space, resources, and the workload to keep our nation's population expansion stable and not run out of control. Thus we may need to expand even more in the coming decades or so." Another serious problem for the horses was that their numbers were growing out of control. Even though they had a lot of room and resources to handle their current population, could they grow too quickly and become unable to handle the constant population booms.

The horses had only a limited amount of land, and if things got really bad, they may have to colonize ground cities or raise more landmasses into the skies to properly accumulate their population growth. It was a serious issue, one they would have to consider talking about more in the future.

But for now, were their minds more focused on another matter. The return of their father. "But for now, we shall celebrate the future arrival of our Creator and Father. May his feud with Princess Celestia come to an end so that he can focus on fulfilling his promise to Queen Laura. To a peaceful future!"

"To Peace!" The horses cried out, raising their own glasses or mugs in response to the speech of their leader, as he raised his own glass. And the entire room drank their varying beverages, before continuing the feast. This time in a cheerful and happy manner, knowing that their Father and Creator would be returning next year.

Of course, their hopes for the conflict between Princess Celestia and their creator was far fetched, or at least not in the immediate future. But they could hope, pray and, wish for the conflict to come to an end. That much they could do.

(Scene Skip)

[Current Date: 6/5 - 128 AD]

The word of the approaching Red Sun had been spread throughout Equestria in just a few hours after its discovery. Princess Celestia was having her plans prepared and was getting ready for the confrontation between her forces and Maleficus' dark minions. She refused to consider his corrupted followers as horses, they were no better than mindless thralls in her eyes.

So she had a gathering for her Generals in the War Room in the Royal Palace. General Rough Stock of the Bronze army was smoking a pipe, the veteran was nearing his first century of age for an earth pony. Some would say that most earth ponies have gone past their prime at that phase of their lives. But Rough stock looked still as hearty and strong as he had during the First Crusade.

Next to the General was one of the Captains of the Bronze Army. A strong looking earth pony with a large sword of iron strapped to his side, a weapon forged for him by the horses as a request. Captain Weak Guts had grown exceptionally skilled and strong, not just as a soldier but as an officer as well.

With him was the General of the Silver Army, Aerial Grace, who was currently discussing a team-work effort between some of her silver troops and Guts' bronze troops. The two had grown very close ever since the Draconic Incursion and it had become quite the pleasant gossip about how they seem to like each other but cannot talk about anything not related to combat or warfare.

It was both sweet and amusing to see the two warriors fumble around when they were trying to speak about things not related to work or battle. Celestia had even heard that there was a betting pool on when the two would end up officially enter a relationship together.

She had a thousand bits on them getting together before the end of the year. Not a large amount with her being the ruler of Equestria, but still quite a tidy sum.

And lastly, there was the leader of the Golden Army, Bloody Courage... well he would have been there, but he was not. And she could not figure out why he was absent during such a crucial time. In his stead was a young Captain of the Gold Army, a unicorn mare by the name of Combat Support, a young mare in her early twenties with a green mane and tail, gray pelt, pale green eyes, and the cutie mark of a brown medicine kit saddle bag with a gold sword, a bronze shield and a silver crossbow resting behind it.

Deciding that she needed information, which was a no-brainer since she wanted to know just why one of her Generals were not at the war meeting. "Doest thee mind telling Us where General Bloody Courage might be? We hath no recollection of him abstaining from duty."

Young Captain Combat Support coughed a bit, caught off guard by the question. Even though she should have been expecting it. And gathered her wits before responding to the Princess. "General Courage is on his honeymoon your highness, he got married a month ago and has taken leave for his honeymoon with Lady Sweet Nonsense."

Princess Celestia blinked and stared at the nervous mare before she tilted her head and spoke out in a baffled voice. "Why hath We not heard of this matter yet? Such important events should hath been spoken of to us."

Captain Combat Support laughed a bit nervously while rubbing her neck before speaking up to her ruler. "Apparently had former Lord Bloody Charge entered General Courage in a betrothal contract with Lady Sweet Nonsense's family before he abstained as Lord. It came into effect recently because it was approaching the appointed date. Apparently, he felt that General Courage was not taking his status as a noble seriously."

Celestia gave the nervous Captain a hard stare and the other officers in the room tried to not make it clear that they were listening to the conversation. No one was willing to get Celestia into a bad mood because of Bloody Courage's lack of procedure. "This doest not explain why Lord Bloody Courage hath not informed us of his wedding nor of his absence from the Crusade We art about to undertake."

"Apparently to keep General Courage from revoking the betrothal was he not informed about it until a few days before the planned wedding. This decision was made before the known date of the Third Crusade. So he apparently had no time to give any information about it." That was the response given to her, with the mare providing it giving a helpless shrug. Since she too could not figure out why General Bloody Courage did not inform her personally. It was impossible to figure out how nobles thought, they were not creatures of logic that were for certain.

The alicorn mare pressed a hoof to her forehead and let out a suffering sigh. "Well, We art not one to blame Lord Bloody Courage to being forced to follow the word of his Head of House. But We art not pleased with how this hath obscured his duty as a General of Our Gold Army. Thou shalt take his stead Captain Combat Support and lead the Gold Army's forces for the upcoming Crusade."

"Yes your Highness, General Courage told me to handle all of the Gold Army's actions in his name through your orders during his absence." Sighing again Princess Celestia just walked over to the battle map, not really focused on the conversation. Or she might have noticed a slight... concerning detail in the wording of the orders given to Captain Support.

"Let Us all focus Our efforts on the coming battle in the approaching summer." The Princess tapped a round sphere, which was being supported by a golden bowl with three legs, a bright flash emerged from the orb and the face of Commander Rock Steady appeared upon the surface of the sphere, the veteran knight saluting her.

His voice then rang out of the orb, clear and strong as if he was standing in front of them. "I am receiving imagery and sound perfectly Princess Celestia. The Eastern Division of the Order of the Golden Cross, stationed at Blackstone Keep is ready to listen to the battle plans for the Third Crusade."

"Excellent Commander. We will have your Grand Master receiving words from Our meeting as well once he hath returned from his hunt of the Church of Clucking Chaos in the White Tail Woods." Celestia said with a smile, the process and refinement of the Comm Orbs had greatly improved. A network of several hundred these long-distance communication spheres had been created and spread out all over the known realm of Equestria. Even the colony of Bangcolt had five such orbs.

Then a pair of young voices rang out from the orb and the Commander blinked in surprise when two foals suddenly appeared, hugging his neck from behind. The first voice was a young pegasus filly with a clear blue mane, and tail, and orange coat. "Papa! I want to listen too!"

While the second foal was a pegasus colt with a blue pelt and a gray and green striped mane and tail. "Yeah me too!"

Princess Celestia blinked at the sight, but then had to press a hoof to cover up the giggles that threatened to burst out of her mouth at the sight of Commander Rock Steady's face as his foals somehow got into his office and began to mess around. It was a very adorable sight to see the normally serious and stoic Commander act like a doting father.

Chuckling a bit Commander Rock steady gently levitated his giggling foals off his back and held them out to his second in command. "Sorry little ones, Papa is working. Ser Be Boop, can you take Wildheart and Cloud Dancer to their mother? I believe they have some lessons to attend to. Which they apparently have been trying to evade."

"Of course Commander, come now little ones, your father has important business to attend to. And I bet you do not want your mother to get upset about you ignoring your lessons." The voice of Be Boop said with a gentle tone to it as the pony in question carried the two foals on his back while walking out of the room.

"Awwww!/Awwww!" The voices of the two small foals whined as they were gently taken away from their father's office.

"Sorry about that Princess, they are full of energy and constantly tries to evade their lessons to play. Hopefully, their mother will keep them occupied." The other ponies in the room just chuckled at the Commander's words, none of them had been expecting the rough and duty-bound large unicorn to actually get married. He had seemed more interested in military affairs and handling of the Eastern division of his knightly order, then taking on a relationship.

And yet he had been married to a pegasus mare by the name of Ancient Ruins who was the leader of a clan of nomadic scholars and treasure hunters called the Wind Striders. Apparently, the two of them had enjoyed each other's company and it had grown from that to a serious relationship. It had been a pleasant surprise for them all.

Princess Celestia just gave him a nod as she smiled at the orb she was communing with him through. "No worries Ser Rock Steady. We art but grateful that thou art able to keep doing your duty with your little ones taking up so much time. If thou wish We may offer thee some time off to spend with thy foals."

"No need your majesty, I and Ruin are able to handle the little tykes, and Be Boop is more than willing to be a foal sitter should we get too busy to keep track of them. Anyway, Blackstone Keep is prepared to listen to your orders and commands Princess." The unicorn commander gave a salute through the image of the orb and Celestia nodded.

She then reached out and tapped a second sphere, on this one the image of a pegasus mare, Happy Meal, appeared upon the surface. The mare gave a wide grin and saluted to the Princess. "Acting representative of da Head Quarters of the Order of da Golden Cross, Master Knight Happy Meal is here! Reporting fer duty all da way from our little camp outside of White Tail Woods Princess! We are all moving back fer Canterlot!"

"Wonderful to hear Ser Happy Meal. We will be starting the War Council soon, We shalt just call the others." Princess Celestia said with a smile to the cheerfully smiling mare, and reached out to touch another orb, out of this one came the image of a red dragon.

"Dragon Lord Clash, representative of the Bangcolt Colony, the Rock Fire Clan, and the Monster Hunter Guild, are here your highness." Princess Celestia nodded at that, Clash had proven himself an important figure for the colonization efforts of her nation, and also a steadfast ally in the attempt to pacify the Dragon Clans to not act aggressively towards her nation. His Monster Hunter Guild was the perfect front for the Dragon Hunters to take missions hunting not just for dangerous dragons, but for dangerous beasts as well. A guildhall had been opened in the city of Baltimare as well two years ago and it was showing promise.

Not speaking out to the dragon she reached out and touched another sphere. And upon its surface appeared the smiling face of an elderly looking equine by the name of Cursed Blessing, Lord of the Horadrim Kingdom. "Greetings to you Princess, Lord Asclepius is hearing you loud and clear from the Palace of Póli ton Álogo."

"We art grateful for your aid in our planning efforts Lord Asclepius. We doest hope thou will be able to keep Our borders safe during our Crusade." Princess Celestia had discussed the plans for the Third Crusade beforehoof with the Horses. They would not take part in the Crusade, instead, they would be protecting Equestria to the best of their abilities with their Sky Ships and Sky Islands.

When the news had come to her that the horses had torn mountains and landscapes free of the ground and flown them up into the skies to create flying islands she had felt giddy. It had been such a glorious idea and the sheer amount of effort, knowledge, and power required to create such a magical effect was unfathomable! She had not been allowed to investigate the floating islands' central network of arrays or the power source of them, much to her disappointment.

But instead, she was allowed to witness the construction of the crystal spires used as the central power conversion point that let the island keep flying almost near infinitely. It had been a fascinating sight, of piles upon piles of crystal fragments, and powder gathered into large metal containers the size of boats.

When full they were sealed and then put into giant ovens. In which the horses heated them up and then in some manner increased the pressure inside of the containers. And pressed the melted crystals within with this artificially amplified pressure to such a degree that the crystal fragments and powder and been turned into a liquid mass of crystalline material.

Which was then poured out into giant molds and shaped into segments that would become the giant crystal spires.

It had been fascinating.

"We are more than able to protect your borders, Princess. We are few but we will do our best to keep your nation safe. But know that we cannot be everywhere. Even if we have our Flying Islands, are there still only ten of them." Princess Celestia nodded to the old sage's wise words, she had realized it when she was told that the number of floating islands were limited to ten in total.

The horses had one big limit on their military capabilities. They had to protect their newly constructed homes and even if the islands themselves were well fortified, did they still have fleets of skyships protecting each of them. Thus the horses used their floating islands as massive sky bases to float through the skies and act not just as floating islands, but as floating military bases and strongholds.

But this limited their efficiency to smaller regions as only two active Sky Fleets were not actively guarding the Sky Islands. And one of them was a trading fleet called the Hermes Fleet, and it was only sparsely outfitted with military gear. Not outfitted for prolonged warfare.

"We doest understand this Lord Asclepius, worry not, We shalt hath orders sent to Our troops guarding the borders and our homes to keep in mind that thou art not to be bothered unless it be an emergency. They art to contact other pony forces before considering asking thee for aid." The Horse Lord nodded and went silent, puffing on a white pipe he put inside of his mouth.

Princess Celestia levitated the orbs of her observers to spots over the table and then she turned to face her Generals and Officers. "We art to start explaining the battle plan for the upcoming Third Crusade. As thou all know, We doest not know where or when We shalt face Melficus, thus we shalt have a lot of contingency plans in case he acts outside of Our initial plans."

And so the War Council began and the ponies made their final preparations and planning before their Third Crusade would begin at the start of upcoming Midsummer.

(Scene Skip)

[Current Date: 1/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 30 Days]

Maleficus stood on his hind legs upon the surface of the moon. Looking skywards where the planet above the moon was floating in the void of space. His eyes were looking upon the surface of the planet that he had watched for over twenty years in solitude. Only given two month's visit to the surface of the planet.

He was more familiar with the silent deserts and burning landscape of the moon than he was with the sensation of wind, grass, rain, and sunlight. Slowly he raised a hoof up and held it over the planet, a sad look in his eyes as he thought about the ponies upon the planet he had grown so close to.

Only to be separated from them twice now, once he was gone for ten years, now he had been gone for seventeen. He could feel the sensation of the curse pulling him towards the moon approaching. As the sun beyond the other side of the planet was taking on a more reddish tone day by day.

He stood there, thinking, contemplating. And then the black and green flames rushed in from all around and engulfed his shape. But he did not react, only limply letting the flames lift him off the sand and carry him upwards, away from the desert of the moon and towards the planet above him.

The cloud layer split apart as he flew through the atmosphere, his soaring shape tearing down towards the vast plains outside of the Everfree Forest way, way down.

But this is how far Maleficus intended to let the fire guide him. He spread his wings, and closed his eyes, and focused his magic. A powerful pulse of green light was emitted through the flames holding him. And slowly his trajectory shifted slowly. Until Maleficus opened his eyes, his horn and eyes glowing crimson. and with a jerk of his head, he made the flames fall westwards.

His falling form made a curved turn left and Maleficus smirked as he saw his destination approaching rapidly as he flew away from the open fields north of Everfree. And instead flew westwards, over the White Tail Woods. Although he did not know the name of the region or the forest.

Green forestry passed by beneath him as he kept his eyes focused, trying to see his end goal. But perhaps he was focusing a bit too much. Especially considering he had forgotten one part about his flight.

Maleficus blinked when something suddenly appeared from below and blocked his view. It was tall, brown with a green crown, and easily five meters thick. His brain froze for a few seconds before he realized what was rapidly approaching. *Where did that tree come from!?*

In his haste and focus had Maleficus forgotten that while he could control the direction of his fall, was it still a fall. And the altitude of his fall had been getting lower steadily, and he never noticed that he was getting closer to the large forest beneath him.

The falling green star that was Maleficus slammed into the massive tree. The tree had its entire upper half torn asunder as the green star impacted its crown of leaves. There was a bright flare of green light that covered the morning skies in intense green light.

Before the light could fade came a shock wave that traveled with an intense thunderous boom out from the impacted area as the fallen star erupted into a massive explosion of dark-green flames and powerful kinetic force. Bark, branches, splinters, leaves, and ashes flew out across the woodlands.

Out from the explosion came the dark shape of Maleficus flying. Debris of wood and plant matter was flying alongside him as he found himself tumbling uncontrollably through the air like some kind of misfired ballistic missile.

And then he hit another tree. This one was splintered apart by the force of the stumbling alicorn's body, spraying even more wooden fragments into the winds. The nearby trees were uprooted and knocked over as the shock wave o his passing body flew through the foliage.

And then he crashed through yet another tree. The scene repeated itself and thus a third tree exploded like a non-combustion based firework, but he kept going.

The weight and speed of his moving body were not enough to be stopped. Even as he slammed through tree after tree, even as the ground was torn up as he slammed into its surface, he just bounced up like a flat stone skipping over water. Each time he flew he spent an awful lot of time cursing, before slamming through yet another tree, and then repeat his curses.

This show of alicorn based wood chipping was repeated for about two minutes. Until Maleficus slammed into a small hill and found himself spinning through the air as he was sent spinning out of the edge of the forest. He struck the ground yet again, and again, skipping like a crash dummy until he finally stopped-

He flipped and spun one final time before slamming with a crack into the side of a massive boulder, cracking the entire thing. His body was stuck in the massive stone, buried halfway into the surface, leaving only his rear body sticking out of the deep hole he had made into the thing. His left hind leg was twitching slightly as he just hung there in that hole for a moment.

Then the boulder began to fall apart. Shards and chunks of stone fell apart into a massive pile of rubble. Revealing a stone and gravel-covered Maleficus lying on his back on a pile of dust, spitting out gravel and snorting out dust from his nostrils. He finally shook himself clean and then decided to just fall over on his back and pressed his left hoof to the side of his skull, letting out a groan as he tried to ease his headache from the impact.

As he laid there among the broken fragments of the big rock while reaching up and rubbing his sore head. Muttering to himself out loud. "I really hate these landings."

(Scene Skip)

The time had come. For the third time, the moon's burning specter shifted and twisted into a spiraling mass of green and black fire. It grew upwards like a growing spiraling drill before erupting off of the surface of the moon. As it reached the atmosphere of the planet it turned, from a spiraling mass of black and green flames, into a falling star of green fire.

As it was occurring was Princess Celestia standing on the large gatehouse of Canterlot's city wall. She was currently lowering the moon, and as she did so could she see that the dark black and green flames have already begun to move into a spiraling form. The Princess of the Sun watched intensely as the green streak fell down from the heavens while she raised the new sun. The crimson rays of the red sun colouring the blue skies with a tinge of red, almost making the sky look palish red.

The falling green star flew through the clouds above and moved down towards the Everfree Forest. Celestia kept her eyes focused at the falling streak of green with narrowed eyes, intent on not allowing the star to escape her gaze. After his last arrival sent her plans into disarray was she no longer going to just think that he would land by the Everfree Forest like the first time.

She knew that Maleficus could alter the direction of his fall if he wanted to. Thus she had to be constantly vigilant as to not let him escape her notice. *Thou shalt not be given time to mess up Our efforts to end thy evil presence!*

And as if on cue she saw the falling green streak shift direction and suddenly turn towards the West. She instantly knew that the cur was moving towards a spot he was intent on using against her and her armies.

This time, she intended to not give him the time to prepare.

She quickly walked over to the battlements of the gatehouse and jumped up on top of one of the taller portions and she looked down. Outside of Canterlot stood three massive rectangular formations of ponies dressed in silver, bronze, and gold armour standing upon the grassy fields next to the cliff-side by the road. They were all lined up perfectly, with wagons carrying supplies and siege engines located among the center and rear of their formations.

Princess Celestia then opened her lips and shouted out to her forces, pointing westwards with her right foreleg. her voice echoed out over the city behind her and out over the open plains, the mountains and valleys before her, as she shouted out in her voice of royal authority. "Maleficus hath returned once more and once more he hath sought to evade Us to perform his wicked plans! We shalt not allow this! March West! March in the name of Equestria!"

As one the ponies raised their right hooves into the air and shouted out together. "ORA!"

And then, they all turned 180 degrees and began to march southwards. Their hooves thundered over the solid stone of the road and thumped against the soft soil of the grass, as their formations slowly shifted from two spread out rectangular formations, into three long lines.

And as they marched down the southern road they began to sing and chant. Drums were being beaten, trumpets were sounded and choirs of chanting 'ha's and 'ho's echoed throughout the melody.

[Song: The Dawn of War. (Yet another updated version.) Text Only. Creator: Staadnauthursil]

[Start Background Music: Two Steps From Hell - Unforgiven]

https://youtu.be/Pvq1AdY29Hg

Update: Music Video was supplied by Crescent Glaive, one of my awesome readers.

"The Red Sun Has Risen Up In The Distant Sky!"

The three armies marched past the southern hills. Their rumbling steps causing the land to quiver.

"A Warm Red Glow That Makes Our Hearts Cry!"

Their Princess flew off the gatehouse and was flying above them, her white flying shape guiding them to their path.

"This Is A Sign That Has Called Out To Us All!"

Soon they reached the crossroad and from there they turned right and went towards the west. Passing by the road sign that read 'White Tail Woods' in the direction they were marching.

"For This Be The Dawn of War!"

Their steps took them down a long and wide road leading down to the lower plains where Saddle Lake was located. There was no road leading west after they reached the plains. So they had to move over the grassy plains.

"And We Shall Answer The Call!!"

The moist morning grass was growing over wet soil, as it had been raining two days earlier. Hooves and wooden wheels sank into the moist earth, but the ponies kept marching.

"In Our Princess Name We March Off For Glory!"

The Silver Army took to the skies. It was like a swarm of silver glittering birds were flying out of now muddy track left in the grassy fields. Over a hundred pegasi were pilling a newly designed manner of chariot capable of flight. Only the soldiers pulling the wagons were left below, with a couple of soldiers left behind to give them aid, if they were to be hampered by the mud.

"We Shall Strike Down Our Foe For All That is Holy!"

Princess Celestia flew down ahead of the army and landed before the edge of the White Tail Woods. Behind here came first the Silver Army, then the Bronze Army, and finally the Gold Army and the Silver Army's wagons.

"By Our Conviction, We Will Never Fall!"

She then ignited her horn and tossed her head forward, a golden beam sliced through the wooden vegetation, tearing up a wide and long path through the forest. The path was over twenty meters wide but had left the ground relatively intact, as the spell had not been fire-based. It did leave a pretty wide trench along its path, however.

"By Our Cunning, We Shall Strike From Afar!"

Celestia leads her forces into the White Tail Woods, in the distance, she could see the rising column of smoke from where Maleficus had landed. It would take them a day to reach their destination, even with their preparations and improved gear they would just make it to the location within a day.

"For This Is The Dawn of War!"

As the final wagon was pulled into the newly made passage through the White Tail Woods, were over a dozen wagons pulled back to the rear. From these wagons came several earth ponies placing gravel, sand, and flat stone over the torn-up ground. It would not be possible to do this in the muddy plains with their limited supplies. But they could make the planned road through the woods.

"And We Have Answered The Call!!"

With a final cry of 'Ora' the ponies marched forth, their path taking them deeper into the forest. Leaving behind their march a pristine stone road made through the improved construction techniques of the Order of the Golden Cross.

The ponies had once more gone to war.

[End Marching Song]

But as the forces of the ponies disappeared into the green forestry of White Tail Woods, were several unseen eyes watching the armies, from the dense foliage of the tree crowns. Intently watching as the forces of the ponies went westward after the fallen green star.

Then, as the army went out of sight, jumped half of the unseen figures out of the trees, spread wide and large wings, before flying out of the tree line and towards the east.

The rest remained, slowly following the ponies, as if to keep an eye on them.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus had dragged himself out of the rubble and gravel and began to wander deeper into the mountainous region of the White Tail Woods. He was heading towards a spot he had thought to be the perfect spot to engage Celestia in a type of warfare he doubted she was used to.

It would be an education for her, and himself. For while he knew the basics and had utilized tactics of such battle through mediums like miniature games, video games, books, and role-playing games, had he never actually done it in real life.

Just like all of his battles was he improvising a lot and he knew he was not the best of military tacticians. With only four battles to his name, two of them were not even real battles, more like mock fights. He had spent a lot of time training and studying tactics with Luna, but it was far different to engage in battle in real life than to do so through training or simulations.

Thus he focused more on the entire preparation phase, trying to prepare himself for anything that could go wrong, or right.

As he walked up the slopes of a large mountain he heard something in the distance. Looking back towards the forest he had crashed through, Maleficus whistled in admiration at what he saw.

A beam of golden light had just blasted a wide trench through the forest and slammed into the mountainside where he had crashed a few hours ago. It was no need to guess who had caused that. "Celestia is picking up on the preparation game rather well this time. But then again, it took her twenty-seven years and two Crusades to do so."

Deciding to speed up his movement through the mountains he hunched down, lowered his skeleton's weight, and jumped. He leaped over the peak he was trying to climb and landed on the rocky slope on the other side. Sliding down the slope, sparks erupting from his hooves as he slid down, he looked ahead and smiled as he saw the area he had been scouting out.

Jumping a second time he flew over the deep valley below. For a few seconds, he soared through the skies, using his wings to glide a bit and not just fall down, and then with a loud crack, he landed on top of a smooth rounded mountain top. And from there he looks towards the location and saw that it was just another five jumps until he reached it.

Hunching down he bent his legs and with a huff jumped off the mountain towards another. Spreading his wings he soared across the valley between the two mountains he was jumping between. Another loud crack and he landed on the other mountain top. And followed by another leap he was moving towards the next.

And so he repeated it three more times until he finally slammed into not a mountain, but a large and wide grassy plain. He was now standing in the middle of a large valley with a large flat field of tall grass, mountains all around, with a few forests located in the valleys between some of the mountains. A large waterfall was pouring down a mountainside to the northwest and a wide river was flowing through the northern area of the valley before moving eastwards through some steep mountain ravines, taking on the shape of a network of streams and rivers flowing down into the White Tail Woods

Looking towards his goal he began to gallop through the large green field of tall grass. For a moment the male alicorn almost felt like he would encounter a special kind of yellow mouse during his trip through this thick grass. He actually felt a little disappointed when he got through the field without encountering such a mouse.

Shaking his head he moved out of the tall grass and looked upon his goal. Before him was the wide river, and beyond it, on the other side of the raging waters, laid a large white mountain, sticking out like a large piece of white chalk in the mountain range.

Looking up at the clear sky he frowned a bit before he looked back at the mountain. "It will be a while for the moon to rise... Guess I will have to set the foundations until then."

He then stood up on his rear legs and raised both of his forelegs to the height of his lower neck, his horn ignited with crimson energy and so were the hooves of his raised forelegs. Slowly he lowered both of his forelegs, and a soft rumbling began to sound across the valley as the ground before the river, suddenly began to press downwards into itself.

The water did not pour into the strangely shaped imprint of the ground, it was like some kind of invisible force was keeping it from moving into the newly made open space.

Maleficus then lowered his forelegs even further and the imprint sank deeper, and deeper, until it was several meters down into the surface. He then relaxed, steadily raised his forelegs, and pointed his left towards the white mountain, while he had the other still pointed at the newly shaped pit.

The sound of crumbling stone and cracking fissures erupted from the white mountain. Then in an eruption of dust and dirt, came a swarm of rock, dust, gravel, and other pieces of rock flying out of a newly shaped hole in the side of the mountain.

Maleficus moved the earthly elements together, hovering them above the deep hole, and then his horn ignited. The temperature rose intensely in the air above the river, and slowly but surely, the rocks began to turn cheery red, until they began to melt. And when the once floating mass of gravel and rock was a blob of melted stone, created Maleficus an opening at the bottom of his telekinetic hold, and the molten mass began to pour into the deep pit.

Afterward was the once deep and empty hole filled to the top with a hardened mass of stone. Them as had been molded and shaped, into what could only be described, as the bottom of a small fort, or maybe a very large tower, it was hard to tell for the moment. But it took less than an hour to complete the foundation.

Maleficus then began to repeat the process on two spots ahead of the newly made foundation and began to shape and fill a pair of circular pits into the foundation of some kind of circular structure. Most likely a tower.

As the melted stone cooled down he pointed both of his forelegs towards the white mountain. And cracks and fissures began to take shape over its surface, as Maleficus began to chisel and carve out large chunks of rock from it, while also shaping its outer layer to his purpose.

All with the force of his magic utilized through his mental focus like a swarm of cranes and carving knives tearing out and shaping pieces of the mountain.

Soon was a veritable hurricane of pieces of stone in all manners of shapes and sizes flying through the air, shaped and molded to Maleficus' desires. And as they were placed at their specific locations, they were melted into place. They were not glued together by some kind of mortar. No, they were essentially being fused together by heat alone, creating a seamless surface without the slightest crack or imperfection.

As Maleficus focused on his crafting of the battlefield, were other things occurring within Equestria.

(Scene Skip)

A shadowy figure was flying across the sky of Equestria, heading eastwards. It was dressed in black robes and leather hide armour that covered most of its features, but it was clearly a four-legged creature with bird wings, that much was sure. But no one had spotted it yet as it had been evading the populated areas of Equestria on its path.

Soon it reached its destination and flew into the mountainous region known as the Foal Mountains. It streaked across a few peaks and landed a few times to survey a map it was keeping within a cylindrical map case hold on its belt. Then, after what felt like hours, it reached its destination.

It flew down towards a snow-covered pinewood forest located within a deep valley. As it flew down it kept turning its head, looking left and right, trying to spot something. And then the figure saw it.

There, past a collection of pine trees laid a large open glade, and within that glad stood the bottom half of a ruined tower. In front of the old tower was a pair of statues. Both of the statues were damaged but one could make out the silhouettes of what looked like some kind of dog or perhaps cat-like creature.

Walking past the statues the figure entered the dark entrance of the tower, there was no door, only rusty hinges hanging off the edge of the stonework. Inside of the tower was a single circular shaped table of stone, a couple of barrels, a collapsed staircase, and a locked wooden hatch next to the collapsed staircase.

Upon the stone table was a black piece of fabric, covering something. The figure reached out with a cloth-covered foreleg and pulled off the fabric. A blue light fills the room as a circularly shaped mirror with a golden handle in the shape of an eagle's talon, laid upon the stone table, glowing.

Picking up the mirror the figure spoke into the mirror in a feminine voice, the voice echoing in a slightly unnatural manner as if the words spoken were not meant to be heard. "Oh Irrormay ofway Oicesvay. Openway ethay Ayway."

The mirror's glowing surface seemed to gain a fluid state, and then it stopped glowing, but it was no longer showing a reflection. Instead, upon its surface, was what looked like a shimmering pool of blue glowing water-like liquid.

And then a deep resound male voice spoke out of the mirror, the surface making ripples as the voice spoke. As if the voice was being transmitted through the watery surface of the mirror. "Report."

The female figure spoke to the mirror, giving her report of the activities of the ponies to the voice in the mirror. "All is according to your vision your highness. The ponies have lost sight of their borders and gone after the green star that fell this morning. They have left their city essentially defenceless."

"Excellent. All is going as planned. The Kingdom of the ponies is rich with resources and riches at the moment, even with their frantic focus on military development have they no sustainable agriculture or resource gathering to keep it going for much longer. It is the best time to empty their coffers before they do so themselves." The voice sounded both smug and content, one could practically feel the smirk that should have been seen if the speaker had been in the room.

With a slight quiver in her voice, the spy spoke out to the listener once more. "I... do have a concern about the upcoming events, your highness."

"Speak." The command was simple and plain even with it just being one word. For she knew that the tone of the speaker's voice meant one thing, 'tell me what you want to say, and I will decide whether to not to kill you afterward'.

"The green star. It... made some of our sensory artifacts react, similar to the reaction made by the Princess of the Ponies. It may be something of similar or greater strength than her." It had been a miracle that the artifacts in question had not detonated, or revealed their location to the ponies as they scouted them. Even within a kilometer's distance from Princess Celestia, had the artifacts started to glow and whine like boiling kettles.

But the voice seemed unconcerned about this, almost as if it was assured of its future victory before the battle had even commenced. "It is of no concern. The Princess has foolishly left her nest to chase after the star. She and whatever fell down from the heavens shall be content with fighting each other, while we take her capital and riches as spoils of war."

"As you say, your highness, your words are wise beyond your years." Flattery was the only way to properly dissuade her King's unwelcome attention. He could just as well kill her as he could rape her, even both, and not in any particular order, if he found her actions offensive. That's how unstable he was.

The smugness practically oozed out of the mirror as the ruler on the other side truly enjoyed the flattering of his spy. Said, spy had to keep herself from getting ill as he spoke back to her in a delighted voice. "Indeed. The ponies' gold will make a fine addition to the treasury, their artifacts studied to make us stronger. And not to mention, I do wonder what the flesh of their young taste like."

"As you most likely are to find out yourself soon enough my king." She said in a cool and steady voice, keeping her nerves steady and calm as she clenched her stomach tight as to not retch all over the mirror.

The voice just kept oozing its delight at the prospect of tasting the flesh of young ponies, it was like the meat of tender younglings was the most delicate thing in the King's mind. And it was, he was infamously whispered by the title of King of Cuisine, Cuisine of Murder that is. For he ate all that he wanted, even his own young. "Indeed. I think I will have one cut open and stuffed with boiled eggs, before slowly roasted, that will make a fine dish. One of my hens laid some eggs a week ago, it will be most delightful I am sure."

She had to hold back a flinch of utter disgust at those words, not willing to risk him noticing her reaction through the mirror. "You truly deserve the prominent title of King of Cuisine, your highness."

The king's voice echoed back out of the mirror. He was clearly delighted by the discussion and the flattery but was now making his final statement through the mirror. "I most certainly do. Prepare for the arrival of our troops; in a few days, we take Equestria's capital for our own. Worry not about any outside forces aiding them. The mercenaries will keep the horses busy, even with their so-called 'flying islands' will they prove no match for my cousin's forces for hire. After all, I doubt they have any more flying unicorns capable of slaying dragons than the Princess herself, and she is busy elsewhere."

"As you command King Craver." The agent then put down the mirror as the shimmering surface once more resumed to turn into a glowing blue reflective surface. She then slowly walked out of the tower, walked over to a wooden stump, and then she unfurled her scarf before she hunched over the stump and retched out the content of her stomach on the snow.

After a few minutes, was her stomach empty, but she still tried to retch. But she could not empty it any further than she already had. After a few moments of failed puking, she finally calmed down. Hunched over and panting she slowly raised a foreleg to her shrouded face and wiped it clean, before folding the scarf back into place.

The cloaked spy looked with a furious and sickened look in her amber eyes at the tower. "You are no King. A monster is what you are. Murderer. Kinslayer. Cannibal. For all of the newborn lives you have eaten, I hope your soul is torn asunder by the flesh-ripping vultures of Hades for eternity once you die you wretched beast."

She then sat down on the stomp and looked into the sky above her, her wings fluttering a bit in concern. "I truly hope the ponies are not as lacking in their defences as I saw. Or may the spirits have mercy on them and their young."

(Scene Skip)

Out by the coastline just north of the great seaport city of Fillydeplhia stood a large castle, constructed upon a lone half-island sticking out of the coastline. A lone bridge connected the castle to the mainland where a smaller fort was constructed. Upon the top of the large seaside castle waved two flags, one being the national flag of Equestria. The second flag was of the Blood Family, a singular crimson blood drop in the center of a blue spiral pattern on a white background.

This was the recently constructed Bloodstone Keep, the getaway home of the Blood Clan. And currently, it was the residence of General Bloody Courage, the recently married Lord of the Blood Family.

"These Crusades will bring our nation to ruin if we cannot bring an end to them. Ponies brought and trained for thousands upon thousands of bits, leaving many cities without proper workforces, damaging the economy of the nation, and even limiting the defences of the nation as well. We do not have the resources or workforce to maintain this madness again and again. But the Princess is too blind in her rage to realize it." The Lord said to himself as he looked out from the southwest tower of his keep, watching as the green star fell once more.

"Well, this is why you and your little group have decided to put this plan of yours into action no?" A sensual voice said out soothingly from the large bed in the chamber. A beautiful, young mare unicorn with a pale blue mane, light pink fur, and black eyes was lying upon the bed, looking at her new husband with a saucy smirk on her lips while tracing her hoof upon her flank. Tracing it over her cutie mark, a red-painted set of lips, with a pair of intertwined vines with black thorns that ended up with blue roses, behind said lips.

Her name was Sweet Nonsense, the youngest daughter of the Rich Clan. When she found out she was engaged to the older Lord Bloody Courage she had been a bit disappointed, thinking that the General was one of those boring thugs who thought themselves superior for being strong.

As it turned out was he a very intellectual pony and one with a similar ambitious mindset like she had. After just a few weeks of meeting her future husband had she taken a liking to him. She knew, well she knew for certain now, that she was only a pawn in his plan but she did not mind it. As it made her part of something greater.

Nodding to her words the General confirmed her statement, the Society of Heraldry, Independence, and Trade had decided to initiate his plan. And now he was working on getting the foundation of the work into fruition with the aid of Sweet Nonsense. IT could not be done without her help. "Indeed. Our plan is a long term one, but it is the best option we have to legally cut the control of Equestria from Celestia's hooves. Otherwise will outright rebellion and usurpation of the throne be our only other option, and with the power, Celestia wields are we not able to take control of the nation."

Sweet Nonsense smiled and gently pushed herself off the sheets and slowly walked up next to Bloody Courage and sensually rubbed her cheek against his neck, nibbling gently along his toned neck. Smearing red lipstick marks across his fur as she did so. "Well then, shall we get back to planning?"

She then let out a delighted squeal as she was telekinetically lifted up into the air before gently put onto the bed again, and her new husband jumped onto the bed as well, putting himself on top of her. Smirking down at his new wife with a wild loo kin his eyes. "Indeed, the planning is the most 'intense' moment after all."

And so the pair started 'working on the plan', whilst unknowingly, Equestria was facing a great danger that did not involve their limited viewpoint.

(Scene Skip)

Princess Celestia had her forces stop as it became time to alter the sky from day to night. They had reached the other side of the forest by the time of the evening hours approaching. By tracing the half a mile long, and scorched black, skid mark of Maleficus' landing they found the point of impact, a massive pile of rubble and rock lying in a pile by the root of the mountains.

When they first saw the track of Maleficus' landing the ponies had been hoping that the alicorn would be unconscious, or at least stunned, from the sheer force of being thrown through half a mile of forest and into a giant rock. Alicorns, however, especially this one, are extremely resilient and recovers quickly, thus they found no traces of Maleficus once they reached the crash site.

So, Celestia, had her tired forces make a temporary campsite next to the place where Maleficus had crashed while sending out scouts to find their hated enemy. Currently, was Celestia standing on top of the mountain next to the camp, looking at the sun as she prepared for raising and lowering the sun.

Down below she looked as her forces rested and checked their supplies. There were several more greenhorns than Crusade veterans, it was to be excepted. Her army was almost a hundred thousand strong, more than three times the size it had been during the Second Crusade. So over sixty percent of her forces were rookies who had not taken part in any major battles, outside of maybe being traumatized civilians from the Draconic Incursion, before joining the military.

It pained her a bit that she was taking so many of her subjects to fight Maleficus. But she felt like there was no other option. with Maleficus having brought forth his own army last time he had defeated her forces during the Second Crusade. And those soldiers had been veteran soldiers and knights, not the greenhorns Maleficus had fought during the First Crusade.

Thus she knew that she needed to have overwhelming numbers and highly skilled soldiers to properly take on Maleficus and his army of corrupted horses. The last time she fought him he had brought her to a battlefield he had prepared beforehoof.

A powerful storm, one her and her forces had never experienced before. She later found out from some of the locals living out on the islands of the Celestial Sea, that such storms were called hurricanes and came once every few years when the seas were experiencing strong temperature shifts.

The storm had struck nearly all of her pegasi forces lame with fear and terror, their natural instincts forcing them to seek cover and safety from the strong winds. Only a few of them had managed to push through their instinct fears of the storm, but one-third of her forces had been paralyzed by that move alone.

But that was not all that Maleficus had done. He had even crafted two mountains to create a bottleneck to keep himself in a stronger position. The crafting of the two peaks, now called the Groundpound Peaks by the locals, caused massive tremors to shake the entire east coast, damaging much of the infrastructure and thus forcing the forces of her nation to offer aid to the damaged settlements.

Thus he cut her off from any manner of reinforcement.

And then he used the storm's harsh winds, rain, and lightning to wear down her larger army as they tried to beat down his own soldiers. It was not until the Order of the Golden Cross made a valiant charging flank that the tide of battle seemed to change. Only for them to be defeated by Maleifucs himself in a duel between him and the two strongest knights of the Order.

Thus she knew, she could not let him have time to prepare any of his tricks. She needed to find and reach him before the end of tomorrow, or he would have too much time to prepare.

Sighing softly she rubbed her forehead with a hoof. She was tired and needed to rest, the sun would have to be settled now so that she could raise the moon and take a well-deserved rest before continuing the hunt for Maleficus.

She raised her head and a golden glow filled the air around her horn, and slowly the sun settled down towards the horizon, slowly sinking down beneath the mountains and disappearing from sight. Then she slowly raised her head and the shimmering silvery glow of the moon rose up to light the dark night sky.

As the moon rose up and rested upon the sky she smiled a bit as she looked upon the image representing her sister upon the surface of the moon. Wondering, like she did every day, if her sister was alright, being isolated upon the moon with the vile being who caused her fall. She hoped she was not in contact with the fiend, the gods only knew what manner of vile things he might do to her while up there.

She then turned to walk down the mountain to take a rest in her personal tent, when a bright light shoots down from the dark night sky. Celestia looked up with wide eyes to see a bright beacon-like beam of silvery light shoot down from the moon and land far ahead into the mountains.

At first, she did not know what to think of it. When she felt a glimmer of hope and she looked up with an awestruck look on her face, her eyes growing moist and teary. "Luna? Art thee trying to tell Us where he be?"

She felt tears slide down her cheeks as she contemplated the fact that her sister was helping her, even while sealed on the moon. It made her feel relief and joy, her sister was helping her. Perhaps she could dare hope, that Luna was free to act of her own will, while sealed on the moon. For she doubted that the nightmare would have aided her.

"Thank thee for thy aid Luna, We shall bring thee justice soon." Celestia then wiped her cheeks and eyes clear of tears and took a shuddering breath before moving down the mountain. She would have the direction and area of the beam marked and noted by her scouts, and then she would sleep and prepare for a rapid march.

Tomorrow. Maleficus would face the might of the Equestrian armies, and this time, he would not escape judgment for his crimes.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus looked up with a smirk as the sun was lowered down beneath the horizon and the silvery glowing surface of the moon was revealed. He had been eating a roasted bird while waiting for the moon to rise, said bird being the size of a bloody pig, it had made for an excellent spit roast.

Before him, laid a set of structures of solid white stone, fused together into a solid mass. The white mountain had lost much of its natural shape, it was halfway carved out, with various shapes, structures, walls, and buildings incompletely carved out of the white rock.

Maleficus could not properly carve out the mountain as he wanted with the limited time frame he had. So as to make a proper job, he would be using the aid of the Interface on the moon.

The sad thing was that unless the moon was up, could he not utilize the more complex and powerful effects the Interface could support him with.

So as the moon rose to the peak of the heavens, he got up from the log bench he had made, walking away from the burning pile of coal where the half-eaten bird was hungover while impaled on an iron rod. He soon reached the shores of the river and he brought out his Solid Light Screen, spreading it out he aligned the image of the mountain in front of the screen, like a camera being focused and aligned.

Then he pressed his right hoof against the interface and his horn began to glow, while he spoke out a command word to the Interface through the screen. "Initiate Construction of Project: Whitestone."
'
Up, on the surface of the moon, the once inactive structure of solid light began to shine and shimmer as the screens began receiving instructions and data through the connection of the screen. And as power began to fill the interface, fueled through the physical touch of Maleficus into the Light Screen he was touching, the Interface pointed its telescope screens at the mountain and fired.

A bright flare erupted from the Interface and shoot down like a cliche, or sometimes classic, super villain's evil moon base laser. The beam shoots down, and flew down through the bare night sky, before striking the mountain. The entire structure of the beam was engulfing the mountain from bottom to peak and its entire radius, even the mountains around its immediate location were being affected.

And as the pillar of light shone upon the mountain, began the sound of humming energy and crackling stone to erupt from the mountain, as slowly but surely, the entire thing began to alter in shape. It was being molded into shape, forcefully shifted and altered by the interface, like some kind of landscape-altering version of Photoshop.

All the while the smirking form of Maleficus, watched it shaped the mountain into its desired shape. At the rate the Interface was working, would the battlefield for the Third Crusade be ready before dawn.

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining. 29 Days]

The morning sun rose from the horizon, crimson solar rays colouring the sky in a crimson glow, as the strength of the sun's light felt stronger today.

As the light broke apart the darkness of the night it revealed the three rows of bronze, silver, and gold once more gathered in formation. Determined eyes were focusing on the mountain range before their gathered numbers.

And upon the peak of the first mountain, with her horn glowing like a golden beacon, stood Princess Celestia. She raised her left foreleg as the sun was raised to its proper position upon the heavens and pointed it at her gathered forces, her eyes glowing white. "Our foe is but a few hours march away! Let Us breach through these mountains and root out the evil hiding within them! We shalt not let that fiend escape! Ave Equestria! March!"

After the short speech of their ruler the gathered forces of Equestria raised their heads and forelegs in salute and cried out together to their Princess, their voices echoing over the woods and mountains. "Ave Equestria!"

Unicorns gathered at the front of the forces and their horns ignited, and blasts of energy slammed into the mountain before them, and then the unicorns began to move forward, the beams from their horns not stopping. Slowly the beams started to sink into the mountain, until it essentially melted through the thick earthly elements of the mountain and with a loud resounding boom, erupted out on the other side of the mountain, a column of smoke and dust rising into the air behind Celestia.

A thirty-meter and ten-meter tall tunnel had been melted and blasted through the entire mountain's base. Thirty unicorns were forced to be carried to the wagons, too exhausted from overusing their magic to properly walk, as the forces of Equestria, began to move through the newly made tunnel.

Celestia flew down the mountain, landing in front of the recently made tunnel entrance/exit on the other side. Landing on soft grass covered by pieces of gravel, sand, and dust she pointed her horn at the mountain directly in front of the tunnel and released a wide blast of magic. And began to carve out a second tunnel for her forces to march through.

In less than a minute had she blasted an almost identical tunnel for her ponies to march through. And she flew up towards the peak of the mountain to look ahead to spot how many more mountains they would have to carve a path through. The night scouts had not been able to tell her a good estimate of how difficult it was to scout mountains at night.

She counted at least five more mountain peaks for her forces to march through, she could not spare the stamina to melt out five more tunnels, she had to spare the energy required to take on Maleficus or handle any potential traps he might have set up for her and her armies.

But she could make at least one more to make it easier for her forces. And so the Princess of the Sun flew down to land in front of the mountain before the tunnel she had melted through the mountain behind her, and let loose another powerful beam of focused plasma.

After melting through the third mountain path she turned around and faced the approaching forces wandering through the tunnels. As she saw them approach she moved aside and let her forces move forward, she would have to keep track of the army's movement through the mountains.

Her forces marched through like well oiled and tuned clockwork, a group of thirty unicorns would melt out new tunnels after the armies got past the already made tunnels. And then they marched forward and repeated the earlier step.

Princess Celestia stayed with the forces, keep them on track and making sure to let them know that she was keeping an eye out for any foul tricks Maleficus might have left among the mountains. It would keep morale high and give herself some time to recover the magic she had just spent.

She had plenty of magical power left but she wanted to keep herself in top condition, she would not tire herself out needlessly before facing Maleficus. It had been an unpleasant realization that she was not as physically powerful as Maleficus, nor was she magically potent. The Princess did not know what manner of foul rituals or mutilations he had done to obtain his powers, but she knew that she had to get stronger herself to keep up with his constantly increasing strength and magic.

It was one of the bigger downsides of being a monarch of a fledgling nation, she could not just take time off all willy nilly to go train or exercise. Though she had managed to improve herself in the few spare times she had, was she more than certain that she was not as well in shape as Maleficus was.

*That fiend may hath a blackened heart and a soul most foul. But he doest hath a powerful presence... and quite a fit b... NO! No! We Shalt NOT Think That! No! Just NO!* breaking her thoughts she pressed her hooves over her face, closed her eyes, and began to mentally and verbally count from ten to one, repeatedly, to clear out those sinful thoughts for her brain. The fact that she was reacting like this to the stallion she hated more than anything, was a clear sign that her heat period was approaching.

Celestia was not looking forward to it. Not one bit.

After ten minutes she finally let out a long and drawn out breath before removing her hooves from her face, before her, was the gathered forces of her armies marching through the final mountainside. She had had scouts sent to reconnaissance the surroundings and the large valley beyond the mountains. So far she had not received any words from the scouts, but she had only sent them out like, thirty minutes ago.

And so she took to the winds and flew over the final mountain, and found herself looking out over a large, vast, and flat field surrounded by forests, mountains and with a large river in the distance, and a... and a...

"...Oh that bucking piece of manure." She finally muttered as her ears fell flat, her eyes went into an intense glare, and she frowned. As there, on the other side of the valley, stood a massive, white, castle. Carved out of an entire mountain.

The castle looked ancient, carved out of solid stone. It had three massive walls that split up the castle's internal area into at least three separate layers. And that was not even counting the massive natural moat that the river in front of the outer wall was making, nor the fact that out of the center of the castle, was a massive hoof carved cliff sticking out like an upside-down beak. Said cliff looked like it had been carved out at the base, and was still intact and holding.

Obviously signs of ancient Pre-Age of Chaos stone masonry there.

She could not see exactly what was on top of the large cliff, but it looked like some kind of large fort or keep like structure. Oh, and the walls were lined with tall towers, turrets and there was a draw bridge on a massive gatehouse in the center of the outer wall of the castle. Which could if lowered, be connected to an outer smaller fort which was built out into a dug-out portion of the river essentially making it a fortified pathway over the water.

There was a drawbridge on the river fort that could be connected to the other side of the river. And standing on the part of the river located on the other side of the river was a pair of tall circular shaped towers. So to even get to the castle, without flying, they would have to first handle the two towers, get to the river fort somehow, then somehow get over to the castle from the river fort, and then somehow take the castle.

And that's not even adding the internal defences of the castle, which is no doubt had. This was the most fortified stronghold Celestia had seen in her entire life.

This made Celestia realize one important factor as to why Maleficus had crashed into these mountains. It was this castle, he intended to utilize this castle to keep her forces at bay while he cooked up some wicked plan. "That fiend hath found this ancient fortress before he was returned to the moon! He hath planned to use it for his wicked purposes for the past twenty years! If only We hath found it before he returned! We may hath stopped his wicked plans!"

She then realized something, it had only been a night since he had been at the valley. He could not have done that much to the ancient castle other than perhaps clean it up or put up defences. There was still time to save the ruins from his foul touch.

And so she looked towards her gathering forces, smiling as she saw the final stragglers come out of the tunnels with the wagons. She was grateful that they had not just decided to climb over the mountain, that would have been a big waste of time. It had only taken them three hours to clear a path through the mountain and travel through it.

If they had tried hiking, it would no doubt have taken at least two days to get the armies to the valley.

And as she witnessed her three forces set up into columns she raised a hoof and called for her officers. "Officers! We shalt plan to lay siege on this ancient site! We need to make proper plans to relieve this site of our forebears before Maleficus can twist it to his will!"

The three Generals and their subordinates quickly gathered and conveyed with their princess how to best lay siege to the massive castle.

(Scene Skip)

Maleficus smiled as he walked through the internal pathways of his newly constructed fortress. The carved walls and the carved stone roads made the entire place feel like a legend brought to life. It really pleased him that the construction had gone so well, it had been his first time trying to create a fortress. Frankly, he was a bit surprised it had not gone horribly bad.

As he walked through the middle pathway beneath the massive cliff he had to whistle in amazement at the size of the grotto at the base of the cliff that he could see through the murder holes of the pathway above-said grotto. It was the size of a large central market square, and the ceiling and support pillars weren't showing any signs of weakness, bad support, or damage. "Man I am really surprised I didn't break the entire cliff when I used the Interface like a Minecraft tool. It looks superb, but I was really worried when it started carving out sections of the cliff at the bottom to make internal space and paths."

With a smile still growing on his lips, he trotted out of the pathway and hummed softly as he looked up at the tall walls standing at least twenty meters over the wide walkways of the central area. He chuckled a bit as he looked at the battlements, the murder holes, and the machicolation holes located at the bottom of the battlement between the corbels, the stone supports of the battlements. It looked good, all of it. "Sure was worth all the effort. This has to be an improved version of Minas Tirith. The walls are much larger than in the movies, fewer walls, but more logical in functionality. No open archways with no doors or gates here. Proper machicolations, corbels, turrets, murder holes, gates, and even a moat with a separate gatehouse in front of the barbican gatehouse that defends the direct path to the main gates. I say it is a pretty decent job for my first proper castle."

As he walked up the next bailey of his imitation of Minas Tirith he was almost at the peak of the castle. His eyes scanned the final path leading towards the keep structures on the peak. His smile was still childishly wide as he walked up the path, his hooves clanged against the stone surface of the castle's pavement.

[Start Nostalgic Music: Ed Sheeran - Castle on the Hill]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zWtuCpN83U

[Altered Lyrics by Staadnauthursil.]

[Disclaimer: I do not own anything copyrighted. This includes all of the lyrics and youtube videos I use to give a touch of flair to my stories, please support the official releases along with those who work hard on these great youtube videos. Please support the official release.]

With a crimson glow from his horns, he pulled up the portcullises blocking the path into the central keep. And as he walked through the internal gatehouse, he began to hum softly. And as he did, began tunes to chime through the corridors and halls of the fortress.

"When I was seventeen years old I broke my arm."
"I was riding on a ferry with my school friends."
"Tasted the sweet perfume of the ocean air as I slide down the stairs."
"I was younger then, take me back to when I."
"Found my joy and laughter it here, made friends, and lost them through the years."
"And I’ve not seen the northern seas in so long, I know, It's impossible."
"But I can’t help but want to go home."

Maleficus walked up the stairs, leading to a vast hall filled with columns and statues, with the statues being a ponified version of the statues seen in Lord of the rings. Ponies and horses dressed in robes, armour, wielding weapons, or bearing crowns. The melody echoed out through the hall he walked through it, singing softly as he looked out over the various statues decorating the large room.

"I’m living this way, building a new road from those memory lanes."
"Singing to band songs, And I miss the way they made me feel, and it’s real."
"When we played dice in the castle on the hill."

He moved past a large pair of open doorways and walked up the straight and wide staircase located behind them. Torches lit themselves as he walked past them, illuminating the interior of the castle with a warm yellow glow of a fire. At the end of the staircase, he reached a large circular shaped room with five different hallways leading to different directions. He walked past a pair of statues depicting a group of oddly dressed pony characters. They were a pegasus in leather armour wielding a rapier and lute, a thickly bearded earth pony in thick plate wielding a large sword and an incense burner on a thick chain, an elderly horse in brown feather-covered robes wielding a gnarled staff, a unicorn in leather with a cloak, wielding a pair of daggers, and a second pegasus, wielding a longbow while dressed in what looked like the combination of an archer and hunter's outfit.

"Eighteen years old and playing roleplaying games with my friends."
"Travelling the city to reach the castle on the hill by the mill. "
"Had my first game on a Saturday night, I don’t reckon I did it right."
"I was younger then, take me back to when we found."
"Weekend games when we played heroes fighting angry spirits and beating them straight."
"Me and my old friends have not thrown dice in so long, oh how we’ve grown."
"I can’t help but want to go home."

Maleficus moved through the arched hallway, light approaching at the end of the path as a pair of large thick wooden doors opened themselves, revealing the top of the half oval-shaped mountain cliff, with a large full-grown tree bearing peaches growing just before the large gates, with all manners of flowers growing around it. The alicorn absentmindedly plucked a peach off the tree as he walked past it and moved towards the front edge of the large cliff.

"I’m living this way, building a new road from those memory lanes."
"Singing to band songs, And I miss the way they made me feel, and it’s real."
"When we played dice in the castle on the hill."
"In the castle on the hill."
"In the castle on the hill."
"In the castle on the hill."

Slowly he reached the edge of the cliff. Before him, was the large valley with the flat grasslands. And upon those grasslands stood the three armies of Equestria, standing in a line of formations that were being directed through the Generals and the Princess to optimize the effectiveness of the approaching battle. Maleficus just smiled at the sight, seeing in his head the images of orcs and goblins marching upon the city of Minas Tirith. He also remembers the adventures he played with his friends, the dangers they faced, the insanity they went through, the laughter they shared. This castle was not just for himself, it was a monument to his friends as well.

"One shame is that I don't remember their names."
"Another is that I can't remember their faces."
"A third is that I do not remember their tales."
"The fourth is that I cannot remember their states."
"Fifth is that I cannot remember their looks."
"And worst is that I do not remember their jokes."
"But I remember the joy and the laugh they all brought me."
"And I can’t help but want to go home."

While he might no longer remember their faces, while he had even forgotten their names, did he still remember the adventures they played together. Those wonderful games they had played, the times spent pondering what moves to make, what mystery lay behind the hidden lore of the adventure. Thus, even as armies of several tens of thousands marched into formation, preparing to march upon his new creation, could he only close his eyes, smile a sad smile, and sing, as the nostalgia ran through him.

"And I’m living my way, and I still remember those memory lanes."
"When we did not know the answers, And I miss the joy those times made me feel, it’s real."
"When we played dice in the castle on the hill."
"In the castle on the hill."
"In the castle on the hill."

As the music faded. Maleficus opened his eyes and looked out at the armies before his castle. And his sad smile remained, but he looked far more relaxed than he had been before. As if the song itself had lifted some of his regrets and sorrows.

[End Nostalgic Music]

Letting out a soft sigh the male alicorn turned around and walked away from the edge of the vast cliff. His horn then ignited with a crimson aura and he narrowed his eyes as he kept walking. A squirming black shroud-like ichor began to emerge out of the corners and shadows around him, they flowed out from every crevice and crack.

A thick black mist began to emerge from the black ichor and like a scentless smog, it poured out and began to pour out through the castle. Bellowing down like a powerful stream of black water the mist and ichor flowed out over the white stone of the castle. It swept over the ramparts, up into the towers, over the streets, and into the interior of the walls.

Maelficus then clapped his hooves together, took a seat on a large stone bench, and looked at the almost solid darkness he had conjured. And as he did, the black mass subsided, dissolving into nothing, as it never existed in the first place. And in its wake, as it disappeared from sight, emerged tall horse warriors, their numbers filling out the castle like an army of ghosts and specters given life again.

Their large bodies were covered in thick black armour, helmets with visors in the shape of various manners of beasts, with horns, manes, frills, and spikes decorating the sides and/or tops of their helmets. The large round shields were there, each bearing a finely decorative carving of Maleficus' cutie mark. Some of them still had the long spears but most of them now carried polearms, crossbows, longbows, javelins, maces, and axes.

The forces of Maleficus were armed for the siege, their weapons tailored for the needs to defend buildings and smash apart enemy siege gear then defending against charging forces in the open.

Even as the black smog dissolved into nothing marched the forces of Maleficus to their positions, lines of archers and arbalists (crossbow wielders) gathered up on ramparts by the battlements, while more archers gathered down by the base of the wall in long ranks as to fire volleys over the wall.

Troops entered the gatehouses and pulled forth the gear their creator had prepared for them. Most of it consisted of caltrops, beads, sand, glue, and mud. But there were other things there in case of emergencies.

But the walls of the castle were not limited to defencive actions. Upon a few towers, some wide ramparts, and gatehouses stood various kinds of siege engines from catapults, trebuchets, ballistae and some manner of a long, wooden barrel being held by a wooden platform, it looked almost like one of the Hornet Nests designed by the Order of the Golden Cross.

Though it differed quite a bit in the design. It had a much longer body, it was cylindrical. The opening was covered by a metal lid with seven round holes. At the other end was a gunner, loader, and aimed, who worked together to aim and fired the strange siege engine.

Even as the horses got into position, Maleficus just leaned back into his seat and stretched out his Light Screen, and connected it to a set of satellites above the battlefield and got several split screens showing various images of the battlefield, with one screen showing the entire valley from above, including Celestia's forces moving into formation.

A lone horse came out from the castle, carrying a tankard of freshly made juice and a wooden mug, and left it for his creator to enjoy before leaving the top of the castle to rejoin the defence efforts. Maleficus took the mug of juice and drank some from it, watching the screens intently, while glancing out towards the open space beyond the edge of the cliff, in the direction of Celestia's armies.

"Let's see how well you can handle laying siege to a fortified castle, Celestia." He said with a small confident smirk on his face before he focuses his attention on the screens in front of him, examining the formations taking shape upon the grassy fields.

Absentmindedly taking a sip of juice every now and then as he watched.

(Scene Skip)

The ponies were preparing for the assault upon the castle. Moving into formations while setting up gear and supplies to utilize in their attempt. Ponies were assembling siege ladders by the use of enchanted metal rods of sacred bronze, enchanted with magnetic slots which, once activated, would stick together and be able to support over ten tons of weight.

It would take a while for the ladders to be made into proper lengths to utilize against the castle's tall walls. But with the way the ladders were put together could the ponies make them as long as needed for as long as they had rods to spare.

Speaking of rods, the recently improved Energy Rods were being put into lines at the rear of the formations. No longer did they look like giant wands with crystal balls at the ends. Now they looked like primitive cannons.

On the metal platforms were five-meter long wooden cylindrical frames, the frames were lined with iron bands, which in turn were inscribed with runes filled with gold. The crystal balls had been put into the back end of the Energy Rods, essentially plugging it. There were also several smaller orbs located along with the interior of the wooden cylinder.

This new design allowed a safer and more powerful use of the energy rods' magical discharges. The smaller gemstones aligned to focus and aim the magical blast out of the cylinder, which was enchanted with both magical energy and runic inscriptions to keep the energy from discharging erratically.

The power of the shoots had been lessened greatly but in return ere, their firing rate and amount of firing per day increased exponentially. Where the rods had once been only able to fire around five or ten times before needing to recharge, could they fire up to a hundred times now, and at a rapid rate of ten shots per minute.

In front of the lines of Energy Rods stood a line of trebuchets, their designs had been improved, given more support, heavier counterweights, and increased accuracy. There was no other type of launcher siege engines within the Equestrian Armies since the smaller catapults were deemed too inaccurate, too short of range, and too inefficient to wield against Maleficus.

At the front of these lines of siege engines were the ballistae, large and medium-sized. The large ballistae were the refined version of heavy ballistae that the ponies had developed to fire various types of large bolts. While the medium-sized ballistae were a larger version of the Manticore Ballistaes which had been developed just before the Rattenfängers' siege against Canterlot. These larger sized rapid-fire ballistae were equipped with explosive rune tipped bolts, more powerful and potent in not only range, piercing capability, and durability, but explosive force and impact power as well.

The Gold Army soldiers were working on the siege engines and the War Camp was put up at the front of the camp. Their focus was as it always had been, to support the other two armies with artillery fire, supplies, medical aid, and other manners of supportive actions.

In front of the golden lines of siege engineers and the war camp stood lines of silver soldiers, the ranged and aerial forces of the Equestrian Military. They were getting ready to take flight, they were supplied with not only ranged weaponry like javelins or crossbows. But several units of pegasi were also wielding several kinds of melee weapons, like polearms and curved blades. A few units of pegasi were equipped with shields as well for some extra defensive options.

These melee aerial units were at the front, they would act not only as skirmishers but as defenders of the aerial ranged units. But they would no doubt have to spend a lot of efforts and weather magic to defend their ground-bound fellow soldiers.

In front of the pegasi soldiers of the Silver Army stood the ranged units. Mostly unicorns and earth ponies, with a few pegasi who would act as support against any projectiles from the castle's siege engines and defenders. All of the unicorns wielded either focus items for harnessing magical energy easier or utilized telekinetic grips to wield ranged weapons. While the earth ponies wielded all manners of bows, crossbows, and throwing weapons.

There were even ten units of heavy ranged units with five teams of three ponies in each team, a pony with a mobile small ballistae on their back, another who acted as the loader, and a third to acted as the spotter.

In front of the formations of silver units stood the large groups of bronze plate covered soldiers of the Bronze Army. They no longer wielded just random amounts of gear. Now they were spread out in units, each specialized in a specific manner of weapon.

There were mostly ponies wielding shields and long spears with small side weapons. There were also several groups of specialized heavy weapons wielding ponies, greatswords, war hammers, halberds, and so on. A few groups were lightly armed and armoured, wielding either dual weapons or singular light weapons while wearing cloaks, they were the scouts and sappers of the bronze troops.

The Bronze Army was put out into formations of rectangular, square, and triangular shapes. All of the units were assembling the siege ladders and would be working together to carry the ladders towards the front lines once they began the assault upon the castle.

But as all of this was going on, were the officers of the army gathered by the war camp, discussing their war plans with Celestia. So far had they come up with several possible assaults upon the castle. But they all relied on the fact that they needed to take the small fort and the two towers blocking their path over the river. Even if the ladders they were assembling could be used to lay siege to the large walls of the castle on the other side of the river or made long enough, could they not place the ladders with the towers and the river fort there to deter their progress.

As they were discussing the best ways to take the fort, came to a messenger flying down from one of the watchtowers. The Gold Army pegasus landed before the assembled officers and the Princess and saluted while holding out his spyglass. "Private Fire Flight reporting in! A black smog has emerged within the large castle, it is spreading out over the entire area, even out over to the river fort and the two towers."

"Good work lad. Guts. Go check it out." Rough Stock stated to the Captain who nodded before walking over to the soldier and accepted the spyglass, before looking at the castle. Even without the spyglass could the black smog be seen spreading out over the ruins.

And as he looked through the spyglass could he see the black smog dispersing, revealing several hundred, if not thousands, of black-garbed troops upon the fortifications of the castle. He frowned as he saw this, there were far more enemies than the last crusade. Maleficus was not pulling any punches that were for certain.

"Maleficus has decided to summon his forces it appears. I can estimate that there are at least eight thousand troops judging by the size of the walls alone." Captain Weak Guts said as he looked out at the white castle with the enchanted spyglass, the rune engraved lenses magnifying the images ten times more than a regular spyglass ever could.

Princess Celestia hummed and then got a smirk on her lips. "Excellent, it appears that Our foe hath underestimated Us. While he doest hath a good defence, doest he not hath the power to repel Our newly improved forces with numbers alone."

"Yeah about that. He has several siege engines, including one weird-looking long barrel thing that I think looks a bit like the Energy Rods, but it is not the same, I think. But I bet it has some kind of nasty surprise for us." Weak Guts said as he zoomed in on the siege engines upon the walls.

The officers began to mutter at those words, the fact that Maleficus had siege engines of his own was nothing new, but the fact that he was developing new ones they had not seen before was worrying. Since that meant that the advantage they had hoped to have with their improved siege engines and combat gear was now not as assured it had once been.

Celestia nodded at this and pressed down a hoof on the battle map, pressing it down on the place where the fort was located. "We see thy point Captain Weak Guts. But We shalt still lay waste to Maleficus' forces, We shalt prevail over his wicked plans and bring him to justice."

She looked at the gathered officers and they were not looking away as she did so. They were ready to put their skills to the test against the corrupted horses of Maleficus. A smirk grew on Celestia's lips and she spoke out her orders to her officers. "Give the signal to engage stage one of the siege upon Maleicus' forces within the hour. We shalt free this ancient place of his foul presence, one stone at a time. Start with the river fortifications, and then proceed to claim the main walls. Hath the aerial forces of the Silver Army prepared for taking off, We shalt need them to enact stage two of our Siege Plan. And then We shalt wait for the signal for stage three."

There were salutes given by the officers before they all began to move out of the war camp to their respective units, they would have to move fast. Maleficus would no doubt act to stop them and their plans if they did not act quickly to overcome his perception and insight into their intentions.

(Scene Skip)

[Start Siege Music: Phantasmal Music - The Siege [Epic Combat Music]]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmS7TrEl_J8

Disclaimer: I do not own anything copyrighted. This includes all of the lyrics and youtube videos I use to give a touch of flair to my stories, please support the official releases along with those who work hard on these great youtube videos. Please support the official release.

A horn was blown from the rear of the pony forces. Orders were spoken out by officers among the troops. And the siege started.

The front lines of bronze soldiers began to march forward, ten units of a hundred ponies each were marching forward, each carrying long siege ladders. There were six units at the center, moving towards the two towers and the river fort. While the other four were split up, marching towards the harsh moving river to put up their siege ladders over to the top of the castle walls on the other side.

Ponies marched, chanting out wordlessly as they marched over the grassy fields. The horses within the towers and the river forth prepared to defend the fortifications, preparing their weapons as the ponies drew closer.

At the front of the center unit was Captain Tall Sprout, captain of the 3rd Infantry Unit, going by the nickname of 'The Stone Hooves'. He was leading the march towards the river fort, his eyes constantly scanning the fortifications for weak points and defences.

He then noticed something glimmering within the deep square windows of the towers and cried out to his forces as they marched forward. "Prepare for ranged assault! Engage Formation Turtle!"

As one the unit altered their formation, now they were circular in shape, the two siege ladders in the center of the formation, their large shields were hefted up and interlocked, creating a makeshift roof of enchanted bronze, while the front units linked their shields together to make a wall. Their spears were pointed out of the formation, either upwards, at an angle, or straight forward, creating an almost pincushion-like look.

Captain Tall Sprout looked over the edge of his shield as they marched towards the fort. He knew they would have to endure the projectiles of their enemies before they could start raising the ladders. So he shouted out at his unit once more as they began to march. "Keep your focus! Do not panic. And make sure we reach the edge of them oat before the fort safely so we can heft up the siege ladders!"

Then the voice of the soldier next to him shouted out for the rest of the unit to hear. "Enemy is firing Captain!"

"Hunker down and tighten shields!" The Stone Hooves stopped moving and tightened their shields together before slamming down into the soil, creating an almost dome-like shell over their bodies as crimson lights began to shine within the towers.

There was the sound of something being fired, and Captain Tall Sprout held his shield tight and closed his eyes, taking soft breaths as to keep himself calm. Then there was the sound of something impacting one of the shields and the sound of shattering ceramics. A metallic taste filled his mouth and his fur stood on the edge and he opened his eyes only to scream out in pain, along with the rest of his unit, as intensely bright and blue coloured sparks of electricity arched over his entire unit, conducted through their shields.

Darkness claimed the entire unit as the powerful electrical shock rendered them all unconscious within a few seconds. But not before they all screamed out in shock and pain as their bodies were shocked until they lost consciousness.

The Stone Hooves' screams were soon joined by the other two forces marching towards the central fortifications as clay spheres covered in runes were shoot out of the towers. Upon impact, the spheres shattered and released a powerful burst of electrical energy that arched across the entire unit.

As the blue light of the electrical surge dispatched were all three units covered in soot and smoking as if they had just walked through a burning building. One of the troops dropped their mouth open and a cloud of smoke erupted out of their throat with a strained gasp for air. Then as one all three units just collapsed down to the ground, incapacitated within an instance.

Acting General Combat support was looking out at the battle with her spyglass and when she saw the first three units fall down from some manner of magical attack from the towers she gave an order to her messengers. "Send words to the central units of heavy ballistae and trebuchets to fire at the towers! We need to take out whatever it was that just took out those units!"

The unicorn saluted before running off to give the order, there were plans to spread out communication orbs for all units in the near future but the production of the magical crystal balls was still not t such a level that they could split them up among the units. So, messengers, light signals, and flags were still used for quick communication among the forces.

As the words of their General's orders were received aimed the siege engine crews of the heavy ballistae and trebuchets their large siege engines and calculated the angle needed for the trebuchet's arc to reach the towers. While the ballistae shifted and aligned their scopes to carefully aim for the wooden roof on top of the tower to take out whatever weapon was inside.

The group leaders cried out together to their respective unit's sergeant as their preparations were completed. "Preparations complete! We are ready to fire!"

And the sergeants responded by raising their hooves into the air and cry out, not simultaneously, but almost in sync. " Fire!"

The first to get a shoot of were the ballistae, their bowstring loaded projectiles fired off with a loud twang as the wooden bow frame of the massive crossbow straightened out and the strength of the tense rope flung the wooden projectile off its slot in the ballistae frame.

A spray of several dozens of large thick bolt shoot through the air with a loud whistling sound as they tore through the wind, it lasted for less than two seconds before they struck their intended targets. The wooden roofs of the white stone towers were skewered by the meter-long projectiles, and then the projectiles detonated as the explosive runes upon the sacred bronze tip of the projectile activated.

There was a cloud of fire and smoke as the top of the two towers erupted with loud booms. Wooden fragments and burning splinters raining down upon the grass beneath the towers. Thankfully was the grass moist because of its closeness to the river or it might have caught fire.

Then there was a collection of loud 'ka-clunk' sounds of wooden frames turning and releasing something heavy. Over thirty boulders soared up over the grasslands and then struck at the two white towers and the fort behind them. But to the surprise of the ponies watching, were the boulders the least effective attack on the fortifications.

The boulders struck the white stone walls, and shattered like clay or just smashed into the rock and fell down, leaving not even a scratch on the surface. Even the wooden drawbridge of the fort showed more damage than the stone, and it barely had a dent made in its thick frame from the impacts of the large rocks.

Though the most astonishing thing was the fact that the burning rooftops of the towers were showing no sign of damage to the stone of the structure from the explosions that had just recently destroyed the wooden roofs. It was not even showing a hint of being scorched by the flames, it was like the white stone was impervious and thus could not be harmed.

But even with the lack of results from the trebuchets were now the towers incapable of properly defending the fort. A set of three units, carrying siege ladders, marched forward, past their fallen comrades who were being retrieved by Gold Army Medic with wagons.

"Ready ladders and prepare to scale the walls!" The leading Captain of the center unit cried out as they rushed towards the moat before the gates of the river fort. They were covering their heads with shields but were not covering their front, they wanted to keep an eye out in case the horses had more of those dangerous projectiles.

A line of horses on top of the fort and from the arrow slits, shoot bolts and arrows with keen accuracy. It was a rain of blunt-tipped wooden projectiles. The blunt arrows impacted with heavy strikes, almost denting the enchanted sacred bronze shields of the Bronze Army's soldiers. It sounded as if they were being pelted by a rain of hammers as the arrows rained down upon them.

Some arrows struck past the shields and hit their intended target, and loud screams erupted from those hit by the blunt metalheads of the arrows as the weight and impact of the blunt arrowheads broke bones. Those were soldiers with the worst injuries, the rest were mostly just heavy bruising.

Though if you were unlucky and got stuck on the head were you probably not going to be part of the fight. Luckily with their helmets on was no one was given any severe concussions or head injuries. But the vibration and sounds of the blunt arrowheads striking their helmets left those unlucky to be hit disoriented, dizzy, or unconscious if the impact was strong enough.

No one would die but their injuries would make them stay out for the rest of the siege.

But their efforts had made progress. The three units of soldiers screamed out together as they charged towards the moat, hefting their siege ladders. And then they impaled the end of the ladders into the soil just before the moat and began to push the ladders up.

Of the six siege ladders being raised up, were two located directly in front of a set of square-shaped windows on the inbuilt towers of the fort. And as the ladders were raised up, was a loud whooshing sound heard as a jet of green fire shoot out of the towers and struck the metal ladders.

The ladders were struck at the center and the flames melted that part of the ladders into slag in seconds. As the upper half of the ladders began to sag and fall down, dropped the soldiers holding the ladder their grip on the now red hot metal. The still-burning metal fell backward onto the moist grass and the soldiers scattered to avoid the burning metal.

They watched in horrified awe as the two ladders of solid enchanted iron/silver alloy melted into slag in seconds before the green flames died own, leaving two large puddles of molten metal in a scorched black patch of grass.

But the other four ladders were put up correctly, and with loud clangs, they were tilted forward and slammed into the rock of the battlements, and the ponies cried out battle cries as they began to scale the ladders. Then there were screams of panic as bowls of hot sand were thrown out over their heads. While the ladders were splattered with some kind of clear slick liquid, making the scaling of the ladders near impossible.

As the blinded ponies tried to scramble up the ladder they gripped at the oily surface. One slipped with his foreleg and slammed muzzle first into the metal bar that was the step and with a loud clang slumped over, clutching his face. The ladder was wide enough for more to scale it but it was more difficult with somepony clutching their face in the middle of the ladder.

Another slipped on his hind legs and as he tried to reach out to not fall he grabbed another soldier by the leg and they both went tumbling down. Their bodies splashed into the moat below the ladders. And soon several others hit the water as well as more hot sand struck their bodies as they tried to scale the slick ladders.

A group of gold soldiers rushed over to the edge of the moat, throwing off the metal parts of their gear, before jumping into the waters. Swimming over the calm waters they dove down and after a few seconds emerged with the fallen troopers. Even as more and more bronze soldiers were falling down into the water were the gold soldiers either physically swimming into the water to physically drag them out, or using telekinetic magic to lift them out.

Several dozens of soldiers fell into the moat in front of the fort. They were quickly pulled out of the water by their fellows as the moat did not have any rapid motion to its waters unlike the moat behind the fort. So they were able to be easily carried out of the waters. Especially with the weight-reducing enchantments on most of their armour.

Captain Weak Guts' unit arrived as the third wave of bronze troopers reached the fort. Nearly one-third of the Bronze Army had been defeated and they had not even reached the castle yet. Unacceptable. He would not have this crusade end like the last one, all effort, no gain. Turning his head towards the nearby relief unit of Gold Soldiers he cried out to them. "Messengers! I need messengers!"

Two pegasi of the Gold Unit rushed over and the Captain pointed towards the rear where the flags bearing the markings of the Silver Army were located. While also pointing towards the gold units the messengers had come from. "Send words to the Silver Army's ranged units! Tell 'em to fire a suppressing amount of projectiles at the walls to give us cover! Tell all unicorns in your unit to utilize their magic to clean the ladders so we can scale 'em!"

The two messengers saluted, one flying off towards the Silver army, evading a rain of hot sand and blunt arrows, while the other scrambled over to their unit and informed them of their new orders. Since the bronze soldiers had stopped scaling the slippery ladders were there no more ponies that needed to be fished out of the moat. So the unicorns quickly got to work and began to clean up the ladders by either. Dragging rags all over the while firing steaming hot water onto the slippery parts. Or by manipulating the slick liquid and pull it off the metal with aquatic-based manipulation magic.

As the clean-up of the ladders commences were the first line of ranged silver units given their orders y the gold messenger. As moved two units ahead of the rest, spread out in lines, and aimed weapons and horns at the walls. And at the signal given by their Captains, fired a mass of projectiles at the walls, where the horses had to lift up round shields to protect themselves.

Seeing their chance Weak Guts stood up on his hind legs and pointed his sword at the fort and shouted out a single order to the surrounding units. "Charge!"

A mass shout erupted from the bronze soldiers around him and the four cleaned up ladders were once more scaled. As they reached the halfway mark were yet again buckets filled with slick transparent oily liquid and hot sand being prepared by the defenders to pour down the murder holes of the walls. But Guts was prepared for it and shouted out to the gold troops at the base of the ladders. "Blast the upper portion of the walls with water!"

The gold unit unicorns were at first confused but complied. And rather than pouring water out of nowhere they manipulated the water of the moat and created large tendrils of water that splashed up against the walls in constant streams. The water shoot into the murder holes and archer windows, essentially rendering them useless for as long as the torrents of water were pushed against them.

There was nothing that could stop the ponies from climbing the ladders any longer.

[End Siege Music]

And with a mighty roar, the bronze soldiers finally scaled the ladders and climbed up onto the walls. Gut's unit was specialized in heavy weapons, most of them wielded great swords, not as large as their captains but still hefty. The rest wielded either large mauls, warhammers, big maces, or great axes. Guts lead their charge into the disarrayed defenders and swung his great sword with a mighty shout.

Two foes were instantly cut down as his blade cut through the weaker chain mail areas of their bodies and essentially sliced open their guts, making them spill over the rampart before collapsing to the ground. The others of his unit followed his lead and the black iron of the dark forces was found lacking in the face of their heavy enchanted weapons made out of sacred bronze.

They charged towards the gatehouse while the other units of bronze soldiers scaled the ladders and began to fight the dark horses in a grand melee. Guts saw the thick wooden door blocking his path into the gatehouse and reared back his greatsword before pushing it forward while making a heavy charge towards it.

There was a loud resounding crack as his thick sword split through the three inches thick wooden gate, and with a great wrenching movement of his forelegs he split the iron-bound door into two pieces, one hanging onto the side with the other just fell to the floor.

The path was clear. Or so he thought.

[Start Battle Theme: Castlevania - Bloody Tears - Epic Rock Cover]

[Disclaimer: I do not own this video, please support the creator of this fine music and the official release of the game on which it was based.

You can find the creator of this great music, the great cover maker Friedrich Habetler of Youtube, here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxNHoPzGagd7YxvWavZj8Ag]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmY08X_4Bnc

As he rushed into the gatehouse he felt something slam into his front and was suddenly flung out of the doorway and into his unit, who managed to catch him before he fell to the ground. He reached up and rubbed the big dent in his breastplate and looked at the doorway with narrowed eyes through his officer's helmet.

Out of the doorway emerged a large horse, almost as big as Maleficus Victoria himself, it was covered in head to hooves in a thick iron plate and wielded a large tower shield and a large iron ball attached to a three-meter long chain. It was obvious of what had struck him in the front when he charged into the gatehouse.

The rest of Guts' unit backed off at the sight of the massive horse, and some even whimpered as a deep resounding voice rumbled out of the helmet of the behemoth, making it feel more like a sentient armour shaped construct than a large horse. "None. Shall pass."

"Oh, I highly doubt that." Guts growled out as he got back onto his hooves and hefted his sword up, getting into a stance as he glared at the knight, the rest of his unit backing away to give him room and to keep the other horses away from him.

The big dark horse stared at the pony before him before giving a slight nod, as if in respect, before hefting the large iron ball in its grip and started to spin it around.

And it was skilled with the weapon, that much was clear. The big iron chain seemingly avoiding any wall or railing around the big horse, it obviously had perfect control over the weapon. Otherwise, it probably could not have used it inside of the gatehouse.

Guts reared back his greatsword and waited patiently. Then as the large dark horse swung his iron ball towards him Guts swung down his sword and batted the large iron weight back towards its wielder. But the knight just raised his shield and made the orb ricochet upwards before utilizing the momentum to make it swing downward towards Guts.

There was a loud crack as the iron sphere struck the white stone surface of the rampart, but did not even crack the surface, as Guts jumped forward. The dark horse yanked back its weapon and tried to crush its approaching foe between its shield and the large iron sphere that was its weapon.

But then Guts jumped up onto the dark horse's large field and held his balance surprisingly well as he planted both of his hind legs' hooves on the top edge of the shield. As he had made the leap he had shifted his greatsword to a downward angle and as he jumped he hefted it up with both of his forelegs and as he landed on the shield he made a downward thrust.

There was a loud crack as iron was split through before the sound of sharp metal sinking into flesh and piercing bone was heard as Guts' great sword pierced through the helmet of his foe and into their cranium.

Killing the dark horse within the thick armour instantly. The iron ball struck its owner's shield and just landed with a thump on the ground, even with a sword in its head was the dark horse not knocked over by the heavy weapon, proof of its great physical might. But even that is not going to save you from having your skull pierced by a giant blade.

The earth pony quickly jumped off the still standing corpse, warily eyeing it as it swayed a little, before letting out a soft sigh of relief as it fell over its side, dead as could be. Guts then looked towards his wide-eyed troops and made a forward motion with his free foreleg and shouted at them. "Take the gatehouse and lower the drawbridge!"

[End Battle Music]

As one the bronze soldiers broke out of the stupor and rushed into the gatehouse alongside their officer. Once inside they quickly dispatched the dark horses in the process of sabotaging the gears of the drawbridge. Thankfully were they quick enough to claim the gatehouse before they could do so.

With the gatehouse of the fort claimed they lowered the drawbridge to the mainland and the central columns o the Bronze Army quickly marched inside and began to clear out the dark horses within the structure. The no longer burning towers in front of the fort had their gates smashed open and quickly laid claim to by the stragglers behind the front line and central units.

But while the central column had been struggling with laying siege to the fort and the two towers. Had the two flanking sections of the Equestrian forces been trying to lay siege to the castle walls. They had charged towards the river banks, carrying their ladders over their backs as they trampled over the moist grass.

Then as soon as they reached the edge of the moat they planted the front portions of their twenty ladders into the ground and began to heft them upwards to lean them towards the castle walls.

Sadly that's when the truth of the situation was made clear. As even with the forces having used all of their metal rods to lengthen the ladders to be as long as they could, the ladders only managed to land halfway up against the enormous castle walls.

The width of the river that acted as a natural moat and the height of the walls themselves, made it near impossible for siege ladders to reach the upper portions of the walls. Even if the ponies reassembled all twenty ladders to create ten extra-long ladders, would it not be possible to lift them, even with magical support.

Thus the two forces were left with no way to properly reach the top of the walls. They still had twenty meters left to scale before they reached the battlements of the walls. The Bronze Army was in a bind and the Silver Army was about to move in to aid them, or they would had it not been for one major issue that they were about to discover.

Sergeant Golden Shower was a proud veteran of the first two crusades and he was a former Knight of the Sun Guard, having retired to act as an instructor for future generations. A pale white pegasus with black mane and tail, he had the cutie mark of a black rain cloud with five gold coins dropping down from it like raindrops.

A specialist in Fly-By-Attacks and Bombardments, he had decided to take it upon himself and his squad of twenty to fly up to the walls and secure rope ladders for the bronze soldiers.

"We take off now! Let's show these dark wankers what we're made of! Ave Equestria!" The Silver Sergeant cried out to his unit who cried out together with their leader before all twenty-one of them took flight.

As they flew over the huddling bronze units they moved upwards to avoid the range of the dark archer's arrows. And that's when one of Golden Shower's troops spotted something going on at one of the towers. "Sarge! I see something moving at the top of the second tower to the right of the middle of the western wall!"

All of the units turned to look at what was moving and blinked when they saw a long, thin, wooden barrel mounted on some kind of triple jointed metal limb connected to a rotating metal platform. And then Golden Shower realized that it was aiming in their direction.

"They are aiming for us! Scatter!" The unit flew apart to escape the attack from the weird-looking weapon.

But even as they broke formation, the weapon fired, and out of the holes at the end, erupted small clouds of smoke as a stream of large round pellets flew out of the weapon and towards the unit of pegasi. The unit thought they had managed to evade the weird-looking attack, but it was not that simple.

As the pellets flew through the sky they were starting to smoke and glow, creating a mirage of them turning into a group of flying bolts of white light.

And then they burst apart in a bright explosion of light and air pressure. An almost visible shock wave moved through the air and struck each of the pegasi. The powerful burst of intense air pressure scrambled their eardrums and shook their heads so intensely that they lost all sense of balance and were almost unconscious.

They plummeted down towards the moat but were miraculously able to fall close enough to the shore of the moat to impact the moist soil. Loud thumps and clangs were heard as the pegasi soldiers crashed into the soft wet ground, leaving a unit of twenty-one unconscious pegasi lying down in ditches made by their crash landings.

So the situation was as follows.

The dark horses defending walls were firing down a constant barrage of arrows at the bronze soldiers, while they also had several towers with long-ranged air burst launchers capable of shooting down large groups of pegasi. Not to mention the catapults firing barrels of glue or oil at them. So currently where the bronze soldiers hunkering together in turtle formations, forming giant shells of sacred bronze as a near-constant stream of blunt arrows and liquid-filled barrels struck at them.

While the pegasi forces of the Silver Army were forced to remain grounded after watching one of their smaller units being shot down by an exploding air burst from the weird-looking barrel-like cannon.

Thus, even as the fort of the river was finally claimed, had over seven hours passed since the attack upon the castle was made and sunrise was imminent. Even with overwhelming odds had the castle's main walls not even been touched by pony hooves when the first day of the siege ended.

Princess Celestia was deeply upset by this setback but felt reassured that given her forces' newly obtained experience with the siege, they would perform better the next day. For she did not feel comfortable laying siege to the castle at night. With the dangerous river and not to mention any unknown plots of the castle's current owner, she could not take that risk.

And she was not willing to risk her soldiers at a night attack when most of them were still just raw recruits.

Nor did she feel comfortable attacking the castle with her magic directly, she had an ominous feeling that, that was exactly what Maleficus wanted her to do. She had to play it safe or she would once more fall victim to his wicked schemes and lose yet another attempt at bringing him to justice.

(Scene Skip)

Up on the top of the castle was a certain alicorn stallion standing by the edge, looking out at the glowing fires of the ponies' war camp and within the river fort of which they had claimed. He was rather proud of how well the ponies had done during the siege.

*I honestly thought that they would be unable to lay claim to the first line of defence for at least a few days. But for them to claim the first line of defence within the first day is far more than I was expecting.* Maleficus thought to himself as he looked down at the fort in front of the main gate of his castle. The ponies would be able to reach the main wall and gatehouse by the morning.

Even with the high walls and towers offering great range and height superiority over the attackers was he sure that the ponies would find a way to breach the defences of his castle-like they had done on the river fort today. They had proven very capable of overcoming obstacles and defying the odds. It made him feel like he was watching a group of humans trying to beat the odds in an action movie and succeed. It felt... nostalgic.

*I must admit that it might be possible for Celestia to end up winning this fight. Well... if she can complete the objective. After all, this fight is not just focused on me. But this castle itself. And I hope that she realizes this, or she might lose even without realizing it.* Maelficus turned around and walked towards the large peach tree growing before the main gates to the palace. He gently plucked one of its ripe fruits off its branches and began to eat it, enjoying the sweet flavour of the fruit while looking at the tall tree.

*After all. This would not be a proper version of Minas Tirith, without a magical tree now, would it?* He thought as a smirk grew on his muzzle before he spat out the seed of the peach onto the soil next to the tree. The alicorn then watched with amusement as roots reached out of the soil like tendrils. The thin strands reached upwards and began to entangle the seed lying on the ground, and with a steady phase pulled the seed down into the ground.

(Scene Skip)

The floating city of Jarngard flew over the Foal Mountains at a slow but steady phase. Several dozens of Sky Ships were flying alongside the sky island, with several more docking with the floating city's Sky Dock and at several docking positions along the city walls.

Said fleet of skyships had no real actual designation yet, but the local called it the Storm Hammer Fleet. In honour of their warlord Thunder Hammer.

The fleet itself was a mixture of the various types of ships the four factions had control over, the horses knew to not leave their homes defended by a single type of ship. Variation was important in battle, it made it possible to utilize other options when another would fail.

Thus were horses of the Samurai, Knight, and Sparta factions taking part of the fleet as well to man the other ships. Officially included to act as 'diplomatic' envoys to represent the unity of the Horadrim Kingdom. While in truth were they just looking for an excuse to keep their fleets well balanced and strong to make people not realize the deeper connection between the Horses.

Politics is a certain headache for any living being, be it natural, supernatural, or unnatural.

While the horses' Sky Ships were powerful and numerous could the horses not employ all of the fifty flying ships in their home for just patrolling the island. They kept about half of the skyships docked in the Sky Dock or on the city walls. Making it easy to deploy more ships in case of an emergency.

It also made it possible to add day and night shifts for the fleet's crews as to not make them remain too long on the ships.

And while one might think that the horses would just change shift at the same time was that incorrect, they would send in one ship at a time in a steady interval, with the last being the flagship of the fleet. It makes the process long time consuming but it kept the fleet in top condition.

One of the recently changed crews was upon a large skeid longboat named 'Långsvärd' or 'Longsword' in the pony tongue. Its crew of fifty fresh Viking warriors floating at the east-most edge of the fleet's formation.

A young stallion raider was sitting on a barrel looking out towards the cloudy horizon, slowly dragging a whetstone over the edge of his long-shafted axe. His pony name was Silent Hero, while his horse name was Sigurd. He was a light brown pelted horse with a reddish-brown mane and tail, with a pair of green eyes.

He was equipped with a harness with a pair of cauldrons, a loincloth, and a set of belts for several pouches, bottles, and other little items. He was wearing a Viking helmet with a visor, decorated with a pair of curved dragon horns, with a chain mail coif hanging down the back of the neck, with a set of openings to let his braided mane free.

As he watched the horizon he absentmindedly checked the sharpness of his axe by scraping it lightly against his horseshoe covered hoof. *Calm as ever. It almost makes you wish for something exciting to happen with just how boring these routine guard duties can get without anything going on.*

He rotated his axe a bit before holstering it onto his back in the harness. And he turned to leave to get some water and fruit from the hold when he noticed something at the edge of his vision. Swirling around he quickly pulled out the spyglass strapped to his belt and looked out towards the eastern horizon, and his brow furrowed at what he saw.

From behind the thick white cloud emerged around a hundred large flying ships, not like the skyships of the Horadrim Kingdom. These were frigate like ships being held afloat by a large oval-shaped balloon that was covered by metal plates and held to the ship with thick ropes and fabrics shaped into a hexagon-like pattern. On the top of the balloon was a metal structure that had two strange-looking antenna-like structures sticking out of its sides, while at the peak of the metal structure was some sort of glass dome containing something that was sparkling and glowing bright blue.

At the front of the ship was a large crown decorated eagle head with an open beak, with what looked like a large cannon barrel sticking out of the opening. the ships were apparently being propelled by some kind of large fan-shaped propellers at the rear of the structure.

Each ship was identical to the other in size and design, and there were at least eighty if not one hundred and twenty of them. They were larger than most of the ships used by the horses except for the slightly larger ships. And they looked rather slow and clumsy, but sturdy.

But the problem was not only with these massive eagle ships, no, but the armada was also surrounded by wedge formations of around five hundred flying soldiers, heavily armed griffins to be exact. For they could not be anything else. The bodies were four-legged, with the rear being the back part of a lion with a tail. While the front was that of an eagle with wings at the center.

Every single one of the griffins was armed with well designed aerial armour, light leather combined with chain and plate, to allow maximum protection while not hindering their mobility or making them slower. The manner of metal they utilized was unknown as it had been painted, the plate was painted blue while the chain mail were all painted in a squared pattern similar to that of a tartan pattern of the Scottish kilts from Maleficus homeworld. The specific colouring of the pattern was lines of white with two purples lines on either side of the white line, with a red square in the center, and repeat all over.

All of the griffins were wielding crossbows while having either swords and shields or, large great swords, as a melee weapon, no differences.

Each unit and each ship, had a banner upon either mast or pole, bearing a heraldic image of a gold-crowned white eagle head in the center of a six-pointed yellow star-shaped field, with a purple background. With a red talon held within each of the star's six points.

And among the armada could ten large dragons be seen, each covered in blue plate armour. All of them as large as a three-story-tall building. And, though it was hard to see, could Silent Hero make out what looked like either large box-shaped baskets or large wooden crates, tied to the dragons' backs.

Slowly the young raider lowered his spyglass and muttered to himself as he looked at the approaching army of airships and griffins. "...Oh... oooooh... shit... this is not good..."

He then pulled off one of the horns on his helmet, held it to his mouth, and blew into it. A loud rumbling tone echoing out over the skies. Young Sigurd repeated this three times, making it a total of four signals, signaling to the rest of the sky fleet about approaching enemies from the east.

Returning his horn to its spot on his helmet Silent Hero walked over to the front of the boat as the captain began to bark out orders. And he looked out towards the approaching army and its fleet of airships. While the sky fleet shifted and turned, facing the unknown army approaching their home. *I did not even speak out loud and yet Murphy's Law was still invoked!? Damn... that's terrifying.*

He would not mention his treacherous thoughts that might have invoked the sudden invasion of their air space, better to not risk it any further.

(Scene Skip)

Upon the central ship of the fleet of airships stood a tall black pelted and brown feathered griffin bearing a full-body plate mail armour with a mantle strapped over his left foreleg and over his back bearing the tartan pattern that the rest of the army was wearing. Upon his side was a curved sword with a fork like cross guard shaped like a four-fingered talon.

His left eye was replaced with a clear blue crystal ball, with a nasty looking scar that looked like something head tried to either eat or tear off the left side of his face. On his left pauldron was an engraved image of a heraldry in the shape of a white circle with the image of an iron-gray griffin biting through a sword.

He was Earl Cahal, Ruler of the Eagle Coast, Patriarch of the Ironbeak Clan, and Admiral of the Third Fleet of the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of Gryphon. A veteran of several wars within and without of Gryphon, and older cousin to King Craver, the current ruler of the Griffins.

News of these nations of equine beings with powerful magical artifacts and rich vaults filled with wealth had spread out from the south, being carried by the dragon mercenaries Cahal hired on a regular basis. It had come as a surprise to all of the griffindom when the tales of the rich nations and their skirmish with the dragons.

When words had reached the King had he been swift to order preparations and war plans to be made. And Cahal was proud of his younger cousin, he had ambition and goals, and though his personal habits might be a bit distasteful was he King, and thus could be given leniency for his acts. After all, none of those he had eaten had been of legit royal blood, being chicks of concubines and slaves. And the servants were there to serve the king, what did it matter if a few of them did so in another manner?

His young cousin's rule was far more profitable and glamorous than the old King, it had been a great satisfaction to aid the young king claim his throne from his useless father. Even if the old bird had been Cahal's uncle was he far too weak and paranoid to be a proper king in his eyes.

Craver was a better ruler by far, even with his odd dietary habits.

Walking past a line of sailors pulling ropes and preparing weapons he looked towards the large floating island and the fleet he had been preparing to assault for the past year. Utilizing the enhanced vision of his crystal eyeball he examined the fleet and the defensive structures of the islands. Muttering to himself as he tried to keep his awe in check at the sight of a floating island. "The reports spoke of it, but it is clearly much different to see it in person. A floating island, a magnificent sight."

A slight smirk could be noticed as the cheeks of the old warbird shifted a bit, and he walked over to his second in command, who was also his nephew, and spoke out in an excited manner. "This will make for an excellent tribute for our nation's power, if we can learn to utilize the secrets of the island we can finally overwhelm our neighbors and get control over the lands. The first of many grand prizes to claim for our king and nation. Ain't that right Bevyn?"

The younger griffin shared his smile, but it was a bit on the uneasy side as he did not have his uncle's experience or self-confidence. Or delusion. "Very true uncle Cahal, but what about those reports we got from our scouts in the south about the ponies and horses killed off one of the Dragon Lords?"

Shaking his head the older griffin scoffed at the mere notion and pointed a claw at one of the dragon mercenaries flying among their fleet. "Just tall tales and rumors created by the ponies and horses to dissuade more dragons from attacking them. The old King might have feared those rumours but King Craver has a better spine and sense of things than that paranoid coward who I once called uncle. Any griffin worth their hide knows that dragons do not falter for anything, much less so a Dragon Lord. The only thing they care about is food and gems, and as long as you can provide either, or both, are they more than willing to serve us short-lived being for a while."

The younger griffin nodded to his uncle's words, never speaking out his unease that both his uncle and the King had forgotten one crucial piece of evidence that supported the tales from the south.

Over four hundred dragons had flown west nearly two decades ago to perform their annual raid upon the pony lands. And out of the around half a thousand dragons that left, returned less than a hundred. There had been an all-time low activity from the dragons ever since and there were even reports of ponies making colonies along the coastline by the Dragonlands.

But the King had dismissed the possibilities of such a large number of dragons being slain and just made the logical conclusion that the majority of the dragons who left had decided to make new homes in the pony lands. It had made sense for many, for few had even considered the other option a possibility.

And the King was also certain of the weakness of the ponies and the limited might of the horses, weakened by the dragon raid. With the reports of the wealth of the horses and ponies, not to mention their magical abilities and artifacts, made the recently discovered nations of Equestria and Horadrim very valuable for Gryphon.

At least that was what King Craver's ambitions were, and they were mirrored by the military officers and nobles of the kingdom. So young Bevyn could only follow his superiors' lead, even though he felt that this course of action would only bring disaster upon not just themselves, but the nation as well.

(Scene Skip)

War Lord Thunder Hammer glared out from one of the balconies of his castle, the admiral of the fleet had told him the situation through the use of the Comm Orb in the flagship. "So they think we are just going to roll over and let them plunder us eh? Well now. That won't do."

He turned around barked out orders as a group of officers and messengers. "Prepare for a siege! Order the Shamans to engage the Shield Ritual! Tell the Storm Hammer Fleet to show these pretenders how real warfare with boats is made! We are Vikings! The Wolves of the Sea and the Eagles of the Skies! Let the Gods and our Father witness our Valour! In Glorious battle!"

Thunder Hammer then threw his maul and slammed the pommel into the floor, cracking the marble and releasing a short burst of rumbling thunder and lightning. And then he roared, his eyes glowing with sparkling blue lightning. "Valhalla!"

And he was joined by the rest of the horses in the chamber, and those outside of it, shouting out to their Warlord's speech, which had echoed out over the major vicinity of the entire castle.

"Valhalla!"

(Scene Skip)

[Play Battle Music: "Maelstrom Battle" - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End]

[Disclaimer: I do not own this music, it is owned by Disney, please support the official release and the YouTubers who give us the chance to listen to such great works of musical wonder.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9a8MITs908

While the fleet moved into formation was Jarngard swarmed with activity, civilians were running into the safety of the underground chambers or the large central keep on the peak of the island. Viking soldiers and guards within the city were preparing weapons and tools, manning the towers and walls of the island, while the ships docked to its harbours were slowly casting off one by one to join the fleet in defending the floating city.

But on the outer walls of the city, were some of the towers being prepared for a different purpose. Towers standing taller than the rest with four long horns sticking out of the sides of the towers, ending up in sharp points, almost like split spearheads or one edged dagger, making the top of the towers appear almost like scepters or claws.

A group of robed horses was standing on top of one of these outer towers, standing in a circle. Each of them was wielding a ceremonial dagger. Holding the dagger in their right foreleg they stood up on their hind legs and began to dance together, chanting and swirling their daggers in sync. Their chanting grew louder and a golden light began to emit from the ground beneath their hooves as a pattern of runes began to emerge out of the stonework, as if it was bleeding golden light.

With a final cry, the robed horses pressed the tips of their daggers against each other, forming a star-like pattern with their daggers and forelegs. There was a rush of heat as the magic of the shamans joined together. The runic array beneath their hooves filled the entire floor of the top of the tower, even stretching out into the four-blade line pinnacles on the sides. There was a moment of silence as the light seemed to fade before suddenly a pillar of light shoots out of the tower's center. It expanded upwards like a laser moving in slow motion, when it reached three-quarters of the height of the mountain it started to bend and expand towards the island's central point.

As the expanding light beam reached the air above the ship docks, it was meet with eleven other beams of light emitting from the other outer towers, and as they connected was an almost birdcage like form made. But then the golden light began to expand and shift, flowing out and expanding until there were no longer any gaps, leaving the entire city covered by a golden force field.

As the force field completely covered the city were the ships of the horses taking up formations to face the enemy. One group of ships from the rear of the fleet were moving in another direction, while the rest of the fleet began to create a large bulwark to defend the island.

The griffins and their fleet of Air Ships were charging towards the city and its gathered fleet, the ten dragons moving at the front. With gusto and glee screeched Earl Cahal out to his troops as he witnessed the magnificent sight of his ships and dragons' charge towards the enemies. "Signal all ships to take no prisoners! There shall be nothing but the might of Gryphon remaining after this battle!"

One of the messengers walked over to a large metal barrel and struck it with his talons. Bright flashes of light began to erupt from the lightning-filled dome on the top of the ship. The light was released in a pattern, acting as a coded message system for the rest of the ships to receive orders without the use of messengers.

But even as the order was given, were the charging griffins and their dragon allies caught by surprise by what came next.

Five Atakebune had taken the front formation, with five Trireme ships above them and five Carracks above the Triremes. They made up the frontal guard of the horses' fleet, and as the griffins and their dragons charged towards them with clearly ill intent, the horses aboard the ships fired their ship's weapons.

The Atakebunes' front barrels shone in bright light and the griffins at first thought that it was some kind of blinding attack and closed their eyes to not get blinded.

Five glowing balls of condensed energy flew through the air, erupting out of the front barrels of the Atakebunes.

The first flew at one of the closer dragons. With his eyes closed was the fire breathing giant creature unable to see how the small spherical force field flew straight at him.

It impacted the dragon at the left side of its skull, the mighty scales, flesh, and bones were gorged apart by the intense ripples of momentum from the compact energies making up the sphere. The magical energy projectile flew out of the back left side of the dragon skull, showering the air in bits of the dragon's skull while the body went limp and began to fall downwards.

The orb flew further and struck an unlucky group of five griffins, their bodies were torn apart and scattered into the winds as the sphere struck them. Before it finally ended its journey by impacting the front of the blimp-like balloon on one of the airships, rupturing it in the process.

Bluish gas erupted from the deflating metal-plated blimp and caused severe nausea to the griffins nearby. Right before it detonated into a cloud of plasma as the container on the top of the balloon broke as the blimp collapsed. The entire ship fell down like a falling blue star as the plasma fire trailed after it like a tail of liquid fire.

Several dozens of griffins barely had time to scream as the blue flames engulfed their bodies. Even before their bodies were burnt away into nothing was the intense heat of the plasma causing black vapor to erupt out of their orifices, eyes, ear holes, and beaks as their body fluids were almost instantly vaporized from the heat. Their insides boiled to shriveled up charcoal before the blue flames even touched their dead bodies.

It all took less than a few seconds to occur.

The second shot struck the chest of another dragon, like the first it tore open a round hole into the body of the large creature. But unlike the first was this force field sphere unable to travel all the way through and instead, detonated.

The dragon let out a pained cry as its abdomen bubbled up in an unnatural fashion before its hide and flesh beneath its upper chest erupted like a water balloon. A geyser of blood and gore sprayed outwards from the dragon's midsection, painting the heavens with a red rain. The creature fell downwards, its limp shape showing how its entire midsection had been torn clear of flesh, revealing the creature's spine, ribs, and pelvis bones. The only flesh left between the chest and the pelvis were pieces of its internal organs and flesh hanging off its spine.

Though the third shot missed its intended target since the dragon in question shifted a bit as the force field was heading towards it, it still struck one of the ships behind the dragon. In a brutal explosion of shards of wood, metal and gore were the entire lower section of the ship torn asunder, leaving only a large metal plated blimp balloon that was starting upwards without the ship or its counterweights to keep it from floating off.

None of the crew members survived the detonation of the ship.

The fourth energy projectile gorged through another dragon's left wing, tearing the appendage in half as the mythical creature screeched out in pain and fear as it began to tumble down, trying to regain altitude with its remaining wing. Its body slammed into the jagged peak of a mountain and pierced through the dragon's stomach and out through its back, leaving it impaled upon the mountain top.

But the sphere kept going and struck the side of one of the air ship's balloons, tearing out a large gaping tear in its side. The ship began to fall instantly as the gas was expelled out of its container. Griffins abandoned the ship as it fell down toward the mountain range bellow, and as the ship struck the rocky surface, it detonated in a large thunderclap of lightning and plasma fire as the electric filled dome cracked and the no longer contained lightning ignited the gas.

The force field sphere flew away, not hitting anything else, before suddenly wobbling in its shape, before erupting in a massive burst of magical energy. Several ships and griffins fought to remain airborne as the shock wave slammed into them. Around fifty or sixty griffins fell down unconscious, unconscious from being struck by the powerful pressure of the shock wave. While five airships crashed into the ground or each other, before hitting the ground, erupting into fiery wrecks of blue fire.

And then the fifth shoot struck its target, striking the dragon in the snout, the flesh and scales shredded apart as the sphere gorged through the dragon's skull before erupting out of the back, leaving a headless corpse to fall to the ground. The sphere flew for a short time before slamming into the side of an airship, causing it to explode into blue-fire as the projectile detonated inside its wooden frame.

Admiral Cahal growled and glared at the finned ships that had just torn apart four of his dragon mercenaries and over a dozen of his one hundred airships. "Those magic farting donkeys will regret this insult! None but Gryphon may rule the sky! Give the order to the fleet! Prepare to fire the Tintreach Cannons at the ships! Focus your fire at their oars and sails! Give them Blood and Thunder!"

A joyous cry filled the ship and signal flags were waved to the other ships. Bevyn kept his personal opinion of the situation silent, he had a feeling that the Tintreach Cannons of the airships, would prove less effective than his uncle had intended. *Those cannons may be the greatest engineering feat our race has produced in the last two hundred years, but that still does not mean they will be as effective against these sky ships like they are against our airships or non-lighting aligned dragons.*

Upon each vessel moved griffins at the front, pulling levers and adjusting pressure valves on a set of pipes. The beaks of the ships lowered their lower parts and the barrels rolled out, adjusting in length until they were sticking out two meters from the beaks' tips.

One of the griffins of each crew was rotating a vertical wheel with a handle on it, rapidly rotating the metal circle as three gemstones above the wheel began to glow blue. As the third gemstone shone the crew member would shout out to their superior officer. "Tintreach Cannon loaded, aimed, and ready to fire Captain/Admiral!"

The leader of the airships would raise their talons, holding some manner of weapon or spyglass, and point it at their targets. And then they would cry out the griffins' ancestral word, for shot, or fire. "Scaoil!"

A series of loud resounding cracks filled the air as one by one the massive airships released their lethal loads. A blue flash of light emerged from the tips of the cannons and was released in a sphere of sparkling blue lightning. They flew at such speed it was less of a projectile and more like a slow-motion moving lightning bolt, still fast, but not as fast as its naturally occurring variation.

The lightning balls struck at the wooden masts of the ships and the oars as well, intense light emerged from each strike as the energies of the lightning bolts surged out over the ships. Only to somehow be redirected into the clouds beneath the ships, and after a few seconds, the electrical arches had disappeared, absorbed by the clouds beneath the horses' skyships.

All the griffins could do was stare in shock and horror as the mightiest weapon of their nation, had its power and potency rendered null and void.

Admiral Cahal reacted more vocally and aggressively once he recovered from his shock. His voice crying out over the stunned crew staring at the horses' fleet, which was no longer floating passively, but moving towards them. "What!? What happened!? Why are those ships undamaged!?"

One of the officers, who had been looking with a spyglass, cried out to the admiral to give his report. "The skyships admiral! They absorbed the lightning bolts! The cloud beneath them appears to act as lightning rods! The horses don't even look like they got zinged!"

Young Bevyn held back from openly scoffing and rolling his eyes at those words. Instead, he mentally berated his fellow griffins as they panicked about their cannons failing to damage the horses' skyships. *Really? You don't say. It must be highly improbably, no? For, what-ever reason would anyone ever assume that a race of equines sailing on boats riding storm clouds would know how to handle lightning strikes being aimed at? Incomprehensible.*

His uncle screeched out in anger, punching through the railing before the steering wheel of the ship. And began to rant while glaring at the approaching ships. "Damn it! All non-essential crewmembers! Prepare yourselves for boarding actions! We outnumber them still! Kill them all!"

Bevyn flinched as the crew drew their arms and screeched out together, he silently stepped back into a shadowy corner. He did not like how things had been going and he just knew that even his uncle, famous for his physical prowess, would find the horses easy prey.

The two fleets flew towards each other with rapid speed. A wave of projectiles erupted from the carracks, the triremes, and the atakebunes. Ballistae bolts pierced through reinforced balloons that would ignite into blue flames, canisters splattered vile concoctions over griffins and ships, while bolts of magic erupted from the hooves of the magic users located on the different ships.

In response to the volleys of projectiles were the griffins arming their crossbows and firing as good as they could at the ships and their crews. The crossbow bolts shoot through the wind in low arches and struck wood, flesh, or air as the griffins utilized their natural skill of flight as well as their well-developed eyesight to take potshots at the horses.

Most of the airships had given up on utilizing their Tintreach Cannons, instead, they armed small ballistae and readied crossbows. Firing with increasing fervor at the horses and their skyships, even gong so far as to put the bolt heads into braziers of burning tar before firing, trying to put the ships on fire, though only managing to burn small holes in the sails at most.

But not all griffins had given up on their Tintreach Cannons. At least two dozen ships were still firing them as their crews tried to figure out a way to get past the anti-lightning defences of the horses. Even as the horses' ships kept enduring the strikes of the lightning balls.

The remaining six dragon mercenaries, seeing four of their numbers gone but never saw how or why decided to take action. They flew towards the approaching horse fleet and opened their maws to release torrents of fire upon the first row of ships. That's when several crackling booms erupted from the skeids at the front of the fleet, as they swung their oars upwards and then down.

Out from the clouds beneath the skeids came a magnitude of thunder and a torrent of lightning. And the dragons, covered with their metal armour, were the perfect lightning rods. The six beasts cried out in pain as hundreds of lightning bolts struck at their bodies and scorched their hides and flesh, smoke began to erupt out of their throats, their eyeballs melted, and finally, their bodies practically shriveled.

The black roasted shapes of the dragons fell, and as they struck the ground, was all that remained ash and bones scattered across the mountains. And now the griffins' fleet was without its draconic fire support.

And then the two fleets clashed.

(Scene Skip)

Griffin warriors flew at the ships, crying out war cries as they wielded their various weapons, while others held back and kept firing crossbows at them. The horses, however, responded in kind.

Several dozens of griffin warriors flew at one of the smaller ships that had the strange fin-like shapes on its form. They were meet by a group of fifty horses dressed in strange exotic armour, wielding long curved swords with frightening-looking helmets and masks covering their faces.

The griffins charged at the samurais- And the samurai, in turn, spread out into a line, by doing so they were essentially blocking the griffins from reaching the doors leading to the lower section of the ship., Then they shifted into a stance, standing on their hind legs, holding their swords by the sheath with their left foreleg while gripped the handle of their swords with their right. With said swords still in the sheaths.

And then, as the griffins came charging, the samurais breathed, closed their eyes. And then as the griffins came within two meters, they opened their eyes and blurred. It was like the fifty samurais had disappeared.

The griffins blinked and looked around, trying to figure out what had just happened. When they heard the sound of metal being sheathed into leather-covered wood. From behind them.

Turning around they saw the fifty samurais, in the process of slowly sheathing their swords. One of them saw this as an opportunity and cried out to the others. "They have their backs to us! Kill them now!"

"Sorry but that won't be possible." One of the samurais commented as he slowly turned around, the sword in his sheath, just an inch from behind inserted completely.

The griffins looked at each other in confusion as to what was going on. But the one who had shouted out hefted his large sword and glared at the samurai. "Oh? and why's that? If you mean you surrender th-"

But the samurai interrupted him before he completes his sentence. "The reason is simple."

And as one the samurais clicked their swords into place, and spoke out together to the griffins in cold, dark, voices. "Omae wa no shindeiru."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zoLyXSno4s

[Disclaimer: I do not own this clip nor the anime it is originally from. This is here just as a reference, please support the official release and the Youtuber who posted this small clip.]

"What kind of garbling tongue is th-kgh." The griffins words ended as thin red lines emerged across his neck, chest, and head. As did it over the rest of his fellows, and in a spray of blood and gore, the bodies of the griffins split apart. Leaving piles of gore on the wooden planks of the ship's deck.

One of the samurais quickly raises a hoof at the sight. "I am sooo not going to be the one that has to clean that up!"

(Scene Skip)

Another group of griffins was on one of the airships, aiming crossbows with fire bolts at the closest ship approaching them. Even as they fired upon the wooden frame did it not catch fire, much to their frustration.

But then one of them noticed something. "Say, is that ship trying to ram us?"

They all blinked and looked at the fast-moving ship, its strangely painted bow was looking straight at them, the rows of oars were rowing rapidly while the large sails pushed it faster. This was the warship of the ancient times of Greece, the trireme, it was built not just for fighting side to side or by distance. Its bow was designed with a long pointed wooden pole with the end equipped with thick metal plates.

It specialized in ramming ships, sometimes even going so far as to split them in half given enough momentum.

The captain of the airship cried out to his crew as he began to pull at the steering wheel of the ship."Evasive actions! Do not let them ram us!"

But it was too late, the trireme slammed into the port side of the skyship with a loud crack, the metal enforced wood to give away to the runic enchanted battering ram of the ship. The griffins abandoned ship, taking flight off the doomed vessel as the trireme pushed through it until with a loud crack, the entire thing split apart like a broken cookie.

The ship fell apart, several large wooden pieces of the vessel falling while the no longer weighted down balloon flew upwards into the heavens.

And as this occurred, were the ballistae of the trireme aiming, and firing upon the fleeing griffins and the surrounding airships.

(Scene Skip)

The carracks flew with strong and steady momentum through the heavens. Their crews armed the slingshots with canisters before flinging said canisters at the griffin forces. No one dared to use the harpoon launcher, however, as the volatile gas of the airships' balloons made the horses unwilling to risk it.

One of the knights on one of the carracks had just grabbed hold of a clay sphere canister, put it in place in the sling shot's bowl, and pulled it back. Carefully aiming the knight visualized the intended arc of how they intended for the canister to land. And then they let loose.

With a loud twang, the projectile was released from the slingshot launcher. The container flew upwards, forward, and then downwards, before hitting the wooden deck of the griffin airship. Its fragile structure shattered and thus released the content within.

Thick black goop splattered across the deck, some even hitting the griffins who were quick to wipe it off. Which was not working, as when they tried to rub off the black goop it smeared and stuck to their talons like glue. And then the black cook suddenly began to bubble and swell. Before suddenly it began to expand and bloat out like a growing mass of bubbling tar.

For that was what it was. Self boiling and expanding tar.

Screams of agony and fear began to fill the airship as the black bubbling mass grew quicker and quicker, those unable to evade it was stuck in its mass and quickly submerged into the tar. Those who had been struck by splatters of tar were screaming out in agony as their feathers, flesh, and blood was boiled as the bubbling tar began to expand out over their bodies.

The captain was the first to abandon the ship, but he did not get far. Even as he rushed to the railing and jumped off, spreading his wings to take flight, when he was interrupted. The sound of something whistling through the air heard was heard for the instance of a second before it ended with the abrupt screech of a bird in pain.

And then the captain of the ship slumped over and fell towards the ground far, far beneath the warring ships, an arrow sticking out of his left eye socket.

All griffins who fled were quickly shot down by the group of sixty long bow-wielding archers firing from the carrack. None were able to flee or aid the ship as the tar kept growing and growing.

As the ship's upper deck was completely covered in tar was the groaning sound of straining supporters heard from the metal-reinforced ropes and frames holding the blimp-like balloon in place as more and more weight came upon the ship. That scene was being replicated on four other airships floating a few dozen meters away from the broadsides of the carrack.

The captain of the ship raised a hoof and pressed it against his muzzle, before blowing through the specific shape air holes of his horseshoe, to signal the archers with a set of Morse coded whistles.

As one of the archers pulled out an arrow, and held it out, as a Horadrim mage, standing next to the captain, held out a staff of wood with a crimson gemstone on its end, and released a burst of red energy from the staff. The light spread out over the archers, and the arrowheads, burst into flame, flames that did not appear to be releasing smoke or turning the metal black or charcoaling the wood of the arrows' shafts.

Then, the archers pulled back their arrows, aimed carefully, before releasing them. and as they did, the carrack sky ship raised its speed and flew away from the cluster of damned airships.

Five groups of twelve fire arrows streaked out across the skies in high volleys. And then, they struck the five bloated airships, some struck the balloons, some struck the metal plates, but most hit the deck. Where the growing mass of bubbling tar was located.

There were five bursts of fire, each explosion of heat erupting in a golden flare of light. Only to be replaced by an even more intense flare of blue light, as the balloons of the airships erupted as the flames melted through the metal frame and fabric of the balloons, and ignited the gas inside.

Five burning wrecks fell towards the ground, and so did seven more ships, as other carracks handled their own foes.

(Scene Skip)

Over a hundred griffin warriors flew at some of the longer, but less intimidating boats. Sure they had dragon-formed figureheads but from what the griffins could see had they no proper defences outside of their lightning bursts, and the griffins were confident that they could evade such nuisances.

They flew down with loud war cries, wielding greatswords and axes. That's when a loud meaty thunk was heard, and the leader of the charge fell, a smaller than average axe sticking out of his split skull. But no one noticed, they were far too deep in their rage and lust for battle.

Griffins took no heed, as a rain of axes, spears, and arrows struck at their charging forms. Not even as their numbers went down by a third before they even reached the ship.

The first attacker screamed out as he raised his large weapon and made a downward swing at the horse standing closest to the railing. His cry was cut off into a gurgling as the horse raised his own large sword and not only blocked the griffin's attack, he put so much strength behind the strike that the griffin's own sword slammed back and sliced into his neck and was buried halfway through.

With a loud thud, the dying griffin struck the wooden deck of the longboat. And he blinked, as he tried to figure out what had just happened.

And he saw it. He saw the large horses, each decorated with pieces of animals as trophies or armour.

He saw two of his fellows charge with shields and axes at a horse wielding a sword and shield. The horse blocked their stricks and pushed his shield back at them ,making them recoil backwards. Where the horse made a step forward and with two rapid thrusts of his sword, pierced through the griffins' throats and out of their necks, the floor splattering with their blood as they fell over, dead.

At the same time was a large horse wielding a long-shafted axe rushing at a group of four griffins who were charging at him in turn. The first had their swing deflected before a powerful tackle struck their midsection. They were then hefted up like a sack of grain over the front of the horse, who then used them as an improvised battering ram.

It ran forward, pushing over the other three, before slamming the disoriented griffin into the mast of the ship, before kicking said griffin in the face, a loud crack was heard as the griffin's neck was broken. The warrior then swirled around, and with a brutal left side swing, cut off the head of the second griffin soldier. The third, who had recovered, tried to make an effort to strike back, only for the pommel of the axe to shatter his back before the axe struck him in the skull and split his head in half, all the way down to the neck.

The fourth griffin tried to attack the horse warrior while they were busy yanking out their axe from the third's body. But the axe-wielding berserker like brute reached out with their left foreleg, deflected the thrust of the griffin, and then kicked them in the gut, making them hunch over. Before punching them in the face, knocking them to the floor. Then with a savage downward swing, it struck the prone griffin in the stomach, the axe piercing through the plate with ease.

And then with a savage pull, it dragged the axe downwards, splitting open the griffin's stomach, while dragging out parts of its intestines. It took less than two seconds to do so before finally tearing the weapon out of the groin. Splitting apart the intestines in the process. The prone griffin had been screeching through the entire ordeal before going silent as the weapon finally left their body.

There was a horse dressed in robes decorated with various parts of animals, with the skull of a dragon or large lizard acting as a helmet or hood, hard to determine as the skull was partly covered by the hood of the robe. It was wielding a long ceremonial dagger, and as griffins charged it would the horse evade their attacks, before slicing the dagger at any exposed parts of their body.

Then it would drip the blood onto its free hoof, before chanting in some weird exotic tongue. A crimson glow emerging from its hoof, and then all of those the blood had come from, let out screams of agony, as their flesh began to wither and dry out. But they did not fall as the final liquid of their bodies left them, instead, they stood there as shambling dried up corpses, their hollow eye sockets glowing red.

But as the still living griffins charged at the horse mage, reacted the dried up corpses. They let out shrill soul quivering screeches, like a dying eagle screaming within a dull and dark cavern. And then they charged, their bodies moving at the same speed they had when alive, but no longer bound by the limits of the mortal flesh. And the mage just stabbed more griffins as the newly converted corpses fought for them now and began the process again.

Nearby was a horse wielding a spear and shield moving through groups of griffins, deflecting blows, before stabbing the pear through them. The horse was agile and merciless, it did not matter if their opponent was unarmed, wounded, or unconscious, they would kill them swiftly and efficiently.

Alongside the spear-wielding killer was a mad horse wielding a pair of axes, it ran forward, screaming out in an utter frenzy, slashing and hacking at anything within sight. sight. A few griffins were brave, or foolish, enough to face the mad horse. One tried to attack from behind, only for a spear to pierce through their back and out the front as the spear wielder protected the berserker.

Another griffin valiantly charged at the frenzied axe wielder. Utilizing a shield to block the flurry of blows the griffin tried to use their stamina to outlast the warrior's frenzy before attacking. But before even ten seconds had gone by was a loud crack heard as the griffin's shield was split by the warrior's left axe before the startled soldier had their face split in half by a blow into their cheeks from the right axe.

Even with his body dying the griffin watched in fascination and horror as the various barbarians broke down his fellows in a slaughter, unlike anything he had ever seen.

He could only stare, not even noticing the approaching blade of the horse that had cut him down in the initial assault. Even as his neck was decapitated, even as his head went tumbling across the floor, the griffin's face never lost the look of horrified awe upon its surface.

(Scene Skip)

Admiral Cahal could only stare in silence at what he was witnessing.

His fleet of a hundred strong airships and over five thousand air forces and ten dragon mercenaries were being torn apart.

The airships valiantly shoot bolts of wood and lightning at the airships. But beyond killing a few individual horses or damaging some oars or sails, was there no real visible damage to the horses' fleet.

Blue flares of ignited airships erupted as the sky fleet retaliated with much more efficient salvos. Even though the old griffin could see two or three of the horses' sky ships catch fire by being too close to the erupting airships, could he not feel a sense of accomplishment or satisfaction. He felt hollow inside.

Seven airships flew with intents to take out three of the box-shaped and fin decorated ships with sheer physical might. Only for their bows to slam into a force field that was erected around the ships. The front of the ships was crushed against the energy field, crumbling and grinding the bird heads and the lightning cannons at their fronts into flattened scraps of wood and metal.

Then there was a bright shining flare of light from the finned ships, and the shields suddenly doubled in size. With loud horrible crackles and booms were the seven airships wooden and metal frame shattered. The balloons, no longer bound by the ship frame, floated upwards towards the heavens.

Griffin airships and horse skyships were flying wildly all over the clouds above the fol mountain. Blue flares of light emerging every now and then whenever airships exploded. Bolts of lightning, metal, and wood were streaking across the distances between the ships. Mixed in with ballistae bolts and lightning bolts were force field balls, canisters, arrows, and throwing weapons.

It was utter chaos, but the difference between the airships and the skyships was obvious. The airships were extremely volatile and their main weapon ineffective against the skyships, which variations of not just ships but armaments and troops, making them more capable of handling the airships.

Admiral Cahal pressed his talons against the railing and closed his eyes, taking a deep shuttering breathe as he felt the numbness leave him, being replaced by heart-wrenching despair and self-loathing. *This is wrong! This is all wrong!*

The once mighty and powerful Third Fleet of the griffindom's Royal Navy was losing. Badly. All because of him and the rest of the nobility's lack of foresight and lack of options. He, and they, had never considered anyone able to withstand the force of their fleets and the lightning spitting cannons. Now, he was proven wrong. Oh so wrong.

*Someone wake me up from this nightmare!*

But his mental contemplation and self-suffering were disrupted by the cries of his first mate screaming out from the bow of the airship. "My lord Cahal! Enemy forces are approaching from the front!"

Two longboats flew out towards the flagship, upon them stood large horse warriors preparing to board. The sound of drums being beaten could be heard over the sound of the large sky battle.

Spitting to the side the old griffin pointed his saber at the approaching vessels. "Prepare for battle! We shall board their ships and use them to destroy the rest!"

A plan began to fill his head, if he could rally his forces and get hold of one or two of the horses' skyships, then he could at the very least disrupt the horses' forces enough to retreat and rally the remains of his fleet.

His words gave his crew and officers the boost they needed to prepare for combat. Crossbows were gathered, swords were drawn, shields hefted and axes wielded. The griffins moved into formation, they could not risk taking flight with the number of ranged weapons in the air. Thus they decided to make their stand on the ship before trying to board the boarders' ship in return.

The two longboats weaved through a rain of lightning and mundane projectiles, the carved serpentine dragon heads at the bow of the ships each had an oil lantern burning within the open jaws. Upon the ship stood barbarian like horses with grappling hooks, ropes, and ladders. Some were even ready to leap off the railing of the skyship to launch themselves over at the airship. The clouds beneath the two skyships rumbling as the oars rotated through them as they started to align with the airship, essentially flanking it from both sides.

Two rows of crossbow-wielding griffins were aimed at the horses upon each ship. Even with the low deck of the ship making it difficult to target them directly, could the crossbows still make an effort. But even as they aimed at the line of warrior horses, they could make out the smirks upon the warriors' faces with their griffin eyes.

Talons gripped triggers, the bent wood flexed out, pulling the string as it did. And with soft twiphing sounds, the bolts were released. At a range of less than five meters, the crossbows' bolts could penetrate armour plate with ease. and with these lightly armoured foes, it should have pierced through their bodies.

Instead, as the bolts struck at the pelts of the horses, there were resounding sounds of metal striking rock, and the bolts deflected off the horses' hides. And that's when they noticed it, behind the rows of warriors stood a group of knife-wielding mages, glowing in toxic green lights that were being emitted towards the warriors, rendering their bodies impervious to the bolts.

One of the griffins just stared blankly at the sight, before muttering out a curse. "Plucking hell."

The horses raised their weapons towards the heaves, they tossed their heads backs, their manes flurrying into the wind. And they cried out as one into the heavens, their battle cry. "Valhalla!"

And then they jumped off their ship, screaming out wordless battle cries as they savagely leaped upon the defenders. A row of weapons slamming down with the force of a stampede of iron.

The Griffin warriors at the front raised their shields to hold back the invaders. But the griffins had overlooked a lot when it came to the horses. They had kept considering them to be just very big earth ponies.

Horses are not only larger than ponies, they are also much heavier and much, stronger. The weight of a full-grown horse, dressed up in light leather to heavier chain mail armour, each carrying at least one-tenth of their body weight in gear, came straight down towards the round griffin shields, wielded by griffins, who were a bit larger than an earth pony, but was about as light as a pegasus because o their bodies' bone structure.

The result was the front row of griffin warriors had their forelimbs' bones shattered by the impact. They ended up collapsing beneath their own shields, not just because of the pain, but also because of the force of the impacts. And as they landed on their backs, wings pressed down to the deck, came the full weight of the horses' bodies, coming down from a two-meter high jump, down upon the shields over their bodies. The front line warriors had most of their bodies crushed beneath said shields as the horses trampled on and over their bodies.

Screeching war cries erupted from the great sword-wielding griffins swung at their larger foes. Two horses failed to block or duck away from the swings. One raider horse had his left foreleg sliced halfway through by the heavy blade before the bones made it get stuck.

A berserker warrior had his head cut off as he had fortunately entered a frenzied rage a bit before reaching his enemy. Which became his undoing as the griffin managed to land a lethal blow to his neck.

Then the crossbow griffins, having reloaded their weapons swiftly, shoot a volley past their fellows. Now only a meter away from the wave of horses. Hoping that the tribal dressed mages' magic was no longer in effect.

And it no longer was.

Twenty bolts were fired at each group. Five horses were struck in vital points like the head, throat, or heart and fell to the floor dead. The rest of the horses pushed through the wave of bolts, except for a few who faltered as their bodies became pin cushions and could no longer move without having the bolts removed.

The horses came upon the griffins like a stampede of muscle and iron, blood sprayed over the wooden deck as griffins and horses began to brutally slice each other up. Griffins fell to the floor, clutching bleeding stumps, or broken limbs. Horses neighed out in pain and fury as they pushed through the bolts and blades of the griffins.

Soon total chaos was filling the entire ship as the horses pushed the formation of griffins apart, and began to tear the feline aligned birds apart even as their own blood painted the surroundings. Their tough bodies and minds were able to push through wounds and pain that would have been too much even for veteran warriors.

They were Vikings, they lived and died for battle, they were the merchants of gold, blood, and war, trading blows with their foes while in battle. While trading goods and gold in preparation for the next bout.

Admiral Cahal watched with a grim look on his face as his forces tried to repel the boarders. The odds were just not in their favour, the horses outnumbered them at least three to one. His griffins had managed to kill around ten or twelve of them thus far, but that left about ninety more.

He knew what he had to do. It was time to signal the retreat and have all available airships escape while having those lost self destruct. Including his own.

The old griffin moved with surprising agility for his size and age and began to rush towards the steering wheel of the ship. There he could send out a last-ditch signal to his forces by flaring up the lightning being emitted from the dome of the blimp of the airship. It would cause the storm stone within to become unstable and possibly explode, but he was not concerned. He was an old warrior and he would serve his King even if it meant his life.

But as he ran up the steps towards the steering wheel, he heard a loud tramping from behind and barely had time to turn to the left, as a long-shafted and beard edged great axe was swung towards him. The blade of the weapon split through the steps of the staircase, rending half of the boards into splinters.

His sable sang as he sought to decapitate the raider who had just tried to kill him. Said the raider raised a hind leg and kicked the large griffin in the chest ,sending him into the railing of the ship with a loud clang. Before jerking out his weapon from the ruined staircase.

The tall horse stood on his hind legs and held his axe with his forelegs, glaring at the old griffin who was rubbing the dent in his chest plate. Getting up from the hit the griffin admiral let out a screech before charging the horse, who ducked aside the strong swing.

Cahal was not finished however, he utilized his own momentum and the claws of his rear legs' paws, to suddenly turn a lunge after the horse with a thrust towards the young raider's stomach. The young warrior used the shaft of his axe to deflect the blow and swung the pommel at the griffin's head.

But the old warbird evaded the strike by ducking and then tried to use his free talon to rip open the horse's stomach. Only for the horse to raise a hind leg and kick at his chest again. The old griffin evade the strike and was now at the defense as the silent warrior made several rapid slashes, thrusts, and swings at him in quick succession.

The Earl knew he could not block the strikes of the raider, it would either break his guard, or his bones or leave him open for an attack from the horse's hooves. He could deflect and guide away from the strikes, however, showing an agile and skilled usage of his thick saber to attack the axe as it was swung at him, forcing it aside as he did so.

As the two fought had the rest of the horses killed or subdued the rest of the griffins on the deck. and had gathered in a circle around them, chanting out together as the admiral fought the young raider.

Finally, the admiral had, had enough of the cat and mouse play and decided to take a gamble. He reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a vial. Which he threw at the raider.

The vial shattered against the raider's torso and instantly a thick cloud of smoke filled the area. Cahal covered the nostrils of his beak with his free claw before making a lunge at the place he could see the horse's shape. And made to stab him in the head.

Then the edge of the axe came bellowing from the right, right out of the smoke and struck him in the side. A loud echoing clang erupted as the edge of the axe head slammed into the griffin's plate mail, but it was slightly dampened by a loud crack, as the admiral's left-wing had its central join shattered from the impact. The strength behind the blow sent the old warbird tumbling across the wooden floor.

But he was not willing to give in, he struggled up from the floor, coughing up a bit of saliva as he did. The breastplate had protected his internal body parts, his wing was broken, but he had not broken any ribs or had any of his organs damaged.

The young warrior calmly walked forward, and for the first time of the fight, he spoke. His voice calm and low, almost like a whisper. "You have fought well, but you are not going to win. Give up now and our Lords may be merciful."

Cahal did not know just what aggravated him more. The fact that this young yelp of a ground-bound beast had managed to hurt him so much in a single blow, or that he was being offered the chance to surrender. Him!? Cahal Ironbeak!? Admiral of the Third Royal Fleet!? Clan Elder of the Ironbeak Clan!? Earl of the Eagle Coast!? Him!? Surrender!?

It was kind of obvious what made him the most pissed. And he used this anger to make a jump from the ground, utilizing his feline hind legs to make a swift lunge at the horse's exposed and unguarded torso. "Shut up and die, you useless ground dweller! The heavens belong to us Griffins! You do not belong here!"

The horse calmly stepped aside from the lunge, even with the old griffin's speed had he been able to predict the attack. As the old warbird had used several similar moves during their brief fight. As the griffin passed him by, the young raider raised his axe and swung at his foe from behind. "That is your opinion catbird. Here's mine."

Another loud clang erupted as the heavy axe struck the old griffin's plate mail in the back. Sending the old griffin tumbling and rolling until he struck a group of stabled barrels, knocking them over. The old griffin staggered up and glared at his enemy, still not dead even after taking such a powerful strike. But as he struggled to stand, he felt his legs give away beneath him, his energy and strength gone. "Ach! Y-you fucking stupid b-beast. I am Cahal Ironbeak! Earl of the Eaglecoast and Admiral of the Third Royal Fleet! And I shall make you suffer!"

"The interrogators will handle you and your fellow officers, whatever rank you may be. This is your loss." The young warrior said calmly, almost whispering, as he walked towards the griffin as he was trying to stand up from the pile of barrels. Only to slump back onto them. His old body was unable to do any more physical efforts.

Sneering at the young horse the old griffin pointed a claw at his face. Contempt, arrogance, and smugness almost glowing from his eyes as he mocked the one who had defeated him. For in his mind, even if he lost the battle here, would the horses and the ponies, never win the war. Not losing this confidence one bit, not even as his words fell sluggish and stuttered as his aged body began to shake and shiver with exhaustion. "Fool. We a-are just o-one o-of many f-fleets. T-this was j-just the f-first target. Y-you a-and the p-ponies s-shall fall to-to us. A-all s-sh-sh-shall belong t-to King Craver."

"Again. That's your opinion. And here's mine." A horseshoe equipped hoof struck the downed admiral in the cheek and knocked his head into the side of the barrel he was leaning against, knocking the old griffin out cold. The young raider looked at the nervous and skittish looking Bevyn, who had not fought against the invaders, rather giving up instantly.

"We assume that you will cooperate?" The young raider asked as he stood there, leaning against the handle of his axe while he held the axe head against the deck.

The young griffin nodded and knelt down, slowly, with shaking talons, unsheathing his sword and holding it out in surrender. "Y-yes. Ahem. I am Bevyn, son of Greta, Second Youngest Heir of the Ironbeak Clan. I surrender to your superior might."

As one the horses raised their weapons and roared out to victory, except for the raider who had just beaten the Griffin Admiral. He was contemplating what the old warbird had said and he knew that things were about to get tense for not just them but the ponies as well.

But for now, he had to find the admiral's cabin to discover any possible items, maps, charts, and what not to bring back to his superiors. If this was to be a large conflict, they needed information.

The battle around the defeated flagship ended shortly afterward. With barely ten airships fleeing eastwards with about three hundred griffin troops on them, unwilling to get left behind. And the fleet signaled out with its horns and flares whilst the crews cheered.

Victory.

Thus marked the end of the first battle of what would in the future be referred to as the War of the Red Rains.

[End Battle Music]

(Scene Skip)

Lord Asclepius, or Cursed Blessing as he preferred, was about to get ready for bed in his private quarters within the stronghold of Girthenburg. Dressed in a fine nightgown with a glass and a tankard of water standing on his nightstand if he found himself thirsty.

When there was a loud and rapid knocking on his door.

Letting out a tired sigh the elderly-looking horse looked longingly at his bed before turning towards the door. "You may enter, I have not gone to sleep yet."

A clearly distressed horse mare dressed in Horadrim robes came rushing into the room, after having kicked the door open. And was screaming to the horse lord, in a very, very rapid manner. "WejustreceivedwordsfromWarLordThunderHammer! AfleetofairshipscrwedbygriffinsjustattemptedtoattackJarngard! Hereportsthatthereisatleastninemorefleets! TheyaregoingtoattackcitiesandcastlessalloverEquestriaandtheHoradrimKingdom!"

Cursed Blessing, blinked, slowly. And then he started to recap what he had just been told, in slow motion. And then, after a minute of recap. While the clearly panicking mare was pressing a sack of cloth against her muzzle as she tried to calm down, staring at him. And then slowly the temporary Ruler of the Horadrim Kingdom said. "What?"

(Scene Skip)

[Time Remaining. 28 Days]

Within the war camp of the Equestrian Armies were ponies moving beneath the cover of the few remaining hours of darkness. Though even then was the sky slightly lit s is common during the summer season.

They were moving in accordance with Princess Celestia's orders.

Words had been whispered across the camp, orders sent by silent messengers to the officers of the three armies. To be verbally given at the cover of darkness. And the orders had been received and the ponies were acting to fulfill their Princess' orders.

Lines were slowly put together, hushed whispers were quelled with short sharp hushing. The ordinary foot soldiers were clueless of what was going on, well most of them, a few were were starting to, or already had, realized what the purpose for their nightly assembly was.

And their theory was confirmed. When a golden light shone from the war camp where Princess Celestia resided, and the sun began to rise on the horizon, and as it did, was a war horn sounded. And as the sunlight struck the valley, it struck directly at the white castle, while leaving the soldiers on the grassy plains to be in the shadow of the mountains behind them.

Then, as one, every single officer of the Three Armies, raised their hooves, pointed their weapons at the castle, and shouted out a single command.

"Charge!"

As a single massive stampede, the ponies charged forward, moving in a great single unity for a single goal they rushed ahead. Pegasi flying over in a massive flock of spread out wedge formations.

And Princess Celestia, dressed in her golden armour, wielding a rune inscribed sacred bronze spear, smirked towards the castle holding her hated foe. "We halt take thee and thy foul forces down, with the Sun as Our ally. Thy shalt perish."

Unnoticed by all, were the flashing light of the Comm orb within the Princess' private chambers. All officers were on duty and there was too much work to tend to the wounded and to handle the grand assault to properly keep track of everything. Even the Princess herself failed to notice it, her mind clouded with a desire for vengeance and justice.

(Scene Skip)

"Clever girl, Celestia. Real clever. I am actually very impressed by this. A way to utilize not only your natural talent to blind my forces but to also get your own force time to adjust to the sharp light because of the reflective properties of white colours. Very clever." Maleficus said with a smile as he sat on a sun chair, a pair of sunglasses on his face, while he was looking upon the charging stampede of ponies.

No doubt would his castle fall, all of his forces had still not recovered from having their eyes blinded by the sudden sunrise. They would have to spend a precious amount of time to no longer have their vision impaired.

He watched in amusements as three large siege ladders were carried into the river fort and how pegasi used ropes to lift the massive metal ladders upright, before pushing them over, slamming into the upper battlements of the gatehouse of the first wall of the castle.

Munching on a bowl of peeled peach slices he nodded in approval as he watched the ponies rush up the ladder and charge his still disoriented troops. Blood began to colour the white stone of the castle's ramparts and towers as the ponies pushed against the defenders. The main gatehouse was overtaken and the controls for the drawbridge were put to use lowering the large wooden bridge down for the main forces to charge at the gates. Only to discover the gate to be blocked by a massive set of wooden gates reinforced with bands of rune engraved metal.

"How are your ponies going to get the gates open? The controls are not in the upper portion of the gatehouse but beneath it in a hidden cellar." He muttered to himself as he watched intently as the ponies in the gatehouse and the walls began to move outwards, fighting his black armoured horses whilst trying to find the hidden controls for the gatehouse.

That's when he saw it, a large group of gold armoured support unicorns was gathered in front of the gates and examining every crook and edge. And he began to smile, feeling a deep sense of pride, as the unicorns found the holes beneath the gate, where the chains and gears of the mechanism to operating them could be seen. After that discovery, the unicorns spread the word to the other forces.

"Smart. Very good use of your common sense there." They swarmed the lower parts of the tower-like ants, even going as far as to fly or climb, down to the courtyard behind the large gatehouse to get to the cobblestone road on the inside of the gates to get looking.

The gatehouses of this castle were special. None of them had any direct doorways or stairs leading to what lay behind them. They were only connected to the walls on either side of them. To get down to the courtyard, without flying, climbing, or jumping down a nearly twenty-meter fall, they had to reach one of the towers, which were far more bottlenecked and only connected to the 'zone' of the castle they were part of. Thus they were not connected to other parts of the city wall, and thus only had one entrance, unless connected to a smaller gatehouse to cut off invaders.

And it was like this, for every single tower, gatehouse, and wall, which cut off the castle into several different zones. None of the walls, towers, or gatehouses are connected to the other walls in the other zones. And there was also the fact that the inner zones of the castle were much higher up and thus made it even more difficult as the defenders could rain down arrows, stones, and other things upon their foes as they tried to invade the castle's deeper areas.

This was Project Whitestone.

It was a castle the focused entirely on making it as difficult to take over as possible. But Maleficus knew that those were the odds if your opponent was human, and not an intelligent being who had either great physical attributes, magic or flight.

Thus he had enchanted the stone to be able to absorb magic, whilst engraving various runic arrays to make the energy disperse into various magical functions to keep the magic from overloading the absorption ability of the castle.

But the ponies were persistent and the alicorn stallion felt his grin grow wider and wider as he watched the ponies open the gates to let in the rest of their forces. He watched them take over the castle bit by bit. Killing his forces as they fought back with non-lethal weapons. Blood and gore were painting the white stones of the castles like raspberry jam over a bowl of vanilla ice cream. "For some reason am I craving for cake... gods... I can't figure it out. But a cake would be nice."

A thick smell of blood and death was filling the air even as Maleficus calmly sat there, watching as the ponies breached past the second inner zones and began to overtake his siege engines.

His troops had recovered from the assault and were desperately trying to defend their positions to the best of their abilities. But with the pegasi assaulting the siege engines were his forces unable to properly defend against the invaders as they bit by bit took over the castle's walls. Until they reached their final obstacles, the gateway into the central keep. The very same building that was the only way to reach the massive cliff Maleficus was seated upon.

Why had the pegasi not assault the large cliff? Because of the invisible barrier of wind that would blow them away whenever they came into range. It was as if some invisible giant was blowing wind at them whenever they came within a certain distance of the clifftop.

"One must cover all the bases when it comes to defence. Above, below, behind, in front, sides, and within." Maleficus said calmly as he got up from his sun chair and stood up on his hind legs, and stretched a little before holding his forelegs behind his back, walking towards the pointed end of the cliff.

"True there are no perfect defences. But there is no such thing as perfection anyway, so why bother seeking perfection? Just improve from what you have learned, adapt, change, and rise above your past failure." He kept talking, even as he took one last glance at the floating screen, watching as his horses fought in all manners of defensive retreats against the ponies

"This is the pure basics of all life's hardships, not just warfare or combat. To overcome, to improve, and to adapt. Those were the three things that let my race become the alpha species of my world." Maleficus dismissed the screen, putting it aside with a telekinetic grip into a pouch on his belt. And he stood before the edge of the cliff's pointed edge. Down below he could see the horses and ponies fighting as the morning sun shone upon the red-painted white rock of his castle.

"But I know it can be told to other species as well. And I must say, that you have truly learned from your past failures. I am actually rather proud." He turned around and calmly walked towards the tree by the main entrance to the keep, the wind swaying his mane. As he reached the tree he felt his wind barrier give away to something, and he calmly looked down at the slowly growing sprout of the peach see he had laid down by the tree's roots yesterday.

"In the past, you would no doubt have rushed foolishly straight into a conflict. No foresight. No taking advantage of the terrain, not utilizing your special talent to blind my forces." Not pausing he just raised his head slowly and looked up at the green leaves of the branches with their, almost golden pink, peaches glistering in the morning light with droplets of dew trickling down their round shapes. Not even looking back as the sound of four horseshoe-protected hooves slammed into the ground behind him.

"You have improved quite a lot, Celestia."

(Scene Skip)

Princess Celestia glared at the back of Maleficus as he stood there before her. Even with his forces faltering as her own was taking this ancient castle from his twisted hold, he was still mocking her. She had received words that her forces had been unable to find a way into the keep of the castle.

She had decided to take care of it herself as none of her unicorns could figure out how to dispel the wind barrier or the enchantments of the castle's gates, which were keeping them out. So she had flown straight into the wind barrier and had to try at least two more times before she managed to get past it.

And what did she find? Her hated foe, standing calmly by a fruit tree, a strange folding chair resting by a line of flowers. A bowl half full of sliced fruit lying on a small stone table by the chair. *Hath he been loitering up here for these past two days!?*

Pointing her spear at her hated foe she snarled out. "Curb thy mocking tongue villain! We shalt not fall to thy mocking!"

Maleficus slowly turned around and gave her a raised eyebrow, almost as if he was honestly confused. Then he spoke. "I am seriously concerned about you Celestia, can't you take a compliment?"

She felt her cheeks grow red as embarrassment at the sheer thought of being complimented by this brutish fiend. "Silence! We hath told thee already! We shalt not be swayed by thy lies!"

Sighing Malefius rubbed his forehead while speaking up with closed eyes. "Okay, dropping the subject."

Celestia was not sure why but she felt even more mocked by that action. "Shut it thou foul thing! Surrender to Us so We may deliver justice for Our sister and citizens upon thy twisted self!"

"...You already know my answer to that stupid request." She faltered a bit. It felt strange, Maleficus was not acting entirely like himself. He was not as... vigorous. Not as energetic. In fact, he seemed almost... apathetic? No, not that far... Lazy? Maybe? Whatever it was, it made him seem almost... weary, tired even...

She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. What did it matter if he was acting weird!? She was here to punish his twisted self for his crimes not to examine his mental state of mind!

Assuming a stance with her spear she glared at him and screamed out at him once more. "Just stop it with the talking and fight Us thy fiendish monster!"

"Very well. But I am just going to make things easy or you Celestia and explain the rules of the siege. This battle has never been about me, or you. It's been about this castle." Maleficus pointed his left hoof towards the tree and suddenly swept it around in a circle, and two lines were cut into the pavement in front of the tree as if cut by an invisible blade.

"You and I are going to fight here. All you need to do to win is to get past me and touch the tree. All I have to do to win is to last the hour that it will take for the sand in this hourglass to run down. That's it." Celestia stared at him, trying to figure out just what the buck she had just heard.

"Art thee mocking me again?" She was so flabbergasted by the absurdity of the situation that she just had to ask. Not even noticing how her grammar shifted slightly at the end of her sentence.

[Start Battle Theme Music: RWBY - This Will Be the Day (Male Cover by Caleb Hyles) [feat. RichaadEb)]]

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc8Qz4zeL70

Maleficus shook his head and reached to behind his back, and pulled out a spiked handle, connected to a chain. He gave the handle a hard tug and revealed the chain to be about seven meters long, with its end connected to what could only be described as four axe heads melted together into a thick flail.

Iron plates floated up from behind the stallion, and placed themselves on his head, slowly covering his skull with a thick shell of iron, which then seemed to melt together into a, not solid, but interlinked, helmet. The stallion then spun the handle of his weapon, and the chain began to almost shift and slither like a metallic snake, the flail whip's head streaking through the air as the chain began to swirl and rotate around him. "No. I am not. Get past that line, touch that tree. And I will surrender. You will win. That is all you need to do."

Celestia's right eye twitched a bit, and her eyes began to spark, her horn began to glow, and then her face narrowed, her mane and tail burst into fire and her eyes began to glow like stars. And she roared out in utter fury before charging, one more, not noticing the slight slip in her grammar. "STOP SPEAKING YOUR FOUL LIES!"

The runic pear was thrust toward Maleficus' head, but before it could even reach five meters of him was it repelled by the thick chain of the flail whip. He kept silent, and just kept controlling his weapon, making the Princess roar out in frustration as she repeatedly tried to slash and stab at him. Every time the broad spearhead was swung or thrust at him the iron chain seemed to detect it and intercepted her attacks, deflecting them away from Maleficus.

Sparks flew through the air as the golden spear clashed against the chain. Celestia's eyes were narrowed beneath her golden helmet as she glared at her foe, ready for his snarky insults. But they did not come. Maleficus was awkwardly silent, she had never actually thought about it, but now she realized that he had always been trying to talk whenever they fought before. Now, he was just silent.

Celestia's eyes twinged green for a few seconds and the air in front of her ignited with a golden glow as she fired a blast of intense magical energy at Maleficus at point-blank range. But then lines of glowing blue light appeared all over the swirling chain, forming together into runes, and the blast was dispersed as the chain spun around like a tornado.

Her eyes widened at the sight of the chains dispersing her magical attack and then they narrowed as she spotted the runes. She recognized those runic arrays. And she was furious at the sight, those were the same runic arrays as the chains used for her Restricta siege engines. Her ponies had spent a lot of time and effort making them ,and here he was, utilizing them against her. "Foul thief! Thou hath stolen mine ponies' works to use against me! Those chains' runic enchantments art the same as mine Restrictas!"

The Princess of the Sun burst forward with a wordless war cry, intent on crashing through his deflecting chain. Maleficus just sighed, leaning back to avoid the spear aimed at his throat. Even as he leaned back ,he reached down with his free foreleg to keep his front body from falling over. He then raised his left hind leg and kicked Celestia in the front.

There was a loud resounding clang followed by a pained scream as Celestia found herself sent backwards, the chest plate of her armour dented with a deep hoof print. The enchanted plate had been buckled in so much that it was digging into her fur.

She landed with a tumble but quickly leaped up on her legs once more and glared at Maleficus, who was once more standing up, swirling his whip-like flail. Celestia focused her magic into her limbs and with another wordless cry, she made a forward leap, while releasing powerful bursts of air from her hind legs' hooves. She pushed past the swirling chain with the shaft of her spear and tackled Maleficus in the front.

Maleficus fell on his back with a loud clang, grunting a little as he smacked into the cobblestone pavement. Celestia stood over him, raising her spear with both of her forelegs above her head, and made a downward stabbing motion towards his neck.

The stallion stretched out his wings and pushed himself to the side, Celestia's spear struck the cobblestone pavement next to his head and pierced the spearhead halfway through the enchanted stone. Cracks spread out like cobwebs around the impact of the spearhead.

Snarling Celestia pressed down a hoof on his barrel her eyes started glowing like neon lights, her tail and mane ignited into golden flames. And her horn ignited with a golden aura, golden blades of light appearing above Maleficus. Said alicorn's own eyes started burning with a crimson aura while his mane, tail, and hoof pelts ignited into toxic green flames. As Celestia's magical swords flew down towards him, he flapped his wing and with a powerful gust of wind flipped himself two meters away from Celestia, who lost her balance when he managed to push himself free from her hoof.

Suddenly shifting he lashed out with a kick with his left hind leg and struck Celestia's leg that had been pressing into his body, the impact shattered the bones just above her hooves. She fell to the ground screaming, losing the grip on her spear s she clutched her leg.

Maleficus rolled over the pavement, and after two rolls he suddenly pushed all four of his legs down into the ground as he rolled onto his front. The force behind the pushing limbs flipped him five meters up into the air, where he spun around two times before landing with a loud clang on all four on the pavement.

Celestia glared at him and stood up, her leg healed from the damage, but before she could reach out and grab her spear was her breath pushed out of her lungs as the heavy flail head of Maleficus weapon suddenly lashed out at her from the ground and slammed into her breastplate with a loud crack. She went flying into the air,only to notice the chain of the flail was now warped around her midsection, and at the end of the chain, once more gripping the handle, stood Maleficus.

"Oh glue." Was all she could mutter as she realized what was about to happen. Then Maleficus twisted the whip flail and the chain turned, sending her slamming into a stone pillar, making her lose her breath once more. The impact was enough to fracture her armour and she spat out blood as bones broke from the impact.

She had no time to recover her breath as she found herself torn away from the pillar, spun around in the air by the chin before slammed into the ground with a loud metallic crack, shards of golden plate flying around. The Princess of the Sun tried to focus her magic but her focus was broken when once more she was dragged into the air by the chain and slammed into the raiding of the cliff.

Maleficus flailed her around like a ragdoll, slamming her into various parts of the garden of the cliff. It was like being dragged around by a fishing line by a sadistic fisher.

Finally, Celestia managed to focus her magical energies enough to enhance her own strength beyond the normal of her alicorn body. She grabbed hold of the stone pillar she had just been smashed into and reached out to grip the chain herself, her face covered in healing bruises while blood was leaking out from her mouth and several parts of her body. And then she screamed out a slightly strained wordless cry of rage, before tugging the chain towards her.

Maleficus was heavy however and only lost his grip on the flail whip rather than being pushed towards her, resulting in Celestia getting out of the chain holding her. Said Princess, her wounds still healing ,flew at him with a golden aura surging from her body with a scream of utter fury.

The stallion crossed both of his forelegs and crossed them in front of himself, Celestia's hoof slammed into his forelegs with a loud resounding clang. Whilst the armour and flesh of his forelegs were torn and rendered by the force were the bones undamaged. The force of the strike sent him scrapping back five meters, almost pushing him into the peach tree.

Maleficus lowered his forelegs and watched as Celestia, still burning with anger, flew towards him, gripped her spear, and screamed out at him whilst making a powerful thrust towards his face. "DIE FIEND!!!"

Then, there was the sound of gentle ringing, as the sand of the hourglass, ran out, and a small gentle bell rang from somewhere upon the cliff. And Maleficus reached out with his left foreleg, and caught the spear in mid-thrust, the force of the thrust making his burning mane shift and spark.

He reared back his other foreleg and brutally punched Celestia in the face. The strike buckling her helmet, deforming it from a shape of protection and into a torture garment. She flew backward, tumbling and rolling for a good dozen meters before rolling to a stop.

Dropping her spear to the ground he recalled his weapon and rolled up the chain, strapping it to his belt. And then he walked forward.

Celestia snarled and stood up from where she had landed and got into a fighting stance, ready to retaliate any move he would make towards her. He approached and calmly walked towards her, and as she made ready to counter his next assault.

He walked past her.

[End Battle Music]

Blinking slowly she tried to figure out what had just happened, then she turned around and snarled at him. "Where art you going coward!?"

"I have won. So there's no reason to remain here." The Stallion calmly stated as he walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked down at his fighting forces. They were struggling, but he could see that the ponies had taken over more than 90 percent of the castle's defences, the only true point left was the keep and the cliff where he stood.

"WHAT!? This fight is not over!" Celestia screamed out as she telekinetically retrieved her spear and got ready to charge, intend on keeping fighting.

But Maleficus just shook his head. "I stated the terms of this fight Celestia. You would have won had you touched the tree before the hourglass ran out of sand. But you did not succeed. And thus. You have lost. Sure you may have obtained a strategic victory over my forces. But you haven't claimed the central keep and thus cannot claim to have won this siege."

"Fool! Those art terms thy wouldst hath no uphold anyhoof!" She cried out, frustration and anger fueling her voice as she stomped on the ground. Unwilling to accept defeat by his terms.

"I would have. But I do not have to, now that you have lost." He calmly spoke while slowly he began to trace the air, a line of crimson light taking shape upon the empty air as if he was painting something with a solid red light. Or rather, solid mana.

"No! We shalt not accept this!" She cried out and made to charge at him, only for suddenly a swarm of wooden roots and branches to erupt from the ground beneath her and engulf her body. Celestia let out a screech of shock as her body was suddenly bound by wooden tendrils.

The roots ran deep and had great strength, and thus pulled the alicorn mare's body to the ground, forcing her limbs apart, growing over her like a sentient rope instructed by a master binder. Even growing over her horn, making her cringe as she felt her magic unable to breach the branches' hold even with magic. It was like they were absorbing it. Her burning mane and glowing eyes returning to normal as her power was drained.

"The Sacred Peace Tree of Whitestone only protects this place, this keep and its garden, from invaders or saboteurs, she does not care who rules the keep. As long as it is ruled and she and her kin are taken care of, she will protect it, and I am considered to be her ruler. As you did not manage to stake claim over her as the new ruler by beating me or my terms." Maleficus explained to her as he slowly pained the runic array into existence before him.

"Foul beast! Thou corrupt touch shalt not blighten these ancient ruins!" Celestia cried out from her bound state.

But Maleficus just shook his head. "I am leaving Celestia, this is your loss. Once I leave, you may lay claim to this place and its holy tree. But know that you have lost this Crusade, just like the last two. Nothing will-"

That's when he's interrupted, not by Celestia, not by the warring forces in the castle. Nor by the fickle ways of nature or chance. No, he was interrupted, by the sound, the sound of loud and echoing rumbling, of a horn being blown.

The Signal Horn of Canterlot was being blown. In a long and drawn out signal, not a short and repeated sound, but in a single, long, and drawn out signal. And by the paling look on Celestia's blood-stained face, she knew what that meant, just like he did.

Canterlot was being attacked, within its walls. Something had breached the city's defences and was assaulting its interior.

[Start Dramatic Music: Batman Begins Theme Song]

[A/N & Disclaimer: I actually intended to have a Soundtrack for the clip rather than the entire conversation, I just found it fitting, the dramatic build up is just amazing. So if anyone can find me the soundtrack for this scene would be wonderful. So for now, just ignore those conversations and dialogues.

A/N: This Video was supplied to me by one of my great readers Lord Rage. Thank you Lord Rage for providing me with the correct Theme Song. The old video link is removed. You may check out youtube for the other video. Batman Begins Clip 9 Back up. It is a good video.

And as always, please know that I own nothing of what I am using here, this is just me giving flavour to my story. I claim no ownership of this video or its content, please support the official release and the ones who contribute to the youtube viewers.]

https://youtu.be/K4unfJmIvw0

Stopping his tracing Maleficus looked eastwards and slowly he pulled out the Interface Screen and began to zoom in at the Capital, he could not use one of his black beacons, it would be too soon to reveal his connection to them. And that's when he saw it. A swarm of what looked like balloons floating over Canterlot, explosions, fire, and flying troops covering the city like a swarm of battle.

And then his chest began to feel cold and strained, as he felt fear and anxiety fill his soul. For within that city lived those most precious to him, and by the looks of things, they were in very big danger. And Celestia and her forces, were too far away to reach them in time.

He dismissed the screen with a rapid swipe and turned towards his runic array. And with both, his forelegs began to rapidly complete it, and as he did so he spoke to Celestia.'

"I am going to release you from your bonds soon Celestia, and then I and my forces are going to leave. To save your City." Celestia's eyes widened and she began to struggle even harder with her bonds. Not even caring if the roots and branches are digging into her wounds or tender spots, causing her some pleasant, if humiliating discomfort. But the plants would not give to her efforts.

Maleficus traced the final rune of his array and the floating structure of runes, lines, and curves began to glow and rotate. And then it began to spin, faster and faster. Then as the thing seemed to turn into a spinning circle of red light, Maleficus reared back his right foreleg, before punching into the center of the spinning disk.

There was a resounding clang, and the runic array, shattered, not into shards or fragments or fading sparkles. But into particles, dust. A cloud of red dust began to expand out over the castle, floating out over the fortress. And as it did, Maleficus raised his left hoof, and a soft crackle was heard, and the defensive barrier in front of the gates of the keep, disappeared.

"'What foul things doest thee intend to do to mine city!?" Celestia cried out as she raised her head to glare at Maleficus. Even as a soft, skittering sound was slowly echoing out from around the city.

Maleficus just turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow before shaking his head. "I intend to save it. For reasons I am sure you would understand if you would only stop this madness."

Celestia just remained silent glaring at him, trying to figure out what wicked plans he had in store for her subjects and capital. Would he utilize the opportunity of whatever was harming her city to invade it and take over? Would he destroy the last things she held dear? Would he remove the Elements of Harmony and release Discord? What was this wicked thing planning!?

Even as her mind built up more and more theories, would her eyes shimmer and twitch green once every five seconds, unnoticed even to Maleficus, as her helmet covered her eyes.

And that's when she heard it. The skittering sound was now rising in volume, echoing out from the city. And her mind was temporarily distracted as she tried to see what was making that sound. "What be that infernal noise?"

Maleficus just grinned and folded his forelegs behind his back and walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked out over the besieged fortress. As a crimson light began to cover its surface. "Backup."

(Scene Skip)

Captain Guts walked past the line of troops standing guard in front of the main gates of the citadel's central keep. The barrier holding them away from the keep had been removed and everypony was marching into the city as good as they could. Some marveling at the ancient statues and mosaics scattered across the entire thing. It was like the entire keep was one big memorial to ancient heroes and/or villains.

The strange dragon statues decorating the keeps' top walls were unsettling though, about fifty such statues scattered around in different positions. Only wings and legs with a tail and snake-like neck, no forelegs. Which was the weirdest look for a dragon Guts had ever seen. Still quite big and had some mean looking stingers on their tail tips.

He soon reached the top floor, where a group of fifty heavily armed Bronze soldiers was standing before a large set of white wooden doors. It made the earth pony wonder why they hadn't gone through the doorway yet. "What is keeping ye here?"

"We're pretty certain Princess Celestia is fighting Maleficus out there Captain. The doors are not willing to open, we're not sure how to handle the situation yet." One of the younger soldiers said as he made a show of pressing a dagger against the doorway. Only for the door to glow and the dagger of sacred bronze to melt like a wax candle, falling to the floor into a puddle of melted bronze. There were several such puddles on the floor of the doorway.

The soldiers turned to Guts and shrugged to him, unable to figure out how to get through.

"Buck. This is complicated. I will go out and see how the rest of the siege is going. Keep an eye on this place." Guts said before he marched back out. And that's when he heard it. A skittering sound, like a swarm of vermins and beetles making a crescendo.

"That sound rather ominous. No doubt trouble." He muttered as he walked out of the keep's gatehouse and blinked as he saw the entire citadel glowing a crimson light.

"This is unreal, Just what the buck is going on here!? This magic is giving me chills!" One unicorn captain in silver armour stated as he looked around nervously. Guts walked over to the battlements of the ramparts and looked down. The entire fortress was glowing red. The sound of skittering rodents and insects echoing out over it in a very freaky manner.

And that's when one of his troops standing watch on top of one of the towers standing by the fortress' inner wall, suddenly cried out to him. Their voice was amplified by a Gold Soldier unicorn enhancing it. "Captain! Something is happening with the Dark Ones' corpses!"

Swirling his head he looked down at the pile of corpses on the pavement at the base of the wall he was standing on. and he watched in horror as the corpses were twitching and squirming. Like worms were crawling beneath their fur and flesh and expanding.

He turned towards his fellow Captain and cried out to him. "Burn the corpses! Maleficus is resurrecting them!"

But it was too late.

One nearby corpse staggered up from its once prone position. Its cut off head came flying out of nowhere and attached itself to the stump of its neck, and the cut off or burnt pieces regenerated. The horse opened its mouth and reared back its head and let out a cry like a mixture of a horse and a rodent, revealing four pairs of long jagged fangs jutting out of its lower and upper front row of teeth.

The flesh on its side began to bulge out and there was the sound of ripping leather before in an explosion of blood and black ichor, erupted a pair of large leathery dragon-like wings out of the horse's back. It then flapped its wings and flew up into the air, howling out its unnatural cry as it did so.

Another corpse, this one split in two, simply regenerated into two new horses, the bones growing out of the halves, then covered by veins, muscles, organs, tendons, nerves, flesh, skin, and fur. They two cried out and flew up to join their newly resurrected brethren.

All over the battlements, the towers, the gates, the halls and the fields. Wherever the corpses laid, they began to twitch, heal and then mutate. Black leathery bat wings were taking to the air as once dead horses took to the heavens, crying out together. Within a minute was the sky above the city covered by a massive swarm of bat winged horses, flying in a spiraling manner above the city, before moving like a massive black tendril around the cliff and up towards the edge where Maleficus stood.

And that's when the crumbling of rock could be heard. And Guts looked to his left and stared in horror as one of the 'ornament dragons' on the side of the keep's walls, began to crack. Grey marble began to flake off as black thick scales and dark grey membrane and brown claws broke free. The dragons let out screeching roars before taking flight, flying off to join the swarm of bat winged horses, flying towards the cliff where Celestia and Maleficus were.

Guts could only stare and mutter to himself. "Well... shit."

(Scene Skip)

Celestia stared in horror at what she was seeing.

Bat winged, or dragon winged, horses and strange looking scorpion tailed dragons, were flying in the air before the edge of the cliff, crying out together like a swarm of horrors from an forgotten story of evil and darkness. The dragons as black as the night, burning eyes, claws like talons, rows of saw like teeth.

Corrupted horses built more like a combination of beast and pony. A twisted insult to nature, a mockery of what had once been magnificent beings. Now rendered into a perversion of all that was equine.

What manner of ancient evil had Maleficus brought to life? And what manner of evil rituals had he learned to twist the horses into such monsters?

And she muttered to herself as she stared at the monstrosities, contemplating her fearful thoughts of what was occuring. "What hath thou wrought upon this world?"

Maleficus just smiled and turned around, his hooves, standing by the edge of the cliff. And he spread his forelegs, as if to present a great masterpiece of art to the world. "These are but a byproduct of my work, of my research. They are a stepping stone to master things I could not do on my own. These are my Thestrals and Wyverns, and with them. I shall free Canterlot."

"Please... Do not hurt them... anymore." Celestia's mind was reeling, she was having flashbacks. The horrors of the past, the painful memories of the dead bodies, the burning corpse of her mentor. It was making her tear up and shiver, her anger overwhelmed by her sheer terror and sorrow of what would happen to her ponies once these monsters entered Canterlot.

Maleficus lowered his forelegs and gave her a sad smile. "I never intended to hurt anyone. Nor do I wish to either. I will do my best to keep your subjects safe Celestia, I will not bring harm to them."

And then he stepped back, and fell down off the cliff, spreading his large feathery wings to gently glide down onto the neck of a particularly large wyvern. And then, as one ,the massive swarm of the newly born thestrals and wyverns, flew away from the castle. Uncaring about the arrows, spells and stones being launched at them by the fearful ponies. Ignoring even the pegasi trying to attack, as they flew east like a black storm cloud of omens.

Towards Canterlot.

[End Dramatic Music]

Unknown to him, had Celestia not taking his words as reassurance. If anything, they had made her even more despairing. and as the roots let her go, as the soldiers were let into the garden as the Holy Tree stopped blocking the doorway, she cried out to her troops.

"Stop him! He's heading towards Canterlot! We hath to stop him!"

And as one, the armies of Equestria, felt a great chill of fear enter their hearts at those words.

A great panic spread. The soldiers scrambled to pack up and return to their home. Celestia left a force of soldiers, unattached to Canterlot, to care for the Whitestone Keep for now. But personally, she wanted to take flight and fly after her hated foe.

But she could not fly. It was like her wings just went limp whenever she was about to take flight, her mind, soul and heart had been rattled. She could not focus. She could not concentrate. She could not fly.

Celestia was ground bound by sheer terror alone, and would have to return on hoof. Even as she sent her air units of the Silver Army to fly for Canterlot, she prayed to the Gods.

Even as she and her forces ran like a massive stampede through the mountains, tunnels and forests in their path, she prayed.

She prayed for hope, that she would not be too late to stop him.

She prayed for any pony that could put a stop to whatever horrors Maleficus would unleash upon her home with his horde of monsters.

She prayed. And she ran. For home. For Canterlot. For Luna.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: Oh boy this one is a dosey. It took a while but I am finally done. Gods this was an effort. Bad economy is NOT helpful in any manner. Hopefully I will be able to get the next chapter done without such a delay. Again.

Pinkie: Yay! Happy chapters day and happy birthday!

Staadnauthursil: Thanks Pinkie, but my birthday was about a week ago so a bit late there.

Pinkie: Not my fault you won't let me bring a party to your home.

Staadnauthursil: Sorry but the last time you went to this dimension, you caused bit of a disaster.

Pinkie: I said I was sorry!

Staadnauthursil: Anyway. Thank you all for your patience and hopefully you will enjoy this new chapter. As always, I accept all reviews and comments. If possible can you support me on Patreon to give a bit of a boost in my less then stellar wallet situation. I would appreciate it a lot.

Patreon Link: https://www.patreon.com/TreasureHoard

Chapter Eighteen: The War of the Red Rains (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Eighteen: The War of the Red Rains (Pre-Beta)

From the Journal of Solid Pink, Royal Advisor of the Sun Court, Personal Aide of Princess Celestia.
The date was the Fourth Day of the Seventh Month, Summer, One Hundred Twenty Eight AD (After Discord).
Equestria and its neighboring nation were invaded by yet another force of intruders. But unlike the Rattenfänger or the Dragons of the Rock Fire Clan, were these invaders trained soldiers with both tactics, weapons and numbers. Their fleets of balloon driven air ships blotted the skies like massive flocks of overfeed birds.
Officially were there only Ten Fleets invading our lands. But the truth of the matter was much more severe, for there were a number of unaccounted for fleets of griffin air pirates, mercenaries, merchants and nobles who were willing to take part of the invasion.
Their numbers were never properly counted. Even among their own records after the war we could never properly account for every air ship and soldier. But at least one million griffins, ten thousand air ships and one thousand dragon mercenaries had been sent out by King Craver the Craven, the Seventh recorded ruler of the Kingdom of Gryphon. Of these were only half of the ships and griffins part of the Royal Air Navy of Gryphon, the rest were not part of the official roster.
The invasion of Equestria and Horadrim went underway in a process of two days from the early sunset of the Third Day of the Seventh Month to the late morning of the Fourth Day of the Seventh Month. Fleets of airships and griffins had been hiding in clouds at very high altitudes, rendering almost all conventional security of our nation almost pointless.
Only the Horses with their Sky Ships and Floating Islands were able to see the invaders before they descended out of the cloud layers to invade, being on the same altitude themselves. And thus managed to repel the attacks on their floating islands with their sky ships.
The ground bound towns, villages and cities of Equestria were not properly equipped to detect such an invasion force. And with the Griffins utilizing magical artifacts to block the signals of the Comm Orbs, we were unable to be informed by the horses after they repelled the invading fleets upon their homes.
Our cities were left without warning. And when the Griffins came. We bleed, all of Equestria bleed.
Canterlot itself was invaded and pillaged by the Griffins, their greedy talons seeking to take not only our resources and supplies, but our foals as well. The city was in a massive state of panic, but one brave pony managed to sound the signal horn. If he had not sounded the Horn, we would have been lost.
We prayed that the sound had reached Celestia, or even the Horses, hoped that aid would come in time.
And it did.
But the aid that came, was not the one we were expecting. And we did not realize what the future conflict between us and the griffins would bring forth.
Nor would we realize the return of a foe we had been foalishly considered gone and defeated long ago. And even when we did, had it nearly been too late to stop the madness that followed.

[Current Date: 4/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 27 Days]

The clouds were thick in the skies above Canterlot, from the early evening to the morning it was covered by white and gray fluffy cloud layers, covering the clear blue with a pale and murky hue. No pegasus could properly explain it, since the clouds did not seem to flow westwards, even though the wind was blowing in that direction.

But there were no real weather expert within the city with most of the pegasi having left for the Third Crusade as part of the Silver Army.

The ponies of Canterlot could only speculate that the still shifting weather patterns of the world were acting bonkers, and decided to put the issue on the shelf to focus on more serious matters. Like the lack of updates about the progress of the Third Crusade and the unknown reason the Comm Orbs were malfunctioning, thus causing the other issue.

For some reason had the orbs lost their link to the other orbs, only having their clear insides sparkling weakly once activated, not even making a sound or a glow to signal that they were functioning on their own. The Comm Orbs would have made a weak bell like sound should they not be able to connect to another orb, and yet they were silent. The mages of the academy were working non stop trying to figure out what had gone wrong with the orbs.

The civilians and town guards were blissfully unaware of the issues, spending the early morning hours preparing for the day. There was a uneasy feeling in the atmosphere however, it was like every pony in the city was feeling watched. Observed by eyes of ill intent. And it was making more then one pony look over their shoulders now and then.

Solid Pink was rubbing her head, trying to figure out what to do, absentmindedly blowing away a strand of slightly pale pink mane from her nose. It was a bad situation, she had been forced to send messengers to try and reach Princess Celestia and the closest settlements to try and figure out if the issue with the orbs were more wide spread then Canterlot. The signal horn did not have a signal for 'communication failure' something they would have to rectify. It was an obvious problem being unable to communicate with the Princess or the rest of Equestria for that matter.

"We have become too reliant on the Comm Orbs. There needs to be alternatives to communicating far distances." She muttered to herself as she held up the faulty orb in her office, giving it a cold stare, as if to force it to start working again.

And that's when she heard something from outside of the castle, she looked towards the painted glass window and blinked a bit in confusion. Before getting off her chair and walking over to the window and opening it. And she saw something she had never imagined in her entire life.

The insides of Canterlot, the city and the ponies within, were being attacked.

Large wood and metal ships with massive balloons of metal were floating over the city. And along with them were troops of winged hybrid creatures that looked like a combination of large cat and bird were dropping something down upon the city, causing explosions of fire to erupt.

And to make the situation even more dire were there ten dragons, dressed up in plated armour, flying over the city walls, breathing fire over the battlements, turrets, towers and siege engines.

Screams of panic, fear and pain was filling the city, even worse then the time the dragons invaded. Since this time they had not had the time to seek shelter or prepare their forces to repel the invaders.

Solid Pink stared for a few seconds, then she slammed the window shut and ran out of her office at rapid speed. And even as she ran down the halls was she mouthing words without making a sound, and dark figures hiding among the shadows began to move out to the city, intent on following their orders as they read the lips of the Royal Adviser.

The earth pony was greeted by guards and officers who were running down the halls a well. And she began to verbally give them orders as the group of ponies scrambled to defend their city. She was keeping her voice calm and clear, needlessly shouting would scramble the words because of the echoing in the castle walls. Panic would help no one. "Get the citizens into the Keep and the shelters. Have messengers sent to the closest settlements and after Princess Celestia to inform them of this invasion. Have the Mages of the Academy prepare the city's inner defences, we need to repel them before they do too much harm to our citizens and city."

She then lead the officers out of the main gate of the central keep and shouted out one final line, before she seemingly disappeared among the troops, as if melting into the troops like a shadow. "Ave Equestria!"

"Ave Equestria."

Sadly enough, unknown still to the citizens of Canterlot, were they not the only city being assaulted by the cat bird creatures and their strange balloon ships.

[Scene Skip]

A sharpened two meter long rod of wood flew up with a whistle through the wind and rain. After a few seconds is pure wooden structure began to glow as arcane runes lit up across its surface.

With a sound like groaning timber the sharp stick began to expand in size, growing larger and larger, until it had become the size of a log the same height and thickness as the trunk of a century old tree. The sharpened end of the massive log like projectile streaked through the falling raindrops, as if piercing through the essence of rain itself.

And then its momentum was momentarily stopped, as it struck a metal bound wooden surface high up in the skies. But with its momentum and weight it pierced through it in a near instance, wooden shards and splinters erupted within the griffin air ship as the explosive giant bolt of a Mark III Equestrian Heavy Ballistas, of Fillydelphia make, pierced through the lower hull.

It pushed through the lower decks and its tip pierced out of the upper deck before its momentum was halted. And that's when the glowing runes covering its surface, ignited like a collection of flares. And with a loud resounding crack of breaking wood, followed by an ear shattering explosion, the entire log ruptured as if blown up from the inside.

Screams of pain and agony filled the air for a few seconds as wooden shrapnel and concussive force blew apart most of the griffins acting as the ship's crew. But some of the shrapnel struck the massive metal covered balloon above the ship, and with so many javelin sized wooden shards flying up, had a few managed to find weak points in the plating and pierced through just enough to poke holes into the balloon within.

Releasing the volatile gas within. And as it was released, was its blue wisps able to reach the burning sparks of the flames burning on the surface of the tattered ship, a remnant from the exploding bolt. And ignited into blue flames. A powerful rush of air, light and heat filled the skies as the air ship erupted, tearing itself apart into small burning fragments.

Fragments that burnt out into sparkling blue specks of dust before they could even reach the ground, bellow. Had the situation not been as it was, it bight have even been considered to be a beautiful sight. Alas, it was as it was.

Bloody and chaotic.

Airships of the Kingdom of Gryphon were streaking over the skies, firing lances of lightning at a much smaller fleet of Sky Ships of the Horadrim Kingdom. This was the trade fleet known as Hermes Fleet, the less militaristic of all of the Twelve Sky Fleets of the horses, they were the smallest of all the fleets and the lest armed.

The Hermes Fleet's vessels numbered only to a little above thirty large scale trading ships, lightly equipped for combat and made more for speed and cargo capacity. But even with their lack of armaments were they making valiant efforts to disrupt the tides of griffins and air ships from their current goal.

Captain Hermes, of which the fleet was named, was a tall auburn coloured horse with a brown mane and tail. His eyes were covered by a white blindfold of thick cloth, decorated with the symbol of a lidless eye upon the center. He was dressed in a set of robes with a set of chainmail, greaves, bracers and pauldrons to offer more protection. In his left hoof was a long iron bound staff held, engraved with runes and decorated with small wings of iron sticking out of the top, with two snakes intertwined around the top of the staff.

Even with his blindfold on the large horse pointed with his staff at one of the nearby ships. "Prepare to launch oil filled canisters at an intercepting angle ten meters to the left of the approaching enemy! They will try to turn towards us to hit us with their lightning cannon! Have the archers prepare fire arrows and tell them to ignite the oil on the ship ten seconds after the canisters have struck the hull!"

The crew moved without questioning the orders. They knew of the power of their Captain, as an Oracle he was gifted with a sight beyond sight by the slowly recovering Gods of the world, a gift he received by offering his mortal sight for it. This divine sight let him view past events and possible future events, limited to his location, and a time frame of 24 hours into the future and 24 years into the past. Further then that and he started having seizures.

But being an Oracle of the Spartan Faith was not just a cheap way to gain temporal vision. No, he was a bit more then a simple soothsayer and fortune teller.

Even as the canisters with oil were launched the blind Spartan priest moved over to the railing of the large Carrack sky ship. He looked at an empty space directly next to his ship, and he pointed his staff towards it. And he began to speak out a rhyming chant, as his staff began to glow with a bluish light. A light that was growing more bright as the chanting progressed.

"Oh Hear My Words Great Avian! Tormentor of the Chained Titan! I Call Upon Your Might with the Forgotten Craft! And Thus Let My Foes Be Yours To Tear Apart!"

There was a crackling of discharging energy as a blue lance like beam of light was fired out of Hermes' staff. It flew through the air, passing by several ships and griffins, before it reached a certain point and erupted into a runic array of five circles intertwined, shaping a curved pentagram between them.

“Come forth! Aethon!”

The intertwined pentagram began to rotate, going faster and faster, and as its began to rotate so fast that its began to appear like a blur. A burst of wind emerged from the spinning disk of blue light and the light grew in size, now appearing as if a singular mass of light being molded by invisible hooves.

As the shape became larger, more detailed and less bright, it was twice the size of the griffin air ships, which were almost twice the size of the trade carracks that were the Sky Ships o the Hermes Fleet.

It was an eagle, a massive eagle, its wings spreading out far and wide, making it appear even larger. As the light faded it opened its massive beak, and let out a loud screech that made the unprepared griffins grip their heads as the screech of the massive creature seemingly began to rip into their ear drums.

With a massive flap of its wings the eagle slammed five air ships away as the powerful winds from the movement was enough to send them swirling through the air. The Sky Ships swayed in the wind, their sails rippling, but nothing except for a bad tear in two of the sails ever occurred.

The eagle looked around where it was and finally looked towards its summoner, who bowed his head in greeting to his summon and spoke out to the massive eagle. “Great and powerful and mighty Aethon. I am Hermes of the Horadrim, an Oracle of the Spartans. I ask for your aid in defending my fleet, the city bellow us and the ponies within, from the invaders.”

Aethon let out another loud screech, before suddenly flying upwards, the movement of its massive bulk tossing more air ships and griffins through the air like toys. It flew upwards, then suddenly spread its wings. It turned with the wind until it had turned 180 degrees. It flapped its wings, holding itself in place, while looking towards a group of air ships.

The massive avian spread out its wings once more, this time the feathers of the wings glowed with an almost blinding light. Which ended abruptly as Aethon flapped its wings, and as it did, it dove down with a sudden burst of speed, straight towards the group of air ships he had been looking upon.

The feline bird hybrids had barely time to scream out in horror as two massive claws grabbed hold of two of their ships by their metal plated blimps, and threw them like rag dolls into two other air ships, causing them to rupture in blue fire and crash onto the fields outside of the city.

As the massive eagle aided its summoner turned Hermes towards his fellows and pointed his staff towards another location. “Throw out canisters of tar in that direction at a fifty degree angle at full power within the next twenty seconds!”

There was still a war to fight, and he could not be careless. He had already lost five ships to the griffins' numbers. He could only hope that the citizens of Fillydelphia and the horses within were able to handle the griffins already down there.

Down bellow stood the city of Fillydelphia, parts of the city was burning with blue fire from crashed air ships. Dozens of houses and towers had been badly burnt or destroyed entirely by the blue flames from the wrecked ships.s And yet it was not as bad as what was occurring outside of the city.

Fields and trees outside of the city were burning in large parts as several dozens of wrecked ships had crashed outside of its walls. Even out by the coastline had several ships crashed, the blue fires burning even while beneath the waves, making parts of the coast glow with bluish green light.

Half of Fillydelphia was built on a high cliff, reaching at least thirty meters over the sea. And the rest were built beneath the base of the cliff, stretching out to the shoreline, a large hoof made harbour splitting the lower half of the city in two. There were two large staircases built into the cliff itself, leading from the upper city to the lower city. This difference in height has essentially made the city extremely separated in not only structural but social as well. Some ponies had never gone to the other half of the city before.

Except for two times now. Once, at the Draconic Incursion, when the ponies fled together into the castle of the city, Filly's Fort. And now, during the invasion of the griffins, had the citizens fled into the castle to hide. No social stature mattered in such times, and those who argued, were often isolated. Something no pony wished to experience.

Had it not been for the Hermes' Fleet approaching to engage in trade would the city have been unaware of the invasion. And thus they had been able to seek shelter and prepare their forces as the Hermes' Fleet tried to keep the bird cats away from Fillydelphia.

And the forces of Fillydelphia were not willing to let the griffins act as they wanted. And the sky had been filled with projectiles from siege engines and falling ships, mostly on fire, for almost the entire day.

Filly's Fort was standing tall upon the cliff where it had been built. It was a large box shaped castle with two sets of large walls around it and tall towers offering protection to the citizens of the city whilst its forces inside, and outside, kept the invaders at bay with their siege engines, pegasus troops and unicorn magic.

The griffins had thought the city easy prey, but that notion had been destroyed, along with most of their fleets. Among the first causalities of the ponies' siege engines had been the flagship, taking out the Admiral along with his entire staff of command. Now the invaders were just desperately trying to reach the city. Uncoordinated and reckless.

By the end of the day. Would the ponies and horses be the victors of this battle.

[Scene Skip]

A bolt of lightning streaks down from the sky at a diagonal angle, its trajectory carries it towards a large stone structure, only for it to miss and fly past the structure before hitting a patch of woodland that erupted into fire as the orb exploded.

The structure was a castle, raised up on a hill in the middle of the forest known as the Woods of Blood. Built by the Order of the Golden Cross at the suggestion of Commander Rock Steady after the Draconic Incursion. He had gotten the idea when his wife had explained to him that the area was a hot spot not just for bandits but fanatical zealots and cultists of all manners of bad things.

It had two walls, one at the base of the hill and one at the flattened top of the hill. with a single large box shaped keep in the center. Each wall had four towers and one gatehouse, each located on opposite sides as to make it more difficult to invade the castle.

Its name was Castle Cure, and it was meant to be the place where the bloody wound that was the Woods of Blood would be healed. With the roads leading west and east through the forest acting as circulation for not only traders but soldiers a well.

But all of this was pretty pointless when a horde of flying griffins were attacking them from above while ten air ships were trying to hit the castle's towers with their cannons.

A griffin charged at a pegasus dressed in plate bronze armour. The pegasus lashed out with a rope she grabbed from the ground, the heavy rope warped around the surprised griffins' forelegs. She pulled the rope and swung the poleaxe's hammer head into the griffin's throat crushing windpipe. Tugging the whip once more the knight sent the corpse tumbling off the wall.

The knight lifted her visor, revealing the face of a pink pelted mare with a pale yellow mane by the name of Cute Justice, and looked at her troops as they fought against the griffins. She was one of the youngest Master ranked Knights in the Order, her cutie mark was a golden sword with three blue birds, two sitting on either side of its cross guard and one on the pommel. "Don't let them reach the towers or the keep! We cannot let them hurt the civilians!"

She suddenly had to jump back when several crossbow bolts came flying from above. Cute Justice flipped down her visor and glared up at the griffins soaring over the walls, shooting bolts at her and her troops. She spread her wings and with a jump took flight. With a wordless cry she soared upwards and hefted her poleaxe, lightning arcing from her wings, through her hooves and into her weapon. "Haaaaaaaaa!"

The pegasus swung her weapon and struck one of the griffins in the side, there was a bright flash and the metallic taste of ozone in the air as the electricity loaded into her weapon erupted. Over twenty griffins fell, their brains too shaken from the explosion of light and sound to properly maintain flight while others had to stumble and shift to retain their altitude and not fall as well.

Cute Justice smirked at them, only to stumble when something struck her helmet from behind. There was a loud clang and she barely managed to swing back her weapon, splitting open the stomach of the griffin that had just struck her helmet with the pommel of his great sword, before she started falling.

Her vision was blurry as she was falling and she had a hard time regaining her flight ability. She was certain she would impact the battlements of the inner castle wall. But then a large pair of forelegs reached out and caught her. She felt herself rolling across stone while held by a large body. As her head stopped hurting and her vision straightened itself, she heard a rough voice speak out from beneath her. "Phew. That was a close one. Are you okay there?"

"I-I think so... thank you... who areeeeep..." Cute Justice trailed of into a near non-existing meeping sound as she saw just who she was lying on top of. It was a horse, a stallion to be precise. One she had seen earlier that day when he arrived to her castle with his trade caravan.

He was a tall beige coloured horse with brown mane. Wearing the armour and equipment of a Spartan warrior bearing a bronze armour with a leather battle skirt and a set of greaves and bracers. Upon his back was a curved bow and upon his forelegs was he wielding a thick almost round shield shaped with a half circle cut out on the left and right side of the wooden shield, almost making it look like a double bladed axehead. his other hoof was empty, as he had to sheath his weapon, a rather long, one meter, leaf shaped gladius, before attempting to catch her.

(A/N: It is essentially the Myrmidon shield used by Achilles and his soldiers in the movie Troy.)His name was Spathatos, known as Sword Bearer by his pony name, a Spartan horse from Horadrim who was acting as a travelling caravan merchant along the roads of the east coast along with several ponies and horses. And Cute Justice had not been on the best terms with him when they first meet.

Calling him a gelded coward for fleeing for her castle from bandits rather not standing his ground and fight the bandits when he outnumbered them three to one. They had not been on the best of terms. So she was rather surprised when the grizzled merchant actually saved her from that fall.

"I know I am good looking and all but could you please get off me Cutie? We need to get back to the fight." His words broke her stupor and her pink cheeks grew red with fluster and embarrassment before her blue eyes glared at him and she slapped him on the cheek, only to strike his helmet. She stomped off his body and trotted away with her nose in the air, unwilling to give the brute the satisfaction of seeing her flustered face.
'
"Hehe ouch... worth it." Sparthatos muttered as he got up on his legs again and rubbed his head where the mare had struck him. He unsheathed his sword and spun around, slicing the throat of a diving griffin that sought to attack him from above.

Ignoring the blood spraying over the stonework he began to run across the battlement. Even as one of the pegasus knights fell, crossbow bolts filing their entire body, an explosion filled the air as one of the air ships was finally destroyed. Partly because of the brave pegasus' self sacrifice when they utilized weather magic to launch a lightning bolt at one of the ships' cannons.

"Once more back into the fray." He muttered before rushing over to a griffin trying to stab a downed horse in the head, with a single thrust of his gladius into the creature's neck and a brutal kick to the side he removed the threat to his fellow Spartan.

His fellow horse nodded and stood up, gripping his fallen spear that had been dropped next to him and rushed over to a group of pony archers, raising his shield above them to give them cover from a shower of crossbow bolts. Sparthatos ran with agile movements across the battlements and soon reached the entrance to one of the towers and quickly got inside and began to scale the spiraling staircase.

He heard thunder and lightning roar and flare once more as more shoots from the griffins' air ships came screaming down towards the castle once more. The entire structure shook and shivered as some of the shoots struck it, making it shiver and shake from the vibrations. Sparthatos could hear screams of pain, fear and despair fill the air and he knew that some of the soldiers had died or been heavily injured by the assault just now.

Gritting his teeth he quickly scaled the stairs and soon reached the open hatch reaching to the rooftop and as he emerged he saw the three siege engines on the tower being repaired as some of their parts had been damaged by the strikes from the air ships. He saw ponies tie long thick rope as bow strings for the heavy ballistae, pulling it into place with their teeth and physically dragging the heavy metal bound wooden bow frame back into position as a team so they could put the other hoop of the heavy bow string on the other end.

The other two siege engines were far worse off then the heavy ballistae. What the ponies called the Energy Rod, which the horses liked to call the Magic Cannon, had several of its smaller gemstones destroyed and it would take a few minutes to have them replaced with spares. Not to mention they needed to recharge the larger main orb before firing again.

And then there was the large manticore ballistae, its entire frame was burnt and cracked and the ponies had essentially given up on saving it and were focusing on the other two siege engines. And Sparthatos agreed, no way they could restore that siege engine in time to properly aid in the defences.

As the ponies bent back the wooden frame and put the hop of the bow string on the other end they cheered as the siege engine was ready to be loaded. Sparthatos walked over and grabbed one of the ballistae bolts and helped the engineers load the massive crossbow.

He looked up at the now eight remaining air ships and got curious, he pulled out a spyglass from his belt and unfolded it, and looked up towards the air ships. Up on the center ship of the attack force he could see several griffins in fancy clothes moving around, talking to one another while sending out messengers to the rest of the fleet. And he could see messengers return back and forth.

How could he tell they were messengers? They were constantly handing over or receiving rolled up parchments. He could also see the one he assumed was the leader of the attack force, mostly because he was wearing an extra thick plate mail with a fancy looking symbol on the breastplate. *Well, well, looks like I just found the mother load.*

Sparthatos grinned like a loon as he removed the spyglass and looked up at the ships. And almost let out a yelp when a hood tapped him on the back. He swirled around to see the helmeted head of Cute Justice, and he could practically feel her satisfaction of startling him. "What are you doing up here merchant? You should not bother the engineers."

Snorting the spartan gave her a flat stare before he handed her the spyglass and pointed towards the central ship of the attack force in the sky. And spoke to her as she looked up at it. "That ship in the center at the back of their formation is the command ship of this attack force. I can see messengers and officers, along with who I assume is in control of this attack force. If we can take out that ship..."

As he trailed off the young mare muttered out the next line of the sentence. "We will have weakened their coordination and morale. We might even break them if we are lucky."

"That's right, but we will have to take out the rest of their forces' air ships at the same time. When hunting hydras you do not cut off one head at a time. That will just give them time regrow their heads twice as powerful. No. You cauterize the wounds, preventing the regeneration. Or you attack with oil and fire to set the entire thing ablaze." He then pulled out a flask and took a deep drink from it, letting out a soft burp after swallowing. The knight made a grunt of discuss, then looked down as the horse offered her the flask.

"What is this?" The pegasus asked as she grasped the flask and sniffed the content, it smelt like fermented fruit. It smelt of both sweet and bitter grapes, with a hint of... pear and raspberries?

"Wine. Made from fermented grapes, its one of the more expensive ones from the vineyards of Póli ton Álogo. Kind of a tradition, to have a strong drink before, during or after a fight." He commented as he looked back at the air ships, and as he looked back he saw the mare, visor up, chugging down the content of the flask like a champ. Staring in complete shock for a few seconds he watched as she emptied the bottle of 100 bits worth of fine Spartan Wine.

"Oh my... that... that was delicious." She mumbled out as she emptied the bottle, and stared at it. Her eyes shining with a childish joy and delight, while her lower lip was trembling. As if in shock that it had tasted so good, or that she wanted more. Her entire body looked like it was shining.

"I am glad that you liked it... but that was strong stuff... you might want to... oooh dear." The horse's words trailed of in a voice of concern as he witnessed something... he had not been expecting. Cute Justice's once fierce and determined posture face and behaviour... had disappeared. Well to be more precise, it looked as if her shining joy had been hit by the 'bat of guilt' and had broken her down into a shy fearful mess, all in the span of a few moments. Her body posture was hunkering down and she was lowering her head. She was also mumbling out in a terrified voice that was so low he could barely hear it.

Heck he could see one of her yellow locks of mane cover her eyes like some kind of... what was that word from his creator's memories? ...Anime girl right. Some kind of aggressive yet shy anime girl.

"I am sorry... I did not mean to drink all of it... it was just so good... please don't be mad at me..." The sight would have been utterly adorable had the situation not been so dire.

He sighed, rubbed his head, before reaching out and gently warped his forelegs around the mare. Who let out an utterly adorable squeak when he hugged her. The knight practically melted into his neck, her drunken body limp like noodles. "It's okay Cutie. It's only wine, no need to feel bad. How about you go and lay down and I will keep you and your castle safe."

The mare quietly mumbled as she relaxed against the horse's warm body, her muzzle pressed into the side of his neck and she slowly began to fall asleep in the hug. Sparthatos was forcing himself from not blushing as the situation was very awkward, not to mention very dangerous as it was in the middle of a gods damned battle."Okay... mmm you smell nice.... zzzzz..."

"She is far too cute like this. It's practically a lethal weapon." The horse said as he gently lifted the sleeping knight on top of his back and carried her down the staircase to the room at the wall level of the tower. Soldiers and knights alike moved aside as he carried their sleeping commander down to safety. He put her by the central pillar of the tower, a masterfully made piece of masonry that stabilized the entire structure, he tuckered her down on a pile of hay and covered with a blanket before placing his shield over her body, as to keep her as safe as possible.

He then walked back up to the top of the tower, only to duck as a griffin warrior flew down from above and tried to decapitate him and four of the engineers. He quickly pulled out his gladius and stabbed the bird in the gut and then hefted up its corpse like an improvised shield and blocked the shower of crossbow bolts from above. As the bolts stopped pestering him he tossed aside the corpse and quickly galloped over to the heavy ballistae, which was being reloaded once again after having shoot at the air ships.

"Target the central ship at the rear of their formation! Their commanding officers are located on it, you can tell by the messengers flying back and forth from that ship along with the amount of decorated warriors located on their deck!" The ponies looked at him for a moment, but the spotter of them was quick to confirm his words and the engineers got to work.

They cranked the siege engine, shifted and aligned. While Sparthatos was given a new shield by one of his horse guards who had come, along with nine more of his guards, running from the wagons in the courtyard. They were all hoplites, base soldiers wielding spears, gladius and shield. And they were quick to form protective shields from the engineers as they repaired the siege engines.

He himself was a Myrmidon, an all around fighter with melee and ranged weapons. Though not as focused as the Gladiators with their brutal strength and versatile but brutal combat gear. Nor was he blessed with magic like the Oracles. Neither was he as swift, silent or precise as the Hetairoi. And no one could compare to the Semideus, the Demigods, of which their creator's body double Achilles was one, and none had been born, or made, yet.

But was content with his strength, he was versatile, adaptable and he was skilled with all manners of melee and ranged weapons. Including the bow. Which he was about to put to use.

Sparthatos pulled out his curved short bow and began to shoot at any griffin charging the tower or shooting with crossbows at them. Luckily had the griffins not learned that they could just shoot from higher up and were keeping to close space. He was not certain why they were not just dropping iron balls or other such dangerous things. Perhaps it was a cultural matter, as these griffins seemed to have some manner of cultural similarity to the Scotts and Irish of the British Isles.

But they felt more well dressed barbarians with how they seemed to lust for combat. Not to mention he had seen some of them tearing out flesh from dead ponies. Some even grabbed dead, even alive, foals and carried them off, for some unspeakable reason. It felt too much like the dragons of the Draconic Incursion. Far too much.

His trail of thought was broken when there was a loud twang as the heavy ballistae fired its payload. The enchanted projectile flew through the air, piercing through several griffins along the way, their bodies even when skewered on its length were not slowing it down. And then it expanded, tearing off the bodies on its shape, and when it reached the size of a large red wood tree, it struck the bow of the large airship. And detonated.

There was a rain of wooden shrapnel and blood as the massive bolt hit its target. And then a loud explosion followed, as the ship it struck detonated into blue fire and flames. And then there was another, and another, and another... and another. A total of four more of the griffins' ships had explode. And, not because of the first ship exploding. Instead it was the shrapnel of the massive bolt having struck out at the crews of the ships. This had caused some of the ships to lose control, and slam into each other.

And thus their volatile balloons slammed into each other with loud clangs as their metal covered gas contained broke, and exploded.

As the ponies cheered at the sight of the exploding air ships Sparthatos pulled back another arrow and shoot a griffin charging with a mad screech. Which ended when his arrow pierced its skull. He glanced up, even as he pulled back another arrow, and smirked a little, as he saw the three remaining ships lose all coordination, one of them even turning around to flee outright, only to be shoot down by the other ships.

"Looks like things are going well." He muttered as he released another arrow, shooting down another griffin. Carefully looking at the two remaining ships to see how they were acting.

*They have lost coordination. Perfect. Now we just need to keep killing the troops and all wi-* His trail of thoughts ended when he was struck in the head with something heavy, and blacked out.

[Scene Skip]

A black swarm of bat winged horses and massive twisted wyverns were streaking over the western woodlands of Equestria. On top of the largest wyvern stood a certain alicorn. He was currently examining the satellite view he had over Canterlot, were he could see at least a hundred air ships flying over the city, with fires, blue and red burning everywhere. And his heart twitched with cold unease and fear.

Dismissing the Interface Screen he reached out a pouch and pulled out one of his Black Beacons, and forged a connection with the one being held by one of his more important creations.

The beacon shifted and twisted, a black smog swirling around it whilst white light began to swirl around within its structure. And as the light became a single sphere Maleficus spoke towards the beacon. "Cursed Blessing! Are you there!? Can you hear me!?"

There was a few seconds but soon the white sphere shifted and took on the shape of Cursed Blessing's head, a he picked up the beacon on the other end of the connection. The old looking horse looked pale and had bags beneath his eyes. "Ah! Yes! Creator! Thank the gods you finally contacted us! We are currently experiencing a vast disaster!"

"I know. Someone is invading Equestria again, I heard the Horn of Canterlot, signalling that enemy forces had breached the city walls." He said, his jaws clenching in anger at the thought of yet another danger to not just the city but the special ponies within it.

The elderly horse noted his creator's temper and decided to inform him of what they knew thus far. "Aye sir. We have managed to get information. The invaders are striking all over the nation and have attacked nearly all of our Floating Islands, but those fleets have all been repelled or destroyed by now. They are griffins. Keep calling themselves the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of Gryphon, ruled by some ruler named King Craver. They are apparently located on the north western region of the eastern continent where the Dragon Lands are located. And from what we have gathered are they here to raid Equestria of its valuable resources, although from what some of our prisoners have said, has their King some rather sick tastes."

"What do you mean? Is it anything like how Talos was, and his clan used to be?" The alicorn did not like the option that there was a third army of flesh eating creatures raiding this nation again. It was seriously sickening him to even think of it as a regular thing.

"Well.. yes sir. But a bit sicker then that. Whilst Talos enjoyed eating ponies indiscriminately, is this griffin apparently a bit more sick in the head. Apparently has King Craver developed a liking to eating young animals since a very young age, he apparently butchered a kitten given to him as a child and had it roasted and served with lemon." The disturbing description, along with the disgust in Cursed Blessing's voice made it difficult for Maleficus to not empty his gut right then and there.

But it was not over yet.

"This 'King' has a mindset that the meat is more tender and tasty, if comes from a young creature, the younger the better. Thus he has a very sick fascination for eggs. Griffin eggs specifically. He has an harem of griffin hens he uses to... 'cultivate' eggs for... his 'palate' and 'cuisine'. But not only that, he demands, 'tribute samples' from most house holds in his kingdom, even the nobles, if he don't like them. And he apparently has ordered his troops to... gather samples from Equestria's... 'animal stocks' to 'develop his palate'" Maleficus could practically feel his guts twitch and cramp at what he had just been told. And he had to close his eyes and take some calming breaths before he talked again.

"So not only a murdering opportunist looking for some easy money. But he is also a cannibal who delights in eating not just the unborn, and born, children of griffins and ponies alike. He, also, eats, his, own, fucking, unborn, children?" Maleficus grit his teeth so hard that blood came out of his gums, his horn was twitching and bending back and forth restlessly, almost like an agitated centipede.

"Yes creator. That's sadly what our prisoners have confirmed. Apparently he has made it a standing order that any of his soldiers who brings in young targets for his 'cuisine' will be spared from bringing him 'tribute'. So it's little wonder most of these griffins are fighting like madmen. Most of them are probably desperate parents, siblings or even grand parents trying to save their future young from this sick griffin's feasts." There was an eerie silence, even as the swarm of thestrals and wyverns flew through the winds, as Maelficus felt sick to his core. His horn was sparking with crimson energy while his eyes began to glow slightly.

"Fucking hell this is worse then Talos, hell this is worse then the Rattenfänger fucks. Okay... what are their weaknesses? how do they fight? Anything I should take particular note of?" He held back his voice and did not just scream out at the elderly horse to tell everything about his foes. It would not do to lose his temper right now, he was still too far away from Canterlot for it to be of any use.

Cursed Blessing responded after a few moments, it was obvious that he was reading of a set of written reports. As he had to pause no and then to make sure he was not making any kind of mistake." Each of the Griffins' fleets have a troop of ten dragons, mercenaries from the looks of it. They are relatively easy to target and die rather quickly from barrages of siege weapons or projectiles. They have some manner of metal that is as strong as iron but a bit more sturdy, we cannot figure out what it is however, to few sample and not enough time has passed for us to make any tests. Most of their unit are equipped with claymores, crossbows, axes, shields and chain mail, officers have plate."

Maleficus closed his eyes and tried his best to see through the black beacon in Cursed Blessing's possession, looking down upon the report in the horse's hooves. Where he could see a few crude drawings of the air ships and the troops of the griffins. Not very detailed but it was just the initial reports of a sudden escalating conflict that had been going on for a few hours.

He was impressed they had obtained anything so quickly. "They also have some kind of air ship, it makes up their entire fleet and has no differences in size or style. Shaped like some kind of frigate with an eagle head galleon figure with a lightning cannon sticking out from the gullet. These ships are kept in the air with metal plated balloons filled with some kind of volatile blue gas that seems to be produced by some kind of lightning emitting stone held inside a reinforced glass dome on the top of the ship. This gas, when ignited, explodes into liquid blue fires, that I think is some manner of plasma as it burns like acid and doesn't stop burning even when submerged under water."

Maleficus could only imagine the disaster of the plasma touching the wooden rooftops and buildings of the city. It would be a disaster. "It take around two hours for the plasma to stop burning but there are no traces except for burnt or melted remains. These flames spread very quickly if touching wood, grass or other flammable objects, and is impossible to handle. It doesn't even react to water and keeps burning even when submerged in it. At least from what we know thus far."

"So it is a lot like the Everfree Fire that comes from the Everfree forest's wood or my own body? Only blue and not as corrosive since you did not mention it can corrode metal. And it doesn't explode when connected with water. Well that's good at least." Maleficus stated as he began to think of a plan on how to handle the air ships.

"Indeed Creator the blue flames are like a less volatile version of the Everfree Fire. We do not know its properties or how it is connected to the lightning emitting stone. But I have guessed that the reason for why the stone is kept inside of the glass dome is because it probably burns when coming in contact with oxygen, whilst the gas itself only erupts when ignited. They also seem to be charging their lightning cannons with this gas, or possibly with the stone itself through magnetic metals or something similar?" At those words Maleficus tapped his chin, thought for a moment.

The alicorn thought and tried to remember something he had learned a long time ago. His ears then twitched as he heard the wyvern he was standing on let out a rumbling growl, and it hit him. Opening his eyes he looked up at the sky for a few moments. And then he got a very evil grin on his lips, before raising the beacon to his face and spoke to it. "Say Cursed Blessing. What do you think would happen if... we were to... arrange some refreshing weather for our guests? Some 'shockingly refreshing' weather?"

There was a momentary pause after his words had been transmitted through the beacon before he heard Cursed Blessing's voice respond. "I see where you are going with his creator. And I whole hardheartedly agree. It would make a most excellent gift for these newcomers."

Laughing Maleficus spoke into the beacon, whilst magical energies began to gather around him as he pulled out his Interface Screen and began to quickly work on it during the conversation. "Then let's not disappoint our guests. You and the ponies can handle the weather department. I will handle the 'clean up' service."

With a sweep of his foreleg he dismissed the screen and released the magical energy he had gathered at the same time. The smirk on his lips grew as he watched how upon the top of the wyverns within the swarm, brilliant beams of lights streaked down from the heavens and upon the wyverns. Black metallic mass began to grow and mold into shape on top of the wyverns as the Interface reacted to the commands and instructions he had given it. Utilizing his magical energy and the iron deposit on the moon to create the throne like saddles for the wyverns.

Though as he stood there, watching as the wyverns were being equipped with saddles, the beacon rang out as his creation's voice spoke out once more. "You know you don't sound as cool as you think you do when trying to sound vague and mysterious, right Creator? Plus you don't exactly have an audience, no need to be so dramatic about it."

Maleficus closed his eyes and let out a suffering sigh. "Shut up and let me have my moment."

He could practically feel Cursed Blessing rolling his eyes, with an amused grin on his muzzle, as he spoke back in an amused tone. "As you wish Creator, I shall inform the rest of the Kingdom of the plan, as well as the ponies, Cursed blessing out."

The conversation over Maleficus looked at the finished saddles and nodded. He then clapped his foreleg hooves together, focused his magic, before pulling them apart. And between his hooves, molded out of the almost fluid mass of black iron, began a long shaft to take shape. Even as the shaft was being shaped, its surface was being rotated, creating an spiral like shape along the entire length.

Maleficus focused his eyes upon the weapon he was preparing and narrowed them as he came to realize that he would have to speed up the process. And nine more blobs of iron appeared in the air in front of him, and began to mimic the crafting process of the polearm directly in front of him. "I better finish these quickly before we reach the city."

[Scene Skip]

The Temple of Law was a beacon of hope and protection in the current dark hour of Canterlot. Quite literally as the Shield Cone that was built on top of the temple aroudn two decades ago was now active and covering the temple and most of the city block where the temple stood. Many ponies had gathered beneath the protective forcefield to evade the invaders.

Up on the rooftop was a young recruit looking on at the five unicorns fuelling the Shield Cone, their heads lowered and their horns constantly firing beams of magical energy at the artifact. The energies creating a powerful glowing purple field of energy that glowed brightly.

"How long do you think they can keep this up?" She asked the large pegasus knight standing next to her, her superior officer and temporary leader of the temple. Master Knight Proud Warrior.

The veteran Knight looked at her as she stated the question and after a moment smiled at her. "For a week. Ever since the Draconic Incursion have the unicorns of our Order focused on building up their magical stamina to be able to endure the drain of powering the shield."

Sighing the older knight looked out over the city, frowning as he saw knights and guards fighting in units against the swarming griffins. They could not get to safety as the energy field was not malleable enough to let selective beings through. It had only been lowered twice to let in large numbers of citizens. But each time they had to eave more knights behind to hold back the invaders. "Had we had more of them we might have been able to protect more ground of the city. Sadly though are there only thirty or so unicorn knights active in the temple at this moment. So this is all we can cover for now."

The recruit then looked up as she heard something in the distance. It sounded like drums... and intense sharp... strings? "...Do you also hear that sir?"

Her teacher nodded, looking towards the city gates were the sound was coming from. "You noticed it as well Private Dining Bell?"

She nodded, walking over to the edge of the roof, trying to see through the purple energy field to spot what was happening at the city gates. "Yes sir. It sounds like some kind of music. But I've never heard anything like it..."

Proud Warrior walked over and patted her on the back, gently as to not make her stumble. And explained what it was they were hearing. "I have. It's a form Heart Song Music that often times is heard during large battles or intense fights. Most youngsters call it 'The Thunder Song' as the combination of drums and those strange intense piercing string sounds makes many think of storms."

Their conversation was broken as the doorway to the roof was opened, and the elderly High Priestess of the Old Religion walked out onto the surface of the roof. Her eyes closed, and her lips moving in strange eerie chants as she walks towards the Shield Cone.

"W-wait!" Private Dining Bell tried to warn the elderly High Priestess of what she was approaching.

But the Priestess was either not able to hear her or ignoring her as she kept walking until she stood before the Shield Cone. The elderly mare knelt down before the artifact, the unicorns unable to focus their attention on her as they were busy fueling the artifact.

That's when she clasped her hooves in prayed and began to pray. An eerie feeling began to fill the air as a beam of sunlight found its way over the rooftop, its bright golden light not even discolored by the force field. The light grew in intensity and then, slowly, the Priestess reached out, and put a hoof against the artifact.

All five unicorns suddenly let out yelps as there was a sudden rush of power and they were tossed away from the Shield Cone. Their stumbling and dizzy shapes laying around on the roof, trying to figure out what the buck just happened.

Both Proud Warrior and Dining Bell stared in shock as they witnessed the elderly priestess fuel the Shield Cone. With the power of a miracle of the gods.

Dining Bell slowly looked towards Proud warrior, murmuring in a slightly shaken voice. "Did... did she just?"

The Master Knight nodded and stated his honest opinion about the Priestess. "Yup. That High Priestess is a real nutter."

Dining Bell turned her gaze back at the Priestess, seeing the bright sunlight and the power flowing through the frail looking old mare and into the artifact. "But... it's working isn't it?"

Proud nodded again and rubbed his chin. "Yeah but it's still crazy to do something like that and not expect to die from it. Seeing how she is not a unicorn, and not even trained in how to use magic like the horses. It's not a bad thing to put your faith with the gods, but putting your life on the line in doing so is another thing entirely."

"Oh..." Dining Bell muttered as she kept looking at the elderly mare. Wondering for a bit if that's what her mother meant about 'faith and belief has a power of its own', she did not think it was meant to be so literal.

[Scene Skip]

The large gatehouse of Canterlot was being besieged from all angles. Ever since the soldiers stationed at the gates had managed to sound of the distress signal had the griffins focused a major part of their forces to break the gates.

Thus the situation was very dire for the defenders as they had to bunker down in the gatehouse to the best of their abilities.

One of the town guards grunted as a group of griffin warriors tackled the door while he and his fellow guard pushed against it. They and eight others were the only ones in the gatehouse and they were desperately keeping the doors and hatches down. They had even blocked the arrow slits to prevent the griffins from shooting in from the outside.

"Bucking hell these invaders sure are persistent." The pony muttered as he pressed his back against the door as the group of feline bird warriors slammed against it again.

"You can say that again Generic Guard." The pony next to him said as the door was yet again slammed against by the griffins.

"How long until reinforcements arrive?" Another town guard asked as he absentmindedly slammed the pommel of his sword into a talon trying to reach for his throat through a crack in the doorway made by a particularly heavy blow from an axe. There was s heavy crack as the talon's fingers were smashed to bits and a pained screech came out from behind the doorway as the limb retreated.

The town guard with the Captain rank on his armour's pads shrugged as he stabbed his sword through a gap in the door, and was rewarded with a loud scream of pain. "No clue. The armies left yesterday and we managed to give the signal at late morning, near lunch time, so I'd give it at least a day for them to get back. And that's being generous."

"Damn that's not good. What about the Knightly Orders or the Horses? They should be able to give aid right?" Another town guard, this one a mare ,asked whilst she stabbed her spear out through another crack of the door and quickly jerked her weapon back as she felt something try to grab it.

"The Order of the Golden Cross are spread out over the various towns and cities to replace the soldiers taken by the Military for the Crusade. There are still a force of about two hundred knights and a lot of trainees in the city but they are probably protecting the citizens in the Temple of Law." Generic Guard stated with a frown as he felt the griffins strike the doorway with axes again. Apparently not willing to tackle the doorway anymore after having been stabbed by them.

The Sergeant snorted as he walked over to a barrel of water and began to push it up against the doorway to block it further. "Whilst the Sun Knights are busy guarding the castle and the Princess with the Armies, are the Equestrian Order of Chivalry no help. They are about as useful as a parade of peacocks wearing pots and wielding spoons. Most of them apparently bucked off into that 'Temple of Chivalry' of theirs before the invaders had even reached the city."

Generic Guard let out a loud sigh, even as the mare spoke further. Whilst swiftly stabbing and pulling her spear in and out of the various holes of the door. "And the horses no doubt got their hooves full with these invaders. Doubt they'd have invade unless they could handle the Horadrim Kingdom's air forces."

The Sergeant nodded while he moved over to a wounded pony and began to give the unconscious guard some first aid. "No doubt about that. The Equestrian Armies are the closest so they should be the ones to return faster. But it will most likely take around a day or two."

Generic Guard sighed again, before letting out a yelp as a talon slammed out of one of the holes and tried to grab for his face. He instinctively opened his mouth and bit down on the sharp claws. Two off of the talon's bony claws got crushed beneath his molars, and then broke off when his powerful jaw muscles closed down. Blood poured out of the severed appendages, filling his mouth and covering his face as the griffin it belonged to pull it back in a loud screech of pain.

Spitting out the two claws Generic Guard rubbed off the blood from his face while the ponies around him gave him raised eyebrows and he just glared at them. "Oh go buck yourselves! I'd like to see how you'd react when a sharp claw reaches for your muzzle whilst your hooves are occupied!"

There was a short awkward silence, before the ponies started snickering, before laughter filled the gatehouse. The utter absurdity of the situation had made them break out into loud laughter.

"Did they just stop?" The Sergeant asked as he noticed there were no longer any attacks being made against the doors or the roof hatch. Which was odd, he could still hear the griffins talking and moving outside though.

"Yeah, that's quite strange." The mare stated as she carefully looked out through one of the holes and saw the griffins looking around nervously at each other.

Then a rumbling crackle was heard, before a crackling boom of lightning erupted over them. Causing the ponies to hunker down and clutch their ears as a green flash of light erupted outside, sending toxic green light through the cracks and holes in the wooden defences of the gatehouse. Followed by a loud explosion of something detonating.

"What the buck was that!?" Generic Guard asked as he looked at the others in utter horror.

"No fucking idea but it certainly wasn't any of ours, no energy rod makes such a loud boom. Possibly one of the horses sky ships but I doubt it. They do not have any magical lightning farting energy rods that shoot green lightning. And the griffins' shoot blue so it's not theirs." The Sergeant commented as he looked out through the holes alongside the mare, both of them taking note of the panicked expressions on the griffins.

They then heard a strange music fill the air, echoing from a distance away from the gatehouse. And that's when the beating of wings could be heard and the mare and Sergeant both stared with wide eyes and black shapes flew over the walls, and tore the griffins apart by flying by then and tearing chunks out of their bodies. It lasted but a few moments, as more and more black shapes flew over the walls.

"Help has come colts and fillies... Not just sure if it is the kind of help we wanted." The Sergeant commented as he unhatched the door and stepped outside, carefully stepping over the torn off head of a griffin. and looked around along with the other ponies as they walked out of the gatehouse. And they looked towards the city and stared in horrified wonder, as the music playing along painted the carnage and mayhem into a symphony of war.

"...Well shit." Generic Guard muttered absentmindedly as he watched the savage brutality carried out by these newcomers.

[Scene Skip]

[A few moments earlier.]

"What the pluck is wrong with these ponies!?" A griffin warrior screeched out in anger and bafflement, clutching his bleeding talon, as laughter had broken out from behind the doorway after he had attempted to claw at the defenders. Only to have one of them BITE OFF TWO OF HIS CLAWS! And now those equines were laughing their butts off!?

"I have no freaking clue private. This invasion has not progressed as intended and Admiral Thalon is not in the best mood, since he has failed to breach any of the ponies' military strongholds." A plate mail dressed officer stated as he leaned against the pommel of his large long handled sword whilst watching the progress of his troops trying to breach the gatehouse.

The griffins on the city walls were desperately trying to open up the gatehouse, heck they were trying to break down all of the towers and bastions of the city. But the thick doors and stone walls made it very difficult. Their invasion had been progressing excellently for the first two hours of their attack. The ponies had been fled for the various defences of the city, and the griffins had broken down the majority of their defences, breaking over half of their siege engines at the first wave of attacks.

They had managed to capture about three hundred young looking ponies, of which fifty were foals, during the initial assault, of which around two hundred had been put on airships. But when the ponies hunkered down it became more difficult to get to them then a griffin chick trying to open a five pound clam.

The place called Temple of Law was surrounded by a powerful magical barrier that made it impossible for any of the griffins or their air ships to breach. And the powerful magic wielding unicorns defending the magical academy and the central keep of the city were no joke either. Not to mention the crazy weapons of the main factory of the ponies were either extremely deadly and volatile or down right crazy and humiliating.

Getting killed by a cannon firing acid like fire was one thing. But getting killed by a rapid fire conjuration weapon that fired fifty pound pies and cakes? Now that's a completely different thing entirely.

From what they knew had the troops of their invasion force not even managed to grab any more young looking ponies. The ponies were very protective of their young. Something many of the griffins respected, but it would mean less safety for their own chicks and eggs. So the situation was not one any of the griffin warriors were enjoying, and desperation was building up.

One of the griffin reared back his axe for another swing at the door when a spear burst out of one of the holes and pierced through his throat, the griffin fell limp, clutching at the spear had piercing his neck, before falling limp to the ground as the spear was jerked out of his body and back behind the door.

"They're fiercer then I'd imagined" The Captain muttered as he stood there, absentmindedly kicking aside one of the corpses of the pony defenders they had killed on the walls.

"Captain! I see a strange black cloud approaching from the west!" A griffin, standing on top of the gatehouse, shouted out whilst pointing behind him with his right foreleg. And the griffins momentarily stopped their assault on the doorway

"What's so strange about it?" The Captain asked as he stretched his wings before flying up onto the roof of the gatehouse next to the warrior. Pulling out his spyglass as he landed before looking towards the black smog like cloud he could see in the far distance.

"It's moving against the wind. And it doesn't have a proper thickness for anything more then a thin mist. Which is unreasonable for a moving cloud on such heights." The warrior stated whilst nervously looking at this Captain whilst taking side glances towards the eerie black cloud. It was making him feel uneasy.

The captain moved the spyglass up to his eye, just as a bright green flash of lightning arched out of the cloud. And he muttered to himself. "What the-"

A loud crackling boom erupted as a flash of green lightning flew out and struck one of the air ships above the city, causing it to explode. But this was a new kind of explosion. It was not blue, no it was a mixture of green and blue. The ship fell with a loud crash against the grassy fields outside of the city, collapsing into a burning husk of blackened ash and green fire.

The captain barely had time to blink as he saw that the 'cloud' had somehow closed the distance between it and the city by an almost impossible speed. And as he looked through his spyglass he quickly pulled out his talisman, a square shaped mirror attached to a thick silver chain hanging around his neck, and spoke into it. The words he spoke caused his voice to deepen, echo and vibrate, as if he was speaking something he should not be able to, or should not do, period. "Etlay Ymay Oicevay Aveltray Oughthray"

The mirror shone as its surface became a quivering surface, almost like liquid silver or silver painted water. An angry male voice spoke out of the mirror, causing its surface to ripple as as the words were carried out through its surface. "This is Admiral Thalon speaking. I hope this is important, because I have just managed to breach the palace of the city and I am not to be disturbed whilst I make them surrender."

"Admiral! This is Captain Geo of the Twelfth Skyblade Unit! We have incomAAAurguhhhrghl..." His words turned into a gargle as a sharpened hoof slammed into his face and tore off the lower half of his beak and his entire throat. He clutched at his face with his free talon as blood began to spray out over the stone. Before a massive claw lashed out at him, and tore his body to shreds. Leaving the chunks on the roof of the gatehouse.

This scene repeated itself all over the city wall as the swarm of black creatures tore through the griffins with claws, hooves, teeth and tail. Leaving their bodies as bloody chunks on the stonework.

Even as the swarm flew over the city walls was the sparkling mirror still clutched in the severed talon of Geo. And the Admiral's voice was furiously shouting through it. "Captain! Answer! What is going on out there! Captain Geo! Answer! Plucking hell! Get words out to the other units and the airships! I want a report of what is going on immediately!"

There was a few seconds before the voice spoke out again, this time even more angry. "What do you mean my talisman cannot contact the fleet!? Why would Captain Geo's talisman have to be turned off for mine to be able to make another connection!? Why can't I turn off mine to end the connection!? Who came up with this stupid design!?"

[Scene Skip]

[A few moments earlier.]

Maleficus frowned as they approached Canterlot. He could see the city walls covered with flocks of griffin warriors trying to tear down the defences of the city. Up in the sky he could see the close to a hundred strong airships flying over the city, some shooting lightning at defences. Whilst others were dropping jars of some kind of flammable substance at locations through out the city.

He looked towards his latest creation. Upon a large throne shaped saddle of black iron sad a horse, not a Thestral, armed with plate armour, head covered by an ominous looking helm. The armour was decorated with a tabard bearing Maleficus' cutie mark on the front and back. Along with a mantle stretching over his shoulder pas, over the horse's back. In his left hoof he was holding the reigns of the Wyvern. In his right he was holding the weapon Maleficus had come to call the 'Crescent Moon Spear' it was based upon the design of the chinese polearm Qinglong Ji.

The Qinglong Ji is a Song dynasty spear with a crescent blade on the side. Think a sickle blade attached to the base of a spear head by two small metal rods. With the sickle blade having the outward curved edge not being the sharp end but the inward edge being the sharpened one instead.

What was it that made these ones different? The spear head was much longer, making it about half a meter long, with the crescent blade attached directly to the base of the spear and being around three fourths a meter in length, accounting for its curve. The spearhead and crescent blade were both made out of Moon Glass, and attached to a socket in the three meter long spiral/drill shaped shaft of the weapon.

This made it a dangerous weapon for many reasons other then the fact that moon glass was not just hard and dense but sharp as obsidian as well. No. What made the weapon dangerous was one particular aspect.

Moon Glass made for excellent magical conduits and Maleficus had attached, at the pommel of the weapons, a single sphere of moon glass containing the same toxic green fire he was so ominously famous for. And with a magic wielding pony or horse wielding this weapon, the results were rather impressive.

Sensing their creator's dramatic moment began several horses, riding on platforms on wyverns, to pull out instruments, and began to play music. Maleficus was not sure why it had become a thing but he was certain he was being influenced by the musical nature of the ponies. Not that he minded, the music was great. He pointed a hoof at the Dark Rider, as he had come to call them, and gave the order. "Fire at the closest air ship! It's time to-"

His words were interrupted as the Dark Rider flew forward, aimed his polearm at the closest air ship. and channeled his magic through the weapon, green lightning arced from the gem of moon glass in the pommel and up to the blades at the tip. The once dull white moon glass began to glow green and sparks of green lightning began to travel across its length. Some sparks were even arcing between the tip and sharpened edges of the crescent blade. And then with a thrust forward, a bright toxic green lighting bolt flew forth and slammed into an air ship just outside of the city.

Ignoring the awesome blue and green explosion Maleficus glared at the Dark Rider who was totally not snickering beneath his awesome looking helmet. "Could you not interrupt me when I am talking? It's very rude."

"Sorry Creator but if you had kept talking they would no longer have been caught off guard. Kind of wasting time and opportunity there." Was the totally not snarky response from his creation.

Sighing the alicorn just shook his head before pointing his hoof towards the city. And shouted out. "Start the attack! Clear out the griffins and remove those ships from the city before they can hurt anyone! other then that! Rip them to apart!"

A his forces howled out in glee they let out a burst of speed that made them beeline towards the city. And Maleficus crossed his forelegs and stood there on top of the black wyvern's back as his forces reached the city walls.

[Scene Skip]

[Start Battle Music: NateWantstoBattle - Phantom]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX2U6hPb5zc

[Altered Lyrics by Staadnauthursil.]

[DISCLAIMER: I do not own the music nor the video it is being played through, please support the NateWantstoBattle so he can keep making such great videos and songs.]

The music resounded over the city. Its powerful beat and speed making the very air and ground vibrate. The clouds above the city began to darken and twist, as if fueled by the dark beings streaking over the city walls and into the city itself.

And as they crossed over the large market square right above the statue of Golden Cross, the flying horde split up like swarm of locusts. And they struck out at the griffins like a torrent of murder. Their voices singing out as a choir as they began their assault.

"We are the harbringers of doom!"

The first strike came at a nearby shelter, where griffins were slamming a support beam as an improvised battering ram against the solid wood doors. A few ponies who had been taken capture at the initial attack of the city were tied up in groups nearby, several griffins keeping watch them.

One of the ponies, a pegasus mare, looked up as the music resounded across the city. And her eyes widened at the sight of snarling bat winged horses flying down like demons out of Tartarus. Their voices singing out like a sick crescendo of promising murder as they flew down from the darkening skies.

"With all intents on killing soon.!"

She screamed. And the griffins barely had time to look up as the Thestrals struck.

The leader of the pack slammed down like a wild beast upon the griffins wielding the battering ram, its massive bulk and plated armour making it especially dangerous to the feline birds. His forelegs slammed into the battering ram, pushing the griffins holding it on the opposite side to the ground, as he pushed down his entire weight onto the wooden beam down on top of them. There was a set of loud sickening crunches and screams of pain as the griffins beneath the wooden beam had several of their bones broken.

"And everyone are still not even sure just how we got here!"

One thestral screamed out a vermin like screech as it tackled down two griffins, its hooves crushing their heads. It then leaped off its kills and opened its jaws and made a lunging bite attack at another griffin. Its powerful jaws and sharp fangs pierced the griffin's chain mail and with a toss of its powerful neck muscles the thestral tore off the griffin's left foreleg. It then slammed the limb in its jaws into the griffin's head, talons first, knocking it down on the ground before it began to viciously beat the griffin's head in with its own limb.

"We are the terrors that shall bring them dread!"

A group of six thestrals flew at the griffins guarding the pony prisoners. They flailed out with their teeth and hooves at the frantically defending griffins. One griffin had his head torn of when a powerful hoof spammed into his helmet covered face, tearing the skull off the neck in a geyser of blood. Two griffins were brutally tackled to the ground the thestrals biting down on their throats before savagely ripping out heir jugulars. The ten remaining griffins were brutally tramped to death as the thestrals slammed down on them from above and reared their fronts up int the air before slamming down on the griffins, crushing their bodies with their hooves.

"Even those we save would wish we could be left for dead!"

The thestrals moved over to the terrified ponies, and used their sharp teeth to bite off the ropes tying them, before letting out screeches before flying away. Leaving the terrified and confused ponies behind.

"But there ain't no magic word that can make us disappear!"

A lone unicorn filly was running through the street, having been found hiding in an attic, she had been unable to reach a shelter in time. So a group of five griffins were chasing her through the streets. She was getting tired and the griffins were not slowing down. She was cornered in an alley and the five griffins were moving to catch her when suddenly a large black shape slammed down on the griffins from above, crushing one of them.

"Now this city, its light has grown dim!"

It then moved its entire body sideways, tackling two of the griffins against a stone wall, using its large bulk to crush them against it, blood erupting from their beaks as their bodies were crushed by the large creature's weight and strength. And it then lashed out with its left hind leg, and brutally slammed its hoof against the griffins' heads, there were two loud resounding cracks as their heads were bent at an unnatural angle.

"Infected by invaders fueled by sin!"

As the carnage ended the being stood up from the dead bird creatures and looked at the filly, who could now see what it was. The filly could only stare in shock as the large bat winged black furred horse dressed in dark iron plate who had saved her gave her a wink before flying out of the alley. A once clear grey, almost white, cobblestone pavement now painted red with the dead griffins' blood.

"But now their blood shall paint the cobblestone of the pavement!"

"Get away from here! Report to the Admiral! Hurry!" A griffin captain screamed as a swarm of bat winged horses suddenly swarmed his ship and began to tear apart his crew like wild beasts. Said captain was holding back one of the large ferocious creatures with his saber, gritting his beak as the creature's teeth were strong enough to hold against his sharp saber. The griffin he was speaking to was the only crew member left who wasn't fighting.

"Without even a single warning sign!"

The choir of the demon like equines echoed through out the skies as the lone griffin fled the ship, watching in horror as around him he could see griffin warriors being torn apart by the Thestrals. He saw two thestrals slam into a griffin from opposite sides, crushing his head between their forelegs. Two griffins wielding crossbows shoot at one of the thestrals, their bolts piercing its skull. But even at death's doors it still managed to tackle them both and held onto them even once its life was gone, making them fall hundreds of meters down towards the city.

"We flew straight in and slipped right by!"

He could see a massive black dragon, without any forelegs, only wings and hind legs, grab onto the balloons of one of the air ships, and physically drag it out of the city proper before piercing the balloon and letting go. The ship plummeted to the ground as the gas within left quicker then it was being filled. And an explosion of blue fire erupted against the mountain side. Thestrals were swarming most of the ships, slaughtering the crews, their black shapes looking like massive demon bats whilst they were tearing and crushing the opposing griffins.

"But we're all bound to go away once we finish what we started!"

Another dragon, this one smaller, swung its tail and pierced through one of the ships, tearing out the bottom, causing wood and stone that acted as counter weights to fall, and the ship began to rise upwards rapidly towards the upper atmosphere. He saw one of his fellow warriors being torn into pieces by a ground of thestrals tearing at his flesh with their teeth, literally eating him alive int he middle of the air. The young griffin had to bite down as to not throw up at the sight of the griffin having his entrails dragged out by the fanged horses to be feasted upon.

It was utter carnage and savagery, unlike anything he had ever seen. And yet he witnessed these demon horses take captured ponies out of the air ships and fly down with them towards the city. What was their angle, they were clearly not part of the horses and yet they were helping the ponies?

"Make no mistake!"

His trail of thoughts ended when a massive jaw appeared in front of him. The young griffin barely had time to scream as a torrent of toxic acid gushed out of the wyvern's mouth and melted him into goo before his remains could even splattered across the pavement.

"We'll break them down!"

A group of griffins were scrambling through the city streets, trying to regroup after their unit had been scattered by the rain of griffin corpses. The bat winged ponies were chasing them like the hounds of hell, their snapping teeth and trampling hooves trailing after them through the streets. They saw another group of griffins approaching from another street, and their hopes got raised as they would be a bigger unit soon and could properly repel these attackers.

"(Whoa-oh-oh, whoa-oh-oh)!"

Their hopes were crushed, like their bodies, when a pair of massive three toed claws slammed down on them and the other unit as they reached the center of the crossroad. The weight, mass and momentum crushing their bodies and gear into paste against the pavement. Blood gushed out from beneath and between the large claws, before the wyvern that had just crushed the unit flew away. Its large claws trailing and dripping blood and gore all over the roofs and streets beneath it.

"Show it around town!"

A lone town guard was looking out from one of the arrow slits in the top floor of one of the city's bastions. It was a young mare barely past her teenage years, a new recruit to the town guards. Most of the other guards were either up on the roof trying to repair the broken siege engines with the griffins now distracted. Or down comforting the distraught citizens. But not her. She was looking to witness the savagery of these newcomers, as they gleefully ripped apart the being who had been attacking her home.

"We're not what you want!"

She watched as a massive bat winged horse stallion flew through the air, his massive frame and wings tackling against a group of five griffins who were trying to take down the beast like equine with a wedge like charge. The larger creature's sheer mass and speed broke their formation and bodies, scattering them to the winds as it slammed through their formation. All five of the griffins could do nothing but scream in fear and pain before they crashed down into the square outside of the bastion, each of their broken bodies painting a red splatter pattern across the pavement.

"But We're exactly what you need!"

She saw one of the air ships being overrun by the bat winged equines. Through her slip of sight she could see what could only be pieces and bodies of griffins were thrown off the ship in the conflict. She saw as some of them landed upon some of the metal fences and spires across the city, getting skewered upon them. The air ship itself would soon lose altitude and descend outside of the city, and once it was out of site past the houses and the city walls, the swarm that had been tearing apart the crew would fly up and return to the fray against the griffins.

"Let us take a bite and feed!"

One of the bat winged beings suddenly flew down and tackled a griffin fleeing on the street. She looked as the creature screeched at the toppled griffin, making it scream out in utter terror, before silencing by crushing its head with its powerful jaws. The creature glanced at her, still chewing its mouthful of brain and bone matter. Before it turned away and began to run into the streets, off to seek another prey.

"Your satisfaction is guaranteed!"

She closed her eyes and shuddered, though the sight was disturbing and terrifying. Could she not help but feel both a sense of gratitude and comfort. Knowing that the things that had attacked her home and nearly taken her little sister and her recently born nephew, were gone.

"We're not your guardians, whoa!"

Meanwhile up in the skies were a group of griffin air ships firing their cannons at some of the wyverns. Bursts of lightning flew at the large draconian beings, before suddenly the horses riding them pointed their strange weapons forward. and the lightning suddenly jerked into the polearms, getting absorbed by the crescent shaped blades of the strange weapons.

"But We're still tearing down this facade!"

The griffin crews stared in horror as the wycern riders managed to absorb the attacks of their greatest weapons. But then one of them saw something that made him pale, green lightning was arcing across the tips of the strange polearms. And from what he could see, they were aiming at the ships. Thus he screamed out at his fellow griffins. "Abandon ship! They are going to -"

"We follow the fallen star!"

But his words ended as green lightning struck the ship and an explosion of green and blue fire erased the griffins from existence. The wrecks of the burning air ships began to tumble downwards towards the city. When suddenly the dark riders flew straight at the falling wrecks of green fire. The massive wyverns grabbed hold of the burning wrecks, their flesh sizzling from the flames. Before starting to drag them out of the city.

"Which you probably wish had never been made!"

And as they did , something strange happened with the burning wrecks. The green flames began to swirl and rise like a reversed maelstrom. Getting sucked into the glass like bladed end of the riders' polearms. Steadily absorbing the dangerous fire, until all of the wrecks were only smoldering husks no longer burning. The wyverns then let go of the wrecks and let them tumble down the mountain side, scattering into fragments against the rock and stone.

"We offer to take a leap of faith!"

Thestrals were running through the streets like black reapers, chasing down any griffins upon the ground like packs of bloodhounds. From above they would look like swarms of black vermin. They trampled down the streets, crushing griffins beneath the hooves, tearing and ripping into the broken bodies. Essentially painting the cobblestone red with the blood and innards of the griffins. They moved like a black wave towards the inner parts of the city.

"We shall do this face to face!"

In the skies the griffins were scrambling to fight off the Thestrals. but their swarming tactics and brutal savagery was nothing like they had ever faced. As the thestrals would streak through their ranks their hooves would break bones whilst their jaws would tear out flesh or even grab hold and grab one of the griffins to tear apart. Bodies of griffins were raining down over the city, most splattering across roof or road, but some would get impaled upon many of the spires, flagpoles and fences across the city.

"But like animals our instincts might still take us over!"

A griffin was screaming as his gut was being ripped open by a group of five thestrals, their jaws tearing and ripping through his innards whilst holding his still living body down on the ground with their hooves. High above in the skies was another griffin trying to shoot down a thestral, only for another to tackle him from behind, its hooves shattering his lower spine. Before the one eh was about to shoot slammed its hooves into his head, crushing his skull. Afterwards was his corpse being dangled in the air as the pair of thestrals tore into his broken head and began to eat out his inner parts from the neck down like a pair of ravenous wolves.

"There ain't nothing left to debate!"

One of the wyverns streaked down through the air, dark grey streams of sludge like acidic poison spewing out from its jaws over one of the air ships. Even as the crew screamed out in agony whilst their bodies began to melt, the wyvern lashed out with its tail and warped it around the rudder of the air ship. It dragged the slowly melting structure after it, using its powerful wings and tail to drag the slowly collapsing vehicle towards the city walls. As the metal plates of the balloon ruptured, the wyvern made a turn and let go of the ship. The ship soared out past the city walls before crashing, the volatile gas erupting into blue flames as it impacted the ground.

"So let us start this purgatory state!"

A griffin squad scattered as a wyvern flew through them. One of them tried to fly over the head but was impaled upon the polearm of the beast's rider. The sharp moon glass spear tip piercing through the griffin's neck and out the lower spine. But the black rider just raised his polearm and the corpse hanging on the spear blade was sliced open as it was jerked upwards through the corpse. The wyvern opened its jaws and let out a cloud of dark bluish and green gas, a few griffins were unable to evade the toxic vapors and fell downwards as their bodies went into powerful seizures whilst green foam like sludge filled their throats.

"Our bloody hooves shall drag their guts out for exposure!"

A single griffin looked over his shoulder as he tried to fly away from a particularly nasty thestral that was chasing him. He was too focused on evading it however and was thus unable to dodge as his neck impacted a swung hoof from another thestral. The neck of the griffin was broken and the thestral gripped the corpses, before slamming its free hoof into the stomach and tore out its intestines and stomach, taking a bite out of the bloody mess of organs. Before throwing the corpse away, letting it plummet down before its inevitable impact on the city streets.

"Now this city, its lights are no longer grows dim!"

The swarm of wyverns and thestrals suddenly flew to the left and right, as if parting aside for something. They spread out and left griffins and air ships in a state of utter confusion as the beasts they had been fighting just up and left them. One of the captains raised a spy glass to try and spot what had caused the behavior. and what he saw made his blacks feathers become almost light gray.

"We have torn apart these wicked beings of sins!"

Through his spyglass he saw a massive wyvern, the largest of the lot. And upon it stood a tall horse sized winged equine. Dressed in black armour, with black mane, black pelt and black tail. Wings like a crow. Eyes of red. and a horn that looked like it belonged to a scorpion. It was a pony, or horse probably from the size, like the infamous Princess of Equestria. The griffins had not considered the information about a second alicorn possible, their artificers even before the coup doubting such a possibility. They had thought the Princess the last of her kind, a specific type of pony born of a specific bloodline, now gone and dead with her as the last.

"And now our Lord shall make the rest join their fellows on the pavement!"

But this new arrival proved those theories wrong. And it made the griffin feel extremely uneasy, as he came to realize that if there were two alicorns active. There was no reason to dismiss the possibility that there could be more. He turned towards his crew and screamed out to them. "Alicorn! We have an Alicorn incoming! Move up into the clouds and prepare to retreat! Send words to all officers! Several messengers needs to be sent to Admiral Thalon! We need to get out of here! We are not prepared!"

Then the alicorn, started singing.

"Without even a single warning sign!"

Spreading his forelegs wide as he stood upright on his hind legs Maleficus sang out to the city of Equestria, as the clouds above the city was rumbling with thunder whilst small sparks of green lightning could be seen arcing over their dark grey surfaces. The massive wyvern flew forward at a casual speed, not even caring about the griffins aiming their lightning cannons towards it whilst they began to gain altitude.

"I flew straight in and slipped right by!"

Maleficus just kept singing. The black clouds resounding with his voice. His black mane and tail were swaying an being blow around by the powerful winds which were starting to build up. Crimson sparks of mana could be see arcing over his horn and through out his entire body now as he was getting closer. And as his wyvern flew forward he was soon straight below the fleet of fifty or something airships and their troops.

"And there is no way to stop me once I've gotten started!"

He suddenly reared back and shouted out this part of the song, before slamming his hooves together with incredible force. There was a loud resounding clang, something one might hear from a bell of a temple. And as the sound resounded across Canterlot, the colouds rumbling grew louder and loud and green lightning was now arcing across them constantly. Making the griffins who had been trying to fly up through them wonder if they hadn't made a grave mistake.

"Make no mistake!"

Waving his right foreleg upwards he held his left against his side, his head lowered, as he sang. As if trying to grip the skies themselves with his bare hoof alone. And frighteningly enough, the skies answered his gesture, green lightning gathering in several focal points above the air ships. Creating spheres of volatile looking toxic green lightning.

"I'll bring them down!"

With a downward gesture he brought his hoof down, as if to throw something to the ground. And a loud crackling boom erupted from the skies, and the griffins had just the barest of moments to either scream, pray or close their eyes. Before a torrent of lightning burst down upon them and their ships. The explosions that followed coloured the now blackened skies with green and blue fire as more then two thirds of the griffins' remaining air ships and forces were destroyed.

"(Whoa-oh-oh, whoa-oh-oh)!"

Thestrals swarmed outside of the cascade of lightning and fire. Their voices singing out like a choir to the destruction that their creator had wrought. And as they flew around the falling debris and destruction, was the already fast moving winds picking up and the clouds above seemed to be spiraling, into a twister like formation. Maleficus pointed his right foreleg upwards and spun it around, and then he brought it down. And a powerful gale filled the skies, griffins, ponies and thestrals alike had to descend rapidly or be flung around like toys.

"And shove them out of town!"

A massive tornado bellowed down from the black clouds and the burning wrecks an several hundreds of alive or dead griffins were sucked into its mass, causing the entire thing to burst out into green fire. Maleficus raised his hoof and the tornado was sucked upwards into the clouds. He brought the hoof up to his face and tensed his muscles, and up in the blackened skies a bright green light erupted, followed by a muffled boom. There was no more lightning, instead, rain began to fall down. Rain, thick as tar, and blackish red.

"I'm not what you want!"

Maleficus rode his wyvern over the city as the griffins and ponies alike shuddered at his presence. His voice rang out across the rooftops. But there were those among both ponies and griffins, who could not find a better opportunity, to take down the alicorn.

"But I'm exactly what you need!"

A single air ship manned by a crew of thirty flew bravely out of the thestral swarm and evade the wyverns. Its captain pointed a sword at the massive wyvern whilst shouting out commands. "Aim for that freak on the dragon's neck! That pony must be exhausted from such a powerful spell! He is wide open! As long as we take him out we are victorious!"

"Take a look and see!"

The crew cheered but their cheer grew dim as the voice of Maleficus rang out. But even as they turned around and looked towards the figure on the large strange dragon, they were holding onto the hope that the alicorn did not have the power to call forth magic. That piece of hope was shredded when Maleficus conjured a blue sphere into the air and launched it at them.

"Your satisfaction guaranteed!"

There was a bright blue flash of light, and a crumbling of thick ice rubbing against another layer of thick ice. As the massive air ship was engulfed by a five meter thick layer of ice and frost. The entire thing then started to plummet towards the ground and with a loud crack struck the pavement of the central square of the city. Fissures and cracks had taken shape in the cobblestone, but the ice covering the ship had not even been chipped.

"I'm not your hero, whoa!"

A group of pegasus warriors flew upwards and tried to bull rush the alicorn. But a powerful gale of wind pushed them down and made them struggle to fly upwards. They only ended up exhausted and were forced to watch as the alicorn just rode by on his wyvern. Even as projectiles of wood, metal or magic from the remaining siege engines in the city flew up at his mount, only for powerful winds or blasts of magic to deflect them harmlessly.

"Nor do I deserve any parade!"

Thirty griffins flew over the alicorn and shoot crossbows at him, trying to kill him from a safe distance. Malefcisu raised his left foreleg and a spiral appeared in the surface of clouds above the griffins, emitting a powerful suction force like a vaccum. The brave but foolish warriors were sucked up into the clouds, clutching their throats a the air around them became too thin to breath. A few seconds later they fell out of the cloud, their corpses breaking upon the stairs before the Temple of Law.

"For I'm the fallen star!"

Griffins and ponies alike tried to bring him down. Solo, groups, siege engines, and magic. All attempts were made. The griffins bodies would rain down, slamming into streets, roofs or stairs. Or getting impaled upon fences, spires, flag poles or lamp posts. Whilst the ponies were only held at bay, never getting as much as a bruise from the gentle repose of the alicorn's magical deflection of their attacks. Whilst to the griffins he was down right ruthless.

"The one you wish had never been made!"

Maleficus began to walk forward. His mount flew lower, its nose aimed downwards. And as he reached the forehead he mage five rapid steps until he reached the nostril. Before leaping off the wyvern with a flip. Falling with his hindlegs first towards the circle shaped oil painted glass window of the royal palace's central keep. Outside of the keep one could see an air ship that had landed in the courtyard, with troops fighting on the ground and on the walls and towers.

[Scene Skip]

(Momentary pause in the music)

A large crowd of ponies gathered within the central keep were worried. Or rather, down right terrified. The central keep had been taken by the griffins. And even though most of the ponies had gotten into the secure spots beneath the keep had many been left in the throne room. But the griffins had somehow managed to breach the defences of the keep and were now trying to force the few nobles in the crowd to surrender the city to them.

Or they had intended to do so, but then a strange and sinister message was heard from a medallion and everything had just turned into a tense state of inactivity. The apparent leader of the Griffins was a large white feathered and golden pelted griffin bearing plate mail. He was currently sitting on the throne of Celestia. He was arguing with his other officers about the situation outside.

"I don't care if the battle is still not over with! I want someone to get me another talisman so we can contact the other fleets! The ponies will not risk these hostages, their Princess is unwilling to risk civilian lives and will thus not attempt anything to us as long as we control this castle!" But the ponies in the room knew that while Celestia was a kind ruler and one who would not risk the safety of her people at times of crisis. Were they certain she would be a far too bad mood to let the griffins just send out troops of the keep to obtain magical items to use against her nation.

That's when one of the griffins came running in from the main hallway, gasping for breath as he was limping, his left hind leg clearly broken from the bone one could see sticking out from the lower part. The griffin stopped in front of the admiral, gasping loudly as he gave his report, clutching his breast whilst doing so. "Admiral! Ah! An alicorn has arrived! Ugh... It's not Princess Celestia! Huuee. It's someone else. They've brought an army of pony like beasts and strange dragons and are currently tearing apart our forces! Huuu..."

"What!? There were no words about Equstria having a second alicorn! Who are they!? Where did they come from!?" The Admiral's voice rang out through the throne room and the ponies all looked at each other with nervous and pale faces. If it was the alicorn they thought it was, then the situation had gone from bad to worse.

(Resume music)

The Admiral glared at his hostages and stood up from the throne and was about to scream at the murmuring crowd of ponies to be quiet. When the oil painted glass window of a sun exploded into a shower of colourful shards as the black shape of Maleficus flew through the window. He landed with a loud clang, his body bent forward in a kneeling pose, in the middle of the startled crowd of ponies. And his voice rang out across the room as the music from outside filled the throne room.

"This world is not what we need!"

He stood up from his landing, the ponies all scattered from him. Some screaming in fear. He calmly strode forward, whilst from the window above emerged the black shapes of his thestrals. Their large black armoured and pelted shapes were crawling through the large window and over the walls and ceiling like swarm of giant rats and bats.

"Not when monsters roam and demons feed!"

As he walked forward he pulled out his flail and let the heavy metal head of the chain weapon impact the ground of the throne room, the marble cracking from the impact. The griffin admiral glared at the so called 'alicorn' who was jeopardizing not just his take over of the Equestrian Capital but also the entire war effort! It was crucial to claim Canterlot and hold it against the ponies to keep the raids efficient! he would not have this fake alicorn mess up his highness' plans! He pointed a talon at the invader and cried out to his nervous troops of fifty strong. "Kill that intruder! It's obvious he is just a pegasus wearing a fake horn! Either that or he is some kind of mutated freak like those things following him! Take him out and they will scatter!"

"Relax don't you look so wary!"

Maleficus gave a side way glance towards the terrified ponies and just gave them a small smile, though none of them took that as a positive thing. He kept singing as he began to walk towards the nervous soldiers, dragging his flail on the floor. The sound of the heavy and sharp metal implement of death scraping against the smooth marble floor made everyone within the room shiver.None of the griffins dared to make the first move, the tide of monster crawling over the ceiling and walls making them less then eager to confront the so called 'fake' alicorn.

"It's all only temporary!"

Maleficus walked to the front steps that lead up to the throne where the griffins were gathering. Most of them had been on the alcoves and balconies on the walls of the throne room. But they were unwilling to contest the thestrals' claim on the high vantage points and thus regrouped with their admiral, who looked more and more furious with them all as things progressed. He shouts out orders whilst pointing at Maleficus, who was standing just a bit more then ten meters away from them. "Just shoot him already you cowards!"

"We roam and sing along!"

(Lala-lalala-lala! Lalala-lala-lala!)

The griffins drew their crossbows, and formed up into a firing line of five groups of ten crossbow armed griffins. The first line were kneeling. While the second line were standing on all four, using those knelt forward as support for their crossbows. And the third line were all standing up right, aiming over the other two lines. Whilst the remaining two lines were acting as reserves and support, ready to receive unloaded crossbows, give loaded ones to the front lines, reload those they had been given, wait for the next set of unloaded crossbows, and then repeat the process. It was formation the griffins had developed to use not only on the ground but in air a well. But they felt less then secure as they took aim at the alicorn as he kept singing. With the thestrals being him singing out in the background, waving their heads side to side in tact with the music.

"While the choir joins in to sing to this abhorrent song yeah!"

(Lala-lalala-lala! Lalala-lala-lala!)

The horrifying choir of the thestrals singing out in the background was not helping the griffins, nor the ponies , to keep calm. Several ponies scrambled away to try and keep away from the horrifying creatures. More then a few griffins were shaking and shivering as they clutched their weapons. Some of the ponies were moving slightly aside, unwilling to stand directly behind Maleficus as griffins armed with crossbows were getting ready to shoot at him. Not to mention some of them felt a bit awkward as some spots on the white marble floor and received some gross yellow stains

"We bite, it's a little bit scary!"

Maleficus stepped up the first step, his voice ringing out. A wicked grin spreading across his muzzle as he got closer and closer to the griffins, now only eight meters away. The griffins were all shaking and shivering, as is a chilling cold was racking across their spines. Some of them were close to collapsing, almost breaking down into a hysterical panic as the alicorn got even closer.

"The pain's only temporary!"

"Fire already! Or do you want to risk the King's wrath upon you!? For I am more then willing to report you all for this if you do not do you duty!" At those words the griffins just closed their eyes and pulled the triggers. Had anyone been looking they might have noticed how Maleficus' smirk twist into a snarl for an instance. Said alicorn spread his wings wide and there was a loud sound of several strings being pulled and projectiles flying through the air. The griffins opened their eyes and almost fell over in shock a Maleficus stood before them, his wings, throat, head and neck skewered by more then thirty bolts. The rest scattered across the floor as they failed to penetrate his armory or get past his large bulk.

"Hahahahahahaha!"

Admiral Thalon smirked and was about to speak out of his victory. When the standing 'corpse', started laughing. Whilst the bolts penetrating its flesh were pushed out bit by bit until there was only blood covered crossbow bolts on the floor marking that the alicorn had been injured in the first place.

"I'm not what you want!"

Suddenly it felt as if time itself began to slow down. And Maleficus' voice ran out through the room. As he in slow motion reared up his flail, and swung it towards the panicking griffin soldiers.

"But I'm exactly what you need!"

The metal head of the chain weapon slammed into the left side of the first soldier on the first line, there was sickening crunch and crumble as the flail rendered his armour pointless as it shattered and pulverized his insides. The griffin's body bent in half, before being pushed into the rest of the first line of troops. all of them being swept off the stairs and slammed into a distance marble wall in one strike.

"Take a look and see!"

Maleficus swung around for a second strike, this time aiming for the first soldier on the second row of troops. The flail's heavy metal head slammed into the head of the first griffin. His head seemingly sagged into itself from the impact, before bursting apart like a rotten tomato. And then the flail head repeated this scene on all ten soldiers, their headless bodies were scattered across the floor from the force of the impacts.

"Your satisfaction is guaranteed!"

Maleficus drew back the flail an slammed it forward, it slammed straight down the center lines of the griffin troops. Splitting apart the bodies of the unfortunate soldiers standing in the center of the formation. The fail embedded itself into the marble floor a few inches in front of the solar court throne, shattering the floor between the legs of a now nervous looking Admiral Thalon.

"I'm not what you want!"

and then time resumed its original speed and Maleicus burst forward. The griffins had no time to escape as the large alicorn reached them in four rapid steps before his right hoof slammed into the side of the troop on the left side of the now cleaved center. The soldier's body flew like a rag doll into the other troops on the left side, the force of the corpse hitting them enough to send them flying into a stone pillar and crack its surface.

"But I'm exactly what you need!"

He reared back his left hind leg and kicked int the soldier behind him, the hoof burst through the center of the griffin's body and splattered blood all over the griffins behind him. Maleficus raised his leg and slammed own the corpse onto the marble floor, cracking the stone whilst splitting the corpse in two, to get his hoof free. Splattering even more blood over the gathered griffin troops.

"Take a look and see!"

Spreading his forelegs as if to present a master piece Maleficus then slammed his hooves together, crushing the heads of three griffin between them. By now the remaining griffins had broken formation and were all fleeing in terror, screaming and bird screeching whilst scrambling for the doors leading to the garden.

"Your satisfaction has been guaranteed!"

Maleficus, blood covering most of his legs, chest and head, turned to glare at the sole remaining griffin. Admiral Thalon drew his blade and pointed at the alicorn before shouting out a battle cry. "For Gryphon! For King Craver!"

"I'm not your sunshine, whoa!"

The griffin charged, Maleficus ducked to the side. Thalon pulled out a strange glowing blue object of some kind and was about to chuck it at him, when Maleficus kicked him in the left rear leg. Breaking it.

"But I'm here to burn down their parade!"

The admiral grit his beak but did not falter, instead he held up the object and a bright blue flare of light filled the throne room, all ponies within the room felt as if their had suddenly grown weaker, some of them even fainting. A triumphant look appeared on his face as he managed to activate the artifact, only for his triumphant look to falter when an iron coloured hoof reached forth and gripped hold of the talon holding the artifact. "Impossible! You should not be able to resist the Tears of Sorrow! What are you!?"

"I'm the fallen star!"

There was a loud crack and the blue light disappeared as the artifact, as well as the talon holding it. Were crushed into a single mangled mass of flesh and what looked like crystal. Admiral Thalon did not cry out and just tried stab the alicorn again.

"That you wish!"

Maleficus dodged. and he slammed his right foreleg's hoof into the handle of the admiral's saber. The weapon was sent flying onto the floor with a loud clatter.

"That you wish!"

The alicorn then punched the griffin leader's gut. Making him bend over.

"Had!"

He then slammed an iron covered foreleg into his face, making his head bend upwards. A loud resounding crack erupte across the room and shards of what had once been a beak flew across the chamber.

"Never!"

A powerful hoof reach up and grabbed hold of him by the throat and lifted him up above the ground. The admiral was barely conscious, blood gurgling out of the hole where his beak had once been located.

"Beeeeeen!"

Maleficus then slammed him onto the floor, once, twice. and then he reared the limp body back, intend on throwing him.

"Maaaaaaade!"

And with a final crash the unconscious form of Admiral Thalon struck the sun throne, making it fall over onto the floor. The admiral's unconscious body tumbled like a broken doll, twisted limbs, broken beak, bruised flesh, all of it displayed out on the floor behind the toppled over furniture.

"That you wish had never been made!

Maleficus then ran forward. He ran straight through the coloured glass window decorating the walls behind the throne, he spread his wings and glided down over the garden of the city. He landed on top of a statue, before kicking off it and was grabbed out of the air by the large wyvern that had carried him into the city.

All over Canterlot the thestrals had finished tearing apart the griffins and as the music began to dwindle. They began to take off, flying after their creator. It was like a swarm of locusts were flying out of the city as a massive cloud, flying up and past the mountain, before disappearing into the black clouds. And once the final thestral and wyvern were out of sight. The clouds began to return to their white colouration, and the music finally played its final note.

[End Battle Music]

High above the cloud layer Maleficus climbed up onto the back of the wyvern and laid down. Mentally exhausted from the last couple of days. He was not tired physically or magically, but he felt drained in soul and mind, having been doing so much without rest was not healthy. Even for an alicorn.

He limply laid down on his back, wings spread out as to keep himself from rolling off his mount. The stallion closed his eyes and just let a deep sigh, resting a hoof over his tired eyes. Ignoring the sensation of blood smearing across his face, even though a low shiver ran down his spine at the sensation. "I really need a proper vacation. One that doesn't involve wars or years of moon based isolation."

[Scene Skip]

Princess Celestia stared in shock at the state of her city. Fires were burning all over the place. The streets were painted red with blood and gore. Several bodies of dead ponies lay scattered across the city, brave defenders who had died doing their duty.

"Get all supportive troops into the city! Spread them out! They need to aid the citizens and soldiers! Gather and treat the wounded! Put out the fires! And somepony get Us somepony who can tell Us what hath happened!" At her words the support forces of the armies moved. The Golden Army moving first as their supportive duties made them ideal for handling the disaster that had struck the capital of Equestria. So the majority of troops moving into the city to aid the disarrayed and wounded would be the Army of Gold.

Celestia stood outside of the city by the remaining troops who were setting up basic camps. Or rather setting up their old camps they had left just a few days ago, most of the basic supplies and marks from their old campsites remained so it was easy to put up their campsite.

A shadow shifted behind a barrel and a pony dressed in black leather armour with blood stained greaves and daggers emerged out of the shadows with a salute. Celestia turned to look at the newcomer, whom she already knew who it was. "Solid Pink reporting Princess Celestia."

Celestia smiled in relief at the words from her friend and adviser and nodded at her. "Thank the gods thou are alright Solid Pink, please tell Us what has happened here?"

Solid Pink gave a stiff nod before she began to recount the incidents that had happened the city only a few hours ago. "A force of one hundred balloon driven air ships, with a force of around one thousand, commanded by a species of eagle and cat hybrids calling themselves Griffins invaded us from above the cloud layers."

"We at first considered them to be agents of the Clucking Church of Chaos, but these creatures do not bear the chaotic taint of Discord's magic. They are another species we have yet to meet before, or at least, we may have once known of them but the information may have been lost in the past." Indeed, much knowledge had been lost in the age of Chaos. So there was little wonder no one knew of the Griffins, since they had barely even known anything about the dragons.

"They appear to have something that lets them disrupt the link between our Communication Orbs. They used this to attack us at our weakest. Taking out defences and attacking our facilities with lightning cannons and some manner of explosives we have yet to decipher. They came here to steal from us, but also, for some no doubt sinister purpose, sought to take all of our foals and young looking ponies prisoner." Celestia winced at that last part but did not interrupt. She needed to hear more.

Solid Pink gingerly took a moment to gather her bearings. As if trying to remember everything properly, before speaking up once more. "After a few hours into the invasion was I and several officers and nobles working together to fight back when the invaders managed to break into the Royal Palace and attempted to force the nobles and civilians within to tell the rest of the city to surrender the city to them."

At that she unwillingly interrupted her adviser with a quivering and slightly strained voice whilst looking towards a burning wreck lying by the moat of the city. "D-did anypony?"

But Solid Pink was quick to put her worries to rest with a shake of her head and a verbal response. "No, no one even considered it an option. "

The relief on Celestia's face was clear as she visibly relaxed and a small smile grew on her lips before she looked towards the city. "Ahhh. Good. Continue please."

"Just as the griffins had taken the royal castle came a force of strange dragons and bat like horses being lead by Maleficus. They tore apart the invaders, even going so far as to take back all the kidnapped foals and ponies to the city, before tearing apart their ships. Maleficus himself shattered more then half of their fleet alone with a massive spell of wind and fire that devoured the ships into nothing." Celestia felt dizzy as her mind tried to figure out why her hated foe would save her ponies. It could not be that he actually mean- She winced as a powerful headache filled he skull and she had to return her focus to Solid Pink's words before it became apparent that she had lost focus.

Thank fully had her adviser taken a moment to catch her breath, which made Celestia realize that her old friend was covered with dirt, ash and blood. She would give her a lot of time to rest after she finished her report. "He then broke into the castle and tore apart the invaders holding the castle hostage. He also near crippled the Admiral of the fleet before leaving the city with his forces. And then you arrived a few hours later."

The report was to the point, blunt and clear. But Celestia noticed something, her adviser was slightly looking to the left, making a slight less then noticeable eye contact with her. And she frowned, Solid Pink was not telling her everything. "Solid. You're hiding something are thou not?"

"..." Solid Pink just remained silent, obviously not comfortable with telling Celestia what she was keeping from her.

Celestia walked to her old friend and pleadingly looked her in the eyes and spoke out in a commanding, if slightly pleading, voice. Whatever horror it would be, she had to know, she was Princess Celestia, Ruler of Equestria, she could not be kept ignorant of what had occurred this day. "Please Solid. What. Did. He. Do?"

Solid Pink let out a soft sigh before she looked towards the center of the city. "I would not want you to see this Princess. Since I no doubt feel like it will dig up old wounds. But if you truly want to know, then go to the central square and fly up and take a look over the roof tops. But I advise you to not do this, you will regret it."

Before she could even finish her sentence had the Princess taken off flying. She flew over the streets and watched the destruction as she passed by. Puddles of acid, blood painted streets, twisted scenes of gore, broken bodies scattered the ground and burning buildings. And yet all of that paled as she finally reached the central square of the city and flew up to take a look.

She froze at what she saw. And she looked around, as if trying to see if what she was seeing was an illusion, a twisted memory brought to life. But it was real. The white alicorn staggered, clutching her eyes in the air and pressed her front hooves against her face and took rapid calming breaths.

After a few minutes of slowly calming breaths Princess Celestia opened her eyes again and looked at the horrifyingly familiar scene in front of ger. She gently landed on a roof top and looked around, her eyes blank and lifeless, as she relieved painful memories from over a century ago.

"...Thy truly are a monster... Maleficus Victoria... even here... even here... you break corpses and decorate my home with them... even here... Why do you torment Us like this... why... why... whyhyhuhuhuuu..." And Princess Celestia broke down crying on the rooftop, as the skewered and impaled corpses of griffins were displayed across her entire city. Reminding her what happened back at her old home when the Green Star first fell.

Of the hundreds of broken pony corpses, impaled like mocking decorations upon her and her sister's home.

[Scene Skip]

In the chaos of the soldiers moving through the capital. Was a lone pony walking through the throne room, over to the spot where Maleficus had brutally slaughtered the griffins within the room. There, among a clattering mess of crossbow bolts, the lone pony knelt down, and began to use their magic to scrape up the blood on the floor and on the arrows.

With a wicked glint in their eyes the unicorn watched as the blood of Maleficus Victoria flowed off the floor and the crossbow bolts. And pulled out five vials to seal the red liquid within.

The flowing liquid was gathered into the vials, and after they were sealed and tucked away the pony let a small smirk grow on their muzzle. They then turned and walked away, seemingly unnoticed in the active room, it was as if they were somehow masking their presence. *Blood of the Alicorn of War, obtained. Wasn't as difficult as we thought it would have been. The Lord will be pleased with us as we offer this to him.*

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 5/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 26 Days]

On the other side of the Celestial Sea, on the northern hemisphere of the planet, there was a jagged mountain range called the Jaws of the Earth by the natives. Upon the western most region of this mountainous terrain stood a particularly weird looking mountain.

Or rather, fortress.

It had at one point been a large cone like mountain, but years of harsh rains, mining and carving by the griffins had altered its structure so that it looked like a massive chalice. Along the rocky walls of the massive structure were several towers constructed, with each tower having a gate connected to a hangar filled with soldiers and workers working on the proud air ships of the Royal Navy.

At the base of the mountain sized fortress laid a large city, Eggstone was its name. Its name comes from the buildings filling the vast space within its tall walls. Buildings built from wood, stone and clay, shaped like eggs. There also tall gnarly trees with buildings shaped like large eggs standing on platforms in the shape of baskets or nests. These buildings were built onto the thickest branches or upon the center of the trees' crowns. Down among the streets and alleys were griffins walking about, doing what they did all day.

But there is a deep tension over the city. And the citizens always have wary, tired or sorrowful looks in their eyes. And the reason for that lies upon the top of the large mountain standing over the city of Eggstone.

Up on the top of the chalice shaped fortress was a large natural forest of massive trees, each tree having large houses and platforms holding gardens and training grounds. This was the mountain fortress known Stonenest. And upon the tallest of the massive trees within its chalice like shape stood the castle of Griffonstone, the ancestral home of the royal family.

"What do you mean 'the invasion of Canterlot failed'!?" Said royal family was currently in a crisis. As in the large throne room of the Gryphon Kingdom stood a tall and, almost sickly, thin griffin with a blue metal grown bearing five egg shaped jewels. His feathers were golden in colour and his cat pelt was white, whilst his claws and paws were dark brown.

This was King Craver, the Seventh King of Gryphon.

"It's the truth sire. We received the news a few hours ago from our agents." A robed griffin stated whilst kneeling before the King, never looking up. Showing their submission to the ruler.

"How!? We planned for every possibility! We even had the artificers work day and night to produce enough Tears of Sorrows for all the admirals! which should not only give them the edge to combat Princess Celestia but to disrupt their Communication Orbs with their latent magic disruption fields!" In his rant the King threw a goblet filled with a red spiced liquid onto the ground before the robed griffin. If one could see the hooded griffin's eyes at that moment as the content split across the floor, they would have seen the revulsion in those amber eyes.

But even with the spiced blood of a recently plucked and roasted griffin chick on the floor the agent kept his cool and spoke out in a steady and calm voice to the king whilst keeping his head bowed as to not look him in the eyes. "It was the rumoured rouge alicorn Maleficus, it appears that he does indeed exist. And he is a far more brutal and unpredictable foe then Celestia. Apparently he destroyed our invasion force in Canterlot with powerful magic, along with a force of mutated horses and strange twisted looking dragons. He personally tore apart Admiral Thalon's personal guard before beating him into a near comatose state."

King Craver pressed a talon to his face and let out a strangled sound that was like a combination of a growl and a screech. "What about the Tears of Sorrow? Did it disable the alicorn's magical abilities?"

The agent kept his posture and gave his ruler the information he requested. "From what little information we managed to scry with our more powerful scrying artifacts can we assert that the Tears were effective against regular ponies. But it seemingly did not affect the alicorn at all. The alicorn was able to crush the artifact in an instance with a single hoof."

King Craver stood up from his throne with a loud screech and began to stomp around, his tail swaying agitate whilst his wings flapped and flexed. "Damn it! We need to prepare something better for these alicorns. Clearly the Tears of Sorrow were too small to affect them. We need to have a larger contraption to properly disable them. Or somehow make something far more potent!"

The agent let his king rant for a while, until he seemed to have calmed down. And spoke up in a most respectful, if emotionless voice. "May I suggest something your highness?"

"Yes what? Not too much talking, my dinner is getting cold." It was barely visible but one of the agent's talons flexed at the word dinner and almost dug his own talons into flesh by mistake.

"Yes. Well. If it is size and potency that is the issue, perhaps we just need to lure them into a place strong and large enough to contain them?" The King contemplated this suggestion for a while. He walked back to his throne, leaned back into its seat and thought for a while.

He then got a wicked glint in his eyes and started to mutter to himself, a new goblet of spiced blood offered to him by a hooded servant. The griffin gingerly took a sip of the red liquid before speaking up with a slight giggle in his voice. "Ahhh... a trap. Hmmm... well if this alicorn is similar in mind to that stupid Princess then we just need to prepare two such locations to trap either. Hehehehe yes. Have the artificers work on a contraption strong enough to disable the alicorns, both if needed."

"By your command your majesty." The agent stated and made an even deeper bow before moving out of the throne room, leaving the king to his feast. A spit roasted and apple and egg stuffed griffin coal glazed with a mixture of blood, honey and spices. The sound of someone retching was heard as soon the door was closed, the king unwittingly ignorant of his agent's disgusting act in the hallway.

The king savagely tore out a chunk of a tender loin before murmuring to himself whilst looking out over the throne room with glee. His eyes looking over stolen goods from dragons, griffins, ponies, and other species. Standing among his ancestors' statues and their own tribute to the kingdom. "Yesss... Soon all will be mine. You will see father, I will prove it to you. You may have bidden for peace with the ponies. Happy and content with the blessing from your precious Idol of Boreas. But just you watch. Watch all of you! Watch from your holes in the ground as I make our Kingdom prosper beyond what anyone of you foolish kings could ever achieve! Cheers father! Cheers Kings of Old! For the future of Gryphon! Hehehahahahahahaha!"

He then broke out into a near hysterical laughter as a deranged smile crooked across his cheeks from the edges of his beak. As he held up his blood filled chalice to one of the statues in the chamber. It was a statue of a large and muscular griffin in armour bearing maps, navigation tools, with a statue held in one of his talons. The name 'King Guto the First' engraved upon the base of the statue.

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 6/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 25 Days]

Lord Asclepius stood on one of the large towers of Grithenburg, the massive stronghold was currently floating over the eastern coastal regions of Equestria. He was standing there, watching the horizon. Waiting for something.

Just a few hours ago he had received an emergency call. The black beacon in his study had started smoking and sparking. He had tried to answer it but it had stopped smoking and sparking after a few seconds. And whilst he was uncertain why it had reacted like it did, was he having an uneasy feeling that something was going to happen.

So he was standing here on the top of one of the highest towers. Looking out over the horizon. And that's when he heard the door to the roof of the tower open and hoofsteps moving towards him. The one who was walking up to him stopped after a moment and spoke out to him in a steady but nervous voice, it was a mare, one of his fellow Horadrim Mages. "Lord Asclepius, we have managed to get a connection through the Black Beacon. Those on the other end are a race of beings calling themselves Thestrals, creations of Father, like us."

The elderly looking horse nodded. That was a relief as he had no idea how he'd react if it had been some kind of enemy force trying to misuse their creator's creations. "Good. Can you tell me what they wanted?"

There was momentary pause, as if the horse was trying to find the right words to say. Before she finally gathered her courage and bit the arrow. "It's about our Father sir. He's fallen ill and the Thestrals are using our beacon as a, well beacon, to get him help."

"What!?" Cursed Blessing swirled around with a shout, his eyes wide and the horse backed away from him a little at his sudden outrage.

"Yes sir. We have already had orders sent to our medical teams and the quartermasters have been given instructions to give us whatever we need. We have even cleared out one of the rooms in each of the larger towers and made them into functioning medical rooms. Just in case they end up at a tower that normally would not have medical rooms." Cursed Blessing let out a curse as he pressed a hoof to his foreleg, trying to think whilst his thoughts began to race at the implication of their creator falling ill.

Finally he let out a sigh before looking out towards the horizon once more. "How long until they arrive with him."

The horse responded rapidly, not willing to "They should be arriving within the hour sir. They told us when we contacted them that they were passing over the Forest of Blood an hour ago. They have been flying for over six hours we believe, and not taking any breaks. From Neighagra Falls."

Cursed Blessing blinked at that. And tried to calculate just how far a distance the swarm had, had to travel to reach their current location in less then eight hours. Not to mention the speed needed to be kept up, non stop, for that to even be possible. "...That got to be some kind of record. The fastest any pegasus has ever flown over those mountains is two days. And this is a group?"

"Yes sir. About a thousand of them as well as several hundreds of wyverns, all of them were created by Father three days ago at the dawn of the Third Crusade." Cursed Blessing choked on his tongue almost and had to cough a bit before calming down, rubbing his throat in discomfort as he looked at her with shocked eyes.

"I knew Father as powerful, but that's just insane! From what I remember he created us one by one or in groups of ten at most. But he created well over a thousand beings in just a day!? Has he grown stronger or has he become more proficient with his magic?" He looked at her, as if expecting an answer. Already knowing that she would no doubt be as ignorant as he was.

Before the mare to respond further was a horn blown in the distance and the two turned around to see a black mass of what looked like a cloud sized bat swarm. Which when coming closer, revealed itself to be an utterly massive swarm of wyvern and bat winged horses, all moving at a frantic rate towards the city.

"...I doubt I need to tell you this sir, but the thestrals and wyverns have arrived." The mare stated as she looked at the leader of her nation, who was rubbing his forehead again with a troubled look on his face.

"Yeah. Have everyone ready. Once they land we will need to scramble and act as quick as possible." The mare just nodded at his words, his instructions having already been prepare before hoof.

They watched the black swarm spread out over the fortress, black wyverns and bat winged horses flapping their leathery wings whilst flying around the towers, walls, turrets, keeps and other structures of the massive keep. A single large wyvern flew forward and grabbed hold of the edge of the large tower where Cursed Blessing and the mare were standing.

The massive creature lowered its neck, letting its head rest down onto the stone floor of the tower. Walking down from the wyvern was a group of six thestrals, carrying the bundled up shape of a certain black alicorn stallion. The strain on the six large bat winged horses was clear as they all had to carry him on their back and their legs were bent over from the sheer weight of his body. Cursed Blessing took one glance at the feverishly sweating unconscious form of his creator and began to instantly bark orders at the thestrals.

"Get him inside! We need to get him to a medical room at once! Do! Not! Drop! Him!" The elderly looking horse then turned around and began to gallop down the stairs leading into the interior of the tower. Swiftly following him was the mare, levitating a scroll and quill to write down anything he said.

The group of bat winged horses rushed down the stairs, using all of their strength to keep their creator over the ground. In front of them were various horses moving to clear the path as Cured Blessing ran ahead of them, shouting out orders whilst doing on. Doors were slammed open and a path was cleared.

Soon they reached a large circular shaped room with a single round stone slab in the center. The six hybrids gently lowered down the still shape of Maleficus Victoria onto a stone bed. But even with care and low speed was the alicorn's weight still enough to make the stone slab crack beneath him.

Cursed Blessing approached, dressed in a set of protective gear of leather and cloth, beak shaped leather mask included. The thestrals moved aside as he approached, a team of five more horses stood at the read behind the elderly looking horse as he began to examine the alicorn. Unfurling the cloth covering Maleficus' body he saw no clear indication of sickness. At least not until he reached the right foreleg and moving aside his right wing to get a better view, he was not prepared for what lay beneath the blue and red stained cloth as his eyes widened at what he saw.

Glowing blue tumor like growths were growing across every single centimeter of the right foreleg's flesh, it looked like a mass of glowing fungi. The bulbous meaty growths were pulsing and shifting, and Cursed Blessing could feel the magical energies within them. Whatever they were, they were pulsing with powerful magical energies.

"What has happened to him!? When did he get infected by these things!? When did they show up!?" He asked frantically while analyzing the strange growths whilst his creator laid there, eyes glazed over and blank, as if he wasn't even aware of what was going on.

"We do not know when or how it happened. But after we defeated the griffins laying siege to Canterlot he had us fly north to prepare for new plans. We laid camp in the mountains by the Neighagra Falls. He was muttering about feeling sleepy, dizzy and warm. He had a fever by then. But in the middle of the night he woke us up with screams of agony, clutching his right foreleg as these growths appeared. We wrapped up his leg with some alcohol soaked cloth, hoping that it would prevent them from growing. But our Creator was unconscious before we could even reach him. Thus we came here as we do not know how to handle this." The leader of the thestrals stated as she stood there, looking at her creator with concerning eyes. Still remembering those wordless howls of pain that had echoed out over their campsite a few hours ago as their creator fell ill.

"Alright let me think... These cannot be natural, or at least not anything natural from this world or reality." The horse levitated a scalpel of obsidian and scrapped it against the pulsing shape of one of the bulbs. The tip sliced open the bulb and Cursed Blessing had to jump back as a spray of blue liquid erupted out of the punctured bulb. It struck the floor and the elderly looking horse stared as he saw the blue liquid sink into the stone, and saw how cracks took shape, before a flower sprouted out of the solid stone floor. The glower then absorbed more of the blue liquid and suddenly twisted and shifted, growing larger, its blue petals growing teeth and eyes.

A quick fire ball from one of the nearby horses disintegrated the mutating plant.

"That is raw liquid magic... Shit! This is not good.These things are sucking up his magic. They are leeching off his body's nigh endless supply of magic. Thus negating all of his body's functions, the only reason he was light enough to carry is because they still have only grown up to his foreleg. If they were to cover his entire body there's no telling what could happen. At the beast option they all just explode, spraying raw mana for miles, the other possibilities are even worse." At those words the horses around looked at each other nervously. Whatever had caused this, it was not anything they wanted to encounter themselves.

Cursed Blessing then slammed his hoof against the charred floor and spoke out to the gathered groups. "We have to burn these things off before they grow any further! Father's body will recover once these things are no longer infecting him! His body will restore any damage received once these things are gone! Prepare a cauldron of molten rock! We will need intense heat to burn these away!"

Horses scrambled off, whilst the thestrals remained to keep watch. They all stood there, watching as Cursed Blessing carefully inspected Maleficus' foreleg. Looking over every part, even poking a few of the bulbs to gather the raw mana in a few glass vials for later inspection.

An hour later there was a loud of clattering hooves as a group of ten horses came into the room, four of them were dragging a large black stone cauldron, which was filled with glowing red molten lava. Cursed Blessing looked up from his work and nodded before pointing towards the bed. "Good! Now put it down by the bed we need to dip his foreleg into the cauldron and hopefully the lava will burn off the growths! Thestrals handle the limb, you are seemingly unaffected by his affliction so you are less of a health risk!"

The cauldron was carefully placed by the bed and the thestrals each grabbed the foreleg and with great physical effort they hefted it off the stone slab and lowered it down into the boiling mass of liquid stone. The chrome coloured hoof did not even react to the heat of the lava. But as the limb was dipped deeper and the fur and flesh began to smoke and burn, the boils began to twitch and pulse.

At the sight of the glowing fleshy bulbs moving Cursed Blessing cried out to the thestrals and the others in the room "Let go of the hoof and back away!"

There was a clattering of hooves as all equines backed away as the thestrals let go of the limb and let it drop into the lava. Maleficus' body twitched and spasm a little as the lava reached up to his upper joint. The boiling molten rock began to bubble and froth with glowing blue bubbles.

Cursed Blessing grit his teeth and raised a hoof, igniting a magical glow around his creators upper shoulder, and with great mental effort managed to push him up slightly to see how well the lava had handled the boils. To his relief was the first thing he saw ash covered bones, the flesh had been burnt clear off. Leaving only the bones.

"The boils are gone! Get his leg out of the lava!" At the elderly looking horse's command the thestrals reached out and with great effort slowly pulled out the limb out of the smoldering and churning cauldron. They could see the ashen flesh being forced back as veins began to grow out over the bones, flesh and tendons. All of it growing out over the bone like a red mass of flesh.

One of the thestrals heard a hissing sound and looked down at the cauldron on the floor. Their eyes widening as they saw that the once crimson lava had turned clear blue and the cauldron it lay within was glowing white hot. "Something is happening with the lava!"

Cured Blessing pointed towards the cloudy skies beyond the narrow window of the tower and cried out to them as they all could hear now a loud pitched squeal, like a kettle of water boiling. Only it was coming from the rock containing the lava, and small blue cracks could be seen emerging on the edges as the white hot rock began to quiver. "It's too dangerous to remain here! Throw it off the island!"

A lone thestral grabbed the handle of the cauldron with their mouth, ignoring the sizzling heat burning their mouth and tongue. The large bat winged equine scrambled out of the medical room and up the stairs where he spread his wings and flew off the tower.

As Cursed Blessing let out a sigh of relief his ears twitched as he heard the voice of his creator as he was waking up. "Uuuurr... I am gonna throw up..."

"Here's a bucket Creator." One of the Horadrims said, levitating a bucket in front of the alicorn. Who instantly grabbed it and started retching into the wooden container.

"It is great to see you are feeling bet-" Cursed Blessing's words got interrupted as a loud explosion outside of the tower sudden rocketed the structure and some horses fell over from the shockwave. A bright blue flaring light sheering through the arrow windows with great intense strength.

The elderly looking horse had fallen on his side from the sudden shock wave and could only blink as he laid there on the floor. Wondering what just happened.

[Scene Skip]

He had no name. But he was one of the creator's loyal creations, and thus his safety was mandatory. The cauldron was risking the health of not just his fellow creations but the Creator himself as well. It had to be disposed of. He intended to head eastwards towards the open sea and drop the cauldron into the vast ocean.

But the cauldron had other plans. Just as he left the edge of the floating island the handle's metal hooks holding the stone cauldron melted. The bat winged horse could only stare at the now cracked and burning blue cauldron as it fell down with a loud whistling sound as its fell through the air.

It fell and fell, and the thestral saw how it would fall into the center of the Hayseed Marches. When suddenly there was a bright blue flare of light and he had to block their eyes. A sudden rush of heat struck out and the bat winged equine let out a cry as he found himself being flung upwards into the sky, as a powerful rush of wind pushed them. As at the same time, an earth shattering boom rocked the skies as a second sun, this one blue, filled the sky for a few seconds.

He stumbled through the wind for a few moments before his vision was blocked by a wall of wood. Before his vision went black as he slammed into the side of one of the sky ships, a trireme, following the floating island.

The unconscious thestral hung still, his body embedded into the hull of the ship, for a few moments,. Then there was a sound of flesh sliding against wood as the unconscious bat horse began to peel off. A pair of hooves grabbed the unconscious bad horse before he could fall down to a very messy end and dragged him up onto the deck.

[Scene Skip]

"Well... That's not something you see every day." One of the horses muttered as they looked out of the window of the tower at the fading blue light of the explosion.

"Yeah. It was like a nuclear explosion, except, you know. Without the mushroom cloud or radiation." A mare thestral stated as she looked out through the same window at the spot where the falling cauldron had exploded.

"Well the mushroom cloud not being present doesn't matter. But we have no clue if that explosion contained whatever infected Father. Or if it contained something else." The horse stated as he levitated a spyglass over his left eye and tried to get a better look at the spot of the explosion. Trying to see if there was anything that might hint of some kind of fallout from the explosion.

"You mean the Creator? Huh... Father. It fits. But back on topic. I think we would need to investigate ground zero of the explosion with spells or specialized equipment. Which we would have to develop. Without such preparations would it be damn near impossible to even see if it there was any manner of residue." The thestral mare and horse stallion began a drawn out discussion of what could or would not work as a sort of sensor to spot radiation or energy signatures.

Cursed Blessing meanwhile had gotten up on his legs again and was standing by the bed where his creator, having finished throwing up, was resting his face in his hooves whilst sitting on the bed. The alicorn was fine physically but he was no doubt exhausted mentally. The elderly looking horse pressed a hoof to his creator's neck and checked his pulse whilst also making sure that there were no remaining boils on his body. "Creator. How do you feel?"

"Like I have been sick with fever, cramps, stomach flu and dehydration. All at the same time, and none of those being side effects. Whilst being struck in the chest and head by a jackhammer." The alicorn stated with a sigh as he rested his tired eyes into his hooves.

The first Horadrim nodded and gave one of his fellow mages a nodded, causing them to leave to retrieve some refreshments. "We will get you something to drink. But first, how was it that you got afflicted by those boil like tumors?"

Maleficus sighed and lowered his forelegs, looking down at the one which had been afflicted by the strange sickness. And spoke out whilst rubbing the recently restored limb. "I never got to see what you described, I was unconscious before I got a look. But I can only guess that it was either one of the griffins' weapons or that strange gas that caused it. Though I am leaning more towards it being that strange glowing artifact that I crushed, along with the talon of the one wielding it, with my hoof. It released a blue flash of light when I crushed it."

The elderly looking horse nodded, contemplating what he had just been told. Then he got worried as he realized something. "That may be the case... wait... Creator. Did you just say that you crushed the artifact barehoofed right?"

Maleficus looked up with a confused look on his face. "Yes?"

The old horse leaned forward, his eyes very much worried. "And you crushed it with your left hoof right? While someone else was holding it?"

Maleficus nodded, still a bit confused. But as he responded, he slowly began to realize just what Cursed Blessing was getting at. and an unease sensation began to fill his stomach. "Yes I did why do youuu... oh.... oh no..."

The two looked at each other for a few seconds, as the entire room fell silent, as everyone began to realize just the seriousness of the situation. And then as one the alicorn and horse turned towards the gathered equines in the room an screamed out at them. "GET THE COMM ORB TO CANTERLOT!"

[Scene Skip]

Princess Celestia leaned into her throne, rubbing her head. The throne room was a bloody mess but it had been cleaned up rather professionally in a short amount of time. Even the cracks in the marble had been repaired. But the mood of the room was tainted, the slaughter that had recently occurred within it was still fresh in the air.

It had only been a day since she had returned and the scars of the battle were clear. Buck, they were even more intense then when the Rattenfänger and the Dragons had invaded.

All of the nobles and commoners within the city had been in a state of shock and had needed to be treated gently as to not risk their health. Nopony of those who had been within the central keep could give a proper recounting of what had happened within the throne room. But from what little information her knights and mages could gather had Maleficus used his flail to break the griffin soldiers within the room before brutally beating up the admiral barehoofed.

There had apparently been a moment when all ponies within the throne room had blacked out, but some of them could remember witnessing Maleficus beating up the large griffin who had been holding the throne and them hostage. It was not much to go by.

But what her mages had found out was that whatever had been blocking the signals of her Comm Orbs had been either destroyed or disabled during that fight. As a all Comm Orbs in Canterlot had managed to send out signals once more. Few could respond however so whatever was causing it was no doubt something the griffins had spread out to better utilize against her nation's communication system.

It was both impressive and aggravating that her freshly made Communication Orb Network had been rendered null and void so quickly. But the fact that whatever the griffins used could be disabled or destroyed was good news. Although nopony knew just what that was. Since no one could remember or properly describe anything that could have caused it.

Sighing she looked down at the floor where she had seen the broken bodies of the griffins. It was no longer any blood around but she could still feel it. The sensation of lives being snuffed out filled the room. It was making her uneasy and uncomfortable.

The room had only been cleaned recently and her throne had been replaced with another one, a temporary replacement until a new one could be constructed. As her old throne had been taken hold of by the griffins had she come to the conclusion that would need a new seat of power, not willing to be reminded of her failure as a ruler that someone had attempted to take her city by taking the throne.

She leaned back a bit in her cushion covered wooden throne and looked up at the ceiling, wondering what options she had now with her failed crusade and the attacks of another nation on her head. This was her third attempt and it had ended with her losing. Sure she may have obtained a statistic victory but in the end had she lost to Maleficus' strategy and knowledge.

Her train of thought was broken by the clattering hooves of a messenger carrying a satchel that was containing something that was glowing through it. "Princess Celestia! One of the Communication Orbs are glowing! It is the one connected to Lord Cursed Blessing of the Horadrim Kingdom!"

She looked over and motioned for the messenger to give her the content of the satchel. "Give us the orb, it must be important for Lord Asclepius to contact us."

The messenger walked over and opened the bag, pulling out the pulsing Comm Orb. As he pulled it free from its container and held it out was it suddenly engulfed by a golden aura as Princess Celestia used her magic to telekinetically grab hold of the sphere and levitated over to her own hoof.

As she held the orb she activated it and spoke into as an image of the elderly leader of the Horadrim Kingdom began to appear within the crystal itself. "This is Princess Celestia, what doest thou wish to tell Us?"

The elderly horse let out a sigh of relief, as if afraid he would not have gotten connected. Which she could understand seeing how almost all of the nation's Comm Orbs were still being blocked by whatever the griffins had. "This is Asclepius speaking. I am glad you are alright Princess Celestia, we have received little words from much of the nation for the past two days. We have managed to fight off or decimate the invasion forces attempting to siege our lands and several of your homes. And we have obtained a lot of information about them. But first I am afraid I have grave news. We have the possibility of a dangerous epidemic on our hooves."

Dire news indeed. But it was news for her. There had been no reports of anyone being afflicted by any manner of lethal sickness. "What do you mean Lord Asclepius? We have received no words of any manner of dangerous sickness spreading."

The old horse sighed and pulled out a vial containing a glowing fluid of some kind. It was impossible to tell what it was or what it truly looked like through the sphere. "We have discovered that one of the griffin artifacts contains a dangerous substance. If exposed to any living tissue it creates glowing blue boil like tumors at a rapid rate. Those boils are filled with a liquid made up of the internal magic and life force of those afflicted by the substance. And they keep draining the magic until the body no longer can produce it. I do not need to tell you how dangerous such a sickness is."

Celestia sucked in air harshly through her teeth at what she had just heard. Such a sickness was the bane for any creature containing magic. Which was most of the living beings in the world from what she knew. "Aye. This... this is foul news."

Her heart clenched as the old horse gave her a sad smile before he continued. The news growing even worse. "But not only that. The liquid if allowed to touch anything, will mutate it wildly, it is raw magic and it act erratically. We do not know if the liquid is what spreads the disease but we know it is dangerous. And even then there is another great danger about this sickness."

She grit her teeth and closed her eyes. Trying to prepare herself to what more dangers this already lethal disease could have.

Sadly enough she still opened her eyes and stared in disbelief. As the elderly horse lord began to describe what could only be described as a horror story. "One of our warriors was afflicted by the sickness, boils were growing up along one of his leg. We had to have his leg amputated and then attempted to destroy it b dumping it into a cauldron of lava. The lava began to glow blue and began to intensify the heat of the lava. We had to throw it off the island as it soon grew far too dangerous. It exploded around five kilometers away from us and yet the force of that explosion was still enough to push aside the clouds, shift our sky ships about fifty meters and shake the entire fortress island of Grithenburg. That cauldron was about thirty galleons worth of lava."

There was a moment of tense silence filling the throne room as Celestia and those who were listening absorbed the information they had just been told. Chills were running down their spines.

And their worries were only growing more intense as the Horse Lord pulled out a scroll and began to open it whilst speaking to her. "We do not know what else this sickness may cause outside of this but it is extremely dangerous. You need to quarantine anyone who shows the following symptoms before it is too late. The symptoms are as following. Drowsiness, nausea, tiredness, fever, they will then go to sleep for a few hours, until finally a sudden intense pain wakes them up as these boils grow out of their flesh and this is followed by abrupt unconsciousness."

Some of the ponies in the room had to press a hoof against their mouths as to not throw up at what came next. "After that the boils will start spreading from the afflicted area to the rest of the body, they looks like glowing fleshy mushrooms. You need to cut off the afflicted area before the boils can spread and then dispose of it quickly, or at least put it inside an isolated contained to not risk it spreading. Do not try to use fire or heat to dispose of the boils. The mutated lifeforms created by the liquid inside the boils can be safely destroyed by fire however."

"Princess. Those symptoms." Celestia looked to her right, one of her Sun Knights who had been fighting the siege.

She gave him a nod as to confirm his words. "Indeed thou are correct Sir High Stance. Those symptoms are identical to what is afflicting our prisoner Admiral Thalon."

The alicorn turned her gaze towards the orb once more and gave her friend a respectful nod. "Thank you for your warning Lord Asclepius. We shalt do Our best to prevent this disease to spread."

The elderly horse gave her a nod and a few words before turning off his end of the Comm Orb. "I shall leave you to your work Princess. I will be sending words to you about what we have found out about the Griffinsm and if we find out anything else about this disease. But I will also be contacting you in then ear future about how we should handle these Griffins. This invasion cannot go unanswered, unlike the Draconic Incursion is this not a lone clan, but a foreign nation. It needs to be handled soon. I will see you soon, be safe."

As the orb stopped glowing and the image disappeared Celestia put it aside on the cushion on her makeshift throne and stood up. She pointed her hoof at the group of worried soldiers, nobles and servants and began to bark out orders to them."Send words to the medical wing! Isolate all prisoners and have the Admiral taken into a secluded room! Have a division of mages aid the medical personal to isolate any pony else who may be afflicted! And somepony get Us the Royal Doctor!"

[Scene Skip]

"They have received the warning Creator." Cursed Blessing stated as he returned the Comm Orb to the messenger who had retrieved it for them.

Maleficus let out a shuddering breath as he slowly stood up from the bed , his bones creaking and groaning loudly as he did so. Though the sound grew less and less and his movements became more smooth and light. "Good. Hopefully I didn't cause another disaster this time."

"You could not know that these invaders were utilizing such dangerous artifacts Creator. If anything is the fact that you were the one afflicted by the disease a good thing. No one else on this planet would have been able to recover so quickly from it. And it allowed us to discover the cause of the sickness in a relatively short amount of time." Maleficus just snorted and shook his head at those words.

He then stood up on his hind legs and began to stretch his body. Raising his forelegs and moving them apart, pulling on his hind legs and spread out his wings before slowly moving them. He kept making slow and steady reaching movements with all of his limbs one by one or two at a time.

For some reason was his internal magic slower to regenerate then it had been before. And that worried him. A lot.

After a few moments of slow stretches the alicorn felt that his body could move properly again. A horse entered the room, carrying a tray with a tankard and some glasses, and he felt his dry throat remind itself and decided to rectify that.

He walked over to the horse with the tray and took the tankard from the tray with a grateful nod before downing the entire thing. Not bothering with a glass, instead he hefted the entire thing to his lips and raised it ups while raising his head. Cool refreshing water gushed down his mouth and throat. After gulping down the final drop of life giving liquid he put the tankard back on the tray the horse was holding.

The alicorn then began to walk out of the room. Speaking out to Cursed Blessing as he did so. "I am going away for a few days. I will be keeping my beacon with me so you can contact me if you need to. You will need to handle the Equestria and Griffin situation whilst I am away."

"What about us Creator?" One of the thestrals asked in a curious voice.

The alicorn just spoke back, not even looking back as he began to walk through the doorway. "I believe you and the wyverns need a home base of your own. The horses will help you with the planning. But the construction and location will be up to you. But do keep in mind that you need to keep the connection between yourselves, the horses and myself a secret. So try to keep the architecture, culture, government and armaments different from the horses."

All the horses and thestrals in the room looked at one another as their creator's words registered in their heads. By the time the awkward silence had filled the room was Maleficus out in the halls and moving in an unknown direction.

The silence lasted for a good while until Cursed Blessing coughed into his hoof and spoke out to the group of thestrals. "Well then. No meaning in standing around and staring at each other. Let us move to one of the dining halls and have a meal whilst we discuss what to do."

"Did you just say 'whilst'?" One of the thestrals asked with a raised eyebrow.

The elderly looking horse blushed and shook his head. "Sorry, Celestia's constant use of that pony based Olden English accent of hers has apparently affected me slightly."

[Scene Skip]

Up on the roof of the tower Maleficus looked out over the lands beneath the clouds. He was leaning on top of one of the battlements whilst doing so. Thinking.

About how the hell he was meant to get back to Canterlot without risking exposing himself. "I cannot go there by sky ship t would take too long. I cannot fly so that's out. Any wyverns I take will no doubt be spotted before I even pass the mountains."

He thought and thought. Around him horses were moving around whilst the thestrals were laying down on any comfortable spots they could find to sleep and rest. Whilst along the inner walls of the massive fortress rested the wyverns. All of his latest creations were exhausted from their last endeavor and he would not disturb their sleep.

*If only I could find a way to teleport. I know no one who has even developed such a spell yet. And if there are any magical creatures with such abilities do I doubt they would be out in the open. The only thing I got that is slightly similar are the Black Beacons and the Comm Orbs. But those only transmit sound and/or images... Except...* He raised his head from where he was resting it, and a look of realization began to fill his face.

"It could work... I mean... I can transmit my mind and essence through them... Why not.... why not my body?" He reached into his saddlebag and pulled out his black beacon. Examining it closely he frowned a bit before pulling out his light screen, which was in its default shape of a white blob of gelatin like mass.

He walked over to a more empty spot on the tower and put down his beacon upon its surface. Then he spread out the solid light screen and left it hovering over the black beacon and spoke out a command to the magical device.

"Verbal Command. Initiate Interface Connection. Interface Command. Scan Object. Additional Interface Command. Planetary Trace of Scanned Object." The screen lit up with moving bars of blue symbols and numbers. While a white light shone over the black beacon. The interface screen hummed for about five minutes until there was a loud crackle from it. And then an image of the planet appeared on the screen.

The planet was glowing in a beating white light once every third second. After the seventh there was a sound of a bell from the screen and the image of the planet was zoomed out and over thirty black dots appeared upon the surface of the planet. And Maleficus got an excited smile on his face as he saw one of those black dots marked down near Canterlot.

But then he frowned, as when he pressed the black dot by Canterlot the message [Object Obscured] appeared on the screen. Tracing his hoof over the screen he tried to get a good look of the location, but it was deep within the mountain directly north of Canterlot. Possibly underground. "The Beacon must be buried beneath something that is interfering with the connection. Probably not safe to attempt to use it. Best try another one."

The second closest beacon was in the Everfree Forest. He pressed the symbol marked in the forest and smirked as an image appeared. It was an image of a large hill in the middle of a swampy looking location.In a deep put on top of the hill lay the black Beacon. Pressing his hoof against the image of the beacon his smirk grew as the message [Connected] appeared on the screen.

"Perfect. Now I just need to work out how to transport myself through the beacon. Not to mention I will need a proper disguise to not make Celestia unlike to suspect me." He grabbed hold of the beacon beneath the Interface Screen and held it up above it, focusing his magic through it. And looked on the screen, he saw the beating black dot marking that the beacon he was holding was active, it was marked on the southern east coast of Equestria.

*Good I can trace my intact beacons. Now let's see. I will need to get the beacon on the other end to activate. I should be able to do so through the Interface.* His thought were racing as he sent a command to the Black Beacon in the Everfree Forest. And his smirk kept its wideness as he saw the message [Object Activted] appear on the screen.

He closed his eyes and focused feeling the magic through the beacon and nodded with satisfaction as he felt the connection to the new beacon. It had a different sensation then the beacon Cursed Blessing was taking care of. It was difficult to put to words but if he could it would be like comparing the fur of a cat with the claw of a bird.

The beacon of Horadrim had a smooth sensation when connecting to it, but the sensation was rough when you left it. Like having your brain itching as you were disconnecting a straight and clear phone call. While the beacon of Everfree felt sharp and distinct, and yet had an uneven and curved presence, like you would have to move along a curve to reach it.

He traced the line and he reached the point and he could feel the connection to the beacon. The first thing he did was look through it, he could see the crater and the sky as well as the various trees and vegetation. It looked more like a jungle then a swamp.

Nodding to himself he had managed to connect through the beacon. now, he needed to figure out a way to move his body through the connection. He stood there for a long time, eyes closed, as he began to channel his magic through the beacon, trying to convey a functioning transport command through the Interface and the beacons.

After an hour he let out a huff of frustration as he made no progress. It was easier to transfer his senses and essence through the beacon then transporting his body. If he could only figure out a way to properly utilize the connection between the beacons he could transport his entire self, body and mind as one, to mimic a gateway system.

The problem was how to properly engage the connection to allow his body to move through safely. After all, the beacon was not the largest of objects so it might be that he needed to handle the size difference between his body and the beacon to properly transport himself through it.

*...Wait a moment... I already have a way to do that!* Realization filled him and he focused his magic over his body, and his physical shape seems to melt into a black miasma before melding into the floor as a shadow. The beacon lands on the stone with a clink and the shadowy shape of Maleficus swims towards the beacon before pushing itself against it.

*Okay. Let's do this!* An equine head took shape on the edge of the shadow, three open holes letting lights through marking three eyes. Each eye was narrowed and focused at the black pyramid before them.

The shadow rose up as black miasma rose and the floor began to vibrate as Maleficus focused his magic through his shadow shape and into the beacon. Within the core of the darkness there was a shining light of some kind and Maleficus let out a mental cry of triumph as his shadow form slipped past the moon glass and moved towards the light within the beacon.

It was like a swirling mass of black ichor being swallowed by a tiny dot of light. The light growing brighter the more of the shadowy miasma moved through it. And then as the final wisp of shadow slipped into the glowing light within the beacon, the beacon flashed brightly before the light disappeared. Leaving the beacon laying there on the stone floor of the tower.

[Scene Skip]

The world around him was pure white, the only thing he knew was that he needed to move forward. After a few seconds he could see something approaching from the vast white void. A black dot, which began to grow larger as he approached. He could see a black circle, within it was a shivering image of a crater, a cloudy sky and murky plants seen on the upper edges.

Maleficus just kept moving, it felt like he was swimming, and yet there was nothing around him. As he reached the spot he thought he saw something in his left blind spot. But as he slowly turned around to look, his head touched the black sphere. And he was gone from the white void. Even as an almost incorporeal and incomprehensible shape floats between the two black dots that marked the beacons, looking with curious misshapen eyes at where the alicorn had moved.

Before turning away and floating off to somewhere else within the white void.

[Scene Skip]

The Everfree Forest was the wildest and most dangerous of woods within the land. And yet it was serene and calm as well, its dangerous plants and animals are not enough to remove the beauty of nature that flows from this wood. But this serene calmness is broken, as within the murky and swampy area of the forest, within a deep crater upon a hill, a black pyramid starts to glow white.

A loud zapping sound is heard and the bright light flares up, brightening the entire area and even parts of the tree crowns. There is a loud thump as the light fades. And as it fades it reveals a certain alicorn stallion, lying on his back, both of his forelegs crossed in contemplating frustration, as his head is buried into the side of the crater.

*Why does this keep happening?* Maleficus thought to himself while standing up from the ground. His head moving out of the ground without any resistance, the entire area down to his neck covered with mud and muck. His horn flares with crimson light and he shakes his head as he snorts out dirt and snot out of his nostrils. Muck, mud and dirt flies all over the crater for a few instances, splattering upon the ground with loud wet smacks.

Dragging his hoof through his mane and over the crevices of his pelt, jaws and horn the black pelted alicorn made certain he had removed all of the wet dirt from his body. After rubbing his eyelids clean of dust he opened his eyes and looked around.

"No one around. Well that is to be expected. This is the Everfree Forest after all. Hmmm... better get my disguise in order." After muttering his thoughts out loud Maleficus pointed a hoof at the black beacon resting upon the ground. A runic circle appeared beneath and above the beacon, and a pulsing green light began to flow over it. It would be interesting to see how much magic he could grant a body using beacon as a catalyst in its creation.

"The horses have internal magic which they can utilize externally with practice, even if not as efficient as a unicorn or pegasus. But what if I created a body with the ability to channel magic externally to an even greater effect then a unicorn?" A strange smile grew across Maleficus lips as he mutters this. It looked slightly crooked, adding a slight sinister element that had not been there before. And as he thought about the possibilities had an almost absent look came into his eyes, as if he his mind wasn't all there.

A sudden gust of wind broke his deluded state and he blinked before shaking his head, still maintaining his magical power. After clearing his head he returned his attention to the glowing beacon and tried to remember where he was in the creation progress. "Where was I??"

After a few seconds he nodded to himself, as he finally remembered what he needed to do next.

Standing up on his hind legs he placed his left hoof up against his muzzle, bit his lips with his fang, and let some blood smear over his hoof. Holding out both his hooves over the beacon he focused, crimson light emitting from his eyes and horn.

A bright light hid the ritual and its catalyst, but as it kept glowing was a sickening sound emitting from it. A sound that was like the sound of tearing and ripping flesh and bone. Maleficus began to trace his bloodied hoof in a half circle, and began to focus on how he wanted the new body to look like.

*...Young... not yet adult... male... tall and slightly skinny for a horse foal of five years age... highly developed magical tissue... located within the cranial and bone matter... essentially making him a living wand... colouration of the pelt... grey... colouration of the mane an tail... white... colouration of the eyes... blue... red tribal marking upon the forehead... the Horadrim Symbol...* Through his mental focus he kept weaving and tracing his bloodied hoof over the glowing mass that was growing before him. And as he finally reached the final part he lowered his hooves and let the magic fade.

Before him stood the soulless body of a five years old horse colt. Gray pelt with white mane and tail. Sky blue eyes. A bit skinny but tall, slightly smaller then a young adult pony. The crimson symbol of the Horadrim painted upon his forehead.

After inspecting the body he nodded to himself. Nothing was out of place and he could not sense any deformations or mutations. Now he just needed to possess it.

Once more Maleficus shifted into a mass of darkness which at first engulfed the horse foal body, before seemingly being absorbed through the eyes, mouth and ears. There was a moment of silence, before the body suddenly convulsed and the eyes lit up with eyes, as Maleficus tried to breath in a body that hadn't had the opportunity to even breath yet.

"Ha! Ha! Gods! Ha! Forgot! Ha! To Develop! Ha! the muscles! Ha!" After a few moments of rapid breathing while using his magic to enforce and develop the muscles and organs to work on their own, Maleficus rested his young face in his hooves, trying to regain control over his breathing.

"Gods... it's so much easier creating a body by altering and shifting one based upon my original body. Why did I think it would be the same when creating a body clone from scratch?" After his small moment of self lecturing the small horse stood up from the ground and began to walk around a bit. Getting the feeling for his new legs. He then began to carefully climb up the side of the crater.

What lay beyond the edge of the deep crater was a large ruin covered by vegetation. There was the remains of a crumbled old wall and what looked like a collapsed large building, now overgrown by trees and bushes. To the left of the larger structure was another structure, this one not as overgrown. It was the remains of a foundation of a square building, toppled and decayed columns and pillars lay scattered across the ground and a partly overgrown staircase.

"What's this place? It looks... Roman? Greek? Similar in architectural design at least." The disguised alicorn muttered as he walked past what had once been a gatehouse of some kind. He looked left and right, taking all the sights of the ruined structures and walls trying to discern their purposes and why they were built here.

His hoof hit something, he looked down to see the upper half of a large equine head made out of some fine marble like stone, it was almost completely covered with moss and dirt. He followed the trail of fragments and saw a crumble stood in front of the staircase, looking down curiously down, down into the dark crevices he could spot among the roots and vines covering the underground entrance.

"Well at least I can tell it was made by ponies. That much is certain. But I am curious what lay down there. Sure looks like it was important if they even built a separate shrine for it." Raising a hoof the young horse body of Maleficus ignited a white aura from said hoof an tore off a good shunk of the vines from the cave entrance, warping some of the old and dry vines around a moist wooden stick.

*Huh the magic of this body is working great thus far. That felt almost as easy as when I am casting magic in my alicorn body.* He though to himself with a proud smile as he looked at the levitating torch. Before lighting said torch on fire by holding a floating candle sized flame in the air just above his hoof, before pushing the candle size flame against the plant matter of the torch. And watched as the improvised torch began to burn after a few moments.

Letting his newly made light source float above him he began to walk down the stairs and went past the remaining vines covering the entrance. He came into what looked like either a mausoleum or a shrine of some kind. There were several dozens of broken and intact pots around, as well as what looked like a big open sarcophagus, with its lid resting against its side.

He walked around the sarcophagus, even looks inside of it, noting that it was empty. Clearly something had laid in there a long time ago but it was long gone. Shaking his head he looked at the walls and the pots, trying to spot anything interesting.

"More then probable that tomb raiders cleaned out this place centuries ago. Doubt there's anything of value left here except for a few... trinkets..." His voice trailed off as he spotted something at the back of the room ,behind the sarcophagus. There was a big cave entrance, a natural cave entrance, that had no doubt been blocked by a door once. But which had rotted away ages ago.

He walked past the cave entrance and floated the torch into the chamber. There was a deep staircase carved out of the moist rock, leading fifteen meters down. Maleficus followed the stone steps deeper into the cavern. Until he reached a seemingly dry and empty chamber, where he could see a stone altar with an old bowl, probably a palce to place offerings. And on the walls behind the altar, he could see something painted upon the wall.

And so he raised the torch a bit, not bringing it too close as he did not want to risk damaging the cave paintings. And what he saw. Was not what he had been expecting.

"...What the actual fuck?" The light of the torch illuminated the large old cavern wall. And upon it, painted in a clearly old caveman, or cavepony in this case, art style, was the image of a running skeletal pegasus, covered in green flames. And if it was as old as Maleficus suspected, had ponies probably not even developed civilized societies when it was made.

[Scene Skip]

Princess Celestia was standing outside of the Central Palace of Canterlot. The palace itself was kept locked while she had servants and healers make sure there were no residue of whatever had infected the admiral.

Next to her stood a white pelted mare with red mane and tail with the cutie mark of a red heart with a bandage roll, a small medical bottle and a jar of leeches next to it. This was the Royal Doctor, Health Care, who was her personal healer and one of the most experienced and knowledgeable healers in Canterlot.

They were both walking away from the palace, towards a carriage that would be taking Celestia and Health Care out of the city and towards a certain location. Her adviser Solid Pink would be handling the businesses and errands of the city and the Sun Court during her absence.

As they entered the carriage Celestia finally asked her doctor something she had been unable to until they were in private as they were now. "What have thou found our Lady Health Care?"

The young but brilliant healer smiled and brought out her notes and scrolls on what she had discovered about the ailment to her Princess. "It is fascinating our majesty. This sickness is unlike anything I have ever seen in my life or read about in any of our records."

Celestia already knew this but let her speak of it, as it was best to let the brilliant, if slightly weird, doctor to have her moment. "And how dangerous doest thou think it may be?"

Health Care's face turned serious and she pointed at some of the notes she had made while explaining. Just how deadly the disease was. "Deadly. If we hadn't cut off the admiral's leg he would have rapidly shriveled up as those boils drained all of his body's internal magic and body fluids. I can assume that these boils, when the victim is dead, will alter the magic fluid within them and erupt into a cloud of spores or mist that will spread the disease further."

"This be a hellish disease." Celestia stated with a frown as she thought about how she and Solid Pink along wit Health Care had rushed into the castle's medical wing to see the Admiral's entire talon transformed into a mass of tumors, spreading rapidly up towards the rest of his body. She had been forced to tell the healers to cut off the admiral's foreleg as to not risk his death.

The leg had then been placed within a glass container, which she had personally disposed off by filling the jar with conjured acid. Thinking that it would be a valid option as heat was not. That had proven a mistake as the acidic mass had transformed when coming in contact with the liquid magic and became an acidic slime monster.

At least five of her guards had nearly been grappled and devoured by the creature before she vaporized it with a blast of intense fire and plasma. Those guards were still quivering from that experience.

Her trail of thoughts were broken when Health Care spoke up again. "Indeed. It was a good thing you disposed of the leg before it had time to rot or the disease might have spread further then the amount afflicted thus far."

"Five servants, two healers, six guards and one of the sun knights. Along with a high ranking military prisoner of war. All beings We now hath to place in a quarantine prison." Princess Celestia murmured as she looked out of the window of the carriage. She could see where they were heading, even though it was a fair distance away. They were heading south east, towards the Valley of Dragons, where a large tower, isolated for miles, would be the future home for those who had been afflicted by the Magic Pox, as the ponies had begun to call it.

She intended for it to only be temporary, and once the ponies in question were determined to be clear and healthy, she would have them released. At least, that is if they are not bearing any risks in spreading the disease any longer.

[Scene Skip]

A lone griffin was slowly creeping through the thick jungles north west of the Dragon Coast as the settling sun makes the already dangerous vegetation even more so. The griffin was clad in a plain travelers cloak with a sidebag strapped to their left side. They were not lost, no, they were heading a direct line towards a specific location. One they had already scouted out days ago.

They soon reached an open clearing next to a round, almost spherical, stone covered with moss. Pulling out a lantern from their side bag the griffin flew up to the top of the rock and lit the candle with some flint and steel. They then waved the lantern up in the air, swaying the light in the fading light of the approaching night.

The griffin just stands there, still holding up the lantern, waving it once every third minute. Before they freezes, as thy feel a sharp blade pressed against their lower spine. A dark, but feminine, voice speaks up from behind them. "Are you alone?"

Lowering the lantern the griffin responds, not turning their head to look at the person holding a blade against the spine. The voice is light but still clearly masculine, marking this griffin as a male. "Yes. Just as promised. I was the one requesting this after all, not much sense in breaking the terms I stated myself."

The blade is removed and a pony clad in a combination of leather, chain mail and plate armour with a solid bar visor helmet, steps out of the shadows. Sitting down on the boulder next to the nervous griffin the mare nods and speaks out in a no nonsense fashion. "Good. What do you have to report?"

Letting out a breath of relief the griffin blew out the candle of the lantern before pulling out a scroll. he hands it over to the pony who is quick to open it and read it. While the griffin explains what he has found out. "Things are bad in Gryphon. King Craver's artificers have begun constructing something by the Thunder Mountain. It is top secret and those who even dares to question about it are dragged of to join the army, work in the mines or just disappear all together. But at least he's not as active with his 'feasts' because of this project taking up his time."

The pony kept reading the report. But asked the griffin a question while reading through it. "What manner of project do you think it is?"

He just shook his head and rubbed a claw over his hood covered head. Brown feathers spotted beneath the dark brown hood. "It is big whatever it is. And from what I can tell, was it started by his most loyal servant, Lord Archos Ironbeak, son of Earl Cahal and next in line to rule the Ironbeak Clan and in turn control most of the Eagle Coast. He is a smart griffin who is famous for developing traps, plans and tactics for not only battles but political and emotional agendas as well. This griffin is the main reason why King Craver managed to topple his father."

Pulling out a sketched image of a regal griffin with a cold look in his eyes the pony nodded. Before resuming reading the report. "So whatever this project is it will have great significance for the King's ambition to loot Equestria."

Nodding the griffin looked up at the darkening skies, his talons nervously tapping against the rock beneath them. "Correct. I also fear that my position as messenger will not be enough to give you better information. They are already suspicious of me and have started giving me fewer missions."

At this the pony looked up rapidly, giving him an intense stare. "So quickly?"

Sighing the male griffin just nodded before explaining his suspicions. "Lord Archos is good at what he does. If it wasn't for him then I doubt the King would have even taken a seat on the throne. Even if I have only spied for a two days is it still enough for some of his agents to notice. I didn't get any new duties after lunch, which is not a good thing for a messenger in the Royal Palace."

The mare slowly stared at him before turning her eyes back to the report. Completing it, and pocketed it in a saddle bag. "Hmmm... Very well then. You have upheld your end of the bargain. And so shall we."

A hopeful look come into the griffin's eyes. "Then?"

Nodding the mare got off the rock and pointed at him. "Yes. You and your younger siblings will be given permission to settle within Bangcolt and kept safe from King Craver's court. Return here with your family and we will guide you to the colony."

"Thank you Lady Dragon Slayer." The sheer relief and joy in the griffin's voice and stance was clear as he bowed his head almost so low that his beak scrapped against the boulder he was sitting on.

The pony called Dragon Slayer just waved a hoof at him before motioning for him to get moing. "I am no lady, and there is no need to thank me Chull. It should be the other way around, as without you offering us this information, we would know far too little about what is going on within that kingdom of yours. Now get your siblings, we will be waiting."

It would be an hour later that a relieved Chull would come with three small griffin chicks, each only about three or two years old, sleeping in a claw woven basket of straw. He would be meet by the mare named Dragon Slayer and a dragon named Clash. Who would lead him to his family's new home. The Equestrian colony of Bangcolt. Narrowly evading being tortured and executed for treason, and having his siblings served as the king's next supper.

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 7/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 24 Days]

The morning sun rose up in the distant horizon, granting sun light once more to the surface of the nation Equestria. And a certain disguised alicorn was sitting on a rock outside of the ancient shrine he had discovered yesterday. Currently he was finishing writing some lines with a quill in a large tome with a cover made out of black cragadile leather and pages made out of transmutated swamp wood.

"Okay that should do it. I have sketched the cavern and the ruins. Now I just need to figure out where to go from here. This is jut insane. How could there be a depiction of myself from nine thousand years into the past? It doesn't make any bloody sense!" Growling a bit in frustration he slammed his small hoof again the cover of the large tome he had created. The book was the same size as his young body, making it a bit awkward to carry, if you're not a skilled magic user capable of levitation heavy objects or making them lighter.

After a few moments of intense frustration he just let dropped his face into his hooves and let out a long and dragged out sigh in frustration. It was so nerve-wracking to even consider the option that he had somehow time traveled, but the other option was that the ancient ponies had foreseen his arrival, and no one had bothered to record the warning properly.

There were so many possibilities that it made his head hurt just thinking of a third of them.

He then slammed his left front hoof against the ground, making an imprint, as he began to shout out in frustration. "Argh! Dammit! I can't let this distract me any further! I need to get to Canterlot and see them! This new discovery will just have to... have to..." His shouting trailed of as he got a contemplating look on his face. As he began to consider something he hadn't thought about.

Maleficus turned to look at his book and. He thought about what he had just considered and then he closed his eyes and began to mutter and began to figure out how his new idea could work in his favour. "If it is... well it would... yes... and now that I think about it... indeed... this could work better then my initial idea!"

A wide happy grin appeared on his face and quickly reached out and took his tome and strapped it to his back. He then looked around the swampy area for a bit before pointing eastwards. "Time for action!"

And then he began to gallop through the trees and bushes of the Everfree Forest. Running straight towards the east.

[Scene Skip]

Princess Celestia was sitting in her carriage taking her back to Canterlot. The inspection of the tower had gone well, Health Care had decided to remain behind as to make certain that the tower would be ready for the patients. The young and genius healer would do her utmost to make the facilities of the tower top notch.

So Celestia had complete faith in her personal healer's abilities to handle the tower. So for now she was travelling alone in the carriage back towards Canterlot. She had to admit that it had been nice to not be part of the court for an late day. Although to sleep in the carriage had not been pleasant, as even if the cushions were soft and comfortable, was it often that she slipped off them when rolling around in her sleep. So even if it had not been the worst thing she had ever slept in was it not something she enjoyed.

But the true reason why she endured it was because of a set of features she had installed into the carriage.

The carriage's interior was rather large, with two large cushions as eats, each cushion big enough for four ponies. Or two alicorns. Between the cushions stood a small table, with enchanted cup ware and teapot. No matter how harsh the carriage would shake would the cup ware and teapot never spill or fall.

And there was also a single silver tray, which could be swiftly filled up with sweet cookies, pastries or other baked goods from two cupboards hidden in the walls of the carriage. From which Celestia was currently levitating several cupcakes, muffins and cookies with an eager grin.

After two hours of sipping tea and munching on various sweets she heard something. The tapping of a hoof against the carriage, the guard on the upper seat wanted to speak with her. She opened the left side doorway and spoke out loudly over the sound of the carriage's wheels rolling over the road, she had to put a little effort to be heard. "Yes?"

The voice of the Sun Knight protecting the carriage and its pullers cried out from above. "I have spotted somepony up ahead by the Y pathway of the road! They appear to be a single pony, a young pony, walking northwards from the southern road.!" Celestia blinked at that, that was not what she had been expecting. She hadn't even heard of any ponies travelling from the southern road before.

The Southern Road was often called the Ghost Road since nopony had walked along it since it was constructed. It was built along the eastern border of the Everfree Forest and ended just before the river that ran eastwards from the Everfree Forest and into the Foal Mountains and out to the sea. What lay past that river was the Unexplored South.

Nopony had come from there and nopony had traveled there. At most there was a singular outpost, a fort by the name of Plain Mane Fort, no other structures could be found in the south. Too many ponies fearing the Everfree Forest to even be willing to live close to it.

But something was bothering her. Even if the pony had come from the south. How could they have survived on their own? Were they truly a single pony? Or were there more ponies ahead or after them? "Art they truly alone?"

After a few moments the knight responded. "Yes your majesty. Not another soul to be seen for miles. I think they are lost, well either that or they only just recently found the road. Hard to tell."

She thought for a moment. This was a sensitive situation. It was a stranger on the road, it should be okay to help them. But she was the Princess and she would no doubt get scolded by some of her officers for taking risks by helping a stranger on the road. Especially when she was in a carriage with only a single guard and two pullers, no matter how powerful she was.

"We would like to see this stranger for ourselves before deciding anything. Just a moment." Closing her eyes she focused her magic and shifted into the shape of a pink pegasus with pink mane and the cutie mark of a sun over a rain cloud.

She got off her cushion and stepped over to the doorway and leaned her head out to look out. Again, she was not expecting what she would see.

The young pony walking along the road looked to be only ten at most. Easily a juvenile. So why were they alone out there on the road. Was this pony a refugee? An orphan? So many questions.

Finally she decided to find out herself. And now that she could see that here was no real danger, she did not feel like it was any issue in giving the young pony a ride in the carriage. She turned her head to the guard sitting on the front of the roof of the carriage and spoke out ti him. "Thou may offer the young foal a ride to Canterlot. It is fine if they decline, but We shalt have thee extend the offer in any case."

The knight nodded and Celestia stepped back before sitting down once more on her cushion. The door was left open and she closed her eyes and focused her magic through her eardrums, listening as her guard greeted the young traveler.

"Hey there young traveler." A bit informal but perhaps that was the best option, this wasn't an adult and if they were bothered by advanced etiquette they would no doubt had not bothered walking the road.

A young male voice answered the knight's question. Giving Celestia the knowledge that the strange young foal was a colt. "Hello there. Fancy carriage. And even fancier armour. Are you not worried about bandits with all that fancy stuff and so few guards? I mean you look like a big treasure chest being dragged around for kicks." And apparently a slightly rude if intellectual colt at that. Although she did find the description funny, if a bit childish.

"Few bandits in these parts, too close to Canterlot and the Everfree Forest for their lot's taste. And even then do I doubt they'd want to risk the ire of the one we're carrying." Now that was a bit too much information. The knight should have realized that she did not want her identify revealed or hinted at like that.

"Ah. Makes sense. So what do you want? Well not to be rude but I doubt you'd normally stop and talk with a complete stranger." Good. It was wise to be cautious. This young colt had a bright had. Even if he was being rather hypocritical about not being rude since he had been that since the conversation started.

"Want to offer you a ride to Canterlot. You look like you've been walking for a while and we're heading in the same direction. So I was told to offer you a ride to the city. You are free to deny it as it is an offer, not a demand." That was a decent explanation, if a bit oddly worded. They could at least have used one of the fake names she frequently used when walking out s a pink pegasus. But she could not fault them since she doubted many of her guards could keep track of her various alternate identities.

"Eh sure. You look too fancy, not to mention not clever enough, to be some kind of scumbag stealing travelers or children off the road to sell as slaves." There was a momentary pause as the words of the foal struck the knight and the ponies dragging the carriage.

A suffering sigh was release and the guard just muttered. "Get inside before I change my mind you rude little brat."

"Okay Stuffy Mcstuffington." The door opened and the young foal climbed into carriage. Celestia wondered if this was how she had been as a foal, and if so, she would apologies to her mother if she saw her in the future.

Her Sun Knight didn't appreciate the snark of the foal and retorted, only to be interrupted before he could even state his name. "My name is-"

"Don't care!" The foal just stated as he closed the door to the carriage behind himself. And turned and waved at the staring pegasus who looked like she was trying to figure out what had just occurred. "Sup lady! Thanks for the ride!"

He walked over to the free large cushion and sat down on his rear on it. Rather then laying down on it like most ponies did. The colt was humming a strange tune while opening his large tome onto his lap and pulled out a quill from inside his mane and began to write in the book.

There was a moment of awkward silence as the carriage began to move once more. Celestia sipped her tea and ate some cookies before she asked the young colt why he was alone on the road. "Why were thee doing out there on the road all alone young one?"

The foal didn't look up from his book and just responded while writing. "Oh I am going to see the Order of the Golden Cross at Canterlot."

Her ears perked at that, was this young pony seeking to join one of the biggest knightly orders in the land? It would be a good thing for him, as it might make him learn to not be so rude. "Oh? Doest thou seek to join them?"

The young colt surprised her by snorting and waving his left foreleg as if stating ''no way". What? Pffft! No! I am not going to join a knightly order! I am going to ask them permission to use their library for my research. I am also going to ask the Princess if I can use her library as well but I'd like to see the library of the Temple of Law first."

She blinked a few times before she started laughing at the sheer audacity of the young colt before her. It was so hilarious it made her crack into laughter. "Hahahahaha! Oh my! You art an ambitious little pony!"

With a confused look on his face the young colt stopped writing and stared at her before stating. "Pony? I am not a pony!"

Coughing a bit as she regained control over herself she took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. Absentmindedly pulling back a lock of mane over her ear she looked at the colt, a bit confused as to why he said he wasn't a pony. And so she poured herself a new cup of tea to drink while asking. "Well then, what art thee then if not a pony?"

The young colt smiled, put away his quill into his mane, stood up on his hind legs on the cushion. With his book held to his side, and pointed a hoof towards the ceiling of the carriage. And proceeded to speak out as if he was proclaiming the next greatest thing since butter. "I am a horse of the Horadrim Clan! Sure I am only five but I am still a horse."

"Pffffft! Hurgh! Kaaa! Huuu! W-what!?" The pink pegasus spat out the mouthful of tea she had been drinking, coughed violently before staring in shock at the foal she had thought to be a ten years old pony foal.

Once again the young foal proclaimed proudly to the interior of the carriage. "I am a horse! A proud member of the Sages of the Horadrim Clan!"

Celestia stared for a bit before she tried to figure out what a horse foal was doing so far from home. From what she knew were the horses were caring and protective of their foals as their entire species were rather limited in numbers and not to mention having been extinct until three decades ago. "W-well. What is one so important as thyself doing so far away from home?"

The foal rolled his eyes and sat down onto the cushion, holding out his left hoof and levitated a cupcake into it with a crimson glow around his hoof. Making Celestia realize that this young foal, was rather talented as a mage, thus confirming his status as a member of the Horadrim Clan. "Oh gramps is always busy and doesn't let me do stuff on my own. He keeps doting on me like I am made of glass and won't let me leave the rest of the Clan. Ever."

Slowly she began to realize, just what this meant. "So thee..."

With a proud grin the colt looked at her, before nodding, confirming her suspicions. "Ran away? Yes. Not the first time even. Only the longest I've managed to keep away from that grumpy old goat."

Her brain froze for a bit before she asked, slightly stuttering, the foal a rather straight to the point question."B-but why!?"

With a determined look on his face the young foal stood up once more and pointed his hoof towards the heavens. Shouting out his ambitions to the world, or rather, the carriage. "Because I need to prove something to those useless old stumps who call themselves the wisest, smartest and all around better then those less then a century old!"

Celestia stared for a bit before coming up with a response to that."Aaaand what may that be?"

A grin grew on the foal's muzzle as he held up his book above his head and shouted out once more. "I am going to prove to them that knowledge, research and achievements are not exclusively to the adult and the old. And if what I am trying to prove is correct then it will affect all of Equestria!"

Chuckling a bit at that Celestia thought it adorable that a foal only half a decade old thought he would be able to prove the knowledge of those decades, if not centuries, older then himself wrong. "And what doest thy theory consist of?"

What he said next made her brain freeze and you could almost hear glass breaking in the background. "That the soul fragments of a greater entity is creating both heroes and villains across the world. And has for unknown ages."

Celestia stared at him. Long and hard. For about a minute, the foal just kept grinning and holding up his book. Before she finally stated. "...What?"

The foal sat down again, huggging his book to his barrel. Grinning childishly with glee as he resumed his dialogue. "I have discovered a pattern in the few notes and books about pony and horse history. There have always been a rise of villains and heroes. Evil rise, Good rise, then there are five outcomes. Good wins, Evil wins, Both lose, Both wins or Nothing happens. And many times it is a combination of the various outcomes. Like for example Evil win, then Evil lose, then neither wins. And so on."

Celestua was getting an awkward and uneasy feeling inside of her. And it wasn't gas. No. What this colt was saying. Was making her nervous, about just how authentic it might be. "...Aaaannd?"

"This has been occurring for such a long time that no one has bothered trying to figure out WHY this consistent pattern happen. But then I discovered something a year ago while sneaking away from my gramps' guards while near some creepy old." The foal grinned and opened his book and showed a drawing of an old ruin. In the ruin was a crude cave painting that gave Celestia chills as she saw what the cave painting was depicting. It was a crude wall painting of a pegasus skeleton covered in green flames.

The foal kept talking eagelry while pointing at the image of the cave. "I found an old ruin built around an old cave, and within it was an old cave painting. From what I was able to discern with my spells and lessons of archaeology could I determine that the wall painting was a least a thousand years old. And it depicts a skeletal pegasus, on fire, running through a forest. It had been made at least nine centuries before Maleficus Victoria first appeared!"

She stared, mouth open, before trying to speak up. Only to be interrupted."...Wha-"

The young horse kept going, not noticing that he was interrupting the pink pegasus mare as her mouth opened to speak outwards of shock. "This gave me my first realization! Maleficus has always been spoken off as a recent danger, a calamity that was wrought upon us recently through some sort of dark magic. But this disproves that! In fact, if what I was able to determine from the runes, hieroglyphs and mosaics within the ruins around the cave I was able to discover something,"

Celestia was having a hard time digesting all of this information and grabbed the left side of her forehead while muttering out in stutters. "W-what?"

"A set of mosiacs depicting a falling green star, which is shattered in the heavens above ancient pony and horse cities! But what was interesting is what comes next! The mosaic depicted the fragments of an equine skeleton reassembling itself, but it also depicted green shards that fell from the explosions. And how they landed upon ponies and horses."

Realization began to fill her and she stared at the foal. "Wait, thou cannot be seriously meaning to say-"

And yet again she was interrupted by the young foal as he stood up on his chair, held up his big book over his head and cried out with a grin. "Yes! If what I could translate is correct then the ancient ponies foresaw the arrival of Maleficus! Not only that! They also discerned that when Maleficus was broken against the surface of the world his SOUL was shattered as well! Spreading out across the world and landing upon several ponies and horses! And guess what the mosaic protracted those horses and ponies as later!?"

The truth dawned upon her and she stared with glazed eyes at the book. Muttering absentmindedly. "...Heroes and villains."

"Exactly!" He cried out with a wide grin and pointed his left hoof at the stunned disguised princess, almost booping her nose.

The young foal just went into a rant, hugging his book to his breast as he spin around on his cushion. "Maleficus impacted our world centuries before his second arrival! The ancient equines no doubt managed to banish him somehow, probably sending him into the heavens with some kind of spell or ritual! But that did not solve the anything! The ancient ponies only delayed the danger and he fell down here again as the Green Star! And this time he landed in OUR time period! Shattering a second time! Spreading his already fractured self even further!"

Still spinning around the young foal laughed in joy as if talking about one of the most terrifying and nerve wracking theories Celestia had ever heard about her old foe was a wonderful subject. But she began to see it more and more. This young foal, he was smart beyond his years. His theory, growing ever more outlandish, growing ever more insane. Made sense. "This might not even be the second time this has happened! It could have happened several times and we just don't know it! And each time has all equines species risen up and grown stronger through events of hardship! Maleficus is not only a source of strife, conflict and fear but also a source of development, courage and unity! He's like a living contradiction!"

Celestia just stared in silence at the utterly adorable scene of the young horse spinning around on his cushion, rambling out whilst pointing a hoof towards the ceiling. If the information he was telling wasn't so serious and not to mention dangerous, she would have been smiling and cooing at the sight. "So my theory is this! The tales of some of the strongest heroes of the ages and the vilest of villains can be traced back to Maleicus' shattered soul! They were all pieces of Maleficus' psyche brought to life as their own individuals! and after they die their soul rejoins Maleficus, making him more whole and thus stronger in every aspect! IF I can prove it, it will turn the head on the entire history of equine kind! I just need to find out all I can about Maleficus and all the heroes and villains his fragments soul may have manifested as! It might even be possible to trace his fragmented soul parts to the main soul and track him down!"

"Thou shalt have it." A cool and collected voice spoke out from his side.

"Gramps keeps telling me that my research is too raw and unrefined whilst the elders think it is folly to consider my theories a possibility. And I know my theory is wild and all bu- wait... what did you say?" The young horse's rambling trailed off slightly as his brain finally registered the words and he stopped spinning around on his cushion, and starred, staring in confusion at the pegasus mare in front of him. Hugging his book to his barrel as he looked with wide, big and confused eyes at the stern looking pink pegasus.

"We said, thou shalt have Our permission to visit all known libraries within Equestria, at thou leisure." Celestia said with a strong and clear tone. Her eyes sharp and her face in a serious expression that would intimidate even the most stoic of nobles.

He blinked. Slowly. And then slowly responded to the suddenly serious pegasus mare who had allowed him to ride in her carriage. "Uh... ookay... but... don't I need to ask the Princess for that to be... you know... legal?"

A smirk grew upon the pink pegasus' muzzle and a golden light engulfed her body. Reverting her to her true snow white pelted shape with the prismatic mane and tail. Crown and horn displayed with magnificent glamour. "We art Princess Celestia of Equestria, the Solar Monarch, and thou hath Our permission to enact your research young foal."

"Huh... you're a lot prettier then those painting I've seen." The young foal said with a childish grin as he looked at the revealed form of Princess Celestia.

There was a long and drawn out silence before Celestia's serious expression broke and she had to press a hoof against he muzzle to try and not break out laughing. But utterly failed. "....snrkk! Bwhahahahahaaa! Oh thou art a delight! Tell Us young Horse Lord, what be thou name?"

"Oh that? I am Ciaphas. But gramps only calls me that when he's angry at me so I generally go by my pony name. Decades' Gain. Nice to meet you Princess." The foal said with a sunny grin before reaching out with a hoof to shake.

Princess Celestia smiled at him and accepted the offered hoof and shook it. While outside the wagon moved over the drawbridge and past the gatehouse, into the busy streets of Canterlot. "Nice yo meet thee as well young Decades' Gain. Welcome to Canterlot."

[Scene Skip]

Spathathos, also known as Sword Bearer, blinked with bleary eyes as he woke up. His head hurt. His entire body hurt. His vision was fuzzy and he was certain he couldn't see through his left eye. He tried to open his mouth and speak but his mouth and tongue were dry and his throat was raw, thus he let out a hacking cough instead of speaking out comprehensible sentences.

He heard a gasp from someone nearby and his pulsing head made it hard to hear what they were saying but he still managed to make out the words. "He's awake! Somepony call the healers!"

Groaning he tried to turn around, but he felt his body was restricted by something. Blinking slowly he soon managed to make out more of the room. And he noticed that his body was mostly covered with thick bandages and his lower left leg was in a splint and so was his left foreleg. He could only assume that what was covering his eye was also some manner of bandages or similar.

"Spathathos are you okay!?" The worried face of Cute Justice emerged out of a doorway, along with two ponies clad in white robes bearing medical supplies in pockets.

He opening his mouth and tried to ask for water. But even speaking a single word was hard, and he had to lick with his dry tongue over his lips to prevent them from cracking and bleeding. "Wh...whaa......whaaath......"

One of the healers took note of his request and shouted out towards the doorway were he could guess some minor healers or servants were located. "Get him some water! He is severely dehydrated!"

In just a few moments a large wooden bucket with fresh water was brought in, along with a mug. Cute Justice scooped up water from the bucket, the healer gently helped him lift his head. Before helping him drink the water. He let out a breath of relief through his nostrils as the cool sensation of water flowing down his mouth and into his sore throat. It was a cooling and comforting sensation was filling his body.

Coughing a bit he spat out a logie of blood and soot. Letting out a breath of relief he leaned back into his pillow and closed his eyes, slowing down his breathing. A wet and cool cloth was rubbed over his forehead and he felt his fatigue ease up a bit and as a side effect felt a bit more awake. "Oooh... that's better..."

The healer nodded, being satisfied with his apparent state and left the cool wet cloth on his forehead for a moment before removing it. Putting it back in a bowl of water to clean it. She then nodded to the worried looking Cute Justice before leaving for another patient. "He should be fine for now Captain. If you need anything just call for me or one of my colleagues."

Cute Justice nodded and sat down next to the heavily wounded horse. Taking the now clean wet cloth and washed his blood stained muzzle and removed some of the grime from his eyes. She looked at him and asked him how he felt as she washed his face. "How do you feel Spathathos?"

He let out a groan, smacking his lips as the wet cloth cleaned away the blood from them. And he opened his eyes slightly, but quickly closed them as he felt strained just opening them. "Like I have been kneaded and folded like a dough and left to bake in the sun for days... the water helped though... so how did the fight go?... I take it we won?"

The pegasus mare let out a chuckle as she brushed the wet cloth over his closed eyes. Carefully soothing his sore eyes while also cleaning his slightly dirty and dry eyes. "The Griffins tried to charge over us when their ships were lost. But we managed to hold them back long enough for them to lose conviction and either surrender or flee."

"Ah... good... what hit me by the way? I was shooting griffins when something struck the back of my head..." He could remember it, him standing on the tower by the siege engines. Shooting down charging griffins with his bow. Then a sudden impact struck his head and he blacked out.

Cute Justice chuckled a little at that and removed the cloth, cleaning it up in the bowl of now slightly dirty water. "One of the ship's exploded and a large chunk of metal struck the castle and sent a rain of rocks and boulders into the air. You got hit in from above by one of the larger pieces and was nearly crushed beneath it."

"Ah... that explains it." He mutters as it dawns on him just how lucky he is to be alive. For if the boulder that struck him had managed to damage his body this much then he would more likely then not been dead. Especially considering it struck him on the head before slamming him down to the ground.

"...You nearly died. Your legs on your left side were broken and had to be set with splints. Your ribs were fractured, some broken ,your spine bruised and your skull was fractured. You have a heavy concussion and is lucky to not have brain damage or being in a coma." Her voice trailed off slightly after she spoke and he felt the wet cloth return, cleaning up parts of his jaw and chin and down his throat.

"Yeah... That's the risk with war and battles... We all risk our lives doing what we can to win and survive..." There was an awkward silence in the air and Spathathos wasn't sure just what it was about but he was feeling a bit... anxious? Yes anxious. But he couldn't figure out why.

"So why did you put me to sleep and put me away like a sack of hay?" She sounded cold and yet curious. And he was certain that she was giving him a dead and cold glare. Possibly thinking that he made her fall asleep on purpose.

He was quick to confess that he never intended to do that. "I never planned to do either of those things..."

"What do you mean?" Her voice was still cold but not as tense so he felt like he was moving the conversation in a safe direction.

"Well I tried to warn you that the wine was strong... but you had already downed it all... and you suddenly started speaking in a timid and adorable manner... before hugging me and falling asleep..." He wasn't sure why but he felt like the room was getting warmer for some untold reason.

"...And then?" Her voice was a bit low by now but he could have sworn it was slightly hitched. As if she was gasping slightly.

"And so I put you in a safe spot so you wouldn't be harmed... by the central stone column inside of the tower... with a pair of large shields covering your body..." Spathathos had actually had no idea where to put it. He had even considered ordering someone to take her to safety, but there had been no soldier free to do so. So he had to do with what he had available.

"So you didn't have your way with me then?" The way she spoke was almost like she sounded... disappointed!? Oh gods was she actually considering such acts to be normal!? Or was that just a fetish of hers!? What kind of childhood had she gone through!?

"No I did not... I am no scumbag who takes adv-mph!" His words were cut off by a pair of lips claiming his and he tried to widen his eyes, only for the wet cloth over his eyes to making that redundant. The sweet taste of apple fritters and strawberries filled his mouth as a tongue slide inside. And he slowly relaxed into the kiss and returned the attention.

The kiss ended with a loud wet sound of releasing lips and panting mouths as Cute Justice rubbed his head and spoke up in a husky voice."Mmmmmpah! You get better soon Ser Spathathos. For I am not going to let the future father of my foals be a lazy couch potatoe. No matter his injuries."

He gave no response, just laying there wide eyed and staring at the darkness of the cloth covering his eyes. Then the sound of a female voice humming a joyous tune was heard as Captain Cute Justice left the medical chamber.

After five minutes of silence the Myrmidon muttered out in a slightly baffled voice as he slowly reached up with a shaking right hoof and removed the cloth from his wide and dazed eyes. Staring at the ceiling with the most awkward boner he had ever had in his entire life. "What just happened?"

[Scene Skip]

Grand Music and Happy Meal were both sitting on the third floor of their mother's newest Eatery. Grand Feast had decided to name if the Grand Apple Eatery, after her husband's family and her own. It was the day before the grand opening and they had all decided to have a family dinner together.

Their children, Cutie Pie, Twinkle Twinkle and Grand Symphony, were all at school working on their studies. The twins were already growing well into their studies and Cutie Pie wanted to work as a baker like her grand mother while Twinkle Twinkle was more interested in stories, melodies and folk lore. And Grand Symphony could always be seen reading books about various kinds, but most held some manner of connection to mechanics and clockworks.

Sure they were three little balls of overly energetic cutie mark seekers whenever they had free time ,or sometimes even when they didn't, but that made them just all the more precious. Grand Feast's younger children were all doing their own things as they had grown older.

The twins Sour Green and Sweet Red were both working to improve the standing of the Apple Clan and to improve their family recipes. Sour Green was interesting in making Apple based beverages while Sweet Red was more inclined towards food. Grand Harvest was making progress in making the clan less nomadic, having bought up, refurbished and organized several plots of lands to plant and farm apples of all kinds.

Pink Lady was actually engaged to a young unicorn by the name of Arcane Lore, the two enjoyed each other's company and were actually friends since their school days.

And finally Grand Meal had decided to join the Order of the Golden Cross and was already showing great promise. Having finished his training as a Recruit and just recently earned the title as a Knight Warden. His promotion party had been very loud and cheerful and the two clans had gathered together.

The Blue Grass Clan had officially become part of Lady Grand Feast's noble house, as subjects to her domain and will. With the clan concentrated upon the city of Canterlot they were able to progress and aid not just each other but also the city, the Apple Clan and the newcomers who came to the city. They had sort of become the unofficial greeters and guides of the city to newcomers as they had such good knowledge of the city and each other.

Thus at the moment were both the Apple Clan, the Bluegrass Clan and the Cross Clan, which also included the former holdings of the Grand Clan, rather wealthy and well connected through out Canterlot and Equestria.

Both Grand Music and Happy Meal had been given specific missions to handle during the Third Crusade, but when they had noticed the blocked signals of the Comm Orbs they had ordered a retreat towards the city. They only returned yesterday evening to discover what had occurred. Luckily had none of their close family been injured, taken captive or harmed. But several of their friends and distant relatives had either been wounded or kidnapped during the raid.

So things were tense. And so they were here in the restaurant which had been planned to be opened two days ago, to have a moment to relax.

"Do you ever wonder how things might have gone had Grandpa Maleficus never saved us all those years ago?" Grand Music asked Happy Meal as they sat by the table, putting out the plates and silverware onto the table cover.

Happy Meal just grinned at him and shook her head. "Nope. Not once."

Chuckling Grand Music just nodded while placing down the napkins. "Hehe. Indeed. You are not one to let what could have happened in the past bother you in the least."

"An' dont ye forget it mister!" She stated loudly while pressing her flank against his, grinding their cutie marks against each other. Grand Music blushes slightly but smiles at her and leans over to kiss her when there is a loud knocking from the lower floor by the entrance.

"We are not yet open fer business but ye may enter!" Grand Feast shouted out from the kitchen as she was putting a large tray with food and drinks onto her back. She walked out of the kitchen and looked towards the door to see Princess Celestia entering the eatery.

The Princess gave the mare a smile and a slight nod in greeting as she entered the eatery. "Hello Grand Feast. Art thee busy or may We take up a short moment of thy family's time?"

"Of course yer highness. Yer just in luck, we're gonna eat dinner and we have plenty to share." The not so young mare said with a smile to the princess. And then blinked a bit in surprise at the sight of a young foal trailing behind the princess, a big book strapped to their side.

She lead the duo to the floor where her two children were and Happy Meal and Grand Music both stood up to salute the Princess when they saw her come up the stairs. Only for their mother to give them a stern look. "None of that nonsense by the dinner table! Sit down!" The two knights quickly sat down, unable to deny their mother's command.

Celestia grinned at the sight, young Decades Gain smirking at the sight as well. The alicorn then stepped forward and spoke to the trio. "We won't stay for long, We only wish to convey our greetings as well as to hath thee meet somepony interesting."

Seeing this to be his que the young colt walked forward with a grin on his lips as Celestia presented him to the gathered family.

"Grand Music, Happy Meal and Grand Feast, we'd like to introduce thee to somepony whom seeks permission to use thy Order's Library. This is Decades Gain. Also named Ciaphas, he's a young horse colt of the Horadrim Clan." Celestia waved at the young colt carrying his book next to her.

The young foal grinned at them and waved. "Hello. This place is neat, smells good too."

Grand Music blinked slightly at the sight of the foal. "Greetings. I am-"

Only to be interrupted by the foal's gleefully stating his introduction for him. Grand Music, one of the adopted Grandfoal of Golden Cross, Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Cross, as well as its founder. Husband to Happy Meal, the second adopted grandfoal of Golden Cross, as well as the sole Enlightened Knight since the founding of the Order."

He then turned towards the older mare and spoke out with a smile. "And this pretty lady is Lady Grand Feast, Lady of the Grand Clan, the Cross Clan and the wife of the young Apple Clan chief Applejack. Adopted heir of Golden Cross."

Celestia chuckled at the incredulous stares of the three ponies. "We were just as surprised by this young colt's knowledge when We meet him. He wishes to utilize the libraries of thy Order to research a theory of his. We hath already given him permission to utilize the Royal Library and public libraries of the city and castle. And now We seek to ask for thou permission as well."

"Oh... Well... Sure I see no reason to deny you this request." Grand Music said, a bit confused as to why such a young foal knew so much about him and his family.

"Thank thee Grand Music. We shalt leave for the castle to continue Our work efforts in handling the griffins. Does thy wish to come with Us young Decades Gain or doest thee hath other plans?" She turned and asked the young foal who was sniffing the hot pie on the table.

"Nah I am good. I will remain here for a bit before I leave for the temple to read those books." He then reached over and grabbed a piece of pie and put it on a small plate given to him by Grand feast. And then began to eat the pie with an eager smile.

Celestia nodded and turned towards the others and gave them a small nod before leaving the eatery. "We wish thee all a fine day. Farewell."

There was a short awkward silence as the group ate. And after a few moments the young foal looked towards the door, making sure nopony was around. And swallowed his mouthful of pie before putting the plate on the table. And then spoke up in an older and very familiar voice, his eyes attaining a crimson glow ash e did so. "Well now that, that's out of the way. I hope you have been alright for the past couple of years. For I have missed you all greatly."

There was a long and stunned pause. Before it all clicked into their heads. Just whose voice it was coming out of the foal.

"Maleficus!?" All three ponies shouted out in shock at the glowing red eyes of the cloaked young horse in front of them.

"Hello there youngsters, it's been a while." The grinning shape of the disguised alicorn state as he waved at them, his voice making it almost comical in how unfitting it was for the young looking body he was currently possessing.

"Ye stupid pony!" An angry Grand Feast shouted out and marched towards him.

"Wait what? What did I do?" Maleficus was genuinely confused by all of this and let out a yelp of surprise when Grand Feast grabbed him by the neck and hoisted him up to give him a stern glare.

"Oh ye stupid self sacrificing dolt of a pony! Yer not escaping mah lecturing this time!" Maleficus wasn't sure why but those words made him feel like he was shrinking. Both physically and mentally.

"W-what do you mean?" He was not liking where this was going.

The glare seemed to grow even more intense as she sat down on a chair and put him over her lap and raised her free hoof. "Do not think Ah have forgotten how ye darn near turned into a lifeless husk the last time ye saved this city!"

"Oh you can't be- ACK! DID YOU JUST SPANK ME!?" Cried out the disguised alicorn in utter flabbergasted voice as he felt a sting he had not felt since he had been a very young human child.

The old mare glared back at him. Unwilling to listen to his nonsense and raised her hoof to smack his flank again. "Shut yer trap and take yer punishment like a grown pony!"

Maleficus rolled out of her lap and got up on his hind legs, rubbing his left flank with his right front hoof while pointing his left at her and shouting out in anger. His face red in humiliation. "I AM OVER THREE TIMES YOUR AGE WOMAN! I AM WELL PAST THE AGE FOR SPANKING! IF ANYTHING I SHOULD BE THE ONE DEALING OUT THE PUNISHMENT FOR DISRESPECTING YOUR ELDER!"

The mare just stepped forward to grab him again, only for him to duck aside like a slippery eel, moving beneath a table and appearing on the other side. And a stand off ensued as the two glared at each other from each side of the table. "I yer gonna act like a reckless colt ever time Ah see ye then Ahm gonna treat ye like one!"

Happy Meal and Grand Music looked at each other as they listened to their mother and grandfather arguing. They then, as one turned around and walked down the stairs to evade the craziness. *Buck this, we're out.*

They could come back later when things had cooled off.

[Scene Skip]

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" A griffin flew with a loud cry out of a tree, his large sword swinging down towards the head of an armoured horse. The blow missed the intended area and instead struck the dense and dry sand road next to the horse.

A powerful hoof slammed out and punched the griffin in the gut, making him fall clutching his stomach, trying not to retch. He tried to make another attack onto for the horse to send a kick to the side of his skull knocked him unconscious.

The horse was dressed in a light brown kimono, a straw hat placed over his head. On his sides were a pair of long katanasas well as a well made saddle bag. Pulling his strawhat back he revealed a beige and white coloured horse with a very youthful appearance, his fur smooth and shining, almost like that of a foal. He was also very lean and not as muscular as most horses.

"These baka sure don't realize that ambushes lose their purpose when you scream out before attacking." He stated with a snort as the griffin laid on the ground. Behind him he saw two ponies killing and defeating four other griffins with well placed strikes.

"Don't you mean bakas? I mean... I don't actually know much of your language yet but... doesn't baka mean idiot? So why do you say baka for idiots as well?" A young pony asked curiously as he walked up to the horse leading their little patrol.

"Baka is the word for both idiot and idiots. It is the context of the meanings and the common sense of the listener to understand the reference and meaning of the word. Plus it lets me call others baka without them realizing it." The horse gave the young horse a wink before looking towards the road they were heading down.

It was an old forest road with thick foliage covering the sides of and thick bushes and roots ruining much of the path. They were part of an independent expedition heading towards the unexplored region of the Hayseed Marshes. A mission given to them by the Order of the Golden Cross in return for a great monetary reward. Plus any griffin soldiers or bandits they captured or killed along the way would be given as bonus rewards to the group.

There were ten of them. Four horses, himself included, each a former member of the Horadrim Kingdom military, now working as mercenaries. Five ponies, two unicorns, two pegasi and one earth pony. And finally, their final member was bit different. And he had just spotted him on the road ahead, and shouted out to him. "Hey Natch! Anymore ambushes or are we clear for now?"

"None from what I can tell lad." Came a gruff voice as a griffin came walking down the road, bearing a chain mail armour without any military markings. His name was Natch and he was a deserter of the Griffins' Royal Navy, not wanting to become a chick killer for a mad king.

The mercenaries had been defending a small village from the invasion, when one of the griffins suddenly started attacking his own when they started grabbing foals. Crying out about cowardly chick killers and spineless cretins. After five hours of intense fighting they had managed to defeat the invaders. And Natch had offered to be made prisoner, surrendering peacefully.

But the mercenaries had him join their group instead, which was more logical as the village didn't have a proper jail and the tower nearby was nearly destroyed and had no proper holdings either. So Natch was allowed to be made a member of the mercenaries, in return that he would be on parole for a year. The Order of the Golden Cross would keep track of him and his group and if he would act up in any fashion he would be arrested.

That was tow days ago and the group had been offered this expedition mission by the representative of the Order in the village. As the marshes needed to be explored. Not to mention a large number of deserters of the Griffins were out in the wilderness acting as bandits or guerrilla fighters. This would keep Natch away from the nervous villagers and give the mercenaries a well paying job, if risky.

"Good. Now then. Let's see our progress. We have reached... about twenty miles southwards by now I believe." The horse stated as he pulled out a map from a iron cylinder from the pony following them. He looked around for any proper landmarks before nodding. And began to jot down marks upon the map, using some tools to make sure he wasn't measuring the distance incorrectly.

"Hey Yōhishi! I see a big building in the distance!" A voice from above cried out. A blue pelted and yellow maned/tailed pegasus dressed in leather and chain mail cried out from above the tree lines.

The horse, now recognized by the name Yōhishi, japanese for parchment, looked up curiously. "What does it look like!?"

"It is tall... overgrown... made out of... yellow rock... pointy... has a...what do you call the shape that has a square base and four triangular walls on all four sides that meet at a point at the end!?" The voice cried out again.

Yōhishi sighed and rubbed his forehead before speaking out. "A pyramid!"

"Yeah that! I see a yellow overgrown pyramid! It's bucking big and with several large staircase along its entire structure. It's about thirty miles south west of your location! It stands on a tall hill by a waterfall and a rough looking river that is running in a southeastern direction in a diagonal angle! The river comes in a curved way from the eastern side of the Foal Mountains!" Nodding Yōhishi noted the new markings

He would have his aerial scout finish the finer details themselves but for now it would work as a reminder. "Be sure to mark it down on your notes!"

After a moment he could practically imagine the pegasus trying to mark down the landmarks to the beast of their capacities. Not the best of artistic talent but enough to give him more materials to work with when he would be making the map properly. "Okay! Shall I tell Lucky Star to check it out!?"

He instantly shot down that idea. As it was not a very sensible one. "Let's leave it for now! Those kinds of building are normally very well defended by magic, traps, beasts or a combination of some or all of those!Tell the others to meet us by the clearing five miles south of our current location! We need to prepare camp!"

*Not to mention that is one of the Horadrim's secret research facilities for the Mana Engines and Project Skyheim. Better to send words to the Kingdom to warn them that we have found the facility. They will need to evacuate it and seal it up before the ponies go to investigate it.* Yōhishi thought to himself as he looked towards Kabuto, another horse, this one dressed in a thick samurai armour wielding a polearm. Kabuto adjusted his helmet a little, signalling him that he understood what he was trying to tell him.

Kabuto would be sending the warning to the Kingdom, since he was the one holding the Comm Orb given to them by their superiors. After all, the entire purpose of this Mercenary group was to act as one of the many ears and eyes of the Horadrim Kingdom in the name of their Father and Creator, Maleficus.

"Got it!" The voice cried out again and he heard the flapping of wings as the pegasus flew off.

Sighing the horse put away his map into the canister and turned towards the others, watching them having looted the griffins and leaving the alive ones tied by a tree. They would return in a day or two with a wagon to drag them with them, unless they got free. Or were killed by animals. But it was not like they had a lot of options since they were in the middle of the Hayseed Marshes. So safety was not a luxury many could afford. So they settled on looting the bandits and soldiers and leaving them either tied up dead, or alive, by the ancient road.

Hell they had been lucky so far that the road wasn't a wet mud bath considering how moist the air was. But he wasn't willing to risk it much longer. And they would need to make camp soon, hopefully before rain bogged them down with mud and water. "Let's get to our future camp site. I need to get to work on detailing the map better. And some rest is needed as well. These scattered groups of soldiers and bandits sure ain't giving us much time to rest."

There was a moment of cheer from the other mercs before the group continued their trek southwards. Noticing soon how the once dry road was growing wet and mucky after only half a mile. The air was filled with flies, rotting wood and the scent of swamp gas. And soon a few hours later, they would be busy making camp while rain fell upon their bodies.

Yet another day for the Adapting Mercenaries, one of the smaller but more successful mercenary and adventurer groups in the East Coast.

[Scene Skip]

In the Library of the Order of the Golden Cross stood the High Priestess of the Old Religion, or the Old Faith as some ponies liked to call it. Which was mostly a joke on her as that was her name and she did not really appreciated it being used for such a crude joke. Currently She was looking at a sight she had never before witnessed upon her long life.

Sitting by a large table was a young colt, with a lot of books gathered around him. Now the sight of a foal reading lots of books was not that strange. But what was, were the subjects of books themselves and the speed of which the foal was reading them.

Historical records, mythical legends, heroic figures, unknown tales, unproven theories of the past, inventions, origins or various methods and items, so many subjects. Yet all related to some manner of historical or highly influencing moment in the history of ponies.

And the young colt was reading through each book at a rapid pace. It was like he was speed reading the book's content at the same speed as a squirrel was chewing a nut. Which one would not think of being that fast but squirrels could chew up a large sized nuts in less then five minutes. And when comparing that to a large sized book, you get that its a very rapid process.

The young colt frowned and put aside the book marked with the title 'Great Heroes of the Lost Kingdoms by Old Stories'. He began to write down upon a large tome he had brought into the temple on his own while muttering loudly. "Okay so there was a pegasus named Storm Warden who summoned a storm to defeat a rampaging phoenix. Notable for having overcome the normal limits of pegasi physiology to create a storm strong enough to destroy a mountain without any support. No proper dates of when it occurred but when compared to the tale of Stone Splinter the earth pony warrior it seems like they occurred about sixty years between each other based upon the historical events in the background."

Old Faith looked at the young foal in curious marvel. That such a young foal held such high intelligence. He was only five summers old from what she had heard, a horse foal of the Horadrim Kingdom. And he was very smart and perceptive for his age.

She wasn't exactly sure why she had stopped and looked upon the young foal for so long. But for some reason she felt like she was meant to meet this young foal. But she could not figure out why. She had been guided here for a reason, but she now needed to figure out what to do.

The foal had opened another book. This one marked with the title 'Possible Inventors of the Pre Chaos Age by Wild Theory'. Readong it the foal looked over one of his earlier notes and drew a line and began to note down years and occurences. "Okay... so water wheels were created to replace windmills after a hundred and fifteen solars, aka summers, of inefficient wind.... and apparently pegasi refusing to give wind for free... and the unicorns did not wish to do it because it felt like a laboring work... that's a possibility... hmmmm... How would that fit with the timeline of the arrival of the windmill? It was made before the Unification War and the Great Migration... it would fit... Could the water mill have been invented at the start of the Unification War?"

The old priestess opened her mouth and corrected the young cold before she knew what she was doing. "Watermills had been made a bit before the Unification Wars young one."

The colt turned around and looked at her in curiosity. And he then turned back to look at the timeline he had made and rubbed his head."Huh? Really? But the dates seem so close to it. And I haven't seen many watermills.... so it could have been lost during the war..."

"No silly colt. The watermills were never properly used because dah unicorns an' pegasi back then did not like them earth ponies not being reliant upon them magics. Thus they reduced elevation of all water ways through magic an' weather, casing dah floods to flow slower. Thus making dah water mills inert. It be one of the reason tension rose but it not be war just yet." She explained while pointing out to the young colts the lines in some of the books.

"Then that means that the story about Captain Jaw Breaker's patrol and the Commander Thunder Spear's squadron by the watermill farms never occurred! Without those and considering the lackluster records of their names in the Unification War it means they never existed! Perfect! now I can scratch out those two from the historical figures." The foal cried out triumphantly and quickly dragged his hoof over four pages worth of text, altering the notes he had made on the non existing figures and their fights with some manner of spell.

The elderly priestess helped the young colt through out the day. Helping him find the real historical figures among the fake and made up stories of the past. And the more they found out ,the more excited the foal became. And yet, the foal was also looking more and more anxious and nervous. The information he was discovering was both encouraging and yet for some reason, very disheartening for the foal.

Old Faith did not know what her aid to the young foal would cause in the future. Nor would she realize just how much of an impact she had upon not just the kingdom of Equestria and Horadrim with her little studying hour with the young colt. She would never find out any of these things.

But Maleficus Victoria, would carry her words and aid in his research for centuries. Until he would eventually find out the horrible, but actual truth of the past. But that is for a future chapter for another Tome.

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 9/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 22 Days]

A black talon scrapped over a surface of rock by the side of a soothing calm spring in a large glade. The talon belonged to a castle sized dragon with black claws, azure stomach scales and dark grey to murky blue scales on the rest of the body. With a row of purple and pink tinted fins lining the spine from the head to the tail.

Upon a long neck was a large serpentine head with a thin snout with a set of antlers resting upon the back of the skull. Two rows of almost sabertooth like tusks were jutting out from the inner side of the jaw to the tip of the chin. A massive pair of dark blue, light blue and turquoise coloured wings with feather like scales rather then elathery membrane finished the touches.

This was Fry, the Dragon Lord of the Stomfang Clan. And he was waiting for someone.

There was a loud thump behind him and the dragon lord finished scrapping his talon against the rock, leaving a carving that was more like a painting upon its dark gray surface. And he spoke out in a voice that was like rumbling thunder. "You took your time Pyre. You never get to our meetings in time."

A large four legged dragon without any wings strode into the glade. His body was covered with thick rectangular scales in dark brown colouration, upon his back from the forehead to the very tip of his tail were thick rounded bone like outgrowths that looked like weather worn mountains. These growths were covering the entirety of his upper body in a small evenly shaped mountain range.

The head was long and slightly on the thin side but had a good height, almost brick shaped, with a sharp angle down from the snout, over the front muzzle, and ended with an out jutting chin. Small jagged teeth filling the large mouth. Sharp jagged scales lining the lower jawline and the tip of the chin.

A pair of clear green eyes were set beneath a set of ridged eyebrows and the front half of the skull, past the forehead, were thick plate like scales. Along the stomach were rows of plate like scales that looked like a huge contradiction to his mountainous like back. The dragon had no wings, instead he had a long tail with a massive club like growth that was larger then his own head, and yet he weaved it around like it was as light as feather.

This was Pyre, the Dragon Lord of the Ironclaw Clan.

Snorting out smog and ash from his nostrils the wingless dragon shook his head. "Please. You know very well that I am not as fast as you flying types. But in return, none of you can properly fight me without risking your lives."

"Same old since we were hatchlings I see." Fry said with a smirk which the other dragon lord returned.

"Indeed old friend. Indeed. So." And Pyre's eyes turned serious as he looked upon the carving made on the rock. "This is them right? The 'Dragon Slayer' I have heard so much about these past couple of years?"

Fry nodded and motioned for the carving of a helmeted pony with a sword made out of dragon scales piercing the throat of a large dragon. "Indeed. This pony has gained quiet the infamy. Many dragons, include those of my own subjects, fear them more then they feared Talos."

"They are ruthless and efficient in their hunts. Doesn't even leave bodies for us to bury in the ancestral chambers. They never harm eggs but they are not unwilling to kill younglings if they are foolish enough to attack them." Pyre stated with another sort of smog and ash from his nostrils.

Fry sighed and looked at the image of the recent gossip of their kin. "Indeed. The new Lord of the Rockfire Clan, Clash, has declared the ponies to never be interfered with by his clan. I can understand this, seeing how his clan is at an all time low since their failed hunting expedition. And I believe he too fears this Dragon Slayer."

Pyre sighed also. He knew of the dangers of the ponies, he had been given words by his son Ember and he knew that the dragons as they were now could never hope to defeat them. But not every dragon were able to think before acting. "But neither Fang nor Scar consider the ponies to be of any threats. The Skyhorns or the Frostfires will no doubt assault the ponies if they keep interfering with the Dragon Lands. Their folly if anything. From what my son has told me are the ponies of equestria equipped with weapons meant for killing our kind."

Fry pulled out a barrel from a side by the rock, opened the cork, releasing a sweet scent into the air. He sniffed the beverage within the barrel before drinking half of the content with a happy smile. "Indeed. Yet another reason for this meeting. My daughter Skyfire and I have decided to have her travel to the ponies' village of Bangcolt to seek a non aggressive pact with them. In return for us trading various goods with each other we will also not attack each other. Nor will we take actions upon each other should the ponies be attack by other dragons or other dragons being attacked by ponies."

"Indeed. I have intended to offer the same thing with my son Flare as my emissary. But even if the Skyhorns and Frostfires keep to themselves do I doubt those pesky griffins will keep from causing trouble. Annnd what are you drinking?" The larger dragon asked curiously as the sweet scent filled the glade.

"A pony drink called apple juice. It is actually quite tasty. I brought several barrels for a large selection of metals and ores. Do you want one?" Fry asked while holding out an unopened barrel

Pyre accepted it and drank it. Smacked his lips before downing the entire barrel. "Mmmm! This is one of the best things I have ever tasted!"

"I know right? Fresh spring water is good and all but this is like drinking an entire tree's worth of apples!" And so the two dragon lords sat down in the glade, talking and laughing while drinking apple juice together.

[Scene Skip]

Celestia was sitting by her desk a later afternoon when a knock was heard on the door. "Thou may enter."

Solid Pink, guiding a slightly tired looking Decades Gain, entered the room. The young foal sat up on the chair and downed the cup of tea offered to him ,before blanching and sticking out his tongue. Not liking the taste of the bitter sunflower tea. "Gods this taste like old socks!"

Celestia snickered lightly but soon recovered and gently asked the young foal of his progress. "So young Gain, how doest thy research progress? We heard thy hath been a very studious and eager worker to prove thy theory."

He just sighed and pulled out a stack of papers, notes he had written. And placed them on Celestia's working desk. It was a stack of five pages. Each side of each page written upon. THAT was something Celestia had actually never seen before. She had never seen someone write on both sides of a page before.

While she looked over the strange writing style the foal spoke up and began to explain his progress. "So far I have managed to record at least twenty historical figures I believe are connected to Maleficus' shattered essence. Five inventors, six warriors and nine artists. Each of them have similar mindsets in their behavior and have similar levels of ingenuity that is very uncommon. I also managed to discern at least sixty made up or misinterpreted historical figures."

"That is... worrying." She stated, looking through the notes the colt had given her with a worrying look on her face. She knew several of these names from the stories her mother had once read her. Some of these figures had been alive long before recorded history. She had actually thought them to be made up. And here and now they had been determined to be real because of a few intact texts and a young foal who had managed to read through these barely coherent texts and discern the information for what was truth and lies.

"I will need to visit the locations mentioned in the record to prove their accuracy and truth. Cannot leave things for just words and books or we will got nowhere. I will be making a trip after I finish with my research to find the places and try and discern the truth of the documents." The young colt stated with a determined look on his face.

Celestia nodded and read through the notes. Making out at least five historical figures she had never actually heard of. And some that she had. On both listed as Fake or Plausible. It wasn't the truth or the proof of the colts theory but it was indeed a great progress. "Thou hath not recorded much information. But considering thy project We can more then likely assume that thy real proof will be physical and not theoretical in nature."

"Yeah. I have only made a little progress so far but that's mostly because of the incomplete information from during and before the Age of Chaos. It makes it very difficult in reading anything since many of the letters are either gone, misshapen or in six different languages at once. Much of what I've read is only fables and stories without any concrete records. And those few I find are sometimes contradicting if made by unicorns, earth ponies or pegasi. So I need to get physical proof that can be analyzed so that I can properly prove my theory." The foal shook his head, completely unsatisfied by his progress. But Celestia could tell that, the fact that he had made so much progress thus far was amazing. To discern which information was real or made up was not easy, and the fact that he had still come up with so much in such a short time was nothing short of genius.

There was a sudden knock on the doorway, "Thy may enter", Celestia said.

And then a group of guards and a messenger entered. Ever since the sabotage of the Comm Orbs had been discovered would messengers and comm orbs be on constant guard to keep things safe. Among the guards were five horses, each give by the Horadrim Kingdom to guard the most valuable of locations and beings of either Kingdom.

The messenger cleared his throat a bit before holding out the glowing orb for the Princess to receive. "Princess Celestia. Cursed Blessing of the Horadrim Kingdom wishes to speak with you."

Accepting the Orb Princess Celestia placed it upon the table and activated it. And the image of Cursed Blessign appeared upon the orb. "Greetigns Cursed Blessing. We art happy to talk to thee once more."

"Greetings Princess Celestia. I bring words about our current situation with the griffins. Their forces have been broken and scattered. Much of it retreating back over the ocean. And my War Lords have gathered much information about their nation, their traditions, gears and even their political situation. And I can safely say tat we cannot avoid war with these people." The elderly horse stated with a grim look on his face through the crystal orb. A look that Celestia mirrored as she felt uneasy of engaging another nation in war. She would need to see the information herself. But it was far more likely that war was her only option, and if so was she not going to do so halfheartedly.

"Oh great... it's gramps." Decades Gain muttered from his seat. And at those words the elderly horse blinked. Before the image turned around and he found himself staring into the face of Decade's Gain.

The old hors'es mouth opened. As if trying to say something. But he couldn't find the words. "....Wha...."

Luckily, or unluckily, the young colt was more then willing to have the first word. As he waved at him cheekily and leaned over to smirk at the orb from above. "Hey gramps! How are things with the other elderly and stuffy stumps and rocks at home?"

Celestia blinked. and then her eyes widened. As the fact that Decades Gain, was the grandfoal of Cursed Blessing. And she began to realize, that this situation might come to bite her in the flank if things went badly.

The leader of the Horadrim stared in shock at the sight of the young foal. And then he glared at him through the orb before he started shouting. "Deckard Ciaphas Cain! Where have you been for the past week!?"

Snorting the colt just held up his hoof as if to stay, talk to the hoof. "Oh stuff it gramps! I was in the Everfree Forest researching!"

Cursed Blessing went silent and stared for a while, then grew red in his face before he started ranting again. The crystal ball wobbling at the force of his voice as it exploded out of the sphere. "I told you to never go there again after the last incident!"

Once more Celestia stared wide eyed. So the foal had not only gone and ran away from home to complete his research. He had done so by entering the most deadly forest in the nation, A SECOND TIME APPARENTLY, to investigate a set of ruins. Most likely the same ruins he told her about in the carriage a few days ago.

"Well I did and so there's nothing you can do about it! Ptrrrrrrrrrrr!" The foal stuck out his tongue blew a raspberry at the crystal orb containing the image of his ranting grandfather.

"Deckar Ciaphas Cain! When I get my hooves on you, you are in for more then a grounding for this!" Once again the old horse started screaming out his outrage. The other ponies and horses in the room looked at each other awkwardly. Not really eager to be standing here while listening to the leader of the Horadrim Kingdom berating his less then well behaved grandfoal.

Celestia's curiosity finally made her step forward and cough a bit. Breaking the elderly horse's ranting. Before speaking up in a wondering voice. "Wait. If We may ask. Why doest young Decades Gain have... so many names in his horse name? And why doest thee call him by different names when doing so?"

"Oh that's just gramps who thinks he's being clever. He combined my pony and horse name by making my pony names into horse names. Or at least similar in sound, and combined them with my original horse name. And thus allowed himself the pleasure of shouting at me with a name longer then one or two words. I think he believes, or at least feels, it gives him some sort of righteousness over me for being able to call me by more all of my names when he wants to chastise me." The young foal said with a deadpan look at her while behind him the flustering, outrage and sputtering sound from the elderly horse were all very clear. The sight made Celestia mentally struggle to not break down giggling.

"Ahem. Lord Cursed Blessing, whilst young Decades Gain is a bit rash and rude. Has he truly proven himself in these last few days. He has proven that several historical figures has a deeper connection to the present then originally assumed. And he has also managed to disprove at least five dozens of historical figures as false through contradicting information and falsified records from a few centuries ago. Thus we would like to ask that thou let thy grandfoal remain with Us for a while and keep up his work in revealing the truth and lies of our recorded historical documents."

After a moment of silence Cured Blessing gave his 'grandson' a stare and spoke up in a calm voice. "...Your not gonna rush off into danger while doing this?"

"Why would I? I have two huge libraries to read through. Not even counting all the bookshops and public libraries in the city." Decades Gain stated with a grin to his grandfather's image. Who gave a long and drawn out sigh of suffering.

"Fine boy. You can stay and do your research. BUT! I want you to keep up your studies and I want reports on your progress in both your research and your studies. I will be sending over one of your favourite teachers to keep you from skipping classes." At that Decades Gain blanched and Celestia had to cover her mouth to not show her smirk as she tried to restrain a strong urge to giggle.

"You can't be serious! I am one of the best spell casters in the Clan! I can cast spells better then YOU, you old stump!" At this Cursed Blessing just rolled his eyes at the whining of his grandson.

He then gave out a sot sigh before he looked at Decades Gain and spoke up softly. "Power and talent means nothing without the knowledge and wisdom to use them properly. Do no forget that. And don't worry. It will only be once a week rather then every day. Since I know you will more then likely try to skip off your studies if you get bored with them."

"Alright fine! But I am still going to keep researching my remaining free time here until whatever buzzkill you send gets here." The colt stated with a snort before leaving the chamber, slamming the door shut behind him. Leaving the two monarchs to look at the door with raised eyebrows.

Celestia then giggled slightly before snorting as she recovered and spoke to the sighing head of Cursed Blessing. "He truly is a talented foal Lord Blessing."

He shook his head and looked at the door with a sad, if proud, smile on his face. "Aye. Much like his mother he holds great knowledge and a keen mind. And like his father he has a lot of power and talent when it comes to the matters of the arcane. But he is still young, not even a decade old and he's far too rash and acts out on his own far too much. Even with his high intellect and power is he still only a foal and needs to have his power and talent refined rather then just using them all willy nilly."

"True. But to rebuke and constrain his talent will sometimes only hinder or even cripple it. It may be for the best to let him be free to utilize said talent to his own desires. At least under proper supervision of course. But for now. We believe thou had a message for Us concerning the Gryphon Kingdom." She sat down on her seat once more and looked at the orb with a serious look on her face. While Solid Pink emerged out of a shadowy corner, bearing a scroll and quill, ready to record what was being said.

A grim look appeared on Cursed Blessing's muzzle and he began to report his findings to the Princess. "The griffins may have been beaten back but they still have large amounts of soldiers and even more air ships. They will be able to send off another invasion force within a few weeks unless we take the initiative. I am talking a full scale counter invasion of Gryphon."

Celestia was a bit taken aback by this declaration from the Elderly Horse. She had never considered him to be a warmonger, but she felt like this was not just a desire for war. But more like he felt like there was no other option. "Does thou truly think it to be necessary?"

Cursed Blessing just nodded and gave her a blunt and straight response. Delivering a disturbing blow to her calm as he spoke of what the ruler of the Griffins wanted. "Aye I do. From what I have heard have at least a thousand ponies, foals and young adults, been taken to cross the sea towards the Gryphon Kingdom. And from what I have found out. Is their King, going to eat them."

"...what?" Was all she could muster out of her lips as the words she had just been told made her brain freeze in shock. And she instantly began to recall the horrors she had witnessed and heard of during the Draconinc Incursion.

The elderly sage just kept going. And the verbal blows of reality made her almost puke as he began to describe the depravity of the twisted King. "King Craver of the Gryphon Empire is a cannibalistic tyrant who killed his own father to claim the throne, and has been using his power to expand the military to not only expand his nation but also to control his people by force. And he does so not do this to control them, it is more like a side effect. His real goal is to steal their children. Unhatched eggs, chicks or young adults. To be taken to his castle, where they are to be killed and cooked in his kitchens to then be served for him to eat. He has apparently decided to update his palate, by using his invasion to try and taste young pony flesh."

"Gods... what... what kind of monster art he!?" Celestia cried out, standing up from her seat, slamming her front left hoof onto the table. Her eyes burning with fury.

Cursed Blessing could only grimly look up at her from the orb and gave his honest opinion. "One of the worst kind of monster your majesty. A twisted and deranged sociopath with the position of a ruler over a nation."

Celestia is silent for a while. Then she turns towards her adviser and grits out orders to her with a barely controlled fury. "Solid Pink... prepare messengers and send words to all forces within Equestria a call to arms. Ask only for those willing to cross the sea to fight for the freedom of not only ponies and horses, but griffins as well. We art going to war. But We shalt not force anypony to join this war, unless they wish too."

"As you command Princess." Solid Pink bowed to her Princess and backed into a shadow, seemingly disappearing within it.

Celestia looked at the orb with the silent Lord Cursed Blessing and pulled out a stack of empty parchments and a quill. Not even noticing how her dialect slightly shifted as he focused her attention upon the orb. "Tell us all you know about the Griffins Lord Cursed Blessing."

And he did. And Celestia took notes about the discoveries about the griffins. And would be spending several hours writing it all down. All the while posters, messengers, heralds and Com Orbs were sending messages out across the lands of Equestria. Calling to arms to fight against the tyranny of a twisted King who would feast upon the flesh of the young and new born, even his own people.

The words would shake Equestria to new heights. And more then a few would join the call. Not to just protect themselves, but to free all beings in the world from the threat that was King Craver.

And once more Equestira began to prepare for war.

[Scene Skip]

Within a deep underground chamber was a certain griffin Lord walking along the catwalks positioned through the large chamber. Ahead of him was an artificer, one of the few griffins who had studied and developed minor magical abilities. Including the priceless knowledge of creating magical items through forgotten runes and rare reagents.

"How goes the project Artificer?" Lord Archos asked the young griffin leading his way. Both the lord and the artificers were both dressed in a thick white painted protective leathery looking robe, a sort of protective gear.

The young artificer was quick to answer the noble. As one was not one to leave the unspoken ruler of Gryphon waiting. "It goes at a rapid pace milord Archos. We have managed to construct the base of the structure his majesty has asked of us. We have even managed to infuse it with the Tears of Sorrows. It is yet to be tested but our theories and initial assumptions shows promise. It will be at least a thousand times stronger the the handheld vial we had used for the hand held anti magic prototypes."

They walked down a set of stairs. Flight was forbidden in the chamber as it was too dangerous to allow flight within it. Lord Archos nodded at the artificer's comment and gave a rapt response. "Good. Let us see how well you have progressed."

They reached the bottom of the large chamber and blue light was shining upon a large contraption standing upon the center. Where several griffins dressed in protective gear were pouring glowing blue liquid into several open latches in the twisted and wicked looking structure.

As the artificer and Lord approached the griffins shouted out that the chambers had been filled and started moving away from the structure. Removing all ladders, ropes and buckets they had been using to prepare it.

It was shaped like a hexagon at the base, at least two meters in thickness. And jutting out from each of the six points of the hexagon platform were six meters long V shaped spikes. They were about a meter thick in radius at the base before becoming thinner until it reached the razor sharp tips.

Within the lower half of each V shaped claw were filled with the blue glowing mass the griffins had just been pouring into it.. Making the entire structure look like the underside of some manner of hexagon shaped crab with glowing legs.

The artificer presented the structure to the Lord in a flourish. "Here it is Lord Archos. The first artifact of the pair the King asked for."

Nodding Lord Archos looked at the artifact and from what he could tell was it very wicked and imposing in design. Very good. Now they would now just need to find out how effective it was. "Impressive. What do you call this... contraption?"

The artificer grinned at the question, obviously proud of the name they had given their project. "We call it the Tearful Talon. We are about to test the first prototype. We managed to get a pony prisoner from the raid to be used for our test."

"Ah good. Let us see how it goes." Lord Archon stated as two griffin soldiers came carrying a chained unicorn who was whimpering and shivering in tearful terror as the griffins dragged them towards the contraption.

"Here milord." The Artficier stated while holding out a transparent fishbowl shaped helmet to the noble, who gave him a raised eyebrow before putting it on.

As the crying pony was dragged to the contraption the artificer put on his own bowl helmet and as the griffins chained the pony in place they were quick to fly away. The artificer then pointed a talon at the artificer and shouted up towards the darkness shrouded ceiling of the chamber. "Activate the Tearful Talon!"

A blue humming sound began to fill the air and the claw like appendages of the artifact lit up, before moving. The two griffins looked on as the contraption began to do its work. And the pained screams of the young unicorn filled the chambers.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-!!!!!!" Yet neither of them reacted to it. And just kept looking upon the effects of the artifact upon the unicorn. Content in watching the wicked and cruel torment keep going. The vocals of the pony almost about to go out when it happened.

"-IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-*SHLACK!!*" The cry of the young unicorn ends as their voice is replaced by a guttural sound of splattering of liquid. Like someone had punctured a highly pressured balloon of filled with near liquid mud and splattered the content all a solid surface.

A splatter of blue ooze was lying upon the glass orbs and robes of the two griffins. None of them bothered by the gruesome death of the prisoner. And the artificer called for a cleaning crew before he began to explain. "Cleaning crew to the Main chamber!"

"As you can see is it a bit overwhelming for the regular creature. If we were to put a griffin within it they would pop like a boil before they have a chance to scream. Griffins produces far less Tears of Sorrow when they pop then ponies do." The artificer commented as the blue liquid blocked his vision through the bowl helmet. Soon griffins armed with artifact water hoses quickly washed away the blue ooze from the two griffins as to make sure nothing of the liquid material remained. The mixture of blue water and glowing blue ooze was then sucked up by a manual water pump into a set of glass containers.

Pulling off his cleaned helmet Lord Archon nodded in satisfaction as the pair began to leave the chamber. "Impressive... if a bit messy. No doubt King Craver will love it."

The artificr nodded and as they came up the catwalk again he was given a set of papers by one of the cleaners and he held it out to the noble to read. "We still do not know if this will be as effective against an alicorn as it was against that young unicorn. But if not, can we attempt to make an even more powerful version of the Talons if so asked. It will take much longer to do so though."

Nodding Lord Archon handed back the report to the artificer who placed it in the talons of one of the assistants. The two left the chamber through a heavily guarded gate and as it closed behind the. The Lord commented to the artificer. "Ah most excellent. The King will be pleased by the result. Have these Talons ready for deployment when we need them."

[Scene Skip]

But while the griffins were making their efforts to handle the two alicorns. Were things moving rapidly in Equestria.

The news of the Griffin threat and their crazed King had filled the kingdom. A call for volunteers for the invasion of Gryphon had been spread out over the regions of Equestria.

Over twenty thousand ponies volunteered to join the war effort. Almost all of them were members of the military already, most of them of the bronze or silver armies. As Celestia would not be officially using the Three Armies of Equestria for this invasion, was she only asking for volunteers. As the horses would be bringing forces as well for this conflict.

A total of ten thousand horses, all of them veterans and volunteers, would join as ground troops for the invasion. The horses had even brought out several dozens of new ships for the battle, ships they had been working on as new cargo ships, but would now be used for a militaristic purpose.

Maleficus kept using his disguise as Decades Gain and researched the past of the ponies. Trying to find a connection between the cave painting of himself and the ancient records. Of what remained at least. He was still hopeful that not everything had been lost during the Age of Chaos.

He spent time with Happy Meal, Grand Music, Grand Feast and their children. He took on the shape of a shaggy looking black earth pony, offering the name Hungry Shaggy. He was promoted to Uncle Shaggy within a few days of enjoying the company of the foals and the grown up children. It was hard to keep his truth a secret but he kept a straight face and kept making jokes whenever people asked him about his origin, and so far it was working.

But he knew it would not last. Nothing good ever did in this world. And so he kept his interference to a minimum, trying to keep himself from giving away too much while also acting like the weird and friendly uncle who would come to visit from time to time. Mostly focusing on his research into the ancient, forgotten or lost history of the ponies.

He knew that was coming. And he wasn't sure if he could do much to aid them. So he played around with his Interface connection to various Black Beacons across the planet. While around six were impossible to reach for one reason or another. Was he able to connect to one on the Eastern Continent.

And that's when he got an idea. One that had him chuckling and giggling childishly at the silly idea he just had. And so he began to work on it. Utilizing the beacon not a reagent but a medium, to create what he wanted on the other side. IT would be a wonderful surprise for both sides of the ensuing conflict.

Unaware that his creation would find a different use then the one he intended to in the near future.

But soon the time came, as the forces of Equestria and Canterlot gathered upon the grassy fields near the Dragon Bone Shore outside of the city of Baltimare. The location where the first wave of dragons had been slaughtered, and later pushed out of Equestria. Many of their bones still remaining beneath the watery waves.

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 11/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 20 Days]

The morning sun rises over the lands of Equestria once more. And yet even as the heavens were clear clouds, was the rising morning sun obscured by lines upon lines of gathered horses and ponies. Standing in a massive formation before the large coastline.

In front of them, revealed by the sunlight, sat the massive floating fortress of Grithenburg, floating upon the surface of the ocean just a few hundred meters off the beach. The massive shadow of the, not currently floating, castle blocking their point of view of the horizon.

Standing upon a large balcony stood Cursed Blessing with the Warlord Thunder Hammer and Princess Celestia with General Rough Stock. Celestia's horn was glowing golden as she raised the sun to shine upon the world once more. Above the skies floated a fleet of over a thousand sky ships. Of which fifty were of an entirely new design.

Cursed Blessing looked out over the rows of horses. And he walked to the front of the balcony.He stood up on his hind legs, his long white wooden staff resting against the rocky floor as he took a deep breath, before screaming out to the masses.

"We have fought and suffered. But still we stand! There is a new threat to our great nations! The Griffin King Craver!"

The horses raised their hooves and slammed them against their chests. Causing the sound of echoing clangs and thumps of flesh as they were wearing a wide variety of armour, and some none. Crying out to their leader's speech. "AOU! AOU!"

"In the days ahead we will be fighting the desperate, the cruel, the unwilling and the twisted!"

Again they slammed their hooves against their chests. And Clestia looked at the scene in marvel. She had never before witnessed such a synchronized cheer. It was... inspiring."AOU! AOU!"

"And yet we shall overcome them all! For we fight not for ourselves but for the freedom and safety of ALL!"

The elderly horse kept screaming out his words to the army gathered before him. Their hooves pumping and their voices roaring to respond to their leader. "AOU! AOU!"

"Let the ground shake with your hooves! Let the sky roar with your spirit!"

All horses now stood up on their hind legs, it was in perfect unison ,the sound of their weapons and armours moving echoing across field and land. And they stamped their hooves and punched their chests. And chanted out once more! "AOU! AOU!"

"Let evil shiver with the strength of your hearts! Let the darkness flee as we bring forth the light!"

Once more they repeated it. And their voices rang out over the coast, even reaching to the city of Baltimare. Where over a thousand bystanders were staring in wonders from the walls and outskirts of the city. At the sight of the chanting soldiers and the speech of their leader. The ground rumbling with their stamping hooves. "AOU! AOU!"

"LET THE HAMMERS OF HORADRIM FALL!"

And with a final cry the Horse Lord of the Horadrim slammed down the pommel of his staff upon the center of balcony. A flash of light emerged from the staff. And a powerful music began to fill the air as large flying ships the size of small forts began to float down from the fleet above. As the armies of the Horadrim Kingom, did not cry out again, but instead began to sing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm96Cqu4Ils

[Start Marching Song: When the Hammer Falls - Clamavi De Profundis (Original Song)]

[Disclaimer: Yet again I do not own this video. Please support the official release and the song's creator Clamavi De Profundis. For the songs they make, many of which are based upon the old tolkien stories, are awesome.]

[Lyrics Altered by Staadnauthursil.]

The horses stood tall, their hooves pressed against their breasts. And their voices began to ring out across the coast. High above in the Sky Fleet were twenty of the new, and massive, ships starting to descend.

"High in the Skies."
"Where the Mountain now Flies."
"Glorious forge."
"Singing forgotten tales of the Horse."
"Tranquil as the night."
"Where the blacksmith makes his light."
"When the hammer falls."

They were massive. 110 meters long. 22 meters wide. 40 meters tall. With rows of enhanced oars. And the design similar to that of the trimere. But far more bulky and massive. A total of six watch towers placed in groups of two in the center on each end of the ship. These, were the Syracusia. And the voices of the horses were rumbling from beneath their cloud layers as they descended downwards, as if to greet them to the world.

"When the hammer falls."
"And it sounds through the halls."
"When the hammer falls."
"Freeing treasures from the walls."
"When the hammer strikes."
"And the kingdom comes to life."
"When the hammer pounds."
"Like the thunder in the clouds."
"When the hammer falls!"
"When the hammer falls!"

Celestia stared in wonder. General Rough Stock also stood in awe of the massive war ships, their frames built as massive cargo ships capable of transporting a massive amounts of cargo and troops with their sheer bulking size. Each ship was easily large enough to house two thousand ponies and/or horses. Cursed Blessing, rubbing his sore throat, smiled at the sight of the newly constructed ships landing upon the grassy field with loud resounding thumps.

"Of legend and myth."
"Is the craft of the smith."
"The molten metal poured."
"And pounded into sword."
"From the fire is made."
"Every Equine axe and blade."
"When the hammer falls."

The rears of the ships were facing the singing armies of Horadrim. And as they sang were massive mechanical wenches rotated, and a large cargo door began to open from the top of the back of the ship, slowly being lowered down to a massive land bridge. The horses kept singing, standing with their hooves to their breasts, heads high, as the cargo doors finally slammed into the ground with loud booms.

"When the hammer falls."
"Forging weapons for all."
"When the hammer falls."
"Songs of battle fill the halls."
"When the hammer flies!"
"Lines of armored Horses arise!"
"With the hammer’s roar"
"We go marching off to war!"
"When the hammer falls!"
"When the hammer falls!"

And then they began to march forward. Without removing their hooves fro mtheir breasts they walked forward, their weapons held in salute in the other. And the ground shook and rumbled as knights, vikings, samurais and spartans alike stomped up the wooden cargo doors of the massive ships. One row of soldiers at a time, the music and voices still singing out loud and strong.

"The Griffins came to our lands."
"And we fought them hooves to claws."
"Sweat and blood."
"Turned the ground to mud."
"Equines and Griffins in mortal strife."
"As they sought to vanquish every life."
"When the hammer falls."

The gathered pony armies were stationed just south of the horses, awaiting their own transports. They too had been standing in rows and ready to move out. When twenty Syracusia ships flew down with loud booms and landed before them. Massive cargo doors opening in the same manner as for the horses. And the ponies, stood up on their hind legs, saluted in the same manner. and sang out with the horses' own song and began to march into the massive war ships.

"When the hammer falls."
"Back our enemies crawls."
"When the hammer quakes."
"Griffin cowards’ bones will break."
"When the hammer cracks."
"And it beats their armies back."
"When the hammer’s boom."
"Sends the monsters to their doom."
"When the hammer falls!"
"When the hammer falls!"

Both armies marched onto the ships. Their rumbling hooves shaking the ground, leaving deep tracks as each soldier stomped over the grassy earth and onto the wooden land bridge. Leading deep hoof marks of the first unified army of the horses and the ponies. The first joint effort, to strike against their common foes. And as the final row of troops entered the holds, the cargo doors were lifted up to close the rear.

"When the hammer falls!"
"Then our victory calls!"
"When the hammer falls!"
"Songs of glory fill the halls!"
"When the hammer flies!"
"Mighty heroes now arise!"
"With the hammer’s sound."
"Live the Horses high above ground!"
"When the hammer falls!"
"When the hammer falls!"

As the final door was slammed shut the ships' oars shimmer and crackled, before letting out rumbling thunder and lightning. Before slowly rising up from the soil of Equestria. And began to rise up towards the Sky Fleet. And as it did so, began an even louder rumble to occur.

And as the final notes of the song were being sung. Rose the floating fortress island of Grithenburg out of the waters of the Celestial Sea. Clouds of rumbling thunder emerging beneath its massive rocky shape as the island sized fortress rose up like a waking leviathan. And then, as the final notes began to ring out, the Sky Fleet, carrying over thirty thousand troops and one thousand sky ships. And one Fortress grade Sky Island. Began to float eastwards.

Towards the Gryphon Kingdom.

[Scene Skip]

Deep within the foal mountains there was a large black pit. It was one of the sites were the horses had ripped out mountains to created their floating Sky Island homes. Leaving lakes of hardened obsidian and lava behind.

And upon the surface of this specifically lake of hardened magma there stood a large group of black figures. And they were carving a massive complex runic array upon the surface of the obsidian itself. Dark clouds were gathering above in the heavens as the summer rains began to fill the mountains.

Something that could flash flood this obsidian crater into a lake rather rapidly. And yet these dark figures did not care.

Then as the final line was carved into the surface the dozens upon dozens of figures moved into a circle at the center. And there they held out sharp hooves and began to focus their energies. And slowly a glow began to fill the air in the enter between these hooves. A light one might have considered to be bright, and yet it was dark and murky, like the thickest of swamp water.

And then, one of the lines in the array, began to be filled by a violet light. as if being filled by a glowing liquid. And then another. And another. More and more the lines these figures had carved began to be filled out by glowing violet light. Until it all gathered into a massive twisted diagram.

Then a figure walked out into the center of the formation, the figure was dressed in pitch black robes, white freckled feathers dropping down from beneath. As the figure reached the center they pulled out two vials. And a dark clucking chuckled emerged from the robed figure's cloak. Each vial containing a red liquid, that almost seemed to be glowing with power. "And so... it begins..."

A bright flash of lightning arched across the skies. And for a short moment it illuminated the face of the hooded figure. A white freckled and red combed chicken head looked with twisted purple eyes upon the vials, the left eye having two pupils, the right, having no pupils at all.

[To Be Continued]

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: That's another chapter down. I am... sorry for my lack of updates and reviews recently. But at the afternoon of the 7th of August, 2019, after struggling with a series of physical illnesses that had become more and more serious the past six months, my mother... died. Her Funeral was in the late of August. I have... had a difficult time finding motivation or inspiration to write. Or focusing on my life in general. My lack of proper economy is also a rising issue, not making things easier for me to handle. I have only just recently moved to a new place, and am working on getting some of the things in my mother's home in order, checking through many old memories as I do, and thus my muse is at an all time low.

Pinkie: That's so sad! *Cries*

Staadnauthursil: I... I also cannot help but feel... responsible for it. I knew she was ill, I often helped her out, almost daily. But I thought she would pull through. I should have gotten her to the hospital sooner, then things might not have gone so bad. Not to mention... this story. The prologue I wrote when I first made it, it was... it was not meant to become real... you know? I mean, I never thought back when I wrote it, that she would die so soon. I am thirty now. And according to the prologue I wrote two years go, she died when I would be thirty. I even wrote that it would be in the summer... and now I feel so guilty for even writing it.

Pinkie: Don't you dare blame yourself! Your story was not the cause for your mother's death! Nor did it influence it!

Staadnauthursil: I know... I know I should not blame myself. My siblings have told me as much, that I am not responsible for her death. That it had only been a matter of time. But I can't help but feel guilty. I can't really ignore it. She died too early, she was only sixty five. The coincidences are a bit too close for comfort too. But. In the end. I love writing. I loved, still love, my mother. And I know at least this much, she would not want me to abandon my work because of some coincidence. She was grateful for me taking care of her, for keeping her company, she told me this, often. So what kind of son would I be... if I... just stopped... It would not be right. So I will try to push on, I will keep writing. Ad hopefully... both my parents will be happy with me... wherever they are now. and I hope they are at peace, together.

Pinkie: You just get better Staady, and keep writing. You will make it through, just like the rest of your family.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TreasureHoard

Chapter Nineteen: Operation Hammer & Anvil (Pre-Beta)

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Disclaimer:I do not own anything copyrighted. This includes all of the youtube videos I use to give a touch of flair to my stories, please support the official releases along with those who work hard on these great youtube videos. As well as those youtubers who make fantastic original works of their own.

Chapter Nineteen: Operation Hammer & Anvil (Pre-Beta)

[Current Date: 11/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 20 Days]

Princess Celestia stood on the upper deck of one of the Sky Ships, a Carrack to be specific. Around here were both ponies and horses working to sail the ship in the right direction. Many ponies were just following the instructions of the horses, as much of the enchanted ship was hard to understand.

Next to her was Cursed Blessing, who was speaking onto a comm orb to the horse Warlord Thunder Hammer and General Rough Stock. The two officers had been ordered to work out a battle plan together that would function with both ponies ad horses in mind, and they apparently had come up with a simply but cunning plan to assault the griffins. "General, Warlord, the fleet will be reaching the Eastern Continent within two days. Is everything set and ready?"

Warlord Thunder Hammer's voice echoed out of the crystal orb. "All is well and ready Lord Asclepius. All relevant and important information about Operation: Hammer & Anvil has been spread out to the officers of the United Equine Forces, both of the Galloping Legions and the Chain Breaker Corps have given proper responses for preparations. Everyone is ready to enact the Operation once we reach the coastline. We will be able to adapt to most situations, but we will be more certain once we receive news of the geography."

The elderly horse smiled at the good news. "Excellent. I will be keeping track of the magical support from the sages and various magic users of our forces stationed here on the sky ships while you and your forces start the march on the ground. And once news from the scouts have arrived I will be informing you."

"Wonderful! Thunder Hammer out!" The warlord's voice ended with the orb shutting off. Cursed Blessing placed it on a small block shaped holder on the table he and the Princess were standing by.

Celestia looked at him from where she was sketching a complex magical runic array formation on a parchment. "We take it that the preparations are going well?"

Chuckling a bit the elderly Horse Lord nodded and levitated his own set of parchment of runic arrays to review them for flaws. "Indeed. This will be first proper war for not only the Kingdom's ground forces but also the first time the Horadrim Clan's warriors has joined an active conflict since the fall of the ancient Horse Clans. It will be most fascinating to see how well my clan's forces will handle themselves. We've not had such a large number of troops in our clan in... well ever."

The princess could understand his excitement a bit. Even if it was caused by a horrible situation was it good to find the bright spots in their endeavor to solve it. "Indeed. We were assuming they hath already been stationed on thy ships before the main forces marched aboard, art we correct?"

"Indeed. It is not a large force, only about two thousand troops with two hundred officers. Split up into groups of one hundred troops and one officer. All of them trained as-" But any further explanation was broken as a pony messenger, a pegasus, flew down from above, and saluted the two rulers.

"We have news from the reconnaissance units!" The messenger cried out, not tired but clearly slightly winded from a fast and prolonged flight.

Nodding Cursed Blessing motioned for the messenger to continued. "Good. What do you have to report?"

Clearing his throat a little the messenger began to report the findings of the thirty skeids sent ahead of the rest of the fleet to scout the approaching coastline. "The coastline is mostly sandy and rocky beaches before reaching a very long forest, about five kilometers in width, that travels across the entire length of the visible coast. Behind it are tall jagged mountain cliffs. On top of these cliffs are hundreds of towers and forts. There is also a tall stone wall built between these fortifications. It got to be the world's longest structure."

Princess Celestia frowned at the news as she put away her parchment. It was not good. Even if they had already considered it an option that the Griffins had heavily fortified the coastline, was it not good to have it confirmed. "The cliffs are high and jagged, not possible to climb without being slowed down immensely. We also could not find any manner of roads or elevators constructed nearby. There was a harbour town to the south but its not inhabited. It even looks as if it was ransacked and then just left to rot."

The messenger kept talking, giving the final part of the report. Before taking a gulp from his water skin to sooth his throat. "We can also conclude that there are no natural paths leading up the cliffs, not even small patches with how that wall is blocking the way. It must have taken decades if not centuries to build this. And from the size of the structures are we not sure if it was the Griffins who built it."

Celestia closed her eyes and hummed. Trying to think of a solution, but she knew it would not be possible immediately. But she knew that this meant that the coastal landing would be near impossible. "Hmmm... it is unfortunate. We had foreseen this possibility. But We had hoped for it to not be true."

Cursed Blessing nodded as he looked at the large map on the table in front of him. It was of the south western coastline of the eastern continent where the Dragon Lands laid. But there were no real details on the center or northern parts of the continent, that had been left blank. "Indeed. Those defensive structures will make it hell for not only land our troop carrier ships but we will actually have to try and land them behind the fortifications. Otherwise will the soldiers be completely open for assault by the griffin forces on top of the cliffs. Unless Thunder Hammer and Rough Stock can work up a plan, that is."

Looking at her horse counterpart Celestia nodded. "We should send news to General Rough and Warlord Thunder. They need to adjust their plans for the impending assault. Hopefully they may come upon a solution."

Again Cursed Blessing nodded and began to write down a letter. He could have contacted the Warlord through the Comm Orb but, it was too early to contact him again. Unless it was an emergency or really important they would send reports every ten minutes to the Warlord, General or Admirals to maintain order and to not overlap other people's information. "Indeed. I will get a messenger to do that, I won't personally contact them until we have all the details of the terrain however."

As he wrote the message Celestia turned towards the messenger. "We would like to ask for more details of the cliffs along the coastline messenger. Any details thou might provide would be invaluable."

"I will try to tell you as much as I can. But it should probably be more prudent to send words to the reconnaissance units to have proper maps and sketches of the locations made and let us messengers deliver to you. It would also be ideal to know what manner of defences they have prepared. So we don't have to repeatedly send information that is not relevant." In truth the messenger was just not feeling like he could handle flying back and forth between the scouting units and the main fleet for two days. Sure pegasi had a lot of stamina and speed for flight but that did not mean that he was able to fly several miles daily without rest.

Nodding the elderly horse lord found this suggestion to be most wise. It would also save time and effort to not keep repeating messages. "Excellent suggestion messenger. Make it a priority, you do not need to tell us the details of the shore until you have obtained all the necessary information. It would be pointless and not to mention needlessly exhausting with our fleets so far away from the shore. Return once you have received the necessary information from the scouts"

"As you command. Ave Equestria. Ave Horadrim." With a quick salute to the Princess and Horse Lord the messenger moved away to start sending out words to the scouting ships. Celestia let out a sigh as she looked out towards the horizon where she could see nothing but a dark mass of rain clouds. The invasion was already a risky gamble and they could not make any more risks without knowing the opposition.

Not to mention the dangerous artifacts of the griffins were not only a mass produced, barely contained, and highly contagious health hazard but its anti magical effects would no doubt wreak havoc upon her unicorns and pegasi. Not to mention how it caused a distortion in the Comm Orbs, the main shape of communication in her Kingdom. And no counter measures had been discovered yet.

That's when Lord Cursed Blessing pulled out his own Comm Orb, which was glowing and coughed a bit to clear his throat before speaking into it. "This is Cursed Blessing speaking."

The face of his grandson appeared upon the surface of the orb. Behind him the old horse and princess could see several panicking mages of the Magical Academy screaming and running around, flinging papers and paperweights at some kind of pink blob that was chasing them around. "Yoh gramps! I managed to figure out a way for you to track down those magic canceling baubles!"

"That is excellent news Ciaphas... But...Dare I ask what is going on in the Magical Academy?" The old horse was certain he would find the explanation to be both headache and a great comedy.

Decade's Gain smirked and looked towards the chaos behind him before looking back at the two rulers. "Oh that? One of the sages you sent over thought that the best idea to solve the issue was to force even more magic into the magical liquid. It worked... but not in the way he intended. Instead of nullifying the magical drain he caused the liquid to attain life and mutate into a blob of... ummm... I think it's strawberry jam..."

"Wait why do you think it's strawberry jam?" Cursed Blessing asked the question before he realized that he would probably not like the answer.

And he was right. "Well because Picky Eater had been eating a jam sandwich with pickles just before trying out his theory. Plus I managed to lick it as it passed me by. Tasted like salty pickled strawberries. Kind of regretted that. But it smelled sweet and I just had to try it."

Frowning a bit in disgust at the description Cursed Blessing shook his head. "Well aside from disgusting dietary habits of one of my sages and impulsive grandchildren, what did you discover."

Chuckling the young horse sage stuck out his tongue at his grandfather before continuing. "Well when Picky Eater was filling the bottle filled with shards and ooze with magic, before was made into a salty sweet slime, I noticed that the Comm Orb in the room was sparkling and twitching like someone had been poking a it into a storm cloud. So while this circus have been going on I took the orb and some of the small remains of the ooze and shards, safely sealed within a contained unit, and took it to the swimming pool."

"What art thou talking about? Swimming pool?" Celestia asked with a confused look on her face. Not knowing what it was the young colt was talking about.

Cursed Blessing was quick to give her an explanation to not let the discussion get side tracked. "A swimming pool is a small artificial lake, or outdoor bathtub. It is sort of like a hoof made pond, but made for swimming exercises or relaxing baths. I believe the Academy had one built for practice with magic and experiments related with water in different fashions. But back on track Ciaphas."

*Ooooh so its like an outhouse bathhouse...* Celestia pondered slightly as she thought about it. not realizing that outhouse had a completely different meaning then the one she was thinking of.

Rolling his eyes the young horse resumed his report. "Yeah fine. Just so you know. I did not start experimenting on the ooze and shards together, I had them placed in a separate container. So I put each container on a small raft. And I then began to channel magic through the water. And I can confirm that neither the shards nor the ooze are able to nullify magic on their own as I even telekinetically lifted both bottles out of the pool without a single reaction, or rather there was no lack of reaction."

Nodding Cursed Blessing looked pleased at the news, it would help them immensely in figuring out a way to neutralize the artifacts without destroying them. Even if they had to manually empty the artifacts of the ooze would it most certainly be much less of a hazard then breaking them. "Hmmm so the two substances have to be combined for the anti magical field to come into effect. Good. This is excellent news."

With a smug grin the colt nodded. Pleased that he was getting recognition for his discoveries. "Yeah but here comes the good part. I did the same test with a container containing the two substances together. And any magic within 30 centimeters around the container was nullified. or rather, it was absorbed. By the shards themselves. Whatever substance the shards are made of is highly reactive to the ooze. When it comes in contact with this liquid magic, it drains all active and ambient magic into itself like a sponge. The size of the container determines the the strengths of the magic draining siphon field. So these shards, which the largest are about three centimeters in length and with, cover only up to 30 cm."

"While the intact container had covered an area up to fifty meters or so... hmmm... makes me wonder how the griffins activate or deactivate them since they apparently didn't activate the anti magical field until needed." Cursed Blessing pondered just how exactly the griffins utilized the artifacts. From what he knew were they not able to use magic themselves, at least not external magic. So how exactly they altered the anti magic field to such a degree was a mystery.

Young Ciaphas snorted and had a frown on his face ,as he had not managed to figure that part out yet. "And I cannot figure out how they do that. But I can figure out why."

Celestia perked up at this, and brought out a parchment and quill to take notes. The young foal always had such radical and fascinating ideas that she had to write them down for further reference. "Oooh? What hath thou found out young Gain?"

The image of Ciaphas held up a hoof and created a small sphere of blue light. He then lessened the intensity of the light and expanded the sphere in width, and kept doing so until it looked like a sphere made of near transparent mist. "That when the anti magical field is active, and I mean as in its normal state, its siphoning power is highly focused and in a much tighter area. What the griffins did, was lessen the potency for more area of effect, somehow. And this lesser but larger siphon power is what is causing all the interference with the Comm Orbs, as the area covered by the artifacts should be around thirty kilometers in diameter. At least. When the artifact's siphon is not spread out like this, does it not affect the Comm Obs unless any of them are within the fifty meter radius."

Celestia frowned at the explanation. It would explain a lot why the Comm Orbs had been malfunctioning until the griffin forces had either been repelled or destroyed. Thankfully had no more of the Thalon Plague, as it had come to be called, been noted and most artifacts had been destroyed in the crossfire safely without a lose of pony lives. "A dangerous and foul creation."

On the orb Ciaphas nodded, and now he held up his free hoof to the left. And he created a smaller more solid orb, this one purple. And he emitted a pulse of purple light, that was seemingly drawn into the mist, towards the center. "Yeah. And I figured out how to track these things down. For I put the Comm Orb on the water by the active anti magic field, and when it touched the field itself, the orb would release a spark. Though only if magic was being traced through either the orb itself or the area around it. The spark would move with the magical flow and moved in the direction of the container, I could even see the energy affect the water as it caused ripples while moving towards the center of the siphon field."

"...The orb is acting like a tracker of the magical energy being drained by the ooze fueled artifact. The magical drain gives a direction for the energy to flow, and this direction is shown on the orb's surface!" Celestia started muttering, her voice rising louder and louder until she cried out in triumph with a wide grin as she realized what young Ciaphas had just discovered.

Cursed Blessing smiled widely, this was the best news he had heard all day. "And that means that if we can figure out a way to alter some of the orbs to trace the direction of the energy drain we can essentially track them down and disable them!"

"Neat right? I call it the Jam Tracker! In honour of the strawberry blob currently eating Sage Picky Eater." Ciaphas said with a grin as he pointed at the scene behind him of a red robed, blue pelted and white maned horse trapped within a pink blob that was fending off five guards wielding polearms and ten mages casting spells at its gelatinous body.

"..." Neither Cursed Blessing or Celestia knew how to properly react to the name, nor the creature that had inspired it. Their faces frozen in wide smiles, but barely holding as they watched the absurd sight behind the young foal.

"Well that's my work done for the week! I am off to research my own things! See ya gramps! Princess! Hey guys! Have you tried using a giant loaf of bread against it!? It might be more effective then trying to stab or blast a blob of jam! Hehehe... idiots." The young foal then turned around and sarcastically insulted the panicking guards currently being grappled by the big blob, their weapons unable to hurt it, while a slightly bleeding and glaring Picky Eater was floating inside of it. He then walked off screen, chuckling, there was a sound of a door opening a closing, leaving the bizarre scene on the orb.

Then suddenly a door is kicked in and female voice cries out as a large horse mare dressed in white and black robes wielding an old, and glowing, book rushes into the picture. And proceeded to smack the blob with the book, the resulting force of the strike sends poor Picky Eater flying out of the blob and into a wall with a loud splat. All the while the mare was screaming out in a zealous and almost maniac fervor. "OH GOOOOOODS! MAKE THIS MONSTER REPENT! I AM GONNA SMACK IT ACROSS ITS FACE! OH GOOOOODS! AID ME IN BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF IT! OOOOOOH YEEEEEAAAAHH!!!!"

A bright flash of light came from the mare in the orb that almost blinded the two rulers, butt they could still see the mare fly off into a kick, surrounded by a glowing aura, and saw how the blob was kicked through the wall. The blob started... wobbling away? Apparently fleeing the rampaging holy mare.

But the book wielding mare kept following it, screaming out vulgar holy scripts with great fervor. While groaning mages, sages and guards laid scattered across the room. With an echoing, "Oooooh GOOOOODS!", completing the picture.

Absentmindedly Cursed Blessing deactivated the orb and began to rub his forehead. "Please tell me that wasn't the teacher I sent to him... acting like an insanely enthusiastic preacher of the Old Religion..."

Celestia, her smile no longer strained, but in fact a wide grin, stated happily. "Okay. It was not."

Looking at the alicorn with a flat expression Cursed Blessing just stated his disbelief of the honesty in her statement. "...Your grin is not doing much to convince me of your words Celestia."

Said Princess just grinned wider and the elderly horse let out a loud and drawn out suffering groan while clutching his face, resting his head against the table where the orb now rested. Muttering to himself about smart ass grandchildren and princesses out to make his life more difficult.

[Scene Skip]

Within the hold of one of the large carrier sky ships were several large rooms with bunk beds and locker boxes made for the large number of troops being transported within. There was a total of twenty of these rooms, each able to contain and house one hundred troops/passengers. Within the massive ship there was enough space for over two thousand horses, not even counting the crew.

Within one of these barracks were a set of troops wearing large dark blue cloaks with a yellow lining on the inside of the cloaks, they were the soldiers of the Horadrim Clan. Their cloaks were not their only gear, but it covered what was visible upon their bodies. But one gear that was clear and apparent was a long row of strange looking staffs lining the wall of the barracks. Each shaft of these spears were only around one and a half meter in length, with two twenty centimeters long crystalline dagger like blades strapped to the tip of the shafts.

The pommels of these strange spears were around ten centimeters long and three times as thick as the shafts, almost making the spears look like a combination of spear and club. These thick pommels were made out of a similar crystalline material like the two daggers mounted on the tip of the shafts, only these were sparkling with a prismatic array of light coming from within the clear crystalline structure.

One of these soldiers was about to remove his coat to check on his body gear, feeling something strange on his left side, when a horse knight entered the barracks, carrying an unsealed scroll with a set of wax seals marking it as being sent from the Equestrian and Horadrim's highest authority. "We have received words from Warlord Thunder Hammer and General Rough Stock. There will be a debriefing to all of officers through the Comm Orbs by tomorrow. So all officers will be gathering in the dining hall on the second floor for the debriefing."

Three of the Horadrim Mages walked forth, each of them marked with a badge on their cloaks as officers. Their ranks were noted as Captains. They spoke out as one to the messenger, and they looked almost identical, if not for the different patterns of their white and brown pelts. "We are the Captains of the 91st Battle Unit. Major Magus Lucky Almond is sleeping at the moment but we can deliver his orders for you once he wakes up."

The messenger nodded and gave the trio the scroll he had been carrying. "The orders are written here. I will be of to resume my duties. Note that Warlord Thunder Hammer has made personal notes to both you of the 91st and the 87th to not get into shenanigans. Words will be sent to Major Fjodor as well. This is not practice nor is it war games, this is bloody serious and we do not need any disasters during the first unified operation between our Kingdom and Equestria, like when your two units crashed the training camp with an escalating food fight, with ANIMATED food acting as soldiers."

"We will make sure to remind Major Almond." The trio of captains smiled cheekily as they saluted the messenger who left the barracks to get new orders. Shaking his head as he walked down the crowded halls, knowing about the crazy acts of the two Battle Units and their commanding officers' unspoken rivalry/friendship was no doubt going to cause a mess.

[Scene Skip]

On top of the large mountain fortress of Stonenest, within one of the large towers of Castle Griffonstone was a garden of exotic trees growing in pots with patches of sand and grass decorating the stone floor to make it appear more natural. Sitting by a large circle shape and very finely made black marble table within the center of this garden, was King Craver, looking upon a map of his Kingdom and the neighboring nations and unclaimed land. Giggling slightly to himself as he looked at what would once be his, and his alone.

Steps could be heard from the entrance, two guards standing at attention near the table turned but soon resumed their positions as there was no threat. Approaching the King's garden table was the former Lord, now Earl, Archos Ironbeak, having ascended to the rank formerly held by his father as the news of his father's capture had left the Ironbeak clan leaderless and thus the King had promoted him.

The Earl bowed to the King and gave the already wickedly smiling King, an even more wicked smile on his face with his report. "My King. The first of the two artifacts have been completed and is ready to be tested against the alicorns."

Not looking up from his map King Craver just giddily traced his talon along the Dragon Lands to the far south, the Grand Desert to the East, and the Transylvian Jungles to the north. There were other areas between those landmarks. There was the thick marshes and jungles between the Dragon Lands and the Grand Desert. The Great Inland Sea with its various isles was located between the Eagle Coast of Gryphon and the Transylvian Jungles. And even beyond those lands, were unexplored regions.

The Mountainous Region that was the Maw of the World stretched from the Gryphon Kingdom's central region and up to, and through, the northern jungles. But it was split apart by the Inner Sea, making the large mountain range split into two separate parts. The waters splitting the mountain were filled with jagged rocks, making most sailing impossible. This open patch of ocean where the mountain range was split in twain is something many scholars have said to be one of the acts of the Lord of Chaos which was too damaged to recover. The Gryphons controlled all of the southern areas of the mountain range's southern areas, but the northern parts were unexplored and filled with unknown inhabitants. All these regions made for prime targets for further conquest for his kingdom.

As the King traced these unclaimed regions he spoke out to his loyal adviser. "Is it enough to handle them?"

The Earl did not answer the question directly. Instead he went with the indirect approach and told the King what the artificers had told him, while also making sure to not make it appear as if it was an outright failure on either his or the artificers part. "The artificers are unable to tell, but they told me that in case the prototypes prove unsuccessful they have begun the process of creating even more powerful artifacts in case these ones are not up to the challenge."

The King got a happy smile on his face and cheerfully stabbed a dagger into the stone table on the map, where Canterlot was marked down. "Excellent! If this succeeds then I shall reward them handsomely! But... if they fail with these artifacts. Then I shall be inviting some of their family as dinner."

A chill went down the Earl's spine but he kept his face cold and emotionless. Even for one as ruthless as himself was his King beyond compare with his sickening habits.

"As you command my King. We shall prepare an ambush site and spread out rumours to the ponies. It will probably take some attempts but we have faith in your great plan." Bowing to his King the Earl kept up the flattering, knowing that his ruler was as fickle as he was sick in the head. If the King saw a moment of disrespect or slight against him in any manner, then things would go very badly for not just the Earl but his entire lineage.

Said King just smirked and looked out over the battlements of Griffonstone and started cackling in a deranged manner. "As you should! Eheheheeehahahahahahaaa!"

The laughter of King Craver echoed out over the courtyard and shivers went down the spines of the griffins of the castle. Knowing that with their King in a good mood, things would not be pleasant for any of them. But at least it wasn't as bad as when he was in a fowl mood.

[Scene Skip]

Young Decade's Gain walked through the hallways of the Magic Academy. Floating in front of him was a quill and several scrolls where he was making notes and diagrams. Not even looking up he kicked up a door to his right with his right hoof and walked inside, kicking the door closed with his left hind leg.

Inside was a large room with a blue floor carpet with bookshelves covering the walls except for a large fireplace. There was a large window with a big desk with a lot of papers and books on top of it. There was a nice looking bed next to the desk. And there was a cupboard filled with drinks and food items as well as a cupboard filled with blank papers, ink wells and quills.

In front of the fireplace was a large brown couch made out of wool and cotton. As the young horse walked past the coach, humming to himself, a voice spoke up from the couch. "I take it you are functioning correctly Ciaphas. There were no setbacks right? No one has gotten suspicious?"

The foal put down his notes on the desk and turned towards the figure on the couch and made a polite bow to him, acting in a proper and etiquette manner all of a sudden. "Not to worry milord. No one has made any comments of me acting strange. And I got to say that not having to focus on anything else then being a young foolish foal is rather relaxing. Plus it gives me all this spare time to come up with ideas and inspirations for future projects."

Maleficus Victoria was sitting on the couch, reading a book with a pair of square shaped glasses on his face. They were enchanted to record and copy texts and images directly to the Interface, but Maleficus made them mostly because it felt comfortable to wear glasses like he did as a human. Closing his book he put aside his glasses and got off the couch. "Excellent."

"The invasion forces will assault the Kingdom of Gryphon tomorrow though. I hope the information I gave grandfather and Celestia will aid them in their efforts." Maleficus walked over to the fire place and sighed at the words of his creation. He had essentially copied himself into Ciaphas to be able to move on his own without raising suspicions of leaving unconscious and soulless bodies all over the place.

It was rather disturbing how lifelike his creations were, and it was making him feel rather unease as he thought about it.

He shook his head clear of such thoughts and pressed a hoof to his head, berating himself while trying to maintain focus on his current objective. *Stop thinking about it, it's nothing. Just focus on finding more ruins like those you found in the Everfree Forest.*

"Oh yeah. I found out some interesting things from some of the reports Gramps and Princess Celestia were sending to Lady Solid Pink. There's a massive and incredibly wall on the western coastline of Gryphon, it goes farther then the eye can see and is large enough to house dragons. I think there's a chance there could be information in that wall, or possible similar ruins nearby with clues." At those words Maleficus looked at his creation with a curious look on his face.

"A giant wall? Large enough to house dragons? That doesn't sound anything like the Ancient Roman, or Greek, ruins I found in the Everfree Forest. Sounds more like the Great Wall of China. " Tapping his chin Maleficus walked over to one of the book shelves and looked over the covers, trying to find the title he was looking for. He had heard about something similar in one of his earlier reads, but had dismissed it at first.

Ciaphas just shrugged and laid down on his back on the bed, exhausted from all the work he had been doing. Crossing his forelegs behind his neck he leaned back into the soft fabrics and muttered tiredly to himself. "Well if it helps are there towers attached the wall. Aaaaandaaaaahmmm. Sorry. And the description of those towers makes them appear to be cylindrical in shape, most of them have no roof but some of the have been reported to have dome shaped roofs."

Maleficus' left ear twitched at the final sentence that the young foal said and he pulled out the book he was looking for. He opened it and looked over it. The cover reading 'The Lost Kingdoms by Speculating Speculant'. And his eyes widened as he saw a sketch of a ruin. The ruined remains of what had once been a castle sized stone tower located in the Frozen North. Its age speculated to have been over a thousand years.

The tower was broken in half, and was sitting on the side of a cliff or mountain. It was covered with snow and ice. But the details were great and one of those details was what drew his eyes the most. He pulled out his glasses again to get a better look, investigating the sketch with more interest then he had done before.

On that sketch, located within the inner wall of the tower. He could make it out. An old mortar wall, once part of possible a hallway, great hall or even an entrance hall. There, was the fractured remains of a mural, ad though it was hard to make it out. He could see it. A broken medieval skeletal pegasus, burning, running through fields. Only thanks to his glasses could he even make out the lines and connect the figure that was once there on the wall.

Slamming the book shut he put it back into place on the bookshelf and turned towards a startled Ciaphas, also known as Decade's Gain. "I am going to investigate that wall and its towers. Proceed with the rest of the research and development we discussed."

And then he melted into a shadowy miasma that slithered through the gap of the door and disappeared. The young foal scratched his head before sighing and laid back on his bed. "Man. We can be a real blowhard of a downer sometimes, glad I am not part of that mindset anymore."

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 12/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 19 Days]

A golden glow grows from beyond the edge of the world as the early summer sun rises. Its illuminating glow reaches out from across the Celestial Sea and approaches the great cliffs on the western Eagle Coast of the Gryphon Kingdom. But before even touching the sheer surface of the white coloured massive mountainous walls there is a reflection of dark grey, almost steel like, stone as the rays touches a long and utterly massive structure travelling across the coastline.

It was a wall, an almost incomprehensibly large and long wall, with towers of various sizes spread out across its long length every five hundred meters. And upon each tower laid two flags. One bearing a heraldic image of a gold crowned white eagle head i the center of a six pointed yellow star shaped field, with a purple background. With a red talon held within each of the star's six points.

This was the flag of the Gryphon Kingdom. Marking the ground based borders of the kingdom.

While the other flag, marked something else. The other bearing a dark grey eagle with two blue lightning bolts crossing over gripped in its talons. With the golden outline of a griffin on the upper right corner of shield itself. With a pure black field making up the background. This is the symbol of not only the wall itself, but those who protect it.

The Great Stormwall, that is what it was called. A massive structure of stone walls and stone towers over a thousand kilometers long. It was built in the long forgotten past. But the griffins have laid claim to it since the Age of Chaos. It was here the Griffins sought refugee in their early days as a Kingdom. It was here that King Cu Chun the Second, the grandfather of King Guto the First, kept the Griffins safe from the twisting powers of the Lord Chaos.

It is built along the Eagle Coast's western area, is split by an inland seaway but then continues further. The griffins controls the parts on their territory. But no one knows were else the wall may lead.

Through out the entire Age of Chaos were the Griffins seeking refugee within this structure, for it was the sole thing within the lands which wasn't affected by the mad powers of the creature called Discord. Thus it was a spot of safety and order within the insanity happening to the world outside.

Because of this is the Stormwall considered to be the most important historical and strategical structure within the Gryphon Kingdom. Even more important then the Royal Capital and Castle Griffonstone. Those honourable soldiers who keep this ancient structure in order and used it as a guarding point against any potential threat from the west were named the Iron Eagles, after the rare iron armour the wore and the fact that they were stationed along the entire western coastline of the Eagle Coast.

It was a respectable and after sought duty to stand guard on this ancient structure. But with the fall of King Guto I and the rise of King Craver I came a sudden turn of interest. The ancient Stormwall was turned into a well kept and crewed defence into a stage point for the Royal Air Navy of Gryphon. Here is where the future soldiers and sailors of the navy was trained. It was here that the air ships were built, prepared and crewed before the launch of the invasion.

The once honourable and long standing Iron Eagles were converted or replaced with cold-hearted loyalists to the King who would fight to the death to uphold his ideals. They were part of the military forces who betrayed King Guto for King Craver, and their position on the Great Stormwall was a sign of gratitude from the King in their support during his coup. A place where they could essentially be lazy all day long and just maintain the bare minimum of training and efficiency. A reward of laziness and low standards to a once great and powerful unit of soldiers.

The only thing that remained the same was the Stormwall itself and the Eagle Coast, as the Eagle Coast is the name o the northern, northwestern, western and south western coastline of the Kingdom.

Even with the large shipyards and barracks doting the ground behind its massive walls was the wall itself still the same as it had always been. Including its massive interior rooms. Many griffins believe that it might have been built by dragons, as the rooms and steps of the large structure is certainly large enough for even an ancient dragon to fit inside. But that is only a theory.

No attacks had ever breached it walls. Not that there had ever been any records of the Wall being attacked. Ever.

Up on top of the Central Tower, the tallest and largest of all of the towers, laid one particularly fat griffin, large enough to almost be mistaken for being half bear rather then half cat, on a pile of cushions. He was dressed in a flamboyant outfit that was decorated with the markings of a General. The highest military rank of the ground based forces. This fat bird was General Shail Windcutter and he had been one of the few Generals to support the new King in his coup and was thus given the great honour of retiring on the Stormwall as the defender of the nation.

The old bird's cheeks were fat and blubbery as his smaller then average beak bit down on a clawful of grapes as he was sitting by his desk enjoying his day. Sure the news of the defeated fleets had concerned him, but he was confident that with more time and preparations that the navy could fulfill their duty to the King and lay claim to the resources of Equestria properly. He did not need to personally involve himself in the matter.

Oh how wrong he would find out he was.

A griffin officer came flying down from above and landed with a thump on the rooftop where the General was gorging on fruit and meat. "General! There is a large strange cloud formation moving towards us."

Swallowing his mouthful of grapes General Windcutter stared at the Commander with a look that could only be described as 'are you serious'. "What does that have to do with us? Clouds move around all erratic all the time along this coastline."

Taking a deep breath the Commander regained the air in his lungs and pointed out towards the sea. "But General it is moving against the wind and heading straight towards us!"

Shail just quirked a brow, chewed a clawful of seedless cherries before swallowing, and said. "So?"

The officer grit his beak and contemplated committing a war crime by punching his superior in the face. "Did you not read the reports from the navy General?"

But the General didn't seem too bothered by the question and just shrugged, swallowing a banana. "No I got better things to do, the concerns of the Navy does not involve the Iron Eagles."

Gripping his talons the Commander had to restrain himself from screaming, and instead barely kept himself to loudly speaking out to his superior. Who was looking for some other fruit from the bowl. "But General! The ponies' allies the horses uses air ships that flies on clouds!"

Munching on a mango the General just hmmed, about as concerned about it as a child about homework. "Yes I heard that from Lord Archos. Those air boats uses storm clouds. What about those clouds looks like storm clouds?"

But the Commander's worries were still clear and he tried to reason with General Shail. "But what if those ships-"

Once more the officer's words were waved aside by his superior officer with a casual wave of a claw as he finished the mango. "Oh calm your wings Commander. The chances of those primitive land dwellers being able to manipulate the weather is hard to even comprehend."

"But the ponies have-" And once again he was interrupted. It was apparent that the General was not intent on listening.

"Magic, yes. But I hardly think any ponies will be brave enough to travel across the sea to confront us. Seeing how it was mostly those horses who fought back and not the ponies. And I doubt that beyond their fancy flying storm boats, which they in no way made themselves, they could reach us. And a stormcloud during a sunny day is rather easy to spot." The General was also making a lot of incorrect assumptions about a report he had not even read. And the Commander's face was turning more and more frantic as he tried to figure out a way to get his lazy superior to pull his butt out of the cushions.

But before the griffin could speak up again was a loud crackling boom heard from the west, nearly bowling over the Commander, while only making the fat General's chins jiggle. The General blustered and slowly got up from his seat before walking, or rather waddling, over to the to look out towards the open ea. "What in the heavens was that!?"

And then his eyes widened at the sight of a massive thundercloud lowering itself down from the skies less then a kilometer away from the coast. A large row of massive ships were floating down, moving down upon a wedge shaped mass of storm clouds. Thunder and lightning arcs across the surface of the clouds.

The Commander walked over to his superior who was staring at the scene with beak agape. And spoke up in a completely cool and emotionless voice. "It appears that they have reached us General."

"RAISE THE ALARM!!!! CALL THE OFFIRURRUKKLGGGGUUUUUUH!!!!" As the fat griffin started screaming out orders he suddenly lurched forward, gripping his breast. And with a loud blubbering thud the mass of fat and feather smacked down onto the floor.

The Commander just stared at the General of the Stormwall as he was clearly having a heart attack. Even as a large group of medics and troops came running to help the downed officer, the Commander raised his head, and started walking down the stairs. Speaking out in a dry and humourless voice. "We are completely and utterly plucked."

[Scene Skip]

"Impressive. By expanding and combining the cloud layers of your fleet thy have created a massive cloud layer which not only acts as cover but as protection as well. And since it is an ambient effect created by the ships' runic enchantments and not a direct magical effect is the anti magic artifacts of the griffins unable to dispel the clouds." Princess Celestia said with stars twinkling in her eyes as she looked down at the massive layer of white clouds bellowing beneath the Sky ships. The advanced techniques and magic of the horses never failed to amaze her. Even so much that she failed to note how her accent had changed slightly through her dialogue.

The elderly sage and temporary ruler laughed as he leaned against his staff and looked out at the clouds beneath the massive fleet. Their white bellowing shapes making appear as if the massive war vessels were floating on a sea of white water like mist. "Indeed. It is a technique my clan developed when moving over inhabited areas. The ships will be moving slower because of this but it grants us near perfect aerial stealth. And considering there are no nearby dragons or air ships in the air will this be our best shoot at assaulting the griffins without risking the ships."

"I keep learning new things about thy people every time we meet Lord Blessing. This war plan our Generals hath worked out is most ambitious." Celestia said with a smile as she looked at the formation of the fleet. Each ship type was spread out in waves. With their speed limited were all ships moving at near equal speed, even the atakebunes were moving at equal speed to the speedier ships. Which showed just how much speed the storm clouds gave the ships.

At the rear were the skeids, waiting for the signal to once more activate their oars. After them were the triremes, their long range artillery weapons kept at a distance to give the rest of the fleet free movement. Ahead of them were the carracks, if they had unfolded all of their sails they would probably the fastest of all the ships in this formation. But they were the not mean for this. Ahead of the carracks flew the atakebunes, their shield fields would be there to protect the rest of the fleet once the vanguard left the formation.

And the vanguard was the most important part of this plan. As at the front of fleet were the massive syracusia ships, all forty of them. The center of the formation held the Horadrim Kingdoms' forces, while on the left and right side of the formation were the ponies. For the center would be the first to reach their destination, while the left and right wing of the formation would be following at a slower speed to give the vanguard a chance to get a hoofhold on the enemy fortifications.

The plan was simple and yet daring. The syracusias carrying the horses would fly first, their towers shooting down any approaching foes or lightning cannons they could. They would let out their troops onto the large stone wall's battlements and claim its towers, if they managed to land on the battlements. The main goal was to claim the wall from the griffins. After which the ponies would follow, and then they would march out in formation and assault the shipyards, air ships and troops guarding them.

While the rest of the fleet would fly down after the syracusias had reached the halfway mark towards the walls and shoot down all enemy siege engines and airborne units before they can damage the large troop carriers. Then the ships would act as artillery support and air support to aid the ground forces.

General Rough Stock would be working with the ground forces while Warlord Thunder Hammer would be handling the sky ships. Both pony and horse officers would be aiding the two military leaders with this historical event.

So the twenty syracusia ships would soon be on their own for the first wave of the attack. But with their surprise assault and not to mention the armed sages within the ships' hold, they were confident of victory. Though not overly so, as anything could go wrong, even with the best circumstances for victory.

Celestia sighed a bit, her enthusiasm a bit sapped knowing that many ponies and horses would die from the coming battle. But neither she nor Lord Blessing could find an alternative to how to handle the mad King of the Griffins. As confronting the King would not work, seeing how the reports spoke of him as sadistic, mad, cannibalistic, cowardly and sleazy. He would not risk a direct confrontation and leave the dirty work to his troops.

"We hope that this conflict will not escalate." She said with another sad sigh, the pressure on her conscience higher then ever.

"Only the Gods can tell Princess. We can only do our best and hope things do not turn for the worst." Cursed Blessing said while patting the white alicorn on her shoulder. Though he too knew that things would only get worse before they got better.

A horn was sounded out and the two leaders looked ahead, and saw how the clouds of the entire fleet turned from broad white clouds into dark and dense thunder clouds in an almost wave like motion.

It was as if the God of Storms himself had raised his hammer and brought forth the wrath of the skies. And then the first wave moved downwards, towards the massive wall protecting the griffins. A wave of giants of wood, metal and thunder.

The first act of the counter invasion plan, Operation: Hammer & Anvil, had begun.

[Scene Skip]

[Start War Theme Music: [Battlefleet Gothic Armada Soundtrack] Battle themes]

[Disclaimer: I do not own anything on this video, nor do I stake any claim on it or the music in it. Please support the official release and its creators.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v39F9pmYhE

Through its history had the Kingdom of Gryphon never actually been invaded before, not even during the coup of King Craver was its borders assaulted or even infiltrated.

Everyone would state that the reason for this lack of invasion was for the lesser species fearing the might of the griffins even as divided as they were during the coup. But the truth was that most of the neighboring nations did not care about the Griffins, knowing that even if they attacked them, the griffins could seek refugee within the large Stormwall.

For not even during the Age of Chaos, had anything been able to breach the defences of those walls.

That is. Until today.

Ten massive ships made of wood and metal were floating down in a spread out wedge formation. Their bows bent forward, increasing the speed of the descent by a greater magnitude. The sails were folded and the rows were moving steadily, adding further speed to the massive behemoths.

At first their formation had been tight and clustered, but as they traveled down from the slowly following fleet behind them, they slowly spread further and further apart from each other. Soon they were over a hundred meters apart and their reinforced bows were plummeting with rapid speed towards the defences below.

The Griffins had barely any time to react. Even as the sleepy, and some even half drunk or under dressed, soldiers of the once elite force of the Kingdom of Gryphon, struggled to organize themselves. Would it still take them the better of twenty minutes to get the word spread, their gear on and getting to their position. But they only had barely enough time to charge their Tintreach Cannons before the first wave reached the Stormwall.

A group of griffin warriors raised up their cannon's barrel towards the massive ship sailing straight towards them and fired it off. The lightning bolt streaked forward towards the target that was less then twenty yards away. And was suddenly absorbed by the storm clouds beneath the wooden behemoth of a ship.

The griffin soldiers barely had time to widen their eyes in shock, before the bow of the massive ship struck the massive stone tower, and smashed through it like a battering ram. Even the powerful ancient stone of the Stormwall could not handle being struck by a quickly descending ship the size of a small fort, enchanted with magic and reinforced with metal. It looked like the stone gave away like sand as the bow split the edge of the upper portion of the wall, before wedging through the solid stone roof and then the entire structure began to fall over and apart as the foundations were destroyed.

Each of these massive ships were aimed at the towers of the wall. The larger towers. One by one the massive frames of the sky ships slammed into the tops of the towers. The stone held for but an instance before fracturing and splintering, as the force of the ship's descent an the sturdiness of their reinforced frames allowed the ships to break the ancient towers.

The front and upper areas of the towers crumbled and twisted from the impact. The shock waves of the impacts rang through the structures and explosions of mortar, dust an stone fragments exploded from the rest of the structures' frames. Then the ships moved through the stonework of the tower as if it was made of wet mud. The towers let out horrid crackling and groaning of breaking stone and heaving mass, before they began to tilt as the weight of the ships began to push the now broken off upper halves away from their foundation.

And with an eruption of stone, wood and screaming griffins the ships' pushed the towers over and followed the descent of the towers down onto the flat ground beyond the massive wall the towers had been connected to. And used the crumbling towers like ramps to slide down to the ground.

It was clear that both the ponies, the horses, and the griffins had overestimated how strong the stonework of the wall had been.

The ships' momentum were slowed down by the sliding descent and with a loud groan their bows slammed into the soil, pushing up a wave of dirt and grass. Then the front of the ships acted as rams and let them slide over, and partly dig through, the ground in front of them. And like loud groaning monsters the ships slide through tents, buildings and grounded air ships, before falling to a stop after five seconds. All ten ships had landed within the massive shipyard of the griffins. And with a loud and heavy collective thud, the drawbridge like cargo ramps of the ships slammed down open.

[Scene Skip]

The horses on board the ships were all hunkering down in special seats located through out the larger central deck of the ship. Even as the voice of the ship's captain rang out from various pipelines located throughout the ship, they lowered their heads and tried to get into the shape of a ball as good as possible in the case the straps holding them in place would come lose.

"HERE WE GO!!! BRACE FOR IMPACT!!!"

And with a a loud crack from the outside the entire ship shook and groaned, as if it had struck a stone foundation out at sea. The crew and the soldiers barely managed to keep themselves from losing their grips or breaking their straps. But they knew that this was only the beginning. And as the ship stopped with a heavy jerk, the soldiers began to unstrap themselves and stand up. Knowing what would come next.

The leader of the front line stood up and raised their crystalline saber like sword into the air and cried out to the troops before them. "Prepare to Disembark! Assemble into the predetermined formations! Rear line is to have shields array activated at all times!"

"Hold your hooves ready to marsh out once the vanguard has done their work!" One of the Horadrim officers, a Viking, cried out to the other troops in the now calmer interior of the ship. Not that such orders were necessary, all of the horses within the hold knew of the plan and the tactics they were about to employ. They were, after all, made with the memories of their Creator's knowledge of one of the greatest warlords of his own nation.

As the large wooden ramp like drawbridges drooped down the vanguard of a hundred brave horses marched out, in a long spread out formation of three lines. Magical energy flowed out from the back line, shaping out hexagon energy shields fitting together into an half egg like shape in front of the troops as they marched down the ramps and towards the waiting forces of the griffins.

[Scene Skip]

Total chaos was what was going on outside of the ten carrier ships. Griffins were running around trying to get a grip on what to do. But even as shocking as the entire situation was had many of the Iron Eagles managed to gather themselves together into larger units and march towards the wooden fortresses which had just slammed through the formerly invincible defences of the Stormwall.

Intent on killing the heathens who dared damage the ancient structure, which was practically holy to them.

One of these groups were being lead by a young griffin officer by the name of Lieutenant Jarred. A promising young talent in the Griffin army, from a long line of great military talents with a great talent for not only strategy but battle as well. Stationed her not as a member of the Iron Eagles, but as part of the second wave of Invasion Fleets being prepared by the Gryphon Kingdom's Navy.

He was one of the few officers capable of handling the chaos of the sudden invasion force crashing through the Stormwall. Screaming out orders and getting the panicking soldiers into order. It had not been possible to get them all into order but he had a force of over a thousand strong griffin soldiers standing in ranks, ready to charge at the giant ships.

Standing before his amassed troops he raised his large sword with one of his large talons and pointed it towards the enemy ship laying on the ground before him and them. "Load crossbows with fire bolts! Put that monstrosity on fire!"

On that command were hundreds of crossbow bolts tipped in tar set alight by flint and steel before being raised and aimed at the massive behemoth of wood and metal. And with a loud collective twang the sky was alight with streaking bolts of fire.

The sound of metal piercing wood filled the air as the veritable wave of projectiles struck the structure of the hull. Then the griffin soldiers raised their crossbows and swords and screeched out in triumph as they witnessed the wood start to catch fire.

Their courage and morale was high and soaring and some of the scattered and panicking griffins around found this scene inspiring calmness and restoring a great deal of order to the still disordered air ship harbours and army camps behind the Storm Wall. Their morale boosted even as lightning screamed out from the cannons on the walls, the approaching enemy fleet was approaching even more rapidly, and the projectiles striking at the few air ships that had managed to fly up from their harbours.

The griffins screeched out war cries and cheers through a bit more before their current replacement commander raised his talon to get their attention. As he had their attention he then pointed his talon at his forces and screamed out. "All Claymores assume wave formation in front of the Shielders! Shielders assume a shield wall formation behind the Claymores and in front of the Arbalists and keep them safe! Arbalists assume a spread out line formation of three line ups and prepare to fire your bolts at my command!"

With rumbling paws and claws the griffins shifted into their designated formations rapidly. Their momentum and morale high as could be. Jarred walked to the center of the rear of the formation that his sword wielding Claymore warriors were forming up. His own large sword held pointed at the ground.

As the final trooper got into position he faced the burning behemoth and raised his sword to give an order. When a sudden voice cried out from above. "Something is happening on the ship!"

Jarred didn't look up as he knew that one of his scouts were up there keep track of the surrounding chaos. So he turned to look towards the large burning ship, only for his eyes to widen as suddenly runes began to glow across the hull and a gust of cloud like mist erupted from the hull, killing the flames that had been starting to scorch the hull. A wave of cool mist, thick smoke and flakes of ash and charcoal hit him and his forces right in their eyes and beaks.

He managed to cover his beak but his eyes were tearing up rapidly from the stinging smoke mixed within the thick mist. It lasted only for a few seconds but his forces were coughing and rubbing their eyes as the smoke struck them. Then a thick wind blew it all away and he could hear his fellow griffins try to catch their breath as the thick mist and smoke was replaced by the pleasant wind of the coast.

But then a loud resounding thump was heard. And as his tearing eyes were finally cleared, he stared in confusion as the rear, or front, of the ship suddenly opened up into a ramp. And standing there, in line of blue and yellow uniforms with thick breast plates and wielding crystal tipped strange looking spears. Came a marching line of horse down the ramps. And as these soldiers came marching down the wooden ramps could music of drums, strings and horns flow out from within the hull of the ship as these foolish, in his opinion, horses marched forward.

[This link shows the best description of the Carolean Uniform these horses are wearing. I could not find a pony version of this uniform.]

[While this link shows one of the best Pony As A Carolean arts I have ever seen.]

Some of his forces were laughing or snickering at the small amount of troops facing them, some even mocking them. He himself among, them. But he felt a slight unease. And went to point his sword and give the order to charge, when the music grew more intense, and a strong voice from within ship, began to sing.

[Pause War Theme Music]

[Start Combat Music: The Carolean's Prayer by Sabaton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUPIQ7vsAQY

Disclaimer: I do not own this video nor the music it contains. It was made by the great band Sabaton. Please support the official release.

A/N: Lyrics altered by Staadnauthursil.]

"Far beyond their nations' borders."

"There's an army on the march."

The griffins stared in confusion as the song began. Some of them even lowering their weapons slightly to look at others as if to ask what was going on. Jarred's uneasy feeling began to grow as the small unit of horses marched towards his forces without signs of worry or care, their movements perfectly synchronized and their faces stone cold.

"For religion, kin and glory."

"In the face of their might their enemies shall die!"

The strange looking force kept marching forward and they were well within the range of his ranged forces, and even with his stomach feeling hollow and cold Jarred raised his sword and shouted out orders. All the while looking at the troops marching towards them, a hundred meters away. "Arbalists! Aim crossbows!"

"Taking orders from the heavens."

"Through hostile country they will march."

The crossbow wielding griffins followed their commander's orders and realigned their crossbows and aimed at the approaching horses. With the sound of steadily marching hooves now touching solid ground the griffins could feel the earth tremble at the heavy steps of the approaching soldiers, and even though they outnumbered them ten to one, were some starting to feel nervous. And then Jarred raised his sword and cried out to his Arbalists. "Fire!"

"Unaffected by the dangers."

"Facing death without care shall make their foes shake!"

Several hundred wooden iron tipped crossbow bolts were sent flying towards the approaching horses. Through the remains of mist and smoke swirling through the air the griffins could not make out how effective their initial assault had been but the hooves of the horses kept marching. Jarred was momentarily stunned, as just imagining standing against such a wave of projectiles and not even stopping made his spine shiver with icy needles. *That's madness! Surely they should at least be staggered!? Are they suicidal!?*

"Into battle facing the tyrants, Lord thy will be done."

"Into battle walk in a line."

Unwilling to show his unease to his warriors he raised his sword and shouted out commands once more. The horses were now seventy five meters away, the silhouettes of their hats and cloaks seen through the mist. Calmly marching forward. He could feel the tension of his troops rise, as they, and he ,could not see any gaps in the formation, nor any dead. "Arbalists! Reload crossbows!"

But as he gave that order and the troops in front of them all began to sing out in choir with the echoing voice from the ship.

"See the white in their eyes the Svadilfaris are marching on!"

"Put their lives on the line for their kingdom and the fatherland!"

Momentarily stunned the griffins were a bit slow in following their commands, but their crossbows were now completely reloaded. The horses were now fifty meters away, and they were still marching forward. And Jarred felt more chills ,as he began to realize just what that mad lyrics of this song meant. These horses would not stop until they were in close enough range, to see their eyes. "That's... insane..."

"See the white in their eyes the Svadilfaris are marching ooooooon!"

And as the horses reached the twenty five meter mark, they stopped, and Jarred's eyes widened as he realized wht this meant, as he could see the cold and determined eyes of his enemies as the mist and smoke was blow away. and he screamed out orders to his ranged units. "Arbalists! Aim and fire crossbows! Then fire at will!"

"Morale and discipline unites them."

"A common cause to keep them strong."

Before his Arbalists could complete his orders the commander raised his sword and pointed it at the horses, who were now assuming stances. He could see several fancier looking horses, wielding swords, speaking out commands to their troops-

"Ner. På. Knä!" (Translation: Down. On. Knee!) The front line kneel down in front of the second. Both of them steady and calm.

Then the officers spoke out another set of orders and Jarred knew that this was bad, as he saw the units raise and aim their strange spears. "Sikta!" (Translation: Aim!)

And Jarred, in a fit of panic raised his sword and shouted out his final orders before gripping his sword with both of his talons and glared at the horses, as all the griffins around him mimicked his actions, getting into stances with their large swords. He intended to stop whatever mad scheme these horses had planned. "Claymores! Prepare to charge! Shielders! Hold formation and keep the Arbalists safe!"

"Always on their way to battle!"

"In the face of their might their enemies shall die!"

"Charge! For Glory! For Gryphon! For King Craver!" At the cry of their commander the sword wielding griffins rushed forward with loud screeching war cries at the horses. Their rushing paws causing the earth to tremble with a soft and gentle rumble, for even when several hundreds of griffins were charging, were their cat paws soft enough to remove most of the impact of their steps.

A spray of bolts flew out over Jarred and his charging forces, flying directly at the horses' lines. But then suddenly there was a blue shimmer in the air as the bolts impacted an invisible wall of force, momentarily revealed from the impacts of the bolts. A pale a blue, almost transparent, energy field of five by five meters large hexagons interlinked together like a set of scales.

Jarred only had time to realize that the horses they were facing, were not warriors or ranged units, these were magic users. And that the third line of troops behind the second, were actively protecting the front, with a magic shield. Then, the signal was given from the horse officers, and Jarred's sight was momentarily blinded by a bright blue light. "Skjut!" (Translation: Shoot!)

"Into battle facing the tyrants, Lord thy will be done."

"Into chaos stride in a line."

The clear crystal spear heads of the now identified staffs had fired off bright blue bolts of magical energy. Whistling bolts of kinetic energy flew like arrows at the blinded griffins. And as the first bolt impacted a hapless griffin, it detonated into a one meter wide dense shock wave of kinetic energy, causing the griffin's armour and body to erupt into a shower of metal and gore.

And scene was repeated a hundred times over as the bolts of the mage soldiers tore through the griffin warriors. Some bolts even tearing through and taking out several others along the way. Jarred was busy rubbing his eyes and ear holes, trying to clear out the ringing in his ears and the stinging in his eyes, as the griffin Claymore Warriors fell into total chaos and disorder, their charge completely halted.

"See the white in their eyes the Svadilfaris are marching on!"

"Put their lives on the line for their kingdom and the fatherland!"

Normally one would assume that this would be the chance for the horses to fire a second volley, but they didn't, instead. The front line stood up, held their staffs at flank height, while the second line lowered theirs and put them on flank height as well, then the entire formation began to walk forward. As their officers pointed their swords forward and screamed out their next command. "Anfall!" (Translation: Attack!)

"See the white in their eyes the Svadilfaris are marching on!"

The disrupted Claymores were unable to react as the soldiers marched forward, their staff spears lowered as if to spear someone with them. But then halfway towards the disoriented griffins a fresh wave of crossbow bolts flew, only to be scattered aside by the protective shield of the third rank. And at ten meters distance the horses charged with staffs ready, their banners waving in the wind. And as they did. They all began to sing out, what could only be described to be, a prayer.

(Original Swedish Version)

(Translated English Translation)

"Fader vår som som är i himmelen!"

"Our Father, who art in heaven!"

A griffin warrior found his chest impaled by a crystalline spear tip, his soon to be dead body suddenly bulging in the place of impact. Then the front half of his body exploded in a burst of blue energy. The horse soldier marched past the destroyed body.

"Helgat varde ditt namn!"

"Hallowed be thy name!"

Five griffins tried to charge at a lone horse soldier, only for the horse to channel energy into his spear staff and make a sideways swipe, a wave of focused blue energy lashing out of his weapon, slicing the griffins from the center of their fronts. A single griffin tackled one of the soldiers, intent on ripping out their throat with his talons, only for the one next to the soldier to blast the griffin's skull clean off with a blast of blue energy.

"Tillkomme ditt rike ske din vilja!"

"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done!"

A wave of charging horses impaled disoriented or wounded griffin with their crystal tipped spear like staff. Each strike killing them instantly to ending their suffering with a precise stab followed by a near instant internal explosion within their bodies. Griffin warriors wielding large swords rushed forward with reckless abound, some clashing with the horses' spear staffs, which proved quite effective weapons, others dying by blue bolts of energy striking them down.

"Såsom i himmelen så ock uppå jorden!"

"As it is in heaven so shall it be upon the earth!"

Griffins flying above the battlefield were struggling to try and attack the large towers built upon the massive ship, the archers and ballistaes upon the towers of the ship making it near impossible to approach from the skies. At the same time could the large shapes of the second wave of syracusia ships be seen bellowing down upon their storm clouds. Lightning bolts fired from the griffins' battlements absorbed by the storm clouds emitted from beneath the massive behemoths.

"Ge oss bröd ock idag!"

"Give us today our daily bread!"

Jarred staggered but soon found his bearings, just in time to raise his to block a swing from a tall beige and freckled faced horse with blond mane and tail, wielding a saber of crystal along with a strange looking gauntlet made out of thick leather and wood strapped to his other foreleg. The weird looking gauntlet going all the way from the elbow joint to the hoof. Gritting his beak Jarred reared back his left rear paw and kicked the horse in the chest, a resounding clang emitting as he struck the breastplate beneath the uniform.

"Och förlåt oss våran skuld!"

"And forgive us our sins!"

The horse stumbled back three steps before regaining balance. Jarred swung with his large sword at his unbalanced opponent. Only for his opponent the hold up his sword and make it flare up in an intense blinding light, Jarred closed his eyes and tried to keep his swing going but only felt his blade hitting air and then dirt. Before the left side of his face got smashed by a leather covered foreleg hoof.

"Ahead facing the lead!"

"And army of steeds performing justly deeds!"

Jarred was the one stumbling after that hit and even as he heard he clash of weapons and the cries of griffins and horses, he could barely see a thing as his vision was all blurry for some reason. He saw the blurry shape of his foe and saw the blue shape of the sword, raising his sword and made an upward swing, hoping to strike the shoulder joint of his foeä's sword wielding foreleg.

"Showing no fear their judgement is clear!"

"Denying the wicked their sacrifice!"

The horse did not let him do so however and deflected his strike with his much smaller sword. Gritting his beak in anger Jarred could see his vision refocus, and he could see the devastation around him and his foe. Pieces of griffins were lying scattered across the field, a few wounded horses could be seen clutching bleeding gashes or protruding crossbow bolts.

"They are the righteous Sword, created by their Lord!"

"Their enemies in sight, prepare for the fight."

Rage filled him like never before and he let out a wordless screech and charged at his foe, his body moving faster and stronger then it ever had before. His opponent held out his leather covered hoof and Jarred, in his blind rage, did not notice the cylinder attached to the back of the foreleg. There was a bright flash of light followed by a loud bang, Jarred felt something impact his breast plate but he kept going.

"Banners held high ready to die!"

"Hear how they praise the Lord!"

But his vision grew blurry, his steps became unsteady, and he could feel himself growing colder and colder. His vision started to fade, he felt numb, and he felt tired. Not even realizing that he was already dead, as his body fell to the bloody and muddy ground with a loud wet thump.

"Into battle facing the tyrants, Lord thy will be done."

"Into battle march in a line."

Major Almond shook his hoof a bit as he unstrapped the leather cylinder from his hoof and put it into a pouch on his belt. He had not though the primitive gun to be so effective, but it had pierced through the mad griffin's breastplate with ease at such a close distance. Though the recoil hurt his leg like hell.

The Major looked out towards his still standing troops and saw them approaching the wall of shields a bit further away. He pulled out a signal horn and blew out a signal and his soldiers stopped charging and instead gathered up into lines once more. He walked past some of his wounded, seeing as they were healing themselves and he could not see anyone dead or fatally injured so far.

"See the white in their eyes the Svadilfaris are marching on!"

"Put their lives on the line for their kingdom and the fatherland!"

Once he was at the line once more he raised his sword and cried out his soldiers, his fellow Svadilfaris. The warriors made as the elite magical forces of the Horadrim Clan and the Horadrim Kingdom in turn. "Förbered er för det andra anfallet Svadilfarier! Första ledet! Ner på knä!" (T: Prepare yourselves for the second assault Svadilfaris! First Line! Kneel down!)

A synchronized thump of knees hitting dirt was heard as the first line of Svadilfaris knelt down. Majro Almod saw the third line line up their staffs once more and provide supportive shielding from the projectiles of the griffins' crossbows. And so he pointed his sword forward, the nervous griffins with their shields grinding against each other with almost fear like shivers. "Första och Andra Leden! Sikta!" (T: First and Second Lines! Aim!)

"See the white in their eyes the Svadilfaris are marching on!"

"Ladda up eran magiska energi!" (T: Charge up your magical energy!) The short crystal spear staffs, designed after the image of the old flintlock rifles of the Swedish Empire, acted as amplifiers for the age's magical power. They were limited in their use. Their functions were shooting kinetic energy, creating shields, doing close range slashes and amplifying healing spells. But though they were limited, were the amplified power of the staffs more then capable of overcoming such limitations.

As the crystal ends of the rifle like staffs were glowing like torches Major Almond swung his sword down and screamed out a new order, mimicked by his officers. "Skjut!" (T: Shoot!) A new volley of almost a hundred energy bolts was shoot once more. Only this time was the size of the bolt more then three times then the last time, and the power, even more so. As the bolts struck the shield wall of the griffins, there was a collective mass of rapid explosions filling the air, as if several small hydrogen bombs had been detonated one after the other.

"Fader vår som som är i himmelen!"

"Our Father, who art in heaven!"

The griffin shield bearers let out painful screams and screeches as suddenly bluish explosions ruptured both them and the ground beneath them. Explosions of dust, grass, blood, body parts and corpses painted the front line of the shield wall with a mess of red and brown painted craters. The disoriented griffins could do not but tumble around in disorientation, the concentrated explosions having shaken their heads rather severely.

"Helgat varde ditt namn!"

"Hallowed be thy name!"

They didn't even hear Major Lucky Almond, leader of the 91st Svadilfaris Battle Unit, point his saber forward, as he began to march over the green fields, leading his men to battle. "Till Attack!" (T: To Attack!)

"Tillkomme ditt rike ske din vilja!"

"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done!"

A second wave of magic wielding soldiers struck the griffins, the crossbows fired yet again but this time they could not hit anything with their enemies being in melee with their fellow griffins. And that's when the second phase of Operation: Hammer & Anvil. The Svadilfaris had been the Hammer, now, it was time for the Anvil. A rythmic sound of stomping hooves, shifting metal and vibrating tremors filled the air as several war horns were sounded through out the fields and camps behind the large wall.

"Såsom i himmelen så ock uppå jorden!"

"As it is in heaven so shall it be upon the earth!"

And through the dust, smoke and mist, could those griffins in the air or outside of combat, notice how out of the rear of the massive ships, was an army of horses marching out. First came the knights, their heavy plated hooves shaking the ground like mauls with each steps. Then came the Spartans with their shields bronze armour. Following behind them were the Samurais with their cloth and metal armours. And finally the Vikings, with their lightly armed forces moving almost unnoticed behind the three other factions.

"Ge oss bröd ock idag!"

"Give us today our daily bread!"

Each of these factions were bearing a banner, upon this banner was the image of a golden horse stomping down on a large iron grey chain, breaking it. This image was identical for all banners, but the colours were different for each factions. Purple for the Knights. Red for the Spartans. Green for the Samurais. And Blue for the Vikings. And as they marched out of the ships. All different units of Svadilfaris, the elite warrior mages of the Horadrim Clan, let out blasts of bright light to blind and disorient their opponents before they made a tactical withdraw to reassemble their lines in front of the main forces.

"Och förlåt oss våran skuld!"

"And forgive us our sins!"

As the the Five Factions were united into their large block like formation, the disoriented griffins tried to charge at them and destroy them before they could cause more destruction with their strange tactics and weapons. Only for all of the horses to join the Svadilfaris in their song and march out together, weapons and shields held ready. And then the once block shaped forces spread out into large wedge formations, spreading out the Svadilfaris soldiers into a single line along the entire front of the formation. And they began to march at the charging griffins. Still singing.

"Fader vår som som är i himmelen!"

"Our Father, who art in heaven!"

Blue light emerged from the spear staffs of the Svadilfaris soldiers. And a blue force field emerged at the front of the marching forces. Various mages and priests within the main forces offering their own magical support to what would now be known, as the Anvil Formation. All their faces grim at what they knew would happen now.

"Helgat varde ditt namn!"

"Hallowed be thy name!"

A single griffin flew down from above, screaming out praises to his king. Before he struck the force filed. And found himself stuck in it. Then he noticed how he was being pushes by the flow of the shield's energy towards the front of the marching unit. He tried to claw himself free by the force field was not giving in, it was like it was made out of glue or tar. The griffin struggled and screamed, until the force field pushed him downwards, until he struck the ground, was was kept in place there.

"Tillkomme ditt rike ske din vilja!"

"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done!"

Grassy ground was pressed into his face. He tried to stand up an fight but his body was held in place, as if the energy field was keeping him glue to the ground. Then he felt the thumps of hooves. And his eyes widened as he saw the approaching legs of the Chain Breaker Corps. He tried to struggle, he tried to pull himself free. A hoof slammed down on his left leg, breaking it. Another stepped on his chest, breaking ribs, another stomped down on his foreleg, crushing them. Another struck his beak, shattering it, making his cough out blood and shards from his throat. Then another hoof fell. And another, and another, and another. Until all that was left as the army passed him over, was a mangled mess of meat and metal.

"Såsom i himmelen så ock uppå jorden!"

"As it is in heaven so shall it be upon the earth!"

This was the Anvil Formation. A single massive formation of stomping soldiers, using a magical energy field as a capture and drag net, to trap them in front of them on ground, so they can trample them to death. And this formation was being repeated by all the soldiers sent out of the transport ships, ten Anvils, breaking apart anything in their path.

"Ge oss bröd ock idag!"

"Give us today our daily bread!"

The first wave of Svaldirfaris had been the Hammer Formation, a quick, repeating and concentrated attack to soften up the front lines of the enemies. And next the Anvil would come, mangling up the softened opponents with a massive frontal assault utilizing the Svaldirfaris' magical energy shields.

"Och förlåt oss våran skuld!"

"And forgive us our sins!"

Griffins charged, griffins fled, griffins flew. Those who charged found themselves striking the energy shields and getting stuck, their struggling forms dragged down to the ground, where the marching horses would proceed to trample them. Those who fled were shoot from afar by arrows and thrown spears, no magical attacks were let by the marching forces, all mages focus on maintaining the rotating energy field. Those who flew away found themselves witnessing the second wave of syracusia ships coming bellowing down from the heavens, with thunderous storm clouds beneath their massive frames.

"Fader vår som som är i himmelen!"

"Our Father, who art in heaven!"

Up on one of the remaining towers was a lone group of griffins frantically aligning their cannon around to properly aim at the forces attacking their fellow griffins. One of them heard a deep rumbling and looked behind him. His eyes widened and he screeched out in panic as the terrifying face of the serpentine galleon figure of a massive ship came bearing down upon them. The bow of the ship struck the top of the tower, and the entire structure of stone rocked and shifted as the massive vessel smashed through its upper portion, making it topple over almost like a sand castle.

"Helgat varde ditt namn!"

"Hallowed be thy name!"

The ten 'Anvils' marched forth, even as more of the massive stonewall behind them was decimated by the immence force of the massive sky ships. They kept marching, their hooves and rear legs stained red from the gore of their assault. All the banners of the factions of Horadrim were swaying in the wind as mist, dust and gravel was flying through the air. Unfazed by the impacts of the large ships slamming into the soft grass the horses kept marching, completely fixated on their mission and the song they were singing out as they trampled down their foes.

"Tillkomme ditt rike ske din vilja!"

"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done!"

One of the marching formations reached a large hangar like structure, but they did not stop, instead they kept marching forward. The front of the moving force field touched the metal wall of the structure, the sound of groaning metal filled the area as the metal walls and roof of the structure began to buckle, then tear and finally rip apart. With heavy slams the metal was essentially ripped into shreds which were pressed down into the ground.

"Såsom i himmelen så ock uppå jorden!"

"As it is in heaven so shall it be upon the earth!"

The large formation kept marching through the structure, even as a loud groan filled the air as the roof began to cave in, they kept marching. Then the roof collapsed down over the marching formation. Several griffins cheered, thinking the foolish horses dead. Only for their cheer to dispatch into despair as the collapsing roof began to shift and twist, until it suddenly twisted itself apart into pieces, which were shredded out like shrapnel.

"Ge oss bröd ock idag!"

"Give us today our daily bread!"

Hundreds of griffins cried out as shards of metal split into their bodies. Most of them so injured by the impacts they would end up dead from the impacts. The horses kept marching out of the rubble, the force field flattening the chunks and pushing them into the ground, creating an uneven pattern of metal on the ground.

"Och förlåt oss våran skuld!"

"And forgive us our sins!"

A large unit of flying griffins flew over to one of the ruined sections of the wall. Grabbing hold of large amount of head sized or larger rocks they flew up over one of the marching formations. And began to drop the large rocks on top of the unit. The rocks fell without a sound from over fifty meters above the marching horses. And then as the first rock struck the shimmering shield there was a loud crack. And then there was a loud cry of pain, from around the marching fromation.

"Fader vår som som är i himmelen!"

"Our Father, who art in heaven!"

The horses kept chanting their prayer, the beating of the music starting to calm. Even as the rain of rocks struck down on the field over their heads they didn't as much as look up. And why should they? The rocks were not a danger, they would only shatter upon impact once they struck the moving force field. Each rock made small eruptions of stone shards that would spray out several yards around the marching formation. All this air raid or rocks did was cause the griffins more injuries.

"Helgat varde ditt namn!"

"Hallowed be thy name!"

Suddenly the marching formations shifted their direction, moving diagonally to the left now. This movement was mimicked by all ten formations. The confused griffins on the ground scrambled to get out of the way of the marching horses. Unknowingly moving right where the horses wanted them to.

"Tillkomme ditt rike ske din vilja!"

"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done!"

From above the griffins in the air could see how the formations were pushing those on the ground closer together. Some of them took note of how they formations were getting closer, and their eyes widened and they shouted out warning towards those on the ground. But it was too later.

"Såsom i himmelen så ock uppå jorden!"

"As it is in heaven so shall it be upon the earth!"

Suddenly half of the formations shifted in the opposite direction, now marching to the right, straight into a collision course with the other formations. The griffins on the ground scrambled to evade the now closing in force fields. A couple of dozens flew upwards to get away, just as the clustered up forces of griffins, were trapped between the grinding force fields.

"Ge oss bröd ock idag!"

"Give us today our daily bread!"

There was a loud sickening sound of screeching metal, cracking bones, meat being torn apart and a lout of screams. Blood sprayed out from between the ten Anvil Formations, and then as the two in the center meet, there was a loud and sickening wet sound of what could only be described as a mud stuffed geyser erupting, as the force fields slammed into each other, and pulverized the trapped corpses between, causing the bits to spray out into the air and over the ground, and over the forcefields.

"Och förlåt oss våran skuld!"

"And forgive us our sins!"

This sickening sight repeated itself. until all ten Anvils were now connected, and were now a few meters away from the small hill lands between the long stretched out field and the large mountains. The griffins in the air stared in horror as blood erupted out from between the formations one by one, the screams of their dying brethren echoing across the field. Staining the fields in a thick syrup of blood and mud.

Then something else happened, the music, the prayer, and the horses. All stopped. And the fields were utterly silent. The wounded and terrified griffins now on edge more then ever, while also being heavily confused by the sudden change of atmosphere.

[End Battle Music]

[Resume War Theme Music]

At first the griffins were confused as for why the horses had stopped. But then they heard a collection of head thuds from the recently crash landed carrier sky ships. And their feathers grew pale as they several formations of armed ponies began to march out of the ships' hulls, easily twice as many as the horses. The griffins morale at this point, was hanging on a thread, several of them already breaking away and flying off to be spared from further carnage.

And then, the horses acted.

On the other side of the battlefield the horses turned around and reformed their Anvil Formations, now pointing towards the ships, and began to march forward. Thus resuming the trampling of more griffins beneath their hooves. Marching to meet their pony allies on the field of battle.

But no longer apart into ten smaller formations, but now as a singular massive wave, a single massive anvil formation, leaving no gaps to get out of.

The ponies marched forward in standard rectangular block formations. There were no bronze, silver or gold armour of the three armies. These were not members of the Equestrian Military. These were members of the Galloping Legions, a newly established special force of volunteers seeking to offer both military, medical and supply aid to those being ruled by the tyrant King Craver. Their armaments were different from the army, but none the less effective.

Several metal bolts were fired from the back end of the marching columns,. Several griffins flying in the air suddenly being shoot own by the barbed projectiles. The culprits were ponies carrying small ballistaes on their backs, firing the bolts with some manner of wire or gear mechanic. A pony not wearing the ballistae lifted up a new bolt with their mouth and was pulling back the string of the weapon to arm it, while another was holding a spyglass and speaking out coordinates to the one with the weapon on their back.

These were the Scorpion Units. The mobile siege weapon soldiers dedicated for fast moving and mobile long range support to turn the tide in any circumstances.

A rushing wave of cloak wearing ponies came both flying and running out at the front. Dressed in dark green or brown cloaks with armour made of leather, these ponies came running or flying at high speeds. Griffins tried to retaliate to these quick attackers, only to get a surprise when the fast moving ponies evaded them and moved around in rapid turn formations. At first the griffins tried to tun after them, only for the ponies to suddenly make sharp turns and come charging with spears they had kept hidden beneath their mantles.

These lightly armed and armoured pegasus troops were known as the Wonderbolts. The first high speed aerial assault force of the Equestrian Military, giving their first purpose in this unified assault upon Gryphon.

As the fast moving skirmishers assaulted the griffins came the second wave. A wave of magical bolts were shoot out at the griffins, not to kill, but to incapacitate them. These bolts of non lethal magic came from a row of robed ponies, not just unctions, bearing the holy robes of the Old Religion, of various colours and runes, but all connected in style and design. Prayers were being chanted by these priests, sending out more non lethal magic, or maybe prayers is the right word, at the now frantic griffins.

The Kind Order is their name. And though they were not there to bring faith to others, were they there bring support and aid to all who need it. No matter their faith or believes.

Several mismatching ponies bearing no proper uniforms or armours, only sorted by ranged, melee or magic, were moving out bearing only one singular item marking their purpose of the army. A white bucket helmet with a red plumage. Though armed, these ponies were unskilled and only managed to offer meager aid in the assault. These made up the majority of the ponies' forces, but even then, did they have an effect on the griffins, as the collective assault made by the horses and the ponies, broke their resolve.

This ragtag bunch were known as the Auxiliaries. And though they have yet to be refined are their functions and numbers nothing to scoff at.

One griffin flew away, then another, a second, ten, twenty, thirty, fifty, soon all of the remaining griffins were fleeing eastwards. Some of those even too injured to fly, were trying to run away,or just dropping their weapons and giving up. Some of them even begging or crying. Their morale was utterly broken, their commanders shattered, their defences ruined, and their spirits crushed. Even more so, as the rest of the fleet flew over the Stormwall, and began to, with precision shooting, destroy what few groups of siege weapon crews remained on the massive wall.

The horses started cheering, their weapons were raised and their shields and armour were being slammed. Until finally silence fell upon the battlefield as the last of the griffins fled the field. And so ended the first battle of the United Equine Forces. As a decisive victory over the Iron Eagles.

[End War Theme Music]

[Scene Skip]

Princess Celestia stepped down the landing ramp from the skyship and looked out over the destruction wrought by her forces. The massive old wall was still mostly intact, but the section where her invasion force has struck was very much ruined. Over twenty towers toppled and at least half a mile's worth of destroyed or compromised sections of wall.

Air ship harbours, hangars, barracks and many other buildings making up the majority of the air fields and war camps behind the wall were either flattened into the ground, in rubble or burning. In the distance she could see half of the sky fleet flying over the wall, firing down on towers and other camps along the entire length of the wall, clearing out the griffins' forces on the rest of the massive structure.

"It was not as bad as Ey thought it would be." A rough voice from her left side said, she looked over at general Rough Stock with a raised eyebrow.

"How doest thou figure that General Rough Stock?" The veteran pointed at the large groups of GL troops cleaning up the battlefield of corpses, gathering usable supplies and setting up camps for the armies. While the CC soldiers were patrolling the area or giving aid to the ponies.

"No one on our side died." The blunt response made the Princess blink. But then she looked out over battlefield, seeing the dead, dying, wounded and captured griffins scattered all over. There were a few dozen wounded horses and even more wounded ponies, but no one had been killed. And as she realized this, she feel a great deal of relief and a lot less weight on her back.

"Indeed. This invasion is only getting started, but we did not lose anyone on the first strike, and that's something rarely seen in any conflict. Hopefully this means good fortune for our campaign against the griffins." The Warlord Thunder Hammer stated as he walked over to the Princess from his position among his forces. Dressed in his scale mail, with his signature war maul strapped to his back. Though he had been reluctant about it had he been convinced to not go marching with his forces and maintain command over his forces from the stranded syracusia ship he had been on during the initial assault.

"That may be but such fortune will not be forever. though We can not help but wonder, why was it so successful?" Celestia said with a frown as she looked over at a pile of griffin corpses, each of them covered by blankets and linen. There were not many corpses intact from Operation: Hammer & Anvil, the damages to the corpses made it near impossible to even find an intact head, let alone an entire body. It had been a brutal but very effective formation against the griffins' ground forces, but why those forces had not simply flown away astounded her.

A crass voice spoke out from a small distance to the right. "They were lazy and fat your highness. Some of them were too heavy to properly take off flying with armour on. These guys were not up to snuff, if you know what I am saying. Plus. Your little counter measure against those annoying artifacts of theirs helped a lot" They all turned to see a Svaldirfalis Major come walking over, smoking a pipe. The horse was dark brown with black speckles all over his body, giving him a naturally dirty appearance, his tail was cut short and his mane was also cut short. He was walking with a slightly crooked walk, almost dragging his hooves not bothering to keep himself prim and proper.

Cursed Blessing walked down the ramp from the ship as he spoke out to the group. "As Major Fjodor has said, as rude as it may be, these soldiers were undisciplined, heavily overweight, clearly out of practice, and were very lazy. We were very lucky for this wall to not have been crewed by a more professional force, or it would not have gone as well as it did. Not to mention the sheer fact that our modifications of the Comm Orbs gave us the exact locations of the artifacts, allowing us to target the specific towers housing them first."

"Yeah, yeah. I am rude I get it. But besides all this talk about these weak ass loser guards we just smacked apart, I got news for you boss." The horse said, rolling his eyes and blowing out a cloud after having taking a drag from his pipe.

"What information doest thy bring?" Princess Celestia asked as she looked at the battle sage, wondering how such a rude and undisciplined person could reach to the rank of Major. But perhaps his skills as a solider and officer had made him earn that rank, even with his illmannered personality.

Then a new voice spoke up from behind Major Fjodor, and the head of Lucky Almond poked out from behind, carrying a satchel on his back and floating a basket of food, with a large piece of sausage poking out from the edge of his mouth. He was talking while chewing his sausage. Clearly not bothered with this gross behaviour. "We *Munch* found an *Chew* important *Munch* looking *Chew* office in *Munch* one of the *Chew* towers together. *Swallows* There were some griffins there trying to destroy some of the documents and maps but we managed to save most of it, including several maps."

Fjodor glared at his fellow Major and quickly with his magic grabbed hold of the few remaining sausages in the basket before Almond could take any more. Almond also magically grabbed hold of the sausages, and Fjodor growled at him. "Hey! Don't you dare eat all of those sausages Almond! I told you I wanted some myself!"

A glaring contest broke out between the two Majors as they tugged several sausages in the air between each other. Acting like two children fighting over who got to eat the rest of the candy.

Warlord Thunder Hammer just laughed at the scene.

General Rough Stock snorted and shook his head, clearly not impressed by the two clowns.

Cursed Blessing pressed a hoof to his forehead, trying to act undignified, but struggling to hide a grin growing on his lips.

Princess Celestia blinked a few times before looking at the food the two horses were arguing over. She then grabbed hold of it and pulled it free from the two struggling Majors who both looked as their favorite food items were levitated away and let out undignified yells as it happened. "HEY!/HEY!"

The Alicorn looked over the strange tubes, they smelled of spices, fat, some manner of vegetables and something she could not identify. She sniffed one of them and didn't find it unpleasant. "Hmmm... this be... seusaege? Hmmm... it smells rather pleasant. Wonder what it tastes like?" She then proceeded to open her mouth.

Cursed Blessing noticed what Celestia was about to do and raised a hoof to warn her. "Ah Princess Celestia that is made out-" But before he could say anything Celestia, took the sausage and bit it clean in two, and began chewing.

"..." There was an awkward silence between the horses as they looked at one another with nervous looks, while General Rough Stock looked just confused.

"Why did you go quiet so suddenly?" He asked the others, and Cursed Blessing coughed slightly into his hoof before leaning over to Rough Stock and whispered to him. While Celestia kept chewing, a smile growing on her face.

"Sausage is made of grounded meat, made from non sentient animals, and vegetables stuffed into cleaned out intestines, which are then smoked, grilled or roasted before serving. We know that pegasi, alicorns and unicorns can eat fish and like we horses can but... we haven't seen anyone of your nation eat meat before so we don't know if it is taboo to eat meat." Rough Stock got a green look on his face and he looked towards the Princess and he began to feel REALLY awkward, and understood why the horses were acting like they were.

"This saesaege is delicious! Do you know where I can get more of it?" Celestia asked, momentarily breaking out of her olden equestrian accent, before eating the rest of the sausage she had bitten in half. The horses looked at each other for a bit, before grinning at Rough Stock, who looked confused for a moment.

"I am sure General Rough Stock can give you the basic idea of what sausage is made of Princess. We have more of it in our food supplies if you wish for more. We shall just be off and inspect the troops, be right back." General Thunder Hammer said with a grin before abruptly walking off. The other horses followed him, eager to get away from the situation. Leaving the wide eyed General behind with a still ignorant princess eating sausage.

*Oh ye rotten jelly bellied rodents! Cowardly dirt lickers! Stump fuckers! Ye dirty glue sniffers!* The General thought to himself as he realized he had been given the torch to tell the Princess that she had just eaten meat.

And then the Princess, having just finished the entire sausage, looked over eagerly and asked. "So what can you tell us abou-"

General Rough Stock decided to bite the sword and just interrupted her, to get the ensuing chaos over and done with. "Meat. Princess. That there sausage thingie is grounded animal meat stuffed into cleaned animal intestines before smoked, baked or roasted."

There was a momentary silence. Celestia slowly licked her lips clean, smacked her lips, looked over at the five remaining sausages she was levitating next to her head. She looked back at her General, before shrugging. "It is still good."

And then proceeded to walk off, chewing on the sausages. Leaving a befuddled and frankly terrified General Rough Stock behind.

[Scene Skip]

A powerful winds blows through a desert landscape. Kicking up a dust cloud that kicks into the eyes of a griffin soldier dressed in chain mail covered by a white tunic, covered by a white mantle with blue painted lines, with his helm replaced with a white headdress made out of cloth that was warped around his face, over the beak, around the neck, over the throat and looked like it was part of his mantle.

He was holding a long spear alongside a row of similarly dressed griffin soldiers. And they were holding out these long shafts in a phalanx formation. Ahead of them was a large rushing formation of pony like beings of white and black stripped fur, dressed in cloth and wielding curved swords, spears and bows.

Their charge was reckless and foolish. Many of them died by impalement upon the row of spears the griffins were using against them. Or by the sudden arrival of the flying griffins above, shooting down crossbow bolts upon their cloth covered bodies. The golden sands would be painted a rusty red before the sun would set as the two struggling forces clashed. And though many griffins were killed or wounded by the massive horde were they sill able to repel and overcome their attackers.

These black and white equines were the Zebras of the Grand Deserts, followers of the Ten Great Sultans, nomadic traders of wares and slaves. And they were currently at war with the Kingdom of Gryphon. Less then half a year ago the Griffins had made their way into the Grand Desert and had efficiently taken over the two westernmost settlements, and even captured two of the Great Sultans and their families.

The King had been most delighted with the Sultans and their families being taken. As all Sultans had an average of thirty wives in their harems, or herds as some might call them, and thus had a lot of foals. And the King Craver was most delighted in sampling the wares of the royalties of the Zebras. The two captured Sultans had been executed two months ago, their herds given various Lords and brothels across the Kingdom of Gryphon as either slaves or prostitutes.

As the sun began to settle over the dunes were the griffins the victors, only having lost one tenth of their numbers while the zebras were scattered to the winds of the desert or dead on the ground. The lone griffin soldiers walked over a dune and looked out over an oasis in the distance, small houses made out of clay marking it as one of the smaller settlements in the desert. And one of the few sources of water in said desert.

For in the Grand Desert, water was worth more then gold. And even though the offensive of the griffins had yet to be halted, were the troops often in need of food and water as their supply caravans were often targeted by the zebras soldiers or the desert bandits.

The war between the griffins and the zebras, though bloody and long lasting, was almost forgotten entirely by Gryphon because of the invasion of its borders by the ponies and horses from across the seas.

Just like how their third invasion would go unnoticed and temporarily forgotten during this harsh time of war and battle.

But one thing was for certain. Neither the griffins nor those they fought with, would forget these battles.

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 13/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 18 Days]

"So the Stormwall has fallen?" King Craver said calmly with a frown as he looked over his maps on the table in the garden rooftop. Tracing one of his talons along the Eagle Coast on the map. The morning sun giving a reddish glow over the mountains surrounding the large castle.

This unnerved the Earl greatly, his King was not a calm character. For him to act calm and decisive did not make much sense. But hopefully it was just because he had just finished either eating or rutting with one of his hens. He always seemed calmer after that, though not this calm.

So the Earl decided to just give the report without honeying any details. Well not too much at least. "Yes my King, we received words about it just a few moments ago. It fell yesterday. Apparently the ponies and horses used their cloud ships to disguise themselves as regular clouds to get close to the Great Stormwall. And then made a lightning fast assault and breached the central section of the wall, near the high command's HQ. And then proceeded to attack all our gathered units on the ground and destroy all our siege engines and battlements on the wall itself."

"What of General Shail Windcutter? That tough old cock should at least been able to halt their advance." Earl Archos Ironbeak sighed a bit. Knowing that his King had actually liked the fat and useless General for his almost fanatical support during the great coup all those years ago. The General was no slouch with his Military Prowels, but he had grown lazy and fat ever since he became caretaker of the Stormwall.

So without sugarcoating the facts of how the General died pathetically in the fight. The Earl told what had happened to his king. "Apparently he died of a heart attack in the initial assault your grace. The entire Iron Eagles has been decimated by this attack, and we no longer control the western region of the Eagle Coast because of this."

"Well he was old so that's fine I guess. And that wall was just a waste of resources to keep maintained. Just be sure to execute any deserters who left the field of combat without an order of retreat." The Earl frowned a bit at that. No matter how much of a waste it might seem was the Stormwall more then just a defensive line for the griffins. It was their ancestral safe house that had kept them safe for untold time during the Age of Chaos. To just abandon it to invaders was less of an insult and more like borderline hubris.

And why was the king so calm? Once he had heard that General Shail had been wounded by bandits and had killed five servants in his anger, and mutilate four guards, before calming down. Something was up but he didn't know what.

"Yes your highness." The Earl said with bow, keeping his thoughts about these decisions to himself. Though making sure to make mental notes to alter the reports to the King later, with foreign foes on their soils they would need all the soldiers they could spare. And he did not intend on executing over a thousand griffins for retreating a losing fight when there wasn't even any living commanders left.

"What are those grass eaters doing now?" And there came the uncomfortable question which Archos was not eager to answer more then any. Since he knew it would not make the King happy.

But he bit through his hesitation and just gave the clear report and what he thought it all meant. "They are setting up war camps your highness. Our scouts have reported them setting up tents, building and beginning to assemble what appears to be siege engines. They have split up their fleet into three parts. One keeping guard over the camps by the center of the Great Stormwall. While the other two minor fleets are patrolling the southern and northern sections of the wall to keep our scouts and soldiers away. I believe they intend to march into the Maw of the World, through some of my family's holdings, and then head towards Eggstone and lay siege to to the City, their goal is probably to take Stonenest."

There was a tense and momentary silence. Before the King spoke up, his voice strained. "Go and prepare all forces in the region to amass against these infidels. The other forces are to maintain their focus on taking control of our neighboring regions. Have the castle and the city raise alertness, set up the anti siege weapons and prepare for a possible siege. I will not have my glorious conquest tainted by these dirt munchers."

The royal adviser bowed to his King and turned to follow his command. As he left the garden he give a slight signal to one of the guards as he passed them by. The soldier gave no response, but had received the signal. The Earl would also make sure to keep a closer eye on the king. Something was wrong here and it was bothering him a lot. The King was acting too calm for it to be normal.

As the Earl left the King gripped hold of the dagger on the table and started stabbing the location on the map marking the central area of the Eagle Coast where the ponies had just invaded his nation. And he began to scream out screeches of utter mad fury, foaming out of the beak as he literally began to repeatedly stab the Stormwall and the Eagle Coast until they were essentially stabbed off the entire map on his table.

The sight was like watching an insane murderer stabbing a victim over and over again in a fit of unstable fury.

None of the guards felt comfortable listening and watching this scene. And they tried to make themselves appear as silent and non moving as possible, least they attract their King's attention.

[Scene Skip]

A large eagle flies over the coastline, a large fish griped in its talons. It flaps it wings as it rises up along the grand cliffs of the Eagle Coast, up over the no longer pristine Stormwall and then over the battlement past the heads of a group of pony soldiers looking over an intact tintreach cannon. The soldiers look up at the eagle but soon resume their work.

Powerful winds pushes the eagle farther as it floats over the battlements of the enormous wall. And once past the stone structure, what lay beneath the eagle's flight path was a scorched battlefields with piles of dead bodies being sorted up across the formerly green field, now painted further with gruesome red, brown and black. The scent of burning flesh was flowing up from the piles, causing the eagle to turn away from its original flight pattern and turned left.

Ahead of it lay a large grouping of tents. Stretching out for over two kilometers. Among these tents stood structures of wood and stone, two story buildings lined up several times through the large sea of tents. Loud clangs and cracks emerging from within these structures. As the eagle flew over these rows one could catch the glimpses of ponies and horses working on several structures of wood and metal.

A strong gust of winds emerges as a patrol of pegasi flies over the camps. The eagle flapped its wings rapidly to evade the large flock while screeching and glaring at the winged ponies. As the pegasi flies away the eagle calms and resumes his flight path over the large campsite. Rows of troops could be seen going through training. And hundreds of campfires and tables were placed out at several parts as well.

The eagle spreads out its wings and flies over the large sea of tents, buildings and campfires which has been put up on the grassy fields behind the large wall. The largest buildings were hangars, barracks and land based docks, which had been prepared for the griffins' soldiers and air ships. These were all claimed by the horses and ponies now.

With a quick flap of its wings the eagle slows its descent and lands on top of a large chimney above one of the large hangars. As its beak pierced the scales and meat of the fish, echoes voices from the metal pipe rising out of the roof. "The progress of the war camp is going as planned. As are our preparations of the siege weapons. All prisoners have been taken care of and none are mistreated, nor have we found any murder. We believe all siege engines will be done next sunrise."

"Excellent news. What of the Sky Fleet?" The loud, strong and resounding voice speaks out in response to this. And the eagle looks up, slightly startled from the vibrations from the metal pipe beneath its talons, but then it resumes its meal.

The view goes down the pipe, passing down, down, down ,down, until it reaches a burning fire inside of a large stove. Afterwards the view zooms out of the stove, past a group of horses cooking in several pots and pans. And goes further into the large structure, revealing a half oval roof made out of wooden planks. And a third voice echoes out from further into the structure. "From what the two assault fleets have reports have the griffin forces on the northern and southern edges of the wall been cleared off. All siege engines are either destroyed or taken intact by the vikings and being carried back to our main camp."

Down beneath the half oval roof was a large square table in a large open space with crates, tools and materials placed along the walls of the interior. On the table was a map of the Kingdom of Gryphon, several tokens made out of wood and metal had been placed upon different parts of the nations. And standing by this set up were a large group of military officers, ponies and horses alike. With Thunder Hammer and Rough Stock on opposite sides on the wide ends and Celestia on the top end.

The voice spoke up again, and revealed itself to be Thunder Hammer, who was pointing with a stick at the Stormwall marked out on the map. There were twenty two tokens there, three were made out of silver in the shape of three sky ships in wedge formation. One by the center of the wall, one to the north and one to the south of the center. Next to the wall were four bronze tokens in the shape of horse heads with different helmets, one of the four different ancient horse coltures in a square formation.

Around the four horse markings were ten gold tokens in the shape of full body ponies. The pony tokens were dressed in the different uniforms of the Galloping Legions, with two of each type. A single token made out of white marble was in the shape of an alicorn, marking Celestia. And then there were four wooden tokens shaped out as four catapults.

"What of the griffins' actions? We only know of the whereabouts of those we captured or routed." One of the pony officers asked as he pointed with his own stick at the scattered grey stone tokens in the shape of griffins all over the coastline.

Major Almond held out a hoof to the pony in question for the stick, after receiving it he pointed along the border of the Kingdom of Gryphon. And then he pointed at the spread out towns and castles spread out across the western side of the mountain region. "Both the military forces and the navy forces of the griffins are currently scattered to the borders of their nation. Apparently their dear King wanted to invade more then Equestria. He's currently invading three nations, including us. The capital is still heavily defended but from what we have found out is there only lightly defended fortresses and towns through out the mountains."

Major Fjodor yanked the stick out of Almond's hoof and pointed it at the capital, ignoring his colleague's glaring. And as he spoke he traced the point of the stick from the capital and along a long and winding road that lead from the capital to coastline. "While we don't know the numbers of the fuckers do we know that the air ships and crew intended to be the second raiding force of Equestria were stationed there. For some stupid reason are the majority of their navy trained and built in the capital. Which has apparently been the reason why they built a road through the mountain to be able to transport lumber and other shit to build it."

The pointy stick was taken out of Fjodor's grip and Almond pointed at a marking directly east of the capital. Fjodor stared at his hoof in confusion while Almond talked, before glaring at him and tried to grab the stick back, while Almond was holding him at bay with his other foreleg. "The Capital is made up of three major structures. The city of Eggstone. A massive stone fortress called the Stonenest, and the royal castle of Griffonstone held in the center of the Stonenest. And directly to the east of it lies the Thunder Mountain, it is from this mountain that the griffins mine the strange material which they use to power their ships, lightning cannons, and what they use to make the majority of their arcane artifacts with. They apparently call it tintreach stone, that word apparently means lightning."

Fjodor almost tackles Almond for the stick, and some of the officers were openly laughing now. Others were rolling their eyes or sighing in frustration. But before Fjodor can retake the pointy stick, had the strong hoof of Thunder Hammer taken hold of it and pulled it out of the grip of Almond's hoof. The Warlord then gave the two sheepish looking officers a smirk as he handed the stick over to a spartan officer. "Okay that's enough comedy boys. Let's focus on the presence."

He then coughed into his hoof and pointed at the long road leading through the mountains. "But what they say is true. Not only is the majority of the air ships built at the capital. There is even a massive road built through the mountains leading straight to the capital. Caravans of wagons carrying lumber travels along this path repeatedly. So our approach will no doubt be noticed by either griffin patrols or nearby outposts. Though even then is there is one certain thing about this road we can exploit."

Thunder Hammer traced the entire length of the road with a small smirk on his lips and after he did so he tapped at each of the nearby settlements and keeps, located about one to two kilometers way from the road. "The griffins have built no fortifications, gatehouses or bridges to fortify the road. And any nearby fortifications are too far away to impede our progress through the mountains. It is, literally, a straight path to the capital. With no defences whatsoever. Unlike in Equestria where there is a large town or castle connected to the main roads are there no such thing in these lands."

Princess Celestia raised an eyebrow at this and looked closer at the map, while Rough Stock snorted in disgust at the lack of oversight, and the other officers in the room began to discuss with each other why the griffins would not defend the main road to their capital.

Celestia looked upon the winding road and then she noted something on the map. Her horn ignited and she grasped the stick she had herself and levitated it over the map and placed it at the point she was looking at. It was a large jagged half circular shaped lake, marked with the name 'Drool Pit Lake'. The end of the stick was pressed against a lone structure, placed between the lake and the road, marked 'High Peak Dam'. "This. This is something out of the ordinary We think. Why is there a dam at such a strange location?"

The officers looked at the map again and Thunder Hammer's smirk turned into a small frown, as he got an uneasy feeling. He looked at the map again and he looked towards Rough Stock ,who was looking uneasy as well. "Have we scouted out the road and been given a description of its structure? Is it solid stone, sandy, rocky, cobble stone, overgrown, anything?"

General Rough Stock nodded, and held up a small report he had recently received. "Aye. Da scouts found out that that there road doesn't look like it was built. It looks like it was just a long and winding stretch of valley filled up with sand and gravel."

"Not so much a road then. It's a river. A dammed up river they filled up with sand to make an improvised road, which they can flood at any given time." Fjodor said with a frown as he looked at Almond, their argument forgotten the two Majors looked uneasy. They knew all to well how an artificial flood tactic could more then likely completely demolish the United Equine Forces.

But then the only person not concerned spoke up.

"No need to worry about such a thing however, we know a good solution for this trickery of the griffins." Celestia said with a confident grin on her lips. There was a moment of silence as the officers looked at one another, uncertain what she was talking about, but then some of them got an uneasy feeling.

Then a lone pony, a pegasus priestess of the Kind Order, raised a hoof to gather attention before asking a question to her Princess. "Um pardon me asking Princess Celestia. But. Does it involve you personally solving the issue or is it something we should do?"

Celestia was a bit confused why everyone in the table were suddenly so uneasy but she just nodded and smirked with confidence. Completely certain that her plan would work. "We are more then capable of handling this thing ourselves, it will give us the opportunity to use what We learned from Our encounters with Maleficus Victoria. Though his actions and plans art brutish and thuggish, doest it not mean We hath not learned from them."

The officers looked at one another for a moment. Then an earth pony captain of the Auxiliaries spoke up. "Well that's all fine and dandy Princess. But what exactly are ye going to do?"

"Block up the dam of course." Celestia said with a smirk, there was an awkward silence again and the officers tried to figure out just which one of Maleficus' shenanigans she was getting this idea from.

War Lord Thunder Hammer nodded at her, deciding to trust the alicorn's judgement. "Very well Princess. How soon do you intend to accomplish this objective?"

Celestia pressed down her hoof over the lake on the map, smirk still remaining as she spoke. "We shalt commence with the plan this evening, and block up the dam at night. And when we return, the path will be clear."

The fact that the sun was soon to set had not gone missing on anyone's mind. Celestia intended to fly off right after the meeting to block the dam on her own.

While many of the officers looked at each other in slight concern was the War Lord just smiling and nodding to her. Rough Stock was munching on an apple, not bothering to join the conversation. Used to his monarch's quirks after so many years of service. "Very well. Everyone. Have our forces complete the final preparations. We will be marching off as soon as all is done and the dam has been disabled."

Celestia nodded with a grin and looked over the assembled officers with a confident look on her face. Making many of them relax a bit as they thought more about it. And as she did, she levitated the token representing her, and placed it on the dam. "Good. Then this meeting hath ended. Everypony of the Galloping Legions shalt listen to General Rough Stock and make haste to complete all preparations, whilst We embark upon this mission. We leave War Lord Thunder Hammer to decide the directive of the Horadrim's Chain Breakers."

At those words the officers began to move away from the table ,taking stacks of notes, small maps, and began to talk to their lesser officers and giving out orders. Princess Celestia walked out of the large hangar along the sea of officers. War Lord Thunder Hammer gave her a salute with his hoof before marching off with his own officers and began to make preparations with his own forces.

As she walked towards her own personal tent General Rough Stock, having finished his apple. Spoke up as he walked beside her. His old accent breaking out slightly as he was going back into his older rougher personal. "Ey will hold down de fort for yu Princess while yer gone. Will be making sure ta kick them colts an' mares into gear right good. But will ye need an escort or any kind of special gear for yer trip?"

Celestia shook her head as the walked past a group of eating soldiers, all waving and saluting at her and the General as they passed by. She could see the golden lined white tent in the distance, and it made her eye twitch a little. Why did her ponies insist on making all of her travelling gear, transports and outfits share the colouration of her pelt and the golden colouration of her armour? It was impractical! She wasn't even sure why ponies kept insisting on painting her armour gold! "No need. We shall take care of this without raising alarm."

As she entered the tent she was quick to summon her newly completed armour. It was a bit different then her old armour. It had a thick white cloth with a segmented layer of bronze scale mail, the pauldrons, helm, back armour and chest armour were larger and thicker triangular plate segments but shared the same pattern. The helmet was in the shape of a dragon skull, mimicking the head shape of Dragon Lord Talos. This was made with the intent to intimidate.

Her weapon of choice was a spear, the same spear she had used against Maleficus. But this time, she also had a round shield and a large quiver filled with ten short, but thick and heavy golden javelins. As she completed her dress up she strode out of the tent and the General was still standing outside. Waiting for her.

At seeing him she nodded to him. "We shall be off now General. Resume thy duties and try to get the preparations ready in time for tomorrow."

"Very well Princess. Good luck with yer mission and keep safe, no telling what the griffins might have among these mountains. Ave Equestria." Old Rough Stock said before giving his monarch a salute before he walked towards the part of the camp where the Galloping Legions' main HQ would be located. He had a lot of orders and preparations to make.

Princess Celestia nodded to the General before raising her head, her horn igniting with golden energy, and the sun began to settle. And as it was settling she spreading her wings and took of at a rapid ascent from the ground, in a few moments she had flown out of the war camp and reached the outer regions of the mountains. Disappearing like a white dot as the sun's settling rays coloured the mountains in reddish orange light and blue shadows.

But as she flew out of the campsite, was something else occurring within the Stormwall itself.

In one of the still intact towers of the Stormwall was a black robed figure, with a floating orb of light floating above their head, walking down one of the enormous halls. There was no one else in sight, not even corpses or rubble, only clean and empty halls.

As it reached the center of the hallway the figure pushed open one of the massive doors, and slowly slipped inside. Carefully closing the door behind them the figure looked left and right. Seeing that they had entered an enclosed 'small' room, which was large enough to fit a throne room. There were no furniture around, only a large collection of wooden crates and boxes. The figure, having asserted that it was alone, reached into their robe and pulled out a black void like pyramid and placed it on the ground.

"Creator. The coast is clear, you may transport yourself through the beacon." The voice of Cursed Blessing spoke out from the robe and the elderly sage watched as pitch black smog began to erupt from the small pyramid. And as more and more of the smog erupted, it began to take on a large equine shape.

And then the smog dispatched into thin wisps, revealing the solid shape of Maleficus Victoria. Looking around the chamber the black alicorn nodded to his creation before asking for information. "How goes the invasion?"

The elderly looking horse opened the doorway and began to walk out, his creator followed, leaving the doorway in the shape of an orange pelted horse with white patches. And as they walked together the old horse spoke to his creator. "We have taken the Stormwall, as it is called, this world's equivalent of the Great Wall of China. It took a lot of bloodshed on the griffins part and some injuries on our side. The majority of the griffins scattered into the mountains and woods after we took out the majority of their commanding officers and destroyed their formations and defences."

They walked through an open doorway, which lead into a well lite room with burning torches placed on the walls, revealing a massive spiraling staircase leading up and down the entire tower. Cursed Blessing began to lead his creator down the spiraling steps, the burning torches lighting up the banners hanging from the walls around the stairs. "We managed to claim a lot of their infrastructures. A lot of docks, workshops, hangars and barracks. We dismantled all air ships we could find and most buildings outside of the main camp have been dismantled. The dismantling has brought a lot of materials we are now using to construct more siege engines. We will have double the amount of siege engines by sunrise tomorrow if things progress as they are."

It went down, down, down. Had it not been for the knowledge the two had of the tower's size they would have been completely ignorant of how far down they were going. Though out the entire walk down the stairs the elder kept giving his report to his creator. "Other then that we have found out a bit more about the griffins, their lands, and about the strange stone they use to fuel their air ships, making that bluish metal, powering their siege engines, and they use the melted down stone to create those anti magic artifacts. Those we interrogated did not known more, though they also gave us the name and origin of it. It is tintreach stone, or lightning stone, and is mined out of a large mountain located just outside of the capital's eastern walls called Thunder Mountain. It is a highly volatile stone even in its natural state."

"Why would they give out the information of their nation's secrets?" Maleficus asked as they moved further down the stairs.

The sage made a short stop to stretch his rear legs. A bit tired from the long walk on the stairs. "Many of those we interrogate were conscripts or had friends or relatives forced to work in the mines. And they were more then willing to give out those secrets to get back at their King. We were even told of how Earl Ironbeak, the ruler of the Eagle Coast, are ruthless supporters of the King more then willing to gather eggs and chicks from other nobles and peasants for the King's sick feasts without question. There are several minor nobles who also support the King. But most of the nobles in the nation are held in check by the King and the Earl of the Eagle Coast."

Maleficus listened closely to Cursed Blessing, while making notes of the odd ways the walls had been constructed. He could not determine how this place had been built but something about the way the stones in the walls looked made him feel a sense of déjà vu. The information about the stone made him think of some of the various materials in games he had played, but none of them fit the description. "Very well. But beyond the stone and the invasion. Anything else of importance going on?"

Cursed Blessing took a sip from a small bottle he had in his saddlebag and coughed a bit before he resumed the walk down and the talking. A lot of talking. "We have regular patrols along the wall and the immediate areas around the coastline. So far only stragglers have been spotted, no scouts, spies, large units or patrols. And apparently the griffins are fighting other nations currently. The Ten Sultans of the Great Desert in the East. And another group called the Transylvian Tribes. Thus much of their forces are scattered across their borders in their attempt to expand."

"I see." Maleficus muttered. This added more context to the entire situation. Had the griffins' forces not been occupied with attacking those regions and left their own defences weakened, then there might have been a much more bloody affair for the ponies and horses when they made their invasion. This was something that made him feel rather uncomfortable, he was certain that they would have succeeded in their attempt even if it had been like so. But there would no doubt have been a bloody fight with a lot of dead on either side. Good thing it had not gone that way.

Soon they had reached the bottom, the air felt a lot more musky and cold, marking that they had gone underground. The two equines walked down the dark hall. There were no more torches on the walls so the sage's light orb their only light source now. "Other then that is there not much else I can tell you about the invasion. But I have made some discoveries about the Stormwall. When you told me of the book last night and what you saw in it. I decided to check out the various towers and lower rooms. And I found this."

Maleficus watched as Cursed Blessing walked over to a large doorway and pushed up the door. The duo entered a large chamber. It was circular in shape, with large columns supporting the ceilings. There was an altar in the center, but the old horse was ignoring that. Instead he was walking to the right along the curved wall and floating up his light orb. Revealing that the wall was decorated with metal and stone in various colours. And in a pattern that Maleficus recognized.

These images. Were in the same shape and style as the old hieroglyphs of the ancient cultures of south america and mexico. Blocky shapes depicting what looked like apes, gorillas, monkeys, snakes, turtles, and lizards running from a great fire in the skies. One group of monkeys were painted wrong as they had hands on their tails, obviously artisan's error. They kept following the mural, it was old and worn, but most of the images could be seen. It revealed an image of a city falling to rubble as fires burns it, a large stars striking near a large stair pyramid.

Then they saw the final image of the mural still intact enough to be sen. It was faded, no colours even, but the shape of the mural was clear. There, as if erupting out of the earth, was a twisted image of a burning alicorn skeleton. Horn, wings, fire and bones.

Cursed Blessing spoke up as Maleficus stared in silence at the image. The old horse unaware of his creator's frozen state as he began to talk about the image. "It is a mural. A mural depicting you Creator, from what I have managed to find out is it at least five thousand years old. But I cannot determine the age better, it is so worn out and damaged that it is incredibly hard to even determine a plausible age."

The elderly sage took out a book and began to make some sketches and notes in it while he spoke. "But unlike the images you have found and described to me. Is this one more special. As in this image, you have a horn. A black horn. And this made me think of something rather crucial. Something I doubt either of us have considered."

Maleficus felt nauseous and dizzy by all this. He leaned against a pillar and put a hoof to his head, touching the twitching insect like claw on his skull. And his eyes widened a bit as the old horse kept talking. "Where are the remains of your horn? After Starswirl tried to kill you with it it shattered, but where are the fragments? And why did it not regenerate with the rest of your body. And why did you grow that claw like mandible on your skull instead? Why are you depicted without a horn on some walls and with a horn on some? Yet never with a claw like horn like you have now?"

The stunned alicorn kept silent and just tried to keep himself calm through all this. And then Cursed Blessing spoke again. "From what I have been told by the griffins are there similar, but not as large, structures located in the mountains. There are also old paintings and caves with old wall drawings held as proud ancestral sites. There are some large sized ruins out in the Grand Desert and in some parts of the northern mountains. All of the known ruins in the desert used by the griffins as fortifications in their current invasion of the dunes."

Maleficus looked up at mural, and his panic disappeared, to be replaced by a determination. He clenched his teeth and let out a long and drawn out breath of frustration. And Cursed Blessing finished talking. "Most of the murals in the Stormwall are either gone or too damaged to give more information. It took me and a group of one hundred sages and one thousand soldiers an entire day to just find this one room, and we were lucky. So I doubt there's much else to be found here. Once we have cleared out the griffins' hold on their capital and those sites we might be able to find out more. But I am told that the most preserved ruins lies to the east of the capital."

"Then that's where I will go." Maleficus muttered softly to himself, before his form suddenly shifted into a wisp like shadow. Without a word or sound the alicorn disappeared out of the room, his shade like form moving swiftly through the darkness.

The elderly horse looked over his shoulder, confused about what his creator had just said. "What did you say?"

But there was no one there. Maleficus was nowhere to be seen.

"Creator? Where did you go?" He called out into the room. But there was no response. The elderly sage looked around. And began to walk through the chamber. And then he walked out of the room, looking down the halls. But he could not find his creator.

*Oh no.* He then got an uncomfortable feeling and looked up at the mural. And thought about what he had told his creator. And he got an even more uneasy feeling.

"This is not good." He then left the chamber full haste to tell the other horses what had just occurred.

[Scene Skip]

A lone griffin was standing guard on top of the fortified structure that was the High Peak Dam, facing the vast mountain range. He was a young soldier, a recent recruit sent to gain experience by guarding one of the more vital structures of the nation. At first the young griffin had been rather put off at being placed on guard duty for the Drool Pit Lake's dam.

But for the past six months has he grown to appreciate the lake a bit more. As the older guards of the dam often told of the old stories. Of how before the dam existed the mad river would flood the lower valleys of the mountain. But if there was a drought then nothing would grow on the fields.

So one of the earlier kings of Gryphon built the High Peak Dam, to circulate the water-flow. Using old forgotten knowledge rediscovered among some of the old ruins in the mountains. And ever since has the dam been a vital structure for Gryphon's ability to grow crops, prevent floods and gain a large water supply for the nation to use in emergencies.

*Though that does not remove the fact that it gets very boring just standing here all night.* He thought to himself.

A small twinkle gets his attention and he sees a few falling stars above. He smiles a bit as he sees one fall down behind the mountain to his right. It was a nice sight.*At least the stars are pretty.*

Then he felt something strange. There was a low rumble and shake and he almost lost balance as the entire dam suddenly jolted. He oculd hear cries of panic from inside and he rushed to the edge to look down at the base of the dam. Fearing that a falling star or something else had struck the dam somehow while he was looking up at the sky. "What was that!?"

There was blur of movement of the right and he looked up. Only to have a bright light flood his eyes. It was so bright it felt like his eyes were boiling. He closed his eyes and let out a screech of pain and panic while reaching for his horn to blow out a warning.

But before he could there was a loud rumbling, the dam beneath him started to shift and crack. And before the young griffin could even flap his wings, erupted a jagged stone out from beneath him, and split his body in twain.

Up above the dam floated the glowing shape of Princess Celestia, her eyes focused and narrowed upon the dam. As she focused her magical power to manipulate the very mountain itself.

The dam crumbled and burst apart like a shattered eggshell as a growing mountain top split it apart. A large gush of water flowed out from the collapsed structure. Stone, water, wood, supplies, and screaming griffins fell down into the valley bellow. The waterfall was large and overflowing.

But then the flow began to slow down. The rumbling was still continuing, and soon, the jagged peak of the growing mountain top shifted up through the falling water. It rose and began to block the water flow until soon it was just two small trickling streams sliding down on either side of the recently raised mountain.

Swiping a bit of sweat from beneath her helm Celestia let out a long breath and looked at her work. She had essentially blocked up the area where the dam had been by raising up a fresh mountain peak. While still leaving some small gaps for the water to trickle through.

"Most excellent. Our forces shalt not have any issues upon their march tomorrow." She said to herself with a slight smirk before flying off to return to the campsite. It would not be long for her to return now that her mission was done, so she hoped she could get a few hours of rest, some food and water before the big marsh at sunrise.

Though unbeknownst to her. This act of magic, would have far more consequences then merely blocking up a dam.

[Scene Skip]

A clear image of the coastline of Eastenr Equestria can be seen through a moving spherical viewing screen. Upon this vision could the inhabitants of Equestria be seen working to recover from the harsh invasion of the griffins. The view was currently focus upon a large harbour town could a large crane be seen, ponies walking through a large wheel was using the pulley system of ropes to lift a large section of a collapsed tower off the ground.

The vision moves and zooms down towards the location. A forepony could be seen signalling the ponies how fast to walk, while there were several ponies around the area to keep bystanders away and to spot any dangerous issues that might occur.

Once more the view moves, revealing more of the city harbour. Near the docks and piers were several damaged sailing ships being pulled out of the water and into shipyards. Their damaged or nearly destroyed hulls would be either repaired or dismantled for materials to restore buildings, boats or to be used as firewood. Several boats were out sailing the edge of the harbour water, above them were the Sky Ships of the Horadrim Kingdom, long chains being directed by the ponies on the boats on and in the sea to lift up the wrecks of pony, griffin and horse ships which had been struck the ocean.

The view shifts once more, revealing the large castle upon the hill. In the courtyard was a large gathering of soldiers being drilled by a mare pegasus Knight of the Order of the Golden Cross, whose husband was carrying their two foals in the background. She was instructing officers and recruits alike how they would be working to support the town and its citizens with basic medical aid skills, education and patrols. It was clear that she did not intend to let any unsavory elements or feelings fester in the city as it was still recovering.

Once more the view is shifting, it goes beyond the city and out in the wields are several ponies using tools to dig up the burnt dirt where the blue fire of the crashed griffin air ships had burnt. The soil was dark and fertile, but it had to be spread out as to not cause the earth to grow sick from being over fertilized. Which could cause just as much damage to crops and vegetation as a drought or lack of nutrition.

Again it moves, going over the mountains. One sight is of different groups of humanoid hounds standing around in a large stone circle in the mountains. They are discussing something. High up in the canopies of the trees lies several pegasi scouts with spyglasses and special made magic gems that allows them to listen into the discussion. Which is hard to record and even understand, as the hounds speaks in barks, woofs, growls and howls with some mixed in common words among it. But the topic of the discussion seems to be about Equestria and the Horadrim Kingdom, as the word ponies, horn ponies, bird ponies and big ponies are mentioned several times.

The sights zooms past upon the screen, though through the cloudy peaks can a dark pitch black spot be seen. Once more he view alters itself, and zooms in, moving its sight down through the cloud layers until it reveals a large crater filled with black volcanic rock. This is one of the craters created by the Horadrim Kingdom when they created their sky islands. And though it is hard to see, can the slightest hint of strange different coloured lines be seen over the surface of the center of the pit. All in random colours different thicknesses, length, angles and shapes.

On the outskirts of the deep crater can black stone walls be see, recently placed thick solid stone walls surrounding the crater's edges. Robed figure can be seen driving wagons, carrying barrels filled with colorful liquid or large brushes of various kinds, from small paint brushes to giant floor clean up brushes. And as the view moves away from the sight, can a few large chicken coop like structures be seen outside of the walls, the doors, chained shut for some unknown reason.

Again the sight of the circular screen changes, passing over mountain peaks, the large main road leading through the mountains, small villages and castles. Soon the view flew past the jagged peaks and mountains and reached the plains and hills, and soon the walled in buildings of Canterlot came into view. Out on the large fields outside of the city walls could large piles of scrap and ash be seen, close by these piles were several large tents and wagons. Ponies and horses could be seen shifting through the piled up piles.

The streets of Canterlot were active as they had been before the invasion of the griffins. But many corpses of the invaders could still be seen being pulled off various spires, fences and flag poles around the city by unicorns and Pegasus knights of the Order of the Golden Cross. The streets up to the Temple of Law flies by and the view enters through the open gates of the large cathedral like structure.

Inside can several dozens of Knights and almost a hundred recruits be seen working in various aspects. In front of the Shrine could the High Priestess of the Old Religion be seen discussing things with Grand Music, the Order's Grand Master, along with the Royal Advisor Solid Pink. The trio were looking over a map of the city, several parts of it marked with various painted symbols. From the discussion going on it was clear that they were working on restoring the city and maintaining order to the best of their abilities, while giving aid and support to those who had suffered through it.

The vision on the screen moves up towards the recently added statue of the shrine in the temple, a statue of a equine like creature with all the features of a horse, or earth pony, mare. It has a mane and tail made out of vines with flowers growing through it. The hooves are cloven like those of a goat and growing out of the statue's temple are two ribbon like tendrils which flows around the statue like a gymnast dancer's ribbons.

This is the statue of Equera, the Goddess of Life, Health, Soil and Motherhood. Guardian of Foals, Bringer of Life, Treebringer, Harvest Caller, Mother of the Earth, and many other titles. She is considered to be the High Deity of the Old Religion. Of the five deities the Old Religion still remembers through their oral tales, she is the most important. As she represent the very world itself.

The view zooms up further towards the face of the statue, before moving past it and out of the painted glass windows of the temple. It then zooms up, up until it reveals the entire planet. And then the viewer looking through the Interface Telescope Screen moved their head away from it. Revealing the spectral, ghost like shape, of Luna.

"This is fascinating. Even as diminished as I am in this spectral shape can I still interact with these Solid Light Screens Maleficsu has made. And even move those invisible camera probes he has scattered all over the atmosphere and surface of the planet!" She stated with a grin as she began to slide one of the screens, and her eyes twinkled a bit as she zoomed the view of the telescope to a different satellite drone.

The screen in front of her shifted to reveal the nation of Gryphon, and as she zoomed in the sight on the coast she saw a small speck of white. And after a bit more zooming she saw the flying shape of Celestia approaching the war camp. And a happy smile spread over her cheeks and some tears threatened ot leak out of her eyes as she saw her sister again for the first time in decades.

She had no idea why, but when Maleficus disappeared from the Moon this time had she felt herself manifest as a ghost like entity on the surface on the moon. No clear reason, it just happened, she could dismiss herself to Maleficus' mindscape if she wished to. But after having spent so much time in his mindcape did she feel like she could enjoy herself with something different. Plus. This let her see her sister and aid Maleficus in some of his project through the Interface!

But then she frowns a little as she thinks of what she had seen. *Although. That black crater and those strange figures there made me feel rather uneasy, I just wish I knew how to work this things functions. I never actually learned how he uses the Interface, I only helped him develop it through magical knowledge and focus.*

Sighing softly she looked through the round solid light screen of the Interface's telescope once more, zooming in to look at her sister. "At least this is better then the last time I was alone here."

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 14/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 17 Days]

The moons is high up in the night sky. Morning hour is approaching and the United Equine Forces are making their final preparations. Rows upon rows of wagons carrying cloth covered siege engines were standing facing the large sand road leading into the mountain range. At least a hundred wagons of such making.

Behind them were the gathered formations of horses and ponies, all the well rested and healthy troops only. Of the horses were around fifteen thousand left in combat ready stances. While the ponies had around thirty thousand troops on the ready. Five thousand horses and ten thousand ponies, at an a rounded up scale, were unfit for combat from either wounds or exhaustion. As most of them had been working the final shift of the nightly effort of completing the final siege engines.

"Attaching straps and harness!" A pony shouted as they were standing next to a horses, warping the leader harness and straps. Tugging the cords and tying the knots as to make sure everything was working. In the background as the pony worked could the walking shape of General Rough Stock be spotted as he inspected the troops' work.

He could see ponies and horses getting strapped to the transports. Every time the straps were pulled or tied those tied to them would move around a little to make sure that everything was done properly and then shouted out a confirmation that the work was done.

"Straps and Harness on and secure! No issues!" The horse shouted out and the pony working on them nodded and moved to start on the next wagon puller. General Rough Stock nodded in satisfaction at the sight. Discipline, heart and hard work, that is all a proper soldier needs to do good, not only in the army but in their lives as well.

"The boys and girls are doing good, aren't they General?" The General turned his head away from the scene of the working troop and saw Warlord Thunder Hammer come walking towards him with a few officers behind him. The five officers were holding Comm Orbs and sending orders, reports and receiving reports at a rapid rate while walking after the General, making for a funny sight.

"Indeed. All of them are doing great so far. All the siege weapons have been finished and put on transports. Now we just need to wait for Celestia." The old earth pony said with a nod to the large horse viking.

Thunder Hammer nodded back. He and the General began to walk together towards the from of the assembling forces. Thunder Hammer's officers were still following them, "Indeed. The Sky Fleet is ready to act as air support along with the Wonderbolts and we have received words that Grithenburg will be reaching the coast soon."

"That is excellent news. That big floating fortress will be of great aid against the Capital." Rough Stock said with a relieved sigh. He was not looking forward to the siege of the capital. It was a city built around a natural fortress, which had a castle in itself. It sounded nightmarish to even attempt to besiege such a structure.

"Yeah. What we've found out so far about that place is not good. But considering it was built by griffins is it not hard to imagine why it would be so difficult for us land based creatures to attack it. Even with the Sky Ships would they just get swamped by sheer numbers, not to mention those artifacts of theirs. No this siege needs a lot more then a frontal assault." The two generals contemplated the situation together as they reached the front of the large row of wagons.

They could see the gathering formations of troops and wagons, the sky ships were floating above it all in a wedge formation. Though out of the entire fleet were there no available syracusia ships to be sent for the siege. As all thirty syracusias had been too badly damaged by their battering ram tactics to attain flight again.

The massive runic array of the hulls had cracked or been broken entirely by the impacts and crash landings. And the horses did not have enough materials or horsepower to repair the large ships and construct the siege engines and wagons. The syracusia ships would have to remain at the camp where the remaining troops would have to begin repairs on he ships when a fleet of ships carrying supplies would arrive in a weeks time.

"Those big boats sure were effective. If we had, had the chance would I have loved to have some of them to use as troops carriers to assault the large mountain fortress. But they're grounded." General Rough stock said with a sigh as he looked at the silhouettes of the large ships in the distance, the massive bulks making it impossible to move them from their crash sites. Instead the horses were steadily raising them up with cranes to place logs and poles beneath the ships to slowly raise their elevation above ground.

Thunder Hammer nodded. He too was disappointed that the syracusia ships would not be part of the siege. But they had done their duty by breaching the coastal defences of the griffins. It was not possible to do much more with them as they were now. "Indeed. We will be refining the design in the future, making them more efficient and sturdy. So that they can perform better in case we need to act against such heavy fortifications again."

Then there was a loud resounding sound of a signal horn being blow from the sky fleet above the assembled army. And a Wonderbolt troop flew down and saluted the two army leaders. The patrol leader spoke out loudly to them to give a clear and resounding report. "The Princess has been spotted! Sirs! She will be at our location in just a few moments! Sirs!"

"Excellent news soldiers. Resume your duties, but be sure to keep track of your shift, no need to tire yourself out before the big fight." Rough Stock said a salute to the Wonderbolts who cried out together 'Sir, yes, sire' before flying off to resume their patrols.

"They're kind of intense aren't they?" Thunder Hammer asked Rough Stock who just rolled his eyes.

"Most of them are. Basic training makes us all act a bit like that for the first couple of months. But it will gradually become less of a habit and they will mellow out slightly, though given constant drills to keep their skills and discipline sharp." The horse Warlord just laughed at that, the big burly stallion always found a reason to laugh and enjoy life. It's probably one of the biggest reason why he was one of the most popular faction leaders of the Horadrim Kingdom.

"The Princess is in sight!" A pony cried out from one of the watch towers by the outskirts of the tower. The two army leaders looked towards the mounain range and they could see the white and golden figure of Princess Celestia approaching.

General Rough Stock cried out to the assembled troops as he himself went into a salute to the Princess. "The Princess has returned! Hail Princess Celestia! Ave Equestria!"

Like a chain reaction all ponies stood at attention and saluted their Princess, crying out together in sync to their approaching monarch.

"Ave Equestria!"

The white alicorn flaps her wings gently as she slowly flies down to the ground, landing with a gentle trot on the grassy ground in front of the two War Lords and the gathered forces of horses and ponies standing at the ready. She made a small bow of her head towards the assembled troops, who kept up their salutes.

Celestia pulled off her helmet and put it onto a latch by her side before speaking to Thunder Hammer and Rough Stock. "We hath returned. And We hath blocked the dam, now the griffins may not drown the road with a flood."

Rough Stock got a big grin on his face at those news and let out a laugh while clapping his hooves. "Wonderful news Princess! All forces have been prepared and are ready to move out at your command."

Thunder Hammer nodded to this, a wide grin his face.

Celestia smiled widely as well before turning around and looked towards the mountains called the Jaws of the Earth by the Gryphon Kingdom. "Excellent. Well then gentlecolts, Our forces shalt not remain idle any longer. Call out the signal for march, We art going to end this foolish King's ambitions, one way or another."

"At once Princess!" Rough Stock and Thunder Hammer declared together.

The General was the first to act, he grabbed a small necklace with a bauble on it and put it around his neck. He then tapped the bauble and it began to glow purple. Making small coughs he took note of how much louder his voice had grown and nodded.

Before turning towards the assembled forced of the United Equine Forces, taking a deep breath, before shouting out his orders. The power of his amplified voice echoing out over the war camp. "Attention all United Equine Forces! We shall now commence the second military operation of this counter invasion!"

Warlord Thunder Hammer, his own necklace equipped, stepped up next to the General and began to shout out orders as well. While Rough Stock drank some water from his canteen, the baubles made your throat dry and raw if you spoke through them for too long. "Ready yourselves and keep steady! There will be nearly two days worth of marching through the mountains to reach the capital! Once we are at the outskirts of the Capital, all Officers will be giving out instructions to all of you! Know that we will not be speaking of these instructions openly in case of spies or scouts!"

The Warlord stepped back and let General Rough Stock take over as he began to recover himself. And once more the shouted orders resumed. "Thus unless there is an emergency change in the orders and instructions given! You shall do as your commanding officers say! IF they fall before being able to give out your commands, will they have the orders on their person with a sealed letter!"

Then together the two war leaders spoke out their final orders. The assembled troops, ships and wagons all standing at attention through the entire process. And as the final part of their orders were given, Princess Celestia's horn ignited in a golden glow, and the sun began to rise. "That is all the instructions we have to share with you for now! Now let us march! To end this mad King's plans and to free our captured brethren! All ponies and horses! WE MARCH! FOR EGGSTONE!"

The assembled forces of the UEF raised their hooves, as if clenching the air above their heads ,and screamed out together.

"HOA!"

Wagon wheels began to creek as the sun light began to raise up above in the far distant sky. Bringing colour to the heavens once more as the moon was now beneath the horizon. Hooves protected by military grade horseshoes stomped down onto the sandy ground of the mountain road.

The rumbling of thunder echoes above as the sky ships begin to row their oars and unfold their sails. Flying out over the marching forces on the ground. Rows upon rows of wagons being followed by long marching line formations of troops, horses and ponies alike. The streaking patrols of Wonderbolts flying alongside the fleet or ahead of the marching army.

But even as the forces of the UEF marched forward, were the remainders left by the war camp not just left for their lonesome. As something massive began to approach from the cloudy skies above the oceans to the west.

As the morning sun starts to rise as the dust cloud rises from the marching hooves and turning wheels begins to rise up among the mountains. There is a horn sounded in the far distance, the forces do not stop however. For they know what the signal means.

And the soldiers still stationed by the recently conquered Stormwall can see the silhouette of the floating sky island fortress Grithenburg floating out of the mist and cloud covered sea. A stream of rainbows flowing over the sea as the water falls pouring out of its various water ports release a constant flow of water into the sunny morning air.

The dark storm clouds beneath the massive fortress rumbles loudly, a crackling of lightning from their fluffy features. Which seems to resound with the rumbling sound of the marching armies moving into the mountains.

Cursed Blessing stood on top of one of the towers, holding a Comm Orb, and his face was focused and nervous. As he spoke out to the one on the other side of the orb. The worried face of Decades' Gain looking back at him through the orb.

[Scene Skip]

King Craver hums to himself as he sips his spoon full of soup, the broth was sweet and minty, with finely cut vegetables and boiled eggs adding to the flavour. Enjoying the fine eggs his hens had laid for him to eat.

But his peaceful breakfast is disturbed when a messenger comes into the dining hall, looking very nervous. "Your majesty. We have received words from the Lords whose keep rest along the western edge of the mountains. The invaders are on the move."

"Ah excellent. The dangerous terrain of the mountains will slow them down immensely. To which keep are they marching?" Craver said with a content smirk.

The messenger shook his head before correcting his ruler, though without acting disrespectful. "That's the thing your Majesty. The ponies are not going towards any of the keeps. They are going along the Sand Snake Road, they are heading straight for Eggstone your grace."

Snorting the monarch drank some of his soup and leaned back into his seat. The stupidity of some lesser creatures never cease to surprise him. "Feh. What nonsense. We shall just open the High Peak Dam and let those stupid ground dwellers drown."

"We have sent words to the dam your highness. But. There are no response."

King Craver drained his bowl of soup, put it down on the table and coughed a bit before looking at the uncomfortable messenger. "...What did you say?"

The messenger swallowed but clarified things for his ruler. "The High Peak Dam your grace. We've received no response from them, a scouting party has been sent and will be sending words to us soon. But-"

There was a suddenly flare of blue light coming from a mirror around the messenger's neck. The messenger pulled it off and looked at it before looking at his monarch. "Ah... it's the scouting party sire."

Craver held out his talon, giving the messenger a stern stare. Which on him just made him look even more twisted. "Give it to me, I will have the word given to me straight."

"As you command your majesty." The messenger gave the ruler the artifact carefully. Not to overstep his boundaries, and left the room with a bowed head. While his monarch activated the artifact.

"This is King Craver! Give me your report!" There was a momentary pause in the shimmering mirror.

Then an older griffin's voice spoke out through the mirror. "This is the Twelfth Cloudwing Scouting Unit! we've just reached the location of the High Peak Dam by the Drool Pit Lake! And... this is going to sound insane your highness but..."

King Craver was not in the mood for such nonsense and just barked out a command to be given the news. "Spit it out!"

He regretted it when the response was received. "The dam. It's gone your highness. There's no sign that there has ever been a dam built there, in fact there is a small mountain peak that is acting as a natural dam there instead. And it was NOT there last week we scouted this region."

There was a stunned look of shook on the King's face, his beak open, as if about to say something. He closed his beak, rested his talon against his face and growled out. "...That's impossible!"

Then the mirror spoke up again, the voice a bit nervous. But still giving a clear report to the monarch. "Your highness. Though it pains me to say this, it would appear that... the invaders have somehow destroyed High Peak Dam. And blocked up the lake through some manner of magic."

King Craver took a deep breath before letting it out. He then slowly spoke into the artifact as his talon clenched it tightly. "Look over the entire area, from peak to valley. LEAVE. NO. SURFACE. UNCHECKED. Find out what happened. And then give me a more complete report. Am I clear?"

"As you command your highness." Was the clear response given through the mirror, before it went inert and left the now utterly furious King alone in his dining hall. The messenger having left after leaving the artifact.

The monarch put down the artifact on the table and then signaled with his talon to one of his guards who walked over. "Found out who was responsible for the High Peak Dam. And have their family's youngest eggs and chicks taken in. I need to have something fresh."

With a barely contained dry heave the guard bowed and left the chamber to perform his gruesome duty.

"Fucking imbeciles, can nothing be done right in this Kingdom!" King Craver growled out as he left his dining hall. He would have to speak to the Earl of the Eagle Coast. The capital would need their troops more then them at the moment with the ponies marching along the Sand Snake Road, no need to defend useless keeps when the capital was in danger!

[Scene Skip]

[Start Marching Song: Epic Fantasy Music - Angel of War, by Brunuhville]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDlIbgSw3OQ

[A/N: I do not own this music video, please support its creator so they may keep making amazing music.]

For two days the UEF marched forward in a massive column along the sandy road leading towards the Capital of Eggstone. Massive sand clouds rose up from the stomping hooves and turning wheels, forcing many ponies and horses to cover up their mouths, nostrils and eyes with cloth and other kinds of protective gear.

Princess Celestia would move ahead alongside the Wonderbolts clearing out any ambush points set up by the now panicking griffins. Behind the marching army, just a day behind them, could the floating shape of Grithenburg be seen. The massive sky fortress was slow in its movement, but it was still keeping up a decent amount of distance with the marching UEF as the snake like road made it impossible to move straight with the sheer mountain walls on either side.

Rows of horses and ponies would move along the sandy road, sometimes break out into small chanting songs. Othertimes they would be entirely silent. Wagons would be pulled along the ground with heavy cargo, thankfully with the Wonderbolts active, were no rains allowed to make the ground muddy so none of the wagons ever got stuck.

Cursed Blessing had sent words that he was on the Grithenburg, working on a new project to counter the dangerous artifacts known as the Tears of Sorrow with the long distance aid of his grandfoal Decades' Gain. This news gladdened Princess Celestia and improved the morale of the troops a lot, as many of them were fearful of the wicked artifacts that had such a volatile substance within them.

Within the fortress itself were the research progressing. But there much more going on then that. Cursed Blessing was talking to the former host of his creator, who was genetically his recently created descendant, about the strange behaviour of Maleficus. Both Cursed Blessing and Decades' Gain were worried that Maleficus was experiencing some manner of PTSD because of the images of his burning corpse.

Decades' Gain suspected that he was experiencing survivor's guilt and not to mention guilt for causing such destruction and death like a living nuclear bomb. And that theory was worrying. Far more so then either horse were willing to admit. They were all the Creator's creations, some like Decades and Cursed had deeper connections to the power and memories of the Creator then most.

But that did not mean that they had a perfect recollection of Maleficus' memories and persona. While they might have many memories of their creator, did that not mean that they remembered it all. For there was something about Maleficus that had fractured his memories and mindscape, multiple times. Which was NOT a good sign.

So even as the two horses worked on their project they discusssed what could be the cause for Maleficus' deteriorated memories and what could be done to help him about it. Sadly were they not able to come up with something concrete, only managing to work out a way to counter act the Tears of Sorrow, even if only the combination of the liquid and the crystallized thunder stone material.

The sun fell, the moon rose. The army stopped momentarily by a large open valley near the road. Resting for the night. But as the first rays of sun light struck they stood up and resumed their march. Building up the massive dust cloud of sand once more.

Princess Celestia along with the officers of the UEF spoke to Cursed Blessing through a collection of Comm Orbs about his progress on the counter measures. And when Cursed Blessing told them that he and his grandfoal had worked out a way to counter the horrid things, there were many smiles. But Cursed blessing warned them that this would only negate Artifacts made out of thunder stone glass containing the Tears of Sorrow.

And what Decades' gain had managed to find out about the said tears, was horrifying. As he had managed to determine that the Tears of Sorrows, were the liquid essence of magic and life. Produced by a blood getting into contact with thunder stone glass. The liquid in turn, could repeat the same process when touching living flesh, but at a magnified process. Thus creating the plague known as the Magic Pox.

The rapidly drain of magic through the body, converting it into more liquid magic, which then erupts into a far greater magnitude then if blood was touched by the crystalline rock. This made a lot of ponies and horses uneasy. The sheer danger of the substance and the thunder stone glass that had created it could not even be described.

And while Cursed Blessing knew that the theory and experiment of the counter measure to the artifacts had worked for Decades' Gain's experiment. Was there no telling if it would work on intact artifacts like those kept by the griffins.

But Princess Celestia just nodded with a grave look on her face and told the gathered officers and leaders of their two nations. "We shalt just have to give it the old equine try." And then she ended her connection to the Comm Orb, ending the discussion.

And so the final preparations for the counter measures were made and all officers disconnected from their Comm Orbs to rejoin the march. Making sure to update their given orders to include the new protocol against the griffins' dangerous artifacts.

As the sun began to settle and the moon rose. Could the dark silhouette of the massive chalice shaped mountain fortress Stonenest be seen in the distance. And beneath it, surrounded by a massive wall, were the lit building of Eggstone, the Capital City of Gryphon.

The ponies and horses marched forward and began to spread out across the large rounded hills and mountain peaks outside of the massive fortress. And the assemble of the first ever siege made by the UEF, began. Grithenburg was still a few days away, the fortress having been slowed down quite a bit by the high mountains forcing it to float higher above ground to keep from pressing into the peaks. Something none of the horses or ponies had though about as they marched forward.

[End of Marching Music]

[Scene Skip]

The guards on the walls were quick to send words as the sound of the stomping hooves and creaking wheels woke up more then half the city. Vibrations from the masses marching onto Eggstone was making dust and dirt shift out of the stonework of the city walls. Horns were sounded and guards were woken, and soon were the walls of Eggstone crewed with thousands of griffin soldiers.

All of them nervously looking out at the massive force building up camp around the city's western and southern walls.

For nearly two hours the griffins watched the siege camp being constructed. Wagons carrying siege engines were broken apart to be assembled into siege towers and barricades. Tents and small houses of stone were put up by hoof or magic. Several dozens of sky ships were floating above the camp, keeping the air ships of the griffins from approaching the campsite.

Then as the final pole was struck into the ground, as the final siege weapon was put together and as the final board of the final siege tower was nailed into place. Was the siege camp ready. And as it was ready, were the ponies and horses, moving into position.

Columns, rows, squares, all manners of formations began to take shape inside and outside of the siege camp. All of the ponies and horses staring from their place up at the walls of the thousands of griffins watching them with tense talons gripping crossbows.

Then up at the top of one of the siege towers, flew Princess Celestia down from the Sky Ships above and landed on the siege tower. She spread her wings, her horn ignited with a golden aura, as the moon reached its zenith, and she shouted out towards the city.

[Current Date: 16/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 15 Days]

"HEAR Us Griffins of Eggstone! We are Princess Celestia of Equestria, with US are the combined forces of Horadrim and Equestria! And We are all here to regain our stolen citizens and end your King Craver's Madness! So We beseech you to listen to reason! Give us back our citizens, release your slaves and bring forth your mad King to us! And We shall bring no harm to you nor your city!"

There was momentary silence as the griffins looked at one another with either nervous or incredulous looks in their eyes. But then the Captain of the City Guard, a large griffin dressed in black armour, stepped forth onto one of the large towers and shouted back.

"All you mudmunchers should go back to the ground like you belong! The only one who can give us orders is King Craver, Our Ruler and the Greatest Ruler of All Rulers! So either pluck off to your backwater dirt country or we will be trashing you lot and showing you your proper place!"

The response to the politician debate? Was a sudden burst of blue light from a row of over a hundred improved Energy Rods, now called Energy Cannons. At the end of these improved siege weapons were a Comm Orb placed for some reason. And then, as one the cannons fired.

Blue beams of lights shone upon the walls of Eggstone. Griffins hunched down ,fearing a dangerous attack. But after a few seconds of nothing happening they got confused. The Captain just laughed at the sight, until he suddenly started screaming out in pain as something he had been carrying around his neck suddenly exploded in a flash of blue light, tearing out his throat in a spray of feathers, blood and gore.

This sight was repeated through out the city wall and even the city itself for a few hundred meters past the walls. The artifacts fueled by the Tears of Sorrow all began to explode. The liquid within suddenly flashing bright blue as a small spark of fire appears within the bottle.

And a spark is all that is needed.

The chain reaction is disastrous. Five towers suddenly have their tops blows off as the massive, anti magic artifacts held within erupted like air bombs. While all officers who had been given permission to carry the claw held version, had their throats, claws, wrists, thighs, stomachs, backs or groins blow apart as the artifacts they were carrying blew up.

There was a sudden shift of chaos and disorder. The griffins tried to figure out what was going on. Some fired crossbow bolts, but none reached. And those who were crewing the tintreach cannons fired up at the sky ships, only for the shots to be absorbed by the thunder clouds of the ships, causing even more shock and panic.

Celestia flew down from her position at the siege tower with a frown on her face. As she landed were Warlord Thunder Hammer and General Rough Stock already standing there, having watched her performance.

"The assault with the Energy Cannons worked perfect Princess. With the knowledge of how those artifacts absorbed magic and with us using the Jam Trackers in the siege engines themselves made it impossible to miss. Gods bless Cursed Blessing and that crazy grandfoal of his." Rough Stock commented with a relieved look on his face as he had witnessed the success of the first ever used Counter Jamming.

"Indeed. We are very glad to see its effectiveness. To think that by firing a spread out heat based magical wave would cause a small combustion within the artifacts when they absorbed the heat based magic too rapidly." Celestia said with a sad smile. The artifacts absorbed magic rapidly, that was true. But when they absorbed the magical energy, it did not disappear instantly. It was momentarily amplified, causing the blue glow of the liquid.

In this case, it had been a weak but wide heat based light wave spell, which used the Jam Orbs to aim the cannons at the different locations where the orbs were located. When the artifacts absorbed the thin heat based magic, it was like a rapidly inflating a gas cloud into a tight spot. The heat would collect itself so quick that it would become incredibly warm. This rapid heat, along with the flammable nature of the artifacts, would cause a spark to ignite within the Tears of Sorrow before the magic could be absorbed completely.

And the liquid was indeed volatile, extremely volatile. So by just adding a spark to these spread out artifacts, were the artifacts held by the griffins' officers and messengers, AND the large anti magical artifacts held within the towers, shown to make great improvised bombs.

"Have the plan prepared. We shall need to break the morale of the griffins further, hopefully we may end this before more bloodshed is made. But until then we are going to get some sleep, the new morning shall be interesting." Celestia commented before she began to walk back towards her tent. Leaving the two army leaders to make their preparations.

[Start Music: YE BANISHED PRIVATEERS - Annabel (Official Video) | Napalm Records]

[Disclaimer: I do not own this music nor the video, please support the official release.]

[Lyrics Altered by Staadnauthursil.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u05HbfkoFQI

Even as the griffins tried to make sense of what had just occurred, was one of them able to see something. And cried out in alarm. "The enemy is on the move!"

The griffins all got into positions by the battlements and aimed the crossbows. But what they saw, baffled them.

Out there, just in front of the siege camp, and far out of crossbow range, were hundreds of ponies and horses breaking formations, leaving their still standing fellows behind. They were walking over to smaller camp fires, carrying drums, flutes, guitars, and other instruments. On the center of this large gathering was a small group of five, a horse, a unicorn, a pegasus and two earth ponies.

It started small. The gentle beating of drums. This gentle rhythm grew louder and louder as more and more drums joined the beat. And as the music grew louder, the gathered forces of ponies and horses standing behind this sight, suddenly shifted their formations. They no longer stood in columns or squares. Now they were gathered into straight line formations.

But since they were still well out of reach were the griffins left just speculating what was going on. Even if they tried to fire their Tintreach Cannons was the aim very bad when aiming it at the ground. The Tintreach Cannon was meant for aerial defence, it had never even been considered a possibility of an army besieging the walls of Eggstone from the ground. Walls had always seemed to be enough

So they could only watch. As a lone figure stepped forth among the formation. It was a pony, an Auxiliary officer by the red comb on her helmet, dressed in dull blue painted scale mail over a thick wool cloth. On her side was a bone handled short sword, a large tower shield and a quiver filled with javelins.

The figure strode over so they were standing five meters in front of one of the fire, and about ten meters away from the other troops behind them. They then reached up and began to unstrap their helm.

And as the helm was pulled off their head it revealed the white pelted face of a unicorn mare with grass green eyes and a dark green mane. She looked up towards the walls of Eggstone, past the battlements, up upon the massive fortress Stonenest standing over the city and opened her lips. And began to sing.

"I met a colt from Baltimare."
"Heave away, haul away."
"I got my own foal by fall."
"'N'hauled away to Canterlot."

The mare sang out, her voice carried out over the hills and to the walls. Echoing out over the city itself, as if carried by the win.

"A treasure I can never replace!"
"Heave away, haul away!"
"Had me cutie mark on her pelt!"
"'N'hauled away to Canterlot!"

Her face was sad and her eyes were rad from crying. And she kept singing, clutching at her front was a small plushie in the shape of a cat.

"Her name was Sacred Bell, I say"
"My filly's name was Sacred Bell."
"But now she's resting in the ground!"
"In a grave in Canterlot!"

She lowers her head for a moment. Before raising it up and looks up with a glare at the griffins. Who for some reason felt a shiver down their spine, even though they could not see her face.

"A rain of blood and tears descended!"
"Heave away, haul away!"
"Griffin took me foal in his clutch!"
"'N'hauled away from Canterlot!"

An uneasy feeling began to fill the hearts and souls of the griffins as the words of the song grew more grim and dark. The mare kept singing, her hoof still clutching the plushie.

"Found her cold shape among wood and fire!"
"Heave away, haul away!"
"Now I come with hooves and knives!"
"And marched away from Canterlot!"

She stood there. Even as the horses and ponies all around all began to sing alone. And a pony stallion, a wonderbolt pegasus, walked forth next to her. And removed his helm, revealing a badly burnt face, left eye gone, covered by a patch, with blue fur and orange mane. He too, opened his mouth and began to sing.

"His name was Red Brush, I say!"
"My colt's name was Red Brush!"
"But now he's resting in the ground"
"In a grave in Canterlot!"

Next came a knight horse, a mare, with white and brown patched fur, with a yellow and brown mane. And she too joined in with a song, carrying over her back, a colourful blanket, one meant for a newborn foal.

"Her name was Navirelle, I say!"
"My filly's name was Navirelle!"
"But now she's resting in the ground!"
"In a grave in Canterlot!"

Suddenly all of them began to sing out together. And the choir of the ponies and horses of the entire invasion force, rose up to raise the volume. Their voices making it feel like the wall beneath the griffins was trembling.

"A hundred names carved into stone and gold!"
"Heave away, haul away!"
"A memory that will not grow old!"
"So we march away from Canterlot!"

The song kept rising. All soldiers from Equestria and Horadrim weaved from side to side, their heads slightly lolling, while their hooves were stomping in rhythm with the music. It was as if the very earth and sky itself was resounding with the sorrow of the singers.

"Every lost voice and soul!"
"Heave away, haul away!"
"Shall have their tales told!"
"All the way from Canterlot!"

An earth pony stallion walked forward next to the trio. He was a priest, bearing no hel ,but he pulled back his hood, revealing a black pelt with a blue mane. His left eye bandaged and claw marks can be seen on his nose. And he too begins to sing. Tied to his neck was a badly made, but still intact, necklace of seashells.

"Her name was Sleepy Head, I say!"
"My filly's name was Sleepy Head!"
"But now she's resting in the ground!"
"In a grave in Canterlot!"

A horse mare steps forward, of beige pelt with brown mane in a braid. She is a viking, bearing armour, shield and spear. Her left side is marred with burn marks and claw marks. And as she stands there she opens up her mouth and sings out as well. Tied to the shaft of her spear, just beneath the spearhead, is a chain bearing an emblem, an emblem of a knight Warden.

"His name was Vermont, I say!"
"My husband's name was Vermont!"
"But now he's resting in the ground!"
"In a grave in Canterlot!"

And once more all of the singers and the choir of the army around them. Joins together into an even more powerful crescendo. Several griffins shuddering from the sheer emotions and power behind these voices.

"All you sinner hear our voice!"
"Heave away, haul away!"
"Hear all the pain you King has wrought!"
"From all the away to Canterlot!"

The songs resounds and rumbles. All within the city and even those up on the Fortress of Stonenest can feel and hear every word. The sheer force and emotions coming from these singers almost causing the world to shake.

"Let him shiver and beware!"
"Heave away, haul away!"
"For, for every foal slain he shall pay!"
"Oh, from all the way to Canterlot!"

A pegasus stallion steps forward, an Auxiliary soldier. Purple pelt with white mane. And he sings out, bearing a simple round shield and iron sword of viking hooves make by his side.

"Her name was Bryndja, I say!"
"My wife's was Bryndja!"
"But now she's resting in the ground!"
"In a grave in Canterlot!"

A young pony steps forward, an earth pony mare, a member of the Scorpion units. She pulls off her helm to reveal a mane of green and a pelt of dull grey, her left ear carrying two earrings, both carrying the image of a cutie mark in the shape of a laughing star. And she too sings out to the griffins.

"Her name was Silly Wish, I say!"
"My sister's name was Silly Wish!"
"But now she's resting in the ground!"
"In a grave in Canterlot!"

Again all horses and ponies sing together. Moving their bodies in weaving motions, stomping their hooves, waving their heads back and forth. The sound of their voices making some griffin soldiers start crying or clutch down in denial, covering their heads to try and block out the song.

"Never let his foul deeds go forgot!"
"Heave away, haul away!"
"Tell the tale of what he wrought!"
"Oh, all the away from Canterlot!"

All of them sung out together. Moving in sync together. Releasing all of their emotions, casting them forth almost like a weapon against the very soul and heart of every griffin within the capital and its powerful fortress. Like a constant shower of emotional nails piercing the body to sink into the soul.

"Foul Craven, he of black heart like coal!"
"Heave away, haul away!"
"Foul Craven, he killed our families and snatched our foals!"
"Oh, hauled away from Canterlot!"

A young mare unicorn steps forward, her purple mane and orange pelt covered by a hood of the Kind Order. And she too sings out to the Griffins to hear. Her small body shivering and tears are leaking down her cheeks. She holds a staff by her side, tied to the staff's top is a thin silver chain chain, hanging from it by its handle is a wooden rattle. A, very, small wooden rattle.

"His name was Sugar Bead, I say!"
"My brother's name was Sugar Bead!"
"But now he's resting in the ground
"In a grave in Canterlot!"

Then the auxilliary officer stepped forward once more. The song starting to mellow out. And she sings out gently, as she pats the younger mare on the head.

"Her name was Sacred Bell. I say."
"My little filly's was Sacred Bell."

She closes her eyes and sings out the final lines of the song. Gently placing the stuffed plushie in the hoof of the small mare next to her. Her own eyes teary, even though they are red and tired from crying.

"But now they're all resting in the ground."
"In their graves in Canterlot."

And with those final words the horses and ponies, those in formation and not, turned 180 degrees around,and began to walk into their camp. Leaving a shaken Eggstone City to absorb what it had just heard.

[End Music]

The music didn't stop, the ponies and the horses kept repeating the song. Each time new names were sung. The melody had echoed out over the walls of the city of Eggstone, and even vibrated up to the top of the Stonenest Fortress, to Castle Griffonstone. The vocals of the ponies ignoring all hindrances to spread their music to the griffins and their king, giving a clear message.

Why they were there.

Though the King was undisturbed, could the same not be said for the citizens and soldiers. The songs kept carrying over the night, echoing over the capital. And the distress of the griffins within it was rising, as the tragic melody made some of the hardened or dead hearts of the city do something they hadn't done for many years.

Beat.

Within a lone tavern named the Sleepy Egg, there was a group of ten griffins sitting by a large table. There were no drinks, no cards, no dice and no food on the table. Instead it was a solemn gathering of concerned individuals. Each of them dressed in either tattered clothes or fine uniforms.

The entirety of the tavern was empty except for these ten griffins. There wasn't even a bartender there to keep track of the interior. And as the group sat there by the table, the song of the horses and ponies kept echoing outside, new names of dead ponies and horses each time.

"Her name was Wending Shime, I say!"
"My mother's name was Wending Shime!"
"But now she's resting in the ground
"In a grave in Canterlot!"

"This is not going to end well." One of the finer looking griffins said with a sigh, he was dressed in an auburn coloured uniform with a cloth with medals warped around his chest, marking his achievements in battle. His feathers were brown and his fur white.

"Indeed. We're not outnumbered but the so called 'perfect' anti magic defences of the city has been completely negated by whatever those cannons of theirs did. The city guards and the local garrison are all in a panic about it." A black feathered and pelted griffin stated, his face looking more like that of a crows then an eagle. He was dressed in a black cloth armour with a cloak and hood, marking him as one of the Crows, a secret order of assassins, thieves and spies, famous for never being seen, or leaving any witnesses.

"His name was Shibukai, I say!"
"My uncle's name was Shibukai!"
"But now he's resting in the ground
"In a grave in Canterlot!"

"Not only that, the provisions of the city will only last for a week. With how few of us have been allowed free movement in and out of the city have we not been able to harvest the fields or hunt for food. While the ponies and the horses probably have months worth of provisions with them." A griffin with red pelt and orange feathers stated as he crossed his forelegs. He was dressed in a fine tunic with a coat over it with finely decorated sleeves. He was a bit overweight but was still fairly strong from the bulging muscles in his limbs.

"Us in the slums and mines are already starving. If the city's food state is as it is then it we won't survive for long, there will be an outbreak of disease and riots once the hunger grows too much. Possibly even outbreaks of cannibalism." A raggedly dressed dark gray griffin said, he had manacles on his legs, marking him as a slave and possibly mine worker. But he looked surprisingly healthy, possibly being a slave worker with many connections.

"Her name was Silver Rose, I say!"
"My fiance's name was Silver Rose!"
"But now she's resting in the ground
"In a grave in Canterlot!"

A duo of robed griffins covered in dark brown robes and tunics spoke up together, in perfect stereo. One could not determine who was speaking. The duo's claws were scraping the wood of the table in agitation. "This inconvenience will cause a lot of trouble for us as well. Smuggling has become less and less profitable in this city. And with the siege blocking us off we won't even be able to get in contact with the rest of our members to keep them and their regular deliverers on hold. Many of our members will be captured or killed because of this."

A plain looking brown griffin bearing the uniform and breast plate of the city guard shook his head and spoke out to the rest of the table. "Unless, by some miracle, the King manages to break the siege or surrenders, then we're looking at thousands of civilian casualties from the by products of this siege alone. Not even mentioning the fighting. So. What can we do to solve this?"

"Her name was Lilymane, I say!"
"My grandfoal's name was Lilymane!"
"But now she's resting in the ground
"In a grave in Canterlot!"

There was an awkward silence, only broken by the song carrying in from outside. Until the three near identical hen griffins, all of them different shades of brown from golden brown to reddish brown, on the end of the table all looked at each other before nodding. The taller of them turned towards the table and spoke out to the males. "We can do a few things."

The males turned to the three females and listened closely. And then as each option was given they got uncomfortable looks on their faces, or shifted awkwardly in their seats. "One option is to simply do nothing and let the siege proceed as it is, and try to keep as many griffins alive as we can. The second option is to try and flee the city with as many as we can. A third option is to try and open the gates and let in the enemy forces to keep casualties low. A fourth options is to aid in the defence in exchange for food and water, very unlikely. A fifth is to gather all civilians in the mines to keep them safe during the siege battle, for as safe as those mines are. The sixth option is probably the most dangerous. We rebel. And riot. And take down our own ruler before his madness can kill anymore griffins."

"His name was Shy Star, I say!"
"My nephew's name was Shy Star!"
"But now he's resting in the ground
"In a grave in Canterlot!"

All of the members of the meeting looked at each other. All of these options were awful. For many reasons. It was sad when the most reasonable solution was to do nothing and hope for the best, to betray their city by letting the intruders march in or kill their own monarch to end the siege.

"Oooooh by the ancestors. I must be insane for even considering it!" The city guard griffins groaned out as he slumped onto the table.

"Her name was Theresa, I say!"
"My grandmother's name was Theresa!"
"But now she's resting in the ground
"In a grave in Canterlot!"

"So. It's rebellion then?" The hooded assassin asked the others.

There was a brief silence. Before all of the griffins solemnly nodded. And the merchant spoke up again, clapping his talon on the table. "Aye. Rebellion it is. At least even if we fail, will those who die at least give the rest in the city a chance to live through this hell."

And so the first seed had sprouted roots. And soon it would blossom, into a fiery flower of revolution.

"His name was to be Shimmer Tome, I say!"
"My unborn foal's name was Shimmer Tome!"
"But now he's resting in the ground
"In a grave in Canterlot!"

[Scene Skip]

Within the lands of the Dragons. Near the city of Bangcolt, can a certain pony mare be seen speaking with a certain dragon coming to visit. The two of them were sitting on a pair of rocks looking down at the colony.

Clash spoke out to his first student as he looked down at the city he had helped build. "So your nation has made a move against the griffins?"

"Yes." Dragon Slayer, real name Bright Light, said in a monotine voice.

Clash nodded and scratched his chin. Considering what would happen once the ponies and their horse allies trounced the griffins. There was no question if, only when. "Hmmm... this will shake things up. The griffins have always considered themselves to be the major power on this continent. Though I fear that there are others who will take advantage of the chaos to stake some kind of claim of their own once the griffins are defeated."

Dragon Slayer just nodded, thinking of a strategy to use against a rogue dragon using lightning breath and flight. "Most likely."

Clash suddenly got a teasng grin on his face and looked towards his student. Taking note of the small necklace of feather's she was carrying around her neck. "So... I hear you have started dating a certain griffin?"

"Aah... well..." Dragon Slayer mumbled a bit, caught off guard by the sudden change in subject. The fur beneath her visor flowing red from embarrassment.

"Hahahahaha! I never knew you could act like that! Hahahaha! Dragon Slayer is in love!" The young dragon lord fell onto his side and started laughing. Clearly finding a lot of amusement in his student's unexpected behaviour.

"Shut up." The blushing dragon hunter mumbled as she pushed her hooves onto her visor, hoping to block out the laughter of her mentor. To no success.

How was she supposed to know that the stupidly brave griffin she had saved would start welcoming her back after her missions. Cooking food for her, cleaning her house, with his siblings helping out. Before she had known it had she begun spending time with him and gotten...

Well she could not tell if she was in love... but she enjoyed his company... and the way he had given her sore back a massage a few days ago had felt awesome.

The dragon stopped laughing and just smiled at his pupil. Both proud of her, and himself, of how far the two of them had gotten ever since that horrible invasion they had suffered through. One an invader, and the other a victim. Both hurt beyond compare. Yet still living and thriving.

[Scene Skip]

Within a large castle near the eastern border of Gryphon there was a large famous wall painting. The lord of the castle was very proud of it and their family had spent generations of hard work and monetary resources to maintaining it. Though the chamber was quite famous, was no one but the nobles allowed inside of the large caver like chamber. The chamber was thirty meters bellow ground, had ten doors, two gate houses, a solid iron door barred with three locks and four guards at all times located on all doors to the chamber.

None of these defences attributed for an alicorn in the form of a shade.

Melting out of the darkness of a wall emerged the shape of Maleficus his red eyes glowing like candles in the darkness. He raised his head and looked around. A bright white orb appeared above his head, a crimson light emerging from his horn, and it lit up the chamber. There were four large pillars, a small shrine, five rows of benches, statues of what he could only assume to be either gods, saints, heroes, ancestors or spirits standing along the walls.

Behind the golden shrine he saw a large painting. It reminded him of the renaissance paintings he saw in the old museums in his world, they would often be depicting the history and myths of the ancient Greeks. It was painted in a similar style to that.

The scene was that of a wooden landscape in the horizon, a large lake and in front of the large lake was a small stone bridge connecting a forest wonderland to the left, with a burning hellscape to the right. There were four griffin warriors, dressed and armed in classic highlander gear, on the left side of the bridge on the painting, dramatically stepping back, one of them even falling over a ledge with an expression of horror on their face.

On the right side of the bridge was the almost lifelike depiction of a large half rotten alicorn corpse, horn and all, charging into the four men. Whilst burning with a green fire, which was spreading across the burning landscape to the right. Burning hoof-marks of black glass and ash training past the cobblestone road connected to the bright to the right of the painting.

Maleficus closed his eyes and let out a slow breath. He took in air, held it for a moment, before letting it out again. This he repeated nineteen more times before he walked over to the painted wall. Carefully he pulled out the Interface Light Screen and pressed it up against a corner of the maintaining. And he began to analyze the painting.

"...It's no good. This thing has been restored so many times that the old paint is barely there. Fucking hell. Can only make it out to be around a thousand years old at most." Maleficus muttered and cursed as he put away his magical data device. Rubbing his forehead he sat down on one of the benches and leaned his head back, he was not physically tired but he had not slept for a few days now and was getting right exhausted.

He had been travelling the mountains and investigated ruins and fortifications non stop since he left the Stormwall. It had given him some information but none of it was concluding. All it gave him was more discomfort and unease. "All the other ruins and castle were of no help either. Too damage. Inconclusive. Fake. Or just not relevant at all. That leaves the desert. I can only hope I get more clues from this."

Leaning over on his side he laid down on the bench and turned off the light he had conjured. And closed his eyes for a moment, too tired to travel more this night. "Just a short nap. Then I am oooooff... to... the... eaast..."

Gentle breathing filled the chamber as Maleficus fell asleep on the bench. The occupants of the castle none the wiser of the intruder in their most sacred room.

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 17/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 14 Days]

To the east of the Capital City Eggstone stood the vast Grand Desert. And upon the western region of its sandy dunes laid a massive set of ruins buried in the sand.

Stepping out of the shadows was Maleficus Victoria. The Alicorn was dressed in a coat with lots of pockets and had a hat and face mask to protect himself from the sand. Looking around he soon spotted the location he was looking for, a large half buried ruin in the sands.

Slowly walking towards it he began to examine the different architecture of the area he soon found what he was looking for. The trace of a large mural on the inside of one of the large entrances, the place was massive.

Looking around once more to make certain he was alone he began to walk into the ruin, intent on examining the murals and wall paintings thoroughly.

But unbeknownst to Maleficus had he been spotted by a few figures dressed in sand coloured robes, watching from the dunes. They pulled out a mirror artifact and began to speak out into it. "We have spotted the alicorn stallion by the half buried palace. Bring the contraption and prepare the bait. We will keep a look out if he moves away."

[Scene Skip]

Maleficus scanned the wall with his solid light screen once more. And let out another sigh. Once more the age of the mural was hard to determine. But at least the image was a bit more clearer. This time it was of his skeletal shape without a horn. Making it the tenth image without a horn he had seen, out of the fifty eight murals and wall paintings he had investigated.

"Why does it bother me? I know my horn was destroyed by that nutty mage. How come it makes me feel awkward just thinking about it?" He muttered to himself.

For the past six hours had he been working on the murals. His sketch book was filled and now he was forced to use the solid light screen to take pictures and record data, it was not the most efficient as it was not really designed for any of those things. But it at the least gave it ample opportunity to record locations and low quality photos.

Putting aside the solid light screen he began to walk down the hall to investigate antoher chamber. When he heard something. Steps. Light and clicking, like large insect... or bird talons. Could it be griffins or possibly some manner of large insect monster?

He followed the sound to a large chamber, where he could see a group of thirty griffins gathered near an altar. and on that altar he could see a small tied up shape covered in blue fur.

One of the griffins looked at the altar before speaking out to another griffin standing in the center of the group."Are you certain that this is going to work?"

"Of course I am! The King himself told us that by sacrificing this foal to this shrine we will be given a blessing to aid us in the-" But the two talking griffins' words got disrupted as a beam of magical light struck them and their entourage of thirty, scattering many of them into pieces around the ground, while some lucky ones only slammed into wall or pillars with loud cracks.

Stepping forward from the shadows with an angry glare on his face Maleficus moved past the groaning and twitching bodies of the griffins. He looked down as the curled up shape of a blue pelted unicorn foal on the altar and reach out to it.

"Don't worry I will get y- GAHHHH!" As soon as Maleficus touched it, collapsed like a hollowed out real life balloon of a foal. A thick blue gas erupted from the deflated trap and Maleficus felt an intense burning pain all over his face.

With his face burning from the blue gas he stumbled backwards, trying to rub his face clean of whatever had just been sprayed into his face. But as he rubbed his eyes clean he took one last stumble backwards , and stepped onto a solid surface of glass like crystal located a few steps behind the gas filled foal, which began to glow. And then the trap was sprung.

Out of the earth sprang sharp crystal claws shaped like spider legs. Maleficus in his disoriented state could not move or dodge as the sharp crystal claws struck his body, and pierced through his hide and into his flesh. He frantically tried to reach out and tear the spikes out, but they were somehow locked inside of his body from where they were injected. The bluish crystal spikes penetrated the flesh deeply, some of them even pressing against bone, while most slid through areas of no resistance and punctured various organs.

And as soon as the claws' momentum was halted, the contraption activated.

Intense pain filled Maleficus entire body as the crystal spikes began to blow blue, as a brightly glowing blue liquid was drained out of his body through them. The alicorn tried to move, but the sheer agony running through his nerves was locking up his muscles and making it difficult to even remain standing. He tried to rear back and punch one of the spikes, but before he could, the bluish liquid reached the second section of the spider leg like spikes.

Bright blue lightning started arching out from the eight spikes and began to lash out all across his body. A loud cry of pain erupted from his mouth as the scent of burning fur and flesh began to fill the enclosed valley. Without pause the spikes kept emitting their powerful electrical shocks into his flesh. Even had it not been locking up his muscles would he have, had a difficult time moving with how much it hurt.

Maleficus tried to focus his magic for a a spell but the magic supporting his upper skeleton, from the neck to the tailbone, lost their reduced weight enhancements. He could no longer keep himself upright and with a groan of strained metal his legs gave away. With a loud thump that shook the earth beneath the contraption he fell down on the crystal floor of the trap, unable to stand as the entire weight of his spine, ribs, pelvis and neck made it impossible to stand.

After a few minutes the few surviving griffins in the chamber looked out of cover at the trapped alicorn laid down on the trap. And they let out loud cheers as they finally realized that they had succeeded in their mission.

Maleficus grit his teeth and tried to focus his magic one last time. His horn surged crimson for a few seconds, his eyes began to shone with a bright flare. But he lost focus, and soon his eyes closed, as he couldn't maintain consciousness any longer. And slumped down on the contraption, unconscious.

"Get the air ship! We need to hurry and get this freak back to the capital!" One of the griffins shouted out to the others and there was a quick scramble to get the contraption and its prisoner prepared for take off. They had been warned that the artificers had no real clue how well the Claws of Sorrow would act in containing an alicorn. And they were not eager to find out.

Especially considering that they had to get to the city without being attacked by the sky ships of the invaders.

[Scene Skip]

"-we had to sacrifice two of our air ships. But we got it here you majesty." The soldier stated with a bow to his king as they all stood gathered within the large experimental chamber of the artificers.

King Craver was more then pleased. He was ecstatic! A feat that no other being in the world could ever even consider to do had been done by him, though his servants but by his will! He had captured a god! "Hehehehe! Yes! This is it! I have done it! I have captured a God! Hahahaha!"

The soldier whispered to the Earl, careful to not be heard by the King. "The trap worked perfectly, using one of those skinned foal's hides to make a gas filled trap was genius sir. Using the alicorn's sense of moral against it worked without failure." The Earl just nodded, a slight smirk on his lips at knowing his plan had worked perfectly.

"...Go...fuck...yourself...you...sick...shit..." Came the rasped response from Maleficus who laid helpless on the crystallized thunder stone platform making up the base of the trap holding him in place. The guards and artificers around him were constantly keeping eyes on him and the trap, unwilling to risk him getting free.

"Oh such dirty words from such a powerful being. Don't worry. Soon you will be making all the more sweeter sounds as I get myself a nice piece of meat for dinner." King Craver stated with a smirk on his cheeks as he pulled out a set of sharp looking kitchen knives.

Taking a sharp and thin knife the griffin sliced through the fur, skin and fat of the right front leg, from the shoulder to the hoof. He then took a pair of large tweezers, grabbed the cut edges of the hide, and began to skin the leg with a brutal but expert level proficiency. Maleficus just glared, not making a sound even as his right foreleg had its hide sliced off down to the meat and muscles.

With a twisted grin still on his face the King of Gryphon took out a large knife made for cutting into meat, he brutally sliced into the upper portion, down to the bones, blood splattering his beak and face as he cut up the parts. He then made a long drawn out cut down from the shoulder down to the hoof.

Maleficus just laid there, unable to do anything against this twisted cannibal. Not even his body's normally rapid regeneration was there to remedy the damage done to his leg. And he felt every second of it as the Griffin's knife sliced up his flesh and muscles while scraping the point along his bones.

And then the Griffin, still grinning with blood over his face, used his sharp talons to grab hold of the cuts and began to brutally yank off the flesh off the bones. And after five minutes of a sickening tug of war with Maleficus' flesh the griffin finally managed to tear the chunk clean off in a spray of blood as slowly regenerating blood vessels were torn apart in the process.

But even as he grasped the large chunk of flesh and tore it off the bone, revealing the metallic chrome skeleton beneath, the alicorn didn't let out a single sound. Not even as the flesh around his wound began to slowly regrow he didn't even spare a moment to gasp for air. The regeneration was slow however, it looked less like a flowing fluid filling up the missing parts and more like a slowly growing lump of fungi. Not even a tenth as fast as it had generated before.

This infuriated Craver more then anything. Why was this defeated creature not screaming!? It wasn't even making those pathetic mewling sounds like those griffin chicks he had personally tenderized last week! This was not amusing and he was more then willing to complain about it. Throwing his bloody meat knife on the floor, his other talon griping the large chunk of flesh, he screamed at the disgusted, and terrified, artificers and soldiers nearby. "Why isn't he screaming!? I have cut off all the meat on his right front leg and he isn't even flinching! It's not fun if he isn't screaming!"

The guards and artificers kept their beaks shut, unwilling to bring ire from their King. Who had just recently torn off the flesh of a living god with his bare claws as if it had been a common sheep. None of them had looked away, since they had seen some messed up shit before. But they not willing to make the person who just skinned and torn off a chunk of a still living being's leg with kitchen knives and his bare claws.

"He appears to have a very high pain tolerance sir. Or perhaps he is just unable to make any noises, being drained of magic as he is." The cool, emotionless and logical tone of his most loyal adviser Earl Archos, seemed to calm the King who snorted a bit before walking away from the bleeding alicorn. Several artificers having placed cloths to prevent the blood from touching the crystallized thunder stone, unwilling to risk a backlash.

"Tsk. Well this is a downer, I will just have to enjoy this meal all the more knowing I got a never ending supply of God meat now! King Craver the God Eater sounds like a wonderful title!" Once more happy with himself of how grand his reign has proven to become. Completely ignoring the fact that an army of ponies and horses was laying his capital, after having destroyed both the Grand Stormwall and the Iron Eagles stationed there.

"It is as you say your majesty." The Earl said with a bow to his King. His eyes only looking at the floor and never at the large chunk of meat in his ruler's talon.

"Now let us prepare for the second one! It will be wonderful to see if the female goddess taste differently!" King Craver then left the chamber along with his adviser and personal guards, leaving the chamber containing Maleficus for the artificers and guards to keep track of.

This left the artificers with the uncomfortable presence of a trapped deity like being in a trap which was not as efficient as they had hoped. The trap had worked but it could not contain the never ending flow of liquid magic their trap was draining from him. It would only last for a few days, then it would be filled up and the entity trapped there would be free. They had to finish the larger version or add additional storage units to the already existing trap to keep this being from escaping.

After a short moment of silent working, there was a moment of clarity in Maleficus mind. And he grinned, eyes still closed. And his lungs began to draw and release air rapidly. A he began, to chuckle.

A low rumbling and slightly wheezing chuckle fills the chamber and the guards nervously look towards the slowly regenerating alicorn. The artificers tried to ignore the sound, but it kept echoing through out the chamber for a good hour. And then as the laughter started to subside, Maleficus opened his eyes. Looked at the nervous and silent griffins, and spoke out, his voice strained an dry as if he had no moisture in his throat. And yet they echoed through out the chamber like the whispers of a horror in one's nightmares. "Enjoy... it... while... you... can... Celestia... won't... lose..."

[Scene Skip]

"What is wrong?" Celestia asked Cursed Blessing who had been talking to her about the current situation with the siege when he suddenly clutched his chest, as if in pain.

"I... I... don't know... but... it is bad... really bad..." The elderly horse muttered, his face pale and his eyes unfocused. As he tried to figure out why it felt as if his very bones had been shocked by lightning.

[To Be Continued]

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: There. This chapter is now complete, and on my birthday at that. And once more I thank all of you who supported me on Patreon, your support is very important to me and helps me a lot. And thanks to all my readers who give me comments involving both encouragements, suggestions, music videos and honest criticism. I am feeling much better now, I am still rather depressed but it's no longer as serious as it was earlier in 2019, much of it thanks to my wonderful readers and my siblings and relatives who gave me much emotional support and helped me during those harsh times of mine. Even though times have been harsh for me and my siblings these last couple of months do things seem to be improving.

Pinkie: Oooooh... I ate too much food...

Staadnathursil: Well that's what you get when you decide to visit my first birthday alone to give me company. You ate half the food and half the cake, and I only ate one quarter of each, to leave some for later. Too much too soon is not good Pinkie.

Pinkie: Ooooh... but it was soooo goood...

Staadnathursil: Indeed it was. Though I haven't had much joy for the last couple of holidays. Last year was my first Christmas alone, but thankfully I was able to celebrate Christmas with my siblings a few days before Christmas Eve, so I feel like that was my Christmas highlight. The Easter event wasn't as important but it still feels a bit off, being on my own. This epidemic doesn't help with the isolation.

Pinkie: Things will get better soon, you'll see... Where's the coffee?

Staadnathursil: I don't drink coffee. Would warm water with lemon and honey work?

Pinkie: *Gasp* ...yes.

Staadnauthuril: On a final note. This is the Third Year of my story so far. It has had a lot of hindrances this last year. And I am now, in my mortal human shell, 31 years old. Things have been slow. But I am hoping to have more chapters up for you readers to read before the end of summer. But as I always say, I cannot make any promises.

Pinkie: *Sips her drink* Mmmmm. Hey that's pretty good!

Thanks To All My Wonderful Patreons,
Without Your Contributes Things Would Not Have Worked Out For Me.

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Chapter Twenty: The Fall of Gryphon (Part 1) (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Twenty: The Fall of Gryphon (Part 1) (Pre-Beta)

[Current Date: 17/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 14 Days]

Spathatos, known as Sword Bearer, was lying down on one of his merchant caravan's wagons. He was still pretty injured, with a limb and strain on his legs and neck. It would be a while until he was completely restored.

Currently, he was looking up at the cloudy sky, enjoying the soothing summer breeze, trying to relax. To his right was a bundle of medical supplies, to his left was a sleeping pegasus mare dressed in armor, clutching a poleaxe to her metal covered barrel. Cute Justice, his self proclaimed fiancee. Not something he had ever considered getting during his first trip s a merchant.

After the siege of Castle Cure, he and Cute Justice had spent a lot of time together, mostly because Cute Justice just would not leave his side, acting more like a love-struck bodyguard/marefriend than the tough and rough knight commander she actually was.

When he was good enough to leave Castle Cure to resume his journey had Cute Justice used the opportunity to insert herself and some knights as escorts. Conveniently were there some of the knights and civilians who were injured during the siege who needed better medical care than what Castle Cure to give. But mostly it was an excuse to stay by his side.

And funnily enough. He did not really mind. It felt... nice. Yeah. It felt nice to have someone who actually cared so deeply for you that they would stick around and take a leave of absence just to make sure you were fine, or to just stay near you.

Not to mention, she was a great lover, careful enough to ensure they both had fun even as injured as he was. By the Creator the way she moved her hips when...

Ah... And he'd ruined his good mood by making himself horny...

Sighing he shook his head clear of his randy thoughts. Who knew that experiencing sex for the first time would make even an adult like him act like a randy teenager? Well, there's not much else to it but try and let it abide.

Tilting his head he looked over the edge of the cart and smiled a little as he saw the large city of Baltimare in the far distance. Carefully he sat up, making sure to not move his left hind leg too much, and looked out as the train of wagons and troops moved towards the coastal town. The journey had taken a fair bit of time but they would soon reach the city.

He then winced slightly as he felt a strangle tingle through his body. Patting his chest, he tried to determine if he had been bitten by an insect.

Then he heard the screams. Jerking his head up, wincing slightly as the movement strained his body slightly, he could see several horses and ponies among the caravan suddenly clutching their bodies, in various places, and fall over screaming in agony. Beyond the caravan, similar screams were emerging from the city.

His eyes widened as he saw some of the skyships above the city suddenly wear and shift in an erratic pattern. Some of them slammed into other airships, some harder than others. Of which four pairs erupted into explosions of lightning and wood as more than likely the storm cloud array on the hulls had been cracked by the impacts.

Eight husks of destroyed airships fell like buildings upon the city itself, and pillars of smoke began to emerge as parts of the city caught fire.

Spathatos, still feeling the tingling sensation through his body, opened his mouth, and screamed out. "HALT! STOP THE CARAVAN! GET ALL OF THOSE IN AGONY OUT OF HARNESSES AND TO A SAFE PLACE WHERE THEY CANNOT HARM THEMSELVES!"

There was a short amount of panic and ruckus but all wagons were soon stopped. Ponies and horses were all being cared for as the disastrous situation in Baltimare kept going. But he knew that his caravan could not travel further, not with so many in it having such painful seizures.

As he contemplated this could the spartan merchant hear the voice of Cute Justice speak up from his side. "W-what's going on?"

He shook his head and looked at the chaos. "I don't know but it is bad."

[Scene Skip]

Within the walls of Canterlot within the Magical Academy, was utter chaos going on. All manners of magic users were running around in a frenzy. Something was going on and they had no clear ideas of what or how it was.

But amid the chaos was a young Horadrim Sage laying down on the floor of one of the larger labs, green sparks arcing out of his eyes, mouth, ears, nostrils, and other orifices. All around the chamber were collapsed ponies and horses, with several of those who had not collapsed trying to aid those who were twitching on the floor.

Young Ciaphas was letting out wailing ghostly cries, releasing bursts of different coloured energy from his body as he did so. Several parchments, books, and lab tools were either scorched, burning, melting, or torn asunder around him. His 'teacher' Holy Preacher, was putting out a force field around herself and his collapsed form to prevent the damage from spreading, all the while trying to calm him down by petting his head and speaking soothing words.

But neither the shield nor the attempted comfort was working. The young sage just kept releasing torrents of magical power as pain coursed through his entire body.

Bolts, blast, and beams of arcane energy were piercing through the forcefield before tearing the lab like a storm of destruction. Holy Preacher could not keep the force field around them too strong while keeping herself safe enough to comfort Ciaphas. She was forced to coat her hooves in magic as she touched and petted the screaming foal's head as to not have her pelt and flesh be seared by the rampant energies being released.

This uncontrolled magical eruption would last for over an hour, well beyond the short moment many others had just felt painful seizures. Several ponies and horses came to offer support for the foal, nothing seemed to help and many just resorted to help in keeping the rampaging energies Ciaphas was release from harming himself and those around him.

By the time it had ended was young Ciaphas unconscious, and yet astonishingly enough could no damage be detected, beyond his body experiencing magic exhaustion. But the mages and sages could confirm a very uncomfortable fact after the reports of the widespread chaos caused by the event reached them.

Something had caused a near species-wide internal magical backlash through the body and magic of most ponies and horses in the country, and for some untold reason had young Ciaphas taken the brunt of it. For no other horse or pony had been in pain for so long or had their magical control thrown into disarray.

Well. What they knew.

[Scene Skip]

Loud screeches of pain had been echoing out over the jungles of the northern coastline of the Dragonlands for well over an hour. Animals and birds alike had fled the area of which the screams were coming from in large numbers. But then the screams stopped and the jungle turned eerie silent.

The source of the screams had been a dark cavern within the dank jungles. And within them laid a lone figure, its body shaking and shifting as if in aftershocks of intense electrical shock. After a few moments opens a pair of clear amber eyes, agonizing pain filling them as their body spasms with the aftershocks of the seizures that had shaken its body to life.

A beak opens and lets out painful coughs and wheezes as air flows down a soar throat and into near-empty lungs. The prone figure curls into itself, trying to endure the painful shock going through its body.

"Haaaaaaaa(Cough)haaaaa(cough)(cough)haaaaa...." Slowly the pain began to decline, and the figure let out pain-filled coughs as it tried to regain air into unused lungs.

After five minutes the harsh breaths had calmed down and the sound of moving limbs could be heard as unused bones and muscles try to move. A body shuffles and turns, a loud thump of a heavy side hitting the ground, followed by limbs straining to push against the ground.

Then staggering steps can be heard. A clop, another, and then clicking, like that of birds talons tapping against a stone surface. The sound is uneven, as the person inside the cave is staggering. As if they had a bit of a problem moving.

A ray of sun lights hits a limb moving out of the cavern, it is a golden brown bird talon with three claws and one thumb claw. Following is not a set of feline paws, but a set of hooved legs on equine legs covered by dark brown fur.

But then a long sharp beak emerges from the darkness. Not curved like a falcon, much straighter and thicker, it was more like that of a crow's... or possibly a smaller bird. A pair of ocean blue eyes blinked as the head of pitch plack feathers emerged from the cavern into the sunlight. Along the upper throat of the bird head was a small tuff of thick brown feathers, two of which were sticking out almost like a thin goatee beard.

A mane of dark brown hair went down from the tip of the head to the base of the neck, the mane itself was braided in an uneven pattern, leaving some straight hair as well, a single bead on the left side on the front was decorated with stone, glass, and wooden beads, it was a very tribal design.

The rear horse body was a similar shade of dark brown, with a pitch-black mane tail, the cutie mark of a pirate flag with a bird skull with two sabers behind them, blue waves circling behind the black rectangular flag.

Squinting eyes looked up at the sun, as the hybrid of bird and pony features got out of the cave. Reaching up with a talon the hippogriff rubbed their eyelids with the soft parts of their fingers to soothe their strained eyes. After a minute the limb was lowered and the hybrid looked around the large empty glade near the cave entrance.

They then saw something through the trees, something that made their hearts skip a beat. they did not know why, but what they had seen a glimpse of was making them excited. Starting a light walk away from the cave they slowly moved past the dense trees and vegetation.

Soon they moved past the final line of thick leaves and vines and saw an amazing sight.

A hidden lagoon. Down, down, far down from the top of the cliffside they had stepped out on was a lagoon-like cove, large rocky walls leaving only a small strip of water leading into the hidden beach. It was a part of the jungle that had sunken down into a hole and left a walled-in coven in its place. And down there, standing on a sandbank, laid a large black ship, with furled sails and a single waving flag. The same flag as the one upon the hippogriff's flank, minus the blue waves behind said flag.

Taking a glance around they looked for a path down, but they saw none. But rather than seeking another way around, they looked back towards the edge before them, and a grin grew by their beak. And then they suddenly rushed forward and jumped out into the open air. As they jumped off they spread their wings, at an upward angle, and started flapping them as they tried to fly for the first time by an over thirty-meter drop.

They were not prepared for their jump, nor had they aligned their wings properly, and thus, began to spin and twist around like a rag doll in a tornado.

Letting out a startled squawk they tried to stabilize themselves the hippogriff tried to spread out their wings and align their lower body as straight as possible to gain equilibrium. There was a brief moment of panic as they kept spinning around, until a powerful gust of wind suddenly blew up from below and caught their wings, pushing them upwards and temporarily halting their descent.

Unknown instincts of a strange body acted and the hippogriff managed to stabilize themselves and began to slowly glide down in a long and drawn out circling descent. Happy to take the extra time to circle down rather than smashing into the ground like they nearly just did.

They saw the soft sands of the lagoon approach and held out their talons. Intent on using their forelegs as springs to dampen the impact of their landing as to land on all for.

That was the intended purpose at least. Their talons struck the soft sand, sank, and suddenly got caught in the weight of the sand as they sank to the joins of the forelegs' reverse elbows. Letting out another startled squawk the hippogriff found their forelegs stopping, but the rest of their body kept going, flipping them upside down before slamming into the sand, back first.

The momentum broke their forelegs out of the sand but ended up making them roll forward like a tumbleweed for about five meters until they finally slide to a halt, beak first in the sand.

They remained in that pose for a moment before slowly pushing themselves out of the sand and sitting up. Looking down on their forelegs they winced as they could see dark bruises where their limbs had struck the ground and gingerly rubbing them with the palms of their talons.

Wincing slightly in pain the hippogriff looked around the lagoon, hoping to find something to aid with the pain. But as they turned to the right their eyes widened, their heart stopped beating and all the pain in their body disappeared.

There, just a few meters away, stood the large black frame of the ship they had seen. Its black hull almost as dark as the night sky. With black painted sails, and no clear balloon nor rune network marking it as a skyship. With a galleon figure of an equine, a female, with the lower body of a fish. Clutching to its front was the mermaid-like equine grasping a large sphere.

Their eyes trailed the galleon figure for a moment until they started to trace the upper hull of the ship. But it was not long until they stopped as they saw the edge of a large wooden sign decorated with a rope carved frame with giant letters of gold come into vision.

Slowly the confused but joyous hippogriff opened their beak to speak. Only for a loud wheezing sound to emerge. The hippogriff frowned and coughed a bit, trying to speak out again. A frustrated look appeared on their face before they spotted something nearby, a coconut.

Getting an idea they slowly reached over and grabbed the hard-shelled nut, noting that it was a green coconut, not an old one. Reaching out with sharp talons they dug the sharp tips into the hard shell's tip and began to spin the nut around. It took around five minutes until there was a gentle thud as the strained talons finally craved off the tip.

But this had left the hippogriff's fingers and wrist aching from the effort. And so they let their strained talon rest on the ground, while with the other hoisted up the green coconut before opening their beak. And then held the coconut above their beak, hole down.

There was a sound of pouring liquid and a gulping dry throat as sweet coconut milk pouring out of the hole and into the hippogriff's open beak, who began to gulp down as much as possible. After a few moments, the coconut was empty and the hippogriff let the green fruit drop out of their talon and leaned back a bit, panting after not breathing for drinking without pause.

Once the delectable juices were emptied out of the shell the hippogriff dropped the coconut to the ground. Wiping their break dry with a foreleg they looked up at the boat's name sign once more, and slowly stood up. On hind legs. Opening their beak they tried to speak, and this time, words began to form. As a deep male voice emerged from their, no, HIS, throat.

"You... you are... you are mine... my ship... my treasure... MY Black Pearl." And then a slow chuckle begins to fill the lagoon until it breaks out into joyous if slightly unhinged, laughter.

[Scene Skip]

It was the middle of the day in the mountain range known as the Jaws of the Earth, in the siege encampment surrounding the southern half of the large city of Eggstone. And currently, within the command tent of the siege camp, was an elderly Horse Lord and Sage clutching his chest in pain, pressing his other hoof against the table to not fall over.

" Lord Asclepius! Is something wrong!?" The worried voice of a nearby pony officer cried out in distress at the sight of the powerful leader suddenly going into a near collapse.

"I-I don't know... hurts..." The elderly horse mutters as he clutches at his chest. One of the ponies reached out to touch him, only to pull back when a jolt of electrical energy shook their hoof.

Celestia quickly moved over to the old ruler and touched his body, ignoring the painful sensation of electrical shocks running through her hoof, and began to use her magic to both analyze him and to try and remove the cause of the pain.

After a few moments, the shocks stopped and the old Lord's breath got easier. He slowly straightened up and gave a grateful nod to Celestia. "Thank you for the aid, Celestia, I have no idea what was ha-"

Celestia held up a hood to stop him before he could finish and gave him a stern look. "We did nothing. Even as We tried to determine the cause of your pain and remove it, We could not find it. It was like your body was forcefully emitting large amounts of electrical currents from your magical core into your nerves. It lasted for but a moment. And though it was clearly painful, could We not see what was causing it. But it could very well have been lethal had it not ended."

Cursed Blessing opened his mouth, closed it, closed his eyes, and let out a soft breath. He then opened his eyes and nodded. "Ah... I see. Thank you still, Princess."

Then a messenger came running into the tent. "We got news! Several of our forces have experienced a sudden surge of pain, over four dozen have collapsed!"

Celestia looked towards the officers by the table, horses and ponies alike looking at each other with worried eyes. "Call the medics. Have all who experienced the pain checked up. Do no-"

But her words were interrupted once more when ten soldiers carrying Comm Orbs came running into the tent.

"Princess! Mass chaos at Baltimare! Several hundreds of ponies and horses have collapsed! Ten buildings were destroyed by eight sky ships crashing because of several crew members experiencing seizures! Over sixty dead ponies and horses confirmed thus far!"

"Bangcolt reports at least thirty ponies and forty horses hospitalized after suddenly collapsing! A construction site collapsed because of workers falling over because of seizures! Eight dead ponies reported!"

"Philydelphia has over a hundred unconscious ponies and horses! Four skyships of a nearby sky fleet crashed because of half the crew suddenly having seizures! Thirty-seven horses reported dead!"

"Blackstone Keep has sent word of a large number of ponies and horses collapsing throughout the East Coast region's smaller settlements! Over two hundred ponies and horses dead as a side effect of this!"

"Canterlot has sent word of several hundreds of screaming and collapsing ponies and horses! Golden Cross Knights also report mass breakouts of identical cases throughout the central regions!"

"Whitestone Castle has reported several dozens collapsed ponies among the scouting parties and recently established hamlets throughout the Unexplored West! No deads reported yet!"

"Thirty ponies and seventy-six horses blacked out in the War Camp! Five injured ponies reported going into shock! No dead reported yet!"

"Princess! Fifty horses collapsed in the Hermes Sky Fleet while on travel between the War Camp and Baltimare! Four ships and over fifty crew members lost!"

"Princess!"

The babbling messengers, still holding up the Comm Orbs, were filling the tent with their rapid reports. Princess Celestia's eyes widened, and so did Cursed Blessing's and those of the others in the tent. As the sheer impact of what had just occurred struck them.

"What in the Gods' names is going on!?" Celestia screamed out in utter bafflement as she tried to digest the rambling news being shouted out at her.

[Scene Skip]

Deep within the caverns of the secret lab of the Artificer Guild was a large group of griffins working frantically to develop a better containment unit for their prisoner. The figure of Maleficus Victoria was nothing but pelt and bone, his body dried up like a husk, devoid of life. A series of sharp crystalline spear-like needles piercing through his torso was slowly draining a steady stream of glowing blue liquid, the Tears of Sorrow, as called by the Artificers.

Griffins wearing protective suits were analyzing the comatose deity-like being, the samples of pelt and hide were the only things they could gather. Nothing else could be reached safely without risking exposure of the Tears of Sorrow directly restrained being.

Organs, flesh, blood, vessels, even the very colors of the creature's hide and mane had been drained out of it, leaving a deathly pale grey husk. The only solid thing remaining was the mane, tail pelt, and the bones. And the bones just could not be worked with. Even using some of the ancient artifacts kept by the Artificers since before the Age of Chaos, there was no reaction or even slightest of sample to be gathered from the bones.

They could only inspect the bones as they were on the Claws of Sorrow, and even with sensory-based artifacts made out of dragon bones and special crystals capable of reading substances, they could not make heads or talons over what manner of material made up the alicorn's bones.

But whatever it was, was it insanely heavy, dense, and tough. Had it not been for the Tears of Sorrow reinforcing the Claws of Sorrow's integrity as a part of the restraining effect, the Artificers did not doubt that Maleficus could have easily shattered their prototype like common glass.

To even move with such a heavy bone structure meant that Maleficus was immensely powerful, not only magically, but physically as well. And that made them even more nervous. For it was not easy to focus on their duties when there was a living, though not currently breathing, god contained within the heart of their guild, whose power was too much for them to comprehend.

And should he get free. They knew things would go bad. So they had to work fast. For the state of the comatose alicorn would not last forever.

As long as the contraption holding him held was the powerful entity trapped. However, the hollowed-out space making up the base of the contraption was slowly starting to fill up as the magical liquid kept flowing. And the Artificers did not want to find out what would happen once it could no longer contain any more tears.

And the only regret they truly had about trapping this god-like entity with their artifact was the one thing they could not stop thinking about. *Why did we not consider making a tap on the trap!?*

[Scene Skip]

King Craver smiled at his most loyal and favored subject in the castle. Rhumsy Olvor, the Royal Chef, a golden eagle griffin with blue eyes and a dark orange lion body. The chef was currently showing him a big piece of meat. Before starting the process of covering it in spice before wrapping it up in a bundle with white linen.

"The meat is tough and needs time to tenderize your Highness. I'd say a few days at least. A long time for a marinade based tenderizing. But the longer it is left to marinade within the spices in the cold room, the greater the flavor." The chef said with a slight smirk on his lips as he put the wrapped up meat on a tray, before walking over to the large metal door leading to the ice-filled cavern-like room where it would be left to become the next high dish on the King's platter.

"I am drooling already Chef Rhumsy. How do you intend to cook it?" King Craver asked with a grin as drool dripped down his beak and along his chins to the floor.

The Chef smiled and pulled out a scroll and a sharpened piece of charcoal to write with. And as he began to write down on the scroll he began to describe his idea. "Though I have worked with equine meat before have I yet to cook alicorn or horse meat. But the process should not be too different. I shall make a roast out of the meat, fry it in oil before roasting it slowly in the oven in a clay pot filled with mushrooms, onions, and herbs. To serve I will make some mashed potatoes mixed with roasted onion, pony fat, and cream. So serve to it I will make a spicy apple sauce made with red, green and orange apples, some flour, butter and a lot of stock from the chick soup I will be making today."

The King's grin was wide and he was rubbing his talons together like a giddy child. As he was talking were two guards entering the kitchen, carrying a small cage. A small quivering shape could be seen within it. All of the kitchen staff lowered their heads as to not catch the king, or the royal chef's, attention. "Excellent. I will be awaiting your fine dish once it is ready. But do not wait too long, I am not the most patient."

Royal Chef Rhumsy just smiled and nodded as the cage was put on the floor by his side. "Of course your Majesty. But for now, I shall prepare your supper. Cannot have you going hungry now can we?"

King Craver just laughed as he began to leave the kitchen with his guards. "Hahaha! Wonderful. I always love your chick soup. It tastes so good with the boiled eggs and meat in it. Mmmm. I look forward to it."

"I live to serve your majesty." The chef said with his grin still wide as he reached down into the cage and pulled out a griffin chick, limbs tied up, plucked clean of feathers and shaved off fur, alive and wide-eyed in fear. He put the chick on the large wooden table and reached for a large butcher's knife while the rest of the staff closed their eyes, as the King left the room.

"Hahaha indeed!" And with those parting words, the King left the Royal Kitchens and began to walk down the halls towards his throne room for some work. There was a muffled sound of a screaming chick from the closed door, that was quickly cut off by the muffled sound of a heavy knife striking wood with a loud meaty thunk.

[Scene Skip]

Upon a wooden table laid a tactical map of the city Eggstone and the siege camps placed around it. Around the table were several griffins of various military ranks. All of them were frustrated and the air was tense,m their eyes glaring at the map in contempt.

Then one of them broke the silence and voiced the reason for their frustration by slamming their talon onto the table and scream out into the isolated stone chamber. "We have been inactive for several hours now! If none of you are brave enough to state it then I will! Why are we not attacking the ponies and horses as they are in a state of panic!? Many of their numbers were injured today by whatever insane ailment they were afflicted by today!"

"Well, there are many reasons why. But two stand out the most. I believe we all know them. Even if they are more like infuriating orders and excuses than anything." Another officer stated after a few moments of silence.

All of the officers looked at each other with angry eyes but just silently nodded. The situation was not ideal and the orders they had received, not to mention the weak reasoning to hold back from attacking, was making many of them and their troops upset. Very upset.

A griffin lieutenant sighed a bit before he looked down at the city map, and his sad expression turned into a furious glare. "The Lords of the city do not want us to risk afflicting the city with whatever affliction that has struck the equines. A very weak excuse as our spies has reported it in that it is seemingly not a pandemic, nor even a disease but some sort of magical affliction. So we should be safe."

"And then there's the King's orders." And after that statement, there was dead silence in the chamber. Many beaks almost creaked as muscles clenched and bit down to prevent from making angry growls or screeches. Speaking out against the King was not a good idea, even for high ranking officers and nobles like them.

One of the griffins sighed out loud before resting their forehead on a claw. "I know he's our King and Ruler but... still..."

"'I liked the way they were screaming, let's see if they will do it again. So do not attack until I tell you to.' Those were his direct command." A captain ranked officer said. There was another moment of awkward silence and the officers looked at each other in concern.

"How... how... do we win? If we cannot attack them when they are vulnerable?" Another captain stated. And again the silence filled the room and all of the officers glared down at the map.

A major ranked officer shook his head and shrugged in a 'what can you do?' motion. "We can not win. If we are just inactive, but if we break the King's orders. He will do things to not just us but to our families."

"Almost makes you wish for the ponies to end this by leaving or winning." A lieutenant muttered quietly to himself, the others had heard it but did not react to it. For they could not fault them for speaking those words.

After all. They were all thinking the exact same thing.

Then the only Griffin with the rank of general walked around to look closer at the map. He was a tall dark grey and white griffin with an old-style breastplate and mail skirt armour. His name was Baron Hartach Maltkeg, a recent general, it had only been around two years since he reached this rank.

Though he was young was he still respected for his tactics and out-of-the-box thinking. Which had won him several victories against raids from the Sultans to the east.

He dragged his talon along the tall city gates, noting the streets and buildings located by the high walls. He then looked at the location of the markings of the ponies and their camp, troops, and ships. Before he looked over at the other officers. "I have an idea. We need to clear out the civilians living along the walls and put up barricades. We will build up ambush points all over the streets behind the wall, makeup killing zones so that whatever ground we give these invaders will pay dearly for every centimeter."

The officers started muttering and discussing among each other. But then one of the Lieutenants spoke up, a concerned look on their face. "But sir. Those living quarters make up the entirety of the city slums where the homeless, slaves, and mine workers live. There are at least four thousand of them living there. Where should we put them?"

General Hartach dragged his talon across the map until its point rested over the tunnel entrance leading into the mines of the Thunder Mountain two kilometers to the east of the city. The mines had no surface shafts, to prevent too much air from reaching the volatile substance. Mining, in general, was not safe but mining thunderstone was notoriously more dangerous. "The thunderstone mines beneath Thunder Mountain."

One griffin captain looked up, a bit startled by the plan, and spoke up. "A-are you sure? There are no exits to the surface in the mines, the only way out is by the tunnel. If the invaders assault the mines they will be cornered. Not to mention the ten gates sealing the path to the tunnels makes it difficult to commit transportation as no more than two gates can be open at a time."

The tall griffin just shook his head and tapped his beat with his left index talon. "No worries. The ponies have made their intent clear, their only target is the Royal Palace, so we can count on them ignoring the mines. Besides, this will speed up the mining process of thunder ore so that we can have the artifacts we lost replaced."

Most officers liked the idea but some got worried looks on their faces, thinking that the general was taking the invaders too much on their words. Not to mention there was another matter that made the tunnels important, they were connected to the secret research and production facilities of the Artificers' Guild.

"But we barely have enough food to feed them all. Many of them will be sick and old! Not to mention the number of people placed within the mine might cause a major lack of air!" A sergeant argued, not seeing the benefit.

"Not as if that's going to change the outcome, give them fewer rations and more water. We need every crumb to count. Better it be the kiwis who goes before the more important birds do." The cold and calculated manner of which General Hartach spoke sent shivers down the spines of the gathered officers. Not to mention calling peasants and slaves kiwis were seen as a highly offensive term by griffins, but clearly, the General did not seem to see the problem in this.

Yet again the officers looked at each other nervously. Before just nodding to the General and began to enact the plan. Meanwhile outside of the meeting was one of the city guards standing, able to hear everything from the slightly cracked open door. His eyes narrowing beneath his helmet.

Looking to his fellow guard who was looking back he nodded, and the other guard nodded back. Then they resumed their posture. Acting as if nothing was going on.

Their shift soon ended and they began to march towards the barracks. And as they walked through the halls of the compound one thing stood out, though it was a small thing. Tied to their left shoulders were red bands, and as they walked through the halls, could more and more guards and soldiers bearing these bands be seen.

One of the soldiers with red bands started walking with them. The trio of griffins soon reached the entrance to the barracks and entered together. It was empty inside except for a few sleeping guards.

The two guards looked over at the soldier who closed the door behind them. And then the left one began to speak. "They are going to turn the slums into a field of barricades and murder fields for the defences. They will force all of the citizens and slaves in the slums into the Thunder Mountain's Mines. All. Of them. While lowering the content of food in their rations."

A sharp his escaped the beak of the soldiers who closed their eyes and nodded before turning back towards the doors. "I will send words to our leaders. We must prepare. Keep up the good work, and remember. Saoirse do Chách."

"Saoirse do Chách." The two guards bowed their heads to the soldier and pressed their left talons to their right shoulder where the red ribbons were tied. They then went to get some rest before their next shift.

Meanwhile, the soldier walks out of the barracks and begins to move down the hall towards the exit of the compound, he had information to relay.

For fowl plots were being hatched within the walls of Stonenest.

(A/N: I am just going to say it once, I do not know if I wrote Freedom for All correctly there. I used an online translator to get Saoirse do Chách. English to Irish translator. Not sure if it is correct though. But it took me a few hours to get this and I did not want to work too much on a single line.)

[Scene Skip]

A few kilometers west of the city of Stonenest was a lone guards tower, abandoned by the few dozen griffins who had seen the invading forces and retreated to the city. It was now the temporary Comm Center of the UEF, as the griffins were starting to replace their artifacts, causing interference again. And the Energy Cannons and the special Orbs used for destroying the artifacts needed to be inspected before they could fire them again, which had been delayed by the sudden worldwide seizures hitting horses and ponies alike.

Within the basement of this tower was a closed down chamber, and within it was a circular table and a small chair. On the table laid a small pillow with a Comm Orb which was blinking, signifying an incoming call. And in the chair sat Cursed Blessing, who only just had arrived in the chamber.

He reached out and touched the orb, activating it. And a dim white glow began to light up the chamber, revealing some of the stone walls. Upon the surface of the orb appeared the face of a young horse foal, laying in a bed, with a bag of ice resting on his forehead and a bandage over his left ear that was bloodstained.

"Hey Gramps..." The hoarse and weak voice of Ciaphas spoke out from the Comm Orb in front of the elderly looking horse sage.

Cursed Blessing smiled politely to the young foal and spoke to him in a comforting tone. The sight of the injured foal making him experience a lot of paternal emotions he did not fully understand. "Hello, Ciaphas. How are you feeling?"

Snorting a little the foal turned his head slightly left and right before looking back at the orb with a snarky grin. "Now? Like shit... that was cooked in an oven... Earlier I felt... like I was being boiled and electrocuted... from the inside out..."

The elderly horse frowned a little and shook his head. His uncomfortable emotions making it hard to keep himself from growling in anger and frustration. "I am sorry to hear that. And I am sorry that I have to speak to you like this. But I need your expertise."

On the surface of the orb, the face of Ciaphas just nodded slightly. "Y-yeah... No worries... I can handle a small... conversation..."

The old horse's features softened and he calmed down a bit. He could not add more strain on the hurt foal by dragging out the conversation. So he got to the point. "Our creator has disappeared. I know that he sometimes goes away and out of contact for days, but I am feeling uneasy for some reason. I was hoping that you, with your closer connection to him, could offer any advice."

An awkward look appeared on the foal's face at the request. He coughed a little as he tried to speak. After a short moment, he got control over his throat, Cursed Blessing wincing at the sound of the rough coughing. "...Well... I am not sure where he is... but I know one thing... Whatever that shock was... it originated from our maker..."

Cursed Blessing stood up from his seat and stared down at the orb with wide eyes. His entire body rigid and his hooves gripping the table enough to leave dents in the wooden surface. "Are you serious?"

The image of the foal nodded before taking a long breath and letting it out slowly, to keep from straining himself. Ciaphas then spoke up again as he felt his throat ease up. "Oh yeah... that was his energy flowing through my body... I'd recognize that sensation anywhere... After all... This body of mine is his part-time shell..."

Cursed Blessing's eyes widened even more as he realized what this meant. And he began to move out of the enclosed chamber, looking out into a deep a dark hallway he spoke while he closed the door behind him silently. The only light in the hall emitting from the orb now held by one of his front hooves. "...That's why you took the brunt of it. Your body has an artificial core made out of a Black Beacon. It is a direct connection to Maleficus' influence. The pain being sent out through the bodies of so many horses and ponies. It was his."

The exhausted foal nodded his head and spoke back through the orb, a sigh escaping his lips as he felt the medicine in his blood make him feel drowsy. "Yeah... my thought exactly... whatever caused all of this... came through him... whatever pain we felt... was nothing but feathers compare to what he felt..."

Clenching his teeth in anger the elderly-looking horse walked through the dark hall, the illuminating light of the orb making his elderly features look positively demonic. As he walked he growled out in barely held back anger knowing that his creator had been tormented enough to make his pain course through his scattered essence parts. "We have to find him and quickly. I know he was investigating the ruins and castles here on the eastern continent so there's where our search shall begin. Thank you for your time Ciaphas, it has helped a lot. Rest and recover, I will have our fellows search for our Creator."

There was a slow intake of air on the other end and the tired foal shook his head with a tired grin. "...Yeah about that... Before I spoke to you I received words... from one of the skyship patrols in the Foal Mountains... They could not get in contact with you for some reason... Possibly too much interference by the castle you were at. You know that mountain top... where you're making that Eye of Sauron slash Castlevania inspired castle for the Dark Ones?"

Cursed Blessing paused and looked into the orb with a confused look on his face. He knew that the Dark Ones were currently isolated within the northern mountains of the Foal Mountain Range, but he had not received words from them about any issues. But then again, if the Comm Orbs were being disrupted again he would probably need to contact them. "Yes, I know their location and project. It's located a bit north of the Blackstone Keep. They should be near done by now."

A serious look came upon the foal's fac. "Well it's gone, the mountain that is, and so are the Dark Ones... And they aren't responding to their Comm Orb."

The old horse stared blankly for a moment before wishing he could rest his face in his hoof, which was kind of difficult as he was walking down the hall of the tower's basement. So he settled for muttering and cursing. "Oh, fucking hell."

A low chuckle emerged from the orb as he began to gallop down the hall. "Language old-timer, think of my innocence."

Snorting in amusement, though still frustrated, the elderly horse spoke back through the orb as he began to turn it off. The wooden door to the stairs coming into view. "Oh go to sleep and rest you annoying brat."

The last words his artificial grand foal said echoed through the chamber before the image of a grinning but tired Ciaphas nodded back to him. "Love you too gramps."

Placing the orb in his saddlebag Cursed Blessing opened the door and began to walk up the spiraling staircase. He had to raise his hoof to shielded his eyes from the light of the setting sun as he passed by the windows of the tall spiraling staircase.

Cursed Blessing passed four wooden doors before he reached a hatch on the op, he pushed it open and walked up onto the roof of the tower. Several tents were put up, pegasi messengers flying back and forth with written messages being communed from a group of unicorns and horses utilizing a collection of Comm Orbs.

He walked over to the scribes writing messages and called out. "I need some messages to be sent by Orb and by Scroll."

One of the scribes walked over with parchment and quill ready while a Comm Orb handlers moved over to make a list of which orbs Cursed Blessing would need to use.

"First of, Scribe. I need you to write down the following and have it sent to Princess Celestia by morning at the earliest. No need to risk our messengers with a night flight." The scribe nodded and folded out a scroll and dipped their quill in ink.

The horse lord slowly began to pace back and forth as he began to verbally speak his letter to the Princess. "To Princess Celestia of Equestria. I, Lord Asclepius "Cursed Blessing" of the Horadrim Kingdom, have received words from Ciaphas, my grand foal, about what might be occurring. He theorizes that the shock that caused seizures through ponies and horses earlier in the day was caused by an emotional backlash of a powerful magical entity, possibly an equine, experiencing excruciating pain."

Cursed Blessing walked around the frantically writing pony who was starting to grow pale at the information being given. "More than likely this was caused by Maleficus Victoria, who may have been afflicted with some manner of intense physical suffering that he afflicted thousands of horses and ponies alike. As of now I, nor Ciaphas, have any true clues of how it is possible for such a thing to happen. But Ciaphas is citing his long time theory, the one he has spoken off often in the past. And the implications concern me, a lot."

The scribe was looking sickly as they were writing by now and all activity of the tower had slowly begun to die down as more and more of the ponies and horses were staring at the speaking lord with expressions of shock and horror. "Ciaphas is too hurt from the ordeal to be of any help in investigating the phenomena, but with this, we at least have a slight foundation to work on. And with it, we might find a way to prevent it from happening again. But for now, I will focus on refining the Jam Orbs and the Tracker Orbs for the coming siege. I have found a possible angle to utilize them for either tracking living beings or artifact nullifiers, but the work is still not complete."

"With best regards, Lord Asclepius "Cursed Blessing", Lord of Horadrim." The scribe finishes writing the letter and beings to slowly roll it up into a scroll and shakily seals it with yellow wax and the sun seal of Celestia.

Cursed Blessing turns and looks at the staring ponies and horses on the tower and frowns. "What are you all staring at? Get back to work!"

The eerie silence of the tower was ended with the abrupt start of ruffling papers and voices speaking up again. Shaking his head the horse lord turned towards the Orb Comm Handler, who was looking nervously around themselves. He patted the nervous handler on their shoulder and spoke up in a softer tone. "Prepare Comm Orbs for the following locations. The Temple of Law, the Blackstone Keep, the Whitestone Keep, and Grithenburg. I need to send reports before starting on my experiments."

[Scene Skip]

Within the clouds above the Foal Mountains was a storm brewing, blackened smog-like clouds were emerging from deep within the mountain range. It was like the clouds were being converted into darkness itself. The floating islands of Jarngard and Saints' Chapel both sent reports of the odd weather phenomena.

But thus far was no one really taking it seriously as the weird weather pattern was not the strangest thing that had been seen within the last couple of decades.

And yet there was an eerie feeling over the mountains and woodlands as the clouds slowly spread out over the sky, blanketing the land below in a dark shadow. Animals could be seen fleeing out of the woods in wild stampedes. From the small of mice to the large manticores were the woodlands being abandoned by the fleeing animals. But no ponies or horses had witnessed these sightings yet as the animals had yet to reach any of the horses' ground bases or the ponies' villages.

With the war in the Kingdom of Gryphon going on were ponies and horses working on keeping their homes and roads safe while the UEF were fighting across the sea. But even with the Three Armies of Equestria, the Order of the Golden Cross, and the Horadrim Kingdom's sky islands and sky fleets, were there too much to keep control over to investigate the weird clouds, as even the common couriers, mercenaries, and scouts were working overtime to keep the two nations safe-

What could be determined was that the origin of the dark clouds seemed to be centered in the middle area of the mountains, south of the main path towards Canterlot. Near one of the ten spots, the Horadrim Kingdom claimed to make their ten sky islands. There was no settlement there however as it was far too isolated to be of much use.

So most ponies and horses determined it to be of no issue as nothing bad was seemingly going on. Even though the sky fleets and the sky islands still kept watch over the growing shadow like clouds in case something was going on.

But because of the split attention of the horses with the growing dark clouds and the current political situation between them and Gryphon, was a large cloud cluster able to float past the slightly overworked patrols and float eastwards at rapid speed, merging into various cloud layers to keep itself out of sight.

The only clue of its passage was a low rumbling that occurred every other hour. A rumbling that made it sound like the clouds themselves were on the prowl.

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 18/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining: 13 Days]

A lone figure was standing on top of a hillside. Dressed in golden painted plate barding made of sacred bronze and bearing a white tabard bearing the symbol of the sun. A prismatic mane and tail both tied back into braids, not currently in the shape of gaseous clouds but of solid strands of multicoloured hairs. By their side was a poleaxe made out of a mixture of iron and bronze, crackling green gemstones decorating the sun shaped axe head, hammerhead, and spear tip.

The figure reaches up and grasps the visor on the helm and flicks it open, revealing the slightly unwashed white pelted face of Celestia. As her pink eyes look upon the darkness of the night she can see clouds blotting out much of the sky. Not much sunlight would be getting through the cloud layers with how thick they were today.

But still, she had a duty to perform. And so she calls forth her magical power, she grasps onto the sensation of the sun and slowly lowers her head slightly, before raising it again. And slowly, in the distance, could the first crimson rays of the morning sun be seen. Though only slightly with how dense the clouds were this day.

As her head stood straight she deactivated her grip on the sun and turned around, walking towards the large circular shaped tent used by the UEF to determine their next action.

Several of her officers were absent from the tent, having been sent with some troops to guards the tower to the west to keep the communication line open and safe. Warlord Thunder Hammer and General Rough Stock were both inspecting the large map on the table in the center of the tent.

The map was a simple but well-detailed overview of the griffin capital, its fortress, and the positions of the war camp's tents and buildings. With several wooden tokens marking down the positions of ponies, horses, siege engines, skyships, and the opposing griffin forces. Some tokens were placed outside of the map to mark them as absent.

Celestia looked around at the gathered officers and took note that many of them had tired looks on their faces, the past day and night had been exhausting for many. Hundreds dead, and thousands more wounded across all of Equestria and Horadrim. Most deaths had been caused by crashing buildings, ships, and other lethal accidents, which in turn had been caused by the bizarre seizures afflicting a small, but not insignificant part, of equine-kind yesterday.

So she decided to try and distract their tired minds with some good old work and effort. "We know that we all are exhausted, but we still have work to do. Lord Thunder Hammer, have you found out what may hath caused this disaster."

The large horse shook his head and tapped at the dormant Comm Orb sitting by the table. "Not yet Princess. The griffins are keeping their artifacts out of our cannons' range so we can't clear up the jamming. We also have yet to receive news from the Communication Tower."

General Rough Stock butted in at that, pointing with a stick at the path between the tower and the camp, over two kilometers away. "But that's to be excepted as it is not yet safe to send messengers between the tower and our siege camp during the night time. Too many griffins and beasts in the mountains for us to risk spilling important information or losing important pegasi."

A Viking bearing the ranking of Captain points with the tip of his great axe at the tokens marking the skyships of the UEF. "Nor can we send out the skyships needlessly, the griffins have made attempts to attack small groups of ships many times and we cannot split up the ships we have more than we already have. Otherwise, there won't be enough of them to protect the war camp."

Another officer spoke up, a Sergeant of the Wonderbolts. And pointed out with their left wing at the markings of the walls. "Not to mention that the griffins were quick to repair the few major damages we made to their walls and towers. While some of the towers are too demolished to be of proper use is the majority still intact enough to house troops and siege engines. Though we have yet to see any other siege engines from the griffins outside of their lightning cannons is it not good to make assumptions."

Princess Celestia nodded at this, contemplating on what to do next. The original plan for invading the city had been delayed and thus needed to be altered. With the recent event, they could not take any risks. "How long doest you think it may be until We receive news?"

A Cleric with a golden star on the left side of his robe's neck, marking him as a High Priest, spoke up. "By the hour at most, as the sun has just been raised. I and the other higher-ranked priests of the Kind Order have prayed for the Gods' blessing for our coming battle, we have received no clear message yet but we do have a good feeling in our hearts. There should be-"

The priest's dialogue was broken when one of the guards outside of the tent suddenly shouted out something. "Messengers incoming! Seven of them!"

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear." Thunder Hammer commented with a grin.

Another horse looked out at the rising sun and whistled. "Very swift delivery, the sun has not even been up for ten minutes."

Then all of a sudden a staggering pegasus came scrambling into the tent causing many to jerk back in surprise, even Celestia and Thunder Hammer. Normally the messengers would wait for approval before entering. Then an uncomfortable feeling rose in their stomachs, the only reason a messenger would be allowed to rush inside would be if- "Princess! we have several scrolls relaying important information! One of them was sent by Lord Ascelipus High Priority Sun Seal!"

Celestia swiftly held out a hoof and gave a command. "Give it to us messenger."

The sealed scroll was handed over and Celestia swiftly broke the seal before unfurling it. She began to read the message while the messenger handed out two more scrolls, one for General Rough Stoc kand War Lord Thunder Hammer, before bowing and moving out of the tent.

Thunder Hammer and Rough Stock both held their scrolls, but did not open them, as they were a bit busy looking with worried eyes at Celestia, who was still reading the message on the scroll. The only difference being that she was angrily stomping in a circle and her horn was starting to glow and emit sparks as her pink eyes were starting to glow like lanterns.

Whatever was on that message was pissing her off and neither of the two war leaders wanted to be the one to ignite the powder keg by asking the Princess what was making her so upset.

But then a young, innocent, naive, and fucking stupid Scorpion officer, walked over to the princess and quietly asked her to not make her too upset. "Umm... Princess? Are you ok-"

Before the young officer can finish his inquiry erupts Celestia's mane and tail into golden flames, the letter in her grip burst into flames, turning into ash in an instant. Her eyes, burning like twin suns, glares at where the letter was and then she walks out of the tent in heavy stomps.

The officers look at each other nervously. And then all jump a bit in fright as the ground and air shake for a few moments as the furious voice of Princess Celestia explodes from outside the tent.

"DAMN YOU MALEFICUS!!!!!"

"Well... that's not good." General Rough Stock muttered to himself as he looked at the exit of the tent.

"Indeed. She's going to be in a bad mood all day." Thunder Hammer said with a frown, an angry Celestia was not one you wanted to risk upsetting. She had a habit of lashing out at those who would make her angry while upset with a swift punch to the face, not that anyone she had already punched did not deserve it but it made things a bit uncomfortable.

Rough Stock took out his pipe, lit it with a sulfur stick, and puffed it a bit while chuckling. "Heh. Almost thought you were going to make one of those awful bird puns the troops have been making lately."

War Lord Thunder Hammer slowly turned to look at the General and gave a wide grin that only spelled mischief. "Oh please, I don't need puns to preen myself." And there was a mixture of groans and chuckles in the tent.

But sadly enough would the plans for the invasion of the city take another day as the new information being given made things a lot more uncomfortable for the ponies and horses. The horses for it revealed that their creator was in deep manure somewhere and in deep pain.

While the ponies were disturbed that somehow they were able to feel the pain of the most hated enemy of Equestria's Princess. The unspoken idea that so many ponies and horses somehow were connected to Maleficus close enough to feel his pain was disturbing, and quite frankly terrifying as the Princess' mood was very fowl. And no one wanted to bring her attention to them and be struck because she might consider them enemies for being afflicted by Malefcicus' pain.

Even though she clearly had never acted out such things before, were the ponies more than able to come up with worst-case scenarios. And it did not help that she was constantly frowning for more than a day after receiving the message.

Needless to say, the situation in the war camp was very tense for several days as the officers tried to work out a plan with an agitated Princess smoldering like a boiling kettle.

[Scene Skip]

Within a large lagoon on a tropical island northeast of the Dragon Lands, northern shores lie a large harbour town by the name of the Port of Skulls. An infamous pirate and black market hideout made by and for pirates and merchants as neutral ground. It is the most well-defended island in the Celestial Sea.

Races from all over the sea came here to engage in trade, piracy or lawless activities. Ponies, griffins, a few dragons, merponies, diamond dogs, and even a few rare reptiles from the north were active in this region.

But for many would-be pirates were the days of sailing free and taking what they wanted over. With the arrival of the armed trade vessels of Equestria and the skyships of the Horadrim Kingdom, were there not many pirates who dared to do as much as leave port.

For many, this was thought to mean the end of piracy. Though not many would say that, that would be a bad thing.

A pony and a griffin were sitting and talking on a bench by the harbour. The pony was a pirate and the griffin a merchant, and they had known each other for years.

So they would often discuss rumours or news from across the ocean. And currently, it was the merchant who had some recent gossip. "Hey have you heard?"

Removing the bottle of rum from his muzzle the pirate looked at his friend with a raised eyebrow. "About what?"

The griffin snorted and waved a talon towards the open sea, the thick morning mist shrouding it."The ghost ship sailing across the sea last night. It's the biggest news on the docks."

Pausing a bit the pony slowly blinked before giving an uneasy response. "No? What do you mean ghost ship?"

Rubbing his talon against his beak the griffin groaned in disbelief before continuing. "There's been sightings all night of a pitch-black ship without a crew floating over the waves without so much as a sound. Moving like a phantom through the waves. At least five ships saw it and fled here to evade it."

The pirate just rolled his eyes at the merchant. "Oh please, it's probably one of those large sailing ships from Bangcolt. They probably just painted it black ad made it look spooky to discourage sailor."

Shaking his head the merchant swiftly denied the conspiracy theory. "No, you know that is not true. Bangcolt doesn't have an active sea trade with the war going on in the north. They only allow independent traders and their sky fleets to move in and out of the city. Their own fleet is used for supply deliveries between the continents."

Shifting his head side to side the pirate tried to find a counter to the statement. "Yearrrrh. That might be true. But that still does not mea-" The pirate's statement was silenced however by the sound of something from the sea. It was a deep spine-shivering sound reverberating from the dense fog shrouding the sea.

The docks turned dead silence as the sound died off and the dockworkers, merchants, sailors, and pirates all slowly turned their heads to look towards the dense fog.

A pirate pony froze with his rum bottle in a mid gulp, excess rum was pouring out from the crook of his muzzle as he stared at the fog. By a ship had a merchant griffin frozen while writing on a checklist with a piece of charcoal, the charcoal had snapped when she turned her head and what was left was being grounded up against the clipboard by the griffins twitching talons. Two dockworkers were standing frozen holding a large crate while standing on a set of stairs leading to a warehouse.

Five sailors pulling on a rope to a large sail that was being raised up were frozen in the process of pulling up the sail. While on the docks had a trader selling fish, frozen while holding up a large freshly caught grab to a griffin hen to look at. He nor the griffin had noticed the grab aggressively snipping the rim of the griffin's fine hat into shreds.

Then again a sound reverbed out of the shrouding mist. And now it was more clear. It was a loud groan of moving wood, shifting ropes, grinding nails, and shifting waves. Which shook through the mist in a gentle gust of wind, which also carried the sound of shifting fabrics.

Two loud crashes erupted from the docks and when the view zooms back to loo kat it, it is empty and abandoned. The only telltale of the people once standing there being a broken crate by a staircase and several dropped or abandoned items, including a dropped sail on one of the merchant boats.

The sound echoed out once more. This time even close. And a dark shape could be seen moving through the mist. Slowly. Slowly.

Until the pitch-black frame of a large ship moved out of the mist like a wraith moving through the dense fog of a graveyard. Ponies and griffins backed away fearfully as the large vessel slowly moved closer until it reached an empty spot in the piers. And then there was a loud cranking sound, followed by the sound of falling chains and something big hitting water.

The anchor had been dropped. A landbridge slowly slid over the edge of the ship's side and slammed down with a loud thunk on the wooden docks. Pirates and merchants alike held their breath as they hid out of sight of the spooky ship. Waiting for its ghastly crew to disembark.

But instead of a crew, there was only the sound of a single person walking down the plank. Slowly and steadily. A tall dark figure could be seen walking down the landbridge, the dense fog shrouding their appearance.

Then, emerging out of the fog. Was a tall familiar-looking hippogriff, now dressed and armed. On his head is a red bandana wrapped around it, with a faded black tricorn hat on top of it. Both of the head accessories were complemented by the bead decorated braid draped over his forehead, as well as the regular braids, giving him a rather eccentric pirate look. His rear legs are dressed with long, hard-wearing linen trousers, ending with his bare hooves. A knotted striped-red sash is tied around his stomach.

Bellowing in the misty air is a long brown coat. Beneath it rests a faded blue waistcoat with a shorter lightly-colored back area and a torn white undershirt makes up the rest of the ensemble there.

Over the sash around his stomach is one belt with a sheathed saber. While across his barrel from shoulder to hip is a second belt, bearing several smaller bucklers and pouches, as well as a single holstered strange-looking hoof size crossbow without any bow part.

Taking a final step off the landbridge the hybrid grinned widely and took a deep breath of the harbour's morning air. Before letting it out slowly. Before breaking out into laughter.

"Ahahaha! Nothing like some fresh sea air to wake you up! Haha!" The cackling hippogriff said as he began to walk down the pier. The salty waves move beneath him as he walks over the wooden boards and looks around.

"Hmmm... not many out today. Quite strange. I would have liked to ask for directions." Another turn of his head and he finally spotted something in the distance down the center of the harbour.

"Oh! Of course! Where else would I go!? Hahaha, how foolish of me. Where else to get a crew but the haven of all denizens of the sea?" With a wicked glint in his eyes, he strode down the abandoned dock, his coat flapping in the misty wind, making him look like a dark phantom of a pirate.

Slowly he strode forward, each step of his hooves echoing through the docks until he slowly came upon a building made out of a boat frame. A sign in the shape of a barrel-shaped ship with the name 'The Sailing Keg'. "Ah, a sailor's home on the shore."

Raising a left hind leg the hippogriff kicked in the door with a loud crack and stepped into the suddenly silent tavern and with a talon on his tricorn hat, slightly tilting it. Causing his eyes to become shadowed.

"By me mother's dried up teats! Who are ye to kick down me door!?" An elderly horse with an eyepatch serving bottles and tankards behind the bar disk shouted with a glare at the figure walking inside.

Even with a beak, the grin could be seen growing on the hippogriff's cheeks and he made a slight bow to the tavern before standing. "Oh, my name? Why I am Wild Sparrow, Captain Wild Sparrow. Skuldugging, rum gargling, smog spitting, sword buckling, and seafaring pirate extraordinaire!"

"That still does not-" There was a sudden jerk of the now named pirate's left foreleg and a small pouch flew into an empty tankard.

The barkeep gently opened the bag and whatever he saw made him swiftly tie up the bag and put it aside. "Alright. Ye seem like yer marbles all cracked, but ye don't seem harmful."

A strange chuckle broke out from the stranger who looked over the still silent and tense tavern. Everybody could see the saber strapped to his side as well as what looked like some kind of bowless small crossbow in a holster on the other side. They did not know why but this strange mixture of griffin and pony felt wild and dangerous. "Hehehe wonderful! Now let me tell your wonderful customers about an offer of a lifetime!"

Wild Sparrow stood there, his wings unfurled, his talons spread out, the light of the open doorway behind him shadowing eyes but not the slightly made smirk on his face. And the entire tavern felt a slight chill fill their spine at the sight, and some even jolted, as he spoke up, his voice echoing through the Sailing Keg. "How would you lads and lasses feel like earning a spot among legends? Are you swashbuckling buccaneers? Savvy sword-swinging and rope climbing seadogs? Do you desire wealth? To experience a grand adventure? To feel real freedom? And enjoy exquisite food and rum? Then come with me and experience the voyage of a lifetime."

Flipping a solid gold coin to the barkeep the smarmy bird horse grabbed a tankard of rum and holds it up for the tavern to see. "The offer to join my crew stands until dawn. And if you are not there by then? Then better luck next time."

Downing the tankard in a single gulp the hippogriff then let out a low rumbling burp, and the bar froze when his eyes began to glow blue and arcs of lightning flew out of talons and hooves for a few seconds. With a smirking face and still glowing eyes, Wild Sparrow drops the tankard onto the floor and turns around, and exits the tavern. "I hope to see you on the Black Pearl soon. Savvy."

There was total silence well past the point when Wild Sparrow's steps disappeared. And nobody seemed to be even breathing.

Then someone in the back of the room nervously asked out loud. "...Is it wrong to admit that, that turned me on?"

There was a moment of silence before everybody shook their heads.

"No." "Nope." "Nothing wrong there." "I want to lick his beak." "Don't see the issue." "I feel the same." "Can't blame ya."

[Scene Skip]

"Hello there you guys. How've you been?" The bedridden foal commented with a grin on his face at his visitor.

"We should be the ones asking you that." Grand Music stated as he levitated the bouquet of flowers into a nearby vase by the window.

Happy Meal nodded with a grin as she reached over and rubbed the foal's head with a wide grin. "Yeah! We're not da ones whose stuck in bed after being toasted by magic ye know."

"Happy Meal! No need to be rude!" With a powerful glare and a stern voice only a mother could make, the matriarch of the Feast and Grand Clan scolded her oldest. Placing a round cloth-wrapped package, that smelt of raspberries, on the nightstand next to the bed.

The tough mare, easily twice her mother's size and dressed in full plate armour, folded her ears and lowered her head and murmured out an apology to her mother. "Sorry Mama..."

Ciaphas chuckled a bit at the sight as he laid there. "Hehehe, always a riot to see you guys. How are the kids?"

Grand Music's horn began to glow as he telekinetically griped the foal and gently lifted his head off his pillow, so it could be removed and replaced with a freshly cleaned one. All the while smiling and talking. "Cutie Pie, Twinkle Twinkle, and Grand Symphony are all at the Temple of Law being given their daily lessons. With the city as it is was, it decided to hold the majority of the classes for the foals in the temple until things become more stable."

Gently lowering the foal's head down onto the pillow Grand Music pulled open the curtains to let in some sunlight into the room. The open window gave a clear sight towards the foal mountains, where dark storm clouds could be seen over the peaks. "The army and the knightly orders are doing their best to keep the order in the country for the moment. There is still a lot of damages, dead and injured. Thankfully are there no sign of another invasion wave from the griffins, and that storm in the mountains will hopefully give any sky-bound invaders second thoughts. But that's no reason for us to slack off."

Chuckling slightly the young horse sage shifted his neck side to side, popping some bones into proper place as he did so. "Great. Speaking of schoolwork. Did you happen to see Holy Preacher on your way in?"

"Yes, she was getting some notebooks fer ya." Grand Feast said with a kind smile as she was untying the wrapped-up package, revealing a slightly steaming raspberry pie. A low growl comes from Ciaphas belly but he doesn't as much as a blush as he simply drools at the smell and sight of the pie.

"Wonderful. At least I will be able to do some light work while resting." At those words, the three ponies looked at each other in concern.

"Are you certain Decade's Gain? Your body is very weak at the moment." Grand Music stated while his wife and stepmother started cutting up the pie and putting pieces on some small wooden plates.

With a saucy smirk, the foal lifted his left hoof and suddenly one of the plates levitated off the nightstand and into his hoof. "Oh please, I might be inconvenienced for a short while but I am by no means out of action just yet. Maleficus made me to last and I will recover soon."

"Ye still should be careful there little one. Eat good and rest good, that is what mama always says when any of us get sick." Happy Meal said with a grin as the foal began to eat the pie, her own muzzle stained with raspberry pie as she had eaten it in an instance.

But Grand Feast was not amused by this display. "Happy Meal, what have Ah told ye about making a mess!?"

"Sorry Mama!" And laughter filled the room as the fuzzy mare began to dot on her adult daughter, cleaning her stained muzzle with a towel.

[Scene Skip]

Within the basement of the Sleepy Egg tavern in Eggstone was a certain group of griffins meeting once more. Their expressions serious and their eyes were tired.

"We cannot use the mines to hide my fellow slummers. Not like the nobles intend to do. If we sealed off the rest of the mine and kept the main tunnel open for air, and not forcing them to work in the dangerous mines, they could have used it. But to utilize all slummers as a slave workforce in an air depleted area is not going to help anyone." The well-connected slave was a bit different than the last time he was in the room. His left hindleg was in a splint and the left side of his head was wrapped in bandages.

"Indeed. We cannot let those fools do this. And with the King just frolicking in his castle things are not going to get better soon. It is only thanks to the ponies having a sudden collapse yesterday that we haven't been attacked yet."

"Is everything in place?" The hooded assassin asked the twin smugglers. His robes and hood were slightly torn, revealing some black panther-like fur on his hind legs.

"Yes/Yes." The twins said without hesitation. And one of them unfolded a scrolled up document before placing it on the table for the rest to read.

Each member of the group read the document before handing it over to the others. After about ten minutes had everybody by the table read the paper and there were grim looks on their faces, even more so than when they first entered the basement.

"Weapons, armour, food, medicine, and anything else we could scurry away. This is as prepared as we can get with the city in the state it is now. How prepared are we?" The trader asked the others, his clean clothes dirty, and his feathers unkept from a lack of time and supplies.

The finely dressed officer and noble sighed as he rubbed his head while gingerly rubbing the pommel of his saber. "The troops on our side have received their orders. And several nobles and even a few lords, have given our support, while many have stated to remain neutral."

"A large portion of the city guards have joined our side as well. And are more than willing to desert their posts to the invaders if needed." The guard stated as he rubbed his dirty helmet clean with a rag.

The three griffin hens looked at each other before one of them placed a blank parchment on the table and spoke out to the group. They all had work to do. "Then we better plan accordingly to what we can do. After all, we have ears and eyes in the fortress and castle. But that doesn't help us in handling the invaders. We need contingency plans so we know what to do if the ponies and horses prove to be hostile, friendly, or neutral to us."

And so discussions broke out among the rebels as they began to plan the final steps of the first part of their revolution. Unknowing about the death and destruction about to be spilled upon Gryphon soon.

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 20/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 11 Days]

Deep within the Foal Mountains is one of the ground side settlements of the Horadrim Kingdom, a small town by the name of Maneflow. Located near a large waterfall and lake that split out into several smaller streams. It is one of the highest settlements within the region and is a large outpost for prospectors of both Equestria and the Horadrim Kingdom searching for valuable resources within the harder to reach places of the mountains.

One of these prospector groups was currently moving along a small overgrown path. The leader of the group was a hardened war veteran Spartan by the name of Theleus, also known as Bronze Helm. Following him were twenty others.

Two prospectors, one from Horadrim and one from Equestria. Two scholars from Equestria acting as record keepers and sample takers. Four local ponies whose families have traveled the mountains for generations, their duties were to act as guides, assistants, hunters, and scouts. Five carriers, all of them horses, were carrying the packs for the group. A single priest of the Old Religion who wanted to investigate ancient ruins for lost religious knowledge. And finally, there were six guards directly under his command who would keep the group safe from monsters, beasts, diamond dogs, bandits, and so on.

The group had just left the town a few hours ago to investigate one of the unexplored regions. But only after a few hours there was a low whistle from up ahead and Theleus walked up to investigate. He came up to see one of the locals, the one who was designated as the group scout, sitting behind a boulder and looking up over it towards the path leading up towards a ledge on a higher part of the mountain up ahead.

"What is it?" He asked the pony, who raised a hoof to signal he needed silence to concentrate.

After a few moments, the pony lowered the hoof and hummed to himself before speaking. "Hmmm... there's something moving up ahead. Moving down the mountain path along the ledge."

Raising an eyebrow the spartan spoke up in a curious voice. "What does it look like? Manticore? Mountain lion? Goats?"

The pony looked over the boulder again and after another few moments lowered himself down again and shook his head at that. But Theleus would probably have preferred the monsters and beasts to what he heard next. "No... Diamond dogs. Large group, easily fifty of them. Probably more."

Nodding Theleus looked towards the rest of the group standing ten or so meters back and began to give out orders to prepare for the oncoming danger. "Alright, all of you get into cover, I and the guards will prepare an ambush fo-"

But his commands were broken when a loud voice suddenly shouted out in broken equine words. "Stop! Stop! We no want to fight!"

Blinking the ponies and horses looked at each other in confusion. Then they looked towards the path up ahead and saw an elderly looking diamond dog dressed in leather and bone waving a brown stained rag on a stick.

"That's new. Normally those things are hostile or flee whenever they see any of our kinds." The local pony muttered. And Theleus couldn't help but agree, something was off for even the aggressive diamond dogs to not want to fight, or flee.

Stepping out from behind the rock the spartan stood tall and shouted back at the elderly looking diamond dog. "Why are you here, what do you want!?"

The response he got was a set of panicked and downright terrified words rambled out which echoed over the mountains. "Running! Sprinting! Fleeing! We want to escape twisted darkness!"

Theleus got a very uncomfortable feeling as he was starting to sense a theme of what was going on. And his creator's memories did not help in the slightest in making him feel at ease about it. "What are you yapping about!?"

Another shout of fearful words and panicked yapping echoed out over the mountains. But Theleus could hear everything clearly, and it was making him mighty uncomfortable. "Danger in mountains! Twisted! Wrong! Bad! Evil! It sickens the air and earth! Frighten beast and diamond dogs alike! Ponies and horsies should flee too!"

The ponies and horses looked at the terrified expression on the diamond dog's face, and the similar looks on the faces of the group behind him. They then looked at each other for a moment. And then the young priest in the group muttered. "That would explain the uneasy feeling I've been having since I did not get a response from my morning prayer..."

And that made Theleus' decision rather easy all things considered. He just hopes it wasn't one of those, no matter what you pick it would still end badly for you anyway, decisions. "Okay. You may come with us to the town. We shall go with you, as to make sure nothing bad happens when you reach the town. After that, we will send words to other towns and villages."

The diamond dog elder bowed to the group, even going down on its knees as to bow done its head into the dirt road. and the ponies and horses all felt uncomfortable at the sight of the group of diamond dogs behind the elder. Young, wounded, sickly, and elderly. These were refugees from a bad fight. "Thank you! No one safe! All must escape mountain! Escape the badness!"

Not eager to listen to more panicked shouting from the frantic elder Theleus turned around and shouted out, waving his head for the diamond dogs to follow. "I get it! Let's go before your shouting attracts that badness of yours."

Thankfully those words caused the panicked elder to shut up and there was a stiff and morbid silence between the dogs, ponies, and horses as the expedition ended its track into the mountains rather early.

It would take a few hours to get back to the walled town of Maneflow. And Theleus would have to have word with the mayor about getting in contact with the nearby settlements. If what the diamond dogs said was true. Then something was seriously wrong in the Foal Mountains. And the rest of the kingdom would have to be warned swiftly.

The problem was that there were no Comm Orbs in the settlement and the Skyfleet only arrived once every week, and it had only been two days since their last visit. So they would have to send messengers to spread the news.

[Scene Skip]

Deep within the center of a certain crater is a glowing pentagram filled up and emitting a swirling mass of dark clouds into the sky. A deep vibrating chant is echoing out over the peak as hundreds of robed cultists are dancing around on the massive glowing mark.

[Play your choice of Gangnam Style MLP video here. I am not adding a link.]

[A/N: I am just going to be honest here. I hate Gangnam Style. It is one of the most infuriatingly annoying songs and the most irritating dance style I have ever seen and heard. So Please. If you want to listen to the song that these cultists are chanting in the name of Discord for several days without pause? Just google Gangnam Style MLP and you got yourself more than enough material to torture yourself with.]

At random a single cultist suddenly collapses, their robed body falling to the ground like a feather. Before suddenly the robe twists and bulges before tearing apart as a twisted mutant in the shape of a three-headed hippogriff with chicken heads, chicken wings, breathing fire, and a tail like a scorpion.

The mutant is quickly tied up with glowing black rope and dragged into a large chicken coop. Were dozens of more mutants of pony and chicken mixture stands pecking the dirt or eating the grass.

At the epic center of the grand ritual stands the head cultist, his twisted three-eyed head cackling in madness as he sings out the chants to the Lord of Chaos. His shape is obscured by the black swirling mass of clouds rising up from the point he is standing but he is not affected by it, his voice echoing out over the pit along with his followers.

Grass begins to curl and twists, turning into flesh, rock, or sugar canes. The mountains around begin to shift and alter themselves. Avalanches of ice cream flow down one mountain. A rain of salt hits somewhere else. Neon pink lightning strikes a peak, making a tree bearing live bear cubs on its branches grow. Another mountain blows its top as an eruption of salted caramel popcorn and licorice spews out for a few moments before being replaced by green slime filled with snakes with five legs, each leg from a different animal.

All the while the cursed chant continues to echo through the mountain.

[Scene Skip]

Within the walls of Eggstone there is a large open space by the eastern wall right next to the tunnel to the Thunder Mountain mines. It is the area where the freshly produced ore, glass, metal, and artifacts made from thunder stone were delivered out of the tunnel.

No one among the commoners or even the low ranking soldiers know where the thunderstone gets refined, they only know that it is somewhere near the thunderstone mines and its tunnel. Normally the square would be a high activity of workers and wagons. But at the midday hour, there was no such activity.

Instead, there was a massive gathering of what could only be described as the poor and homeless of the city being guided by rows of soldiers into the open tunnel. All of the griffins were nervous and looking around nervously. They were those who lived in the slums along the city walls where the ponies were laying siege. From crippled slaves to poor peddlers, they were all located within this mass of griffins.

The large gates leading into the underground tunnel was open and the slum dwellers were not eager to get inside- They knew of the horrors of the mines, the lethal accidents, the lack of pairs, the explosions, and so forth. But with armed troops setting up barricades and aiming crossbows at them there was little to do but obey.

And so they slowly marched in, while several officers flew above them with troops. One of the officers pointed at one who looked like they were about to run out of the line. "Get in line! Or we will shoot you! You will all enter the mines soon enough! One way or the other!"

Those words did little to calm the peasants down and the atmosphere of the tunnel was growing tense. But soon had over two hundred griffins been pushed into the first segment of the tunnel.

The officer who had shouted landed by the gate and untapped a bronze pipe leading to the other end, and spoke into it. "The first group of kiwis is ready! Open the gates!"

After a minute there was a loud clanking sound from behind the thick bronze gates. Dust and small rocks erupt from the joints and gears as the large gate splits apart in the center and slides into the walls. Revealing a deeper section of the tunnel which leads to another gate further down. Behind the gates can eight griffins be seen rotating a large wheel to pull the door open.

As the crowd begins to enter the space the eight griffins pulling the wheel stops moving, leaving the doorway halfway open. At first, this didn't seem suspicious to the officer as he flies in with his troops. He lands on a catwalk and peers down at the crowd as they move into the deeper tunnel to make sure there's no suspicious activity among the crowd.

He crooks a brow when he notices something strange about the crowd. There are mostly elderly, young, and sickly griffins moving into the tunnel. There's barely any young adults or adults in the crowd. He peers down the slowly emptying tunnel and notices that most of the younger griffins are keeping behind, letting the weaker go first.

The officers gets an uneasy feeling and peers around the tunnel to see if there's something odd going on. He then sees a large collection of crates and barrels piled up near the other end of the tunnel. He turns to one of the soldiers next to him and asks for clarifications. "What are those barrels and crates doing by the gate soldier?"

"We got them delivered to us last evening, sir! We were told they were part of a special delivery, sir! They have the royal mark stamped on them, sir!" The soldier shouted out loud and clearly while saluting the officer. Unnoticed by the officers is he slowly being surrounded by soldiers and guards.

Scratching his chin the officer hummed softly to himself, trying to figure out where those supplies were going. Before coming to the logical solution. Seeing as he had at least high enough clearance to know that the Artificers did receive supply deliveries directly from the crown. "Hmmm... must be for the Artificers. Well, nothing to it then. Send words to have the next group enter the tunnel and then start filtering them down into the next section and repeat until they reach the mine."

The saluting soldier nods and speaks out. "As you say... sir."

At the momentary pause in the soldier's voice, the officer looks at him with a raised brow. "What's with the- GHARFGHHGGHHHHGH!" Only to be silenced as a pair of talons grabs hold of him from behind, one of them stabbing a dagger into his neck, before slicing up his throat in a spray of blood and gore.

The soldier who stabbed his own superior from behind pushes the corpse off the catwalk. There's a loud sound of gasps and some screams for a moment before the entire tunnel turns eerie silent.

Then a griffin walks out onto the catwalk from a shadowy doorway leading into the barracks in the tunnel. It is the wounded slave leader, next to him is the noble and the crow assassin. As the three revolutionaries stand there the crowd looks u pat them in concern, awe, fear, and wonder.

And then the slave leader speaks up. His voice is tired and hollow. "Listen to me, my fellows. We have all suffered for years ever since King Craver took control. It was not perfect, but slavery was not a thing in this proud nation until the coup. Many noble and common families were ruined, captured, tortured, and destroyed. Thousands of innocents turned to the chains or the chopping block. And not to mention the untold amount of chicks and eggs eaten by our so-called king."

Murmurs begin to fill the tunnel and it spreads out from the tunnel and towards the crown outside of the tunnel. Many soldiers and guards are asking outside for orders or clarifications while nobles and officers are all screaming out a mixed mass of orders to the soldiers. To either hold, attack, kill, and so on.

It was an unorganized mess. A mess that the revolutionaries would take advantage of. And like the slave leader, stepping forth next is the noble, no longer bearing his officer's uniform, but the old noble garments from before King Craver. A buttoned navy blue coat with a golden chain bearing the achievements of his family, and a fine golden eagle decorating his shoulders.

And when he speaks out to the crowd, his voice full of passion and anger. "Well, this is where it ends. No matter our ranks, no matter or upbringing, no matter our professions, we are all griffins. If I had been old enough I would have stood up to stop the coup, but my father did nothing! I'd rather have died than serve a butcher! We do not deserve a king who would rather eat us then lead us! So today, we say no! Not as peasants! Not as nobles! But as Griffins! Today we say no! Today we say enough! Today! We! Say! It! Ends!"

The crowd joins in the noble's anger. With many years of persecution over them is it hard to not feel anger. And to see and hear a noble speak out for them, and against the king, felt exhilarating.

And then, the crow steps forth. Even as the crowd gets riled up and begins to chant out together. The assassin holds up a talon and points towards the open gates, where out of the glimpse of light, every griffin can see the dark shape of the fortress Stonenest. And he speaks out a single clear line, that reverbs in the hearts of the crowd.

"Down with the King."

[Start Emotional Music: Les Miserables Live- Do You Hear the People Sing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL8gH0yELbk

[Disclaimer: I do not own this music nor the video, please support the official release.]

A/N: Slightly Altered Lyrics by Staadnauthursil.

Outside of the tunnel, there is a moment of silence before slowly the crowd begins to chant out together.

"Down with the King!"

As the crowd begins to chant this out the soldiers and city guards draw their weapons as many of the crowd begin to raised their talons to the sky and scream out together in a mass of rage and hysteria.

"Down with the King!"

Near one of the barricades closest to the gates to the tunnel, a city guard officer bearing an armband turns towards his troops and whistles to them. As one the guards rush away from their barricade and into a nearby supply tent. Out of the guards pulls out two wagons bearing crates and bundles of weapons.

as the crowd's chanting distracts the loyal troops are the majority of the troops around the barricades pulling out hidden reserves of weapon and armour and pushing them into the crowd, and begins to hand out weapons. Out from the center of the crowd stands a single officer, waving a crimson flag bearing a golden eagle, the old flag of the nation before the coup.

And as weapons and armours were being spread out to the lowest of commoners of Eggstone, a deep reverbing music begins to fil lthe air as street performers, military musicians, and orchestra members, pulls out instruments and begins to play music.

And soon, the entire crowd, begins, to sing.

"Do you hear the griffins sing?"

"Singing the song of angry hens."

"It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again!"

"When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums."

"There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes!"

"Soldiers! Prepare to fire!" An officer screams out to his soldiers by the second line of barricades, as he can see how the majority of the first line of barricades had essentially just rebelled and joined the crowd of peasants. His group of twenty crossbow wielding soldiers aimed over the barricade and at the crowd.

As they did this was another group of soldiers, these ones flying, given different orders by their officer. The officer in question drew and pointed his traditional claymore at the group of soldiers aiming at the crowd. "Troops! Take out the loyalists!"

"Will you join in our crusade?"

"Who will be strong and stand with me?"

"Beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?"

"Then join in the fight."

"That will give you the right to be free!"

The crowd begins to move forward, their marching paws and talons stomping the cobblestone of the city streets in a steady rhythm while flags were being waved. Spears, claymores, crossbows, swords, axes, javelins, and pitchforks being held high by the invigorated commoners.

A brave group of city guards held their spears ready, quivering at the sight as the rebels started flying and climbing over the first line of barricades. The few loyal troops o the first barricade easily tackled down and torn to shreds by the angry mob. They looked at each other nervously, their officer screaming at them to prepare to kill the rebels.

But the guards suddenly turned around and stabbed their weapons into their officer. They bore no armbands, but they were just as eager as the crowd for the madness to end. And as the crowd marches on, leaving the shaken guards alone, a few rebel soldiers offer the shaken guards armbands, which they slowly put on.

"Do you hear the griffins sing?"

"Singing the song of angry hens."

"It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again!"

"When the beating of you heart."

"Echoes the beating of the drums."

"There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes!"

Fights break out in the sky above the crowd as loyal and revolution troops attack one another. Soon bodies of griffins, rebels, and royals alike, fall to the ground. Some hitting those marching on the streets while others hit buildings, streets or barricades.

"Will you give all you can give so that our banner may advance?

"Some will fall and some will live

"Will you stand up and take a stand?

"The blood of the martyrs will water the valleys of our land!

A section of the marching crowd charges at a column of marching city guards. The city guard captain leading the large group of guards points his saber forward and screams out for his group to enter formation. "Prepare for combat! Enter spike formation!" The first row hunches down, aiming their spears in an upward angle, the second row of spreads only kneels down and holds their spears straight, while the second stand straight and aim their spears upwards against any incoming flyings, while the other five ranks behind holding their spears upwards, for anyone seeking to attack from above.

It was a tense moment, the charging peasant moving at the formation still holding together at the tight bottleneck of the city streets. Then over ten griffin rebels impact the spear wall and are impaled by the weapons. Some don't die instantly and stabs the guards they can reach before expiring. Then the second wave of attackers hit and take down the first row before dying. And soon the guards have to retreat as the mob starts to overcome their formation, even after losing over thirty rebels to the spike formation.

The singing still echoing over the streets and through the city.

"Do you hear the griffins sing?"

"Singing the song of angry hens?"

"It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again!"

"When the beating of your heart."

"Echoes the beating of the drums."

"There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes!"

A rebel runs towards a line of barricades between two houses and throws a bottle with a burning rag. It strikes the barricades and puts it aflame. The single rebel is shoot down by five crossbow bolts before he can see his attack take out the barricade and the soldiers behind it.

A wave of loyal soldiers flies over the crowd and throws down rocks, spears, and axes. Even though the song can the screams of dying or wounded be heard. Then several crossbow bolts are shoot out from random spots of the large mob. A griffin gets shoot through the throat and falls. While several others are either mowed down or flees.

By now has the battles started to spread even further. And the soldiers and guards of the city have to speed make barricades to hold off the revolutionaries.

"Do you hear the griffins sing?"

"Lost in the valley of the night!"

"It is the music of those who are reaching to the light!"

"For the wretched of the world!"

"There is a flame that never dies!"

"Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise!"

[End Emotional Music]

"Down with the King!"

The crowd has splintered up now and floods the streets of the eastern section of the city. Lines of barricades, pushed over carts, and piled up rocks, blocking their paths.

"Death to the tyrant!"

A lone griffin soldier drew his claymore and readied to swing it at the closest rebel attacking his barracks. Before suddenly swing around at his commanding officer, screaming out as his blade cut off the officer's head, spraying blood over himself and those around him. "Saoirse do Chách!"

Several other soldiers and even some officers also broke from their barricades. An entire unit just abandoned their positions and attacked another group from the side as the charging peasants got closer. And then, as swords and bolts flew between fellow soldiers, the wave struck the barricades.

A shower of splinters, clouds of dust, and screaming griffins emerged through the evening rain as the rebels broke down the last piece of resistance within the eastern district. A red flag bearing a golden eagle flying with spread wings being waved in the rear.

And soon the voices of anarchy, freedom, vengeance, rage, and desperation spread out and signaled the start of a hellish fight between the rebels and the crown's servants.

Total chaos was erupting throughout Eggstone. The wave of charging rebels struck the unprepared and sabotaged soldiers, breaching the defences and spreading out like a swarm of angry locusts into the open streets. Even with so many barricades and loyal troops was the number of peasants fighting making it difficult to hold them back.

Not all of the hidden rebels acted upon the orders, they had been told to keep their heads low as to not draw attention. For the leaders of the rebellion knew that it would not to do overplay themselves so early on.

[Scene Skip]

As the rain kept falling was the war camp of the UEF preparing for their first attack upon the city walls. It had been slowed down immensely because of the recent happenstance, but now things were progressing in order.

Princess Celestia was in a private talk with General Rough Stock and Thunder Hammer in her personal tent when a mare pegasus messenger comes running in. All wet and dirty from the wet weather. "Princess! Reports from the skyships about the situation within the city!"

The alicorn of the sun waved at the messenger to give her report. "What doest they wish to tell Us?"`

After gathering her breath the peagaus messenger spoke up the information she had received to the leaders of the UEF. "There are signs of infighting going on within the city itself! By the eastern wall, there are columns of smokes and a large gathering of guards and soldiers fighting what looks like rebelling civilians, guards, and rebels!"

"Thank you for the report las, go clean up and get some rest." Rough Stock said to the messenger who saluted them all before leaving the tent.

Celestia looked at the others and asked the opinion o the matter. Her bad mood from the past few days more soothed from the lack of incidents. "Hmmmm... What do you think gentle colts?"

Thunder Hammer hums a bit before sipping some mead from his personal flask. He then points at the city walls through the open flap of the tent. "We are not yet prepared for invading the city so this revolution might be a boon or a curse depending on how things go. But this does give us a chance to improve our plans. IF we can send support to those within the city causing problems, then we will have far less organized defences to handle."

General Rough Stock hums while taking a sip from his cup of coffee, a brew he had gotten a liking to ever since being offered a taste by a visiting zebra merchant. Then he taps his helmet a bit in thought before speaking up. "Indeed. By supporting those fighting against the King we might even be able to obtain a peaceful resolution by having these revolutionaries give us the King if they manage to usurp him. Or killing him before we can reach him."

Rolling her eyes at their choice of beverage Celestia walks over to her desk, pulls out a flask of apple juice from her nearby cabinet, and drains half of it in a few gulps. Putting down the bottle on her desk she begins to write down possible ideas on how to utilize the revolution. "Very well. But let us not put all our apples in one basket. We need intel on the factions within the city, and for that, we need to get someone inside the city."

General Rough Stock nods at that before speaking up, having gotten an idea already. "I might have a solution."

"What would that be?" Thunder Hammer asks as he munches on one of the cupcakes left on the silver tray on the dining table he and Rough Stock were sitting next to.

He reaches into a small pouch on his side and pulls out a badge for the Wonderbolt Squads and flips it in his hoof. "Have a squad of wonderbolts sneak in at night. Dress them in all black and have them be as stealthy as possible. They are our fastest and most skilled scouts. Not sure how well they are at stealth but they are excellent flyers."

Thunder Hammer nods at this, it is a solid idea. But he feels like it is not counting for all the options. "That's not a bad idea. But I'd like it if I could have some horse units sneak in as well."

"Which units of thy army would thou recommend Lord Thunder Hammer?" Celestia asked as she wrote down the suggestions so far.

Sipping his mead a bit the warlord thinks before counting up the different stealth units his kingdom has available. "From the samurai, I'd recommend the shinobi, they are some of the stealthiest all around warriors of horse kind. Then there's the rangers and peacekeepers of the knights, both of them are good at stealth but focuses on either ranged or close combat. Of my kind are the Valkyries the stealthiest, though most vikings know how to be stealthy if we need to be are they the best with their light gear. While the spartans have the hetairoi, also known as companions, stealthy fighters who utilize lance-like spears, javelins, and curved blades."

"How many do you think would be needed?" Rough Stock asks as he sips his coffee some more, eying his half-eaten muffin and pondering how in Tartarus someone had managed to make a hay-based creme filling.

Sighing a bit Thunder Hammer thinks. He did not like to admit it but even with how his creator had made all horses and given them equal knowledge, was it not easy for the different tribes to work together as their training didn't mix well all the time. "I'd say two of each type. Group them up together is for the best as even though we are part of the same nation are most of our different units not used to working with the other tribes. So it is for the best to keep those familiar with one another together."

Rough Stock blinks as he took note that while Thunder Hammer had spoken of the different tribes of the ancient horses. He had not spoken of the Horadrim clan and their forces. "Doest the Horadrim sages not have stealth units?"

"No, they only have one set of warriors and those are the Svaldirfaris. They are capable of enacting all manner of warfare, they can fulfill any role and have excellent magical prowls. But they are not stealth experts and thus not suited for stealth missions. Especially not with the artifacts making it impossible to use scrying magic." Thunder Hammer stated without a hint of shame or worry. It was just as it was.

Celestia rereads her note before nodding and speaks out to the two military leaders. "Very well. We shall have one squad of six wonderbolts act as the aerial infiltrators. And on the ground side, we shall have two of each type of stealth specialist utilized by the Horadrim Kingdom to infiltrate from there. Any opposition to Our command?" At the query Rough Stock and Thunder Hammer shook their heads silently. It was a good and clear plan with what they had available.

"Excellent, We shall have the plan enacted post haste." And so the first, unofficial, stage of the siege of Eggstone begins.

[Scene Skip]

Directly south of Eggstone was a trade route used by private and crown owned airships to transport goods from the various towns and settlements near the southern border by the Dragon Lands, and the southeastern border by the Grand Desert. The woodlands and trade industry there was what supplied the majority of Eggstone.

And currently was there a big call for supply runs to send supplies to the capital, a lot of prestige and money to be granted to those who succeeded in delivering their cargo. Not only the navy but also the private traders were eager to get some of those rewards, even if it meant risking ship and cargo.

One group of three supply ships were acting as supply convoys was on a single route heading towards the capital utilizing the clouds as cover to later send down supplies with parachutes to the capital. These three ships were all under the command of a single captain as the other two ships were more or less floating cargo balloons being pulled by the large frigate leading the way.

Captain Thelek was a proud member of the Royal Navy, having served on the STA (STA = Supply & Transport Airship) Golden Egg for ten years. He had been the captain of the old girl for four of those years. He was not a battle-hardened veteran, instead, his work was to send supplies. And he had many years of experience doing just that.

And with the prestige he and his crew were about to earn by sending down over a hundred tons worth of supplies to the capital in a day or so, he was more than happy to not be a combatant. As rumours were flying around that the King was not pleased with how the Royal Navy had handled things at the failed raid of Equestria and the Horadrim Kingdom, nor how they failed to spot or hold off the current invasion.

Looking through his spyglass he looked out over the fading evening sun, the clouds below his ship covering his ship and cargo from sight below. "Looks like another calm night. How are things with the crew first mate?"

His first mate was a promising young recruit who had been an active member of a sea ship for over four years and was an experienced airship sailor who joined the Royal Navy last year. "The crew are slightly nervous about the supply drop. But then again, most of the mare former sea sailors and thus feel more afraid of pirates than they do the strange cloud ships of the invaders."

"Well, we are hardly going to see any pirates up here."

A sleepy crewmember on watch duty nearby jolted awake and almost drew his claymore as he looked around frantically. "Pirates? Where? Should we raise the alarm?"

Captain Thelek mentally cursed the eccentric behavior of seaside sailors and shouted at the fool. "No, you dolt! I said we're hardly going to see any pirates up here. By the King's beak, you cannot really think pirates smart enough to get hold of or even use an airship do you?"

The crewmember blushed and looked down in shame. While the first mate snorted in amusement at the sheer concepts of pirates even getting into the air. The technology of airships and skyships was so secret and guarded that one had to steal a ship to even get a hold of one, let alone use it. "I hardly think pirates can even get hold of a flying ship, let alone use it."

From behind the first mate and the captain, another voice spoke up. Its tone was calm and amused as if enjoying an inside joke. "Oh, I don't know about that mate. I'd say pirates can be pretty savvy when we want to."

Snorting Captain Thelek made a dismissive wave as he pulled up his spyglass again and looked out over the horizon."Oh please. Even if for some miraculous reason pirates get into the skies then they still cannot handle the might of the Royal Navy. The day pirates manage to lay claim on my ship is the day I eat my hat."

"Well, funny thing about that mate. Never make promises you don't intend to keep." There was a loud thump from all around him and he blinked a bit before pulling back his spyglass and looked over his shoulder. And grew pale.

A wickedly grinning and strange-looking griffin was staring at the captain, holding a sharp saber blade against his throat, while all over the deck were the tied up forms of the crew being carried out of the lower decks by a bunch of pirates. Ponies, griffins, and even a few diamond dogs. "Good evening mateys, I am Captain Wild Sparrow and I and my crew will be your pirates for the week mate. So I will be obliged to ask you to give up your cargo in a peaceful transaction of no payment costs or toll taxes, and still keep your ship. Or give it up in a violent corporate takeover that will cost you your cargo, your ship, and your life. What do you pick lads?"

The captain looked around, looked at his second in command. Before groaning out in frustration before untying his belt and dropping his sword on the deck as his first made did the same. "Oh pluck me..."

Tooting at the foul language Wild Sparrow berated the officer. "Now, now mate. No need for such bad language. Save it for the privy."

Thelek was momentarily confused before the smirking pirate slowly used the tip of his saber to poke the large officer's hat on his head. "What do you meaannn... oh no...."

Wild sparrow just kept grinding widely, his crew mimicking it at the sight of the uncomfortable airship captain who would be regretting his words a few moments earlier. "Oh yes. I am sure we can cook up that fine hat of yours and serve it with some fine gravy to get it properly digested. Wouldn't want to back out on your word now because of indigestion now would we mate?"

Captain Thele's first mate made a grumbling growl in the background at the sight of his captain being humiliated, cursing in a rather poetic fashion while some pirates tie up his wings and forelegs. "Grrrmmmmbh... lousy lice laced low life larcenists."

Wild Sparrow just laughed and patted the tied-up griffin on the side, knocking him on his side, and began to lead the disgruntled captain towards the lower decks. The rest of the pirates laughing and jeering as well. "Nice alliteration mate. But I'd save it for later when your captain gets out of the privy."

The first mate's eyes widened as he watched Wild Sparrow walk away, seeing the horse legs and hooves on his rear body. And the thought of a hybrid of horse and griffin made his worldview crash rather exceptionally.

And so the first ship to fall to the Black Pearl was ransacked of all its wealth, provisions, and equipment, only leaving enough to keep the crew alive until they could get free from their bonds. Would not do to cause needless deaths, kind of hard being a pirate without someone to steal from.

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 21/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 10 Days]

Deep within the tunnels were the lesser citizens of Eggstone were being transported through there was a sealed off side passage behind a massive powerful doorway of reinforced iron mixed with thunderstone to make it stronger. Past the blue-tinted metal doors laid a long length circular-shaped tunnel the same size as the one leading to Thunder Mountain.

This massive twisting path goes straight northwards for several hundreds of meters and through three more massive metal doors. And behind the last doorway is a massive underground complex. The entire complex is built around a deep cylindrical shaped hole that goes straight down for over fifty meters. At the top is a large mechanical doorway of bronze, used only for airships or royal visits.

Along the walls are rooms carved out of the solid stone, over twenty floors go along the deep cylindrical hole and each floor has 5 to 10 rooms, each floor has a specific purpose. And all over the place can the white robed artificers be seen scouring around working with research, crafting, and so much more. Though many of them were wearing expressions of worry or panic.

At the bottom of the pit are two large doors on the western and southern parts. The southern leads to the refinery where thunderstone gets refined into glass, metal, and so on. But the northern doorway leads to the main testing chamber, where a large group of thirty artificers is working frantically to solve the issue they're having.

So busy in fact that they hadn't even noticed the lack of supplies being delivered to the facilities for the past couple of days, nor any news or requests. The artificers, even those on the upper levels, were so isolated that they didn't even know a civil war had broken out.

And in their panic, even as they tried again and again to device an external storage device for the Claws of Sorrow. They never saw the liquid slowly start to rise up the claws. Until finally one of the claws embedded into the skeletal husk of Maleficus Victoria, released a drop of liquid into the husk.

And then there was a soft shift in the husk. Before a low vibrating up began to emit from the glass, and a small almost unnoticeable clink could be heard, as a hair-fine crack appeared on the claw. And the husked form of Maleficus, began to swell up from the inside, a blue glow flowing out from the holes in his hide.

The artificers barely had time to spot the husk's swelling until it accelerated at massive speed and in a few seconds the husk of Maleficus swelled up like a grotesque balloon, blue tumors growing out of the leather hide. And then a loud crack emitted from the claws of sorrow, as the entire structure cracked. And shattered.

Screams of terror erupted from within the chamber but were swiftly silenced as the bloated up husk of Maleficus popped like a geyser. Thick slime-like, and glowing, blue liquid erupts from the incapacitated alicorn in waves.

It washed out over the safety zone and struck at the panicking artificers who tried to run away. But their protective gear slowed them down and they were covered in the goop. And with the goop sliding down the hole in their protective helms there was a moment of painful screams before said screams were strangled out as the griffins' bodies swelled up within the safety suit, their throats and heads squeezed within the suddenly too small helmets. Before they too popped, only in a far less impressive magnitude as Maleficus had.

Several griffins had flown off and tried to reach the exit when the screaming swelling bodies of their colleagues suddenly erupted into geysers of liquid mana as well. And then there was suddenly a secondary eruption from within the center of the flowing blue goop, as Maleficus' body again tried to regenerate and repeated the process all over again.

The artificers scratching at the doors screaming to be let out were swiftly silenced and popped like zits, as a wave of blue swallowed them up, breaking down their bodies into more tears of sorrow. And even as the last griffin was gone the chamber was still being filled, as the regenerating body of Maleficus kept trying to restore itself within the sea of liquid mana.

And slowly but surely the airtight chamber was slowly being filled up, the liquid rising and rising. And the doors leading to the chamber began to slightly groan and creak.

[To Be Continued]

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. I hope all of you are feeling well during this time of isolation and pandemic. Now as you all know, I have had a hard time working on my story for rather obvious reasons. Some of which I am very upset about because I cannot be part of it because of my current state of health. And yes, I probably should have made some regular update notes or blog posts but I have not been able to drag my sorry ass out of the dark pit of illness and self-pity to do so.

Pinkie: YOU'RE BEING A SAD PONY!? YOU NEED A GET-BETTER-WITH-SWEETS-&-HUGS-PARTY!!!

Staadnauthursil: Glad to see you too Pinkie. Anyhow. I apologize for my silence and lack of updates. But here it is, my latest work. It is not a big one, but I am trying to make smaller chapters so I can make them more frequent. Though with the Covid situation I am uncertain if it is going to be that effective, the isolation makes a mess of your sleeping habits.

Pinkie: Yay! More chapters!

Staadnauthursil: Well, I am not making any promises about my speed in making chapters. I have always been clear about that. But I can promise this. Just as I have told yakopak, who sent me pms asking about my chapter and my story. I AM NOT GOING TO ABANDON THIS STORY.

Pinkie: *Walks out onto a stage wearing sunglasses and rapper jewelry stating the name, Punky Pie* You all heard him! He's Not Dropping The Story! *Drops microphone on stage, pulls off sunglasses with her happy grin face on*

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Chapter Twenty-One: The Fall of Gryphon (Part 2) (Pre-Beta)

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Chapter Twenty-One: The Fall of Gryphon (Part 2) (Pre-Beta)

[Current Date: 21/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 10 Days]

A large explosion rocks the ruined streets and ruined buildings of the once glorious city of Eggstone. Hiding behind a large barricade of stone and sandbags was a group of griffin city guards and soldiers. Their faces are bloodied, some have cracks in their beaks and some are bandaged to cover up bleeding gashes.

"Hunker down! Lightning incoming!" A voice cried out and the guards quickly rolled whatever cover they could get beneath. Clutching their talons over their earholes, trying to keep their eardrums from popping.

From the fortifications of the large mountain fortress of Stonenest are bolts of lightning being fired down at the streets by the royal guard. Targeting large gatherings of rebels and civilians alike. After the disaster that started when many of the city's commoners started rebelling, the King's temper showed a whole new level.

He had personally executed the City Guard's Commander by having his wings plucked, cutting off his head, and then threw the body off the top of the royal castle, letting it splat across the ground in front of the main gate, and left the head mounted on a pike on the main square outside of the City Guard's HQ. The King's orders were clear and so was his warning.

"Cleanse this filth out of my city. Or your families will be invited for supper."

And so the desperate soldiers and guards still fighting for the King were acting out without regard to common decor or discipline. Artillery fire was being shot down upon the streets to quell the rebellion, collateral damage was a second thought for the poor sods.

A lone griffin soldier opens his eyes and looks out from beneath the tilted wall he had sought cover beneath as the lightning bombardment stops. Slowly climbing up from cover he looked out over the barricade, craters, burning buildings, and the bodies of dead, dying, or maimed griffins, rebels and loyalists alike, filled the street in front of the barricade.

Slowly slumping back against a large rock the exhausted guard leaned his head against the cool granite and looked up at the cloudy sky. Around him he could hear fighting still happening through the city, the screams of the wounded and the dying, the sorrowful cries of the mourning, all the while an army was besieging the city.

The ponies and horses had not let this opportunity go. They would periodically fire their siege engines at the walls, breaking apart repairs or destroying replaced lightning canons. Over two-thirds of the city, defenders were locked up in the city walls to try and keep the besiegers from getting in. Leaving those fighting against the rebels inside severely outnumbered.

Closing his eyes the young griffin looked over to his left, where the cooling corpse of one of his comrades lay. Their bodies were crushed by a large piece of the barricade that had tumbled over when the lightning struck. And as the blood began to stain the cobblestone of the streets red the young griffin looked up towards the large fortress of Eggstone, and his heart ached as he saw the gunnery holes along the fortress's external walls light up again, signaling another volley.

He barely had time to roll beneath his cover again as more sky plasma-based explosions began to flash out across the city. once more. Destroying more and more of the capital as the soldiers in the fortress tried desperately without firing discipline, to quell and destroy the rebellion. Only to increase the spirit of rebellion even further, as they kept stoking the fires with their indiscriminate bombardment.

And all the young griffin could do was quiver behind his small bit of cover while the city of his birth crashed and burned around him, by the orders of the king himself.

[Scene Skip]

By the eastern border of the Great Desert, there stands a large group of cliffs and hills. On top of one of these large hills among the dunes is the border town Shrill, which also acts as the frontier main headquarters of the conquest of the Grand Desert. But the most important thing about Shrill is that it is the third-largest trade town in all of Gryphon.

A large wall made of sand, water, mud, and straw surrounds a town filled with over five thousand griffins moving through streets between half-egg-shaped buildings and markets filled with market stands and tents. A second wall lies inside the town, made of carved-out granite from the old peak of the hill. Behind those walls stands a cylindrical tower-like fort that reaches over fifty meters into the sky. It is known as the Great Tower of Shrill, and it is the military and governmental HQ of the Gryphon Kingdom's eastern regions.

Trade and war are the biggest purposes of this town. Outside among the dunes can a large open field be seen where troops and airships are being trained and maintained. In the sky is a fleet of over fifty airships floating over the city, guarding the immediate areas above and around the town. But while the heavy military presence over the town could be seen as discouraging to trade had it not declined. Instead, it had actually increased.

The war made a large influx of trade for merchants intended to capitalize on the griffins' war efforts by selling medicine, weapons, armour, ammunition, food, water, and other necessities. Trains of trade caravans travel up the sand roads leading to the four large gates of the town daily, letting troops inspect their wares for spies or contraband before moving into the town.

But not all is well for the town. Currently, in the main room of the tower-like fort, there is a gathering of nobles, officers, and merchants discussing something rather serious. Something that had been bothering them lately.

"What happened to the ships we sent out!? The Capital has sent words that not all of our supply runs have made it and the King is furious at us!" A well-dressed and obese griffin screamed out in outrage as he slammed down his clenched talon on the large palm wood table inside the war room.

Shrill was unable to give aid to the Capital, with the current war effort and the King's orders to keep up with it, they were stuck with giving supplies to the starving city. They were one of the largest suppliers of goods to the Capital ever since the siege began, the southern and northern trade towns having to travel much further to reach the capital. The problem was that it was a risky thing to do and only a few ships could be spared to do the runs.

For over four days time had the town been sending supplies to the capital by airdrops. No real issues except for a few close calls. And yet had at least half of the ships they sent two days ago not returned. And, from what they could hear from their southern and northern colleagues, it was not an isolated case. Supply ships flying for the capital had been reported missing from all frontline bases and towns.

"Calm down Head Merchant. We're all in deep shit as it is. But thus far we have no real information." A well-decorated and slightly greying officer, a general, spoke up as he was looking over the large map on the table.

The head merchant glared at the general while the lower-ranking traders and officers traded tired looks. Having been forced to go through this several times.

A set of doors slammed open and a messenger came running in carrying a glowing artifact of communication. "Report! We have received news of the supply ships sent to Stonenest!"

"Finally! What do they have to say!?" The merchant screamed out, his bloodshot eyes glaring at the messenger who didn't even so much as flinch, having many years of experience giving messages in the military. A rich fat bird was not going to give him any pause.

The general didn't even look up from his map as he spoke up to the messenger. "Present the Vocal Artifact messenger."

"Sir." Laying down the glowing blue mirror the messenger backed away from the table.

After a few seconds, the general tapped the mirror with a talon, causing a dense and reverbing echo to chime from the surface. He then speaks towards the active artifact. "Officer, present yourself and report your findings."

The surface ripples like water as a male voice echoes out from the shimmering surface. "This is Captain Harthan, I am reporting the discovery of one of the transport ships, the STA Golden Egg. The crew is alive but hungry and sore, having been tied up in the cargo hold. Not to mention the Captain of the vessel was tied up in his personal latrine sitting over an overflowing potty."

There was a bit of a pause as merchants and officers wrinkled their faces and shuddered in disgust at such a nasty treatment. Even the general had to suppress a shiver at the description. "Urgh. Were they attacked by the equines? Or possibly a mutiny?"

His guesses however were proven wrong by the response from Captain Harthan. "No sir. They were flying toward the Capital using the clouds as cover. But this also let the Pirates-"

The Head Merchant slammed both his talons on the table and screamed out in outrage, his face steaming in fury. "Pirates!? You must mean those raiding mountain bandits! How did they manage to take out fully crewed airships!?"

The captain's tone turned a bit cold, clearly not enjoying being questioned by someone outside of the Navy. "No. Sir. These were not raiders from the land below. They were PIRATES, utilizing a flying vessel to sneak up on the vessel using the clouds as cover. They captured the first mate and the captain along with all sentinels, forcing them to surrender and live, or fight back and be cut down and thrown off the ship."

"This is Major Ylthor speaking. What manner of sky vessel did they use? One of ours or the ponies?" One of the officers stepped forth and asked, wanting to get more information about the pirates.

"Unknown. The ship was described as being black as the night sky and difficult to see in the dark sky hours. But it was fast and moved through the clouds without disturbing them. The pirates were a mixture of beings, equines, apes, and diamond dogs. I think there were even mentions of a jungle lizard. But the captain was apparently the most dangerous and unique of the lot, both in manners and species." There was a moment of silence after that as the griffins in the war room looked at each other, wondering what that could mean.

"The captain's name is Wild Sparrow. He has, as described, the manners and cunning of a fox mixed with the cruelty and humour of a crow. When he took the ship he forced the captain of the vessel to eat his hat, apparently lightly roasted with a serving of thick gravy and sliced salmon, and then left him tied up the privy to stew. He behaved like a juvenile jester but was clearly smart and sly enough to take the ship without any deaths and gave the crew a cruel and humiliating fate. So he's obviously not just your average seaside pirate." All of the officers in the room winced at the acts of the outlaw. Disgracing an officer's marking of rank, or uniform, was punished with fifty lashes or ten years of labour. Torturing an officer was punished with being sold into slavery, often to the officer's family, or death by stoning. The fact that he forced the officer to eat his captain's hat, made it even more abhorrent.

"Why is that? No deaths seem like something a pirate wouldn't do. What makes this Sparrow such a danger? He seems more like an opportunistic clown if you ask me." The Head Merchant stated, clearly confused about why such acts would be considered cruel and dangerous. Making several officers, and a few in-the-known merchants, give him angry looks.

The artifact's surface shimmers once more as the captain responds to the inquiry before any of the officers in the room can. "It's more than that Head Merchant. He is capable of cruelty, and he threatened to kill the defeated crewmembers if they did not surrender after he had already clearly won. It was described as him humiliating them before taking them for all they had. A cruel and humiliating act that leaves survivors who will suffer more for it than if they had been defeated in battle. He knows it is a dishonour for soldiers to surrender and was willing to let them suffer the mark of cowards rather than letting them die in service."

Then the general spoke up while moving a set of tokens of troops over the desert map. "Indeed. This Captain Sparrow has mocking yet cruel behaviour, this much is clear. But captain beyond his manners and acts. What else can you tell us about this outlaw? What does he look like and what race is he from?"

There was a momentary silence. As if the captain was pondering what to say. Before he just bluntly stated it. "He is a hippogriff, sir."

For the first time, the general froze, and slowly turned his head to look at the artifact. A look of disbelief on his face. "...What?"

The officers and merchants in the large chamber stared with gaping beaks at the artifacts as the description of Wild Sparrow the Pirate Captain, was given to them. "The Pirate Captain, Wild Sparrow, was described to have a brown feathered front body with a black equine mane tied up in a strange braiding, with the back body of a brown pelted equine with a black equine tail. With a mark in the shape of a pirate flag on his flanks. Dressed in a dark brown captain's coat with a strange sailor's outfit made of leather and cloth beneath it. He wears a tribal-marked cloth on his head as a bandana along with a black tricorn hat. And wields a strange-looking crossbow and a large curved saber. He is an adult hybrid of griffin and equine origin, clearly not a pure breed one as he does not have their exotic colors. Having been described to be around twenty years old by our standards."

"Pluck. This is going to cause a frenzy among the nobles once his wanted poster is up." One of the officers muttered out loud. After this, the room became filled with discussions about how such a union was possible.

Hippogriffs were not unknown to the griffins, in fact, there existed scattered tribes of them on various islands in the sea. They were confirmed to be born from the union of stranded griffin sailors and pony islanders. But it was said that there existed hippogriffs born from unions of other species. Far larger and more graceful than any griffin.

The nobility of Gryphon had taken up a flame of hatred for the hippogriffs as rumors spread that they were considered stronger and more beautiful than regular griffins. This caused a slow but steady rise of envy, hatred, and dissatisfaction among much of the nobility towards all non-griffins who would think themselves superior to them. The current king used those nobles whose hatred of non-griffins to gain support for his coup. It was what caused the rise of slavery and racism within the nation.

Not many remember the nobility's hatred of hippogriffs because most of them were either kept in slavery or were killed during the coup. But all of the griffins in the room knew of it as they were either veterans of the old era or educated griffins trusted with the secret. Thus they knew what kind of crazy acts the nobility would do once the pirate's race was confirmed.

The general raised a talon and the room instantly went silent, and he spoke to the artifact again. "Thank you for the report Captain Harthan. Do you have any other words about this pirate and his crew?"

The captain's voice rang out again, giving what little information he had. "Only that they are probably the source of the raids on our supply convoys sent towards the capital. If they have a flying ship then they can strike at those unguarded ships with ease. Since we clearly cannot guard them, that would make them more obvious to the invaders' own skyships. They attacked swiftly and silently and gave the crew no chance to properly see their ship. This pirate crew is clearly fresh, but they have a good leader and a good ship. Which makes things difficult for us."

One of the officers stepped forward, looking down at several notes they had made as the report had been given. "Indeed. If we count the missing ships then six of our supply convoys were attacked and robbed by this scoundrel. He's clearly a sadist and miscreant who enjoys mocking and humiliating others. The scum forced a captain to eat his officer's hat before tying him up in his personal privy and left the crew tied up in the cargo deck. Taking all of the cargo and leaving them floating in the skies until the scouts found them. I do not find myself eager to find out what he did to the other ships."

The voice of Captain Harthan spoke up again, carrying a hint of frustration. "That is not what I meant. Wild Sparrow is a strange and dangerous pirate, that may be true. But it will be difficult for us to catch him for two reasons unrelated to his personality."

The room went quiet again and the collection of officers and traders looked at the artifact. Waiting for him to continue. "First. He has a single fast-moving or very silent ship. It is extremely difficult to track down a lone ship with the wars we are currently engaged in. We cannot send out hunting teams with our fleet so stretched as it currently is. Second. He has, at least for the moment, been active in the areas close to the Capital, which makes it difficult to send even an understaffed hunting party after him. Even if we find out where he is hiding."

Griffins across the room began to discuss the matter together. And slowly but surely they began to work out the largest hazards keeping them from hunting the pirates.

"He's right. Those are both big issues we have to work past."

"Agreed ships and resources are stretched thin, we can barely keep our towns safe."

"With the capital under siege during the busiest moment in all of our nation's military history, we have also strained morale among our troops and citizens."

"According to the reports from the other frontlines and the town citizenry reports. There have been over two hundred desertions just the past week and thirteen large groups of griffins fleeing out of the country."

"Not to mention the irregular patrols of enemy air vessels making things dangerous for our ships even should we attempt to hunt down this pirate."

The discussion carried on for a long time. As the merchants and military griffins in the room began to work out the issues aiding the deranged pirate and his crew.

The head merchant moved over to the general, a serious look on his plump face and he spoke out while holding a big stack of documents he had been writing during the meeting. "You of the navy and army can work on your end. We of the Merchant's Guild shall work against this pirate with the tools we know. We shall put a bounty on his head and work on improving the security of our cargo."

Nodding the general lifted the artifact and spoke as he added a new figure to the map. A skull and crossbones token near the Capital. Marking down a new danger in the war effort. "Then we know what to do. Captain Harthan, thank you for your report. Be sure to send words again should you find any other of the convoy ships or any news about this pirate."

"Yes sir. It shall be done, sir. I will be sending a regular report every evening. Just in case I and my crew end up attacked by the pirates or the invaders." The artifact stops shimmering and resumes the shape of a clear crystal blue mirror.

The general looks out over the room and addresses his officers while the merchants begin to leave the chamber. "We now know why the airdrop convoys have been going silent. And it is our duty to prevent any further attacks made by this pirate from succeeding. Inform all available troops about this pirate and start sending words to the other settlements and the capital."

"Sir!" The officers saluted together and rapidly left the room to start his orders. Leaving the chamber empty except for the lone general who slowly turns to look down at the small marker he had left on the map. That small skull and crossbones marker among a sea of invaders and allied tokens, the beaked skull looking like it was laughing and mocking the world. Adding further to the disarray in the nation of Gryphon

Then, seemingly out of nowhere his eyes narrow at the small and there is a moment of anger in his eyes. From outside the room, a low thunk is heard by no one, and five minutes later the general leaves the chamber. His expression was as cool and collected as before.

Left behind in the chamber is the map, a military-grade dagger embedded into the map, splitting the token in two, just south of the capital of Eggstone.

[Scene Skip]

Deep within an underground chamber is a circular shaped table made out of black stone. By the large dark table stood six chairs, each a different colour with a specific symbol on the back of each chair. Each but one of these chairs is seated by a pony dressed in hoods and cloaks. All of the seated ponies are shrouded in darkness.

The only visible being in the near-dark chamber is General Bloody Courage of the Gold Army who stands before the group of shadowy ponies with two hooded ponies holding torches by his sides illuminating him.

"You have returned from your 'honeymoon' rather early General. Do you have good news for us?" One of the shadowy ponies asks from the table.

The military leader nods, his crimson mane slightly ungroomed. His eyes are a bit bloodshot, signs of lack of sleep and extortion. "My wife has become pregnant. By the spells cast and the tests made, it is a colt."

"Excellent news. But if that was all you wanted to tell us you could just have contacted us from your castle by the East Coast."

"No, this message needed to be made in person. One of our researchers has told me that some of our research and rare materials for the plan have gone missing. I could not risk any potential spies hearing this so I came directly to the Society."

"Is that what we are calling ourselves? I thought we decided on being called the Council?" One of the shadowy ponies whispers to another who just wordlessly shrugs.

Ignoring the conversation by the other members of the council, or should it be society?, members focused on their conversation with Bloody Courage. "Hmmmm... what have you discovered?"

Bloody Courage pulls out several letters and scrolls and places them on the table. The members of the shadow-covered society/council members open and read the documents as he speaks. "One of our members has been supplying the Church of Clucking Chaos and the Warfoals with valuable materials from our coffers and labs. Including one of the two black pyramids we found. Given to the Mad Priestess of Discord herself. According to the paperwork I've found it was made in an attempt to use those mad ponies as a side project to denounce Celestia. But whoever gave those cultists the pyramid has gone too far. Those pyramids are far too powerful to leave in the hooves of Discord cultists."

"This is indeed not good. Those pyramids are powerful magical artifacts we don't even know how to activate let alone determine their purpose."

"If it got out that they got their hooves on one of those things because of us then things could get bad."

Bloody Courage motions for one of the guards who pulls out a sack dripping red gore on the floor, seemingly full with something very bloody. There is a hint of a cone-shaped horn sticking out of a hole in the sack in the dim light. "I have made the necessary precautions and killed the agents who were in the known except for those of our loyal members who were part of the investigation. But there is still the problem of members of our group acting without oversight like this."

Nodding the shadowy council/society members nod in agreement. And one of them raises a hoof. "We make sure to cut off any connections to the cultists. Nopony will believe those crazy ponies anyway so if we just erase any knowledge and records about what they got from us and any mentions of us contacting them. We should be fine."

A small amount of clapping fills the chamber at the suggestion and Bloody Courage nods in agreement. "I shall make the preparations to mislead or sabotage any investigations that might come close to discovering our acts. We will remain in the shadows, but for now, we need to ride out the coming storm. Whatever it might be. And keep our nostrils clean."

"Agreed. And you need to keep us updated on the progress of your progeny. Meeting adjourned. May our ambitions rise to fruition." A hoof strikes the table and all ponies in the chamber speak out together in the darkness.

"The alicorns must fall for the ponies to rise! Praise be the Society of Heraldry, Independence, and Trade!"

[Scene Skip]

In the Foal Mountains' western border stands the woodlands known as the Woods of Blood. A large forest lined the western side of the mountain range, a massive area barely kept from spilling out into the rest of Equestria by the might of the few forts and towers built along new roads connecting the Eastern Coast to Equestria.

The forest is infamous for its rampant cultists and murderous maniacs who use the vast woodlands as a safe haven from the knights and soldiers of Equestria. But this doesn't mean that the cultists are limited to the woods alone. No. Warbands and raids are too common events that come out of the woods to assault villages and settlements everywhere from central Equestria to the East Coast.

But the most common victims are the various isolated settlements in the Foal Mountains as not all of them are connected to the road network and thus isolated from aid from the forces of Equestria. Some of these settlements are so isolated they haven't even heard of Equestria, only witnessed strange events in the skies and the surrounding mountains.

That said, in a small mountain village there is a blood of fires and cries of battle. As one of the many warbands of the warfoals have stumbled upon the isolated settlement and assaulted it. What was weird about it was that this band had members of the CCC in their numbers. Normally the two cults were mortal enemies, but this warband seemed to be a mixture of both working coherently with one another.

The mixture of mad mutants and armored warrior ponies makes for a brutal though efficient killing force. Ponies were fighting among wood and stone buildings. blood and body parts decorating the surroundings as the cultists all cry out with glee and reverence to their two gods. Discord and Maleficus.

A doorway is slammed open as a young white pelted colt with a black mane and tail comes running out of it, holding a basket in his mouth. Smoke and flames are visible inside of the building along with the silhouette of a large pony dressed in cloth wielding a pitchfork. But the smoke quickly shrouds them from view.

"Departure! Take your sister and run!" A mare's voice cries out from the smoke-filled doorway followed by the sound of fighting before a loud blood-curling scream replaces it. The young colt runs through the back gardens of the village. Carrying a bundle of black silk in a weaved reed basket holding a crying filly foal.

Running the young colt closes his left eye as he witnesses the vile butchery of ponies in the village. He can see a large armored pony crush the skull of a foal. A group of misshapen mutants violating captured mares and colts alike. It was a vile scene of debauchery and butchery. One that made the young colt feel disgusted and horrified twice over as he ran through the gardens.

He reached the end of the garden row and managed to evade a group of armored ponies charging into the town hall where he heard the voice of several of his friends cry out in panic and pain. Against his better judgment, the colt spares a glance and regrets it as he sees the heads of some of the ponies he has known all his life being paraded out of the town hall on spears.

He ducks behind a small alley by the local tavern. The colt again tries to resist looking into the tavern, afraid of what he might see. There is a scene of a pile of body parts from various villagers, including his father, mother, and several of his cousins. On top of it sits a large mutated pony holding a black pyramid cackling and giggling. Flinching at the sight the colt dashes away before anyone spots him. Even as he runs he nearly throws up and has to bite down on the handle of the basket extra hard even as bile touches the back of his throat at the fresh memory of what he saw.

A simple cobblestone fence lines the village, inadequate defence against raiders like these. He gets past the bashed-down wooden gate of the fence and nearly trips over a dying pony on the ground. He recognizes the dying old pony lying half-crushed by the gate. His grandfather Bone Key.

The old pony is choking on blood as he steadies himself and shakingly holds up an old lantern made of carved white stone, it is unlit. And then the old pony chokes out the colt's name and some last words "Final... Departure... the tomb... go... use the... lamp... to light... the skull's eyghrrsss.....", before finally slumping down, no longer breathing.

Quickly remembering the old tales and stories. About the tomb. How it was dangerous for those not part of his family. Final Departure takes the lantern, the last thing he has of his family. And runs with his sister up the mountainside. He can hear the cries and roars of cultists. He can hear the pounding and stomping of hooves.

They are chasing him.

The tomb is not far from the village. He knows the path. They are big, heavy, and slow. The terrain favors him. His load is heavy but he slides through large boulders and past thickets. Soon he sees the tomb, a large dark dark-filled cavern with an engraved sign of stone above it in some unknown language.

He doesn't look back and keeps running. The sound of his sister crying and the beating of his heart is all he can hear as he runs into the darkness. After a while, he hears more hoofs running into the entrance. Their heavy hooves echo through the chamber like hammers on an anvil.

Soon he spots something up ahead. Three open doorways, each leading into a different part of the tomb. He doesn't light the lantern just yet. The cultist will spot it if he does. Instead, he kicks a deteriorated stone head from a ruiend statue by one of the doors down the left path. And silently trots into the right path.

The doorway leads into a hallway with lines of stone coffins on either side. One of the coffins on the right side should have a hole in it that a grown pony should fit inside according to his grandfather's stories. Final Departure carefully sneaks along the rows and soon spots a partly crumbled coffin. A hole more than big enough for him and his sister.

Carefully he slinks inside, gently cradling and hushing his sister who had stopped crying but was still whimpering. He sits in the darkness of the coffin. He hears the cultists run around. Smashing and breaking things. Then he hears something else. An echoing thump. It is not his heart, it is something else.

Suddenly the cultists' smashing and breaking turns into terrified screams. Followed by the clash of steel against stone and something else. But after a minute or two all turns to silence.

After an hour has gone by he slowly gets out of the coffin and lights the lantern. A blue flame appears inside of it as he turns the valve on top. No ignition device is needed. Final Departure looks back at where the cultists went for a short moment, curious. But thinks better of it and begins to walk deeper into the crypts, trying to find the secret spoken to him by his dying grandfather.

This was just one of many villages that would get raided like so. One of many. And yet it would hold more meaning than one might think.

[Scene Skip]

In a labyrinth of dark alleyways within the slums were a pair of cloaked griffins moving carefully. The sound of battle could be heard sometimes. But it was not as active as it had been on the first day. Both sides had staked claims on parts of the town and were currently trying to send small groups against each other.

Patrols of guards and soldiers were roaming the streets trying to catch any rebels while trying to avoid ambushes and traps. After the bombardment of the city by the King's command, large parts of the city were turned into rubble. Fires were burning all over the once magnificent capital causing black pillars of smoke to rise to cover the lower half of the massive fortress above the city. And no aid was given to the civilians not part of the conflict by the King or his loyal followers. Support for the rebellion was rising, but it was also a desperate situation.

And now the rebels had gotten a silver lining. They had gotten a message by arrow delivered to them, written by the equine invaders. Claiming that they were willing to offer aid.

These two were moving through the streets because the meeting place the equines had given was within one of the larger sections of the slums. Both of them were founding members of the rebellion, the slave leader, and the town guard officer. And they were the best choice for this meeting.

Both of them knew the streets well and could evade capture better than the others. Even if the former slave was wounded was he still an agile flyer without his chains plus he knew every crook and cranny of the slums. And the guard's identity as a rebel was unknown, thus he knew the most recent and common paths of the patrols.

They both stepped around a corner and looked around. Taking the front the slave looked over to the side, seeing the narrow and trash-filled alleyway ahead of them. Not any sounds of either flapping wings or moving armour, nor the light of lanterns. Giving his companion a nod they resumed their journey down the trash-riddled slums, carefully trying to not disturb any of the garbage piles.

But as they were midway through the alley there was a loud clang as a rat scurried across the street dragging a rotten meat bone, causing a pile of garbage to collapse. Swiftly the two griffins jumped into separate side alleys and hid among the darkness. They could not hear the sound of steps but that did not mean that there wasn't anyone flying above them to inspect the noise.

After a few moments, they relaxed and resumed their journey. After five minutes they reached a large square surrounded by five buildings, giving it plenty of dark shades and cover from the sky. The slave looked around in worry as he knew this spot was not safe even if it offered a lot of space to hide. "Be ready to run if a patrol comes. We must not remain here for too long. This meeting must not attract the attention of the royalists."

Both of them jumped as a voice echoed out across the square. The voice was slightly muffled as if speaking through cloth, and thus it was hard to determine the gender of the speaker. "No need to worry griffin. No patrols shall reach this spot. We have made sure of it."

"I... I take it you sent us the message?" The guard asked as he looked around nervously. Even if the shadows of the buildings offered ample cover he should be able to determine where the voice was coming from. and yet he couldn't. It was as if they were speaking from all around them.

"No. That was one of our colleagues. I may be skilled in many arts of battle, but I am not the most proficient of archers. My order prefers more... subtle ways." A shiver runs down their spine at the amused tone of the voice, the person speaking was smirking.

There was a momentary pause until the sound of horseshoe-clad hoofs hitting stone echoed behind them. Swiftly turning around they see a pony mare slowly stepping out of the corner she had been standing in. Her body is covered in cloth and leather armour. With a hood covering her head with only a small hint of pelt and mane showing her to have a dark amber-yellow black mane. A pair of thin shortswords were strapped to her sides.

She looks at them with cold eyes while speaking softly, never making too much noise. "Now. Let me greet you. I am Falling Grace, scout, and assassin of the Chain Breaker Corps. And I shall be your contact with the United Equine Forces."

The slave nods and looks around while listening, speaking out softly as well. "I am nameless, as I was born a slave I do not have a name. I am just known as the Slave Elder, as I am the oldest living slave in Eggstone."

With his helmet covering most of his face the guard speaks up as well. Not removing his eyes from the horse in front of him, unwilling to not keep his guard up. "My name is unspoken for now, I spy for the Rebellion among the guards. So long as no one knows who I am I have a higher chance of keeping the rebellion informed."

The mare nodded, approving of the secrecy. "Smart of you. Now let me be clear. Your rebellion is failing, as is your city. But your rebellion will fail before the siege ends. You have too few resources and equipment to properly maintain your forces against the King."

A frown grew across the duo's faces at that blunt statement, but they could not deny it. So the nameless slave leader sighed before responding. "It is as you say. We have too many beaks to feed, not much medicine, and nowhere near enough gear to arm everyone who can fight."

Again the horse assassin just nodded before speaking again. Her voice never echoed even though it should. "The UEF will offer you a deal. Within the coming days, the siege battles will start. Their main focus will be on softening up the defences of the wall and destroying some of the airships without damaging the city. We will smuggle in supplies for you near the eastern wall tunnel where you are holing up."

The slave and guard looked at each other with concern. That was not an easy request. The guard took a step forward to take the lead in the discussion. "And what do you want in return?"

With a glance at a corner in the area the assassin spoke, her voice not raised a single syllable. It impressed both of the griffins just how much control the horse had over her vocal cords. "We want you to send a few skirmishers to help us destroy two warehouses. Both of which contain several hundreds of those dangerous artifacts of yours. You may take the artifacts if you wish, but the UEF would much rather see them destroyed. We do not want the walls to get resupplied with them should you lose hold of them."

Sharing a glance the two shared some silent words before the slave turned to the mare once more. "That is a dangerous task. We would have to send at least thirty of our troops to one warehouse. Not the numbers we could spare."

The mare shook her head at that, drawing a look of surprise from the slave and curiosity from the guard. "No, you do not. We only need ten in total, five for each warehouse. All we need is support from your rebels to carry some of our gear and do some manual labor. We cannot promise no one will get hurt or killed during this. But we need to take out those artifacts swiftly and too much noise might attract too much attention before we accomplish our goal. In return, you will be supplied with food, medicine, and gear for several hundred people."

After a moment of silence, the slave sighed while the guard just remained silent, looking like he was contemplating something. "Very well. We cannot really refuse, we have too many lives at stake. We will get some volunteers to aid your efforts."

A wind blows through the alleys and the sound of battle and screams echo out from somewhere further away in the city. The mare gives a glance in that direction, her first physical movement, before looking back toward the duo. "Good. I hope this will be the start of a good relationship between our two groups. We do not wish to hurt any civilians, all we want. Is for your King to face justice. After that, we will leave you to recover."

Snorting the guard looked at the mare with a slight frown, a bit of anger in his eyes. "And to clean up the mess caused by this war."

The mare just gave a sad smile, not breaking eye contact. "We still have to clear out bodies in the settlements of Horadrim and Equestria. So I understand, but such is the nature of war. Not much we can do to change it as things are."

After looking the mare in the eyes a few seconds longer the guard gave a low depressed chuckle, understanding perfectly what she meant. Closing his eyes he took a breath before nodding. "Indeed. Send us words for where our volunteers shall go and when. And we shall send them to you."

"You will get a message before the operation begins. Farewell for now." And with those words, the mare stepped back into the shadows, and even though there was no way to get out of the corner without being seen the duo knew that the assassin was already gone. As if melted into the shadows.

A depressed sigh escapes the guard who pulls up his hood further up to cover more of his head and looks at his fellow revolutionary. "I do not enjoy this but... we don't have much of a choice."

The slave nodded as they began to travel back to their main holdout in the eastern part of town. Starting their dangerous journey back. He gives a glance back towards the shadowy place where the mare and been, as they walk down the maze of alleys, the sound of minor fights echoing out over the empty alleyways. "No. But I doubt they do either."

[Scene Skip]

Outside of the walls of Eggstone lies the siege camp of the UEF. Once it had just been a site with siege engines and campfires. But even with the delays caused by the strange worldwide seizure attack, the camp expanded.

Rows of wooden walls and ramparts were being placed facing the tall walls of the city. Ponies and horses alike were tying and hammering wooden poles and planks into place, creating fortifications for soldiers against the crossbows and cannons of the griffins.

Unicorns and horse mages could be seen utilizing geomancy to conjure and shape the earth around the area to elevate the siege engines and flatten and remove obstacles for the ground troops.

A large section of woodland was growing in a nearby valley and the sound of chopping wood and sticking hammers was echoing out from the foliage. Horses and ponies wielding saws, axes, hammers, and other tools were working on one of the projects for the pending assault.

By a table was a group of ponies sitting, eating hot carrot soup and dry rye bread with mugs of freshwater. Their expressions were tired, some solemn, others indifferent.

One of the ponies, however, had a look of frustration on his face as he dipped his bread into the hot soup. "Hey... I know this might sound stupid... but this whole war business never seems to work out for us."

Another earth pony sitting next to him pauses in eating and looks at him in confusion. "Okay? Please elaborate on that."

"I mean. We have fought, what, seven large wars since our nation's founding right? The First Crusade happened first, then the Rättenfänger Invasion, then there was that spread-out conflict with the Diamond Dogs and the Bandit Barons that went on for over five years called the Eastern Expansion, followed by the Second Crusade, which in turn was followed by the Draconic Incursion, and finally, there was the Third Crusade. Two of those were us being invaded by ravenous cannibals and dragons. The expansion involved fighting against enslaving diamond dogs and those greedy warlords in eastern Equestria. And the other three were fights against a single alicorn who caused the fall of our first capital. Correct?"

The earth pony thinks of it for a moment before slowly nodding. Not finding any counter to the argument. "Well yeah."

Seemingly getting inspired by someone willing to listen the young soldier keeps going. And others begin to stop eating to listen to his words. "Well here's the thing. Outside of the times, we were invaded or fighting slavers, and we lost all the time. Specifically. All of our crusades against Maleficus have been bone-breaking defeats. Each time."

A pegasus mare sips her broth quietly as she listens. She then looks at the pony talking with a cool look in her eyes. "He's an alicorn, one who is willing to do deranged and dangerous things one shouldn't. How could we not attempt to defeat such a vile creature?"

But the pony kept talking, shaking his head at the argument. "And yet he wins all the time while we lose. And so far, he has not killed a single soldier. In truth, I think Maleficus could just kill us all without even needing to let us fight his creations. It's like he's playing with us."

A unicorn snorts at that and stomps a hoof in the ground at the mere notion. Even though he is a bit shaken by the words he tries to argue back against the logic of the rambling soldier. "You got to be joking. I mean, we have seen the fights he and Celestia have gone through. If anything he always comes out wounded and beaten. Sure, he might win but each time Celestia fights him better and better."

But the other pony just shakes his head at that. "That is when he fights Celestia, not us. So why do we need to be there to fight him?"

At that, the unicorn tries to figure out an answer but is unable to come up with one. "Erm... huh... I... can't really answer that honestly."

Again the pony resumes his rant. "So why are we here fighting, if Celestia could handle this on her own?"

And that's when a voice speaks out from a nearby table. "Politics boy."

The ponies jerk in surprise and look towards the table to see a lone horse stallion bearing the armour of a samurai eating a bowl of noodles and tea. And when the pony warrior realized what he had said he stood up angrily and snarled at the horse. "What?!"

Sipping some tea the horse looks down at his bowl and uses his chopsticks to swirl around the noodles in the broth as he speaks. "The griffins invaded not just Equestria but the Horadrim as well. If we were to just leave your nation, let alone your princess, all alone to handle this then we would disgrace ourselves and our ancestors."

Slurping up a mouthful of broth and noodles the samurai lets out a content breath. Before turning to look at the table of startled ponies. "And besides. Do not say that you wouldn't have wanted to fight to prevent another Red Rain over Canterlot. If you truly wanted Celestia to handle all of this on her own, you would not be here. Only volunteers were asked to come for this war, and it is only in poor taste to complain now."

The ponies look at each other for a moment before sitting back down, their ears folded and their expressions solemn. A mare speaks up as she looks over at the walls of the capital city of the griffins. "Yeah... that is true... I could not dare look myself in the mirror, nor face my sister in the afterlife if I didn't take part in this."

A priest nods, his hoofs held in prayer, and his eyes closed. But still, he speaks to the doubters, even as he doesn't stop holding himself in prayer. "It is the same for me. Sure I guess the crusades are a bit of a sour subject but... they don't really matter when compared to the other events. I mean. We never lose anyone at the crusades, and our armies always get stronger each time even if we lose."

The samurai drinks up the last of the broth and noodles in his bowl and speaks up a bit as he slowly chews. "Then one might think that you should not look at Maleficus with only disdain and keep denouncing all his acts as evil. Sure you may never like him or respect him. But you should at least acknowledge that he has made your nation stronger even without taking a single life in battle."

Outraged the doubting pony slams his hoof on the table and shouts out in anger at the samurai. "That's insane! Why would we acknowledge him for anything!? He's brought nothing but disaster to this world!"

Sipping his tea calmly the samurai gives him just a raised brow and asks a simple question. "Oh? So if you had never fought Maleficus three times and improved your military then your nation would still have been strong enough to join us in this war against Gryphon? And did he not save Canterlot when the griffins attacked while Celestia was away? Just because he has done foul deeds does not mean you should ignore the good things he has done either. I do not say forgive or forget his bad deeds, but at least acknowledge that there is more to him than what he has done wrong."

There is an awkward silence as the ponies look at each other again. And an uncomfortable feeling fills their hearts. And some doubts begin to fill their hearts about the black alicorn. While others just huff and ignore the logic.

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 22/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 9 Days]

The night has been long and silent, the griffins have considered sending out scouts or spies to find out what the ponies and horses have planned but with the darkness, they feel like it is a trap. All other nights the camp had been bright and alive even during the darkest hours. Now it was pitch black and eerily quiet. Only a few campfires glow with dying embers, the only evidence that the camp is still there.

Though even if the griffins had decided to send out scouts they would not have been able to obtain good information without risking losing the scouts and giving the enemy more information about the defences they were reconstructing.

And the Assassins Guild is too busy struggling with the internal fighting in the city to offer aid. The rumour of traitors among the assassins defecting, aiding, or informing the rebels has spread like wildfire ever since officers and nobles of the loyalists had been found dead with their throats slit open in their sleep. A common technique used by the guild.

A lone griffin stands by his section of the battlements on the top of one of the large towers of the city wall. He was young, barely old enough to join the military. Forceful conscriptions have been enforced heavily because the city's military forces are being spread thin.

The young griffin had barely any night vision and had to use a small artifact in the shape of a metal tube with enchanted lenses. It allowed the young griffin to get vision at a much longer distance while also using the ambient magic of moonlight to allow clearer night vision. But with no moonlight as the clouds cover the skies was it sorely lacking.

By one of the cannons, a crippled soldier with a missing hindleg is sitting on a bench while inspecting the weapon. The griffin was old and not an inexperienced recruit. He was a former artillery gunner and knew how to use and maintain large artifact weapons. His experience and clear instructions on how to handle the thunder cannons had eased the feelings of many of the younger and far less experienced gunners.

But sadly enough were there far too few griffins with battle experience. Combining that with a heavily worn out, starving, and damaged military force it was clear even to the lower ranks that this siege would not end in griffin victory. But with the axe of the King's executioner over their necks, there was little to do but obey.

Meanwhile, things were not all as quiet and uneventful as they might have seemed in the siege camp.

In the darkness of the campsite, a lone figure dressed in a dark cloak and hood silently walks over to a large and extravagant tent. The figure stops by the entrance to the tent and a mare's voice speaks out from the hood. “Warlord. We are ready.”

“Have you made certain that everything has been prepared?” The voice of Thunder Hammer echoes out of the darkness of the tent

She nods and answers. “Yes. The ponies have made their preparations and so have we. Cursed Blessing is still by the outpost keeping up communication with Equestria and Horadrim until the artifacts jamming our comm orbs are destroyed. We have sent messengers to inform him of our progress but left no details of the plan.”

Heavy hoofsteps moved inside the tent, the sound of shifting chainmail and plate echoing gently out of the opening. The outline of a large figure can be seen in the darkness, approaching the exit. A body covered in chain and plate, with mane, tail, and beard braided. And a large helm with a thick visor covering the eyes.

A large warhammer is strapped to the side of the large horse's side as is a sword and round shield, the hooded figure bows her head slightly as the warlord exits the tent. And as he does he looks with narrow eyes towards the barely lit towers and walls of the griffin capital. “Now is the time for us to get serious.”

[Scene Skip]

Close to the main street leading to the center of the city walls is a large structure of metal and stone. Shaped like a dome it has a single opening that exits into the middle of a courtyard surrounded by stone walls. A single large gate is mounted on the eastern side, its structure held by two towers, and two other towers are placed at each corner of the fortifications.

On the walls and in the courtyard are several griffins dressed in fine-looking breastplates with chain mail, all of them armed with either claymores or shields and spears. On their backs are a set of rare weapons not often utilized by the common troops of Gryphon, longbows made of what appears to be white wood or bone.

The dome-shaped structure is a warehouse, three stories deep, with each floor being a large storage area. The content is crates of various sizes, each marked with the crest of the kingdom. But also with one additional smaller symbol, a white circle with a black lightning bolt striking a bottle in its center. This is both a warning and a guild crest. For it marks the content as being artifacts made by the artificers' guild.

This was one of two warehouses where the largest stockpile of artifacts for the military forces of the Gryphon Kingdom was located. Almost all of the military's artifacts were kept and distributed from this and one other identical warehouse compound. And that is what makes this warehouse so valuable that the king would have some of his best troops guard it.

The guards of this important location were not just common soldiers or nobles. No, they were members of the Gryphon Knights, second only to the Royal Guards in rank, claw-picked through harsh training and arena combat with live weapons. Death or crippling injuries is known to happen during their training and the arena fights.

They are often sent out to fight dangerous outlaws, commit raids on enemy fortifications, or take part in harsh large-scale battles. All part of keeping their skills well above the average soldiers of the nobility. Their loyalty to the king is without question and they have a fanatic belief in the monarchy, taking every word as gospel.

It might have been possible for the griffins to succeed more in their invasions and defences had these highly skilled fighters been utilized at critical locations. But only the king can order where they are to be utilized, and they will ignore any other orders without proof that their orders come from the king. The king has kept the elite force of over two thousand and eight hundred griffin knights to defend the fortress Stonenest and various facilities across the city.

Though not the secret laboratory of the artificers it would have been far too noticeable for the elite forces of the king to move into the eastern tunnel and not come out more than once a week. Nor would the king or the Gryphon Knights ever consider disguising themselves as ordinary soldiers, their uniform and armour was a symbol of the power of the Gryphon Kingdom. Why would they even consider such an option?

Thus one of the most experienced military forces of the kingdom was more often than not left to guard the rich and important areas of the capital while the ordinary forces struggled, fought, and died for the kingdom. If not for their periodic 'combat exercises' they would have been just as lazy and inefficient as the Iron Eagles of the Stormwall.

Two of these elite warriors were on the lookout, their trained senses looking out for all manners of suspicious activity. There is a light clattering from down one of the streets directly north of the tower and one of the knights instantly picks it up. He swiftly raises a claw to signal to the other knight before reaching into the nape of his armour to pull out a silver-rimmed monocle with a small silver gear.

Carefully knight puts the monocle on his left eye and twists the small gear on its side with his opposable claw. The monocle starts glowing blue, and he closes his right eye and looks out at the street through the advanced artifact. The monocle makes the pitch-black darkness of the city disappear and makes it look like a cloudy day. He sees nothing.

Wordlessly his fellow knight steps over to his side and pulls out a similar monocle. As they look over the various streets, buildings, and roofs the first knight speaks quietly to the other one. "I think I heard something moving. There is nothing in sight but be alert."

Nodding the quiet one of the pair keeps his monocle on and walks over to a small bell by the tower and taps it with his spear. There is a low chime and instantly the entire compound becomes more alert and cautious.

Patrols change routine, knights begin to patrol the outskirts of the wall. Five griffin squads fly up to make aerial scouting. a frenzy of activity fills the area.

Meanwhile, beneath the hive of activity is a loud crack heard from behind a wall on the bottom floor of the storage area. Behind it is a team of five griffin rebels armed with pickaxes digging through the reinforced wall of the warehouse. Behind them keeping watch of the tunnel is a group of two horses, a shinobi and a pacemaker, and a pony from the wonderbolts.

At the end of the tunnel were three other horses, a valkyrie, a ranger, and a hetairoi keeping watch of the start of the tunnel hidden within the basement of one of the abandoned houses two blocks away. It had only taken an hour to dig the tunnel using the magic of the horses. They had the intel of how deep the facility went and what the layout of the floors looked like. But they were completely ignorant of the security, and not to mention how well-contained the artifacts were. And they were not willing to risk accidentally activating any of the artifacts within it by casting magic close to the walls.

Thus the aid of the rebels to carry their gear and dig through the wall made things far easier and it gave the saboteurs important insight into what manner of people the griffins were. Allowing them to see beyond the evil of the wicked king and his twisted followers.

And thus far they had pretty good opinions of them and even respect for some. However, it was a bit strained since some of the griffins volunteering to help were not eager to be ordered around. Even if it only had been three things so far, "Keep together.", "Carry these packs for a while.", and, "Dig through this wall.".

"I felt something give away. We are through the wall now." One of the griffins stated as they swung their pickaxe harder into the large hole in the stone wall. Cracks could be seen growing from the center of the deep hole. And a small dark hole could be seen through the lantern light.

The peacekeeper nods and walks over to the four large packs resting against the tunnel wall and starts going through them. "Wonderful. If you need to rest do so now. The hard part should be over."

Three of the griffins instantly dropped their picks and sat down to take a breather while the other two kept expanding the hole. The sound of a rock hitting the stone floor could be heard as they kicked portions of the cracked wall off to expand the hole faster.

"Okay, the hole should be large enough for even you large ass horses to get through it." One of the two diggers commented as they finished dislodging one large piece of wall. Neither of the horses commented on the crass language while the pony maintained a lookout down the tunnel.

The peacekeeper and shinobu both moved over to the opening, a pair of strange-looking metal boxes on their backs, four in total. As the peacekeeper pokes her head into the hole the shinobi turns to the griffins. And even though her face was covered by the facemask of her uniform, the griffins could still feel her cold stare and felt shivers in every feather. "We're going in. If you want to snag any of these artifacts we suggest you pick those you can easily carry. For there will be none left after we are done here."

Two of the griffins eagerly look at each other, the power of the artifacts was one of the main reasons why the royalists were winning after all. But one of the older griffins shakes his head and holds out a claw to halt the two younger rebels. "Thank you but we're good. If even half of what I've heard about those things is true then I do not want to be any part of their continued existence."

One of the younger griffins glares at the older avian feline and almost snarls at him. "Come on! We could have a weapon to use against the royalists!"

Another griffin shakes his head at that. "Sure the artifacts are powerful. But you do not know what fuels them or how they are made. And from what rumours or hearsays some of us have heard is it a disturbing and abominable thing to create."

The young griffin just doesn't realize what the problem is and snarls again. "What!? What could possibly make you give up an advantage your enemy is using against us!?"

A talon reaches into a pocket and pulls out a small locket. The older griffin looks at the locket with a sad look in his eyes as he answers the question with another question. "Do you know what fuels the lightning cannons of the kingdom?"

Blinking for a short moment the young rebel shrugs. "Well yeah, thunder stones of course."

Still looking at his locket the older rebel nods before responding. "And artifacts are made from refined thunder stone. How they managed to refine such a volatile substance is unclear to me. But the material is inert unless you use a specific liquid the artificers call tears of sorrow."

A snort escapes the loud beak at the name of the substance, not realizing how fitting it was. "What kind of stupid name is that?"

Sighing the older rebel shakes his head. "Well from what I've heard there is always a flux of people being taken in by the artificers for 'voluntary experiments', every month dozens of slaves, prisoners, and even actual volunteers are taken to the lab, not just griffins. But none ever return."

Getting frustrated the brazen youth slammed a clenched claw against the wall. "What are you getting at? It could just be the king using the whole thing as a ruse to feed his disturbing habits. Why would those ass-kissing scholars need people?"

Gently opening his locket the griffin smiles sadly at the image of two young griffins, one was a younger version of himself and the other was a hen, with a much lighter coat of feathers and pelt than his own. "No. My sister was arrested for loitering five years ago and was taken by the guild. And when she never returned I investigated it myself. I was a tavern keeper and the guards who often served at the lab drank at my establishment. So I got them drunk and asked them some subtle questions and while they did not tell me everything did they tell me enough to realize what had happened to my sister."

Horrified looks appear on not only the griffins but also the pony and even horses in the warehouses, who were poking their heads through the hole to listen. And those looks turn green as he keeps talking as he keeps looking at the picture within his locket. "Every month the artificers gather people to go through some kind of process to create tears of sorrow they call 'The Processing'. In other words. The artifacts are fuelled by a liquid, called tears of sorrow, which is made from living beings. And apparently, the more magic a being has the more tears they produce."

There is a sudden silence, which is suddenly broken by the once angry and demanding young griffin as he hunches over against a wall and empties his stomach all over the wall and floor. Filling the tunnel with the scent of half-digested barley and fish. The wonderbolt in the tunnel slowly steps towards the griffin and speaks up for the first time since the two groups started working together, her voice cracking with emotion as she tries to keep from crying. "A-ah... were there ponies taken thereafter the king's invasion?"

Sighing the griffin shakes his head while looking down at his locket. "Sadly I do not know. Security around the artificers got extremely tight after the invasion into Equestria failed, they even left the original guild hall for another location. But I doubt the artificers didn't take some of your people for their wicked experiments. I am sorry if this upsets you."

An awkward silence fills the tunnel again. Then there is a sound of hooves climbing up into the tunnel as the shinobi and peacekeepers return. There is an awkward silence as they silently walk over to the bags and put them onto their backs, all of the bags.

Turning towards the five griffins and the sad wonderbolt the peacekeeper speaks softly to them, her voice is thick with emotions but she still maintains control over herself. "Come. We are finished now. And we should hurry."

The trek back to the outside was silent and felt like it took longer than it took to dig it. But soon the figures of the other horses greet them in the earthen basement. With silent motions, they all walk up to the top floor of the building and they can see the compound in the distance. The activity was still high but far calmer.

Pulling out a small hourglass from her coat the peacekeeper places it on the edge of the window for all to see. A simple enchanted item that allows the sand in the glass to flow in one direction until one end is empty. No matter how it is held. And as the sand began to flow empty the peacekeeper turned and offered a sincere bow to the five griffins. "I am sorry that you have all had to suffer beneath such cruelty. And I hope that at least this will give you proof that neither of our nations will ever condone such acts."

There is a short moment of silence as the sound of the trickling sand is all that can be heard. and then, it ends, and the peacekeeper straightens up and looks at them with determined eyes. Behind her, the compound is lit up by a sudden blue light before a bright light fills the night.

A massive booming sound wave shatters the silence of the city and shakes the very foundations of the building they are standing on. After a short moment, the intense light is gone, but it is soon broken again as a second explosion erupts. But it is on the other side of the city.

And as the second explosion subsides, the rumble of thunder fills the air before a drizzle of rain begins to fall over the city. Not enough to smother the flames, but enough to remove the smog and smoke. And in the background behind the horse mare, the sight of a deep crater filled with burning blue flames is revealed, it is all that remains of the compound, and one street block around it is reduced to rubble.

"We are done here." The shinobi states as she looks at the burning crater where the storage facility had once been located.

Silently the ranger pulls out a scroll case made of brass and gives it to the older of the griffin rebels. Across its surface is a set of scratch marks forming a set of numbers and letters. "There is a map of the capital inside of this case, it has a simple grid system in it that marks areas in the city. You will receive supplies at the coordinates marked on the casing within the next couple of hours. We will remain in contact if either of us needs to work together again. Be safe rebels."

And with that, the horses and ponies bowed to the griffins before jumping off the building to run or fly over the rooftops towards the city wall. Alarms and cries echo out over the entire capital as the defenders of the city begin to realize just what has happened.

Some of the more nervous rebels let out sighs of relief as the equines were out of sight, things had been intense and they had not been sure if the equines could be trusted. But they had proven to be trustworthy. For now at least.

Putting the case in a sling bag the older griffin looks at the others. "We're going back."

The small group took flight and began to fly along the streets toward the eastern part of the city. Using the buildings between the streets as cover from the watchful eyes of the Stonenest fortress. They needed to get back to their headquarters and give their leaders not only the map but also tell them what had happened.

Their duty was done and the other group had completed their part as well. No one in this group had died, only some sore limbs and exhausted bodies from an hour of hard digging.

Hopefully, the other explosion meant that the other group had similar luck. There was also the positive fact that these acts of sabotage would severely weaken the royalists. Now if only they could end this without more of their home being wrecked.

It was not very likely, but hey, they could hope.

[Scene Skip]

Within the secret lab of the artificers, there is a state of panic. It had been several days since they had received supplies and even the guards in the lab had no clue what was going on. Supplies were running out and even worse something had happened in the main experimentation chamber two days ago and the doors were buckling and groaning as if being put under high pressure.

And considering that they had been working on the captured husk of an alicorn it was no doubt that something bad had happened.

"We have to leave! Surely there is an emergency exit or something!" One of the guards shouted as all griffins in the labs were gathered in one of the meeting rooms discussing their options. They had to come to a decision. and quickly.

The most high-ranking artificer shook their head and motioned for the massive blue-tinted metal gates leading to the secret path leading into the larger tunnel connecting Eggstone to the Thunder Mountain Mines. "The labs were made to only be opened from the outside by two separate levers. King Craver ordered this function to ensure that even if a spy got inside, they would not be able to leave. Security is high for a reason. But for the guards outside to not respond from their artifacts can only mean that they are either dead or captured."

Frustration took over the guard who slammed a talon on the table and screeched in utter rage at the artifact crafter. "Then what do we do!? We have to get out of here before we starve or whatever is happening in the large experimental chamber breaks down the doors!"

There is a moment of silence among them before one of the younger artificers raises a talon. "We could try blowing up a hole in the ceiling by igniting a small number of Tears of Sorrow inside one of the airshafts. But that would be risky and not to mention likely to end with disaster."

Everyone stares at each other at the insane suggestion, but none of them can figure out a better option. So after a long moment of silence, the head artificer lets out a sigh before he walks over to some shelves to search through various scroll casings. "It is stupid and suicidal. But damn it if I cannot figure out a better solution. The ceiling of the cavern is held up by various support beams. If we can figure out which to break so we can open up a hole to the surface without crushing ourselves we will be able to fly out. I am certain the blueprints for the cavern will help us."

There is a moment of muttering before the guards and artificers start working on their best solution. The blueprints are pulled out from one of the bottom shelves after a few hours and they begin to examine the support beams and use the blueprints to determine the best location to avoid a wide-scale cave-in.

Several minor artifacts are tied to the support beams with improvised fire starters made out of thin cords soaked in tears of sorrow. Unknowingly creating the first primitive magic fuse.

The artificers finish setting everything up and the soaked cords have been tied up at a big distance away. Even though some of the material got spilled were there only minor mutations of soil on the bottom floor of the chamber so everything was fine thus far. And the cord was made up of the same material used in the protective suits so it was not affected.

Carefully the head artificer takes a wooden torch and lights it with a flint and steel, illuminating the room in red and yellow light, overthrowing the dim lights of the crystal artifacts used as lights on the walls. "We have double-checked everything, it is ready to be ignited. We, artificers, cannot do this part since our edicts forbid us from actively destroying artifacts, that does not apply to you guards, however."

There is a moment of awkward silence again as the guards look at each other and then at the torch, before the highest-ranking officer, a Lieutenant, steps forward and takes the torch from the artificer's grasp. "I will do it. I am the highest-ranking guard here so it falls to me to do this duty."

A sudden metallic pang is heard from below and all the griffins wince as the groan of buckling metal and cracking stone can be heard. The bolts holding the two large metal doors to the large testing and assembly chamber were starting to give away from the pressure.

As the officer turns to leave the head artificer grasps him by the wing and gives him a stern look. "As soon as you light the cord get to us as quickly as you can. Do not fly, it will only raise the risk of falling rocks hitting you or for the shockwave of the blast to knock the wind out of your wings."

Slowly nodding the officer continues to walk away from the rest of the survivors. He does not fly as instructed and walks along the catwalk, his paws patting along the cool metal and wood platforms built into the side of the cylindrical cavern walls. The fuses are only ten meters long, even after tearing up multiple safety suits they just weren't able to make enough cord for all the beams and get beyond ten meters.

The artificers had no idea how quickly the cord would burn if it would be enough to make the artifacts explode, nor how the roof would fall. They had no idea.

So with all dreading failure or catastrophe, there was almost no one who was shocked when the flames touched the cord, and the entire rope and the artifacts they were connected to, lit up brightly in a near instance. As if everything had been soaked and coated in flammable oil. The griffin doesn't even get a chance to react as the burning artifacts ignite.

First was the bright flash, then a near-instant after a loud boom, the entire cavern shakes, a wave of force knocks the griffins on their backs, followed by a wave of heat and fire. A loud groan echoes through the chamber before a loud crack is heard. The griffins scramble to get up from the floor. And as the dust cloud clears they look at the support beams and feel their hearts drop into their ribs at what they see.

The shattered and scorched corpse of the officer is spread out across the wall on the opposite side of where the beam had been. Creating a mess of ashen blood, burning cloth, molten metal, scorched bone, and burnt flesh unrecognizable from what it had once been an adult griffin. But all the beams were gone as planned. The problem was that the ceiling was only severely cracked, and not fully collapsed. And down below the rushing of liquid could be heard as a blue glow starts to light up the chamber.

The tears of sorrow were filling the chamber even faster now for some reason.

For a short moment, the griffins stare in silence before one of them frantically reaches into their coat and after a few seconds pulls out another artifact. And then snatches the flint and steel out of the stunned head artificer's claw before taking flight towards the cracked ceiling. The head artificer snaps out of his shock as he realizes what is happening. If a single spark of the ignited artifacts hits the liquid below it would be the end of not only the capital but a good portion of the Maw of the World! "STOP YOU FOOL! YOU WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING BETWEEN LIGHTNING PEAK AND THE EAGLE COAST IF YOU IGNITE THE MAIN MASS BELOW!"

It might have been an exaggeration, as he had no clue how much force the mass below would do when ignited. But considering how powerful the forces of a single one-ounce vial of the stuff was? One could not blame him for it.

A mad flutter of flapping wings and screeching eagle cries fills the air as all the griffins chase after the suicidal artificer. They fly out over the slowly filling chamber and grasp him by the robe. A mad brawl erupts in the air of the slowly filling chamber. feathers, fur, blood, and cloth being torn off the griffins as they fought to contain the mad bird. Mutated life forms grow out of the liquid but quickly dissolve within it, unable to survive for long within the liquid itself.

Then a loud rumbling sound is heard, not from below, but above. and all the griffins freeze in mid-struggle and look up in horror, as pieces of rock begin to fall down from above, as the ceiling buckles downwards like a bubble.

The head artificer screams out as he tries to fay, "GET-", but it is too late.

A rush of rock, dirt, grass, and other earthly materials comes rushing down onto the griffins. Their screams echo out of the chamber as they fall down towards the rising tide of death they had created in their hubris and ignorance. The last thing they would see was the cloudy sky above the Maw of the World, staring down at them like with a dull and disappointing gray stare before the tears of sorrow, enveloped them.

The griffins' bodies began to swell, distort, and buckle covered in glowing blue tumors that would grow out like fungi over their skin and flesh. But the most disturbing part was probably how their organs were responding. Eyeballs turn all blue while swelling to the size of apples before erupting out of the eye sockets like spore pods. Followed by long tendrils of brain matter connected to the tongue and eye nerves as they outgrow the space within the skulls. The eyes erupt into a blue goo that is swiftly absorbed by the liquid around. While other organs, bodily waste, and blood began to flow out of every orifice of the flailing and dying griffins.

Bones began to crack and snap as the pressure of the expanding mutating muscles put too much pressure on them. Their skull split open, revealing expanding brain matter growing more than ten times its original size. Their talons grew to the size of swords and grew more claws and even tendrils out of them.

Their beaks would fracture, expand, fracture, expand, and eventually split into four pieces before curling inwards, piercing the organs and expanding out of their beaks. Their feathers became various materials, metal, stone, flesh, fur, and even liquid.

And as they sank to the bottom, the pressure of the mana liquid all around them, increased so much, that their bodies were overgrown by the blue tumors, and they looked like floating pulsing blue, and red organs. Before said flesh bags popped like balloons, only leaving pieces of shattered bone. Reduced to nothing as the expanding mass of radiant magical liquid absorbs it all.

The liquid continues to expand even as the last griffins expire within it. The doors holding the entrance are far less durable than those to the experimentation chamber. And far less clean of organic matter. Expanding tendrils and liquids distort and crack the walls around the doorway before the door itself is dislodged and floats to the floor, and the mana flow floods the tunnels leading out to the hidden lab.

Expanding further, and further. Until it reaches another doorway. This one is made of wood. It doesn't even last a second. The blue liquid washes out over the catwalks of the main tunnel, the gates are closed on either side. But the liquid keeps filling it up, moving like a rapid through a mountain river to fill up the massive tunnel complex.

As the tunnel section is slowly filled up, the pressure on the large gates begins to increase. But the pressure is higher on the gate leading down, as it opens outwards rather than inwards, unlike the higher gate. And with the increasing rise of mutated matter along every crevice of the cavern, the gate only lasts for a few hours before it is pushed ajar.

And with a weak point now clear the pressure of the magic liquid pushes through like a tidal wave and flows like a flash flood down the tunnels. Smashing through each gate with increasing velocity as the tunnel gets steeper and steeper. Getting ever closer, to Thunder Mountain, and its mines.

But there were more sidepaths in the tunnel beyond the hidden lab. They lead to places used for sinister purposes never disclosed in official documents. Places even the more hardy of guards would prefer to keep away from. And the rising volume of liquid mana was pressing up into these sidepaths as well.

[Scene Skip]

Pain is the first thing Maleficus feels as he wakes up. His head is throbbing and aching as if he is constantly taking hits from an enraged Celestia armed with a solid gold war hammer.

His body feels stiff and light, an odd combination. And whenever he tries to open his eyes there is an intensely bright light that forces him to close them.

He feels so weak, like, his magical and physical strength has been completely drained away. He cannot call upon the power of his magic and yet his body feels lighter than he could remember. There was no heavy sensation of his heavy skeleton pushing him down with its sheer density and weight.

After an untold amount of time, his headache lessens slightly and his eyes adapt to the bright light. But what he sees when he regains his vision. Is something he was not expecting.

All around him was nothing but whiteness. It was as if you removed everything in existence and painted the darkness of the void white. It was so vast and empty that it seemed to go on forever.

"Wh-where am I?" His words echo through the white void seemingly without end and yet stop instantly. Not making his headache any easier.

But as he heard himself talk he noticed something else about himself. He had not been moving his mouth when he spoke. Nor could he feel himself breathing.

But his head was starting to hurt less at least.

Looking down at himself Maleficus' feels like he should be widening his eyes in shock and yet he cannot see his field of vision widening, nor the sensation of said reaction. What he sees is not a body of physical elements like flesh, bone, and so on. But instead, a smoke and wisp-like body made of what could only be described as floating black smog.

He slowly pushes a smoky hoof-like limb through his torso and blinks as he cannot feel any resistance. And yet the limb seemingly melds with the rest of the smog until he pulls it out.

"This is weird." He turns his attention to the vast void of eye-tearing whiteness and tries to find a point of reference. And after a while, he spots something a bit far away floating in the white void. Its pale brown colour barely makes it noticeable in the void.

He tries to move forward as if walking. But all it does is make him rotate around like an astronaut in space. For being in a state of what he could only assume to be weightless he found it surprisingly difficult to move.

This was far different than when he transformed into a shadow, even in his shadowy form he still had weight, sensation, and other things this state was lacking.

Then an idea hits him. "Wait... while I cannot use magic... I did not use my magic to move around while I was a shadow. I only used magic to change into a shadow. Could this be similar?"

He tries to focus and mentally project his will to move as he did while moving in his shadow form, there is a sudden tugging sensation, and doesn't even have time to scream as out of nowhere a massive floating object slams into him. Or was it he who slammed into it?

There is no sensation of pain but he feels lightheaded and cannot see himself anymore, only scattered pieces of smog. After a few seconds, he tries to pull himself together, and in a weird sensation of a short and yet long time, his spectral body is reformed from the smog.

He looks at the large object he had slammed into and sees it is a large boulder of white marble that looks like it was once part of a massive staircase. with smaller fragments floating around it. And around him, he can see even more similar fragments, even large structures, and buildings floating around in the void.

And he could not help but feel like they were familiar. He would have to inspect the area a bit.

Not willing to risk flying off like a rail gun projectile he reaches out and steps onto the floating stone object. And as soon as he steps onto it he feels as if gravity has taken hold of him again and he stumbles a bit, nearly falling over. Even though he is still a ghostly specter.

After a few moments, he gets used to the strange sensation of gravity. Though he still feels weak and powerless, he can still move. It almost makes him wonder if this is what it felt like when he was human and not a demigod-like creature. It felt wrong somehow and yet, he didn't think it was bad. He just felt defenseless, unable to protect himself.

Walking up the broken fragment of the staircase Maleficus looks around. He can see floating stairs, landmarks, towers, roads, and even buildings. Some had intact columns, roofs, and statues. Most of it was broken into pieces, fractured, but some pieces of the destroyed city around him were still rather intact.

Looking over to the closest piece to the piece of stairs he was on the alicorn tries to jump to it as he doubts it is dangerous to step off the pieces. And he is correct. He floats over the distance with a slow momentum instead of the super speed he had experienced before. As his smog-like limbs touch the surface of the marble staircase he hears the sound of pouring ashes mixed with bubbling of freshly poured carbonated water or soda.

The piece he is one of is connected to a walkway that leads to a massive building that looks like a Greek temple on steroids. The columns stand like the pillars of the kingdom of Moria in Lord of the Rings around the outsides of the building. Holding up a pyramid-shaped roof. the structure was still mainly intact but several parts of it were broken off or fractured, floating out like small satellites around it.

With ghostly hoof steps, he walks past the massive columns of pearl-white marble and enters a vast open room with a massive obelisk. made of what looks like polished gold, standing in the center, standing half the height of the columns. Upon its surface were engravings that seemed to glow in various as one looked upon them.

All in all the alicorn could only think of a few ways to describe the room, "Wow. This looks so fucking cool.", and it was rather lacking. For there were no words to describe the splendor of the room.

Maleficus walks around the obelisk slowly, looking at it and the different areas of the massive room. The place was spotless, even the cracked and broken parts on the outside were not visible on the inside. This place was 100% intact. And that was strange considering he had seen some similar-sized buildings floating around in the white void that had been cracked in two. "This place looks surprisingly intact compared to the other pieces floating around. Wonder why that is."

As his pondering words echo through the chamber he suddenly feels a strange shiver run through him. Not like chills or goosebumps, more like... a sensation of something looking at him.

He stops in front of the obelisk and looks at its surface. The strange symbols and runes engraved upon it were impossible to decipher. There were even strange mosaics placed upon it that seemed to mostly envision a white alicorn with green eyes surrounded by a halo of light. He could see at least twenty such mosaics. Each with a different scene. But most of them seemed to be of the white alicorn creating cities, creatures, and even entire environments.

It felt... strange. Like he had seen it somewhere before. But he could not please it. It was a strange feeling of deja vu. But he could ponder that some other time. For now, he would have words with his silent observer or observers.

"I can sense you watching me. I am not here to cause trouble. And I apologize if I have. But you do not need to be afraid of me."

As his words echo through the large chamber there is no response. And neither is there any sign of movement. But Maleficus remains still and silent, content to let his observer build up the courage to approach him on their own.

And then he sees a movement at the edge of his vision. He slowly turns his head and blinks in confusion as he sees what can only be described as a shapeless blob of some kind of liquid-like substance. It was transparent and if not for the fact that its pale blue colouration he would have had a hard time spotting it.

The shapeless entity floats slowly over the marble floor until it stops a dozen meters away from the alicorn. And then its body seems to shimmer with colours as a reverbing light voice comes out of it. "We apologize. We were curious about you. We can sense your strength, even as weakened as you are your power is filling the space around you like a blanket."

For a moment all Maleficus does is stare at the floating blob as he tries to figure out what it is. But as he looks upon it and more clearly senses its energy he remembers something he had felt a while back. Back when he acted as a medium for the lost souls to materialize in the physical realm to combat the dragon Talos. "Wait a minute... you're... a soul? You feel like one at least."

The blob shimmers again as it responds and it floats a bit closer, clearly more relaxed than it had been before. "Yes. We are one of many lost souls who dwell here within this endless white void. Most of us have lost our sense of self and just roam around in senseless apathy. But a few of us have some recollection left to maintain our sanity."

That rang alarm bells in the alicorn's mind. For what reason were souls lost within this vast empty space? In the physical realm, at least lost souls were explained as restless spirits with unfinished businesses. But this? Why were there lost souls in this white void?

"Should you not have reached the afterlife or been reincarnated by now? I thought there were guides and paths for departed souls made by the gods." Maleficus was not an expert on the afterlife but he knew that the Old Religion was somehow connected to an outside force. Their prayers and blessings were by no means created by conventional magic, it was more like something was granting them the power to enact the blessings. Gods, spirits, and other such entities were the only things that Maleficus could think of that could grant such things.

And if the gods of this world could grant powers. Why was there an entire limbo-like dimension with souls without guidance to the afterlife?

Though apparently, the soul he was talking to had no clue themselves. "The gods? We do not remember anything of our past life or much of our time here in the void. But the only entities we've ever seen here are ourselves or the glowing ones. Frankly, we do not even know what a god is supposed to be."

"The glowing ones?" If there were other entities within this void than the souls of the deceased, they might be connected to the gods. But Maleficus doubted it since it made little sense for agents of gods to leave souls to linger in emptiness.

It was weird but he thought the soul was trying to nod at him as it floated up and down at his question. "Yes. We do not know why but once in a while a lost soul with a green glow will enter the void after death, and the glowing ones come to claim them. We have not seen any glowing ones for what feels like a long time, however."

An uncomfortable feeling began to fill him at that. He had a feeling those entities didn't ask for permission before claiming those green souls. "I see. So you have been stuck here in the void for how long?"

The blob's upper portion moved back and forth as if tilting its head or possibly going into a thinking pose. Hard to tell without a body. "Too long to tell. Time does not flow in the same way in the void. This place of floating ruins for example is called the Remnants by the few of us who have retained our sense of self. We do not know where it comes from but we do know time flows differently for those within it. It helps us maintain our sanity."

It made sense, if all someone had around them was an empty void of nothing it would not take long for someone to break apart mentally. Even if there were more than one soul Maleficus doubted many of them could speak, for if it was true that time acted differently in this dimension then it could not be easy to interact with one another. "I see. I take it these glowing ones are rather frequent here than for you to remember them?"

The soul twists and shifts as it talks, trying to use body language again. But Maleficus could not even guess what it was trying to signal this time. "Yes and no. They have not been active ever since the Remnants appeared in the void. But before then they would frequently come to claim specific green souls."

That uncomfortable feeling he felt before had returned, and much stronger at that. For what reason would those entities only claim specific souls? "Wait. Specific green souls? Not all of them? What made these souls more specific than being green? And what did they look like?"

Again the soul shifts as it talks. But Maleficus just stopped paying attention to its strange movements. He was more focused on the words it was speaking. "They look like strangely upright apes, covered in metal armour, with bird-like wings and glowing circles behind their heads. They would come wielding weapons of gold they would stab the green souls with to capture them by absorbing them into the weapons."

If Malefiocus could have been gaping with wide eyes and dropped jaw he would. but instead, his body of shadowy miasma seemingly froze in movement, as if stopped in time.

Ignoring, or not noticing, Maleficus' shaken state the soul kept talking. Seemingly enjoying having a decent conversation for once. "And the green souls they took had split personalities, they would blabber, scream, or even moan in various voices. As if they had lived multiple lives."

*Wait what? Were those fake angels harvesting reincarnated green souls from this void? I thought they were capturing the souls of humans through a connection with limbo. Why would they...* The uncomfortable feeling was growing even more intense and Maleficus would have felt ill had he had a physical body. He thinks about the angels and the massive city he destroyed to free his parents' souls.

And then his attention is grabbed by the soul speaking up one more time. "But they have not appeared ever since the remnants arrived. We do not know how they came to be here but we do remember a loud explosion and a strange bluish light colouring the void for a short moment before they appeared."

The alicorn's eyes widen and without a word he starts running/floating out of the structure, leaving the confused soul behind. As he reaches the exit he looks upwards and focuses his sight on a specific point in the distance and as he does he sees it. The broken and shattered remains of the massive pillar that had been the central structure of the celestial city where he had destroyed the false heaven. "That's the... but... HOW!?!? THIS MAKES NO DAMN SENSE!"

In an attempt to calm down, Maleficus slams his head against the surface of a column, ignoring how his smog-like head breaks apart into wisps. After a few moments, he gathers his head together, slowly, while he tries to make sense of it all. He misses the sensation of having a physical body, as he cannot feel the sensation of his head resting against the surface of the pillar, it probably would have helped him calm down faster.

The curious soul floats out from the exit and silently watches as the alicorn mutters and grumbles while trying to rest his head against a stone column. After a couple of moments, the alicorn tries to take a breath, only to imitate the sound of a sigh as he realizes he has no lungs in his current state. *Dammit... I cannot get any answers for now. I will need to get back here sometime in the future. But for now, I should focus on a way back to my body in the physical realm.*

After having calmed down he turns to the soul who patiently floats nearby. "Sorry about my behavior."

But the soul wasn't offended, in fact, it seemed to be concerned for him. "Manners is not something many of us care about, being dead and all. But are you alright? You seemed upset for some reason."

Restraining a sarcastic question of why the soul was being so polite if he didn't care about manners Maleficus looks out towards the towering spire and its broken fragments. "Bad memories about hasty acts and assumptions making a mess of my life." *And apparently, the afterlife.*

The soul is silent for a short moment before it starts to shimmer and speak again while slowly floating along a path of floating pieces of marble. "I see. Well, for now, do you wish for me to lead you to some of the other lost souls here in the remnants?"

Nodding the alicorn eagerly starts following the blob through the floating structures. "Yes, thank you. And if possible. Do you remember how you came to enter this void after you died? Or have you seen how souls enter it?"

Slowly the lost soul leads the spectral alicorn, talking whilst doing so. And Maleicus listens carefully as he follows. "We do not remember how we died, or how we came to be here. Not even our name or gender is known to us. But we have seen others who have died and come to this place. There is a flickering cloud of various sizes, colouration, and brightness. Some are even black."

The soul keeps yammering as it guides the alicorn. Their path leads them toward what looks like a large amphitheater, that has been broken in half. "It is not often anyone is close enough to see what happens in the fog but we have. What we have seen is that there is a small point within the fog that looks like a small sphere that looks like it has a reflective surface. But if you are close enough you can make out an image within its core. The image is often a vision of an area, some souls say it is where they died and lingered after death. Whilst others say it is a location they do not remember."

*That sphere must be a path to the physical realm. A lot like how my black beacons work, only, they are connected to each other by the resonance of the energy I made them with rather than the runic array I connected them with. Like an extra-dimensional radio signal between two walkie-talkies instead of a metaphysical telegraph line network.* Maleficus thinks as he silently listens and follows his guide through the wrecked celestial city. Every now and then the broken shape of an angel could be seen, the bodies reduced to fragments of transparent glass and gold floating in the ruins. And Maleficus would flinch a little each time he saw one, as he was forced to witness the final memories of each fake angel as they died from his rampage.

*Tsk! Spiteful bastards! Even after I destroyed them they somehow have a way to attack me!* If he had been physical his teeth would be grinding but instead, the eyes of his spectral body would glow brighter as his temper rose. But other than that he just had to bear with the mental assaults by the remains of the fake celestials.

After an untold time of travel, the lost soul speaks up as they approach a large open space that looks like a high-status market square made out of marble. And even as the soul speaks Maleficus stares in awe at the massive gathering of souls in front of him. "We are here. This plaza is where we and a small number of our fellow sane lost souls stay."

Maleficus looks at the open square and the several thousands of floating blobs moving around and talking with each other with their bodies shimmering like gaseous disco balls. There were so many of them they were even filling up parts of the open space above the plaza like colourful clouds.

For a short moment, he just wanted to smack himself asleep to stop the strange day he was having. But instead, he took it with stride and asked the most obvious question. "This is a few? There must be well over ten thousand of you."

The soul bobs a little as it responds. "several other locations within the remnants hold gathering points for us. And yes, several other locations within the remnants hold even larger numbers of our fellow souls."

"Wow. So why are you gathered at this place? I mean there are other areas with larger space. Like that big amphitheater over there." He points a smoke-like hoof at the two halves of the floating structure. Far more massive than the square the souls were currently gathering at.

For a moment the soul is silent and motionless. Then it slowly floats forward. Curious Maleficus silently follows as they move through the crowd of lost souls who moved aside as the alicorn moves across the plaza.

As they began to approach the center of the plaza the soul begins to speak, while in the distance Maleficus can barely make out something dark floating in the empty space above the plaza. "We gather here because there is an anomaly here that attracts our attention. Like at the other places. We cannot explain what it is or why we can feel its presence. But it pulls at us and makes us gather around it. We can leave it if we wish but not many do."

The closer they came the clearer the shape of the dark thing became. And as it came into full sight Maleficus' eyes began to widen as he realized what the so-called anomaly was. Seemingly ignorant of the alicorn's mental state the soul kept talking. "Some souls have approached it and touched it, they have disappeared. Thus we do not touch it anymore. We do not know what this anomaly is. But even though we do not know what it is, it attracts us still by its mere presence in this void."

It was a black object, as dark as the darkness between stars and planets. Yet along its shape were golden lines glowing with a mystical light. Their illuminated shapes form a complex pattern of runes that lights up the edges of its pyramid shape. The center is dark and yet the runes can be seen as if it is transparent, and yet you cannot see through the darkness.

The soul, along with some others, jerks in surprise as they see the alicorn walk out of the circle they had been gathered around the anomaly. Frantically they float out to stop him but they pass through his smog-like body, unable to halt his approach towards the black pyramid, shouting out warnings to him. "Wait! Stop! Do not touch it! You will disappear like the others to places unknown!"

But Maleficus is too busy trying to figure out why and how one of his black beacons has reached the vast white void. *That's a black beacon. But how? It should not be here. Why is it here?* Stepping forward Maleficus ignores the panicked warnings from the souls around him and reaches the black pyramid.

Reaching out with a spectral hoof Maleficus touches the void of the black beacon. And the souls all around him fall silent in shock as the alicorn begins to inspect the floating black pyramid without being sucked into it.

*Hmmm... The runes look like they have been inverted in a three-dimensional fashion as if the entire script was sucked into the middle of the pyramid shape and then pushed out in a mirror shape of its original structure. Wait... what's this?* Although the runes look inverted he could still make out the golden runes making up the enchantments he made to the solid light structure. It was without a doubt one of his beacons. But stranger still, there was something odd about the beacon itself. But he would have to interact with it more closely.

*Let me see if I can just... aha! This is amazing!* As soon as he connects himself metaphysically to the beacon he feels as if an empty hole in his body is being filled. Magical energy flows out of the beacon and into his spectral form replenishing his energy, and Maelficus can feel himself getting close to his old strength. And as the runes within the beacon glow, he can make out the pattern and though it looks weird he realizes just why the beacon might be here.

He had not considered it a possibility that the runic array could be considered enhanced internally and externally. *Since the runes were made on a surface of light I was naive to not consider the fact that the runes themselves were three-dimensional. I actually wrote two rune patterns, one being external and the other being inverted, mirrored, and focused inwards.*

The pyramid spins gently as he manipulates it, the golden runes within it tracing lights between each other, forming a small white point within its center that was slowly growing. A small sphere with an image within it. A wide smile grows across Maleficus' smoggy face as he realizes what this means. *And the inverted portion cane pattern has somehow created a connection to this dimension. Maybe this is the reason I am able to transport myself through them. Since I did not intend for them to have that purpose originally. Or maybe my essence in the beacon is what made the connection possible?*

He could have remained there just studying the beacon, to understand how it came to be as it did. But Maleficus was many things, or at least he thought of himself as such, but he was not one to ignore the plight of the souls staring at him. While he had only been in the white void briefly he could tell it was straining even for him to keep his own brings. And these souls had lost almost everything about themselves, even the gods of this world were seemingly ignoring them for some reason. Or unable to reach them.

But with the beacon, he could offer them a path. Just like he did to the souls in the physical realm. Only in a different direction.

"Let's give it a go then." He speaks his last thought out loud and turns to look at the souls staring at him. They had gathered so tightly to look at him that they were more like a fog of bluish, and some greenish, light than individual blobs at this point.

He wished he could have lungs to take a breath to calm down or to feel the sensation of hot and cold. Even if only to give him more focus. But there are barely any sensations in this space except for the stone he stands on. So he can only hope the souls sense the sincerity of his offer. "My name is Maleficus Victoria. I am an alicorn, a creature of high power in the physical and metaphysical sense. I am not sure how I came to be here, but I am here now and I won't stand idle as you suffer like this. So I shall do something the gods should at least have attempted ages ago. Offer you a path out."

The souls begin to shimmer in various colours as they speak to one another in low voices, causing the near-transparent fog of souls to look like a mixture of mist and natural rainbows. He cannot hear them but he does not need to. All he needs is for one of them to listen and accept, to show he can help them out of this white hell.

"I do not know how or why the deities of this world have not made a path to the afterlife for you. Nor do I fully understand how it works myself. But I have acted as a medium for lost souls in the physical world before, and as long as I have a connection to the physical world through this beacon. I can do the same for you." Looking over at the various shapeless forms the alicorn can see he has their attention. Even if only by the fact that they were gathering closer toward him.

On a roll, he keeps talking. Intent on informing them as much as he can about the path he offers. Even if he is ignorant of it himself, is it better than floating around in a featureless realm of emptiness? "If you were to go through the beacon as it is you run the risk of being sent to another plane, and it is unclear what other dimensional planes exist, at least I do not know much. I only know of this one, the physical realm, and the veil between dimensions, Limbo. I can offer you a direct path to the physical realm where you will have a higher chance of getting reincarnated or finding your specific afterlife."

The souls keep talking and murmuring. And by this point, some of them seem to be arguing for or against it. Maleficus wishes, oh so wishes, he could sigh in frustration. Just having a spectral body in a void, free of most sensations was not letting him vent or divert his feelings through physical motions or sensations.

After a bit, he had enough and just straight out asked the souls why they were hesitating. "Are you content to remain like this? Endlessly wandering without purpose? Without hope? Is that truly what you want?"

But the souls remain motionless even though Maleficus can practically feel their emotions through their stares, uncertainty, anxiety, curiosity, fear, anger, and more. It was almost too much to even make sense of. He knows it will take a bit more to convince them. And for that. He would need more than mere words. And he knew just how to do that. "If you need proof to see that I am serious. Then I shall give it to you."

[Start Tragic Theme Music: Sound of Silence by Disturbed]

[Lyrics Altered by Staadnauthursil]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Dg-g7t2l4

Disclaimer: I do not own anything copyrighted. This includes all of the lyrics and youtube videos I use to give a touch of flair to my stories, please support the official releases along with those who work hard on these great youtube videos. Please support the official release.

Maleficus slowly turns away from the silent shapeless forms of the lost souls. Instead, he looks at the small floating pyramid of darkness where the small vision of an open field of grass and flowers is seen. And then he steps forward and lets his spiritual body meld with it.

As the darkness of the dark beacon connects with him he feels a sudden rush of power and energy flow into his body. He holds out his forelegs, stands on his hind legs, and begins focusing. Remembering the sensation of the time he gave peace to the souls who aided him against the dragon lord Talos.

He would act as a focal point for the souls. Not as a link to summon them to the physical world, but as a connection to the dimensional gap his beacon had created. To offer them a path to find their afterlife. All he could do was offer them the chance, it was put to them to take it.

A dark mist begins to flow out of Maleficus's body and the lost souls watch silently as a strange unheard noise begins to fill the white void around them. And then Maleficus begins to sing.

"Hello darkness, my old friend."

"I need your aid once again."

The darkness flows and shifts, shifting into the shape of a near-perfect sphere. Nothing can be seen within, and yet the voice of the alicorn and the music flow out of it, reverting through the void. And into the shapeless bodies of the lost souls.

"Because a vision softly creeping."

"Left its seeds while I was sleeping."

The sphere of darkness expands a bit, and the souls carefully stay back as they witness the growth of the darkness.

"And the vision that was planted in my brain."

"Still remains."

Then the sphere erupts like an explosion and the souls barely have time to shout in fear and surprise as the entire plaza is covered in darkness. And begin to expand outwards towards the rest of the ruins.

"Within this void of silence."

The darkness floods the floating ruins, finding other lost souls gathered around other identical beacons.

"In somber eternity, I float alone."

"In a void of the unknown."

A group of souls watches in horror as the wave of shadows touches the floating pyramid. And as the two dark anomalies connect the darkness expands even faster. And as a side effect are more and more souls swallowed by the darkness in the process.

"A sudden sensation takes me in its grasp."

"I feel a draining touch so cold and damp."

In a mere moment is the entirety of the remnant covered in ink-black mist, even the massive spire at the center has been engulfed.

"When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a bright light."

"That removed my plight."

But then a light shines within the darkness and all the souls within could see, no matter the distance or obstacle, a large sphere of light floating in the center of the darkness.

"And touched the void of silence."

In the white orb floated Maleficus, his spectral body more solid and structured than before. And around the shape of Maleficus were colours starting to emerge out of the white light, emitting from his dark shape.

"And in the endless white I saw."

"Ten thousand souls, maybe more."

The colours began to shift and twist together, forming a lifelike image. A vision.

"Souls talking without speaking."

"Souls hearing without listening.

It is a vision of a land filled with plains covered with green grass and golden wheat. Snow-topped mountains. And clear water streams run through both.

"Souls offering silent prayers, their voices never shared!"

"And no one dared."

The vision moves as if it is the eye of a creature. It moves over the golden fields, showing farmsteads with ponies working and living their lives.

"Disturb the void of silence."

A mother is feeding her youngest foal freshly baked bread while the older foals help with minor tasks. And the father and the workers harvest the wheat with tools and wagons.

"Souls, said I, you do not know!"

"This silence need not grow!"

The vision moves past the farmstead and over a city of fine stone and wood buildings. Ponies and even some horses, walk through the streets and markets.

"Hear my words that I might teach you."

"Take heed and it might reach you."

A structure is seen at the edge of the vision. It is bright and vast, it holds a sense of dignity and importance.

"And my words, like silent chimes, fell."

"And echoed in the wells of silence."

It is not a castle but a temple. The temple of law in Canterlot. And through its open gates are ponies, horses, and even a single dragon moving.

"And yet the souls bowed and prayed!"

"To the gods whose answer they craved!"

The dragon is dressed in priestly robes fitted for their size, their gray scales fitting with the brown robes. And as the dragon approaches the large altar in the temple it bows in veneration along with the other priests and pilgrims in the large chamber.

"But then the darkness rumbled out its warning!"

"In the image that my soul was forming!"

In front of the altar stands an elderly pony priestess. Her voice chants forth prayers to the gods, a golden light emitting from the various statues decorating the altar. Shining upon not only the priest but the entire interior of the temple.

"And I say the ears of the divine are within those golden walls!"

"And their welcoming halls!"

The vision fades, the white light shrinks, and the darkness rapidly shrinks. And as if it all had been a dream, the vision of the white void and the ruins of the remnant was back. And only the echoing words of Maleficus Victoria could be heard.

"And beyond this void of silence."

The featureless entities stare at the ghost-like alicorn as he looks back at them. For a moment in eternity, all is silent in the void. And then one of the smaller shapeless souls floats forward to him and he holds out a hoof for them. And they take it.

[End Music]

There is a sudden sensation of wind, the scent of flowers, and the moisture of grass. And out of Maleficus's body, a swirling mass of pitch-black darkness flows out. reshaping his spectral body. It forms a black circle of rapidly spinning darkness, and within it can an image of the open landscapes of Equestria be seen. The small soul, still floating where his hoof had been, lets out a tingling sound of laughter. Before disappearing into the path held open by the darkness.

Maleficus reforms into a spectral spirit, the soul he held gone. And he looks upon the remaining lost souls of the white void, and he speaks again. "Her name was Sacred Bell. She was killed by griffins. All she wanted was to see her mother again before she died. I helped her remember, and now it is up to her to find her path after death."

All the souls start to shiver and twitch, some of them floating around in circles. Without looking away Maleficus holds out his hoof once more. The back portion of his body spreads out and reforms the swirling vortex, leaving only his front portion sticking out of the center. The small hole that shows a path to the physical realm reveals itself in front of the alicorn's spectral body, at the in-between where his shoulders should be. "All of you have a choice. Not many can say the same. Especially after death."

There is a moment of silence. Before slowly the lost souls of the endless white void, float forward and grasp onto the alicorn's hoof. And once more the darkness of the gap opens, and for the first time in a long time. Lost souls begin to leave the endless void.

[Scene Skip]

It never went noticed, how all of the dark beacons across the world suddenly began to shift, the darkness within holding the small visage of pure white in the center. It was never discovered how the souls of those lost for untold ages returned to the world.

But it was not only the beacons that acted as gateways.

A hippogriff sitting in a fine wooden room by a map-covered table, and drinking rum suddenly fell over and started coughing. A painful sensation was going through his upper chest as if he had swallowed something wrong. He would spend a good ten minutes coughing and punching his chest to try and relieve the pain until it suddenly went away.

Another was a young horse sage who was sleeping in his bed at the medical wing when it occurred. He suddenly woke up with a pained cry and began to stumble around until he fell off the bed and landed in a heap on the floor. A healer came running into the room after just a few moments and began to soothe the spasming foal as he clutched at his chest. Soon enough the foal was silently asleep again as the pain faded after around ten minutes. The healer put him back to bed before quickly going away to speak to the other healers and some of the scholars in the area about what had just occurred.

And lastly, there was the skeletal body of Maleficus himself, drowned in liquid mana within the artificer lab in Gryphon. The mana liquid around his bones began to shift and sway in prismatic colours as seemingly substanceless blobs began to move through the liquid mana like jellyfish. Most of them just moved out of the caverns and into the open hole in the sky above to find their new way in the afterlife. But some remained and began to interact with the still body of the alicorn.

And as they did there was a slight change in the flow of the mana liquid. Weak rippling pulses of some kind went through the water as thousands of souls gathered around the unconscious being. The bones of the dead griffins scattered around in the main chamber next to the lab began to twitch and shiver with each barely visible wave of the pulses.

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 23/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 8 Days]

The morning sun began to rise as the night ended, bringing forth the new day. But the light of the sun did not reach the land of Gryphon for it was covered in a thick layer of murky clouds. So even though the morning hour arrived the light took far longer than normal to illuminate the mountain chain known as the Maw of the World through the thick cloud layer.

Even a thick fog had risen during the early morning hours. Its thick white vapors make the areas outside of the city walls look like a sea of clouds. As if Eggstone itself was floating among the clouds.

Tension was high among the more experienced soldiers and officers who had been experiencing the equines' first assault on the walls. But they were a minority among the troops crewing the walls and towers now. Heck, several officers had gone to bed after enjoying a night of drinking and eating while only a few could barely catch a wink of rest.

But with the reinforcements, they had acquired through 'recruitment efforts' most of the griffins on the wall felt safer and thus less on guard. As they were almost equal in numbers to the invaders. Not to mention they had a few more air ships than they had a few days ago, they were able to sneak past the sky ships of the invaders several days ago and had now been repaired and fit for battle.

The slums behind the walls had been torn down and replaced with open empty spaces where small barracks and storage rooms were placed along the walls' inner sides. Large groups of tents were spread out across the area to give the soldiers a place to rest when not on the walls. This gave a lot of opportunities to let the defenders rest in shifts in good resting spots, even if they were a bit rough in appearance.

When there has been no open assault on the walls since the first attack occurred many griffins began to wonder if there even was any danger to be had. The artifacts had not blown up again, and the ponies and horses had not attempted to get closer to the walls. They were instead fortifying on the other side, and building, building, and building. But no one could figure out what they were doing. Not even with powerful scrying artifacts.

And that was probably the biggest flaw in how the griffins chose to handle the situation. They were utterly unused to having an enemy force besieging them on their own home turf. Being aerial creatures they had no tactics that involved ground forces besieging fortifications or defending them from such forces. They had always used flight or anti-air weapons like the lightning canon and ballistae to handle such issues.

So it is by the fault of complacency and lack of experience that they were completely unprepared for what came next.

The griffins still awake could hear the sound of equine war horns bellowing in the darkness beyond the walls.

Most of the lookouts began to survey the distance, hoping to use the torches or campfires of the equines to spot them. But it was still pitch dark.

One of the younger recruits was waiting for moonlight to come through the clouds when there was the slight noise of wood scraping against stone. And it came from below the wall. A shiver went down the young griff's spine as he noticed that nobody else had noticed this and there were no other guards nearby to ask for aid.

He was not willing to risk flying to contact the other guards and be shot by a pony ballista.

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva and anxiety the young griffin held up the spyglass to his eye and looked down where he had heard the noise. The barest sliver of moonlight touched the side of the wall for but a moment and the blurry and dark sight cleared up.

Down by the base of the wall, he could see wagons covered with dark tarps positioned directly next to the walls. And there were ponies and horses in the hundreds positioning the wagons. Each carrying what looked like metal boxes emitting small amounts of lights, and lanterns.

And even more horrifying were the twenty or so holes that had not been there yesterday evening.

*Those are tunnels! The ponies and horses dug tunnels to get close to the walls!* The young griffin thought to himself in a panic, and it was with that panic that he opened his beak and screamed out for all of the nearby guards to hear. Exposing his position as well.

[Start War/Battle Music: Two Steps From Hell - Myth (Official Music Video)]]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F-QJgC3lI8

"Enemies by the base of the wall!" The young griffin cried out as he had to duck back as an arrow nearly hit him as the ponies by the base of the wall fired at him.

And with that alarms began to ring out across the wall while shouts of griffins began to echo out over the silent night.

Down by the wall's base, the Auxilliary troops nearly went into a panic as they had been prematurely exposed, not every wagon was close to the wall yet! They nearly went into a retreat into the small tunnels leading back to the trenches. But the voice of one of the sergeants cried out at them and calmed them down. "Do not retreat! you will be exposed! Ignite the wagons as planned! The smoke will grant us cover as we retreat!"

Hooded lanterns and fire spells were thrown onto the various cloth-covered wagons and in a near instant, they went up in flames as the tar-covered cloth ignited. Igniting the bundles of still green lumber held within the wagons. The ignition itself was swift and rapid but the smoke would take time to rise. So the troops covered as best they could behind the slowly burning wagons as the griffins began to fire down at them with crossbows while some of the lightning cannons in the towers were being aimed toward them.

Then as the smoke rose to a good height the sergeants blew into a set of whistles and began to wave at the troops while starting to run back towards the trenches. While shouting out the order of retreat. "Back to the tunnels! Go! Go!"

At the commands of their sergeants, the Auxiliaries quickly retreat from the burning wagons. The burning green (fresh) wood released thick and dark columns of smoke which began to rise upwards over the city walls. Crossbow bolts and lightning strikes rain down upon them but they swiftly escape down their trenches and evade the worst of the attacks.

One of the soldiers got hit by a bolt as she ran at full gallop toward the tunnel. Her comrades quickly scooped her up and began to carry her through the tunnels as the bombardment behind them made the ground shake and quiver.

A massive cloud of smoke and ash rises above the stone wall of Eggstone. The irritating smoke forces many of the defenders to rub tearing eyes or clutch their chests while coughing. More arrows and spells fly through the smoke and splatter across the protective barriers of the towers. But the walls are far less defended with only a few protective artifacts to grant cover for the soldiers.

"Get one of the wind-based artifacts! Use it to fan away the smoke! We need a clear vision and now!" An older officer shouted out from his command center by one of the towers.

But his order came a bit too late as suddenly there was a rushing sound from behind the smoke and then black spheres came flying out of the smoke and impacted the top of the walls and the sides of the towers. Many closed their eyes in preparation for death or heavy impacts.

Instead what came was a series of loud splats and a horrid stench covering the walls. Many of the griffins clutching their beaks in disgust at the smell while others were more used to such smells inspected the black sticky mess that now covered the walls.

One of them sniffed it and his eyes widened in recognition. *Is this-*

But he never finished his thought as the sound of large fluttering projectiles was heard, followed by loud clanging impacts. And then his and a hundred more lives were snuffed out as the entire city wall of Eggstone suddenly went ablaze.

[Scene Skip]

Meanwhile on the side of the ponies was a line of horses and ponies standing ready by rows of siege weapons. They were waiting for the signal to fire so as to not risk hitting the brave sappers who had just covered the walls in a massive smoke screen.

The crews had aligned their weapons and calculated the points of impact accordingly hours before the start of the siege. All that was left was the signal.

And it came in the form of the voice of Warlord Thunder Hammer, rumbling out over the dark night. "FIRE!"

The first group executing the order was the catapults. Their simple spoon-shaped launcher hides enchantments and runes adding power to the siege engine's power, range, and most importantly, stability.

For what they were firing was not rock or stone. It was large orbs of liquid tar held together by an alchemical mixture that acted like a powerful membrane to contain the tar. It was painfully difficult to produce these projectiles as they could only be produced in places where they could be fired. So one would have to carry tar with them and then gather it together in a giant cauldron before adding the alchemical compound to make the tar safe to place on the catapults.

The enchantments on the catapults were the only thing keeping the projectiles from breaking apart when fired out of the catapults. But there was still a risk that some of the spheres would break before hitting the wall just from air resistance. But with the smoke in the way it was impossible to tell.

Sure some of the tar balls would fly low or high, but their entire purpose was to spread their content over the walls. As long as the majority hit the walls there was no issue. It was the second rank of siege engines that were essential in making the initial assault on the walls as effective as possible. The ballistae.

For they were firing low-grade explosive bolts. Aimed not at weak points or specific structures. But at the wall itself. And ignite the tar covering it.

And it was effective. Almost too much so as after the first bolt hit the city wall there was a rush of light and heat as the night sky was illuminated by the intense inferno burning across the top and bottom of the city wall. Followed by the screams and screeches of panicking and/or burning griffins. Burning bodies of griffins could be seen leaping off the wall, plunging to their doom.

Griffins came forth with pumps and began to blow out sand over the burning tar. This was not the first time griffins had to combat fire, and water was scarce in the mountains. Thus they developed a pump that would suck up and expel sand, which they used to smother the fires. And with the burning tar, it was very effective, climbing up and killing the flames far more rapidly than water ever could.

But the purpose of the flames was not to kill, even if it was brutally efficient at that as well. No. The flames had another purpose that became clear when the last line of siege engines fired, the Energy Cannons and the already burning walls of Eggstone began to be bombarded by rapid-fire shoots of blue arcane bolts of energy. Each bolt was infused with intense cold and would create large explosions of ice on impact.

And when this super cold magic struck the superheated solid rock of the wall and manifested its icy explosion there was a volatile reaction.

A flash of blue light erupts from the point of impact. The light seemingly grows solid and becomes a blooming ball of frosty ice. There is a brief sizzling sound from the rock beneath the ice before a loud cracking sound is heard followed by a loud bang as the ice and rock detonate from the rapid change in temperature. A small indentation or large crack would form by the point of the detonation. And on its own, the explosion was as effective as an ant trying to bite a dragon.

But with the energy cannons being able to rapidly fire there were thousands of bolts striking the wall every couple of seconds. The massive amount of explosions across the surface of the city wall was not only tearing bigger and bigger holes into the solid rock but the explosive force itself was shaking the entire wall with the power of a thousand tremors.

For the griffins standing on the wall or within the towers, it was hell as they kept falling over, various gear, even siege engines, began to fall over or take damage. Even if it was only by the central region of the city wall this was occurring was it still a large area and the tremors could be felt almost all over the wall.

But with the majority of the defenders in the area of the shaking, it would be difficult to notice such things when they were struggling to survive the bombardment.

Which doesn't seem to stop as the energy cannons just keep on firing. The improvements in their designs, since their first debuted in the Eastern Expansion, are clear as day.

[Scene Skip]

A torrent of blue energy strikes across the high portion of the wall. Several griffins scream out in pain as the following explosions send them flying back in a rain of stone shards and arcane energy. One in five survives but most of the 'lucky' survivors are knocked unconscious on the battlements, their bodies tumbling and rolling about as the constant tremors shake everything around.

One brave old griffin flies low and reaches out to grab one of the unconscious griffins as they tumble towards an exposed hatchway. The old warrior pulls the unconscious shape away from the opening and drags them to the rear of the battlements by one of the towers, hoping the tower would offer more protection from the explosions and shaking.

As soon as the bombardment began it ended, and for a short moment, everything went still on the battlements. The old warrior shakes the younger griffin he just pulled to safety, pouring some water over his face and beak to wake him. "Hey. You okay lad?"

The young griff wakes up coughing blood and saliva onto the stone floor beneath him. After a few moments of coughing the younger warrior rubs his face with the back of his talons and blinkingly mumbles. "Bwuh... Wha? What happened."

A strong claw grasps the young griff by the side and helps him stand up while its owner speaks. "You went unconscious after one of those blasts tossed you to the ground like a fumbling goat."

Leaning against his elder the griffin tries to look around but closes his eyes as his vision is blurry and distorted. Not to mention the powerful headache he was currently experiencing. "My head hurts... how bad is it?"

The elder puts a wet rag on the youngster's beak and the cooling sensation helps with the pain a bit. He could not move properly though and had to keep leaning against the older griff to not fall over. "You only have a light head injury from what I can tell. You need to keep awake until the pain passes."

Their conversation was broken as a voice cried out nearby. "More shoots are incoming! TAKE COVER!"

Another wave of energy bolts strikes a tower and a portion of the burnt surface detonates. Exposing bits of the interior where the burnt furniture and griffin corpses can barely be seen within the soot and ash-filled rooms and halls.

The two griffins remained hunkered in the corner and looked at each other as the frosty explosions caused the walls to shake once more. But with far less intensity now that the superheated rocks had been cooled by the first volley.

Looking up from his cover the older soldier carefully checks his crossbow while looking at the explosions of frost and ice spraying blue light over the edge of the wall. *Well at least the walls are tough enough to not collapse from all this. Though I wonder why they keep firing at us, those explosions are far weaker than the last ones-* But the older griffin's train of thought was broken by the cry from one of the lookouts.

“What in the name of the skies are those!?” And soon others could see the approaching things, even from the safety of the battlements it was impossible to miss what was approaching the walls.

Massive structures on wheels could be seen rolling up toward the city walls. There were no visible soldiers to push them and each of these four massive wooden towers was around two-thirds the height of the wall. Covered with lines of copper plates and chains, with the wheels having half-meter-long spikes piercing into the dirt as they were being moved up toward the walls.

Thunderous and bright arcs of blue plasma streak through the air as the lightning cannons fire, aimed toward the approaching towers of wood and metal. A lot of the electrical beams struck the open ground between or around the siege engines but most of them struck dead center at the massive structures.

The old and young griffs looked at each other in confusion as to why the ponies were sending such structures at the wall, they did not look tall enough to reach them. But they decided that they'd rather not find out and began to move towards the large tower nearby in case they needed to get away from danger.

A loud voice shouts out from the nearby artilleries of lightning cannons and an officer in his traditional kilt and breastplate with a claymore was pointing at the towers with his weapon while shouting orders. "Aim the cannons at those things and destroy them before they get to the walls! We do not need to find out what they intend to do"

Cannon crews shifted and moved their cannons to the best of their capacity, forced to add small rocks and timbers to the rear portion of the large weapons while lifting them up with iron rods as there was no other way to aim down for the weapons. It takes them a couple of minutes but the cannons are soon aligned with the approaching towers who by now are halfway towards the wall. Moving surprisingly quickly over the arid and rocky landscape beyond the walls.

And as the cannons were ready the officer shouted out the order to fire. "Scaoil!"

Bright flashes of light cover the siege towers as the lightning bolts impact, resounding booms echo out from the explosion, with thick dust clouds covering the siege towers from view as a side effect. The sound of cheering griffins can be heard from the city walls at the perceived success. But as the dust clouds clear their cheer abruptly ends at the sight of the siege towers still rolling forward, completely unharmed.

Officers start to cry out orders when suddenly there is a series of loud thumping sounds followed by ear-ringing cracks of something metal hitting and piercing rock. Some of the brave, curious, and foolish, looked over the edge of the battlements and cried out in alarm. "They have shot giant bolts into the walls! They aimed for the holes created by the explosions! There are chains connecting them to those strange towers!"

The older griffin flinches as he hears that. "Oh, that is not good."

"I know they can break apart the wall further with that." The younger griffin said as they both went inside the tower.

But the elder shook his head at that. If it was only that simple. "No. It is far worse. Those chains are not for tearing things apart."

A loud outcry of panic can be heard from outside the tower's walls as the sound of clicking metal begins to echo loudly from below the edge of the battlements. "What is that!?"

"Those chains are for pulling things up." A loud sound of grinding metal and groaning wood is heard before four loud heavy impacts crack against the city wall, shaking it lightly. Followed by the sound of charging hooves and battle cries.

The young griff took a glance out of one of the arrow slits and winced at what he saw. A ramp with a large metal wedge on the end had slammed down on top of the battlement from where one of the towers was and now ponies were rushing up to the walls, fighting griffins.

Those ballista bolts had acted as support points for several long chains connected to long wood and iron ramps built into the mobile towers. They had never seen them as the ramps had been resting upside down on the back of the towers. The ponies and horses had somehow managed to pull those chains enough to flip up those extra-long ramps and secure them to the walls with large claw-like clamps on the end. Thus creating a path for the ponies and horses to get up on the walls.

For the first time in history, the city walls of Eggstone have been climbed by an enemy force.

[End Music]

He felt a claw grip his side and saw the old griffin nod towards the stairs leading down. "The ponies will not be able to enter the tower until they clear the walls. We still have a chance to escape into the city."

In desperation, the young soldier nodded, and together with the elder the two soldiers began to descend the tower. And after a short while they had reached the gate to the base floor, narrowly avoiding a rush of soldiers running and flying up the stairs to get to the battlements.

They then left the tower and began to walk out of the camp by the city walls and into the slums. The panicking soldiers and officers never noticed the two soldiers deserting the battlefield. And they were far from the only ones taking the chance to escape in the middle of the chaos.

[Scene Skip]

The tunnel that led to Thunder Mountain was long and wide with several side paths leading to specific areas utilized by the guards and soldiers protecting the place for a sinister purpose. Mass graves.

Ever since the coup performed by King Craver over two decades ago, there has been a constant inflow of slaves and bodies in the tunnel. Dead griffin nobles and military officers would often be burned with cremations and placed in urns. But their enemies and the lower class citizens were considered unworthy of such honour and were just thrown away to rot. And with the constant flow of bodies from war, slave labour, assassinations, disease, and other maladies the city needed a place to dump them.

The massive tunnel was perfect for disposing of the bodies as it was far more than a singular shaft. It had several natural tunnels that led to caverns with deep chasms and pits perfect for this purpose. And when the corpse pits were filled up those side tunnels were just closed off and new ones were made in other side tunnels.

But there were more than griffins in these pits. Various creatures had their corpses tossed into the pits. Some had to be cut apart to be thrown down because of their size. Dragons, zebras, ponies, diamond dogs, reptiles, and so on. It was a multicultural cesspit of corpses, a tribute to the rotten core of the Gryphon Kingdom.

The slaves who worked the thunder stone mines had a nickname for the various side tunnels and their grim secret. The Rot Tunnels. Even though they did not know where those who died were taken was it not hard to assume it was connected to those tunnels. The stank of rotten flesh would periodically flow out of the corpse pits, even the closed ones, and flow through it and even make even the hardier guards sick to the gut from the stench.

And now were these side tunnels being flooded up by the flowing mass of liquid mana called Tears of Sorrow being generated by Maleficus. The hidden doorways buckled and cracked at the pressure from the rising mass. And one by one they broke down and the arcane fluids flooded the sidepaths and began to flow down into the corpse pits. However, some of the tunnels were too collapsed for the liquid to get through quickly.

The rotting bodies were engulfed by the liquid and seemed to dissolve into it like most organic materials. But as the liquid mana absorbers the bones, there is a sudden flare of light from the liquid and the bones stop being dissolved. Instead, the now glowing bones begin to float upwards through the mana, as if carried by a current.

As more and more of the tunnels are broken down by the radiating liquid the currents created by its flow lift up every scrap of bone and decay off the corpse pits. Forming gruesome whirlpools within the pits, filled with the flowing carcasses of countless dead. As the current swallows up the bodies and pulls them into the whirlpools the corpses are cleaned of flesh and other soft tissues. And as the bones are cleaned of all the decay they begin to flow up through the whirlpools and then out through the tunnels. Going further and further away from the corpse pits and towards the main tunnel. And as they move their once rigid shapes shift and twist as if made of clay.

Like a massive school of fish, the bones flow through the tunnel. Moving in synch their shapes are molded and reshaped. Mixed and altered as if being reforged by a skilled crafter.

Finally, the bones reach the hidden lab and begin to move in a circular motion within the glowing blue liquid. The glow of the liquid has dimmed but the bones themselves still glow. The speed of the bones does not decrease and instead increases. A twisting maelstrom is formed from the spinning bits of calcium and a vortex appears on the rising surface of the liquid.

Sparks begin to emit from the spinning bones and the chamber quivers and shakes, the hole in the ceiling expanding further and further. Rocks, dirt, soil, and even plants plummet into the radiating blue liquid, whatever organic matter is broken down into nothing, leaving only the bare stones and pebbles to reach the bottom. And even that seems slightly altered by the magical fluid.

And so it keeps going, with more and more bones being absorbed through the many mass graves in the tunnel, making the maelstrom grow larger with each passing hour. And yet nothing seems to be happening beyond the strange movement of the bones and the sparks they now emit.

Until strands of what appeared to be flesh and nerves began to grow upon the reforming bones as they began to connect to one another. Whatever was taking form within the magical liquid, their skeletons were all taking on similar equine shapes. And slowly but surely more and more of these skeletons were being shaped within the liquid mana, and even without organs or muscles, the skeletons were moving their joints as if swimming.

And soon the skeletons move through the secret tunnels toward the hidden lab, and as they get closer to the source of the mana. Flecks of rapidly growing organic tissue can be seen creeping over all of their bones.

[Scene Skip]

In the city of Canterlot there has been a steady rise of tension and fear among the population for the past couple of weeks. It had only been rumours at first. The tales of diamond dogs spreading horror stories and lies to infiltrate pony society. But as time went by more and more stories about fleeing diamond dogs, stampeding animals, and hooded figures climbing through the mountains.

Well, that and the growing dark speck in the distant sky that could only be the rumored dark cloud expanding over the Foal Mountains. That was kind of a clue that something bad was going on.

Within the Temple of Law, several high-ranking officers, priests, adventurers, and knights of various organizations of the kingdom were gathered around a long oval table and currently arguing about something. Placed by the end of the table Grand Music and his wife Happy Meal were both standing next to the table along with the High Priestess and the horse warlord Sacred Sword, dressed in her armour, though without her helmet, representing the Horadrim. But there was one odd person out of this crowd of horses and ponies who was just as calm as them.

Sitting on a chair by the large round table facing the four equine leaders was an elderly Diamond Dog dressed in a tribal shaman outfit, dark brown leather robe with a hood made out of the hide of a large reptile. Pieces of bones, raw ore, feathers, claws, and dried herbs were tied around a long wooden staff with a long leather cord, the top of the staff holding a large raw piece of quartz.

The Diamond Dog was old, both of his fur and eyes pale gray. His sight was gone from either age or sickness. And yet everybody in the room knew he was looking at them. He has a large scar running over the front of his muzzle, cutting up half of his nose and the center of the left side of his mouth, revealing parts of his gums and teeth.

Grand Music raised a hoof and struck the table, silencing the arguing ponies and horses with a loud crack. As things calmed down he looked at the diamond dog elder once more. "Could you please repeat what you just told us Elder Rocktooth? I am sorry all that yelling made it hard for my brain to register it all."

He gave a light glare at those in the room who had been causing a ruckus and they all stiffened up and shut their muzzles.

The old dog nodded and spoke up again. His rough and growling voice sounded off when he spoke equine but at least it was comprehensible, unlike other diamond dogs Grand Music had met in the past. "A darkness grows somewhere in the Tall Peaks. Many hunters and warriors go missing. Wild beasts and small critters running away from mountains. Plants no longer grow and start withering. It is warm season, yet no flowers grow."

Rocktooth then points with his staff at the withered plant placed on the table. It was a wild carrot that looked like it was half rotten and yet half grown. "Rocktooth does not know where darkness is coming from. Emerald Paws be strong pack, but pack not able to handle sickness of the peaks. Not able to prepare for winter with no growth or prey. Constant uneasy feeling, like predator stalking you, day and night. Sleep and rest not feel comfortable anymore. Scary sounds and weird robed things all over the peaks."

The old dog raises his left paw into the air and mimics a person walking with his right paw on the knuckles of his left paw. "Rocktooth take pack and leave peaks. Flee the darkness. Meet ponies and horses. More packs flee. Most packs not know where darkness is but other packs speak of great pit of darkness, strange weather, and off color sky fires."

He then uses both paws to draw a pit in the air and other weird things the equines can't follow. "Not know where place is, Diamond Dogs not use land painting nor know how to use. But we know that the area where darkness come from is filled with the sound of weird song and clucking birds where once great mountain stand before horses take mountain into sky. And then ponies and horses go bonkers when Rocktooth explain this."

"For good reasons, I assure you Elder Rocktooth." The High Priestess said in a respectful tone to the old diamond dog who just gave her a curious look.

One of the unicorn nobles stood up and pointed a hoof at one of the horses with an angry shout coming out of their mouth. "Their carelessness of ripping out mountains might be the cause of this approaching disaster!"

The horse did not like to be pointed out and bristled under the pointing but remained quiet. But another horse dressed in the robes of a sage stood up and glared at the noble. "We made sure nothing lay dormant or sealed beneath the mountains we took! We sages spent months scanning those peaks down to the bedrock and in some places even as far down as the lava layer! NOTHING dangerous was under those mountains beyond molten rock!"

"Quiet!" Grand Music barked out, his horn emitting a loud clang as he channeled forth his magic to mimic the sound of a loud gong. Making the others in the room flinch at the loud noise and calm down. Elder Rocktooth flinched a bit but didn't make much of a reaction to it.

The Grand Master of the Golden Order then sighs a bit before giving the horse warlord next to him a polite request. "Warlord Sacred Sword. Is there anything you can tell us about the locations you removed the mountains from?"

"Of course Grand Master." The mare points at a nearby Horadrim sage who comes over with a large sealed scroll case. After opening the case a large map is removed and unfolded over the table. Revealing a map of the Foal Mountains upon which several Xs are marked in black ink.

Sacred Sword points at the map with her dagger and circles the tip around the area, marking out how far apart and isolated the markings are. "Each location we used was marked as isolated or distant. In case of an accidental volcanic eruption, there would be no damage beyond ash clouds fertilizing the nearby valleys. The only reason we were able to reach the more isolated locations is because of our sky ships. However, after we removed the mountains it is undoubtedly that more than a few tremors and magma flows could open paths to the locations in question. But even then it would be highly dangerous."

She then points at ten of the Xs marked in and along the mountains, there were more markings but they were not black in colour. "Of the ten locations we have excavated four of them have a small outpost built close by the deep pits left behind as ground assets. Those outposts have grown into small villages and are currently our largest ground-based settlements and are connected by the Equestrian road network. The other six locations were far too distant and isolated to be put to use even with our sky ships and sky islands."

The warlord then drags the point of her dagger from the top X to the bottom X on the map, connecting them all with a light scratch mark. "Of these six locations are two located in the northern region of the Foal Mountains close to the Neighagra Falls and the Crystal Mountains to the far north. Three is in the central region between the Everfree Forest and the Hayseed swamps. And lastly a landmass in the southern region close to the unexplored south. Even the three in the central region are weeks apart from each other by hoof distance."

Murmurs among the ponies fill the room while the rest just look upon the map with complex expressions. The old diamond dog just quietly chews on a sausage offered to him by the horses, enjoying the flavour of the strange food item. The High Priestess then breaks the noise by raising her hoof for silence and then speaks to the still-chewing Elder Rocktooth. "May I ask you Elder Rocktooth, could the diamond dogs who spotted the region of the darkness describe the local plants, wildlife, and landmarks?"

The old canine swallows a mouthful of meat and thinks for a moment before offering a response."Mrrrrrm... Rocktooth could tell every plant and thing in territory of Rocktooth's pack. Rocktooth not know if other pack hold same knowledge. But no Diamond Dog does not know the different scents in earth and air. It how we hunt for food and gems."

One of the ponies perks up at that and asks with a mixture of vivid curiosity and bafflement in their voice, breaking the tense mood in the room. "Wait! Wait! You can SMELL gems?"

Seemingly confused the old diamond dog just nods. "You not know? Why you think we called Diamond Dogs?"

After a moment of awkward silence, another pony offers an answer. "Because you eat diamonds?"

Elder Rocktooth slams his staff's pummel into the floor stands up in a fury and snarls rapidly at the taken aback equines at the mere mention of eating diamonds. "No! Well, yes Diamond Dogs can eat diamonds should not! Emerald Paw pack not wasteful! Diamond not just food! Diamond is great tool and worth more than other gems! Weapon! Scraping! Trade! Why waste diamonds!? Other gems fine for food! Only wasteful, desperate, stupid, and rich packs eat diamonds without even using them for tools or trade for more gems!"

After the sudden rant by the diamond dog elder the ponies and horses look at each other with confused expressions. They had not expected such a reaction from the elder.

Finally, one of the nobles in the group coughs a bit and tries a diplomatic approach to apologize to the elder. "Ahem... we apologize for the misunderstanding Elder Rocktooth. Would you know anyone among the packs who could guide a group through the mountains to the dark pit in the mountains? In return, Canterlot would be more than willing to offer you and your pack lodging and food, maybe even some gems if the city can spare them."

Snorting the elder shaman just sits back down and nods his head. "Hrmph. Rocktooth know some foolish and daring pups who would offer aid in return for tasty gems. As soon as darkness in mountains gone and packs be able to return home so it best for packs and ponies this end quickly before less calm dogs get insulted."

"Can't agree more Elder Rocktooth." High Priestess said with a small smile before she gave a small glance at Warlord Sacred Sword and Grand Master Grand Music who both gave her and each other similar looks. They had to end this meeting quickly and solve the issue with the darkness before things got out of control with the diamond dog packs.

But with the army spread out and with the cleanup of the various towns, villages, and cities in both nations still ongoing they could not spare any units or even squads beyond maybe some green trainees or old veterans.

Sacred Sword then pulls out a small scroll sealed with a simple vax emblem in the shape of a sword and shield. The mark of a mercenary contract. She offers it to Grand Music who unseals it and reads the content while the ponies and horses all look on. While Elder Rocktooth eats some more sausage. The warlord speaks her suggestion to the table. "Perhaps we should try to hire some mercenaries for this endeavor. This scroll contains the baseline we used during both the Draconic Incursion and the War of Red Rains. The last group who went southwards into the jungles did good work at their scouting missions and even found an unknown pyramid. It would be prudent to hire them again."

Grand Music nods and unfurls the contract in its entirety to let others by the table read its content. "That would ease up on our resources and it will give these mercenaries a chance to prove themselves again for future work. But we'd need more than one group in this case. It would not cost us much in bits or supplies."

A pony pipes up in the back of the crowd as they all examine the mercenary contract. "Then we put up a call for mercenaries to come and prove themselves capable enough to be part of this scouting mission. Would not do to hire people unsuited for such a task."

It became a general agreement and the plan to hire mercenaries to find the source of the unnatural clouds and darkness in the mountains was put into action.

Only the trouble was. It was by far too late to stop it.

[Scene Skip]

The view shifts from the Temple of Law, moving away from Canterlot and past the fields and hills of the countryside of Central Equestrian until it reaches the shadowy mountains of the Foal Mountains. The dark clouds have reached beyond the border of the mountain chai and are slowly encroaching upon the grasslands.

Tall snow-covered peaks and forest-filled valleys move rapidly past the view, growing darker and darker as less and less sunlight gets through the black clouds. There is not a hint of rain or snow, only bellowing darkness and shadow.

After a few moments of moving past a near pitch-black mountain range, the view suddenly shifts angle and reveals a massive slowly swirling twister of darkness rising from a large open pit in the mountain. The edge of the deep pit and the walls are lined with scaffolding and outcuts in the sone itself. Torches, lanterns, and bonfires line the spiraling path towards the bottom of the pit. And at the bottom lies a massive rainbow coloured magic circle, which twists and turns into different shapes and colours every few seconds.

The tornado of darkness is rising out of the center of the magic circle and around this circle is a large group of robed figures dancing erratically.

Again the view shifts and zooms towards the top of the tip by the start of the path down towards the bottom. There was a large crowd of robed and armored figures and creatures standing before a large stage made up of misshapen rock and wooden logs.

There were ponies of various sizes, some dressed in misshapen and colorful yet dark robes with various signs of mutations. A beak instead of a mouth, a singular bird leg, feathers instead of fur, a head of a type of bird, or additional heads or eyeballs on their bodies.

These fowl pony mutants were cultists of the Church of Clucking Chaos, the witless and insane servants of Discord himself. Their mad cackling, gobbling, and clucking echoed through the large crowd.

The armored quadrupeds were obviously equine or griffin in nature but they showed no signs of obvious mutations, and they were far less mutated with bird parts. Instead, they were covered in strange thick armor that looked like it was part flesh. Large pauldron plates with flesh growths where eyeballs, spikes, bird beaks, or misshapen mouths would grow out of. Massive axes, swords, and polearms with teethed edges with twitching portions made of flesh on various parts.

Each of these massive armored figures was around the size of an adult horse but far wider and heavier because of their armor and bulking body mass. They were not members of the Church of Clucking Chaos. They were a branch cult, or chapter, from the Warfoals, worshippers of Maleficus Victoria, or as they viewed him. Father War. This specific chapter of war desiring fanatics is called the Sons of War Chapter, and their ways were a mixture of cheerful brutality and violence mixed with subtlety and manipulation

And they were working alongside the CCC for one purpose. To bring more war into the world. As is the doctrine of their belief. War is Progress. War is Truth. War is Enlightenment. There were many ways of causing wars, including collaborating with other cults for the purpose of creating war.

Thus they had become the subtle and brutal portion of the Church of Clucking Chaos' actions. It was by their efforts and the chicken cultists' influence that they obtained the knowledge, secrets, and materials to create the ritual.

While the cultists of Discord are making noise over noise with their cries the Sons of War stand silent and stoic, waiting silently for their leader to come.

Stepping up on the stage is a large mare dressed in dark purplish robes with metal and flesh barding covering her front, sides, back, stomach, and flanks. Her body was covered in white and blue feathers and fur, her head a mixture between horse and chicken, her wings chicken wings, and her legs hooves.

Looking out over the crowd the tall near hippogriff looking cultist leader stands up on her hind legs and throws up her forelegs, revealing the false hooves covering her disfigured chicken talons as they fly off by the movement. And she shouts out over the crowd. "OUR TIME HAS COME!!!"

The crowd grew silent and every eye and head was looking towards the Head Priestess of their cults. "After nearly two hundred years of suffering! Boredom! Stagnation! And insufferable order! We shall breach this veil of false peace and bring forth a new age of chaos!"

"The moon princess has been banished to the moon! The sun princess has been weakened by war! Our brethren of the Rättenfängers have spread the gospel of chaos and war across the realms before they meet their hallowed end! The destruction and trife with the dragons and the griffins have spread our influence even further! Through these events, the bond of order is teetering on the edge of breaking!" Behind her, the slowly turning black tornado of darkness rumbles as prismatic arcs of energy spark through it.

"When we breach the veil that separates dreams from reality we shall bring forth a new Age of Chaos and release not only our beloved master Discord but the Lord of War Maleficus from the curse that binds him to the moon! All shall be chaos and war! Blood, candy, skulls, balloons, battle, parties, all shall revel!"Two cultists carrying a wooden tray with a large black pyramid come over and kneel before her, the priestess reaches over grabs hold of the black pyramid, and takes it off the tray. And holds it out to the crowd.

"With this sacred pyramid of darkness! All our dreams shall be made reality as we bring them TO REALITY!" She raises the black pyramid over her head and the dark beacon created by Maleficus glows with an eerie aura of darkness, the illuminated golden runes the only light within it. A loud cry explodes from the previously silent cultists and warriors and even the various pens filled with misshapen massive creatures shake with the cries of monstrous birds.

After the cheering the priestess walks off the stage and a large warrior dressed in corrupted armor nods to her. "Another fine speech Priestess Mad Chick."

Breaking her serious act onstage the mutated pegasus giggles and blushes while looking down at the pyramid in her grasp, images of discord inside of it in her eyes but nobody else's. "Ehehehee! Do you think lord Discord would have liked it?"

Not even reacting to the insanity of the high priestess the son of war just responds in the same stoic voice reverting within his armor. "I am sure he would have loved the speech you dedicated to his release."

"Oooh yessss! Master Discord! I cannot wait to see you again! Aaaah! These centuries have been just so awful without your presence!" Twirling around with the pyramid the priestess dances down towards the path leading down into the massive pit.

It was no secret that Mad Chick was infatuated with Discord. She had declared herself his bride and future wife on more than one occasion. Loudly. She was the daughter of the first High Priest of the Church of Clucking Chaos and had practically been raised by discord during the age of chaos when her father was killed by the forces of the two princesses.

Discord had not made any sign of having taken notice of her infatuation, only treating her more like a pet or a particular smart insect while giving her a slight view of the art of chaos and transmutation. All on a whim. why he did it was unknown but in Mad Chicks' eyes it was proof of his love for her and that his heart belonged to her. And her alone.

Calmly and silently walking next to her the war cultist just looks towards the row of chained ponies, horses, diamond dogs, and griffins. Around seven hundred of them. All lined up in chains by the path towards the pit. Their eyes are either empty and hollow, broken, or constantly crying and sobbing. "Shall I have the sacrifices taken down before we perform the last stage of the ritual?"

Snuggling against the magical artifact in her grasp the High Priestess just laughs and gobbles a little before waving a talon at the warrior. "Oooh, no need Silent Anger! I will have them enjoy this last glorious moment by having them be part of our little spell! It shall be wonderful for everyone!"

[Start Spell Music: Snuff Out The Light (Yzma's Song) by Eartha Kitt, Cover by 4thMetricMusic ft. Robin Harry]

[Lyrics Altered by Staadnauthursil]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEGspPVIkM4

Disclaimer: I do not own anything copyrighted. This includes all of the lyrics and youtube videos I use to give a touch of flair to my stories, please support the official releases along with those who work hard on these great youtube videos. Please support the official release.

Looking out over the chained victims Mad Chick grins widely and snaps with her talons to start things up. A sound of music rising from among the broken or crying victims. "Alright, little sacrifices it is time to get this party started! Hit it, maestros!"

Several cultists appear from behind the sacrifices, all of them holding instruments. Two cultists appear even with a piano, one of them pulling it like a chariot while the other was playing the keys. Mad Chick starts to sing as they begin to play, her voice suddenly going from joyful and eager to solemn and sad in an instant.

"When a pony's life becomes stale."
"And the excitement you experienced grows gray."
"It pays to liven up your life."
"And keep the dullards at bay."

She swirls around and looks into the pyramid in her grasp and gently traces a talon across its surface. Seeing Discord's misformed laughing face in the darkness as she keeps singing. Before slowly turning to glare up towards the cloud-covered sky.

"But the buzzkills came for us all."
"And the age of chaos was undone."
"So we wallowed in pity and despair."
"While we planned our revenge on the sun."

The music turns into a more funky and happy beat. Mad Chick starts shaking her booty while juggling the pyramid with her forearms as she starts to sing in a more cheerful voice as she begins to dance down the path. While the cultists start dancing after her, dragging and pushing the chained sacrifices down the wooden bridges and stone ledges. The stoic and silent Sons of War march alongside them intact of the music.

"While I was a young cultist by Discord's side."
"Served ice pasta with lemon primavera."
"He revealed to me in maddening signs."
"The Art of the Chimera."

The parade passes by a bunch of caves, each of them holding various mutant monsters. A scale-covered turkey with the head of an owl and the legs of a pony. A giant chicken with the head of a horse and two large hooves instead of wings. And a five-headed creature with the body of a turkey and the heads of ducks with the horns of unicorns. Mad Chick passes by each creature patting their screeching heads as she does.

"I made ponies part fowl."
"And made them do outrageous things with owls."
"But some of these experiments that I would drive."
"Would be better off dead than alive."

The boneless body of a drooling rooster lay on the group of one pen, two large featherless wings with bone-like claws instead of bird wings sticking out its back and raising it off the ground as the parade passes it. A massive goose with molar teeth inside its massive beak neighs at the cultists and sacrifices. It even bites off the head of one of the sacrifices as it gets too close but the parade doesn't stop and the headless corpse is dragged along.

"I experimented well I never strayed."
"My ambitions would never fade."
"If I could break that seal."
"And make Discord know how I feel."

Mad Chick kisses the pyramid as she leaps over a ledge and lands on another on the flow below, the parade of cultists and sacrifices marching down on the path above her. She keeps dancing and singing down the path as she gets ahead of the moving crowd.

"Through those nobles's ambition."
"My plans grew to fruition."
"And gave me the chance."
"To bring forth this dance."

She reaches the bottom, and the glowing prismatic circle illuminates her like a disco ball as she holds up the pyramid over her head and shakes her hips left and right while the cultists slowly move down. Her voice echoed through the pit and across the mountains above it.

"Every little day of order slowly robbed me of my joy."
"Who to blame? Who the one? Who to curse?"
"You all know the only one left to blame."
"Is that bitch who control the sun."

Mad Chick kicks a rock at a nearby effigy of straw, wood, and cloth, roughly in the shape of a certain white alicorn. the effigy has been struck with various weapons and different types of rotten food items. Various slurs and insults are written across the effigy, declaring Celestia things like the 'Bitch of Buzzkills', the 'Ruler of Rectums', the 'Heathen of Peace', or 'The Fat Tyrant'.

"Drag down her light, spread our night!"
"Form an age of chaos!"
"Starve out her might, cluckomites!"
"For an age of chaos!"

The parade of cultists and sacrifices reaches the bottom of the path and they keep singing and dancing, moving in a conga line, dragging, kicking, and pushing, sacrifices along the way as they move in an erratic spiral along with the constantly shifting magic circle. Mad Chick stands on a large banana-shaped obelisk, holding up the pyramid above her head as she sings.

"Discord baby, you turn me on."
"Every buzzkill soon be gone."
"I will smile to myself with glee."
"The dreams you gave to me."

Mad Chick spins and slides down the banana obelisk, stroking her side alongside it, stroking her misshapen talon across a full-body painting of discord decorating the bana obelisk. As she lands at the bottom she pulls out a dagger with a sharp-toothed clown face as the pommel and throws it behind her.

"I never stopped at nothing."
"Deceit, butchery, and theft."
"Whatever it takes to release my god."
"You really can't blame a chick for trying."

The dagger strikes the forehead of the first sacrifice. A motionless and blank-eyed pegasus. Her corpse hits the ground, her blood spilling over the prismatic mad sigils. At that signal, the rest of the cultists begin to kill the sacrifices in various ways, following no pattern or reason. Spreading more and more gore over the bottom of the pit, all the while Mad Chick makes an 'oopsie' face and sticks her tongue out the side of her beak to an unseen crowd.

"Drown out her light, with our blight!"
"Form an age of chaos!"
"Tear down her might, cluckomites!"
"For an age of chaos!"

More and more sacrifices are made. More blood, organs, heads, body parts, and cries of suffering fills the pit. And Mad Chick laughs out loud as she throws up the pyramid into the tornado itself and watches with glee as the tornado floats up the darkness, still visible even through the pitch-black color of the swirling twister. As if it is darker than even the darkness itself.

"Choke out her light, with our fright!"
"Form an age of chaos!"
"End her light here tonight!"

The pyramid rises and rises. Moving further and further up until it reaches the top of the twister where the clouds are bellowing out. A hole appears in the cloud layer and traces of stars and moonlight can be seen in the hole for a short second before they were all swallowed by the pyramid.

"Apparitions of twisted madness!"

Howling winds and monstrous sounds emerge from the twister as the pyramid above grows larger. As if it is absorbing not only the light of the night but the souls of the poor sacrifices being butchered by the cultists. Specks of golden runes soon the only source of light in the sky above. Even the prismatic sparks and glow of the erratic magic circle at the bottom of the pit are growing duller by the second.

"Swirling in triangles through the night!"

An axe splits the skull of a horse. A griffin's spine is bent and crushed as a mutant twists and ties its body into a pretzel. A foal is used as a club to bash in the skull of another foal. A diamond dog is impaled by a wooden log through the anus and up the neck. And more and more bizarre and gruesome vile butchering is afflicted upon the rapidly dwindling line of victims.

"Creatures of alluring badness!"

The final sacrifice, a young diamond dog pup, is impaled upon the horn of a dead unicorn sacrifice, piercing their spine and out through the stomach. And all of the corpses laid out upon the circle, begin to wither and darken, as if being scorched by burning heat.

"No more quivering in her light!"

The withering corpses of the sacrifices collapse into piles of ash and bone that begin to fall upwards, swirling, and twisting until they start taking on shapes. Forming dark and twisted horrors that begin to move as if dancing along to the music, as they seemingly climb up the darkness.

"Gremlin and goblins and serpentine dragons!"

The dark shapes fly around the darkness of the tornado, spiraling upwards along its rotating shape. Mad Chick dances across a pile of blood down below whilst a cultist collapses into a pile of misshapen bird and pony limbs as they rapidly mutate into a lumbering beast of misshapen fowlery.

"Rockodile and maggot beasts!"

The chanting continues as the cultists keep chanting, dancing, and singing. The dark spirits keep climbing the rotating mass of darkness. Getting closer and closer to the ominous black pyramid floating in the sky above.

"Snorkeling in the rising darkness!"

A massive face can be seen briefly taking shape in the tornado itself as the dark sprites move upwards. Its lips are grinning widely, revealing a mouth filled with teeth shaped like chess pieces. The face opens its mouth to laugh silently before fading away.

"Dance with us to the swanking beat!"

More and more of the cultists collapse. their bodies tearing themselves apart into grotesque chimeras of bird and equine body parts. Cackling, gobbling, and screeching out in a vile symphony to the beat of the music of the ritual. Mad Chick rides on top of one of the lumbering beasts as it carries her closer to the banana obelisk.

"Shadows, ghouls, and aberrations!"

She steps down and bows down before the obelisk. The painting of Discord is seemingly brighter and more clear even with the rising darkness as more and more light disappears.

"Hellish clowns juvenile monster maids!"

The first sprite reaches the pyramid and reaches out a smoky limb. It is absorbed by the pyramid and the shattering of glass is heard as the pyramid fractures and then implodes into a swirling black and purplish hole. All the shadows and sprites and even the tornado itself get absorbed by the growing singularity in the sky. But the sky above is yet covered in darkness. With no sight of the moon or stars.

"Basilisk snakes, crabby imps!"

The singularity rapidly expands, growing to the size of a mountain in seconds. But then it suddenly implodes again. As if reversing itself. But rather than a massive explosion of magical energy destroying everything around. The banana obelisk of Discord shatters apart and the imploding singularity disappears into a singular hoof-sized ball of darkness.

"Dance and cackle as Celestia's sunlight fades!"

And then it explodes.

[End of Music]

Everything turns into a weird combination of all engulfing darkness and eye-tearing light at the same time for an instant for all things in proximity. The cultists cannot see a thing and for a short moment, they feel anxiety, fearing things have gone wrong. But as their view returns what they see makes them all cry out in triumph.

Large tears. Fissures. Fractures. Floating in the empty air above the foal mountains. Cracks in reality! As if they had punched a window to another realm! The cracks were forming a vast network the size of a small mountain. They could now breach into the realm of dreams!

"SKREEAAUUUUGH!"

But their cries turn silent as suddenly a loud cry echoes out from the fractures. And then a loud thumb is heard, and another. And another. Growing louder each of them. Then a loud crack is heard from the bottom of the large network of fractures smaller fractures are formed.

Then the sound of shattering glass and cracking of lightning is heard across the mountains as several pony-sized shards of reality are broken off the smaller fisurs as several large strange pink fleshy clawless talons the size of trees push out into reality. The large strange-looking digits move and twitch before seemingly grabbing hold of an invisible edge. And begin to try to push against the cracks in reality, and slowly but surely begin to widen them. A massive house-sized, twisting, shifting, and eyelidless but otherwise regular brown eye looking out from the gap of the crap.

It would appear that while they sought to get out of their reality. Something else was now seeking to get into theirs.

(The image was made by me with an AI Generator, it is not the best result but it is what I got.)

[Scene Skip]

A group of five griffin airships flies across the dark evening sky. Their target is the capital. Only a few sailors stand on guard on the upper deck, holding lanterns as they do. Nothing out of the ordinary.

But beneath the obvious lies treachery.

The boats themselves are not filled with cargo but instead, each ship carries a troop of fifty armed griffin volunteers, a mixture of would-be bounty hunters and soldiers. All of them were seeking wealth, honor, glory, and so on while being hidden within the holds of the airships.

Their purpose is to catch or kill the recently famous sky pirate who goes by the name of Wild Sparrow. A cunning pirate with access to a flying vessel of his own that has let him raid the supply convoys transporting supplies to the capital seemingly nonstop for several days.

This has earned him one of the largest first-time bounties in the history of the Gryphon Kingdom, 10000 golden eggs. Enough gold to buy ownership of a castle or small town, and still, have enough to retire young. Even if that payment was split between a hundred griffins it would still be more money than your average bounty hunter made in a year.

All the eager griffins have to do is wait for the would-be buccaneer to attack the false cargo transports and defeat him and his crew. Even should the first plan fail was a backup plan ready. The five cargo ships are not alone.

Beyond sight range of the four transport ships high up in the clouds are three fast warships with a hundred griffins or more on each crew. They used their spyglasses to keep track of the three false cargo vessels.

On the center airship of the military vessels stands an older-looking griffin in officer's gear looking down at the five cargo ships. Several dozens of other crewmembers are also keeping their eyes peeled for any sightings of unknown air vessels.

A younger officer walks over to the leader of the force and salutes him. “Captain Harthan sir, there are still no sightings of any flight-capable vessels. With the sun settling we will soon lose sight of the cargo ships. Should we get closer?”

But the older griffin shakes his head before looking through the spyglass once more. He had a feeling that doing so would just play into the pirate's scheme. “No. This pirate is like an alerted weasel, he will find any crock or cranny in our formation and run through it at a moment's notice should he spot us before reaching the ships. The cargo ships will just have to increase the number of lanterns they have so we can see them better.”

The younger officer looks a bit uncertain but nods to his superior's authority and moves to direct the orders. “I will send the word by the talisman.”

A few hours later darkness covers the sky as the evening sun settles and the moon rises. Yet the moon cannot be seen as thick murky clouds bellow in from the sea, covering the sky in darkness.

The warships were having a hard time keeping track of the fake cargo ships as the combination of dark clouds and strong winds made it difficult to keep the ships straight. And that in turn made it difficult to see the glowing lanterns of the cargo ships.

As the hours went by the griffins began to feel more and more like the pirates were never going to come. It felt as if the scoundrels had sensed the trap and decided to not approach the bait.

Signaling with a talon he calls over a nearby sailor who walks over to him. Except for the overly long pants, the uniform was fit and proper, but such a small detail was not much to think about. However, the Captain couldn't help but feel like he had seen that sailor before somewhere. ”Any news from the decoy ships?”

The sailor offers a slightly over-the-top bow, but the Captain does not correct him as such a minor thing was not of concern during an operation. ”No news from the decoys captain. Everything seems to be normal.”

Contemplating this for a short moment the captain lifts his spyglass once more and looks at the three well-lit ships.”So it seems... hmmmm... I can not help but feel like something is wrong though.”

After a moment of silence, the younger griffin speaks up. ”Something does seem a bit odd here capt. I mean, pirates normally do not leave such easy targets behind when it is on the ocean right?”

Lowering his spyglass for a moment the older griffin closes his eyes and nods as he sighs in frustration. ”Indeed. And with this being the first-ever known sky pirate it seems odd he and his crew do not retain their oceanic ways. One does not just become a pirate for fun and games.”

The sailor covers up a chuckle before speaking up. ”Oh I do not know about that Captain, I once heard there was a pirate monkey who only wished to sail the seas and be the freest person alive under a pirate flag. Not sure exactly what the whole story about it was but he was an odd pirate who never raided or plundered I hear.”

Snorting in disgust the Captain shakes his head at such nonsense! Who would consider piracy to be anything else than bandits with ships? ”Hmph! Delusional morons who do not understand the severity of their actions! But what else could you expect from such primitive creatures.”

For a short instance, the sailor's smile twitches violently but the officer does not notice. And the youngster asks a rather touchy question. ”You mean like with the invasion of Equestria sir?”

The commanding officer drags his talons across the surface of his spyglass, the sound of screeching metal filling the air shortly. Though the verbal angry shout from the Captain surprised the sailor. ”Oh skies do not get me started on that plucked-up mess! That pea-brained 'king' of ours will bring this kingdom to ruin with his antics!”

Blinking a bit with a stunned look on his face the sailor doesn't know how to respond to that for a short moment before smiling and nodding. ”Yeah he's clearly not the most stable of griffs. Even for a noble.”

A harsh-sounding snarl is barely held back by Harthan as he slowly calms down, though his voice is still loud and echoes through the air. ”He's an insane and murderous psychopath who is also a cannibal who eats even his own chicks and eggs! I am happy I am serving at the eastern frontiers by the desert and that my family lives safely far away from the capital so neither they nor I have to be near him.”

Even as he keeps smiling the voice of the sailor sounds a bit uncomfortable. ”Yeah. One could get a bit uncomfortable with how close we are to the capital, with the siege and all.”

Spiting off the railing Captain Harthan glares through his spyglass at the three ships. ”Feh! The day they bring down the king and install a new ruler should be a national holiday.”

Lowering his head a little the sailor tips his helm over his head, a small smile on the cups of his beak. ”Can't argue with that.”

Putting aside his spyglass the captain pulls out a metal canteen which he screws open, releasing a strong scent of fruity alcohol which he swiftly gulps of before putting away the canteen. ”The situation with the capital is not any of our concerns though. We are only here to get that pirate and his crew. And when we finally corner that scoundrel we will overwhelm him and his crew and finally bring order to the southern trade routes.”

The sailor responds again, but this time his voice is far more mature and older. And it holds a dialect the Captain had never heard before. And there is the sound of a burning torch being waved through the air. “Oh, I would not be so sure about that mate.”

”What?” Turning around in confusion the older griffin looks at the sailor with a raised brow. But his expression changes as he sees the sailor standing up on his hind legs while waving a torch with a cheerful smile. Before throwing said torch over the edge.

And visible with him standing up the Captain sees the sailor's hind legs for the first time. Instead of standing with feline paws, the sailor was standing with equine hooves. A chill of realization runs down his spine.

The sailor gives a smile to the captain directly as he makes a bow and grasps his uniform's collar with his left talon. ”It was a pleasant, and unpleasant, discussion Captain Harthan, but I am afraid I have work to do now.”

With a tug of his left front limb, there is a sudden swosh of cloth moving through the air as the sailor's shape is for an instant covered up by the torn-off clothing. And when the cloth is discarded to the floor there is no longer a disguised griffin sailor standing there. Instead, there was the hippogriff pirate Wild Sparrow, now dressed in his pirate carbs, along with his hat and dreadlocks in place of the cap helmet and fake feathers he used as a sailor.

All over the ships, there are sudden cries of shock as out of barrels, crates, sacks, and even the poop deck, emerged heavily armed pirates of various species. The same cries could be heard from the other four warships.

The sound of struggle and screams for aid filled the ships' exterior and interior like a crescendo of chaos.

”Let me introduce myself. I am Captain Wild Sparrow, and these people are members of my motley crew. Oh. And in case you haven't realized it mate, you're being boarded.” And with a taunting smirk, the revealed pirate hefts his saber and points it at the captain whose beak is opening and closing in shock.

But the old griffin clicks his beak shut and lashes out with a kick at the hippogriff who steps back to evade it. Dropping his spyglass the griffin pulls out two fine-looking sabers and points them at the pirate.

“Surrender pirate! Your days of pillaging are over!” The Captain screeched out in fury as he lashed out at the taunting cretin with his two sabers.

There was a clash of metal as the hippogriff deflected the first strike before sidestepping the second. With a smirk on his face, the hybrid of pony and griffin casually moved his blade left and right, seemingly stretching his talon rather than making a feint.

And then he laughs a bit before shouting out to the rest of the ship. ”Oh you are just delightful! Hear that you lot!? This good ole chap thinks that he can end our pillaging ways all by himself!”

For a second the old griffin froze up at that last comment and he looked quickly around and his eyes widened at what he was seeing. His crew of well-trained soldiers was all being tied up by the pirates, most of them were covered in bruises and cuts from fighting while others had been taken out without a chance to even pull out their weapons.

Only he remained as the active fighter on the ship. And from what he could hear from the other ships were things not going better there.

Turning his head back to focus on Wild Sparrow the Captain spat at him. ”How did you find out!? We kept this secret and didn't even tell what ships were being used or when we would leave! How did you even get all these pirates onboard my ships!? Who told you!?”

”Now, now, why would you want to ruin the mystery like that mate? Would you not rather try to discover the truth yourself?” The infuriating pirated said back with a smirk as they kept circling each other. The rest of the pirates kept away from their captain's fight and focused on beating down and tying up the griffin soldiers and sailors.

"Do not mock me, pirate! You have made a profit on the suffering of our kingdom! Your raids have caused hundreds if not thousands of deaths." With a snarl the griffin officer spins his two sabers, preparing for the coming fight with the pirate.

But there is a slight twitch on the hippogriff's face at the Captain's words and he just silently for a moment while lightly holding his blade pointed at the griffin. Tension was rising, even as strong winds began to blow across the once-calm skies.

[Start Battle Theme Music: Centuries by Fall Out Boys]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR18NP-acL4

Then Wild Sparrow gives an opening as he keeps smiling and lowers his guard for a small instance. "Now, now Captain Harthan, no need to make a mockery out of yourself more than I've already had. After all. None of the supplies thus far delivered to the capital has been used to feed the soldiers defending it beyond breadcrumbs. You should welcome my help in ending the siege faster."

"THE KINGDOM OF GRYPHON NEEDS NOT THE AID OF FREAKS LIKE YOU!!!" With a battle cry, Captain Harthan flies at the pirate, intent on taking the fight to the sky. Wild Sparrow flaps his wings somersaulting over the charge and lazily floats around while keeping his eyes on the cold glare of the griffin captain.

Then there is a sudden shift in Wild's face, his eyes becoming sharp and narrowed for a short moment before he resumed his casual and carefree attitude as he landed a short distance away from the furious navy officer. "You disagree with the King and find his behaviour abhorrent. And I respect you for it. But your racist attitude to those different than a griffin makes me realize that that respect was wasted on you."

Captain Harthan uses the moment to reach into his coat. Trying to pull something out. But a befuddled look appears on his face as he finds nothing inside his coat pocket.

Then the taunting voice of the hippogryff gets his attention. "Looking for this?"

In the pirate's free talon was a small silver-framed blue mirror glowing with an eerie light. The communication artifact connected to the false trading vessels. Without it he could not inform the ships about the situation, they were too far away and shrouded for flares to be effective.

He had to retrieve the artifact or kill the pirate!

"Give me that!" The captain flies forward with a sudden charge and the hippogryff is briefly startled but manages to jump aside from the charging griffin and put the mirror inside of his own coat pocket.

Captain Harthan suddenly flaps his wings and makes a 180-degree turn, as if he used the wind itself as support to reverse his momentum. And with his sword in talon, the officer swings at the pirate.

Wild Sparrow barely manages to deflect the strike with his saber and the horse bird hybrid kicks the older captain in the chest. Striking the breastplate. Captain Harthan is sent reeling back from the strike but manages to keep flying and makes another aerial dash towards the hippogryff whose eyes are constantly following the griffin even though he is portraying a casual stance.

"A bit too slow mate!" Ducking aside the strike Wild Sparrow spreads his wings and pulls off his left side a strange contraption. It looks like a crossbow without the bow part. A handle, a wooden frame, with a metal pipe with a crystal embedded at the end, with no trigger.

Arcs of electricity flow out from his wings and eyes, towards his talon grasping the strange contraption. The gemstone glows a bright blue and then the hippogryff shouts out a word. "LAMPRO!"

There is a sudden flash of brilliant blue light followed by a taste of metal in the air as a ball of electricity shoots out of the strange contraption and directly at the griffin he tries to turn away. But he is hit by the sphere that erupts into a shower of blue sparks that causes the elderly griffin to let out a stuttering cry of pain as his body seizures and spams whilst the energies of the sphere run through him.

Captain Harthan tumbles out of the air and barely manages to grip onto a cannon while clutching his chest. Spitting out blood and ash from his beak the slightly smoking griffin glares at the hippogryff who is carelessly walking towards him. He then looks at the cannon by his side and an idea pops up.

Cutting off the rope holding the cannon the captain kicks one of two bolts holding it in place free and swiftly proceeds to lift the heavy barrel and flips it around. Aiming it directly at the starring face of Captain Wild Sparrow.

"Let me return the favor freak! Scaoil!" With a bloody smirk on his face, Captain Harthan pulls a lever and the already fully charged lightning cannon fires.

A lightning bolt erupts out of the cannon and arcs towards the hippogryff at point-blank range, but Harthan's sight of glorious victory is obscured by the blinding flare weapon practically searing his unprotected eyes. Clutching his eyes in pain the griffin captain smirks still as he lets the light fade away, but he is a bit confused. Normally when lightning hits something it releases a loud boom or at the very least a shockwave. So why did nothing of that happen now?

Before his sight can return he hears approaching steps of hooves along with an annoying voice that should not be there. "I got to say that was a nice attempt mate. Too bad it was not good enough."

A sudden strike hits his head and Captain Harthan falls over unconscious. His last thoughts were of how the hippogryff survived.

[End Battle Music]

As the stubborn captain falls down unconscious Wild Sparrow lets out a sigh of relief as he looks behind him where a large hole had been blasted through the poop deck of the ship. Had the griffin not been so badly befuddled by the lightning ball shot from his arc rod pistol he doubted he would have aimed so badly.

Rubbing the talon gripping his sword he winces a bit as he feels boils and raw flesh beneath it. The fact he survived with only some burns and boils was good enough for him. But he should not have been so careless and kept toying with the griffin captain for so long.

Reaching down and taking the fine spyglass out of the griffin's belt the pirate inspects it whilst he talks to the unconscious officer. Hiding light wincing as he sheaths his saber and lets go of the handle, leaving scorched and bloody talon skin on the hot handle.

He then pats the unconscious griffin on the cheek with his undamaged talon, leaving a dirty stain on the officer's pristine feathers. “This has been fun and all but I have business elsewhere. And since you have left us with no cargo to take on those fake cargo ships of yours we will be taking two of your fancy military boats as compensation. Along with all the supplies on your military vessels.”

“I and my crew will make sure to treat them well. Enjoy yourself some rest while waiting for rescue ole chap.” Pinching the unconscious officer on the cheek, and smearing more dirt on it, the pirate walks off whistling. His newly acquired spyglass was placed in his sash. And began to wrap his wounded talon with some clean cloth until he could get a healer to inspect the injury.

As he walks over to the railing on the other side a rush of wind and cloud vapor rushes through the air as something massive moves out of the cloud layer beneath the griffin air ship. The first thing seen is a torn and worn black flag bearing a white eagle skull with two lightning bolts crossed behind it tied to a mast. As bit by bit, a large scorched ship rises out of the cloud layer. No sign of any balloons or magical runes to aid it in flight.

With a loud thump, a plank connects the black ship to the griffin air ship. Pirates behind to carry loot onto the ship and bundles of unconscious naked griffins off the black ship, placing them on the deck floor in a pile. As he walks up the plank Wild Sparrow pulls out a strange-looking compass and looks at the stars before down at where it points and nods. “Come on lads and lasses! We be sailing north east!”

A large ape with a white bandana salutes the hippogriff as he passes. "Aye aye, Captain Sparrow. We be taking those griffin ships and navy uniforms as you told us."

Smiling the pirate captain nods and points at a stack of barrels and sacks loitering on the deck. "Excellent Mr. Fiddles. Take a good rest and enjoy some of the supplies we took from those rude griffins." A cheer fills the crew as they break out the fresh supplies of the navy vessels they just nabbed.

The ape smiles and nods. "A fine idea Captain. The crew will need plenty of rest once we come within range of the capital. Not every day pirates like us visit royalty after all."

“Indeed Mr. Fiddles. It would not do for us to be hungry and tired during our visit with the Griffonstone's royal treasury now would it lads?” There was a mass of yars and other cheers at the declaration and the ship marked as the Black Pearl began to fly with her two new companions, moving northeastwards along the mountains to claim one of the largest treasures in the eastern continent.

Left behind were the tied-up members of the Royal Navy of Gryphon on their three remaining airships, which would remain undiscovered until sunrise when the decoy ships would come looking for them. Having never seen the pirates' attack on the ambush group.

[Scene Skip]

By the sandy and rocky high plateau between Thunder Mountain and Eggstone a large pit is glowing with an ominous blue light. The earth around the edges of the bit rumbles and crackles as mutated plants and critters squirm and twist out of its depth.

A couple of dozen or so meters below the surface lies the flooded lab of the Artificer Guild and the rising blue mass of magical essence known as the tears of sorrow. But what was once a simple rising mass of glowing blue liquid magic was swirling around like a maelstrom. Large shapes can be seen swimming within the blue mass. But the way they swim seems eerie and unnatural, with the motion of a snake, fish, and quadruped mixed together.

There are thousands of these strange creatures swimming through the rising mass in the chamber, their bodies moving gracefully and in sync even in such a cramped space with ease. As if they were a group of fish in a vast sea.

But one of the swimming creatures suddenly alters their movement. And begin to move towards the surface rather than simply swimming in circles.

A ripple runs across the surface of the shimmering liquid as the singular being swims below it. The swimming shapes beneath it are still together like a shoal of dolphins. As it reaches the surface a long curved and pointy horn breaches the liquid and the limb reaches out to grab hold of the rocky edge of the crumbling walls around the rising mass. A cloven hoof with silvery grey fur reaches out of the liquid and grabs hold of a nearby scaffolding and out of the flowing mana fluid rises a strange equine-like creature.

Upon a slender equine head goes a strangely curved horn, going inwards from the base and then outwards, taking on a double-curved dagger-like shape. Its structure looks like a clear crystal. A flowing beard of golden hair dripping with liquid mana shifted in the stale air of the chamber.

A mane of golden-red hair flows down from the head down a strong neck and down to a fur-covered back, until it continues over a silvery grey back body covered in scales and then down a long slender reptilian tail until ending in a large tuff of golden-red hair.

Upon the flanks of the hind legs is the mark of a hexagon-shaped gemstone, a prismatic colouration flowing across its shape. A pair of cloven hooves steps out of the flowing mass of mana and the creature finishes its step onto the scaffolding.

For the first time, the creature opens its eyes, revealing a pair of shimmering multi-coloured eyes with slitted pupils. It looks up into the darkness of the roof, the shimmer of blue of the liquid barely giving off enough light to light its surroundings.

One by one the sleek shapes rise from the liquid mass of magical essence. Revealing more and more kirins. Each one of them has similar attributes as the first, but of varying colours, body shapes, and sizes. And as more and more of them come out of the blue mass those that came before begin to climb out of the pit. With the grace of a deer with the steadiness of a mountain goat, the kirins climb out of the pit and out onto the sand and rock-covered landscape of the mountain chain known as the Maw of the World.

The moon shines upon them in its pale gray light, causing their scales to glimmer like polished metal or gems. Their growing numbers flood out like a swarm of koi fish made of precious gems or metal from a distance. The first kirin stands on top of a protruding rock, looking out towards the west, where the massive city of Eggstone stands, columns of fire and smoke decorating the sky around it.

None of them speak, seemingly unable or unaware to do it. But they seem to understand one another without words. More and more of the kirins start to look towards the griffin capital. Their eyes grow unfocused and blank as they stare at the sinister capital and the chalice-like fortress standing within it. Feelings of forgotten memories fill them for a moment, making them feel anxiety, fear, dread, sadness, and other grim emotions for the first time in their newborn lives.

But then their grim mood is broken as the first kirin raises a hoof and slams it into the rock he stands, causing a loud crack to echo out as he fractures the rock beneath him. It breaks their stupor and the kirins all look at him, noticing how he has not stopped looking at the city in the distance.

And they return their gazes to the capital. And they start to experience different emotions this time. They locked their gaze at what their herd leader was looking at. The Fortress of Griffinstone.

Their eyes look upon the massive fortress even as fire and smoke bellow forth from around its base. Unlike before they could not feel as strong emotions as they did before. Instead, it was more subtle at first but steadily grew more intense as they kept staring. Like a nail slowly being punched deeper and deeper they felt powerful emotions grow as they watched the fortress, a sensation of piercing anger and hatred.

They did not know why. But whatever the source of this sensation was, it had to be destroyed. No matter the cost it would be destroyed. For every part of their bodies, every part of their souls, revered with hatred towards it.

After a moment of collective staring at the burning city and the chalice-like fortress within, a single kirin steps to the front. It is the firstborn. He steps further ahead, and after a short moment, others start to follow him. And then more, and more, until all of the kirins were moving, line by line, towards the capital of Gryphon.

At first, they keep a steady and slow pace, but soon, the speed increases as time progresses. Legs get raised higher, steps become stronger, breaths become heavier, and the sound of stomping hooves becomes louder and soon becomes a ground-shaking rumbling.

Manes begin to flicker with light and heat, nostrils flare and snort out gusts of smoke, sparks, and flames. Tempers begin to flare, and a rising dust cloud begins to trace after the kirins, partly coloured black by the smoke and fire emitting from the bodies of the kirins.

Over a thousand kirins are galloping together in a rapidly moving stampede towards the capital, their goal the hateful sensation from the top of the fortress. The large silvery-gray buck who was the firstborn leads from the front while letting out a bellowing cry over the rocky wastes.

Even as the rocky ground starts to shake, crack, and crumble beneath their hooves they do not stumble nor stop in their run toward the city.

And the world would forever remember the coming event as the first Kirin Stampede.

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 24/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 7 Days]

Celestia raises her head and her horn ignites as she raises the sun and lowers the moon. The siege battle was on its second day now and though the defences of the walls were starting to crumble was it more than possible that battle would have to be called off as even the war-proficient horses were starting to get exhausted. There had not been such a large-scale siege battle since the Rättenfänger invasion and Equestria had been on the defensive.

It was a far different experience to be the attacker during a siege. That much was clear. And had not so many of Celestia's volunteering officers and soldiers experienced a siege battle during their most recent battle with Maleficus she doubted they would have done so well as they had.

She is about to shout out orders for the troops by the city walls to hunker down. Intent on clearing a path through the fractured city walls where the siege towers had failed to gain anchorage. When a horn is blown from one of the sky ships, signaling a warning that something big has been sighted approaching from the west.

Celestia turns to look westwards and sees through the cloud a large dark shadow moving through the cloud layer. It was far smaller than Grithenburg, which still had not reached the area, but it was still massive in size. But then her eyes widen as she sees a green glow appear on the dark shape's top behind the cloud. It looked like a massive slitted eyeball. And it was glaring at the griffin city.

The alicorn princess has no time to shout out a warning before the glowing eye in the clouds flashes into a neon green and an intensely bright light that pierces the clouds and washes over the entire land, this light is followed by a sudden dull sense of silence as it fades away. Then almost all fighters in the siege have to shield their eyes as a second flash of even brighter light and heat blinds them for a moment, an ear-tearing noise following it. What had nearly blinded them was a beam of toxic green fire and lightning, tearing down through the clouds and onto the massive city walls of Eggstone. The beam vaporizes a tower and moves across the wall, melting its surface disintegrating defenders, and destroying four more towers. Before it suddenly ends.

The intense heat of the beam had vaporized a large portion of the very clouds in the sky. Revealing to the defenders and besiegers below, parts of the majesty and horror of the intruding entity. As it lowers itself down from the hole in the cloud layer it had just created.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_Lv5GXYYvA

A twisting and bellowing wind tears down upon the fleets over the capital. Thunder crackles out as large black jagged obsidian-like rocks pierce down through the cloud layer, illuminated by the arcing bolts. Griffins, ponies, and horses alike cover their eyes as the powerful wind hits. The force of the wind almost blows them off the ships as they shift and shake in their wake.

The jagged twisted, upside-down, mountain-sized piece of obsidian-like rock descends from the cloud layer, and as it does there is a sudden shift in its texture. The foundation of large pitch-black walls could be seen emerging from the clouds above. Built out of some black and evil-looking rock the structure was massive.

Even though the castle was not even half the size of Grithenburg was the floating black castle still one of the largest flying structures seen since before the Age of Chaos. Dark spires, tall towers, spiky battlements, statues of evil creatures, a massive gatehouse decorated like an evil-looking skull of a demon, swarms of bats, dark birds, and large beasts flying around it.

And as it lowered itself from the clouds, more and more, the evil-looking castle revealed its entire dark glory. The pinnacle of its structure, a massive tower with a fork-shaped top, with toxic green lightning arcing between the teeth of the tower, a black and green eye-shaped vortex swirling in the space between. Standing beneath this evil-looking energy are a group of ten thestrals dressed in metal armour covered with dark elaborate robes with hoods covering their heads.

Princess Celestia looks up with wide and horrified eyes at the monstrous structure that slowly began to float down through the cloud layer. The situation was running out of hoof. The siege had been delayed for over a week now, and now that she was trying to finish it she was losing control over her troops because of something that was afflicting their minds. And now the forces of Maleficus were making their move! Using the technology of the Ancient Horses!? That twisted monster would no doubt revel in the destruction and misery he and his forces were about to cause.

"Send words to the Siege Engines! Target that castle and destroy it!" The poor officer who found himself being shouted at quickly saluted and scrambled off to send words to the siege engines, only for his body to freeze when a sudden loud voice resounded from the sky above. Or rather, from the flying black castle of the Thestrals. The voice was like the combined voice of several mares and stallions speaking in sync, their voices echoing out over the heavens from the black castle, like thunder.

"HEED US GRIFFINS OF GRYPHON!"
"WE ARE THE SERVANTS, FOLLOWERS, AND SOLDIERS OF MALEFICUS VICTORIA!"

"YOUR FOUL KING CAPTURED OUR LORD AND CREATOR SEVEN NIGHTS AGO!"
"WE KNOW HE KEEPS HIM WITHIN YOUR WALLS! WE AND ALL OF EQUINEKIND HAVE FELT HIS ANGUISH!"

"WE SHALL BREAKTHROUGH YOUR FEEBLE DEFENCES AND SET OUR LORD FREE!"
"YOUR CRAVEN KING SHALL PAY FOR HIS SINS WITH BLOOD, PAIN, AND DEATH!"

"SO BOW DOWN YOU CRAVENS AND PRAY!"

"PRAY FOR SAFETY TO WHATEVER GODS YOU FOLLOW AS YOU HIDE FROM OUR WRATH!"

"BUT THOSE WHO SUPPORT THIS CRAVEN KING SHOULD PRAY FOR A QUICK END!"
"FOR THERE SHALL BE NO MERCY GIVEN BY US TO THOSE WHO WOULD ATTEMPT TO STOP US!"

There was a sudden dead silence across the entire place. Horses, ponies, and griffins alike stared up with gaping mouths and beaks at the evil-looking castle with its army of monsters and beast-like bat horses. Some griffins even dropped their weapons and dropped down on the ground as their legs no longer could support them, their faces pale and eyes blank.

Lord Cursed Blessing, slowly swallowed and tried to speak. But he could not find his voice, his face deathly pale, as while he had known that Maleficus was the source of the painful seizures sent through the horses and ponies. He had never excepted for him to be held captive. Never would he have suspected such a thing. Their creator was powerful, beyond powerful, for him to be held captive and painfully tortured by the griffin's king for a week.

It was unfathomable. And yet it made sense, no matter how horrifying it was.

The reason why only a few ponies and horses had experienced the seizures was a mystery still. But this did not lessen the unease or fear filling the horses and ponies, rather, it increased many times more. But for other reasons.

Then one of the younger officers finally managed to break the silence. Still staring up at the castle as she stuttered out the words. "...W-what...d-did they say?... the griffins... they... captured M-Maleficus... breaker of armies Maleficus?... raiser of mountains Maleficus?... defiler of life Maleficus?... they captured THAT Maleficus!? A WEEK AGO!? AND WE ONLY FOUND OUT NOW!?" Her panicked stuttering turned into a frantic scream of utter terror. The sheer insanity of what they had just been told sank in.

The officer's screaming was a signal for the stunned silence to end, as the forces of the United Equine Forces broke out into a state of utter panic. Horses and ponies began to scream and shout, trying to figure out what to do. Some siege engines on the griffins and ponies' sides began to shoot wildly, some at the castle, some at the walls, the ponies, the skyships.

Then Celestia clenches her eyes and takes a deep breath. Then she slapped herself hard on the face, bruising her cheek then through the faceguard of her helmet. After a few seconds, she slowly opened her eyes. For a brief moment, one might have seen a hint of green in her pupils disappearing as she did so, as she tried to contain the gleeful rage coursing through her.

Celestia then turned towards the baffled horse lord next to her, who was looking at her, still trying to form words. The shock on his face was apparent, as just like her, he had not even considered the possibility of Maleficus being captured.

She gently patted him on the shoulder, giving him an unsteady and apologetic smile. Before turning forward, and walking out of her tent, spread her wings, taking a deep breath, before screaming out to her forces.

"ALL OF YOU CALM DOWN!!!"

The shout of Princess Celestia was loud and strong enough to shake the heads of everybody in the camp and even the griffins by the wall, several falling over or clutching their ears in pain at the loud thunder-like voice. The chaos calmed down, and horses, ponies, and griffins stopped panicking. All eyes were focused on Celestia, even as the rumbling of lightning could be heard from where the black castle of the thestrals was floating towards the capital.

The burning green eye of the tower was flickering with energy. Reminding many of just where that giant lance-like beam of green energy had come from. Over the sound of rumbling thunder and blowing winds could the sound of thousands of swarming thestrals, wyverns, and beasts flapping their wings and screeching out into the darkness of the night.

Celestia swallowed her pride, her anger, and her desire for vengeance. Even though she wanted to, she could not get to Maleficus now. He was captured, if possible she would take him in to face judgment. But for now, he was in the clutches of her enemies. And they would not give him to her either way. So. Rather than fighting two forces at once. She made a tactical sound decision. One that she felt she would regret.

"Heed Our command ponies and horses of the United Equine Forces... DO NOT ATTACK THE THESTRALS! INSTEAD, FOCUS ON BREACHING THE WALLS AND ENDING THIS WAR!"

For a few seconds, it was as if the world had become silent. Not even the griffins were making any sounds as they stared in shock out from their walls and airships. Even the United Equine Forces were staring as well, horses and ponies alike. Be it from sky ships or the ground. While the thestrals in the dark clouds just all gaped with dropped jaws.

No one had expected this. And if Celestia was to be perfectly honest about it she would openly admit that the one most surprised by this turn of events.

Was herself.

[Scene Skip]

The sounds of explosions and discharging lightning echo out beyond the massive mountain fortress known as Stonenest, yet it was almost like quiet fireworks for the castle Griffonstone located within its center.

Within the large throne room of King Craver was a large banquet underway. And for once were plenty of nobles dining by the table. Though most of them were barely able to cover up disgust or even put the food in their beaks. For no one knew if what they were eating was from another griffin or griffin egg. It was like a large guessing game with no one knowing what dishes could be made of griffins.

Even with the assurance of the chefs that only the king would be served the 'special dishes' no one was eager to try much and only ate more if they could identify the content of the food. There were musicians and jesters gathered around and entertaining the crowd to the best of their abilities. Even the masks and makeup could only cover up so much of their fearful or disgusted eyes looking at the high seat of the table.

King Craver was sitting with a bowl of appetizers by his side, fried spicy griffin chick wings when the sound of chiming bells filled the chamber. He looks up, a grin growing on his face, as he sees the royal chef, Rhumsy Olvor, come marching along with four servants carrying various supplements, drinks, and dressings following behind. Held by the royal chef is a golden dish covered by a golden cloche, a dish cover shaped like a bowl.

A soft melody fills the air as the orchestra in the room next door plays the intended melody. It was more fanfare than a royal wedding, with rains of rose petals falling from the ceiling.

Finally, the entourage reaches the king and with skilled claws, the dish and supplements are placed in front of the widely smiling King. And the head chef, with his normal confident smile on his face, bows to the king along with the servants.

"This is my latest masterpiece, Your Highness. Alicorn Flank Roast." And with those words said the royal chef reaches out and pulls off the golden cloche, revealing its content.

A brisket-sized piece of meat, roasted to a near-black crust that smells of honey and herbs. Upon its surface, the cutie mark of Maleficus Victoria can be seen even without the hide that once was there and even seems to have been formed from cracks in the crust.

A sauce of golden red colour has been poured over the roast and has gathered around it, making it look like the legendary ichor, the blood of gods. Along with its sides are toothpicks piercing through, each holding a small cherry tomato, forming a line along the roast's exterior. The golden plate upon which the roast is resting is circular, and decorated with griffin talons, looking like they are holding up the roast as a sacrifice to the king.

"Magnificent! Oh, how I have been waiting for this! Now. Let's see what a god tastes like hehe." The deranged look on the king's face and the drool leaking from his beak over the seemingly glowing roast were twisting more than one griffin's stomach.

But they just kept silent and clapped at the presentation and watched as the royal chef sliced off a large tender piece of meat and put it on the king's plate along with some sauce and a cherry.

Without pause, the king takes his golden fork and knife slices the meat in half lifts it slowly to his face, and licks it. Shivers went through his body as the sauce and spice of the meal gave him pleasant tingles. Then he bit into the meat and he began to moan and groan as the most delectable thing he had ever tasted began to melt in his mouth as he chewed it. His near-orgasmic noises echo through the dining hall even as the nobles try to drown them out by applauding.

“Yeees... yeeeees... the flavour... this is the ultimate flavour! HEAHAHAHAHA!!!” A greenish light fills the King's eyes as he cackles, energy flows from his body, snuffing out all light sources around him, large or small, covering half of the room in darkness. The green light from the laughing griffin king's eyes was the only thing lighting up the darkness.

But just as suddenly as the rush of energy came it went away and the King almost collapsed as the energy left him. He hunches forward in pants and shivers, grasping the edge of the table with his talons. After a few breaths, he pushes himself backward and sits down on his throne. Seemingly exhausted from the loose of the energies that had run through his body.

Everybody watches in fear as the exhausted King resumes laughing in an exhausted manner. Drool was running out of the sides of his beak, like floods. Green arcs of energy flow through his body as he experiences what looks like the highest of drug trips ever experienced with food alone.

Suddenly King Craver grabs the rest of his plate and just gulps up the rest of the meal like a starving beast. Another wave of energy flows through the monarch and he straightens himself up and grasps the entire roast off the plate like a barbarian. Green light flowed from his eyes and green sparks arced across his body. "More!"

The Royal Chef is seemingly the only one in a state of calm at the moment. Tries to reach out to the King to calm him down. "My King you should-"

"NO! IT IS MINE! THE MEAT IS MINE! YOU SHALL NOT TAKE IT FROM ME!" With mad fervor King Craver grabs a nearby knife and stabs the Royal Chef in the throat, the griffin's eyes widen in shock and betrayal as he clutches at his throat. He collapses onto the floor, bleeding heavily onto the finely polished marble. Screams of noble ladies fill the chamber and several griffins step out of their seats and move even further away from the King.

"Yeesssss! It is mine! All mine hehehe!" Like a mad beast, the royal griffin opens his beak and tears into the meat he so richly deserved and desired. Even as he chewed and swallowed he felt the energy fill his body. Like a rush of strength after a day of tiredness. It was a rush he had never experienced before,e along with a delightful flavour he could never express. And the more he ate, the more intense the floor of energy from his body became.

As more and more alicorn flesh is torn off and swallowed more energy flows from his body. His flesh begins to bulge and expand. As if being exposed to a magical rapid muscle growth potion. His royal regalia begins to split and tear as more and more of his muscle mass expands. Soon he is twice as large as before.

Even as his beaks crack and fracture as it grows he keeps chewing and swallowing. Even as pelted and feathery hide begins to tear open and bleed he just keeps devouring the divine flesh. His ecstasy for all to hear, and see, as the last of his royal regalia is torn free. Except for his crown that miraculously remains on his head.

Then as the final piece of flesh is swallowed by his mad gobbling His body had expanded four times its original size. And King Craver closes his eyes and cries tears of joy as he feels the flavour and energy flow through his body.

And then a sudden revulsion strikes him and his cheeks bulge as he tries to keep his beak closed. He feels like throwing up. But he doesn't want to. The meat is his, he will not let it escape his stomach. He is King Craver, he is the world's most powerful being. And even as his beak is forced open as something moves up through his throat, his delusions make him laugh and hold out his talons as if proclaiming his might.

"Huahuahugh!" His beak gaps open and he chokingly laughs and drools even as fleshy tendrils begin to crawl out over his body and cover his body. The Royal Guard rushes forward to aid the king even as the nobles around scramble away from the twisting mass of fleshy tendrils that had once been King Craver.

Out of sight of the chaos was Earl Archos Ironbeak, slowly and silently moving out of the chamber through one of the side doors. His cold eyes filled with disgust and satisfaction at the deteriorating monarch. And quietly closes the door before moving down the hall as soldiers come running towards the large hall while moving through the panicking nobles running the other way. *You should have remembered your lessons, my King. Overindulgence can lead to bad digestion.*

Ten guards raise talismans of various healing and restoration properties and try to restore the massive mutating form of King Craver to his former self. But instead, the act seemingly increases the growth of the tendrils. And even as the griffin monarch's choking laughter echoes out the tendrils begin to meld together as if made of clay and something begins to take shape out of the mass of flesh.

A cry of panic erupts as a massive beak erupts from the mound of flesh and bites a guard in half. The nobles flee at this sight, unwilling to remain in the madness they just witnessed, even as the guards scream out in pain and horror as they are torn apart and devoured.

The sound of tearing flesh and metal fills the chamber. And even as more guards come to the room it is simply repeated. And before long the guards just barricade the doors to the throne room while seeking contact with the artificers to find a way to cure and stop the king.

Chaos and panic run through the castle. But within the now destroyed and gore-covered chamber, a massive form lies within the dark area where the throne sits. Its shape is growing and expanding. And it slowly begins to press up against the ceiling of the throne room.

A loud rumble of a hungry stomach echoes through the chamber and sounds of a tongue licking a drooling beak can be heard. The massive shape starts to stand up, the entire castle around it shaking and vibrating as it tries to break through the meter-thick walls and ceiling of the chamber.

"Haaaaah. It is not enough. I need MoRe. I NEED MORE! FEED ME MORE!" Three large glowing red eyes light up in the shadows where the throne had once been and a strange misshapen head and beak open up into a peal of unnatural laughter that echoes across the throne room. A sudden crack of stone and mortar erupts from the ceiling of the chamber, and a silhouette of a massive five-digit talon is seen stretched up toward the sky.

The view shifts and zooms out of the throne room, the reverbing laughter of the being that had once been King Craver of Gryphon still echoing throughout the castle as guards and nobles can be seen running and flying away from the throne room in utter terror and panic. A group of royal guards comes rushing down the halls to meet the panicking crowd. The view moves out of one of the open windows and crosses over the burning city of Eggstone, buildings, and streets lit up with flames that reveal fighting groups of griffins. This is shown throughout the capital and then the sight moves over the city walls where the unified forces of the ponies and horses are pushing to take the walls from the defenders.

Suddenly the movement of the sight changes direction towards the east and zooms past the marching force of over a thousand marching kirins, and past a large open hole in the ground filled with blue light, before suddenly zooming down towards the ground.

The barren rock and tufts of grass reveal themselves before a glint of something metallic can be seen. There is a sudden shift from dull night to total darkness as the view goes into the opening of what can only be a metal pile.

Darkness blocks any sight of the tube and there is no sense of movement for several moments until an eerie blue glow glints somewhere further down. As the seconds pass the faster the glow gets closer, and in turn, brighter. There is a sudden turn and the sight is filled with bright blue light. But only after a few moments, the view changes as the light grows dimmer and reveals the scene of a blue-lit pipe filled with the liquid known as the tears of sorrow by the griffins.

For a few moments, all one can see is the pipe's cylindrical walls with a few passageways that flash by as the view keeps going down. Then an end of the pipe can be seen in the distance, and after a few seconds, the view is out of the pipe. What is revealed beyond the exit is the experimental chamber containing the submerged and trapped skeletal shape of Maleficus Victoria.

His hide and fur have seemingly melted off his bones, revealing only his bare chrome-like bones. Every few seconds a growth emerges within the body before suddenly corroding with a blue flash of light and a pulse moves out of the body as fresh liquid mana is produced. The cavern is completely filled up, the magical essence pushing even into the air pipes in the ceiling.

Everything is silent and calm except for the occasional burst of fresh liquid emerging from the alicorn's regenerating body. Until a rippling wave of green light emerges through the liquid mana from the walls to the west.

The ripple flows slowly forward until it reaches the skeleton and suddenly flows into the empty sockets of the skull. For a while nothing happens, the bones lay still on the platform, the claws of the trap still pining it in place.

Then a small bubble slides out of the skull where the nostril is. A few seconds later another pair of bubbles float out. And then there is a torrent as a pair of toxic green flames light up within the empty eye sockets. The jaws jerk open at unnatural angles as if trying to snap off the skull. An earsplitting screech reverberating with torturous agony echoes through the liquid like the cry of a massive whale.

There is no end or pause, the volatile screech keeps going, causing ripples across the liquid-filled chamber. More and more bubbles take form as a mane and tail of green fire emerge from the skeleton. The entire chamber is covered with boiling liquid mana, increasing the pressure and expansion of the still-moving flood.

Metal support beams groan and start to tilt as the pressure within the chamber increases. And through it all, there is a slight trickling sound echoing through the bubbling mana and bending metal. The light crackling sound of glass starting to fracture.

[Scene Skip]

Somewhere else in the world, there is a large dark room. At first, nothing can be seen except for slight outlines of strange shapes in the darkness. But a ray of light appears as the sound of hoofsteps comes from beyond an open doorway and the room is revealed.

The room is a large hallway of white and black carved stone with a stone of lined mosaic forming circles. Two rows of large stone coffins of finely carved marble line the chambers and halls, each engraved with a cutie mark and a name. Most of them are unreadable from ages of decay but some still bear markings.

A lone hooded pony with a white pelt and grey mane enters the hallway through the doorway and slowly walks through the area and towards another open doorway. The sound of their hoofsteps echoes in the dark chamber. A lone lantern held by their left front hoof is their sole source of light.

The pony walks through a multitude of hallways, paths, chambers, and rooms. All of them were filled with finely engraved coffins of stone. Finally, the pony reaches a large gate of solid stone built inside a carved stone frame in the shape of a gaping maw of a horse skull. The pony raises their lantern and a blue beam of light shines into the empty eye sockets of the skull. A loud click is heard and then the stone gate starts to move upwards whilst the sound of grinding gears of stone echo through the room.

Without so much as a pause the pony moves past the gate and the lantern in their grasp reveals a massive chasm with a large bridge in the shape of two equine forelegs with hoofs grasping onto one another, with support pillars made of spinal cords rising from the walls and depths of the chasm. As the pony starts walking over the long bridge several ghostly braziers in the shape of ribcages ignite with blue flames.

More and more of the massive cavern is revealed as the blue flames spread out. Revealing street lamps made the shape of femurs and skulls. Buildings engraved with mosaics of skeletons and bones. Bit by bit a massive city-sized cave is revealed, with buildings, towers, and even aquafers, carved out of the walls, pillars, stalactites, stalagmites, and ceiling. All of them are carved with images of skeletons of various shapes and sizes. Most of the equine in nature.

The lone pony wanders through the necropolis for a good while until they reach a large empty plaza where the decaying remains of several bazaar tents lay rotting. A singular tent lay built by a large fountain pouring out water from the eyes of crying skeletons.

Gently sitting down by the tent the pony pulls their saddlebags off and down by the tent before igniting a small nearby brazier with a regular red and yellow flame. They pull off their cloak, revealing them to be a colt pony dressed in a strange set of ceremonial clothing. It is the earth pony colt Final Departure, his once blank flank now decorated with a cutie mark in the shape of a pony skull with a single scythe behind it.

A gurgling cry echoes from within the tent and Final Departure swiftly moves over to the tent and goes inside. In a basket lies a small foal wrapped in black silk, his sister Silly Bones. He gently lifts her out of the basket and takes her out of the tent while speaking gently to her. "There there little sister. I am back. We're safe here. Just like grandpa Bone Key told us. Those nasty things cannot harm us here."

A nasty smell reaches his nostrils and the young colt puts a hoof over his mouth before gently placing his sister on a nearby bench of stone. Frantically pulling clean cloth, soap, and basic herbs from his saddle bag. "Urph! I really need to change your diaper."

After a rather messy cleanup of his younger sister the young colt pulls out a bottle of milk from his saddlebag and mixes it with some grounded grains and barley. Just like he saw his mother do bef-

He chokes and nearly drops the spoon he is using to stir the mixture in the bowl. He is choking, gasping for air, tears leaking from his eyes. Images of mutants and bulky murderers in armor tearing through his home. His mother screamed at him to flee with his sister.

How he fled to the old ruins and managed to unlock the skull gate with his grandfather's old lantern. Taken from his fresh corpse by the village gate. How he snuck back. Saw his father get quartered by the cultist. And his foalhood friend was violated by bird monsters. all the while a cackling chicken pony holding a large black pyramid sits on top of a throne made of the broken bodies of the village elder and their entire family.

He gathered what he could from whatever he could find without being seen. It had only been a couple of days since the attack. Many of the corpses were left brutalized in the village. So each time he went he would return and later find himself breaking down into a twitching and crying mess. Barely able to breathe.

This attack was particularly bad. Enough to make him nearly black out.

As he lay there on his back gasping and shivering as the shock wore off. He cries softly, covering up the sound with his hoof to not disturb his sister.

After a few moments, he calms down and wipes away his tears. Feeling a powerful shivering sensation run through his body as he does. A similar feeling he had started to feel every couple of hours ever since the attack on his home.

Ever since he got his cutie mark, even though he has no real idea what his special talent is.

He slowly gets back up and resumes cooking the milk mixture. Unknowing about the glowing blue eyes looking down at him and his little sister from various windows and doorways across the cavernous city. Silent and distant they remain unseen by the young pony. Their intentions for the two intruders are unknown.

[Scene Skip]

By the burning square on the eastern side of the city, there is almost an eerie silence. The large gates leading into the tunnels towards the thunder mines were open and barren, no one among the rebels had remained after their first initial battle. After the raid on the warehouses, they got paid by the UEF, slowly moving civilians out of the city. Only combatants and volunteers were left in the city before the siege had even begun.

And so the large square was riddled with scorch marks, rubble, pieces of dead combatants, and a few corpses. Nothing except smoking pyres were lying scattered around the area.

But that changes as a point in the open air is filled with a sudden purple light. The light grows and starts swirling into a sort of solid-looking energy field. That soon turns into a swirling vortex. Out of the vortex, a pair of figures steps out.

They were both covered with black robes with hoods but their sizes were fairly different. One was an equine and the larger of the pair while the other figure was smaller and bipedal. The smaller figure's head reaches the lower neck of the equine.

With a slurping sound, the vortex behind the pair closes and the equine pulls out a strange device held by a hoofed limb with a light violet pelt. The device is made of some grey metal and is shaped like a brick, in the center rests the upper half of a green orb that blinks periodically with a yellow light. A pair of antenna-like structures made of purple gems stick out of the front and six buttons of various colours rest in front of the orb.

The figure holds up the device and sweeps it across the air before a sudden red blip is heard and the figure nods and motions with its head for the smaller figure to get up on its back. The smaller figure climbs up on their back and the pair begin to walk towards the south.

As they walk through the square, the small figure glances at one of the smoldering pyres and mutters lightly as they see burnt remains of griffins within. ”Holy guacamole...”

[TBC]

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: Well that... took a while.

Pinkie: WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?!?

Staadnauthursil: I got very sick, and I got sick some more during and after the very sick stage, which lasted for more than ten months. It. It was bad. And it has been over a year, maybe even two, since then now. My body is still not in the best of conditions. Nor am I in the best of mental states. Severely depressed, unmotivated, totally drained, or burnt out. I felt so ashamed for not writing or updating that I kept postponing it.

Pinkie: Oh...

Staadnauthursil: I have been writing, rewriting, and rereading several times over on my computer, not on Fimfiction. And the spell checker I used was not properly updated and mangled some of the sentences, splitting words in two, and putting the two parts in completely different areas when it tried to correct them. Did not help my motivation.

Pinkie: You do know they are just going to demand a new one right away right?

Staadnauthursil: I know. But I am just going to bear with it. Getting this chapter up after experiencing over two years of hell feels good for my soul.

Final note: Final Departure is an OC made by yakopak. And has now been added to the story.

Thanks To All My Wonderful Patreons,
Without Your Contributes Things Would Not Have Worked Out For Me.

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My patreon has been updated. I am trying to rework it into something less ambitious and easier to handle. Still adult content, however.

UPDATE: The AI Generator I used for the image of the giant eyeball is NightCafe Creator https://creator.nightcafe.studio/.