Victory opened his eyes. Despite having his eyes wide open, the only thing he saw was darkness...
It was over 1000 years before Twilight Sparkle became a princess, and just before the reign of Princess Celestia and her sister. The God of Darkness ruled the land, yet despite his title, everypony called him the Great Horror. He turned the sun into nothing but a grey disk in the sky, and made the moon completely vanish. The only light left in the sky were the stars, yet the Great Horror stopped their light from getting through by filling the skies with black clouds. The sky was complete blackness. The only light the ponies ever knew was that of dim candles, which they used to see while they worked.
Legions of shadow ponies, ponies born of darkness and evil, enforced the Horror's will. The living ponies were abused, tortured, and massacred in sacrifices to feed the Great Horror.
Yet recently the great one ordered his legions to kill all living ponies, as he thought they had served their usefulness, and knew that once they were dead, he could move to the lands beyond, like the Griffon Kingdom...
Within a day, over half the living ponies were dead, and the remaining were being hunted down.
Princess Celestia had become a beacon of hope for the living ponies. Together she and her sister started a rebellion against the Shadow Empire, as the Great Horror's realm was called. They fought long and hard, yet they made no progress. Slowly, everypony began losing hope, including the sisters...
Except one...
Victory came on the darkest of nights. The two sisters had gone to negotiate surrender, and offered that they would surrender if their lives would be spared, and they could have a plot of land to live on. The Great Horror laughed at this and said that if they surrendered, they would have quick and painless deaths, while if they didn't, he would flense the skin from their bones, pour boiling water onto them, and use other methods of torture to kill them slowly, and painfully...
Victory had been nothing but a simple pegasus blacksmith before he stood up against the Shadow Empire. Victory wasn't even his original name, everyone had forgotten it, yet it didn't matter.
"The brightest of lights can come from the darkest of places..." he said.
The living ponies rallied behind him as he made a plan to finally free them from the darkness...
"Alright Celestia, Luna, you two are to tell him that you will gather all of us in the badlands where we will surrender. Then, we'll ambush their army, and when its all dead, we'll take the armor and weapons and disguise ourselves as shadow ponies. When we have done this we will march back to his castle, and when he enters his sleep, we will reveal ourselves, overrun the castle, and when he wakes up, the three of us will fight together to eliminate him..."
"Victory... you are an inspiration, and all of your plan is genius, except the last part... You truly think we can kill a god?" Luna asked.
"Yes... I do... We'll find a weakness, exploit it, and then find out how to kill him."
"I must agree with my younger sister... We cannot kill a god... We can however, possibly weaken him enough to allow us to escape to a new home..."
"NO! I WILL NOT ABANDON EQUESTRIA!" he yelled.
He took a few deep breaths and said, "Forgive my outburst... But we have nowhere else to go... No one will shelter us, as they fear the wrath of the Great Horror... Equestria is all we have left, and I have no intention of abandoning it. Our ancestors of the three tribes discovered this place, and it served them for the three hundred years before the Shadow Empire invaded. Yet now we must not abandon the work they put into building Equestria! We surrendered to the Shadow Empire when it first invaded after only two days. We spat on them by doing that, and abandoning Equestria now will be stomping on their graves..."
"Why? Why do you shelter so much hatred for the Shadow Empire? We all seek to fight it, yet it was fair until the genocide..."
"NO! It was not fair! They still massacred our people! My family was killed in front of my eyes by them just because they were needed for some cheap sacrifice! My wife, mother, father, and brother, all dead... Everypony has suffered some loss from the Shadow Empire... I say no more... We will make them lose their little castle, and we will crush the Shadow Empire with one blow. If you are with me, then you will trust me..."
The two sisters looked at the other for a few moments.
"Please... we have nothing else..." he said.
"Very well... If we are to die, we'll die with honor. Yet we will take some of the shadow ponies with us..."
The trap was set. Nearly seven tenths of the entire shadow pony army was marching through the narrow canyons in the badlands to meet the two sisters and the few remaining living ponies to execute them.
Little did they know that the living ponies were on the cliffs overlooking the canyons...
When the time was right they dropped huge rocks, crushing many shadow ponies and trapping them in the canyon.
The shadow ponies that could fly were intercepted by the pegasus ponies and the ones with magic were unable to remove rocks faster than they would fall.
Archers rained arrows upon the shadow ponies, and after three hours, the entire army was dead, with not a single survivor...
"Alright everypony, gather their armor and weapons and get suited up! We have an attack to carry out. Even if we fail, at least we took a hell of alot of these bastards with us!"
They cheered and gathered the supplies, and covered themselves with ash to look black. They put the armor on and put nasty looks on their faces.
"You'll... never get away... with this..." an injured shadow pony said.
Half of him was under a rock, and there was an arrow in his shoulder.
"What makes you think that?" Victory asked walked over and twisting the arrow.
He screamed and then said, "The Great one will kill you slowly... the pain I am going through now will be but a mere fraction of what he will do to you... The darkness will forever live on..." he said taking his final breath.
His head fell and Victory walked off.
The Great Horror sat upon his throne. His army should be returning any minute now...
The Great one had plans... He would take his rest, and then when he woke, send his entire army to invade the Griffon Kingdom... Soon the entire world would be his...
A shadow pony ran in and said, "Great one... the army has arrived... They seem battered..."
The God took the form of an Alicorn and walked out to meet them.
The other shadow pony had been right, they were battered. Many had dented armor and many were bruised, he also noted quite a few were missing...
"Where are the rest of you?" he demanded.
Victory walked up and said, "Great one... we were ambushed and took many losses... However I suspected an ambush in those narrow canyons, so I had a two large groups lurking on the cliffs outside the living ponies sight, and when they ambushed us the two groups pressed against them. Most died from falling into the canyon, the rest died from battle. Not a single one survived... However our own losses were heavy..."
A grin crossed the Horror's face. "Very good," he said, "Create more shadow ponies. When I wake from my rest, we will strike the Griffon Kingdom..." he walked off...
Victory ordered all the real shadow ponies to gather in the courtyard, where he had his forces surround and massacre them, and begin burning the castle to the ground.
The shadow ponies were confused and panicked. They were easily dispatched and with the Great Horror in rest, there was nothing that could save them...
After a week passed, the Great Horror woke to find his castle a smoldering ruin...
"WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!" He demanded.
Victory and the two sisters walked up to him and Victory said, "You have lost Great one..."
"YOU! YOU TRICKED ME!"
"Leave Equestria, and never come back!"
"NEVER! I WILL KILL YOU ALL... MYSELF!"
He turned into his Alicorn form and blasted where they were standing with a powerful beam of magic.
The three scattered and the two sisters began using magic to try and combat him, while Victory used physical strength to distract him.
The god threw Victory to the side and blasted Celestia with a powerful beam of magic.
He charged Luna and threw her into a pillar and blasted a beam of magic at her.
Luna reacted fast enough and blasted her own beam at him, however she was weaker than the god. The beam slowly began moving towards her and she stopped using hers and got hit head on.
However before she did, she used a spell she had been practicing for a very long time on him.
Both of them froze for a few seconds, and then Victory rammed himself into the Horror, snapping both of them out of the trance.
"Sister, are you alright?" Celestia asked.
"I... I think I am... I feel... different... but we must assist Victory," she said getting up.
Victory was thrown to the side and the two sisters were hit by a powerful beam of magic.
The two sisters lay on the ground, to beat up to get up, and Victory struggled to stand.
"Pathetic... saviors of Equestria? HA! You should have just surrendered... now you die..."
"No... I won't... allow it..." Victory said standing up.
"Oh please... what can you do? Look at yourself... pathetic... You believe in the light, and that it will guide you to victory, you were even foolish enough to change your name to Victory! You are nothing but a pony will be defeated..."
A magic ring formed around Victory's neck and the Horror was shocked.
"Your a pegasus! How are you using magic?!"
"Magic? What?" he looked down and saw the ring as it formed a silver necklace with a diamond gem in the shape of two crossed swords implanted in it.
"What is this..." he said to himself...
Suddenly the diamond began glowing and Victory's body was consumed by light. His coat glew the white it was colored, his cutie mark was emphasized by light, his purple mane and tail began glowing too and had a fire like quality to them, and his green eyes were nothing but a green blur.
"I feel... empowered..." he said.
"It changes nothing! I am still a god! You cannot stop me!" the Horror said obviously becoming nervous.
"We'll see..." he said as he blasted forward into the god.
The two were evenly matched, however Victory was gaining a slight edge, and as time passed the edge grew until the god was in trouble.
"This can't be happening! I WON'T ALLOW YOU TO DEFEAT ME YOU MORTAL PONY!" the Horror yelled.
The two sisters watched in awe at the battle between the two powers, praying that the god couldn't turn things around...
Victory blasted a beam of energy from the necklace that hit the Horror head on.
"I can't kill you..." Victory said.
"You... finally admit... it..." the Horror said breathing heavily.
"But I can do this..." He enshrouded the Horror with a white energy that blocked him from sight and then crashed into him.
He scream and then fell to his knees and said, "What... what have you done to me..."
"This castle will be your prison, for all eternity... You will never be able to leave. The remnant of your army is running beyond the frozen north, and that is where this castle is going."
"You can't move this castle..."
"You underestimate what I can do with this power..."
He walked over to the two sisters and said, "Can you stand?"
"Yes..." they both replied.
"Then we must leave. Get everypony out. We don't want them going to where this castle is going..."
"NO! YOU WILL NOT DO THIS TO ME! I AM A GOD!" the Horror yelled.
Victory turned around and smashed into the Horror, and then threw him into a pillar where he fell and lay on the ground.
Everypony left the castle and Victory turned to look at it, and it was shrouded with a white light, which caused everypony to cover their eyes from how bright it was, and suddenly, the castle was gone.
He was then lifted into the air and the brightness left him and filled the skies. The clouds were made white again, the sun became yellow and the sky changed from black to the blue it was before.
Everypony had to cover their eyes, as they were unused to the amount of light the sun gave.
Victory's body had turned back to normal, and he fell to the ground unconscious.
The two sisters ran to him and Luna said, "He's alright, but what he did... how did he do it? Not even we could do such a thing sister..."
"I... I do not know... but I have a feeling this necklace he is wearing had something to do with it..."
Victory opened his eyes once again, and this time, there was light.
He sat up in bed and saw the necklace still around his neck. He took it off and Luna, who sat nearby said, "Apparently only you can take it off, all of us tried already..."
"What is it?" Celestia asked.
"I... I do not know..."
"Then what shall we call it?"
"The Power of Victory..."
He got out of bed and asked, "How fares Equestria?"
"Despite being leaderless, it is flourishing now that the Shadow Empire has been pushed back to the north..."
"Why is it leaderless?"
"We were waiting for you to awaken, so you could lead it..."
"I'm sorry, but I will not be leading Equestria..."
"And why not?"
"What happens when I'm dead? Who leads then?"
"We have the magic to make you immortal..."
"I will not be an immortal... with the power I have gained, being immortal might put greed into my heart, and making me king of Equestria would never work..."
"Then who shall lead?"
"You two... You are immortal, and can be very competent leaders..."
"And what of you?"
"I'll be a defender of Equestria... Nothing more... nothing less..."
"But what about when you die?"
"Then my children shall take my place, and their children... My family will take Victory in it's name, and then part of the other parents name..."
"You would force your children to defend Equestria from the dangers of the world?"
"I will train my child, and he or she will train theirs... It will continue forever..."
"We will need a capital city for Equestria..."
"Make it at the mountain the Horror's castle was once on... It will show that the darkness has been completely removed..."
"We have one last thing to say... We found a diamond type crystal on the mountain after the castle disappeared. Apparently it had been covering it..."
"What does it change?"
"Your necklace... it glows when it is near it..."
"I will investigate it later... I sense there is something else you want to say?"
"Yes... when my sister used the spell on the Horror, it connected them in a sense. Their minds are one. He can hear her thoughts, and she can hear his..."
"That could be a valuable weapon..."
As he said that a pegasus nurse walked in and then said, "Oh sorry, am I interrupting?"
"No... you aren't... stay actually..."
"Umm... alright I guess, is there anything you need?"
"Just a friendly face..."
"We will be going..." Luna said.
She and her sister walked out of the room.
Victory married that same nurse, whose name was Frozen Earth, and they had a colt whom they named Frozen Victory. Victory himself died shortly after Princess Celestia and Luna used the Elements of Harmony to defeat Discord to a disease.
When Frozen Victory got his cutie mark, two crossed swords behind a glacier, he a necklace that was almost the exact same as his fathers, except the crystal showed his cutie mark instead of his fathers, and it was called the Power of Rage...
Frozen Victory helped the Princess defeat a corrupt king named King Sombra, who ruled the Crystal Empire, and died shortly after, leaving behind filly a named Victorymoon.
The Horror had deceived Luna into betraying her sister and Victorymoon, who had a deep connection with Princess Luna, and did not know that she had been deceived, fought alongside her.
Both were defeated by the Elements of Harmony. Princess Luna was trapped on the moon and Victorymoon died.
Princess Celestia took her son and raised him herself. She knew that the Horror would get stronger, and began having each member of the Victory Dynasty go on a Victory Crusade, which was a one year journey to the lands beyond the frozen north to battle the Great Horror and weaken him.
Few Victory's returned, however before they left they were forced to have a child to ensure the Victory dynasty wouldn't die off.
Years passed until the 28th Victory, named Cloud Victory, went on his Victory Crusade. He came back before the year was over, however when he came back, he returned with an army of shadow ponies.
The Great Horror had learned that the best way to defeat your enemy, was to get their greatest warrior on your side. He had corrupted Cloud Victory's very soul and had him lead his armies, as the Horror was unable to himself due to the curse the original Victory put on him.
Princess Celestia barely defeated him with the Elements of Harmony, and killed his entire family, save his daughter, whom she let live to continue the Victory family. She had come very close to killing her, knowing that now the family could become corrupted.
She promised the world that if another Victory became corrupted she would kill the entire family.
The son of that same Victory whom Celestia had spared became the most powerful Victory to ever exist, even more powerful than the original. His name was Dark Victory. His power amulet gave him the Power of Strength, which served him until he went on his Victory Crusade.
He broke the family tradition and went on it before he had a child, which put the entire family line at risk. However he returned alive, yet not unscarred. His power had been depleted to only half of what it once was.
He broke tradition again when he married a unicorn. Up until then all Victory's and their spouses had been pegasi to preserve the power of flight. Dark Victory's wife was named Platinum Heart, and their son, who ended up as a Pegasus was named Platinum Victory. His cutie mark was two crossed swords behind a shield, and he had gained the power amulet named the Power of Will.
His mother abandoned him when he was young and his father died trying to protect him shortly after. He grew up on the streets of Cloudsdale for a few months until he left for Vanhoover, where he began a new life living with his friends and growing into the Victory he was meant to be...
