The Pegasus guard never saw it coming for him. A mysterious pony glanced at him from the rooftops. The pony could hear the guard complaining about his posting, "Me, always me, 'Hey, Moonwool, can you take the door posting tonight?' and 'Yo, can you cover my door posting again?' ugh, those asshole officers, in there, in the royal hall, with the buffet 'n' the Princess 'n' all those guest… ugh!" The mysterious pony took aim with a mysterious contraption, and with a nod, a dart flew out of it. Flying out of the barrel faster than the average eye could track it, the guard pony barely felt the dart pierce his skin before falling into a deep sleep.
"Rule number 1, don't make unnecessary deaths" The mysterious pony muttered to himself. He dropped the contraption and dropped from the rooftop. "Not a sound. Good" He muttered again. The mysterious pony put his hood up, hiding his face and a blue magic aura showed as he drew a blade and wielded it in the air.
"Hey!" a nearby guard had spotted the pony and was now rushing in toward the colt. The colt sent the knife zooming in the guard's direction; the pony could feel the knife push its way through the guard's body and cut through flesh and bone. Walking slowly, the pony showed absolutely no action at all other than the magic aura surrounding the blade he had produced. His head didn't turn; set on one objective only, one and only one, the Royal Palace Doors. The blade danced in the air, stabbing the guards, only in non-fatal areas however, such as the joints, the wings and the hoofs. Finally reaching the palace doors, he looked behind him once, the bodies of various guards lay there, moaning, groaning and screaming in pain. The palace road ran red with blood. The colt's mind flashed back to thirty years ago, when Princess Luna had still been here.
34 years before Luna Fall era
Avalon walked along the road. He had barely escaped the Solar Armies. He had seen what the Solar Army troops had done to soldiers who had been on the front lines, sending in wave after wave to their deaths. Avalon had been splattered by the insides of his friends more than once already. He was truly the only 12th platoon pony left. Knowing he would probably be sent out alone and slaughtered, he decided to break for the mountains and go back to his village, back to his family and friends.
Avalon was lost in his thoughts as he came upon a Lunar Army campsite. He was of course not only severely outnumbered, but also overpowered; he saw one of the two gods who ruled Equestria walk across the campsite. The princess of the night, Princess Luna, walked to one of her troops, working magic and instantly healing him. She walked over to another soldier and healed her as well. "Well, well, what have we got here?" Avalon froze, he had been discovered. He felt a sharp point prod into his back," Move along Solar Scum." Avalon obeyed and moved into the clearing. The entire camp went into a hostile state. However, Luna didn't react at all.
"Lower your weapons, let him go Blazefury, I sense no loyalty to Celestia from him." The Princess beckoned for her troops to lower their weapons. "Come my darling, what brings you to our dear campsite," the Princess asked, "or should I ask, why are you abandoning Celestia?"
" I- I… "
"Speak up dear."
"I'm abandoning Celestia because she is unjust and is corrupted." Princess Luna raised an eyebrow and gave a slight smile.
"Oh my how uncommon." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm," My dear.. What is your name again?"
"Avalon, Ma'am "
"Well, my dear Avalon, let me tell you, all of us here were once a part of the Solar Army, conquers of the world, defenders of Equestria!" ,Her voice rose, excited and the entire camp cheered," But now? Look at us Avalon; we are a band of ragtag deadbeat soldiers from old campaigns, tired of Celestia's tyranny, I, myself was her sister remember. However," She paused and looked at me" are you joining us or trying to kill all of us?"
"I have no intention of joining nor do I want to fight anymore, I- I-I just want to go home." Avalon broke down into tears as the memories of the last few months flew into his regular civilian life. Then a bugle sounded, arrows whizzed by, magic bolts flew by and several ponies went down.
"At arms my comrades!" Luna shouted at her troops, her front legs reared as she charged. A magic aura, dark as the night, pure as the moon surrounded her as arrows, bolts and stone alike hit her with no effect at all. The rest of the ponies charged into battle as purple and yellow, clashed. Blazefury tossed Avalon a blade, and nodded toward the exit of the clearing where Avalon had entered. Avalon stood still, undecided, between betraying his former comrades or to run away. Then the commanding officer from his unit, Officer Battlesquire spoke up,
"Congrats on not getting court-martialed when we get back. You led us straight to them." Battlesquire shouted.
"BASTARD!" a nearby mare shouted at him right before she was hit by a arrow, blood gushed out of her throat, like a beautiful bird, she went down. Blazefury yelled in rage as he charged, the back axes on his back ripping apart all the ponies near him to shreds. He was shot down with a flurry of golden magical bolts and Avalon followed the source and saw the golden light of Princess Celestia. Celestia's face was a blank slate as she cut down several more ponies, in a more brutal fashion.
"GO!" Luna shouted as a pitch black aura blocked several magical bolts fired at him. Avalon looked to her in confusion, why would she of all people still protect me? "I'm not going to say it again, go NOW!" and with that a large cloud of darkness exploded from Luna and Avalon ran. And ran. And ran and ran and ran. Until he couldn't even make himself move. He was shaking from fear, what had he seen? He looked back onto the battlefield from his vantage point and saw the carnage the Princess had inflicted. A huge crater was where the clearing once was. Various bodies littered the area and he could detect a flash of purple magic aura, followed by a sky-splitting scream. The scream was a cry of pain, of anger and of hate, pure hate. Avalon felt a pulse in his mind, I will kill you all one day, it wasn't even a battle you slaughtered them! Then the thought faded, no it wasn't a thought, Avalon told himself, it was a mental message. He walked onwards toward the sun. He had decided to dump his uniform and go the way of the country folk and be naked.
Barely walking far, he felt a pain in his right hip. He looked at it; it was bleeding, most likely from a stray arrow. He felt his front hooves go weak. Struggling to stay upright, Avalon attempted to rip patch the wound with a fallen leaf. Now avail, without magic or wings, as a mere earthpony, his only abilities were long life and regeneration. "Come one kick in!" He yelled at the wound, hoping for the regeneration of his wound. Obviously the arrow was dipped into anti-magic potion; he had done it himself many times. Then everything went black.
When he awoke closed his eyes, he was on a bed, warm, comfy, smelling like an apple. Oh, the memories, apple pies back home in the orchid, sweet apples. The war was just a dream, he was in his room about to eat apple pie from Granny then run off to school, he could smell the apple pie. The apple pie and the sounds of…ponies screaming? Avalon opened his eyes. He dropped out of the bed; he could already feel the magic particles in the air. Using the standard spell for recon unicorns, he looked past the wall and saw ten ponies. All of them were cowering except for three, all three holding a manner of weaponry towards the cowering ponies on the other side of the room. Avalon ran through a list of war spells he could use to down all three ponies without harming the other ponies. Then the door to his room fell down.
"Ay look baws, it's a stewpid magiky pony." Grunty remarked, upon the sight of the new pony.
"Ah can seh Grunty," the boss of the ponies faced the new arrival," Wut would yer name beh?"
"No business of yours, undignified ruffian," Avalon replied. He was bying time for his spell to charge now, his plan of charging the spell then launching it through the wall was ruined by the door. Avalon walked slowly toward the pony. Then an arrow shot past him.
"Car'fell, ya dun wanna git hurt by dem arrows do ya?" The boss of the ponies taunted, " Grunty, kill'im, I want his head fer my wall." Grunty snorted, and charged head on with the lance he held. Avalon knew he could take down Grunty without a though, using the marejutsu taught by his captain, Avalon disarmed and incapitated Grunty, and also broke the tip of the lance as well. Then he turned to face the boss, who was already swinging at him with a sword. Dodging the first swing, Avalon took a step back and scratched his previous spell and prepped another one. His horn glowed a night purple as he cast a wave of telekinesis to counteract the next sword swing. Then he jumped and in mid-air, hit the boss, with help of telekinesis, and knocked him out. As he landed, he cast another telekinesis wave to throw back the arrow shot at him, straight back to its user, killing the pony that was using it.
Avalon looked at the family, consisting of three fillies, a mare, and two colts. The fillies were looking at him in awe and horror. The mare recovered the fastest, asking the questions first. "So… you're alright now?" The question caught Avalon off guard, he had expected the generic 'who are you?' however, this female… a strange pony indeed. She used her magic to start cleaning the kitchen, "Be a dear and help my poor brothers and sisters up and get rid of those damned bodies before they stink up my kitchen!" Avalon was taken aback by this mare's behavior, he had just demonstrated he could kill three ponies without remorse and she immediately orders him around. He was going to object when she did the most despicable thing he had have ever seen. She thrust a warm, freshly baked apple pie under his nostrils. The smell of a great tasting apple pie filled his senses, "If you want to eat, you need to work, "the mare thought for a while," AND you have rent to pay, and the bandages, and the doctor fees and OH, and washing your clothes." Avalon paused in his step at the last thought, about to give the mare a piece of his mind, when everything went black again. He tried to stand, and then his knees gave way
END OF CHP- 1