Chapter 2: Advancement of war

A/N: Wow, I finished this chapter way faster than I thought I would. I'm not that good at describing combat, so the chapter might feel weird to read, sorry about that.

Krieg was standing on the balcony of his mansion. He held a bow in his left hand and an arrow in his right. He held up his bow, placed the arrow on the arrow rest and hooked it on the nocking point. He pulled back the bowstring and aimed into the distance. He realized the string and the arrow flew away.

In the castle in Canterlot, Celestia was discussing strategy. They had been offered assistance from the griffons in the west but Equestria was in the middle of Utopia in the south and the Griffon Democracy. The only land that stood between Equestria and Utopia was the Badlands that Utopia's forces was expected to be able to cross in a few days. Then, they heard a swooshing sound from the distance. After a while, the arrow Krieg had fired crashed through the window and pierced one of the strategists head.

Everyone in the room jump to the ground while carefully observing the window. After a while, they stood up and left for another room where they figured that they would be safe.

When the arrow had reached the border between Utopia and the Badlands, it had broken through the sound barrier, creating a powerful boom. That boom had been the signal for the vanguard to start moving.

After one day of marching, the vanguard made camp. The next day, they kept moving and followed that pattern for 3 more days. Then they split up in 3 separate vanguards. One headed northeast to take Baltimare and Fillydelphia and the second headed northwest to take Las Pegasus. The third one stayed behind to wait for the main forces.

When the main forces arrived with Krieg 2 days later, the first vanguard had captured Baltimare and the second was engaged in conflict with the Equestrian army in Las Pegasus but was slowly pushing forward. The third vanguard and the main forces started heading north towards Canterlot, expecting to reach the capital in a few more days.

Celestia was pacing in her room. With Utopia just days from taking control of Equestria, and the reinforcements from the griffons still far behind, her worries were natural. Luna was in her room, not having left in since the Gala. Something about Krieg had gotten her thinking. His body looked so familiar to her but she just couldn't place it. A guard burst into Celestia's room.

"Your highness! Big, big problems!"

"What is it?" She said in an impatient tone.

"It's the Utopian army. Their advancing much faster than anypony anticipated. They might be here tomorrow, or the day after!" Celestia froze. Something inside of her screamed at her to run, but she was to afraid what would become of her if she did. She turned to the window and looked to the sky where her sun was setting.

"Is this what you wanted, you batard?" She said with venom.

The next day was spent on reinforcing the city's defenses. Several passages were cleared for the citizens to escape, should it be necessary. When night fell, Celestia looked out over the city. She didn't notice the army that was gathering in the forest at the foot of the mountain.

At dawn, the citizens of Canterlot were woken up by the sound of battle. Utopia's second and third vanguard, along with the main forces had launched an attack as soon as the sun rose. The night and morning guards had been caught completely off guard.

The royals in the castle, consisting of Celestia, Luna, Shining, Cadence and Twilight were all running towards the throne room to take a secret exit out of the castle. But when they threw open the doors; they were met with Krieg, sitting on Celestia's throne.

"Planning to go somewhere?" He said with a smug smile. He was dressed in a pitch-black, lorica plumata armor with manica armguards that were a slightly lighter black and a black helmet that left his face exposed and let his hair out back and had a hole over his forehead. The ponies were cowering as he stood up and slowly started walking towards them.

Shining ran toward Krieg, hoping to at the least buy some time. Krieg responded by raising his right arm and fired a vortex beam consisting of light and darkness. The beam made contact with Shining and when he stopped, he felt a burning sensation through his body and suddenly, he was cut in two vertical pieces.

Cadence screamed out and Krieg turned around just in time to see Luna drag Cadence into the tunnel behind the throne. He smiled and left through the door, stepping on Shining's corpse.

The ponies were quickly making their way through the tunnel. Cadence had tears flowing down her cheeks and Celestia had a look of worry. They finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel and when they got out, it was in the middle of the town square. Then, they heard the sound of metal slowly clapping together. They turned around and saw Krieg standing there, clapping his gauntlet covered hands. Cadence jumped in front of Krieg and began charging up a magic beam.

"You killed my husband!" She shouted as she fired the beam. But a black vortex appeared in front of Krieg and the beam disappeared into it. As the ponies stared in fear, the vortex started spinning the other way and became white. Then, the beam Cadence had shot came flying out and hit her, but with 10X the power. She flew by the other princesses and into a house that collapsed around her.

Then, everyone heard trumpets sound in the distance and when Krieg turned around, he was tackled by a dive-bombing griffon. He was forced back a little but quickly recovered and brought together his hands above his head and struck the griffon's back hard enough to break its spine. The griffon died instantly and when Krieg looked up again, he was met with a legion of griffons.

"Krieg of Utopia, surrender at once! As we speak, soldiers of the Griffon Democracy are killing your men." As soon as the griffon was done talking, the corpse of a Griffon Democracy soldier by from the west. Krieg smiled a smug smile.

"Really now?" He raised his hand and snapped his metal clad fingers and Utopian soldiers came flying in from the west and took down about half the griffons in an instant. The griffons looked shocked at Krieg as he chuckled. "The first vanguard. I had them wait outside the city, just in case." Krieg vanished and reappeared in front of the griffon that had spoken and grabbed his throat and proceeded to slowly squeeze down. The griffon grabbed Krieg's arm and tried to claw his way free, but Krieg's armor was too thick.

Then, a beam the same color of the sun struck down on Krieg and the griffon. Luna turned to her sister and saw Celestia almost collapse from exhaustion. When the dist that been kicked up from Celestia's attack began disappearing, Krieg was still floating in midair. Under him, the ashy remains of the griffon were gathered in a pile. Krieg slowly turned around and glared at Celestia. Then, he hunched over, grabbing his sides and began screaming. Celestia smiled, thinking her attack had managed to hurt Krieg while Luna put a hoof to her head, recognizing the scream but unable to figure out how.

Then, a pillar of fire shot out from the ground under Krieg and enveloped him. The flames began being sucked into his back and then, gigantic flames shot out of his back. When the flames began to slowly die, they revealed a pair of shining, grey metal wings. Then, Krieg threw back his head and fire shot out of the hole in his helmet. When the flames disappeared, Krieg had a metal horn on his head. His sclera became black; his iris changed from red to white, his right pupil took on the form of a sun and his left the form of a creased moon.

He straightened his body out and flapped his wings, generating a strong gust of wind that almost blew away the princesses. Celestia stared at Krieg in fear as she slowly shook her head.

"No. No, no, no it can't be. Not you. Anyone but you!" The other princesses looked at Celestia as Krieg smiled and spread his wings as wide as he could.

"That's right Celly, I'm back!"