Chapter 15: History is written by the winners
Shining Armor, encased by the legendary suit called Estefania, charged at Beta. He skidded to a halt when he was 10 meters away and whistled. Out of darkness came two of his guards, both encased in the suits of armor.
Originally there had been 5, but navigating through the mountain had been tricky. They had lost two of their own to the dark caves. Using magic for light was useless, for each time Shining or one of his guards tried to use magic, it was snuffed out almost instantly. Only Shining Armor, his lieutenant and the other guard had survived. To be fair, Shining had no clue who the other pony is armor was. He remembered coming in with 5 suits of armor, glowing green, red, blue, orange, and yellow. But this suit was glowing purple. He at first dismissed it as a glitch, considering the fact that the Suit was well over 900 years old and that it was not really ready for a fight. He kept his eye on it though. For whoever was in the suit knew its way through the mountain. And the last time he checked, Shining Armor was never given a map.
"Looks like he is stunned," His lieutenant remarked. "Nice shot."
Beta was unsteady on his hoofs. He was swaying from side to side.
"How the hell is that colt still standing?" The lieutenant asked, staring at Beta. "I would be knocked out cold from the impact of the spell, let alone standing and aware."
"You just didn't hit hard enough." Said the pony within the purple glowing suit. It sounded female.
"Sargent," Shining said, placing his hoof on the purple glowing suit. "Are you okay? Your voice sounds off."
The suit looked at Shining and tilted its head. Shining was unsure if it was a gesture of "Do you really need to ask?" or if it was just whoever was in the suit realized that he was speaking.
Beta struggled to keep his balance. He was stunned, let alone able to fight. He raised his head to look at the group of armored ponies to see that the suit of armor glowing purple turned its head to face him. He watched as one of its eye sockets flickered green.
"Zeta…Figures..."
Zeta was following Shining Armor from the moment he took flight to the mountains. Easily taking out three of the five guards in the dark caves with the help of Gamma, Zeta fitted herself with the armor. It fit perfectly, almost as if it was made specifically for her. She hid the bodies and caught up with Shining and his lieutenant.
"So, now what?" Zeta asked.
"Now," Shining replied, ignoring his Sargent's change of voice. "we execute him."
"A quick death or a slow one?"
"To be fair, the colt looks like he is already in enough pain as it is. It would be cruel to slowly kill him."
Zeta shot a glare at Shining. "That isn't a good idea."
"The pony in that suit is not your Sargent, Captain."
The three armored ponies looked at Beta. He was grimacing in pain. When he hit the wall from the impact of the spell, his left hind leg hit the wall first, breaking in two. His left hind leg looked like a Z.
"What do you mean?" Shining asked, aware that Beta may be hallucinating.
"It isn't your Sargent."
"How do you know?"
"Your Sargent isn't a mare."
Shining walked towards Beta. "And how would you know that?"
"I know more than you do. You punish those who say or do the opposite of what you want them to do."
"I do not!"
"You don't. But Celestia does. And to be fair, you are here because she ordered you to kill me. If she never ordered you, you never would have been here in the first place."
"Don't you dare talk about Celestia? You are a murderer, a killer. You kill for fun."
Beta lowered his head and sighed. The pain in his leg was worsening. "Don't always trust Celestia. If you want to know the truth, you need to break some rules, enter what you are not allowed to enter. For example, I heard you defeated King Sombra."
"Correct, my Queen and I did."
"Why?"
"Why? Are you serious? He was going to take over the Crystal Kingdom; enslave all who lived there. My Queen and I defeated him."
"Did you defeat him because Celestia said so?"
Shining took a step back, shocked. "What do you mean?"
Beta gritted his teeth as he lied down on the stone floor, his leg burning in pain. "King Sombra was not always evil."
"What are you talking about? Of course he was."
"You are putting your beliefs on what your Princess has told you."
"The Winner always writes the history."
"But the loser knows the truth. What Celestia told you were only what she wanted you to know."
"I know that. Celestia doesn't tell me everything before sending me on a mission. It annoys me but I tend to get over it. As for you, I already know about you."
"What if what she told you was a lie? That King Sombra wasn't always the Evil spirit you saw trying to capture your Kingdom."
"What are you trying to say? That King Sombra was a victim. That Princess Celestia lied to me? What reason would she have to lie to me?"
"Exactly, she lied to you for one simple thing: Power."
"Why would she need Power?"
"What do you think I have been trying to do ever since I bonded with Alpha here? She needs power. If she did not need it, the facilities would not exist."
Shining Armor's lieutenant had begun to make his way towards Beta. He was now standing right in front of him. Beta looked up and struggled to get on his hoofs.
"There is no need to stand up," The lieutenant said as he placed his hoof on Beta's head, forcing him down. "You will be dead soon."
Beta placed his right hoof on the lieutenant's chest plate. The armor, recognizing its original owner, deactivated. Beta looked at the Left metal brace covering the lieutenant's wing. At once it fell to the ground. Smiling, Beta watched as the metal flew to his left wing, covering it up. With his wing protected, Beta reactivated the armor. The Lieutenant screamed in pain as the armor that was covering him turned against him, slowly crushing him.
"To be honest," Beta said as he stood and watched the Lieutenant's body twitch as it finally died. "This is MY Armor. Once I was defeated, Celestia salvaged what was left of the armor and repaired it. She then modified it, creating her own armor." He said as he looked over his newly made wing, covering up and protecting the wing itself.
Shining began to step backwards. Zeta stayed her ground. They both watched as Beta got ready to attack, but instead of attacking, he teleported away.
"I wonder what he meant by 'Facilities. Anyways, I have a lot of questions for Celestia and YOU." Shining Armor said after realizing what just happened. He walked over to his Lieutenant's body and knelt beside it. He looked up and turned around. Zeta was already gone. He was alone. With a sigh, he placed his hoof on the guard's body and teleported, bringing the body with him to the castle.
Shining armor looked around. He was in the armory. He hated teleporting. It was painful and never went as planned. Celestia was waiting for him.
"What happened? Did you succeed?" Celestia said, a worried look covered her anger. She knew he didn't succeed.
"No, I did not. I lost all 5 of my best guards. I lost 4 to Zeta and 1 to Beta."
"Zeta?"
"A mare followed us to the Mountains. She took my Sargent's armor and refitted herself with it."
Celestia cursed under her breath. "Well, I am sorry for your loss."
"I understand, ma'am." Shining replied, his head lowered in grief.
Celestia turned and started to walk away when Shining spoke.
"I mean not to offend or ask of my orders, Ma'am."
Celestia turned her head. "Speak what is on your mind."
"It is something that Beta said. He kept talking about lies of you but what caught me off guard was that he knew of King Sombra and what you told me about him. He began talking of how Sombra wasn't always evil. Is it true?"
Celestia looked at Shining armor, her face full of sorrow. "Some things are better left untold. Get some rest, Captain." She said as she walked out.
"Yes, ma'am." Shining Armor replied, bitterly.
Beta appeared in a flash of red light, landing softly on the ground. It was dark. The moon had just begun to rise. Looking around he realized he was in the Town Square of Ponyville. He sighed, and allowed Alpha to take control. Once in control, Alpha bit his bottom lip in an attempt to not scream out.
"How did this happen?" He finally said after he mustered the willpower not to scream out.
"It broke when you hit the wall after getting hit with the spell."
Alpha checked over his left leg. It was broken alright. No doubt about that. It was broken above and below the kneecap. He struggled to get up.
"Careful, Alpha, the leg is already broken, let's not damage it more than it already is."
Alpha extended both wings in an attempt to keep his balance when he realized the new metal brace.
"What the hell?" He muttered as he examined the new metal.
"Don't worry, It's just a brace, a shield. I took it off one of the suits of armor that attacked us."
"What is it?"
"It's my armor."
"What!?" Alpha said in disbelief.
"Your wing, the Dragon Metal, is a shard of my armor. The reason I knew how to create your wing is because I already created it before. The suit of armor you saw earlier was my own suit, the very one I used against Celestia. When I was defeated, she gathered what was left of my armor, destroying what was left of my body. She then modified it, creating her own armor. It is much more efficient than my own armor, considering I used dark magic to power it. She used the Elements of Harmony as a way to power it."
Alpha slowly got up, placing his wait on his right hind leg and his front legs. Once he was balanced, he took a step forward and nearly fell to the ground.
"Easy there, Alpha."
Once he could move, Alpha limped to the market. Once there, he ran into John. John was frantic. He was sweating, breathing heavily as if he was running away from something.
"Alpha! Thank Celestia I found you. I need help!"
"Slow down, John, what is wrong?"
"It's Scootaloo, she hasn't returned from school. And I'm freaking out because I think I know where she went."
"Slow down, John. You are losing me."
John took a deep breath. "Today was the test to see if colts and fillies could fly. I was worried because Scootaloo can't fly."
"So what?" Alpha said, not understanding why John was so frantic. "She failed the test, she can redo it, right?"
"You don't understand. When you fail THAT test, you are seemingly exiled as you are never seen again."
Alpha's eyes widened as he realized what just happened.
"That isn't possible. The Facility is destroyed, I destroyed it! You saw me destroy it!"
"Remember what you told me. There is more than one facility."
Meanwhile…
"You have beautiful eyes."