It was just a ring, to anyone else who saw it, it wouldn't have been that special. Only Alex really knew what it was, and his life, once again, had meaning. He shoved the ring in the pocket of his pants and ran out of his room sprinting down the stairs taking them two at a time. His mother and father tried to stop him, but a quick shove in opposite directions left the sprawled on the floor.

Alex ran from the house, barreling down to the river and up against a stone wall where the river stopped. He pulled the ring from his pocket and slowly put it on the middle finger of his right hand. Suddenly everything change. His vision became foggy and his eyes burned. He fell to his knees and rubbed his eyes. When the burning was gone, Alex looked up to see a comforting sight. A large dark cave had that had once not been there, was now there. Alex stood up and walked through the cave. At first it was nothing but black, then something happened. He saw a light rush towards him. The next thing he knew, he was falling through the air. Far to his right was Castle Canterlot. Right below him was Ponyville. He was surrounded by a mixture of black flames and lightning, yet it did not shock or burn him. He fell to the ground at rapid speeds. The only thing the ponies below could see was an enormous fireball. They all screamed as it hit the ground.

Alex had landed in a crouch in a now large crater. The ground was smoldering around him. He stood up and ran to the wall of the crater and quickly climbed out. He stepped out of the crater and looked around at the small group of ponies that were brave enough to get closer. There eyes filled with glee and happiness at the sight of their king. They all rushed forward to greet him, talking all at once.

"Whoa, calm down everyone. Someone tell me what is going on!" Alex yelled over the mass of voices.

"Something terrible has happened, my king. Creatures of unknown origin have come and rampaged across our land. They killed anypony who resisted and captured the queen and the other three humans." one pony said, coming forward.

"Okay, tell me where these creatures are, I think it's about time I teach them not to mess with my subjects." Alex said, making the group smile collectively.

The pony told Alex that they were in Castle Canterlot. Alex thanked them for the information and told them to stand fast and hold on to hope, that their hero had arrived.

"Hmm, it seems the horseman has come. He will be here soon."

"We should send our legions after him, snuff out this fire of rebellion before it has a chance to spread."

"Fine, send a message to the men. They march to protect us. Send them now"

Alex ran up the mountain to Canterlot. He was just about there when his instincts made him hit the deck. He looked over at a nearby tree to see a glowing green arrow jutting from it. He looked around to try to find the source of the projectile, but only saw trees. Then, forms began to come out from the foliage. They were humans, or at least that's what they could have been. Each of them had a green aura around them. They all were wearing broken armor which also gave off an eerie green glow. Some had bows and arrows, while other's carried swords and battle axes, all of them glowing pale green as well.

"I'm assuming you all don't want to be friends." Alex said.

One of the monstrous soldiers roared.

"Didn't think so."

All of them rushed Alex at once. Alex grabbed one of them and smashed his fist into him, disarming him and ramming his sword through his chest. Alex could not get a head count of how many soldiers there were, but if he was to guess, he would have said about 100 or more.

One by one the soldiers fell, they were either decapitated or had a sword or knife jutting from their skulls. The last saw what was happening and tried to run. Alex gave chase by climbing one of the near by trees and chasing after him. Alex lept down and landed on the demon soldiers back, stealing his sword and ramming it through his armor and into his stomach.

"You know, I like this sword, this is a nice fucking sword." Alex said, ripping the sword from the monsters stomach. "Now tell me, where are your masters?" he asked.

"In the castle, up the hill there." the soldier said, pointing at Castle Canterlot.

"Ah, thats good. A friend of mine told me the same thing. I just wanted to make sure he was telling the truth. You can't trust a lot of people nowadays. You know, I'm a cautious guy, I just wanted to make sure." Alex said, standing up.

Alex took off the demon soldiers head and began to walk up to the front of the castle, still carrying the sword. Alex thought it was a nicely made weapon, not as good as his scythe of course, but his weapon was still locked up, and he could not access it. The first thing he would have to do, is find his wife.

Alex wandered through the halls of the castle, checking the other rooms for anything of interest. There were no Equestrian guards, but there were plenty of green soldiers. Alex tried to avoid them, using the rafters to climb about and find his way along the halls. Finally, he made his way to the throne room. He walked up to the guards, who held their weapons at him, ready to take his life.

"Look, I just want to talk to your masters, just have a friendly, one on one conversation. Is that okay?" Alex asked one of them.

One of the guards snarled at him, and Alex dispatched them quickly. He walked into the throne room to see it had changed.

Now, instead of one throne, there were four. On each one, sat a man. The first, had short brown hair and had piercing blue eyes. The other had short blonde hair and demonic red eyes. The third had had no hair and his eyes were solid black. The last one, the one in the center, had long black hair, and dull grey eyes. All of them were wearing black suits and ties.

"Ah, so the horseman has arrived." Said the one at the far left in a raspy voice. "Servant, find this man a seat. We must be respectful to our guest." he continued.

Alex heard the quiet scraping of a chair and clopping of hooves. He turned to see Celestia in a black maid outfit pushing a royal looking chair forward with her head. She pushed it forward right behind Alex, stopped, bowed to him and the four men and backed away. Alex took his seat, laying the bloody sword on the floor next to him.

"Would you like something to drink? You must be thirsty." Said the one on the center right, the one with short blonde hair.

"Um, yes. Thank you." Alex replied.

The man clapped his hands together twice and Twilight came walking up to the chair with a silver tray in her mouth which had a bottle of wine and a silver cup on it. She set the tray down carefully and used her magic to pour the wine into the bottle. Alex took the cup from her and took a sip. Alex had no idea what wine really tasted like. Alex thought it was good, but not the best thing he had ever had. Twilight bowed to him and the four men and backed away.

"Well, I have to ask, how long did it take you to take this castle. Last time I checked, it was pretty fortified." Alex said.

"It was simple, with our massive army, it was simple to take it." the one with the raspy voice and no hair said.

"Okay then, what are your names?" Alex asked.

The one with no hair and solid black eyes was Vulgrim. The one with the short blonde hair was Felix. The one with short brown hair was Ulthane. The last, the one in the center, and their leader, was Samael.

"Okay then, how many people here have you captured?"Alex asked.

"We have captured three of the four horsemen, the entire Equestrian guard, one unicorn, four alicorns, and a changeling." Samael said.

"I see, you said three of four, right?"

"That is correct."

"Well, let me put it like this," Alex said standing up and picking up the blade he had stolen that was now caked with dried blood. "I wont be easy to capture." He continued.

Alex lept forward, attempting to catch the men off guard. He swung the sword with all his might. He felt it connect with something. He expected to see the blade cutting through Samael's throat, but only saw him blocking the blade with his hand, a cold expression on his face. Alex lept back and tried to attack again. He was going to throw a punch and then slash with the sword while Samael was distracted. The next thing he knew, he was sprawled on his back. He looked up to see the four men standing. This was not going the way he expected.

"Come on, you're a horseman, I know you can do better." Vulgrim said. "You will, if you ever wish to see your queen alive again." he continued.

Vulgrim waved his hand and a cage appeared. Inside was Luna. Her legs were tied together and her wings were tied tightly to her body. She had a muzzle around her mouth that muted her cries for help. Alex, now on his hands and knees, could not help her. He bent his head down, anger rising in his soul. Black flame tattoos began spreading across his skin uncontrollably. His nails grew sharp and dug into the stone floor. His skin turned dark grey and he felt demonic wings grow from his black. His mind began to run rampant. His eyes and lips began to quiver and twitch. He saw visions of Chrystal in her dragon form. Then, he lost control altogether.

Alex appeared in front of Vulgrims face as quick as lightning. He grabbed his face and smashed his head into the ground. Felix pinned one of Alex's arms behind his back, and Alex whirled on him, slamming his fist into his gut. Alex lept off of Vulgrim and grabbed Ulthane, hedbutting him with all his might, sending him flying. Finally, only Samael was left standing, still wearing the same straight, almost dead expression. Alex rammed into him, pinning him to the ground and repeatedly punching him in the face. The skin on Alex's knuckles began to bleed and tried to heal but were only torn again. Finally he felt someone grab and pull him off of Samael. He tried to struggle free, trying to spread his wings and fly away, but soon he felt someone grab them. He felt immense pain and heard bones snapping. He was thrown through the air and smashed into a wall. He felt a huge clawed hand pick him up. He saw a demon in front of him with red skin and large black horns and enormous demon wings that seemed too big for his body. He looked around and each of the men looked similar.

"So, this is what you really look like." Alex said, struggling to keep his voice steady even though he was in terrible pain.

"We must say, you really put up a good fight, but this is where it ends horseman. Don't fret though, we will put you in a cell right next to your wife's, so you can stare into her pained eyes knowing you failed her." Ulthane said.

"Damn you." Alex muttered.

"Too late for that, human." Vulgrim said.

"I swear on my own life, I will rip you limb from limb, I will tear out your insides and force feed them to you!" Alex yelled through Samael's hand.

"Deeply sorry, but there will be no time for that." Samael said, smashing Alex's head against the wall until he his body went limp and turned human again.