There was a new hole in the castle. It was a very large hole, roughly the size of an Olympic style swimming pool, only rounder. It was going through the ceiling of the dungeon, the ceiling of the first floor, and the second, and the third, and the fourth, all the way to around the top of one of the towers. Let's call it about twenty floors, give or take half a dozen.

At the giving end of this hole, was none other than princess Luna. Her normal coloring was no longer that of a deep blue color, instead being a blazing crimson. Her mane and tail were whipping about wildly, having turned a bright redish-orange color and her eyes were shining a fierce neon blue. This happens sometimes when those particularly gifted in magic lose their temper.

At the receiving end of the hole, was Orion. He was laying in some kind of large bathtub, the water either evaporating or draining through the hole he had created in the floor. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he was also sorta, kinda, maybe smoking from the blast he received. That's why a lot of the water had turned into steam vapor. This is also what happens sometimes when those particularly gifted in magic lose their temper.

Orion lifted his head to see none other than Celestia herself sitting in the bathtub cleaning a rather private spot on her body with a soapy sponge. He smiled at her and waved. "Hi Celestia!" he said too loudly.

Celestia quickly used what was left of the water to rinse the soap off of her body and cover herself with her hooves. Her face was trying to win the award for best tomato impersonator.

Orion twisted his body, making his bones crack much more loudly than they should have and sat down the a small ledge so that he was facing Celestia. "So, you come here often?" he asked lightly.

She spluttered for a few seconds before managing a proper response. "Pf- w- yo- wh- h- I- j... What?"

Orion grabbed a semi-wet brush and scrubbed at his neck a little bit. "So, have you seen the new action vid? The one with Arr'nold shworzineg'geiere? I heard it's really good. Something about an organic-droid hybrid..."

Celestia only stared at him.

It was at this moment that Luna, literally burning with rage rocketed up through the hole in the tub and locked eyes with Orion. "THOU SHALT FEEL OUR WRATH, IMPUDENT FOAL!!!!" she thundered, shaking the entire room and probably the entire tower. She covered Orion in her magical aura and levitated him only inches from her muzzle. "Any last words?" she whisper-hissed.

Orion leaned forward and kissed her on the mouth, leaving a small line of saliva hanging between them. "You're it!" he screamed.

Luna's mane and tail seemed to grow even more intense at this and the air around her became hard to breathe. She actually roared as she flung Orion out of the highest room of the tallest tower, shattering the priceless artwork that was the stained glass window of an artist long-dead.

As Orion fell to the ground he couldn't help but think that Luna might be mad at him for something. After all, roaring in somebody's face was very rude.

Just before he hit the ground he spun himself up right and landed gracefully on his feet. He brushed some dust off of his robes and looked back to the top of the tower. He wasn't sure, but he could have swore that Luna was staring at him in shock.

A second later there was a bright flash of light and Luna was standing in front of him, still very, very angry.

He waved to her. "Hi Luna!"

She charged her horn and sent a large bolt of lightening arcing towards him.

It was at this moment that Orion realized that Luna wasn't playing charades with him. He jumped out of the way of the lightening and took a defensive stance, still smiling. Although, it was more deadly than dumb. He opened his mouth and spoke in a voice that almost vibrated the air around him. "This is going to be fun."

Luna flew at him fast enough to break the sound barrier, the whole time flinging spells at him.

Orion simply held out his hand, using the Force to destroy or reroute the spells. Although, he couldn't reroute Luna, who slammed into him full force and sent him flying backwards with the shock wave of energy that she had amassed. He crashed through a wall of the castle, making yet another hole, and rolled to a stop in the center of the courtyard. He pushed himself to his feet just in time to see Luna flying at him once again, charging another spell. He swatted his hand at her like someone would at a fly. A second later, she slammed face first into the ground and slid almost ten feet before stopping.

She got up and glared at him. Being an immortal goddess has its upsides. One of which being an almost total immunity to pain. "WE SHALL TURN THEE TO DUST!!!" She then sent an enormous wall of flames at Orion.

He took a step back. Orion wasn't scared of anything. But fire... He was terrified of fire. Burning to death sort of does that to you. He stuck out both hands and sent of wave of Force so powerful at Luna that she could see it. It created a huge opening in the fire just before it hit Luna and sent her flying backwards into the castle. Surprisingly enough, she didn't go through the wall like Orion always seemed to, only making a large crater in it.

Luna pulled herself free of the castle walls and landed on her hooves. She got about half a second to see Orion's fist coming at her face before she was sent spinning through the air, her neck making a nasty cracking sound. She landed on the ground, surprised to find that a warm stream of blood was coming from her nose.

Orion lifted her up with the Force and threw her across the courtyard like an old ragdoll.

She hit the metal gate that was in place on the walls leading to the city below the castle. This time though, she did go through. The slope of the mountain and the momentum she still possessed carried her a good hundred feet before coming to a stop. She slowly got to her hooves, feeling pain for the first time in over a thousand years. Nothing very bad, just a dull ache in her body.

The sound of running hoof, no, footsteps was heard. She looked up in time to see Orion spinning into a roundhouse kick aimed directly at her head. She hastily brought up a force field and blocked the blow.

Orion swore as his foot connected with what felt like durasteel plating. He dropped to the ground and looked around him. He smiled evilly.

Luna's eyes widened as she was assaulted with ponies. She quickly dropped her shield, so as not to have them splatter in a mess of gore. Luckily for her, the ponies of Canterlot were fat and lazy, or skinny and lazy, or just lazy. None of them had any kind of solid muscle mass, and most of them were quite squishy, like marshmallows. But this still angered Luna even further as she was pummeled with a ninth wailing pony. "ENOUGH OF THIS!!!!" she screamed, sending a wave of energy from her horn powerful enough to knock Orion back several dozen feet. Actually, right into another pony.

He growled as the whining mare beneath him tried to kick him off. He jumped off of her, picked her up, and punted her like a ball at Luna.

Luna dodged the screaming pony and grabbed Orion in her magic. She smiled darkly as she sent electricity at him.

Orion managed to stop most of the electricity with the Force, but some got through, and it fucking hurt! He glared at Luna and eyed the area around her. He almost laughed when he used his powers to knock over a building. And she, too busy being a sadist, wasn't paying attention and got buried in pony-made ruble.

He landed on the ground, free from her magic and no longer being shocked, and started walking towards where she was buried. He didn't get far before a piece of roof flew at him and nearly took his head off.

Luna lifted the debris off of her and held it above her with her magic, creating a swirling mess of blue energy and building pieces.

Orion stuck his hands out to the side, palms down and watched her with a grin. "You're move, your royal heiny-ness," he said jokingly.

She snarled at him and started throwing bits of building at him, all of which he threw back at her, or redirected into the city somewhere. She tried this tactic until she was out of pieces, and still Orion stood exactly where he was, smiling.

Orion ran at her with abnormal sped, closing the distance before she could think to react. He charged up a powerful ball of Force in both hands as he ran, and when he reached her, he slammed it into her chest.

She was certain that her ribs her broken as she crashed through the first building. And she was also certain that her wings were broken as she went through the third building. And as she went through the eighth building, she stopped guessing how many things in her body were broken, instead deciding that everything in her entire body was probably broken. That's what it felt like, at least.
She ended up in some kind of square, her flight ending with a large fountain being broken in half and magically imbued water- so that it could flow through the winter without freezing, I guess- spraying everywhere.

She didn't try to get up. Her body felt like fire was running through her veins and burning her from the inside out. The pain was beating out the rage, and her mane and tail went back to their normal colors, as did her coat and eyes. The top half of the fountain was laying on her back left leg, which was growing numb rapidly. She wanted to get back up, but she couldn't. She wanted to destroy that idiot, but she was in too much pain. Pain... Never before had she been in pain like this. Even when she was separated from the Nightmare, it wasn't really physical pain. At least, not totally. But this? This was pure and true. This was pain.

There was footsteps coming closer to her through the light snow on the ground, making crunching noises as they came closer.

She looked up, wincing as her neck tried to fight her movements. Orion was walking towards her with a cold smile on his face. One that refused to enter his eyes. She fought with desperation to get up. She got her leg free of the fountain top and pushed herself to her shaky hooves. Her back leg couldn't hold any weight, and her other legs seemed equally injured, barely supporting her. Her wings couldn't fold in properly and her vision was blurry. She could feel her blood leaking out of countless cuts on her body. Now that she was no longer in a state of magically enhanced fury, everything was catching up to her at once.

Orion stopped a few feet in front of her, still smiling at her like a deranged killer. Or, well, himself. "So, can you still fight, or do you want me to end this?" he asked coolly.

Luna tried to make a snarky remark, but it came out as a blood-filled cough. The coughing fit almost made her fall down, but she just barely managed to stay on her hooves.

Orion smiled a little bit wider and raised both hands to her, placing them level with her face. They started sparking and crackling with dark red lightening, arcing from hand-to-hand and striking the ground occasionally. It built in intensity until it looked like there was a raging storm swirling around his hands. "Goodbye Luna. It's a shame I never got to fuck you, but I think I can live with that."

Luna closed her eyes and accepted defeat. There was nothing she could do to stop him. He was just too strong.

Orion pulled his arms back and focused the energy directly on Luna. He threw everything at her. Well, at her head.

But just then! As the energy left his hands! A beam of bright yellow energy connected with his side and sent him flying into a nearby building! And yes, he did indeed go straight through it.

But the kind of energy that he was harnessing doesn't just go away. No, it goes racing forward, tearing through mansions, malls, shops, billboards, hotels, apartment complexes, large companies, small hills, trees, the protective wall surrounding Canterlot that keeps out would-be threats, the train bridge, the train, and anything else for at least a mile's distance.

Luna was thrown to the side from the sheer force of the energy rushing past her. She landed on her wing at an odd angle and heard a crunching sound. The pain and exhaustion made her black out.

Orion climbed out of the building, a small sandwich hanging from his mouth. He ate the sandwich in one bite and looked around the area, searching for whatever it was that attacked him. It came from above him, landing on the ground about a dozen paces away. It as Celestia, and she looked pissed.

She regarded him coldly. "Orion, I do not know what you did to anger my sister, but you will stop this. Now," she warned.

Orion smiled at her, only half serious. "Well, you could have just asked me, y'know," he told her sarcastically.

She looked to the destruction that he caused, seeing that not only had he caused tens of millions in damage, but also no doubt ended lives. She sighed sadly and looked to him, igniting her horn. "Orion, I do not wish to engage you in battle. But I will ask you to leave peacefully." She tensed her stance slightly. "If you do not accept my offer, I will be forced to end you."

Orion stood there for a while, running his tongue over his teeth and smiling widely at her. He chuckled at her. "Do you really think that you can beat me?" he taunted her.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I know that I will die trying if I have to."

Orion nodded slowly, thinking about what she said. It seemed like hours passed before he spoke again. "I'll leave on these conditions," he told her.

She relaxed slightly, but kept her horn charged.

He stuck up his forefinger. "One: You will take care of Clover and Icy like they were your own children. Treat them like you would treat a loved one. Give them whatever they want, but don't spoil them. They need to learn respect and the value of things."

Celestia nodded.

He stuck up his middle finger. "Two: Silver Platter, that cute little maid? She deserves a raise. Give her one. A generous one."

Celestia nodded again.

He stuck up his ring finger. "Three: When Luna wakes up, tell her that the only reason this city isn't burning to the ground is because I'm a better person than she is. If I wanted to, I could have crushed her before she even shot her first spell at me, but I didn't."

Celestia didn't look happy, but still, she nodded.

He stuck up his pinkie finger. "Four..." He looked at the ground and sighed. He shook his head and spoke, not looking at Celestia. "Tell my girls that I'm away on business somewhere. That I wish I could have taken them with me, but it was too dangerous." He now looked up at Celestia with a hard look in his eyes. "Tell them that they'll see me again soon. I don't know when, but soon."

Celestia actually felt a pang of guilt in her heart at this. Her gaze softened as she spoke. "Orion, you're not coming back here, under any circumstances. I don't think you'll have the chance to see them again."

He took a step forward, making Celestia take two steps back. "If you try to keep them away from me, I'll kill every last living thing in this damned country of yours."

Celestia actually had a small drop of cold sweat streak down her face. She knew he could do it. "I'll... allow some kind of visitation rights," she said.

He nodded and took in a deep breath. When he let it out, his normal, goofy smile was back. "Well, I guess I'll be off then!" he said cheerily.

Celestia raised a brow at him. "Where will you go?" she asked.

He put one hand to his chin and pointed the forefinger of his other hand in front of him. He hummed to himself as he started spinning around in circles. After about ten spins he stopped, pointing South-East. "I'll go that way!" he yelled. Then he started walking West.

Celestia watched him go, a great weight lifted off her shoulders as she saw him walk away without causing any more trouble. When she could no longer see him, she lifted Luna with her magic and teleported to the castle.

***

Roland and Sharpe were talking to Twilight. They were trying to calm her down, but were having little success. They were also trying to keep about a hundred royal guards back with nothing but pure intimidation while doing this. Trying to intimidate, calm, and reason at the same time was hard.

Twilight tried to use her magic to move them out of the way, but Sharpe flicked her horn with his claw, disrupting her magic. She had seen the catastrophic explosion raging through the city from one of the windows in the castle, and now she was trying to get out through the front gate to help fight whatever it was. She was pretty sure that she knew who was behind it, and she owed him a good beating. The guards were mostly there as backup for when she got too tired to keep beating him, and then they would take over. "Let us through, or I'll be forced to go through you!" she threatened.

Roland spoke in his tinny voice, his helmet on in case of an incident. "Listen, I know it looks bad, but I'm sure that Celestia has this under control," he said calmly.

Sharpe snorted. "And what makes you think you can do anything that she can't anyways? She moves the Sun. All you move you your mouth."

Twilight growled at him as a few of the guards made "ooh!" noises. One of them even went so far as to say "Burn!" Fortunately for them, she was too angry to figure out which guards said what. "Let. Me. Through."

Sharpe loomed over her dangerously. "You aren't getting through. This is between the princesses and Orion. Not you."

Twilight screamed at him. "I am a princess you idiot!"

Sharpe screamed right back. "Princess of what?! Being a fucking worthless problem that talks too much?!"

Twilight took a step back from him.

All of the guards took many steps back from Twilight.

Her eyes were beginning to water up. "I- I'm not worthless! I'm the princess of... Of..."

Sharpe hissed at her in annoyance. "Of fucking what? All I've seen you do this whole time is scribble in your notes and ramble on nonstop. Hell, I've even heard Celestia tell you to get lost once for bothering her!" He jabbed his finger in her face, making her take a few more steps back. "You are absolutely worthless. There is no reason for you to be a princess, and I'm sure that this world would benefit from it if you gave your power to somebody more useful. Hell, the pink one would work better than you! She could be the princess of trying-to-make-this-world-a-better-place-by-making-everybody-happy. But no, you got the title. And let me tell you, it was a grand fucking mistake."

Roland grabbed Sharpe by the back of his neck and pulled him away from the now-crying Twilight. "That's enough!" Roland yelled.

Sharpe pushed Roland away with both hands, making him stumble backwards a few paces. "Don't you fucking touch me! You're worse than these damn talking horses!" He gestured widely to the crowd of ponies. "At least they have the brains to figure out how to maintain order! All you do is try to force everybody to listen to you! And every time we do, it ends in disaster! I'm fucking tired of this bullshit! I'm tired of going straight into danger! I'm tired of listening to idiots all day! I'm tired of you! I'm tired of fucking everything! Why can't the Galaxy just fuck off for once and let me live my life the way I want to live it?! Huh?! Is that too much to ask?!" He pointed straight at Roland. "Just go fuck off somewhere and die, you sorry excuse of a soldier," he hissed.

Roland slapped away his hand and got in his face. "I said that's enough!"

Sharpe stood straight, standing at his full height of 6' 8". "And what the fuck are you gonna do to make me stop, huh, soldier boy?" he challenged, looking down into Roland's black-tinted visor.

Things would have gotten out of control after that if that bright light didn't distract everybody present. They all looked to see what it was. It was Celestia. She looked tired, and there was traces of dark blood staining her coat.

Twilight instantly galloped over to her and hugged her legs tightly. "Celestia! Are you okay?! What happened?! Is Orion dead?! Is-"

Celestia silenced her with a hoof.

Twilight looked up at her princess.

Everybody looked at the two of them.

Celestia smiled sadly. "I am fine, Twilight. However, Luna is gravely injured and needs time to recover. And as for Orion..." She sighed deeply. "I sent him away. I could not fight him on my own, so I worked out a deal with him so he would leave Equestria without causing any more damage."

"Are you fucking retarded?!"

Celestia blinked and looked at Sharpe. "Excuse me?" she asked defensively.

Sharpe got uncomfortably close to her. She may be getting used to him, but he still made her feel uneasy at the best of times. "You let him go?! Without anybody to watch him?!"

Celestia nodded. "He has nowhere to go where he could cause mayhem. I-"

But Sharpe slapped her in the face hard enough to stun her, drawing blood from her lip. "You idiot! He tortured information out of the griffons we captured! He knows where they are and who's in charge! He's probably on his way there right now planning to commit mass genocide!"

Celestia stared at him for a very long time. She hadn't thought about that when she sent him away. And now that she was thinking about it, fighting Luna and causing chaos in the city was a pretty good way to get banished from Equestria. Banished, without anyone to accompany him. No one to make sure he actually went the direction he said he was going in. No one to make sure that he didn't wipe out an entire species just for the fun of it. She could almost taste the sheer fuck-up of her actions. "Oh... Oh no..."

***

Orion climbed the last hill on his journey. He looked back to Canterlot, the city nothing but a dot on a distant mountain. he took in a deep breath of fresh, clean, crisp mountain air. He let it out in a loud sigh. "I love going North. It just feels right."

Author's Notes:

Well, I'm sure that somepony feels like an idiot right now. And what's up with Sharpe? I don't remember him being this mean before all of this happened. Meh, I guess not being able to kill things or eat meat is getting to him.