I stood on the edge of a cliff that overlooked a desert road with a small caravan on it. This caravan may have looked like any other, wagon after wagon with some earth pony guards and a pegasi escort, but it did not have the standard cargo of a caravan of its size. Its wagons were filled with chests full of thousands of bits each, its guards were elite royal guards in disguise and each and every one of the pegasi had the speed and agility to be in the Wonderbolts. This was the caravan that lead to The Great Vault of Equestria, the biggest cache of bits anywhere. My troops stood hidden and at the ready all around the predetermined ambush site just a few meters from where the caravan is now, pegasi on the cliffs, earth ponies on the ground and unicorns in a few caves that were along the cliff. There was no redos, no start overs, it was now or never.

"We need to go NOW Deathblade, the ponies are getting antsy and are going to blow the whole thing if we don't move soon." Said Darkmane, my 2nd in command and the pony I trusted more than anything.

"Yes, but if we go to early they wont be in the right position and the ambush wont work, and the ambush is our biggest advantage and the best chance for us to win this fight. I will sound the call in a minute." I said

The next minute felt like a hundred years of pure torture as all the anticipation of planning this raid built up, im pretty sure that everypony was feeling the same thing. Finally nodded to one of the ponies who then sounded a giant horn. Then all hell broke loose

The pegasi flew down from the cliffs firing crossbows and throwing spears as the went, and the earth ponies galloped out from their cover swinging swords and axes as they went; The unicorns started firing shield spells at our troops and violent spells like fireball and ice spike at the caravan. I flew down into the heart of the chaos and swung my sword at the dazed caravan guards. I slaughtered a whole bunch of them (I think it was like 15 of them ) until one got me in the wing, I didn't look back at it but I knew it was bad and would take a while to heal. I swore under my breath and just kept pushing blood but after a few more swings of my sword I started to feel light headed and my vision was fading. I hardly took another swing of my sword when i saw the ground rushing up to meet me

I awoke on my bed in our underground base. My room was a simple room by most standards but by our standards it was heaven. It was a 5x7x3 meter room and had a one person bed in the back away from the door and held a mirror and a weapon rack in one corner. It was light by a few magical lights the unicorns made up so that they will turn of and on at my command. As conscious thought slowly took over my mind I became aware that there was a light throbbing in my wing and that my left front leg was aching a lot. I turned around to look at my wing, except that when I was finally able to bear through the pain of my wing I and I actually saw it I was shocked for I had no wing, I only had a heavily bandaged stump.

A few minutes later I my cheif medic, Redbrand, came into my room looked up at me and said

"Your awake!"

"Yes I am, how long have I been out?"

"9 days, Sir."

"Where's my wing?"

"When we dragged you off of the battlefield you didn't have one. That there is my handiwork."

"Was the raid a success?"

"No and we lost a good most of our ponies in the fight or due to infection of wounds."

"Well then I need to get out of bed and go rally the troops get motivation up." I said as I started to get out of my bed.

"NO, sir you need to wait before yo--" was all I heard Redbrand say before the ground rushed up and gave me a hug

When I came too I was back in bed, and other than I was sore all over I felt no pain whatsoever. I walked, slowly but I didn't pass out this time, to my mirror to look at myself fro the first time in a while. My normally red and black mane was more of a brown and black from blood and caked dirt. My coat, a black with red stripes, had a large gash on my left side and was completely coated in blood in some places. And when I glanced at my wings I felt sudden dismay, dismay on the fact that I would never be able to fly again, and that I will forever have a stump for a right wing. After looking at myself for a while I wondered for the first time since my mother died if fighting really was the right answer. I dismissed it as a small thought but still kept nagging in the back of my mind. I finally decided I should be in bed resting rather than standing on my hooves, so I went back to bed and let the reaches of sleep took hold of me.

I was back on the cliff where the raid happened, the sky was dark and stormy there was a soft rain. As I stood looking around and wondering how I got here, then I heard a scream. It was a familiar scream from a voice I knew well, Darkmane, he was falling from the sky. I galloped off the edge of the cliff and somehow I was flying again, but I didn't worry about that. I had to save Darkmane. I flew out just under him and just i was about to catch him my wing disapered out from behind me and we both fell to our deaths. This happened many times, each time I would try a different way to save him, and each time we would die.

I awoke after the 4th or 5th time of this happening to a soft and quiet sound, it was faint but I was able to make it out.

"- we honor him this day in all his glory, all his honor, all his strength. May he rest in peace, Darkmane we honor you-"

I heard none of the rest as I galloped as fast as I could to the bases crematorium. When I got there what I saw through me into a bought of sadness and anger so strong I Could have taken that whole caravan by myself.

"HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME THAT DARKEMANE DIED !" I yelled at Redbrand

At that the whole funeral stopped and stared at me with fear in their eyes, but I didn't care, I just kept yelling, swearing, it is a moment in my life that i forced my self to forget, so I wont be able to repeat it but I know after then I just walked back to my room and sat thinking about maybe violence isn't the answer. Eventually I came to the conclusion that it isn't, all its ever done is bring pain and suffering, no joy. Just then Redbrand walked into my room and he looked right at me and asked

"You seem a little upset about Darkmane's death"

"Oh really?" I reply my words dripping with sarcasm

"Yes really, why are you so sad he was only your 2nd in command, you can always get a new one."

"He wasn't just my second in command he was my brother, my last family member. My mother asked me to look after him and I failed at that. I'm sorry for my outburst earlier, its not your fault, you had no idea about it"

"Well you'll never get him back and he wouldn't have wanted you to burst out like that."

"I know, he was also always against the idea of fighting, so im taking his advice. I'm leaving and never coming back."

So with that I got up everything that I owned, my sword, my armor, some little trinkets, and put that in my pack. After walking to the kitchens to grab some food stuffs I walked out the main gate. I told the guards I was going out for a walk. I started on my long journey into Equestria proper, and I have never looked back.