Chapter Six: Summons of a Princess.

***

Ponyville.

Having arrived back in Ponyville on the train a short while ago, Twilight Sparkle and her friends were discussing what had happened as they walked home from the train station.

"Look," Applejack was saying, "I don't know what I saw, but I know fer a fact that nopony's cut my mane off - see?"

She jabbed a hoof at her intact mane as if that proved her entire point.

"And yet, darling, there our manes were," Rarity said softly, looking troubled. "And I'd recognise my mane from a mile away, believe me on that one."

"Me too," Pinkie said, sounding far too chirpy for this subject. "Why d'you think he would he have our manes?"

Applejack shared a glance with Rainbow Dash - it was an entirely unpleasant thought that occurred to them both, but it was also fairly obvious what the manes signified. What was odd was that Pinkie asked: she wasn't stupid... but she was also a very optimistic pony. Perhaps the very idea of... well, that sort of thing just wouldn't have occurred to her. Would it?

"He took them from somepony," Applejack finally said, completely unwilling to lie, even about this. "I reckon it had to have been somepony he... he..."

She swallowed. It was a horrible thought, and she was unwilling to finish it. Nonetheless, by Pinkie's widening eyes, the other mare had taken her meaning all too well.

Twilight, oblivious to the discussion behind her, looked thoughtful. Fluttershy poked her, looking worried, and the purple Unicorn looked up at her, startled from her reverie.

"Twilight? Are you... are you ok?" Fluttershy asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, Fluttershy, I'm fine," the purple Unicorn replied quietly, trying to smile. "I just... I don't know how I've never heard of a 'Briton' before."

"That's kinda worryin' as well," Applejack pointed out, trotting up behind them. "Ya'll normally know pretty much everythin' there is to know from books: I don't think there's a thing anywhere that you haven't at least read about somewhere, even if it's only in passin'."

"It might be a book I just haven't read yet," Twilight postulated with a thoughtful frown. "But I'd need to go through my books to make sure... remind me to ask Spike when I see him..."

She trailed off as two ponies raced towards them - one was a grey Pegasus with mismatched eyes, and the other was a turquoise unicorn with a white and turquoise mane - Lyra Heartstrings. Twilight knew the latter quite well from their days together in Canterlot.

Kindly speaking, Lyra was considered something of a crank by most of her peers. Unkindly speaking, she was considered downright weird. She specialised in cryptozoology all history, making it her life's work to believe in things that most respectable scholars - a group that included Twilight herself if she was being somewhat generous, and she felt like deserved to be a little generous to herself after everything she had done - thought didn't exist, or didn't pay much mind to. Among the topics of her research papers, at least those that Twilight had seen, had been discussions about the (at best) mythical Asyram Empire, an admittedly well-argued treatise about the mythical Bone Gardens, and three separate essays about the ancient Mole Empires.

"Where's the human?!" she asked excitedly as she bounded up to the group. Twilight blinked in surprise: this was something of a non-sequitur for her.

"A human?" she asked slowly, unsure if she had heard Lyra right. "You mean those mythological creatures you wrote a ...?"

"You saw a human!" Lyra squealed excitedly, making Twilight cringe a bit at her volume. "Derpy told me! Two legs, hands, all that stuff, just like the books!"

The Pegasus, Derpy - Ditzy Doo, Twilight reminded herself, slightly annoyed with herself for using the strange and possibly slightly unfair nickname that many other ponies in Ponyville used - had the decency to look moderately abashed at having set Lyra off, though she also looked decidedly curious about the subject herself. Twilight sighed, recognising that she had to say something: if she thought humans were involved, Lyra would never let the subject go.

"We... we met a creature," she said hesitantly, uncertain how much she should reveal: Celestia hadn't told them to keep things secret, but such things were usually fairly implicit. "And it was walking on two legs..."

"I knew it!" Lyra shrieked excitedly, cutting Twilight off mid sentence as she bounced around, entirely too happy about this information. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it...!"

"But I don't think it was a human," Twilight added quickly, trying to calm her down. "I mean, it called itself a Briton..."

Lyra didn't seem to be listening, too busy bouncing up and down and all around in joyful exhilaration at having been, in her mind, validated at last. Twilight looked at Derpy, who shrugged at her.

Before Twilight could attempt to calm Lyra down, however, Spike rushed up to the group, looking suitably worn out having apparently run all the way from the library.

"Spike?" Twilight asked. Wordlessly, the out of breath dragon handed her a scroll. Opening it, Twilight read the letter: it was in Celestia's writing, but was far briefer than she had ever seen.

Twilight. Return to Canterlot as soon as you can. Bring the other Elements and the Briton's belongings.

That was it: no sign off, no anything, just three short sentences. Twilight frowned in worry - if the Princess was being this terse, even in writing, then something was definitely up.

"What is it?" Rarity asked, looking at the letter.

"We're going back to Canterlot," Twilight said, turning around. "I think it's something to do with that Briton thing."

"Oh cool!" Lyra said, finally ceasing her bouncing around. "You're going to see the human?!"

"It's not a human, Lyra," Twilight said exasperatedly. "And before you ask, no, you can't come."

"Oh come on, please?" Lyra asked, looking at Twilight with big sad eyes. "I've got to see a human!"

"No!" Twilight said with finality. She turned to the other Elements. "Come on girls, we need to collect the Briton's things."

They headed back for the library, moving quickly. Lyra sat down, disappointed, and Ditzy sat next to her, trying to be as comforting as she could be.

"Don't worry," Ditzy said, trying to be reassuring, "I'm sure we'll get to meet the human after all the important stuff happens."

"Well I'm not," Lyra replied, frowning. She began walking in the direction of the train station, sudden determination in her step. "I'm not going to just sit here when there's a human sitting in Canterlot. I need to meet him!"

"What are you going to do?" Ditzy asked, following her.

"Whatever I have to, Derpy," Lyra replied, and she began running. "Whatever I have to!"

***

Canterlot: Guard Training Room,

Elliot walked into the training room, Shining Armour of all ponies firmly behind him. The Unicorn captain looked decidedly unhappy with Elliot being allowed to use a training room at all, but Elliot didn't particularly care about that, or anything this particular Unicorn felt.

As he walked into the room, he stretched a few of his muscles, before beginning a series of brief warm-ups to get his body energised.

"Why the glare?" he asked Shining, unable to resist needling the Unicorn a little.

"Forgive me if I'm not entirely willing to trust a creature that tried to kill the Princesses only a few hours ago," Shining replied with a frown. "Just because you've convinced Princess Celestia doesn't mean you've convinced me."

"I would think the fact that I convinced Celestia would have convinced you," Elliot replied. He began a series of brief boxing drills, just to get his arms moving and feel a little more alive.

"It should, but just because she trusts you doesn't make you trustworthy," Shining said. "She freed Discord and allowed him to be reformed. That doesn't mean he's trustworthy. That just makes her forgiving."

"I see," Elliot said with an amused smile, noting the reference to Discord with interest. "You think I need to be forgiven."

"You attacked the Princesses without provocation," Shining Armour said, his volume rising slightly as he got annoyed. Elliot scowled.

"No, I didn't," he countered shortly.

"What provocation could you possibly have had?" Shining said. Elliot frowned: he could have tried explaining he supposed, but he didn't have the inclination to deal with a stupid little minion, especially this minion. He had come here to do drills after all.

He sighed, and then breathed in deeply, letting the pains and aches that filled his body slowly drain from him. He held out his right hand, and visualised the blade Excalibur in his hand again. A moment later, the Zweihander materialised, the shining, ornate blade light as a feather in his hand, despite its size and bulk.

"What the...?" Shining said, eyes widening in alarm. He appeared to gather energy in order to cast a spell, but Elliot held up a hand to stay his wrath.

Armour bristled, but Elliot ignored him. He began slowly practicing with the blade, ignoring paths outraged look on the Guard Captain's face: he held it up in a guard position, then slowly began a series of manoeuvres with it, spinning and cutting and hacking as he repeated the various forms over and over, his feet moving as if in a complicated dance. Shining Armour watched him slowly, eyes narrow as he watched the man go through his exercises.

"I'm only doing training moves," Elliot said to him softly. "I don't intend any harm."

"Sure you don't!" Shining snorted in disbelief, moving to a defensive posture. "I'd sooner throw Cadence in Tartarus and lock away the key than ever believe you don't mean harm."

"You don't want this," Elliot said softly. "Believe me."

"Are you threatening me?" he asked. Elliot stopped his movements for the moment, and turned to look at Shining.

"Do you think I need to?" he asked with a raised. "Ask yourself this. I fought Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to a damn standstill. Assuming you don't somehow think you're more powerful than them... do you really think I couldn't break you in two?"

"I'd like to see you try," Shining Armour said. Elliot snorted in mirth, the irony of this situation not lost on him...

***

January 24th, 2030.

True Grit fired off another offensive spell, blasting a Royal Guard backwards and knocking him into a wall, where he fell to the ground, smoking slightly from the heat. He gritted his teeth slightly: most of the troops he had come to this intersection with were dead, killed by spears, zapped by spells or crushed by rubble. This was bad, because if this intersection fell, then this whole half of the city would fall. He ducked back behind the broken car he was using for cover.

"This is True Grit to anypony or anybody available," he said into his earpiece, using his magic to activate it. "I am pinned down and need immediate reinforcement."

"Somebody say reinforcement?" a slightly cocky voice said, and suddenly David Elliot, the Avatar of Albion and one of True Grit's oldest human friends, was crouched next to him, having dashed from a nearby alley. The human grinned slightly. "Howdy Grit. How're things."

True Grit couldn't help but smirk slightly. "Oh, not so bad. Crazy brainwashed ponies, dead troops, the usual."

Part of him felt sickened at the casual way he referred to the deaths of his comrades, but this war had seen the population of this island go from over one hundred million to only fifteen. Death was a reality, a constant. Accepting it, even laughing about it, was the only way to deal with it, or you'd just go mad.

"Same shit different day," Elliot said with a nod. "Hang on."

He stood up, firing his hand cannon down the street. A couple of Royal Guards dropped dead, parts of their skulls blown away. True Grit raised an eyebrow.

"Bucking show off," he said softly.

"Yup," Elliot smiled. He popped his head over the parapet, before ducking back down quickly. "I count about twenty."

"Royal Guard or Convies?" True Grit asked.

"Mix," Elliot replied. He reloaded his hand cannon, reaching into the interior of his jacket to grab some ammo. Grit caught a glimpse of pink mane and frowned slightly.

"You got the mane then," he said, trying to sound conversational. Elliot glanced up at him, not interrupting his reloading. The human knew that True Grit - and most of the ponies in the defence forces - didn't really approve of the practice of taking the manes of the Elements as proof of their deaths or a trophy (or a combination of the two), but Grit had never spoken about it.

"Yeah," was all Elliot said. True Grit nodded softly, turning away and looking down the street. Then he popped his head back behind cover.

"Ponyfeathers," he cursed, imbuing the word with more vehemence than the average human put into 'shit'.

"What?" Elliot asked, popping his head to look where Grit had. A moment later, he put his head down again, a scowl on his face. "Horse shit."

"Yeah," Grit said.

Shining Armour, one of the best captains of the Royal Guard, was out there, leading his troops personally. That could only mean two things: one, that things were going so well that he was getting overconfident, or two - that he was getting desperate. True Grit hoped to whatever deities watched over the pony race now that it was the latter: desperation meant that things weren't going so badly, and he really wanted things to not go badly.

"What do we do?" he asked Elliot. The man gave him a look that worried him somewhat, his eyes glowing almost with anticipation, and then he grinned.

"We take him out," he said.

"I don't know if you noticed this," True Grit said softly, trying his best not to sound condescending, "but that's Shining Armour, Captain of Solamina's elite!"

"And if we kill him, we win a hefty moral victory," Elliot replied, sounding surprisingly optimistic. "Besides: you're talking to me."

He showed off his 'jacket decorations' to prove his point, and True Grit turned his eyes away, struggling to push down his revulsion at the sight.

"All right," he said softly, "so we can take him: but he's got twenty troops with him: tell me you have a plan for that."

A spell impacted on their cover. It appeared Captain Shining Armour wasn't giving them any more time.

"Plan is simple," Elliot said, holstering his hand cannon drawing one of his daggers - looked like 'speed killer'. "Kill that little shit, and try not to die."

With that, he bellowed a war cry and charged out from the makeshift cover of the car. True Grit sighed and followed him, shouting his own cry.

Elliot's dagger sliced through the first pony - a Royal Guard - before his second stabbed another. He sheathed both daggers and whipped out his hand-cannon, firing it into the face of a third. True Grit, meanwhile, charged into a Converted, knocking him to the floor, before stomping on his neck, snapping it. He zapped a second Converted, before charging into a Royal Guard, knocking him to the ground, just in time for Elliot to stab him where he lay. The human winked at True Grit, before charging into a small bunch of Converted - leaving True Grit facing off against Shining Armour.

"Traitor," the Captain hissed at Grit, his eyes narrowed in hatred.

"Is it worse to be a traitor to one's country or one's ideals?" True Grit replied. "I'm still fighting for freedom at least."

Shining Armour threw a handful of offensive spells at him, clearly uninterested in debating philosophies. True Grit snarled, putting up a shield, before expanding the shield into a shock wave that threw Armour back.

"Elliot!" he called. "Gonna need a hand!"

The human finished off another Converted and turned to face Grit briefly, nodding, before charging at Shining Armour. The Guard Captain threw a bolt at Elliot, who dodged it - then Armour charged straight at True Grit, using his telekinesis magic to summon a dagger. True Grit used his own to try and halt the deadly blade, but he was outmatched in the magic department, and could only watch in horror as the blade descended, stabbing into his shoulder.

His eyes widened as burning agony shot through him, but he ignored the screaming pain and kicked out, knocking Shining Armour to the ground. Elliot was nowhere to be seen - a quick glance showed that he was tied up with more Guards - so grit moved to break Armour's neck himself. Armour was quick though - before Grit could capitalise on the advantage he had, the Captain threw a bolt at him, knocking him into a wall and sending more burning pain shooting through a system.

The last thought he had was that he hoped Elliot got the bastard...

***

"So die all traitors to the Empress," Armour said with a satisfied nod as he gazed at the charred and bleeding body of True Grit. He had wanted to kill True Grit for a while: the unicorn had once been a Guard, but had deserted before the war had started, claiming that he couldn't serve Solamina after what she had done. Shining vaguely remembered almost agreeing with him at the time, but that, of course, was before the Renewal Of The Oaths... after that, he had felt only contempt for his former colleague.

He turned, intending to deal with Grit's human comrade - only for a fist to come flying out of nowhere, hitting him in the face. The first punch sent him sprawling, but he recovered quickly. The second knocked him down again, harder, and it took him a moment to recover.

"You bastard!" a loud, furious voice yelled. Armour looked up, to see the human soldier lashing out once more. Another blow connected, this time with Armour's cheek, sending him once more sprawling to the ground. "You little brainwashed bastard!"

Armour scowled, and tried to punch back, but the creature caught his hoof in his hand, and used his other arm to quickly break Armour's foreleg. Screaming in pain, Armour clutched at the damaged limb, getting a good look at his attacker... whose jacket, now blowing open, displayed five horribly familiar manes sewed into the lining.

"You..." Armour said, eyes wide.

"Me," the Avatar of Albion said with a snarl, whipping out a dagger and stabbing Armour in the stomach. Gagging on the blood that rose through his throat and into his mouth, Armour's last sight was Albion glaring at him, pure hatred in his eyes...

***

"True Grit!" Elliot said, rushing to his friend's side. The unicorn was bleeding badly, and he was burnt from Shining Armour's spell. "Hang on!"

"Did..." Grit coughed weakly, eyes opening to look at Elliot. "Did we win?"

"Yeah," Elliot said softly, as he tried to staunch Grit's wound. "Yeah, we won. Hold on mate."

"Yay for us," True Grit smiled. His eyes closed and he slumped where he lay, the life leaving him suddenly. Elliot's eyes widened, and he tried harder to staunch the wound.

"No... no, stay with me mate!" he said, starting to massage the heart in the hope of bringing his friend back. He was the Avatar of Albion, for God's sake. He should be able to save this one damn pony. just this one, just this once. "Breathe mate, come on!"

True Grit did not breath.

Elliot slowly stopped trying to restart the heart, eyes not leaving Grit's face. He slumped back, not believing what he was seeing. True Grit had been with him since Dover, since he had even been a Commander. He had stood with him through everything. It couldn't end like this.

But it had.

"No," he said softly. Then, screaming with frustration, he stood up, walked over to the corpse of Shining Armour, and began stamping on his head, smashing the skull to pieces, squishing the brain and the eyes. He stamped until the soft bits were nothing but mush mixed with bone fragments, and then he kept stamping. He brought out his daggers and stabbed the corpse, screaming in frustration...

And then, panting heavily, he spat on the tattered remains of the corpse, before leaving the intersection, heading for the Equestrian lines. He would make them pay for this...

***

Canterlot: Present.

Bringing his attention back to the here and now, Elliot forced himself to remember that - for now - this was not the Shining Armour he had killed, but a different one, or possibly a past one (he was collating as to which exactly it was).

He began his katas again, moving faster and faster, the blade spinning, hacking and cutting at thin air as though Elliot was surrounded by invisible enemies. There was one slice, then a cut, then a hack. A decapitating blow here, a stab there, a cut there. He moved with the grace and speed of a champion, and then all of a sudden he stopped, sensing another presence in the room.

"I know you're there," he said softly. A moment later, Princess Luna stepped into view, surprising even Shining Armour.

"Captain, you may leave," she said softly.

"Princess, are you sure that's..." Shining Armour began, but the moon princess looked at him with a stern glance and he bowed at once, before exiting the room. Elliot watched him go with relief.

Lune looked suspicious of Elliot still, and the man smiled at her.

"Princess Luna of Equestria," he said softly. "A pleasure to finally meet you properly."

"We wish we could say the same," Luna said, her tone grim.

"Yeah," Elliot said, a slightly sheepish smile on his face, "the big guy doesn't make the best first impression, does he?"

"Thou speakst as though thou and thy alter ego were separate beings," Luna said, frowning slightly. "Is this so?"

"Yeah," Elliot said softly, frowning. "Kind of. Well, kind of not. It's complicated."

"Is it?" Luna asked, looking half confused and half amused.

Elliot shrugged, clearly content with the vagueness of the answer. "I think that might be the problem I have, really: a lack of integration... or that's what Hell Blazer says."

"This Hell Blazer is a friend of yours?" Luna asked politely.

"One of the best," Elliot said softly. He shook his head slightly.

"I see," Luna said. She stiffened slightly. "Dost thou accept that we are as we say we are, and not thine enemy?"

"Yes," Elliot said. "Forgive me for Albion's... my... words to you. He... I... thought that Solamina had done some necromantic rite to restore your body to a parody of life. I thought the same of the Element bearers."

"You encountered them?" Luna asked, eyes narrowed slightly at this thought.

"You've not been told?" Elliot asked her, somewhat confused. Luna shook her head.

"My sister hath spoken in brief of the war thou fights against this... Astra Solamina," she said grimly, sounding disgusted at the name. "But she is often preoccupied with affairs of state - too much so to speak to me of what occurred between she and thou, and how thou hast managed to gain her trust."

"I see," Elliot said. He paused thoughtfully, and then he began his katas once again. "I come from another world, a world where another Equestria has invaded. Most of my home world has been destroyed. I'm fighting to preserve what's left."

"I see," Luna said. "And this... Solamina? She rules in place of my sister?"

"No," Elliot said, feeling hesitant about speaking on this subject. After a moment, he sighed, turning to face her. "She is your sister. Your sister somehow corrupted and turned insane. She destroyed or brainwashed most of the people of my world."

"That..." Luna's eyes were wide. "That scarcely seems possible."

"Believe it," Elliot said, shaking his head. "It's the life my friends from the Exodus have lived."

"Exodus..." Luna repeated. "It seems strange to me that my counterpart did not stop her -'

"That would have been difficult for her to do," Elliot commented, a humourless smile on his face as he returned to his katas. "She killed you. Or at least, that's what most of the Equestrian Exodites thought must have happened."

"My sister would never do such a thing," Luna said, eyes narrowing. "We have been through too much together..."

"Whatever Solamina is, she isn't your sister any more," Elliot replied simply, the blade Excalibur moving in a complex rhythm dictated by his steps. "I'm sorry."

Luna didn't look particularly happy with his apology, or indeed at all, but before she could respond, Celestia walked into the room. She looked at Elliot performing his katas for a moment, before speaking.

"They're here," she said simply. At once, Elliot ceased his katas, and the blade vanished into thin air.

"It's time then," he said softly. He closed his eyes, not entirely happy about all this, but recognising that he didn't really have a choice.

***

Elsewhere in Canterlot.

Twilight and her friends trotted back towards the palace, the two Guards and Shining Armour accompanying them looking unusually grim. When they had gotten off of the train to Canterlot, they had found Shining and the Guards waiting, and they immediately began escorting them towards the palace.

"What's all this about, Shining?" Twilight asked her brother. "Is it about the Briton?"

"Princess Celestia asked me to bring you all to her as soon as you arrived," Shining replied grimly, sounding none too happy about his instructions. "It might be about the Briton, but she didn't say. That's all I know Twily, I'm sorry."

Twilight nodded, still not entirely happy about this entire thing. From behind her, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were having a heated discussion.

"It's mighty peculiar that she wants us back so soon," Applejack said. "Something musta happened."

"I just know it's got something to do with that two legged Briton thing," Dash said excitedly, her voice a low mutter. "I bet she wants us to use the Elements on it or something."

"I don't think so," Twilight said. "She seemed more worried for its..."

"His," Fluttershy corrected softly, though more firmly than she usually did.

"Yeah, his," Twilight agreed. "She seemed worried for his health when we last saw her."

"Which means what exactly?" Rarity asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Which means he'll be easy to zap," Rainbow Dash said confidently. "That's why we're here, I know it."

"Not quite, Rainbow Dash," a regal voice spoke. Without warning, Celestia appeared at the top of some stairs, looking more serious than any of the ponies had ever seen her - and they had seen her look pretty serious.

"Princess!" Twilight said, feeling a little more relieved than she would have liked to admit to see Celestia. "What's happening?"

"Come with me," Celestia said. She turned and began walking back the way she had come. Twilight sped up to walk next to her, the others behind her.

"Does this have someone to do with the Briton?" Twilight asked softly.

"Yes," Celestia replied simply. "And to do with where he comes from."

"Which is where exactly?" Applejack asked. Celestia turned to regard her thoughtfully.

"It is difficult to explain properly," the Sun Princess said slowly. "What I know, I know from a mind share spell that the human performed."

"Human?" Twilight said, surprised. "He's a human?!"

"Yes," Celestia said, "he is. I believe the term 'Briton' is a term for his nationality, not his species."

Twilight made a mental note to apologise to Lyra when she saw her again: if humans were real, then the turquoise unicorn was less of a crank than Twilight had always believed. Still, this wasn't exactly what Twilight would have expected.

"Ok," Rainbow Dash put in, breaking Twilight's train of thought. "So if we're not zapping him, what are we doing?"

"In the fullness of time, many things will be done, by us and others," Celestia said softly. "All will be explained when we get there."

***

As the group walked further into the castle, what they didn't realise was that they were being observed by two who - strictly speaking - shouldn't have been there: Lyra Heartstrings and Ditzy Doo, unseen by virtue of improbably good hiding on their part, were slowly following the group, running from pillar to pillar.

"I don't think we should be following the Princess and Twilight and her friends like this," Ditzy whispered to Lyra as they moved. "It doesn't feel right."

"You heard Princess Celestia," Lyra replied, even sounding excited when she was whispering. "This thing they've found is a human! I can't let the opportunity to meet one pass me by, I just can't!"

Ditzy sighed. She didn't even know why she had let Lyra talk her into this business: it wasn't like she was really all that interested in humans. All the same, she felt a certain responsibility. Having been the one to even tell Lyra of the human in the first place - sort of - it wouldn't be right for her to let the excitable unicorn run off looking without at least tagging along. Or something.

They kept going, but eventually they would have to figure out a way to get past a guard that stood outside a door. Lyra had an idea for something that might just work, but only if she was very lucky.

"What do we do?" Ditzy asked her.

"Don't worry, Derpy," Lyra said softly. "I have a plan."

Author's Notes:

This chapter was edited on 2nd July 2015.