Ensis woke up and found himself in a huge structure, he looked around and saw a lot of bunk beds with sleeping ponies in each, the place reminded him of a troop barracks of sorts, he got up and instead of felling pain he could move perfectly again. He looked at this left side in a hurry and saw that his wounds were healed along with that big hole to his left side.

“HOLY SHIT, my body, the wounds they are all gone!”

He started laughing and cheering, admiring himself, the first though that came to his mind was that now that his wounds are fully healed he can fight Nocturne and save Equestria from his presence. Ensis then noticed that some of the ponies were actually waking up because of the noise he was making, he then controlled his emotions and slowly walked to the door. He opened the door slowly and got outside, it was night and there was full moon, he looked around the city closely, at first he couldn’t realize where he was even if the city looked familiar. Ensis looked closer at the houses, the streets, the decorations and basically anything that could give a clue to where he is, he then realized that he was at the Crystal Empire.

“How could I have been so stupid, I can’t even recognize my home!”

“What at are you doing outside!”

Ensis heard some sort of a voice behind him, he turned around to find out who was talking to him.

When Ensis turned around he saw what appeared to be a stallion in the Crystal Commander’s armor, the pony was old, had brown skin and white/grey mane and tail and was a unicorn. He was wearing a light blue cape and carried his helmet with his hoof.

“Excuse me?”

“What do you mean “excuse” me? Get back in the barracks! That’s an order soldier!”

“I have no idea what you are talking about. Where is Captain Shining armor i demand to speak to him!” He said with an angry.

The commander started at Ensis with a confused face and said.

“Are you playing games with me soldier?!”

“No sir, not at all sir! I just want to know where my captain is!”

Ensis Saluted in order to show respect and probably to get to the good side of the commander.

The Commander sighted.

“Listen here kid, after King Sombra invaded the Crystal Empire he captured and enslaved everypony on the empire, making them his minions and soldiers along with your captain! We managed to push back King Sombra’s forces and send him away, but tomorrow though, we will hunt down this filth and make him answer to his crimes against the royal family do you understand?”

Ensis was taken by surprise, when did King Sombra return and took over the empire? Didn’t he like got killed by Princess Cadence when he returned? Ensis decieded to play along and said.

“I understand Commander!”

He saluted.

“Then go to sleep soldier, we are going to be fighting hard tomorrow.”

“Yes sir, but may I ask you a question......off the record?”

“And what would it might be soldier?”

“If we are going against King Sombra doesn’t that mean that he will have Shining armor and our other former soldiers at his side? Are we authorized to kill our own troops sir? Kill the husband of Princess Cadence?”

“I know what you think soldier, but I am afraid there is no other way, if we don’t win this war against King Sombra, he might return and take over Equestria, not to mention that he have lost enough soldiers at the attempt to retake the Crystal Empire, we might have succeeded but the cost was too big.”

Ensis felt frustrated at the lost of his comrades, he saluted and said.

“Very well sir! I will obey and I promise you that King Sombra will die tomorrow sir!”

The commander smiled and said.

“I like your style kid, I will see you tomorrow at the briefing room. And by the way nice tattoos”

Ensis saluted with a smile and went back to the barracks. He opened the door slowly and got inside, he reached for his bed and covered himself with a blanket, before closing his eyes he started thinking about the situation, is everything real or is this just a trick? After all, Nocturne wanted them to play his game and Ensis though that this might be the game that Nocturne was referring to, Ensis was both angry and thankful to Nocturne, I mean he did trap them into this game but Ensis always wanted to fight King Sombra, even if this one is an illusion of sorts. Ensis closed his eyes and started dreaming about his childhood, he remembered when his was a filly and was grabbed by one of the sailors and was brought to the Crystal Empire, Ensis couldn’t remembered anything about the events before the destruction of his original home. He was brought to the Crystal Empire and was trained to be a soldier, he remembered being at the training grounds with a sword and fighting one of his fellow trainees, for training of course, his trainers saw that Ensis wasn’t only brutally effective in battle but he had potential, he was then recruited to a highly difficulty level of training where his might would come in handy. He was trained hard and most of the time he would get beaten by his fellow trainees but Ensis tried to avoid fighting because that would get him off the military training for his actions. Instead he focused on getting stronger and stronger to the point where we could beat all his fellow trainees. Ensis succeeded and was recruited to the elites. Ensis was also adopted by a couple with no child and they desired one. Ensis made his parents proud and continued to keep fighting and training.

Ensis woke up by the noises inside the room, he saw his fellow soldiers gearing up and heading outside, he got up quick without wasting any time, he grabbed his armor wore it and then reached for his weapons, his trusty axes that would tear anypony appart . Ensis was ready to go out, he took a deep breath and thought to himself.

“This is it! Win Nocturne’s game and get out of here!”

Ensis got out and head to the main street were the briefing was going to happen. The Commander was got up into a big box and started telling them about the mission.

“Listen here ladies! King Sombra has brought destruction to our world many times! But today, we will make him pay for his crimes!

The soldiers were cheering and battle crying.

“We will be moving to the Galloping Gorge and from there to Vanhoover, there we will have our ships ready to sail to King Sombra’s hide out, we will surround the island with our commanding ships, they will have nowhere to go! We will strike the island and today we will mark the end of this cancerous disease that “King” Sombra is and all of those sacrifices that we suffered will be repaid….in blood!”

The soldiers were cheering and their screams filled the Commander’s spirit with joy and power, he was laughing like a psycho and said.

“WE ARE MOVING! GET IN LINE! LET’S GO!”

The soldiers got into lane and follow the Commander towards Yanhoover. They had finally arrived at Yanhoover in an hour, they entered their ships and sailed outside from Equestria and into King Sombra’s hideout. Ensis had entered one of the commanding ships along with the Commander. Ensis looked at the commander and thought of him as the perfect leader, the way he spoke back at the Crystal Empire inspired Ensis and wanted to follow him. The Commander then got into the middle of the ship and started with his speeches again.

“King Sombra has invaded our home, relentlessly taking the lives of stallions, mares and fillies all around Equestira, his arrogance is only matched by the brutality of his soldiers. Our advance at the island will be swift and deadly, our infantry will first take over the first line of defense and occupy all around the island giving no chance to leave and us the opportunity to make his savage ideals and thoughts to be buried away in to this island!”

The soldiers were cheering, Ensis noticed his Commander’s power not in fight but in the power of encouragement. He felt safe and powerful near the commander and he will make sure that King Sombra’s days will come to an end. The thousand ships that sailed from Yanhoover had finally reached their destination, they started taking positions and surrounding the island and the Commander gave order to get into the smaller boats and head to the island to take over the land. The soldiers started going to the boats along with Ensis, but he was stopped by the Commander.

“Ensis!” The Commander said.

Ensis quickly turned around saluted and said.

“Sir!”

“You will go to this boat along with my personal guards, take the beach and we will send reinforcements to help you maintain it, understood?”

“Yes sir, I guarantee you that we will have the beach in an hour!”

“Good! NOW GET MOVING!”

Ensis saluted and rushed to the boat along with the Commander’s personal guards. The boat started moving towards the island. During their entrance they were taking heavy damage from the beach. Boats started getting blown up and the sea was painted with his fallen comrade’s blood. His boat had reached the beach, the Commander’s personal guard made a big shield with their magic and headed straight to take out the cannons that were destroying the boats in the sea, Ensis was behind them and joined the fight, he fell down to the trenches and started fighting his enemies with regret, he deeply knew that these were his brothers in arms, but he had no choice, his enemies blood spilled all over his face with a single blow from his mighty axes and only thing he could hear during the battle was screams and explosions he wasn’t disturbed by the sound nor the gory graphic.

After an hour or so they had taken the beach and started occupying and started making an HQ in which the Commander would be to give orders. Soon a small boat started coming from the commanding ship, when it reached the beached the Commander came out of there, he seemed proud and started to congratulate their success.

“You have done well. All of you and I promise that those that died to get us this position will be remembered as heroes! Now, resupply, get the wounded out of the battlefield along with the dead, if there is one place to be buried it’s not here but to their homes.”

“Yes Commander!” One of the soldier said.

He saluted and went away. The Commander then turned to Ensis.

“Ensis, you have done exactly as you told well done, be proud about yourself Ensis, you have carried your comrades and thanks to you they survived and it’s you the reason we will succeed!”

Ensis saluted with a smile.

“Thank you sir, I will continue my good progress!”

“Fantastic, now take a break you earned it.”

“I am sorry Commander but I don’t feel like resting any time soon.”

The Commander smiled.

“Very well then, make sure the enemy survivors are killed, i don’t want to see their sorry faces ever again!”

“Yes Commander!”