Author's Notes:

The ride never ends, guys. This story is FAR from over.
(You can stop downvoting now)

Flash Sentry looked around, biting his lip as a few crystal ponies approached him and the statue that used to be Havoc.

“What happened? We heard screaming,” a crystal mare asked.

“Everything is under control, please move along,” he replied out of instinct.

The ponies shrugged and left Flash alone with the Crystal Heart and Havoc. “I guess I can’t leave him out here where everypony can see him.”

Flash flew towards the statue’s head and, grabbing it by the horns, tried to pull it away. Grunting, he managed to drag it towards one of the four corners of the castle, which served as entrances to it. He had covered half the distance between the Crystal Heart and a corner when he heard a cracking noise and the weight he was pulling disappeared. Surprised, he looked back and found that Havoc’s statue no longer had horns, as he was holding them with his hooves.

“For fudge’s sake!”

Desperate, he decided to grab the statue by the neck and worry about the “details” later. The effort of dragging such a heavy object while wearing an equally heavy armor made him sweat profusely. By the time he was about to reach the entrance, his hooves slipped and the statue toppled over. Flash closed his eyes and grimaced when he heard a loud shattering noise. He dared to open an eye and found that the statue had broken into a thousand small fragments of solid crystal.

“My, my, what a mess. You are lucky I have a broom right here,” somepony said.

Flash turned to the source of the voice and found a perfectly healthy Havoc cleaning up what was supposed to be the remains of his crystallized corpse. He could only stare at the living and smiling draconequus, mouth agape.

“I can’t believe you fell for that!” Havoc exclaimed, then he bursted into laughter.

Flash Sentry growled. “I hate you so much right now.”

“Come on, Flashy, turn that frown upside down, it was just a prank.”

“No, that was just you being a jerk. Since you don’t appreciate my efforts to keep you amused, I’ll stop trying. Princess Cadance said that I had to watch over you, but she didn’t say that I had to follow you as you did whatever you wanted. So now you will follow me and be quiet while I work until the sunset.”

Havoc sighed and followed Flash. The pegasus took them to his office, a small, bland room with a table covered in paperwork. After five minutes of watching Flash sign documents and write on them, Havoc felt like gouging his eyes out. Soon, he found himself thinking about Diane. He could still feel his leaf, somewhere in Trottingham, but his sudden departure had left too many loose ends. Because of that, he decided to write a few letters. He took the liberty of borrowing paper, ink and a quill from Flash Sentry, and firstly he wrote a letter to whoever was now in charge of Trottingham’s treasure. It was basically a summary of what he had done in the last months, so he finished it in a few minutes. Secondly, he wrote a letter for Comet Tail, telling her that he wouldn’t be able to return to Trottingham any time soon, since he was unable to stop being harmful to Diane.

Lastly, he wrote a letter for Diane herself. He began by explaining to her why he wouldn’t be able to return, and that he only dared to visit her briefly when she felt healthy. Then he shamelessly told her where he had hidden the sizeable amount of money he had surreptitiously taken from the city’s treasure without anypony ever noticing it. He felt he deserved that “extra pay”, since he also worked as a defense against any being that might have threatened the town, even if nothing of the sort had happened after Bruce Mayne’s death. He suggested her to keep that money hidden, ready to be taken in a moment of necessity. Finally, he briefly told her what he was up to, and promised to find a way for her to send letters back to him.

“Flash Sentry, where can I find a mailbox?”

“Huh?”

“I want to send these letters, where can I find a post office?”

“You wrote letters,” he stated, raising an eyebrow. “And you want to send them.”

“Yes, that is exactly what I want. I would rather not exhaust myself by teleporting them with my magic when you ponies just happen to have nationwide mail.”

“Cool story. Now stop distracting me.”

‘You just made a terrible mistake, Flash Gordon.’

“I wonder what ink tastes like.”

Havoc snatched a document that Flash had recently finished and licked it, erasing everything that had been written on it.

“What do you think you are doing?! Stop immediately!”

“You seem to be unable to understand that I can and will do anything I please. Any attempt at stopping me from getting what I want will only result in your detriment,” Havoc stated, then he licked clean another document.

Flash roared in anger and attacked Havoc, who was surprised by the pegasus’ outburst. Flash punched Havoc in the face once, but then Havoc reacted, grabbing Flash by the neck. Just as he was about to punch him in the face in retaliation, he realized what he was doing. ‘I can’t beat the shit out of this horse, I’m a good guy not a violent psychopath! For fuck’s sake, I have to stop acting on freaking impulse. I have lived as a pony for several months and nopony has noticed anything odd about me, I can’t act like a psycho just because I am not disguised.’

“I would greatly enjoy beating you into submission, but then I would be proving right anypony who think I am a dangerous monster that should be thrown into Tartarus. I’m sick of running and hiding, so that won’t happen. Now, you will tell me how to send these letters, and I will undo the damage caused to your documents. Then we’ll remain civil until we can separate.”

Flash squinted and said nothing for a few seconds. “Undo the damage now, then I’ll take you to the post office. We only have to stay together for one more hour, so I’ll give you a last chance.”

Havoc nodded solemnly and spat on the papers, causing everything he had erased to reappear. After that, Flash led Havoc to the post office, where he borrowed a couple of bits from the unamused stallion in order to buy the stamps for his letters. The crystal ponies gave the strange duo some questioning glances, but Havoc managed to send his letters without problems.

“Now it’s my turn to have dinner. Princess Cadance usually has a sandwich for dinner while doing her duties, so you probably won’t have a chance to have dinner after this one. Since you are part of the army now, you can eat for free instead of making me pay.”

Thus, they walked back to the barracks, where the soldiers were “enjoying” their grub. After living in Trottingham as a pony for so long, he had eventually got used to the pony diet, including the total absence of meat. However, the gray dough that the crystal ponies were happily gulping down was absolutely disgusting.

“How the heck can you eat this?” he asked, shocked.

Flash produced a small berry that seemed to be made of crystal, he crushed it and mixed it with his meal. “This is how.”

“... Can I have one?”

“No.”

Frowning, Havoc considered turning Flash into a hen and make him lay some eggs so he could add them to his own grub. However, he reminded himself that he had decided to stop acting out. Because of this, he just continued eating after disabling his taste buds with his magic. Soon, Havoc found himself staring at Flash, who met his gaze, refusing to back down. Their staring match continued for most of the time they spent on the canteen until Havoc’s stare of unfathomable hate eventually broke Flash’s defenses, making him avoid meeting Havoc’s eyes and nervously fidget in his seat.

“Come on, w-we don’t have all day,” Flash finally said, as they both had long since finished their meals.

Flash breathed in relief when he noticed that the sunset was going to happen in a couple of minutes. He silently guided Havoc back to the Throne Room, where two crystal pony guards relieved the exhausted pegasus from watching over him. Before Havoc could think of a way to keep himself entertained, Cadance herself left the Throne Room and told Havoc to accompany her.

“Where are we going?”

“You will see.”

The pink pony princess led the confused draconequus minor through the palace’s corridors, until they reached a spiral staircase that seemed to go down for kilometers.

“Wow that’s a lot of stairs…”

“We don’t know much about Sombra, but he seemed to have some sort of affinity towards stairs. This one leads to the dungeon under the castle.”

Havoc stopped dead on his tracks. “Wait, why are you taking me to Sombrero’s creepy dungeon?”

“Because, if I’m going to send you to the war, I would like to know how powerful you are. The dungeon is magic-proof, so we won’t have to worry about collateral damage.”

With that said, Cadance opened her wings and flew down the spiral’s center. Havoc shrugged and dived after her. For some reason he could heard a song on the background, even though he hadn’t used any spell.

“Hey!” he shouted so Cadance could hear him. “Where is that music coming from?!”

“It’s from a spell Discord told me to use when I met him. He said you liked this band. I have never listened this, are they humans?”

“God fucking damn it, it’s Muse! I hate them so much.”

“Why?”

“Their songs became part of freaking Twilight’s soundtrack!”

“What does my sister-in-law have to do with any of this?”

“Nothing! It’s a completely unrelated Twilight! The worst kind of Twilight there is!”

Cadance decided not to pursue the subject as she stopped the music spell, judging that it wasn’t worth it. After freefalling for at least thirty seconds, they finally reached the end of the stairs. Cadance flapped to slow herself until she gently landed, while Havoc just told gravity to stop annoying him, so the air friction stopped him a few centimeters above the floor.

“Princess, did you just mention that I am a human?”

“Yes, I did. I am aware of the game of gods that is taking place in our world, and I know you are one of the multiple champions that roam Equestria. Nowadays it seems you humans are everywhere, given how much of a ruckus you all tend to cause.”

“What can I say? We are a loud bunch.”

‘I wonder if she also has a champion in this game. I’ll have to be careful if she does, she might try to get me killed somehow to help her piece win.’

“In any case, whether you were born a human or a draconequus doesn’t matter if you help us win this war. The dungeon is right beyond that door.”

A seemingly normal wooden door led to a humongous room, walls and ceiling made of a light blue crystalline material.

“Wow, this place is huge, but... How is it a dungeon?”

“Sombra used this place as a canvas in which he would create labyrinths and traps with dark crystals. He enjoyed forcing ponies to try to go through them, making them believe that they would be freed if they managed to beat his creations. As you might imagine, the mazes were designed so it was impossible to reach the end.”

“Heh, what an asshole. So, what do you want me to do to show how powerful I am?”

“I would like to know what you are capable of first. I have seen you shapeshift before, can you turn into anything you want?”

That was the first of several questions that Cadance asked Havoc. After a few minutes, she probably knew more about his abilities than himself.

“So, since you feed on chaos, and battles are a great source of chaos, you could cause massive damage to an army without mages. However, not all diamond dogs rely only on their brute force. Some of them have enslaved unicorns and they force them to fight us. I think that sparring is the best way to test how you deal with individuals that can match you.”

“And who is going to be my sparring partner? There’s just the two of us… Here… Wait, are you serious?”

“Indeed. You will spar with me and I will judge your skill.”

“... I should have seen this coming. Well, I am actually curious about how powerful YOU are, so let’s do this!”

Havoc cracked his knuckles and got on all fours, as Cadance levitated her jewelry away so it wouldn’t be damaged, and then she summoned a full set of plate armor that strapped itself to her body. The plates of black metal didn’t cover her full body, so she could move freely and fly without being encumbered by the weight and reduced angle of vision.

“Nice armor, I was sort of expecting you to wear something golden, pink and blue with a lot of ornaments and stuff.”

“There’s ceremonial armors and there’s armors for real battles. I do have a golden and blue armor with a lot of decorations for formal events. Now let’s get started.”

Havoc rushed towards Cadance, who pushed him away with her magic. Havoc turned into teen dragon, the natural resistance to magic of his scales making Cadance’s telekinesis weak enough for him to shrug it off. He inhaled deeply and exhaled a jet of flames that Cadance blocked with a barrier. Cadance took off, the barrier protecting her as she approached Havoc. She quickly flew past him as she kicked him in the neck.

Havoc coughed in pain and found blood seeping out of his mouth. “How the heck did you hit me so hard? These are real dragonscales!” he croaked.

“Earth pony strenght.”

He changed back to his original form and pointed at her with one finger. A crackling bolt of electricity bolted from his fingertip, hitting one of Cadance’s wings. The alicorn grunted in pain, but the damage on her appendage was minor.

“Is that all you’ve got? You said you could put all your power on any spell you casted,” she taunted.

“I would have hated to hurt you for real, princess.”

Cadance’s horn glowed with a blinding blue aura and, without warning, she fired a large beam of pure arcane energy at Havoc’s torso. Havoc teleported away, but just as he appeared in a different place, Cadance teleported right behind him and fired another beam. The magic attack went through Havoc’s chest, opening a hole the size of his fist just where his heart was.

“Hey! I’m not Discord, I can’t just shrug off this kind of damage! You could have killed me!” he complained, using his magic to keep his blood pumping even though his heart had been disintegrated. “This is supposed to be a spar, not a fight to the death, for fuck’s sake.”

“Will you be alright?” she asked, showing a hint of genuine concern.

“Yes, but I don’t want to learn if I can survive my head being blown, so be more careful,” he replied as his wound quickly healed.

“I will keep it in mind.”

Havoc pulled his axe from hammerspace as he tried to enter Cadance’s mind to alter what she perceived. However, he found a barrier that he couldn’t break through, so he flew towards her and aimed an horizontal slash at her torso. Cadance rose a barrier, which the axe sliced through as if it wasn’t there. Havoc slowed the weapon in the last second, so it bounced off Cadance’s armor.

“See? This is more like it, no grievous wounds or broken bones, that’s what a spar is supposed to be like.”

“I said I would be more careful, now can we just fight without you stopping to comment each action?”

Havoc turned into a rattlesnake that quickly coiled around Cadance’s leg. He was about to sink his fangs on her exposed when she grabbed him with telekinesis and began to apply more and more pressure. He changed into bear and hugged her before she could move away. His bear hug made Cadance release a gasp of pain, but she quickly overcame it and forced Havoc to release her by releasing a torrent of fire from her horn.

Havoc turned back to draconequus and threw a piñata that looked just like Shining Armor at Cadance. The piñata exploded with violence, releasing arrows and ice shards everywhere. Cadance blocked them with a barrier, but the projectiles turned into a dark cloud that allowed Havoc to sneak behind her and bring his fists down on her, breaking the barrier and making her crash on the ground. Before the smoke cleared, dozens of small spheres of energy flew towards Havoc from below, so he turned them into flying fishes when they got too close. He decided to exit the cloud of smoke, but, as soon as his head poked out of it, Cadance’s hooves met it with great force. He was thrown several meters away by the impact, which gave him enough time to heal the concussion and pull his dragonbone hammer. Cadance replied by making a crystal sword appear before her.

This time, Cadance attacked first. She flew towards Havoc and levitated her sword above her head for a vertical slash. Havoc deflected the sword with a horizontal movement from left to right of his hammer, which was followed by a blow from right to left aimed at Cadance’s head. The alicorn ducked and thrusted her sword forward, forcing Havoc to move back to dodge the attack. They continued exchanging blows for minutes, neither managing to land a hit. Cadance’s superior skill and the extra mobility granted by using telekinesis instead of arms was met by Havoc’s strength and reach, as Cadance seemed unable to use her sword if it wasn’t relatively close to her. Havoc soon began to pant heavily, his moves becoming slower and clumsier as Cadance cornered him against a wall. Eventually his wings collided against the wall, forcing him to move forward if he wanted to keep flying. Cadance then tried to stab him, but he quickly blocked the sword with his wooden arm and, using his magic to triple his physical strength, he wielded his hammer with his right hand and hit Cadance in the side of the head. The violence of the impact broke her magical focus, her sword remaining stuck on Havoc’s arm as she fell to the ground several meters below, too dazed to keep flapping her wings.

Havoc stopped acting as if he was exhausted, breathing normally again as he approached Cadance. He felt worried when he noticed that the alicorn seemed to be unconscious, wondering if he had hit her too hard. As soon as his feet touched the ground, several magical chains sprouted from the ground and trapped him. Cadance got up on her hooves, blood seeping from under her helmet. Her eyes had become pure white light, and her horn was crackling with magic. She released an enormous beam of blue magic aimed at Havoc, which he met with a golden beam of his own chaotic magic. Both energies collided, neither overcoming the other. Havoc felt his magic reserves quickly dwindling, so he tried to surpass Cadance’s attack by putting even more power into his. His eyes widened when he felt Cadance match and surpass his increase in power, her beam slowly approaching him. Roaring, he summoned his axe again from hammerspace and used it to sever the magical chains, releasing himself just in time to teleport away before Cadance’s beam reached him.

Cadance followed Havoc, her eyes back to normal, and tried to “punch” his face with her right hoof. Havoc dodged the attack and replied with a kick of his frog leg aimed at her groin. She blocked it with her knee and then they engaged in a hand-to-hoof combat. Havoc realized that she was nearly as bad at this kind of fighting as he was, neither having ever received any kind of training in martial arts or any form of unarmed combat. However, they both were augmenting their strength with magic, hitting each other hard enough to kill any lesser opponent. Havoc’s punches deformed Cadance’s armor whenever they connected, while hers tore away large chunks of Havoc’s body, which he quickly regenerated. The draconequus was very relieved by the fact that he could alter his brain so he wouldn’t feel pain at all; else he would have been reduced to a crying mess after the first impacts. Eventually, Havoc’s left fist collided directly against Cadance’s right hoof, the impact so violent that his whole arm exploded with a loud cracking noise in a shower of splinters and a fluid that was something midway between blood and sap. At the same time, Cadance cried in pain as she felt the bones on her foreleg fracturing. Holding back the tears of pain, she stabbed Havoc’s chest with her horn and used her Love Magic to brainwash Havoc into loving himself so much that he immediately created a mirror so he could stare at himself, completely forgetting about her.

Cadance could feel Havoc fighting against her spell, so she took a deep breath and, biting her left leg, used her magic to force her bones back to their proper place. Then she channeled healing magic on it, her bones healing in less than one minute. After that she healed the other wounds she had received. Only the burnt wound on her wing remained, as using healing magic on it could interfere with the pegasus wing on it, rendering her unable to fly for days. When she was done, she released Havoc from her love spell.

Havoc blinked in confusion, then he noticed his missing arm and the bleeding hole on his chest. He snapped the fingers of his remaining hand and the wounds healed almost instantaneously. “So that’s how it feels to be mind controlled. I guess you win, I was at your mercy when you used that last spell on me.”

“You aren’t bad at fighting, I had to use my most powerful magic to beat you. You will make a big difference in the upcoming battles.”

“That’s good. It’s been several months since I fought, so this was a good opportunity to get rid of the rust.”

“I must say, I did enjoy our spar. The life of a princess can become both stressful and predictable. I live fearing for Shining Armor, attending to celebrations and events, and doing paperwork until my horn hurts from holding a quill. It is not often that I find such an opportunity to release all the stress and worries.”

“So, a violent fight is what you consider a way to ‘release tension’? Wow, Cadance, you are awesome. If you weren’t married already I would ask you out.”

“Let’s go back to the castle,” she replied, giggling. “There’s a guests room in which you can sleep tonight. Somepony will wake you up in time for joining the group leaving for the front.”

Cadance herself led him to his room, chatting along the way. “I would greatly enjoy to spar with you again someday,” she remarked when they reached the room assigned to Havoc. “When the war is over, you will be received with open arms if you decide to move to the Crystal Empire. You could stop being seen as a threat or an enemy to ponykind. You could be sir Havoc, bane of slavers, champion of the Crystal Empire and captain of the imperial army.”

“I like the sound of that. I like it a lot. Goodnight, princess, I promise I’ll do my best to ensure our victory over the slavers.”

After that cheesy line, Havoc entered the bedroom and soon he was dreaming about rescuing damsels in distress, fighting evil dragons and being a modelic knight in general.