Chapter 45

Battering Ram gawped as the eclipse passed, the cheers from the ponies of Canterlot was loud even from his position in the castle courtyard. The earth pony frowned as he heard slow hoovesteps coming from behind him, the time between each one were almost exact

“So your son has finally proposed,” Battering Ram sighed as Strong Shield walked over and sat next to him. “In all honesty I would not want to be him tonight, I fear the princess may break his pelvis”

Strong Shield snorted in agreement, “Odio came and told me you were here, not to mention you lost your temper again and blurted out our previous meetings”

“Meetings?” Battering Ram growled, “We were basically brothers, Flux was basically my sister and you didn’t care about killing us both”

“You were killing ponies and using their body parts to make robotic slaves,” Strong Shield glared up at Battering Ram. “If it gets out that I stopped it then I would get medals and a nice country home”

Battering Ram laughed, “Yeah and you hate that don’t you?” he sighed, “But it would mean some of Puppetmaster’s ideology getting out”

“Risking another catastrophe,” Strong Shield shook his head as his eye scanned the floor. “You do realize that I could tell Princess Luna the truth and have you and Flux hunted like a wild dog for the rest of your lives”

Battering Ram smirked, “We go down and you get labelled a hero”

“Alright the cover story is you were a private and you constantly disagreed with me, eventually getting angry enough to try and fight me,” Strong Shield said quickly. “But I won and kicked you out”

The pair looked up at they heard a flapping of wings and saw Luna slowly descending, Battering Ram nervously turned to Strong Shield. “By the way, she kissed me and I don’t know what to do”

“Do you want to be with her?” Strong Shield narrowed his eye

Battering Ram quickly shook his head, “You know I can’t settle down!”

“Well you are lucky I can drag you out of this,” Flux sighed as she landed silently beside the large earth pony, gaining a confused stare from Ram. “Don’t ask, Strong Shield managed to inform me that you were here and needed to leave”

The trio shared uneasy glances but settled down into their own disguises as Luna finally landed, tipping her head to each of the ponies. “Hello Strong Shield, Battering Ram and… may you introduce yourself?”

Flux bowed graciously, “Your majesty, my name is Flux and I apologize if my brother has been giving you any trouble”

“Not at all, he has been very kind and I enjoy his company,” Luna smiled to Battering Ram, his eyes quickly darted to the floor

Strong Shield stood up with a grunt, “Well I hope you take him off the castle premises, he is a disgrace to the guards and no matter how much he has matured, and he is not welcome”

Flux held back a sneer as she nodded, “I know my brother has a temper and he still regrets trying to attack you all those years ago”

Luna frowned, “I heard that Battering Ram did fight with Strong Shield, but the guards are a tough group to get into, both mentally and physically”

“It was just a good thing I could incapacitate you before you did something really foolish,” Strong Shield shook his head. “The guards require a certain amount of discipline and should always stick to the rules”

“Like what you did when Dave ran away that one time?” Luna glared at the unicorn, “You knocked out Captain Shining Armour, attacked four guards and kidnapped Princess Celestia”

Strong Shield glared in response, Flux and Battering Ram both glanced between the intimidating ponies. Luna’s royal pose dwarfed Strong Shield but his scared eye made him look a lot more experienced and intimidating

Calmly, Strong Shield nodded, “I was sacked for that don’t forget”

Luna lost her glare as she looked back at Battering Ram, replacing her previous expression with a kind smile. “So are there any other family members living in Canterlot?” she asked, Battering Ram’s unusually nervous glancing was replaced with a warm smile

“My ma and pa both lived out in the country, so did my family before them, on a small farm miles from any village,” the huge earth pony sat down as he smiled to himself. “My ma was the nicest pony you could meet, she always lent a helping hoof whilst my pa could plough three acres in one go without breaking a sweat”

Flux smiled slightly as she looked over at Strong Shield, the unicorn glanced at her before quickly looking away, a small sigh escaping his lips. “That sounds nice,” Luna nodded, “I don’t suppose you have a wife or marefriend do you?”

Battering Ram chuckled, “No, I don’t”

“So no kids?”

Flux and Strong Shield both went wide-eyed at Luna’s question. The Pegasus looked down at Battering Ram, his head lowered as his smile disappeared and was replaced with the start of a snarl. “No” he muttered quietly, a faint tone of guilt in his voice

Strong Shield looked at Luna, his eye showing an unusual trace of fear as he quickly shook his head, begging the princess to drop the subject like a venomous spider

But, Luna was still annoyed at the ex-guard for his previous comment so ignored his silent warning. “Well have you ever though about it?”

Battering Ram’s eyes rolled up to glare at Luna as his body visibly shook with a suppressed rage, his muscles stiffening to a point where his body almost seemed to swell. “It crossed my mind at a point,” he snarled, failing to keep his hatred from bubbling over

Luna put on a badly timed smile, obviously missing the various signals for her to shut up. “Well what stopped you?”

The princess only had time to change her facial expression from happy to shocked as the huge earth pony got to his hooves and raised one of his powerful arms to strike the dark alicorn. Strong Shield and Flux both shot to their hooves and grabbed the hoof, placing their entire strength into holding the hoof still

“ME!” Battering Ram yelled, “I’m a hybrid of hybrids, I shouldn’t be allowed to exist but I do and for that I am cursed with being the end of my family tree, the end result of bad choices”

Battering Ram effortlessly shook off Shield and Flux as he slammed his hoof into the ground, causing a huge crack to emerge. Luna looked at the earth pony as his eyes made her shiver, the desire to hurt her obvious, even though he knew his attack would be futile

“I can’t have kids because my genetics won’t allow it,” Battering Ram snarled, “I can’t settle down, I can’t raise a family… I can only survive and then die!” he spat as his eyes narrowed. “You kissed me in a way I have been kissed before… you want something”

Luna shook her head, her eyes darting to the calmer ponies behind the navy body of muscle. “I never intended to relay that kind of message, I just thought that you were nice and…”

“And you wanted to feel wanted for once,” Battering Ram growled, “Dave rejected you so you thought you would try to rut the first pony that even gave you a compliment”

The princess of the night glared at the earth pony, “How dare you accuse your princess of such ridiculous claims!”

Strong Shield rubbed his forehead as Flux almost seemed to wince ahead of what Battering Ram was going to do. The earth pony took a deep breath before his growling turned to a silence where his eyes measured the princess up

“You thought you lost Equestria’s love, so you tried to force it to love you, as a result you received banishment to the moon,” Battering Ram stepped forwards, looking down on the princess as her eyes widened a fraction. “You pushed away Dave’s love, fearing you would lose it, but when you saw how much Dave fought to stay with Celestia you saw your mistake and tried to correct it”

“Stop,” Luna said, her voice beginning to shake as she took a step back from the pony. Her horn glowed as she placed a zip across Battering Ram’s mouth

Ram hardly grunted as he forced his mouth open regardless, his jaws more powerful than Luna’s magic. “No,” he whispered threateningly, his mind making connections so he could deliver that final blow, the killing strike.

“Every single time you try to get Dave to love you, you push him further away, just like Equestria,” Battering Ram narrowed his eyes as he began to make the final statement that would strike the princess’ heart. “But unlike Equestria’s love, Dave won’t forgive you with the help of some magical trinkets, you will lose it and it will hurt you more than losing Equestria’s love… it will burn you up until you lose everything because you care about gaining Dave’s affection more than anything else”

“Shut up,” Luna almost begged, still attempting to hold onto the authority she had

“That eclipse was to show Dave how far you would go to make him happy,” Battering Ram ignored the angry glares he was getting from Strong Shield and Flux as he twisted the emotional dagger he had made. “The moon is partially responsible for the tide and you carelessly dragged the moon across the sky… what happened to coastal cities and villages? What happened to the residents in the sea that might have gotten washed ashore?”

“I-I,” Luna’s eyes began to water as her heart began to jerk and tear

“ODIO WAS RIGHT!” Battering Ram yelled down at the princess, “YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING BECAUSE OF YOUR NATURALLY SELFISH WAYS, YOU LOST YOUR SISTER FOR A THOUSAND YEARS AND YOU WILL LOSE DAVE FOREVER BECAUSE YOU CAN’T THINK ABOUT ANYPONY BUT YOURSELF!”

Luna’s eyes dropped as she burst into tears, her heart had been torn out and smashed. Battering Ram stood tall, his face as straight as Strong Shield’s. The unicorn and earth pony stared at each other, the expressions they exchanged during their final moments against each other when they knew that they would have to hurt each other so they could protect those that were closest to them

Flux walked over and slapped Battering Ram, “How dare you, I have never been more ashamed of you in my entire life”

Battering Ram looked back and saw the alicorn was curled into a ball, her wing covering her body as she cried into her hooves. The huge earth pony dropped his head in shame, “I… I’m so sorry,” he sighed as he ran for the castle gates and down into Canterlot

“We are lucky he just raised his hoof and didn’t try to lash out,” Flux turned her angry glare to Strong Shield, “The next time we meet will most likely be the last”

“We will end this,” Strong Shield spat, “I will see you dead before I allow that vault to be opened”

Flux opened her wings, moving her gaze to Luna as it turned apologetic. “What happened to us?” she sighed sadly as she took to the air in search of Battering Ram

Strong Shield shook his head, “We didn’t win, neither of us did,” he whispered to himself as he walked over to the alicorn and placed a hoof on her wing. “Princess Luna, don’t cry”

The alicorn receded from the touch, her body shaking as she cried. “He was right… EVERYPONY WAS!” Luna yelled, her voice shaking too much for her to use her Royal Canterlot voice. “My sister is probably being caressed by Dave and all I can think about is how it should be me getting married!”

Luna continued to sob whilst Strong Shield stared down at her. “I said don’t cry, that’s an order!” The unicorn barked at the whimpering alicorn. “You are upset, jealous, angry even, but you are a princess of Equestria so you should not be showing these emotions outside of your personal quarters!”

“I’m not like you! I can’t just bottle up my emotions and put them aside!” Luna returned to sobbing loudly, her mane still flowing gently as she lay on the ground

“You can because your sister can,” Strong Shield glared, “You know better than anypony what kind of trauma she went through during her pregnancy, crying herself to sleep because Dave wasn’t alive to be with her”

Luna pulled back her wing slightly to look up at Strong Shield, her sobbing reduced to a loud whimper. “So what?”

“You should have been crying too but you put on a brave face because it was what Celestia needed,” Strong Shield sighed, “I cut out my emotions because that is what was needed from me, and I don’t regret it even though I lost the one I love because of it”

Luna slowly sat up as Strong Shield took a breath to calm himself, the alicorn’s face was stained with tears as the unicorn gently placed his hoof under her chin. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying be the pony that is needed, not the one that it is easier to be,” Strong Shield shook his head, “If you don’t do it for yourself then do it for others, do it for Dave, Celestia… for their son”

Luna shuddered, “I was going to tear his world apart… tear his family apart for my happiness”

She almost slipped back into tears but was stopped as Strong Shield spoke up again, “Nox loves his auntie, Celestia loves her sister, Equestria loves its princess and Dave… well Dave doesn't know anything”

Strong Shield and Luna both shared a short laugh before they fell into a silence. Luna took a few breaths before giving Strong Shield a determined nod and standing up straight and opening her wings. The princess’ face grew a smile as she took to the air and felt the warm rays of the sun against her wings and heard the partying from the streets of Canterlot

Author's Notes:

Hey guys, thanks for sticking with the story and I hope you are enjoying reading it as much as I have writing it. (Bit of a cliche thing to write but what the heck.)