#8,520
Fall. Year 42 | Day 4. Evening. Neighagra Falls.

Two years retired now. No more big events and nothing I haven't been able to overcome. I have a son and two daughters. Ilfracombe, Peach Bee, and Passion. Peach and Passion are almost twins in their looks. Apricot and I have gotten them mixed up a number of times. Regardless, the three of them have all grown up incredibly well. I feel Passion might have a hard time living on her own when I pass away. She's always been the closest to Apricot and I. Sweet little gal, honestly.

Ilfracombe took over my mother's bee farm, practically restarting the thing after a trusted resident, and friend, took over it. I was surprised at his enthusiasm about the subject, even with my cautions of overdoing what you love. He went on anyways, not completing ignoring my advice but keeping it well in mind. He wound up finding love in my home town too. A brilliant mare who he fell head over heels for and I believe her name was something like Aspen or something along those lines.

Peach stays at home, works at a nearby peach orchard. Passion often followed her around and helped her out. Peaches magic made collecting the ripened fruits easier and Passion had the speed to collect them all without failing in her energy. Peach has also had to look after me when my dear Apricot wasn't around. My leg injury that forced my retirement is something they've both have had to tend to. Much to my stubbornness of saying that it's fine. Passion helps with the tending too, sometimes.

Passion takes to her books in the small study I helped build for her. Though, it's more a small library now with the extra wings that have been added. The sound of the falls can be heard from there and its such a lovely pattering of water. She loved every word of those books. I had to add more because she read through all of them twice over. I'm not sure if it was due to her reading or her eyesight developing unnaturally that lead to her having to wear glasses. She hopes to become a teacher, I would love to see her become one, but I feel my time may be coming to an end soon.

I've been getting rather vivid flashbacks of everything I've done. I'd be sitting in a chair one moment, in bed the next. These flashbacks have thrown me through everything: my first fight with the school bully, my narrow escapes from crashing to the ground during the annual racing events, every letter I delivered, and every pony I first met. There were other moments too, the darker and more traumatic moments. Especially the last trip I made to Queen Chrysalis, the moment that forced my retirement.

It's still so clear, that battle from ten years ago. She had half of her kingdom defeated by a much larger force. A conglomeration of all the other beings that had turned mindless due to that ancient spell gone wrong. They had been holding them back for the longest time but something let them through. I had to convince Chrysalis that sapping me dry wouldn't be a good idea and agreed that we would both take to the front line and fight with everything we had. It was a desperate situation for her but over the years we had become something like friends, as despised as she was by Equestria.

Their numbers were surprisingly overwhelming. It was like the classic books of warfare I used to read. Two large opposing forces meeting each other on an open field, unyielding despite their lines getting pummeled by ranged attacks. These things, slaggans they called them, were often fast moving tarred hides of their former glory days. There were no eyes but there were plenty of teeth. They needed no weapons, they had claws and spat extremely corrosive acid. Melted flesh from the bone, even seeped through the shield she put up.

I spent a short amount of time prepping what spells could be repurposed to large crowds, memorized them and readied myself in a bits of blackened steel armor. Lightweight and only covered the more vital portions, allowing flexibility when I needed it. I had some time over the years before to learn some swordplay as well. Two short swords were my go to melee pieces, had them ordered from a well known blacksmith. I've had my fair share of fights with bandits and other dangerous creatures. Some saying being a soldier on the front line is difficult, being a courier could be just as rough. Especially for those who went ventured out into foreign lands.

I lead the charge of one her battalions, a far right flank. the plan was to try and disperse their forces as much as possible. Spent a number of nights digging trenches and fortifying walls. It was a type of warfare that had proved mildly successful against the slaggans simply due to their size. Just making the terrain as difficult as possible for them to traverse was the key. It seemed futile, though, as they kept advancing forward. We finished the digging well ahead of schedule and the fortifications stretched to the horizon. It seemed that was all there was at the time.

The anticipation of waiting was what got to most of the changelings, however. Several began panicking and mindlessly charged the distant woods. It took some work to get them back and calm them down. Several just broke down and committed suicide, a shame, really. The morale was fading in the Queen's troops. I had to start off the attack unyielding and strong. Kill without worry, these slaggans are already dead, in a sense. I tried to boost morale by being friendly and helping out the weaker few.

Then a battered scout came back, barely able to stand. Running off instincts alone. Died after giving me the report. I sent a message to Chrysalis and prepared all hooves. Organized them in our planned fashion. Stick to the sandbags, trigger the traps and fire. The things couldn't anticipate an ambush, after all. The ambushes were successful, pinned them all and I fired off all the magic circle, or runes, I had painstakingly set up. Simply set them aflame and left their ashes lie there. The runes wore out, we took to a charge.

Standing atop a boulder, The changelings poured out like ants to defend their hive. I rained down lightning and fire from a distance. Turned the earth into massive spikes that ripped through hundreds of slaggans at a time. I felt all powerful, but the changeling line was slowly receding. There was simply too many. They came through the distant dead forest like a swarm of locusts. I formed the earth into giant walls to form multiple, enormous funnels after a small retreat. Split them accordingly and continued to press on.

I wasn't until I saw a change in the slaggan army that I joined the frontline. I had spotted an ominous mountainous figure looming over the edge of the horizon. The slaggans pushed to the center of the battlefield, where Chrysalis's main force was. I knew what they were intending as I reformed my lines a gave chase after realizing that they weren't fighting back. I kept the troops running after them at a steady pace as I used fire and lightning to pick of hundreds of slaggans who refused to acknowledge us. We kept at it while I made momentary glances at the horizon past the trees.

My lines merged into Chrysalis's right wing of troops and continued fighting. I found my way to the Queen and told her what was probably going to happen next: A large beast we're not going bring down with the army alone, it's heading this way and bringing far more troops with it. I wiped out well over a thousand slaggans before it finally showed up. A mountain crawling along on crab-like legs, crushing a dozen trees at a time. From it's top it spewed black smoke from contained lava. Our forces were already wearing thin but every changeling managed fifty to a hundred of kills before keeling over. Either crushed or torn apart. I summoned wall after wall of fire to keep them back but they just would not stop.

Then they began to ignore us completely and retreated back towards the forests. Careless of whether or not they go crushed by the gigantic house-crushing legs of tar covered stone. Bled the stuff at every crack. I called for the Queen's troops to retreat to minimize casualties. She followed her troops to the final line of defense. I took to using a spell to slow down the monstrous thing, retreat to our main front and forced the trenches into giant craters in hopes of slower it down further.

Within moments it was hovering over me and upon looking up, I saw the numerous hive columns that these creatures came from. Then I felt the air begin to choke me through and the ground shake. Teleporting to the final retreat point, I began to concentrate on a spell. You see, the trenches weren't just for slowing them down, I had them dug a very specific manner. The Designer's script, something I hadn't used in years, created a spell that would fire off something similar to what he had done to his own kind. Only smaller.

As the slaggan hordes rolled out of the forest at a steady pace, I placed the staff to a small line that connected it to the script. In a whisper, I repeated the words written within the trenches and soon enough, they began to glow. I felt the magic begin to course through me like an ocean, its strength focused unto a single point, burned like an inferno. In the next long minute I refused to say the last word, waited until their position was finely placed. When I chanted the final word, a fury of colorful lights tore the ground asunder and split the earth there.

In that blinding flash we could all hear the wailing cries of those beast and the groaning of the moving mountain. Heard its legs buckle and shattered. The agonizing, burning feeling passed on and sapped my energy. After the light began to fade, the battlefield became clear and flailing arms of light purged the life from the slaggans as they tried to break free. Many were caught upon a reckless and sporadic retreat. Regaining my composure, I gave the order to charge. I knew if any of them escaped, then this issue would only arise again. I broke into a run and ran down the lengthy hill, the tremor of the changelings following closely behind.

Some of the slaggans were brave enough to stay and fight the magic I had summon, as futile as it was for them. I continued casting spells and killing everything in my path until I arrived at the face of the moving mountain. The light magic had completely ensnared it like a boa and its prey. I stopped there and put my hoof to a single part of the creature's broken and dangling leg. Casting a spell of incineration, the thing slowly turned to black and gray ash. But something bursted through the ashes and lunged toward me. Within that instant, my leg was my hind leg was battered, rendered useless.

In a flurry of pain and rage I tore the creature apart with only my hooves. I remember my eyes as though they were on fire and my head smoldering. I remember that slaggan's face, the sound it made when I tore its jaw from its skull. The acidic saliva evaporating before it could even touch my hooves. Covered in its tarred skin and blood, I ripped through hundreds more. There were moments that I blacked out, screaming from the pain and then waking the next. It was when I tore the head from the last slaggan that I stopped. The contorted body twisted around itself, almost like a raisin.

The light magic that had taken countless more begun to wrap me in its coil. Its soothing glow calming me down until the anger finally passed. When awoke three days later, Chrysalis had been at the bedside for the entire time. Healing had been done by the magic I created, but it wasn't perfect. The injury my leg had sustained left a good chunk of meat gone forever. Scooped away by the slaggan that managed to catch me off-guard. I cursed the thing, if the dead could be.

It was then she announced to me that she decided to exile me from her kingdom. Her citizens were scared of me, despite being on the same side. I understood her concern and told her that she could come visit me, so long as it's in secret. To this day, Apricot still doesn't know about this. I had told everyone that the injury was from a fight with a dire bear, claws as big as my head. Told them I had defeated the thing too, left it to rot in the wild.

I'm seeing Idol's face where he's not. Mother's and the Designer's too. Even Aeron. I'm afraid that if I listen to them, I'll be letting go of everything here. I still feel like I have a few weeks left in me. Just a few, then, maybe, I'll have to let go. I can already feel the cold touch of death seeping into my bones. Rather unsettling, but I should greet it like an old friend. I've called for my son to stop by soon. I know he will soon. I also feel it's time that he and the rest learn more about my past.

To my wife, my two daughters and my magnificent son: I'm sorry I've hidden this from all of you. If you do not forgive me, I understand. I have been cursed plenty and thanked just as often.