Chapter 1

History does not remember you for who you are. It remembers you for what you stand for, and what you're willing to sacrifice for it. History does not remember you for who you love, only who you hate. It doesn't care about what you sacrificed, only that you sacrificed it. More often than not, it asks you to sacrifice your humanity for these things. It asks you to let yourself die as a human, only to be reborn a hero. People are always wanting to be the hero, but they never figure out that they have to give up everything until it's too late. Saving the world once is never enough. You have to do it again and again and again. I just want it to end. I just want a normal life now, but I guess I can't have that now that I've saved Equestria again. Everyone has their breaking points. I never knew what mine was. I always thought I could do it forever. I was wrong. I don't want to be the hero anymore. I just want to sit down and watch my kids grow up...

... Luna... don't let history remember me as a hero, because that is not what I am. I was just a man caught up with the events and making the best of them. I'm sorry Luna... I'm sorry... I'm sorry I couldn't be there... I'm sorry for so many things. I'm sorry I... I... I don't know how much longer I can keep this up for. I know... I know that if I keep this up I will die. It's not a question of if, but when. I'm not scared though... and that's what scares me the most. The fact that I'm not scared of death. That you could hold a gun to my head and I just simply wouldn't give a damn. Luna... you gave me my humanity back, showed me that life was worth living. History will remember me a hero, and not what I was... a broken man. That's all I ever was... a broken man. But you helped put me back together again. Luna... if you ever find this... don't let them label me a hero, tell them the real story. Tell them my story... our story.

Commander Alexander James Styx's personal journal. Unknown date.

Location: Everfree Forest/ Equestria

A single figure sat in the back of the concrete building, watching as six clones, an Ensign, and a Lieutenant got the Land Reconnaissance Vehicles or LRV for short, ready for deployment. The figure wore a black skintight suit. On the suit was sleek, armor plates that was painted a midnight blue. This was the famous Commander Alexander James Styx, Hero of the fight for New Jersey, Washington D.C., Stalingrad, and Equestria. He wasn't overly tall for a human, about 5'10". Getting up, he limped over towards the LRVs.

"Almost done sir." one of the clone said as he loaded one of the gun turrets with ammo. The LRV was pretty much a bulletproof dune buggy with no windows. It was could carry three people. A driver, a gunner, and a rear facing passenger to fire the rear mounted gun turret. It also had two baskets on either side that was supposed to be for carrying supplies, but was just as useful for carrying extra team members. Alex climbed into the driver's seat of the one nearest him. .

"Ready sir." the clone said as he slammed the hood down. Alex sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. 'I'm coming home.' he thought to himself as he started the engine.

Location: Canterlot/ Equestria

A lone pony walked down the corridor, her head down as she stared at the floor. The pony was a midnight blue and she was taller than most other ponies. There were only two things that separated her from most other ponies other than her height. The first was that she had both wings and a horn. The other was that she was a princess. But she wasn't just any princess; she was the princess of the moon. She was Princess Luna, Co-ruler of Equestria, and she was responsible for controlling the moon, while her sister, Princess Celestia, controlled the sun.

But right now she certainly didn't feel like a princess. Her husband, Commander Alexander James Styx was dead. She was extremely depressed, and often times she thought about ending it all. But there was only one little thing that kept her from doing so. It was actually several little something's. She looked up as she heard the sound of laughter. What she saw made her smile. She saw two foals running towards her. One was an alicorn filly with a bright red coat, an orange mane, and golden eyes; this one was Nova. The other was a alicorn colt with a midnight blue coat like Luna's, a gold mane, and ultramarine colored eyes; this one was Eclipse. These two foals were the only light in her otherwise miserable day. Sitting on her haunches, she spread her arms and caught both of them in a hug. These two foals were Luna's entire world. For they were hers and nothing in Equestria would ever change that.

"Come dearies, your mother has very important things to do." said a servant that was tasked with watching them whenever Alex or Luna couldn't.

"That is quite alright, we do not anything else planned for the rest of the day." Luna told the servant. The servant bowed respectively and slowly backed away. Standing up, Luna placed both of the foals on her back and trotted towards her and their room. Entering the twins' room she placed them down and they immediately started to chase each other. They couldn't fly, not yet, so they took running around. She watched them for about twenty minutes before turned around and walked into her room. Her room was dark. The walls were painted a dark blue, that was several shades lighter than her coat. The only light being provided by a lamp on either side of the bed. The ceiling though was what Luna loved about her room the most. On the ceiling was a beautifully painted crescent moon and various constellations that glowed slightly. .

Luna ignored this though and walked towards the dresser that sat near the back of the room. She picked up a photo off the dresser and walked back to her bed. She layed down and stared at it for several minutes, as she did she started to cry silently. She hugged the photo tightly to chest and stared at the ceiling. The photo was of Alex's and Luna's wedding ceremony four years ago.

"I-I-I d-don't know what to do anymore." she sobbed. After several more minutes of crying she made up her mind. Her horn started to glow and she floated several objects to her.

Location Canterlot/ Equestria

Celestia trotted swiftly down the hallways. Normally she would say hello to any of the ponies she came across but not right now. But it was getting late and it was approaching time for her to raise her moon. Like her younger sister, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia was an alicorn. But there were a couple differences between her and her sister. The first being that Celestia was older than her sister by about seven years. Though to an immortal race such as alicorns, seven years meant nothing. There was also the fact that Celestia was taller than her sister Luna, not by much though. Also, Princess Celestia was a stark white in contrast to Luna's midnight blue. As Celestia approached her little sister's room, she started to get an odd feeling in her stomach.

"Luna?" Princess Celestia asked but got no response.

"Lulu, are you okay?" Celestia asked, using the pet nickname from when they were fillies. Like, last time there was no response.

"Lulu, I'm coming in." the princess said. She opened the door to a very dark room. It took several moments for her eyes to get used to the darkness. Taking a hesitant step into her sister's room, Celestia looked around. She spotted a figure lying on the bed.

"Sister?" Celestia asked as she approached the figure. She layed a hoof on the figure and took a closer look. It was her sister Luna. As Celestia stepped closer her hoof stepped in something wet, warm, and sticky. Looking down, she stared at the puddle of liquid until something in her head clicked.

"LUNA!" Princess Celestia screamed. As both Luna's and Celestia' guards entered the room to inspect what had caused such a reaction, they saw Celstia's horn glow yellow and both her, and Princess Luna disappeared. Both sets of guards stepped into the room to investigate. As one of Celestia's guards approached the side of the bed where princess Celestia had been standing, he stepped in something warm, wet, and sticky. Looking at it, it took the guard a minute to figure out what it was.

Blood.