The Last Line of Defense in Equestria

This time, let you all live

As agonizing pain tore through his body,

he found himself back in Equestria, the place where in his previous life he had been crushed into stardust by the enraged ruler while trying to save Twilight Sparkle.

This time, he was no longer the good-for-nothing at magic who had just arrived.

In his mentor Zhoushuo’s star-path magic class, flames weren’t the only thing dancing at his fingertips; he also wielded swordsmanship etched into his soul. In the morning dew of Sweet Apple Acres, he taught Applejack more than healing magic. He taught her the maxim that “living matters more than revenge.”

Then one day, golden light burst from the tip of Twilight Sparkle’s horn. The alicorn’s wings tore through the sky, but also ripped open a rift into a parallel world.

The enraged ruler’s shadow engulfed all of Equestria. Unicorns’ magic circles shattered in black flames, pegasus wings fell onto scorched earth, and earth ponies’ cries were swallowed by the void.

“Come with me.” Feng Leng clenched his bloodied equine lips and shielded the gravely wounded Twilight Sparkle behind him.

In this life, he would be the sharpest sword, cutting through every misfortune; he would be the warmest light, illuminating every trembling soul.

But who could have guessed that the ultimate salvation would require not magic, but everything he had?

As the flames of the pact licked at his soul, as the dead ponies...