Chapter 7: Thunderstorm (Revised)

Star Shield awoke the next day to the sound of a door opening and shutting loudly.  He quickly and groggily opened his eyes and tried to focus on the pony that walked in.  It was a pony of the Royal Night Guard and he was staring at the two with wide eyes and a slightly opened mouth.  His gaze went from Star Shield to Luna and then back to Star Shield.

He cleared his voice loudly to wake the Princess which worked successfully, she slowly raised her head, her eyes quickly filled with shock and embarrassment.  "What is it guard?"  She yawned loudly after she spoke.

The guard stood straighter.  "The troops are is waiting your go ahead, all ponies are accounted for and are ready to begin the assault."

Luna's eyes then filled worry, she got up and stretched.   She walked to her closet and grabbed her armor.  "Thank you guard, go and find your respective station."

The guard nodded and began to walk out of the room, he took one last look at Star Shield, his expression was unmistakably surprised.  As the door shut Star Shield got up from where he was sitting and stretched as well, he thought back onto last night and smiled contently.

He looked at the clock and realized how late he was.  "I need to go Luna, I can't imagine what Captain Shadow Song has in store for me."

She turned from the closet with her armor almost fully on.  She gave a small sad smile.  "Of course, good luck today Star Shield, come back safely."

He nodded confidently.  "Thank you, I will."  He quickly went out of the Captain's quarters and almost ran to get to his room.  He donned his armor, crossbow and sword in a rush.  He then sprinted up to the flight deck where the rest of the Royal Night Guard were waiting.  All of the guards were looking at him, some smiled and they were all talking in hushed voices so that Star Shield couldn't hear what they were saying.  He was a bit frustrated that the pony who saw them couldn't have kept that little episode to himself.  Damn that blabbermouth, he must've spammed it to the whole crew!  He couldn't have had more then ten minutes!

"Hey Star Shield, get over here!"  Shadow Song looked very pissed, which cause Star Shield's stomach to twist.

He walked up to her obediently and saluted.  "Yes ma'am?"

"Your late, for the record I couldn't care less what you and the princess did last night but do not let that interfere with an operation!  Next time, be on time."  She dropped her angry stare.

He stood straighter, he was expecting a much worse punishment.  "Yes ma'am!"

"Alright, you'll be with me.  Do not screw up."

He nodded and walked with Shadow Song over to where Moonfire and Nightwing were standing.  They both held amused expressions.  Nightwing patted him on the shoulder, and Moonfire was sporting a bigger grin than normal.

He stood beside her waiting for Shadow Song to give the order.  "Don't you say a word until this is all over."  This only made Moonfire smile even bigger.

Shadow Song positioned herself in the center of the Royal Night Guard.  "Alright you fillies listen up!  I understand that Star Shield's little escapade might've been entertaining for some of you but get your heads in the game!  We are assaulting a dangerous enemy, they have threatened Equestria and it is our job to make them want to join the satan in hell!  Let me tell you, Operation Thunderstorm could be essential to the survival of Equestria itself do don't you dare buck it up!"  Many of the guards who were smiling and whispering to one another stopped and nodded solemnly.

Shadow Song seemed satisfied that she got their attention.  "Alright, we are going to be split up into separate platoons, this is  to better help the ground troops, our priority is to go for any instillations that is allowing the enemy to fortify.  Are we clear!"

All of the guards stood straight.  "Ma'am, yes ma'am!"

She nodded.  "Now we wait for command to give the green light, standby."  She looked to the beacon that stood by the bridge to the Celestia.  The light lit up and a horn sounded.  Immediately landing craft poured out of the supply ships and battleships.  Small pegasus squads lifted off from the airships and flew in behind the landing craft.

Shadow Song turned back around.  "Lets go fillies, get in formation!"

A flight deck pony waved a green flag and the Royal Night Guard rocketed into the sky, the mornin air was crisp and cold on the pegasi's wings, they quickly split into platoons they were assigned to and pursued the landing craft.  The spread out to avoid running into one another if they needed to avoid any flak.  The assault craft slowly disappeared behind them, they accelerated towards the island, which was only a few miles away.

Shadow Song called to her team.  "Ghost Platoon on me!"  The group of ponies moved into close formation and landed on the beach.  Something had bothered Star Shield since they took off, almost as if he's been here before.  Ghost Platoon was on high alert for the enemy, they hadn't appeared yet.  Star Shield pulled his crossbow to bear and set the rounds to piercing, each pony scanned for targets, nothing was on the beach.  Ghost Platoon slowly spread out, checking into the tree-line for any targets.

The assault craft were slowly approaching the beachhead, Star Shield sighed.  I guess this operation won't be as big of a deal as we thought. It didn't take but a second after Star Shield assured himself that all hell broke loose on the beach.  Out from the tree-line came arrow fire, it pierced the chest of one of the pegasi that was beside Star Shield.

One of the assault craft exploded behind them,  Shadow Song yelled out to her platoon.  "Defensive formation!"

Some of the assault craft had released their troops, unicorns poured magic into a barrier around the RNG.

"Fall back Ghost Platoon!"

Slowly the ponies fell back to the oncoming assault ships, earth ponies pushed to the front with large tower shields, arrows began to pierce into the phalanx.  Unicorns sent beams of magic into the forest, incendiary spells began to light the trees on fire.

"Ghost Platoon!  Recover and attack!"  The pegasi leapt into the air and flew over the forest.

Shadow Song called out again.  "Drop your explosives!"  Each guard dropped several pounds worth of explosives down into the forest, fire flew up from the trees and enveloped some of the creatures.  The guard then dropped down into the forest where they clashed with the oncoming darkness.  Some of the creatures were rather large, one of them decided to charge at Star Shield.  He quickly fired as many arrows as he could into the monster's chest, it fell before him in a pile of dust.

The forest was already inflamed around them, exposing the creatures, Star Shield was surprised at the astounding amounts of enemies there were.  He could barely see back to the beachhead, there were ponies pouring out by the dozens from assault craft, some charged into the forest to assist the advanced forces.  The secondary wave a pegasi came down from the sky and stomped out more of the creatures, it looked as though they were winning, slowly the ponies pushed back the darkness into the forest.

Star Shield pulled back out his sword and attacked the stragglers who were left in the area.  It seemed as though the ponies had driven the deranged creatures back into the depths of the forest, a relief to some of the troops.

Something bothered Star Shield though, things had seemed too easy for the ponies, the creatures were dropped before they could land a hit, on any of them in fact.  He looked to the sky with worry, something seemed out of place, but he couldn't exactly pinpoint it.  Suddenly the forest shook surprising all of the soldiers who were in the vicinity.  "Captain!  Somethings coming!"  Shadow Song looked at Star Shield with confusion.

A creature, darker than that of the others leapt into the air from deep within the forest, it's roar was deafening and speed was great.  It flew towards the beachhead where ponies were setting up a foothold.

Unicorns targeted the new enemy and fired shots at the strange creature, it simply seemed to absorb the blows.  Star Shield looked on with horror as the dragon-like animal opened it's mouth and released hellfire on the ponies who were still on the beach, it turned them into nothing but ash, not even skeletons remained.  Ponies who were near the blast immediately suffered severe burns and those who didn't shield their eyes from the blast were blinded.

Star Shield frantically checked his crossbows charge meter, he still needed another minute before he could fire the shot he needed.  Many of the ponies moved deep into the forest to get away from the dragon.  Star Shield couldn't hear the voice of Shadow Song yell to him to retreat into the forest.  He walked blindly onto the beach, almost possessed by some entity.  The creature saw the brave pony, and seemingly intrigued he landed in front of Star Shield.

As the dragon looked at him something seemed to light in the creature's eyes, fear, anxiety and the reinforced need to destroy what stood before him.  Star Shield looked on at the creature as it raised his head and readied fire, he didn't do anything to move.  Glowing energy lit in Star Shield's eyes as the creature's fire consumed his entire body.  Shadow Song couldn't believe what she saw just happen.  Many ponies that were looking at Star Shield now had a cold fear coursing through their body.

Something called out from the fire.  "This is the end for you creature!  Burn!"  A magical pulse expanded from where Star Shield had stood, the creature jumped in the air to dodge the magic.  As the fire and smoke cleared it revealed a large black alicorn, his mane, tail, and eyes were as black as night.  Rage filled the alicorn as he drew the crossbow that sat on the ground, rage for the ponies fallen and to the creature who had slain them.  The crossbow's energy charged immediately, it increased beyond it's capacity, so much so that fire began to leap out of the front.  Before the shot was fired a dark, booming voice came from the alicorn.  "Goodbye demon!"

They could see a flash of light that would blind any normal pony and then an explosion that could easily be that of an atomic weapon come from the beachhead.  A large beam of energy leaped into the sky and broke through the cloud barrier and into the atmosphere, it consumed the creature immediately, and after it subsided there wasn't anything left.  The sand had changed to black around the alicorn, he turned and looked directly to the ponies in the forest, some were still riveted with fear, afraid that something would happen to them.  The alicorn nodded to the ponies, in a flash of light the black alicorn disappeared, revealing a now passed out Star Shield.

One of the medical crews ran to where Star Shield lay and checked his pulse, it was faint.  Shadow Song and the rest of the battalion walked out onto the beach and looked at the destruction.  They gazed in horror of what that being had been able to do, the landing crafts were nothing but molten metal, the sand around where it had stood had turned black, almost as if the life force was sucked out of it.

The physician stood up and turned to the ponies.  "He is alright, but unconscious."  A sigh came from the ponies who could hear.  Shadow Song, Moonfire and Nightwing walked up to where the medics were working.  They couldn't believe what this lone pegasus had done.

A horn sounded over the horizon as they could see the Second Fleet came into view.  Many of the ponies who were on the beachhead were sitting or squatting down on the ground weeping, many of their brothers and sisters had fallen on this day.  Out of the battalion that had led Operation Thunderstorm, two thousand out of the three thousand survived.  Unicorns had been able to stall against the creature using their magic barrier, it helped get some of the others to safety.

Star Shield was moved to the medical bay as the Second Fleet made port in a cove a few miles away from the beachhead that they had assaulted.  Many injured ponies poured into the Genesis and Safe Haven, the two hospital ships that were with the second fleet, the medical staff had taken care of most of the ponies, even more deaths came from after the battle, only ten to twelve had died from battle wounds that were too great to heal, but the rest were from the burns that they had sustained from the dragon.  Out of the two thousand, about nineteen hundred lived on.

Luna had gone to the Genesis where Star Shield was being taken care of, she had read the report from Captain Shadow Song and looked at the unconscious pegasus with wonder.  How had he been possessed by him, he hadn't been seen since long ago.  Tears fell down as she looked at him, the doctors told her that they wouldn't know when he would wake up.  He was stable though and they asked if Princess Luna would want Star Shield on board the Celestia with her.  She agreed and had him moved to the his quarters, all the doctors said that he needed was rest and plenty of it.

As night overtook the Second Fleet, the battleships Manticore and Dreadnaught were positioned outside the cove to protect the other ships from any attacks.  Star Shield had been moved safely to his room and was sleeping contently.  She smiled at his peaceful form.  Wake up soon Star Shield, thank you for your bravery.  She left his room and walked down to the Captain's quarters, she got into her bed and let her the night take her away.