Two pegasus and a unicorn stood in an orderly form in front of a large desk. The desk was covered in a variety of papers, ranging from accident reports to filled out recruitment surveys.
Behind the desk sat a white unicorn stallion. Shining Armor was searching through the chaotic mess of papers for a certain form. It was important that he get the leader of this group to sign this as part of a new rule for squads that Princess Celestia had come up with. Squads used to be able to consist of a minimum of two ponies to a maximum of six. Now, however, the minimum was four and the maximum was seven.
“Ah!” Shining smiled as he pulled out a small packet. “Here you go Tempest Blast, the form to get you a new member.”
“Sir, with all do respect, do I have to take this one?” Tempest asked, thinking back to the file that he had read. The pony that would be joining them was more like a class clown than a fighter.
“Yes, I feel that he would be good for you.” Shining chuckled back.
Tempest took the quill in his mouth with a quiet grunt and signed the papers. As he signed his name for the last time, Shining Armor pulled the quill and packet back to him and he looked over it.
The pony that he was assigning them was a good warrior and had a personality that Shining felt the team needed. They all had a close bond with each other, and anypony who wasn’t already part of their group would have trouble fitting in. If anypony could get along with them though, it was Rogue Wind. That pony had excelled through training and had a personality that made Pinkie Pie look calm at times.
“Everything seems to be in order. Rogue Wind should meet with you in the mess hall at lunch time. Until then, I’d advise that you prepare yourselves.”
Tempest saluted before turning away and leading the two mares in his squad out of the office. The unicorn was his younger sister, Raid. She was lively, but sensitive. Anytime that there was a fight, she sided with her brother who she valued more than anything in the world. The other pegasus was named Twister and was Raid’s fillyhood friend. She was like another sister to Tempest. Not quite as lively as Raid, but she had the kindest heart of any mare he’d ever met.
“Hey, Tempest?” Raid asked as they moved toward where they bunked. “What’s the new pony supposed to be like?”
“All I was shown were some statistics and every report on him for his disorderly behavior. He’s a good fighter, fast flier, and good hearted, but he’s arrogant and disruptive.”
“So we’re getting another pegasus?” Twister asked, perking up. She always tried to bug Raid about being the only pony in the squad not to have wings.
“That’d be my guess.” Tempest stated.
“Great, more wings.” Raid laughed, “Would it kill that captain to give us another unicorn?”
“Maybe. How long until we meet this new teammate?” Twister asked, still not even knowing the gender of the pony.
“We have about an hour ‘til lunch. What are you two up for doing to pass the time?” Tempest asked.
They stood there in silence for a few minutes, mentally debating what they could do. Sometimes an hour was forever, and sometimes it felt like only a few seconds. Raid was the first to speak up.
“Well, since we’re getting a new pony, why don’t we rest up? Odds are that the captain will send us out on some mission with him tonight, so we might as well have our energy.” she suggested.
“I guess that will work. We should give this recruit an idea of the elite team that he’ll be joining.” Tempest confirmed with a nod.
They each moved to their bunks to lie down for the hour. Conversations of what the mission could be helped them pass the time. Raid was really hoping for something of protection duty. It was her favorite job. Twister was a bigger fan of guarding events; she loved getting to watch something entertaining while working. Tempest really didn’t care what the mission was, as long as the new pony followed his orders the moment that he gave them.
The hour flew by and the trio of ponies trotted toward the mess hall. It was as busy as ever as they made their way through the line. Each guard taking a vegetable of their choice and a drink. They moved toward their assigned table and they saw that a pony was already sitting there. This pony had a tray that had a large red apple and an opened can of soda that was called Honey Dew. The surprising fact about the pony was that he was not in fact a pegasus as the trio had first assumed, he was a bat pony.
“Excuse me,” Tempest began as he sat at the table. “Are you Rogue Wind?
“Yes sir.” the bat pony smiled back, but Tempest didn’t notice the smile as his eyes hadn’t left the slit pupils of the bat pony’s copper eyes.
“Aren’t bat ponies supposed to be nocturnal?” Tempest looked at the pony suspiciously. He wasn’t sure if this was a changeling trying to infiltrate the guard for some nefarious plot.
“Most are, but I have goggles for when I go outside. They protect my eyes from Her sun and make it possible for me to be out in the day. Night is still nicer, but I choose to stay up during the day.” the pony explained, speaking in a very causal manner as he directed Tempest’s attention to the goggles hanging around his neck.
“What’s it like being a bat pony?” Raid rushed over to the stallion. “Where’d you grow up? What’s your family like?”
Rogue laughed. “I’d assume that it’s like being a pegasus, but with bat wings. I grew up outside the Badlands. My family was a bunch of stuck up snobs.”
“You must have had it pretty rough then.” Twister commented. “The Badlands are supposedly filled with changelings.”
Tempest waited for a second, wanting to see how Rogue would react when changelings were brought up. If he was a changeling, he would probably say or do something suspicious.
“Meh, changelings aren’t that scary. They mostly stick to their hives and only really bug ponies that go out too far.” Rogue shrugged it off.
“Do you have any questions for us?” Tempest asked as he took a bite of the carrot he’d picked up.
“Yeah, I’d like to know when I get to go on my first mission. All I’ve done so far is training and man, does that get boring.” Rogue clicked his tongue.
“After the meal.” Tempest answered. “I was expecting something about the team.”
“What’s there to ask? I’ll find out pretty much anything that I need to when we do our missions.”
“All right then.” Tempest sighed. “When you are done, we are going to report to the board and check for a mission posting.”
The ponies took this as a chance to get to know the newest member of their group. Tempest noted that Raid seemed to take a particular interest in him, trying to understand differences between bat ponies and normal, day-time, ponies. Tempest was admittedly surprised to find out all of the similarities to a species of pony that rarely came by Equestria.
Tempest took the lead, as he always did, and took the ponies to the mission board. On it was note with his name scribbled on the top. He pulled it down and gave it a quick look over.
“Looks like we’re going to be hunting down a fugitive today.” Tempest stated in a carefree tone. “Some idiot earth pony tried to snap a unicorn’s horn off after an argument. He’s considered highly dangerous.”
“That’s awful…” Rogue stated as he leaned over his commander’s shoulder to see the note. “He must be jealous that the other pony could magic things and he couldn’t. Magic is a verb now.” He added after catching what he’d said.
“He was last seen entering a cave on the mountain side.” Tempest continued, acting like Rogue hadn’t spoken.
“Well, we’d better get moving. I’ll cast a scrying spell, see if I can narrow the search.” Raid suggested.
“I’ll do a fly by; see if anything looks out of place.” Twister added with a nod before she launched into the sky.
“What do you want me to do?” Rogue asked.
“Stick with me, see how we do things on my team.” Tempest spread his wings and started upward.
Rogue quickly followed suit, flying after the pegasus. Tempest couldn’t help but notice how the moment that they started flying, Rogue became very alert and stopped his constant chatter.
“Maybe there’s hope for you yet.” the stallion said under his breath, making sure that the bat pony couldn’t hear.
Only minutes later, there was a flare sent off from a unicorn’s horn just outside the city walls of Canterlot. Tempest flew there as fast as he could, recognizing the magic to be that of his sister. When they got there, they could see a dim pink light glowing from inside a cavern.
“I can’t see anything…” Tempest grumbled as he trotted through the darkness. “Rookie, you’ve got good night vision right? Go up ahead and check it out.”
“Thanks.” Rogue smirked as he galloped up ahead.
There wasn’t much to see, the light from Raid’s horn had gone away and even with the bat pony’s exceptional night vision, it was dark. Really dark. But he heard something up ahead, voices. Two of them, one belonging to an unfamiliar stallion and the other to Raid. He rushed forward, hoping that he wouldn’t be too late. He could hear the stallion curse before Raid grunted painfully.
Without thinking, Rogue spread his wings and flew at the earth pony, tackling him to the ground. They struggled for a few seconds before Rogue was able to slam the pony’s head into a rock, rendering him unconscious.
“Are you all right Raid?” Rogue half shouted as he ran to the pony’s side.
“I’m fine; you made it just in time.” Raid smiled back.
“Why didn’t you just blast him with your magic?” Rogue asked, worried as he noticed a large cut on the mare’s neck.
“He snuck up behind me and caught me by surprise…” she clearly felt ashamed of what had happened. “I wasn’t thinking straight…”
“It’s all right, come on, let’s get this jerk outa here and get you some medical attention. You look like you need…” Rogue paused when he felt her hooves wrap around him. “it…”
“Thanks for saving me.”
“Raid!” Tempest shouted as he galloped deeper into the cave after hearing something get slammed into the rocks.
“I’m fine thanks to Rogue.” she smiled softly.
“I didn’t do that much, but we definitely need to get her to a doctor.”
“I’ll take her, you carry out that pony before I do something that he’ll regret.” Tempest glared at the unconscious earth pony.
“Don’t you mean you’ll regret?” Rogue asked.
“No.”
As the ponies reached the exit, they saw that Twister was waiting there with another two pegasus guards. The two guards took away the criminal and left the group behind. Tempest and Rogue carried Raid back to Canterlot on their backs as she slipped in and out of consciousness. In the light, the scar looked much worse than it had in the dark, and if either of the stallion’s had known the extent of Raid’s injury, they would have taken her back sooner. Twister went ahead and got a doctor ready to meet them upon arrival.
Three hours passed as the ponies wait on any word as to Raid’s recovery, and they were relieved when the mare stepped into the hospital lobby herself. She had some bandages covering the back of her neck, but she seemed well enough.
“Hey guys.” she laughed quietly. “Sorry for worrying you.”
“Do you need anything? Anything at all?” Tempest asked, rushing to her side.
“If you don’t mind, could you run by Joe’s and pick me up a donut? I’m craving one really badly.”
“Of course, the usual?” Tempest smiled with relief.
“Yeah, that’d be great.”
“I’ll go with you Temp. Rogue, make sure that she gets to the bunks all right, ‘kay?” Twister added.
Rogue could only nod before the two ponies were off to someplace called Joe’s. He and Raid started toward the Guard’s bunks as the sun started to set on the horizon.
“Don’t tell my brother about the hug thing, okay?” Raid stopped and turned to face Rogue at about the half-way point.
“Wasn’t planning on it.” Rogue smiled back.
“Do you want to watch the sunset; I know a really good spot.” Raid smiled at the stallion, pulling him over to her side.
“Um, I’m pretty sure that Tempest will kill me if I don’t get you back to the room soon.” Rogue laughed cautiously.
“It’s at the top of the tower that we stay in. Technically we won’t be disobeying him.” she smiled slyly.
“I… I guess…” Rogue couldn’t believe it; the mare was making a move on him. He didn’t have time to process it before she started dragging him the rest of the way.
Once they reached Raid’s ideal point to watch the sunset, the pair sat there calmly, gazing off into the distance. Rogue wasn’t terribly into sunsets, even if most day-time ponies thought that they were romantic. He dealt with it though, for Raid. Something about her just made him feel more at peace, happier.
They made sure to get back down to their floor before Tempest had time to get back, only by a few minutes though. Rogue smiled as he watched Raid squeal when her “usual” was brought in. Apparently it was a thing called Mini-Donutopia, a title that the massive cityscape of donuts was well deserving of.
Nearly a year passed and the group grew closer together with each new mission, even Tempest was warming up to Rogue. He wasn’t aware of the relationship between his sister and the bat pony, but it was by the will of Raid. Something that nopony wanted to cross for fear of hurting her feelings. When she cried, it was enough to make the ponies around her fall to tears as well.
“Rogue!” Raid shouted happily.
“What’s up?” he laughed as he made a strange face at her.
“We’ve got a mission today! It’s gonna be so much fun. My brother said that we’re going to be split off into pairs.” Raid explained.
“Are we together?” Rogue popped a little smile.
“Not today, but we might be able to spend some time together still. I have a plan.” Raid smiled widely.
“Who am I with then? Tempest or Twister? And what’s the mission even supposed to be?” Rogue shook his head with a laugh at Raid’s excitement.
“Twister.” Raid sighed back. “Just a simple guarding mission, making sure that nothing goes wrong at a little ceremony.”
“What kind of ceremony?” Rogue asked, taking note of the dreamlike expression on Raid’s face.
“How do you not know?” she laughed at him. “You dunce!”
“What? I spend most of my time sleeping; I can’t keep track of everything.”
“Shining Armor is getting married! It’s so romantic.” Raid looked into the sky, day dreaming again.
“Married? I didn’t even know that he had a marefriend.”
“Princess Mi Amoré Cadenza.”
“That pink alicorn that’s been hanging around the guard stations a lot lately?” Rogue questioned.
Raid sighed and shook her head in disbelief before laughing again. “You’re going to be outside on the balcony, waiting for them to be officially married and then you get to open it up so that all of the ponies on the ground can look up and see them. I’ll be waiting at the entrance to the throne room, admitting the ponies that have invites.”
“Sounds nice.” Rogue pushed on Raid’s nose a little, making her laugh even more.
“With all of the guards on alert like this, it would be stupid for anypony to commit a crime today, so it will be perfect. And afterwards, maybe we can go out on a date.”
Rogue planted a kiss on the mare’s lips before speaking. “Sounds like a plan.”
“I’ll see you soon.” Raid turned around and started toward where she and Tempest would be meeting up. It was the day that she was planning on telling her brother about her and Rogue, after the wedding of course.
Rogue trotted happily over to the gardens where Twister was known to spend her free time before missions. He saw the pegasus lying down on a bench as he walked over.
“Rogue.” Twister acknowledged the bat pony. “Are you ready?”
“You knew about it too? Nopony ever tells me anything…” Rogue joked.
“Your marefriend told you about it, didn’t she?” Twister smirked at him.
“Uh… Marefriend? I don’t-” Rogue started.
“Don’t lie to me.” she smiled. “Two weeks ago I saw you kiss Raid. You can’t keep a secret like this from me.”
“She’s going to tell Tempest about us after the wedding today. Please, don’t mention it to him until she tells him. I don’t know why she is so intent on keeping the secret, but it seems really important to her.”
“Promise, but tonight I wanna hear all about it.” Twister bargained.
“Fine…”
“Let’s go to our post.” Twister suggested.
“It’s a bit early isn’t it?”
“Yeah, but better safe than sorry. I just want to make sure that everything goes perfect. for them.”
Rogue nodded and the ponies flew up to the outside of the balcony. They looked over the edge as a crowd of ponies was already starting to form. There wasn’t much to do other than keep an eye out for anything suspicious. The hours passed fairly quickly as the ponies switched from looking for anything that shouldn’t be there, to playing a game of I Spy.
“I spy something green.” Twister laughed, trying not to stomp her hooves.
“Is it the earth pony in the window?” Rogue asked.
“How do you always get it on you first guess?”
“You never look away from what you’re talking about. It’s really easy to beat you at this.” Rogue smirked.
“Jerk… Oh, the wedding is starting.” Twister half shouted.
The ponies watched as Princess Mi Amoré Cadenza walked down the aisle and met with Shining Armor at the other end. As Princess Celestia read off the vows, the doors that led into the throne room were flung open. A second pink alicorn and a purple unicorn charged in. The Cadenza on the alter stared at these newcomers as a green fire flared around her and her form changed.
“What?” Twister shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Chrysalis…” Rogue muttered, his eyes gazing upon a face that he never wanted to see again.
“Rogue! Look out! Changelings!” Twister shouted in three short bursts.
Rogue spun around, narrowly dodging a shiny black hoof. He retaliated by smacking the changeling across the face with his back right hoof, knocking him into the railing.
“What’s going on here?” he shouted.
Before the changeling could even answer, Rogue turned around again. This time to face a scream of agony. He saw Twister on the ground, three changelings standing over top of her, feeding off of her emotions.
“Get off of her!” Rogue tackled them all at once before getting hit from behind.
Everything went dark as Rogue saw the changelings redirect their attention to the innocent ponies down below. He wanted so badly to help them, but he couldn’t even raise his own hooves.
“Rogue!” Wake up!” an angry sounding stallion shouted.
“Changelings…” Rogue gasped out.
“What happened to Twister?” the stallion growled, shaking Rogue violently.
“She was attacked… I was too slow…” Rogue panted out, his head throbbing.
As his eyesight returned to him, the bat pony recognized the stallion who was shaking him. It was none other than Tempest. Rogue started to worry about Raid and Twister. With the changeling attack going on, there wasn’t going to be any place that was safe from them.
“Is Raid… all right?” Rogue asked weakly.
“She’s recovering, same with Twister. She was unconscious and barely breathing. I demand to know why you didn’t protect her! Why you don’t have a single bucking scratch on you!”
“She warned me about one and I managed to fight it off…”
“And then you let them come within inches of killing her!”
Rogue had never seen so much hate in a pony’s eyes. He was honestly scared for his own life. Tempest was known to have a temper, hospitalizing several ponies who had wronged him or the two mares that he cared most for.
“I tried… to…” Rogue passed out a second time, his body not well enough rested to keep him awake for long.
“Raid… How are you feeling, Sis?” Tempest asked as he sat by the mare’s bedside.
“I’m… I’m tired.” she whispered. “How’re Rogue and… Twister?”
“Twister is hurt pretty bad, she’s on a respirator right now, but she should make it. It’s Rogue’s fault though, he didn’t protect her; he broke the promise that he made me to protect you two.” Tempest glared across the room at the bed ridden bat pony.
The attack had ended a couple of hours earlier and the real wedding had just recently concluded. None of the squad had the privilege to see the happy couple get married. The only pony who didn't suffer many injuries was Tempest, who had managed to take his sister out of there after saving a group of six ponies who were trying to escape from the changeling queen.
“But Rogue…” Raid started.
“I’m going to put in a request that he gets removed from the team. Twister told me that he called the changeling queen by a name. He called her Chrysalis.” Tempest interrupted her.
“That doesn’t mean… anything…” Raid tried to argue.
“Horseapples it doesn’t mean anything! It means that that bat pony knew her, that he was keeping secrets! He could have been in line with them the whole time! He could have warned us that there was going to be an attack!”
Raid rolled her head over, trying to grasp what her brother had said. He always had this ability to make her take his side. She rolled her head over to cry before she broke it off with her coltfriend. Her brother hating him so much made her accept what he said as truth, no matter how much she didn’t want to believe it.
Rogue walked down the streets of Canterlot, having been kicked out of the hospital by Tempest. The stallion told him about his plans to get rid of Rogue, to get him in a different team. The bat pony feared that he wouldn’t be able to see Raid anymore, all because he slipped up and said that stupid changeling’s name.
“I hate her. After what she did to my parents, my village… why didn’t she just kill me when she had the chance?” he muttered to himself.
The ponies that were passing him gave him weird looks. A bat pony out during the day was strange; a bat pony who looked like he had been a doll for practicing surgery on walking the streets was even stranger. Rogue was both of these things.
He’d gone out to get a bite to eat after being chewed out a second time by Tempest. One thing that his commander couldn’t get mad at him for was going to the bunks. Rogue’s plan was to sleep until he was reassigned, unable to bear his failure to protect Twister and his possible inability to see Raid again.
Rogue was awakened by the door to the squad’s bunks opening. Tempest was the first to walk in, followed shortly by Raid, and then Twister. Raid glanced at Rogue; tears welled up in her eyes.
“Shining Armor didn’t approve your transfer due to a shortage of available replacements. I will continue to place a request every week until you are off of my team.” Tempest stated plainly, leaving no room for debate.
“Yes sir…” Rogue nodded quietly. His eyes then drifted over to Raid, and the tears that soaked her face. He could feel himself start crying, feeling her sadness.
“I can’t be with you anymore… I’m sorry…” Raid whispered to the bat pony as she passed his bed.
Rogue didn’t know how to respond, he could only roll back over and bury his face into his pillow. He silently sobbed until he fell back to sleep. While he slept his mind drifted to various things. One of which was his usual coping mechanism, laughter. Whenever he was serious, he always thought back to the traumas of his life, but when he made life into a joke, it became a little more survivable.
He couldn’t let one thing stop him from helping ponies that needed it; he couldn’t give up being a Guard. Every time that a thought like that entered his mind he would think back to how if there was just a guard there, his parents might not have been taken by the changelings. His parents, as he’d said before, were far from the list of greats, but they were still his family.
He would continue to live to protect those who could not protect themselves, and to protect those that meant more to him than anypony else in the world. No matter the obstacle that got in his way, he would continue to fight. He would probably be alone, but he would be alone close to Raid, and that’s all that mattered to him.
Author's Note
Typed it up in about one day. Please, if there are any screw ups in this thing, let me know.