The Covenant: Equins Ascension

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter I: The Beginning part I
Chapter I: The Beginning part II

Prologue

January 26, 2442 – Canterlot Castle, Canterlot, Equestria

900 years in the time of nightmare moon’s exile, a covenant armada was making its way towards the planet formally known as ‘Equins’ to them but known as Equestria to the inhabitants, talking ponies that is. As the ship was making its way to the planet the leader of said place was doing her royal work before she received the message from her astronomers.

The blue coated mare spoke with her soft voice to the princess saying “Your Highness, we have sightings of unknown vessels in the space around the planet,” Celestia was quite surprised by this announcement, “You don’t mean aliens, do you?” the blue mare nodded and softly added “We are afraid that we might not be armed well enough to defend ourselves.”

Celestia was quite worried about her kingdom and hoped these aliens were willing to discuss diplomacy. After a Phantom landed outside the doors of her castle and a Sangheili walked out of it to the guards asking for an audience with the one in charge.

The guards took the single sangheili to princess Celestia. Upon entering the throne room Celestia nervously spoke up to the Sangheili, “You wished to speak with me?” the sangheili nodded and spoke with a strong serious voice “Indeed, our leader wishes to invite you to our alliance and hope you would accept us as allies.” Celestia thought to herself ‘We may not be able to fight back and even if we could we might not win,’ she spoke up, “I accept you leader’s offer.”

After the sangheili left a bright orange guard walked up to Celestia and asked unsurely “Are you sure about this your highness? They didn’t seem that friendly.” Celestia closed her eyes and sighed, “What choice do we have? We can’t fight back.” The guard nodded in agreement and added “What will happen now…?” Celestia looked to him, “I don’t know…”

In the Covenant Assault Carrier orbiting the planet...

“Fleet master, I have returned with good news,” said the Sangheili from before, the Sangheili Fleet Master turned to reply, “Good news, you say?” The lesser Sangheili nodded then said, “The inhabitants of this planet have agreed to join our Covenant.” The Fleet Master smiled, “Good, Good. We shall start recruiting soon, start with the warriors.”

98 years later...

As the light of the sun stroke the soft fur of a young pegasus mare recruit that was resting in her bed in the barracks as a female pegasus shook her before saying with an over exited tone “Hey! Hey wake up come on we’re going to be late!” Shade opened her eyes and looked around seeing the pegasus next to her she groaned before getting up and hurrying to the training field.
One hour later, during training

Shade was doing her training as she saw a red figure in the background sneaking around. Curiosity struck her, “Hey, Surprise, you see that pegasus sneaking around over there?” However, by the time Surprise could look, the figure was already gone without a trace or even anything indicating it was there. “No, I didn’t see anything; you sure all this training isn’t just getting to you?” The two mares giggled but the sangheili in charge of them yelled at them to get back to training. Without another word, they continued their training until the sun was lowered and they were told to go back to the barracks and get some rest for the next day.

During the night there was some loud yelling at the SpecOps camp across from the one shade is in. ‘What the hell is going on?’ Shade thought to herself. The sounds went quiet after a door slamming shut loud enough for shade and surprise to hear it, “Hey Surprise, any idea what’s going on?” Shade whispered. A still awake recruit that was in the bed next to shade’s whispered, “I heard that one of the SpecOps recruits got caught sneaking around and he got in trouble.” She then giggled adding, “Now get some sleep before the captain hears us.”

Shade then went to sleep as well as surprise both of them with a smile on their face knowing the next day they could spend it together. Yet, they were too shy to tell each other how they felt.

Chapter I: The Beginning part I

June 7, 2540 – Ponyville, Equestria
It was a warm summer morning in Equestria; all was, as it always is, calm and peaceful and the ponies of Ponyville were slowly stirring awake as the sun inched higher into the sky. One such pony was Twilight Sparkle, as she lazily pulled herself out of bed and eased her way to her mirror she noticed her mane was a mess, ‘My mane looks awful,’ she thought to herself as she levitated her hair brush over to her and began to brush her mane. As she made her way down stairs she could have sworn she heard a strange noise that she’s never heard once before, ‘Hmm… it's probably nothing a lot of strange things happen here,’ She shrugged it off and continued her descent.

Two hours later…
“Hey Twilight I got a letter from the princess for you!” The baby dragon known as Spike called out, Twilight quickly ran down the stairs and grabbed the letter from spikes grasp with her magic, she instantly opened it and read it aloud:
‘My faithful student,
I require the appearance of you and your friends to Canterlot as soon as possible, I have an urgent matter of dire importance to discuss with you so please make haste.
Your faithful teacher,
Princess Celestia’

On board the Canterlot Express, “Um twilight, do you know what this is about because I’d like know?” Rainbow Dash asked sounding slightly annoyed, “I’m not sure but it seems important.” Twilight replied. Before long the train slowly came to a stop at the Canterlot station.

The walk to the royal place was rather uneventful other that the fact that there were very few ponies out, compared to how it usually is. When the mane six got to the place they were greeted by a tall Sangheili guard clad in white armor with several glowing plates attached to its armor, “Ah, you six must be the ponies we’ve be expecting,” he looked at them for a moment then plainly said, “Follow me.” The six ponies were all surprised, except for Fluttershy who was hiding behind Rainbow Dash, but they followed the regardless.

When they finally reached the room where Princess Celestia was located the six ponies quickly learned what was going on, the princess told them everything and then asked them a very simple question, “As I said, the Prophet of Truth here wishes for each of you to join the Covenant’s military as he has seen the performance each of you displayed after Nightmare Moon’s return a few months ago, so he is offering each of you high status if you accept. So, do each of you accept?” The six ponies looked at each other for a moment then nodded in agreement. Celestia smiled, “Excellent!” She chimed. “Indeed,” Truth reclined as he motioned to a pegasus mare clad in maroon armor who led the six ponies out of the room.

As Celestia and The Prophet of Truth continued their idle chat, they were completely oblivious to an uninvited guest. Outside, just out of sight sat a lone changeling, he was listening in on the conversation for almost an hour and he was slowly growing bored, “This is pointless, I’m getting nowhere with this.” He quietly hissed to himself trying not to attract any attention to himself as he made his way out of Canterlot.

June 8, 2540 – Covenant Citadel, Equestria
As the next day arose, so did the Elements of Harmony, awaiting the start of their new training. However, they were all quite surprised when they learned who was actually training them. Well, almost all.
“So, who do you think is gonna be training us?” Rainbow Dash asked nopony in particular. Before any of the others could say a word a pegasus clad in zealot armor suddenly appeared in front of them. “That would be me.” She said with a sly grin leaving the six ponies in awe. “So, are you all done staring?” she said with a slight laugh.

Rainbow Dash finally being the first to speak, “Hey, you’re that mare from yesterday… um… what’s your name?” she suddenly asked. The others looked at the maroon armored pegasus inquisitively, as well. “Ah yes, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Shade, zealot of the Covenant religious ministry.” She quickly said. “Oh... oh… does that mean you a super-duper zealous pony?!” Pinkie Pie suddenly asked getting odd looks from her friends.

“Um… I’m not going to answer that. Anyways, since you all are here there are two things I have to give you: One, a credit chit to well buy things. Two, a forearm mounted plasma blade; trust me you’ll need it.” She explained as she gave the six ponies the aforementioned items, “Oh… and don’t hurt your selves with these things.” She warned them, ‘After all you’re the main characters here…’ Beyond it all, Shade knew it was going to be a long couple of weeks…

Author's Note

This is pretty much the start of this story; I'll probably edit this later on

Chapter I: The Beginning part II

June 15, 2542 – Covenant Citadel, Equestria
Nearly one week after their training started the Mane-six had made great progress, or so they thought; Shade had found them harder to teach then she’d expected. Even Rainbow Dash had proven difficult to teach due to her arrogance and lack of self-control. However, as for Shade, she had gotten this far so she couldn't stop now.
As Shade walked down the halls of the Citadel she thought back to when she first joined the Covenant and how she used to be just like Twilight Sparkle and her friends.
~~~
Two years earlier
Shade has wanted to join the military since she was twelve of course now she’s here planning to join the Special Operations Division at the age of seventeen. She was really excited to be doing this, thou her parents would never have approved of it; she didn’t really care about that now.
Already a week through training and things didn't go quite as expected for Shade; she had already gotten into a fight with one of the other cadets and nearly got herself expelled from her class if hadn't been for another cadet, a mare by name of surprise, who stood up for her when nopony else would.
Five weeks in: Shade and Surprise had become great friends and they also make an ‘unstoppable team’ as said by one of the officers. Though this only the beginning, both Shade and Surprise knew they were going to accomplish great things someday…
~~~
Of course, as Shade was lost in past she didn't realize she had made it to the cafeteria, which was until she heard an unusually happy voice coming from none other than Pinkie Pie.
“Hey, hey Shade over here!” Pinkie said in an unusually happy and loud tone making Shade cringe slightly. Probably due to how early it was. “Oh you’re all here already. Good.” Shade said, slightly surprise. “Well ya did tell us all come here didn't ya?” Apple Jack said questioningly.
“Well yes, I did in fact. I need to discuss the training progress you’ve all made in the last week-” Shade said just as she was cut off by Pinkie Pie. “Oh… Oh… Oh… have we done good? Have we-” Pinkie blurted out until Rainbow Dash stuffed a hoof in her mouth. “Uh… Pinkie I think you should let her TALK!” Rainbow dash said, slightly annoyed.
“Yes. As I was saying all of you have made great progress but still have a long way to go. Remember, you’re only through the first week you've still got fifteen more to go.” As Shade said those last few words she noticed a few surprised looks from the Mane-six. “Don’t worry fifteen weeks will go by in no time!” Shade said reassuringly. However, she knew this was going to be a long four months.
June 28, 2542 – Covenant Training Camp, Everfree Forest, Equestria
Shade really regretted having to put the Mane-six the next part of their training but it has to be done. “Okay listen up,” Shade announced “this is one of the hardest parts of your training. All you have to do is survive three days in the Everfree Forest using only what I taught you all. Now I know this may sound dangerous and it is but I've taught you all how to survive and I’m confident you’ll all succeed.” Shade finished “Now, any questions?” The six of them all remained silent.
“No questions? Good.” Shade said rather flatly. “And one more thing; there’s an item I need the six of you to find while you’re out there: an ancient relic long lost to pony kind. Find this and it will be more than enough to suffice.” She added.
As if on cue the Mane-six went into the forest to start their training and hopefully find the lost artifact. “I hope they will come out alright.” Shade thought then went to a small bar to wait for their return as she was heading inside she stared to the sky and sighed.
“Three days… not that long….right?” Shade asked she herself but got an answer from behind her, “You can thrust them Shade they will be fine,” Added the mysterious intruder causing Shade to jump at the answer. “Don’t do that! You know I hate it!” she yelled at the pegasus sitting on the stool at the bar making him giggle quietly, “You sure were always cute when you sound angry and that hasn't changed now has it.” Shade blushed at the compliment and sat next to the intruder in question, a pegasus stallion with a red coat and orange and yellow mane/tail, looking at him. “So, Fire Bolt, why did you come here, anyway? I thought you were a mission.” Shade asked. “I just got back from it; I sure am fast, right?” Fire Bolt winked at her making her roll her eyes.
The two pegasi shared a drink chatting about the events they have been through in the past few weeks before Fire Bolt decided to speak up with a soft tone “I hope you don’t mind if I watch you train them for some time my next mission is in a month.” He chuckled a little before adding, “Maybe I could even say hi to them.” Shade chuckles a bit as well, “Well their training is almost done, and this is their atonement to the SpecOps.”
After a few more drinks the red colt helped the drunken pegasus mare up on all four with a chuckle as he jokingly said “Next time we do a drinking contest I’ll let you win.” Then he chuckled and opened his wings ready to fly up to the sky for his afternoon nap adding, “Don’t push the girls too hard Shade we don’t need vegetables in the units,” As he flew up into the sky. The drunk pegasus mare yelled up to the flying stallion, “Don’t ‘hic’ worry they’ll be ‘hic’ fine~.”
After making her way to the barrack and walking through its metal door shade tripped on a piece of armor landing on top of the unsuspecting flame mare both of them letting out a soft ‘yelp’ before hitting the ground and shade letting out a ‘hic’ as she said “Sorry Spits didn't see you there,” the mare in question turned to the drunken pegasus as a soft blush covered her face when she noticed who it was before saying “It’s alright chief everypony makes mistakes,” chuckling quietly before helping her commanding officer back to her hooves, then helped Shade to her bed. “Hey spits ‘hic’ I never noticed ‘hic’ how sexy you looked.”
Spitfire face soon got a red tint to it as blood rushed up to her cheeks from the sudden compliment she just received from, not just shade, but her officer, drunk of all things, before she said with a nervous tone, “S...Shade please you should get some rest now,” Spitfire quickly helped Shade onto her bed, “Yea ‘hic’ sleep…,” Shade quickly drifted off to sleep, completely unaware of the status of her six recruits.