Charon

Monarch

If Strahlen had to use one word to describe the inside of the facility, that word would be ‘big’. He and his fellow ‘recruits’ were herded single file through a standard boring foyer, complete with standard attractive secretary, who didn’t seem to appreciate the looks she was being given. From there, it was straight to the main lobby. That was where the spaceship was.

“Woah.” A multitude of other voices seconded that opinion as they first laid eyes on what was visible of the ship that would one day take them offworld. Strahlen tilted his head sideways to read the word written vertically along the metallic body of the ship.

‘A-S-C-E-N-S-I-O-N’

The room was massive, and had a completely different style of architecture from the foyer. A confused glance back at the entrance provided Strahlen the answers he seeked, as the remaining recruits entered, adding their own exclamations to the steadily growing din of voices. Just as the last of the six stepped through the door, he saw a ring of runes on the ground on the other side, which was now a small room the size of a broom closet.

He nudged his pegasus companion. “Hey Red,” he whispered, nodding to the doors, “we just went through a seamless teleport pad jump. Do you think the princess knows what she’s getting us all into?”

‘Red’ eyed the doors for a moment before looking back at the ship. “Yup. I’m sure she deals with crazier horseapples on a regular basis.”

Strahlen didn’t respond as he found himself worrying over what Princess Sparkle had said about ‘starting a fight’...

Her Royal Highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle was not a happy mare. Mostly because the guards at the castle seemed to have forgotten the ‘Her Royal Highness’ part. Though the majority of the city had grown both upwards and outwards, the castle remained in its own little walled off paradise, free of pollution and surrounded by flora of all kinds. The warded walls surrounding the ancient building were obscured by tall bushes on both sides, with trees and colorful flowers interspersed between.

The walls — combined with a small army’s worth of air defenses — made the castle one of the most secure locations in the world, the only weak spot being a heavily guarded golden gate at the front entrance, an entrance no visitors had been allowed through for a number of years. Apparently, Princess Sparkle was counted as a visitor.

“This is ridiculous. As a Princess of Equestria, that castle is as much mine as it is Celestia’s!” Twilight finished with a stomp of her hoof, prompting a few of the golden clad unicorn guards to raise their firearms.

“Princess Celestia,” one of them corrected her.

Twilight growled and field-stripped all of their rifles with a thought. “You are testing my patience. Either you allow me access to my castle, or I will be forced to take drastic measures.” Ignoring her, the guards drew their ceremonial swords with practiced ease and dropped to the ground, spasming. Twilight slowly brought a hoof to her face. “Did I give the signal? Because for some reason I don’t think I gave the signal.”

Two unicorns appeared with a shimmer of magic on either side of her. “Apologies, ma’am,” the one on the left said.

“We thought you might’ve been in danger,” the one on the right continued.

Returning her hoof to the pavement, Twilight just shook her head and casually walked through the gate, the gold coated steel melting around her. Her two personal guards shot each other a worried glance, following shortly thereafter, carefully avoiding the molten metal. The two uniformly black unicorns quickly caught up to their princess, who was continuing at her moderate pace and innocently admiring the flowers as more castle guards rushed her with yet more automatic rifles.

Upon seeing the two black unicorns, they quickly reconsidered their priorities. “Librarians!” The ‘librarians’ rolled their eyes at the increasingly popular slang term before giving each other a synchronized nod and grinning as they continued to run. The royal guards opened fire, and the librarians began teleport forward in an erratic pattern, throwing off their aim. The staccato of gunfire was occasionally interrupted by a loud ping as a hastily raised shield would deflect a round. Flashes of purple filled the field beside the road as they methodically made their way closer, eventually joined by hues of blue as stun spells were fired with extreme precision. The number of conscious royal guards slowly dropped until the remainder began to panic. Now holding the advantage, the librarians closed in.

While the traditional gold armor of the Royal Guard looked nice, it just didn’t provide the same maneuverability as a kevlar vest. These guards quickly found this out the hard way. The Royal Guard was one of the most prestigious and well trained branches of Equestria’s military, but that didn’t help very much when they had a hundred or so pounds of armor weighing them down.

The librarians converted their stun spells into close range weapons by trapping them in sustained mana fields. The ‘stun batons’ left trails of blue afterimages, which the librarians exploited to blind their opponents before closing in and knocking them out with well placed strikes to the gaps in their armor. The rather one-sided fight came to a close as the last royal guard tripped all on his own, landing directly in front of the two librarians. The one on the right dismantled the guard’s rifle just as their princess had done before, then turned to leave.

A loud band and a ping sounded behind the two stallions, prompting them both to flinch and spin around, once again dropping into a battle stance. They found a purple shield between them and the guard they’d left conscious, who was pointing a small sidearm in their direction with his magic, a fading trail of smoke drifting up from the pistol’s muzzle. The two librarians looked to their princess, who had literally stopped to smell the flowers. She picked a daisy, then trotted over to the three stallions. The guard dropped his pistol as Twilight approached them and dispelled her shield, his magic failing as a result of his absolute terror.

Twilight lightly batted the top of the guard’s helmet like he was a misbehaving dog. “Bad.” She then placed the daisy in the space where his left ear met his helmet and trotted back to the path. The librarian on the right followed her. The one on the left began to do the same, before pausing mid-step as a thought came to him.

Princess Twilight Sparkle walked calmly along the road leading to the castle entrance, her two personal guards following slightly behind and on either side of her. The one on the right gave the one on the left a questioning glance. The one on the left merely shrugged in response and adjusted the daisy sitting neatly in his mane.