CANTERLOT, 5 YEARS AGO

The building was smoking and in ruins, but it made the perfect cover. 6 people, all in Black power armour, were hiding behind the walls. One of them pressed a pressure pad on the side of their neck, and their black helmet retracted into their neck brace. The woman didn’t bother flicking out her brown hair, seeing as she would be re-activating her helmet soon.

“Sweet creator I can breathe again” Gem sighed. She quickly did a scan of the area, and her weapons. The Devastator class spell rifle she held was showing half charge.

“Hey C, can you recharge this for me?” she threw the rifle to a smaller person, who didn’t press the pad on their neck.

“Sure, gimme a sec” a very young male voice said. He cracked his shoulders and took hold of the rifle. His hands began to glow grey and the rifles’ charge began to increase. The other 3 had passed their rifles to another small person, who sighed.

“C’mon F, you make the best explosive rounds” one of the men said.

“Fine, but you better not go ham with them again. It was a nightmare to clean up last time” A young girls’ voice came from the helmet. Her hands glowed red and the charge in the rifle began to increase as well. Gem had set up a Holo-Recorder. She tapped the top, and a map of the castle in front of them came up, along with a report on current events inside.

“Alright, everyone fall in” she called, everyone quickly gathered around the recorder.

“It seems that the Changeling Queen has broken into the throne room. The three princesses seem to be in immediate danger, so we need to hoof it and get in there. You three will provide back up once we get to the throne room. No-one gets close to the throne room” She pointed at the three people next to F. They nodded.

“C will charge in and do what he does, while F and I will provide covering fire to keep any grunts in the throne room off his ass. We all clear?” she shut down the Holo-Recorder. Everyone nodded. She pressed the pad on her neck brace, and the helmet enclosed her head.

“C, wipe your visor, we need all the accuracy you’ve got” she patted his shoulder. He wiped his hand over the V shaped visor over his eyes. The layered, mana-infused plate metal glinted around the black infused glass.

“Alright, let’s do this!” Gem held out her fist. Everyone put their fists in.

“Let’s go!” Everyone yelled. They moved as a cohesive unit into the compound.
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20 minutes later, the group of 6 were outside the throne room. The three men stood at the ready, prepared to defend everyone. C threw his rifle over to F who dropped the mana charge pack out of the gun, and grabbed another one from the container on her thigh. She jammed it in, and she got a confirmation bell. C pulled a knife out of the sheathe on his back.

“We’ve got one chance. Let’s do what we do, and kill those who say it’s impossible” Gem nodded C and F nodded as well, the three men had all restocked their rifles, and were ready to defend.
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“It’s simple, Celestia. You give us Equestria, and we kill you and your sister quickly” the Changeling Queen laughed, as she lifted Celestias’ chin. She was restrained to her throne, next to Luna. Cadence was unconscious on the floor next to the both of them. Celestia simply shook her head.

“Very well… this is going to be fun” the Changeling Queen smirked. A changeling pulled a pair of pliers out of a bag, and gave it to her. Before anything could start, the door was blown off its hinges. The Queen turned around to see three people in black power armour charge in. Two stayed back and began firing their spell rifles into the surrounding changelings, causing them to drop like flies.

“FUCK! THE JACKHAMMERS ARE HERE!” a Changeling yelled, just before getting hit with an explosive round. The Queen was about to fire a spell at the two Jackhammers killing off her men, but she quickly realised that the third one was missing.
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As soon as F blew the door, C rocketed forward, using his Sonic Step ability to add extra speed. Before the Queen had realised it, C was already in front of her. He slashed up with the knife, leaving a neat cut right across her eye. Green blood sprayed out and she screamed in pain. C wasn’t affected, as he continued his assault. He moved at a blinding speed, his knife accurate and deadly. Even with her eye incapacitated, the Queen was still able to dodge 20% of his strikes. The strikes that landed were beginning to take their toll on her. Even though they were small, they were strategically placed to slow her down and limit her movement.

“C!” F yelled. She had pulled her knife out of her sheathe and thrown it to him. He spun quickly to catch the knife. The Queen saw an opportunity. A blade appeared in a flash of green magic in her hand, and as C spun to continue his assault, the Queen rammed her blade through his stomach. It penetrated his armour, and the blade exited though his back. He gasped in pain, but he didn’t stop. He pulled himself down to the hilt, and used the Queen herself as leverage to get himself to just above her eye level. He lifted the knives above his head, and as he came down brought both blades down into her shoulders. They penetrated her shoulder plates, causing her to scream. Without missing a beat, C grabbed the neck of her chestplate and rammed his helmeted head into hers as hard as he could. A loud crunch echoed through the throne room and green stained black glass tinkled onto the ground. As C brought his head back, the Queen had green blood staining the entire lower half of her face. C let go of her with his right hand and reels it back. It glowed grey as he poured as much mana into it as he could. He brought his fist into her face and forced all the mana he had charged out. She flew back into a pillar, which cracked and fell around her. A heavily armour changeling smashed through a window behind the thrones, and flew over to the pile of rubble. It pulled the Queen out.

“We’re pulling out, everyone back home!” she shouted, as she flew through the window behind her. Any surviving changelings had begun to evacuate the city. C pulled the blade out from his stomach and threw it to the ground. He sighed. F walked up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder.

“Awesome” she said. He laughed. He walked over to the princess’ that were restrained. He took a shard of glass from the ground, and slashed the ropes holding them to the throne.

“F, take care of the collapsed one” C said, pointing at Princess Cadence. F nodded and walked over to her. C scanned the room. Gem was debriefing the three men who defended the room. After a few minutes, Cadence had recovered enough to sit upright. F was assisting her in drinking and energy restoring drink, and the other two Princesses were seated on their thrones. Luna was still shivering. Everyone else was standing in front of them.

“We… don’t really know what to say other than thank you. You’ve not only saved our lives, but the lived of many, many of our subjects. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and all of Equestria thanks you” Princess Celestia bowed her head. The three guys were all whispering to each other excitedly. C was the first to speak.
“We don’t do what we do for thanks. What we do is for ourselves” he said. Princess Celestia raised her head and looked at the boy, who had just doubled over and started coughing. F stood up and wrapped her arms around him. The both of them glowed green for a few seconds, before she let go. He straightened himself, and Celestia looked at his shattered visor. She stared into his eyes. His grey eyes with red talon swirls.

“Whether or not you do it for thanks, you are deserving of it and much more” she said smiling. C turned around and started to leave. F followed him.

“If you want to thank someone, thank her. She’s the one who taught us to protect what was dear to us” He called back, pointing at Gem, who hit the pad on the side of her neck causing her helmet to retract.

“And what is your name?” Celestia asked Gem, still watching C and F leave.

“My name is Gem, your majesty” she said, flicking out her brown hair.

Author's Note

Don't you just love Birthday updates?