The Other Sideby DJ BronifiedChaptersNew Beginnings A NewcomerNightmares of the EverfreeThe Old CastleThe Challenge Of The ArenaA New DayThe PlanNew Beginnings New Beginnings Chapter 1 “Hey get up, I see your awake.” I hear a voice say. I open my eyes and see a shadowy figure standing above me. “I saw you past out on the ground are you ok?” he asked. “yeaaaa” I answer in pain as my eyes focus on a orange Pegasi with a blue and black mane. “You've been out a while now I came across you knocked out, so I moved you into a building that hasn't been destroyed yet.” I sit up and feel a sharp pain from my hip. “whoa whoa hold it you had a pole fall on your hip I would take it easy.” I listen to him and sit up carefully. I noticed that I was placed on a rusted metal table. There were 2 more tables around so I assumed that we were in a restaurant. As I sat up I noticed that there was a bandage around my left foreleg. I tried to walk forward and am forced to a limp because of my hip. “do u remember what happen to you?” “huh?” I say completely forgetting he was standing there. “n-no. Well, I sort of do. Its all just a blur.” I lied. I remember I was running from something and a green light and boom. I'm out on the ground. “ well. We need to leave this place Changelings have been all over Ponyville for the past few days.” “o-ok.” I say not worrying about anything. All I wanted to do was leave this place. As we walked outside I was blinded by the moon covering the sun. an eclipse. and my nose was filled with the smell of ashes and fire. I looked around. Everything was destroyed. Everything. Some buildings were collapsed, some were either burned to hell or a large pile of scorched wood and metal. As we were leaving I looked at the sign on the building we were in. part was torn off so all I could read was “-garcube Corner” heh that's a funny name. I thought. We walked for about 10 minutes before the sick peacefulness of the destruction of Ponyville was interrupted by magic bolts being shot at us. there was 2 Changelings flying above us. As the Pegasi dived for cover I stood my ground. My mind went blank as my horn started to glow with blue energy. The energy turned into a ball and shot at the Changelings. I hit one! That one fell to the ground with a loud thump. I was so happy, but now wasn't the time to celebrate the other changeling was flying down at me. As it landed on the ground it jumped up and raised its hoof to punch me. I acted quickly. I used teleport magic to get behind it swept my forelegs underneath him or her, I didn't care. As it was in the air I hit it in the nose with my hoof sending it flying. It crashed into a apple stand, destroying the stands sign and snapping it in half. The Changeling lay sprawled out on the smashed stand. Not moving. I standing there panting, as my past started to come back to me. “what was that?!” the Pegasi said. I snapped out of my trance. Forgetting everything that was coming back to me. “ I-I don't know” I said with a shocked look on my face. ' it was amazing! Were did u learn to fight like that?!” the Pegasi was on the verge of yelling. “ I don't know...” I repeated. “oh... my name is Glowstick by the way.” he said his voice calm now. “ hi. My name is Beat.”i said with a smile on my face. He looked a little scared of me. I don't blame him, after what I just did I’m afraid of myself. The Pegasi. Wait. Glowstick explained to me what is going on since I lost my memory. Here I'll explain it: Equestria has fallen into a dark time and all the major cities have been taken over. The Changelings rule Equestria now so there all over the place. Each major town and city is now owned by a single enemy. Ponyville : Trixie. She has enslaved ponies with her magic and uses them to guard her. She is all talk and is pretty easy to get around. Everfree Forest: Lord Tirek. He returned when he heard of the Changeling invasion. Basic physical attacks are basically useless. Magic is the best way to hurt him. Cloudsdale: The Shadow Bolts. They've tricked the Pegasi into thinking that all other ponies besides Pegasi are useless. Cloudsdale is locked down and legally not enter able. Manehattan: Discord. After he returned he was granted permission by Queen Chrysalis to control Manehattan. Teleports a lot. Uses Telekinesis. Is said to be holding Princess Cadence. Crystal Empire: With Queen Cadence imprisoned, King Sombra took over. He has a royal guard of Crystal Ponies he's possesed with darkness. Removing his horn is the best advantage. And finally. Canterlot: Queen Chrysalis controls everything from canterlot. She has crazy magical power and a huge army of Changelings that rule Equestria. She is teamed with Nightmare Moon, Nightmare moon keeps the moon up. Nightmare moon is also the General of the Changeling army. After explaining to me, he told me that he came from a group of ponies who were all attacked by Changelings. They all scattered and he got lost from his group, only to find me with a pole on my hip, out like a light. He said they were all heading to the Everfree Forest to find refuge in the old royal castle. So thats were we were heading. I hope the journey will be worth it... A NewcomerChapter 2 Glowstick and I made it to the Everfree forest surprisingly without anymore Changelings attacks. Glowstick was still walking away from me. I think he's trying to avoid me since my crazy fight show back in Ponyville. " I hope your still able to fight like back there." He said nervously. "Huh? What do you mean?" I asked. " the Everfree. Is full of tons of natural horrors. And now that Lord Tirek controls it there ought to be loads of things well have to fight." He explained. Huh "things" I thought. Tons of "things". As we reached the forest, Glowstick put out his hoof in front of me. "Hey" I said "shhhh" he replied. I noticed his face was serious and looked in front of us. And that's when I saw it. A whole Regiment of Changelings led by a larger Changeling. As they neared us, my vision started to focus on the lead Changeling. And I noticed it wasn't a Changeling. It was a alicorn with black skin and a large blue flowing mane. I noticed her Cutie mark was a crescent moon surrounded by a blue aura. And that's when it hit me. It was a Battalion of Changelings led by the one. The only. Nightmare moon! We had to act fast, I grabbed Glowsticks arm and pulled him behind the nearest tree. As the battalion of hell approached us, I noticed they had 2 ponies hostage. No 1 pony, the other was a white striped zebra with 2 gold rings around her neck. The other was a brown earth pony with a hourglass as his Cutie mark. By the time I noticed his cutie mark they we practically walking past us. I motioned Glowstick to stay back and leaned up against the tree. And then there was a noise that sounded like somepony was pounding on a door. I peeked out and noticed a Changeling on the ground and the hourglass pony running down the path towards the junkyard of wood known as Ponyville. "Doctor no!" The zebra yelled, as a Changeling shot a bolt of green magic at the hourglass pony. Striking his foreleg and causing him to crash to the ground. Two Changelings walked up to the grounded pony and held him on his knees. Nightmare Moon slowly walked up to him until halting 3 feet away. " you won't get awa-" the pony's sentence was cut short by a blue magic bolt to the chest. He was flung back by Nightmares shot, and was completely lifeless. The Changelings casually left his body and joined the rest in formation. "As you have missed, you will not get away with this." The zebra said with anger in her face. "Ha! You keep saying that and turn up like you 'doctor' over there" Nightmare said. "Continue March!" Nightmare yelled as all the emotionless Changelings continued walking forward with synced footsteps. As they walked near the dead pony, they all gave him a kick in the chest. Me and Glowstick waited a few minutes until the Regiment was far enough away before leaving our cover. As we left Glowstick galloped over to the 'doctors' body. "hes dead..." Glowstick said emotionless. Glowstick fell to his knees and I swear I could see a dark cloud form over his head. I saw anger grow in his face as his breathing picked up. I stood there staring at the doctors body. I was surprised when Glowstick started screaming and running at the Battalion. I ran after him until I caught up and tackled him. "Hey! Hey! Calm down! We're not ready!" I exclaimed as I was wrestling him on the ground. I would want to run at them with him, but we weren't ready. We didn't have any weapons or allies. We'd be slaughtered. I Waited till Glowstick calmed down before releasing him. We both stood up facing each other. Glowstick still staring dead at the ground. " I won't let her get away with this" he said, with a little less anger in his voice. You could tell he was gritting his teeth. " of course. We will face her. We're just not ready. We need allies. Weapons." I answered. He slowly walked by me into the forest still staring at the ground. I stand my ground still staring at the destroyed Ponyville. " will we be able to recover?" I thought doubtfully. I shook my head" yes yea of course we will. were strong. We can beat them. " I turned around and continued to follow Glowstick into the forest. "H-hello?" I hear a voice behind us and spin around. Horn lit. To see who it was. There was a black Pegasus, with black and yellow messy hair. "Whoa whoa calm down." He said backing off. "What do u want?!" Exclaimed Glowstick. He surprised me. He went from his cowardly happy mood, to dangerous and a endless anger. "I-I'm just passing by." He said scared "wait. Are you guys going to the old royal castle?" Nightmares of the EverfreeChapter 3 Why are u guys going to the castle?” Shadow asked. Me and Glowstick decided to let him come with us to the castle. He told us his name is Shadow, he woke up in the middle of the forest. He said he knew about the castle because of a passing Changeling patrol. He told us they said a group of people were making a town out of the castle and plan on living there. I believed him but Glowstick doubts him. Since ya know. The passing Changeling regiment didn't see him and he is able to understand the language of them. I don’t blame him. “wait be quiet .” Glowstick said. This time, I knew not to argue with him. We stopped and listened. Nothing. “what I don’t hear anything.” Shadow said. “shhh!” Glowstick interrupted. This time we heard it. In the bushy area to the left there was a slithering noise. But wait, there was another noise coming off the path to the right. we all turned and got back to back. I lit my horn. Glowstick got in a fighting position. And this time. I think Shadow showed his true self, because he got into a fighting position. But there was something off about this position. I swear I saw it before. Recently to. But this was no time to think about that. We were surrounded. We didn't know what but something surrounded us. And then IT slithered out if the darkness. They were Everfree forest vines. But not normal ones. These ones had large clamps on the top of them with large fang like objects. There was a stand off for a second there, I swear time froze. I could hear the heavy breathing of the others. You couldn't tell that they were nervous from the outside. But I knew they were nervous. Well Glowstick at least. But Shadow. He seemed to be handling this like he does this every day. There was something off about this pony. My train of thought was interrupted by a loud screeching sound. I swung my head around to see a vine lunging at me. I acted fast and shot a magic bolt straight through its open mouth. Creating a hole and causing the vine to collapse. This triggered the other vines to attack and they all lunged at us. The battle had begun. Each of us had 2 vines to deal with. Since one of mine was already dead, I went for the other one. I got a sudden urge of energy as a blue colored cone of energy formed around my horn. It created a point and I decided to use this to my advantage. I jumped at the middle of the vine as it lunged at me. my jump was successful and I hit right in the middle of the vine. The energy cut the vine in half. As I landed on the ground the top park of the vine fell in front of me. With my vines gone I looked at the others. Surprisingly, Shadow was great at fighting and I swear, I knew that fighting style. I looked over at Glowstick to see in my horror that one of the vines had wrapped around him! I ran to go help him but out of nowhere he got a arm gauntlet that had a knife attached. He extended the blade on his arm and sliced the vines grip. Killing it since the vine wrapped its body around him. He then swept at the other vines body make a shallow cut. Not enough to kill it but enough to make it flop onto the ground. He then flew up the dived down. Blade first at the head of the vine. Stabbing a clean hole into the middle of it. I then look over at Shadow , he has already killed one of the vines and is flying backwards up at the face of the vine. He folds his arm in and hits the vine in the middle of its mouth with his elbow. The vine collapses to the ground and weakly screeches before giving out and dying. With all vines dead, we sat there panting. Then it hit me. Shadows fighting style. Was the fighting style of a Changeling! I think Glowstick noticed to because he was walking up to Shadow with anger in his face. Glowstick grabbed Shadow and punched him in the face. Causing Shadow to fall flat on his back. “what the hell?!” Shadow exclaimed. “your fighting style! Is the fighting style of a Changeling!” Glowstick said with anger in his voice as he approached shadow. He went to hit him again. But I ran and held him back. “your a spy!” Glowstick yelled struggling to get past me. I pushed Glowstick away and yelled “stop!” it went quiet. Shadow and Glowstick facing each other. Me in the middle. “now. Shadow he is true you are using the fighting style of a changeling. Can you explain that?” Shadow explained everything. It turns out he was raised by Changelings. He said Queen Chrysalis raised him from fillyhood. Taught him how to fight and told him that all other ponies are bad ponies that do horrible things. he even said Princess Celestia killed his parents! He said that he snuck in the library when the Changelings took over Canterlot and Discovered that the ponies are good and the Changelings were the ones that invaded and enslaved the citizens. So in the middle of the night he ran away. His goal is to find what happen to his parents since he knows that Celestia didn’t kill them. I could tell he was telling the truth, but Glowstick. Ah Glowstick. He is still convinced that Shadow is a spy. Well off that topic, that was 20 minutes ago. Now were walking through the Everfree making our way to the castle. “are you sure we not lost” asked Glowstick. “Yes I know were it is and im pretty sure were on track” answered Shadow. “yea right” Glowstick said under his breath. I shot him a look saying “really?” he just rolled his eyes. “say Glowstick. Were did you get that knife gauntlet?” I asked Glowstick. “I've had it for while. Just back when we first met, I was to blind by cowardice to use it.” Glowstick answered with a still angry face . A gauntlet is a brace that goes on a ponies leg. A knife, sword, ax, or a spear can be attached. The chosen weapon stays lined up with the ponies leg and a cord goes up there inner leg to a switch that when the move there arm a specific way the blade flicks out, and extends over the ponies hoof(like Baraka's blades from Mortal Kombat.) as we got deeper into the forest, Shadow said “wait. Look” he pointed over to a tree. But it wasn't a normal tree. It was larger and had 2 windows and a door. Well had a door. The door was torn off, and the windows were smashed. “well lets have a look.” Shadow said nearing the tree. Me and Glowstick followed close behind. We entered the tree. It was creepy as hell. “sweet Celestia!” Shadow exclaimed as he walked in. the trees walls were lined with creepy masks and shelves that seemed to be holding ingredients and potions. In the middle of the tree there was a cauldron full of green mucky water. The whole tree looks like somepony brought vandalism to a whole new level. i walked around looking at the shelves of potions. There blue ones red ones. Even white ones. Then, I heard something crunch under my hoof. I looked down to see I stepped on a faded, partly ripped photo. I picked the photo up and wiped the dirt off. The photo was a picture of a zebra and she was standing smiling next to a young girl filly. The filly had red hair, with a pink bow in it. She had yellow skin and. hm. No cutie mark. I kept looking at the photo, then my heart sank when I realized that the zebra was the zebra nightmare moon took hostage. My thought twisted in to wonder as I wondered what had happen to the young filly. I was then surprised by a loud crash, I whipped my head up. Glowstick was glaring at the door. Knife drawn and Shadow was in his Changeling fighting stance. I then looked over the door to see 4 ponies wearing the same kind of armor made of what seemed like iron. I swung my body around and lit my horn for a fight. The dead stares everyone was giving each other was interrupted by one of the ponies. “Glowstick? Is that you?” he asked, taking his helmet off to reveal his mane. It was a white Pegasus with a blue and black Mohawk. “oh my Celestia, Ice!” Glowstick exclaimed. Glowstick retracted his knife and trotted over to 'Ice'. I looked over to Shadow and nodded for him to stand down. Ice did the same to his ponies. The mood of the room calmed down as Glowstick and Ice hoof bumped. They started to get into a conversation as I walked over to Shadow. “whats going on?” Shadow asked. “i don't know.” I answered blankly. Ice peeked over Glowsticks shoulder and did a double take as if he just noticed me. Glowstick turned around with Ice and walked toward me. The other ponies in armor following, still confused. “this is Ice Storm. He was one of the ponies I was in a group with before we were attacked, separated, and I found you.” Glowstick explained, his angry mood replaced with a joyful one. Ice smiled and waved at me, then immediately looked back over to Glowstick. “so, what are you guys doing all the way out here?” Ice asked. “we were heading over to the old abandoned castle because we heard ponies have set up a small town there.” Glowstick explained. Ices eyes widened as he said “that's funny. After we got separated I wandered into the Everfree until I found the castle. They were really nice and they took me in. actually, right now i'm leading these other ponies on a scout mission to find some ingredients for potions.” he pointed to the other ponies in armor. They waved nervously as if they had just met a cousin for the first time. Then Ice spoke up again “you guys should head back with us. We can get that leg bandaged up.” he pointed to my still injured leg. Sweet Celestia, I've completely forgot about that. “How did I fight with an injured leg?”i thought. I wish he wouldn’t of reminded me, because now all the pain started to come back and it probably wasn't gonna go away. “come on guys ill lead you back” ice said waving his hoof to the door. Glowstick and Shadow looked at me like they were looking for answers. “what?” I asked. “its your call” Glowstick said. I looked over to Shadow and he nodded at me. Then I realized. These ponies. Looked at me as if I was there leader. As if I led them out of tyranny and saved there families. With my new sense of confidence and morale, I answered “yes lets go to the castle.” The Old CastleChapter 4 When we got to the castle we could automatically tell that they were staying for a while. They have carts, that they took the wheels off of and they use it as a barrier. Behind the “barriers”. They had added some wood planks to the rotting stone wall of the castle. They had scaffolds on the inside overlooking the bridge connecting the castle to the Everfree forest. On the scaffolds, there were ponies wearing the same armor as Ice and his patrol. But there armor seemed to be leather instead of iron. As we were walking to the front gate one of the guard ponies approached us. “newcomers?” he asked Ice. “Yup” Ice responded. “open the gate!” yelled the guard pony. The gate slowly rolled open as 3 ponies stepped out from the interior. The lead one was a blue mare with a gray ponytail and a book and feather cutie mark. She was being followed by 2 guard stallions and had a serious look on her face. She pulled a clipboard out as she approached us. “what is this?” Glowstick asked Ice. “an inspection. Don’t worry its just to make sure your not a Changeling.” he answered. The inspector pony inspected Shadow first. She open his mouth, stared into his eyes, and then lifted each of his legs up. She wrote something on her clipboard, then moved on to me. She did the same inspection routine to me, but when she go to my foreleg and saw the bandage she got serious. She unwrapped the bandage to see the gash from the pole. She then wrapped it back up and motioned for one of the guard ponies over without taking her eyes off the bandage. The guard pony walked over and stood at attention next to her. The inspector pony stopped looking at my leg and started to write on her clipboard. “get this pony to the surgeon.” she said without stopping writing. “surgeon?” I thought nervously. “great”. The guard pony started walking inside of the castle. I looked behind me to see Glowstick flash me a smile. “Ok. They look up to me like a leader. Don t show weakness. Show strength.” I thought as I lifted my head up and trotted into the castle. The surgeon had a weird accent. He replaced all his w's with v's and he said “ya!” after every sentence. “its not much but a flesh vound, you’ll be fine ya.” he told me while he looked at my unbandaged leg. “just keep it wrapped up for a vew more das and you’ll be fine ya.” his accent made my eye twitch. He let me leave, thank Celestia. The guard pony that showed me to the surgeon was outside waiting for me. “accent growing on ya?” he asked with a smile. “heh. Yea.” I responded shyly. “come with me. Ill show you to your room.” he instructed as he started walking down a corridor. Me following. You could tell the castle wasn’t used in thousands of years. The walls had moss growing on them and everything that was metal had completely rusted over or was starting to. The ponies there seemed to have a nice peaceful civilization set up though. there were maps of the place posted everywhere. The maps didn’t seem to have any sort of printing press format to them though. They all look as if they were drawn. On the way to my room I noticed several areas of interest. There was a marketplace that seemed to have a lot of shops set up ranging from clothing to weapons to a bunch of random stuff. My room was set right across from the massive library that a lot of ponies spent there time in from the fact that there was at least 20 in there right now. When I walked into my room Shadow and Glowstick were there to greet me. So was another pony. She was a alicorn but her horn seemed to be broken off. She was gray, but her legs and nose was light blue. She had a black and white mane and her cutie mark seemed to be a music note. They all trotted up to me “what happen. What did they do?” asked Shadow curiously. “nothing much he just told me to keep it bandaged up that’s all.” I said and flashed him a smile. “hey Beat.” Glowstick said happily. “This is my friend Musical. She is a alicorn. But her horn got. um. Taken off.” Glowstick said awkwardly. “yea I noticed. Nice to meet you musical.” I said smiling, putting my hoof out. “hi nice to meet you to.” she responded putting her hoof out and shaking mine. “Beat. Your on the top bunk. I'm below you, and Shadow is across from us." Glowstick said. I turned to him. “greaaat. Please tell me I didn’t need to bring a pillow or anything?” I asked. “no theirs already one there for you” Glowstick responded giggling. “well hey. At least something good happen today.” I said sarcastically as I walked over to my bunk. I was exhausted. Ive been waiting all day to sleep. All I've wanting to do was crash in a nice bed. But I was worried that I wouldn't get a bed to sleep in. it was a relief actually having one. Thankfully, Glowstick had Musical leave. It may seemed rude, but we were all tired from the Everfree. Shadow got in bed as Glowstick went to go put the wall torches we use as lights out. He blew them out, got in bed and it was time to sleep. Luckily I could sleep and I started dozing off. The Challenge Of The ArenaChapter 5 I had a rude awakening by Glowstick. “Hey get up. Your gonna miss breakfast.” he told me while shaking my leg. “fiiiine I'll get up.” I groaned. I would love to stay in bed but I haven’t eaten since Celestia knows when and I was really hungry. I sat up and looked over to Glowstick. He also looked really hungry, so that was my cue to get out of bed. I slid off the top bunk, and looked at Shadows bunk. He wasn't there. “hey, where did Shadow go?” I asked Glowstick. “hes already at the dining hall. And I would love to join him just as soon as your ready to leave.” Glowstick told me with a sarcastic smile. I gave him the same “really?” look I gave him back in the Everfree. I turned away from Glowstick and walked to the only sink and mirror in the room. There was no more rooms to where we were living, it was just one room. 2 bunk beds in the corner, a sink at the end of the bed on the left. The closest we had to another room, was a closet at the end of the bunk me and Glowstick were sleeping in. I walked over to the mirror and used levitation magic to pick up the comb on the side of the sink. I combed my hair back in the way I always have it. Boy, sleeping really does a number on your hair. I forgot about small problems like that since Queen Chrysalis took over. I miss the post-apocalypse world. I thought “ right when the world goes back to normal. I'm taking a 24-hour long nap.” I then finished with my hair, turned to Glowstick and said “I'm hungry lets go.” “finally.” he exclaimed, rolling his eyes. I ignored that gesture and headed for the door. As I opened the door I realized, I'm not dead. Back in the Everfree, I was so sure I was gonna die there. But look at me now. Alive, and in somewhere were no one wants to kill me. This made me really happy and my mood went from exhausted to “i wanna hug everyone”. “Are you ok?” Glowstick asked worryingly. “Absolutely. Wonderful” I replied. I could tell he was weirded out by my happiness. But I didn't care, today was going to be wonderful. The dining hall was basically a cafeteria. Legit. There was a line on one wall, were ponies who looked as if they haven’t slept in days were serving food. Tables scattered around full of a mixture of citizens and guard ponies. I walked to catch up with Glowstick who was already in the line for breakfast. “there’s Shadow and Musical.” Glowstick said, interrupting my train of thought. “oh?” I say as I turn to look. Then I see her. Sitting with Musical and Shadow was. By far. The most attractive mare I've ever seen. She was a light brown unicorn, with a darker shade brown hair. Her cutie mark was 3 gold stars, with a pencil below the lowest one. “who's. That.” I asked Glowstick, still mesmerized. “Her name is Star, why?” he answered. And then, I was pretty sure he noticed me drooling over her. “OoooOooo, beat has a crush.” he said with a smug look on his face. “shut up.” I said while punching his shoulder. I was blushing profusely and I was embarrassed as hell. “is it really that noticeable?” I asked myself, if it was that was not good. We finally got to our food, I got 2 haycakes and a hash brown. On the way out of the line I picked up a cup of hot cocoa. I walked and sat down with Glowstick, Musical, and Shadow. I was reminded of Stars presence by Glowsticks smug smile. I glared at him giving him the “keep your mouth shut.” look. I turned my head down towards my food and started eating, vigorously. Shadow started a conversation with the rest of table, while is stare at my food. The butterflies in my stomach were out of control. “Beat, when's the last time you had a crush?” Shadow asked me. I dropped my fork and looked up, blushing like crazy “oh. Oh. Not for a while, heh heh.” I answered nervously. “You sure?” Glowstick asked with a smug look on his face. “yes.” I answered glaring at him. I looked back down at my food, everypony else continued talking about Celestia knows what. After breakfast we all parted our ways to explore the castle. Glowstick and Shadow left earlier to apply for the guard. So it was just me, Musical, and Star leaving the Cafeteria. “ I'm going to the Library right now, would you like to come Star?” Musical asked. “Um. Sure.” she replied. They walked off without even a goodbye. Well, now I was all alone. I was still tired, so I decided to go back to my room and try to sleep. I couldn't sleep, so I decided to go check out the enormous library everypony was at. It was massive, and luckily it wasn't as busy today. I wanted to learn more magic spells. All I knew are Magic Bolt and the head spike one. I wasn't able to perform that one anymore. It seemed almost like a one time thing. But I knew that it will return when I need it. The magic books were on the right side. Right next to some tables. I took a book that’s title read Magic Barriers And Basic Protection Spells. I levitated it and walked over to a table to read it. I sat on one of the pillows and opened the book up. I only read 2 words before hearing a voice across the table from me “um. hi.” I heard a familiar voice. I looked up to see Star sitting across from me giving a nervous smile. My eyes widened as the butterflies in my stomach returned. My face was blushing. Again. Like crazy. “oh. hi. I didnt see you there heh.” I responded nervously. “yea I saw you walk in. have you eve-” her words were cut short by 3 ponies standing over us. Our gaze was directed on them. There were 3 guard ponies. But one was wearing a golden colored armor. She was a orange unicorn with a blue mane. “Beat Drop?” she asked. “Yes?” I responded “My name is Captain Sofia Hawk and your presence is required by the General in the training room.” she answered. “Um. Ok” I said nervously. “if you would follow me please.” she directed as she turned away and slowly walked away from the table. I stood up quickly and started following her. I turned my head and shot Star a “sorry” look. She responded with a “it's ok look” and shook her hoof. the training room was just the old throne room with a few targets and dummies around. There were more guard ponies in leather armor practicing on the dummies and some shooting magic and the targets that were covered in burn marks. I looked to my left to see a white Unicorn wearing the same armor as Sofia. But it was purple and the top mane part was blue. “Beat Drop?” he asked me with a stern look in his face. “Y-Yes.” I answered nervously. “ The pony over there will get you suited up. Your buddy Glowstick says your a good fighter. I wanna see u fight.” I walked over the pony. He was at a long black table. He was green with white slicked black hair and seemed intimidating to me. As soon as I got there he pulled a normal sword out and put it on the table. “use your levitation magic to lift it.” he had a deep voice that sounded like a war veterans. “Actually. Can I have a Arm Gauntlet?” I asked “um. Sure?” he responded pulling a silver Arm Gauntlet out from under the table and placing it on the table. I put it on. It fit perfectly in place and the cord up my leg was surprisingly comfortable. I walked back over to the General pony and nodded my head. “extend the blade.” he ordered. I jerked my hoof out as the blade slid down my arm with a surprisingly soothing noise. He moved it to check if it was in place and pointed to the middle of the room. “move to the white marker on the floor.” he instructed. I walked over and stood on the white marker. “these are some training simulations to test your ability.” he yelled from the sidelines. There were ponies lined up behind a white line. The line was in a circle around me. There were 4 towers surrounding the circle. Each held a Unicorn. I looked around me at the surrounding ponies. They were cheering like this was some sort of sport. I noticed Glowstick, Shadow, Ice, Musical, and. Oh Celestia, Star on the sidelines cheering for me. “what if I make a fool of myself?” I thought. I really didn't want to embarrass myself in front of Star. “3!” one of the ponies in the tower yelled. His voice snapping me out of my trance. “2!” “1!” “Start round one!” he finally yelled. “well. Here goes nothing.” The Unicorns in the towers were using there magic to make holographic ponies with weapons. The holograms were purple and had no eyes, mouth, tail, or mane. The ponies all rushed me at once. I got down in a defensive pose and my mind went blank. All that was important was beating these holograms. I went for the one who was in front of me. it was jumping at me. Lifting its hoof to stab me with his Arm Gauntlet. I shot a magic bolt at it right before it landed a hit on me. It exploded into little blocks that rained down on top of me. I heard trotting to my right and swung around. There was one of them charging at me with a spear. When he reached me he thrusted the spear at me. I swung my leg up. Knocking the spear up with my Sword Gauntlet. I then thrusted my Gauntlet at its chest. Stabbing it and causing it to crumble over my sword. The last 2 holograms were rushing me at once. one had a Sword Gauntlet and the other was using its horn for magic. The one with the sword reached me and swung its hoof at me. I ducked down, letting the sword go over my head. I then jerked my head forwards, knocking the hologram back, and I swung my sword at it. Hitting its neck and causing it to crumble. I was reminded of the danger or the unicorn hologram by a magic bolt flying by my face, dangerously close. I felt the wind and heat of it as it passed my face. I ducked for cover. Soon finding there was none. The area was a flat stone floor. No fallen rocks or anything. I swung my head at the hologram, readying my horn. As my horn was about to shoot, I was greeted by a barrage of magic bolts. I canceled the shot and jumped to the left. I then sprinted straight at the hologram. I ignored the magic bolts and I kept running. I was getting a lot of burns as the bolts scraped past my skin. I didn’t care though. All that I care about was getting to this hologram. As I reached it, it was gonna try to shoot me straight in the face. I swung my hoof up, punching it in the chin and causing the magic bolt to go straight at the ceiling. It tried to punch me, but I jumped back. I landed and looked up. It was charging for a shot. A massive one! It was forming a ball of light on its horn that seemed to its own object. You see, the ball was forming on the tip of the horn so, it must to a danger to him to. If it were to backfire, I could win this. I acted fast, I ran at the hologram as it was charging up. I dropped onto my back, with the momentum of the run, I was sliding across the floor. As I slid past it I put a hoof out. Tripping it. I spun onto my stomach and looked ahead. It fell face first on the ground, pushing the ball of light into its head. There was a split second of silence then, BOOM!!! I put my hoof out to cover my eyes from the blinding light of the explosion. When it dimmed, I walked forward, bruised, burned, and tired. But I was victorious. The tiny cubes of the hologram rained down from the sky and bounced off my body. “Beat wins!!!” one of the tower Unicorns announced. There was cheering as I fell to the floor. I was exhausted and didn't want to move anymore. My eyes started to close as I saw Glowstick and Shadow running up to me, looking concerned. I let out a little “heh” before my eyes shut and everything fell silent... A New DayChapter 6 I awoke in a my room. laying on my bunk. "ugh. what happen?" i thought. As I lay there in silence i heard something. I looked down from my bunk, but no-one was there. I then realized that there was a conversation going on outside. I couldn't hear clearly, I needed to get closer. I hopped down from my bunk and felt a sharp pain from my back leg as i collapsed to the ground with a loud thud. I heard the conversation outside the door stop. two ponies then ran into the room. "Are you alright?'" one asked. I looked up to see Glowstick standing over me. "Yea, i'm fine." I say as i stand up. next to Glowstick was next to the guard pony from earlier that had the different armor. "hello Beat." He said "who are you?" i asked "I, am Shining Armor. The General of the Royal Guard that used to serve and protect Canterlot, but now guard this castle and the ponies inside." he answered. "Ah, well, nice to meet you." i replied. he looked at me and nodded in agreement. "The General here has a. thing. he would like to discuss with you." Glowstick said. I looked over to Shining, he looked back at me. "Yes" he answered "when you're ready, it would be pleasant if you could join me in the Planning Room." He answered. "I have no idea where that is." I told him. "It is the room directly across from the entrance to the Training Area." he answered. "I must take my leave now, I am expecting to see you there after breakfast." he told me as. Shining then turned his back to me and walked out into the hallway, door closing behind him. I stood there for a second then it came to me " wait, did he just say breakfast?!" I exclaimed "yup." Glowstick answered "you mean i was out for a whole day?!" i said "yup." Glowstick answered "jeez..." I replied "I'm gonna head over to the Dining Hall. Coming?" Glowstick asked. "yea I'll be done there soon, go down without me." I replied. "Alright, see you there then." he said as he turned and walked away, door closing behind him. Now i was all alone in the room. i turned and looked into the mirror at myself, taking in the silence of the room. i stood there, staring into my own eyes and thinking. "what has happened?" I thought. Life used to be so simple. wake up, go to work, go home, sleep. everything we worried about used to seem so big. Now i wish i had the honor of worrying about those tiny things. We used to wonder when the next party was, when this or that came out, what people were doing. What i wouldn't do to get those things back. to take back my old life, to not have to worry about death,destruction, or being safe. i shook my head "No" i thought. "We will get our old lives back." i combed my hair once, turned away from the mirror, and walked out the door into the busy corridors of the castle. Walking through the halls of the Castle was a lot different it was yesterday. Yesterday, no pony even noticed my presence. Today, everyone was smiling and nodding at me and patting my back, And for reasons I didn't even know. I entered the cafeteria and hopped in line. 3 ponies let me go in front of them when they saw me. "whats going on?" i thought. i grabbed breakfast and walked over to the table with Shadow, Glowstick, Star(oh gosh), And Musical. " How's being a celebrity feel?" Shadow asked when i got over to our table with a smug look on his face. He was wearing his Guard Armor so I'm guessing he has Guard Duty after Breakfast. " I do not know why everyone is acting like this. Did I do something?" i replied. "wait. do you not remember about the Arena yesterday?" Shadow asked. "oh yea..." i answered. "oh yea is right. No pony has ever had that time that you had yesterday. And seeing as the Arena is a big deal around here, well now you're a big deal." Shadow said while taking a bite out of his hash brown. "Why are you wearing you're Guard Armor?" i asked, trying to change the subject. "There's some one 2 day 'Venture the General is sending my Squad on." he replied. "And as I've heard you will be joining us Beat." I Almost spit my food. "Wait. What?!" i yelled. A few ponies at other tables looked over at me. "Why wasn't i told this?!" i exclaimed, quieter this time. I noticed that Glowstick looked away. "Glowstick." I said to him "What? I don't know anything i swear." He said defensively. I knew he was lying "Glowstick." i said sternly back to him. At this point everypony at the table was looking at him. He looked at all of us with a worried look on his face. then he huffed and his shoulders dropped. "Alright fine, Shining told me about in the hall before you woke up." he answered. "Why didn't you tell me?!" i exclaimed "I. I just didn't want you to stress about it yet." he replied looking away in guilt. "You could of told me." i said back to him. "i know..." he answered, still looking away with a guilty look on his face, but now he was also blushing. I felt bad for yelling at him. "Thanks. You were just trying to help. But next time tell me okay?" i said with a calmer tone. "Okay." he replied. Now looking up at us. I finished my breakfast, said my goodbyes to them all, got up and left for the Planning Room. Still, Getting the occasional "good job" and head nod from everypony. Now that I knew what everypony was doing that for, i felt in a better mood, despite how beat up i was from yesterday. I just wish I knew what was coming. Author's Note Thank you to anybody who is still reading! i had a little break because of no motivation, but now I have returned to the writing block! 3 new chapters will be up by next Friday! The PlanChapter 7 The Planning Room was a dimly lit room with a circular lit up table in the center with a hologram of a Forest on it. The hologram was powered by a generator in the corner of the room with tubes of bright purple magic on the sides. Shadow told me that all the power in the Castle was by a generator room in the back of the Castle and was powered by Unicorn magic. Every morning certain Unicorns would go and fill the tubes up, and then the Castle would have power for a day. On the left side of the Planning Room there was a giant map of Equestria that was lit from behind. On the map there were markings on all Major Cities. I was guessing they were planning something. As i entered the room i saw Shining in front of the table talking to another Guard Pony. Shining heard me walk in and turned his head to me. Also directing the attention of the Guard Pony to me. I saw that the Guard Pony was the pony from yesterday, Captain Hawk. "Ah, Beat so nice of you to join us." Shining said to me. "Yea no problem." i told him. Hawk just nodded to me, i nodded back. "Okay, so Glowstick told you about the mission that i have put you on?" Shining said as he walked to the other side of the table, Hawk followed him and stood on the left side of the table. "Yes, he did." i replied, remembering how Glowstick tried to keep it from me. I walked forward until i was in front of the table. "Alright." he answered "As I hope you know, Tirek controls the Everfree Forest that our Castle here is inside of, And our first objective is to obtain control of the Forest. Not only so we don't have to worry about attacks, but also so we can expand. Our Population in this Castle increases everyday, and we need to expand." He explained. "but in order to do that, we need to destroy Tirek and Destroy Chrysalis's Presence in the Forest." He said "Now wait." what you're saying is that I'm just being thrown in a assassination Operation without even my consent?" I interrupted . "Oh, Celestia no." he responded. "The mission is to weaken the Base Tirek has created." he said. Shining pointed to the hologram. I now noticed the hologram was the Everfree Forest. "Here's his base." Shining said pointing to a clearing on the map. It was shaped like a hexagon. " You and the squad you will be put in are taking control of these." He said, the map scrolled over away from the base and to 3 smaller bases, square shaped, all with a tower like structure in the middle. " You will need to liberate the towers, which will cut energy flow to Tirek, which will in the end weaken him." "Alright." i said, relieved I didn't have to go assassinate some all powerful being with a couple of basic trained soldiers. "Hawk here will be leading this operation." Shining informed me. " Each base is about a 3 miles apart and the walk to just one base is a 20 mile trek so I recommend getting some practice in, choose what weapons you'll use, then get some sleep because you wont be getting much tomorrow. Dismissed." He said turning away from me and starting his conversation with Hawk back up. I turned and started to walk out the door, planning to go to the Training Area, when Hawk ran in front of me and stopped me. She glared at me. "Don't screw anything up." She said with a stern voice. " There's gonna be about 20 Changelings at each base so you better be prepared." She told me. She then turned and walked back over to Shining. "Great. 20 Changelings. Now there's a lot of pressure on me." I thought before huffing, I needed to train hard. And i planned on doing just that. I entered the Training Area. Arena to my left, Armory to my right. I searched the area for any other pones. None. Besides the unicorns that work in the towers there were no other ponies training. "Great." I thought. " I have the place all to me." I walked over to the Armory and entered it. I thought that getting weapons before practicing may be the most logical thing to do. It looked a lot like a bank teller. A counter, a fence window. with a pony behind and all the weapons racked up behind him. Although, now that I think about it back tellers have glass windows. "Can I help you?" He asked with a slight hint of rudeness. He was reading a magazine and I guess I was interrupting. "Yes." I answered. "I'm going on a mission tomorrow and need gear. General's orders." "Ah. alright." He replied, closing the magazine. "What would you like?" I started browsing the rack behind him. I started with looking through the sword gauntlets. They all had a different lengths from 12' to 36'. I decided I would use a 22' gauntlet and a silver chest piece and boots " A 22' Gauntlet and that set of silver armor please. Leave out the helmet." I told him. He gave me a weird look then turned and levitated the items over to the counter. "Alright. dressing rooms over there if you want to try on another set." He told me. "oh no this set will be perfect." I said, slipping on the armor. I was right, it fit perfectly. Wasn't too heavy wasn't too light. it didn't even rattle when I was walking over to the Arena. I guess the tower unicorns must of understood my intentions because when they saw me walk over there they all went to their towers. I redirected myself and headed for the center of the arena. "What do you want?" one of the tower unicorns asked. "Randomize them." I told him. Thinking now, I'm going to be up against 8 Changelings with my squad. so why not practice with. 5 for now. "5 of them." I yelled to the tower unicorn. The 5 of the holograms appeared me and immediately started darting at me. "Well. Here we go again." It thought.
New Beginnings New Beginnings Chapter 1 “Hey get up, I see your awake.” I hear a voice say. I open my eyes and see a shadowy figure standing above me. “I saw you past out on the ground are you ok?” he asked. “yeaaaa” I answer in pain as my eyes focus on a orange Pegasi with a blue and black mane. “You've been out a while now I came across you knocked out, so I moved you into a building that hasn't been destroyed yet.” I sit up and feel a sharp pain from my hip. “whoa whoa hold it you had a pole fall on your hip I would take it easy.” I listen to him and sit up carefully. I noticed that I was placed on a rusted metal table. There were 2 more tables around so I assumed that we were in a restaurant. As I sat up I noticed that there was a bandage around my left foreleg. I tried to walk forward and am forced to a limp because of my hip. “do u remember what happen to you?” “huh?” I say completely forgetting he was standing there. “n-no. Well, I sort of do. Its all just a blur.” I lied. I remember I was running from something and a green light and boom. I'm out on the ground. “ well. We need to leave this place Changelings have been all over Ponyville for the past few days.” “o-ok.” I say not worrying about anything. All I wanted to do was leave this place. As we walked outside I was blinded by the moon covering the sun. an eclipse. and my nose was filled with the smell of ashes and fire. I looked around. Everything was destroyed. Everything. Some buildings were collapsed, some were either burned to hell or a large pile of scorched wood and metal. As we were leaving I looked at the sign on the building we were in. part was torn off so all I could read was “-garcube Corner” heh that's a funny name. I thought. We walked for about 10 minutes before the sick peacefulness of the destruction of Ponyville was interrupted by magic bolts being shot at us. there was 2 Changelings flying above us. As the Pegasi dived for cover I stood my ground. My mind went blank as my horn started to glow with blue energy. The energy turned into a ball and shot at the Changelings. I hit one! That one fell to the ground with a loud thump. I was so happy, but now wasn't the time to celebrate the other changeling was flying down at me. As it landed on the ground it jumped up and raised its hoof to punch me. I acted quickly. I used teleport magic to get behind it swept my forelegs underneath him or her, I didn't care. As it was in the air I hit it in the nose with my hoof sending it flying. It crashed into a apple stand, destroying the stands sign and snapping it in half. The Changeling lay sprawled out on the smashed stand. Not moving. I standing there panting, as my past started to come back to me. “what was that?!” the Pegasi said. I snapped out of my trance. Forgetting everything that was coming back to me. “ I-I don't know” I said with a shocked look on my face. ' it was amazing! Were did u learn to fight like that?!” the Pegasi was on the verge of yelling. “ I don't know...” I repeated. “oh... my name is Glowstick by the way.” he said his voice calm now. “ hi. My name is Beat.”i said with a smile on my face. He looked a little scared of me. I don't blame him, after what I just did I’m afraid of myself. The Pegasi. Wait. Glowstick explained to me what is going on since I lost my memory. Here I'll explain it: Equestria has fallen into a dark time and all the major cities have been taken over. The Changelings rule Equestria now so there all over the place. Each major town and city is now owned by a single enemy. Ponyville : Trixie. She has enslaved ponies with her magic and uses them to guard her. She is all talk and is pretty easy to get around. Everfree Forest: Lord Tirek. He returned when he heard of the Changeling invasion. Basic physical attacks are basically useless. Magic is the best way to hurt him. Cloudsdale: The Shadow Bolts. They've tricked the Pegasi into thinking that all other ponies besides Pegasi are useless. Cloudsdale is locked down and legally not enter able. Manehattan: Discord. After he returned he was granted permission by Queen Chrysalis to control Manehattan. Teleports a lot. Uses Telekinesis. Is said to be holding Princess Cadence. Crystal Empire: With Queen Cadence imprisoned, King Sombra took over. He has a royal guard of Crystal Ponies he's possesed with darkness. Removing his horn is the best advantage. And finally. Canterlot: Queen Chrysalis controls everything from canterlot. She has crazy magical power and a huge army of Changelings that rule Equestria. She is teamed with Nightmare Moon, Nightmare moon keeps the moon up. Nightmare moon is also the General of the Changeling army. After explaining to me, he told me that he came from a group of ponies who were all attacked by Changelings. They all scattered and he got lost from his group, only to find me with a pole on my hip, out like a light. He said they were all heading to the Everfree Forest to find refuge in the old royal castle. So thats were we were heading. I hope the journey will be worth it...
A NewcomerChapter 2 Glowstick and I made it to the Everfree forest surprisingly without anymore Changelings attacks. Glowstick was still walking away from me. I think he's trying to avoid me since my crazy fight show back in Ponyville. " I hope your still able to fight like back there." He said nervously. "Huh? What do you mean?" I asked. " the Everfree. Is full of tons of natural horrors. And now that Lord Tirek controls it there ought to be loads of things well have to fight." He explained. Huh "things" I thought. Tons of "things". As we reached the forest, Glowstick put out his hoof in front of me. "Hey" I said "shhhh" he replied. I noticed his face was serious and looked in front of us. And that's when I saw it. A whole Regiment of Changelings led by a larger Changeling. As they neared us, my vision started to focus on the lead Changeling. And I noticed it wasn't a Changeling. It was a alicorn with black skin and a large blue flowing mane. I noticed her Cutie mark was a crescent moon surrounded by a blue aura. And that's when it hit me. It was a Battalion of Changelings led by the one. The only. Nightmare moon! We had to act fast, I grabbed Glowsticks arm and pulled him behind the nearest tree. As the battalion of hell approached us, I noticed they had 2 ponies hostage. No 1 pony, the other was a white striped zebra with 2 gold rings around her neck. The other was a brown earth pony with a hourglass as his Cutie mark. By the time I noticed his cutie mark they we practically walking past us. I motioned Glowstick to stay back and leaned up against the tree. And then there was a noise that sounded like somepony was pounding on a door. I peeked out and noticed a Changeling on the ground and the hourglass pony running down the path towards the junkyard of wood known as Ponyville. "Doctor no!" The zebra yelled, as a Changeling shot a bolt of green magic at the hourglass pony. Striking his foreleg and causing him to crash to the ground. Two Changelings walked up to the grounded pony and held him on his knees. Nightmare Moon slowly walked up to him until halting 3 feet away. " you won't get awa-" the pony's sentence was cut short by a blue magic bolt to the chest. He was flung back by Nightmares shot, and was completely lifeless. The Changelings casually left his body and joined the rest in formation. "As you have missed, you will not get away with this." The zebra said with anger in her face. "Ha! You keep saying that and turn up like you 'doctor' over there" Nightmare said. "Continue March!" Nightmare yelled as all the emotionless Changelings continued walking forward with synced footsteps. As they walked near the dead pony, they all gave him a kick in the chest. Me and Glowstick waited a few minutes until the Regiment was far enough away before leaving our cover. As we left Glowstick galloped over to the 'doctors' body. "hes dead..." Glowstick said emotionless. Glowstick fell to his knees and I swear I could see a dark cloud form over his head. I saw anger grow in his face as his breathing picked up. I stood there staring at the doctors body. I was surprised when Glowstick started screaming and running at the Battalion. I ran after him until I caught up and tackled him. "Hey! Hey! Calm down! We're not ready!" I exclaimed as I was wrestling him on the ground. I would want to run at them with him, but we weren't ready. We didn't have any weapons or allies. We'd be slaughtered. I Waited till Glowstick calmed down before releasing him. We both stood up facing each other. Glowstick still staring dead at the ground. " I won't let her get away with this" he said, with a little less anger in his voice. You could tell he was gritting his teeth. " of course. We will face her. We're just not ready. We need allies. Weapons." I answered. He slowly walked by me into the forest still staring at the ground. I stand my ground still staring at the destroyed Ponyville. " will we be able to recover?" I thought doubtfully. I shook my head" yes yea of course we will. were strong. We can beat them. " I turned around and continued to follow Glowstick into the forest. "H-hello?" I hear a voice behind us and spin around. Horn lit. To see who it was. There was a black Pegasus, with black and yellow messy hair. "Whoa whoa calm down." He said backing off. "What do u want?!" Exclaimed Glowstick. He surprised me. He went from his cowardly happy mood, to dangerous and a endless anger. "I-I'm just passing by." He said scared "wait. Are you guys going to the old royal castle?"
Nightmares of the EverfreeChapter 3 Why are u guys going to the castle?” Shadow asked. Me and Glowstick decided to let him come with us to the castle. He told us his name is Shadow, he woke up in the middle of the forest. He said he knew about the castle because of a passing Changeling patrol. He told us they said a group of people were making a town out of the castle and plan on living there. I believed him but Glowstick doubts him. Since ya know. The passing Changeling regiment didn't see him and he is able to understand the language of them. I don’t blame him. “wait be quiet .” Glowstick said. This time, I knew not to argue with him. We stopped and listened. Nothing. “what I don’t hear anything.” Shadow said. “shhh!” Glowstick interrupted. This time we heard it. In the bushy area to the left there was a slithering noise. But wait, there was another noise coming off the path to the right. we all turned and got back to back. I lit my horn. Glowstick got in a fighting position. And this time. I think Shadow showed his true self, because he got into a fighting position. But there was something off about this position. I swear I saw it before. Recently to. But this was no time to think about that. We were surrounded. We didn't know what but something surrounded us. And then IT slithered out if the darkness. They were Everfree forest vines. But not normal ones. These ones had large clamps on the top of them with large fang like objects. There was a stand off for a second there, I swear time froze. I could hear the heavy breathing of the others. You couldn't tell that they were nervous from the outside. But I knew they were nervous. Well Glowstick at least. But Shadow. He seemed to be handling this like he does this every day. There was something off about this pony. My train of thought was interrupted by a loud screeching sound. I swung my head around to see a vine lunging at me. I acted fast and shot a magic bolt straight through its open mouth. Creating a hole and causing the vine to collapse. This triggered the other vines to attack and they all lunged at us. The battle had begun. Each of us had 2 vines to deal with. Since one of mine was already dead, I went for the other one. I got a sudden urge of energy as a blue colored cone of energy formed around my horn. It created a point and I decided to use this to my advantage. I jumped at the middle of the vine as it lunged at me. my jump was successful and I hit right in the middle of the vine. The energy cut the vine in half. As I landed on the ground the top park of the vine fell in front of me. With my vines gone I looked at the others. Surprisingly, Shadow was great at fighting and I swear, I knew that fighting style. I looked over at Glowstick to see in my horror that one of the vines had wrapped around him! I ran to go help him but out of nowhere he got a arm gauntlet that had a knife attached. He extended the blade on his arm and sliced the vines grip. Killing it since the vine wrapped its body around him. He then swept at the other vines body make a shallow cut. Not enough to kill it but enough to make it flop onto the ground. He then flew up the dived down. Blade first at the head of the vine. Stabbing a clean hole into the middle of it. I then look over at Shadow , he has already killed one of the vines and is flying backwards up at the face of the vine. He folds his arm in and hits the vine in the middle of its mouth with his elbow. The vine collapses to the ground and weakly screeches before giving out and dying. With all vines dead, we sat there panting. Then it hit me. Shadows fighting style. Was the fighting style of a Changeling! I think Glowstick noticed to because he was walking up to Shadow with anger in his face. Glowstick grabbed Shadow and punched him in the face. Causing Shadow to fall flat on his back. “what the hell?!” Shadow exclaimed. “your fighting style! Is the fighting style of a Changeling!” Glowstick said with anger in his voice as he approached shadow. He went to hit him again. But I ran and held him back. “your a spy!” Glowstick yelled struggling to get past me. I pushed Glowstick away and yelled “stop!” it went quiet. Shadow and Glowstick facing each other. Me in the middle. “now. Shadow he is true you are using the fighting style of a changeling. Can you explain that?” Shadow explained everything. It turns out he was raised by Changelings. He said Queen Chrysalis raised him from fillyhood. Taught him how to fight and told him that all other ponies are bad ponies that do horrible things. he even said Princess Celestia killed his parents! He said that he snuck in the library when the Changelings took over Canterlot and Discovered that the ponies are good and the Changelings were the ones that invaded and enslaved the citizens. So in the middle of the night he ran away. His goal is to find what happen to his parents since he knows that Celestia didn’t kill them. I could tell he was telling the truth, but Glowstick. Ah Glowstick. He is still convinced that Shadow is a spy. Well off that topic, that was 20 minutes ago. Now were walking through the Everfree making our way to the castle. “are you sure we not lost” asked Glowstick. “Yes I know were it is and im pretty sure were on track” answered Shadow. “yea right” Glowstick said under his breath. I shot him a look saying “really?” he just rolled his eyes. “say Glowstick. Were did you get that knife gauntlet?” I asked Glowstick. “I've had it for while. Just back when we first met, I was to blind by cowardice to use it.” Glowstick answered with a still angry face . A gauntlet is a brace that goes on a ponies leg. A knife, sword, ax, or a spear can be attached. The chosen weapon stays lined up with the ponies leg and a cord goes up there inner leg to a switch that when the move there arm a specific way the blade flicks out, and extends over the ponies hoof(like Baraka's blades from Mortal Kombat.) as we got deeper into the forest, Shadow said “wait. Look” he pointed over to a tree. But it wasn't a normal tree. It was larger and had 2 windows and a door. Well had a door. The door was torn off, and the windows were smashed. “well lets have a look.” Shadow said nearing the tree. Me and Glowstick followed close behind. We entered the tree. It was creepy as hell. “sweet Celestia!” Shadow exclaimed as he walked in. the trees walls were lined with creepy masks and shelves that seemed to be holding ingredients and potions. In the middle of the tree there was a cauldron full of green mucky water. The whole tree looks like somepony brought vandalism to a whole new level. i walked around looking at the shelves of potions. There blue ones red ones. Even white ones. Then, I heard something crunch under my hoof. I looked down to see I stepped on a faded, partly ripped photo. I picked the photo up and wiped the dirt off. The photo was a picture of a zebra and she was standing smiling next to a young girl filly. The filly had red hair, with a pink bow in it. She had yellow skin and. hm. No cutie mark. I kept looking at the photo, then my heart sank when I realized that the zebra was the zebra nightmare moon took hostage. My thought twisted in to wonder as I wondered what had happen to the young filly. I was then surprised by a loud crash, I whipped my head up. Glowstick was glaring at the door. Knife drawn and Shadow was in his Changeling fighting stance. I then looked over the door to see 4 ponies wearing the same kind of armor made of what seemed like iron. I swung my body around and lit my horn for a fight. The dead stares everyone was giving each other was interrupted by one of the ponies. “Glowstick? Is that you?” he asked, taking his helmet off to reveal his mane. It was a white Pegasus with a blue and black Mohawk. “oh my Celestia, Ice!” Glowstick exclaimed. Glowstick retracted his knife and trotted over to 'Ice'. I looked over to Shadow and nodded for him to stand down. Ice did the same to his ponies. The mood of the room calmed down as Glowstick and Ice hoof bumped. They started to get into a conversation as I walked over to Shadow. “whats going on?” Shadow asked. “i don't know.” I answered blankly. Ice peeked over Glowsticks shoulder and did a double take as if he just noticed me. Glowstick turned around with Ice and walked toward me. The other ponies in armor following, still confused. “this is Ice Storm. He was one of the ponies I was in a group with before we were attacked, separated, and I found you.” Glowstick explained, his angry mood replaced with a joyful one. Ice smiled and waved at me, then immediately looked back over to Glowstick. “so, what are you guys doing all the way out here?” Ice asked. “we were heading over to the old abandoned castle because we heard ponies have set up a small town there.” Glowstick explained. Ices eyes widened as he said “that's funny. After we got separated I wandered into the Everfree until I found the castle. They were really nice and they took me in. actually, right now i'm leading these other ponies on a scout mission to find some ingredients for potions.” he pointed to the other ponies in armor. They waved nervously as if they had just met a cousin for the first time. Then Ice spoke up again “you guys should head back with us. We can get that leg bandaged up.” he pointed to my still injured leg. Sweet Celestia, I've completely forgot about that. “How did I fight with an injured leg?”i thought. I wish he wouldn’t of reminded me, because now all the pain started to come back and it probably wasn't gonna go away. “come on guys ill lead you back” ice said waving his hoof to the door. Glowstick and Shadow looked at me like they were looking for answers. “what?” I asked. “its your call” Glowstick said. I looked over to Shadow and he nodded at me. Then I realized. These ponies. Looked at me as if I was there leader. As if I led them out of tyranny and saved there families. With my new sense of confidence and morale, I answered “yes lets go to the castle.”
The Old CastleChapter 4 When we got to the castle we could automatically tell that they were staying for a while. They have carts, that they took the wheels off of and they use it as a barrier. Behind the “barriers”. They had added some wood planks to the rotting stone wall of the castle. They had scaffolds on the inside overlooking the bridge connecting the castle to the Everfree forest. On the scaffolds, there were ponies wearing the same armor as Ice and his patrol. But there armor seemed to be leather instead of iron. As we were walking to the front gate one of the guard ponies approached us. “newcomers?” he asked Ice. “Yup” Ice responded. “open the gate!” yelled the guard pony. The gate slowly rolled open as 3 ponies stepped out from the interior. The lead one was a blue mare with a gray ponytail and a book and feather cutie mark. She was being followed by 2 guard stallions and had a serious look on her face. She pulled a clipboard out as she approached us. “what is this?” Glowstick asked Ice. “an inspection. Don’t worry its just to make sure your not a Changeling.” he answered. The inspector pony inspected Shadow first. She open his mouth, stared into his eyes, and then lifted each of his legs up. She wrote something on her clipboard, then moved on to me. She did the same inspection routine to me, but when she go to my foreleg and saw the bandage she got serious. She unwrapped the bandage to see the gash from the pole. She then wrapped it back up and motioned for one of the guard ponies over without taking her eyes off the bandage. The guard pony walked over and stood at attention next to her. The inspector pony stopped looking at my leg and started to write on her clipboard. “get this pony to the surgeon.” she said without stopping writing. “surgeon?” I thought nervously. “great”. The guard pony started walking inside of the castle. I looked behind me to see Glowstick flash me a smile. “Ok. They look up to me like a leader. Don t show weakness. Show strength.” I thought as I lifted my head up and trotted into the castle. The surgeon had a weird accent. He replaced all his w's with v's and he said “ya!” after every sentence. “its not much but a flesh vound, you’ll be fine ya.” he told me while he looked at my unbandaged leg. “just keep it wrapped up for a vew more das and you’ll be fine ya.” his accent made my eye twitch. He let me leave, thank Celestia. The guard pony that showed me to the surgeon was outside waiting for me. “accent growing on ya?” he asked with a smile. “heh. Yea.” I responded shyly. “come with me. Ill show you to your room.” he instructed as he started walking down a corridor. Me following. You could tell the castle wasn’t used in thousands of years. The walls had moss growing on them and everything that was metal had completely rusted over or was starting to. The ponies there seemed to have a nice peaceful civilization set up though. there were maps of the place posted everywhere. The maps didn’t seem to have any sort of printing press format to them though. They all look as if they were drawn. On the way to my room I noticed several areas of interest. There was a marketplace that seemed to have a lot of shops set up ranging from clothing to weapons to a bunch of random stuff. My room was set right across from the massive library that a lot of ponies spent there time in from the fact that there was at least 20 in there right now. When I walked into my room Shadow and Glowstick were there to greet me. So was another pony. She was a alicorn but her horn seemed to be broken off. She was gray, but her legs and nose was light blue. She had a black and white mane and her cutie mark seemed to be a music note. They all trotted up to me “what happen. What did they do?” asked Shadow curiously. “nothing much he just told me to keep it bandaged up that’s all.” I said and flashed him a smile. “hey Beat.” Glowstick said happily. “This is my friend Musical. She is a alicorn. But her horn got. um. Taken off.” Glowstick said awkwardly. “yea I noticed. Nice to meet you musical.” I said smiling, putting my hoof out. “hi nice to meet you to.” she responded putting her hoof out and shaking mine. “Beat. Your on the top bunk. I'm below you, and Shadow is across from us." Glowstick said. I turned to him. “greaaat. Please tell me I didn’t need to bring a pillow or anything?” I asked. “no theirs already one there for you” Glowstick responded giggling. “well hey. At least something good happen today.” I said sarcastically as I walked over to my bunk. I was exhausted. Ive been waiting all day to sleep. All I've wanting to do was crash in a nice bed. But I was worried that I wouldn't get a bed to sleep in. it was a relief actually having one. Thankfully, Glowstick had Musical leave. It may seemed rude, but we were all tired from the Everfree. Shadow got in bed as Glowstick went to go put the wall torches we use as lights out. He blew them out, got in bed and it was time to sleep. Luckily I could sleep and I started dozing off.
The Challenge Of The ArenaChapter 5 I had a rude awakening by Glowstick. “Hey get up. Your gonna miss breakfast.” he told me while shaking my leg. “fiiiine I'll get up.” I groaned. I would love to stay in bed but I haven’t eaten since Celestia knows when and I was really hungry. I sat up and looked over to Glowstick. He also looked really hungry, so that was my cue to get out of bed. I slid off the top bunk, and looked at Shadows bunk. He wasn't there. “hey, where did Shadow go?” I asked Glowstick. “hes already at the dining hall. And I would love to join him just as soon as your ready to leave.” Glowstick told me with a sarcastic smile. I gave him the same “really?” look I gave him back in the Everfree. I turned away from Glowstick and walked to the only sink and mirror in the room. There was no more rooms to where we were living, it was just one room. 2 bunk beds in the corner, a sink at the end of the bed on the left. The closest we had to another room, was a closet at the end of the bunk me and Glowstick were sleeping in. I walked over to the mirror and used levitation magic to pick up the comb on the side of the sink. I combed my hair back in the way I always have it. Boy, sleeping really does a number on your hair. I forgot about small problems like that since Queen Chrysalis took over. I miss the post-apocalypse world. I thought “ right when the world goes back to normal. I'm taking a 24-hour long nap.” I then finished with my hair, turned to Glowstick and said “I'm hungry lets go.” “finally.” he exclaimed, rolling his eyes. I ignored that gesture and headed for the door. As I opened the door I realized, I'm not dead. Back in the Everfree, I was so sure I was gonna die there. But look at me now. Alive, and in somewhere were no one wants to kill me. This made me really happy and my mood went from exhausted to “i wanna hug everyone”. “Are you ok?” Glowstick asked worryingly. “Absolutely. Wonderful” I replied. I could tell he was weirded out by my happiness. But I didn't care, today was going to be wonderful. The dining hall was basically a cafeteria. Legit. There was a line on one wall, were ponies who looked as if they haven’t slept in days were serving food. Tables scattered around full of a mixture of citizens and guard ponies. I walked to catch up with Glowstick who was already in the line for breakfast. “there’s Shadow and Musical.” Glowstick said, interrupting my train of thought. “oh?” I say as I turn to look. Then I see her. Sitting with Musical and Shadow was. By far. The most attractive mare I've ever seen. She was a light brown unicorn, with a darker shade brown hair. Her cutie mark was 3 gold stars, with a pencil below the lowest one. “who's. That.” I asked Glowstick, still mesmerized. “Her name is Star, why?” he answered. And then, I was pretty sure he noticed me drooling over her. “OoooOooo, beat has a crush.” he said with a smug look on his face. “shut up.” I said while punching his shoulder. I was blushing profusely and I was embarrassed as hell. “is it really that noticeable?” I asked myself, if it was that was not good. We finally got to our food, I got 2 haycakes and a hash brown. On the way out of the line I picked up a cup of hot cocoa. I walked and sat down with Glowstick, Musical, and Shadow. I was reminded of Stars presence by Glowsticks smug smile. I glared at him giving him the “keep your mouth shut.” look. I turned my head down towards my food and started eating, vigorously. Shadow started a conversation with the rest of table, while is stare at my food. The butterflies in my stomach were out of control. “Beat, when's the last time you had a crush?” Shadow asked me. I dropped my fork and looked up, blushing like crazy “oh. Oh. Not for a while, heh heh.” I answered nervously. “You sure?” Glowstick asked with a smug look on his face. “yes.” I answered glaring at him. I looked back down at my food, everypony else continued talking about Celestia knows what. After breakfast we all parted our ways to explore the castle. Glowstick and Shadow left earlier to apply for the guard. So it was just me, Musical, and Star leaving the Cafeteria. “ I'm going to the Library right now, would you like to come Star?” Musical asked. “Um. Sure.” she replied. They walked off without even a goodbye. Well, now I was all alone. I was still tired, so I decided to go back to my room and try to sleep. I couldn't sleep, so I decided to go check out the enormous library everypony was at. It was massive, and luckily it wasn't as busy today. I wanted to learn more magic spells. All I knew are Magic Bolt and the head spike one. I wasn't able to perform that one anymore. It seemed almost like a one time thing. But I knew that it will return when I need it. The magic books were on the right side. Right next to some tables. I took a book that’s title read Magic Barriers And Basic Protection Spells. I levitated it and walked over to a table to read it. I sat on one of the pillows and opened the book up. I only read 2 words before hearing a voice across the table from me “um. hi.” I heard a familiar voice. I looked up to see Star sitting across from me giving a nervous smile. My eyes widened as the butterflies in my stomach returned. My face was blushing. Again. Like crazy. “oh. hi. I didnt see you there heh.” I responded nervously. “yea I saw you walk in. have you eve-” her words were cut short by 3 ponies standing over us. Our gaze was directed on them. There were 3 guard ponies. But one was wearing a golden colored armor. She was a orange unicorn with a blue mane. “Beat Drop?” she asked. “Yes?” I responded “My name is Captain Sofia Hawk and your presence is required by the General in the training room.” she answered. “Um. Ok” I said nervously. “if you would follow me please.” she directed as she turned away and slowly walked away from the table. I stood up quickly and started following her. I turned my head and shot Star a “sorry” look. She responded with a “it's ok look” and shook her hoof. the training room was just the old throne room with a few targets and dummies around. There were more guard ponies in leather armor practicing on the dummies and some shooting magic and the targets that were covered in burn marks. I looked to my left to see a white Unicorn wearing the same armor as Sofia. But it was purple and the top mane part was blue. “Beat Drop?” he asked me with a stern look in his face. “Y-Yes.” I answered nervously. “ The pony over there will get you suited up. Your buddy Glowstick says your a good fighter. I wanna see u fight.” I walked over the pony. He was at a long black table. He was green with white slicked black hair and seemed intimidating to me. As soon as I got there he pulled a normal sword out and put it on the table. “use your levitation magic to lift it.” he had a deep voice that sounded like a war veterans. “Actually. Can I have a Arm Gauntlet?” I asked “um. Sure?” he responded pulling a silver Arm Gauntlet out from under the table and placing it on the table. I put it on. It fit perfectly in place and the cord up my leg was surprisingly comfortable. I walked back over to the General pony and nodded my head. “extend the blade.” he ordered. I jerked my hoof out as the blade slid down my arm with a surprisingly soothing noise. He moved it to check if it was in place and pointed to the middle of the room. “move to the white marker on the floor.” he instructed. I walked over and stood on the white marker. “these are some training simulations to test your ability.” he yelled from the sidelines. There were ponies lined up behind a white line. The line was in a circle around me. There were 4 towers surrounding the circle. Each held a Unicorn. I looked around me at the surrounding ponies. They were cheering like this was some sort of sport. I noticed Glowstick, Shadow, Ice, Musical, and. Oh Celestia, Star on the sidelines cheering for me. “what if I make a fool of myself?” I thought. I really didn't want to embarrass myself in front of Star. “3!” one of the ponies in the tower yelled. His voice snapping me out of my trance. “2!” “1!” “Start round one!” he finally yelled. “well. Here goes nothing.” The Unicorns in the towers were using there magic to make holographic ponies with weapons. The holograms were purple and had no eyes, mouth, tail, or mane. The ponies all rushed me at once. I got down in a defensive pose and my mind went blank. All that was important was beating these holograms. I went for the one who was in front of me. it was jumping at me. Lifting its hoof to stab me with his Arm Gauntlet. I shot a magic bolt at it right before it landed a hit on me. It exploded into little blocks that rained down on top of me. I heard trotting to my right and swung around. There was one of them charging at me with a spear. When he reached me he thrusted the spear at me. I swung my leg up. Knocking the spear up with my Sword Gauntlet. I then thrusted my Gauntlet at its chest. Stabbing it and causing it to crumble over my sword. The last 2 holograms were rushing me at once. one had a Sword Gauntlet and the other was using its horn for magic. The one with the sword reached me and swung its hoof at me. I ducked down, letting the sword go over my head. I then jerked my head forwards, knocking the hologram back, and I swung my sword at it. Hitting its neck and causing it to crumble. I was reminded of the danger or the unicorn hologram by a magic bolt flying by my face, dangerously close. I felt the wind and heat of it as it passed my face. I ducked for cover. Soon finding there was none. The area was a flat stone floor. No fallen rocks or anything. I swung my head at the hologram, readying my horn. As my horn was about to shoot, I was greeted by a barrage of magic bolts. I canceled the shot and jumped to the left. I then sprinted straight at the hologram. I ignored the magic bolts and I kept running. I was getting a lot of burns as the bolts scraped past my skin. I didn’t care though. All that I care about was getting to this hologram. As I reached it, it was gonna try to shoot me straight in the face. I swung my hoof up, punching it in the chin and causing the magic bolt to go straight at the ceiling. It tried to punch me, but I jumped back. I landed and looked up. It was charging for a shot. A massive one! It was forming a ball of light on its horn that seemed to its own object. You see, the ball was forming on the tip of the horn so, it must to a danger to him to. If it were to backfire, I could win this. I acted fast, I ran at the hologram as it was charging up. I dropped onto my back, with the momentum of the run, I was sliding across the floor. As I slid past it I put a hoof out. Tripping it. I spun onto my stomach and looked ahead. It fell face first on the ground, pushing the ball of light into its head. There was a split second of silence then, BOOM!!! I put my hoof out to cover my eyes from the blinding light of the explosion. When it dimmed, I walked forward, bruised, burned, and tired. But I was victorious. The tiny cubes of the hologram rained down from the sky and bounced off my body. “Beat wins!!!” one of the tower Unicorns announced. There was cheering as I fell to the floor. I was exhausted and didn't want to move anymore. My eyes started to close as I saw Glowstick and Shadow running up to me, looking concerned. I let out a little “heh” before my eyes shut and everything fell silent...
A New DayChapter 6 I awoke in a my room. laying on my bunk. "ugh. what happen?" i thought. As I lay there in silence i heard something. I looked down from my bunk, but no-one was there. I then realized that there was a conversation going on outside. I couldn't hear clearly, I needed to get closer. I hopped down from my bunk and felt a sharp pain from my back leg as i collapsed to the ground with a loud thud. I heard the conversation outside the door stop. two ponies then ran into the room. "Are you alright?'" one asked. I looked up to see Glowstick standing over me. "Yea, i'm fine." I say as i stand up. next to Glowstick was next to the guard pony from earlier that had the different armor. "hello Beat." He said "who are you?" i asked "I, am Shining Armor. The General of the Royal Guard that used to serve and protect Canterlot, but now guard this castle and the ponies inside." he answered. "Ah, well, nice to meet you." i replied. he looked at me and nodded in agreement. "The General here has a. thing. he would like to discuss with you." Glowstick said. I looked over to Shining, he looked back at me. "Yes" he answered "when you're ready, it would be pleasant if you could join me in the Planning Room." He answered. "I have no idea where that is." I told him. "It is the room directly across from the entrance to the Training Area." he answered. "I must take my leave now, I am expecting to see you there after breakfast." he told me as. Shining then turned his back to me and walked out into the hallway, door closing behind him. I stood there for a second then it came to me " wait, did he just say breakfast?!" I exclaimed "yup." Glowstick answered "you mean i was out for a whole day?!" i said "yup." Glowstick answered "jeez..." I replied "I'm gonna head over to the Dining Hall. Coming?" Glowstick asked. "yea I'll be done there soon, go down without me." I replied. "Alright, see you there then." he said as he turned and walked away, door closing behind him. Now i was all alone in the room. i turned and looked into the mirror at myself, taking in the silence of the room. i stood there, staring into my own eyes and thinking. "what has happened?" I thought. Life used to be so simple. wake up, go to work, go home, sleep. everything we worried about used to seem so big. Now i wish i had the honor of worrying about those tiny things. We used to wonder when the next party was, when this or that came out, what people were doing. What i wouldn't do to get those things back. to take back my old life, to not have to worry about death,destruction, or being safe. i shook my head "No" i thought. "We will get our old lives back." i combed my hair once, turned away from the mirror, and walked out the door into the busy corridors of the castle. Walking through the halls of the Castle was a lot different it was yesterday. Yesterday, no pony even noticed my presence. Today, everyone was smiling and nodding at me and patting my back, And for reasons I didn't even know. I entered the cafeteria and hopped in line. 3 ponies let me go in front of them when they saw me. "whats going on?" i thought. i grabbed breakfast and walked over to the table with Shadow, Glowstick, Star(oh gosh), And Musical. " How's being a celebrity feel?" Shadow asked when i got over to our table with a smug look on his face. He was wearing his Guard Armor so I'm guessing he has Guard Duty after Breakfast. " I do not know why everyone is acting like this. Did I do something?" i replied. "wait. do you not remember about the Arena yesterday?" Shadow asked. "oh yea..." i answered. "oh yea is right. No pony has ever had that time that you had yesterday. And seeing as the Arena is a big deal around here, well now you're a big deal." Shadow said while taking a bite out of his hash brown. "Why are you wearing you're Guard Armor?" i asked, trying to change the subject. "There's some one 2 day 'Venture the General is sending my Squad on." he replied. "And as I've heard you will be joining us Beat." I Almost spit my food. "Wait. What?!" i yelled. A few ponies at other tables looked over at me. "Why wasn't i told this?!" i exclaimed, quieter this time. I noticed that Glowstick looked away. "Glowstick." I said to him "What? I don't know anything i swear." He said defensively. I knew he was lying "Glowstick." i said sternly back to him. At this point everypony at the table was looking at him. He looked at all of us with a worried look on his face. then he huffed and his shoulders dropped. "Alright fine, Shining told me about in the hall before you woke up." he answered. "Why didn't you tell me?!" i exclaimed "I. I just didn't want you to stress about it yet." he replied looking away in guilt. "You could of told me." i said back to him. "i know..." he answered, still looking away with a guilty look on his face, but now he was also blushing. I felt bad for yelling at him. "Thanks. You were just trying to help. But next time tell me okay?" i said with a calmer tone. "Okay." he replied. Now looking up at us. I finished my breakfast, said my goodbyes to them all, got up and left for the Planning Room. Still, Getting the occasional "good job" and head nod from everypony. Now that I knew what everypony was doing that for, i felt in a better mood, despite how beat up i was from yesterday. I just wish I knew what was coming. Author's Note Thank you to anybody who is still reading! i had a little break because of no motivation, but now I have returned to the writing block! 3 new chapters will be up by next Friday!
The PlanChapter 7 The Planning Room was a dimly lit room with a circular lit up table in the center with a hologram of a Forest on it. The hologram was powered by a generator in the corner of the room with tubes of bright purple magic on the sides. Shadow told me that all the power in the Castle was by a generator room in the back of the Castle and was powered by Unicorn magic. Every morning certain Unicorns would go and fill the tubes up, and then the Castle would have power for a day. On the left side of the Planning Room there was a giant map of Equestria that was lit from behind. On the map there were markings on all Major Cities. I was guessing they were planning something. As i entered the room i saw Shining in front of the table talking to another Guard Pony. Shining heard me walk in and turned his head to me. Also directing the attention of the Guard Pony to me. I saw that the Guard Pony was the pony from yesterday, Captain Hawk. "Ah, Beat so nice of you to join us." Shining said to me. "Yea no problem." i told him. Hawk just nodded to me, i nodded back. "Okay, so Glowstick told you about the mission that i have put you on?" Shining said as he walked to the other side of the table, Hawk followed him and stood on the left side of the table. "Yes, he did." i replied, remembering how Glowstick tried to keep it from me. I walked forward until i was in front of the table. "Alright." he answered "As I hope you know, Tirek controls the Everfree Forest that our Castle here is inside of, And our first objective is to obtain control of the Forest. Not only so we don't have to worry about attacks, but also so we can expand. Our Population in this Castle increases everyday, and we need to expand." He explained. "but in order to do that, we need to destroy Tirek and Destroy Chrysalis's Presence in the Forest." He said "Now wait." what you're saying is that I'm just being thrown in a assassination Operation without even my consent?" I interrupted . "Oh, Celestia no." he responded. "The mission is to weaken the Base Tirek has created." he said. Shining pointed to the hologram. I now noticed the hologram was the Everfree Forest. "Here's his base." Shining said pointing to a clearing on the map. It was shaped like a hexagon. " You and the squad you will be put in are taking control of these." He said, the map scrolled over away from the base and to 3 smaller bases, square shaped, all with a tower like structure in the middle. " You will need to liberate the towers, which will cut energy flow to Tirek, which will in the end weaken him." "Alright." i said, relieved I didn't have to go assassinate some all powerful being with a couple of basic trained soldiers. "Hawk here will be leading this operation." Shining informed me. " Each base is about a 3 miles apart and the walk to just one base is a 20 mile trek so I recommend getting some practice in, choose what weapons you'll use, then get some sleep because you wont be getting much tomorrow. Dismissed." He said turning away from me and starting his conversation with Hawk back up. I turned and started to walk out the door, planning to go to the Training Area, when Hawk ran in front of me and stopped me. She glared at me. "Don't screw anything up." She said with a stern voice. " There's gonna be about 20 Changelings at each base so you better be prepared." She told me. She then turned and walked back over to Shining. "Great. 20 Changelings. Now there's a lot of pressure on me." I thought before huffing, I needed to train hard. And i planned on doing just that. I entered the Training Area. Arena to my left, Armory to my right. I searched the area for any other pones. None. Besides the unicorns that work in the towers there were no other ponies training. "Great." I thought. " I have the place all to me." I walked over to the Armory and entered it. I thought that getting weapons before practicing may be the most logical thing to do. It looked a lot like a bank teller. A counter, a fence window. with a pony behind and all the weapons racked up behind him. Although, now that I think about it back tellers have glass windows. "Can I help you?" He asked with a slight hint of rudeness. He was reading a magazine and I guess I was interrupting. "Yes." I answered. "I'm going on a mission tomorrow and need gear. General's orders." "Ah. alright." He replied, closing the magazine. "What would you like?" I started browsing the rack behind him. I started with looking through the sword gauntlets. They all had a different lengths from 12' to 36'. I decided I would use a 22' gauntlet and a silver chest piece and boots " A 22' Gauntlet and that set of silver armor please. Leave out the helmet." I told him. He gave me a weird look then turned and levitated the items over to the counter. "Alright. dressing rooms over there if you want to try on another set." He told me. "oh no this set will be perfect." I said, slipping on the armor. I was right, it fit perfectly. Wasn't too heavy wasn't too light. it didn't even rattle when I was walking over to the Arena. I guess the tower unicorns must of understood my intentions because when they saw me walk over there they all went to their towers. I redirected myself and headed for the center of the arena. "What do you want?" one of the tower unicorns asked. "Randomize them." I told him. Thinking now, I'm going to be up against 8 Changelings with my squad. so why not practice with. 5 for now. "5 of them." I yelled to the tower unicorn. The 5 of the holograms appeared me and immediately started darting at me. "Well. Here we go again." It thought.
