Author's Note

Here it is.
Finally!
Sorry it took so long!
Expect more frequent chapters again!

Not as planned (Red Wave)

Chapter Thirteen: Not as planned (Red Wave POV)

As soon as I was out of the hatch of the Moonlight, chaos started to rise. While the magical shields from the unit Night had deployed protected the hatches and the ship itself, our troops descending weren't so lucky. Right to my side a mare cried out as a blast struck her square into her chest, burning armor and flesh away.

Many of our guards had no protection against magical attacks. Who would blame us? We never had to fight against unicorns before. That just meant we had to find them and cut them down quickly. I smiled slightly. Now that’s something I can definitely do.

They weren’t easy to miss, two standing on the windmill and two more on the ground. As the stallion descending next to me got hit, I snapped and moved quicker, racing towards the windmill.

“Kill that one!” one of the unicorns screamed and pointed a hoof at me, but it was too late.

Trusting the spells on my armor, I sped hooves first into the roof of the building, sending it collapsing, and the two unicorns with it. The enchanted armor dampened my impact, leaving me unharmed as I pulled a full break around one floor before the ground.

The unicorns weren’t that lucky, impacting the ground with several sounds, none of them too healthy.

You will regret killing my cousin!

One of the unicorns wasn’t dead and it only added to my annoyance. Shaking the dust and smaller rubble from my coat, I walked over, placing a hoof on his throat. “Tell me what I want to know and you might live.”

“Why are you helping the demons?” the unicorn spat into my face, his blue eyes oddly empty and hollow.

“Which demons? You attacked without warning!” I growled.

“The young princess turned into the nightmare! We have to stop her! As we tried to end her reign, your troops from the camp attacked us! We just defended ourselves so we can go back home!”

“Lies!” I snapped back, adding more pressure to his throat. “All lies, you fucking traitor!”

“Please, we did it for Equestria!” the stallion wheezed.

“You really thought you would do this for Equestria?” I asked, hesitating, but a quick thought of Strawberry’s broken body at the ground fueled my anger more. “Then you die with a lie, traitor.”

He tried to say something, scrambling and tossing under my hoof as more and more pressure cut off his air. I had no idea how long it took, but finally something gave under the pressure with a crack, ending his poor life. As the stallion looked at me, the dull look vanished from his eyes with a small spark, before he was gone.

“Something is really fishy here,” I mumbled before spreading my wings and looking around.

While I had taken care of the unicorns on the windmill, the two unicorns on the ground had been taken care of by some Linebreakers. Various cuts and dents only proved that the heavily armored guards were effective.

Better them than us.

“Ma’am!” One of the Linebreakers came over and saluted. “The Royals are closing in on the Castle. We have to get over there and help the Twilight Guard.”

I blinked. “The twilight guard?”

“Yes, ma’am! Princess Twilight choose ten ponies she trusted for her guard. They are currently struggling to repel the enemy from the castle ground.”

“Well, I hope they are better than this here,” I growled and kicked one of the dead unicorns. “To the castle! If something happens to the bookworm, Luna and Night will hand us our flanks!”

***

The ground around the castle was a mess. Dozens of Royals tried to get up the stairs and into the castle, but a solid, purple bubble hindered them in doing so. They attacked it with their swords, hooves, and other blades, some even throwing stones. Some of them seemed not right in their mind, throwing their armor against the shield or running into it.

As we approached it, the bubble fizzled, before growing stronger once more.

“Seems like we are the first to arrive. We have to help them before the shield breaks!” I shouted to the two Linebreakers before speeding up, racing towards the castle.

The shield fizzled more and more as we came closer, showing more and more guards clad in golden armor trying to break the shield. Just behind the shield, I noticed five guards with unusual armor. It was a light one in a mixed purple, silver and black.

I pumped my wings faster and faster, the Linebreakers falling behind due their heavy armor, but that was far from my mind. About to reach the grounds, I saw a big stallion throwing his full weight against the bubble, shattering it. The whole bubble went down and the screaming started as the Royals rushed up the stairs.

“Fall back!” Princess Twilight’s amplified voice sounded up and her guard slowly backed away, trying to protect their princess.

Just a few more wingspans and I’m there

The stallion that crushed the bubble stood again, looking at the dented metal on his body and in his hooves, what used to be armor and and a shield. With a scream, he threw the rest of his shield into the group of defending ponies and I sped up again.

I was too late.

The shield contacted with a loud smash, knocking one of the defenders to the ground, to be immediately swarmed by Royals. The stallion’s screams cut off quickly and then something unexpected happened.

Princess Twilight stepped forward, her eyes glowing. In the next moment, her whole body was burning as if she was born of Tartarus itself, letting loose a shockwave that ran into the attackers.

A bit too late, I realized, it would hit me as well.

“Oh you gotta be fucking kidding me!”

That wasn’t how I had planned this day.

***

“Red? Red! Wake up! RIGHT NOW!”

Opening my eyes, I groaned as light pierced them, just to groan even more as I came muzzle to muzzle with Night. “What the hay?”

“Good, you’re not a stain on the ground yet. Now get up, we’ve got company!”

“What the buck hit me?”

“Seems like the Princess shouldn’t be angered lightly,” Night chuckled before lending a hoof to help me up. Taking it thankfully, I hopped up before wincing in pain.

“Feels like she used an armored train to drive over me.”

“Some broken bones, internal bleeding, she sure did,” Night sighed. “But we need you. Shield will rip my wings off for that, but we need you. Twilight managed to cut a wide row of attackers down, but we’re still outnumbered until the rest of our troops comes in.”

“She will. And how do you know my injuries?”

“Twilight scanned you. Now come, I need your help with something.”

“That would be?”

“Gathering information,” Night said before starting to walk and I followed her. “Did you notice their eyes?”

“Yes,” I blinked. “As if something is influencing them.”

“Well, we found a stallion that looked normal and he got a sealed letter with him that he immediately ate before we could restrain him,” Night paused and looked at me. “I want you to break him.”

“Can’t you do that and I can go back to the Moonlight and see a doctor?” I asked bluntly.

“Red Wave. I’m not asking you to simply interrogate him,” she scowled back. “I want you to really break him. Do what you want but we need this information! We have to know what’s going on!”

“Since you’re really really nicely asking….” Sighing, I set up a smile. “Guess I’m on pain magic since I’m not really feeling that bad?”

“Twilight says it’ll last for around an hour, then you’ll break down.”

“Sounds promising!”

“Yeah, joke aside,” Night said before pointing at a door. “In there.” Just as I was about to go, she held me back with a hoof. “Please, just this time, control yourself. I don’t care if you rip him into pieces. But we need information first.”

“I got it,” I growled back.

She held the gaze for some time before stepping aside. “I trust you with this, Red.”

I drew a deep breath before reaching for the door and going inside. The stallion bound to a chair immediately looked up at me, then grinned.

“Another mare? I hope you are as tough as your high and mighty general claims. I won’t tell you a bit,” he said and spit down to my feet. “All of you will die so the true King can rise!”

I smiled softly as I sat down, looking at him smugly. “What a sham of a king he’s got to be, using small pawns like you to do his dirty work. And not really effective, I might add. All of your comrades are dead by now.”

“Comrades? They were simply used! Bait for the cannons! We couldn’t care less about them!”

“Who are you exactly?”

“Bite me!”

“If you tell me everything I want to know you get to live,” I said, then sighed. “If not, you will be in for a world of pain you can’t even imagine.” Showing my full set of fangs, I stood up and walked up to him. “Now tell me what I want or you end up as a bloody stain!”

“You don’t scare me!” he shouted before laughing. “Hail the King!”

Then he bit down on something, faster than I was able to grasp his jaw and stop him. In a matter of seconds he was shaking and drooling up blood, until he laid still.

“Oh buck me!”

That really wasn’t going as planned.

“Night is going to tan my hide…”