Prologue(RE-RELEASE, HEAVILY UPDATED)
The clock had just ticked to midnight when Rainbow heard a knock on her door. At first she tried to ignore it, but another round of knocks came in . She muttered to herself, "This better be good," and got out of bed, walking to the cloudstone door.
She opened the door, "What?" It probably wasn't the nicest sounding greeting, but it didn't matter, because nopony was there. Dash looked around, nothing. She looked down and saw a scroll with a midnight blue seal, "What the..."
She grabbed the scroll and walked back inside, shutting the door behind her. She walked over to her couch and slumped down onto it. She opened the scroll, and she read:
Rainbow Dash,
I suppose you're wondering why you received this letter in the middle of the night, and I am sorry for that, but there was a reason for this. I want to offer you a special position in my personal guard. If you chose to accept, please come to the Canterlot Castle within seventy-two hours of receiving this letter. Also, if you choose to accept, please do not bring anything with you, and be prepared to stay in Canterlot for exactly thirty days.
You may not have noticed, but there has been an operative watching you for a month and a half now, and I have decided from what she tells me, you are the perfect pony for a job such as this. This is a position of great honor and requires immense skill, loyalty, and determination. You can always deny, but I hope you consider. I would be honored if you would join the Lunar Guard, you have a lot of potential.
Show the seal on this scroll to the guards at the castle and they will take you to me without question.
P.S. Please do not inform anypony of this, not even your friends.
Sincerely,
Princess Luna
"That was rather... straight forward." Rainbow muttered to herself.
She thought it was a little creepy that there had been someone watching her for months and she didn't notice, but she shrugged it off quickly. If all they needed was to evaluate her awesomeness, it wasn't a problem with her.
For the next couple of hours, Rainbow did nothing but sit on her bed and think. There were a couple things to take in consideration. How will the weather team work without me? Ah, it's fine Cloudchaser can replace me. But my friends, I'll be leaving them for Celestia knows how long. Well, even though we may not be in the same city, our friendship will hold, Look at Rarity after all! She moved to Manehattan and we still talk to her tons.
Last but not least, Rainbow would need to think about what the job would entail. From the stories I've heard of the Lunar Guard, they are fierce fighters, masters in stealth, and a much more impressive than the Royal guard in all aspects except numbers. Hm... To be Rainbow had always dreamed of joining the guard when she was a filly, but that was before the Wonderbolts came into her life. When she was told that she could only be put on the reserve team because of her status as an Element however, she let that dream slip through the cracks of her mind, looking for something else. This seemed like a great way to fill the gap.
Ultimately, Rainbow made a decision, she was going to Canterlot to train with Luna and become one of Equestria's most elite soldiers, serving Princess Luna and protecting the ponies of Equestria from dangers. Huh, this would make for a great action book
Rainbow would have tried to sleep again, but she knew that she wouldn't be able too. She was already wide awake because of that letter, so she decided to stretch her wings and go for a nice night fly.
Rainbow opened the door and walked out onto her deck, immediately feeling the chill of the cool night air. She always found it was somewhat easier to do anything in the dark. It was something she couldn't explain, but the night was something that seemed to always make her faster and more agile than in the day. She could never explain it and didn't understand it, it just felt... natural.
With a swift kick off the ground the rainbow maned mare dove off of the cloud platform with her wings locked to her sides and fell towards Ponyville.
Rainbow saw the ground and starting counting down.
500 feet
400
300
200
100... Now!
Dash spread her wings and turned them to the perfect angle and she caught air seconds before she connected with the ground. She pulled up, slowing herself to a steady cruising speed while she gained altitude. Soon she was soaring over Ponyville, enjoying the freedom the night skies granted her.
Dash wasn't surprised when she saw no lights inside of every building she passed. She flew above most of town and eventually started following the street that Twilight's library was on. She didn't have intentions of waking up Twilight, but she noticed the inside of her bedroom was illuminated with some form of life
She slowed herself and circled the building a couple times. Her usual entrance was open, so she dove through the window, clearly scaring the hell out of Twilight. Dash didn't crash this time, she slowed to a stop just in front of the bookcase she normally crashed into. "Rainbow Dash!" Twilight half-yelled. "Spike is sleeping!"
"Heh, sorry Twi." Rainbow Dash responded.
"Why are you even here at this hour?!" Twilight seemed the slightest bit angry, then Rainbow saw the books all over her bed followed by tons of research notes, or at least what she guessed were research notes.
"Why are you even up at this hour?" Dash found it fun to answer a question to a question sometimes.
"I'm studying!" Twilight's voice was downgraded to a whisper-yell.
Rainbow said something she always wanted to say to this mare, "Twilight, have I ever told you how much you need to get laid?"
Twilight's cheeks turned a dark shade of red, "Dash!"
Dash grinned with the reaction she got from that, then in her defense said, "What? It's true, you're always stuck in this library reading, what are you studying for anyway?"
Twilight sighed, she wasn't going to get an answer unless she asked, "Nevermind that, why are you here?"
"Well, I wasn't originally planning on stopping, but I saw the lights on and the window open."
"You know Dash, there's this wonderful thing called a door that you could use."
"Nah, doors are too lame. Anyway, since i'm here, I want to tell you I won't be able to do that science thing with you next week." Dash decided it was a convenient time to speak with Twilight about this. She wasn't going to tell her the full story.
"Why?" Twilight questioned.
"The Princess requested to see me in Canterlot."
"Princess Celestia, why?"
"Luna, not Celestia."
"Princess Luna?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Didn't say," Rainbow lied, she had no choice and luckily honesty wasn't her element.
"When are you leaving?"
"Sometime later today, for-"
"Don't you mean tomorrow?" The answer prompted Twilight to look at the clock hanging on her wall, "Woah! It's nearly three in the morning! How did I not notice?!"
Dash laughed, falling on the ground, "Man Twi, you really need to loosen up, remind me to get you a nice stallion to give you a good time when I get back."
Once again turning beet red, Twilight responded, embarrassed, "Dash! Stop talking about that!"
"What, not into Stallions? Well, I presume I could make that happen too." Rainbow was enjoying herself quite a lot, Twilight was just too easy to tease.
If it were possible Twilight would've turned a darker shade of red, but it wasn't. Twilight broke the conversation, calming herself down, the blush disappearing from her face slightly. "Alright Dash, we can always delay the research for a while. No rush."
"Aww, you're no fun. Well, I think I'm gonna go for a fly, get some rest Twi."
"I could say the same to you, well, not the fly part but you know what I mean."
"Yeah I guess so, well see ya Twi!" Dash shot out of the window at speeds that turned the pages in her book.
Dash flew around, and went to check the train station for this morning. She was looking around for the faintest hint of someone following her, she saw nothing, which only makes sense, after all, if she could find somepony they weren't doing their job right.
***
Rainbow Dash had just gotten off of the train to Canterlot, where she was about to visit Princess Luna. She had already told her friends where she was going, as well as her boss, so she was in the clear. Nopony knew the real reason she was out here, and she did kind of feel bad for lying, Luna's letter didn't say she had to keep it a secret, but she knew she should.
Dash took to the skies the second she got away from the train station, it would only take her a few minutes to get to the castle at her speed.
Like she expected, Dash made it to the front of the castle in just six minutes. She stepped up to the main gate where two guards were standing, doing their job no doubt. She walked up to one of them and said, "I'm here to see Princess Luna." She promptly got out the seal on the scroll the Princess sent her.
Immediately, the one on the left whispered something to the right and told her, "Yes, of course. Follow me miss Dash." The gate opened and she followed the guard inside. They went through the entrance hall and up a stairwell, leading to the main hall. They walked to the end of this hall then took a right, up two more flights of stairs.They took another right leading to another hallway. They took one last left at the end of this hallway and at the end of this corridor were Princess Luna's chambers. It was actually quite a walk, it took a good ten minutes to get up here. They also passed a lot of guards, all dressed in gold armor, standing at attention. I guess the Lunar Guard is beyond statue duty
"Here we are." That was all the guard said before leaving to get back to his station.
Rainbow Dash cleared her throat and knocked on the door.
Almost instantly she heard a familiar voice behind the door, "Enter." Dash opened the door slowly and walked in, "Ah! Rainbow Dash! I didn't expect you would come so quickly, but nevertheless I am glad you accepted my offer."
Rainbow chuckled, barely able to contain her nervousness, "I am honored that you chose me to be a part of your guard, Princess." She promptly bowed, it seemed appropriate.
Luna smiled, "Rainbow I am happy you are so ready to join, but we must speak about what responsibilities you will have as a member of the Lunar Guard."
"Well, doesn't it mean I get to kick some flank and of course, protect you, Princess?"
Luna chuckled, "Of course, you will be security for me, and I can certainly assure you that you will be'kicking some flank' as you put it. You will be an integral part of keeping piece in equestria, sometimes with the use of extreme force. You will perform missions for me and my sister that can range from raiding criminal hideouts to getting hostages out of sticky situations, if you accept of course."
Rainbow dash smirked back and responded, "Well I'm in then! Anything I can do to help you or the ponies of Equestria is something I am willing to do!"
"Rainbow, do you understand that you may have to hurt some ponies, bad ponies mind you, but you will still have to hurt them in order to insure safety of others?" Luna had to repeat it multiple times to ensure that Rainbow Dash understood the magnitude of the job she was willing to take on.
Rainbow's smile faded into a more serious look, but a small grin was still visible, "Of course I do Princess, It's something I've come to accept long ago, when you came back as Nightmare moon," Luna winced at the memories, but she knew Dash had good intentions, "I realized that sometimes ponies have to be hurt, or sometimes worse, for the greater good of all ponydom."
Luna smiled again, recovering quickly from the reminder of the Nightmare, "You are a wise mare Rainbow, and I do not mean to speak bad on your friends but, you seem to be a much more intelligent mare than they would lead us, being myself and my sister, to believe."
Rainbow laughed, a reaction Luna was not expecting, "Normally I'm not this sentimental, please don't tell anypony what I've said, it'll ruin my rep."
It was Luna's turn to laugh, "Of course not dear Loyalty. Knowing full well that you may have to cause harm to other's, are you still willing to accept my offer, and join the ranks of my small but powerful Lunar Guard?"
Rainbow dash bowed, bringing her chest as low to the ground as she could, "Of course Princess, it would be my honor to provide your guard with the awesomeness that is myself."
This mare is something else, and I think I like it
"Very well, relax for today, we will start tomorrow, you will be with a class of seven other recruits, and I imagine you will get along with them just fine."
Author's Note
Re Release, there may be formatting issues or other grammar errors, please let me know.
I need an editor or proofreader if somebody is interested in helping out.
