A Few Good Ponies

Canterlot Castle

0200hrs

Celestia tossed and turned in her sleep, sweat matting her coat, as she found herself in the grasp of a nightmare. A series of visions flashed through her head: Flash. An army of ponies in black armor so dark that it seemed to absorb all light around it. Flash. Canterlot in flames as a robed figure watched, only its eyes visible as they reflected the flames of the burning city. Flash. A fiery gateway, surrounded by the moonlight hills and rocky spires of a desert. Only darkness visible through its shimmering surface.

She awoke with a start, breathing heavily. Her sister Luna rushed into the room, a look of worry in her eyes as she embraced the white allicorn.“Sister, what is it you saw? I sensed your nightmare in the dreamscape, but 'twas gone before I could see anything.”

Celestia composed herself, “I fear there is a threat to Equestria from Tartarus. One of its prisoner has escaped, and I believe they have opened a gateway to our world somewhere in the badlands.”

Luna responded, “Tis a grave threat indeed, we must take action immediately!”

Celestia thought for a moment. “Agreed. I will send a detachment of the Royal Guard to the Badlands to assess this threat, and hopefully deal with it before anything can come of it.”

Canterlot

0230hrs

In the silence of the early morning as everypony slept, an airship came to life with the soft hum of magically driven propellers, casting off its moorings and flying off into the darkness.

Royal Guard Airship Wayfarer en route to the Badlands

0800hrs

SGT Sunrise sat on a bench in the dimly lit interior of the Wayfarer, shivering slightly as a cool breeze blew through an open window, ruffling his silver mane that stuck through the top of his gold helmet, and chilling him though his orange coat. The room consisted of two long benches running form the front to the back. Both were packed with guard ponies decked out head to hoof in brilliant gold armor. A full platoon of Canterlot's finest. His horn was lit with a dull orange glow as he read over the mission briefing for the third time since leaving Canterlot. It seemed straightforward enough. Scouts would go in ahead of the ship and search for a supposed magical anomaly. The guards would then land, secure the area, and deal with whatever it was appropriately.  He yawned quietly. It was far too early for his liking, and he hadn't had time to grab so much as a cup of coffee during the organized chaos of everypony getting geared up and loaded onto the ship. Couldn't they have at least given him the time to grab some breakfast?

His quiet musings were interrupted as and officer walked down the stairs from the top deck and cleared his throat. “Attention everypony! Our pegasi scouts have reported back with the location of the anomaly. We will be landing within 15 minutes, get ready.”

The Wayfarer touched down gently on to the desert sands, the wood hull creaking as it settled to a stop. Several pegasi flew out carrying ropes and stakes to secure the ship to the ground. A ramp was tossed over the side and the guards disembarked. Sunrise looked around. The desolate landscape was bathed in the light of the morning sun, causing him to squint.

A member of his squad, a dark blue pegasus with a black mane, PVT Lightning Strike hovered  high in the air next to him. “This sure is exciting huh sarge? It feels good to finally be doing something real.” Then, with an excited look on her face she said, “Oh I think I can see it from here!”

Sunrise couldn't see anything with there being a large sand dune between him, and whatever was on the other side. He just mumbled an unenthusiastic “Uh huh” as the group moved forward, fanning out as they moved over the dunes. As they crested the dune, he was finally able to see the object in question. It was a large door shaped object wreathed with magical flames that charred the sands around it. Even as they approached it, nothing could be seen through it other than an inky black darkness.

“Alright.” Spoke the officer. “Lieutenant Firefly and SGT Sunrise, take a team of unicorns and scan the portal. See if we can't shut this thing down. The rest of you provide security. There's no telling if anything came through already.” As the other guards spread out into a large circle to watch the area, Sunrise and the other unicorns approached the portal. He could feel the magical energy pouring off of it. It felt wrong, like it was somehow rotten. They lit their horns, probing every angle of the portal, searching for a weakness.

“Should be easy to close it.” Spoke Firefly. “If we target each of these nodes, it will collapse on itself, but that will also cause it to release a lot of energy. Violently.” Minding the warning, the unicorns backed up to a distance they figured to be safe, and channeled their energy into the designated areas of the portal. Quickly, the portal began to crumple in on itself, almost like someone was crumpling a ball of paper. It disappeared into nothing, then with a loud boom a wave of energy exploded outward, causing Sunrise to shield his eyes as sand was flung everywhere. When he looked up, all that was left was a smoking crater where the portal had been, all of the sand around it super heated to the point that it looked like liquid glass. Cheers erupted from the guards; however, it was short lived as a cloud of thick fog rolled in to cover the area, making it impossible to see more than a few feet in any direction.

Screams were heard in the distance as Sunrise's ears swiveled around trying to get an idea of where they were coming from as his amber eyes darted back and forth.

Then, a deep raspy voice was heard, seeming to come from everywhere at once. “You fools, you have done away with one way you could have gotten rid of me, and now all shall be mine.” The guards that had been stationed farther out walked back toward the group, but something was wrong. A faint green glow could be seen in their eyes, before it slowly faded away, a sickly smile on their faces. Behind them a hooded figure approached, and from under his hood black tendrils of magic shot forth, hitting any pony unfortunate enough to be close to him. They fell to the ground, but soon stood back up with the same sickly glow around their eyes. They all spoke at the same time in an eerie harmony with the creature, who removed his hood, revealing the face of a smiling black unicorn with an even darker black mane that seemed to flow in an invisible wind.

“There is nothing you can do. Fight, run, you will all be mine in the end, for we are Multis” The ponies under his influence began to attack their former comrades, pinning them down so that they could easily be hit with the unicorn's spell. The guards were quickly outnumbered as more and more turned against them. Sunrise began to run, but was quickly tackled by Lightning strike as a magic tendril shot past him. He was about to hit her with a blast of magic with his horn, when she offered him a hoof, helping him up, and yelling at him to move. They ran through the chaos as more and more of the guards were taken down, he dodged past one of the infected, and jumped over another as Lightning flew next to him. Suddenly they breached the edge of the fog, emerging into bright sunlight. Blinking, and shielding his eyes from the sudden brightness, he tumbled down a sand dune and into a rocky outcropping, Lightning flying next to him didn't fair much better, slamming into a rock wall and falling down to land on one of her wings. Sunrise helped her up, glancing at her wing. It was clearly dislocated, if not broken, and several of the feathers were bent out of place. They walked farther into the stand of rocks, hiding them from the battle behind them that was quickly fading as less and less were left to fight back. A short time later it stopped completely, and the fog dispersed.

Sunrise and Lightning sat next to each other in the rocks panting.

“We just left them!” Sunrise said with an angry whisper.

“We didn't have a choice.” Hissed Lightning. “If we tried to fight, we would ended up the same as them! We can't help them if we're infected too!”

Sunrise sighed. “You're right Private.” His ears perked up as the sound of the Wayfarer's engines starting up sounded in the distance. A short time later they pressed themselves to the ground, a large shadow passing over them as the Wayfarer flew past, flanked by several pegasus guards.“If he's controlling them completely, he has all of their knowledge and memories. If they're heading back to Canterlot, they'll have no problem infiltrating the castle and doing Celestia knows what. We have to get back and warn them, but we're going to need help, and we've got a long journey ahead of us.”

Lightning stood up, a determined look in her sapphire eyes. “It may be a long flight, but I'm one of the fastest pegasi in the guard! I can beat them there!” Sunrise put his armored hoof on her wing and gave it a gentle nudge. Lightning flinched, as she looked down at her injured wing. Tears sprang to her eyes as she tried to move it, spikes of pain lancing through her body as the adrenaline from the battle wore off.

“It's broken” Sunrise said softly. I'm sorry private, but it looks like we're walking."

The two ponies left the rocky outcropping, climbing over dunes, heading North. Every so often Sunrise would light his horn, casting a spell to confirm they were heading in the right direction. He silently thanked himself for taking the time to enroll in the Royal Guard's path finding course. With the rough and confusing terrain of the Badlands, they would surely be lost without it. Looking back, he noticed several pegasi in the distance circling around, searching for survivors.

He looked over to Lightning. “We should ditch our armor. With the sun shining on us like it is, it will be real easy to spot us.”

Lightning nodded, and they dug a small hole. They quickly stripped off their armor and buried it. Sunrise cast a quick spell over the hole to mark the location. That gear isn't cheap after all, and he didn't want to have to explain to supply why he just ditched it in the middle of nowhere.

After walking for some time, the sun began to get low in the sky. Both ponies were sweating, but it was quickly wicked away by the dry desert heat. Licking his dry lips, Sunrise decided to use another trick he had learned. He signaled Lightning to stop, and dug a shallow hole in the sand. Concentrating, he cast a spell, and water began to seep out of the ground, filling the hole. Both ponies drank their fill before moving on. Sunrise was a talented mage, but that spell had taken a lot out of him. Lightning wasn't fairing much better, flinching as each step caused her injured wing to move around. With the sun going down, the sweat that had been evaporating was now matting their fur, and they were both starting to shiver from the cold. They stopped next to a rocky spire and piled up rocks to make a crude shelter against the rock face. By this time it was now completely dark, so the two ponies huddled together in the shelter, shivering. Huddling together they shared their body heat, and with the exhaustion of a long day setting in, they quickly fell asleep.