Author's Note

This my first story on Fimfiction! Yay! So, I hope to upload a chapter a week. That is only if I have time in my schedule. I have school, so, yeah. This story doesn't have a set ending yet, so it may have many chapters, just like Fallout: Equestria - Project Horizons. I haven't finished reading that yet... I probably won't have chapters longer than, let's say, 2,000 words, because then procrastination, schoolwork, laziness, and videogames would make chapters come out over 2 months apart. This story will have blood and gore and mild sexual references, this chapter is just the build-up to explain the things happening after this. But anyway, here is Chapter 1 of Equestrian Royal Intelligence. Everypony, enjoy!

Chapter 1: For the Defense of Equestria

"Corporal Star Dasher, will you defend the princesses until the very end?"

"I will."

"Will you defend our homeland, our great country, Equestria?"

"I will."

"Will you perform your duties to your best abilities, and fight to defend the greater good?"

"I will."

"Then I pronounce you the commanding officer of the Equestrian Royal Intelligence, or ERI for short. Please rise First Lieutenant Star Dasher," Princess Celestia said, her voice unwavering. I stood up from kneeling to attention, but relaxed my body as Princess Luna motioned for me to rest.

"You are no regular Guard now, Dasher," Princess Celestia said. "As you know, your job is to report any new developments happening in Equestria directly to us. Your job is highly secretive, as only the Princesses, Shining Armor, and the Elements of Harmony know what you do."

"I am the right pony for the job," I replied, my spirits high.

"I hope so," the Princess replied. Her horn lit up with a magical glow as she took out a file- No, wait, make that my file. She opened the file, and said, "Your record is outstanding, Lieutenant. Passed flight school with flying colors... Top of your class at the Royal Officer's Academy... Won the sharpshooter contest 3 times... Huh." Celestia flipped through the file again, obviously looking for something. "Something seems to be missing from your file, Lieutenant." Oh, goddesses. Please no.

"You can just call me Dasher," I replied. Please don't talk about this, please...

"Do you have any family, Dasher?" Celestia asked, looking up from the file. Fuck.

"Dasher?" Luna asked. "Are you alright?" I slowly fade away from reality...

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Fire all around me. I can't move. I can't see. Ponies are yelling all around. A mare gallops through the smoke and flames. She picks me up with her magic as burning pieces of rubble fall from the ceiling. I get thrown into the street... I see the house explode into hundreds of pieces. The world goes black as my head hits the pavement.

<)-----------------------------------------------------------(>

"Dasher!" I snap back to reality and open my eyes. Why is the world tilted- oh. This is not good.

"U- Yes! Yes! Yes! I am here! Reporting for du-" I quickly scramble to my hooves, folding my wings and picking up my helmet.

"Are you ok?" Celestia questioned. "Your eyes glazed over and you just fell."

"I'm fine," I replied pitifully, dusting my coat off.

"Ok, well, please answer the question. Do you have any family?" Celestia asked again.

"No. I do not."

"Any relationships?"

"No."

"Do you have anypony we can contact if you go missing?"

"No," I responded. "My parents died in a fire when I was just a young colt."

"I'm so sorry to hear that," Celestia closed the file, and put it down gently on the table. She looked up at me. "That armor isn't fitting of you anymore, Lieutenant. You deserve something a little more, well, special." She slid a folded up article of clothing down the table towards me. It was an grey overcoat, a little darker than my coat, with blue striping down the sleeves and color in the color of the star on my breast-plate... Make that my former breast-plate. On the left sleeve was Equestria's flag, and on the right, the stripes announcing my rank. Underneath was a white dress shirt with a blue tie.

"You, and hopefully, within a year or two, others, will wear this special uniform," Princess Luna said, motioning with her hoof. "It is better suited than the regular armor, if we can call it that. It doesn't protect you from much more than... Well, it is almost purely ceremonial. This will be far better. It is lighter, and ponies are less likely to notice you walking down the street wearing this."

"There is also this." Celestia placed a box on the table in front of me. It was an interesting box, with a star shaped button on the front. "Go on, open it." I reached out with my hoof and pressed the button on the front. The cover opened, revealing a peculiar metal band, shaped to fit on a pony's foreleg.

"What is this?" I asked.

"That is an advanced piece of arcane technology," Luna explained. "It is called the Arcane Reconnaissance Controller, or ARC, for short. You can get into any building, access anypony's file, and open any lock. But that is not all. No, thanks to arcane sciences, you can use spells!"

"W-what?" This can't be true. Nopony except unicorns are able to use magic!

"Well, kind of. So far, levitation is the only spell we can get to work... But think of the possibilities! No longer do you need to load weapons with your mouth!" Boy, is Princess Luna excited about this. She is literally jumping up and down with excitement in her chair. "You can fire a weapon with it, you can pick things up... And I invented it!"

"Y-you?" Fuck... I really shouldn't have said anything...

"Of course! Why else would I know so much about it?" That explains that. "I don't just sit around here all day, you know." Luna glared at me. Well, shit. I pissed the Princess of the Night off. Yeah, I should've just kept my mouth shut. Stupid me... To change the subject, I looked down at the device on the table before me.

"So, um, how do I put it on?" I asked. I pushed the ARC around in front of me, examining the glowing ribbon of light wrapped around it. It, like everything else, was also blue.

"Just slide it over your hoof onto your lower foreleg. It will automatically tighten," Luna informed. I picked the ARC with my mouth. I tried to slide my foreleg into it, but ponies aren't really meant to stick their forelegs into their mouths.

"Fo aw shus-" I spit the ARC out of my mouth. It clattered on the table. "So I can just stick my hoof into it?"

"Yep!" Luna smiled. I slid my left hoof into the band, and it automatically slid up my foreleg and tightened. The glowing disappeared and was replaced by a blue transparent magical screen. I turned my foreleg around, admiring what I was wearing.

"Now, please go get changed," Princess Celestia said with a smile, "so I can hand you off to our weapons-pony."
As I walked off I heard Princess Luna yell out after me, "Don't overload the ARC, it has a tendency to explode under circuit overload!" That is reassuring.

"Luna! You forgot to tell him about that!?!?" Celestia's voice was quite shocked. Great, now I'm carrying a magical bomb around on my foreleg.

I walked down the corridor with my new uniform. Guard's heads were turning wherever I went. Most didn't recognize me in this new uniform. I didn't like all this attention being drawn upon me; it was making me nervous. I quickened my pace as more guards turned around the corner in front of me. Just keep walking, Dasher, keep walking...

"Sir, welcome to the armory! Well, I'm pretty sure you know that already..." Before me stood a small brown unicorn; his name, Flashbang, the premier weapons specialist in the Canterlot Royal Castle. His orange and yellow mane was a bit burnt, and his brown coat was covered in ash. It seems Flashbang had been experimenting with explosives lately. I kinda like Flashbang as a friend; he will help in anypony in any way possible, even if his methods are a bit, well, extreme. They usually involve explosions, though. "So, Dasher, what can I do?"

"I was sent here by the princesse-" I tried to explain, but Flashbang cut me short.

"Ah! Yes! I have it right here..." Flashbang ran over to a shelf, and began to dig out an assortment of weaponry. "No... No... Not that one... Ah! Oh wait, this is a box of grenades." What!? Well, of course Flashbang has a box of grenades just sitting around. Typical of him. "Ah! Here it is!" I trotted over as Flashbang pulled out a dusty box and set it down on the table.

"How long have you had that back there?" I looked up at the shelf it came from; it was behind a multitude of other boxes.

"I got the order from the Princess a little more than five years ago, right after the Elements of Harmony were found. She said she wanted a multi-purpose magic weapon. I forgot about it almost immediately after I finished this prototype, which was a few years ago... Sat on my shelf collecting dust as new orders came in for me to design conventional and magical weaponry to outfit Equestria's tanks, aircraft, and infantry." Flashbang opened the box, and there sat a black carbine. It was impeccably designed, with a long barrel, integrated silencer, adjustable sight, shoulder rest, and ability to slide into the standard-issued holster.

"Wow." It was one of the best designed guns I have seen, especially from Flashbang. Usually his prototypes are welded together scrap metal. "This is... beautiful."

"An order from Princess Celestia is always something to overachieve at," Flashbang said. "I spent hundreds of hours making it able to stand up to anything. I call her the Laser Markspony Rifle 9, or LMR-9." So, what's with everybody and their acronyms today?

"Guess I won't be needing this anymore," as I, testing my new magic abilities using the ARC, floated my standard issue sword-rifle onto the table in front of me. It took more effort than I thought; I almost dropped it 2 times.

"So, you want to show me how to fire this thing?..."

I strolled into the Throne Room, my spirits held high in my heart, and bowed. Celestia motioned for me to stand back up. "So, Celestia, you said you wanted to-"

KABOOM!!!

I was thrown across the room and into a wall as an explosion decimated the stained glass windows and wall next to me.