Luna's Secret World Redux

Luna’s Secret World

Interlude 2

New recruit, New tech, New fight

By: Azurekaryu

Edited by: Tripy988 and Flameswordedlink

September 14, 1008 PN

“Prince Armor, the guests are ready to see you,” an armored pegasus proclaimed.

The tired prince had rings around his eyes. His armor had lost the shine he was always so proud of. He currently sat upon a simple elevated platform in the main meeting hall, where court was often held. Of course, day and night court had been put on an indefinite hiatus so all efforts could be focused towards the war.

“Send them in.”

The pegasus nodded and the large wooden doors were enveloped in a golden glow and slowly pulled open.

As the doors opened two pegasi made their way into the courtroom, a signature rainbow maned mare looking rather unhappy and the one next to her, the famed captain of the Wonderbolts, was also not in the best mood.

“This better be important,” The annoyed Rainbow Dash said.

This, of course, tested the patience of the newly coronated prince. His general mood had deteriorated immensely. The constant pressure of the advancing griffon armies, and the further deterioration of Celestia’s state of mind, leaving him and his wife in more and more control and stress. That’s without mentioning the disappearance of his sister.

“You know I wouldn’t call you in here if it weren't important, so please Rainbow, let us get on with this.”

“Fine.”

The remaining Elements of Harmony had been relocated to Canterlot once the griffons made their first offensive. In that offensive, they had managed to capture three cities, and the remainder of the surviving troops had been forced to hold Marestone, a city located in the middle of the three that had been captured. At this moment they were surrounded and besieged. Scouts were able to occasionally make it in and out of the city.

The griffons had not made any more advances further south, but they had Manehatten in their sights, the largest city between the griffons and Canterlot.

“First off, you two,” Shining said to the guards at the door, “I ask that you leave the room, this is meant to be private.” The two guards left the room without a word, closing the door behind them, leaving the two pegasi and the unicorn alone in the courtroom, “Alright, so, as both of you know, this war hasn’t been going so well. The griffons have made strong advances, morale is low with the recent disappearance of Celestia, and we do not have many experienced fighters available for us to use at our disposal.”

“Yeah, we already know this, and I’m still amazed you haven’t sent the Wonderbolts out to do anything.” This time Spitfire spoke up, “We are absolutely prepared and trained. We can go and fight.”

“I’m getting there, Captain, please let me continue. Rainbow Dash, I understand you have had previous training with the wonderbolts, correct?”

Rainbow dash rose an eyebrow, “Yeah, that’s right, what about it?”

The new ruler of Equestria took a deep breath, “Alright, I’m going to cut to the chase. Spitfire, I want you to take Rainbow Dash under your wing and have her participate in important Wonderbolt missions that I’m going to start giving to you. At the same time, I want you to increase the size of the Wonderbolts from the current one hundred and ten ponies to three hundred. I have already ordered for a new training center to be built and it should be done in a few days time.”

“What!? I can’t just train two hundred recruits to the level we need Wonderbolts to be at!” Spitfire was more appalled at the size increase than taking the mare next to her under her wing, she really didn’t have much of a problem with that.

“Hold on Captain, I’m not finished yet. Once Rainbow Dash has enough experience, she is going to split off from the wonderbolts and take a portion of the new recruits with her. I want her to create a new special forces unit composed entirely of Pegasi. They-”

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold on a second here, do I get a say in any of this?” Rainbow was surprised at all the sudden information. It wasn’t like she was dreading her future now put forth by the Prince, but she was ticked that other ponies were ordering her around and forming her future without her opinion.

“Well, Rainbow Dash, of course we cannot force you to agree to this, so before we continue, do you want to take on the responsibility and danger of the task and position we are offering of you?”

Well, she didn’t even need to think for a second. She wanted revenge. She wanted to give the griffons a good firm ass whooping. Even though she hadn’t been directly affected by the war, she felt horrible standing on the sidelines and watching others get killed, “Of course I do, you idiot!”

The Prince smiled at her brash response. Just like her. I’m glad to see Twilight’s disappearance isn't crushing her.

“Good. Now then, as I was saying, once you have enough experience, we will create a new unit composed of pegasi, under the role of what we call a Surgical Strike Team.”

“Sounds cool. What do they do?

“The main purposes of this is to create a unit that is able to fluently get behind enemy lines and attack key enemy positions or targets, often following or during a major battle. The unit will also serve as an aggressive reconnaissance and a sophisticated SAR team, that is, Search and Rescue.”

Rainbow was getting excited. That sounds so badass! I get to lead my own team of special ops ponies! COOOOOOOOOOOOL!

She hid her excitement on the outside though, maintaining an air of professionalism.

The Prince spoke up again when he heard no complaints from either of the ponies, “Any complaints, questions, suggestions?”

“So, when you say you want me to take her under my wing, does that mean she will be with me during our missions?”

“Yes, she needs combat time. Also, we have new, sophisticated technology in its prototype stage that I want you to give to a select few. We have sixteen in all, obviously one goes to both of you, so you have 14 to give out to members you select.”

“What are these items you speak of?”

“Oh, you’ll see. It’s really wonderful technology,” The prince beckoned forth the pegasus from earlier, “Go down to the lab and tell Spark I want two copies of the XJ11 technology at the courtroom pronto.”

“Of course, Your Highness,” That was one thing Shining hadn’t got used to and never would. “Your Highness” is something many ponies referred to him as, and it was not what he wanted. Even though he was royalty before, ponies only referred to Celestia and Luna as “Your Highness.”

He waited for the pegasus to exit the room before continuing, “Rainbow, you need to understand the realism of what you are accepting to do before we finalize this.”

“What do you mean?”

The former captain had a serious look on his face, and that was mimicked by Rainbow, “This is a war. You will see things that you haven’t ever thought of before, horrible things. You will have to do bad things too, things that I know you wouldn’t want to ever do.”

“Yeah. I know, I understand that, but the griffons have already crossed the line and killed a lot of ponies, I know that I will probably have to get my hooves dirty too. I know that I will almost certainly have to take the life of another living being, and that I will probably end up losing friends in this war.”

“Wow… that was really mature of you Dashie, didn’t know you had that in you,” Spitfire proclaimed.

“Yeah, she’s right, and I’m glad you know that and accept it as well, you really are more than that brash childish girl on the inside it seems.”

“Hey! I am not childish, I’m just… fun!” Nevertheless, the mare blushed at the attention.

The other two ponies in the room laughed, deepening Rainbow’s blush, “Shutup!”

As if it was planned, a knock on the door halted all sound from the three ponies, “Enter.”

“Why hello there Prince Armor, I hear you were looking for these wonderful things!” A cheery blue unicorn wearing a lab coat walked in, two necklaces in his magical grip.

“Ah, yes. Thank you for bringing them up. Are they stable?”

“I am glad you asked! We have finally figured out how to stabilize the glucinian-197 isotope and that makes these bad boys completely safe and effective!” The chemist was excited, practically jumping up and down.

“Whoa there, calm down. So, would you mind explaining to these two how exactly this will help them?”

“But of course!” He trotted forward happily, getting closer to the two mares, “Now then, you two need to be very careful about this, and it would be preferable if information of this wonderful product were not to reach curious ears.”

Both of them nodded as he approached within two feet of the mares standing next to each other, “This is a product we have been researching for over a decade. I finally figured out how to stabilize this wonderful element in its aether form.”

He levitated one of the necklaces around both of the mare’s necks, and following that both of the mares grabbed it with a hoof and brought it into eyesight. It was a dark , slightly transparent crystal with what seemed to be a gaseous substance flowing inside of its container. The two colors inside refused to mix with each other and instead remained an independent black with crimson red flowing around with it.

“Whoa.” Rainbow Dash plainly awed at the epic sight.

“‘Whoa’ is right, my dear. This necklace is essentially, in terms you will understand, mobile magic that you can make available to yourself.”

“There isn’t a lot in here though, would it even be useful for anything?”

The question excited the scientist even more, “Aha! That would be where you are wrong. You see, while it may not seem like a lot, the element produces usable magic at a rate so quick it would be almost impossible for you to use it all up.”

“Sounds pretty awesome, but how do we use it?”

“That is where things get slightly complicated. You cannot see them right now, but there are tiny, empty runes inscribed on the sides of the crystal that can only be activated through what’s called a blood ritual.”

“Like, what cultists do?”

“Rainbow, you should know that cultists don’t actually do that kind of stuff now, but kind of. A drop of blood must be spilled onto each side of the device and the runes will activate, syncing with your magic wells, yes, pegasi do have magic wells before you ask. They are just rather small. This means that you will be the only one able to use this instrument ever.”

“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about this falling into enemy hands.” Spitfire’s first thought came through her muzzle.

“Precisely, but seriously, don’t lose these, they are very very expensive to manufacture.”

“We aren’t going to lose them, Spark.” Spitfire said in response.

“I would certainly hope not. Now then, if you two are interested we can begin the binding process now, it is a little bit more complicated than I made it sound earlier.”

“Umm… before we do that, do we actually get to know what these will do for us?” An inquisition from the Wonderbolt.

The stallion deflated a little, “If you really want to take the boring route, then yes. The magic is designed to interact with your thoughts. It will form itself throughout the natural magic veins located in the pegasus body and will be externalized through the same method as a unicorn, just without the horn. You will be able to materialize items made of pure magic, such as armor or weapons, on the outside of your body. This will be useful because it allows the use of weapons mounted on the forelegs that can be removed and replaced in less than a microsecond, thus removing the danger of the weapons colliding with the environment.”

“Alright, hold on. I followed you up until you started talking about these complicated magic terms.”

Spark rolled his eyes, “Of course, my apologies. In simpler terms, it means you will be able to create any weapon, or armor, of your choice, made up of solid magic stronger than most steel. So, for example, if you are flying away from a scene of battle and being bombarded by archers you could create a full covering suit of weightless armor that would deflect all of the projectiles. Or, if you wanted, you could summon two… daggers if you will, on the tips of your hooves or on your forelegs that are automatically made to dissipate if it comes in contact with the ground and rematerialize when your hoof leaves the ground again.”

“Wow. That sounds pretty awesome actually, could I perhaps shoot anything using this?”

“No, I’m afraid that isn’t a possibility at the moment, but we are working on it!”

“Aw, bummer.” The orange maned mare replied.

“Alright then, shall we begin?”

“One more thing Spark, I want Rainbow to take the oath before we do anything here,” Shining Armor stated.

“Oh very well, be quick though, I’m excited to see my tech in action!”

Rainbow nodded and turned to face the Prince.

“Rainbow Dash, put your hoof over your heart and repeat after me.”

Rainbow followed his command, raising her right foreleg and placing her hoof just over her quick beating heart, Man, I’m really about to do this aren’t I? It’s worth it. I’ll fight in your place since you can’t, Twilight. The thought of her now gone friend ruining her mood a little bit.

“I, Rainbow Danger Dash.”

“I, Rainbow Dang- Huh?” A multitude of high pitched whistles interrupted the first line of the oath.

“Fuck! Already? How are they here?” The captain cursed, and Spitfire’s eyes widened as well.

“Alright, Rainbow, we don’t have time for this. Stay with Spitfire, Spark, take the necklaces to the the lab and lock yourself in there with them.”

“Wait! This is a perfect test opportunity! The binding process doesn’t take very long, we can just do it now.” Spark insisted.

“Spark, this isn’t a joke. This is real, we don’t have time for this!” Shining insisted.

The large wooden doors quickly flung open and two unicorn guards walked in and bowed, “Sir! The griffons have sent a small group to scout or harass around ponyville and Canterlot.”

“How many exactly?” The former captain questioned.

“Approximately one platoon, around 28-32 griffons. We couldn’t gather an exact number that far out.”

“Of course, Prince Armor.” The guards left the room, closing the door after them.

“You got lucky Spark, let’s make this quick. I don’t think we should waste precious time with the oath, I want Spitfire and Rainbow to be with the squad of Wonderbolts. We can do the formalities later.”

The unicorn jumped, giddy with excitement. “Oh joy! Alright then, would each of you please lift a hoof? We will draw blood from there!”

The two mares looked at eachother, Rainbow had one eyebrow raised, waiting for Spitfire’s move. She nodded and looked back towards the somewhat unstable scientist, and at the same time he used his magic to remove the necklaces from the two and placed them on the ground.

“One moment,” The scientist closed his eyes in focus and his horn glowed a bright blue color, the marble floor being ingrained with magical circles, dozens of tiny symbols filling the inside and outside ring of the arcane circle. A final flash among the circle indicated the chemist was finished, and he quickly looked back up to the mares, “Alright. Each of you, lift a foreleg over the necklaces, I am going to use my magic to make a small incision, it won’t hurt… very much.”

Each of them nodded, and lifted a foreleg, Rainbow used her right while Spitfire her left.

His horn glew and a sudden sharp pain caused Rainbow to wince, similar to the pinch of a needle except along a line instead of a single point, swiped across each of their foreleg. Both of them bled quickly, although not excessively.

A drop of crimson fell into the circle, filling it but stopping at the edges, refusing to spill over. A bright light dimmed by the thick blood shone, a reaction was happening.

“Alright! One more thing to do, you will feel a sudden burn and then euphoria, it is all natural and not dangerous!”

And then it came, a really intense flame like feeling at the location of the laceration, shooting from her hoof to her chest and causing a sudden difficulty in breathing, and shortly after it began the burning stopped. Rainbow was seeing stars, What’s happening? Dizziness took over, and then a sudden surreal feeling took over. She saw herself, head straight ahead and eyes closed, Spitfire was next to her, doing the same, and the scientist laughed silently. Shining Armor watched, now sitting back down in front of the throne.

Then she returned back to her body. Her cyan colored eyes shot open and she looked around frantically. A wonderful feeling was rushing through her feeling and her pulse was fast. What is this power? She could feel herself becoming stronger, not just magically, but it felt like she could pull off a dozen rainbooms in ten minutes.

“How do you feel?” The scientist was asking Rainbow specifically.

“I feel… so strong! This is awesome!” Rainbow responded enthusiastically.

“Great! Now then, try and imagine something on you, start with your right foreleg, it seems to be the easiest place to start for Pegasi.”

Rainbow nodded and shut her eyes. Alright. First thing first, what do I want? What looks the most awesome? Oh! I know! How about a sword? A sword that goes all the way up to my knee, so I can block attacks and fight as if I had nothing there!

“Whoa! That was quick, good job Rainbow,” Spark said.

“Huh?” Then Rainbow opened her eyes and on her raised foreleg was a pitch black blade on the right side of her right foreleg. It was so dark it was as if the magic was swallowing all light touching it.

“Yes, I know what you are wondering, these items were made to assist with stealth movement, particularly during the night. You will be almost invisible if you cover yourself with armor.”

She swung her foreleg around, careful not to get near any of the other ponies. She noticed that the necklace had already been removed from the ground and hung around her neck. She felt no extra weight as she moved her foreleg about and a gentle swoosh followed her movements.

“This. Is. So. AWESOMEEEE!” Rainbow giggled.

“Whoa now. You still have a job to do,” Shining said to her.

Rainbow’s mood became more serious now, “Yeah. This is so quick though, I mean, I’m not even legally a part of the guard.”

Shining rose an eye, “You’re going to let that stop you? That doesn’t seem like you.”

“Of course not! Just saying though.”

Spitfire spoke up this time, “Well, looks like we will get practice here. Let's go kick some griffon butt!”

“Haha, yeah!” Rainbow responded.

“Gather a group of however many you want and find those griffons and drive them away.” Shining ordered, a grin on his face.

“Yes sir!” Spitfire saluted and Rainbow just stood there, awkwardly.

She dropped the salute, “Well Rainbow. Time for your first sight of real fighting. Are you sure you’re ready?”

Rainbow smirked, “You bet I am, boss.”

“Alright then. Let’s go.”