“Alpha et omega misit de superis, gloriosum solamen miseris,”

August, 18th, 2555…

Neptune System…

Equestria...

Edge of Ponyville…

Princess Twilight Sparkle…

2346 hours…

“Excuse me Lieutenant…” I ask, cutting the air of silence that had surrounded me and the rest of our well armored group, my words almost sounding as if I were shouting.

“Yes ma’am?” He said breathing out heavily with his voice. I turn towards him, after looking one last time to the tree line,”

“How long have we been out here?” The lieutenant lowers his spear and looks at the watch on his right wrist. He then clears his throat with uncertainty and looks up at me again.

“Around two hours ma’am?” He answers and looks back towards the trees, adjusting his armor slightly at his shoulders. I nod and then speak again.

“And… How long have we been standing… here?” I gesture to the ground directly at my feet with a pointed finger. He looks over at me again, to my finger, then to the ground.

“Uhm.. I’d say a half an hour,” He would speak again looking up at me now instead of back at the woods. I then speak as his eyes meet my now slowly growing impatient gaze.

“Alright then, where are the wolves?” I say gesturing towards the forest with the nod of my head. He thanks for a fraction of a second, then makes a rectangular gesture with his hand in front of us.

“Well there supposed to be coming from there, or, roughly in that area,” I then nod to his claims and cross my arms across my chest tightly.

“Then…-” I begin to say, trying to find the right words, but as I began to speak the lieutenant figured what I was going to ask and cut me off.

“I don’t know where they are, they were supposed to be out tonight,” He said as he looked around a bit as if he were missing something that was critical to the mission.

After I had met the stallions of the Ponyville Police Department that were part of our sortie, and the Royal Guards that were to accompany them, I was given an armor set of my own. It was for the most part a relatively good fit. It was heavy, and awkward for me to wear at first but, but after a while I had gotten used to it, and now it fit me like a second set of clothes. Of course this was after the lieutenant helped me into it and he taught me how to adjust the straps so that it wasn't too uncomfortable for me. After that, quickly trying not to waste anymore time, especially his time, we tore off to rejoin the rest of our search party, and when we were whole again, we made our way towards the outskirts of Ponyville, as fast as we could to try and catch the TimberWolves off guard.

But as we began to patrol the outskirts of our village, we didn’t come across any, or even any trace that they had been around recently. It was as if they had known we were coming and just decided not to show up tonight. Of course that was impossible for not even my friends knew what I was doing tonight, let alone the beasts of the Everfree Forest, so even now as we stood in formation overlooking a massive section of the forest from a fair distance, from across a river, we could not believe that tonight, of all nights, the wolves stayed away. It was all just a massive slap in the face.

“This is ridiculous,” A Guard came as he turned around to us, lowering his weapon, “The one night things were actually falling into place for us, and this happens,” He shook his head as the lieutenant looked down to him, he seemed annoyed by his outburst. He pointed to the forest again and spoke sternly.

“Maybe if you weren’t bellyaching to me, you could focus a bit more on watching the ridgeline for wolves, and maybe if you’re a good little filly, the forest will give you a wolf to shoot at,” The soldier shook his head and took a deep breath that curved into a sigh, as he re-focused his attention to the woods once more, mumbling underneath his breath.

Though I was just happy to be working alongside the guards and the police, as I always will be from this point on, and happy that I wasn’t getting mauled by a ferocious predator of the forest, it was a bit, dare I say disappointing that we hadn’t seen any wolves to stop. This ment if we turned in and left without stopping any, all this work and preparation would have been for nothing. It would just be one massive waste of time. Failure was something I had come accustomed to in the past but, that doesn’t mean I liked it, especially when it was about something this important.

And as time ticked on and it reached midnight, as luna’s moon shown down to us from the beautiful night sky above, the entire group was feeling let down at the no show of any wolves whatsoever, and much like them I was too. The lieutenant ordered us to pick up our things and move from the area to check another. Our time in that spot was long over done and holding in the same area for to long let our flanks become exposed for the wolves to sneak in, so I knew that this was for the best, then again, I really didn’t have a say in what we did. Up and down the village side of the river bank we went, all the while watching the forest in the close distance as the police lead us with their shields and batons. Still, even as we walked about, no wolf was brave enough, or even active enough to come out and face us.

We even at some point split our group up into two teams to cover more ground, just to make sure we weren’t missing anything, but as we all regrouped once again back where we had started from, and turned out our pockets without any confirmed sightings we all became more annoyed and even more disappointed. Some of the officers suggested to their sergeant that maybe we should turn in for the night earlier, but the sergeant ignored their suggestions seeings how he thought the night was still young. But now, he was the one suggesting it to the Royal Guards, of which they agreed with him.

Soon enough, the whole group was ready to pack it in for the night and go home without defeating a single wolf and the lieutenant was thinking it over, but it was already obvious of what his decision was going to be, given the circumstances. I was discouraged to say the least. I was, dare I say sad that I could really help ponyville at all. But, it wasn’t pointless. We still did what we had to do, even if it was all for nothing in the end.

“No need to kill ourselves staying up all night if the wolves aren't coming around,” I said, voicing my opinion to the Lt, while placing a hand on his shoulder while also gesturing towards the woods.“If they won’t come out tonight, then maybe we can try tomorrow,” He nodded lightly and looked down to me.

“Yeah, you’re right, I was already planning on pulling it in for the night,” And so that's what we did. The lieutenant addressed the crowd and voiced his displeasure in not finding a single wolf tonight. He then began to congratulate the group on giving their time and resources to the cause of defending ponyville and Equestria. And he also said that they would be trying this all again tomorrow. I listened to his brief speech and watched him as he spoke with.. even for my standards, a bit of a creepy obsession. I had to admit, he knew how to speak, his sentences were expertly crafted from scratch and they sounded so fluent and clear, as if he were reading note cards. But I knew he was making it up on the spot. Needless to say I was impressed, and when he stopped speaking, I kind of wanted him to speak a bit more… for whatever reason.

Dear Celestia, this armor was hot all of a sudden…

As the group began to disperse back to the police department, my ear twitched and something caught my attention. I froze in my tracks as I listened carefully to the surrounding environment. I heard nothing but my ear still twitch to as if I were hearing something. But all I heard were crickets and running water, I looked to the forest and I didn't see any glowing green eyes, and, I didn't hear any screaming, so.. what was going on? I was on the verge of ignoring my ear and my senses, when this feeling returned to me again, this time much harder. I suddenly got weak in the knees as they knocked together, my head suddenly got light as I stumbled forth. I had practically passed out and was expecting my head to collide with the ground, but luckily somepony stopped my fall. A pair of large hands and arms wrapped around my stomach and my shoulders as a figure curled its way around the left side of my body taking up my vision. It was the lieutenant.

“Princess Twilight? Are you okay, you're passing out.. and your face is turning pale. Is everything all right?” His voice sounded muffled at first but as he pulled me back up to my feet reality came back in full and I could hear him properly.

“No.. no I'm not alright. Something just hit me, and I don't mean physically. I can sense something is wrong and it's coming to me in waves, like ocean curls on the shore. Whatever it is it's powerful,, and it’s beyond the forest,” The now confused looking Lieutenant was joined by his guards as they pointed their Spears up at the forest.

“So, you're getting what you would call a six sense or something.. right? Like you can sense a disturbance in the magic fields around the planet, and whatever is doing it has a massive amount of power,” I looked up at the lieutenant surprised that he knew that. I hadn't noticed it till now but he wasn't a unicorn he was an earth pony. Hearing that he knew so much about unicorn and Equis magic, sort of caught me off guard. I nod my head approvingly.

“Yes.. that is the more simpler term I would use but yes. I'm not saying that you're simple!.. But there's a much longer and harder way to explain what you just described. To make a long story short, if the balance of the magical fields of the planet have been Disturbed, something or somepony has created a gap in the barrier… The princess use this magic to sense evil and it’s quite effective,” I realize the severity of the situation, something was strong enough to puncture through pure equestrian magic, the magic that was stored within the core of the planet, some of the most powerful magic I know, the magic I have come to obsess over my whole life.

“This… this is extremely distressing, I need to investigate this anomaly immediately!” I pull and hold myself up again, and regain what little strength I had to make myself stand tall and strong in front of the guards around me, trying to cover up the fact that I basically fainted in front of them. Luckily for me it worked for about a few moments, as my brief resting in the Lieutenant's Embrace helped restore a sliver of my energy, that is of course before I fell backwards into his arms again, holding onto him, annoyed.

As I slump there, dazed.. my mind got side tracked as my thoughts swamp about in my brain.

This lieutenant, much like his guards, was very strong and his body, displayed this rather well. I could feel his muscle mass beneath his clothing, specifically his arms, as I held onto them. They were the only thing I could grab ahold of at the moment, and, a part of me enjoyed it. Feeling the bulge of his bicep made my face grow hot and red again, like I stuck my tongue in Pinkie Pie’s hot sauce, much like every other time I had prolonged contact with him. But now isn't the time to fantasize about him, more pressing matters required my attention. So after clearing my head, and regaining my composure, I picked myself up off his body and took a deep breath.

“Eh-hem, right. This requires immediate observation. Gentlecolts, if you are willing to assist me, I would greatly appreciate it. Because I must see what it is now, before whatever it is gets worse,” I Said turning to the small group of guards behind me. I wasn’t sure what they would say honestly. I knew they wanted to turn in, but I also knew they wanted to combat those wolves, and whatever this disturbance was could have something to do with it. The guards looked at their lieutenant, then to me.

“With all due respect your majesty, beyond the woods is out of our predetermined AO,” The lieutenant started to say, but then his statement did an absolute 180, “But, if the security of Equestria, and if not the whole world is in jeopardy, we must assist and halt the destruction of everything we know,” The three guards stepped forward, then suddenly, they knelt before me, the ends of their spears in the dirt.

“Your majesty, we are at your disposal,”

Author's Note

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