Lunar Ops: Night Stalkers

by Shadow Centurion

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, Dark, Adventure
Length: 2630

The Night Stalkers are Luna's personal Elite Guards, this is their story

Shadow Centurion and the Night Stalkers are Elite Guards who specialize in containing threats to Luna and the rest of Equestria, every mission Shadow walks a fine line between Keeping the Peace and killing off the truth

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-05 19:04:08 UTC

Mission 1-1 Brothers in Hooves

The candy cannon sung out as gumball after gumball shot at the timber wolves ahead, PFC Shadow Centurion raced along the rural village of the Mustang valley with cannon at his side, recent timber wolf attacks were becoming more and more common and he and a small task group sent by Celestia were sent to negotiate a peaceful solution, if only that were true. Shadow unloaded a storm of gum across the wall catching a timber wolf in its tracks, the wolf struggled to get free of the gum to no avail. Night Blaze hopped down from a wall and killed the beast “27 kills so far, these aren’t as random as I thought” he said cutting the dead timber loose from the wall and tossing it in the fire, Shadow scanned the block for the next attack “did you hear about sunshine and buttercup?” he asked worried, “yeah, they found them hiding in a house trembling like a fillies” Blaze said sadly. A distant howl shot through the village followed by hundreds more, one by one timber wolves stepped out of every dark alley and house, “click-click-click” cannon sang as an empty paper belt fell “Celestia help us all” Shadow said dropping his cannon and raising his hooves, Blaze nodded and did the same, back to back they stood as the wolves circled

10 years later……

"Come on......for celesta's sake don’t screw this up!" a pony with a gas mask stated in fear. "you’re not helping, I wasn’t trained for this!” a colt no older than 18 snorted as he steadily lowering a card on top of a tower of cards. , he inhaled slowly and set the card down "there, ten decks of cards stacked in a tower in a reverse triangle. You can breathe now Tri.", Tri Fireworks set his gasmask down and backed away as if waiting for something "that’s odd, no, no pony has burst in with a mission” tri said just as Night Blaze shot through the door sending the cards falling to the ground, Stalker and blaze went way back to high school and joined the guard fresh outta high school. “What happened?”Shadow said as he lowered himself down from the ceiling, “nothing, nothing at all” he said as he wrapped his hoof in gaze and sat behind the bar in the break room. Night Blaze was Shadow centurions Lieutenant, from time to time he would take the occasional cheap shot with comedy in mind but that bothered Shadow little very little. Tri shrugged and put his gas mask away, Tri firework was a bulky stallion at the age of 25, not much bothered him but if it did you would never hear the end of it, Night Blaze called it “the 99er”

The alarm went off as she left slamming the door sending the tower of cards to the ground, the alarm blared and the ponies geared up, Shadow Centurion grabbed a rope, night vision goggles, and a stun rifle with a fresh magazine of weaponized muffins, Tri Fireworks stepped into his bomb suit, grabbed a tool kit, a gas mask, and a gumball cannon. Shadow Blaze grabbed a magic book, a First-Aid kit and a crossbow with grappling hook. The ponies galloped into the chopper and strapped in as the screen lit up and an old pony appeared "there’s been rumors of a changeling ambush at the wedding of the guard captain and his wife, you drop at the castle, secure any evidence of this and leave like a ghost." she said "changelings, really that’s an old mare’s tale." Centurion laughed, "tell that to discord, your boss and the cutie pox, one more word and you’re on watch tonight for double shifts" the old pony barked, Shadow Stalker, Shadow Blaze, and Tri Fireworks shuddered at what happened that day, Tri set up a sub-firework sandwich business at the base, Blaze locked up the labs with goldfish overlords and Stalker ran wildly through the halls at the front of a conga line of timber wolves. Bad memories aside the three dressed up as repairs men and were dropped off in the back , Stalker checked his comm. "Shadow to Blaze and Tri, sweep the top levels, basement’s mine"  they nodded and went their ways.

Shadow Centurion moved along the decrepit hallways cautiously with stun rifle trained, with each step he felt as if something was coming….something bad. He slowed to a walk and lowered his rifle for a second, just as something moved. The floor above Blaze and Tri were check for sign of tampering in the guards food supply, Tri opened the refrigerator and looked around, “OI! What are you doing with my sandwich” one of the guards snapped, “there was a……broken pipe in the wall and I need to fix it” Tri said shocked, the guard rolled his eyes and took his sandwich from the fridge “fine, but one bite out of this and you’re gone, got it?”, Blaze snapped at attention for a sec and almost saluted “YES SIR!.....I mean, yes I won’t eat your sandwich” the guard left and Blaze let out a sigh in relief.  As Night Blaze and Tri returned to searching there was a faint buzz in the distance, “Sir, you might want to get up here…….mares were telling the truth”. Suddenly Canterlot exploded with action, the pink bubble outside shattered at the might of a legion of changeling’s intent on a feast, Guards shot down the hall toward the throne room “we have a situation in the throne room, the wedding was a trap!” one of the guards shouted into his helmet, “boom time, you know the drill Tri” Blaze said as he opened his book and followed the guards, Tri nodded and grabbed his gumball cannon. Below Shadow was galloping for his life from a nest of changelings, he shot out of the cellar and into Night Blaze, “What happened cap, lose your flashlight?” Blaze asked as an out of breath Shadow Centurion stood up “A nest of……changelings are….in the cellar” he said out of breath “change ammo to sour candy rounds, that should leave them running”, “what about the town below?” Tri asked, Down below changelings were feasting left and right off of the ponies of Canterlot as screams and cries for help rang out below, “nothing for now, we can’t help them, you know the code: turn the tide from the shadows, it’s out of our hands and we have a priority, well help if we can later.” Shadow centurion grimly said with a sad gaze on the streets below

The three ponies galloped down the steps unloading on the oncoming hoard, Shadow Centurion, Tri Dynamite, and Night Blaze flicked on their flashlights and trotted the area clearing out changelings left and right, Changeling eggs littered the area and many more hid in a tunnel, “set the charges, ill push them back”. “How many are there?” Tri asked setting a sour charge at the center of the room, “too many” Blaze said leafing through the spell book for a barrier spell to hold in the blast “CONTACT CONTACT“, a voice shouted from down the tunnel followed by the sound of candy exploding as slimy Shadow flew out of the tunnel followed by a large swarm of changelings, Tri pinned the trigger letting all 200 of the sour gun rounds unload on the charging changelings. Shadow Centurion knew where this was going, “Fall back to the stairs” he ordered firing a muffin a changeling leaping at him. Tri kept firing as Shadow and Blaze climbed the steps, the door slammed the door shut, “BURN IN HELL YOU BUGGERS!!” a voice called from below, Shadow turned to see Tri Firework Slaughtering the changelings below. Shadow stomped at the door to no avail, it was locked tight. The Charge went off like a thunder clap and the two were thrown into the main hall “we need them gone, it bad enough….BRACE FOR IMPACT!!!!!” a mare ordered, a wall of purple rushed toward Shadow Centurion, Night Blaze and the mare , “this is it, see you soon old friend” Shadow weakly smirked as the wall rushed over him, Blaze lay on side under a beam and Shadow lay bleeding out with one wing under what was left of a door and a rod embedded in his chest, Shadow looked around as everything started going hazy

Mission 1-2 Put to Death

10 years ago….

The wolves circled around Shadow and Blaze, each stared hungrily as shadow and Blaze stood ready for the first strike, one of the wolves leaped at the Colts “HERE IT COMES!”, Blaze barked intent on a kill, the wolf exploded in a hail of wood and sap “ ’nother notch for TNT!” a stallion said, his cutie mark was an explosion over a shield, “you the Royal Guard?” Shadow asked belting an oncoming wolf square in the chest, “yes and no, I am but I'm not.” the stallion said blowing three wolfs to kingdom come, blaze elbowed another wolf and used its broken arm like a bat against the others “ARE YOU OR ARE YOU NOT A GUARD!!!!” Blaze barked. The ground shook as the trio fought, suddenly several Armor clad Stallions appeared out of the shadows of the village, three pegisi shot up and strafed the ground firing dark energy, the unicorns stood together and chanted something nether Shadow nor Blaze knew, as the unicorns chanted and the pegisi slaughtered the wolves below purple glyphs snaked out of the dark cracks and crevasses of the village and formed a circle of energy that swallowed up Shadow, Blaze, the Cannon trotting stallion, and the unicorns. As the light faded the two colts looked around and where they were, the Village was gone and replaced with a dungeon like area lit by torches glowing with a blue hue, “so much for the mission” Blaze said franticly looking around. Night Blaze flashed for a second and slumped over, Shadow reached for his Kukri but something stopped him, his legs went numb and his mind relaxed, as he hit the ground he heard a Booming voice from what looked like a blue alicorn, his vision slowly went black and the knife slid away from his hand. He woke up almost naked sitting in a chair with his hooves chained together, his feathered wings were clipped to the stalk, and a piece of parchment lay open in front of him “you know too much, if you survive you will become one of us.” the note said, “One of us?...Survive?.....know too much?” Shadow thought. No sooner had he finished his thought had the door creaked open and a figure walked in, Shadow tugged at his bonds wildly as the figure reached inside of its saddlebag and drew a stone, pointing it at Shadow Centurion, in the other room the familiar scream of Night Blaze, “not like this” Shadow thought violently tugging at his chains, “I'm not going to die like a wild dog.”, he looked up and saw the stone glow black as if it were going to fire, he grit his teeth glaring down his captor with anger and a hint of fear

10 years later

The room blurred and faded in and out like a dying lantern as a pegisi dragged the wounded warrior to a corner, “is he stable, I need a head count if this plan is going to work” a mare barked as she leaned over shadow, she had tan fur with a black mane and ears “who……who are you?” he asked groggy but in pain, she replied “Its Deadeye Shadow, why didn’t you tell me you were he-”, just then three solar guards walked in swords drawn and ready to kill, “give me a good reason why I shouldn't kill you on site?” the captain barked. Shadow sat up and glared him down “might as well tell him.”, “are you insane we could be disavowed or worse” Night blaze coughed. The head guard bashed out Blaze and chained Shadow and Deadeye together. the guard lead the three intruders into dungeon, along the way something moved in the shadows…..almost like a ghost, one by one the guards searched them down and rooted through their stuff, setting every last sour round and spell book on the table  “what the hell are these ponies doing with all this, who are they SPS? DUI? CSF?” the Captain asked half scared half worried. Shadow slumped against the wall tying a wound and splinting the broken wing with a set of bones from an old skeleton, he glared at the three guards trying to revive the unconscious unicorn that was Night Blaze, Shadow notices a small twitch from blazes tail and a laugh slipped out. No sooner had the Captain Shadow Centurion laughed that Night Blaze knocked the guards into one another and broke out of his cell….only to be shot with a weaponized muffin, as he was dragged to his cell something moved in the shadows behind the guard. In the third cell Deadeye paced back in forth nervously, “this is your fault Cpt, if you would have told us you were here on mission then we would have helped” she barked, Shadow hung his head “I know you were on guard duty for Luna but we had our orders and you had yours” he calmly stated as the guards opened the doors and dragged the two Pegisi and semiconscious unicorn to the throne room

“I've seen a lot In my time but this takes the cake, you build a team of Guards enhanced with lunar magic, send them in behind my back with information about a threat to all of Canterlot and you don’t even bother to trust me with this information?” Princess Ceslestia asked upset, Luna looked away and glared down her failed team of Black level Operatives in Disgust, “There was no such group, these ponies in front of you are just thieves and vandals, allow me to end their miserable lives dear sister” Luna said almost with the royal Canterlot voice, the throne room was in disarray after the wedding with rice and left over webbing from the changeling attack. In a line Shadow Centurion and the rest of the group were escorted into the room and knelt down, “Cpt Rider, care to tell me who these are and what they were doing?” Celestia asked, Cpt Rider laid out the Weapons and gear that the Night Stalkers had brought with them “these “vandals” had Elite level gear built for covert raids, these intruders should be put to death for this!”,Celestia sighed and nodded, "You may deal with them as you wish sister", Luna's horn started to glow as she approached Shadow centurion with a fiery glare, she set her horn on Shadows head “you know the drill soldier” Luna said in his mind, “yes Ma’am, it’s been a while since something this insane happened” Shadow thought as he slumped over and pretended to die, “last time you practically had every lunar guard hunting you down” Luna said as she cut the psychic connection and moved onto the others. One by one the guards pretended to die, Night blaze gasped for breath as he slumped over, and Deadeye took the theatrical approach and tried to drag herself away as she died. As the three dead Lunar guards where loaded into body bags by the now scared and pale Solar guards loaded the body bags onto a carriage pulled by a hooded figure took them down the hall and away from Canterlot, as he lay limp in the body bag Shadow centurion’s mind wandered back to that fateful day he was dragged into hell…….and came out a Lunar Guard