Chapters You're never done with basic training
"Look Princess" said Shining Armour sounding exasperated "We are stretched too thinly to be able to keep up giving you guards, they have duties that are being abandoned elsewhere and it's starting to show, we don't have the numbers."
They were in Celestia's chambers with Celestia herself lying down listening intently, she had a pile of scrolls beside her and a quill and plenty of inkpots on a table nearby. She nodded slowly and then asked "So what are your suggestions that we do then?"
Shining Armour was prepared for this and said "We either increase the numbers of the guards." He said looking hopeful however Celestia slowly shook her head
"You know we can't do that, there isn't any room for manoeuvre there."
"Then the other option is we bring back the Royal Princess Guards." announced Shining Armour
At that Celestia looked up in surprise. "How do you know about that?" she said with concern in her voice
"I wrote to Twili about my problem and she sent me a book about the history of the Guard and suggested this would be a way to solve the problem." he stated
Princess Celestia looked very concerned about this suggestion and said "That won’t sole the problem you have though."
"It will Princess, this solution will easily free up a couple of dozen of my guards that would have been on duty Guarding you it's the perfect solution." said Shining Armour defiantly
"But..." started Celestia starting to try and find a reason to stop this idea, but Shining Armour was looking stubbornly at her. She finally relented saying "You know why the old Royal Princess Guard was disbanded don't you"
Shining slowly nodded, his face a mask of seriousness, he knew what Celestia was getting at.
"Very well, do what you must." She said, levitating one of the scrolls in front of her as she began to do her royal duties again. Shining gave a small bow as he retreated out of the chamber, face still locked in an expression of determination, ready to do what he must.
Extract from The Guards Handbook :
A Guard is to look at His or Her best at all times, this priority should only be second to care of their personal weapons. The reason is so that the Guard has maximum presence in all situations and will be recognisable at a glance. The Guard is by far the most recognised authority of Celestia and they should appear as such, they are the first point of call for all civil troubles and must be easily recognisable. Having a Uniform that does not adhere to even the Basic standard for the Guard is an offence that is on the level of Desertion as it reduces the effectiveness of all actions that guard takes. Therefore from the very start of Basic Training a future member of the Guard is taught that uniform is to be addressed before everything but the upkeep of weapons, this ensures that the Guard is extremely Proficient at their uniforms upkeep by the end of their training. The only exceptions to these rules are the Border Guards where uniform is the lowest priority due to the constant threat of attacks from outside the kingdom and the disadvantage of being easily recognisable in a battle situation
Diamond shield had the mother of all hangovers, it was the day after the passing off parade of the Guards and he had spent all of last night up parting and getting completely hammered, this would have been more manageable if he hadn't been called to the Captain's office at 8o'clock in the morning, after being told at half seven, he had spent the better part of 20 minutes just getting his uniform on, which he couldn't have imagined doing without his magic, and the next 5 sprinting across the Guard base to get to Captain Shining's office, trying to dodge the, now fully fledged guards all packing ready to have their obligatory leave. This had all helped to turn his hangover into a full on, 'oh my gosh my brain is going to explode' migraine.
Diamond looked over himself in the mirror in the Captain's waiting room, he was dressed in full Guard uniform, helmet, boots and flank guard, he had the white coat of all Guard trainees’ although he was thinking he might go for the dark grey coat when he was deployed. He would have changed his colour that day but sadly he didn't know the spell. He was of a usual build for a Guard, tall and powerful, Basic training had seen to that, as it had with all the other recruits he had trained with.
Two of which had just entered the waiting room now, and from the look of them Diamond had been restrained last night. They were his good friends, flourish, who was a slender unicorn mare who was known to take no prisoners, and dive bomb a pegasus stallion who could fly the socks off of anyone else in the academy. They had arrived just after Diamond and looked even worse than he did. To describe it you would have to say that they both looked like they had been gagged and tied, then dragged through a bush backwards, then forwards, then backwards again before being used to hammer a nail into a wall and then hung on the nail to have coconuts thrown at them like a carnival game. In short they looked utterly terrible.
As they arrived they greeted him with silent nods, not risking the danger of having their thumping heads become any worse. Those two had been his friends since the start of basic training, they were great friends to have by your side pretty much anywhere, especially in the field and out on the town. While they were busy attending to themselves in front of the mirror the next pony arrived.
This pony was the infamous Crusher, he was a huge pegasus, nearly as tall as Celestia, however much heavier built. No one in their right mind would mess at first glance, in the first week of Basic no-one dared even to sit within a table of him in the mess hall, he had an expression of perpetual anger which made it look like he always wanted to rip off your head and then eat your innards. Fact of the matter was he was a bit simple and also a massive softy, as long as you stayed on his good side you could be sure to win pretty much any fight you were in.
Crusher looked perfectly fine, head held high looking happily at the world around him, which was amazing since he had downed a couple of kegs of cider during the celebrations.
"Hey Crush." whispered Diamond using his nickname "How come you don't have a hangover? I recall you drinking at least twice as much as me."
"Dunno" said Crush shrugging "Guess I'm just too big."
This caused the other three ponies to flinch Crush's deep voice caused massive relapses in their already throbbing headaches, seeing he had caused them harm caused Crush to gasp and start apologising profusely.
"Oh my, I'm so sorry you guys, I wasn't thinking because..." He was cut off as Flourish put a hoof to his mouth and slowly shook her head, followed by Crush drawing a hoof across his mouth in a zipping motion. The other three took a moment to recover from their headaches before looking up again.
Entering now were Spear and Shield Maiden, identical twins in all aspects, except Spear was a pegasus and Shield was a unicorn, they both had well set frames clearly showing their working background. They both approached looking as bad as the rest of them, except crush, they gave a nod to acknowledge the shared pain and went up to the mirror to sort themselves out. They then sat down on the chairs in the room and proceeded to sit in silent agony waiting for Captain Armour to call them in.
They didn't have to wait long it was a short wait before the door to Shining's office opened and all the ponies outside stood to attention, Shining poked his head out of the door and said
"You can all come in, and drop with the formalities; you're all on leave remember."
He retreated back into his office and went to sit behind his desk, he brushed a few papers out of the way and looked into a coffee cup he had on his desk while he waited for them all to shuffle in. When they had all squeezed in to the office he started to speak.
"What I am about to tell you doesn't leave this room, you are to tell no-one unless if you have my express permission, and only my permission. Understood." He looked at each one of them in turn, they all nodded. "Good, any questions can be held until the end." He paused for a moment before continuing "I have called you all here today because you have all been chosen to 'volunteer' for a new unit of the Guard that I am forming this year." He leaned back in his chair "Your names will not be on the list of company placements when it goes up in the mess hall, instead next week after you have all had a good relaxing leave a carriage will be sent to each of your residences to pick you up. Do not take any belongings everything will be provided there. It will then take you to an undisclosed location where you will receive a full briefing on what you will be doing. Is that understood?" They all nodded "Any questions?" They all shook their heads. "Good, now go enjoy your leaves, you won’t get too many in the future."
They all filed out of the room closing the door behind them, Shining Armour gave a sly smile and adjusted his desk clutter, focusing on a picture of Princess Cadence he had on his desk. He then went back to the papers and started to fill out forms, waiting for the next group of six to arrive."
When outside they all stood there looking at each other with bemusement on their faces, they had no idea how to react and couldn't think of any reason to react until Dive Bomb broke the silence by saying.
"I wander what the pay's like?"
This was followed by flourish giving him a quick wack round the back of the head with her hoof causing him to flinch followed by her saying
"And that is why more Mares are needed in the Guard, come on idiot start moving before I have to carry you out." She said ushering him out. The maiden sisters smiled when she said the comment about the Guard and gave little nods of agreement.
They all shuffled back out the single door of the waiting room and said their farewells before going back to packing and taking their leave. Oblivious to their future, but sure it can't be too bad.
Shining Armour walked into the waiting room to his office and addressed Lieutenant Swift who was sitting in a corner.
"So, what did they say?"
Swift lowered the newspaper he was reading and said. "Dive's mind was on the money as usual, however they didn't question it or show any sign of not being willing."
"So, we made the right choice then?" asked Shining sceptically
"If not then there was no right choice." Finished Swift carrying on reading his paper.
Shining retreated back into his office, smiling wryly to himself, he sat down waiting for the next six Guards he had summoned to turn up
Extract from the Book Of the Old Guard :
For each Princess there were six Guards, three Unicorns and Three Pegasus, each the best of the Best, their only duty to protect the Princess, and through the Princess the Realm. Each was as capable of acting independently, trained in all the arts of espionage, combat, diplomacy and every other way that would help them carry out their jobs. However it is when they act as a group that their true power is revealed. It is said that they were capable of defeating entire armies by themselves, saving Equestria from certain destruction countless times. However this didn't come without its downsides, the unit had the highest casualty rates of any unit that has ever existed, although their success cannot be argued with. The Unit was disbanded after the Nightmare Moon uprising at Celestia's personal request, why no-one knows except the Princess herself, and any that have known have long since passed away.
"You are going to be the new Royal Princess Guards, over the next year we will train you to become the best of the best, you will form a fighting force that will be matched by no other. You will be tasked with two things, the first and most important is guarding the Princesses, the second is acting as a tool of the Princesses as they wish so that they may better the good of the real."
Lieutenant Swift as he had introduced himself to be was addressing the twelve ponies that stood before him at attention. He was known as being Captain Armours right hoof stallion, as were several others. He was a clean shaving, large Pegasus, known for being a master of aerial combat, he was usually entrusted with all Pegasus deployments in the Guard. His coat was a dark grey, so as to hide any dirt that was always accumulated when flying.
He was addressing twelve ponies in a cinema, Diamond, Crush, Flourish, Dive, Shield and Spear were sitting on one half of the room, with six other ponies in the other half, all from the same Basic training as Diamond recognised at least most of them, but he couldn't remember their names, just like the group he was in though there were three mares and three stallions.
"You have all been selected" the Lieutenant continued "Because you have the potential to be the best, here we will mould you into the best of the best. This will NOT be easy, but we chose you for a reason, don't make me regret that decision." He gestured towards two Pegasus stallions standing next to him one with a white coat and one dark grey; these will be your drill sergeants for the next year."
The two ponies that he had gestured to were both wearing the usual perpetual angry looks on their faces, scowling at their soon-to-be recruits.
The lieutenant continued "Any questions?"
One of the ponies that Diamond didn't know stuck his hoof up, the Lieutenant nodded at him. "I thought we were done with basic training sir?"
The Lieutenant replied quickly “Son, you will never be done with Basic training in the Guard. Any other questions?" He looked around but there was no response "Good, Sergeants take your recruits and do what you must."
The Sergeants both stood at attention and then marched towards their respective group of six. The sergeant that approached Diamond and his friends was the shorter of the two sergeants, with the pristine white coat, he had an angry scowl on his face.
"Alright you lot." He said scowling "I've been given the unenviable task of getting you to be worthy of guarding princess Celestia." He quickly scanned the group and said "Don't know why any of you were picked, you look like you couldn't guard a fish in the desert, hell you'd probably lose it." He gave a quick look over the group again and then continued "Alright you sorry lot, we're going to the store to get you set up with your kit, not that you'll need it for more than a week. Hell you reek of weakness so much the enemy will be able to smell you from a mile away, hell I smelled you from two." His scowl deepened for a second before he braced and shouted
"ALL RIGHT FALL OUT SIDE IN FILE"
The six ponies quickly ran out of the briefing room and formed up on the snow covered track. The sergeant came out of the door after them and proceeded to march them along up the side of the mountain.
The compound that they were in was a few hundred metres above the city of Canterlot, jutting out from the mountain just like the city, however it was camouflaged using spells and physical camouflage netting stopping anypony from seeing it, the compound itself was large enough to house about 100 Guards and the track up to it was hidden from the main road to Canterlot so only those that knew of its existence could find their way to it. The compounds buildings were all grey brick with grey slates on the roof, with signs by the door saying what they were.
This was going to be their home for the next year, any of them would have lied if they didn't all dread the coming year, they all still had fresh memories from their days of Basic training and they did not want to have to relive any of them. They all marched grimly towards what they could only assume was the store. When they reached it the sergeant told them to enter and proceeded to wait outside.
The store itself was a huge building on the site, easily the largest, it was also less of a store and more of a mix between a warehouse and a messy pony’s room. Cluttered on the floor everywhere were bits and pieces of complicated looking machines and gadgets, lots of them with blinking L.E.D's and a lot more with what looked like explosives lazily strapped to them.
There was a strange earth pony sitting near the entrance to the building with a welding mask on, intent on whatever project he was working on, he had a strange multicoloured shirt on with outlines of palm trees and his cutie mark was of a disassembled clock. The piece he was working on was some sort of strange metal backpack with two straps on and a dangerous looking rocket strapped on.
Suddenly something in the rocket ignited, causing a jet of fire to suddenly stream out of the end, hurling the weird device straight forward sending it crashing through a wall of the building and off into the distance, there was a pause before a distant explosion could be heard followed by a the thumping of rocks falling. Then there was complete silence for a few seconds, snow billowing in from the new entrance/exit to the building. The strange pony that had been working on the device slowly took off the welding mask and said
"Bugger." He looked around to sort out his tools when he noticed the six ponies standing there in bewilderment. "Oh good, the new guys, it gets lonely up here sometimes." He said beaming at them. He stood up and walked over to a bunch of shelves stacked with all kinds of gear that the Guard used. "You'll be here for your kit then, PT gear?" He said glancing at the group, they all nodded
"Well then, my names Tinker." He said grabbing various tops and shorts off of the shelves. "I'm the armourer for this base." He looked round quickly eying up crush, he then thoughtfully hummed and climbed up the shelves to the very top looking for the larger gear.
"I thought this was the store?" asked flourish looking with curiosity at all the things strewn about the place.
"Technically it," he grunted as he unstuck a piece of clothing from behind the shelves, "is, but it's also the armoury, and my workshop," he paused looking to the heavens as if thinking "and sometimes the kitchen, its best avoid the food on those days."
He came up to the six ponies holding a large bundle of clothes in his fore hoofs, trotting down the line giving each pony a kit, pausing at crush to check the size, and when content with his choice finished off. The kit he had given them was pitch black, with Guard stitched onto the shirt and shorts, the pegasus gear had holes in the shirt where their wings would be able to go through.
Spear held up the kit in front of her with a look of mild disgust on her face. "Have these things ever been washed?" She asked grimacing
"Lord No." said Tinker with a dismissive smile, "Heck I haven't washed anything in, what a year now. Too busy inventing stuff, furthering the entirety of equinekind in endeavours that only I can make happen." He said searching through a pile of what seemed like junk, pulling out a pile of wooden planks, a hammer and a nail. "Anyways you should be getting back to your sergeant, he won’t be too happy with being kept this long, and don't worry you'll be coming back for the better gear later. Cheerio" he gave a little wave as they left, going for the hole in the wall with the wooden planks, hammer and nails.
The ponies filed out of the building in single file where they were formed up by their sergeant and then marched off to their new residence.
Unofficial letter from Captain Armour to Lieutenant Swift:
Dear Swift
The recruits need to be pushed beyond their limits for this to succeed, this means that they need to be as physically fit as possible, I want you to make a change to the routine you sent me, for the first two weeks they must exclusively do PT, after that the schedule that you sent me will do fine to teach them all they need to know.
"For future reference my name is Sergeant Hale," The sergeant started, the six were lined up outside their new billet holding their Pt kit in hoof. "This is your billet for the next year, tomorrow we will begin the year's training with PT..." The sergeant continued, telling the six about the whereabouts of the important buildings in the camp and how they were already a disappointment to him. The wind was billowing around them the whole time chilling them all to their bones as they stood there waiting for him to finish, absorbing all the information. He eventually finished by saying "When you are all in your billet the first thing you need to do is check your PT gear, if it doesn't fit then take it back to the store and change it. Other than that you can have the rest of the day to do as you wish" He then proceeded to dismiss them and marched off.
The bedraggled six shambled into their new billet with their PT gear, in the building there was six bunk beds, and two shower and toilet blocks all connected by a central corridor, compared to Basic this was luxury. Dive Bomb checked the toilets and showers and found that they all worked as well which was a bonus. They then all went into the bunk room and started to sort out their areas that they chose. They also started to have general chat.
"Well I can already tell this is going to be a year of hell." said Diamond sceptically
"Yeah but at the end of it we'll be guarding PRINCESS CELESTIA, man that's gotta be good." said Spear imagining it
"We've still got 12 months to go yet" said Shield putting on her first pair PT shorts and top "I think we've got to get through this fresh hell first."
"That's what they want you know, Hale's gonna do everything he can to break us." said Dive Bomb "Well he's going to get a big surprise when I destroy every test he throws at us." he smiled confidently to himself."
"Oh come on." said Flourish rolling her eyes "What can they do to us that they haven't already done in basic?" she paused as the PT top slid over her slender frame. "This can't be too bad."
"Suddenly the door of their billet burst open and Sergeant Hale shouted "ALRIGHT FILLIES AND COLTS P.T TIME." He had a cruel smile on his face as he continued "PT GEAR ON AND GET TO THE NORTHEAST CORNER OF THE COMPOUND. LETS GO, GO, GO!!"
The six ponies rushed to get their PT gear on if they hadn't yet done so and galloped out the door, Dive Bomb was the lost one out and got a cruel glare from the sergeant who proceeded to gallop to the top corner of the compound where the rest of the group were waiting.
The sergeant still had a wry smile on as he said "Change in plans today, there's been a weather change and I wouldn't want us to miss the storm."
He motioned towards a small track that was barely visible under a layer of snow. "Anyway welcome to your new love for the next year, Mount Tarturus I call it, because it is hell. By the end of the year you will be going all 5 miles up and all 5 miles down in an hour. However I'm realistic, for now I'm expecting an hour and a half" He gave a cruel smile at that. "The track you are to follow is behind you, no wings, and no magic. GO!"
"Velcome to fighting one-oh-one " Said the slim Unicorn stallion, pacing in front of the six white ponies he was teaching. "In zis class you vill be learning how to defeat any and all opponents, is zis understood?" He looked between each pony individually
They were all sitting there with heavy bags under their eyes, for the past two weeks they had been doing nothing but PT, they had gone to the top of the mountain and back so many times it was more familiar to them than their own beds. The exhaustion was just another test that they all had to struggle through. But at least now they were more clued up, they had each been given a definitive schedule for their weeks now and everything was falling in to place as the routine started to kick in.
The heavily accented instructor continued. "I am from one of the Realms many secret organizationz, you vill not be privy to ze full information until you are full Guards, however until zen you are mine to mould. For now you may call me, Herschell" He suddenly stopped and stared directly at Crush, and looking him right in the eye asked. "VAT do you know about combat?"
Crush shuffled nervously under his gaze before answering, "That you should identify your strengths, and the enemy’s weakness and use them to your advantage" He answered
"WRONG, ALL WRONG." shouted the instructor "Zis is gud for an opponent you know better than yourself, however zis will never vork for vat you vill be doing." He pointed a hoof towards Flourish "I Vas told you are best combatant out ov your class, yes? Vell come up here and show me."
The other ponies all gave a smile, the instructor from Basic had done exactly the same thing on the first day, and had been hit by a truck of Flourish, they were sure this was going to be interesting.
Flourish stood up and walked in front of the instructor. Taking a low fighting stance, she braced herself for the first strike, hind legs coiled, ready to pounce. Herschell took a tiny step back and waited. Flourish pounced forward at the instructor, flicking her right legs out at the last moment to cause her to spin around ready to strike Herschell's legs from under him.
He calmly stepped sideways, and with a smooth motion caught Flourishes hoof in mid-air, spinning her around and causing her to crash into the floor with a resounding thud, winding her heavily.
"Fight eez over. Now I see ze problem," He turned to face the sitting ponies while Flourish recovered. "Over ze course of this claz you vill learn to forget what you 'ave been told."
He paused as Flourish regained her footing and staggered back to where she was sitting.
"You are all too focused on ze techniques you ave been taught, forget zem, vat matters is finishing ze fight. All opponents will use techniques to counter ze moves that you are meant to do, to counter zis you do not follow a technique, you vill make the fight flow around you, you will shape ze fight to your advantage and end it swiftly."
He looked at Crush for a second "I suppose zey taught you zat there is a point at vich size can counter all technique?" They all nodded slowly
"pffftt, anover mistake, you come up here." He motioned to crush who slowly stood up and moved to the front of Herschell, he took a different stance to Flourish, not letting on to what he was about to do.
Herschell smiled "Good, you are alveady learning, this vont take as long as I ad thought zen. Go on zen attack me." Crush slowly edged towards Herschell making sure that his own momentum couldn't be used against him, when the giant pegasus was but metres from the slim unicorn he moved with a surprising speed. However Herschell was faster, carrying out a series of jabs that couldn't be followed by the untrained eye. These left Crush frozen in position, unable to move any part of him except his eyes.
Herschell just as quickly did another series of jabs that unstuck the pegasus, followed by him saying
"Through the course of zese classes I vill teach you all I know, and by ze end you vill surpass me." He slowly looked over the ponies and selected his next victim. "You" He eventually said pointing to Diamond shield. Who gulped as he stood up and walked over to the fighting floor.
The Mare that stood in front of them had an air of unnatural beauty surrounding her. She was a tall very slim Mare ho was taking them for their weapons training. She had a heavy Western accent and was wearing a large Stetson that covered most of her hair.
"So y'all wanna learn 'bout them there weapons then?" she asked rhetorically "Well then best get started with the basics."
Behind her was a weapon rack upon which stood hundreds of weapons from the Guards basic spear to some sort of strange black sphere with a rope sticking out of it. They were in the ranges of the base and had the entirety of the place to themselves.
"Alright y'all, let’s start with the basics, this here's the spear y'all be familiar with, no point mentioning anything 'bout that as y'all already know it, this here's called a shuriken, good for throwing at things," She continued through all of the weapons hung on the rack, until she had reached the end when she said.
"Good y'all been paying attention," she said as she finished and looked at the ponies faces "my name's Carel," she gave a sly wink when she said that before continuing "And in these classes y'all be learning how to handle and use all these weapons as best as ya can. Any questions?"
The three unicorns were separated from the pegasi of their group in this particular class, which was combat magic, where they were being taught by a small stallion that was shrouded in a hood and cloak.
"Combat magic should never be taken lightly." His voice was raspy and distant, as though he was only half there. "You should only use it when there are no other options as it is the most destructive force available to you. You will have been taught basic combat magic. BAH" He said waving his arm
"Magic for colts and pretend soldiers, the magic I will teach you is known by very few, and practiced by even fewer."
Diamond, Shield and Flourish all sat there enthralled, they had been told that the only combat magic that existed was being taught to them at Basic and they couldn't believe there was anything more destructive.
"Magic is not something to be taken lightly and only very few can do well at it, however I have dallied enough, and you are eager to learn so you have a good chance of succeeding, we shall begin immediately."
At the same time as the Unicorns were being taught combat magic, the Pegasi were in the sky with Sergeant Hale. They were thankful that for once what they had been taught before was all still applicable, however there was only so much that a Pegasus could do, and the only thing they could do was practice, which meant a lot of repetition in their future.
"Espionage" The handsome Unicorn Stallion announced to the six eager ponies in a posh accent. He was wearing a tuxedo and bow tie that fitted him perfectly. "That is what we will cover in this class, you will learn to forget yourself and take on the role of another pony entirely, and I will teach you how to change your very appearance. Through magic or otherwise, you will be able to serve your princess as any role after I'm done with you. Any Questions?"
The next two months the ponies spent honing their skills and learning new ones, they became adept at all forms of combat, warfare, and espionage. They learnt new languages, and customs, and they forgot old habits. They were taught everything from the intricacies of Equestrian politics to how the weather is made at a microscopic level. They were taught how to survive in all climates with no help or resources and they were taught how to treat a pony with wounds that many hospitals would struggle with.
They were making the summit of the mountain in full ceremonial gear, they could fight their instructors to standstills in all of their classes, and they knew the inside out of almost every resource that the Princesses had available to them. In short they had become pretty badass.
Yet when it came to their first exercise they were still far from prepared.
The six were flown in a blacked out carriage for what seemed like hours, this was one of the rare times that they got to really sit down and talk, and they had yet to have a leave from training and there wasn't any other time they really got to talk. The training had done a decent job of leaving them totally shattered all the time and if it wasn't necessary they tried to avoid doing it.
"So many memories of Basic." groaned Spear as she slumped in the carriage
"Well at least you can look forward to the new memories after we finish this." said Flourish cheerfully "Then we can get all nostalgic about Basic, and how easy it was."
"Do you inject rainbows into your veins or something?" asked Dive Bomb sarcastically "I don't see how else you could be so happy all the time."
"Oh come on Dive, she's just making the best of the situation." piped in Shield
"I think this training's great" said Crush cheerfully "I've never been so fit in all my life."
"Yeah the ladies sure do go for this look." said Dive flexing slightly and earning a punch from each of the mares in the carriage. "See, can't get their hooves off of me." Another round of punches came for him before they continued chatting.
The entire journey followed this sort of routine until they got a five minute warning and Sergeant Hale opened the door and flew into the carriage and gave them a briefing. With brief being the imperative.
"Alright you lot, Here's what’s happening." As they had improved the Sergeant had greatly warmed to them and he was much less insulting of them. "Get back to the base without being found. Any Questions?"
"Who's searching for us?" Asked Shield
Sergeant Hale gave a quick smile at this. "Everypony effectively, but mostly it'll be the Luna trainees."
They all smiled at that point, over the course of the last two months they had been getting into more and more contact with the six ponies being trained to Guard Luna. Whereas the six in the carriage all had pristine white coats at most times. The Luna Guards had dark grey coats, and much to Dive Bombs dismay they got to have their wings and ears magically changed to be representative of a bat.
The two groups had become increasingly competitive over the past two months and had taken to doing anything they could to show up each other. They had even being summiting against each other at points, leading to records being made, and then broken again almost instantly.
This was the perfect chance for the six to show up the other trainees then, however as usual Hale was withholding information.
"What do you mean everypony?" asked Diamond
"I mean that the Luna's get to have access to any resource they can blag to find you, you win as soon as you step back onto the base."
The six looked at each other with more concern at that, the odds were heavily stacked against them, along with the fact that Luna's Guards had as much training as they did, as well as extra night training, this wasn't going to be easy.
"THIRTY SECONDS!!" shouted the driver
"Alright you lot, good luck." said Hale flying out of the carriage back to his position next to the driver.
The carriage slowly started to descend at a steep angle, it hit the ground running slowing down gradually over rough ground, with the six trainees in the back being chucked around the place, causing a few bruises to everyone. When the carriage came to a halt the door was swung open by the sergeant and the six dismounted, forming a circle for all around defence.
What lay before them was a massive expanse of nothing but sand and rocks, heat causing the air above to shimmer and bend the light above it slightly, there was not a single living thing to be seen anywhere. The carriage took off as quickly as it had left the two pegasus pulling it dressed in Guard uniform With the sergeant and driver sitting on top of it. The six waited until the carriage had all but disappeared before starting to properly scan the area.
There were no visible waypoints at all, it was completely flat; the blazing sun was at its apex for the day so they couldn't even tell the direction of anywhere. For all intensive purposes they had been dropped in neck deep with nothing to dig themselves out with.
Dive Bomb summed up all their feelings by saying "Well, F-"
The six ponies had been walking for hours, they had managed to gain their bearings after five minutes thanks to Dive Bomb flying as high as he could and just about being able to make out the mountain that Canterlot was attached to, which was great because they knew exactly where they were going. The bad news however was on a separate level entirely.
They were stuck in the middle of what was affectionately called the 'Wild West' of Equestria, they had no knowledge of the local area, no food, no water and most importantly no way of knowing who would be on the lookout for them. They had at least a hundred miles to move before they would even be out of the bleak landscape of the desert and in all of that time any pegasus could spot them from miles away.
Their only option was a forced march, the sooner they got into the better covered area of Equestria surrounding Canterlot they could use the terrain to more of an advantage, however until that time, they couldn't even risk stopping at night for rest. The morale was low, as it was always the case on marches like these, the three pegasi had given up flying long ago in favour of walking, trying to reduce the heat that they created.
Sweat dripped off of every pony, they were bathed in it, they hadn't drunk in nearly two days and this was beginning to show, every single pony had their head hanging low, the pegasus at least had wings they could use to their advantage, stretching them out over their heads to provide shade and get the blood flowing through them to cool them down, however even this wasn't helping them fair much better than the unicorns.
They had all but given up hope when suddenly Spear shouted "HEY LOOK, A TOWN!"
They all looked up and followed the direction of her hoof, she was correct, on the horizon was the faint shimmer of wooden buildings, a cloud of steam was rising up from behind one of them, marking a train that was in station. The entire party gained a new glimmer of hope at the sighting of civilisation. However the hope was tempered by the nagging feeling that they were in more danger than they had ever been before.
"Alright everypony lets, formulate a plan." said Diamond beckoning to the rest of the group to gather round. "Alright, while we're still far enough outside of the town to be safe from prying eyes we need to get disguises on and figure out what we're doing." He pointed to Crush "Sorry mate but you're going to have to sit this one out, somepony of your size is bound to attract unwanted attention."
He gave a thoughtful rub of his chin as he thought how best to hide crush before Shield suggested "How about an invisibility spell? As long as nopony nearby is scanning for the magic he should be fine to just stay by the station waiting, and one of us will take him supplies when we get them."
Diamond nodded at the idea "Good one, the rest of us will go through the town getting what supplies we can, I'll hit up the local watering hole and see about any news that might help us. Flourish, Dive Bomb, see if you can grab us some food and provisions, Shield, Spear, how about acquiring tickets for that train, It'll be a damn sight nicer than walking the rest of the way." As he gave each pony their job he pointed at each of them in turn, getting nods of acknowledgment from each of them.
The three unicorns then started to cast the necessary spells needed for the plan to work, with Shield focusing on turning the giant pegasus invisible, nearly collapsing at the effort, Diamond and Flourish giving the other five each a new colour scheme, Flourish a rich Magenta, Diamond a light Cyan, Shield and Spear both gaining a dark orange and Dive Bomb a Jet Black.
Dive Bomb opened his mouth, about to make one of his trademark comments however before he could manage he was cut off by Flourish "I swear to Celestia that if you say anything I will turn you Pink." This accompanied by the evil glare she was giving him caused him to pause.
Flourish, confident that she had halted any future silliness went to turn away, at which point Dive Bomb took the opportunity to blurt out. "Always knew I looked good in Black." He flew towards the town cackling as Flourish ran after him, horn glowing with a magical aura.
The other four just stood there staring at the two with exasperated looks on their faces, Diamond sighed and put a hoof to his face. "Alright guys, let's stay professional here, we all know what we've got to do, you guys come find us when you've got our ride." He pointed at the twins with his final comment and then turned toward the town.
With that the four trotted off, the twins heading to the other end of the town, Diamond and Crush trotting together, Crush occasionally tripping over as he tried to walk without any way to coordinate, eventually they reached the rear of the train station where Diamond left Crush and started to trot around looking for the local Bar.
Flourish eventually caught up with the jet Black pegasus between two buildings in the town, looking angrily at the Stallion she slowly released the magic from her horn, not willing to risk anypony seeing the sudden change of coat colour, she made do with a punch to Dive's shoulder which he took with ease.
They started their search around the town, looking for any sort of convenience store that they could find, when they came across one they were disappointed to find out that the bins round back had been emptied recently and there was nothing salvageable. Grumpily they went back round the front, only for Dive Bomb to bump into a strange cream coloured earth pony with a large cherry red mane set in a bun atop her head and wearing a ribbon around her neck. Her cutie mark was of two cherries.
"I'm terribly sorry ma'am," gasped Flourish, putting on a western accent "My cousin here's a bit clumsy." She said helping up the poor mare.
"Why that's quite alright." she said Brushing herself off, "Not that I'm complaining about bumping into a handsome young Stallion."
This caused DB's cheeks to flare red, much to Flourish's amusement, however before she could press on with the embarrassment of him here stomach rumbled loudly.
Suppressing a blush she said. "Excuse me, ah haven’t eaten in a while."
"Never mind that dear, how about I make up our little scuffle by getting you some lunch." said the new mare cheerfully
"Ah'm afraid we don't have anything to pay you with." said Flourish apologetically
"Nevermind that, Ah'm owner of the biggest cherry orchard in the entire West, Ah think ah'll get by." she beckoned them to follow and started trotting off down the street.
"Excuse me ma'am, terribly sorry for having to ask, but wat's your name?" said Dive picking up the same accent that Flourish had put on.
"Why ah'm Cherry Jubilee, boss o' Cherry Hill Ranch. Pleasure to make your acquaintance..." she gestured to the two ponies trotting next to her.
"Ma names Apple, and this here's mah brother Pear, we're just passing through on our way to Canterlot." said Flourish, seeding the lie with a hint of the truth.
"Pleasure to meet you two," she winked at the pegasus then "It's always fine meeting young good looking ponies such as yourselves."
Flourish tried to suppress her giggles while Dive just looked at the ground, cheeks a deep red from embarrassment. They had slowed down now and Cherry had stepped up to a house directly next to the train station, entering it she called,
"Come on in dears, it's quite alright."
The two ponies trotted in to the house after the Mare detecting a subtle whiff of cherry pie, granting their hoofs renewed vigour as they could almost taste the food they could smell.
Diamond was sitting at the bar of the Suns Rise, having found the local Watering hole he had ordered a glass of water and started listening to the strangers that were frequenting the place, he had so far learned that they were at Dodge Junction, which he was happy about as it meant they were closer to the Central area of Equestria than he had anticipated, he had also learnt that the Guard around the entirety of Canterlot had been increased by at least three-fold, this wasn't such good news. It meant that the Luna's knew what they were doing and had kept their area of influence as tight as possible so they wouldn't be overstretched.
The barkeep slid his glass of water over to him, he gratefully picked it up and purposefully drank slowly from the glass, desperate to just gulp it down however controlling himself for the sake of appearances.
He noticed then that the Maiden sisters had just entered the bar and were casually walking over to him, he gestured to the bartender for more glasses of water, before turning back to the twins.
"Have we got a ride then?"asked Diamond hopefully
The twins nodded simultaneously "We persuaded the conductor to give us a few tickets ." said Spear, the two twins looked wryly at each other.
Diamond interjected by asking "You tied him up didn’t you?" looking between the two of them.
The look of evil joy on their faces gave away their new elation. Diamond just sighed and decided not to scold them for the obvious mistake, It's unlikely that it would make a big difference anyway. Also it seemed that Tweedle-Di and Tweedle-Dum had entered the bar now and were walking over to them with bulging saddle bags, full bellies and looks of joy on their faces.
" 'sup" said Dive Bomb looking very pleased with himself. "We just had the best meal ever."
Flourish rolled her eyes at this and went back onto the topic at hand. "So, we all set to get out of here then?"
Diamond slowly nodded and went to finish his drink when suddenly a dark brown pony rag-dolled through the window of the bar and landed in a heap on one of the empty tables.
Crusher was content with sitting waiting for the others to get back, he wasn't annoyed at being left out, he was in fact quite happy, he got to rest in the shade, and although that didn't quench his thirst or fill his stomach he was happy for the small victories. He even started to doze off at one point, stopping himself beforehand knowing that he might be needed at any point.
Admittedly being his size had a lot of disadvantages, however the advantages usually outweighed those, case in point he was usually left out of all the lying parts of the job, which he was never comfortable doing anyway, so that suited him just fine.
Suddenly his thoughts were cut short by a sudden scream from the road, he knew that he should have stayed put. But he never could resist helping anypony, he sneaked a peek around the corner of the building, what he saw made his blood boil.
There were three stallions, armed with rifles attacking a cream coloured Mare with dark red mane. A red mist descended.
The first of the three robbers didn't have any chance to see what was coming, one moment he had one hoof on the mare’s purse, the next he was flying over the nearest building with a large pain in his flank, landing with a massive crack where his head struck a rock. His two companions just paused in astonishment as they watched their buddy sail clean across the roof of a nearby house and out of sight.
They looked astonished at where he had just been, seeing nothing but a faint shimmer in the air they quickly raised their weapons and opened fire, the shimmer moved with great speed to the side avoiding the shots as they passed. However the shots themselves caused the magic that was surrounding the pegasus to overload and fail.
The two robbers were now standing before a mountain of a pegasus, nearly twice their height and built like a brick outhouse, he was staring at them with such an intense look of hate that they knew that there was no way they were going to get out of this unharmed.
"Maybe next time," the pegasus growled "You should think about who you should choose to pick on."
He suddenly leapt over the closest bandit tackling the second to the ground rendering him immediately out of the fight. He followed this up by shifting all his weight to his front legs rearing up and kicking with all his great strength into the final bandit. This massive blow sent the brown stallion flying right across the street and through the window of the local watering hole.
Out of which all of the clientele poured including, Crush's five friends, the sight of them made him snap back into reality, looking around he realised that everypony was looking at him, he looked down and realised that he could see his own hooves. He slowly looked back up to the rest of his group who slowly moved to the back of the crowd, giving him signs to meet them at the train station.
Crush started to move off, and slowly picking up speed he galloped to the train station, ignoring the cheers from the townsfolk as he departed, he allowed himself to have a quick smile as he made his way towards his destination. Revelling in the adrenaline rush he was currently experiencing.
Shield was just finishing removing any magical traces of her spell from Crush, they had swiftly departed the town and were making their way non-stop to Canterlot, they all relaxed for the first time on this exercise, they finally had a chance to just sit there and recuperate, plus they had a ton of cherry based produce to consume. The train car that they were in was empty apart from the six, the two twins had released the conductor from his makeshift prison. Diamond had watched curiously as they had used a combination of flying and magic to undo a complicated series of ropes that held the conductor to the ceiling while not actually being visible. It was very impressively done, it made up for the fact they had pretty much just left a witness at the town.
They had then started their, hopefully, uneventful train journey to their objective, no-one had questioned the actions of Crush, they had long ago learned that they could trust each other wholly and that there was no point in arguing over the past, the only thing that mattered was the present, and near future.
Both of which looked to be pretty peachy for the group. Settled down now after undoing all of their spells they began to chat idly, and dig into the food available.
"What was that place anyway?" asked Spear, lounging on one of the seats to the rear of the carriage, casually eating a cherry pie that was in front of her.
"That was Dodge Junction." said Diamond rummaging through the saddlebags full of food, he eventually found a tasty looking cherry fruitcake. Walking over and sitting down near Spear with his chosen food he began to dig in heartily.
At hearing the name Dodge Junction Dive Bomb's ears pricked up. "Did you say Dodge Junction?"
Diamond nodded slowly, unsure why he was prying
"And you would say we left in a hurry?" Dive Bomb continued, cocking one eyebrow up
"Yeeeeeeesssss." Diamond replied slowly, crumbs surrounding his mouth
"Well then," Dive smirked "I guess you could say we.."
He was cut off as Flourish shoved a hoof over his mouth, she then glared daggers at him and whispered threateningly. "Say what you are about to say and I swear..."
She slowly released her hoof from his mouth and went to sit down however before she could reach her seat Dive piped up
"I reckon you could say we got the HELL OUT OF DODGE!"
Flourish pounced and started wailing on the unfortunate pegasus, the other four just rolled their eyes and continued devouring their chosen foods. Spear even went back for seconds, and found some bottles of cherry cola, which they all guzzled down gratefully.
Dive Bomb's and Flourish’s fight ended when they were all about halfway through guzzling their cherry cola, they both had a few bruises to show for it, but otherwise they were fine. They were at least used to it by now. Diamond always thought that their fights were a bit like him with his sister, which made him chuckle a bit.
Dive Bomb had been volunteered by Flourish to take the first watch, so one by one the others slowly allowed the exhaustion of the past three days to take hold and one after the other closed their tired eyes and allowed themselves to dream.
It was Flourish's watch when they eventually reached the greener pastures of central Equestria, the journey had been uneventful, each pony had managed to get enough sleep to feel refreshed, however at the expense of that feeling they realised just how tired they were. Going to sleep when exhausted and then waking up still exhausted was not something that Flourish enjoyed, especially since she hadn't had a great sleep on the poorly cushioned seat she was on.
She stared out the window dreamily, allowing her thoughts to wonder while still paying attention, they had just entered a thick wood and the trees were rushing past almost hypnotically, Flourish took the time to give her eyes a rest from staring out of the window and looked at the other ponies in the carriage, all were passed out on seats, except Diamond who had managed to roll off of his seat and get jammed upside down in the small hoof space below the seat in front of his. She got up to pace up and down the carriage to stretch her legs when suddenly there was a large thump on the roof.
Flourish froze on the spot, unwilling to make a noise in case she drew the attention of whatever had just landed on roof, slowly she edged towards the window, trying to keep out of site she peeked over the edge, she caught glimpse of the very tip of a black bat wing.
She cursed silently to herself and went to wake up the others.
"There's a Luna on the roof!" she hissed quietly to Shield who was closest to her.
Slowly they moved to the others repeating the message, all the while the pegasus on the roof was making noise as it walked up and down the train. It was followed by two more large thuds as what Flourish could only assume was the other two Pegasi in their group joined them.
The ponies in the carriage stood frozen as they waited for them to make the next move, however all had turned deathly quiet as the group waited, then out of the corner of her eye Flourish caught a glimpse of three shadows flying away in a clearing of the forest. She motioned that they were safe and they all loosed a sigh of relief.
Diamond then pointed out "They must know. We have to get off of this train."
"HELL'S YEAH." said Dive Bomb fist pumping to express his excitement "ROLLING DISMOUNT TIME!"
Diamond stood the door to the car that the unlucky six were in, outside were rolling fields that seemed to stretch off forever, the distant Canterlot was rushing closer with every passing moment and with it their chance to dismount was getting slimmer and slimmer. Diamond was leaning out over the edge of the tracks ready to jump when he queried
"WHY THE HAY AM I DOING THIS AGAIN?"
Shouting to be heard over the rushing wind Dive Bomb replied "BECASUE IT'S AWESOME."
Dive Bomb then grew impatient and gave Diamond a friendly push. Or as friendly a push as you could when it involved the pushed party being chucked off of a speeding train. One by one the other three unicorns followed suit, each rolling while landing to disperse the force. The pegasi then flew off of the train, one massive advantage of having wings instead of a horn.
As the six regrouped they took a bearing of their surroundings, and empty wheat field, probably in an off rotation for the moment, the only thing that grew on it at the moment was grass. The party still had plenty of distance to cover however now they had the upper hand as their hunters should have no idea where they were and they would definitely have no idea where they would move next.
What struck them all though was the large purple coloured orb surrounding Canterlot, the unicorns identified it instantly however the Pegasi had less training in that area of expertise and had no idea what it was.
"What's the orb for?" asked Crush
"It's a protection spell." said Shield "I don't know why there's one over Canterlot, if it was important we would probably have been told why."
Dismissing it as nothing hugely important the group started to move out at a direction purposefully slightly away from straight to Canterlot so as to avoid running in to any traps, the Pegasi staying grounded so as not to draw attention.
All this should have helped them get back, however they were in no such luck. They had yet to go more than a few metres when a grey coated Pegasus with black bat-like wings and ears landed in front of them heavily, this was then followed by the sound of two more Pegasus landing behind them, forming a triangle around the group. The Pegasus in front of them gave a knowing smile at the group who had all knew what it meant as soon as they had land.
"We win." said the Pegasus in front of them with a superior tone and an equally superior smile.
Diamond cursed under his breath while the Pegasus continued. "You did well though, you made it this far, however, we are just better." The group ignored the poke at them and just stood there fuming silently.
That was until the Dome around Canterlot came crashing down.
They all stared with astonishment on their faces as the Purple dome surrounding Canterlot cracked, broke and crashed down on the entire of the city, they could nearly make out tiny black dots descending on the streets, followed by explosions of green energy.
The Celestia guards looked at the Luna's, they all knew what this meant. All bets were off, they had a job to do. Diamond nodded to the Pegasus in front of them that had spoken, the nod was returned in kind, and the dark grey Pegasus took off saying.
"We'll find the rest of our group, meet at the base of the mountain near the old mines, we'll form a plan then." He then turned and flew off with the other two Pegasus.
The Celestia Guards looked at each other and wordlessly began to gallop to the rendezvous point.
The six White ponies had been galloping for about five miles over rough terrain, yet had covered the distance in at least five minutes, which was probably a record for them. Waiting for them at the base of the mountain were the six Dark grey Ponies of Luna's Guard, they stood waiting patiently for the White ponies to reach them. Giving them a few seconds to catch their breath and then looked up to the city above them.
The entire mountainside around Canterlot seemed to be a huge battleground, there were near constant bursts of green energy flying around the place, interspersed with bolts of different colours clearly from an overextended guard that could barely handle what was being thrown at it.
Once they had all taken in the view Diamond started to say "Right, we need a plan to..." However before he could finish a giant purple shockwave emanated from the Palace, sweeping all of the Black dots from the city and sending them hurtling south to the Badlands.
The most eminent emotion that the dozen ponies felt at that moment was one of disappointment. Canterlot itself had been invaded, and they had been on some silly exercise which had made them miss it. They all just stood there for a moment looking with awe at the city. Slowly they recovered from the surprise and turned to look at each other again.
"This means all bets are on again doesn't it?" asked Dive Bomb
The six of Luna's Guards all nodded in unison
"Which also means we've lost haven’t we?"
They nodded again
"Horseapples."
Every year the entire Guard, excluding those on vital duties take part in a large scale exercises to keep them all trained for any unforeseen circumstances. They occur once every year and are usually overseen by some a high ranking Guard, usually the Captain of the Guard. However a member of royalty may take an interest in a certain year and oversee the large scale simulation personally.
The entire event consists of the Guard being split in two armies, each army being commanded by a Lieutenant of the Guard. The exercise takes place on anything from 5 to 500 miles squared of land in Central Equestria, usually farmland, depending on the number of Guards that are available that year. The cost of the exercise is usually substantial as the ponies that have their lives disrupted by the exercise are given hefty compensation. It is not uncommon for the exercise to take place around a village, allowing for the Guard to practice civilian control and handling.
This year the exercise was taking place on a piece of land roughly 100 metres squared in size, consisting of a large amount of forest, with a large strip of open fields around the centre of the area, splitting up the two halves that each side would inhabit, creating an instant place for the frontlines to be formed.
The whole thing takes about three weeks to complete; however the time taken can depend upon the victory conditions and the speed at which these are completed, the longest any has ever taken is two months where both sides had no option but to grind each other down in a war of attrition.
Although the entire exercise is often argued against due to the cost the results can't be disputed, there are many battles that have been won using the experience gained from the exercise and although there has never been any recent need for a large scale mobilization of the Guard similar to that which occurs on the exercise, any and all skills and tactics that have been used during the exercise have always met with at least equal success when employed in actual combat situations.
Diamond, Flourish, Dive Bomb, Crush, Shield and Spear sat at the back of the tent, along with Sergeant Hale, the tent itself was gargantuan, able to fit at least two thousand ponies in easily, however it was still overflowing with the number of Guards that were present. The exercise this year was easily the largest ever recorded; mostly due to an ever increasing population and an ever increasing need for Guards because of that fact. The six had taken part in the exercise last year as well, however back then they had just been used as frontline grunts, just another spear on the ground.
This year however they were going to be used differently, they were one of the elite squads that they could identify there; the others included the Border Guard Marauders, the Equestrian Airforce’s Lightnings and the infamous Red devils. All renowned units with multiple battle honours under their names, and on top of that they had all had at least one tour of duty in the more hospitable areas of Equestria; this all led up to them being well known by nearly all those present. Because of that fact they were all being treated with great respect from the other less elite units there.
The difference between those units and the RPG's however were great, however what stood out most was the size, while usually a company consisted of around a hundred Guards, the RPG's had but six, and they were unknown by all but the higher ranks in the Guard, meaning that they had received the joy of being pushed to the back of the briefing tent by the other companies where they could barely hear the Lieutenant giving the briefing.
Not that they need to hear it, Sergeant Hale had already blagged detailed maps and information on the entire thing, and Shield and Spear had managed to get complete lists of all who were taking part along with whether they would be on the ‘Reds’ or the ‘Blues’. This year it seemed like their 'army', a.k.a. the ‘Blues’ looked to be the stronger of the two; with more elite units on their side, they seemed to be in a strong position.
However, and this was a big however, the Lieutenant in charge of them was called Bellow, known very well for his stubborn ways, and for the fact that he had used similar tactics in all the conflicts he had participated in for the past 40 years. This meant that the seven of Celestia’s Guard already knew what to expect, as did their enemies. One good thing that came out of this however was that he would likely just dismiss the small group of seven ponies as being useless to the frontlines. They were certain of this as he was known to dismiss all new ideas out of hand, and, due to their low strength in numbers and unknown battle prowess, should cause him to just dismiss them as useless. This should hopefully land them a cushy unimportant job, that they could quickly forget and go to town on the enemy supply and command structures.
Yet there were still more downsides, mainly in the shape of six particular dark grey ponies and their sergeant who would be causing equally as much trouble for the Celestial Guards' side of the conflict. At least it gave them a chance to show each other up though. The competition between the two groups had grown so fierce recently that they had started surpassing what was previously thought to be the limits of a ponies endurance just to get a one up on the other group, much to the amusement of their sergeants and Lieutenant Spears.
They sat there half listening to the briefing while letting their minds wander, they wouldn't have been told anything they didn't know anyway, although they all perked up when the list of jobs that each unit would have was read out. The list was long and the seven Guards waited with baited breaths, hoping to hear their unit name and their preferred jobs, they were however very disappointed. The Lieutenant droned on, naming unit after unit followed by their roles in the upcoming operation: Red devils – cut off group alpha, Lightnings - Aerial support Charlie. The list went on; however there was no mention of the RPGs.
Eventually the Lieutenant finished by announcing in his upper class voice. "If your unit has yet to be assigned a role, remain behind. The rest of you are dismissed to prepare for the exercise."
With him finishing the entirety of the ponies present stood up and started to file out of the single opening at the rear of the tent, all except the seven rather annoyed looking white coated ponies sitting at the rear of the tent, waiting for the Lieutenant to come up and give them their orders.
The Lieutenant himself was a tall well built earth pony stallion, with a large handlebar moustache and an air of self-importance that gave him a reputation as an insufferable fool in the eyes of most ponies in the Guard. He was constantly followed around by a group of unlucky orderlies that he insisted on surrounding himself with, each carrying a load of papers that no normal pony would ever need for anything short of writing a novel.
What he told them was completely unexpected though. The Lieutenant strolled up to the seven, and looked each one in the eye before stating. "I've read the stories of what you are meant to be able to do. I don't believe such a small group of ponies could be so effective, however, against my better judgement my advisors told me that it has shown to be true so far in your training. Therefore, you will be my Vanguard for all intensive purposes until I have a good enough reason to give you a less important job." He didn't even try to hide the disdain in his voice.
Sergeant Hale stood up and started "Sir, I think it would be better if we...” However he was cut short as the Lieutenant raised his hoof.
"You won't change my mind sergeant; you have your orders, now fall out and get prepared. I plan to finish this exercise within the week."
With that the Lieutenant turned around and marched out of the tent, followed by his orderlies trying not to spill the various documents that they were holding.
The group waited for them to leave before Sergeant Hale turned around and bucked the bench in front of the sitting ponies a clear twenty metres or so across the tent. The other six were all taken aback by the pony’s sudden outburst of anger, never before had they actually seen him angry before, and his outburst drew looks of worry from all around.
"Pig-headed son of a GOAT!" shouted the sergeant slamming his hoof on the bench the group were sitting on causing a hairline crack to appear where his hoof had struck.
The reason for his anger was obvious to the six ponies of the Royal Princess Guard. The vanguard was to be at the head of every attack, they were always first in and last out, and usually it consisted of two companies of at least 100 strong each, not seven ponies. They should have been using the skills that other ponies wouldn't have been able to match, they were meant to be precision instruments able to stab at the heart of an enemy and destroy them with the lowest possible casualties for both sides. Instead the Lieutenant was using them as blunt instruments designed to club the enemy into submission.
"Damn that stallion!" said Sergeant Hale, in a quieter tone if no less angry. "What a fool." E threw his hooves up in exasperation and regained his seat, head down, thinking of ways around the role.
The group sat still for a minute unsure how to defuse the situation, until Diamond had a stroke of genius.
"Maybe it can be used to our advantage." He announced, piquing the curiosity of all the others there. "I'll explain by the map," he said standing up and trotting down to the map, followed by the other six, all curious how he was going to turn this around.
"Alright then here's the plan...” He started making complicated movements with his hooves over the scale map at the front of the tent, outlining what he had planned in store for the exercise.
When he had finished all of the ponies nodded in silent agreement, going over the plan again and again in their heads, looking for anything that might go wrong.
They did this for a while before Sergeant Hale said "Diamond, you are undoubtedly a Genius."
With his confirmation they walked out the tent, sure that what they had planned was going to make history.
The rain was everywhere; it was clearly part of Lieutenant Bellow’s plan to have the Pegasi under his command set up rainclouds everywhere on the battlefield to cover the obvious attack. It was only really working to make every pony there wet, the rain was a constant pattering drumbeat, soaking every Guard present through to their skin and making them all more miserable than they were already, the Royal Princess Guards were in a small wooded area set in the centre of the divide of the battlefield. Hidden from the enemies’ sight by careful use of the terrain and the camouflage available to them. The same could not be said of the Guard units either side of the Vanguard who were considerably less elite than the seven.
The seven were given a space along the frontline large enough for a normal sized Vanguard to occupy, meaning that there were huge gaps either side of them that anypony could have walked through with ease. The lieutenant was so predictable that he hadn't even changed the spacing for any of his units along the frontline and the whole setup reeked of his handiwork.
The enemy were set up in an opposite tree line, almost a mirror image of the allied lines. They could just about make out furious preparations being made, small trenches were being dug all along the line, some stakes were being made, enchanted and then planted in the ground along the line. Low level branches were being cut to provide clear flight lines for hoof-held projectiles.
It was the second day of the exercise and as predicted Bellow had planned the attack for this day. Heck he was so predictable that sergeant Hale had even guessed the time he was going to attack spot on. This was far from good news though, as it meant any pony that even half-knew the Lieutenant would know exactly the same information.
This wouldn't have been so bad except they were up against Lieutenant Braveheart. As part of their training they had studied the ins and outs of all of the commanders in the Guard, and of them all Braveheart was one of the best, he was a young Earth Pony Stallion who had shown to be an extremely competent commander when it came to pretty much all situations. The entire thing was FUBAR and the seven could see it, however their plan may actually make this work. They just had to get a little but lucky.
Now all they could do was wait for the attack start to be signalled. This wouldn’t be for another hour, so all they could do was sit, wait, and have a nice shower.
On the exercise every Guard present had all their personal weapons enchanted so that upon contact with part of a creature’s body it would render that part paralyzed until a release spell was cast. The enchantment also made sure that the weapon’s energy was then deflected from the weapon, by either causing the weapon to veer off at an angle to any living thing, or to push the victim of a blow back with the same force that the blow had been made with. This allowed for the entire exercise to be as real as possible without actually having the Guard slaughtering half of itself every year. However this was great downside to the seven ponies of the vanguard as it meant they couldn't use most of their hoof-to-hoof training as it would cause lasting damage. Although this severely limited their options they could still use some of their less lethal takedowns in their arsenal as well as any spells they knew that weren’t going to do any harm.
Luckily this wasn't a major part of their plan however so it shouldn't cause them too much trouble, allowing the members of the squad to focus on the fight ahead.
The vanguard is usually meant to be a large mass of bodies charging towards the enemies, all screaming at the tops of their lungs, using shock and awe tactics to intimidate the defenders into a less useful state than full on alert. The seven ponies charging towards the enemy line was less shock and awe, and more comedic for the defenders. Who didn't start to use any ranged weapons until the seven had closed half the distance between them and the enemy.
Entirely sure that they would easily wipe out the small force they started firing sporadically, which was to the groups advantage as instead of a wall of enchanted arrows it was one after the other. The confidence of the defenders was soon lost as every single arrow that was fired missed, each pony avoiding arrows that would have taken any lesser trained pony out of the fight then.
The defenders finally got their act together with less than a quarter of the distance left to cover for the attackers, in time to throw their javelins, however this just demoralised them further as each javelin missed the dodging ponies. Dive Bomb even caught one and hurled it back at the defenders, his trained eye picking out the Commander of the defending company and taking him out. This loss of command led to a mass panic and total confusion amongst the company.
Charging at them, spears levelled were seven unstoppable ponies, the NCO's of the company managed to get a sporadic defence set up before the seven hit the line. And they hit it like a truck. The initial contact into the line caused at least twenty casualties for the defenders as the levelled spears found multiple targets. Leaving the company at least fifth down in horsepower before they could even begin to try and mount an effective resistance. The seven highly trained ponies of the special unit incapacitating ponies left and right in a flurry of blows, every swing connected with something; behind them they left a trail of unconscious bodies, wading deeper and deeper into the lines of the enemy.
By now the rest of the line that had been left behind by the Vanguard’s charge started their assaults across the entire battlefield. However none faired anywhere near as well as the seven ponies in the centre. The defenders were well dug in and prepared for the head on attack, most of the rushing attackers were cut down by ranged weapons before they reached the defensive lines, reducing their combat strength hugely. This meant that the ensuing melees did not fare well for any of the Guard’s on the attacking side as they were nearly always outnumbered two to one.
The very centre of the line was the only area where Lieutenant Bellow’s forces succeeded, driving the defenders back as the seven ponies of the Royal Princess Guard carved a large break in the line, which their allies poured through, bypassing the defences that were set up and flanking the defenders. This drew a considerable response from Lieutenant Braveheart as was the plan, after all the seven couldn’t pull off their plan facing just any old company of Guards.
The bustling HQ of Lieutenant Braveheart was awash with activity; the attack that he had predicted had come, he was happy about that, however what he had not expected was that his defence would break so easily. One of his best units had been placed opposite where he predicted the opponents vanguard would attack and yet they had broken almost immediately, he had only received reports from scouts about it but it seemed that less than half the company had made it out of there and the enemy force that had done it wasn't anywhere to be seen.
For the first time ever while in command Braveheart was sweating from anxiety, what did the enemy have that he didn't? How could he have broken them so easily? Then a single pony from the broken company staggered into the command centre one leg rendered useless from a blow received by a weapon, he saluted and then said.
"Sir." He stood there swaying from the exhaustion.
Everyone went silent as they heard the company’s name; they all listened intently as he delivered the news. "There were seven, sir, we couldn't touch them, they took out Commander Jones straight away sir, and, we couldn't do anything." He finished apologetically.
At the mention of there being only seven ponies a group of dark grey ponies stood up from the corner of the command area and strode over. The leading one asking.
"Only seven?" The exhausted pony nodded. The dark grey ponies smiled to each other and then turned to Braveheart; their eyes alight with expectation, bat-like ears twitching slightly. "Sir, if we may?"
Braveheart thought about this for a minute before replying. "No, we need you back here for our plan to work." He quickly turned to one of the runners that was milling about around the place and said "You, get the Green berets out of reserve and send them to bolster the hole in the line. GO!"
He then turned back to the Dark grey ponies, six of which looked utterly disappointed. He pointed to the sergeant that he knew was training them and said "Sergeant you can go and make sure they don't make the same mistakes as the other company, understood?"
The sergeant nodded and stretching out his wings, flapping them a few times to leave the ground and then flying off in the direction of the frontline. Leaving the six ponies left looking unhappy with the situation, however content to deal with it.
Spear threw one her namesakes at an oncoming enemy, it impacted with his chest and knocking him back into a group of his buddies, although the weapons didn't harm the ponies the force of the blow had to go somewhere meaning any spear thrown by one of the elite seven usually threw the poor target back a few metres before landing in an undignified heap on the ground.
Spear then ducked out of the way of a retaliation spear and quickly dove behind a tree, which was promptly riddled with arrows as the archers released a volley of arrows at her. Flourish was in a world of her own, jumping between cover to cover engaging the unfortunate Guards when she could. Overhead Dive Bomb streaked through the skies unleashing a spear at an unlucky victim before swooping away, quickly followed by the streak of a group of enemies hot on his tail, not quite able to hit him as he teased them with the prospect.
Shield kept a constant array of spells up on the rest of the squad while Spear took out enemies left and right. Crush was surrounded by at least ten enemies, all afraid to get within reach of the giant pegasus, at his hooves a bunch of unconscious Guards, all unfortunate victims of the mace he had decided to accrue from the armoury.
Diamond and Sergeant Hale were back to back, holding off the enemy command squad, who were doing very well to match up to the two highly trained stallions, however the special training was paying off as slowly Diamond and Hale picked off the command structure of the enemy company.
This, however, was not the plan, and giving Diamond a brief nod, Hale carried out his vital part of the plan.
Diamond was just too slow to avoid the next spear that was thrust at him, however as he watched, a look of horror on his face, sergeant Hale leapt in front of him, taking the blow to the chest. He was hurled back into the nearest tree and lay there unconscious. The six ponies of the Royal Princess Guard all froze. The pony they had looked up to for the past ten months had just been taken down in front of their eyes.
The shock caused them all to drop their defences, and in that moment they all received crippling blows from weapons, Crush receiving a hit to his front left foreleg, Spear and Shield both took hits to their flanks rendering their hind legs useless. Dive Bomb took an arrow to the wing, bouncing off due to the enchantments however still leaving it paralyzed causing him to plummet out of the sky. Flourish and Diamond were backed up together by now, and seeing their friends all take hits they lost face and put up their hooves in surrender, dropping the weapons they carried.
The six were all herded into a small group, where the remaining commanders of the Green Berets surrounded them, the Second Lieutenant in charge of the nearly decimated company stood over them, looking triumphant.
"You put up a damn good fight." He said in a gruff battle worn voice, he had a single scar across his right eye, an old wound from the border, leaving that eye clouded over and useless. "But not as good as I thought you would." His tone was almost, disappointed. "Oh well cuff them and take them back to HQ, Lieutenant Braveheart will want to meet the six ponies that have been causing him such trouble."
He then turned to the unconscious Sergeant, and after looking at him intently for a while dismissed the ponies from his company who had come to clear up the casualty. “We’ll leave him for the final cleanup crews.” He said standing up. “Get clearing the rest though.” At his words the group of makeshift medics went about cleaning up the casualties from the skirmish.
The six were all staring at their Sergeants body expectantly, and when only they were looking he slowly opened one eye and winked. Closing it almost immediately afterwards. The six smiled as they were ushered to their feet and placed in the centre of the column that the company had started to form, surrounded by Guards ready with their weapons in case they tried to escape.
As the remaining of the Green berets set to work clearing the battlefield of unconscious ponies the group were cuffed and set up for marching, Spear and Shield being helped by Diamond and Crush leaning against Dive Bomb and Flourish, and even with both of them they were struggling to maintain the Pegasus' weight.
The remaining ponies of the company they had fought gave them a mixture of looks, ranging from pure hatred to looks of endearment and respect. One mare even gave Dive Bomb 'call me' sign, much to his delight, which he returned with a wink. Most of the company were just grudgingly accepting though, they were clearly used to such harsh battles.
The six were about to be led off when out of nowhere a Dark grey Pegasus with black bat wings and ears landed in front of the second Lieutenant. He was instantly recognised as sergeant Phalanx, the pegasus in charge of training the Luna's. He spoke out to the commander of the Green Berets.
"You're not serious about taking them back to the HQ are you?" He flared his wings to give him a more opposing appearance. "You should deal with them now before they have any more chance to do damage."
"Sergeant, these six are defeated, four of them have crippling injuries, they are cuffed, and they aren't going to escape." Said the Lieutenant in a mocking tone. "Also you know the rules, we don't kill prisoners."
"They aren't your prisoners." said the Sergeant, "They are letting you waltz them in to our very base of operations."
"Sergeant, these are my prisoners and I will decide what I do with them. Now if you have nothing more useful to contribute then you may as well fly back to Lieutenant Braveheart and tell him the centre of our line needs reinforcements, and that the enemy vanguard has been neutralised."
Phalanx snorted angrily, before flaring his wings and with a couple of flaps lifted off and flew in the direction of their HQ. After he had left the Green berets moved out in a column, barely under half strength, moving the prisoners towards the heart of their war effort.
The six were now in a cage made from orange magical energy, they had arrived at Braveheart's HQ a couple of hours ago, and after being paraded in front of the entire HQ one of the unicorns present had conjured up this magical prison within which the six were now held captive, with a couple of the combat half of the command squad guarding the door.
The whole set up of Braveheart's headquarters was a world away from that of lieutenant Bellow's, the entire thing was based in a wooded area, off centre from the centre of the battleground; it was a maze of camouflage netting, both physical and magical that hid them from aerial observation. In the centre of the entire complex was a table with a detailed map of the entire area displayed on it, with various models representing different units of his army.
The real clever thing about it however was that he had a fake HQ set up in a civilian building he had commissioned, from rich they had fake runners running to and from, any sort of attack against that HQ would make Bellow think he had removed Braveheart’s command structure leaving him overconfident and prone to mistakes.
This however was clearly a fallback plan as the initial attack had scattered against the defenders and it was clear that Bellow was falling all his remaining units back into a tighter defensive ring to have the best chance of holding on.
The six prisoners were all having a bit of R&R, waiting for something to happen, since they had arrived the Luna's had yet to take their eyes off of them, looking for any sign of what they were planning. Eventually Dive Bomb decided to try provoking them by calling out.
"Hey! If you guys like the look of us so much why not take a picture?" He then splayed himself out on the floor in a provocative position, pursing is lips towards the group of seven.
"How about this?" He shouted out. After they didn’t reply he then went into others one after the other, each time making silly comments and questioning whether that was better. The other five prisoners could barely contain their laughter as the Luna's stared disapprovingly at the Pegasus.
Eventually one of the Guards of the group rapped on the cage and bellowed at him to stop.
"Alright, alright." said Dive Bomb holding his hooves up in submission "Whatever you say sir."
He then went to sit down opposite Diamond, who used magic subtly to teleport a small ball into their temporary prison. The two started bouncing it between them, keeping up an impressive volley of bounces, the ball making a thudding sound every time it hit the rain soaked floor of the cage.
Thud!
One of the guards standing outside the cage pricked his ears up and turned round. Seeing the bouncy ball he looked annoyed and shouted
“Hey! You’re not supposed to have that. Give it to me.”
Dive Bomb caught the ball in his hooves and glared daggers at the guard, who understanding the threat backed off. He was at least smart enough not to provoke them.
This carried on for the next hour or so, Flourish, Crush, Spear and Shield watching as Dive Bomb and Diamond bounced the ball between them, both hitting it with a hoof as it came towards them.
Thud.
This was when the command centre started to bustle with activity.
Thud.
Commanders from at least ten companies had gathered around the central map table.
Thud.
The six watched closely as they began discussing their plans, just out of earshot.
Thud.
The Luna Guards then took their eyes off of the prisoners for the first time since they had arrived then as the First Lieutenant called them over to discuss plans.
Thud.
After five minutes of gestures at the map one of the Luna Guards pointed to the cage.
Thud.
Braveheart glanced at the prisoners; he then looked back at the Luna’s and shook his head.
Thud.
All seven of the Dark grey ponies looked again at the prisoners uncertainty played across their faces.
Thud.
They then accepted the orders and started to move off in a direction that was to the flank of one of the front lines.
Thud.
Braveheart dismissed the rest of the commanders, who scattered in all directions.
Thud.
He then made a circling motion with his hand causing all ponies present except the two guarding the magical cage to start packing up all the equipment.
Thud.
Eventually Braveheart walked over to the cage and peering in said "Well I'm terribly sorry."
Thud.
"However we're going to have to leave you here, we have a war to win."
Thud.
The ball was now heading towards Diamond who was facing the Lieutenant, he hit the ball with his hoof and instead of returning to Dive Bomb it sailed through one of the bars of the cage and hit the Lieutenant, causing Braveheart to drop all the papers he was carrying.
Dive Bomb stood up and apologised profusely. "Oh my sir, I'm so terribly sorry, that was my fault." He walked through the bars of the cage and started to pick up the papers.
Shield hid her horn, which glowed a brilliant white as she used the spell that allowed Dive to escape their prison. Every pony in the HQ paused as they saw the pegasus unhindered by the bars of magical energy, shocked into doing nothing everything stood still for a second while Dive Bomb picked up the papers and handed them to the Lieutenant, whose mouth was nearly falling off his face. He accepted them and feebly said
"Thank you?"
"No problem." Replied Dive with a cheerful smile before spinning round and helpfully relieving the spear from one of their guards, quickly swung it, dispatching its unfortunate previous owner and his pal next to him. He then rounded on the Lieutenant
"Sorry about this sir, but, well I'm sure you understand." He then followed this by touching the spear to the Lieutenants head, who was sill in a state of rigor mortis. He collapsed in a heap on the floor. Dive Bomb then looked up at the rest of the ponies left in the area.
Looking over them all he whispered "Boo."
Shining armour was standing on the flagship of the Guard’s airship fleet, watching the melee that was occurring below, him. The Royal Princess Guards he had seen charging in as the vanguard were living up to their reputation, and although he knew that no Guards would receive anything more than bruises from the exercise, he still couldn't help but feel sorry for the company that was currently being crushed underneath the elite pony's hooves, when he noticed that the Green Berets were moving in to plug the leak, he gave a little smile, knowing the fight below was about to get a lot more intense.
The rain was mostly kept off of shining by the Balloon that kept the airship afloat; however he was still being splashed by drops that hit the edge of the ships wooden railing around the edge. The rain made it hard to make out what was in the distance however he could still make out a lot of detail of anything directly below, and within around a mile of the ship.
All he could hear was the gentle patter of rain as it hit the giant gas bag, creating a melody that he swayed to slightly, it came as a surprise to him when the rhythm was broken by three thumps behind him, followed by gasps of amazement by the crewmembers of the airship followed by a cluster voices saying in unison: "Your Highnesses"
He turned round to see the princesses all standing on the deck, looking incredibly regal, all dressed in their royal garments, he smiled as his eyes met Cadence’s and he walked up to her and they affectionately kissed. He then turned to all three of them and asked
"Why have you all come here? You always said that you thought this was a barbaric way of training."
He looked at each of them quizzically before Celestia said
"My dear, we are here to see how our personal Guards are coming along."
Luna then continued "Plus we are here to see my Guards beat mine sisters', as they well should."
Shining Smiled at the rivalry between the sisters, but then turning to Cadence he asked, "If that's so why are you here?"
Cadence smiled cheekily "To see you of course, and to see Luna's Guards win." She turned to Celestia and apologised
"Sorry but I always thought Luna's looked cooler."
Shining was a bit taken aback at this, he had never thought that Cadence would have paid attention to the Guard, but then she had probably started paying a lot more attention since she had married him, due to both security reasons and general interest in her husband’s life.
The four royals then moved to the edge of the airship and looked over the edge, only to see that the melee had ended and that the Green Berets had six prisoners.
"AHA!" exclaimed Luna "I told thou that mine were better! Do you wish to concede?"
Celestia only gave a knowing smile before saying calmly. "You are not the only one who has been following their progress Luna. I think we need to wait before we jump to conclusions."
When they turned back to look at the battlefield they noticed a small white shape coming towards them. When it got closer Shining identified it as Sergeant Hale. The Pegasus flew up to the shape and landed, a look of surprise on his face. He bowed at the four royals on the airship before turning to Armour and asking
“I hope you don’t mind me hitching a lift for a while?”
“Not a problem, but wouldn’t it be best if you join your trainees?” Replied Shining “Now they’re one pony down against the other half of the Royal Princess Guard.”
“For now yes, however I do believe Phalanx is going to come join us at an opportune time. We planned this well ahead of time.”
Shining and the three princesses looked puzzled at this however upon further questioning Hale refused to elaborate, instead insisting that they wait for whatever it was to happen and that it was going to impress them all.
Trusting the Sergeant’s judgement they turned back to look at the entire Battlefield, Shining pointing out the tactics that both sides were employing and the strengths and weaknesses of both. Swooping over the Battlefield they watched as slowly the lines of both sides flowed back and forth as attacks were made and positions were lost. However the noose was slowly closing around Bellow as Braveheart’s forces kept making the correct moves every time. The entire exercise was looking to be over tat day at this rate.
Eventually the Princesses questioned about their personal Guards again, Shining could only smile as he happily showed them. Celestia had finally warmed up to the idea and it was good to see them all take an interest in their own safety, if nothing else. He asked the commander of the airship to fly over to Braveheart’s headquarters to check on the captured Guards.
As the ship flew, unbeknownst to the four royals, Sergeant Hale was joined by Sergeant Phalanx, they greeted each other with a bump of hooves and quietly whispering to each other went over a few things. This was followed by them silently lifting off together and flying towards Bellow’s headquarters.
Shining gasped at the site of Braveheart’s command centre, the entire area was littered with he bodies of unconscious ponies, he could make out the shape of Braveheart, lying next to two Guards in full combat dress, the rest of his staff were all out of action as well, in a ring pattern surrounding the point where the Lieutenant had been removed from the equation, suggesting they had been running from something.
Celestia smiled as she saw what had happened. "It seems Luna you were too quick to judge my Guards, I believe." she paused, turning to Luna who wore a similar expression of shock to Shining. "It, is, ON!"
The six members of the Celestial half the Royal Princess Guard had split up, the three unicorns had healed any injuries that the group had obtained before they all moved off to carry out the plan. They were to each hit an area of the line from behind during the upcoming final attack on Bellow’s headquarters. Everything in Diamonds plan had come to fruition perfectly, everything they had predicted would happen had happened and now they were about to deal the crushing blow.
They had studied the map table at Braveheart’s Command centre before splitting up the job between them. The attack was to happen along a last line of defence, Bellow had chosen his position well, there were swamps on either side of his forces prevented the superior numbers of the Braveheart forces from flanking them and wiping them out. This had bought him time, however the numbers were sure to tell, there was no way of knowing what Braveheart had requested his Royal Princess Guard to do, so they had decided to jump that hurdle when they came to it. The plan was to each take a section of the line and just wade in, finesse was not a luxury they had available to them, the plan was simply get in there and start cracking skulls.
Each Pony had to move on foot to their designated positions so as to avoid detection by any Pegasi that were roaming around. Diamond had the longest to run, but at least it was mostly through thick cover in a forest, it was Dive Bomb that had the worst of it though, he was to take the centre group, which was across open ground and was going to consist of the greatest number of 'enemies'. He had of course insisted on taking them because he was a massive fool.
However at this time all Diamond was concentrating on was the task at hand, usually one pony against three or so companies was unfair. It still was, but Diamond wasn't about to go easy to make it fair.
He galloped for nearly five miles, panting heavily all the way, eventually breaking from the cover of the trees into the open, seeing the fight had already begun and his allies weren't doing too well. They were outnumbered and looked to be barely hanging on. Ideas rushed through his mind as he thought of ways to alleviate the pressure. Suddenly it struck him and his horn began to glow with magic.
A screaming roar pierced the air as Diamonds magic enhanced his voice to gargantuan levels, all fighting along the entire line stopped as his great shout was thrown through the air, causing all those fighting to turn their heads in an effort to see what was causing the noise.
Diamond didn't know that this was the effect of his magic, he was too concentrated on closing the distance between him and the enemy formation, as he was running he smoothly dove into a role, acquiring a discarded spear from the ground, keeping up his pace all the time. He rushed towards the enemy line, however by this time they had formed a proper defence; this wasn't too much of a problem, more an annoyance.
As he closed they unleashed a bushel of spears, all flying directly towards him, however instead of dodging he focused all his power into his horn, disappearing in a brilliant flash of white just before the spears hit, reappearing behind the first row of the Guard, swinging his acquired weapon low so as to sweep the legs of all that surround him clearing all the ponies around him and removing a large threat from the fight.
He then found his next target, a brave mare with a spear holding her ground in from of him; he smiled at her pleasantly and set about his work. He went from pony to pony delivering crippling blows; he seemed to flow through the formation with each Guard that tried to stop him meeting with the business end of his spear. He received multiple glancing blows on the way, leaving him with one hind leg out of action and half of his face paralysed by the end of his movement through the formation.
Having swept across the enemy lines from one end to the other he finally emerged near his side of the ponies, all looking at the crazy pony that had just carved through their opponents leaving a trail of unconscious ponies in his wake. He turned round and cursed the damn magic on the weapons, the blows in reality that slowly causing him to lose would have been but scratches in any real situation.
His current state of being wounded as it were meant that some Guards from the formation he had just cleaved through felt braver about attacking him. They approached him spears down, using their numbers to their advantage, forming a semicircle around him to get the best angles of attack. However they paused as Diamond closed his eyes and his horn began to glow. The ponies watched in shock as his face regained all composure and his limp leg suddenly regained all movement. He smiled at them and crouched ready to pounce towards them.
He was interrupted before he had the chance to do so as a magical yellow flame burst forth a scroll wrapped in a red ribbon. He paused, looking at the ponies facing him, slowly he used his free hoof to pick up the scroll and open it. Making sure to keep his peripheral vision at the forefront of his mind he read the message.
Luna's attacking centre, Lieutenant Bellow in deep. Help would be nice
SM
Diamond finished the scroll and looked down the long line of fighting Guards; he could just about make out a really fierce battle a mile or so away, with an airship hovering above it, and in between him and it was about a thousand members of the Guard. He also noticed that the rainclouds had disappeared and a glorious sunshine was smothering everything, embracing the land with its warmth.
Diamond took a deep breath, allowing himself a quick rest before focusing on the melee in the centre. Smiling quickly, he charged.
Dive bomb was being chased by the Luna's pegasi, he hated to admit it, but he was in way above his head, the best thing he could hope for was that he could keep them off for long enough for the rest of his squad to regroup. Also there was the fact that Lieutenant Bellow had decided it was a good idea to join the defence in the centre. Mid flight he put his hoof over his eyes at the silliness of the mistake, nearly being hit by a spear thrown from the pursuing pegasi.
They were smart, they had spread out and were herding him, however he was only going that way because he needed to, he was scanning the ground furiously looking for a trail of bodies that would depict one of his squad. Sure enough he spotted one, and at the head of it a Unicorn mare wrapped in a tight purple skin-tight sheen which projectiles and spears were bouncing off.
He swooped down low overhead and diving straight at her, tackled her to the ground. This should put off those damn bat bastards for at least a minute, which was all he needed. Shield recovered from the tackle quickly and looked ferociously at him.
"Shield we have a problem!" he shouted above the clamour of battle
As if to illustrate it the three pegasi flew overhead looking for where the two had gone. Realising that was the particular problem she shouted back
"Where?"
"The centre, under the airship, I'll distract them for as long as I can." Taking off as he said it, he had to carry out an emergency barrel roll to avoid an incoming projectile and then bolted off the way he had come.
Spear swiftly started furiously using her magic, ignoring any incoming blows that just deflected off her shield. First she teleported four scrolls and a quill to her which she used to write four messages quickly, she then followed that up by sending each scroll to a different member of her squad. After she had done this the effort caught up with her all at once causing her to stumble. Luckily her shield held and no blows directed at her connected.
The Guard’s on her side surrounded her protecting her while she recovered, fending off anypony who tried to attack her in her weakened state. When she recovered she thanked the Stallions and Mares that had held off the enemy and turned towards where the airship was located, starting to make her way towards it through the crowds of battling ponies.
She quickly recovered from the exertion and stood tall, seeing Dive Bomb using what was available to his advantage, flying around the airship, keeping it in between him and his attackers as long as possible.
Dive Bomb was desperately dodging everything that was being chucked at him, he had initially hoped that they would run out of instruments to throw but some damn magic kept causing more spears, or swords and even a mace at one point to be teleported to them, he was fairly sure that it was their unicorn buddies on the ground that was causing this massive pain in his flank. All he could do was keep dodging and hoping for the best.
Deciding to use the airship to keep them at least far enough away from him to not deal damage he led them on a roundabout chase, carrying out complicated manoeuvres to try and throw them, their advantage in numbers and training meant it was only a matter of time. Eventually he had no choice but to fly over the deck of the airship, narrowly skimming the railing he flew past four bewildered looking streaks.
"Were they the Princesses?" He asked himself, looking back in shock, only for him to miss a well placed spear until the very last second. It just clipped his hind leg, causing him to plummet out of the sky. He managed to extend his wings and regain some composure just before hitting the ground and bouncing into the air again, causing more scrapes than he would have wanted to gather. And just in time for him to notice before Lieutenant Bellows was about to be attacked by the three Unicorns of Luna's Guard.
Using many expletives Dive Bomb cannoned over to the Lieutenant and descended to ground level, using his three good legs to skid to a halt between the Lieutenant and the three Unicorns.
He stood tall and defiant as the three Pegasi went to hover behind the unicorns; each had replaced their dropped weapons with a spear. Dive Bomb flicked a spear near his hoof up and caught it under a wing, ready to at least go down fighting.
Flourish was hurtling towards the outnumbered Dive Bomb, he was still having a standoff with the six ponies of Luna' Guard when she managed to catch a glimpse of him, the sight made her redouble her efforts and she galloped faster than she ever thought she could gallop. She had managed to pick up a sabre from one of the officers she had dispatched along the way and had it held in her mouth as she ran.
Time seemed to slow as one of the Unicorns thrust a spear at Dive, he blocked it easily, as well as the next one, however the third strike was going to collide and everypony knew it. That was until Flourish blocked it with the sword in her mouth, flicking it away, throwing the sword into the air and then catching it with her magic, levelling it at the enemies.
"This is becoming quite the party eh?" Flourish gasped as they stood there staring down the six, still horrendously outnumbered.
That was until Crush and Spear landed behind them, and Diamond and Shield appeared from the flanks. All holding various weapons of choice, Diamond set about using magic to fix up Dive's injured leg, getting a relieved grunt as the stallion regained feeling. They then stood opposite the six dark grey ponies, one to one, choosing their targets.
"I've been looking forward to this for a while" said the unicorn at the head of the Luna Guards.”
He then lunged.
Every single pony on the airship watched the vicious duel below between the two squads of Guards. Much of it was too fast to see with the naked eye, the three unicorns duelled each other ruthlessly; using spells to try and gain the tactical advantage. Sometimes teleporting behind the opponents, sometimes wielding two weapons at once from different angles, and one time one of the white coated mares even turned the ground below a dark grey unicorn into quicksand, forcing a hasty teleportation spell to escape.
The Pegasi were even more impressive, they were all moving about the nearly as fast as the renowned Wonderbolts, dodging blows and thrown weapons alike, using ever more complicated manoeuvres to get behind their opponents. They all moved with surprising speed, especially the largest one who moved with speed that belied his size, it seemed somewhat unnatural.
This kept going for five minutes with neither side gaining the upper hand, each evenly matched, the question was who would become more exhausted first, and that was unlikely to happen within the hour. Surrounding them were the remnants of Lieutenants Bellow's army, barely over a hundred Guards, they watched with amazement at the prowess of both sides of the combat. Unable to join in lest they hinder their side.
Eventually Celestia and Luna looked at each other knowingly, and slowly nodding at each other jumped off of the edge of the airship and slowly descended towards the field of battle.
"BE STILL, GUARD!" Bellowed Luna, using the Royal Canterlot voice.
The impact the voice had on the combatants was negligible, they continued their frantic melee, unabashed at the Princess of the Night, who was taken aback at her voice not usually working.
Celestia just giggled and said, "Maybe we should use a bit more vigorous means?"
Her horn was surrounded by the familiar glow of her magic and releasing a burst of magical energy she sent out a blinding flash towards the ponies that were part of the combat. They all froze as they were caught in its power, for a couple of seconds they could do nothing but breath. When the spell wore off they all stood in the exact same position, unsure whether they were still fighting or not.
Celestia then announced.
"It seems that Lieutenant Bellow's forces have won." A great cheering arose from the gathered ponies, giving each other claps on the back. The twelve ponies of the Princess Royal Guard however stayed in exactly the positions they were in before, wondering if they were going to continue their duel or if they were going to be told to abandon it. Unsurprisingly they all wanted the same thing.
"That means there is to be no more fighting today my little ponies." she then turned to Shining and whispered a question in his ear followed by her standing up again and telling the crowd. "And all who have taken part in this exercise are to have the next week off for leave."
This final announcement got the largest cheer of all, with helmets being thrown into the air to celebrate. Shining then stepped forward and held up a hoof to signal silence.
"Before we can leave however we have to deal with the Cleanup." Shining then set about organising the ponies that remained standing to go around and clear up the entire area they had fought on. Also instructing any Unicorns capable of doing so to go and release any ponies that had been made into 'casualties' and who had yet to be revived from the magic that held them.
Finally he turned to the twelve members of the Royal Princess Guard who had relaxed, and much to his surprise had started to congratulate each other on their fight. He stood there in shock as what he had thought to be mortal rivals congratulated each other about nearly every aspect of the fight they had just taken part in. He even heard mentions of pints being owed to various members.
He smiled at that, there was nothing quite like a good old fight to bring together rivals. He then knew that he had chosen the best, and they were ready.
"Alright you lot gather round." He beckoned to the twelve who quickly gathered around him and the princesses in a semicircle.
"Based on that display, and with the consent of the Princesses…" He paused to look at the two rulers of Equestria who both smiled and nodded, understanding what he was about to do.
"You are more than ready to take on your full roles as personal Guards to the Princesses." This caused the twelve to look with excitement between each other
"From this day you are now officially Royal Princess Guards, you all already know what this means." There were a couple of high hoofs at this news. Shining cut them off before they could celebrate any more however.
"But... first I have a very important task for all of you." He paused as he received a dozen puzzled looks.
"You are all to accompany me." He quickly looked around at all three princesses who gave consenting nods. "And the three princesses here to a bar, where I will buy you all a round, and you will have fun. Any questions?"
This statement just received another round of high hoofs and hoof bumps, followed by many promises of getting hammered and making Shining pay as much as possible for the round. Shining smiled at the revelry they were enjoying, and turned toward the Princesses, gesturing them onto the airship accompanied by the twelve Royal Princess Guards’.
The airship under orders took off and flew off towards Canterlot as Celestia’s sun set over the horizon and Luna prepared to raise the moon, a sense of happiness and joy flooded through the airship as the twelve Guards aboard spread their joy. It seemed as if nothing could go wrong for them at that very moment and they forgot all of their troubles and worries and conundrums as they had finally achieved what they had trained for the last year, and they were overjoyed at it.
The sun glistened off of the roofs of Canterlot, the moisture that had accrued throughout the night clung to the tiles desperately, giving each roof a sparkling sheen. The sun had just come over the horizon and was slowly gliding its way up into the sky. The streets were already awash with the day's activities as shopkeepers opened for the day and business ponies started to go to their work.
The skies above were beautifully clear, they were kept so by magic as had always been the case, and it was unusual that any Pegasus would fly above the city as there was no real reason for them to. However on this morning those citizens that looked up will have seen a small dot in the sky.
Dive Bomb was flying above the city, relishing the cool air that was present at such a height, he was lazily circling above the city, eyes closed, feeling the cool breeze wash across his face. He felt flushed with joy at the sensation and would have gladly done it all day if not for his duties.
The reason he as up and flying was because he was running an errand for the other five in the Guard, he did a quick final pass over the city before hovering above the fields far below the drop off of the edge of Canterlot. He hovered there for a minute taking in the surrounding countryside, subconsciously scanning for any signs of danger while his normal conscious was just taking in the world.
Suddenly he tucked his wings tight against his body and let gravity take over, he started to plummet towards the ground far below, making tiny adjustments with his wings so as to be falling head first, he quickly built up immense speed as the world pulled him into its embrace, he was at the height of the top of the Royal palace now and descending quickly.
As he reached the 'ground level' of Canterlot he saw three Pegasus fillies standing in awe watching him from their school-yard, he gave them a quick wave as he flashed past, smiling as he heard their gasps of wonder at the spectacle of the Pegasus falling.
He had reached terminal velocity by now and the ground was rushing up to meet him very quickly. He concentrated on the distance he was from the ground and suddenly flicked his wings open, his flight muscles screamed at him as the air buffeted his feathers and the strain made it feel as though they were about to pop out of their sockets, however he endured and started to level out his flight.
He aimed for a patch of Orange blobs on the ground with a few earth ponies tending to them, and aiming for the Yellow Mare that he had come to know he started to hurtle towards her, using his wings as an air-break he skidded to a halt mid-flight and landed gracefully in front of her, flashing his pearl white teeth in a toothy grin he said.
"Morning Beautiful."
The yellow Earth Pony leaned against the hoe she was using to harvest the pumpkins and rolled her eyes.
"Always got to make an entrance, eh Dive?" Her accent had a twinge of the usual Canterlot in due to her close proximity to the City
"Just reminding the rest of the world how good I look." Said Dive continuing his smile.
Over the course of the past week Dive Bomb had gotten to know the farmers at that particular farm very well as he had visited it every day to get fresh fruit and vegetables for them to eat and cook.
"So what will it be today?" asked the Yellow coated Mare who Dive Bomb knew as Hayseed. She had large emerald eyes and a mane of flowing Golden hair.
"I'll have two pumpkins please." Dive Bomb smiled pleasantly as he said it. He enjoyed all the ponies on the farm, they shared his sense of humour.
"Sure you'll be able to carry them back?" Jested Hayseed "Wouldn't want to put any more strain on your poor little wings now."
"If you can carry them I doubt that anypony would have trouble lifting them." He retorted, earning a smile from the mare.
She quickly chose two nearby pumpkins and cut them from their stalks.
"There you go." She said handing them over to the Pegasus "Two darn good Pumpkins for ya. That'll be 10 bits."
Dive handed over the bits that he had kept in a coin purse around his neck and lifted the two pumpkins in his fore hooves. With a couple of flaps of his wings he took off.
"Thanks a lot Hayseed, see you again soon." He shouted back to her. She gave a hearty wave before turning back to the Pumpkins that she was tending to as Dive returned to the city.
The quarters that the six had been given were right next to Celestia's and had a single large window through which the Pegasi were free to come and go as they please. It was fitted out with a kitchen that rivalled some bakeries, a living space that was furnished with some of the finest furniture that could be brought and bedrooms with large plush beds. The six were completely shocked by this as they hadn't expected such high-end accommodation, but it was one of the perks of the job.
Dive Bomb flew in through the large window and over to the kitchen area where he placed the pumpkins down on to the counter with a thud. Flourish was sitting on one of the sofas in the living area reading a newspaper, but upon hearing the noise the pumpkins made she looked up.
"Holy hell-fire Dive, how big do you think the Pie is going to be?" She exclaimed
"I brought two pumpkins okay, don't blame me if they aren't what you needed." said Dive defensively
"Yeah but come on, those things are massive, they could feed us for a week at least!" said Flourish placing her newspaper on a coffee table and walking over to inspect the pumpkins. "These must have been the largest they had."
At this point Diamond looked up from the game of chess he was having with shield and said "I bet whoever gave him those is sweet on him."
Dive blushed a little at this which Flourish picked up on instantly.
"NO!" she announced with an air of triumph "The great Dive Bomb has a crush on a farmer."
Dive's cheeks grew redder and redder as he felt the blood rush to them, he quickly changed the subject.
"So any news while I was away."
"Yes actually" said Flourish "Your marefriend called, she said she wuvved oo." Flourish made as babyish a face as possible and fluttered her eyelashes as she said the last two words.
"She's not my marefriend." shouted Dive, feeling his cheeks grow hotter by the second.
"Actually Dive the Princess did ask for you." interjected shield, who used magic to move one of her knights on the board.
Thankfully Dive Bomb used the excuse to get out of there before he had a chance to be teased further by Flourish. He quickly trotted out of the door and onto the long corridor that led to their living quarters and those of Celestia's. He trotted down to the door at the far end of the corridor and rapped twice on the ancient wood.
"Enter" called Celestia's voice from inside the room.
Dive Bomb slowly entered the room, which was large and sparsely furnished. Princess Celestia was lying on a dais covered by a red cushion, she was busy carrying out the various administration tasks that as the ruler of Equestria she was tasked with. On either side of the raised platform she was sitting upon were piles of scrolls and every now and then Celestia finished the scroll that she was currently focused on, used magic to place it on one pile while simultaneously collecting a new scroll from the other pile.
At the bottom of the long stairs to where Celestia was lying were Crush and Spear, both adorning full ceremonial gear for their time guarding the royal, they both held spears in upright positions and held stern looks on their faces, they both gave small nods of acknowledgement as Dive approached the Princess.
"Your highness." He said, bowing low so that his nose almost touched the ground.
At this Celestia placed down the scroll that she was currently inspecting and looked into his eyes. Dive Bomb held her gaze for what seemed like an eternity, not many ponies in the entirety of Equestria would dare to do such a thing and Dive Bomb realised why. As he stared into her eyes he could almost feel the power that she possessed pressing down on him.
She suddenly smiled and broke off her gaze, using magic to pick up a scroll from one of the piles and floating it over to Dive Bomb, he breathed a sigh of relief as he stood up and grabbed the scroll with a hoof. As he read it Celestia gave the synopsis.
"We have received this from Fort Luna on the border of the southern Badlands." she paused as Dive finished the letter "They ask for help however the commander who sent that letter is not letting on to the real situation. Therefore, I'm sending you to go and deal with whatever the problem is."
The letter itself was written in a scrawl, it mentioned how they required some reinforcements due to increased enemy activity. The choice of words was carefully picked and the letter itself was torn around the edges and the ink was of a poor quality. Dive wasn't an expert but he couldn't see any hint of serious trouble in the letter. However he trusted Celestia's judgement and bowed again.
"I'll leave immediately Princess." he backed away for a couple of steps before turning and walking out of the door.
Celestia immediately started to go back to work on the scrolls, looking up after she was sure the Pegasus' back was turned, she gave him a quick once over with her gaze before smiling slightly as she accepted her choice and went back to her duties.
Dive Bomb flew across the open desert, he had just passed dodge city and was following the single path that led to Fort Luna. The Fort was located in the one pathway into the Badlands that didn't require a long and dangerous climb over jagged mountains, it was in a valley with walls that were too steep to climb and was smoothed out to reduce any handholds available to nil. Dive had caught up on the details about it back in Canterlot while he was preparing for the journey.
The fort itself was one of the oldest in Equestria, founded before Luna was sadly banished, it had never been breached and provided a safe passage into the Badlands for all those that wished to exit or enter but didn't have the useful ability to fly. It had also been attacked by armies numerous times and had yet held. It had never been taken due to its brilliant tactical position rendering any advantage in numbers useless. Also the Guard that were put there tended to be tough as nails, rendering them about as likely to run from a battle as it was for a pineapple to overthrow Celestia.
Dive Bomb was flying in full battle dress, unlike the Guard stationed in Canterlot he wore a dull grey suit of armour, which covered nearly all of his body. It was made of lots of metal plates that protected from most weapons while allowing him a full range of movement. He was also equipped with two saddle bags that were bulging with emergency supplies of food and water in case anything happened on his journey there.
He had not taken a weapon as he knew that the fort would have plenty there if he needed to borrow one, anyway his hooves were the most dangerous weapon he had anyway.
He could now see the fort, and he was impressed, the sides of the mountains either side of the fort meant that the only way to attack from the air was to carry out a trench run into what would be a large amount of AA, the valley narrowed at either side of the fort as well, enough so only about two ponies could get through at any one time.
As he drew closer to the fort and entered the enclosed space around it he was suddenly buffeted from side to side by massive crosswinds, he was sent spiralling towards one of the walls of the valley head first.
He quickly spun himself around and landed hooves first onto the side of the wall, staying there through the occasional flap of his wings and the buffeting gale that was pushing him into the stone. He regained his composure before pushing off again, this time ready to cope with the force of the wind as he was prepared.
Now he knew why the fort had never been taken, only a good flyer could ever hope to get anywhere near the fort without being smashed against the rocks at the side of the valley. He slowly descended towards the fort, as he got closer he could make out ore distinguished features, the fort was made of large wooden logs that were easily as thick as a pony was long. The logs pushed right up against the wall of the valley on both sides creating a twenty metre wall that stopped anyone from gaining easy access.
Either side of the valley had a large gate entrance that was able to allow anything up to a moving cart into the place, which seemed strange as that would have struggled to get down the valley in the first place. Each wooden wall had sand gently sloping up behind it, levelling out at the last few metres, creating a platform that the defenders could stand on top of and see over the top of the wall, while at the same time reinforcing the walls against most impacts.
In the centre of the fort was a large three story building that would have housed all of the facilities needed to keep the place running and against the Western wall of the valley was a large watchtower, easily at least twenty stories high, one side incorporated into the stone itself with the top of it covered with a slanted wooden roof.
Dive slowly sank into the courtyard area of the fort, getting a few stares from the ponies that were bustling around the place doing various jobs, he was struck by the proportion of earth ponies in the base. Usually the Guard tried to keep a roughly equal number of each of the three types of ponies, however he couldn't make out any pegasus and he only saw one unicorn.
Suddenly he was approached by three curious fillies. It wasn't uncommon for forts like this to have entire communities in, they effectively acted as towns, with their own trade and economies, just like any other town. The three fillies cautiously sidled up to the pegasus, they weren't more than two years old.
Smiling Dive knelt down, causing them to jump back a bit, however he then made up for their surprise by giving them a warm smile, causing them to regain some of their confidence.
"You three look like you know what you’re doing." He said cheerfully to the three children. "In fact you look exactly like the important sort of ponies who would know exactly where the commander is."
At this praise one of the small fillies who had a light green coat puffed out her chest and said in a squeaky voice. "We sure are!"
Following the other ones lead a dark red one followed this up by bouncing up to Dive asking "Do you want to see him?"
Without waiting for an answer all three grabbed his front hooves and started to drag him along, he was glad for his wings else he would have toppled face first onto the floor. The group received a great amount of strange looks as the Pegasus was dragged along by the three tiny fillies, only staying upright by flapping his wings.
Eventually the three had dragged him to a small hut at the bottom of the tower that was braced against the wall, the final filly of the three who was orange in colour rapped on the door, which was swiftly open by a slender mare with a dark grey coat and yellow mane.
"Well hello dears," she said looking at the three fillies, her gaze then turned to Dive and once looking him over once she frowned. "Who's this?" she asked, her voice sounding unhappy.
"I'm Dive Bomb ma'am." He bowed his head slightly in a polite gesture. "I'm the answer to your problems."
The mare's brow furrowed furiously at this, she clearly didn't think much of the cocky stallion and she gave him a quick look all over again.
"If you'll excuse me, I have to go have a few words with my husband." She turned back to the three fillies and reaching off to the side of the door she passed them each a piece of candy. "That is for being such good fillies and bringing this nice gentlecolt to us straight away."
She then turned to retreat further into her house and disappeared out of site, leaving Dive Bomb with the three fillies. He didn't like where this was going so he decided to do a little recon. He looked at the fillies again who were all sucking on the candy they had been given and staring at Dive with wide eyes.
"All-right you three." said Dive sitting down in front of them. "If you can tell me what is going on here I'll make sure to get you each an extra piece of candy from the house."
The three sat there staring at him before the green one slowly paused and said in a cheeky voice. "Two pieces each."
Dive was taken aback, but smiled slightly at the little filly. "OK then two pieces each."
The filly swallowed her piece of candy then, spat on her hoof and held it out for Dive to bump. He mirrored the reaction and then waited for the little girls to start talking.
"Well lately all the grownups in armour have been rushing about, a few of them went out into the bad area but never came back, and all the others have been losing there heads about it and stuff." the green one started
The Orange one then continued. "And they've been making us stay in the house all the time, we keep hearing large thumps and stuff but they never let us out to see."
Finally the dark red one wrapped up by saying "Plus every time they stop the noises the walls are always really badly damaged and stuff, but they never let us help clean up or anything, they just tell us to go to our rooms."
Dive rubbed his chin, thinking about what they had told him, he opened his mouth to ask a question when from the house appeared a tall stallion, with a beige coloured coat, and matching mane. His cutie mark was of a long barrelled rifle. Dive stood up and saluted to the commander of the fort, more out of courtesy and it being drilled into him. Technically as personal Guard to the princess the only higher rank than him was Captain Shining.
The new stallion stood at the same height as Dive meaning that he was staring straight into his eyes while they inspected each other. Eventually the stallion asked Dive in a deep yet not unkind voice.
"And you are?"
"Dive Bomb, of the Royal Princess Guard."
After a pause the stallion said "You don't look much like a princess to me." looking Dive up and down
"Well sir, looks can be misleading now can't they."
The two paused for a few seconds before smiles crept on to their faces, the commander held out a hoof and Dive bumped it, much to the disapproval of the mare standing in the house watching them.
"They don't often send somepony such a good sense of humour, so when can we expect the rest of your unit?"
The commander had cheered up considerably and gestured to Dive to enter the house, leaving the three fillies playing a three way version of tic tac toe that didn't quite make sense to anyone except the three.
"I'm afraid that I'm all there is." said Dive
The commander’s face dropped and turned into a puzzled expression. "You're not one of those secret service goons are you?"
Dive shook his head
"Mare Intelligence 6? Celestia's international agency? Maressad?" Dive shook his head after he said each one of them4
"Then what kind of spook are you?" The commander said, walking up to a cupboard and retrieving a bottle of whiskey along with two glasses.
"I'm not any kind of spook." said Dive accepting the whiskey
The commander sat down on a stool at a large oak table, Dive followed suit.
"Then why have they sent you? Usually they only send spooks in one at a time, and they all turn out useless." the stallion put down the two glasses and poured a small amount of whiskey into each one.
Dive grabbed the one closest to him and took a sip, swirling it round in his mouth before swallowing it. He had never liked the taste of whiskey but he knew it would be rude to refuse, so he forced the liquid down his throat as quickly as he could.
"Because I assume you need a soldier and not a spy?" Dive downed the rest of his whiskey before slamming the glass back onto the table. "And of the soldiers she could have sent I'm your best chance at solving your problems."
The commander looked at Dive then quizzically, clearly reassessing his opinion of the pegasus. "I'm commander Sharpe by the way, and the beautiful Mare that greeted you is my wife."
"I'm Dive Bomb, but you can call me Dive." came the reply
The commander raised an eyebrow. "I didn't realise we were on first name terms now?"
"It's something I like to do." smiled Dive. "So what can you tell me about the situation?"
Suddenly from outside a large explosion was heard, followed by the sound of wood cracking and tearing followed by the shouts of ponies.
The commander finished his whiskey before standing up and saying. "It's best I show you actually." He then started to trot out of the house, followed by his wife and finally Dive.
Dive paused by the front door and quickly grabbed a bunch of sweets in his wing from a jar that was off to the side, and then depositing them in front of the children who were still waiting outside, seemingly oblivious to the commotion going on around them. They all looked with amazement at the haul in front of them and turned to thank Dive, however he was gone before they could manage.
Dive was still in full armour with saddlebags, he had neglected to take them off at any point and was starting to regret it, if he had to do any real action he was going to have to sweat it out as the armour combined with the weight of the bags meant any serious exercise would be at least twice as hard as normal. It wasn't just a simple case of sliding them off either, they were strapped on at various points to prevent them being lost during combat flight, useful for nearly no situation as it slowed the wearer down hugely.
Dive cursed his lack of foresight at the choice of his travelling clothing, and that he had not thought to dump it when he had the chance, it was too late however as he galloped up to the southern wall of the fort. When he was about halfway up he heard a massive explosion, followed by the sand bank he was standing on shaking violently, flinging him back to the bottom.
He righted himself as the sand that was ejected from the wall settled, he was relieved to see that the wall had held and there didn’t seem to be any lasting damage, he quickly sprinted to the top of the wall again and rejoined Sharpe, who was holding a long barrelled rifle.
He gestured to Dive to go to him, Dive quickly obliged just before another tremor occurred. Between each tremor was an eerie silence that seemed to cut through the valley like a knife. Dive peeked over the top f the barricade and tried to make out what was causing the wall to shake like this.
What he made out was a large metal block, with a giant hole in the front, he couldn't make out the dimensions of it as it was easily half a kilometre away, however he could just about make the outline of a few diamond dogs surrounding the machine, lifting a giant boulder into the back of it. Suddenly the muzzle flashed a brilliant white, this was followed by the boulder being launched the distance between the machine and the fort, Dive could barely follow it, however the impact it had on the wall was devastating.
The wooden logs splintered under the impact of the boulder, leaving it sticking slightly out of the forts edge, the sand behind the area of wall that had been hit was thrown backward, along with the Guards who were standing atop that section, though they quickly recovered and retook their positions. The evidence of such impacts was evidence along the entire wall, it was lucky that they had yet to hit the gate as the impact would shatter it completely.
"That blasted thing has been shelling us the past week, and all of our attempts to get rid of it have failed." He was interrupted as another earth shattering impact hit the forts walls.
During this time Dive had unclipped the straps holding the saddle bags to his body and shook them off. He then peeked over the edge of the wall to get another look at the machine, before turning to Sharpe.
"Alright get all the Pegasi that you have and tell them to meet me here. He stopped as he thought out a plan of attack, he was surprised when the commander made no move to do anything. Dive's face dropped.
"I'm the only other pegasus here aren't I?"
The commander nodded guiltily
"Ok, how about unicorns? any Unicorns with combat magic training?" said Dive sounding exasperated
Sharpe shook his head "There are three of them. And the magic they have wouldn't be very useful against that thing."
Dive sighed and put a hoof to the brow of his nose. He then turned to a Guard who was standing next to him.
"Give me that spear."
The Guard hesitated, looking at the commander, who nodded slightly.
Dive took the spear and turned round to Sharpe again. "What are the rules of engagement?"
"Avoid any deaths if you can." The commander replied, sounding somewhat puzzled
"Well that's just peachy."
With that Dive tucked the spear into a slot on his armour next to his right forehoof, giving a resounding click as the locking mechanism activated. He then leapt up into the air and started to careen down the valley towards the metal monstrosity. All eyes from the fort were on him, they watched as he flew down the valley, being buffeted by the strange winds that were present, all watching the lone dot as it soared over the machine.
Extract from the Guards handbook- Rifles
Rifles are notoriously inaccurate and unreliable, they are expensive to manufacture, operate and maintain. They are an adaptation from a griffon weapon of the same name, however the trigger mechanism and reload mechanism has been adapted for use by hoofed creatures with less ability for dexterous movement. This has led to them being found useless as front-line weapons for the Guard, however the occasional guard is found to have a particular skill in shooting and will be handed a rifle that they keep.
The range that a rifle is effective up to is 200 metres, at which a skilled riflepony ca pick off individual targets at a great accuracy. The rifles most effective at long range are muzzle loaded rifles, although it has been argued that the rifles commonly used in the west are more effective due to the fire rates, however they are even more expensive to make and are less reliable than the muzzle loaded rifles.
One major advantage muzzle loaders have is the ammunition used can be magically enhanced to provide a better performance in range and speed or they can have a multitude of other effects added to them, such as the ability to set anything that it comes into contact with on fire. This feature cannot be added to the more modern rifles where the bullet and gunpowder are incorporated in the same metal casing as this usually leads to the gunpowder going off at random or not working at all./i]
Dive was fast approaching the large metal machine, now he was closer he could make out more detail about it, it was a large square solid piece of metal, around ten metres by five. It was around five metres tall as well, the large canon ran down the very centre of the machine and had a feeder on the to where some diamond dogs were pushing in the boulders, running down either side of the barrel at regular intervals were hatches, three either side.
Round the back of the machine was a large store of gunpowder that the dogs were shovelling into bags and then passing to those on top who were putting them in before the boulders. Finally to ignite the explosive they had a small hole through which they poked a tiny wick which was smouldering, this caused the gunpowder to explode, propelling the boulder forward towards the fort.
Down each side of the machine were caterpillar tracks that the whole structure rocked back and forth on whenever it fired. At the rear of the thing were two large buckets that were upended next to the gunpowder, which was how it transported so much of the stuff around.
Operating the whole thing was about ten diamond dogs and around twenty of their 'mutts' Dive circled above the contraption a couple of times looking for a way to attack, suddenly after the third time circling his underbelly armour was suddenly peppered by sharp pebbles, one managed to find part of him not covered by armour and left a gouge on his left hind leg. He winced and was grateful for the fact that he was wearing armour.
He started dodging the rocks that were being flung his way still looking for a weakness in the formation, eventually after his fifth or so time circling he got bored of the lack of action and sick of the dogs with the slings. So he dove straight at the dogs loading the cannon.
They scattered as he dove downwards, he landed with a meal clang on top of the machine spear levelled, scanning all around to see where they were coming from, however all he saw were a dozen or so holes in the ground that they had just dug. He paused, waiting and listening for any sign that they may come up to attack.
After ten seconds or so he relaxed a bit, turning all his attention to how to disable the machine he drew a blank. He thought about disabling it but he hadn't the means to even dent the armour, he looked to mound of gunpowder behind it and thought about using that to blow it up, but he didn't have the time or means to get enough into the body of the machine.
Suddenly he had a bright idea, he looked around for the wick on the end of the stick the dogs had been using, finding it he snatched it up in a hoof and slowly edged with it outstretched towards the gunpowder, he cautiously edged the smouldering end towards the black powder, preparing himself for a large bang.
He touched the wick to the pile of gunpowder and winced, however instead of the explosion he was expecting the whole thing suddenly burst into a massive flame, reaching into the sky, the heat he felt was intense, he jumped back. What followed was a giant plume of thick smoke blowing straight in his face, he started coughing violently as the grey smog filled his lungs.
He was starting to really regret this course of action as he had no idea which way was which, the smoke quickly lifted to reveal that the entire mound of black powder had been burned away and what was left was the smouldering earth, nearly glowing hot at what had just burned off.
Dive made a mental note never to do something so stupid again, he had just thought of a million ways for him to have done that but without receiving a lungful of smoke and probably a nearly burnt face. He was happy that he had accomplished what he had set out to do and turned round.
A spear came directly at his face, he could only watch horrified as the pointed metal swooped in, ready to end his life there and then, he was half expecting his whole life to flash in front of his eyes however he was disappointed to realise that it wasn't. He was kind of glad because he probably would have regretted a lot of it.
Suddenly the Diamond dog wielding the spear's head snapped to the side, followed by a spurt of red blood splashing on Dive's face. He looked round to the fort and couldn't see anypony near him, the shot could have only come from the fort. This was an impossible shot, literally an impossible shot. Dive had been trained to use a rifle and he could testify that hitting a barn door at fifty metres was nearly impossible, yet alone a headshot on a moving target half a kilometre away. It was literally an impossible shot, which made it even more respectable that it had been pulled off.
Dive snapped out of it almost straight away, and he was determined to make up for his mistake, a second spear was heading towards him after being thrown from his left. The training kicked in and he jumped into the air, spinning around the spear ending it up with its tip pointing towards the offending mutt, who stood there astonished.
Dive was severely handicapped however, as he didn't want to kill any of them. It was unfortunate he had been too stupid to dodge the first thrust at him else that Diamond dog may have survived, however he could regret that later. He scanned all of the dogs who were surrounding him with crude spears, he quickly identified the one in charge as he was behind the others barking orders.
Dive just casually flew about ten metres vertically in the air and hovered there, leaving all the Dogs bewildered as to what to do, he then hurtled straight for the leader, spinning round at the last minute and bucking at his chest mid-air pushing him back into the open air and above the dogs.
They turned tail and ran into their holes, one had the sense to drag the leader with them, and they quickly filled the burrows behind them and vanished into the barren land.
Dive stood there, barely breathing, just taking in the whole thing at once, he had nearly died because of his carelessness, he wasn't going to make that mistake again, his mind then remembered the incredibly shooting skills of who he could only assume was Sharpe, he followed this by making a mental note never to piss off a rifle pony.
From the fort emerged a group of ponies, kicking up dust behind them as they galloped, Dive just watched them for a while before turning round to open barren lands of the badlands, he couldn't make out any discernible features, it was just barren, in the distance he could just make out a long mountain range with many caves in, the mountains to either side of the fort stretched as far as the eye could see leaving no way for anyone to get through.
When the party finally arrived Dive was inspecting the poor dog that had nearly killed him, he used a piece of cloth torn from a shirt he had been wearing to cover the wound, however blood had nearly soaked it through and some sort of grey liquid that Dive preferred not to think about. The other ponies gathered round, they all wore scratched Guard armour, which had lost all of its golden sheen through use and battering by sand particles in the wind.
Sharpe was at the head of the group wearing a green shirt under his armour that had clips to allow a rifle to be slung on his back, Dive stood up and looked at the commander.
"Was that you that made the shot?" Dive bomb asked with a hint of reservation in his voice.
The commander simply nodded and looked at the body lying on the ground.
"Perkins, Jenkings, clear up that body." Two Guard's moved to wrap it up in a large grey cloth, putting it across their back and starting to walk back to the fort.
"Alright then," said the commander "let's look at this thing then"
They started to inspect the entire metal machine in a sombre mood. Diamond dogs were not usually this aggressive, nor were they willing to actively try and kill another living thing, it was even quite common in some parts of Equestria for them to live normally alongside ponies in cities. However these dogs were different, they were trying to invade the country, and they were willing to kill to do it. There was something unseen here and they hoped that the machine would give them a clue, however it didn't.
"Well rats, there's nothing here that gives me any clue as to what's going on." said Sharpe in an annoyed tone.
"I might." Dive piped up receiving a hopeful look from the inspecting Guards.
"I know a pony that made something like this before, it used the same concept but was a different style, he called it a 'tank'. This thing is no different really, the Griffins really like them however I always thought they were too big to be any use in a straight up fight. They do take a pounding though." Dive was looking up and down the tank as he said this trying to confirm his suspicions.
"So what you're saying is this is a weapon of war?" asked one a Guard who was standing on the machine. Dive nodded slowly.
"Great, now we're officially at war with Diamond Dogs. Let’s get back to the fort, we need to tell the Princess." said Sharpe in a tired voice
"What about the, 'tank'?" said the Guard on top of the machine in question, pronouncing the unfamiliar word strangely, as he was jumping down.
"We'll leave it, it wouldn't fit in the fort anyway and it’s not much use to anyone without gunpowder."
The group then started to walk back to the fort, the mood around them was stale and none were in a mood to talk, it was never often that the Guards stationed in the south of Equestria had to actually kill anything, and when they did it was never a cause for celebration.
Dive entered the main building in the centre of the fort, it was the end of the evening meal and he was the only one there, the cooks behind the counter were about to start to clean until they noticed the Pegasus, the head chef huffed grumpily as Dive walked up to the service counter, grabbing a tray with a wing as he went past.
The food was surprisingly good for the location, it was a broccoli pasta bake with lots of exotic ingredients that Dive couldn't identify, it was delicious however and he happily tore his way through the meal.
When he finished he relaxed back on the chair he was sitting on and pushed his plate away, one of the stallions from the kitchen came over to pick it up, Dive nodded in thanks and just relaxed in his chair, he looked out of one of the windows at the dark sky, the sun had yet to set however due to the valley the fort usually only had around five hours of daylight in the summer.
Suddenly Dive realised that Sharpe was sitting opposite the table to him, he had been lost in his own world and hadn't even noticed that the stallion had entered the room, rifle slung over his back.
Sharpe sighed and tossed a letter over the table. "This just came in from Canterlot."
Dive caught the letter and opened it, it read
Commander Sharpe,
I'm afraid that a few rogue Diamond dogs is not a grounds for sending an army, you will need to gather solid confirmation that there is something big going on, I would suggest having Dive Bomb lead the party, however keep it small, less than five Guards, and you can't go with it, if the worst comes to the worst they'll need you at the fort. Good luck.
Captain Armour
"I don't know what you are." Sharpe glanced up and down the pegasus. "But if Shining is willing to put his trust in you then I am as well. Just, try not to make the same mistakes as earlier alright. This time it's not just your life that will be on the line."
Dive flinched at the statement "If I do one thing well it's learn from my mistakes. I've made enough of them already."
The commander stood up then and looked Dive in the eye. "I'll give you my four best ponies for the job, they'll be ready in an hour."
Dive shook his head. "Give me the three unicorns and your second best."
Sharpe gave him a puzzled look. "If you are called on to defend the fort you'll need all your best ponies, besides I've learnt that any magic is better than none."
Sharpe cocked an eyebrow at this "Ok then, you're the expert."
The three unicorns stood in front of Dive were quite possibly the sorriest looking unicorns in existence. When a Guard is thought of there is a certain build that is usually pictured, quite stocky, well built and thuggish. These unicorns were, anything but that.
They were all lined up in front of the southern gate of the fort waiting on the final member of their party. Dive turned to the first one, a weedy one with large glasses, his mane was ruffled and unkempt, and his coat was spotted with bits of dirt. The colour of his coat was a dirty white and his mane was dark grey.
"What do you do?" asked Dive, looking the weedy stallion up and down.
"I'm the negotiator for the fort." replied the unicorn with a surprisingly deep voice.
"What magic do you know?
The negotiator paused as he thought about it, "I know, well, basic fire spells."
"That's it?"
"Yeah."
"Good to know Sparky, that'll come in real handy at some point, I think. Ok then how about you?" He said turning to the second unicorn in line.
"My names not.." Sparky started before being cut off by Dive
"Well now it is. Anyway you?"
The second unicorn looked put out by this however he continued anyway. "I'm Farsight, I'm the one who's stationed in the watchtower."
"So what, you have seeing magic?" asked Dive bomb
The unicorn nodded, Dive sighed and turned to the final unicorn.
"I'm Jock. I'm one of the cooks."
Dive stared at the unicorn. "Seriously? You know what, never mind."
Finally the fifth member of their party turned up, an earth pony mare with a blue mane and white coat, who trotted up to them. They were all wearing breastplates and saddlebags, however Dive had told them to drop everything else, apart from their weapon of choice.
"Good, let's go." Said Dive trotting out of the small doors in the southern wall of the fort, the other four followed him until they reached the empty tank shell. At which point Dive stopped and looked around, trying to spot anything that would give him an idea as to where to go. He could of course fly however he just knew that as soon as he abandoned the other four they would be attacked. And he wouldn't bet on them winning.
Eventually he pointed in a random direction. "That way."
Sparky squinted towards where his hoof was pointing. "Why that way?"
Dive replied "Because it’s as good as any other, and if there is an army somewhere they are going to run into us at some point."
This suddenly hit the three unicorns like a train.
"Wait a second, you think there's an army out there?" asked Farsight
Dive nodded.
The three unicorns looked between each other nervously before Farsight continued
"Then why have you picked us? We aren't equipped to fight an army, heck none of us have seen any combat."
Dive sighed and tapped the top of his head. The three unicorns did the same and then realised that he was lacking something that they all had.
"Still, we don't know any useful combat skills."
"In my experience, any magic is better than no magic. Now come on, we have an army to find."
The three reluctantly started moving after Dive, the Mare falling in behind them, she had yet to say anything and hadn't changed her expression at any point during the conversation. Dive was unsure how to take her, but he trusted Sharpe's judgement on this and pressed on anyway.
It had been over twelve hours of the group walking, the sun had set long ago and the temperature was dropping rapidly, the moon was full which illuminated the entire badlands, they could all see nearly as well as if it had been daylight. The group were all tired and Dive was looking for anywhere they could stop.
The entire badlands however seemed to just be flat barren land, how anything survived out here was a mystery. Eventually Dive would just have to stop and camp, nopony could carry on like this indefinitely and he was starting to flag.
Finally he stopped and turned round to talk to the others, they were nowhere to be seen, he started as suddenly from behind he was felled by a blow to the head, as the world slowly turned black around him he could hear the guttural voices of Diamond Dogs talking, this was followed by the sensation of being dragged until eventually the world turned black.
Dive slowly regained consciousness, he felt a hot air surrounding him, and he could barely move his hooves. Slowly he forced his eyes open, they watered from the heat and what he could see was still blurry and out of focus.
"The pony is waking, yes." Came a squeaky Diamond dog voice from directly in front of him
"Good, good. See if he squeals like the others." Came a second, much deeper grating voice
Dive's vision was filled suddenly as something obscured his vision. This was followed by a crack and a split second later an excruciating pain from his wing, his mind was filled with nothing but pain, a red tide that swept through his thoughts and drowned out everything else.
Dive squirmed for a second in silent agony, silently screaming to himself in his mind yet not giving his captors the pleasure of voicing the pain. It slowly retreated from his mind, still present and throbbing however in a place that Dive could corner and isolate.
Suddenly the pain flooded back as his other wing cracked and a new tidal wave of excruciating pain flooded through him, he clung to consciousness as the pain threatened to turn all that he knew to nothing, he remained stubbornly silent throughout it all, locked in an internal struggle with his natural instinct to scream and escape the pain.
He could just about feel the sensation of movement through all the pain, eventually the movement stopped, bringing a new wave of pain with it as he was thrown to the floor below him. He lay there, slowly conquering the pain and pushing it to the back of his mind.
Slowly all of his senses came to the forefront of his consciousness, he felt the heat that surrounded him, and he could smell brimstone. e breathed in the stale air and very slowly opened his eyes.
He was lying on a floor of brass, scarred with scratches all through it and blackened around the edges. Surrounding it were bars leading up to a domed roof, similar to the bird cage that Celestia had for Philomena.
Slowly he rotated his head to look at his wing, and he instantly wished he hadn't. The feathers were slicked with blood which was flowing out of a whole through which one of the bones poked through, jagged where it had been snapped. He slowly tried to get up however the pain from the wing he was lying on was too much for him to be able to move effectively.
He decided to get his surroundings instead, he could see a row of nine other cages, exactly the same as his dangling from chains in the ceiling, and in each of the cages he saw a pony. The four closest to him were filled with the rest of his scouting party, the three unicorns looking panicked as they all looked around their cages for a means to escape.
The mare that he hadn't learnt the name of yet was sitting in a position with her hooves folded, meditating, seeming to be completely calm about their predicament. The other five cages were filled with a Pegasus in each, from the look of it the Diamond dogs had given them the same treatment as they had given Dive.
Slowly standing up, struggling through the pain Dive made a mental note to make the dogs that had done that pay for every single second those Pegasi had to suffer. Wings were the most sensitive part of a Pegasus' body, as was needed for the tiny adjustments that flight required, however it also meant any damage to them caused excruciating pain and could easily lead to weeks if not months of being grounded.
Diamond walked to the edge of the cage, looking over he saw a large broiling stream of lava, flowing like a river beneath them. About a couple of metres from the door to the cages was a precarious circle of rock which the lava flowed around.
There was a bridge of rock leading to a ledge where hundreds of tunnel entrances led from the rock, most likely through the Diamond Dog's lair and to the surface.
Dive stood there, wings hanging uselessly by his side, the blood loss would start to get to his head soon, so he used all the time he had to the best effect.
He examined the rusting lock holding the door closed, he put a hoof through the bars and touched it, the thing unlocked immediately. Dive hummed, he was expecting some challenge at least, but then by the looks of him and his companions he doubted they ever thought they would try to escape.
Dive turned to the closest cage next to him where Sparky was having a panic attack, huddled on the floor talking to himself, he didn't seem to notice Dive standing there.
"We're all going to get eating. I should have done what ma' always said and join the Canterlot Guard. But no, I just had to look for adventure. Getting eaten isn't adventure it's stupid."
As he was muttering he rocked from side to side gently eyes wide with fear.
"Ah'em" Dive coughed
This brought the panicking pony’s attention to the broken Pegasus, he seemed to stare through Dive before suddenly hurling himself at the side of the cage that Dive was closest to shouting
"YOU BASTARD!!!" The cage swung violently from side to side, never getting close to Dive's however that didn't stop the Unicorn from continuing shouting.
"You got us into this and now we're going to all DIE!" The unicorn continued to hurl abuse at the Pegasus, who just rolled his eyes and gently kicked his cage door open.
Sparky took a few seconds to realise this, when he did he stopped the shouting instantly and simply said
"Oh."
Dive rolled his eyes. Sparky looked round to see all the other captives staring at him, he chuckled in embarrassment.
"Maybe I over-reacted."
Dive hopped out of his cage and landed on the rocky outcrop above the lava, walking along the line of cages opening them, each time he had to hop over to the cages and cling on precariously with one hoof while picking the lock with the other. The locks on the three Unicorn's cages were the most difficult, clearly the Diamond dogs had previous experience with Unicorns.
Finally he worked his way to the first cage holding a Pegasus, it was a Mare who was clearly undernourished and had a mournful look, both of her wings were broken at the ends in multiple places.
Dive felt an uncontrollable rage build up inside him, he opened the cage and helped the Pegasus out, where she was then taken by the other four ponies.
Each cage he opened built up the anger inside him, he could handle them doing this to him however seeing others being hurt like this sparked something in him that was buried deep.
When he had helped the last injured Pegasus down he assessed their injuries, they had all been bandaged poorly, stopping the bleeding but not reducing the pain. It was clear the Diamond Dogs wanted to keep the ponies, however Dive didn't care if it was for sport or food he was just happy they were free, and furious they were captive in the first place.
He turned to the Mare he had rescued first and asked
"How did you end up here?"
The Mare took in a deep breath, clearly holding back the pain from her wings and started to talk
"We were the patrol that Commander Sharpe sent out nearly a week ago, we were flying above the ground when we noticed the metal machine that the dogs had been using to attack the fort. We flew down to investigate but we were ambushed, they gave us enough food and water to survive by but I don't think we would have lasted much longer."
She looked with concern at Dive's wings. "You should really get them bandaged."
Dive just looked stubborn, he could feel the effects of the blood loss now, it had mostly stopped however there was still a constant trickle that he could feel running down his flanks. He shook his head. "We need to get you out of here first."
He turned to the rest of the Pegasus captives and asked if they were all fit to walk, this was replied by a series of grunts and nods, all of them headstrong and stubborn, like most Pegasus he knew.
"Ok then, we need to get out of here asap and mark where it is so we can come back later with a large force to finish the job."
"Yessssssss, but that would mean you would leave here, and we won’t let you do that." Came a raspy Diamond dog voice from over the rock bridge, Dive turned round to see a host of the creatures crowded on the opposite side, wielding various makeshift weapons
All were looking at the ten ponies clustered above the lava, staring them down, they all wore makeshift armour, seemingly made of whatever they could scavenge, there were changeling carapaces, sand worm plates and a host of other protection that they had stolen from various creatures.
The one who had spoken however was covered in a cloak made from the scales of a golden dragon, he had a strange headdress that was on top of his head that contained a ring of pony feathers, they clearly thought that Pegasus were worth fighting because they dared not cross the bridge while Dive stood ready.
Dive stared down the host, the anger rising in him again as he saw the occasional Pegasus feather and what he could only believe was hide armour one of the dogs was wearing.
The leader of the pack took a step forward and shouted across the gap. "You are outnumbered poonieesss. You can't escape."
Dive kept up his façade but he secretly knew that he couldn't fight that many at once in his current state, his entire side and flank would be a liability, he racked his mind for plans but nothing came to mind. Eventually they would build up enough bravery to cross or Dive would black out from the blood loss, neither scenario was going to end well.
"That's big talk coming from you. Seeing as you're cowering on the other side of the bridge."
Dive whipped his head round in surprise, seeing Sparky standing nonchalantly by the others, walking up to Dive he put a hoof round the Pegasus, being careful to avoid his wings.
"I'm guessing you're the boss of this operation?" He directed this at the dog wearing the dragon scaled armour. "Well then how come he isn't dealing with us himself?"
He turned to the rest of the host, addressing them in turn, looking down the line.
"Surely he deserves to be in charge because he's the best fighter, correct?"
The diamond dogs started to mutter amongst themselves, some looking expectantly at the leader who wore an expression of fury.
"How dare you questions my power?" The dog stood up tall trying to look as imposing as possible
"Then come and face us," Sparky then practically shouted the next words he spoke so that all of the Dogs could hear. "Or are you too AFRAID?"
This sent a ripple of chatter through the mob, ending with the commander bellowing
"I am not afraids! I shall destroy all you pitiful ponies."
He started to march across the stone bridge, followed by the other dogs whooping and hollering at the prospect of their leader tearing these ponies to shreds.
Sparky walked back past Dive whispering.
"It's all up to you know mate."
"Thanks, that's really helpful" retorted the Pegasus.
Secretly Dive knew that the pony had just saved them all from certain death, he could easily take down the leader of the dogs, which would break their moral and leave them a disorganised rabble. However Dive wasn't about to make this quick, because he knew that the dog approaching him now would know more than any other dog and mostly because he planned to make the dog pay for every Pegasus that was captured.
Dive stood up and relaxed, wings still hanging uselessly by his side, he took a deep calming breath and let every muscle loosen. His opponent however swept back his dragon scale cloak and revealed a long sword carved from the tooth of a dragon, he took a low stance and faced the Pegasus.
Slowly the dog tried to circle around Dive, however Dive matched his every move, blocking him from the nine other ponies on the rock, forcing him to square off against the Princess' personal Guard.
Finally the dog accepted this fact and charged the pony, Dive just stood there waiting. The dog lunged with the sword outstretched aiming to pierce the breast of the equine, however at the point where it seemed too late to move Dive stepped sideways and out of the direction of the sword hitting the dog over the head with a downwards swipe of his hoof.
The dog plunged to the ground sliding along the stone floor with a series of crunching sounds, the dog slowly stood up and turned around, he spat out a globule of blood from his mouth and cursed at the pony.
This was followed by a quick smile as he realised he was now on the same side of Dive as the injured Pegasi and Unicorns. He turned round and made to slice at Farsight who had a look of horror on his face. Dive could do nothing but start to run, he might be fast enough.
Suddenly the Mare who had yet to speak appeared as if from nowhere and bucked the dog in the face, knocking him over Dive who had halved the distance.
The dog sailed over Dive and landed in a heap behind him, the dog didn't move. There was an audible gasp from the horde of dogs as they saw their leader fall.
Slowly Dive walked up to the body and used a hoof to nudge it over. The dog grabbed one of Dives wing and stood up. Dive Let out a scream of pain as the dog stood up.
"I'll make you scream like the others, you pathetic pony!" the dog triumphantly claimed.
Suddenly all of the pain he felt was gone, he couldn't feel anything. The only emotion he felt was anger, a pure unhindered unchained anger, he felt it course through his veins as though his blood was boiling and he looked up at the dog that was clutching his wing.
Its face turned from an expression of victory to one of surprise and then pure terror. Then for Dive everything went dark.
Dive regained his senses less than three minutes later, he had his hoof pressed against the dog that had caused him and his companions so much pain keeping it pinned to the ground. The dog's coat was torn to shreds, the headdress he had been wearing was nowhere to be seen and all over its body were large cuts and bruises.
The dog had lost all of its teeth and one of its eyes was completely blocked by swelling, it had a broken hind leg and it could barely breath. Dive looked up in surprise, he could hardly remember the fight, vaguely recalling throwing punches and kicks but not much else.
He looked around and saw the nine of his companions watching him with expressions of astonishment and horror on their faces, all slightly recoiling at the sight of the Pegasus standing over the dog.
The rest of the host of dogs had long since scattered, fleeing to safer parts of their lair where the berserk pony wouldn't be able to get them.
Dive looked back at the dog under his hoof, pondering what to do with it next. He ground his hoof harder onto the chest of the beast and growled.
"Why were you attacking the fort?"
The dog whimpered a little, it then went silent for a while before starting to chuckle slightly, it grew louder until the beast was laughing, and it only stopped when a lump of clotted blood blocked its throat causing it to cough violently. When it had finished it replied softly.
"We ran from the storm pony. As will you and all your precious PONIES!" It started coughing again "You will soon see. All you love will be lost and then when you have nothing you will know what I have gone through."
The dog suddenly started to spasm, Dive stepped back letting it finish, when he approached the dog again it was already dead, it had succumbed to the injuries caused by Dive.
Dive took a moment of silence for the dog in respect. He turned towards his fellow ponies and gestured towards the tunnels.
"Come on let's go."
They all recoiled slightly however followed suit soon after, keeping distance between Dive and the group, each pony helping another to make it through.
Dive chose a random tunnel and started walking down it, at regular intervals there were torches placed along the walls, the sides of the tunnels were smoothed and carved with twisting patterns. Whoever had made these tunnels were masters at tunnelling, it definitely wasn't the Diamond Dogs, who used brute force and ignorance to dig through rock. Whoever had made these were masters of cutting through solid rock.
The tunnel they were in was gently sloping upwards, giving every pony a sense of hope, soon they would be on the surface and returning home.
The tunnel ahead started to level out until the group were walking along a flat surface, ahead Dive could just about make out the walls disappearing, he thought he could see the sun in the distance and started to trot, desperate to get into the open.
What he found was much more sinister, the tunnel opened out into a gigantic cave, easily a mile along, they could see the entrance at the far end of the cave through which the sun was shining.
Along the walls of one side of the cave were hundreds of the tanks, each with dozens of boulders carved and ready to be used.
On the opposite wall was a large sloping pile of gunpowder stretching all the way to the entrance, easily enough to blow a large chunk of Equestria into the sea. He stood there mouth hanging all the way open. There was enough fire-power here to overwhelm the entire Guard.
"There are at least five dogs guarding the cave entrance." Farsight said suddenly. "They don't seem to know what you did to their leader." He looked at Dive then with an unsure look.
"How can you tell?" Dive said, he then noticed the unicorn's horn glowing with magic energy. "Oh, well that makes sense I guess."
He led the way again, taking the group through the giant cave, past the rows of tanks and the mound of gunpowder. Dive had all but forgotten his injuries now, they were still present however the adrenaline was enough to keep him going, for now at least.
Dive took out the five guards with relative ease, eventually allowing the party to emerge into the brilliant sunshine. The sun had just come over the horizon and was slowly heating up the dry cracked soil of the badlands, Dive couldn't see any real point of reference. He turned round to see that they had emerged from a lonely mountain in the middle of the badlands.
He stood there, yet again stuck for ideas. He was unsure how to find his way back to the fort and he was definitely not in any fit sate to just wander around the place, plus they had no food and water so they wouldn't last a day.
"I bet if we light the gunpowder somepony would notice."
Dive turned round to Jock who had just had this revelation.
"Now why didn't I think of that?" asked Dive
Commander Sharpe was standing at the opening from the thin valley passage to the badlands, he was using a pair of binoculars to scan the desert, looking for any signs of the ponies that had been sent on patrol three days ago. He eventually sighed as the sun rose above the horizon and turned round to walk back to the fort.
Suddenly the ground under them shook violently, Sharpe whipped his head around and looked out over the badlands, over the horizon a giant cloud of black smoke rushed into the sky.
"That's them, Harper get a combat patrol ready. We're going on an extraction mission."
The Stallion next to the commander saluted and galloped back to the fort, leaving Sharpe to watch the black cloud billow over the arid landscape, he smiled as he watched, reminiscing over his similar exploits as the fort behind him bustled with activity of Guards readying for the patrol.
Hayseed hadn't seen Dive for the past three weeks, she wouldn't let it show to her family but she was worried, she kept thinking that she had just been kidding herself when she thought the Pegasus would like her. I mean she was just a farmer and he was an important Guard.
She mentally kicked herself at the stupidity, feeling slightly empty inside, she returned to tend to the field of wheat that they were currently harvesting.
Out of the corner of her eye she caught the glimpse of a pony walking down the path to their farm. She dismissed it and decided to let one of her brother’s deal with them, she was in no mood to greet a customer.
She stopped working as the pony walked up to one of her brothers and greeted him with a hoof bump, she sighed as she conceded with the fact it was probably one of their many relatives. She went back to work head down doing as much as she could to forget everything.
"Well you're determined today aren't you?" Came a familiar voice.
She turned around to see Dive standing there, wings bandaged firmly to his flanks, various cuts and scrapes healing all over his body.
She gasped when she saw the state of him. "What happened to you?" She walked up to him and gingerly touched his wings, he flinched back at the contact.
"Not so rough, they're tender." He said smiling at her, she smiled back without knowing it.
She suddenly realised what she was doing and blushed returning to work quickly.
"If you want to buy something then Barley's the one you want to talk to."
"I don't want to buy anything today."
Hayseed looked up in surprise at this, giving him a quizzical look.
"Then why are you here?" She slowly said
"To see if you're free for lunch? I know a good place."
She stood there stunned for a second before her brother replied for her from somewhere near them in the wheat field.
"She is!" this was followed by a bunch of snickers.
Hayseed gave the direction of the noise a sneer before turning back to Dive
"Apparently I am."
Dive gave a sly smile
"Well we wouldn't want to disappoint your wheat now would we?"
