A different war to fight

As Raptor struggled to get out from under the Griffon corpse Wolf pick up one of the large creatures up and threw it over his shoulders and grabbed a second one by the feathers on the back of its neck and dragged it in the direction of the everfree forest. When he returned he found Raptor was still struggling to get out from beneath the Griffon. Deciding to help his friend out of his predicament, grabbing him by his forearms and pulled him out from under the Griffon. Raptor attempted to catch his breath after his lungs felt like they were being crushed under the corpse.

Once the area had nearly been cleared Wolf turned to Raptor, who had done little to nothing and said "I carried more than you" with a large grin on his face.

"Haha, very funny" he replied before asking "how can you even lift that much with your kit on?"

Wolf responded "While you were eating snacks when at base, I was at the gym making sure i could carry your fat ass back to an evac point"

"Alright, no need to get so personal" he replied

"Ok, this is the last one, big fucker too, mind giving me a hand" Wolf asked looking at Raptor

"Yeah sure, but we should be quick, those royal guards should be here soon" he replied while picking up the other end of the corpse.

When they returned they were met with a hostile presence

"Halt, this town is under the protection of the royal guard, leave or be arrested" said the leader of the group

"Well you guys have been doing a shit job protecting this place recently havn't you, since two civilians had to do your job" Wolf replied

The guard looked shocked and asked "do you mean two ponies fought off a large Griffon attack force?"

"No you halfwit, we did" Wolf replied getting angrier

"Yea right, and i am the Luna princess" replied the guard

Like magic Twilight appeared behind them and said "its true, they were the ones who protected us from the Griffons"

The guard looked at her then looked back to the men, one of which was covered in blood and said in a fearful tone "my apologies" as he stepped aside

As the men walked through the shoddy blockade at the edge of town the guard asked "wait, is one of you called Wolf?"

"Yea me, why" he replied

The guard responded "Princess Celestia said you would probably protect the town and asked me to give you this" as the stallion handed the man a letter

The letter read "Dear Wolf, if you are reading this then you have disobeyed a direct order, but I am thankful that you did. I you did not protect the town Canterlot would not have had enough houses for the evacuees. For protecting Ponyville I am inviting you and Raptor to my niece Caydance's wedding that is taking place. I ask you to come as guests but I would like you to act as extra guards. I ask you to accompany my student Twilight and her friends when they come tomorrow. I hope to see you there yours faithfully Princess Celestia"

"Twilight?" Wolf asked trying to get the unicorns attention

"Yes Wolf" she responded

"We have been invited to the royal wedding and we have been asked to go with you when you go tomorrow, anything we should know before we leave?" He asked

"Well my brother, Shining Armour is the groom and he is captain of the royal guard" she responded

As they talked more in depth, Raptor grabbed the rest of the equipment and took it back to his workshop.

The following day the group met up at the train station, Raptor greeted them all as Wolf talked to Twilight about the layout of the castle. Once the train arrived they all boarded it together, as the ponies sat down in the seats the two men sat down in aisle as they were too tall for the seats. As the group of ponies talked to each other Wolf noticed the pinkmone was giving him dirty looks every now and again. After a while of this happening he went over and introduced himself to the group.

"Hello, my name is Wolf" he said

One of the ponies responded "howdy Wolf, I'm Applejack and this is Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and"

Before she could finish Wolf replied "I recognise you, Fluttershy wasn't it"

"Yes, nice to see you again" she replied in a soft voice

Before anything else could be said Pinkie Pie Shouted "WHY HAVE YOU BEEN AVOIDING ME!"

Wolf looked confused and asked "what do you mean?"

Pinkie responded "EVERYTIME YOU HAVE CAME INTO TOWN I HAVE TRIED TO TALK TO YOU BUT YOU KEEP AVOIDING ME!"

Wolf started to understand "everytime I have came into town I always had a feeling of being watched, because of my training I always take this as a bad sign so I hide, I'm so sorry if this has upset you"

Pinkie had started to cry "I always try to set up a party for you but I can never find you to invite you"

"Didnt Twilight tell you where my home is, I live just inside of the Everfree Forest" Wolf said

Just has they had finished their conversation they arrived at the train station in Canterlot and met with a heavy guard presence. As they exited the train on of the guards had stepped forward and started talking to Twilight and her friends. Once they were finished talking the stallion walked towards them

He said "I am Shining Armour, captain of the royal guard, you two must be Raptor and Wolf"

Wolf stepped forward and said "affirmative sir, Corporal Wolf 202nd infantry battalion, at your service sir"

Shining Armour stepped back and said "whoa, no need to be so formal, you are here as guests unless you are needed"

Wolf replied "With all due respect sir, I would like to start acting as a guard now, to make up for the ones in Ponyville"

"Ok then, let's see what you can do" he responded leading Wolf and two other guards to a large open field

Once in a good position he said "ok take that apple and deal with it in anyway you see fit"

Wolf grabbed the apple, placed it on a tree stump and returned to Shining Armour and said "you might want to cover your ears"

With a loud bang the apple was destroyed by the rifle shot, one of the guard decided to be cocky towards the man holding the deadly weapon and said "Nice, his fruit killing skills are remarkable, we definitely need someone like this on the team"

Wolf had an idea "Could I borrow your helmet please" he asked with a grin on his face

The guardspony handed over his helmet and Wolf placed it on the Same stump as before, the pony looked cocky and said "I'm sooo worried" as a loud bang went off making their ears ring

Before they could ask what happened Wolf handed the Guard his mangled helmet back and said "talk to me like that again, and you best hope that your head's not in this"

Shining Armour laughed as they started to walk back towards the castle

"So when do I start" Wolf asked still grinning from what he had just done

"Well, you will have to speak with the princesses about joining full time, but for now go to the tallest tower and notify us of any movement" Shining Armour replied

"Sir yes sir" Wolf replied

As the stallion headed back to see his fiancee, Wolf headed to the highest point to provide overwatch on the area.

It didnt take long for Wolf to spot movement on the forest edge, he looked through his scope but was unable to see anything, he looked down at the forest edge, finger ready to pull the trigger, then he realised something, he had his PLD, although it was usually used to mark enemy vehicles it had thermal optics, meaning he could see if there was any heat signatures in the forest. He looked through and saw a handful of ponies, except something was odd, their horns were jagged instead of the usual strait ones. He looked down towards the ponies that were currently on guard and realised something else, the heat signatures of the other ponies were lighter through the PLD meaning they had a natural lower internal temperature. Knowing that Shining Armour would want to be briefed right away he ran back down the tall tower.

Once he arrived in the main hall were everypony was gathered he heard Twilight say something about Caydance not acting like her usual self, as well as something about her putting an odd spell on Shining Armour, she was quickly shut down by the other patrons, who protected Caydance as she was "under alot of stress recently" and the odd spell was from the headaches Shining Armour had been experiencing since he put up a shield around Canterlot. Herring this Wolf looked through his PLD to see that Caydance had the same type of heat signature as the odd ponies inside of the forest.

Twilight left the room in a huff, Wolf followed realising that she was right

"Twilight, wait up I need to speak with you" he shouted

"Why, so you can berate me like the others" she replied as tears ran down her face.

"No Twilight, your right, Caydance isnt what she seems, I saw some unusual ponies through these goggles and they glowed lighter than the ponies that were on guard, when I heard you thought Caydance wasn't as she seemed and heard your reason unchecked through her the goggles and she had the same glow" Wolf stated looking worried

"So then, what are we going to do" Twilight asked

"I'll keep an eye on her, you check around for anything unusual" he replied before returning to the main hall

When debriefing Shining Armour on what he knew he decided not to tell him about his fiancee, hoping to keep him from getting angrier from what Twilight had said to him. The rest of the night was calm although Wolf couldn't find Twilight anywhere, after a while he supposed she had just went to bed, as it was quite late at night. He decided to debrief Raptor on what he knew so that tomorrow they knew what to do.