07:19:03
Northern Equestria, South Crystal Mountains, Our Town

The lone convoy moved through the quaint little town, catching the eyes of many of the citizens who lived there. All of them horse-drawn carts, with closed fabric canopies protecting whatever was inside. But the carts were all surrounding a massive stagecoach, in a defensive convoy. The stagecoach was so big that it took an entire crew of four to pull it, with just one pulling the smaller carts.

Inside the smaller carts, were a whole bunch of mercenaries of different species. They were possibly hired to protect valuable cargo that was in the stage. The area they were in was known to be full of trouble. If the convoy reached Canterlot, the Crystal Empire or any other major area, they would be fine.

The convoy quickly passed through the town and headed into the mountains to the south, near Neighagra Falls. Following the lone mountain road, dust kicking up behind the wheels, the convoy turned around a corner on the road. But as they rounded the corner and followed the road down towards a clearing, everything went wrong. All of a sudden, the front cart was suddenly hit with a barrage of arrows, killing the ponies driving the cart and the driver of the cart. This spooked the driver of the second car, but he had no time to react as an arrow became lodged into his throat, killing him and spraying blood all over the inside of the cart. Even worse, the pony pulling the cart saw the driver get hit by the arrow and freaked out, going into a blind sprint and running into the first cart, causing a massive pileup.

With the two carts in the front now wrecked, the convoy came to a stop, the occupants of the carts stepping out to help their injured comrades.

But watching the convoy from the cliff, unbeknownst to the mercenaries, was a group of four. All but one of them were pegasi, the last being a unicorn. All of them wore a different coloured set of armour and were mounted behind a crossbow each. All of the squad were members of the Equestrian Royal Guard.

Their squad leader, was none other than Flash Magnus, one of the Pillars of Old Equestria. He had come out of retirement just to command this squad in this mission. Second-in-command to Magnus, was Shining Armor. The other two guards joining them were Flash Sentry and Spearhead.

What they were doing outside of their duties of protecting the royal delegation of Equestria and guarding the castles, was unknown to all but the highest members of the Equestrian Royalty. According to sources, a volatile package was being transported from Yakyakistan to an unknown destination, but was theorised that it was heading for Canterlot or even Ponyville. The convoy needed to be stopped and the cargo inspected. But it wasn't possible just to stop it at the Crystal Empire, or the public would become suspicious.

There was only one thing for it: Hit the convoy while it was moving.

And having forced the convoy to a stop, the squad just needed to secure the stage.

"Call your targets. We'll take them all at once, then advance on the convoy," Magnus whispered to the others, aiming his crossbow towards the convoy. The other focused their attention towards the turned-over cart, as two earth ponies pulled a griffon from the wreck. Once their comrade was clear, they stopped pulling and started to check him as two more griffons stood guard.

Magnus lined up his crossbow sights with the stallion on the right, as the others did the same, picking their own targets.

"Targets have been marked," Shining reported in a whisper, aiming his crossbow at the griffon on the left.

With this known, Magnus began to count down from 5.

Five... Four... Three... Two... One...

Once the countdown reached one, all four guards pulled the trigger. Arrows launched at the same time, taking down their targets in quick succession. Once they were down, Magnus cried out "Secure the convoy! Engage all targets!" The four abandoned their crossbows and flew down the side of the cliff, landing on the road (with Shining teleporting down).

The squad drew their spears and charged the convoy, a tried and true tactic in the Royal Guard books. And the battle was short but fierce. Many of the mercenaries were caught with their pants down and while some put up a fight, they were swiftly vanquished by the Royal Guards. But the mercs fought very hard, with a near fanatical resolve. Not one surrendered and all were killed.

With such aggressive behaviour, Magnus knew that whatever this convoy was transporting must be valuable. With the mercenaries eliminated, he ordered his squad to stack up on the stage and prepared to search it. "Eyes up, I don't want any surprises,"

Once Magnus said that, he threw open the doors of the stage and hopped in. But the stage was empty, save for a moderately sized container. Inside that container, was a strange canister, that started like a barrel and tapered to a point like an arrowhead. Magnus didn't know what is was, but from the looks of things, it had to be important.

But before he could go get Spearhead to help him lift the box, there suddenly came a BEEP-BEEP coming from the box. Magnus froze. He didn't know what the beeping meant. He soon figured it out, though. That canister was a bomb.

Without a second thought, he immediately jumped out of the stage, crying out, "BOMB!!!! GET CLEAR, GET CLEAR!!!!!" This sent the others into a panic, as they ran as fast as possible in order to get away from the blast. But it was too late. Seconds later, the bomb went off, covering the blue sky in a shade of orange. A massive shockwave hit the four guards, knocking them off their hooves and killing both Sentry and Spear instantly.

Magnus caught the worst of it, as the blast tossed him about and nearly sent him off the cliff. Luckily, Magnus was able to grip the edge and hang on for dear life. The pillar then tried to pull himself up. But as he got another look over the cliff, he saw that Shining Armor was crawling towards him, before collapsing of exhaustion.

But as Flash extended his wings and tried to fly away, hot embers from the detonation rained down upon him, immediately incinerating his front hooves and wings, the heat tearing into his skin and fur. And just then, Flash lost his grip on the edge and fell.

Hours later, a Wonderbolt detachment came upon the operation zone, only to confirm the worst. Flash Magnus, Flash Sentry and Spearhead were all K.I.A. And while Shining was still alive, he was barely clinging to life having suffered severe burns and internal damage.

Author's Note

The mission was based on the tutorial level, Nicaragua from Future Soldier. Except with less dialogue, because of a lack of radios with the Equestrians.