- Chapter One -
Planning
The morning sunlight shone through the window and onto the bed. Rosefire’s eyes slowly opened and she sat up. She looked over at the clock on her bedside table, which read 11:32 AM. “I’m sure glad it’s Sunday. I don’t think I could handle the walking up the castle for work today, not after that party at Aqua’s place last night.” She thought. She pulled off the covers and hesitantly lowered one of her hooves to the floor. “Aw crap the floor is cold. I hate cold floors.” She levitated her slippers out of the closet and put them on.
The orange unicorn trotted over to the bathroom and opened the door. The bathroom was large and had a huge bathtub with water jets. She turned on the water to the perfect temperature, which she had marked with a piece of tape because she could never seem to remember it. The bathtub filled up fast. She stepped into the full tub and slowly sank her body into the steaming water. “Mmm” she moaned and relaxed her muscles “I’ve been looking forward to this all week” She reached over and turned on the jets. This was absolute tranquility; something Rosefire didn’t get much of in her line of work. As she floated in the warm water, she attempted to remember what happened at Aqua’s last night. “Well we were at that all mare club, and I had a few beers there, then Aqua invited a bunch of ponies there to come back to her place for a party, then something happened with a couple of stallions on the way there and I think I beat one of them up, and we got to Aqua’s place and I had some spiked punch and then…” her mind went blank after that point “Bah I’ll just ask her at work tomorrow.” She soaked a bit longer and pulled the plug. Grabbing a towel, she jumped out and trotted over to the sink. She looked in the mirror and saw a very hung over looking pony looking back. Rosefire had a bright red mane with dark red stripes in it, an orange coat and bright green eyes (with bags underneath them today). Her cutie mark was a fireball. “Ugh I look like crap.” She muttered “I’ll need to nurse this hangover today, so I won’t be going anywhere. Not that that’s a problem!” She thought, happily imagining a day of pure relaxation. She levitated the comb up to her mane and started combing out the knots.
She headed into the kitchen and made herself a carrot and daisy sandwich for breakfast. She walked out onto the front balcony to eat. Rosefire’s Villa overlooked all of Unicornia. The morning sunlight gleamed off the many towers and rooftops of the city, and the magnificent castle up on the mountain looked like it was made of pure gold.
“Its sure a beautiful day! I can’t wait to spend it doing nothi-“ Just then Her magic transceiver rang inside the house. She let out a groan. “Oh no, please don’t be Storm Surge.” She looked at the call display and scowled. Sure enough, it was Storm Surge. She cursed under her breath and picked up the transceiver. Strom Surge was Rosefire’s squad leader, quiet, strong and knowledgeable, but he was a stubborn old brute and always seemed to bug her at the wrong times. He had gray mane, gray eyes and a dull blue coat. She didn’t bother trying to hide her annoyance because she knew Storm Surge would see right through it. “What is it, Storm? Why the hay are you bugging me on a Sunday? Storm Surge’s deep raspy voice came through the phone. “I already called the rest of the team. There’s an urgent matter that we need to attend to. I want to see you up at the castle in 10 minutes.” He hung up before Rosefire had a chance to argue. “That old bugger!” She kicked a chair over in anger, knowing that her lazy Sunday was going to be ruined. She grabbed her saddlebag and burst out the door.
Rosefire stumbled into the high roofed entrance hall of the castle panting. Getting up to the castle used to be easy before teleporting was outlawed. It had been outlawed because some idiot teenager who had never teleported before warped himself right in front of an old lady and it startled her so much she had a heart attack and had to be rushed to the hospital.
The entrance hall had a purple carpet down the middle and it’s walls were lined huge marble pillars. In between the pillars, there were large doors that lead to the different parts of the castle. In the center of the room there was a plinth holding up a massive diamond, Unicornia’s most prized treasure. Behind the diamond, there was a colossal golden door, which lead into the throne room.
Rosefire walked over to one of the wooden doors on the side of the hall. This was the entrance to the headquarters of the Magical Defense Squad of Unicornia, the Squad she belonged to. She pushed open the door and walked into a torch lit room with several sofas and armchairs surrounding a magical fireplace with green flames that never went out. “This better be good.” She muttered angrily.
She went through another door that read Conference Room. The Room had a low ceiling and was lit be several purple lanterns. In the middle of the room there was a long polished wooden table surrounded by high backed chairs. King Oryus was sitting at the head of the table and Storm Surge was sitting closest to him. Aqua was sitting on the right side and Frostbite was sitting on the left. Frostbite was the second Authority on the team. He was usually the one who came up with the plan because he was a good thinker. He was a small stallion and he was an albino, meaning his whole body was white and he had red eyes. Storm Surge appeared to be in a serious debate with the king, so Rosefire decided not to complain to him yet. Instead, she just took her seat next to Aqua. Aqua was Rosefire’s best friend. They had met at the Magical Combat Academy when they were training to join the team. She had a blue coat and a long purple mane.
“Equestria didn’t come to our aid when the city was attacked by the diamond dogs, why should we help them!” said Oryus. “They were clearly caught up with those evil spirits coming out of the Everfree Forest.” Storm Surge replied. “Oh come on Storm did you really believe that story?! Celestia just didn’t want to send troops all the way over here!” yelled the king. “I very much do believe that, because my I was the one who banished those spirits.” Storm Surge replied calmly. King Oryus lowered his voice “Look, Storm, I know if those creatures escape Tartarus, it could be a problem for all of us, but Celestia hasn’t told me anything about this, and I’m not going to take the word of Nightmare Moon, so until I get some good evidence that Celestia can’t deal with this on her own, I’m not doing anything about it. Is that clear?” Storm Surge looked angry but he kept his cool “Yes, your highness”. Storm was hard to read, but Rosefire knew him well enough to know he didn’t really mean that. “Good, now that this is over with, I will be in my quarters.” Said Oryus. He slammed the door behind him.
“Storm, are you gonna tell us what that was all about?!” said Rosefire angrily “because if I came up here just to hear you argue with Oryus then I’m gonna flip shit!” Aqua and frostbite seemed a bit annoyed too. “Yeah Stormy, what gives” said Aqua. Storm Surge sighed and stood up. “Today I received a letter from Princess Luna. She claims that the shadow demon of Tartarus has escaped his imprisonment in the black tower and used some of his power to slay Cerberus, the ancient three headed dog who guards the gates of Tartarus.” By this point, everypony’s faces had gone from angry to surprised and worried. “She says that Celestia feels that this is not much of a problem, and refuses to believe that she doesn’t have enough troops to deal with the monsters that have escaped. Unfortunately, our king still won’t believe that Luna isn’t evil anymore and he refuses to take her word and will only accept Celestia’s. But that’s also a problem because like I said, Celestia thinks she can deal with this on her own.” Rosefire wasn’t angry anymore. “Damn that’s really bad…” She said worriedly. “So what’s the plan?” asked Frostbite. Storm Surge looked out the window for a minute and thought. “One of you will need to go to Equestria” He said “The beacon of Canterlot must be lit.
