Archangel Of The Rebellion - A New Lunar Republic Fanfiction

The serene crescent moon had recently given way to the scorching ball of fire that reigned during the day, the blue sky impossible to look at.

Rolling along the dirt road was an armoured truck, the windows were slits and the tyres were thick. On the side was a blue crescent moon and star with wings, the NLR emblem, and around the metallic panelling were dark blue lines – The trademark of Eque-Sci. Deep in the belly of the great behemoth was the squadron of troops being deployed to protect an important convoy of supplies headed for the newly captured stronghold of Trottingham. The members were elite soldiers, huddled over in the back of the truck. Amongst them was Archangel. He sat in the corner, his head down, not joining in with the rowdy conversations of his comrades. He didn’t like it, any of it. He didn’t like the uniforms, he didn’t like the vehicles, and most of all he hated working in a team, he only saw them as sitting ducks, a bigger target.

“Hey, rookie, you want some?” said one of the other soldiers, a muscly, sturdily built dark green pony, offering him a flask of whiskey. The others roared with laughter.

“Fuck you.” Was the only reply. The soldier glared at him, slowly putting the flask back in his pocket.

“Oh, you’ve made a powerful enemy today, my friend.” The soldier snarled, “We’re a team, there’s no heroes, no lone wolves. You’d better learn to get used to it.”

“Fuck you.” The Archangel repeated, looking back down at his uniform. It was a black body suit, with pockets on the flanks and two solid black saddlebags – all with blue trim, of course. On the front of the neck was a chain of mobile plates, so that the neck remained flexible, and on the back and sides were more metal plates, heavily carbonised so that they were black, to keep with the theme. Archangel looked down at the helmet in his hooves, it was black, of course, with a blue stripe over the crest. There was a Perspex eyepiece that was tinted blue and had a bridge to fit over the muzzle, it all looked very robotic and organised. It wasn’t his style.

“Hey, you lot, we’re here.” Called the driver, leaning through the window into the troop area.

“yeah, ‘kay, come on lads.” Said the squad leader, the same pony who had offered him the drink. The back door opened slowly and the soldiers jumped out onto the dirt road, the great grassy plain was one of the few unspoiled areas on the continent, but it was still nothing compared to what it was, the remains of a huge forest, all there was to show of it was a few tree stumps. The dirt road continued on into the distance, to Trottingham many miles away.

“The convoy won’t be long now lads, and remember, these supplies are incredibly important for the stronghold up the road, it’s security is the utmost priority.” Said the group leader, a sergeant.

Conversations quickly sprang up, mostly gloating about previous victories. Archangel listened intently from a distance, he was sitting on his own, staring at a beetle scuttling through the grass, pondering how it must be feeling, trying to run away from something so big that it could crush it before it got more than a foot, but chose not to. It made him think, what if this is all a game, Celestia might just be playing with me. But he quickly dismissed the thought. The pony’s ears pricked up, however, when he heard his new name, “Archangel” It seemed he really was getting famous.

“Have you heard about this Archangel?” one of the squaddies asked, looking at the pony opposite him.

“Oh, yeah, that guy. He’s a bit of a badass isn’t he, I mean it takes some nerve to go against Celestia like us, but to blatantly attack guards, unarmed. It’s crazy.” The other soldier replied, shuffling on his treestump.

“I heard he got to Stalliongrad yesterday, got a personal audience with Luna herself, he must be good.” The first soldier replied.

“Imagine if you got him in your squad, you would never have to bother fighting again, he would take ‘em all out without a gun!” The second soldier said, they both chuckled.

“Reminds me of this time, actually, there was 3 chaos soldiers, I grabbed the first from behind…” The conversation drifted back to exaggerated bragging. Archangel smiled at the irony of the situation, but he thought it best that no one knew his identity.

“Here they come, It’s about time.” Cried the sergeant, rising from his seat and pointing down the road. “It’s all Chaos territory from here, everyone get in a separate truck, make sure everything’s ok.”

As the trucks pulled up at the stop, each of the squad said goodbye briefly and hopped into the back of the supply trucks, Archangel took the rear one, carrying food, and took his station in the back.

Several hours later the trucks stopped as night began to fall, there had been no incidents and everypony was in good spirits as they set up camp at the roadside, they were halfway to Trottingham.

“Hey, new guy! You take first watch.” Bawled the sergeant, they all chuckled even though nothing particularly funny had happened and went to bed. Archangel stayed awake, leaning against the front truck, his eyes were heavy as he had spent the last week walking with few rests. As time went on he was fighting to keep awake, it was clear that none of the other soldiers intended to take over and the pony reiterated the sergeants words in his head, “We’re a team now.” So much for that. The Archangel started when he saw a flash in front of the bright moon, and again. The pony began to panic, was it Griffins? He’d heard they were working for the Solar Empire at the moment, although they seemed to change their minds with the wind.

There was a thud behind him and the pony turned around suddenly, only to see something even less expected than griffins. Princess Luna was standing in front of him, truly stunning bathed in moonlight, her natural setting.

“Your majesty” he said, bowing briefly, “How did you get here? We are such a long way out.”

“Ha! You shouldn’t worry about such trivial things.” She said, matter-of-factly. The trucks and tents shot up into the air in a blur, leaving the Archangel with nothing to lean on, so he nearly fell.

“What the –” He began, looking around frantically.

“Oh, don’t worry about them either. They’re safe for now.” The princess interrupted, she shook her head slightly. “I just thought that I should tell you that you’re due an attack pretty soon, so you’d better wake up.” Luna disappeared as quickly as she had come.

Archangel woke with a start, he had fallen asleep on guard and kicked himself. He recalled his dream and pondered on it, until he remembered the end: “You’re due an attack.” He said to himself, looking around urgently.

Suddenly he heard a rustling in the bushes nearby, And another in the bushes at the other side of the camp.

“AMBUSH!!!” He yelled at the top of his voice. Lights came on in the tents and war cries could be heard near the campsite. The Archangel picked up an assault rifle and turned on the huge spotlights on the front truck. The attackers were startled and he shot two of them, the rest kept on surging forwards, they had total contempt for life, even their own. They were Chaos Dominion forces. The soldiers could be seen at the doors of the tents, confused and groping for their weapons. The pony heard a noise above him and shot into the air, there was a cry of pain and a pegasus pony thudded to the ground with a loud crunch, he didn’t make any more noise. As more insurgents were running at him, firing their weapons, the Archangel was forced to hide behind a truck. He shot out from the side and over the top and most of the times, agonised screams could be heard.

Around the back a Chaos soldier screamed towards the pony with a huge old sword, he took a swing but missed, and in the wake of the throw, Archangel launched himself at the attacker, stabbing him messily in the chest with his knife. When he pulled it out blood came out in fast spurts, and the soldier was quickly on the floor, dropping his weapon. Chaos forces began to gather around the truck, when the pony had an idea, he noticed that the truck was carrying explosives. With his lighter, a piece of the body suit and the pool of petrol at his feet, the archangel threw the flaming rag onto the truck and stayed as long as he dared to keep the insurgents nearby.

After a few seconds he dived out of the way, just as the truck exploded loudly, flipping over in a ball of flame and bowling down the majority of the attackers, the remaining ones galloping away, screaming. At that the Archangel looked around the side of the fireball, to see a large number of the Chaos soldiers aflame, rolling on the ground or running around in circles, but the fuel was soaked into their coats, and it burned their flesh, causing it to turn black and red. They screamed tirelessly for several minutes, before dropping down one by one and lying still, mutilated beyond recognition. By this time the other veteran soldiers were standing at the entrance to their tents, dumbfounded. They cradled their guns but did nothing with them, just staring at the pony, who was breathing heavily and his fur was singed. The air was filled with the smell of burning hair and cooking flesh.

“You – You’re the Archangel.” One of the soldiers finally managed to say, pointing at him with a hoof.

“Fraid so.” Replied the archangel, shortly.

“You saved our lives!” another soldier said. The truck drivers began to cheer, the whole scene reminded him of the event in the school yard when he was a foal all those years ago.

“The sergeant did nothing!” a soldier said.

“The Archangel should be our leader, not him!” another agreed, raising his hoof into the air. Everyone else in the camp roared in agreement, except the sergeant, who was red faced, embarrassed and angry.

“He destroyed a perfectly good truck and hundreds of Bits worth of explosives. Why do you cheer for him?” The sergeant said, trying to drag himself out of the situation.

“Who cares? He saved our lives! Hurrah!” the same soldier retorted. Raising his hoof again.

“Hurrah!” everyone said, imitating the soldier with their hooves simultaneously. The sergeant sulked away, humiliated, got into an armoured car and drove away down the road.

“If you want him, have him!” He shouted, driving away. The other ponies cheered and gathered around the archangel.

Later, they all helped with the grim task of piling up the disfigured corpses, their faces eternally contorted in agony. The Archangel got a can of petrol and went to an open patch of grass near the bodies, even though they were Chaos soldiers he knew Celestia would check it out, so he left his message, burnt into the grass: CELESTIA WILL BURN.

When the clearing up was done, the convoy set out again to it’s destination at Trottingham, leaving the flames flickering in the breeze.