Oh, how I would love to slaughter every disgusting horse in this pathetic nation. They thwarted our initial attack, but we're nowhere near done. The love is too great, and I have the means to strengthen their love even as we drive them to slavery. I'll destroy them. Most of them, actually, so that the few that are left will give off stronger and more fulfilling love than all of this continent put together.
There were sprees of mysterious “kidnappings” all across Equestria, occurring mainly in large cities like Manehatten and Baltimare. The Changelings were building their numbers.
It was still several years yet before the changelings were to attack, but the Princesses were not as blind as Chrysalis believed. It was Luna who first recognized the signs of the Changelings. There were often small traces of green slime in the last known places of most missing ponies, and shortly afterward, that pony would reappear, seemingly ignorant to their past life, before once again disappearing weeks later. They were, of course, never found.
As such, the Princesses began to recruit to their guard, knowing that some form of war was inevitable. Celestia’s recruitment was much simpler than her sister’s; common ponies were recruited, then sent to a training camp in the Frozen North until they were fit for guard duty. Luna’s recruitment was not so simple, considering that all members of her guard were destined to become bat ponies. They had to be pegasi (for faster mobility and easier conversion to bat ponies), have much keener senses than common guards (due to their nocturnal duties), and, of course, have an affinity for the night. Their training took place in a much darker place of Equestria; a large cave system underneath the Everfree Forest. There, the Night Guard had to train in near total darkness, learn to fly quickly in narrow spaces, and be able to combat almost any of the Everfree’s dangerous creatures. As such, the Night Guard’s numbers were much smaller, and the few who passed every year were graced by Luna with bat pony features and enchanted guard’s armor, granting them the ability to appear as shadow, under oath to only use the ability in the protection of Equestria. The Night Guard were eventually come to be recognized as the “special forces” of the collateral Equestrian Guard.
Recognizing that her guard was not as powerful as Celestia’s (due to the numerical superiority and diversity of the three races), Luna sought to recruit other species to further advance the abilities of her guard. Cockatrice and manticores proved to be too wild, and thus useless to the Night Guard. Phoenixes were too bright and too noticeable, more suitable for Celestia’s guard. Griffons were too loyal to their own kingdom to serve under an Equestrian princess, and the list went on, all of the candidates being either too dumb, too noticeable, or not loyal to the Princesses.
Luna’s search went on for nearly six years, with several small skirmishes with Changelings happening along the way, along with two large scale battles.
It came to be that several months per year were devoted to each new “recruit” for testing, and eventually, Luna found only one race left to try; the Dragons.
While dragons were normally too large or too greed stricken to be of any help, there were a select few breeds that showed promise. Wyverns were a prime example, possessing wings and claws, along with the ability to fly silently and were usually no bigger than Luna herself. There were several Wyverns that eventually became spectacular Night Guards, however, their natural tendency to let loose tremendous pillars or flame during combat soon proved to be their downfall. They were often detected the second they attacked, and before the fifth year had passed, the Wyvern Night Guard had been decimated.
While Luna was truly saddened by her comrade’s deaths, she knew that she had nevertheless found her prime selection for a second branch of the Night Guard. However, this soon led her back to her previous problem; Dragons were too wild. Even the Wyverns, as previously mentioned, became reckless in combat, and perished. She needed dragons, but dragons that were not so reckless, dragons that didn’t possess their instinctual arrogance and wildness. She knew of only one dragon that possessed the attributes she required. Spike, her sister’s protégée’s assistant. In four years, Spike had gone through a growth spurt, making him slightly taller than the average guard and forming small, chicken wings that he was unable yet to use. He was sixteen in pony years.
When Luna inquired to Celestia about the young dragon, Celestia had advised against recruiting the dragon, saying that he was still a baby dragon. Luna, however, wasn’t convinced. She remembered many of Spike’s accomplishments over the years, and knew that while he was physically younger than most guards would be, his mentality proved that he was by no means a child. So, she approached Twilight Sparkle with the matter, and while Twilight was disapproving of the idea of Spike becoming a guard, she allowed Luna to personally ask Spike.
Spike was hesitant, at first. He had heard about what it was like to be in combat against the changelings; the blood, the sounds, and not always knowing entirely if you were attacking a disguised changeling or a comrade, but Luna pressed on. She still cared greatly for Spike, as he was one of the first “ponies” to accept her return from the moon, but she had to look at Spike from a strategic standpoint, as the war against the Changelings was not faring well. Eventually, Spike agreed (partly because the pay was offered in gems), and he was sent off to the Night Guard’s caves for the next two years. When he finally graduated, he had once again gone through a growth spurt, marking him nearly as tall as Princess Celestia when standing on his hind legs. His wings, now fully developed, allowed him to fly silently like the Wyverns, yet faster than normal Pegasus ponies and more agile than fully grown dragons. Upon his completion of training, Luna bestowed a modified version of her gift to the guard, darkening Spike’s green spines to nearly black, and dulling his vibrant purple so that he would blend in better with shadows. His guard armor was instead formed of black onyx, much harder than steel, to better protect Luna’s best asset and give him a more intimidating look. Celestia knows they needed every advantage against their shape-shifting foe, be it physical or psychological.
The story commences just before the height of the Changeling War, seven and a half years after the changeling invasion of Canterlot. Spike has finished his training, and has been deployed to support the front lines just outside of the wasteland. Just in time for the biggest mistake of the war; the Slaughter of Shining Armor's Guard.