Canterlot Castle, balcony
Sunset, 19:12, 20 September
As the sun gently dipped below the horizon, it signaled the end of another day while throngs of ponies started making their way home, exhausted by their daily activities. Meanwhile, the moon inched slowly towards the night sky and began illuminating the dark night sky. While many ponies, peasants and nobles alike, prepared to retire for the night, Princess Luna and the castle’s night staff had just begun their nightly activities.
“How’s your day, Celly?” Luna asked curiously after she raised the moon.
“Tiring as usual,” Celestia replied with a sigh as she used her last bit of strength to lower down the sun. Celestia, regent of the sun, had been ruling Equestria all by herself since her sister’s “vacation” to the moon a thousand years ago. Even so, the sheer amount of diplomatic and political work done by her everyday was enough to turn her multi-colored mane white. Not to mention the fact that she still had to entertain snobbish nobles such as Prince Blueblood. Although both Luna and Celestia were sisters, they hardly got to see each other since Celestia was only awake during the day while Luna was only awake during the night. In fact, on most days, the only time they spent together was during the raising and lowering of the sun and the moon.
“Try not to stress yourself up, alright? I’ll help do my best to help you as soon as I can,” assured Luna while began heading to the banquet hall for her supposed breakfast. Although it had been more than a year since Luna was freed from Nightmare Moon, Luna had yet to open her night court, claiming that she still had much to learn before she could reopen the night court. Over the past few months, she had been pouring over books regarding advancement in magic, history of the world as well as Equestrian politics.
Catching up on a thousand years of history was something that could not be done overnight especially since she also had to overcome the language barrier and to stop using the Royal Canterlot voice. To Luna, the temptation to use the Royal Canterlot voice was too great that it took her months before she stopped bursting the eardrums of other ponies. The delay in opening the night court was also caused by the return of Discord and Sombra as well as the changeling invasion since, unbeknownst to the general public, the royal sisters had been secretly cleaning up those villain’s mess and was looking into other counter measures against such threats in the future.
“Try not to tire yourself too up, lulu. I know you’re eager to help but do try to take a break at times,” Celestia responded with a frown on her face. She knew that her younger sister had been desperately trying to catch up with modern times but she could not help but feel sad by the fact that their relationship was still not as strong as it once was. Though Celestia was proud that her sister had started protecting their subjects from nightmares as well as to build trust with other ponies, she could not help but wonder whether they would be able to spend quality time with each other just as they did many eons ago…
Maybe I should take some time off, thought Celestia, as it has been such a long time since I actually played with Luna. As far as Celestia knew, Luna had been busy studying Equestria’s history and was dispelling nightmares from other pony’s mind. Or so she thought...
Canterlot castle, west tower: private laboratory
Past midnight, 00:43, 21 September
“ I've finally solved it!” exclaimed Luna with glee as she proceeded to jolt down her findings on a parchment of scroll. The entire castle was deathly quiet as only Princess Luna and the night staff were awake. Not known to many, the entire west tower of the castle was her private chambers while her sister inhabited the entire east tower. Both west and east towers were the two tallest buildings of the castle and in Luna’s case, her west tower contained her bedroom, her personal laboratory, a viewing gallery with a large telescope as well as many other significant rooms that were not known to the public.
Her private laboratory was filled with parchments of scrolls taped to the walls and the lab contained many large and dangerous looking contraptions. There was a gigantic bookshelf at the corner, filled with numerous heavy looking books while countless scrolls sprawled across the table which Luna was using. Even so, the dimly lit laboratory was relatively clean and spacious. However, the most unusual thing was the dozen robotic bodies lying immobile on a rough stone table in the middle of the lab. These robotic bodies had the characteristics of an alicorn as it had both horn and wings. They were almost as tall as Celestia herself but was a lot bulkier than her.
For many months since Luna had returned to Equestria, she had been secretly researching about dark magic in her private lab. Dark magic was a branch of dangerous and highly unpredictable magic which had been banned by Celestia ever since she concluded that it was dark magic that had supposedly possessed her sister and transformed Luna into the entity known as Nightmare Moon. At least, that was what Celestia thought…
Although dark magic was extremely unstable, its raw power was immense because in terms of power, it was ranked third, only behind chaos magic and the elements of harmony. Nonetheless, it was still far too dangerous for anypony to wield. However, it was because of dark magic’s raw power and lack of stability that would allow Luna to excess the “Matrix” and reanimate her dead army, the shadow sentinels. As Princess Luna finished her final calculations for her reanimation spell, she began reminiscing the glory days of her shadow sentinels…
Contrary to popular belief and many history books, Equestria was not the safe and wonderful kingdom that had everypony had imagined it would be. For thousands of years, the shadow sentinels have secretly guarded the kingdom of Equestria from invaders and other threats. The truth was that during the first year after Luna and Celestia had turned Discord into stone and saved the world from chaos, Equestria was in a worse state than any other kingdom. Diseases were rampant, chaos still ruled the streets, and famine struck the ponies as crops were stolen by desperate ponies.
There was no law or order of whatsoever and to make matters worse, many enemies such as the draconic hordes (dragons), diamond dogs, griffins, changelings as well as many other species were seeking to conquer Equestria. While Celestia was busy dealing with political, social and diplomatic duties, Luna was dealing with Equestria’s defenses, economics, architectures and sciences. It was not long before the shadow sentinels were set up by Princess Luna to combat the many threats that Equestria was facing.
The shadow sentinels was a secretive group of elites that were not known to the public. Members of the shadow sentinels range from politicians to scientists, from architects to mages, from engineers to merchants. These small groups of elites, often at the top of their respective positions, had continuously influenced the public for many centuries as they wielded tremendous sway over public opinion. Although Celestia was seen by the public as a symbol of hope, it was the shadow sentinels that worked in secret under the command of Luna to protect Equestria.
For instance, politicians used their influence to suppress news of an invasion by enemies from the general public to prevent an outburst of panic while scientists worked tirelessly to allow the continuous advancements in sciences. Architects built mega-structures and giant fortifications to provide civilians with shelter as well as protection in case of war while mages improved ponies’ understanding and advancements in magic. In fact, for dozens of centuries, almost all amazing feats of accomplishments were done by members of the shadow sentinels and almost all top ranking positions were held by members of the shadow sentinels. The shadow sentinels were only loyal to Princess Celestia and Luna (more loyal towards the latter) and were all sworn to secrecy the moment Luna ‘invited’ them to join their group.
However, the greatest asset of the shadow sentinels were the guardians. These guardians were the soldiers of the shadow sentinels and they formed the main bulk of the group. What these guardians lacked in quantity, they more than made up for in terms of quality. The guardians were widely regarded as the greatest warriors on the planet and was second to none in terms of skill and tactics. Although these guardians were still no match for the all-powerful alicorns or any spirits of disharmony, their battle prowess was legendary throughout kingdoms as every other race, including the dragons, feared these phantom knights.
For centuries, these guardians had prevented the draconic hordes from pillaging earth ponies’ crops and protected Equestria from multiple invasions from changelings, diamond dogs, griffins and buffaloes. They were known only as the phantom knights to their foes because of their apparent ability to seemingly appear at out of nowhere to crush any race that was threatening Equestria dead in its tracks.
Despite their legendary status among other races, the guardians had a long and tragic history because during the first year after Discord was defeated, Luna made the unthinkable decision that breached the lines of morality. In order to create the finest troops Equestria had to offer in the shortest amount of time, Luna took in many war orphans, earth ponies, pegasus and unicorns alike, and started training them to be soldiers. From a very young age, many of these war orphans were inducted into intense military training that was even considered to be too harsh for fully grown stallions.
The worst part was that through the use of dark magic, Luna even allowed biological augmentations of these young guardians. She modified the wings of the pegasus’ to bat wings and gave all the young soldiers dragon-like eyes to see in the dark. For the unicorns, Luna increased their magical capabilities and their magical powers while increasing the intelligence of all those soldiers. Furthermore, Luna increased all the soldier’s size and muscle mass, giving them immense strength and speed as well as increasing their reaction speed by nearly ten-fold. Finally, Luna increased their bone density to make their bones more durable to intense training and she boosted their immunity system so as to make them less susceptible to diseases.
Due to the harsh training and the unpredictability of dark magic, many foals did not survive to adulthood. By the time the first batch of guardians became mature stallions, their numbers had decreased to less than half its original size. Even after the Equestria had become stable, such practices were still performed on the guardians in order to continue allowing them to protect Equestria. After Equestria started prospering, as the number of orphans started decreasing, Luna started turning her own royal guards into the new guardians causing the royal night guards to be no different from the guardians.
Till this day, Luna had always regretted robbing those foals of their foal hood and the murder of many foals who had gone through the guardian’s training programme. It was a heavy burden to bear since she felt responsible for the deaths of so many innocent foals but the lives of the many far outweigh the lives of the few. Throughout history, these guardians had no life of their own. They could not get married, could not let anypony know of their existence and could not retire as it was a lifetime of service.
Once a pony joins the guardians, whether they were orphans or royal night guards before, any and all traces of their existence would be wiped clean. The worst part was that the general public did not even know of these hero’s existence and their contribution to society. There was no welcome home parade to celebrate the victories of the guardians as many ponies were unaware of the many secret wars Equestria had been engaged in. Even if news of war did reach public ears, many simply assumed that it was Celestia’s royal guards who had stopped the invaders.
The shadow sentinels received no token of appreciation, no thanks from anypony and no recognition as they continued operating in the dark. The highest recognition and honor the guardians received was known as the ‘Matrix’. When a noble guardian had fallen in battle or was on the doorsteps of death, they would have their consciousness extracted out and preserved in the ‘Matrix’. The ‘Matrix’ was a large magical void that was created by Luna through a spell and it could contain and preserve the consciousness of beings. This was to ensure that when technology and magic had improved, their consciousness would be extracted out of the ‘Matrix’ and transferred over to a new host body so that they may once again serve their Princesses.
After many months of research, through the use of dark magic, Luna had finally found a way to transfer the consciousness from the ‘Matrix’ to a new host body. Luna had already prepared a dozen robotic bodies and was now ready to transfer a dozen consciousness from the ‘Matrix’ to its new host bodies. As Luna started to conjure the spell, eerie lights flashed around her and a thick veil of smoke started to envelope the laboratory. Soon, there was a huge explosion that would have been heard throughout the castle had Luna not put a soundproof spell around her laboratory. The explosion threw Luna off her hooves and she was pushed several meters away while hitting the wall with a loud ‘THUD’.
Coughing heavily, Luna struggled to get up onto her hooves as she was still recovering from the previous explosion. After rubbing her eyes with her hooves, she spun her head around so as to survey the surroundings to get a better idea of the damage that had been caused by the explosion. As Luna inched towards the middle of the lab to check if her spell was successful, the twelve robotic bodies started getting up onto their hooves and jumped down from the stone table. As the robots scanned the area, they saw Luna in front of them and all of them instantly knelt in front of her. Knowing that months of hard work had finally paid off, Luna smiled sinisterly as she could finally begin the next step of her master plan.
“Rise, my loyal guardians. It’s time to continue phase 2 of my grand scheme. Tomorrow, we shall begin our attack on Equestria. Here’s what we’ll do…”
Author's Note
This is my first time writing a fanfic so I'm not sure how I fared. Please give me some constructive criticisms as well as some revies. I'll try to update as soon as possible.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Canterlot, Royal guards’ main base
Before sunrise, 06:14, 21 September
Canterlot was mainly protected by the same royal guards that guarded the royal sisters. These guards would work in shifts to patrol Canterlot day and night whilst guarding the royal sisters as well. Located near the foot of mountain which Canterlot castle was built on, the royal guards had easy excess to the castle in case of emergencies as well as a direct route to Canterlot should anything happen unexpectedly. It was here where the royal guards would stay when they were off duty.
The main base contained an armory, numerous tents that housed the royal guards, watchtowers to get a Birdseye view of their surroundings as well as other fortifications and facilities. The royal guards’ main base was largely unknown to the citizens of Canterlot even though it housed thousands of soldiers. The main base also coordinated all of Equestria’s army bases which were situated in different parts of Equestria such as Manehatten or Trottingham.
“Another day, another bit,” said Light Blade to White Shield as they put on their golden armor and prepared to start the morning guarding shift. White Shield and Light Blade were brothers and had been Celestia’s personal guard for 3 years. Both of them had snow white coat, jet black manes and they were very muscular. They were very large and the golden armor only made them look bulkier. As their name suggests, White Shield had a golden shield cutie mark while Light Blade had a golden sword as his cutie mark.
“I can feel that something weird is gonna happen today,” muttered White Shield as he glanced around nervously.
“You say that every time but nothing ever happens. Better get moving, we’ll be late soon,”
“This time’s different. Something’s wrong, I can sense it…”
Sighing, Light Blade started trotting off to his patrol where they would be departing in 5 minutes time to Canterlot castle in order to replace the royal night guards. White Shield followed closely behind him whilst bidding the rest of his comrade’s farewell. As they were reaching the patrol, out of the blue, there was a huge explosion near the front gate of the main base.
“What the…” yelled White Shield as he swung his head in the direction of the explosion. Billows of acrid smoke started rising into the sky but strangely, there was no fire anywhere near the explosion. Being one of the few ponies closest to the incident, both White Shield and Light Blade rushed frantically towards the source of the explosion. Several other ponies had already reached the area when the two brothers arrived at the scene. They could not see anything other than a huge crater filled with smoke. It was clear that something had crashed into the main base but the question was what it was. As the smoke started clearing, around 5 figures were silhouetted behind the thick smoke.
“What in Celestia’s name are those?” muttered Light Blade in awe as he saw the 5 figures approaching him. Most onlookers at the site of the crash watched in stunned silence as the smoke had cleared, revealing five metallic-like creatures. These robots were larger than all the onlookers gathered, in fact, they were nearly as tall as Celestia but were much bulkier. They moved towards the crowd in an orderly and mechanical fashion whilst maintaining a V-shaped formation.
These strange robotic creatures looked identical to each other and were clad in a seemingly heavy metal that had been painted black. The only part of these robots that were not black was their eyes as they glowed crimson red. However, the strangest thing about these robots to Light Blade and White Shield was the fact that they had both wings and horns as only alicorns had such features. Clearly, these androids wielded immense magical abilities as they seemed to radiate with an aura of power and magic.
“Are those… robot alicorns?” White Shield asked no pony in particular as he clenched his sword and shield even tighter.
“I… I don’t know. But whatever these things are, they look very creepy to me,” replied Light Blade. “The real question is why and what are they doing down here.”
“Whoever made these things or whatever these…robot alicorns are must have knowledge of technology and magic that is decades or even centuries ahead of us. These androids are clearly too advanced to have been made by any of our mages or scientists. This could be very dangerous…”
“Keep your guard up. You never know what may happen,”
As the five androids got out of the crater, they continued maintaining their V-shaped formation. Without warning, they simply stopped moving and proceeded to scan the area. There was an awkward silence between the onlookers as more and more royal guards started galloping towards the crash site at full speed. All of a sudden, the android in the middle of their formation said something that froze all the royal guards to their spot.
With a deep and monotonous tone, it simply said, “Scatter… and begin termination protocols.”
Canterlot Castle, Celestia’s bedroom
Sunrise, 6:31 a.m., 21 September
Celestia woke up at 6:25 am this morning as abruptly and completely as if some pony had just yelled in her ear. Rising up groggily from her soft and plushy bed, Celestia proceeded to brush her teeth and comb her mane. Over the centuries, Celestia had developed her own internal alarm clock which allowed her to automatically wake up before sunrise without the use of an alarm clock in order to raise the sun. As she tried to remember what her day activities were, she was startled when she saw the moon still high in the sky. Usually Luna would have lowered the moon by now so that Celestia could raise the sun. A thousand thoughts swarmed her mind as she considered all possibilities of what might have happened.
Could she be in danger? Was she captured by enemies? Or worse, could it have been Nightmare Moon’s resurgence? As Celestia panicked, the rational part of her mind assured her that her sister was simply tired from all the work she had been doing and forgot to lower the moon. Deciding to put her theory to the test, Princess Celestia conjured the spell to lower the moon. As she casted the spell, her magical aura engulfed the moon and it gently lowered the moon.
Breathing a sigh of relief that her theory that her sister was too tired to lower the moon was probably correct, Celestia immediately raised the sun so as to make sure sunrise began on time. After raising the sun, Celestia began heading to the royal dining hall to have her breakfast.
Celestia mentally reminded herself to take some time off to relax with her sister as she realized that the two of them had been far too busy with their work to take a break. While trotting down the stairs to the royal dining hall, Celestia noticed something strange; her royal guards were nowhere to be seen. Instead, the whole palace was still filled with Luna’s royal guards.
They should have changed shift by now…
“They must be running a little late,” Celestia muttered under her breath as she thought of all other reasons as to why her guards had yet to arrive. Even so, this was the first time her royal guards were actually late and it was unnerving to think about what caused their delay.
As Celestia tried to distract her mind from the unusual events that were unfolding today, she failed to notice two mysterious figures spying at her from the shadows…
Canterlot, Royal Guard’s main base
After sunrise, 06:51 a.m., 21st September
“What in the name of Celestia are those things!” hollered Light Blade to his partner, White Shield. It had been nearly half an hour since those…robot alicorns had arrived in their main base and those ruthless androids had been rampaging through their main base as if it was nothing.
As soon as the mechanical robots started their termination protocol, the five of them had been crushing all defenses and fortifications the main base had. These androids knocked over the defenders as if they were nothing more than a pile of leaves in the face of a hurricane. These robots were unlike anything Light Blade and White Shield had seen before. Not only did they possess great combat skills, these androids had immense strength and speed as a single one of them could ram into a highly fortified watchtower destroy it with merely a few hits.
The worst part was that these androids also possessed magical abilities as one of them was casting loads of destructive spells which had leveled their armory. Both Light Blade and White Shield were taking cover from the rampage of the androids behind wall which had once been their canteen.
Nothing they did was effective against these mechanical monstrosities. They tried charging towards them and hacking them but the androids simply blasted them off before any of them can reach the robots. Both of them, along with the rest of the on-lookers that were present during the crash, were the first to respond to the threat of the androids. While the robots were destroying everything in sight, the guards nearby had tried desperately to halt their advance.
By now the sun had risen and Light Blade and White Shield could get a better view of the androids as well as see the bodies of their comrades who had fallen by the hooves of the androids all around them…
The destruction caused by the invaders was gigantic. All around Light Blade and White Shield stood the charred remnants of massive buildings. Their tents were on fire, their training grounds had been burnt to a cinder and their defensive forts were damaged beyond repairs...
They are either unconscious or…dead, thought White Shield as he tried to maintain his composure. As a royal guard, White Shield had be trained to remain calm and analyze the situation no matter what the circumstances may be.
Fear. It gripped his heart like an iron claw as White Shield glanced at the nearest invader, which was tearing through their lines of defense.
No amount of preparation could have prepared him for the realities of warfare. He had just witnessed more than two dozen of his fellow soldiers charging towards the robots simultaneously, only to be blasted away by an unbelievably powerful spell. Naturally he would panic during such situations but he knew he still had his brother and that they would not go down without a fight.
“Cover me while I try to flank it from the back!” yelled White Shield to Light Blade as he pointed to the nearest android he could see.
“Copy that,” said Light Blade with a nod as he brandished his bow and arrow; Light Blade then proceeded to shoot a few arrows at their target while White Shield crept stealthily towards it. “You want some of this, you overgrown tin can!”
The arrows did not even get close to the android before they were destroyed by its defensive spell. As the android closed in onto Light Blade, White Shield got into position and waited for his chance to strike.
“ I've got only one shot at this” he mumbled to himself as he glanced at the menacing robot that was proceeding to kill Light Blade. “Now’s my chance!”
As he said that, White Shield emerged from the back of the android and swung his blade viciously at the neck of the android, hoping to decapitate his foe.
“Now I've got you, you murderous psychopath!” exclaimed White Shield just as his sword slashed the robot alicorn.
The robot alicorn only had enough time to look at his assailant before the blade hit its neck…
“CRASH!” was the sound that came as the sword found its mark. However, it was not the android that broke but the sword itself. White Shield and his brother stared in disbelief as the sword that was used to kill the robot was broken into pieces as soon as it came in contact with the android.
“I…I…Impossible! What are these things made off?” exclaimed Light Blade in shock as he stood rooted to the spot. The android wasted no time and immediately slammed its fore hooves at White Shield who was nearest to it. White Shield flew several meters away and laid immobile on the ground.
Seeing his brother fall in front of him was the last straw. Throwing caution to the wind, Light Blade charged recklessly towards his foe and tackled it with all its might. Caught off guard, the android was pushed down due to the impact of Light Blade’s reckless charge. Seizing this golden opportunity, Light Blade rushed over to his brother’s side.
“Are you alright?” yelled Light Blade frantically.
“Don’t worry about me. It’ll take more than that to take me down” rasped White Shield.
“Come on, let’s go before it comes back. I’ll carry you…”
“No. You have to warn the…citizens and warn the princesses…Make sure they’re prepared for this new threat…”
“What about you?”
“ Just go. Remember.. our training. G-G-Giving others the data about these androids is more important…” after saying that, White Shield fell unconscious. A mixture of emotions hit Light Blade as he saw his own kin fell by the evil hooves of the merciless androids. Righteous anger, perpetual agony, sorrow etc. But among them, was hope...A new resolve to make sure Equestria knew about these vile monstrosities.
Though he was taught never to show any emotions during his training, he could not help but feel devastated by the loss of his comrades and brother. Light Blade shed a tear before resolving to pass on the crucial pieces of information about the androids to the princesses.
Without another word, Light Blade flew off to the castle. He knew that his brother was right; Equestria must be ready to face this new threat. He must warn them before it’s too late…
As he flew off into the distance, the android staggered back to its hooves and carefully took aim of Light Blade before unleashing its spell. Light Blade would never reach his destination…
Canterlot, high above the main base
After sunrise, 06:58 a.m., 21st September
“It would seem that they are still learning to control their new body,” mused Luna to herself. “They would never be so careless as to let their guard down and leave a blind spot for their opponents to attack.”
“All is prepared for the next stage on the assault of Canterlot, your highness. Everything is in place now. Shall we proceed?” asked an android beside Luna with a monotonous voice.
“You may proceed but remember your orders,” Luna said. Satisfied by the destruction caused by her 5 robots, Luna and the android that was beside her teleported away, leaving only a small wisp of smoke in its spot…
Author's Note
Thanks for the reviews and yes there will be an explanation about Luna soon so don't worry. Next update should be in a week or two so thanks for reading and as always, I welcome comments and criticisms.
