//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: First Of Many 
// by CoverArt 
//------------------------------//

Queen Fluttershy glanced out the window towards the edge of Canterlot. The wall was filled with her soldiers, fighting the invading rebel forces. Her forces were winning… for now. They wouldn’t hold out forever though. ‘Three, maybe four days before they get over the walls,’ she thought to herself. She watched as a fireball landed on one of the battlements, killing dozens of her guards. ‘Maybe one or two days,’ she corrected herself. She heard hoof steps behind her and she turned her head to see General Dash approaching.
“What news do you have Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked, obviously not in a good mood.
“Celestia and half their forces are coming from the southern approach, the ones over here are led by-“ General Dash started to explain.
“Luna?” Queen Fluttershy asked, interrupting General Dash.
“No, Cadence actually. We have no idea where Luna or her ‘elite’ are.”
“What?! Where could they b- search the palace NOW! Get two of our best to guard Maris; I’ll meet them there. MOVE!” Queen Fluttershy exclaimed galloping towards Maris’ room. On her way she passed several nobles, many of them looked worried and begged her for one thing or another. She paid attention to none of them; she was too worried about her daughter to care about some rich snob’s house or whatever they were complaining about. 
Queen Fluttershy spotted her daughter’s bedroom ahead… open. She rushed ahead and was ready with one of her hidden wing knives for whatever was in her daughter’s room. She galloped in ready fight only to find that there were no ponies there. She immediately began panicking; they stole her daughter.
The tap of small hooves on tiled floor interrupted the queen’s panicking. She spun around to see Maris balancing a plate of cookies and a glass of milk on her back. Maris looked at her mother and tilted her head, “Mommy? Did you come to play with me?” She asked with a hopeful smile.
“Maris, where were you? I was so worried!” the queen exclaimed.
“I just went to the kitchen to get milk and cookies, do you want one?”
“I’m sorry Maris, I have to go back to work, but we’ll have dinner together. Oh and I’m assigning a couple of guards to protect you. If you have to go anywhere have them go with you, ok?”
“Ok mommy! I love you.” The filly said as she went over to a small table to start eating. Queen Fluttershy trotted out of the room to go back to strategize the siege going on outside her doorstep. A guard trotted up to her and saluted.
“Ma’ Lady, I’m here to report that Luna’s elite just burned down a number of noble residence, casualties are still being counted but we think it is less then ten.”
“So that’s what they were complaining about. No matter, it makes no difference, send word to Mage Twilight, have her meet me in the throne room.” She ordered. The guard saluted again and trotted off. She turned and headed for the throne room. 
As soon as she sat down in the throne, the door opened to reveal the unicorn, Twilight Sparkle. She trotted up and bowed, having her horn touch the ground, as is how unicorns show that they are less powerful then another. 
“Twilight, how has the project been coming? I’ll need it in a few days if this continues.”
“It should be ready by then, however I must warn you that at the moment I can’t have it show up where you want it.”
“That’s ok Twilight, I know you’re dealing with alicorn magic. I think that’s why they seem so desperate.” Twilight seemed scared at the statement. “Don’t worry Twilight, if we have our way we’ll be long gone before they get to the throne room.”
“Y-yea, your majesty I will go work on it more, see if I can’t work out the kinks.”
“As you wish Twilight, just make sure I can use it when I need to.”



Fluttershy woke up to the sound of knocking at her door. She looked out her window to see a black sky dotted with stars. It was the middle of the night. ‘Now who would be knocking at my door this late? Oh I hope there isn’t a problem the girls need my help with’ She thought. She walked down the stairs and to the door, opening it. “Hello?” She asked. 
In front of her stood a pegasus stallion wearing what seemed like Night Guard armor. His coat was dark grey also which drove home the thought of him being with Luna’s guard. He however didn’t have bat wings as was common in the Night Guard. His eyes were closed so Fluttershy couldn’t tell if he had the same eyes as a Night Guard. 
“Hello? How can I help you sir?” Fluttershy asked weakly, the stallions presence intimidating her. In a gruff voice, the stallion spoke.
“Sorry to bother you ma’am but ha-“ he said opening his eyes. As soon as he laid eyes on Fluttershy his eyes shot open and he had to do a double take. After the initial shock, the stallion reached behind him and pulled out a short sword. 
“EEP!” Fluttershy screamed and instinctively brought up her wing to block the strike. A moment later she felt a searing pain go across her wing and she yelled. Fluttershy didn’t have time to recover before the stallion raised his sword for another strike.
Fluttershy screamed in terror and closed her eyes. The sword, however, never reached her. She opened her eyes and saw that two other ponies tackled the stallion. There was a struggle before the two new ponies finally secured and cuffed the assaulting stallion.  One of the ponies, which Fluttershy could now see was a stallion walked over to her and stomped his hoof on the ground three times. Suddenly three ponies in an addition to the two already there appeared from seemingly the shadows. 
“You two, “ The stallion, which seemed to be the leader, said pointing to two of the others, “take the prisoner to the guard building in town. Doc come check her out, and the rest of you alert Princess Twilight.” They all went to their tasks, without questioning or even speaking. The doctor walked up to Fluttershy and looked at her wing. 
“You’re lucky Miss Fluttershy, all things considered. He took out most of the feathers on this wing but there’s no damage to your actual wing. You won’t be able to fly for some time until your new feathers grow back however.” 
“That’s ok. I don’t usually fly too much anyway.” Flutershy replied to him. She then looked to the commander of the group, “If you don’t mind me asking, who are you ponies?”
“That’s classified Miss Fluttershy, only Princess Celestia can give us authorization to tell you what and who we are, I can however, say that we were sent here to guard you and your charge.” The commander said.
“MARIS!” Fluttershy exclaimed as she ran back inside to check on Maris. The commander sighed. How someone would want harm to befall such a caring pony was beyond him. He couldn’t dwell on the big picture however, he had a job to do and by Celestia he was going to do it. He looked over his shoulder in time to see the soldiers he sent to get Princess Twilight land with the alicorn in question between them. She naturally had a worried expression on her face as she trotted over.
“Is she ok? Where is she?” Twilight asked franticly.
“She’s fine princess, she wont be able to fly for a while but that’s the extent of her injuries. She’s inside checking on Maris.” The commander explained. This seemed to make the alicorn relax, “Well I should still check on her, but before I do, this came through Spike from Princess Celestia. It was labeled for you so I didn’t open it,” With that Twilight handed him the letter and walked into the house. 
The commander read the letter once, he sighed. He hated being ordered to do it because of all the questions that would sure follow. However he was given the order so he had to follow it even if he didn’t like it. He should have felt at ease, Twilight Sparkle was a princess obviously, so she could be trusted, and her friends had saved the world four times! Surely he could trust them, but reading about them on his way here had put doubts into his mind. Fluttershy he could trust, she is too shy to even talk to anypony let alone brag about her protectors. Applejack wouldn’t care this way or that so he could trust her too. Between Rarity and Rainbow Dash is where most of the problem came.  Rainbow Dash in short was a bragger.  If he recalled from the reports correctly there was a whole ruse her friends played on her to get her to stop bragging, it didn’t work. Rarity on the other hand just loves to gossip, there was no other way to put it. If Rarity knew something you could guarantee that in a matter of hours half of Ponyville would know. The final problem came from Pinkie Pie. The commander had no clue what to think of her. Most of the reports that involve usually ended with the conclusion “Its Pinkie Pie, don’t question it.” And to his credit he never did question it, hopefully he’ll never have to. From what he’s heard and read Pinkie Pie could pretty scary.
“Oh well, orders are orders.” He sighed and had his men get the other four. He was sure to get Tartarus from Rarity but how scary could she be.



How scary could Rarity be? The answer: Very, Very scary. While not in the traditional sense of the word, Rarity was absolutely terrifying when it came to being woken up from her beauty sleep. Rarity’s whining, no not whining, she certainly gave the commander a good example of what her whining was, complaining would have gotten to the commander if he hadn’t told her that her friend was attacked. She overcame her own distress and focused on her friend. The commander watched her walk into the cottage to check on Fluttershy. Good he thought Four here, just three more to go. Even as he thought this he could see Applejack and Pinkie Pie walk up the road, or in Pinkie’s case bounce, along with the men he sent to get them. Above them he could see the pegasi he sent carrying the sleeping Rainbow Dash between them. As they approached the ground the commander nodded and the pegasi dropped Rainbow and she fell to the ground, jolting awake. 
“Hey! What’s the big idea buster? I was sleeping!” Rainbow complained, getting in the face of the commander. The commander looked at her with a neutral face and calmly told her, “Your friend, Miss Fluttershy was attacked a little while ago, we have the attacker in custody but we needed to gather her friends to discuss important matters.”
“What?! Where is this bucker, I’ll teach him what happens when he messes with my friends.” Rainbow said obviously angry. 
“Miss Dash, he is in custody and I suggest you don’t do anything you will regret, we have orders to protect Miss Fluttershy from anything that could be a threat, and a rage filled friend who could potentially lead to more enemies, we consider a threat,” Rainbow was taken back by the viciousness of the statement the commander made, the commander continued, this time back to his neutral voice, “I understand you’re trying to protect your friend but leave that to us, the professionals, now if you all will please head inside we can get the briefing started,” he motioned for the three of them to follow him inside. Applejack and Pinkie were both shocked at the way he told off Rainbow Dash but Applejack decided not to question it at least until she heard the whole story, and Pinkie Pie was Pinkie Pie. 
The eight of them gathered in the living room. Maris was under Fluttershy, Fluttershy cuddling the little filly as if she was a teddy bear. The filly seemed to be enjoying being hugged however, next to her was Twilight and Rarity, and the three newcomers joined them. They told their concerns to their hurt friend for a few minutes while the commander went outside to order his men.  A few minutes later the commander came back in to address the group.
“Alright, so now that we’re all here I guess introductions are in order.  My name is Razor Spear of her royal majesties elite guard, The Centurions.  A-“ The commander was interrupted by Twilight speaking up. “Wait the Centurions actually exist? How come I haven’t heard of them since I am a princess, I’ve only read about them in books, I always thought they were an old mares tale.”
“With good reason, the Centurions are highly classified, only Princess Celestia herself and a few select others know of our existence. Not even Princess Luna knows. We were first introduced to fight Nightmare Moon. However as per code 8498275 Alpha Tango, I am authorized to tell you seven about our existence. You may not talk to anypony outside this room, other than my men about us. As far as anypony is concerned outside this area we don’t exist. Is that clear?” He asked. He received nods from everypony in the room. 
“Good, now we are currently interrogating the criminal down at the guard HQ. He was wearing royal guard armor so he could either be from this alternate world we were briefed about or it could be somepony Mr. Dancing Blades hired.”
“Oh no,” Fluttershy said, “Dancing Blades would never hire anypony to hurt me. H- he might threaten me but he wouldn’t go through with it… right?”
“Don’t defend him Fluttershy, how do you know he wouldn’t just hire someone to rough you up to tell you he means business. I say it was him and you should arrest him right now,” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.  
“I couldn’t do that! Like it or not Dancing Blades is right in the fact that I need to pay him, he did pay for my house… But I know him well enough to know that he can be rough but he does things himself, he doesn’t hire people or get favors.”
“Miss Shy,” Razor Spear asked, “ was there anything you noticed about the stallion who attacked you? Like did you recognize him or did he do anything odd that you noticed?” Fluttershy thought for a moment. She shuddered slightly as she relived the experience, but before she could go any farther then that, Maris snuggled up to her, calming her slightly.
“W-well, when I opened the door his eyes were closed, but when he opened them he seemed surprised to see me, like he didn’t expect me to be here,” Fluttershy explained, “ Do you think that is important?”
“It certainly blew the idea of Dancing Blades hiring somepony out of the water,” Razor said.
“How’s that dear?” Rarity piped up.
“Simple, if the stallion was coming to threaten Fluttershy, why wouldn’t he expect her to be here,” Twilight chimed in,” But even if the stallion came here from the other universe it doesn’t make sense. Why would the rebels from the other universe not expect to see Fluttershy?” Her answer came from Maris.
“Um… be-because as far as I know… She’s dead…”