Chapter 4
In the dawn of the 38th millennium, Princess Luna, sister of Queen Celestia, revealed herself as a traitor, and an agent of the Chaos god Discord, during what would later become known as the Luna Heresy. She revealed that she had created a group of super-ponies, known as the Night Guard, through corruption by Chaos. During the extremely destructive war between the two sisters, Celestia discovered the Night Guard, and created a force of her own to counter it. She named them the Royal Guard, and the method of their creation was kept a secret from everypony, although reports of missing children began to run rampant throughout the Empire.
The Royal Guard was finally revealed during the siege of the planet of Construal, where they quickly proved just how dangerous they were. While greatly outnumbered by the forces of Chaos, they still managed to defeat their enemies and quickly routed the chaotic fleet. During the war that lasted a thousand years, the forces of Order and Chaos clashed many times, the Royal Guard forced to fight against their counterpart, the Night Guard. The Royals won some battles and lost some, but neither side ever gained an edge. Or at least not until the battle of Tenebris Prime.
The forces of Celestia had tracked the forces of Discord for years before they discovered his base of operations. The base they finally discovered was on a planet on the edge of the galaxy. Celestia’s forces followed a ship to the planet, and launched an attack. Celestia boarded an enemy ship and fought Luna herself. The battle ripped the very fabric of the universe around where they fought, creating an enormous hole right into the Warp now known as the Eye of Terror. During the battle Luna struck a mortal blow to Celestia, but Celestia remained just powerful enough to banish Luna and her soldiers into the Warp using the powerful items known as the Elements of Harmony. During the resulting explosion, which the Queen miraculously survived, Discord was turned into stone and trapped upon Tenebris Prime.
Luna eventually returned, along with the Night Guard. The Elements, wielded by the six heroes: Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack, cleansed them of the taint of Chaos, returning them to their semi-natural forms. The Night Guard retained a form of nightmares, and was not gracefully accepted, but was accepted nonetheless. Eventually, Celestia grew to respect them as a powerful fighting force, and they were assimilated into the army.
Sierra, Sergeant of Royal Guard Flight Squad Sierra, looked around the cramped transport bay of the Thunderhawk landing craft her squad and two others had taken to land on Chroma Tertius, and launch an attack on the rebel’s base there. It had a vaguely pentagonal shape, with the ceiling being the triangular part. The walls were lined with grav-couches for the ponies to sit on and, right now, every square inch was occupied by a pony. Most of them were wearing the golden armor of the Royal Guard, but the greyish-green of the Imperial Army was present as well. Otherwise, the transport bay was empty, except for the doors to the cockpit and the giant bay door that would lead to the outside. Sierra knew that on the other side of the bay door were two Manticore tanks, lightly armed and armored tanks mostly designed for transport that looked like giant metal boxes, just hanging there via clamps. She could hear whispered prayers from some squads, while others were merely silent, in anticipation of the coming battle. They were of no use to Sierra’s squad, as they would be unable to fly in the cramped quarters. Lieutenant Dash unclipped herself from the restraints and walked over to Sierra.
“Is your squad ready? We’re about to drop in!” she yelled, over the sound of the engines and of the wind rushing by the dropship.
“Yes, ma’am, we’re ready!” Sierra shouted back. She then unclipped and proceeded to inform her squad of ten that they were about to drop in. They unclipped and met her by the door in the right side of the Thunderhawk. Sierra saw Lt. Dash doing the same thing with her squad at the other door.
Any other sergeant would have given some big pre-battle speech, but Sierra and her squad had been working together for too long for that to be necessary. Every member of her squad was an extremely experienced flyer, and had a number of kills to their name. With a look, she informed them she was about to open the door, and they all prepared their swords and Slingshot pistols. They lowered the visors on their helmets, and nodded to her. She opened the door, and they all jumped out spreading their wings, and catching the wind. Sierra smiled. Nothing felt quite like jumping out of a speeding ship that had just entered orbit. Her entire squad rallied around her and she opened up the comm channel.
“All right, we’re taking the left flank of the enemy. We’ll get reinforcements soon, but for the first five minute, we’re on our own. Angle down and prepare for a slaughter!” with that she dived down towards the left flank of rebels, reaching near sonic speeds. On the other side, she spotted a rainbow-hued mushroom cloud, signaling Lt. Dash’s arrival into the midst of the enemy. Her own squad arrived in the middle of an unprepared enemy squad, and she screamed out prayers to Celestia as she slashed left and right, bringing bloody death to her enemies. They screamed as they fell, and after a bit of fighting, other soldiers finally noticed the arrival of Celestia’s elite in their midst. They charged yelling, and died just like the others. She flapped her wings once, jumping above the enemy, and dropped down sword-first, cleaving an enemy in half with one blow. She slashed at enemies in front of her and bucked at enemies behind, crushing their ribs and sending them into their allies. After five minutes of battle, she couldn’t see her squad through the hill of bodies around her. Then she heard the sound of gunships landing.
She saw, out of the corner of her eye, Thunderhawks touch down and golden and green armored soldiers stream out and start killing ponies. But the true terror that was the Royal Guard did not fully hit the rebels until a fully equipped Land Raider unhooked itself from a Thunderhawk and begin firing its weapons into the groups of rebels. They started to run. She rejoined her squad and they attacked the fleeing foe, slaughtering them and covering their golden armor with red blood. When they fought their way to the walls of the rebel HQ, they flew to the top and began to kill the earth pones that had been sitting there with their weapons and shooting down. She slashed at one pony and cut off one of his front legs but, before she could finish him, a blade flew at her from the right and bounced off her armor. She turned and saw a unicorn in a fancy uniform, evidently an officer of some sort, standing there, holding her blade in midair using her magic. There was something . . . wrong . . . with the unicorn. She just felt wrong, and the air around her shuddered and twisted, as if her very presence was a slight to the universe.
Sierra charged at her and blocked her first clumsy strike with her sword. The unicorn drew her sword back and threw it at her point first, probably planning on spitting her like a pig. Sierra jumped over the sword and backflipped right over the enemy unicorn’s head, slashing down at her. The unicorn blocked, and they fought, the unicorn backing up and Sierra walking forward, slashing wildly. Then, the unicorn made a fatal mistake. She tripped over the dead body of some rebel, and fell backwards. Sierra took the opportunity, flying up into the air and diving down, impaling the unicorn on her blade. She withdrew her blade as the unicorn died and turned towards the main building, intent on slaughtering everyone there until the only people left alive were her allies. She ran in with her squad close behind, their vision blurring over with red and crazy grins on their faces, her golden mane flying behind her.
After the battle, Sierra’s squad regrouped and set up their tents near the center of the camp. They had lost control during the battle, and succumbed to a condition that plagued Flight Squads; the Red Rage. No pony knew its origin, but it was unclean and, after the battle, had required hours of ritual cleansing and prayer. Because of this, all the good spots on the outskirts of the camp were taken by the time they set up their tents. They had to set up near the center, where they would be the last to any battle that might occur. She was called in to the strategy meeting at the main command tent in the exact center. When she entered, she noticed that everyone else was already there and Lt. Dash was speaking.
“We’ve taken the main HQ and the organization should collapse from here on, but we will be leaving behind a small group of Imperial soldiers to make sure that the rebels to not rise again. This was the main base for the entire system, so the Celestia will be leaving, along with the entire 5th company. We’re too useful as a precision strike force to simply stay in one spot. Lieutenant, I leave it to you to decide who’s staying behind. Choose wisely.” The Lieutenant nodded and left, followed by everyone else. Sierra was about to leave, but Lt. Dash stopped her with a raised hoof and motioned her closer. “I heard your entire squad succumbed to the Red Rage. My condolences. The chaplains can be pretty annoying about things like that.” she was obviously trying and failing to stay official.
“Drop it Rainbow, we’ve known each other for years. You don’t have to act like that around me and you know it.” she smiled. The two of them had a long history together, from before Rainbow Dash was named Lieutenant of 5th company. They had served in their first flight squad together, succumbed to their first Red Rage together, gotten their first kills together, and . . . had other firsts together.
“I know, I know. It’s just so hard to slip out of the big leader persona. Wasn’t that battle awesome? Did you see my Tactical Rainboom? Wasn’t I awesome?” Rainbow Dash was instantly different. This was how she had always been, egotistical, proud, and loyal to the end.
“Yes, I saw your Rainboom. I swear it gets stronger every time you use it. By the way, during the battle I saw something weird. A unicorn that seemed… wrong somehow. Is that weird?”
“No, I saw some of those too. I think they’re corrupted by Chaos. If they are, then this is much bigger than we could ever have imagined. It means that Discord is breaking free, and his power is leaking out through the universe. I already filed a report about what I saw, and sent it to the captain of the Celestia Thunder something-or-other. He’ll forward it to the Inquisition and they’ll tell us if it’s Chaos.” she looked genuinely worried, an expression not often seen on her. Her face became serious once again. “We’re leaving tomorrow morning at first light. You should get some sleep.” she looked troubled, as if something was wrong, other than the Chaos that had been present.
“Are you okay? You know, if you need some company tonight, I’m available.” Sierra said, trying to find out what was troubling her friend.
“No, thank you. I lost a soldier during the battle. Battle-sister Leiara.” she looked to be on the verge of tears, and Sierra stepped forward and gave her friend a hug. Rainbow Dash hugged her back, and then stepped away, shaking her head. “Thank you for the comfort, but I would like to mourn in peace. Go to your bed and sleep. We leave tomorrow at dawn."
Sierra left and went to her tent. There, she found her entire squad already asleep. Her squad’s most religious member, battle-brother Lightning Bolt, was the only member still awake, and he was praying. Sierra tiptoed to her bed and went to sleep, troubled by the day’s events. During her sleep she dreamed of many things, but mainly of a twisted unicorn, a mourning pegasus, and a shadowy enemy that seemed to be stitched together of many things.