Phantom Book I

by Da_Spy

Retreat

EVERFREE FOREST
"Move up front line!" shouted Sun Flare as the battalion moved forward.
They had received a message from one of their informants, saying that the threat was in the Everfree forest. Luna had sent a group of 100 strong soldiers to impress her sister by getting rid of the threat.
They had just passed through Ponyville, and now they were making their way across a large field to the Forest. He was thinking of how they would deal with this threat, seeing as they hadn’t seen combat for a while.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake and rumble with a loud rough sound, and all the guards mumbled in worry. The shaking became more violent, throwing a few off their feet. Then as quick as it started, it stopped. When they recovered, they looked up to see twenty ponies dressed in armor similar to the Lunar guard, except they seemed more aggressive and ready for bloodshed.
“Form up!" shouted Sun Flare. His soldiers rushed into battle formation in lines of twenty. They readied to charge. "Who are you?" he yelled.
They didn't reply, only braced themselves for the impending battle. Before Sun could say another word, one of the lead ponies flipped something off his back; an item that looked like a star, and it looked sharp and serrated. The pony threw it with precision, hitting the guard to Sun Flare’s right. The guard stood still for a moment, shocked, then looked up and collapsed.
"Come on!" shouted Sun Flare as he charged, followed by his squad of ponies and the rest of the battalion.
The enemy immediately spread out as two manticores charged out from the middle, barreling right into his forces as they threw and jabbed their spears at them.
His ponies that were on the sides attack the enemies as Sun Flare dodged to one side, avoiding the manticores, and then smashed straight into one of the enemy ponies. The pony fell to the ground with a thud but quickly got up and lunged at Sun Flare. He dodged it, slamming his hoof into the ponies neck causing him to stumble. Sun Flare took that moment to ram him in the stomach full force. The pony stayed down.
Sun Flare pinned him amidst the chaos, shouting, "Why are you attacking us?"
Before he could say anything else, another one of the ponies slammed into his side, throwing him farther than he would expect. Before he could get up, the Pegasus threw a small pin like object; hitting his shoulder, it caused him to be paralyzed.
He watched as the pony approached, smiling, as he got within four feet of Sun Flare. Soldiers from both sides smash into the pony with spears causing him to fall to the ground, but he still wasn't dead!
Sun Flare looked around as the pin's effects wore off; it seemed only to be a short-term combat anesthesia, so he could now move. He watched his soldiers battle on, but those few enemies were tough, taking on about five ponies each. The manticores were causing his soldiers to scatter, and he knew they couldn't win this. He was waiting for the commander to sound the retreat, but then he spotted him and saw that he had fallen in battle.
"Retreat!” Sun Flare called. "Full retreat!" At hearing this, his forces fell back, fleeing the forest.
The enemy followed them, taking out several more off his soldiers before they reached the open, where surprisingly, the enemy stopped following and vanished into the shadows. "Halt!" Sun Flare shouted.
A slightly older Squad captain stepped up, opening his mouth to speak. “Sir, I suggest that we get word to Celestia on what has happened here.”
"And Luna, right?" Sun Flare asked, tilting his head.
"I'm afraid not," the colt said rather bluntly.
"What?" Sun Flare shouted.
"I'm under orders to ensure that only Princess Celestia is informed of this for now,” the colt said glaring at him.
“We can sort that out later," Sun said, glaring right back at him.
A bunch of mechanical clicks made everyone turn on a heel to the forest, and almost as if on cue, eight small cannons popped up, firing grapeshot at all the soldiers, causing heavy casualties. Sun Flare could see that they used to be pink but were painted over with silver.
"Run!" Sun Flare shouted. The one hundred sixty seven soldiers left from the attack ran as fast as they could, through the field between them and Ponyville. The front of the group began to slip and fall, as they passed over the soap filled roads.
Sun Flare stopped and looked on in horror to see Ponyville covered in chocolate rain as pink clouds floated overhead. "Oh, crap," Sun Flare said as he and his men stared in horror. Ponyville looked just as it did when Discord had taken over for that brief time.
Sun Flare’s heart sank. He had already lost far more men than he had thought he would, seen an unknown and incredibly powerful enemy, and now to see Ponyville and come to terms with what this meant. It meant Discord was back. Back and stronger than ever.
The group of pegasi had been flying for about thirty minutes and were in a group of twenty, with Rainbow Dash and Spitfire leading the group. They had just caught a glimpse of the outpost when Rainbow Dash broke the silence. "So what have you been up to?" Rainbow Dash asked with curiosity. She had been bored most of the flight.
"Not much. We were on break from flying and doing shows before the princess called us in," Spitfire said. " I don't see why-”
She was cut off by a large buzzing noise, and they looked down to see a black mass overrunning the outpost. "Changelings!" Rainbow Dash yelled.
"It must be an invasion!" a pegasi behind her said.
Well, it was obvious, Rainbow Dash thought, slightly annoyed.
Then something they spotted made them stop. "Are those Pegasi leading the force?!" Spitfire yelled in shock.
"Maybe they need our help!" Fleetfoot said flying forward, only to be rammed dead smack in the chest by a slim black mare barreling through her. He finally came to a stop in front of Spitfire.
"This ones mine, Rainbow," Spitfire said, smiling.
Rainbow Dash nodded, barreling forward and slamming into a swarm of changelings. She began to fly in a cyclone fashion, spinning to create a tornado and blasting many from the sky. Rainbow pulled out of the spin and watched with glee as the ponies flew in all directions. She then dived back into the action.
Spitfire dodged to her right, spinning mid-air. The slim black mare dashed forward, missing Spitfire but flying over another Wonderbolt. She slashed across his back and right side causing him to fall. She then turned her attention back on Spitfire as the duo fought viciously against each other. Spitfire dashed forward with lightning speed and sucker-punched the mare in the side, stunning her for a moment. She recovered quickly and dove down, and with a powerful thrust of her wings, lunged up to catch Spitfire in the stomach.
Rainbow Dash was flying all over the place, taking out ponies left and right, but she heard a rushing noise coming from below. Looking down, she saw Soarin coming up at her, but instead of a greeting he slammed into her, knocking her back.
"Hey, what are you doing? You’re on our side!" Rainbow yelled angrily.
He stared at her with emotionless black eyes. He didn’t respond.
"Come on, Soarin! Cut that out!”
Instead he charged her again, but she easily dodged him. "Well if ya want a fight, you got one!" she said, flying forward and knocking him back. Then with a succession of furiously fast dashes, she proceeded to knock him senseless with extreme speed. "
Rainbow!" Spitfire shouted mid-battle with the dark mare. "Let’s get out of here! And bring Soarin!"
Rainbow Dash look over to see her group getting overrun by the changeling pony forces. She was usually not one for running, but the sheer size of the changeling army was a scary sight. She still wanted to stand and fight, but she could show off her skill later. Begrudgingly, she back-kicked him in the face, knocking him unconscious. She grabbed Soarin and took off, soon followed by the remaining group. Soarin hung limp in her arms.
Rainbow looked up and yelled at Spitfire, “Hey! Come on, we have to go now!”
Spitfire was in the middle of a reversal, and flipped the slim mare while simultaneously kneeing her in the chest, knocking the wind out of her. She flew away to join Rainbow and the rest.

After the battle, Phantom called his commanders together. Discord and Screwball couldn't make it because of some business in Ponyville.
"They got away," Mira began. "Soon, they will know of us." She was evidently worried because the whole royal guard was still a threat.
Phantom looked around at his commanders; he knew they had more than enough power to defeat them, but still doubt could rise and be the worst enemy. Watching the growing concern in their eyes, his plan had barely started, but insecurity was abundant. The only one who wasn't worried was he and Trixie, who was still in awe of her new ‘toy’.
The villains began to bicker. "What if they send everything they have?”
“We should not have begun this prematurely.”
“They already know too much!”
"ENOUGH!" Phantom shouted, standing up. "We will need to draw their attention from us, make them think they have the upper hand. So they don't overreact." He gave the room a vicious glare.
"Ha!" Chrysalis spat. "What do you plan to do? Walk into Canterlot?”
Phantom just smiled. "Trixie!" he said turning. She zoomed up, surprised to hear her name. "I have arranged a meeting between you and Twilight Sparkle."
She smiled, knowing that now the tables were now turned on Twilight. No one would stand up to the great and powerful Trixie once she was out of the way...
Twilight was scared witless. She and her friends all stood horrified by the events that they just witnessed. Rarity was sobbing, Applejack was standing in pure shock, Fluttershy displayed horror and worry for the commanders that lay before them. And Twilight—well she didn't know what she was feeling. She did not display as much a reaction which she would normally have.
A voice spoke in her head "Ponyville is in danger, Twilight..."
She glanced around the room. It was thirty-by-twenty five feet with a large table in the middle of the room, covered with all manner of charts and maps.
BANG!
The door was slammed open. The room was filled with guards with weapons at the ready, followed by Shining Armor and Celestia. "What happened here?!" Celestia said, worriedly glancing around.
"S-s-c-c-ary v-v-v-oice!" Fluttershy squeaked, hiding in a corner.
"Scary voice?" Celestia looked puzzled.
"Yes, princess." Twilight piped in "A loud voice warned us. It warned us that war is coming, and something is going on in Ponyville."
Her friends turned their heads at Twilight, and Celestia's face turned from curiosity to horror. "Shining Armor! Move all available guards to Ponyville." She looked at Twilight with a mixture of desperation and fear. “Twilight, please, you and your friends come too.”
Celestia rushed down the long hallway. This is bad, she thought. He must have some very good intel. But why would he warn Twilight? And she suspected that Pinkie wasn't sick at all. What his plan was she did not know. But if he could succeed, it will mean her death, and possibly the destruction of Canterlot. But that wasn't the only thing that worried her.
The guilt ate at her. The guilt of stranding her sister along with him. She had known him, too. She would hang out with him and Luna... before the war. That stupid feud did not last long, but the damage was great.
"We need to end this!" she said to her guards, along with a hooded figure, an ace up her sleeve that would help her win this.

Comments

[Da_Spy]

1730435 Thanks have some pinkies!

[Written Out]

Oh wow. I mean, just wow. I cannot hit that villain sue button hard enough. Let's list off the problems I have, in order,
-trained by Luna/Nightmare Moon
-has dragon-like wings, a black coat, and red eyes
-is FIRIN MA LAZER
-has some black pegasus minion who can fly at Rainbow Dash-levels of speed
-stoned and killed Gilda for no real reason (why was she even invited?)
-knows Discord and Chrysalis from before he was imprisoned and recruited them both pretty easily
-pretty much willed Discord's prison broken (you would think being turned to stone would be harder to escape from)
-prepares a training base for an army in less time than it takes me to lose my socks in the laundry
-can design a magic amplifying device for unicorns
-scares the crap out of Celestia
-has mind control powers
-his army has grapeshot. Is this Equestria technologically advanced enough to have guns?
-and sneaking into Canterlot without anyone noticing him, slaughtering the army commanders, and leaving unchallenged.

Yeah, that's way too much. It's an interesting idea, what with the whole army of supervillains thing, but this guy... No. Just no.

But that's just my two cents, so write the story that feels right to you.

[Da_Spy]

1743674 Ouch

[Written Out]

1744236 If you're trying to think of ways to fix up Phantom, the Mary Sue Litmus Test might help. Reading though it should give you some ideas on what makes a Mary Sue.

Good luck to you. Don't give up.

[Da_Spy]

1774838 Well thanks