//------------------------------// // Chapter 1:Just Another Mission pt 1 // Story: The Day the Sun Stood Still // by TheGentleSpike //------------------------------// ------------------------25 YEARS LATER------------------------ A lone unicorn mare was standing still in a room full of armoured ponnequins, a sword levitating just in front of her. She had a light blue coat with a bright yellow mane, dark blue armour was covering most of her body. The armour had a symbol depicting two alicorns with the sun and the moon. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, taking in her environment. She took a step forward and, moving at incredible speeds, slashed at each of the ponnequins multiple times. A trail of yellow light was left behind as she attacked the stationary targets. She stopped and looked behind, checking if she had managed to successfully attack all of the ponnequins in the room. She smiled, pleased with herself. "Not bad Melody, not bad...though if this was a real fight you would be dead by now." A large white stallion looked down at the mare from the door, he approached her with a smile on his face. "Most opponents won't just stop attacking you because you are focusing real hard with your eyes closed..." he took a closer look at the ponnequins "and your strikes barely scratched their armour, you need to put more force behind your hits and strike them where the armour is weaker if you want to do any real damage with your fancy moves." He said this with a cocky smile on his face. Sunshine Melody sighed and gave a weak smile "You always are a critic uncle Shield, are you sure you just aren't jealous that you are too old to fight anymore?" She asked. Rising shield laughed loudly "You are funny sometimes, you know that?" He stopped laughing and gave her a serious expression "But you know I am only saying this for your own good, right? I do not want you to be hurt out there when you are fighting so-" "You want to make sure I am using proper technique blah blah blah, I have heard this from you many times before uncle...I know you mean well but I know what I am doing." Melody said as she looked to the side, a frown on her face. Shield noticed this. "Hey, what's wrong? I was not trying to be"- He paused for a moment "They are thinking about discharging you again, aren't they? What did you do?" He asked with a serious expression. She kept looking to the side, trying to ignore Rising Shield. He sighed. "You know I am not mad at you, right?" She did not respond as Shield sighed. "I will just leave you alone, ok? Try not to worry, I am sure they will give you another chance." He said as he exited the room. Melody stood silently as he exited the room, she exhaled and turned around. She lifted up her sword using her magic again and raised it high, preparing to continue her training when a pegasus adorned in golden armour flew into the room. She dropped her sword to the floor, turned around and saluted as he spoke: "Recruit, the Knight Commander has requested your presence in her office." He turned and exited the room as she sighed. She picked up her sword and started walking to the office. Well, here's hoping they decided to give me another chance...again. The main rebel base was located underground, in a cave deep in the Whitetail Woods. It was quite a large and deep cave with many different tunnels; most of them lead to booby traps with only one leading to the heart of the rebel operation. This made it hard for the queen's forces to locate them. The buildings in the base was carved out of the stone and the doors were made from heavy iron. It was not the most pleasant place and was nothing like Manehatten, but it was safe and most importantly, it was home to Melody. Upon reaching the office she knocked on the door. "Commander, you requested my presence?" her voice gave away her nervousness. "Come inside recruit." She opened the door with her magic and stepped inside. A pegasus mare with a orange coat and purple mane was sitting on a chair, her desk was filled with various documents and papers. She wore a light silver armour that covered most of her body, a helmet was resting on a table behind her. The mare glared at Melody, both silent as they looked at each other. The Commander spoke up, "Me and the Knight Captains have been speaking about your...situation," she paused for a moment before continuing "They have decided to give you one last chance."- before Melody could thank the commander she covered her mouth with a hoof. "One LAST chance...you hear me recruit? Any more screw ups and you get kicked out, straight away....no discussions, no nothing; are we clear?" She spoke with a stern voice, anger was clearly visible in her face as she stared daggers at Melody. She removed her hoof, allowing her to speak. "Y-yes Ma'am, I won't let you down, Ma'am!" She saluted as she said this, her hooves still trembling and her fur wet from sweat. The commander sighed as she took a document out from a drawer. "I also have another assignment for you recruit, our scouts have reported suspicious activity to the east; the elite mages have been checking out a cave in the Everfree Forest, quite a risky move for them considering the resistance local animals in the area have been putting up." She passed the folder to Melody who picked it up using her magic. "This is an important mission recruit, they must be after something big for them to take the risk going there;normally I would not send you but we do not have anypony else to send and this is a two-pony job, hopefully you can just follow their example and you won't manage to buck everything up spectacularly...as usual." she said as Melody read the document. "I won't let you down Ma'am!" She saluted before exiting the office. As soon as she was a decent distance away from the office, she jumped in the air "Yes! I got one last chance...I can do this, I will do this." She spoke quite loudly, other ponies passing by gave her odd looks and shook their heads. She headed up the path leading to the outer tunnels where she was supposed to rendezvous with her partner for the mission.  She looked around as she walked, pegasus ponies were flying all around; passing documents and assignments to the soldiers. Many ponies of various sizes walked past her, while most were adorned in armour some had suits or other clothing. After some time, she reached the point. Waiting for her was a pegasus stallion with a dark blue coat and a grey mane, he had similar armour to hers; dark blue and covering most of his body. He was tapping his hoof while looking around everywhere, his wings seemed to be twitching; he was clearly growing impatient waiting for her. He smiled when he noticed her approaching "Finally, you arrived! I have been waiting here for ages!" he was right up in her face, she could practically feel him breathing on her. "Oh, umm...sorry to keep you waiting, I was told I have  to investigate a cave with you or somethi-" "Yes, that is the mission...did you forget already? Is your memory that bad? Is this why you have nearly been discharged multiple times now?" he said all of this with incredible speed, Melody could barely understand what he was saying. Before she could answer him, he interrupted her "No time, let's move already, we can talk and introduce each other and talk and whatever on the way there or something" he said right before he grabbed Melody with his wing and started to push her out. The two approached a giant wall that seemed to be a dead end, the emblem on their armour glowed and so did the wall. It slowly disappeared, revealing the opening of a cave. Melody smiled. "No matter how many times I see it, I am still impressed...a camouflaged protective shield." she mainly said this to herself. The pegasus just sighed "Yeah, yeah...how wonderful, let’s get a move on." he dashed ahead, moving pretty fast. Melody started to run as well, trying to catch up with the quick stallion. "So, ummm, how about introductions? My name is Sunshine Melody, and you are?" she asked him in an attempt to make small talk with the stallion as they ran. "I am Thunderhoof, nice to meet you....I think." He said. "Oh right, I was meaning to ask you, do you know about the situation in the Everfree?" He asked. Melody shook her head. "Well, you know how the animals are attacking the queen's soldiers? They seem to ignore our rebels, like they are being organised by a leader or something...pretty weird but useful to know, since the animals should not pose a threat to us; mostly." He said. "Wait...mostly?" she asked with some concern in her voice. "There is a dragon nest in the forest and the inhabitants don't seem to like us...the timberwolves also seem to still be trying to kill anything like normal as well," he paused for a moment to catch his breath. "Let us pray to Faust that we don't happen to run into any of the two." he said. Melody silently agreed with him; timberwolves usually hunted in packs and combined with their regeneration, they were quite a pain in the flank to deal with. They stopped when they finally made it to the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. "Right, before we head in there, let me just tell you this now; the cave is being guarded mainly by unicorn mages with a small pack of Mantiquus...I have been told that you have problems with those creatures after a bad experience with them, so just let me handle them for you if we have to fight, ok?" he said as he looked at Melody, she slowly nodded with a smile in response. "Alright then, let us make it to this cave as quick as we can!" he said as they both charged into the forest. As they started to get close to the cave that was deep in the forest, they started to smell a foul odour. To Melody, this was just a very bad stench, but for Thunderhoof, this was worrying. "Melody, let's slow down and try to move here slowly, we may be able to get through without them noticing...wherever they are," he whispered to her as quietly as possible. "Get past what Thunder? What are you talking abo-" she tripped over a vine as they were walking, making a large noise. Thunder noticed green eyes in the dark looking in their direction, a growl coming from the dark. He used his wing to help Melody up. "Come on, let's move it! We have been spotted by timberwolves!" he shouted with urgency. The two started to run as six large wolves broke out of the bushes and chased after them. The various plants and trees made it hard to run for the two ponies who had to constantly move left and right to dodge them, the wolves seemed to easily move through the forest and were gaining on them. Melody spotted a camp fire up ahead. That must be the cave, maybe we could use them to lose the wolves... her horn lit up and she fired some magical blasts at the wolves. This managed to destroy one but it quickly regenerated. The noise of the blasts seemed to catch the attention of unicorns up ahead. With some quick spells, Melody used an invisibility spell to hide both her and Thunder, then moved into some bushes to hide. She used a levitation spell to drag Thunder inside. The wolves charged past, oblivious to their presence. Fighting was heard up ahead as the wolves found the unicorn mages camping outside the cave. Thunderhoof poked his head out of the bush "Warn me next time you do that, having magic used on you when you aren't expecting it is not a pleasant experience," he said to Melody as he glared daggers at her. "I am sorry for making you uncomfortable but I did save our lives you know..." she glared back at him. "Oh....right, I guess you did..." he paused for a moment. "Sorry...just got annoyed and reacted without thinking for even a second, thanks for that." he smiled at her. She nodded and looked ahead. "Let's slip past them and into the cave while the unicorns are distracted by the wolves," she said. The two moved through the bushes quickly. Once they were near the campsite, they waited for a bit, then charged out of the bushes and into the cave. Melody used magic to silence her footsteps while Thunder flew. The mages outside did not seem to notice as they were busy in an intense fight. The two crept through the shadows, sneaking past patrolling guards in the caves. They eventually made it to an intersection, with two tunnels leading deeper into the cave. "Looks like we will have to split up, I go right while you go left" he whispered to her. They both nodded and headed down the tunnels. Melody eventually made it to the end and saw a large fire up ahead, several unicorn mages were patrolling the area and there were cages with sleeping Mantiquus in them. She gulped when she noticed the creatures. Right, I do not want to deal with them, that will not end well as I am severely outnumbered...need to sneak past. She looked around and noticed a lone guard. She threw a stone nearby, attracting his attention. The guard moved nearby to investigate the area, Melody appeared out of the shadows and stabbed him in the neck with a dagger. She then dragged his body into the shadows. She then touched his body with her horn and used illusion magic to give herself an identical appearance to the guard. The illusion spell was similar to a changeling disguise but was far inferior; it did not change the caster’s voice, did not change your size to the right proportions and touching any living organism would result in the illusion breaking. I will need to keep my distance if I want to make it past them. She walked past the fire, trying to act as normal as possible. Most of the guards seemed to ignore her, she was almost past the group when another guard tried to speak to her. "Hey, what are you doing? You are supposed to be patrolling down there!" the guard was quite angry and the authority in his voice suggested that he was in command of this group. Melody froze "Have you got stones in your ears? I told you to move your flank, or do you need me to force you to move?" The guard’s voice was getting increasingly louder and had attracted the attention of the other guards, who were now looking at her. The guard started to move in closer to her. Shit!I need to think of something or I am dead, he is going to know something is off when he gets closer and notices his "guard" has magically shrunk down in size she sighed turned towards the guard. This is reckless, but it's the only option I have left. She lit up her horn and cast a bright light, blinding all the guards. She then charged into the shadows, running from the site. She heard shouting soon after: "An intruder is in the caves, go after them, I will sound the alarm!" his voice echoed throughout the cave. She stopped when she reached a giant ravine, several tinier openings were in the sides of it and there was a path leading down to the bottom. She ran down the path and into one of the caves as she heard a number of hoofsteps from behind her. "Alright soldiers, the intruder is here somewhere! Split up and search every inch of the cave! They are not getting any further!" the guards split up and started patrolling the massive ravine. She crept through the shadows, hiding behind various rocks and other cave formations to avoid detection. The caves were all connected through a series of tunnels, she used this to her advantage. She thought she was in the clear when she noticed a guard coming down the tunnel she was in up ahead, she turned to leave but noticed there were still guards in the cave behind. She decided to wait for the guard to get closer before charging ahead and stabbing him in the neck with her dagger, as she ran past she realised too late that the sound of his body dropping would cause noise. "I heard a noise over there!" she started to move faster. She did not notice that another guard was also approaching from up ahead, also attracted by the noise. "The intruder! I found them!" Melody cursed to herself as she ran towards the soldier up ahead. She ducked underneath his sword and retaliated with a quick strike to his head, it did not kill him due to the armour, but it managed to knock him to the floor and incapacitate him for a short moment. She used this to gain momentum quickly and ran ahead. She exited the cave system and ran down the simple long path leading to the bottom of the ravine. The mages started firing spells at her from behind, she quickly used a shield on herself to block the spells but it was quickly destroyed. A blast to her leg made her trip and fall. The guards surrounded her, holding swords to her throat. She got a clearer look at them from so close. They were wearing pure black armour that covered most of their body, the only parts exposed were the necks and the end of their hooves. The helmets had pretty small visors allowing some room for their horns and eyes. This is probably why they had trouble seeing her. The faces were all pure white, with pitch black eyes. They had visible grey veins bulging out beneath their fur. Their horns were curved, all were white up until the tip, where it was very bright red. Their horns seemed to give off strange red sparks every couple of seconds.  "Thought you could sneak in here, did you? Do you know what the punishment for this crime is?" he asked her, she slowly shook her head. "Death is the punishment...any last words?"