“Ready for the first time leaving this place, darling?” Eclipse asked Bolt, as the team packed up their belongings and readied for their trip away from their homeland.
“Ready when you are, dear.”
“Grand?”
“Yeah, I’m ready.”
“Alright, Grand, you drive the jeep. Let the wounded take the jeep. The rest of you, on me.”
With Eclipse’s command, everyone took off and flew towards Canterlot, and Granite fired up his jeep. As they left the border of the Western Equestria Region, the mares all gasped as they witnessed the beauty of the lands. Basins, plateaus, lakes and rivers. Everything seemed so peaceful and beautiful.
“Remember how this place looks like now. After we delve into the war, not much would look so pretty anymore. If we regain control of the lands we lost to our enemies, then everywhere in Equestria would look this pretty!” Eclipse exclaimed, with the faith of winning the civil war and restore peace to the land.
Everyone agreed. This trip would take them another two days to arrive at Canterlot, so they camped by the mountain range by the evening of the first day. They were resting at the top of one of the mountains, Eclipse and Granite stayed awake at night to stand guard while the other slept. The two were staring at the horizon, waiting for morning’s light to shine on them once again.
Eclipse was sitting on the ground, leaning against a rock while Granite was standing with Eclipse’s rifle. The night sky was dotted with stars and galaxies, like a light show by nature and magic. A few shooting stars placed through the deep blue, abyss-like sky.
“Princess Luna, the princess of the night. She control all of the night, the jewelled night sky and the magic after the sun goes down. Look at this, isn’t it magnificent?”
The nocturnal creatures were active, and they could see fireflies all around them and everywhere on this mountain. Eclipse stretched out a hoof, and one of the fireflies gently landed on it. Eclipse stared at the little creature as it walked around on his hoof with its abdomen blinking a neon green light.
The night was silent, apart from the sounds of the breeze and the fireflies’ flapping wings, they could literally hear their own breathing and even heartbeat. The stallion looked at the horizon, and he thought he saw some new planets or stars, as a red flare rose up to the sky with a trail dragging behind it.
“Hey, it’s a flare. What’s going on there?”
Eclipse took out his telescope and observed the direction Granite was pointing at. With the visual aid he could see a bright red spot flying straight up and slowly falling back, forming a red glowing arc stretching from the horizon.
“Wait, yeah. That’s a flare for sure. Better make sure what it is.” Eclipse lowered his telescope and sheathed it back on his belt holster.
The stallion took out his phone and dialled a call straight back to Canterlot. He walked away from Granite and the rest of the team to talk. Granite could see Eclipse scratching his head as and walking in circles he was talking on the phone.
After a while, the stallion returned, looking very worried. He flew up to get a better view towards the direction of the flare, only to see orange glow and some thick black smoke emitting from far away. He landed back down, as he sat on the grass, thinking of something.
“What’s wrong? You looked damn worried.” Granite asked Eclipse, regarding his phone call.
“Those crooked changelings are back. According to previous record, Queen Chrysalis was actually on her path of exile after being defeated the second time by Princess Twilight and her friends. The hive was located in the Southern badlands, but the transformed changelings decided to move their living place to somewhere near the centre of Equestria, specifically Canterlot. They abandoned the old hive and constructed a new one at the Rambling Rock Ridge, east of the Everfree Forest and south east of Canterlot. Apparently Chrysalis had took back the old hive and planned a third invasion. They were striking towards Central Equestria, along with the dragons.”
“Wow, this queen ain’t giving up.”
“Yeah, and they are certainly determined to not fail again this time.”
“Wouldn’t the dragons like, attack the changelings as well?”
“Yes, most certainly. Those bastards were definitely not going to tolerate each other’s crap and dogfight each other. I would say, we are looking towards the south, and those flames there are from the dragons and changelings. Headquarters reported that the southern border had been breached, so they must be moving north.”
“We’re pretty much sandwiched between the hostiles. Honestly, with the griffons and Shadow Realm, we can be certain to defend our homeland. That is, if they don’t suddenly realise the power of cooperation and join forces, then it might be a problem.”
“You’re right, Grand. Once the sun’s back up, we better hurry back to Canterlot. Maybe they are already planning on striking the changelings before they make it further into ”
The team rushed back to Canterlot right after they woke up as Eclipse instructed, and they arrived at their destination right around afternoon. Just as the team enters the conference room, they realised that there was only one pony there, Princess Celestia. She was there sitting alone at the very end of the table, and the other seats were completely empty.
“What took you so long, Captain?” Celestia asked the stallion in charge.
“It was a long way from here to there, took us two days each to go and return.”
“The Southern Border had been breached by changelings and dragons, I already sent scouts to observe the battle field. So are these the forbidden alicorns that you recruited at the West?”
“Affirmative, Your Highness. They are the Western Sentinels, a team of 20 forbidden alicorns. They should have the power of magic we need on the field.”
“I see. So this is Colonel Lightningbolt, as I remember?”
“Yes, Your Highness. I am Colonel Lightningbolt., the mare in charge of the Western Sentinels.”
“Wait, you know each other? I thought she never left the West…” Granite was surprised, as he asked.
“Since you two are the generals of the armies, I suppose it is safe enough to tell you about this. Colonel Lightningbolt is a senior member of the Sentinel Task Force.”
“Sentinel Task Force? What is that?” Eclipse was also confused by Celestia’s words.
“I thought Captain Windspear told you about the Sentinel Task Force before, well I guess he didn’t. Sentinel Task Force is a secret group of military unit under my command. Unlike the Royal Guards or the Royal Air Force, all of the task force members are not actively in service, and must keep their identity as a Sentinel a top secret at all times. The Sentinel Task Force members are specialists scattered across the lands of Equestria, which are only called into service in dire nationwide emergency situations to assist the military in combat, civil aid, rescue missions, undercover operations and so on. They have different skills they master, like medication or technology.”
“Interesting. So Lightningbolt is a Sentinel?”
“Yes, and I think we should call in the Task Force now, just to help with the war effort, especially evacuating all the innocent civilians and everyone that is not involved directly in the war effort.”
“Shouldn’t we ask for Princess Luna’s opinion first? I mean, calling in all the Sentinel Task Force Agents is a big deal.”
“I was supposed to do so, but she just disappeared today and was no where to be seen. I couldn’t find her in the castle. Her armour was still on the mannequin so she isn’t out there fighting for sure.”
“Nevermind then. Call the agents in for civil aid first, the military will handle the rest.”
“I suppose you are right, Captain.” She agreed with Eclipse.
She then turned towards Lightningbolt. “I, as the Princess of the Sun and the rightful leader of the Equestria nations, appoint you, Colonel Lightningbolt, as the Commander of the Sentinel Task Force, with aid of the Head-Commander of the Royal Air Force, Eclipse, to lead the Task Force and all Sentinels in all upcoming operations.”
“It is an honour, Your Highness.” Lightningbolt bowed as she accepted the honorary title as the commander of the Sentinel Task Force.
“Very well. I suppose you can all use the time now and get ready for the next operation.”
The team was then dismissed and Eclipse pulled Grand and Bolt over.
“Guys, something doesn’t feel right. I feel a very high amount of dark magic flowing around, coming from the south west. It feels kind of ancient and old. I have a feeling there is gonna be trouble tonight.”
“Dark magic? Those stuff that leaked out from the Shadow Realm that your brother mentioned?”
“Similar, but isn’t exactly the same. The feeling is different. The dark magic in me and my brothers feels different because ours are purged and purified. The magic there was quite crude and unclean, feels like something… evil.”
“Should we go check it out?”
“Notify Prince Shining Armor first and see how things go on, just in case Her Highness decided to strike the changelings and dragons tonight.”
Granite went on to search for Shining Armor and tell him about the problem, but he wasn’t in Canterlot just like Princess Luna. No one saw where he went, just knew that he hadn’t been seen by anyone since today.
Granite returned with no luck finding the Royal Guards Captain, so the team decided to just move on and check out the source of the dark magic by themselves. With Eclipse’s gifted sense of dark magic as the Prince of Shadow Realm, he could detect and feel any dark magic sources and strength like forces running through his body.
They tracked the magic source down to the south west of Canterlot in the town of Ponyville, the first actual town Eclipse set hoof on in Equestria. With aid of magic field sensors, they located the direction of where the dark magic was coming out accurately. Somewhere near the ruin of the Castle of the Two Sisters, which was abandoned for well over a thousand years, since Princess Luna’s banishment when she go rogue and transformed into Nightmare Moon. This place had rumours spreading among the ponies in town that this place was cursed, and they were partly right. Evil dark magic still lingered inside the haunted old castle and anyone with a mind sane enough would know very well to steer clear from it. The only ponies that would dare to enter the labyrinth filled with radiation-like magic aura would be the criminals on the run from the guards’ search, or them.
As they approached the castle, Lightningbolt was feeling a bit of nausea so she slowed down. Eclipse saw that his mare was feeling sick and sensed the unusually strong level of dark magic, up to the point where any normal Equestrian ponies would not be able to withstand without getting affected physically, and only the ponies that were born to adapt to the suppressed power of corruption, namely the Shadow Realm ponies could walk right in without any sickness. Lightningbolt was especially vulnerable to the power of dark magic since she was born as a forbidden alicorn with extra Equestrian magic powers that was embedded in the Western Equestria.
“Just go on it then dear, I’ll be alright. I’ll just stand guard and keep an eye out.” Lightningbolt said as they backed away from the castle and set her down.
“Couldn’t you like, cast a spell on us to make us at least temporarily resistant to dark magic? I can still hold myself off here, and you would need someone to watch your back in there anyways.” Granite asked.
“Casting it on you should be fine, as you are a griffon, and you should be able to withstand normal dose of dark magic, but Bolt cannot. Bolt is a forbidden alicorn, and she was embedded with the most purified and holy powers of Equestria, and not to be defiled by even a slight bit of dark magic. Casting a protective spell on her would only harm her, damn the irony. She can cast a spell herself, but this magic here, the dose is just too high for her, something more powerful than a forbidden alicorn.”
“Well for a devil and an angel to be married, that is to be expected. Looks like it’s just us two then.” Granite giggled as he stated that, which Lightningbolt found funny, but Eclipse wasn’t quite amused.
“Call me a devil one more damn time and I’ll become one and strangle you.” He replied. Of course, all three of them knew that the statement was practically just a joke.
Eclipse’s eyes went to the glowing and smoking state again, and soon Granite noticed that his feathers were covered in a light purple tint, and although he didn’t felt exactly uncomfortable before the spell was casted, he certainly felt better and more natural with the spell on him.
“Something I found out recently is that, I wouldn’t emit dark magic when I am calm and without all those glowing eyes and flaming hooves. However, when I’m in the ‘Nightmare state’, which all three of our brothers all having this ability of toggling our power on and off, will emit dark magic, and I’m not exactly sure how powerful my dark magic is compared to Bolt’s power, but I highly recommend you not to touch me when I’m angry, who know what would happen to you if you really did touch me then.”
And so the stallion and the griffons headed in the castle, with Lightningbolt guarding the the front gate in case anyone ambush the two inside, regardless of their intension or identity.
Eclipse took his Mark 14 for the operation this time since the halls are pretty large, spacey and empty. He had learnt some new skills with dark magic within these time and it includes telekinesis, which allows him to reach an item to him with utilising the magic of a unicorn. It was more like a force than magic. He also learnt some conjuration spells for him to swap gears and load out in operations should the need arises, making his tactics more flexible.
Granite however, had no control of magic whatsoever, so he just went with his trusty .44 magnum and his physical strength. As they scanned and searched the castle from room to room, corridor to corridor, Eclipse could feel the power inside the castle getting stronger and stronger against him. Granite felt itchy as the corrupting dark magic lingering in this place was slowly out powering Eclipse’s ward spell.
As they proceeded with no light source at all, with both own them having night vision, on being magic and one being a natural characteristic, not much light-sensitive activity happened inside. The birds and little creatures that infested this place remained undisturbed by the two’s existence.
After another corridor, the dark magic in this place were starting to get very concentrated, which Granite started to feel sick, some motion sickness and hard to breathe. Eclipse noticed that and instructed Granite to stay behind since it wasn’t worth to put his life on the line in this place.
As he made his turn for the corner and walked down the corridor with his rifle tight in his grip, a sudden burst of breeze passed through him, pushing the curtains near the windows and scaring off the nocturnal creatures to run off. Eclipse turned his body to face towards the moving curtains. It was just the curtains that was moving, along with a few small animals running.
Eclipse breathed deeply as he turned around and continued walking down the long corridor. He could hear a female voice echoing down the corridor, but he couldn’t make out who it was, or what she was saying.
He noticed the door at the end of the long corridor, which was surprisingly intact and looked almost like brand new, even after this place being left alone and forgotten for an entire millennium. The door’s fine condition drew Eclipse’s attention. Someone must have been here recently for the door to be this new.
He approached the door, and he noticed that the door was actually slightly opened, leaving a small gap between the two tall an heavy wooden doors. He steadily pushed one of the door open with his back and peaked his way into the room. The room however, looked a bit more old than the door, but was still more clean and tidy comparing to the rest of the castle.
It appeared to be a throne room by the look of it. Two jewelled thrones was at the end of the room and was placed up a few steps of stairs. Some stained decorative glass was tiled in frames all across the room on the walls, most of them were either broken into pieces and landed on the floor on the carpets or discoloured so bad after so long without proper maintenance that the pattern was unrecognisable.
There were dust on the throne, and Eclipse could really feel dark magic physically pushing towards him, but no actual damage to him was done.
“My, my. Look at who we have here. Prince of the Shadow Realm, is it? Well met, well met.”
“What was that? Who’s there?” Eclipse spoke, as he looked around to see where the voice was coming from.
“Oh what is the fun if you know who I am? Come on now, head down to the dungeons, if you dare. I suppose the stallion with the power of immune to corrupting dark magic would gladly accept a challenge.” It was a female voice that seemed to be echoing in the throne room, but no one could be seen on sight.
“Don’t do it! Leave here now!” A familiar male voice also echoed around the empty and lifeless throne room. It sounded like Shining Armor.
“Shut you muzzle up you mortal fool! I will end you if I have to.” The female voice seemed to be replying and threatening the one with the male voice.
“Shining Armor! Is that you? Where are you?” Eclipse yelled inside the room, hoping the one with the voice would hear him and answer him.
“Yes! Just get out of here! Don’t worry about me!” The male voice responded loudly.
“Just hang on! I will get you out!” Eclipse knew something was desperately wrong in this place, and Shining Armor was surely not okay. He looked around the room and spotted a staircase leading downwards, just to the left of the thrones. He neared the worn out and broken stone staircase, which leaded to a wooden door. It must be the dungeon the female voice was mentioning. He pushed and pulled on the door, but the door was lock shut and wouldn’t even nudge a single bit.
“Couldn’t you at least open the door if you’re inviting someone to go in? Come on, you can do better than that, mysterious female echo.” He complained with a sarcastic tone and tried to see if anything would happen.
Out of his expectations, the door did actually unlocked itself and promptly opened. Eclipse figured out it must be some kind of trap, but Shining Armor was most likely in there. Even if it was just a fake voice, at least he need to investigate what was causing all the dark magic to leak out and linger in this haunted place.
“Bravo Team, this is Eclipse, radio check, over.”
“Eclipse, this is Bolt, I hear you just fine, dear.”
“Eclipse, this is Grand, got you loud and clear, over.”
“Bravo Team be advised. I am investigating inside a throne room of the castle and there is likely a hostage situation here. The dark magic is very strong, so don’t follow me in. If anything goes wrong, run back and report to Canterlot immediately, out.”
With his instructions given to Granite and Lightningbolt, Eclipse continued walking down the stairs and crossed a few levels on underground space. Everything here also looked untouched for centuries as they were coated in a thick layer of dust.
Eventually, he came to another door that had access to another room in the underground part of the castle, which was almost like a sanctuary for natural disasters, rather than an actual dungeon for trapping prisoners. He knew this was a very bad place to stay, as in case the door opens, who knows what would be there waiting for him, maybe sharp and long spikes, maybe darts with their tips coated with instant reacting neurotoxins. He might be an immortal, but that doesn’t necessarily equal to an indestructible physical body.
“Ahh, you are finally here, Prince Eclipse. Why don’t you come in and join your comrade? We got a little… gathering over here.” The female voice spoke again, but not with an echo in the throne room, but coming right from the inside, behind the locked door, slightly muffled by the half rotten wooden door.
The door was unlocked, but not automatically opened this time. Before Eclipse pushed the door, he already prepared himself of walking right into a trap. He just needed to bust in and if anythings happen, he needed to report to the two waiting outside of the throne room to evacuate from the castle and rush back to Canterlot with the news.
He pushed the door open and looked around the doorway in case there were traps hidden around. After confirming the doorway was safe to pass through, he treaded inside carefully. After a corner, he saw something really shocking: It was a mare, that looked like Princess Luna, but with a darker coat, wearing silvery armour, and with sharper teeth and a reptilian-like pupil. Shining Armor was locked up in a cell right behind the mare, with messy mane and dirty fur. His armour was stripped away and dumped to the other side of the room.
The mare was facing right towards Eclipse as he entered, and she laughed in an evil tone, like those classic villains written in story books. Eclipse was staring right at the mare tensely, observing for any movements to counter.
“I warned you to get out of here! Why won’t you listen to me?” Shining Armor yelled from the cell he was locked in. The black mare turned to take a glimpse at the stallion, and looked back towards Eclipse with an evil grin on her face.
“Ahh, Prince of the Shadow Realm. I always wanted to know what makes you so powerful. If I can get some power out from you, then Equestria will be ruled by me and me only, Nightmare Moon!”
“I can answer you that question, King Sombra. And no matter what you are thinking of doing to me, it’s a no!” Eclipse pointed his rifle towards Nightmare Moon.
“Foolish little colt, do you think those little brass pellets and that pea shooter of yours could harm an immortal and celestial body like mine? Perhaps you can prove to deny and neglect my orders.”
“I will never retreat, never surrender. True Heroes never retreat, true heroes never surrender, and true heroes will definitely not submit themselves to the darkness!” Eclipse was determined, although he already had the feeling of things going wrong.
“Or perhaps should we ask, can you say no?” She smirked upon hearing Eclipse’s reply. Within seconds, purple magic aura and black tentacles summoned from the voids by the mare dragged Eclipse down onto the floor and stripped away all his gear, but purposely leaving the radio right next to him for him to pick it up as he lost his equipments and weapons.
“Go on, tell them. Tell them what is happening over here, I’d like a rematch with Celestia which I lost a thousand years ago, which she cheated with the elements of harmony. This time, I will win, I will reclaim what was rightfully me and I will send her to the core of the sun forever! Equestria will be plunged into eternal night!” She laughed.
“All stations be advised, I have been compromised and captured. Get out of here and tell Princess Celestia that Shining Armor and I are here, and Nightmare Moon is back! I say again, get the hell outta here!” Eclipse spoke through the radio with a weak voice from his restrain, to warn the team of the danger they were about to face.
Back up on the surface, Granite and Lightningbolt did what Eclipse just said and started to exfiltrate from the area. The ground started to shake violently as the two escaped. One of the watch tower of the castle was starting to shake along with the small earthquake and collapsed towards the two’s direction. Granite noticed that Lightningbolt was exposed in danger as she wasn’t fast enough to outrun the falling pillar.
He dashed and leaped towards her, grabbed her from behind and rolled out of the way where the pillar fell. As Granite’s body was larger than Lightningbolt, he pulled the mare into his embrace to protect the mare as the debris and loose rocks went flying towards them. The two escaped from the falling pillar barely, just a second before it fell and smashed onto them. Granite was panting heavily as he witnessed the pillar smacking hard on the floor just next to them, still stunned that the two just cheated death, in a close call. Those rocks that went flying towards them didn’t hurt Lightningbolt in the slightest bit, as Granite had took all the hits on his back and bore all the pain for the mare in his claws. His back was bruised from all those flying rocks, but luckily no open wounds on his skin or any bleeding.
Lightningbolt was underneath Granite’s heavy body, and she crawled back out with a blush on her face. Although being smaller and lighter than the veteran griffon, she was still strong enough to push him aside rather easily. Granite blushed a little due to embarrassment as well as he let go of the mare in his embrace. Hugging someone else’s mare was actually quite awkward.
“My thanks… Grand, are you alright? Your back was quite injured…”
“No worries Bolt, it’s nothing, just… a scratch. I’m responsible to keep you alive for Eclipse, so I don’t mind getting hurt, as long as you aren’t.”
“Speaking of Eclipse…” She walked back towards the ruin.
“Eclipse? Darling, you hear me?” Lightningbolt yelled through the radio as she stared at the debris of parts that fell apart from the castle. She was scared, fearing that her lover was buried under the rocks and died.
“I’ll be alright! Just go!” The response she was hoping finally came from the radio after a few seconds along with heavy statics, before the signal was cut off entirely and she was disconnected with Eclipse, who was trapped under the castle, and his current situation unknown to the both of them, and the rest of Equestria.
“Eclipse? Darling?” Lightningbolt was very nervous and tried to step near the debris to search for her lover, only to be stopped with the sickness effect from the intense dark magic field surrounding the castle, which then she backed away and sat on the floor frustrated, almost crying. Granite walked towards the mare to talk with her, and Lightningbolt couldn’t help but leant on Granite’s shoulders and cried. She hadn’t been this scared and anxious in her entire life before this happened. Granite was shocked of Lightningbolt’s actions, but he knew he just had to let this mare cry her emotions out, if that would make her feel better. He placed a claw on her back and patted her a few times. He knew when a mare was depressed and wanted to cry, there wasn’t much to do to make her stop but to let her calm down herself, as he had been through this with Obsidian before.
She cried on for a good 15 minutes or so, with traces of tears running down her face and onto Granite’s feathers. She might be a tough mare, but when it comes to the love of a stallion, she just couldn’t resist it. A strong and trusty male’s shoulder was what she needed to liberate her feelings. Eventually, she calmed herself down and stopped crying. She let go of Granite’s shoulder, and backed off a little.
“We’ll rescue him once we get assistance. He’s a tough stallion, he’ll make it.” Granite tapped Bolt’s shoulders as he tried to comfort her.
She was still sobbing, but nodded her head in response, and the two then rushed back to Canterlot to get help and to rescue the two stallions trapped inside the castle. Without the two stallions in command of their respective units, things were expected to tough for Equestria in the upcoming days.
“Nightmare Moon is back. And the two generals were captured. What are we gonna do now?”