A deafening roar ripped through Canterlot Castle. Twilight rushed to her bedroom window to find the source of such a disturbance. What she found filled her with dread. A dissipating rage of flame giving way to a column of tumultuous black smoke on the far side of the city. Where Twilight could normally see all the way to the little town of Ponyville from her room, now the smoke descended as curtain blocking her once gorgeous view and focusing her vision instead on the devastating scene before her. For the sound and the shock wave to have traveled this far mean that the explosion must have been particularly concussive leading it to be more boom then blast, or it must have been horrifyingly destructive. Twilight prayed to Celesta that it was the former but even then a concussion wave that large could still be incredibly deadly for quite a distance outwards. A knot of panic started to well up insider her chest.
What in the name of Celestia is that? Was it an accident?
She stood there hoping that nobody was hurt knowing full well the chances of that were about slim to none. The clamor of ponies in boots sounded outside her door. Opening it Twilight ran into a pair of guards jogging down the hallway.
Twilight called out to them. "Hey! Do either of you know what that explosion down town was?" A hint of worry crept into her voice.
The guard on the right, a red unicorn with sandy blond hair and a fiery joker mask for a personal crest responded first. "Yeah! we just got a message from some guard down there. A bomb detonated in the shopping district. Reports are coming in saying there are a group down there with small arms taking shots at civies!"
The left hand guard, a purple maned pink unicorn with the personal crest of a teal quill urged her companion on. "Let's go Brand we need to get to the Princess and let her know whats happening." With that they both took off running back down the hallway in the direction of Princess Celestia's office.
Oh Merciful Sisters! Are we being attacked?
Twilight rushed back to her window. She looked out into the distance and sure enough she could hear the soft retorts of small arms fire. Knowing how long it would take the Guard to arm up and mobilize in a surprise situation like this Twilight started to formulate a plan. She quickly ran back down to the bottom floor of the castle and across the courtyard to the Guard Head Quarters. Taking her practiced route she quickly made her way to the training room. Scanning the walls and racks of training equipment she finally found what she was looking for. Twilight ran past all the weaponry, not stopping to consider taking any of them. A weapon would only occupy a hand that she would need for spell fighting. No what she really needed was the set of armor on the far wall. While the duty uniform that she still had on was designed to go into combat, it had nothing in the way of armor or ballistic protection. That is why she needed to get the Kevlar vest, basic knee guards, and helmet off of the training racks. The sets that were kept in here were not as high quality as the ones that were issued to the Guard now, they were however the only set that she could get access too due to the fact that she still wasn't a fully commissioned officer or a Royal Guard yet. Strapping on her newly "borrowed" equipment Twilight made her way back of the the training location trying to avoid being seen. It would be more convenient if she didn't need to explain why a cadet was walking around in full battle rattle. After making her way back to the courtyard Twilight started looking around for any stairs or a ladder that could get her up to the top of the perimeter wall that guarded the castle.
Twilight wanted to teleport into town, unfortunately while teleportation was incredibly fast it had two very serious downsides if you didn't have line of sight of your target. First you could get spliced, teleporting to a location where an object already was. This was quite dangerous because the spell naturally pushed your body to the nearest clear space, but that nearest clear space was not always the same location for your entire being. This could end with most of you outside a house but your arm and a few toes on the other side other wall. Not a pleasant experience. The second downside was teleporting with out a sight line meant that the spell had to do it for you. This very often left the user drained and unable to cast spells at best and completely immobile for some time at worst.
After a minute of searching Twilight finally found a set of stairs that ran up to a high parapet and took them two at a time. Once the blasted visage was visible again Twilight ignited her horn. A small translucent purple square appeared in front of her, and magnified the landscape. It was a simple spell that she had devised a few years ago to allow her to stargaze more easily now it was being used in a potential combat scenario. She found a clear patch near the destruction and focused on it. Another spark from her horn and she felt the constricting sensation followed by sense of falling that always came with teleportation. Just as quickly as it had begun the feeling vanished. Her vision wavered but when it returned what had moments ago been a panoramic vista of the shopping center was now very much close and personal. she could smell the sent of burning wood and ash. Around her were multiple small fires still smoldering. A good portion of the vendor carts had been flipped on their side by the blast. Everything around Twilight was blurry due to the amount of smoke enveloping the market. Then she heard the screaming. There was screaming from every direction. Ponies in pain, one was trying to put out a fire that had set to his clothing. A brown earth pony was attempting to lift a beam that had fallen on a yellow pegasus. The most horrifying were all the silent, still forms that littered the streets. The most screaming however, was coming from further down the street where they mixed with the cacophony of multiple weapons firing.
From through the smoke Twilight could make out multiple forms moving about a scattering crowd of ponies fleeing for their lives. The first form that took any meaningful shape through the smoke, was a female griffon hovering above the rest of the chaos. In one talon she wielded a great curved cutlass, and in her other she gripped what Twilight first took for a normal pistol until the griffon turned and fired unleashing a half dozen rounds much faster then any normal individual could possibly pull a trigger. The next thing Twilight noticed was a massive, lumbering, behemoth. How she had not seen the minotaur before was a mystery she could not fathom. The beast was a solid wall of muscle mass and dark red fur. With a bellow the minotaur turned and, like the griffon above him, unleashed fire. The difference was that while the feather assailant had used a small machine pistol the giant was wielding a machine gun that was typically reserved for crew served operations or mounted on a vehicle of some verity. It looked to be chewing through a belt of .50 caliber rounds quite quickly and spitting them back into the crowd in a hailstorm. Surrounding the minotaur were a pair of diamond dogs and a unicorn. The unicorn was firing a Street Sweeper automatic shotgun, while one diamond dog was reloading a Kalashnikov style assault rifle. The other dog had an MP-7 hanging from a strap while he pulled the pin from a grenade and tossed it. Thankfully it sailed wide and ended up rolling down a side alley away from the majority of the fleeing ponies. A few pegasi tried to take to the air only to have a second griffon swoop in and cut them down with a burst from another assault rifle. The first griffon with the machine pistol attempted diving maneuver as if to commence a strafing run of the few ponies that were still trying to escape the market on foot.
Oh hell no you don't!
The magic missile formed from the tip of Twilight's fingers. Taking aim she let the bolt fly. It rocketed off at the griffon who looked up just in time to see the indigo projectile hurtling at her growing in power as it passed through innate magic of the land drawing in strength. A mighty flap of her powerful wings lifted the griffon out of the path of the missile but it thankfully had the desired effect of buying time for the escaping civilians. The griffon that had just avoid being hit started to hover and searched for the source of her attacker. Eventually she locked eyes with Twilight.
Looking over her shoulder the female griffon hollered over the din of the rampage, "Hey boys! Looks like we finally have company that has some sort of spine. Keep alive there may be more!"
Hearing his companion the second griffon wheeled about in the sky and came diving down taking aim at Twilight. The shower of rifle fire sent Twilight scrambling for any sort of cover.
Crap what am I supposed to do now? Opening fire like that while I was still in the open, that's just stupid Sparkle! You know better then that! Twilight berated herself.
With rounds kicking dust up around her Twilight finally spotted a nearby vendor cart that had been overturned and dove behind it. The cart took multiple impacts, and luckily it stopped the slugs from getting all the way through, before the the fire stopped suddenly. Now Twilight could hear the sharp retort of a Guard standard issue carbine rifle behind her. Turning her head to see who was supplying her with her covering fire she found a sight that both relived her to no end and scared the living hell out of her for the lecture that she would be receiving if she made it through the firefight. It was her brother Shining Armor running down the street taking shots on the move as he made his way toward the wagon that she was taking shelter behind. Shining was also still in his duty uniform and battle rattle, but unlike Twilight he had newer issue gear that covered more of his chest and arms but didn't restrict his range of motion any more. They were still clunky and made some movements difficult, but they were an improvement. Reaching Twilight, Shining slid into cover next to her under the wagon.
A piercing gaze hit Twilight. "And just what in all holy Celestia do you think you are doing here?!" he shouted furiously. "I gave one simple order! Don't go downtown! Yet here you are!" popping over the cart Shining took a few shots at the unicorn down the street trying to keep him from advancing into range with that shotgun of his.
With a bit of a sheepish grin Twilight looked away. "When I found out what was happening I knew the guard wouldn't be here fast enough and someone had to try and help those poor ponies escape. Besides it was more a request then an actual military order."
Judging by the hard look she got in response Twilight could tell Shining was not amused by her logical loophole. "We will talk about this later, after with both survive this,"
For the next few minute and a half Twilight and Shining Armor managed to slow the advance of their adversaries with a combination of precise fire from Shining's carbine and Twilight's magic missiles. Slowing however does not mean the same as stopping the attackers. The female griffon with the cutlass had started giving orders to the others. She was clearly in charge of the group and she got them organized and started to overtake the siblings. There is after all a limit to the suppressing fire that two ponies can lay down against six well armed combatants using coordination. After a bit Twilight and Shining had been forced apart due to a grenade. They were now on opposite sidewalks firing down the market. At some point Twilight had heard what sounded like another large explosion back towards the direction of the castle, but she couldn't respond to that until this fight reached a conclusion. Finally the combined rifle and magical fire were not enough and while both were distracted the male griffon let out a war shriek and dove from above. Twilight looked up just in time to know that she didn't have enough time to aim and fire off a shot before the griffon could put a bullet in her.
*Crack*
The sound of another firearm sounded out and the Griffon fell from the sky dead before he hit the ground. A clean shot through the heart. Stepping out from behind cover of a cart further down the street came her savior, Captain Hunter. He was dressed in his LDU's, however he was not sporting standard battle armor like Shining. His was flat black and seemed to flow with his every motion like silk. The word "Orion" was stitched across his back in sliver lettering. Once again it bore the altered version of the Lunar Guard insignia. Captain Hunter also came armed with a carbine but his bore a low powered magnifying scope. Taking careful aim the Lunar Captain fired a second shot drilling a hole clean through the head of the unicorn that was trying to advance on Shining and Twilight's position. A deluge of fire forced Captain hunter back behind cover. One of the diamond dogs, the one with the sub-machine gun, saw an opening and rushed down the lane. However in the dog's attempt to get to Captain Hunter he ran right past the cover that Shining was currently crouching behind. Shining reacted quickly turning and firing off two rounds that struck the diamond dog in the chest and the dog collapsed into a heap on the ground.
While the rest of the enemy combatants took the loss of their comrades in stride the second diamond dog stopped in his tracks at the sight of his fellow dog dropping to the ground and forming a small pool of blood in the street. All at once the dogs pupils dilated. "I'm going to kill you for that you miscible little pony!" the dog howled in a gruff broken voice. With a bolt of speed the dog was on Shining Armor before he could react. The dog raised his rifle to Shining's head.
No, no, no, no, no, NO!
Acting on instinct Twilight lit her horn and teleported directly in front of her brother's would be executor. For possibly the first time she wasn't thinking through her actions, she didn't have a plan. Her body was acting on its own will and she was just along for the ride. With a second glow from her horn Twilight activated her blade spell extending both the short sword length blade from her right arm and the smaller fighting knife sized one from her left. While normally the blades would be translucent magical constructs this time they were solid forms of lavender ether. With her left arm she swung up piercing the blade into the right forearm of the dog. With her right arm she swung down, slicing her spellblade through the rifle like she had taken a plasma torch to a thin sheet of aluminium. The assault rifle fell into two pieces onto the ground at the diamond dog's feet. His left hand followed suit as it was caught in the swipe. With a final flare she slammed the dog against a nearby shop wall knocking him out cold. A cold wave washed over her as she looked at the crumpled mass that she had thrown into the wall and the smoking stump of an arm. She almost fired a magic missile to finish him off but in the end turned away and made her way back to cover.
I saved my brother, and that is the important thing. I don't need to kill if I don't have to.
Shining for his part nodded his head and voiced his thankfulness for her rescue then went back to holding off the attackers.
Taking stock of the rate that her troops were dropping the remaining griffon hollered down to the remaining minotaur. "Fall back! We're dropping like flies. Just hold them off until Blackhat and Phantom give the signal." For the next five minutes neither side was able to gain any amount of advantage. It was a constant volley of fire and counter fire. Shining eventually took a small wound to the thigh but was able to staunch most of the bleeding with a strip of cloth he tore off his undershirt. Twilight had also come a little to close to flying lead a few to many times for her liking, but still the worst she had was a tear in the side of her duty uniform sleeve where a round had just grazed her. However, Twilight, her brother, and Captain Hunter were giving just as good as they got. A few times Twilight heard a curse emanate from where the murderous bastards were taking cover, likely indicating a shot had found its mark or had come much too close for comfort. Eventually the fight was interrupted by a blossoming green firework from, what appeared to be, over the castle.
"About damn time! Alright Stonewall pack up your shit and get the hell out of here I'll deal with Canine." The griffon shouted to her remaining partner. With that the minotaur, apparently named Stonewall, took off down the street surprisingly fast for a creature his size. None of the three could go after him though because they were still taking fire from the griffon. Then all in one burst the griffon took off and swooped back down over the group. Preparing for a diving attack no one was ready when the griffon changed course and dove for the unconscious diamond dog. Lifting the dog's good arm over her shoulder. Then she turned to the three who were starting to bring their weapons or magic to bear. "Not to slip too far into cliche but this isn't over. Oh! And go burn in hell!" And with that she took to the sky again escaping into the bank of smoke that still drifted above them, taking the dog with her as she went.
The captains lowered their weapons and Twilight let her magic missile fade back into the ether. Then they slowly made their way back towards each other. Together they surveyed the destruction around them. Several shops were missing their store fronts from when the blast had ripped off their front wall. Even more were riddled with bullet holes or scorch marks from the fire fight. Then the number of dead sunk in. It had to have been in close to two hundred ponies of varying race. The market had always been a crowded location so the destruction from both a blast and indiscriminate weapons fire had taken a heavy toll.
Oh sweet Celestia how could this have happened? Why did it happen?
Twilight walked over to a body that looked smaller then most of the others and held its hand. It was a little purple and green colt, no more then six years old at the most. He had a wound in and out through the chest and burn marks over his body. She didn't know who this little one was but the thought that such an innocent life had been snuffed out in such senseless violence shook Twilight to her core. It was at this point that a regiment of the Guard showed up with a medical unit in tow. Far too late to help any of the ponies that had been caught in the attack before. Just as Twilight had thought earlier, the guard was effective at large scale war, but this was not something they were suited to handle. The medical team started to try to triage the patients but there were so many to get through that most didn't know where to start. Twilight heard a ragged breath come from below her and the blood in her veins ran cold. The little colt was still alive!
"Help!" she screamed as loud as she could, "I have a wounded child over here that needs medical attention immediately!"
A medic, a white unicorn with the personal crest of a red cross, ran up to Twilight with a stretcher and a medical kit held behind him in his magic. The unicorn came to a stop and dropped to his knees to examine the colt in Twilight's arms.
"One GSW in and out, based on the sound of his breathing it looks like he has a sucking chest wound. Also various first degree burns around his body. Doesn't appear to have any spine or neck injuries, multiple lacerations and abrasions." The medic did his analysis with a cold detached tone like he was trying to keep his emotions from overwhelming him. "Honestly I can't believed he doesn't have more serious burns. This must have been real close to that first explosion." the medic commented pointing to the rest of the bodies around them. All of them were severely burned and charred. Opening up his pack the unicorn pulled out a set of gauze, a plastic card about the size of a note card and some surgical tape. He quickly pressed the gauze against the exit wound in the colt's back to stop the bleeding and used the surgical tape to secure it. He then went back to the colts front and placed the plastic card over the entrance would where the colt was sucking in air with every breath causing a sickening gurgling sound. He then taped three sides of the card do the chest of the purple child, leaving one of the long sides unsecured. This made it so that when the colt tried to breath in the card sealed to his chest maintaining the pressure inside his chest cavity that is necessary to breath properly but allowed the blood to flow out on an exhale so it did not pool inside of him. Once the unicorn had stabilized the colt as much as he could, he levitated the young male onto the stretcher and started to move him away from the devastation and towards a flock of approaching medical evacuation carts that were starting to arrive on the scene.
After shooing off a few medics that tried to look at his leg, Shining Armor gave a few orders to the troops that had escorted the medical personal, and they started to fan out and secure the perimeter of the attack site. They searched for additional attackers that may still be on site as well as started to push back the growing crowd of civilian onlookers that were coming out now that it appeared to be safe again.
Shining Armor now approached Twilight once again with Captain Hunter in tow. "Are you alright?" Shining Armor asked his little sister.
Visibly shaken Twilight stood up. "Yeah. I think I'll be alright. I'm not hurt just in shock a bit."
"Good! Now I can give you a proper lecture without being worried to death about you!" Shining said dropping his Guard Captain face and assuming an angry, concerned, older brother one.
"I wouldn't be too harsh on her there Shining." Stated Captain Hunter fixing his gaze on his fellow Captain. "She did a good job in combat. If she hadn't responded as fast as she did I feel that this market would have a lot more bodies in it then it does now. Besides I'm pretty sure your little 'Spellblade' here is the reason why I'm not going to be handing a folded flag to your mother later today." Hunter gave and approving look to Twilight like a concern he had possessed was no longer there. "Besides all that didn't I tell you not to come down here?" Hunter returned is to his hardened captain gaze back to Shining.
Shining crossed his arms across his chest as best as his Kevlar armor would allow and looked off to the side before huffing. "After I gave the orders to the Guard to mobilize I knew they wouldn't be here fast enough and someone had to try and help those civies escape. Besides it was more a request then an actual military order."
"Right." said Captain Hunter not liking that response any better then Shining himself had earlier.
"Well it looks like we are out of the woods for now but I still need to check back in with the Lunar Guard to get the full story on what has happened. We still don't fully know what the aim was. I have reports saying that there was a second explosion near the Royal Prisons that I have a sinking feeling is related to this whole disaster." With that he unfurled his leathery bat wings from behind his back and took off into the sky.
True to his word, when Shining had Twilight alone he did unleash a lecture that would have made their mother proud. It hit all the beats of staying safe, letting the trained professionals do their jobs, and what would they all do if she had gotten hurt. The only difference from what their mother's would have been was that the ending didn't end with a stern rebuke of Twilight's actions. Instead it ended with a hug, and him saying, "As angry as I am at you, I can't tell you how proud I am as well. You couldn't stand by while others were getting hurt and you did the right thing. The stupid thing, but the right thing."
With that he sent Twilight back to the castle while he went off to give more orders the Guard that were controlling the area.
Upon returning to the castle, Twilight found her way back to her room. She dropped all the gear she had been wearing and fell on her bed. She was exhausted both mentally and physically. Twilight had never seen such devastation. Sure she had seen pictures of actual war zones of years past, but that destruction was generally in open fields. Very rarely was a city with civilians. Not only that but those were all during periods of declared war. This...was just violence. A soldier signs up for the military knowing what they are possibly getting into. They are supposed to be the sword and the shield so that civilians can live peaceful lives. How can one do that when a group bent on terror can act and because there is no country backing it there is nothing to retaliate against. Twilight's mind floated, contemplating everything that she had been through in the past few hours. Then the face of that little colt flashed into her mind.
I wonder if he is awake yet. He's most likely an orphan now. There must be a way to prevent this from happening again. I can't let this happen again. If I can find a way find that group and bring them to justice then I must. If I can prevent something like this from happening again...
That was when she remembered the letter on her desk and what it had proposed. She could take the cushy job and sit at a desk and analysis situations like this after they occurred. Or she could take action and keep them from ever happening in the first place.
So it's decided then.
Two days later, Twilight had all her gear packed in the duffel bag sitting next to her on the train to Ponyville, the closest town to the old abandoned Castle of the Two Sisters. She checked into a hotel on the outskirts of town and stowed her gear in the room. Nightfall had already set in, still she made her way to the Everfree Forest and down the path that led deeper into the darkness. The walk through the forest took a few hours. While most ponies might have been fearful due to the series of dangerous creatures that were rumored to roam in the depths of the woods. Twilight, through her studies, knew that these creatures weren't myths but real creatures. That however did nothing to cause her fear. Twilight had a meeting to get to and she was determined to see that she got there. Besides anything that wanted to get to her had to go through her magic first. Soon she saw the crumbling spires growing in the distance. Taking in the view Twilight determined that at its zenith the castle must have been a beauty to behold, possibly even rivaling Canterlot Castle. Now it was a crumbled ruins, however.
She made her way into the main hallway of the castle. Twilight wasn't sure what to expect but the way the letter had sounded there should have been some sort of operations outpost here, but nothing could be seen. The only things that were taking up space in the great hall were a pair of raised thrones sitting in front of what must have once must have been a pair of stained glass windows, and a large organ sitting off to the left side of the thrones. Taking her first step into the room Twilight detected a field of wards encompassing the place. She also had the uneasy feeling she was being watched. She made her way further into the hall. Approaching the twin thrones she noticed that the one to the right had an engraving of the sun, a perfect copy of Princess Celestia's personal crest. The second to the right bore the crescent moon of Princess Luna. A small breeze picked up in the hall.
Perhaps I should come back again in the morning, there doesn't seem to be anyone here.
*Click*
From behind her a voice spoke up. "So how about you tell me why the hell you're snooping around here"
Twilight whipped around to stare at a light orange Unicorn with a head of fiery red and yellow. She was dressed in the Lunar Duty Uniform with a black duster jacket draped over her shoulders. A patch of the Lunar Guard was sewn on the left hand shoulder of the jacket. It too had the altered mark with the Mare In the Moon on it. Attached to the right hand shoulder was a patch of her personal crest, which was a sun colored half in red and half in yellow with an intermixing in the center. Her eyes hid behind a pair of dark aviator sunglasses that had a very faint glow about them. The mouth of the mare was pulled into a thin frown of disapproval.
All of these details Twilight would have made out, if she wasn't more focused on the barrel of the revolver that was being leveled at her forehead.