//------------------------------//
// The Fury of the Emperor 
// Story: Legends of Equestria: The Legionary 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

He gave another order to the guards. "This matter is more important  than a parade or an inspection," he said. "We must return to the Principia immediately. You two, come with me."

As the formation moved off, the rest of the Legion looked on in astonishment. The 1st Legion, however, moved to close off the Emperor from all others, forming a barrier outside the Principia.

Hurricane looked at Somnambula and Flash Magnus. "Fill me in," he said. "Every detail."

Somnambula nodded, and lit up her Glowpaz necklace. One interesting property that Glowpaz, apart from its power to instantly translate what another individual holding it is saying, is it has the power to capture and store images, things that the wearer has recently seen and done. It was these images that suddenly appeared, projected onto one of the walls of the Principia.

"Flash Magnus and I were returning from the Valley of the Five Kings when we sighted this formation of vehicles on the move nearby. We trailed them for a while."

The playback now showed the pair tailing the convoy, and it went on for several minutes. "I didn't realise you experienced your memories in the 3rd person," Flash joked.

"We also can't wait here all day," Hurricane said, visibly annoyed at how long this sequence was playing out. "Is there any way of speeding the playback up?"

Somnambula focused, and the footage suddenly accelerated until the point the convoy reached the gates.

"Resume normal playback here," Hurricane ordered. "This looks important."

The playback returned to normal speed. They all watched the scene play out before them, as the trucks were unloaded by the soldiers, the guards moving the humans to the centre of the building, and the officer harshly barking orders. Then the pyramid opening, the humans being processed inside, and the door of the pyramid closing again. Finally, the soldiers retreated indoors and the playback ended.

Two servants appeared with trays. One tray had grapes on it, and the other had white mice on it.

Seeing Somnambula's confusion, Hurricane nodded. "The mice are made of white chocolate. We stopped eating real mice a long time ago."

The trays were set down, and the servants retreated. Hurricane looked concerned. "It would appear this is one of the 'treatment centres' that the collegium speculatores have informed us about," he said. "I have heard many rumours about these centres, and none of them are good."

"Why is that, sir?" Flash asked. He didn't like where this is going.

Hurricane looked deadly serious. "I am about to share some highly classified information with you two. Normally, I would not impart this to a non-Imperial, but as Somnambula is close to the Pharoah I will make an exception for her just this once." He glanced over to ensure the servants had exited, and once the was sure, he resumed speaking. "Those camps are very odd. They are often built in highly secluded locations in the middle of nowhere, and are extremely heavily defended. If they were medical establishments, why would they be in such places?"

"Clearly there is something secret there," Somnambula observed.

"Indeed," Hurricane replied. "Not only that, those who are taken to those facilities never come back. There are rising numbers of 'missing persons' cases all across the world, and our allies have informed us these numbers are very high." He paused. "If the humans are doing what I think they are doing, then my respect for them has fallen to a new low."

"What should we do, sir?" Flash asked. "Is there any way of finding out what is inside the pyramid and the compound?"

"There is," Hurricane replied. He turned to an aide, who had entered the room upon being beckoned to enter. "Get me Praetor Ironhead. We need to discuss strategy, for a great battle approaches."

He looked back to the others. "We shall attack their camp and uncover the secrets for ourselves. They have built themselves into highly fortified locations based on your captures, and we will need all of the ground intel we can get."

"I know that place like the back of my wings," Somnambula said. "I request permission to join the attack."

"Permission granted," Hurricane replied. "In addition, I shall call upon the Pharoah's forces for assistance. They know the area better than we do, and not only that the humans are probably armed to the teeth. We shall take the fight to them and uncover the secrets of Project 722... one way, or another way."





The next morning, the 3rd Legion was awoken and taken to the parade ground, marshalling before the Principia in glorious parade. Their armour shone, their weapons in perfect order. Behind them, a great banner had been unfurled, showing a plan of a structure or base of some kind.

"Listen up!" Ironhead called. "We're splitting off into Cohorts for this operation. The above facility belongs to the human organisation known as Project 722, and we need to break into the facility and find out what they're up to."

He indicated to various points on the map. "We know they have heavy defences in all directions, providing a 360 degree arc of fire. As a result, we are going to have to attack them from all sides at once. 1st and 2nd cohorts will assault from the North to draw fire from the enemy anti air defences. 3rd cohort will attack from the northeast to achieve a similar effect. 4th, 5th, and 6th cohorts will engage from the east and west at once at low altitude. Fly as close to the ground as you can as this will scramble the guns' tracking systems. Fly as slowly as you can; they can't track below a certain speed. 7th and 8th will assault generator positions to knock out power systems on the ground. This will shut down the gates and defensive guns, allowing 9th and 10th to attack the pyramid directly and mop up any resistance. Now, the Emperor himself wishes to address you."

Ironhead stepped to one side, as Hurricane took the podium, cleared his throat, and began to speak. "Warriors of the third legion," he began, "mighty Legionaries. For centuries, Cloudsdale stood a broken state, pushed over and fought over by Griffon warlords and Hippogriff despots. But we reclaimed our home, and with your might we rebuilt a mighty nation. My ancestor, the great Emperor Tornado, asked you, the Legionaries, for time. And you granted it. You are the strength of the wings of the Cloudsdale Empire, and the holders of our hopes and dreams! We are now the most powerful entity in existence, the largest empire that has ever been seen! We have carved out a world that knows the light and sophistication of Cloudsdale, and we are known and feared across the world! In the time that you, brave defenders of the Cloudsdale dream, have granted us, we have forged a new world and found paradise."

He paused. "But now, my sons and daughters, we face an even graver threat. The humans, who would seek to dominate and oppress all that they do not understand, engage in secret and bizarre acts in strange underground fortresses that spell only doom for us should they succeed. The entire world must act as one if we are to survive. Once more, we find ourselves fighting for freedom. Not from the tyranny of our enemies. Not from the threat of invaders, but for the freedom to simply exist. I know that what I ask of you is not easy, but you have the strength and the courage to carry the day. Our enemies will hear our names, and tremble! Warriors of the Third Legion, this will be your finest hour! NOW IS YOUR TIME! THIS IS YOUR MOMENT! STAND TOGETHER, AND SHOW OUR ENEMIES THAT WE WILL NEVER BE COWED! WE WILL NEVER BACK DOWN! AND WE WILL NOT VANISH FROM THIS WORLD!"

The soldiers cheered as Hurricane ended his speech, and began to chant long and loud. "LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE! LONG LIVE EMPEROR HURRICANE!"

This went on for several minutes, until Hurricane indicated for them to stop. "Go forth, my sons and daughters," he said. "Go and bring us victory."

The pegasi, with buzzing of wings and thundering of hooves, took to the sky on masse. It was an incredible sight and sound to witness, and those who did not know what they were hearing would have mistaken it for helicopters taking off from an airbase. The pegasi formed up in mid air, moving to their respective positions, and roared into the rising sun of a new day.

Flash checked over his equipment. All of it was ready for use. As he was part of the 3rd Cohort, which was blocking enemy fire to let other units through, he expected Invictus would be getting very heavy use. Then again, this shield had successfully withstood the flames of dragons. Surely it could withstand whatever the humans could throw at them, right?