As the Equestria Games approaches Celestia had the royal guards out in full force just to make sure nothing went wrong.
Of course this made every-pony happy, well except the royal guards who generally complained about having to be on duty around the clock.
However none had it as bad as Shining Armor and his squad. Though he was technically a prince and one of the head coaches for the upcoming games he had still volunteered to be on patrol.
Shining was paired up with Sergeant Major Johner and his squad. They were stationed closer to the Crystal Empire yet at the same time there base was still over twenty miles away from any sort of civilization.
All in all it was a pretty bad set up but Celestia had deemed it an important spot to guard though a lot of the team members thought otherwise.
[center* * *]The icy cold wind howled outside. The exterior temperature was negative 37 degrees Celsius but with the wind-chill it felt like negative fifty. The extreme conditions would give frostbite to a pony in a matter of seconds if they weren’t properly clothed for the elements.
It was dark outside though it was usually always dark in this spot of the wilderness due to the location it had in the
northern most arctic part of Equestria.
On a barren snowy plain of the arctic sat two buildings. One was a small storage shed with a basement that housed the generator room while the other was a larger complex base that was shaped much like a capitol H.
Inside the base there were many rooms and a basement complex which was much larger than the top section of the base. Inside one of the rooms sat three stallions: Sunburst, Lilac and Golden Shield.
Sunburst was a red unicorn with the cutie mark of a yellow sun. He had a short choppy mane that was blue. He also had lime green eyes. He was relatively strong, as most of the royal guards were, and was rather keen and intelligent.
He sat at a small coffee table and played chess with his best friend Lilac.
Lilac was also a unicorn with blue fur and a red mane but his mane was silkier than his friend’s and he let it flow freely. His cutie mark was a lilac flower. He looked almost identical to Sunburst except their manes and their cutie marks were different. Even their eyes were almost identical.
The duo had joined basic training together and had literally never been seen apart since. Every-pony had begun to say Sunburst and Lilac then Sunburst-n-Lilac then one day some-pony said Sunflower and that became the nickname for the duo.
Lilac moved his queen piece and took Sunburst’s Rook. “Checkmate” he said and Sunburst simply sat there in confusion. His jaw opened slightly then he stood up smacked the chess board off the table, scattering the pieces all over the room.
“Goddess dammit Lilac, what the buck! You’re cheating, I know you are” Sunburst yelled. There was nothing really better to do and he had been losing to Lilac all day so he was a little more than steamed. Though the two were the best of friends they still squabbled like siblings.
Golden Shield looked over to the two squabbling team members. Golden was a Pegasus with golden fur and a bleach blonde mane that he kept very tidy. His cutie mark was a shield with five golden stars around one large star. His eyes were crystal blue and some-ponies called him ‘Prince Charming’ due to his looks.
“Hey, hey! Knock it off you two” Golden ordered and the two stallions playing chess looked over to him with humored faces.
“Oh shut up Prince Charming. You’re not in charge here” both Lilac and Sunburst said at the same time. Golden Shield stood up to his full height in anger.
“Yes I am. I outrank you two so I’m in charge here” Golden said with heavy agitation in his voice. He always hated it when the two questioned his authority. The group began to have an argument in the closed room about who was technically in charge.
Elsewhere in the basement of the complex stood Pippy. He was young and spiteful, doing anything he was ordered to without question. He was a Pegasus and was on the smaller side of things. Though what he lacked in terms of strength he made up for in sheer intelligence.
The others always said he could have chosen to be a scholar or something but he still chose to be a royal guard and was almost denied due to his physical before a certain stallion took him under his wing.
Pippy had brown and white fur, much like a dairy cow, with the cutie mark of a pencil and eraser. He had never really known what exactly it had meant but figured it had something to do with his intelligence. His eyes were a dark hazel and went well with his face.
In front of him lay Reese, an older more gruffly stallion who had taken him under his tutelage. Reese had seen Pippy in basic training and immediately knew that he was special.
Reese was paralyzed from the waist down due to a carriage accident when a drunken taxi driver was about to hit a mare and her newborn foal. Reese lept out, pushing the mare aside and was struck by the carriage in the process. He had saved the mare and foal’s lives but was then paralyzed with no hope of ever walking again.
Reese was an older stallion whose mane had greyed considerably. He had a scraggily beard that he usually shaved once a month. His fur was dark brown and he had the cutie mark of a wrench and hammer. He had dark blue eyes that usually reflected light and gave an icy cold look to them.
He lay in his wheelchair, which reclined, and was working under some heavy machinery. “So the coolant lines go directly from the radiator to the engine distributor which in the process cools the engine with coolant” Reese informed Pippy in a rather high pitched old stallion voice.
Pippy nodded as he paid close attention to the wise old stallion’s teachings. Above them on the stairwell stood Star Dust.
Star Dust was an ex-Shadow guard who had been kicked out of the Shadow guards due to her immature and ignorant attitude. She always questioned her orders, even if it was from Luna herself, and never took her job seriously enough.
She had night black fur and bat like wings. Her cutie mark was that of a shooting star that had a trail of star dust behind it. Her eyes were green and cat-like, almost the same as Nightmare Moon’s.
She held a razor sharp knife in her hoof and dangled it about while she made primal noises. Pippy paid her no mind, knowing that she was trying to make him lose focus on what Reese was teaching him.
Star Dust made a high pitched animal noise that sounded like a squealing monkey and tossed the knife downwards. It stabbed into Reese’s hindleg but he didn’t notice due to his handicap.
Pippy noticed the sudden blur of motion and looked over to see the knife stabbed into Reese’s leg which now bled somewhat. He then looked back up to Star Dust with irritation.
“Goddess dammit Star Dust. You ignorant filly” Pippy said with anger coursing in his voice.
Star Dust laugh hysterically. “Oh come on Little Pip, Reesy don’t seem to mind” she said, making a pun about Pippy’s size and name. Reese stopped working on the machinery and slid his reclined wheelchair out from underneath the machine then pulled the back rest upwards.
He looked up to Star Dust then down to his leg and noticed the knife stuck in his leg. He curled his lips in anger. “Goddammit Dusty… you bucking bitch!” he swore in his cranky old voice and Star Dust just laughed.
“Oh come on Reesy. You can’t even feel it” Star Dust laughed and Pippy pulled the knife from Reese’s leg. “You mind giving that back?” Dust asked then Pippy smiled and snapped the knife between two pieces of machinery.
Star Dust’s eyes went wide with rage and she began to yell in frustration.
Elsewhere in the complex in a room sat a large brute of a stallion who was known as Bear. He was probably the most feared of the entire group due to his silent nature, only speaking when he deemed it appropriate or absolutely necessary.
Bear was a unicorn and had white fur with an oil black mane that was cut in a flat-top style. His eyes were purple and if you took the time to appreciate him, his eyes were heartwarming. He had a cutie mark of a rose though it was always concealed by his armour due to his shyness about it.
Bear had learned an art known as Two-legs, in which a pony walks and fights while standing on their hindlegs. He preferred to use blades rather than the royal guards’ general spears but always carried obscene amounts of knives with him yet he never used swords.
His largest weapon was a machete with a three foot long razor sharp blade that he kept in a back sheath. He sat on the leather couch on one side of the room and tossed his knives into a dart board on the other side of the room which was over twelve feet away. Yet despite this distance he always got bulls-eyes.
He would pull the knife out of the board with his magic then toss another into the board. He spun a large bowie knife around on his hoof almost like he was juggling it with one hoof then took the blade by the tip and gave his wrist a flick.
The knife propelled across the room just as the door beside the dart board opened. The stallion entering the room screamed and ducked just as the blade stuck into the board beside his face.
The stallion who had entered the room was known as Firefly. He was a pegasus and had fiery red fur with a mane that matched his fur though his mane and tail had streaks of yellow in them. His eyes were blue and didn’t go along with his fur colour very well. His cutie mark was that of a small flame.
He was somewhat intelligent though he was a bit of a pyromaniac and generally liked to tot with fire. Despite his lunacy with fire he always knew when it was and wasn’t appropriate and never let it get in the way of getting his job done.
“Jesus… Bear what in Celestia’s name are you doing?” Firefly gasped as he looked at the rather large knife that was now protruding out of the dart board. He had a zippo lighter in his hoof which he flicked open and closed several times just by flicking his wrist, which made a clicking sound every time the lighter closed or opened.
Bear grumbled to himself. “Practising” he muttered coldly in a thick Russian accent, not really wanting to talk right now.
Firefly examined the knife without touching it, knowing that Bear didn’t like ponies touching his knives. “Practising? For what? Ursa Majors?” Firefly asked, curious as to why some-pony would need such a large knife, it was literally impractical. Bear simply nodded as he pulled the knife out of the dart board and levitated it back to himself. Firefly simply gulped, he was happy that Bear was on his side.
In another room sat Doctor Hoofington Jr. though every-pony just called him Doc Hoof or just Doc. He was a unicorn and was the doctor and researcher for the group. His cutie mark was a syringe with a red cross on it.
His fur was purple and his mane was green which didn’t blend well together. His eyes were a nice shade of tangent blue
and could ease a pony’s worries just by looking into their eyes with his own.
He was writing down some reports while he sat with a cup of warm coffee beside his paperwork. He was so grateful that there was a heating furnace in the base or he’d be quite aggitated about not having warm coffee in the mornings, or was it the afternoon.
Doc looked over to the clock in his office to see that it was 6:34pm. He looked out his window and sighed. Oh how he missed Canterlot and the warm weather. The team had been here for only a few days and things just weren’t going very well.
The team members constantly bickered with each other. No-pony really socialized and above all else it was cold outside. Actually cold was putting it lightly, it was ridiculously freezing, so cold in fact that a pony could get frost bite just from stepping outside for only a minute without proper clothing on.
He sighed to himself and took another sip of his warm black coffee before continuing his paperwork.
In another room sat both Shining Armor and Johner. Johner was the second in command of the squad and held the rank of sergeant major. He was different from the others in the fact that he was neither a unicorn nor a pegasus. He was just an earth stallion.
Of the entire group he was easily the strongest and had charcoal black fur. His cutie mark was not present however. He had simply never earned one but that didn’t bother him. His mane was a matching black and his eyes were a beautiful brown.
Johner had a knack for firearms, though they generally weren’t issued to royal guard ponies due to their violent and destructive nature. Usually ponies either had to use mouthpiece firearms or battle saddle weapons if they did manage to operate a firearm but not Johner. He had perfected a battle stance that he called Two-legs in which a pony stands on their hindlegs and can fight even though ponies aren’t meant to walk and fight like that.
Though at first Celestia was rather cautious about firearms she allowed Johner to equip his squad with the deadly weapons. It proved invaluable during the changeling invasion on Canterlot in which Johner’s squad was the only squad still fighting the changelings, even after they had complete control of Canterlot.
Johner’s and his squad had inflicted heavy causalities on the changelings with the weapons that the creatures just couldn’t defend themselves against and were sparred when Shining and Cadence’s love spell flung them out of the city.
He later met Twilight Sparkle about two weeks after she had become a princess. They had met when Johner saved her from a runaway carriage. The carriage had nearly crushed Twilight before Johner lept out and snatched her from underneath the crashing carriage.
The two quickly became infatuated with each other and started dating. It was first love for both of them but the relationship went rocky rather quickly and only two months after they started dating they broke up.
In the two months’ time the two had become extremely close and shared many things with each other but in the end they were just too different. Twilight was a princess and a librarian where Johner was a soldier and nothing more.
Due to this fact Shining wasn’t too fond of Johner. The breakup had broken his sister’s heart even though it was Twilight who broke up with Johner.
Johner had a thermos of hard apple cider in front of him which he constantly drank from. Shining despised Johner when he drank while on duty. “You know that you shouldn’t drink while on duty. Your drinking was probably what led to the break-up between you and my sister” Shining told him scornfully.
Johner just sighed. “Yeah… whatever” he replied softly, not really giving a damn.
Suddenly the outside door burst open and a horrid creature staggered through the door. Johner immediately realized who it was and snapped out his Desert Eagle from his chest holster, managing to hold it in his hoof, and pointed it at the creature.
Shining pushed Johner’s hoof away, knocking his aim away from the grotesque figure. “Johner, stand down” Shining ordered then looked over to the figure standing in the door way.
She had trouble just standing and collapsed in the doorway. “Johner quickly, shut the door and get her to Doc Hoof” Shining ordered and Johner followed his order.
Johner quickly stood up and rushed over to the doorway, which was letting cold air gust in. Johner slammed the door shut and picked up the unconscious body of Queen Chrysalis.