Chapter 4: A Royal Invitation
One Year Since Graduation:
I awoke to the sound of my mailbox being opened. I walked downstairs, and out my front door to see Derpy putting in a letter. "Hey Derpy. How are you?" I asked her politely.
"Good! I got a letter here for you from the Princess." She said, taking it out of the mailbox and handing it to me. "Seems pretty important."
"Thanks. I wonder what it's about?"
"I don't know. Well, I gotta go. Bye Bullseye!" She said. She waved, and flew off towards Ponyville, running into a few trees along the way. I waved back, and went back into my house. I sat down on the couch and opened the letter. This is what it said:
Dear Bullseye,
I am writing to you today to invite you to the palace. There is something I wish to discuss with you, and a couple others you might know from your time in guard duty. Come as soon as possible.
Princess Celestia
I put the letter back into the envelope, and headed out the door. I stopped at my favorite restaurant for a quick bite to eat, then headed straight to the palace. Twenty minutes later I arrived at the gate.
"Hey guys. Can you let me in? The Princess needs to see me." I said to the two guards on duty.
"Sure thing. She has been expecting you." Said the one on the right. I nodded, and proceeded into the palace. Waiting on the steps, was Princess Celestia, and her sister Luna. I bowed, and waited for her to speak.
"You may stand." She said in her soothing, yet firm voice. I stood, as straight as possible, trying to make myself look presentable. "Come. The others have already arrived." She walked up the stairs, with Luna right behind her. I followed her up, and into another room. Sitting in one of the five chairs around the table, was Tank. I worked with him a couple times on some undercover missions, and we worked well together. Celestia and Luna sat in the chairs at the head of the table. I sat in the chair next to Tank.
"Ghost, if you wouldn't mind, take a seat." Celestia said. I turned around and saw Ghost standing in the corner of the room, leaning against the wall. I didn't even notice he was there. He always was good at staying quiet. He walked over, and sat in the last available seat. "Thank you. Now, the reason I called you all here today, is because I have been watching your progress, and I must say, I am impressed. I havn't seen ponies with your abilities in a long, long time. Because of this, I have a special mission for the three of you. I have received reports, that on the edge of Equestria, that a new species has been discovered. The scouts that discovered them, were attacked when noticed. Out of the twelve ponies in the squad, only two returned. Luna and I have discussed this, and we have decided the only reasonable thing to do, is to send someone to try and stop them. We are going to send three squads, led by you three. We want you to choose who is in your squad, and when you are all prepared, we will teleport you there. Is there any questions?"
"Yeah." Tank spoke up. "What exactly are we trying to stop?"
"They seem to be giant insects, but are made of a strange material. The scouts said that they can regenerate lost limbs, unless the "core", as they called it, is destroyed." Luna said.
"How many are we looking at?" I asked.
"Right now, about 30. But it is possible there are more on the way." She said. "It's possible we are looking at an invasion. But you must know, if you can't stop them, come back. We will give you this." She held up a small machine, about the size of a remote. "If you are in trouble, push this button. It will bring you back here."
"Alright. I guess we should go get our squads ready. We will return shortly." I said. I stood up, bowed to the Princess, and left the room. Immediately I started to look for recruits.
Thirty minutes later.
I returned to the yard in front of the castle. In my squad I had 15 men. 10 were normal, run of the mill guardsmen, 3 were ranged support, and 2 were snipers like myself. Ghost returned just after me, and had only 5.
"Ghost? Why do you have so few men?" I asked him.
"Quality over quantity." He said. Tank then came back with 20 men, which all seemed to be shaking in their boots.
"Ha. Looks like I got the most recruits!" he said.
"Looks like they are about to run away though." I replied.
"Not if they know what's good for them." He said. Celestia and Luna then came out of the castle. They walked across the lawn to meet us.
"Good. Looks like you're ready." Celestia said. "Shall we proceed?" We all nodded. "Good. Now, when you get there you will meet up with a scout squad. They will tell you where to go."
"Right. Here is your transporter. When you are done with you mission, use it to return, or if need be, to flee." Luna said, handing me, Tank, and Ghost our own teleporters. "They are made with magic, so when you use it, you and your... surviving squad, will return together." Most of the recruits started to look at each other with scared looks.
"Well, there's no time to waste. Send us out there." I said to Celestia. She nodded, and her and Luna walked to opposite sides of the group, to make sure they included us all in their spell. Their horns started to glow, and they lowered them to the ground. A magic circle surrounded all 43 men, and then there was a flash of light. A second later, the light dissipated, and we were standing in a field. What we saw, changed our lives forever. Before us, lied a town, about as big as Ponyville, minus the orchard, burning. Laying all over the streets were dead ponies, of all ages, from children to elders. Closer to the field, we saw the scout squad we were supposed to meet up with.
"Oh. My. Celestia." I said to myself. I quickly ran up to the squad to see if there were any survivors. 10 men were dead, and 1 was badly wounded. I ran up to him, and pulled a medkit out of my saddlebags.
"Don't bother. I'm... a goner." He said, sounding as though he was on the brink of death.
"What happened here?" I asked him.
"The creatures. They.... attacked.... the town. We.. tried to... stop them. Too.... powerful. They... took one.. of our men. They... headed for.. the mountain." He said. I then watched, as his head slumped to his chest, and he died.
"Those bastards." I said, starting to tear up. I stood up, and looked at the mountain in the distance. "They will pay for this. Let's go men!" All at once, we started to run towards the mountain, to save the lone pony, and get revenge on the creatures who caused such destruction.