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// Chapter I: The Beginning part I 
// Story: The Covenant: Equins Ascension 
// by Zealous Pony 
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		June 7, 2540 – Ponyville, Equestria
	It was a warm summer morning in Equestria; all was, as it always is, calm and peaceful and the ponies of Ponyville were slowly stirring awake as the sun inched higher into the sky. One such pony was Twilight Sparkle, as she lazily pulled herself out of bed and eased her way to her mirror she noticed her mane was a mess, ‘My mane looks awful,’ she thought to herself as she levitated her hair brush over to her and began to brush her mane. As she made her way down stairs she could have sworn she heard a strange noise that she’s never heard once before, ‘Hmm… it's probably nothing a lot of strange things happen here,’  She shrugged it off  and continued her descent.

Two hours later…
	“Hey Twilight I got a letter from the princess for you!” The baby dragon known as Spike called out, Twilight quickly ran down the stairs and grabbed the letter from spikes grasp with her magic, she instantly opened it and read it aloud:
‘My faithful student,
I require the appearance of you and your friends to Canterlot as soon as possible, I have an urgent matter of dire importance to discuss with you so please make haste.
Your faithful teacher,
Princess Celestia’

On board the Canterlot Express, “Um twilight, do you know what this is about because I’d like know?” Rainbow Dash asked sounding slightly annoyed, “I’m not sure but it seems important.” Twilight replied. Before long the train slowly came to a stop at the Canterlot station.
The walk to the royal place was rather uneventful other that the fact that there were very few ponies out, compared to how it usually is. When the mane six got to the place they were greeted by a tall Sangheili guard clad in white armor with several glowing plates attached to its armor, “Ah, you six must be the ponies we’ve be expecting,” he looked at them for a moment then plainly said, “Follow me.” The six ponies were all surprised, except for Fluttershy who was hiding behind Rainbow Dash, but they followed the regardless.	
When they finally reached the room where Princess Celestia was located the six ponies quickly learned what was going on, the princess told them everything and then asked them a very simple question, “As I said, the Prophet of Truth here wishes for each of you to join the Covenant’s military as he has seen the performance each of you displayed after Nightmare Moon’s return a few months ago, so he is offering each of you high status if you accept. So, do each of you accept?” The six ponies looked at each other for a moment then nodded in agreement. Celestia smiled, “Excellent!” She chimed. “Indeed,” Truth reclined as he motioned to a pegasus mare clad in maroon armor who led the six ponies out of the room.
As Celestia and The Prophet of Truth continued their idle chat, they were completely oblivious to an uninvited guest. Outside, just out of sight sat a lone changeling, he was listening in on the conversation for almost an hour and he was slowly growing bored, “This is pointless, I’m getting nowhere with this.” He quietly hissed to himself trying not to attract any attention to himself as he made his way out of Canterlot. 

June 8, 2540 – Covenant Citadel, Equestria
	As the next day arose, so did the Elements of Harmony, awaiting the start of their new training. However, they were all quite surprised when they learned who was actually training them. Well, almost all.
“So, who do you think is gonna be training us?” Rainbow Dash asked nopony in particular. Before any of the others could say a word a pegasus clad in zealot armor suddenly appeared in front of them. “That would be me.” She said with a sly grin leaving the six ponies in awe. “So, are you all done staring?” she said with a slight laugh.
Rainbow Dash finally being the first to speak, “Hey, you’re that mare from yesterday… um… what’s your name?” she suddenly asked. The others looked at the maroon armored pegasus inquisitively, as well. “Ah yes, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Shade, zealot of the Covenant religious ministry.” She quickly said. “Oh... oh… does that mean you a super-duper zealous pony?!” Pinkie Pie suddenly asked getting odd looks from her friends. 
“Um… I’m not going to answer that. Anyways, since you all are here there are two things I have to give you: One, a credit chit to well buy things. Two, a forearm mounted plasma blade; trust me you’ll need it.” She explained as she gave the six ponies the aforementioned items, “Oh… and don’t hurt your selves with these things.” She warned them, ‘After all you’re the main characters here…’ Beyond it all, Shade knew it was going to be a long couple of weeks…