A few hours had passed after Blitz and Thunderblast discovered refuge in a hollow tree in the Everfree forest, lucky for them, no one following the revolution had come searching for them...yet. The two sat and ate some dinner, unsure of what to do at that time. Their main priority at that time was to bring up a plan to thwart the plans of Light Assassin's castle being built directly atop Ponyville. They only had one problem; they need more ponies to help prevent it.
Moments after eating, they heard a crack.
"What was that?" Blitz whispered, looking in the direction of the noise.
"I don't know." Thunder reached for his combat knife, holding it close to his chest and flipping the blade out, now being able to call it a knife. He then slowly stood up and peeked out a gap in the tree, giving him quite a view of the forest around them, and looked around for the source of the sound.
"See anything?" Blitz's hooves begun to tremble lightly, straining his best to hide it.
"Nope. It was probably a squirrel or something." Thunder whispered back, glancing around the ninety-degree view one last quick time, before flipping his knife back into it's handle and setting it on the ground, then sat down next to Blitz.
Blitz's quaking hooves stopped after Thunder's last words, taking a deep sigh of relief.
Minutes later, a light drizzle came down over the forest, which soon turned into a heavy downpour, followed by distant rumbles of thunder. Blitz then scooched somewhat closer to Thunderblast, his ears perking up when the first rumble rolled.
"Are you alright?" Thunder smiled faintly.
"Of course." Blitz trembled lightly, barely enough to notice.
"You never got over your fear of thunderstorms, have you?" Thunder looked down slightly at Blitz.
"I have...mostly. The thunder still gets me sometimes." Blitz looked out the gap at the pouring rain.
Thunder wrapped his right wing around Blitz's back, giving the stallion some comfort.
"Don't worry about it, it can't hurt you." Thunder smiled.
Blitz smiled back. He liked the fact that his friend was a Royal Guard, especially one who is honored in terms of a few of the guard's high ranks, including Captain Armor. He felt...safer...around him. But then again, who wouldn't?
The two heard another crack, this one much louder and closer than the first, which forced both of them to jump almost out of their coats.
"Wh-what was that?!" Blitz yelped in fear, covering his face with his wings.
Thunder didn't reply, but instead stood up, grabbing his knife again and flipping the blade back out, trotting over to the gap, where he went into a hiding position against the wall of the tree trunk, and peeked his head out to see what caused the noise. He let out a sigh, calming his muscles once again, before turning to face Blitz.
"The storm knocked a tree branch down across the path, nothing more." Thunder said, flipping the blade back into the knife handle.
Blitz, this time, continued to tremble. "I-I want to go home." He whimpered slightly.
"Hey, don't worry...we'll go home soon." Thunder walked over to the stallion, hugging him.
Blitz whimpered, beginning to cry into Thunder's shoulder. He was scared about the revolution, and the thunderstorm occurring overhead wasn't helping.
Thunder rubbed his friend's back, trying his best to comfort him. Inside, he was scared as well, knowing that he is likely one of the last guards who isn't dead or incarcerated by the revolutionists. Even if he did try to fight back with whoever didn't follow the revolution, which would definitely be a lot less numbers of ponies than the ones following it, meaning they'd be outnumbered by a ton, and they would most likely fail.
Blitz continued to tremble, even after shutting off the waterworks. He was cold, but lucky for him, Thunder's body, mainly his chest, was warm.
There was another crack minutes later.
"Okay, that's it. I'm going out there." Thunder broke the hug, flying up a foot off of the ground, before grabbing his knife for the third time.
"No, don't go out there!" Blitz trembled more, looking around. "What if it's revolutionists?!" He whispered in a fearful tone.
"Then I'll kill whoever it is. Stay here." Thunder flew out the small doorway without another peep, leaving a quaky Blitz behind, who curled up in a corner in fear.
Outside, Thunder's mane was soaked by the pouring rain, which drooped down slightly. The rain drops flowed off of his wings as he flapped them hovering just above the ground as he scanned the area around their hiding spot.
"Where are you..." He mumbled to himself, his deep blue eyes looking over every inch of the forest that he could see.
A bright flash of lightning, followed by a deafening crack of thunder, forced the stallion to wince unexpectedly. Before he could do anything else, a hoof reached up and yanked Thunderblast out of the air, tossing him into the wet earth.
"Agh!" He yelped, his knife flying out of his hoof and landing on the ground a few feet away. As he reached to grab it, a navy blue hoof stomped onto his own, pinning it down. Thunder went to move his other hoof, only to have that one stomped into the mud as well, with his head also being shoved into the ground. He squirmed, straining to stand up.
"Thunder, stop it!" The voice of the pony called out, struggling to hold the stallion down.
Before Thunder could process what he said, even after it was muffled by the roaring storm above, he kicked his hind legs, managing to kick what felt like the pony's hind leg out from under him, causing the pony to fall. Thunder pulled himself out from under the pony, and ran for his knife. His tail was then yanked, pulling the rest of him back with it, his hooves giving out under him as they slid on the wet ground. The pony stood back up, bodyslamming Thunder moments later. He yelped in pain the second he heard a slight crack in his lower back, which immobilized him temporarily.
The pony laid on Thunder's back, attempting to hold the stallion down, but after a minute soon realized Thunder was much stronger than him. Thunder's muscles flexed slightly as he pushed himself back up with his forehooves.
"Nngh." The pony strained to hold Thunder down. Before he could think, Thunder yanked his hind legs out from under the stallion, delivering a devastating, swift buck to his upper chest, knocking the wind out of the pony. Thunder spun around and got a good look at the stallion, scanning over him. He was wearing golden Royal Guard armor, and had a navy blue coat, with a darker blue tail and mane.
"What the...Stormfire?!" Thunder's irises shrunk to pinpricks, coming closer to him.
Storm wheezed and gasped for air, the buck Thunder used on him had knocked the breath out of his lungs completely. He coughed a few times, the last time spitting out some blood.
"Oh jeez. Are you okay?!" Thunder ran around him and leaned down to him, before the stallion's right hoof shot up and punched Thunder in the chin, knocking him back. "OUCH!" He yelped.
Stormfire sat up, wiping some blood from his mouth, still wheezing slightly. "Next time, d-don't buck me. Alright?"
Thunder held his muzzle in pain, letting off a slightly muffled groan.
"Oh...sorry." Storm wiped his muzzle again, wiping the blood on a fallen leaf.
"I think you broke my nose!" Thunder screamed into his hooves, looking at Stormfire in pain.
"Sorry." Storm snickered lightly.
"No you're not!" Thunder screamed again.
"Okay, maybe I'm not. You did buck me, so I punched your chin." Storm laughed some.
"Stormfire!" Came a third voice. Thunder and Storm looked to the side and saw Blitz running at them. "Oh thank Luna you're okay." He smiled lightly.
"Barely. It's tartarus out there, man." Storm stood up.
"Weren't you in Canterlot?" Blitz asked, as Thunder moved his jaw around to ease the pain.
"Was, yes. They came at us with everypony in town! Well, everypony except us and those running away. We were outnumbered. It was another civil war, like the one a thousand years ago, maybe worse." Storm looked at them both with a blank expression.
Thunderblast stood up with them moments later. "How'd you get out?"
"A unicorn guard fired a beam at me which slowly teleported me here...he..." Storm gulped, tearing up slightly. "Some ponies ran up and stabbed him before I was teleported away...he died right in front of me."
Thunder and Blitz gasped.
"Sweet Celestia." Blitz's jaw hung open, his eyes watering up as well.
"Did anypony else escape with you?" Thunder asked, staring at Stormfire.
"I don't know...maybe. All I know is, we've lost most of Equestria. The western cities, and I think Appleloosa and Dodge Junction remain untouched." Storm wiped his muzzle free of blood, leaving a red splotch on his left arm, just above his hoof guard.
"My gosh...what do we do?" Blitz looked between the grey and navy blue stallions.
"We gotta do something, we can't just stay here!" Stormfire stomped his hoof into a small puddle.
"What are we supposed to do?! We're obviously outnumbered thirty million to three!" Thunder hissed at Stormfire, stomping his hoof in response.
The navy-blue stallion recoiled back, before sighing. "I do not know. If the Royal Guard were here, or at least Captain Armor, this would be a whole lot easier."
"Yes, definitely. Where is he actually?" Blitz looked at Stormfire.
Storm groaned. "The Crystal Empire."
"Why? Shouldn't he be here, leading the Royal Guard into defending Equestria?!" Thunder's eyes widened.
"It wasn't him. Princess Celestia sent him there to protect him. I did notice something though. The revolutionists are doing everything in their power to capture guards, rather than kill them. They kill whoever doesn't cooperate, which happened to be the stallion that teleported away, and whoever else." Stormfire looked between Blitz and Thunder as he spoke.
"Which is why they're after us, isn't it?" Thunder looked in the direction of Ponyville, unable to see it.
A loud crack of thunder filled the air, causing Blitz to jump a foot off the ground.
"Most likely. Where are you guys hiding exactly? You're obviously hiding somewhere near here if you're right here with me right now." Stormfire wiped his muzzle for another time, to find it isn't bleeding anymore.
"We found a hollow tree just down the path." Thunder said, before looking up at the storm as it continued to pour, a raindrop going into his eye, forcing him to wince at the cold drop. "We better get to it before we get lost."
"Alright. You lead the way." Storm said back, before the three galloped to the tree.
No longer than three hours later, the sun had set and the stallions soon fell asleep, not thinking to keep watch throughout the night.
"You wanted to speak to me sir?" A grey unicorn stallion wearing silver guard armor trotted into a mostly-dark office, staring at a desk, with the back of an office chair facing him.
The chair turned around, revealing Light Assassin without his shades.
"Ah, Otto Tech. So nice to see my second in command again." He smiled insanely.
Otto saluted briefly. "You said you had a mission for me, sir?"
"Yes." Light Assassin opened a drawer and dug through it, pulling out a folder and tossing it onto the desk, up to the stallion.
Otto used his magic to open the folder and levitate three pictures out.
"I need you to find these stallions for me, and bring them to my lab in Ponyville. If they don't cooperate..."
"I will kill them for you, master." Otto smirked.
Light laughed insanely. "Good. Now get moving."
Otto saluted. "Eye-eye sir." Before galloping out of the office, and out of the building in Baltimare, which had massive Equestrian flags with a red 'X' over the two alicorns circling around the sun and moon, a sign that the revolution has completely taken over. The stallion then ran to the train depot, where a train was waiting for him to board. On the platform stood charcoal grey stallions, wearing elite guard armor. Their eyes were an evil green, their irises red as blood. In the center of the platform stood two other guards, who were smirking at two white stallions who were tied up, the armor formerly belonging to them. One of the guards then grabbed a knife, stabbing one of the stallions in the throat, allowing him to bleed out and perish before Otto's eyes.
"What?" The guard glared at Otto, who was staring at him as he killed the stallion.
Otto ignored him and trotted onto the train, which minutes later departed for Ponyville.
The train pulled into Ponyville station just before two in the morning, the platform soaked with the still-pouring rain. Lightning lit up the sky over town as Otto Tech stepped out of the train, a cold chill running down his spine the moment the brisk air touched his skin under his coat. He nodded at a guard, who moved his spear from in front of the door, and trotted into the station, out the front door, and into town. In town, some ponies wearing construction uniforms stood with spotlights shining over them, water dripping from their helmets. They were going over the plans to build Light Assassin's castle.
Otto levitated the pictures of Thunderblast, Blitz, and Stormfire out and looked over them, before trotting around town looking for the three stallions. After another two hours of searching, he finally realized they must have run into the Everfree. He trotted up to the edge of the forest, and stared in. The stallion then levitated out a flashlight and flipped it on, shining it into the darkness. A rumble of thunder rolled across, causing him to recoil back and grit his teeth in fear as he looked back at town, which was somewhat lit up by the construction lights.
"I could just run back to town and say I couldn't find them...but then Light will kill me." Otto thought to himself, before taking a deep breath. "Okay...here I go." He said moments before trotting into the dark forest.
The ground squished under him due to the heavy rains which continued to drench the area. The loud pitter-pat of rain drops hitting the thick leaves of the forest was the only other sound, to some of Otto's relief. After a near-death experience a few months back, he never wanted to go back in, unlucky for him that he had no choice this time.
Back in the tree hideout, Thunderblast, Blitz, and Stormfire all slept soundly, the three stallions snuggled close to each other to keep one another warm against the cold breeze of the storm outside, which swept through the tree holes like butter. Luckily, the storm had calmed so the lightning and thunder was no more, and it was now just a cold and windy downpour.
Thunder's right ear perked up at the sound of what sounded like hoofsteps sinking into the wet earth as they walked. His head lifted up and he yawned quietly as his vision slowly cleared. It was dark, and it was very hard to see. The stallion stood up slowly and carefully to avoid waking Blitz and Stormfire, before grabbing a flashlight to add some light to where he was looking. He looked out into the abyss of black, the round burst of light shining upon wet leaves, trees, and bushes, as well as some small twigs the storm kicked around throughout the day. His ear then peered back as he heard more hoofsteps behind him. He turned tail to face the small doorway, shining the flashlight onto the outside of it, before walking over to it and out the tree trunk into the cold rain and wind.
"Brr.." He shivered as his wings briefly popped open, his feathers ruffling and fluffing up in an attempt to keep himself warm. Thunder shined the flashlight around, looking for the source of the hoofsteps. He was still tired, and his eyes were half shut. The cold rain was enough to slowly wake him up completely, but it would still be a little while before his eyes would open completely.
The hoofsteps continued around him, and he shone the flashlight around, his eyes finally opening as his heart begun to race.
"Who's there?" Thunder called out, looking around desperately for whoever was stalking him. He continued to look around, before noticing some bushes move in front of him. He moved slightly closer, leaning his head forward and squinting his eyes.
Otto Tech smirked, a knife in his hoof, as he quietly came up behind Thunder, using his magic to rustle the bushes. He then tackled Thunder, who dropped his flashlight.
"GAH!" Thunder screamed as he was tackled, flailing his hooves in an attempt to get whoever or whatever tackled him off.
"Hold still damn it!" Otto yelled, struggling to pin Thunder down, who resisted no matter his demands. He then threw his armed hoof down, Thunder quickly moving to the side and dodging the knife, which ended up getting stuck in the ground.
Thunder then punched the stallion in the muzzle, knocking Otto off of him, standing to all four hooves moments later. Due to the darkness, he couldn't see where he was going, and ended up tripping over Otto.
Otto yelped, holding his muzzle in pain, before delivering a swift punch to Thunder's upper right hip, knocking him onto his side. Thunder held his side in pain, curling his hind legs as well uncontrollably, before Otto stood up and searched for his knife, ripping it out of the ground with his magic. The unicorn then turned to Thunder, running over to the stallion to kill him with the knife, before a pair of hooves wrapped around his neck.
"BLITZ, NOW!" Stormfire yelled, his hooves holding Otto back.
Out of nowhere, a rock came flying out of the darkness, striking Otto in his head, instantly knocking him unconscious. Storm fell over with Otto, quickly getting up moments after, then trotting to Thunder. "You alright?" He asked.
"Y-yeah, sure...it's just...it's just a bruise...I'll be fine." Thunder laid there, holding his side in pain still. "Did you get him?"
"Yeah, we got him." Blitz trotted over to them. "We better tie him up before he wakes up."
"Good idea. Thunder, can you walk?" Storm looked down at Thunder.
"I should in a few...just...give me a second." Thunder groaned in pain.
Stormfire and Blitz then ran off to find a vine to use as a rope to tie Otto up with in case he woke up hostile as a minute ago.
Minutes later, Thunder dragged him up against a smaller tree, where Blitz and Stormfire brought back a long, thick vine, tying the unicorn to the tree. The three sat beside him for another half-hour, before he finally awakened.
"Hmm...wha?" Otto slowly opened his eyes, not remembering what had happened before he blacked out. He squinted his eyes as he tried to look around, before trying to move. He looked down and saw the vine, before struggling against it. A moment later, a knife was held point-first at his muzzle, causing his irises to shrink to pebble-size.
"Quit struggling." Stormfire growled at Otto, holding his knife to the stallion's muzzle.
"Wh-who are you? What do you want with me?!" Otto trembled.
"Don't play stupid with us, we know Light Assassin sent you to hunt us down!" Blitz stomped his hoof against the tree.
"What? Light Assassin? Hunt you down? What?!" Otto struggled some more, now trembling like a leaf in the wind.
Thunderblast then turned on his flashlight, shining it on the stallion and gasping. "What the...Otto?!"
"Thunder?!" Otto's jaw dropped. "Wh-what are you doing?"
"More like, what are you doing?" Thunder growled. "You attacked me! You-you tried to kill me!"
"What? N-no I didn't!" Otto shook his head in denial.
"Don't deny it! You attacked me with the same knife that is at your muzzle right now!" Thunder stomped his hoof on the ground, gritting his teeth in anger. Otto's armor rattled as he trembled. "You also did this!" Thunder continued, holding his hoof up to his face, revealing a three-inch long, bloody cut moving diagonally up his hoof.
Otto recoiled back, cowering in fear. "H-how? Wh-when did I attack?!"
"Fourty-two minutes ago!" Blitz yelled.
"A-are you crazy? All I remember is meeting up with Light Assassin for something, and...then I blacked out...now I'm here. How'd I get here?" Otto looked between the three stallions in front of him.
"Wait a minute, guys." Stormfire pulled the knife, as well as Thunder and Blitz, back and they huddled together to talk in private. "What if he was being mind controlled?"
"How do we know he isn't now?" Blitz asked, staring at Storm.
"I don't think he is, he seems pretty innocent right now." Storm looked between the two stallions.
"Storm may be onto something, maybe he is being mind controlled. You know what, maybe they're all being mind controlled!" Thunder gasped slightly.
"But how? That would take a lot of magic!" Blitz said, unsure of what to think.
Thunderblast then looked at Otto, who was struggling against the ropes still.
"Let's let him go." Thunder looked at them, before standing and trotting over to Otto with the knife, cutting the vines off of him.
"Y-you're not going to kill me?" Otto sat in the same position, curling his forehooves before his chest while looking up at Thunder.
"No." Thunder smiled lightly, pulling the stallion up. "We need your help."
"Of course. What is it?" Otto smiled back.
"We're gonna do what?!" Stormfire yelled, staring at Blitz.
"There's four of us, and not enough room in this tiny tree trunk. We'll need to hide in town." Blitz stared at Stormfire, then to Otto Tech, who was wrapping up Thunder's cut hoof with magic.
"But they'll come looking for us!" Thunder stared at Blitz as if he was crazy.
"That's the thing, they expect us to be hiding out here in the Everfree, not in Ponyville." Blitz smirked lightly.
"Okay, but we also need a plan to prevent the building of that castle." Stormfire motioned his hoof around as he spoke.
"Hmm..." Thunder and Blitz thought.
"Oh!" Otto spoke up, finishing up wrapping Thunder's hoof.
"You got something in mind?" Storm looked at Otto Tech.
"What about mini bombs? As distractions? Or something that would make the location not good to build the castle?" Otto smiled brightly, looking at the three.
Thunder looked at Blitz, then Stormfire. "I like the way you think."
"Yes, but where will we get bombs?" Blitz laid his head on his hoof, unamused.
"We build them ourselves." Storm smirked.
"Oh...great. Blitz, Thunderblast, Stormfire and Otto Tech, the bomb makers. Perfect."