//------------------------------// // The Oath They Took // Story: To Protect And Serve // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Luna roared with the fury of the night as she unleashed her lunar magic upon the Sentinel before her, the sheer force of her power driving it back from the ponies that it had been attacking. With another yell she wrapped the beast within her magic and hurled it across the square where it slammed into a wall, collapsing it to the ground for a moment. "Now, flee while you have the chance!" Luna yelled to the ponies before snarling as the Sentinel rose back to its paws, letting out a hollow shriek before charging towards the princess of the night. Luna created a sphere of blue around her to halt the monsters attack, but it rammed into the shield with such force that Luna was pushed back anyway. She was bracing herself for another attack when a blast of solar magic struck the Sentinel in the back of the head, causing its eyes to go white before it collapsed to the ground and its magic oozed into the streets. "I think that I may have made these things a little too hard to stop," Celestia panted as she offered a hoof to Luna, who grabbed hold of it and grunted as Celestia pulled her back up to her hooves. The two sisters stood side by side for a moment as they both took in all the destruction and chaos that was happening, each of them burning with guilt. "This is all my fault. I shouldn't have made these monstrosities." "You were desperate and thought it for the best. If anything I should have been the one to talk you out of it," Luna said before spreading her wings to take off, her sister matching her movements. "But we can think about that later, because right now we need to focus on stopping these things and saving the ponies!" Celestia nodded and the two of them shot into the thundering clouds, raining down magic upon any of the Sentinels that entered their gaze. Elsewhere on the battlefield Twilight and her friends fought side by side to protect three little fillies form the onslaught of the Sentinels; barely able to push them back even with their combined powers. Twilight screamed as she forced a purple crystal to rocket out of the ground and impale one of the Sentinel's, the creature letting out a weak moan before it ceased to move. Applejack had another one lassoed, but it was far too strong for her and hurled her around the streets like she was a sheet of paper. Rarity kept the three fillies close to her as she kept them behind her own glamorous barrier, knowing that it wouldn't hold if worse came to worse. "Twi, could really use a hoof right about now!" Applejack yelled as the Sentinel fighting her snapped the rope around it's leg with little effort and lunging towards Applejack, who shielded herself with her hooves as she braced for pain. But even with her eyes tightly shut she was still aware of a purple flash that went off and she then heard the Sentinel roar. Opening her eyes she saw that the Sentinel was now missing the middle part of its body and lay lifeless in the streets. "Don't worry, I've got you back," Twilight panted as she fluttered down next to her friends as Rarity walked out from behind her shield with the fillies, all of them looking at the three inoperable Sentinel's that lay in the streets. AJ turned her gaze to Twilight for a moment, shocked to see sweat running down her face and how she already seemed to be exhausted. "What's the matter Twi, we've only just begun to fight these things," Applejack asked as Twilight wiped her forehead with the back of her hoof. "These things take a lot of magic to stay down. No surprise there since princess Celestia built them to be unstoppable, but it makes fighting just one of them a pain," Twilight said between quick breaths as she and the other heard more screaming off in the distance. "And fighting these three already drained so much of my magic. I don't know how much longer I'm going to last." "But we need to keep fighting," AJ said with a nod, speaking what all of them were thinking. Twilight and the others raced off to engage more of the Sentinel's that were attacking a crowd of ponies, Twilight flying in at full speed and ramming into one of them with a barrier around her, driving the both of them into the side of a building. AJ and Rarity double teamed another one, Rarity distracting it with gem stones and anything else she could fling at it while AJ leapt onto it's back and wrapped her rope around it's jaw. "YEEHAW!" she yelled as the Sentinel began to buck with its stone limbs, trying to kick the pony off of it to no avail. In an attempt to rid itself of her it slammed itself into a wall, but AJ held on tight and refused to let go. That was until a third Sentinel broke off its attack on the crowd to tackle Applejack off of the other Sentinel's back, pinning her to the ground as it lifted a paw to crush her. Instead it was crushed to nothingness when two blast of lunar and solar magic turned it to dust, allowing AJ to rise back up to her hooves. "There are far more of these than I thought that you had made," Luna said to her sister as the two of them landed next to their friends. "It seems that Sombra has activated all of them, including the ones that I didn't believe ready for field deployment," Celestia responded as she fired a spell as hot as the sun through one of the Sentinel's, watching as it melted in front of her. "Those ones were not as...stable as the others, not as keen to listen to orders. However their armor wasn't as strong as the field ready ones, so they should be easier to deal with." Luna opened her mouth to respond when all of the ponies turned as they heard a low roar, turning to see nearly a hundred Sentinel's walking towards them, all of their eyes glowing red as they advanced towards their prey. The ponies each took up their fighting stances, each hoping that they got out of this alive. DPD Flash's spear drove itself into the back of the Sentinel's neck, but just like all of his previous attempts to hurt the creature the spear failed him, simply shattering against its armor and turning its attention to him. "Oh this is so not good!" he yelled as he turned and sprinted down the barracks as fast as he could, leaping over fallen items and overturned obstacles in an attempt to get away. He could hear the Sentinel simply tearing through those same obstacles as it tried to rip into him, but he had the good sense to leap out a window and take to the skies, watching as the creature burst through the wall and fell into the streets. "You've gotta be kidding me," he muttered in shock as the creature got back up from a four story plunge into the streets, shaking the dirt off of it before going back on the hunt. "I'm going to need way better weapons if I hope to take those things on. Maybe we've got something for this in the weapons room." He flew back into the barracks and sprinted through its halls, knowing which room he needed to get to. 'Just how many of these things are there?' he thought to himself as he hid beneath a table as a Sentinel walked by him, thanking the stars that they weren't that bright. When the coast was clear he sprinted towards the room once again, but to both his horror and surprise he found the two iron doors locked when he got there. "Who would lock the weapons room during such a time?" he growled as he tried to pull the doors open to no avail before resorting to force, which only gained him a bruised shoulder. "Come on you piece of crap, OPEN!" he roared as he slammed his hind hooves into it, his expression changing from rage to shock when he saw the doors actually crack open. He was about to congratulate himself when a pair of hooves shot through the crack and wrapped around him, dragging him into the room. "Let me go you-!" he yelled as he broke himself free and preparing for a fight, only to find that he was in a room filled to the brim with other guards. "Flash Sentry! Man, you should thank the stars you found this place or else you might have ended up dead," one of the guards said to him as he closed to door, locking it once again. "You're safe in here though, those creatures don't seem to know how to open doors besides smashing them down and nothing's getting through that door." Flash looked around at the near sixty guards with disbelief in his eyes before he shook his head in confusion. "What are you all doing down here?" he asked them with an underlining tone of rage that none of the guards picked up on. "We're hiding in here! This seems to be the safest place in the city right now," another guard answered him with a smile of relief, but the smile was swatted off of his face by the look of rage and loathing that Flash gave all of them. "I meant why are you hiding down here while the city above is being attacked! Why aren't any of you out there fighting?!" he roared at them, turning his gaze to each and every one of them as he awaited an answer, which none of them gave. "What could we do?" a guard eventually said from the back, the others moving out of the way so that Flash could see him. "What could we possibly do against those kind of monsters?! I saw one of them tank a spell from Princess Celestia and it got right back up! Do you think our spears and swords will be able to stop those things?! We all have a better chance of surviving if we wait down here for the fight to end." Flash stared at them for a solid minute before slowly shaking his head, his face covered with disbelief. "I don't believe what I'm hearing. The royal guard is hiding when the city needs them most, when the PONIES need you most?!" Flash roared at them, watching as most of their gazes shot to the floor while some looked at him with defiance in their eyes. Flash shook his head again before pushing through them, grabbing the strongest weapons that he could find and slinging them onto his back before turning and heading for the door. "Where are you going?" one of the guards asked as he threw open the door, Flash turning back to look at him with determination. "I'm going out there to fight," he said, the guards all sharing a look before speaking. "That's suicide! Those creatures are way beyond anything that you can do to them. You'll die." Flash let those words sink in as he thought of the possibility of him dying and he knew that the odds were in the favor of him dying that surviving. But his resolve steeled when he thought back to a friend of his who had walked into the jaws of evil without any regards for his own life, only the thought of the lives of others. "Maybe I will die. Maybe I won't be able to stop one of these Sentinel's before they kill me. But that is a risk I will take," he began as he turned back to look at them, more resolve in his one set of eyes than all the others in the room. "Because when I became a guard I swore my life to the ponies that I protected and if needed to give that life to defend them. I will admit that I have not always been the best guard that I could have been, but now I will be damned if I allow myself to hide away while others need me!" "And I bet some of you feel the same," he said as he looked into their eyes. "I know that some of you wish you could help, but are just afraid. But now is the time that I ask you to stand with me, to stand by the words you swore to when you were given your position. To protect and serve." He turned and sprinted out of the room as he said this, leaving the guards standing there with the toughest decision of their life. DPD Sweat dripped into Twilight's eyes as she fought to keep her barrier from shattering under the pressure of the Sentinel assaulting it, gritting her teeth as cracks formed along the shield as two more Sentinels leapt in to add to the pressure. With a scream of rage she focused all of her power into her horn, sending out a blast of magic that pushed the two Sentinel's off of her, giving her a moment to breath yet the strain from the spell caused her to collapse to her knees. "Twilight! Are you alright?" Celestia asked as she descended next to her student and blasted off the Sentinels that attacked her again. "I...I'll be fine princess, I can still fight," Twilight said as she fought back to her hooves, her and her mentor looking around at all of the Sentinel's attacking all around them and how their friends and family were fighting for dear life. "I just wish I knew whether or not it would make a difference." A cry for help grabbed both of their attentions, fear filling up Twilight's heart as she recognized the screams. She and Celestia turned to see a Sentinel leap onto the CMC across the courtyard, knocking them out from behind their cover. Both Twilight and Celestia fired spells at the beast, but two more took the blasts as they attacked the princesses, leaving the fillies to fend for themselves. With fear filled eyes they watched as the Sentinel raised a paw, preparing to finish its targets. "Stop right there, criminal SCUM!" The Sentinel roared as a blade of pure magic drove itself into the base of its neck, causing black magic to ooze from the wound as the creature let out a howl before it fell over dead. The CMC's faces lit up when they saw who their savior was as he bulled the blade out of the creature’s neck. "I always wanted to say that." "Flash!" all three of them yelled as they tackled him. "You saved us!" "Of course. That's what the royal guard does," he said before turning his attention back towards the other Sentinel's, which were now all advancing towards the group that fought. Twilight and Celestia raced over to check on the fillies while Flash gripped the sword with his hoof, watching as the monsters advanced. "Flash, I want you to take the fillies and run!" Twilight ordered as she and Celestia prepared their spells. "We'll hold them off!" "No need princess," Flash said with a smile, Twilight turning to look at him like he was crazy before a bombardment of magic arrows embedded themselves into the Sentinel's, causing the machines to roar from the attack. The princesses turned their gaze to the sky to see nearly sixty of the royal guard standing on the rooftops above them, all of them dressed for war. "I brought our army." DPD "Well, that can't be good," Sombra muttered to himself as he continued to view the battle that took place outside on his orb, watching as Twilight and her friends were saved by the arrival of flash Sentry and the royal guard, who were now working together to fight against the Sentinel's. "And by some miracle it seems that they actually might win," he muttered as the guards worked together to tear a Sentinel apart without any losses. But then a smile crossed his face as he shrugged it off. "Well, it seems that now is the time to play my final ace," he said as he looked up from the orb to the figure that stood before him, a wicked smile growing on his face. "The guard and the ponies outside are all trying to stop me. You know what to do." The figure nodded before he turned to leave, his feet crushing the ground beneath them as he walked towards the exit, no emotion on his metal skull and firearm gripped tightly in his right hand. "And just so I'm sure that you're not up to anything or having any memory problems, you know what your directive is?" Sombra asked, the figure nodding in response. "And remember, every pony out there stands against me. So what are you going to do to those who stand in my way?" he inquired as the figure reached the door, getting him to turn and look at Sombra one last time. "I will terminate them."