A week had passed since the aliens had arrived on Equis, and just about all of them were enjoying themselves. Daily, a different group always went after Blueblood, just because of how annoying he was. "He's more annoying than an Unggoy that's terrified for their lives, and nowhere near as comedic," Hades remarked after the first day.
Lone was with Prince and Scarab, making sure that the civilians in their town were ready for evacuation. While he was gone, Nightengale was in charge of the Canterlot and Ponyville branches of lone team, and the reports from Vinyl weren't good.
The weapon modifications had been completed on schedule, but there was a lot of unrest and anger there, most of it directed towards the princesses, and reports from the crystal empire were only slightly better. In fact, there were only a few places that were the way they were a month ago, one being Canterlot. If you didn't count the aliens, that is. The worst part. Celestia was considering allowing Twilight and one of the aliens to stay Ponyville for a while. Why was currently beyond Nightengale, probably to introduce one of the aliens to a less snooty populace. Couldn't blame her. At least she was keeping the others here, just in case Luna went under again.
Nightengale was getting a message to Vinyl, Robin (Codenamed: Archer), and the newest member of the Ponyville branch, Blue Thunder (Codenamed: Skyshock) that told the three to make sure that the two would be okay while they were there, and to evacuate them to Canterlot if something happened that neither of them had caused.
Party animal,
Sun riser is considering sending Mage and one of the aliens, I'm not sure which, to Location Bravo, and I want you and the others to protect them. If something happens that involves the brotherhood, get them here asap, and get here with them.
Rook
Nightengale sent this to Vinyl using a spell similar to the dragon fire used by Twilight's assistant. All unicorns of lone team learned the spell so they could communicate with branches, though that was only needed when the changeling of each branch, as every branch had at least one, couldn't. In the case of the Ponyville branch's changeling, who lived with Vinyl as a roommate/pet and was called Wubsy, it's that he was having a hangover from the previous night in Ponyville at a party Vinyl had hosted.
Next time I'm able, I've got to go to one of Vinyl's parties. Haven't been to one since I got here, which is to say six years, Nightengale thought to himself as he walked out of his room. It was close to the time of day that Blueblood was being chased, and they always went past his room, so he decided he would join in the fun.
He was in the hallway connecting the barracks to the castle for thirty minutes before he heard Ken yell, "GET BACK HERE, ASSHOLE."
As Blueblood came around the corner, with Ken, Zaeed, Miranda, Lily, and (unsurprisingly) Rarity just behind him.
Just before Blueblood passed Nightengale, he activated his portal magic, one end being in front of Bluebood, the other pointing toward the wall at the end of the hall. As Blueblood passed through, Nightengale could hear him hit the wall with a smack. "Eyes ahead at all times, moron," Nightengale said. He then got up and stopped his spell. He waited for the others to reach him before he moved to where Blueblood was lying.
Blueblood had just enough mental facilities left to look at Nightengale and say, "Peasant," before he passed out.
Ken looked toward Nightengale and said, "Thanks for the help, Night." Even though he and Lone had been assigned to Luna for a week, which had passed, they were often still with either her or the guests, and had gotten to know all of them.
"You kidding, Ken," Nightengale said, his eyebrow raised. "Anypony would have done that if they could have."
"Right," Ken said. "Well, might as well get him to his room and tape him up so we don't have to deal with him the rest of the day."
Just as they started to grab Blueblood, Ken asked Nightengale, "Want to join us for lunch, Night? Tali is apparently loving human food."
Just then, before Nightengale could answer, Time froze and Discord appeared.
"Just in case you all are wondering, I fixed Tali's and Garrus' biology so they could eat human food with out dying, not to mention erased the others memories of them meeting me."
Discord, you mind getting the story going again?
"Oh, right. Sorry, Lone."
snap
Just before Nightengale could answer, Steel spear, a normal Lunar guard, walked around the corner and said, "Private, Princess Twilight wishes to see you."
Nightengle looked towards Steel and said, "Yes sir." He then looked toward the others. "Sorry guys."
"No problem, Nightengale," Miranda said.
Nightengale left the barracks and headed towards the area of the castle where the Elements were staying, a walk that took ten minutes at his usual pace.
When he arrived at Twilight's door, he knocked. He waited for a few seconds before he heard Twilight say, "Come in."
He opened the door and was surprised to see Celestia and John in the room as well. "You requested me, your Highness?" he said, bowing.
It was Celestia who answered by saying, "It was actually me private. I imagine you're wondering why you're here."
"A little, princess," Nightengale responded
"Well," Celestia said, "There have been reports of unrest around Ponyville, and even though John is going with Twilight, I was hoping that you could go to ensure everything is alright."
"Of course, your Highness," Nightengale said, bowing still.
Celestia smiled. "Good. The three of you will be on the next train to ponyville, which leaves in an hour. I hope that you have an educational time there, John."
John, who was in his armor, said, "I will, Ma'am."
Celestia chuckled at this before saying, "How many times must I tell you that you don't have to call me anything but Celestia." When he didn't respond, Celestia simply shook her head and moved to leave the room.
Well, it would seem she knows something's going on, just not what. Hopefully, it will stay that way, Nightengale thought to himself.
Ponyville; meanwhile
For Vinyl it was a good week. All of the weapon modifications that were possible had been completed. She had gotten a message from Nightengale earlier telling her about what Celestia was planning. Right now, she was in what counted as the briefing room for the ponyville branch of Lone team.
"Well, you guys know what this means, right?" Blue thunder, a Pegasus mare with a sky blue coat and cloud white tail and mane with storm cloud gray eyes and a thunderbolt as her cutie mark, said. "It means that the brotherhood's making a move. We were lucky Raptor 'abducted' fire breather before the shit got to this level, or this could be a lot worse," she said, using air quotes around, "abducted."
"Agreed," Robin, a tan coated stallion with messy jet black hair and a piece of his left ear missing, with the tips of his mane and tail being a dark grey with a bow and arrow as his cutie mark, said. He always wore goggles that Vinyl had made for him, so he could almost always hit his target with relative ease. "With the drastic change in most ponies attitudes here towards the princesses, we're lucky nopony has raided the castle, just to make an example, though there's no telling how long that'll last."
Vinyl nodded her head in agreement. "True, though I think we can all agree that some ponies are still in their right mind, excluding ourselves, of course, is weird. Most or all of the citizens in a town where those guys set up shop are mind controlled early on. And we all know that only members lone team, those with strong mental defenses, or changelings remain themselves." Vinyl looked around the table while saying, "We're the only memebers of lone team here, and I doubt that they all have the mental defenses to resist the brotherhood's control, which leaves only one explanation." She paused here. "Most, or all, of them are changelings."
"She's not wrong, guys," Wubsy, a changeling with red eyes, but otherwise looked like a normal changeling, said. "I can smell other changelings with ease, and a few residents that have been here for years, as well as some new ones, smell exactly like changelings, or at least have a bit of that smell coming off of them."
"Well, why didn't you say something earlier?" Thunder asked.
Wubsy looked at her and said, "You know as well as me about our truce with the hive I came from, and all of them have that smell. And we both know what would happen if we attacked them with out reason. The hive would declare open war on Equestria, just to get to us, and no side wants that. You should know. You were with Lone a few weeks ago at the renewal of the truce."
"Damn you," she mumbled as she averted her gaze.
Before Wubsy could respond, a flash of green fire erupted from just in front of Vinyl. When the flames died down, she saw it was a scroll. She grasped it in her magic and read it.
Party animal
Change of plans. It looks like I'm coming with Mage as well. The alien coming with us is one of the armored humans. Sun riser knows something's going on in your area, but not what exactly, and we need to keep it that way if possible. I'll see you guys in a few hours.
Rook
"Well, what's it say?" Thunder asked impatiently.
"Looks like Rooks coming here with the other two VIPs," Vinyl said. "Archer, I want you to meet him at the station when it arrives. Tell him that the weapon modifications are complete in a way that Mage won't be curious."
"Right."
Ponyville train station; three hours later
Twilight was a little concerned at how John was going to act in Ponyville. After all, Ponville did have a history of xenophobia. At least with Zecora, it was somepony who was from the same planet. In fact, the only pony she could think of in Ponyville who would be excited about aliens was Lyra.
Oh. My. Celestia. ALIENS!!
Twilight could definitely see that happening when Lyra found out.
"So, you know anyplace where I can stay while we're there, Twilight?" John asked.
She looked at John, who had all of his armor on, including his helmet, and said, "Sure. My castle has extra rooms." John didn't respond after that. She was going to find out one way or another. Fortunately, she knew a spell that would allow her to look at someponie's, or someone's, as the case may be, memories while they were asleep without waking them up. "Doesn't like to talk much," Nightengale said. "Just like I was a few years ago." He smiled at this, obviously remembering something from his past.
The train stopped a minute after. The group of three got up and walked to the door. They were the only three on the train, as this was Celestia's personal train. John and Nightengale were the only beings aboard who had combat training. The door opened and the three stepped outside. "Well, come on you two. We should get you two introduced."
They started walking and had just left the station proper when Nightengale saw Robin. "I'll meet you guys there. I forgot something on the train," he said.
"Okay, Nightengale. We'll see you later," Twilight said cheerfully.
Nightengale watched the two leave before heading over to Robin. "Archer," he said, nodding his head in greeting.
Robin did the same. "Rook."
"So, what's going on?"
Robin looked around to make sure no one was in the area before saying, "Follow me. The streets aren't safe for somepony in guard armor."
"Right."
The two started walking toward where Vinyl lived. "The projects done, Party animal's just waiting for a chance to send a few of them to Canterlot."
"Right," Nightengale said, noticing a few ponies looked at him with hatred in their eyes. "What about the civilians?"
"That's just it. About twenty-five percent of the town, not including us, aren't acting like the others." He looked to Nightengale before saying, "We have reason to believe that they're changelings from the hive."
"Right. Have you tried to make contact with any of them?"
"No. Can't risk it with the way the rest of the town's acting."
By now, the two had attracted a bit of a group following them, though these ponies didn't look at them with hatred. "Are any of those ponies behind us?" Nightengale whispered in a volume only he and Robin could hear.
"Yeah. Just about ten percent of that twenty-five are behind us," Robin answered in the same whisper. "The others are at the end of the street. If they don't leave us alone, then we'll have just reason to hurt 'em"
Just before the two had reached the end of the street, one of the ponies, who matched the description of the pony Cherilee said, "Can you two stop for a second so we can talk to you?"
"Get the others and wait on the rooftops. If you see me getting ready to roll to the left, knock them out," Nightengale whispered to Robin, who nodded and ran to the end of the street. Nightengale turned around to face the small mob of ten ponies. "What do you want?"
"We want to know what you're doing here," the pony who looked like Lyra said.
"I'm here with Princess Twilight, helping to show a foreign dignitary around," Nightengale said calmly. Ten ponies, five of whom are stallions, but they don't look muscular. Take out the unicorns first, then the pegasai. Finally, the earth ponies, Nightengale thought to himself.
"We know that, but what are you doing here," Cheerilee growled.
"I just told you," Nightengale responded, his eyes narrowing.
"What you are doing here, but not what he's doing here," Lyra said, pointing exactly where Wubsy was, which was on the rooftop to Nightengale's right.
How the tarturus, Nightengale thought, narrowing his eyes further. "How do you know he's there?"
At this, all of the ponies were engulfed in multicolored flames. When they died down, Nightengale was not exactly surprised to see changelings where the ponies were. What he was surprised by, though, was that their chitin matched their mane colors. The changeling that had been the pony Ditzy Doo, which everyone called Derpy, said, "Changelings can sense other changelings, and we've known he's been here for years."
Lyra added, "He's from Chrysalis' hive. Our hive is against them at all turns. Tell him to go back and to tell Chrysalis to let Ponyville go."
"He is from Chrysalis's hive, or at least he was, but he renounced them four years ago," Nightengale said. "Now, unless you all want to lose a limb, I suggest you leave. And don't think I'm bluffing. I'm not a part of the guard, and, unlike them, I'm not afraid to kill you if I have to."
The ten changelings and one pony looked at one another, waiting for the other to give up. It was like this before Cheerilee said, "Come on guys. He's not worth it." The ten changelings turned back to their pony forms, then turned around and left.
Once they had left, Nightengale said, "Vinyl, get the train prepped in case something happens. Wubsy, stay in it at all times. Don't want to risk them going after you. I'm heading to the castle."
Twilight's castle; That night
Twilight was sneaking through her castle, which was ironic for obvious reasons, to get to John's room without him knowing. It took her ten minutes to get there. She knew that everyone was in their rooms, even Nightengale, who had arrived at the castle ten minutes after her and John. When she made it to John's room, she could have sworn she heard John in there, as well as someone else.
When the recording, as Twilight was certain that's what it was, was over she could have sworn she heard John say, "Goodbye, Cortana."
She didn't know who Cortana was, but Twilight could tell she was someone John had cared for, before her death and after it, as Twilight was certain that the recording was that of her death. She waited outside of John's room for what felt like hours before she heard him sleeping.
Ever so slowly, she opened the door and crept to John's bed, her horn aglow, but only faintly, so he would not awaken. When she arrived at the foot of his bed, she waited for him to turn towards her. This wait seemed to go on for hours. When he finally turned, she saw his face for the first time.
(What follows, like his biological age in chapter one, is what I decided to go with. I will stick to the lore as much as possible.)
He appeared to have a pale face, almost as white as Celestia's coat, only it looked like it was dry clay. On his face were many freckles. His hair was short and brown. For some reason, Twilight thought he looked younger than the age he had given all of them a week earlier.
She put these thoughts aside though, as she would need as clear a head as possible for the spell to work. She put her horn against his forehead, and John's memories flooded into her.
What she saw nearly made her lose her sanity.
The first memory to come to her was John's first mission as a Spartan, which was to capture a rebel leader. She felt the pain he felt as a bullet enter him and pinged off his ribs. The next memory was that of his first engagement with the covenant. She saw him and two other Spartans board a covenant ship and saw them make their way to what she assumed was the power core, and she felt his sadness as he and one of the other Spartans had to leave their friend, Sam, behind on the doomed ship. The next was him and a few other Spartans attacking a rebel base to get nukes. This was the only memory that didn't elicit any feeling other than worry when he was captured, and horror at how easily they could kill their own species so close to them. The next memory was when he and a team of marines boarded a covenant capitol ship, and felt the pain of an elite energy sword slicing into his arm, as well as his horror when he faced the flood on Delta halo and earth. But what struck her the most was his memories of the Didact. She saw every thing on Requiem, Ivanoff station, and the Didact's ship, as well as what happened over the three days after he had saved earth, including the Didact's death on Gamma halo. But of those memories, what struck her the deepest were his memories of Cortana.
Twilight could tell from his memories that she was the only thing he had cared about on par with the other Spartan-IIs, if not more. But this also allowed her to know John on a more personal basis, and know that, ever since Cortana's death, he had become more and more human than machine. She felt as if she knew every aspect of him, and she felt sorry for him, that he had to live through all of that, and wondered how he had remained sane.
She left his room shortly after, returning to her room. As she got into her bed, she felt something that wouldn't go away, no matter how much she wanted it to. She knew what it was, as she had this feeling when she had first met Flash Sentry in the human world version of Equis. This feeling (pause for a second) was love.
The next day
It was a seemingly peaceful day in Ponyville. But that illusion was about to be shattered. On the outskirts of the town, there stood three ponies in dark cloaks. There was one of each pony race in this group.
The earth pony of the group walked up to the Pegasus, the leader of the group, and asked, "Is it time to move against lone team and those it protects?"
The Pegasus responded by saying, "Yes, brother. We will cleanse what filth remains in this town so that the true ruler of Equis may rise and take his rightful place." He then motioned to the unicorn of the group, who then sent telepathic messages to their allies in Ponyville to begin the attack, and kill those who fought back. He nodded when it was done.
"Excellent," the Pegasus said. "We will ensure those that would impede the rise of Plasma, he who is the rightful ruler of Equis, are cleansed from this planet, so that we, the brotherhood of Plasma, may walk his path. FOR PLASMA!!"
"FOR PLASMA!!" his two comrades yelled in unison, beside him.
Twilight's castle; meanwhile
John was having a good day so far. Then again, if you eat military meals on a daily basis, even a plain salad, which John was having, tasted like a four or five star restaurant, depending on who you asked. One thing he did notice, though, is that Twilight kept looking at him and turning away when he looked at her and often jumped when he spoke to her.
"Got another bowl if you guys want anymore," Nightengale yelled from the nearby kitchen. Due to Twilight's assistant being absent, which was something Twilight was and, as far as he can tell, still worried about, Nightengale had made their breakfast.
"No thanks, Nightengale," Twilight responded. He was the only guard to not add to add any sort of title to Twilight's name and treat her like a normal Pony, which immediately made him one of her favorite guards, the only one beating him being her brother, in fact.
Just as he came into the dining room to eat, a knock was heard on the door, and a voice said, "Princess, we need your help with something."
Twilight grumbled at this and said, "What do you need help with?"
As soon as the last syllable left her mouth, a pop was heard at the center of the table. The three looked there and saw ten unicorns with wickedly sharp swords in the grasp of their blood red magic. "Simple. Killing you."
Two things happened at once. The first was Twilight getting out of her chair and running out of the room, only to be caught by one of the unicorns magic. The second was Nightengale rushing forward, his Lunar guard armor changing in color scheme to resemble that of Ken's, and creating a black and gray ethereal blade and cutting off the head of one of the assailants and bucking another in his throat, snapping his neck and killing him instantly.
The leader of the group, who wore a dark cloak, spoke, his anger in his voice. "You. I should have known Lone Shadow would have you here, watching over the newly coroneted princess." He then grunted. "No matter. You will simply die sooner." He then told his comrades, while pointing his sword at Nightengale, who stared at him with cold determination in his eyes, not fear, "Kill him. Shadow Specter wants all of lone team purged from this planet. I will deal with the princess and the alien."
The remaining seven attackers all charged at Nightengale, who simply smirked. He summoned another ethereal blade and cut off the heads of the first two to reach him, blood fountaining out of their necks and all over Nightengale and his surroundings. The next one was already in the process of stopping, but still came into the range of Nightengales blades, and had his heart stabbed through. He fell to the ground, lifeless, a pool of blood spreading out from the corpse. The other four had been able to stop just in time and bring their weapons to bear. Nightengale's smile did not diminish. What he did next surprised everything sentient in the room.
He whistled.
A second later, four arrows burst through the window, and each one hit one of the attackers in either their neck or head, killing them instantly.
Before the bodies had even hit the ground, three other ponies in the same armor as Nightengale, two of which fitting a mare's figure, came in. One was a sky blue Pegasus, one was a white unicorn, who levitated herself and a tan earth pony in the room. Before the last assailant could react, he was surrounded on four sides.
"I suggest," Robin said, stringing another arrow and aiming it at the unicorn, "that you let her go before I loose this arrow into your skull."
Whether it was because he had lost all of his mind to panic or the wish to live, the unicorn dropped Twilight. "Now run," Nightengale told him, and the unicorn ran out of the castle almost as fast as a sonic rainboom.
The room was silent for a minute before Twilight spoke up, looking at the dead bodies. "Y-y-you killed them. In cold blood." She then looked to Nightengale, anger in her eyes. "WHY!? YOU COULD HAVE JUST AS EASILY MADE THEM SURRENDER!"
Nighengale looked at Twilight and said, his voice cold, "No, we couldn't have. They would rather have died then surrender to us. They would have killed you if we hadn't been here to stop them."
Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Thunder said, "If you want to talk about this, we can do it on the way to Canterlot."
"Nightengale nodded. "Agreed. Vinyl, what's the status of the train?"
"Ready and waiting."
Twilight's face showed the shock and confusion that were on her mind. "Wait. Vinyl, your with these murderers?"
Vinyl shook her head, as if in pity for Twilight. "We aren't murderers, Twilight," she said, "we're protectors."
"Tell that to their families!"
It was John who prevented them from having to knock Twilight out by saying, "Twilight, I think that it would at least be a good idea to get back and let the others know about what just happened."
She calmed down a little, but she was still angry at the others for killing. "Okay," she said grudgingly. "But we will talk about this."
Nightengale looked to her and said, "Never said we wouldn't." He then looked to the others. "Okay people. We need to get to the train station and then exfill to Canterlot. I'll lead the way. We take up positions to protect Twilight from any further Brotherhood assassins and make sure she gets to the train. Only kill members of the Brotherhood, injure anypony else. Got it?"
Thunder, Vinyl, and Robin nodded.
"What about me?" John asked.
"Right," Vinyl said. She used her magic to de-cloak an MA37 assault rifle (Reach) and gave it to John. "Nightengale and a few others gave me a few weapons to modify. This is one I couldn't modify." She then lifted a few spare magazines from her armor and gave them to John as well. "Same rules apply, though. The Brotherhood will be wearing all dark cloaks."
"Okay people, that's enough chatter. Let's move," Nightengale said, and the group of six began heading towards the train station.
Canterlot; meanwhile
"Ken, don't you think we would have heard something about him if he was here?" Lily asked, referring to an old enemy their benefactor mentioned on the Spear.
"I don't know, Lily. It's possible that he's underground here. What do you think, Maruco?"
"Oh, yeah. Sorry guys." It was obvious that Maruco was distracted over something, which could only have meant one thing.
"You're thinking about AJ again, aren't you?" Lily said, more a statement than a question.
Maruco sighed before saying, "Yeah. I know this'll sound crazy, but Applejack reminds me so much of her, even their accents are the same, not to mention the Stetson hat. You guys know I made Honest AJ in memorial to her, using her favorite colors, even coming up with a catchphrase for when I used explosive rounds, to remind me of her. Applejack is all of those. She is literally AJ's favorite colors, and she weilds that Element of honesty, whatever the hell that means. Sometimes, I wonder why I wasn't killed by the insurrectionists, but she was. Hell, I became a Spartan for her, but I still feel like she wouldn't be happy with me."
"Might be because you still haven't moved on entirely," Ken said. "I was there when you two promised that, should one of you die, the other would remember, but still move on. Dude, you literally only do her favorite activities on the anniversary of her death and when you guys started dating. I highly doubt that's what she had in mind during that conversation.
This didn't cheer him up at all, his friends, who had no idea what AJ had meant to him, trying to tell him what she would have wanted. They were right, but he would never admit it, not in front of them. So he did what he always did when this happened. That's to say, think of what he would do to whoever had killed AJ. More often than not, it involved a painful death.
He was in the middle of thinking said thoughts when Lily said, "OH my god. Guys, look." Both Maruco and Ken looked out the window she was pointing and saw smoke coming up from what they assumed was Ponyville.
"What the hell is going on there?" Ken asked no one in particular.
"We need to let Celestia and Luna know," Maruco said.
"Guys. Look down at the streets," Ken said, clenching his fists as if he was getting ready to fight.
Both of them looked down and saw what was essentially a riot taking place. "What the hell?" Maruco said. "I thought Celestia and Luna said that everyone in Canterlot was happy."
"So did I, Maruco," Lily said. "So did I."
"Guys, look at the banner their holding," Ken said.
"Ken how the hell do you think- Damn it," Maruco said as he saw the banner. On it was an atom with a blue nucleus with black electrons surrounding it, a red "X" over it. Maruco looked at the others. "You guys don't think this is real, right. There's no way it can be."
"Unfortunately," Ken said, "this is real." He looked at his comrades, determination on all their faces. "Plasma is here."
Ponyville
Nightengale and the others had been able to make it halfway to the train station before they were stopped by more Brotherhood assassins.
They were moving through the less populated streets so they could move at top speed when they encountered thirty assassins. "Damn it," Nightengale said. He knew that all of them taking out thirty of the Brotherhood's assassins without at least one of them being killed was close to impossible, even for them, as did Vinyl, Robin, and Thunder. This wouldn't stop them from fighting, though. As the old lone team motto says, "A true protector's willing to give their lives."
He looked at his pony comrades, and they all nodded, knowing that it was unlikely they would all be walking away. It was Robin who said, "Cowards die many times, but the brave die but once."
"Ooh-bucking-rah to that," Thunder said.
Before Nightengale could tell John to take Twilight to the train station, a buzzing could be heard in the air from behind them. When Nightengale looked, he was surprised to see the changelings from yesterday, as well as the others like them here, flying up, but he was even more surprised when they landed between him and the others and the assassins. "What are you doing here? I assumed that you would be making sure your queen was safe."
Cheerilee was the one who said, "She insisted that we make sure you get to your destination. She said that as long as our hive stands, there will be those to protect the princesses."
Nightengale nodded, saying, "Right. We're heading to the train station so we can get to Canterlot. Think you guys can get us there?"
"Sure," Derpy said.
"Right." Nightengale moved in front of the others and pointed one of his blades to the assassins. "CHARGE!!"
At this, the unlikely group charged the assassin line, which dissolved almost immediately from the force of the group reaching them, all of the assassins dying as either blades found their skin or lethal shots of magic found their targets. They got through the line with out taking causalities, and they arrived at the train station, but one thing Nightengale noticed is that Twilight hadn't been surprised by the changelings.
When they got to the train station, they saw an almost all black train designed for speed and endurance by having its armor in an organic, flowing fashion, not unlike a covenant ship.
"Right," Nightengale said. "John, Twilight, Vinyl, Robin, Thunder, get in the rearmost compartment while I talk with Cheerilee." The other members of lone team nodded, as did John, and they, along with Twilight headed towards the caboose while Nightengale moved to where Cherrilee was.
"What do you want?" she asked bitterly when she saw Nightengale walking up.
"I just want to know if you and the others are coming to Canterlot with us. We have more than enough room in the train for all of you," Nightengale said calmly.
"You want us to come with you to Canterlot. Why? We're changelings, nopony wants us to be around, or even alive. So, why do you?" Cheerilee asked, both sorrow and anger in her voice.
"Because," Nightengale stated, "I work with changelings on a daily basis. Some of my closest friends are changelings. And even disregarding that, you and the others helped us today when you could have just as easily helped the others. To me, that's enough to show that you're an ally. So," he said, holding out a hoof to shake, "you coming?
Cheerilee thought this over. He didn't use many facts, but those he did use were true, regarding her and the others at least. "Fine," she said, "but we won't take our orders from you."
"I didn't expect you to. If you want, you can ride with me and the others," said, gesturing towards the caboose. He began walking there. He hadn't taken three steps when Cheerilee decided to follow him.
Canterlot train station; four hours later
Observer and Messenger were waiting for Nightengale and the others to arrive. They had gotten a message from Wubsy four hours ago that they were evacuating from Ponyville, along with about a hundred changelings that had been hiding there for a few years, and from a hive that lone team hadn't known about until now. Not that it was that safe in Canterlot now.
The civilians had quickly become like those in other cities, only more aggressive, probably due to two princesses living here. Lone had returned two hours ago, and he was mobilizing all of lone team for offensive action against the Brotherhood. Fortunately, no assassins had arrived yet to try to kill Celestia or Luna, but it was only a matter of time until that happened.
The odd thing. Ken, Lily, and Maruco had volunteered to escort Twilight and the others to the castle, saying that the guard couldn't handle a threat this size, almost as if they knew what the Brotherhood was capable of and willing to do. Celestia had agreed, sending them to accompany Observer and Messenger, under the guise of Solar guards, to get Twilight, Nightengale, and John to the castle.
They had been waiting at the station for an hour, the Spartans having been given one of the weapons they had when they made planet fall, when they heard the screech of train wheels braking. They all turned and saw what passed as a standard lone train rolling into the station. The doors on the caboose were the first to open, and out walked everyone that had been in there.
Nightengale, wearing lone team standard armor, walked up to them and said, "Messenger, Observer, good to see you. We got about a hundred total friendly changelings with us. The Brotherhood's stepping things up."
"Yeah, we know," Messenger said. "Tell them it's clear to come out, but it's going to get damn ugly the closer we get to the castle."
"Right." Nightengale then looked towards Cheerilee and said, "Tell the others to come out Cheerilee. We're going to be making a run for the castle."
Ken walked up then and said, "Nightengale, do you have any idea who these guys are? The guard won't be able to put this down."
"Well," Observer said, changing back into his changeling form and smiling as he said, "It's a good thing we aren't the guard, then."
"Ken," Nightengale said. "We'll explain everything later, when everyone is in the same room. For now, we need to move."
Before he could respond, the other changelings came out of the train. When they stopped making buzzing noises, Ken said, "Fair enough. Lead the way," getting out of the way.
"How about some music for the run, Maruco?" Nightengale asked.
"Thought you'd never ask." Maruco pulled up his music directory and started palying the only song he thought was appropriate for this before saying, "Lets go."
Nightengale nodded, and they began their run to the castle.
The streets were filled with rioters and dead Brotherhood members, easily identifiable due to their cloaks, alike. A fair portion of the changelings were in the air, while the others were running on the ground with the others. As they all got closer to the castle, more and more rioters appeared, though none were stupid enough to try to get to Twilight while she was surrounded by what was essentially a small army.
When they got to the castle, they saw that there weren't any guards at the gates, but the gates were closed. "Keep running!!" Nightengale yelled at the top of his lungs an he prepared to open a portal to get them inside the castle grounds. Just before those in the lead hit the wall, the portal opened and they passed through it into the castle grounds. Once those on the ground had passed through and those in the air had landed, Nightengale closed the portal.
He then looked to the other ponies of lone team, as well as the changelings. "Okay people. You may not know what's going on, so here's the gist: A group of fanatics and whatnot are currently attempting a coup of Equestria's princesses. Four hours ago, they set this plan in motion by attempting to kill Twilight Sparkle. Right now, me and my allies are fighting them where possible, which is why there are dead outside the castle grounds. I'm not forcing any of you to stay, but right now, the castle is the safest place in the city for all of you, as our enemies don't care if you're a part of our group. You've helped us, and for them, that is enough reason to kill you. If you want to leave, I won't stop you," he said, informing everyone present about their situation.
When no changeling left, Nightengale said, "Alright. I want all of you to wait in the castle. Don't worry about the princesses. Me and a few of my friends will take care of that."
Throne room; meanwhile
Celestia was absolutely worried. Not only had the citizens began to riot for no obvious reasons, but there was a horde of changelings running towards the castle, and Twilight and the others hadn't arrived yet, which only made her more worried.
She was brought out of her grief when she heard the sound of combat outside the throne room. It went on for only a few seconds before it stopped. The throne room doors blew open suddenly, and ten ponies, all but one of them wearing dark cloaks walked in. The one without a cloak was as tall as Luna, had an emerald green hair and brown mane and tail, but what caught her eye was that he had no cutie mark. "Your Highness, it's time for a regime change, and you aren't a part of it," he said to her. He then said to the others, "Find the aliens, bring them here. I'll take care of her."
The nine other ponies bowed to him and left with out a word. Their leader turned back to face Celestia. As he did so, Celestia saw the dead bodies of two guards on the other side of the door. "Who are you?" she asked, fear in her voice.
"You don't know who I am, and if I told you who I was, you wouldn't live to put a bounty on my head. Then again," he said, shrugging, "You won't live long now that I'm here." He then created a single ethereal blade, his horn glowing blood red, that resembled a broadsword, the only difference being that it had a forest-like color scheme. He then grasped Celestia in his magic, from which she couldn't escape. This terrified her, as this was the first time that this had happened. "I think it would be awfully rude to start without your guests. What do you say we wait?"
It was ten minutes before the nine cloaked ponies returned, and with them, the Elements, Luna, and the aliens. "How?" Celestia asked.
"Simple stun spell," the leader said. "I would have figured you knew that, seeing as how your guards used the same thing on your guests. And don't worry about your student. My underlings in Ponyville have already taken care of her."
Celestia nearly cried at this. There's no way Twilight could be dead. She had John and Nightengale with her. They would have been able to stop anypony from harming her, Celestia thought to herself.
"And now," he said, raising his blade in preparation for cutting her head off, "you will join her in death."
Just as he brought his blade down, a beam of green magic hit it, deflecting it to where it only hit the floor beside Celestia.
They then heard bodies dropping to the floor. They both looked at the source and saw ten Lunar guards standing there, all unicorns, all but one with ethereal blades. The one with out blades was Darkness Strider. "So," he said with a grin, "you must be Shadow Specter."
"If you value you your life, you will leave. NOW!!" Shadow said, pointing his blade at the guards.
"You don't realize who we are, do you?" Darkness asked. Before Shadow could respond the ten guards rippled. The armor on nine of them changed color to resemble the color scheme of Ken's, but the shape remaining the same. Darkness, however, became just as tall as Shadow, his dark teal coat turning as black as Nightmare Moon, his mane and tail now appearing as if they were on fire. Red now appeared as highlights on his coat. Celestia noticed that he, too, had no cutie mark. His muzzle resembled that of a changelings.
"You."
"Me," Lone Shadow replied, he and the others stepping in between Shadow and the others. Celestia felt a tugging sensation, and was lying next to Luna before she could even understand what happened.
"What are you doing here?" Shadow asked, anger in his voice. "This is just one city out of who knows how many total on Equis, so why are you here."
"I'll give you a hint," Lone said smugly, "a year ago. Luna, Uncontrollable nightmares. You idiots do realize I have access to a library with the cure to that, right?"
He helped Luna, Celestia thought to herself. Who is he?
"Enough, Lone Shadow. You and your pitiful excuse for a team have stood in the way of the Brotherhood's plans one too many times. Now, You will die," Shadow exclaimed in anger. He fired a bolt of explosive magic at Lone's head, while all Lone did was smirk. Just before the bolt hit, Lone appeared to melt into shadows, causing the bolt to pass through empty air and hit the hallway.
"Tia, did he just. . .," Luna said.
"I think so," Celestia replied, terror in her voice at seeing a pony use dark magic.
Before anyone else could say anything, hoof and foot steps, as well as buzzing could be heard coming from the hall.
Celestia looked towards the sound, and was relieved to see Twilight alive, but that relief immediately turned to shock as she saw three changelings in the air above her. The only reason she didn't say anything is because it would result in many questions she didn't want to answer.
"What's going on here, Celestia?" Nightengale asked. She noticed that he was wearing the same armor as the other nine guards, as were the three changelings and three other ponies behind him.
Before she could answer, an ear splitting roar echoed across the room, which caused everyone that could to look at where Shadow was, where he was now in combat with Lone, who held an energy sword in his magic. She could see that Lone had injured Shadow. Not fatally, but injured nonetheless. A cut ran across Shadow's left side. It was short, but the heat from the blade is what caused a fair portion of the pain.
Shadow retaliated with a horizontal slice, going from left to right, which Lone avoided by jumping over it while executing a barrel role. He landed on Shadows left side, where he had no protection. Lone spun around and bucked Shadow hard enough that an audible crack could be heard as Shadow hit the wall.
Lone walked over to where Shadow lay, keeping his sword ready. Instead of finishing him, which is what Celestia had expected, he cast a healing spell on Shadow. After the spell had done its job. "Get out of here, Shadow. You've earned my respect, but," Lone said, "should we meet again as enemies, one of us will die."
Shadow nearly fell as he got up. Once he was up, he said, "It would seem the reports of you treating members of the Brotherhood with respect were not a lie, Lone Shadow. Out of respect, I'll give you few days before my next attack so you can explain this to the princesses. And you are correct. When next we meet as enemies, only one will survive." He bowed his head out of respect and said, "Until then," and then melted into shadows.
Celestia shakily got up and walked to Lone and said, "You have my thanks for saving me, but, who are you?"
It was Luna who provided an answer. "The name you first gave me when we met. That's your real name, isn't it, Lone Shadow?"
Lone looked to the two princesses. "Yes, and I can see the question forming in your mind, Twilight. No, I am not the original. Even with all the spells I know, there are none that grant immortality. He is simply my namesake. Though I admit, I do bear a resemblance to how many often picture him, don't I?" He chuckled at this. "I suppose you all have questions."
"Hell yeah we do," Maruco said. "Here's the first one: How did you find out about Plasma? He was killed two years ago in 2557."
Lone raised an eyebrow. "Really. I suppose you wouldn't mind telling us that tale?"
"Later. We're here; you're answering our questions, so spill."
At that moment the others that weren't a part of lone team came over so they could hear this as well. "Yeah," Sawn said. "Who were those guys?"
"Those," Lone said, "are two questions I can answer in one explanation." He cleared his throat and began to speak.
"Though, in order to answer those, I must first explain us. Lone team. We are, or more accurately, were, an organization that no government knew about, but had ties to in way or another. We encompass every race on Equis that has sentience; from dragons to griffons to ponies. Every member of our team has combat training, and I mean actual combat training so we aren't as useless as the royal guard."
"Is that why you took the lives of the ponies who hadn't done any physical harm to us?" Twilight asked angrily.
"Twilight, let me ask you this, and this goes for your friends and the princesses as well: is it better to be considered a monster for the methods, such as killing, but to still have noble goals, such as saving lives? Or," Lone said walking towards the window, "to be considered a monster for the goals, but have noble methods. If we hadn't been there, then you, Celestia, and Luna would be dead, and who knows how many others besides your friends, and not even be having this conversation. It's like with Chrysalis and the invasion two years ago."
Rainbow spoke up here. "What invasion?"
Oh no, Celestia thought, panic appearing on her face.
Lone immediately turned around and looked at Celestia and said, anger in his voice, "You erased their memories of that day. Why?"
"To protect them," Celestia said, thinking that she didn't need to explain this to anypony.
"You aren't protecting them, you're keeping them ignorant of the real world. You aren't making their lives easier, you're just making it easier for ponies like the Brotherhood to conquer them." He turned to Nightengale. "Rook, you mind removing the spell from the Elements?"
"Not at all," Nightengale said. His horn began to glow gray, and a flash of light enveloped the room. When it faded, nothing was physically changed, but mentally was a different story.
"I- I think I remember now," Rainbow said. "But, how did I forget the invasion?" It was then she noticed Wubsy, Messenger, and Observer. She jumped in surprise and said, with panic in her voice, "Why are there changelings here?"
"They're with us," Thunder said.
Rainbow looked at Thunder upon hearing her and squinted her face, as if she was trying to remember her face "You look familiar, but I don't remember why." Lone and Nightengale looked at each other in surprise at this. Thunder was an orphan, abandoned by her family in Cloudsdale. Then the truth hit Lone
Well. That's unexpected, Lone thought to himself.
Thunder smiled and chuckled at this before saying, with the smile still on her face, "Hey, sis."