At the Twilight of Harmony

by Rammy

Captain of the Hourglass Guard

“I don’t care my squad and I are not getting on board!” An orange unicorn with a two tone yellow and red mane growled. His cutiemark was a phoenix curling into itself. A sky blue Pegasus stallion wearing a white suit sailor suit was leaning on the railing of the airship and appeared exasperated at the unicorn below.

“Something wrong private?” Sentinel asked as he walked up next to the irritated orange unicorn .

“It’s Staff Sergeant not private. Staff Sergeant Phoenix Wave.” Phoenix Wave snapped not looking at the dragon.

“If you don’t get on board now you will be.” Sentinel threatened.

The unicorn finally glanced over to see the dragon. He humphed as he did, showing only anger not fear. “You are not my superior, lizard.” Phoenix Wave sneered. He had nothing against dragons per se but to be ordered around by one that was something else entirely. He lived to protect ponies and the princesses not dragons.

“A racist… Big surprise…” Sentinel rolled his eyes. “Your orders make me your superior… You and your squad BELONG TO ME!”

“Your orders HA! I don't think so I will not take orders from a bucking stranger to Ponykind. I answer to the Princesses not a foreigner. We ponies take care of own not some ‘dragon city’ to help some unknown fire breathers with their own problems. AND I BELONG TO NO ONE!” With that a whip of fire spud forth from his lit horn and snapped at Sentinel who merely stood there.

“Flames!?” Sentinel laughed. “Did you really think that flames would hurt me a creature of flame?”

“Ever heard of a fire break? Fire can defeat fire!” The fire whip became a lasso and he managed to lasso Sentinel’s tail as he attempted to used it to stab the unicorn. Having had enough Sentinel waved a paw increasing gravity over the unicorn so much so fast that the unicorn was slammed onto the boardwalk shorting out his horn and the fire lasso and making all the air in his lungs escape.  

Sentinel resisted the urge to wince as he walked up to the struggling unicorn. The last attack actually hurt. This was good as with some training he could take on dragons as well as ‘he’ did. Perfect for the Captain of the Hourglass Guard.

“Our problems, your problems…” Sentinel mocked before he leaned down to to whisper into the pony’s ear. “The snowstorm several days ago was no ordinary storm. It was wendigo induced, and the wendigos were merely puppets of a twisted individual that only cares about inflicting pain and suffering. That creature, monster really, that attacked Equestria via those wendigos also attacked my clan at the same time with shadow demons. Earlier he attacked Traxti City, a multiracial city larger than Manehattan. This is EVERYONE’S problem and if we have any chance at all we will need to work together. The Elements of Harmony alone will not do.” With that Sentinel withdrew from the unicorn and released the gravity well that was holding down Phoenix Wave.

“Air Captain is all that is delaying our departure is this stallion and his squad?”

“That is correct.” The air captain responded as Sentinel made his way up the boarding plank.

“Well what are you waiting for Captain Phoenix Wave? Get your ponies on board we haven’t got the time… there is a war going on if you haven’t heard.”

“Captain, now.” Sentinel barked when he saw Phoenix Wave remain standing with a shocked look on his face.

“Yes, sir.” Captain Phoenix Wave saluted before galloping off to get his squad.

Sentinel smirked as he watched his captain make haste to do as he was ordered. A dragon in pony skin...

“Captain Phoenix Wave you should be below deck sleeping. The days and weeks ahead will make basic training seem easy.”

“Sir? Why…”

“You were the only one to questioned your orders…”

“Sir that is not true.”

“All greener than an earth pony hoof…” The wizened pegasus mare chuckled. “Plus a few officers to keep them in line.”

Sentinel quickly flipped through the mentioned officers’ dossiers, none of which appealed to him. As usual, Celestia was able to anticipate his desire for only young inexperienced ponies. They were easier to mold into what he would need as the Hourglass Guard. Not to diss the way the Equestria trained their military given his alicorn self had written and developed a lot of the training methods as is great setup for pony only units. The problem was these ponies will be working, training, and fighting with dragons everything in the rulebook had to be redone.

He threw the dossiers across the table. “Useless. None of these are captain material.”

“What then are you looking for Sentinel?”

“I’m looking for a pony in his or her 30’s that has either not risen through the ranks or has been demoted due to insubordination and or temper issues. One that given all that still has reenlisted even with generous and numerous offers to leave.”

Sentinel grumbled, he had been going through dossier after dossier trying to find the right one. His head began to spin as he rejected another one and picked up another. As the many before, he took a cursory glance. He was about to toss it when something in it caught his eye. Everypony else was too busy with getting the everything set for the move to notice that Sentinel was reading a particular dossier intently and that his frown had turned into a wide smile.

“Unless things have changed Staff Sergeants are usually in charge of a squad of eight, correct?”

“Correct…” General Iron Arrow grabbed the dossier that Sentinel slid to him.

“Staff Sergeant Phoenix Wave, 34. Been in the Unicorps for fourteen years. Numerous citations for insubordination and fighting… which according to psych evals was most likely due to a fierce loyalty to his squad members.  Says that several of his squad members have refused promotions to remain under his command…”

“You know the amount of marks against him he should have been drummed out and yet you not only haven’t but you allow him to reenlist… I’m going to guess you had him working in the Elite Unicorn Military Spell Program? Most likely due to his skill in pyromancy no doubt.”

“And how the buck do you know that!?!“ General Iron Arrow angrily scanned through the dossier again. He could find nothing in there about that program and made sure that only the declassified records were used and yet this dragon knew about highly classified secrets. “Princesses I protest again: first you declare war with an unknown hostile force then you go into an alliance with a nation nopony has heard of then you want 300 green hoofed to go Faust knows where and now worse of all you are giving out military secrets to a foreign power! Especially one that until this morning nopony knew about.”

“The Hourglass Clan has been known to us since its founding only a couple of years ago. I have already explained the rest. We are allies with the Hourglass Clan; end of discussion.” Celestia spoke with finality.

“Also drop the ‘giving away Equestria military secrets’ spiel.” Sentinel added. “There is very little that I don’t know about Equestria military and I never had to ask, coerce, torture, beg, plead, steal, or compel... Should I get a thesaurus and start reading it? I know Discord would… and he would have gone one step further and sung it ala dictionary song.”

“Who are you!?” One of them barked. Sentinel was too busy trying not to chuckle to figure out who asked. The one time he needed his keeper colleague and he wasn’t here. Not for long of course, Discord was instructed to hightail it back to Equestria as fast as he could and by any means.

“Now that is classified and beyond your pay grade.” Sentinel joked.

Luna chuckled at the infuriated and red looks on the generals. Celestia scowled at Sentinel but he could see the twinkle in her eye for a fraction of a second. Twilight was shaking her head into her hooves. Sentinel smirked before he coughed to get the meeting back into order.

“Now back to Staff Sergeant Phoenix Wave, I want him and his squad. If his psych evals, and service records are any indications he will fit perfectly among dragons. He is the be Captain of the Hourglass Guard… if he passes my test. Now as to how we are going to transport…”

“We are using those new airships, right?” Twilight nearly squeed in excitement.

“Even with the extreme short notice we did managed to acquire three.” Celestia answered.

“Celestia you forgot something…” Celestia eyed Twilight. Twilight confidence in overriding Celestia had improved over the years to the point that even when Celestia was angry she had the confidence to speak up. Right now, thankfully, Celestia was giving her a confused look though he was using her usual mask to hide it from her generals. “The airships amplify a pegasi’s magic and as soon as we hit the Badlands…”

“Which means you can only take two…” Celestia finished for Twilight.

Well not true, we could take three but Twixt’d would not have the skills to fly an airship… “Which should be fine…because all we are taking is rations, some medical supplies, and the ponies themselves.”

“What about armor, weapons, and other equipment?! You can’t just expect to have a functioning military unit…” The Earth General, General Hard Pack protested.

“We have our own blacksmith who is already working on their armor and weapons. Hourglass is a city not a cave or series of caves. There are orchards nearby and they will be working on growing their own food. The rations are to tide them over until then.”

“You seem surprised.” Sentinel noted the looks on the generals. “Dragons are not all ravenous, blood thirsty predators living in caves that only come out to steal anything shiny for their hoards, capture sexy mares, and then flambe before eating foolish knights out to rescue said damsels in distress. Two of our numbers don’t touch any meat. He of Music has a garden in which he grows food for himself and his birds, and He of Hourglass, Firstclaw, the leader of the clan lives in a library likes to scavenge for berries, roots, and herbs from the nearby forest to eat.”

“The only thing to be put on those ships is ponies, food, and medical supplies. No weapons, armor, tents, uniforms etc AM I CLEAR?”

Sentinel pulled himself from his memories. “Yeah, I know, but you were the only one to protest directly to me. Not only that but you were willing to defend your beliefs with actions. I don’t expect blind loyalty. You had the courage to face up to a dragon and challenge said dragon. Hourglass is a dragon clan if you don’t have the courage to hold your own against a dragon then you you have already lost.”

Sentinel looked off into the darkness knowing where they were because where they were in relation to He of Everfree’s territory wards. “You better get back down to the hold we are about to enter the Badlands and everypony's magic is about to go haywire.”

“One more thing Captain…” Sentinel said just as Phoenix Wave was about to walk away.

“Sir?” Phoenix Wave turned to face Sentinel, a confused look on his muzzle.

“It’s Secondclaw, not sir, and please, address me as Sentinel during informal conversations.”

“Yes, s... Secondclaw.” Phoenix Wave managed to correct himself. He saluted Sentinel before walking down into the hold.

“Air Captain I will need to take over from here.”

“I think not. I may have got payed ten times more money than I could get in a year to transport 150 ponies to an location south of Equestria and come back empty. You know nothing about flying an airship and it’s night time. Maybe in daytime… but I want to get back in one piece…”

The air captain’s rant was interrupted by the ship which shuddered and started to buck and tip violently. Sentinel used his magic in an attempt to stabilize the flight but even then it still was shifting about.

“Are you going to let me take over now?” Sentinel whispered into the pony’s ear. His ears could pick up the sounds of muffled cursing and the shouts of his new Captain of the Hourglass Guard. So far no signs of a mutiny… yet. The air captain finally nodded his consent and Sentinel quickly took the controls and leveled the airship.

“Solar Flare to Moonlight come in. Over.” Came the voice of the air caption of the Solar Flare. With a sigh Sentinel picked up the radio microphone.

“This is the Moonlight. Over.”

“Is everything alright over there? Your flight was erratic for a moment. Over.”

“Yeah, everything is fine over here except for the air captain who might find himself on the receiving end of some angry ponies when they find out the reason for why the ship shook like a bottle of champagne. Over and out.” Sentinel slammed the crystal radio microphone back on its holder.

“Go help Captain Phoenix Wave with any injuries.” Sentinel growled at the shaking air captain. Somehow, I think this is going to long trip...

“Hmmm…” Sentinel hummed. If his calculation was right any moment his home would become visible to pony sight. He picked up the radio microphone. “Moonlight to Solar Flare. Over.”

“This is the Solar Flare. Over.” Came the tired voice of Twilight over the radio.

“Get your ponies on deck and the cameras ready. Hourglass will be visible any minute. Over.”

“Good. I don’t think I can go on much longer Sentinel. Over.”

Well neither can the ponies… Sentinel added to himself. Between being cooped in a crowded airship and not having magic, even for less than a day, had them tense and irritable. Captain Phoenix Wave had to break up no less than nine nights already. “It’s not much longer to Hourglass hang in there. Over and out.”

“CAPTAIN!” Sentinel yelled out.

The sound of hooves on wood came from the hold below and a second later an orange stallion unicorn appeared. “Yes, Sir...Secondclaw?”

“Get everypony above deck. You are about to see a sight that you will never forget.” Sentinel motioned into the distance. The orange unicorn walked to the railing and looked out.

“What the buck is that!?” Phoenix Wave cursed as he saw what looked like a mountain, if it wasn’t for the fact it was upside down, in the distance.

“That would be Terra Hourglass, the upside down mountain. Hourglass City is uh… on ‘top.’”

"That can't be... it's... it's impossible!" Phoenix Wave stuttered. Still not believing his eyes.

Sentinel chuckled. “That’s exactly what the Bearer of Magic said…”