//------------------------------// // Ambushed // Story: Shadows of a Sunset // by Pen Dragon //------------------------------// Ambushed To Sunset it felt like an eternity as they journeyed closer to the mountains, she watched as the airship flew over small villages and she began to wonder if her family's home was like that? A Village, filled with ponies just like her. Intelligent, skilled in magic, and impressive. Her mother didn't give her details about her old home, but she was hoping it would be worth the trip. It was than, her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of knocking. Knock, Knock "Princess?" Swift Wing, called out. "Oh....come in!" She said, turning back towards the window. The doors began to open slowly as Swift Wing entered her room. "Princess? The others have already arrived at the dinning hall and are wondering where you've been? Is something wrong?" He asked, bowing his head. "I'll be there shortly," She said, hesitantly as she continued to look out the window. Even with the tone of her voice Swift Wing could tell that something was bothering her. "Forgive me for speaking freely your majesty, but what is troubling you?" He asked, bowing his head. Sunset didn't bother to acknowledge his question and continued look out the window. Swift Wing for his part, want to help his princess, since it was his duty as a guard. He trotted over to Sunset and sat beside her. "I would like to be alone right now sergeant." "I know you want to be alone, but it's my duty as a guard to protect you and listen to your problems. So getting rid of me is pointless your highness, I'm stick beside you like glue," he explained, causing Sunset to chuckle. "Thank you Sergeant Swift Wing, but I just need to be alone for a bit. I'll be there shortly, I just want to look at the view alone for a bit," "Very well your majesty, I'll respect your decision and please just call me Swift," he said as he was about to exit the room until he tripped on his own hooves and fell face first to the ground, causing the young princess to laugh out loud. "I...uh meant to do that." "Sure you did, Sergeant Goofball," She joked, causing him to blush in embarrassment. Swift Wing soon took his leave, still blushing as he headed towards the dinning hall with the others, leaving Sunset alone with her thoughts once again. It was difficult for her, but she was beginning to see images of the fire from that night and a pony with blood red eyes and silver fangs glistening beneath the moonlight. It was difficult for her to grasp on to that memory on what happened that night. Even though she was a foal back than, she could still remember some images from her past. I hope I can get some answers about these flashbacks. Sunset felt that she had kept her friends waiting long enough and decided to make her way to the dinning hall, but she failed to notice the strange shadow lurking outside her window. "The grub is pretty good here Sergeant Swift," Quickfix said as she began to devour an entire bowl of rice and cheese, both Coco and Redheart were disgusted by her table manners. "Well it's been prep by our finest chefs," Swift stated. "Ahh...Sunset, it's about time you arrived, Sergeant Swift Wing had his chefs prepare dinner for all of us," Redheart said, as Sunset entered the dinning room. She was still lost in thought, still wondering about her past. "Sunset? Are you okay?" Coco asked. "Huh? Oh, I'm fine just a bit tried is all," She lied, and Swift Wing knew it, but decided to keep his mouth shut knowing enraging the daughter of Celestia would be an unwise move. So he continued to eating his daisy noodle soup. "Sunset if you aren't hungry than it's okay, you can head back to your room if you want," Spike suggested. "No I'm fine Spike, but I am hungry. I'll just have the tomato soup please?" Sunset asked. Swift simply nodded and head towards the kitchen to have the chef prepare her meal. "Now that it's just us, we've been wanting to know why you wanted to go to the mountains?" Quick Fix asked. "It is...rather odd," Redheart said, with a questioning look. "Sorry if we're prying into your business, but we're just worried about you," Coco added, shyly. "Sunset, I think it's best for you to tell them why we're going in the first place," Spike said, placing his talons on her shoulder, as he gave a comforting smile. Before she could even say anything, the airship began to shook, the alarm system began going off. Pegasi began passing by them in full armor. Everypony began wondering what was going on out there, why was the alarm going off? Sunset pulled one of the rushing guards aside with her magic. "What's going on out there?" "The ship is under attack, by Shadowbolts and strange Shadows in armor." The Pegasus said, rushing past her once again to join the battle. "Did he say, Shadowbolts?!" Coco said, quivering behind Quick Fix. "We must have wandered into one of Nightmare Moons territories, but why is it all the way out here in the mountains?" Sunset asked, but the ship shook again causing them to stumble and fall. "I think we should worry more about what we're going to do first!" Spike shouted, earning a glare from Sunset as she got up on her hooves. "Oh, shut up Spike, we need to find Swift Wing and get him to land this ship, otherwise we're finished," Sunset said as she trotted out of the dinning area in search for Swift Wing. "Alright we better go after her, before she gets herself into trouble," Spike said, chasing after his sister. "But aren't we safe here on the ship?" Redheart asked. " The Shadowbolts are outside and we're still safe inside since it's protected by a barrier." "That doesn't mean they can't break through," he answered. "Why can't we ever have safe, quiet adventures?" Coco asked. "Than we wouldn't have any fun at all!" Quick Fix answered, following after the others. Coco was alone with nopony in the room. She groaned as she trotted after them. "Oh, I hope this ends soon!" After hearing the alarms, Swift Wing had immediately left the kitchen and headed outside with his weapons, and over a dozen troops. Outside the airship dozens of Shadowbolts surrounded the airship, while shadow knights began boarding their airship, Swift Wing on the other hoof had a magic bow powered by electricity and began firing at the intruders. His Pegasi and Unicorns had either took flight to face the Shadowbolts or stood by his firing bolts of magic at the shadows that tried to plow through their defences with weapons. "Hold your ground! We aren't letting one of those ghouls get close to these doors!" He ordered, firing an arrow of lightning at a nearby Shadowbolt. As more knights fall, more would appear to take the place of the fallen one's. The sounds of blades clashing together and magic firing was all that could be heard in the air. Corpses of ponies from both sides had either fallen down to the very soil of Equestria or the airship. Most of Swift Wing's troops had fallen and the Shadow Knights numbers had increased as they closed in on their foes. Swift Wing fired three more arrows towards the ground that caused exploded on impact, creating a mass of smoke to conceal their location. "Fall back!" Swift ordered. In doing so, what remained of his squad had begun to retreat inside. Swift felt nothing but anger as he retreated inside, he had failed to push back the enemy forces and most of his troops had fallen and the Shadowbolts went after the engines. He knew that his airship wasn't going to make it and those Shadow Knights just kept on coming in bigger numbers. Damn it! I can't believe I let this happened! He began trotting down the long narrow halls of the airship, wandering why would they attack a single aircraft? Unless.... S*** they must have known she'd be here! "Sunset slow down!" Spike shouted. "No! We need to land this bucket of bolts before we end up ten feet under!" Sunset shouted back as she enter the control room. Another loud tremble shook the ship once again, but the ship itself began to tilt over as it began to pick up speed "Why isn't anypony flying this thing!" She shouted, soon Spike and the girls entered the room. "I think it's because it has a magic enhance autopilot," Quick Fix answered as she looked in awe. Both Sunset and Quick Fix immediately headed towards the controls and began flipping switches and pressing buttons, trying to turn off the controls. Before they knew it two Shadow Knights crashed threw the walls, both wielding an axe and a mace. "Sunset Shimmer~" They both said simultaneously. Everypony became speechless, especially Sunset as she soon took a stance as her horn began to glow. "It's so finally great meet you~" "Who are you?" She asked. "Just a soul trapped in another's body," they said. "Huh?" They all said, confused. "You see I'm not actually here, but rather waiting in the mountains for my other manifestations to bring your corpses, well except for you Sunset~" They answered. The two Shadow Knights slowly approached Sunset, even though the ship was getting closer towards the mountains at an alarming rate. "You are the key to conquering all of Equestria. I could care less about these ponies. The only one I need is you!" Both Knights had rapidly appeared next to Sunset and took hold of her by her hooves. Using their magic to cut off the energy she had gathered. Without a moment to lose they shot a dark beam magic at the front of the vessel. Creating a massive hole that lead outside. Sunset struggled to escape their grasp, but they were too strong. Spike hopped on one knights backs and began clawing at their faces. "Let her go!" He shouted as he tore a piece of armour off only to be thrown to the side like a rag doll. Redheart picked up a pipe and threw at one of their heads. The Knight turned to her direction and fired a beam of dark magic from its palm. Redheart jumped out of the way, before impact. Both Coco and Quick Fix immediately headed to her side, helping her to her hooves. Soon both Knights carried Sunset towards the opening and we're about to take off, only to be tackled by none other than Swift Wing. Surprised, Sunset could only blush as he carried her away from the knights. Only to be chased by Shadowbolts. Swift Wing began to take evasive action as he flapped his wings with all he his might, but to no avail as they got closer to them. "Can't you fly any faster?!" Sunset said, panicking. "I'll have you....know that....I'm one of the fastest Pegasus in the military and if I wasn't busy trying to save than maybe we'd be outta here by now...." Before he could finish his back was shot by an unknown beam of magic. On the mountains the black armored unicorn had only looked up at the sky and watched as both Sunset and Swift Wing went crashing down somewhere within the snowy mountains, near their territory. As for the airship it went crashing near his location. "Hehehe....seems that I haven't lost my touched" he said. Before he knew it, he was tackled by an unknown begin and went tumbling down hill of the snow. He jumped up to his hooves to find a unicorn dressed in crimson red armor, with two twin swords on his back. "After all these years you finally decided to show up you son of a b****," "I think it's time we picked up where we left off seventeen years ago," Without a second thought both ponies charged at each other as both of their horns glowed, clashing into each other, creating a ripple of magic. "Urgh.... is everpony okay?" Redheart asked. "Yeah," Quick Fix answered as she helped Spike up. "Coco where are you?" Spike called out, only to find her appear from the rubble unharmed. "I'm....here," She answered. "It looks like nopony got hurt, but that should be impossible, we shouldn't have even survived that crash?! How is that possible?!" She asked, trying to find a logical explanation, only to hear Quick Fix laugh out loud. "And what's so funny?" "Oh, it's nothing except for the fact that my invention saved our flanks!" She declared, lifting her saddle bag. "It has a built in magic barrier that was able to shield us from the crash. Of course the shield is damaged, but that's only one of it's main functions. It also has two large turret guns that are each powered by emeralds, which makes an excellent power source." "That's amazing! If we weren't under attack I would just kiss you!" Spike said aloud, causing her to blush in embarrassment. "Gosh, thanks," Redheart could only roll her eyes as Coco smiled at her two friends. "Well now that mystery is solved, we still need to find out where Sunset and Sergeant Swift Wing landed," Redheart suggested. "Um...but where do we look?" Coco asked. "I don't know, but we should head up the mountain, find some shelter. Sunsets probably doing the same thing as we speak," Spike explained as he began heading up, girls took a quick glance at the wreckage before they began to follow after Spike, wandering why is this happening? Don't worry Sunset were coming "Ugh.... my head hurts" Sunset said, struggling to get her bearings as to where she was, only to find Swift Wing unconscious, with his back burnt from an unknown source. "Swift, please get up we need to get outta here, now!" She said, shaking him. He began to stir as his eyes opened slightly. "Thank my mother.... Swift we need to get going," "What happened?" He asked, rubbing his head as he got up slowly. "You were hit by someponies magic, we were lucky I was able to put a shield spell over us before we crashed," She answered. "Thanks.... but that's not going change the fact that I can't fly especially in this condition. My wings were damaged from that attack, so we're going to have to travel on hooves. At least until we find another means of transportation." Swift suggested as he rubbed the back of his wings. "Well we better get going then," She said, trotting up the mountain as he looked on. "Shouldn't we head downhill instead of up? It's a safer option, princess," "I didn't come all this way only to give up! We're going up hill and that's an order!" Swift could only roll his eyes as he groaned. "As you wish your highness." This is going to be a long day.