The New World

by jt45fan

Chapter 8: Pulling Out All the Stops

Chapter 8: Pulling Out All the Stops

I looked at my new command on the training field. I was stunned, and not in a good way. Celestia had told me that they were forming a new unit, but they hadn’t told me who they were forming it with. Oh, my friends were there, and the worst part was that they were the most prepared. They were talking amongst themselves; the new ponies were doing other things. One, a white unicorn with a light blue mane and beret was tending to some sort of machine. A purple pegisus and a green earth pony were engaged in some sort of sparing, which for them was little more than flailing their weapons, which amounted to trench clubs. And in the back corner was another pegisus, with a black coat, sharpening a knife. Anytime somepony got near to him he glared and growled at them. ‘I have to get all of these ponies trained by the wedding, or my plan will be a disaster.’ were my thoughts as a looked at them. ‘At least the spears and swords are for show.’ I though as a reflected on the weapons they were similar to what we had for the First World War, bolt-action rifles and early machine guns. As I looked at the new recruits again a runner approached me.

“Sir, Captain Shining Armor requests your presence at dinner tonight.” the runner said to me.

“Tell him I’ll finish readying my troops and then I’ll meet him. Where will it be held?” I responded to him.

“The banquet room in the barracks, Sir.” he responded to my inquiry. Sir. He called me sir. I would never get used to being an officer.

First Lieutenant Majorian Blueblade, a hero of the skirmishes that were erupting all along the border with the Griffon Kingdom, the lone survivor of a unit that didn’t exist until Luna created it, falsifying all the necessary documents in the process. After the skirmish, I was going to live out my ‘early retirement’ in Ponyville before the Princesses recalled me to command a new guard regiment for the duration of the crisis, where I ended up where I am now. Ironically my ankle injury which would have made me ineligible for the guard helped me sell the story; all it took has a fake scar where “a round caught me about the ankle.”

“All of you line up.” I ordered them. They rushed to comply with my order and salute me, a motion to familiar with my friends to be new recruits who never met me before. “I want you to drill with the dummies before you leave, you got that.”

“Yes, sir!” they responded.

I then left them to drill with Mo, I knew he would make them complete the drill, he could be scary as hell when he got mad. As I got to my private quarters I changed into my dress uniform. The blue hat and coat and the boots, hell I cut a dashing figure in it.

I buckled on my dress sword, and briefly considered taking a small pistol before I decided against it. As I was about to leave the room the phone rang. I picked it and answered it. “The office of First Lieutenant Blueblade.”

The raspy but feminine voice on the other side answered “Oh I must a got the wrong number, I thought I was calling my coltfriend.”

“Rainbow Dash.” I responded to her sarcasm.

“How is the training going?” she asked.

“As good as it’s going to get.” I answered her. “Hey, when are you going to get up to Canterlot?”

“That’s the thing, apparently Twilight has a brother who’s Captain of the Royal Guard or something, and he’s getting married up in Canterlot in a month, and all of us are invited. I was wondering if you would go with me?” she questioned of me.

“Sure I will, but I need to get going now, I have a dinner to attend with the captain. I’ll call you when I get back ok.” I replied to her. I hung up the receiver and smacked my head against the table in frustration. I had one week to get my men combat ready and prepared to defend Canterlot. This was going to be a problem. I need to stop thinking about that. Right now a have a dinner to attend.

I walked across the small armed camp that was currently just outside the city walls. The officer’s barracks were on the other side of the camp from what was now becoming a solders barracks instead of guards. Recruits were filing in from all over the nation after the Princesses broke the news to the public about the situation on the border with the Griffon Kingdom. I quickly learned that this would be the first war in two hundred years, and that they barely won the last one. By the time I finished my introspective view on the chances of Equestria’s chances in the upcoming war, which were very slim, I had arrived at the hall. The Guard Barracks was a huge building on the edge of the camp, built in a utilitarian style. The majority of the building was made up of the housing for the Royal Guard but in the west wing of the building was a large dining hall. I entered in to the building and was immediately stopped by several guard ponies. “Invitation.” one of them said to me.

“I was told to come here by the Captain himself.” I responded to them.

“So you don’t have and invitation?” said that asked the first time.

“No.” I told him.

“Then you’re not allowed in.” he responded to me.

Before I could do anything else Shining Armor showed up. “I told him to come here less than three hours ago, after somepony had to cancel. Let him in.” he ordered the guards. They stepped out of the way and I walked into the hall.
The floor was made of lacquered wood and the walls were made up of stone. The inside of the hall was alive with other ponies, most in civilian garb. There was a stage in the back where a band was playing, the same one that was at the gala. I looked around the room, recognizing a few ponies in the room. There were a few ponies that I recognized from the camp, and some big names like Fancypants and Flure de Lis, as well as Octavia on the stage. But the most important pony there was Princess Cadence herself. A waiter walked over to her and offered her a glass of wine. A pink aura enveloped the glass as she lifted it off the tray, showing it was the real Cadence.

Another waiter walked up to me and offered some form of hor’derve to me. “Try it, it’s good.” said my superior. I picked it up and took a bite of the food, savoring the texture. “Now follow me.” He told me after I swallowed the food. As I walked with him he cast a small spell before he said to me “I picked you to command the honor guard at my wedding, because of your history. The real one.” I was about to voice my concerns about talking about my past in public but he interrupted. “That spell basically encrypts what we’re saying to others. They think we’re talking about a hoofball game.”

“Fine,” I told him, “but first tell me about how you know.”

“Celestia told me about your past, and Twily about what you did to Discord. I want somepony that strong to protect her.” He said as he motioned at Cadence. “Also don’t worry about others finding out about your past, -AND WHAT IS THAT BUZZING?” he hollered as a buzzing in the air got louder and louder. It took me a moment to figure out what was happening before I remembered that the guard camp was outside the city limits, therefore outside the shield, so the Changelings could attack us.

“Get down!” I yelled at Shining Armor as several of the windows in the hall exploded and several black carapaced equine forms flew through them. The Changelings were attacking early. That however didn’t matter at that moment. As soon as Shining Armor broke the spell I yelled to the dazed guards “Wake up and muster everypony, tell them it’s a Code Nightfall. Go!” As they disappeared I drew my dress sword from its sheath and immediately took to the skies as Shining Armor readied a spell. Then I flew at the nearest Changeling, running it through with my rapier. I then withdrew it from the body and slashed at another one flying past me cutting through one of its wings, causing it to crash to the ground.
Less than a second after that the lights went out, intensifying the screams of the civilians in the hall. I heard one that sounded distinctly like Princess Cadence but by the time the lights of the unicorns horns went up it had died down. I landed next to Shining Armor and then ordered the troops gather around him “Get the civilians out of here!” I then turned to him and said “We have to get to Cadence.” To which he nodded in approval. As we worked our way to where she was I saw something that looked like an alicorn shrouded in green flame. As we rushed in that direction there were six Changelings, all wearing armor in between us and where Cadence was.

“Three each.” said Shining Armor, to which I nodded in approval. As I rushed at them, the first one reared back, and pulled back its armored hoof. I ducked underneath the punch and tackled it to the ground. It then drove my sword into its eye. As I leapt off the body I dodged a magic blast that vaporized the dying Changeling. I then kicked the mage in the head, stunning it. I gave it another kick knocking it out. The last Changeling then rushed me. I leapt on its back, pulled off its helmet and cut off its head. I looked over to Shining Armor and saw he had reduced his three adversaries to smoldering lumps. We then rushed to the table where we had seen Cadence, where we found her hiding under it for safety. I took a step back as Shining Armor offered her a hoof to get up. After a few murmured words between them Cadence cast a spell. I wasn’t sure what it did at the time, but the more important fact was the magic was green. Cadence was captured, Chrysalis had replaced her, and I had failed. Moments later I blacked out.
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I awoke on the floor of the banquet hall. All around me was shattered glass, but no bodies. I felt that was weird, but when Shining Armor woke up I understood why. “That was one hell of a party, huh.” he said to me.

“What are you talking about? What about the battle?” I asked him, confused over his blank in his memory.

“You must have one hell of hangover, bro.” he told me. I then ran off and talked to others and they all had the same problem. I then realized what had happened. The spell Chrysalis/Cadence cast was a memory spell. But then why did I remember? I rushed back to Shining Armor, who was standing next to his ‘fiancé’. “Are you going to accept my offer?” he asked me.

“Sir, I would be honored.” I responded to him. But I was more worried about Cadence’s safety. In the episode she looked beaten and starved after the events in the caves. “Now sir if you’ll excuse me, I need to get some rest so I can continue to train my troops tomorrow.” I said as I took my leave. As I left I looked at the false Cadence and she looked back at me. And she wasn’t happy.

As I left the building I motioned to a guardsman. “Get Master Sargent Silver Star and tell him to report to me at once. Tell him I got a call from his mother and it’s about Aunt Carrie.” As he took of the get him, I wondered if he would get the code in the message. Our old coach’s name should be a clue to the situation. I went back to my own room and began pacing. If I was right it was a race against time to see who would come in the room first a changeling or Moe.

I was answered when Moe casually walked into the room. “Why the hell are you talking about our coach?” he asked me as he walked in.

“You know why. Next time you see me after this, it may be an imposter. If I don’t talk about Aunt Carrie, it’s not me. Tell the others the same.” I told him as I tossed him a small pistol, similar to a Colt 45 with a primitive silencer on it as I grabbed one for myself. “Was anypony else coming in here after you?” I asked him as I chambered a round.

“Just a couple of other officers, why?” he asked.

As convenient my life had been in the past few months, it was nothing compared to what happened next. The door flew open and “Moe” was standing right there. “Well this is awkward” the false Moe rasped through its newly appeared fangs, seconds before insect like wings sprouted from its back. Not wanting to risk anything it fired a shot at it as Moe aimed his pistol.

It didn’t sound like any other gunshot before it. It sounded like less of a bang and more of a quick low whistle. It was like time slowed to a crawl as round slowly flew through the air, rotating perfectly, with unspoken elegance. The short, stubby lead form then smashed into the carapace to the changeling, sending chucks of chitin and globs of green luminous blood outward from the wound near the wing. The wing stopped flapping as the round exited the body and hit the wall of the camp behind it. The changeling screamed in pain as it fell to the ground. Before it hit the ground Moe dropped his gun and grabbed the changeling with magic as it fell, pulling it in to the room as I shut the door behind it. Through the pain it hissed at me “I will go to my death like my brothers before me at your hand.”

“Not quite.” I said to it as I slammed it into a chair and tied an exceptionally loose knot to hold it in place. “If you talk you’ll just rot in a jail cell for the rest of your life.”

“I would not betray my brothers in arms.” It rasped at me.

I then turned my back to it and called over Moe. “When it escapes let it go, I want it to scare the rest of them in to action.” I then slowly drew a long, triangular bladed knife out of a drawer. That scared the crap out of it I guessed, or maybe it just took advantage of the opening but it undid the knot and ran out of the room, breaking down the door as it did. “I’m going to need to get that fixed. You want to help me today?” I asked Moe. He nodded in approval and spent the rest of the day helping me with the door.

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It was four days later when the there was a knocking on the new door, which annoyed me greatly, mostly because I just put a fresh coat of paint on the door. “I’ll right, I’m coming.” I yelled to whoever was on the other side of the door. I walked to the door and opened it. On the other side was Rainbow Dash, maybe. The last time she called, just a day earlier, she sounded excited and said she had a surprise for me when she got up here next. It could be her coming up early, but it was most likely a changeling masquerading as her to kidnap me. Either option was good, either seeing my marefriend or seeing my plan go into action.

“Surprise!” the maybe Rainbow Dash said as I had opened the door.

As the old mantra ‘hope for the best prepare for the worst’, reared its head I welcomed her with open arms as she entered the apartment that I was saying on the base. And that’s when things got interesting.

Author's Note:

Ohh a shiny new box to play with!! Sorry about the short chapter but trust me, shits about to go down, and its going to get good.

Comments

[Xorn]

What? How did you go over the character limit?!?

[jt45fan]

1906867
Honestly, I posted the first chapter of this before the limit was instituted and when it went in to effect it didn't change this story.

[Xorn]

1906981 You lucky one yoooouuuuuuu!