Under the Moonlight

by Thunderblast

Lockdown

The sun rose over magnificent Equestrian capitol of Canterlot, like any other day. Today was different for everypony, however. Royal Guards could be seen at almost every street corner, after last night's castle breach, which prompted a massive city lockdown, something that had not been seen since the Royal wedding and it's following attack by Chrysalis and her changelings. The kidnapping Thunderblast witnessed happen was kept inside the castle, with most of the Royal and Lunar guards. Even Shining Armor was forced to stay in town, despite previously planning to return to the Crystal Empire and to his wife, Princess Cadence. The Captain not only did his best to ensure the safety of the ponies, but he also was forced to make sure Cadence stayed in the Empire, despite her demanding to be by his side and help her husband.

Thunder laid in a bed in one of the barracks, tossing and turning, contesting his mind to allow him to sleep soundly without thinking of his now missing friends. His duties were lengthened another two hours, which meant less sleep for him on nights he didn't have to be at his post. Not only that, but orders were he had to stay at the castle grounds until the lockdown ended, unless his station was changed again, or even to a day patrol. Other than those, he was not allowed to go home to his own bed.

"Urgh..." He mumbled into his pillow. The entire lockdown and what happened the night before had thrown him off completely, and was giving him lots of trouble thinking about other things, like his marefriend. The one thing preventing him from getting rest, was the sounds of guards outside training themselves and others marching by, with their hooves stomping on the ground which made many loud thuds. Finally, he gave up and turned over, chest up. His eyes were bloodshot from the lack of sleep, but he couldn't sleep now. He had to be out to his station by nine, and it was already eight-thirty.

The stallion rose out of bed, armor still on his back and hooves. Thunder figured sleeping in his armor wouldn't be much of a difference than sleeping without it, only to find he was dead wrong. His armor got extremely hot, making him sweaty and uncomfortable. Moments after waking up, he soon found out the showers were down for repairs, which meant for him that his only other option was to bathe in a pond, something he wasn't going to do. Instead, he freshened himself up by quickly washing his mane in a sink, before drying it off and setting his helmet fittingly on his head. Out of all of the things, his helmet was most likely the most comfortable piece of his set of armor. The main piece sat on his back, making him uncomfortably warm despite the cooling temperatures of autumn, while his hoof guards were beginning to feel a bit small compared to how they fit a year ago, meaning he would probably have to get new ones and have them fitted. He had also heard that the magic in the armor fades out after a few years, which meant it has been gone since just before the return of Nightmare Moon, also meaning his armor can't refit on it's own.

The outside temperature dropped throughout the day, only reaching it's highest point of sixty-one degrees, a comfortable point to Thunder where the air can barely be felt. The breeze, however, made it feel a lot cooler than it really was, which made him grateful for his hot, sweaty armor. During his duty, he noticed something strange. Despite the city edges being completely guarded, he spotted the spec of what looked like a pegasus flying over the city, carrying something large in it's hooves. Somehow, the pony made it over the walls without being spotted by anypony but Thunder. He knew even he couldn't leave the city, but he was desperate to see where this one pony was going. Anypony leaving at that time would certainly land them in jail for a month, as it makes them a possible suspect to the cause of the lockdown in the first place.

The risks were great, but the stallion could not let it go. Instead of staying at his station, he flew out after the pony, quickly but quietly to avoid being seen. By dusk, he realized they were almost to Ponyville, as Thunderblast saw approaching lights of small buildings. As the sun fell behind the hills, followed by the slow rise of Luna's moon to begin the night, he lost visual of the pony, and immediately thought he or she flew in another direction when he wasn't looking.

"I can't go back now." He turned and looked at the distant city of Canterlot as it sat on the side of Canter Mountain. Instead, he flew down to Ponyville and looked around. Not many ponies were out at that time. Then again, he was in the less-busier part of town. As he trotted further in, ponies were no longer a rare sight. Most were at restaurants eating, others trotting around and going into shops before they closed for the night, while some eyed Thunder as they walked by. It was unusual seeing a guard in Ponyville again, the last time being the Summer Sun Celebration that turned out to be the longest night of the year, rather than the day.

Something, however, did not feel right. The stallion got a strange chill down his spine, thinking he was being watched by somepony. He looked around to see if anypony was in fact watching, only to find his mind was simply overreacting. But, in the corner of his eye, he spotted a dark mass stare at him for a brief moment, before running into an alley. He turned his head the moment it did, catching it's tail disappear between two buildings. Once again, he pursued it. The only thing Thunder could make out was a dark grey hoodie on the stallion. Lucky for him this time, it ran slower than it flew, giving him the chance to tackle. The moment Thunderblast was close enough, he tackled the pony.

"GET OFF OF ME!" The pony, a stallion, screamed in anger, as it begun to throw hooves around, one making it to Thunder's jaw.

Thunder yelped, somehow getting thrown off of the pony. His helmet was thrown off by the force, and now sat in a small puddle. The pony quickly got on top of Thunder and pinned him down, before putting a knife at his throat.

"Who are you?!" The pony asked in anger.

"Ouch..." Thunder groaned as he moved his jaw around to make it feel less pain.

"TELL ME DAMN IT!"

The stallion looked up at the one pinning him down, and saw a pair of blue eyes, not quite like his own, but close.

"How about you tell me first, and why you're holding a knife at my throat?" Thunder stared up at the stallion.

"That's not important right now. What is important, is why were you following me all the way here?" The stallion's eyes narrowed onto Thunder.

"I noticed somepony leaving Canterlot when it's illegal to at this time. I had no choice but to follow you." Thunder replied.

"Hmph." The stallion said, still holding the knife at Thunder's throat.

"Would you mind taking the knife away? Having it at my throat makes me want to arrest you more and more." Thunder eyed the stallion back.

The stallion pushed the knife against his throat further. "Please, you don't even have hoofcuffs."

"I don't need hoofcuffs." Thunder smirked, before moving his hind legs into a new position, before bucking the stallion off of him.

"AAAAHOW!!!" The stallion screamed, falling back to the ground behind Thunder.

Thunderblast rose to all fours, looking at the stallion. His buck must have stunned the stallion, as he was still down and was holding his lower stomach in some pain. Without hesitation, he ran to the stallion and pinned him down.

"Now, mind telling me why you ran from Canterlot?" Thunder glared down at the stallion in pain.

"I-I..." The stallion stuttered, gritting his teeth in pain.

"Oh come on, I didn't kick you that hard." Thunder rolled his eyes.

"Y-Yes you did! Don't you guards realize how strong you are?!" The stallion whined.

"Just..quit the whining and answer my question."

"Fine! Fine." The stallion sighed, slowly letting go of his stomach, opening his eyes to look at Thunder. Before he could say a word, Thunder felt a knife being stabbed into his hoof.

"Degh!" Thunder held back a scream in pain as he fell to his side, holding his hoof in pain. Before he could get back up, the stallion had run away. Thunderblast looked down at his right hoof, seeing the deep stab wound and the blood coming out of it. He reached into his armor, pulling out a small medical kit all guards have with them in their armor, before removing his hoof guard and wrapping some bandage around it. The stab wound came just above where his hoof was slit during his bad encounter with Light Assassin the week before. After wrapping it up, the bleeding slowed and soon stopped. Moments later, he begun to feel drowsy again, realizing the knife must have had something in it that would most likely kill him if the stab didn't first. Thunder tried his best to stay awake, thinking this might in fact be the end. Instead, his eyes slowly shut and he dozed off.

---

"Thunder, wake up!"

"Nngh...w-wha?"

"Please, wake up!"

Thunderblast opened his eyes slowly. To his surprise, he was no longer in an alleyway, but inside a darkened bedroom. Once his vision cleared, he saw a light blue pegasus with a blown back navy-blue mane staring down, his irises shrunk smaller than normal. Next to him, stood a white pegasus with a mane similar to Shining Armor's in color.

"Blitz and Soarin." Thunder mentally said. He somehow found himself silenced, and unable to speak.

"Th-Thunder! You're okay!" Blitz smiled, wiping a tear away.

Thunder nodded, opening his mouth to speak, but not finding anything to say.

"What happened to you? Why can't you talk?" Blitz stared down at him, a small chill running down his back.

Thunder shrugged, a sign that he doesn't know either.

"Maybe that stab wound has something to do with it." Soarin looked at his hoof, which had slightly-bloody bandages around it.

"I doubt a stab to the hoof would have to do with him losing his voice." Blitz then faced Soarin.

"No, what I mean is, maybe the knife had something that made him fall asleep or something. I've seen it before." Soarin put his hoof to his chin, thinking.

Thunder coughed, gagging on his own spit slightly, before gasping for some air. "W-what happened?" He spoke in a mostly-destroyed voice.

Both Blitz and Soarin took a sigh of relief. "We found you in an alley sleeping, so we took you here."

"Where is...here?" Thunder coughed some more.

"Our house. I think everypony is inside as well." Blitz said.

Thunder slowly sat up. "What for?"

"We should probably show him Blitz." Soarin looked at Blitz with a concerned look on his face.

Blitz sighed. "I guess." He then grabbed a remote and switched on the small flat-screen in his room, which was broadcasting a major news network based in Manehattan in it's 'Breaking News' stage.

"What's going on?" Thunder stared at the TV.

"Sh!" Soarin put his hoof up as he watched.

"Reports are coming in from Baltimare and North Manehattan that a war has broken out between the Royal Guard and hundreds, if not thousands of ponies. We cannot confirm what this is, but it appears to be some sort of coo." The news stallion stared at the camera, before leaning over as if he was looking around it, before his irises shrunk in fear. "Okay...we're evacuating" He then got up and ran off of the screen, before everything went to static.

"Guys, what aren't you telling me?" Thunder looked at Blitz and Soarin, who were staring at the television with fear all over their faces.

Moments later, the camera showed a grey pegasus with a green and black mane, wearing neon-green shades. The stallion took the shades off, and shook his head to reveal his eyes to be blood red. "Good morning, Equestria."

"Light?!" Thunder's irises shrunk to beyond marble size.

"Say hello to your new leader. The princesses have betrayed us for far too long. The Royal Guard reigns supreme over the capitol city of Canterlot. It's time that we take back OUR land, and put an end to their evil. As you can see, we already run Baltimare and Manehattan. Next, we will take the rest of the east coast. Then, it will just be a matter of time before we take Ponyville and Canterlot as well." He laughed insanely, then moving out of the way of the camera to reveal a royal guard tied to a chair, without his helmet. "Say hello, whatever your name is."

The guard looked up at the camera, before saying quietly. "H-help...me..." He trembled, before being stabbed from behind by Light Assassin, dying moments later.

The three gasped as they watched, Thunder tearing up at the sight of the murder.

"He's just one of many that I plan to kill today. One, I may mention...Thunderblast." Light smirked at the camera.

Blitz and Soarin then looked at Thunder, who looked back at them.

"He's...after you too?" Soarin's jaw hung further open.

"But...I-I didn't do anything!" Thunder trembled.

"I know you're there, Thunder. I know you will do anything to save your guard friends, and your worthless apple relatives, might I mention, are not part of your family." Light came closer to the camera, the three stallions looking back at the TV. "Don't bother hiding, i'll just have to find you. It's your choice. Run and hide...or fight me like a real stallion would."

Thunder gulped, his body still trembling lightly.

"This...is our revolution."

Comments

[Skyfire Storm]

I knew Light Assassin was an asshole and was up to something bad, and by the way that ending is just too awesome. Well done.

[Thunderblast]

4814187 Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter

But we still have four more to go then the epilogue. :3