The Day the Sun Stood Still

by TheGentleSpike

Chapter2:Just Another Mission pt2

Before Melody could react, the guard stabbed his sword through her throat, blood covering his entire face. The guard's horn glowed as he used magic to write out a note and send it to the commander via magic transportation. Soon, the alarm stopped, letting the rest of the guards know that the intruder was dead.

One this was done, the guard simply smiled and stood there as he stared at the dead body while laughing. "What an idiot, thought they could sneak in here, kill our comrades and get away with it?" he said as his fellow guards laughed with him. This carried on until a loud booming voice interrupted them.

"For the love of Faust! I get a message letting me know the intruder was dead and came here to praise you all, instead I see nopony at their posts and you are all just surrounding the corpse! At first, I thought that you might have been checking to ensure the intruder was actually dead or something. Then I realised that you were just making shit jokes whilst one of you covered yourself in blood in an attempt to look like some sort of "bad-ass" or whatever you think you look like. Get back to your posts immediately! And you! Use that water over there to clean that blood off your face before you go back!" He shouted, the guards pretty much ran back to their posts after hearing this whilst the lone guard washed up using the bucket of water.

As the guard walked away, the body seemed to disappear along with the blood. Further down the cave something was moving. Melody took a huge breath as she looked out from behind a rock. That was quite risky...using a fake body to get them off my trail whilst hiding down here within the dark. If that guard didn't clean up, they would notice the "Blood" disappearing and I would become hunted again. She got up from her spot and started walking ahead again, albeit with a limp. As she walked, she was thinking about how she managed to evade the guards.

-----What actually happened-----

Melody ran ahead using the momentum gained from incapacitating the guard with her sword. She knew she couldn't outrun them forever and she definitely would not be able to take all of them on. Think! I need to do something before...She was interrupted as a magic bolt flew past her head. She turned and saw the guards were using magic to fire spells at her. There is only one thing left to do, let's just hope this works.

Melody used magic to cast a shield, unlike most shield spells which were transparent, this one wasn't. She used this small window of time to cast a decoy spell, the figure couldn't cast magic, speak or anything apart from run in a straight line. The only time they stopped running was if they got knocked down, this would result in the decoy simply laying there while not doing anything, and this only served to make it more obvious and easy to spot than it already was. Melody used magic to give the shield some charge so it could last for a little bit without her, and then jumped down.

She fell quite the distance and sprained her ankle, she suppressed her urge to scream in pain as she heard the sounds of magic being fired. Melody quickly crawled behind a rock and hid in the darkness while the guards surrounded the decoy. She could hear them talking to it as she prayed Please Faust, let this work. My ankle is sprained and using this spell has drained me of my mana reserves, this has to work or I am screwed.

She waited for them to leave but only heard continued talking and laughter. She began to worry, fearing that the spell would disappear before they left which would result in them knowing it was a decoy. Melody was beginning to become scared, the decoy spell would expire in around one to two minutes and the guards did not seem like they were leaving. In fact, it sounded like they were joking around and having a pleasant conversation.

Eventually, she heard a loud booming voice. Apparently, they had somehow told the commander that the intruder was dead. Well, that at least explains why the alarm has stopped. Soon, she heard something she was beginning to fear would never happen, hoof-steps. The guards were leaving and some time after they had left, the decoy had expired.

-----Back To Present-----

"You know, now that I think about it...that whole situation doesn't make sense. These unicorns are meant to be the best of the best, trained professionals in the way of magic. How did none of them discover the decoy spell? Why were they acting like idiots?" She quietly whispered to herself as she walked through the cave, the only source of light being dimly lit torches hung up on the walls.

Melody looked around as she walked slowly with a limp. Odd, no guards on patrol around here? She noticed that the caves were getting darker as she walked on, soon she was in complete darkness without any light around for her to see with. She automatically responded by trying to use her horn to illuminate her cave, but all that happened was a tiny spark being produced by her horn. Oh right, I used up my mana...

Melody walked even slower than she already was, trying to not walk into anything due to lack of vision. She soon started to hear noises coming from the cave and started to walk towards the sound. She looked in the distance and noticed a faint glimmer of light up ahead, she walked towards it as the sounds got louder. Soon, it turned to talking as she got closer and closer.

"Are you sure doing this is a good idea? The commander said that-"

"I don't care what orders he issued! I am the knowledgeable one here! The only reason those guards are even here is to protect the valuable one, aka me. This work is important and I will not be slowed down by some brutes who only know how to use magic for combat."

"But this could compromise the operation and the Queen may get-"

"No, not doing my work will compromise the operation! I need to get these measures completed as soon as possible, this is more important than whatever the commander thinks is and I am sure the Queen would agree with me!"

Melody eventually walked far enough to see that there were two unicorns. One of their horns was glowing as they performed some kind of spell; it was producing a lot of light. Unlike the guards who were equipped in heavy armour, these two seemed to be wearing robes. Both of their robes were a dark blue colour, the one performing the spell seemed to have weird glowing letters inscribed into his robe while the other had a plain one. She quickly hid behind a rock so she could listen to what they were saying while observing them.

"Fascinating, these measurements of the "wall" are quite low. This may be the new weakest point we have found so far...this is amazing. Scribe, fetch me some papers. I need to send a message to the Queen, I will write down these measurements while you do that."

The unicorn in the plain robes seemed to grumble quietly as he walked off to get the papers. Melody was quite confused. Measurements of a...wall? What, are they measuring the walls of this cave or something else? And why was this considered to be something so important that the cave needed this much security...odd. While the unicorn was busy with their measurements, Melody sneaked away and began to walk back slowly.

The walk was quite uneventful when eventually she got back to the part of the caves where she had first got caught, Melody was very confused now. What? Where are the guards? I thought they had went back to their patrol spots because of that commander...something isn't right... She was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard somepony talking to her.

"Melody! There you are! I thought something had happened to you when the alarms stopped and went to go search for you, I got worried when I couldn't find you. What happened?"

She jumped back in surprise at the mention of her name but relaxed when she realised it was Thunderhoof. "Oh, it's just you Thunder, I thought I got caught by one of the guards or something..." she said with a breath of relief.

He gave her a confused look, "How would one of these guards know your name?" he asked.

Melody sighed. "Look, I am just...really worn out right now. I almost got caught by these guards and had to use all of my magic to cast a decoy and shield spell to evade them, on top of that I sprained something and can barely walk. The mana burnout is going to really kick me in the flank tomorrow morning..." she said.

"Well, at least you are still alive! Always look on the bright side of things whenever you can, that always helps me out....speaking of bright side, did you find out anything? All I found was the barracks they had set up in this cave system, it was useless but I will admit it was rather impressive for something done overnight...." he said this with what seemed like a hint of admiration in his voice.

Melody glared at him "I am injured and all you care about is....you know what, never mind. I found two unicorns measuring what they called a "wall" and said that this was the weakest point or something like that. I don't know if “wall” refers to the cave itself or something else but it clearly seemed important since the unicorn claimed that it was the sole reason they were here," she said this with spite in her voice.

"Whoa now, I just wanted to know if we at least achieved our objective first! I have some supplies I stole from their camp, some of them looked like regeneration potions...but let’s get out of here first, the guards may not be here but I still have no wishes to stay. Here, let me help you."

Thunderhoof lifted one of Melody's legs and put it over his shoulder than started to walk with her, his support helped her walk at a more normal speed with less of a limp.

"You know Thunder, I want to know. When I first met you, you didn't really seem to care much about me and seemed rather rude, now you seem to care about me all of a sudden....why?" she asked

Thunder smiled as she said this. "Oh, I apologise for being rude. I am normally more friendly than that but I was a bit irritated at the time. I can be very impatient at times and you kept me waiting there for quite a while, I guess I just took it out on you. I admit, I feel like a piece of crap now that I think about it..." he said as they walked.

Melody chuckled. "Apology accepted...besides, you wasn't that bad. Sure, you seemed to not care much about introductions, but you seemed more mission focused rather than rude. Kind of like the Knight Commander I guess. When I said rude, I meant it was compared to what you are like now. It feels like you just suddenly changed I guess." They both smiled as she said this.

"Well what can I say? I am apparently full of surprises." he said with a grin on his face.

They stopped talking after a while, there was nothing more to say at the moment as they wanted to get out of the cave as soon as possible. Not talking would allow them to concentrate on walking more and possibly hear noises more easily while being more quiet so others wouldn't hear them.

Melody thought she heard a noise and was about to notify Thunderhoof when a sudden spark of magic interrupted her, they were both blinded by some sort of light. They heard the sound of numerous hoof-steps while blinded and when they regained their vision, they were surrounded by guards. They heard the sound of laughter behind them and turned around to see who it was.

The guard that was laughing wore almost identical armour compared to the other guards but with one difference, he had a unique emblem on his helmet. This was most likely the commander. "I cannot believe it, not just one intruder like I thought, but two intruders caught? The executioner is going to have a field day with this..." he walked forward as he spoke "You know, I must thank you unicorn. If it wasn't for you trying to trick us with that obvious decoy spell, I would have never thought of this plan to trick you into believing we had bought it so we could ambush you. Or in other words, you helped us capture your little friend." She spat at him as he said this, he used a simple shield to block the spit before continuing.

"You know, when I first heard you cast that spell from my guard, I was sceptical. Most don't know that spell, and if they do know it, they never cast it due to its high mana cost. So, I asked the guard to check if the blood disappeared after a while, and it did! It was a confirmed decoy spell, and all I had to do was pretend that there was some convenient water bucket or something lying around for you to believe he washed it off, and it actually worked!" he laughed as he said this.

"After that, I thought you were a real idiot. I mean, you were just there, surely you would know there was no water around? There were torches there for Faust’s sake, but then I realised you were running from guards, so fair enough; somepony can easily fail to properly look at their surroundings when on the run, but I still think you’re an idiot right now...want to know why?" he said with a smirk on his face.

Melody glared at him and was about to speak when Thunderhoof spoke instead "Yeah, you keep talking. Melody here will just prepare a spell while you do and get us out of here! Scared of her? You can simply back away and we will go without harming you." he managed to say this with confidence in his voice but the guards just responded with laughter while the commander spoke up.

"Even if she could cast spells, we would easily counter it. Not only do we outnumber you, but we are the elite unicorn guard. We know all about combat magic, did your superiors forget to tell you this information or something? Oh, and yes, we know you are out of mana little unicorn. It is easy to spot the signs, though, you straight up told us you ran out as well earlier and we even found out you sprained your ankle whilst escaping, how cute." He gave her a smile.

"Fuck you, I still managed to kill some of your guards!" Melody shouted, she instinctively tried to cast a spell again but once more, it simply produced a spark.

"Ahh, yes anger, how cute. Oh, by the way, it was nice to know your name...Melody. I know all about you, and decided that instead of simply killing you two with simple magic or swords, I would give you a little present. A reminder of the past, I heard you are fond of these things." he stepped to the side and his horn glowed. As he did, the guards stepped aside revealing two Mantiquus. Their eyes were glowing red as they approached the Unicorn and Pegasus.

Melody froze as she saw the two creatures approaching her, she wanted to scream but she couldn't. She couldn't even breath properly as she stared at the two horrifying beasts as they approached her. Her heart started to beat faster until she felt like it would burst out of her chest any moment now. Screams of various ponies started to fill her head as she began to panic. Oh god....I am going to die, I am going to die. They are going to kill me, and I won't be able to stop them....l Thoughts like these filled her head as sweet started to drip down her fur.

Thunderhoof noticed this but couldn't do much to help. He had to fight back in an attempt to kill them, he let go of Melody's leg and stepped forward. He pulled his sword out of his sheath with his mouth and got into a battle stance. I may not be able to take both of them on, but I will be damned if I go out without a fight.

The commander simply laughed "How cute, it seems one of you still has a spine. This will make it slightly more entertaining to watch...I am sure our two little executioners will enjoy it too..." his horn glowed red as he said this.

The two Mantiquus moved forward quickly. The first one used its sword-like legs to try and attack Thunderhoof but he managed to block all of the strikes with his sword. The second attempted to lunge at him while the other attacked him but he managed to use his wings to propel himself into the air, barely dodging the large creature. When the creature was under him, he retaliated with a strike with his sword, it pierced through one of the creatures heads. It backed away and used one of its legs to cut off the head that was killed by the sword. It seemed unfazed by this.

While Thunderhoof was looking at the second one as it cut off one of its heads that was slashed by his sword, he did not notice the first one charging for him. It flew into him and smashed him into the floor. It raised up one of its legs and attempted to behead him, but he managed to barely dodge it by rolling. He used his wings to quickly get back up and was about to attack the Mantiquus but realised he had no sword. He noticed it was just underneath the one that had just attacked him. He charged at the creature which raised one of its legs to get ready to strike at him. He timed it perfectly and managed to slide underneath the strike and picked up the sword again. Moving faster than it could react, he managed to slice both of its heads clean off. The body dropped to the floor as Thunderhoof smiled, he turned and saw the second creature glaring at him.

Despite having only one head left, it still seemed to be determined to kill Thunderhoof. He assumed a battle ready pose before charging at the Mantiquus. It was standing still, like it was waiting for him to approach it. Before he could reach the creature, a blast of magic knocked him onto the floor. Before he could react, the creature had pounced on him and had one of its legs resting on his neck, it could easily kill him right now.

The commander laughed "There we go, I must admit I am quite surprised. Unlike your coward friend here, you can actually fight. Of course, you didn't think we would play fair, did you? We had to ensure you lost of course. Couldn't let you kill both of them now, could we?" he said while smiling.

Melody simply stared at the scene before her, fear still evident in her eyes. She wanted to help but couldn't, not just physically due to her mana reserves being depleted, but mentally as well. Fear had paralysed her. The only difference was that she had no comrades around to help her escape this mission. Instead, she was the one that had to help. But she found herself unable to, she screamed with every inch of her being in an attempt to move her legs but they wouldn't budge.

She could only watch as her new friend was about to be executed before her eyes, and once that was done, she would be next. Her thoughts shifted to her father...is this what he would have wanted? For her to die as a coward? Is he ashamed of her right now? Is he watching from heaven or wherever the dead go? Forgive me father...