Chapter 1 - A Mysterious Finding
Hello, everybody!
I'm sorry for the LONG wait but chapter 1 is finally here! Hopefully, new chapters will come out soner from now on.
I wanted to leave an Author's note here at the top to warn you that there was a small, but important addition to chapter 0! You can find it in the last two paragraphs of the chapter, I recommend you read it before proceeding 
I hope you liked it!
Please let me know of anything you think I should improve in, so I can make better stories for your enjoyment!
bye! 
-T.M.W.D.
Chapter edited by: EverfreePony
Morning Rays thought that the Badlands were an easy place to hunt these changelings, but he was wrong. As he was scouting the area for his team, he noticed how many rock formations and caves there were! At certain parts of the border, the rock formations were so dense it was almost a maze.
‘Good thing I’m a pegasus,’ he thought.
With a mighty flap of his wings, he went to the skies, now able to see the Badlands in its full glory. Well, not exactly “glory”. This place only had rocks, dry dirt and the occasional dead bush.
He wasn’t the first pegasus to fly over the Badlands, in fact, Princess Celestia had the Wonderbolts searching for the changeling hive a couple of times before, but they never managed to find it. It was probably hidden underground, and that made his job all the more difficult.
As he was soaring through the sky, he noticed a strange plateau in the distance. It was surrounded by smooth and relatively even walls from all sides like it was carved by something. Gliding down, Morning landed on the far end of it to investigate.
He took a few careful steps forward, trying to make as little noise as possible. As he followed a path to the other side, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched. He turned his head around, looking for any possible trap but there were no place to hide as the walls had not a single hole or irregularity. It was too perfect to be natural.
He reached a dead end at the other side of the plateau, colossal walls trapped any earthbound creatures inside it. Morning extended his wings to fly away when a clicking noise echoed around him. Turning around, he jumped into a defensive stance as he followed the echoes. In his frantic movements, he accidentally kicked a loose stone. It went rolling down, tapping an incredibly loud staccato on the quiet rocks.
Morning flinched at the disturbance and tried to catch the stone before it gave away his position even more. His hooves grasped only air. He watched as the stone rolled toward the base of the back wall, expecting the crash to sound at any moment. But, nothing happened. The stone simply phased through the wall, leaving only a wide-eyed Morning as proof of its existence.
‘What the hell?’ he thought, approaching the wall with caution.
He examined the rock. It was like any other rock around here, smooth and even. He plucked a feather from his wing and poked at the rock cautiously. Like the stone, the feather just phased through the rock wall with little resistance. He pulled the feather back and noticed that it was perfectly fine, no damage to be seen.
Gathering his courage, he closed his eyes and walked in, a creepy chill running down his spine as he walked through the wall. Opening his eyes at the other side, his courage was instantly tested at what stood before him.
Changelings were known for many things, and one of these things were the holes they had on their bodies. This tunnel was littered with holes everywhere, on the walls, on the ceiling, even on the floor! Some of the holes would close only for a new one to appear someplace else. Morning Rays had no idea what a changeling hive would look like, but he knew it couldn’t be more convenient than this.
As he went deeper and deeper into the hive, he failed to notice the absolute silence there was. He was focused on not getting captured too much. After following several twists and turns, he reached a big chamber illuminated by green blobs of weird bioluminescent slime. The air was heavy and humid, reminding him of the barracks after a full day training.
There were several paths ahead of him and he didn’t know where to go. Not wanting to be captured, he chose to return to his base and come back with his team later. He was about to turn back and leave when a voice echoed through the tunnels and reached his ears.
“H-hello? Anypony there?”
Morning’s ears shot forward as he jumped in surprise, his wings flared open, ready to back him up if needed.
“Is anypony there? I need help!”
He heard it again. This time, he could recognize the voice belonging to a young mare. He tried to find the source of the voice,but the echo made it difficult to find the right direction.
“Please, help me!”
His ears swiveled to the side, left! Morning followed the leftmost tunnel down to another chamber. The chamber was completely covered in hardened changeling slime, just like what they used during the invasion of Canterlot. There were more holes scattered around the walls, but these didn’t move like the ones he encountered before.
At the far end of the chamber, a lavender earth pony mare hung from the wall, her hooves bound by the slime. There was a big, strange green gem on the ground in front of her, softly pulsating with magic. When she heard Morning’s steps, she raised her head to look at him, hope filling her eyes.
“Thank Celestia you found me! Quick, help me out of here!” she pleaded, tugging at her bounds.
Morning approached her with caution, his ears scanning the surroundings. It was a changeling hive after all. “Don’t worry, I’m here to help. What’s your name?”
“I-I’m Purple Grace.”
Morning bit at her bounds, tugging with all his might, but before he could free her, green flames enveloped her body, burning away her soft fur and replacing it with the hard black carapace of a changeling. Morning backed away in surprise.
The changeling hissed at him, baring its fangs. Suddenly, all the tunnels of the chamber were swarmed with changelings, all flying toward Morning Rays, carrying the same green gem.
Morning backed against a wall in a defensive position. If he was to go down, he would go down fighting! But to his surprise, all the changelings zipped past him, leaving the hive in a dark cloud of buzzing wings. All but two changelings, the one on the wall, now frantically trying to free itself, and an armor-clad changeling, glaring at Morning menacingly, paid him any attention.
‘That’s a warrior?’ Morning had heard of these before. Some officers of the royal guard reported the rare armored changelings during the attack at Canterlot. It seemed that much like ants and other insects, the changelings had different castes like drones or warriors.
Supposedly, warriors were stronger and more resistant than drones, taking almost three guards to subdue one of them. But there was something wrong. This warrior’s stance was loose, its movements lethargic. It hasn't even lit up its horn with magic. It almost felt like it wanted to intimidate Morning out of the hive rather than fight him.
Morning’s thoughts were interrupted when the warrior charged at him, forcing him to beat his wings and jump to the side. But as soon as Morning’s hooves left the ground, the changeling shot to the air with blinding speed and tackled him back to the floor.
Pinning Morning under its weight, the warrior opened its mouth wide, almost like in a yawn. A magic string began seeping away from Morning as he felt sick. The changeling was draining his life energy!
Morning began to panic. ‘I thought changelings only fed on love!’ he thought, struggling to free himself.
He flared his wings, drawing the warrior’s attention. Taking the opportunity, he head-butted the insectoid hard. The warrior backed off in pain, holding its mouth with its hooves, one of its fangs on the floor. Blood dripped from Morning’s forehead.
He quickly got to his hooves, dashing to the stunned changeling. He locking it in a tight grip, he shot to the air in a loop and landed on top of the warrior, knocking it out.
With the fight over, Morning let out a heavy sigh of relief as he walked back to the changeling stuck in the wall. It lit up its horn with green flames, charging a spell to attack its shackles, but it was only able to produce a few sparks before its magic faltered, leaving it visibly exhausted.
“You okay there buddy?” Morning asked with a hint of concern, the changelings might be a threat, but that didn’t mean they should be treated with disdain, that wasn’t Morning’s way. Besides, Princess Celestia herself made it clear to all her guards to not harm the captured changelings.
The changeling quickly composed itself, trying to convey as much confidence as possible. “Of course I am, pony.” It spat the last word like it was a sour taste in its mouth. “I can leave whenever I want, if that’s what you’re thinking. But someling must protect the hive from creatures like you!”
With a small grin creeping on his face, Morning Rays approached the mysterious gemstone to inspect it. It had a smooth, dark emerald exterior, the size of a small watermelon and probably weighed didn’t weigh more than a basket of apples.. Morning could see a weak pulse of green magic coming from the gemstone’s core, maybe it was some sort of incantation?
Running a hoof across the gemstone, Morning asked the trapped changeling, “Say, what exactly is this thing?”
The changeling, looking everywhere but at Morning, replied nervously, “I-it’s nothing! It’s just a stone.”
“Uhum, if it’s just a stone, why is it pulsating with changeling magic?” Morning asked again, cocking his head to side.
“Okay, okay, it’s a soothing stone,” the changeling admitted with a chittering of wings.
Raising a brow in doubt, Morning asked, “A soothing stone?”
“Y-yes, we use it to calm the hive, but it doesn’t work on ponies!” Tugging at its restraints, the changeling continued, “I told you what you wanted to know, now release me!”
Morning balanced the gemstone between his wings and turned to leave. “You know, for a changeling, you don’t lie that well.”
Green flames enveloped the changeling once again, turning it into Purple Grace. With her ears dropping to the sides and the saddest puppy eyes imaginable, the changeling cried, “Please mister, you can’t leave me here!”
Without looking back, Morning answered with a smirk, “Don’t worry miss, I’ll rescue you tomorrow!”
Turning back to his normal self, the changeling roared in anger, causing Morning to laugh. “YOU JERK!”
The journey back home was an arduous one, Morning Rays tried to carry the gemstone in his hooves so he could fly back, but if there was something that his friend, Path Finder, taught him was that magic is a very sensible and very unstable thing. The moment he began his flight, the gemstone began pulsating faster and faster due to all the shaking. Morning ultimately decided that walking home would be safer.
The moon was beginning its ascension through the starry sky when he finally got home. As he entered the mostly empty house, he couldn’t help but let out a sigh, it was a sigh of exhaustion after the long walk, but it was also a sigh of sadness.
Morning carried himself into his room on the second floor. Walking through the door, he carefully placed the mysterious gemstone on a chair in the corner and proceeded to fall limply onto his bed. After a couple of minutes, he shifted around so he was facing the ceiling, mindlessly feeling the bedside table with a hoof to try and grab his family’s photo.
Morning threw a distant gaze at the picture, focusing at the white mare. ‘You always were a better flier than me…’ he thought, a painful smile crossing his muzzle. Returning the photo to the table, he grabbed the orange feather carefully. He placed the feather on top of his chest and closed his eyes with a heavy sigh, exhaustion finally taking its toll on him and drifting him off to sleep.
Morning Rays was soaring through the skies of Canterlot, wearing his golden armor, only this time it had big scratches and dents all over it. His flight was faulty and uneven, bruises and cuts all over his body made every flap of his wings an uphill fight, but he needed to reach the castle as soon as possible!
All around the city the royal guard tried to fight off the magical creatures that had flooded the streets, following the magical energy of the Secretariat Comet’s empowering light. Timberwolves, hydras, cockatrices, manticores and all sort of mythological creatures, lured by the comet’s magic amplifying effect, took the opportunity to wreak havoc upon pony lands.
Morning Rays managed to land somewhat gracefully on the castle’s balcony where Princess Celestia, in full battle armor and holding a lance in her hooves, expected his report.
Bowing, he took a deep breath to recompose himself. “Princess, we managed to repel the beasts attacking Ponyville, we left a large battalion posted there at the ready in case the monsters return.”
Heaving a sigh of relief, the Princess nodded. “Good, you did a great job soldier, but I can see you’re injured, report back at the soldiers’ yard for examination and rest, I and the rest of the guards will take control of the situation here.”
Bowing even lower, Morning continued, “Thank you Your Majesty, but with all due respect, I can still fight, surely some sector of the city needs reinforcements!”
Celestia’s motherly eyes hovered over Morning’s beaten form for a few moments, pondering if it was alright to let him fight in this condition. She was leaning against it, but his look of determination convinced her otherwise. She knew that he would join the fight anyway so she nodded her consent slowly. “Alright, but be careful my little pony.”
Morning snapped straight up and saluted her with added enthusiasm. “Yes, Princess!” And with that, he went off.
Morning took a few minutes to visit the yard and ask for a quick pain numbing spell before departing, his wings were still sore, but at least he could keep a straight flight now. He flew over the entire city, helping the guards where needed, most of the creatures were already repelled by the Princess’ powers. Only a few were left to deal with.
A pack of timberwolves was skulking around the residential area when Morning landed near the designated squad of guards. “How can I help around here?” he asked a fellow unicorn guard, identifying him as the squad’s commander due to his unique armor, the detailed shoulder pads and sapphire encrusted chest piece revealing his rank.
A look of relief crossed the commander’s face as he saw Morning. “Oh good, a pegasus.” He pointed at some districts with a hoof while he explained, “There are still some civilians locked inside their houses, we need a pegasus to fly ahead and scout the area for any trapped civilian so our unicorn team can escort them to safety.’
Morning saluted and took off to execute his new orders. After a few minutes, most of the still occupied houses were marked and their residents evacuated, leaving unscouted only the district Morning lived in. “I hope Heart and Glory are okay…” He feared for his family as he quickened his flight toward his district, but he knew his wife was a resourceful mare, she would have evacuated their house as soon as the danger arrived, besides, there were other families that needed his help
As soon as he spotted his home he landed right next to it, anxious to know if his family had already evacuated the area. His heart almost stopped when he saw his door broken to pieces, hanging from its hinges. Timberwolf claw marks ran over its wooden frames. If they tried to get in, his family must have been inside!
Morning ran inside the house, searching every room for his wife and daughter, but only finding more signs of struggle and a broken window in Glory’s room. They must have escaped! Jumping out of the window, Morning called their names with all the power his lungs could muster, desperate to see if his family was alright.
After frantically flying around for about a minute, his mind racing a thousand miles away as he tried to figure out where his family could be, he caught a glimpse of a white and orange pegasi at the corner of his eyes “Heart? Glory?” he called them, flying as fast as he could toward them.
“Rays!?” The white pegasus called back, carrying an orange pegasus filly on her back. The little one looked at him, her emerald eyes glimmering with tears. ‘It’s them! They are safe!’
The couple flew to each other as fast as possible, eager to feel each other’s embrace and make the scary moment disappear. But with only a few meters between them, a giant cockatrice blocked their path. A reddish shimmer was all Morning could see before time slowed to a crawl as he saw Soaring Heart and Glory plummeting from the sky, slowly turning into stone.
‘No…’ Was all he could think. He tried to dodge the cockatrice to reach them, but the creature was determined to make Morning its lunch. Desperate, he threw caution to the winds and dashed downward, the cockatrice in hot pursuit.
“Girls!” he cried, trying to reach them.
Soaring Heart, almost completely petrified, gave her daughter a strong push toward Morning, tears running through her eyes as she pleaded before completely turning into stone, “S-save… G-Glory...”
Morning folded his wings for maximum speed, he needed to catch them! He managed to get a hold of one of Glory’s orange and white feathers before the wicked cockatrice smacked his side with its tail. Hitting a wall, the last sight he saw before losing consciousness was his family crashing to the ground…
Morning shot out of bed, tears running freely from his eyes, his fur and sheets mauled by them. He frantically searched for Glory’s feather, wanting to make sure he didn’t lose it. Finally finding it on the ground next to the table, he returned it to its place and got up.
‘There won’t be any sleep tonight…’ he thought as he went to the bathroom, thinking of something to do to try and forget what happened.
Washing his face with cold water to shoo the sleepiness away, he thought about spending some time with his squad. Knowing them, they were probably at the bar at this hour.
‘Time to pay Appleloosa a visit.’
After washing himself to be more presentable, Morning Rays took off to the town. His room, now out of sight, flashed with a blinding sickly green light for a split second, sparks of magic escaping through the open windows.
After a ten minute long flight, Morning spotted the Appleloosa saloon and landed across the street, they noisy sound of laughter coming out of it confirming his suspicion on the whereabouts of his squad. By the sounds of it, they were not the only squad appreciating some strong, earth pony alcohol.
Trotting across the street toward the saloon doors, Morning was surprised when a batpony in dark blue armor all but burst through it, almost hitting him in the process.
‘The night guard?’ Morning wondered as he walked inside. The saloon was as classic as it could. There was a small country band playing their happy tune, pool tables swarmed by half-drunken ponies trying to play , the strong smell of alcohol that accompanied them, and fair enough what looked like half the night guard were happily chatting and laughing with their day guard brotherem.
“I didn’t know the night guard was summoned here as well…” Morning quietly muttered to himself.
“Well, somepony has to actually work here while you lazy day guards are sleeping, right?” said a husky voice from behind Morning, a familiar voice in fact. Turning to see who it was, Morning was surprised to see his old friend, Dusk Wing. He was a big, dark grey thestral with dark purple wings and navy blue mane, a cocky grin complimenting his piercing yellow eyes.
Rolling his eyes before grinning himself, Morning shot back, “Well, I think we deserve some rest after saving the day time and time again, don't we?”
There was silence between them as they began what one would think was a staring contest for a few moments. Not able to contain themselves anymore, both burst into laughter as they closed their distance to properly greet each other.
“It’s been a long time Dusk, what news you brought with you from Canterlot?” Morning asked, walking with Dusk toward the bar counter.
“Eh, nothing new really, Princess Cadence is still trying to perfect that love collection spell of hers to feed the captive changelings. I still don’t know why we don’t just get rid of them,” Dusk said with a hint of annoyance, waving a hoof dismissively.
“Damn, at this rate, we won’t have enough love to feed all the changelings we capture here…” Morning thought aloud, bringing a hoof to his chin.
Dusk huffed before answering, “They could all starve for all I care…” His remark earned a disapproving glare from Morning, causing him to raise his hooves defensively. “Hey, I just want to protect my mistress’ country is all.”
Morning rolled his eyes but remained silent, a bit of worry persisted at the back of his mind, but he wanted to change the subject. “I always find it funny how the night guard refers to Princess Luna.”
Shrugging, Dusk replied, “Eh, maybe it’s because of how much more… personal our mistress treats us, she knows each and every one us by name and looks after us. Princess Celestia has much bigger army that I don’t think she can have the same level of intimacy with every single one of her soldiers…”
Pondering for a moment, Morning nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right…”
“Ey captain! Fancy seeing you here, lad!” a voice called behind them. It was Blue Sea, carrying four mugs full of cider on his back as he held the fifth mug in his hoof. “Come join us, will ye?”
Morning laughed, he always found silly how Blue Sea would start talking like a pirate when he was drunk, Path Finder even tried to cast a lying detecting spell on him one night to discover if he was faking it or not. To their surprise and amusement, he wasn’t, he was just like that.
“Oh hey there Blue Sea, I see that you already got drinks for the whole squad,” Morning commented, giving his friend a wide grin.
Confused, Blue Sea looked around, searching for said drink before realizing what Morning was talking about. “Oh, aye… right… I’m gonna go… give them to the squad…” He tried to fake his good intentions before continuing toward his teammates. Morning watched his tipsy friend before returning his attention to Dusk, who was getting up from his seat.
“Well, it’s getting late, time for work. Good seeing you around, Morning,” Dusk said, holding up a wing to Morning which he high fived with his own.
“See you, Dusk,” Morning replied before following Blue Sea to his squad.
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8482535
Hello everyling! Just wanted to say that despite the long wait, chapter 1 of The Queen of the Royal Guard is here! There was a small change in account address but I hope you have no trouble finding it
hope you like the chapter
8489866
two things
1 that stone is gonna play a major point nice
2 nice icon
Interesting. Thanks for the chapter.
Hmmm, interesting. He found the location of the hive (probably) on a whim and just left it there? Incompetent and lucky they're apparently weakened. Very very suspicious...
Keep going! ;)
8490379
Thanks, this icon is the original I used back on 2012 when I creatted this account
8491311
nice
8491150
But was it the entire hive ?
And like you said, he's lucky they're weakened, if they weren't, he would be dead
8491314
Dead crops are only useful once...
8489866
When do you plan on posting the next chapter?
8496628
)
Well, I'll be participating on that equestria daily 50k word "challenge" next month (or try at least...
I plan on focusing the 50k words on one story, but I haven't decided if I'll be focusing on this one or one on my fallout: Equestria only, secondary account
maybe I'll do 25/25? idk...
So, the next update will be soon, OR after the event
8496673
Okay. Thank you for responding so quickly. I can't wait for the next chapter! I'm already looking forward to it!
8498255
I'm still sorting out what story I should write for that contest, but if I chose to write TQotRG I'll post a blog about it 
I'm really glad to know you like it!
8498485
Thanks!