Captain of the Royal guards

by LunarLover

Mission 1: Trouble at the fort

Silverheart briskly walked her way to Shining Armor's quarters, once again he had been late and as their usual traditions go she had to wake him, briskly trotting through the campus and flipping the doors open with her magic, the empty courtyard was filled with the sound of her hoof steps, the entire place was empty save for her and Shining, checking the large clock tower she hurried her steps to faster reach his room.

Tiding herself, she cleared her throat and opened the door. "Shining Armour ge-"

A hoof lunged out and prodded her in the nose disrupting her sentence as Shining grinned sleepily at his senior, "yes ma am." He gave a sluggish salute and smiled. Silverheart returned the favor and tossed him his clipboard. Instinctively he caught it and trotted up beside her. The morning air was crisp, the cool dawn breeze was coming in but it was no time for Shining to enjoy, he quickly caught up to Silverheart to await his daily orders.

"Alright Shining, we have a lot of ground to cover." Commanded Silverheart as she went over her clipboard twice for extra measure. "Unfortunately two guards have left to go help with the fire last night." She stopped walking and frowned. Flicking through her clipboard her irritation only increased. "Where did I leave that blasted thing?" She mumbled as Shining rolled his eyes and pushed her forward.

Almost as bad as Twiley

"Geez it can't be that important, anyway I already know the whole barracks from the front to the back." He patted her on the shoulder to calm her down, "relax."

Silverheart rolled her eyes and sighed, as usual it was Shining giving her orders and not the other way around. "Alright Shining, but if you miss out one area, and I mean. Just one." She pulled one of her death stares inches from his face. Shining could feel the power radiating off her piercing gaze he could feel the sweat force itself out of their pores.

"You get toilet duty." She smiled at her black humor and carried on her path out the door giggling silently at her rather sadistic joke.

Shining stared blankly after the mare at her innocent yet seemingly vicious wordsAfter all these months, I still can't get when she is joking and when she isn't. Shining picked up his clipboard and proceeded to the left wing lest he get into more trouble.

It had been many months since Shining had been posted as barracks guard, after his first month he had already gotten over the long and painful wait and learnt to enjoy it, although the day before had been a slightly depressing 'leg stretching' exercise, Silverheart had bounced back like an Indian rubber ball and was ready to go back on duty, Shining went through the clipboard quickly but carefully as he checked off each outpost.

In the distance the fire could be seen, it had started in the night, during the usual celebrations an apparent explosion had set off a chain of reactions that lit the closely joined houses together, with the drains blocked from the confetti and trash from the fiesta the fire went rampant for hours until passing Pegasi arrived with a rain cloud, luckily the fire had died down but not before destroying a few dozen homes and an entire section of the east to the south side of Baltimare, many had taken to looting and a small riot took place through the night. Shining was both happy yet sad to not be in the rush of the action, 20 privates had taken to the front leaving behind only Shining and a few soldiers to guard the fort and rest, now that the damage control had finished up rounding the offenders, it was time to fix up the homes and for everyone to get a cup of coffee.

Shining went to his high watch post waiting for his shift to be over and to start his next day of pain and sparring.

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The day had been nice and peaceful, a few guards had come back from the city to rest their injuries from pushing back mobs as well as being burned from saving the injured. They sat around resting and playing cards while Shining stood firm at his post, the smoke was gone, all that was left were a few shallow clouds that hung around like a grimy fog over the charred city. Shining relaxed his shoulders slightly and calmed his mind.

"Emergency, emergency!" came the shriek through the fort, immediately Shining rushed from his post to the gate wall, down the wall he could make out a single guard, his armour was ripped and torn through, even the hardened steel had deep gashes which were only stained with it's wearers blood.

"Let me in!" Screamed the guard. "I need help." Shining reeled up the gate and allowed the single soldier to rush through, at this point the guard was in a state of panic. Shining galloped down the stairs to meet the injured newcomer.

"There has been another explosion, something set off another chain of fire, we need more people to the front, the commanding officer is injured." He rushed around grabbing at their collars for support but they only looked on in a grim silence. The remaining soldiers were reluctant to go, disobeying orders could mean severe punishment, with the commanding officer down in the front and no higher ups to give out commands, it was a gamble as to whether to go or not. They murmured among themselves as Shining brought the now passed out guard to rest. The guard had been out the whole night, to fight off looters and bandits while calming a fire was no easy task, Shining walked him to the infirmary to rest.

Shining laid the weakened soldier to rest and headed outside to deal with the chaos, the remaining soldiers had started to fight over orders, they were taught to listen, but not to lead, Shining allowed his thoughts to settle to think of an answer as the guard started a heated argument.

"There is no bloody way the commander can go down, that mysterious specialist is with him ain't he?"

"That is no excuse, if the one of our men say the commander is down then we must go and help."

"Are you mad? You're gonna get us all sent home or worse! We were told to guard the fort, nothing more."

"Guard the fort? If you want to be su-"

"SHUT IT!" The group stopped their bickering to face Shining who at this point had found his answer.

"Listen, all of you. I will go, you stay here and protect the fort, I understand that not all of you know the structure of this place well but we shouldn't be under any attack." Shining saluted his dumbfounded comrades.

"Are you mad?"

"He's gonna nail you for this one Shining."

"Come on Shining don't get kicked out."

Shining Armour raised his hoof to silence them and turned to walk out. "Guys, it's alright, anyway I believe our friend, and I promise I will come back."

He turned to leave when he felt a hoof on his shoulder.

"I'm going with you." Shining turned to refuse the request only to meet eyes with Silverheart.

"Are you sure you can take care of yourself?" He retorted sarcastically

"Please, you try to keep up." With that she dashed out the gates with Shining following in right behind.

They galloped quickly to the city, Shining quickly galloped to match his galloping speed with Silverheart, she was faster and much more agile than he was, but that wasn't going to stop him, he ran as fast as he could to aid the commander, but something gnawed at the back of his mind.

What am I missing? He wondered silently as the outskirts of the main buildings started to grow bigger.

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The duo approached the center of the city, already all of the fire had been extinguished and all were left was the empty frames of houses, he took a right and headed for the main post in the city, he listened closely for sounds of trouble. And then it hit him. There is no fire, no smoke, in fact all that I can hear are screams. Shining darted faster than ever to the east branch, his breath was wavering but his mind stayed on the goal, immediately he could see other soldiers darting around shouting commands and directing injured civilians to safer quarters, the commander was in the middle of it all. But unlike the strained report he was not in danger nor was he dying, in fact the word furious would better describe his current mood as he saw Shining rush towards him at full speed.

"Sir?" Shining braked with his feet managing to stop inches away from his senior officer who was not looking very pleased to see his house arrested private in the city. "What are you doing private? How dare you disobey a direct order?"

Shining scratched his head in confusion. "But sir, we received information that you were injur-" His words were cut short by more screams.

"Look private, if you do not go back to the fort, I will have you court-martialed and sent home!" Shrieked the officer in frustration. At that point Shining had already gone back, he had realized what had been worried about.

Stupid, stupid! Why did I not see that earlier Shining ran through his survey of the injured guard.

How can anything pierce his armour, He was fighting a fire and the local pirates, not heavily armed soldiers, furthermore he lied about the fire as well as the commander being injured to draw all the guards out of the fort, but why?

With his new knowledge and questions plaguing his mind, he galloped until his hooves were sore, back to the endangered fort.

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"Hey, what are we supposed to be doing?" Said one guard to the other, they sat around the courtyard contemplating their next move, Shining had left with that strange mare which meant they were without orders. "I don't know." Came the lethargic reply.

"Weren't we supposed to guard this place or something?"

"Yea but like Shining said, no one would dare attack us." Seconds after the words left his mouth, a large explosion ripped through the hard wood wall of the fort gate causing the entire structure to shudder and shake.

"What the hell was that!?" Immediately another explosion could be heard. The remaining guards formed a circle around the newly formed hole.

"Surrender or be killed." Shouted the unicorn guard through the raging fire, He charged his horn and waited for a sign of surrender.

From the shadows, a single pony emerged, he was cloaked with a pitch black hood that hung low over his entire face only allowing for a single smirk to be seen.

"Strange, I was told that the fort would be empty." Muttered the enigmatic newcomer ignoring his opponents as he stepped over the rubble.

"Listen to me." Shouted the guard angrily at the new threat "If you take another step further we will take you down." He threatened but his enemy seemed less than willing to comply.

The hooded unicorn stared in annoyance at the guard, this small weak creature was commanding him to surrender. He stared through his hood into the eyes of his target. "Silence scum."

Before the Unicorn guard could summon a spell he screamed screamed in agony and shattered into a million pieces, the remaining guard stared dumbfounded, their comrade had simply vanished into dust in front of their eyes, quickly the five took up basic formations, the Pegasi swooped into the air and the Earth ponies took the defense charge while the unicorn stood at the back firing spells, Immediately another Earth pony had been disintegrated, the hooded assassin was agile and swift, quickly dodging a wild sword swing he rolled past the swooping Pegasi and let off another shot this time eradicating the Pegasi from existence.

"Three down, three to go." Teased the vicious killer lightly. The two remaining Earth pony guards charged while the Unicorn formed a defensive shield around them, something that Shining had taught him.

"You won't get past the shield you freak, it's anti magic so do-" His sentence was cut short by the sound of the shield bubble shattering. Another guard screamed in agony and vanished, only his armour left on the ground.

"You guards have such nice equipment, I really would hate to have them destroyed. He ducked under the last Earth pony and raised him to the sky with his two front hooves, smiling wickedly his pressed his horn into the head of his victim and like the victim's fellow guards before him, he vanished into dust. The last Unicorn fell onto his bottom, he quaked as the invincible pony with untold and unnatural power loomed closer and closer.

"What are you?" Whispered the guard in fear as the God like unicorn stared into his wide trembling pupils as they darted around looking for some sort of impossible rescue that would never come.

The Unicorn simply smiled and paused before turning his mood into a dark one. "I'm the disassembler" He announced dramatically before smiling, the screams of the guard echoed through the fort followed swiftly with the sound of an empty armour husk clanking on the floor.

The cloaked Unicorn laughed, it was so very easy to kill off six guards without even batting an eye lid. He giggled maniacally and walked out the way he came meticulously dusting off the remains of his recently vanquished foes off his shoulder and took a look around.

"Sir!" Came a voice from the infirmary. The turncoat hopped out and rushed to his master's side. "I have done as you wished, please give me my reward."

"Yes I will reward a good little traitor with what he deserves." He smiled fondly at his ally before he turned him into dust.

Now we just need Silverheart to deliver my hostage and all is ready. He grinned, walking away from the fort slowly as it burned away in the background.

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Shining charged up the hill to the fort, from a distance he could already see it burn, cursing his carelessness he stumbled up the carved hill to get inside, immediately he saw the empty suits of armour lying on the floor. Carefully hopping over the large stones and rubble that once protected the fort, Shining hopped through the large hole and into the fort.

"Guys?" He shouted through the fire, nobody answered, quickly darting into the infirmary he found the traitor to be gone, he rushed outside to search for any survivors, suddenly a flash could be seen a single orb rolled towards Shining Armour's feet before it exploded.

Shining quickly took cover before noticing a shadow in the mouth of where he had entered just minutes before.

I know that orb He stood from his hiding spot and formed a force field around himself but it was immediately disabled with another attack. The specialist slammed the butt of his sword into Shining throwing the blue maned guard to the floor and pointed the end of it to his chest.

"The criminal, coming back to the scene of the crime." The specialist stared fiercely at the misunderstood soldier as he raised his sword and brought it down, Shining braced for the attack only to be saved by a flying blur as the Specialist dodged out of the way and rolled back to assure his defense.

Shining turned to his savior. Silverheart stood angrily wielding a strange elongated weapon, it was the first time Shining had seen it, a long staff with one side equipped with an axe head, while the other a spear tip. She swung it quickly with her teeth expertly in an eight figure movement and darted forward.

The specialist darted forward as a reply and they fought, Shining got to his feet to witness the spectacle, he had known that Silverheart was a good fighter, but he didn't expect her to match up against a higher ranking officer. She feigned an attack and soared into the air, caught unaware the specialist swung his head wildly to find her, his shadow became disfigured and she slammed down into his back with the spear tip embedded through his cloak.

Her signature move

"Wait what are you doing?" Shining rushed forward to his comrades side. "We don't want to kill him, it was all a misunderst-" Silverheart slammed her fist into Shining Armour's face and he passed out before he hit the ground, she wiped off the grime from her face and prepared to leave with him.

Alright, time to go.

Turning around she heard a clink behind her, looking to her feet a single light blue orb rolled under her. "Boom boom" she grunted in annoyance as a bright flash enveloped her.

Rolling to the left she grunted in pain as she picked herself up, lucky for her she had enough strength to roll to the side, the orb burst into a thick cloud and the specialist dusted off his cloak.

"That attack should have killed you, I hit between the gaps of your armour with my spear." Silverheart braced her hooves for another attack, But the specialist simply tore off his cloak revealing a full suit of armor.

"You see dear, I'm not a normal pony, you can't expect to tear through the armor of a knight using that feeble weapon." The knight smirked as he pulled out two more orbs from his thick shiny armor.

Silverheart studied her new attacker. His sword was a large broadsword but she had not noticed that before, A Knight was a person of high power, very few exist in the military and often they were sent of solo missions for the good of Equestria, but for one to show up here as well as wield more than just simple weaponry meant there was something dangerous afoot.

"To think they would send a knight to solve their problems mean that we are causing enough trouble for Celestia huh?" said Silverheart coldly, she could not break her nerve, her fight with him would be futile, as good as she was, the remaining army would be there soon and she was not ready to take on 20 albeit tired but battle ready guards, smiling to herself she fished into her backpack and drew out four small stone shaped balls.

The Knight braced his blade and waited for her to strike.

"Sorry sir, I don't have anymore time to play games," She threw them into the air and blew them behind her attacker with her wings and smiled."And I think even you would find it hard to get past two tons of rubble." The knight smiled as the balls exploded behind him.

"You can't expect such tiny explosives to bring down an entire castl-" The building behind him came crashing down on his words. He was right, those explosives could not bring down the building, but she had known the entire area from the inside out, every crook and weak point was imprinted deeply in her mind. The knight fruitlessly dodged and slashed away at the falling debris before he was enveloped in a deep cloud of dust. Silverheart smiled at her handiwork and dragged the unconscious Shining Armour out of the burning fortress.

Comments

[khatre]

Ohhhhhhh!
Things get ... Complicated ...

[LunarLover]

1931457 When did I imply that? It was supposed to be a mix and at most the biggest war/skirmish would be at the end...Oh wait spoilers