The Royal Guardian

by nxtl68

Changeling attack

Chapter 2: Changeling attack

A few days later

Canterlot training grounds

The orange glow of mornings light bathes the Canterlot training ground as the clang of metal hitting metal echos through the trees. In the dusty circle ground out from years of training soldiers in the art of battle, the Royal Guard commander Shining Armor was locked in a heated battle with the Royal Guardian himself. Though not an official part of his task as the Royal Guardian, Paladin insisted on training and sparring with the Guard Commanders to keep their skills sharp during the down time before combat missions. Although his training methods were chastised by the Queen for being too dangerous, Paladin touted that no guard captain had ever perished during training…

Yet.

The kit the two warriors wore mirrored their their fighting styles Paladin’s coat was removed, crumbled in a heap to the side of the grounds..Paladin’s chest was protected by a metallic chest plate with his personal emblem stamped over his heart. His wrists and feet were covered in a pair of gauntlets and greaves that went from his feet to his knees. The metal was padded underneath with wool to soften blows. In his left hand he carried a 10 inch long, 2 inch wide dagger that was retractable. This design made the blade easy to store when he needed to sneak around, yet easily unsheathed when it came time to fight. In his right hand was one of the newest weapons in the Canterlot arsenal: a six shot revolver, plated in steel with a four inch barrel. The handle, made of wood, was glowing orange with magic energy in paladin’s hand. The revolver required no physical ammunition. Instead it shot bolts of magical energy at an amplified rate of the wielder’s choosing. However this required a pause between six round shots so that the weapon could cool and recover some of the spent magical energy from the user’s own magical reserves.

While Paladin’s kit was built for speed, Shining Armor’s kit by comparison was built to withstand the mightiest of blows. He was covered from head to toe in gold plated steel, the front of his armor was painted in royal purple, with his own personal emblem: A magenta six pointed star on a dark blue shield, with three light blue stars above the shield, stamped in the center. on his left forearm he carried a large shield stamped with the insignia of the Equestrian flag, and in his right hand was a large dual edged sword.

Paladin was standing in a defensive stance, the blade held horizontal with his gun arm braced against it. He blocked a heavy blow from shining armor then propelled himself to the left, out of the way of another heavy swing. He points his revolver at Shining and squeezes off three rounds. The large orange bolts bounce off of his adversary’s shield, but knock him off balance from the force of each shot ricocheting off the shield. When Shining Armor stumbles backwards, Paladin strikes. He sprints forward, and leads with his right knee as he jumps into his staggered foe. With a loud bang, Shining armor’s shield is knocked backwards into his helmet. With the shield pressed against his head, he falls to the ground with Paladin descending upon him, blade pointed downward and aiming to deal a killing blow. A mere inch before the blade makes contact with Shining’s unprotected head; a magical barrier stops any further forward progress. He’s forced backwards, landing on his feet in a defensive stance once more.

“Come on, boy. Get up!” Paladin taunts. “The power of love may of stopped that walking cheese block but it’s not gonna stop me!”

Shining Armor became enraged at Paladin’s disrespect. He spat on the ground and charged at him. He roared out a battle cry as he ran, sword held above his head, the steel glinting in the sunlight. Paladin chuckled and stood firm as he approached, his weapons down at his side. Before Armor could strike him down, he disappeared in a flurry of sparks, appearing behind him. Shining spun around with his swing, attempting to cleave off the Royal Guardian’s head. But his swing is stopped cold as Paladin raises his arm out to meet his, the loud clang of armor against armor echoed through the quiet grounds.

Shining’s sword flew into the air behind him as he lurched back and grabbed his right wrist in pain. He cursed himself and looked up in time to see a steel covered fist impacting his chin. In the brief moment that Shining was preoccupied, Paladin had already turned around and thrown a savage left uppercut, knocking Shining Armor off his feet and into the air. With a smirk, Paladin turns around and walks toward his coat as Shining armor slams into the ground on his back. He groans in pain as Paladin chuckles, the few guards that had gathered to watch applauding as Paladin placed his weapons back into the holsters on the sides of his belt.

“So, that’s the famous Paladin.” One of the guard whispers to the group with him.

“Yeah that’s him, the Queen’s chosen guardian. Rumor has it he’s the oldest known unicorn in existence.” The second one says

“Bullshit, there’s no way he’s a fucking unicorn.” The third one said

“Do you SEE wings on his back, dipshit?! Last I checked all the Alicorns have wings.”

“So riddle me this, how does a unicorn live as long as Queen Faust?!” the third one yells. Their argument catches the ear of the Guardian, who sighs and yells over to them.

“Hey! Shouldn’t you three be doing patrols instead of arguing like a bunch of housewife’s over today’s newest gossip?!” The guards realize they had been heard and stammer to attention, saluting the Royal Guardian before heading on their way.
Paladin shook his head as he threw his coat over his shoulders. “Your guards sure do like to talk, Shining Armor. “ He looked over to the Guard Captain as he had finally found his feet, a thin streak of blood running from the edge of his lip down his brown chin. His blue hair with a single sky blue streak was tussled and matted with dust and sweat. He rubs his sore jaw with his left hand as groans softly in pain.

“They also know the definition of “sparring”. Despite being the Captain of the Guard for five years Guardian, he still wasn’t used to the, in his own words, insane training regiments of the Royal Guardian Paladin. The motto of Paladin’s training was that sparring was only beneficial when it mimicked the real thing. Despite knowing this, and getting stronger himself, Shining had only a fraction of the strength and skill that his “mentor” had possessed.

“I didn’t kill you so you’re fine.” He chuckled and turned to face Shining Armor. “Besides, you did better this time. It only took me 15 minutes to beat you this week.” He wiped his brow off and chuckled as Shining sighed.

“You know it’s not easy to explain to Cadance why I come home bruised and bloody after “training” Shining sighed. “And Twily’s giving me a hard time as it is about getting rest.

“Oh please, I trained Celestia AND Luna this way and they didn’t bitch this much.”Paladin snickered and leaned against one of the training dummies as Shining’s jaw dropped.

“You…what?!”

Paladin nodded. “You heard me, I trained the princesses to fight just like this. Their mother even came down to watch.”
“T….that’s insane! How did you not kill them?!” Shining yelled.

“Well for one thing Celestia and Luna don’t complain like you do.” Paladin scoffed, making Shining Armor growl. He then smirked and crossed his arms.

“So you spent five minutes of your morning beating up on little girls in front of their mother?”

Paladin looked up with a scowl, then stepped forward. Shining Armor, sensing he’d touched a nerve, took a step back as the Guardian through a punch but stopped just short of hitting him. He pointed a finger at him as he spoke.

“I’ll have you know Celestia lasted three hours in training before I finally beat her the first time.” Paladin turned and walked towards the stairs leading away from the training ground as Shining Armor called out.

“A…and Luna?”

“She actually beat me…and she was the mortal equivalent to three years old at the time.”

Shining stepped back as his jaw dropped for the second time that day. He had just learned that the Princesses he was sworn to protect had not only survived longer than him in combat, but one of them had actually defeated the man he found impossible to beat in battle when she was only in diapers. As Shining gathered his gear from the training room floor, a guard ran across the marble bridge to reach them.

“Guardian Paladin, Captain Armor!” He called out, panting hard from the long sprint in full armo. “The…the…”

“Take a deep breath and then speak, soldier.” Shining spoke to him as he put his helmet back on his head.

“The Changelings have attacked outpost 17!”

“Outpost 17…. That’s near the crown fragment we found…The Changelings are looking for Queen Faust’s body!” Paladin yelled. He turned to Shining Armor. “Get your sister, get her friends, find the elements, and get em on a flight to stalliongrad. I’ll go on ahead and secure the area. We cannot let the Changelings dig up that site!”

“Yes Sir!” Shining Armor began to rush away before a thought stopped him in his tracks, he turned to ask just how Paladin would be getting to the Mountains above Stalliongrad when he saw the man was gone, and scorch marks were the only things left of his presence before them.

Elsewhere…

The mountainous regions that bordered Equestria’s North were unforgiving. Blinding snowstorms and bone chilling cold made getting lost certain death. The rough terrain and constant threat of avalanches made exploration the area treacherous for even the heartiest of climbers. But while the natural dangerous of this mountains were bad enough, the constant threat of Changeling incursions were more than enough to keep the local citizens off the mountains. But for a chosen few, traveling up these mountains were a necessary evil. Thus was the case for the Royal Guardian, who teleported into the ankle deep snow. He took a quick look around before reaching into his coat and donning his mask.

“I hate this place.” He sighed and teleported again, this time onto a nearby tree limb. He leaped from tree to tree, his steps light enough to leave the snow covered branches undisturbed. Using Magic, the Guardian pierced the blinding snow, scanning the area ahead for any survivors to rescue or enemies to do away with. After a fifteen minute trek, he came to rest at the base of a hill where the outpost station was located. The brick and mortar building was heavily damaged, smoke pouring from the windows. Impact wounds on the walls signified that changeling Artillery was sued to soften up the small band of soldiers inside before the attack had been launched.

Paladin warped to the top of roof, landing without a sound. He crouched down and quickly navigated to the northern side of the outpost, looking down into the small valley. Orange wisps flicked in his peripheral vision as he adjusted the magnification of his telescopic lenses to their maximum setting. He slowly panned his head left, and then right, where he spotted two soldiers, both female, dressed from head to toe in warm clothing stamped with the equestrian military insignia, tied up. Surrounding them where over two dozen beings, their arms and legs riddled with holes, their grey skin making them appear like phantoms in the snow. They were clothed in black leather armor around their vital areas. The one that appeared to be their leader wore a helmet adorned with horns. Though the snowstorm made it impossible to hear the conversation, the body language made it obvious this was more than a simple investigation. One of the soldiers shook her head no to a question, and green magic surrounded her. She was tossed towards a group of the enemy soldiers, who began to descend upon her, pulling at her clothing as she shrieked for help.

“Fucking vultures…” Paladin muttered and drew his weapons. He teleported towards the girl and landed between her and her attackers, the force of his teleportation knocked them back as he cast a time-slowing spell at the same moment. As the assailants fell back in slow motion he drew his revolver and fired, knocking the center advisory back off his feat. He dashed forward and swung his blade as he propelled forward, driving the blade of his dagger through his opponents throat. Fluorescent green-colored blood spewed from the wound as he turned on his heel, now facing left he put a magical bullet through the head of the second enemy soldier, knocking him forward into the snow. As he fell Paladin dashed over his body and used his magic to pull the third soldier towards him. He ducked below the flying soldier and stabbed upward, through the chest plate of his armor, piercing his heart before kneeling down, blood spattered on his mask as the soldier landed on his dead partner. He turned to quickly observe his work as his spell wore off, and the three remaining soldiers gathering themselves as Paladin wiped away blood that had splashed on the lenses.

“I thought you walking cheese blocks fed on love? Last time I checked violating a woman out here in the snow didn’t count.” He roared before quickly putting a bullet in the three remaining soldiers. They fell to the snow as the remaining changelings gathered around him.

Paladin prepared to fight, as the leader of this raiding band, appearing to be female herself, stepped forward.

“You’re a long way from your blasted castle, Guardian.” The woman spoke, her voice tinged with an odd buzzing tone, like it was a mix of human and insect.

“This is a treat, one of you vermin actually know who I am.” Paladin chuckled and took an offensive stance. “Do your people still tell the story of how I massacred a division of you monsters at Trottingham during the first war? How I moved like the autumn winds through your forces, or however that damned tale goes.” His words dripped with anger as he yelled.

“You dare stand before us and brag of how you killed my people?!”

“I’m not bragging, I’m just telling what I’ve heard you maggots say about me.” He shot back and stood normally. “Now I’ll give you one chance to explain what the hell your doing out here destroying our outpost and I might let you live.”

The Changeling lieutenant chuckled and drew her sword. The blade was curved and jagged, pointing it in Paladin’s mask-covered face. “You know very well why we’re out here or else you wouldn’t be here, insolate fool. We know the Queen Faust is buried out here, and we’re going to take her for one of our own. We’ll use her to reap chaos and destruction across your lands, and take Equestria for our own!”

Paladin shook his head and smirked, though the mask hid his expression. “And since when do you things know how to raise the dead?”

“Are you so sure she’s dead, ‘Guardian?’”

The lieutenant’s claim took Paladin by surprise. Was she really claiming that the Equestrian’s long lost ruler was somehow alive under the snow? His thoughts were disturbed as the sound of crunching snow caught his attention. Two changelings had their swords drawn and were swinging towards his head and back. Their blades were met by the orange glow of a barrier spell, which made their blades ricochet backwards. As they readied for another attack, a nova of magical energy exploded around him, knocking the group around him back into the snow, blood oozing from wounds on their body as they passed. Paladin stretched and walked towards the fallen leader, her armor torn at various points as her blood stained the front. He lifted her off the ground with magic so that they were eye level. Finding the Lieutenant dead, he swore to himself and dropped her back to the snow.

He put his mask back in his coat and turned to the tied up woman before him. He used magic to free their arms and legs. The red haired soldier ran to her friend and embraced her as the green haired soldier stared at the man who saved them.

“T…Thank you, sir. Thank you!” She sobbed as Paladin approached and wiped her cheeks clean with his glove.

“Think nothing of it, now tell me what happened.”

“T…there were five of us out on patrol when these things surrounded us. They kept asking us where the Queen was….we kept tel…telling them we didn’t know…The lieut…the lieutenant then told them to t-take us…” The red-haired soldier closed her eyes and whispered to her friend to stop, but she continued on. “They took the captain first….they made us watch….They…” the girl’s speech dissolved into tears as her friend held her tight. The green haired soldier kissed her forehead and rubbed her back, whispering to her that they were okay now. Paladin gave the girls their space and began searching the bodies for any useful information. Behind him the two girls seemed to be in an argument about something.

“B-but how do we know he’s not one of them?!”

“Ruby, he just saved our lives,

“B-but….”

“Something you ladies need to tell me?” Paladin was looking over his shoulder now as Emerald stood up.

“Before the attack started, we found a cave entrance packed with snow, and another crown fragment buried outside it.” Emerald reached into her left pants pocket and pulled out a rounded gold piece, with a small sapphire embedded within. Paladin teleported to her and took the piece from her hand, studying it closely before looking at the girl. .

“T-tell me you remember where you found this…”

“We have a map hidden in the outpost. If it didn’t get destroyed in the attack, it’ll lead us right to it.” Ruby said, joining her partner.

“Okay…” He slowly approached the two soldiers. Ruby gripped her friend’s shoulder, fearing the worst. When Paladin was inches from them he put his hands on their shoulders.

“Show me...” he said before teleporting with them back to the outpost.

Comments

[naginata]

besides a few grammer errors there are no run on scentences. also i like how you use descriptive words to explain whats going on. not to mention i like the feeling of being left in suspense. every thing flows together in a lovely manner and so far the story has me hooked