Equestria, a land of harmony and peace....now a land of oppression and misery. An unknown pony wielding powerful magic has seized the land, Celestia and Luna were powerless to stop them.
Equestria, a land of harmony and peace...now a land of oppression and misery. Several months ago, the nation society of historical research began excavation in some old ruins dated back to before the rise of any known nations or empires. The ponies sent there never returned and any sign of them or the ruins had disappeared.
One month ago, IT had arrived. An unknown pony wielding powerful magic and commanding an army of various twisted creatures invaded Equestria, nopony was able to stand up to them. The elements of harmony were all captured, except for Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle who both disappeared with no trace. The crystal empire was completely destroyed and both Cadance and Shining Armour are presumed to be dead. Celestia and Luna were defeated and captured by the mysterious pony, causing the sun/moon cycle to stop, resulting in a permanent sunset.
Today, the sky serves as a reminder to all ponies that the two immortal sisters were beaten and that all hope is seemingly lost. A resistance has formed and is fighting a losing war against the armies of distorted ponies and other creatures.
A big thank you to Alun Aleriksson for proofreading my story.
The sky was grey and cloudy; a heavy rainstorm was planned for today. Local pegasi weather teams issued a warning to all ponies to stay inside as it was going to be a terrible one. The recent war had resulted in many pegasi being drafted into the royal guard which meant most towns did not have enough ponies on the weather team. This was especially a problem in Manehatten, which has regular storms scheduled in an attempt to catch up on all the missed days of rain.
Radiant Dawn was walking home alongside his daughter, Sunshine Melody. The stallion had a dark yellow coat with a red mane and tail, and he was wearing a full black suit with a white tie and a pair of thick black glasses. His daughter had a light yellow mane and tail with a light blue coat. They were both unicorns.
"Of all the times they had to arrange another storm, it had to be now!" Radiant Storm shouted. "The pegasi need to stop getting caught behind on their weather schedules, it is getting quite tiresome putting up with all of these storms."
He was speaking to nopony in particular, just venting out loud to himself. His daughter was too busy reading a book as she walked alongside him, somehow not noticing her father ranting loudly next to her. Many ponies they passed by on the streets gave him odd looks as they walked past them. Along the path they were walking was a stand selling newspapers. Dawn decided to stop to buy a newspaper to read; it was about the war.
"Royal guard unable to push invaders back....Las Pegasus recently captured by the creatures...still no news from the Crystal Empire." He folded the newspaper up and placed it in a pocket. "Nothing good so far, this is starting to worry me...if those creatures manage to reach here..." He started to ramble to himself again, not noticing the figure that was approaching him.
"Well, I'll be damned! If it isn't ol' Dawny!" A large white earth pony whacked Radiant Dawn in the sides of his stomach causing him to drop to the floor in pain. "Ahhh, little Sunshine! How you doing kid?" The pony ruffled her hair, annoying her to the point of screaming. "Gah! Do you always have to greet me like this, Rising Shield?" Radiant Dawn rose back to his feet. "Damaging my organs doesn't make me feel like a good friend, you know," he said in an annoyed tone.
Rising Shield laughed "Don't be such a foal, I barely put any effort into that strike and you know it! You just like being over-dramatic, as always!" He said.
The unicorn stallion glared at the earth pony. "Very well, I will not complain further...but do that again in the future and I will go full rant mode on you." Radiant Dawn fixed his glasses. "So, how is life going for our brave and noble soldier in the war? I would love to hear more of your exaggerated stories full of boastful lies." He said.
"Yikes! Somepony's a little angrier than usual, was your morning coffee not good enough for you?" Rising Shield said with a smirk on his face. "The war is going terrible, the royal guard is getting their flanks handed to them on a silver platter." He said.
Sunshine Melody was staring at the sky while the two stallions spoke to each other, her hooves were trembling and she was incapable of speech as she witnessed something approach the city from the sky. She started to nudge her father in the stomach with her hoof repeatedly.
"Huh?What's wrong Sunshi-" Radiant Dawn looked up in horror as horde of creatures approached the town from the sky, they were so numerous in number they looked like a giant swarm of black insects. Rising Shield was the first to speak "Shit! A horde of mantiquus, of all the bloody things that could be sent to invade, it had to be those nightmares!" He shouted. "Dawny, take your daughter and get out of the city as fast as you can! I am going to go sound the sirens that should have been activated well before they even appeared in the sky and protect the people, since it's clear the guards in this city are crap at their jobs!" He ran off down the street and turned a corner, moving fast for somepony of his size.
"Come on Sunshine! Get on my back!" Radiant Dawn lifted up his daughter and placed her on his back, then started running. Not long after, the sirens activated, flooding the town with noise. Ponies started to flee in panic and exit their homes, many of them previously oblivious to the approaching invaders. Rain started to fall from the clouds and quickly turned into a downpour, making it harder to run or see. Radiant Dawn used his horn to light his way through the darkness of the rain as he ran past many other ponies fleeing from the creatures. Not all were fast enough to outrun them completely as many ponies were caught; the sounds of screaming filled the air.
Several of the creatures flew down from the sky and charged towards him, attempting to attack him with their sharp sword-like legs. He had managed to either barely dodge the large creatures or would shoot them in the head with a blast of magic which seemed to scare them off. Some of the unicorns noticed this and started blasting the creatures with basic spells, this worked for a while as the screams started to lessen and were slowly replaced with the sounds of magic ripping through the air. The creatures took note of this and began to target those firing magic, soon most of the unicorns trying to fight back were killed. The scent of blood started to fill the air as ponies were slaughtered. The guards tried to fight back but they were outnumbered at least ten to one.
Radiant Dawn started to panic as he noticed many of the creatures trying to target him, he cut into an alleyway with many sharp turns. He hoped that the narrow paths would make it harder for the larger creatures to catch up. "Daddy, I'm scared...what are those things?" Sunshine almost whispered this, her hoofs were trembling and tears ran down her face as fear started to overwhelm her.
"It is ok sweetie...daddy is not going to let those creatures harm you, ok?" Dawn said, reassuring his daughter. She nodded and buried her face into his mane, not wishing to see the horrifying creatures. Dawn looked behind him and noticed that he had lost most of the creatures but two were still on his tail. He turned a corner and continued to run as fast as he could, adrenaline had filled his veins which had helped him run both faster and longer than usual.
He had to lose both of them and fast, soon he would be back out onto open streets where either of them could easily catch up to him. He fired several beams of magic behind him, this had managed to hit one of the two creatures causing it to fly head first into a wall as the magic made it panic. The one still chasing did not seem fazed by the magic like the other creatures, Radiant Dawn noticed that the creature's eyes were different from the others. They were pure red and were glowing very brightly.
Radiant Dawn saw that he was about to exit the alleyway and began to fear; outrunning these creatures in the open streets was hard enough. The small number of ponies left alive meant that more would target him, and surviving that would be extremely difficult if not outright impossible. He looked behind and saw the creature fly up into the sky. This confused him. Why has the creature given up? It seemed eager to try and kill me before, unless it is planning to... He was so deep in his thoughts that he did not notice one of the creatures had landed in front of him.
He ran head first into the creature, causing him to fall back onto the cold hard floor. He heard his daughter yelp in pain as she fell off his back. He opened his eyes and looked up, he was staring directly at the creature as it looked down at him.
It was a horrifying mix between a manticore, a changeling and a chimera. It was covered in a thick black exoskeleton, its legs ended in thin long blades which dug into the ground. Its ribs were visible through the exoskeleton, poking through the skin on the stomach. It had two heads, both seemed almost identical in all but shape. One was in the shape of a changeling’s head whilst the other resembled the head of a goat. Both had pitch black eyes and two large gaping holes just underneath which seemed to serve as nostrils. It had no mouth or ears. The tail of the creatures was similar to a manticore’s tail, the only difference being it was just bone with nothing covering it. Large changeling-like wings sprouted from the creatures back, they were covered in a thick dark green liquid which seemed to endlessly drip off its wings. The creature was around the same size as a chimera.
He tried to get his limbs to move, to get up, grab his daughter and run;but he was incapable of moving at all. All he could do was stare at the horrifying abomination as it towered over him. Sweat dripped down his face as pure terror overwhelmed his body, he was incapable of thinking much either. He opened his mouth to scream in horror but nothing came out, he felt like his voice was somehow lodged in his throat.
The creature raised one of its legs and was preparing to attack the two unicorns, it was interrupted when a sword flew into one of the creature’s necks; severing one of its heads. It flew off in panic and rejoined the attacking horde, white blood dripping from its exposed neck as it soared through the air. Radiant Dawn looked behind him to see who had saved them. It was Rising Shield, he had cuts all over his body showing that he had taken quite a beating. He walked over to the two and offered Radiant Dawn a hoof, helping him get back onto his feet.
"Are you two alright?" Rising Shield said. Dawn nodded as he picked up his daughter using his magic and placed her on his back, she did not seem to be too hurt from the fall which relieved him.
"Come on, let’s get out of here. The situation is really bad, I tried to help as many as I could but the city is being overrun...the damn creatures have claimed another city!" As he said this, he ran up ahead as the two unicorns followed suit.
"Gah, what are these creatures? I have never felt so scared in my life, staring at that...that...thing as it towered over me," Radiant Dawn shuddered as he said this.
"I told you already, they are mantiquus! Do you not listen to me or-"
Dawn interrupted him "You know what I mean when I said that! Do not try to make me look an idiot!" Dawn glared at Shield.
"No need to be so angry, I was just answering the question YOU asked. Those things there happen to be a large part of the invading force, so I have to fight those things in almost every battle. You would think their fear of magic would help us push them back, but they are normally with these weird...unicorn...things that seem to be able to disrupt magic, they help keep them calm. I have never seen them invade with no other creatures around though, normally there is always at least one pony around to contro-" the two were interrupted when a knife flew into Radiant Dawn's leg, resulting in him falling over in pain and his daughter falling off his back.
"Sorry you two, did not mean to interrupt your little talk but I am afraid we cannot let you leave." A large earth pony covered head to hoof in dark steel armour approached the two. The pony was very large, easily big enough to outsize a fully grown chimera. The helmet they wore had parts missing from it, revealing the eyes and mouth of the creature. Their coat was dark blue and they had visible bulging white veins all over their fur. It raised its right foreleg, causing the two mantiquus next to it sit down in a resting position; their eyes changing from pitch black to red. The front forelegs of the pony were not hoofs like the back legs, there was no armour covering them revealing that the bottom of both had been split into 4 pieces. Each piece had sharp pieces of metal stitched into the skin, allowing the pony to use both of the forelegs as makeshift claws.
Rising Shield was not one to be scared, he was a fierce soldier and none of the abominations that he had fought had ever invoked any feeling of fear into him...but this giant of a pony was something else. He shouted at it. "Stay back! I-I am warning you! Just stay over there, let us leave, a-and...nothing will happen to you or your..pets." He said this with fear evident in his voice.
The giant pony laughed. "So weak and pathetic, I used to be like you...a soldier who thought he was all big and strong because he fought for some powerful alicorn. I am above that now...my master, they showed me what true power is like...they revealed all of the answers to me." He raised one of his claw-like appendages to his chest. "You see this army that brings destruction upon your cities and fills your heart with fear..my master made them...and they are only the beginning of our might. Your leaders will fall, your precious elements will fall...just like so many others have fallen already." The large pony began to break out into a long speech, his arrogance blinded him to the fact that both Shield and Dawn were whispering to each other.
Rising Shield had picked up Sunshine Melody and placed her on his back. He was now trying to help Radiant Dawn up onto his feet, he had removed the knife from his leg and wrapped it up with some makeshift bandages he had. The large pony was full of himself and was too busy giving a speech to notice what he was doing.
Dawn slapped Shield’s hoof away as he tried to help him up. "No, go on without me. I will only slow you down, he may be unable to notice us right now but him speaking won’t distract him from us for much longer...I will keep him busy for you guys someho-"
"No Dawny, I am not leaving you behind...you have a daughter to rai-"
"That is precisely why I must do this, she is the only thing I have left of...of her...I promised long ago to keep her safe and now you will make the same promise to me Shield...keep her safe for me, please." Dawn had placed his hoof on Shield’s chest who nodded.
"Ok buddy, for you." As Shield had said this he turned and began to run away, he did not get far when the large pony had noticed
"Oi, where do you think you two are goi-"
Radiant Dawn interrupted the pony with a blast to the face, the two mantiquus went to charge forward but the giant pony raised one of its claw-like hoofs and made them stop in their tracks.
"Let them go, we only need one of the two stallions and the daughter is useless to us." He approached Radiant Dawn and grabbed him by the neck with one of his forelegs. "A little birdie told you have some information that would very much interest me and my master." He lifted him up into the air and made him stare into his eyes, his breath had filled Dawn's nostrils with a foul odour. "I believe it would be very nice if you could come back with me and tell us all about it...you will not like what happens if you refuse to talk" The giant pony said this very slowly as he stared at Radiant Dawn.
Sunshine melody was screaming as she was carried away on Rising Shield's back, she could only watch as the large pony carried him away. "Daddy!" Tears started to pour out of her eyes.
Rising shield noticed this and nuzzled her. "It will be okay sweetie, I will look after you...ok? Daddy is a very brave pony and he is going to be fine, let’s just worry about keeping you safe." Shield tried to reassure the young filly as best as he could.
Sunshine was still crying but she had stopped crying, she nodded and buried her head into his mane. Shield carried on running, full of regret that he couldn't save his old friend. I failed you Dawny...I will not let you down twice, I will keep her safe for as long as I draw breath
The rain was still pouring down as the two ran off into the distance, escaping from Manehattan which was completely covered in the darkness of the horde. Lightning periodically struck the ground. As Sunshine cried, she thought back to all the happy memories she had of her father. Please Faust, don't let daddy die.
------------------------25 YEARS LATER------------------------
A lone unicorn mare was standing still in a room full of armoured ponnequins, a sword levitating just in front of her. She had a light blue coat with a bright yellow mane, dark blue armour was covering most of her body. The armour had a symbol depicting two alicorns with the sun and the moon. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, taking in her environment. She took a step forward and, moving at incredible speeds, slashed at each of the ponnequins multiple times. A trail of yellow light was left behind as she attacked the stationary targets.
She stopped and looked behind, checking if she had managed to successfully attack all of the ponnequins in the room. She smiled, pleased with herself.
"Not bad Melody, not bad...though if this was a real fight you would be dead by now." A large white stallion looked down at the mare from the door, he approached her with a smile on his face. "Most opponents won't just stop attacking you because you are focusing real hard with your eyes closed..." he took a closer look at the ponnequins "and your strikes barely scratched their armour, you need to put more force behind your hits and strike them where the armour is weaker if you want to do any real damage with your fancy moves." He said this with a cocky smile on his face.
Sunshine Melody sighed and gave a weak smile "You always are a critic uncle Shield, are you sure you just aren't jealous that you are too old to fight anymore?" She asked.
Rising shield laughed loudly "You are funny sometimes, you know that?" He stopped laughing and gave her a serious expression "But you know I am only saying this for your own good, right? I do not want you to be hurt out there when you are fighting so-"
"You want to make sure I am using proper technique blah blah blah, I have heard this from you many times before uncle...I know you mean well but I know what I am doing." Melody said as she looked to the side, a frown on her face.
Shield noticed this. "Hey, what's wrong? I was not trying to be"- He paused for a moment "They are thinking about discharging you again, aren't they? What did you do?" He asked with a serious expression.
She kept looking to the side, trying to ignore Rising Shield. He sighed. "You know I am not mad at you, right?" She did not respond as Shield sighed. "I will just leave you alone, ok? Try not to worry, I am sure they will give you another chance." He said as he exited the room.
Melody stood silently as he exited the room, she exhaled and turned around. She lifted up her sword using her magic again and raised it high, preparing to continue her training when a pegasus adorned in golden armour flew into the room. She dropped her sword to the floor, turned around and saluted as he spoke: "Recruit, the Knight Commander has requested your presence in her office." He turned and exited the room as she sighed.
She picked up her sword and started walking to the office. Well, here's hoping they decided to give me another chance...again. The main rebel base was located underground, in a cave deep in the Whitetail Woods. It was quite a large and deep cave with many different tunnels; most of them lead to booby traps with only one leading to the heart of the rebel operation. This made it hard for the queen's forces to locate them. The buildings in the base was carved out of the stone and the doors were made from heavy iron. It was not the most pleasant place and was nothing like Manehatten, but it was safe and most importantly, it was home to Melody.
Upon reaching the office she knocked on the door. "Commander, you requested my presence?" her voice gave away her nervousness.
"Come inside recruit." She opened the door with her magic and stepped inside. A pegasus mare with a orange coat and purple mane was sitting on a chair, her desk was filled with various documents and papers. She wore a light silver armour that covered most of her body, a helmet was resting on a table behind her.
The mare glared at Melody, both silent as they looked at each other. The Commander spoke up, "Me and the Knight Captains have been speaking about your...situation," she paused for a moment before continuing "They have decided to give you one last chance."- before Melody could thank the commander she covered her mouth with a hoof. "One LAST chance...you hear me recruit? Any more screw ups and you get kicked out, straight away....no discussions, no nothing; are we clear?" She spoke with a stern voice, anger was clearly visible in her face as she stared daggers at Melody. She removed her hoof, allowing her to speak.
"Y-yes Ma'am, I won't let you down, Ma'am!" She saluted as she said this, her hooves still trembling and her fur wet from sweat. The commander sighed as she took a document out from a drawer. "I also have another assignment for you recruit, our scouts have reported suspicious activity to the east; the elite mages have been checking out a cave in the Everfree Forest, quite a risky move for them considering the resistance local animals in the area have been putting up." She passed the folder to Melody who picked it up using her magic.
"This is an important mission recruit, they must be after something big for them to take the risk going there;normally I would not send you but we do not have anypony else to send and this is a two-pony job, hopefully you can just follow their example and you won't manage to buck everything up spectacularly...as usual." she said as Melody read the document.
"I won't let you down Ma'am!" She saluted before exiting the office. As soon as she was a decent distance away from the office, she jumped in the air "Yes! I got one last chance...I can do this, I will do this." She spoke quite loudly, other ponies passing by gave her odd looks and shook their heads. She headed up the path leading to the outer tunnels where she was supposed to rendezvous with her partner for the mission. She looked around as she walked, pegasus ponies were flying all around; passing documents and assignments to the soldiers. Many ponies of various sizes walked past her, while most were adorned in armour some had suits or other clothing.
After some time, she reached the point. Waiting for her was a pegasus stallion with a dark blue coat and a grey mane, he had similar armour to hers; dark blue and covering most of his body. He was tapping his hoof while looking around everywhere, his wings seemed to be twitching; he was clearly growing impatient waiting for her. He smiled when he noticed her approaching "Finally, you arrived! I have been waiting here for ages!" he was right up in her face, she could practically feel him breathing on her.
"Oh, umm...sorry to keep you waiting, I was told I have to investigate a cave with you or somethi-"
"Yes, that is the mission...did you forget already? Is your memory that bad? Is this why you have nearly been discharged multiple times now?" he said all of this with incredible speed, Melody could barely understand what he was saying. Before she could answer him, he interrupted her "No time, let's move already, we can talk and introduce each other and talk and whatever on the way there or something" he said right before he grabbed Melody with his wing and started to push her out.
The two approached a giant wall that seemed to be a dead end, the emblem on their armour glowed and so did the wall. It slowly disappeared, revealing the opening of a cave. Melody smiled. "No matter how many times I see it, I am still impressed...a camouflaged protective shield." she mainly said this to herself.
The pegasus just sighed "Yeah, yeah...how wonderful, let’s get a move on." he dashed ahead, moving pretty fast. Melody started to run as well, trying to catch up with the quick stallion.
"So, ummm, how about introductions? My name is Sunshine Melody, and you are?" she asked him in an attempt to make small talk with the stallion as they ran.
"I am Thunderhoof, nice to meet you....I think." He said. "Oh right, I was meaning to ask you, do you know about the situation in the Everfree?" He asked. Melody shook her head. "Well, you know how the animals are attacking the queen's soldiers? They seem to ignore our rebels, like they are being organised by a leader or something...pretty weird but useful to know, since the animals should not pose a threat to us; mostly." He said.
"Wait...mostly?" she asked with some concern in her voice.
"There is a dragon nest in the forest and the inhabitants don't seem to like us...the timberwolves also seem to still be trying to kill anything like normal as well," he paused for a moment to catch his breath. "Let us pray to Faust that we don't happen to run into any of the two." he said. Melody silently agreed with him; timberwolves usually hunted in packs and combined with their regeneration, they were quite a pain in the flank to deal with.
They stopped when they finally made it to the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. "Right, before we head in there, let me just tell you this now; the cave is being guarded mainly by unicorn mages with a small pack of Mantiquus...I have been told that you have problems with those creatures after a bad experience with them, so just let me handle them for you if we have to fight, ok?" he said as he looked at Melody, she slowly nodded with a smile in response. "Alright then, let us make it to this cave as quick as we can!" he said as they both charged into the forest.
As they started to get close to the cave that was deep in the forest, they started to smell a foul odour. To Melody, this was just a very bad stench, but for Thunderhoof, this was worrying. "Melody, let's slow down and try to move here slowly, we may be able to get through without them noticing...wherever they are," he whispered to her as quietly as possible.
"Get past what Thunder? What are you talking abo-" she tripped over a vine as they were walking, making a large noise. Thunder noticed green eyes in the dark looking in their direction, a growl coming from the dark.
He used his wing to help Melody up. "Come on, let's move it! We have been spotted by timberwolves!" he shouted with urgency. The two started to run as six large wolves broke out of the bushes and chased after them. The various plants and trees made it hard to run for the two ponies who had to constantly move left and right to dodge them, the wolves seemed to easily move through the forest and were gaining on them.
Melody spotted a camp fire up ahead. That must be the cave, maybe we could use them to lose the wolves... her horn lit up and she fired some magical blasts at the wolves. This managed to destroy one but it quickly regenerated. The noise of the blasts seemed to catch the attention of unicorns up ahead. With some quick spells, Melody used an invisibility spell to hide both her and Thunder, then moved into some bushes to hide. She used a levitation spell to drag Thunder inside. The wolves charged past, oblivious to their presence. Fighting was heard up ahead as the wolves found the unicorn mages camping outside the cave.
Thunderhoof poked his head out of the bush "Warn me next time you do that, having magic used on you when you aren't expecting it is not a pleasant experience," he said to Melody as he glared daggers at her.
"I am sorry for making you uncomfortable but I did save our lives you know..." she glared back at him.
"Oh....right, I guess you did..." he paused for a moment. "Sorry...just got annoyed and reacted without thinking for even a second, thanks for that." he smiled at her.
She nodded and looked ahead. "Let's slip past them and into the cave while the unicorns are distracted by the wolves," she said. The two moved through the bushes quickly. Once they were near the campsite, they waited for a bit, then charged out of the bushes and into the cave. Melody used magic to silence her footsteps while Thunder flew. The mages outside did not seem to notice as they were busy in an intense fight.
The two crept through the shadows, sneaking past patrolling guards in the caves. They eventually made it to an intersection, with two tunnels leading deeper into the cave. "Looks like we will have to split up, I go right while you go left" he whispered to her. They both nodded and headed down the tunnels.
Melody eventually made it to the end and saw a large fire up ahead, several unicorn mages were patrolling the area and there were cages with sleeping Mantiquus in them. She gulped when she noticed the creatures. Right, I do not want to deal with them, that will not end well as I am severely outnumbered...need to sneak past. She looked around and noticed a lone guard. She threw a stone nearby, attracting his attention. The guard moved nearby to investigate the area, Melody appeared out of the shadows and stabbed him in the neck with a dagger. She then dragged his body into the shadows. She then touched his body with her horn and used illusion magic to give herself an identical appearance to the guard.
The illusion spell was similar to a changeling disguise but was far inferior; it did not change the caster’s voice, did not change your size to the right proportions and touching any living organism would result in the illusion breaking. I will need to keep my distance if I want to make it past them. She walked past the fire, trying to act as normal as possible. Most of the guards seemed to ignore her, she was almost past the group when another guard tried to speak to her. "Hey, what are you doing? You are supposed to be patrolling down there!" the guard was quite angry and the authority in his voice suggested that he was in command of this group.
Melody froze "Have you got stones in your ears? I told you to move your flank, or do you need me to force you to move?" The guard’s voice was getting increasingly louder and had attracted the attention of the other guards, who were now looking at her. The guard started to move in closer to her.
Shit!I need to think of something or I am dead, he is going to know something is off when he gets closer and notices his "guard" has magically shrunk down in size she sighed turned towards the guard. This is reckless, but it's the only option I have left. She lit up her horn and cast a bright light, blinding all the guards. She then charged into the shadows, running from the site. She heard shouting soon after: "An intruder is in the caves, go after them, I will sound the alarm!" his voice echoed throughout the cave.
She stopped when she reached a giant ravine, several tinier openings were in the sides of it and there was a path leading down to the bottom. She ran down the path and into one of the caves as she heard a number of hoofsteps from behind her. "Alright soldiers, the intruder is here somewhere! Split up and search every inch of the cave! They are not getting any further!" the guards split up and started patrolling the massive ravine.
She crept through the shadows, hiding behind various rocks and other cave formations to avoid detection. The caves were all connected through a series of tunnels, she used this to her advantage. She thought she was in the clear when she noticed a guard coming down the tunnel she was in up ahead, she turned to leave but noticed there were still guards in the cave behind. She decided to wait for the guard to get closer before charging ahead and stabbing him in the neck with her dagger, as she ran past she realised too late that the sound of his body dropping would cause noise. "I heard a noise over there!" she started to move faster. She did not notice that another guard was also approaching from up ahead, also attracted by the noise. "The intruder! I found them!" Melody cursed to herself as she ran towards the soldier up ahead.
She ducked underneath his sword and retaliated with a quick strike to his head, it did not kill him due to the armour, but it managed to knock him to the floor and incapacitate him for a short moment. She used this to gain momentum quickly and ran ahead. She exited the cave system and ran down the simple long path leading to the bottom of the ravine. The mages started firing spells at her from behind, she quickly used a shield on herself to block the spells but it was quickly destroyed. A blast to her leg made her trip and fall.
The guards surrounded her, holding swords to her throat. She got a clearer look at them from so close. They were wearing pure black armour that covered most of their body, the only parts exposed were the necks and the end of their hooves. The helmets had pretty small visors allowing some room for their horns and eyes. This is probably why they had trouble seeing her. The faces were all pure white, with pitch black eyes. They had visible grey veins bulging out beneath their fur. Their horns were curved, all were white up until the tip, where it was very bright red. Their horns seemed to give off strange red sparks every couple of seconds.
"Thought you could sneak in here, did you? Do you know what the punishment for this crime is?" he asked her, she slowly shook her head.
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...
Melody was walking through a dark forest, alone without a single soul around. She was drawn further and further into this lonely place by something just ahead, she couldn't tell what it was but she was determined to find out. The sounds of her hoofsteps got louder and louder each second, this carried on until a soothing voice called out to Melody.
"Melody, come here my sweet little angel.."
The voice clearly belonged to a female. Her voice made Melody calm and was, in a strange sense, alluring. She started to walk faster and faster, desperate to find the source of the voice. She felt like finding this voice would let her escape from all the worries she has in life. That all the fear, the pain; everything that goes wrong in life would never trouble her again. Eventually, she caught up to the source of the voice. It was a mare, Melody could not make out any of her details since a fog surrounded her.
Before Melody could say a word to the figure, the floor broke apart. She tried to scream as she fell down into the abyss but her mouth wouldn't open. Tortured wails filled the air as she fell, coming from all directions. The voice sounded familiar to her, but at the same time, it was alien to her.
After what seemed like an eternity, she hit the floor. Despite the long distance, she didn't feel any pain. She slowly got up, looking around she realised she was in complete darkness. In only a couple of seconds, light filled her eyes. She was disorientated by the sudden brightness forcing her to close her eyes, after a moment she slowly reopened them. She seemed to be in a long corridor, it seemed to be endless on both sides. She squinted her eyes as she looked in the distance, a stallion with glasses was staring at her.
"Dad....is that you? Daddy!"
The figure turned around and started walking away. She ran after them "Dad!It's me!Come back!" the figure ignored her shouts and carried on walking. Despite running at a much faster speed than the walking stallion, she couldn't catch up to them. Eventually, the stallion stopped and turned around. He looked at Melody as she ran towards him. He gently smiled as she got closer and closer. Before she could reach him, a mysterious force sent her flying through the air.
She hit an invisible wall and landed on the floor. As she got up, she heard a strange sound. When she looked ahead, her father's smile had turned unnaturally wide. Before she could do anything, the part of the corridor where he was standing on was broken apart. A titan sized Mantiquus burst from the floor and ripped the stallion apart. It then turned it's two heads towards Melody, unlike most Mantiquus this one actually had mouths. It opened them up as it roared, rows upon rows of sharp teeth filled both of them.
Melody turned and ran as the creature gave chase. The corridor broke apart and fell into the abyss as the creature tore through the building. The screams of ponies filled the air as she ran. She began to get smaller and smaller as she ran until she was eventually the same size as a filly. Tears flowed from her eyes as she ran faster and faster. The screams were getting louder, every once in a while one of the screams would sound like a cry for help. Melody was soon blocked by a wall.
As she looked up, she realised the wall was actually a large cage. Hundreds of ponies were trapped inside, screaming and calling for help. They pushed their faces against the cage and pushed their hooves though the holes in the cage. Their pupils were unnaturally large and there were tiny cracks in their skin, small amounts of blood leaked from these cracks. They reached for Melody as the screaming stopped, now they were just calling for help. Melody backed away as they reached for her. "No....no, I can't help you! I'm sorry!" she cried as she said this.
A loud roar caught her attention. She turned around, realising the large Mantiquus had caught up to her. Before she could react, a large stallion forced their hoof through the cage. It was too large and split apart, turning into a claw like appendage. It grabbed her around her throat and kept her still. She could only scream as the creature opened up it's mouth and lowered it's head.
Melody woke up covered in sweat. "Oh...just a nightmare..." she said in relief as she looked around. She was in a comfy bed. Another bed was in the other corner of the room, it was fairly spacious. The door opened revealing Thunderhoof. He was not wearing his armour. He had a tray on his back filled with food, he carried it over to a table in the room and sat down. He looked at Melody.
"Your finally awake, good." He gave a gentle smile as he said this.
"Wh-What happened? We were in the cave surrounded and-" she was cut off by Thunderhoof.
"You paused when the Mantiquus appeared, eventually you passed out at some point but I didn't really notice, I was busy fighting. As for how we escaped without being killed? Well, we were very lucky..."
Thunderhoof told Melody about his fight with the Two Mantiquus. He used his hooves and wings to emphasise what was happening. He eventually reached the part where the Mantiquus had its blade like leg on his throat.
"...I thought I was going to die. I closed my eyes and prepared for the end, when I heard a roar. I opened them up and you will never guess what had just happened....a Manticore had came out of nowhere and ripped the Mantiquus last head clean off. The commander guy, he was really pissed off. I mean, it took him a while to respond since he was dumbfounded at first. Can't really blame him, I was too. Manticores don't tend to just appear out of nowhere and save a random pony from death." He took a bite from a sandwich on his tray and continued the story.
"Anyways, so the commander got angry and fired some magic at the beast. It got knocked into the wall and I thought that I would have to get up and fight again, try and escape. At the time, it didn't cross my mind that it could of simply been hunting for food and was just trying to eat all of us. Luckily it wasn't, and I didn't have to fight at all. A whole horde of Manticores charged into the cave and started attacking the soldiers. I knew this was my opportunity so I scooped you up, you was passed out at this point by the way..."- he paused for a moment "I then carried you out of the cave, I am not sure if they noticed us because the sounds of fighting was very loud and I was focused on escaping. You are surprisingly light by the way. I managed to escape and not only that, but managed to carry us to Ponyville...I managed to be lucky enough to not run into any trouble in the forest. I rented a nice little room in an inn too, I needed a good rest after carrying you all that way. I mean, you are light, but I had to walk a long distance very slowly with a mare on my back." he said.
"Wait, you rented a room in an inn....with a passed out mare on your back...what?" Melody asked
"And we are on wanted posters too!...It was pretty easy, I covered up my face with this-" he showed off a mask and hood "and I just told them you were drunk, the owner of this place has a mother who gets drunk a lot so she bought the excuse...oh, and I carried you so she only saw your flank, not your face, don't worry." he smiled as he said this.
"That last part was random, but thanks for saving me from that cave. I was not looking forward to dying...by the way, why aren't you wearing your armour?" she asked
"Oh...they would recognise me if I did. I took off my armour, as well as yours, I couldn't carry them so I hid them in the forest. It is hidden really well so don't worry." he answered
"You hid our armours in a place where someone could take them? Someone could easily steal them!"
"What else was I supposed to do? Besides, if someone does steal them, we can get replacement armour when we get back to base, but we can't get another life if the guards capture us and kill us"
Melody sighed "I suppose that is true...we better head back and report our findings to-" Thunderhoof quickly stopped her from getting out of bed
"Whoa there, you need to rest up and heal. You may have had time to regenerate your mana but that ankle is still sprained. Drink this and rest in bed for a couple of days, besides...we aren't going back to base anyway." he gave Melody a potion.
She drank it before asking "What do you mean? We have to report our findings to the Knight Commander"
"Actually, she may have given me extra orders. They said that if the cave had an important purpose, which it did, with the unicorn doing that measurement stuff he claimed was important or whatever like you said; I would have to investigate whatever that was and find out more about it, and if it was some sort of powerful weapon or whatever, retrieve it."
"Why didn't I get told about this?" Thunderhoof looked around awkwardly when she said this
"You see...the Knight Commander was getting angry with your failures, and came up with a plan. This isn't the first time they investigated something like this, this suspicious activity has been happening all over Equestria but we never found out what. The others sent to investigate were all killed due to high security or other complications. This mission was also expected to fail as well, so she thought that you could be used as bait so the other, me, could escape with the information. You was supposed to die so I could succeed in this mission...so technically, I disobeyed orders by saving you..."
They stopped talking for a bit once he said this. Melody seemed to pause for a while as she processed this information. "That....that bitch. I didn't want to get discharged but...sending me out to die?! I would rather she did that than....-" Thunderhoof covered her mouth with a hoof.
"Calm down, we have bounties on our head and don't want to draw attention to ourselves by shouting loudly. That doesn't matter right now, we focus on the mission. This seems really important for our fight against the Queen, who is much worse than our Knight Commander, and doing this may get you more respect from the others and possibly even her. So, focus on this now, revenge plan or whatever on the Knight Commander later, ok?" Melody nodded as he said this, he removed his hoof from her mouth.
"How are we going to do this when I am resting in a bed though? I don't care about my leg, I have to do something" she said.
"What you need to do is rest, as for the mission....I am going to think of something. Even if you weren't injured, we have no idea how to find out more. I am going to take a little walk around town, just stay here ok?" He smiled and walked over to the tray full of food. "Here, you can have rest of it, don't worry, I haven't touched any of it." he put the tray on her lap. After this, he put on the hood and mask and left the room . He gently shut the door.
He walked down the corridor and went down the stairs, ponies staring at him as he went past. It covers my face but make me look suspicious...wish I had a more normal way of covering my face.
As he walked out, he was stopped by two guards.
"Excuse me sir, but have you seen these two traitors" one was a unicorn and the other was a earth pony, two papers showing the faces of Thunderhoof and Melody was levitating in front of his face. Of course...why didn't I think of this before. It is so obvious....
-----Canterlot Castle-----
The unicorn commander walked towards the throne, a mare was sitting on it. She was an earth pony mare with an amulet around her neck. She had a dark green coat with a light green mane and tail. Her amulet had some sort of gem in the middle, it was glowing red. Her eyes were glowing the same colour. The amulet itself was confusing, it would appear as a different shape with different patterns depending on the pony viewing it. The only thing that remained consistent was the gem in the middle.
Standing next to the throne was a massive stallion, big enough to make a Chimera look small. This pony was feared by all, he didn't have a name but was nicknamed "Gold Smasher" due to the high amount of guards he has killed. It wasn't the most creative name. The most notable feature was his two forelegs, the hooves were split and had metal stitched into the skin, making them look like claws. His coat was dark blue. Heavy armour covered most of his body, except for his hooves. The helmet on his face covered all except for his eyes and mouth. Visible bulging white veins could be seen around his mouth.
"So...I hear that you are the only surviving guard from the incident. I read all about what had happened in this lovely little report you wrote. Tell me....why shouldn't I kill you? Beg for you life" the Queen glared at the commander as she said this.
"But, your majesty...the researchers managed to survive. I completed the objective of the mission, I have not failed-"
"Do not finish the sentence, you have indeed failed. 36. 36 elite unicorn guards all dead, killed by a bunch of Manticores, filthy stupid animals. This failure was because you ran away. Don't lie to me, the researchers apprentice saw this from the shadows. The rest died because you got scared. You attacked one, then ran when the rest came. You ran like a coward, and now you will die like one" she nodded to the large stallion.
He smiled and walked towards the commander. Before the unicorn could react, he grabbed them by the throat with one of his claw-like hooves and ripped his head clean off. He then crushed it in his grip and dropped it onto the decapitated body.
"Excellent work, Crusher. Guards!-" two ponies covered in armour approached the throne "Take this pathetic excuse of a commander to the creature development team, tell them to use it for project 78. They will understand." The guards nodded and took the body away.
"My lady, now that the traitor is dealt with, how shall we deal with this situation. The animal attacks are a problem we cannot ignore any longer."
"Do not worry yourself, my loyal subject. We all know who is responsible for these attacks. Soon, thanks to our torturer, we shall find the element of kindness and add her to my little garden outside. I hate having an incomplete collection after all..."
Somewhere in the dungeons of the castle, a large red stallion was chained to a wall. The door opened, revealing a unicorn. They were wearing a robe with a hood and mask, the only feature showing was their horn.
"Hello Big Macintosh, so nice of you to finally join us. It was quite rude of you to hide and cause trouble for our kind Queen, but that shall be forgiven. We just need some information from you. We know you was in an....intimate relationship with the element of kindness and since you was found hiding in the Everfree forest, it stands to reason that you were working with her. So tell me, what's her secret for getting deep into the forest without being killed by the local magic? I would appreciate it so much if you would let me know...."
Big Mac simply stared at the unicorn, not saying a word.
"Silent, eh? Thought you would have more spirit in you, the other members of your family did. I heard from the Queen how aggressive Applejack was before she turned her into a lovely little statue. I also heard that your granny had actually tried to attack her you know, hobbled on over slowly and tried to whack her with a pan. I heard she gave a nice scream before she was decapitated by a guard..." Big Mac tried to move forward, the chains barely holding him back. He spat on the unicorns mask.
"Ah, anger and spit, I see we aren't in the mood for being friendly. Must of hit a sore spot. Oh well, guess that means I will have to try other methods" the unicorn used magic to lift up a needle, he injected Big Mac with it. Immediately he felt pain where the chains were touching his skin.
"Do you know what this does? I don't know how it does it, but the effects are marvellous. They increase the sensitivity of the pain cell receptors by a large amount, making even the slightest touch painful-" to emphasise this, he picked up a knife with his magic and ran it slowly across the skin of Big Mac. He screamed in pain, it wasn't even cutting him but he felt like it was tearing through his flesh "It also ensures you cannot go unconscious, so the pain won't make you pass out"
The unicorn put the knife down and picked up a pair of pliers "Now that the boring part is done, lets start with some fun shall we?-" he forced Big Mac to open his mouth by punching him in the stomach, he then grabbed a tooth using the pliers and slowly ripped it out of Big Mac's mouth, causing him to scream. "I have a feeling you are going to be very eager to talk soon...."
