Living Under The Moon Chapter 11 (196-203)

The only thing that matched your level of irritation was the amount of irritation exuded from your guard team. Two dozen in some manner of frustration as the Gala had been effectively ended for them as the were immediatly called on duty, as was every member of the Dawn guard.

'"Captain Sir?" You turn to see Spit Shine and Lyra Heartstrings  acompanied by  few Dawn guard holding a large pane of glass, you note a square hole cut through it.

"I take it you need to show me this Shiner?"

He nods "We've come to the conclusion that they broke in through this window," he says looking about a moment "We found this just near by"

"Okay...so they got in through cutting ahole." you say not exactly feeling surprised.

"Well, this is the thing, when you spend as much time around these windows as I do, well, you know a few things." he whistles a moment as a second set of unicorns guards walk up holding a non cut into window pane. "These windows are forged in dragon fire from the most unflawed gems."

Spit then turns to Lyra who's holding a mallet with her magic "It is literally crafted to be physically impossible to break by physical means." Shiner tells you as Lyra punctuates by slamming the hammer several times the loud clanging be the only result they'd gotten.

"Magic could have been used" You argue a bit.

he nods to Lyra who immediatly shoots a bolt of teal blue magic at the window, the streak of magic literally bouncing right back at her knocking her off her hooves onto her flank.  "The windows all over the castle and the green house were reinforced with an antimagic enchantment. these things are literally incompromisable, by any physical or magical means, You'd have to be the mother alicorn to even crack the things."

You stare at the plain looking earth pony a moment in surprise "You really know a lot about window's don't you shiner?"

"I didn't earn the title 'best window cleaner in equestria in a contest." he chuckles

You retort "Well,  The Son's of Discord aren't exactly your typical Unicorns. it surprised me they didn't try to just teleport spell in. "

"I can explain that" Trixie says walking up beside you, still in her outfit as were you. "Ever since the Changeling invasion they've maintained the barrier round the castle. It's also been upgraded with a very special spell designed to keep hostiles from using any form of magic. "

You turn to her "Didn't exactly stop Q from doing a mass teleport spell"

"I hypothosize that while the will was evil that doesn't exactly mean the physical form was." Trixie says a moment. pull her hat off to scratch the top of her head.

"So that still leaves us with how the Sons got in to begin with."

Ivory with a few pegasi show up then. "And that's where I make my appearance" her and tag a longs drop a few bags "We can at the least tell that some of them just so happened towaltz in dressed like normal Gala Goers."

Son of a bitch

"I know right" IVory laughs

fuck you said that out loud

You think about this new knowledge "Spit Shine-"

"I'm on it, the windows do have one. very notable weakness"

"Aaaand?"

"It can be cut with a sharpened piece of an identical type of glass."

You jump up on your back legs shoving your right front hoof in the air "DAMN!" you scream exicted "okay three of the son's got in with disguise's, they then had a piece of this glass." you point to the pane with the hole " They then lead in their accomplices steal the statue, kidnap Lance and Boom! Big Ass Evil Family Reunion!"

You do a slight dance with a few pelvic thrust "I. Am. Awesome!"

You are now aware of the amount of ponies staring at you like your a loony.

"Ahem." You all turn to find Luna and Celestia. "Anon, Lieutenant's" Luna begins. as Celestia picks up where she stops.

"We need to talk."

--

You were lead, along with Trixie and Ivory, Via teleport spell ,to a secret room.  met by Shining Armour as well as the six of you sat in the room.

"What you saw back there, was and wasn't Discord."  Celestia began telling everyone

"I could tell that actually" you mumble before getting your leg kicked lightly by both Trixie and Ivory.

"Yes, well even with the entity possessing the former Lance Jousting by true definition isn't The True Discord." she begins to pace as she does what she does best. Recite exposition!

"Discord formerly was a very powerful Stallion, so powerful in fact that originally I'd planned to nominate him for coronation."

"Coronation meaning he'd be given wings" Luna added.

"Unfortunately" Celestia carried on "as Discord grew he managed to memorize every known spell that had been presently documented...that was allowed to him, Soon he grew bored, writing his own magic, when none of his spells worked successfully he grew angry; he found his way to the restricted library."

"The Restricted library is where I have kept all the worst magicks in all of equestria, forbidden magic, dark spells used by all the worse of Equestria's enemies."

"And Discord of all peple got into the library?" You ask tilting your head

"It was different back then," she looked down slightly "When he got in to the library he read everything, he grew a fondness for manipulation spells, reality warping spells, shapeshifting spells; the last having been a spell that served to warp his mind beyond repair...Leaving him twisted and broken."

Luna picked up  "after fully corrupting himself he dissapeared for nearly 200 years. before soon appearing to temporarily take over before we sealed him in a prison of stone, however you all know this already"

"As you also know he had a cult. Dedicate to following him. " Celestia carries on "Amongst the group is often a leader chosen to serve as a vessel to Discords magical energies."

"So he has a spell that allowed him to possess others?"  Trixie asked

"Specifically it's a spell that allows him to copy his memories, personality and some of his magical abilities into a host." Luna says.

"So the true discord is still in the statue?" You ask?

"Yes, it's a spell that can only be countered with a specific artifact."

"Where can we find it?" you ask curiously

"During Luna's fall I had it sealed and locked away with in a land that is now occupied by the Changelings"

Oh...yay.

"And this, is where you come in." Luna tell you all "You will be traveling into the Changeling territory." She gestures to You and your lieutenants "Shining Armour will be accompanying you as will your pick of a small group of guard members.

Shining Armour speaks up a moment "I'm also presently stepping down from my position im the Crystal Kingdom to take over again full time as Captain of the Royal guard. "

"You will be leaving in two hours," Celestia tells you all "Gather your team and then depart" Celestia's horn glows as you all suddenly disappear back to the castle grounds.

You sat down,  supplies set out as you stood on the training field. The only one presently around being The zebra, Amos, who had mysteriously appeared some time shortly after the investigation, presently walking over the grounds, a long staff like stick held in his mouth as he shook it, the shaking creating a light maraca like shudder from two cylindrical containers tied to the end of the staff. It was described 'Purification Herb' described by Amos as a blend made specifically to cleans and remove the negative energies created by Q's dark magic.

"And how are you today Mister Anonymous" he greeted you "or is it Midnight Sentry, I'm always forgetting names these days."

"Both" you say "But, I would rather it just be Anon to my friends, Midnight is just for my team."

"Very well" he says as he holds and leans against the staff. He looks you up and down apraisingly "You seem troubled."

"I am" You don't hesitate at this point, you know specifically never to lie to Yoda-esque individuals.

"Alright, Tell Amos what is wrong." he said, eyes demanding honesty.

"I'm a little...unnerved I guess," you confess  "Seeing Lance...turn into...or get forced to become Q,...knowing that the spell created Lance as a mere disguise dis earns me, I trusted him, the fact that he was a sleeper agent for the Sons of Discord somewhat put a dent in my confidence. "

He closes his eyes a minute, a small fraction of wrinkles in his eyes smoothing out. "If I recall...the spell used to create Lance...was a Fugue spell" he licked his lips a moment "Yes, for the spell to have worked properly..the one that put Q in the body, the original owner would have been long gone from the body they used"

"If you're telling me Lance wasn't the original owner of the body, that's not really a helpful fact."

he chuckled a rye old man laugh. "Well, it can help in knowing that when Q cast the spell on himself the spell convinced him so thoroughly that he was Lance that he'll probably be experiencing Bleed effects for quite some time"

More time went by as you soon met up with everyone. Trixie and Ivory meeting standing with Flim and Flam "We have a few things to show you" Flim stood forward.

"We been building some new tools just for your ranks" Flam continued

"Anything to put my mind away from the crazy Wild Bill shit I was educated on" you tell them as they show you a metal funnel like object with a wooden stock attached

"We call this, the Blast Bucker" Flam says placing it on Trixie's Armour pauldron "Now if the fine lady Lulamoon would"

She nods turning to a small wooden dummy constructed to the side "It's activated by standing at a certain stance, or with unicorn magic pulling the trigger" He went on as Trixie activated it, her horn glowing as the funnel shot out large bits of shrapnel..

A shotgun

"Unfortunately, it's a working prototype" Flam frowns a bit lifting the gun "We've not worked out the kinks just yet for ponies with out magic."

"And the point of showing me is?"

"Warm ups" Ivory said with a grin

The brothers looked to each other with rather shit eating grins "Wait until you see what we have next" Flim said as they led you all elsewhere

Eventually they led you to what you believe to be the royal Hangar; Rarely used, large as can possibly be and Hidden away somewhere inside the mountain that Canterlot was built into.

The guard members selected for the mission were all there, lined up in front of a large thing hidden under a large tarp. "This was the First assignment the princess assigned us." One of the brothers said, "Thousands of yards off fabric, reinforced with enchantment spells"

"By far, our greatest creation, based off a few months we spent in Griffonia studying their powerful zeppelin's We present..."

And then it was revealed. The tarp dropped, revealing something that would make the Goodyear blimp soil itself. a massive Zeppelin, the material for the balloon a dark black, speckled with starlight runes, a highly reflective silver bay at the bottom.

"The Dusk Deliverer!" They both exclaimed the name

"The insides are large enough to accomadate an entire guard team for missions such as these, the balloon will blend into dark skies, it's designed to resist most offensive spells."

"We'll be operating it on it's maiden voayage" The mustached one smiles.

You stare up in awe of the massive aircraft, a whistle escaping your lips.

"Ah." You suddenly hear the sounds of Luna, You turn to see her in the company of Celestia and Twilight, You're entire squad, Save for you and Luna bow in the presence of the princess of the sun, "I see you've seen the flagship of the Lunar navy" You can see Luna smile a bit

Celestia's face seemed  to lack much of the impressed air that you and the rest of your company had "It's quite the sight to see what you put together behind my back"

"Not in front of the guards" Luna says calmly "We're here to see you off" she directs herself to you "Are you all ready?"

You nod to her turning to your small troop "Lunar Guard!"

Your voice signals their square formation into two lines of five, not including your lieutenants and The Flim Flam Brothers.

You immediately switch into hard core captain mode. "What is our mission!?"

"Fight the dark Nopony Else Dares!"

"And our goal!"

"Deliver The Moon's Might!"

"What is our name?!"

"The Lunar Guard!"

A moments pause before you"VIVA!"

"LU-NA!"

Never gonna get tired of that.