Warning: The following chapter deals with course language and Mature subject matter. Reader discretion is advised.

Location: Unknown, Subject: Captain Peach Cream, Status: Dishonorably Discharged, Situation Report: Interrogation, Time: 1837 Hours, Date: Saturday January 27, Year 1002 of Celestia's Rule

As the cream stallion was dragged on a cold concrete floor one thought ran through his head; how'd I get here? His head was wrapped with a brown burlap sack, impairing his ability to see nothing more than darkness. His knees chaffed every time they pulled him across the floor to his unknown destination. The smell, most importantly the smell, it was strong, something that can go through fabric, but still be something he couldn't pinpoint. It had a distinct helping of something sweet like icing sugar. He could hear ponies grunting and hooves hitting the hard surface of the floor. They were carrying something, but he'd never find out what it was.

Even when he could hear his draggers begin to pull out a set of keys, that jingled as they floated through the air, he kept a frown from under the sack. He was meeting somepony, somepony that may as well kill him right on the spot for his actions. With a click the door was opened and the keys jingled back into the pouch of his abductor. They led him into a room which he couldn't see, but after a painful toss onto a metallic chair, a rope that tied his hooves behind his back, they pulled off the sack and took it with them when they left. He was now alone in a small sixteen by sixteen hoof room with a table matching his chair and the one seated across from him.

He stared up at the ceiling, gazing into one of the rectangular florescent lights that lit the room. He lost his frown and put on a blank face that showed no one could know what he was thinking. He reviewed the possibilities of what could have happened in the last twenty four hours to see if he could have done something different to not be here, but what was done, was done. There was a mirror that took up almost half of the wall to his right. No doubt there were ponies watching, observing him through the one way glass. It was only a matter of time before their observations would come to an end.

He grimaced at the sound of the lock clicking and the keys jingling. In the threshold was none other than the pony that brought forth the sun and kept her subjects at ease, while keeping secrets of her own…attended to.

"Princess Celestia" he said, the alicorn paid no mind to his tone of insolence. Her horn was surrounded by a bright yellow aura, which meant there was something else that would come other than the wavy maned mare. And he was correct just as his ruler entered the room a brown file in her magical grasp, floated in behind her. He knew what it contained, but there wasn't a damn thing he could do to stop the folder from being opened.

Celestia walked slowly around the stallion like she was looking for something, or rather trying to intimidate him. She circled the colt twice, with him looking at her every step of the way before ending back at the metal chair. While releasing the file from her magical grasp to set it down on the table, she wrapped the chair in the yellow aura and pulled it out from its spot at the table to take a seat. The two equines looked into each other's eyes making it seem like they needed to reduce their target to nothing through the stare. It kept on for two more minutes until Celestia looked down at the file. The aura once again appeared upon the appendage atop her head and lifted the file to her eye level.

"Peach Cream, the stallion who's soul duty was to protect this fair land" she said with a sigh of disappointment. It was fact that the stallion across from her had put his very life on the line to protect Equestria, but in doing so caused uproar in a major town. Her eyes scrolled lazily down the file reading each and every word with a blank face. His file was nothing she hadn't seen before, although, his was actually better than most she saw during these investigations. She got to a part of the file that brought out intrigue in the ruler's eyes.

"I see you've been in a situation like this before" Peach cocked a brow. "One with ponies that have one hundred percent of the funding in Unicornia" he knew what she was talking about, but it was surprising to him that they hadn't found him yet and for the heinous crime he'd committed they should have had every single citizen searching Equestria for him. "At least I know my troops are being trained better than Unicornia's elite Special Forces. What were they called again? Ah yes the Ghosts" she threw down the folder in front of him causing some of the papers to slide out and he took sight of a photo of four ponies dressed in high tech gear with desert camouflage outfitting, while investigating a bloody scene with what looked like to be a high profile public figure. The one thing Peach would never forget about the Ghosts were their visors on their helmets. They functioned better than almost anything in Equestria, giving the Unicornian's a technological advantage.

"What happened to you Peach? How did you get from being the most trusted captain of my force to here, right here right now in this room meant for ponies that have done wrong?" Peach moved his head to the side making his pinkish mane flow down the left side of his neck while staring at the floor. He didn't want to face Celestia not after what he'd done, but it was necessary to keep Equestria safe, the forces of liberty were protected by him. He didn't do it alone though.

"The witnesses, Peach, they tell me that what you did was a necessary service to Equestria, but you chose to make that decision instead of talking it out" he just kept staring at the ground unable to focus on the pony speaking. "Peach they could have lived, we could have found a way, but you had gone in and KILLED THEM!"

"IT WAS NECESSARY, THEY HAD HOSTAGES! I WASN'T GOING TO STAND IDLY BY WHILE THEY KILLED THEM OFF ONE BY ONE IN ORDER TO ESCAPE! Even if they were your students" Celestia was angry now, the report had told her that he could have taken precautions, but instead he chose to get the job done through the barrel of his gun. She took hold of table with her aura and threw it to the side causing it to slam onto the wall, while dropping the file full of papers.

"THEY COULD HAVE LISTENED TO REASON! THERE WAS NO POINT IN KILLING THEM! NOW WHO WILL USE THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY IN A TIME OF DESPERATION?!"

"THOSE MAGICAL ITEMS ARE NO USE TO US ANYMORE! We have guns now, guns that manifest the ability to shoot through magical auras. You should just toss those in the trash" with the last word Celestia moved in the blink of an eye and struck him across the face. Those weren't just ordinary objects; they were sacred to both her and Luna. To have anypony badmouth them could be considered a crime. Peach coughed a few times before regaining himself.

"Tell me exactly what happened" Celestia drew the chair so that it was about two hoofs away from him and sat down in a position so they were both at eye level.

"Where do I begin?" he said at in an unpleasing tone.

"From the beginning, the very beginning" ponies behind the glass started to mobilize, taking out notepads, pencils, and chairs so they could hear the story of what went down, so an accurate recording could be drawn from his testimony.

"Why do you need to know this? The report should have been information enough" he argued.

"Questions, questions, captain, do you remember who the interrogator here is? ME!" she stood up in outburst, but quickly regained her composure. "I'm sorry. I just get so angry sometimes. Now where were we?" Peach didn't waste any time with the princess because he was terrified at how she could just turn her anger on and off like a switch.

"It all started when we were sitting in the locker room…"

Location: Royal Guard Headquarters: Emergency Response Unit Locker Room, Time: 1452 Hours, Date: Wednesday January 24, Year 1002 of Celestia's Rule

Peach lay flat on his back atop a bench, and a silver bar in the cleft of both his hooves with one fifty pound weight on both sides of the bar. He was sweating and trying to beat the record his teammate had put on some time ago. It was one hundred and fifty reps with the same weights he was using and just before he could reach one forty nine Peach felt his arms cramp. He dropped the bar, but before the weight would crush and break his neck it was caught by a red aura.

The bar floated up to its perch above Peach. After the aura broke a heavy amount of laughter filled the room. Two stallions were laughing their flanks off; the first was a caramel colt with a grey mane that frazzled as he dried it off with a towel.

His name was Price, Sales Price, a pony from Seaddle that literally raised himself on the streets. His mother died after his birth and his father, Sticker Price, didn't give a damn about his son. He actually kicked him out of the house at age six because he was taking too much out of his funds. (Even though he was a high and mighty casino owner) He lived off by stealing from ponies bags whenever they were left unattended and boy were they, in fact that's how he got his cutie mark which was a gold 'S' with a vertical line through it on a light brown bag. He was picked up by the Royal Guard after an attempt to steal several bits from princess Cadence, but she decided that instead of throwing him in prison to have his skills prove use to the Guard. He made a great many achievements in recon and electronics by sneaking or hacking his way by any security system. Price, however tough he may have been on the street, found it necessary to quit providing crucial components to Celestia's military after a dreadful abduction in Las Pegasus. The owner of a casino had caught him on a security camera after a reconnaissance mission to find out if he was providing Intel to Stalliongrad on Celestia's technological advancements. Their hunches were right as they seized Price almost immediately after he left the building. It took three days before he was hauled out of there in critical condition. He decided it would be best to just slow down… ("I'm glad he made that decision because he's one of my best")

Peach put his hoof on his jugular to help catch his breath as the two just laughed on and on. Finally he got up and went over to get a towel from his locker. "Very funny guys" he said as the sweat was wiped from his brow.

"P-Peach you're never going to beat my record" the second colt said as he fell onto his back in laughter. He was a red unicorn that had a black mane and tail with white highlights that bright enough to notice that they were there. His cutie mark was a stick of dynamite with a lit fuse because unlike Price's life his was full of fun.

"The name is Shadow, Umbra Shadow" is how he'd always put it whenever he was asked. His mother was a demolitionist, which meant he'd always come along whenever there was stuff to blow up in Whinneapolis. He'd have the time of his life, hiding behind a cement barricade with sound suppressing headphones while he watched a building fall into a cloud of dust. His father actually supplied his mother's company with all different types of explosives so he got to learn which explosives were used for different operations, especially military related because he soon learned about the Royal Guard during a school presentation. It was like a video game, in real life. They showed a video of ponies wearing camouflaged vests with either; a boonie hat or military cap. They were being showered with cash, and beautiful mares were sprawled out on lawn chairs on the deck of a fabulous yacht. He was intrigued by the amazing presentation and signed up for the Guard the minute he turned eighteen. It wasn't anything he'd imagined it would be. ("Of course it wouldn't have been. Who really believes those presentations?")

("No one does, or rather no one should. They were made for children to enjoy, not actually influence them to join. Please, Captain, keep going")

It must have been the worst two years of his life in that boot camp. He always got yelled at by his training sergeant, more than the other recruits were. One time, during the obstacle course he almost cleared it within record time, but he missed his landing when jumping off the wooden wall climb. Face first into the mud, and if that wasn't enough he was forced to scrub the latrines with his toothbrush for not even finishing the course. When he finished boot camp, he went home for a week to sleep, before signing with Peach's squadron. He was given the position of heavy weapons and demolitions. It helped when it was needed. ("Alright Captain, now that we're through with the formalities you can get on with how you got involved")

("Of course, but do you think I could get some water, or something?" Peach held his throat trying to coax his saliva into the dry areas.)

("Immediately" Celestia motioned her hoof to the mirror and a pony in black suit wearing sunglasses, along with an earpiece came through the door with a glass of water. He gave the water to Peach and left right after. Peach gulped the glass down in a few seconds and wiped his mouth off with his left forearm. He set the glass down and continued.)

("Alright where was I?")

The laughter bouncing off the walls of the steamy locker room was soon cut off by a familiar siren. And from a speaker, above several of the lockers, the voice of their lovely phone operator, Wire Tapp, broke through the ambiance. "Team we've got a problem. Get suited up for debriefing in the vehicle depot" Without hesitation Peach, Price, and Shadow threw their towels into the nearby hamper cart, headed toward three nearby lockers, opened them, and started to put their gear on. Starting with their ballistic vests, a click ensures that it stays around the front part of their barrel. Next a utility belt, strapped with three magazines of twelve .45 ACP rounds, along with two flash grenades, and a smoke grenade. Except Shadow, he had taken three breaching charges and two fragmentation grenades. After another click to seal the belt below their vest, came the helmet, a carbon outer shell with a very comfortable inside. They had to put the top of their mane fully inside so to not cause any visual disruption. The helmet along with its protection had a pair of night vision goggles mounted to the top side of it. It was easily adjustable and even though it never seemed necessary to keep on during the day, it had gotten them out of some tight jams.

Inside each of their lockers was a weapon suited for each of them. Price pulled out a small and versatile MP5N. He swung the strap around his and after taking out his few cartridges, tucking them in his vest, he headed for the depot. Shadow took out his Remington 870MCS. He as well slung the strap around his shoulder and took out a box of shells, putting them into a pack hanging beside his barrel. He shut his locker and headed out. Peach took a little time taking out his weapon because it was too stashed in his locker. It was behind more than a few playpony magazines and his special "toy". The others knew he was gay after they broke into his locker and found that each of the magazines were of stallions. Of course they laughed and made fun of him much of the time, but nonetheless they were his team. And he wouldn't take anything in the world if it meant losing them. He finally had moved his stuff enough to take out, what was in his eyes, the most amazing weapon in the world: The SIG 552 Commando. In all his years of service with the weapon, it never jammed, nor had stopped working and had to be replaced. Every Saturday he'd take it out and clean it as thoroughly as possible. It was his most prized possession. He took out his bunch of clips and swung the strap around his neck. With a deep sigh, and smile on his face, he closed his locker. "Time for another round" He then head out to meet the rest of his team.