//------------------------------// // War // Story: Equestrian Wars // by Saacsa //------------------------------// The fly back was smooth, but boring because of the ground-walkers. Aka, Twilight, Ditzy, and Fluttershy. I don't know why the yellow Pegasus chose to stay down there instead of flying, but she just did. Ditzy was grounded because of injuries to her right wing, and Twilight was on the ground for the obvious reason of not having wings. So, I pressed the button that controls my helmet and it slid up over my head. "Rarity?" I asked into the speaker. "Yes, darling?" She answered almost instantly. "Thank you." "Whatever for?" She asked obliviously. "The others. I know you can see everything that I can and I guessed that you alerted the others of my danger." I said. There was a slight pause on the other line. "You're very welcome." The answer finally came. "Another thing. I couldn't ask this before, because of the situation, but what, exactly, was the excruciating pain when I got control of my wings?" I asked. "That was the wings connecting to your neurological sensors and bone structure, allowing you to use them as if you were born with said appendages." She said, "Long story short, they are now a part of you." She added. "Wait, if they are now a part of me, how the hell am I suppose to go home?! I can't exactly show up in a badass suit of armor with wings jutting out of my back!" I said in alarm. "Calm down, darling. They are detachable. And even if they do somehow get stuck, Zecora and I can remove them via surgery after the battle. Which I am sure you are going to need anyway." She said reassuringly. It was working. Until the last part was muttered, sending a colder than average shiver down my spine. "Why didn't the other ponies get a set of wings?" I asked. "They're not so easy to make. They were specially made for you so you could stand a chance against Chrysalias." She explained. I just nodded, hoping she had picked up the positive signal. We reached the camp within a few minutes, and all of the ponies were ready to charge their enemy. The sheer amount of soldiers was overwhelming. There were massive lines that stretched for half a mile, yet the entire, gigantic army was completely silent. Not even a whisper escaped the mass. It was eerie in a way. My eyes then cast the the ruins of that once beautiful city, where an army of similar, if not greater, proportions was gathering. I could hear the excited war cries and snarls from all the way over here. And there was about a mile of expanse to charge. "Ponies of Equestria!" Luna's Royal Canterlot Voice sliced through the silence like a white-hot knife through warm butter. In other words, she was REALLY loud. It even startled me a little bit. The crowd gazed up at their Princess and I. "The time has come to take back our land and our way of life!" I smiled at the enthusiastic, yet hardened faces of the ponies below. "To long have we been fighting against Chrysalias and her brood!" Now the crowd was getting antsy, they wanted payback. "We must let our enemies know that they may take our lives, but what they'll never take, is our freedom!" Luna shouted. No. Freaking. Way. She made a Braveheart ending to her speech! In the exact words! To top it all off, the crowd shouted "Equestria forever!" I thought for sure I would wake up any second and the voices would start talking to me while the doctor pumped me full of meds. "One final fight! Led by Jack!" She pointed to me and then dropped down to the ground where my other friends stood proudly The soldiers exploded in cheering, but instantly went silent when I held up my hand. I pressed the button to lower my helmet down, sending another shiver down my spine. But I was getting use to it. "There is something you ponies should know. Before I was teleported here, I was staring death in the face." I saw a few ponies give each other worried looks, but they remained silent. I really admired these guys. "Now, I honestly believe that I, myself, will NOT take back Equestria, nor the throne." There were more worried glances and a murmur of doubt rippled through the crowd. A voice whispered into my ear from my helmets outside speaker. "I hope you know what you are doing!" It hissed. I smiled lightly. "You ponies will." I said. Now their faces changed, away from worried and towards relief and confidence. I heard a small sigh of relief through the speaker as well. "You are the will and power of Equestria! I am but one man, who isn't even from this world! Or dimension for that matter." I muttered under my breath before continuing, "You ponies have kept this place alive and resilient to Chrysalias and her Changelings for ten whole years, and from what I have seen, made more technological advances than humanity has in eight-hundred years! So, how I see it..." I smiled lightly at the thought that crossed my mind, "OFF WITH HER HEAD!" I shouted at the top of my lungs and brought my fist down with my index and pinkie finger jutting out towards the Changeling army, successfully creating the symbol for Rock and Roll. Although it meant nothing but a hand sign to them, it was something a little more special to me. The army erupted in ecstatic cheers and charged towards the opposing threat. Pegasi took to the air as the Unicorns and Earth ponies charged forward with the look of pure determination on their faces. I flew in the front of the massive army with Luna appearing at my side. "Jack. You will need this." She said and her horn glowed in the tell tale teal. I was surrounded in the same aura. It flowed around me like a liquid, then seemed to visibly, though not physically, harden and vanish. "What was that?" I asked "A Shield spell. It should reduce any sort of punishment you take that the armor can't." I opened my mouth to reply, but found nothing. So I simply nodded. "Thank you." I said and turned my attention back towards the battle. Rainbow Dash took control of the Pegasi masses, directing them where to rain hell down on the Changeling hordes strategically while Twilight and the other Unicorns fired a hail of magic and bullets. Applejack charged into the thick of it with her mini-guns spinning out hundreds of rounds of death per minute and Pinkie bounced into the fierce battle while tossing grenades and mines everywhere, being very successful at it too. I did notice something odd amid the chaos though, the only armor that the Changelings wore was raggedy, mix matched, and patched. They didn't use weapons either, only the magical blasts from their horns. They only advantages they had were that they had both horns and wings as well as overwhelming numbers as well as unlimited ammunition.. For every stallion and mare we had, they had twenty more Changelings. I was really glad they had disadvantages. I didn't take the time to think to much about it thought, mostly due to the fact that a green bolt singed my eyebrows. Yeah, scary. I instinctively reached behind myself and whipped my sniper out, aiming down the futuristic cyan outlined scope. I picked a random changing and fired. It's leg was severed from its body, but, to my extreme surprise, it grew right back! That explains the lack of armor. Okay, so they had four advantages. "The head, Halok! Aim for the head!" Luna shouted. I nodded and took aim again, but had to quickly dodged another green blast. I tried again and my laser found its mark. "This is taking to long." I said to myself in exasperation and clicked the sniper back into it's place after reloading said weapon. I have seen too many shows where the hero got caught in a tight space because he forgot to reload his weapon. I whipped the Grim Reaper off of my back and aimed down it's cyan lined iron sights. I fired off short and controlled bursts towards multiple Changelings, killing them effectively. "Let the bodies hit the floor..." I said with a smile at the old song that played in my head. It was kind of morbid, but it felt right nonetheless. My eyes darted over to a familiar stallion in the fray. His white coat shined brightly in the setting sun as his bloodstained lilac mane flowed in the wind. He fired multiple shots into a Changeling squad, but that did little. They were on him in seconds. He managed to kill most of them, but one stood above him as he lie on the ground, charging a deadly green blast of energy. The look on his face said it all. He was done. This was over. Then, instead of feeling the initial pain followed by nothing, a warm and gooey liquid splattered onto his face. He opened his eyes completely and saw a bipedal figure silhouetted in the sun, aiming a gun to were the hole in the Changelings head was. A relief filled smile graced his lips. "Thanks, General!" He shouted to me. I waved my gun in the air. "Anytime, Mist Free! Try not to get yourself killed and I'll buy you a drink!" I shouted back down. "I'll hold you to it!" He yelled after a chuckle and jumped back into the fray immediately. I looked around again and spotted another familiar stallion, a grey and brown one. The same one who had bumped into me at camp. He was pinned to the ground with Changeling fangs set into his neck. "NO!" I cried and shot down in an attempt to save him. I was too late. His eyes rolled in the back of his head as his body went limp. The Changeling removed its dripping fangs from the stallions body. I tried not to think about what it just did as I slammed into the Changeling and slid across the ground with it hissing in my grip. I brung a fist up into its jaw so hard that its neck cracked. It went limp for a second, but then the Changeling began to twitch. It flung its head up, snapping its neck back into place and bucking me in the gut. It wasn't enough to severely injure me, thanks to the shield, but it would be there tomorrow. I was knocked back onto a body, but I tried not to think about who's it might have been as I drew the Grave Digger from my thigh and planted a blast of energy into the Changelings head, dropping it like a fly. "Fluttershy?!" I shouted urgently after switching to her radio channel and ran towards my fallen friend, killing Changelings along the way. The medic materialized quietly at my side. "What do you need, Jack?" She questioned softly through the communications. "Do what you can for him!" I said, pointing towards the grey stallion. "Don't worry, I'll cover you." I added with a slightly reassuring tone. She nodded and I drew my assault rifle while clipping the handgun back in place. I emptied the clip onto a rushing pack of the beasts and popped it out. I clicked another one into the gun and kept firing into any Changeling that attacked. "Hey, Jack!" A cocky voice shouted from above, "Special delivery from Rarity! Catch!" I looked up and saw a prismatic tail streaking away from a falling, slender object that had a glowing blue edge from the top to about three-quarters down. After she had killed three Changelings that had slipped by me. I smiled as I realized what it was. "Death comes in many flavors." I said to myself and caught the sword at the hilt. I swung it to my left, decapitating a Changeling. "Thanks, Rarity." I said through her coms channel as I clipped the Grim Reaper to my back. "That was pretty generous of you." "But of course, darling." She said back while I stabbed a Changeling in the face. "Nice kill.'' She complimented as I ripped the sword out. "Thanks." I said, bringing the sword to meet the neck of another Changeling. "Where are you at anyways?" I asked. "Back at Headquarters." She said as a Changeling head sailed through the air. "I monitor all of the important ponies and give them a heads up if I notice something they do not. By the way, seven o'clock." She said. I round-housed a charging Changeling in the face, sending it into three more of the beasts. I drew my handgun in the other hand and made sure they would not get back up. "Again, thanks. And how did you know about my thing for swords?" I asked and killed another pair of Changelings. "I saw the scars. You were brought her with her gun, and upon farther examination, I concluded that the guns from your world could not make those kind of injuries." She explained as another Changeling head hit the dust. "Ah, yeah. That makes sense." I said. To be honest, I didn't want to know how she had figured that out. I looked back at Fluttershy. She was pumping the stallions chest, and must have been for the whole time, because she looked thoroughly exhausted. My heart sank. "Fluttershy," I gently spoke through her coms channel. She stopped and looked up at me sadly. "He's gone. Go tend to somepony who isn't." I said. The words hurt coming out more than I thought they would. She nodded and left the body there in the dirt. I would mourn him later. You know, if I didn't get randomly teleported to another dimension. Again. Anyways, I had to get to the Queen. But before I could dash off in the direction of the castle, I felt a blunt object drag across the back of my helmet. Quite brutally too. I heard metal chip on impact as I was sent to the ground with a numb feeling taking over my body. Not even the shielding was able to stop that awful blow. ''Jack!" Rarity called out. I couldn't move, let alone speak. "You just couldn't mind your own DAMN business, could you?" A familiar voice said. I furrowed my brow at the hint of insanity and rasp in his voice. My eyes fluttered open, but I had been knocked pretty good. So they weren't exactly focused. I felt a hoof on my collar just before my helmet retracted. I was instantly filled with fiery rage as my eyes made out the blurry figure above me. "You thought that you could get away with what you did to Cobalt and Onyx, didn't you?" "I had to stop you all. One way." I paused, then added with malice, "Or the other. My only regret is not being able to finish you." The stallion above me became more visible and my eyes widened in terror. He had the look of pure and utter insanity etched in his psychopathic smile. His pupils dilated vigorously like someone was turning the lights off, then back on very quickly. Their color had changed too, with every dilation, they switched from a hazel color to a deep, ocean blue. His coat and wings had changed as well, becoming black with a greenish tint to them. He even began to grow a small, perforated horn. He cackled insanely at my shocked face. "Like the new look?" He asked with taunt. "What happened to you?" I asked back with a little bit of pity to my voice. His mood instantly erupted in fiery rage. "YOU!" He seethed a hair-length from my face, "After our little showdown, I was left broken, beat, and scarred! I decided that I had only one option. I went to her majesty, Chrysalias, and she gave me power. So. Much. POWER!" He screamed into my face, then calmed himself down a notch. "So now I bet you're wondering. Am I evil? Your answer," He paused and got extremely close to my eye with his. "Yes I am." He whispered, then cackled malevolently and then began to charge up a massive magical blast. This was it. I was going to die. For real this time. In another dimension of talking horses. I wondered if I should have just let Twilight blow my brains out back when I first awoke in this strange land. "Any last words?" He asked. A thought came to mind. If I was going to die like this, I had to go out with a joke. "Yes, just three." I answered with a smartass grin. He, although, was not very amused. I closed my eyes tightly and waited for the inevitable. But instead of the unimaginable pain followed by nothing, I felt a warm liquid spatter across my face. I opened my eyes with confused relief, and saw the hybrids face. His mouth was agape and his pupils were even smaller than before. I then took notice as to what had happened. A drop of blackish red blood slipped down his face and onto mine. His eyes dilated one last time and became a dull aqua color as his body fell on top of mine. I quickly shoved him off and got up, looking around. "Looks like I'm the one having to take care of you." A smooth, feminine voice chuckled from behind me. My heart leapt into my throat as I recognized it. I whipped around and saw a lilac Unicorn with a flowing blonde mane walking towards me with a swing in her hips. "Dinky." I said with a smile, and a slightly dreamy voice. By accident, of course. Why would I do that on purpose? I'm not attracted to ponies. Or their plump flanks... Or their swaying hips... Or their- SHUT UP BRAIN! "Good to see you again, despite the circumstance." I said and shot a Changeling in the face without even breaking eye contact. "Okay, you have to teach me how to do that." She said with a small laugh. "That can be arranged." I said with a playful smirk. What was I doing? Was I... Flirting? "Sounds fun." She said temptingly. Was she... Flirting back? "Anyways, It's good to see that you're still kicking." She said and I tried to thank her for saving my hide, but she held up a quieting hoof. "Call it even, hotshot. You saved me and mommy, I saved your ass." I spotted a Changeling behind her, making a leap of faith to sink his teeth into an exposed part of the armor on her flank. I dashed forward with my sword and Dinky's eyes widened in surprise as one arm closed around her and the Changeling ended up skewered through the mouth. I held it there for another second before I slung the beast off of the blade. "You alright?" I asked, still gripping her softly. "F-Fine." She said in slight shock. "Good." I said and backed off of her. "I promised to keep you safe," I said, "And that's exactly what I plan to do." "Th-Thank you..." Her pupils dilated, becoming about forty percent bigger. I smirked lightly. "Call it even. You saved my ass, now I saved yours. Quite literally." I chuckled. She joined in until a green blast came a breaths-length away from our faces. "Not the best time for this." I said quickly and she nodded. "Agreed." "I'll meet you at the castle grounds." I said and turned to dash off. "Jack! Wait." She said, and, as I turned back around, I was met with an unexpected surprise. My eyes widened as her lips touched mine. I was in so much shock by the sudden display of affection that I fell into it and closed my eyes. It wasn't tongue or anything, but it was definitely romantic. I know you're probably thinking 'Ew, he kissed a horse?" But whatever, fuck off. I was in another dimension without any other human females for what could be the rest of my life. What's your excuse? We held the kiss for a few seconds, then she broke it. I noticed that she was lightly blushing when my eyes fluttered back open. I couldn't blame her. After all, I could feel the red enter my own cheeks, then flow a little to my ears. That's the Irish. She smirked and backed up a bit. Ditzy was right, under that suave interior was just a big softie. "I'll see you at the castle, pretty boy." She said, her voice taking back the smooth tone. "And keep that tongue in check. I'll need it later." She said with a wink. She turned around and charged back into the thicket of the fight. "Well then... That was... Unexpected." I said to myself and let a charging Changeling impale itself on my sword. I started a full on sprint to the castle, decapitating Changelings left and right with the cybernetic blade and even putting a few out of commission with the handgun and a renewed vigor. In no time, with a little boost every now and then from my wings, I had reached the castle grounds. And that's when all hell broke loose.