After surviving an ambush, a lone pilot and soldier's fighter is incapacitated and slowly drifts towards the atmosphere of an unknown planet. Good news, he survives the crash. Bad news, his craft wasn't the only one who broke the atmosphere.
After surviving an ambush, a lone pilot and soldier's fighter is incapacitated and slowly drifts towards the atmosphere of an unknown planet. Good news, he survives the crash. Bad news, his vessel wasn't the only one who broke the atmosphere. Appleloosa is attacked by FoG, a faction containing several hostile alien beings, and left with very few survivors. Said lone pilot and soldier is mistaken for another attacker, but soon lets them know that Equuis won't stand a chance against UWE. Will it be a three way campaign, or will man and ponykind team up against an evil foe?
This fiction contains violence against ponies, fillies and colts included, along with mares and stallions. Mane 6, Princesses, and the loved background ponies won't be safe. If that's an issue, you may like my first fic instead.
I would've added comedy to the tags, but it wouldn't let me. It won't be entirely blood-filled, serious and edgy. I can't write a fiction like that.
Heavily inspired by EDF, Mech Warrior, Doom, Sins of a Solar Empire, Star Craft, Star Wars, Bullet Storm, Warhammer, Call of Duty, Starship Troopers and Advent: Rising.
Fiction includes background music, no clop, but sexual descriptions and references.
The ship had finally come out of light speed. We have arrived at our destination. Our mission was to locate a lost ship that went missing a few months back. Said ship was investigating an anomaly that the United Worlds of Earth (UWE) scouts had reported. They had sent a few ships to investigate, but none have returned. That was, until we've received a broken transmission from one of the vessels. Tracking the transmission, we were sent to investigate the ship to find out what happened and hopefully retrieve information about the anomaly.
I should probably tell you who I am. I'm Corporal Rex Raynor, but my squad, who isn't on board for their need elsewhere, gave me the nickname Sparks. I have what they call an engineer's touch, with my ability with electronics to modify armor and weapons in my spare time. I wouldn't call myself an export though, hence why they call me Sparks. Thankfully, they haven't called me 'boom'. I'd probably be missing a limb. That's why it's against protocol to tamper with the armor. However, my upgrades have been proven useful from time to time. Don't ask don't tell. I was also an alright pilot out of everyone in my squad being the only one that can fly a Phoenix fighter, although I speak for myself when I say I'm better off on the ground.
I'm currently on board the Icarus Nest, a Lincoln classed carrier. These carriers are mostly used for heavy strike craft support, however they can be used for retrieving and excavating items in space as well. I found it odd that they didn't send an AC19-LC, a smaller variant carrier, instead. We have a capital ship and a few escort frigates that are being sent to retrieve information about an anomaly. The Admiral said something about having a hunch that something's not right. The transmission was tracked to unknown space and our radars were able to pick up a signal from one of our ships there, far away from where the anomaly was. It doesn't sound right, so they sent a capital ship to be sure.
I was in my room located in the crew quarters. After putting on my uniform, I looked out of the window. We were close to a planet. It looked like Earth when it still had one gigantic chunk of land called Pangea. However, our objective was closer: the derelict ship that had gone missing. Only half of it was there, the rest looked like it was forcefully torn in two. I could see one of the escorting frigates launch a boarding shuttle from its hangars. They must've already scanned it.
Turning away from the window, I had walked out of my room and payed the crew no mind. I'm not one that tries to get chummy with everyone, because there are too many people in the UWE to try to be friends with. Most people outside of the squad I only see once. After the mission is over, I never see them again, so I don't bother talking to them much. Maybe to talk about the mission or create small talk, but that's just about it. I don't really think about deep friendships, or even relationships no matter how much my squad tease me about it. They're basically my only friends. We have to be. We all decided that if we wanted to have each others' backs, we'd be better off getting to know each other as people other than just as soldiers. That's how we became such a damn good team. Nobody would leave anybody behind, we had each other covered, did our jobs well, protected each other, we all made it out of our missions alive. We are comrades. Well, most of us are. There's always that one person in the group that nobody likes, but wouldn't be able to get by without, and that would be her...
I headed to the elevator and had gone down to the armory where they were holding our armor and weapons. There were those that found it strange that I suited up when things didn't happen, mainly because they had never been on the ground in action. There was a man that was giving me a strange look in the armory, bald head with a goatee.
"This is just a retrieval mission you know. You don't have to suit up just yet." He said. "Take the time to relax while you can. Besides, walking around in armor all the time can't be comfortable."
I shook my head. "I'd much rather be prepared in case something does happen." I told him. He had no idea how many times there had been enemy boarding parties I've helped fend off.
We were at war with an enemy known as the FoG. Before, the UWE was formed to unite Earth's nation to colonize planets and explore the unknowns of space. That was until they had began attacking and destroying our colonies. Many worlds and star systems were lost, billions dying. That was when we started putting more focus into our military strength to fight off against an unknown enemy. It worked, and we've managed to capture a few prisoners. One tried interrogating the mantis-like aliens, but of course there was a language barrier. However, the one thing our prisoners kept chanting was the word 'Gretzal'. They all did. None of us knew what they were saying, or who or what this Gretzal was, but they chanted it religiously until their last breath. We've started calling them Followers of Gretzal. We didn't know much about them other than the fact that they had made themselves mankind's enemy. However, as we advanced in our tech and military, so did they. We've started seeing different ships, different technology, different strategies being used against us. We were doing the same, in fact, better. One of the biggest problems we've been having were their numbers. They had more ships, more guns, and more soldiers willing to throw their lives away going against us. One reason why we take morale training seriously.
Having suited up in my armor, I put on my helmet, grabbed my rifle and sidearms, placing the rifle over my shoulder as it snapped to my back. My two pistols latched onto my thighs. I made sure the rifle nano-mags were fully charged and grenade launcher ammo that I had personally crafted.
"Nothing's going to happen, I assure you." He chuckled. "You won't need any of what you're gettin' there."
"If you're so sure, why do you think they sent a capital ship and attack frigates to escort us?" I looked at him. If he could see my face behind my polarized visor, he would've seen a raised brow. "We could be expecting trouble."
Just after he said that, the alarms went off. The lights turned red as the speakers called all capable fighter pilots to the hangars and for the crew to get to their battle stations. Giving the guy one last look, I rushed through the corridors and to the elevators once more and made my way down to the hangar bays.
Making my way to hangar H-7, I had gotten in a fighter that was assigned to me when I was put on this ship. The pilots were scrambling to their strike crafts as well as I waited. Prepping for launch, the hangar doors opened. The first thing I saw were 6 crimson alien vessels opening fire on the frigate that had launched the shuttle. It was taking heavy damage, and would be destroyed soon. When the hangar door finished opening, our strike craft were launched into the open space. One of the crimson vessels was classed as a capital ship. What we call a Dragon Wing Carrier, named due to it appearing to have dragon wings on the side (personally looked more like fins to me), started launching its fighters as well to intercept us.
"Enemy fighters launched! Everyone get ready." I said over the comms.
"Good day to die!" I heard someone say.
The enemy fighters, shriekers, named after the noise their engines make, came at us in numbers as we began opening fire. My guns kept roaring, firing rapidly at the oncoming swarm of shriekers, more focused on not colliding into them than actually shooting them. As soon as they passed, I had let my guns breathe and pulled my strike craft up to give a few of the bastards a chase. My eyes caught onto one of them as I turned my craft around. This one was chasing one of ours while shooting. It had managed to land a direct hit onto the unlucky guy in the cockpit. Watching the friendly explode into flames, I had locked on to the enemy and pelted its craft with bullets, making quick work of it. There were a few unlucky friendlies that met their fate at the hands of the shriekers, but overall we were doing pretty well. Our frigates and capital ships were launching torpedoes at the enemy, taking out quite a few. and it was a sure victory.
"More ships warping in! Hostile!"
Yeah. This was an ambush within an ambush. Two more enemy capital ships and eight frigates had warped into the system. Another Dragon Wing and a Dreadnaught, the largest FoG capital ship seen so far had took out two of our frigates while even more Shriekers and Teardrop Kamikaze bombers were launched.
"Change of plans." The Icarus Nest said through comm. "We're retreating. All fighters, intercept bombers and enemy torpedoes, and fly into your hangars on my signal. Buy us time to start our FTL warp drives. Good luck."
I sighed. We weren't going to win this battle. Most of us weren't going to make it out of this alive, but I sure as hell wasn't going to go down without taking a few of those sons of bitches with me. I fired up my afterburners and joined my fellow pilots as we headed towards one of the enemy Crab Claw frigates, named for their claw shape, that were launching the bombers. I noticed a squadron flying towards the hanger that was located in the front of the frigate and decided to fly behind it.
"Alright boys, we're gonna fire all we have into that hangar." I heard over the comms. "On my signal...." I watched as he launched a few EMP missiles to take out the frigate shields. "NOW!!!"
The squadron had followed said orders and launched torpedoes into the hangar. I added on a surprise to one of mine. Once my torpedo had went in, it had split into multiple torpedoes, shredding the hangar and damaging it even more from the inside, likely causing stability damage as the frigate started to shift.. Pulling up to resume my previous path to intercept the enemy torpedoes, I had I saw that I had unwanted attention.
"I have three bogeys on my tail!" I said into the comms.
"We're on our way. Hold on tight."
Performing a spiral maneuver, I had managed to avoid their plasma bolts. I had an idea. Switching my flight mode to inertial, I continued moving in the direction I was headed while turning my fighter around. Firing back, I had destroyed one of my pursuers and damaged another. Gunfire from above me had landed their marks on the remaining two, finishing them off for me.
"You owe me a drink, Raynor." I heard some guy say.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"Trevor Gray. Remember that name when we ge-" Static interrupted his transmission, followed by an explosion from nearby. More and more bolts were being seen rushing from one direction as more of us started going down.
"Everybody look out! We're being bum rushed from the side! Everyone fall back to the Icaru-" More static. More explosions. Static. Screams. More static. A force jolted my fighter craft upwards as my cockpit started beeping. I was hit. My main thrusters were blown, shot. The plasma had melted through them. My craft was now a sitting duck, drifting. All I could do now was sit and watch as a few more of our frigates were taken out.
The remaining friendly fighters had flown into their hangers as the remaining ships left me behind. I thought I was done for, but most of the crimson colored FoG ships had followed in pursuit of our retreating fleet. The only ship that stayed behind was the one I gave my surprise to. I smiled as I watch it drift into the planet's atmosphere, launching a few dropships out of its bottom hangar. The same one I was very slowly headed to. It was a miracle that my engines didn't combust, but there was no way in hell that I would be able to survive the crash. My side thrusters still worked, but all I could do was turn, so I did. The very least I could do was shoot out an SOS beacon so they can find my body and collect the dog tags from my body to give to my squad. Knowing I was going to be there a while seeing how slow my craft was drifting to the planet.
Location: Twilight's Castle in Ponyville, Equestria
Time: 11:40 pm
Princess Twilight Sparkle has had a busy week with paperwork, complaints, and solving friendship problems in Ponyville. Her number one assistant, Spike, had finally managed to get her to take the rest of the day to relax, having Starlight Glimmer take her place. That night, she had decided to look for constellations as Spike gazed at the stars with her. Spike being in his pajamas and Twilight in her nightgown tells that they were going to be headed to bed soon. Looking at Twilight, Spike furrowed his brows as the nightgown his sister/mother was wearing showed plenty of her bust, and would often joked, asking if she was expecting a special somepony to get under her skin. Drawing his attention back to the stars and Luna's moon, he broke the silence.
"Twilight, what do you think it's like up there?" Spike asked.
"Hm?" Twilight replied, cutting her eyes at him.
"The moon. It's hard to believe Luna was stuck for so long up there, all alone."
"I know. I'm glad we were able to help free herself from Nightmare Moon." She giggled. "The night sky's been more amazing to look at ever since." She stopped and pondered. "It must've been lonely being stuck up there with no pony around for a thousand years. I'm glad we played a part in getting Celestia's sister back."
Spike smiled at the thought. The one event that brought Twilight and her friends together, the beginning of the wonderful journeys they had that made them even closer. Looking back up to the stars, a thought occurred to him.
"What about past the moon?" He asked.
This caught Twilight off guard. "What do you mean, Spike?"
"On other planets. There's gotta be other ponies out there, don't you think?"
Twilight had a fit of giggles. "You've been reading a lot of comics, haven't you?"
"It's possible, isn't it?" Spike said, huffing at Twilight's mocking.
Calming down, Twilight sighed. "Yes I guess it is. I'm sorry."
Rolling his eyes, Spike looked back at the sky, but then noticed a peculiar sight. "Hey Twilight. Look. I think Luna is having a little fun tonight. Nights must be boring for her outside of dream walking." Spike said, pointing to the sky. There were stars, dancing and flashing.
Twilight giggled once more. "You're right. Even though ponies have gotten used to her, she still doesn't get a lot of visitors."
"Look! A shooting star! I call it!" Spike shouted, instantly, causing Twilight to jump.
Twilight shrugged, standing up and heading back inside. "Alright, make your wish, but as soon as you do, you should go to bed. You're still not used to staying up this late and I'm going to need you tomorrow. Okay?"
"Alright." He responded.
Twilight went back inside of her castle, made her way to her room and got comfortable on her bed under her sheets before she drifted off into the dream realm as Spike made his wish.
Date: March 16th
Location: Twilight's Castle: Ponyville, Equestria
Time: 9:05 am
The very next morning, Twilight was woken up by Spike. The first thing that ran through her mind was how bright her room was, telling her that she had over slept. The second thing she noticed was the scared look on Spike's face. Something was wrong.
"Spike, what is it?" Twilight asked, rubbing her eyes.
"S-Something happened in Appleloosa! It's really bad!" Spike said.
"Is it the buffalo again?" She asked.
Twilight was slapped in the face with a newspaper, Equestria Daily, and read the headlines
It was early this morning, before Celestia raised the sun, when the western town of Appleloosa went up in flames, leading to most of the town's fatal end. The cause of this were monsters that fell from the sky, according to the very little survivors left.
If Twilight wasn't awake by then, she was now. What in the world wide Equestria could've happened? For thousands of years, there had never been any tragedy or massacres. All of those ponies, dead! "Spike. Send a letter to the Princess! I'll gather our fri-" She was cut off by Spike's dragon flame as a scroll had dropped onto her lap. Unrolling it was a letter from Princess Celestia herself.
Dear Princess Twilight.
If you haven't been aware, Equestria has been attacked. I have managed to save what I could of my little ponies in Appleloosa while fending off an unknown yet very dangerous threat. These beings, aliens, wield powerful and destructive machines and weaponry. I advise you and your friends stay away from them. Please, Twilight. If you do see anything fall from the sky around Ponyville, let me know immediately and start evacuating Ponyville. I am assigning you squad of guardsmen for your protection. They should arrive in a few minutes.
From your former mentor, Princess Celestia
"Spike, gather our friends and meet us at the table map room."
When she went down stairs, five royal guards were awaiting her. Two earth pony spear guards, a pegasus swordsman, and a unicorn mage, all led by a guardsmare unicorn.
"Greetings Your Highness. Princess Celestia sent us here," began the guardsmare, "to ensure your safety in case you're attacked. My name is Rose Blade."
Twilight sighed, groaning. Although she respects Celestia and thinks more of her than anypony else, lately it seemed to her that Celestia worries too much about her. "I'm pretty sure I can take care of myself."
"Princess Sparkle, please. These aliens are dangerous." A guard said.
"And wasn't Tirek dangerous? Or Nightmare Moon?" She smirked, counting on her fingers. "King Sombra? Queen Chrysalis?"
"Actually, those last two were Princess Mi Amour Caden-" The third guard was cut off.
"My friends and I can solve any problem." Twilight said with confidence.
Just then, Pinkie Pie kicked the door open and her tail was flailing all over.. "Twitchy tail! Twitchy tail! And this one is really twitchy!"
The girls, dragon, and guards all rushed outside and looked up at what they saw. A ball of fire was hurling towards Ponyville, nearly hitting Rainbow Dash who was resting on a cloud.
"Hey! What the-" When Dash looked down at what had interrupted her nap, she gave the ball of fire a chase. What she didn't expect was the object in flames to change directions almost instantly, flying by the castle, and into the Everfree Forest. Twilight had caught a glimpse of what the object was. Suddenly she wasn't as confident.
"Woah! Nice save, Twilight!" Pinkie said, forcefully high fiving Twilight.
Twilight stared at the smoke coming from the crash sight. "That... wasn't me..."
"You're not thinking about going in there, are you?" Spike said before looking at her after a pause. "Twilight?"
"We're going with you." Rose Blade stated. "Like it or not."
Arriving at the Everfree entrance a dozen minutes later, Pinkie and Dash were told to gather the other girls while two of the guards stayed at the entrance to wait for them. Twilight, Spike, and the remainder three guards had ventured into the forest, unsure of what will happen when they reach the crash site.
Twilight Sparkle was following the smoke, leading Spike and the three guards to the crash site while going over multiple scenarios and how to handle it in her head. She would have waited for her friends first, but her thirst for knowledge had led her to move on without them and hope they catch up. Her mind flashed back to when the UFO flew over her head. The object looked like it was completely made out of metal with the exception of the bit that was covered in glass. The wings were oddly shaped triangles and looked like they were each holding rods. The rest were covered in flames.
"Oh this is all my fault. That stupid wish to 'make friends with aliens' was a mistake!" Spike said, shivering.
Resting her hand on Spike's shoulder, she smiled down at him. "Spike, I'm sure recent events happening would've happened if you didn't make that wish. Wishing on a star is more or less a silly superstition."
"R-Right..."
When they arrived, they saw the crashed UFO, everypony gasped at what they saw. The UFO's wings were twisted and mostly torn, and the back of it was charred, still giving off sparks. It didn't look like this thing would fly again. The glass piece she saw was on the ground, and she saw what looked like a seat. The alien that flew this must've gotten out! That means.. The guards had spread out around the scene, inspecting the plates of steel that were torn off of the ship. They didn't see Twilight and Spike sneak off.
"Shouldn't we bring the guards with us?" Spike said, worried.
"So they can scare it off or hurt it when they see it? Relax. Maybe we can learn from it."
"Twilight.." Spike said quietly as he stopped.
"If it's friendly, your wish may come true after all. We'd be learning about an entirely different culture."
"Twilight!" Spike hissed, this time, catching her attention as he pointed ahead of her. When she looked, she froze as she saw a being walking to a stream and poking it with an object it was holding. It was shaped like a pony, but shorter. It was bulky like a stallion, but made of metal.
Twilight put a finger up to her lips, facing Spike. "Shhh..."
"I-I don't think that's a good idea!" Spike pleaded.
Unfortunately his pleas were ignored as Twilight had already started approaching the alien. Calming her nerves, she went for it.
"Hi there. My name is Twilight Sparkle and I'm the- eep!"
She had put up her magic bubble shield as fast as she could as tiny objects rapidly coming from his weapon had disintegrated on impact of her shield, leaving cracks in it. She had put more magic into her shield, the cracks visibly disappearing. The alien took cover behind a tree and fired more, trying to break her shield. It stopped for a moment to check its weapon, giving Twilight more time to restore her shield.
"Please stop! I just want to talk!" She said, her shield cracking to another flurry of bullets. It then a fast moving spherical object that exploded on impact, shattering her shield and weakening Twilight. As she collapsed, the being approached her, weapon aimed and ready to kill.
"NOOOOO!!!" Spike screamed, jumping in between her and the being. Spike stood there, arms spread as the being stood there and stared. It didn't have a face, and Spike didn't know what to make of what it was. He wasn't going to let it kill Twilight.
~**Odd... The FoG doesn't sacrifice ones self to save another life. Just what the hell are you two?**~ The being said, lowering his weapon.
Spike opened his eyes. The being was trying to talk to him? Twilight weakly opened her eyes. "S-Spike... get back.. go get help!"
~**I have questions for you two.**~ It said.
Fortunately, the weapon's noise had attracted the attention of the guards as they had arrived and surrounded the alien.
"Princess! We'll handle this." Said Rose Blade. Turning to the alien, she pulled out a crossbow and aimed it at him. "You there. Drop your weapon and surrender. We have questions for you."
~**A fucking crossbow? Are you serious?**~ It looked at the other guards, one having a sword and the other having a spear. ~**We're really gonna do this? Bitches please.**~
Narrowing her eyes, Rose Blade growled. "I won't ask again."
Looking back at Rose Blade, he put his weapon away. ~**I don't think we speak the same language, but you better get that thing out of my face.**~
I put my weapon away, pretty sure I wasn't going to need it. "I don't think we speak the same language, but you better get that thing out of my face." Taking in their appearances, they all resembled horses, but one had a horn, one had wings, and one had neither. The purple one that confronted me had both wings and a horn. Unable to understand what the horned armored one was saying, I continued observing.
That was until the winged one charged at me with a sword. As he swung it, I had grabbed it with my armored hand and crushed it, before slamming a fist into the stomach. Jumping up in the air, I gave him a spinning boot to the face while he was still doubled over, knocking him out. The wingless hornless one jabbed the spear onto my chest, but it didn't penetrate. It didn't even do anything to the shield. Grabbing the spear, I pulled it away from him and collided the part he held against his head, breaking it. He was dazed, but still standing. Can't have that now can I? Grabbing the native by his armor, I flipped him over my head and threw him on the ground face first and landed a final punch on the back below the neck enough to knock him unconscious. The horned one reminded me she was still standing as I heard various clicks from a bolt continuously hitting my armor. One bolt zipping around trying to get through. If anything, it annoyed the hell out of me. I walked up to the mare, reared my fist back and slammed it into her muzzle. The purple lizard flinched at the crunch noise it made as the horned guard fell back, holding her broken muzzle.
Ignoring the cries of agony coming from the grounded unicorn, I made my way back to my ship. I didn't think I wanted to kill any of them anymore. They aren't my enemy, but hoped they got the message that I didn't want to be trifled with.
I approached my fighter. Shaking my head at the poor girl, I had gathered the rest of my supplies, extra grenades for my grenade launcher, ration pills to last a few years in case everything here is inedible for me. It's not the tastiest, but it still provides nutrients and keeps one from starving to death. I took out the flare gun and a spare beacon from under my seat and a few battery packs and set the self destruct timer before climbing down from my craft. Those natives are a few millennia behind us if they're still using crossbows and swords. They'll either hurt themselves or use my equipment for their own selfish gain. I'm not taking part of any of it. Walking away from my fighter, I set off to find some shelter. Maybe a cave or something.
That was until I suddenly found myself surrounded by Purple Horse Lady, even more armored people, and a taller larger white horned winged horse lady with enormous knockers being held by her Roman themed dress. She looked pissed.
"Motherfucker..."
Earlier...
Twilight Sparkle had finally gotten herself together while Spike had gathered the two unconscious guards. Rose Blade's nose was really bloody and looked misplaced, but she was able to perform a healing spell with enough concentration. The strength of that alien must've been powerful to do so much damage, but she could've sworn that it was trying to kill her earlier. Why didn't it? It could've killed me, Spike, and the guards.. Shaking her head, she decided to go back to that later. She needed to get her and the others back to Ponyville. Teleporting everypony back to the forest entrance, she had met up with the others who were discussing a 'worst case scenario' plan.
"And then, if it tries to control our minds, Pinkie, you can sock him from behind. Well, unless it tries to control your mind then I'll do it." said Rainbow. Pinkie nodded in understanding.
"But what if it's just scared?" Fluttershy asked meekly.
"Hey girls." Twilight said.
"Twilight! You're here!" Rarity exclaimed. "We thought you were gonna be captured by that devilish creature!"
Spike opening his big mouth, "Yeah, and she almost ended up as swiss cheese if I hadn't jumped in the way!"
Twilight facepalmed. "Spike..."
Rainbow Dash flared her wings. "What?!? That's it! I'm gonna fly down there and give that thing a piece of my mind while I'm kicking his flank!" Before she could go anywhere, there was an explosion from the crash site that caused Fluttershy to nearly faint.
There was a loud and bright flash coming from behind them. Turning around, they saw it was Princess Celestia and a battalion of royal guards, and she didn't look too happy. The girls bowed down as she walked to her former student. She looked at the injured guards she placed for her protection. Rose Blade's nose was partly healed as the other guards sported bruises. Celestia glared back down at Twilight.
"Princess Celestia, I-"
"We will talk about this later, but for now we haven't much time before it gets too far."
Celestia teleported everyone near the crash site location. By chance, they had teleported, surrounding the alien in question. The guards had already had every spear, crossbow, bow and arrow, and spell circle aimed at it. Looking around, it sighed?
~**Motherfucker...**~
Celestia stood firm with a strong vibe of authority as she spoke. "Surrender now peacefully or we will have to take you by force."
~**Nice tits.**~ It said. ~**But I'm not sticking around.**~ It threw up a small cylinder and ducked. Before the ponies could do anything, there was a 'bang' noise as they were all blinded by a bright light. Nopony could see a thing as they covered and rubbed their eyes to get their vision back. Ponies had fired crossbows and spells at each other unintentionally. There was another alien noise and then a clank.
"Gotcha!... Woah!"
And that was it. They all struggled for a moment, some with eyesight, others with eyesight and injuries inflicted by their fellow guards. By the time Celestia could see again, the alien was gone.
"It was right here! Where did it go?" Twilight asked.
Rainbow Dash approached the group wearing her Wonderbolts uniform, breathing heavily and holding her stomach."H-Hey Twi..."
"Rainbow! What happened?!" Twilight looked at her friend, worried.
"Funny story..." She grinned, sheepishly.
~**Surrender now peacefully or we will have to take you by force.**~ Queen Boobsalot said. I took note that they were trying to talk to me or capture me unharmed. I was still set on not killing the natives. I broke the silence instead as I had came up with an idea.
"Nice tits." I said as I pulled out a flashbang. "But I'm not sticking around." Priming it, I threw it up and ducked, being sure to close my eyes. After it went off, the ponies went nuts, firing crossbows and beams at each other trying to hit me. Since I was surrounded, the only way out was up. I activated my jump jets on my armor and was launched into the air. I was about to launch myself forward, but was tackled from the side.
~**Gotcha!**~
This one had tackled me hard, her momentum launching us far in her headed direction. Trying to free myself, I activated one of my strafe jets, causing a rapid spin before we impacted a tree. A painful wheezing sound was heard. When I looked up, I saw a cyan colored winged native with prismatic hair in a uniform who had broken my impact against a tree with my shoulder in her gut. I had completely winded her. Falling on my feet, I caught her before she hit the ground and gently sat her against the tree of impact. Noticing I was knocked a distance from Queen Titsy and her army, I took off running.
"Great! Why not give it a ride to Griffonstone while you're at it?!" Said an impatient guard who had taken an arrow out of his knee. [I'msorry!]
Twilight sat in the map room, deep in thought about recent events as she stared at the smoldering ruins where Appleloosa used to be. There were only a handful of survivors from Appleloosa. Thankfully, their friend and Applejack's cousin Braeburn was one of them, but he was severely injured and was put into a coma after he was rescued. He was sent to Canterlot's hospital for the time being. The doctors said there was a good chance he would never wake up from his coma. She still couldn't believe that so many ponies had been slaughtered in one night. Even Celestia had barely managed to fend them off. She knew other ponies in Ponyville who had family who had died there. She made note to visit those she hadn't already. She wondered if there was a way to reform the aliens attack like she had reformed Discord, Starlight Glimmer, Trixie and others. The only difference was that her friends had never killed anypony. According to the papers, the aliens had just started slaughtering ponies out of nowhere. One thing she knew for sure:
They had to be stopped. One thing she was trying to figure out was how?
She couldn't even stop one alien. It had attacked her when she offered her hand in friendship, but oddly enough it didn't kill her or Spike when he got in the way. The idea of ponies provoking the aliens crossed her mind. She remembered the Appleloosians feud with the buffalo and how they had a hard time putting differences aside that maybe they had done something to antagonize them.
Twilight ran scenarios in her head trying to figure out what was really going on. It was hard for her to swallow this much. Her mind once again raced back to the alien she had met. There were many patrols in the Everfree that were searching for clues to where it had ran off to. Rainbow received a mouthful when she accidentally helped it escape. The princesses advised her to not play anymore heroics until further notice. Oddly enough, the alien we saw didn't draw it's weapon again. It just blinded us and ran away. Why? There was a feeling in her gut that there was much more going on than it seemed; a bigger picture, and now they were in it. As she pondered ilthe situation more, something in her mind clicked. She remembered the being trying to talk, but nopony could understand it. Maybe it didn't speak or understand Equuish. She slammed her head hard on the table at the thought of her missing something so simple yet obvious, her breasts doing hardly anything to cushion the blow. Before she can know anything, she knew she would need to get past the communication issue first, how it thinks, and what it is. She knew who could do just that.
Her thoughts were interrupted when a guard burst through the door.
"Princess! A small army has started attacking Ponyville! It's them!"
Twilight had teleported herself to her room and ran out to her balcony. Sure enough, there were large blood red balls of plasma arching towards the city and a small army of aliens in a distance, heading towards the town. These looked nothing like the ones in the Everfree.
Rainbow Dash was thrown against the wall from a blast from one of their vehicles. She caught a glimpse at what looked like four legged machines on a box with a cannon that fired those large deadly balls of flame. She wanted to fly, however those that did were shot down by tall armored bipedal bugs. They looked like they had the head of a praying mantis. The red bolts had left nasty burns on those they hit. She was sure to stay out of their sight, not doing any heroics as promised. It wasn't like she would stand much of a chance against beings this deadly.
Since the attack started, she had tried to help ponies get to safety. Some of the guards that were there had did the same while others went to fend off the invaders. Yeah.. Good luck with that.. She had managed to make it to Fluttershy's cottage. Dash really hoped she was safe. Since junior flight school, she had always wanted to look after the shy mare, even though she had vastly outgrown her in more ways than one.
Approaching the door, she banged on the door.
"Fluttershy! You in there?! We need to get the hay outta Ponyville!"
No answer.
"Fluttershy?" She peeked through one of her windows and saw that her home was abandoned. Flying around her home, she didn't see her or any of her animals. Not a chicken, bunny, or bird. She hoped that her cottage being far away from most of Ponyville gave her a better chance of escaping to safety considering her cottage looked untouched by aliens.
She had flown back to town, being sure to stay out of the aliens' range and landed by the castle. The guards were escorting groups of mares, stallions, fillies, colts, and carrying their injured into the safety of the Castle of Friendship.
"When will we receive reinforcements from Canterlot?! We're getting slaughtered by the dozens!" A guardsmare cried out.
"Soon. The princess told us to worry about getting the townsponies to safety first for teleportation."
That's all Rainbow heard before she took off running to help once more. She had flew on top of one of the buildings and saw that a fourth of Ponyville were in flames, and what she saw coming from a distance flying towards Ponyville didn't fill her with much confidence. Whatever they were wasn't what she was worried about the most. The four legged machines had curled their four legs into small horizontal circles. Glowing red, they had started lifting the machine as its cannon had also changed into a double barreled turret. The large machine hovered further into the town, gunning down the guards like they were nothing.
Rainbow's attention was drawn by a scream of a filly. She saw a group of those alien bugs surrounded by a dozen smaller ones, peach-skinned aliens in armor that had two beady eyes on each side of their heads and a large mouth. Their limbs looked like a fusion between flesh and machine as they held smaller weapons. They were closing in on her adopted sister, Scootaloo. She could hear her friends calling out for her to get up and run, but when Dash looked closer, she saw that one of her wings were hit with one of those aliens' weapons. Rainbow spread her wings about to risk her life for Scootaloo, the teen filly that looked up to her the most.
~**I got a present for ya!**~
Something went flying towards the advancing group. Said object had exploded, sending the smaller aliens flying, charred, and in pieces. The taller aliens had stumbled back from the blast, their armors sparking. Coming from the roof across from Dash was that alien again, the one she had unintentionally helped to escape, firing his weapon at the invaders killing them near instantly. It looked around before it jumped down after putting its weapon away and helped Scootaloo up to her feet. Dash quickly made her way to them, flaring her wings again, ready to charge.
"Hey you! Drop her right this second!"
The alien loomed at her and approached her with Scootaloo and handed her over.
~**You must be the mother. Take her and her friends to safety, now!**~
The alien was trying to talk to her. Dash stood there puzzled. It pointed to Scootaloo and then to her friends who were hiding. It then gestured both of its arms towards the castle.
~**Are you deaf?! Take your girls and get to safety! Move your asses!**~
Finally getting the message, she picked up Scootaloo and carried her towards the castle with Sweetie Belle and Applebloom in tow. Dash turned her head as she saw him take out his weapon and use his jet pack to leap over a damaged building and into the fight out of view.
A bloater. I landed on a bloater. These guys are named for their heavily bloated appearance. They actually looked human if they were pale, all bald, no neck and pin-headed. Whatever they were before, they've been fused with mechanical enhancements to make them walking tanks, their 'hands' being replaced with combinations of blade, shield, and cannon. They're one of the reason why we switched to battery-powered nano mags. It took a lot of bullets to take these guys out unless you knew where to aim. There's a T-shaped weakspot on the back of their heads from where they had started their enhancements. Hit them there, you'll save a lot of bullets and tank buster rounds.
"Charlie usually took them out with his rifle, but he isn't here." I mumbled to myself. The bloated had started to shake him off while I hung on for dear life. I took out one of my pistols that was set on rapid fire and shot several shots on its weak spot. Small sparks had erupted from its head down to the rest of its body as I used my jump jets to get off. I didn't want to be trapped under it when it fell again.
More of the armored natives had teleported in, but I could tell something was wrong. When they teleported, some were upside down. Some ended up too high and those without wings fell to their deaths. I don't think I need to tell you what happened to the poor female that landed amidst three enemy squads. The horned natives had a mist emitting from their horns. They tried to use their abilities, only sparks would come out. Needless to say, they had warped into their own slaughter house. I also noticed my HUD's 3DMS (3D Motion Sensor) was complete static. This told me there was a jammer nearby that needed to be taken out. A few bolts hit me from the right, taking down an eighth of my shields. There were several wormheads and manti firing at me from around the corner. Launching myself in the air again, I dashed forward out of the way launching a grenade from my rifle towards the group. The grenade had exploded in the middle while launching four more smaller explosives. That took care of them. I saw two of the enemy tanks firing on a group of armored natives.
I was too busy to realize I was being watched. Armored natives were watching as I had jumped on to one of their Heavy Armored Transformable Siege tanks (HATS) and fired two grenades at both of the hover engines on the side closest to the second. I launched myself backwards as I watched it flip on top of the other one as it fired, cutting into the second one. Both exploded. Usually, I would be patting myself on the back seeing as my plans never work out that well, but I still had FoG to take out if still being shot at wasn't an indication. Further down the road were more FoG standing around a tall alien spire structure about to and a half stories high with a glowing red disc that was emitting a red hazy pulse. The jammer. I wanted to save my grenades in case, so I looked around and saw an incoming FoG dropship headed this way. They were trying to reinforce the jammer. Thinking quickly, I took out an EMP patch, launched upwards and threw it onto the ship. Its passengers, more manti and wormheads, had opened their hatches and jumped out before it crashed into the spire and exploded. I took out the manti quickly with well placed shots from my assault rifle set to burst. The rest were taken care of by my two pistols . As soon as my 3DMS came together, it sensed FoG reading coming from my left up high. A mantis had started firing at me from one of the building's rooftop. I had taken out its shield after taking a few hits from its rifle, but before I could take the final shot, a flowing spear had penetrated its chest plate before it disappeared. The mantis fell off the roof and hit the ground with a thump. I turned to the direction it was launched from to see a horned native male in armor with a rune circle around his hand as his horn glowed, aiming at the fallen mantis. I noticed the mist from his horn was gone as were the other horned ones. I nodded to him. He nodded back before shouting something to the others who went on their way. At least they know I'm on their side for now.
There were a lot less noise. This says there couldn't be much more of the FoG forces left here. Further down the streets was a landed dropship unloading troops and a TMAHV, a two manned armored hover vehicle with a mantis pilot and a mantis gunner. Two more manti and eight wormheads jumped out of the dropship as they had started firing. I had started developing a strategy as I took cover around the corner. Take out the ones on foot before dealing with the TMAHV.
I ran out, guns ablaze drawing their attention. I managed to take out a few wormheads which meant less guns shooting at me. However I had caught the attention of the TMAHV pilot and gunner as well. I was taking a lot of hits and needed to find cover to let my shields recharge. I launched myself upwards and then forwards over a building. The firing had stopped, but I knew they were making their way around to find me. My shields had managed to recharge as I had planned another strategy. Unfortunately I didn't have much time for thinking as I saw the TMAHV hover around the corner on one side and wormheads on the other.
I launched myself upwards and over the same building as I was soon greeted with two manti, weapons aimed at me. I changed my approach as I put away my rifle. I activated an energy shield I had installed on my left wrist to take in the fire. To do so, I had to drain my armor's shield to 50%. A blade came out of my right gauntlet as the edges glowed a feint blue. I blocked the oncoming fire with the shield before I landed. The mantis on the right would be my first target as I launched towards it with my blade drawn back and pierced his shields and armor with a forward thrust. I took a few hits from behind as my armor shields dropped to 20%. I charged at the retreating mantis, blocking his fire with my energy shield while closing the distance quick. I knew the TMAHV would be hovering around the corner shortly. The mantis tried to turn and run, but I lodged my blade into its nape, killing it quickly.
When the TMAHV came around the corner, so did the remaining wormheads. Deactivating my energy shield and retracting my blade, I took out both of my pistols having set them on automatic and gunned down the rest of the wormheads. These guys were trying to be smart with their strategy, but they had no idea who they were messing with. I had ran around the corner, knowing the TMAHV would give a chase.
My shields recharged and I had a plan. As the vehicle came around, I launched myself at the gunner, my wrist blade drawn once more, and decapitated the gunner. Taking its place, I grabbed the turret it was using, aimed it down and opened fire on the TMAHV cockpit. The pilot had gotten out halfway before it exploded. The explosion took out 63% of my shields. The now crippled mantis was crawling away to an open area. I grabbed it by the neck and pulled out a pistol, set in single shot as it struggled.
Then there was a flash. Looking over, I had saw I had the pleasure of meeting Queen Thiccness White Boobsmuch and a few dozen of her soldiers and the smaller purple one I had first met. The white one had looked around, looking at the bodies that littered the town, both native and FoG alike.
~**You've made quite a mess here, haven't you, little one?**~ she asked. Her horn was lighting up as a glowing circle had appeared on her wrist. A ball of energy formed in her hand.
Getting annoyed with the struggling, I had placed my pistol to its head and pilled the trigger. The purple one flinched as I did so. Dropping the corpse, they had my full attention.
"You're welcome." I said.
There was a pause until Purple spoke.
~**Princess, it can't understand us. We can't understand he either. We don't know its language.**~
~**So. We will bring him in to learn how to communicate with him before questioning.**~ said Queen Whiteness.
~**Wait!! It's cool! I swear!!**~ said a voice from above. The blue cyan rainbow haired native with the daughter had flown down and stood between me and the native army. ~**It saved Scootaloo's life, and mine too!**~
Queen Whiteness narrowed her eyes at us. ~**Who knows how many ponies it had killed? Even Twilight had reported it attacking her as well.**~
~**Twilight told me what happened, princess. It didn't kill her or Spike, or any of your guards that attacked it. It had every opportunity to kill her, Spike, Scootaloo, even me!**~ I wasn't one hundred percent sure, but Rainbow Hair sounded like she was defending me or saving me from an execution.
~**She's right, Princess Celestia.**~ Said Purple. ~**Even when we had it surrounded, the only ones who injured the guards were other guards. It may have been my fault for him attacking me too.**~
~**Your highness, this one had fought with us against the invaders and had managed to help us fend them off. If it wasn't for its help, Nome of us would've made it alive.**~ An armored native said.
Queen Whiteness paused wearing a puzzled look before she shook her head. She had ceased her magic. ~**Be that as it may, it's still dangerous. Until we can find out if it means us any harm or not, it would be best if we have him contained. Twilight, is there any other way to communicate with him?**~
Purple lit up her horn as a rectangle formed between us with a slide image of me following them somewhere. They want me to follow them. No problem. I nodded my head.
Queen Whiteness again. ~**Okay. Can you tell it to surrender its weapons to us.**~ Hesitantly, Purple made an image of my rifle, pistols, and grenades being handed over to them. Fuck that! I don't know who these people are, or when the FoG will attack next, and when they do, I'd best have my shit. They're gonna learn to trust me, and they're gonna do it now. I shook my head slowly. A couple of her guards had tried to apprehend me, a horned female and a winged male. The male had his head slammed on the ground, instantly going unconscious while the female got a fist straight to the muzzle.
~**BUCK! MY NOSE AGAIN?!!?!**~ The female whined. I pulled out my pistol and aimed it at her. She froze as soon as she saw me. I was looking at Queen Whiteness, glaring behind my visor, finger on the trigger while Purple and Rainbow Hair gave me pleading looks. She returned the look before nodding to Purple who in turn drew an X on her video of me surrendering my weapons. I put my weapons away, glad I didn't have to scatter a non-FoG head to prove a point.
Putting my weapons away, the Queen Whiteness motioned me to follow her towards a castle made of crystal. I kept my eyes peeled for any FoG survivors, and also on the nearby guards. If they try anything funny, they will regret it. Purple was walking ahead with Queen Whiteness, but was constantly sneaking peaks at me.
I heard Queen White Thiccness talk. ~**Twilight, we are preparing refugee centers in Canterlot. I would like you to help the townsponies here move in. I don't think it would be safe for anypony to remain here.**~
She whispered something to Purple's ear, but seeing as I can't understand what the hell they're saying, it wouldn't matter. It didn't matter at all until Purple took another peek at me to know that whatever they were planning, it was about me. I was going to have to keep an eye on her whenever she's around.
Maybe it was me being paranoid, but I was sure I was treading on thin ice. They these natives showed their wariness from their quick glances towards me on the way to a large crystal-like structure. Surrounding it looked like medieval military camps with the armored natives sure its citizens and injured were evacuated through what seemed like teleportation. It was then that Purple had left to the large crystal structure, but not before giving me one last look.
I watched her walk away until I heard a few guards that were escorting me whispering. When I snapped my head in their direction, the whispering stopped. Behind the crystal structure were a few chariots lined up while being pulled by winged soldiers. I didn't even bother with trying to logic. Queen White Thiccness had gotten on one and motioned for me to get on board with her. Looking around, the rest of the soldiers teleported away while a few got in the separate chariots. The two winged soldiers spread their wings as they started running. We took off to the air oddly enough, heading straight for a city resting on a mountain.
The solar princess and her escorts were traveling towards Canterlot via chariot along side Rainbow Dash. Looking over to the alien by her, she could see that it was a bit on edge. Seeing as it wasn't reaching for its weapons nor posing a threat, she took the time to examine the armor. She couldn't begin to describe how its armor functioned other than what she's seen of it so far. She wondered what kind of magic it ran on, or what it was capable of. How durable was it? She also took note of its weapons. They weren't anything she's ever seen before. They weren't even as long as a guard's spear, but it could kill any pony at a distance without touching them with it. She really wanted to disarm the being, but attempts to do so had met with negative results, and although it unnerved her to no end, her student and her friend were right. This thing was on their side, or at least against the true enemy.
She had faced the other aliens before while she was saving the survivors of Appleloosa. They did not heed her warnings. She had barely managed to fend them off, having little energy left. Whatever they were, their weapons were also advanced. She was still recovering to this day from the first encounter. She could only hope that the alien beside her had peaceful intentions with her little ponies.
One other thing she noticed was that it was rather the size of a teenage foal, but more masculine. Perhaps its species are of average height as this one is. However, despite its size, there were too many unknowns about it that she felt uncomfortable with, and the point that she had no means of communicating with it other than pictures, it didn't make her feel any better. There were so many unanswered questions that she was starting to get desperately curious to know. Maybe this is how Twilight feels often.
Snapping out of her thoughts, Celestia examined the alien once more, but noticed something rather interesting. It's head was facing her, but the visor from the helmet was specifically aimed at her chest. The armor she wore had left ample of bust to be seen. No one was to blame. It has been a few millennia since she had actually had to wear it. She had grown a lot since the times of old, and it showed. Still, it didn't have to stare. She cleared her throat as her eyes narrowed slightly. The alien snapped his head forward, caught red handed. Quietly chuckling, Celestia took a wild guess that this alien was male. Stallions of every species are the same, aren't they?
Soon after, they had arrived to Canterlot. The chariots had landed and everypony and being got off. Needless to say, a lot of attention was drawn their way. There was a mixed reactions from the pony citizens. Some bowed per usual, while others stared at the alien. News had reached Canterlot about the attack on Ponyville, mostly because they could see the smoke coming from a quarter of the town from there and could barely hear the screams of fleeing and dying residents. The alien that was in the company of the princess did not seem to notice or care about the attention. Either that or he's not showing it.
What Celestia didn't expect was one of her ponies to charge at the group and tackle their guest. Applejack had the alien pinned, but the look she gave him, a look that nopony had seen on her face as long as they knew her, was one that was full of pure hate.
"You give me one good reason why I shouldn't buck you aliens til yer guts spill!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.
Rainbow Dash grabbed her and tried to pull her off of him. "Applejack! Quit it! This one's good!"
"Mah farm, mah cousin, mah home, how much more are ya gonna take?!" She screamed into the alien's visor.
In response, the alien reeled his head back and launched it forward, making contact with the mare's muzzle, disorienting her. After a quick jab to the stomach, he activated his jumpjets to launch himself upwards, flinging her off of him. A blade came out of his right wrist as he stormed over to the farmer, but was stopped by Celestia.
"You will not harm her." Celestia said sternly. Whether or not he could understand her, he seemed to have gotten the message. He raised one finger upwards.
~**One more chance. You all have one more FUCKING chance before I start shooting everything here that breathes!!**~
Celestia stared at the alien, wary. She gestured for her guards to escort him to the castle without her before turning to Applejack, voice full of sympathy. "Applejack, I understand that you have lost a lot. Your cousin in Appleloosa is in a coma, and your farm has been standing for generations. I am aware of your pain." Celestia's look of sympathy turned to one of great disapproval. "However, that's no excuse for your recklessness." Before Applejack could retort, Celestia cut her off with a raise of a hand. "I don't need to understand alien language to know what a grave warning is. You're putting us all on thin ice."
Celestia's horn lit up as she teleported to the castle. Rainbow felt she should say something to her friend, but she couldn't bring herself to open her mouth. She shook her head instead and tried to catch up with the escort.
The armored natives and I had arrived at a castle. Judging by the flags, they seem to belong to Queen Tall White Boobsalot. We were approaching the door when Blue Rainbow caught up with us. The door was opened from the other side by QTWB who I assume had teleported herself inside. I didn't question it as things were odd enough around here as it is with walking talking horse people that knew magic. I only call it magic because it's the only way I can describe it. We followed her inside.
I'm pretty sure I would end up having to blast my way out if I needed to escape because the castle was a labyrinth. Halls, turns, stairs, fifteen minutes and I was lost to where they were taking me. However, it became clear when I noticed they were taking me down to the lower wards. They were going to lock me up. I realized I was right when we reached a dungeon. "Looks like I'm their prisoner. For now." I mumbled. I looked at the cells. The bars were rusted and the place looked like it hadn't been kept in a while. There weren't a lot of occupants of the dungeon, just a few armored natives with the very little prisoners they had. Breaking out of here would seem like it'd be a peace of cake.
One of the guards opened the cell and motioned me to go inside. I'll humor you. Blue Rainbow didn't look so happy about this and made QTWB aware of that. I didn't really understand what she said before she stormed off. I looked around in my cell. There was nothing but a sink and a bunk for two but I didn't have a cellmate. Good. The princesses soon left only leaving two guards standing in front of my cell to make sure I didn't try anything. I couldn't help but to shake my head. Nothing stopping me from capping them both right now. That thought alone made me at the very least curious as to what they wanted with me or what they wanted to do with me. The guards QTWB left me with was watching me intentavely trying to read me it seemed.
I looked at my bunk again and regretted it. It looked much more comfortable than the shit beds on the starships if you can call them beds. Like a thin sheet of cotton wrapped in a blanket on top of metal. I walked over to the bunk and sat on the bottom bed. I saw the two guards staring at me, watching my every move. So I pulled out my rifle and held on to it, finger on the trigger. That got the guards looking away. I may be dozing off, but they wouldn't know.
Music was filling the room as I sat with my squad. We liked hanging around social places such as bars, clubs, sometimes parks etc. per suggestion after a long mission or two depending on where we were and whose turn it was to pick. It was agreed that it was a good way to wind down our nerves, form bonds, and get to know the squad on a personal level. However, it was Lamont's turn to pick a place.
Lamont "Cannonball" Jackson is a big guy. He has a fun personality and is generally nice. Unfortunately for him, he is as loud as he is a muscle head. He is one of those guys that hits the gym way too often. On fhe plus side, that's why he's our heavy weapons specialist. He's also the squad leader.
Sitting beside him was Charles "Thunder Strike" Sullivan. He's a bit of a social butterfly, but also very observant. His perceptive skils are top notch and it makes him an excellent sniper and scout. He's pretty wise, however, I wish he would tone down the religion just a tad bit. He gives very good advice.
Sitting between me and Charles is our scouting and stealth specialist, Yumi "Onryo" Tomodo, the youngest in the squad. I actually know her personally before we joined the forces. We were childhood friends. You can thank our dads for that. Her father was a family friend, so we saw each other a lot. However, since he met an unfortunate end on an exploration mission along with his wife, she grew quiet. I've always stuck with her or kept in contact with her though. That was until we by an odd chance found each other wearing the same recruit uniform. Unfortunately, the higher ups found her to be a candidate for a special program. It wasn't a pleasant goodbye. She came back a year in a half completely different, but was a damn good special operative that can take on a hive without armor enhancements.
The empty seat on the other side of me was reserved for Helga Blankenheim, our medic. Although a very reliable one for the missions we are sent to, she can be a bit of a hag. I don't know much about her seeing as she's a workaholic, but although she can be an unprofessional handful, she gets the job done and keeps us alive, so I don't complain. Rumor in the squad has it that she has a twin sister who is the exact opposite as she is.
The four of us sat at a bar in a club wearing our casual uniforms.
"Here's to another successful mission, squad!" Lamont said out loud.
"Aye." Charles and I lifted our cups as Yumi just nodded her head.
Yumi sat silently between me and Charles. Yumi never really talked much in public, keeping mostly to herself. Plenty of times before have we tried making her more outgoing towards others, but eventually decided that it was probably just how she was. I often see her around Charles talking to him about things like sniping and advice and other things. I never really listen in though. She doesn't talk to me as much as she used to. I guess our professional relationship developed over our personal one ever since our seperation. Either way, I was glad that she had found someone else she feels comfortable talking to.
"Moron..." I heard Lamont mumble. I looked at him, and he was looking at me. He just called me a moron.
"Am I missing something?" I asked.
He shook his head. "Don't worry about it, man! Time to drink!" He knew I never drank alcoholic beverages, so I had just ordered a soda.
Looking around, I watched other people dancing without a care in the world while the DJ played the music for his crowd. I was never one into songs or lyrics or musicals.
"It's nice, ain't it, son?" Lamont said, putting his hand on my head. I never liked it when he called me that. "Just look at 'em. Dancin like a care in the world thanks to guys like us."
"Yeah." He had a point. To be honest I would go through every mission we've done all over again to keep things this way.
"Fighting the fight so they won't have to." He said proudly.
I nodded my head in response. Enjoying the view, I took another drink. I regretted it when my vision started blurring shortly after as everything seemed to distort afterwards. The club, the people dancing, they had started wavering.
"Lamont?!" When I looked at him, he was wavering as well, along with the rest of my squad. I looked at my hands and oddly enough, I wasn't.
I closed my eyes cursing myself for picking up Lamont's drink instead of mine. I knew he liked that powerful shit.
I blinked once and plasma bolts whizzed past my head as I ducked for cover behind a boulder. I looked down at myself and found that I was in my armor. I wasn't in a club anymore. Looking around, I took note of my surroundings. I realized that I was no longer on Onarion. I was in a battlefield on another planet.
Peeking around from my cover, I saw a dark red gigantic four legged walker half the size of a mountain, dubbed the Quad Fortress, as the FoG used it to warp their forces in from a neighboring moon. It was something I hope we would have never seen again.
"Rex! Get your head out of the clouds! We need cover fire!" Lamont said.
This isn't possible! That thing went down years ago when our forces brought an enemy dreadnought down on it from orbit!
I rose from my cover and fired at the oncoming FoG forces. Helga threw down a portable cover infront of an injured soldier who survived a plasma bolt to the head, his visor cracked open and half of his face burning.
I was receiving an odd sense of deja vu as things were happening the exact way I could remember from that mission. Something wasn't right. Looking around, I saw something floating in the air. Something that shouldn't have been there. I couldn't get a good look before my surroundings once again started distorting.
A moment later, I was in a dark room surrounded by people in the same uniform I was wearing now, apparently. I recognized one of the people as Yumi, who was cutting her eyes in my direction, smiling. Unfocused. I knew where and when I was. We were going through recruitment, standing at attention. I knew something was going on. I stepped forward. Nobody noticed. I turned around and was looking at myself right in the eyes.
I jumped back and found myself phasing through those standing in front of me. I looked around in the room as everyone seemed to freeze. I realized what was going on. This wasn't a dream. These are my memories in the form of a dream. And I had an odd feeling it had to do with that figure. I looked at Yumi who was peeking at the other me still.
However, behind her was a painting. A painting of a silhouetted unicorn's head with glowing eyes. When I spotted it, it turned its head towards me. I glared and charged, grabbing the painting and flung it off of the wall with force. Wouldn't you know it, a naked horse-like native from Horse World flew out. This one looked similar to Queen white thiccness, but shorter and less bust, and looked like she diets well. I certainly hoped that I was wrong about what I was seeing. I havd never seen this one on my life yet here she is in my dreams, or memory dreams. The bitch was going through my memories.
"I don't know who the fuck you are, what you are, but you had best explain the best to uour ability whay the hell you are doing here." I said, trying to stay calm. It was a battle doing just that.
Standing up, she recomposed herself. "I should be the one asking you that, alien." She said. "You are the one trespassing on Equestrian soil and causing bloodshed." My brows furrowed as I was taken aback by what I had just heard.
"You're speaking English?" I asked.
"Is that what you call your language? Well, we shall answer your question, but afterwards, you will answer ours." She stated. Our surroundings went dark as everyone and everything disappeared, but us. "We are in your dreams. In your mind. We have the ability to speak and hear your words through the form of our language using an ancient spell." Magic... So I was right... "You can understand our Equuish whereas we can understand your English."
"Like a two-way translator."
"Precisely. Now, you will tell us who you are and why you have started to ravage our land!" She screamed. "Do you know the amount of tragedy you have thrusted upon us?!?"
I stared up at her, unphased. "None." I answered simply. "However, you're on your way to changing that."
"What do you mean, alien?" The native asked, impatiently.
I chuckled. "You, horse lady, and your horsey kind have been pushing my buttons as of late, and I'm getting tired of it all, even after saving your little town from the FoG."
"We are ponies, alien. Not 'horse people'. We are Princess Luna and you will address us properly! You jest after threatening to..." She was cut off as our surroundings changed again. Wormheads and Manti were firing on the citizens of horse land in the town I was in, killing ponies left and right. One had managed to wing a wing of a filly she had recognized. Luna had seemingly jumped in the way between the FoG and the injured pegasus before the group of aliens exploded.
After Queen Tall White Thiccness showed up and I broke a few noses and after that hat-wearing pony tackled me, the memories stopped. Oddly enough I could understand what everyone was saying.
"Yeah. That's how I'm here." I finished.
Luna stared at me for a moment. "You should have handed over your weapons as the princess demanded."
"That's a no." I replied simply.
"You have assaulted the royal guards and even one of the Elements of Harmony, and then you threaten pony kind!" Luna intensely glared at me. "My sister was too lenient only giving you time in the dungeon, alien."
"You kiddin' me? That is what you got out of all of this? Not 'Oh look. He's fighting other aliens' or 'wow. those group of aliens look different from the ones I saw actually killing ponies.'" I laughed out loud for a moment, causing her to growl. "And what pray tell would you do?"
"We would have made an example out of you and presented your head to any alien fiend who dares to attack us." She said, placing both of her hands on her hips. Dumb bitch...
"Funny thing, I wouldn't go down easy first of all, and secondly, let me show you what will happen if you were to do that." I said, darkening my dream.
I soon awoke the next morning, and what I saw was something I don't usually see. Well, other than talking humanoid ponies, would be a giant armored rack of a talking humanoid pony in my face as I heard tapping around my helmet. It seemed like someone had either gotten curious, or was sent by somebody in charge to try to study me without waking me. However, her cleavage were hovering over my visor. She doesn't know I'm awake.
"Why is this thing so hard to take off?" She whispered. "It's just a helmet." So I can understand them now.
"I don't know, Rose," said a male voice. "but I think you should be careful."
The ticking and tapping from behind my helmet was getting annoying. I had grabbed the pony's wrist. "My helmet is attatched to my armor. It's not supposed to be pulled off so easily by another being. Otherwise, we'd do poorly surviving on planets with unbreathable atmosphere." I answered. By the time I finished my explanation, the chick was on her rear covering her nose with fear in her blue eyes and the guy horse held on to his spear. They both wore military helmets resembling those of Ancient Rome. The guy pony wore armor that matched the theme of a roman soldier, whereas the female, known as Rose, looked rather unconvincing. I will have to make note to ask about that later, but for now, time to defuse the situation.
"You sir." I pointed to the armed pony. "Put that shit away before you hurt somebody with that."
"You can talk?!" They screamed, drawing in more attention from others as well.
"No shit." I replied. "I could always talk. Just not in the same language."
"It must have worked..." I heard another female voice whisper. I saw a blip on my 3DMS dart out of the dungeon and disappear. That's all I needed to know that I was being studied.
Getting out of bed, I noticed my rifle and sidearms were missing. I felt and looked around the room but couldn't find them. Son of a bitch... Thankfully, the UWE military added a tracking chip on our weapons in case we needed to find another weapon during an attack or defense. Activating it, three yellow diamonds showed up on my helmet's HUD.
"I see you've noticed your weapons are missing." A deep gravelly male voice said. A heavily armored stallion walked into my cell. This one was different as it had black armor and a dark grey coat. He stood in front of me, grinning as he sized me with his yellow eyes. He crossed his arms. "Not so threatening anymore without your toys, are you?"
"I'm only going to say this once. Bring me my weapons or there will be hell to pay."
The stallion laughed out loud. "You will do no such thing." He said. "If you do, you will face dire consequences, alien."
"You're testing me, sir." I replied.
He shook his head. "I am not here to waste my time breaking you out of your armor. I am here to tell you that the princesses want to see you."
I had a choice to make. I could stab this guy a million times with my blade, counting this as the final straw for pony kind, thus killing everyone, even the attractive guardsmares who need better armor. Then Queen Pony will have only herself to blame for ignoring my warnings. On the other hand...
Only out of morbid curiosity of what she wanted from me kept me from murdering as many ponies I could before being killed by the FoG or I'm lucky enough to live for extraction. "Good. I got a few things to discuss with her about you and her sending ponies in my head to spy on me." I made my way out of the cell, but before I even bothered to go meet up with the princesses, I took off in a sprint out of the dungeon. I had a few stops to make.
March 24th 11:00 AM Royal Dining Hall Canterlot Castle
The two diarchs had sat at the table along with the older sister's pupil who was anxious to meet with the extra terrestrian. However, her younger sister had the opposite expression on her face. Celestia would have barated her for taking an opportunity to be invasive and going through his memories instead of just using the language spell like she had asked, and risking having a blood-thirsty alien on the loose, but judging with how Luna looked, it seemed she had gotten what she deserved. There having been no incidents since Twilight notified her of his wakening and the lack of any reported casualties since was a good sign to her.
Or it was.
The door to the dining room burst open as a few guards, sporting bruises and dented armor, one having a bleeding muzzle and a few missing teeth, had entered.
"Your highness, it's the alien! He's rampaging through the castle and torn through the day guard's barracks and is now headed for the night guards'!"
Celestia looked at the guards and took a deep breath, closing her eyes before calmly speaking. "Where's Rose? She was supposed to escort him here."
"She is in pursuit of him as we speak.."
The solar princess let out an exasperating groan, placing a hand over her head. "And why was he in the day guard's barracks?"
"That's where one of his weapons were held, your highness. There was an order to have them removed from his person."
Twilight could feel the princess slipping out of her former mentor's mask. Taking another deep breath, Celestia, as calmly as she could, spoke again through her clenched teeth. "And who issued said orders to have his weapons confiscated?"
"Princess Luna, your majesty."
The look Celestia gave Luna made Twilight scoot away a few pegs before the man of the hour walked in with his newly aquired belongings which made Luna's blood go even colder. Helmet covering his facial expressions, no pony could tell what was going on. The guards rose in arms to defend their princesses, but the alien shook his head.
"Now. Tell me what you learned." He replied.
It was quiet, but one of the guards said something. "T-that you're dangerous!"
"Can't learn something you already knew. Try again."
"Not to get in your way.." the one with missing teeth replied.
"Wrong, but I like that answer."
Celestia then said something that took Rex by surprise. "How about not taking weapons away from somepony that saved our lives who is a soldier that isn't a prisoner or under our command?" She said, mainly looking at Luna. "Especially after you've tried to infiltrate their memories after I specifically told you not to." Celestia was still trying to stay calm, although she was livid and worried. After recollecting herself, she had turned her attention back to Rex, who gave her a round of applause for her correct answer.
"Bingo. The prize money goes to Queen Thicc N' Shiny over there!"
The ponies stared at him in silence, the only sound being the tapping of a really nervous Luna leaving Twilight curious as to what happened between her and the alien. Breaking the silence, Celestia cleared her throat and gave Rex a semi-calm smile. "I'd like to apologize on my sister's behalf for your ill-mannered welcome here. She was only supposed to use a translation spell on you so we would be able to communicate with each other effectively."
"Yeah, don't let it happen again, or I will kill as many of you as I can." This had put everypony on edge.
Although Celestia wanted it to be known that she would give it her all to protect her subjects, knowing that the alien has had ample opportunities and probably the resources to cause a lot of damage, she didn't want to risk challenging him, so she replied to his warning. "We sincerely hope it won't come to that."
Twilight looked at Luna, then at Rex. "What did you do to Luna? She's terrified of you!"
The alien replied. "Details are highly classified. I basically showed her what would happen if I saw her in my dreams again. A human's dream is a sacred place full of secrets, memories and desires. Basically like a diary. Ya have those here?" Twilight nodded. "So you get the gist of it. Either way, I let her know I didn't appreciate it, and nothing more will be said about it." Turning to the solar princess, he had introduced himself to her. "Name's Corporal Rex Raynor."
Upon hearing the human's rank, Twilight's ears twitched. "So you're a part of a guard force?" She asked.
The human shook his head. "I'm one of those that are sent on the attack to push the enemy lines back or, with my squad, behind enemy lines. A soldier trained to kill."
The Q&A session had lasted for what seemed like several hours. Rex had answered many questions, those consisting of his species, civilization, and culture in which he had answered most of. He had told them about how civilians lived, about entertainment, but he was careful to not tell them obviously classified information such as military location, weapons, strategies, or anything of the sort. He trusted that they knew they needed him for information about the enemy that is killing their people.
He did tell them most of what he knew about the FoG. He shared what he knew of the various beings, weak points, vehicles, and their numbers. The latest had caused them to grow pale. Learning that all of ponykind, even mixed with the other races of Equestria, would still be outnumbered by worlds of dangerous beings, to say it was a humbling fact would be the understatement of Celestia's life, and now that they have been discovered, the FoG would be back with more of their forces until they had conquered or wiped out the populace.
"How are you and your kind able to sustain against a foe like them?" Celestia asked.
"We've adapted our defenses through 'vigerous research' while they were destroying our colonies and killing our people." Rex continued. "Soon enough, we were able to upgrade our defenses and our tech as well as studying the enemy until we were able to start pushing them back. That's where we are today. We've reclaimed only a handful of our planets."
Twilight had been scribbling on a scroll so fast to the point of it emitting a bit of smoke.
"One last question. Do we have your permission to weild such weapons for ourselves?" Celestia asked. The human shook his head.
"Why not? We are at thou mercy!" Luna shakily asked. "We could use those armaments to help us fend for ourselves!"
"Or turn them against me and my kind. Sorry to say, but I don't trust either of you that much, and even if I did, it's against protocol. Heavens know that I've already broken enough of those with my armor modifications. I don't think I'd like to answer to my superiors for your sake yet." replied Rex.
There was a pause before Celestia spoke next. "Then how will you help us?"
"A personal alliance. I can help ya in any way that I'm allowed to, which means fighting along side your...forces.. against the FoG." Leaning forward, Rex's tone took a shift. "So long as none of you try anything else."
Celestia nodded her head. "I'll make sure that my ponies, nor my sister, will do anything of the sort." Celestia said, emphasizing the part about her sister for her to hear.
"Good. And hey. If we're lucky, well survive when my reinforcements arrive, and I'll be able to tell them not to shoot you." That moment, Celestia and Twilight were taken aback by what Rex had just told them. More of him would be coming. If they could make friends with Rex, he and his kind could promise protection against the enemy. Faust above knew that in their current state, they were in no shape to fend for themselves. She would only hope that his kind would come soon.
Celestia had started formulating a plan. Although she didn't want to be seen as weak and unable to protect her people, Celestia knew that the lives she could save were more important than her pride, and would have the best outcome if she were to make nice with Rex. "We will accept your offer as an ally."
Rex stood up from is seat suddenly and walked over to Celestia, causing the guards to tense, ready to throw their lives to protect their princesses. Instead of reaching for his weapons, Rex had reached for his helmet and lifted it off of his head, setting it on the table afterwards. Looking up at the princess, he extended his hand. "Alright then. I'll gladly fight by your side if you'll fight by mine."
Twilight noticed a certain look on the princess's face that was getting a little worrysome. It was an expression that she had never seen her mentor wear. It was a look that only Luna had seen, and made her dread what would come afterwards. Celestia slowly reached to shake the human's hand, but as soon as they touched, Rex was pulled up towards her. Rex had found himself inbetween two mounds wobbling flesh as he was embraced. Twilight's mouth was agape as she stared at Celestia.
"So adorable!"
Shortly after the three minutes of struggling and the following 10 minutes of being snuggled without, Rex was finally freed after Twilight's brief intervention in which Celestia would ask questions such as 'Are all humans this cute' and 'Do you like bananas?' after calling him a cute looking monkey alien. Rex took no offense however, but was practically mortified. The guards were holding their stomachs trying not to give in to the urge to laugh. He didn't hesitate to slam his helmet back on his head and distanced himself from the suddenly adoring princess.
The only one who understood Celestia's instantly newfound affection was her sister who currently had her face buried in her hands. The solar princess always found chimps to be adorable. Celestia had always wanteed one as a pet, but seeing as how chimps were considered wild animals, her advisor wouldn't allow it. Luna overhearing Celestia's plans of training the chimp to fling excrements at the whining snobbish nobiity when they were younger may also have something to do with it. Needless to say, Celestia's newly found adoration of the human had made it more likely for her to keep her word.
With talks out of the way, the meeting had ended, the human had left the room. Rex felt a little at ease. However, if politics were anything compared to how they were with his kind, there will always be those who don't agree with their leaders. He would be wary of those that may intend on doing harm regardless of consequences. At least if such things were to happen, he would be well prepared.
Shortly after Rex had left, Celestia had calmed down. She too was happy with the results of their discussion. It gave them hope. All they needed to do was to make friends with Rex and show him that they would be worth protecting. It was a shame that he wouldn't share his weapons tech with them, but his reasons were fairly sound. At least he gave them intel about who they were fighting and how they could effectively defend themselves as they were, but the idea of them being able to cancel out their magic with jamming devices. They were able to disrupt their magic and render them useless. Rex had mentioned that they were used to jam communications and some sort of directional functions, but had no idea how they would do with their magic abilities. The idea of the enemy adapting on Equuis unnerved her. This was a very dangerous enemy indeed.
To reassure their alliance, Celestia had an idea, and it involved her former student. "Twilight. I'm going to have Rex stay in Ponyville with you and your friends in a few weeks."
Twilight looked at Celestia in excitement. She had many more questions about him that hadn't been asked. "Really?"
"I find that he will do better making friends with you and your friends. I trust you will make him feel more welcome there. It would make things a lot easier if ponies learned to trust him and see him more than just a strange alien." Celestia stated. Catching on to Celestia's idea, it excited Twilight even more that she would get a chance to befriend him and possibly get to know more about him and his kind, she looked forward to it. Perhaps he could give him friendship lessons too. She knew Spike would appreciate having another male as a friend to stay in the castle. Bouncing around in excitement, giggling at the opportunity she's been given.
Chuckling at Twilight's antics, she called a guard to tell her servants to set up a room for their special guest in a specific location.
Hours had passed as Rex gave himself a proper tour around the castle. He had already scanned the layout of the building, so he decided to do a little sight seeing. Since he was aware of the caution given to him by those stationed there, to avoid trouble he had made note not to say anything to anyone until they're made aware of the deal between him and the princesses. He was then stopped by one of the maids, working there. She wore the typical french maids-wear, a black dress and apron, stockings, etc. She was a light-grey coated red headed blue eyed pegasus mare with a feather duster as a cutie mark.
"Hello Mr. Rex. My name is Feather Touch. I've recieved a notice to help see you to your quarters you'll be in during your stay." She said in a sweet yet professional tone. However, he could also see that she was a little on edge despite her voice and demeanor. He did cause a ruckas earlier, so he didn't necessarily blame her.
Rex nodded his head. "Alright, lead the way."
When they reached their destination twenty minutes later, he noticed a room across from his and the design on the door being white, gold, and a picture of a sun on it. From behind his visor, Rex grimaced as he knew exactly why.
"Can I pick another location?"
"The princess herself picked this spot for you, Mr. Rex."
It's been a few weeks since our alliance. Celestia, being true to her word, had notified the guards and all of Canterlot that I was an ally and was to be welcomed. Anyone who would try to harm me, I was to let her know and have her handle it. Luna made sure to keep her distance from me. Part of me felt bad for what I did to her, but her sister said that it was a well deserved punishment for her.
Speaking of the devil, I had finally managed to talk her out of baby talking to me. It was getting rather annoying and undignifying. I didn't take too kindly to her constantly asking to carry me around like a teddy bear. As much as I didn't mind settling between her bouncing tits the one time she did, I couldn't help but feel further embarrassment walking past her staff. One thing for sure, I sure as hell wasn't going to call her 'Auntie' or 'Momma Celestia.' That would be way too much.
After a little while longer, I guess you could say that I had lightened up. There had been no reports of the FoG yet, but that didn't mean that I couldn't try to get along with some of the guards, per Celestia's suggestion, and without my armor. She reassured me that I'd be safe with the guards in which I had replied "Fuck that. Without my armor and weapons, I'd still be a better match for the FoG than your guards." I patrolled solo for a while and at night as to not accidentally cause a stir within the public of alien presence. Although everyone, or 'everypony' I should say, was aware of my residing in Canterlot under the Princesses' watch, there were those who protested against me, as per expected.
One thing I had gathered was that ponykind had a variety of similarities with mankind, and differing point of views, classism, and behavior were a few of them. The first time I had decided to patrol for any signs of the FoG during the day, I had an unpleasant confrontation with a group of locals that wanted me to leave, of course. However, as I was officially an ally of the crown and promised to help them, I had no intentions of leaving at the moment. In return, I told them to perform a vigorous act of self-procreation and continued my patrol. From that day on, I had started patrolling at night by my own initiative. The same mob had went to Sunbutt about this. I was told that Celestia took offense and nearly had them booted out of her throne room.
At first I had done my rounds alone and unbothered. The FoG seemed to be quiet, not even attacking other towns. Taking it as a good sign that they wouldn't be any trouble, until their reinforcements arrive who knows when, I didn't really think much of it. Seeing as how I sent my SOS earlier than the did, I had a feeling that this world would be occupied by the UwE before that can happen. The worst thing I could think happening would be if an idiot open fires on the locals like I did with Twilight. Usually we shoot anything that isn't human, because they usually shoot at us first. Either way, I wouldn't complain about not being shot at for a change.
Soon after, the night guards grew curious, deciding to join me on my rounds. I figured that the night guards were under Moonbutt's orders, so I was a bit wary of them. I wasn't keen on making buddies with them yet, but if I have to give ponies one thing, they are pretty insistant. First it was a guardsmare named Petunia Petals that decided to join and try to get to know me. Then another mare, named Starbright and a stallion named Storm Cloud joined. I suppose that after a while, I had decided to give them a chance as they were asking questions, and I started answering them. Soon, I started asking questions and they answered, and from then on, more guards were interested in the stories I had to tell. They seemed rather amazed.
I started getting along with most of the guards. And by most, I mean all but the captain of the guards who was a replacement for the guy who replaced someone named Shining Armor who was put in charge shortly after Equestria attacked. Yeah, him. The big guy. Captain Edgelock. Seems like a pretty fitting name for the dickweed. He's the type that would intentionally make things difficult for others for his own pleasure. The reason why he was picked as the captain of the guard was because they were at war against a powerful foe, and Luna felt that the guards were being coddled through their training. I try to stay out of his way lest he tempts me to do something regrettable. Last thing I'd like happen would be needing to hide a dead body, and that if I ended up doing something to him that renders him unable to do his job, I'd end up being a substitute. Instead, I take a mental note of how easily I could remove his head from his body or turn him into swiss cheese. Or at least give him the ability to be in multiple places at once. Head over here, leg over in that area somewhere. It's a satisfying thought.
I was visiting the barracks near their training field as they were telling me about why they joined the guards, although most wanted to hear another story about me and my squad. Some joined the ranks because of family tradition, some couldn't find a job anywhere else, and some had friends that had joined. There were various reasons on why they were there.
"I joined for the benefits. Those that leave the guards after service are looked up to and considered heroes. We're supported by a lot of businesses and it would make our lives easier." A stallion said.
"Fair enough, private." I said, shrugging my shoulders. "Let's just hope you'll live long enough to enjoy said benefits."
"Yeah. We've recieved a lot of new recruits since those damned aliens attacked. Either so they can protect their families, or out of revenge for those they lost." Rose Blade said, her ears lowering.
"I know someone who went through that a few years ago. One of my squad's girlfriend went out on a research mission a few years ago on what we thought was an unoccupied planet. Was a good friend of mine too." I sighed. The guards all wore a familiar look I had became familiar with. "We practically threw ourselves to going on that search and rescue mission when we found out about her and her group of scientists gone missing."
My squad and I had arrived at our location which was quite away from the science establishment nearby, and where they had gone quiet. We were in a desert in the middle of a light sandstorm that was somehow jamming our communications. Fortunately we didn't need to have much of it as we couold see the establishment from where we landed. It was a bit of a walk for the five of us as we approached the site. One of us however, was in a hurry to get there. The squad leader, Lamont, seemed to be on edge, and we all knew why. It didn't help when we made it there, however. The entire base was empty. There were signs of FoG blaster fire throughout the base. A cracked helmet here, a weapon there. A several dead wormheads littered the ground along with a few dead manti partly buried in the sand, but no human bodies were found. We were searching around for hours until there was nothing else to be searched.
"Damnit! Where did they go?" Jackson asked. "They were attacked, but I don't see any bodies."
"I don't know, but I cannot detect any lifeforms within base parameter." Helga said, using a scanning device.
Charlie placed his hand on Jackson's shoulder. "I'm sorry sir. She's MIA. Best we can do is take whatever notes or logs we can from the area and call for extraction."
This wasn't something Jackson wanted to hear, and he made it known when he punched the side of a building, leaving a dent in the walls. "Damnit! I should've been here!"
"You probably would've gone missing too." Helga said uncautiously.
Charlie and I looked at Helga. "Oi." I started. "The man lost someone. Show some damned empathy."
"We all lost someone." Helga pointed out, still carrying her apathetic tone. Yumi was looking around, collecting notes and downloading data logs. "Now isn't the time for him to start acting like a rambunctious brute."
Before we could say anything, Lamont cut us off. "She's right. I'll have plenty of time to mourn later. We need to collect whatever findings they have, destroy the base, and report back ASAP." Soon enough we had gathered everything we could hold. We had wasted no time in planting explosives around the base before we all met at the establishment's entrance after an hour and a half.
"We should head to the extraction point now. The place is rigged to blow in five minutes." Yumi said. Before we could leave the base, we heard a deep rumbling noises followed by the sound of metal as the area got darker. Everyone looked up as we found ourselves under a crimson armored fortress standing on four mechanical legs, standing very high up over us.
Soon enough we were bathed in red lights as doors had opened under the behemoth. Seeing the many FoG dropships coming out of the doors from high up, we took off running towards our extraction point.
"What the hell is that thing?!" I yelled.
"I don't know but it looks like the FoG have themselves a super weapon! We need an extraction ASAP!" Jackson replied.
"Our communications are jammed! They must have a jammer somewhere.." Charlie thought out loud.
Yumi cloaked herself. I assumed she was going to search for the jammer and destroy it. She had less than three minutes to do so. It wouldn't take long before they noticed the dropship picking us up, which would've made getting us all out alive even more difficult. Thinking quickly, I turned around and started heading back to base to back up Yumi.
"Sparks! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Jackson called out.
"Backing up Yumi. Go on ahead. We'll catch up!" I didn't even look back. There was no way I was going to risk losing someone behind.
Thankfully, Yumi had allowed me to do some tampering with her armor's cloaking device. We could see an outline of her through our visor. She was searching the area outside of the settlement as the FoG started closing in. Manti and wormheads started swarming the base in search of us. Soon enough Yumi might find herself surrounded. Raising my rifle, I launched three of my scatter grenades, taking out dozens of wormheads and weakening the shields of the manti. I drew their fire as I ran towards Yumi. She was running this way, running past the dead bodies and the firing manti. She drew her side-arm and took out a few of them.
Running up a large dune hill while avoiding fire we saw the dropship afar ahead come in for extraction. At this rate, we were going to be left. There was only one way we could have a chance at getting out of this. It was a recent armor modification I had added recently but hadn't had the chance to test it before being volunteered for this mission. I grabbed Yumi without hesitation as I was instantly propelled upwards, narrowoly avoiding a blast from one of the fortress's cannons, but going higher than I had anticipated. I then propelled us forward, instantly jolting us pretty far ahead as I was carrying a screaming and kicking Yumi.
We soon landed a bit past the extraction point (not on our feet) and luckily Charlie saw us both flying past them. After recieving a slap from Yumi, the two of us were picked up by our VTOL dropship where the rest of our squad awaited as the hatches opened.
"Another one of your 'modifications' I assume?" Charlie asked.
I nodded.
Yumi didn't look very happy with me. Apparently when I grabbed her, I was holding on to her tits. "...Hentai."
"Hey. I saved our asses at least." I said. No response. Yumi had went to the cockpit as we took off in the air. However, we weren't leaving just yet. We were flying towards the giant walking fortress as Yumi had added an attatchment to her sniper rifle as she walked out of the cockpit, aimed out of the vehicle and towards the fortres and fired. We couold see the turrets and guns turning up and aiming towards us. Our speed increased as they opened fire on us attempting to shoot us out of the sky. Beams and bolts were fired in our direction, only recieving hits from the smaller ones luckily.
"Okay what's going on, Yumi?" Jackson asked.
Yumi was sitting in one of the seats, mumbling under her breath before slapping her hand twice on the cockpit door. The pilot flew us up and into the atmosphere as the hatches closed and sealed itself.
"Gathering information about their new superweapon, are we?" Charlie asked. Yumi nodded in response. "Good work, but next time give us a heads up."
"Would be nice to know when we're increasing the risk of being shot down." Helga remarked.
"Can it Helga. We need every information we can get on that thing down there. God knows how many they have built and where they are." Jackson said. "The sooner we find its weak points, the sooner we can start taking those sons of bitches down even further..."
Most of us were a bit concerned with Jackson's cold behavior, but he and his girl were pretty close. We refrained from talking about it until a later time when he went over her logs. As far as we knew, the scientists were MIA, probably gone for good.
Date: Current Day Time: 17:36 Location: Canterlot Barracks Planet: Equuis
"Yeah. Most of us fight to protect our homes, whereas others fight in honor of those lost." I said, finishing my story.
There were looks of sadness and concern before questions were asked.
"Wow.. this war you're fighting have taken a lot away from your kind, hasn't it?" You have no clue.
"Do you think they could build or bring one of those fortresses here?"
Shaking my head, I chuckled. "I doubt it. It looks like it'd require a lot of local resources and a structure capable of building it. They somehow had a massive base on that planet hidden under a cloaking device that we couldn't pick up yet. We can now pick up cloaking devices on a planet, but not what it's hiding. We're workin on it."
"Are all battles this heart wrenching?" Rose Thorn asked.
"Not mostly. It's expected. Everyone understands that there's no promise of returning home from a battle in one piece, let alone alive" I shrugged. "That rule applies even to me." Seeing all of the gloomy looks, I made note to try to cut out the emotional parts of the story and just stick to the action in the future.
"Well, seeing as how you told us more about yourself and your adventures, why don't you ask us a question?" Rose Thorn asked.
I shrugged again and leaned back. "Alright." The question was something that I've had on my mind for a while. I didn't know how to ask about it, but as noticed before, the guardsmare's armor was extremely revealing and didn't cover much. Their golden chestplates were practically an armored bra, and only had a loin cloth underneith, whereas the stallions armor had the typical roman armor design. This was as good as an opportunity to ask a question I wanted to ask for so long.
"Why are the stallions dressed as soldiers whereas the mares are dressed like they belong in a strip club or a brothel?" I asked.
This had gotten a mixed reaction. Most of the stallions had burst out laughing. The guardsmares either blushed, laughed, or gave pouty, unamused, or sultry looks.
"For your information," started a triggered guardsmare, "we are protected. The fabrics are enchanted with an arcane armor spell." Her armor started glowing along with the other guardsmares as transparent armor had appeared over their exposed parts, making them look like warriors instead of strippers. "Genetically, mares are physically weaker than stallions, so their armor slows our mobility."
"That explains a lot." I admitted. "But ya still look like strippers without the magic."
"Well maybe we should give you a show sometime?" A guardsmare joked. I couldn't help but to chuckle a bit.
"Nah. As tempting as it is, I probably won't be too relaxed until my reinforcements arrive to secure the planet." I replied.
As I had bonded with the night and day guards, unfortunately all good things must come to an end as Captain Stick-Up-His-Arse had made an entry.
"Hey! What are you sacks of waste doing slackin off! I should see nopony just standing around at this time of day!" Captain Edgelock yelled, walking up to the group. His eyes narrowed when he noticed I was the center of it. "You! I grow tired of you getting in the way of their training!" He said, poking my chest with his finger.
I took a deep breath, closing my eyes before exhaling. "You know, a good part of training would be knowing how to bond with your comrades. You'll be surprised with how well a squad does when they know each other well. And while I'm at it, exercise and patrolling alone won't help them out in the field."
He snorted as his glare grew sharper. "The princesses made me captain of the guards for a reason. Are you suggesting you can train these maggots better than me?"
I lookeed at the others. "I have a few suggestions that'd better prepare them. They're practically agile meatshields at this point. Least I can do is spread my wisdom." I said, chuckling. This had him fuming.
"You think you can do better?" He growled. He then stopped as a grin slowly formed on his face. "How about we make arrangements for a little challenge. A duel you might say."
I knew there was going to be a catch."What are your terms?"
"Without armor or weapons, we will engage in a hand to hand duel. When I win, you will follow my orders as if you were under my command. I'll be sure to give you hell." He said, wearing a discomforting grin.
"At least until my reinforcements arrive. However, if by chance I should so happen to win, I'll get a chance to help ready these ponies properly." I didn't think that was enough. "Also, you'll be stripped of your rank as I don't think you're even qualified to be captain of a cheerleader squad."
He let out a chuckle himself. "You have guts for a scrawny alien, I'll give you that."
"This is nothing." I replied. "Tomorrow at noon."
"Don't chicken out, alien." He replied.
Later on that day, I was in my room sitting at my desk. I have taken the liberty of writing a journal logging the happenings of what's been going on since I crash landed here on Equuis. Of course I've had to do a bit of back tracking since this journal was sent by mail to me from Twilight sometime during my stay here. Part of me believed that I should be preparing myself for my challenger tomorrow. Odds are, he was probably doing so.
I heard a knock on the door. I wasn't really expecting any visitors, but ever since I've made a few... aquaintances, I have been getting a few visits every now and then, sometimes to hear about more stories about the war. I requested that I have some space and time to myself. The relationship between me and these ponies have improved in due time, but again, they weren't human. Humanity has been at war with aliens for my entire life. I never imagined that I'd be getting nearly as chummy with anything inhuman or not from Earth. Baby steps. However, it's still a good idea to keep my guard up. Although they are human-like in nature, that just means there may be those who may intend to do harm even when ordered not to. This is why I've requested for visits to be kept to a minimum. The princesses understood, and had trouble arrived in my room, Celestia's door would be right there across from mine.
I appreciate the gesture, but we both know that's not why that's the case.
Standing up, I went to answer the door, though the first thing I saw was Petunia's armored cleavage. "Hello Petunia. What brings you here?"
She looked rather nervous. "I heard you're going to but heads against the Captain of the Guard."
"That's right." I answered.
"Everypony's talking about it, and I hear even the princesses will be there to watch."
"Good." I replied. "Then maybe they may come to the same conclusion as I do afterwards."
She stepped into my room. "I think you should back out. Only one pony has ever won against him even in a sparring match."
"No can do." I replied. "Though I appreciate your concern."
"He's the Captain of the Guard for a reason."
Sighing, I looked at the mare. "Look, if you came here to talk me out of it, you're wasting your time. I've already accepted the challenge and I'm gonna give him what he wants. No, more like what he needs."
She let out a sigh as well. "Just... be careful." Petunia turned to leave.
"Again, thanks for your concern. It's appreciated." I reassured. She looked back and mumbled something about stallions. before leaving. I had no plans on taking this challenge lightly.
Date: April 12th 2755 Time: 11:55 Location: Canterlot Arena
I never liked being the center of attention by a large audience, which was why I wanted the challenge to be the very next day. Word gets out really fast... I was standing in an arena which resembled the one in Rome back on Earth. I had then realized that there were a lot more people living in Canterlot than I had originally thought.
"All of these ponies will have come to watch you scream and beg for my mercy as I break you." Mocked Edgelock, who was standing at the other end of the arena wearing only a pair of brown pants. "You have guts to face me without your advanced armor."
"I don't need it. Not here anyway. This isn't a fight to the death." I replied.
He chuckled. "You're right. I'm not going to kill you, but I will make it hurt."
A horn sounded as we both approached each other in the middle. I extended my hand, and he took it. Hearing the audience respond told me that I had just made a mistake as he pulled me close to him with great force and planted a fist in my stomach. He then threw me back into a pillar and charged towards me. I put both of my arms infront of me and braced for impact.
Boy did I feel it. It had managed to break the pillar, but at least I was still on my feet, disoriented when he backed away to look at his work. Shaking it off and spitting out some blood, I took the time to refocus as he laughed.
I guess handshakes aren't a thing here.
I assessed the situation. He was strong, no question. He also had grip, if he got a hold of me again, pain would follow after. Still, this is going to be fun.
"Ready to surrender, alien?" He asked, further mocking me.
I chuckled. "You give me too little credit, Captain Jerkoff."
He growled and charged at me, swinging. I had managed to dodge his attacks. Sloppy. He raised his fist and swung downards. I had rolled away in front of another pillar before he hit the ground. Reckless. He charged again, and again, I rolled out of the way at the last second before he rammed head first into another pillar, having it fall on top of him. He growled out as he wrapped his arms around the pillar, crushing it in half before pushing the rest of it off of him.
"Stay still alien and fight like a stallion!" He yelled before charging at me again. He launched a fist at me. I ducked the punch, but he tried to charge me right afterwards with his shoulder. I had narrowly managed to dodge the attack with another roll before giving the side of his right knee a booted kick, causing him to lose his balance. I had sent him tumbling. At least he can adapt, but he didn't consider my anticipation. The crowd roared in excitement as I approached him, getting on his knees.
"Ready to give up?" I asked as I approached.
"Not even close!" He grabbed a hand full of sand and threw it at my face. Swearing out loud at his underhanded trick, I was too distracted to see him charging at me again. He swung a fist and it connected, sending me stumbling to the ground. I had a good idea what was coming next and immediately started rolling. It was a good call as I felt the ground shake a little from an impact on where I was.
Finally able to open my eyes again, I got up around the same time he did. The expression on my face seemed to have pleased him. I made note that I was going to make his defeat memorable. He charged at me, his fist raised. I chargeed at him as well. He swung, but I had dodged it with a sidestep and jumped onto his back, wrapping an arm around his neck. I raised my fist and brought it down hard on the back of his neck, right where his nerves were. All it took was one hit as he had fell forward. He didn't move, but he was very well breathing.
"I've handled multiple enemies bigger than me at once many times, and I do it for a living." I told him, not caring if he heard or not. "How many bloaters have you killed?"
I exited the arena shortly after they had Edgelock moved to the infirmary, found the nearest bench and rested my aching back.
