//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: The Solar Knights // Story: Of Guns, Mechs And Magic [Being rewritten in 'A Pilot's Search'] // by Solarus44 //------------------------------// "The Solar Knights are here! The Solar Knights are here!" "They've found us once again," Chrysalis whispered with fear, "Start the evacuation!" Two Changelings nodded and left the room. "What are Solar Knights?" Sol asked confused. "The Solar Knights are what have been hunting the Changelings down, they are why there are so few of us left." "What do they look like?" Sol put on his helmet. "They have the same shape as a Changeling, you'll know once you see...wait... you're not going to fight them are you?!" Chrysalis look at his helmeted face. "These Solar Knights are hunting a race into extinction, driving them from their homes and starving the ones that are left." Sol inspected his equipment, "Sounds a lot like the war with the IMC, no?" "But you can't! You'll be killed!" "Honey, I've destroyed Titans without Beck, I seriously doubt these Solar Knight cunts will be a challenge," Sol finished the conversation by walking out the throne room. Outside the throne room, Sol could see civilians lining up to get inside the room. "Beck, we got some ass to kick." 'Copy that Sol.' It didn't take long until Sol could hear the booming footsteps of Beck. "Ready to go?" Sol readied himself next to a wall. "You know I am." Beck pulled her Splitter Rifle from her back. With that Sol jumped onto the wall, running along it until he reached the next level of the city. He could hear fighting coming from the top levels. He kept running and using his jump-kit until he reached the first level with fighting. The Solar Knights resembled the Changelings all right. But only in body shape, instead of insects, they looked more like horses, with rounder faces and fur. The Solar Knights must be the Ponies Chrysalis mentioned. They all had steel armour on with a Sun on their flanks. There were three types: Pegasi, Unicorns and normal horses. How the steel armour didn't weigh them down, Sol had no idea. He also noticed they had noticeable genders, unlike the Changelings. The Changelings were getting their asses handed to them. Sol looked at Beck, who just came onto the level. Nodding at Beck, he jumped into the fray. The buggers never knew what hit 'em. Sol grappled a male Pegasus out of the sky and pulled him towards himself. When the Pegasus realised what was happening, he already had a Data Knife in his face. Next he spotted a female Unicorn charging a spell to shoot a Changeling with its back turned. Sol pulled out his R-201 and shot the Unicorn in the head, the bullet easily piercing the armour, the Unicorn dropped dead to the ground. That drew the attention of all the combatants. When the Ponies turned to face Sol and Beck, he saw a flicker of fear in their eyes, but it was soon replaced with determination. When the lead one charged, he was turned into red mist from a Laser Shot. Sol activated his Cloak and dropped behind them, Smart Pistol drawn. When the Cloak deactivated, the smart pistol locked on to the last one. "G'day mates," Sol pulled the trigger and one by one, each of the Ponies dropped to the ground with a bullet in their head. Sol turned to look at the surviving Changelings. They all looked at him with shock, but then this was replaced with a cheer. Motioning for them to follow him, he ran to the next level. For four more levels they continued this, clearing each one and moving onto the next, until they reached the last one, the biggest. This level was the same level the cave entrance was on, meaning the entire space was open except for the slope that led to the deeper levels. When they were near the top, he motioned for his troops to stop. He amplified his sound input and listened in to the Ponies. "What are we going to do about the small biped and the metal golem sir? They're tearing us apart!" This voice sounded young, probably a new recruit. "We have our most troops here! They will be annihilated!" A gruff voice said with confidence. "But these creatures have a moon painted on them! A new section of the Lunar Guard no doubt, only they would have such abominations working for them. Send word to Princess Celestia that the Lunar Guard, and their master, are traitors and should be dealt with accordingly." "Yes sir!" A flutter of wings could be heard as a Pegasus flew out of the cave. Sol tuned his sound input back to normal and sent out a Holopilot. "It's the creature!" Sol sent out another, "There's more of them!" "Fire!" When the Unicorns finished their spell barrage, they waited for the smoke to clear, and saw that the holograms were gone. "It's dead? Well that was ea-." The commander was silenced as his head was twisted 180° clockwise. "Can't beat the classics can ya?" Sol's Cloak deactivated to reveal him standing over the corpse of the commander. Before the Ponies could react, Beck came running up with the other Changelings. "Come on them," Sol pulling out his Data Knife and getting into a stance. The Ponies had a choice between fighting a horde of Changelings and a Titan, or getting past one Pilot with only a knife. Naturally, they chose the Pilot. They were so fucked. When the first Pony, a normal horse, tried to run past him, Sol slid under her, stabbing one side of her barrel and letting momentum do the rest. Now the rest knew they had to think of their next move before they made it. Which they didn't have time to. A Tripwire landed in the middle of them, incinerating a chunk. The Changelings crashed into the wall of dazed Ponies. The ones near Sol made a mad dash to the exit. Sol brought out his Wingman, putting it in his right hand, with the Data Knife in the other, and shot the two Pegasi in the air. He double jumped into the air, landing with his knife entering the skull of a Unicorn. A normal horse tried to kick him in the chest, but Sol sidestepped and shot the Pony in the head. He tuned around to see his last two opponents, a Unicorn and a normal horse. The normal horse stepped in front of the Unicorn while he charged a spell. Sol simply shot the normal horse, the bullet passing through him and killing the Unicorn too. Sol looked around the battlefield to see that the last Ponies were being finished off by the Changelings and Beck... but mostly Beck. When the last one was dead, Sol ran up and cheered. "Whooo! How do you like that fuckers!" The Changelings joined in. "Yeah! Payback you Sun cunts!" Beck kneeled in front of Sol. "Are you alright Sol?" "Yeah I'm alright, you?" "The only way they could hurt me was with spells, and those aren't very effective anyway." Nodding, Sol went back down to Chrysalis to inform her of their victory. As they passed the civilians, he saw hope in their eyes. Beautiful, wonderful hope, hope is the enemy of oppression, it is what fuels the Militia, and it shall fuel the Changelings as well. When Sol burst into the Throne Room, Chrysalis immediately rushed to him. "Are you hurt? How did it go? Ho-." Before Chrysalis asked anymore questions, Sol put a finger to her muzzle, silencing her. Taking off his helmet, he started to talk. "All the Solar Nights are dead, except one, a messenger," Sol took his finger off her muzzle. "Do you know what the message was?" Chrysalis looked anxious. "It was about how me and Beck have the moon sigil on us, they thought we were part of this 'Lunar Guard'. The message was sent to a Princess Celestia." "This is bad," Chrysalis paced around the room, "This is very bad." "How so?" Sol walked up to her. " First I'll have to teach you how Equestria works." "Go on," Sol also motioned with his hand. "Equestria's citizens are a race named 'Ponies', there are four types of Ponies. Unicorns, the ones who can use magic, Pegasi, the ones who have wings, and Earth Ponies, who have incredible strength and a connection to nature. The last are Alicorns, there are only four Alicorns currently alive, they cannot age, have the traits of the other three Pony types, and their magical power is immense." "Who are these Alicorns?" Sol recognised a threat when he heard it. "Princess Luna, the Princess of the Moon. Princess Celestia, the Princess of the Sun. Princess Cadance, the Princess of Love. And lastly. Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship." Sol burst out laughing, "Why are you laughing! This is no laughing matter!" "I know but-," Sol managed to fit in between the laughs, "But the 'Princess Of FRIENDSHIP'! That's the funniest shit I've heard in a while!" "QUIET!" Sol shut right up, with only the occasional giggle, "She may not seem powerful, but she could raze this city to the ground!" "Crickey." "The Royal Guard protect all members of royalty, The Solar Guards protect Princess Celestia, The Lunar Guards protect Princess Luna, Crystal Guards protect Princess Cadance, and Princess Twilight Sparkle doesn't have a specialised Guard Regiment." "So what are the Solar Knights?" Sol was pretty confused. "The Solar Knights were established after Princess Luna's banishment 1,000 years ago, only a select few know of them," Chrysalis had a distant look in her eyes, "They are the best of the best, even though you destroyed this group, they were only a scouting group who knew they would be enough to beat us. If you came across a whole battalion, you would not last long." "What were they created for?" "Long ago, before my time as Queen, my mother committed atrocious acts against Pony-kind. Celestia and Luna's parents were killed by my mother. Celestia grew with a deep hatred for Changelings, while Luna was too young to remember them. When Luna was banished, Celestia, although she didn't want her sister to be gone, took oppurtunities when she could get them. She formed the Solar Knights with one purpose: to end the Changeling race." Chrysalis was staring blankly at a wall. "But why when Luna was gone?" "Because Luna never hated the Changelings, me and her were good friends even. She would never agree with Celestia's actions. The reason she didn't appear at the Canterlot Invasion," Sol gave her a quisitive look, "We grew desperate, we needed love, but that is not important now. The reason she didn't appear at the Canterlot Invasion, was because she couldn't bring herself to hurt a dying race. Now that you and Beck have been spotted defending Changelings, along with Luna being sympathetic to Changelings, Luna and her guards will be held accountable for the deaths of the Knights who dies here. Even though Celestia will not want to hurt Luna, her court will call for an execution. Luna isn't the most popular Princess..." "So what are we gonna do?" Sol asked. "What are we... what are we gonna do? We can't stand against Celestia!" "You can't, but I can, we can't let the Princess who is sympathetic to your cause die!" Sol yelled. "Besides, there is a reason I have a moon on my shoulder." "Why is that?" "Before I was a Pilot, I was a member of a Grunt Squad named, 'Ghost Squad 2', the first was made up of Pilots. We were experts in stealth, espionage and sabotage. My call sign was Shadow, and I decided to show that by putting a moon sigil on shoulder, and later my Titan." "And why does this matter?" Chysalis asked. "I'll sneak in and free Princess Luna." Chrysalis sighed and looked at him, and upon seeing he wasn't backing down from this, she gave in. "I'll arrange a chariot to get you there, but you won't be able to take Beck." "Fine by me, you need the protection, and she's pretty fat." Sol smirked under his helmet at that last bit. "I heard that!" Beck called from the other side of the room. Sol chuckled and walked up to Beck. "So you got all that, right?" Sol got a thumbs up, "Okay, I'm gonna get some ammo and I'll be off." Beck opened a hatch below the cockpit, upon looking inside, Sol saw all the ammo he would need. He grabbed what he needed. Ammo for his guns, an Arc Grenade, Electric Smoke Grenade and two Gravity Stars. "Ok, see ya Beck!" "See you later Sol." When he reached the Throne Room, Sol felt a warm feeling wash through his body. Upon looking down, he discovered he was clear of all the blood and gore from the earlier fights. He turned around to see Chrysalis with her horn dying down. "So the guards don't smell you before they see you!" "Yeah yeah." Sol waved and followed two Changelings to his chariot. ////\\\\ Hours later, Sol was high in the sky on the way to Canterlot. Currently he was reading the books Chrysalis had given him. "How long guys!?" Sol yelled over the screaming wind. "A couple more hours sir!" One of the Changelings, who had long since transformed into a Pegasus, pulling the chariot called back. Moving his attention to the scenery below, he saw a sprawling countryside with a town right in the middle. The town for some strange reason also had a giant, tree-castle next to it. When Sol looked up, he saw storm clouds being kicked by Pegasi... right... towards... them. "We gotta get out of the way!" One of the Changelings yelled. But it was too late, the chariot was struck by a lightning bolt, and they were sent flying down. The little Sol could see of the Pegasi showed they were shocked and horrified. 'This was an accident! What the fuck! How bad at their job are they!' Sol screamed in his head. As the ground quickly approached, Sol realised there was only one option. He jumped.