//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: Luna // Story: Of Guns, Mechs And Magic [Being rewritten in 'A Pilot's Search'] // by Solarus44 //------------------------------// Sol sprinted through the forest, trying to find a spot for Luna. He wouldn’t be able to fight properly with her. He kept running until he found a hollow in a large tree, it was just large enough. Squeezing Luna in, he set a waypoint on the tree so he could find it again. Sprinting away again, he perched in a tree a fair distance from Luna. Crouching with his B3, he waited. ////\\\\ “What are we searching for again sir?” A Solar Knight asked his commanding officer. The Solar Knights had taken charge of the chase after the creature dived off the cliff. “We are searching for a bipedal creature clad entirely in black. According to reports, it has incredible agility, being able to climb a building in seconds,” The officer looked around the forest, eyes switching between every oddity. “Impressive, but a Pegasus would just fly over no?” The Knight asked. “It killed all the Knights guarding Luna, it is not to be underestimated,” This made the officer’s subordinate widen his eyes in surprise. The officer was in charge of a squad of 6, including himself. There were various other squads throughout the forest, searching for the creature. The officer was about to call for a stop to check their surroundings, when he heard a bloodcurdling scream from behind him. Turning around, he saw a Knight dragging across the ground, being pulled into the darkness of the forest. The screaming grew much louder, and was silenced. “FORM A CIRCLE!” The officer cried. The five remaining Knights formed a circle, weapons and horns pointed to the darkness. Their breathing was slow, and every movement they saw made them flinch. They remained like this until they saw a large shape moving around them, too fast for them to track. Suddenly, a Pegasus, who was the only one who could reliably track the shape, had her head explode in a red mist. All heads snapped to her body falling to the ground. During this, a bipedal creature in black armour came running out of the darkness. Just before it reached them, it slid, propelling itself along with fire from its hips. Reaching the inside of their circle, it threw a knife at the officer, but the knife impaled him in his barrel, putting him in agony. Using a cylinder-shaped object, it shot two Unicorns in the head. Standing up, it stared at the remaining Pony. The Earth Pony looked at this fearsome monster. With black armour smeared with blood, strange devices attached to it, and a menacing glowing blue visor, the Earth Pony was scared shitless. Mustering some courage, he charged at the creature. As soon as the Pony got close, the creature gave him a vicious right hook, sending him flying. But before he could hit the ground, the creature sent out a cable, impaling the Pony in the face. Twisting around, the creature pulled on the cable, pulling the Pony onto the ground face first. Walking up to the officer, who was clutching the knife and screaming, it knelt down. “Where in the blimey hell is Celestia?” It asked in a deep but Pony-like voice, aside from the accent. “What… do you mean?” The officer managed to say before screaming out again. “Well rescuing an extremely powerful Pony, whom she ordered imprisoned, would normally have your average Demi-God take some interest, no?” “Go to Tartarus!” The officer screamed. Shaking its head, the creature pulled out his knife. Levelling it's cylinder to the officer’s head, it put the Pony out of his misery. Standing back up, it jumped back into the trees, leaving the scene of carnage behind. ////\\\\ As Sol leapt through the trees, he pondered his situation. ‘Well, obviously interrogating the officers is a bust. Although that really wasn't an interrogation, but I'd rather not resort to torture.’ He had intended to get information on Celestia. If she was the one who had Luna imprisoned, then why isn't she personally chasing him? As he grappled to a far away tree, he saw movement below. Stopping on the tree, he looked below. Sol could roughly see around 40 Ponies. ‘Fuck me, I ain't tangling with those fellas.’ But as he shifted his weight to jump, he broke a branch. All the Ponies look up. There was a moment of awkward silence, during which Sol waved his hand and said: “G’day.” “GET IT!” A barrage of spells was launched his way. ‘AH FUCK!’ Sol jumped from branch to branch, dodging spell after spell. ‘I think it's about time I leave,’ Checking the waypoint he set on Luna, he saw he was 400 metres away. As he jumped and leaped, he saw Pegasi fly into the air. Jumping to another tree, Sol dodged a Pegasus who flew at him. Instead of crashing into Sol, he crashed into a tree instead. The Pegasi were faster than him, but they were definitely not as agile. He bounced from tree to tree, while each Pegasus had to make sharp turns and stop suddenly. But he still wasn't just out of the Unicorns range just yet, as they lined up to fire, Sol landed and grappled a Pegasus out of the sky. Bringing her to him, he grabbed her just in time to block the storm of spells. Once the spells stopped, Sol kicked the Pegasus’ corpse away from him into a diving Pegasus, knocking him out of the sky. Looking around, he saw he was surrounded by Pegasi, with the Unicorns moving up. Racking his brain, Sol thought of an idea. Turning to the direction of the waypoint, he sent out a Grapple to the top of a tall tree. Using this, he shot himself out the canopy of trees, right towards Luna. Landing 50 metres away, he sprinted. Reaching the tree containing Luna, he reached inside to find nothing. “Ah fuck me sideways like a roo!” Sol screamed out. He heard the sound of hoofsteps and the clanking of armour. Turning around, he saw the Ponies had caught up. With friends. A lot of friends. Sol guessed 100, and that was only the ones here already. A ring of Unicorns surrounded him, with Pegasi above preventing an escape. Sighing, he pulled his R-201 off his back. ‘Ah shit.’ As he saw the Unicorns charge their horns, he tensed, waiting to see a slight gap in their formation. But he didn't. Closing his eyes, he waited for the inevitable. He heard the discharge of the spells, but nothing happened. Opening his eyes, he saw a shield surrounding him. ‘Huh?’ Suddenly, the Ponies started to fall from spells launched their way. The shield fell, and Sol drew his Smart Pistol. He aimed at the cloud of Pegasi above him, and dropped 12. He then proceeded to dive into the mess of Unicorns and Earth Ponies. With the mysterious spells disrupting and killing them, Sol was able to take full advantage of the confusion. Punching one in the head, it snapped back at an unnatural angle. Hearing a yell from behind him, he ducked just in time for an Earth Pony to fly over him and crash into the ground. Sol jumped onto him, and gave him multiple punches to the chest. He died after the first two, the others made the chest a red crevice. Standing back up, he dodged a spell sent his way and jumped over a diving Pegasus, before grabbing said Pegasus and throwing him into the ground. Landing, he saw two Ponies running towards him, one from his left, the other from his right. Deploying a Holopilot, he jumped into the air. The two Ponies collided with the Holopilot, which dissipated and the Ponies collided with each other. Sol landed down in front of them, with his Jump-jet facing them. He flared the Jump-jets propelling himself forward, and scorching the faces of the two Ponies. Drawing his R-201, he started to pick off the retreating Ponies. Eventually, all the Ponies were either dead, dying or had fled. “Phew,” Sol did the motion of wiping sweat from his brow, even though he had his helmet on. ‘Wait a minute, where did those spells-’ “And who art thee?” Sol turned around to see a magnificent sight: Luna descending from above, the stars shining from behind her. Gawking, Sol almost didn't hear her. “Art thee!?” Sol snapped out of his state, and with his grip on his carbine, he began to talk. “I, am Sol Cotter. Titan Pilot of the Militia SRS, Marauder Corp. I am also the one who rescued you from Canterlot.” Luna landed, and looked over him closely. “Well thou are definitely not from around here are you?” Sol found her mixture of Shakespearean English and Modern English quite strange. “Now’s probably not the time ma’am. We are still in enemy territory.” “Oh, of course.” Sol turned to south and started walking. “Where are we going?” Luna asked as she caught up. “Well, we’ll find a safe place and rest up. It has been a long day for me,” Sol looked around him, searching for any signs of an ambush or a trap. ////\\\\ Sol and Luna marched for several hours, going slowly to avoid Solar Knight patrols. When they finally exited the forest, Lua was tired, not that tired, but tired. And Sol, Sol was knackered. He may be a Pilot, but even Pilots had their limits. They stopped at a lake a couple kilometres from the forest. They set up camp near the water. They couldn't have a fire, it would have given them away. “So Sol. Now can I ask thou some questions?” Luna asked after they had settled. “Sure.” “What are you?” Luna tilted her head to the side, waiting for an answer. “I am a Human. Humans originate from the planet Earth, a planet not unlike this.” Sol was cleaning his carbine. “A different planet? Surely I heard that wrong!” Luna sounded a mix of distress and disbelief. Sol chuckled. “You did not hear me wrong, my race comes from a different planet. But I didn't come here from Earth.” Sol started to put his R-201 back together again. “What...what do you mean?” “I mean we should get some rest, it's been a long day. I know you've got a lot of questions. Whether you should trust me or not, stuff like that. But it's either me or the Solar Knights,” Sol laid down, facing the stars. “If my saving thou with a shield didn't indicate I knew you were an ally, than I don't know what would,” Luna lay on her side. Before he went to sleep, Sol stared closely at Luna’s mane. ‘Such beauty, such complexity. It looks -. Wait, I don't recognise ANY of those constellations!’ Staring back at the sky, he finally paid attention to the night sky, and saw an unfamiliar sight. All the stars, they were… wrong. Out of place, out of order. It was all wrong. ‘No. No! NO!’ When he first arrived on Equis, he had a small hope that he would be picked up by the Militia. That he was just in some undiscovered part of the Frontier. But now that he looked at the stars, he realised he wasn't in the Frontier anymore, or even the Milky Way. He was in an entirely different galaxy. The closest galaxy was Andromeda, and that was still 2.537 million light years away. ‘I’m in a completely different galaxy. A complete different one.’ He hadn't taken his helmet off, so the tear that ran down his face was stopped by the helmet. Sol was never going to see mum again. He was never going to see dad again. Not his sister’s grave. Not Dylan, not James. He was never going to see his family’s home again. He was away from everything he ever knew. He was never going to finish the fight. He was never going to return the Grizzly Device. He had left his friends alone to fight. But he hadn't just left his friends alone. He was alone.