Talon walked through the hall of the Acheron Star, the heels of his boots made a metallic impact against the polished steel flooring. Along the way he was greeted by many of his crewmen, everything was going smoothly as he calmly made his way to the bridge. Talon couldn’t help but feel anxious for some reason. The Shadow Spawn had made no direct movements against the empire for some time. He knew for certain that the enemy was up to something, but what? ‘Damn,’ he thought to himself. ‘I hate having absolutely no leads to act upon,’ he complained in his mind. ‘But that isn’t the worst of it, I know for sure they’re up to something,’ he continued to rant. Just then he felt a wave of energy pass over him. ‘Help,’ a voice called from nowhere. Talon looked around. But no one was around ‘what the hell?’ he asked himself. Suddenly a vision came to him. He stood in a burning field looking at the ruins of a once majestic city made of pure white marble. A castle was suspended on the side of a mountain. Scorched bodies littered the city streets; he could smell the scent of decay in the air on two of the bodies were crowns a dark blue one, and a gold one. Suddenly coordinates popped up in front of his face. ‘You are the only hope we have of survival,’ the voice said. The vision faded. Talon propped himself up against a wall for support. He knew that if he ignored this countless live would be lost. He knew that every time he had a vision it always came true, unless he acted upon it or not, almost always the shadow spawn were involved in some way. Talon took off high tailing it towards the bridge.
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Celestia made her way towards the Everfree forest, she silently swore to herself that she would let no harm come to her subjects as long as she could still draw breath. She would find this creature that was clearly a threat to Equestria and eliminate it. She Entered Everfree Forest alone.
She walked for some time at a slow deliberate pace following the trail of decay. This creature really did sap the life out of the environment. As she followed the trail she noticed signs of a struggle tufts of colored fur were caught on branches. She examined some of it closer ‘pony fur,’ she concluded. If Celestia wasn’t angry before she sure was now. She stepped into a clearing. Before her stood the creature in all its gruesomeness.
Before Celestia could act the beast charged her unleashing a fierce attack with its tentacles, she barely had time to dodge when the creature was upon her. It tackled her into the mud and with a feral roar went for her neck. She desperately bucked it off of her. She charged up a bolt of magical energy and unleashed it upon the beast. It hit it dead center in the chest, however the creature stood there for a moment looked towards the sky then back at Celestia and it smiled. That caused Celestia to visibly shudder. It charged her again, this time lashing out with its claws. They connected, savagely raking across her chest leaving a massive gouge that began to bleed heavily. She fired another bolt of energy, but the creature only shrugged it off an ensnared her with its tentacles. It began to squeeze. She struggled to breathe, it became harder and harder, then she started to struggle. She wanted to yell however no words would come out. As she started to black out a deafening boom came from overhead. ’Rainbow Dash?’ She thought. However there was no sight of the cyan Pegasus. What she did see shocked her beyond belief; a massive metal object emerged out of the sky and slowed to a stop.
Something then detached from the main object and began falling towards the ground it split in midair and flew in separate directions one fell straight for her location. It came down in the area ahead of her, kicking up dust and debris; the creature released Celestia and turned its full attention to the strange metal object that emerged from the dust. Suddenly a blast of air shot out of the object kicking up an even larger cloud of dust. She heard aloud whooshing sound then she heard the sound of a sword being unsheathed.
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Talon stood by in his drop pod as he went over the details in his head, some rather ludicrous ones at that. Apparently the planet they were orbiting was an unclaimed planet, Inhabited by talking ponies. 'Ponies Seriously? Oh well,' he thought to himself. He did a quick scan and seen something interesting. A lone pony walking straight into a shadow spawn nest. Suddenly a fight broke out and the pony had its but handed to it. However Talon still had a chance. “Commence Mission,” Talon said over his helmet microphone. “Roger prepping for sub orbital drop, now entering atmosphere,” The navigator replied. “Hell Jumpers! Time to descend,” Talon said over the radio.
Talons’ pod was loaded into a cluster pod, a device designed to launch multiple pod at once to separate pre-programmed coordinates, which in turn was loaded into its own launcher. “Here we go, three…two…one…Launch!” he said as he pressed the launch button by his left hand. “Prepped for separation at 10,000ft above sea level,” Talon said as the cluster pod was launched from the main hangar. There was a sudden jolt and then Talons pod fell away from the cluster pod. “Separation confirmed, activating controlled free fall,” Talon said as a pair of control sticks emerged for him to grip, pressing another button caused the heat shields to break away exposing the control surfaces on the hull of the pod. A display appeared on a small screen showing his R.O.D. (Rate of Descent) surface angle and predicted drop point. He decided to literally drop in on the fight below, hopefully scoring some major hero points with whoever the leaders of this planet were. He pulled a small lever at his side, which in turn caused the air brakes to deploy. “Air breaks deployed prepping for impact,” He said as he tweaked the controls giving the pod just enough pitch and yaw to land relatively safely on the ground below. Talons’ pod impacted the ground sending up a cloud of dust and debris.
Talon looked through the canopy of his pod; the shadow spawn had a death grip on a white horse like creature with a horn and wings, and a mane and tail like an aurora. It was clearly female by its apparent body structure; she was seriously injured by the look of things. Talon popped the canopy sending a blast of air out and the canopy flying into the distance. Dust filled the air and Talon jumped out of his pod. The shadow spawn dropped the unicorn, pegasus thing and focused on me. He drew the blade that hung from his left hip. He widened his stance and brought the blade up in a two handed hold, similar to the basic stance in kendo. The dust settled and Talons’ gaze was fixed on the shadow spawn in front of him. He dashed towards the shadow spawn with lightning speed.
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Celestia was surprised at the appearance of another strange creature. This new creature however was very different from the beast that had attacked her. It was tall, at least as tall as herself, it was covered from top to bottom in what she obviously recognized as armor. Its armor color was pure white with an under suit that was black with a texture that was similar to dragon scales. The plates of its armor appeared streamlined with a chest plate that had an emblem emblazoned on the right side, Its helmet appeared to have a simple design, It was a full helm with a glass visor that had a silver tint to it in the shape of a T. Its right arm was fully clad with a heavy shoulder plate that flared up as it came closer to the neck to effectively protect it, an elbow guard and a gauntlet that covered its hand and lower arm, Its left arm was significantly less armored it was missing the heavy shoulder plate opting instead with a lighter one without the flare of the other, it had the same elbow guard and gauntlet. Its lower body was covered with thigh guards, knee guards, and heavy shin guards.
The knight for lack of a better word surprised Celestia by dashing towards the creature and sliding between its legs, rolling and standing up again effectively placing itself between her and the creature. On its back she read bold black letters that spelled ‘EQUES’ she assumed that this was the creatures’ name. It pulled out a strange object and pointed it towards the creature there was a loud sound and a flash of light and the creature fell to the ground writing in agony then suddenly it melted into the ground.
The knight turned towards her and pulled out another object, this one had a red cross on it. “Hold still,” It told her in a calm voice. “This will help stop the bleeding until we can get you some medical help,” It said. “This may sting a bit,” it said. A burst of vapor came from the object settling into the wound on her chest as the knight promised the bleeding stopped. “Can you stand,” It asked. Celestia nodded. “Alright then, as I came down I caught sight of a town. Is there a medical center there?” It asked. “Yes,” Celestia replied. “Okay, let’s get you there before the medical spray wears off and you start bleeding again,” It added. “That… would be wise,” Celestia replied. “What is your name knight?” The creature froze then shrugged his shoulders “Talon James Eques, Captain in the Earth Imperial Navy,” He said with a small salute as he helped her stand. “What about you?” He asked. “Celestia, Princess and co regent of Equestria,” She said with dignity. “Well your highness, I suggest we get moving, I don’t want to be here when that grunts’ friends show up,” He said. “Let’s get a move on,” With Talon supporting her weight the two of them made their way towards Ponyville.