//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: 64 vs. Equestria // by Jman9877 //------------------------------// Chapter 10 Knight POV “What is happening?! Where did 4th Squadron go?” I yelled, trying to maintain order among the now fleeing Guards. “Sir! An unknown attacker has been mercilessly killing our Guards! I’m pulling for a full retreat!” Shining Armor yelled, “GUARDS, FALL BACK! FALL BACK!” “No!” I yelled as I tackled Shining Armor, but he was easily stronger than me, and simply pinned me onto my stomach. “Sir! You will either be carried back by me, or you can run yourself! What’s it going to be?!” I growled, and got up to follow the already fleeing Soldiers. Whatever this thing was it certainly wasn’t Project 64. It was a mist which tore apart the guards then consumed their body’s whole. It was headed towards Ponyville, so I could only wonder what it was going to do there. “Shining, we must have some sort of idea what that… THING, was back there, I saw it tear Rosen limb by limb, then simply suck everything into itself. Is there such as creature?” I yelled as I ran alongside him. Shining looked up, then immediately stopped in his tracks, a face of terror on his face. “Captain! Hurry!” I yelled as I saw him stop. “We need to go! Now…….” I looked in the same direction in the sky as he did. Dear Celestia… 64 POV I ran past the fleeing guards, and followed Vi’s locator in the darkness. The only light I had was from the red line shining on the floor, and the small amount of light shining from Peacemaker. It seemed like whatever that thing was, it certainly was out for blood. “Vi, any more guards coming ahead of us?” I asked. “Two signatures coming at us, one Unicorn Guard and a Unicorn Pony.” She responded. “Just a random pony? No armor or anything?” “Not that I can tell.” I continued to run, until I heard the hoofsteps of the two Ponies coming my way. I saw the two silhouettes start to form, and as they came into view, my jaw dropped. In all of his villainy, stood Silent Knight himself. His brown Mane and white coat was a dead giveaway, right next to his Medical Cross cutie mark. Next to him was the exact same Unicorn I saved from death all those years ago, Shining Armor. We stood apart from each other, Knight’s jaw nearly hitting the ground and Shining looking at me in surprise. “Sup.” I said nonchalantly, nodding at both of them. Shining chuckled a bit, but Knight immediately turned to him. “HOW CAN YOU JUST BE STANDING THERE?! APPREHEND HIM!” Knight yelled. “Hey, easy with the volume,” I said, “It’s almost dead quiet without all of the Guards running away, so that thing might be able to hear us.” “I COULD GIVE LESS OF A DAMN! SHINING ARMOR, APPREHEND THIS MONSTROSITY AT—“ Knight wasn’t able to finish his sentence, when out of nowhere that same blue mist wrapped him by his hoof, and threw him out of sight. Shining immediately charged a spell to fire at the mist, but I decided I needed to disappear for a bit. Shining Armor POV My eyes widened as I saw whatever was lying waste to my soldiers suddenly grab Knight and send him flying through the trees, before I regained my composure and charged a kinetic spell with my horn. I had to fight back against this thing, or die trying. I started to charge a spell, but then I heard a rustle from behind me. I quickly looked around and saw that I was alone, and that Project 64 had fled. I turned back to find that the mist had advanced towards me, and wrapped herself around my entire body like a Boa Constrictor. “LET GO YOU MONSTER!!” I yelled as I shook and kicked to try and free myself from its grasp, but it was no use, I simply was prolonging the inevitable. As the life was being crushed out of me, I began to see my life flash before my eyes. Seeing Twily being brought out of the delivery room, playing catch with my dad, teaching Twily how to lift objects with her magic, enlisting for the Royal Guard, being Promoted to Captain… going out on my first date with Cadence… “Let me say goodbye…” I whispered. I was feeling the last of my life being sucked out of me when I heard the same rustling. “NOT TODAY!” A voice yelled. As I heard a commotion, it seemed like the mist was suddenly jerking and yelling in pain. It loosened its hold on me as I collapsed on the ground, gasping for air as my vision cleared. When I finally caught me breath, I saw Project 64 standing above me, swinging what appeared to be a Giant Two-Handed Broadsword made of light at the bloodthirsty mist. That monster decided that enough was enough and flew off into the air, but still towards Ponyville. “That’s right you better run, and stay away this time!” 64 yelled. He then looked down at me, and offered his... hoof... at me. I took it as a sign to help me up, so I gladly took it. “Hey there, long time no see.” He said with a grin “Same with you.” I coughed, trying to clear my throat. “Where are you headed?” “Well after that little fiasco back there, I’m headed to finish off that freaky blue crap that nearly just killed you.” 64 pulled the bow he had on his back into his hands, and took aim towards the sky. He drew one arrow, and let it fly towards the sky, and listened. We both heard a faint ‘thunk’ sound of the arrow hitting a tree. “Well even 2 miles away and I still have forest to traverse.” He said with a groan. “So… Captain huh?” He said, raising his eyebrows. I looked with wide eyes. How could he know what I ranked? Could he have been spying on me the entire time? I took a few seconds to prepare myself for the question I was about to ask. “Why are you headed for Ponyville?” I asked seriously, knowing what he was really trying to do. “Don’t bother lying. We have reports that state you were near Canterlot just this morning, then here you are, where the Summer Sun Celebration is taking place… and where my sister herself is making preparations…” I said, squinting my eyes in suspicion. “No offence, but I don't know who your sister is. And if you must know, I'm going to get back at Celestia for all of the shit she put ME through, her “students” through, and put……. Ah forget it, you wouldn't know. I'm exposing her for what she really is, and I don't care if I am going to have to fight you to get there.” We stood across from each other, staring at one another in challenge. I puffed breath from my muzzle, trying to intimidate him. He cracked his neck a few times to get himself nice and limber. “Sorry, but I don’t have time for this.” He said, before he dashed at me with a club in his hand. My eyes widened at how fast he was moving, before I felt something hit my head, and the world went dark. 64 POV I ran back to Outpost #2 with Shining Armor over my shoulder. I wasn't about to leave him in that forest with that thing floating around. Once arriving, I put him onto the cot I had there, and checked him for any wounds. Surprisingly he didn’t have any broken bones, and only had bruising along his neck and stomach to worry about. I wrote out a quick message for him to find and left it on the door with a small pin I had. “64, why take him here? In fact, why save him at all? You could have just as easily left him in the forest!” Vi asked me angrily. “Vi, there is a reason I saved him. You heard what he said about a sister, so who am I to take him away from her? I’m not going to let anypony die on my watch.” I said, maybe for about the 1000th time in my life. “64, you have to realize that the world isn’t a fairytale place… there is death everyday… and I think—“ “Exactly! There is already enough death! Why should we add anymore to the growing number?” Vi shut up after that. I didn’t like these fights I had with her, they made me feel as if I was trying to pull away from the girl I saved from a lifetime of experimentation and pain. I didn’t want to create any unnecessary tension between the two of us, when our relationship relied on both of us working as a team to survive. After a bit more traveling back to Ponyville, this time at a much quicker pace. After about 20 minutes, I finally arrived. “Here we are again…” I muttered as I saw Ponyville once again. I adorned my Brown Cloak, and waltzed into the town once again, only this time, things weren’t as peaceful. Ponies began to flee from Town Hall and back to their homes in a rush to get away from the mysterious disturbance. I decided that things were already freaky enough, so I decided against standing and running and simply crawling at a faster pace. I reached Town Hall, and saw the same blue mist shoot out of a window, and towards the strange forest on the opposite side of town. I rushed into the Hall to find… nothing. Well not nothing, a lot of ponies maybe, but no Celestia, or blood or anything dead. I walked up to a mare with a mint green coat and white/green mane. “Hey, what just happened?” I asked. “You didn’t see? Nightmare Moon is back! We have to get somewhere safe! And Princess Celestia is gone! We don’t know where she is!” she yelled in terror. I was shocked at the new knowledge I just gained from this mare. Nightmare Moon? As in Princess Luna? As I was thinking, a scream shot through the room. I looked up, and saw that the very office I was in this afternoon was on fire, and burning quick. Ponies fled as I ran forward, now standing straight up as I desperately tried to get to what I had left there, My Proof. I wall ran up the wall underneath the Balcony and leapt up, grabbing the edge of it and pulling myself up. I simply rammed through the falling wall and fell into the room. Fire was indeed engulfing the entire place, and it seemed that an overturned lantern on the desk had been the cause of the fire, as most of the contents of the desk were already charred. “NO!” I yelled as I ran for the desk and grabbed the burning stack of papers upon it. After grabbing the flaming stack, I jumped out a window, and hit the ground on my back. I quickly saw the now scattered piles of burning paper I had grabbed, and quickly tried stomping one out. I stopped the flame from engulfing the paper, but once I grabbed it, it simply turned to ash. I stared for a second, before I realized I was exposed, and quickly put my cloak over my head once again. I looked around and saw ponies were too busy running to their homes rather than paying attention to me. “Vi…… it’s over…” I whispered, a few tears running down my face as I watched the plan I had simply crumble to ash, literally. “64… I…I… don’t know what to say at this point…” Vi said, sounding more sad than I did. I didn’t know what to do anymore… All I could do was stand there as a crowd of ponies simply passed me by as they ran in havoc. The proof, the plan, Twilight… Everything had gone down the drain. I had nothing else. I looked up towards the sky, and saw the moon with Celestia’s Insignia imprinted on it. That… thing… Nightmare Moon… She did this… I felt the rage build up inside me, and I looked forward, towards the forest that Nightmare Moon had fled to. “Vi. Track Nightmare Moon, now. She has an incredible magic energy field around her, so she shouldn’t be hard to find.” I growled, crawling forward. “64, you need to calm down before you do this. You can’t go rushing for an opponent you know you cannot win. That being said, here she is” Vi said, before making a Bright red line, clearly visible underneath the dozens of ponies still running around. I simply crawled at a fast pace in the direction of the line, until the fleet of ponies running away finally subsided, and I was all alone in the street. I stood up and started to run, hell-bent on catching Nightmare Moon and making her pay for what she did to me. I finally ran far enough to where I was on the edge of a strange forest, unlike one I had ever seen before. The very feel of the forest gave off an evil and foreboding aura, as if it was set on killing anyone who entered it. “Vi, you up for a bit of adventuring?” “Always Project 64.” “So am I.” I entered the dark forest, still following the path of Vi’s locator. Nightmare Moon. Once legend, now foe. Can’t wait for this.