//------------------------------// // House of Moon and Star: Nightmares // Story: Equestria Divided Tales // by Grenazers //------------------------------// On the border between the territory of the House of Stormwing and Moon and Star, is a pegasus outpost, up high on a cloud. On this cloud outpost there is a single structure that stood out. Unlike the more carefully shape cloud structures of their settlements, these structures were hastily built. Standing out front of the building are two Pegasi Hoplites, one orange, the other maroon. As these two stood on guard, the maroon pegasus turned his head toward his companion. "Hey Gruff," he said. "Yeah Cinnamon?" the orange pegasus replied. "Do you know why we are here?" "That's one of life greatest mystery isn't, why are we here? Are we real or are we just the creation of some guy's imagination. Some ominous pony writing about, writing about what we do, and what we're about to do. This unknown guy, who just can change how a pony look or how they act. Hell even makes them fall in love with some pony to fill whatever sick pleasure they get out of it. Man this sort of stuff, just keep me up at night." Once he was done, Cinnamon just stood there and stared at his comrade. "The hell are you talking about? I meant like, why are we just standing here?" "Oh." "What was all that about a ominous writer?" Before Gruff could say anything, both guards were interrupted by somepony inside. "You two, gather the rest of men and bring them here." A black pegasus with light cyan gray mohawk hair, emerge from the cloud building while holding a box with his broken wing. "Yes sir, Captain!" Cinnamon said eagerly and flew off. "Whatever," Gruff said, sounding bored. Once the two were gone, the black pegasus just sighs and looked off in the distance skies. Just how the hell did he ever end up here? He thought to himself. Long before he was Captain, Thunderlane was just slacker, living a peaceful life in Ponyville. Going to work, hang with friends, and make out with a hot mare. Rinse and repeat but, with a different mare. Life was going pretty smoothly, that was until the two royal sisters disappeared. After that life have been going downhill, ponies arguing amongst each, later leading to violent conflict between them. Eventually causing Equestria to be divided. But the most greatest tragedy that happened to him was the flooding of Ponyville. Not only did Thunderlane lost his home but, also his little brother. He felt horrible for leaving him in Ponyville, he wished he was there, so that he could've saved him. Instead he was training in the pegasus army, therefore away from Ponyville during the flooding. When discovering that Rainbow Dash was the one who cause the flood, an outrage Thunderlane confronted the rainbow haired pegasus, and demanded to know why she did it. She explained that she was tricked into doing the deed by her friend Twilight. She played to her sense of loyalty and now because of this, they are at war with the House of Earthborn. Conflicted. Thunderlane didn't know what to do he wanted to just leave, but where. All of Equestra is pretty much at war with each other, and if just go out there, he'll either killed or captured. Choosing to suck it up, Thunderlane stayed with House Stormwing. In those fifteen years, the young stallion rose through the ranks , becoming a Captain and one of the best pegasus troops in the army. Then one day, there was an incident involving a rogue dragon. When the war started in Equestria, the dragons made sure not to get involved in their fighting and just flew around their country. However, one dragon didn't fly around the war torn country but, rather started attacking. His first target was in the Stormwing territory. Flying around and breathing fire, the pegasus were being slaughtered. They are not sure why this dragon was doing this but, in this house they fight first before asking questions. Legions of pegasi started to swarm the giant beast, however the dragon proved to quite a formidable foe. He flew around, swatting pegasus away, and burnt them alive. Eventually one of the many pegasi found the perfect opportunity to strike, Thunderlane went in and shoved his spear right into the scaly beast's eye. The dragon scream in intense pain from having his eye pierced. Using this momentary distraction, the black pegasus flew on to his back and began hacking at the beast's wings. Feeling something on his back, the dragon took flight, trying to shake off his intruder. Thundrlane however held on, eventually cut one of the dragon's wing off. This caused the beast to start descending down onto the ground below. The beast tried to use his other wing to fly but, was futile since his other wing was what kept this large creature in the air. With his task down Thunderlane flew off the falling beast, so that he can watch has crashed to the ground. Unbeknownst to the pegasi, the dragon was staring right at him, he held his breath and unleashed a long stream of fire. Sensing a great heat behind him, Thunderlane tried to get out the way. The pegasi was able to get away from the center of the fire blast but, was hit by the fire on the side, lighting his back on fire. With his back burned and his wing damaged, the pegasi captain started to fall as well. Luckily a pair of pegasus came in and caught the falling captain. The dragon crashed hard onto the ground, his head cracked open upon impact. Afterwards Thunderlane was recovering in the hospital, he was awarded a medal for his heroic actions against the dragon. His accomplishment was short lived however, as the doctor returned, he told him that because of the damage to his wings, he may never fly properly again. Because of his disability, Thunderlane was seen as unfit to lead troops into battle. Therefore he pushed to do low level position, such being in charge of these misfit troops. He was assigned to this place because his commander believed that his experience will help improve these ponies but, in reality they're just looking to get rid of him. After a couple of minutes waiting, the rest of Thunderlane subordinates arrived. There was a total of five of them, including the two from before. The orange one, Gruff was a lazy pegasus who only here because he was drafted and showed no motive to participate in anything. Cinnamon, the maroon one was was always eager to please him, he is basically just a kiss ass. The other three ponies presented themselves, one red pegasus was named Sergeant, and yes this pony does have a name but, he won't tell anyone. No bother to care Thunderlane just call him Sergeant. Before he arrives the Sergeant was in charge. The next one is a pink pegasus pony named Doughnut,and after meeting him he was quite friendly. Also the guy was rather flamboyant. "Hey Captain," the pink pony waved his hoof at his Captain. Now the last one is another red pony like the Sergeant, except this one was a lighter shade of red. His name is Red Shirt and he just recently left boot camp. These misfit soldiers are here because of their poor performance of duty. Gruff for his laziness, Cinnamon need to be praised, and Doughnut for his odd behavior. Red Shirt was unlucky enough to be placed here. The Sergeant was here because of his very unorthodox strategy. He remembers reading somewhere about how the Sergeant ordered his troops to shove themselves into cannons and blast them at the enemies. What's strange is that it actually worked. With all of them here, Thunderlane decide to show everyone what he got in his box. "Alright guys you probably want to know what's in this box?" he asked. Their response varied to yes and one no. The Captain opened the box to reveal a pair of flare gun. "The hell are those?" the orange one question. "Private, those are flair guns." Thunderlane clarified. "Guns? I thought we pegasus don't use these kind of weapons." "Shut up, Gruff." Sergeant told the orange private. "Anyways Command told us that use are to used these things for signal for back up." Thunderlane continued. "Well that's good to know that command are looking out for us," Cinnamon commented. "Please Cinnamon that's command telling us, "hey guys if you're in trouble, just call for somepony else to come and save you," please Cinnamon we just suck so bad that Command doesn't expect much out of us." "Shut up, Gruff." Sergeant spoke again. The Captain took a deep breath and sighs, Gruff wasn't though. Command doesn't really expect much from guys. All the real soldiers are out there fighting, while these misfits are placed on guard duty. With this meeting done, Thunderlane ordered Gruff and Red Shirt on guard duty while everyone goes inside and sleep. Later that night both ponies were trotting around the perimeter of their outpost. Red Shirt trotted around the place several times already. Gruff just did it once and just sat on a cloud afterwards. "Gruff get up," the light red pegasus said to the lazy pony. "We have to watch the perimeters." "Shut up Red Shirt," the orange pegasus responded back. Instead of hearing the usual response of 'get up' he just got silenced. Opening his eyes instead of seeing the young red pegasus, he saw a strange shadowy creature shape like a unicorn staring right at him. His response, to scream like a little girl. Hearing a girlish scream, everypony inside the barrack got up. Thunderlane being the first to respond bolted out of the door and saw a black figure holding the orange private. Galloping at full speed Thunderlane connected his hoof to the shadowy creature's face. The creature let go of his prey and stumble backwards. The black pegasus tried to deliver another punch but, his hoof just went right through it. The creature then moved to the side and delivered a series of punch and kick. The captain managed to block a few of them but, was pushed back by one powerful kick. The rest of the troops got outside and saw their captain being kicked by the strange black creature. Seeing their captain in distress they charged at the unknown being trying to hurt it. Unfortunately their attacks went right through it. The creature passed through the group and started to pummel the group. It kicked Sergeant in the face, punched Cinnamon, and elbowed the pink one. While the shadowy being was busy beating up his troops, Thunderlane got up and charge at the thing. This attack was more successful and continued the assault. When the creature phased out, the captain waited for to strike. When it did, Thunderlane deflected the attack and countered with a punch. The punch hit its mark and the creature reeled back. His intuition was right, when the creature phased out it become untouchable. However, if it wants to hit something it has to phase in to touch something. Knowing what to do, Thunderlane countered every attack the creature dished out and returned a punch or kick. The battle between the two was intense but, clearly the black pegasus captain was winning, The shadow creature was getting frustrated and tried to hit the pegasus. On one of its punches, Thunderlane grabbed its arm and broke it. The shadow pony screamed in pain, the captain called his subordinate to toss him a spear. The maroon one chucked him a spear, which he grabbed in mid air. He then thrust the spear into its chest, causing it to disperse. After the fight, Thunderlane asked if anyone was alright. All four said they were fine, including Gruff who was pretending to be knocked out during the fight. The only pony not present is Red Shirt, they looked around for him and found his body on the ground way below them, his neck snapped. Mourning the lost for the red pony, Thunderlane need to report this incident to the higher ups, tell them of this strange shadow shape pony. Meanwhile just far away from the pegasus outpost is a unicorn wearing a robe watching the base from under a tree. Just then a shadow pony appeared next to him. The creature's shadow body dispersed to reveal an injured blue unicorn. His body was covered in bruises and his arm snapped. The robed pony turned his head to the inured pony. "Monsoon, what happened to you?" "Fucking pegasus bastard broke my damn arm!" he responded, angrily The pony in robe used her magic to help carry him. "Come on let's get out of here." The two unicorns left the area, and back into the territory of the Moon and Star.