//------------------------------// // Mercy // Story: Guardian // by Requiem17 //------------------------------// Ale found himself at the edge of a massive bog. He had run almost 6 miles through super dense foliage. He sat down on a nearby log and placed his head in his hands. 'What’s going on? I gotta be crazy.' Ale wasn't sure if he was mad or sad. Spartans aren't known for expressing their feelings. They even show psychopathic tendencies. Ale just followed orders. He NEEDED orders. "What do I do?" he asked. ------------------------------------------------------ "You will be humanities last hope," Petty Officer Kale said. "The glue that holds Earth and her colonies together. You will be the best of the best." Ale looked around at the other 13 kids with him. Their body guards eyeing them coldly. He shuddered in fear, tears crawling down his face. He had been walking home from school when they came for him. They pulled up in a van and stuck a syringe in his neck that knocked him out cold. He awoke to find himself bruised and in a dark cargo bay. He silently stood up and saw his planet out of a window before being yanked back. Now he had an uncertain future. One that Ale found bleak at best. ----------------------------------------------------- Tuning back into reality, Ale looked up to see a rainbow forming in the sky. He found it oddly calming. That is until it turned and a screaming bullet smashed into him, driving him back an impressive few dozen meters in to the swamp. Ale sucked in a painful breath and was immediately met with a hoof to the face, his over shield flaring brightly. Rapid strikes rang around his body. This didn't harm Ale but it certainly became an annoying hindrance. With his heightened reflexes he struck out knocking his attacker against a tree. Ale followed up by pinning it to the tree. It was the cyan pegasus that he had knocked into the ground. She gave a strong head butt to Ale, dazing him a bit. He reacted with a swift punch to the gut causing her to cease struggling in his grasp. Ale turned on his external mic and asked, "Where am I?" "Go buck yourself!" Ale sighed and punched her again, asking her more forcefully, "WHERE AM I?!" She gulped in more air and answered shakily, "E... Equestria." "Who are you? And more importantly what are you?" "My names Rainbow Dash and I'm a pony." She was visibly shaking. She glanced down at the knife strapped to his chest and asked shakily, "Are you going to kill me?" Ale replied smugly, "Only if you give me a reason to." She looked as if she was going to retort until a look of fear entered her eyes. Ale was going to reassure her as he didn't see a reason to harm her until he heard dripping behind him. He turned around to see a massively scaled beast with four heads staring down at them. Ale released his captive and reached for his side arm only to have it knocked from his grasp by a massive tail. Ale saw a head shoot towards him. He braced and swung with all his might connecting with the head and throwing it over its back, hanging loosely. The other three heads shrieked in pain. Overcome with anger they then launched themselves at the same time. Ale dodged to the best of his ability but still had his arm bitten. The pressure was enough to finish off the over shield. Luckily the teeth didn't land in any of his armor gaps. The head screamed as its teeth were broken. It lurched back and stumbled a few steps. Ale had enough of this and reached behind him for his assault rifle. ------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow Dash was slumped against the tree frozen with fear. She watched the alien grab something from its hip only to have it knocked at her. A head then lurched at the alien. She closed her eyes fearing what she would see. When she heard a solid bone crunching sound she opened her eyes to see the alien perfectly unharmed. She saw one head was hanging behind the hydra. The other three flung themselves forward. She watched the alien jump sideways but knew he wasn't quick enough. The weird yellow glow she had encountered earlier flared and sparked across his armor. The head that had bit his foreleg released him screaming in pain. She then saw the alien pull something off of his back and watched as it shot three blue flashes into the hydra. The screaming stopped and it fell over backwards into the swamp. Rainbow watched in awe as the alien put his weapon back on his back and turn around. He looked straight at her. Rainbow started to fear what he would do next when she saw the princesses flying towards them. The alien looked and saw them as well. He started sprinting for the forest only to turn around at the edge. He gave her a slight nod before disappearing into the blackness. "Are you okay Rainbow Dash?!" exclaimed Celestia. Rainbow attempted to shake off her fear but still answered weakly, "I...I'm fine." Luna called to Celestia and reported, "The hydra is dead. There are scorch marks here in its abdomen. It must have used powerful magic." "He,” Rainbow corrected. Celestia looked at her clearly confused. "He spoke to you?" "Yeah. He asked where he was, what my name was, and what I was. He also dropped that thing." They all looked at Ales sidearm. Luna picked it up cautiously in her magic and inspected it. "It looks like it's some sort of weapon sister." Celestia helped Rainbow to her hooves. "Let us leave sister. We'll try to find him tomorrow." "Are you okay?" Twilight asked. Rainbow stared at Twilight and responded solemnly, "He saved my life." Twilight swore she saw her blush slightly. She followed them as they took to the sky and flew towards Ponyville. Neither one of them noticed a faint blue flash from the aliens helmet at the edge of the forest as he watched them leave.