//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: The Shadow Army 
// Story: The Darkened Past: Alex’s Past History in Ponyville 
// by captinalex1 
//------------------------------//

So there I was in line with my troops waiting for our orders, nothing much going on to say the least. We had sent out one of our scouts and are now waiting for him to return. I then look out into the distance and see him on the speeder bike coming back to report in. I decide to get out of line and go check what's going on.


"So, did you see anything out their." I ask.


The scout looks at me a little terrified and answers, "We have a big problem. The Shadow Army is forming and are preparing for an attack on the frontal group. We need to warn Celestia!"


"Whoa! Slow down, don't worry I'll come with you, and is their even a plan as what to do?" I ask.


"N-no nothing, we have nothing!"


"Hm." I think, "Well I'm only a troop but, I am thinking that Celestia should set up the mortars aimed for the bridge that connects Ponyville to the Everfree forest. That way when the Shadow Army tries to advance, we rain shells on top of them."


"I like that plan." He agrees. "However, what about our forward advance base over by the bridge that keeps things under check. Will they get affected?" Scout asks me.


“Well, after we tell Celestia what you have seen and I tell her my plan, I could use your scout bike to get over to the forward base and warn them about the enemies advance. Also the mortar shells shouldn't do anything to them as long as they don't get into the fire.” I explain. “Now common lets go!” As I see the enemy getting closer from a distance.


So, the scout and I trot over to Celestia and explain what is happening. “Hm, I see.” She answers. “Alright, Ill tell our defense to get set up, and scout you can go and get in sniper position, in case the Shadows try to run at us.”


“Will do Celestia.” Then he leaves me and her for my orders.


“Alex you go and warn the front about what is about to happen.”
“Solid copy ma’am.” Then I trot out of the Briefing room and head over for the scout bike. I get on and ride it to a concealed area to use the leaves and bushes to conceal my position as I travel.


In my traveling about a quarter of the way, I notice the bushes rustle, so I stop the speeder and carefully listen. “Hello?” I ask. But get no response. “Hm, something ain't right here.” So I get off the speeder and slowly trot over to see what’s their.


Then as I’m close, I hear a buzzing sound, like one that Changelings make when they are about to fly away. “Who’s there?!” I demand. The unknown pops out of the bushes about ready to fly off. “Hold!” I order. “Identify yourself.”


-Sigh- “I'm just a Changeling in the bushes. I mean what gives?” The Changeling snips.


“Not sure if you noticed but there's a war going on and you hiding in the bushes like that tells a lot, for example you could be scouting for the enemy. The Shadows.” I tell it.


“So what if I am!” The Changeling flies into my face giving me an attitude.


“Alright, I see how you want to play it.” I then slowly pull out a pistol and put it towards it's chest. The Changeling notices and in fear it's eyes get wide and the Changeling slowly flies a little back giving me room.


“Please, please don’t.” The Changeling begs. “I didn't mean to put up an attitude like that. Please, you have to believe me.”


Hearing it's plea, I take the pistol off its chest and slide it back into my holster “Consider yourself lucky, next time I might not be so forgiving. Remember that.” I tell the Changeling.


The Changeling looks down with teary eyes, “Y-yes I will.”


But just before I’m about to get on the speeder, the unexpected happens. Another Changeling, seeing that I threatened and totally took it the wrong way, tackles me to the ground. “Hey, what the?” I say in surprise.


“Hey get off him it's alright brother. No need to fight.” The first Changeling tries to explain.


But the brother ignores and pulls out a hidden blade and lowers it towards my forehead. I struggle to keep it way. Then by luck, I grab his hoof and twist it the opposite way and put him down. I then get up shaking my head.


“Honestly why?” I ask myself. I then look up at the other Changeling, “Sorry about that.”


“I understand, Razor has been hiding a lot of secrets from half of the hive lately and the rest are following his command.” The Changeling tells me.


“Well I’m only a troop so i don't know much, but i could say he might be with…” I get cut because Razor had just tried to shoot me.


The Changeling then flies up to Razor, “What are you doing, you want to get killed?”


With a smirk Razor answers, “Pfft, I don’t give a sh*t about what he says. Now back off Echo!” Razor then gets up, grabs the Changeling and throws her against a tree, knocking her out.


As Razor turns to do the same to me I whip out my weapon and shoot him in the chest, get on my speeder and leave the attack.


While I close in to the forward attack base I was ordered to, I think to myself, “Hm, I get the feeling Shadow isn't the only problem anymore, Changelings are starting to get involved as well. Why, I don’t know?”


I slow the Speeder down and come to a halt. Two guards approach me and ask, "Identification please."


I answer, "Alex of the Second Squadron, reporting in."


"What's the news?" One asks.


"I've learned that the Changelings are beginning to get involved with the Shadow Army and also the Shadow Army approaches as we speak. Don't worry Celestia is setting up the mortars aimed for the bridge. She said our job is to keep them at bay, until the Wonderbolt units arrive. That's all I've got." I explain.


The two guards look at each other, "Alright, let's arm up." The other then radios the sniper team and I see that the snipers get ready in their sniper nests. "Alex come with us, we'll get you weapons and supplies."


"Alright." I agree. Then the guards and I enter the base and trot into the armory. "Choose what you'd like." They tell me. "Thanks." I say. As I look around I think to myself, "What would be the most effective way to hold the Shadows back? I mean it depends, all I'll be doing is sitting behind cover and holding the line. No heroics."


So I trot over to the gun holder and pick up an assault rifle and clip it to my side next to my wing. I then take an extra pistol and slide that into a second holster. I also pick up a few detonators and some ammo clips and put those into their slots. Finally, I take a knife and slide that into it's holster and am ready. As I'm about to trot out, the lights go red and the alarms go loud.


"What's going on!?" I yell.


The two guards that are still with me answer, "We believe that the Shadow Army had just fired at the base."


Then an electronic voice turns on, "All units prepare for battle, all units prepare for battle, this is not a drill."


"Common Alex let's move. You'll be joining Sev and his squad for now." One of them tell me.


"Copy that." I understand.


Me and the two guards then gallop through the hallway and meet up with Commander Sev. "Who's the newbie?" Sev questions. The guards with me then step in, "Oh, he is no newbie. He also has info on the situation." "Aye, my apologies, um... What's your name?" Sev asks. "Alex, sir." I answer. "Good to have you." Sev begins. "Alright our objective is to hold the Shadow Army and Alex you'll support as backup."


"Understood." I answer.


So the units move forward and the base doors open. We all then run to our designated positions, losing some troops in the run. "Tanks!" I shout. Under cover, I pull out my rifle and take aim and begin to fire. As I fire it's just not much use, seeing that my shots are ricocheting off some of the Shadows. But I continue anyway, seeing it's slowing them down.


However the Shadows had enough and begin to take positions and fire at us. They even get their heavy sniper tanks on us. Unfortunately we can't see them due their camouflage on the tanks.


"Sev!" I call him. "What is it Alex." He responds. "We need to do something about those tanks." I tell him.


Then another troop gallops over next to me and takes aim. "You call for backup?" The trooper says. "Hehe, just on time." I tell him. Then he fires his rocket launcher at the bridge making it collapse and destroying a good number of tanks that were on the bridge. "Nice!" I tell him. "Loading next round." He tells me. Then takes aim and fires, destroying yet another tank.


"Damn, they are killing us. Sombra what should we do?" A Shadow trooper asks.


Sombra grins as though he has an evil idea. Then from behind the bushes on his side, a massive army of Changelings appear and begin to attack. To make matters worse, the Changelings have dual Gatling guns strapped to their sides making them look like fighter jets.


"Are you kidding me." I cry. "No matter, take aim and fire." So me and the Demolitionist begin to fire and take out a few of them but the Changelings are pushing through our defense. Sev gallops to my cover to help. "Their are so many." The Demolitionist says. "No sh*t!" Sev replies back. Then the Demolitionist loads his weapon, breaks from cover and begins to unload his clip on the enemy killing a bunch, but a TD (Tank Destroyer) sees him, takes aim and fires. I sift behind cover only to see the trooper collapse as the HE (High Explosive) bullet hits right in front of him.


The Shadows then get a mobile bridge and begin to extend it, reconnecting the Everfree to Ponyville. "Alex, where is that mortar fire!?" Sev asks commandingly. "Sir, it's been raining down mortars on the enemy already, if you didn't notice." I reply back. "Well why isn't it doing anything to the enemy?" He asks. I get into his face to answer, "Maybe because oh I don't know, the Shadow Army has GOOD ARMOR!" I yell at him. He raises an eyebrow shocked at my actions to my superior. "Well, you and me are gonna have a long talk after this, soldier." Sev says. My ears drop, "Yes sir..."


I then look back at the enemy and continue to fire back. I get my grenade launcher that's attached to my rifle, take aim and fire a detonator. It lands and explodes on the bridge machine but that doesn't do much. The bridge finally connects and the Shadow Army tanks and soldiers begin their advance, easily killing anypony in the way. Their tanks even begin to destroy cover revealing some of our troops, only to simply take them out.


The Changelings patrol the sky over us, shooting down anypony they see. "Permission to speak sir?" I ask. He lightens, "Permission granted." "Sir, this is becoming a blood bath, how are the snipers doing?" Sev looks up and sees the snipers are dropping the Shadows but then tanks see the muzzle flashes and fire at the sniper nests blowing them apart. Sev then turns to me, "Sniper support has just been, uh, taken out." He tells me.


I then look around us to see, we could be the only ones left. I then order in, "Squadron four and five, where are you guys?" I ask. A squadron leader then answers, "Alex, oh thank goodness you're still there, it's a blood bath. Wish we could help but we have our own problems. The Shadows have found another way and are attacking. We are trying to hold them off but..........."


"Squad leader do you copy. Squad leader!" I call, but no response. I look at Sev and it's basically me and him with some stragglers. "Sev what now?" I ask. "I don't know Alex." Sev responds. "Alex here, I'll go at Sombra and his men, you get the hell out of here." Sev orders. "Solid copy. Good luck it was nice serving with you." I tell him. "You too, Alex, you too." Sev responds. Then he jumps over the cover and gallops straight at the enemy firing away.


I gallop away and go hide behind some bushes and sit there watching. They kill Sev and then when coast is clear, two more leaders meet up with Sombra. "No way, what's he doing here!?" I whisper to myself as I recognize one of them.


"Sombra, nice work. We cleaned right through them without that much difficulty." The first leader speaks.


"Thank you Count Veger." Sombra responds.


"And thanks to Crystalis's Changelings to fly down, that was perfect planning." Sombra tells them.


"Hahaha, with pleasure." Crystalis laughs.


"What are our orders now Veger?" Crystalis asks.


He grins, "Keep advancing forward, until the castle. Once we take that down, we can start our search for the precursor artifacts."


"Copy that." Both Sombra and Crystalis agree. So Veger and Crystalis advance forward but Sombra senses my presence.


"I'll meet you guys up ahead, have to check something first." Sombra mentions.


"Anything you'd like to share?" Veger asks curious.


"No, no that's ok. Not sure if it's true, just sensed something and wanted to check it out." Sombra tells them.


"Oh, alright I see. Well we'll see you upfront." Crystalis pitches in. Then both Veger and Crystalis trot off.


"Ugh, finally they are gone." Sombra says as though I can hear him. He then looks towards my direction with a grin. "Hehehe, I know you're there, I can sense it." He says towards my direction.


I then pick up a weapon on the ground, at first it's only a hilt but I press a button and an energy saber comes out. Then I jump out of the bushes with the blade in front of me, and look up. "You're going to pay for this!" I shout at him.


"Y-you're challenging ME!?" Sombra sarcastically says.


"Yes I am." I speak confidently.


I then bring the sword back and charge at him, full speed and hit downward with the blade, cutting part of his armor. Sombra then backs up, pulls out two blades and charges at me. We then clash into a sword battle. Knowing my other hoof is free, I punch him in the stomach, throwing his balance off then slicing and destroying one of his blades. He throws the broken hilt away and raises his hoof rising a pillar in front of me. I dodge to the side but he raises another and it strikes my wing.


Injured I try to stay up. He trots slowly towards me and thrusts the sword down towards me, but with quick reflexes, I put my sword up and stop his attack, but struggle to keep it up. He lowers it more and more. With the last of my energy, I grab my gun from my holster and fire at his chest. The hits throw him back and he lays on the ground. I see he dropped his weapon in the process and pick it up. I then trot up to him and put the two swords to his neck.


"I win, any last words?" I look at him with a grin knowing I'm victories.


"Yes!" A mysterious voice shouts from behind me.


I begin to turn around to look back, but the enemy shoots me in the back and I begin to collapse, but before I do, Sombra thrusts up with his horn stabbing me  through my chest. I look down and see that my chest is turning darker and darker. I try to get out of his grasp but can't. He then shoots his horn and I'm thrown, but I throw my sword while in mid air, at him, killing Sombra. But I hit a tree and land on top of the one that had shot me. I look down to see that it's Razor.


He tries to stab me for the finish but I'm faster and stab him, killing him. I then lay motionless slowly dying. My heart weak to whatever Sombra did. I look up at Sombra and he turns to dark mist and disappears. "Well that's it. I'm done." I tell myself. I begin to close my eyes but am awoken from somepony speaking.


"He's here, he's here!" Somepony shouts.


"Hurry, we are losing him. Get him to the chopper!" Another shouts.


I look up to see that it's a Wonderbolt. "Don't worry Alex, we are here." He says.


I moan in pain, "T-took you long enough. W-where were you g-guys?"


"We had to get rid of the Changelings first. They had control of the air." He tells me.


"I-I see..." I struggle to speak.


"Don't worry. You'll be alright." The Wonderbolt tells me.


All I see then is darkness cover my eyes and I pass out.