//------------------------------// // Chapter 10, Meeting the new recruits, and an unexpected guest... With a twist! // Story: Walking the plains of Equestria... As a Spartan? // by Brother Uriel //------------------------------// So after a walk and turning invisible later, I was at her front door. Don't know how she'll react, now I know I got bigger, and my armor is a bit different, hopefully she'll recognize me. After taking a deep breath, I knock on the door. It's silent for a moment, before I hear hoofsteps, and some other smaller one's following it, then the door opens. As you can guess, I'm still invisible, so when the door opens, I see Eclipse, but she doesn't see me. She pokes her head out, looking both ways until stepping out, only to o bump into me. "What the?!" She shakes her head before glaring at me, but then it dawns on her face and she runs back inside faster then a scared cat. I just stare at the closed door for a second before sighing. "You've got to be kidding me" I shake my head before knocking on the door again, silence is all that greets me. I knock again, still, silence. I growl before just opening the door and getting hit in the face with a broom. I fall backwards onto my back in surprise, before getting back up and looking at Eclipse who had a broom and a grin, Turning off my invisibility I glare at her, not giving a fuck who was around. "Why the fuck did you hit me with a broom?! I disappear for three weeks and you hit me with a broom?!" "It was payback for not coming back, and I think you deserved it." She giggles before moving out of the way of the door, allowing me to walk in, to which I do. As I walk in, I can see Amber Shine standing there, with wide eyes. "Hello little one... How are you?" She doesn't move, or make a sound, I can tell she's on the edge of being terrified, but she's too curious to move, I only shake my head and look around the room. "Hey, do you want anything to eat or drink?" I look up as Eclipse calls from the kitchen. "Um... Guess some water would be alright... Haven't had anything to drink in three weeks... I think..." She pokes her head out of the kitchen, "What do you mean by that?" I shake my head, "I'll explain later, right now, I just came to see how everything was going with you." She walks out of the kitchen with a glass of water balanced on her back, she walks over to me and I take it, she then sits down on a chair. "Well... Everything has been fine... The foals are well behaved... And they get along fine." She smiles at Amber who's still staring at me with wide eyes. I look over to her, then back to Eclipse, "Well... Things haven't been to great with me... More or less..." Eclipse looks over at me with a cocked head, "Why?" She asks, to which I just sigh. "I found out my... A.I. Thought it be smart to experiment on me... And because of those experiments... I now have about two months to live." She looks at me with wide eyes, "Y-You only have two months to live!?" To which I nod my head and she takes a particular interest to the floor. "It isn't that bad... I mean... I'm stronger... Faster, hell, I could probably take on a full on adult dragon, and walk away with nothing more then a small scratch on my armor. My com turns on at that moment and I hear Serenity's voice. "KENT! Someone's trying to get through the hatch to the base! Get back here and deal with them! I still don't have control of the security!" She says urgently. My eyes widen and I place the glass of water down before looking at Eclipse, "Sorry to cut this short, but I gotta move, I'll talk to you later." I don't wait for a response before running to the door, opening it, turning on my invisibility and running as fast as I could back to the base. -Time skips... You gotta love 'em... Am I right? Oh... Sorry... A bit of running later.- After a few minutes of running that... Should really have taken longer... Seriously, I was near the hatch under about ten minutes of constant running. I reach the clearing, I hide in the bushes and look out to see a group of Griffins, about five, armed to the teeth with weapons and armor, standing around a mare holding... What is that?... Wait... A child?! Oh someone's about to get fucked up! The griffins were saying something, but I didn't really listen, I was watching the mare, and I could see she was badly wounded, with cuts and bruises, what looks like to be a broken leg, she looks to be beaten in multiple occasions, her mane was all dirty and mud caked. And I could tell she was having a hard time breathing, she was also crying as the lead Griffin was yelling at her. He then made the mistake of grabbing the foal, to which I had just about enough, and a bullet was out of the barrel of my DMR before he had even tugged the foal away. His chest exploded in front of the mare and his comrades, the other griffins look around with wide eyes and weapons drawn, and I get really pissed now, and I decide to step out in front of them, and they all look at me as if I was a monster... Which I may now just become. I point at the Griffins who were now just staring at me with wicked grins, and I pull my finger across my neck, to which they think is the right time to attack. The first attack is one charging at me with a broadsword poised to strike, I connect my DMR to my back before ripping my knife out and running straight at him, he swings, I parry and grabs his neck, before lifting him off the ground, and snapping his neck, quickly and efficiently. I feel something ping off my shields, and I look to see a griffin with a crossbow, he was reloading it, but didn't get to finish as my knife found his forehead, he looks up for a minute before dropping his crossbow and collapsing onto the ground. I then feel something else hit me, and I can see a griffin with a greatsword, getting ready to hit me again, only for me to throw his comrades body to the side, and catching it in mid swing, I feel some blood coming from my hand, but I ignore it, as I tear his sword from his grip, twirl it, and stab him in the face with it, he falls, and then, there was one. And he tried to take flight, only for me to pull out my magnum and put a hole in his left wing. He yells in pain, but I quickly silence it with my hand gripping his throat, he starts gasping for breathe, clawing my hand, trying to get away. But I easily pick him up off the ground, and look at him, dead in the eyes, and he stares at me with eyes full of terror. "No Mercy... No Remorse... No Forgiveness." His eyes start to bulge out of his head, and I snap his neck with a quick twist, and he falls limp in my grasp, and I let his lifeless corpse fall to the ground. I turn to the mare and see her looking at me with wide scared eyes, but I can see a twinge of hope in them, I walk closer to which she tries to crawl away only to wince in pain. I hold my hands out to her, "Hey, I won't hurt you... I promise... I just came to help." She still looks terrified, and if you looked at my hulking size, I wouldn't blame her. But she does seem to relax, only to start coughing, and that coughing turns into a hacking fit, and that starts and the foal starts to cry. I look down at it, and see... What... The... Fuck!?! It has what looks like a dragon tail coming out of the blanket it was wrapped in, seriously... What the actual diddly fuck is that? I crouch to her level and get a bit closer, and she's to busy trying to calm the foal down to see me get closer, and when she looks up to see me right next to her, she squeaks and tries to get away again, but I hold her still and she winces as she tried to get away. I shake my head before looking her over, she was malnourished, more skin and bones then anything, she looked to have possibly a few broken ribs... She indeed has a broken leg... Left back one to be precise. She also has a few long gashs across her back, and when I look at them, they look like claw marks... From something big... I keep looking until I find something disturbing, she has a fresh gash across her stomach, and there's a lot of blood, it looks deep. I start to pick her up but she starts screaming as soon as do and I stop, as I look at her, she slaps my helmet. "I'm not going anywhere you idiot! I've lost too much blood..." She looks down, and that's when I finally notice that she was pale, well... She has pink fur and a orange mane... So she doesn't look to bright... So... Yeah. "I can get you medical attention if you allow me to get you out of here." But she only shakes her head. "I was a nurse before this happened... If you move me, I'll just lose more blood... I'm not going to make it." I look at her before and idea comes to my head. "Stay here, I'll be right back!" I get up and pen the hatch, I run down and when I hit the floor, I race to the medical bay. As I get there, I look around, until I find what I was looking for. Bio-Foam, I played Halo ODST to know what it does, I grab it and race back to the hatch. As I climb up I hear crying, and I clamber out of the hatch to see the mares head was leaning against the ground, the foal or... Whatever it was, still in her hooves. I run over and put two fingers to her neck, checking her pulse, nothing... I was too slow... I slam my fist into the ground, and I look down in anger. 'Dad?' I give Acid no response. 'Dad... It wasn't your fault... You tried.' "I'm going to find out whoever sent these bastards, tear out they're intestines, and shove them down they're throats, then, rip they're heads off they're shoulders, and shove those up they're asses... And just because I can do it... Throw them into a meat grinder." Acid doesn't say another word as I continue to stare at the ground in pure anger... I hate it when someone dies and I can't help them... And if you thought it happened in my old life, your wrong... I played too many games, and every time someone died, and I could have saved them... I get pissed beyond words... Not many people I knew died at all really back on earth... It was... Calm... Nice... Peaceful... And boring... I Finally look up at the foal who was still crying, and I pick it up. The blanket was covering it's face, and I pull it down to see... Excuse me... What? The foal, obviously female by the looks of the face, its still crying, but I can't distinguish what it is... It looks equine... But it also has, what looks like... Scales? On its face. It has two horns pointing back across her head, they look like dragon horns, but I really have no clue. "What are you?" I say more to myself then anything, but at my words, she stops crying and looks up at me, with wide eyes. Looking at her, I can't really say anything else, her... What? Scales? Fur? Bah, too confusing, just gonna go with fur and scales, but the color of it is grey, her eyes are a clear sky blue, and her pupils are a bit... Slitted, she has a mane and its purple, all in all... Still not sure what to make of her. I put my hand against my helmet visor and sigh, I look down at her to see she's staring at my hand. I look at it, then to her, I shake my head before doing one thing all children by what I can tell of her age love, I let her look at my hand a bit closer by basically putting it right next to her face, she stares for a minute before her... Hooves? Claws? Whatever they are, grabs my hand and she starts trying to eat it. I chuckle before shaking my head again and getting up. I can't take care of her, so Eclipse will have too... Thank god Eclipse understands some of my predicament. As I stand fully up, I start walking back to her house, I'll bury the mare when I get back, and I'll burn the griffins... They don't deserve a proper burial.