The Necromancer's Forces

by InTheNavy

Chapter 6

Rarity found her way through the back window, which she knew Fluttershy left open for creatures to come and go. She searched through the house, looking for her friend. After checking upstars she went to check the front room. She came face to face with Fluttershy and Applejack, who were staring intently out the front window.

“Hello?”

He intrusion caused Applejack to spin around, with Fluttershy diving for cover with a scream. Upon realising that the intruder was Rarity, the two eased themselves slightly, they returned to their window positions. It was strange that the two didn't move to embrace their friend, whom may have been dead. Applejack turned to face Rarity

“Hell of a time for you to show up. Big Mack is out front fighting one of those weard dead things. Could you help him with your magic?”

Rarity hurried to a position next to Applejack, sidling up to Fluttershy. She peered out of the window, and saw Big Mack, facing away from the house, charging some unknown assailant that hid in the darkness. As he picked up speed to ram the aggressor, the assailant charged him. When the two colided it was obvious who the victor of the action was. With outstreched limbs, the massive creature lifted Big Mack, toppling him over onto his back. He dove ontop of Big Mack, pinning him to the ground, and drawing a blade from his shoulder and holding it to Big Mack's throat.

“Stop!” Rarity screamed, bursting out of the door. Bradley paused for a second and looked up at Rarity, who was standing on Fluttershy's deck, slightly above him.

“He is a friend!” she added. Bradley held the knife for a few seconds, weighting his decision. Eventually, he withdrew the blade, returning it to the sheath on his shoulder. He stood up, and pushed the fallen steed over onto his right side with the side of his foot. Big Mack stood up, eyeing bradley.

“Why is it everyone attacks me here? What the fuck did I do to you?” Bradley commented.

In an instant Applejack was upon him, firing a salvo of questions.

“How in tarnation did you get up after one of Big Mack's bucks? He can fell a tree with one of those! What are you? Where do you come from?”

“I'm going to say this once and only once, because I'm tired of saying it. I come from a planet called earth, I'm a human, I eat meat, I kick ass, I am in the military.”

The four ponies stood silent, as the massive figure pulled the mask down, lifted the goggles and withdrew his hood. He rubbed his chest, inspecting Finally, he added;

“Oh, also, my name is Captain Bradley.”

“Well do come in, a friend of Rarity's is a friend of mine.”

“Thank you.” commented Bradley, carefully stepping into the household, as it was made for someone half of his height.

“Do you know that you're the only person that I've met so far that hasn't automatically assumed that I'm some evil, warmongering, kill-o-tron that will kill them on sight. Well, aside from the screams of terror, but at least you invited me in.”

Fluttershy chuckled as she sat on a wingback chair, Big Mack closed the door behind Applejack and Rarity. Bradley clicked on his harnes and caught Rarity's cases behind his back. He placed these on the floor, and pulled off his pack. He began to unclick all of the straps and belts associated with his clothes. Eventually, a large pile of gear was in the middle of Fluttershy's floor.

“So, Rarity...” Applejack queried “where did you find this guy?”

“He stumbled into my house late last night, he had arrows sticking out of him, so I put him in the basment to hide him from the patrols.”

As Rarity said this, Bradley removed his shirt to check on his wounds. Most of the arrows had been caught in his thick uniform, and the ones that did make it through only went in a few centimetres. He carefully touched each of the wounds on his chest, once satisfied that none of them were infected, he replaced his shirt with another from his backpack. He let out a sigh and sank into one of the larger chairs.

“The patrols?” Big Mack asked, still keeping his distance from Bradley

“The skeleton things that pass by every day?” interjected Rarity

“Oh, those. We hadn't named them.” added Applejack, she continued “One of them attacked Big Mack when he was out collecting fire wood a few days ago, although they don't seem to follow you if you run inside.”

“They will go inside if they want to. This morning a group of them came inside, searching after Bradley. Fortunatley he was able to stop them.”

“How scary.” commented Fluttershy “How were you able to stop them?”

“Smashing their bones to dust seems to work” commented Bradley, stifling a chuckle at the comment.

The humor was lost on the other four, and Bradley made a face of innocence mixed with regret of his comment. He queried;

“So, why a cottage in the middle of nowhere?”

“I like it because I can live with all of my animal friends!” commented Fluttershy, pride of her compassion showing.

“My family had a cottage like this, although I haven't been there for years.” when nobody commented he continued “We used to drive all night on Fridays to get there, and we would arive just as the sun was setting.”

“Driving?” asked fluttershy

“Where I come from, we have massive metal boxes that we ride around in.”

“Like a train?” queried Applejack

“Yeah, like a train, except smaller, and it goes on roads.”

“Then a carrage?” she continued

“Uh... Similar, except it has an engine, nothing pulls it.”

“So it's like the Flim Flam machine?”

“I don't know what that is...” Bradley concluded

“Oh...” commented Applejack, caught in an awkward position

“Anyways, it didn't have power, and we don't have magic s-”

“There isn't magic where you come from?” yelled Rarity

“No. And from what I've seen so far, I'm glad there isn't magic.”

“I would imagine that life would be dreadful without magic, or the ability to fly” while she said this she recieved a dissatisfied look from Applejack and Big Mack “And why would you say that a world would be better off without magic!? It makes work much easier, and it allows us to keep our hooves clean!”

“Mainly because it's probably something stupid like electromagnetism or feild forming that can be directly interfaced with that horn on your head. And, it seems to be unreliable, from what I've seen I can break through magical barriers with ease!”

“Who put up the barier, it was probably a new magic user!” shouted Rarity, defending her craft

“Um... Some tall white pony, she had wings too.”

The four's mouthes stood agape, there was no way that Bradley could have broken through a barrier formed by Celestia. She was a god! If he was able to inadvertently beat her at magic, what did that make him?

“Am I missing something?” asked Bradley, concerned with the looks he was recieving

“Princes Celestia. Her name is Princes Celestia. She is the most powerful magic user in all of Equestria.”

“Ha. See, damned unreliable!”

“There has to be an explanation!” commented Rarity, agast at Bradley's claims.

“Maybe humans are immune to magic?” offered Fluttershy, trying to console her friend.

“Maybe?” added Bradley

Bradley's words tailed off, he turned to the window at his back. In a half crawl-half walk, he approached the window. He lifted himself above the edge of the window, and peered out. His eyes failing him in the light, he returned to his pile of equipment and pulled out hte goggles he bore before. He flicked a switch and they began to cry as there was too much light in the room. He flicked them back off and approached the window, he put the rubber ending up to the glass to prevent glare, and he peered out.

“Ah. Fuck!”

“What is it?” asked Fluttershy, wincing at his use of curses.

“There's a bunch of them outside. About half a click out.”

“How many is a bunch of them?” asked Big Mack, who poised himself to fight

“Twenty, maybe more.”

Big Mack lowered his head, he had trouble fighting one of them, twenty would be impossible. Bradley returned to his pile, he withrew a small, pear shaped object made of metal.

“Is there a window upstairs that can see in the same direction as this one?”

“Yes” answered Fluttershy

“Good. All you go up there and watch this!”

With that he pulled a long tube from the pile. He clicked on a button and it threw a massive amount of light onto the ceiling of the cottage. He waited to hear the footsteps of the four over his head before he opened the door. He pulled open the door and peered at the approaching group, they were no more than two hundred metres out. He flung the door open and started waiving the light about, trying to get the attention of the approaching armada.

Eventually they noticed, and began to charge the nere-do-well. He stepped a few feet from the deck, and started fumbling with the object in his hand. He pulled something off of it, and another piece went flying over his shoulder. He screamed aloud

“ONE! ... TWO! ... THREE! ... FOUR! ... FIVE!”

At five, he hurled the object at the group of attackers, who were now within throwing distance. The object sailed towards them, and fell in the middle of the group. Instantaneously after contacting the ground, it exploded in a flash of light. The bang of which could have been heard in Ponyville. The group of skeletons had been decimated by the weapon.

Bradley went to inspect his handiwork, and found only a few battered skeletons had survived. He was able to easily destroy the remaining forces, and returned to the cottage. The four occupants were now standing on the deck.

“I thought magic didn't exist in your world?” commented Rarity, with a smug look on her face

“That wasn't magic. That was a reaction between Aluminium and Iron Oxide.” *google thermobaric bombs; they're kickass!*

“So that's how your species makes do without magic? They use science?”

“Pretty much, yeah!”

“That was awesome!” commented Applejack, awestruck at the power of which someone without magic could weild.

“How many of those do you have?” commented Fluttershy, afraid to have more of them in her home

“That was my only one. We never see anough action to justify carrying two.”

Bradley entered the home, and began to rummage in his gear again. Pulling out another silver packet; he began to eat again. This packet was labeled 'Beef Stroganov', and again, it filled the home with a smell that had never been smelled by the ponies.

“I'm going to eat this and then go to bed, and I would recommend that you do the same.”

“We ate earlier” commented Applejack

“Rarity?”

“I'm not hungry, thanks.”

Bradley finished off the pack after a few minutes, the ponies sitting around the fire. Eventually the four went off to sleep, after a bit of fussing from Fluttershy for rooms. Bradley lay in front of the fire, resting his head on his pack. He began to nod off, allowing the darkness to envelop him.

“Um... Excuse me?” Fluttershy caught him off guard, her footstep was light enough that it didn't disturb him. Before adressing her, he glanced at his watch, he had been laying in the semi-darkness for half of an hour.

“Yes?”

“Nevermind! So sorry, did I wake you?”

“No. You didn't. And you came down here for something, what is it?”

“I... Uh... Um... I get really scarred at night...”

“Oh?”

“Yeah... I haven't been able to sleep since the skeletons started appearing...”

“Okay?”

“Would you like to sleep upstairs?”

“Sure”

With that, Bradley lifted him self as silently as he could, fearing waking up the other occupants of the house. He could hear either Big Mack or Applejack snoring softly in the distance. He brought his pack up the stairs, and entered Fluttershy's room. He placed the mock pillow on the ground near the foot of her bed.

“There” he commented, dropping himself to the floor as Fluttershy got into her bed “if anything wants to mess with you, it will have to go through me first. And trust me, I'll yell and fus if something shows up.”

Fluttershy snuggled herself down under the covers

“Aren't you going to be cold without any blankets?”

“No, I'm used to sleeping on a ship in the North. This is like a tropical vacation!”

“A ship?”

“Yeah! The HMCS Halifax!”

“Is it a big ship?”

“It's about one hundred and twenty metres long”

“Is that big?”

“About ten of this cottage from end to end.”

“That does sound awefully big. What do you do on the ship?”

“Me, or everyone on the ship?”

“Everyone, I guess my question is what is the ship for?”

“It's a warship, we hunt other ships during war times.”

“Oh, that sounds scary!”

“Yeah, it is at some times. Although my country hasn't had a war that needed ships for over sixty years. We mostly hunt pirates.”

After stating this, Bradley began to softly hum a tune. After a while Fluttershy picked up on his humming.

“What is that song?”

“It's an old war song, about a massive ship called the Bismark?”

“Can you sing it? Softly though?”

“Uh... Sure?”

And with that Fluttershy fell asleep listening to Bradley sing about The Hood and The Bismark, sailors running and guns firing. She admired that he was able to sing a song about killing and death in a tone that seemed like a child's lulaby. She was unable to hear the end of the song, as his hypnotic hyms and her sleep depravity caused her to fall asleep sooner than she thought it would.

Comments

[Cheer]

In the Description:

In raction

In reaction.

[Villainous Insanity]

No idea if this is the song being sung but ohh well.