Eagle's Flight

by The crossover Trooper

Eagle's Wit

It was midmorning turning noon and, Talon was once more marching down a corridor. He was once again in his armor helmet included. His gaze shifted left, right, up, down. After a night's worth of paranoid rest and espionage. He was prepared for the coming event. He gazed left his helmet masking his eyes behind a golden glow. He saw the hate filled glare of the guard as he and his escort passed. He wasn't blind he knew that wasn't the only look he'd receive from a citizen loyal to their crown. That's why he brought the chaingun. He gazed to his static minimap watching explosive icons move about or stand still. He smiled at the thought. His murder lead, a title given to a mentor of orphans, would be proud. Backed into a corner with virtually no advantage? Blow the corner out and set up a bottleneck.

They turned a corner he hadn't been down and cursed his suits lack of a map. He hoped his mad gambit worked...if so a emergency field scanner was going to be in high demand. His eyes shifted down to his HuD's ammo display. All three-hundred rounds accounted for. It may not melt half a room but, it'll coat it a new sheet of lead. Another corner was turned and a heavy set door sat at the end of the corridor. His helmets auditory sensors picked up faint voices behind the overly designed door. As he and the guard approached two more guards, in steel armor with black and orange plumes, saluted then opened the doors. At the creek of the two heavy oak doors all voices ceased. 'Great out of the fire and into the plasma conductor.'

Talon entered the new room observing the contents. Six mares on one side. Two diarchs on their thrones. Then two others on the other side. Also a massive amount of guards from all different types in the room. Some were on large balconies above the obvious throne room. Then the doors he passed through had four instead of two. Then a pair for each window. 'Probably some secret doors filled with more waiting too'. Talon turned his gaze back to the main hosts of the palace. They were wearing their regalia then again so was he and they noticed too. They noticed little if nothing out of the ordinary despite the new chaingun in his right hand. 'So it begins' Talon thought as he prepared himself for the bush beating the other party would commit.

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Celestia was nervous. Even with a full night's preparation she knew this wouldn't be a easy feat. What she was hoping to accomplish was a temporary imprisonment until they had their fill of a investigation. If he conducted himself adequately he could be put on parole. It was the purpose to present so many guards during this meeting. She even had some of the Elite guard hidden away with invisibility spells. The aforementioned guards were positioning themselves around the tribal as he approached. If worst came to worst they would have the initiative. If it didn't come to that and no solution presented itself. She'd hoped to at least put him under some form of house arrest. Possibly restrict him to the residential, and mess wings. Along with a curfew and twenty four hour guard.

When the tribal arrived he wore his armor. The blood red on black mixed with the golden glowing eye's off putting. While her subjects and niece were disturbed by the need to eat meat. She was more terrorized by the details. His meat was cooked with herbs and spices. Entailing that his species had a hardy constitution of trial and error. The carnivorous species of their world had hardly any need to cook their food. For carnivores the practice of eating even confections was under the most rare circumstances. For a meat eating species to develop cooking techniques was a bit distressing. Then there was the other articles on his plate. A healthy mix of vegetables implying his people were the, till then thought, theoretical omnivore's only talked about in closed biology groups. She even payed attention to his facial structure at yesterday's 'dinner'. Now she could tell why his face was so off putting. No it wasn't because of his golden eye's nor his invasive staring. His ears were affixed to the side of his head. Giving him a full three hundred-sixty degrees worth of average hearing. While a pony could hear farther or more quiet noises. They had to adjust their ears. Allowing a individual to sneak in to the auditory blind spots. The next was the way his eyes were positioned. Even the griffins eyes were set to the side for a near full range of vision. Once a creature or object caught their attention. A griffon would have to turn their head so that the could examine it with one eye. Talons eyes were set to the front. Focusing all his vision into a small but highly perceptive area. Anytime somepony or something would move his eyes shifted and locked onto the entity. It reminded her of a aggravated Timberwolf.

Her mind returned to the present. She observed the device in his right claw. Most likely another machination of death and war. She looked to his helm and noticed the gold lens watching her as if they were looking for a opening. The eyes under that helms lens' probably were. She turned her attention to the throne rooms other occupants who were noticeably on edge...she couldn't fault them. Her sister was near the point of raking gouges out in her chair's armrests from aggravation. Shining Armor had positioned himself slightly in front of his wife. The image would've made her smile if circumstances weren't as they were. Celestia's student and her friends had a myriad of reactions. Two were on the verge of tears with Rarity trying to comfort them. The other three were on the verge of charging the tribal then and there. She took a deep breath and with a smile that stopped wars from breaking out she turned to Blood Talon and asked. "How was your night?"

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Over two hours of yelling and Cadance was almost at her wits end. The day had started off rather mundane barring the hushed whispers of the maid staff about the palaces two new attendees. She hadn't personally brought in Chrysalis herself despite being a part of her escort to the dining hall yesterday. That would've been the act of courage her Shiny and his guards performed raiding the "Mad Queens" encampment. After the Canterlot invasion a year and a half ago the Equestian Royal Guard dispatched some twelve divisions to the Changeling Conglomerate. When confronted they were told that Chrysalis is in fact a false queen leading a army of renegade changelings from a multitude of hives. They confessed to having no knowledge of this renegade brood and their "Mad Queen". So for a full year the Equestian regulars dispatched multiple scout parties to the surrounding wilderness. It was only half a year ago that they found their first target. Chrysalis had reorganized the structure of her brood by breaking them into what they called "Hive clusters" across the continent. Normally this wouldn't be possible to do. A actual changeling queen could only project their telepathy field over half a country if they were fueling it with their very being. However Chrysalis had devised a way to expand her telepathy field by creating a new breed of changeling. This new breed was called the Nexus or Nexii. They would seat themselves into a hive cluster within the field and begin to project their very being into it empowering the field.

After encountering their first hive cluster all it took was one changeling prisoner on psychoactive spells to give another clusters position. Every battle escalated till the point it was up to the Elite guards duty to break and storm the renegade broods primary hive cluster. It was after a long and hard battle that they realized the Mad Queen wasn't present. Indeed it was discovered that a highly complex network of escape tunnels that took eight days worth of scouring to discover that Chrysalis had indeed escaped...until a week ago. It was a crystal guard patrol that detected strong ambient magics in the Frozen Wastes. After a quick investigation they were surprised to see a changeling encampment. After a report was shuffled to prince Armor the newly reinforced Crystal guard deployed in mass to the encampment. To the surprise of all Chrysalis was found in the deepest chambers of the encampment. After disabling the excuse of a guard she had. She was dragged in chains and iron collar to her new dungeon cell.

Cadance had known of Talons existence from a letter she received from her aunt. It was just a coincidence that he awoke on the same day she accompanied the prison transfer. She could only get second hand accounts of the events leading to that dinner but, while what she heard scared her it also piqued her curiosity. While her family and friends were angered or scared by this tribal she had a growing curiosity for it. One of those curiosities was how he and his people were raised. She imagined one didn't come out of the womb with a serious disposition of hatred to that which didn't wear black and red. So amidst the yelling of threatened imprisonment and death threats she concentrated her voice to speak her question to the sole party. "Excuse me but, could you tell me what it's like to grow up as a Blood Eagle?"

Talon stopped in the middle of a gesture that required him to use one finger of his hand with a raised arm. Before he turned to look at Cadance."What?" The tribal asked getting a reaction of Shining to stand protectively in front of her before she laid a hand on his arm. "I was just wondering because you told us about your people's history but, not what it was like to be one of them." The question was asked with a honest heart. One that made Talon drop only half of his aggression. He still fondled the trigger of his weapon.

"Well life a Blood Eagle warrior starts as simple as any other. You're born to a mother in a sub clan if your not apart of the main clan. From there you do as all babies do. You dribble snot and saliva everywhere while you grow." Everypony shared a uneasy chuckle at that. "Then you start learning how to walk and, whoever's taking care of you at the time starts set obstacles in your path suited for a baby." That unease in the room began to grow. "After you survived your year long obstacle course you go to train with a coven. Which then you start to learn the tribes culture and history." The unease dropped considerably. "Also how you will fight with no mercy and terrifying ferocity that no one would challenge the tribe after." And~ the unease shot through the roof and into the field of horror. "When you reach the age of nine you begin learning how to clean your equipment and weapons. One year after that your givin a training suit like your issued when you graduate. Then you begin training at high speed maneuvers, shooting and hand to hand combat." The minds of the non tribals conjured images of foals lined up in guard armor honing a blade of seething hatred. "Five more years of that and you get to begin training ops where you and half of the coven face off against the other half with training bases and ammunition." Cadance, on the verge of tears, interrupted "But wouldn't the parents of your people's children be abhorred at such treatment!?" She cried looking for a bouy amidst the storm

"No ma'am as a matter of fact our parents push us harder! They say it's good for character." A sob. "Now hold on we're almost done. After two months of this training exercise using games like territory, capture the flag and, rabbit you return to boring home life for a three year probation period for combat readiness...in case a war party gets a little starved for men." With that he ended his experience of growing up a few sobs in the room and some with green faces. Cadance meanwhile could only slowly shook her head from side to side in disbelief. His experience of growing up would explain why he was so aggressive. It was all he knew!

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The expressions of the throne room's occupants were apparent. The tears loosed from half of the elements began to wash the marble floors. The culprits that of Rarity, Pinkie Pie and, most of all Fluttershy. Applejack had lowered the brim of her hat over her eyes. Her rage for the tribal momentarily forgotten. Rainbow had closed her eyes. Images of her surrogate little sister training for war to the point of exhaustion in her head. Twilight gazed at her hands in shock and disbelief. The idea of her childhood education being instead that of a guard. Celestia and Luna held eachothers gazes some form of silent communication at work. Cadance was nearing the point of sobbing but, held herself in dignity. Shining kept switching between casting looks of worry to his wife and, gazing back at Talon with a look of caution.

In the middle of that Talon looked at them all as if they grew a second head or, lost the only one they already had. He didn't really believe that such a common facet of tribal life could be such a shell shock to those who couldn't have known. They all huddled and talked to one another on the other side of the throne room his suit picking up their conversation. He heard subjects like "why" the answer was obvious they had enemies all around them. If it weren't other tribes vying for territory it was the Bio-derms sacking their worlds for war materials. If it wasn't them it was the Empire trying to restrict planets and, shove the tribes on "reservations". Bastards have always been like that. Then came the questions of "How could he survive that?" Another simple answer spit, grit, and pride that was instilled into them when they were young. Talon was mostly the last two. Then his blood ran hot when he heard them coming to a conclusion...greedy barbaric savages. Now Talon was familiar with being labeled the last two. That was the problem...he was familiar with it.

With a roar he slammed his power armored fist in a pillar small pebbles flying from the crack. "DON'T you DARE suggest such a thing just yet you weaklings!" They spun around to gaze back at Talon taken aback that he heard them and shocked by his deep electronic roar. Talon could barely keep himself from storming over and throttling them. "You have NO idea what it's like in Wilder space! If it's not the other tribes attempting to take our world's it's the Horde! If it isn't either of those it's those Imperial bastards trying to shove our people in their 'Reservations for our own good!" He struggled to reign in his breathing his vision on the verge of turning the same color as his armor. "If you aren't ready in Wilder space any one of those thing would chew you up and spit you out in a bleeding mess!" He finishes off by jabbing in their direction...with his chaingun.

At once he felt a pair of arms around his neck and new he'd been had. In a hyped up rage his instincts of four years of tribal combat kicked in. A quick burst of his jet pack sent him and his passenger in the air as he heard a loud clatter of crashing armor from below. He cut his jet's power sending him and his rider down. Using the built up momentum and his armors weight he crashed ,assailant first, onto a pile of other guards who until then were cloaked. When he heard a wheeze and felt the grip around his neck lighten. He kicked his legs up over head his body following then his head slipped out of the hold. Immediately he rose in a crouch and revved up his quad barreled chaingun aiming at the guards, who had spread their wings, that were about to descend from the balconies. When suddenly a shout stopped them all short and, Talon shifted his aim to the lead diarch. She looked absolutely dismayed over what happened. Celestia saw him aim his weapon at her and those around but, she knew he wouldn't fire. After all these types of meetings were apparently important in his culture. As long as no one struck another these meetings were peaceful. She knew that if she didn't stop this now though. He would begin a killing spree. She had ordered her guards to halt and sent the three unconscious guards to the medical wing. She and Luna shared a look then decided it was time. With a flick of the wrist the guards grew into a stance ready for a fight at any second. Then after taking a deep breath to still her self. "I am afraid after the previous day's events and that of today. I have no choice but, to place you under arrest for a indefinite amount of time. Till such a moment we believe you have repaid Equestria for the assault against it's royalty and it's citizens." She let herself breath once more. 'Strong as he maybe even Talon should know he can't take three Royal body guard regiments.' Celestia was about to signal the guards to detain him...before there was a laugh in the room. Startled she looked at Talon who held his gut.

Talon couldn't believe it. He actually thought ahead of time for a occasion he ,at the time, thought up. He knew he wasn't in the clear yet. However he had the tools he prep'd ahead of time. "Sorry princess but, I don't think you would want that to happen." She grew a look of agitation. "And why would that be Talon?"

The question had a certain amount of incredulity to the gall of his statement. One he was going to answer. "Because I laid enough explosives in this castle last night to deface the mountain side."

Author's Note:

So I actually cut this chapter in half. Honestly I'm a bit iffy on this one. To me this chapter is a whole lot of nothing. Anyways I tried to catch as many errors I could as usual but, it might take three days for the next chapter to come out. I have a family event coming up soon. Any ways yall a lil' feedback would be appreciated as always and thanks for reading.

Comments

[RageLord]

Don't worry. The chapter might be "filler" for you, but it still establishes more background.
Just take your time.

[The crossover Trooper]

10826898
Yeah thanks I know I don't have the....best presentation but it means a lot to me hearing stuff like that.