• Published 2nd Apr 2012
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PonyFall: Rainbows - Silverness



During a phenomenon, a human discovers a female with rainbow colored hair...

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The Battlefront

PonyFall: Rainbows

Chapter Four - The Battlefront

Edited by: Darth_Dash & J_Xayph

April 13th, 2012

“Alright, I assume everything is ready?” I asked, settling down on the couch next to Rainbow Dash.

She mumbled something, having just stuffed her mouth with a handful of popcorn. Upon swallowing, she wiped the buttery grease from her lips and looked at me. “Sorry, I was kind of busy, you know, chewing,” she said with gentle sarcasm.

“Right. So...?” I asked again, waiting for a response while tapping my foot.

Dash leaned back on the couch and put her hands behind her head. “How would I know?” she asked. “You’re the expert aren’t you? You’re the one who put those wires into that black box thing, so you tell me.” She picked up a can of Coke and eyed it. “What’s this stuff, anyway?”

I looked over at the can of Coke, knowing that it was part of my emergency stash filled with soda and water. “That’s a soda. It’s a carbonated, flavored drink that is filled with amazing goodness. Usually, I drink some when I have nothing else, but be warned that it affects your body if you drink too much.”

Rainbow arched an eyebrow at me. “Yeah... okaaay. I don’t even understand half of what you just said, but I’ll take your word for it.” She raised the can up and held it briefly to her mouth, then moved it away and held it up, staring at it as if looking for a way to drink it. She quickly grew annoyed and started shaking the can in frustration. I sighed, took the can from her and opened the soda from the tab. Dark brown liquid and foam surged from the can and onto the floor.

“Here.” I handed the wet can back to Rainbow once it had settled down. She cautiously took it, eyeing the mess she evidently caused. “Most of the fizz is already gone, so you might want to drink it now. I’ll go get a towel for the spill.” I got up from my seat, and went into the kitchen to grab a napkin from the cabinet. I tore off a few pieces before heading back where Rainbow was chugging down the entire soda.

“Woah, hold your horses there,” I cautioned, taking the can from her. “You’re going to get yourself a stomach ache.”

“Hey! Give me that back,” she cried, reaching out for the can in my hands. I teasingly held it just out of her reach for a moment before giving it back to her. She narrowed her eyes, glaring at me as she resumed drinking.

I sighed. “Suit yourself then. Don’t come crawling to me for help when you’re stuck on the toilet,” I said. I wiped the floor clean and turned on the television. Rainbow watched from the couch, taking large sips of Coke every thirty seconds or so. “Here, take this,” I said as I tossed one of the two controllers onto her lap. She eyed it curiously, and finally left her drink on the table.

“What’s this thing supposed to be?” she asked, holding it from the side.

“That would be an Xbox 360 controller,” I replied, picking up my own. I held down the large Xbox button in the middle, which began glowing green on the top right side. Below, the Xbox hummed to life as the power ring turned on. I pressed a few buttons on the remote, and changed the input from Cable to HDMI 3. The TV was one of the newer flat screens with high-definition. Thank God Dad bought one at Best Buy before we moved up here.

The screen on the TV turned white, then switched to the normal Xbox loading screen before reaching the sign in menu. Rainbow Dash watched, her eyes never leaving the screen as she stared in wonder at the sight in front of her. I knew they didn’t quite have any of this type of technology – nothing this advanced, anyway – at home, which made it neat to introduce her to new concepts.

A small grin creeped onto her face as she watched the screen, the kind of grin that a kid with a new toy often has. I imagined that if I told her that she looked like a kid, she’d probably get angry with me, so I held back. Besides, anybody would be curious about new things, even Rainbow Dash.

“Yup, we’re going to play a video game; an old favorite of mine.” I picked up the box I brought with me from my room. There were few new games inside, but the original Xbox games were at the bottom. I rummaged through the pile and took out a few to reach the game I wanted and eventually pulled out the one I was looking for and showed it to Rainbow Dash. “It’s called Star Wars: Battlefront II. I love this game so much. It’s one of the few games I own that has multiplayer on it.” I began to drone on and on as to why it was the best game, pointing out all of the amazing things about it.

Rainbow took a sip of Coke and listened to what I had to say. When I was finished, she looked both curious and unamused, somehow. “Okay, so everything you just said made little sense to me, but I did get the part about this being some kind of story that can be controlled, and that it’s one that we can both use at the same time.” I opened the case and nodded at her, pressing the button to open the disc tray. When it opened, I placed the game into the tray and pressed the button again. The tray retracted and slowly went back inside as it read the disc.

As the screen changed to a loading one, I grabbed some popcorn from the bowl between us and munched down on a few pieces. The ACT II popcorn was always delicious, but the buttery kind was simply one of the best I’ve ever eaten. I guessed the same could be said for Rainbow since she had popcorn bits all over her shirt. Eventually, the game finally loaded and the title screen appeared.

I grabbed the controller and pressed the start button. “You ready to play?” I asked Rainbow, turning to face her.

Rainbow glanced over at me with a cocky, yet determined, smirk. “I’m ready for anything, but are you ready to lose against me? Because I don’t want to hear any complaints when you do. Besides, you won’t be the only one to have been defeated by the greatest flyer in Equestria,” she proudly boasted, a smug grin on her face.

“Right, let’s just get started,” I said, chuckling as the menu screen showed up with the Star Wars main theme. I pressed start button again and picked my profile where I was led to all the modes in the game. Conquest was one of the first ones on there and I picked it, taking us to the loadout screen where we could choose which era to play in. I decided on the Imperial era because the Rebel Alliance against the Empire would be a great battle to remember, just as in the movies.

“Rebels or Empire?” I asked her, bringing up the two choices on the screen.

“What’s the difference?” she asked, picking up the controller from her lap. She held it awkwardly, but stole a quick glance at how I was holding it and corrected herself.

“The Rebel Alliance is a group of people who fight to free the galaxy from the Empire. The main heroes of the group are Luke Skywalker, a Jedi Master; Princess Leia Organa, a senator and a leader of the Alliance; Han Solo, a smuggler; and a whole bunch of others that make up the group,” I explained briefly on the Rebels. “As for the Empire, they were formerly called the Republic, but the clones betrayed the Jedi for the Emperor and now control most of the galaxy by force. The main heroes or villains of the group are The Emperor, a Sith Lord and leader of the Empire; Darth Vader formerly known as Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, the Emperor’s right hand man; and Boba Fett, a bounty hunter paid by the Empire. Mainly artificial clones make up the group along with human officers and a whole bunch of other alien races that I can’t even remember most of their names.”

“Whoah whoah whoah,” Rainbow protested, raising her hands up. “Talk about information overload.” She thought for a moment from the way she looked at the ground before pointing towards the Rebel Alliance. “Look, I’ll just play as these guys. They’re the good guys anyway, right?”

I nodded. “Yup, they are. Now, just move your joystick to the left and press the green A button on the left.”

“This thing?” she asked, pointing down at the right joystick. I nodded and she moved it to the Rebel Alliance. A sign in was required, but I decided to put her as a guest for now. I’d make her a profile later. I moved my profile towards the Imperials, and we both pressed okay for our choices. That led us to the campaign map where our conquests would begin. The game told us it was time to start and it was the Imperials that would go first. I bought a Star Destroyer at Coruscant and moved it over to the right where Kashyyyk, Naboo and Mygeeto were. I ended my turn there, and Rainbow began hers.

“So, you just build one ship in any planet?” she asked, trying to figure out what to do.

“Not exactly, you can only build on planets that you control which are highlighted in blue. Those planets are Yavin 4, Hoth, Dagobah, and few others. You can also buy new classes to help you win more battles as well as upgrades whenever you need to use them.” I grabbed my controller, moving the joystick around. “That’s how you’ll move around the map, so give it a shot.”

She looked down at the controller, then at the screen before moving the joystick down. Her position moved towards Felucia, and went back up to Yavin 4. A notification told her she could build on one of her planets and she did. A Mon Calamari cruiser appeared above it. She managed to move it down towards Felucia, which was one of her own. Her turn ended after that.

This same charade kept on going until finally I decided to move my destroyer over Naboo, which triggered a land battle. None of us had bought any equipment, so this would be an equal match. Well, not exactly equal since Rainbow didn’t have any experience with this. I pressed the ‘start battle’ button and the battle began.

“Right trigger is to shoot your weapon, left is to throw or use whatever equipment you have such as grenades and mines. ‘Y’ is to switch weapons to whatever secondary you’re using and ‘B’ is to roll. The primary mission in a land battle is to control all the points on the map before you run out of troops, which is shown on the top of the screen. We all start with 200 soldiers in total,” I explained. “So... are you ready?”

She nodded her head hesitantly each time I explained something new. When I finished, she tried pressing the buttons I told her before grinning and turning to face me. “Aww yeah, I am so ready for this,” she said. The cockiness and determination that her face had shown earlier had returned.

“Alright then, here we go!” I said, picking the standard stormtrooper while she picked a rebel trooper and we began the game.

At first, the battle was evenly matched with both of us losing a constant number of troops each minute. For being a beginner, Rainbow Dash was a quick learner and made several quick kills with her blaster rifle before being killed by another soldier. As for me, I fought my way into the palace grounds where the heavy fighting took place. Most of my soldiers were already taking cover behind the plants and walls while Rainbow’s troops kept a firm grip on the western plaza. This, however, didn’t last long.

“Hayfeathers!” Rainbow cursed beside me. I glanced at her and saw that she was having trouble with her fingers. They were moving in awkward directions, which made her unable to use the controller properly. “Argh! Why can’t I do this right?!”

I couldn’t turn back and help her. I had a mission to do and that was to win this land battle. While she was fiddling with the controller, I moved in behind three of my own troops, and began picking off rebels one after another. The troop count slowly dwindled from one hundred fifty-two to one hundred twenty. Rainbow’s expression slowly changed from confident to uncertain as she saw her soldiers slowly die off one by one.

She tried to take control of the match by taking over the eastern and central plaza with her troops, but her difficulty with the controller caused her character to move awkwardly on the screen. At the same time, my troops took over the west. As soon as I was about to go take back the center, a soldier got a lucky hit on me and shot me in the head. I respawned shortly after, and made my way alone into the central plaza where a few rebels guarded the position. They began firing on me as soon as they saw me, but I took cover behind the walls. Once there, I fired shots at every single one of them until all of them were dead. By the time I captured the point, Rainbow’s troops had dwindled down to merely a six-man squad against ninety. She made a desperate attempt into the central plaza, but accidentally pressed the jump button instead of the barrel roll button before drowning in the water. The game ended as soon as she died with the Empire as the victors.

“What?!” she shouted, her face showing a mixture of shock and annoyance. “This thing... ugh!” Rainbow tossed her controller down into her lap and crossed her arms. “You got lucky,” was all she could manage to say.

“I won that battle and the planet. So now you have six of the thirteen total planets,” I smiled, and gave her a pat on the head. She pushed my hand away, and fixed her messy hair up before grumbling about how unfair that battle was. “Ready to continue, sourpuss?” I asked. Her only response was something inaudible, but she picked up her controller and pressed the A button to continue and so we did.

The game continued on with each of us taking our turns and buying new classes. Rainbow’s cruiser finally managed to reach Tatooine, which was under my control. The battle ended up coming very close, but amazingly Rainbow took the win and planet. I retaliated by capturing Kashyyyk, but not before the same cruiser came from underneath and crushed our force in Naboo. By now, Rainbow had two wins in a row, but that was only because she brought reinforcements to help her through the fight to basically win through attrition. I sent my star destroyer towards Naboo, which activated a space battle.

“Space battle? You mean we’ll be fighting way up in the sky like where aliens come from?” Rainbow asked, eyeing her controller and still trying to hold it correctly.

“Well,” I started off. “You’re right, Star Wars has many species in the galaxy. The common one would be humans since they are on almost every single planet. Only a handful of planets aren’t home to humans. Anyway, the Galactic Civil War was a war fought on all fronts and with every single species alike, so yeah.”

“Right. That makes sense, I guess,” Rainbow mumbled in agreement. “I always thought aliens looked different than... than this.” She motioned toward the screen.

“How exactly?” I asked, curious to know what she thought an alien looked like.

“Well... like a weird green pony with big dark eyes, I guess,” Rainbow explained. “Boy was I wrong...” She hung her head low and stared at her fingers in silence. I tried to figure out what I should do to cheer her up, but she suddenly gave her head a small shake and looked up at me. Her expression told me she was back to the same Rainbow Dash I knew.

I guess she’s beginning to realize that her beliefs and ideals might not be entirely accurate. I’ll need to remember to avoid bringing that up in the future.

I decided not to pursue the matter further and we continued our game. The game proceeded on with Rainbow losing the space battle and then the land battle commenced. She fought back bravely only to lose towards the end. She built another cruiser, which rushed its way towards Coruscant. By then, it was eight thirty at night and we had gone through two bags of popcorn and a case of soda, most of which was drunk by Rainbow herself. The tides seemed to turn around for me as I launched a surprise attack on Yavin 4 from Mygeeto, which managed to suppress an attack from Felucia. Rainbow’s frustration with the controller was growing more and more visible each time I took a planet.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Rainbow splayed out her arms to emphasize her frustration before taking it out on the controller. “For the love of Celestia, why won’t you do what I want you to do!?”

“Maybe it just doesn’t like you,” I teased.

“Just start the land battle...” Rainbow grumbled, glaring back at me angrily.

The battle for Felucia ended up being a victory to the Empire, much to Rainbow’s chagrin, and that left her with Polis Massa, Dagobah, and Hoth. I wasn’t going to give up now, and knew that even with the unfair advantage that this was still all in fun. Well, maybe not for everyone, it seemed.

When Rainbow tried to take over Polis Massa from Hoth, I fought my way to the victory and attacked the rebel base. She lost the planet, but tried holding on with a hero ability. This victory helped me take down Dagobah easily, which left her with Hoth as her last planet. She had only one cruiser defending the planet to the four of my star destroyers. Much to my surprise, she held out the first attack only to be crushed by the second. That left the land battle to complete before total domination occurred.

I mashed all the buttons in a frenzy to stay alive while Rainbow’s troops took over each point with ease. Even without her, her reinforcements were actually doing well, but they eventually dwindled to nothing as her main force reached the center. I had a few soldiers as well taking cover, but judging by the number of troops we each had left, I would lose this battle. That’s if I didn’t have my trump card. As soon as the number reached eighty, I gained fifty more soldiers from my reinforcement card and we had the numbers to beat her back.

“Oh come on!” she yelled. She finally gave up trying to properly use the controller and resorted to wild button mashing in her frustration.

The battle began swinging in my favor with her troops losing ground by the second. As they lost ground, I lost more men from Rainbow’s trigger finger and her ability to stay alive better than her other soldiers. She had at least three dozen still left, but she was fighting through it all. I had to be amazed at her commitment to survive that long in the center because everyone was dying left and right. Our own numbers slowly crumbled to seventy, and that number grew smaller by the minute. I began freaking out as my numbers were reaching Dash’s and the realization of her actually making an underdog victory became so real.

“No! You’re not going to win this,” I shouted, frantically shooting my way through every single rebel soldier that stood in my path. They fell before they could fire their weapons, my troops rallying behind me. We easily took back the central point and pushed the rebels back to their own position, but there was no sign of Rainbow anywhere. Where is she?

Then, a stormtrooper beside me crumpled to the ground and another did the same. A sniper was shooting the remaining soldiers in my squad and our numbers dwindled to seven, then five. There wasn’t much time left and that last spawn point was the only thing keeping the rebels alive. My men charged straight forward into the entrance of the last rebel base where nine rebel soldiers covered a sniper who took out another clone. A name stood atop of the sniper, Player 2, which was Dash’s profile name.

I looked over her side as she did the same, her finger on the trigger. I realized that she was aiming for me and I quickly barrel rolled out of the way. The shot hit another clone, bringing the total to 20 - 5, but the other four clones killed a few rebels before being killed themselves. I backed away from the last four soldiers, killing two and almost another before Rainbow fired another shot from her sniper rifle and left me with critical health. How she managed that, I have no idea. She pulled out a pistol, which would seal my fate and the entire empire with it. I heard her press the trigger on the controller and the shot rang out from the TV screen before it whizzed past me. She missed, ha! With that miss, I shot the remaining rebels including Dash and sealed the fate of the galaxy with it.

“The Empire has made a crushing defeat against the Rebel Alliance on Hoth. The Rebels have been crushed from the galaxy and an era of galactic domination begins,” the voice announced from the game.

“Ha! I did it! I defeated the Rebels!” I shouted with delight, grinning widely. Beside me, Rainbow groaned in defeat and placed her head in her hands. “I knew I’d win.”

“Yeah!? Well... well you just got lucky!” she yelled, bristling. She then calmed down and shrugged. “It’s no big deal, really. Besides, it’s not like it was a real competition or anything,” she commented, trying to ignore the fact that she lost.

“Right, well you were a good opponent to face in battle, and very honourable too,” I said, trying to cheer her up. “Even with the unfair advantage of you being unable to move your fingers very well.”

“Well... thanks,” she said, managing a small smile. She put her hands behind her head and leaned back on the couch. “I am Rainbow Dash after all, so I guess my awesomeness just rubbed off of you somehow. Yeah, that’s gotta be it.” Suddenly, she stretched and yawned. “Is it already time to hit the hay? I didn’t realize how tired I am.”

I looked over at the clock, which read ten thirty in the night. “It is ten at night. What time do you usually go to bed?” I asked, not knowing a pony’s bedtime.

She suppressed another yawn. “Actually, that would be right about now. I go to bed early so I can get the extra sleep I need to clear the weather in Ponyville.” She stopped herself for a moment and looked away from my before continuing. “So... yeah, I guess I fall asleep around this time. I might as get to sleep.” Her eyes drooped as she placed a pillow on her side. I began to scoot to the side just as she rested her head against my lap, apparently deciding that my leg would act as a suitable pillow for now.

“Goodnight Cody...” she muttered softly before she went completely still. I stayed in the same position, not moving a muscle until I decided that it was safe to move. I gently scooted out of the seat, lifting her head up and placing a pillow underneath it. She seemed to smile at the new found comfort and made herself comfortable, digging into the seat.

I continued watching as Rainbow soundly slept. Her mouth was slightly open, an arm hanging out over the side. She did look cute when she was sleeping, but then, I shouldn’t have expected anything less when she looked cute as a pony anyway. I wondered how exactly she’d look as a pony here before leaving the living room to bring a blanket for Rainbow. There was a spare one left inside the dryer that I brought over to the couch and draped it over Rainbow’s body. She stirred in her sleep, moving the blanket closer to her before she stopped. I slowly lifted her arm up and placed it back on the couch. A small smile appeared on her face as she mumbled something, not sure what though. Maybe a thank you? I’m not sure, but I’ll just go with it.

“Anytime, Rainbow Dash,” I replied. I left her to her sleep and made my way to my own room. It was the same as I’d left it: clothes lying in a pile near my closet, my laptop resting on top of my desk, said desk full of notebooks and pencils. Beside all that, my empty rack of video games hung up on the wall since all my games and Xbox 360 were in the living room. If I hadn’t been so tired, I might’ve considered playing another game, but I didn’t want to fall asleep with the TV on. Besides that, I didn’t want to wake up the sleeping guest. Deciding for the best, I climbed into bed, covered myself with my blanket, and fluffed my pillow. Everything went quiet, leaving me to ponder the recent events.

I was just a normal kid in a normal neighborhood, who happened to find a girl from a fictional land named Equestria. How could I be lucky enough to find Rainbow Dash? I guessed I was, but tomorrow or the next day after that I needed to start the search for others.

I sighed, closing my eyes. Maybe I would dwell more on the situation tomorrow. Besides, the pillow was nice and fluffy, and my mind was already drifting away into sleep. I stopped thinking, letting my mind rest, and with that darkness slowly overtook me into a deep slumber.

Author's Note:

Before anybody freaks out, I'd like to say that I'm refining the chapters and adding more to the timeline so the story can make sense and flow better. The good news is that most of the chapters are done for this phase, I was just considering when to post them. SO, this is the first one of the four chapters. Enjoy!