Blood in the sand

by Bronycommander

Chapter 10 Failure Part 2

Chapter 10: Failure Part 2

The Eternal Knight awoke with a gasp, breathing heavily, trying to remember what had happened. He found himself in a severely damaged facility, an alarm was ringed through the hall, a dead pony in a white scientist lab coat was lying on the floor a few meters away from him, a fallen over generator was burning.

“Attention. Security personnel to Sector C immediately.” A female intercom voice announced.

What the hay happened here? Fletcher wondered, getting up with a groan of pain, checking himself. His chest was bandaged and ached but otherwise fine.

I need to get out of here! Whatever happened, it can’t be good! He realized how bad this was.

Fortunately for him, a Med Kit was lying next to the dead scientist, Fletcher patched himself up with it. “Much better!”

His bow was right next to him, so he wasn’t unarmed should he be forced to defend himself.

Climbing over the fallen over generator, he came to the other side of the corridor, removing debris from an elevator to get to the next level, hearing two familiar voices.

“Why didn’t they listen?!? I…I tried to warn them!” He heard Patch’s voice, appearing to be shocked.

“I never thought I’d see Resonance Cascade…Let alone, create one!” Wagensroll exclaimed in shock as the elevator arrived on the upper level.

Fray was relieved to see that both were unharmed, his relative was sitting against the wall, his head lowered, then looked up. “By Luna’s moon! He’s alive!” Fletcher’s relative exclaimed relived upon seeing him.

“Fletcher! You need to get to the surface and get help. There’s no telling what kind of danger is out there.” Patch said to him.

“Of course. What the hay happened?” Fletcher asked him.

“I don’t know. I was just doing some checks, then everything rumbled and I blacked out.”

“Be careful.” Fray’s relative hugged him, he returned it.

“I will.”

As he headed out, he heard Patch mumble, “My goodness…What have we done?”

The Unicorn made his way through the damaged corridors that were partially in flames, bloodied, or scattered with corpses.

What happened here? What’s a Resonance Cascade? He wondered as he reached a control room that was also partially in flames, the door to the floor was stuck as a crowbar was jammed into it.

Fletcher grabbed it with his hooves, trying to pull it out, with success as the door opened. “A crowbar, both a useful tool and weapon, may come in handy.”

Just as he had said this, a terrible scream greeted his ears, coming from the corridor.

“Contact…” A distorted voice sounded at the end, Fletcher could see a pony but it was too dark to see more. As he came closer, the unicorn could see that the pony was wearing starry-patterned hooded cloak, black sap-silk, having it’s back to him. The clothes meant the pony was a member of the Dark Hose squad, the personal unit of the Eternal Knights. “Soldier, are you okay?” Fletcher asked but got no response.

“Sector is...” The soldier breathed heavily. “Not Secure...”

“Soldier?” Fletcher asked again, getting worried before the pony turned around with a terrifying moan, raising its fore hooves which were now claws, his head was tan-colored, no, his face no longer visible. “Holy Luna!” The unicorn exclaimed in shock and surprise, ducking to dodge the swiping claws.

Fletcher knew instantly that this pony wasn’t itself anymore, trying to shoot an arrow at its head, but he felt pain as he tried to do so, making it impossible to use his bow.

As the creature charged at him with outstretched legs, he quickly swinged the crowbar into the creature’s head, killing it instantly, it fell backwards towards the ground.

Now he could get a closer look and was horrified. The uniform was covered in blood stains, the tan-colored head was actually a crab-like creature that had fallen off the pony’s head by his attack, revealing that aside from the lower jaw and a small lower portion of skull, the head was missing, making it impossible to identify the Dark Horse member. “Damn it…I hope you can rest in peace now.” Fray mourned his comrade, checking the bag for anything useful, noticing that a MP40 was next to the body, the bags of it had several magazines for it.

“Why would they use German WW2 weapons?” Fletcher wondered before he realized something. “If the Dark Horse squad is here…then Wolf and Midnight must be here too!” He exclaimed, worried they could have the same fate.

A portal sound came from behind. Turning around, the Eternal Knight saw one of those crabs coming out, jumping towards his head with a shriek, only to be hit with the crowbar, dying instantly after hitting the ground with a dying groan. “You won’t make a zombie out of me! Or however you could call those…things.”

He made his way down the corridor, fighting more of those crabs and more of those zombies like creatures. Unlike the Dark Horse member, those poor ponies let out terrifying screams and moans like they tried to call out for help. Also, their ribcage was open, their rips broken. As he managed to rip the crab of its victim, it horrified him to see that the head was bent abnormally upwards, the mane was matted with blood, and the face was pale, with eyes shut and mouth open in a frozen scream.

“Dear Luna…Poor souls…” He said in pity before moving on.

Upon coming past a storage room, a teleport sound resounded behind the closed their, Fray stopped, taking aim at the door as something tried to break through.

As the door got destroyed an alien somewhat humanoid, with two legs and two arms and an additional third arm protruding from the chest came out of it, having mottled green-brown skin, sharp teeth, and clawed hands and a large eye with a maroon Sclera and a Heterochromic red-yellow iris with a yellow pupil, surrounded by three smaller eyes. “Die!” It yelled, taunting at him, charging up what seemed to be an energy attack as green lightning formed at its claws.

Fray quickly used the wall as cover as the alien fired, then fired a short burst at his head, taking it out, yellow colored blood sprayed from the alien’s head. “Could it be that… they accidently created a portal to another world?” It was highly possible but it wasn’t important right now to think about it, he had to reach the surface.

The next corridor was fortunately free from any hostile, a sign saying “Surface access” made him smile, relieved that he would soon be out of here.

Then, he saw a blood strain on the ground, causing him to follow it carefully, until he saw a badly wounded Lunar guard on the ground, crawling towards what seemed to be a door.

As Fletcher decided to help him, the door opened and 2 ponies wearing black jumpsuits and night vision googles came out, armed with silenced weapons.

Something told the unicorn that those weren’t friendly, so he stayed out of sight.

To his horror, he witnessed how one of the armed ponies aimed at the wounded guard who held his hoof up to beg for mercy. “Why do we always have to clean up a mess the Eternal Knights and their Squad can't handle? Sooner or later they are gonna figure it out.” One pony said to its partner with an angry voice.

“No…please…” The guard pleaded before the pony fired, blood sprayed from the Royal guard’s head, the body becoming limp.

Fletcher was shocked upon seeing this, Luna would never order something like this. Celestia used to be the Eternal Knights’ enemy but even she would never do this. Regardless, he quickly aimed at the Black clothed ponies, scoring headshots before they could react.

A clean-up crew? That isn’t good! That was another point to find his friends and to get out of here.

Quickly getting through the door, he found himself in another lab that was surpassingly not damaged at all. There was a tank in the middle of the room, a trapped alien inside it, looking very similar to the humanoid alien he encountered earlier, but was larger, equipped with metallic armor around the groin and shoulders, as well as metal helmets and shoes, strangely leaving head and torso exposed.

“Okay, what in the hay went wrong with…whatever happened here?” Fletcher spoke out loud as the large alien tried to break out with no success.

Another door opened, a group of black dressed ponies came out, opening fire on the Eternal Knight which dived behind a desk for cover. In the crossfire, the bullets had damaged the glass of the tank, the alien roared, attacking the hostile ponies.

Peeking carefully around the corner, Fray saw that the Alien was using some kind of biological weapon on the right arm, firing what seemed to be hornets, homing in on targets.

As such, the ponies didn’t stand a chance against it, getting killed quickly, one of them dropped wounded on its knees, the Alien punched him, making him flying against the wall.

Then it turned around aiming at the Eternal Knight who fired on the Alien’s head, managing to take it out before it had a chance to attack him. Fletcher breathed heavily, reloading his weapon after the alien was down, taking some ammo from the dead ponies as they used silenced MP40s.

“Okay…Guess we accidently went into war with aliens…” Fray commented as he went through the door the Black clothed ponies had taken to get in.

He was relieved to see that it leaded outside, being greeted by cool air, the warm sun and a rocky mountain like surrounding.

“Okay, I’m at the surface. Now, let’s find the others so we can safe anypony in need and get out of here.” He spoke to himself as he moved down the dusty road that were deserted, no aliens or ponies for that matter.

The road led to a couple of warehouses, one of them had a damaged roof due a fallen down radio tower which was still running, so Fray deactivated the power at the power switch nearby and used the tower to get to the roof, so he could enter the building.

A scientist was in the toom where the roof had a hole. “You’re heading for the next entrance, aren’t you?” He asked Fletcher.

“Yes, why?”

“I was heading there myself until I wound up here, and, well…” The scientist laughed nervously. “Simply lost my nerve! Take one look through that door and you'll see what I mean. I'm just going to wait out the catastrophe in here. If you intend to go on, then I beg of you, for all our sake, proceed with extreme caution!”

“Okay.” Fletcher wondered why until he came into the storage room, it was filled with explosives, trip mines everywhere. “Are you kidding me?!” He asked in disbelief.

He spotted the elevator in the middle of the room. Checking his magic, he could gather enough to teleport to the elevator, noticing a torn apart alien on it, its biological weapon intact as he rode the elevator down, coming down to a tunnel, a military truck parked on the road.

“Hey! HEY! Get these guys off me!” He heard a pony calling out for help and shots, seeing a medium build earth pony stallion with brown coat, black mane and brown eyes, running towards him, 2 members of the “Clean-up” crew in pursuit.

Fletcher aimed for their heads and pulled the trigger, saving the stallion. “Thanks. I thought my butt was cooked.” The security pony thanked him, armed with a revover, wearing a bulletproof vest.

“You don’t need to thank me, I help anyone in need.” The unicorn replied, checking his ammo. He had still enough in reserve but to his magic being low, he was practical defenseless at long range and he could run out of ammo at one point.

“Don’t take this the wrong way buddy, but you’re the best thing, I’ve seen all day.” The guard said to him, Fletcher looked at his nametag. Dust Dunes.

“It’s okay.” Having seen the abilities of the Hive mind, Fray saw some use in it, picking up with his magic, cautiously examining it. “I apologize for this.” He said before inserting his right fore hoof into its rear end, to which the weapon squealed in protest against it, before twitching and freezing for a second as his hoof was fully in.

Dust just said, “You want a cigarette? Not you, the hand.”

“I don’t think that creature smokes.” Fletcher replied. “I guess you want to get out too?”

“Yes. I got your back.” Dusk replied and they moved out along the tunnel.

“Hey, me and a buddy of mine were looking for some kind of weapons lock-up here. Least ‘til we got ambushed. With any luck we’re close to it.” Dusk informed him.

“Good to know.” Fray replied, he could refill his ammo and equip some other weapons too.

Getting out of the tunnel, a group of armored aliens teleported in, the sound of a plane engine greeted the ponies’ ears, seeing a plane dropping bombs on the aliens, clearing the way for them and a group of guards that arrived on the other end with an IFV. “Commander Fletcher, glad to see you are okay. Wolf and Midnight are further ahead.” One of the guards reported.

“Thanks, soldier.”

The armory was just around the corner, taking the stairs up, a small officer was at the end of the corridor.

“Freeze!” A guard yelled, hidden in the office.

“Whoa! Whoa! Hold your fire.” Dusk tried to calm his coworker down.

“Dunes? Good Celestia man, how many lives do you have?” the guard asked, Dusk chuckled.

“None if it wasn’t for my new buddies here. Hey, buzz us in, will ya?”

“Oh yeah…” The guard pressed a button and the door opened. “Go ahead.”

The Eternal Knights let out a whistle. In the Armory were all kind of firearms, grenades and Med Kits.

“Holy Luna!” Fletcher was lost for words.

“Not bad, huh?” The guard asked with pride.

“Not bad! You hit the motherlode!” The Earth pony was impressed.

“What can I say? I got expensive taste.”

“Dammed if I’m not glad to see a familiar face. What say you, me and the soldier here grab what we can, and get out of dodge?”

“Well…we should wait for a while. Let things die down a bit.”

“Well, I could take a break.” Dusk sat down on a crate. “Head out if you’re want buddy, but make sure you’re stocked up. I don’t think it’s getting any easier from there.”

“Thank you.” Fletcher took some grenades and a pistol as backup weapon, before leaving the armory.

His way led him through a partially destroyed and collapsed building, fighting his way through more of those Zombie-like creatures.

His way out led to what seemed to be a parking lot, a radio and several dead guards next to it where here.

“Any station, any station, this is Luna-5-Crescent. Are there any available air assets able to provide support in Sector 8? Any station, any station, this is Luna-5-Crescent. Are there any available air assets able to provide support in Sector 8? Is anyone reading this?” The radio buzzed.

“Thunderclap, this is Luna-5-Night. We need fire support, how copy?”

“This is Thunderclap-1. No longer in a position to assist. We're moving to LZ Dark.”

“What the Tartarus are you saying? We're freakin' surrounded over here!”

“Push out to the nearest LZ, and await further instruction!”

Sounds like they are in deep trouble. I hope you are okay, Wolf and Midnight. Fletcher thought with concern.

He moved on down the street, hearing gunfire in the distance, coming to another radio.

“Any station! Any Station! This is Lunar 4! I have sixteen wounded, seven dead at LZ Owl! We have multiple X-Rays all around us! We cannot take off, we are grounded. Is anyone out there? We need support now!” Desperate and panicking screams of wounded filled the background.

“Lunar-4, this is Hellhound 3. Reading you loud and clear. ETA, one mike. Sit tight guys.”

That doesn’t sound good. Fletcher’s concern about his friends grew.

Walking down the road and up the stairs, he reached a partially destroyed security office with a dead security guard inside it, overlooking a LZ with a tiltrotor transporter being surrounded by several small and large aliens, a small guard force tried desperately to defend itself but got slowly overwhelmed by the aliens.

Fletcher assumed that this was Lunar 4, spotting a fuel truck next to the helicopter. Some bullets hit it, causing it to explode, destroying the helicopter in a big explosion and killing all remaining guards.

In that moment, an IFV which the unicorn assumed was Hellhound 3 busted through a gate, followed by a squad of Lunar guards.

The guards never stood a chance, the IFV managed to mow some of the aliens down before it exploded by the attacks, it’s turret blown off, leaving only a burning wreck.

Then the aliens spotted Fletcher. He quickly dived behind the wall for cover, knowing that the SMG was useless at this range. Let’s see how this living weapon works.

He fired the “hand” behind his cover, it’s hornets homing in on any alien they could find, even the big guys who used this weapon themselves fell quickly.

His “hand” shook violently as if it lost its breath, he took notice that the hornets seemed to regenerate. Homing ability and unlimited ammo? That will come in handy for sure!

He climbed down, looking at the mess. “I guess everything’s getting out of control. I should hurry.”

Fray decided to walk through the tunnel the IFV had come through, using the cat walk, as the street was blocked by burning trucks, spotting a dead Royal Guard lying against the wall.

Coming towards the end of the tunnel, he heard gunfire and screaming, then roaring and another scream. “CRRAPPP! HUNGGH!”

A Dark Horse member got punched through the wall by one of the large aliens.

The Eternal Knight just had regenerated enough magic to fire a powerful arrow at the Alien’s head as it faced him, killing it instantly.

Then Fletcher turned to the soldier, he was still alive but dying as blood came through his black iron mask. “You've got the get out of here. Listen to me, Fray. Those things... they'll kill all of us...” He warned the unicorn before succumbing to his injury.

“Rest in peace, comrade. I need to get out of here, fast!” He realized that this battle was lost before moving through the created hole in the wall. It was an office, several dead guards and Dark Horse members were scattered around it, the walls bloodied.

“Note to myself: Avoid close combat with those big guys at all costs.” He made a note as he took the stairs up.

Again, the sound of battle greeted his ears, now overlooking a large area of Lunar Guards and Aliens fighting each other. A tank moved up, looking similar to a Tiger Tank used by Germany in WW2.

“This is Nightmare 1. Multiple targets in the open. 3 o'clock! 50 meters, on the way!” The tank commander yelled as the gunner fired at the Aliens.

The battle raged on for a few minutes before the commander yelled, “Enemy air incoming!” as a flying Alien entered the battle, Fletcher almost mistook it for a tadpole with its head and tail. His eyes went wide in shock as a very powerful orange beam of energy came from it’s belly, moving towards the tank.

“Back up! Back up! BACK THE-“ The tank commander yelled but the driver reacted too slow as the beam reached the tank in the moment it reversed, blowing it’s turret off and destroying it, leaving only a burning wreck. The infantry got overran within seconds.

“Dear Luna…” Fletcher muttered in shock before he took out the remaining Aliens with his biological weapon.

After all hostiles were down, he climbed down. “This is way behind out of control.” The Eternal Knights and the Dark Horse squad had fought many battles that looked lost, yet won, encountered many powerful enemies but this seemed to surpass everything they had experienced so far.

His way led him to another tunnel, scattered with bodies of Lunar Guards.

He came to a radio that buzzed to life. „Any Station, any station, this is Luna-3-Cresent. My team…ambushed…I am injured. I’m losing a lot of blood here…left leg.” A Guard reported with a labored breathing.

“Luna-3-Cresent, this is Luna-5-Midnight, I need you to tie a tourniquet a hoof’s length above the wound. Get one of out your IFAK now.”

“IFAK’s gone.”

“Say again?”

“My IFAK’s gone… I’m uhh…” The Guard’s breath was weaker, cutting off.

“Ok, you’re gonna need to find another pack, and get a tourniquet out of it.” Luna-5-Midnight advised. “Are you still there? Luna-3-Cresent, can you hear me?” Then screams in the background before there was only static.

“Way behind out of control!” The Eternal Knight was shocked and horrified before he moved on.

A loud roar echoed through the tunnel, causing Fletcher to almost lose his balance. “That doesn’t sound good.”

He came to what appeared to be a junction, a gate to his left and front, the latter was blocked by a fuel truck. “Now, Now, NOW, NOW! Blow it! Damn!” 2 Lunar guards came running out of the front gate, making Fletcher wonder what the guard was meaning.

“Run, Goddamnit!” The other yelled as Fray got his answer.

A six meters tall, mostly blue in color Alien with one red eye and two massive pincers, as well as a pair of vestigial legs below the trunk, rammed through the front gate, throwing the truck at the guards, crushing them.

Fletcher was horrified yet wasted no time to run through the gate to his left, the Alien close in pursuit, emitting flames from its pincers.

The tunnel led out into the open, the stallion saw a tactical map on a platform, using an alien-like Trampoline to get on it. A radio was next to it, buzzing.

“Come in Wolf! Do you copy? Wolf, do you read me? Forget about Sunset! We’re abandoning the base. If you have any last bomb targets, mark them on the tactical map. Otherwise, get the hell out of there!” Explosions filled the background. “Repeat, we are pulling out and commencing airstrikes. Give us targets, or get below! Over!” Fray heard Midnight on the radio before there was static.

He quickly marked the gate for an air strike, pressing the fire button on the moment the Alien came out, the explosion tore the Alien apart.

Relived, Fletcher sat down, breathing heavily as he was exhausted, noticed several military gunships and transport helicopters leaving the facility, also an air raid siren sounded.

The Eternal Knights would never leave a comrade or each other behind. Then he remembered, the message Midnight sent was for Wolf, but he hadn’t see her. Knowing her, she probably did mark targets and got out of here before the message had come through, she was known for her rapidity in completing her mission tasks.

That gave him hope that she was still alive.

She has to be still alive! She can’t be dead! Fray however slowly realized that this might be not the case, given the heavy losses he had seen.

And then…

“NO!”

White Wolf was lying with her back against a box of ammunition next to the radio, bloodied. There was nothing that could hint how she had died.

“Wolf…” Fletcher started to cry, mourning his friend. “You didn’t deserve this….”

Sure, the Eternal Knights didn’t feared death but cared for each other. They rather preferred to die together in battle than separated. The only thing Fray could hope that Wolf had died quickly without pain and that Midnight Blade was still alive.

“Help!” a young voice of a girl exclaimed, Fletcher recognized it instantly.

Katja! He jumped down from the platform, running into the direction her scream had come from.

As he spotted the young girl, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Katja was crawling backwards until she was trapped against a wall, her attacker was Dinky, controlled by one of those crabs, her forehooves mutated to claws. Her ribcage open, making the same noises as the other Zombies, making him wonder if she was dead or still alive, trying to call out for help.

Taking a deep breath, he aimed for the crab with his MP40 and fired a short controlled bust, putting her out of her misery. It wasn’t easy for him. “So sorry, Dinky. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. You deserved a better fate than this.” He mourned her, trying not to throw up due how terrible her body looked like due the crab, a bit relieved that the crab stayed on her head, not able to take it how her face would look like.

“Are you hurt?” He asked Katja, who was trembling heavily, having covered her face with her arms as protection.

As she slowly uncovered herself, he saw that she multiple scrapes and scratches but was otherwise fine. “F-fletcher? Is it really you?” She asked with a shaken voice.

“Yes. What happened?”

“I don’t know. As this…invasion happened, the guards attempted to evacuate me, my brother and Dinky but the evacuation chopper got shot down. When I regained consciousness, I saw Dinky being controlled by those…things. My brother…Brother!” She exclaimed, pointing behind Fletcher.

Turning around, he saw the crashed chopper, bodies of the guards scattered around. His eyes went wide upon spotting Blau Streifen.

The colt was trapped under debris, one of those crabs on his head, his body twitching, his hooves were still normal and his ribcage was also not ripped open, meaning there was still a chance to save him.

Knowing he had to act fast, Fray galloped over, taking his crowbar and ripping the crab off with a strongwhack.

Blau Streifen started to gasp as he sucked in as much air as he could, then coughed. He had also scrapes and scratches, blood was running down his head from the crab.

The Eternal Knight saw the body of a medic in the wreck, taking his Med Kit to patch the young colt up as good as he could, bandaging his head.

“Th-Thank you…” Blau managed to say, being much weakened.

Katja was relieved that Fletcher had saved her brother, smiling happy at both of them before her expression became one of fear, pointing at something behind Fletcher. “Zo-Zo-Zom-Zomb-Zom-ZOMBIE!”

Fletcher turned around, hearing a loud wail and something pinned him to the ground, dropping his firearm.

He struggled to get free, seeing that his attacker was White Wolf, being controlled by another of those crabs, her forehooves now claws, her ribcage open, letting another wail out.

No! Not like this!

Several gunshots ringed in his ears, the mare’s body and head got perforated by bullets, allowing Fletcher to throw the body off him.

Turning into the direction the shots had home from, he saw that Katja was his savior, the SMG in her hands, shaking, eyes closed. She had fired the entire mag, proved by a clicking sound.

She then dropped the weapon, breaking down crying. Without hesitation, Fletcher hugged her, the girl’s brother tried to do the same, managing to gather enough strength to do so.

“It's okay. It's okay...But just for future reference, please don't close your eyes when you shoot anything close to me.” The unicorn spoke in a comforting and calming voice.

It took her a few minutes to calm down. “I…there was no other way to save you…” Katja’s voice was shaken.

“It’s okay. Now, let’s get out of here. I promise I get you to safety.” For Dinky, any help was too late but at least he could save the siblings from having a horrible fate.

Blau Streifen tried to stand up and walk, his legs wobbled, showing he was in no condition to do so.

“Let me help.” Fletcher levitated him on his back. “Let’s get out of here.” The children nodded as they entered another tunnel that was next to the crash site.

As they walked through, it rumbled and debris fell down, Katja screamed, covering her head, Fletcher reacted quickly, teleporting himself and the kids to the other side before they got squashed.

“Thank you…” The young pony was grateful.

“Just doing my job.” Fray replied as the corridor led to a security office with a radio and a dead security guard. The radio buzzed.

“Forget about Sunset! We’re cutting our losses and pulling out! Anyone left down there now is on his own! Repeat: If you weren’t alrea--- What? Oh shit! No! No---“Indiscriminate screams of impending doom followed by radio static was heard.

The tunnel which seemed now like an underground car park, rumbled from airstrikes. “No…” the siblings’ eyes started to tear up, breaking down crying, Fletcher felt how his fur got wet from Blau Streifen’s tears. Not that he minded it. Their young minds couldn’t take this pressure, the airstrikes and everything was too much for them.

“Shh, calm down, I promise I get you out of here alive.” He tried to calm them down, it took several minutes until they stopped, looking at him with tear filled eyes.

“B-but… we got left behind with those…things!” The girl exclaimed in fear.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t another way out of here.” He was optimistic about it trying to make them hope.

With a weak smile, Blau Streifen said, “You’re right, we can still get out of here.” His sister nodded, smiling also weak.

The sound of hoof steps reached his ears, coming from the doorway that leaded deeper into the car park. Fletcher trained his weapon on the door as it opened. He was glad to see a familiar face.

“Midnight, you’re okay!” The bat pony was covered in blood, pony and Alien by the looks if it and looked very exhausted, breathing heavily, his left wing bandaged.

“Glad to see you’re fine too. Where’s White Wolf?” He asked Fray which lowered his head with a sad expression.

“She…didn’t make it.”

Midnight’s eyes went wide in shock, staring for a few minutes before exclaiming, “Damn it...Damn it damn it damn it damn it damn it DAMN IT!” He punched a metal wall with great force, a great groaning filling the room as Midnight fell to his knees, holding his head in his hooves.

“No…we all survived so much, I can’t believe she died here…” He started to cry, having a breakdown.

“I’m sorry, I wish I had other news but I found her dead at the tactical map.” Fletcher had pity for him, the Eternal Knights were famous for surviving situations others wouldn’t survive.

After a few minutes, the stallion managed to pull himself together. “She was an Eternal Knight...She knew the risks...” He took a deep breath.

“What happened?” Fletcher asked him.

“Well, we got sent it to rescue any survivors and eliminate the threat, but we realized there was no stopping this disaster, as the Aliens kept coming, no matter how many we killed. As you now know, it’s woefully incomplete. My team got ambushed by those Black Ops guys as we tried to evacuate, I was the only survivor, missing my evacuation in the progress.” He explained with a shaken voice.

“Looks like we’re in the same boat now. May I introduce Katja and Blau Streifen to you?” He pointed to the kids, they looked at Midnight Blade with hopeful smiles.

“Hello there, nice to meet you, although I wish we had met in a friendlier situation.” The bat pony greeted with a smile, turning back to Fletcher. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Agreed. Take this Med Kit.” The unicorn levitated it over to his friend, who patched himself up with it.

In the moment, Fletcher tried to step out, several of those small and larger Aliens teleported in. Midnight spotted a switch for 2 celling turrets in the office, activating them to eliminate the hostiles, while Fletcher helped out with his new weapon until the hostiles were all taken down before deactivating the turrets and moved on.

The tunnel led to a junction with a left and right turn, the left way was no option, as it had collapsed, the right one was blocked by some kind of biological mine, hanging in mid-air at the center of a corridor near web-like structure completely barring the way, apparently hanging from the ceiling with some sort of yellow energy thread. Two purple rays randomly emitted from it.

“What is that?” Katja asked.

“I don’t know and I don’t wanna know.” Midnight replied.

“Stay back.” Fletcher fired a round from his MP40, detonating the mine from a distance, small, 5 beetle-like creatures with four legs, a single green eye, and a thick, dark red, segmented shell came out of it, rushing towards the 2 knights, bouncing around madly, trying to bite them with their sharp beaks.

The 2 Stallions had no problem to take them out however, swiftly hitting them with their weapons.

“Okay, the area is clear.” Fletcher took the lead, both Eternal Knights were exhausted and at their breaking points but they had to carry on to get the children to safety. They wouldn’t rest until the siblings would be safe.

“Attention, all military personnel, Evacuate Black Mesa research Facility. Renegade Sunset Shimmer is not your objective.” The intercom buzzed through the carpark.

The carpark was littered with bodies of dead Lunar Guards. “We lost so many in this battle. Say, what do you think who sent those Black Ops guys?” Midnight asked his friend.

“I suspect it could be Cascadius. It kinda suits him.” But then again, Fray had overheard the Black Ops remarking about the Eternal Knights and the Dark Horse squad, saying they would have to clean up a mess the Eternal Knights couldn’t handle. As such, it was more likely that the Black Ops got sent by somepony aware of the skills of the Eternal Knights. Somepony of the government. As much as Fletcher hated it to say, it could be that the Black Ops could be sent by Luna.

“Could be.” Midnight looked at him, Fray saw something in the bat pony’s eyes he never saw before. Fear. “The princesses would never order something like this. We are Luna's bodyguards, she would never betray us like this, leaving us behind. Right? Right?” He asked with fear, not believing that Princess Luna would order their deaths.

It was a difficult question to answer, everything hinted that the Princess could have ordered this. “I hope so.” It was the only reply Fletcher could think of.

After a short walk through the carpark, eliminating 4 of the smaller Aliens, they reached a staircase to the surface.

At it, they saw it was evening as a beautiful sunset ruled the sky, military planes and glider drones were dogfighting Alien aircrafts, transport helicopters leaved the facility.

One of the blast doors opened and a squad of lunar guards came out. They were glad to see the Eternal Knights. “Lord Commander, what the hay is going on here? Nobody told us about Black Operations in the mission briefing.” One of the guards asked.

“If I knew that. What’s the situation?” Midnight asked.

“It's good to see you, sir. It's a real mess out there. I mean these... things are coming out of the damn walls. Ain't no way around them either. They just keep coming! We've got no choice but to fight our way out!”

“Understood.” The blast door on the other side started to creak, meaning that somepony was about to open it. “Take defensive positions, now!” The guards did as ordered, Fletcher brought the kids behind sandbags for cover, they trembled in fear.

As the door was fully open, a squad of Black Ops came out, opening fire, the Knights and Guards returned it. Fletcher managed to hit one Black Ops operative into the leg, he refused to yell in pain.

One of the hostiles charged at Midnight, using martial arts kicks and punches, throwing him to the ground. As the Black Ops attempted to stab him with a knife, he quickly sliced him with his name giving Blade, throwing the body of him.

“Fire in the hole!” One of the Royal Guards threw a grenade, taking almost the entire group out, Fletcher took the last Black Ops with a clean headshot out.

“Let’s move.” Midnight ordered after all hostiles were down.

The way led to another security office, agonizing screaming could be heard from a Royal Guard that was attacked by those beetle creatures. He was on the other side of the room, so they couldn’t help him. “Poor guy.” Fletcher had sympathy for him.

They continued to walk along the corridor which seemed endless, suddenly, several Aliens, small and large teleported from behind in.

The Guards opened fire but it was clear that this was a battle they couldn’t win. “Let’s make a break for it!” Fletcher yelled, sprinting towards the end of the corridor where a door was, Midnight and Katja close behind, the Guards tried to buy them time but got overrun in seconds, green lighting missed Fletcher by inches.

In the moment they made it through, Midnight slammed the door shut, both Eternal Knights breathed heavily, trying to catch their breaths, the siblings did the same.

“Freeze, Rambo!” Somepony yelled, aiming a pistol at the Knight’s heads, they just turned their eyes surprised towards the voice, seeing an overweight security guard holding them at gunpoint.

He made a gesture to slowly come over and lower their weapons on a nearby table, they obeyed, noticed that the room was a small lab.

“You can come out, my friend.” The guard said and a scientist revealed himself behind a desk.

“Well done. Wait, you aren’t Black Ops, you belong to the Royal Guards, right?” He asked.

“Yes, we try to get those children out of here.” Midnight explained.

“Then you are lucky, the North entrance is not far from here.” The scientist replied before his stomach growled, he twisted his face in pain. “No, not again….Must go to the bathroom.”

He quickly ran for the door on the other side, stopping in fear as he opened it. “What’s wrong?” Blau Streifen asked.

“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” The scientist begged before bullets perforated him, Fletcher grabbed Katja and dived with her behind the desk for cover, Midnight did the same with Blau Streifen.

“One clear!” A new voiced yelled.

“Two clear!”

“Three clear!”

The Scientist was still alive, twitching before getting finished off with a shotgun blast. “Four, real clear!”

The children were trembling, the bat pony tried his best to calm them down, Fletcher carefully peeked over, a Black Ops squad of 4 ponies moved in.

Midnight hugged the children to keep them calm and quiet. The unicorn accidently touched a tool, the sound alerted the Black Ops.

“Freeze! Get outta here!” One of them yelled, the 2 Eternal Knights and siblings slowly went up, holding up their hooves/hands in surrender.

“Sorry pal, you know the orders.” The Black Ops’ hooves went slowly for the trigger.

The Lord Commander raised a hoof. “Listen...we're not here to fight...we'd like to speak to Princess Luna.” He demanded, trying to save the kids.

“I'm afraid that's impossible for a variety of reasons.” The Black Ops with the shotgun replied cold, apparently an officer.

“I am Midnight Blade, Lord Commander of the Eternal Knights, Luna is practically my family! Why wouldn't she want to speak to me?!” The bat pony yelled, not believing what he just heard.

“I didn't say she didn't want to, Lord Commander.”

That confused the Eternal Knight. “...What do you mean?”

“There's been a...slight change in leadership. Leadership that is of the opinion you and your Knights are no longer needed in Equestria.”

“Who...Who are you working for?! And what have they done with Luna?!” Midnight yelled now in rage and disbelief.

“That's all you're going to hear from me...” The officer raised his shotgun. “In this lifetime.”

“At least spare them! They still children!” Fray begged, seeing the fear in the siblings’ eyes.

“Sorry, orders are orders. Nothing personal, kids.” The officer was cold, not showing any emotion.

“Please! I don’t wanna die!” Katja exclaimed, crying, her brother did the same.

It can’t end like this! Not like this! Fletcher thought desperate, the kids had their lives still ahead of them, they didn’t deserve to die here.

A charging up sound greeted his ears, he turned his eyes into the origin of the sound, the Black Operatives did too, seeing how the security guard was holding an experimental energy weapon in his hooves, it sparked, the guard grinned. “Yippee kay yay!”

A powerful white-hot beam got fired from the weapon, knocking the guard back, one Black Ops pony got torn apart by it, another one thrown against a desk.

The weapon of the torn apart hostile was hurled towards Fletcher, he took it as the second hostile fired his sidearm at the guard, every shot missed.

The guard fired the weapon in return at his attacker, his head got torn apart by the beam.

The officer and the other Black Ops were stunned by the first shot, shocked at what they saw as they recovered. “Breach!” The officer yelled before Fletcher fired at him, causing them to retreat into the corridor while Midnight got the kids to cover.

As the operative pulled the pin, a group of Zombies broke through the door behind him, tearing him apart, dropping the grenade in the process. It rolled towards the officer who had taken cover at the wall next to the lab, gasping in shock as he spotted it.

“Grenade!” Fray yelled, diving for cover, shielding the children with his comrade from the explosion.

Coughing from the smoke, they saw that all Zombies and Black Ops had died in the explosion, the guard sadly too.

“Your sacrifice won’t be forgotten.” Midnight commented before they moved on.

An alert ringed through the corridor but apart from that, it was silent, no aliens or Black Operators. As they came past a security office, the unicorn took notice of a man in a suit with a briefcase watching them from it, completely untroubled by the chaos at hand, making the Eternal Knight wonder how this guy could stay so calm in a situation like this.

After a while, the group made it to a small security checkpoint, the kids and Fletcher stepped to the other side, while Midnight watched their backs.

As they were out, he stepped in, a hopeful smile on his lips. “Looks like we make it out of here after all!”

“Hey, together, we can survive everything.” Fray replied with a smile of his own.

“Indeed, if we survived so far, we can survive the rest of it too.” Midnight exclaimed with hope.

A teleport sound greeted their ears behind them, a beam hit the control panel, closing the door, effectively separating the Eternal Knights. “Go on, I’ll find another way out!” Midnight said before a roar came from his side.

“You won’t take me down!” The bat pony yelled, ready to fight before he started to scream in pain as he got savagely beaten by something, the ground shook with every punch, blood poured through the door.

Fletcher flinched at every punch, covering the siblings’ eyes. “Don’t look.”

It went on for a minute before there was silence. Panic raised in Fletcher. “Midnight? Midnight!” He bangedfrantically at the door for a response.

There was none.

The bat pony had been his leader, his mentor, one of the best ponies he had known.

“No…NO! MIDNIGHT!” He exclaimed collapsing. Sorrow, sadness, pain went through his head, feeling alone, crying. The siblings looked at him in shock and pity, then nodded at each other.

Fletcher couldn’t believe that his friends had died. They were more experienced than him and that scared him. If they got killed by the Aliens, how long would he survive here? Wolf and Midnight had helped him to free his home from corruption, one thing he was forever grateful.

They had been through so much, surviving even battles that had been next to impossible to survive. How should he keep up the legend of the Eternal Knights, their honor and traditions?

Then he felt something warm.

Opening his eyes, he saw that the kids hugged him in an attempt to cheer him up. Now it became so clear for him. He had to get them out of here, Wolf, Midnight and Luna had wanted it so. Midnight’s death wasn’t in vain, he had tried to buy time for his unicorn friend and the kids.

I know he doesn’t fear death but he didn’t deserve such a painful death.

As they moved on, Fletcher knew he was now the only one left, having to get the kids out of here but it was aconsolation that Wolf and Midnight were now in a better place than this.

It was quiet, no hostiles were met by them which was a nice change, yet Fletcher stayed alert for any signs of trouble.

The corridor leaded to another car park, everything was quiet. Too quiet. “Something’s not right. Stay behind me.” The unicorn told the kids, they nodded.

Screaming could be heard in the distance. Coming slowly closer, they saw several Black Ops fighting another of those giant blue Aliens in vain, screaming in pain as they got burned one by one.

“Run!” Fletcher yelled as the Alien headed for them, he hadn’t to tell this twice.

Their escape ended at a dead end in a generator room. “We’re done for!” Blau Streifen panicked.

“No we’re not!” Fletcher yelled as he used a switch to start the generators, the electricity fried the Alien in a giant green blast that overpowered Fletcher's senses.

---

When he came to, he found himself in one of the helicopters, apparently flying through space at immense speed, a man appearing to be middle-aged, with a tall, thin physique, pale skin, a prominent widow's peak, black hair styled in a crew cut, and pale green eyes, dressed in a gray-blue suit, facing him.

“So, Commander Fletcher Fray, we meet at last. Please, don't think that I've been avoiding you, a great many matters require my attention in these... troubled times.” The man said in a slow, commanding manner, with a certain accentuated low-key moroseness to his tone, bordering on the cryptic. Something told Fletcher not to interrupt him.

“I took the liberty of relieving you of your weapons; most of them were government property. I admit I have a fascination with those who adapt and survive against all odds. They rather remind me of myself. I am impressed.” He also had an odd habit of placing unusual stress on syllables, stressing the wrong parts of words, making unnecessary pauses and awkwardly changing the pitch of his voice and a tendency to elongate consonants, especially the "S".

“That’s why I’m here, Mr. Fray. I have recommended your services to my employers, and they have authorized me to offer you a job. They agree with me that you have limitless potential. You’ve proved yourself a decisive stallion, so I don’t expect you’ll have any trouble deciding what to do. If you’re interested, just step into the portal and I will take that as a yes. Otherwise...well...I can offer you a battle you have no chance of winning. Rather an anticlimax, after what you’ve just survived.”

As the Eternal Knight was about to ask what happened to the siblings after he noticed that they were not with him, the man added, “Don’t worry about your young friends, I assure you they are safe.” One of the doors of the helicopter opened and a green portal appeared in it. “Time to choose.”

For Fletcher, there was nothing left. His friends were dead, the princess he had sworn his service and loyalty probably too. The only thing he could do was to make sure the siblings were safe. So he stepped into the portal if it would guarantee their safety, everything went black but he could faintly hear the man, „Wisely done, Mr. Fray. I will see you up ahead.”

Author's Note:

Subject: Fray
Status: Hired
Awaiting assigment

Comments

[Silentwoodfire]

*Checks date of post, doesnt like what he sees*

WTF is going on? It's not a April Fools chapter, so youve thrown things quite severely now.

[Bronycommander]

9268037
Originally I wrote all three parts as one chapter, but it was so long that I separated them. I had a tight schedule, so I uploaded them on the same day

[KingSombraTheTyrantRuler]

“It’s okay.” Having seen the abilities of the Hive mind, Fray saw some use in it, picking up with his magic, cautiously examining it. “I apologize for this.” He said before inserting his right fore hoof into its rear end, to which the weapon squealed in protest against it, before twitching and freezing for a second as his hoof was fully in.

I'm kind of confused as to what happened here. And in the whole chapter, too. Did this actually happen or is Fletcher in a coma and imagining it?

[Bronycommander]

11566393
in his mind, as he is in a coma. and its based on a equip animation

[KingSombraTheTyrantRuler]

11566397
Ok.