Chapter 7: Eternal Night
Dirt on the trail was kicked up by Strider’s boots as he ran towards Ponyville, making sure that the DC-15A was always pointing forwards. He traced the source of the screaming to a tall building in the middle of the town, most likely some sort of capital structure.
Strider rushed over to the double doors that led into the building and tried the handle. But instead of it opening up to him, they were slammed forward into Strider which knocked him backwards and down the small flight of stairs he had climbed to reach the door.
"Ow… " Strider muttered, his sight a little fuzzy.
Through his blurry vision, he spotted a dark blue and purple pile of mist fly through the now wide open doors and into the sky. The trooper shook off the slight daze the impact had put him in just as a wave of ponies ran out of the building in a panic. He dove out of the way just in time, avoiding getting trampled on like a welcome mat.
Strider’s eyes drifted from the panicking crowd to the fleeing mist in the sky, its flying erratic and disobeying any laws of physics he had learned on Kamino.
"Something tells me that's not normal." Strider said out loud, gripping his blaster tightly.
He wanted to run off after it, but as he glanced back into the building, he took note of all the scared civilians inside. Amongst them were what seemed to be armored troopers, each one unarmed and lying across the floor.
Strider entered the building and approached one of the armored ponies, taking note of its golden plating and crested helmet. The pony underneath the armor had a thick coat and light blue mane and tail, their light blue irises hazy.
"You're a trooper?" Strider questioned as he helped the pony get into a sitting position.
"Guard..." The pony corrected, his words traced with pain and fear.
"Guard, what happened?" Strider asked, looking around at the scared crowd.
"Nightmare Moon… She came back.... to bring eternal.......night." The guard fell into unconsciousness the second he finished that sentence.
Strider did his best to find a pulse, which when found was thankfully still active. He stood back up to his full height and looked around the area, taking note of the chaos surrounding him. Tables were overturned, chairs were abandoned, and several ponies seemed to of either fainted or had locked up from sheer terror.
“Whoever this Nightmare Moon is, they seem to like the element of fear.” Strider told himself, taking another look around the area. Out of the corner of his his eye, he spotted a familiar looking pink tail sticking out from below a cloth covered table.
The trooper made his way through the panicked crowds and towards the table, being completely ignored by any ponies who were still somewhat calm. Strider knelt down next to the table and gently lifted the cloth up, allowing the pony underneath to become visible.
If the tail wasn’t already a giveaway, then the fact that they were a butter yellow pegasus with three pink butterflies on their flanks sold the deal. Fluttershy was shaking with fear violently, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. She looked absolutely terrified, as if she'd stared down a droid battalion advancing towards her who'd just burned her home to the ground.
"Hey, Fluttershy? You ok?" Strider knew she wasn't but still, he needed to get her talking.
"N-N-Nightmare M-Moon's b-b-back!?" She stammered, her words practically shaking as much as her body.
"After this situation is taken care of, you’re gonna have to explain all this to me. But for now, you need to come out from under the table." Strider explained.
Fluttershy shuffled around to face the trooper, but didn't reply. She just kept shaking, seemingly paralyzed with fear. She must've been standing very close to that mist to shake her up this badly.
"Don't worry, that mist thing left. It’s safe now, you've just got to get back up," Strider stated, extending his hand towards the mare.
Fluttershy stared at the outstretched hand for a few seconds, before finally meeting it with a forehoof. Slowly but surely, Strider pulled Fluttershy as gently as he could out from below the table and back on her hooves.
"T-Thanks..." Fluttershy said, before spotting two familiar looking ponies rush over to her side.
"Fluttershy! Are you alright?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Did this ruffian do something?" The white unicorn questioned, glaring daggers at the trooper.
Fluttershy shook her head, her body stopping it's rapid shaking. "N-No, he just h-helped me from under the t-table."
"Oh hiya again Strider! I was looking for you after you ran off but then I spotted something that looked really sweet in the market and--" She was cut off as Strider put a finger over her muzzle.
"Save it for later, I'm guessing you're Miss Shy's friends?" Strider questioned.
The two mares nodded.
"Well then, you two calm her down," Strider instructed, before holding up the DC-15A. "I've got some mist to hunt."
Strider’s boots made audible thumps with each step as he took off down a street in pursuit of his target. It didn’t take long for him to find the mist, which seemed to of halted in front of a poster which had the face of a snow white unicorn with a rather long horn. With a swift slash, the mist chopped the poster in half and let it fall from its spot onto the ground.
Strider took cover against a nearby bale of hay, double checking that the DC-15A was primed incase things got ugly. He took a quick peak around the hay bale just in time to see the mist continue on its way down the road. It either sensed his watchful gaze, or had seen him take cover behind the bale, because it quickly changed directions, charging right at the trooper.
Seeing this, Strider stood up from his cover and aimed at the mist, his finger resting on the trigger. He was ready to shoot, but he knew protocol for these types of situations.
“HALT OR I FIRE!” Strider threatened, a vain attempt to get the mist to stop, but it didn’t falter.
With his warning being completely ignored, Strider pulled the trigger. A blue bolt of plasma launched from the barrel and shot like a rocket towards the mist. It halted, as if not expecting that to of happened. But it quickly snapped out of it and formed a doughnut shape which allowed the bolt to fly right through it. The mist then took off down the road, avoiding a few more fired plasma bolts in the process.
Strider wasted no time rushing after it, firing several more blue plasma bolts at the mist. The bolts either flew past or right through it, so Strider stopped the shower of plasma bolts and picked up the pace.
"How do I hit mist?" Strider wondered out loud, his tone hinted with annoyance.
The mist suddenly stopped flying and changed directions, charging towards the trooper at starship speeds. He rose up his arms in a defensive stance, but the mist simply went through the makeshift barrier and slammed against his chest.
Strider fell to the ground with a hard thud from the attack, the wind completely knocked out of his lungs. The mist used this time to take off down the streets, quickly vanishing from view.
After catching his breath, Strider tried looking around for the mist, but it had already flown the battlefield.
"Dang it." He muttered, grabbing the DC-15A from where he'd dropped it and took off to start searching for the mist.
Strider did his best to sweep the area, double checking every alleyway and roof for any signs of his target. He opened a trash can and took a look inside, only to be greeted with nothing but garbage. As he shut the can, he heard the sound of something dropping from the other end of the alleyway. He charged down it and stopped when his eyes spotted a twitching upside down box.
“I’ve gotcha now.” Strider muttered, grabbing the box and lifting it up.
Instead of the mist, he was greeted with the sight of a small grey rat which quickly took off down the alleyway with its cover blown. Strider watching it fade from view, before discarding the box and sighing.
"This is pointless! Even if I find it I can't harm it with simple plasma bolts." Strider told himself.
The trooper did one more sweep, before giving up the chase with the assumption that the mist had left town. He made his way through a few more alleyways before he wound up back on the path leading towards the edge of town and Fluttershy’s cottage which was just beyond.
Strider was currently putting together a makeshift explanation to the rouge mist, but he had zero knowledge of the planet, let alone its inhabitants. What in the universe did that mist want to accomplish with this stunt? All it had done was scare the town, which was probably its goal anyways, but why?
He pondered this as he left town, stopping at the top of a hill where he was able to spot Fluttershy’s cottage just beyond the hills. He was about to continue, but halted when he spotted six ponies standing near what seemed to be an entrance to what Fluttershy had dubbed, the Everfree Forest.
Strider thought nothing of it, until he spotted Fluttershy amongst the group. It didn’t take long for him to recognize the white unicorn from earlier, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, the pony managing the apple stand, and a final one he didn’t recognize at all. The most notable thing he saw, was the fact that they were entering the forest unarmed, none of them having so much as a spear or even a shovel.
"Are those ponies going into that forest without weapons?" Strider questioned out loud, staring at the group.
The ponies suddenly advanced into the forest and vanished from his field of vision. This set alarm bells ringing in Strider's head, especially with the still clear images of that wooden wolf chomping down on that clone pilot’s helmet. Didn't they know what creatures were lurking in that forest? Not to mention the fact that it was night!
"What are those ponies thinking!?” Strider wondered, taking off towards the entrance. These ponies are gonna end up getting him killed, he could count on it.
It didn’t take long for Strider to catch up on the ponies, even with his still injured leg. It had been healing very well, but that fall from the door and down those stairs hadn’t exactly helped.
"HEY! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?" Strider shouted out, his voice quickly attracting the group's attention. Rainbow Dash instantly recognized him and glared.
"You again? Can't you mind your own business?" Rainbow questioned.
"Strider? W-What are you doing here?" Fluttershy asked.
"I'm here because this forest is full of all sorts of vicious creatures, and you came waltzing in without any weapons." Strider exclaimed.
"We do have weapons! It's called-" The purple unicorn was cut off as Strider shook his head.
"No, no you don't. This," Strider held out the blaster. "is a weapon."
"That's your kind of weapon. But we do-" This time, the purple unicorn cut herself off as she watched a blue plasma bolt fire off into the sky.
Everypony's eyes widened at the sudden plasma bolt, Rainbow Dash's mouth opened wide in shock.
“Look, if you really want to go in there with no weapons, then I won’t stop you. But I AM coming along. The only pony here who I know and trust to give me correct information about this place is Fluttershy, and I’m not letting civilians march to their death. If she gets hurt, then someone’s gonna have a bad day, understood?” Strider asked.
"Oh the comments are so gonna ship you." Pinkie Pie stated blankly.
"The what?" The orange pony wearing the brown stenson questioned.
"Ok, if you wanna tag along, then fine. But under no circumstances do you lead the way or fire that weapon unless you need to." The purple one instructed.
"I’m not taking orders from a civilian. A civilian whose name I don't even know." Strider stated.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle." Twilight Sparkle claimed.
"Ah'm Applejack. Ya still owe me ah new apple cart." Applejack reminded.
"And I'm Rarity. You also haven't apologized for making me drop all my bags as well as trip over me.”
"Let's just get a move on." Twilight grumbled, before leading the way down the path once more.
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How would the ship name be
Flutterider
Strideshy
That’s all I got
Just wondering, anyone counting shots from his blaster? He supposed to have 500 before he needs to reload.
eh, I ship it.
9704851
*Torpedo is fired at and..... then misses the ship by a hair* Lucky......
9704662
Shyclone
....I hate myself
9704789
yeah if it was full when he started, then he has about 494 shots left.
edit: 491 forgot the bunny.
9722098
500 round capacity... (staring into slace, drooling subconsciously)
“before you could SAY ouch.”
9722098
This is only if he didn’t have extra ammo cartridges, which ALL troopers carry in those belts of theirs. It’s standard kit, so he has at LEAST an extra 1000 shots (2 cartridges worth). They also have a week’s worth of dehydrated food rations (they expand with water), some water (if recall that part correctly), a magnetized grappling hook, one thermal detonator(grenade) and several empty pockets to be used as needed.
9828795
Nah, Strider x Harshwhinny 4eva
You called it, Pinkie.
Well mist is part air so no it can’t vaporize.
9900923
All troopers are also issued bacta, a bacta injector, and synflesh.
Hit the deck it’s shipping fuel