The Sins Of The Celestial Empire

by Erol carstein

Casualties

++ACTIVATING CORE FUNCTIONS++

++SUBJECT BLAZES CURRENT LOCATION: THRENOR PRIME. CONTINENT: ANTISIA MAJOR. CITY: NEW TROTTINGHAM. DISTRICT: CANTIA. HABITATION BLOCK: SEVEN. LEVEL: EIGHT++

++BLAZE HAS REGROUPED WITH SQUAD MATE WONDERBREAD++

++ACTIVATING PSYCHO-INTERLINKING SYSTEM++

++PSYCHO-INTERLINKING SYSTEM NOW ACTIVE. PSYCIC DATA TRANSFERAL VIA AI'S NOW AVALIBLE++

++TWO LIFE-FORMS APPROACHING. UNABLE TO IDENTIFY. THREAT LEVEL: MINIMAL++

++TRANSFERING DATA TO CELESTIA'S GRACE++

++MOTTO FOR THE DAY: IN LUNA, THERE IS ONLY DARKNESS. IN CELESTIA, THERE BURNS THE LIGHT OF THE RIGHTEOUS++

++STANDBY++

≤ΘΘΘ≥

"The suns rising, we don't have much time"

Wonderbread lifted the sniper to his shoulder and looked down the scope, closing his other eye as he did so. Despite the weight of his brown armour his movements where silent. Blaze picked up his plasma rifle and warily scanned the surrounding environment, watching for any enemy movements.

They where currently just on the edge of the ghetto, crouching on the ledge of a ten storey building that sat on a junction where five roads met to form a star, in the centre of a junction stood a massive statue of the holy saint Applejack, rearing on its hind legs with a look of calm resolution on its stone face.

The edifice was seven storeys tall; its grey exterior seemed to drink in the light of the rising blue sun.

Unusually for statues of the saint Applejack, this one was missing its Stetson hat. Instead the saint's long stone braid was flowing freely down the statues back. Held in its right hoof was a massive war hammer; the haft was heavily decorated and ornate, covered in spiralling scroll work that was etched with runes from a language Blaze couldn't understand.

Over the previous night a heavy fog had built up once the rain had ended, and the thick mist of condensation made it impossible to see anything further then twenty meters at the best. Any normal soldiers would have been blinded by the fog.

But Blaze and Wonderbread weren't normal soldiers.

Blazes eyes had been replaced years ago with synthetic ones that had been grown in a lab when he had been going under biological augmentation to become a synthetic Alicorn. As a result Blaze could now see the world through infrared imaging, and currently his vision was a deep blue, with points of heat picked out in varying degrees of red depending on how hot the object was.

He glanced across at the roads on the opposite side of the junction; one branched to the right, one to the left and one down the centre. He looked down the left road, no sign of movement, the same with the right.

"Do we have a visual yet?" Blaze asked. He glanced up at the sky, wincing slightly as the small dot of rising blue sun flared a blindingly bright white in his vision. He raised a hoof to block it out from sight and scanned the skyline, searching for any sign of enemy aircraft or pegausi.

Thankfully the sky over their current location was clear, but when he glanced over to the spire and looked up and down its length he detected a tiny heat signature. Winking with his right eye Blaze magnified his vision and watched as a Valkyrie class gunship took off from a launch pad and rocketed out over the city.

"I have visual contact with enemy tango. Approximately fifty miles away, it's gunship. Looks like the NLR have deployed a squad on a mission"

"Specialists?" Wonderbread asked, not lowering his eyes from the sniper scope.

"It's a Valkyrie class gunship, hasn't got enough protection to warrant a specialist squad. Nah, i reckon it's a scout patrol, maybe even a triarchs unit, but definitely not a specialist unit" Wonderbread snorted in derision.

"Triarchs? What a joke, as if they would even consider deploying a Triarch squad against us"

Triarchs where biological augmented soldiers, typically pegausi, designed for specialist missions, the same as synthetic Alicorns.

However Triarchs where less effective then synthetic Alicorns and nowhere near possessed of the same qualities, so they were used for seizing secondary objectives rather than high priority targets.

"Still though, I wonder what they're doing" Blaze said, frowning "apart from the gunship I brought down and that dropship that I destroyed I haven't encountered any NLR soldiers, where are they?"

Blaze winked again, this time with his left eye, and his magnified vision returned to normal. He rapidly blinked twice with both eyes and the infrared imaging flicked off, turning the world back to monotonous shades of gray.

"I don't like it, not one bit. Where are they? By all rights this city should be flooded with NLR forces, but we haven't encountered a single soul" Blaze glanced across to the towering statue of Applejack "Only the six can know what those bastards are planning"

At the mention of the six holy saints both Blaze and Wonderbread reflexively drew the shape of the horse shoe over their hearts.

Or more rather, what was left of them.

"Well, whatever the NLR are planning, we don't have time to consider it. Our primary objective is to regroup with Jester and Sugarcane and then to rendezvous with the rest of the strike force at St Applebloom park for evacuation" Wonderbread lowered the sniper from his gaze and frowned "I'm not reading any thermal activity on the scope"

The synthetic Alicorn blinked twice in rapid succession and Blaze knew that he had just activated his thermal imaging. Wonderbread scanned the skies around them, mimicking Blazes earlier movements. "No sign of anything moving anywhere" Wonderbread growled at the back of his throat "Where are they?" he said to aloud "Buttercup, are you getting anything?"

From out of nowhere the orange eyed AI appeared, Angel by her side.

Buttercup was as shy as anypony could be, quiet and complacent. She never raised her voice louder than a whisper, and her hoofsteps where silent.

Not for the first time Blaze wondered at how similar the AI's artificial personality was to that of the holy saint Fluttershy, who had been a living paragon of kindness and humble virtues.

"There's...erm...nothing in the skies that i can detect" the mare said, lowering her head to let the cascade of her snow white fall over her orange left eye "But that doesn't mean that they're not...um...out there" Buttercup lowered her eyes.

"I've also done a sweep for any NLR ground units. The only republican forces I've detected are those around the base of the spire. There's nothing hostile moving outside of the spires defence perimeters" Angel stated calmly, rolling her eyes as she looked at Buttercup.

In comparison to Buttercup, Angel was a completely different pony all together.

She walked with her head held high, her long mane flowing down the back of her next like a snowdrift. She was confident and her golden eyes shone with fierce determination, Blaze couldn't help but feel proud that she was his AI when he looked at her. Angel tossed her mane.

"However, I've discovered two life forms approximately one mile away" Angel pointed down the central road in front of them "Airborne pheromone signatures indicate the presence of synthetic hormones within the life forms bloodstream"

"Synthetics" Blaze stowed away the plasma rifle and drew his pulse jezzaile, raising the weapon to his shoulder. He blinked twice and reactivated his thermal imaging.

From underneath the weapons housing he pulled down a bipod stock before resting the weapon on the raised edge of the building.

He raised a hoof and reached round under his right wing and pulled out a long scope roughly nine inches in length and an inch and a half in width.

He raised it to the jezzaile and fixed it against the top of the weapon, there was a faint clicking noise as the scope fixed into place and several tiny clamps attached themselves to the scope, locking it in place.

"Angel, how long is this road?"

"Approximately four point eight miles, you should be able to identify the targets from here" Angel stated in a matter-of-fact voice.

Blaze nodded and raised a hoof to his left ear, pressing down on a small quantum communication ear piece that had been implanted into his inner ear during his synthesis. "Lyra, are you receiving me?" for a few moments there was silence, and then the familiar voice of the light blue unicorn filled his head.

"Blaze, this is Lyra here. What do you need?"

"I need a thermal scan of our location, radius of five miles centred directly over my position"

"Got it, give me a moment" for a few moments there was yet more silence, and then the unicorns voice reappeared. "Well that's running, give it a few moments to get started" Blaze nodded to himself.

"I can't get any visual on the targets" Wonderbread stated "This fog is so thick that it's absorbing all the heat from the surrounding environment"

Blaze's expression was grim, without proper identification they had no idea whether or not Jester and Sugarcane where out there.

"I don't like this; i don't like this at all" Wonderbread said, his voice filled with undercurrents of fear and uncertainty. Suprising given his usually stolid demeanour.

"Results are in" Lyra said; Blaze raised his hoof back to his ear

"no major sign of movement within five miles of your position. Only four life forms detected, that's you and Wonderbread plus two unknowns" Blaze gritted his teeth.

"Shit"

"However...i do have some good news" Blaze raised an eyebrow "I've managed to extrapolate two Solar Empire homing signatures from the scan, they match perfectly with Jester and Sugarcanes beacon signatures"

Blaze grinned, Wonderbread shot him a confused look.

"It's Jester and Sugarcane" Blaze told him, Wonderbreads expression instantly changed. "Lyra, open a comms channel for us, patch me through to Sugarcane"

"I'm on it"

There was a moment's pause.

"Channels open. Now if you don't mind i have to go talk to the head of the communications corps. I recently put in a request for a private workspace and now i have to go justify myself, you'd think I'd just insulted his mother from the way he's acting"

Lyra fell silent, Blaze turned to Angel.

"Angel, I've just requested a comms link with Sugarcane. Lock on the channel and secure the operating frequency" Angel nodded and flickered slightly.

"Channels open and secure, commence communications"

"Sugarcane, can you read me?" Blaze said, kneeling down to glance down the scope of the jezzaile.

Wonderbread picked up his sniper and also looked down his scope. Both of them waited with baited breath, the atmosphere became tense, even the AI's fell silent.

The air seemed to become thick and oppressive; the heavy fog began to sink from the air around them. Blaze watched as it seemed to flow around them like water. It flowed down into the streets surrounding them, and even though the buildings around them where ten storeys tall the fog filled the streets up and up until it was like they were surrounded by an ocean of grey water with only the very tops of the buildings still visible, like islands of concrete.

Rising above them all was the statue of saint Applejack, the lower half of its body hidden in the fog, its calm and serene face gazing blindly into the heavens whilst the hammer pointed straight upwards into the sky, a defiant symbol of the strength of the saints. Blaze glanced across at Wonderbread.

"did you just see that?"

Angel flickered slightly and re-solidified with a look of bemusement on her face.

"There's been some sort of alteration in the meteorology of the city. I've hooked up with the mainframe server on 'Celestia's Grace'. Orbital visual feeds indicate that the anomaly has been isolated to the perimeter of the city; whatever's causing this is not a natural part of the continents weather system, it has to be magical in nature"

"Whoever...or whatever...has the ability to manipulate a planets natural weather system has to be incredibly powerful. Do you reckon Cadence is behind this?" Wonderbread asked, at the mention of the Alicorn, Blaze gritted his teeth.

"I wouldn't put it past her; likelihood is she could be watching us right now" Blaze muttered, raising the scope back up to his eyes

"But right now we need to focus on finding Jester and Sugarcane and regrouping with the survivors of the drop"

He stared down the scope and slowly scanned the main road ahead of them, searching for even the smallest form of a heat signature. When he found nothing he growled and lowered the scope, before blinking twice and deactivating his thermal imaging again.

"I can't see a thing because of this damn fog. Angel, are you sure there's nothing down there?"

The semi-sentient AI nodded.

"I'm detecting no signs of life other then the unidentified creatures east of our position"

Blaze nodded in understanding and folded in the bipod on his jezzaile and stowed the weapon away against his flank, taking his rail-rifle out in its place.

"Due to this fog we're not going to be able to identify our targets from up here. We need to get down to ground level and confront the targets face to face"

Blaze stood up and looked over the edge of the building, trying to find a safe landing zone down on the road. But all he could see was a grey sea of fog, swirling in the wind currents, lapping against the sides of the building like waves on the sea shore.

"Come on Wonderbread, let's go. Keep your eyes and ears open and watch your back, the scanners might not be detecting anything, but we both know how easy it is to fool a machine"

Wonderbread nodded and stowed away his sniper, pulling out in its place a large, heavy gauge shotgun equipped with incendiary rounds.

"Let's go"

Blaze glanced one more time over the ledge before jumping over the edge with Wonderbread right behind him, Buttercup and Angel disappearing from sight.

Their descent through the fog chilled Blaze to his core, even through the armour.

The fine particles of mist condensed on his coat and armour, running down his neck and underneath his armour, cooling the skin underneath his snow white coat. The fog seemed unnaturally cold, far colder than any fog had a right to be.

Where it touched against his coat it chilled him down to his metal bones, and it had even caused his mane to plaster against his neck.

Since the fog was too thick to see more than a meter or so in front of him, Blaze was caught a little surprised when the ground came from nowhere, shooting up to meet him.

He landed on his hind legs, the weight of his armour causing the concrete beneath his hooves to crack, sending out a lattice work of cracks like a huge spider web, the ground caving in beneath him to form a shallow crater.

Immediately Blaze dropped down to one knee and drew a bead with his rifle, scanning the surrounding area despite his decreased range of vision.

There was a heavier crushing noise over to his right and Blaze glanced across expecting to see Wonderbread, but instead was greeted by a wall of grey.

He blinked to reactivate his thermal imaging and was greeted by the faint outline of Wonderbreads silhouette, glowing faintly yellow against the surrounding backdrop of deep blue.

"Wonderbread" he called out, the synthetic Alicorn looked in his direction.

"this fog is too thick, no matter what; don't get separated"

Wonderbread nodded in recognition, Blaze glanced around. "Shit, this fog is thick. Even thermal visioning limited, i'm guessing a maximum range of vision of about twenty meters before the signatures get too faint to detect"

He took a deep breath, before exhaling slowly.

"Best keep your visor up too, no telling what kinda magical residue could have been pumped into this fog"

"Copy that" Wonderbread answered, his voice muffled by the fog.

Blaze glanced to his left and saw Angel standing next to him.

Even with thermal visioning activated she still remained the same, with golden eyes, and a white coat, mane and tail.

Blaze nodded to her and the mare nodded back, instantly the metal plating of the armour began to rise up his neck and encase his head, the glass of the visor sliding into place.

"Let's go, reconvene at the base of the statue"

And with that the pair of soldiers silently stalked forward, ghosts in the fog.

Blaze constantly looked around him, searching for any sign of movement. Angel padded silently beside Blaze, not sharing in his wariness of the situation.

For a few moments he silently moved across the grey landscape that the mist painted, the only sounds where the muffled steps of his hooves on the concrete road. And then from nowhere a massive pillar of stone rose up out of the ground, the plinth of Saint Applejacks statue.

Blaze de-activated his thermal imaging and slowly stepped up to the massive block of stone, gazing upwards at the enormous representation of the holy saint.

Blaze slowly circled the statues plinth, raising one hoof to run it against the stone, listening to the scraping noise of his metal plated hoof against the hard granite.

When he was half was around the plinth he felt the rough hewn stone under his hoof suddenly become smooth.

Blaze turned to examine his hoof and saw that a section of the stone beneath his hoof had been smoothed off and turned into a plaque, carved into it was an inscription of dedication to the holy saint.

The letters where carved deep into the stone, the plaque itself made of black marble that was veined through gold, the letters themselves said "Applejack, the bearer of Honesty and saint of our world"

Blaze took a few steps back and stared upwards towards the saints face, which was hidden by the fog.

"Honesty" Blaze muttered to himself, his face contorting with anger

"Sally was honest for her entire life, Applejack, and where did that get her?"

Blaze knew that respect had to be paid to all the saints, but looking back he knew that paying her respects had done Sally no good when the NLR had come for her.

There was the sound of metal on concrete behind him, and Blaze instantly spun round, raising his rifle to his shoulder.

"Hey, easy Blaze! It's just me!" Wonderbread emerged from the fog, a look of confusion on his face "You know, Wonderbread? We've been friends for years!"

"Sorry" Blaze lowered his rifle.

"You feeling ok? You look kinda white, you know, a bit pale"

Blaze gave Wonderbread a raised eyebrow; the electric blue Alicorn raised one in return. Blaze turned and gave the statue another glance.

"Yeah, I'm fine"

Wonderbread nodded and from behind him Buttercup appeared, her face afraid.

"Two heat signatures are approaching fast" she said, pressing herself against Wonderbreads flank and glancing over his back in the direction that Blaze guessed the two signatures where coming from.

Both Blaze and Wonderbread spun round, raising their weapons as they did so, Wonderbread spinning so quickly that Buttercup didn't have time to move, causing Wonderbreads armoured flank passed straight through her.

The AI squeaked and backed away to hide behind Angel, who sighed and rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"Angel, reopen the comms channel with Sugarcane"

The AI nodded and flickered slightly.

"Comms channels open and secure, commence communications" she stated, flicking her tail against Buttercup in annoyance.

Wonderbreads AI squeaked again and pressed herself against Angels flank, her mane falling in front of her left eye, her orange irises glowing brightly.

"HALT!" Blaze shouted out into the fog, the thick grey mist swallowing up his words

"WE KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE! COME FORWARD AND IDENTIFY YOURSELVES OR WE WILL SHOOT!"

Blazes voice echoed outwards and was consumed by the mist, falling silent in an ominously short amount of time, he shot Wonderbread a look.

"If worst comes to worst, aim to kill" His squad mate nodded grimly.

For a few seconds silence reigned as king, and his court was the swirling mist all around them. Time seemed to slow down like honey, stretching on forever. Blaze took aim down the sights of his rifle, gritting his teeth.

Finally a voice called out from the fog.

"It's nice to see you to, Blaze" A female voice called out, a slight mocking tone to it.

Blaze took a deep breath and sighed with relief.

"Sugarcane, is that you?" Blaze called out.

"No, i'm Empress Celestia herself come to say how hot you look in that armour. OF COURSE IT'S ME! WHO ELSE?"

"Ok, ok! I get it, it's you!" Blaze rolled his eyes "Is Jester with you?"

"Yes, i'm here too. Thanks for checking I was ok as well" Jesters voice commented sarcastically. As it spoke two heavily armoured formed coalesced from the mist.

One was an attractive mare, the other a lean built stallion.

The mare had bright brown eyes that seemed to sparkle; her coat was a light dusty colour that contrasted nicely with her chocolate brown mane and tail. Her armour was a gentle pink colour, and beside her stood Strike, her AI.

Sugarcane smiled when she saw Blaze, her eyes seeming to shine brighter than usual. Strike gave Angel and buttercup a wink each, causing both to blush and giggle. Instantly the two AI's began to gossip to each other like school fillys.

Blaze didn't feel inclined to listen in.

The stallion beside the mare was lean and thin, smaller then the mare standing beside him. His eyes had the same lustrous golden sheen as Angels, and his coat was a creamy white colour whilst his mane and tail where varying shades of cherry red. Beside him was his equally small AI Ivy.

"Good to see you too, Jester" Blaze nodded in the stallions direction before stowing his weapon away against his flank.

"Well, now that the whole gang is back together" Blaze said, stretching his wings open and flapping them for a few moments before folding against his back "we need to discuss our present situation" both groups of ponies came together, forming a circle.

"Right, status report" Blaze cleared his throat. "We're currently twenty point four kilometers east of saint Applebloom park, the current location of the solar empires surviving soldier within the city. Our weapons appear to all be in perfect working condition and we currently have an active server connection to the communications hub onboard Celestia's Grace" the stallion gave his team members a worried look

"However .. "

Wonderbread sighed.

"There's always a 'however'" Blaze rolled his eyes at his electric blue team mate.

"However...the NLR have all the solar forces with the city quarantined within saint Applebloom park. Estimates show that the survivors have a maximum of four days food and fuel at the best, without immediate reinforcement from the fleet they'll be easy prey for the NLR. Since high command has placed us in charge of all surviving forces within the city our main priority is to regroup with the survivors and then find a way to re-establish contact with the orbiting fleet" The other synthetic Allicorns nodded in agreement.

"Right then" Wonderbread said, stashing away his shotgun. "Let's get going" the stallion opened his wings and was about to take to the air. When suddenly all four of the AI's froze in place, Blaze gave Angel a confused look.

"Angel...are you ok?" Blaze stepped up to his AI and gently tapped her on the shoulder, his holographic interaction programming allowing him to touch the holographic mare.

Angel was literally frozen in place, the edges of her body beginning to distort, as if she was made from glimmering static.

Angel began to flicker, and a few moments later the other AI's began to flicker as well.

"What's going on?" Sugarcane said, walking up to Strike "Why are they doing this? Do you reckon there's something wrong with our holographic projectors?" Blaze gently tapped Angel again.

"No, that would only cause an isolated problem for one of us. And the chances of all our projecters developing a fault at once is too slim. It looks as if something external is interfering with the holographic realisation programming"

"Like what?"

"Well from the looks of it i would say some sort of multi-frequency signal jammer" Blaze had a sudden realisation, an icy chill running down his spine. He raised a hoof to his right ear and pressed. Instantly the harsh scream of static flared into life in his hearing.

Both the AI's and comm channels where down in only a matter of seconds. this didn't bode well. His mind wandered to the gunship he'd seen leaving the spire earlier. No it was impossible; there was no way that could be the answer, How could the NLR get a lock on them so quickly?

"What around here could have that kinda of capabilities?" Wonderbread asked.

Blaze suddenly felt a shift in the wind; a subtle change in the breeze that caused the fog began to swirl around him.

It blew straight through Angel and the other AI's and hit him full in the face, sending the chill of fear running down his spine.

"Wait ... does anyone hear that?"

The air filled with a low and predatory growl, like a dragon waking from its slumber. The four synthetics loked around them, searching for the noises point of origin. But their reduced visibilty and lack of AI support rendered them practically blind.

Without any warning the dull growl grew into a high pitched whining and was accompanied by the screaming of RAM jets.

Blaze felt his heart - or more rather, what was left of it - seize up for the fourth time today. With a final roar of spinning turbines and the howling of the wind the snubbed nose of a Valkyrie class gunship burst forth from the fog.

"TAKE COVER!" Blaze roared, immediately bolting towards the side of the street.

The gunship screamed overhead, rocking over them and disappearing into the fog again. It hadn't even fired a single shot. As quickly as it came the noise of the gunships engine disappered.

As it passed over head there was a deep thunking sound as several heavy metal objects dropped down from the open boarding ramp.

Immediately there was the sound of shouts and the clanking of heavy duty armour, followed by several beams of red light that lanced out from the fog.

Blaze heard a voice begin issuing orders.

"Ignia, Cloudy, Russet, take the two on the left. Roulette, Red arrow and Daredevil, take the mare. I've got the leader!"

Instantly Blaze reacted to the situation, his artificial brain clicking into overdrive as he processed the sudden enemy presence.

"ALL UNITS, ENGAGE HOSTILES WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE!" and with that the four Alicorns leapt into combat. Blaze charged forward, screaming the war cry of the Solar Empire.

"FIRE AND FURY!"

Blaze grinned devilishly as he heard the other members of his team take up the cry.

Through the thick fog he heard the sounds of combat ensue, the brief yet loud sound of firearms discharging quickly followed by the sound of metal on metal as the Alicorns engaged the enemy in close combat, where they were bound to over-power their opponents.

And then he came upon his target.

Rearing out of the mist came a thick set pegausi stallion, clad in heavy armour similar to his.

The stallions coat was a deep midnight blue and criss-crossed with bands of black, his mane and tail where both jet black, the mane cropped short in a typical military fashion. The pegasus spun around and raised a blunt-nosed rail-rifle to his shoulder, taking Blaze in his sights.

Blaze opened his wings and leapt into the air, gaining a few meters of height to gain altitude before diving towards the stallion, using his momentum and the weight of his armour to come crashing down on the pegausi like a mountain of adamantium and ceramite.

The pegasus fired his rail-rifle, but the shot went wide of its mark by a few inches and disappeared into the fog to slam into a nearby building with a roaring explosion. he fired again but missed again, this time his shot going high over the top of Blazes head.

The Alicorn was simply to fast of a target to catch.

In the few seconds before Blaze came into contact with the enemy, time seemed to slow, and he felt every sensation he'd ever known play out across his coat.

The fog was cool and his coat burning hot, condensing on the fog his brow and plastering his mane across the back of his neck.

When he breathed in the air felt sharp in his mechanical lungs, the cold searing at any of the remaining flesh of his respiratory system.

He could hear the pulsing throb of pulse weapons being fired, along with the high pitched whine of plasma weapons and the harsh scraping and grating of metal on metal.

The air around him lit up with the blue flashes of plasma balls as they burst from the muzzles of weapons and bolted through the air, and the atmosphere around him whistled as he felt bullets pass by him, grazing his coat and the skin underneath.

Finally he saw his opponent, as if for the first time.

The stallions face was calm and placid, watching Blaze with cold blue eyes.

His opponent spread his legs and braced for Blazes impact, a look of stoic determination on his face.

In that one moment, blaze came to admire his opponents courage.

For a few moments longer Blaze felt frozen in place, and then every sped back up.

Blaze roared wordlessly and brought his right hoof smashing down in a devastating arc.

If it had come into contact with the smaller pegausi it would have easily crushed the bones in his left shoulder, but instead as the hoof came slamming down on Blazes opponent it met nothing but thin air.

The pegausi had silently slipped backwards away from Blazes attack, moving with a deadly grace that was surprising for someone of his build. Blaze recovered instantly and as his hooves came back into contact with the concrete road beneath him he bunched up his hind legs beneath him and leapt forward again.

Blaze launched forward and brought his left hoof swinging in a vicious uppercut, aiming for the area under the stallions chin. This time his opponent rolled away to the right and once again Blazes assault was met with nothing with empty air.

"GET BACK HERE!" Blaze roared, blood rushing to his cheeks and causing him to flush.

The stallion grinned, revealing perfect white teeth, and glided backwards away from Blaze, moving out of his reach.

Blaze grunted and attacked the stallion again, attacking first from the left and then the right before spinning and opening his wings, using the shields on his wings to lash out with superheated plasma.

The stallion dodged every single attack, ducking under the first punch and then rolling underneath the second. When Blaze opened his wings the stallion opened his own and leapt over Blaze, spinning like a top through the air. Blaze finished his own spin and came to a halt, his hooves raised defensively.

The stallion landed in front of him, the grin still on his face and his cheek flushed. "Who are you?" Blaze asked, not out of breath despite his previous exertions. The stallions grin widened and he folded in his wings; Blaze couldn't stand that making smile for one more second. "WHO ARE YOU?" Blaze roared.

"Oh, me?" The stallion opened his wings and raised his hooves, beckoning Blaze to give him another try. "I'm just a pegausi"

Blaze growled deeply at the stallions arrogance and was about to launch another round of attacks, but the stallion had beaten him to it.

Before Blaze even knew it the pegausi was on him, moving faster than Blaze could have believed. The stallion leapt at him, silently moving forward, not even uttering a single cry of aggression.

Blaze lashed out with a hoof, aiming to smash the appendage into the side of the pegausi' head, spinning his body to the right so as to use his weight to give the punch extra force. But instead his opponent dodged again, rolling under the blow and coming up on Blazes right side, which was left unguarded from his over-extended previous attack.

The stallion lashed out at the base of Blazes right wing, aiming at a join in the armour where his wings met his back.

The punch connected with full force, and the armour beneath the blow buckled and screamed as it dented.

Warning lights flashed up in Blazes vision, telling him that his armour was in danger of being breached. In the centre of his vision appeared words highlighted in blood red.

++WARNING: BREACH IMMINENT. RETREAT FROM CURRENT LOCATION++

The words where soon replaced with a cross sectional diagram of the armour joint at the base of his right wing that glowed golden, the sections of plating that were in danger of being breached flashing red.

With a grating scream and the sound of tortured metal being ripped to shreds the joint at the base of Blazes right wing buckled and snapped, leaving the flesh of his wing joints exposed.

As the joint broke the power lines that supplied energy from the fusion core in Blazes heart to the shield emitters along the rim of his wing armour shutdown, and with an undulating cry the plasma shield shut off, leaving the delicate wings exposed and vulnerable.

The Stallion seized his opportunity instantly before Blaze could even react.

Warning lights were flashing in his vision and the screaming of warning sirens where echoing through his ears, filling them with a persistent high pitched whining that seemed to drag on for an eternity.

The stallion gave a bark of laughter and with a wicked grin and predatory glint in his eyes he punched straight upwards into Blazes wing.

The stallion struck with more force than Blaze had ever guessed he could muster, and his hoof punched straight through the soft downy feathers and delicate skin, even bursting through the iron hard ceramite bones.

The hoof burst out through the top of Blazes wing in a shower of blood, oil and ceramite shards, sending a spray of both natural and synthetic fluids spattering on the concrete all around the two combatants.

Blaze screamed in pain, the exposed nerves and muscles in his damaged pinion grating against each other to send burning lances of agony shooting through his mind. He felt his knees buckle and give way beneath him, causing him to collapse to the ground.

He took a deep breath and screamed for help.

"WONDERBREAD!"

≤ΘΘΘ≥

For Wonderbread, there was no greater thrill then that of combat.

All around him the air was filled with the symphony of violence, a delicately orchestrated web of intricacy, ranging from the deep bass of pulse weapons to the high pitched whine of plasma energy weapons. The sensation set him on edge; it brought to life something that revelled in the shedding of blood.

Within his chest there lay a beast, and it roared with anger and pent up frustration to be let loose. Wonderbread could feel it stirring in his heart, rushing through his veins, filling his mind.

Whereas for others the ecstasy of combat isolated their world down to the opponent they faced and themselves, for Wonderbread, it expanded the mind in a way that was truly unique. Every sensation was brought to the forefront of his mind, regardless of its significance.

He could hear what was left of his organic heart pounding in his ears as it furiously sought to supply his body with the oxygen it demanded. In his chest it beat against his ribs, the beast within screaming to be let loose.

At some point he’d lost Jester in the fog, but right now that was irrelevant. And besides, Wonderbread was sure that the weedier Alicorn could easily hold his own.

Wonderbread took a deep breath and felt what was left of his lungs swell, filling up the inside of his chest before he slowly exhaled, listening to the long sigh of the air as in came out of his nostrils and misted up in the chill air of the fog that surrounded him.

His pupils dilated as they sought to view every detail of the world and imprint it permanently on the surface of his mind, everything from the monotonous grey of the mist to the black tarmac of the road beneath his armoured hooves.

And finally his opponent.

The synthetic Alicorn circled the burgundy unicorn, snarling like a vicious animal. For his part the unicorn showed no fear, staring Wonderbread down with a pair of stolid amber-gold tinted eyes. Wonderbread could respect his opponent for his fearlessness, even if he was lunar scum, it took balls to stand tall in the face of impossible odds.

Wonderbread growled deeply, a thunderous bass tone that welled up from the deepest parts of his throat and rumbled like the snores of dormant dragon. The unicorn returned the growl with a snarl of his own, baring his teeth to reveal a set of sharp canines that only a synthetic or a mutant could possess, no natural pony ever developed fangs.

The two combatants tensed their muscles as their pacing froze, both readying themselves to unleash their strength. For a brief second their eyes met, and without words they both conveyed their hatred for each other.

Words weren’t needed to understand the animosity. It wouldn’t matter if this was the first time they had met or if they had danced this deadly dance a thousand times, they needed no explanation to hate each other. From the first moment either of them had been born they had been raised to believe that their enemies where the foulest creations of nature, and that no accord of peace could ever reach between them.

Wonderbread felt his unexplainable hatred for the lunar soldier rise up like a wave within his mind, and he rode that wave with every fibre of his synthetic being, using his hatred and rage as a bottomless reservoir of strength to be tapped into at a moment’s notice.

With a deafening roar that wouldn’t be amiss on an emperor dragon, Wonderbread threw himself towards his foe, three words where the only legible things coming from his mouth.

“FIRE AND FURY!”

Wonderbread charged with furious abandon , his hooves leaving inch deep furrows within the tarmac of the road as his hooves dug for purchase on the weak material, the metal of his armour sending up storms of sparks as it buried deep into the ground.

The muscles in his powerful legs let lose, pouring all of their strength into the opening charge to give Wonderbread the maximum amount of momentum he could achieve. This, combined with the formidable bulk of his combat armour, literally made Wonderbread a moving mountain of metal and muscle.

The burgundy unicorn replied in kind, bolting forwards in the blink of an eye towards Wonderbread.

The Alicorn lowered his horn guard, aiming its needle pointed tip straight for his opponent’s heart. The unicorn copied him move for move, lowering his own, much smaller, horn. For a brief instant the two combatants where in mid-charge, their horns lowered and their armour rattling. Like the unicorn knights of ancient equestrian history, the two opponents faced each other on the field of honour, readying to fight and die in the purifying stimulation of combat.

With a blink of an eye the instant was over, and then the two where bearing down on each other. Wonderbread maintained his headlong charge towards the unicorn’s heart, but at the very last second his lowered his horn even further. His left shoulder slammed into the unicorn’s front, his opponent’s horn hitting at an obtuse angle that caused it to deflect off Wonderbreads armour.

Within a sneer Wonderbread tensed the muscles in his neck and tossed his head, using his brute strength to lift the unicorn in the air and effortlessly throw him over his shoulder. With a cry of alarm the unicorn went head-over-hooves past Wonderbreads shoulder to land rolling on the tarmac behind him.

Wonderbread lowed his charge and took a moment to let out a victorious snarl before resuming his circling of the unicorn, who promptly picked himself up from the floor and resumed his own circling.

Wonderbread growled, sneering at the unicorn who returned his look of mockery with a fierce, pointed gaze of his own. This first charge was a test, used to judge his opponents speed and his strengths and weaknesses, an as expected Wonderbread had come out on top.

“Come on, Rookie” He growled at the unicorn, snorting and pawing a hoof against the ground, gouging yet more furrows into the tarmac “You think you’ve got what it takes to pick a fight with an Alicorn? Well come give me a try and we’ll see how good you really are”

The unicorn snorted and let out a furious bellow at Wonderbreads mocking tone, surging forward with a look of pure aggression in his eyes. Wonderbread bark a sarcastic laugh before beginning his own counter-charge, once again lowering his horn.

He respected the unicorn for his bravery and resolve, but he couldn’t help but regard his opponent as an idiot for attempting the same tactic twice. However, a split-instant before they came together, the unicorn leapt into the air.

Wonderbread stalled his charge, his hooves grinding deep into the tarmac of the road and sending showers of sparks skating in all directions. As he slowed he raised his head, planning to skewer the unicorn on his horn. However, as he turned his eyes skyward he was just in time to watch an energy blade flicker into existence around his opponent’s right hoof.

The Blade flicked out and effortlessly sliced through the adamantium shell of Wonderbreads horn guard to shatter the ivory horn underneath before emerging on the other side in a spray of metal and ivory shards that sprinkled lightly onto the floor with a delicate sound akin to that of broken glass.

For Wonderbread, it was nothing short of absolute agony.

Lances of pain stabbed into his mind, mercilessly shredding at his consciousness. Within his head he felt some small part of him drift off into oblivion, a shard of his essence lost to him for all eternity.

Wonderbread screamed.

Blood started to drip from his eyes as the magical neurone cortex’s within his brain began to haemorrhage. He felt bile rise up at the back of his throat, and his shaking legs gave out beneath him, causing him to unceremoniously collapse to the floor, where he wretched violently.

A horrible void began to form in his chest, as if something had reached down into his soul, his very identity, and ripped it loose. Wonderbread felt hollow, like a vessel emptied of water.

It was the single most soul-crushing sensation he had ever been subject to.

For any creature possessing a unicorn’s horn, synthetic or natural, losing that horn is an agonising experience, enough to drive some to insanity. For those who natural possess a horn, the experience is worse, as if with the horns destruction, a small part of their soul is lost.

It was Wonderbreads unfortunate grace to have been a natural born unicorn before his synthesis.

Waves of agony washed over him as he lay recumbent on the floor, rising up and falling away in equal amounts to fill his head with skull crushing pain in one moment and a dull throb the next.

Wonderbread spat up blood and a final bit of bile before slowly, agonisingly slowly, he got back to his hooves, which buckled threateningly underneath him as he put weight on them.

The unicorn was circling around him, like a shark drawn to the scented blood of a wounded creature. His gaze was both mocking and victorious as he sneered at the wounded Alicorn.

Wonderbread took a deep breath, gritting his teeth to the point where they would shatter under the pressure, as he tried to overcome the pain ravaging his mind and the hollow void he now felt in his chest.

A sparkling fluid, as thick as honey and glowing a bright cyan blue hue, began to slowly run down his face and drip from his muzzle. His tongue flicked out and he licked some of the fluid off of his lips

Instantly Wonderbreads palette was lit up, the fluid fizzing on his tongue like sherbet. He swallowed and felt a warm sensation begin to creep down his throat and into his heart, as if he had taken a shot of some heady spirit. For a brief moment Wonderbread felt the new void in his chest fill slightly as the liquid magic filtered into his system. He revelled in the sensation, thinking how foolish he had been to ignore it for so long until it had been taken from him.

But within seconds the magical high dissipated, and the hollow void returned.

“You ... son of a bitch” Wonderbread murmured as he watched the fluid on his muzzle drip to the tarmac, where it stood in stark cyan contrast to the blackness surrounding it. The Alicorn looked up at the unicorn and instantly felt a surge of hatred fill his body, setting his coat a fire with rage.

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” he roared “I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!”

It was, by no means, the classiest of death threats.

The unicorn raised the energy blade defensively, staring at the laid-low Alicorn with a neutral expression that somehow still managed to be at once glowering and hate-filled.

Wonderbread charged for the third time, pouring every single drop of his rage into this final attack.

He was going to kill the unicorn.

They came together for one final time, and with a bestial scream of pure, animalistic aggression, Wonderbread opened up and gave the beast within free reign.

The unicorn swiped at him with the energy blade, missing Wonderbreads face by a few inches but still slicing through the armour just above the Alicorns left knee.

Before the unicorn could bring the blade back up for another strike, Wonderbread brought a powerful hoof slamming into the side of his head. Wonderbread had placed as much hatred as he could physically and mentally manage into the blow, and was thoroughly satisfied when, with a thick crunching sound, a tooth went flying from the burgundy unicorn’s mouth.

His opponent went flying to land as a pile of metal on the tarmac, landing so hard that he formed a small crater where he landed. Wonderbread was on him in an instant, a single armour hoof raised high.

“BLOODY BASTARD, THIS IS FOR MY BLOODY HORN!”

The hoof came slamming down on the ponies’ unshielded face, crushing the cartilage in his muzzle with an immensely satisfying crunching sound. The unicorn screamed in pain as his muzzle was broken and began to bleed profusely from the split skin.

Wonderbread snarled, a red haze descending around him as he felt blood-lust begin to course through his veins

“SO’S THIS!”

The hoof descended again.

“AND THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS!”

Wonderbread continued to repeatedly slam his hoof down on the unicorns face, turning his muzzle into a wreck of blood, split skin, and exposed cartilage. Within his head the world became filled with a red haze of unremitting violence, setting him free of any inhibitions he could have ever possessed towards beating this unicorn to death.

This pony had done more then just shatter his horn, or break a bone. He had single-hoofedly destroyed the one thing that could have ever defined him. For unicorns a horn was as much an expression of self as wings where to a pegasus, or simple hooves where to an earth pony. His horn had been more then a part of his body, a conduit for his magic. It had been a physical manifestation of his soul, as intrinsically bonded to his mind as the urge to breath.

And he had lost all of this, because of this ... one ... fucking ... unicorn!

The ferocity of his blows somehow managed to increase, from somewhere deep within his spited half-soul Wonderbread found fresh reserves of hatred to unleash. The unicorns face was well disfigured by now, blood coating his features like a second skin of flaking rust.

The cartilage in his muzzle had long since collapsed, and under Wonderbreads assault had turned to complete mulch, leaving nothing that could resemble some sort of supportive structure. Blood was flowing freely from both the unicorns nostrils and his mouth, moving in a slow gruel of blood, saliva and tears. The skin around the unicorns right eye had split open, revealing the sickly yellow-white colouration of blood underneath.

The creature was snivelling pathetically as Wonderbread momentarily paused to take a breather, somehow managing to retain conciousness. Mustering what little strength he still possessed, the unicorn took a deep breath and screamed at the top of his voice.

“RED ARROW!”

“SHUT UP!” Wonderbread roared, punching the unicorn again, causing him to shriek in pain “JUST SHUT UP YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” Wonderbread raised his hoof again, beneath him the unicorns disfigured face cringed. But before he could bring it down he heard a loud, deep voice call out from the fog, rolling like a wall of thunder.

“GET OFF HIM, YOU SOLAR BITCH!” Wonderbread snarled, pulling his attention away from the object of his hatred to come face to face with a tall, muscular pegausi stallion clad in blood red heavy-duty armour.

He stood taller then even Wonderbread, his statue lending a huge and menacing effect which was only accentuated by his immense build. Without needing to look, Wonderbread could tell that under the red armour there where huge slabs of muscle just itching to be let loose on an opponent. The pegausi flared his wings menacingly, choosing to for-go any form of shielding and instead arm the rims of his wings with deadly sharp blades.

At the sight of the new comer Wonderbread snarled again, subconscious programmes within his mind redirecting the source of his rage towards this new threat in order to ensure operator survivability by giving him a combat incentive. Wonderbread moved to get off the unicorn. However as he did so the pegausi's left fore-leg twitched, drawing Wonderbreads attention to something that was writhing weakly in the pegausi's grip.

“JESTER!”

Wonderbreads squad-mate, Jester, had always been diminutive, even by Alicorn standards. He barely reached halfway up Blazes neck, and Wonderbread towered a full head taller then him. But wrapped up in the inescapable iron grip of the pegausi, Jester looked like a mere foal.

Whilst Wonderbread had been succeeding in beating his opponent to death and had almost finished the job, Jester seemed to have met considerable failure. One of his wings was missing, completely torn off at the base. From the now open wound red blood, black oil, and orange synthetic fluids poured profusely, coating the left side of Jesters moss green armour in a disgustingly thick, brown fluid.

The pain in his golden eyes was more then clearly evident.

“Wonder ... bread!” he squeaked in a barely audible voice, his right hind-leg kicking sporadically “... help me ... please!”

Wonderbreads eyes flashed back to the pegausi’s, an unspoken threat past between them. However, Wonderbread found need to give it voice, for Jesters sake.

"If you hurt him any further, I will kill you"

For a few moments the pegausi did nothing, blinking lazily and taking slow, deliberate breaths, as if this were a run-of-the-mill situation. And then, with a nonchalant roll of his shoulders, snapped Jesters neck.

With a slight squeeze from the powerful muscles in his leg, the pegausi increased the pressure on Jesters neck. The Alicorn let out a strangled, pitiful mewl as he felt the pressure rise, his hind-legs kicking with renews vigour as he pawed at the stallions hoof. Slowly, agonisingly slowly, the pressure on his vertebrae began to spike.

≤ΘΘΘ≥

Jester could feel it, the pain in his neck insurmountable. He met Wonderbreads eyes and begged, pleaded, silently that his squad-mate would help. But before Wonderbread could even move, Jester felt something pop in his neck, almost like a bubble.

The pain fell away, along with the rest of his senses. The world turned black, soft, comforting. Every sound was muffled, like someone had thrown a blanket over everything. He was faintly aware of something shouting, but he couldn't make anything out His body relaxed, slumping slightly. He closed his blind eyes and succumbed to oblivion.

In the brief second before he completely slipped away, Jester smiled.

His pain was finally over

≤ΘΘΘ≥

Wonderbread roared with wordless fury as he watched Jesters limp body fall to the floor as the pegasus relinquished his grip on the now dead Alicorn, dropping him to the floor like a sack of flour.

Leaping up from the now unconscious unicorn, he galloped towards the pegausi at full pelt, screaming unintelligibly. The red haze descended again, thicker and more blinding then ever before.

This pegasus had killed Jester, and he was going to pay.

The pegausi in question, however, didn't seem to bother by his predicament. Despite the fact he had an enraged synthetic Alicorn bearing down on him with all the fury of tartarus burning in his eyes, he didn't even budge an inch. Instead the pony waited patiently until Wonderbread was almost on top of him.

Then he simply turned around, and bucked.

The blow hit with full force and deadly precision, striking Wonderbread straight under the jaw. The Alicorns head snapped back as the force of the blow struck him in his muzzle, shattering teeth and crushing cartilage and bone with a disgusting crunching noise that reverberated endlessly inside his head.

He collapsed to the floor, the energy in his body flowing out of him as exhaustion, fatigue, and pain, finally caught up with him, leaving him a demoralised wreck on the floor. His whole body felt like lead, the weight of his armour crushing him. He managed to scrape enough energy to spit out the splinters of tooth still lodged in his mouth, but even that taxed him to the extreme.

Warnings where flashing in his HUD, bright words and phrases silhouetted in blood red bouncing around in a maddening display of colour in his vision. He'd broken nine adamatium bone, his jaw was fractured, the nanotrites in his blood had suffered a power failure from excessive trauma, through it all the message was clear.

This was were Wonderbread was going to die.

Somehow, with an effort that almost caused him to black out, he managed to look up at the pegausi. His victorious opponent was watching on with casual disdain, his eyes uncaring. briefly they flickered over to the unicorn, who was groggily picking himself up from the tarmac, moaning in pain.

"You ok, Russet?" the pegausi asked, his voice flat and level.

"I bith my thongue" The unicorn answered, rubbing a hoof over his muzzle tentatively, hissing with pain. "bloody bathtard broke my dosthe" The pegasus made a chuckling noise.

"Hey, Ignia, I've got one here for you" the pegausi shouted over his shoulder. there was the trotting of hooves on tarmac, and a mare appeared by the pegausi's side, dwarfed by his immense bulk. "He almost killed Russet" the pegasus quipped, pointing towards Wonderbread "This guys insane"

The mare observed him with disquieting sulphur yellow eyes, his iris' flecked with purple, before she smiled maliciously. "He looks cold in that armour of his, doesn't he?" she asked, turning to look up at the pegasus, who chuckled and nodded in agreement "Let's see if I can help him out, shall we?"

The mare raised up a hoof, and Wonderbread was vaguely aware of what appeared to be a flame-thrower nozzle attached to a large gauntlet wrapped around the hoof. It was black and covered in grime, and from the smoke that was rising from the nozzle, it looked like it had been freshly used.

The mare giggled, a light, flowing noise that felt like silk. Her eyes seemed to dance with some kind of mad excitement and she pointed the flamer straight at Wonderbreads face. "That's a whole lot of metal you're wearing" she said, addressing him directly "I better turn up the heat, just to make sure you can feel it under all that armour. She giggled again, a discomforting mad smile spreading across her face.

Wonderbread gazed at the gauntlet for a moment and then exhaled a breath he didn't even realised he'd been holding in. He took a breath and screwed his eyes tight shut.

"Aww" the mare said, in a voice that a filly would use when she didn't get her way "I like it when they watch"

≤ΘΘΘ≥

Blaze screamed again.

"WONDERBREAD!"

From somewhere out in the fog he heard someone shout, but he couldn't make who it was. Suddenly, the fog in front of him lit up a bright orange, heat radiating towards him in a wave, as if he'd stepped into a furnace.

Blaze saw a heavy silhouette - undoubtably Wonderbreads - through the fog. He only had a few moments however before a rolling wall of bright orange flame came crashing down on the silhouette and filled the air with the dull roar that only a flame-thrower could produce.

The stench of burning flesh and hair assaulted his nostrils. And though he told himself it was only his mind playing sick games, he swore he could have heard Wonderbreads high pitched scream.

The stallion stood over him laughed mockingly at the supposedly biologically superior synthetic Alicorn collapsed on the ground beneath him, his hoof still buried in Blazes wing.

The stallion ripped his hoof out of Blazes wing, pausing to grip a loose shard of ceramite that emerged from an opening in the wing's rim. The stallion gripped the tube of metal and twisted, forcing jagged splinters of metal to bury themselves in the soft flesh of the wing, making Blaze whimper.

With a devilish grin the stallion pulled hard on the metal tube, pulling it out with a meaty sucking sound, causing a new flow of blood and oil to pour from the wound. Blaze whimpered in pain as the stallion retracted the medium length of metal and finally pulled his hoof free from the new hole in his wing.

Blaze managed to hold himself up for a moment longer before a tide of pain washed over him and caused him to collapse to the ground, his face hitting hard against concrete road.

The stallion stood over Blaze, holding the rod of metal in one hoof "Look at you" he said, idly examining the length of metal "Just look at you!"

The stallion raised the metal rod above him and brought it smashing down on the rim of Blazes unshielded wing. There was a disgusting splintering noise and Blaze screamed again in pain, a black tide of agony washing over him and threatening to drown him in unconsciousness.

"You're superior to nothing!" the stallion cracked the length of metal across the back of Blazes neck "how are you better than me? HOW?" The stallion dropped the length of metal on the ground beside Blaze and gripped the rim of Blazes wing, gripping it hard, making Blaze wince.

"You're no better than shit" the stallion said "And now i'm going to finish this" The stallion began to pull at the pinion, his strength threatening to pull the joint out of its socket. "How are you better than me?" the stallion asked, leaning in to whisper in Blazes ear "How?"

Blaze took a deep breath, steeling himself for the pain that was about to follow his next move "Because...i'm not..." he wheezed, the stallion leaned in even closer "I'm not...LUNAR SCUM!"

Blaze opened up his other wing and swept it towards the stallion, the deadly energy shield trailing cyan out behind it as it sliced through the air. The stallion shouted in surprise and leapt backwards, the deadly shield of plasma skimming against his chest plate and gouging a deep furrow into the metal and circuitry to send sparks flying.

Blaze scrambled back up to his hooves and backed away from his opponent, his breathing heavy. The stallion backed away himself and then his grin returned and he reared on his hind legs.

"Not done yet, are you?" Blazes opponent knelt down on one knee and pulled a boot knife from the ankle of his right hoof. Blaze took a deep breath, filling his lungs with cold air. His right wing throbbed painfully, blood and oil pouring from the ragged hole in his pinion.

This was not going well; already he was confined to the ground with his wings now useless. The opposing stallion had inflicted him with a major injury and Blaze hadn't even given him so much as a scratch. Blaze folded his damaged wing against his side, wincing slightly as the damaged muscles and nerves contracted.

As soon as the pinion was folded against the side of his armour, metal plates began to emerge from the armour and encase the damaged appendage in light weight ceramite, protecting it from any further damage. Blaze shut off the shield on his other wing and repeated the process with his other wing, fully encasing both in protective metal plating.

Blaze focussed his mind and reached into the programming files within his artificial mind, digging in search of his combat drug dispensary programme. If Angel had still been online then she would have automatically activated the programming for him, but the multi-frequency signal jammer was still blocking Angels holographic realisation programming from coming online.

Instead Blaze was forced to activate the programming himself, switching on the drug dispensers. Blaze felt tiny needles prick him all across his body, injecting into all four of his legs and the base of his wings. Instantly Blaze felt his muscles begin to expand and his pulse elevate, his pupils dilated and his rate of breathing increased.

Once again time seemed to slow down, and Blaze took in every detail of the world. "I'm not done...until you're dead!" the stallion grinned.

"Bring it!"

Blaze charged, roaring wordlessly as he bull rushed his opponent. Despite being prepared for Blazes assault, the stallion was unprepared for such a direct form of attack, expecting a slow and calculating string of attacks rather than a straight up assault. Blaze came crashing down, punching with his right hoof into the side of the stallions head.

Once again the stallion dodged backwards to avoid the blow, but this time Blaze had predicted his opponents next move. Blaze landed on his hooves and immediately launched another attack with his left hoof, bearing his teeth as he lunged forward. Blaze grinned in satisfaction as he saw the stallions eyes widen and the glimmer of terror enter them.

As Blazes hoof connected with the side of the stallions muzzle there was a satisfying crunch and he grinned as several loose teeth went flying out of his opponents' mouth.

"COME ON, YOU BASTARD!" Blaze shouted as the stallion went reeling, his opponents head snapped back around, his eyes filled with rage. He followed up his previous attack with a right hook, smashing his hoof straight into the front of the stallions' mouth.

There was a disgusting cracking noise and one of the stallions' front teeth went flying, followed by a trail of blood. The force of the punch caused the stallion to fall to the floor, he landed with a hard crunching noise and the concrete beneath him cracked. The stallions knife came loose from his grasp and skittered to the floor by Blazes hooves, its sharp edge glowing dully in the weak light of the fog.

Blaze picked it up and took a few short steps to the stallion before raising a hoof and stamping it on his opponents chest. The stallion gasped as the blow winded him, coughing up a few drops of blood. "Who are you? How did you find us?" Blaze showed the stallion the knife before he shoved the edge of the blade under the ponies next, his opponent tensed.

"Who sent you?" Blaze pressed the knife slightly harder against the stallions throat, moving the blade in a sawing action that brought a small welter of blood bubbling up from beneath the serrated edge. "I won't ask again. NOW TELL ME!"

The stallions shot Blaze a defiant stare. "What's it matter to you?" he asked, hatred burning in his eyes "We're both on opposite teams. Does it really matter who sent me?" Blaze grunted and pressed harder with the blade to show that it did matter.

The stallions resolve held, Blaze could see that this one wasn't going to break easily. But just as he was about to start cutting, his captive began to talk. "We were personally deployed by princess general Cadence of the New Lunar Republic. Our target was your specialist team, Cadence wanted you eliminated before you could complete your mission"

Blaze grinned 'Oh Cadence, if only you knew. My mission will be complete when you're dead' Blaze raised the blade from his opponents throat, leaving behind a shallow red line where he had pierced the flesh.

"Ironic, isn't it?" He said, twisting the knife to send a flash of light playing along the blade. "You're mission was to kill me, but instead, i'm killing you" he held the knife high and brought it slamming down, aiming straight for the gap between the stallions eyes.

The stallions eyes grew wide and Blaze grinned viciously, but a split second before the blade impacted something heavy slammed into Blazes side. Blaze grunted as a heavy mountain of metal crashed into him and knocked him off the stallion, the knife when flying from his grip and skimmed along the floor, disappearing into the fog.

A hoof slammed into his face, cracking him in the jaw. Blaze looked up at the new threat, and saw a massive stallion clad in heavy bright red armour raise another hoof, strapped across his back was a massive plasma cannon. The stallions visor was blacked out, but Blaze could tell that underneath his new opponent was grinning.

"WONDERBREAD!" Blaze cried out, backing away from the stallion, there was no reply.

"Your friends can't save you" came another voice called out, this one female. A mare with a deep red coat and a mane made up of reds, yellows and pink that was clad in bright red armour covered in swirling orange and yellow flame designs, and around her wrists where two gauntlets, both equipped with flamers.

"That stallion in the brown armour was tough, but he looked so cold in his armour, so i decided to warm him up" the mare grinned, and flames began to simmer up from around the base of her hooves, casting dancing shadows across Blazes face. "Cooked alive in his own armour, how tragic" the mares eyes glittered evilly at the idea.

"You bitch!" Blaze spat a stream of blood at the mare; the blooded landed on the mares hooves and began to hiss as the flames caused the fluid to turn into a faint cloud of red mist. "YOU KILLED WONDERBREAD!" the stallion in the red armour punched Blaze in the face under his eye, instantly the skin under the blow began to swell.

"You shut your mouth, or we'll kill you" the stallion make a grunting noise "You're lucky Cadence wanted the squad leader alive, or your head would have been rolling by now"

"We got the last one" Came another voice, this one male. A unicorn stallion, a pegausi stallion, and an earth mare and stallion emerged from the fog. The earth stallion was leaning on the unicorn, blood dripping down from a wound in his shoulder.

The Pegausi mare spoke "That last stallion went down easy, Red Arrow snapped his neck. But the mare was tricky. She stabbed Cloudy through the shoulder with a combat knife and snapped off the blade, it's still in there"

The earth pony in question grunted and raise a hoof tentatively to his wounded shoulder, he gently poked at the wound before he took a deep breath and reached into the open rent in his armour. The pony grimaced and gasped in pain before there was a wet tearing sound as he pulled out the blade and let it drop to the floor with a clatter, a few seconds later he collapsed to the floor, wheezing for breath.

"Daredevil, get the medical kit and patch him up" the dark blue stallion Blaze had just been about to kill shouldered his way through the group to tower over Blaze, a look of disgust and hatred on his face. "Ignia, signal the gunship we're ready for pickup" the stallion turned his head and spat out another tooth, deep red blood dripped down his chin.

"You almost got me there, you bastard" the stallion said before raising a hoof. Before Blaze could raise his own hoof in defence the stallion stamped down hard on his chest, winding him. "You're good, I'll give you that. I've never met a specialist who was bad at combat, but you...you where really something"

He turned to the massive stallion next to him. "Bind him and take his weapons, I'm presenting this one to Cadence personally. The massive stallion nodded and stepped forward, raising a hoof and slamming down on Blazes face. Blazes head slammed against the concrete road, sending stars flashing across his vision.

The skin under his left eye had swollen shut, blocking all sight in his left eye. When the stallion saw that Blaze was still conscious, so he stamped down with a hoof again, Blaze groaned in pain.

"Gunship is on approach" the one called Ignia said, lowering a hoof from her ear "ETA is three minutes"

"Good" the leader of the group said, wiping a hoof across his mouth to get rid of the blood "Tell Cadence the mission is a success" the stallion glanced at Blaze and gave him an evil smile "We're bringing one in, alive"

"Come on" the stallion that had hit Blazes face said, grabbing the front of his armour and hauling him to his hooves "You're coming with us" Blaze gasped for breath. The left side of his face was inflamed and swollen and he was pretty sure that he was missing a tooth somewhere at the back of his mouth, he took another ragged breath.

"Fuck...you..." he managed, doing his best to give the huge stallion an evil glare but failing due to his swollen eye. The stallion made a grunting noise of indifference and punched Blaze in the face again on his swollen left eye, causing him to collapse back to the floor.

"He's got plenty of fight this one" the stallion said, his voice deep like thunder "What'll you reckon Cadence will do to this one?"

"I don't give two shits" the dark pegausi said, glancing over at Blaze before moving over to the injured pony called Cloudy, who was whimpering slightly as the small filly called Daredevil poured a dark orange liquid onto his wound. "All i care is that after this I'm going to take a well deserved nap" The stallion spat another trail of blood "And see a dentist about my teeth"

Just then with the screaming of RAM jets the Valkyrie gunship reappeared, slowly hovering into landing two dozen feet away from them in the middle of the road. The force of the RAM jets and the spinning turbines set into the crafts wings blew away the fog around them, leaving an open space of clear air. "Alright everypony, our ride's here. Red, grab the prisoner and let's get going, i have a feeling that some more of those Solar bitches will be appearing at any moment"

The stallion standing over Blaze nodded and grabbed Blazes hoof, dragging him along the ground, a storm of sparks flaring up as the metal grinded along the concrete road. With a deep clanking and the sound of whirring the gunships boarding ramp lowered, warm air spilling out to gently caress against Blazes swollen face.

Daredevil wrapped a final strip of bandage around Cloudies chest and picked him up, letting him lean on her shoulder as they stepped up the boarding ramp. Blaze tried to fight back, but the pounding he had taken and the pain in his wing had robbed him of his strength and his attempts to resist where feeble. Just as his rump hit the bottom of the ramp Blaze felt his hope leave him, there was no point in resisting.

'So this is how it ends' he thought to himself 'I'm going to be dragged in front of Cadence and paraded around like some sort of circus animal for the whole of the NLR to see' he closed his eyes 'Sally...I'm so sorry...please...forgive me, all of you, forgive me' But just as he was dumped at the top of the boarding ramp and he succumbed to exhaustion, a single shot rang out.

A sniper bullet pinged off the top of the boarding ramp and began to ricochet around the interior of the gunship. The mare called Ignia screamed as the bullet impacted into her rump with a meaty thunk; a spray of blood went flying and painted the wall red.

"SHIT!" the dark stallion shouted, instantly pulling out a rail rifle from his flank. "GET US OUT OF HERE!" he shouted to the pilot, turning his head towards the cockpit "DAREDEVIL, SEE TO IGNIA!" the young filly nodded and pulled out a medical kit.

"SOMEONE GET THIS BULLET OUT OF MY ARSE!" Ignia screamed "SWEET TWILIGHT, THAT THING HURTS!" there was another shot and another meaty thud, the dark blue Pegasus gritted his teeth. Blaze realised that they still hadn't taken off.

"WHY THE HELL HAVEN'T WE TAKEN OFF!" the stallion shouted. Blaze glanced across to the cockpit and saw that the pilot was slumped in his chair; the windscreen in front of him covered in blood and smashed open with a single exit hole caused by the bullet. "SHIT, WINDFREE'S K.I.A.!" another shot rang out, smashing into one of the overhead storage racks. "CLOUDY, TAKE THE CONTROLS. RED, GIVE US SOME COVERING FIRE!" the massive stallion nodded and unslung his huge plasma cannon from across his back. The stallion stepped forward and took aim.

"WHERE ARE THEY? I CAN'T SEE JACK-SHIT!" another shot rang out. This time the sniper had aimed for one of the missile racks and there was a huge explosion that rocked the gunship. The stallion lost balance and fell back on his rump; his plasma cannon fell down beside him and whacked Blaze in the back of his head.

With a grunt of pain Blaze winced as the force of the blow sent him sprawling and caused him to roll down the boarding ramp to land head first on the cold concrete of the road.

"GET HIM BACK IN HERE!" the pegausi stallion shouted "IGNIA, HOW YOU HOLDING UP?"

"MY RUMP HASN'T FELT THIS SORE SINCE THE LAST TIME ME AND RUSSET GOT DRUNK! IF THAT HELPS?"

"THAT'S NICE. RED, GET THE PRISONER BACK ONBOARD!" the huge stallion nodded and stowed away his plasma cannon, but before he could descend the boarding ramp something huge landed beside with a heavy cracking noise. Blaze looked up to see a huge synthetic Alicorn standing over him, a look of grim determination and hatred on his face.

The specialist was clad in jet black armour similar to Blazes but equipped with heavier plating on the shoulders and on the chest, across the armours flank was three stripes of blood red. His coat, where it wasn't covered in black adamantium, was dull silver. His mane was thick and coloured snow white and his eyes where a bright gold.

Wordlessly the stallion drew a katana from his flank and brought it to bear, his eyes glittered with hatred. The stallion named red paused at the top of the ramp, eyeing the blade held in the newcomers hooves warily.

"Come on, Lunar scum. If you want him, come get him" the black armoured stallion stood over Blaze defensively, taking measured breaths. The red armoured stallion at the top of the ramp growled and began to descend, but another sniper round pinged off the ramp by the base of the stallions hooves, a warning shot for him to advance no further.

The stallion paused for only another second before he roared and charged down the ramp, his armour clanking heavily on the boarding ramp. The synthetic Alicorn waited patiently below, waiting to meet the stallions charge. The stallion came crashing down on them like a living mountain, his roar echoing like the thunder.

The Alicorn stood silently in the face of the charge, his blade still and balanced. Blaze feared that his saviour was about to die, but as the red stallion came hurtling towards them the Alicorn suddenly burst into action.

Moving faster than Blaze would have believed, the Alicorn side stepped the on rushing Stallion and raised the katana on high. The charging stallion didn't have enough time to react and continued his head long rush, unable to slow down in time to block the Alicorns attack.

As the stallion came charging past the Alicorn brought the katana slicing downwards, the blade making a faint humming noise as it descended through the air. The blade met the armour at the back of the stallions neck and sent up a storm of sparks flying as it sheared through the alloy of adamantium and ceramite.

There was the faint sound of meat being cut and the sound of bone and gristle being sliced through, before the blade emerged through the front of the stallions neck without a sound. The red stallion continued his charge, but now his legs seemed to working without any form of cohesion.

The stallion slowly stumbled to a halt, standing on shaking legs. He gave a final shallow gasp before his head and neck slowly slid from his shoulders and fell to the floor, the armour clanging loudly on the concrete. The now headless corpse stood stock still for a few seconds longer before it to fell to the floor, the sound of the metal armour impacting on the concrete deafeningly loud in the sudden silence that followed.

The young filly on board the gunship screamed in mindless horror as she watched the body of her squad mate fall to the ground, the sound was filled with the pain of loss and despair. The filly stood up from the red mare she was attending too and began to rush towards the door, but the dark pegausi grabbed her before she could reach the boarding ramp. "NO!" The filly screamed, clawing towards the synthetic Alicorn "THEY KILLED HIM, THOSE BASTARDS KILLED RED ARROW!"

"DAREDEVIL, NO!" the stallion said, using his superior strength to easily hold back the weaker pony. He shot the Alicorn and Blaze an evil glare before he turned back to the cockpit "Cloudy, get us out of here"

"Yes sir" with a deep clanking and a high pitched whirring the boarding ramp began to rise. Blaze had one final glance at the dark pegausi before the ramp sealed shut. With the screaming of RAM jets and a deep whining that began to rise in pitch the gunship slowly began to rise into the air, the gunship rose above the buildings before the engines released a final deep roar and the craft rocket forward towards the spire, swiftly disappearing from sight as it was blocked out by the buildings that surrounded them.

The mysterious Alicorn stood stock still for a few seconds, his ears perked up as he listened for any sign of the enemy. Silence descended on them, blocking everything out.

"ALL CLEAR!" he shouted out, his deep voice echoing loudly in the now silent street. There was a scuffling noise and the sound of metal meeting concrete and three shapes emerged from the fog, slowly coalescing into the distinct outlines of bodies.

The first of the new comers was a tall Alicorn stallion, his horn unusually long for a synthetic. The Alicorns coat was jet black and his mane and tail where the same mixture of reds, oranges and yellows and Blazes, though unusually his wings also bore the same colouration. His eyes where a bright yellowish gold and on his flank was a cutie mark of a royal phoenix over a backdrop of two crossed swords.

The second of the three was yet another Alicorn, this one tall, but still slightly shorter than the first Alicorn. His coat was a dull silver, much like that of stainless steel, but his flesh where it wasn't covered in deep green armour was criss-crossed with faint scars. His eyes where a glassy blue and his mane and tail where a deep gold, both cropped short, his mane done up in a series of small spikes.

The last wasn't an Alicorn or even a pony at all, but a dragon, his scales and wings where a metallic blue and his eyes bright gold, cresting his head and running down his back was a row of golden spikes.

The Alicorn standing over him sheathed his katana and pulled Blaze back to his hooves. "Are you Blaze, specialist unit JDA16?"

"Yeah, yeah i am" Blaze winced as his head began to pound, his skull feeling like it could split open at any minute "Who are you guys?"

"Specialist unit CTA14" the dragon answered, crossing his arms "We were sent to ensure that you and your team successfully completed your mission"

"Looks like you lot where a bit late" Blaze said bitterly, swilling some blood around his mouth before he spat it out and a tooth as well "Oh look, there's my tooth" Blaze tried to flex his wings but the armour held them tight, the result was a lance of pain the shot through his side like a hot knife.

"Sentinel, see to his wounds. Firelight, recon the area, Phoenix, you help" the Alicorn with the katana said before raising a hoof to his ear

"Berrybrew, this is Desolator. Package is secure, alert command that we have Blaze intact but the rest of his team is K.I.A. requesting immediate pickup at coordinates: Michael-Luna-thirty-nine by Gamma-Foxtrot-twenty-six" the stallion, apparently named Desolator, walked up to Blaze and knelt down beside him, placing on hoof on his shoulder.

"Hey, you ok?" he said in a gentle voice, which was surprising, he didn't look like the gentle type "Not an easy thing to see your squad mates die, when we get back to base we'll get you to a psychological care unit" but stallion tapped on his chest plate and it silently slid up into the armour, the stallion reached in and pulled out a thick connection cable. "Until then I'll give you the next best form of therapy, I'll give you your AI back"

The stallion gently tapped on Blazes chest plate and the metal plating retracted to reveal a selection of input ports, he then pulled out an extra length of cable and plugged the thick wire into a medium size input port. Blaze felt the stallions bio-mechanical mind digging through information files in Blazes own synthetic brain.

The stallion accessed the files containing the programming for Angel and opened the holographic projection and realisation programming; there was a jolt of energy as the stallion used some of the energy from his fusion core to reboot the files and then he pulled out the thick cable, causing Blaze to lurch slightly. "There we go" the stallion said, placing the cable back inside his open chest piece, which closed with a faint whirring sound "just give it a few moments and you'll have your AI back"

Blaze nodded and felt the Angels programming begin to come online. There was a faint whining and the heads up display in Blazes vision flickered, the data streams pausing from scroll down his vision. Blaze jolted again and the fuzzy outline of a pony silhouetted in white appeared next to him, a beeping noise filled his ears.

The silhouetted pony solidified into Angel and with a final jolt from Blaze she suddenly burst into life. The holographic pony stood stock still, blinking for a few seconds and taking in her surroundings before she turned to Blaze "You're hurt" she stated in a placid voice. Blaze waited for a few seconds longer for her pheromone synchronisation programming to come online. "YOU'RE HURT!" she said, this time her voice filled with concern.

Angel dropped to her knees beside Blaze and took his head in her hooves, her golden eyes where wide with maternal compassion. Angel flickered and Blaze felt her programming perform a full scan of his body. "We need to get you to a medic. Your right wing is broken and you're losing nanotrites fast, if we don't get the wound closed up quickly your synthetic genes will begin to breakdown and decay"

"Just give me a moment" Blaze said, tenderly rubbing the back of his head "I'm feeling pretty sore right now"

"The others..." Angel started, but her voice quickly broke off as she realised what had happened. Blaze shook his head.

"They didn't make it" his voice was sombre; a heavy weight like a chain of lead began to wrap itself around his heart.

"Oh..." for a few minutes they sat in silence, Blaze not wanting to speak and Angel not wanting to intrude. Angel opened her mouth and was about to speak, when from nowhere Buttercup appeared. The mares outline was flickering, and at times whole portions of her body distorted and disappeared entirely, the mare was panting heavily and her bright orange eyes where wide with desperation and fear. Blaze was so shocked to see her that he froze in place.

"Blaze..." she whimpered; her shy voice fearful and near silent. "It's Wonderbread...please...help" Blaze instantly leapt to his hooves.

"Where is he?" Buttercup pointed off towards their left, towards the side of the road, and Blaze bolted in that direction. The thick fog swiftly concealed him, and behind him he heard Desolator shout out his name, but he paid no mind. For a few moments Blaze encountered nothing, and then he found Wonderbread lying deathly still by the side of the road.

"Wonderbread..." he whispered, falling to his knees beside the stallion "no...no...OH SWEET TWILIGHT, NO!" Wonderbreads armour, once such a vivid brown, was now scorched pitch black and covered in soot and ash, sections of the metal had melted away. The image was horrific to behold, the sight of such a strong warrior laid low filled Blazes heart with sorrow, but what had happened to Wonderbreads face was even worse.

The red mares flames had taken a horrid tole on Wonderbreads features. His thick mane of blue and striking white had been burnt off, and his electric blue coat had been cracked and split by the heat, all around them the air was filled with the disgusting sickly-sweet stench of cooked meat. The flames had melted his eye balls, and all that was left of his orange retina was thick fluid of yellowish sludge that had pooled in his eye sockets.

"Wonderbread...?" Blaze asked, his voice almost silent and tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. A painful knot had tightened in his throat and he couldn't swallow "Please...Wonderbread...don't die" Blaze felt his reserve crack and buckle like bending metal.

"OH PLEASE, WONDERBREAD, DON'T DIE!" the tears began to slowly roll down Blazes cheeks "I'm so sorry" Blaze said, lowering his head as the first of the tears "please, Wonderbread, i'm so sorry! No one was meant to die!" Blaze raised his head and looked upwards into the sky, where the blue sun of Threnor prime was slowly rising to take supremacy of the heavens. "NO ONE WAS MEANT TO DIE!" he screamed.

"Blaze..." a faint voice whispered, and Blaze looked down to see Wonderbreads hoof pawing feebly at his chest; he gripped it tightly in his own. Beside them Buttercup and Angel appeared, their faces both wearing identical masks of sorrow. Buttercup began to cry into Angels shoulder, the AI laid a comforting hoof around her shoulder.

"Wonderbread, hold on! We're going to get you to a field medic, ok? Just hold on, it'll be ok, i promise it'll be ok!"

"No, Blaze..." the stallion said, coughing up a stream of thick black blood that dripped down his chin. "I'm finished...it's so dark...i know when i'm done" Wonderbreads other hoof fumbled blindly against his chest, searching for something at his neck. He found it and with a sharp pull and a grunt of pain he pulled on a small necklace made of fine chain links, he handed it to Blaze, who gripped it tight in his hooves. "I'm through, Blaze, I'm done"

"DON'T SAY THAT!" Blaze cried, tears running freely down his cheeks and dripping onto Wonderbreads soot blackened armour, washing away at the ash and leaving streaks across the surface of the metal. "WE'LL GET YOU TO A MEDIC, YOU'LL BE OK!"

"Blaze...take this" Wonderbread whispered "Keep it close...it's got to do you...some sort of good" Blaze looked down at the small necklace to see that it was a devotional icon to the holy saint Fluttershy, Wonderbreads patron saint, three topaz pink butterflies held together by fine links of silver.

Wonderbreads hoof went slack in Blazes grip "Find her...Blaze" he whispered. Wonderbread took one final ragged breath and fell still "You've got to ... do it ... for all of us" he said with his final breath, his chest falling still "Finish ... the mission ... capture Cadence ... make her pay ... "

Blaze felt his heart catch in his throat, and he looked up to see Buttercup looking at him, her eyes red with tears. She flickered and her outline slowly began to distort and fade away.

"Goodbye, Blaze, Angel" she said, and with a final flicker she disappeared entirely, her holographic realisation projectors losing power and shutting down. Blaze looked down at the once majestic stallion beside him, the lump in his throat tightened even further.

"Wonderbread...WONDERBREAD?" Blaze screamed, tears running faster down his cheeks. "No...No one was supposed to die" Blaze was dimly aware that Angel had laid a hoof on his shoulder and was saying something, but he could hear her. Overhead the grey clouds that hung heavy in the sky rumbled, and lit up as a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky.

Blaze turned to look up towards the heavens, just as they opened and the rain began to pour once again. Blaze closed his eyes and felt the heavy rain fall onto his face, the cold drops of water playing across his swollen skin. He opened his eyes and turned to stare up at the at the indomitable spire, which stood towering over them all, a symbol of the power of the NLR.

He felt anger burn up inside of him, drowning out the sorrow and replacing it with white hot fury. He took a deep breath and screamed a single word, his voice with filled hatred and loathing that he had been carrying for hundreds of years.

"CADENCE!"

≤ΘΘΘ≥

Within the halls of the changelings, Chrysalis heard a scream.

The queen paused from her feast of spoiled flesh to raise her head, her nostrils flaring as she absorbed the tantalising scent of emotion. Beneath her hooves, one of her children mewled and whined as black blood as thick as tar oozed from the hole rent in its chest. Beneath the creatures half insectoid, half pony exterior skin, its heart was little more then a mound of ruptured flesh and rotten meat.

The child mewled again, but was swiftly cut off as its mother stamped a hoof down on its mangled heart. The decaying organ burst like an over-ripe fruit, sending out a spray of thick blood and coating Chrysalis's hoof in the visceral fluid. For her part, the queen and mother of the changelings didn't even bother to note her child was dead by her own hoof, she was too enraptured in the scent of emotion teasing around her mind.

She could sense it, the delicious, tell-tale scent of raw emotion, freshly borne from the heart and mind of a mortal. Chrysalis took a deep draught of it from the humid air, savouring the heady scent as it worked into her mind and permeated her very being.

As she absorbed the emotion from the ether, she began to feel it within her own mind. She sensed anguish, pain, loss, all of them bitter tastes that where tart on her palette. But underneath she sensed something much sweeter, something much, much more delectable.

The honeydew taste of love.

It seeped into her body, filling her up with warmth. It spread all across her body, breathing a fire into her that went from the very tip of her fanged muzzle to the very bottom of her graceful, elegantly long legs before spreading to her heart where it settled like a ball of slow burning fuel. It filled her senses, the sensation of it running through her empty heart consuming her as it filled the cold void left by the lack of a true soul.

Vaguely, she felt it spread to her haunches.

Somepony, somewhere, had lost something incredibly dear to them. In the current day and age of the mortals, such losses where common, as the species foalishly turned on itself over insults so petty it made her laugh. But this one was different.

This one was raw!

The sheer power of it! The strength it must have had for this one mortals anguish to transcend the boundaries of reality and permeated the realm of magic! It was incredible! Invigorating! All-consumingly awe-inspiring!

How long had it been since she had felt such strong emotion? Since she had revelled in the pain and misery of the mortals?

The answer was simple. Far too long!

Chrysalis shivered as she felt the mortals inner turmoil stir in her heart, the sheer ecstasy she took from its pain causing her senses to go numb. She felt it reignite the hunger within her, the long starved urge to feed on the mortals. To make them suffer and beg as she inflicted the most horrific tortures on them and became drunk on their excruciation.

Opening her mind, Chrysalis sent the tiniest fraction of her essence out into the ether, searching for the mortal who had created such a strong scream, who had fed her a most delicious concoction of emotion.

She smiled, lowering her head to once again rip and tear at the flesh of her now dead child. As her fangs rendered her childs skin, tearing it from the bone, she shivered in anticipation.

It had been so long since Chrysalis had felt anything so strong, so pure and unadulterated. And the fact that it had been generated by a single mortal only served to peak her excitement. It had been so long since she had ever found anything of interest to her in the mortal world, but with the scream she had found something even greater then she could have hoped.

Chrysalis was going to enjoy her new plaything.

Comments

[jamessavacu]

Holy shit so conflicted right now I want to side with Luna but I also want to side with blaze can't wait to see more... also FIRST

[plainoasis]

I can't believe I accidentally deleted my detailed comment. . . .

I'll just post it again.

This chapter packs lots of action and is quite thrilling.

Things I enjoyed:
1. Introduction to the fighting scene: It's reminiscent of some scenes that could be found in certain suspension fictions and had a sense of terror in it, which is new in this story.
2. The quips: Simply hilarious, everyone can appreciate these.

Things I'm not sure about:
1.The battle: It's vivid, graphical and as the fighting scenes in previous chapters, aesthetically pleasing. Oh the fire and steel, all those blood and body fluid, add in a few dismemberment and evisceration and it will be perfect! I really enjoyed this. Especially when Darkstar f**ked with Blaze's wing.

2.Also the battle, here are a few things I find lacking:
(1) The way they fight: It's still basically brawling. Where did magic and firearms go? Where's Blaze's chainsword (his horn)? Centuries of war and melee between superponies still lacked variety, it could have been so much more exciting with all those high tech!
(2) Swearing: There's a lot of swearing in this chapter and maybe not everyone has to be doing it. I feel that's kind of awkward.
(3) Alicorns: As Darkstar said, the alicorns are superior to no one. The empire's most advanced augmentation technology, centuries of battlefield experience, and our heroes still got pwned by those seven ponies on their first deployment, and most frustratingly, on one on one battles. What I mean here is that I think the alicorns should be UNIQUE, there should be something that defines them, makes them stand out, and so far I can't find anything special about them.
(4) Specialist unit CTA14: Who the buck are these guys? And I thought I could see that Blaze-Cadence confrontation in the next chapter! While having a dragon among us is actually refreshing, having to wait for god knows how long to see the finale. . . . MOAR!

[Erol carstein]

1348684
All notes taken into account.
1) yes i did feature melee quite heavily, but thats going to change soon
2) swearing is now going to be toned down
3) I must admit i didn't quite think that bit through, but be prepared to see some much greater use of magic and specialist technologies
4) Specialist unit CTA14: another specilist squad
5) I'm trying to pan out the conflict a bit more, but when i do get round to the finale, prepare for some serious eviseration

I shall perservere

[plainoasis]

Good to hear! I salute your perseverance, seeing as lots of authors just give up on stories that did not get a good enough reception.

BTW I think I need to clarify my comment a bit.

First about the fighting "style" part. I didn't mean there was anything wrong with close quarter combat, going toe to toe with enemies had its own charm. It's just that you can put a lot into that melee given your sci-fi world setting.

Then about CTA14, that was just me making a bad joke.

And lastly about dismemberment and evisceration, that was also a joke. . . . Just write what you want, though with Chrysalis I guess every atrocities can be called a norm.

And lastly lastly, open your mind! Use your world setting to its full advantage, it's what most would find fascinating about your story , infinite possibilities just waiting for you to discover, don't let it go to waste. (Well if you do not consider this story a science fiction, then ignore those ranting)

[Treilacl]

Riiight... 1st of all... commas and capital letters seem to be your enemy. I'd really recommend being sure to read through your story an extra time out load, after taking some time away from it so you can look at it with fresh eyes.

As for the actual story... I'm sorry but you lost me in this chapter during the major fight scene and I had to keep myself from skimming it. I DID enjoy the 1st part and all the lead up to the fight, but once we got there... it quickly went down hill for me.
I don't mean for this to sound brutal if it does. For the most part I have enjoyed your work but this chapter is very much a weak point to me.

The 1st thing that comes to mind is... Alicorns. Our main characters are suppose to be the best of the best. The best that the Solar Empire has to offer. And yet for the most part they get torn to bits by a bunch of rookies on their 1st mission. These Luna guys might have done stuff before they were changed but after so long out of the field (how many years?) and so many changes to their bodies they are essentially rookies. Rookies that are beating the best of the best of the Solar Empire... in one on one fights. The Alicorns don't feel like... well Alicorns. They feel like normal ponies that just happen to have wings and a horn at the same time. Gotta give us, the readers, something to make us feel like the Alicorns ARE something special.

Next thing is pretty simple... what happened to all the future tech weapons and whatnot? I mean I'm in stage combat... and I LOVE brawling and whatnot but I feel like you should have had at least a little more firearms and future tech weapons being used on both sides of the fight. This really didn't cause me to struggle with this piece but it's something I think you should keep in mind.

Next... the Wonderbread fight... well the first thing that took me out of the moment for that was after Wonderbread had the advantage over his opponent (after the 1st charge) and he did absolutely NOTHING to use that advantage. He did the weakest of his 3 options... which was to stand around and wait for his opponent. His two other options was to run (which of course in this situation prob wouldn't have happened) and then the other one... press his advantage. Finish the fight, rather than stand back and wait for his opponent.

The next major point that REALLY took me out of it... ...was the unicorn AFTER Wonderbread had been beating the crap out of it with his hooves... errrr... these hooves have been doing horrible damage to living things, armored, unarmored, and the surrounding environment... and these things are being brought down on this unicorns face/head... and after being stuck there (and it's unshielded too) at least 10 times (counting the "AND THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS!” plus the two mentioned before). There's NOOOoooooooo way that that bloody unicorn would have survived that, much less been able to call for help... he would have been death number 1 for the Luna Squad.

Also not sure why Jester was still alive when the Luna guy came to face Wonderbread. If they're only trying to capture Blaze I'm not to sure why he'd have left Jester alive for that long. But, that's just me.

The next point that pulled me away a bit from the story was the snipper as Blaze was being rescued. I am referring to the "warning shot" that was fired. I really don't get that. This is a war zone, in a planet that's under siege, and those aren't just hostile units, they're hostile specialists that just nearly wiped out one of the Empire's best specialists squads... why was a warning shot fired? That shot very much should have been a head shot/another vital area shot. Sure it doesn't have to kill, but I feel like the sniper would be going for blood as they're providing covering fire. If they don't kill those specialists now, when they have the advantage, they'll have to fight the Luna squad latter when they might not have that advantage. Shoot to kill.

Right... so some advice to help you with your writing, 'cause I DO want you to keep writing (I think you're getting better just in between chapters! ), and I don't want to just point out what's wrong with it... here are some tips on how to avoid said problems I had with the fighting here...

1: When writing the fight think about certain vital areas that are getting hit, such as the heart, lungs, neck/throat, or... the head. Getting hit there are fight enders. Even if they don't end it that very second once someone in a fight gets hit there they've got one, maybe two hits before they're done.

2: This connects to 1 a bit. Have a "injury count". And by that I mean, go through your fight and look at where your characters are getting hit, how hard, and how often and think about what that would do to their body. For things that aren''t a no brainer, such as the heart, you can decide for yourself how vital it is... such as a unicorn's horn. I personally thought that was a good touch where Wonderbread went berserk because of the pain and just what that horn meant. See you're doing the "injury count" thing and you didn't even know it! xD

3: When going through your fight think about what would be a strong action. For your characters to do. If they have their opponent in their sights and they need to only pull the trigger to take them down... and then they don't, you need to ask yourself, "Well why wouldn't they?" And then give a reason. If you hold a major over your opponent why are you giving that up in this war zone?

So there are three tips for ya. Hope they help, and if not... well maybe they at least got ya thinking and then you think of 1) something really clever or 2) something super clever.

Keep at it! I feel like your writing is slowly getting better, and with more hard work you'll get even better. Writing can be hard work... but it can also be a ton of fun!

[Mirth]

1248829 Don't make me laugh.

fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/rogue-trader/news/battlefleet-koronus/37_battlefleet_koronus.png

The garage is in the background.

[Midnight Sky2]

please oh please don't kill Daredevil

[Midnight Sky2]

when I read this I thought of this song

Unknown Soldier

[FenrisianBrony]

Just looked back on here to see what was happening. Cancelled? Damm, why do all the good stories have to stop. Well, at least I found the next story Im going to read, onto Terminal World.

[Metroid Prime]

what happend the plot got to messed up or you had a huge writers block

[Erol carstein]

4166736

Nope, just kinda lost the will to continue.