Prologue; a weird feeling...
James watched as his Urban Cohorts slammed into the unprotected wall of Pontic Phalanx pikemen, catching the opposing commander by surprise as his army was rolled up. The Roman forces chased after their opponents, slaying vast numbers of them as they fled the battlefield. Praetorian Cavalry completed the rout, as the Pontic general was cast down and killed.
A message appeared a the top of the screen;
"lol u got me there red roman :P but watch out 4 parthia"
James Lavigne (no relation to the hit singer) smiled. He was playing Rome; Total War and had just finished off the Pontic player after ambushing his troops with a strike from a nearby forest. Two opponents, the Pontic guy (whose username was "dedalus105") and a Gaulic player were already down in the free-for-all battle. Only a Parthian player still stood. However, he meant business. Parthia still had a good amount of cataphracts left, and his own infantry looked relatively untouched.
Well, this will be fun... I hope, James thought.
The odds were against James (whose own user name was Firestar1775). He was outnumbered and had a single unit of Triarii spearment to stop three cataphracts and perhaps 4 intact Urban cohorts and two archer units, along with a depleted force of Praetorian cav. He had this, plus 3 heavily depleted - which meant almost wiped out - Urban cohorts. However, James refused to just say "gg" and admit defeat"
If I'm going down, this guy will know he's been in a brawl..
Suddenly, he had that feeling again.
The feeling he was being watched.
No... It was the feeling that someone, or something, was able to see through his own eyes, and anaylze his thought process.
It was a strange feeling. The odd part was that this phenomenon would sometimes start, and then stop immediately; other times, it would remain for some time.
The times it seemed to stay was usually when he was playing a military video game, such as Rome, or when he was reading history. This puzzled James to no end, the fact that this... feeling... could select when to and when not to activate.
It was almost as if someone was monitoring him... for real.
James pushed aside his curiosity for the feeling for the moment. It could wait until this battle was over.
Parthian player advanced; his army was stronger, at least in number, to that of James' own. Several Eastern infantry marched over the plain towards his position, escorted by cataphracts, archers, and..
Damn it, how did I miss that? A unit of elephants was behind the main Parthian battle line. Although some players derided elephants as being useless and easily beaten, James knew the trouble and chaos they could reap if they were used well. They were also tough to kill, although javilins and pila could bring down the monsters. James had known, of course, that the Parthian (Decius994) had elephants at the start of the battle, but he had assumed that they had been killed by now.
An assumption that was clearly not correct.
James decided to withdraw into the forests to ambush Decius' army. Decius was still a ways off, and he had time to bring his army back together and bring most of it into the woods. One unit of archers wasn't so fortunate, and was hammered by a unit of cataphracts.
"Damn it," James fumed. He still had to set up his forces, and proceeded to continue his deployment.
However, in order to draw Decius' attention away, James needed a distraction to keep his opponent watching some other part of the battlefield. He decided to draw of his cavalry to flank the enemy line, as if he were going a after the Parthian archers. He wasn't really going to attack those archers, however; the goal was to preserve his forces and draw Decius' attention, not run down a few archers and get crushed by elephants and cataphracts.
Decius took the bait, as his unit of elephants and one unit of cataphracts peeled off. James withdrew his cavalry a safe distance away. While this had been going on, he had set up his forces in the forest; they were now invisible to the Parthian units.
Decius, knowing this, sent some of his expendable Eastern infantry into the woods and was met by the sight of a few Roman archer units firing at him. He sent in his other two cataphracts to crush the archers, only for James' Urbans to appear and attack from two sides. The Parthian cavalry was slaughtered and the survivors routed; Decius' general was killed when one of the Roman archers flamed him off his horse.
James sent in everything he had left at the Parthian infantry, and was rewarded to see his legions crush the Eastern infantry units easily. While this had been going on, Decius' remaining unit of cataphracts and elephants had still been chasing James' cavalry. James managed to bring one of his two Praetorian cavalry units back to kill the Parthian archers; the other was caught by the elephants and Parthian cav and destroyed; However, the unit did manage to inflict some damage before it was defeated utterly, and it delayed those two powerful enemy units from coming back to the fray until the rest of Decius' army was destroyed.
Realizing that he had no chance to win now, Decius made a suicide charge into James' army. His elephants managed to rout a unit of Urbans before losing most of their number and running amok. James's Urbans and Triarii managed to crush the remaining unit of cataphracts.
The other two players, still watching the game, gave James their congratulations, and even Decius994 said "gg" before leaving.
Most interesting to James however, was the feeling in his head, which was that of interest at the way the battle turned out and... was that... hopefulness?
James shook his head. It wouldn't have been the end of the world if he had lost. In fact, he had found some of his own defeats rather funny.
So why was there now a feeling that there was hope for...
The feeling, as if it realized James was thinking about it, suddenly disappeared altogether.
Odd.
James got off the game and the computer. it was time to watch another episode of MLP:FIM.
His interest in the show had been minor, until he had seen that video of Death Battles on Youtube where Rainbow Dash was paired up against the Decepticon Starscream... and Rainbow won.
He finally decided to watch the show after seeing this, still feeling weird about it. However, that feeling of "Oh this is weird - I'm a guy watching a girly show" went away when he had watched a few episodes.
There was no doubt about it; My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic was awesome.
Not that everyone on Earth felt that way. He kept his knowledge of the show a secret from everyone except his parents, who, to his vast relief, had accepted his interest in the show and did not think any differently of him for watching it. The internet was another matter. Here people bashed each other openly over the show and over whether guys who watched it were... weird or not.
The two episodes James was watching were the ones were Nightmare Moon returned, and the Mane 6 (as everyone but the show's characters called them) had to find the Elements of Harmony to defeat her.
James wanted more than almost anything to be able to get to Equestria and met the ponies himself.
He felt like a fool sometimes for that wish. It was fictional world. How could it possibly exist?
In my mind, he would tell himself. Occasionally, his wish to go to Equestria was so strong that he could feel it in his chest. It hurt knowing he could not get there, except maybe at the behest of God Himself.
Just as the group encountered the giant sea dragon who had mysteriously lost his moustache to a cloud-like wisp (Now who could have done that?), James felt the intruding presence again. He expected it to leave, and felt it was about to, until it noticed what he was watching.
James felt instantly nervous; this presence now knew he liked ponies. It might spread that information all over the world. He wondered, once again, if it was some new secret government technology.
...No. This felt like someone else's mind had hooked into his. Or at least, that was how he would have described it.
This feeling, this, intruder, had been coming into James' life, off and on, for around two months. He had wanted to tell his parents about it, but it seemed like such a minor issue compared to the chaos that a new baby in the family caused. James didn't want to be told off, so he had kept silent. And, oddly enough, he felt attracted to the strange presence, like he knew it from somewhere.
By the time James got back to paying attention to the show, the group had crossed the dragon's back and was at the rickety old bridge. The other seemed to have an interest in watching the adventure unfold, as Rainbow overcame her heart's ambition in order to fix the bridge, and it seemed to pay a great deal of attention as the final battle began and Nightmare Moon was overwhelmed by the Mane 6 and the Elements of Harmony, and James felt oddly happy when Princesses Celestia and Luna reunited... in fact, almost downright joyful, as if his heart would break from the happiness.
Wait, that wasn't him.
He wasn't happy... the feeling was.
The other suddenly withdrew.
James sighed. He didn't know where this... thing was coming from, or what it was doing.
He began to pack a nearby bag with books. He was going to his Pep're's (Grandfather's) for a good old-fashioned get-together. He began to think of all the things he would do while there; target practice with guns, paintball with relatives, manhunt (played at night, in the dark, outside, as was proper for the game), and a whole lot more.
James packed his own pistol. It was an authentic replica of a 1861 colt revolver that could fire real bullets, and James couldn't wait to try it out. He was a history buff, with the Civil War and WWII ranking high on his list of interests. The Warrior Cats series was also one of his favorite series. Speaking of books, James packed some of his Civil War history books and a copy of Harry Turtledove's The Guns of the South. He liked the book, although he was a Unionist at heart, or would have been anyway, if he had lived in the Civil War days. The alternate history drew him somewhat, but it was Robert E. Lee, and Lee's personality and code of honor that kept James coming back and rereading the book.
James had wanted, since 9/11, to lead armies into battle, to win the mind games between opposing generals, to conquer enemies of freedom, and, as much as anything else, to be loved by the men he lead. He would daydream of his imaginary conquests almost everyday. It didn't look as if life held those cards for him, though. Sighing at the thought of this, he put the final book in the bag, and placed his unloaded gun on top of everything else before shutting the bag and zipping it. He yawned loudly. It was only 3:30 PM, and he was feeling tired. He could suddenly see white at the edge of his vision, and his exhaustion drastically increased.
"Well, I guess I could rest my head on my pillow for a few minutes anyway," James said to no one in particular. He laid down, still holding the handle of the bag (which was designed for travel on airplanes and to hotels) as he fell back against the pillow. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness altogether was a flash of white li...
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Hopefully that wasn't too bad of an opening chapter. I have plans for a good amount of action in the next one. The prologue was mostly to describe James a little bit and to get a foundation on which to build the rest of the story. I will try to make the other chapters much more interesting than this one.
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I like it
I guessed Rome: Total War halfway through the first sentence, what do I win?
James is already good in my books. His interests match mine to the point...
*Goes to get frying pan and fanfic insertion device*
Dude, you like Warriors too much... And so do I!
I DEMAND MORE TACTICAL BACON IN THIS CHAPTER
2709799
AND THE LACK OF EVIL BISCUITS ANNOYS ME!! dafaq
YUUSSSS!!!! History FTW!
Dayum, that James has many same interests as I.
Seriously, I cannot find any fun playing ancient warfare
They never feel the taste of the powder!
Seriously, I cannot find any fun playing ancient warfare
They never feel the taste of the powder!
Ha it's funny I was about to ask if the user name firestar was from warriors :P
LOL. a 'colt' revolver!
"conquer enemies of freedom"
We kill people who kill people because killing people is bad
.........................
Sorry that sentence made me laugh.
Anyway i ll keep reading, looks promising but i feel like it would be a little hard for me to follow since my knowledge of the civil war is pretty much what was shown in Django unchained and that Abraham Lincoln movie
Awesome story XD
"It was fictional world."
In Soviet Russia, grammar mistakes make YOU... and invade Ukraine. :P
4228935
"We kill people who kill people because killing people is bad..."
Who said killing people, in and of itself, was bad? That's a pretty big assumption there.
Well, interesting start...let's see where this goes from here.
3836764
I can somewhat agree. While I can find enjoyment in game such as that, I much prefer games set from WWII and up.
A little dry, but enough to keep my interest. Onward!
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Flickr_-_The_U.S._Army_-_'cavalry_charge'.jpg
This has caught my interest. James and I are super alike. I'm a history buff, love military stories and like MLP. The American Revolution is my favorite war and I am not 100 percent with the Yankees. Still, I am loving the background and I feel that this is going to be great.
Could you be more obvious with your setup, OP?
WARIOR CATS!!!!!!!!!!!!! !! !!!!!!!!fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/079/9/b/I_approve_by_Firestarapprovesplz.png
Excellent starter chapter bud. Saw a few errors here and there but nothing major at all.
(this is the brother half of irish_cat talking btw)
I love Rome Total War. Brutie (Green Rome) all the way. Never tried Rome 2 though.
Also love Harry Turtledove books. "The Guns of the South" in my opinion is his master piece. My favorite series is his "World War Saga" where aliens invade during WW2.
I read this chapter with a smile on my face the whole time. Looking forward to reading more later.
You're a big fan of Total War: Rome, aren't you?
Warriors is heckin awesome my dude
HELL YEAH BROTHER 💪
Not bad
Not a bad start. Personally I like to crap on any part of the Confederacy, including Lee, but I’ll let it slide.
The strategic section dragged a bit. Aside from that, very interesting approach.
A little odd that he randomly chose to rewatch S1E2, but hey, it's good.
A friend recommended this to me and so far I am not disappointed! I will continue on!
This was recently updated so I am rereading it to remember the plot threads