In the waning hours of the Gemwing wars between the pegasi and unicorn kingdoms. One human is thrust into the world of equestria. This is set before the unification, and is my twist on how equestria was truly unified.
In the waning hours of the Gemwing wars between the pegasi and unicorn kingdoms. One human is thrust into the world of equestria. This is set before the unification, and is my twist on how equestria was truly unified. All of the pony culture is taken from AnonAuthor's amazing story Xenophillia, check it out if you haven't read it.
“Orks” Just the name for those foul creatures put my teeth on edge. They rape, pillage, and enslave or kill everything and everyone in their path. They took away everything from me: my friends, family, and loved ones. But before we charge forward with my tale, let’s backtrack for a bit here and look at some history.
In the year 2234 humanity rejoiced. They had finally, after much trial and error, mastered the art of space travel. Through the development of the Wulfric pattern trans-dimensional engine, mankind took to the stars with abundance. Dozens of colony worlds were chartered by all of the super powers on the planet. Earth became a massive trading hub. Thousands of ships dotted her atmosphere daily, hauling back the vast riches of the colonies.
Unfortunately, as with most things, human nature reeled its ugly head. In the year 2314 A massive war on all fronts broke out over colonization rites to a newly discovered system. This war, called the Scourge, lasted 10 long years and brought with it much death and devastation.
The war was brought to a screeching halt after the Middle Eastern Union launched an asteroid into a lush garden world, making it barren for the rest of its planetary life cycle.
All of the Nations on earth convened, and an agreement was struck. To avoid the rise of another colony war, it was sanctioned that a separate entity of rule would be created to govern all of humanities activities in space. Thus, The UCE (United Colonies of Earth) was born.
A relative time of peace and prosperity followed. For 50 years humanity could rest and recuperate among the stars. Then in 2375 a new form of sapient and space-faring life was discovered. They were tall, green-skinned, bipedal, extremely muscular, and very aggressive. They called themselves “Orks”. A first contact team was sent to parlay with them. They were sent back to us in pieces. From this moment onwards humanity has not known peace.
200 years has passed from that fateful day, and there is no end to the fighting in sight. The war has gone back and forth over dozens of star clusters. It seemed for every Ork we put down or ship destroyed a dozen more would spring up to take its place. This was a war of numbers and they had more. Thousands of worlds have burned and humanity has been on the precipice of its existence. It is in this dark and war torn section of the galaxy that I was born and in it I thought I would pass on. Fate it seems had other ideas.
To this day I don’t know exactly what happened. It was supposed to be a routine drop. An Ork “Croozer” had settled itself above the capitol of Caspian. It was this little backwater colony world rich in rare earth metals. The Orks were using the ship as a command and control center for their slaving operation on the planet’s surface.
Somehow the green bastards had jumped right into the atmosphere, slipping right under the noses of the planets orbital defense systems. From there it was an easy campaign for them to decimate the guard forces on the planet, and establish the slaving ring within the year. With no nearby UCE patrols in the area they had free reign on the planet. It was a miracle in of itself that command even received the distress call.
The 3rd response flotilla was mobilized and me with them. I was part of the 25th Drop trooper regiment. The Elysian “Helldivers”. The plan was simple; Command wanted the ship intact to figure out how the blasted Greenskins had been able to jump into the atmosphere. Our mission objective was to drop from high orbit onto the ship, kill the crew, and disable all the major systems.
300 of us made that drop, not many made it back in one piece. Now if you want a detailed description of the fighting you’ll have to get me drunk. I’m only writing all this down to preserve what little sanity I have left since coming here.
The drop itself went without a hitch. Valkyrie assault ships brought us into the atmosphere and from there we made our jump. My squad and I landed on the stern end of the ship. From there we cut our way into the upper deck. Fighting was fierce, room to room, bulkhead to bulkhead, CQB at its worst. We took a couple casualties, but eventually we made it to bridge of the ship. From there it was a quick mop up of the crew and we had the ship under our control, or so we thought. 2nd squad was sent to secure the engine room had not reported in for a while. Captain Tedeski sent me and my guys to check it out.
We made it down to engineering without any contact, but to quote the age old hero, “My Spidey senses were tingling.” We found what was left of 2nd in the middle of the engine room. They went down swinging though, for every trooper I saw downed, there were at least 3 Orks surrounding him. There was one survivor. Before he bled out he told us that the Orks had sabotaged the engines. The ship was set to jump in 6 minutes. Now normally this wouldn’t be that bad. The flotilla could track the ship through slip-space and get us out within the week. But, unfortunately for us, all the systems had been forcibly disabled on the ship, including the shields.
Without shields the forces of slip-space would tear the ship asunder. We got Captain Tedeski on the link and told him about the forced jump about to be shoved up our asses. He quickly ordered a ship wide evacuation. Now this was a problem for us. Most of the fuel in our grave chutes had burned out so we couldn’t just jump to safety, and Ork ships were notorious for not having any escape measures. When an Ork ship goes down it goes down with all hands. The only way for us to get out was to have the Valkyries ferry us out. It wasn’t enough time. By the time my squad made it to our entry point our time was up.
I wasn’t giving up without a fight. I told my squad to jump for it and to hope our chutes had enough fuel to land us safely. It was suicidal and I knew it, but hell miracles happen right? I was the last to jump. Right as I made my exit the ship jumped. All I remember before passing out was a bright light and then the feeling of flying.
My time in the war had come to a close, or so I thought. I was in for a big surprise when I woke up next.
From the War Journal of SGT Michael Durrant, Formerly of the UCE 1st Bn 25th Drop Trooper Regiment Wing Leader of the "Warhawks"
Dawn slowly broke through the misty morning calm. All around the city soldiers and machines of war stood in ordered rows waiting for the order to strike. Commander Hurricane shifted excitedly in her armor. This was it. After all these years the war was soon to be over. This was the last major unicorn city before their capitol. If Brouge fell, the feathering unicorns would have no choice but to surrender.
In front of her lay the city itself; a tall white walled fortress. It was protected by a pearlescent blue bubble. Pegasi trebuchets, ballistae, and lighting throwers had been pounding it for days. It was finally starting to crack.
She quickly donned her helmet, checked the fastenings of her wing blades one last time, and flew to the front of her army. As she passed many in army looked at her with awe, respect, and undying loyalty. She was the living embodiment of everything a pegasus warrior aspired to be, a true legionnaire of Cyrene.
She had a coat the color of a stormy sky, an electric blue mane, and a mark that showed her talents as a warrior. It was of the eye of a hurricane in the forefront with two crossed wing blades behind it. Every legionary worth her salt knew the tale of how the commander earned her mark.
It was at the beginning of the war. The unicorns had attacked Cyrene without warning. Their strongest casters had teleported entire cadres of their warriors into the heart of the city. It was found out later, after questioning some of the captives, that the unicorns had planned on assassinating the leaders of the senate and the military, and then holding the senate chambers and barracks, thus plunging the city into chaos and forcing the city to give itself up.
What they didn’t plan on was the tenacity of the pegasi warriors and their knowledge of the city itself. During the fighting the commander, just fresh from training, rallied a broken squad and led the counter attack on the senate chambers herself. The legionaries that fought with her say that she was a whirlwind of death. None that stood before her lived to tell the tale. It was after the fighting that the young warrior saw that a mark had appeared on her.
This elevated her in the eyes of her superiors. It was not uncommon for a pegasus to go her entire life without receiving their mark. They only appeared when the pony in question had performed a true act of courage and bravery.
From there Hurricane took part in every major battle of the Gemwing wars. She was promoted quickly. She led from the front and had the utmost respect for the mares under her command. The War was long, bloody ,and tiresome and now it was about to be over for good.
With boulders, bolts, and lighting shooting behind, providing a backdrop that even the Goddess of War herself would be envious of, she flew up to where her entire army could see her and began her speech.
“Legions of Cyrene, hear me now! I come before you not just as your leader, but as a fellow sister of battle. I have fought with you since the beginning of this great conflict. I have witnessed the bravery and tenacity of the Legions I see here before me today at first hoof. This is the final push. With this city taken we will have broken the backs of the invaders that pillaged our lands, killed our sisters, and defiled our stallions. They have cowered behind that shield of theirs for too long. Soon it will falter and we will show those horned weaklings how true warriors fight!”
The Legions cheered loudly, stomped their hooves, and smashed their wing blades together in a cacophony of pride and battle lust. They were getting worked up for the bloodshed to come.
The shield started to crack and pieces of it began to fall downwards into the city below.
“So fly with me now my sisters, the goddess of war is looking down upon all of you, show her that you are worthy of her gaze.” She looked at her troops, pride and admiration flowing through her. “Fight for your home, fight for your herd, fight for Cyrene!”
The shield finally broke; its light dissipating into the void.
“TAKE THOSE WALLS!”
She took off the legions right on her tail, streaking towards the city, a fire burning in everypony’s belly and a war cry bellowing from their lips. The unicorn defenders on the wall fired their bolts of magic. Most shots found their mark. The Commander had to admit, albeit begrudgingly, that physical weakness aside, most unicorns were formidable marksmares.
Hundreds of pegasi legionaries fell before they reached the walls. The beleaguered defenders manning the battlements, though, did not last long. Their walls were meant to keep the hordes of the earth pony nations and the strongest unicorn spell casters out. They could not hope to stop a determined pegasi airborne assault. The pearly white walls of Brouge ran red with her defenders’ blood as the pegasi took to the skies again to continue with the siege.
Two cohorts of the Third Legion stayed behind to mop up the rest of the unicorns on the walls; the rest of the Third began to bring the siege weapons into the city, to ready them for the final assault on the citadel at its center.
The rest of the fighting had taken to the streets. Wing blades slashed, lighting casters thundered, and magical bolt after bolt was cast. Slowly, inch by inch, hoof by hoof the determined pegasi pushed the unicorns back.
By late afternoon the legions had taken control of most of the city. The last of the defenders had barricaded themselves inside the citadel with the Governess and her herd, and most of the important families of the city.
Now the citadel was definitely built with pegasi in mind. It was a solid spire of pure marble, no windows, only tiny slits for the defenders to fire out of, and gate that only 7 ponies could go through at one time if standing shoulder to shoulder.
The legions had surrounded the citadel and began to take fire from the defenders within. Commander Hurricane walked up to the gates without fear, gazed up at the tall spire and took a deep breath.
“STOP!” she shouted. Amazingly the fire from the citadel stopped. An eerie silence fell over the battlefield, only broken by the low moaning of the wounded. The Commander cleared her throat and began speaking loudly up to the spire.
“Defenders of Brouge, listen carefully for these words may be the last that ever grace your ears. You have fought bravely but the time has come for you to lay down your weapons. If you surrender now no harm will befall you or your family. You will be given a place to live and your family will be fed while we rebuild the city and gently take over as rulers. All I ask of you is to put down your weapons and come out of the spire. You have my word as a Commander of Cyrene that you will not be harmed. You have 30 seconds to comply.”
At first not a sound came from the tower. Then a stern voice sounded from inside.
“We will never surrender to the likes of you. We would rather die than willingly let your filthy hooves walk our honored halls as rulers. We will fight to the last mare!”
The Commander looked down and sighed inwardly. “So be it.” she mumbled.
Fire from the spire began to rain down once more as the pegasi brought forward a massive battering ram to break the gate down. Pegasi skirmishers tried to lessen the fire coming from the tower with their lighting casters but the slits in the wall proved too narrow for the bolts to go through.
As the ram was about to break through the gate, Commander Hurricane flew to the front of the formation, determined to be the first one through the door.
The gate finally gave way and the pegasi warriors charged in. It was a bloodbath, 200 pegasi died just to take the first floor. As more pegasi stormed in the more desperate the unicorns got. They fired with reckless abandon, sometimes hitting their own troops in the process. The rooms were awash with flapping wings, heaving bodies, and glowing horns. The screams of the civilians within pierced over the low sounds of battle. Finally, after hours of fighting the final floor of the citadel was breached.
There Governess Ruby sat upon her throne looking down at the advancing pegasi with disdain. Like they were just bugs to be squashed underneath her hoof.
The commander strode forward looking the Governess straight in the eyes.
“Surrender now, it’s over”
The governess snorted, slowly getting off her throne. She walked to the center of the room, lowered her head, pawing the ground, horn charging with magic.
“I will not stand idly by while you butcher my citizens with such disdain. If I die I am taking you with me.” She spat.
The pegasi began to close in on her when the commander spoke up again.
“Back off!” she barked, “this one is mine.”
The two leaders slowly began to circle one another, neither one of them breaking the death glare that they were casting one another. The governess, surprisingly, made the first move.
She fired a mighty blast of magic at the commander, hoping that the massive amount of energy she put into it would make it fast and powerful enough to strike the Commander and kill her. To her chagrin though, the Commander swiftly jumped over to the side of the bolt as it flew in.
With a quick slash of her blades the fight ended as quickly as it started. The Unicorn lay on the ground, a vicious gash slitting her throat. She maybe had a minute to live.
“You will never succeed.” She croaked the words almost unintelligible. “You cannot hope to hold the city. The capitol will come and they will wipe you from existence.”
Commander Hurricane walked over to the downed unicorn and whispered ominously into her ear, “Let them come.” She then watched the light fade from the unicorns eyes and her last breath leave her chest.
The Commander sighed deeply and removed her helmet.
“Private Pansy!” she roared, “Get your flank over here.”
The private in question quickly trotted over to her and reported in.
“Take this down and make sure these orders are followed to the letter,” Hurricane barked. “I want the 1st legion on crowd control. Have them go door to door and inform the citizens that we are in control now get them to start rebuilding and burying the bodies. Kill any who resist, but remember this isn’t Ithaca; I don’t want any looting or pillaging.”
The private’s head bobbed up and down, the quill in her mouth flying over the scroll, taking down the Commander’s every word.
“Then get the 2nd to set up camp 10 miles down the road have messengers fly back every hour. I want an early warning if the Unicorn Capitol sends reinforcements. The rest of the legions will remain here in the city and guard the battlements. Lastly send a letter to Cyrene, let them know we have captured the city.”
The private nodded, rolled up the scroll and quickly sped off to deliver the orders.
“Ugh,” Hurricane groaned while leaning against the wall, she then spoke softly to herself, “This war is finally almost over. With this city taken the Unicorns have nowhere left to run. Ill finally be able to go home.”
She walked slowly outside and gazed upon the ruined city. It was then that a bright light shown from above and a sound unlike anything she had ever heard thundderd. Everypony looked up at the anomaly in shock.
“Was this the unicorns' doing” The commander thought to herself. She was just about to order everypony to their battle stations, when she saw an object fall from the anomaly and then it collapsed in on itself. The object crashed into the dirt right in front of her with a resounding THUD.
When the dust cleared, she saw one of the strangest things she had ever seen. It was some sort of creature. It was tall, seemed bipedal, and was covered in some kind of armor and clothing she had never seen before. It seemed to have one big eye on the top center of its head.
As some of the pegasi crowded around it, it began to stir, groaning softly.
Hey yall, I got some good news and bad news. Finals are over so I will be putting up the next chapter shortly. Now for the Bad news. My MOS does not exist in the Marine Corps anymore, so I have to get retrained in another. In 2 weeks Ill be leaving for Camp Geiger NC to become an 0311. SOI (school of infantry) should take about 8 weeks so I wont be able to post for a while. Ill try to knock out as many chapters as I can though before I ship. Ill get back to writing now.
As the creature lay squirming on the ground the pegasi began to circle it and voice their opinions loudly.
“What the hay is that thing?” Spoke one voice alarmingly.
“I have no feathering Idea,” quipped another, “You think it’s dangerous?”
“What is it wearing?” Came a third, “If that’s armor it doesn't look very strong.”
“Quiet you lot!” Commander Hurricane roared, pushing herself through the throng of bodies and towards the lanky creature.
“Get into defensive positions. If this thing is hostile we need to be prepared to deal with it.”
As the pegasi readied their blades and formed their lines around the creature, Hurricane strode right up to the prone figure and prodded its side with her forehoof.
All of the pegasi tensed, waiting for an outburst from the thing, but to their chagrin, all it did was groan and shuffle a bit away from the contact.
Hurricane sighed deeply and shook her head. “I do not need this today.” She thought darkly.
“Fire Storm, Lance Point,” She barked, “front and center!”
Both mares quickly came forward and stood at attention in front of her.
“Both of you will take that thing to one of the secluded rooms in the citadel. Strip it of its apparel and anything that seems dangerous. Bring Apothecary Battle Scar with you. See if she can figure out what’s wrong with it. You will then stand guard over it. If it so much as twitches I want to know about it.”
They both saluted then went to pick up the thing in question. Lance Point promptly slid her forehooves under its chest to prop it up. She then bit down on its sleeve and hovered a couple feet above the ground and draped it over Fire Storms back. They both then quickly trotted off towards the citadel.
“What are the rest of you gawking at?” Hurricane shouted, “Get back to your stations or you’ll be on latrine duty for the next month!”
As the crowd quickly departed the area, Hurricane quickly turned around and walked back to the citadel. She needed to get a war room situated and her command office set up.
Four hours had passed and now in the waning light of the evening she was shifting though battle reports and casualty listings, sitting in the former throne room of Governess Ruby. She had most of the décor and frilly furnishings removed. She only left the desk, had the large table from the dinning quarters brought in with maps strewn all about, turning the once grandeur space into a fully functional war room.
The doors to the room suddenly burst open and Private Pansy quickly trotted over to where the commander was seated.
“Your orders have been carried out Commander,” she stated breathlessly, “The Second Legion has just begun their construction of the outpost down the road. They should be finished just before dawn if they work through the night in shifts. The couriers have been sent out, they should reach their destinations soon and Cyrene herself will hear of our victory in just two weeks. Now as for the state of Brouge, the civilians are proving to be quite helpful, especially the earth ponies of the workers district. They have already begun to move the bodies to a burial site and have organized crews to start rebuilding the walls at first light tomorrow.”
Hurricane raised an eyebrow quizzically. “You mean to tell me that no citizen has acted out against our occupation and actually want to help.”
Private Pansy shook her head. “Not all of the citizens commander, like I said, most of the working class and middle class are obeying with little resentment towards us. It seems that the capital had been forcing an unreasonable tax on the populace to fund the war effort. They are more than happy to help us out and be rid of the oppression coming from Dawnstar. On the other hoof,” she sighed deeply looking downwards towards the floor, “The nobles are not at all happy. They openly try to resist when we search their homes and many talk of rebellion. None of them have actually done anything yet, but give it time. I wouldn't be surprised if we have an underground resistance spring up within the coming months.”
Hurricane laid her head on the table and groaned loudly. She then snapped her head to the side and ordered her cup bearer to bring her another goblet of wine.
“Say what you want about the pompous horned pain in the flanks," she silently mused, “they sure know how to make good hooch.”
As she drained her third goblet of the evening she turned back to the private and asked, “Has there been any news about our mysterious guest yet?”
Pansy shook her head slowly and stated, “No commander I only heard about its arrival after I got back from the Second Legion’s camp. Apothecary Battle Scar is waiting outside the door. She would know more about it than I would.”
“Very well private, “Said Hurricane rising to her hooves, “Send Battle Scar in here then hit the rack. Be in my office by first light tomorrow morning. You’re dismissed.”
Pansy snapped to attention, bid the Commander a good evening then quickly trotted out the door.
Soon afterwards a blood red pegasus with a white mane and tail strode into the war room and approached the Commander.
She was wearing saddle bags and each of them was bulging at the seams with items. A strange helmet was lying across her back as well as a long blocky looking object with an opening at one end.”
Hurricanes jaw dropped. “Holy hay! Does all of that belong to the creature downstairs? Where did it put all of it”
“It,” stated Battle Scar with a roll of her eyes, “is a ‘he’ Commander. And yes all of this was taken off of him. Before we get started with my diagnostic of his condition I’d like to drop all of his effects”
She then promptly dropped her saddlebags on the floor and picked up the long, black, stick looking thing and helmet. She placed them on the table gingerly.
“Like I said before,” Battle Scar stated flatly, “he is definitely male, but of what he is exactly, well I have no feathering idea. Judging by all of the tools and apparel he had on him it is safe to judge that he is sapient, but I have never seen or heard of a species that looks like this in all of my years in the legions. The closest things that come to mind are the great apes on the Zebrican plains, but even then they are wildly different.”
She cleared her throat loudly before continuing.
“Now, he has a flat looking face, no snout to speak of. He has a very short black mane. It is only barely there and covers the top of his head. His eyes, which are green, are relatively small but have very good pupil dilation. This suggests that he’d be able to see in the dark better than us. His teeth are marginally similar to ours, only his front ones are much sharper. This leads me to believe that his species eats at least some meat, but the grinding teeth in the back suggest a plant diet as well.”
A look of worry crossed Hurricane’s face at that comment. “Spare me the details Scar how dangerous is this thing.”
“Well it baffles me to say this, but I believe that he could be quite a threat as he seems to be some kind of warrior.”
“A male? Being a warrior!?” Scoffed Hurricane, “You have to be pulling my wing.”
“Most of the observations I've gathered supports this Commander,” shot back Battle Scar venomously, “He was found wearing what appears to be weapons and armor. He is well built and has an excellent muscular structure. He has scars, both old and new, on many points of his body. He also has a lot of marks on him. They don’t seem to be true battle marks, but more like the tribal symbols that the zebra warriors etch into themselves. Just because he is a male does not mean you should underestimate him. We have no idea what he is capable of!”
“Enough!” barked Hurricane rising from the table. “Just tell me what’s wrong with the damn thing. When it wakes we can question it and find out how it got here and what its intentions, violent or not, are.”
“Oh” Stated the Battle Scar softly. “ That's actually quite simple, it seems to me that he is suffering from magical fatigue. A lot of unicorns get it when they try to do a spell that is too taxing for their body to handle. Now why this creature that has no horn or any noticeable magical capabilities whatsoever would have it is beyond me, but he is showing all of the symptoms. It should wear off overnight. Now I should get back to my duties, have a good evening commander”
She turned her back on the commander and began to walk towards the door. Before leaving; however, she stopped and turned.
“One more thing”, she said, “These were around its neck, and they seem to be identification of some kind. I believe the top line to be a name, as for the other lines, I have no clue what they mean.”
She then tossed a small metal chain towards Hurricane then promptly walked out the door.
Hurricane deftly caught the chain with her wings and brought it over to the table to have a look at them.
It was fashioned like a necklace of some sort with two metal disks dangling at different distances from the chain. They read:
DURRANT M.J. O NEG 635 34 9980 UCMC M NO PREFERANCE
As she finished reading the strange disks she heard a commotion outside the door. Suddenly Lance Point burst into the room, out of breath and chest heaving.
“Commander!” she shrieked, “You should come with me immediately mam. Its awake and it’s got Fire Storm.”
Durrant woke up groggily, hands immediately going to his throbbing head. His eyes screwed shut as he tried to drown out the many aches and protests coming from his body. After a few minutes the pain subsided and he was able to slowly sit himself up and take account of his surroundings.
First off, he was startled to realize, that he was as naked as the day he was born. Second, he was in a stone brick, torch-lit, and windowless abode no larger than a doctor’s examination room. Third, he had no clue where the hell he was.
He shakily got to his feet and walked over to the iron door. He tried the handle but it wouldn't budge. He pressed his shoulder into it and gave it everything he had but to no avail. He thought briefly of trying to kick the door down, but dismissed that notion because he rather liked his feet being intact.
Walking back over to the center of the room, he sat down and started rubbing his face with his hands while he tried to figure out what the hell was going on.
“Holy fuck, how much did I have to drink last night?” He thought to himself. “I haven’t woken up hung over and naked since shore leave on Nova!” He slowly and deeply drew in breath through his nose and let it out through his mouth. “Okay, let’s think this through, what is the last thing I remember?” His eyes turned skyward and his fist curled under his chin as he tried to recall how he got into this predicament. “Okay I remember being on the flotilla, we were going to Caspian to dismantle that Ork cruiser and then….” It all came rushing back to him: the drop onto the ship, the fighting, the sabotaged engine that caused the slip space jump…. him getting sucked into it.
Durrant immediately sprung to feet and reached a hand to the base of his neck, sighing in relief at the small nub that was still there. “Okay, this makes no sense If I was captured by Orks they would have removed my UPI implant in a heartbeat…. or my whole head.” He then activated his UPI-tool, the familiar holographic display coming to life over his left arm. “Ok let’s find out where I’m at.” He typed in a couple commands to try and access the UCE Galactic Network, but to his dismay the readout said that he was out of range of any satellites, extranet hubs, or friendly ships. “This is fucking horseshit, what kind of backwater planet doesn’t even have emergency network access! Alright,” He sighed, “let’s just see if the blade still works.” The silicone-carbide blade, flash forged by the UPI-tool, sprung out with no hesitation. He checked the readouts and the blades stabilizer and internal dampeners were operating at 100%. “Well that’s a relief,” he thought darkly, “at least I’m not “completely” fucked.” It was at this moment he heard voices coming from outside the door.
He quickly deactivated the blade and placed his back to the wall to the left of the door. As the voices got closer Durrant could decipher a few things. 1: the voices were female 2: there were only two voices but it sounded as if 4 people were walking and 3: It sounded like they were wearing clogs or high heels.
As they neared the door he could finally make out what the two voices were saying, the words were slightly muffled, having to come through the door, but to his surprise they spoke perfect standard.
“I still don’t know why you had the bright idea to go get chow for that thing,” said the first voice, “If the Commander found out we left our post there will be Tartarus to pay.”
“Aww calm down Lance,” quipped the other voice, “you heard the doc it’s gonna be out cold till morning. I just thought that maybe it’ll be more inclined to be friendly if it sees that we gave it food and water. Besides I told you that you could stay with it while I got the stuff.”
“And be alone in there with it? Yeah right, I’d rather volunteer for one of Corporal Brightgleams working parties. It just gives me the creeps, it barely has fur, has those weird, short,” she faltered for words, “…. tentacle looking…. things on its hooves, and it has all those weird markings.”
“Don’t be such a foal; I’m pretty sure we could take it if things got bad, besides it’s a male”
“I’m not so sure Storm, you saw all the stuff the doc took of it, a lot of it looked pretty dangerous.”
“pffff, yeah “dangerous” all it had was some cloth, a couple weird rocks, some armor that probably couldn't even stop spoon, and a big blocky stick. I’m telling ya Lance we got nothing to worry about.” The voices reached the door, the latch shot back with a metallic clang, and the door swung open. “Everything is going to be…” The voice wavered and then barely squeaked out, “ ok.”
What sounded like a plate and a container of water crashed to the floor.
The two figures then slowly entered the room and when Durrant finally saw them his eyes nearly bulged out of his head. They were short, about lower chest height, colorful horses with wings and were wearing what appeared to be plated barding. One was a dark orange with a fire-engine red mane; the other was a slate grey with a jet black mane. Durrant was so flabbergasted that he couldn’t help but let out a quiet, “What the flying fuck.”
The two equines whirled around and when they caught sight of him their eyes got as big as dinner plates. As Durrant took a step towards them the orange one rushed forward, head butted Durrant right in the groin, hooked her left leg around his, and then brought it back in a sweeping kick that sent him sprawling onto his back. She stood over him, placing one fore-hoof on each of his shoulders.
As she was turning her head to say something to the grey one, Durrant’s knee shot upwards striking the equine in the gut, then stuck her jaw with the flat of his palm, throwing her off of him. He then rolled over and mounted her. He locked his knees on both sides of her hips, used his legs and feet to pin her hind legs to the floor, placed his left hand onto her shoulder, and laid his right forearm perpendicularly across her throat; effectively pinning her in place.
As the grey one was about to rush in to assist her partner, the orange one turned her head slightly, determination evident in her eyes and shouted, “NO! Lance, get out of here and go get the commander! I can handle it!”
The grey one took one last hesitating step towards the locked pair, then turned around and sprinted out the door; slamming it shut and sending the bolt home.
The orange one then locked her golden eyes onto Durrant’s and croaked, “You better let me up if you know what’s good for you.”
“You’re in no position to be making demands sweetheart.” Durrant stated menacingly. He leaned in closer and put more pressure on her throat. “But I am.”
“I ain’t your sweetheart you bald freak!” She spat back, “My name is Private First Class Fire Storm and on my honor as a Pegasus Legionnaire, you are not going to leave this room alive!” She arched her back allowing her wings to shoot out from underneath her. This knocked Durrant off balance which gave her the opportunity to lash out with her left fore-hoof, clocking him in the side of his temple. She then used her rear hooves to launch him back into the wall.
Durrant gained his bearings just in time to see the pegasus snort, paw the ground once, then charge. He barely had enough time to get into his combat stance before she was upon him again. She reared up onto her rear hooves, flaring her wings for balance, before trying to strike him with her fore-hooves. One missed and struck the stone behind him, the other he blocked with his forearm. He went in to try and land another knee strike to her gut, but the pegasus turned at the last moment, landing the hit onto her hip instead. He then lashed out with his elbow, swinging upwards nailing her in the snout, knocking her back to the floor on her stomach.
Before Fire Storm could recover, Durrant rushed over, looped his right arm around her neck and wrenched her back to standing on her rear-hooves. He then activated his UPI-blade and brought the tip of it just inches away from the now terrified pegasus’s temple. She could feel the overwhelming heat pouring off of the device before Durrant spoke up again. “Now, where were we, oh now I remember. You were about to tell me everything I want to know before I slice your head open like a ripe melon!”
Commander Hurricane cursed as she bolted down the winding stairs of the citadel, a squad of 10 legionnaires behind her. She wished the stairwell was wider so she could take flight and get down to the lower levels in half the time. But for now she just had to grit her teeth, run as fast as ponily possible, and hope that Fire Storm could hold her own till they got there.
It took but three minutes for the group to reach the room the creature was being held in, and to form up outside the door. From inside Hurricane could hear muffled shouting, so to her relief she knew at least Fire Storm was still alive.
She signaled for the squad to stand by then opened the door. And what she saw made her catch her breath. The creature had Fire Storm in a headlock and was wielding a strange, but wicked looking orange blade that glowed with light and seemed to come out of its arm.
It turned to face her, keeping Fire Storm in between her and itself. It held the blade closer to Fire Storm’s head, and spat out in a deep rumbling voice, “One step closer and she dies!”
She tried to read the creatures face, to see if he meant what he said. She saw determination behind his eyes, but one other thing. It was the same thing she saw in the eyes of a cornered enemy or animal. It was Fear.
Commander Hurricane weighed her options in her head as she pondered the creature’s previous promise of violence against her subordinate. One option was that she could call its bluff by just signaling for the legionaries to come through the door in order to intimidate it and pray to the gods that it saw its efforts were futile and surrendered. Another was that she could attempt to subdue it herself and hope that her speed and reflexes allowed her to free Firestorm before it decided to act upon its words. The third option was to try and talk it down.
While she doubted the strange male would put up much of a fight, she knew that it was afraid and would probably not act rationally. So options one and two were off the table, she didn’t want this thing to freak out and kill one of her legionaries if she could help it. So, to her disdain, this left trying to get the thing to see reason and give itself up.
She slowly took one step back, looked the creature dead in the eyes, and spoke sternly and clearly. “I promise you that if you stop now and come quietly, no harm will come to you.” She took a step forward and gestured passively with her fore hoof. “Just let her go and relinquish your weapon, let’s stop this before it gets messy.”
Other than tightening its hold on Firestorm and moving the strange blade a bit closer to her, it made no move to comply with her wishes. So, she decided to change tactics. She dropped her passive stance and took a step forward; her voice became a harsher, gaining an authoritarian edge.
“I have a ten well-armed and expertly trained legionaries behind this door that are just waiting for my call to come in here and deal with you.” Her eyes narrowed and her voice took on a slight mocking edge. “So why don’t you be a good little colt and put her down before we are forced to put you down, savvy?
The creature shifted uneasily before answering. “I want two things before I agree to any terms,” It spoke with a deep and unwavering tone, “One: I want all of my equipment back and Two: I am sure now that yall have some kind of military organization, so I want to speak with your commanding officer. If I’m going to hash anything out it’ll be with him.” Its eyebrows rose and it put on a shit-eating smirk. “So why don’t YOU be a good lackey and go fetch him for me.”
Firestorm gasped at the creature’s audacity as Hurricane flared her wings aggressively and took another step forward. Snorting angrily, she barked, “I am the commanding officer here and I will not be talked down to by some hairless ape!”
“I ain’t an ape you dumb broad!” It shot back, “I’m a human.”
“I don’t care what you are!” Hurricane roared, all thoughts of passively reasoning with the ‘human’ were gone, “You will drop your weapon as well as my legionnaire and surrender yourself, or you WILL suffer the consequences!”
“Well I already got one of my demands.” It replied while taking a step back, readjusting its grip on Firestorm while moving. “Just go get my stuff and then I’ll let her go.”
“There is no way in Tartarus that I’m going to do that, when I don’t know what half of them do or what your purpose here even is.” Hurricane spat out through gritted teeth.
“Alright, I guess I can understand where you are coming from, “It mumbled. Its gaze left Hurricane for the moment and stared at the door, clearly pondering something, before turning back to give her a level stare. “How about as a measure of good faith you at least go get my fatigues, and my boots, and then I will let her go.”
“And what, pray tell are those.” Hurricane shot back, narrowing her eyes.
“You got to be freaking kidding me. Really? You don’t know what boots are?” It then breathed out a long and exasperated sigh before continuing. “The boots are the black, L shaped things with laces that will cover my feet. The fatigues are the black clothes that will cover my upper torso and my legs. Oh, and grab by socks too they’re the black tube things that go on my feet under the boots.”
“And why should I give you those?”
The “human” let out an annoyed huff through his nose. “ Cause I’d rather not be walking around in my fucking birthday suit” it paused for a moment seemingly thinking about what it just said. “It’s a cultural thing; It’s illegal to be in public without clothing, hell I’d even be content if you just gave me my skivies. So, I would be a lot calmer in conversing with you if I had them; and believe me, you want me calm.”
Hurricane’s eyes narrowed as she glared at the human before sighing. “I will agree to your terms.” She then wheeled her head around and roared, “LANCE POINT! Get your flank in here!”
Hurricane turned to face the human once more as she heard the door to the cell creak open. Lance point silently walked over and stood at her side never breaking eye contact with the human as she went.
“Lace Point, go retrieve our “guest’s” clothes.”
Lance Point turned to look at her with a confused and angry expression before answering. “You want me to do what now, Ma’am?!”
The Commander wheeled around fury evident on her face. “I gave you a bucking order private.” She roared, “You have 30 seconds to get the ape’s clothes before I strap you to a post and flog you within an inch of your life for disobeying a direct order!” Lance Point immediately snapped to attention then bolted out of the room. Hurricane then turned back to the human to see an amused grin plastered to its face.
“Damn chica,” It laughed, “Blowing past the paper fucking and straight to the corporal punishment, I like that.” Hurricane ground her teeth in frustration. She didn’t know what the hay it just said, but she was certain it was another jab at her.
The next few minutes passed in tense silence. Neither Hurricane nor the human broke eye contact, before the cell door opened once again.
Lance point walked to the center of the room before depositing the items of clothing on the ground. She then quickly backed up and stood at attention beside the Commander.
Hurricane nodded to her before turning her steely gaze back on the human. “Now here is how this is going to work. You are going to drop my legionnaire and relinquish your weapon. We are then going to walk out this door and lock you back in here until I can figure out what to do with you. On my honor as Commander of the 2nd Division you will not be harmed. Is this agreeable?”
The human eyed her with suspicion before rolling its eyes answering. “I can’t believe I’m fucking doing this but ok, I’ll comply.”
The strange orange blade on its forelimb retracted and disappeared completely with a quiet metallic click, causing all three legionnaire's ears to flick in irritation at the strange noise. It then kneeled down and placed Firestorm back onto her four hooves and released her neck from its powerful embrace.
Fire Storm immediately walked to her commander’s side and began to glare at the human with as much malice as possible.
“Now,” Hurricane stated neutrally, “surrender the blade and we can move on.”
“Sorry chica, but that’s kind of impossible, “the human shrugged nonchalantly, “Its neurologically attached to my body. That would be like me asking you to remove your wings. Possible but extremely painful, I would imagine.”
Hurricane tried to crush the wince that came with the human describing something THAT painful. She doubted that it would be that bad for the human to remove its weapon, but she was not going to question it… yet. That was for another time.
She nodded her head towards Firestorm and Lance Point who took it as their cue to leave, slowly backing away till they were at the door, they then turned around and exited the cell.
The Commander then turned around and began walking towards the door. “I will return shortly, we have many things to ‘discuss’.”
“I’ll be here, waiting with bells on.” The human shot back. It then turned its eyes down cast and mumble barley loud enough for Hurricane to hear. “It’s not like I have much of a fucking choice.”
“Aye,” Hurricane agreed as she walked towards the door, opening it and then turning her head back to the human before giving him narrow stare, “You don’t.” She then left, closing and bolting the door behind her, leaving the human to his thoughts.
“Just what the flying buck happened back there you two?!” Hurricane shrieked.
Both Fire Storm and Lance Point stood at attention in front of the commander’s desk. The moon was full on this night and its rays shined through the narrow slits that dotted the walls of the war room. A roaring fire crackled in the fireplace right behind the Commander helping to bathe the room in flickering light.
Both of them had been in screaming sessions before so they knew the drill. Stand straight, stare at the space in front of you, and give whoever was yelling at you exactly what they wanted to hear.
The commander started to pace back and forth in front of them, nostrils flaring and wings snapping out aggressively.“I gave you two chuckleheads one simple order, to watch that….” She paused in her pacing, eyes turning upwards in thought. “….human, that was it, and to come to me once he woke up.”
She turned to both of them and gave them a level, flinty stare. “Now explain to me, how two trained legionaries got bested by a hairless ape, and your answer better be good or I’ll have you building palisades for the next month straight.”
Lance Point and Fire Storm looked at each other out of the corners of their eyes before Fire Storm answered. “It was my fault ma’am; I will take full responsibility for what happened.”
Hurricanes gaze zeroed in on her before waving her hoof in a circular motion. “Noted, now continue.”
Fire Storm took a deep breath then pressed on. “Well Ma’am, It was still asleep and we had been watching it for a couple hours. I thought it would be better behaved if it woke up to find food and water had been given to it. I convinced Lance Point to come with me to the larder to grab some chow and a pitcher of water. When we returned to the room and opened the door we saw nothing in the room. We entered the door at the ready, and that’s when I heard it mutter something. It was pressed against the wall next to the door. That’s when I rushed in to try and subdue it. We tussled for a bit before it gained the upper hoof and that’s when I sent Lance Point to get you. I thought I could take it on but then it put me in a hold and drew that strange blade from no-where. That’s when you came in, Ma’am.”
The Commander’s gaze continued to bore into her then she asked. “So you attacked him first?”
“Yes Ma’am,” Fire Storm quickly answered, “It surprised the living hay out of me when it appeared behind us and I just fell back on my training and reacted.”
Hurricane looked at the both of them for a minute then gave an exasperated sigh and sat on her haunches. “At ease you two.” She stated.
Both Fire Storm and Lance Point complied and sat as well.
“I won’t sugar coat it ladies, you bucked up. You should have never left your post, even though you had noble intentions.”
Fire Storm and Lance point both turned their eyes downcast and gained sullen expressions.
“Now, “Hurricane continued, getting up and resuming her pacing, “For not abiding by your general orders you need to be punished, but I’m feeling generous today. You are going to be on half rations for the next week and instead of rejoining your squad, you will now be assigned to guard the human for the foreseeable future. Is that understood?” She punctuated the last statement with a stomp of her hoof.
Fire Storm and Lance Point snapped to attention and yelled in unison, “Yes Ma’am!” Signs of relief showing in their eyes, they got off easy and they knew it. Leaving your post could be a death sentence if the leader who gave the order was a complete hard-flank.
“Outstanding, now…” the Commander walked over to the door, “Let us go have a chat with our guest.”
As they marched down the winding staircase of the citidel to the room that the human was being kept in. The commander filled them in on their instructions. Making it very clear what they were to do and not do. “Both of you should have eyes on him at all times, but one of you will be sufficient if the other needs to leave quickly to go do something. You both will be watching him from sunrise to sunset. Afterwards you can divide up the night watch however you wish.”
Fire Storm silently groaned at that. “Great, not only did that thing kick the hay out of me, take away half my chow, now it’s taking away my sleep too!” She fumed.
The Commander continued her orders as they marched up to the door, currently guarded by 5 legionaries. “And if he does anything that puts you or any other legionnaire in danger, you have my express permission to give him a new hole to breathe out of. We clear?” Fire Storm and Lance Point nodded their heads and sounded the affirmative that they did. Hurricane stepped up to the door and motioned with her hoof to have the five guards take off. “Now you two wait outside while I go find out what the hay this thing is doing here.”
When the Commander had walked through the door both Fire Storm and Lance Point looked at each other for a moment before pressing their ears against the door in an attempt to listen in on the, no doubt, very interesting conversation that was about to take place.
As the door shut behind her Commander Hurricane spotted the human standing with his back to her. He seemed to be fully dressed now in his black garment. It was made of two pieces. The top piece covered most of his upper body, only leaving his strange appendages at the end of his forelimbs, and his head uncovered. The bottom, did the same for his lower half, covering everything except the coverings that went over his rear hooves.
As soon as it shut, however, he slowly turned around and Hurricane saw that he had one of his forelimbs shoved into the depths of the garment near his groin. As soon as he made eye contact the forelimb was wrenched out and placed at his side. Hurricane gave him a dead pan look, “What the hay were you just doing?”
The human gave an annoyed snort, crossed it’s forelimbs over its chest and answered. “Well, you fuckers didn’t bring my skivvies down here so I’m going commando right now.” He flashed her a corny smile and tilted his chin up. “I had to make a few…. adjustments.”
Hurricane swallowed her rising annoyance and chose to ignore that last statement. “Well besides the lack of ‘skivvies’, we have done what you asked. Now I want my questions answered.” She locked eyes with the human. “Just who are you and how the hay did you appear out of thin air into my battlespace.”
The human stared at her for a bit longer before shrugging, and then started to rub the back of his neck with a fore limb. “Well since I pretty much broke all first contact protocol already with that spat with that orange one. I guess an intro and explanation is indeed in order.” He walked forward and his rear legs seemed to fold in on themselves as he squatted to reach Hurricanes eye level. He then stuck his forelimb out and hung it in front of her. “Sergeant Michael Durrant, Charlie company First Battalion 25th DT’s.”
Hurricane quelled the urge to defend herself once she realized that this must be some sort of greeting. With a bit of trepidation she placed her forehoof in the outstretched appendage; however, she was confident that she could defend herself if this Durrant tried anything.
“Commander Praelium Hurricane, Legatus of the first Army.”
Durrant then brought his forelimb up and down in a shaking motion before releasing her forehoof. “I would say it’s nice to meet you ma’am, but we both know I would be lying through my teeth.” He then rose up to his full height and took a step back before gesturing at her. “And just for fairness sakes, I told you that I am a human, I would like to know what yall are.”
Hurricane raised an eyebrow at that. “I am a pony, more specifically a pegasus.”
Durrant let out a huff of air. “Alright, since I’ve never heard of your species and you’ve never heard of mine. It’s probably a safe bet to say you’ve never heard of orks, right?”
“I have no idea what an orks is.”
“Well, imagine something that looks kind of like me, but about a head taller, green skinned, a head full of sharp teeth, a fuck ton more muscle mass, and an aggression level that would put a rabid dog to shame.”
Hurricanes face scrunched up as she tried to imagine the monstrosity that the human was describing. “And you are telling me this why?”
“Because they are the reason I am here.” Durrant deadpanned. “Listen this is going to be a long story, do you mind if I grab a seat ma’am?”
Hurricane stated it was fine before sitting down on her haunches. Durrant followed her lead and sat down across from her legs folded over each other in a way that looked painful to the Commander. She then waved her hoof as an inclination to continue.
“Allright, well I guess I should start by telling you that my species, humanity that is, is space faring.”
“And what does that mean?”
Durrant stared at her for second before pointing upwards and responding nonchalantly. “It means we have machines that allow us to travel through the stars.”
Hurricanes mouth dropped. Her voice was breathless when she could finally manage to speak. “But that’s impossible! You would need the power of the gods to travel through their realm!”
Durrant smirked, “Well sorry to burst you bubble ma’am, but we’ve been traveling the stars for about 250 years now. We use great ships, giants made of metals, alloys, and plastics. On these ships there is a device that allows it to basically tear a hole in the fabric of the universe. Once the ship goes through it enters a plane of existence called slip space. Then a hole is torn at the end of the trip and the ship goes back into normal space.” Durrant stopped in his explanation when he noticed that the Commander seemed to be utterly lost. “Do you happen to have something I could write on?” He asked. “I think I have a way of explaining it better.”
Hurricane nodded slowly, before reaching into one of the pockets in her barding for a roll of parchment and writing implement. She then winged both of them over to Durrant.
Durrant eyed the two devices before muttering, “Quaint.” He then placed the parchment on the ground before drawing a dot on each end it using a stick like object with a black stone on the end of it. He turned to the Commander and said, “Now you see these two dots here correct?”
Hurricane nodded.
“Well let’s say these dots represent our starting and finishing points on our voyage in space. Now these fall in the horizontal plane, you following me?”
Hurricane again nodded, most officers in the legion took some mathematics courses in their training.
“Now what the trans-dimensional engine enables humanity to do is open up a hole to allow us to do this.” He folded the parchment in half to where the two dots were right on top of one another. “The two places are now in the vertical plane and the distance between them is insignificant when compared to the distance in the horizontal direction.”
The commander put a hoof to her chin, deep in thought. “I won’t lie and say I understand completely, but your explanation makes it a bit clearer.”
Durrant laughed and said, “Well thank God for the space travel MCI, they dumb that stuff down so that mostly anybody could understand it. That’s actually where I learned that whole paper explanation.”
“What is an MCI?” she asked.
“It stands for Marine Corps Institute. Basically they are these different learning courses a marine has to take in order to gain rank. The government doesn’t want stupid marines.” Hurricane cocked her head and asked, “And a Marine Is what?”
“Well the Marine Corps is one of the different branches of the military my government has. It’s one of four. We have the ODF, the orbital defense force; they are in charge of keeping the immediate area of space surrounding one of our planets safe. The Army, which is in charge of keeping the planets themselves safe, kind of like a guard force. The Navy, which takes the fight to space, with those ships I talked about earlier. And then you have the Marine Corps. We are the assault force; we take planets from the enemy, conduct raids on their ships, and many other offensive oriented operations. I myself am in the Drop Trooper community. We are the shock troops for the Marine Corps. We go in first and clear the way for the main body to land in relative safely and conduct operations.”
Hurricane gazed at Durrant quizzically, “So I’m guessing that this enemy is the orks that you spoke of earlier?”
Durrant began to wring his forelimbs together, eyes glued to the floor. “Yup, we’ve been fighting them for over two hundred years, ever since we sent that first contact team to meet with the orks and they ripped them to shreds. The war was going so bad that nearly 75 years ago congress enacted the ‘first born act’. It was the order that every first born son that is able bodied and able minded, must serve in the military from the ages of 18-40.”
Hurricanes jaw again dropped in shock and she nearly screamed, “They force your males to do the fighting for them! What kind of cowards lead you?”
Durrant looked at her in confusion. “So males aren’t in the military in all here, I’m guessing?”
“pffffffff, buck no,” Hurricane laughed back, “A stallions place is in the fields or at home with the children. There are just too few of them to be allowed into combat.”
Durrant’s eyes widened, and he licked his lips nervously before continuing. “Well it’s pretty much the opposite with my species. Sure there are women, our females, in the military; however, they are not allowed to have any jobs where they would be seeing frontline combat. They mostly do supply, medicine, and admin type stuff. The only place where they would really see some action would be if the ship they were on got boarded.”
He shifted nervously, “Anyways getting off of gender and back onto how I got here. I can’t tell you everything but basically I was on a combat drop to assault an ork ship, when a slip-space drive misfired and I got sucked into the hole I talked about.”
Hurricane became agitated at that. She sprang upright, ears splayed backwards, and wings snapping out aggressively. “You mean there could be more of you or those orks out there right now!”
Durrant stayed seated but moved his forelimbs up and down in what seemed to be an attempt to calm her. “No, No that’s highly improbable. If the rest of the ship didn’t show up with me when I appeared then it went on to some other destination. By all rights I shouldn’t even be here, my guess would be because I was small enough, that I was affected by some force from your planet, and it grabbed me out of slip-space.”
Hurricane didn’t know if the human was telling the truth, but she had no evidence otherwise telling her he was lying either. She sighed and sat down again. “Well that kind of brings me into what I plan on to do with you.” She looked up at Durrant staring into his eyes. “You must understand that you are an anomaly here. I can’t have you just running about the city when I don’t truly know your purpose or intent. So I am assigning you two guards to watch you here for the time being.”
Durrant seemed crestfallen, he gazed at the floor and opened his mouth to attempt to speak. But before he could do so Hurricane interrupted him with a raised wing. “However, if you prove yourself trustworthy, and not a threat, I will consider allowing you to go out into the city, still under guard of coarse.” She then turned placed a key into the door and opened it. “And now Ill introduce you to……,” Both Fire Storm and Lance Point, who had been intensely pressing up against the door, had tumbled head over hoof into the small doorway, “…. Your guards.”
Hurricane rounded on the two and shouted, “On your hooves you two!”
Both Fire Storm and Lance Point quickly untangled themselves and snapped to attention.
“Now.” Hurricane continued, “As I’ve stated before you two are now in charge of…… of…..” She turned to Durrant and asked, “My apologies, what was your station again?”
Durrant, who was losing the battle of trying not the laugh at the scene, barely squeaked out, “sergeant.” Before Hurricane had already turned around to address the two legionaries again.
“Yes, you will be in charge of guarding Sergeant Durrant here. Now if you will excuse me you have your new duties and I have an Army to run.” With that she walked out the door and before closing it turned around and said, “Oh, and Sergeant Durrant, if you threaten one of my legionaries again, I will gut you myself am I clear?”
“Clear as Crystal Ma’am,” Durrant shot back.
With that the door closed and the three enlisted man and mares were alone in the room together, staring each other down. Durrant tried to break the awkward silence and started to ask, “So what are your na…” But Fire Storm cut him off.
“Look here bub,” She snarled, were not friends with you so you don’t have to try and be friendly to us. You are our principle and nothing more.” She then turned to Lance Point and said, “It’s getting late, you go rack out and I’ll stay in here with monkey boy. Come down in 6 hours.”
Lance Point yawned widely and just nodded her head, she left the room quickly and made her way to the barracks.
Durrant clapped his hands together and said, “Well if you won’t talk to me I’m going to get some sleep as well.”
He walked over to the only piece of furniture in the room, being the small bed that was tucked into the far corner, before kicking off his boots and lying down on the straw stuffed mattress.
He thought briefly about how to try and escape, but decided that was better to put off till tomorrow. He quickly found a semi comfortable position on the to-small-bed, and was fast asleep.
Brouge 0530 Standard Time (13 hours after first contact)
Fire Storm awoke groggily to the sound of hoof steps around her cot. She tried to ignore the noise and attempted to curl back up to go to sleep, but was unsuccessful in that regard. Cursing softly to herself she slowly shook the thin blanket off of her and fanned her wings, yawning loudly.
After a quick preen to get her feathers aligned, she quickly donned her armor, starting with the plated barding that went over her back and chest. She rolled her shoulders, trying to get the armor to settle comfortably. Next came the light bracers on her front and rear legs. She then strapped on her wing blades and gave a few experimental flaps to make sure the fastenings would not come undone. Finally she threw on her helmet completing the everyday ritual of gearing up.
Satisfied that everything was in order, she began the short walk from the guard barracks in the citadel down the spiraling staircase to the room where the “human” was being kept; eyes from passing legionaries followed her the entire way down.
Everypony knew about the special guest they had in the citadel at this point, and rumors spread like wildfire after it became common knowledge that she and Lance Point were assigned to watch over it like mother hens.
Ignoring the smirks and whispers directed at her she quickly made it to the door to the human’s cell. After fishing the key out of her satchel, she knocked on the door three times and entered. She immediately looked for Lance Point and found her to be standing near the door eyes locked onto something with a confused look on her face. Fire Storm followed her gaze until she saw what her partner was staring at.
The human only had the garment covering his rear legs on. He was lying down on the floor, had his rear hooves pushed up against the bottom of the small bed, and his legs were bent. His weird appendages on his fore limbs were interlocked behind his head, and he was repeatedly drawing his torso upwards until it reached his knees, giving a rhythmic and forceful exhale each time before throwing himself back to the ground.
She slowly brought her gaze back to Lance Point before raising a questioning eyebrow. Lance point finally tore her gaze away from their charge, before answering the unasked question.
“Don’t look at me; I have no clue what he’s doing,” She dead panned, turning her eyes back to the human she grumbled tiredly. “He’s been at it ever since he woke up.”
“And when was that?” Fire Storm asked, quickly shuffling around her until they were side by side, allowing both of them to watch him.
“It was about…..”
“15 minutes ago, “interrupted the human. He was currently in the upwards position of his weird routine and had turned his head to look at both of them. “Now if ya’ll would kindly shut up I would appreciate it. Ya’ll are fuckin’ with my concentration.” He smirked before returning to… whatever it was he was doing.
Fire storm snorted angrily before storming over to her charge. “First of all,” She began, sticking her head directly in the humans face while he was lying on his back. “You don’t get to talk to us that way; you are a prisoner so act like it for once. And secondly…” She fumbled for words, “… just what in the hay are you doing!?”
The human stared at her for a bit, his mouth turned upwards in a ghost of a smirk, before chuckling and slowly extracting his lower limbs from under the bed. As he began to stand up Fire Storm took a few steps back and went to stand by Lance Point again, where she then resumed glaring at him.
Fire Storm opened her mouth to continue giving the human a piece of her mind, when he placed his forelimbs on his lower back and produced an alarmingly loud set of cracking noises. After grabbing his neck and repeating the same set of disturbing sounds, he promptly collapsed onto the bed. His torso and head supported on the wall, with his upper limbs folded across his chest and lower limbs splayed out on beneath him.
“They’re called sit-ups, if you must know,” He stated, closing his eyes and yawning. “Gota keep in shape while I’m stuck in here.” He cracked one eye open and looked at the two of them his smirk growing. He unfolded his forelimbs and patted his stomach. “It’s imperative to tone the abs whenever you can, gota impress the ladies somehow, If you know… my witty charm doesn’t wrangle m’ in first.”
Lance Point snorted and Fire Storm simply rolled her eyes. Biting back a smart retort, Fire Storm then turned to face Lance Point and told her to go get morning chow for the three of them.
As soon as Fire Storm heard the lock secure behind her she turned her gaze back to the human who was looking awkwardly around the small room and twiddling his front appendages. When his eyes drifted across hers he cleared his throat and began, “Soooo……”
“Nope,” she stated eyes boring into the human’s, “Like I said last night you’re not getting chummy with me or Lance Point, not after what you put us through yesterday.”
The humans eyes turned downcast and his expression became somber. “You know, I am a little sorry about that spat last night. Well, more accurately, I’m not sorry about my actions, I’m sorry you got stuck with guard duty, no one likes that shit.” He sat up and swung his back legs over the edge of the bed. “You gotta see it from my perspective though. Yall two scared the living piss outa me when you came bursting into the room. I had no armor, I was fucking naked, I had no clue what you were, and the first thing yall did was charge me.” His look gained a hard edge, “But, yall are warriors same as me, you know you woulda had the exact same reaction I had. I fought to preserve myself from an unknown threat.”
Fire Storm said nothing and continued to glare at the human, slowly mulling over what he said in her head. The more she thought about it; however, the more she saw he had a point and her visage started to soften.
The human….err…. Durrant, unable to hear the internal conflict going on in her head, slowly sucked in air through his teeth and let it out in a huff. “You know what, forget it. You and your buddy want to ignore me and just stand there for hours on end, that’s chill with me. I just gota put up with yall till I can get home.” He then slid off the bed, got into an …. interesting position on the floor and started lifting himself up and down with his forelimbs
Fire Storm sighed deeply and mumbled to herself, “You know what, fuck it.” She then slowly walked over to Durrant and asked, “So what are you doing now?”
Durrant stopped in his motions and looked up at her, quirking an eyebrow. “Huh, now the big bad guard wants to converse with little ol’ me?”
Fire Storm’s eyes narrowed dangerously, “If you keep this act up, I’ll show you what a ‘big bad guard’ can do, when I jam my hoof up your plot hole.”
Durrant curled his legs up underneath his chest then rolled back into a sitting position, raising his forelimbs in placating gesture. “Now, now, no need to jam anything up there. I’m still an exit only asshole thank you very much.” His eyes turned upwards and his head cocked to the side, “Though the green weenie might beg to differ.”
Fire Storms face scrunched up, “What….”
Durrant chuckled and shook his head, “It’s nothing, just some military jargon from back home.” He stopped laughing and looked at her again. “And to answer your question from before, what I was doing was an exercise called push-ups. Works the muscles in the arms and back.”
“So why are you exercising in a cell?”
“It gives me something to do,” he replied shrugging his shoulders, “SERE 101 for crap to keep your mind occupied while in captivity.” He laughed again stood up. “You know, this little back and forth is good, breaking down cultural barriers and shit.”
Fire Storm shook her head and walked back over near the door, tail flicking in irritation, “I’m not even going to ask.”
It was then that Lance Point rapped on the door and entered, carrying 3 steaming bowls of oatmeal, a few apples, and a flagon of water. She placed one set of food in the middle of the room, eyeing Durrant warily, before retreating over to Fire Storm and hoofing her over a portion. As Durrant walked over and sat down next to the food, Lance Point turned to her partner and asked, “Anything happen while I was gone?”
As Fire Storm opened her mouth to answer, Durrant interrupted them yet again.
“Yeah,” he stated almost unintelligibly through a mouthful of oatmeal, “Your buddy kept eye-fucking me while I was working out.” He swallowed, put on an obviously fake concerned expression, and placed a forelimb on his chest. “And I just didn’t have the heart to tell her that I’m only into chicks with black hair, and nice asses.” He turned to Lance Point and smiled, “Speaking of which, what are you doing this weekend, cause my schedule has absolutely nothing in it for the foreseeable future.”
Lance Point’s Jaw dropped and she turned to attempt to restrain her friend from knocking the shit-talking humans block off, when she saw that Fire Storm wasn’t doing anything of the sort.
She had her foreleg covering her mouth and she was barely keeping snorts and bouts of laughter from slipping out.
Lance Point couldn’t believe her eyes as she looked back and forth between her friend, who had now slipped into a deep belly laugh, and the human who was grinning like a Cheshire cat.
Fire Storm finally composed herself and walked over to the human and sat down in front of him. “Oh goddesses, I haven’t laughed that hard in a while. I needed that.” She chuckled again. “Not in a million years did I ever think I’d hear that kind of talk out of a guy.” She then gave his shoulder a slight nudge from her hoof. “You just might turn out to be alright in my book.”
“We got off on the wrong hoof yesterday, how about we start over.” She then stuck out her right hoof, offering it to him. “My names Private First Class Fire Storm.”
Durrant gave a genuine smile, grabbed her hoof and shook it. “Sergeant Michael Durrant.” He formed another smirk and said, “Now hopefully I won’t have to put you in another head lock.”
“Pshhhh, you got lucky the first time.” She turned her head over to Lance Point, who was still standing by the door in shock. “ Hey Lance, close your mouth before somepony plants their tail in it.”
Lance Point snapped her mouth shut with an audible click and shook her head. She then strode forward and sat down next to Fire Storm while muttering, “I can’t fucking believe it.” Under her breath.
She did the same as Fire Storm and stuck her hoof out, “Private First Class Lance Point.”
Durrant repeated the motion, “Nice ta meet’cha.”
All three of them then went back to wolfing down their morning chow before Durrant piped up.
“So to break the ice a bit,” he stated, “Let’s be boot as fuck and swap some bootcamp stories.” Noticing the confused looks he was getting from both of them, he cleared his throat. “You know, some interesting or funny stories from training?” Still nothing. “Come on, its common ground across all militaries. Ya’ll are PFCs right? Ya’ll should be jumping at the attempt to shoot the shit with a sergeant.”
Lance Point deadpanned. “I don’t understand half of what you just said, but I think you’re asking for stories from when we were in Militum Disciplina? Right?”
“Sure, let’s go with that,” Durrant grinned and took a large bite of an apple. “Funny shit always happens around recruits because their all half retarded.” He waved his forelimbs in a circular motion. “Come on now, I can tell you got a good one.”
“Yeah I do. Hey Storm, you remember the time Razor Wind left her shield lying in the dirt right?”
Fire Storms eyes widened, “Oh Hay yeah.”
Durrant raised a fore limb, “Hold on there, are shields standard issue? Cause you two don’t have em’?”
Fire Storm shook her head, “Nah, only the front rankers have them. They lead a bit ahead of the main body while in the charge or on the dive attack. They are supposed to screen and protect the legionaries behind them. You know, block incoming fire. It’s seen as an extremely honorable position, because you’re protecting your sisters beside you and the rest of the army behind you. The shields themselves are almost held to a sacred regard, for they have been enchanted to stop magic. Not everypony is chosen to be one, but we all get the basic training for the proper techniques and formations.”
Durrant scratched his head, “Well all right then, get on with the story then. What happened to your buddy?”
Lance Point cleared her throat and settled in to tell her tale. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like I was saying before, Razor Wind had neglected her shield. Somehow she had allowed it to lie outside her grasp, facedown, untended on the ground with its concave edges pointing towards the sky.
Our instructor, Staff Sergeant Cloud Walker, stood in front of her. “What is this I see in the dirt before me?” she roared. The recruits from all around the training field could hear every syllable by this point. “It must be a chamber pot, with its bowl peeking up so daintily.”
“Is it a chamber pot?” She demanded of Razor Wind. She answered no.
“Then what the hay is it?”
“It is a shield Ma’am.”
Cloud Walker declared this impossible.
“It can’t be a shield, I’m certain of that.” Her voice carried powerfully around the emptiness of the field. “Because not even the dumbest flank-fucked shit-worm of a legionnaire would leave a shield lying face down where she couldn’t snatch it up in an instant when the enemy came upon her” She towered over the mortified filly.
“It is a chamber pot,” Cloud Walker declared. “Fill it.”
Razor was so scared and dehydrated from the all day training exercise, that she didn’t move a muscle.
Now a second factor entered the equation. This was the tendency among the young fillies in training, those who were not for the moment, the object of their superiors’ rage, to convulse with perverse glee at the misery of whatever luckless friend now found herself under the merciless ministrations of the instructors. Up and down the line of all of us, teeth sank into tongues seeking to suppress this fear inspired hilarity. One filly named Sky Rise, couldn’t contain herself. A snort escaped her clamped jaws.
Cloud Walker turned on her in fury. Now Sky Rise had two brothers, both of which we Cyrinians call “two-lookers,” meaning they were so handsome that one look was not sufficient, you had to look twice to appreciate them.
Cloud Walker asked Sky Rise if she thought it was funny.
“No Ma’am,” the filly replied.
“If you think this is funny, wait till you get into combat. “You’ll think that’s hysterical.”
“No Ma’am.”
“Oh yes you will. You’ll be giggling like your goddam brothers.” She advanced a pace nearer. “Is that what you think war is, you fucking come-spot?”
“No Ma’am.”
Cloud Walker pressed her face inches from the filly’s, glowering into her eyes with a look of blistering malice. “Tell me. Which do you think will be the bigger laugh: when you take an enemy magical blast eighteen inches up the plot hole, or when your flank-for brains friend Razor Wind takes one?”
“Neither Ma’am.” Sky Rise’s face was stone.
“You’re afraid of me, aren’t you? That’s the real reason you’re laughing. You’re so fucking happy it wasn’t you I singled out.”
“No Ma’am.”
“What you’re not afraid of me?”
Cloud Walker demanded to know which it was. Because if Sky Rise was afraid of her, then she was a coward. And if she wasn’t, she was reckless and ignorant, which was even worse.
“Which is it, you miserable mound of shit? Because you’d better fucking well be afraid of me. I’ll go get one of your brothers and force him to jam his dick in your right ear, pull it out your left and fill that chamber pot right up.”
Cloud Walker then strapped a pair of dull training wing blades onto herself.
“Form up!” Cloud Walker bellowed. We formed up in a line formation. She had us all lay their shields, defamed, face down in the dirt, exactly as Razor Wind had done.
“Shields, port!”
We lunged for our heavy, grounded shields. As we did, Cloud Walker lashed at Razor Winds face with one of her wing blades. Blood sprung. She swatted the next filly, and the next until the fifth at last wrestled her unwieldy shield off of the ground and up into place to defend herself. She made us do it again and again and again.
Starting at one end of the line, then the other, then the middle. Cloud Walker continued to administer her little “lesson”.
“This is hilarious, isn’t it?” She demanded of us. “I’m beside myself, aren’t you? I can hardly wait to see combat, which will be even more fun.”
We all knew what was coming next.
Tree fucking
When Cloud Walker had tired of torturing us here, she would have some of the junior instructors march us over to the edge of the field, to a large ancient oak, and order us, in formation, to push the tree down with our shields, just how, if we were assigned as front rankers, we would be the first to smash against the enemy in battle.
We would take station in ranks eight deep , the shield of each pressed into the flank of the one in front of us, with the leading filly’s shield mashed by their combined weight and pressure against the oak.
We would push
We would strain
We would fuck that tree for all we were worth.
Our hooves would churn the dirt, heaving and straining until a rut had been excavated fetlock deep, while we crushed each other hurling and grinding into that unmovable trunk. When the one at the front could take no more, she would assume the position of the rearmost and the second filly would move up.
Two hours of this and Cloud Walker would probably casually return, perhaps with some other instructors. They would observe with shock and disbelief that the tree was still standing. “By the Gods, these horn-strokers have been at it half the watch and that pitiful little sapling is still right where it was!”
Now masculinity would be added to the list of our crimes. It was un-thinkable that we be allowed to return to the barracks while this tree yet defied us; such failure would disgrace our mothers and fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins, all the gods and heroines of our line; who would hang their heads in shame and have to slink off to Dawnstar or some other flank-split city where mares were mares and knew how to put out a respectable fucking.
The tree was the enemy
Fuck the enemy
On it would go, into an all-night drill. Our bodies shattered utterly from exhaustion, and then, when dawn at last brought clemency and reprieve, we would fall in for another full day of training without a minutes sleep.
This torment, we knew now as we stood under Cloud Walkers face-lashing, was yet to come. This was what we had to look forward to.
By this point just about every snout in formation was crooked. Every one of our faces was a sheet of blood. Cloud Walker was just taking a breath (she had tired out her wings with all the swatting) when Razor Wind thoughtlessly reached with a fore leg to the side of her blood-begrimed face.
“What do you think you’re doing, flank-fuck?” Cloud Walker turned instantly upon her.
“Wiping the blood, Ma’am.”
“What are you doing that for?”
“So I can see, Ma’am.”
“Who the fuck told you that you had a right to see?”
Cloud Walker continued her blistering mockery. Did Razor Wind really think that in combat she would be allowed to pause and wipe her face? That must be it. Razor would call out to the enemy and they would halt politely for a moment, so she could pluck a nose-nugget from her nostril or wipe a dingleberry from her flank. “I ask you again, is this a chamber pot?”
“No Ma’am. It is my shield.”
Again one of Cloud Walkers wing blades blasted her across the face. “My?” She demanded furiously. “My?”
Razor seemed to summon her composure, rally all of her senses. She stepped forward shield at high port. She straightened to attention before Cloud Walker and enunciated in her loudest, clearest voice the Legion Oath.”
Cloud Walker nodded, satisfied. She barked an order. We resumed formation, each now with our shield in proper place, upright against our left side.
“Shields, port!”
We lunged for the shields.
Cloud Walker swung her wing blades.
With a crack that could be heard across the training grounds, the dull blade struck the enchanted plating of Razor Wind’s shield. Cloud Walker swung again, at the next filly, and the next. All shields were in place. The line protected.
With a nod to the junior insructors, Cloud Walker stepped back. We held fast at attention, shields at high port, with the blood beginning to cake dry on our empurpled cheekbones and shattered snouts.
Cloud Walker repeated her order to the juniors that these horn-stroking daughters of slatterns would do tree-fucking until the dawn. She walked down the line, meeting each of our eyes. Before Razor Wind, she halted.
“Your snout was too long and pretty. It was a stallion’s snout.” She unstrapped the wing blades and tossed them into the dirt at her hooves. “I like it better now.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Durrant stared dumbfounded at the two of them. “Hoooolyyyy Fuck! That’s one of the most motivating ,bad ass bootcamp story I have ever heard.”
Both Fire Storm and Lance Point beamed proudly at the praise.
“Damn, and I thought I had a good one, but It doesn’t compare to that shit.”
“Awwwww, “Fire Storm cooed, “Is sompony upset cause we’re harder than they are? I mean you are a guy, not much competition there.”
“Hey,” Durrant retorted pointing one of his….. ‘thingys’ at her, “All combat personnel where I come from are guys, chica.”
“Yeah,” Lance Point stated nonchalantly, tilting her head towards Fire Storm, “Like she said, no competition.”
“Well fuck you too, I don’t even want to take you out anymore.” Durrant shot back, a large smirk plastered across his face.”
Both Fire Storm and Lance Point got a chuckle out of that.
“So how about it then?” Lance Point asked, “I told you our most memorable experience, what about you?”
Durrant reached up and scratched his head. “Well, like I said I don’t have anything that was to that magnitude, but I have one that’s pretty funny.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So there was this big dude in my platoon. Guy’s name was Ortiz. Big dude, lots of muscle, but dumb as a bag of hammers. He was the platoon fuck-up, this kid could do nothing right. He couldn’t march, couldn’t shoot straight, could remember any of the knowledge we were required to know. You name it this guy would fuck it up somehow.
Now I forget what Ortiz did to bring the anger of all of our drill instructors to a rolling boil, but needless to say it was big. Actually, now that I think of it. I think he was the retard that lost his rifle out in the field.
Now IT is called incentive training. It’s what the drill instructor’s use when recruits fuck up to get it into our thick skulls that we probably shouldn’t do whatever we just did, again. It usually involves a lot of physical exercise to the point of throwing up, lot’s of yelling, screaming and spitting, and getting the ever living shit beat out of us.
Needless to say Ortiz was being IT’d by all of our instructors at this point. And they even brought him into the whisky locker, (a big vault like room, where different equipment is stored), and gave him a little personal time.
We were all on line getting ready to hit the rack, when he finally emerged from the locker on his hands and knees, dripping in sweat and blood and bruises everywhere you could imagine.
One of our instructors, SGT Hernandez, picked him up by the scruff of the neck and roared at him. “You are a fucking disgrace to this Platoon, you fucking cum-guzzling shit stain.”
He threw Ortiz to the ground and stood over him, “You don’t even deserve to sleep with the rest of these rejects.”
He then pointed to the deck above us, “You are going to gather up your shit and you’re going to go sleep on 50’s deck. You’re their problem for the night, because if I have to see your slack-jawed ass mug for one more second I might snap and pull your spine out through your ass crack!”
Ortiz let out a weak, “Yes Sir.” Before he crawled over to his and began to gather up his belongings into a sea-bag.
The drill instructors refused to look at him, until he had finished stuffing his shit into the bag. Afterwards SSGT Grom marched his ass up to third deck where platoon 3250 was billeted.
Now the rest of the night went on pretty normally. Untill my turn came for fire-watch duty. It was the middle of the night and I was standing on front post, when I heard a commotion going on upstairs.
I stuck my head out the window just in time to see something fly past out of the corner of my eye. The object I saw was Ortiz, and he then proceeded to hit the ground with a bone-shattering crack, where He then began to scream bloody fucking murder cause both his legs were broken.
At this point almost everybody is awake and looking out the windows trying to find out what’s going on and a couple of drill instructors were beginning to form a circle around Ortiz. SSGT Hernandez busted out of the duty hut and sprinted outside in nothing but his fucking skivvies and a campaign cover.
As soon as he makes it over to the circle all I hear come screaming out of SSGT Hernandez’s mouth is, “You fucking pussy Ortiz, you can’t even kill yourself right. If you wanted to commit you would have jumped fucking head first!” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fire Storm was the first to speak. “I don’t know what you were talking about Durrant. That’s almost nearly as fucked up as Lance’s and mine’s story.”
“What happened to him?” Lance Point asked
Durrant shrugged his shoulders, “He was probably kicked out of the Marine Corps, I never saw him after that morning. The corps don’t like to keep dudes who can’t handle the stress. I mean come on, a little yelling and a beating or two is nothing compared to actual battle.”
“Here, here.” Lance Point agreed.
They then quickly gathered up all the plates and the water flagon and Fire Storm placed them on her back to take them back to the kitchens.
As she was leaving the room, however, Durrant made one last quip.
“Yo, while your out could you get me some smokes?”
