> The tale of a Huntsmans corp > by Trickstermkcee > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue: The Devils Den > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prologue: The Devils Den Year,2135, December 19, Friday 9:36PM Two young men slinked through the quiet trenches. There was the sound of air going at high speed that broke the quite ground below. Both men lugged guns around their back and shoulders. They were just average survivors in the city of New York, with the outbreak of a genetically modified Bubonic plague in 2098, the world had come to a crashing halt. With humanity holding its heads high, it fought the plague with its advanced medical technology. Then it mutated, and became more than a killer plague... It started to raise hell itself. People became feral and turned on each other, public execution by military was common, bodies laid strewn about the streets. Trench warfare and fire fights between resistance groups and military troops were common, bloody, and ended when everyone on one side was dead... That’s how it was always done. The two young men who crept through the trenches of war torn New York were extremely different. The man who walked in front was named Thomas Willard, Age 19, A.K.A Skyline. He wore a dark brown leather coat and a dark black t-shirt. He carried two M1911’s on his legs and carried a revolver tucked into his holster strapped to his chest. He wore dark blue jeans and had a scar running from his left eye to his forehead. He had light brown hair and a ball cap on his head, he also carried a camel backpack holding a AKM and a M16 assault rifle. He was part of a small local gang in New York. His teammate carried a .50 Caliber sniper rifle along with 2 Makarov handguns in his tactical vest along with multiple clips. He carried a vector in his hands, which was banged up and scratched, the words, “Never stop smileing!” Which was written on the side. The mans name was Jason quartz,Age 23, A.K.A Storm cracker and he was ex-military and loved guns. There was never a situation that Jason couldn’t get out of. He was slick like a snake and knew how to make others listen. He also was a bit of a ladies man, which tended to help...get information. They moved through the silent trench’s with expert footing as to avoid any mines that may lay in the trenches. “Why are we navigating these trench’s again?” Thomas mumbled, his reply was “So we don't die.” There was only 1/4 of a mile till their objective, a convoy that was stocked to the brim with ammo,weapons, and food. A friend of theirs informed them of its route, and had learned that the convoy stopped at a checkpoint to refuel and to allow the soldiers to rest. Jason’s plan was to take them by surprise and to hijack the main convoy truck and to escape to a hidden garage that was located in the area of downtown New York, in a abandoned police station. It was during winter and a awful snow storm had fallen over the city and was making it that no one could see 5 feet in front of them, it was the perfect cover. Thomas arrived right at the end of the trench and pulled out his AKM, which had a combat sight, fitted for night time combat, a extended magazine, and a suppressor. ——— Thomas 1st person ——— I quickly climbed out of the trench and turned around and reached down, offering my hand to Jason. He jumped up and grabbed my hand, and I quickly pulled him up, turning around and began to sweep the area with my AKM. Their was a low moan as 2 infected stumbled through the blizzard, I pulled the trigger once, then once more and they fell to the ground. Infected were a common sight in the city, it was usually the survivors of the green plague that had experienced serious nerve overloads and would merely stumble around, groaning and grunting, slashing and swinging at anything they could get their hands on. They were like zombies, except they aren’t invincible, they were still human. “Clear.” I mumbled out as I smiled. Storm moved forward toward the somewhat bright light, and I followed behind him, we had arrived at the end of the large highway area were we hurried up it and towards the vantage point. I yanked out a pair of binoculars and looked toward the flood lights that surrounded the checkpoint and inside,right by the main exit sat the target, the convoy. The first thing I saw was a military Humvee, which was parked in front of a large truck and behind that their was a large armored vehicle that I could not make out due to the heavy snowfall blocking my sight. “This isn’t right, I was told that it was guarded by light armor!” Jason stated in a nervous voice. I looked at him and said,”it’s probably just a heavily armored swat truck, like the one we have in the garage, plus we’re already here and we’re taking going have to get past everyone at the checkpoint.” Jason just nodded and put on a determined face before quickly pulling out a pair of binoculars to survey the area, he soon placed them away and withdrew his Vector. He moved behind me and grabbed my shoulder, “You ready?” he mumbled, in response I gave a brief smile and a thumbs up. ———-20 minutes Later——— Quickly I sprinted across the street toward a knocked over SUV. I arrived first and scanned the windows for signs of enemy snipers, though I didn’t spot anybody at first, but noticed a barrel poking out of a apartment complex window 2 buildings down, 3 stories high. I looked back to James and put up 3 fingers before pointing at the complex. He nodded and we moved towards it, nervously creeping towards the building. Jason had withdrawn his revolver and taken aim at the rifle which peaked out of the window sill, he shook his head, “Its a fake, probably to dissuade anybody with a brain from heading this way. We got to keep going, if this blizzard dies, we might to.” I nodded and checked around, we quickly moved down, I reached into my holster with my right hand and pulled out one of the two M1911’s out of the holster and put the rifle over my shoulder using its strap. This was about to get serious. ————Jason 1st person———— I watched as Thomas placed his AK over his shoulder and yanked out one of his pistols. I took the sign and switched from my .50 to to my two Favorite russian handguns, the Makarovs, a cheap and easy gun to buy on the black market, and even easier to get ammo for. I checked them to make sure they would operate properly, then continued to follow Thomas. Immediately I spotted three guards who were walking along the road, they were whereing tactical vests armed with M4’s and M1911’s. We took cover and waited as they made their way toward our position. “Hey, you heard about that crazy grenade guy?” Asked one of the three soldiers. “Yea, I was there, remember?” Replied the other soldier. Before the conversation could continue, there was three quick “PSST” sounds and the soldiers fell to the ground, 1 hole was in each of their heads. I stood up and rushed over to the first soldier I could get to and did my best impression of the soldier, who looked to be a sergeant of sorts. “This is Echo One, we have been engaged by a large group of resistance troops on 5th street over!” I stated with the sound of urgency as I pulled the trigger of the M4, causing it to fire a couple rounds before dropping it to the ground. I started to pull off the armor on the soldier and place it on myself, when the voice of a very frantic radio operator responded with “Roger Echo One, sending a Humvee to your location ASAP, over!” I gave a small smirk as I went to work placing the armor and clothing over my own. As I placed the last of the gear on myself and Thomas hurried over to me and grabbed my bag and rifle before hurrying into the old building to my left. He whispered the words “Good luck.” Before disappearing into the pitch blackness of the shadows, I smiled and whispered a small prayer before using his new M4 to take quick bursts at the knocked over car just down the street. Within minutes of firing, their was the distant roar as the engine of a Humvee as it came flying around the corner and hurried toward me. If I had been a real enemy on the other side of the street I would been scared out of my wits. It was a tan green Humvee with a .50 caliber heavy machine gun, I could see 4 soldiers in the passenger seats as it quickly came to a stop. The gunner was on a swivel and was checking the building with his gun, while all four soldiers disembarked from the vehicle. The first soldier to arrive at my location was a sergeant who quickly asked me what had happened as he indicated to the 3 dead soldiers. “It was ambush... I was lucky enough to duck into one of the building and survived the shooting.” I said with a fake panic toned voice as I carefully aimed my M1911 at his throat before firing it once, causing him to fall to the ground, making it seem as if he was shot from afar. In seconds the gunner was firing his gun at the non-existent snipers possible location, the three remaining soldiers hurried toward cover but didn’t get far as Thomas fired his M16 shots in burst, taking down the soldiers with relative ease. I holstered the handgun and took aim and pulled the trigger of the M4, firing a couple of shots straight into the gunners head, causing him to go limp on the gun. ————Narrators view————- Their was silence as the two young men quickly dragged the dead bodies out of sight into the dark building. They then hurried over to the humvee and got in, started up the vehicle and did a quick turn around before driving toward there target, the checkpoint. Little did they know, things were about to get a little complicated. As they drove down the street, both of the men noticed how the patrols were scarce when as they headed down the streets. They also noticed how their was more smaller checkpoints than their was originally supposed to be. As the two passed the 6th checkpoint, James mumbled something about not having planned for this and Thomas responded with a sigh and a reassuring smile,”We’ll make it, trust me... I am prepared for anything.” He stated with a upbeat tone, but James could see that he was sweating bullets. Finally, they arrived at there destination, the checkpoint. It was known as Blitz outpost, one of the top 3 military held checkpoints in New York. People would say that what Thomas and James had just accomplished was legendary. As they drove towards a large area of parked Humvee’s and jeeps, they could also see the tank they thought had been some sort of S.W.A.T vehicle was in fact in operating order and was sitting next to the convoy truck. “Dude... How are we gonna beat that!” Thomas stated with horror as he examined the quite thick armor that the tank was sporting. “You realize that we’re stealing a convoy full of GUNS and AMMO... Right.” Jason stated with as much sarcasm as he could put on it. Thomas just laughed at his own stupidity and Jason joined in with his own chuckle. ———-Thomas 1st person——— I pulled the vehicle into a open space in between two large looking buildings. The building were simply a mess hall and a barracks, but they would soon would be nothing. As I got out of the truck and closed the door, I heard somebody talking and quickly moved to the wall, Jason quickly followed my lead and got nice and friendly with the wall. “Man, I hate this checkpoint job!” A young Australian accent stated as a single soldier moved into view. “I mean what’s the point of watching this snowed in point for the non-existent resistance force, I mean come on! We crushed most of the resistance last week when we raided that old subway downtown... What could possibly be left?” He snorted with a annoyed look on his face. Another soldier simply shrugged as they walked past the small opening. I launched out and grabbed the soldier by the neck before twisting sharply, and was rewarded with a quick SNAP and the soldier stopped struggling while James quickly took down the silent soldier with his bipod knife. The two quickly dragged the bodies into the dark and placed them into the humvee’s back seats before quickly moving along towards our target. ‘This was about to get interesting’ Thomas thought to himself as he reached the front of the truck and put his hand out to the side, blocking James from moving forward. James understood and pulled out his silenced Saiga-12 and turned the corner. Three quick suppressed snaps were heard followed by three quick to follow thumps. “Clear” stated James as he came back around the corner, he had a little bit of blood stained on his jacket and he smiled slightly. I turned the corner and pulled open the truck door and pulled myself up into the vehicle, I reached up and pulled the visor down, snagging the pair of keys that were placed there and grinned like a mad man. “It’s show time mate!” I laughed as I put the key into the ignition and put the supply truck into drive. ———Narrator point of view——— There was silence at the front gate as two guards stood talking to each other, wrapped in a deep debate involving Harry Potter and lord of the rings. “Harry Potter is clearly the better series, seeing as it lasts longer than your joke of a 3-book series!” Yelled out the first guard as the second guard, who’s face was the color of a tomato. “Harry Potter can go burn in HE-“” the first guard went to yell but was interrupted when the gate burst open and the supply truck booked it down the road with a single guy in the back firing a M4 at five jeeps that flew through the wreckage that was the gates, armed with 30. Caliber guns and even a M1 Abrams tank chasing right after them. The two soldiers stared in silence before the second soldier mumbled “Harry Potter su-“ but was cut off when the first soldier socked him in the jaw. ——————————————— James fired his stolen M4 with quick bursts as to avoid the 30. Calibers thick stream of bullets. “Take THIS!” Yelled James as he grabbed a grenade out of a crate, pulled the pin and tossed it toward the speeding vehicles. The first Jeep flew right by the grenade and wasn’t anywhere near the grenade, but when it went off, the snow all over the ground flew up and slammed into the window shield. With snow blocking the drivers sight and a suddenly very stupid looking snowman for a gunner, the Jeep flew off the road and slammed into a house, causing it to crumble onto the Jeep. In the front seat, their was Thomas, who had pulled out his vector and was spraying the Jeep that had attempted to push them off the road. Both the driver and gunner fell limp in their Jeep, causing to slow down and crash into another Jeep attempting to go for their back wheel. With a few quick turns, they had lost most of their followers and where well on their way to losing the others. “JESUS THESE GUYS ARE PERSISTENT!” Yelled Thomas as he snapped his M1911 at the random car that had 2 soldiers in it. The vehicle spun out and slammed into another Jeep and they flew off to the left. At that moment things got 4 times crazier. Two M1 Abraham’s burst out of two large roads and started to follow the jeeps, while at the same time two helicopters flew into view. The issue with this was that the helicopters belonged to the LMB (Last mans Battalion) and the tanks also had the same markings. Well...fuck... ————40 seconds later———— Their were explosions everywhere as two LMB tanks pursued a large fleeing armored truck carrying two crazy survivors and a helluva lot of guns. So far the two survivors had managed to take down one of the Apaches via using a heavy machine gun and spraying the cockpit full of very angry bullets, this caused it to spin out and crash into a rather large building with LOTS of glass windows, poor window cleaner. Right now the man in the back of the truck was frantically searching through the crates of guns, looking for something, no, ANYTHING to stop those god dam tanks. “ KABOOM!” A explosion erupted from the road just next to the truck, causing it to jump on to its left side of tires as it hit the highway, flying down the mostly open road. “I FOUND SOMETHING!” Yelled Jason as he yanked out a gun that looked a lot like a RPG-7... Wait, why was that in here!? James face made something that looked a lot like a devious smile, although no one could really tell with the blood splattered in his face from all the work he was putting in. “ENJOY THE FALL, YOU-“ the rest of the sentence was unheard as he fired the rocket right into the ground behind the truck, causing a large hole to form in the ground and allowing for both tanks to attempt to stop, but there tracks were jammed and one flew straight into the hole and fell right toward the ground, causing it to crash and the rounds to explode because of the heavy impact and the effect of gravity. Somewhere in the background there was somebody telling the words “SCREW GRAVITY!” before the explosion. The second tank drifted right over the edge, barely missing falling in. It pulled up right next to the truck and attempted to lift the truck by sticking the barrel of its gigantic gun into the back of the truck and lifting up. At that moment the second attack chopper flew into view and had found its target, the rather large support pillar holding up the highway, the apache fired multiple missile barrages, which quickly met there destination and with that it flew off towards the close by military helipad. It was taken out by a stray missle that had somehow missed the pillar and found the next best thing, the helicopter. This would be the end of the two vehicles and its passengers as they fell into the burning inferno that was once cars. What no one else saw was a strange flash of light and they suddenly disappeared. > Chapter 1: A Freezing night in the Everfree > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:A Freezing night in the Everfree Howls of wind and snow stormed Ponyville, most of its populace taking cover in theirs homes and houses. A small number of ponies moved throughout the town, mostly just random ponies making their way to the train station, guards patrolling the streets, or ponies leaving to go back to their homes after visiting family for hearts-warming eve. The Everfree was strangely quiet as most predators laying inside deciding to sleep, rather than hunt on such a peaceful night. Although the peace was soon ruined gone as the quite night was interrupted by what sounded like a loud ‘CCCRRRRRAAACCCCCKKKKK!!!’ Sounded off from the everfree forest, almost like a hundred trees snapping in unison. Multiple heads turned as some ponies stopped and stared off into the dark outline that was the deadly and dangerous forest. Three guards, two regular Pegasi and a single night guard mare took to the sky, flapping as they sped towards the forest, the snow suddenly seemed to crash at them. The risk was extreme with such sever weather, flight was a serious hazard in the heavy snow as it slammed against there wings. “B-be careful, t-t-the Everfree is escalating the storm, l-locate the source of the noise and get back to Ponyville before it gets any worse!” The head officer yelled as he flapped quickly, trying to avoid clouds as they flew. Among the three, it was Sergeant Shield spire, Corporal Dawnsville, and Private Nightshade, as they flew the blizzard exploded into a massive burst, and the air behind them became all most impossible to navigate, but they kept going, hoping to find what they seeked, whatever it was. ———————————————— Silence filled the clearing that had been created, trees had been thrown aside like they weighed nothing, branches snapped. One unfortunate tree was no more than a stub. With the massive snow storm bartering everything they quickly became covered under the terrifying storm that pounded the ground in hales of freezing snow. In the clearing lay two new beasts, both made of metal and large, with passengers sat inside of them, although both groups of passengers where incapacitated. The first massive metal monstrosity held two passengers, one was a stallion, the other a griffin male. The first one, the stallion, was covered in crimson colored fur, with a pitch black tail and mane, he had massive wings, easily spanning 6 feet wide each. They were also very deadly, the feathers had metal tips, sharpened somehow to a knife like idea. They were also crimson colored,and he wore a thick armored vest with a Vector laying strapped to his body, a Barrette .50 caliber rifle lay next to him, although it was not strapped to him. The second was a griffon who was slumped over the steering wheel, he was Brown colored for his neck fluff, but dark gray on the rest of his body, he himself carried a few weapons, specifically a AKM, and second rifle lay on the seat next to him, a M16 military assault rifle. He had 2 M1911’s slipped into the vest, concealed from view, as his sidearms. Inside this monstrosity, lay a number of crates with the markings “PROPERTY OF THE U.S. ARMY” stamped to the wooden side in Black lettering. Although the snow kept coming down hard, it seemed to fall off the canvas outside of the massive truck, almost giving a white blending look. In the second monstrosity of machinery that looked a fortified cart with a long round metal pipe sticking out of it, 5 different creatures lay inside. In the commanders hatch of the vehicle (the hatch on top of the vehicle) a black bug like equine lay slumped in the command chair. She had a M4 tucked under her body, her hooves holding it like a child. Her body was peppered with the heavy snow as she groaned and breathed shaking breaths of cold steam. Just below her in the Machine Gunner seat, another griffon was slumped over the gun, snoring lightly. She wore a heavy coat, a sidearm lay tucked into it, it was a 44. Python, a large revolver made to tear apart just about anything within its range, it hit hard, with a capacity for 6 rounds. A third creature lay against the main firing mechanism, it was a dragon with a gray color scheme that blended with the tank. He wore a tight grey and blue colored uniform, similar to a naval one, he had two sidearms, one on a hip holster and another strapped to his thigh. The one strapped to his waist was a scorpion sub machine gun, it carried 20 .380 rounds on a single mag, along with one more in the chamber. His second sidearm was strapped to his thigh, tucked under his pants, it was a Glock 17, with 3 mags of 15 rounds each. Next to him lay a second horse like creature , it had tufts on its ears and bag like wings. Although it’s eyes were closed, it had Cat like irises, and a pair of fang like teeth. He had a dark olive green uniform jacket on, carefully concealing the double barrel snub shotgun that lay under it, strapped a The last occupant lay on his back in the middle of the tank, a dog like creature, with a somewhat stockier build, lay slumped in the back of the vehicle. “UURK” the griffin gagged as he fell out of he vehicle and threw up onto the ground, coughing, several of the other strange characters followed suit, diving from their vehicles to empty their stomachs as soon as possible. “I knew I shouldn’t have eaten dat second MRE” groaned out the dog like creature groaned, his slight southern accent slipping in as he coughed a few more times over the side of the massive metal tank. “Gots to agree with you man, I feel like I just ate a bunch of nails, and their scrapping my throat on the way out!” Mumbled a rather sickly stallion who lay out the back of the transport truck, finishing cleaning out his stomach contents. A few others threw up as they groaned out, after several minutes of doing so, they stopped, all of them sagging against their respective vehicles, one of them, a griffin who sat by the supply truck scanned the passengers of the massive tank. His talon slipped into his pocket and slowly withdrew his M1911 and raised it at the bug like creature. Her response was to slowly lift her own M4, taking careful aim at his chest. “H-how about you lower that peashooter of yours.” She said with a smirk, causing the griffin to chuckle. “Jeez alright, bit only if you lower yours as well.” He did with a shrug, his eyes glinting in the moonlight through the heavy snow. She stared straight into his eyes and he stared back, not daring to drop her gaze. “Sure.” She answered and lowered her rifle, seconds after the griffin followed, holstering his handgun, and flashing a sharp and short salute, chucking. “uh... sorry to interrupt but...” groaned one of the tank crew, a pitch black griffin hen “What the hell is going on?” She mumbled out weakly as she attempted to stand, only to cling to the vehicle in a tired hold to stay standing up. “N-not sure completely...” groaned out a second crew member, a dog looking figure wearing a uniform and wearing a pair of prescription glasses, on his back was a M21 M14A sniper rifle, set with a variable scope. A third soldier crawled out of the hatch, a thin looking dark red male dragon, who’s tail followed him as he fell unceremoniously out of the tank, giving a grunt as he landed. “Uh...guess we aren’t in Kansas no more.” A British accented voice called out as somebody peaked out through the hatch, his pistol floating next to him in a small deep dark blue hand. “I would have to agree with you toto!” Replied back to Brown furred mare, floating the M4 still pointing at the griffin. “Inde-hey don’t call me toto!” The annoyed soldier said, looking up at the mare with a annoyed expression. The mare gave a dry chuckle and looked back to the griffin, intrigued by him. Said Griffin was examining rather strange change and was examining himself, nodding with a pleased expression, “I don’t look to bad at all, no sir” he said with a chuckle, looking at how his body’s seemed to be covered in feather, enjoying the feeing of warmth in the night as the snow slowly fell down from the sky. Most of the others hard started to feel the snow and observed their surroundings, one of the tank crew, who seemed to be similar with his appearance to a big like pony, who’s name ‘Priv. Clank’ marked on his uniform started to check the others, “Is everyone alright?” He asked,looking to both the soldier and the two heavily armed civilians. “I’m tired and confused, but otherwise as good as I’ll get.” replied the griffin as he walked over to the stallion laying in the back of the truck who was starting to go through some of the crates checklists to see what they now had. “So...what now..?” Asked one of the soldier,who could be identified as the sleek and skinny dragon, red in color and standing at 6,1. “Well...I’m not entirely sure, but form our location, and the fact that we’re in a rather different environment, I advise we don’t kill each other?” Offered the mare as she jumped out of the hatch and landed gracefully on her four legs, her M4 floating next to her. “I don’t mind that one bit, what do you think James?” Asked the stallion as he looked to his griffin companion. “I’m good with that.” He replied and stretched out his wings, slowly flapping them to test them, he grinned and gave a strong flap, propelling him into the air and onto a cloud. “HOLY CRAP I CAN STAND ON CLOUD, YESSSSS!” He cried out excitedly and quickly focused himself on searching the area around him, trying to spot something indicating society. It was a few minutes as his eyes scavenged the frozen waste. “Hey I see something! It’s some massive fire! Burning pretty bright, about 20 minutes from out current location, bearing East!” He called down, listing off the locations. The soldiers listened intently, “Roger that, hop on down here” the unicorn mare, her name being Lieutenant Lea March, shouted up to the griffon, who jumped and landed, using a combat roll to break any possible risk of injury. The mare smiled, “Alright, our objective is to locate where we are, then why we are here, our nearest location is the fire, let’s check it out, then we’ll figure out what’s next!” She shouted, “Am I clear!” she received several nods and shouts of “yes ma’am!” from those in the clearing, as everybody quickly got to work, one of the extra soldiers who had been riding the tank, the dog carrying. The tactical rifle, jumped into the truck bed, right next to James, who nodded to him as the truck started up and they started to move, the tank plowing through the snow, pushing past heavily snowed over trees and grass, intent for a short journey to stay that way. > Chapter 2: Of Soldiers and guards > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 2:Of soldiers and guards The Blizzard struck hard, the wind howling like wolves in the night. Trees flew by as Dawnsville glided above them. He was almost blinded and was barely able to fly, having resorted to ducking just above the trees to navigate, he had lost contact with the other two guards when a rather harsh bash of snow struck them. He had seen the night guard seemed to swerve and although he couldn’t tell he had thought he had seen her crash somewhere below him. Reluctantly he had pulled back to search for her, although the hellish conditions of the snow had frozen some of his armor joints and he was barely able to fly, he kept searching. “H-HELLO, C-CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME!” Dawn yelled below him into the forest. Nothing came back as the wind howled aggressively, causing him to jerk and dive down slightly, entering the forests tangle of branch’s. Quickly he dodged left and right, swerving around snapped branches and such, narrowly escaping a very sharp branch. “OOOF” he groaned as he slammed into the ground, groaning weakly as he sat up, barely able to see much except for the hellish snow storm and the dark forest around him. Although he soon noticed something, a small flint in the dark, golden in color, and he stood up, on trembling hooves he approached it. “S-s-sir is t-that you, w-we have to find t-the other an-“ he cut himself off as he stopped. In front of him was the sergeant. His body lay hanging from a tree, a large branch lay impaled in his chest, and his body unmoving, his wings limp and useless. “H-HUURKK!” He gasped and spun around, emptying his stomach contents onto the ground, next to a dried blood puddle. His eyes drifted to the soldiers armor, which seemed to have turned the color of pale blue. “S-Sweet C-c-Celestia...” he groaned as he backed up, although his ears seemed to register a noise that was almost concealed by the shaking of brands and howls. “H-help...” a quiet voice spoke, it almost seemed to be begging. Without pause the Corporal spun on his hooves, not daring to look back as he galloped quickly, moving to head in the direction of the voice. “C-can you hear me!” He shouted into the forest, still moving as his armor creaked and crunched, the armor almost seeming to act like ice, making it troublesome to move. “P-please...” the voice groaned out, it was just a little off to his left. His head snapped in the direction and he galloped quickly off in the direction the voice had once more came from. He found the source moments later, a clearing up ahead showed a blazing orange like color, almost seeming to appear form the darkness and snow, forming in front of him. He entered into the clearing, his wings seemed to tighten by his side as he approached the blaze. Quickly he spotted the owner of the voice, the mare that had gone missing! “O-oh...buck...” he mumbled as he gazed at the injured threstral that lay against a rather large rock near the blaze. As he moved over to her, his eyes drifted over to the massive fire. It seemed to be coming from a massive hunk of metal, it’s shape was almost like a massive rectangle, with a strange similar but smaller rectangle on top, a long pipe was poked out the front, although it was bent downwards. “I-I’ve got you!” Dawn quickly said, crouching next to the mare, who later against a rock, nursing her side, grunting. “What happened to you?” Dawn asked as he quickly used his muzzle to dig out a small red box from a hidden pocket inside his armor. “I-I s-s-saw something...big...it was moving through the forest, I-I broke off and started to head towards it, bu-but the...armor froze-“ she weakly groaned and coughed, a little blood tricking out. “S-shh, let me get a look at your injury’s, I’ll get you fixed up, then I’ll go and find some help!” He started with a nervous wince as he pushed her wing aside, viewing her side. The wound was terrible. A long gash was created along her side, running along her side almost all the way down to her hip. That wasn’t all though, it appeared that she had wedged her right wing under a price of her armor, which made her unable to fly. “W-what am I gonna do...” he mumbled as he got to work bandaging her side, the bandages already slowly gaining a red hue as they were rapped carefully around her chest. “W-where’s the sergeant...” she coughed, looking to him, her light grey eyes shimmering in the night, “H-he had a-a m-map on him...I-in his pocketbook...” she wheezed,barely able to tolerate the pain. Dawns eyes widened slightly at what she said, “T-the s-s-sergeant...” he mumbled, “D-didn’t make it...” he said with a cough, the cold had melted away as the snow came down, the blazing fire having warmed him up, his armor had gained its glistening back as the ice had thawed slightly. “O-oh...b-but we need his book...please...get it from him, dead or not, w-we need to escape.” She said with a few coughs, sitting up and looking to him, “J-just...get it from him...” she weakly grunted, working again her armors straps, trying to loosen them. “B-but...” he looked back into the forest, then at the mare, his mind worked quickly to find any better option, but none came to mind, she was right. “o-okay...I’ll be back soon.” He said, turning his back to her. “No! Wait...” she hissed, reaching into her armor, she slowly withdrew a dagger, it rasped as it was withdrawn from its sheathe, “Take this with you, i-I noticed you lost your sword in the blizzard, just in case anything comes at you...” she groaned and stopped talking as he took it, sliding it into the small armored pocket under his right wing. “Thank you... I hope you survive this.” He said softly as turned and began his trek, galloping towards the dark forest, his eyes steeled in a determined gaze, unfaltering as he entered the forest. Dawnsville creeped through the forest, his eyes wide as he moved. “I-I-I should have just became a musician...” he mumbled, glancing at his cutie mark, a sword and a violin crossed over each other. Finally he spotted his objective, a clear g up ahead, and quickly he galloped forward, a nervous look on his face as he entered the clearing, but the look of nervous glee on his face turned to horror. Blood was all over the ground, the body of the sergeant was missing his hind legs, which had been torn off, his armor bloodstained and tossed aside. “Oh...oh merciful Celestia, please...please save his soul.” He whispered as he approached the hung up corpse. Slowly his wing opened up and slowly pushed into the guards armor. Slowly he found something inside, and fished it out. What he pulled out was a small leather bound book, some blood splattered across the bottom of it. “U-ughh...” he grunted and backed away, looking up at the sergeant, he slowly lifted his wing and slid two feathers across his eyelids and slid them down, closing his eyelids, “May you see Celestia’s bright sun, and luna’s beautiful moon.” the guard whispered softly. Then turned and hurried into a gallop, not daring to look back for fear of breaking down. As he walked he unbounded the book, and opened it. Writing from page to page, it was most likely his notebook, “Sergeant Shield spire...” he mumbled as he looked through the journal,as he turned another page a picture fell out., slowly falling to the ground. “H-huh?” He softly grunted as a small cloud of cold air flew out, reaching down he picked it up with his wing, looking at it. The picture contained a mare standing alongside the sergeant, who was wearing a dress uniform, smiling brightly as she seemed to be kissing him on the cheek. Dawns eyes fell as he slowly placed the picture back in the book and stuffed of into his armor, moving to continue his run. He soon arrived at the clearing, although what greeted him was terrifying. Two metallic beasts had taken up positions, one similar to the strange metal monstrosity that lay crumbled. The second was of similar size but less threatening, but what made him extremely nervous was the number of creatures moving around the sight. “Hey get a medic over here!” Called out a griffin as he stood up from the unconscious mare, his arm was clutching a strange weapon hanging from a strap around his neck. He glanced up as a pony approached him, the pony wore some sort of gear that matched the forces tint. They quickly talked then the griffin walked over to a group of other creatures, one diamond dog, one changeling, and a dragon. Dawn slowly approached the group, sneaking towards a second changeling who stood by and watched the others. ‘CHICH-CHICH!’ sounded odd a strange sound, causing him to look to his side, next to him stood a griffin hen,her eyes glowing a solid pale blue as she aimed a strange piece of metal in between his eyes. “Surrender and you will not be harmed, attempt to resist and you will be dealt with accordingly.” She stated calmly, watch him without blinking. “...Buck...” he mumbled and he nodded, “I-I-I surrender...” he mumbled and she smiled. “Good boy” she said with a smile and motioned for him to move forward, “Hey I caught someone stalking the tree line! He’s wearing armor, similar to the first one, although he looks more pony than the other.” She called out as she pushed him into the clearing, the group turned to him. “So...guess things are about to get interesting.” Mumbled the diamond dog, who pushed up his glasses. “Uh...lovely night for it?” Dawn said, grinning nervously. > Chapter 3:Signals and metal men > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 3: Signals and Metal men “Who are you?” Asked a changeling, her voice was feminine, carrying a strange accent, almost southern sounding to the guard. “I-I’m...” he considered his next words carefully, “I-I’m Corporal Dawnsville of Celestia Royal guard.” He said, anxiety showing itself in his voice as he spoke. “Ah so a guard then? Would explain the flashy armor...” mumbled out the griffin hen who stood behind him. She had a sort of calm demeanor that made him feel more at ease then he could understand. “Wh-what happened to the mare...” he began nervously, his eyes searching the area, only barely noticing a canvas tent that had been placed near the edge of the somewhat burning hunk of metal. His eyes flew to the strange beast that sat next to the wreck and his eyes widened, they were almost the same! “She has been taken in and is recovering under the watchful eye of our steadfast medic.” The changeling answered sharply, the griffin next to her keeping his eyes on the forest, his claws on his strange weapon, eyes scanning the edge just behind him. “Would you like to see her?” Offered the changeling, her eyes carefully observing him. His reaction was a surprised look, along with a suspicious glance as he nodded his head slowly. “Come along, don’t want you to get frostbite, and from what I can tell, your armor is unsafe in this condition, when you enter the tent, remove it, and keep that dagger where it is.” Said the diamond dog, his eyes glistening in a soft orang reflection as he turned towards the tent and fire and walked. The guard was stunned but quickly followed, “H-how did you-“ “I noticed the mare had a scabbard under her wing when we found her, it was empty. Seeing as you knew where she was, I assumed you had found her first, and borrowed her blade to enter the forest without being defenseless.” He replied in a calm and droning voice, as if a teacher explaining how he had gotten a conclusion to a student. “O-oh...” he replied, passing by another stallion, who sat on the strange machine, the non-burning one. His body was positioned on the machine to offer quick response, but his posture was a clam and almost relaxed position. “Ma’am please clam down, stop resisting! Your struggling might reopen the stitches!” A voice said, on a almost angered accent. Quickly the diamond dog hurried over to the tent, Dawnsville quick to follow as he arrived at the tent and pushed the curtains to the side, entering the much less snowy room. Inside their was a few bedrolls stretched out, on which lay Night shade, who was pushing against another stallion, this one a threstral. “L-Let go of me...” she groaned, trying to swing her hoof at the stallion, who avoided it with ease and tried to calm her down, “Ma’am! I’m a doctor, please hold still!” He begged, and soon she sighed and slumped, her hooves laying down in the ground. “Thank you.” He mumbled and checked her side, “Good news is you didn’t tear open your stitches, as for your wing? It should work, but I’m not entirely sure till we get you to a proper hospital.” He stated, “Your a very lucky mate, whoever did these makeshift bandages just about saved you from bleeding to death!” He stated, giving a smile. Dawnsville quickly took his armor off and hurried over to Night, sitting next to her he examined her closely, looking for any hint of other injuries. He was happy to see his fellow guard was ok, and quickly hugged her, happy to see she had made, “O-oh thank Celestia...” he whispered. Night shade was stunned, and blushing slightly, but returned the hug none the less, patting the stallions back slowly. “U-oh good to see you made it Dawn.” she said with a surprised chuckle, just barley noticing the blood that was on his wing tips. She thought about asking but didn’t bother, not wanting to know what had happened. Both occupants of the room besides the hugging pair looked at each other and shrugged, although soon they were interrupted as dragon entered the tent, “Hey we got something!” He said to the two, who both nodded and hurried to follow, exiting the tent, the diamond dog held back and looked at the two, “Stay in the camp, you won’t get far in this blizzard if you try to flee.” He said, then disappeared past the tent flaps. —————-Corporal Mia Delano—————- Silence rained as the griffin hen examined her surroundings, sitting in a tree just on the edge of the clearing. Her eyes scanned the forest, searching for any more intruders, carefully she watched and listened. Not more than a few minutes ago she had pulled in what appeared to be some sort of guard, who had been unlucky enough to walk under the tree that she had taken cover in. She had quickly apprehended him and brought him out, the commander had been able to make him relax and assured him his friend was alright. “Hey! Come on down, we got something on the main radio!” Shouted out the young dragon, his name was sergeant first class Felix young, he had joined them before they had left base to enter the city. Officially he was a young and promising soldier, unofficially though... she wasn’t sure. “Coming.” She stayed and jumped down, landing with a roll, her body contorting to allow her to safely roll, her shotgun she had borrowed form a crate clicking against her side. He watched and smiled, from what she could tell, he admired her skill. Or maybe it was her body...she never understood men to well. She strode over to the tank, he followed close behind, watching behind them for trouble as they entered the clearing and arrived at the tank, where the group of strange being crowded around. “T-this is...Hendricks...broadcasting...radio systems...c-crash site...alpha...omega...fuck this...help...w-we went down in a snowy m-m-mountain...w-w-when did mountains appear in D.C...? I-I survived, m-my co-co pilot was not so lucky, t-theirs snow here...it’s so dam cold... help me...please...help me...” the radio paused, cracklings, then the message repeated, although something new played as he switched the channel. A german voice came out, it was gruff, probably a older man, his voice was strained as if he was in pain, “Sende Hilfe ... es ist etwas los ... Sanitäter fehlen ... wo ist unser Kommandeur ... meine Männer sind tot ... verzeih mir ... sende Hilfe ... die Nazipartei soll hoch drin stehen dieses kurze Kommen ...” the pauses in each space were filled with deep shuddered breaths as the man groaned, towards the end, the voice faded slightly, and his transmission went silent, only for it to repeat as well. Another click and another voice came on, this one caught there attention, it was young, terrified, and the speaker was stuttering, “H-нибудь? мне нужна помощь, я в лесу, я видел что-то оранжевое, я похож на огонь, б - но шторм невозможно увидеть в ... я - если вы можете прочитать это, отправьте помощь!” The voice said with a terrified whisper, the soldiers were surprised, even though it was a completely foreign language...they understood what was said. The transmission didn’t repeat. “Send up a flare...do it now!” Shouted the officer, her ears splayed back in a demeaning terror. Quickly others scrambled, even the two non soldiers were quick to comply, they didn’t dare question the mare, not when it was so clear she meant business when she spoke in such a tone. *BOOOM!* erupted a flare gun as a single bright streak flew into the sky, little did they know that things were about to heat up, as it added, it erupted and showered the clearing in a bright light, bathing them all, then it covered the forest, and what it revealed surprised them all. Creatures crawled out of the forest, some made of wood, others constructed of metal, the body’s resembled humanoid like in appearance, but they all seemed to be missing their faces, although the hums of the radio became much louder. Slowly the dozen or so creatures stood up, a few of them carried weapons, half of the creatures wore uniforms, most of them old and damaged. The guns they carried were of equal grade, damaged and old, one of the creatures carried a MP40, old and rusted, another carried a M1 Garand, the last one that was noticeable carried a AK-47, it had scratches and rust all over it. “W-why won’t they send help...” moaned one of the creatures, the one carrying the M1 Garand, it’s body stumbling forward, groaning. “töte mich ... töte mich und beende mein Leiden ...” groaned the voice, this was german, just like the voice on the radio, his sub machine gun started to click as the trigger was pulled, revealing its empty chamber. “Đập người Mỹ ... ngăn họ lại ... tiêu diệt tất cả kẻ thù!” Growled another, it’s Ak seemed to level with them and click, the guns were to old to do much. “KILL THEM” a voice commanded, it was a metal creature in the middle, it was dressed in a set of riot gear, it’s club gripped in its hand and a old and battered ballistics shield in the other, a pistol at its side, still holstered. They obeyed almost instantly to the command, like rabid dogs being let off there chains, they surged forward. Gunfire responded as they were cut down, the machines gun on top of the tank barked as a threstral straddled it, pulling the trigger with a stick, and barely keeping it on target. “AAA-AAAGH!” The riot armor wearing creature screeched as the re-animated creatures were cut down, and it feel to it’s knees, clutching its head and groaning, although it didn’t last as the creature stood up once more, raising his arms, “RISE MY FRIENDS!” It screeched, and soon they heard the groans. A loud *CLANG* erupted from the flaming wreck as multiple body’s stumbled out of the wreck, they were horrible, burned crisply as they rigidly moved, snapping as they stumbled out. “A-Ah...thieves...kill...the general will be pleased...” gurgled a male who wore a uniform with a melted rank pin, most likely the tanks commander. “H-Hitoshi...” mumbled another body, it’s hands clutching at its head, “My wife...I hope I see her again...” the abomination muttered, it’s burned form stumbling out of the fire. Several more followed as they exited the remains, cries of mumbles of last thoughts echoing out, but they none the less stumbled forward, growling and trying to grab them. *BANG* tink *BANG* tink *BANG* tink *BANG* tink 4 gunshots reduced the stumbling corpses to unmoving,smoldering piles of bone. They turned their heads back to the riot armored husk of a body to see what it would do now. It sat there for a solid second, then reached for its handgun *CRACK!!!* A rifle banged form across the clearing and the head exploded, its metal corpse fell over, twitching and spasming. Every gun was pointed at the other side of the clearing, and every bolt and pump was cocked and/or racked. “Friends,please, I wish no trouble, I send transmission, see flare, form to help.” Said a heavily accented voice, it was calm and tired, and out strode a broad shouldered griffin from the bushes. He wore a smile, and a heavy coat, a red star on his ushanka, and carried a Mosin Nagant in his hands, the barrel still smoking, “I’m Artyom, Artyom grostof” the griffin said, “it’s a pleasure to meet you comrades!” > Chapter 4:Meeting and a destination > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:Meetings and a destination Everyone stared at the russian, he examined the group that stood before him. His eyes glistened in the fire, his body was hard to make out. His coat concealed most of his body as he approached them, his eyes examining the massive machine that they stood around. “So...I assume I’m no longer in mother Russia then?” He spoke with a thick accent, his english was barely holding as he spoke, it was clear he didn’t know much. “You would be right, although I’m wondering, what year is it?” James asked the russian, his claws crossed, examining his gear. “Have you been living under rock? It’s 1943, me and my men were sent to help our brothers and sister guard stalliongrad.” He said with a proud tone, his smile broad and pleased. “Well my friend, I’ve got news for you, the wars over, you boys won, and it’s now 2135.” Stared the tired looking bug mare, rubbing her head, “I need a smoke, anybody got any?” She asked the group, looking around at her fellow troops. “Here, take one of mine.” The man offered, “Courtesy of the red army, to victory!” He said as he walked over and handed her a cigarette, the brand was old, and she smiled. “You might have just became my favorite russian.” She said a matter a factly, lighting it with her lighter, made from a old 7.62 round. “Isn’t he the only russian you know?” Asked the other changeling soldier, tilting his head in confusion. “Exactly!” She replied, “No competition.” She states simply and took a puff, sighing in pleasure. “So...should we search those weird metal things? They look old, and their gear is useless to us, but they might have some info we could use.” Asked Thomas, his crimson coat bathed in the soft glow of the barely kept flames. “Be my guest, although form the way those body’s are, the intel they had was probably destroyed by all the bullets-“ she glanced at the bat pony, who in turn blushed heavily in embarrassment, “-but if you find anything, do tell.” She said, as Hames and Thomas, along with private Clank walked over to the corpses, shifting through them. “So what is the state of Mother Russia?” Asked Artyom, taking a seat on a cut down trunk that had been knocked over by the howling blizzard. The snow was more or less not a bother at this point, just a background noise with snow pelting them. “Well last time I heard, Russia was sealing off its borders, and setting up military checkpoints to stop what little people they had from being contaminated by disease...that was 15 years ago, they’ve been silent since, and nobody bothers going to the frozen wasteland or is now to find out what happened.” Answered Corporal Delano added in, scratching at her neck feathers. “Ah, sounds like home.” He said with a sigh, and a shake of his head, looking around, “How many people are here?” He asked, looking in confusion. “Total of 9 of us, that’s also adding the two guards we collected only a little ago, ones injured the other is shaken up, but in good condition.” Answered the dragon, offering his hand, “Sergeant Bishop at your service.” He said with a wide grin, his sharp teeth easily seen. “Ah it’s a pleasure comrade!” Artyom bellowed out a laugh, gripping the dragons extended claw and giving it a tight grip, which Bishop returned with pleasure. “Jesus they were right to call you russians, and I quote ‘Drunk lovable bears!’” The dragon laughed, the second bug blushed heavily, embarrassed. “Ha! Wouldn’t surprise me a bit!” Artyom chuckled, sighing as he exhaled. Cloud of smoke from his lips flew out and flew away into the wind. During the exchange and searching of body’s, both guards had exited the tent, looking around the area, they were stunned. They had both exited the tent just after the commander had yelled for the flare to be shot up, and witnessed the entire event of the strange creatures slaughter, along with the meeting of the newcomer, now they were talking casually and searching corpses. “W-who-No what are these creatures?” Asked the mare, looking in terrified confusion. Night shade considered red fleeing, but Dawnsville has shot down that idea almost instantly, stating that they would most likely get eaten before hey even got a mile out. “Celestia only knows, although our best bet is probably to go with them, then call for assistance when we reach a settlement.” Stated Dawn, biting his lip nervously. Night shade looked at him, her eyes quirking nervously as she looked back at the tent, “W-well there is one idea...” she said as she limped back into the tent, spotting Dawns armor, she reached into it, carefully she dug out a tattered but recognizable notebook. “Are you serious?!? Leading them to Ponyville will expose the princess to a serious risk!” Exclaimed the day guard, his eyes wide and his whispers hushed. “Well it’s our best bet! If anybody can handle this it’s the princess! Plus theirs a messenger in town, If we get to Ponyville, we could at least get a message out!” She whispered back loudly. They held each others gaze for a solid few minutes, but Dawn broke first, his eyes looking down, “Fine...” he growled, “But anything goes south, it’s on you!” He whispered furiously, and turned around, offering himself as support to the wounded mare. “Thank you...” she whispered back and pecked him on the cheek, blushing as she leaned on him. He was stunned, but he moved anyway with a little nudge. They both approached the soldiers. Dawn coughed onto his hoof and caught the attention of the diamond dog who sat by the tank, a small white stick in his hand slowly letting steam out the end. The dog inhaled and sighed, blowing out the steam, almost like a dragon. “Yes?” He asked, standing up and examine the two carefully, they had put their armor on, and the bag pony held a book in her mouth. He raised his eyebrow and took the book form the mare, opening it he skimmed the pages till he stopped at a page, his eyes widened behind his thick glasses. “Oi! Those guards brought me a map, it’s a rough sketch of the forest, and form the looks of it we got a small town, labeled Ponyville about 5 miles east!” He yelled to the group, who in turn looked to each other and nodded. “Alright, James and Thomas, grab the two guards and Private. Embers and board the truck, everyone else man the tank, prepare for moving out, I’m already sick of this forest!” She shouted, and quickly people were securing their gear. The tent came down and was stashed on the truck, and the two guards were also placed inside, anything salvageable was kept and quickly, both vehicles were moving, a clear destination in mind. Ponyville > Chapter 5:Dragonborn > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 5:Dragonborn Fire bursted from some destroyed circuits, rapid beeping rang out throughout the cockpit, their was someone screaming, Something was blinding me, but it didn’t mean it went unheard... “AAAHHH-“ “E-ECHO ONE WERE GOING DOWN!” “HIT THE DECK!” The screams and cries of injured soldier rang out across the the chinook, he couldn’t move at all. “WAKE UP GOD DAMMIT!” Someone was shaking him, he didn’t know why, but he felt so tired, maybe If he just quieted down he could get some much needed sleep... “JESUS CHRIST YOU IDIOT, WERE GONNA DIEEEE!” Screamed someone in despair, wonder why they were screaming, “WERE GONNA HIT THE GROUND, HOLD O-“ ———————————————————— *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* “God dammit shut the alarm off Rick!” Someone groaned on the bunk below me. “Shut up Jay, your voice is so annoying to listen to-“ “Both you idiots shut up, we’ve been requested at central command!” Stated the lieutenant, his gruff voice sounding off as I opened my eyes, “And Rick shut that goddam alarm off.” my hands moved to obey, shutting my alarm off as I slapped it. “Yes sir...” I grunted as I looked around, them jumped onto the floor from my upper bunk, moving to my footlocker I grabbed my fatigues, sighing as I worked to get them on. I was a average 5’11 white guy, emerald green eyes, and silver hair. I was lean and not to strong. “What do you think central needs us for?” Groaned Jay as he got out of bed, he was about 6 foot, white guy, well built, slender and had brown hair, walking over and grabbing his clothes. “Probably just another pickup for a squad of marines...” grunted Martin, he was Hispanic,around 5 foot 10 inches, built like a tank, and extremely smart, black hair. “Yea, your probably right... I hope” sighed Jay, as he walked over, Martin quick to follow as they left the small bunk room. We lived in a old hotel that had been secured. “You ready boys?” Cried out Lieutenant Anderson. He was our commanding officer, 6 foot, African American, quick on his feet, grey hair, he was probably the oldest still alive field officer they had, at 56 years old. “What’s the op sir?” Jay asked as they climbed into a Jeep, it was beat up and dented with bullet holes, but gear was gear. “Can’t discuss it in the open, some super important op, or whatever, they didn’t give me much to go off of either.” He said with a chuckle, “The brass doesn’t tell me much these days, even though I’m the only competent officer around these days...” he added with a grunt. They drove quietly, the creaking of their Jeep the only sound. They didn’t talk much when they drove, mostly so they could keep their eyes and ears open for anything unusual. Reason being they were crossing through a sort of no mans land, constantly under threat by bandits and desperate survivors. The military and militias did there best to secure somewhat secure routes go and from main base. Soon they arrived at their location, the old hangers just outside of town, their current base of operations and air base for the small militia. “Halt!” Shouted a guard up ahead, his rifle leveling with the Jeep, a second guard approached, “State your business!” Grunted the second guard, his eyes scanning the 4 men inside the vehicle. “Lieutenant Anderson, reporting to central command, bringing 2 pilots and a spec ops soldier.” Stated the officer, his calm demeanor easily making him seemed relaxed. Quickly the guard nodded and tapped his radio, speaking into it, he was greeted with some return chatter, and after a second, nodded and pressed a button. The gate rose a second later, allowing them access to the fenced of area. “Have a good one sir.” Stated the gate guards as they drove past, and made their way towards their destination, the air tower. They arrived within a few minutes, and were greeted by a man flagging them down, he wore a old dusty uniform, most likely a uniform recovered from the air base. He wore a rank pin, depicting him to be a captain “Hurry up and get to the hanger! I’ll update you while we’re heading over!” The man spoke quickly, climbing into the Jeep with them as they sped off. “So what’s this super important mission you want us to complete? We’ve been kept in the dark and I’m not to pleased about it.” Grunted Anderson, his hands moving masterfully across the wheel as he moved around a crew of engineers. “Yeah yeah, the job is simple, you’ll be flying to a set of destinations, transporting a squad of personal to each site, then doing a pickup for a separate squad, quick in and out.” The man stated calmly. “And this crew is needed because...?” Asked Martin, his eyebrow raised in confusion. “Well you will be piloting a bit of a different aircraft than usual, to be specific you will be piloting a recently recovered and repaired Boeing Ch-47 Chinook...we call her mayfly!” Said the officer, his grin broad and pleased. “W-Walt what...when did we recover a Chinook!?!” Asked Jay, his eyes bulging slightly as I blinked, this was massive news. “Well we found it in a field outside of Chicago when we were moving supplies out of the city, and we called in some favors and got it back to us in mostly one piece.” He hummed, “She was a wreck, damaged rotors, torn up hull, and the blood wasn’t to comforting... but she’s a fixer upper!” He said, his smile suddenly seemed less convincing. “Uh...and your sure this thing works right, as in it will stay airborne... right?” I added in, not feeling any better about the situation. “It should fly just fine, we have been spending months fixing it and running it through tests, it will fly just fine, so long as it stays fueled!” He responded, his eyes looking up form the men in front of him as he turned towards the front, the hanger was coming into view. “So are we bringing anything else besides the marines?” Asked Jay, his eyes gazing at the massive metal doors as they were rolled open, revealing the massive bird inside. It was glorious. It really couldn’t be anything else, I could see it on everyone else’s face as we pulled up towards the entrance of the hanger. “Holy...” mumbled Martin, his eyes wide as he stared at the massive creature that sat in front of him. Her hulking body, short stubbed cockpit, the multiple view windows, and the hulls door lowered, multiple men rushing around it, dusting her off, doing last second checks to make sure she would take off, she was something else, painted in white paint, the words, “Mayfly” were cleanly painted on. “She’s a beauty, and she flys like a dream...” mumbles the captain, “And now she’s your beauty, treat her well boys.” The captain added, his eyes brimming with pride, a small grin on his face as he exited the Jeep and approached a squad of soldiers, shouting orders. “Move it! I wanted you on board that bird yesterday!” He shouted, shoving a soldier forward as they boarded it. One soldier stayed behind and talked to the captain, before hurrying over to the odd group. “I’m sergeant Kiwoski sir! My men are on board and waiting your orders!” He stated, his hand snapping to a salute. “Where are you boys heading?” Asked Anderson, Jay and Martin had grabbed headsets and had passed me one as well, sliding it over my head, the soldier pulled down the mic, placing it over his mouth. “Edge of Miami sir!” He said as he turned and walked over to the ramp, I followed him in, passing by a dozen or so soldiers. They were Charleston chargers, heavily armed and armored troops sent out to take care of fire missions or provide support in high risk areas. Quickly I entered the cockpit, and taking a seat in the main pilot seat, looking to Jay, his helmet was on and he seemed to checking multiple setting and gauges. “Are we all good to go?” I asked, cause him to look over to me, his hand reached up and tapped a button. “Yep, we’ll be in the air in 5, so make sure your familiarized yourself with the controls, this won’t be like the simulations.” Jay replied, his eyes gazing over his control system. I nodded, quickly checking a few gauges and making sure everything was proper and set as Martin entered the cockpit, “Alright, everything is set, our landing area will be marked by green smoke when we arrive, so do watch out for it.” He added, closing the door as he exited the room. “Echo one two, this is Alpha omega, we are preparing to take off, what’s the status on airspace over.” I rattled off, checking to make sure we were clear, and flipping a switch, a minute later the sound of something sealing greeted my ears. “Alpha omega, this is echo one, airspace has been cleared of all other aircraft. You are clear for takeoff when ready, over.” A young feminine voice responded. “Alright Echo one, thank you, over and out.” I replied, and flipped a few switch’s, quickly the heavy beats of the massive helicopters to rotors slammed to life. The thumps and whine of the starting engine gone with the thumping of two massive blades spinning up. *THUMP* THUMP*THUMP*THUMP* “Okay, remember, no barrel rolls Rick!” Shouted Martin through the door, there was some chuckles and some other chatter rang out as the chinook lifted up slowly, the droning thumps made Rick smile, he was as happy ever. Slowly they took into the air, and their journey began, little did they know that this journey would end in tragedy. ————————————————————— *BEEP*BEEP*BEEEP*BEEP* “U-ugh...” Rick groaned, his left eye slowly opened, and he grunted. He reached over and gripped around, although he didn’t recognize the foreign area around him. Where was the shelf? The bed rail? *Click* *Click* “H-help me...” groaned out a voice, his head slowly turned to identify the voice. What his eyes saw burned itself into his brain. A soldier he didn’t recognize, lay against a panel, a hunk of what looked to be a steel pipe was stuck clean through his chest, he looked to Rick, his eyes begging. His handgun was clenched tightly in his hand and pointing at the door, clicking uselessly at the missing door. “K-Kill me...” he moaned weakly, his body shaking as he breathed weakly, his body twitching heavily, his free hand reaching for Ricks holster. He wanted his revolver. Rick reached for his gun, slowly he undid his holster, his gun clicking weakly, as he worked it out, and started to pull the hammer back. “AAAGHHHH!” sreached another man, who flew through the door, and jumped onto the man on the dashboard, tearing into his neck. “AA-URREGHH...” quickly the struggle form the already dead man slowed and stopped, slumping as the man who Rick recognized was Martin, his squad mate for the last 6 years of service...and he...he was infected... “O-oh christ...” He whispered as his revolver raised. “ARGH!” Martin growled, spinning on his heel, grabbing at Ricks arm, which he pulled to the side, and bit right into. “AAAA-AAAAGGHH!” screamed Rick, tears built up in his eye as he struggled to pull his arm away, Martin wouldn’t let go, “M-MARTIN LET GO OF ME YOU SON OF A-“ and Martin complied, only instead he changed to somewhere much worse, Ricks neck. “U-URRRK!” He gasped and flailed, his gun falling to the side, his struggles useless, and unable to do anything anyway, slowly the light dimmed. He couldn’t feel anything, it hurt so much a second ago... he could feel Martin tearing apart his neck and soon everything went black... ————————————————————— *CRACK* BOOM* tink *CRACK*BOOM* tink Jay stared down the sights of his .50 Deagle, his eyes glistened with tears at the bloody mess that was now the pilots seat, two body’s now unmoving, one missing its head, another a massive hole in its throat. Quickly he shifted his sights to the corpse on the dashboard. *CRACK*BOOM* tink Another corpse with no head. His hands flew to his straps that had saved him from being impaled by a sharp peace of cockpit glass. Slowly he eased himself out of his seat, his eyes wide as he stumbled. His eyes glanced to the chargers M16 that lay on the floor, and slowly he picked it up, holstering his sidearm. As he stumbled out of the cockpit, he stared at the scene that sat in front of him. Right in front of him lay a corpse, it’s arm and head missing. It belonged to the sergeant, Kiwoski or something, he had only know him for a second... “O-oh fuck...” he mumbled, slowly he stumbled over the body, his eyes wide as he observed the carnage of the crash. Corpses were everywhere, some covered on snow, some left bleeding on the ground, a few were torn to shreds. Although that wasn’t what he was looking for, what he was looking for were the missing ones, he counted 8 bodies total, the rest were nearby, he took the M16 and aimed of upwards, and pulled the trigger. *RATATATATA* A burst of rounds flew out of the barrel, he knew his fragile probably had told them he was there, but it was always a good idea to bring them closer. “Wait...” he mumbled and pulled his hand in front of him, b it what greeted him was something else, it seemed almost scale like, his eyes widened as he examined the battered and bruised hand, yet no serious damage. If he was wearing scales...no wonder he had survived the crash with minor injuries... “SCREEECCCH!” Jay spun around, aiming right above the entrance. *RATATATATA* “ACK!” Gurgled out the creature, it’s dieing moan thrown to the wind as it tumbled off the chinook, falling in front of him. *CRUNCH*CRUNCH* “SCREEEECH!” he counted at least 3 more. Quickly they rushed him, flailing there arms and trying to grab him. *RATATATATA* *RATATATATA* 2 were cut down quickly as he emptied a spray into there chest and heads, he snapped his sights on the third one, and pulled the trigger- *CLICK* He growled and prepared to hit the enemy with his gun. *FWOSH* *SHUNK* He watched as a tail, no, HIS tail flew up, impailing the infected on it, and the creature gurgled and gasped, struggling as the tail slowly lifted him up, and suddenly threw him at the chinook. *CRACK*THUMP* The body feel over, it’s head splattered across the crashed helicopters side, “Well...so much for a paint job...” he mumbled and looked back to the chopper, moving his body towards the cockpit, tossing the useless rifle to the side. “I-I need to make c-contact with-“ he was suddenly tackled, his massive framed slamming into the dashboard as another man dove on him, snarling and growling. It was the lieutenant, his eyes were sunken, and he looked deranged. Quickly Jay grabbed the old mans coat, his body struggling against his grip as the pilot slowly lifted Anderson, and slammed him to the side. *SHULK* He had stuck the Lieutenants head through a very sharp piece of glass, his eyes wide and his mouth open, slowly leaking a blackish liquid, jay stood up and gagged, turning away as he reached down, dogging for what he needed, the reserve radio. “H-here we go...” he mumbled out to nobody in particular, slowly he flicked the radio on, raising the radios microphone to his lips. He mumbled into the microphone, “T-this is...Hendricks...broadcasting...radio systems...c-crash site...alpha...omega” he paused, looking at the words scratched hastily on a card he was supposed to recite...and tore it apart, “...fuck this...help...w-we went down in a snowy m-m-mountain...w-w-when did mountains appear in dc? I-I survived, m-my co-co pilot was not so lucky, t-theirs snow here...it’s so dam cold... help me...please...help me...” He begged into the microphone. *BZZZZZZZZ* Static...that was what he was greeted with, and slowly he stood up, ignoring the body’s and blood, he stumbled out of the aircraft, and looked around. His eyes slowly looked around, and he caught the briefest glimpse of something. Jay Lavi Hendricks stared, as the sun rose, his eyes watching the moon sink below the sky and the sun raise, he stared at something he hadn’t seen in his lifetime. A city, one that wasn’t in shambles. A city that wasn’t inhabited by raging infernos, A CITY WITH A GODDAM CASTLE AND SPIRALING TOWERS! Slowly he stumbled forward, unable to resist as he was so captivated. He began to walk. Then he began to run. Then he sprinted, and within seconds his wings had spread, and he had taken flight, his shredded fatigued and a single deagle was all that he carried. A man had died, and a dragon had been born through fire and flames, he just didn’t know it yet. > Chapter 6:Blood and memories > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 6:Blood and memories *VRRRRRROOOOOMMM* *CCRRRRRAAACKKK!* Groaned the Abraham’s, it’s body bashing through another tree, the trunk slipping and falling sides way, it’s creaks loudly echoing out. “Ain’t that ominous...” mumbled Mia, her eyes scanning the trees, they were formidable foes in the battle for camouflage. Although her sixth sense told her that animals were close by, predators and prey alike, watching them... “You alright their?” Mia jumped out of her intense thought process, a red stallion had joined her on the tank. How she hadn’t heard him amazed her for such a large stallion. She recognized him as James, the second survivor who had been in the truck besides the griffin. “Yes just...thinking.” She summed up, looking at him, his dark grey eyes seeming to look similar a scope on a rifle, staring her down. “Ah, best not do to much of that, it will give you a headache quickly, specially when you can hear every woodland creature for a mile.” He added with a smirk, Mias widened her otherwise neutral look. “Mhm...clever...” she mumbled, and he just smiled. “Hey you two get up here!” Shouted our Lia, her head swiveling as she looked to the two. They quickly complied, scampering up the tank and next to the hatch. “Yes ma’am?” Mia asked, her ears peeking up at attention, and her gaze flicked to the pegasus, his body showed a relaxed position, but his eyes were ones of steel, not the soft orbs she had seen seconds ago. “According to this map were approaching a hut like structure, from the intel I recovered in this journal, the owner is a zebra by the name of Zecora, I need you two to scout ahead, and determine this targets threat level, along with approachability.” Stated the mare with a careful tone. She had been identified as a changeling, so had the groups medic, private Clank, and apparently they were ‘evil and not very well liked’ so it made sense what they were being ordered to do. “Got it, does it list anything we should expect and prepare to counter or deal with?” James asked, his wings unfurling and spreading in preparation. “Not sure, I would advise using extreme caution, although refrain from opening fire on her, she’s a civilian.” Lia added, looking in front of her as she studied the rough map. “Got it.” James turned his head to Mia, and smirked, “You figured out how to use those wings yet?” He asked, a sound of hidden excitement in his voice for some reason. “Of course, best to be able to use everything to your advantage, flying is pretty useful... and badass...” she added off handedly. That got a chuckle out of the young stallion, his mane bouncing slightly as he grinned almost predatory. “Up for a challenge then?” He inquired, his eyes were now shining in a almost hidden glee. He slipped off his extra gear, leaving only his sidearm on and his vest. It was her turn to grin, and her wings spread, “Oh your on tough guy!” She smirked and with one strong flap she was airborne, bursting high into the trees as she manuvered herself to be angled to fly just below the tree line. Her eyes searched around her, and her ears were perked but she couldn’t seem to locate the Pegasus. *FWOSH!* She gasped as a red bolt flew past, the movements fast and without trouble, the smaller stallion had the advantage of a slimmer figure, and she quickly figured out why. “Oh son of a- that’s good!” She growled and burst forward, flying and slowly gaining speed with each flap and ground on the pegasus, his maneuvering making it hard at certain spots. ————————————————————— Thomas watched the two take flight, the bursting of action as the two flew out of the clearing. “Dam, I’ve never seen the corporal that excited for a race...” mumbled out Clank, his eyes wide in surprise. “Well to be fair lad, she’s always been competitive, although with wings like those who can blame her!” Added the blue stallion, his horn glowing as he sat in the trunk bed, cleaning his handgun. “Mia and James sitting in a tree, k-“ the changelings started to sing, but was interrupted by a rag being stuffed in his mouth. “Shut up.” grunted out the blue stallion and went back to looking over his gun. ————————————————————— “Hehe your quick, you weren’t joking!” James called out, his wings angling back, “Sadly this contest has to end for now, we’re a good 5 minutes jog to our objective.” He added, giving a low chuckle. “Oh alright, but I want a rematch at some point!” She added back, her Magenta eyes still filled with challenge, but none the less she landed with the pegasus. “Watch yourself, I can’t hear any birds chirping, may be a few predators near by.” He calmly added, his wings seemed to slip down and return, gripping one of his pistols like a hand. “Yea I noticed that to, I would advise going dark and using knifes, could be a wolf pack nearby.” She said, her Python slowly sliding out, and her knife just below it to add lethality. Quickly the pair were moving again, slowly walking as they searched for there objective. It was a quick one as they homed in on the hut, arriving at its entrance in a few minutes. The corporal approached the door and knocked, James standing besides her. Silence “Something isn’t right...” mumbled James, his wings perking slightly as the fling of the bladed tips were caught, flicking off in the single small bits of light that made its way through the treetops. *C-C-CLICK* Mia was on top of the wolf within a second, a combat gripped in her talons as she jammed it through the creatures throat. She felt resistance but she cared little, and shoved the knife in, twisting it. *CRACK!* Wood snapping and the struggled halted, the animal going limp, she smiled and looked back into the clearing, just as James spun his wings with a finesses that almost amazed her. *SHUNK* *THUMP* Two creatures of similar design as the wolf she had killed fell down, one missing its head, the other jammed into the tree with a Bowie knife buried in its chest. It struggled uselessly, whimpering weakly, the stallion nearly withdrew his handgun and aimed, “Sit, stay, play dead.” *CRACK* tink *CRACK* tink The creature fell to bits and his pistol returned to its holster, his Bowie knife slipped back into its sheathe just under his right wing. “Hmmf...I think you could have at least used a better line than that...” Mia added, her knife returning to her tac vest. “Meh, I made due with what I can come up with, what would have been your one liner?” He asked back with a smirk. “It’s time to make a bonfire, hold still!” She replied with a cackle. He chucked at that, shaking his head. “So we got wooden wolves huh? Odd.” Mumbled the stallion, examining the bundles of sticks that lay spread on the ground were the bodies once were. “Evidently so...knock again?” James asked, his grin not going unnoticed. “Let’s!” Replied the griffin, spinning around and delivering a hard kick against the door, Cushing it to fly open. Quickly both of them entered the small hut fanning out, although what they saw made them pause. “Uhhh... whoops...” ————————————————————— “Finally you two are back! We have been out here for 30 minutes waiting for you two to come back!” Shouted a rather aggravates Changeling commander. “W-where sorry ma’am, we arrived at the hut and delt with some complications, and when we went inside we...” the hen blushed slightly. “Apparently zebras rhyme when they moan...” mumbled out James his face was of equal color. “WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN!” Screeched Lia, Shaking the poor stallion, “DON’T TELL ME YOU SOMEHOW SEXUALLY ASSAULTED A ZEBRA!” “What? No! We walked in on her as she was...getting help brewing a potion...” he said cryptically. “So...no threat then?” Asked the russian bird, who had scaled the tank and was looking at the pair. “No... I would advise avoiding the house though, say about...2 miles around or so would be safe enough!” Called Mia, not sticking around to answer anymore as she hurried to the truck bed. James stayed sitting on the tank. “What...” James just shook his head and trotted past the mare, who just sighed and placed her hooves on her face, sighing into them. “You alright ma’am?” The young dragon asked , his head poking out a secondary hatch on the hull. “I’m just peachy...” she mumbled, then growled at him, “Get back to work! I want us gone already!” She shouted and he complied, ducking back down into the hatch, and shutting it. Lia groaned and withdrew her head,sliding the hatch shut, carefully she worked down to the machine gun and layed down in the chair. Or to be more specific, the poor gunner stallion, who looked at her, blinking in confusion. “Wake me up and I may kill you.” She grunted and grabbed his wings, pulling them over her like blankets. The poor stallion just stared in terrified confusion as the tank jerked to a start. Slowly they drove towards a escape. It was just slightly farther away then thought. ————————————————————— *RATATATATATAT* Lia jerked awake as she blinked, looking around, her eyes wide in panic. Where was the gunner? “WE GOT HOSTILES ON OUR FLANK!” Screamed a soldier, gunfire form multiple sources rang out. Quickly she sat up and grabbed at a sidearm that lay under the seat, struggling up to the tanks hatch. She shoved the hatch open, peeking out as bullets flew over head. *PANG*PANG* “GEF YOUR HEAD DOWN-ACK!” Screamed out a soldier who had been sitting behind the tanks turret, most likely the previous tanks operated, his corpse dropping off the tank due to a stray shot striking him through his skull. She responded by lifting her arms and taking aim at a figure wearing a black vest, taking cover on a small embankment not more than 20 feet away. *CRACK* tink*CRACK* tink The unknown soldier fell, letting out a stream of bullets fly from his rifle as he fell. She looked over to the corpse. The gunfire was intense on other sections but slowly it slowed to nothing. “W-what the...” she mumbled as she slowly pulled herself out of the hatch, looking around in confusion. The location was different, instead of the strange forest she had been in, it was replaced by the ruins of a old town, maybe a village. The truck was missing, now replaced with several similar tanks, one of which was smoldering. It was a convoy. “W-where...how...” she stuttered, looking down she gagged, her eyes wide in disgust. Two bodies had been torn to shreds, blood was splattered across the ground, one wore a faded uniform, dirt and blood covering most of it. The second figure was a man as well, he wore black robes, or what was left of the robe. He was missing part of his chest, and looked to have been through a meat grinder. She could guess his involvement... Slowly Lia climbed down from her tank, she felt dizzy, tired, and confused. It felt similar, all of it did....but why? She looked at another body, missing part of his throat, a knife stained with blood buried in his chest. She slowly approached him, taking the knife, she pulled it out, grunting as she did so. She felt she might need it. “H-help...” someone weakly mumbled, they sounded exhausted, weak. She quickly moved herself to the side of the tank, the handgun clutched tightly in her hand, the knife in the other, as she peeked around the corner of the tank. There were corpses everywhere, some dressed in civilian clothes, other dressed in uniforms, some dead, some dying. One man stood out, laying next to a overturned Jeep, probably part of the convoy. He wore a vest that was shredded and covered in blood. Lia made a mad dash towards him, her eyes darting at random, searching for threats. Quickly she arrived next to the man, who barely acknowledged her. “H-Hey! Stay with me soldier, come on stay awake!” She whispered, checking his injury, a deep gash across his vest and a few bullets were lodged in his vest. He was bleeding slowly and would need help immediately if he wanted to survive. “B-B-Beh-“ he sputtered, Lia was uncomprehending. She heard the sound of shifting and turned her head. *CRACK* A bullet flew by her head, causing her to gasp and fall back, crying out in panic as she pulled her pistol up. Her target was three men who wore black vests and were carrying rifles, one automatic, the other two bolt actions, probably hunting rifles. *CRACK* tink “AGH!” The centermost man yelled out, falling over, clutching his chest. Her gun flew to the next one, his rifle halfway up. *CRACK* tink He crumbled, no sound leavings the dead mans mouth as he fell. She looked to her third target, although as she moved her arm to take aim, he swung his rifle at her. *THWACK* The cried out as her handgun flew to the side. She looked over to the person who had struck her hand, the last one, his voice was bared in a low growl. “IM GONAN KILL YOU!” He snarled as he jumped on her, punching her across the face with the butt of his gun. Her hands reached for her pistol, not inches away form her fingers. He pushed his advantage and slammed the rifle against her throat, choking her as she punched at his face. “G-GAH!” She grunted, gasping as she struggled futilely, she could see the black creeping into the corners of her view. He only pressed harder as she grew weaker, barely staying awake, she groaned and gasped. Her arms weakly pushed against his face. “Your gonna die just like your friends, you worthless bi-“ *BANG* “URKK!” He groaned and slumped, laying on her as she used what strength she had to push off the mans corpse. She gasped feebly, looking to the side to see who had saved her life. It was the soldier, only he seemed to be smiling sadly, “O-oorah...” he whispered and slumped, his weapon, a small snub nosed 44. falling from his grip as his head slumped downwards. Lia blinked and slowly stood up, looking around at the battleground. Smoldering vehicles, burning houses, corpses and red splashed everywhere. She stared at the scene around her. She turned to the dead soldier and walked over to him, kneeling before the fallen man. “Thank you...” she whispered and slowly closed his eyes with her fingertips. She used her other hand to pick up his revolver, and tucked it into her boot. She looked at his name tag, might as well tell his family he died a soldiers death. “Sergeant J.Haterf-“ she paused, her eyes widened. “H-how...I-I can’t be back...” she looked to her hands, HER HANDS. “I-it’s a dream...it had to be...” she mumbled, her vision blurred. Slowly she backed away, she could hear something, whispers all around her. “failure...” “useless...” “couldn’t save...” Slowly her vision blurred as she gripped over a corpse, collapsing on her back. “OOF” she grunted, blinking tiredly, her head swimming with a torrent of emotions. The voices became louder. “BLOOD IS ON YOUR HANDS...” “YOU PROMISED HE WOULD COME HOME!” “YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED WITH YOUR MEN!” Soon the screech’s reaches a crescendo, pericing her ears as she pushed her hands over them, whimpering and crying, her tears splashing across the dry blood and dirt. “LEAVE THOU BE DEMONS!” Immediately the sounds halted, the dusty ground disappeared, the blood, body’s, and the village vanished. It all left her in a dark blue void. There was one other occupant. A blue unicorn-pegasus. > Data chapter > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Data chapter:Singularity events Data cache #1 Information:Events of Singularity Date of recording:Unknown To all who hear this, my name is Dr.Elias styfeild, I’m a scientist from the U.S. I have appeared in a strange land. Name and origin of my location are unknown, me and my team woke up here with our tools and a few vehicles. We were originally in Florida, but it appears that this strange forest doesn’t match any we’ve been to. Radars aren’t picking up anything either when we checked earlier. We plan to move soon, although we have discovered some sort of distortion frequency on our radios, be warned, tuning to certain channels may cause a broadcast signal, and then those...things show up. We are not sure what they are or why they exist, but they seem to be in tune with these channels some how. Some of my colleagues have suggested a sort of built in receivers that may be tuned to these frequencies. I’m seeing possible support in this idea, as all the bodies we have recovered after taking out a squad of these creatures, dressed in old worn and damaged german uniforms, seemed to swarm around a single one. We have discovered there origins to be from some sort of tank brigade, although the location of this brigade is unknown. There is a signal radio though that when tuned into will speak german, and the singularity’s swarm to where the broadcast is located, attacking any one or thing in their way. There also is cases of intelligent singularity’s. Allow these singularity’s seem to be highly aggressive, and are tough to kill with anything but a high powered rifle. The intelligence these singularity’s show seemed to point to being produced by having a radio or receiver in or on them, causing them to be able to create swarms and move them at will. They remind me of squads and officers. “Hey Styfeild we need to go now! Those things are back, and they seem to be armed, the guns don’t work, but they have bayonets!” Shouted someone. “Coming!” Responded the scientist, the sound of jumbling and the recorder turned off. > Chapter 8:Brutal forces of Nature > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 7:Brutal Forces of Nature *CRACK* tink More kept coming *RATATATAT* thump click-click Another magazine dropped, quickly replaced by another, the racking of a charging handle. “EAT LEAD YOU BASTARDS!” Screams of fellow men and women as they slammed against the forts defenses, likes tides crashing against the shore. There banner flew proud, a single eagle, two rifles crossed over its chest. It was riddled full of holes, although it flew proud, cheers and cries of proud fighters and enraged defenders as the pounding of artillery added a almost pleasant pound, like drums. *THUMP THUMP THUMP* A massive helicopter flew over, its passengers dropping as it flew low, jumping on some of the enemy’s, stabbing, shooting, and doing anything they could to kill there target. It swerved around, it was a chinook, flying proud, as it’s open tail gun laid lead across the fortress, it was truly a beautiful sight. I sighed and lifted my rifle, taking aim down the dusty sights, pulling the bolt back. tink *CLUNK* My mind cleared as I sucked in a deep breathe and took aim at the bird, it’s metal rotors spinning lively. Silence as I waited, it had landed to pick up some injured, a squad had boarded. Neither were important. I sighed and tracked it, slowly it lifted up and tilted forward. *CRACK* *Clunk-shilk* tink It lurched forward and slowly tilted sides way, the pilot had been killed instantly, his co-pilot was fighting with the controls. It was balancing out slightly. *CRACK* *Clunk-shilk* tink The co-pilot was gone now as well, jerking to the left it slowly glided , crashing to the ground, it crushed dozens of the civilians turned soldiers. Screams of dying and wounded rang out. Carefully I lowered the rifle and backed away, retreating from my crawl space sniper nest. Slowly I got up, placing the rifle on my back, checking the strap, I reached down, pulling off the old battered radio, fiddling with the dials I tuned it to a static filled station. “The hits complete, leave the requested items at the drop zone.” Quickly left my mouth and I placed it back in the belt. I reached down and pulled out my phone, dialing a number on the old battered piece of equipment. “Hey, it’s Thomas, I need a pickup...” ————————————————————— “Hey you alright? Helloooo...?” Thomas jerked up, looking around in slight panic and confusion, clutching for his handgun. “Wooo, chill out!” Said the offending voice, slowly his eyes cleared up, his blurry vision dissipated to reveal the black bug that had sat across form him. “O-oh sorry Clank, old force of habit, were you saying something?” He quickly responded, blinking tiredly. It had been several hours of driving and he was beat, he and Clank had been tasked with watching over the two guards pony’s they had caught and so far the two had been compliant. “I asked what you did before the breakout.” Flank said, looking at Thomas, who hummed in thought. “I worked...odd jobs, let’s leave of at that.” He responded, grunting as he relaxed against the trucks canvas tent side. So far, he had found clank to be a eccentric young man... well stallion now. From the banter he had struck up earlier, the kid was only 18, soon to be 19 within a few weeks. He had been enlisted by the army to fight, and had been given a post of help guard a tank, to be more specific, the very tank that transported the truck. “Hehe yea, most of us worked odd jobs before the horrible disease...” mumbled clank. His eyes were distant, a small weak smile on his face. He seemed almost sober at the thoughts of the old days. “W-who are you people...?” A low soft voice spoke, catching the attention of the occupants of the trucks bed. It was the soot grey bat pony, who gazed at the soldiers. Her eyes were filled with tired wonder. “That is a simple question. The answer is we’re men and wo- err, stallions and mares, sorry.” Said Clank, his new P90 cradled in his grip as he spoke. “N-no...your different...are you the ESF?” Asked the mare, the stallion watching over her, Dawnsville, raised his eyebrow. “Uh... the E.S.F? No, we’re not from around here, although if you do have special forces, I doubt there like us.” Thomas replied, Clank nodding along. “But your so skilled...all the weapons your carrying...” she mumbled, looking at them. “Mean nothing, we’re just soldiers and civilians, trying to get through the day.” Added Artyom, looking back form the driver seat. The group had been switching in between people to allow everyone the ability to rest. “Huh...so some of you are civilians?” Asked Dawn, his eyes glancing between the two he could see sitting in front of him, and now that he thought about it, they were different. To his left sat a griffin that went by the name Thomas, he wore a pair of black jeans, and a casual longsleave shirt. He wore a vest, but it was different than the changeling vest. The changeling n who went by the rank of private, and was named clank, wore a deep dark green uniform. He had a rank patch, a uniform cap, and wore a similar forest green vest. “Yea, two of us are, the rest are soldiers.” Answered Thomas without thought, looking to the tank, were James sat in the commander hatch, seeing as the commander had decided to take a nap. “Huh...” mumbled Dawn, gazing at the group of mismatched individuals. Such a random force of individuals, and yet they didn’t seek power as far as he could tell. There weapons were insane, powerful, easily destroying the muskets they had developed ages ago. These soldiers were quiet, tired, and sick of killing for the most part... it warmed him in a strange way. —————————————————————- Jay grunted, his tail flinging out, jamming itself through the skull of a russian officer, who’s screech’s echoed out in rage. “S-SCREE- *SSSHLLK* The corpse jerked and tumbled to the side, unmoving. He was getting sick and tired of dealing with the undead, as far as he could tell , they were old though, probably pre-war. Jay sighed, looking to his newest target, a buried hind that had crashed down some time ago, its tail was bent and the rotors were long since frozen. Be approached it, his tail carefully dancing in a swift motion as he pulled his Deagle from its holster. He approached the massive wreck, his gun carefully bouncing as he spotted the cockpit, the pilots were still there, they had died instantly, there skeletons didn’t stir. He spotted the first one before it spotted him, a stumbler, laying dormant next to the bird. The poor bastard wore a a heavy coat, and a old helmet, not that he cared, sloping up next to it, he used his tail like a knife, ramming right through the back of its skull, causing it to jerk forward, then slump. “There we go...” he mumbled as he stripped off the jacket, it smelled terrible, but it wood help him survive, maybe warm his frozen wings. Apparently high altitudes and freezing snow storms plus leather wings had not been a good combo. When he crashed, he’d been lucky to hit a thick patch of snow, but was unlucky to learn he wasn’t the only helicopter that had made its fate on this snowy hell mountain. The crash sites of a russian hind and a old news chopper also rested hear as far as he found. They were both full of the undead, probably other crash victims long since buried under the snow. He shivered and peeked into the cockpit, checking through the rags that had once been a russian uniform. He smiled as he pulled a few things from it, a small pack of cigarettes, a old zippo lighter, and a old revolver. He sighed and emptied the rounds out, tossing the useless revolver to the side. He placed the bullets in a coat pocket. He picked out a cigarette and struck the zippo lighter. *CLICK*CLICK*CLICK-ZZSSSHH* The flame flickered and Jay smiled, letting the tip slowly grow red with heat, shutting the lighter and setting it in his pocket, he inhaled, and sighed, the smoke flowing out. He chuckled at the irony, a dragon having a smoke, and sighed, the smoke flowing off into the sky slowly. “GGGGRRRALLL!” A body lunges over hinds destroyed cockpit, angling itself to land on jay, who spun, taking aim. *CRACK*BOOM* ————————————————————— Lia stares down the star filled mare, her eyes didn’t dare to leave the tall stranger. “Who are you?” Asked Mia, her voice tingled with a slight accent, her surprise letting slip. “I’m am Luna, one of the two princesses who rule Equestria, how about you? Your body is of a pony...but your mind is different... your dream was of war, something we don’t see often...” she mumbled. Mia calmly reached towards her hip, withdrawing a baton, flicking it to the side. *CLICK* it locked in position. “Im none of your business, and under no order to answer!” Mia growled, “Now leave my mind, or I will be forced to remove you forcefully!” She snarled. Luna steppes back slightly, surprised at the fluency the mare moved with, her body seemingly unaffected by anything. Luna sighed and her horn glowed. “Don’t do anything rash, or I will be forced to respond with force myself...” she said, a short sword forming out of the space around them. Mia sighed and growled, her horn lit up, and slowly the area around her flickered, her horn glowed aggressively as she groaned and suddenly several rifles and pistols levitated up. “I’m afraid you’ll need to leave!” Quickly hails or gunfire rained down, Luna growled and a shield formed, quickly she advanced on the mare. Both a baton raised in defense, a sword raised in attack- —————————————————————- *CRACK*BOOM* Another infected collapsed quickly, part of its head missing, its dirty uniform covered in gore. *RATATATATA* The return fire made Jay duck for cover, shoving his head back behind the small Ice bank he had taken for cover, quickly adding another clip into his Deagle. He peaked over again, spotting his objective. A checkpoint. He had stumbled across if not more than 5 minutes ago, covered in snow and ice and a few stumblers. Bad thing was that it’s inhabitants were very much alive, and holding the place for dear life. *CRACK* BOOM* tink *CRACK*BOOM* tink Another soldier was down. flailing as he clutched his stub that had been his arms, his cries of pain unheard as the massive storm pounded on top of them. Jay stood up and sighted in one more. *CRUNK* A bullet slammed into his shoulder, he grunted as the bullet bounced off, too low of a caliber to pierce the hardened scale. He took aim and fired in return. *CRACK*BOOM* tink He sighed and lowered his handgun, creeping out from his cover, approaching the old checkpoint. He slipped his handgun into his holster and grabbed the first corpse he approached. The body he overturned wore a grey coat, gloves, a scarf, a old t-shirt, sporting a brand new bloodstain and hole. He wore jeans as well, although a AUG lay strapped across his shoulder. Jay grinned and pried the gun off the mans shoulder, checking it to make sure it was loaded, he picked up the scarf and gloves, sliding them on, he walked into the small checkpoint building, were several unfortunate scavengers had met there end. He examined each one, slowly picking through there pockets, he sighed as he stood up form the last one and turned to leave. *SSSHLK* “AAAGH!” Jay cried out and slammed his heel into the offending persons face, spinning in his feet he took aim. The poor bastard that payed on front of him was missing his shoulder, probably the Deagles work. *POW POW POW* tink tink tink He sighed and lowered his weapon, looking at the corpse, then looking to his leg he grunted, reaching down he grabbed at the handle of a knife, pulling he felt it sliding out slowly, the scales prevented it from going to deep, but it still hurt like hell. “A-Ahhh...” he mumbled as he slipped it out from the wound, tossing it to the side he sighed, the knife clanged a giant the old metallic flooring. He grabbed the corpse and took its shirt, pulling it off of his bloody body, ignoring its slow drips of red sliding down its frame. He growled and dropped it to the ground. *Thump* He grunted and applied the shirt to the injury, slowly tying it around his ankle, he looked out into the distance, the massive castle was so close...its walls so high and it radiates power...he would be there soon, one way or another... > Chapter 9:Overpowering minds and a changeling, dragon, and a princess walk into a throne room > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 9:Overpowering minds and a changeling, dragon, and a princess walk into a throne room *THWACK* Luna tumbled back, her short sword flew by her head, landing not more than a few hoof steps away. She grunted and looked to her opponent, who stood, on hind legs, her baton floating carefully next to her. The small metal stick crackled with a low blue glow, dispelling the magic aura around her. “Y-you... how do you block my magic! This is the ethereal plain, only other Alicorns can handle such grasps of magic in here !” She growled in a low and aggressive manner, getting to her hooves, her short sword cams back to her, but a second weapon formed out of thin air once more. A small dagger with a noon crest in the handle. It reminded the mare of a crambit. “You must forget, I am the owner of this dream, you may have magic, but I have will!” The mare replied back, her horn flowed brightly, and Luna grunted, her hoof went to her face to shield her from the bright light. *CRACK* ————————————————————— Slowly Jay moved towards the gate,his foot steps were softened by the cloths he had tied to his scaled feet. Slowly he creeped up to the wall and stood in front of it, looking up. He himself was most likely 6’7 maybe 6’8, the wall was MASSIVE. His looked to the open gate and approached it, moving along the wall in his light grey jacket, his small eyes swivel red left and right, his combat knife was put as he turned the corner, slipping by a pair of gold clad guards, there horse like figure confusing him as he moved slowly. He entered the city, the sun bobbed above the horizon and a careful moon descended at about the same rate. He heard mumbles and peaked out, a single stallion in golden armor walked along the snow, his face showing open terrified annoyance at the snow that drifted form the sky. Carefully Jay moved to tail him, as the stallion seemed to move towards the massive castle. Soon the stallion was joined by a mare and they began to talk, the voices low and pleasant, they knew each other. “Idol! I’m glad to see your back form the Everfree! Why so late though? Usally you arrive with everyone else...” the unknown mare said with a curios look to the stallion. “I was just requested to come to the castle, since my new...rank” he seemed to shiver, Jay couldn’t tell if it was the cold or the mention of his new rank that made him shiver, “The Princess is giving me a personal assignment, despite my attempts at dissuading her...” he said with a sigh. “Surely it’s nothing, Lieutenant” said the mare, giving a small grin, the stallion seemed to cring at the mention of the rank. Jay didn’t know why. The dragon was careful to follow, as he had to slip through alleys and move across the darkened streets, it had been a solid 10 minutes, and the mare had left the stallion with promises of a warm meal when he cams home. Jay smiled as within a minute later they arrived at the castle, the guard approached the gate and was halted, some chatter ensued and they let him pass. Jay approached the wall next to the gate, and leaped at it, his claws dug into a small grove and he carefully held himself against the wall, and started to shuffle sides way, using small grooves and missing pieces of the wall as holes he arrived over the gate and looked down, the two guards below him. He peered up and spotted the muzzle of another guard leaning just barely over the edge. Jay took a deep breathe, and threw himself forward, huffing over the wall with careful ease. His tail flicked and wrapped itself around the mouth of the guard, pulling him into Jays tight grip, who held the flailing pony until his flailing slowed and stopped. Jay set him down and placed him against the wall, making sure he hadn’t accidentally killed the poor bastard. His eyes scanned the walls from his crouched position as he took in the position of several other guards. He spotted his original target, the stallion was walking across the courtyard to the massive palace. Quickly he jumped down from the wall and onto the courtyard, and moved along the wall. His footsteps were only given away with the quiet crunch’s of the crisp grass, as he approached a window, left open as he careful opens his wings, he checked his surroundings. He flapped once, it was silent yet powerful as he flew straight up to the window, and with swiftness that shouldn’t have belonged to such a massive creature, he was through the window without anyone noticing. ————————————————————— Lunas eyes slowly opened as she groaned, her head hurt quite a bit. She slowly raised her head up to look around her, her confusion was amplified as she couldn’t seem to move anything at, save for her eyes. She tried to light her horn in a quick scan to tell what was going on, although it was numb, she couldn’t feel her horn or her body, nothing. She focused her self now on getting a view of what was going on, although all she could make was some sort of quiet grinding sound, no chirps of wild life, she could see the sky, and if she focused well enough, 4 large carriage like machines moved slowly, and the sounds of hoof steps moved along with them. It was a march of sorts, although the hoof steps where scattered. “Alpaca Squad, do you read over?” A masculines voice called over a small plastic device on her shoulder, and suddenly a gloved hoof- no wait...it looked more like a claw reached up, gripping the device and pushing down something. “This is Lieutenant Roger of Alpaca squad, over, have we been giving any new order?” Her voice wasn’t hers! Nor was the body she resided in, the owner of which seemed to be male, although griffin or dragon or whatever he was, she couldn’t tell. “No Lieutenant, operation parameters are same as before, just be cautioned, there have been reports of local enemy militia in the area, would advise watching for IED’s” the voice replied over the radio, Luna hadn’t the faintest idea what IED’s were, but she had a idea that it probably wasn’t good. “Copy, well be unloading within five minutes, prepare the assault group.” Roger replied as he glanced over to another soldier who had stopped and was looking to another soldier who sat on top of one of the hulking monsters, two of which had turned their massive metal body’s, pipes extending out and angling themselves. Quickly her body began to move forward as he approached another man, who turned and offered a friendly grin. “Fireworks are prepped sir, al lee need is the ignition!” He giggled madly and and lifted his arm up, held it in place, and with speed, dropped it. *KRA-ACK BOOOOOOOOMMM* Luna never had heard such ear blasting noises in her whole life, something like a cannon was similar, but these machines...they were terrifying. “SIR, WE’VE GOT HOSTILE SOUTH EA-“ The poor soldier who had sprinted to the officer was curt down by a spray of gun fire from a large desert hill, his cries of anguish silenced a second later. “GIVE EM HELL BOYS!” Yelled another officer, firing his rifle towards the hills, two of the massive metal monsters that seemed to be different turned their heads and let off Lou bursts. *KR-KR-kR-KRACHOW* She was amazed as the world cams alive with flashing lights. The lieutenant didn’t move an inch, he nearly reached to his waist and wothdrew a small L-shaped metal and took aim at another figure. *CRACK-CRACK-CRACK* Quickly the figure tumbled, he sighed and placed the metal stick away. He took aim and let off a burst, Luna could smell the odor of blood in the air of each side fired away at each other. *CRACK!* ————————————————————— Jay grunted as he pulled another guard behind his pillar, the guard struggled, his spear falling to those side as jays tail caught it. Quickly jay placed more pressure on his throat, and soon he slumped into unconsciousness. “That makes... 13 guards...” he mumbled under his breath with a sigh, as he stashed him behind a curtain for one of the windows. He faced the massive door that hid his target, the stallion had entered it just a few minutes ago, and the door had been sealed behind him. Jay had spent the last 5 minutes taking care of the 3 guards that stood around the room. Quickly Jay removed the large handgun form his side, reaching to push the massive door in, but stopped. “Hmm...how about a entrance?” He said with a small hum, his hand landing on his vest and pulling off a flash bang. He peered at it contemplation. “No....” he mumbled and peered over to a window, “Now a sneaky approach would be fun...” quickly he moved to the window, it was a glass pane, but a small handle caught his attention, and he pulled it to the side. Carefully he wiggled his way out l, grinning softly. Slowly he stepped out onto the small ledge and manured himself to walk, comfortably pushed up against the wall he scooted slowly. He heard movement above him, but he reacted instantly, he dove to the side, catching the ledge, he swung himself upwards, his wings catching a weak draft. He looked down at the startled guard, a tall silver furred mare with a set of blue armor and bat like wings, and as he fell just in front of her, reached out and grabbed her armor, pulling her over the small tower wall and towards the window to the throne room. “SORRY ABOUT THIS!” He shouted to her as he placed her armored body in front of him, and used her to shatter the window as they crashed through it . Quickly they landed, he rolled with the mare and sprung up, holding the bat mare in his hands he carefully set her down, she stumbled off a second, straightened out...then fell over. “Uh...sorry for the entrance, thought she was going to grab me!” The dragon chuckled, clanks of armor sounded off and his eyes snapped open, he ducked low and tossed a flash grenade into the air, his wings flew over his face. *CRACK!* He stood up, and in one swift motion, brought his claw to one of the guards stunned faces, knocking him unconscious. He grabbed the guard and threw him into the other, knocking the second guard unconscious as well. He spun in his heel, drawing his handgun and taking aim at the poor started black hole filled guard, who’s armor now sat loosely on as he blinked and looked around. He glanced to the throne and his eyes widened as a massive white furred mare stared in utter surprise at the drake, her ears were against her head and her eyes were clear. She had avoided the flash bang. “Uh...princess...I think I accomplished the mission!” Said the black big and pointed towards the drake, not realizing his form had changed. Quickly he caught on and looked at his hoof, “Maybr I should have taken some of Topazes love like she offered...no that is not a guests appropriate behavior...” the stallion muttered, blinking and removing his helmet, “I surrender under the contract of the crown.” He announced without pause. “Uhhhhh....” was the response of the Alicorn, her eyes wide let’s confused comprehension, looking between the guards, the changeling who had been Idol hooves not minutes ago, and the drake who had been responsible with for the unconscious guards and the now passed out Lieutenant silverwing. “Oh princes I am here for that 10:00 pm me-“ a palace aid entered the throne room, closing the doors behind him as he turned to look at the room. He paused and looked at the scene, sighed, turned around and pulled the door open, “NOPE! FIRST NIGHTMARE MOON TURNED ME INTO A STATUE, THAN DISCORD MADE ME A CHICKEN, IM NOT INVOLVED IN WHATEVER IS HAPPENING IN HERE!” He screamed back as he closed the door with a slam. Silence descended upon the room, smothering everyone inside. It was soon breached by a massive blue flash accompanied by a loud CRACK, as another alicorn joined the room. “SISTER I BRING NEWS OF GR-“ she paused and stopped to look around, blinking and groaning. “Sister I thought we agreed you need to keep your odd fantasies to yourself!” She said with a grumble, shaking her head, her her horn glowed and she paused, looking it the drake, then the metal stick. “oh dear...” > Chapter 10:Emerging Problems and What could go wrong? (Part 1) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 10:Emerging problems and a What could go wrong? Part 1 Quickly the tank sped forward, “We’re about to breach the forest commander!” Called out the young drake, his name was Sergeant Bishop. His story was that he was a underpaid security officer for years before joining into the army when the war began. He had been designated to the divisional guard, a small force of roaming troops who assisted all military groups in transportation of military goods and supplies. He had gotten placed into the tank division after his group had been called on to assist in the reinforcement of the once great city. His life has been simple, go to a location, stand guard, and leave. He had been doing such a thing for ages, his eye had been trained well and he was known for his fast and unmatched reflexes when it came to combat. He had decided he to ‘borrow’ one of the M1014 shotguns from the truck, and enough shells to make some noise, and was carefully checking it as they slowly neared the edge of the forest. “Alright ladies and gents! We got ourselves a problem! We are about to enter the town of Ponyville, the local population is to be considered civilian. The guard population is low, around 4 guards, 2 of which are with us, and 1 is...deceased.” The Lieutenant added with a ting of pity. Bishop sighed as he sat up, he had heard of the fate that befell the poor stallion and found that he could only barely pity the stallion. It was one thing to take guards to go investigate, but to do such a stupid thing in such poor weather? It was foolish...not that bishop would say that out loud. “Scouts! Move it!” Immediately two figures hurried up to the front, one of which was the griffin lady, who’s name escaped his grasp at the moment, then the winged stallion. Bishop growled but did nothing else, he didn’t trust the two bandits whatsoever. I mean how could the commander do such a foolish act as trust!Upon men who tried to steal from them no less! *FWOPSH* And like that they were gone, up in the air of the trees as they flew high, moving quickly they jumped onto a patch of clouds and carefully set themselves up. Bishop noticed how the stallion carried a rifle up with him, how the hell did he intend to use it? He had wings, not claws or that freaky magic shit! *Cracklle* “This is squad one, ready to halt any trouble makers in their tracks if anything happens, over.” The unmistakable voice of the griffin female stared through the radios of the tank and vest of the commander. “Copy, remember, those rubber rounds are NON-LETHAL! Doesn’t mean they can’t kill if you hit someone in the wrong place, so remember, backs, chests, and if armored, helmets are alright, limbs are A-okay on all targets if needed, over.” Quickly ran through the radios static. “Roger, and good luck to you all!” The voice answered back. “May you all make it out safely.” Answered another voice through the radio, the griffins voice responded, which quickly Bishop remembered to be Mia. He wondered how she was fairing with all this change... “Okay, I want everyone by the tank right now, we need to get a few things out of the way, that includes names, because quite frankly I don’t know any of you more than your rank!” The Lieutenant said with a sigh, looking at the group as everyone (including the two guards) moved over to the tank, lugging the gear they brought. “Alright let’s go! You! Name and rank!” She pointed at the drake, who nodded. “Sergeant Clay Bishop!” Next was the bat Pegasus stallion who was the groups current medic. “Private Dawson Fury!” Next the male griffin. “Thomas Willard!” After him she pointed to the tall dog. “Corporal Lionel Martins!” He replied gruffly as he looked over to the guard stallion. “Corporal Dawnsville!” He stated. “Private Nightshade!” The bat mare coughed out as she leaned against the stallion. The russian waved, “Corporal Artyom Gostofo” The changeling mare pointed at herself “Lieutenant Lia Diaz!” She started sharply, looking towards the clouds, “The griffin up there is Corporal Mia Delano” “Oh sorry!” Cried the changeling as he tumbled off the tank he had somehow managed to get on without anybody noticing. “Ow...Private Martinez “Clank” Sofire reporting!” He said with a confused salute. “Also the other guy is James Quartz, we have nicknames, but we’ll tell ya later!” Said the griffin. “Alright, now that’s everyone’s proper, we need a plan! We have two guards with us” she gestured to the two who sat by the tank, “we could use them as leverage is something happens.” She state’s with a hum of thought. Both guards didn’t look to happy with the idea, but considered there positions, they weren’t in any position to try and make demands. “Neit! This situation should be carefully analyzed! I say we send a few of us in to scope out the situation, then make out move.” Stated the your russian, looking around at Th group. “That seems...surprisingly useful.... let’s do it. Who’s going into town?” Asked Lia, looking around the group. “I’m going!” Said Thomas, his hand raised with a cheery smile on his face, “I’m good with keeping things cool.” He said to explain his overzealous vote. “I’ll go to, this is a great opportunity to get our lunar friend to the hospital, and it would be best if I was around to make sure she isn’t injured further on our walk down.” Stated Fury, stepping forward and joining Thomas as he checked his supplies, the Lunar guard male followed him with a limp. “I’ll go as well, we need to understand any language and I’m a translator ma’am.” Said the dog, stepping forward. Everyone looked to him in surprise, none had known they had such a person with them, as the dog had been rather quite. “Alright, enter town, take that mare to the local hospital, then locate the guards barracks and alert the guard of the situation, tell him to send for his superiors, and to meet us at the forests edge.” The mare stated, looking around, “The rest of you need to setup a defensive position in case things go south!” Low stated loudly, looking around. Quickly everyone sorted out, the 3 soldiers and mare moved over to the truck to take what they needed. Quickly they grabbed what they needed, and in a effort to look less aggressive, they had decided to bring only there secondary’s, and they were all loaded with rubber rounds, at least the first mags were, the rest were live. “Alright, I’m taking lead of this op, have we arrive, we do as instructed, if something happens, we fall back to the forest, leave the guard if it’s a situation involving the ponies, in any other situation take her with you.” Explained the diamond dog, his eyes were carefully shifting across his teammates, they were a light orange, and glowed like fire. “Roger!” Replied the rest of the small squad, loading there mags, checking everything over, before they turned and approached the forests edge. “operation Olive branch is a go!” Stayed the medic, who got a look of surprise from the lunar guard, and a smirk from the griffin. “Good name, let’s hope it sticks!” He did bad they moved, there steps were quick, the guard helped moved the mare along, the diamond dog mumbled to himself softly. Buts and pieces of a song were what left his mouth. “Save me a place....at the lords table...for I shall be along...someday or another...” he sung softly as he checked his pistol over, humming the rest in a calm and silky voice. It almost seemed to stun the world around him at his extreme softness, his opposing figure was almost a after thought to others. As the group moved down the slope in Ponyville, another being was trying to figure out a way to dig himself out of a very bad situation. ————————————————————— “Sister! Are you alright!?” Asked the unknown mare, her dark blue fur coat and somewhat shorter stature didn’t seem imposing. Jay was not a fool, and instead of ignoring her appearance, had grabbed the guard closest to him. Said stallion was the strange hole filled one, and had placed the grey barrel under his throat, pointing upwards towards his head. “Hey! How about you stop shouting and lay on the ground, all four... hooves? Yea hooves on the ground!” He said angrily and pulled back the hammer, waiting. The more imposing white mare had calmed down and watched the dragon with careful eyes, her stare was piercing, and yet the dragon didn’t seem to care. His glare back almost unnerved Celestia in a odd way. His eyes were pure green, the color of emeralds glowing softly in a dark cave. “Please put down that guard, and let’s talk... that is what you wish to do, no?” Celestia offered calmly, her eyes now looked to the changeling that was held tightly in his grip. She was intrigued heavily, perhaps even slightly amazed that a changeling had been able to replicate a stallion like Idol Hooves! He looked JUST LIKE A CHANGELING! How she had never made the connection amazed her, and embarrassed her sl “Yes... but the issue is that my appearance is not looking to good right now...” he hummed as he looked around, there were so far three guards on this room were down and out, carry the six.... there were a lot of guards asleep right now. “Well then perhaps letting that pony go will allow me to maybe forget your current transgressions?” She offered calmly, and watched him, a staring match for the ages, lasting several minutes, before finally he sighed, lowering the weapon, he backed up, and dropped the changeling. His gun still famines carefully aimed downwards, but could be moved to take aim at a seconds notice. “So...I want to ask a few questions, but I fear this is not a place to ask such questions, how about a more private place?” Asked Celestia, her eyes scanned over his figure as he carefully stood up, giving him another few inches of height, as well as the coat and knife her carried, another unknown weapon was sling over his shoulder. “I would agree, but I trust you quite little to be honest...” he hummed as he walked back to the window, “How bout we try a different tactic?” He asked with a low and calmed tone, his wings seemed to unfurl, and Luna readied herself. “And do tell, what game would that be?” Asked Celestia, her horn was flowing softly as the window behind the dragon seemed to shimmer, she had set a barrier up to stop him. “I call it 21 questions, interested?” He asked as he relaxed, and laughed at the two stunned and confused mares that stared after him, “Ih I’m just kidding, it’s hide and seek!” And he jumped backwards, slamming against the barrier, and with a CRASSH! He was gone, somewhere among the courtyard. “Sister...now this is not a good sign but...there’s more of....him... somewhere...also what should we do with...?” She motioned to the changeling who seemed to bow before them, he was still in his guard armor, and waiting patiently to be dealt with. “I-I uhh...what’s your name?” She asked the changeling, looking for tired to eat with him. “Corporal Idol hooves your majesty!” He said without pause and saluted. “Oh mother of...” mumbled Luna as she envelopes the door and pulled it open, the two unconscious guards that lay next to the door ignored as she looked Into the hallway, noting the squad of guards that had formed up and were preparing to breech the door, “GUARDS! Please take...Idol hooves” she gestured to the changeling, who waved, “PLEASE put him...put him in a guest room...” she groaned as they blinked and nodded, taking him and leading him off, ignoring his whines that she should put him in the dungeon, “And the rest of you put the castle on full alert!” She growled, watching them quickly salute and run off to follow her orders, a medic quickly arrived and came to check the guards, and by then, they had heard reports of at least a dozen unconscious guards, along with that, Captain Black blade had woken up, groaning in tired pain. “I-I...uhh...” *THUMP* aaannndd she was down and out once more. “Why do I even bother putting security in place...if it doesn’t work!” She yelled out in a tired and annoyed voice. ————————————————————- Quickly Thomas moved up behind a wood building, peering around the corner, he held his paw up. He examined the barely lit up streets, the snowstorms intensity had considerably slowed. His best guess was that the storm had something to do with the forests unknown magic as the journal had said. “All clear, let’s move!” He whispered behind him, walking out into the street, the group hugged the wall, avoiding any lamps that were lit, and watching for any other ponies. “Where is the local clinic at?” Whispered the doctor to the lunar guard, who was also keeping a watchful eye out. “Straight ahead, another right, then you’ll be in front of Ponyville general.” She whispered softly, she was still grateful for the help they were giving her, and didn’t want to cause them any trouble. She knew Dawnsville would not come to harm under her saviors protection. “Ok!” He whispered and peered forward, whispering the directions up to the diamond dog, who followed suit, relaying the instructions to the griffin, who simply nodded. “HEY!” Quickly everyone’s head snapped over to the street, and out of the shadows a mare flew over, she had a rainbow colored main and tail, her fur was blue, and a mark of a lightning bolt striking a cloud was evident among the darkness. She looked at the strange group, gazing them over in confusion, eventually the guard was noticed, and the unknown mare tilted he’d head in confusion. “What are you guys doing?” She asked in a somewhat confused tone of voice. “U-uhh- w-were on a secret mission!” Thomas quickly stuttered our, standing up straight and dusting himself off, giving the mare a shushing motion. “Uh...what?” She asked in a much more confused tone, not fully understanding what he meant. “We’re training, keep quiet, we’re doing a escort mission!” The diamond dog added, he was sweating bullets as he looked at her. “Y-yes miss Rainbow dash! These are my new recruits!” Nightshade spoke up hurriedly, looking at the mare, standing up with a bit of slightly unnoticed help of the stallion medic. “Oh!” She said, excitedly looking around, “So are you guys spy’s?!” She asked with a peaked interest. “Uh...yes” said the griffin, little did he know, with those words, murphy himself had his interest peaked, and things became complicated... > Chapter 10:Emerging problems and a What could go wrong? (Part 2) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 10:Emerging problems and a What could go wrong? Part 2 Quickly the mare seemed to land, and bounce excitedly on her hoofs, her wings bouncing excitedly. “OH TH-“ she placed a hoof over her mouth, “this is so cool!” She whispered and looked at the group, “So what are you doing here? I’d there a bad guy to take out?” She asked and looked around, as if trying to find someone suspicious. “Strictly confidential ma’am” said Thomas smoothly, flipping on a English accent, “Our job is to get this mare to the hospital, maybe we can have you do this for us?” He said, giving a small grin. “Uh...why does she need to go to the hospital-What happened!?” She asked quickly, spotting the bandages that had been concealed under some of the guards wing, the lunar mare bit her lip, but Thomas was quick on his words. “Training exercise incident, she will be fine once we arrive at the hospital, is their anything we can help you with ma’am, because we have work to do.” He stated without even a flinch, his strong arms wrapped carefully in a posturing that showed he was in command of the situation. “I-uh no sir!” She said without even a thought, she didn’t even know why she said sir, it was extremely unlike herself to become compliant. Quickly she landed and looked away and with a embarrassed blush, rubbed the back of her head with her hoof. “Good, now if I may ask, what are you doing out at this time of the night?” He asked calmly, behind him, the other had continued there treck to the hospital, intent to allow the griffin to handle the mare and avoid blowing their cover. The mare seemed started by the question and turned a shade of red, “I-I-I... OH WOULD YOU LOOK AT THE TIME!” She cried out and shot off into the sky, Thomas was sent tumbling into the building from the sheer force of her takeoff he had been standing next to. “OOF, uuhhh...” he groaned and rubbed the back of his head, lifting off his helmet. “Note to self, get these helmets padded properly...” he grunted and stood up, quickly moving to catch up with the rest of the group. In the distance, a lone guard watched the scene unravel, confused beyond all belief, Private Silver Case. He was merely a recruit, sent to the town of Ponyville to do his first year of service. It was only his third month in Ponyville, yet he saw a extreme amount of odd things happen to the town that he was sure I t was cursed. “U-uh... maybe I should follow them....yea that sounds like a great idea!” He said with a shrug, trotting forward through the somewhat snowy streets, surely this couldn’t go terribly wrong! The guard didn’t get far, as his hoof caught a patch of ice that remained imbedded in the stone road, “Oof!” He fell face first into the street, and slammed his helmet into a rock, jarring him, and soon he passed out. A secondary figure appeared over the unconscious guard, slowly the unknown figure pulled the stallion towards a small shed, placing him inside, he tucked a jacket over him, it was old and worn, made of fake leather, and designed to give heat. “Looks like some newcomers have arrived....let’s see what they bring...” the unknown figure hummed, his gruff voice sounded out as a grey paw reached out and rubbed the back of his head tiredly. —————————————————————- “All on me, I want our entrance to make a statement, but completing the purpose of what we came for.” Said fury doing a quick check up on the mares side and stitching, “if we go in, and something happens, everyone goes to rondavo, if anybody doesn’t make it back, then we will pull back to that destroyed castle, an I understood?” The medic said to the griffin and diamond dog, who both listened and nodded in agreement. Quickly they pushed up to the hospital door and stacked up, “3....2....1.... BREACH!” And they moved with the force and training of hardened soldier, and within moments, they were in the main lobby, telling everyone to lie down on their stomachs. No one dared to stop or call for help as everypony complied, the ponies that were their seemed terrified, the hospital staff didn’t seem any better. “Alright! Bring her in!” Called out fury, his eyes scanned over the dozen or so ponies in the room. His eyes halted on a figure. The figure was another guard, he had been standing by the small wards doorway, dressed in silver armor, a spear lay on the ground next to him. Carefully fury waved over the griffin, who carried the injured mare. He placed the mare down and reached down to his vest, gripping at a handheld radio, clicking the transmission off and on, walking towards the entrance, “Hey guard, when we leave, do not let anybody leave until about 5 minutes after we’re gone, if you do, their will be trouble.” Fury growled out firmly. He got a quick nod from the terrified guard, and he backed up, glancing to the injured and tired looking threstral, “I wish you the best of luck, I’m sure you’ll have fun with the press and your superiors when they learn what’s happened.” He hummed and chucked, then snapped back to a serious tone, “If anybody asks who did this, do not give names up, we are keeping the corporal as a... POW? Captive?” He glanced over at the Diamond dog, who merely shrugged at his words. “uh...leverage?” Added Thomas, shuffling his wings slightly for to his vests less then comforting grip on them. He hadn’t wanted to bring one but decided caution was in order just so he didn’t risk injury in case something happened. He was met with a unamused glance from the medic and a calm nod of the diamond dogs head, “Yea, I doubt calling a guard leverage would appeal to our favor... how about ‘Totally willing pony we DIDN’T kidnap’?” The dog suggested, looking over to the two. Fury had firmly planted his hoof in between his eyes, as if he was trying to hide his less than amused face and shame from the rest of the room, although out of the corner of his eye, he watched as another guard entered the room through a secondary door. The guard was dressed in a similar pair of grey armor, though it appeared that he also had a dark red bandanna like attachment to his helmet, he seemed to move in a fluid speed, making a dash for Thomas, who’s back had faced the unknown guard. “HEY THOMAS WATCH YOUR ASS!” He cried out, keeping his weapons trained on the other members room. Time seemed to slow down as the words left his mouth, Thomas had snapped into a low crouch, swinging his foot out towards the guards head. Just as quick the guard ducked and grabbed at his leg with his hoof, the guard angled himself and swung his hoof straight for Thomas’s knee. With that time stopped, it seemed to be almost terrifying, everything around him seemed to shift to a dull grey, color seemed to bleed from the room. Fury’s body moved ,crossing the room in a second, and suddenly the color came back, and time resumed. *CRACK* The guard slammed to the floor, the rear hoof of the medic held up, his body smoked slightly as he straightened out. “Time to move, I don’t think staying here any longer is a good idea, move to rendevou, let’s move!” He called, immediately the diamond dog, Griffin, and pony turned and hurried out, the door to the small Ponyville hosptial closed, and silence reigned over the confused and terrified pony’s, the lone threstral slowly stood up and limped over to the knocked out guard, his body slumped against the floor as the other ponies watched. Her eyes looked at his chest piece, more specifically the massive dent in it. “What the hell are you?” She mumbled softly as she glanced towards the darkened streets of ponyville. ————————————————————— “Well that could have gone better?” Joked the griffin, his rifle had long since left his giants, slung over his shoulder, holstered as he walked, his eyes searched the streets as he led the small squad towards there next objective. They had returned to the tank to report their success and been tasked with new orders, their scouts had located a somewhat government like building near a fountain in the center of town, they were given the jobs of approaching and trying to pick out any government figures in this town to maybe later discuss possible options of the plan they had devised actually worked. They had been giving primarys to go with their secondary’s, and this time lethal rounds as this was still a much more risky endeavor. They had successfully slipped back into the town and had already slid into a side road, carefully they made their approach towards town square. They were DEFINITELY NOT talking loudly and screwing around as they walked... “I say it was a smashing success, though knocking out the guard was rather excessive don’t you think?” Inquired the diamond dog, his voice low and relaxed, his hard eyes seemed to stare straight ahead, though the way he held himself would have told any soldier he wasn’t planning on leaving himself defenseless. “Next time you should clear your six and make sure there’s nobody in your blind spot, what I did was out of necessity, just be glad you didn’t blow his brains Lion!” Said Fury, his voice tinged with annoyance, the dog shrugged. “Man for a stealth op, we sure suck at being...stealthy” pointed out Lionel, a ensemble of “Shut up’s” was what he received as he cracked a smile. Although hit soon disappeared as the griffin held up a talon, and the small impromptu squad stopped, weapons quickly fell into hands as he motioned towards the sky. Above them flew three large chariots, two of them requiring at least 5 Pegasi to handle as they drifted towards the ground of the open fountain ahead of them, immediately the griffin dropped into a low crouch and raised his rifle, his safety snapped off as the dog dropped to his stomach, his liberated and oversized M249 resting on a bipod, the medic levitated a beretta our and took aim, although he looked at the dog with a raised eyebrow, the fact that the dog was that strong confused him and almost made him want to run diagnostics in the poor dog...almost. “Don’t fire, only if the situation is dire” stated the griffion as he watched, the three large chariots landed, and in seconds at least 2 dozen guards had filed out, filling the town square, the golden armor of the guards glistened in the soft lamp lights of the stands. “Hey Fury, got the armor like I asked?” Thomas asked, shuffling his wings as he grinned. The medic nodded, pulling out the golden armor, and in 5 minutes he was carefully covered in armor, looking almost exactly like one of the guards in the square, “Is this really what we should be doing? I mean come on!” Lionel said, gesturing towards the roaming guards, so far they hadn’t done much. They had noticed multiple guards enter the target building and had decided that it would be best to try infiltrate the soldiers. “Ok so my objectives are to infiltrate the townhall, figure out who the head of these soldiers are, then report back here?” He asked with a tilt of his head, gaining a nod from the griffin. “Yep, so keep your gun with me, remember, You are now Corporal Dawnsville” he said, taking the Beretta and motioning to the alley exit. The stallion steeped himself and walked forward, soon exciting the alley into the dark streets, passing a squad of guards as they moved by him, chatter ranging from orders to banter echoed through the night as guards moved quickly to set up a small HQ and secure the courtyard. Fury watched with a almost calm expression as he cantered around patrols and moved past the first carriage, it was one of the troop transports that had been carried by the squad of Pegasi. Although what caught his attention was a certain squad of ponies ahead of him, there dark figures and low spoken voices barely making them noticeable. Thestrals “Fuck...” he mumbled and started to curve around the transport, looking to take another way around the squad of particularly terrifying nuisances, although he was cut short when he bumped right into a pony turning the corner, he stumbled, not expecting the bump and tripped, tumbling into the armored pony. “OOF! Ah watch were you walking for bucks sake!” Growled out a rather annoyed threstral mare he had landed on. He quickly got back up, offering his hood to the mare who had accidentally slammed into. “Oh geez, I’m terribly sorry, I should have watched where I was going!” He said with a quick smile to her as he tried to back away. She seemed to eye him with annoyance as she inspected his figure, her eyes shifting over his figure. “Hmm, you must be a rookie, I don’t recognize your scent.” She stated with a light hum, eyeing him with a mix ha more intrigued set of eyes. “I am not with the guard that just arrived, I am Corporal Dawnsvillie, I’m stationed here” he replied with a half hearted smile, hoping he seemed convincing enough. “Oh? Well then I must be off my game today, cause you don’t smell like him...” she hummed, her steps moved towards him as he bit his lip, watching her with a almost primal fear, his hooves slightly twitched. Slowly he felt his horn preparing to activate his telekinetics, his focus drifting to his knife stashed under his armor. “Hey! You two! Get over here, and stop scaring that poor Goldie Slyph!” Said a thresreal that had flown over to the two of them, his wings flapped softly in the calm night breeze. “Oh come on! Look at him! It was perfect!” She cried out, chuckling as Fury relaxed, his mind eased as he placed a grin on his face. “Oh har har” he joked, turning as he faced the second threstreal, a stallion who’s rank signified him to be a sergeant, “Corporal Dawn svillie reporting, I’m supposed to find whoever is leading this group of guards and report to them sir!” He stated with a quick salute to get his point across. “You need to report to the townhall, although may I ask why you have been sent to report to the townhall?” The stallion stared at Fury, who simply stood straighter, he felt himself starting to swear under the armor. “I’m supposed to debrief about what happened in the everfree forest, a unknown surge has occurred and my team was tasked with investigating it, we’ve lost one member and the other is currently in the hospital, I am the only one able to report in at this time.” Fury replied, staring straight into the sergeants eyes as he spoke, silence reigned as the sergeant hummed. “Alright soldier, you have my condolences for your lose, head past the carriages, and then enter from the front door, you will be directed from their.” He said with a nod, moving to the side to allow him passage as he cantered by. “Thank you sir, your words of comfort are appreciated.” Fury replied, marching quickly past the vampire-like ponies, not bothering to spare a glance to any of them as he moved, soon completely around the corner of e larger passenger carriage. Fury kept up his canter, moving to pass by several more squads as he arrived at the townhall entrance, before doing so, he made note of something, a flash, almost like a glint of a scope, though he was unsure. His eyes snapped forward as he arrived at his destined target, and he moved his hoof up to the door knob. “What kind of fucking sorcery is this shot?” He mumbled under his breath as he turned to doorknob with his hoof. To him it almost felt like he still had his fingers to grab the knob, and quickly entered. He was greeted by a room with pillars that made the circular architecture more understandable. The room was currently occupied by 6 stallions and 1 mare, albeit a dam tall one. He was quick to move up against one of the pillars, while he was disguised, he didn’t dare take risks he couldn’t fully calculate. “Princess, so far we have not been able to identify any of the individuals! There not griffionian troops, zebrican special forces, or brigands of the western iseles!” stated a aggravated pitch black stallion, “We’ve gone through several dozen most wanted lists, and even asked the P.I.A!” He added, “And lastly, there carrying Delta grade weapons! No one knows they even exist!” Cried out the stallion. “Well clearly someone does now, not only did these strange agents slip into Equestrian borders, they appear to have captured a local guard, and also returned one, in thankfully not terrible condition, and form her words, there are at least 7-9 of them, maybe more!” Growled out another threstral, this one was different, large wings, sharpened fangs, and a pitch black vest, the material seemed to most likely be Kevlar, though he was unsure. gender had to be female though due to the figures frame being slim and carefully built. “Maybe the Changelings have finally brewed a insurgency? Nightshade did say they had a changeling or two with them, and that one of them was leading the group.” Justified another mare, her coat was a shade of crimson, and a light grey helmet sat on her head. “Chrysalis is dead and Queen Athena has already stated that she shares nothing of interest in Equestria, plus to start another war with Equestria? That’s foolhardy with her war with the Black isles going so well!” Stated a calm and collected stallion, his coat was of some sort of grey nature, fury couldn’t tell, though his eyes were a sharp black, “Plus that doesn’t explain the other items there carrying, especially those strange machines. From what has been described to me, the fine tuning that would be required to create those beasts are far out of the changelings leagues.” He paused as if to think, “even Griffin the griffin otherworldly knowledge extends only so far, he admits that his worlds history after his disappearance is unknown to him.” “Silence” Silence rained immediately, as if like a blanket had smothered all sound, except for the slow breaths that came from the mouths of the rooms current occupants. “We have a visitor, and he is content to stay out of sight, but of his nature, I am unaware.” The voice spoke isn’t calmed ease, and Fury almost bolted, “Don’t bother, the minute you entered this room, the door locked, I made sure only people I wanted here could unlock it, yet you walked right in? I admit it’s impressive.” She added calmly, and Fury grunted. He took a step out of his hiding place and immediately one of the guard stallions turned to face him, one of the ones from outside, taking a step to grab him. *SMACK* *CRACK* *THUMP!* With a reflex Fury was stunned e had, he had swung his hoof out,,connecting with the guards spear, cracking in half, and slamming hard into his face, knocking him to the ground, and he was out cold, “I came to listen and understand our situation better.” Fury replied coolly at the stunned faces of the silver helmeted guard, and the readied combat stances of the rest, except for the taller pony, her fur was a dark blue, and her mane was one to look like cosmos. “Oh?” She replied, sparing a glance at the downed guard, “You seem to show more aggression, then any understanding.” She said with a light smile. “well I don’t like being touched, especially if it’s to make me do something I can do myself.” He added calmly, “Though may I ask what your opinion of me is at this second, what you think I am, and who you think I work for? Just so o can get a idea of how much you pony’s actually know.” He asked with a light smile. “You have no right to demand or ask us anything you feind!” Snarled the first stallion, now that Fury could give him a proper look, the stallion was a color that reminded him of forest camouflage. He surged forward, spinning on a hoof to deliver what would have been a devastating kick... Had Fury not seen it coming, sliding forward, he used his entire body, spinning his entire body to allow him to deliver his own buck straight into the heavily armored stallions face, his buck, and the stallions already armored fling sent him crashing hard into one of the stone pillars. “Now, I don’t seek to harm anymore, in truth I’m actually a medic, so this isn’t what I would naturally do, but seeing how no one understands, I won’t say this again, I need to know what you think you know, so I can rectify what’s clearly wrong.” He stated calmly. “Hmm...” the large mare contemplated, the rest of the guards had taken steps back with the takedown of the armored stallion, all except for the threstral and the tall pony. “Fine, we believe you and your group to be a hostile group attempting to compromise the integrity of the Equestrian homeland by means of dealing massive damage to important elements and reeking havoc within the Equestrian borders.” She explained with a clam, yet neutral voice. “Well, now that I know, I’ll tell you this, our group carry’s no relation to anything in this world, we aren’t meant to be here, in the forms we are in, we are merely here. As for your country of... Equestria right?” He asked, tilting his head as she nodded, “We don’t seek to harm or hinder this country, we look to handle something that isn’t of your importance, the business we plan to handle is not linked to this country except by physical boundaries.” He explained cryptically, “As to what you think we are? Well we sure as hell aren’t what we appear to be, we’re not griffins, pony’s, changelings, dragons, or whatever else you can think of. Were people.” He spoke without emotion. “You mention dragons?” The tall mare spoke, “Well considering that we have a unknown dragon in our dungeons that appeared in our capital city, we find that you aren’t seeking to cause trouble hard to believe.” She pointed out, which in turn made the stallion nod. “Well don’t bother with us, we have all our members accounted for, whoever you found, it’s not one of us, we all carry this insignia.” And he reached with his hoof under his armor, grabbing his combat nice he had snagged firm the back of the truck, and tossed it to the floor, “You can be love me, or you don’t, I don’t care, now may I take my leave, if I don’t, my friends will make themselves a entrance that won’t be easily cleaned up.” He plainly finished, turning towards the entrance to the hall. “Fine... may I at least have your name?” The mare asked, and Fury looked over his shoulder. “Fury... Private Dawson Fury.” With those words he pushed open the door, and left into the night, walking though the swarming crowds of guards and soldiers. Science reigned after he had left. “We should send someone to-!” The silver helmeted mare tried to say, but she was cut off by a raised blue hoof. “Don’t bother, his words were truthful, and if we did, I fear his friends he spoke of will do more then scare of the pony’s we send to trial them.” She explained with a sigh, though her eyes soon came to the knife that lay on the floor, and she levitated it to herself, seeking to examine the blade, and on the side, a insignia laid engraved in it. Princess Luna studied to for sometime, her personal lieutenant stayed by her side as she finally glanced up to the tow hall door. “What do you think this means, Bain?” She asked with a soft spoken voice, her eyes looked down to the threstral mare. “I’m not sure princess...I’m just not sure...” the mare replied as they both stared at the blades insignia. A large, five pointed star, surrounded by a circle.