Familiar Faces:
3rd Person
Sanguine sat up from his prone position on the hill after 5 minutes of laying there. He decided to plan his next course of action.
"Okay...well it's night time, I have no idea where I am, except that I'm somewhere in Equestria...well if my mercenary training has taught me anything, which it has, I'm gonna want to set up base camp." Sanguine contemplated.
Sanguine turned to the large duffel bag next to him and unzipped it. He began rooting through the contents of the bag, only to just dump out the items onto the ground.
"Alrighty then, let's see what we have here..." Sanguine observed each item carefully as he took stock of the bag's contents. "Hmm, okay...one flint stone with knife, good good, I can definitely start a fire with that, what else?...Oh hey! My trusty Sniper rifle, with bullets, sweet! K then, I also have a flask of beer, my storage Cocdec, Ahhhh yeah! A giant bundle of Hot Pockets! Score! and...a GPS?! This won't even frickin' work here, the device isn't pinged to the location!" Sanguine remarked with irritation.
"Oh well, I'm gonna need to set up camp cause I'm not going anywhere in the dead of night." Sanguine said.
Sanguine walked to the base of the hill in search of sticks and stones, which he found after some time, he plopped them neatly in a circle which he lit aflame with the flint rock After all was well and done, Sanguine slumped down against a large tree on the hill and cozied up to the warm fire. He took out his Sniper rifle and a cloth and began polishing the weapon.
*sigh* "Sanguine, what are you getting yourself into." He contemplated.
However, Sanguine's thought process was cut off when a loud shriek pierced the air, Sanguine heard the cry from his left, and as such, geared his head in that direction. He went into a prone position on the hilltop and aimed down the scope of his sniper rifle, he flicked on the night vision of his rifle and saw what appeared to be some sort of ironclad death knight with skulls and sigil markings all over his armor chasing a distressed yellow pony with a well-kept pink mane. The knight was yelling death threats at the equestrian, while brandishing a claymore blade and the small pony was, obviously, screaming for help and flying as fast as her tiny wings could take her. Her wings soon gave out from the stress, and the pony tumbled to the ground, she attempted to run, but her back leg got caught on a root and she fell, pinned down, with the Death Knight slowly closing in.
Sanguine continued to stare down his sights not making any moves, he was currently waging a moral war in his mind of whether or not he should help the pony.
"Urrggh, c'mon why does this crap always have to happen to me?!" Sanguine groaned.
He continued trying to decide his next course of action, but eventually his good side got the best of him and he decided to help.
"Ugh God, I'm gonna sorely regret getting involved, I just know it." Sanguine muttered
"YOLO!" Sanguine yelled with vigor.
As he finished that statement Sanguine fired off two shots at the Death Knight, the first one colliding with his chest plate, and the second one, his helmet. The two bullets left sizable dents in the heavy armor, but it wasn't enough to kill him. The angry Death Knight snapped his attention to the source of the shots and saw Sanguine on the hill wave to him very flamboyantly before disappearing into thin air only to appear a split second later in front of the Knight. The Knight, completely caught off guard, stumbled back and took a quick swing at Sanguine with his sword. Sanguine raised his wrist and broke the blade completely off on contact, he walked towards the disarmed, and visibly shaken Death Knight very slowly. The Knight turned to run, but was stopped completely as he was soccer punted into the sky by Sanguine, he screamed for mercy, but was met with none as Sanguine vaporized him with a large ki blast. As the dust settled, Sanguine turned his attention to the terrified pony who was struggling against the root. She looked up at Sanguine with utter fear in her eyes as she waited for the end, but none came. She opened her eyes to see Sanguine outstretching his hand.
"Hey hey, look it's alright, he's gone, everything is fine." Sanguine said trying his best to be comforting, but being noticeably cringeworthy about it.
The young pony immediately eased up to Sanguine's attitude.
"You need any help up?" Sanguine asked the mare.
"Yes please..." The pony replied quietly.
Sanguine walked over to her and knelt down, he took out the flint blade he had on him and began cutting the root. After Sanguine cut the root off he helped the pony up.
"So umm, uh...mind telling me what the hell was chasing you uhhhhh-"
"Fluttershy," The pony said
"Right, Fluttershy." Sanguine retorted
"Well, if you truly must know, I was out near my house playing with Angel-"
"Angel?"
"My animal companion, he helps me be more assertive."
"Ah, I see, continue..."
"Anyways, I was out playing with angel when all of a sudden we both heard a rustling in the bushes beside my house, well we decide to check it out and this large, scary, and mean knight jumped out and started chasing me into the woods, I kept running and running, I thought it was all over for sure, but then you saved me!" Fluttershy recounted
"Oh, I hope that I haven't worried any of my friends, they must be scared silly." Fluttershy worried.
"Hey it's all cool, I'm sure everything will be okay." Sanguine assured
"Actually, I've been running for so long that I got lost..."
"Lost?"
"Yes, I don't know where Ponyville is." Fluttershy replied
"Well if it's any consolation, I have camp set up on the hill, you could stay the night and I could help you locate Ponyville in the morning." Sanguine suggested
"That sounds lovely, thank you." Fluttershy said,"By the way sir, I never got your name."
Sanguine struck a pose and smirked as he began his tirade-
"I...am Sanguine Carbide, nickname "ShootsFirst", I also happen to be a major Hot Pocket enthusiast, won over 3 MLG tournaments, reached Legend rank in Hearthstone last season, and currently I carry a large fear of Tsunderes and Yanderes alike." Sanguine announced.
Fluttershy looked at Sanguine with pure confusion.
"I...don't know what any of that is, but pleased to meet you Mr. Sanguine." She said
"Please, just call me Sanguine."
The two began walking towards Sanguine's base camp.
"Thanks for saving my life back there Sanguine." Fluttershy said sheepishly
"Ain't no thang Fluttershy," Sanguine assured,"Saving lives is what I do sometimes when I'm in the appropriate mood."
The two reached the camp and plopped down near the fire.
"So, what's a warrior like you doing all the way out here anyway?" Fluttershy asked.
"I'm actually an ex-mercenary, but to tell you the truth, I was dumped out here in the wilderness as punishment for my crimes." Sanguine noticeably hesitated at the last statement.
"C-crimes?" Fluttershy stuttered with fear.
"Oh no no no, it's a misunderstanding I swear!" Sanguine said urgently,"I think it's story time."
"Like I said I'm an ex-mercenary, but it wasn't always like that..."
LONG ASS EXPOSITION FLASHBACK
"It was about 108,000 years ago, myself and 4 other guys were created from the essences of dead and dying stars by the hands of a vengeful and evil god, his name was Proteus and he created his elite team of 5 mercenaries with the sole purpose of doing his dirty work. We all received extensive training to manage our abilities and powers for tens of thousands of years, only afterwards being tasked with traveling to different universes and killing off all its inhabitants, good and evil alike, to pillage and plunder their magic, resources, and power. At some point in time I asked myself if what we were doing was actually the right thing, and every time I asked Proteus the same answer followed, "they're all evil, they all have committed heinous crimes, they've had this coming for years, now go away." I knew he was wrong, and I set out to prove this. I tasked my best friend on the team to look through any records of his in order to prove my point, what I found was far more than I needed to know. After all my years of being blind to Proteus' true intentions, the truth hit me like a pile of bricks, he was a maniac, a power-hungry lunatic who was drunk off of his own greed. As a result I grew my moral conscience and I defected, along with my best friend, and another teammate who also despised the real Proteus. We fought against his authority with the help of others in a universe I took refuge in, and eventually, we were victorious, but at a grave cost, both of my friends died by his hand, I killed the other two crew members, and eventually overcoming Proteus himself and obliterating him. After it was all over the law eventually caught up to me and they charged our whole team with every single crime we committed individually, however, they were all dead so they instead charged me with every crime I committed while I was serving that son-of-a-bitch Proteus. I was found guilty and was charged with living my days in your universe for the next ten years...
Sooo yeah, there's my story thus far." Sanguine finished.
Fluttershy took a second to process all the information that had been given to her.
"Wow...that sounds so...rough." That was all Fluttershy could get out.
"Pfft, that's an understatement." Sanguine said jokingly while crossing his arms.
"I know I know, it's just that...I'm so sorry for everything that happened to you."
"I appreciate the concern Fluttershy." Sanguine replied
"Listen It's getting late so I'm gonna turn in."
"Me too, see you tomorrow Sanguine." Fluttershy said
"Yeah..."
Sanguine leaned against the tree with his Sniper rifle next to him and he closed his eyes, he let the soothing sound of the fire and wind blowing between the trees below him ease him to sleep. That night Sanguine had another nightmare, same one as always, him murdering innocents with his team alongside him, fire, destruction, and screams all around him, he dropped the body he was holding and yelled at his team members to stop what they were doing, but like always they ignored him and continued their rampage. Sanguine looked behind him to see Proteus walk out of the fire, laughing maniacally while doing so.
"You!" Sanguine yelled
"You insignificant little worm!" Proteus said,"No matter how hard you try to ignore it your past will cling to you like a parasite!"
"SHUT UP!" Sanguine yelled as he fired a ki blast at him. The blast simply phased through the dream Proteus, causing him to laugh harder.
"Even in death I shall follow you to the ends of time!" Proteus mocked.
Sanguine noticed that he was suddenly in a macabre bath house, knee deep in blood.
"No matter how hard you scrub you'll never be clean Sanguine, never be clean, never be clean, never be clean-
The horrid mantra of words kept repeating itself as the blood pool began swallowing up Sanguine.
"SHUT UP YOUR'RE ALL WRONG!" Sanguine yelled in the darkness
Never be clean Never be clean Never be clean Never be clean Never be clean
Sanguine woke up with a small jolt, it was still the middle of the night, the fire was almost burnt out, only a small crackle of cinders dimly illuminated the hill he was on. He looked down to see Fluttershy sleeping next to him, her head on his lap, snoring softly.
"Oh god, I hope she didn't do anything to me while I was out..." Sanguine thought
Fatigue eventually caught up to Sanguine and he fell asleep once more, no nightmares came this time, only darkness.
Sanguine awoke slowly to the brisk smell of coffee, he was once again blinded by the damn sun as he stirred. He put on a pair of Aviators he had from his duffel bag and yawned as he got up, he saw Fluttershy sitting next to the newly rekindled fire with a pot of coffee over the fire on a still.
"I'm not even going to ask how on earth you made that coffee, but thanks anyways." Sanguine said
"We have a big day ahead of us Sanguine so drink up." Fluttershy exclaimed
"I'm aware..." Sanguine said
He mashed a button on his storage codec and a gallon of milk digitized from the module.
"Wow! What's that?" Fluttershy inquired with interest
"Oh this? This is my storage codec, it's like a tiny fridge/pantry/armory that digitizes things you need like food or weapons. It was given to me by the best friend I mentioned, Hexus, he was our team's engineer and handyman, a real awesome dude, I remember a time when we were both young, we went motor biking on a distant planet and got lost for two days, he said it was my fault, which it was, but we both blamed it on Obamacare, *sigh* those were the days...You would have really liked him! he was a caring friend." Sanguine reminisced.
"Oh.." Fluttershy said awkwardly
"C'mon, don't beat yourself up over it Fluttershy, I was only thinking out loud for the last part, nothing you should concern yourself with." Sanguine reassured,"Now saddle up, we got a Ponyville to find."
Sanguine packed up the campsite and put things in his duffel bag which he strapped to his shoulder, he hoisted his Sniper rifle to his back via gun strap and got up.
"Oww, my wings and legs are still sore, can you carry me?" Fluttershy asked
*sigh* "Dammit all..." Sanguine thought
"Sure, why not." Sanguine said. He picked Fluttershy up in his arms.
"Alright, I'm gonna fly us up and I want you to point out Ponyville for me, can you do that?" Sanguine asked Fluttershy.
"Wait, you can fly!? But you don't have any wings!" Fluttershy exclaimed
"I don't need wings to fly." Sanguine retorted
Sanguine slowly rose up into the sky and he stopped after a set distance.
"You see it anywhere?" He asked
"Keep flying, I don't." Fluttershy replied
Sanguine flew forward at a steady pace until Fluttershy outstretched her hoof to the side of him.
"There!" She said,"Beside those trees."
Sanguine saw a luscious brightly colored city beyond him, a city that looked like it came straight out of an acid trip.
"If you say so." Sanguine said as he flew towards the vibrant town.
He touched down in a large city square and let Fluttershy down, she gasped when she saw what was before them, injured ponies strewn about, others hiding behind structures, shaking in their hooves, and two Death Knights interrogating a beaten up pony.
Sanguine's rage began to slowly build. Fluttershy hid behind him.
"HEY!" Sanguine yelled at the two knights, grabbing their attention."Why don't you and your boyfriend here split town before I make you."
The two Death Knights looked at each other before they unsheathed their swords and pointed them at Sanguine.
"Not a chance little man!" The first one yelled
"Yeah, what he said!" The second one said as well
The two ironclad warriors charged at Sanguine who took his stance, ready to face these adversaries.
"I hate Mondays..." Sanguine muttered.
Author's Note:
Hello once again viewers! I'm back with the second chapter of our tale. Ooo boy, cliffhangers huh, well anyways I just wanted to say that your feedback and support is what keeps the wheels turning with this story, I have high hopes for the future of this story and I hope you do as well.
Drop a review if you like it I enjoy constructive criticism as well as support, but I don't like hat, face it, no one does...also like and favorite to catch up on future posts for the story, because well this title tends to get buried under tons of other updates/submissions. See you all in the next chapter!
As always,
TwoFatNinjas
