"hello" regular speaking
(hello) Character inner thoughts
"hello" Royalty speaking
Equestria locations
"hello" Solaris/ Com-link
"HELLO" Royal Canterlot Voice
this is a work of fanfiction please don't sue me
Time to lock and load! I unholstered the SCAR and leveled the sights at NMM's head, Princess Luna or not if she attacks us, I attack back,
"Does my crown no longer count now that I've been imprisoned for a thousand years? Did you not recall the legend? Did you not see the signs?" she demands of the frightened crowd,
"I did," Twilight reply's, "And I know who you are. You're the Mare in the Moon – Night Mare Moon!" she states to a round of gasps from the ponies around us,
"Night Mare Moon? Really?" I scoff, aiming to piss of the villainous one, "Do all Villains here have such awful names? It hardly sounds threatening, back home we have a stallion named Darth Vader, that dude made asthma fucking scary, you ain't got shit on him!" unsurprisingly this worked,
"I will give you reason to fear me, Hawke Eyes! Remember this day, little ponies, for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last forever! " she laughes evily, with lightning striking outside, it worried me a little that she automatically knew my name
"Seize her!" the mayor shouts to the guards ponies, "Only she knows where the princess is!"
"Stand back, you foals!" Night Mare laughs as she turns back into shadowy mist and disappears, an amorphous black blob appearing where she stood, we watch as the blob rises up taking the shape of a red eyed shadowy imp; while only standing four feet tall, with the amount of barbs covering it's skin, the imp did look somewhat intimidating (this never happened on the show, then again no one had the guts to mock NMM either).I watched Twilight leave the building followed by Spike and the other elements, others, mostly mares with foals, were leaving to protect their child, the rest stayed starring dumbly at the imp, which had been starring at me even before it's eyes formed,
"can everypony leave the room, I don't want you getting hurt" nobody moved, "NOW!" shouting caused a small stampede to the door leaving me alone with short, dark and ugly.
Within seconds of the door closing behind the last pony the shadow charged at me, claws primed to rip out my throat, I countered (wax on, wax off), trying to grab its arm, but to no avail as it retreated out of reach. We circled each other, daring to make the first move, as it charged once again I leaped above it using my wings to give me some momentum for a jump kick (well a flight kick in this case), my hoof connected to its jaw without a sound, it was a feeling akin to punching jello, sending the swine sprawling to the floor, the creature recovered before I could do anything though. Once again we face off with each other: the shadow, flexing it's claws menacingly, and myself with my knife, once again it charge me, time seemingly slown down, whereas before the creature leaned it's right shoulder into it's charge, this time it leaned left, I adjusted my stance accordingly; the shadow swung with a razor bladed left hood; I blocked, my hoof too far into the arc of it's swing to get cut, though I got a slight gash on the cheek since I miscalculated the length of it's talons. As the wretch tried to decapitate me with its right hand, I stabbed my knife into its wrist, the monster giving out a cry like it had been gargling gravel, I headbutted it, once, twice, stunning it, finishing it off with a bullet courtesy of my MP7.
The dying creature dissipated into nothingness, my knife clattering to the floor as it disappeared, I grabbed the blade from it's new resting place on the woodwork and re-sheathed it, running back to the library, hopefully before the element bearers left for the forest.
Approaching the six mares I slipped into a feigned ignorance,
"Twilight! Mind telling me what the hell's going on? And who was that I just flipped off back there?"
"Oh and how do we know she's not a spy either?" Rainbow spoke up, earning me the full attention of the group,
"I come from a land far across this forest, I would only spy on Equestria if Eqeustria was spying on us, besides," I laugh slightly, "I wouldn't stop laughing if I was working under someone with such a ridiculous name", Rainbow puts me under further scrutiny,
"Oh yeah? Then how did you get through Everfree Forest unharmed?"
"The forest is like a living being, it won't harm you unless you harm it" She seems satisfied with my answer (barely I might add) so I motion for Twilight to fill me in,
"We are looking for the six Elements of Harmony, only five of which are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. They are located in a castle in the forest," suddenly a light bulb went on in her mind, "When you passed through the forest did you see a castle?"
"Sorry Twilight, I didn't see any signs of life bar timberwolves and manticores" well what else is in there besides Zecora?
"Well, Lets-a go!" did Pinkie just quote Mario?
"Not so fast. Look, I appreciate the offer, but I'd really rather do this on my own." Twilight interjects, only to be shot down by AJ,
"No can do, sugar cube. We sure ain't lettin' any friend of ours go into that creepy place alone. We're stickin' to you like caramel on a candy apple."
"Especially if there's candy apples in there" everyone looks at Pinkie, while I facehoof, "What? Those things are good"
"I'll take point" I offer, getting blanks in response, "I'll the lead the way" I sigh, can't any civvies understand military jargon? I unsling my rifle from my back and switch on the torch,
"there, now we can see where we're going"
Being a bit further ahead I could only catch snippits of the girls' conversation,
"Rainbow, quit it"
" 'Cause every pony who's ever come in, has never come OUT" I huff indignantly causing Rainbow to laugh sheepishly, "Okay, one pony made it out, out of the THOUSANDS that went in"
come to think of it, wasn't this the clearing that- "EEEEEK!" NMM caused a land slide, I took off to help Rainbow and Fluttershy but as I did I was tackled out of the air, I looked down at the creature holding me, sure enough it was a shadow, not an imp like the previous, this was more reptilian, the lizard crawled off of me and hissed giving me a nice view of its barbed teeth, a bush to the left of me rustled, releasing four more reptile shadows (for convenience I will call them reptiles).
The five of them circled me as I groped the floor for my rifle, from the corner of my eye I noted AJ struggling to pull Twilight up from the cliff, wanting to make it quick I switched the SCAR into burst mode and squeezed the trigger, turning to face the next reptile once the three shots had fired. Clip empty and the five monsters decomposing, I dropped the empty magazine and hammered in a fresh one, cocking the rifle in case it was still needed, before making my way back to the group.
"WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?" Rainbow was unsurprisingly pissed, "ME AND FLUTTERSHY COULD HAVE USED THE HELP"
" I was dealing with a-" 'HISSSSSSS' we all looked up to see a reptile sitting on the branch above us, 'HISSSSSS-' 'pew'
"A pack of those", I continued pointing to the evaporating lizard "let's see we've had the cocky one, the many ones, if the cycle of minions keeps up next I'll be fighting-"
"The big one" Pinkie finishes ominously for me, wonderful.
An encounter with a manticore and a song courtesy of Pinkie Pie (if only laughing worked with spiders) we approached a raging river,
"How are we gonna cross this?" Pinkie asks. We hear crying coming from up river,
"Wanna check it out?" I suggest turning to lead the way. Up river we find a giant Sea Monster crying his eyes out,
"What a world, what a world" his voice... is so... camp, why god dammit?
"Excuse me, sir. Why are you crying?" Twilight asks,
"Well, I don't know. I was just sitting here, minding my own business, when this tacky little cloud of purple smoke just whisked past me and tore half of my beloved mustache clean off, and now I look simply horrid." much like how the ponies cringe whenever I swear, I cringe at every syllable this guy speaks, AJ and Rainbow are unsympathetic to the creatures plight, even I find myself a little uncaring,
"How can you be so insensitive? Oh, just look at him. Such lovely luminescent scales" here goes Rairity, mark my words I will avoid her unless there is no other option, the serpent sniffs loudly,
"I know"
"And your expertly coiffed mane"
"Oh, I know, I know" His mood begins to pick up, I'm half tempted to start ferrying everyone across the river,
"Your fabulous manicure"
"It's so true!" he gasps,
"All ruined without your beautiful mustache"
"It's true, I'm hideous!" great he's crying again,
"I simply cannot let such a crime against fabulosity go uncorrected" Rairity's 'correction' was to cut off most of her tail, "Short tails are in this season" was her excuse, and attach it to the serpent's mustache stub. As soon as the waters calmed I dived in and began swimming across eager to put this memory in the amnesia pile; the serpent provided the others with a bridge using his own body.
According to my watch, it was half past three in the morning when we finally caught sight of the castle,
"There it is, the ruin that holds The Elements of Harmony. We made it." I had stopped noticing the chasm before us, having to grab Twilight by the tail as she ignorantly walked off the cliff,
"What's with you and falling off cliffs today?" we hear Rainbow Dash ask from above us, the others catch up, and Pinkie uses this moment to point out the obvious,
"The bridge is down, how are we gonna get across?", with an arrogant cough Rainbow flys to the other side of the valley,
"Allow me" she boasts, I turn to check the treeline for any hostiles with a quick warning to Rainbow that she has five minutes or I'm coming over there myself, given what's already out of canon in this world the last thing I need is for Rainbow Dash to join the Shadowbolts.
"See? I'd never leave my friends hanging" Rainbow gloats as she pulls the broken bridge from the chasm,
"Careful Rainbow, if your ego gets any bigger you won't need your wings to fly" I laugh,
"Why you-" Rainbow starts,
"Sergeant, quit aggravating Rainbow Dash, your an adult for Celestia's sake" Twilight scolds, while Rainbow grins victoriously, "And Rainbow you shouldn't let her get to you; Her homeland thrives on violence, you wouldn't stand a chance if you attack her" now it's my turn to laugh while rainbow splutters,
"Not cool Twilight! Not cool!"
We rush into the main room, Twilight and the others rushing to the funky statue in the center of the room while I hang back near a wall, using the torch on my rifle to check our corners for any shadows, or worse, Night Mare Moon.
I hear the others panicking at the statue, geeze whoever built that thing really, really like balls,
"Where's the sixth?"
"The book said: when the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed."
"What in the hay is that supposed to mean?
"I'm not sure, but I have an idea. Stand back. I don't know what will happen"
(C'mon twilight, hurry up, there's a part of the room getting even colder) I kept my sights trained on the cold point,
"Come on now, y'all. She needs to concentrate" AJ says pulling Pinkie and Rainbow Dash back, Fluttershy and Rairity having already retreated to a safe distance. A nightmarish dark vortex formed in the cold patch which now enclosed Twilight and the Elements sucking them away, as the five remaining ponies came to their senses we heard a loud roar from behind us,
"Go find Twilight, I'll handle this," I said pointing to the hulking behemoth of a shadow pulling it's self through the door way, the nod not wanting to stick around, and rush further into the ruin in search of their friend.
The behemoth stood roughly six feet tall and was almost half as wide, it's left arm was packed so thick with muscle, its veins were taut against it's leathery, black hide; in place of a right arm was a large hooked blade extending from the elbow. The beast's head was made up predominantly by its massive jaw, this thing looked like it had enough strength behind it to bite through sheet metal, this is going to be fun... not.
With a speed unheard of for a being it's size, the behemoth charged me; Grabbing me by the neck and throwing me into a wall before I had a chance to react. As I crawled out of the hole I made I checked my wings to see if they were broke,
"FUCK!" yep broken, the left one was intact, suffering only muscle sprains, the right though? I might be grounded for quite some time with the state it's in. The beast doesn't give me a chance to ready myself before it starts lumbering toward me, okay, where's my rifle? Behind it, oh; side arm? On me, okay, just pull the trigger and pray. Unfortunately for me this thing shrugs off 9mm bullets like a boss, this thing is a fucking tank,
"Are you shitting me?" no time to reload, It's just a matter of avoidance now until I can make a run for the SCAR,
"Whoa, shit!" fucker tried to ram me again, sword arm in front poised to impale me (you know girls any second now you can use that rainbow harmony beam thing , just a suggestion is all, not as if I'm getting my arse kicked here), Fortunately that left a clear line to my salvation. I ran for the gun, the behemoth pulling it's arm from the damaged stone works, I heard a roar from behind me as I grabbed the SCAR, the bloody monster had taken to the sky, it launched it's overgrown ass over ten fucking feet into the air and was now dropping in to cause me a world of hurt, I did the only thing I could do in a situation like this, hold the weapon above me like a shield and scream like a little bitch.
As the behemoth impacted against the rifle, I was forced to the floor, both my arms and the weapon groaning under the weight of demon flesh, I was fighting a losing battle, the brute was stronger, had the advantage of gravity, and my trusty assault rifle had started to bend under the strain, It was to my great relief when a giant rainbow blew through the room, turning the behemoth into a crystalline statue, before destroying it. With the adrenalin from the fight wearing off I noted three sharp pains in my shoulder before the exhaustion caught up with me and I fell into slumber; Mission Accomplished!
I might not have a proper chapter in the works for a while, since I need to negotiate the use of a plot device before I can continue,
I'll have a filler chapter up in the meantime, a bestiary of the shadows, which I will update as more variants are added to the story.
In other news I need to get of my lazy procrastinating ass and get to work
