A deafening roar swept through the desert causing the very earth to shake. Fire erupted from the resulting explosion, sending Bonfire 40 feet in the sky. His body slammed into the soft sand. He spat blood in his visor, clogging his vision. Before he could react his body was pelted by tiny rocks and debris.
As the pillar of smoke flew into the clouds, it left the earth shaken, barren, and desolate. Bonfire with all his might tried to lift his legs desperately trying to pull himself up off the ground. He tried to see but his blood was clogging his visor. He pushed a button on his wrist and the blood was wiped off. He then checked his body for any wounds.
“Great, only minor cuts and bruises.” Said Bonfire grinning. If it wasn’t for his armor then his body would’ve been blown to pieces.
He checked his surroundings, making sure no enemies tried to get the jump on him. Yet, the surrounding area was desolate of any life. The only thing that remained were pieces of rocks and sand for what seems like miles. All except a large crater that the bomb created. And then it dawned on him. He ran straight to the crater. The crater’s diameter had to be at least 20 feet wide. He jumped in it to inspect the explosion. There weren’t any signs of shrapnel, but there was magical revenue everywhere.
“How could I be so dumb? Of course that was an I.M.B. (Improvised Magic Bomb) what else was could of it have been. I could’ve gotten myself killed, or worse.” He ran across the field desperately looking for his squadmate. In the corner of his eye he spotted her. He ran as fast as he can. “Dammit, please be alive,” he begged.
When Bonfire reached her, he realized that she was stuck in rubble, but more importantly is that she was still alive and angry. Very angry. Bonfire just stared dumbly at her not knowing what to do.
“Hey dumbass, help get this shit off of me okay.” She said in a very pissed tone. “God do you know how long I’ve been waiting here. I’m going to find who ever set that bomb there and slowly tear his throat out.”
“Twister you’re crazy.” Bonfire whispered.
“I heard that, and GET THIS SHIT OFF OF ME ALREADY! God you act like you’re blind or something.” Twister yelled.
Bonfire quickly snapped out of his daze and helped get the rubble off of her. “You’re welcome Twister.” Bonfire said in a snazzy tone.
“Actually, I’m quite surprised you lived this long rookie. Still who was the idiot that set of the I.M.B. anyways?” She asked while wiping the dust off her wings. She was obviously referring the idiot (known) as Bonfire, because they were the only two ponies for miles.
“I have no idea.” Bonfire sighed. If it wasn’t for his helmet she would have seen his terrible poker face. Thankfully it covered his entire face. In fact, every-pony in Bonfire’s squad has the standard L.M.B. Mach 04. This kind of armor supported your body shape exactly, and provides maximum protection.
“I think we should report this to Turntable.” Twister said while glancing around for enemies.
“No doubt they heard the explosion. They have to be around here somewhere.” Twister said out loud to herself.
“Yeah, you're right.” Bonfire replied. Suddenly a green ball of fire flew right him barely missing his head; Bonfire was taken by surprise for a second, but instinct took effect. He quickly unsheathed his sword, and started to look around the scenery to find out who shot at them.
He tried scanning the area, but he couldn’t pinpoint the projectile’s source. Just miles of rocks and sand as far as the eye could see. 'What shot that." Bonfire thought while quickly turning his head back and forth. He even looked up into the sky seeing if it came from there.
“Turn on secondary vision,” Twister said, snapping Bonfire out of his thought.
“Wait, what’s that?” Bonfire asked hurriedly.
“Seriously you don’t know. I guess you’re more stupid than you look.” Twister replied.
Bonfire rolled his eyes at this statement. “Just fuckin tell me.”
“It allows you to see things using invisible spells.” Twister explained in a condescending manner. “Otherwise known as the knob on your helmet.”
Bonfire quickly turned a knob on his helmet. His visor changed from a dreary gray to a brilliant meridian. The surrounding world around him turned from a natural color wheel to black. Only objects generating the light spectrum could have color. In the distance he saw two silhouettes of green. Bonfire grinned, and then his sword ignited along side with his passion. The sword quite literally caught on fire. Fitting as Bonfire's sword is enchanted with a fire ruby. That is probably where he got his nickname from.
"I see yah." Bonfire said while dashing towards them at a speed much faster than a normal pegasus.
Both silhouettes were caught completely off guard. Not only was he dashing towards them, but he knew exactly where they were. He was next to them. He swung his massive great sword with all his might at the closest silhouette, but the silhouette dodged it . It counterattacked with a quick stab from a knife, but the knife bounced off of his armor. Bonfire turned around and gave the silhouette a quick buck, knocking it a couple feet away.
Within the corner of Bonfire’s eye he could see the second silhouette getting smashed by another figure. Bonfire quickly steadied his sword, and he took a deep breath. The silhouette decided to charge right at him. He swings again. The silhouette tried to avoid the second swing, but Bonfire was ready. Then the fire ruby started to glow, as if it knew exactly what its owner wanted . The sword's fire grew twice as large enveloping the sword and caught the silhouette on fire. The light of the fire burnt Bonfire’s eyes, so he had to cut off his secondary vision before he got blinded. He then decapitated easing it of pain. Death from being burnt to death is a terrible way to go. Bonfire shook his sword killing the fire on his weapon.
The silhouettes cloaking spell started to fade. First revealing a dark and menacing horn, followed by a creature with a dark body. Truly a creature spawned from hell. "Twister why are changelings here, in Saddle Arabia?" Bonfire asked while poking the one on fire with his sword.
Twister pulled her spear out of the changeling she landed on. "I don't know, all that matters is that they are dead. Plus, we were sent here for suspicious activities, and nothing is more suspicious than a couple of changelings. Like what my grandfather said, ‘The only good changeling is a dead changeling.’ ”
"That is fucking dark," Bonfire replied, wondering at how she can think that. Bonfire still was staring at the changelings. He never saw one up close before, and he was thinking at how bad can these guys be. ‘They look just like us and probably act like us too. I don’t get it.’ Bonfire thought.
"You don't know the half of it." She scoffed, while walking away. "Hey aren't you coming?”
In a small cubicle at the forward operating base of Saddle Arabia there were four other ponies. They're all in Bonfire's squad so they had the L.M.B. except that they rest of the other squad had the other two variants. The first variant is for earth ponies had a rounded helmet with bulky plating on it, except on the joints of the ponies which had a lighter alloy for flexibility. The second variant is for unicorns. Its helmet was shaped the same as the earth ponies, but it had a horn on it. The length of horn depends on the pony. It also had plating, but it was made of a lighter material than the earth ponies. The pegasi variant is made to be aerodynamic. The helmet was not rounded but edged like a plane. It was also made completely out of the lighter alloy, except for the chest and back of the pony which had plating still. The armor is supposed to be in all jet black.
One of them was pacing back and forth furiously. "Ugh can they take any longer," Turntable said. He was always very impatient, and things always had to be perfect. If something goes wrong he gets very furious, and often blames it on himself. However, this shouldn't give the idea that he is bad under pressure. No, he can work well under maximum stress. In the minds of the Royal Commandoes though, he is the ideal leader: strong, smart, witty, lethal, and most importantly caring.
"Don't worry, just give them time. I'm sure they’re just fine," Cherry said. The unicorn simply snorted at the thought and continued on.Cherry a green unicorn with a bright red mane and sparkling blue eyes. Cherry was always the optimist of the group, always thinking level headed for everyone. She could relieve the stress of the group pretty easily, even in the middle of combat. However, she often was too optimistic about everything, sometimes even leading many of the squad into a false sense of hope. She was very self conscience, and will never forgive herself for her own mistakes especially when it involves a friend dying.
Turntable took his helmet off revealing a dashing brown unicorn with a blue mane. He has a scar on his right eye that he got from a battle long ago. Even with that scar you could see many mixed emotions in those green eyes of his. "I guess we wait, huh," he sighed.
The rest of the squad took off their helmets, including the two earth ponies of the group, Clock and Dixon. Clock, a brown earth pony with a silver mane and grey eyes, is often regarded as the mechanic of the group. He loves tinkering with objects and fixing equipment, however, he is not very social at all. Often too shy to talk to strangers, Clock hates being the center of attention. He would prefer to fight a dragon rather than talk to a group of strangers.
Dixon is quite the opposite. He isn't very smart, but undoubtedly he is the strongest out of the group, easily overpowering all the other ponies. Dixon is also a social butterfly, often talking his way out of trouble, and getting the squad into places where they're not supposed to be. However, that is his downfall also. He often finds himself distracted with civilians, or especially hitting on mares.
"What do you think we should do about the situation sir." She asked.
"That is why we need Twister to get here as soon as possible." Turntable said, while looking at a map, scratching his chin.
The door suddenly opened, both Bonfire and Twister took off walked into the room taking off their helmets. Twister had a yellow coat with a golden mane, and yellow eyes. Bonfire was the most interesting of the group; he had a magenta coat with a rainbow mane and cyan eyes.
Rainbow manes was actually the most rare kind of mane a pony could get. In fact, only pegasi can show this illusive recessive gene. The rest of the ponies can carry the gene if they have it (chances are probably not as only .000001% of the population of all Equestria have rainbow manes).
"We're back bitches!" Bonfire yelled grinning from cheek to cheek.
Twister and Dixon both gave each other a hoof-bump.
“You look terrible Twister.” Dixon pointed out the burns on her armor.
Twister did not take that too kindly. “Shut up.”
"So how did the mission go?" Turntable asked, still looking at the map on the table.
"Well looks like your suspicions are correct. There are changelings in Saddle Arabia." Bonfire said. Turntable was sent on this mission by Celestia herself. She needed to know where the changelings landed after their failed invasion of Canterlot. Turntable had a gut feeling they were in Saddle Arabia. "So what do we do then? I mean we don't know where their base is at." Bonfire asked while scratching his head. “Also they are quite active in the desert. In fact they blew us up with I.M.B.s.”
"Those just don't get put anywhere. Where that bomb was located is probably where their base is at," Cherry said butting in the conversation. “Also, Bonfire, are you okay?”
“Yeah I’m fine.” Bonfire replied.
"That is smart thinking," Turntable complemented Cherry. "We are all going out there this time, but when we get in 100 clicks of that place, Cherry and I will cast camo spells on you."
Everyone nodded in agreement. "Okay lets go now." Turntable said as he put on his helmet. Everyone followed in his lead.
The group reached the location they were looking for. They all had cloaking spells cast on them, so they wouldn't participate in any unnecessary confrontations. For the most part the armor takes well towards outside spells.
"Great... there is nothing here. Just sand as far as the eye can see," Dixon said as he kicked some sand up. “This is about as empty Twisters soul.”
“What the fuck Dixon.” Twister screamed at Dixon.
"Lock it down both of you. You're so loud that they’re probably on alert now," Turntable scolded them both.
In the corner of Bonfire's eyes he sees Clock pointing at a hatch. Bonfire walked towards Clock.
"Hey guys I think Clock found someth-."Bonfire said.
Turntable quickly got there before Bonfire could finish his sentence. "Good job Clock." Turntable said while staring at the hatch in the floor.
"Do we go in?" Cherry asked worryingly.
"Yep," Turntable replied without putting much thought into it.
"That's awfully careless of you. You usually put more thought into this." Cherry said.
"Yep."
"Ah who cares, as long as we kill some bitches," Twister added in.
"Listen to me: it's going to be fine. You forgot that we have camo on, and I highly doubt they have secondary vision." Turntable said. When he ends with ‘listen to me’ that usually meant it’s not open to discussion anymore. "Plus what is the worst that can happen?"
"We die," the group quickly answered back.
"We will be fine, just remember stay in formation and don't alert anyone," Turntable said while pointing towards Twister and Dixon.
"Yes sir," they answered back.
"Good, now lets see what Tarturus has in store for us," Turntable said maniacally.
Author's Note
Hopefully you like this. Before you read this, you might want to know this story is parallel to Macrocosm. Now you don't have to read the other story to get this, but later chapters might be a good idea to do so. The reason I decided to do this is because the story that Macrocosm has is to big for one book, so I'm making them both together, so I'll catch up commandos then I will switch to Macrocosm. They will have corresponding releases. One chapter one week then I will switch stories and upload another one a different week. Hope you like it. Review in ways I can better my writings please.
Also quote of day. "I'm going to shove my sausage down your throat." My friend told to me after I said I won't eat his hot dogs.
"Before we go in, remember to turn off your speakers." Turntable said. The helmets had speakers so they can speak out loud. Otherwise they have two channels. A private channel that they can speak with another squadmate, and a public channel so they could talk with the entire squad.
Turntable was the first to go down the hatch, and the rest of the group followed suit. Inside the hatch was an intersection leading to a series of tunnels. The tunnels were completely dark. The only light for the commandos was this kind glowing slime on the walls of the tunnels.
“It’s dark in here, sir. Should we turn our flashlights on?” Cherry asked.
“No, that would get rid of our element of surprise.” Turntable responded.
“Can we use secondary vision.” Bonfire asked while inspecting the tunnels.
“Secondary allows us to see light coming from magic, it does not allow us to see in the dark.” Cherry said.
“Dumbass,” Twister added in.
"Holy shit, it is hot in here sir." Dixon complained. "What I don't understand is why the science department gave us cup holders, yet we don't have an air conditioner. It's like 120 degrees in here."
"Just deal with it." Turntable ordered. He was starting to get tired of Twisters and Dixons constant shenanigans.
Bonfire walked towards one of the wall to feel it. When he touched the wall. It stuck to his armor, almost like glue. It was also wet and dripping like saliva.
Twister walked behind Bonfire. "Changelings are gross creatures."
Bonfire ran to Turntable who was currently surveying the cave. " Sir, what is up with Twister? Is she always like this?"
Turntable turned around and stared directly into Bonfire's visor. "Yes and no."
"What do you mean yes and no?"
Turntable gave out a sigh. "She has always been like this, but to say this lightly. She wants every changeling on the planet dead.”
"Why?" Bonfire asked bluntly. He barely knows any of his squadmates. He is a rookie after all.
"Changelings killed her parents. Also next time you have a conversation like this you should really put this on a private channel. Don’t be afraid to ask her things. It may not look like it, but if you give her a chance she is a completely different person then what she is showing you." Turntable said bluntly while deciding which tunnel they should go down.
Bonfire wasn't sure if everyone else heard that conversation, or it was just him. He really felt like an idiot though for not putting it on a private channel. His opinion of Twister also changed. No longer does he think of her as a complete ass-wipe, but someone who had a real messed up childhood. In fact, he pitied her a bit. He also decided that he is going to talk to her when the time is right. Maybe she would show Bonfire a different side to her.
“Well there is a crap ton of tunnels.” Dixon said while looking at each tunnel. “They seem to go on for a while too.”
Clock walked too Turntable. “Sir, should we um, split up.”
Turntable paced for a bit. He wondered how this was going to play out. If they split up and one of them runs into trouble nobody will be able to help. “No I have a better plan.” Turntable’s horn shined a brilliant blue. A blue mist shot out of his horn, and it slowly crept its way up the tunnels. It split itself according to the amount of tunnels. Then the mist flowed into the tunnels like water down a canal. The mist drained slowly away from his horn. Turntable suddenly collapsed.
Quickly Cherry used her body as support for the falling Turntable. “Th-Thank you.” Turntable sounded quite out of breath.
“What was that?” Bonfire asked. “I have never seen magic like that.”
“Can you put me down?” Turntable asked Cherry. Cherry slowly nodded her head letting him go. He wobbled a bit with the sudden loss of support. “That is because the spell was made by me. It is supposed to map the entire perimeter for me, but to be frank that was the first time I cast that spell in a non control area. It also takes a lot out of me to cast it.”
“Are you sure that was a smart thing Turntable?” Twister asked. “I don’t want my squad leader dying in an engagement.”
“As squad leader I don’t want my squad wandering about aimlessly for hours on end.” Turntable said sternly.
“Okay what do we do now?” Bonfire asked, tilting his head a bit.
“I would take about a minute to return to me.”
The mist finally returned to Turntable who is now feeling much better. It returned directly into his horn. He backed up a bit and a map of the entire hive shot itself out of his horn. It was much bigger than what Turntable initially thought. The hive was a complete labyrinth of tunnels and caverns. However, the tunnel down the middle lead to a large room.
“Well I guess the center tunnel our best guess. Lets go and stay in formation.” Turntable warned. The group walked in the tunnel being careful of not making too much noise. They stayed close to the walls in case any changelings passed by. The tunnels were extremely tight. The squad could only go thru it in a line leaving barely any room to squeeze by.
Bonfire was picked to lead the group into the tunnels. Bonfire really hates the darkness and he could really only see about ten feet away from him, so the chances of him falling into a trap were very good. Bonfire kept on seeing these shadows dance across from wall to wall. He would always jump at that, but it would be just one of his squadmates behind him.
“It’s okay Bonfire, just relax and breathe.” Bonfire took a deep breath hoping to ease his stress. “Yeah, that didn’t help at all.” Bonfire isn’t scared of changelings, but he couldn’t help the fact that something bad was going to happen.
The farther they got into the tunnel the more cocoons the squad saw. Bonfire started wondering to himself if their coming to the nest area. Bonfire tried carefully to not bump into one of the cocoons. He wasn’t sure if they would pop or anything if he touched them, and he doesn't want to find out. The weirdest part of this tunnel though is how the squad haven't seen a single changeling.
After a long walk the squad can start to make out a large amount of light. Before the squad moved further, Turntable reminded the squad to be like the shadows and to surround the perimeter. Then wait for his cue to attack. Everyone nodded and moved on in.
...
At the end of the tunnel was this large circular room that have many candles in a pentagram shape. There were about twenty changeling bowing down and chanting hymns to one changeling in the center talking to a blue ghostly figure that was standing on its hind legs. The creature had many holes in its body, revealing the organs sloshing around in its' body . Blood trickled down a large gash on top of the creatures head. The creatures skin was burnt in some places revealing tissue that was partially torn.was torn. Bonfire had to hold back vomiting at the sight of this creature, Turntable was pretty horrified of this creature, but he still gave out a hoof signal. Fear would have to wait. The squad surrounded the changelings, and now they were waiting for Turntable's signal to attack.
Even though Turntable was scared he wanted to see this though. He wanted to see what the changelings were doing. According to his knowledge of Equestrian lore this isn't how most changelings act. It just seemed so alien.
A beep went off in Turntables ear. He put his hoof on his helmet and pressed a button. "Yes Cherry?"
"Sir, I don't think this is how changelings are supposed to act at all." Cherry sounded a bit worried.
"Yeah I know. It's like they're worshiping the thing. I can't hear what their saying though. I'm going to get a closer look."
"Good luck sir." Cherry sighed.
Turntable stealthily crouched past the changelings being careful to not bump into one. One of the changelings felt a disturbance next to him. He turned around only to be shocked by seeing a slight reflection of itself next to him. The changeling didn't know how to react. This hesitation gave Turntable enough to cast a amnesia spell on the black creature. A blue aura surrounded the insect. It then had a puzzled look on its' face then turned around and started shouting hymns.
Turntable's face was covered in sweat after that close call. "Celestia, that was close."
Turntable was almost next to the center changeling now. He could kind of make out what they're saying now, but they're not speaking common anymore. They were speaking in some weird language he hasn't heard of. When he got close to the center of the room the blue figure made a glass shattering screech that made both the changelings and commandos cringe then it vanished. The blue apparition left behind in its place a bronze pendant. The crowd started to cheer wildly.
The cheering was cut short; when the small pendent started to glow. The changeling knew that something was off, and by the looks of it so did the others.
The center changeling grinned. The pendent started to make a loud hissing noise as it flew into the sky. It then attached itself to Turntable. Then the commando’s camouflage went away.
Sweat started running across his face as Turntable grinned inside his helmet. "Hello."
Quickly he shot a ball of fire at the center changeling catching it on fire, knocking it back into the crowd of changelings.
The crowd stared at their fallen leader. Then they all growled and started to charge at Turntable. Turntable made a motion with his hoof then teleported away from the center bewildering the angry legion. A second later, the ambush was sprung.
The first commando to attack was Twister as she dove down from up above the crowd of angry and confused changelings.
She started to spin her spear creating a whirlwind effect pushing all the changelings into the wall. Clock then pulled his two katana blades making short work of the changelings that landed next to him. Dixon and Bonfire took care of the drones that landed next to them with ease. Meanwhile from across the room, Cherry was casting powerful spark spells at the disorientated changelings.
The very few changelings who were left alive after this initial assault got up and desperately ran straight towards a tunnel, only to be met by Twister who landed in front of them- spreading her wings across she made herself appear about twice her normal size, striking fear into the changelings heat . She quickly stabbed one with her spear, pulling her spear off her prey before the others could react. She swung her spear letting out a lighting bolt that hit the four changelings frying them to death.
Twister put her spear away. She knew her work was done.
"Wow, that was a bit too easy." Bonfire was completely surprised by the efficiency of his squad. "How did you do that Twister?"
"I am one of the only pegasi that can manipulate weather without clouds. It is the reason why I am Commando. Well that and my 123 I.Q. helps out."
Turntable wasn't interested in what they had to say. He started searching where the blue ghoul was at. He wanted to know what that pendent was. In fact, he wanted to know what the hell they were doing down here. Turntable picked up the pendent and examined it.
'It seems just like a normal pendent, but why did it do that.' Turntable thought to himself as he was twisting it and shaking it a bit. He couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary though, so he gave up on his attempts.
"Okay lets go guys. Are there any survivors left?” Turntable asked while looking in all directions.
“No, they're all dead sir. We exterminated the bastards,” Twister said with a bragging tone in her voice. She looked like a ghoul with changeling blood splattered all over her cloaked body. In certain parts of her body you can see right through the green blood, and in others you could see a green reflection of the walls on her too. If she wasn’t on Bonfires squad he would be horrified.
“Cherry leave a present for the rest of the changelings here, but make it snappy. Chances are there is more changelings and they probably heard the fighting." Turntable said this as he cast a fresh cloaking spell on himself.
Cherry started engraving two holes with a very concentrated spark at the entrance of this room. In the holes she cast I.M.Bs in them. "Presents in check sir.”
Turntable nodded, "Okay lets go! Stay near the walls and let the changelings pass through the middle."
"Yes sir." The group said back.
'I need to give this pendant to Celestia herself. Maybe she knows what this is.' Turntable thought.
The squad sidled up to the walls while Bonfire and Twister were flying near the ceiling. Tons of changelings were running through the tunnel they were in. Predictably, they didn't notice the cloaked commandos at all. They just ran past them to the circular room. A few moments later, a loud explosion rattled the tunnel complex. Bonfire was pretty sure that made Twister’s day.
Backtracking, they reached the hatch. Turntable quickly climbed on top of it and opened the hatch. He scanned the area and saw nothing. He motioned for the rest of the squad to come out. Turntable and his squad quickly started to run for home base. There mission was officially over. Now, they could go to base and contact Celestia about the Changelings. Turntable was starting to think that this was too easy. There was a couple reasons for this. One, the base wasn't protected very well. Two, there were hardly any changelings in the base. Three, this almost seemed like the trap scenario when they trained him as a commando.
Once they made good distance between the complex Turntable uncast the cloaking spell. They wouldn't’ need it anyways.
After a bit of running the squad could see smoke coming from the distance.
“Is that coming from the base? No it can’t be.” Cherry said horrified. She started to run as fast as she could. The rest of the squad could barely keep up with how fast she was running.
“Wait, slow down!” Dixon yelled to Cherry. But Cherry didn’t respond. She didn’t want to respond.
When they got there though, the sight horrified them. The entire base was in flames, and something was written on the wall.
It was written in blood. "You killed my family. Now I'm going to kill everything you hold dear. FRIEND.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" Dixon yelled at the top of his lungs.
Turntable was scouring his mind to find out what just happened. He ran from place to place. Only to see dead ponies everywhere. There were even stakes with pony heads on them.
Twister started shaking her head. “Did a dragon attack the base suddenly.”
"Why... how... In the name of sweet Celestia." Turntable sounded completely broken.
“All these good ponies gone.” Cherry said horrified and stunned.
"What the hell happened?" Bonfire asked worryingly. Suddenly he felt as if time started to slow. His vision started to get a bit hazy. He could hear shouting, but the words were so slow he couldn’t understand what was being said. He felt a warmness coming from his stomach. He looked down and there was a green blade with black markings covered in his blood coming right out of his stomach. Bonfire could feel blood crawling its way up his throat. He coughed up huge chunks of blood on his visor blocking his vision. Then it realization hit him... hard.
"Fu...ck." Bonfire fell unconscious.
Author's Note
Hope you like it. I like the ending a bit. Makes everything way more crazy if you know what I mean.
Quote of the day. "I'm going to fuck you so hard that my penis is going to come out of your mouth." My friend told me after I drank the rest of his soda.
