Ejected Casings

I wake up groggy. Again, well, at least there was no chase in this dream, if I had one, may I add. Sitting up again, quicker this time than in the middle of the night,I let my feet touch the soft carpet of the barracks. Cheap it may, be, but it still is able to take my weight and be mildly comfortable at the same time. Guess I need every sliver of comfort I need now-a-days, considering where I am. I walk over to the small window in the middle of the farthest wall, next to the closet. Pulling away the curtains a little TOO fast, I have to shield my eyes from the excessive magnitude of Celestia's sun. After letting my eyes get used to it, I pull my hand away from my face and turn around.

Wait a minute.

I swear there was something behind me for a split second.

My eyes scour the small room in a fruitless attempt to interact with what ever was behind me, but after a couple of minutes, my brain decides that I have just woken up and it probably can't handle things properly yet, so I open the door and slowly make my down to the mess hall.

Now, when I say mess hall, it's not really messy, actually. It's a royal dining room, with some of the finest chefs cooking for us. I just like the word mess hall. I rambling about mess halls. See how much I have to do everyday? I wonder why I ramble......

Now I'm rambling about rambling. Okay, back to the story before I go insane.

As I walk towards the mess hall/dining room, a familiar scent makes it's way slowly up to my nostrils. I haven't smelled this smell in months! No, it couldn't be, but it is!

"BACON!" I scream as I run at approximately Mach 5 down the corridors, waking several of my squad mates as I go.

I finally reach the table, take my seat at the head and look down before me at the amazing pink strips of heavenly pork that have not been eaten by me for about two months.

I stop my drooling for a second and think. I just ran down the corridors of an army barracks, where many people and ponies are sleeping, screaming the name of a pork treat. I'm going to give it three seconds.

Three

Two-

"Some people are trying to actually fucking SLEEP here!" I hear the familiar voice of Daniel shout down the corridors, waking up anypony who wasn't awake at the time before.

I start to hear heavy footsteps make their way down the hall, and I soon see Rhod's head pop up from behind the door frame.

"Did somebody mention BACON?"

I chuckle and point to the table.

"It's right here buddy."

"Hold up," I stop for a second, dropping the fork I was using. "Ponies are herbivores. How in sweet holy Jeebus are we having bacon?"

"I," said a motherly voice. "Have the answer to that."

Looking up for the third time, annoyed that I have had to be delayed from eating pink pork strips again, gaze upon the sweet-smiling face of Princess Celestia.

"Can people please just stop randomly appearing out of nowhere? Carry on."

"I, personally, had them shipped from the griffon kingdom, as they are carnivores. As our finest fighters, you four and you four only are entitled to bacon once every two months."

"TWO MONTHS?!"

"Do not be greedy, for you are lucky to even receive this in the first place. Equestria is not on substantially good terms with the Griffon empire."

Annoyed at the fact that I will not get bacon very often and I may have the prospect of going to war with the people who are supplying my bacon I look down at my plate again, only to be interrupted for the fourth time after only taking a few bites by the newly elected briefing officer of the barracks, Silver Shade.

"Report to briefing room immediately! Changeling runners have hijacked a train heading straight for the Canterlot National Train Station. T Minus thirty minutes until they arrive, move your flanks!

"Better get Dan and Con up and awake then." I say in a frustrated manner.

"Bacon, you will have to wait until another day."

"Hurry, get those sandbags set up over there!" I shout to Cyclone, who is busy carrying tons of cover to protect us from the plasma blasts.

T minus ten minutes left, we have to get the cover up quickly otherwise many of our brave pony warriors will die fighting in a supreme and awesome way.

Wait, did I say brave pony warriors? Cyclone is only carrying two sandbags and he's slower than a snail with glue stuck to it's ass. Go figure.

Once we have the cover set up, I let the tripod down onto the bags and wait. Ten minutes may seem like a short amount of time, but trust me, in this situation, you have to be on edge all the time.

I start to see smoke coming over the tree line, and my heart beat speeds up.

"Rhod," I mutter into the headset that is dangling half on-half off my face. "Get a target on the driver. Chances are as soon as they get into the station they are gonna blow themselves and the cargo to oblivion"

"Roger that."

I hear loud cracks, ripping through the air lie a hot knife through butter. I see the ejected casing from the rifle Rhod is used to using roll in my direction. The smell of smoke is a one I pleasure for some reason, and many other arsonists will agree with me.

Taking out my binoculars, I take a look into the drivers cabin of the fast incoming train. It's hard to see much, as the bluey green cocktail of changeling blood takes up half of the windscreen. That is not the problem though.

"Rhod, the train isn't stopping!"

"Fuck, what are we gonna do?!"

I ponder my decisions quickly, not having the time I would have liked to consider my ideas in the first place. Then, it hits me."

"Rhod, line ip your sights with the brake lever. Shoot it. Should activate the brakes."

"You are nuts, dude!"

"Rhod, trust me. Better than sitting here doing nothing and waiting for a fiery explosive death!"

"Fine. Lining up...."

I hear the deafening crack once more, and as I expected, the train starts to slow down. The sparks coming off of the tracks set fire to some of the nearby vegetation, and I see that there are changelings scrambling to the roof of the vehicle and charging up their horns.

"Targets on roof. All engage."

I fire my own weapon this time, and over the sound of gunshots I hear the creak of bowstrings being pulled back, probably from my unicorn counterparts. My bullets strike two of the creatures, sending them off of the train roof and into the burning grass below. I look to my right, and see Rhod taking pot shots at the train. Daniel is next to him, binoculars out, taking cautious measurements. Connor is next to him also, firing and spraying wildly, most of his rounds impacting the ground before the train, kicking up spouts of brown dirt.

Before long, the train is stopped, in the station as well.

I see changelings trying to sneak out of the carriages trying to get to the drivers cabin to activate the charge, but me and Connor easily pick them off. When we assume that all changelings are dead, I hear a call from Daniel over the headset.

"Woah," the shaky message starts out. "This is odd. There are bio chips sticking out of the back of their necks! This is advanced tech too. Alex, see if you can grab a few and bring them back to me for analysis."

"How am I gonna get them out?" I reply.

"You can borrow my Bowie Knife?"

"Aww, man... this is going to be disgusting."

I slowly make make way along the concrete station platform to where Daniel is crouching. He hands me a shiny silver blade, with the engraving 'Die for Piece' near the handle.

"You engrave this yourself?"

"Yep."

I smile at his dedication to our cause and slowly make my way to the closest body. I kneel down over it, a terrible smell reeking from the carcass, fresh blood still trickling out of the wound in the middle of the chest. Must have hit the heart. At least it was a quick death.

I hold the knife in my dirty hands, admiring the weight and feel of it. Time to get down to the job at hand.

I slowly slice open the neck, green blood staining the once clean tool of death. Making a circle around the chip poking out of the body's neck, I drop the knife and grab hold of the chip and pull, until a perfect circle of flesh is ripped out, along with the bio chip.

"Guys, this is disgusting."

I wait a few seconds. No answer.

"Guys?"

I turn around. All of them are gone. the sandbags also. I turn to face where the train was, but that is gone too. All the bodies have now disappeared also.

"What the fuck is going on here?!"

"I," a deep and unsettling voice answers. "Can tell you that."

I turn around slowly. The figure that has been stalking my dreams is standing right before me. I want to punch him, but my arm won't move. I'm paralysed.

"Before I allow you to ask any of your stupid questions, let me introduce myself. I am Spartacus, lord of darkness. It is my job to bring terror and unease to all ponies; and in this case humans, and I do believe myself to be very talented at my profession. Now, you may ask me your stupid questions."

"W-why are you hear?" I ask, my voice croaky and shaky from all the fear pulsing through my veins.

"Why, to haunt you my dear boy! Was it not that obvious? I have the power to do whatever I like, it's just that I choose to haunt you, and eventually KILL YOU."

He says these last two words leaning in, his face almost touching mine.

"Next question." He says with annoyance in his words.

"What are you?"

"Boy, I thought answered that before? I introduced myself, but you need more, don't you, you little thieving bastard, If you must know, I am what you escape from in your nocturnal realm. I am what causes nightmares, the stories are my struggles to break free of the strangleholds sleep puts me in. But I have broken that barrier, and now all that have imprisoned my entity, not worshipped it, will pay with their lives. Now, I think I have answered enough for one day with you, puny human. We will meet again, I ensure you, but that time, I will not be so lenient."

And with that he disappeared. I feel my eyes start to feel heavy, so I let them close and feel sleep take over me once more.

"Alex, Alex?!" I hear, blurry as my vision slowly comes back to me. Daniel, Rhod and Connor are all standing over me, and I see my squad members standing back, their spears at the ready for any oncoming threat.

"W-what happened to me?" I stammer out.

"There was a changeling left, it's beam struck you while you were dissecting that other changeling. We killed him, but he took a chunk out of your left torso."

I look down. Sure enough, there is a gaping hole where my side used to be, blood flowing profuriously from the newly created orifice.

"We need a medic over here!" I hear Connor shout.

Looking over to my right, unable to look at my missing body for any longer, I gaze upon Spartacus once more, about ten metres away.

"I'll be back." He says.

Shortly after, I pass out.