My Little Carmines

Chapters

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17:
Chapter 18
Chapter 1
Chapter 4

Chapter 2

Chapter 1: Awaken in chains

Carmine's eyes fluttered open from inside is helmet. Everything was a blur, he struggled to make out the scenery placed in front of him; maybe Dom was right about the helmet obstructing his vision. Carmine rubbed one of his hands on the side of his helmet, rubbing the side of his head which was screaming that it had a headache.

Carmine tried to remember the recent event that had occurred in his ill mind. The headache screeched at his mind; like it wanted to destroy him completely as a person. The only memory that revealed itself to Carmine's mind was that he was falling down to a giant worm…and screaming.

Carmine suddenly hissed at the banging headache that drummed his head again.

"Ugh…Jesus Christ w- where the h-hell am I?" Carmine struggled to think clearly; whatever happened to him surely did succeed in wanting to engulf him with annoying, banging headaches. Carmine blinked a couple of times before his eyes could process the images displayed before him.

That's when it hit him!

He noticed firstly that he wasn't dead and was alive and healthy; other than his headache giving him grief. He leaped surprisingly against the rocky, black wall behind him. He realized that he wasn't inside the humongous, killing worm but in a small cage, surrounded by others that were blanketed in darkness. Luckily for Carmine, his helmet did help him see better beyond the darkness, despite protesting that they should be given flash lights for their gear. He appeared to be imprisoned behind a cage that constricted him with chains that nailed themselves to the other end of the cage, his cage was surrounded by other copies of his but theirs didn't poses a soul; he was the only proactive creature in the lonely chamber.

"What? What…WHAT!" Carmine screamed loudly, sparking his headache again. His voice echoed around the soulless prison; dying away slowly in the distance. He had never being so confused in his entire life. One question instantly sprung and bounced insanely around his mind like a bouncy ball. Where was he?

His train of thoughts froze when he heard a metallic twisting sound coming from the very far end of the hall, next in line was the sound of something creaking really loud; sudden light blanketing the dark shadows as the light shined brightly in front of Carmine. Next off was the sound of multiple metal pattering sounds that drew closer and closer to where Carmine sat, he flinched up when he heard the metal proceeding inches closer to him.

When they stopped, he looked up…mouth agape under his helmet.

There stood before him were two white unicorns, bedded in gold shining armour that started from the helmet and linked down to their tail; their hooves were fitted with matching golden footwear.

He watched the first one open the gate as the second began speaking towards him.

"By orders of Princess Celestia; you are to see her immediately!"

His voice was fierce and sharp and had a look that he wasn't to be messed with. Carmine only sat there, staring in awe; a quick stamp of the first guards hoof brought him back to reality.

"Move now!" he ordered harshly.

The guards' horns lit and the chains attached to the wall dislocated from their resting place, but the locks remained still around his wrists and feet. Carmine was forced up by the pulling chains, tugging him like he was a dog. He stood in-between the guards, he was twice there size but he wouldn't do anything stupid; the fact that he was speechless left his mouth empty.

Carmine was lead towards the open door where the sunlight beamed through, signing freedom and exit. Once through, there was a stairwell that spiralled up towards the main entrance hall of the castle; Carmine couldn't believe how big the place was.

Before they proceeded up the twisty steps; the first guard shot a menacing glare towards the two footed creature.

"And no funny business…what ever you are."

OXOXOXOXOXOXO

"What about this one?" Rarity asked; portraying her new dresses to Twilight. It was her job to decide which dresses would be suitable for her store and if others needed work.

"Its…OK but less sparkle" Twilight suggested; giving Rarity an innocent smile.

Rarity flung the dress into her closet; she used her magic to shut it and took her place opposite Twilight. She began.

"Thank you Twilight for your help but I need to figure something out quick if I'm going to put these new dresses up for the upcoming beauty show; all the girls will be squawking for new dresses…and when they see mine they are going to LOVE them."

"Don't worry Rarity; I'm sure you will think of something" Twilight said enthusiastically; sending a comforting smile towards her. She sent back her own 'thanks' smile.

Suddenly, Spike slammed through the door; with a scroll in his paw.

"Spike! Don't you know it's rude to burst unexpectedly into a lady's room?" Rarity questioned rudely, glaring at Spike.

"Oh uh…sorry R-Rarity" Spike stuttered, lost in his heart and crush for Rarity.

"Spike…Spike…SPIKE!" Twilight roared, waking the little dragon from his erotic day dream.

"Oh, uh…yeah?" Spike asked; forgetting about the scroll.

"The scroll…"

"Oh yeah, it's from the Princess; she says it's urgent!"

"What does it say?" Rarity asked; curiosity gaining the best of her.

Spike cleared his throat before addressing the words on the scroll to their ears.

"To my dearest and most faithful student Twilight Sparkle.

A matter has occurred here in Canterlot, a creature was found in the Everfree forest by two of my royal guards. I had sent five of my Pegasus guards to lift this creature to my castle; it appears to be immune to magic as my royal unicorns tried to raise it and having absolutely no success.

This brings great suspicion to me and my sister!

With out a doubt this creature is not known to Equestria and I do not know if this creature is a friend towards Ponies or a foe.

I do hope that this creature is a friend so that we may learn from it peacefully, but I do fear that there may be something dark about it.

I therefor require you at my side for when we meet this creature together. You must bring your friends in case we need the elements of harmony for what ever reason.

I have dispatched two of my Pegasus guards to escort you and your friends immediately. I hope to see you very soon!

Spike finished the letter and rolled it up and placing it on the table that possessed a flabbergasted Twilight and Rarity. Twilight was the first to break the silence.

"Oh my, a mysterious creature from the Everfree forest."

"What ever could it be?" Rarity asked; already knowing that the Pony and dragon wouldn't know the answer.

"Well it did come from the Everfree forest so it must be something completely weird or d-dangerous" Spike suggested; trying to gain a picture of the creature.

"But why? There are plenty of scary monsters in the Everfree forest; so what makes this one so urgent?" Twilight asked, gaining shrugs from the pair.

"C'mon guys, lets see what the others think about this" Spike suggested, pointing towards the exit.

The other two nodded in agreement, rising up from their sitting spots. Spike levitated himself onto Twilights back before they stormed off to visit their friends; hoping they could shed some light on the situation.

OXOXOXOXOXOXO

Above the small town of Ponyville, not far from it either stood the beautiful city of Canterlot. Canterlot was the main city of Equestria and the hometown to Twilight Sparkle. Canterlot held may special events like the grand galloping gala and the seasons were changed by the unicorns' magic, it also held a castle that rose to the sky; almost wanting feel the very sun itself.

Inside the glamorous castle sat two winged unicorns that were surrounded by royal guards, ready to strike at anything that might sign a threat to the Princesses.

The smaller winged Pony gave a nervous look towards the other…

"I hope you know what you are doing sis" The small winged unicorn asked, her teal eyes giving a very nervous look while her voice was a bit shook.

The small winged unicorn was two times smaller than her sister, her coat was a greyish purple that shined beautifully; especially in the night. Her cutie mark pictured of a moon which was surrounded by a dark blue background that located itself proudly on her chest and above her hind legs. Her mane shined a beautiful light blue colour. She was known as the co ruler of Equestria…Princess Luna.

"Do not fear Luna, this creature cannot harm us; I promise you" Her sister assured her; giving her a comforting smile.

Her sister was a much larger winged unicorn and was known as the ruler of Equestria who raised the sun to bring a new day while her sister did the opposite which was to raise the moon. Her name was Celestia, she appeared to have a mane that had a mixture of colours, and they consisted of cyan, turquoise, azure and purple. Her eyes had a beautiful magenta in them which any male Pony would lose their thoughts to and her coat was a perfect pink and white. Her cutie mark was a stylized sun.

There was a knock at the door…

"Who is it?" Celestia asked. The door opened and the first unicorn guard stepped in; he had a chain hovering above his head.

"Your highnesses, we have delivered the prisoner as you have requested" the guard huffed.

"Thank you guard; you may bring the creature in" Celestia thanked kindly. The guard bowed and nodded to the other guard behind him. The first proceeded forward, tugging along Carmine and the second guard closing the door behind him.

Luna stared mouth agape. Carmine reflected the action inside his helmet while his eyes sprang open.

Carmine stared at the two princesses before him, never had he seen such creatures in his entire life. Crazy thoughts raced through his mind, competing for the right explanation on what was happening to him.

"Do you understand me creature?" Celestia began; she had never seen such an outcast of a creature in her whole life. She had seen many miss made creatures from the Everfree but this one had to have been the most interesting to her. He was immune to physical magic that aimed directly at him; she needed to know what this creature is and what it is capable of.

Carmine was slow to reply…

Chapter 3

Chapter 2: Meeting a monster?

In the midnight sky, the starts shined beautifully among the breath taking moon that reflected magnificently off the guards armour. The night bedded the whole of Equestria in its dark blanket, almost telling them to get cosy for the long, peaceful night. Many of the creatures had flushed themselves into their private quarters for a well earned rest while many of the night animals emerged into the world of night to advance in their nightly routine. The stars flamed the shadow skies with luxurious twinkles of white light that dazzled anything to sleep in its beauty .Yes Luna did outdo herself tonight.

However, a group of ponies and a young dragon were deifying the nights rest as they had earlier been summoned by Twilights mentor and ruler of Equestria; princess Celestia. Twilight explained to the rest of her friends about the mysterious 'creature' found within the unnatural Everfree forest. The fact that it was found from the Everfree gave them immediate interpretations of what the beast may look, they imagined it as something being big, gross, evil and horrible but the fact that it was immune to magic, gave them all a cold shiver down their spine with a spice of curiosity.

"Ha, I'm not afraid of this monster, when he sees my moves, he's gonna go running home to his mummy" a tomboyish Pegasus mocked, imitating boxing movements with her hooves. This Pegasus had a pale cyan coat but her mane and tail where a variety of different colours that stood her out from the rest of the group. Her mane and tail consisted of: brilliant red, brilliant orange, light yellow, moderate green, strong cyan and a moderate violet.

"Calm yourself Dash, besides we can't just say that because this thing came from the Everfree forest that it is bad" Twilight objected the energetic Pegasus.

"Oooooooh, what if it's friendly and wants to be friends, we can be the best of friends, HUH wait then I would have to throw a part, oh this is so exciting!" Pinkamena screamed excitedly, jumping up and down in the carriage. Pinkamena or Pinkie Pie as her friends call her was the most energetic and random of the group and the funniest to be around, her cutie mark was three balloons, two being blue and the top one being yellow. Her coat was a lovely pink and her mane was a nice rose-magenta, her eyes contained a bluish cyan colour as they twisted frantically between the Ponies.

"Best y'all wain n see what this thing is then" Apple jack pointed out, looking down towards Canterlot, they had nearly arrived at their destination. Apple jack was an orange pony with three red apples as her cutie mark; her mane was light amber yellow.

"Oh I can't wait any longer, how long is it, I wanna see the weird thingy in the castle, and can't they go any faster?" Pinkie Pie exaggerated desperately, sounding like a little filly who wants to go to the sweet shop.

I-I hope what ever the animal is, it is friendly" a nervous Pegasus said randomly amongst the group. Her name was Fluttershy and she was the most quietest and shyest of the group; hence the name Fluttershy. She consisted of a pale amber yellow coat and her mane was a simple pink colour, her eyes possessed a strong cyan colour within them; her cutie mark was three realistic pink butterflies.

"Not to worry, we are here now" Twilight said happily, nodding her head towards Canterlot castle. Pinkie Pie jumped in mental, hyper reaction.

"Yipeeeeeee" She screamed, dashing off first as soon as the two royal guard Pegasus Ponies landed.

"Oh Pinkie Pie do please wait" Rarity yelled at the crazy Pony, who was halted by guards at the entrance to Canterlot castle.

The two guards that had flown the group of ponies and the baby dragon led them towards the entrance of the golden gates. There, they granted access for them and the group nodded at them as a sign of thank you.

As the group stepped into the majestic building of beauty, they were greeted by another guard who kindly lead them to the Princess's throne room where the mysterious creature would be greeted to them all. The silence bounced of the walls of the hall as the tension and excitement began to build within the Ponies as they now desperately wanted to greet this 'special' creature from the Everfree forest.

The guard paused in front of the shiny, rose red door that walled their further path to the creature that they desperately wanted to see.

"The princesses are inside, you are clear to enter" the guard addressed the group who gave him thanking nods before they entered into the chamber.

They all gasped!

OXOXOXOXOXOXO

Carmine was slow to reply…

He was interrupted by a loud creaking sound that occurred behind him. He cranked his head over his shoulder and noticed that there was a group of six Ponies, including a dragon who glared at him in awe; mouths agape.

Carmine felt uncomfortable with all the unwanted attention that he was receiving.

"Ah Twilight, I am happy that you have arrived; just in time too" Celestia smiled happily at her faithful student who immediately placed herself between her mentor and Luna. Her friends placed out in a line, all staring at Carmine, who was glaring straight back at them all.

The group began to whisper their thoughts upon seeing the creature; barraged in chains.

"What do you think it is?" Rainbow Dash asked Applejack.

"I ain't got a darn clue" Applejack honestly replied.

Twilight whispered in between the two Princesses…

"Do you know what this creature is?"

"No Twilight Sparkle but soon we will" Celestia replied. Twilight gave a nervous look towards the two legged beast.

"Don't worry Twilight, it can't hurt you" Luna replied, smiling and comforting Twilight. But even she was unsure if this creature would dare to harm them. The just had to find out.

"What the…HECK is going on?" Carmine screamed in his mind, he could have sworn he was going completely insane! Talking Ponies, Pegasus's and Unicorns along with winged ones too! Carmine noticed the pink Pony jumping up and down in his face which snapped him back to reality…

"HI I'm Pinkie Pie; who are you?" She asked energetically, continuously jumping up and down; Carmine's head looked up and down; following her pattern.

"Uh-uh-C-Carmine…" The Ponies gasped when he spoke their tongue. Celestia sighed in relief that he wasn't hostile.

Carmine…The name spun around each and every one of their heads of the foreign name.

"Carmine; that's a silly name" Pinkie Pie laughed.

"W-well so is Pinkie Pie" Carmine shot back. He had no idea what he was doing but he came to one conclusion; he had gone insane.

"Oh you're good" Pinkie Pie complemented, squinting her eyes at him.

By now the group had worked up the courage to step closer to Carmine but were still edgy unlike Pinkie Pie who had actually started a conversation with Carmine.

Carmine looked down at the chains that constricted him tightly.

"So uh… what's… with the… chains?" Carmine asked shakily. He felt uncomfortable that he wasn't able to defend himself. He looked up as the large white winged unicorn stepped forward.

"It was just for necessary actions, I did not know whether you were friendly or dangerous, but first you must answer a few questions for us" Carmine's face literally dropped from beneath his mask.

"Oh god this isn't a test is it?" Carmine moaned; Celestia gave a rather annoyed look at his rudeness.

"No…It's to learn about your species" Luna replied for her older sister.

"Okay, firstly you can tell us all what kind of creature you are" Celestia began. Twilight used her magic to poof up a feather, some ink and paper.

"Well, we are called the human race" Carmine began. He couldn't believe what he was doing; his mind was engulfing him with the thought that he had lost complete sanity.

"The human race!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Um, do all you humans look like that?" Luna questioned.

"Oh what you mean this?" Carmine questioned back, pointing at his COG armour. Luna nodded slightly. "Oh no this is armour; we wear it now because we have to protect ourselves from the goddamn Locust bastards. Not having armour on is basically a death whish man."

The Ponied gasped at the small amount of information, they all even wined when he swore because never had such foul language had been spoken in Equestria.

"Excuse me?" Celestia questioned angrily. However, before Carmine could reply, he was smothered with other questions from the Ponies out of there own curiosity.

"What's a Locust?" Twilight asked.

"I still don't understand why you wear 'armour'" Luna questioned.

"What kind of fashion is that?" Rarity probed, eyeing the uniform up and down.

"DO YOU LIKE PARTIES?" Pinkie Pie screamed, starting to leap up and down again.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa; one at a time" Carmine literally roared in order to silence the bunch of intrigued creatures.

They all fell silent. Carmine let out a long sigh.

"I'll answer your questions but first, you have to release me" Celestia gave a stern look towards Carmine, displeased with his attitude so far.

"How can we trust you?" She eyed him seriously trying to spread fear into the two legged beast but he didn't even flinch or show any sign of fear on what she believed to be his face (his helmet).

"Well we seem to be getting along so what's to doubt?" Carmine asked, glaring back at the Princess.

Celestia remained quiet, all eyes turned towards her as she made her decision on what to do with Carmine.

She glared at her two guards before she nodded her head. The chains unbuckled their grasp from Carmine's wrists. There was a sharp pain from where the chains had wrapped themselves tightly, leaving behind an immense burning sensation on his skin; despite the armour protecting it.

"Wow, that stings…thanks by the way" Carmine said happily while his inner conscience was freaking out.

"Now then, I believe you have some questions to answer" Luna stated, reminding Carmine of what he had to tell them.

"Right. I'll start with you" Carmine pointed to Twilight. "The Locust is the enemy that I and the rest of my race are fighting. They are freaks, they came from underground out of nowhere, and this was called E day or Emergency day" The Ponied all stared wide eyed.

"I've hated the Locust all my life, not only because they destroyed our world…but they killed my brother; Anthony" Carmine sighed heavily, lowering his head of his brother's loss.

"Oh, I'm so sorry" Twilight apologized, giving a sympathetic look.

"Don't be" He quickly replied before continuing the story of the Locust

"So yeah, we finally thought back with something called the hammer of dawn which destroyed those freaks nicely…but it did kill many of our own people too which kinda led to a sort of hatred to the COG."
"COG?" Celestia asked confusingly.

"Yep, that's what we are, COG. Or I think it's called the Coalition of Ordered Governments. But anyway we are the soldiers who fought back against these freak shows to show em that we won't go down without a fight, this war has been going on for years now."

The group just stared at the information they were receiving, surprised and confused at the same time.

Carmine then pointed towards to Rarity and Luna.

"This is not fashion. This is what all of us wear to protect us when we go into battles. Well some don't have helmets and others don't have gear sleeves but I like to keep it safe. It can do pretty well against bullets I guess but for mortars and grenades; different story."

"I-I still don't understand" Luna complained, giving a sad look.

"Knew you properly wouldn't. But yeah if there is a time when you see me battle something then I guess you might understand."

Carmine finally pointed to Pinkie Pie.

"I actually love parties, when ever we get good news that we destroyed a Locust main base or something like that, we all party to celebrate; things do get a little crazy though." Carmine let out a little laugh, rubbing the back of his head.

Pinkie Pie let out a large gasp.

"We need to have a welcome party for you because I know everybody in Ponyville but since I don't know you, that must mean that you are new and if your new that means that you have no friends which makes me sad, so a welcome party can help you make friends and then you wont feel lonely anymore and everypony will be invited-"Pinkie trained on about her whole story of having a party and how she knew everybody in PonyVille.

Carmine just stared, wide eyed under his helmet.

"Um yes Pinkie Pie usually hosts parties for anypony who is new to PonyVille" Twilight pointed out, waiting for Carmine to reply.

"Wait, wait, wait…PonyVille?" Carmine asked curiously.

"Yes silly, that's were you are" Pinkie giggled.

"Where do you come from?" Luna asked.

"I come from Sera, it's where I live and I was actually in the Llima sinkhole where this giant worm thing was responsible for destroying and sinking cities and killing people, we didn't know how we were going to stop it" The Ponies gave a look of astonishment at this new but terrifying world that they were learning about.

"Do you have any idea of how you got here?" Spike asked; Carmine glared at the mythical creature.

"Uh, n-no, all I can remember is me falling into the things mouth before I woke up in a cage. But wow you're a dragon!" Carmine exclaimed, examining the baby dragon.

"I know thank you…uh what's your name was again?" Spike blushed at the compliment but had totally forgotten his name.

"Carmine. Benjamin Carmine."

Chapter 5

Chapter 4: Meeting the true monsters!

The Ponies stuttered in utter fear as the stalk struck fiercely from the gentle soil. The ugly root shunned its disgusting black and blood red colour over the small town; the ugly thing had snatched attention from the eyes of all of the Ponies and the young soldier. Carmine shook violently as he watched the red root sprout, he knew exactly what these things were and what evil they contained within them.

The stalk finished its erect from the soil and allowed two large sacks to born onto the sides of it. They formed in a matter of seconds, leaking a horrible poison colour from the exit of the sack. It then released a large ball of the poison, connecting with a hard clash on the soil, and the poison broke open to reveal an ugly, infected Lambent Drone!

"SHIT, The hell is that?"

Carmine reacted quickly, pushing Luna and him to the side of the cart. He bellowed towards the other group of Ponies who turned their attention to him.

"RUN, get outta here!" He screeched, looking out of the side to see the Drudge advancing towards them. A second Drudge spawned out of the stalk; following the first.

"What; why?" the mayor asked, confused but terrified at the same time.

Carmine couldn't explain why. He was interrupted by something loud and familiar. A gunshot!

One of Celestia's guards dropped dead, blood oozing from his chest; direct impact to the heart.

"Oh shit, the fuck are these things?" Carmine screamed to himself, ripping out his longshot sniper.

By now the Ponies erupted into cries and screams, retreating into there homes or the closest thing that could be described as shelter.

The Drones unloaded more rounds to the fleeing Ponies. Some managed to escape…others weren't so lucky!

A bullet penetrated a Pony's flank, causing him to collapse in pain. Two royal guard Ponies went to his aid but…

A bullet smashed through his skull, leaving a small hole with a blood river that poured violently on the ground.

The other guard stared in disbelief, watching his former partner collapse to the floor. He quickly dragged the injured Pony towards a sweet shop.

Carmine whipped his head and sniper around the cart, taking quick aim and firing at the first Lambent. The bullet penetrated the Lambent Drone's chest, causing a yellow explosion to cover the brown soil; the liquid imulsion glowing brightly.

"Whoa, god that was cool!" Carmine yelled at the exploding Lambent.

He attempted to reload the sniper, pulling open the tried quickly in putting the next round in but slipped, dropping the round on the soil.

"Damn not again!"

The second Drone unloaded his Hammerburst round on the cart, creating black holes that wedged inside it. Another Lambent Drone spawned again, replacing the dead former Drone. Carmine noticed this and figured that shooting the sack things would do something.

Carmine picked up the round and loaded it more carefully. He pried around the corner again, taking aim at a sack and fired.

The bullet whizzed through the sack, leaving a hole in the middle where the imulsion leaked like it was bleeding, the colour turning into a mixture of red and yellow.

He spun back around and glared towards a terrified Celestia and a snuggled up and teary Luna. They both had their eyes shut over the terrifying gunfire, nudging together; resisting looking at the dead guard.

"HEY…HEY" Carmine roared, gaining their attention.

They both glared towards the young soldier, tears streaming down their faces as their guards spared their attention towards Carmine.

"Listen…I-I'm gonna get their att-attention, and when I do, run…run to the closest building you find" Carmine cried over the howling wind of bullets. Luckily the princesses knew what he was getting at because Carmine feared that they didn't hear him properly over the gunfire.

Carmine scanned his surroundings to spot something he could dash to as a distraction for the Lambent. He spotted a water fountain in the middle which could support some sort of cover.

He breathed heavily as he waited for the perfect moment to sprint, the prying eyes of Luna, Celestia, the guards and the Ponies that peered ever so slightly over the windows to watch him.

He then made the runner! Sprinting as fast as he could whilst keeping his head low; he dived for the fountain. The Lambent immediately switched their attention to Carmine, giving the princesses and the guards to advance to a safer place.

Carmine fired his rifle once again at the sack, causing a second hole which resulted in it exploding into imulsion.

"Oh...that worked I guess" Carmine thought to himself, focusing back on the Lambent which he had no idea in what it was.

The princesses darted for the closest home they could, the guards escorting them as quick as possible while the ugly creatures were distracted. Once inside, they all peered out of the window to see if Carmine was ok.

A Lambent Drone marched towards where the princesses had retreated, its dumb mind made him fire at the wall with a lack of effort but was advancing dangerously close towards the window. Carmine was too distracted in killing the second pod.

Suddenly, the Lambent monster clutched over the window and snatched Luna by her mane. His mighty strength forced her out of the window screaming.

"LUNA" Celestia cried as the beast aimed his weapon at her.

Carmine suddenly realised the trouble she was in, panicking quickly, he aimed his rifle at the monster and fired, hitting it in the hamstrings. It dropped Luna flat on the dirt and attempted to crawl away.

Being the last one, Carmine slowly walked over towards the Lambent that was desperately trying to crawl away from danger. By now the Ponies had worked up the courage to step outside as they watched Carmine approach the beast.

He flipped his sniper around, clutching the barrel end of the weapon. Raising it above his head, Carmine drove the butt of the gun into the skull of the Lambent, shattering what could no longer be called a head.

The rest of the body suddenly erupted in imulsion, it landed around the buildings and on Carmine.

He just stared at the filth, letting out a grunt of disgust and slight pain.

"Ah shit, fuck that hurt!"

OXOXOXOXOXOXO

A group of eight Locust soldiers advanced through the forest, heading in any direction to send reports back to their new base. Destroying anything that just so happened to be in their way like a rabbit or deer.

As they patrolled through the swampy forest, one of them spotted something that shined a sunny yellow in the bushes. They carefully walked towards it, Hammerburst's and Retro Lancer's ready to strike whatever the thing may be.

Suddenly, it pounced on the first Locust Drone, it ripped through its scaly, rock hard skin in a matter of seconds ; leaving it in a pool of Locust blood.

It was a Lambent Manticore! The creature had clearly been exposed to imulsion which led it to extreme effects of mutation. The eyes had become a large glow of yellow orbs and the teeth had extended outside of the mouth as the flesh had been pierced away, the stinger had mutated along the spine and the tip hung loose over its head. Two large yellow orbs were located on the side of the body that were protected by the hard mutated wings; they opened when ever the Lambent Manticore attacked but the Locust was too distracted to realise it.

The Lambent Manticore glared fiercely at the seven current alive Locust Drones. The eyes of nothing watched the Locust closely, waiting to strike its next victim.

The Drones immediately unloaded on the giant abomination.

The bullets ricocheted from the creature's new skin; it didn't even cause a dent. However, the Manticore erupted in furious rage! It aimed its stinger at the Locust that angered it.

A large sudden ball of venom boomed from the stinger, connecting straight onto the Drone's skin.

He cried in utter agony as the venom burned his skin. Literally, it burned straight through the scaly skin, exposing the Drone's bones and burning organs.

The Manticore proceeded quickly in attacking its next victim, opening its mouth, it released a sea of golden flames towards the five, one managing to escape the destruction and darting back to the base; leaving his allies to burn together in never ending pain of flames, running in different directions, lighting up the trees and the shadows of darkness as they pursued deeper into darkness.

The mutated Manticore growled viciously once more before returning to its Drone meal.

OXOXOXOXOXOXO

Discord watched evilly as his army continued to breed. The statue was almost complete as the head was the only missing part. He couldn't wait for to have the six ponies in his clutches so that he could bring eternal pain to them all. His next step was to capture the two royal sisters; they were the main reason on how he lost control of Equestria. Having revenge on them would make Discord complete and having the Locust by his side would bring him eternal rule where everypony would be too afraid to question his power.

A knock echoed through the room. Discord ordered them to come in and what bestowed in front of him were twelve Wretches, eight Drones and two Boomers. They all bowed in his presence.

"Ah, good, good. I already believe you know why you are here?" Discord questioned. They all nodded in response and began getting to work.

The Locust began immediately in redecorating the throne room. They removed the overgrown weed that invaded the stoned walls. The broken rocks and stone that rested everywhere was collected and thrown away and replaced with a brown and black mixture marble stone.

Discord went back to his thoughts as he continued to watch his new empire expand.

A large commotion was herd from his army. The two large wooden gates opened magnificently and a single Drone crashed in. He grabbed another Drone and was explaining something to him which resulted in him dashing towards the entrance of the castle.

Discord wondered what the fuss was about…

Discord's train of thought was interrupted by a large knock at the door and Kreikie exploded in, bowing at Discord; breathing heavily.

"My…My Lord there…there'sssssss a problem!"

OXOXOXOXOXOXO

Trixie darted through the creepy dark forest, not caring in which direction she was going, the only thing she wanted to do was get as far away from what ever those things were. Recapping the horrifying images that had just occurred in front of her. The poor Pony, how could anything murder somepony without a good reason or question? More tears beamed down Trixie's cheeks as she continued to race through the mud, hoping to find some sort of refuge to take shelter and clear her head.

The clueless Unicorn was so focused in her deep thoughts that she did not see a large root, lazily resting above the soil. She tripped and the side of her head collided with the hard dirt. Her vision became a sudden blur.

Trixie heard footsteps approach her, the sound of hooves patting against the dirt. She glanced up, only getting a glance of a stripy creature in a hood before passing out into pitch blackness…

Chapter 6

Chapter 5: Still a monster?

"Kreikie! What is the problem?" Discord questioned, eyeing the Priest closely.

"There issssss another enemy that lurksssssss in the forest" Kreikie explained with a worried look in his eyes.

Discord shunned his head and looked at the floor with a deep sigh.

"What enemy 'lurks' in the Everfree forest?" Discord mocked, emphasising on the 'lurks'.

"The Lambent my lord, the Lambent!" Kreikie watched as his 'God' laughed sinisterly at the name.

"And just what are these Lambent creatures you speak of?" Discord gave a toothy grin glued with a cocky smile.

"They are the enemy of the Locusssst, they want to overthrow the Locust army and put usssss into extinction. Once our own scale and blood; turned into ugly yellow mutants" Discord didn't know whether to believe the story or take it for a laughing joke but the tone in Kreikie seemed to convince him that it was quite serious.

"And how have they affected the mission of finding PonyVille?" Discord asked with a more serious tone than the last.

"It appears that creatures of thisssssss forest have been affected by imulsion which has changed them into Lambent monsters. One survivor tells ussssss that they can kill many and don't seem to take affect from our simple weaponry."

"Then how will you deal with these monsters?" Discord roared angrily. Kreikie coward back a little, scared by his wrath.

"F-forgive me my Lord, we will find a way. Perhaps the survivor is a little confused or just sick. Yes that's it sick, my Lord, sick" Kreikie tried desperately to calm is Lord, afraid that he may be punished.

"Very well, send out more warriors to find out how to end these 'Lambent' creatures."

Kreikie began to march outside before Discord called his name…

"And Kreikie…Do NOT fail me this time!"

"Y-yes my Lord."

"And also…when you see that 'survivor' I want him executed!"

Kreikie bowed once more before leaving the throne room where it was almost complete in decoration. The walls had been replaced from rotten, black cracked stone to a dark marble floor that contrasted with a white roof and walls. On the walls hung flags with his face printed on them.

Discord smiled evilly once more, glaring out of the window at the half built face of a statue which had almost been fully complete like he had it intended to do.

OXOXOXOXOXOXO

Carmine panted heavily as he glared at the yellow, oozing liquid that patched itself over the soil where a former Lambent Drone rested in pain (if the mutated beast even felt such a sensation). His eyes turned to the now black coloured and dead root. The yellow poison that shunned with the red and brown mixture had died away completely and left a seemingly dead root that out casted the beautiful blue sky and golden sun, a clearly unpleasant sight that could be observed from eyes of Canterlot.

Carmine reached out to touch the unknown specimen of plant, feeling it's changed harden surface; almost like rock. Carmine repelled his hand from the thing and turned around towards the new ghost town of PonyVille where only two guards graved on the floor with their blood still warm and wet amongst the surface.

Carmine slowly approached the two guards. One clearly had a bullet penetrated through his skull that created an exit on the other side; instant death. The second guard had three bullet holes that soaked blood over their armour, the body armour and helmet proved useless against bullets compared to Carmine's which could withstand a few but not too many.

He reached down and used two fingers to feel the side of the second guard's neck. No pulse. Carmine predicted he was dead as soon as he saw him but he could never be to sure, some people do survive and are or have passed out but he was certain the guard was dead. Carmine sighed deeply for the loss, after all, even though he was in a different world, he still felt sympathetic for the innocent loss and how he died so painfully.

Carmine noticed the Ponies of PonyVille still dispatched themselves from the outside, some peered there heads over and glanced at Carmine before shedding back inside when he turned to look at them. This left Carmine confused for the time being as everyPony cowered from him.

The Ponies had never seen such evil take commence in their quiet, innocent, little town. Yes, despite the vicious beasts that lurk in the swampy Everfree forest, almost everyPony played it safe and managed to survive it though who would ever venture into the Everfree in the first place? The fact that they had watched murder spring in front of them from both mysterious creatures that they had never seen before made them terrified. Especially of the lone creature that stood in front of the giant black, mysterious plant.

Twilight managed to work up the courage to step outside from a house, despite the rants of Spike and other Ponies about not going out. Carmine watched her slowly approach him, her head seemed low and her pace was rather slow.

"C-Carmine, what did…what did you do?" She finally asked shakiness evident within her throat.

"Uh-I think I just saved all of our lives…I hope" Carmine replied, taking another glance back at the root.

"B-but they…and you killed-"Twilight struggled to put the right words into place because of how terrified she had become.

"I killed them. Yes. But they killed those guys and they were gonna do the same to you" Carmine replied.

"W-were they the L-Locust you were talking about?"

"I dunno, sure as hell looked like them though…well they are less-well yellow and they sure as hell do not come out of that!" Carmine explained, pointing at the large root.

Carmine approached the root once more but with the company of Twilight sparkle. She examined the root closely but had no idea on what it could be.

"What is it?" Twilight questioned, eyeing the stalk from the very bottom to expanding her neck to see the expansion of almost four different roots.

"I'm as blind as you are man, never seen this thing before" Carmine simply replied.

Princess Luna and Celestia slowly hatched their way from the shelter of the home (with the on edge company of the remaining guards) and approached the root, there guards keeping an extra close eye on Carmine. Both Princesses were now terrified and Luna still had rivers of tears flowing gently down her face.

"Carmine, you must explain at once what in the name of Equestria just happened!" Celestia demanded. For so long had Equestria gone with peace and beauty but the simple battle had changed everything in a matter of seconds.

"Princess, I honestly have no idea; I swear. I've never even seen these things before" Carmine replied nervously.

"Are these not the Locust that you spoke of earlier?" Celestia questioned again, eyeing him closely.

"No there not, Locust doesn't have a yellow colour and don't come from…whatever that giant root thing is" Carmine repeated, pointing at the stalk again.

"T-then w-what were those demons?" Luna asked, still shaking from the past activity of being man handled by the monster.

"I seriously have no god damn idea, honest" Carmine replied, still shaken slightly.

Carmine picked up a Hammerburst assault rifle that was left behind after the Lambent Drone had exploded. Examining the ammunition pack, it contained one fully loaded magazine but the rest was most probably destroyed with the former Lambent Drone.

"Look, honestly, I have never seen those things before, they look like the Locust but they have a different appearance" Carmine explained, walking around, scavenging for more Hammerburst's that had ammunition in them.

"So that makes it Ok to kill them!" Celestia exaggerated frustration and fear hinting in her tone.

"Oh I'm sorry, would you like them to come over here and rip every single one of you limb from limb, cause that would of happened to her if I didn't do anything" Carmine replied angrier, pointing towards Luna.

"B-"Luna tried before Carmine spoke again.

"When I first came here, did I try to kill you? No. They just arrived and look what they did, killed two…um Ponies and injured a couple of others. Plus, what would you of done when that thing had…uh…Luna! Luna in its hand? Sure as hell looked like he wanted to kill her!"

There was a sudden awkward silence between the small group. Carmine retreated to the stalk whilst the others watched him. The Ponies had cautiously re entered into the sunlight but where still shaky from the past event. They proceeded no further when they noticed two dead royal guards where they all froze like statues.

Carmine reeved up his chainsaw (the only working part of his Lancer), connecting it harshly with the black rock surface. Immediately on contact, sparks flung and sizzled, scarping across Carmine's helmet. It proved useless as not even a mark had been created on the area that Carmine aimed at.

"God damn; is this thing indestructible?" Carmine thought to himself, reattaching the weapon back onto the straps on his back.

Carmine walked back towards the group of Ponies and the baby dragon, shrugging his shoulders in the process.

"Well that didn't work" Carmine explained towards the group.

"What were you trying to do?" Spike asked. Carmine gave a dumbfounded look under his helmet, not believing that he couldn't tell what he was doing.

"I was trying to cut that thing down-but nothing happened, not even a dent" Carmine told, glaring back at root.

"Princess, do you think you could teleport it away?" Twilight asked, glaring at her mentor.

"I don't see why not, care to help is Twilight? Your assistance may be needed" Celestia asked, smiling at her student.

"Oh yes please!" Twilight replied happily, taking place by her mentor's side.

Carmine watched the Ponies as they all took their places three meters in front of him, there horns shined a beautiful but different colour, Princess Celestia's being a snow white colour, Princess Luna's an ocean blue and Twilight's being a diamond purple. The lights merged together and combined, the light blinding those who were foolish enough to glare at it. EveryPony and Carmine shielded their eyes from the consuming light; after a couple of seconds the light had shunned down to normal day sunlight.

Carmine looked back in awe as the giant root that once stood almost beyond the sun had vanished out of existence.

Twilight and her mentor trotted slowly back over to Carmine who still stared at the empty air, still as a statue.

"Uh Carmine?" Twilight began, staring at the motionless soldier. Twilight tried again but a little louder. "CARMINE!"

"Ahhhh, wha?" Carmine cried, shaking left and right.

"What happened to you, were you day dreaming or something?" Twilight asked.

"Oh, uh, well…that was kinda cool" Carmine responded, glaring down at the unicorn.

"Thanks, don't you have magic where you come from?"

"No…magic is well-fake to us-"

"Benjamin, we must ask that we see you first thing in the morning to discuss important matters" Celestia began, interrupting the conversation between the two.

"What matters?" Carmine asked stupidly.

"Such matters as how you arrived here and what can be done about those things that we do not know of" Luna replied for her sister.

"Oh um, Ok I guess" Carmine replied awkwardly.

"But Princess, Carmine doesn't have a place to stay" Twilight pointed out. Her mentor simply gave a small smile.

"I'm sure I can discuss this matter with the Mayor" Celestia began walking towards the crowd of Ponies who immediately bowed. She looked down with a sad expression to the loss of her two guards.

Chapter 7

Whilst Celestia had departed shortly with the Mayor of Ponyville to discuss issues over what had just happened and about Ben living in Ponyville, the young Gear decided to take a small stroll around the alerted town of Ponyville. The small town had been shaken fully awake from the onslaught of the Lambent. Every single pony that Benjamin walked past either stared at him in curiosity or hid in fear as they were still cautious of him. Most of the town seemed perfectly normal except for the small area where he battled the unknown creatures that he believed to have looked a lot like the Locust Drones.

Benjamin constantly looked left and right at the small town. A lot of the ponies seemed hesitant to look at him directly in the eyes. Then again, a foreign being in rock hard armour, loud and terrifying weaponry and bright glowing blue eyes from the helmet did make him come across as a dangerous being in general. Ben, of course, was a soldier and a killer. His actions were deadly and ferocious for pony eyes but they were necessary as the Lambent Drones would have executed them without mercy. Ben couldn't shake the thought of the yellow glowing liquid that was pouring from the creatures. The more Ben thought about it, the more he seemed to believe that the yellow substance looked a lot like the imulsion fuel that he and a lot of humans had used back on Sera.

Crossing another street, Ben entered a street that had a bakery that was labelled 'Sugarcube Corner' and seemed very bright in colour. Sugarcube corner was very bright and attractive in colour. The mixture of pink, brown, purple, white and the top design of the building made out to look like cupcakes made the building seem almost like a child's dream house. Ben, from underneath his helmet, smiled at the unique appearance of Sugarcube corner. It certainly wasn't anything that you would find, even before 'Emergence Day', within the land of Sera. However, despite the odd appearance, Ben felt somewhat relaxed by its visual elements. The spatial elements isolated the bakery from the rest of the ordinary homes which meant that there was a lot of room for massive crowds to walk around. Probably, the bakery was one of the main attractions of the town and therefore required a certain amount of space away from the homes so that there was enough room for all the ponies to walk and shop.

Slowly, Ben moved his head down and looked at the bottom left window. A small figure was staring at him through the glass. Ben tried to look closer at the small figure that stood by the window but he had no luck. As he slowly walked towards the window, the little figure became clearer through the small light shining from inside the bakery. From appearance, the small figure was a little orange coat foal that stared at him in a mixture of curiosity and uncertainty. The giant azure eyes of the baby foal continued to stare at him as he slowly moved forward towards the window. However, another figure appeared behind the baby foal and picked the foal up and moved away. The light suddenly went out.

"Are you lost, Benjamin Carmine?" A sudden voice asked. Ben screamed in fear and fell to the ground as he turned around. Luna laughed at the young rookie and apologised for scaring him. Ben laughed hesitantly as he pulled himself together.

"Whoa…uh, hey, how did you-"Ben started before Luna unfolded her wings in front of him.

"Alicorns such as me and my sister are granted the ability to fly and possess greater powers than the average unicorn," Luna explained whilst Ben hushed himself down. "You said in your world, Benjamin Carmine, that magic does not exist in any way…is that correct?"

"Uh, yeah I said that. Why?" Ben asked.

"I find it hard to imagine how in your world, such forces such as the sun, the moon and the weather are simply left to be controlled on their on free will. Within the Everfree forest, the weather and animals run on their own time and are not controlled by our magic. The beings within the haunting forest are very feral and dangerous, Benjamin Carmine, so how has an intelligent being such as yourself survived in a world where it contains a similar context of the Everfree forest?" Luna asked, staring at him with the taste of knowledge and curiosity.

Ben thought about what Luna had just said to him. He tried to figure out where to begin with answering the question.

"Well, I guess we used a lot of machines to do stuff for us." Benjamin replied.

"Tell me about the human machinery. How does it differ compared to the small machinery of Equestria?" Luna asked, intrigued further.

"Well, we have cars and stuff which take us to places where we need to be which is faster than walking. Cars, helicopters, phones, you name it. It made life easier I guess, but we use machinery to help the COG in battles and stuff. Some stuff is pretty awesome!" Ben told.

"Such devices that you currently possess are what you make for your 'COG' army?" Luna asked again. Without realising, they had already started walking blindly around Ponyville whilst engaged in their conversation.

"Oh this? No, no, no, this is not ours. This is what a Locust would use. We have something much, much cooler!" Ben stated with a hint of excitement in his voice. "We use a Lancer. It's got some awesome chainsaw thing at the end which is really useful when the Locust get a little too close. I guess, from what I heard, when the Locust first attacked us, we had a rifle similar to the Lancer but it was called a 'Retro-Lancer of some sort. It had some huge blade at the end but it wasn't good against the Locust."

"These Locust creatures that you speak of…what are they? And why do you want to…kill each other so bad?" A hint of worry slowly sank into Luna's voice as her eyes poisoned themselves with sadness.

Ben stopped for a short moment. He turned and looked at the princess of the night.

"I dunno why they want to kill us so bad, but they just want to for some reason. I never listen to what the COG soldiers said back on Sera. Although, I did listen to some rumours. Check this, one guy in basic, he thought that they came from 'Risea' or one of the moons and that they feed on Imulsion. But the truth was that they were living under us the whole time! But seriously, the Locust are scary, man. They're big, scaly and have some freaky faces! Clayton, my brother, seemed the bravest of us when we were signing up for the COG. Hell, I wish I was as brave as him. "Ben replied. He didn't exactly give the exact answer to Luna's question, but it was still as useful for her to know.

Ben and Luna stopped when they had realised that they had been walking idly around. They found themselves next to the Ponyville spa where two ponies from a window were looking at them. They both looked exactly like one another with the exception of their mane and coat colour. One possessed a blue painted coat and a silky pink mane whilst the colour pattern of the other pony was switched from the first pony. Their faces were of a mixture glee and curiosity.

It was then that Ben had thought of something.

"You said you were an 'Alicorn' right?" He asked.

"That is correct, Benjamin Carmine," Luna responded.

"Well…if you can fly and do magic…then why are there these flying ponies and unicorns?"

"Ah, so you wish to know about the history of Equestria!" Luna said with glee. "Very well, I shall tell you."

"Actually I-"Ben tried to say. However Luna had already started explaining, so he sighed and decided to listen.

"Before my sister and I ruled Equestria, it was firstly divided into three tribes: the Earth, the Unicorns and the Pegasi. The Earth tribe knew how to plant and grow food, but the Unicorns controlled day and night and the Pegasi controlled the weather. They demanded food from the Earth tribe if they wished for the weather to remain right and for the sun to rise and set. Clearly there was mistrust between the three tribes. This mistrust led to a mysterious blizzard across the land which led to famine. The three tribes left the land and searched for a new, but the place that they were happy with was the same place that their enemies had chosen which led them to arguing as to who the land belonged to.

This hatred caused the wind to follow and blanket their land in thick snow. The assistants of the three leaders had found out that it was 'Windigos' causing the blizzard through feeding on their hatred. The assistants' friendship created the magical Fire of Friendship which rid away the Windigos and the snowstorm. The three leaders then decide to join forces and found a country shared by all three tribes, and name it Equestria."

Ben stared at the princess of the night. He was clearly intrigued by Equestria's history.

"Whoa! That's awesome!" Ben exclaimed.

"Yes…but then a tyrant soon took over the rule of Equestria. His name was Discord and he was the master of madness and chaos. Before me and my sister stood up to his reign, he kept Equestria under unrest and unhappiness. He found torturing the ponies with his chaos and mind games hugely amusing. However, when I and Celestia stood up to his wrath, we discovered the 'Elements of Harmony' and used them to capture Discord within a stone prison. But he escaped his prison and was free for a second time. But it was the courage and the bravery of Twilight Sparkle and her friends that captured Discord in a second stone prison."

Ben stood silent as Luna looked out at the sky. Celestia's sun was slowly starting to sink below the Everfree forest. Luna's horn started to light as she suddenly hovered into the air. Ben looked on in a mixture of uncertainty, amazement and panic at the same time.

A bright blue aura began to shape around Princess Luna as her horn grew brighter. An illusion of a moon painted itself behind Luna as her eyes suddenly blossomed a beautiful white colour. The performance of magic only lasted a few moments before the bright white moon erected into the sky. Luna slowly levitated back onto the soil and turned to look at the awe-struck rookie. She cleared her throat to snap his attention awake.

"That…was…amazing!" Ben said, at loss with words.

Luna turned her eyes away, blushing from the compliment.

"Why thank you, Benjamin Carmine." She replied happily.

Before another word was exchanged, Princess Celestia had flown directly towards the pair and landed beside her sister.

"Evening sister, and Carmine," Celestia started. Ben let off a weak and small salute whist Luna nodded towards her sister. "Benjamin Carmine, the discussion over staying in Ponyville has come to a negative decision. There is simply no room in this town for you to stay in. So therefore, I have made it my decision that you have been granted a room within Canterlot castle."

Luna smiled and Benjamin simply stood as if nothing special had happened.

"This is at least some good news for us, sister," Luna started, "Benjamin Carmine can tell you the past of his people as he has done with me. Some is interesting whilst others are…most cruel."

"Ah, great!" Ben thought to himself, not happy with the idea of having to rethink everything about the COG and Sera.

Chapter 8

Chapter 7: Tensions

The ride back to Canterlot was short and quick for Benjamin. Throughout most of the rid, he was staring down at the ground below him. However, it was Luna that constantly stared between him and then back outside the window. A new carriage had been sent from Canterlot to escort the princesses back since their first one was obliterated by the Lambent. Luna couldn't help but wonder about the mysterious human being. From his personality, she could tell easily that he was a rookie among his ranks from his lack of disciplined behaviour. However, his green as grass nature put a smile on Luna's face as he was indeed a curious being with much to tell about his race and his home. Also, he had saved her life from the yellow mutant whom had so beastly clutched Luna's mane and attempted to end her life.

The haunting image of what Luna remembered inflicted her with great fear. From what she remembered, a filthy and hideous face with poisonous glowing eyes stared at her with the lust to murder her. She still felt the throbbing pain from where the creature had so heavily clutched her mane. Luna reached for her the back of her head to the root of where the pain was indicating itself to be. Luckily, she had not lost that part of her mane but the pain was growing every time Luna thought about it. Her sister noticed the pain in Luna's eyes and gently rubbed her head against Luna's.

"Are you okay, Luna?" She asked with concern.

"I am fine, sister," Luna responded lightly.

Ben continued to stare out the carriage at the sights of Equestria. Clearly, he was too fascinated with the sights to have been noticing the quiet conversation with the two royal princesses.

"What do you think of this Benjamin character?" Celestia asked her sister quietly as if it were a big secret.

"He is…strange. He possesses a personality which is kind, gentle and caring but claims to be a soldier from his world. It does not fit together for him. Compared to our Royal Guards back at the castle who are very will disciplined, Benjamin Carmine seems carefree about situations," Luna responded quietly.

"I see," Celestia replied, "but his actions back at Ponyville proved that he is brave and courageous against those monsters."

Luna shredded once more at the thought of the yellow mutant that nearly ended her life. But her thoughts changed when she concentrated on her saviour. Benjamin had been the one to have saved Luna by ending the monster's life with his Long-shot sniper rifle. If not for Ben's action, Luna would have been dragged out into the open and become exposed. Luna did not want to think of what the monster would have done to her if Ben had not been there.

"Yes, sister, his actions did save me from a certain awful fate. What would we have done if not for the actions of Benjamin Carmine, sister? Our poor guards' lives were robbed by those monsters. We had no guards left other than Benjamin Carmine," Luna continued. She switched her eyes between the distracted rook and her sister.

"We could have used our magic to stop them, Luna. However, I fear that these monsters cannot simply be stopped by the power of our magic. Also, I could have saved if I wasn't so afraid of these hideous creatures," Celestia sadly responded. A tone of guilt was easily noticeable for Luna and she rubbed her head against her sister's.

"Do not fell bad for what you could have done, sister, I was just as scared as you were," Luna sighed.

The sound of wheels suddenly hitting the ground alerted the princesses as they looked outside to find that they had arrived at Canterlot. Once the carriage had reached the Canterlot castle, Princess Celestia and Luna noticed that there were a row of guards waiting for their arrival. When the two princesses and the one COG soldier exited the carriage, they noticed that the Canterlot castle drawbridge was down and that there were two figures waiting for them.

One their left, there stood another Alicorn. She possessed a dark violet mane with moderate rose and golden streaks and her coat was a beautiful pink colour. Her eyes were a greyish purple but they had the power to melt any heart that they met. Her cutie mark revealed itself to be a teal crystal heart within a golden lace. Wrapped around her horn was a ring. On their right was a male unicorn that also had a ring on his horn. He held a simple charming look in his moderate blue eyes but they showed his character as being one of charm and kindness, but at the same time seriousness and strength. He held a simple white coat and owned a cutie mark that had a shield with one big purple star in the middle and three smaller blue ones above it.

They were none other than Princess Cadance and Shining Armor.

As Cadance and Shining Armor walked towards the three, both gasped at the dreadful state that they were all in. Both Luna and Celestia's manes were a mess and there was imulsion covered over Benjamin Carmine's suit. They quickly rushed over to the three.

"Goodness! Are you okay?" Cadance asked with worry.

"Don't worry, Cadance, we're fine," Celestia responded calmly with a smile on her face, "but we have a serious issue that we need to talk about right now!"

"What are covered in?" Shining Amor questioned to Benjamin. He was glaring at his armour that was covered in imulsion that had dried itself during the ride to Canterlot.

"Ew, gross!" Ben cried out aloud as he stared at his armour in disbelief, "what is this?" Ben moaned aloud. The three princesses had already begun walking into the castle but Shining Armor had held Benjamin to have a word with him.

"What happened back in Ponyville?" Shining Armor questioned the young rook. His voice turned sharp and hostile.

"Well, they were meant to be having a party or something like that for me, but these two massive things just came up from the ground and then these things dropped out and started shooting everything," Ben responded.

"What! Is every pony okay? What about my sister, Twilight, is she alright?" Shining Armor questioned with a mixture of fear, anger and worry.

"Most were okay…but-"Benjamin started.

"Is Twilight okay!?" Shining Armor repeated louder and deadlier.

"Whoa! Yeah she's fine. But two of those guards were killed…sorry man," Benjamin said sadly and innocently.

An awkward silence suddenly exploded between Shining Armor and Benjamin Carmine. Shining Armor stared at Benjamin with the obvious look of mistrust and hostility. Shining Armor did not trust the human. He was a foreign creature in their world that was not new to violence and does have the courage to take a life. Shining Armor didn't like the fact that he hardly knew anything about these creatures that attacked Ponyville and the princesses, and he also disliked his lack of knowledge on Benjamin Carmine and his species as a total. He didn't know if Benjamin was actually a friend of theirs or if it was a bluff and he was an evil being with the means to hurt and destroy. The fact that two of his guards were dead, as well as the injured princesses to add, made Shining Armor more suspicious of Benjamin and he wasn't going to accept him as easily as the rest did.

"How…did my guards die?" Shining Armor asked with sadness, slight rage and curiosity.

"Some things just jumped out of this giant stalk thingy and started shooting at us. When I killed them, I saw two of em on the floor with bullet holes. One was straight through the head and the other had three in his chest," Ben replied casually.

"Just how did you deal with these things which my guards couldn't handle?" Shining Armor questioned, his voice growing angrier by the minute.

"I used my rifle," Ben said as he pulled out his Longshot rifle," pretty awesome, huh?"

"What did you say your name was again?" Shining Armor quickly asked.

"Ben."

"Listen, Ben, I don't know exactly what happened out in Ponyville today, but what I do know is that there is something I simply do not like about your presence here in Equestria. Two of my guards are dead today, and you were the one there at the time of their deaths. I don't know whether a 'giant thing' really did appear out of nowhere but your story does not add up. I will let you wonder around freely here in Canterlot but I and my guards will be watching you very closely. Maybe I am wrong…but I know danger when I see it, and you are definitely a danger to every pony around us. If another pony is innocently murdered with you around, then you will be held responsible!" Shining Armor stated before barging past the young rook.

"The hell's your problem?" Ben called back at the angered captain. Shining Armor ignored his protest and continued to march on. The other guards stared at the young human with the same look as their captain. Not noticing the looks, Ben decided to wonder around the city of Canterlot in order to try and forget Shining Armor's threat.

Chapter 9

Chapter 8: "Welcome to Canterlot, dear chap!"

The city streets of Canterlot held a fabric of beauty and amazement for Ben. Being so used to the waves of destroyed rubble and gloomy atmosphere, the bright and rather rich taste that Canterlot elaborated itself with was rather weird and unnatural for Ben, but that did not mean he didn't enjoy it. However, he felt rather self conscious and awkward at the fact that the inhabitants of Canterlot were not too warm welcoming with his sudden arrival into the upper rich cultural city, and the fact that he realised that he had the Royal Guards trying to follow him around at a distance didn't help him feel any better. As he slowly walked through the streets, he watched as different ponies walked around with their eyes closed and their heads held high as if they held some form of a social importance and wanted to seek the attention of others in order to show off their wealth. Others positioned themselves for some expensive and well made tea and cake while they spoke of matters which most probably did not interest the young gear. What activities they were doing was not of interest to Carmine, but what did catch his attention was all the ungrateful eyes and attention he was receiving from them. Most, after staring with curiosity, spat a sign of disgust towards him while they walked past him like he was some form of slave or degenerate. Despite their cruel behaviour, their dress was some what strange and mildly amusing for Ben. He could have sworn he saw one of ponies wearing a feathery bird on their heads.

Ben continued to walk slowly through more of the streets, and still he received the glares of curiosity of some of the upper class but most seemed to have the initiative to consider their presence too worthy for him. But what Ben noticed the most, from the gathering of neatly laughing posh ponies, was one particular pony that stood in the middle of the crowd with a jolly smile on his face. His features were bright and cheerful: a bright azure mane, accompanied by azure eyes, a mixture of a white and light grey coat and a tuxedo fitted from his neck to his stomach. There were three golden crowns with purple jewels in the middle of them which resembled his cutie mark. The unicorn seemed friendly from his appearance and his smile gave off as one of those respectable tolerating types that do not judge upon first appearance. From what Ben could see, the unicorn was suddenly looking at him, but his reaction was different compared to the other ponies around Canterlot. His look was a half smile with a glint of extreme curiosity in both his sparkling eyes. And then, he slowly and calmly walked over to the young soldier.

"I say," he began with a high tone to show his curiosity beckoning further, "who might you be?"

"I'm Private Benjamin Carmine…and you are?" Benjamin replied with a question of his own.

"Wow indeed, you do speak of our language. You must be an intelligent young fellow! Oh I beg your pardon how rude of me! I am Fancypants, a pleasure to meet you, Mr Benjamin." Fancypants replied jovially.

"Uh, thanks I guess."

"Do mind me asking, but what are you; if I may ask?"

"I'm a soldier for the COG army; that's 'Coalition of Ordered Governments…I think."

"How interesting, Benjamin Carmine, but what I meant was your species."

"Oh! I'm a human."

"A human, you say? How rather interesting! We've never encountered such beings as a 'human' in all of Equestria. Don't mind me saying but you are clearly quite the eye catcher when it comes down to it. I believe that it is your unique appearance. Tell me, chap, is that your style of dress or your actual flesh and bone?"

Carmine didn't know what to think of this strange character that he had just met, but somehow he liked him thanks to his polite behaviour; but at the same time the behaviour did bother him to an extent. He was by far the friendliest pony that he had met in Canterlot, but that was the very problem. He seemed too friendly. Benjamin couldn't figure out why exactly this particular upper class pony was being so nice to him, and what made the situation more disturbing was the fact that the ponies that had so earlier spat hideous looks towards him suddenly painted smiles on their faces. It was getting too weird for him as they suddenly accepted him as if they had known him as a life long friend. Their smiles, from what they believed, seemed to be comforting but to Ben they seemed just creepy. His side track made him suddenly realise that he had been asked a question and quickly responded.

"Oh you mean this? Nah, it's my uniform."

"I see. So, Mr Carmine, what brings you to Canterlot?"

"The princesses brought me and said that I needed to explain some things that happened a while ago…oh crap!" Ben thought to himself as he had forgotten that Princess Celestia wanted to speak to him earlier.

"You know the princesses!?"

"Yeah, and I was supposed to meet one of them right now!"

"Oh my, well you better hurry along, old sport."

"I'm way ahead of ya."

"Oh and Mr Benjamin," Fancypants cried out which caused Ben to turn around one more time, "I have a private box for the Wonderbolt derby. I would be honoured if you could attend. I would like you to meet some very important ponies that would be interested in you."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ben replied too quickly that he didn't acknowledge what he was saying.

"And welcome to Canterlot, dear chap!"

OXO

"Lissssssssssten, you foolsssss! Our massssster hasss ordered an elite attack at the closssssest town, Ponyville, in order to expand our headquarters. Massster Discord hasss ordered for a Berserker with a large attack force. If we want to conquer thisss land then we mussst ssstrike now!"

A large range of frontline Drones were lined up and cheering incoherently as the captain of their army spoke of Discord's plans for dominating Equestria and removing Celestia from the throne. Discord had already informed Kreikie, from his experience, that Ponyville was a small and unguarded town that contained the Elements of Harmony. Discord had strictly informed Kreikie that he wanted all six of them alive, but captured quickly before they could gain their necklaces and the single crown that belonged to Twilight Sparkle. The rest of the inhabitants were to be executed on sight and with no mercy. A total of four hundred Drones had been organised for the assault on the small town. Kreikie did question, however, why his master had chosen such a weak and feeble town for their first target, but refused to question further as he had faith in his 'god' and would show his full support for his methods and ideologies. Kreikie preached and bellowed the very words that Discord had told him and he wanted to make sure that the less intelligent Locust understood fully what was going to happen. He watched intensively as the Locust loaded their weapons and how nearly twenty to thirty Drones were trying to attach a chain to one of the Berserkers while it ferociously swung its massive fists in blind rage.

From what Discord had told him, he wanted the town to be destroyed to the ground and left as a symbol and warning of the chaos that the Locust could spread. It would also be a sign of the nearing victory for Discord and his Locust army. The dead bodies laid in between the rubble would be a fear striking symbol of the ponies' peril under the Locust boot. However, Discord had thoroughly informed the captain that the ponies they came across, whether they're survivors from the Ponyville massacre or ponies randomly met on the roads then would be captured by the Locust Horde and enslaved as their workers. Kreikie liked the idea of watching the suffering of the inferior species and how it would be pleasurable watching their faces squirm under their dictatorship and authority. They would provide an amazing source of entertainment for them whenever they were bored.

Kreikie's thoughts made the time travel at a ridiculous speed as he realised that the Berserker had been tamed and the Drones were ready to move out. He nodded his head in approval at the gate guards who nodded back and slowly began to rotate the lever. The two giant wooden gate doors slowly stretched open and made a loud 'thud' when they hit the walls. The Berserker, for the safety of the Drones, was the first to leave the gates before being followed by the entire force. There was a chant and a couple of cheers before Kreikie was the last one to exit the gates before they closed. He wanted to witness the onslaught first hand so that he could deliver the successful news to his master.

An evil smile stabbed its way onto his filthy face.

Chapter 10

Chapter 9: The enemy of my enemy

Whilst the princesses had waited for Benjamin's late arrival, Celestia had sent a letter to Twilight Sparkle which informed her that she should send an update on the status of Ponyville. The princess of the day feared for another attack on the innocent town of Ponyville. She had already ordered for several of her guards to guard the town so that they could do their best to protect the inhabitants that prospered in Ponyville. Refusing to accept another injured subject, she strictly informed her guards to evacuate the area immediately if the creatures or stalks were to return, and she had mentioned in her letter to Twilight that she should inform Spike that if the creatures were to return then she was to be notified immediately. She had also informed the director of the newspaper that the front page of the newspapers in every town, city and village should contain warnings of the stalks and the creatures that nightmarishly blossomed from them.

When the reckless rookie had finally arrived at the throne room, their discussions could officially begin. Ben immediately noticed Shining Armor spitting a hideous and untrustworthy glare towards him. Something within Ben made him slightly pissed off with the way he was being treated by Shining Armor alone. Coming to think about it, Ben realised that all the guards seemed to be, rather than standing around like lemons like they usually did, giving him misguided and filthy glared as well. At that very moment, Ben felt a very nervous and isolated feeling that almost injected him with a poisonous claustrophobic feeling. Being a rookie, green as grass and bone idle all at once never usually made him focused on the minor dangers that could possibly surround him. Of course, back on Sera he was always kept awake as he feared that he would be waking up to see the boot of a Locust coming down to obliterate his skull. However, the sudden thought that raced through his mind was the fact that he was the only human in this foreign world. It was then that the whole situation had actually dawned on him as he came to an understanding of what exactly happened since he awoke from the prison. The feeling of being an outcast had never sunk so deep inside the rookie before. Usually his light headed and enthusiastic ego never allowed him to become so focused on the evil and awful situations. There were a few scenarios such as Tai's death which horrified him as he always looked up to those within the COG army who had fought since the Pendulum Wars.

"Benjamin," Princess Celestia stared which caused Ben to snap out of his trance," We need to talk about the recent events that have happened in Ponyville."

"Look, I already told you, I don't know anything about those yellow things that attacked us," Benjamin replied almost immediately. His rude and agrestic behaviour in front of the princess was causing his reputation with the Royal Guards, despite already being low and uneasy, to sink even further.

"Well yes, I do remember you telling me this. However, you did mention of these 'Locust' creatures earlier. I would like you to explain to me what they are, and what ever information you told my sister I would like you to explain to me," Princess Celestia almost demanded.

Benjamin, feeling slightly forced and almost bored of having to explain everything again, retold the story while a pony with a quill and pen jotted down everything that he said. Benjamin, inside his mind, started to question the very princess in front of him. He understood that he was foreign, dangerous and was there when the Lambent first made their appearance in Ponyville, but the way that they were treating him after he saved the lives of the two princesses made him slightly frustrated. Was it the bonding of sudden homesickness that helped fuel his disliking to the princess and the land he was in? Was it the fact that he was so used to the violence, the destruction, the humans, the Locust, and the very place on Sera, which he could call home, which caused him a sudden feeling of misplacement?

"Princess, can you be sure that what he is telling us is true?" Shining Armor whispered to Princess Celestia.

"I can't be exactly sure, but I do have a feeling that he is telling as much as he possibly can," the princess responded before asking a question of her own. "Don't you trust him?"

"No, your majesty," Shining Armor responded harshly and accidently, All these recent activities has happened ever since he was first discovered in Equestria. If I didn't know any better, I believe that he has some sort of connection to all this. I have my guards keeping eyes on him in case he tries anything suspicious."

"Now, now Shining Armor, is there really any need for any sort of crude actions to be taken against him? After all, he is a guest here in Equestria, and we do want to make him feel as welcome as possible," Princess Celestia responded in a motherly tone.

"Yes, I understand, your majesty, but I'm just doing my duty to protect the ponies around Equestria. We know hardly anything of Benjamin and his purpose here in Equestria. We also don't know him fully as in his background. How can we know that what he is telling us is the truth? I'm sorry princess but two guards lost their lives today and I'm not taking any chances," Shining Armor responded whilst staring at the rookie who seemed to be deep in thought.

"Yes, Shining Armor, I understand your concern but you do not have any evidence that proves him as being guilty for the weird enemy haunting below the Equestrian soil. We cannot simply scapegoat Benjamin because the creatures arrived upon his presence. Until we uncover the truth, we should be marvelling and fascinated about his presence here. We should make him feel as welcome as possible in Equestria so that we don't leave a bad impersonation on ourselves. And I hope, seeing as the pair of you are fighters and warriors, you would be getting along just fine and actually exchanging stories of each other's experiences," Princess Celestia replied whilst she eyed the captain.

"That's going to be a little complicated your majesty. I believe that our little 'guest' here is already known to my hostility and mistrust of his presence here."

"Well then, I make it your duty to start over a new with Benjamin and make him more comfortable for him while he stays here in the castle."

Shining Armor almost gave a look of shock towards the princess but quickly removed it before she took offence. He simply nodded in response and turned to look at the Gear who stood idly and, most probably, bored.

"Shining Armor," Princess Celestia stated aloud which gained the attention of the bored rookie," I would like you to take Mr Benjamin Carmine on a tour around the castle. It would be nice for him to get a better understanding of his surroundings so that he feels more at home."

With reluctance, Shining Armor bowed at her request.

"Keep up," Shining Armor ordered harshly," I don't have all day."

"Awesome, I'm going on an adventure with my biggest fan! How exciting," Ben sarcastically whined as he slowly began to follow the captain.

"Watch your mouth-"Shining Armor started before the door that led to the giant throne room swung open harshly. A guard quickly entered who seemed to have been out of breath.

"Your majesty…" He started but was simply lost with words and out of breath to say more.

"What is it?" Celestia demanded with her authority.

"She…she has returned!" The guard replied almost dramatically.

"Who has returned?"

"Queen Chrysalis!"

Chapter 11

Chapter 10: Confrontation

Benjamin quickly found himself dashing with Shining Armor and some other guards as they scurried towards the location of the Changeling Queen. He had know idea why all of the guards were rushing so quickly, but he questioned himself even more as he wondered why he was running with them and not going on with his own business. But a part of the young Gear actually wanted to know who 'Queen Chrysalis 'was and why she had spooked Princess Celestia, Shining Armor and the guards so easily. A small part of Carmine actually felt excited for what he was going to see. What did she look like? Was she hideous and ugly like the old rumours that the gears had formerly passed down from generation of Gears about how filthy and disgusting Queen Myrrah must have looked like. Nevertheless, Benjamin continued to follow the guards until they made it outside and immediately began following the guard who had informed them of Chrysalis's presence. From what he could tell, more guards were ahead and loud shouting was more notable to Benjamin, and he noticed how Shining Armor's face had changed into that which was filled with pure rage and anger. Meeting the large crowd of guards who had their spears sharpened and aggressively pointing in a single direction, Shining Armor barged through the crowded guards along with the baffled rook.

You," Shining Armor retorted with a hiss as the Queen came into view," What do you want? You have no right in being here; not after your intrusion of my wedding and false identity of my wife!" He stated harshly at Queen Chrysalis. There was a silence from the Queen as she did not reflect any sort of emotion from her face or lips. Benjamin didn't know whether to draw his weapon at this point because he didn't know how dangerous Chrysalis was, but he was too fascinated with the fact that all the attention that was being endured with Chrysalis. What he was fascinated with most was the holes, big and small, that patched around her body.

"Relax your guards, captain, for I come in peace!" Queen Chrysalis stated almost desperately as she raised her hoof as a sign of peace towards the hardened captain. The hardened captain's eyes didn't move an inch as he continued to watch closely in case the Queen attempted to pull a fast move over them. Benjamin stood quietly behind a couple guards that stood behind Shining Armor which, for the short while, blocked any clear sightings for the Queen. However, Benjamin could just about make out her appearance through the shoulders of the guards and their wings. If there was any sort of sighting that could have been made by the Queen, then it would have been noticeable from the two specs of glowing blue eyes from his helmet in between the shoulders of the guards.

"How can we trust you? For all we could know, this could be nothing but a pathetic attempt of yours to try and take over Canterlot and Equestria! Do you really think that we're that foolish? We won't fall for your tricks a second time, Chrysalis!" Shining Armor's voice was loud, strong, heroic and brave as he had taken a small step further in front of his guards to show his position as a step higher than his guards, and it also showed his bravery and courage in standing up to seeming tyrant like Chrysalis.

"Please, you do not understand, Shining Armor, we have come here in need of-"The Queen tried to explain to the strict captain, but the sound of stirring and movement interrupted her speech. From Shining Armor and Benjamin's left, Princess Celestia, Luna and Cadance were walking through the crowd of guards whilst they quickly and hastily tried to create enough room for their rulers to walk through. Princess Celestia had quickly informed her sister and niece of Queen Chrysalis's presence and had been quick to arrive at her side.

"What is going on here?" Princess Celestia demanded in a tone that could frighten the very soul out of a pony.

"Your majesty, Queen Chrysalis has returned to Canterlot," Shining Armor responded as he walked over and stood slightly in front of his wife in fear that Queen Chrysalis would try and extract revenge on him and Cadance.

Princess Celestia turned her eyes towards the Queen as she stood seemingly unbalanced in front of her. A stare down issued between the two contrasting royalties as neither seemed to break their eye contact. Recalling the events that had happened between the first encounters when they had first met eye to eye, hostility was inevitable between the Changelings and the Royal Guards and Princess Celestia and Queen Chrysalis. The sharpness of the guards' spears already sent a message to Queen Chrysalis that they weren't willing to negotiate so easily and the misguiding looks that were shot by the three princesses and the captain didn't support her chances either. The air suddenly felt incredibly tight for the Queen as she reconsidered if traveling back to Canterlot, where their morality and status wasn't exactly friendly and welcoming, was actually a good idea; but she remembered that going to Canterlot was their only option since Princess Celestia was the one with power over all the decisions in Equestria. She had to explain her situation, and what she found in the Everfree forest fast if she was ever going to possibly be forgiven or helped. Recalling back to when her Changeling army ravaged over Canterlot and fed on the love of the innocent ponies, Queen Chrysalis was starting to lose her words. It was as if a labyrinth had evolved inside her mind and replaced her thoughts all over the maze. Acquiring the right words at such a crucial moment was vital if Chrysalis was ever going to save her race. One wrong word, one wrong move and everything that she was trying to possess in order to survive would be lost. And the very thing she wanted was refuge in Canterlot and protection of her Changelings!

"Psst, bro," Benjamin whispered to a guard whose ears pricked at his hissed whispering. Clearly it had worked. "Who is that?" Not much the Benjamin's surprise, the guard shot a filthy glare and turned his attention back towards the current threat.

"State your business back here in Canterlot, now!" The princess of the sun demanded and stepping almost violently forward. From the look in her eyes, it was clear that some unnatural form of revenge had portrayed itself in her eyes. The possibility of it being the fact that Queen Chrysalis had humiliated her in front of her subjects by defeating her, impersonating her niece and ruining the Royal Wedding, and harming and terrorising and disrupting the peace that reigned throughout Canterlot. The chances of her being able to convince the princess to allow her subjects refuge was growing to its peak of denial. The Queen hesitated before replying…

"Princess Celestia, as I was trying to explain to your captain, I have comer here in need of…help." It was as she had expected, but yet she couldn't prepare herself for the uproar that suddenly erupted from the guards, the bystanders and the three princesses themselves. And from what else she could make out, there were symptoms of laughter just to add to her embarrassment and humiliation in front of her mutual enemies. Her ears spiked down as her face painted that of a weeping dog as she stared at the ground. However, the laughter died down when the serious Princess Celestia, who had refused to laugh at her need, raised her hoof in order to silence her guards and subjects.

"You come to Canterlot in seek of 'help'? Have you not forgotten what had happened the last time with the presence of you and your Changeling army? Just why should I help you when you had attempted to disrupt the peace and conquer Equestria?" The princess of the sun continued to stare with signs of obvious mistrust and hostility.

"Please, Celestia let me explain!" Queen Chrysalis forcefully demanded as her tone almost sounded desperate but at the same time forceful and assertive. Princess Celestia, and her niece and sister, were taken back in shock at how their enemy was speaking to them, but yet still wanted shelter and help from them. This further angered Princess Celestia. However, Princess Cadance interrupted the conversation as she pushed past her husband and aunt.

"You expect us to help you? You ruined my wedding, played with the heart of my husband and friends and pretended to be me! How dare you to even think that you could simply walk into here and think that we would accept you into Canterlot! Have you no shame?" Cadance's voice almost broke as she stared with undying hatred towards the Queen. Coming from the princess who was supposed to uphold the values of love, seeing such fierce manners pouring from her words and gestures had surprisingly made her look slightly more intimidating than what she was supposed to be. It came to much of a surprise to the Changeling Queen that Cadance had made herself out to be more intimidating as usual since her magic was only capable of dominating powers whenever her husband was present. But seeing such powerful emotions bloom from her was not what Queen Chrysalis had been expecting.

"Such actions that you and your Changelings have committed should have you and your Changelings banned from Equestria altogether and banished permanently into the dark depths of the Everfree forest!" Princess Luna had entered the conversation and showed no respect or acceptance for the Changeling Queen. Although her presence was absent during the invasion of the Changelings, Princess Luna was still informed of the actions made by the Changelings, but they were dealt with in her absence which allowed her to join the wedding just in time to see her niece and Shining Armor depart for their Honeymoon.

During the hostility between the Changelings and the ponies, Benjamin had never felt so lost in all his life. He had tried to keep up with what was being said, but his lack of knowledge on the rivalry between the two species only caused him to sink into further confusion whilst he idly watched on as the debate continued. His eyes continued to switch between the three princesses and the single Queen as they continued to argue and debate about the immigration of the Queen and her Changelings. So far, things had not been going well for the Queen and she was starting to lose any hopes of being accepted into Canterlot. She went for her final and probably most moral decision.

"Princess Celestia, you simply do not understand what my kind has been through in order to get to Canterlot. Just look at some of my Changelings!" The Changeling Queen side stepped and allowed a few of the injured Changelings to be visible to the three princesses.

There was a sudden gasp of surprise and horror as some of the Changelings stepped forward. They looked slightly younger than the ordinary sized Changelings which clearly meant that they were young Changelings. Not young as you would find a baby, nor toddler, but that of which they were Changelings that were just entering their final stages of being a teen before reaching adulthood. However, what shocked them the most was the monstrous and disgusting damage that had been done to their bodies and faces. One of these Changelings, pained in one simple eye, had his left eye completely missing and drenched in blood. There had been little effort at healing the wound as the magic of the Queen was weak from the struggling famine of lacking love for them to feed on. A second Changeling had multiple scratches over the face and body, and it was clear he had suffered the least from the shocking display of the third Changeling. So utterly damaged and broken, the third Changeling had to be carried on the back of another fit Changeling. The suffering Changeling's left wing had been totally ripped off as the core of the wing contained dried up blood and pieces of Changeling flesh hung from the core. And from the look of its right fore hoof, it appeared to have been twisted as if something had taken it and twisted it all the way around until it had completely disconnected from the other bone. The sight was totally unpleasant and the looks of mercy and help that projected from their face totally abolished any signs of hostility in the princesses and replaced it with sympathy.

An awkward silence suddenly entered the gap between the two races as they succumbed to their own minds and slowly absorbed everything that had happened. And after the long and eerie silence, Princess Celestia broke the silence with a gentle but hard to explain question.

"How…how did this happen?" Her voice had changed and was almost stuttering as if she was afraid that the wrong question would offend the broken Changelings. Queen Chrysalis seemed extremely hesitant in explaining, but she noticed her chance as soon as the tone Celestia's voice changed and believed that it could have been her only chance of actually convincing the princesses.

"We were attacked," the Queen started with clear reluctance at recalling the events since her response was distant," While my Changelings and I were searching for food and some place to call our new home, these creatures suddenly appeared from the depths of the darkness of the Everfree, and they…they…they started murdering my Changelings. There was no warning or negotiations involved. Most of them looked the same; they were big, scaly and bulky. Their voices were like nothing we had ever heard. They held devices that were loud and deadly, and were the very things that they used to murder my kind."

The description of the monsters that attacked Queen Chrysalis and the Changelings sparked Benjamin's attention. Big, scaly, bulky and devices in their hands, the description matched that rifles that the Locust Horde used perfectly. The only missing description was if a poisonous yellow illuminated from them. If it did then it was the same creatures responsible like the ones that had attacked him and the princesses back in Ponyville. But for some reason Princess Celestia had refused to ask any more questions as she had turned to have a debate with her sister, niece and Shining Armor about what their decision would be. Needing to know, Benjamin started to push through the guards, but they were resisting his barges as if they were purposely trying not to make him noticeable to Queen Chrysalis. However, Benjamin's strength, misjudged and miscalculated by the guards, allowed him to fiercely force his way through them until his strength lunged him into the front of the guards where Queen Chrysalis could see him fully.

Chrysalis gasped in fright as she saw Benjamin staring at her, and the fit and uninjured Changelings had instantly snapped forward to protect their Queen from the foreign Benjamin Carmine. All eyes suddenly guided their way towards the rookie, but he had not noticed since his focus was on the Queen of the Changelings. He took another step forward and the Changelings hissed in their response as they too violently stepped forward as a warning. The Royal Guards had also regained their strong posture as they poked their spear forwards in case the Changelings were to attempt anything. Benjamin, after realising the hint, stopped. He would have to ask his question from where he was.

"The Locust," He started," You're talking about the Locust, aren't you?" Chrysalis, beyond words, stared at the human with fear, uncertainty and confusion and completely found herself lost by Ben's sudden appearance to even answer the question.

"This isn't the best of times to be doing this, Benjamin," Luna called out which caught the Gear's attention. However, Benjamin chose to repeat his question to the Queen and it seemed to have worked, but the answer wasn't what Ben wanted.

"I do not know what you are talking about, creature," The Queen responded as her voice gained some sort of confidence in knowing that her Changelings were protecting her. Again, Benjamin tried to take another step forward, but the Changelings were quick and stepped in synchronisation in order to scare off Benjamin.

"For God's sake, fine, were they glowing yellow at least?" The strange question seemed to be confusing the Changeling Queen; but nevertheless, she replied to his question.

"No, they weren't," Queen Chrysalis started," But, as me and my surviving Changelings were fleeing, we heard a voice cry through the trees and shadows of the Everfree forest."

"What did it say?" Benjamin questioned.

"I think, if I am correct, that the voice hissed 'all hail the Locust Horde'!"

Chapter 12

Chapter 11: The Locust at the outskirts

Kreikie and the Locust Horde, with the exception of the four Drones that restrained the Berserker, cleaned their rifles and wiped away any blood that proved to have been a nuisance to them while they stood over a bloodbath of massacred Changelings. Kreikie observed the Changeling that lay lifeless at his pointy feet. He had personally and ravenously stabbed the Changeling multiple times in the chest, and there was a single slash across the neck and another straight through its skull. He hissed at the lifeless corpse and showed the lowest form of moral respect as he kicked the corpse out of the way. He looked towards his other Locust allies while they moved what was left of the Changeling corpses out of the way so that they could proceed without an accident. The Berserker had been restless ever since the slaughter of the Changelings occurred. More Drones had clutched the chains in order to restrain the rage intoxicated female from going berserk and rampaging through the forest and causing mindless destruction which could be useful for when the Locust need it. Kreikie, having already defied Discord's orders of not killing the inhabitants, lowly hissed to himself as he thought of his Locust brethren and how they were segregated from the rest of their species back on planet Sera. Having to feel the power of instructing the Locust to immorally slaughter the unsuspecting Changelings made him feel somewhat dominant and powerful. Back on Sera, he was a simple Kantus that served under the many ranks in the Locust Horde, but in Equestria he was a well respected captain and a strong one too!

"Leave their bodies to rot!" A hiss of his tongue immediately alerted the Drones and they all halted what they were doing in order to hear him. And with quick obedience, the Drones dropped the Changeling corpses and regrouped into formation where they continued their march towards Ponyville.

Because of the Changeling encounter, the time schedule for when the Locust were supposed to be ready was set back, but it did not matter for Ponyville would be startled all the same with the unsuspecting attack of the Locust. Simply trudging through the damp woods of the Everfree forest, they spotted through the bushes a whole squad of the Changeling creatures. What was most noticeable for Kreikie was the larger Changeling that had so easily fled the scene upon their attack. From first eavesdropping the larger one, whom clearly spoke in what they would call human tongue, Kreikie immediately knew that she was the leader of their group and was the pack leader. Nevertheless, he didn't want to know who or what the creatures were, so attacking them was the only thing that he saw necessary. For all he knew, they could have been inhabitants at Ponyville, or at least knew of Ponyville, and if they were seen then they could have possibly exposed their presence in the Everfree forest. Kreikie wasn't going to take any chances with anything in the new world which seemed to easy to invade. Everything from his perspective was too weak and inferior to stand up to their wrath. However, what did have the captain on edge, and the entire squad as well, was the description of the yellow monster that looked like a Lambent that had attacked the other Drones before. The giant Berserker in front of them, however, brought some sort of comfort to the Locust beings while they quickly walked towards their target. The sounds of birds flapping, animals scrambling towards their homes and the whistle of the leaves and the snaps of the twigs were the only peaceful sounds that would soon be extinct under the Locust boot. Apart from the gruff breathing from the Drones, the low and distinctive hum from the blind female Berserker contrasted massively towards the natural scenery of the forest. What the ponies described as the most terrifying place in Equestria, was nothing more than child's play for the Locusts, and the seemingly dark and unnatural, or aggressive, behaviour fitted the habitat for the Locust, but clear distinctions and contrasts between the feral and unintelligent monsters in Equestria's Everfree with the Locust monster itself would cause a war for pure territory and most common wildlife needs.

"We will be drawing in on the small village of Ponyville. On my signal, we storm in and capture as many of the inhabitants as we can. Kill any that try to rebel against our strength, and let nothing get in your way!" Kreikie's voice hissed through the Drones' heads as they prepared for the actual assault to begin. The Changelings that they saw earlier were nothing more than simple target practice for when they had to kill the ponies.

What looked like a bright patch of light, which offered its prize of freedom and safety to any creature that was looking to escape the enveloping darkness and danger of the nights of the Everfree, attacked the eyes of the Locust, excluding the Berserker, as they scurried towards it. When the dark depths of the Everfree forest had forcefully released the Locusts from its shadow, Celestia's sun greeted them with the vast beauty of a small bridge with running water below it. Across the bridge the Locust were greeted with woodland critters, beautiful green trees and grass with flowers of all sorts offering their attention to any insect that was dying for their nectar, and a single cottage, bordered around with bushes and fences, stood contrastingly out of place with the nature, but yet still looked as if it was welcomed as animals of all sorts, predator and prey, had gathered round it and were enjoying their time there. Kreikie was disgusted with the sight.

"Release her!" Kreikie pointed towards the added six Drones that restrained the Berserker. They all looked at each other hesitantly before quickly releasing their strength on the chains and retreating safely away from the enraged female.

The Berserker, feeling less force around the neck area, hollered with signs of freedom, anger, and rage as she heard, not the Locust captors behind her, but the innocent sounds of the critters that surrounded the cottage. The smell fumed her anger and she suddenly unleashed a devastating screech before blindly dashing across the bridge and towards the animals. There was nothing that the animals could do, for the Berserker had come so quickly that they did not even catch a second for a chance to escape from the mighty wrath of the Berserker. She pummelled through the bushes and fence, crushing any small creatures like squirrels and bunnies, and blindly demolished the small cottage into pieces. She crashed into the side which left a gapping hole from the impact of her collision. When she removed herself, the sudden weak structure of the cottage collapsed under its own weight and crumbled into pieces! The animals that tried to flee into the Everfree were cut down by the Locust who slowly walked out and idly aimed at deer, raccoons, beavers, birds, and many more.

"Good, now we attack Ponyville!" Kreikie demanded as six of the Drones were desperately trying to subdue the reckless Berserker that had tried to charge after the critters into the Everfree forest. Eventually they had managed to gain some sort of control of the beast and guided her back to the main road where a small bunny, hidden in a small bush, viewed them secretly.

When Angel realised that they were heading to Ponyville, with the monster that had just destroyed his and Fluttershy's home, he wasted no time in sprint hoping towards Ponyville while they was distracted with the Berserker in order to warn Fluttershy and the others!

Chapter 13

Chapter twelve: Ponyville's Omega

The residents of Ponyville were joyous and energetic for their cyclical cycle in Ponyville, but the nature that surrounded it contrasted greatly. While the birds cried and the trees' leaves hissed, the wind blew the grass and the flowers and the small and fragile winged insects into their opposite direction which caused them to seek for the closest shelter possible. Ash white clouds filled the dying blue sky and disposed of Celestia's bright sun, and the sight of deadly lightning bolts zapped through the black and white clouds which were followed by the loud stomp of thunder. As expected with the warning of nature, rain, heavy and raw, fell like tears and spat horribly down on the ponies and buildings in Ponyville. The rain grabbed everything in its wake and forced any creature to retreat to their habitats or their families in shelter from the rain. The wind turned from loud moaning into devastating howls as it crashed into anything that stood in its path, but it did not gain the strength required for the possibility of a tornado. Nevertheless, the Pegasi would have warned about the possibility of a tornado before it would have even tried to attempt to fossil its existence. Nature itself was almost trying to force everything away from Ponyville, as if were in some danger that it was very rudely trying to protect.

Twilight Sparkle stared miserably out at Nature's wet intruders. Despite the rain giving her time to write to the princess to see how Benjamin was fairing with the new habitat of Canterlot and if he was coping with the snobbish residents within Canterlot, Twilight was still perturbed with the fact that she was supposed to do a small amount of shopping with Spike. Some of her most basic needs, such as new ink and new jewels for Spike, and food for their dinner, were what she needed just so that she could enjoy her supper, but not much was left after Spike's last raid of the fridge which left her mostly out of good choices for a good supper. A student of Princess Celestia, especially one that has been labelled most faithful by the princess of the sun herself, couldn't work to Princess Celestia's requirements on an empty stomach, could they? The young unicorn, ignoring the demands of her stomach, also felt disheartened for the Royal Guards who were patrolling the streets and were emotionless in Nature's tears. Pegasi guards continued to fly strongly against Nature's wind and rain while the unicorn guards marched individually around every street. Twilight understood their duty in looking out for the strange creatures that monstrously murdered two of Princess Celestia's Royal Guards, but she still questioned if, at any point, that they would rest shortly and dry themselves from the weather so that they wouldn't catch a cold. Despite her worry, at least she had her five other friends to keep her company…

"I haven't seen any weather as bad as this," Twilight said to herself as she turned around to retreat to the comfort of her friends. Each of her friends had claimed a cushion for themselves and was waiting for Twilight to claim hers. She slummed herself on the cushion and an awkward silence suddenly sparked between the six. Spike was sleeping upstairs and was clearly not bothered by the storm outside as he was known to be a heavy sleeper.

"Every pony in Cloudsdale said that there was a storm coming, but they didn't say that there was a whole typhoon heading our way!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she aimlessly hovered around the library to tame her boredom.

"I'm sure it's just a terrible storm and nothing more. Oh, but I do hope it ends soon! My poor Opalescence needs her evening bath and grooming. I would go now but…I've just manicured my hooves, and they're exceptionally sparkly today! I would hate to have them ruined!" Rarity's melodramatic drama was quickly ignored, but her words on the fact that it was just a storm were quickly tossed aside as being true. As for her conundrum with Opalescence, it was not even acknowledged to the slightest.

"Fluttershy, Sugarcube, you sure you're doin' okay?" Applejack's concern was high for the timid little Pegasus. She was the only one to be succumbed to the corner of the main room of the tree house with a blanket covering her entire body. There was no response from the timid pony, but the sudden crash of thunder escalated the pony's fear and granted her the satisfaction of letting out a tremendous scream, and forced her to shrink further into her isolation of the blanket cocoon. The rest looked on in worry at their friend but they knew that nothing could be done to cure her plague of fear; it was what made her the very pony that the rest had got to know and love.

"I know what we can do to take our minds away from this awful, nasty storm," Pinkie Pie started with the burning passion of a phoenix," we can play games! We can play: Pin the tail on the mule, heads down hooves up, hide and seek, dancing, hit the piñata, oh and even tag!" Before the enthusiastic and ebullient party pony could utter another word, Rainbow Dash quickly intervened.

"And just how are we supposed to play tag in Twilight's library?" She questioned.

"Look Pinkie Pie, now is not the time for fun and games, and I don't think any of us are in the mood for games right now-" The sound of tiny thumps on the door scratched its way to Twilight's ears through the thundering rain and the crying winds. She brooded over the fact that some pony had summoned the courage, other than the very well trained guards outside, to have decided to trench their way through the thickening storms just to come to the library. The curiosity as to who was behind the door itched Twilight's curiosity as to who it might be. For the most part, she knew that whoever was behind the door was a friend of theirs, but one small dot inside her gut told her that there was something very wrong with the visitor. She couldn't understand why but she had suddenly become concerned with the fact that her home could have been completely torn apart from its roots.

Twilight approached the door and slowly opened it to reveal a small bunny…Angel.

"Angel?" Twilight stated in almost disbelief. However, the stubborn bunny immediately stormed past Twilight and scanned the room for Fluttershy. Upon hearing her pet bunny's name, Fluttershy shot from her blanket quicker than any pony could have acknowledged. Her actions were quick as she approached her bunny that was quickly shaking off the leeching rain water.

"Oh Angel, are you okay? You're soaking wet! Oh dear, you could catch a cold! Here quick, wrap up in this blanket and get nice and cosy," Fluttershy had tried to forcefully, but gently, cover her Angel in the blanket that she was using to shield herself from the storm. However, the bunny quickly fought free from Fluttershy's angelic clutch and tried to communicate with the rest of the group of the incoming danger.

His first action was him trying to paint out the very home that he and Fluttershy lived in. The group caught onto that immediately. Next, Angel tried to portray the large monster that had destroyed their home and killed the animals that perched around it. He used his amateur acting skills to symbolise the giant monster stomping and punching the house and animals and jumping all around the place. He then used his picture of the house and showed it crashing down. What the group caught on to was the fact that Fluttershy's home was completely destroyed. Fluttershy almost shook hooves with a heart attack as she realised that her precious home and creatures were destroyed. She had made three attempts of trying to leave the house: once through the door, which Angel and Applejack stopped immediately, a second time through a window which Rainbow Dash quickly intercepted, and a third time through the balcony at the top of the stairs, but Twilight's magic pulled her back down and back to Angel.

It had taken a minute or two before she calmed down…

"Okay, Angel, so you're saying that something has destroyed Fluttershy's home and hurt her animals. What exactly was the thing?" Twilight demanded as she trespassed Angel's comfort zone and darting a look in her eye.

Before Angel could take one moment to express what exactly the monster looked like, there was a loud, apoplectic roar that darted through the echoing thunder and rain. The sounds themselves conflated to make the alien sound even more terrifying that what it was supposed to be. The roar, so loud and ear pinching, forced all the creatures in Twilight's library to shield their ears from the horrible sound. Spike was awoken with a fright to the sound and quickly covered his hearing source and threw a blanket over his body in order to shield out the sound, but it did not help protect his ears, or his heart from furiously attacking his chest from the sudden cry. Spike, after realising that the shriek had stopped after a few seconds, quickly scurried downstairs to see every pony quickly hurrying to the door to see what the commotion was about with the cry. He was soon to follow. From what he could tell, Angel was desperately trying to urge Fluttershy and the whole gang to not venture out into the storm, but they were determined to confront the very monster that had the nerve to destroy the home of Fluttershy…which was the biggest mistake of their lives!

Already, every single guard that had been assigned to guard Ponyville was on high alert of the sound and had gathered towards the entrance of Ponyville that led off towards the Everfree forest and Twilight's house. The unicorn guards' horns were already illuminating magic at its peak so that they would be prepared for whatever creature that would storm into Ponyville. The Pegasi guards were hovering just above the unicorn guards and were equipped with special bows that were designed especially for the Pegasi guards. Their weapon that they would be firing was special bolts that were not designed to kill, but instead were enveloped in a shell of paralysing magic that would paralyse the creature and put it to sleep.

But nothing prepared them for the giant Berserker that suddenly leaped from the storm's penumbra and crushed into the sea of unicorn guards!

Chapter 14

Chapter thirteen: A personal bodyguard

Discord wondered through the newly furbished castle that once belonged to the princesses. He had to admit that the Wretches had done a pretty good job in decoration and, to his taste, had a good sense in colour. A simple corridor was painted with marble black stone while the carpet spilled a dark red from the tip of his tail to the other end of the corridor. Much similar to the glass paintings of the heroes in Princess Celestia's castle in Canterlot, the ones that smiled at his presence were nothing but pure paintings of him. Paintings of him showed, from supposedly the Locust or his biased point of view, Discord as being a brave, strong and insurmountable god that stood proudly and handsomely in every glass painting. He was seen in different poses that showed his power, 'beauty' and superiority over all inhabitants in Equestria. In one painting, he noticed that he was holding two chains; one chain in his lion paw held a chain that led to snake around the neck of Princess Celestia, and in the other chain was clutched by a claw and it met around the neck of Princess Luna. He smiled at the image, but something didn't fit hit taste with the princesses in chains; he felt that the image needed more of the princesses' freedom but still enslaved to his power. Perhaps if they were bowing at his sides, rather than subjected so low to torture and chains, then Discord would have felt as if he was a true evil ruler. Where was the fun in messing with ponies' minds when they were too weak, afraid and tortured to put their energy into his chaotic doings?

Nevertheless, he continued to walk through the halls as he passed head statues of him. Observing that everything was of liking to him, Discord then clicked his fingers to transport himself to the outside where he could observe his Locust army. From his point of view, they never seemed to stop working. They were always training, always fighting, always noisy and loud and never did they seem to sleep. But that was what Discord wanted. The sound of marching and thumping footsteps echoed through his ears as the Locust continued to train for their invasion. Their moral seemed relatively high compared to when they were subjected to their Queen's authority. Perhaps it was because of Discord's magic that they had the utmost belief that they would surely win, and also because their main enemy was ponies which they believed to be purely weak in mind and body. Plus, judging from what they had heard from Discord himself and other Locusts that had been out on patrols, they had no similar weaponry in comparison to theirs which meant that it would be an easy victory against them. And with the magic of Discord, they could be sure that supplies would always be high. But this was what worried Discord.

Discord knew that there was something with the Locust that made them corrupt and evil in a different kind of way. Ways that he would have to disagree with and fear, so he needed some sort of trustworthy bodyguard. Kreikie was the first to quickly be abandoned. As loyal as Kreikie seemed to be and made out to be, something inside Discord made him feel as if Kreikie couldn't be trusted since he was the captain of the Locust army. That was exactly the problem with the locust; they could not be trusted. From what he observed, back when he was spying on the Locust in their home world and how they worked, Discord came to realisation that they could be easily deceived or have a change in their, if they truly had one…or two, hearts then all their numbers could easily overpower him, or one could so easily murder him in his sleep.

He needed a bodyguard…and he knew just which species to turn to.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOX

The four gears stumbled recklessly over the fragile bridge as they tried to kill the planted Locust that rested there. Below them, in the fiery depths of the imulsion polluted ocean, a giant Lambent Leviathan danced spasmodically and aggressively with The Sovereign ship, which parts of it were mutilating into the sea with no signs of stopping. From the bridge, it was a devastating sight, but the gears could do nothing with their hand held rifles to do anything about it. However, one of them, the most annoying but the brightest at the same time, had come up with an idea in which would use the dangerous devices of tickers to their advantage in taking down the Lambent Leviathan, but it would risk decapitating the ship and endangering Marcus and Dom.

Cole, Baird, Sam and Clayton had all managed to eliminate the Locust that was already stationed on the bridge. Cole radioed in to Marcus and told him about Baird's plan, but when Marcus has said that they were ready, more Locust had suddenly sprung from the concrete below which forced a dangerous distraction and halt on their plan.

Clayton immediately dived for cover as he kicked a dead Locust out of the way. Bullets from Hammerburts scratched the surface of the broken car, but they were too weak to penetrate fully. Clayton peered over once more and spotted his target that was reloading while foolishly not being in cover. He jumped up and held the trigger of his Torque bow so that the charge would be devastating and would make one hell of an explosion. Clayton released the trigger and the sticky explosive arrow flew as fast as a bullet, and when it stuck perfectly into the chest plate of the Drone, the explosion killed it and its comrades in front of him. Pieces were all that was left.

He quickly reloaded his bow and fired more into the covering Locust while Cole flanked around then. He used a fire grenade that he had picked up and lobbed it into a group of three hiding Locust. They burned a slow and painful death. Clayton quickly sprung from his cover and dashed behind a couple of boxes while the Locust were distracted with 'The Cole Train' and his flanking method, but was quickly forced to retreat when all the fire suddenly attacked his direction. Sam and Baird open fired at the Locust in order to distract them, and one Locust was attempting to flank Baird and Sam, and passed the very box that Clayton was using for shelter. Reacting quickly, Clayton pulled out his Snub pistol and unleashed a hail of bullets into the Drone's back. The Drone moaned in pain as he dropped to the floor and started bleeding out. Clayton ran over to the downed Drone and kicked him onto his back. He stepped over his doomed body and, without mercy and using his ultimate strength, threw deadly lefts and rights at the Locust whilst it waited for its death. Clayton continued to release a cry of anger as he continued to inflict as much pain as he could before he decided to execute the doomed Drone. Finally, he decided not to waste his energy and delivered the final executing blow that completely mutilated the Drone's face.

Clayton stood back up and noticed that the rest of the Locust had been dealt with by his fellow crew. They all quickly dashed over towards the crate that was filled with explosive Tickers and they all used their strength in order to push it. After a few seconds, the crate slowly started to move, and as it dropped, it landed on an open side of the bridge, sideways, that was sticking out and the latch opened which forced the Tickers to roll out. Underneath, the giant yellow head of the Leviathan felt the full force of the massive swarm of Ticker explosions and screeched in utter pain. A tentacle from the Leviathan wrapped around a part of the bridge which was behind the four on the bridge so they didn't notice…yet.

"Hey, I thought you'd enjoy the witty irony of 'Grub on Glowie violence!" Baird said sarcastically to Marcus as he seemed to baptise himself in the accomplishment he just achieved for killing the Lambent Leviathan, but Marcus begged to differ down the ear piece.

"Yeah, that's fucking hilarious! You're gonna blow up the whole ship genius!"

The weak structure of the bridge couldn't handle any more pressure from the other tentacle that wrapped around another part of the bridge, and the strength of the tentacle pulled a part of the bridge down and forced the four to collapse suddenly onto the sliding disassembled road that led down to the sea. Taken by surprise, they all quickly, and pathetically, tried to latch themselves onto the road in attempts to hold on, but they were not strong enough.

"Jump for it!" Cole Train suggested, but Baird, being really 'supportive', differed.

"There's no point, we're so dead!" A sudden jolt from another collapsing part of the bridge caused the four to lose their grip on the bridge, and Baird was caught by Sam before right before he fell into the ocean. He turned to look at Sam and he seemed to be oblivious to the danger that he was in. "Uh, I suppose you want me to say that I always loved you," Baird's statement caused Sam to grunt in disgust at her so called 'friend'," but I don't; I really, really don't!"

Clayton wanted to laugh at the joke Baird had just made, but he couldn't because another jam of the bridge had caused them all to fall into the ocean, and right before the veteran gear passed out, a bright light flashed in front of his eyes and he felt something strange wrap itself around his body. But that was all he remembered before passing out into a blanket of darkness.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOX

The sound of nothing rocked the small environment where one figure lay passed out. It was a small part of the Everfree forest which was a few miles away from the Locust stronghold, and it was an area that the Locust had not discovered…yet. The only thing that showed presence was the penumbra of shadows from the trees and leaves along with the sound of distant critters that had little to know knowledge of the figure lying on the grass. If there was any sort of symbol that could symbolise his presence, then it would have been the two glowing blue eyes on his helmet. The leaves that were at the highest peak of the trees knitted together in an effort to hide the gear from Celestia's sun.

Clayton's body started to stir awake as he rubbed his head that had suddenly been infected with a throbbing pain. His eyes, from underneath his helmet, started to flutter open, but what they saw was not what they expected. The last thing he remembered was him falling into the ocean and a strange feeling wrapping around his body, and he became even more surprised at the fact that he was completely dry and not drenched in salt water. Quickly, he sprung his upper body into a sitting position and took in his environment which confused him even more. He thought he was going to see the ocean, and of course The Sovereign completely destroyed with a dead with Lambent Leviathan, but seeing the change of scenery freaked Clayton slightly. He reached for his sawed off shotgun on his back, but he could not feel it at all. His Torque bow was still on his back though.

"What the hell?" Clayton groaned as he tried to stand up. He stumbled slightly on his steps, as would a baby attempting their first few steps, but was able to stand and shake off the abrupt feeling over his body. "Where the fuck am I?" He asked himself." And where the fuck is my shotgun?"

"Missing something, Clayton Carmine?" A sudden male voice echoed through the bushes and the trees. Clayton spun around and aimed his Torque bow in multiple directions in attempts to find the voice.

"Fuck…How do you know my name? Where the hell are you…who the fuck are you? Show yourself!" Clayton demanded into the shadow of nothing.

"Now, now, Clayton, there's no need for foul language. I understand that that type of language used in your world is tolerable, but here it does not exist, so don't use it again." The voice was telling Clayton off as if he were a school child being told off by a teacher, or a mother telling off her son. And the scolding was already agitating Clayton.

"Shut up you son of a bitch. Why don't you grow a pair and show yourself, pal?

A shadow suddenly towered over Clayton, and as he turned around to try and aim his bow, a magical aura snatched it from his hands and held it slightly above Clayton so that it could torment him. A laugh soon followed as Clayton swore at the fact that he was being tormented with. But he looked forward and slightly up to see a figure towering over him; a figure he had never seen before. He reached for his Snub pistol but the magic swiped that as well. Once again, Clayton swore and clinched his fists. Slowly, he watched as Discord revealed himself fully to the experienced gear.

"Oh, Clayton, you were always so different from your brothers. Always the violent one," Discord seemed to have struck a serious nerve in the older gear. He ran forward in rage and attempted to take a swing at Discord, but was played like a fool when Discord snapped his claws and Clayton suddenly became trapped in a large patch of bubble gum. Clayton grunted in anger as he tried to free his feet, but his efforts were futile. To add insult to injury, Discord summoned a single raincloud to purposely pour chocolate rain over Clayton.

"You freaky piece of shit, you know nothing about my brothers! When I get outta this, you're dead!" Clayton continued to try and force himself out of the bubble gum. Discord simply laughed victoriously as he teleported around Clayton as if he were dancing around him.

"Oh, where are my manners? My name is Discord, and I know you and your brothers more than you think, Clayton. One of your brothers especially, Benjamin, I had tried bringing to me before, but I didn't understand the spell that well and sort of lost him somewhere. Shame really, I still haven't found that poor young soldier. Perhaps Princess Celestia found him…or maybe he's been eaten by Timberwolves," Discord continued to mock Clayton, and Clayton couldn't do a thing, so he stopped struggling and actually acknowledged Discord.

"How do you know Benjamin's name? It's impossible for you to know him! The COG told us that he fell into a giant rift worm, but his body was never discovered. Marcus Fenix said that himself!" Clayton responded harshly.

"You never were the bright one, Clayton. Did you not hear what I just said? I used my magic spell to bring him here, but it went wrong."

"You're lying! Nobody knows my brother, Squirt, like I do, or Anthony, so you can cut the stupid crap that you're trying to do!

"Oh why do I bother? I guess I should just cut to the chase and explain why I bought you here. You see, Clayton, I'm leading an army to victory in my pursuit for supreme rule over Equestria…" Discord started.

"Jeez, I'm already bored!" Clayton wined sarcastically as he folded his arms. The chocolate rain had stopped falling on his head but the bubble gum remained. Discord sighed at Clayton's rudeness but remembered that he brought Clayton to Equestria for his reason. If his plans didn't go well in persuading Clayton, who seemed highly at the current moment, then a simple brain washing spell should do the trick. Either way, Discord was confident that he was getting a bodyguard that would be good at protecting him day and night.

"Anyway, the reason that you are here is because I need a good bodyguard that can watch my back day and night. And I believe that you are the perfect one for the job, Clayton. Someone like yourself, who is: tuff, dangerous, strong, and unafraid of anything, isn't scared to take on a measly job such as being able to protect, are you?" Discord asked getting dangerously close to the veteran Carmine.

"Bro, I'm a soldier, not a stupid bodyguard. Find someone else to do your whack job!" Clayton replied harshly. Discord's face arched in as slight anger flushed through him. Convincing Carmine seemed harder than he thought. He would have chosen someone else such as Marcus, Cole Train or Dom from when he observed their events on Sera, but they were too intellectual to have been convinced to do his dirty work, but Clayton was an exception to him. He was everything that he needed and Discord believed that he wasn't as intelligent as the others. But he did have one secret weapon that he could use against Clayton. Something that he always craves for…

"Hm, let's say you do become my bodyguard, and you do agree to serve me and protect me from those who I suspect to be plotting against me…" Discord started as he put on a tone that showed he was making an offer. It did catch the full attention of Clayton, but he quickly made a brief proposal of his own if he was going to listen to Discord.

"Hold up, release me and give me back my weapons and then I might just listen to what you have to say," Clayton's demands were simple enough for Discord to grant, and with the snap of his claws, the Torque bow and Snub pistol dropped onto the floor, and the bubble gum evaporated into thin air and a flamethrower suddenly dropped in front of Clayton.

"There, happy?" Discord asked.

"Wait, I had a shotgun, not a flamethrower!" Clayton exclaimed.

"That doesn't matter! Now will you listen to my offer?"

"Maybe…"

"Ugh, you humans really are annoying! But anyway, if you do agree, which you will, to my offer then we just have to get one thing to get past us, and that is the fact that you will be guarding me from my very soldiers… the Locust!" The last words took Clayton back in surprise and he immediately threw in a fit of denial!

"No way, there is no way in hell that I'm walking around with the Locust! We'll shoot the shit out of each other as soon as we see each other! You think I'm some kind of idiot? There is nothing anyone can say to me that could make me work with those Locust fucks! I'll put a bullet in every one that I see, so no way man, the deal's off!" Clayton roared at the god of chaos, but he was excepting that kind of response.

"Hold up just a second there, Clayton, you haven't heard the rest of my offer," Discord started," you wouldn't accept my deal…not even for all the bacon your heart could desire?" Discord had struck a nerve point in Clayton. Just by hearing the sheer name of bacon, Clayton was already in a trance as the image of him consuming himself with bacon clouded his vision. Discord smiled as he knew that this was the very advantage he would have in controlling Clayton. Discord had to snap his bear paws at the mesmerised gear in order to wake him.

"So: become your bodyguard and I get all the bacon I want…what happens if I refuse?" Clayton asked.

"You become lost in the labyrinth on the Everfree forest and, if the Locust and feral critters of the Everfree don't find you first, die a slow and miserable death." Discord replied.

"Oh," was Clayton's only response…Several minutes passed.

"So do we have a deal, Clayton?" Discord asked with an evil smile as he stretched his claw.

Clayton stared at the claw for a few minutes as he battled with his mind about what to do. Back in Sera, there was hardly any bacon to go around, but Discord had just offered him a life time supply of bacon, which was one of the very dreams that he dreamed about a lot when he was sleeping. That and…having an awful nightmare where he would be eating bacon in the bath, with his helmet and lower COG gear on for some reason, and would accidently knock the radio into the bath. The conclusion was not pretty, and Clayton shredded every time he thought about it.

Finally, he came to a conclusion.

Clayton walked towards Discord's claw and extended his left hand. Discord's smile widened inch by inch as the hand grew closer, but suddenly, the right hand that Discord failed to pay attention to, swung a sticky smoke grenade right onto his claw, and the explosion pulverised the air with a thick smoke. Discord coughed uncontrollably as the air invaded his eyes and his lungs. Clayton took his chance and spun around in the opposite direction and ran. Before he ran too far for Discord not to hear him, he yelled something at him which showed that they would never be working together.

"The Locust killed my brothers! There is no way, not for all the bacon in the world, that I would betray my kind for the Locust! Fuck you, Discord!"

Chapter 15

Chapter 14: Carmine?

Clayton continued to sprint in a disorganised fashion whilst contemplating with his mind on what had just happened back with Discord. His mind tumbled over Discord's appearance and how weird he looked, and he was also puzzled with the fact that he knew about the Locust and his brothers. He knew that two of his brothers, Anthony and Benjamin, both had their lives stolen from them at the filthy hands of the Locust, so whatever Discord was saying about him bringing and losing Benjamin into the foreign world was not convincing for the veteran Carmine. Clayton couldn't bare the fact that his brother, Ben who he called 'Squirt', was actually alive in the very place that he found himself lost in, and he found himself fighting against the whole forest as he had to literally force himself through the bushes and vines. It was almost as if they were purposely trying to block his path. But his thoughts were mostly on the fact that he knew his brother was dead. He had been missing for so long that there could only be, like so many other soldiers that went missing on Sera, pronounced dead, and the fact that his body was never found only made Clayton bitter towards, not only the Locust Horde, but the COG itself and how they deal with situations such as his. Adding insult to injury with the fact that they couldn't bury Ben's body, the same event had happened with Anthony where the COG never went back to retrieve his body for burial. Clayton knew that he and his family were proud soldiers but the fact that they didn't receive any sort of sympathy; neither from Clayton's point of view had any family received the same sympathy, from higher members in the COG army only made Clayton, for the first time, feel pathetic for joining such a selfish and corrupt army. But then again, they were the last pair of arms that held humanity from the brink of distinction, and they were better than joining the militias that were being formed on the mainland by the citizens.

Clayton pushed through another bush and suddenly found himself on some sort of green path that was in between the thick black trees. There was rustling that was highlighting itself from behind the gear, and then he realised that something was following him…and he did not want to find out what it was when he was in a place that he had no knowledge about. Clayton turned back to the situation put in front of him. He couldn't go forward; he could only go left or right. And it suddenly became obvious on where he wanted to go. To his left the path continued to lead on until it was swallowed by complete darkness. But on his right was a small bright light that symbolised a way out and the veteran immediately ran towards it like a moth to a flame. Clayton could hear distinct hisses from creatures that he really did not want to see, and he could have sworn that there was eyes back in the depths of the forest that were staring and following him, but it didn't matter to him now because he had reached the end of the forest and pushed through the darkness and into the bright light. What he saw stunned him on the spot.

There was a little bridge over a small flowing river, and what the bridge leads to was a completely wrecked and destroyed building with dead creatures all around it. The sight was filthy and the smell was disgusting and Clayton himself felt somewhat grossed out by the mixture of internal organs weeping in different areas and in the wrong open parts of animals. But only a little, Clayton had seen far too much to have become grossed out over some small animals. He would have preferred Locust or Lambent guts all over the place, but he himself was going to have to make that happen if he ever did come across any Locust or Lambent. And judging from the destruction of the single cottage alone, Clayton could tell that something big, or some things that worked together, had purposely destroyed the cottage, and it could only confirm the veteran Carmine's suspicion on the fact that there could be Locust or Lambent where he was after all. Seemingly reluctant to move into the animal and rubble graveyard, Clayton began to tread lightly over the dead animal corpses and any seemingly broken pieces of the cottage. He clutched his newly acquainted flamethrower, ready to scorch any Locust scum that dared to stand in his way. His focus was puzzled from the crunches of the broken glass and broken wood to the fear of a Locust suddenly shooting from the ground or leaping out from behind a bush. His eyes manoeuvred over the dead animals that were slowly passing by: three deer lay mutilated and crushed under a piece of tiles that had fallen and shattered from the roof, one single bunny rabbit lied with half its body dismembered while other body parts showed what was left of the other bunnies' fates, one bear had its left arm and paw completely crushed but its brains splattered everywhere showed what happened to its head. There were more animal parts, but Clayton couldn't exactly make out what they were from the fact that they were mutilated beyond identification.

"Goddamn-"Clayton tried to exclaim, but the sound of a distant roar and sudden bullets screaming through the atmosphere, which was followed with distant cries of pain and agony alerted Clayton's body and tightened his grip on his flamethrower. From what he could suddenly see in the distant, in the sky, was a rainbow type of beam that flew all around the sky. It was constantly dipping back and forth as if it were trying to fish for something, much like a seagull would when trying to obtain fish. What followed was on the ground, in the distance, was a light purple aura that flashed every couple of minutes. But the most obvious was the very familiar roars and moans from the very creatures that he despised.

That confirmed his suspicions fully.

"Son of a bitch," Clayton cursed as he immediately began sprinting towards the Locust, ready to destroy every single Locust that he came across.

OXOXOXOXOXO

"What does these Locust mean to you, creature?" Queen Chrysalis asked as Benjamin flinched at the word. He seemed reluctant, and his spine started to shiver and his nerves crack slightly as he felt all eyes pry down upon him. He didn't know in what he was thinking in putting himself in the spotlight with a bunch of foreign creatures that he hardly knew anything about. To make matters worse, he felt that no one was on his side as large amounts of mutters, which soon turned into shouts, started to arise from the continuously growing crowd. The guards especially seemed the most intimidating as their glares seemed the deadliest, as if they were going to kill him on the spot. Even though Ben could possibly have a fair fighting chance against the guards, their numbers were too big for him and his Hammerburst to handle alone, and they could easily overpower him and catch up to him in seconds if he had tried to run.

Ben continued to feel the pressure weigh him down as the crowd of upper class ponies degraded him with the fact that he was provoking fear into Equestria. News had reached almost all over Equestria with the fact that there was a mysterious creature that, upon his finding, had brought other dangerous creatures into the open and reports of disturbances had been recently high. He was gaining an unpopular reputation, especially with the incident back in Ponyville with the giant stalks and the deaths and injuries of ponies. He was becoming a scapegoat of hatred and a lot of the ponies wanted him permanently banished to the Everfree. It was amazing how word spreads quickly around Equestria, but not every pony was fully convinced that Benjamin was the cause of the monsters, such as the princess of the night and the princess of the sun. The same could not be said for the captain of the Royal Guards and the upper class pony folk. They were quick to judge and all followed the popular opinion to avoid segregation and isolation from the crowd.

Ben couldn't find the right words to say, and the pressure building from the crowd made it hard for him to keep his cool or concentrate on his explanation for how he knew the Locust. After all, he was a rookie and wasn't properly experienced in handling hostility from friendlies… at least he hoped that they were friendly. Ben heard words of hate spit at him such as 'ruffian' and 'monster' which continued to flatten his chances of being able to explain himself to the crowd. He surprised himself on how his 'green as grass' nature kept him cool under the borderline of hatred because if it were Clayton in his shoes then he would have lost it and started kicking the living hell out of the entire crowd on his own. However, he was not Clayton and he didn't know where or how ugly things would have gotten if Princess Luna had not suddenly stepped in to silence the crowd.

"Silence!" She roared with a loud and echoing voice which rattled the very mountains. The crowd immediately hushed themselves and all eyes switched to her." Is this any way to treat a new and very special guest from another world? You should be ashamed for your barbarism!" The anger fuelling from the night princess stunned every pony beyond words. Princess Luna quickly regained her posture after she had realised that her actions had caused her take on a rather sinister looking image that made out if she was going to strike the crowd down with her magic. She spoke once more, "Proceed, Benjamin Carmine."

It took Ben a good minute to realise that he was being addressed. He did not expect such fury from something that looked so gentle and harmless. The word 'awesome' filled his mind as he watched Princess Luna smile at him.

"The Locust are-"Benjamin tried to explain, but the sudden rumbling from the earth halted him. The rumbling grew louder and roared with disturbance. The crowd stumbled and cried in fear as the very soil underneath the stone pathway shook to an incredible speed. The guards had immediately reacted quickly by throwing themselves in a tight circle around the three princesses in order to stop them from falling over. Ben himself clumsily fell on his backside, and the view of the sky gave him a front row view of the sudden Lambent Stalk that suddenly exploded right in front of him. The icky yellow pods on the branches suddenly leaked with small amounts of imulsion.

"What in Equestria is that?" Shining Armor asked aloud as the crowd and princesses fled the scene. He question remained unanswered as a large amount of filthy imulsion leaked from the pod, and it hatched the abomination of the abominations; a Gunker. Oblivious to its name and its deadly strength, Shining Armor stood his ground, as did his guards, and looked at Benjamin, "Carmine?"

OXOXOXOXOXO

The sudden change of sunny weather into a hail storm of rain confused Clayton. He had made it to where the source of gunshots and Locust grunts, and wasn't surprised that they had left a blood bath at their feet. From what he could evidently see from the hail storm and from his hiding spot in a bush, there was trails of slippery blood and rubble all over the place, and he could hear distant screams of pain and agony. He cursed as he watched as a Locust walked over to a dying creature, that creature being a Royal Guard but the weather prevented Carmine from properly seeing, and unjustifiably stomped its head clean off its body. Part of him wanted to charge down there and rip every single Locust to pieces, but another part of himself prevented him from doing so as there was too many for him to handle. Also the Berserker had suddenly reappeared with the Locust just about managing to get it under control and in chains once more. Luckily, for the Locust, the Berserker had tired herself out for them to gain control without her going on another blood bath. It was the Berserker that Clayton found to be the biggest problem, and his flamethrower wouldn't completely destroy the beast and the entire Locust squad down there seemed too big for him to handle alone. Their weapons consisted of mostly Hammerbursts, but there was the occasional Locust that carried a Retro-Lancer. Carmine cursed at how outnumbered he was and how the numbers were against him. But his thought was distracted when the sudden black weather changed, and everything became an alienated light and dark purple pattern in the sky. And then a voice, very familiar to Clayton, rocked the sound wave.

It was none other than Discord, who had snapped his claws to stop the bad weather and change it to his liking, and his face was not pleased at all. Whilst the Locust bowed in respect to their god, Discord was set on finding the very devious creature that had failed to listen to his instructions…Kreikie. He found the priest perched upon a fallen home and had one foot upon a dead Royal Guard and had used a Retro-Lancer to plunge the sharpened blade through his heart. He hissed in delight as he heard the last dying breath of the Royal Guard, and he left the Retro-Lancer there to purposely create a gruesome scene for the Locust and the six enslaved ponies to observe. However, when the priest noticed Discord towering over him with hints of anger and disappointment he immediately bowed at his feet.

"Kreikie! What is the meaning of this? I ordered you to capture the ponies, not kill them!" Discord's voice caused the Locust leader to lower his head in slight shame. He was proud of what he had done and how he had showed the Locust power, but he hated the fact that his master scolded him for something that the Locust was born and bred to do.

"Master," Kreikie started with a minor hiss," we simply did what the Locust do best, and we have captured this small town and the six ones that you have requested." Kreikie pointed to his right which showed six ponies cuffed in chains around all their hooves and there were extra chains for the four of them as they had horns and wings. Discord's mood didn't change towards Kreikie, but his face twisted into an evil smile as he would soon hold the Elements of Harmony captive which would surely bring Princess Celestia to her knees and begging him not to hurt them.

"Well at least you've done something right in this disaster," Discord said with a groan as he clicked his claw fingers. A glass of chocolate milk suddenly appeared in his lion paw. Defying the laws of physics, he swallowed the glass instead of the milk and threw the chocolate away. There was an explosion that followed the milk impacting on the soil. He released a sigh of relief and wiped the invisible remains of the glass from his lips. Discord then turned to see that the six captives were too busy being afraid of the Locust that were guarding them to actually notice that it was him behind everything.

"It was easy to capture the Elements of Harmony, master. All we had to do was capture the weakest element and force the rest to surrender. Their warriors were no match for our female's mighty power, and our outstanding accuracy and strength of course. But these Elements of Harmony are pathetic, especially the yellow one. She was the very reason for their fall. Too afraid to fight was she and then we used her fragile body as a message to the others. They stopped exactly what they were doing after that." Kreikie had stood up to tell the small victory over Ponyville, and his posture was tall and his chest inflated out in pride. He looked at Discord who was focused on the terrified six. A crooked smile stretched from his face. Kreikie mirrored his smile. But Discord's quickly vanished at the sound of a whole group of Locusts arguing for something unknown.

"Since your mission here is complete…to some extent, I am going to open a portal and I want most of the Locust here gone…and that giant one." Discord's order was quickly obeyed by Kreikie, and in a matter of minutes most of the Locust had quickly vanished into the purple portal, which had to be widened for the disobedient Berserker. Discord had taken the time to reintroduce himself to the Elements of Harmony who were shocked at his sudden appearance. The smug look on Discord's face didn't help to when he introduced them to the Locust and that he was their leader.

"When I get outta these chains, you're so in for it!" The threat from Rainbow Dash was completely ignored and Discord laughed hysterically.

"Oh don't be so foolish, Rainbow Dash. Have you not already seen the damage that my Locust has caused upon Ponyville?" Discord warped down to Rainbow Dash's ear to whisper to her," It was a little too much than what I asked for but live and learn." Rainbow Dash wanted to lash out at Discord, but the Locust holding her chain pulled the chain tightly around her neck chain which knocked her to the floor. Applejack was furious.

"Y'all big, dumb, mean cowards, y'all worse than them Timberwolves, ya hear?" Applejack roared as she tried to wrestle her way free from the captivity of the Locust. She was easily yanked back and tamed through the threat of a giant Locust boot. Discord halted the Locust and ordered that Rainbow Dash should get back on her hooves.

"Come now, we're wasting too much time. All of you, through the portal." Discord ordered.

Discord was the first to enter the portal that led back to his expanding empire. The teary Fluttershy was easily yanked through the portal without hesitation and was followed by a whiny Rarity, who had hoped that her whining would annoy the Locust into releasing her. However, it didn't work. A gun was pointed, more precisely a Boltok pistol, at Pinkie Pie in order to keep the hyperactive pony afraid and miserable. Applejack reluctantly followed whilst giving the look of deadly hate towards her captor, which the Locust ignored. As much as Rainbow Dash hated being controlled and made to look weak, and despite her final best efforts of escaping, she too entered the portal but was kicked hardly inside the purple portal by the Locust. Finally, there was Twilight Sparkle who had remained quiet throughout the event. She was too saddened by the fact that she had failed her friends and feared that she was never going to see Ponyville or the princesses ever again. A tear slowly formed across the edges of her eyes and started swimming down her cheeks as the fear and message of defeat attacked her. However, before the Locust behind her could push her into the portal, there was a metallic collision sound which struck Twilight's ears in a matter of seconds. Before she could even turn around the Locust released a cry of realisation before suddenly exploding into dismembered bits.

Blood spilled over the unicorn and she was petrified. However, her survival instincts immediately commanded her to run to safety, and so she did.

The small group of Locust looked around in confusion as another Locust was hit in the chest, and met the same fate as the first Locust. They roared and tried to communicate with each other as to who and where their attacker was. Another arrow whizzed past a Locust and caught a piece of rubble and exploded. They had begun retreating to avoid the arrows…and the attacker, Clayton Carmine wasn't going to let them get far.

"Oh I love it when they do that," Clayton roared mightily at the sight of the second Locust exploding and immediately jumped from his hiding place and started giving chase to the fleeing Locust," Rock and roll!" He started dashing along the pathway and over the rubble. The land of Ponyville was almost completely flat as the Locust had destroyed literally everything.

The Locust turned around from retreating and saw the giant COG soldier charging over the rubble. They immediately roared and started firing at Clayton. Clayton ran straight for cover and prepared to fire his Torque bow. He waited for the Locust to reload, and when he heard his opportunity he sprung up and quickly aimed at one of the exposed Locust. The explosive arrow hit the Locust perfectly and he exploded into mutilated pieces. Another Locust tried charging forward and catching Clayton by surprise, but Clayton was more than prepared. As the Locust quickly looked over the small pilled rubble to grab Clayton, Clayton grabbed the Locust in a headlock and flipped him over onto his back. Clayton quickly stormed his way on top of the Locust and held its neck with his left hand and had his Snub pistol in his right.

"How'd you like to meet my brothers?" Clayton asked rhetorically as he fired multiple bullets into the Locust's face. Without thinking or wasting time, Clayton climbed over his cover and started charging towards the other Locust. His Torque bow had become jammed and he left behind, but he spotted a Retro-Lancer impaled into something which he didn't have enough time to identify what it was. He yanked the handle and the blade came free in under a second whilst he continued running. The power of the Retro-Lancer was remarkable. Clayton killed two more of the Locusts and dived into more cover as another had thrown a grenade. Clayton didn't have time to grab ammunition and was running low on the Retro-Lancer ammo. Luckily for him, most of the Locust had suddenly fled towards the open portal.

However, one had spotted Clayton and attempted to smash him with his Hammerburst. Clayton reacted quickly and ducked from the punt and used the blade of the Retro-Lancer to stab the Locust in the chest. The Locust cried in pain and dropped to his knees. Clayton quickly picked himself up and looked at the Locust. Using his strength, Clayton swung the blade of the Retro-Lancer across its face. Blood squirted everywhere and Clayton cheered victoriously at his accomplishment.

"Too fucking easy! Is that the best you sons of bitches can do, huh?" Clayton roared at the air as he continued to celebrate and congratulate himself. However, the sound of a familiar shriek caused Clayton to turn around at the portal…and the same Berserker from before came charging through the portal and was free of her chains…Clayton had jinxed himself. "God fucking damn it!"

Chapter 16

Chapter 15: the battle in Canterlot

Ben was quick to react when the giant Gunker flopped out of the pod. A grotesque amount of slimy imulsion dripped from the pod and off the Gunker as its fresh mutated body prepared to slaughter and mutilate anything that it saw. Its mutated right arm, bonded with a clever, represented its deadliness for those who treaded too close to it. Giant yellow hotspots were evident over the Gunker’s chest and missing left arm which clearly showed that during the stage of mutation its left arm either mutilated away or swallowed itself inwards to create the disgusting yellow weak spot. Either way, what was more terrifying was the horribly disfigured cry or groan it made when it saw the Changelings, the Royal Guards and Benjamin. From its view, the three princesses and the queen, along with injured Changelings, had already made their way into the castle. Luna took one last look at Ben with a look of fear and worry in her eyes. Ben quickly stared towards Luna and they both caught each other’s’ eyes. Luna was worried for Ben’s safety.

As the giant abomination took its first massive step towards Ben, Shining Armor, the able-bodied Changelings and the Royal Guards, another pod slightly above the first gave birth to more wretched Lambent Drones and Drudges. The Gunker released another loud moan before the battle soon commenced between them.

OXOXOXOXOXO

Clayton dropped the Retro Lancer. He was quick to dive out of the way as the Berserker rampaged past him, missing him by mere inches. Clay rolled to the left and landed in a crouching position. As the Berserker passed the veteran gear, the purple portal snapped shut as if it had been forced closed. The only benefit Clay saw out of the closing portal was that no more Locusts could enter through the portal, which would mean that he could spend all that time kicking the Berserker’s ass! An unseen smile perched on his unseen lips as he turned to face the Berserker. He dropped the Retro-Lancer and swiped the flamethrower from his back.

“Looks like that son of a bitch was of good use after all,” Clayton first thought,” Ah, who am I kidding? The guy’s an asshole!” Clayton checked the ammo on his flamethrower…but to his surprise it was completely different. The ammo canister had a picture of Discord on it and he appeared to be smiling and winking with his left eye. Clayton stared at the canister, not only realising that it was his only canister, but that the picture was a bright, sparkling purple colour. Clayton pressed the trigger to test the flamethrower, and to his surprise the flames were a bright purple colour. The purple picture of Discord depleted slightly from the loss of flame, but in a short few seconds the tiny emptiness refilled itself so that the purple filled the entire face again.

Before Clay could react to Discord’s face, and grunt in disgust, the Berserker had already made a circle around him. The sound of the fire igniting for that small second pinpointed Clay’s position for the blind female. She unleashed an almighty roar before charging through the rubble. Clayton cursed and dived out of the way once more. Cursing, Clayton speared back up and did not hesitate to unleash a sea of purple flames upon the beast.

Clayton laughed heavily and roared at the sight of the ignited Berserker,” Eat it, bitch!” Rather than attempting to move away from the flames to avoid pain, the ignorant Berserker stood on the spot and waved its massive, muscles arms in a frantic manner. It was just too easy for the veteran Carmine. However, his luck was short lived when the purple flames suddenly stopped. Clayton stared at the flamethrower in confusion. He tilted his weapon to the side to see that the purple colour that had formerly filled Discord’s face had depleted down to his neck, and was slowly recharging.” God damn it!”

The purple flames on the Berserker remained for a few more seconds which allowed Clayton to gain a small space away from it. However, once the flames had died away and the Berserker was able to focus, she was angrier and deadlier than before. Hearing and smelling Clayton running from her, because the rubble amplified his footsteps and Clayton hadn’t washed in a couple of days, the Berserker howled and charged straight for Clayton, who was not as fast as the beast. In a matter of seconds the Berserker had nearly been close enough to crush Clayton into bits. However, before she could do so, a magical purple aura wrapped itself around the Berserker’s right leg, causing the beast to trip onto the sharp rubble bellow her. The impact was so loud that different parts of debris and rubble lifted off the ground for a few seconds. The crash landing had also caught Clayton’s attention, which he had believed to be that the Berserker had tripped.

“The fuck?” Clayton first thought as he looked at the Berserker, but quickly took the opportunity to check his flamethrower. The purple colour had completely filled inside the image of Discord’s head which pleased Clayton. While the Berserker was slowly trying to lift itself back up, Clayton unleashed another sea of flames upon the monster. It collapsed straight back down and kicked and frolicked about as a new sensation of pain entered its fragile, little mind. Clayton enjoyed the sight but he did not enjoy the fact that his flamethrower kept running out so quick. “Stupid piece of shit!”

Nothing in Clayton’s time could ever prepare him for what was about to happen next. The flaming Berserker had suddenly reached for Clayton in an attempt to clutch him and break him. Clayton had instincts almost like a mantis and could have easily, thanks to his training and time in the COG army, dodged and rolled away from her grasp. However, it was the second event that happened straight after the Berserker had reached for Clayton which had caught him completely off-guard. A purple orb from Clayton’s right, from behind a broken wall of a residential Ponyville home, struck the downed Berserker and caused the flames to engulf her in a ten foot flame wall. The explosion was so big that it sent Clayton back a few feet.
It took him several minutes to grasp hold of the situation.

He sat up, rubbing the back of his head. Clay released a groan as he looked in front of him to see a giant firewall. The dying screams from the Berserker entered his ear-drums, and Clay certainly enjoyed the sound. The screams did last for a good few minutes before the firewall suddenly vanished, taking the ashes of the Berserker with it. It suddenly hit Clay that something had caused the giant fire to erupt, his flamethrower being the mere catalyst of the situation. Feeling slightly exposed and vulnerable, Clay pulled out his Snub pistol. He quickly reloaded a new clip into it and slowly walked forward. Walking slightly around the burned circle aftermath from where the firewall originally was, Clayton avoided getting too close because he could feel the heat hitting his slightly exposed neck and muscly arms. Different words raced through his mind as he tried to comprehend what had just happened. But it was short lived when the sound of contact on rubble caught his attention.

Quickly spinning around, Clayton aimed his Snub pistol at what he believed to be a Locust. Only…it was not a Locust. Revealing herself from behind a destroyed wall, Clayton slightly aimed his pistol down as he tried to believe what his eyes were showing him. The one behind tripping the Berserker and firing the magical energy to create a giant flame wall was none other than Twilight Sparkle. Her eyes showed fear, but she seemed slightly relieved to see the human.

“What…the…fuck?” Clayton stuttered in disbelief.

“Carmine? Is that you?” Twilight asked, hoping for it to be Ben.

OXOXOXOXOXO

“Uh oh,” Ben thought as he, Shining Armor, the Royal Guards, and the able-bodied Changelings stood their ground in front of the giant Gunker. All of the injured and the princesses had fled their way into the castle whilst the Canterlot residents had fled in the opposite direction and into the closest home or shop. The Gunker howled as he saw his new victims. A new sense of fear entered all except the Gunker. The Changelings and Royal Guards all looked across at each other, hoping that one might have an idea of what to do. They all held their battle poses though and ready to fight

The Gunker immediately turned its attention to the very front, between Ben and Shining Armor, and released an almighty roar. The roar was deafening. Ben, the Royal Guards and the Changelings all stumbled and howled in pain, covering their ears from the pinching pain. Ben had never heard such a horrible noise in all his life. He yelled in pain and dropped on his right knee, his Hammerburst slipping from his grasp and landing flight on its side. The Changelings hissed in hostile towards the Gunker, but still did they retreat in fear and pain of its cry. Shining Armor and his Royal Guards didn’t fare any better. Most had dropped their spears and clenched their ears from within their helmets. Shining Armor found the pain excruciating. With a ferocious and warrior cry, he resisted the pain surging through his head and grasped his spear firmly with his magic. Focusing primarily on the chest of the giant abomination, Shining Armor commanded his magic to thrust the spear with brute force. In the blink of an eye, the spear penetrated deep within the chest of the Gunker.

Shining Armor smiled at his accuracy but his happiness was short lived when the Gunker appeared completely unscathed by the spear. Again the Gunker made a sound. However, the sound was a low grunt of frustration and anger. It was its turn to strike. Without warning, the Gunker suddenly unleashed a giant bomb of imulsion straight towards Ben and Shining Armor. Ben and Shining Armor only stared at the imulsion bomb for a few seconds before quickly leaping out of the way. Any of the Royal Guards or Changelings behind them backed up as quickly as they could to avoid the noxious acid. Ben landed with a thud as did Shining Armor. However, howls of pain soon sliced their way into Ben and Shining Armor’s ears. They turned to see that three unlucky Royal Guards were suffering from the fatal consequence from the imulsion. Large chunks of the explosion from the bomb had smothered one of the guard’s sides. Ben could almost hear over the screams the hissing and splashing the imulsion emitted as it burned through the armour and his flesh. It had melted all the way to the bone, which made Ben shiver from the horrid sight. The guard was silent after a few more seconds. Another guard was just as unfortunate. His eyes, now bleeding with a mixture of red blood and yellow imulsion, were scorched from their sockets. The third was not as unlucky, for only his right fore-hoof and leg had been touched by the imulsion. A couple of Changelings and Royal Guards were quick to drag the injured away. The others, including Ben and Shining Armor, were mortified!
“Holy shit,” Ben thought to himself.

The sight was gruesome and Ben couldn’t think of anything else other than the dying guards in front of him. His mind wondered as he thought back to all the gore he had seen ever since he was signed to Marcus Fenix and his squad. From the Locust and COG brutally- even himself at one point- brutally curb-stomping each other or snapping necks and whatever else his mind dared remember. Before Ben could remember any more violent fatalities, the Gunker had taken its first step from where it had hatched. The stomp was violent and shaky, causing the Changelings and Royal Guards to wobble and fall slightly. Ben turned to stare at the Gunker. He noticed that it was slightly at his side now from where he had jumped and stumbled to his left. His Hammerburst was just inches in front of him, and without it Ben felt completely exposed and weak. The Changelings had released hisses and buzzes of intimidation towards the Gunker. Their efforts were obviously futile. It was when the Gunker had taken another giant step forward that the battle truly commenced.

The Royal Guards yelled and most had thrown their spears at the Gunker. Most of their spears missed whilst others bounced off the Gunker like rubber. And only the tiny few had actually succeeded in piercing through the hard shell of the Gunker. One significant spear had directly stabbed its way into the imulsion weak spot on the Gunker’s chest. Enraged, the giant monster used its mutated right arm and sliced at a group of Royal Guards. Its right arm, during the course of the mutation, had moulded with the butcher’s cleaver. It could stretch at a ridiculous distance and was extremely deadly giving the power of the Gunker. The attack sliced one of the guard’s forelegs; the attack had completely decapitated the leg from the body. Blood squirted everywhere. It landed on the floor, on the face of one petrified Changeling and on the shiny armour of other guards. Deciding to take offensive action, Shining Armor yelled at the Royal Guards and Changelings to circle around the Gunker.

“We need to zero this thing and avoid the front at all costs. Alright guards, you take the left and right flanks. If any of you have lost your spears then go retrieve them or find new ones. Any guard with a spear keep the monster back as much as you can. If the situation becomes too extreme, move and find a better position. Lean forward, jab, and move straight back. Go for the legs to slow the beast and aim for the giant yellow areas. They seem to be the weak spot. Do not get caught out! I need any Unicorns to stay behind the spears. Use your magic to distract, blind and damage the monster. Changelings, I know I’m not your queen or captain but if you want to live then you better do as exactly as I say! Take the rear and wait for-“Shining Armor had already started moving whilst issuing out his orders, like a true captain. Within seconds, the Royal Guards and Changelings had already mobilised to Shining Armor’s commands. However, he was cut off when the moaning Gunker aimed towards him and jabbed his cleaver at his head.

Shining Armor moved as quickly as a mantis would strike; in the blink of an eye. He rolled to his left and landed next to Ben who was picking himself up and loading a clip into his Hammerburst. They looked at each other for a brief moment before the sounds of enormous pain shrieked its way from the Gunker. They turned to see that the Royal Guards were obeying their orders. The Royal Guards had formed a semi-circle around the Gunker. The Royal Guards used their spears to jab away at the legs and weak spots-avoiding the giant weak spot on its chest-whilst the Unicorns stood behind their comrades and fired away. Their magic appeared to do significant damage and effect to the Gunker, slowing him down and blinding him at certain times. Whenever the Gunker proceeded to either turn its body completely around to face a certain group of ponies, or when it would turn the top of its spine slightly to face them, the Changelings and Royal Guards would swiftly move around it to avoid its haunting blade. However, it was not so simple. Some guards lagged behind and were caught out by the deadly cleaver. Despite the tactic, only the magic appeared to be doing the most effective damage in distracting the Gunker. It was Ben and his Hammerburst that really gave the warriors an edge over the Gunker.

Ben open fired at the yellow weakness of the Gunker, which had some positive results. The Gunker released howls of pain. It found it incredibly hard to focus on Ben and the Royal Guards at the same time since it was being attacked in all directions. Ben found himself shaking from the adrenaline that he usually felt whenever he went into battle. He was smiling…but he was worried at the same time. He was forgetting something about the stalk behind the guards. As he proceeded to insert another clip into his gun, he noticed the single pod on the stalk began to leak furiously with imulsion. Large plops of the yellow liquid landed with a splat as a Lambent Drone erected from the pod. The word ‘shit’ and ‘crap’ echoed and buzzed around Ben’s mind as he realised what he couldn’t remember. The pods had to be destroyed.

The Lambent Drone, behind the distracted Changelings and Royal Guards, open fired immediately upon the large force. Two Changelings dropped dead whilst a couple of bullets deflected off some of the guards’ armour. When the back of the squad realised that more alien creatures had appeared behind them, they broke the formation in order to deal with them. Less and less attacked the Gunker and more and more Lambent spawned from the single pod. Because of the giant Gunker, Ben couldn’t aim correctly at the pod without having to move in order to avoid being hit. Around him he saw how the fighting was getting out of hand. A couple of Lambent Drones had cornered a group of defenceless Changelings, only to have its chest penetrated by a spear. A Royal Guard smiled as he issued for them to run. However before they could do so, another Lambent Drone found its way behind the guard and snapped his neck. The Changelings stared in horror at the sight. But one summoned the courage and charged forward, ramming into the legs of the Lambent Drone. It fell with a massive ‘thud’. With the beast down, the group of Changelings made a break for it.

A Royal Guard Unicorn charged his horn with intensifying magic. He aimed at a group of Lambent Drones and unleashed the electric beam. They cried for a few seconds before exploding into the non-existent. A Changeling rammed itself into another Lambent Drone that tried sneaking up on the Unicorn. With the Unicorn’s assistance, he quickly put the Lambent Drone out of its misery and helped the Changeling onto his feet. Sudden bullet, swishing past their ears, caused them to duck and seek shelter. Ben himself was forced to flee away slightly from the Gunker and aid any guards or Changelings that required his assistance.

Aiming down his sight, Ben fired upon two Lambent Drones that had injured three Royal Guards. He continued to survey his surroundings, trying to find an opening where he could get a clear shot on the pod. If things continued as they did, the Royal Guards, the Changelings, Ben, and all of Canterlot would be overwhelmed by the Gunker and the Lambent Drones. Cries and sounds of metal filled Ben’s ears as he continued to manoeuvre around the battlefield. His attention was suddenly caught when a Royal Guard had tripped trying to drag his comrade away. One single Lambent Drone slowly slithered its way towards him. Ben felt his immediate instinct kick in to help him. But all that changed when he failed to realise that he had been standing still for too long. The Gunker, seizing the opportunity, flung one of its imulsion bombs towards Ben. It landed a few meters away from him and caused him to fly back slightly and crash into the solid ground. Large amounts of pain and throbbing infected its way into Ben’s head and body. His vision was obscured and hazy. In the haze, he could see Lambent killing guards, guards killing Lambent. The guards and Changelings were slowly losing ground to the Lambent, and the Gunker had slowly, very slowly, started to tumble its way towards Ben with means to execute him. But slightly to his right, Ben could see the pod on the stalk. He could very easily shoot it without having anything to get in his way.

Slowly, Ben began to drag himself towards the middle of the battlefield, where a good amount of corpses lay. The fighting between the guards and the Lambent had taken itself behind the stalk after a good few minutes. Ben rose to his feet, hearing the Gunker slowly tracking him from behind. Not turning around, Ben continued to stumble towards the stalk. His pace was slightly faster than the Gunker. He had dropped his Hammerburst from when the Gunker had caught him off guard. Reaching for his Snub pistol above his thigh, Ben, very distortedly, aimed at the single pod.

He fired his first couple of shots. Two hit the pod whilst the others missed. The Gunker continued to tread its way forward. Ben fired again. His hearing was not perfect but he could hear the clashes in front of him, but it sounded as if it were miles away. He also heard the thumping and distorted groans of the Gunker, trudging forward to end him. Ben felt his body weakening. His mind was betraying him as was his eyes and legs. He tried to focus. He tried so hard to stay awake and destroy the single pod. Squeezing his eyes, summoning his final energy and slowly repeating the sentence ‘c’mon’, Ben fired his final shot…
Shining Armor was fighting desperately against the Lambent Drones. He lunged his spear forward at a Lambent Drone that had its back turned. Right before exploding, the Lambent Drone released a cry of pain. Weak amounts of imulsion blood splattered across his face and armour. What Shining Armor failed to realise was that another Lambent Drone had killed another Royal Guard that was covering his flank. The Lambent Drone edged his way forward and aimed his rifle at the distracted Shining Armor…but to no avail!

Hearing the explosion, Shining Armor turned to see that the Lambent Drone had exploded. Looking around him, he could see arrows! The arrows were in the shape of lightning bolts and were coloured mainly dark blue, but the outline held a shining purple colour. More and more of the Lambent Drones exploded into pieces as more and more arrows penetrated them. Looking up into the distance, just in front of the castle, Shining Armor could see a large group of ponies. These ponies were Royal Guards just like him. However, they were darkened and wore purple armour instead of golden. There was a group a hundred strong whizzing straight towards them. Shining Armor smiled as he saw that Princess Luna’s Royal Night Guards had come to their aid. She must have called upon them when she and the others fled into the castle. All of the Royal Night Guards carried beautiful dark bows. The string itself was a dark black colour. The main colour that painted the bow was purple with little twinkles over the purple painting. Their deadly arrows continued to hiss through the air as they caught more and more Lambent Drones. Once they were close enough, they could see the giant Gunker in front of the stalk looking towards them. And in front of that was Ben shooting at the pod on the stalk. Shining Armor also noticed this.
“You know what to do,” Shining Armor roared towards the Royal Night Guards. They quickly nodded and rushed towards the Gunker.

The final bullet in Ben’s Snub pistol connected with the pod. In a quick motion, the pod exploded and the stalk quickly died. In front Ben could see a large amount of black dots, nearly a hundred, form in long rows that stretched beyond his vision. And from in the distance, Ben could hear a single voice. The voice was very familiar and was filled with worry and regret. It was Shining Armor. He cried for Ben to move out of the way. The screams continued to penetrate his mind until it fully awoke him from his depersonalised state. Again, Shining Armor’s voice echoed for him to move. Without thinking, Ben leaped to his left and crashed through a door as to his means of escape. With Ben out of the way and the Gunker at a safe distance, the one hundred strong archers all loaded a lightning shaped arrow and pulled it back as far as they could. Their hawk eye visions were aimed straight at the chest of the distant Gunker. All other Lambent were dead. Shining Armor trotted underneath the hovering archers. All were hovering in the air in four rows, twenty five in each row. Shining Armor’s breathing was heavy and frustrated. It was fuelled with anger and rage. With one final look at the Gunker, he released the command.
“Loose!” Instantly, the archers released their arrows. The sounds of one hundred arrows plucking from the strings and zipping through the air filled their ears. With deadly force, the arrows completely covered and pulverised the Gunker. Dying screams roared and howled through the air as the Gunker slowly died. Its body started to glow yellow as its life in Equestria slowly ticked away. The Royal Guards, Shining Armor and the Changelings all watched as the Gunker suddenly exploded into giant imulsion puddles.

It was over!

Author's Note

Hey guys, I hope you're enjoying this story as much as I am. I also hope you enjoyed that ass kicking chapter! I would just like to ask if any of you guys and girls, dogs, cats, dragons, alicorns, and so on, wouldn't happen to know any artists about that I can get in touch with?

I'm just looking for someone who wouldn't mind doing a cover art for this story. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Stay tuned for more Carmine kicking ass action!

Chapter 17:

Author's Note

I am so sorry for how late this is...feel free to abuse me as you may in the comments...I deserve it.

Anyway, I will try to update regulary but life must go on I'm afraid.

Benjamin's part does not progress the story in any sort of way. I wanted Clayton to progress the story so the next chapter is going to specifically be focused on him and Discord.

So tell me, what is your favourite Carmine quote? Who says it and what is it?

Thanks guys! And stay tuned for more Carmine kicking Locust ass action!

Chapter 17:

Chapter 17: The dream (1/2)

Ben didn’t remember waking up. He didn’t remember sitting in a bar, beer on a round table, with four other figures sitting around it. They were all having conversations with each other and laughing at the same time. There was distant sound of a gentle tune playing in the background while other waves of gossip swam around the room. It was a happy atmosphere though. Everyone appeared to be having a good time. The bar was big and there was lots of people standing and sitting, drinking, dancing, chatting, the works. Most of the people he saw around him were wearing some sort of rebellious green armour. Not that it could be called armour. Grabbing a hoodie, t-shirt, jeans and wrapping body armour over it doesn’t really count as armour. Some were wearing beanie hats while others did not. They did all have some strange symbol which was marked on their arms. However, there was something odd and secretive about everyone within the bar. They wanted to be loud, but it seemed as if they feared being too loud like they didn’t want to attract any attention. The curtains were closed and a few of the people occasionally took a glance from the corner of the curtains. Some shot some glances towards Ben but quickly dismissed him. They mostly looked keen on swallowing their beverages and paying for another. The cash would quickly flow from their pockets towards the overworked bartender, who tried his best to put on a happy smile. His smile was easily seen through though and they could tell from the exhausted smile and heavily bagged eyes that he was tired. But still he continued to serve the others and converse with them. Other people around the bartender appeared to be the same.

Ben’s attention suddenly focused on the beer in front of him. Where did it come from? Did someone buy it for him? Did he even drink? He looked down through the tip of the beer class and caught his colourised reflection through the bubbles. He wasn’t wearing his helmet. The rest of his COG armour was still attached to him though. He noticed it on the table right next to the beer. He had red hair that lengthened right to the neck. His fresh white face was noticeable and more conspicuous compared to some of the other faces around the bar, but it brought out the ocean blue eyes of his. Ben smiled at the sight. Sometimes he felt as if the COG helmet had become a part of who he is. It was like the helmet gave him a sense of identity that everyone could recognise because, for some strange reason much like his brothers, he hardly ever showed his face. Showing a little smile, Ben lifted the glass and allowed the alcoholic beverage to sizzle his taste buds. It tasted too good to even be real. Ben knew that since rations were scarce and water was more important than alcohol, alcohol wasn’t common among the COG. It was probably wise too since their race was on the verge of extinction and it would have been a stupid, and suicidal, decision to allow the COG soldiers to become totally pissed, useless and vulnerable to the Locust.

“So there I was me and Roach, stumbling down towards the chopper waiting for extraction. Roach, the poor bastard, already had the shit kicked out of him. When we got there, guess who was waiting for us? That bloody yank, Shepherd. The bastard put a bullet in me and Roach before burning us to death. Good thing the wonky eyed prick hit me shoulder, that’s how I escaped.” The sudden voice snapped Ben out of his thoughts. This was the first time Ben focused on the group he was sitting with. There seemed to be some sort of conversation transpiring between the other five.

“Wow that sounds rough, Ghost. But you should try having some goddamn Necromorphs chase you every now and again. Not to mention a couple of crazed, suicidal and fucking insane Unitologists with an overzealous leader, ready to wipe out the fucking human race. Danik…fucking asshole.” The second figure raised a beer glass to his lips and took a gulp.

“Too bloody right, Isaac,” Ghost replied.

Ben looked back at Ghost. What was the very first thing that stood out about him was the skeleton balaclava with Polaroid glasses and a headset. It completely stood out to him and was intimidating in a way. If it was used to scare people then it was working because Ben couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable around him. Perhaps it was because he didn’t know the guy that well which was why he was afraid. He also appeared to be in some sort of military multicam and grey armour, but a lot of the equipment appeared to be missing. His accent sounded different but familiar at the same time to Ben. He just couldn’t put his finger on it. His drink seemed to be finished and he was shuffling a pack of cards. It did not seem like he was going to be distributing them any time soon. He was caught up in the conversation just like Ben. If Ben had to guess, Ghost was probably an inch or two taller than him.

The second character Ben identified as Isaac. He was in the strangest armour that he had ever seen. It looked robotic and all connected together and futuristic. Ben could easily tell that Isaac was older than he was. The grey mixed with the brown in his hair and five o clock shadow immediately told him that he was nearing, or in, his forties. Ben guessed he was the same height as him. He too possessed a beer and it was half full…or empty. His bright blue eyes looked towards Ghost first of all, and then quickly studied Ben before returning down at the table. Ben studied him for a few more seconds, becoming more and more confused as the seconds went by. He didn’t know what was real anymore. First, he was falling to his death to living and talking with, not to mention fighting alongside with, ponies of different kinds. The last thing he could remember was seeing a massive monster thing and loads of yellow glowing Locusts before passing out in a building.

“Ha, entire Unitologist and Necromorph babies will cry when they meet Sasha.” Ben’s attention directed to the largest member of the group. Immediately he could tell that the giant on the opposite side of him was the tallest of them all. He almost hunched over all of them. He would hate to see him on his bad side. His face almost looked innocent and friendly, like a giant cuddly bear. However, from the size of his muscles and overall structure, angering him would have been a stupid idea. Ben didn’t know exactly who or what Sasha was but he had a feeling he was going to find out soon enough. He was wearing some sort of body armour over a red t-shirt. He was bald too and his eyes were scanning ahead of everyone else, almost as if he was looking out for someone or something among the small crowd in the quiet but packed pub. In one of his hands was a sandwich. He raised it slowly, not taking his eyes off the crowd around him, taking prolonged and loud chomps.

“Y’all have some good stories to tell, but you would not believe some of the shit my buddy, Keith, got himself into. My buddy Keith tried camping out on top of a building once. He was shooting crows, but the police were too busy teargassin' him to ask what he was doin' up there. He screamed for an entire year every single time he opened his eyes! Oh, man! At first, it was funny; then it just got sad, but then it got funny again! Oh, man! Oh, oh, oh, I ever tell you about the time my buddy Keith fell out the rollercoaster? Yeah, he didn't drop far, mind you, just onto the tracks, but the carnival people wouldn't stop the ride 'cause all the other people paid good money and Keith snuck on for free, so he had to dodge for, like, 20 minutes or so. And this other time-“

“Ellis, mate, what does that have to do with anything?” Ghost asked.

Benjamin frowned when Ghost stopped Ellis. He really wanted to hear more of this ‘Keith’ person. Ben immediately took a liking to Ellis the minute he looked at him. Something about his green eyes and goofy smile reflected some sort of inner child that refused to grow up. It showed how much of a friendly guy he was and he was a very relaxed person in general. If Ben wasn’t as confused as he was, he would have been confident that they would have been good friends. His southern accent was extremely gentle and had that sort of silliness that people would not have taken seriously. He wore a bright yellow t-shirt that had a bull shifters logo inscribed in the middle and blue overalls that had the straps that were supposed to go over the shoulders lowered. He also had a blue and white cap with a picture of a tow truck on the front, but it was placed besides his bottle of beer. He did have manners after all.

“Sorry, just tryin’ to lighten the mood for y’all before…you know,” Ellis said, leaning in closer to whisper the last part. Ghost nodded, looking towards the rest of the group, including Ben. They all made some sort of eye contact for conformation. Ghost continued to stare at Ben as if he was waiting for an answer.

With that said, Ghost suddenly leaned in closer as if to whisper something only the group at the table could hear. The question he asked was directed towards Ben.

“Ben, you secured your rifle, didn’t you?” Ben didn’t know how to respond to Ghost. Quite frankly, he had figured out that he was somehow hallucinating or dreaming, or both if he even knew if that was possible. But what scared him was the fact that everything felt so real, such as the beer, and how the dream was so lucid that he could think of waking up and yet he still awake. Words twisted and wrestled on the tip of his tongue as he tried to think of an answer. Luckily, Ellis saved his skin.

“Holy shit y’all,” Ellis started in the most excited whisper ever,” he got that rifle with the chainsaw at the end! God damn I’d love to get me one of those!” Ben looked back down at his legs and remembered his Lance rifle was there. Why it was there he wouldn’t have known, but the others seemed happy about it.

“Sasha is hidden with barman. When time comes, cowards will run!” Heavy stated, leaning in closer and trying hard to whisper while sounding optimistic and aggressive. Ghost nodded and turned towards Ellis expectantly.

“No worries, y’all. Got my M16 ready on my lap right here,” Ellis started pointing to his lap before continuing,” also got me trusty Magnum pistol in my right pocket. Ya know, for when it all goes down.” Ben turned to look at Ellis’ lap to find the rifle he was talking about. Ghost had hidden his the same way like him and Ellis. Heavy, however, did not have his weapon for obvious reasons. Ben wondered why the barman had to hide it. Ben was still puzzled by it all. What exactly was happening? How did he even appear in the bar? Who were his fellow companions around the table? He couldn’t tell if this was a dream, or the other world with Princess Luna and the yellow things was all just a giant hallucination and this was a dream, and then he would wake up back in Sera.

“Good. My M4A1 is locked and loaded. Now, it’s time we go over the plan one more time-“Ghost started before a sudden voice, loud enough to grasp everyone’s attention, interrupted him.

“Holy shit, the Combine are coming this way!” One of the random customers yelled, his face peering slightly out of the closed curtains. There was a sudden tension in the atmosphere. The entire bar had suddenly dropped into an eerie silence. The group looked downwards and remained with their arched backs while their eyes seemingly scanned the table they were looking at. Ben was the only one not doing this. He somehow knew that something bad was going to happen, but he was intrigued about how one word can cause an entire pub to silence in under a second. He noticed that nearly everybody had shifted their attention away from the door and down at the tables. No one wanted to look. The man who made the call quickly shifted away from the curtain and leaned against a nearby wall with his back facing the door and window.

And in that sudden moment, the door was forcefully kicked open. Two figures marched in with what appeared to be electronic batons in their hands. Down by their legs was holsters for their pistols. They stood in line on the left and right, leaving space for one more to fit in the middle. Ben had never seen these people before. He didn’t even know if they were people. They wore this strange black armour with white gasmasks. Were they human? Ben didn’t get to ponder long before the third figure became visible and Ben’s eyes widened. The third figure also looked like a human. However, despite the white armour and the weirdest rifle he had ever seen in his hands, the helmet of this all white humanoid creature had one eye. Was it a Cyclops or a human with one eye moved in the middle? Ben watched as all three slowly walked forward to the counter towards the barman. The barman stared viciously at them as he continued to clean a glass with a piece of cloth. The two other figures bullied some of the people closest to them. They pushed them and shoved them into tables while laughing at the same time. Their laughter was gruff and muffled due to the helmet. Everyone in the bar either refused to look at what was going on or watched and refused to do anything to stop them. Ben watched as the white Combine walked to the counter and listened in closely to what they were saying.

“And what can I do for you fine gentlemen this fine evening?” The bartender’s question was filled with nothing but hate and disgust for the Combine elite. The Combine elite didn’t react to the distaste for him. Instead he chuckled while leaning on the counter with his strange, futuristic rifle resting on the side. There was an awkward silence as the bartender and the Combine elite stared at each other. The other Civil Protection Combine had stopped abusing the people around them and stared at their leader and the bartender. They had their hands on their batons as they kept their hostile postures.

“You know why we’re here, Eric. It’s our job to have these weekly inspections so that everyone is behaving and everyone is happy. Why, oh why, do we have to have these barbaric and hostile conversations whenever we meet? Why can’t we be friends, Eric? If you had any common decency to treat your superiors and rulers with the respect that they rightfully deserve then you would be serving drinks for the Combine overlords and not these…lowly, polluted, filthy, inferior fucking rats.” Ben winced at the Combine elite’s voice. It was hoarse and harsh. Ben watched as the bartender idly rubbed the glass while not taking any offence to the insults being thrown.

“Believe me, Combine, I know a rat when I see one. Your overlords are the filthy fucking polluted rats of our world.”

“Oh, how noble and heart-warming of you, Eric, really you have touched me right here,” the Combine Elite pointed to his heart before continuing,” if you think you can upset me by insulting my superiors and overlords then you are deadly mistaken. You see I like you, Eric, really I do, but I can’t keep constantly letting you insult the Combine power and regime without punishment.” The Combine elite nodded to the two CP Combine.
The CP Combine quickly turned their attention to the closest table that they could find. They destroyed it immediately. They kicked it and smashed it with their electronic batons. The glasses shattered into pieces and flew in multiple directions. The alcohol landed and stained the floor below in large stains. The CPs quickly turned towards the two people that had originally been sitting at the table. One CP grabbed the woman and threw a left hook across her cheek. The man who had been sitting with her immediately roared and tried to throw himself at the CP but was smashed across the back of the head with the stun stick from the second CP. The first CP quickly clobbered the woman with his stun stick over and over again. The woman cried out in pain and screamed frantically as she tried to cover her face from the onslaught. The man tried desperately to reach the woman but the second CP had the guy pinned on his stomach in the chokehold position so that he could witness the brutality in front of him. Both CPs and the Combine Elite laughed evilly at the scene. Ben was about to stand up and stop the intruders but Ellis threw a hand across his chest to prevent him from rising any higher.

“Not yet man, y’all got to what for the signal,” Ellis whispered delicately.

“Hey, that’s enough now!” Eric’s voice suddenly roared. The Combine Elite turned back around and stared at Eric. Whether he was smiling evilly or not Ben couldn’t tell, and quite frankly he didn’t want to see the face underneath that mask, but Ben could imagine that if he did see his face then it would be smiling viciously.

“Search the rest of the place! Make sure there’s nothing here that there shouldn’t be.” The CPs obeyed immediately at the Combine Elite’s orders and immediately harassed some of the people at the bar. The two CPs started off at the opposite direction of Ben and the crew. Ghost, Isaac, Ellis and Heavy refused to look at the CPs or the Combine Elite. Ben, however, couldn’t help himself. He was so mesmerised by the fact that, despite nothing made sense to him, the scene happening in front of him was so intense that he found himself holding in his breath for a long period of time. There were footsteps outside and Ben saw as three more CPs entered the bar. These ones were equipped with pistols and slowly started making their way down towards Ben and the crew. Ben then heard Eric speak up once more.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? You’ve already searched this place a hundred times fucking before. If you didn’t find anything then, you won’t find anything now!”

“Like I have said before, Eric, we are your superiors and that therefore gives us the ultimate right to do whatever we want, how we want and when we want. If I believe that there’s something here you’re hiding, like weapons, then I cannot let you think that you step out of your place in this society. Rebellions are not tolerated under the rightful rule of the Combine. Any acts of rebellion are punishable via death. You of all people should know this, Eric. Each and every day I see more and more of these…pathetic, shallow, useless and wretched humans enter your little pub every day. But surly a lowly establishment like this is only selling cheap liquor that only ever fills the bottomless void in these washed up degenerates. So if this is the case then why are more and more people coming to this place? Another secret meeting will plans to overthrow the Combine superiors and take back your world, perhaps? You see, Eric, I’m on to you and I will not leave until I find what I want!”

“You won’t find anything, you useless, fucking dog. Why don’t you crawl back to your superiors and shag their legs a little more while you beg for a promotion into the higher ranks. In fact, why don’t you suck their cocks in the process? Yeah, that will definitely get you in their league for sure.”

Eric’s response was met with heavy hostility. The Combine Elite quickly snapped his large right hand around the throat of Eric and pulled him closer. Eric dropped the glass and it smashed and shattered below his feet. His hands had grasped the hand of the Combine Elite as he tried to desperately remove the hand from his throat. The Combine Elite was on his feet and he pulled Eric’s face so that it was directly in front of his. His words sounded darker and deeper, as if a new found evil had been awoken from within the Combine Elite.

“You have no right to talk to me like that you spineless fucking inferior rat! I am above you. I am greater than you! And you will show me the respect that I rightfully deserve!”

The three CPs with the pistols had almost made it to Ben’s table. All three had their eyes on the group as they shoved other people out of the way. One of them was spinning his pistol with his index finger through the little hole where the trigger was located. Another simply held the pistol in his right hand down at his side. The other walked cautiously and stealthily with both hands on his pistol. It was almost as if the last CP knew that there was something suspicious about the group. Ben suddenly heard the commotion rise again from the Combine Elite as he had slammed his free hand on the bar counter.

“You humans are all the same. You’re nothing but filthy, reckless, stupid creatures that need to be governed and controlled. You were made to live on your knees and serve those far superior to you. Don’t you understand? Your rights and freedoms are a lie. There is no such thing as ‘free’. You are, and always will be, lowly scum that will forever live in the shadow of those superior to you, never to witness the pleasure of happiness and clarity; never to understand what it means to hold true power; never ever being able to live in peace and clarity! You and your race will never be free again! Do you understand? Your race will never have a future, never again! Do you understand, scum?!”

The three CPs stood directly behind Ghost. Ben noticed that all three were looking at Ghost at first. Ghost had kept his head down as he continued to shuffle the pack of cards with no specific purpose. The CP in the middle remained with Ghost while the other two separated. The CP on the left made his way to Heavy while the one on the right appeared to be walking past Isaac. The second CP that was walking towards Isaac didn’t, for some strange reason, attempt anything on Isaac, and instead stood at the right of the table. Ben watched as the CP just stared at everyone in front of him. The first CP that had walked to the left appeared to intimidate Heavy. He was standing there while still spinning his pistol mindlessly as he stared at the Heavy, who in response refused to even look at him. But what caught Ben’s attention was what the second CP, the one staring at Ghost, said to Ghost.

“Stand up!” The command was harsh and spiteful. In the background, Ben could hear the tone of the Combine Elite gradually rising. Ben felt the tension. It was becoming increasingly palpable. What if they found the weapons they were trying to hide?

“Do you honestly think you or anyone on this planet has any chance of resisting us? Do you think your defiance and behaviour will get you anywhere? No! It doesn’t get you fucking anywhere! The only thing it will get you closer to is your death!” The Combine Elite was roaring while punching Eric in the face.

“Hey! I said stand up scum!” The CP pointed his pistol at Ghost to try and scare him. Ghost didn’t move.

“I don’t know why I haven’t killed you, Eric, but I am very tempted right now! In fact, I want you to beg,” The Combine Elite hissed. He pulled Eric over from the counter and dragged his body like a ragdoll. Reaching the centre of the bar, he pulled Eric until he was on his knees. Blood dripped down his face from the broken nose he had received from the endless barrage of punches. Walking back to the counter, the Combine Elite grabbed his pulse rifle and walked back to the beaten Eric, who was falling to one side slightly. He aimed his pulse rifle at Eric’s head. “Beg,” he commanded.

“I’m not going to say this again, you fucking prick, stand up!” The CP ordered harshly.

“Beg for me, Eric. I want to hear you beg and I’m sure all your friends here would too. Beg for your pathetic life. Beg!”

“Hey! When I tell you to stand up,” The CP started as he walked over to Ghost and proceeded to grab him on the shoulder,” you better fucking stand-“

“Now!” Ghost yelled.

Heavy roared and launched up from his seat, sending the table flying into the third CP who was standing at the other end, and knocking the first CP aside. Heavy charged straight towards the Combine Elite, who had no time to react as the giant collided with him. Ellis, immediately grabbing his M16 Assault rifle so that it didn’t fall off his lap, charged towards the CP that Heavy had knocked with the table. While the CP was trying to collect himself, Ellis was quick to put a bullet through his heart with his magnum pistol. A flat line noise along with jumbled coded messages came from the CP’s helmet. While the second CP was stunned by Heavy’s outburst, Ghost took the opportunity to take the hand that was grabbing his shoulder and flip the CP over his shoulder. Reaching for a hidden knife in his body armour pocket, he jabbed it into the CP’s neck. Blood quickly flooded down the CP’s neck and armour before the flat line noise was made. While Ghost was picking up his M4A1, Isaac moved in on the CP that Heavy had knocked aside earlier. As Isaac’s helmet started to warp around his face, he pointed his plasma cutter at the disorientated CP. The CP saw and tried to raise his pistol but Isaac fired a single round of his plasma cutter straight into the CP’s face. His face was split in two and his lifeless corpse dropped dead.

Ben remained in his seat. A stunned look had ensnared his face as he tried to contemplate what just happened. His Lancer rifle had fallen to the ground and his helmet had flown somewhere across the room.

“Take that,” Heavy roared as he threw massive punches with his massive fists into the Combine Elite’s face. Heavy was sitting on top of the helpless and continued to punch and punch and punch. “And this,” Heavy cried as his right hand smashed the right side of the Combine Elite’s cheek. “And that,” Heavy didn’t appear to be stopping. It was only until Ghost ordered him to stop that Heavy had halted the bombardment of his fists.

“Don’t kill him yet. Heavy go get your mini-gun while I, Ellis, Ben and Isaac deal with this asshole,” Ghost ordered as he walked towards the scene. Isaac and Ellis followed behind Ghost. Heavy smirked as he gave one last vicious look before removing himself from the beaten Combine Elite. Ellis turned back to see that Ben was still seating in his seat and staring.

“Hey, Ben, you coming brother?” Ellis’ question caused Ben to snap out of his trance and look at Ellis. He noticed that Isaac and Ghost had the Combine Elite on his knees and both were holding one of his arms. Ellis continued to watch Ben as he rose from his seat. Picking up his Lancer rifle, Ben walked over to where his helmet had landed and proceeded to put it on over his head once more.

“You…fools…you absolute fools. D-do you think…that…you can defy the might…of…the C-Combine Empire? You will pay…for…your barbarism. Y-you’re nothing but filthy…fucking rats!” The Combine Elite struggled to stay focused as he threw empty threats towards the group.

“Ben, do us a fucking favour and kill this fucker,” Ghost ordered. Ben was taken back a second. He was unsure of whether or not he should kill him. He didn’t look human and he could imagine him being another Locust, but it was what was happening around him that prevented him from doing so. When he saw Ellis, Isaac and Ghost kill the other CPs it seemed so real. The fact of the matter was simply Ben didn’t know whether he was actually going to kill this thing in front of him or if it was all a false and his mind was playing tricks on him. He broke his thought process when Ellis started to speak.

“Oh man, you should totally use your chainsaw and slice that mother up! It’ll be cool, then it might get a bit gross, but then it will get cool again!” Seeing no other choice in the matter, Ben walked forward.

“No…wait! Don’t do it you fucking animal! All of you are fucking animals!” The Combine Elite tried desperately to break free from the grasp of Isaac and Ghost but their grip was too strong. Each had a hand on one of his shoulders. Ben revved up the chainsaw on his Lance rifle. The blades started to spin and the sound was terrifying and grotesque; grotesque to the Combine Elite who was about to meet his end. The Combine Elite released one last cry before Ben brought down the chainsaw. Staring at the top right of the Combine Elite’s neck, Ben forcefully dragged the chainsaw diagonally through his chest. Blood flew everywhere and Isaac and Ghost immediately released the Combine Elite when the chainsaw penetrated the neck. Blood had splodged its way onto their suits but they paid it no attention. Finally, Ben managed to cut through the chest and finish off down towards the far left of the Combine Elite’s stomach. Pulling out the Lancer, the mutilated body fell into multiple different bits across the floor. Everyone stared silently at the scene.

“Ben is credit to team!” Ben looked over to see the Heavy was standing behind the bar and was carrying his massive mini-gun. “Ugh, tiny baby Combine met horrible fate. Horrible fate is good for him.”

“Alright lads, here’s the plan, we’re going to rally-“Ghost was cut short when something smashed through one of the windows. “Grenade!” Ghost screamed. Everyone leaped away as the massive explosion caused a small thick air to fill the room.

XOXOXOX

“I don’t think Ben will be waking up anytime soon,” Princess Celestia said calmly as she and her sister watched the sleeping body of Ben. He was in the princesses’ personal doctors’ room where he was being treated by the best medics in all of Equestria. He stirred slightly in his sleep while snuggled up in a hospital bed sheet. The doctors were writing down notes. The doctors told them that they couldn’t use magic to heal him since he was immune, and he didn’t appear to be physically harmed. They had cleaned the blood and imulsion from his armour but did not take it off in the process. Princess Celestia told them that they should respect his privacy and that Ben should be the only one to remove it.

“It’s very strange. I would enter his dreams and see what he is doing and where he is. However, dear sister, Benjamin is immune to all magic in this world for some strange reason. Not even I can use my magic and enter his dreams.” Luna replied with a hint of worry and fear in her voice, which was very uncommon.

Luna stared sympathetically at Ben. He had practically once again fought bravely on the field of battle and had become very badly injured in the process. They had lost many of their own in the battle too. Some of the bodies of their fallen Royal Guards were mutilated in the most gruesome ways that both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna couldn’t bear to look at for very long. More of their Royal Guards were injured and currently being treated in hospital along with the Changelings who also suffered heavy casualties. Equal amounts of Changeling bodies were found with bodies of the Royal Guards. All the other Changelings along with Queen Chrysalis were detained by Luna’s Night Royal Guards while the whole mess was being cleaned up. They had removed the giant stalk that had spawned outside and massive crews of ponies, excluding the nobles, had volunteered to help clean up the mess made.

“What I want to know is what these things that keep appearing from the ground are? Twice this has happened to us and both times we have barely managed to escape. I do not believed that creatures like the ones we have seen come from our world. They possess too much evil. This is more evil than we have ever witnesses before, Luna. If Ben cannot explain to us what these yellow glowing creatures are then we might have to find out for ourselves,” Celestia explained with worry and guilt heavily in her tone of voice. Too many of her loyal guards and subjects have been hurt in ways unimaginable to her. It was her duty as one of the rulers of Equestria to protect her subjects from harm in any way possible. She feared that she had let all of the ones who had already suffered from the recent events down and that they had lost faith and trust in her. The families of the fallen were the first thing she thought about after seeing all the corpses. How will they be able to cope with the fact that they had tragically lost one of their own? The thoughts terrified her. And she also wondered about what those who suffered serious injuries in the hospital were thinking. Princess Celestia noticed some of the Royal Guards were missing limbs from their bodies. Whether it was one of their legs or one of their ears, and even on some cases, their eyes, the amount of injuries stretched on for miles. “The newspapers and the media are going to criticise us for this, Luna. Or even worse, they might pin the blame to Ben.”

“What? Why Benjamin? He has done nothing but good since he arrived here in Equestria! How can the newspapers and critics possibly blame Ben for anything that has occurred over the past couple of months?” Luna sounded offended by Celestia’s remark but did not skip straight into judgement and waited for her sister to respond.

“That’s just the point, Luna. Not everypony in Equestria knows of Benjamin’s good deeds. I don’t think some parts of Equestria even know that he exists. News and gossip spread around quick, especially in cities such as Canterlot and Manehattan. They know that there is a creature in Canterlot that walks on two legs, wears the most alien armour that they have ever seen and comes from another world. Very shortly after his arrival, the attacks, the suspicions and paranoia started to escalate, from what my reporters suggest. The media can therefore pinpoint Ben as being the one responsible for bringing the attacks to Equestria and would demand that he be banished from Equestria.”

“But surly,” Cadence said suddenly, who had been quiet and standing in the corner of the room next to Shining Armor,” you could change the minds of the citizens of Equestria. You’re the most influential ponies in all of Equestria! I’m pretty sure if you explain everything to the press then everypony would be more understanding and wouldn’t have anything to worry about.”

“Even if we did so, Cadence, that wouldn’t stop some pony holding their true opinions and feelings. They may appear to be agreeing with us on the surface but we even know that they only do so to try and personally appeal to us. The nobles do it all the time at any party that we may attend. Even if we announce that Ben wasn’t the cause, and even if we say that he is under our protection, that won’t prevent some organisation of ponies trying to scare him away from Equestria,” Princess Celestia replied while rubbing a hoof against her temple.

“Sister, far too much has happened right now for us to be overthinking such topics. We should rest and deal with this later,” Princess Luna stated with Cadence and Shining Armor nodding in agreement. Princess Celestia looked at all three before letting out a deep sigh and formed a smile on her face.

“You’re right. Let’s leave Ben here and let him rest.” With that Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Cadence and Shining Armor walked out of the hospital room. As they left Ben continued to fidget in his sleep.

XOXOXOX

“What the hell!” Clayton stared in utter confusion at the sight of Twilight Sparkle. He had pointed his magically enchanted flamethrower at Twilight. The fact that Twilight was a talking pony with a horn on her head wasn’t the bit that spooked Clayton out the most. Although it did freak him out. The pony had actually talked to him! Clayton was tempted to remove his helmet to make sure that it wasn’t the helmet that was playing tricks on him. COG helmets had been known for being seriously unreliable such as when his brother Anthony failed to see the sniper and was murdered. Then again, Clayton’s helmet had saved him on more than one occasion. He remembered how close that sniper bullet came to piercing his helmet from one of the surviving citizens. However, what freaked him out more was the mention of his dead brother’s name. How did she know who his brother was? Clayton started to question internally whether he had hit his head really hard or some imulsion had snuck its way up his brain which was causing the delusions that he was currently experiencing. Either way, he remained on his guard at the rather taken back Twilight.

“Don’t you remember me? It’s me, Twilight Sparkle!” Twilight held a hoof to her chest. She gave a weak smile in hopes that Ben would remember her. At least until she realised upon closer inspection that it wasn’t Ben at all!

Unlike Ben, the figure in front of her was much larger and taller. He appeared to not be wearing armour around his arms and his helmet was of a different variant from Ben’s helmet. The chest plate of his body armour was a mixture of blue and black with splodges of blood everywhere from his recent battle. There were multiple words written across his chest plate which read ‘GRUB KILLER’, ‘KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN’, ‘PRACTICE RELOADING’, and ‘DESTROY LOCUST’. His arms were massive and the muscles appeared to be bulkier. What was more fascinating was that there were, what Twilight believed to be his cutie mark, pictures on his arms. On his left arm was the tattoo of an ammo belt, but Twilight had no idea on what it actually was. On his right arm was a picture of two helmets with a sword down the middle. There appeared to be wings behind both helmets and a COG was encircling almost the top of the sword. Just before the tip of the sword, which appeared to have something dripping off of it, was a banner wrapped around it with the acronym ‘R.I.P.’ which clearly told Twilight that the figure before her had lost some pony close to him. There also appeared to be two other banners underneath the helmets with words written within them. Twilight couldn’t read them from where she was standing but something about the helmet on the left seemed so familiar to her. The one on the left she couldn’t identify at all, but the one on the right looked awfully like Ben’s.

“Hey,” Clayton suddenly yelled which snapped Twilight out of her trance and deep observation. He must have tried talking to her while she wasn’t listening. She felt slightly embarrassed.” I’m not going to repeat myself again. How the fuck do you know that name?” Twilight winced at the aggressive use of his language.

“There’s some pony else…I mean someone else called Benjamin. H-he looks exactly like the right helmet on your cutie mark on your right arm,” Twilight stuttered as her ears displayed backwards slightly. “He said his name was Benjamin Carmine.”

“Liar!” Clayton suddenly screamed as he aggressively moved the flamethrower closer to Twilight, who in response, had jumped back slightly and hid half her face in fright. “My brother died from falling into a Riftworm. Sargent Fenix wrote that to me himself. He died defending Delta squad from incoming Locust! There’s no fucking way that Ben is here!”

“Your brother? You’re Benjamin’s brother?!” Twilight was shocked. Her mouth was wide open and she stared with wide eyes. Clayton felt awfully uncomfortable with the stare that Twilight was giving him. “How is that even possible? Benjamin’s appearance in Equestria hasn’t even been discovered yet.”

“Equestria? What the hell is an Equestria?”

“Actually, it’s what ‘is’ Equestria. Equestria is the world you’re currently in. I’m assuming since you’re Ben’s brother that you came from the same world. And right now we’re standing in Ponyville…or what’s left of it,” Twilight explained with a hint of sadness in her voice. Clayton was in utter confusion and disbelief over what was being said.

“You’ve got to be kidding me right? First you tell me that my brother is alive and that you know him and now you’re telling me we’re in another world completely. What the hell is going on huh? Just who the hell are you what are you even meant to be anyway?”

“Well my name is Twilight Sparkle and I’m a unicorn.”

“A unicorn? A unicorn!? A fucking unicorn? Oh well isn’t this fucking fantastic? And I suppose I’m a pretty fairy that flies around and grants everyone fucking wishes! Give me a break.” Clayton couldn’t believe it. He was in a world were unicorns actually existed. It was a complete contrast and juxtaposition to him and his personality. He always considered himself a badass that could slaughter more Locust than he could keep count. He had survived near death experiences and had nearly been killed by the Locusts so many times before. But to now find himself in a strange new world called Equestria where unicorns exist.

“Was that…really necessary?” Twilight didn’t like the way Ben’s brother was behaving. He was a complete contrast to what Ben had been. But her question was ignored.

“Great. This is fucking great. None of this makes any sense. I’m meant to be kicking the shit out of the Locust back on Sera, but oh no! Here I am talking to a fucking unicorn while slowly losing my damn mind.” Clayton had resorted to narrating to himself and sitting down on the closest debris that he could find. He held his right hand over his head while letting the flamethrower rest against his leg.

Twilight had many questions for the new human in front of her. She figured that if she was to get anywhere, she should start by trying to calm him down and get to know him a bit better. Maybe then would she be able to make sense out of everything that had just happened. Twilight was certain that he was acting this way because he was afraid and confused. If at any point he could be a massive help to her and Equestria. He might have a better idea of explaining what the yellow things that attacked Ponyville were and even tell her a little bit more about humans and where they live. He could even help her catch up with all the evacuated Ponyville residents that were currently heading towards Canterlot for safety. Then when they got there, she would tell the princess everything. She would tell them how Discord had escaped from his stone prison and was using an army called the Locusts, as Discord explained during their capture, to invade and conquer Equestria. More importantly, she would tell how all her friends had been captured and were currently at his hideout right now. Her heart immediately sank as she thought of her friends. She dreaded to think what awful things they were witnessing under capture of Discord.

“Okay…I think we should clam down and start again. As I said before, my name is Twilight Sparkle. What’s your name?”

“Clayton. Clayton Carmine. Some people call me Clay. My brothers mainly did. Most people tend to call me Carmine. Call me whatever you want. I don’t give a fuck. ”

“Well it’s good to meet you, Clayton Carmine. Now that we know each other a bit better, how about we-“

“Was that you?” The sudden question startled Twilight.

“Was what me?”

“Was you the one that lit that Berserker bitch on fire? I mean it lit up in purple flames! Ain’t ever seen that before.”

“I only used my magic to try and hold that monster in one spot so that it couldn’t move anymore,” Twilight responded. “It might have been that the mixture of magic with the thing that you were using to create fire which together merged to create one big fire,” Twilight suggested after giving it some thought.

“Sure as hell did the trick,” Clayton responded and looked over to the remnant burnt corpse of the Berserker. The creature’s hard shell was tainted black and was starting to smell dreadful. Afterwards the conversation died down with Twilight thinking of a way of trying to get Clayton to help her while Clayton contemplated with his existence and what was actually real. Time passed and small conversation started between the two about their personal lives. It was mostly Twilight talking about herself and her friends as Clayton seemed reluctant to share anything personal. But after a short while the conversation had died down a while. Clayton had resorted to throwing random small bits of debris into a larger pile further in the distance. Soon the awkwardness of the silence crept up to both Clayton and Twilight. It was Clayton who broke the awkward silence. “So what the hell do we do now?”

“Well we could try to catch up with the Ponyville residents and go with them towards Canterlot,” Twilight suggested as she stole the perfect opportunity to try and get him to help her.

“Wait, what?” Clayton asked with a confused expression under his helmet.

“Well when those things attacked Ponyville, all the residents in Ponyville were evacuated with a few Royal Guards where they could be safe,” Twilight explained. “Right now they’re all heading towards the Canterlot where the princesses can look after them and offer them sanctuary since we’re all pretty much homeless.”

“Ponyville? This place is called Ponyville? You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“What’s wrong with the name Ponyville?” Twilight sounded offended by the fact that Clayton was mocking the name of the place she had come to know and love. The state that it was currently in destroyed her. To see the once beautiful village pillaged and destroyed by monsters and all the homes that once had happy families within them totally destroyed saddened her in new ways that she hadn’t felt before.

“Well it’s a stupid name. We don’t have a place called ‘humanville’. I mean come on; couldn’t you be a little bit more creative?”

“Clayton’s a stupid name,” Twilight muttered under her breath with a hint of anger.

“What was that?”

“Nothing…okay look we are really wasting too much time sitting here talking when we’re meant to be trying to catch up to the residents of Ponyville. I’m sure that they’re pretty far ahead by now. But I’m certain that we can teleport near them.”

“Teleport…you can teleport?”

“Yes I can,” Twilight said proudly,” All thanks to magic. I am a unicorn after all.”

“Bullshit,” Clayton said in disbelief. Magic was something you would read in a fairy tale and was completely fictional. They did have fake magic where there was some guys in the COG who could pull of a card trick or two, but no actual proper magic.

“Now hopefully I can teleport us near the Ponyville residents without causing any harm at the same time,” Twilight stated as she ignored Clayton’s disbelief,” hopefully you’re not immune to magic like Ben is.” With that, Twilight began the spell within her head.

“Immune? What do you mean-“Clayton was suddenly engulfed in purple light with Twilight as the spell began to take effect. Seconds had passed before Clayton and Twilight were located on a small dirt path. Alone in the distance behind them once stood the happy town of Ponyville but now was perished as more smoke and rubble was visible from the distance. In front Canterlot and the castle itself were slightly bigger.

“Well we’re not totally where I wanted to be…but close enough,” Twilight stated as she turned to look at Clayton. He was leaning over with both hands on his legs and was panting very heavily. He had dropped the flamethrower in the process but his empty Torque bow remained fitted on his back.

“Oh man, I don’t feel so good,” Clayton said, on the verge of being sick from the magic. He continued to breathe heavily until he was sure that he felt alright. Twilight waited patiently for Clayton to compose himself. She remembered seeing this before and knew of some of the side effects of first ponies that were using the teleportation spell. Not that she would admit that she ever felt like that in front of Clayton or her mentor. She wouldn’t be living up to the princesses’ personal protégé if she did.

“Don’t worry, the feeling will wear off soon enough and then we can get going,” Twilight stated happily. Clayton was tempted to give her the finger but was too focused on trying to get the sickly feeling out of his head and stomach. Another five minutes and Clayton started to feel a bit better and was able to walk without stumbling or feeling dizzy. He was able to walk normally but had both weapons placed on his back so that he wouldn’t accidently barf on them by mistake. Better safe than sorry. As they continued to walk along the path, Twilight was becoming more and more eager to walk faster to see where the residents of Ponyville were. “Could you walk any slower?” The frustration in Twilight’s voice was clearly evident.

“Yeah, I can, if you want me to,” Clayton replied with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“It was a rhetorical question,” Twilight stated with annoyance.

“Whatever,” Clayton stated,” Don’t know why we’re even doing this. Why I’m even doing this actually. I mean, nothing makes any sense yet here I am walking next to a unicorn, going someplace I know jack shit about, in a world I know jack shit about and somehow the Locust are here too.” Twilight had learned quickly to ignore or not argue with Clayton. She knew that deep down he was a good guy but he acted like such an anti-hero in front of her. By that she meant that he seemed to act like a careless, boneheaded fool who didn’t care for the opinions of others or what they thought about him, but yet he saved her from the clutches of Discord, which had to count for something. Wanting to change the mood from anything other than his complaining, Twilight figured she should ask him how he got his cutie marks and how they were different on each arm.

“So Clayton,” Twilight started which cut Clayton off from his complaining of how ‘babyish’ everything appeared to be,” How did you get your cutie marks?”

“Uh, what?”

“You know, your cutie mark, see?” Twilight indicated with her head towards her flank where he cutie mark was. She explained how cutie marks were unique picture symbols that showed your special talent and what made you unique from every pony else. Twilight then explained how she had received her cutie mark from Princess Celestia’s school for Gifted unicorns and used magic to hatch Spike’s egg, which then a Sonic Rainboom happened and her magic became totally out of control. It was then that Twilight explained how the best thing could have happened to her. Princess Celestia herself saw the magical capabilities in Twilight and made her a personal protégé. Then suddenly her cutie mark appeared on her flank and she felt as if she was the happiest filly in all of Equestria. Twilight felt nothing but pride whenever she thought and told about how she received her cutie mark. Clayton on the other hand couldn’t give a shit. He felt more confused with all the names and didn’t have a clue on what she was talking about.

“Okay, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Clayton said as he laughed slightly.

“Well, all I’m asking is how did you get your cutie marks right there and there,” Twilight stated as she pointed towards Clayton’s arms.

“They’re not these ‘cutie mark’ things you keep yapping about,” Clayton started,” They’re tattoos that I got done back on Sera.” Noticing that Twilight was listening and not interrupting, Clayton explained further.” You see this one right here,” Clayton said as he pointed on his left arm at the ammo belt,” it’s an ammo belt. Hell I thought it would be cool to think that if I ever ran out of real ammunition, then I would use this to remind me that I always had infinite ammo within me so that I could kick ass no matter what; gun or no gun; ammo or no ammo.” Clayton then shifted to show the tattoo that he loved and dreaded the most. “These are my two dead brothers. Their names were Anthony Carmine and Benjamin Carmine. I called Anthony Ant for short and Benjamin…Ben or ‘Squirt’. I have this to remind me why I fight and why I continue to live each and every day; to avenge my brothers. When Ben died, I swore that I wouldn’t rest until I killed every motherfucking Locust on Sera.”

“How did they die…if-if it’s okay if I ask?” Twilight felt saddened by the fact that Clayton had lost two brothers. It was clear that he treasured Anthony and Benjamin very close to him. But what Twilight found hard to say was the fact that she knew that Benjamin was alive and currently in Canterlot with the Princesses. If she could just get Clayton there, then he could see for himself that Ben was alive. Nonetheless, she wanted know how he believed that his brothers had died.

“Anthony was sniped in the head by a Locust sniper and Ben fell into a Riftworm…they didn’t find his body or his damn COG tags. I was told that they both fought valiantly on the field of battle.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Twilight said with her ears displayed backwards. As they continued to walk, Twilight tried to lighten the mood from the death of his brothers,” I also have a brother. His name is Shining Armor and he’s my B.B.B.F.F!”

“He’s your what?”

“He’s my Big Brother Best Friend Forever,” Twilight said with a happy smile,” He used to be captain of the Royal Guard in Canterlot before marrying Princess Cadence and becoming a Prince.”

“Sounds like an asshole. Can’t wait to meet him,” Clayton said plainly. Twilight didn’t know what he meant by the word but she was almost certain that it was an insult from the tone of his voice. They continued to walk along the path as the castle slowly appeared in the distance.“What’s with the castle?”

“That’s Canterlot castle. It’s a castle based in the very wealthy city of Canterlot. That’s where we’re going right now…as soon as we catch up with the rest of the residents….I didn’t think that they would be this far back. Do you think they ran into trouble?”

“How the hell should I know?”

“Well I am certain that I teleported us as close as possible. There’s no way that I could have made such a simple mistake.”

“Oh no, it’s so tragic. What ever will we do?”

“It’s not funny.”

“I think it is.”

“Well you have a horrible sense of-“Twilight was interrupted by the sound of screaming. It was coming right in front of them. Acting on instinct, Twilight started running towards the screaming.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Clayton watched as Twilight started to gain distance from him. Figuring that since he had no clue on what was going and what to do; he decided to run after Twilight to see what was causing the screaming. As he continued to run, Clayton noticed that Twilight had stopped in front of him. Reaching to where she was standing, Clayton saw a massive group of ponies. They appeared to be carrying possessions on their backs but were cowering in fear. Looking more towards the front of the group, Clayton saw a couple of ponies in armour lying on the floor. They appeared to be beaten and hurt, and standing over them were three creatures that he had never seen before.

“Griffins,” Twilight stated in surprise. Usually Griffins were hard to come by when travelling and Twilight usually read about them from her library. But straight in front of them were three Griffins. Twilight immediately rushed ahead to see what the commotion was. Clayton stood there as he tried to take in what he was seeing. “What is going on here?” The Ponyville residents were more than relieved to see Twilight. She had come to their rescue.

“Well, well, well, look what we got here, boys,” one of the Griffins said with a cocky smirk on his face. The others laughed in response as they threw a couple of things randomly on the floor. They appeared to be bags that belonged to the Ponyville residents.

“Just what do you think you are doing?” Twilight eyed the Griffins with heated hostility.

“Uh, what does it look like we’re doing? We’re taking this stuff,” another Griffin replied with a sack in one of his claws.

“You can’t do that! They belong to my friends and I will not let you thieves think that you can just take what you want,” Twilight stated with a stomp of her hoof. The Griffins turned to look at each other before bursting out into laughter. Twilight continued to stare and not get put off by the fact that her threats were having no effect on the villains in front of her. “What’s so funny?”

“Look at your friends down there,” the third Griffin stated and pointed to the Royal Guards who had been knocked out, “Not even Celestia’s Royal Guards can stop us. What possible chance do you have against all three of us?”

“That’s Princess Celestia,” Twilight stated in fury. She immediately thought up a constriction spell that would hold all three of them in place. But all three took flight into the air and moved quickly out of the way of her beams. They laughed as they did so and each began to fly in a circle around Twilight, two going the same way while one went in the opposite. The force created a strong gust of wind that took Twilight off her hooves and sent her spinning with the wind. She spun for a few more seconds before being sent flying into the dirt face first. The Griffins laughed at the sight. As the Griffins landed, laughing heavily in the process, Twilight was quick to rise to her hooves and conjure up a force spell. She fired it at the middle Griffin, who stopped laughing when he saw the beam, stared wide eyed as he was sent flying across the dirt. The two other Griffins stopped laughing and the Ponyville citizens cheered.

“That hurt,” the Griffin stated as he rubbed the dirt of his eyes. “You’re gonna pay for that!”

Suddenly using his wings, the Griffin dashed straight towards Twilight. Reacting quickly, Twilight used her teleportation spell and moved out of the way of the darting Griffin. As she reappeared, the second Griffin made an attempt at grabbing Twilight. Again she used her teleportation spell and the third Griffin made an attempt only to fail all the same. The second and third Griffin attempted to catch Twilight by attacking together, one going left and lying directly at her while the other flanked right. They weren’t the brightest of Griffins as they both collided into each other with a crash. However, when Twilight emerged from her spell, she had unfortunately teleported right in front of the first Griffin. He quickly grabbed Twilight from behind and forced her to the ground. The other two Griffins gained their senses, and when they saw Twilight pinned to the floor, they smiled evilly. As she struggled to free herself from the clutches of the first Griffin, he forced her round so that she was on her back and looking at all three of them. She began to panic. They continued to laugh with smug smiles, happy with their victory over her. That was until the first two Griffins suddenly had their heads smashed together and dropped in a dazed fashion. The first Griffin stopped laughing when he heard his friends stop, and when he turned around he froze on the spot. A fist quickly connected with his face straight after.

Chapter 18

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Chapter 1

Introduction: Falling to death

"I got your back Sarge" Carmine screamed over the intense battle of the bullets whistling through the tightened air.

The battle waged between a group of two different species that had devilish aims of brutally exterminating one another, the humans and the locusts. The battle echoed around the llima sinkhole, llima used to be a city that stood proudly around Jacinto, the city which the humans were most proud of as it was one of the last cities that became the only hope for humanity; also it was described as being one of the most beautiful cities in Sera. Unfortunately for Jacinto, Delta squad had discovered what had been rocking the very soil of earth; a giant riftworm. The Locusts planned on using the giant abomination to sink the cities around Jacinto so that Jacinto itself would crumble with the same fate as the minor cities. Losing Jacinto would have put a huge void in the humans' plan to win the war.

Young Benjamin Carmine, a rookie for Delta squad and one member of the Carmine family; his two older brothers are a part of the COG like him however his deceased brother Anthony Carmine wasn't so lucky. He got news that his brother was murdered by a locust sniper after he reached the house of Sovereigns, he and his two other brothers (and the rest of the Carmine family) counted him as a big hero to the COG and it was him and his brother Clayton who inspired him to fight on for the COG. Benjamin was busy covering the rest of Delta squad while they climbed aboard 'king Raven'. Sargent Fenix was bellowing at him over the pattern of razor bullets.

"Get your ass in here, NOW" the conversation was soon joined by Cole train.

"Rookie, this ain't the big game yet! Save your ass for the playoffs!" he roared at him, desperately wanting to escape the massive terror; trembling towards them.

Carmine continued his sea of metal killers towards the ugly vermin that gave his younger brother nightmares when he was younger. Carmine accidently missed a couple of Locust that had served back their own wave of killer bullets back to him. The metal made a clanging sound as it recoiled off of Carmines armour; the force stunned him back onto the side of the chopper where he was dragged in seconds later by the rest of Delta squad. The chopper rose almost immediately, absorbing into the air; ready to escape the death trap.

Carmine scurried his hand over his shoulder where he was shot, luckily the bullets scraped of his metal armour and left nothing but dent marks.

"I'm ok, Sarge…I can't believe we made it!" Carmine was overjoyed at the fact that they had survived the terror in the hollow and were going to make it out alive! He couldn't wait to see surface again and to be free of the deadly Locust homeland. Unfortunately, he spoke to soon.

The riftworm beast rampaged through the hardened rock like knife through butter, crushing and brutalizing debris everywhere; one just so happened to target itself directly at the flying machine, sending it on a tornado style twist.

The chopper twisted downwards and Carmine perished downwards to the dark hole of the beats mouth; him screaming in utter fear of the drop.

OXOXOXOXOXOXO

The sun shined amazingly down on the tiny town, filling it with its beautiful rays of light; begging to be adored by those who wanted to admire it. Creatures had awoken from their slumber and stepped out gracefully, appreciating the new beautiful day given to them. The gentle breeze whistled through the air, the trees swaying majestically and the leaves made a gentle patter sound as they descended gently to the soil. Flowers and other plants fed greedily of the lovely light, showing off their colours to any insects they may have been attracted to its beauty; almost competing against the sun itself.

Following the direction in which the baby breeze blew; led to a town. A small but beautiful town that had sparked to life; within the town lived a mixture of earth Ponies, Unicorns and Pegasus's. They immediately began roaming around, doing their daily activities. Within the Ponies venturing around, a purple mare walked gracefully through the streets, smiling pleasantly at the scenery in front of her. She continued her pleasant stroll until she arrived at her destination, outside the Carousel Boutique.

The purple Pony knocked gently on the door, waiting for a reply. She certainly did hear a ruckus before a white Pony opened the door.

"Oh Twilight, darling, how nice of you to come" she addressed Twilight as usual in her very posh accent. Twilight stepped in politely before saying…

"I'm glad I could help Rarity" Twilight replied happily; watching Rarity close the door gently. Twilight noticed that a couple of fabrics were dispatched over the place and over the sewing machine. She wondered what had happened.

"Um, Rarity what happened here?"

"Oh its nothing Twilight really, just Opal is being a bit of a nuisance; but there's nothing to worry about now" Rarity addressed calmly while swishing a part of her mane back which had shielded her eyes.

"Oh, ok then; so what was it about a new dress?"

OXOXOXOXOXOXO

"I hope you're doing well out there Clay. Not sure where you are but I trust that the COG will get this letter to you safely. I know that you'll be excited for me, but it'd be great to hear from you before I ship out.

I just wish Anthony was still here bro. I really miss him. I take comfort knowing he died a hero, but still... I miss him, as I'm sure you do too. Well, you know I'm not that good at letters, so I'll keep this short... hope you're doing well, big brother, and know that I'll be doing my very best to serve our country and make you and our family proud.

Your little brother [AKA the Squirt], Ben"

"Oh how sweet, little Benjamin is called squirt by his older brother. This should be interesting; maybe he might just help me rule Equestria! If not…then I guess these beautiful creatures might just do the trick instead!"

OXOXOXOXOXOXO

Two Pegasus's flew fiercely over the Everfree forest. They were dressed in solid golden armour, this could only symbolise that they served the ruler of Equestria; Princess Celestia. Their usual job was to fly over the gloomy forest to watch for anything that might sign danger to any innocent civilians. But today was different, they had received reports that a blinding light had somewhat erupted somewhere in the forest and were ordered to scan for anything that might have caused the scenery and report it back to Celestia.

They both landed roughly in the muddy, swampy forest; keeping their emotionless face peeled on as they advance through the nightmare forest. There eyes switched from left to right as they scanned for any sign of life whether that being the cause of the light eruption or the threats of the Everfree; one guard suddenly paused in his tracks. He glared at what was lying in the soil lifeless, never had he seen such a strange creature in the whole of Equestria; he addressed his findings to his comrade who sprung the same reaction that he did.

"What should we do?" the first guard spoke; his voice sounding deep and rough.

"What we were ordered to do; report this thing to her highness" the second guard replied, readying himself to launch himself in the air.

The first guard just nodded and mirrored the action that his partner did; lifting into the air and racing towards the castle to report their findings…

Chapter 4

Chapter 3: The rise of evil

An owl's hoot echoed through the creepy, mud infested forest, diving into those who were close by to hear it. The dark green leaves warped into a great black camouflage that blended in with the night sky; there rustling fell silent as the wind died away peacefully. The grass bedded its natural green colour as the mud had invaded it and smooched itself clumsily over the spikes of the grass, packing the grass down to the soil in a filthy state. Just behind the invaded grass, erected a new root that latched itself around the hip of a tree, the unnatural growth of the Everfree was one of the major reasons why everypony feared the forest, the other being the sick, twisted and mysterious creatures that called the swamp its home. Inside the Everfree, if one were to travel deep within the Everfree like six Ponies have done before and were able to fend them selves successfully against the beast of the Everfree then they would find the ancient castle of the royal sisters were the elements of harmony used to be located.

Inside of this ancient, weed infested castle sat a spirit in the rusty throne. This was the spirit of disharmony and chaos, this creature has a horse-like head with a right deer antler, a left goat horn, a fang and a beard. He has a lion's right arm, an eagle's talon for a left arm, a lizard right leg, a goat left leg, a bat right wing, a Pegasus left wing, a snake tail and tongue and different sized pupils. He had been trapped twice in stone by the elements of harmony, once by the two royal sisters that ended his reign over Equestria and second by Twilight and her friends who saved PonyVille from total chaos. He had escaped his stone chamber for a second time and vacated into the Everfree where nopony would find him. Celestia was unaware of just how powerful Discord has become over the thousands of years of being trapped in his hard prison, simply locking the spirit wasn't going to work anymore.

He sighed deeply as he thought back on his failure, how much he wanted revenge on those Ponies. He heard footsteps approach him from behind.

The harsh voice hissed violently as it spoke in what it called 'human tongue' towards its new master and ruler…Discord!

"Your holinessssss, the base is almost complete; like you have requested" the beast explained, receiving a smile from his new master and 'god'. The beast was a black armoured Kantus named Kreikie, he was the leader and priest of the new Locust armour, chosen especially by Discord to spread the message to the Locust kind that Discord was their true god and saviour; Kreikie was very obedient towards Discord and would never disobey him which got him the black armour in his rank.

After Discord had summoned Carmine into the world, he noticed the war that waged between his race and the Locust and unknowingly to Discord; the Lambent. Discord summoned the Locust army for his advantage and gain over Equestria and become their dictator once more. Unfortunately, what Discord did not know was that when he used his evil magic, he summoned the Lambent as well which roam in the stalks deep bellow Equestria; Discord and the Locust were unaware of this however.

Discord grinned evilly.

"Good, what about around the Everfree?"

"Camps are being set up like you have requessssted and our first foot soldiers are being dispatched in a couple of hours; at dawn"

"And how about this 'breeding process' you discussed with me earlier?"

"The femalessssss are tricky to handle but they are currently chained down, ready to begin the process when the males are active."

Discord nodded once more, he rose and hovered his way over to the balcony where he had a clear view of his new empire that had constructed almost immediately, building large rock homes. The Locust wasted no time; they had already set up rifle training areas, food courts, beating ground, perimeters and defences around the castle. Horns were set up in case the Locust needed to be alerted of an intruder while they were in their slumber.

"Your holinessssss, what is our first cause of action?" Kreikie questioned, taking a place beside Discord.

"You will send a couple of your soldiers to capture these six Ponies alive and this human. The rest you can deal with at your own please!"

"As you wish; your holinessssss."

Kreikie bowed and walked towards the exit of the castle and closed the half broken wooden door behind him. Discord noticed how run down and unstable the place had become over the years.

"A little bit of improvement will do quite nicely" he thought to himself, cracking a smile at what he had in mind.

Meanwhile, just behind the building base, two eyes pried upon the scenery unfolding before her, her muddy purple cloak and filthy hat provided camouflage from these beats that she had never seen before. Her eyes wide at the images warping in front of her, what captured her attention the most was a half built statue in the middle, the statue was built from the ground and worked its way up to the hip. The statue was most probably going to represent Discord to show his reign over the easily minded Locust. This unicorn was none other than the big phony Trixie.

A sudden sound of the mysterious creatures made the unicorn turn her head to notice that a group of the weird creatures were pulling a Pegasus by his mane until it was in front of the statue.

The Pegasus had plain white hair and a brown coat. His eyes were blue but were red from the harsh abuse he received from the Locust; his cutie mark was a picture of a dumbbell with six weights on it. It was none other than Dumbbell or Billy by his friends; he was one of the bullies of Rainbow Dash back in flight school.

He tried to release himself desperately from the Locusts' mighty grasp but was effortless. Suddenly, he was lobbed in front of Kreikie!

"Ah an intruder in our bassssse" he hissed harshly, eyeing the Pegasus sharply. Dumbbell only stared in utter fear at the priest.

"U-uh" Dumbbell was speechless and not to mention terrified of the monster.

"You want to know what we do with intruderssssssss like you?" he hissed again.

Dumbbell's breathing became extremely heavy and his heart felt as if it was going to explode from the core of his chest. He noticed that Kreikie had nodded to one of the Locust guards who quickly obliged.

Dumbbell only got one quick glance of the guard. He saw the terrifying sharp blade on the end of his rifle.

The guard plunged his blade through Dumbbell's chest, striking him from the soil and into the cold air!

Trixie raised her hoof over her mouth, silencing herself from the nightmare that had just unfolded. Without looking, she dashed through the bushes; blindly running as far away from the base as she could; tears strolling down her check.

OXOXOXOXOXOXO

The sun had slowly climbed up the blue sky, bedding Luna's night down behind the Rocky Mountains for day had sprung to life. The group of Ponies were offered spare rooms for the night as well as Carmine. He was relieved and overjoyed at the fact that there was a bathroom for an actual good wash and an actual bed to sleep in; Carmine had never felt so happy at the house warming comfort.

Carmine had just finished cleaning the dirt that camped on his whole body, he had never felt so good in his entire life, and he even had time to clean the dirt from his COG gear and the blood from his weapons. However, Carmine noticed that his lancer trigger was stuck and the tip of his rifle was completely bent up; he cursed at his lancer and threw it on the bed. He looked at his longshot sniper, it appeared to be in perfect condition and he had spare ammunition for it.

Carmine reached for his helmet and fitted it on tightly, twisting the bolts together so that it stayed in place; a sudden knock came from his door.

"Benjamin; are you ready?" It was Princess Luna.

"Just a second" Carmine yelled, twisting quickly, tripping over his own feet. Luna heard the thud through the door.

"Are you Ok in there Benjamin?" Luna asked concerned about what he could possibly be doing inside.

"Y-yeah, I'm just fine" he replied agitated. He quickly rose to his feet and swung the door open. There before him was the co-ruler of Equestria.

"Hello" she greeted happily, smiling towards him.

"S'up" Carmine replied back.

The sudden scent hit Luna nostrils like the speed of light; it was a mix of Carmine's own scent along with the shampoo and body wash. It made her blush a bright red in her cheeks, Carmine noticed it but let it slip for the time being; she also noticed that his 'armour seemed more shiny than before. Never the less, she did not question it. She calmly walked in and noticed two strange objects rested on the bed.

"What are they?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Their weapons. That we use to fight the Locust" Carmine replied, standing next to her and glaring at his killer objects.

"What do they do?"

"Uh…let's just say they do something you're probably not going to like" Carmine replied nervously, rubbing his hand on the back of his helmet.

"Oh…anyway everybody else is waiting back in the throne room and my sister wishes to speak with you" Luna explained, still staring at the metal killers, almost mesmerized by them. She suddenly snapped from her daydream by clicking fingers.

"Hello…" he called, waving a hand in her face. Luna snapped awake immediately.

"Oh! Um sorry" she blushed again.

"So uh, weren't we supposed to be going somewhere?" Carmine questioned, glaring at the winged unicorn.

"Yes, my sister whish's to speak with you; follow me" she replied trotting out of the room, Carmine picking up both his rifles and followed, tracing down the long red carpet until they arrived at the same position where they had their first encounter. There, Twilight and her friends, along with Luna's older sister waited.

"Morning" Celestia greeted with a smile. Carmine nodded in response.

"That was the best night sleep I ever had, didn't have to fear about having my neck cut by a Locust in the middle of the night" Carmine sighed, remembering the dark and scary days in fighting away from home.

"Is this all that has ever happened to you in your world? You have told use nothing fascinating about your world; tell us what is amazing about your world?" Celestia questioned, she had heard nothing good about his race or their world, just awful stories about the Locust and death.

"Uh…the sun and moon rise and fall by themselves" Carmi ne tried hard to think of something that benefited their world but he had been so focused on the war that he never really did acknowledge Sera's qualities. He noticed that the Ponies were surprised at what he had told them.

"You don't have somebody to raise the sun and moon? How can this be possible? It's unnatural like the Everfree forest" Twilight exclaimed.

"Eh, perfectly normal were I'm from; nobody really cares" Carmine shrugged, the Ponies gasped loudly.

"How can they not care about that?" Luna asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Well there is a WAR going on and everybody wants to survive. Staring at the sun isn't going to help us survive and win this war" Carmine emphasised on the word war. The Ponies just stared blankly at the soldier.

"Yeah anyway, you wanted to speak to me about something?" Carmine said, changing the subject that confused the Ponies.

"Ah yes, it is about this party that Pinkamena is hosting for you today, we want you all to know that me and my sister will be attending as well. The Ponies of PonyVille will be unaware of your presence and may hide and not attend; we will just have to clear things up with them and to reassure them that there is nothing to worry about."

"Oh OK" Carmine simply replied, following the gang towards the exit of the castle and outside in the sunshine where two guards waited to escort them all to PonyVille.

OXOXOXOXOXOXO

Hours passed as Carmine watched the sea of trees that rested underneath the flying chariot. Nature down there seemed dead. Another hour passed and Carmine was awoken from his daydream by Luna.

"Were here!" She exclaimed, nudging Carmine and looking out of the chariot.

The chariot came to a slow and steady stop before everypony and Carmine stepped out. Many of the Ponies around PonyVille immediately froze in their activities to bow down to their rulers, but amongst the bowing, loud chatter and glares were pointing there way to Carmine who had tensed up in the situation.

An earth Pony approached the group; she had a khaki coat and mixture of light and dark mane. She had simple blue eyes and her cutie mark was a bill rolled up and rapped up with a blue ribbon. She was the mayor of PonyVille.

"Oh your- your highness, this is so unexpected, we had no news of your arrival" the mayor went into complete panic, nothing was prepared for her royal arrival.

"No need to worry mayor, we are only here to attend the party tonight for our new friend here" Celestia replied, calming the stresses Pony out. She took a deep breath before looking at the mysterious creature that stood next to Luna.

"Hello, who might you b-"

The soil began to vibrate frantically underneath the Ponies hooves, they all screamed at the unnatural event; Carmine collapsed onto the floor beside the chariot…

"Holy shit!" He roared over the rumbling.

Suddenly, a giant stalk erected from the soil behind the chariot, it rose gigantically towards the sun, blocking its sunlight from the chariot and the Princesses. Two large pods, sprouted onto the sides of the ugly root, releasing a poison like substance from it.

"Oh God NO!"