My Little Carmines

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!"