Chapter 19

****UNKNOWN****
Early Morning

In the darkness of some random cave, a deep laugh could be heard, “He has finally entered the border. Spartan, start broadcasting the signal and unblock the comms.”

“At once, my King.” Leon said as he lowered his head and held his fist over his chest. In his helmet, Leon began to play the signal Chase’s warthog had tried to send out the previous day, “They should be receiving it shortly.”

The King smiled, “Everything is finally coming together. Now all that remains is for that brute to make enough noise...”

****Outer border of Maretonia****

In the early morning light Josh’s armor did not shine or glisten. In fact the Spartan hardly moved except for the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest. After running for the entire previous night, the Spartan felt like this rest was well deserved.

Both Nightmare and Josh had received no troubles as they’re journey took them along the border edge of the country of Maretonia. From the maps stored in Josh’s helmet, Nightmare was actually able to come up with a plan. It just involved illegally hitching a ride on certain dignitaries’ private train.

Today was the scheduled day for some meeting between the Maretonians and Equestria. It had been scheduled for the past few weeks ahead of time. One of the few things Nightmare had overheard Chase tell Leon.

To stow away on the train, it all relied on stealth, the one thing that Josh would openly admit he was not the best at. It would also mean trying to find the city that the train took off from which would take longer than they had on time. So the plan had been tweaked a bit.

Since getting on the train while it was still at the station would be close to impossible for Josh, he was going to have to get on it after it had left the station. This presented another problem though. They didn’t know when the train was leaving the station.

This would all bring us back to why Josh was currently sleeping next to some train tracks, half buried in sand. Nightmare, meanwhile, had diverted power from Josh’s shields to enhance the range of their sensors and was waiting for any sign of the train.

To preoccupy herself, she was playing one of the games that Josh had installed into his helmet. It was called Super Mario World and she was starting to experience something a lot of video game players experience at one point or another.

Rage.

“To Tartarus with you and your damned turtle shell!” she yelled as she was killed by a red turtle shell that she had thrown herself... for the second time in a row.

Nightmare growled and turned off the game before looking at the others that were held inside the Spartans helmet. Anything to keep her mind from wandering to the future was more than welcomed.

Suddenly alarms began to go off inside Josh’s helmet, rousing the Spartan from his slumber, “W-wha... What’s going on?”

“The train is coming down the tracks, get ready.” Nightmare said as she closed out of the files in Josh’s helmet and began watching everything through Josh’s helmet cameras.

Josh yawned and brought his hands up to his helmet to rub the sleep out of his eyes, seeming to of forgotten about his helmet being in the way, “Train? What train?”

As if on cue a train whistle blew in the distance drawing Josh’s attention down the tracks. A monstrosity of grey metal and golden flare was quickly approaching. It was such an awful mix of the gold and grey coloring that it was almost painful to look at.

“Maretonians have awful taste.” Nightmare commented as the train was almost upon them.

“And Equestrians are any better?” Josh countered as he began to feel the rumble of the train.

“While most of Equestria is still too bright for my tastes,” she began as Josh started to run down the tracks in the direction the train was going, “It is most certainly better than wherever this abomination came from.”

Josh didn’t answer as the train began to pass by him. Just as the locomotive was about to pass him, the spartan jumped onto the side of the engine and landed behind the railing. After checking both ways for anything that could of seen him, Josh sauntered onto the front of the small walkway.

“Now we just wait till we get to Macintosh Hills, then jump off and make our way to the Hive.” Josh said as he laid his back against the front of the locomotive.

“I still believe this plan of action to be foolish.” Nightmare stated as she searched for another game in Josh’s helmet.

“Like I said, you get a better idea, feel free to-”

The comm channel suddenly exploded with life with a warning message popping up on the team roster, “This is Ghost Eight, the mine was an ambush. Send help imm-” Chrysalis’ voice was cut off by the sound of glass breaking.

Both Josh and Nightmare listened intently to the sounds of the fight being had in the message. They heard everything from Chrysalis’ strained voice to Chase revving the warthog’s engine and taking somewhere, eventually losing signal.

The emergency message began to repeat again while Josh stared at the roster. Chase’s armor was highlighted red around his midsection making Josh stand up fully. With internal injuries like that Chase wouldn’t be able to go on for more than a few days.

“Josh.” Nightmare said slowly, making one of the features of the message stand out. It was the timestamp, “This was recorded yesterday, before we even left Leon and Hank...”

The Spartan stared at the open desert in front of them. It would take the hours to even reach their destination. They didn’t have that kind of time.

“Hello? Can anyling hear me?” Cacoon’s voice came through the comm channel next.

“Cocoon!” Josh exclaimed as he gave a fist pump, “This is Josh, we’re on-” the comm suddenly cut off.

“Don’t give her our location.” Nightmare stated before opening the comm back open.

Josh took a deep breath, “Cocoon, did you hear the distress beacon?”

“Yes... please, tell me you and the other Spartans are on their way to help.” she said in a very tired sounding voice.

From the sound of her voice it was obvious that she hadn’t gotten that much sleep, more than likely worrying over Chrysalis, “No, we...” Josh took a deep breath, “Leon and Hank are Code Sixty-Six. Something in the forest, it messed with their heads. Moonie and I were on our way back to get some help.”

Silence reigned over the channel as Cocoon absorbed the information. The train the two were on continued to make its way down the tracks, kicking up sand and making a lot of noise.

“Cocoon,” Josh started, “Have you heard anything from the others?”

“No, the last we heard from them-”

“They were in the Crystal Empire, possibly out of comm range.” Nightmare interrupted, “I was able to listen in on a few of Leon’s comm channels.”

"Wow, thanks for telling me..." Josh muttered as Cocoon continued.

“I have already sent a small group of changelings to the city to check in with the Spartans. We haven’t dared go towards the mine since... since they disappeared.” Cocoon stated sadly.

“If you’ve already got Changelings going to get Alfred and Ethan, we’ll come to the Hive as soon as we can.”

“It would be best if you did. A pony is currently locked up in our dungeons, yelling about how time is running short.”

“We don’t have time to worry about a crazy pony.” Nightmare said.

“He’s been yelling for the past few hours about what happened to Chase and... Chrissy.” just the sound of the sadness in her voice as Cocoon said her daughter’s pet name was almost unbearable, "I have my best trying to get answers out of him, but from what they told me he sounds completely insane."

“I think it is unwise to continue talking about this on an open comm channel.” Nightmare interrupted, "We'll speak more when we arrive."

“Cocoon, I know this is tough right now, but you need to get some changelings down there and get some answers out of that pony. We are running low on time. Wherever they are, Chase is with her. He is damn near unkillable.” Josh decided to leave out that Chase was injured and probably in more danger than Chrysalis.

“I... I will. Just please get here quick.”

“We will.” the line went dead, and to the two of them, it seemed things were just going to get worse.

Author's Note

Yep, this is back and shorter than ever!... That last part probably isn't a good thing.

So I realized that unless I shorten these up like this, I'll just always chose to do another chapter of The Completely Normal Pet of Spike the Dragon because it would be easier. It's the sad truth, but at least this story isn't dead.

Be sure to comment even if you have next to nothing to say!