End of time

End of Time

As Twenty four ran towards the battle, his mind ran through with its usual list of emotions before he killed; anticipation, anxiety, possibly a small amount of fear at fighting these strange ponies once again. While he wasn’t afraid of fighting to the death; he had been trained for years in the art of killing, and had become highly proficient in it, not that he enjoyed it - he was simply afraid.

Fear: an annoying emotion that he had to deal with when facing an uncertain outcome. It was a basic one, one that he had become accustomed to, that he had learned to bend to work in his favor. And he was prepared to do just that as two gold-clad ponies charged him. As they ran, Twenty four noticed that their armor was different from the bodies of the soldiers he had seen in the previous battle.

        The plates of gold armor wrapped around the whole front of the ponies, from chin to chest, and covered their sides. On their faces were helmets with only two slits for eyes.

He knew that ammunition was limited - he would have to use his guns sparingly - and now mentally chastised himself for not grabbing a sword when he had the chance. As his combatants ran at him, he surveyed the surroundings, seeing what he could use to his advantage. The reinforcements had been met in a large field on the outskirts of the town; there was very little to use, unless the small home on his left would force the ponies into close quarters. But then again, they wielded swords, and neither of them were unicorns. Instead, when the soldiers were a matter of yards away from him, he drew his knife.

As he held the knife in his hand, he saw that from the tip to the grip, the knife lit up a dark blue and pulsed. Better not be just for show, Twenty four thought as the soldiers swung their swords at him. Dodging the swings, he swung at one with his knife, and caught one of their blades with his own.

As they stood in deadlock, he saw the pulsing blue edge of his blade slide through his opponent's, the stump of his sword swinging downward, the other half of the blade following in the same direction.

As the pony stared at him with fear in his eyes, his comrade attacked Twenty four - who raised his blade just in time to block the weapon, and cut though it just as easily. As the ponies turned to run away, he leaped at the closest one, bringing his blade up to the pony’s armored throat. As the blade burned through his armor, the pony squirmed and tried to kick at him, but to no avail, for the suit’s increased strength allowed him to keep hold of him.

After seconds of sparks flying, the blade finally pierced the soldier’s neck, and after a few more seconds he was dead. They certainly weren't kidding when they said ‘high-tech’, Twenty four thought as he watched the remaining pony get defeated by two friendlies.

As he rose, Twenty four saw a large group of five ponies moving towards him, facing him in a horizontal line. Two unicorns were mixed up in the group, the rest were normal earth ponies. They must be targeting me specifically, now. Great. As they swung their swords at him, he jumped back, and raised his own weapon to counter, but found himself unable to do so, as he felt magic imprison his arms.

The ponies raised their swords, but Twenty four was not frightened in the least; he knew that the suit would protect him. His only problem was how to get released from the magic, for he knew his suit wouldn’t protect him forever, or if the unicorns focused their magic on him directly.

A few moments later, he heard the clang of their swords as they impacted with his armor. Suit damage: 2% appeared on his visor screen, and he supposed it meant out of one-hundred. Well, that gives me some-

        He stopped as the unicorns holding him in place fell over, dead. Behind their bodies stood two ponies in blue and silver armor, the same kind as the rebels. Twenty four noticed that they were the same ponies that he had seen kill the enemy that had fled.

The magic restringing him gone, he jumped at the nearest soldier near him, attacking and swiftly killing him. His allies were also currently engaged in their own battles with the two remaining soldiers.

Moving to assist, he cut the blade of one of the soldiers while the friendly finished him off. Turning to help the remaining ally, they saw that he had already ended his own opponent.

“I wish I had a knife like yours,” one of them, a brown-haired, creme-colored, youthful-looking unicorn said, nodding at Twenty four’s weapon.

“You’d have to travel through time quite a bit to get it,” Twenty four joked.

        “Heh, you’re an odd creature, for sure. But just how far?” the unicorn asked, looking as if he might actually attempt it.

        “The time for questions comes later,” came the deep voice of the other pony. He certainly looked older than his companion, along with wings, a grey coat and dark blue mane, he couldn't have looked more different, even though they were wearing armor of the same make. As he spoke, he pointed at yet another group of six enemies, making their way toward them.

        “Great. More of them,” Twenty four said. Then, turning to the ponies: “You two got names?”

        “Of course we do,” the gray pony answered. “My name’s Frost. As for the young one, you can call him Star.”

Twenty four nodded. “You can call me Twenty four,” the ponies grunted in response. Turning to face the enemies, he asked, “so, how do you want to approach this?”

“Simple,” Frost answered. “There’s six of ‘em. One unicorn. Star, think you can deal with him?”

“Sure can, but you guys will have to deal with the rest and keep them away from me.”

“Easy enough,” Twenty four said. The soldiers were only a few yards away when they started running full gallop at them. “Let’s go,” he said and, along with his allies, charged the enemy soldiers.

Twenty four was the first one to collide with the soldiers, followed closely by Frost. Stopping as two earth ponies swung at him, he dodged the swings and struck out with his knife, cutting through the enemy's weapon, and followed by cutting through the soldiers armor at the neck, killing him.

Frost had handled his opponent differently; he didn’t have the luxury of being able to cut through his enemy's armor and weapons, so he engaged in what Twenty four recognized to be extremely skilled swordsmanship. If Twenty four did not have a knife that caused all armor and swords to be worthless, and weapons that could kill anything with ease, he would have done anything to learn from such an apparent master.

Even though Twenty four could tell that the fight was no challenge for him, he came up behind the enemy and stabbed him through his armor, Frost swiftly ending him afterwards. Together, they turned to engage the remaining three soldiers, who, as if finally realizing that using their numbers against him would work, attacked all at once.

While Frost kept most of the enemies occupied, Twenty four - with the suit’s increased abilities - moved quickly and precisely, either disabling enemies for Frost to finish, or outright killing them when he saw the opportunity.

 And throughout all of the fighting, far to his left, he saw Star and an enemy unicorn engaged in what he supposed was a battle of magic. It was one of the most beautiful and strangest things Twenty four had ever seen.

Their horns aglow, attacking with beams of energy and blocking with domes of magic; each trying to get the upper hand, as each tried to kill the other. Star’s face was contorted in one of concentration, with the same said for his opponent. It seemed they were at the same skill level, but Twenty four still sped up his fighting to assist his ally.

After a few moments, he and Frost had killed all the enemies. When Twenty four looked, he did not like what he saw. Star looked to be losing - and that there wasn’t much time for him left, ethier.

Twenty four knew that even if he ran at full speed he wouldn’t be able to save him. Frost nevertheless jumped into the air and flew as fast as he could to reach Star in time. Drawing his knife, he started sprinting after Frost, eventually catching up to him, and passing him soon after. Twenty four saw what he had to do. With him close behind Star and the enemy in front of him, he threw his knife.

Though he knew he was a good shot, he was also excellent at throwing knifes - an old game he used to play whenever he got bored. Both Frost and Twenty four watched as the knife flipped through the air, over and over again,  until the blade finally came to a stop -  right between the unicorn’s eyes.

The unicorn’s face had the same expression of surprise as Star’s when he opened his eyes to see that the enemy was suddenly dead. Looking to both sides, he turned around and spotted Frost and Twenty four making their way to him.

When they finally reached him, Star asked, “what happened? One moment I’m fighting him, the next he has a knife sticking out of him, and you’re all the way over there. Did you throw it, Twenty four?”

“Yeah, I saw that you were losing, so I thought I’d help out a little.

“Hm, well, that’s quite the throw you made. Think you can teach me?” he asked, a pleading look in his eyes.

“Well, if your magic’s not much different from using a super-suit, then sure,” Twenty four responded.

Star looked like he was about ask a question, when Frost spoke up. “Star, you can ask him questions later. Look,” he said.

It was only then that Twenty four had realized how far they had moved during the battle. They were currently on the same hill Twenty four had woken up on, and from that vantage point they were able to see the two armies march toward each other. Twenty four saw as the final push from the enemy.

The remaining twenty of them stood in a square formation, moving toward the main body of the rebel army, about the same number of ponies, which Twilight and the other five of her friends were leading.

“I suppose we join in?” Twenty four asked.

“I suppose so,” Frost answered. “O.k, here’s the plan: we go and join up with the rest of the army, and take out whatever remains of the Queen’s forces.”

“Good enough,” Star said. Twenty four agreed.

“Then let’s go,” Frost said, and started running down the hill, Twenty four and Star following suit.

They ran at the rebel army, and even going as fast as they were, it took a few minutes to reach their allies. By the time they mixed into the rebels the fighting had already started.

During the course of the battle, Twenty four stayed close to the three ponies he had been with all day - he could tell because the sun had started to sink down to the horizon.

They used the same strategy that they had used with the smaller groups of soldiers: Twenty four would disable the enemies, and Frost and Star would finish them.

They ran into a few problems, however, when they encountered a fairly large group of unicorns, too many for Star and the other unicorns to handle.

As Twenty four tried to find a gap in the enemy’s magic, he saw a bright flash of white, and the unicorns were turned to stone. And not only the unicorns - apparently most of the soldiers around them had been frozen as well. Well why didn’t they just do that earlier? Twenty four asked himself, and made a mental note to ask Twilight later.

Twenty four and his two friends weaved their way through the statutes of enemies and came upon the remaining soldiers - who swiftly fled after seeing what had happened to their comrades.

“That’s right, you better run!” Star yelled after them. Twenty four saw Frost shake his head, a grin on his face.

“Come on, Star, no need to make a fool of yourself, we won!” Frost said to the unicorn, turning away from the fleeing soldiers.

“We won already?” Twenty four questioned. It surprised him after so much fighting that it had ended so abruptly.

“We sure did. But, I have to thank you for having our backs, Twenty four,” Frost said, facing him.

“Ah, that was nothing! You should’ve seen some of the fights I got in back home…” Twenty four trailed off as the memories of jobs gone wrong jumped to his thoughts. They always ended up pretty crazy.

“Hm, you might have to tell me some stories about where you came from,” Frost responded, as he and Star started walking back towards Ponyville. Twenty four joined them, the ground under his feet already shining gray now that the moon had risen over the horizon.

They all were silent as they walked, contemplating after all the fighting. Twenty four realized that he hadn’t even fired a bullet during the whole battle. The thought made him laugh.

        Frost gave a an odd glance, “what’s so funny?”

        “Oh… Well I realized during that whole battle, I didn’t even have to use a single bullet!”

        Star looked at him, “Oh, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do!” he said, laughing himself.

        Laughing, all three of them continued across the plains, to the now lit town of Ponyville. The statues of all the enemies behind them.

Twenty four could only guess how many more would soon be on their way, and how much longer he had left before he would have to kill yet again.

He gripped his knife, and drew it out,  the edge bloodied; he would have to clean it later. But inevitably, there would be more blood on it. That Twenty four was sure of.

But he would make sure that it would taste Celestia’s blood. One way, or another.