Chapters Keep running. Don’t stop. It’ll get you… It was a stormy night. Of course. It was thundering. Of course. Casting strange shadows across the stone buildings. Of course. An extremely overpowering monster was Galloping after me…of course.
I was running from this monster, a Changeling. They really sucked because they take the form of somepony you love and gain power over you from their own love for “you”. Where is Twilight? I wondered for the billionth time in the past five minutes. All of a sudden, I saw a glowing purple ball of fire flying toward me.
“Duck!” I heard somepony say. No, really?
The beast groaned a sickening, “Ouch” and toppled into a building.
I looked around. I saw a light purple unicorn with a black, smooth, mane with red and purple highlights in it as well as its tail.
“Hello, Twilight” I said as she walked up to me.
“Shining,” she replied.
“That was a hell of a long time for you to set up,” I said to my sister, Twilight.
“Apologies, Shining, but I couldn’t find a high enough building to cast from.”
That’s my name. Shining. Or, “ShiningArmor Sparkle” as my full name, first-ShiningArmor-last- Sparkle.
“Well, at least it’s dead and you’re not,” I said with a grim smile.
Twi frowned, “are you sure Cadence has… ‘accepted’ all of this? I mean I don’t want her to get hurt too, but she was really upset at her not going.” WHO she was talking about was my mare back in Canterlot, Princess Miamorae Cadenza. WHAT she was talking about was Princess Celestia's mission Twi and me were on. It was basically a “hunt down monsters and kill them” mission.
Mr. Writer’s lip was wobbling, but he managed a feeble, “thank you… thank you for killing that monster… that impersonator! That filly killing piece of filth!” He was yelling by the end of his short speech so that the filly’s crying seemed small in comparison.
After gazing at the floor for what seemed like minutes-although it was only seconds- I managed to mouth, “We found your daughter.”
Mrs. Writer’s eyes were as wide as AJ’s apples. “You did!?” she screeched, “Where?”
I looked at Twi, she looked at me and I said, “We have her body out front being guarded as we speak.”
She didn’t seem to be angry with us keeping it an untold secret, instead, her eyes got even wider and she walked past us, followed by Mr. Writer. The filly stayed where she was. I was unsure if she heard the conversation at all.
I started for the stairs as Twi hoisted the filly on her back with a levitation spell. The filly didn’t seem to be fazed by this at all. Poor thing, I thought, how will she live her life like this?
I slowly walked down the stairs, followed by Twilight and the filly.
I just caught a glimpse of Mrs. Writer closing the door, her green magic glowing around it (the entire family is unicorns).
When we got outside, it was still raining. Mr. Writer had pulled the body cloth off Word Whistler’s now pale pink face her mane, however still glowed a brilliant purple. Just like Rarity…
Surprisingly enough, neither MR. nor Mrs. Writer started crying. Instead they gazed at the deceased filly with a smile. I decided not to ask why, but I think it’s that she is in a better place. And that she was, I’m sure of it.
We left the body there, in Fillydelphia, to let the family do as they wished with it.
Instead of riding in a flying chariot, Twi and me decided to walk to our next destination, Staliongrad.
The next objective in Staliongrad was not to hunt down a monster, of which I am thankful for, but to flush out an organization of ponies thought to consort with monsters and the like.
We sent a message back with the chariot we ditched in favor of walking.
Said message contained orders as such:
A squadron of 4 transit chariots is to be flown to the southern edge of Staliongrad to aid in our upcoming skirmish.
Said chariots, containing 7 spearponies each will be flown by 4 Pegasus ponies to get to Staliongrad with all due haste, including one magician unicorn in total.
There is to be an additional chariot to carry provisions for the entire squadron, including us
The chariots are to arrive within the week.
Captain Shining Armor; Twilight Sparkle.
It would be nice to see some more Canterlot faces instead of these town-ponies of which I am unfamiliar with.
In any case, we arrived a little earlier than I had originally expected. Because of this, I had Twi go into town and see if we could buy some provisions for ourselves until the reinforcements arrived.
The layout of the keep was very similar to that of Fort Sol near Canterlot, so I only had to think of the attack than spending valuable time on getting the floor plans to commit to my memory.
The “plan” was to get everypony into the chariots, and fly straight into the manor inside the keep to capture the lead monster/pony and force the others to surrender if at all.
What a great plan.
It would be easy for us to hold up in the manor, as it was designed to keep ponies out, not in. of course, not many windows can withstand a chariot full of 8 ponies flown by 4 Pegasus ponies, all in full armor.
*** *** ***
It was still dark. We had commenced the operation far sooner than expected. This was good. I had the magician-StutterStrut- extinguish the little magical lights we had above the chariots before Silver Stallion Keep was in sight.
Once it was in sight, I gasped-it really was an exact copy of Fort Sol, right down to the position of the siege engines in the courtyard! Wait a minute, siege engines? How in the Hoof did these satanic ponies get siege engines?! They were just a ragtag group of demented little fillies-how could they possibly get siege engines?
Twi must have heard my mental screaming, for she whispered, “do you still want to go through with the operation?”
I sighed, “we have to, the Princess needs this Keep cleansed of enemies… and so do the ponies in Staliongrad.”
I sensed her nod. When we were at the right angle of a breach, I gave the signal and we plunged to our inevitable doom, my last thought before the carnage being, those siege engines can fire at the manor. What have I done?
*** *** ***
I heard a nice Shllllich! As my spear slid out of the body of a “Sat-Raider”, as they had been designated. I saw a grayish-reddish pony charging me. Noticing that it did not have an Equestrians Guard’s armor, I disintegrated him with a spark of magic from my horn. “Behind you!” I heard somepony say.
Regardless of whether or not it was directed at me, I turned to see a Sat-Raider shoot a bow at me. I ducked. The arrow hit a Sat-Raider that was sneaking up behind me in the calf. I had to try not to laugh as I struck down the pony with a quick thrust of my spear through her throat.
I dispatched the bowpony by levitating him through the air and flinging him out the window. I went to said window to see how the Sat-Raiders would counter against us.
One of the ballistae in the courtyard was aimed at the manor. It fired a flaming missile. However, the missile went straight over my head and exploded in a group of Sat-Raiders and Guards alike!
And then I heard it. Laughter… laughter… it grew louder and louder until I realized that all of the ponies in the courtyard were laughing! They’re mad! I thought. Some monster has possessed them! I looked back at the place where the missile had struck the ground, but instead I caught a glimpse of all the Sat-Raiders gazing up at the sky. And then…I noticed that so too were the Guards on our side. Frantic, I searched for Twi. She too, was staring up at the sky. Dear Celestia… everypony, even down in the courtyard was staring up at the sky. Dear Celestia, some evil being possesses them all! Then I took the risk of looking up at the sky. And what I saw… was a meteor racing straight at us. And my last thought before the carnage being… I am going to die.
Author's Note
Hellooooooooooooooooo Everyone! Some background before we get into the actual story for you. As a side note, this was originally a friends story but he pretty much gave up on it and gave the rights to me. So the first 7-8 chapters will be his writing with a bit of editing/making things flow.
I looked at the mirror. My, how I had changed. Then I looked at the picture stuck in the frame of the mirror from my fillyhood. I had changed.
In the picture, I was short and skinny, with a grey coat and an orange kept mane, and on my face, green eyes, like a forest; a purple bow in my mane.
Then I looked at my reflection in the mirror. Tall and fair, with a still-grey coat, an orange-red mane. Following the tiny parts in my mane, a little line of red, on my face, green eyes, like a leaf held up to a sun; a purple insignia in my mane.
The insignia was of the New Lunar Republic, led by Princess Luna herself, in all her glory.
The insignia was only partly purple really, a purple crescent on its side so that the bow of it was at the top, a red star underneath it, and a pair of red wings, sprouting from either side of the crescent.
I took the picture from the where it was stuck in the mirror frame and flipped it over.
Starlight Stormmare
1992
That’s my name. Starlight that is. Starlight Stormmare. First name-Starlight last-Stormmare.
I am all militarily formal, because I am in the NLR’s military. Petty Officer 3rd Hoof Stormmare.
And by the way, I meant a sun not the sun back there. After all, there is more than one sun.
And I know that first-hoof.
That’s right. I'm in space. If only the SC could be with us now, poor thing would get an overload from all the excitement though.
Any who, the ship I'm stationed on is the S.S. LightningRain, the flagship of the Republic’s fleet, and the ship in which “Admiral Luna” is on. It is named such on account of its main gun, which jets out bolts of blue plasma. Currently, we were at war with the Celestial Empire, mortal enemies to the NLR. But not many were sure why. ‘Because they spilled our own blood!’ was the most popular response, which only left me wondering, but why did they spill our blood?
At the moment, the LightningRain was warping to the star Ileria, where we were to take the planet Nix, facilities intact so as to use them for further operations.
Leaving the mirror, I walked to the Voice-Lock door, which opened once I had mumbled “Horace”.
Horace. My father’s name, Horace Stormmare. He was in the Space-Core too.
He was able to get to the rank of Ensign before his station was bombarded by the Union of Galactic Democracy, the UGD. Even though he was lost in the war, the NLR prevailed. And of course I was to follow in his hoofsteps.
I trotted down the hall, headed towards the armory. That was always me.
“Starlight, headed up to the armory again?”
“Still working on that 100% hit ratio?”
“As if your gun hasn’t been shot enough!”
I think that I really spent more time in the armory than anywhere else aboard the ship. It really isn’t my fault. After all, my cutie mark is a row of 3 bullets, PERFECTLY lined up. I was the perfect killer. I still am. It’s the way I was born. And it definitely saved my life a couple times too.
I reached the armory and walked inside. I was surprised to see my gal-pal Mara at the firing range. She was almost never at the armory.
“I get all the practice and blood I need on the battle field,” she would always say. Her cutie mark was a blue sphere with shocks of red lightning swirling around it.
Her special talent was electricity, in any form. As a result, she was put in the Shock division, comprised of 200,000 ponies in powered armor and had weapons ranging from the “Luna Cannon”, a really big gun that shoots lightning, to the shock pistol which electrocuted the targets brain to stop the vital functions of a pony.
My main trait, being a perfectionist is my special talent, is being a damn sneaky pony. As an opposite result to Mara, I was put in the Recon division, comprised of roughly 3,000,000 ponies. We had light armor that couldn’t protect you from much more than a couple rifle rounds, but was extremely light for what protection it gave. My favorite weapon issued to Recon was the Leviathan, A really big caliber Sniper Rifle. I have literally seen that baby tear through light armor, go through a couple ponies, come out the other side and keep on going.
My secondary was a small rifle, titled Makk-13, which focused more on ammo capacity than anything else. However, if it is used correctly it can disable fairly large opponents.
“Nice shot,” I said in between Mara loading.
She whirled around, dropping her Luna Cannon on the floor. “Sweet Luna, you have got to stop sneaking up on ponies!”
“It’s not often I see you here in the armory, how come?”
“I thought I might as well practice aiming, after all, I missed an awful lot the last engagement.”
“Hay, how's that shoulder?”
“Oh! Actually it’s pretty good! Doc really knows how to stitch flesh together.”
I circled to face her back and inspected her misty-yellow-coated shoulder. “I’ll say, you can barely tell you got hit.” To get a better look at the faint scar, I brushed her green mane out of the way.
She turned to face me, “Aww shoot! You really can’t see it? I was half-hoping for a good battle-scar.”
“Nah, not really. It isn’t big enough to look like a real wound… more like a scratch really,” I observed, looking into her amethyst eyes.
She levitated her LCannon off the floor, her horn sparkling white. I picked up her dropped magazine in my mouth, for I was no unicorn. I was a pony of the earth, stronger and stouter than any wimpy unicorn, too weak to lift their gun!
I bade her farewell and went to the armory counter where I came to the Armory Officer, Artemis. “Arty” as we sometimes call him, is a guy. If you ever make fun of his name, he’ll make you respect it.
The way he usually does this is by giving the target bully a good buck in the face. Not real, permanent damage, but enough to make them fear his name.
“Hey Arty” I said, engaging conversation.
“Oh, hey Star. Didn’t quite see you there,” he replied.
“It’s OK, I get that a lot. Can you hand me some targets?”
“Sure…. Hey, if ya don’t mind me asking, aren’t you just about a bulls-eye?”
I sighed, tired of hearing this kind of thing over and over. “Just hand me the da-“
“All hands, to their deck stations immediately. Repeat, ‘All hands, to their deck stations immediately,’ we are in orbit of Nix, prepare to board landing craft.”
“Already?” I heard Arty say. At least I think he said it; I was already galloping toward the gun lockers.
Author's Note
As for being able to churn out two chapters in one night, they are short. Plus, all I got to do is just revise a couple of things here and there. And now we will have war. O, Such fun.
“Your objective is to infiltrate enemy lines and gather what information you can while the rest of the battalions set up,” Degouje said over the COM. Degouje Cadenza, the intelligence pony advising me for my mission. Other Recon ponies were being deployed in squads, but I was on my own. In addition, I was deployed via Drop Pod, which isn’t exactly the most comfortable thing in the world.
“After you have gathered what information you deem important, you are to join up with Alpha squad. They should be about 5 Cs from your final position.”
Yeah, but projections can’t predict pony-beings, I thought, annoyed that High command suspected they would know my patterns of operation. But what they thought they knew was definitely wrong. I would learn that later on.
“Once you make contact with Nix’s surface, there will be radio silence. Good luck out there Beta.”
“Thanks,” I said quietly, but I didn’t have my own radio in the pod.
I saw my radar filling with dots to my east; this meant I was close to the ground.
*** *** ***
I heard a nice PFEEEW! As the lid on my pod exploded, letting me exit.
“RRRRRRAAAAAGH!” I heard somepony behind me. Quickly I turned to face my threat thinking, wasn’t I dropping into unoccupied territory?
What I saw surprised me greatly. It was a white stallion in purple armor charging at me with a spear. Needless to say, I parried his feeble blow with my Makk, let it sling to my side on its strap, and pulled out my combat knife. He tried to circle me, but I was too clever. When he stumbled on some rubble I dashed forward, my knife sinking into his flesh as easily as a hot knife through butter.
“Sorry, pal, but you started it.” Then I looked into his eyes. What I saw in his eyes made me wonder, does he know not what is happening?
In his eyes was fear. Perhaps the most deadly weapon on any battlefield.
I loved to use this tactic whenever I could. Being sneaky helps. A lot.
However, I think I was the one who was more scared at this time. Are we even on the right planet? These ponies are acting extremely weird to me. I finally took notice of my surroundings, noting that these native ponies didn’t seem to be bothering me.
I was in a…castle of some sort? I have never actually seen a castle, they were so ancient that every one of them back Feralda, The NLR’s home planet, had been either demolished for building space, worn away by the elements, or just plain buried in dirt over time!
Glancing awkwardly at the assembled native ponies I managed an “Uhh…I’ll just be leaving now…I guess….”
Silence.
“Right then, I’m guessing you won’t be needing this,” I said to them as I pushed the button in my pod labeled, Self-Destruct.
As I ducked for cover, one of the hiding ponies galloped away from me, yelping. I realized I had just landed in her hiding spot.
She was half way across the open area between piles of rubble when I managed to say “Sorr-!”
KAKROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
The explosion ripped the skin off of that one, and I’ll not go into further detail, for the sake of your lunch.
“-ry…. Uh, oops?” the other ponies just stared at the charred body, not moving a muscle.
“You killed ‘er!” I heard a mint green pony say, “You killed ‘er just like ‘at?”
“Hey, bro, I said sorry!” Some ponies!
I searched around for a little bit looking for the exit. I had found it, a stairwell.
Just before I walked below, I looked back at the natives, frozen in horror.
Well, at least we speak the same language, I thought with a frown. Some ponies!
Author's Note
Another chapter with minor edits. These short chapters will pop out reeaaal quick because I'm not actually righting, just transferring the content over and fixing some grammar/spelling/things that make this story not suck.
