Chapters Song of the Unknown Soldier
All I remember is a bright light, searing heat and an impact.
???'s POV
I woke with sun streaming into my eyes, rustle of branches and noises of assorted small animals. I was in a forest, a big one if my ears did not lie to me. That was because I could not hear the sounds of civilization and the tree spread was not that thick so I was somewhere is the outside edge of this forest.
I tried to think about how I knew this but I could not think of how, I wrecked my mind to find why. But I could not find anything. Absolutely nothing. As of this moment, my personal memories were as blank as a slate. I could talk, walk, breath and eat, but I did not know who I was, or even scarier, what I was. In order to fix this, I started to think of a name, any name.
And a memory came to me. “Welcome to the Shadows... That isn’t a good enough name... operative code-named Shade reporting in...” Shade.. Shade. Yes that will do for now.
As I slowly got to my feet and glanced around the thick underbrush and green, leafy trees. I heard something moving around behind me, something big. I immediately panicked and spun around in order to find out where the sounds were coming from.
Again the sounds behind me. My instincts told me to turn around and so I did. What I saw made me swear, “Oh, shit.” It seemed to be a pack of wolves made entirely out of wood and green energy, about eye level to me. My instincts told me to run, and I did not argue.
I sprinted for my life, ducking trees, vaulting fallen logs, until one of those... things pounced on me. I rolled over onto my back and let experience take over. Push on chest, use momentum against it, flip it off me, jump up, curb-stomp its head. I quickly took stock of my situation, four more wolves, no weapons, barely any chance. Then I glanced down and saw a sharpened log that used to be a tooth, and smiled.
Grabbing the stick, I swung it like a baseball bat and heard a solid “thwack” as it connected with one of their heads. I looked at what damage I had made and saw that there was a noticeable dent in it’s eye. So to be nice, I finished it off with a well placed jab to the head. At that strike it crumbled into the branches, logs and twigs it was made up of. I looked at the remaining three, and they seemed to back up, scared? I smiled the smile only a psychopath could pull of and said, “Bad doggie, time to be put down,” as I stalked towards the rest of them.
After those wolves - to put it loosely - were taken care of, I started my walk towards, wherever the hell I was going. After one or two minutes I heard some voices.
“Everypony stay here.”
“Do not try to flee.”
“If you run or resist you will be killed,” I heard, along with other sounds of struggling. My combat experience kicked in as I slid into a bush. “Wait, I’ve done this before.” I said out loud.
“I heard something! Go check it out.”
After they said this I panicked and crouched as still as possible while a, horse in armor? reached into a bush and pulled out... a small, orange... Pegasus?! After some exchanged words and kicking, the soldier picked up a spear and held it up, about to impale the small pony.
Then I acted.
Scootaloo:
The Pegasus was Scootaloo, for who else would I be, and I am scared. The Solar Empire was cracking down on rebellion, and Ponyville was a hive of it. But of all days, today there was a raid on the town. my reasons for hating them doing it today was because it was my birthday. My birthday! You do not attack somebody on their bucking birthday! I was beyond pissed at this point. But it did not matter, because guards were chasing me. I’d like to think of myself as a fighter, but I am not one.
I ducked into some bush just as they rounded the corner to look for me. In the background ponies were resisting being shoved into cages and in some cases killing the soldiers, only to be ended in front of their families as an example.
And then there was a sound, a small, but telling sound coming out of the bushes next to me. And the soldiers heard it too. They rushed towards her hiding place yelling, “I heard something! Go check it out.” One soldier must have seen the telltale shaking branches, caused by my sheer fright, reached in and pulled me out.
“I got a live one over here,” the gold and blue armored earth pony yelled to his companions, “and it looks ripe for execution.”
They all laughed and dragged me over the execution area. A platform that all the cages could see. As one of the soldiers grabbed a spear and brought it up to impale me.
I started to pray. Pray that the one of revolution’s leaders, and my personal hero, Rainbow Dash would swoop in to save me and the day. Pray that I may live another day in Equestria. But alas, that did not seem to be the case as the soldier lifted his spear and got ready to bring it down on me.
Instead, a shadow passed over my face and a shout was heard. What I saw shocked me to the core.
Shade’s POV
In my 23 and a half minutes of memory I have learned something. I hate seeing innocents suffer or be killed. So I act, not thinking of my own safety, just the safety of the civilians around me. And in this case, some bully soldiers are about to execute an innocent child. At least I think it is innocent, but that is beside the point.
The platform is ten yards away, there are nine soldiers in my way, all have their backs turned to me. I smile, this will be easy. I creep up towards the first soldier, letting my training and muscle memory work its magic. Producing a simple hunting knife out of my coat, I flip it so the point is in my fingertips. I pull my arm back and let the knife fly and at the same time I reach forward and grab the first unicorn's head. Then I twist it. Hearing the satisfying snap of a spinal column, I look up to see where my knife hit.
It was a perfect shot, right at the base of the spear, slicing its tip off and continuing into the pony that was holding its neck. The pony shouts a dying cry before falling to the left of the little orange Pegasus that was my target for protection.
“Yippee-kai-yay, mother fuckers,” I muttered under my breath as I pick up the sword from the fallen unicorn and the soldiers tried to get over their shock of me appearing there, blood already on my hands.
I smiled in response, than, I charge
Song of the Unknown Soldier
Shade's POV
“Yippee-Kai-Yay mother fuckers.” I said as I spun my newly acquired sword and charged.
I slashed at the first Pegasus that tried to tackle me. His head hit the floor before his body did. Next a normal pony came at me and smacked the newly acquired sword out of my hands then landed a well placed kick to my chest that sent me stumbling backwards.
I recovered from it fairly quickly and reached inside my jacket for something, anything. What I found made my cold heart beat faster. I pulled out a short, about 1 ½ foot long, metal pipe attached to some wood and more metal. A sawed off shotgun.
As I pulled out my “universal translator”, the horse came back to do another charge. It was met with a swift spin kick to the snout and a gun barrel pointed at it’s face.
Soon to be dead soldier’s POV
As I came around for another charge at that, that beast, it spun around and kicked my snout, sending me reeling. after I fell to the ground I felt something cold pushed onto my forehead. I looked up the long rod of, whatever that thing was holding and looked deep into the cold, icy eyes of this beast. And then I heard a bang, then St. Pony was asking me why I should be let into heaven.
Shade’s POV
The soldier looked deep into my eyes. Then I pulled the trigger. Then it didn’t have eyes, or a head for that matter. I stood up and glanced around at the 5 ponies still left. 1 was shaking as it had an unsheathed sword pointed at me, 3 unicorns were trying to load their bows with their… magic… okay I can work with that. but the last one was the real problem, he had the orange Pegasus by the throat with a knife. Designate him, “next to die”. I smile and start a walk towards them, then the arrows started to fly.
I flinched and dove into the eaves of a building. Then I was behind all of the ponies in perfect position to snap the orange Pegasus's captor’s neck, how did I get there, WHO CARES!
But the knife still posed a threat. and a plan came to form in my mind. when he dropped his guard looking for where I had gone, I snuck up behind him and grabbed the arm that held the knife and pulled.
Scootaloo POV
Suddenly I felt the cold, weight of the knife lift off my neck, was my captor letting me go? Then I heard the telltale sound of bone breaking, so I looked back. What I saw made me admire this, thing, that was saving me. It had pulled the soldier’s arm back so far it broke then grabbed his head and twisted it, all before he could scream.
“Boo” he whispered in my ear as he blew past me and towards the soon to be dead ponies that were still looking for him.
Shade’s POV
That Pegasus was safe, good. Now it’s time to take out the trash.
“Just a question assholes,” I asked the soldiers while I twirl my shotgun, “how attached are you to your heads?”
As I stalk forward and the soldiers tremble in fear and try to ready their weapons and get assorted spells ready, I can feel a strange feeling inside me and dive forward. Right after I do that a magical blast roars over me, killing a pony that was about to fly away.
“NO FLEEING FROM THE BATTLE!” a unicorn roars from behind me, “KILL THIS COLT OF A DIAMOND DOG!”
“Oh look,” I say, “I think I found a captain.”
The soldier looks at me as I slowly turn to face him, her? Couldn’t tell, didn’t matter. As I looked back I saw a white unicorn who's horn was still steaming from the magical blast it had just unleashed. Even though the gold and purple armor I could still see the fear in his? her? eyes. A fear as old as life itself. Self- Preservation.
Captain's POV
As I looked into the beast’s eyes I saw something I had seen only in rebel commander Shining Armor’s eyes as he met his end at my hooves. Pain, insanity, loyalty, bloodlust, hunger, rage, death and war all rolled into one package. And it was directed at me. What I saw in it's eyes was a promise of hell and punishment for every life I had taken, every childhood I had ruined. I knew unless I did some quick thinking I would not survive the night.
In a situation as hopeless as this I did the thing any reasonable commander would do, "RETREAT!!!" I shouted to my troops as I teleported out of there as to report back to Empress Celestia what the hay just happened. At least that was the plan until I felt its hand grabbing my mane.
"Well lookie here," it said through a sort of mask covering it's mouth, "I think someone here knows what the smart thing to do is."
All I could do was stare into the eyes of this, this, BEAST as it spoke. It's voice calm and quiet, bit at the same time bordered on madness.
"What's your name?" it asked.
"B-B-Blueblood, P-P-Prince Blueblood" I stuttered
"Well then, P-P-Prince B-B-Blueblood, listen hard and listen well. I want to know why you attacked these civilians."
I shuddered at the words, "They are rebels and threats to the Holy Solar Empire. They must be put down."
"Heh, heh, heh," It laughed, "well then, an introduction is in order. I, am Shade and I want you to deliver a message for me."
"W-What message is t-that?"
"First things first, who is your leader?"
"E-E-Empress Celestia"
"Well than now onto the message."
"What is the message you want to tell her?"
Who said anything about telling her? You are the message." At these words the thing drew my sword out of its sheath and with one clean slice severed my head from their shoulders.
Random Pegasus POV
As I saw what was happening to the ever flankhole-ish "Ex-Prince" Blueblood all I could feel was respect. This thing had attacked and killed so many soldiers and sent even more running. As I saw it walk back from killing Blueblood, it reached for something at it's hip, a knife, and slowly slid it to me while the guards are still disbelief that their "prince" has been killed. I slowly reached out of my cage with my dirt brown wing and slide a dropped dagger over to me. A simple matter to pick the lock using my wings, the knife and a feather. As I slunk out of my cage I heard the beast talking and I glanced over to see it cornered by unicorns. I quickly rushed to get the crossbow and quiver listening to it use it's silver tongue to delay time.
Shade's POV
As I stood in front of a group of unicorns, all pointing glowing horns at me, I just laughed. Not the insane-laugh-at-death laugh, a good-hearted calm laugh. And than I spoke.
"So after killing your CO, why isn't anyone running? Am I not the scariest thing you have seen. If you answer no, you are lying."
"YOU HAVE MADE AN ENEMY OF THE HOLY SOLAR EMPIRE! PREPARE TO DIE" A unicorn shouted as it readied a spell.
"Well," I said, "You have made an enemy of me... Engage."
At that word the Dirt brown Pegasus that I saw grab a crossbow after picking the lock to his cage fired his crossbow, hitting the unicorn who shouted dead center in the forehead.
"Hey, look. A bicorn!" I shouted as I swung the sword, cleanly chopping a unicorn's head off. "Slicery, slice. Dicety, dice. STABBEDY STAB STAB STAB!" I screamed at them.
The orange Pegasus at my feet whimpered as I felt a presence surround us.
"Crap" I swore as more soldiers poured in around us. "We need to get out of here." I said while backing into the friendly Pegasus.
As I though that, a voice in my head told me to concentrate on the shadow realm, so, I did. And what would you know, all three of us blacked out.
???'s POV
"I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have... What, someone and somepony are coming here? Oh well might as well welcome them to the Shadowlands..."
Song of the Unknown Soldier
???'s POV
"I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have... What, someone and somepony are coming here? Oh well might as well welcome them to the Shadowlands..."
Shade's POV
When I regained conciseness, these were the thoughts going through my head, "Ok... Where the fuck am I. All I see is black sky, gray buildings and a suspicious lack of life. Oh wait, look someone is coming, wait what. HOW CAN I SEE IN TOTAL DARKNESS!" I quickly grab the spear that was at my side, or rather I tried to because it had mysteriously vanished! I quickly look to my left and right to see that the 2 pegasi were till there. As I looked back around I say another human leaning against a pillar that made up the porch of one of the houses.
"So how are you," it asked in an oddly two-toned voice, "I see you are already back and kicking ass."
"Who the fuck are you, where the fuck am I ands WHY THE FUCK CAN'T I REMEMBER ANYTHING!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.
"Are you done?" it questioned, "To answer in order of questions asked, Tirrew, the Shadowlands and I, unfortunately, cannot tell you."
"Why can't you tell me."
"Ruins the plot"
"what."
"ANYWAY, back to other topics." Tirrew said as he walked into a building, "If you're going to be facing the Solar Empire you need guns, grenades and gear. Luckily I've got it all."
"Where."
"Follow me" he said as he walked into a building.
Rook's POV
As the two beings entered a silvery, shiny building I was having a hard time deciding what to do. So I did the reasonable thing, picked up the crossbow I found and followed them into the building. As entered I realized that this place was probably an armory, one of the major tipoffs was the fuckton of weapons, some I recognized, some I didn't. So, being the opportunistic fighter I am, acquired some of the arrows, knives and a sword from the wall. As I was glancing around at the various armors displayed on the wall I heard something coming from a doorway. It sounded like an exclamation of "WHLLY SHT", a harsh crack and a thud. Than the door fell in.
Shade's POV
As I walked into the armory of the gods (my current name for it) I decided I was in love. Guns, guns and more guns adorned the walls. Shotguns, snipers, pistols, assault rifles, rocket launchers and, my favorite, flamethrowers. Yep, you guessed it, I'm a pyromaniac. But the thing that caught my attention was the odd black suit in the corner, it seemed to be made up of hard crystals, but when I toughed it, it flowed like liquid. Tirrew saw me looking at the suit and spoke, "Ah, I see you've see the SCS Mk-2"
"The what?" I replied.
"The SCS Mk-2, or the Shadris Combat Skin mark 2"
"Why is it so good, what can it do?" I said while I was fitting it on.
"Oh, not much. Just cloak, increase strength to superhuman levels and survive anything short of plasma."
"Oh really, Prove it" and I turned around to face a SPAS-12 shotgun barrel."
"HOLY SHIT"
Tirrew's POV
Okay... so Shade has doubted me about my custom made suit... time to prove him wrong. I pulled the trigger with a smile.
Shade
I guess that Tirrew's hype for this suit is worth it, I'm not dead!
As I climbed back to my feet I realized something, various HUD icons popped up as I scanned the room. The ranged from telling me my current location, motion trackers and a the names, makes and ammo of all the guns I could see. As I glanced around and at my 2 tag-alongs, their names popped up along with their skills and "crimes." Apparently the brown pegasus is named Rook and is a master infiltrator, the smaller one's name is Scootaloo and is a vehicles expert, apparently.
"So I have to admit to you Tirrew, this is a fucking awesome suit."
"Why thank you," he replied "I only had about 300 years to perfect it."
That's a long time... wait, 300 YEARS!
"300 YEARS?!" I exclaim.
"What? I'm young compared to the others!" he said defensively.
Okay, creepy immortal aside, I have a bone to pick with the "Holy Solar Empire."
"Okay ponies, how about a little rebellion again this 'empire'?"
The answer nearly deafened me.
