Chapter 0: The First Encounter.
Author's Note
Okay, so since the LAST attempt for "The Outsider: Tales of a Space Technician"'s replacement didn't pass for some odd reason, I've decided to go with this one.
Please note that THIS story is more on the horror/action side, and doesn't focus on comedy at all. (Not even Pinkie Pie can smile, while Equestria went to Hell, after all. (Metaphorically!))
I will go on ahead and say that NO important MLP characters have died in this story, and I don't plan on killing any of them off! (But for suspicions' sake, I'll go on ahead and emphasize the word "PLAN".)
This story contains extreme gore, language, brief, mild sexual references, and nightmare fuel. If you disapprove with any of those, please turn back now. You have been warned!
Enjoy!
Chapter 0: The First Encounter.
|The First Encounter|
|Chapter 0|
"Justin? Hey, Justin! Are the two of you there, yet?" Twilight Sparkle's voice rang through a small speaker.
A young, Caucasian man with short hair, and a slightly stubbly goatee, smiled at the speaker, while his blue-green eyes looked closely at the device. Then in a medium-pitched, slightly western voice, he replied, "Yeah, Twilight... I'm here! But no, we aren't at Equestria, though... Flash and I are still in our pods."
A high-pitched man's voice interrupted the two of them. "Hey, you two love-birds! Can't y'all change to channel 3 for your chatter? Lyra and I are already on 2!"
Justin groaned, then replied, "Oh can it, Flash! You know that we can't change the channels, because 2 has been reserved for scientific research! And besides... we ain't even in love!"
A young noble-like female's voice giggled in the speakers. "Oh come on, Flash! Can't we just chat on a private network?"
Flash groaned, then replied, "Alright then, Lyra..."
Twilight and Justin chuckled lightly, until Twilight spoke up. "Good luck to you both, by the way... gosh, I can't even imagine what you're gonna find down there..."
Justin nodded his head, and replied, "Well, it looks like we're about to see what Equestria does have to offer... 'cause it looks like we're about to reach it!"
Looking out of the window to the long metal pods that they were in, Justin and Flash looked at the planet that they were about to land on. Flash gasped at the sight of the once colorful planet. In its current state, however, it looked a lot more darker than it once did... almost like a shadow loomed around the whole planet.
"By all that is holy..." Flash whispered, before gulping, and looking nervously, as the two pods entered the atmosphere.
The next thing they knew, the pods stopped in midair, and the doors started to slowly open.
When the doors were opened, Justin and Flash jumped out of the two pods, both wearing silver-coated armor with a black jumpsuit below it. The chest plates were diamond-shaped, but had a flat tip in the center of their chests, where a green-glowing diamond rested in the centers of each, while below them, long circular plates rested over their stomachs, with a flattened octagonal plate below them. On their waists, they wore thick, metal, circle-centered belts with a blue light in the centers of each of them. On their shoulders, they wore pairs of smooth metal shoulder pads. Justin's shoulder pads had a green circle painted in the centers of them, with a red gear painted in the center of the circle. Flash had a blue circle painted on his shoulder pads, with a white sword painted in the centers of the circles. Their arms were covered in long layers of thick plates that protected most of their vital organs, while giving their joints enough space to move naturally.
The second they landed on the ground, they crouched onto one leg, while holding their hands out to catch themselves. Then, when they stood up, a neck piece that rested on their heads opened up, lifting a helmet over their scalps that, once landed, opened on the sides, which unfolded a pair of metal folds that covered the sides of their faces, and projected over their mouths. Then, once they landed in the centers of their mouths, a pair of goggles fell from the front of their helmets, and over their eyes, which was followed by a thin metal piece that went over the centers of their goggles. When it landed, another thin strand started unfolding itself from the centers of their neck pieces, both of which had a circular object that, once on top of the tips of the folds, spun in clockwise circles, which sealed their helmets shut. Finally, when the helmets were completely on, their goggles started glowing, Justin's glowing green, and Flash's glowing blue.
Justin looked to his right, and faced Flash. Then he nodded his head, and asked, "Ready?"
Flash nodded his head, and replied, "Yeah." Finally, with their laser pistols drawn, the two of them began walking in the same direction, looking for a good sign of where they landed.
Slowly, Justin looked around the dark streets of Ponyville, while Flash covered his back from a short distance. The two of them were aiming their pistols in front of their views, while slowly walking through the silent roads, on a direct route to "Ponyville Castle". Currently, their missions were to investigate the library for a book that could, hopefully, find a way to stop the Plunderbeast infestation... which the two investigators still have yet to discover.
After reaching the front door, Justin stood at the right side of the door, while Flash stood at the left. Both of their backs were facing the wall, while Justin pressed a button on his left gauntlet, which opened a holographic menu for him to cycle through the features his armor could do. Then he opened the "Scanner" application, and scanned the door, only to find that no movement could be seen inside the library.
With a nod, Justin signaled to Flash that it was safe, much to his relief. Then the two of them slowly opened the doors, staying behind the wall as they did so. Finally, with their pistols aimed forward, they rolled from the wall to the entrance, and slowly stepped inside. While aiming, they also turned the flashlights of their pistols on, improving their views inside the darkness.
Justin motioned for Flash to follow him, seeing how he's lived here before. Then the two of them slowly walked through the dark hallways, and into the library.
For about an hour, the two of them looked through many different books, streaming what they saw to Twilight and Lyra, while being told when to check the next book. Finally, when they went through all the books, they sighed.
"Well, Twilight... it looks like there's nothing in here that could help us. Any other ideas?" Justin asked.
Twilight replied through his radio, "Sorry, Justin... I don't have any ideas, as of right now. When we discover something on the scanners, though, we'll be sure to let you know."
Justin nodded his head and replied, "It's alright, Twi. Maybe when we're done with this, some else will-"
"Come in, Justin! Come in, Flash! This is General Wilson! Can you hear me?!" A low-pitched male's voice rang through Justin's and Flash's radios.
"Yes, sir?" Flash replied.
"What's wrong, Mr. Wilson? Why do you-" Justin began, only to be interrupted.
"Justin, Flash, we're picking up massive numbers of movement surrounding your areas! What do you see in there?"
Both of their eyes widened, as they quickly raised their pistols, and started looking around in circles. "Nothing, sir! Are you sure that-"
Before Flash could continue talking, however, the floor busted open, and through it, a pair of thick, black, thorny vines rose from it, attacked to a knot that had countless roots below it that moved like legs. In the center of the knot, a large gaping hole was open, with smaller thorns circling inside it. Quickly, it started whipping its vines after Justin and Flash, but before it could even reach them, they shot one of the vines off, and ended with the hole in the center of it.
The next thing they knew, more holes started getting busted open from all around them. "Twilight, we need our drop pods!" Justin loudly and nervously stated through his radio.
"Alright, typing in your coordinates, and... got it!" Twilight said, sounding panicked through the radio.
"JUSTIN! FLASH! GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!" Wilson shouted through the radios.
Without even replying, the two of them rushed through the dark hallways, where walls began breaking, revealing taller forms of the creatures. When they looked like they were getting too close, Justin and Flash began shooting at their mouths, causing some of them to fall to the ground, and incinerate, while more simply ran in front of their fallen brethren, and continue charging at the two investigators.
Finally, when they made it to the exit, they jumped into their pods, while the doors closed, and in the matter of seconds, the pods started flying up.
Before they could celebrate, however, a large group of the creatures rushed out of the higher windows, and caught onto Justin's pod, where the rockets started getting torn out.
Looking at his partner, Flash's eyes widened, as he yelled through his radio, "JUSTIN!"
Justin, at this point, started looking around the inside of his pod, and breathed heavily out of fear. The alarms around his pod started buzzing, and the inside of it started turning red with the lights that continuously flashed. When Justin looked up-right, he quickly grabbed onto the handle of an "Emergency Exit", and twisted it counter-clockwise. Then the top of the pod flew open, while the chair of his pod flew out, causing him to fly away from the library. When he was far enough, the pod exploded, causing the force of the explosion to send Justin further away. When he landed on the ground, he grunted in pain, as he rolled onto the ground.
Without hesitation, Justin stood back up, picked his pistol back up, and ran away from Ponyville, and towards a shelter that he built the first time the Plunder Berries started growing. As he ran, he heard the roars and screeches of the countless creatures behind him, but he didn't bother to stop and look.
Soon, he was standing in front of a door that belonged to a two-story long metal building that looked like it belonged to a futuristic movie. Around the walls, a few red and green neon lights still managed to give the entire place power; making it the only source of light for miles. Apart from that, the entire building was basically a large metal box that was entirely metallic, but rooted to the ground to keep electricity from becoming a threat.
Quickly, he held his right hand in front of the scanner, which quickly scanned, and opened the doors. Finally, as soon as he stepped inside, he slapped his left hand onto a large red button that rested on the right-hand corner of the room. Then he turned around, revealing the massive swarm of creatures that covered the entire streets of Ponyville, and were now running his way.
As the doors started to close, he saw a plant-like biped with two long arms that had fingers made of thorns, and two glowing red eyes that hovered over a large mouth filled with even longer thorns that projected from it's mouth. From its back, three large, thorny vines stretched out, two over its shoulders, and one over its head, angled slightly like a scorpion's tail. With a loud roar, it ran his way, and rushed towards him, right as he took aim with his pistol, and in the blink of an eye, he shot at the creature right as the doors to the building started to close.
OPERATION
|D.E.C.A.Y|
| DEATH | EAGERLY | CREEPS | AROUND | YOU |
By Justin Daniels
Chapter 2: Evil From Within.
"From even the greatest of horrors, irony is seldom absent.”
H.P. Lovecraft, Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
|Evil From Within|
|Chapter 2|
Slowly, the double doors opened, and yet again, there wasn't even a single creature outside. The only thing they could see was the dismembered bodies of the three soldiers that fell in battle mere minutes ago. "Shit..." Michael cursed beneath his breath.
"Try to move slowly... they might catch the vibrations of the ground..." Justin whispered through his radio. Then he looked at an assault rifle that lied on the ground between the two halves of Samuel. "I should probably get that rifle before any of the other things show up."
Michael nodded his head, and whispered, "Alright, man... be careful. I've got your back."
Slowly, Justin tip-toed towards the assault rifle, while activating a movement scanner. Sure enough, there were a lot of them just waiting for him to grab the rifle. This gave him an idea.
"Get ready to fire, Mike. I'm gonna distract them first." Michael nodded his head, and readied his rifle.
Then Justin tapped on a metal button that was on his left wrist, which projected a holographic screen with different virtual buttons on each. Then he went through the projection's menu, and tapped on the selection that said, "Anti Matter Lifter". While aiming his left hand up, the palm of his glove projected a blue beam that went towards where his goggles were focused on... the rifle that rested on the ground. Then, once he brought it to his hands, he holstered his pistol, and grabbed the gun with his right hand. Finally, after checking the clips in the gun, he lifted a distant rock up, and held it over where the radar said that the Plunderbeasts were. Then, after a count of three, he dropped it, and readied his weapon.
The second the rock landed, six thin vines shot up, and smashed the rock into dust, as two long, skinny Plunderbeasts rose from the ground, and turned their red gazes towards Justin and Michael. "NOW!" Justin shouted, as the two of them began firing at the creatures.
The sudden loud noises caused more of the Plunderbeasts to run towards them from the shadows. "Shit! Justin, we need to go!"
"No, wait! I might have a plan for this!" Justin replied, as he started going through his menu.
Michael groaned, and ran up to him, shouting, "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR FUCKING MIND?! WE NEED TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"
Justin merely shrugged it off, and pulled a C4 from his inventory, along with an Anti Matter Shield. "Get in the shield!" Justin said, as the shield materialized shortly behind them. Then, Justin set a timer for thirty seconds on the C4, and ran into the box, right as the creatures started slicing at the shields.
With a sigh of relief, the two survivors sat on the floor, and watched as they were eventually surrounded by fire, and safe from harm.
Then, once the fire died down, the shield went off, allowing them time to check for more Plunderbeasts. Thankfully, they couldn't detect anymore, so they carried on.
Once they were about to reach Ponyville's front gate, where Samuel's two halves were lying, their eyes widened when they saw a biped walking towards them. Out of instinct, they aimed their guns towards it, until it revealed itself to be a human. Lowering their weapons, they walked closer to him, only to get the shock of their lives.
"J... Jones?!" Michael asked, as he saw his friend walking towards them, still with the gaping hole in his chest, and the broken crystal still pitch black.
"Our mother must feed..." Jones murmured from the distance.
Michael tilted his head, and asked, "What was that?"
Then, his eyes widened even more when he saw Jones' eyes glowing red. At once, he aimed his gun at Jones, and said, "Jones! What the fuck is going on with your eyes, man?!" Instinctively, he backed towards Justin again, who had his gun aimed at Jones.
Jones replied in a louder tone, "Our mother... must feed..."
Justin tilted his head, and asked, "Your mother? Jones, what the hell are you even talking about?!"
"Our... mother..." Jones began, before his eyes started glowing brighter. "Must..." He said in a whisper. Then, in a growling, gargling tone, he choked out, "feed!"
As he stretched the word, "feed", his face started deteriorating, and his tongue fell from his mouth, causing Justin and Michael to gasp in horror.
When Jones' tongue landed on the ground, the larger tip of it started to fizz up, while it started to grow in size. In the matter of seconds, it was as long as Jones' legs. Then, from the edges of the tongue, small, thin legs popped out of it, and from the opened end that was once attached to his throat, spikes started to form inside it. When it rotated towards Justin and Michael, it started letting out a loud screeching noise, which caused Justin and Michael to cover their ears and scream in pain.
Then, once it stopped screeching, it leaped towards Justin, only for him to grab it by its arms, and attempt to force it off of his reach. Viciously, it managed to get too close to his head, until he caught its extra leg that tried to grab him in the chest, and slung it away from him. Then, before it could even land, he and Michael opened fire on it, incinerating it after the first few shots.
Then they turned towards Jones, and gasped in horror at the next thing he did.
Jones' eyes popped out of his skull, but hung from the sockets, as his jaw opened widely. Then the upper half of his head tilted to the right, dislocating the jaw, and splitting the skin open, while it was still attached to a mixture of black vines, and muscle tissue. A half a second later, his head moved the opposite direction, completely removing the jaw, yet it was still attached to the muscles around his skin. Then, his arms started to slowly flail around, until five blades sliced through each of his gauntlets, and soon after, his arm guards were split open, revealing his vine-infested arms that grew in size, and his blades for fingers. Soon after, his legs did the same, while in height, he rose to be three times the height of Justin and Michael.
Quickly, Justin started firing from his rifle, only to find out that it was empty. "Oh, shit..." Justin said, as the abomination roared loudly, causing both Justin and Michael to jump back.
Then, the monster started charging towards the two, as Justin pulled his pistol from his holster, and Michael began firing rapidly at the creature, yielding no results.
"FUCK!" Michael shouted, as he rolled to the right, and Justin on the left, narrowly dodging the charging behemoth by an inch.
Justin and Michael then began to run the opposite direction, as the behemoth crashed onto Justin's shelter, which ended up having a large dent in it. "Well, shit..." Justin murmured beneath his breath. "Now I'm gonna have to find something resilient to THESE things!"
Michael nodded his head, and replied, "Yeah, but NOW isn't the time to be concerned about that!"
Justin nodded his head, and replied, "You think I don't know that?!" Then the two of them continued running, while the behemoth was still dazed.
After thirty seconds of constant running, they stopped to catch their breath, and looked behind their backs. As expected, the creature was still on their tails, and was gaining speed with each passing second. This caused them to start running again, despite the massive amounts of fatigue the running was causing.
Looking up, Justin noticed something that he could probably use to his advantage. "Mike, we need to get to the castle, again!"
"WHAT?!" Michael replied, looking at the creature, which was in-between them and the said location. "Kind late for that, don't you think?!" He added.
Justin shook his head, and replied, "Split up, and make a circle around the creature! Meet me there, and start climbing!"
Without saying another word, the two split apart, Justin running right, and Michael running left, which made the behemoth slide in the dirt, and stand in the center for a moment, before it looked both ways, and chose to follow Justin.
When Michael got to the tree, he turned around, and shot at the behemoth that was getting too close to Justin. Thankfully, he learned that the eyes were one of the weak points, because it moved its head back, and covered its eyes with its left arm, which took the rest of the blasts without pain. Then, Michael jumped onto one of the branches, and started quickly climbing, while holding a hand out for Justin, who took it without hesitation.
As they climbed, they felt the tree start to shake. Looking down, they noticed the monster was climbing the tree behind them. With that in mind, Justin quickly stuck a flash bomb on the area he was at, and continued climbing, looking up in the process. Then, once the flash bomb went off, the creature roared again, and fell back to the ground, as Justin and Michael continued climbing. Finally, once they reached the top, the branch that Justin was on started to snap, much to his horror.
Quickly, he jumped to the nearest branch, only to slip and fall. Before he could land on the ground, however, Michael ran up to him, and caught his right foot, while he stood upside-down, and was facing the monster that was getting unnervingly closer to him.
"HOLD ON, JUSTIN! I'VE GOT YOU!" Michael shouted, as he continued pulling Justin up. The creature raised its left claw, which was now in front of Justin, and in a quick swipe, it lunged for him, only for him to bend forward, and dodge the attack, while its claws got stuck in the tree. Then in one quick pull, Michael managed to pull Justin onto the top of the tree, as the monster roared, and climbed up alongside them.
They backed up, while Michael looked at Justin, and asked, "Alright, we're here! Now what?!"
"Now you keep any unwanted spikes from getting me in the back!" Justin replied, as he pulled, from his belt, a long pole with a light blue spherical light on the tip of it.
Before Michael could even ask what he was about to do, Justin caused his eyes to widen, as he ran towards the monster. When it tried to scoop him with its right claw, he quickly ducked below it, and ran behind it, before shooting it in the back with his laser pistol. Then, with its left claw, it lunged for a downward crush, only for Justin to side-step out of the way, and grab onto one of the small vines that was on its arm. When it lifted its arm up to shake him off, he quickly took the metal tip of the pole, and jabbed it in its right eye, winning a loud roar from it, as he pressed a button, which caused the lower tip of the pole to project four more poles from inside its skull. Then, once that was done, he quickly pulled a chain that rested on the top of the roof to hold a metal sign for the castle's "Opening Day" up towards him with his Anti Matter Lifter, and tied it around the left pole. After that, he jumped from the creature, and grabbed the other end of the chain, and wrapped it around the antenna of the building. Finally, after he attached the chain to the antenna, the monster began running towards them again, while Justin pulled a stack of three shock grenades form his belt, and threw it at the antenna, as the grenades began to glow white.
"Alright, Michael! JUMP!" Justin yelled, as the two of them leaped from the tall building, right as the monster roared in anguish, before blowing up in a pile of red and black. Then, the parts started to incinerate when they landed. When Justin and Michael landed, they rolled on the ground, and looked up, before rolling even more to dodge the falling debris of the roof of the castle.
Once they stood back up, they breathed heavily, only for their joy to be short-lived, as more smaller creatures started rushing towards them. Quickly, they readied their weapons, and prepared to fire, only for the sound of a loud motor to play from behind them, followed by the sight of blue plasma shots mowing down more and more enemies by the second. Looking back, the two saw an air shuttle hovering over them, with a rope hanging from the bottom.
From the loudspeaker, Flash Sentry yelled, "JUSTIN! MICHAEL! HURRY UP, BEFORE THEY START CLIMBING THE ROPE!"
Justin and Michael spared no time, as they both ran frantically towards the rope, dodging any of the creatures that popped from the ground in the process.
When they jumped onto the rope, Justin was the one on the top, with Michael below him, as the ship started flying up. With a smile, Michael said, "We made it... I CAN'T BELIEVE WE MADE IT, MAN!" Then he caught his breath, and cheered. "WOO!"
Justin smiled as well, and nodded his head, before his eyes widened at a sight below them. Michael tilted his head, and asked, "What's wrong?"
Before Justin could answer, a long vine stretched from the ground level, and wrapped around Michael, which caused him to gasp, and yell out of fear. "MIKE!" Justin shouted, as he realized his friend was caught by another one of the Plunderbeasts. Quickly, the ruby in Michael's chest started changing from green to yellow. Without a moment to lose, Justin drew his pistol, and shot at the vine, until it broke free. Then, after climbing down, he pulled the vine from Michael, and tossed it down, as it incinerated in thin air. "Mike, are you okay?!"
Michael slowed his breathing into a normal one, and nodded his head. "Y-yeah... I guess I owe ya one, huh?"
Justin shook his head, and replied, "Nah. You did save me when we were climbing the tree, remember?"
"Yeah." Michael replied, as the rope was soon pulled into the shuttle. Then, as the doors beside them closed, they took one last look at Ponyville.
"I can't believe what's happened there... and only in three months' time!" Justin said, as he sat on a circular table within a BBQ restaurant in New Eden. When they returned, they didn't even bother speaking to a single person, and instead, decided to get scanned for any foreign bacterias that could've gotten past their armors. Thankfully, that wasn't an issue for any of them.
Justin took another swig of his milk, and placed the cup on the table, as he stared at his plate of tofu. Ever since he moved to Equestria, he took on the habit of replacing his meat with other sources of protein, in order to keep from getting odd stares from the Ponies.
Michael and Flash were sitting on the table with him, Flash eating a daisy burger, while Michael ate a slab of ribs from a foreign creature similar to a pig. The meat was purple instead of brown, and to him, it kinda tasted like chicken mixed with turkey. Justin still swore he wouldn't even taste it, as his commitments to living in Equestria still were in place. Not to mention the fact that the stuff looked awful to him.
"I swear, I'll never understand why you even eat that stuff!" Flash complained, as he saw Michael eating some of the ribs off his plate. Then his eyes caught something in the distance... two mares who were quickly running towards them.
When Flash stood up, he didn't say a word, as he embraced his girlfriend, Lyra, in a tender hug and kiss, while Michael sighed, and leaned his forehead on his left hand. Then he looked at Justin, and said, "Honestly, Justin... I'll never understand these mares and their constant need for hugging, when he wasn't even in that ordeal as much as you!"
Justin, however, didn't even notice Michael speaking, as he stood up, and slowly walked towards Twilight, who stared at him with tears that fell from her cheeks. He stretched his arms out, and offered a hug, but instead, Twilight ran up to him, and did what caused all eyes around them to widen, and Michael's jaw to drop. Even Justin's eyes widened, as he was caught completely off guard.
She locked him in a kiss, without a care in the universe for the countless eyes that watched.
