The Lost Soldier

Hi all! This was originally going to be a stand-alone mini story, but I got convinced to include it in the main story. Thanks to QQSaturn (YouTube username) for the encouragement and his OC is in this part of the story.
Editor’s note: Hey Kensei here again I also edited chapter 12 (Though I forgot to do any notes. Oh well). I hope you like my revisions on here!
Jd896: It’s funny because I edited this chapter myself.

Ray was lying back on his bed, enjoying a Daring Do book he had picked out from one of Twilight’s many bookshelves. It was pretty interesting, reading about how Daring Do traveled to many places far and wide, always escaping danger that became present. Unfortunately, Ray’s reading came to an abrupt halt when the radio standing next to him on his table crackled to life.

“Ray? Hello? Is this working?” Twilight said through the small device.

“Yep, Ray here. It’s working,” he replied.

“Good. I need you to catch the train over here to Canterlot. My brother is getting married to someone that seems suspicious and I want you here just in case,” Twilight’s voice crackled.

“Rodger that, I’ll be right there soon.”

“Thanks Ray.”

Ray stood up and tossed the book on his bed. He changed his clothing, putting on the straight black combat uniform that had been repaired by Rarity. It was amazing how much precision and craftsmanship went into this one piece. Ray opened the drawer near his bed and withdrew his bag. He placed it on the bed, unzipped it, and removed his weapons from it.

He soon left the library, making his way towards the Ponyville train station. He waved at a group of ponies as he walked along as they had already grown accustomed to him. Upon reaching the station, Ray paid for a round-trip ticket to Canterlot. He then entered the train and took a seat. The conductor, familiar with who Ray was, walked up to him.

“Going to see the wedding Ray?” the conductor asked, taking Ray’s ticket and punching a hole in it.

“Yeah, something like that,” Ray replied with a small smirk.

“Well then enjoy yourself. And don’t be toting those weapons around, scaring my passengers. I don’t need a mass panic on my hooves.” Ray laughed.

“Can do. Do you mind me asking how long it’s going to be until we arrive in Canterlot?”

“Not at all! It will be about two hours.”

Ray thanked the conductor and settled in. He took the time to check his equipment and his ammunition, like any good operator. He still had five magazines for his carbine, each holding 30 rounds a piece. He also had four clips for his sniper rifle, one of which was composed of custom, handmade rounds for “special circumstances”. These rounds had a tendency to be more accurate at further distances. Two of the bullets in the rifle had already been used as well, totaling to eighteen rounds for the rifle. He looked through the remainder of the equipment in his bag: a block of C-4 explosives, three smoke grenades, one of which was purple, a spotting scope with a laser range finder, his combat knife which could be thrown in extreme cases, and most importantly, his head. Last time he checked, it was in fine condition so Ray settled in to sleep for the trip to Canterlot.

Ray awoke to the jolt of the train braking. He rubbed his eyes and took a look outside the window. The train was now inside a purple dome, acting as a shield to the city. The operator took out his radio.

“Twilight, it’s Ray. I’m here in the city now.” Silence responded. “Twilight, do you copy?” Nothing. Ray grew somewhat nervous. Something seemed odd to him, but he shrugged it off. The unicorn was probably too busy with her brother to respond. He sighed and placed the radio into a slot on his tactical vest, easily accessible if needed. The sniper rifle was slung over his back and the carbine hung in front of Ray for quick drawing, but he hoped that he wouldn’t have to use it. However, he would rather be ready to fire and alert than need to fire and not ready.

Before leaving the library, Twilight had told Ray what she and her friends were planning for the wedding, so he already had a general idea of where every pony was staying. Problem was that he needed to find exactly where. Ray got up and walked towards the door, which opened automatically. He stopped as five of the six ponies he was about to go searching for were already in front of him!

“Oh, hey girls,” Ray said in surprise. “Any one of you seen Twilight recently?”

“That’s th’ thing. We haven’t seen her since the rehearsal,” Applejack promptly responded. “An’ ah didn’t know you were comin’ to the wedding.”

“I wasn’t really planning on it.” Ray placed his hand on his carbine and took a few steps forward, exiting the train onto the platform.

“Oh no, what’s happened? Did something bad happen to Twilight?” Fluttershy asked with worry in her voice.

“I’m not sure. She contacted me-“

The train blew it’s whistle and quickly departed.

“… She contacted me on the radio asking me to come down here immediately. She said she was very suspicious of the bride.”

“Oh, goodness. She’s still going on about that?” Rarity cut in, stomping her hoof down. “She can be so persistent at times!”

“Can any of you tell me what exactly is going on here?” Ray asked.

“Well the bride, Princess Cadence, was acting kinda irritated and negative towards us since we’ve been here. We think it’s just the stress of the wedding, but Twilight’s completely convinced she’s evil. She even crashed the wedding rehearsal just to tell us that! I mean, who does that? Crashing a rehearsal like that just to tell us something? I mean, RUUUDE.” Pinkie Pie said, moving her front hooves around in a dramatic fashion. Ray sighed.

“Twilight doesn’t seem like the type to go off on wild accusations without something big to go off of. Perhaps she’s seen something- Ah, no matter. That’s not what I’m here for. I need to know where Twilight is. You haven’t seen her since the dress rehearsal?”

The five ponies all nodded in unison.

“Okay, how long till the wedding starts?”

“It starts in thirty minutes. Oh, thirty minutes?! I have to go!” Rarity suddenly dashed off to the castle.

“Right… Anyways, not much time. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens. You four can go. I’ll catch up with you later,” Ray said, turning around.

“We’ll see you at the wedding then?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Actually, you won’t,” Ray replied, waving.

Ray walked through the town for some time and made his way to the roof of a building adjacent to that of the palace where the wedding would take place. He was observing the final preparations through his spotting scope, which stated that the range was roughly 350 yards. An easy shot if he had to take it. The soldier, thinking ahead, also set up a rappel line in case he needed to get off the roof quickly. It was always good to be prepared for the worst.

He watched the palace through his spotting scope. There was a large crowd of ponies inside. Ray tried to pick out any ponies that looked suspicious, but the only one who stood out was a grey mare who had a blonde mane, constantly turning towards her friend, also a grey, but a stallion with a black mane and pale purple eyes.

Ray heard buzzing. He pushed the scope away from his eye and looked around. No, it wasn’t radio static, nor was it coming from the wedding as it wasn’t due to start for a few minutes. No, it was coming from above! He looked up and saw multiple black specks flying above the shield protecting the city. No, it wasn’t five or ten or fifty or one hundred of them. There were thousands!

“What is going on here…?” Ray muttered to himself.

He raised the spotting scope to his eye to get a clear view of what was waiting on the outside of the shield. These specks looked like small, black, disfigured alicorns smashing themselves against the shield in an attempt to break it.

Perhaps now was best to try the radio again.

“Twilight, it’s Ray. Do you copy?” he asked again. Silence. She wasn’t there. This made Ray concerned.

“Damn it, Twilight’s gone. These weird black ponies are trying to break in. This can’t be a good sign.”

Ray looked through the spotting scope at the wedding again. By now, the precession was under way with the bride and groom standing near Princess Celestia. Suddenly, the doors burst open on the opposite end of the room. Entering the palace was Twilight and a twin of the bride. Now Ray was completely confused, but all was made clear when the bride near Celestia transformed into a much larger version of the ponies smashing against the shield. It walked around a bit, talking, before Celestia engaged her in a magical duel.

Celestia’s loss wasn’t the only trouble Ray was concerned with. The sound of glass shattering filled the air. Ray quickly looked up, seeing that the purple shield over the city was now gone, having shattered into millions of pieces and allowing the black swarm of ponies in.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Ray yelled to himself. He grabbed his spotting scope and ran for the opposite end of the building he was on. Not bothering to even clip on, Ray grabbed the rappel line and slid down. He slid down and forced himself through a closed window on the side of the building. He crashed through the window and spilled onto the floor.
Purple shards fell to the ground all over the city. The buzzing noise was more prominent now as the black ponies flew through the capital. Ray slowly got to his feet, a bit dizzy.

“This situation...” Ray said to himself. He looked outside another window as the black ponies were flying around, chasing the residents of the city. He caught a glimpse of the six ponies running from the palace. He traced where they were heading towards a large tower.

“That tower looks important enough…” Ray ran down the stairs of the room he was in and went for the front door.

He kicked it open and stormed out. The purple shield had since stopped falling and lied in bits on the ground. Ray’s first step outside resulted in a solid crunch. He started running forward, towards the palace when these invaders caught sight of him. They flew themselves towards Ray, smashing into the ground as they missed. Ray started into a full-on sprint. He ran along the side of the palace until he reached the area where he had seen the ponies. The soldier turned and made his way towards the tower he had indicated in his mind. The six ponies weren’t too far ahead, so Ray tried to catch up with them. He hopped over an unconscious one of these ponies as he soon caught up to the six ponies who were stuck with a large group of these buggers.

“Ray!” Twilight called as he caught up to them. More of these black ponies swarmed in from behind.

“What the hell are these things?!” Ray questioned.

“They’re Changelings! They can shape-shift into other ponies!”

These “Changelings” were blocking the way to the tower.

“Looks like we’re gonna have to do this the hard way!” Rainbow Dash called, smashing her hooves together and flying forward. She stopped dead when she ran into a copy of herself. The soft blue pegasus made several movements with her body, of which the other mimicked completely until it decided to shove the real Rainbow back into the group. She looked up in disbelief.

“How did they…?” she started to say, but stopped as she saw more of them turn into copies of herself and her friends.

“They’re Changelings, remember?” Twilight said.

“They’re Changelings, remember?” Five more copies said in unison.

“Don’t let them distract you,” the real Twilight continued. “We need to get to the Elements of Harmony! They’re our only hope!”

Ray took out his combat knife. The situation was too tight for proper use of his carbine. It wasn’t of much bother to him though. He could hold his own in hand-to-hand combat.

The group charged forward at the battalion-sized group of Changelings. Ray grabbed a copy of Rarity and sunk his knife into its throat. He pulled it out quickly and dropped it, leaking green ooze from the fatal wound. He turned to be met with an “evil-looking” Fluttershy. With no hesitation, he rammed the blade through the fake’s eye, killing it instantly.
Ray was quickly knocked onto his back, being met with a Changeling staring right into his eyes. Before he had a chance to reach, the disfigured alicorn touched its deformed horn onto Ray’s forehead, sending Ray’s mind back into a distant memory.

Ray was lying on the ground in his ghillie suit. He had his eye in the scope of a sniper rifle, aiming at an insurgent who couldn’t have been older than eighteen years of age. He remembered when he got the order to kill him. There was a hesitation to pull the trigger, but he did. The round was sent and met its mark. This was his first kill.
Ray quickly shook the memory off and looked at the Changeling again. Except, it wasn’t a Changeling. It was now the insurgent he had first killed. Ray shoved the insurgent off and crawled backwards in shock. It raised a familiar looking object at Ray. An AK-47. Ray rolled to the side as a green blast of energy shot the ground next to him. He came up from the roll, his sidearm now in hand. He shot the insurgent twice in the head, the hollow point rounds creating large holes in its head.

Ray turned back to see Rainbow Dash attempting to decide if the Ray she was facing was real or not. It raised the carbine at her, but Ray instantly reacted, raising his pistol once more and shooting it in the head. It fell over, spewing more green ooze. He holstered the pistol and turned, just to meet five more of the Changeling insurgents.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” He yelled, diving forward at the closest one he could get to. Ray rolled with it, the insurgent’s back against him. He took control of its rifle and pulled down on the trigger, spraying bolts of green energy at the fake insurgents. As the last one fell, Ray shoved the one on top of him off and shot him as well. Ray then got up himself.

“These things must act as a hive mind.” Ray said to himself looking at how many changed into the insurgent.

Minutes more of rigorous close quarters combat continued between the duplicated of himself and his friends, and the real group. The seven were finally able to take down the last one. The group turned back, just to see another large swarm of Changelings flying towards them.

“Ray!” Twilight shouted. “Come on!”

“Go! I have my Element!” Ray said, indicating his watch. “I’ll buy you time to get your Elements! Go, go, go!”

Twilight hesitated.

“But-“

“You need your Elements to take down these Changelings. You don’t need mine! I’ll buy you all the time I can! Just GO!”

“You better come back,” Rainbow Dash said in a cold, no negotiations tone as she flew off with her friends towards the tower.

“I will… I’ve faced worse…” He’s been saying that a lot lately.

The soldier checked the sights on his M4 Carbine, setting it up for longer range shots. He checked the fore grip and snapped the selector switch from safety to semi-automatic. Ray dropped to one knee and pointed up at the first Changeling he saw and opened fire. He fired ten rounds quickly, resulting in ten dead Changelings. Now that the Changelings full attention was on his, he turned and ran in an attempt to lead them away from the tower holding the Elements of Harmony.

Ray turned down another street where he saw the two ponies he identified earlier struggling against a group of Changelings. Another smaller group of Changelings was flying right towards them. Ray raised the carbine again, each round hitting one Changeling in the charging group with inhumane accuracy. Ray kept running, releasing the carbine so it could bounce off its strap on his neck.
He saw a small alley and turned down it, only to be faced with a seven foot wall, just two feet out of reach. Good thing Ray practiced parkour as both a hobby and something he learned to implement in combat with Spartan. Without breaking his stride and a grin wide on his face, he ran right towards the wall. Just before hitting it, he stepped onto the side of the bricks. His momentum carried him up the wall as he stepped up. He grabbed the top and hauled himself over it. He jumped down and rolled to disperse the momentum.
Ray stood up to continue on, but was only met with the butt of a rifle. He fell backwards, now with a splitting headache and a bloody nose. Ray opened his eyes to be looking down the barrel of another AK-47. His memories flashed inside his head again.

Ray remembered that moment. Ray and Cassandra were on opposite sides of that door. The same one Cassandra moved in front of to open. He relived the moment where she was practically gunned down by the terrorist. The memory quickly faded again and came back to see the same terrorist who killed Cassandra pointing his weapon at Ray.

“No… You’re not killing me too!” Ray yelled, slapping the muzzle of the rifle away in a fit of rage. He grabbed the insurgents other arm and yanked it down. The enraged operator rolled on top of his mortal enemy and struck him three times in the head with his bare fists. He grabbed the knife from its sheath and brought it down on the terrorist. Somehow the terrorist had recovered, and shifted, causing the knife to jam into the dirt. It kicked Ray off, tossing him backwards to the ground. Ray scrambled to get to his feat but the terrorist stepped on his right arm. It knelt down on Ray and pulled his left arm behind his back. Ray was powerless while the terrorist still had a free arm. With a flash of green, the terrorist now had a knife in his free hand, which he lowered to Ray’s neck.

Cliffhanger mwhahahaha! The wedding battle is going to be split into three parts just so you know. Thanks for reading!