Canterlot, Equestria
June 21st, 7 L.R.
8 Years Ago
Captain Airborne Reaper of the Equestrian Royal Air Force and Starshina Steel Claw of the Griffin Empire Special Operations Task Force
06:30 Hours, Half an Hour Before Attack
No Task Assigned
It was time for the summer sun celebration again! A time of joy and a time of celebration! The longest day of the summer. It may not be my favorite holiday, but its a pretty awesome holiday. Me and my friend Steel Claw were walking down the street, talking like we usually do.
"Look," he started as he paid the Churro guy "all I'm saying is that she was not my type." Steel looked over to the Churro guy and nodded. "Thanks."
"No problem." The Churro guy said with a smile.
We walked away from the Churro stand as Steel continued his story. "So, I told her the truth. I said, 'Look, beautiful, this isn't gonna work out as well as you think it is. With me being in the Army, I have a chance at dying in the heat of battle.'"
I chuckled at his statement. "Way to be honest."
Steel shrugged as he took a bite of his Churro. "You always say I need to be more honest." He said simply.
"Yeah, honest. Not brutally honest." We turned and started walking through a side street. "There's a difference."
"Well, in the Empire, you're either tough or you're useless suka." He pointed his Churro at me. "That's how I was raised." Steel stopped pointing it at me and took another bite.
"Yeah, but how you told her that was just... inconsiderate." I said as I stepped over a trash bag.
Steel shrugged. "Doesn't matter, the suka said she didn't need me and was better off without." He pointed his Churro to the sky as we got out of the alleyway. "I say good riddance! I needed her nyet!" He took another bite of his Churro. "Farewell Gilda Legkiy ves! I shall never need you!"
I noticed a few passersby give him a confused look. "Alright Steel, simmer down. Civvies are staring."
"Watch if they choose! I shall not quiet my voice! For it is my right to speak my mind!" Steel threw the rest of his Churro in his mouth and pointed to the sky. "And shall the ancestors be my witness! I SHALL SPEAK MY MIND!"
I punched Steel in the side and chuckled. "You and your talk about your ancestors. Sure you can talk all you want, but when it disrupts the peace is when you have to shut up."
He put a claw up to his heart and frowned sadly. "Avast, tis be the sad truth." Steel muttered. He put his claw down and checked our surroundings. "Where are we? I stopped paying attention back when I got my Churro."
"We're nearing the castle, it shouldn't be that far of a walk." I said as I spotted the Castle of the Two Sisters in the distance. "Yeah, we're like a few more minutes away."
"Woo, were gonna watch the Sun rise." Steel said with a roll of his eyes.
"Don't be such a grouch. Sunrises could be cool." I commented.
"A sunrise on the battlefield, Da. But the sunrise on a city, Nyet." Steel muttered. We walked the rest of the way there in silence, mainly since we didn't really have much to talk about. We found ourselves standing in the middle of the crowd, a good distance away from the front but not too far away.
I looked at my watch then turned towards him. "It's almost time." I said with a small smile on my face.
"I still think this is mundane and boring." Steel muttered.
"Just shut up and watch the sunrise." I turned my attention towards the stage. A tall robed figure walked up on stage, it seemed to walk on two legs, sorta like a Minotaur.
"Mares and Gentlecolts!" The figure called out in a dark voice. Everypony's attention was focussed on the thing on stage. "I am sorry to inform you, but your pretty little Princess is no longer with us."
There were gasps throughout the crowd. "What do you mean?" Somepony shouted from in front.
The figure laughed. "Well..." it started "what I mean, is that she is now my minion." The figure raised a hand and the ground in front of him began to catch fire. A ring of fire formed and slowly rose Princess Twilight. Her eyes were empty and lifeless, her stance was crooked, and her jaw was slacked. The Princess had several cuts on her body in various spots. She slowly rose a hoof up and limped forward.
Everypony stared in shock as The Princess limped forward. When she made it to the edge of the stage, she limped forward one last time and fell off the stage. The figure on top of the stage laughed. "Rise!" It shouted. Several fire circles appeared on stage and ponies started to rise out of them. They all looked dead and lifeless, sorta like...
"Zombies." I muttered under my breath. I turned to Steel and he looked at me.
"Initiate Plan Contagion?" He asked.
I nodded. "Initiate plan Contagion, regroup at my place." We both flared our wings and took to the sky.
"Run!" The figure shouted at us. "Flee for your lives because by the end of today! THIS WORLD SHALL BE MINE!" I heard laughing as I quickly flew away from the castle.
"You upgraded the stockpile, da?" I heard Steel yell from my left.
"Yeah! I've gotten new gear and new transportation since the last time you visited!" I called back.
After a few minutes of flying, we made it to the outskirts of Canterlot and to my house. We went in through the second story window. I ran over to my bed and flipped it over, revealing two ballistic vests. I grabbed one and threw it to Steel.
"Ballistic vests?" Steel asked and I nodded. "You expecting a fight?"
"I'm expecting factions and a war between said factions. We won't pick sides, we'll be our own band of brothers." I grabbed the other ballistic vest and strapped it on, slipping my wings through the slits in the back. I ran to the bathroom and opened up the medical cabinet. I grabbed my medication and shut the cabinet. I took a look at my pale coat and short black mane. My deep crimson eyes showed the concentration of a determined stallion. Final time to look at the face of a somewhat innocent you.
"Reaper!" I heard Steel call out. He ran over to me and grabbed me by the collar. "Reaper come on, we have shit to do."
I nodded and he let go of my collar. I followed him downstairs. When we got downstairs, we grabbed our side arms from inside the fridge and put them in their holsters.
There was a loud crash from the front room, which meant somepony got inside. There were hooves pounding on wood floor as somepony spoke. "Come on! Come on! Get in!" When the pounding stopped, the door shut and whoever was at my front door barred it with the stand I keep next to it. "Everypony okay? Nopony hurt?" There was a moment of silence before we heard the voice speak again. "Good. I don't know who's place this is, but I think they won't mind us dropping by."
Me and Steel took out our side arms and walked into the hallway. There were three ponies standing in the hallway. It was two Pegasi and one Unicorn. One of the Pegasi had a cyan coat with a rainbow colored mane and tail. The other Pegasus was a butter yellow with a pink mane and tail. The Unicorn was a white with a purple mane and tail.
"Hooves in the air!" I shouted as I held my side arm up. All three of them snapped their attention to us. "You have ten seconds to put your hooves up or else we shoot you!" They all sat on their haunches and put their hooves up. The butter yellow Pegasus cowered behind the cyan one. I nudged Steel. "Restrain them." He nodded and walked over to them. Steel started with the white unicorn a ziptied her hooves behind her back.
"This is most uncouth!" She shouted.
Steel put his gun against her head. "Quiet." He ordered.
I saw the Rainbow maned one whisper something to the other Pegasus. I snapped my aim over to them and tilted my head up a bit. "Yellow Pegasus." I said. Said Pegasus hid behind her friend even more. "Come here." I ordered. She stayed behind her friend and seemed to be shivering. "Come here, now." I walked up to Steel and nodded.
"You have ten seconds or else your friend gets a bullet to the skull." Steel threatened and turned off the safety of his gun.
"No!" She said in a near whisper.
"Then come out and face us." I ordered. I could see her nod from behind her friend and she slowly walked up to me. "Sit down next to your friend." She did so and Steel ziptied her hooves behind her back. I turned to the Rainbow maned one. "And now it's your turn."
"Go suck a cock. We’re done here." She shot.
I let out a sigh and rolled my eyes. "Always has to have a difficult one." I walked around her and put my gun up to her head. I clicked the safety off and sat down next to her. "This is a semi-automatic Glock 23 handgun that shoots point forty caliber Smith and Wesson rounds. If you can, I want you to tell me how many rounds does the magazine hold. If you don't know, say so. If you do know, you live."
There was a long pause of silence. My eyes snapped between the three of them, all three of them looked familiar. Like I've seen them before. "And if I'm wrong?" The Pegasus asked.
"That's up to Steel Claw." I nudged my head toward him as he held his gun against the Unicorn's head.
"Ten, thirteen, and fifteen. Depends on the magazine." She answered. I put away my gun and tied her hooves behind her back.
"Correct answer." I responded and picked her up.
She started to squirm in my grip. "Hey! Put me down!"
I ignored her pleas and brought her next to her friends, then dropped her next to the other Pegasus. "Steel, watch these three closely as I get the gear."
I ran over to my basement and searched for the stash. I quickly found the large army green case and picked it up. There was a loud crash upstairs and I quickly flew up there, carrying the case in my hooves. When I got up, I saw Steel was being held hostage by an orange Earth Pony with blond mane and tail. He was saying something in Griffonic as the mare held a Beretta M9 in her hoof as another Earth Pony was piling things in front of the door. This one was hot pink with a darker pink mane and tail.
I quickly dropped the case and drew my side arm, pointing it at the orange mare. "FIVE SECONDS DROP THE WEAPON!" I screamed. The Earth Pony mare quickly snapped her aim to me and I shot her gun out of her hoof.
"Ah!" She screamed as she held her hoof.
Steel quickly picked up his gun and pointed it at the pink mare. "Get down on the ground, now!" He yelled. The mare slowly sat down and put her hooves in the air. Steel restrained the pink mare as I restrained the orange Earth Pony. I picked her up, she was surprisingly heavy, and put her next to the three hostages. Steel did the same with the pink one.
We sat down in front of the hostages and held our guns in a comfortable spot. We all sat in an awkward silence for a minute. "So..." I said, breaking the silence. "Are the five of you associated in any way, shape, or form?"
"Yeah, we're Equestria's greatest heroes. Ever heard of us?" The Rainbow one remarked.
"Oh! You five are with the Royal Air Force? I'm so sorry I didn't realize it earlier!" I mocked surprise. I pointed my gun at her and rolled my eyes. "Why don't you just stay quiet and let your friends talk?"
"Why don't you two untie me so I can rip your dicks off and make you eat them?" She snapped.
"Rainbow Dash!" The yellow one scolded. Wait a second... Rainbow Dash? Where do I recognize that name from. Thinking back, there was a news article about someone named Rainbow Dash being the youngest member to be in the Wonderbolts.
"The Wonderbolts." I said with a smile.
Rainbow Dash smirked. "I see you're a fan."
I shook my head. "Nah, not a fan." There were several gunshots outside and we all snapped our attention in that direction. "We need to get to Checkpoint Bravo." I told Steel as I got up.
"What about these five?" He asked, pointing to the five mares.
"You remember that oath we took when we first started preparing?" I asked as I lifted up the crate with all our gear in it.
Steel put his gun on his chest, over his heart, and pointed it to his left. "We fight, we survive, and we help. No one left behind. We aren't bandits, we are heroes." Steel looked at me. "Da?"
I nodded. "Yes." I rushed out the back door and into the barn I keep out back. I grabbed the lock and put in the combination. When the lock came off, I opened the massive doors and smiled widely. "I'm back Betty." I muttered to the UH-1H helicopter sitting in the barn. She's a beauty that I bought off the black market. The thing costed me so much money, yet it's totally worth it.
I brought the case to the back of the helicopter and slid it inside. I left the barn And shut the massive doors. I then quickly ran back inside my house to see Steel talking to the five.
"Never heard of them." He said as I went back into the basement. I grabbed our Coyote packs and ran back up the stairs. "Da, never heard of the Elements of Harmony."
I stopped walking up the stairs and listened closely. "You've never heard of the Elements of Harmony?" I heard Rainbow Dash's voice. Elements of Harmony?
"Nyet." Steel replied.
"What?" The Elements of Harmony are the things that killed Nightmare Moon and released The Moon Goddess.
I could picture Steel rolling his eyes. "It means No. I speak my people's native language and it tends to pop up."
Elements of Harmony are the ones that turned Discord back into stone. And then the Element of Kindness reformed him. Wasn't her name Fluttershy? "Why do you talk funny?" I heard a different voice ask. This one was higher pitched and sounded full of energy.
"Equestrian isn't my original language." I heard Steel chuckle. "Like I said, I speak my people's native language."
Wait a second... wait just a fucking second. My eyes widened in realisation and my jaw went crashing through the floor. "OH MY LUNA!" I shouted. I rushed up the rest of the stairs and ran over to Steel. "Steel! Help me cut them loose!"
He gave me a confused look. "Calm down." Steel requested. "Take a deep breath."
I took a deep breath and calmed down. I looked Steel in the eyes and pointed to the five mares. "These five mares are the Elements of Harmony, the ones that freed the goddess." Steel nodded slowly. He got up and helped me release the five. "I'm so sorry for this misunderstanding." I apologized for being rude to them.
"Damn right you better be sorry!" The Element of Loyalty said as I cut her loose with my tactical knife.
When they were all loose, I threw up a salute. "Captain Airborne Reaper of the Equestrian Royal Air Force, reporting for combat." I stated proudly.
They turned around and looked at me with stern faces, except the Elements of Laughter and Kindness. "A fly boy?" The Element of Loyalty asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, ma'am." I responded.
Steel Claw put a closed fist to his chest, right over his heart. "Starshina Steel Claw, for the glory of the Empire." He stated.
"A Master Sergeant of the Griffin Empire Military?" The Element of Generosity asked. The other Elements gave her confused looks. She shrugged. "That one Griffin that visited Ponyville, Jericho is his name, and commissioned a uniform for the Gala, he was a Senior Warrant Officer for their military."
"You knew Senior Praporshchik Kazimir?" Steel asked.
"What ever do you mean by knew?" The Element of Generosity inquired.
Steel scratched the back of his neck. "Senior Praporshchik Kazimir has passed away." He cleared his throat. "He was murdered while he slept." Steel made a slicing motion on his neck. "Cowards slit his throat."
"I'm sorry to hear that darling." The Element said sympathetically.
Steel smiled and nodded. "He was a good friend. I did not mourn him, upon his request, I celebrated his achievements."
There were more gunshots outside and I slowly nodded. "We need to move, now. The Royal Military is starting a contingency plan and will be trying to clean up the mess." I motioned for everyone to follow me. "I have transportation out back, we can get to a safe house by tomorrow evening." We all started to rush outside, but there were more gunshots and these ones were closer than the last. "Steel, go grab the MP5 from upstairs and hold down the fort."
"Da." He nodded and ran over to the living room.
"Come on ladies, we need to start up evac." I said as I guided the five elements out of my house and into the backyard. I ran to one side of the door and signaled for the Element of Honesty. "Honesty, help me open the barn!"
The Element of Honesty ran up to me and gave me a hoof with the barn doors. "Call me Applejack." She requested as we opened the doors.
I quickly ran over to a switch on the left side of the barn and hit it. The top of the roof started to move out of the way. There were even more gunshots and some rounds landed near me. I drew my pistol and took cover. All the elements hid behind some form of cover. More rounds were fired and more rounds landed near me. I took a peak around my cover to spot a Pegasus and two Griffins wielding pistols, standing in my backyard.
"Give us the helicopter and you all can walk away!" One of them yelled.
"How about we make a deal?!" I yelled back. "We'll let you three fly with us to wherever you three wanna go, and everyone walks away with their lives! Sound good?!"
There was a long pause. I peaked around the corner to see them discussing amongst themselves. Steel peaked out the back door and signalled for me to get ready. The three of them nodded and the Pegasus spoke up. "Alright!" He yelled. "Come out and we'll discuss the deal further!"
The Griffins reloaded their pistols as the Pegasus smirked. I walked out from behind cover with my pistol at chest height. Steel stepped out from my house. He aimed down the sights of the MP5 and turned off the safety. The group tried to raise their guns on us, but we quickly dispatched the three of them. I watched as all three of their bodies fell to the floor.
I walked over to them to search their bodies. The Pegasus was still alive and reached for me. "P-p-please..." he said with tears in his eyes. "P-please..."
I walked over to him and put my gun to his head. "There is no forgiveness in the apocalypse." I said, pulling the trigger. Blood and brain matter splattered against the ground as the bullet passed through the back of his skull.
I put my gun back in its holster and grabbed his gun. It was a model 1911, civilian version. I grabbed it and turned towards the barn. "Loyalty!" I called out.
The Element of Loyalty stepped out from where she was hiding. "Yeah?" She called back.
I tossed her the gun and she caught it. "M1911, civi version. Fires point forty-five Automatic Colt Pistol rounds. Eight rounds to a magazine." I said as I searched the Pegasus for any more mags. I found two strapped to each foreleg. I grabbed those and put them in my vest. "In these pockets" I patted the now full pockets "are your mags, if you need a fresh one I'll toss one over."
Steel walked up to the dead Griffins and knelt down. "Pokoysya s mirom, brat'ya." I heard him mumble in Griffonic. He grabbed one of the guns and inspected it. "Der'mo." It was a SIG Sauer P226 and was in bad condition.
I walked away from him and to the helicopter. I waved for the Elements to hop in and they did so. “Steel!” I shouted towards Steel.
He looked up at me as he inspected the other Griffin’s gun. “Time to fly?” Steel asked as he ejected the magazine to the gun.
I began the start up sequence. “When you’re ready to get out of here.” I responded as I flipped some switches. I smiled widely when the rotors started to slowly spin. I turned back towards the Elements and pointed towards a small compartment near the Commander seat. “In that compartment is a bunch of headsets, if you favor your hearing you’ll put one on.” I reached over to the co-pilot’s seat and grabbed my helmet.
There was a soft thud and then some struggling. I looked back to see the Element of Loyalty trying to force the door open. “It’s locked!” She shouted as I put on my helmet.
Steel walked over and pulled the handle. “There’s a handle.” He said as he grabbed his modified headset. It had a little pull down sights that helped him aim. Steel hopped in and pulled the M61 Vulcan Minigun in front of him. I turned back towards my controls and continued starting up the helicopter. “Left gunner, ready!” I heard steel call out.
“Roger that!” I pointed to the door gunner’s seat as I flipped some more switches. “I need a right gunner!” There was a minute of silence before I turned back around. "Its not an option, either someone gets in the door gunner's seat of else we have a 75% chance of getting shot down."
The Element of Laughter quickly put a hoof on her nose. "Nose goes!" She shouted.
The Element of Honesty and the Element of Kindness put a hoof up to their noses. "Nose goes!" They shouted at the same time.
"I call the gun!" The Element of Loyalty said as she hopped in the gunner's seat. "Ahh yeah! Let's get this baby flying!"
I turned back to the controls and got back to the start-up sequence. I was about to take off, but Steel stopped me. "Twelve o'clock, unknown man." He said.
I quickly looked up and saw a black unicorn stallion with a red mane was running towards us. He was wearing a tan ballistic vest and had an M16 strapped to his back. "Wait up!" I heard him shout. I quickly shook my head no and continued to take off. "I'm with the Elements!" He shouted as he got close. I was already off of the ground when he jumped onto the safety rail and started to climb up.
"Two Bogies inbound." Steel called out through the radio channel. I quickly checked my scanners and saw that there were two fast moving helicopters converging on our position. "AH-6J, Little Birds."
"Hold Fire." I ordered as I got us a reasonable distance from the ground. "Wait until they fire first and then light 'em up."
Both helicopters came up next to us as I turned off the automatic hovering feature. The radio buzzed with static as a voice came through. "Unidentified aircraft, this is Monolith air units, you are in a restricted airspace and are to leave now. If you don't not leave, we will fire upon you." The Monolith? Who the hell are the Monolith?
"Do not worry." I replied through the radio. "We were just leaving." I quickly turned the helicopter around and pointed it towards the Badlands. I pushed forward on the stick gently and got us moving. When we left the boundaries of Canterlot the two Little Birds broke off and went back into Canterlot. I activated the radio and tuned back into the private channel.
"Monolith." Steel said. "I don't like them... something about them screams evil."
"Agreed Steel. Loyalty, do you know how to use that gun?" I asked. There was a moment of silence before I looked back. "The button on the side of the headset activates the microphone."
"Is it on now?" I heard her ask.
"Yeah, you're good." I responded as we crossed the city line of Canterlot. I checked the radar to make sure those Little Birds were gone... they were coming back at us.
"Yeah, just point it and click the buttons." I nearly facehoofed when she said that.
"Loyalty, have you ever flown in a helicopter before?" I asked as the Little Birds seemed to be getting closer by the second. "You know what Blueberry, just point it at the gunships and press the buttons. Steel, we got Bogies coming in on our five and seven o'clocks. Loyalty, get ready to gun these fuckers down. They wanna pick a fucking fight, we’ll give it to them.” I watched the radar and waited for them to get close enough.
I looked over at one of the bird to see ponies on the sides equipped with full military gear. One took aim at me. “LIGHT ‘EM UP!” I ordered and not a second later the buzz of the vulcans was all that could be heard. “THAT’S RIGHT FUCKERS!” I yelled as I watched the helo on my 9’s pilot and crew get ripped to shreds. “NO ONE FUCKS WITH THE REAPERS!”
“The Reapers?” Steel asked through the radio. “You named our little band of brothers after yourself?”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, you wanna be The New Equestrian Republic instead?”
“Sounds good Captain.” There was a moment of silence before Steel spoke up again. “We still going to Outpost Bravo?”
I nodded, even though he probably couldn’t have seen it. “Yeah, we’re stopping by checkpoint Bravo to grab the rest of the gear and then we’re going to got to Main Base and reboot everything.”
“Roger that.” Steel replied, going quiet for a second time.
I looked back at our little group and spotted the black unicorn talking to the Element of Kindness. He seemed to be calming her down about something. I activated my radio. “New guy, what’s your name?”
He looked over to me and activated his headset. “The name’s Jackson. I’m a Nightmare Operative, Luna's favorite one." The Unicorn stated with a smug grin.
There was a pregnant pause between us as I turned back towards the controls. "Where is the Goddess?" I asked.
"Somewhere safe." He responded. "Somewhere only I know."