Shining Armor took a deep breath and checked over his gear; an M16 loaded with thirty rounds and two extra mags, an M1911 with thirty-two rounds, one fragmentation grenade and one stun grenade. “Alright boys, you all ready for this?” he asked to his team of four, standing anxiously behind him.
“You know it sir.” answered Flak Star as he chambered the first round in his G36c and flashed a grin.
The stallions burst through the patchy foliage and slid into cover behind some low walls and concrete slabs, their weapons at the ready. Shining spotted their first objective laying on the ground not ten feet away. “Sharp, get in position. The rest of you, cover me!” he yelled to his team and rushed forward to the hard plastic case. His squad watched the surrounding area attentively as Shining reached the package, quickly securing it to his back. He turned his head to them for a second and motioned with his hoof to move up.
The four of them moved up to the nearest doorway of the seemingly abandoned industrial building while Sharp-eyes stayed back to cover the narrow intersection with his Dragunov.
“Okay team, get ready to breach.” Shining instructed.
The stallions stacked up near the door; Blitz with his W1200 shotgun on one side, Stratus Fear on the other with his MP5 held at the ready. Shining aimed at the door, ready to face whatever was on the other side while Flak Star watched their backs. He gave the signal and braced himself.
A loud bang sounded as Blitz blew the lock off the door and quickly pumped another round into the chamber while simultaneously bucking in the door. At the far end of a long hallway was the first sign of their foe.
The changeling jumped in surprise at the sudden appearance of the guards, spraying bullets wildly at them with its Scorpion SMG.
“Return fire!” Shining yelled and fired off a burst from his M16.
Blitz and Stratus followed suit with shots of their own, but at that range, their fire was inaccurate and the changeling managed to evade it as it bolted into an adjacent room.
“Flak, you’re on point. Let’s move people, we’re on the clock!” Shining ordered.
The four of them moved into the building, Stratus and Blitz taking a moment to reload their weapons.
“Keep your eyes on everypony,” Flak muttered as he looked from the stacks of crates and machinery to the ceiling rafters “there’s a lot of places they could be hiding.
The rest agreed and moved with caution, their weapons raised in front of them.
“Objective is that-a-way.” Stratus motioned across the room as he checked his compass.
The four of them moved quickly and carefully to the door at the far side. But as they were about to reach the door, a black cylinder dropped between them. Shining had only to look at it for a fraction of a second before his eyes filled with panic.
“Flashba-“
The rest of his yell was cut off as a tremendous deafening bang and a blinding flash of light overtook them.
Shining and his team staggered around rubbing their aching eyes, falling to the floor and dragging themselves behind anything that felt solid, praying it would protect them as they recovered.
A spray of bullets zipped over their heads, blasting into the crates and ricocheting off the metal they hid behind.
“Fuck.” Flak cursed and quickly pulled out his smoke grenade. He threw it at the ground, covering the immediate area in a thick white cloud.
The gunfire continued and the hail of randomly sprayed bullets kept each of them pinned where they were, lest they get hit.
Finally the rain of lead stopped, allowing Shining to eliminate the changeling as it reloaded its heavy machine-gun. Three bursts perforated its torso and it fell to the floor.
In the wake of the confusion however, a second changeling dropped from the rafters into their midst. It leveled its M1014 vaguely at Stratus and emptied all four shots into the poor stallion.
Past the ringing in his ears and his blurred visoin, Stratus could feel the life bleeding out of him, but he wouldn’t go out without a fight. With the last of his strength, he pulled out his M9 pistol and shot as many rounds as he could at the changeling, one of them was a lucky shot and pierced right through the changeling’s skull, killing it.
“Stratus!” Shining yelled as he and the others ran over to their wounded comrade.
“Sorry guys… I’m done for.” Stratus managed to choke out before breathing his last.
Flak Star gave a winded sigh and gently shut Stratus’s eyes. He picked up his friend’s MP5 and extra ammo, slinging it across his chest, knowing he’d put it to better use now.
“Damn it.” Shining clenched his teeth. He took a deep breath and turned to Flak and Blitz “Let’s keep moving, we still have to complete the mission.”
They nodded, and followed him without another word.
Shining checked his compass as he, Flak, and Blitz marched down yet another dusty hallway littered with papers and overturned desks. According to the directions, they were closing in on the target, only a few rooms away.
Just then, a pair of gunshots rang out in the distance, followed by a muted explosion. There was a click of static as their ear radios sprang to life.
“Heads up everypony, you’ve got one of them headed towards you.” Sharp-eyes told them through gasps for breath “Careful… he’s got a grenade launcher!”
At that moment, a door was kicked open behind them and a changeling charged in, bleeding profusely from the spot where its ear was blown off. It turned to them with a wicked scowl on its face and fired a grenade which exploded into ceiling above them.
While Shining and the others were peppered with shrapnel and bits of plaster, the changeling charged forward while firing rounds from the hip with its AK.
Flak and Shining dropped to the floor and took cover behind a desk respectively, but Blitz stood in the open and met the changeling in open combat.
His first shot went wide, only hitting the wall. Blitz cursed and pumped in another round as bullets flew past him.
He fired again, this one hitting the changeling head on, but only enough to stagger it as the metal pellets impacted.
Blitz pumped in a third round and fired, but at that point the changeling was close enough to swat the barrel of the gun out of the way, giving a feral growl as it plunged its combat knife into his throat.
“Blitz! NO!”
The changeling was gunned down by Shining and Flak Star almost immediately, but the damage was already done.
“Foal of a-“
“Captain, we have to keep going.” Flak told him from a short way down the hall.
Shining gave a nod and picked up Blitz’s shotgun, reloading it and chambering the first round as he followed.
“It should be just down this way.” Flak read his compass. He looked up and kicked in the door to his side “Here!”
On the other side of the door was a huge factory floor with a ceiling that reached past the second floor. But you couldn’t tell that from all of the pods and egg sacks that were stuck to every available surface, dripping slime everywhere as their inhabitants grew inside. Not baby changelings mind you, but explosives; fungal pods that when mixed with changeling resin could produce an explosion big enough to level a city block.
Within this room of mass produced destruction, the two guards spotted their objective; a derelict fuel tanker parked in the center of the room. Shining adjusted the strap around his chest, the explosive still secure on his back. He and Flak shared a nod and proceeded into the room.
*Click*
Time slowed for that fraction of a second.
Both guards whipped their heads around to see the trip mine trigger and their eyes widened in fear.
“Oh… shi-“
“Get down!” Shining jumped backwards, grabbing Flak by his collar and pulling him as well.
The mine exploded and threw a wall of shrapnel at them.
Flak had taken the brunt of it, and was clutching his side as it bled from the multiple little holes in his skin.
Neither had time to recover though, as there came the distinct sound of hoofsteps from the hallway.
Flak got up and drew both his G36 and Stratus’s MP5. “Captain, the bomb. Plant the bomb.” He told him in a hard tone before he rushed out into the hallway.
Shining knew there was no way he could stop him, so he made the most of the time Flak could buy him, and galloped to the bomb site. With sounds of gunfire behind him he quickly pulled the case off his back, set it on top of the tanker, and clicked it open. Inside were a myriad of wires and TNT, all hooked up to a numbered keypad; all he had to do was punch in the code and-
“GAH!” he yelled as his right shoulder erupted in pain.
Shining turned around clutching his shoulder to see a changeling sniper standing in the doorway with its sights locked firmly on him. He reached for his M16 so he could shoot the bug before it could finish him, but with a loud bang and a clang of metal, the rifle was shot out of his magic field.
The changeling smirked and cycled the bolt on its sniper.
“Damn it.” Shining glared back at the changeling and ground his teeth, staring his death in the face.
A rifle fired with a loud bang… and the changeling sniper’s head exploded.
Shining looked off to the side to see Sharp-eyes standing in the window, triumphantly reloading his Dragunov. “Got ‘im Captain, you’re in the clear.”
Shining gave a relieved smile as he got up, but it was not to last.
Three shots rang out one after the other, a hole was punched through Sharp-eyes’ chest with each one.
“Not… quite.” A changeling hissed as Sharp’s body fell to the ground. It jumped over window sill and into the room, reloading its gold-plated Desert Eagle and spinning it in its hoof like one of those cowponies you saw in the movies.
Shining growled at the changeling as he and it circled each other.
It gave a manic grin and stuck its tongue out.
Shining quickly unclipped the grenade from his belt, rolled it across the floor at the changeling, and whipped out his shotgun.
The changeling dove forward as the grenade exploded behind it, and fired two shots. One whizzed harmlessly past Shining’s head, but the other found purchase in his side.
Shining grunted and fired a round from his shotgun. It hit the changeling in the hind legs, but the recoil hurt Shining’s wounded shoulder even more.
The changeling fired the rest of its five shots at Shining to keep him off balance while it lunged at him with its combat knife.
Shining managed to backstep the first swing, then use his shotgun to block the second.
The changeling hooked the knife around the body of the gun and tore it away as it moved in for the kill.
As a last line of defense, Shining threw up a hoof to shield himself, letting out a scream of pain as the blade was driven through it.
He quickly grabbed hold of the knife handle with his free hoof and pulled back.
The changeling wouldn’t relinquish hold of the weapon and twisted the blade in Shinings’s hoof.
Shining gave a kick to the changeling’s injured back legs as they struggled, followed by a headbutt shortly after.
This was enough to break the changeling’s hold on the knife, and with a lot of flaring pain, Shining pulled it from his hoof and dove at the changeling’s prone form with it.
The changeling put its front legs up as a shield, catching Shining’s attack.
The two struggled on the ground, the changeling able to use Shining’s larger size to its advantage and throw him beneath itself while avoiding the knife blade.
Shining allowed the changeling a bit of ground in their struggle, giving him enough room when he poured the rest of his strength into one final push, the knife blade puncturing the changeling’s throat.
Shining shoved the changeling off himself, retrieving the knife as it struggled on the ground and choked up green blood. With one final stab, he drove it into the beast’s core, silencing it for good.
What he didn’t notice when he got up, was the mischievous grin plastered on the changeling’s face when it died.
He did however, notice the small tink as a live grenade rolled out of the dead changeling’s hoof and onto the floor.
Shining’s eyes widened. “Shit shit SHIT!” he yelled as he scrambled to grab the grenade and throw it away.
He just managed to take it in his magic grip and flung it anywhere but where he was standing. But to his dismay, it hit a wall and landed right as his hooves.
“Oh, come on alre-“
The grenade exploded, tearing Shining Armor into a hundred little pieces.
The was a deafening silence in the Ponyville arcade as the crowd of spectators stood in disbelief.
Shining Armor and his team sat there with their jaws hanging out as the letters flashed across the screen: Royal Guard eliminated. Changelings win.
It continued on to show the score of 3 for their team, and 4 for the enemy team.
From the station adjacent to them, there were ongoing cheers as a short victory tune played from the speakers, the changelings giving each other high-ones and congratulating each other on their victory.
Shining and his team would not stand for it and stomped over.
“Martyrdom!? Freaking seriously!?” Shining yelled in outrage.
“And what’s with the juggernaut and noob-tubes?” Flak Star agreed with him.
The changelings turned back with identical cheeky grins. “Oh, are we complaining now? How about when you planted claymores everywhere? I mean come on, every time you were on defense you’d each equip claymore x2! Every. Single. Time.” one responded smugly.
“That’s a legitimate strategy!” Sharp-eyes yelled in their defense.
“Oh, just like hiding in the corners with a sniper rifle? You camping bitch.” One of the changelings countered.
“I can snipe like a pro!” Sharp pushed his way forward “Come on and one v. one me!” he shouted as his friends tried their best to restrain him “I’ll no-scope you into oblivion you pussies!”
“You know what I think?” one changeling chimed in “I think you’re just mad because you lost, and we won. Am I right guys? Victory dance!”
All five of the changeling then broke into a shockingly coordinated and synchronized routine.
“Pfft, whatever.” Shining scoffed “At least we won in real life.”
As the arguments between the guards and changelings over who was better at hardcore shooters and what defined legitimate and skilled gameplay strategy once again filled the rows of game machines, Cadence and Chrysalis sat at the other end of the arcade in the middle of a popular fighting game.
“There they go again. Do you think we should break it up?” Cadence asked with a bit of concern.
“Hmm, nah.” Chrysalis answered uncaringly as she continued to expertly mash the buttons on her controller “Let them throw their childish tantrums. Besides, if a fight did break out between Shining’s guards and my changelings, we both know who would win.”
“Shining.” Cadence answered with a grin as she looked over at the two groups, who were now screaming in each other’s faces about a rematch.
“Just keep telling yourself that.” Chrysalis said with a small chuckle as she pulled off a finisher.
“K.O.!” the game exclaimed “The winner is… Kirby!”
Cadence whipped her head back to the screen. “I… what? What!?” she blinked “No! I wasn’t looking!”
Chrysalis had trouble holding in her fits of laughter. “That’s your fault Cadenza.”
“You cheater! We’re going again.” She said flatly. “And pick someone other than Kirby.”
“I’ll pick someone other than Kirby if you pick someone other than Marth.” Chrysalis teased.
“Never!”
