Starfall: Arisen

Flash Sentry was not enjoying his promotion.

As expected, his heightened status came with several changes. Most of which the stallion liked. The pay grade increase from second lieutenant to captain had given him a bit of flex room in monetary matters, whereas, the extra respect his peers gave him was a tremendous boost to his confidence. He wasn’t usually one to wave his dick around, but when you are given command of the nation’s third largest air fleet and the most advanced combat vessel in the world is your flagship, you can’t help but to let it hang out just a little.

Flash was once an unsure officer, barely capable of holding his unit together. One little incident had changed all of that. The day before he was scheduled to be transferred from the Crystal Empire to Canterlot a massive frost wurm, delusional from near starvation, attacked the city. Who’d have ever thought that the young lieutenant had it in him to rally a large group of disorganized troops on his own and coordinate a brilliant defensive effort to guard the palace and a daring, yet functional offensive. When the dust had settled, Flash Sentry’s command won them the day, resulting in an effective live capture and countless lives saved. After everypony was sure the situation was under control and Celestial Sisters had heard about his actions, he was promoted on the spot.

But on the other hoof Flash couldn’t help feeling like he got this job because eighty percent of the ponies around him were twits. They were good soldiers, that much was certain, but not a single one of the ponies with him had a lick of tactical sense. Was he really as smart as they claimed him to be or was he just the only pony who was willing to try something?

Shining Armor himself had been the pony who sent Celestia his recommendations, going so far as to personally vouch for Flash Sentry’s abilities. However, that was far in the past. Sentry figured that this new assignment was his trial-by-fire, and what a trial was. If he was being evaluated per operation, he’d already have be back on the line snapping salutes to his superiors. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. All that the brass cared about were the end results.

Push after push had either utterly failed or brought them so close to victory that when defeat did come it was akin to waving a bottle of milk in a starving foals face, only to replace it with ash ridden pickle juice. His repeated failure was likely the reason for the additional aid that was being deployed to aid his push into Asha’s territory. Ponies just weren’t meant for high altitude combat in constant subzero temperatures.

Dragon fire had delivered the message directly to his desk within the bowels of his command vessel, The Vision, about an hour ago, informing him that a Hero of the Starfall had been placed under his command and was inbound from Canterlot. Before reading that little piece of parchment, Sentry never expected that he’d be working with a human. If Celestia had managed to not only track down one of the world’s greatest heroes, but also go through the time and effort needed to convince them to get involved in this conflict then perhaps his fight was much more important than he thought.

Trotting out of his spartanly office, the stallion mulled over what he knew. His orders were solid, but the logic holes. He knew what he was looking for, an artifact from Equestria’s past that had been lost in griffon territory, but he understand neither side’s thinking. Why Celestia was just now going to collect it and why were griffon’s of Acropolis refusing to turn over Equestria’s property?

Flash Sentry sighed, absentmindedly traversing the steam pipe laden halls of the Grand Pegasi Airforce’s largest airship. Respectful bows and nods were traded as he made his way to the the top deck. According to the note, the hero was due for arrival in a few minutes. On one hoof, he didn’t believe it was possible to get from Canterlot to Skyllia in an hour, but on the other hoof, the Heroes were beings of incredible power. Legends of them claimed that they could do anything from soothing a nation, to commanding legions of shambling undead. So, he didn’t immediately write it off as impossible.

Once the captain passed through the doorway separating the interior from the open deck, he was instantly greeted by respect full salutes from several of the pegasi and unicorn working topside. “At ease,” he said, calmly trotting past them.

Even to this day, modern automated climate control magic amazed him. Even though The Vision was flying through a blizzard, not a single snowflake made it within ten feet of its hull. “It should be here any minute now,” Flash said to himself, staring out into the snow storm.

---*****---

Rattling metal and booming bass filled the inside of Roderick’s all black ‘98 corvette. While the white snowy filled whirlwinds coated everything outside with a fine layer of winter powder, adding just enough beauty and wonder to keep the repeating scenery from becoming repetitive. Both he and his wife, Andrea, were having a hell of a time together. They’d chosen to use this year’s savings to rent out a log cabin in Tennessee's mountains; it’d be like a second honeymoon at best, at worst the trip would still be a good getaway from the familiarity of Alabama.

In a single slick move, the black man flicked a panel up, revealing the LCD touch screen controlling his sound system and quickly programmed in a playlist. As a mechanic and tech expert, such a setup was simply for him to rig up. His wife help with a lot of the wiring as well, being an ex- combat engineer of corps, she had a quite a bit of pointers. He tapped the play button, and let the rest fall into place on it’s own.

Heads bobbed, matching the beat of a dubstep remix of Kid Rock’s Cool Daddy Cool There was no way the couple would let this chance to sing along with one of their favorite childhood movie, Osmosis Jones, pass them by.

Roderick’s favorite part of the song was approaching fast, he couldn’t help but let his voice drip with excitement. “Young ladies, young ladies, I like ‘em under 18. Some say that’s statutory...”

“But I’d say it’s mandatory!” Andrea finished, smiling brightly from hearing the goofy lyrics.

The music and company helped keep Roderick’s nerves steady. Tennessee’s mountain roads were notorious for rock slides crushing travelers. His wife’s voice was exactly the thing he need to make sure he didn’t fly off the deep end with worry. She had offered to drive those parts, but the man simply huffed and declined.

Roderick was broken out of his trip down nostalgia lane by some 18 wheeler’s annoying honking. The vehicle was coming up behind them much too fast and showed no signs of slowing either. “What the fuck is he doing?!”

“Babe, look!” Andrea pointed at the driver of the big rig. He was shouting and gesturing to their right.

Suddenly, it dawned on them to follow the man’s gestures and look to the cliff-face. “Fuck!” Roderick shouted, putting the pedal to the metal.

Boulders poured down the side of the mountain like beads of sweat rolling down an Olympic sprinters face. Each bump and bounce of a stone upheaved another, and that upheaval caused another, forcing a chain reaction of falling rocks creating falling rocks. It was like a constant barrage of thunder, drowning out even their music.

Andrea gripped her seat and one of the safety handles. Her eyes were locked on the rolling orbs of death coming for them.

An errant stone smashed into the road, missing by mere feet, and eliciting a loud yelp from both Roderick and Andrea. He turned hard to the left, the corvettes tires skidding along the ground as they struggled to maintain a grip on the icy asphalt. He chanced a look of out the passenger window to check where the boulders were. Immediately, he slammed on the brakes, his eyes wide with horror as the closest rock sailed cleanly over the hood of their car, had they been a few more feet forward, Roderick shuddered at the thought.

“Oh my god, Roder--” Before he could snap his head in Andrea’s direction, he was hit with enough force to slam him into the driver side door. His head smacked against the window hard enough to crack the glass, reducing his world to one of hazy lights and sounds of rending metal. A shrill cry was the last thing he heard before he was taken by darkness.

Frigid winds whipping across his face roused the man awake, but his body was racked with pain, while he couldn’t seem to fight away a strange weightless feeling. Opening his eye’s, he was greeted by the most horrifying sight he’d ever seen. To his left, hundreds of feet below and growing closer with each heartbeat was the ground, and his right, the unconscious form of his wife, boulders, and the bent safety rail their car had been thrown over. This was it, after being married for five years, they’d perish, together, because of a stupid rock slide. He wanted to rage at the christian God for forsaking him like this, for letting this happen, and for not sparing Andrea, but his voice wouldn’t work.

Shards of glass mingled with globs of blood and tears as the vehicle plummeted. Roderick stared blankly, having given up hope, he simply awaited the end. That’s when a strange red light made itself known to him. The odd wisp of light hovered over Andrea’s chest, silently calling out to her. Was it here to save her? He didn’t know, but it was her only hope and it just felt right that she have it. Pushing through the pain, he reached out towards it, eventually grasping the object. He tried to put it into his wife’s hand, but the moment he touched it, red light washed over him, warming both his body and soul. What happened next was all a blur and a flash of images. Him floating out of the doomed vehicle, the explosion when it hit the ground, and finally the tunnel to someplace else…

Roderick shook his head clear. Snow storms always brought up unpleasant memories of a past he just wanted to forget. To this day he still hadn’t figured out why he had been chosen over his wife. In the end it didn’t matter, he had been given a second chance and would live his life to the fullest.

Off in the distance he could see his target destination, The Vision. It was a massive airship built by a collaborative effort between the best pony and griffon engineers in both nations. He chuckled to himself at the irony of the situation. The vessel was built after the Skyllian- Equine War as a sign harmony that the nations shared, but now the ship’ cannons were being turned on the their designers and declarations of war were being sent.

Dialing back on the throttle of his jet pack, Roderick quickly reduced his speed down from hypersonic to a safe landing velocity. After orientating himself appropriately and flagging down the soldiers on the deck, he managed to touch down without a hitch. It wasn’t too difficult for him to spot Flash Sentry. The young stallion had been making waves in the news for a while now and Roderick was one of the more informed and down to earth heroes. A few of the naval mares and stallions recognized him, acknowledging the hero with bows, nods, and salutes as he walked passed them.

He towered over Sentry for a moment, examining the pony’s reaction to his imposing stature. The captain’s legs trembled weakly while his eyes seemed to struggle with maintaining the closest thing to eye contact they could manage, but the stallion refused to back down. Most wouldn’t have been able to pick up on it, but having have techno-organic computer for a brain and highly detailed visual capabilities allowed him to detect and analyze such minute movements. It was normal for ponies to fear him, all that mattered was that the pony in front of him was willing to stand his ground against a force that he had no chance of fighting against.

“Flash Sentry.” Was all the Roderick said.

He gave his guest a deep bow, “An honor to meet you in person. As you’ve likely heard, our forces have not been doing well on this front.”

“Then we have a lot to talk about.”

... But the Hills Have Eyes

From the peaks of Skyllia’s Skyverge Mountain range, Asha’s forward assault squadron watched the ponies’ solemn flight towards certain death. They appeared to have received backup, but it was only one unit. Perhaps a messenger.

I’ll never understand why the equines can’t seem to keep their grubby little hooves out of griffon affairs. You’d think that suffering loss after loss would be enough to deter them; you’d think that the frigid peaks of the Skyverge, separating our nations, would keep their muzzles stuffed up Celestia’s harmony dripping cunt, but no. The ponies continue to dance on our borders, ready to jump when that coward Salazar says jump! The Dracogryphon chewed over what both parties had to gain from this venture. No matter what the ponies claimed their motive was, it all came down to a single motive in Asha’s mind. Power. Celestia wanted to recover that stone from her lands because of the untapped magic within it. That was a weapon she would not give the ponies. She knew the history behind what she had.

Asha growled, releasing a small stream of fire from her beak. How trash like Salazar came gained power over his province completely eludes me. Her wings twitched, both in anger and restlessness. Way too much predatory blood flowing through my veins. Seeing all that meat coming to the grind house fills makes my heart skip a beat

Raising to her full height of six foot two, the hybrid stretched out her wings and popped the bones along her spine. Burgundy fur covered her body from neck to paw, while black draconic scales covered both of her forearms. Black markings made from the down-like feathers on her head framed a set of sharp, intelligent yes eyes almost drawing attention away from the two curved horns protruding from her head.

Ornate bronze colored armor with decorative red and bronze sashes protected Asha’s toned body. On her back rested a black and gold partisan. It was easily seven feet long, having to be mounted on her back at an angle to make the weapon carriable. Reaching back, she absentmindedly ran her claws along the shaft of the deadly weapon. It had been his gift to her, given with his last breath and on the promise that she’d keep their nation strong.

The crunch of someone plodding through the powder ripped her mind away from it’s current train of thought. Whipping around, Asha acknowledged her company. He was a young thing, barely out of the egg. She guessed that he was no more than twenty. He’d likely joined this campaign to bring honor to his family or impress the lord of his province, ie, me.

“Speak.” Her request came off much harsher than she expected, but it caught the young soldier’s attention well enough.

His ragged breath barely won out over the howling mountain winds. “Lady Asha, our forces are prepared to snuff out all pony interlopers over the Skyverge flats.” The kid sounded terrified.

Looking behind him, she could see her griffons finishing up the preparations for the attack. White tents were dropping quickly and soldiers were lining up in squads, being outfitted with repeater rifles and blades; each awaiting her word. Above their heads, three small Adya class airships hovered threateningly. Every rotary cannon and rocket pod swiveled and spun up, testing to ensure that the weapons would be ready to massacre Equestria’s forces when the time came. She popped her neck, relieving a bit of tension and sending the blood rushing to the rest of her body.

“Another day, another slaughter,” Asha whispered to herself

Meanwhile, Under the Ice of the Skyllian Tundra

A weak stream of frozen wind brushed across the bare skin of my neck, causing goosebumps to slowly stand up at attention. The sudden plummet in temperature sent a chill down my spine, shocking my addled mind into gear. “Gerald! Mishra!” I cried out, only to have my own echo answer me.

Where the hell was I and how did I get here? I wondered as my eyes fluttered open. Against my will, a weak groan escaped my lips. The noise echoed loudly, scaring the shit out of me for a moment.

From what I could tell, either it was night time and there were no stars-- Yeah, fat chance of that-- or I was trapped under something. The second seemed much more likely. You know, because of the echo. Wherever I was, it was colder than an Eskimos corpse and I doubted I’d survive much longer if I stuck around.

I tried to reach out in front of myself to get a feel for how much space I had to work with. Immediately, I noticed that I couldn’t move my left arm. Great! I was buried, lost, and injured! Let’s open door number two and see just what else the universe want to screw me with. And I swear, if it’s not at least seven inches long, brown, and attached to a nubian stud named Tyrone, God and I are going to have a falling out.

The second thing I noticed was that my right hand had hit something cold and solid.  Okay, that’s a start. I waved my hand around, hitting random surfaces all around me. Chilly, stuff with the texture of powder landed on on the bare skin over my collar bone. Barely a second later, I felt a cold sensation roll down the skin and between my breasts. Shit, that’s cold! In addition to giving me a fresh coating of goosebumps, that little experience let me know that I was buried in snow. This entire situation was fucking ridiculous. I can’t seem to remember what the hell I was doing a few hours ago, but I know I wasn’t out in a fucking blizzard.

Whatever. I wasn’t going to get out of this by bitching about the situation. “Buck up or shut up”, dad used to say. Guess it’s time to see if I’m a survivor or not.

---*****---

An hour… It took me an entire hour of clawing at snow to get free from that frozen death trap. And you know what? Fuck you universe! That’s what. Once I heaved my five- foot ten ass out of my snowy dugout, I realized that it was infinitely worse topside! Seriously, where am I? The top of Mt. Everest?

Now I found myself wandering through a goddamn snowstorm. Gaige the Mechromancer was not fucking dressed for arctic environments. Period. Yeah, I had a hood, but that’s really about it. I’ve got nothing to fight off the weather, striped leggings, a slightly tattered reddish skirt, a thin red shirt, and a dark grey hooded vest just weren’t cutting it,  and there’s no civilization in sight. Damn… This was not looking good for me.

My skin was coated in frost and I could barely feel my fingers and toes. I even stopped shivering… That’s good right? Who am I kidding? I’m going to fucking freeze to death in this wasteland. I mean, it’s not like that metallic clanging noise can help me at all.

Wait, what? My eyes and ears must have been playing tricks on my mind. In front of me, the snowstorm was slowly clearing up, revealing a scene that looked frighteningly similar to a battlefield. From what I could tell, two groups of aerial warriors were clashing head- on over some dispute. Flashes of light followed by puffs of smoke let me know that some of them were using guns, while others seemed to be firing off neon colored lasers!

My jaw dropped as I watched the winged troopers-- one side escorted by smaller menacing looking battleships while the other side seemed to mostly be defending their own airships-- battled it out with rifle- like firearms and motherfucking lightning bolts! The more I stared, the more off everything seemed. People neither had wings-- bionic or otherwise-- nor had we weaponized lightning. The hell are they then? If they weren’t people, where the fuck had I ended up to be in a position to encounter intelligent, non human life?

Falling forward, I barely managed to catch myself on my one good hand and knees. Darkness crept along the corners of my vision, the cold sapping my strength away with each passing second. Yep, that’s it. Game over, I lose. Tears poured from my eyes, freezing to my skin barely halfway down my cheeks. The only things who could probably help me were too far away to hear my cries and unlikely to give a fuck because they were too preoccupied murdering each other to save a life.

Not even a second later, a bright blue flash, accompanied by agonized yelling, broke me out of my self imposed pity party long enough to look up. The shouting was coming from one of the winged soldiers. I almost felt sorry for the guy. Lightning crackled around his body as he spun out. I could tell that his landing was not going to be fun. If I cocked my head and squinted, it really looked like the poor guy was going to crash right where I was-- shit! My mind put two and two together, but even with the resulting surge of panic induced adrenaline, my body couldn’t move fast enough to clear to impact zone.

An electrical pop, and the muffled slam of a body against fresh powder let me know that the soldier had hit the ground. I didn’t even have the time to brace myself for the burst of electricity that washed over me. Power surged through my body, locking my muscles and causing digital displays to flicker in and out of focus. I hit the snow face- first, hard.

My entire body screamed in pain. Burning bits of wooden wreckage rained from the sky, peppering my skin with shrapnel. I could feel myself twitch every so often, but the feeling was surreal; like being stabbed all over, but watching it happen from outside of your body.

One by one, the static-y images in in my view settled. Near the bottom of my sight range, was a digital compass with all the standard directional information, along with “Level 72 Legendary Anarchist” printed on top of it in block text. Off to the left of the compass, sat a quickly filling blue bar with a flame animation along the borders. It read “200283” once the bar was done moving and above it was the symbol for “Summon Deathtrap”.  A blue bar displaying “9/9” with a teal and pink emblem of a grenade next to it, occupied the other side of my vision. The last image to settle was at the top right. At the moment it was nothing more than a beveled teal square with a darker teal outline and a slightly different colored patch in the center, which was joined by a yellow triangle.

“Ugh...” No idea how long I stayed down, but did it really matter? Somehow I was alive. Shakily, I picked myself up out of the snow. The first thing that caught my attention, other that the HUD was that I could move my left arm. Next came the realization that I wasn’t freezing my metaphorical balls off. The electricity must have jump started all of my gear. For a moment, fury flooded my body as I realized what the sudden revitalization of my “injured” limb meant. My arm, my real flesh and blood left arm was gone! One more kick, in the face that the universe decided to send my way, I guess. What’s going on? How’s any of this possible? I felt my stomach lurch, the stress of my predicament finally catching up, forcing me to calm down, lest I lose my lunch.

Sadly, I didn't get the time to take those deep breaths that I needed. Have you ever felt like you just needed to check behind yourself? Well, the familiar spine tingle of my sixth sense went hit me with a vengeance, all but forcing me to chance a glance at where the soldier had crashed.

It was moving. The one fact was enough to replace my blood with ice water. Okay, there is no way that thing is a human. No normal person could survive a fall like that. Whatever it was, it looked hurt, seeing as it tried, and failed, to stand multiple times. I swallowed my fear, much too loudly, because both of us heard the gulped.

Two ears stood up at attention as it looked in my direction. At first it regarded me with curiosity, but after examining me for a moment, that curiosity turned into alarm, then to fear. I could understand where it was coming from too. Seeing what was essentially a dark green horse faced person was… well, creepy. Straw colored hair covered most of the human- horse’s features from view, only parting for the spiral horn jutting out from his forehead. A unicorn? This was incredible, a unicorn!

Standing, I slowly made my way over to the creature, holding my hands up too make myself look defenseless. It didn’t like that though. The moment the horseman decided that I had gotten too close for comfort, its horn lit up like a damn fog light. My chest was hammered by an invisible force, knocking the air from my lungs, but otherwise leaving me standing. Oh, god… Blue hexagons filled the edges of my vision, worsening my nausea.

The thing’s horn was smoking. It… It shot me… If I didn’t have my Firehawk shield, whatever it hit me with would’ve turned me into a splatter. My shield gauge quickly recovered the five thousand or so energy that saving me had required and flashed, indicating that it was full again.

We stared at each other; him in horror at fact that his little attack hadn’t really hurt me, and me enraged at the him for even attempting what he did. He sighed, resigned to his fate, but the look in his eyes said he wasn’t going to go down without taking me out first. Lowering his head, he prepared to do… whatever he did that first time again. But I wasn’t having that. I took off towards him like an olympic runner, my heavy footfalls tearing up the snowy earth beneath my shoes. I needed a weapon! Something, anything! Gaige’s hammer! And it was right where it should‘ve been, bouncing happily on my toolbelt.

I crossed the distance between us nearly instantly, scaring the shit out of the unicorn. The blast was fired prematurely, striking me in the knee. Instead of fighting to stay standing, I raised my hammer and let the momentum of my fall add to the damage my own strength would cause. The tool impacted his skull with a wet crunch, caving in bone and pulverizing grey matter as it went.

Pulling back, I wrenched my bloody hammer from his face. I’d always known that a hammer to the face could do some real damage but-- everything I’d eaten that day came up and spilled out of my mouth, leaving a multicolored stain in the snow. I would’ve stayed there, hunched over, sobbing and crying, had my focus not been drawn away from the corpse by the approaching sound of wingbeats. I took one final look at the dead horse- man- thing and noticed something new in my HUD right above the compass.

With the way things were going, I’d probably need those stacks sooner rather than later…