Chapter 1: A Bloody Chain Welcome
Canterlot Castle was in ruin. Tirek had returned, stealing all the magic in Equestria. The three alicorn Princesses sat before him, magicless and defeated. “What have you done?!” The Centaur shouted. Or not as defeated as you would think. “Where is your magic?!”
“Somewhere you will never find it.” Celestia stated, her voice sounding weak from exhaustion. Tirek growled, then grinned maliciously.
“Well then, no need to keep you around.” He used the magic he stole to create a portal. “Give my regards to Cerberus.” The beast lifted the Celestia, Luna, and Cadence into the air and threw them into the portal, closing it behind them with a laugh.
However, he made a mistake. The portal was not set to Tartarus, but rather somewhere far worse.
It was dark. That was the first thing Celestia noticed as she woke up. The sounds of nocturnal animals filled the forest that surrounded them. She looked around, looking for signs of… something.
A groan from Luna got her attention. “Luna, are you alright?”
The princess of the night groaned again, rubbing her head in hopes of killing the headache she had. “I wish.”
The two looked around, but they could barely see anything. They almost didn't see the unconscious form of Cadence on the ground. Celestia was about to go over to her niece when several metallic clicks went off behind her.
Celestia turned to see several creatures holding what appeared to be small cannons in their hooves (claws, paws, etc.) The apparent leader, a female Cheetah in mismatched clothing, grinned devilishly. “Well, well, three beautiful mares all alone in the big scary woods.” She pointed her small cannon forward. “Hooves where I can see them, and no magic now.”
This is not good. The sun princess thought as their kidnappers tied up their wings and chained their hooves. The group then “escorted” them out of the woods into a large, disgustingly damp prison cell in a dilapidated old fort.
“Release us at once fools!” Luna shouted as she banged on the cell bars. The two guards that sat nearby at the exit of the hall looked ready to shoot her.
“For fuck’s sake!” One of them, a large zebra, shouted. “Shut it before I make my balls do it for ya!” His buddy, a scrawnier looking frog grabbed him on the shoulder.
“Don’t.” He whispered. “Boss wants them untouched this time, more money from Ishtar.” The zebra growled. He was ballsy, but not ballsy enough to fuck up orders from the boss. Still, it was going to be a long night.
“Jesus, I fucking hate guarding this fucking gate.” A large bear growled as he stood next to a large gate. "We do this all the fucking time." His buddy, a curvy caribou, rolled her eyes.
“We do not.” She groaned. This wasn’t the first time she heard this bear complain.
“Yes we do.” He turned and pointed toward a cluster of vehicles, all looking torn and barely runnable. “Look, see, there’s Jerry sitting there, know what he’s doing?”
“Guarding the trucks.”
“Exactly, he gets to sit on his fat ass while we have to stand here and guard a fucking door.”
“Don’t you ever stop complaining.” The bear laughed sarcastically, then turned back to look at his companion, only to find her dead and a slim, white cat standing over her with a bloodied knife. Her gray uniform, if you could call it that, did little to hide her feminite body. He was about to call out, but the knife that slit across his throat made it hard to do so, especially when he started choking on his own blood.
The person responsible for the slit throat was a black and red fox in light gray military overalls and a red beret. He shook his head and waved his free hand in the air. Several more creatures, ranging from dogs, and cats, to a large, burly stallion, appeared from the trees.
Jerry, the fat ass sitting in the motor pool, climbed out from the truck and ran toward the door of the concrete building that served as their base. He never reached it as the cat aimed her silenced sniper rifle and placed a silent bullet through his head.
The fox pointed at the door and pulled back his hand into a fist. Three soldiers understood the order and ran up to the large metal door. The lead member, a duck with an eye patch over his left eye, placed a limpet charge on the door. The three ran behind the cement columns away from the door as the timer ticked to zero.
There was small explosion that woke many of the sleeping slavers up. They immediately ran to the armory to get their guns. The female cheetah grabbed her gold M1911 Pistol from her special case. “If it’s him, we’re fucked.”
The soldiers on the outside looked at the door. The lock was blown off, but the door still stood. Just as the soldiers expected. The three near the door pulled out smoke grenades while a fourth aimed an anti-tank rocket gun at the door. The soldier pulled the trigger, sending the rocket flying into the door. That opened the door, by blowing off its hinges and sending it flying several feet into the room, where several slavers were waiting. A second later, smoke grenades went into the room and exploded, filling the doorway with thick, white smoke.
The slavers aimed at the door, anxiety covering their faces. Several footsteps could be heard, along with a metal clanking. A very large figure could be seen coming through the smoke.
“Kill this bastard!” Every single gun went off at once. Hundreds of bullets impacted against the figure. The bullets could be heard bouncing off the figure, who just stood there and took the fire without flinching. The gunfire lasted a couple of seconds before all the slavers’ guns clicked empty.
A raspy laugh could be heard coming from the smoke. The clanking footsteps returned and out of the fog revealed a large minotaur covered in armor, with a very large Maxim machine gun in his hands.
The large metal door behind the slavers slammed shut, as their compatriots in the other room locked ten of them out.
“Goodbye, folks.” The minotaur said before he opened fire, killing three instantly. Some reloaded and tried to fire back, but the armor was too thick. Two tried to open the door, but it was futile. One slammed on the door, crying for help before he was cut in half by the amount of bullets that lined across his back.
Inside their cell, the three princesses, with Cadence awoken by the explosion, could hear the carnage several rooms away. Their guards quickly locked the metal door and readied their shotguns. “Auntie Celestia.” Cadence asked. “Are they here to save us?”
“I hope so Cadence.” The sun princess said, uncertain.
There was a few seconds of silence before there was another explosion, followed by screams and gunshots. There was an intense banging on the door. “Open the fucking door!” A voice could be heard slightly over the sounds of slaughter. “Open up you pieces of sh-!” The creature on the other side would never be able to finish that sentence, it shouldn't take a genius to figure out why. The amount of bullet that could heard hitting the door made it obvious what happened.
There was more intense silence before the door was bent out of shape by an explosion. The dent knocking the lock off. Both guards readied their weapons and trained them on the door. The door opened to reveal the same white cat. The two guards immediately relaxed.
“Oh thank god, it’s a cat.”
“Yeah, we thought you were the sentry.”
The cat smirk devilishly. “I do believe I’ve just been insulted.” In an instant, two knives appeared between her fingers, which she then whipped into the skulls of the two guards. “All clear!” She called out.
Three seconds later, the red and black fox came in, laying his thompson machine gun over his shoulder. “Good job.” He said.
“As always.”
The large brown stallion rolled his eyes at that as he walked in. “Show off.”
Their conversation was interrupted as the red and black fox walked up to the cell with the three princesses inside. Said princesses had a mix of reactions. Cadence backed away in fear, Celestia was shielding her as a result, while Luna looked ready to impale him on her horn.
“So this is what they were guarding.” He muttered before turning to the others. “Veronica, you’re with me.” The cat nodded. “Dex, guard them until I get a medic in here to check them out.” The brown earth pony sighed before nodding. “Let’s go.” The fox and cat left, leaving Dex alone with the three prisoners.
The cheetah was not happy, far from it. Her base was overrun, her troops were dead, and now he was here to kill her, she knew it was going to be him because the soldiers outside refuse to go in. “Shit.” She said under her breath. She never saw this coming, she didn’t imagine being alone in her office with soldiers outside guarding her until their boss comes in and kills her. “How did it all go wrong?”
“You fucked me over, that’s how.” She looked at the door to see the red and black fox standing there, his gold M1911 pistol in his paw. “Sit.” The cheetah obeyed, sitting in her chair at her desk. The fox sat in the chair across from her, his eyes never leaving hers.
There was a long silence.
“You know how this is going to end, Sue.” The fox said. Sue nodded. “We were friends, comrades.” They both looked at her golden M1911, the pistol given to every surviving member of their unit, along with the golden shotgun that hung on her wall, and the silver thompson slung over the fox’s shoulder. “You did this to yourself Sue, is this how you honor what they died for, by being a slaver?”
“I didn’t want this, Jo!”
“Bullshit.” The two pointed their pistols at one another. There was more intense silence. Both waited to see who would pull the trigger. They both sat down, lowering their guns as they did so.
“You don’t know what it was like for us, after the war.” Sue said tiredly. “We couldn’t find work, this region was a safe-haven for us. We had work, money, food, how we got it didn’t matter to us at this point. We all suffered for nothing for them, we were so desperate.”
Jo sighed, “Sue, I’m here to give you a choice.” He offered a hand forward. Sue looked at it, then her gun. She sighed before putting it in the offered hand.
Once he got it, Jo immediately removed the clip, making sure to leave the one bullet inside the chamber, before setting it back on the table. “You can either shoot me and die from my soldiers, or you can kill yourself, have some dignity.” He said, leaning back in the chair. “None of us will judge you.” Sue stared at the gun for what felt like an eternity, then she picked it up.
“Thanks Jo.”
The fox smiled sadly. “What friends are for right?” He got up and walked out of the room. Leaving the cheetah alone with the gun in her hand.
Veronica waited near the entrance, getting slightly impatient. When she saw Jo, she stood up straight. “Well?” There was a loud gunshot from the office, followed by a thud.
“She took it.” The fox said simply before turning to the soldiers about to head inside. “Give her a proper grave and funeral.”
The two walked off as the soldiers carried Sue’s corpse out of her former office.
Author's Note
Yes, this is a rewrite. All of my older stories are going through it. This one has the change in character species, some gear changes, and a down-graded scale. But the main core of the story remains the same.
Let me know what you think of these changes, and hope you enjoy.
See ya on the battlefield
