The midnight stood over the Canterlot. Aristocratic ponies were sleeping under their lovely roofs and a protection of their princesses. Princess Luna had been stepping in her duty for awhile now. She rarely tired, rarely complained. Especially in this night, it was lovely, filled with stars and beauty, but something was not right.
Princess Luna frowned. She looked at the vast Equestria before her on a royal balcony. The princess sisters had been ruling over this land for many centuries. They had overcome many foes, many crisis. They might lose all hope or defeated, but together with other ponies, they always triumphed at the end and ensued the peace of this land. They had met so many friends, many enemies. Princess Luna let out her breath and looked up into the sky above.
Unlike any night, the moon was clearly cursed. The lunar eclipse shone over the earth with eerie moon light. Fear spread across the land, trembled even the deepest heart of the princesses. Evil breezes blew around Luna, but the bad omen did not budged her. The princess of the night took a deep breath, tried again to repel the cursed moon. However, no matter how hard she tried, it was backfired on her. The dark Alicorn cried out, tried to catch her breath. She growled. Out of her mind, she recharged her magic and cast a spell again.
"Stop, Luna!"
The night princess stopped. She turned around and found her bigger sister is there. The sun princess embraced her younger sister, tried to comfort her. After Luna had been settled down, Celestia let her sister go. Luna gathered herself and talked to her sister.
"I’m sorry, sister.” Luna said, “ I failed..."
"It's okay, Luna" Celestia said. "this is not your fault."
"Celestia, I-.” Luna said. "I can not do anything to stop this. The calamity is certain. Our land is in danger."
Princess Celestia frowned, nodded, "I'm aware." Celestia said.
"Sister, we have to stop this!" Luna said, stared at Celestia, "There must be a way to solve this. Our subjects, other princesses, the Equestria, their fate is depending on us!" Luna halted, begged her sister with her eyes. She said. "Sister... I need you. Please, help us."
Celestia closed her eyes, silenced. Luna waited for her sister to answer, hoped the princess of the sun will find the way. In a flash of her thought, Celestia awoke from her meditating and looked at the horizon.
"The tides of time is moving, sister." Celestia said, "Let us hope and pray."
The outer cosmic space of Equestria, a pure white obscure sanctuary stood still, withstood for millenniums. The sanctuary was contained with stone pillars and a magic circle at the middle, surrounded by an enigma velvet space cut it from the outside world. Despite the event outside of its mystic space, the sanctuary effected by none as it will be the same for eternity.
However, this was finally proven wrong. An earthquake abruptly interrupted the sanctuary.
The glimmers had gone. The pillars responded and glowed. A beam of light shone upward from the pillars and a falling star fell down to the circle. Six glowing souls raised up from the dustless floor and the sanctuary was violently shaken. The enigmatic space around was waving. The souls were floating and settled as the earthquake stopped. The silence returned.
The pillar glowed once again and created a path from the shine to a magical door. The souls were flied out through the path and went through the opening door. After the soul left, the entrance sealed. The sanctuary soon returned to its tranquil state and continued to flow its mystery.
Roach awoke. A cold floor was beneath him. The sergeant felt like he was sleeping for hundred years. He raised up, tried not to spinning around the world that is changing around him. The sergeant peered around with his bad eyes, found all of his equipment was missing. His outfit was changed to his tactical urban suit. Roach also looked a bit different. He found himself to be a realistic cartoon character of himself. Roach felt lost. However, his fury was not. After he could keep himself together, Roach decided to find out what is going on around him before thinking about his business. The surrounding gave the sergeant a clear hint this is not the Earth.
"The Course"
Day 0 - (Time unknown)
Sgt. Gary 'Roach' Sanderson
(K.I.A.)
(Location unknown)
Roach was not a really good religious person (He had to kill people in his job after all). He had expected himself to be in hell, not a fairly peaceful and enigmatic place. An endless navy blue space filled with glowing dusts similar to a painting of universe was surrounding Roach. The sergeant walked into the endless space, left a capillary wave upon each step he had taken. No matter how far he went, he could not find the end anywhere. Roach felt like he is walking on the same spot. He stopped, looked around for any clue about this place.
"Greeting, brave soul." the voice echoed from the space. Roach flinched. He stood back by his instinct and looked around, but nobody was there. "We have to sincerely apology for rudely interrupting your eternal slumber. We wish and respect for your soul to rest boundlessly, but not in this dire necessity."
Roach did not speak to the voice and kept his eyes for a potential attack.
The voice paused, then said. "We are aware you are upset and need an explanation, but we are afraid we do not have much time." Roach heard a door open. He turned around, saw a magical door is opened for him. "Enter the first trial, brave soul. May the celestial spirits protect you."
Roach frowned. He had been used to with being bossed around by his superiors a lot, but not with a random stranger. However, Roach later entered the door after he had found no other way. He stood in front of a military course is slowly conjuring out of thin air. A translucent obstacles was glowing, waiting him to test his capability. The door closed behind Roach. The translucent ground below him was shaking and cracking. Roach knew what is coming.
The sergeant sprinted toward the obstacle course, jumped over translucent barricades swiftly. Roach climbed over walls, darted through gabs, rolled in a hole in order to heading toward a golden shining square at the end. He went through a crushing floor and slipped through another gab, then stood on the square perfectly.
"Very impressive." the voice said. "Make haste, brave one. The next trial awaits."
Another translucence course conjured in front of Roach. He was rewarded with an odd earpiece, his knife, M1911, a packed-a-punched M4A1 with Red Dot Sight attachment, and extra magazines, plus flashbangs, grenades, flares and C4s. The trial was obviously a mere shooting course. However, it was different from one back home. Translucence enemies were conjured inside the course and started to shoot at Roach. He swiftly took cover, dodged incoming laser bolts, and proficiently shot back. He took out his targets one by one where the enemies had little changes to stand again the sergeant. After all visible targets had been neutralized, Roach ran into a translucence building in front of him, headed toward a glowing square nearby.
Roach kicked a door open. He entered and checked the room through his gun sight. He walked around carefully, kept listening to his surrounding. He kicked another door opening and was startled when he saw a translucence unnatural equine sizes as a foal is frightened by him. Its big eyes had stared at the sergeant, before it ran away and disappeared.
Roach frowned and thought, but quickly interrupted by a hostile ambush. Roach was shot and fell down, but managed to fight back and took his target out. Roach rubbed his burned wound and got up, continued to move toward the exist. Before the sergeant had completed the course, he encountered more equines and foes, accidentally shot two equines. The injured equine had yelled at him before disappeared. Roach stood on the golden square and were reward with equipment - his rappelling gear with ropes and ice axes and a skeptical heartbeat sensor strapping on his arm. A door appeared in front of Roach. He went through and found his 'cartoonified' teammates are leaving from another door. They all worn an urban outfit and armed with their packed-a-punched signatured gun.
"Ghost!?" Archer called. "Roach!"
Archer and Toad reunited with Ozone and Scarecrow, then Ghost and Roach. The one-four-one members greeted each other, felt alive to see their teammates again. The voice interrupted, appeared to be pleased.
"We are overjoyed to see you all make it here, brave souls..." the voice said. A golden door conjured in front of the team. They were reward with gold and silver coal of arms. The voice continued, "The time is precious and short, but we can not leave you there without a reason."
The team looked at their coat of arms. Their heartbeat sensor showed a digital map with a red dot few yards away. Their position were marked with a white dot and their teammates with blue dots. The golden door slowly opened, showed an eerie forest behind. Evil breezes was blowing through the door. An unwelcome feeling built in the team mind.
The voice said, "The front of you is Equestria - it used to be the land that knows no grim. But now, the curse has found its home here in this realm." Rotten leaves were blowing through the door. The voice continued, "As our duty to cease the disaster, we have detected through our meditation that the soul who powered the curse is related to you six in one or more ways. With this cause, will the Equestrian looking for and destroying the soul and you all is a matter of time..."
"Good to know." Ghost satirized. "So, what do you want from us, then?"
The voices paused, then said, "We are aware of Equestrian's fear for an unknown, but we do not. As our being, we believe your guiltless can be proven." The door was creaking. The voice said, "We shall be talking about other matter later. You can communicated wit us through the tablet on your arm. We shall guide you."
The heartbeat sensors were shown a glyph icon on the top right. The voice said, "Now, our time has come. You must make haste to the mark. Hurry... we do not have much time here..."
The voice vanished. The team looked at the golden door and each other. Ghost stared at the outside, stepped forward without any fear or hesitating.
"Task force, move out." Ghost said. "Follow my lead. We will head to the mark."
The team headed toward the door. Ozone said. "Ghost, what is your call?"
Roach readied his gun. Archer and Toad tidied their ghillie suit. "Forgot what what the old man said. His wish is not our concern. We must focus on ourselves." Ghost said, "However, if the old man said the truth, we might be targeted by his kind and one of our teammate might be somewhere beyond this door."
The team was welcome with a strong gust when they were approaching the door.
"First of all, we must find out what is going on out there." Ghost said, cocked his gun, "Stay low, mate. We don't know what we are going to encounter."
The team went through the door. It closed behind and faded away. Leaving behind the enigma space, darkness was slowly consuming while a vile chuckling was echoing through the black void until nothing was not longer be seen.
The wind was blowing against the team. They stepped in a jungle that is straight out of the world. The team scanned around. They had an uneasy feeling toward everything nearby.
"Forestwalker"
Day 1 - 09:47:32
Sgt. Gary 'Roach' Sanderson
Task force 141-6
Everfree forest
["Ghost here, reporting in."] Ghost called in his comm.
["The signal is clear. All copy, over."] Ozone and Scarecrow replied.
["The comm is clear."] Archer and Toad replied.
"Very well. the comm is fresh." Ghost said, looked in his tablet on his arm. "Our target is nearby. Remember, we must find our possible missing teammate and search for intels. If the old man is correct, our tablet can lead us to the target, or else, to our doom, so keep your eyes open."
Ghost cocked his gun. "Follow me, the mark should be nearby." Ghost commanded.
The team moved out. They went through the woods, kept themselves well-hiding and watched out for critters. A grim sky above was mostly blocking by the forest. Faint lights shone through leaves enough to see what is going on. They approached toward the mark until they reached an edge of the forest, looked at an impossible comical terrain far away and close by. The sky was damned by the dark sun and a vile atmosphere. The team hid in a shadow of the woods and bagan to scan the area.
A heavy fortified settlement was n front of the task force. They spotted familiar equine guards are patrolling and stationing towers. The fortification was made out of woods and reinforced by iron bars. The equine guards were well-armed with medieval weaponry like swords, bows, shields, but collectively had an discipline as conscripts and militias. Ghost looked in his tablet. The mark was in the north side of the settlement.
"Archer, Toad, get in your position." Ghost commanded.
"Roger." the recons replied, moved out to find an observation point.
Ghost and the rest of his teammates continued to observe equine guards. Most of them had no different from an armed civilian, but still blessed with courageous, ambitious and high morale. The team kept waiting, silently watched the equine guards. The equines were talking, unaware of the task force nearby. Many of them were quite cheerful, unfitted the ambiance.
["Snipers, in position."] Archer and Toad reported.
"Copy." Ghost replied. "Archer, give me the sitrep."
["The garrisons are plenty. Without cookies, we got nothing."] Archer reported. ["They are mostly fresh, straight from their home. Some tricks should work fine, but should not let our guard down."]
"Good." Ghost replied. "Keep your eyes open. We need a further investigation."
["Understood."] Archer said.
The snipers kept looking through their scopes. They scanned the east side of the wall, spotted two equine guards are carrying a big pot of soup. Archer kept his eyes on their routine and made a mental note.
Accidentally, the equines spilled their rations all over the place. Panic soon ensued. The equine guards slowly made a fuss out of their spoiled meal. One of the mint equine guard, who is responded for spilling the pot, tried to be explaining how the soup is lost, but another cream equine guard, who was helping her carrying the pot, appeared to be very angry. The mint equine guard was panic, randomly pointed her hoof around and appeared to be trying to make more excuses.
["Sound like a big trouble."] Archer said.
In other hand, Ghost moved with other teammate around the forest, sought for an entry way. They discovered a canal heavily covered with reeds, but the culvert at the wall was blocking the way. Ghost shook his head, continued to look around the fortified settlement.
"I said again," Lyra said. Her armor was clanking. "It was an accident!"
"I'm sick of your poor excuse, Lyra." Bon Bon said, knocked her helm annoyingly. "I told you to be careful with the food, and now, there go our food - right down in the drain."
"Please, Bon Bon! I'm sorry." Lyra said, begged her friend with a puppy face, "You should understand me the most."
Bon Bon sighed, shook her head. "You're always acting like a foal, Lyra." The cream mare said, sighed, "Well then, we should ask Applejack if she had any spare apple food. We have to keep our ponies well-fed after all."
Militia ponies mumbled, but collectively agreed. Many of them complained their meal had been delayed. Lyra beamed, thanked her friend for forgiven her and the backup plan. Lyra and Bon Bon went down from the wall, told the guard to open the door, told them they need to go to the Sweet Apple Aces.
The door had opened and let the duo mare go out the wall. It had been awhile since Lyra and Bon Bon had left their peaceful life behind to serve their homeland - like many other ponies in Equestria where things are going down hill. The sun and the moon had been losing control, as well as the weather. Ponies now had to depending on their personal magic to grow their food, set their own schedule and figure out how to fix their sun and moon. Many equestrians collectively agreed the crisis will move on as usual, but when they started to doubt it when the strange phenomenon is not going to anywhere, and royal calling for militias made thing clear that this is no joke.
Lyra had some troubles to keep up with Bon Bon in her armor. It was dark and eerie even it was in a midday. Still, Lyra and many ponies (like Pinkie Pie) was still cheerful and bloomed. The mints pony reached to her candy bar inside her armor, ate the treat to soothe her hunger.
"Lyra, please." Bon Bon said, "We didn't have time to eat a snack here."
"C'mon, you sound like my mom now." Lyra said with her snack in her mouth.
Bon Bon flashed her grin and shook her head. The duo headed toward the Sweet Apple Aces - unaware of their surrounding and stalkers.
"Where are they going?" Ozone said.
"Probably patrolling. Follow their trail." Ghost said. "Archer, the dolls are heading to the west. We have to check where the hell they are going. Relocate to their next check point, out."
["All copy, over."] Archer said.
"Squad, follow me." Ghost commanded.
The equines headed to the west, occasionally interacted with each other. The team tracked them faraway from a shadow, kept the equines in sight. The orchard were found to be their destination and the task force quickly sneaked in and hid outside of a red barn. Roach kept himself close to a window and hid behind a create. He heard somebody is talking from the inside.
"...it's alright, sugarcube." an unknown person said, she had a faint Texan accent. "We may not have many apples as before here, but ah'm sure Granny Smith will sure understand."
"Oh, thank, Applejack." another person said, "We own you this time."
"Nah, it's nothin'." the Texan woman said, "C'mon, Apple Bloom, Let's see if we have apple pies to spare."
The team waited until people inside left the room. Under Ghost lead, they quietly get in the barn without anyone noticing. The barn appeared to be a living house. Every furniture was fairly small or uncomfortable for a regular person. Pictures of apples and colorful equines could be seen around, but no single human was in sight.
["What is this? ...A Disney playset?"] Ozone said.
["Everything here is playset,"] Ghost retorted, ["with a hellish ambiance."]
The kitchen caught no interest from the team, so they moved out. They sneaked in a storage room where they heard something have walked in. The room was filled with baskets of apples and creates, perfect for the team to sneak and hide.
"Here, y'all can have this." the Texan woman said. The team looked around, but no person could be seen anywhere. An orange equine tapped its hoof on a crate and put a basket of apple on a cart. The orange equine said, "If y'all have any trouble, just tell me."
"Thank, Applejack." the cream equine said. "I know we can be depending on you."
["That's explain it,"] Ozone said, ["for their ridiculous name, mostly."]
"Applejack, how long do we have to do this?" the small equine said, "I miss the school already."
"Aw, mah sister." the orange equine said, "Ah'm afraid we can not do anythin' right now, but ah'm sure the princesses will find the way."
"We should got to ask Twilight." the small equine suggested.
"Sure, sugarcube." the orange equine said, "Ah will goin' to deliver the food afternoon with Big Mac. This time, ah believe Twilight can figure out what is goin' on to the sun and the moon."
["The delivering?"] Ghost said.
The orange equine tapped on one of two big creates and said, "Here the food supply for Ponyville fort. This apple food products can keep every pony well-fed for three months just in case of blockade or emergency." The orange equine looked and admired the created. "Normally, these food supplies are for an upcomin' winter, but this is an exception."
"Is it fine for doing that?" the small equine asked.
"If Twilight said so, then yes." the orange equine said. She tried her best not to showed a sadness in her voice.
The orange equine hugged her sister. The team slowly moved around the storage room and got a close look on the big creates. Ghost looked at his teammates and pointed at the creates. Ozone and Scarecrow nodded, carefully moved closer to the create and inspected it in the shadow.
"Archer, we have discover a food cargo will moving in the fort next few hours. Rendezvous at the red barn in the orchard in the west." Ghost said.
["Roger, coordinate confirmed."] Archer said.
