Secret Lightning [REWORK IN PROGRESS]

=====================SECRET LIGHTNING=====================

Well then, it’s been a while since I updated! To be honest, I’ve been trying things in an effort to improve my writing style, as when I look at my story, all I see is bland. I mean, that’s probably what happens to every author, artist, and so on, but still. I’ve been reading a story called “My Second Life” by Coal Buck, and I gotta tell you: it’s just awesome. It’s like any other brony in Equestria story, but with a good amount of brutal honesty. I think it’s what makes the story even better, because most stories are very delicate about certain subjects. This one holds little back. And I’ve been talking to the author, and he likes my story too! That means a lot to me actually. He’s a really cool guy, too. Also, I’m a big fan of the fanfic that just recently completed, titled “Not My Destiny”, and may add a couple references to it to show my appreciation. Keep in mind, there will be no direct plagiarism. Or plagiarism at all, really. Anyway, I’m done talking for now, if I remember something else I wanted to say, I’ll put it in the footnote.

=====================Chapter 16: The Reveal=====================

“What’s going on, Twilight?” for the first time, Matt was genuinely scared. The sky had been blocked out by some kind of living darkness, and a strange black fog had rolled in from the same direction, threatening to smother anyone not strong enough to push through it.

“I…I wish I knew, Matt, it seems we may have to postpone the errand and visit the princesses immediately. We should go there now. Everyone hold on to me!” she commanded, not leaving time for any arguments.

Everyone got a hoof in contact with Twilight, as they were all still in pony form, and waited. They didn’t have to wait long, her horn glowed brightly, then flashed a ball of energy around all of them, and then they were gone, leaving the letter laying on the ground where she once stood.

Being teleported was something Matt had never experienced before. Imagine yourself trying to cram a potato into a drinking straw. And I mean the WHOLE potato. Now try doing it with your entire body and flying through a never ending drinking straw at almost light speed. Now try doing it while holding onto a unicorn with your HOOVES, which you are very inexperienced with, along with three other ponies and a baby dragon, who are about as freaked out as you are. Matt was amazed he was able to hold on.

They were warping for what felt like hours, travelling through a tunnel of never-ending colors, seemingly changing and appearing randomly. Suddenly, a small circle of light appeared in front of them. They all appeared to stretch like a cheaply made flash video, and were sucked into the hole.

Immediately, they all tumbled out of the warp and onto the throne room of the princesses. They both looked rather shocked, and several royal guards moved to apprehend them, but Celestia, who recovered first, waved them off.

“Twilight, how did you teleport in here? The throne room is enchanted to specifically prevent that. I cast it myself.”

“Please, Princess, we can discuss that later. For now, there is an emergency, I got your letter and got us and who we’ve woken up so far here as fast as possible. I think I speak for all of us when I say: What exactly Is happening?”

Celestia sighed. “It is an old foe of mine, one I never expected to hear from again. It is called The Eternal, and it is related to The Nightmare, which was responsible for Luna’s…transformation after being imprisoned on the moon. But unlike The Nightmare, The Eternal needs a host body that is evil as well. Or at least, as it would seem, has a strong hate. The Nightmare does not need there to be hate, it creates it, but The Eternal is a much weaker entity and needs a fitting host, not just anyone. After Luna and I defeated it long ago, we figured we had seen the last of it. Apparently, it has finally found a suitable host body.”

“Well, what…what does it want?”

“It wants to rule. Over everything and anything. And unlike its relative, The Nightmare, it’s not afraid to kill anyone that gets in its way.”

Twilight stepped back a little, shocked by the news she had just heard. “But…what can we do about it?”

“Well, the Elements of Harmony are almost strong enough to defeat it alone, but not quite. The power they carry is very strong, but if The Eternal is to be defeated, it requires the amplification by two more rather talented unicorns, and maybe a third. You will notice, there are two ponies on your list that are not holders of the Elements. These are the other two that are needed. However, in order to guarantee that the Elements will prevail, we should add that third pony.”

Celestia’s horn glowed briefly, and a name added itself to the parchment with a small flash. Twilight stared at the name for a second, as if the words on the paper were trying to jump up and eat her.

“Princess…are, are you sure? After the incident in Ponyville a while ago, I don’t know if she’ll help us.”

“Trust me, Twilight, she will assist you. I have already sent a letter to Fillydelphia, where she is currently performing. She shall be here in about a day, provided there is still a world by tomorrow.”

“Now, having said that, you will need to go find the other three ponies and come back here immediately. Matt shall wait here, we have something to discuss with him.”

Twilight nodded, all the other ponies latched onto her, and they disappeared in a bright pink flash. Matt called upon his shape changing power, and morphed back into his human form.

“Matt, there is something I must tell you, and I will tell the others as well, but I feel they can wait till they have completed their task. You must be briefed as soon as possible. I’ll put it simply, to save time: you need to directly contact the host body The Eternal has taken in order to defeat it. You will not be able to do so without a fight. The Eternal, being that part of its power revolves around death, is able to create and command armies of the undead. Mostly skeletons and ghosts, but they are just as deadly as regular soldiers. And from what we predict, they shall soon be taking over towns and provinces, killing anything in their way. Luna and I can handle defending the other ponies, what we need your group to do is plow directly through the army and fight your way into the lair of The Eternal. We have traced its location to be inside a cave on top of the mountain, just outside of Ponyville. But enough of this for now, there’s plenty of time for briefing later, for now we must get you suited up and armed.”

She got up and led him into a room directly branching off of the throne room. Luna followed closely behind.

Celestia took no time in magically stripping Matt down to his boxers and undershirt. He blushed profusely. But it was not to last, as within another second, she had magically placed him inside a futuristic looking suit of armor. It was black, with a spandex underlayer that the armor itself was bound to. It looked incredibly heavy, yet it only weighed about as much as a pocket knife on him. The other thing he noticed was, the armor shifted and changed with his thoughts, as if he were able to control it. He thought for a second, experimenting, and the glove on his left hand shifted and moved away from his palm, allowing a gout of fire to come barreling out. Matt smiled. Perfect.

“While The Eternal may have armies of undead, we have one thing on it-technology. This suit is the latest thing we came up with, being virtually impervious to damage and controlled by the thoughts of the user. Of course, we will be giving one to each member of your group, but yours is…different. It allows for easy use of your powers, can amplify them, and modify itself if necessary to comply with whatever you are doing. All suits have a built-in camouflage feature, that can be remotely enabled or disabled by the thought command of the user. Also, all suits are self-repairing, that is, IF you manage to damage them. There is also an accompanying helmet, but we shall save that till after we get you some weapons.”

She walked over to a huge cabinet with a hole in the middle of the door, unlocking it with her horn. Inside was the biggest array of weapons Matt had ever seen. She picked a shotgun off a hook. Matt recognized it as the Remington 870 with carbine stock, flashlight, and door breaching muzzle. Celestia turned and handed it to Matt. It looked a little different up close, like it was radiating some kind of dark energy, and it was a lot lighter than it should have been.

“This gun is powered completely by magic, and never needs to be reloaded. It has one of our latest achievements, being a battery of sorts that contains infinite magic. It will regenerate any used ammo instantly. All you have to do, is pump, aim, shoot, repeat. Now we also have two other things for you.”

She turned back to the cabinet and produced two swords, one large broadsword, and one smaller, thinner sword, for close-quarters combat. She gave them to Matt as well, strapping both to him.

“There, I believe that about covers the weaponry, your powers should do much more than these weapons can. Now, for your helmet.”

She placed a helmet that looked exactly like a motorcycle helmet on his head. It was completely black, the visor wasn’t even identifiable. As soon as it was on his head, the helmet shifted and shrunk a little, conforming to his head. A pneumatic hissing noise could be heard as the helmet sealed. An HUD appeared in Matt’s vision, informing him of his current health state, position, and his entire surroundings, in full 360.

“Now, this helmet can analyze anything and everything within a 30-foot range, forward or backward. And I mean ANYTHING. It has a sealed internal environment, which is climate controlled, by the way, as is your suit, and features cameras and sensors linked by magic to us, so we can see what is going on at all times. Your hearing is protected by sonic sponges, which will seal if the decibel level reaches damaging range. It is also linked with your suit, and also capable of camouflage, as well as thermal scan, x-ray, infra-red, and any other scan you can think of, all powered by thought-control. As you can see, technology like this is centuries ahead of anything any of the ponies themselves have, so please try not to lose anything, although everything does have an emergency remote-destruct. Oh, and it sounds like your companions are back.”

Sure enough, the gang was back, though this time with Applejack, Lyra, Colgate, and Trixie. They all appeared very scared.

“Princess!” Twilight cried out. “The…the town, there’s..there’s skeletons and ghosts everywhere, killing everything! We stopped to help defend a little, the town has it pretty much under control, thanks to quick thinking, but we did lose a few…..” the ponies all bowed their heads, in memory of those who were lost in the effort to seal off the town from the army.

“This is not the time for mourning, this is the time for action.” Celestia interrupted, surprising everyone. “We shall have a memorial for all our lost at a later date, but right now, I need all of you to come with me. Now, human forms, please.”

They all changed into human forms, even the three new ponies. It was then that Paige noticed Matt. “Who…who are you?”

Matt realized he must look pretty intimidating in an all black suit with black helmet carrying swords and a gun, so he concentrated for a second. The visor on his helmet hissed, popped out a little, and slid up, revealing his face “It’s me.”

“Oh, Matt!” Paige cried as she sweeped Matt into a crushing 'death hug' “you’re going into battle? You…you can’t! stay here with me, we’ll figure something out!”

She was interrupted by a cough, and turned to look at Celestia. “You are all going into battle with him, you are needed to help put an end to The Eternal. Now please, come with me.”

Paige reluctantly let go of matt, and followed Celestia into the armory room. Matt stood guard in the throne room, putting his visor back down. A royal guard came in intending to inform the princesses of something, but when he saw Matt, he turned tail and BOLTED out of there.

About half an hour later, the entire group of nine came back out of the armory, dressed in suits and helmets very similar to his. Their weapons, however, were different.

Paige had a large katana with strange markings engraved on it strapped to her back, and a custom 1911 pistol with wooden grips and similar markings strapped to her side. The other eight had a combination of M4A1 Carbines, Heckler and Koch MP5Ks, and UMPs. For side weapons, Twilight had a knife made from a modified bayonet and a .50 caliber flintlock pistol. Rarity had a tomahawk with a small heart cutout, and Colgate had a Glock 17 in a side holster. Also, Lyra had an H&K MP7A1 strapped to her back.

“They have already been briefed, Matt, so that is covered also. I will send you a plan of attack as soon as you get out into the field. Now go, please, before more ponies have to die for The Eternal.”

They all grouped together, and, with Matt leading, Paige directly behind him, ran out the doors and towards the battle. In their helmets, Celestia sent them one message:

“Give ‘em hell”

===================END CHAPTER 16===================

So, as you can guess, next chapter’s the big battle scene! That one will take much longer for me to write, and probably be close to 3,000 words. But shit’s about to get real! And for those who catch my references, the weapons are a reference to a really cool movie I saw a while ago, “Sucker Punch”. And as for the helmets, a reference to my favorite book series, Artemis Fowl. Now, there are a few more stuffed in there that I won’t spoil, you’ll just have to find them for yourself. Also, I still really need cover art for this story, I don’t intend on using that stock photo of lightning forever. Check my latest blog post titled “chapter 16” for details. As for contacting me, I’ve put the link to my facebook page in the last two chapters, or just PM me here on FIMfiction. Later! Thanks for reading!