Lunar Ops: Night Stalkers

The candy cannon sung out as gumball after gumball shot at the timber wolves ahead, PFC Shadow Centurion raced along the rural village of the Mustang valley with cannon at his side, recent timber wolf attacks were becoming more and more common and he and a small task group sent by Celestia were sent to negotiate a peaceful solution, if only that were true. Shadow unloaded a storm of gum across the wall catching a timber wolf in its tracks, the wolf struggled to get free of the gum to no avail. Night Blaze hopped down from a wall and killed the beast “27 kills so far, these aren’t as random as I thought” he said cutting the dead timber loose from the wall and tossing it in the fire, Shadow scanned the block for the next attack “did you hear about sunshine and buttercup?” he asked worried, “yeah, they found them hiding in a house trembling like a fillies” Blaze said sadly. A distant howl shot through the village followed by hundreds more, one by one timber wolves stepped out of every dark alley and house, “click-click-click” cannon sang as an empty paper belt fell “Celestia help us all” Shadow said dropping his cannon and raising his hooves, Blaze nodded and did the same, back to back they stood as the wolves circled

10 years later……

"Come on......for celesta's sake don’t screw this up!" a pony with a gas mask stated in fear. "you’re not helping, I wasn’t trained for this!” a colt no older than 18 snorted as he steadily lowering a card on top of a tower of cards. , he inhaled slowly and set the card down "there, ten decks of cards stacked in a tower in a reverse triangle. You can breathe now Tri.", Tri Fireworks set his gasmask down and backed away as if waiting for something "that’s odd, no, no pony has burst in with a mission” tri said just as Night Blaze shot through the door sending the cards falling to the ground, Stalker and blaze went way back to high school and joined the guard fresh outta high school. “What happened?”Shadow said as he lowered himself down from the ceiling, “nothing, nothing at all” he said as he wrapped his hoof in gaze and sat behind the bar in the break room. Night Blaze was Shadow centurions Lieutenant, from time to time he would take the occasional cheap shot with comedy in mind but that bothered Shadow little very little. Tri shrugged and put his gas mask away, Tri firework was a bulky stallion at the age of 25, not much bothered him but if it did you would never hear the end of it, Night Blaze called it “the 99er”

The alarm went off as she left slamming the door sending the tower of cards to the ground, the alarm blared and the ponies geared up, Shadow Centurion grabbed a rope, night vision goggles, and a stun rifle with a fresh magazine of weaponized muffins, Tri Fireworks stepped into his bomb suit, grabbed a tool kit, a gas mask, and a gumball cannon. Shadow Blaze grabbed a magic book, a First-Aid kit and a crossbow with grappling hook. The ponies galloped into the chopper and strapped in as the screen lit up and an old pony appeared "there’s been rumors of a changeling ambush at the wedding of the guard captain and his wife, you drop at the castle, secure any evidence of this and leave like a ghost." she said "changelings, really that’s an old mare’s tale." Centurion laughed, "tell that to discord, your boss and the cutie pox, one more word and you’re on watch tonight for double shifts" the old pony barked, Shadow Stalker, Shadow Blaze, and Tri Fireworks shuddered at what happened that day, Tri set up a sub-firework sandwich business at the base, Blaze locked up the labs with goldfish overlords and Stalker ran wildly through the halls at the front of a conga line of timber wolves. Bad memories aside the three dressed up as repairs men and were dropped off in the back , Stalker checked his comm. "Shadow to Blaze and Tri, sweep the top levels, basement’s mine"  they nodded and went their ways.

Shadow Centurion moved along the decrepit hallways cautiously with stun rifle trained, with each step he felt as if something was coming….something bad. He slowed to a walk and lowered his rifle for a second, just as something moved. The floor above Blaze and Tri were check for sign of tampering in the guards food supply, Tri opened the refrigerator and looked around, “OI! What are you doing with my sandwich” one of the guards snapped, “there was a……broken pipe in the wall and I need to fix it” Tri said shocked, the guard rolled his eyes and took his sandwich from the fridge “fine, but one bite out of this and you’re gone, got it?”, Blaze snapped at attention for a sec and almost saluted “YES SIR!.....I mean, yes I won’t eat your sandwich” the guard left and Blaze let out a sigh in relief.  As Night Blaze and Tri returned to searching there was a faint buzz in the distance, “Sir, you might want to get up here…….mares were telling the truth”. Suddenly Canterlot exploded with action, the pink bubble outside shattered at the might of a legion of changeling’s intent on a feast, Guards shot down the hall toward the throne room “we have a situation in the throne room, the wedding was a trap!” one of the guards shouted into his helmet, “boom time, you know the drill Tri” Blaze said as he opened his book and followed the guards, Tri nodded and grabbed his gumball cannon. Below Shadow was galloping for his life from a nest of changelings, he shot out of the cellar and into Night Blaze, “What happened cap, lose your flashlight?” Blaze asked as an out of breath Shadow Centurion stood up “A nest of……changelings are….in the cellar” he said out of breath “change ammo to sour candy rounds, that should leave them running”, “what about the town below?” Tri asked, Down below changelings were feasting left and right off of the ponies of Canterlot as screams and cries for help rang out below, “nothing for now, we can’t help them, you know the code: turn the tide from the shadows, it’s out of our hands and we have a priority, well help if we can later.” Shadow centurion grimly said with a sad gaze on the streets below

The three ponies galloped down the steps unloading on the oncoming hoard, Shadow Centurion, Tri Dynamite, and Night Blaze flicked on their flashlights and trotted the area clearing out changelings left and right, Changeling eggs littered the area and many more hid in a tunnel, “set the charges, ill push them back”. “How many are there?” Tri asked setting a sour charge at the center of the room, “too many” Blaze said leafing through the spell book for a barrier spell to hold in the blast “CONTACT CONTACT“, a voice shouted from down the tunnel followed by the sound of candy exploding as slimy Shadow flew out of the tunnel followed by a large swarm of changelings, Tri pinned the trigger letting all 200 of the sour gun rounds unload on the charging changelings. Shadow Centurion knew where this was going, “Fall back to the stairs” he ordered firing a muffin a changeling leaping at him. Tri kept firing as Shadow and Blaze climbed the steps, the door slammed the door shut, “BURN IN HELL YOU BUGGERS!!” a voice called from below, Shadow turned to see Tri Firework Slaughtering the changelings below. Shadow stomped at the door to no avail, it was locked tight. The Charge went off like a thunder clap and the two were thrown into the main hall “we need them gone, it bad enough….BRACE FOR IMPACT!!!!!” a mare ordered, a wall of purple rushed toward Shadow Centurion, Night Blaze and the mare , “this is it, see you soon old friend” Shadow weakly smirked as the wall rushed over him, Blaze lay on side under a beam and Shadow lay bleeding out with one wing under what was left of a door and a rod embedded in his chest, Shadow looked around as everything started going hazy