Pov Damien

As we walked into the throne room, I was amazed by the sight in front of me. At the far end of the room were two individuals. One was a dark blue with both wings and a horn. She wore a similar dress that had a moon symbol stitched onto the material. Her… mane? I think that’s what they called it. It was a darker blue with what looked like stars in it. It seemed to have flowed with the wind. Only there was no wind. That only confused me.

Next to her was another woman who was slightly taller. She had pale white fur with an almost rainbow colored mane. She had a golden dress with a symbol of the sun on it.

As we entered, they both gave us a very curious look. Either it was a raised eyebrow, or widened eyes. The room was completely empty of any guards to our surprise. The room itself had glass paintings all along the walls. As I got a closer look I could tell that on most of these stained windows were twilight and her friends. They seemed to have done quite a few things before we got here.

Natasha was very entranced by the stained glass and was about to queting them, until a loud ‘AHEM’ broke us all out of our observations. We looked back at the far end of the room to see the two obvious rulers. One of them stopped the look, and smiled to us.

“Welcome to Canterlot. I must say you are not what I was expecting to come back from Twilights little break.”. The taller white one had said. Her voice was very soothing. It was almost like my mothers before she…

“My name is Celestia. Princess Celestia.”. The all white one said, her voice never leaving her. “And I am princess Luna.”. The blue one said. She gave a slight bow. Why would she give a bow? I decided to wait to say something because it was Natasha had a higher rank than me to do so.
“I am lieutenant Natasha of the Timber wolves Platoon.”. She said dryly. It was pretty obvious that she was tired of explaining things. I can understand that. She’s had to repeat that line far too many times for me to count. That’s including back where we came from.

“We have never seen soldiers such as yourselves before.”. Princess Luna said. I wanted to tell her ‘you have no idea’. Though I kept that to myself. Luna looked at me for a moment with a raised eyebrow. “What does thou mean by that?”. She simply asked, while looking in my direction.

I was taken back a few paces. ‘Did I say that out loud’ I thought to myself. The two princesses giggled for a moment. “Not you did not say anything out loud. We can read minds.”. Princess Celestia simply said with a smug grin while looking at the man next to me. “I’m flattered you would think of me that way.”. Was all she said as she giggled. The man next to me began to sweat. “Rodgers… go wait outside.”. Natasha said with a very unamused voice. The said soldier walked out of the room with his head down, almost like he was about to cry.

We heard the throne room doors open and then close. “Now that that's out of the way.”. Natasha said. “I think Twilight can explain things better than we can.”. She continued. Twilight approached. She was a little uneasy, but she was more than willing to explain things to the princess.

“Wait! Princess I think it would be best if you searched through my memories.”. She said. Celestia shrugged as a response and started a strange spell. For a few seconds there was silence until the spell broke and celestia, was out of breath. She looked calm though. She looked our way. She gave a smile.

“What did thou see dear sister?”. Luna said. Celestia did the spell again and used it on Luna. when it was finished, she too looked like she had something planned.
“On behalf of my country I would like to thank you for defeating those monstrosities! If you didn’t kill them they would have taken over the entire sea.”. Celestia said.

“We were only doing our job. To protect and serve.”. I spoke. They smiled once more. “Please forgive us but how much experience do you have with these ‘Arachnids’?”. Luna asked.

Natasha was about to answer but she came up with a different idea. “Why don’t you see for yourselves with that fancy spell of yours.”. She said. The two princesses seemed to like this idea. “That sounds like an excellent Idea. I am afraid I do not have any energy left in me to do the spell but we have a crystal ball that will let us all see your memories.”. Celestia explained.

“Fine by us, as long as no one gets hurt by it, hehe.”. Natasha said. Shining armor looked excited to see how other kinds of war happens. Or something like that. Twilight and her friends, as well as Celaeno looked both excited and nervous.

Luna used some of her power to pull out a large table, some chairs, and a giant ball that was at least half my size. “This is a larger ball, so everyone can see it.”. Luna explained. We all sat around it. We didn’t exactly have a choice. “Because this ball is so big, only one of you can use it.”. Luna explained to us.

I felt Natasha’s eyes fall on me. I had just as much experience in the war as her but she was in here longer. She was clearly nervous about it so she was probably going to use me as a guinea pig. I nodded my head in understanding to her.

“Ok just do it.”. I said. The princess just gave me a smile. “Reach out to it and you will relive a random event.”. A random voice said. I wasn’t to sure who had said it because when they said reach out to the ball, I saw black

---------- Klendathu strike

I was inside of my dropship. It was my first battle. More or less my first assignment. Me and my group were supposed to be helping to push a leading strike against artillery bugs about half a mile ahead of where we were landing.

A red light switched on. I cocked my marita rifle and waited for the doors to open. They opened very slowly. When they were open I rushed out with the strangers that I called allies. We were all cocky. We all had an itchy trigger finger.

As soon as I was outside of the dropship I could see nothing but blue. It clogged the night sky. I could see explosions in space, and as soon as I did, I began to run forward with the rest of my comrades.

We ran for about five minutes until we made it onto a large hill. I was at the top row of the soldier and I could peak my head over the ledge. Massive beetle like bugs were in the large clearing ahead of us. They had several legs and they swelled up their backs to fire plasma into space.

I continued to look at their size in shock until I was yanked down by another soldier. The moment he pulled me down, two nuclear explosions came from the plasma bugs.

The explosion lasted a few seconds before we were all able to climb over the ledge. “FOLLOW ME!!”. A man cried. There were many war cries that followed suite. I crawled to my feat and I began to run with everyone until a hand was pressed against my shoulder. I looked to my right to see my younger brother Jacob. He was a mute with blonde hair. He gave me a thumbs up, and I did the same to him. We began to run down the hill, side by side for another few minutes.

As we entered a canyon we were met with an arachnid warrior. It hissed in response to seeing us. I immediately started firing my rifle, while Jacob did the same. Other troopers who were behind us began to fire at the bugs behind the warrior that had finally died.

We had wasted over half of our clips on that one bug, and before continuing we reloaded. We advanced, but were faced with several more bugs.

Limbs and blood were splattered all over the canyon walls. An arachnids legs flew off and impaled itself straight into the side of another warrior causing it to screech. I laughed at the poor bugs expense.

We continued to advance through the canyon when we got radio contact.
“General Retreat! General Retreat! The bugs are tearing us apart! Back to the boats!”. The radio yelled. Not wanting to defy orders, we began to run.

As we backtracked one of the guys in the back fell to the ground dead. He had a scorch mark on his back and blood oozed from the wound. I red fiery bolt zoomed past us and it impaled another trooper. We looked upwards to see a rocky looking bug. It had a shell all over its body, and it had useless jaws that most likely would have at least broken a limb.

It fired a strange projectile that killed another trooper before we killed it. We began to run out of the canyon, all the while we were being shot at by those bugs. More and more of our troopers were blasted down by them, and they were very well camouflaged with the darkness and the canyon walls. Eventually it was just me, Jacob, and a handful of other troopers.

We had made it out of the canyon and into the clearing where we killed those plasma bugs. My eyes widened in horror at what was in front of me. Troopers were running for their lives as they were tripped and stabbed to death by bug.

Some of the soldiers were being pulled into a group, and they were ripped apart like they were nothing but a piece of meat. Jacob brought me out of my shock and helped lead me where everyone was running. I looked behind me on occasion to shoot whatever was running at me.

I would normally be shooting the limbs off of an arachnid warrior, while Jacob helped me out. We had reached the top of the hill with some effort. A bug had nearly reached us but we were able to gun it down. I was out of ammo now so my gun was useless. I dropped it so I could run a little easier.

Jacob still had some ammo left, so I let him take the lead. The boats were in sight. Some troopers were cheering us on to make it to the boat. I felt praised. Just as we were about to reach the boat I heard a screech. I turned my head to the left to see a bug rushing at me.

Before I knew it I was thrown across the clearing. I felt nothing for a moment. I looked down and my eyes were wide. My left arm was gone. A large shadow appeared over me. I was in terror as the arachnid warrior began to ram it’s tendrils into my body. There was nothing but pain.

I heard the sound of bullets cracking,and the arachnid moved away from me and died immediately. Jacob stood over me. He looked scared, and worried. He grabbed my right arm and pulled me to my feet. Whether I wanted to or not, I had to move.

Jacob slung my arm over his shoulder and we began a slow walk to the boat. Just as we made it, another bug came. Only this one went for the distracted one. Jacob was pulled away from me and I fell to the ground.

Some of the other troopers pulled me into the ship. They didn’t fire their weapons because the boat doors were closing. The last thing I saw before falling to the darkness was Jacob’s leg, and arm landing inside of the ship just as the door finished closing.

Real world

I came to my senses. I wiped my face of any remnants of sweat that I had. I looked around the table I was seated at. Everyone had a different reaction. To what they had seen in my memory. (I relived Klendathu so I know what they saw.)

Applejack was fighting tears.

Pinkie had her hair deflated and softly let her tears down.

Rarity was unconscious. No surprise there.

Fluttershy had completely lost it in wailing. I had expected Pinkie to Lose it the way Fluttershy did though.

Rainbow had tears in streaming down her face while she had a look of awe.

Twilight was slack jawed. She was completely lost in whatever she was thinking of right now.

Celaeno sat there staring at me with sadness.

Celestia and Luna were both Nodding their heads at what they had seen.

“I take it your tactics had changed after fighting them?”. Luna asked.
“Yes ma’am. That was the Klendathu strike. It was our first fight against the bugs. We didn’t know their weak spot at the time.”. Natasha explained.

“I see.”. Celestia said. She seemed saddened by what she saw, even though she was impressed that we could hold our own.
“I have a proposition for you.”. Celestia said.

“We have a problem with these ‘arachnids’ in the badlands. If you can exterminate them, you would all be very well rewarded.”. Luna continued for Celestia.

We didn’t need to think about that answer. “We accept.”. Natasha said.
“Although you must allow us to rest for a few day and to resupply.”. She added. Celestia and luna nodded their heads. “We will handle your resupply. We have a spell to multiply your items. Such as your ammunition. We will handle it, you just relax for a few days.”. They explained.

I looked at the elements to see Twilight with a slack jaw. “YOU MEAN WE HAVE HAD A THREAT IN EQUESTRIA AND YOU DIDN’T TELL US!!!”. She yelled at the top of her lungs. I felt as if my ears were ringing.

“We didn’t have what we needed to combat against them at the time young sparkle.”. Luna said. Celestia looked towards us. “I will have maids show you to your individual rooms.”. She said. She clapped her hand twice and what looked like an army of maids appeared.

“Please take our guests to their rooms. Ms Caleno, will you be staying with us?”. Celestia said. Caleno nodded her head. “Very well, will you also show Caleno to her room. I will have a guard go to your ship and fetch your crew.”. The princess explained.
I was escorted out of the room, while all I could think about was reliving Klendathu. Natasha knew that thing was gonna do that. It could have made me relive any other bad battle but Why Klendathu. I guess its just the world trying to f**k with me again.

Author's Note

sorry for the long wait. school has been on my top priority, and we now have 8 people living in this house including me. I haven't gotten a lot of time to write so I really hope you all like this. let me know if it feels rushed.