Soldiers: Skyfall

"Mayday.....Mayday.....Mayday......Mayday........mayday...........Mayday..........Mayday........"
--Unkmow distress call heard neat Baltimare before fading out.

Date: August 9th, 1666 CC
Time: 09:43
Name: Dasher
Location: 12 blocks from Fillidelphia P.S. 43

“Come on!” Dasher yelled as the unicorn colt pulled his sister along behind him.

“Dasher slow down!” His earth pony sister yelled as she stumbled and tried to get her hoof free of her brother's grip.

“We can't stop here, Sparkling.”

“I'm tired and my hooves hurt….” She said finally getting her hoof free and coming to an immediate stop.

Dasher skidded to a stop and faced her. “Sparkling come on!” He said, trying to grab her hoof again. she yanked it away and clutched a small sheep plushie to her chest.

“Mr. Ruler looked hurt….we need to help him.” Sparkling said.

“No, we have to get home!” Dasher yelled trying to push the memory of what they ran by in the halls of the school from his memory….so much blood….

Dasher didn't know what was going on. All he knew was the emergency sirens had started going off and Mrs. Gram had been taking them to the school's shelter when these….things came out of nowhere and started firing their weird guns that seemed to shoot light at everyone.

Dasher had run as everything had fallen into chaos with students running in every direction and Teachers as well.

Somehow he had found his sister hiding under a desk in her classroom and they managed to make it out of the school.

They had been running ever since.

“We have to find mom and dad.” Dasher said, they'd know what to do….they had too.

The colt looked around where they'd stopped seeing the rows of houses, the one they'd stopped in front of had a large orange truck out front and various branches and other debris on the ground with no sign of the groundskeepers who’d been working here, most likely haven't run like everyone else.

The 11 year old could hear the sirens blaring through the city and distant gunfire but none of it was close so maybe they had gotten away and could rest a bit. He had been basically dragging his sister behind him as the 7 year old had trouble keeping up with him as he was bigger than her and they'd not had time to slow down.

He let out a sigh feeling how tired he was now that he'd stopped running. “Okay…okay we can rest here for a few minutes, but we need to get home and find mom and dad, okay?” He said looking at his sister who nodded still clutching her stuffed sheep. She didn't fully understand what was going on, just that something really bad was happening as she sat on the curb beside Dasher.

A distant explosion sent a fireball skyward causing her to jump and cling to her brother. “Wh-what's happening?”

“I don't know….just…some really bad monsters are loose in the city.” he said as he had no other way to describe them, he wasn't sure if his sister had seen them or not and he didn't want to ask and remind her.

As they sat there Dasher’s ear perked up at the sound of a branch snapping behind them and his head snapped around to see a massive 4 pointed claw reaching for them attached to one of the gray armored behemoths.

He yelled and shoved his sister out of the way as he dove the other way as the claw landed where they'd been sitting.

The thing had its weapon on its back as it stood back up. It had armor around its forearms around its torso and legs and a face mask and helmet that looked almost like some sort of gas mask.

It reached for him again and he scrambled under the truck to get away from it hearing something said he couldn't begin to understand but sounded like annoyance. He didn't have time to dwell on it as he got back from under the truck on the other side.

He then heard his sister scream and ran back around the truck to see her back against another parked car clutching her sheep in front of her eyes wide in abject terror as the thing approached her still not drawing its weapon.

Reacting without a thought Dasher picked up one of the branches in his weak magic and ran at the thing. “Get away from her!” he yelled and hit the thing in its armored leg so hard the branch snapped.

He was rewarded by the thing back handing him hard enough to send him flying into the yard and landing hard enough to drive the air from his lungs.

As he lay gasping for breath he heard his sister scream out his name and then more screaming as the thing grabbed her, picking it up in its massive claws, carrying the struggling filly as it walked toward the gasping colt.

A high-pitched sound pierced the air and there was an explosion of blue out the side of the monster’s neck causing it to drop Sparkling as it clutched the gaping wound in its neck and dropped to its knees making a sickening gurgling sound as it tried to breathe through its destroyed neck.

In second it toppled over and after a few twitches lay still.

Dasher managed to get his breath back enough to get up and rush to his sister who was curled in a ball crying clutching her plushie as he looked around to try and see who shot the thing but saw no one around, just the set of apartments in the distance that was several floors above the houses.

Dasher didn't have time to dwell or to try and comfort his sister, not with more of these things possible being around so he scooped her up and started running once more.