The three villains sat around the warmth of the campfire, remembering their best moments of when they each took on the Princess of Friendship and the Element of Harmony.
Those were the days for them. All three of them.
Tirek, Cozy Glow and Chrysalis were their names and they were the only villains left in Equestria that hadn't succumbed to friendship and reformed. And after months (maybe years) of plotting, brooding and Celestia knows what else, they were all reunited by a legendary tyrant from the past, by the name of Grogar. And after King Sombra was defeated after refusing to work with him, the three agreed.
However, more months passed by during their stay with Grogar and the ram didn't make them do anything, wearing down the trio's patience. In fact, they took out their impatience on each other, which got on Grogar's nerves. And before long, he sent them on their first task.
They had to retrieve the Bewitching Bell from the top of Mount Everhoof. Seems easy enough, they thought. They were wrong.
Despite Cozy's idea of working together (and Grogar's original order of doing so), the three split up and tried to climb the mountain on their own. However, try as they might, all three failed to make it to the summit. Well, only Chrysalis and Cozy tried. Tirek set up a camp and waited for the other two to fail and come back, so he can use the information they learned against them and make the climb.
When Cozy returned, the two got into an argument. And the sounds of their arguing attracted an Ophiotaurus to their location, which then attacked them. Luckily, Chrysalis came onto the scene, disguised as a female Ophiotaurus and drained the attacking creature of its love.
With the threat of the Ophiotaurus gone, the three villains then sat around the campfire and discussed all of their best plans. Which brought them closer together and they started to respect one another. And when they discussed Discord and how Tirek used the draconequus against the ponies.
"You should've seen Twilight's face when her friends appeared in bubbles around me. She was all..." Tirek stated, before making exaggerated groaning noises and morphing his face in different ways. Cozy and Chrysalis then both let out quite a bit of laughter.
"She's so stressed out all the time," Cozy added.
"When I posed as her former foal-sitter, I thought she was going to implode!" Chrysalis joked, sparking more laughter from all three of them.
"I wish I could've seen her face when I nearly erased all the magic from Equestria," Cozy stated.
"All magic was a little excessive, don't you think?" Tirek stated.
"Eh, I think big. Besides," Cozy replied, before switching her tone to be darker and continuing, "it would've been worth it just to see Twilight and her friends bow down to me!" The filly then smiled evilly.
Tirek joined in on the evil smirking with his own grin and said, "Indeed it would. Who wouldn't love to see those prissy ponies realize they lost everything?"
Then, Chrysalis then shapeshifted into Princess Twilight and then said mockingly, "I'm a pathetic pony princess! I made a detailed list of all the ways I'm a failure!" This caused Tirek and Cozy to burst out into laughter. Chrysalis transformed back into her own form.
Once both of the villains recovered from their moment, Tirek then spoke up. "You know, working with you two may not be the worst thing,"
"Perhaps... as long as it results in the complete destruction of our enemies," Chrysalis agreed.
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Cozy stated, before quickly saying, "Do the pathetic princess thing again!"
Chrysalis agreed and shifted back into Twilight and did the 'pathetic pony princess' routine again, much to Tirek and Cozy's enjoyment.
However, once Chrysalis had finished the routine and shifted back, there came a massive roar as another Ophiotaurus emerged from a nearby bush, rising up to show its size. Chrysalis and Tirek immediately got into a fighting stance and moved to protect Cozy.
They didn't really need to. That Ophiotaurus wasn't roaring as a show of strength or hostility. No, that Ophiotaurus was roaring in pain. Seconds later, the creature went limp and fell to the ground, dead.
All three villains were confused as to why the Ophiotaurus just attacked them and then just died.
"Umm, is it just me, or did that creature just die in front of us?" Chrysalis asked, confused beyond all recognition.
"No, you're not the only one seeing it," Tirek replied. Not knowing what to do next, the three approached the body. Cozy slowly trotted up and poked the corpse, just to make sure that it was truly dead. Surely enough, the body didn't move.
"Yep, it's dead," Cozy said to the others. But before Tirek and Chrysalis could let a sigh of relief, the changeling saw something off next to the body. Something that one with sharp eyesight could spot at that distance.
Chrysalis could see the light coming down through the trees and... reflecting off of an object crouching near the dead cow-snake hybrid. In fact, the object (or rather creature) was somehow reflecting the light around it, creating some sort of optical camouflage. And the creature also appeared to be in the form of an equine.
And before Chrysalis could call out and demand who was watching them, the equine then stood up fully and moved towards the three. And as soon as it took one step forward, the camo shut off and the reflecting light was sucked away, like a blanket being pulled off a mannequin, revealing the equine. He was dressed in a military uniform and equipped with gear that Chrysalis didn't recognise, all of it camouflaged in jungle colours. The heavily-tinted sunglasses and bandana (or whatever it is called) eliminating any hope of the equine being identified. However, the lens on the left was bright blue and displaying information to the wearer that the three villains couldn't read. And in the grasp of his magic, was an ACR assault rifle coloured in jungle camo, equipped with a Tac Scope, a 3-Round Burst Trigger, Dual Mags, a Vertical Foregrip, an Under-Gassed gas system, a Heartbeat Sensor, a Suppressor and an Extended Stock. On his back, was a similarly-camouflaged AKS-74u Personal Defence Rifle equipped with a Magnified HWS, a Full-Auto Trigger, Standard Ammunition, a Vertical Foregrip, an Under-Gassed gas system, an Aiming Laser, a Muzzle Compensator and an Extended Stock.
But once this equine was close to the three, he stopped and took off his sunglasses and pulled off his bandana, revealing blood red changeling eyes, a unreformed changeling shaped muzzle and two fangs coated in dried blood.
Upon seeing these features, Chrysalis froze in shock and disbelief. It.. it can't be... She thought, as she stared at this very familiar changeling. Then, her thoughts were confirmed, when the changeling smiled at her and said, "After all this time, I have finally found you, my love,"
This was a turning point at this moment. Chrysalis then rushed up to and embraced the changeling, before locking lips with him. And just as she expected, he retuned the embrace and accepted the kiss.
After a while, the two broke the kiss. Chrysalis just stared into the changeling's eyes. And Tirek then broke the silence. "You... know him?"
Chrysalis just smiled.
Later...
Grogar's Lair
Grogar stared at his crystal ball, the image of his bell centred in the yellow glow. His eyes fixated on the magical instrument, his mind rampant with thoughts of him finally reunited with it and spreading chaos and fear throughout Equestria. How he wished that those three could work together and get him that bell.
A loud pounding at the entrance of his lair shook him from his thoughts. But just as he got up, the door came crashing down and the three villains entered after the door.
This was confusing as heck for Grogar. They had never ever done something like this before. Whether it was to annoy him or show their strength, he didn't know which reason it was. But the ram knew that something was up.
"Oh, golly. We are very sorry about the door, Grogar," Cozy apologized, with a sense of sarcasm in her tone.
This made the ram frown. They had never done what they had just done before. And he didn't feel any better when Cozy then suddenly gave him a evil smile...
Author's Note
FYI: The image I linked to Akula's Ghost uniform is shown to fit a human form. Just imagine that uniform fitted to an equine from, without gloves and boots (specifically, a changeling form). Or, if you are a good drawer, you can draw it and send the link to the photo to me (please)?
Also, the weapons you will see in the following chapters can be created in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier without any mods needed. So, if you wish to recreate the guns from this story, you may do so (But you will need to have unlocked quite a lot of stuff to do so).
Also also, I cut the chapter short because I wanted to. There was going to be more in this chapter, but I didn't feel like making more on this chapter.
Hope you enjoyed the first chapter.
07:19:03
Northern Equestria, South Crystal Mountains, Our Town
The lone convoy moved through the quaint little town, catching the eyes of many of the citizens who lived there. All of them horse-drawn carts, with closed fabric canopies protecting whatever was inside. But the carts were all surrounding a massive stagecoach, in a defensive convoy. The stagecoach was so big that it took an entire crew of four to pull it, with just one pulling the smaller carts.
Inside the smaller carts, were a whole bunch of mercenaries of different species. They were possibly hired to protect valuable cargo that was in the stage. The area they were in was known to be full of trouble. If the convoy reached Canterlot, the Crystal Empire or any other major area, they would be fine.
The convoy quickly passed through the town and headed into the mountains to the south, near Neighagra Falls. Following the lone mountain road, dust kicking up behind the wheels, the convoy turned around a corner on the road. But as they rounded the corner and followed the road down towards a clearing, everything went wrong. All of a sudden, the front cart was suddenly hit with a barrage of arrows, killing the ponies driving the cart and the driver of the cart. This spooked the driver of the second car, but he had no time to react as an arrow became lodged into his throat, killing him and spraying blood all over the inside of the cart. Even worse, the pony pulling the cart saw the driver get hit by the arrow and freaked out, going into a blind sprint and running into the first cart, causing a massive pileup.
With the two carts in the front now wrecked, the convoy came to a stop, the occupants of the carts stepping out to help their injured comrades.
But watching the convoy from the cliff, unbeknownst to the mercenaries, was a group of four. All but one of them were pegasi, the last being a unicorn. All of them wore a different coloured set of armour and were mounted behind a crossbow each. All of the squad were members of the Equestrian Royal Guard.
Their squad leader, was none other than Flash Magnus, one of the Pillars of Old Equestria. He had come out of retirement just to command this squad in this mission. Second-in-command to Magnus, was Shining Armor. The other two guards joining them were Flash Sentry and Spearhead.
What they were doing outside of their duties of protecting the royal delegation of Equestria and guarding the castles, was unknown to all but the highest members of the Equestrian Royalty. According to sources, a volatile package was being transported from Yakyakistan to an unknown destination, but was theorised that it was heading for Canterlot or even Ponyville. The convoy needed to be stopped and the cargo inspected. But it wasn't possible just to stop it at the Crystal Empire, or the public would become suspicious.
There was only one thing for it: Hit the convoy while it was moving.
And having forced the convoy to a stop, the squad just needed to secure the stage.
"Call your targets. We'll take them all at once, then advance on the convoy," Magnus whispered to the others, aiming his crossbow towards the convoy. The other focused their attention towards the turned-over cart, as two earth ponies pulled a griffon from the wreck. Once their comrade was clear, they stopped pulling and started to check him as two more griffons stood guard.
Magnus lined up his crossbow sights with the stallion on the right, as the others did the same, picking their own targets.
"Targets have been marked," Shining reported in a whisper, aiming his crossbow at the griffon on the left.
With this known, Magnus began to count down from 5.
Five... Four... Three... Two... One...
Once the countdown reached one, all four guards pulled the trigger. Arrows launched at the same time, taking down their targets in quick succession. Once they were down, Magnus cried out "Secure the convoy! Engage all targets!" The four abandoned their crossbows and flew down the side of the cliff, landing on the road (with Shining teleporting down).
The squad drew their spears and charged the convoy, a tried and true tactic in the Royal Guard books. And the battle was short but fierce. Many of the mercenaries were caught with their pants down and while some put up a fight, they were swiftly vanquished by the Royal Guards. But the mercs fought very hard, with a near fanatical resolve. Not one surrendered and all were killed.
With such aggressive behaviour, Magnus knew that whatever this convoy was transporting must be valuable. With the mercenaries eliminated, he ordered his squad to stack up on the stage and prepared to search it. "Eyes up, I don't want any surprises,"
Once Magnus said that, he threw open the doors of the stage and hopped in. But the stage was empty, save for a moderately sized container. Inside that container, was a strange canister, that started like a barrel and tapered to a point like an arrowhead. Magnus didn't know what is was, but from the looks of things, it had to be important.
But before he could go get Spearhead to help him lift the box, there suddenly came a BEEP-BEEP coming from the box. Magnus froze. He didn't know what the beeping meant. He soon figured it out, though. That canister was a bomb.
Without a second thought, he immediately jumped out of the stage, crying out, "BOMB!!!! GET CLEAR, GET CLEAR!!!!!" This sent the others into a panic, as they ran as fast as possible in order to get away from the blast. But it was too late. Seconds later, the bomb went off, covering the blue sky in a shade of orange. A massive shockwave hit the four guards, knocking them off their hooves and killing both Sentry and Spear instantly.
Magnus caught the worst of it, as the blast tossed him about and nearly sent him off the cliff. Luckily, Magnus was able to grip the edge and hang on for dear life. The pillar then tried to pull himself up. But as he got another look over the cliff, he saw that Shining Armor was crawling towards him, before collapsing of exhaustion.
But as Flash extended his wings and tried to fly away, hot embers from the detonation rained down upon him, immediately incinerating his front hooves and wings, the heat tearing into his skin and fur. And just then, Flash lost his grip on the edge and fell.
Hours later, a Wonderbolt detachment came upon the operation zone, only to confirm the worst. Flash Magnus, Flash Sentry and Spearhead were all K.I.A. And while Shining was still alive, he was barely clinging to life having suffered severe burns and internal damage.
Author's Note
The mission was based on the tutorial level, Nicaragua from Future Soldier. Except with less dialogue, because of a lack of radios with the Equestrians.
