The badlands.
It's a vast desert that seemingly stretches out forever. It is located south of the principality of Equestria. It is known for bandits, various towns and city-states around it's few oases, the changeling hive and the mysterious ancient ruins. Many expeditions have been made to these ruins but no information was recovered from them. It is theorized that an ancient civilization that predated Equestria used to inhabit these once hospitable lands. These beings had a war that wiped them out and made the badlands inhospitable.
This theory is accepted by most and left at that. Some try to go deeper into this mystery but it never ends well for them. What most don't know that is that this mystery is a lot darker than it seems.
Time: 2:13 AM
Location: Ruins 12-2, unclaimed territory, 70 kilometers south of changeling kingdom.
Inside a ruin that once used to be a house, everything is quiet. Most of the house has collapsed, save the front and left wall. In the basement, everything is quiet as well.
...
...
*tink*
A pile of sand and rubble moves in the basement, causing a few rocks to fall. It stop moving for a few moments before a beam of magic is shot straight up from underneath the pile and through the ceiling, covering the entire area in dust and smoke. The smoke continued exiting the basement through the hole in the ceiling for a minute before a form flew out of the hole. The figure flew up to 10 meters before shooting out of the pillar of smokes and crashing into the sands and leaving a trail behind. The figure lay unmoving at the end of the trail, as if they had died.
The figure was a lanky alicorn who was just above the height of princess Cadance. Their coat was ash grey in colo(u)r and mane was chocolate brown in colo(u)r. They were wearing a dirty, white button-up shirt, black trousers, enchanted grey greatcoat, a camouflage helmet and a gas mask. In addition, they had brown saddlebags, a watch, a 3-cylinder flamethrower and a MP5. They lay there for a few minutes, trying to steady their breathing. They rolled on to their back and removed the gas mask revealing that they were a stallion. He had sunken blue eyes and a small scar on the left side of his muzzle.
In those few minutes, he went over his memories to find out why he was buried under a pile of rubble and sand.
'I was hiding in the basement but what was I hiding from and how did I get buried?', he thought. He dug deeper in his memories and remembered what had happened. He had been hiding from a group of gold-clad ponies.
'Royal guards', he thought with hatred as he remembered what those cloned soldiers had done to his world and people. Then he remembered what he was doing before he was buried.
'I had to get to London and find militiamen .' It didn't matter anymore. He was in the town of Worthing but seeing the condition of the town, he figured that it had been a long time since he were last awake. A very long time.
'The militia has been dead for a long time.', he thought. 'The same with anyone else and... my family.' The realization sunk in as he remembered his friends, comrades and family. He started crying and continued doing so for ten minutes before a desire grew within him.
He wanted to avenge them. He wanted to burn the celestial sisters' world just like they burnt his.
He wiped the tears off his face and got up shakily. Right now he was thirsty and hungry. He checked his saddlebags for his water canteen but couldn't find it. All he could find was ammo for the MP5, a torch, a compass and a knife. He didn't need to use the torch to see as the moonlight illuminated the desert just enough. With his final checks done, he started charging up a locator spell. He knew the dangers that he would attract but didn't care.
'This is going to be power consuming.' With that final thought he casted the spell.
Time: 2:21 AM
Location: Canterlot.
The capital of Equestria and where Canterlot castle was located, it was truly a sight to behold. Under the full moon's light it seemed more beautiful. A perfect place to live... only if you are ready to look past the attitude of the unicorn majority that reside here.
A few hours ago, Canterlot city was recovering from the changeling invasion that happened two days ago. Right now, the city was asleep with the exception of a few workers, the lunar guards, and Princess Luna. Princess Luna was preparing for negotiations with the changelings that were going to happen today. She was going to depart for the Central Hive City of the changeling kingdom by carriage at 8:00 AM and reach her destination by 1:00 PM.
Everything was going fine until she felt a locator spell being used on her. She remembered the composition of the magic from when she last felt it over 2000 years ago.
It was grey magic. Grey magic was very stable compared to light and dark magic. Grey magic could only be used by the native ponies. Princess Luna immediately set to locating the spell-caster. She wanted to fix a mistake that she had made a long time ago. The spell-caster was in the badlands, and was heading towards the changeling kingdom. She was going to tell her sister until reality hit her.
'We wiped them out all those years ago and she does not feel guilty to this day., she thought as memories of the war played out in her head. The natives had fought ferociously against their forces but lost in the end. Her plans changed as she started preparing herself for the conversation with the native pony.
Time: 3:51 AM
Location: Southern Hive City
An armored train had stopped at the train station of the Southern Hive City and unloaded a company of 243 changeling soldiers about an hour ago. The soldiers had been sent with the purpose of guarding the city from increasing monster attacks. However, a squad was given a separate mission under direct orders of Queen Chrysalis. They were going to investigate the magic surge in the desert and subdue any threats.
Author's Note
Hi! This has been eating up my time for the past week. I can't update my other stories regularly because writing takes time when your trying to do when you have exams.
Anyways, did you like this? If yes, then cool. If no, then please explain why you didn't like it.
Time: 5:04 PM, approximately 2000 years ago
Location: Paris.
Another explosion. Few more of her guards were now dead.
Celestia frowned at this. She had been sending her troops here for the last 1 month and they still could not capture the city. Was her solar guard so bad that she had to come here to fight these mortals herself? She should have made her guards smarter when they were cloned. At least they were loyal to her.
A bullet whizzed by her head. She shot a spell towards the direction from where the bullet came and heard the scream of the sniper as he melted. She continued leading her guards down the street towards a barricade as more enemy soldiers fired at them. An one way barrier appeared in front of her forces as her horn glowed. Her unicorn guards started firing spells at the barricade. The barricade was severely damaged when her guards stopped firing their spells. She smiled as she the bodies of Union soldiers and militia littering the ground. Her smile disappeared as she heard a rumbling from behind the barricade.
The remains of the barricade broke outwards as a Leclerc tank drove through. Celestia put up a shield just as the Leclerc tank fired at them. She was pushed a few inches back as the round exploded against her shield. She quickly shot back a beam of magic at the tank. The tank stood no chance as the beam hit it and exploded, destroying the tank and the surrounding area. Celestia smiled as she lead her guards past the barricade.
'I just have to conquer this country and then the U.K. ad my goal will be achieved., she thought. One of her guards suddenly pushed her out of the way. She looked to the guard and saw that he had been shot. She looked around and spotted a masked union soldier sitting against the wall of a building. He was covered in cuts and burns caused by the explosion earlier. She walked towards him with a shield surrounding her. The soldier fired at her his pistol only to see that all the bullets had been deflected. Celestia stopped in front of the soldier and removed his gas mask. The face of a red pony with a black mane met her eyes.
"Why do you continue fighting me when you could join me?", she asks in a motherly voice. The soldiers just glares at her.
"I'm trying to build an utopia for ponies but you still fight. Why?", she continues. She was confused when the ponies of this world rejected her ideals.
"Your utopia is unachievable and only for your 'ponies'. It has taken us years to get to this point and you come along and say that we are 'disharmonious' and try to make us into your slaves. You're doing this all for your own gains. Bitches like you should go to hel-", the soldier didn't get to finish as Celestia punched him in the face. She punched him again. And again. And again and continued punching him. She didn't stop when the soldier died. She didn't stop when the soldier's face was disfigured beyond recognition. She stopped only when her sister came and stopped her but by then the soldier was a bloody mess on the ground. The sisters led their forces into the city, leaving the scene behind.
Unknown to them, someone else had been present and had watched their friend die.
Time: 5:14 AM
Location: 49 kilometers from changeling kingdom.
The alicorn continued walking as the memory finished. He was now burning ambient magic to keep walking. The sunrise was happening a lot faster than he remembered.
'Probably those bitches.', he thought with a frown. He continued looking straight and walking. He continued walking but stopped all of a sudden. He put on his gas mask and scanned the area. At first glance, he was surrounded by rocks and boulders but his eyes had not deceived him.
He had seen something gold and white in the corner of his eye.
Sergeant Rose observed as a squad of ten royal guards surround the masked alicorn. She should have ordered her squad to attack the ponies but she decided to wait and watch. The masked alicorn turned to face a boulder which two royal guards were using to hide. This was weird. The royal guards would have approached the alicorn instead of trying to ambush him.
As he went to check the boulder, four royal guards made to attack him from behind. In a practiced motion, the alicorn pulled a metal object out from his saddlebag, pointing it at the attackers like a stunted crossbow. Despite its strange appearance, the weapon proved to be more than capable as it brought down the charging ponies with seemingly little more than a series loud cracks. With the masked figure distracted by the other group, the soldiers hiding behind the boulder seized the opportunity to jump out and deliver a powerful kick that sent the alicorn sprawling onto the rocky terrain.
The other guards emerged from their hiding places and charged at the alicorn who had gotten up. With a flap of his wings, the alicorn took to the air as the guards neared him. The alicorn hovered over them as he aimed the strange contraption on his side downwards towards the guard. The very next moment, the contraption shot fire at the guards who hadn't expected that.
Sergeant Rose watched in horror as the guards' screams of pain filled the air. The alicorn didn't seem to care about the painful way he was killing the guards. The weapon stopped spewing flames and the alicorn continued hovering over the burning guards.
The alicorn landed a distance away from the burning bodies of the guards and resumed his journey.
"Should we try to stop him?", a voice asked behind her. It was private Mandible and he was equally horrified at what he saw. Rose thought about the damage that this alicorn could inflict upon the changelings if he reaches the kingdom but a part of her mind was thinking about the alicorn as a potential ally. She finally decided what to do.
'The alicorn is dangerous and we should stop him but seeing what he did to the royal guards, I don't think we could. It would be better if we approached him instead of fighting him.', she thought.
"He could be a potential ally, so, we'll talk to him first. If he turns out to be hostile then we'll have to stop him.", she says out loud. The rest of the squad nodded their heads as they got ready to move.
Author's Note
I have risen from the dead and given you my treasure(read trash).
Been harder to write since dad has come back from the u.s. and also because school.
