The Fate Of Equestria Book 1: Sombra's Reign

Jet and Luna stepped outside, pushing past the thin sheet that blocked the light inside from escaping out and giving away Luna’s hideout. They both looked around suspiciously, seeing nothing but a moderately sized indentation in the ground on the remnants of the pathway that lead to the ruined castle, a few feet away from the entrance they stood at. The sparse patches of pavement had tiny spots of grass and weeds sprouting up from the cracks that had formed on them over the years. The wind whistled quietly through the trees of the Everfree, blowing the small remainder of leaves and grass around to recreate a very faint rustling that was nearly inaudible against the louder whistling of the wind itself. The wind that was blowing was strangely warm and had a slight sulfur smell wafting through it.

Both of them had their weapons in hand in defensive stances, ready for whatever has created the indentation in the pathway. Jet noticed that the edges of the ground around the indentation were ever so slightly blackened with fresh char, which set his nerves on end. As the pair stood there looking off into the dark twisted remains of the Everfree forest, the wind suddenly stopped blowing entirely. This left them standing in the increasingly warming and acrid sulfur reeking air. Jet took a deep breath and closed his eyes, listening closely for any sound in the darkness surrounding them. A trick he had learned from an old martial arts sensei ages ago.

“We should go, I do not like this. Something feels wro…” Luna began to say, being abruptly cut by Jet.

“Wait, shhh. Do you hear that?” He asked, opening his eyes again and looking off into the darkness of twisted tree trunks.

“What are you…” Luna began again, only to get cut off again.

“Get down!” Jet yelled, pushing her to one side and diving to the other just as a massive stream of flames streaked by, just barely missing them.

Luna fell back through the sheet and into the castle foyer with Jet rolling and regaining his balance as he turned to face the direction the flames had come from. There was a huge smoldering and smoking hole burnt through the tree line, at the end stood a figure slightly shrouded by the smoke emanating from the still burning trees. The only thing that gave away the fact that somebody was standing there was the bright almost neon orange panel lining on the figures’ armor. As Jet watched, the figure moved closer, stepping through the hole they had made, the magical trees of the Everfree closing up behind them and erasing any trace of the hole. Up close, Jet could see a pair of blades strapped to the hips of this assassin and a weapon of some kind mounted to one shoulder.

“I only anticipated coming for you, Stream, but I’ll be rewarded even more when I bring Lord Sombra the heads of both you and the last remaining princess. I might even get my own city to rule over.” The figure spoke calmly as they came closer to Jet, Luna coming back out of the doorway and moving back to Jet’s side with her knife pointed at the figure.

“What manner of creature are you?” Luna asked, staring down the orange and black clad assailant.

“Be careful, Luna. That’s one of Sombra’s assassins. This one calls itself Heat Stroke, it uses napalm and fire based attacks against its targets.” Jet said, stepping in front of Luna defensively, his sword at the ready.

“Ah, so you know me.Your time in a coma didn’t do much to hurt your skill, I see. Good, wouldn’t want this fight to be over too soon, now would we? By the way, you can stop with the whole ‘it’ talk. I’m a stallion, not some creepy clown from a horror novel.” Heat Stroke said with an ere of cockiness in his voice.

“Wait… How did you…” Jet started to say, poising his weapon in an offensive stance.

“What? Know you were in a coma and not dead like my boss and colleagues seemed to think? If I told you that, it would ruin the surprise, now wouldn’t it?” Heat Stroke taunted with a raspy laugh.

“If you know so much, then you must know that I’ve already killed one of you psychos. If you have any kind of value for your life, you’ll leave now and forget you saw us here.” Jet said, trying to intimidate the assassin.

“Pfft, you mean that waste of nanite armor that Lord Sombra called Death Storm? Don’t make me laugh. She was easily the weakest and most useless of our ranks. Deadly, sure, but only at a distance. I think we both know that’s not a very good tactic against one such as yourself.” He continued to taunt Jet, never losing his cocky tone.

“So, you think you’re gonna fare better than her? Wanna put your money where your mouth is, or are you just gonna stand there talking?” Jet asked with a scowl.

“Oh, I’m just talking to keep you distracted and bide my time. Which, don’t worry, I’m done now and so are you.” He said with a small raspy laugh, pointing to their feet as the weapon on his shoulder slowly began to glow bright orange.

Jet looked down to see that they were standing in a fairly decently sized puddle of some kind of fuel, evident by the glossy rainbow colored sheen that was stretched across its surface due to the light that was being cast upon it. With a look of horrified shock, Jet realized what the assassins’ intention was. Without a moment of hesitation, Jet grabbed Luna’s arm and leapt into the air with the aid of his wing boosters. They managed to jump away just as the assassins’ shoulder mounted weapon sprang to life, a blast of bright yellow and orange flames shot out of it, lighting the ground under them ablaze. The pair settled back to the ground a few dozen feet away.

“You idiot, you’re going to set the entire forest on fire!” Jet yelled down at the assassin.

“Why should that matter to me? As long as my job is complete, that’s all that matters to me.” He retorted with another raspy laugh.

His shoulder weapon lit up again, spraying yet more flames forward and coating the landscape in a bright orange flickering glow. Jet and Luna once again dodged out of the way, the trees around them creaked and groaned as if becoming angry themselves. Just as Jet regained his footing from dodging, the assassin was upon him, the blades that had been on his hips now drawn from their sheaths and blazing with the same flames that were now coating the ground around them. The assassin was quick, already moving to bring his scimitars down in an overhead swing towards Jet. Thinking quickly, Jet willed the nanobots of his suit to form a shield to block the attack. The scimitars collided against the nanite shield with a very loud bang, almost instantly destroying a large chunk of the newly formed shield and sending the assassin reeling backwards on his feet. It wasn’t much, but it gave Jet enough of an opening to land a kick into the assassins’ chest and knock him into the wall of flames that burned brightly behind him.

Jet took a moment to assess the damage to his own armor, a good chunk of nanites had been destroyed by the heated strike of those scimitars, leaving his one arm exposed and unarmored now. He gave a look around to see Luna not far away, he gave her a nod from across the burning field and motioned upwards. She nodded back and took to the air, out of harm's way for now. The flames were spreading quickly, engulfing the clearing that held the old castle. The forest creaked and groaned louder, almost sounding animalistic and alive now. Jet stared into the burning flames, expecting screams of pain to be coming from within, but nothing of the sort happened. Without warning, the assassin jumped out of the fire and leapt towards Jet in a flurry of angered sword swipes, his armor not even charred from the flames. Jet dodged again, but wasn’t quite fast enough, a few of the swipes frp, the assassins’ blades caught his exposed arm and sheared the flesh from it. To Jet’s relief, it was the arm that had been replaced by a cybernetic one, the metal of the replacement gleamed in the flickering light of the flames. The false skin covering it was torn and ragged looking, he decided to tear the rest free, leaving his arm full metal up to the shoulder.

“You’re fucking lucky that was my fake arm, asshat.” Jet said with a glare at the assassin, who was standing just a few feet away with his scimitars still drawn and at the ready.

“Oh, please do forgive me. I’ll make sure to get the real one this time.” He replied, his flame thrower glowing again before blasting yet another wall of flame towards Jet.

Jet used his wings to block the blast this time, the nanites holding up a bit better than before, but not well enough as they soon gave way under the intense heat of the fire. The blast subsided and Jet lowered his wings just as Heat Stroke was charging him again with his scimitars poised to slash from either side. In a move of pure desperation, Jet swung his sword upward and across the chest plate and shoulder of the assassin. The strike collided with the flamethrower on his shoulder, causing it to fizzle and spark before exploding. The explosion sent small orbs of blazing orange outward in a shotgun-like spray around the area, setting more of the clearing on fire and sending Heat Stroke several feet backwards and straight onto his ass. The forest groaned even louder against the sudden increase in flames. Jet was shocked that his last ditch attack had been so effective, standing upright and shaking some bits of burning fake skin from his wings. He had never been more glad to have these false parts than right at this moment,

“I-Is that the best you can do, asshole?” Jet taunted, readying his blade again as Heat Stroke got to his feet.

“I haven’t even begun to show you my best. Hope you’re fireproof, you little bastard!” He yelled and flung one of his scimitars at Jet.

The blade spun horizontally in the air as it made its way towards Jet. He jumped and flipped over the blade, landing on one knee after it passed under him harmlessly and embedded itself in a tree behind him. The tree started to crackle and burn, which elicited an echoing screech from somewhere deep inside the forest. The sheer guttural nature of the screech sent a chill down Jet’s spine, he stared off into the blackness of the dark forest trying to see anything that could have possibly made such a noise. He was so distracted by the screech, that he didn’t see the second scimitar flying at him. Before he could react, the blade flew in front of him, cutting past his armor and slicing through his stomach horizontally. A large gush of crimson blood burst forth from the newly opened gash in his midsection.

Jet cried out in pain and doubled over before falling, his own sword clattering to the ground as he moved his arm to grasp at his wound in an attempt to keep his guts from spilling out onto the cold ground. His vision was fading, his heartbeat thumped loudly in his ears, and his blood felt cold as it ran through his veins. He struggled to look up as the heavy steps of the assassins’ boots coming closer. To his relief, Luna had taken his signal and fled, as she was nowhere to be seen in the sky. Jet’s gaze moved back down from the sky and fell onto the assassin, who had removed his helmet now. Jet recognized him as one of the rookies that he had trained beside at the knights academy. They had been friends at the academy, but once Jet had gotten promoted to personal guard status, they had lost touch. His bright green coated face sneered cockily and his piercing orange irises stared down into Jet’s with a sense of malice that could be physically felt.

“E-Emerald Daze…?” Jet asked through a cough, spitting up some blood in the process.

“That’s right, Stream. How does it feel to be done in by your old friend?” He said coldly, putting a strange emphasis on the word friend.

“But… W-Why? Why would y-you turn on your own n-nation… And h-help that psycho…?” Jet struggled to say, his vision starting to fade.

“Why?! Isn’t it obvious?! Lord Sombra recognized the potential I had! The potential that Celestia overlooked! I was top of our class, the best rookie in the academy! But, for some unknown fucking reason, that bitch of a princess chose you! You! The rookie that flunked every exam he ever took! Why would she have chosen you?! Were you and her having some kind of fucked up concubine relationship?! Answer me!” He screamed, his raspy voice echoing through the woodland.

“C-Concubine? A-Are you serious right now? She p-picked me because she saw actual potential in me, you f-fucking psychopath! You r-really sold out your entire n-nation because you were butthurt about not being p-picked for the personal g-guard position? You’re pathetic…” Jet replied, wiping some blood from his lip with his good arm.

“No! It’s you who’s the pathetic one here! I beat you in every sparring match we ever had, you’re no different now! It’s time to end this! Goodbye, old friend!” He continued to scream, moving to pull one of his scimitars from the tree.

Jet struggled to his feet and grabbed his sword in the process, refusing to die like a defenseless animal on the ground. He faced Emerald, his body shaking and freezing from the amount of blood he was losing. Their eyes met as Emerald stepped back in front of Jet, his blade poised to deliver the final strike. Jet didn’t have the strength to move his arms, let alone raise his sword to block. He shut his eyes tightly, awaiting the inevitable fatal blow. Before Emerald could take the swing, another screech rang out from the forest, this time much closer. He stopped and turned to look towards the noise, dropping his blade and backing away in fear as he laid eyes on the source of the screeching. Just on the outskirts of the clearing stood a tall, dark figure with glowing red eyes. The creature appeared to be made from the forest itself. Its body was a tangle of vines and leaves, it’s limbs made from thick cracked bark, and its head formed from various bits of moss and forest mushrooms. Emerald looked on in horror as the creature stepped forward, moving right for him. It stopped just a few feet from him as Jet opened his eyes to see what had caused him to stop.

“W-What the fuck is that?!” Emerald asked in shock.

“You have hurt my forest with your flames, I do not stand for such things. You must be punished for this crime against my children.” A wordless voice spoke inside both of their heads as a series of vines lashed out, grabbing both of them by their limbs and hoisting them into the air.

“You i-idiot… I tried t-to tell you…” Jet said through a groan of pain from being stretched out by the vines.

“What are you talking about?! Do you know what this thing is?!” Emerald yelled in response.

“Enough of your petty words. There must be payment for your crimes against my forest. Payment in blood!” The mysterious voice rang out in their heads again.

The creature moved closer and looked them over for a moment, the vines gripping tightly against their ankles and wrists. After a few moments of near silence, the only sounds being the pair’s small grunts of pain and the crackling of the fading fires around them, the creature made a soft groan and backed away from them. It gave what seemed to be a nod to itself and Emerald was suddenly pulled into the blackness of the forest behind them. He made several failed attempts to struggle against the vines and made even more swears at both Jet and the creature. Shortly after, there was a loud scream of pain that lasted only seconds before receding into a deafening silence that gave Jet chills. The creature once again closer to him, giving him yet another look over.

“You… You have a fate greater than dying in my forest. I have my blood debt, you may go. But first…” The voice echoed in Jet’s mind again, it moved one of its tree branch hands.

A very small and thin vine with a sharp needle-like tip slithered across the forest floor. The vine slithered towards Jet and wound its way up his leg, pulling back into the air at his waist and pointed at his open wound, the needle-like tip pointed leering like a snake readying to strike. Without any further hesitation, the vine struck. It pierced Jet’s skin just under his wound, then back up to the top of it and pierced his flesh there. The vine wound its way back forth, stitching his wound as if done by a surgeon. Jet groaned quietly in pain during the process of his gaping wound being stitched together. It only lasted moments, as the vine was quick to do its work. Once the vine’s work was done, it tied itself into a knot at both ends and snapped itself off where it had begun. Afterwards, the creature silently moved over to the other flaming blade that was still lodged in one of the trees. It grabbed the blade and freed it easily from the tree then moved back towards Jet. It gave him a quiet nod as it held the blade with the flat side pointed at Jet. Jet nodded and lightly grit his teeth, knowing what the creature intended to do.

Without any further delay, the creature pressed the blade against his wound, eliciting a small outburst of pain from Jet. It only took seconds for the flames from the blade to burn his flesh and cauterize his wound, but it felt like an eternity to him. Once the creature was finished, the vines released him and he fell to the ground with a soft thud. His hand immediately went to his midsection, gripping against the newly resealed gash to his guts. With a deep breath and a groan of pain, he slowly got to his feet. As he stood, the creature grabbed his sword from the ground and held it out to him.

“W-What did you mean… Greater fate…?” Jet asked as he took the sword by its handle.

“I cannot say more than that, lest it alter the series of events you are meant to follow.” The voice sang out in Jet’s head once again.

“How…” Jet started, his voice wavering slightly with a small groan of pain as he sheathed his sword.

“Now is not the time for questions, you have much to do. Here, take these. They will help you regain your strength.” The voice rang again, the hand of the creature extending with a couple of small green hued beans in its palm.

Jet took them and looked them over, they were a bright green color and looked like a lima beans. They didn’t look like anything poisonous that he could recall from the survival guides he had read before. With a shrug, he threw them into his mouth and ate them. They tasted terrible, but once he had swallowed them, he felt as if none of this had happened. There was no pain and no more weakness in his body. He looked up to thank the creature, but it had disappeared back into the forest. He gave his limbs a stretch and took to the sky to make his way out of the forest. Once he was free of the forest’s edge and landed, there was a rustle from the trees behind him. He turned to look and saw Luna emerging from the tree line. She brushed some dead leaves from herself and walked over to him.

“Luna, you got out okay. Thank the Gods.” Jet said as she approached him with a solemn expression, he noted a fairly large satchel was now slung over her shoulder.

“Yes, thanks to you Jet. Though I had to go back for some of my more important items and… Well… I am glad you are ok…: She said hesitantly, her staggered tone indicating she knew something.

“Luna… How much did you see…?” Jet asked, hoping maybe she could explain what just happened.

“I saw enough… Just count yourself lucky to be alive.” Luna replied slowly.

“That creature. Was it… What I think it was?” Jet asked again, already knowing the answer.

“The spirit of the forest, yes… Very very few survive an encounter with it. As I said, you should count yourself lucky to be alive.” Luna replied again, a tone of finality entering her voice.

“Right… Uh, we should get going then…” Jet said, giving the forest one final look before turning and heading in the direction of Sombra’s warehouse, with Luna following suit with a nod.

The pair walked in eerie silence as they went, the only sound being the occasional howl of the wind. The dust clouds being kicked up by the wind made the pair have to don their masks, this leaving Jet’s metal arm exposed due to having a good chunk of his armor nanites destroyed in the previous battle. Luna wore a mask she had pulled from her satchel, it was a slightly worn solid piece of silver that was etched with runes and had holes drilled out for the wearer’s nostrils, horn, and eyes. The trek through the deserted terrain was a fairly long one, but they’d have a better chance of not being spotted on foot. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, the ruins of Sweet Apple Acres came into view up ahead, the deserted farm would give them plenty of cover and a good view of Ponyville. The pair decided to take up a recon position in what remained of the old treehouse on the edge of the farm, a perfect position to see Ponyville main street.

“Okay, Luna. This warehouse is supposed to be located around where Ponyville Town Hall used to be. It’s shielded with both a cloaking device and an electrical barrier. It’s best to stake out until we can get an exact position of it.” Jet said quietly as he set up a small camp inside the treehouse, readying for a long stay.

“Or we can just go right now and get it over with.” Luna said coyly, removing her mask and winking as if she knew something.

“How do we attack something that we can’t even see?” Jet asked, turning from the window to look at her.

“Wellll, this mask of mine isn’t just a fashion statement. Don’t tell me you don’t recognize it. If memory serves, you used to know your Equestrian Legends and Myths better than that.” Luna said with a light chuckle as Jet looked closer at her mask, gasping lightly at the realization.

“Is that the Mask of Revelations? How? It’s supposed to be lost to the ages!” Jet exclaimed, a bit loudly.

“It was never lost, I just chose to keep this little relic for myself and started the legend that it was lost to time.” Luna said with another chuckle.

“You’ve been keeping a piece of history for yourself all this time…?” Jet asked incredulously.

“Oh, relax. Who do you think it was made for anyway? I have every right to keep it for myself. Besides, Tia did it too.” She replied with a shrug.

“Hold up, Celestia secretly kept a relic too? Which one?” Jet asked curiously, kind of enjoying this bit of relatively normal conversation with her.

“I don’t really remember, it was some kind of wing armor.” Luna replied casually, also enjoying having someone to have a normal conversation with after all this time.

“Was it the Dragonscale Wings? I read that they were forged from the scales of a dragon that had once tried to assassinate her.” Jet continued on asking questions.

“Yes, that was it. I knew you knew your legends of Equestria.” Luna said with a smile.

“Incredible to think that two of Equestria’s lost relics were right under my nose all that time…” Jet said, thinking back to all the time he spent serving the princesses.

“There are lots of secrets you don’t know about, Jet. Just… Keep that in mind for the future.” Luna replied, a little ominously.

“What do you…” Jet started to say, but was quickly cut off by Luna.

“Enough talk for now, we have a job to do, yes?” She said casually as she slipped the metal mask back on.

“Right, let’s get to it then.” Jet replied with an affirmative nod.

She ran her fingers across the runes etched into the bridge of the nose and the eyes began to faintly glow dark blue. She slid in beside Jet at the window and looked out onto the townscape. After a brief moment of silence, she pulled back away from the window and stood up. She motioned for Jet to follow suit and he obliged. They headed for the door and outside, ducking behind the various charred trees as they made their way closer to the cloaked warehouse. The pair stopped short of the seemingly empty center of town, ducking into the crumbling remains.

“So, you mentioned an electrical barrier. How did you intend to get through that?” Luna asked in a hushed whisper.

“You let me worry about that. I just need to know where the power sources are, they’re likely cloaked as well. Possibly hidden around the ruins of the town.” Jet replied, surveying the area but not seeing anything.

“Well, alright then. Lemme see what I can see here.” Luna responded, activating her mask again and looking around the town.

There was another brief silence as Luna surveyed the area. Through the eyes of her mask, she could see the warehouse clearly. Its form distorted slightly by the cloaking field and a few small arcs of electricity that streamed across it every so often. She was able to barely make out a pair of incredibly thin wires running from the top of the warehouse within the barrier. She followed the wires with her eyes and traced their origins to a couple of nearby buildings. The buildings were familiar to her. With a nod to herself, she deactivated her mask and turned back to Jet.

“The power supplies are located within Sugarcube Corner and another inside the old Grocer N’ Go across the plaza. Whatever you’re going to do, I would suggest doing it sooner rather than later. There’s no telling how long until a shipment truck comes through here.” Luna said, giving him a concerned look.

“Right. Just stay here, once the barrier is deactivated, that’s your signal to move in.” Jet replied with a nod before standing and readying himself for his task at hand.

He jumped up onto what remained of the roofs of the buildings and made his way towards Sugarcube Corner, it being the closer of the two locations right now. With quick and quiet movements, he moved from broken chimney to broken chimney, ducking behind them as he went to avoid being spotted and making his job harder. After a few short minutes, he was on the roof of Sugarcube Corner. He was shocked to see that the building was still mostly intact, with only a few holes in the roof. Peeking in through one of the holes, he could barely see anything except the blackness within, only faint blotches of light could be seen thanks to the hole strewn roof. He put his mask up and like before a readout of the immediate area showed up on the HUD. To his surprise, there were only around three guards roaming around the dirt covered floor. He slipped in through one of the holes in the roof and landed silently onto the wooden floor of the upstairs portion of the building.

“Sir, I am detecting extremely high levels of darkness. Shall I activate night vision mode?” Friday rang out suddenly in Jet’s ear, causing him to jump a bit.

“Yes, please do.” Jet replied softly, straining his eyes against the blackness surrounding him.

Without another word, the lenses of his facemask slowly shifted and began to highlight the room with an eerie green glow. He gave his eyes a moment to adjust to the new green environment before looking around to get a bearing on his surroundings. To his realization, he has dropped right into what used to be Pinkie’s room. He gave a small smile to himself as he remembered the first time Rainbow had introduced him to her. Pinkie being her usual hyper self made a big deal about and had even teased Rainbow about finally getting herself a man. Jet missed those days, everything was so much simpler then. They didn’t need to worry about the possibility of being captured and brainwashed into fighting their own friends, there was no need to hide away in a bunker, and no hassle of strategically dismantling a tyrant’s operations. Those truly were the days he yearned for again. Maybe one day once all this was over, they could get back to how things used to be, but for now he had a job to do. With every advancement against Sombra, they were brought that much closer to getting those days back.

With a heavy sigh, he made his way out into the hallway of the second floor. To his left, the hall extended into darkness, an assortment of broken pictures and furniture littered the floor of the hall. To his right, he could make out the stairs that led down onto the first floor where the few guards patrolled, unaware that this was to be their last patrol. Jet began to descend the stairs, making sure to keep to the shadows and away from the patches of faint light that made their way through the holes in the roof. Through his night vision, he could see that the ground floor was mostly empty. The chairs and tables were haphazardly tossed to the sides of the room, presumably to get them out of the way when they had brought in whatever power source he was here to destroy. He quickly and quietly made his way down the stairs and onto the first floor. Ducking behind one of the overturned tables, he began to watch and study the patrol routes of the guards. As luck would have it, they were all a decent bit away from each other, which gave Jet ample opportunity to pick them off one by one.

He watched silently as one of the guards began to walk towards where he was hiding. Bracing himself, Jet readied to strike. The guard walked right by him and started to head up the stairs, but was intercepted by Jet. Jet grabbed the guard, one hand over his mouth while his other arm went around his neck and began squeezing hard. He quietly brought the guard back over to where he was hiding and kicked the guard’s legs out from under him, forcing him to kneel. Jet continued to squeeze the guard’s throat with his arm as the guard struggled, kicking his legs against the air and attempting to pull Jet’s arm free from his throat. The struggling quickly became weaker and eventually stopped all together. With one final squeeze and a jerk of his arm, a sickening snap came from the guard’s neck and his body went limp. Jet silently laid the guard against the overturned table and turned his attention to the two remaining guards, one was off in the kitchen section of the floor and the other was leaning against the counter of the store. Using the tables and darkness as cover, Jet made his way over to the counter. Situating himself directly behind it, he was in prime position to take out guard number two. Jet sprang up and pulled the guard back flat on top of the counter, quick as a serpent, he then gave the guard an incredibly hard punch in the throat to silence him before pulling him across the counter. Just as quickly, he unsheathed his sword and drove it into the chest of the guard, ending yet another life because this guy had chosen to be on the wrong side of this war.

Jet wiped his sword clean and heaved a shaking breath, slowly but surely, he was becoming numb to the feeling of taking a life. He was unsure whether this was a good or a bad thing, but what he did know was that he would take back his home from these scum, even if it meant having the blood of an entire city worth of ponies on his hands. He shook himself free of these thoughts and turned his attention to the final guard stationed here. By the readout on his HUD, the guard was fiddling with something in the kitchen. If he had to guess, it was whatever was powering the warehouse defenses. Jet stood and began to make his way towards the door to the kitchen, there was a faint and wavering red glow coming from underneath it. Slowly Jet pushed open the door and was greeted by the sight of the final guard knelt down in front of an electrical pylon, fiddling with a series of dials at its base. The pylon glowed and ebbed with a powerful, almost blood red, electrical force. Jet crept inside and quietly made his way behind the guard. Just as the guard stood and turned around, Jet gave him a hard kick in the chest. This sent him reeling backwards and right into the pylon. The pylon sparked and fizzled violently as the guard was electrocuted against it. It gave off a few red sparks and started to whirr loudly, Jet decided it best to take cover behind one of the kitchen counters. Almost as soon as he did, the pylon sparked very violently one last time before exploding in a shower of red sparks and burning hot metal shards which embedded themselves into the walls and floor of the kitchen.

Once the barrage of searing metal subsided, Jet stood and took a look at his work. The pylon was completely destroyed, leaving only a smoldering base of steel left in its wake. Satisfied with his handiwork, he made his way back out into the main hall and back up through one of the roof holes. As soon as he got back out into the open air, his night vision switched back off, giving him his normal sight back. Landing on the tiled roof, he noticed that the warehouse was now fading in and out of existence. Losing that one pylon had already disrupted the power supply to the warehouse. He saw a small gleam from across the plaza. It was Luna, using what little light there was to signal out to him from across the way with her knife using morse code. He followed suit and drew his blade, signaling back.

‘They just dispatched a handful of reinforcements to the second building.’ Luna signaled from her hiding spot.

‘How many?’ Jet signaled back.

‘Looked like around ten.’ Luna answered.

‘They should’ve sent more.’ Jet signaled again before putting his sword back and moving towards the second location.

Jet made his way across the rooftops as quick and silent as a ninja tracking a target. It didn’t take long for him to reach his target location. The roof of the old grocery store was flat and coated in gravel, unlike the other roofs around it which were tiled in the typical shingles. Unlike the previous location, there was only a single hole in this roof. Jet made his way over to the hole and peered inside, to his surprise, there was actually lighting inside this place. As he looked through the hole, he could see via his HUD that there were fifteen guards stationed inside here. He gave a smirk to himself and drew his sword again before leaping into the hole. Inside he could see that mostly all of the shelving was still intact and even still fairly stocked with a variety of canned goods and other non-perishable items. As soon as he landed within, the guards took notice of him. He stood there casually and sized them all up, nothing more than the standard grunt soldiers.

“Is this really all you boys bring to the table? You should’ve taken the day off.” Jet said, staring them down as they drew their own weapons.

“Lord Sombra was right, the prodigal son does still live.” One of the guards said aloud, a bit of hesitation in his voice.

“Prodigal son? I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I will be destroying your pylon. Any objections to that?” Jet asked rhetorically.

“Don’t just stand there, you fools! Attack!” Another of the guards shouted.

“Alright, your funerals.” Jet replied coldly.

The squad of guards all charged him as one unit, swords and spears drawn and ready to impale him. With a quick leap into the air, Jet dodged and landed behind the group. He grabbed two of them by the back of their heads and slammed them face first into the floor, shattering the tile floor and creating twin pools of blood around it. The others turned to face him, some of their hands shaking around the grip of their weapons. In a matter of moments, Jet was upon them, pushing through the group as he dodged the swipes of their weapons. He made his way into the center of the group and performed a leg sweep, knocking a majority of them to the ground. The few that remained standing tried to get him with their spears. Still on the ground from doing the leg sweep, Jet swung his own sword downward, severing the tip off one of their spears and kicking it into the air. Before it had time to fall back to the ground, he grabbed it from the air and hurled it at the guard that he had broken it off of. The pointed spear head hit him directly between the eyes and he slumped to the floor, joining his other two fallen comrades. Behind Jet, the other guards were getting to their feet. He moved quickly and ran into one of the aisles. The group of guards were just as quick to follow him, splitting into two groups and covering both ends of the aisle in an attempt to box Jet in. He grinned to himself under his mask and watched as they started to make their way down the aisle towards him.

“Y’know, Sombra really oughta employ smarter soldiers.” Jet said loudly, as to make sure all of them heard him.

“What are you talking about? We have you cornered. You can’t possibly get through all of us.” One of them said from the group in front of him.

“I’m guessing you idiots don’t see it, do you?” Jet asked with a small chuckle.

“See what?” The same guard asked from the group.

“Look around you. These shelving units, combined with the items on them weigh in at more than two-hundred pounds a piece. You walked right into my trap.” Jet replied with another chuckle.

“What are you…” The guard began again, but was cut off when Jet leapt into the air yet again.

While in the air, Jet kicked the tops of the shelving units. This caused them to tip over and fall inwards. The screams of the guards could be heard echoing throughout the store as they scrambled in vain to get out of the way of the collapsing shelves. Unfortunately for them, they had caused a traffic jam amongst themselves and couldn’t get free before they were crushed and bludgeoned to death under the weight of the falling cans and heavy shelves. Once he was satisfied with the outcome, Jet made his way back down to the floor at the end of the aisle. To his shock, one of the guards had managed to survive and was crawling along the floor towards the exit. Jet intercepted him and picked him up by the collar of his armor.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Jet asked menacingly, pressing his face against the guard’s helmet.

“P-P-Please… Don’t kill me… I h-have a family…” The guard pleaded for his life.

“Oh, do you now?” Jet asked in a mocking tone.

“Y-Yes…” The guard replied desperately, trembling in Jet’s grasp.

“So did the thousands of ponies you and your tyrant king have slaughtered.” Jet replied coldly, shoving his sword through the guard’s chest in one swift motion.

The guard trembled again briefly and coughed loudly into his helmet before slowly going limp in Jet’s grasp. Without another word, Jet threw the guard to the floor with a loud thud and made his way to the back of the store in search of the pylon. Once in the back, it didn’t take him long to locate the pylon. He sheathed his sword and looked around for something to use to destroy it, as it didn’t appear to just have an off button. Having not found anything useful enough to destroy it with, he went with his plan B. With a deep breath, he held out his arms and moved towards the pylon. Before his mind could have time to second guess this decision, he leaned forward and gripped the sides of the pylon tightly. Instantly his arms lit up with pain as if on fire, but he refused to let go until the job was done. Slowly the electricity arced its way up his arms and across his chest. He screamed out in pain as the arcs met in the center of his body and began to form an electrical tether between themselves. This only made him grip the pylon tighter, which in turn syphoned even more of the electricity into his body. His HUD became a muddled mess of static and distortions as the intensity of the electricity seemed to be frying his suits AI system. Even with as much as this hurt, he refused to give up. He grit his teeth against the pain and kept holding tightly, his hair began to stand on end as the pylon began to dim. Eventually, the pylon grew dark and Jet was finally able to let go. He stumbled in place for a moment before falling to the ground. His body seeming to have given up on him as he lay on the cold floor, small streams of smoke coming off of him.

“My, my. Such a noble sacrifice. But, it was in vain, boy. You were the ace in the hole for your entire operation, without you, those pathetic weaklings stand no chance of winning. A shame really, I was hoping to defeat you myself, but oh well. Don’t worry though, I’ll make sure to tell them of how noble you were in de… What? Impossible!” Sombra’s voice rang out from the speaker system of the store, cutting himself off as Jet slowly and painfully got to his feet again, small lines of electricity arced off of his body and onto the floor around him.

“S-Shut your mouth, y-you monster. If you th-think you can get rid of me that e-easily, think again!” Jet yelled out into the empty store.

“No, this is impossible. That much electrical energy should have stopped your heart. What… What are you?” Sombra asked, his voice growing louder with anger.

“What am I? I am the vengeance of those you have killed on your path to your reign, I am the embodiment of hope of those who remain, I am the last remaining personal guard to the throne of Equestria, I am your death Sombra. That is what I am.” Jet replied, his strength quickly coming back and his determination shining through.

There was nothing but a growl from the speaker before it went silent again. Jet made his way back out of the store and stood outside, the warehouse loomed over him. It was a huge structure made of grey brick that was chipped and cracked in places. High up near the roof was a series of dirty windows that ran along its entire side. Closest to him was a large pair of rusty chained up steel doors with a padlock hanging from it. As he stood there in the ominous presence of the warehouse’s shadow, he didn’t notice Luna jogging over to him from her hiding spot. She gently put a hand on his shoulder, which made him jump and turn towards her, his sword drawn. Luna quickly pulled away with her hands in the air.

“Easy Jet, it is just me.” Luna said quickly, to which Jet lowered his sword.

“S-Sorry, Luna. I was lost in thought…” Jet said softly, a distant look in his eyes.

“Do not worry, Jet. I should have known not to sneak up on you. Are… Are you ok?” Luna asked, a look of both concern on her face.

“I’m fine… Just a bit on edge is all… Are you ready for this?” Jet replied, turning back to the warehouse.

“As ready as I will ever be.” Luna said with a small nod as she moved to stand beside him, ready for whatever awaited them inside the huge structure.